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The scientists have different opinion about sadness of animals. Some say they don’t get sad where others have something opposite to say. Well we think one can judge this easily from their behavior like animals not wanting to play or eat, not sleeping much or sleeping too much, or making more sounds than usual. Without being able to ask, we can’t know for sure if these things indicate sadness like they often do for us, but it’s possible that animals feel and express their emotions this way.In past we showcased many pictures of animals which has been much appreciated by our readers. In this post we showcased sad pictures of animals to get opinion of you guys and see if they really feel sad. If you go through these animal pictures very closely, you will definitely feel something in their eyes or from their face expressions. Lets jump to the photos and judge those feelings of these animals.You see this beautiful post and please comments about this.Enjoy!
Posts Tagged ‘animals feel’
October 22nd, 2011 Sweet Mehvish | <urn:uuid:2696b13d-2278-4034-a8af-82a9bdbbe712> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worthstar.com/tag/animals-feel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963579 | 215 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Upon County Emergency Management Agency Director Martha Ann McCarty gave the Yatesville City Council an update on what she hopes the EMA can accomplish over the next five years, including replacing the current weather siren in Yatesville with one that will cover a greater distance. The council held its monthly meeting on May 13.
McCarty, who was named EMA Director in January after Billy Mitcham retired, stated that after attending directors school, she and other EMA Directors around the state have learned that they need to start putting together local assistance groups, because financial help from FEMA after a disaster is not a guarantee.
“What we are finding out, and the tornado in Adairsville is a perfect example of it, is that there is not any money from FEMA if anything happens. Adairsville had significant damage from that tornado that went through. GEMA got on scene and pulled together some preliminary damage assessment totals and came up with about $12.1 million worth of damage in that little town. When they called the FEMA representative in Atlanta and told him, he did nothing. They would have had to sustain $16.4 million in government infrastructure damage before FEMA would even think about coming. It looks as if they are looking for reasons to not come and help,” said McCarty.
“What we did learn from Adairsville is that the faith-based community, and civic organizations, and the private citizens, are being the ones who are stepping forward and rebuilding that community. There is an advantage to that because you don’t have to follow the federal guidelines.
“So I’m going to be trying to pull together a coalition to go ahead and establish for Upson County a faith-based disaster response group. We’ve got a lot of churches that could certainly be involved with this. We already have a good base with the ministerial association that has already drawn a lot of churches in the community together. But we need to build on that and broaden the horizons. What I would like to see is us come together as a 501-c-3 non-profit organization that can go ahead and begin to seek out volunteers and, if some people see the need, seed money. That way, we will have something already there when a disaster happens.”
McCarty added that she would also like to expand the county’s current warning sirens. While the sirens are mainly to warn people who are outside, she said the sirens are another layer of defense. Purchasing new sirens would cost $18,000 to $20,000 per siren, but McCarty said she has found a person in Dodge County who restores old sirens for $4,000 to $6,000 per siren, and that she hopes to be able to get a grant to purchase more sirens, including a larger one for Yatesville.
“Yatesville’s siren covers approximately a half-mile radius. I want to take that one down and relocate it to another part of the county that right now doesn’t have a siren, and get one for here that will broaden the coverage out to about a mile and a half radius,” she said. “If we don’t get the grant, I’d like you to consider that if you have contingency funds, that we could at least get a siren up out here that will warn the people even more.”
McCarty went on to thank Yatesville for the city’s continued support of the EMA and its programs. | <urn:uuid:ebc6f2c7-8d59-487a-b402-fa59aff8b5c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thomastontimes.com/pages/home/push?class=&x_page=1&rel=start&per_page=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979709 | 735 | 1.554688 | 2 |
By Heather Kuch, Transcript Reporter
Ohio Wesleyan student athletes came together to support special needs athletes in the annual Bishop Champion Games on April 15.
The Bishop Champion Games is an event designed by the Ohio Wesleyan University Athletic Council (OWAC) for special needs athletes. It provides an opportunity for individuals with disabilities to compete.
Around 30 athletes froma ll over Ohio participated in the games.
Some were as young as eight years old.
All participants received a competition t-shirt, and there was an awards ceremony at the conclusion of the Games that honored the top three athletes in each event.
In addition, 100 percent of the proceeds from the Games went toward this year’s funding, and for future events.
According to the event website, the games consisted of several different events in which the athletes could choose to participate, including standing broad jump, long jump, softball/football throw and various running events.
Student athletes committed a great deal of time volunteering. More than 50 student athletes turned out to support the competitors and provide general help.
Sophomore Emily Stewart said she volunteered because it was a great and satisfying experience.
“Working with the special needs population is a really rewarding experience,” said Stewart. “This is what I want to do after I graduate, so participating in an event like this is a lot of fun for me.”
Stewart said that seeing the bright smiles spread across the competitors’ faces when they won a game made the day fun for her.
“It’s really nice to see the athletes be successful and see how much joy it brings them,” Stewart said.
“It’s also great to see the whole OWU athletic community come together for this cause.”
Sophomore Jenna Ortega agreed with Stewart and added that the Games are a good way for the student athletes to be involved in the community.
“Seeing the OWU athletes and the Special Olympics athletes come together as a whole is probably my favorite part,” Ortega said. “The Bishop Champion Games are also a really good opportunity for the OWU athletes to be involved in the community.”
The most popular event seemed to be the 800 meter walk in which the OWU football team assisted the competitors by pairing up with each other. Some became friends with their walking partners and a few exchanged hugs at the end of the event.
Sophomore Daylin Stevens said she thought the participation of the football players showed a high level of respect and care for the competitors.
“I really liked watching the football players walk the laps in the 800 meter walk,” Stevens said. “It just showed how much everyone really cared.”
Another favorite part of the Games for many of the student athletes was seeing the interactions among the athletes, who cheered each other on in every event.
Freshman Kylea Davis said that she was pleasantly surprised by the number of athletes she saw cheering at the games.
“My favorite part of the games would have to be seeing the athletes be able to succeed and support one another,” Davis said. “They are so energetic and happy.” | <urn:uuid:549d785e-7b5d-4ecb-a35c-437bbf5d90c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.owu.edu/transcript/2012/04/23/bishop-champion-games-event-unites-special-needs-population-and-student-athletes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975263 | 663 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Audio length: 9:48 minutes
Transcript published: September 26, 2011
You can better help your priest and bishop by understanding this one thing: parish priests feel pressures that are found in no other profession. The type of man that generally is drawn into the holy priesthood is one who has a heart for serving others. Bishops and priests are often expected to do far more than is humanly possible. Bishops, as fathers to their people, are expected to be superhuman, judged if they are not.
Over the years I’ve heard terrible stories of parish priests having to cancel vacations at the last minute because of sudden deaths in their parishes, requiring them to cancel airline tickets, leaving both they and their families without the much-needed time away. One priest told me how his young son had been looking forward to a camping trip and cried when his dad had to tell him they couldn’t go because an important member of a family in a parish had died and he was required to be there. The family rejected having another priest step in.
Countless priests have put in long hours missing dinner with their families because of wedding rehearsals, hospital calls, counseling sessions. The average priest gets Monday off, yet is expected to forego his only day off if someone needs to see him or the parish council decides to have a meeting that evening. They demand their priest be available whenever they need him, regardless of the time of day or the needs of his family.
One priest told me about having performed a baptism of a child of a family that rarely came to church, only to have them walk out immediately following the service, leaving him to mop-up the spilled water while they and their friends ran off to celebrate at a restaurant. He was given a pitiful stipend for his services, and he just dropped it into the poor box. They didn’t even invite him to join them at the restaurant. He said he wouldn’t have had time to join them anyway, but the invitation to do so would have been nice.
Most clergy receive a very small salary and are expected by their parishioners to be happy with what they have. The stipend is thus very important to the priest, yet I know of countless clergy who travel many miles from their rectory, bless the home, and receive nothing for their services.
The normal stipend for most jurisdictions for extra services like this is $100. This is not payment for the services of a priest. The priest doesn’t charge you for these things. These are simply gift-offerings to show the priest that you love and care for him and sometimes this is the only money that he has to get that little extra something for his wife or children.
Like all children, priests’ kids need time with their father. Normal jobs allow dads to leave their work and go home, giving themselves plenty of time to meet the needs of their children, but not in the case of clergy. Being on call 24/7, the families of priests often forgo planned meals, outings, and family affairs because of the demands of the people, placing them upon their father or husband. Most priests have such a strong desire to be in service, they simply cannot say no.
The children of priests, as well as their wives, also must suffer the undo scrutiny of parishioners, expected as they are to be perfect. Given all of this, is it any wonder that children of priests often wouldn’t think of becoming priests themselves? Please, whatever you do, don’t criticize your priest in front of his family.
How often I’ve heard priests’ wives and children lament, having to put up with the tax on their husbands/fathers by people who don’t think he’s doing enough. People airing their grievances at parish meetings with the children and wives having to hear it all is unfair.
I share all this with my listeners because most of you are unaware of how difficult a job your priest has and how much is demanded of his time. Most of you love your priest, but are just unaware that he rarely gets his own needs met. I remember one priest in Detroit who lived in sub-standard housing while all of his parishioners lived in nice homes. No one made any effort to make sure their priest, single in this case, was living in medium-income housing, somewhere in the middle of all his people, the norm of most Protestant churches.
How can a priest take care of the education of his children, when his salary is the poverty line? One horror story I remember hearing was of a priest whose parish council gave him an increase in salary that put him just over the line so that he’d no longer qualify for food stamps, since this made the parish look bad. The priest and his family ended up with less rather than more.
All of the above could be said for bishops as well. We really need to start taking care of our bishops, making sure they have adequate compensation, days off for restoration of soul, and proper rest. And a whole lot less criticism from their people. Love your priests and bishops, just as they love you. Give them support, show them you care by sending them a little gift on their name’s day or e-mailing them on occasion, letting them know you care about them. Tell them when you’ve liked their homily. Invite [them] and their family to dinner on occasion. Let them know you care. Remember your bishop and priest with a thoughtful little gift or a check on Christmas and Pascha. Let them know you care about them.
Make sure the parish council knows you think your priest should receive a proper salary. You’d be shocked at the average income of most Protestant clergy compared to what most Orthodox priests receive. The life of your priest can be greatly extended if you don’t allow him to work himself to death. Make sure he does take at least one day off. Tell him to turn off his cell phone on those days. Call the rectory before knocking at the door. You have no idea how many priests’ evening plans with their families are derailed with a knock at the door.
I’m sharing this with all of you because I know your priest will not tell you this. He loves you, and he loves Christ, whom he serves. Make him pace himself, and you’ll have him around to baptize your grandchildren. Don’t expect him to be perfect. Most importantly, pray for your bishop and your priest. Honor and love them and refrain from judging them. | <urn:uuid:5025ac39-fad8-4262-8b59-7b868e9ab5f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/morningoffering/how_to_support_your_priest/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988905 | 1,363 | 1.71875 | 2 |
In Black Canyon, water amply illustrates its mindless yet artistic ability to sculpt stone. Every once in a great while, a gush of sediment-laden storm runoff tears through the canyon bottom, carving and polishing the bedrock slabs, drilling potholes ever deeper, toppling trees, and pushing rounded boulders downstream. In a normal spring season, like this one, the stream of water in Black Canyon is often fairly placid: it happily splashes over small waterfalls, pauses in pools, slides along inclined slabs, and finds hidden passages beneath immense boulders.
The short little ramble up along Black Canyon’s lower end is consistently enchanting, but it is no mere stroll. Rock scrambling is required. Although kids are often adept at such moves, they must be watched carefully and perhaps assisted at a couple of spots. The most serious hazard is the slippery surfaces of rocks at or near the stream.
To get to the starting point, drive east from Ramona on Highway 78 and turn north on Magnolia Avenue. Magnolia soon becomes Black Canyon Road, and later becomes a narrow, twisting, graded dirt road. At 7.3 miles from Highway 78, just short of the bridge over Santa Ysabel Creek, you meet the road coming down from Sutherland Dam. (This road, which is rough and rocky for one mile between here and Sutherland Dam and paved south of there, connects to Highway 78. This is an alternate route for your drive into or out of the area.) Turn left over the bridge and continue 200 yards on Black Canyon Road to a junction with a gated, descending road — the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail. Park at the top of this road, and (since this is Cleveland National Forest territory) don’t forget to display a National Forest Adventure Pass in your parked car.
Walk 0.3 mile down the descending road. This once was the entrance to the Black Canyon Campground, closed about 30 years ago. At the bottom, the road fords Black Canyon and doubles back to contour along the north slope of the Santa Ysabel gorge. Don’t cross the ford but stay right, following the oak-shaded floodplain on the south side of Black Canyon’s creek.
After about 0.3 mile, the canyon narrows and scrambling begins. Perhaps 20 to 40 minutes later, depending on how much time you wish to dawdle amid the fine scenery, you’ll come to a wide, shallow pool fed by a 20-foot waterfall. That’s a good place to pause before turning back.
This article contains information about a publicly owned recreation or wilderness area. Trails and pathways are not necessarily marked. Conditions can change rapidly. Hikers should be properly equipped and have safety and navigational skills. The Reader and Jerry Schad assume no responsibility for any adverse experience.
Enjoy mini-waterfalls and potholes in Black Canyon, outside Ramona.
Distance from downtown San Diego: 44 miles
Hiking length: 2 miles round-trip | <urn:uuid:24c771d8-446d-4451-9d91-0da81e9a7f92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/mar/19/black-canyon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935188 | 623 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Joseph Thomas [b. 1850] lived at 57 Sea Street in City Point from sometime in the 1880s until his death in 1932. He and his wife Mary Ann had eight children, all of whom grew up at 57 Sea Street. His son David lived at 74 Sea Street until his death in the early 1930s. Joseph was a marine engineer in the employ of Willis Smith of City Point until the death of his wife in 1898, at which point he worked on stationary engines. He was born in England in 1850, and prior to living in New Haven, he had been an engineer on one of the Red Star Line steamers running between Antwerp and Philadelphia. His son David at one point ran a cheese shop on Howard Avenue in City Point. In 1925, Joseph wrote a letter to his grandson about his life, including some information about City Point, which I'll quote here:
" On November the 20th (1879) I gave up the ship and came to New Haven. I went to work in the New Haven Railroad machine shop for the remainder of that winter. In March, 1880 I was offered a position by a gentleman Mr. Willis Smith of City Point. I took the job and remained on varyest (sic) steamers for 17 years and nine months. At this time I had not forgotten my church which I found a home in the City Point Methodist Church. Singing in the same for thirteen years and on the official board for a number of years by appointment of Rev. Nathan Hubble. About this time my wife died, leaving me with eight children. When I thought it would be hard to be at sea on vessels and look after my family. So I made up my mind to start in with stationary engines. So I did so, being employed in a number of prominent positions. I last finished at the New Haven Saw Mill Co. for twenty one years, and I think I have come to the finish as my age is seventy five years on Feb. twenty fourth 1925.
When I look back at my first trip to City Point, what great changes have been made. Howard Ave was one of the very poorest roads in the city, with no side walks and about five houses from the [railroad] bridge to South Water Street. Between fifth and sixth street, there was a farm house, and a pump stood where the side walk is now. The East side of Howard Ave is where we used to a get a drink of nice cold water in the summer months. At this time, the good old church was still there. This is where I had my first opportunity of worshipping in New Haven, and I think it proved out to be the best enjoyment I ever had in my life." [submitted by Joseph Thomas' Great-Great Grandson, Robert Thomas of Atlanta, Georgia]
Editor's addendum: Joseph Thomas is first listed in city directories in 1881 as "engineer". From 1881 to 1888 he lived at several addresses at "The End": 11 & 26 S. Water, 136 Howard, 16 Hallock, finally listed at 57 Sea St. in 1889. [The numbering of properties on Howard, Sea & S. Water was changed later in the 19th century.] Land records do not show Joseph Thomas as "Grantee" of 57 Sea in 1889 nor the several years prior or after, although he resided there until his death in 1932 and he is listed as owner in the 1911 Atlas.[See "Historic MAPS" page.]
Lozelle Foote, first owner of 74 Sea St., is first listed in the 1859-60 directory as "oysterman, Oyster Point" and in the 1860-61 directory as a partner in "Button & Foote", residing at 2 S. Water [later re-numbered 20 S. Water]. The 1867-68 directory lists him as a "Clerk" living at 9 Sea [later re-numbered 74 Sea]. He purchased the lot from Eber Kelsey, Frederick Lane & Alexander Foote on Oct. 31, 1866. His house can be seen on the 1868 wall map, therefore likely was constructed in 1867. David Thomas moved out of 57 Sea to 74 Sea by 1910, and is listed in that year's directory as a "clerk". By 1912 he's listed as "pound cake dealer". From 1919 onward the directories describe him as "salesman". According to the 1933 directory, he died the same year as his father, in 1932 at age 48. His widow Hattie continued to live at 74 Sea until her death c. 1940. This editor could find no mention in city directories of the legendary cheese shop: perhaps he was a wholesaler of cheeses and baked goods? The 1880s barn and the later garages, as well as the house's unusually deep basement would have been an ideal location for such a business.
For the past few years Millicent Bradley (Mrs. Wesley Bradley), now age 92, has been writing down memories of South Water Street, City Point as she knew it. Today is
Her notes at the top of the page: "no gas—no electricity—no radio—no TV—no car—toilet outside.”
Along side of this house was a red barn. Horse and carriages were kept here. It belonged to the mansion across the street.[no. 34 Sea Street]. Walter Garde owned this. He married Olive Smith. He owned the Garde Hotel which was on
Back on the even side were oyster companies: Wedmore, Hulse & Dunbar, Thomas, McNeil. Next to McNeil was a 2-story house [no. 68]. Mrs. [Helen] Button lived there. She had chickens and a garden. She was a nice lady. She built the house across from there, where the Petersons live now [no. 67] She rented the house. I remember a Mrs. Bixby lived there. She was Grace Emerson's mother. At Mrs. Button's house: the Jacques lived there, and a woman who lived with him was named Jenny. There was also a man called PegLeg.
Then we have Lane's Shore. It was lovely. There were 6 or 8 square-enders in the water. We loved to swim there because it was so clean, but were always chased away. Mr. [Stephen] Starbranch, who was their caretaker and also lived on South Water Street [at no. 125], would chase us.
Getting back to the oyster companies: Wedmore had a boat named 'Catherine M. Wedmore', named after his wife. Every day Mr. [Charles K.] Wedmore would walk down from [no. 44] Sixth
Hulse & Dunbar: [Charles] Hulse lived at the corner of
Thomas lived at the corner of Howard and Sixth [no. 96 Howard]. All the houses were big and affluent-looking: owned by oyster people like the Smiths, who owned several houses on the Avenue.
Now the Lane house on
Mr. Law also had a boat named 'Isabella'. The 'Cynthia' was owned by Seal Shipt. My father-in-law was captain of the 'Cynthia'. On weekends these boats would run from Lighthouse Point to Savin Rock. You could get a ride for 25 cents. I was married at 16 years, but went with my future husband for about a year before we were married. My husband worked for his father to help him with the boat on weekends. Once in awhile some of us would take the trolley to Savin Rock, and take the last ride from Savin Rock and ride home to City Point on the 'Isabella'.
Now, getting back to the odd side of the street: the first house, which was
At no. 37 George and Lena Nuhn lived with five of their eight kids: George, Olive, Madelyn, Carol and Leona.
At no. 43 the Crowthers lived: Flossie and Jim and their two daughters Gertrude and Mabel. Pop Bishop owned the house and lived on the first floor. He was such a nice man, always had on a white apron when he cooked. He lived alone and was Ray Bishop's grandfather. Now they said he had wooden teeth. Also, he saved every cent he could to get his son Carl out of jail. The story was that Carl had robbed a train and was in a Federal Prison. He finally got out and married Ma Bishop and had Raymond. Ma Bishop had two girls from some other time. [Carl was the last owner of 34 Sea St. before it was torn down.]
No. 57: Sidney Smith owned this house. He and his wife and four daughters lived there. He was a character. He would get all dressed up every afternoon and go down town in his horse and buggy. There was a hotel name the 'Tontine', and they said Sid would go and sit on the porch and watch the ladies. Also, he had a bald spot and his daughter Mona would have to put shoe polish on it every day to make it look as if it was hair.
On the water side there were large rocks like boulders all along the shore. They were put there like a breakwater to keep the water from coming up on the land. At the end of the street there was a huge sewer pipe that ran down to the water. It was covered with cement, and we used to walk down it to the end of the pipe and 'you-know-what' used to come out. This 'stuff' would be carried by the tide and get down between the boulders. The boys would play what they called 'Riding the Bendies'. One day George McNeil fell down between the boulders, and when they pulled him out he was crying 'Ookey!'. From then on he was called 'Ookey McNeil'.
Back on the other side of the street at
Next door to Blake's was s grocery store [no. 19
Now, to get to the West side of
Howard Avenue separated the two groups of people on South Water Street. The Catholics on the West side of Howard Avenue went to St. Peter's School, and I went to Kimberly Avenue School. I never knew the children on this [West] side until my mother moved over here [to no. 115]. The kids on the other side played together, and then we played together over here. The two sides did not mix.
On the water side were Smith Brothers and Law Oyster Company. Where the marina office [now yacht club] is now was the Sea Coast Oyster Company [no. 98 S. Water]. They bought out the Smith Brothers. The 'Sea Coast', 'Resolute' and 'Verniette' were the three boats with Sea Coast Oyster Co. In the middle of what is now the parking lot was a huge pile of oyster shells. There was a path down to the boats, and the men used to load the shells into wheelbarrows and push them up and dump them on the pile. When the pile got too high, they built some kind of tower out of wood and had a wooden walkway up to it. The men would have to push their wheelbarrows up it to the platform and dump the oyster shells from there.
Next to that was the red barn which is still there [no. 108 S. Water]. At one time there were two or three one-car garages attached and rented to neighbors who were lucky enough to have a car. The garages were torn down to make the parking lot bigger. In the barn [left entrance, no. 106 S. Water St.] there was a barber shop for awhile [Carmine Formisano, barber]. Then a restaurant run by a black man named Moses Price. My mother would buy 25 cents worth of delicious rice pudding from him, and I remember that it was so good.
Next to that was a nice white building which was the R. W. Law Oyster Company [110 South Water St.]. There were rooms rented upstairs. I remember a black man lived upstairs named Perkins. Bud Perkins worked on the oyster boats. Then [there was] another Smith Bros., which later became Seal Shipt Oyster Co. Next to that was an oyster pile, then a small white building which was the [Nels P.] Starbranch Oyster Company. Then at the end was a coal pile [J. Smith & Sons Coal Yard], but I don’t remember too much about that.
Then there was a beautiful beach where three houseboats were docked . One belonged to
Across from the beach was a square, four-family house—two up and two down. It was called the Barracks. Then there was a driveway where the horse and buggy would drive in to the dump.
Coming back up on the odd-numbered side was the
Many people questioned the very wide doors on the cellars of nos. 81, , 103-105, 107, 109-111, 115 and
Games we used to play: tag, Red Rover I dare you come over, Hide and go seek, In and out the window, London bridges, Hop scotch, Jacks.
Every Spring and Fall, at the beach at the end of
Editor's Note: In Oct. 2009 I was privileged to interview 97 year-old former City Pointer Agnes Connellan Ensco (1912-2010). She confirmed many of the details described in the above-memoirs--including the poverty of most residents of South Water Street. Agnes attended St. Peter's School and lived on the West end of South Water St. at no. 119, and remembers the West River salt marsh ["mud flats"] before this was filled in. She also remembered watching the steamship Richard Peck pass Bay View (City Point) Park and South Water St. as it departed New Haven for its daily trip to New York (service which ended in 1920). She remembered Mr. Fresenius (who lived in the mansion at Howard & Second, demolished in 1940) who had one of the first automobiles in City Point: a two-seater, steered with a rudder-style handle. Her brother died on the Wedmore dock during the hurricane of 1938 while tying up the Catherine M., struck in the head by flying debris. When I asked her if she recalled that there had been "Catholic" and "Protestant" sides of S. Water, divided by Howard Ave., she said she didn't recall such a thing. When I asked her if she knew any of the residents on the East [Protestant] side of S. Water, she replied "I didn't know anybody over there. We didn't go over to that side." [ ! ]
newspaper photo of Charley Eaton, shortly after the 1938 hurricane (submitted by Doug Kelsey)
OYSTER SUPPERS AT HOWARD AVE METHODIST
[From a Feb. 17, 1992 interview:]
Millicent Bradley: "I want to tell you about the Oyster Suppers that the Howard Avenue [Methodist] Church used to have [c. 1935-c. 1950]. We served 200 to 300 people at a time. Ruth [Moore] was one of the waitresses a couple of times. Most of the people came from Morris Cove...or Woodbridge. They came from Yale University. We were well known by Yale...Many times we were written up in the Elm City Clarion, which was very famous at that time...I remember that the oysters always came from the Wedmore Oyster Company...We stood around the counter in the [basement] kitchen of the Howard Avenue Methodist Church and our fingers were frozen because there was still ice. They came in gallon tins. It's awful to say, but we never bothered to wash our hands in those days. We had a casserole, an aluminum casserole. We started from scratch. We ground our own crackers, plain crackers, buttered the tins and put down a layer of crackers and a layer of oysters and a layer of crackers and a layer of oysters and a lot of butter. City Point was so well known for our Oyster Suppers that we started to have two servings for two nights."
Ruth Moore: "But Millie made the biscuits. They were called 'mile high biscuits', and they were two inches high. They were so tender that, really, if you took a bite, it was gone! I never had biscuits like that."
Millicent: "Everyone raved about the biscuits, but the oysters--ugh! I wouldn't touch them!"
Ruth: "I never would eat an oyster in my whole life, and I could have had them every day."
Millicent: " [For the scalloped oysters] we made three layers: crackers, oysters, crackers, oysters and that was it. If we had a 5 o'clock serving, then about 3 o'clock in the afternoon we covered that with skim milk and let it soak through. We had a gas oven like a pie oven. Boy, was that ever hot! And we put the tins in the bottom, each shelf. And if the top ones cooked [20 minutes], we had to bring them out and put them down on the bottom. It was such hard work, but we loved it. We even baked our own apple pies there in the kitchen. Then we had to give up the apple pies: we had so many people coming. We didn't have people enough to cook them, so we had to order the pies from the bakery...I don't know how they could eat them, but they loved those scalloped oysters...City Point was famous for a few years."
[The transcripts from which the material above was excerpted were submitted by Barbara Bradley Petersen.]
Mashed Potatoes Peas and Carrots
Cabbage Salad Sweet Pickled Beets
Gingerbread with Whipped Cream
[from the program booklet Harvest Festival and Bazaar Howard Ave. Methodist Church, Wednesday, December 3rd, 1941,
courtesy of the General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church, New York Annual Conference, White Plains, who also supplied this editor with a copy of the 1950 75th Anniversary booklet found elsewhere on this website.] | <urn:uuid:e6d6d08f-66bd-4080-8464-f2b193557f71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.citypointnewhavenconnecticut.net/late_19thearly_20th_century_reminiscenses | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987943 | 3,805 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Zahra has two older her sisters with a condition called Microcephaly, a neurodevelopmental disorder.Both her sisters are unable to walk, talk and require 24hr care and attention.Zahra has, together with her parents, always been involved in the daily care of her sisters. Growing up during school years was difficult.Zahra always felt different from her friends at a time when she just wanted to be the same as everyone else and had to learn not to compare her life with others.She felt horribly isolated particularly when she had to stay indoors to help care for her sisters. At age 11 she was diagnosed with Turner 's syndrome and developed a severe speech impediment which has caused her to stammer throughout her younger years and into adulthood too.Despite all adversity she wanted to succeed in life.Following university education she progressed on PhD level and now on to post doctoral research. A career in optometry has enabled Zahra to make a difference to the quality of life of people and still be available to help at home.Her research interest of 'vision screening in the older population' has enabled her to improve the quality of life of many older people.Zahra has presented her research at international conferences and conquer the deepest fear of speaking in public. Despite all the trials and tribulations thus far in her life, coupled with home and career responsibilities, she enjoys Ballroom and Latin dancing and has been awarded medals over the past 4 years. | <urn:uuid:ab740571-6b51-470c-920b-9cff28881f99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/torchbearers/torchbearers=zahra-jessa-65/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984214 | 296 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario and Quebec and, later, Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master’s degree from Radcliffe College.
Throughout her rich and varied career, Atwood has received numerous awards and honorary degrees. She is the author of more than 35 volumes of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. She is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid’s Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the 2000 Man Booker Prize. Oryx and Crake was released to great acclaim in 2003 and was nominated for the Booker Prize. In 2008, Ms. Atwood delivered the CBC Massey Lecture Series, published as Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth. Atwood’s work has been published in more than 40 languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic, and Estonian, and a number of her titles have been adapted for theater, opera, television, and film productions.
As demonstrated in her latest novel, The Year of the Flood (2009), Atwood has an uncanny knack for writing books that anticipate the preoccupations of her public. Her forthcoming collection, In Other Worlds: SF and The Human Imagination (October, 2011), brings together her 2010 Ellmann Lectures with some of her key reviews and introductions, and explores what science fiction has meant to her both as a reader and as a writer.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson. Together, they are the Joint Honorary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within Birdlife International and Ms. Atwood is also a Vice President of International PEN.
Margaret Atwood’s website
on Twitter @MargaretAtwood
Atwood re: speculative fiction on BigThink (video)
Poetry Foundation profile
In Other Worlds, coming October 1
Atwood @ O’Reilly Tools of Change (video) | <urn:uuid:c3cc33de-307e-428a-b43d-e13677ff82ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kwls.org/authors/margaret-atwood/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962901 | 438 | 1.625 | 2 |
Twenty-one days in the beautiful Philmont backcountry? That’s the kind of vacation that us working folk daydream about.
You’ll have to forgive me for being jealous of the lucky 16- to 20-year-olds who will spend three weeks this summer at ROCS, Philmont’s Roving Outdoor Conservation School.
I did two 10-day Philmont treks during my time in Scouting. And by the 10th day on each trek, I had just one thought: “It’s over already?”
For participants of ROCS, the fun isn’t even halfway done by the 10th day.
Designed for Boy Scouts, Varsity Scouts, and Venturers with an interest in natural resource management, ROCS is a combination high-adventure trek and conservation course.
Participants spend six of their 21 days building new trails and rebuilding existing trails in the 137,493-acre ranch.
Check out the YouTube video above to hear a first-hand telling of the ROCS experience.
Here are some other details you’ll need:
- The program is open to registered BSA members who are at least 16 by the time their session begins but haven’t turned 21 by the time it ends.
- The cost for the 2011 program is $465. That increases by $10 in 2012.
- The three-week sessions run concurrently with new sessions starting every week from June 16 to July 14.
- The June 30 to July 21 session is for females only.
- As of this writing, 47 spaces remain for the 2011 ROCS sessions.
- Find more information by clicking here.
Read about other Philmont individual treks here. They’re a great way for Scouts to experience Philmont outside of the normal crew made up of members of their troop. | <urn:uuid:5439bf70-a8dc-4deb-b77a-183419e7292d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2011/02/01/rocs/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=ea0388e61b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946233 | 391 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Healthcare is in crisis. Costs are rising well ahead of inflation, and both patient and physician satisfaction is dropping. How could this be? Doesn’t rising healthcare costs mean more money to physicians? Obviously not, in fact the number of primary care physicians is dropping as is the overall satisfaction of physicians with their job.
As pundits try to solve the crisis, the main means of fixing the problems seems to be focused on the payment system. Either migrate toward a single-payer system, or employ a “free market” approach. But as I said in a previous post, simply addressing who writes the checks is not enough; we need to address who is cashing the checks. Simply put: any system put in place must have a means of cost-containment – something that is missing from most plans.
It is as if we are talking about getting a bigger bucket to bail the boat rather than patching the holes in the bottom of the boat that are spewing money. Any system in place that does not contain cost somehow will fail. So what are the holes in our boat? There are many – and I expect this idea to take more than a single post to describe.
So let’s get started.
Hole # 1 – Profiteers
There are individuals and industries that are far better rewarded by a dysfunctional system. They are financially motivated to keep the system broken. These are the publically-held companies that have made their fortunes in medicine: health insurance companies and drug/device companies.
Now, I must first say that I hesitate putting both of these industries in the same category – as I have far less stomach for the insurance industry than the drug/device manufacturers. The former simply add a layer of administration, while distributing the money of healthcare transactions (and taking a substantial chunk of it). The drug/device companies do contribute vital products for the benefit of patients, but the profit-driven mindset of the publically-held corporation has caused a number of well-known abuses to occur.
Just do the math:
|CEO Name||Company||2007 Salary|
|Bill Weldon||J & J||$25,100,000|
|Sydney Taurel||Eli Lilly||$13,000,000|
|CEO Name||Company||2005 Salary|
Now, William McGuire has run into some hard times recently with the practice of back-dating stock options. He had to pay back $30 Million to shareholders (not policy holders). Looking at his salary, this has not hurt him too much. As far as I can tell, his net-worth is still around $1.2 Billion (nearly all of it made from being an insurance company executive).
One more fact: in 2006, the profits for the top 6 insurers in the US was $11 Billion.
Let me put all of this into perspective.
1. There are around 40 Million people over age 65 in the US.
- The 14 CEO’s together could give each person over age 65 $12.40.
- From their profits in 2006, the insurance companies could give each of these people $306.
- Mr. McGuire could personally give each of them $33.
2. There are an estimated 40,000 primary care physicians in the US.
- The CEO’s could pay each one $11,128 or they could give 3000 PCP’s a salary of $150,000.
- The Insurance companies could give each PCP in the US a salary of $275,000 with their 2006 profits.
- Mr. McGuire could pay give them a bonus of $30,000, or pay 8,000 PCP’s a salary of $150,000
- The CEO’s could fund 659,000 Colonoscopies, 2.9 Million Mammograms, and 178,000 MRI’s
- The insurance companies could afford to pay for 16 Million Colonoscopies, 73 Million mammograms, and 4.4 Million MRI’s.
- McGuire could personally fund 1.78 Million Colonoscopies, 8 Million Mammograms, and 480,000 MRI scans.
This is just one area of money lost. Yes, the CEO’s deserve a salary, and the insurance companies deserve some profit; but if the system is going down the toilet, the solution needs to be found wherever possible. Clearly there is excess (as shown by the math). What do we get for all this money? Another bureaucratic layer on our system, rising insurance premiums, and a bunch of private jets.
And remember, this is only the first hole in the boat.This material, written by me, is free to re-post and share under the Creative Commons agreement. In other words, use it all you want; just give me credit. | <urn:uuid:2d53d544-9c46-481e-8213-2059d6969520> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://more-distractible.org/2008/09/18/holes-in-the-bottom-of-the-boat/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943263 | 1,004 | 1.710938 | 2 |
According to Proverbs: “Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting,” and yet women throughout the world relentlessly pursue beauty and youthful skin to the tune of $382 billion a year. In the cosmetics category, the use of nutritionals to promote anti-aging, reduce wrinkles and smooth skin tone has been growing. Looking at formulation trends, it’s clear that topical skin care is moving toward natural actives, colors, fragrances and preservatives, replacing many of the artificial ingredients previously used in lotions and shampoos.
What about ingestible beauty products, though? Over the years, many companies in the U.S. have introduced supplements featuring a “beauty from within” claim. However, to date, brand growth has been slow. In fact, during the past 10 years, there have been more failures than successes at the hands of some of the world’s largest companies. Some examples in this regard include Coca-Cola, which was supposed to join forces with L’Oreal to introduce Lumae several years ago; Nestle, which launched Glowelle, a beauty beverage sold in high-end department stores; and Procter & Gamble, which collaborated with Pharmavite to introduce Olay Vitamins, only to discontinue them a few years later.
So how does a brand become successful in this arena? And on the raw material side, how can ingredient manufacturers best support consumers who are embracing natural cosmetics and beauty care? As with any new product development effort, creating a successful product begins with understanding the attitudes of the target consumers.
Women’s Attitudes: Similar, But Different
Women want to look beautiful and will spend significantly to achieve this goal. Dave Siegel, managing director at Tink Thank Innovation sums up the social media monitoring that they recently conducted for a client: “Women have a strong drive to control their aging process. They want to stay young. To look beautiful. To be confident. To be in control. That’s the role that cosmetics play!”
June Jo Lee, senior strategist with the Hartman Group says historically, with regard to skin care, U.S. women have always treated symptoms and fixed problems, looking for instant beauty. “However, we are seeing a shift in how women think about beauty. We are beginning to hear about ‘beauty from the inside’ being voiced by general consumers,” she said, adding, “They are beginning to talk about detoxification and skin hydration.”
Women love community—they love sharing their favorite recipes, their “secret” beauty tips and their recommendations for doctors. Their knowledge and experiences have moved from the sidelines of the soccer field to the global community via YouTube and Twitter. As Ms. Lee says, “Instant globalization of beauty rituals and the lore surrounding ingredients have given rise to a global community of women interested in sharing their personal stories. For most women, these stories begin in the kitchen, preparing food for the family. We are seeing more at-home experimentation with food ingredients used in home beauty care—and these stories are being shared around the world.”
American women typically have a much different attitude toward skin care than Asians, but there are definite similarities between all women, who are eager to learn about each other’s routines. One thing women have in common is the desire to keep things simple.
Women experiment with make-up from a young age, first sneaking lipstick from their mother’s beauty kits. Mr. Siegel described it this way: “Observing today’s younger consumers who tweet about cosmetics and makeup, one thing comes out loud and clear: ‘make-up is fun…fun…fun…’ As women age, it is easy to lose this element of fun. It’s hard work looking beautiful when you are a tired mother, supporting your family. If a cosmetics product can make it easier and more fun to look younger, research indicates it is likely to have higher acceptance,” he said. “Any attempt to make it too technical, too difficult, too detailed or too medicinal flies in the face of consumer insight.”
Attitudes toward the skin as an organ are changing. People used to consider it a protective organ, and while it certainly does play that role, consumers also view it more as a conduit to the internal body. For example, Ms. Lee said a common thought shared by women is: “If I can’t eat it, why would I put it on my skin?”
Whether it is parabens, with their weak estrogenic-effect and potential cancer link, or the potential skin-irritating effects of sodium lauryl sulfate, consumers are becoming increasingly wary about some of the chemicals they put on their skin. “As consumers increasingly see links between what is put on the body and internal health, we also see them being more open to the idea of ingesting products that have an effect on the skin,” Ms. Lee commented.
Women, especially mothers, know that one of the signs of being allergic to a food is a rash on the skin. They also know that drinking a lot of water leads to a good complexion. While women have not been particularly open to it in the past, it may not be a large leap to consider ingesting dietary supplements that have a positive effect on beauty. What other evidence do they need?
Medical knowledge is only part of the efficacy story, according to Ms. Lee. “Women are looking around the world for experts—and alternative medicine and testimonials have become much more acceptable as ‘expertise.’ Women have always considered personal referrals to be the top ‘expertise’ there is.”
Women also rely on their relationships for advice. Whether it is their pediatrician, their dermatologist, their friends or their mothers, trust plays a huge role in prompting them to make specific purchases, or behave in particular ways. This holds true in choosing healthcare products, beauty items or books.
It’s possible that the failure of past beauty beverages or supplements has less to do with women not being “ready,” and more to do with the believability of the brand and whether it can be trusted for good beauty advice. Brands that can tie their product to individuals that are seen as experts in skin and beauty care—including estheticians, plastic surgeons and dermatologists—may be in a better position to be trusted, compared with companies relying solely on science-based ingredients or brute marketing strength.
Natural, Sustainable & Efficacious
As was the case in many consumer packaged goods categories, cosmeceuticals sales suffered during the recession, according to New York, NY-based Packaged Facts, but the going could have been tougher were it not for cosmeceuticals’ “little luxury” appeal and bang-for-the-buck ability to deliver curative and preventative benefits on top of cosmetic ones. This appeal is contributing to a market rebound amounting to 2% growth in 2010 and 4% growth in 2011. This upswing lifted U.S. retail sales of cosmeceuticals to $9.7 billion in 2011.
For topical beauty products, recent formulations focus on natural, organic and/or sustainable ingredients, free of artificial colors, flavors, fragrances and harsh preservatives, according to Regina Miskewitz, president of Miskewitz Consulting, Phoenix, AZ.
Brien Quirk, director of research and development for Draco Natural Products, San Jose, CA, concurred. “For topical applications, there is significant interest in all natural ingredients to replace synthetics. We are seeing growth in four main areas: skin moisturizers, anti-aging products, natural UV protection and skin whitening agents.” Additionally, he said natural polysaccharides from fruits and vegetables are a great source for natural moisturizers, due to their natural high water-holding capacity.
For some, science seems to be driving the category forward. “Marketers are introducing products substantiated by the best science possible,” said Suhail Ishaq, president of BioCell Technology, Newport Beach, CA.
Similarly, Michael Wang, president, NuLiv Science USA, City of Industry, CA, said research proving and/or showing specific efficacy is a top consideration for cosmetic manufacturers.
At the same time, eco-friendly packaging (e.g., bio-based plastics, post-recycled paper products), a meaningful story, overall reduction of carbon footprint and unique, exclusive ingredients are also of high interest to manufacturers, according to Ms. Miskewitz.
Further, she is seeing manufacturers replace petroleum-sourced ingredients like mineral oil with plant-based ingredients. In fact, The International Group, Toronto, Canada, has a line of emollients called Lipid Oils that mimic the properties of mineral oil.
BeadforLife, Boulder, CO, is an example of a nonprofit organization that has both a unique moisturizer and a compelling story. Devin Hibbard, executive director, explained, “Our mission is to help women in Northern Uganda rebuild their lives. Unique to that region, Nilotica shea butter is not only high in polyphenols, but is semisoft at room temperature due to the high oleic acid content and low melting point.”
Anti-aging products are leading the growth in the skincare segment, which accounts for 30% of the global personal care market, according to Euromonitor. Whether topically applied creams or orally ingested supplements, the scientific platforms are the same. Antioxidants found in plant polyphenols reduce the damage from the sun and aging, while collagen and hyaluronic acid play a critical role in connective tissue support throughout the body.
“When you have a deep understanding of connective tissue support within the body, then you are able to understand why ingredients can be effective for both joint mobility and skin beauty,” said BioCell’s Mr. Ishaq. BioCell Collagen, a patented, highly absorbable combination of hydrolyzed collagen, hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate, is available in both topical (with INCI designation) and oral grades.
According to Mr. Wang of NuLiv, Astrion, its proprietary cosmeceutical formulation, consists of highly concentrated and enriched Astragalosides Astragalus. It has both in vivo and in vitro studies that show its ability to reduce the number and appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and promote the synthesis of new collagen and hyaluronic acid.
Dr. Frank Schonlau, scientific director of Switzerland-based Horphag Research, says that Pycnogenol, its flagship ingredient, has been the subject of more than 40 years of research with close to 10,000 participants. Results show it provides UV protection, improves skin elasticity and controls skin pigmentation. “To date, it is the only ingredient shown to naturally elevate hyaluronic acid generation in the skin,” he explained.
“Super-foods like green tea and chocolate and the super-berries (e.g., cranberries and pomegranate) are also hot. These foods are naturally high in antioxidants, which work to help ‘fight’ damage caused by pollution, the sun and aging,” Ms. Miskewitz said.
In topical applications, Matt Stegenga, vice president of sales for Biova, Johnston, IA, is noticing increased interest in BiovaDerm, particularly because it is an all-natural, water-soluble egg-membrane product that reduces deep wrinkles by 20-30% when applied topically, based on preliminary clinical research.
Dean Mosca, president, Proprietary Nutritionals, Kearny, NJ, said a pilot study with topically applied Celadrin showed that it regenerated the skin by enhancing the lipid structure of the membrane, allowing cells to rapidly repair and regenerate. “After 21 days of use, Celadrin had penetrated every layer of the skin, and helped to improve the hydration, resiliency, elasticity and firmness,” he said.
Switching gears, with new regulations coming out on sunscreen products companies are reformulating their UV-protection products. In this vein, they are utilizing naturally occurring antioxidants that both help protect the skin from aging and provide cleaner labeling. Cranberry oil and carotenoids are being touted for their ability to protect the skin from the effects of UV rays, according to industry suppliers. Nilotica shea butter, from BeadforLife, also has some inherent UV protection properties.
Another ingredient with research behind it is Opextan, which has been shown to reduce skin sensitivity to UV rays when ingested. According to Greg Ris, vice president of sales for Indena USA, Seattle, WA, “Opextan is derived from the pulp of a specific variety of Italian olives high in polyphenols, particularly verbascoside and hydroxytyrosol.”
Smooth, even skin tone is important to women, and reducing the appearance of age spots is an area of much research.
“There are several flavonoids that are effective in smoothing skin tone, like pomegranate extract, which contains up to 40% ellagic acid and can be a substitute for kojic acid in skin formulations. Both green tea extract and Sophora, a member of the pea family, have significant data behind them,” said Draco’s Mr. Quirk.
Pycnogenol is also being used in oral supplements to help reduce skin pigmentation.
Kasi Sundareson, manager, Research, Development and Quality, ITI Tropicals, Lawrenceville, NJ, highlighted the trend in colors. “As companies move away from artificial colors, some are embracing fruits like dragonfruit, which can provide beautiful, natural color.”
Putting it all Together
NSDS/Nutra3 Complex, Pleasantville, NJ, has created a product line of Strip Melts fast-melting oral strips featuring several science-based ingredients. “These strips are able to stabilize the highest load of active ingredients ever to be assembled (250 mg/strip),” according to John Tobin, president. “We are presently formulating condition-specific products, including those supporting ageless beauty inside and out. Examples are Opextan Plus for skin anti-aging, Oligonol Wrinkle Therapy, and Fluxome Resveratrol Plus, which supports anti-inflammatory activity.”
At iTi, Ms. Sundareson said the company is concentrating on beverage development. “Superfruits like acai and pomegranate were big last year, but we are doing a lot of work with coconut water right now. We are seeing more trends toward 100% juices, but at the same time, ones that have lower sugar content. We are incorporating vegetable juices to achieve this,” she said.
Regardless of whether nutritional ingredients are being used in topical cosmetics, dietary supplements or foods and beverages making cosmetics claims, the regulatory waters must be navigated very carefully.
Cosmetic claims (e.g. “improved beauty,“ “reduced wrinkles,” etc.) for ingestible products “can be made as long as the claims are truthful, not misleading, and substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence,” according to Ashish Talati, an attorney with Amin Talati.
“Structure/function claims cannot be made for cosmetic products, but can be made for dietary supplements. Conventional foods can only make structure/function claims if the effect is derived from nutritive value.”
Clearly, careful drafting is critical, as both FDA and FTC are skeptical of anti-aging products and claims. In fact, as Ms. Miskewitz pointed out, recently the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better business Bureau weighed in on this issue by recommending that Irwin Naturals discontinue certain claims for its “Doctor Developed Clear Pure Complexion” dietary supplement.
Still, there are plenty of opportunities to develop and grow these types of beauty products, but it will require the best of consumer insight, positioning, packaging and delivery that is meaningful to women, on top of ingredients that deliver on a promise.
About the author: Beverly Emerson, president, Olive Tree Product Development, has been growing brands through new product development since 1987. With a BS in Food Science and an MBA in marketing, she brings a rare blend of consumer insight and technical expertise to each project. Her leadership, creativity and technical grounding have enabled her to make a difference in Fortune 100 companies as well as start-ups. She has led initiatives at Kraft General Foods, Barlean’s Organic Oils, Banner Pharmacaps and Alive Brands, among others. She can be reached at: firstname.lastname@example.org; Website: www.olivetree-pd.com | <urn:uuid:2053a68a-dd29-48d2-adaf-4b4b22641b51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nutraceuticalsworld.com/issues/2012-06/view_features/nutricosmetics-cosmeceuticals/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950645 | 3,554 | 1.789063 | 2 |
One of the articles most likely to engender a lively exchange is the last binding article on the warning. Article 16 asks voters to increase the number of selectboard members from three to five. If approved, the two new selectboard members would be elected at the 2014 Town Meeting, and would serve one-year terms.
Other local towns with three-member selectboards have also sought to increase their ranks to five, citing the amount of work required of board members as well as the issue of meeting quorum requirements. Halifax employs no town administrator.
Article 14 asks voters to approve an official seal for the town of Halifax. The circular seal, presented in a color and monochrome version, includes a field of 13 stars over a green mountainside, with “1750” in the lower center, and “Town of Halifax Vermont” in a border around the image. According to the warning, the seal would be used on town stationery, town vehicles, a town flag, or “other media wherever an official town seal would be appropriate.”
The article also notes that the embossing seal used by the town clerk wouldn’t be changed.
In spending articles, Article 10 asks voters to raise and appropriate $20,500 for EMS “and ambulance service.” In the past, Halifax has contributed to Whitingham Ambulance Service Inc. for their coverage of the town. Last year, however, the town explored the possibility of using alternative service providers, such as Rescue Inc. Recently, Whitingham Ambulance Service was placed on a 90-day conditional license by the Vermont Department of Health after a review revealed issues with staffing requirements. WASI has proposed additional funding from Halifax and Whitingham for a full-time paid staff.
Article 7 asks voters to make an “if/or” decision regarding funding for their constabulary. The article asks voters to raise $10,000 for a first or second constable that is a certified Vermont police officer (or a constable attending training at the Vermont Police Academy) or $2,000 for noncertified constables. Under recent changes to Vermont statutes, the duties of noncertified constables are extremely limited.
Article 5 asks voters to approve selectboard and highway department expenditures of $1,442,743, of which $879,743 would be raised in local taxes, with the remaining $563,000 coming from anticipated revenues.
Halifax residents appear to be happy with the status quo, at least as far as their town officials are concerned. There are no contested races on the ballot, and most incumbents are running for re-election. Edee Edwards is running for another three-year term on the selectboard, and longtime school board member and chair Chum Sumner will also return for another three-year term. Leonard Derby Sr. is running for first constable, and Roy Richardson is running for second constable. Both are one-year positions. | <urn:uuid:937405f3-655b-402a-b0e5-cf47bb080b00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dvalnews.com/pages/full_story/push?article-New+board+members-+town+seal+on+warning%20&id=21715412&instance=news_special_coverage_right_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964305 | 615 | 1.5 | 2 |
The Brant County Federation of Agriculture (BCFA) represents over 600 farms in Brant County.
Bountiful Brant is a committee of BCFA, comprised of volunteers dedicated to the promotion of local food. The committee first began with the production of the Buy Local! Buy Fresh! map, connecting the community with our farmers. Today, the website is the primary tool for consumers to source locally grown food and other farm products.
Our farmers are ready to serve you with pride. Brant County is home to a great variety of meats, fruits, vegetables, berries, specialty products and so much more. The tidy farms that have been nestled for generations in the fertile Grand River Valley retain a pride in their capability to grow food that only decades of hard won experience can supply.
As can be seen from our logo, the Grand River bisects our County with its life giving flow of waters. But more than that , the River stands as a symbol of the constant energy that nature brings from the land. So come explore Bountiful Brant County. Search our website, follow our map and indeed, come see for yourself that fresh, locally produced food from Brant County should be on your table soon!!!
Please visit our Partners page to acknowledge those who have supported this project. | <urn:uuid:c53b101e-fc90-4ab7-a9b4-82b58745b179> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bountifulbrant.com/about-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953749 | 262 | 1.65625 | 2 |
|This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to WikiFur style and standards.|
For specifics, check the and talk page. Consult the Furry Book of Style for editing help.
Kitsume Aura Ookami is a fur from South-east England (Essex). Kitsume is a digital artist and animator doing an Animation Diploma at South East Essex College. Kitsume is also a music composer (hobby).
The fursona was "invented" in 2008 by Luke Taylor, the owner of the fursona.
Kitsume is a blue wolf with a dark navy mane/ hair, white underbelly, chest and paw tips and dark navy lower legs. in appearance and is mainly seen in feral form rather than the common anthro form that almost all furries adopt. Kitsume has been seen with wings and has bright blue (almost turquoise) line markings under his eyes which have been see to glow (when his aura is used)
History as a Character
Kitsume is part of two universes, Kitsume's own story called: Kitsume - Chronicles of the Valley (Soon to be released as an RPG) and The Chronicles of the Terra in the Novel: Chronicles of the Terra - Wolven Apocalypse (to be released 2012). Both universes are contingently intertwined with each other meaning that Kitsume owns the same powers and abilities in both universes. In the Chronicles of the Valley Kitsume finds out how he got his powers and in the Chronicles of the Terra series he finds out what caused him to get said powers in more detail and how these powers work in a more detailed level of understanding.
Being part of the same group of people with powers he could be named "Halfkind" like everyone else in the COTT series but he is instead classed as just a wolf with powers named Dagger after the short blade he carries in his mouth then later by his real name Kitsume after he comes out of his shell and explains the other universe which he came from. In the COTV he is classed as a Blessed, (a creature empowered with Hyperium)
Kitsume also has the ability to transform like the human Halfkind but instead of transforming into a different animal he obtains extra features:
|Normal||As described above|
|Transformed||Instead of transforming into animal his aura grows|
|Overdrive||Kitsume obtains wings|
|Killadrive||Kitsume is in the typical anthro form. in this form he will adopt a black trench coat, green baggy pants, fingerless gloves (black, sometimes with green stripes), green goggles, a dark navy cape (torn) and his dagger is replaced with a blue katana|
|Megadrive||Kitsume is in the typical Werewolf/ Lycan form (in this form he has less awareness of what he is doing)|
|Gigadrive||He is slightly larger than his Megadrive form but still has the werewolf composure. He is protected with a light-weight, leather-like armour and his katana is a lot larger and with detail.|
|Terradrive||This is unknown as Kitsume never reaches this stage.|
Kitsume as a Blessed
"Like patchwork, universes have always existed side by side, parallel to each other. The Blessed are part of a universe so different to ours, Ruled by a very real God, her name is Wolf, the world eater.
A god who in her own right created her own unique element, and element so diverse it can interchange and manipulate others, Hyperium. Wolf took pride in her creation, she took so much pride that she soon became protective over it. Though she was so protective she still wished to see her new element in action, to mix it with life itself and see what would occur.
to protect over her element Wolf gave birth to six guardians for each world she was bestowing her element to, to watch over her element and to make sure it was spread across each world, like a culture in a Petri dish. The guardians were also the ones to gain knowledge over what makes up each world and to transfer that knowledge to the Hyperium itself so that the Hyperium could then be used to manipulate those elements.
The Guardians of Penumbris gave birth to the cult called the Blessed, Direct ancestors to Wolf herself. with this ancestry they inherited Hyperium and all the power which the element holds giving every Blessed being the power to create and manipulate the world around them. Residing in The Valley of Light’s River they remained unheard of for thousands of years, possibly even more.
This ended 80 years ago when the guardian Fenris took pity on the refugees of the end of the war and lead them to safety in the valley, commanding the Blessed to keep these refugees safe in their land, untouched by war. Fenris and the other guardians gave their word that these new people in their land would never lay a finger on their way of life, for it was their duty as guardians to watch over their children.
The refugees praised the Blessed for their hospitality and the Blessed became their protectors, their warriors. The Refugees became the people of the valley adapting to the wolves’ way of life, becoming tribes people with a skill for building. The people would provide their wolf protectors with improved homes and tools in return for their safety.
Over time more and more beings took up home in the valley and the wolves felt it was time to share their gift with those who wanted it. The wolves opened their arms and alowed whoever was strong of heart enough to join their circle, from man to bear to dragon anyone was allowed to be a part of their cult. to join the Blessed they would have to take part in an initiation ceremony where a blessed wolf would share their blood with the new member of the of their cult and thus sharing a small amount of their powers with them." - an extract of Blessed Lore from it's original conceptualisation.
Remember, Kitsume Goes by the screen name of Kitsume-the-wolf | <urn:uuid:3570a958-d5b5-443e-9896-36ddb3d2c63f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Kitsume | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978096 | 1,250 | 1.546875 | 2 |
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REPORT
UNDERGROUND COAL MINE
FATAL EXPLOSIVES ACCIDENT
TRACY VEIN SLOPE MINE (I.D. NO. 36-07328)
SUMMIT ANTHRACITE, INC.
GOODSPRING, SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
JULY 16, 1998
VINCENT J. JARDINA, JR.
COAL MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH INSPECTOR
MARK L. MOTT
SUPERVISORY MINING ENGINEER
ORIGINATING OFFICE - MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
7 NORTH WILKES-BARRE BLVD., SUITE 034, WILKES-BARRE, PA 18702
GLENN R. TINNEY, DISTRICT MANAGER
The Tracy Vein Slope, an underground anthracite coal mine that is operated by Summit Anthracite, Inc., was opened in 1989, and is located � mile south of Goodspring, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.
The principal management officers of the mine at the time of the explosion were:
The mine is opened into the Tracy vein by one shaft and four slopes. The vein varies in thickness from five to eight feet. The mine liberates approximately 35,503 cubic feet of methane in a 24-hour period.
The mine employed 13 miners, nine underground and four on the surface. There are two mechanized mining units working one shift per day, seven hours per shift, producing an average of 70 tons of raw coal daily. Coal is blasted off the solid, gravity fed into mine cars, transported to a haulage slope and hoisted to the surface. The coal is processed at Summit Anthracite's preparation plant.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) completed a Safety and Health Inspection (AAA) of the Tracy Vein Slope Mine on June 12, 1998.
DESCRIPTION OF ACCIDENT
On Thursday, July 16, 1998, Michael Rothermel, Foreman, arrived at the mine site at approximately 4:00 a.m. and conducted the pre-shift examination. At approximately 5:50 a.m., M. Rothermel provided the crew of seven miners with their assigned duties. The crew consisted of Courtney Nause, motorman, Kevin Wolfgang, gangway laborer, Jason Dodsen, gangway laborer, Randy Maurer, breast laborer, Adam Laudenslager, gangway laborer, Pete Klinger, monkey laborer, and Gary Laudenslager, monkey laborer. G. Laudenslager (victim) was instructed to acquire four drill steels to drill a borehole inby the No. 46 breast of the 2nd Level East, (MMU 001-0) working section. Klinger was instructed to advance the monkey face of the 001-0 working section. At approximately 6:00 a.m., roof support materials were lowered to the 001-0 working section via the slope gunboat. Shortly afterwards, Klinger, G. Laudenslager, and Maurer proceeded to the No. 32 chute of the gangway (manway) while A. Laudenslager, Dodsen, Wolfgang and Nause unloaded roof support materials at the bottom of the slope.
G. Laudenslager, Klinger and Maurer proceeded up the No. 32 chute to the monkey level to their respective work sites. A. Laudenslager, Dodsen, Wolfgang and Nause proceeded to the working places in the gangway and advancing chutes.
At approximately 8:00 a.m., G. Laudenslager and Klinger assisted Maurer with roof support material for the No. 44 breast. Boreholes were then being drilled by G. Laudenslager near the No. 46 breast area while Klinger performed the drilling and loading operations at the face.
Between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., A. Laudenslager, Dodsen, and Wolfgang conducted mining activities on the gangway level. Nause was loading and hauling coal in mine cars from the gangway face and active chutes.
At approximately 9:00 a.m., Klinger drilled and fired a hitch hole at the top rock side area of the advancing monkey face in preparation for timbering. This hitch was for a proper fit of a planned roof support.
Nause unloaded timbers from the gunboat and transported the supplies to the No. 45 chute on the gangway. He then transported four mine cars of coal out to the main slope area and dumped them. Upon Nause's return to the No. 45 chute, G. Laudenslager (victim) yelled down from the monkey that he needed two rolls of blasting wire. After loading and dumping the trip, Nause delivered the blasting wire to No. 45 chute and then continued to load and transport coal from the gangway and chute areas. On his return from the slope, the trip derailed between the No. 24 and No. 27 chute. At approximately 9:15 a.m., as he was in process of re-railing the cars, he heard a blast louder than normal.
A. Laudenslager, Dodsen and Wolfgang also heard the loud blast. The three miners began to run outby from the gangway face area. Dodsen and Wolfgang noted that the No. 48 chute battery had been partially damaged. At the No. 45 chute, Dodsen observed someone's hard hat. A. Laudenslager and Wolfgang proceeded to the monkey area by way of the No. 32 chute (manway). Dodsen stopped at the No. 45 chute, looked up, and heard Klinger moaning and yelling for help. Dodsen informed Klinger that help was on the way. Dodsen called M. Rothermel from a mine phone located near the No. 46 chute in the gangway.
At approximately 10:30 a.m., Nause observed Kenny Rothermel, part time surface employee, M. Rothermel, and Larry Straub, superintendent, en route from the slope bottom. He was asked by M. Rothermel what had happened. Nause responded that he didn't know. Nause was instructed to ensure that a ladder was installed in the gunboat. John Scheib, hoist operator, then brought the gunboat to the surface awaiting rescue personnel. Nause returned to where the coal cars were derailed. He later returned to the slope bottom, and escorted rescue team members to the No. 32 chute, re-railed the coal cars and battery locomotive with additional help, and assisted in transporting G. Laudenslager (victim) and Klinger (injured) to the bottom of the slope.
Maurer, who was working in the No. 44 breast above the monkey, was the first to arrive at the accident scene. Ken and Mike Rothermel performed CPR and first aid on G. Laudenslager and first aid on Klinger. Shortly afterwards, Anthracite Underground Rescue Incorporated (AUGR) and Tremont Rescue Station personnel arrived and assisted at the scene. Klinger was transported to the surface at approximately 12:20 p.m., placed in an ambulance, and taken by Life Flight helicopter to Geisinger Medical Hospital in Danville, Pennsylvania. Gary Laudenslager (victim) was transported to the surface at approximately 1:00 p.m., and pronounced dead by Sandra Poletti, Schuylkill County Deputy Corner. The victim was transported by ambulance to Pottsville Hospital and Warne Clinic. MSHA was not notified of the accident by the operator. MSHA became aware of the accident by an off duty MSHA employee whose family member heard about the situation on a scanner.
- The accident investigation indicated that approved face ventilation was not established or utilized at the advancing No. 50 chute face developed off the gangway, the monkey
heading face area, and the No. 46 and No. 44 breast areas of the 001-0 working section.
Statements, interviews and evidence in the mine indicated that compressed air lines were
being used to ventilate the working faces. Violation issued on a separate event.
- The preshift examination conducted on July 16, 1998, failed to disclose that ventilation
controls were not installed or being used as required, and the No. 44 and No. 46 breast
face areas were not examined. Work was scheduled for the 001-0 working section and
miners were permitted to work in areas not properly examined. Violation issued on a
- The record made of the preshift examination (conducted on July 16, 1998, between 5:06
a.m. and 5:45 a.m.) did not include a record of hazardous conditions and their locations
found by the examiner during the examination. The preshift record book indicated that
no hazardous conditions were observed, nor were methane measurements recorded.
Violation issued on a separate event.
- During the accident investigation, which began on July 17, 1998, methane readings of
0.9% to 1.1% was present from the No. 49 chute to the face area of the gangway.
Methane readings of 1.5% to 10% were detected in the monkey heading from the No. 49
chute inby to the face area of the monkey as a result of disrupted ventilation.
- On July 22, 1998, the following explosives and detonators were removed by the
investigation team from the mine:
Type 8S ICI explosives--207 full sticks plus 55 partial or damaged sticks.
Type 7D Atlas explosives--88 full sticks plus 7 damaged sticks.
306 (0-10 delay) detonators.
- It was determined that two boreholes were drilled in the high side coal rib off the monkey approximately 6 inches apart. They were both located approximately 6 feet inby the No. 46 breast. The north hole was drilled approximately 38 feet in depth and the south hole
was drilled approximately 40 feet in depth.
- On July 24, 1998, two drill steels (5-foot in length), one containing the drill bit, were
recovered from the south hole. An additional seven drill steels (3 of which were
damaged), and an Ingersoll Rand hand drill, were recovered from the accident scene.
- On July 24, 1998, while measuring the depth of the north borehole, a leg wire (green in
color) from a detonator was recovered.
- Approximately twenty-five sticks of loose Coal Lite 8S explosives and multiple damaged
detonators were discovered at the accident scene in the vicinity of the north and south
- Measurements and tests conducted by MSHA suggest that the north and south drill holes
may have either unintentionally connected into one another, or came close to one
another, or may have contacted a rib hole in the No. 46 breast.
- Due to dislodged timbers and loose hanging coal, the No. 46 breast could not be
examined safely in its entirety.
- During the investigation, it was determined that non-permissible explosives had been used
underground at the 001-0 active working section. On July 22, 1998, 1-full and 2-partial
rolls of primacord (detonating cord) were found buried beneath wooden liner boards between the No. 34 and No. 35 chutes of the monkey heading. On July 24, 1998, 2-partial rolls of primacord were discovered and found buried beneath wooden posts and liner boards between the No. 42 and No. 43 chutes of the monkey heading. Violation issued on a separate event.
- Four miners working in the 001-0 working section were not qualified in accordance with
30 CFR Part 75.151 to conduct tests for methane and oxygen deficiency. Violation issued on a separate event.
- Stemming material was not being used during the process of loading boreholes. Stemming material was not found on the 001-0 working section during the investigation. Violation issued on a separate event.
- During the accident investigation, it was determined that immediately prior to firing on the 001-0 working section, blasting circuits were not tested for continuity and resistance using a blasting galvanometer or other instrument specifically designed for testing blasting circuits. Violation issued on a separate event.
- The quantity of explosives and detonators outside of magazines and/or original containers
exceeded the amount necessary for blasting the working faces.
- Four miners who conducted blasting activities prior to the accident were not qualified in
accordance with 30 CFR 75.1301. Also, the miners were not under the direction of a
- The pitch of the coal vein where the accident occurred varies from 72 to 76 degrees,
which can increase the probability of material falling during the mining cycle.
- Tests conducted by MSHA personnel indicated that static or stray electric current was not present at the mine.
- The on-site investigation was completed on August 28, 1998. However, the results of the subsequent testing of explosives, detonators and physical evidence gathered during
the investigation were not received until December 21, 1998.
- G. Laudenslager, who was assigned to work in the vicinity of No. 46 breast, requested
two spools of firing wire from motorman Nause. The firing wire would be necessary to
either extend the firing line to a long hole in one of the boreholes or to an unconfined
shot used to free a hangup in No. 46 breast. The two rolls of firing line were delivered to
the No. 45 chute and tied onto a rope hanging down the chute. The two spools were
found hanging down from the monkey.
- An in-depth evaluation of the accident scene was conducted to determine if methane gas
was involved in the accident. From the lack of evidence of flame and debris accumulations, methane gas was determined not to be a factor in the accident. Additionally, autopsy results of the victim failed to disclose any presence of methane.
- Evidence gathered from the boreholes including a drill bit removed from the south
borehole, a green leg wire recovered from the north borehole, and three bags of
particulate matter collected from both boreholes, were initially sent to MSHA's Technical
Support Center for testing. These materials were later transferred to the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory's Forensic Science Center, where comprehensive testing
was conducted. The results of these tests indicated that components present in
primacord or blasting caps were not found in either borehole. However, tests of the drill
bit, leg wire and particulate from the north borehole indicated the presence of un-detonated explosives.
- Explosives, primacord and detonators collected near the underground accident scene and transferred from the mine to Pennex Powder Company's explosive magazine were picked up by NIOSH, who conducted chemical analysis, physical examinations, measurements of detonation velocity, and air gap testing of the permissible explosives. The detonating cord (primacord) and detonators were subjected to drop weight impact testing per ASTM Standard Test, ANSI/ASTM E 680-79. Testing indicated that the detonators used by the operator were highly susceptible to initiation by impact. The primacord and explosives tested were far less sensitive to initiation by impact.
The direct cause of the accident was an unplanned detonation of explosives in or around the No. 46 breast of the 001-0 working section. Although testing was conducted on evidence gathered from the accident scene, the source of origin for the unplanned detonation could not be identified, due to the extent of damage from the blast. A significant factor increasing the severity of the accident was improper storage and handling of explosives and detonators. One of the following three factors were considered as a possible cause of the accident:
- Un-detonated explosives in the north borehole remaining from a misfire, which could not be totally removed, may have been drilled into from the south borehole or heat generated by the
drilling operation may have caused the explosives to burn in the hole which in turn caused an
ignition of detonators and explosives in the No. 46 breast or on the floor of the monkey.
- Coal or rock may have fallen striking the detonators and/or explosives left in or around the No. 46 breast or on the floor of the monkey level.
- An unintentional detonation of the wrong firing line possibly connected to an unconfined shot used to free hanging material may have detonated other explosives in or around the No. 46 breast.
Order No. 7000179, issued under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, Section
A fatal explosives accident occurred at approximately 9:15 a.m. on July 16, 1998 in the monkey heading (return) of the No. 46 breast of the 2nd Level East 001-0 working section. This order is issued to assure the safety of miners until an investigation is made to determine that the monkey heading is safe.
Citation No. 7001401, issued under Section 104(a) for violation of 30 CFR 50.10:
The operator failed to contact the Mine Safety and Health Administration, District or Headquarters office of a reportable fatal accident which occurred on July 16, 1998.
Order No. 7001588, issued under Section 104(d)(1) for violation of 30 CFR 75.1313(a):
The quantity of explosives outside a magazine for use in the working section or other area where blasting was to be performed exceeded 100 pounds and exceeded the amount necessary to blast one round.
Order No. 7001589, issued under Section 104(d)(1) for violation of 30 CFR 75.1313(b):
Explosives and detonators, which were not being transported or prepared for loading boreholes, were not kept in closed separate containers made of nonconductive material.
Order No. 7001594, issued under Section 104(d)(1) for violation of 30 CFR 75.1325(a):
Blasting of explosives was being performed by persons who were not qualified in accordance with Section 75.1325(a), and who were not working under the direct supervision of a person qualified by MSHA.
Order No. 7001595, issued under 104(d)(1) for violation of 30 CFR 75.1315(b):Two boreholes, one of which contained explosives, were not drilled at least 24 inches apart. The two boreholes were approximately 6 inches apart.
Vincent J. Jardina
Coal Mine Safety and Health Inspector
Mark L. Mott
Supervisory Mining Engineer
Approved by:Glenn R. Tinney
Related Fatal Alert Bulletin: | <urn:uuid:582ba0a6-793c-42b6-9593-74389e725877> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.msha.gov/FATALS/1998/FTL98C16.HTM | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956806 | 3,990 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The American middle class is losing ground fast, and the Republicans are not offering serious help.A new report by the Pew Research Center reveals the slippage over the last decade. Fully 85 percent of people surveyed who described themselves as middle class said it is harder than it was a decade ago to maintain their standard of living.No wonder! In the last decade, median household income decreased from $73,000 to $69,500, while net worth dropped 40 percent between 2007 and 2010.The Republican Party is offering little but rhetorical support to the shrinking middle class. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to extend the Bush tax cuts, which disproportionately go to the wealthy. And the Republican platform vows to do away with the estate tax, even though it already exempts estates under $5.1 million from any tax. Meanwhile, the platform knocks out a major middle-class tax break: the home mortgage interest deduction.These are not the policies the middle class wants. In the Pew study, 58 percent of those polled say the rich need to pay more in taxes. And more than 60 percent believe that the Republican Party favors the rich.The Romney campaign seems to believe that it can mollify the white middle class through color-coded attacks on welfare recipients.This diversionary tactic may not work this time, as more Americans of all colors descend into poverty. Whoever wins in November must address this critical issue -- not with rhetoric but with real programs that put people back on their feet.David A. Love writes for the Progressive Media Project. email@example.com; www.progressive.org. | <urn:uuid:483a625e-d0da-4225-9cc1-d129f3e7d7d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/05/4233733/slipping-middle-class-seeks-stability.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952592 | 325 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Earlier this week, the President of Turkmenistan announced a short list of companies from whom his country will accept proposals to develop two offshore blocks in the Caspian Sea.[i] Since President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov came to power nearly four years ago, Turkmenistan’s vast hydrocarbon reserves have been the source of intense lobbying by petroleum giants from around the globe. The efforts of four of these companies were rewarded, in part, this week. Not unexpectedly, Chevron is among the shortlisted companies, joined by ConocoPhilips, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co. and newcomer TX Oil Limited, chaired by Neil Bush, son of US President George H.W. Bush.
Turkmenistan is one of the world’s most closed and repressive countries. A small nation of approximately 5 million people, it is located in Central Asia and is bordered by the Caspian Sea to the west, Iran and Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the east, and Kazakhstan to the north. Identified by Freedom House as one of the World’s Most Repressive Regimes in 2009 (and almost every year prior), Turkmenistan is a country with no freedom of the press, an authoritarian government, and a President who is quickly building a cult of personality rivaling that of the previous “President for Life,” Niyazov, who died suddenly of a heart attack in December 2006.[ii] Civil society has been all but destroyed by the repressive policies of the government of Turkmenistan.
Further alarming is the fact that Turkmenistan’s government has no accountability mechanisms for reporting oil and gas revenues. The country’s previous president deposited petroleum funds in a semi-private, off budget account in Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt.[iii] President Berdymukhammedov has made no reforms in this area, and a newly touted “Stabilization Fund,” into which oil and gas revenues would be placed, remains a mystery as there is no public documentation that such a fund actually exists.[iv]
As we have seen repeatedly in neighboring Kazakhstan, where Chevron is the largest private oil producer, and elsewhere around the world, engaging with corrupt and opaque regimes to secure hydrocarbons without first insisting on significant improvements in transparency, rule of law and human rights leads to unjust and unsustainable policies and practices.[v]
When I raised this issue at Chevron’s Annual Shareholder Meeting this past May, CEO John Watson confirmed that his company was in negotiations with the government of Turkmenistan, adding “I think we can do some good in Turkmenistan” even though “we may not meet your standards”.[vi] Perhaps I had not been clear about my concerns, for at stake are not the standards of any single individual, nonprofit organization or even corporation. At stake are the standards and best practices enshrined in national and international laws and regulations. These are the standards that Chevron is obligated to meet, and encouraged to exceed. These are the standards by which Chevron’s shareholders, the international community and the citizens of the Chevron’s host countries evaluate whether or not the company is “doing some good”.
As Chevron has yet to finalize a contract with Turkmenistan, we have a unique, but waning opportunity to urge the company to insist upon significant improvements in human rights and rule of law prior to active operations in the country. For more on how you can get involved at this critical moment, please visit www.crudeaccountability.org.
Michelle Kinman is Deputy Director of Crude Accountability.
Posted on: August 19, 2010
Filed under: True Cost of Chevron Network | <urn:uuid:84bbe486-c27d-4680-9b55-e76af5cfb03f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalexchange.org/blogs/chevron/2010/08/19/is-chevron-one-step-closer-to-%E2%80%9Cdoing-some-good%E2%80%9D-in-turkmenistan-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958467 | 765 | 1.773438 | 2 |
When Hugo Matheson says he's in one of his "moods," that means he'd rather be out on a farm than inside the Kitchen, the popular Boulder, Colorado, restaurant that he opened as chef and co-owner in 2004.
It makes sense, given that nearly everything this man does connects to the Earth: With his business partner, Kimbal Musk, he's created a restaurant that recycles or composts nearly all of its waste, down to the cooking oil (a neighbor uses it for biodiesel) and the take-out containers (biodegradable). Its electricity comes from wind farms. And the names of its food suppliers, mostly local, are proudly displayed on wall chalkboards.
It's this last part of the green ethic that appeals to Matheson most: "There's more excitement to me in having relationships [with farmers] ― because it's real, not just a trend." Every chance he gets, he stumps through the fields of local farms, rhapsodizing about the crops, chatting with farmers, learning something new ― including, last year, how to raise pigs. "We found a family farm that sold us a couple of little porkers," he says. "Some people think we were a little mad to do it, but what fun it was!" | <urn:uuid:9e1fe0de-c499-4399-bde4-f5a334c33134> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/fast-fresh/garlic-fries-lamb-burgers-00400000018982/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972698 | 268 | 1.53125 | 2 |
This week's imminent publication of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran's nuclear program -- details of which have been leaking out -- is expected to provide evidence that Tehran is hard at work building a nuclear weapon. Once again, the proverbial tick-tock in media and diplomatic circles has begun: Is a U.S.-backed Israeli strike against Iran in the offing?
Much of the saber rattling and the leaks from Israel may be designed to use the IAEA report to motivate the international community to do more about Iran's developing nuclear program and to lay down a warning of what the consequences might be if it doesn't. Already, China and Russia are urging evidence in the report be kept secret, so it's a good bet that they would block any proposals for kinetic action, and perhaps even further sanctions, in the United Nations. The Israelis might decide for any number of reasons that they must launch a military strike at some point; and it might be that a U.S. president cannot be in a position to dissuade them. Indeed, as a tiny nation living on the knife's edge with a dark history and a track record of successful pre-emption against military threats, the Israelis may well act at some point, though not necessarily now.
Before they do, here are the five top reasons they might want to consider keeping their jets and missiles on the ground: | <urn:uuid:95d682f6-8de8-481f-9ab9-f12965abbdf2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/07/trouble_over_tehran?page=0,0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960588 | 284 | 1.601563 | 2 |
September 13, 2012
DALLAS (SMU) —Two SMU graduates are showing appreciation for a professor who made a lasting impact on their lives by establishing an endowed professorship in his honor.
The $1.25 million gift from Stephen L. and Kathryn Hedges Arata of Dallas will create the Jeremy duQuesnay Adams Centennial Professorship in Western European Medieval History in honor of the longtime SMU professor, who will continue to teach in the University’s Clements Department of History.
“We are honored to have an endowed professorship bearing the name of one of SMU’s most distinguished and revered faculty members,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “We are grateful to the Aratas for their vision and generosity in providing this gift, which supports our Second Century Campaign goal to increase the number of endowed chairs to 100. With the Adams Professorship, the University is within 15 faculty positions of reaching that goal.”
In addition to the Aratas, several other former students of Professor Adams have contributed toward the endowed professorship in his honor. Those contributing $25,000 and more include Cindy and Dr. David Stager, Jr. ’87; Jo ‘90 and Joe Goyne; and Renee Justice Standley ’90 and Kenneth Standley.
Both Stephen and Kathryn Arata majored in English and minored in medieval studies in SMU’s Dedman College. Kathryn earned a B.A. degree in 1987. She also received an M.A. in English from SMU in 1991. Stephen received two degrees from SMU in 1988 — a B.A. from Dedman College and B.B.A. from Cox School of Business. He also earned a Master’s of Management degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Kathryn Arata said, “My parents, the Rev. Bill B. Hedges and Jane Hedges, graduated from SMU in 1960. All of my life I have loved this university, growing up steeped in the SMU culture and history. When I finally arrived on the campus, I was captivated by the quality and variety of the courses offered.
“Jeremy Adams created a sense of academic curiosity and desire for learning that I possess to this day. Now that Stephen and I are in a position to pay back (actually pay forward) the gifts he gave us, we wanted to do something that would be close to Jeremy’s heart. He is passionate about his subject, and we have given this endowment to ensure that his passion will continue to light the fires of academic curiosity in students for years to come.”
The Aratas named their son for Jeremy Adams in recognition of the singular effect their beloved professor had on both of them. Jeremy Andrew Arata entered SMU as a Dedman College Scholar this fall and looks forward to learning from the teachers his parents studied with in the 1980s. The Aratas have two younger daughters, Hanna and Julianna.
As an SMU undergraduate, Stephen Arata was a President’s Scholar, a resident adviser and recipient of the “M” Award for distinguished service to the University. He also was a member of the honorary Robert Stewart Hyer Society and Phi Beta Kappa. Both Stephen and Kathryn Arata are current members of the Dedman College Executive Board. Stephen also serves on the Dedman College Committee of the Second Century Campaign and the Executive Board of Cox School of Business.
Stephen Arata now is executive vice president and CFO of Caiman Energy II, LLC, a Dallas-based company focused on providing infrastructure to transport natural gas products from wellhead to market. Before joining Caiman in 2010, he was CFO for Regency Energy Partners LP. Earlier in his career, he worked for UBS Investment Bank in both Dallas and London. Kathryn Arata is president of Aldersgate Charitable Foundation.
The Adams Professorship is the first Centennial Professorship to be established in SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. The “Centennial” designation is a special gift category during SMU’s 100th anniversary commemoration, 2011-2015. It requires that gifts must meet elevated giving levels and provide a combination of endowment and annual support. Because a faculty position designated as “Centennial” enables the appointment to be made sooner, SMU has initiated a search to fill the Adams Professorship in the 2013-14 academic year.
Professor Adams earned his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. After teaching at Harvard and Yale universities, he joined the SMU faculty in 1974. More than 30 years ago, Adams and his wife, Bonnie Wheeler, associate professor in SMU’s Department of English, were joined by colleagues across the University in co-founding SMU’s Medieval Studies Program. Through the years, Adams’ courses on medieval history have played a central role in the expansion and strong reputation of the interdisciplinary program, which now offers a popular undergraduate minor and major and a master’s degree. Adams also has taught at and directed SMU study abroad programs in France and Spain and, most frequently, at the SMU-in-Oxford program in England.
The Aratas have fond memories as students of homemade dinners each semester in the home of Jeremy Adams and Bonnie Wheeler, where conversations centered on subjects such as poetry, literature, history and politics. They studied with Adams and Wheeler both on the SMU campus in Dallas and at SMU-in-Oxford.
Adams has received numerous honors during his distinguished academic career. At Yale, he received the DeVane Medal of that university’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter and the national Danforth Foundation’s E. Harris Harbison Award for Gifted Teaching. At SMU, he was awarded the Perrine Prize from SMU’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter and was named an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor. He has received several Outstanding Professor Awards, as well as the “M” Award, SMU’s highest award for distinguished service. He is the author or editor of seven books and numerous academic articles.
“This professorship will ensure that the teaching of Western European medieval history will continue at SMU at the high quality level established by Professor Adams,” said Dedman College Dean William Tsutsui. “It underscores our commitment to interdisciplinary teaching and research reflecting Professor Adams’ creative blend of history, literature and other disciplines, which makes medieval history come alive for his students. We are grateful to the Aratas for enabling SMU to recruit an additional distinguished faculty member to fill this professorship.”
The Arata gift of $1.25 million and other gifts for the Adams Professorship count toward the $750 million goal of SMU Unbridled: The Second Century Campaign, which to date has raised more than $631 million to support student quality, faculty and academic excellence and the campus experience. The campaign coincides with SMU’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the University’s founding in 1911 and its opening in 1915.
# # # | <urn:uuid:094f0c1d-1d04-41a6-95f2-ebbbe091697e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smu.edu/SecondCentury/News/2012/ArataGift | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96822 | 1,510 | 1.609375 | 2 |
LOS ANGELES, November 10, 2011 — I have a confession; I’d never eaten nor worked with persimmons until I wrote this article. My only encounter with persimmons was years ago when I worked at a restaurant where the sous chef opened a box and showed me the vibrant orange fruits and discussed how delicious they were in their fall salad with chestnuts and warm sherry vinegar.
Today, I finally learned how to use and prepare persimmons.
Similar to the beet, you either love persimmons or hate them. In my professional opinion, persimmons are so intimidating that people just assume they hate them because they don’t know what to do with them.
At first glance they’re beautiful and interesting and then the frustration of uncertainty sets in. Though prevalent in California they are hard to come by in many regions of the United States. Persimmons are a tropical fruit and in season during the fall. There are two varieties: Fuyu and Hachiya.
The Fuyu is a squatty orange hard (when unripe) fruit that looks similar to a tomato. It is best eaten raw with the peel removed by a sturdy peeler and served in salads, tarts and even as chutney.
The Hachiya is shaped like an acorn and can be much darker orange in color than the Fuyu.
The Hachiya has a sweet and pulpy texture that can be scooped out with a spoon when it’s ripe. Similar to the Fuyu the peel should not be eaten. You can use the Hachiya persimmon in breads and pies, or eat it plain.
My personal experience is with the Fuyu: At the farmers market I came across a large spread of persimmons and, as I usually preach to my readers about asking the vendor for help, I did the same. However, after his instructions on how to prepare them, it was apparent that he knew very little about them and, in fact, he confessed to not liking them.
The only good information he gave was when the fruits are bright and dark orange in color they’re ready to eat, and thankfully I remembered this same tip from my sous chef.
I gladly purchased three Fuyu Persimmons and they sat on my counter top until they turned bright orange in color, and I was ready to tackle this new ingredient. I then attempted to figure out the best way to eat them or which way I would enjoy them most.
Aside from the color being bright and orange when they turned ripe I also noticed that the firmness changed. The Fuyu persimmon should be slightly soft to the touch when it’s ready to eat. The skin, though edible, is displeasing to your senses and therefore should be removed. Remove the skin but first cut off the top and then simply use a peeler to peel the skin. Next, cut the persimmons either in circles or in wedges. By cutting them in circles you’ll be able to see the beautiful design that lies within.
When the Fuyu is soft it is easy to cut, your knife should glide right through the meat of the fruit. In fact it can be so soft to cut that your knife may not go where you want it to go. Also as you’re cutting it, beware your fingers may indent the meat, so have a firm grip but not too firm.
I had two persimmons that I was working with, and what I noticed was that, like all fruit, the one that was slightly harder was nowhere near as sweet as the one that was softer. Lesson learned is that Fuyu persimmons are sweet when they’re ripe and can be tart and flavorless when they aren’t.
I made a simple fall salad with them which I used goat cheese, almonds, romaine, croutons and tossed it with olive oil and red wine vinegar. When I make it again I will use freshly squeezed lemon and arugula; the red wine seemed to be too pungent paired with the persimmon. They are also paired well with many nuts (almonds, chestnuts and walnuts), cheeses (goat or parmesan cheese) and delicious with darker greens (arugula or baby greens.)
My verdict: despite their scary reputation, persimmons are quite simple to prepare and once you get over the fear, they’re a delicious addition to add a touch of fall to your meal.
For more great cooking tips, recipes and stories from Chef Mary, visit her blog. To learn more about Chef Mary, check out her Hail Mary’s, Inc. Web site. E-mail questions for Ask Chef Mary Fridays to firstname.lastname@example.org or click the Ask Chef Mary link above.
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The information provided is general information about healthy eating. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice or treatment that may have been prescribed by your physician or other health care provider. Always consult a physician before starting any new diet or regimen.
This article is the copyrighted property of the writer and Communities @ WashingtonTimes.com. Written permission must be obtained before reprint in online or print media. REPRINTING TWTC CONTENT WITHOUT PERMISSION AND/OR PAYMENT IS THEFT AND PUNISHABLE BY LAW. | <urn:uuid:b1b93f8a-dc61-4ed8-ab99-5bd766ab74a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/hail-mary-food-grace/2011/nov/10/first-persimmon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958521 | 1,179 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Finding the right Duluth schools in the right neighborhood has never been easier.
DULUTH SCHOOL RANKINGS
VIEW DULUTH SCHOOLS BY TYPE
DULUTH, GEORGIA SCHOOLS AND NEIGHBORHOODS: WE ARE HERE TO HELP
SchoolsK-12.com is a site designed around the needs of a relocating family with school age children. It is a site that allows the family to search public and private Duluth schools, but understands that choosing the right Duluth neighborhood is equally important to a successful move. Through a network of local sponsors and experts, Schoolsk-12.com can guide a family through the process of choosing an excellent Duluth school located in a great neighborhood taking into account such things as affordability, accessibility to work, to shopping, the traffic patterns and more.
ABOUT Duluth, Georgia SCHOOLS
Duluth schools boast a total student population of 31,301 attending 67 schools in 10 public school districts and 10 private schools. Public school revenue and expenditures vary by school district but Duluth public schools spend an average of $7,369 per student each year.
Student teacher ratio is an important statistic cluing parents into the probable attention their child might receive individually in a classroom setting. Duluth public schools average a student teacher ratio of 12:1. Duluth private schools average 11:1. Also, high schools in Duluth average a student body population of 498, while Duluth middle schools and elementary schools average student body populations of 438 and 429 respectively.
More questions about Duluth schools? Try "Scooter" our detailed school finder that allows you to match your criteria to the Duluth schools that best fit your needs. | <urn:uuid:bda48db0-fea6-4783-8d38-166bf86464c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Georgia/Duluth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951146 | 353 | 1.554688 | 2 |
This morning, I reported that the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation is blasting Federal officials for proposing new ballast water treatment rules that DEC commissioner Joe Martens describes as neither adequate nor effective.
I also reported that DEC is also moving to implement its own standards, which are roughly 100 times more stringent.
Turns out I only had the story half right.
It’s true that Martens sent the letter to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson offering a laundry list of complaints about the proposed new rules and calling for them to be toughtened.
But in a separate press release issued Wednesday, which I hadn’t seen, the commissioner also announced that he’s shelving New York state’s tough rules, which were scheduled to go into effect next year.
“A technically feasible national standard which recognizes the critical economic role played by our waterways is the only viable way to address the spread of destructive aquatic invaders through ballast water,” Martens said.
Martens suggests that New York state plans to negotiate to try to toughen Federal rules, bringing them closer to the guidelines originally proposed by the DEC.
But in unilaterally shelving the proposed DEC rules, state officials in Albany have already effectively given up their biggest bargaining chip.
“New York remains concerned about the introduction and spread of invasive species in the state’s waterways and we hope that a strong national solution can be achieved,” DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said.
“At the same time, shipping and maritime activity is critical to New York state and international commerce. A technically feasible national standard which recognizes the critical economic role played by our waterways is the only viable way to address the spread of destructive aquatic invaders through ballast water.”
New York’s decision to shelve its ballast regs drew quick raves from opponents of the ballast water rules. Industry groups and the Canadian government both praised the decision.
“New York’s decision effectively eliminates the unworkable ballast water rules put in place during the Paterson Administration. We applaud Governor Cuomo for protecting jobs and supporting the thousands of Americans who make their living in the maritime industry,” said Steve Fisher, Executive Director of the American Great Lakes Ports Association, in a statemente.
“Canada applauds New York State for withdrawing its unattainable ballast water requirements and agrees that uniform standards are the best way to protect the marine environment,” said Parliamentary Secretary Poilievre, who handles transportation issues for Canada.
“We welcome this action as enforcement of the rules on transiting ships would have stopped commercial shipping on the Seaway. This could have affected almost $11 billion in business revenue and up to 72,000 jobs in Canada and the United States.”
Meanwhile, the DEC’s decision is a setback for environmental groups, who had hoped that New York state’s tough rules would serve as leverage to elevate national standards. This from Reuters:
“The EPA’s new proposed permit isn’t tough enough to prevent the next harmful invader from slipping into our waters,” said Thom Cmar of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Several technologies exist to treat ballast water, which Cmar said are similar to municipal wastewater treatment that cleans water with chemicals, ultraviolet light, or filtration systems. He said it would cost less than $1 million to outfit a typical cargo vessel.
More on this story Monday during The Eight O’clock Hour. | <urn:uuid:5e1ab42c-d9b1-4a62-a597-049f3518276f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org/inbox/tag/invasives/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948811 | 722 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Tom and I were absolutely stumped when we saw an ad on tv (we were away, we do not have television at home, so we are a bit out of touch in regards to commercial tv…). The ad was promoting a little gadget you put in a power point, which then regularly sprays “smell free” pesticide into your house. We were gobsmacked!
People buying that gadget would be voluntarily poisoning themselves to get rid of pests! No wonder most of the other ads on tv were for health insurance Since we live such a simple lifestyle and are not influenced by daily ads on tv telling us what to buy and where to go, we tend to think that most people are at least aware of possible adverse effects to health and environment from association with pesticides.
Anyway, that ad combined with the nightly noise in our kitchen, brought me to write this article. See, we too have pest control in our house, sometimes even more than one! Every night when the light goes off, we hear some noise in the kitchen. Our nightly visitors come in through the kitchen window, which we leave open for them. If the window is closed, they will persist to croak or jump up against the window until we open it for them… Croak and jump??? Yes, our pest controllers are green tree frogs.
They make themselves at home in our kitchen at night, in the sink and on the bench. Our doors and windows are always open during the day, and plenty of bugs make their way into the house. Our green tree frogs clean them up at night. The only payoff is finding the occasional frog poop on the sink, but they are very easily cleaned up. We really enjoy having our nightly visitors, they make a bit of a racket sometimes, but it is comforting to know that our environment here is healthy enough to attract these wonderful pest controllers. We do get an abundance of many varieties of frogs on our property, which make for a fantastic choir when it rains in summer.
It would be wonderful to see more people accepting that nature has its own form of pest control, and encouraging those forms of pest control to flourish. Unfortunately, environmental stresses have a major effect on the amphibian population in the world, and I read somewhere recently that amphibians are the highest on the list of endangerment, with a large percentage on the road to extinction. I also heard that amphibians are a great indicator of the health of the environment. If this is true, it should frighten everyone that amphibians are not doing so well. It also should be a goal for all people to establish a healthy environment for amphibians (which then in turn becomes a healthy environment for so many other species). Nature looks after its own, and it will control pests without pesticides if you allow nature to do its job… | <urn:uuid:246042ed-a5e1-460b-bc9e-8d0ff11fbadb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://permaculturesunshinecoast.org/2012/12/02/natural-pest-control/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976689 | 571 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Although most regions across the country have managed to avoid the wrath of winter so far, travel experts say January is still a popular month for booking vacations to sunshine destinations.
That's partly due to the anticipation of colder temperatures, snowstorms and a lack of sunshine. Some even suffer from seasonal affective disorder or SAD, which can make a typical winter extremely challenging.
So to escape the frosty months, several people pack their bags and head to a warmer destination.
“I have to go away in January. I'll never make it through the winter without going,” says one traveller we caught up with at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. “I go to get away from any signs of snow and the 40 below weather,” said another anxious traveller ready to head south.
Lisa Vincent, Manager of Travelpath in Burlington, Ontario says the agency definitely starts to see a spike in vacation sales in January.
“Most people that call to book a vacation usually say, 'I'm tired of the cold, I'm tired of the dreary weather' and they're usually over the hustle and bustle of Christmas,” notes Vincent.
“Students in University and College have their reading weeks come up in February and then you've got March Break so a lot of families book their vacation in March as well.”
Vincent adds that bookings to Caribbean destinations usually start to die down by mid March, when the spring season begins to move in and residents gear up for summer weekends at the cottage.
According to the Canadian Tourism Commission, there will be about a 14 percent increase in Canadians travelling outbound in the next couple of years, with the majority of the destinations being to the Caribbean.
Because this is such a busy time of year for holiday travel, officials recommend to leave yourself plenty of time at the airport. Toronto's Pearson International Airport for example, sees around 500,000 people travelling through March Break. | <urn:uuid:ba9cdcf0-f1c9-4614-a2fe-410b64b8a50c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://past.theweathernetwork.com/news/storm_watch_stories3&stormfile=escaping_the_canadian_winter_200111 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958845 | 400 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Zoning Board of Adjustment
The Board is comprised of five elected members and up to five alternates. Alternates are always needed. The ZBA is a good introduction to state and local land use regulations. State seminars are provided.
Chairman: Brooks McCandlish
Members: Bill Glennie, Nancy McEachern, Andrew Pinard, Denise Renk, George Cilley (alternate)
The Zoning Board of Adjustment meets at the Bradford Area Community Center (lower level) at 7:00pm the first Wednesday of each month.
The Bradford Zoning Ordinance and New Hampshire statutes authorize the board to grant Special Exception, Variances, and hear appeals from Administrative Decisions. The need for an appeal is referenced by the Building Inspector during the building permit process. Information is available at the Town Hall.
Individuals are encouraged to attend a regularly scheduled meeting for informal discussion about the appeal process.
WHAT IS THE ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT?
he Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) considers the differences between properties which do not conform to the Zoning Ordinance since no ordinance can be equitably applied to every parcel of land.
The ZBA deals with three main types of appeals:
- Special Exception – certain sections of the Zoning Ordinance provide that a particular use of property in a particular zone will be permitted by special exception if the specified conditions are meet.
- Variance – a variance is use of property in a way not permitted in the Zoning Ordinance, denial of which would cause a special hardship because of unique properties of the property in question. There are five (5) conditions required by state law to be meet for a variance to be granted.
- Administrative Appeal – if you have been denied a building permit or are affected by some decision regarding the administration of the Bradford Zoning Ordinance, and you believe that the decision was made in error, you may appeal the decision to the ZBA.
State law and local regulations set out the proper procedures for preparing, submitting, reviewing and approving any applications required. Time periods are set for all procedures and must be followed in order to be legally binding. In some cases, a public hearing, with notification of abutters, must be held before a decision is made.
A preliminary discussion with the ZBA is advised to determine the appropriate appeal and clarify the application process. The Board meets at the Town Hall on the first Tuesday of each month. | <urn:uuid:ca4a2e99-2bb2-4b36-91c2-2a19f3af15ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bradfordnh.org/meeting-calendar/zoning-board-of-adjustment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932377 | 508 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Partitions in RAID
I'm planning on setting up a RAID 5 array for data storage in the near future and I was wondering if it is possible/worth partitioning the drive.
When I only have one hard drive in the machine, I usually create a system partition for the OS and commonly used programs. I was under the impression that doing so would improve the overall system performance (if only through data consolidation) I was wondering if the same thing holds true for a RAID array.
I know that I won't really need to worry about performance for a data store, but I'm just curious.
And no there will be no benefit to partitioning drives in a RAID array.
It is possible to partition the created array. After installing the driver for the OS it will simply appear as a regular drive. You can create partitions like on a regular drive, nothing stops you to do that. The drive creation is done at controller level and with the driver for the OS, the OS will see it as a regular drive and then you can do what you want. If I were you I would not partition the drive, keep it as simple as possible.
I did it on my RAID10 array mainly just for organization. Set aside 320GB for my games and the remaining 1.5TB for storage.
But like noted above, has no effect on performance at all, and I guess could become problematic if you end up filling up 1 partition but not the other(s).
Do whatever works best for you :thumb:
Thanks for the info guys. I probably won't partition the rive, but might mount folders as drives to make some things easier.
|All times are GMT -7. The time now is 07:02 PM.| | <urn:uuid:07cc48a7-b8b4-42d3-bd81-2e5ac723d42e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/storage/44726-partitions-raid-print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962709 | 357 | 1.609375 | 2 |
A survey by pollster Ipsos MORI also found members of the public favour the introduction of a water feature, a coffee stall, increased pedestrianisation, a replacement of the red tarmac and the continuation of hosting events as part of the £15million revamp of the city's main civic space.
Those polled were of the general opinion that while "bland", George Square was generally "fine as it is" and previous re-developments amounted to changes for the worse.
However, the same survey found "stakeholders" – essentially businesses involved in tourism, food and drink and transport – believed there was not a strong case for keeping the statues.
Most were in favour of at least some of the statues being moved to areas of the city "with which the individuals commemorated are more directly associated".
There was also a consensus among stakeholders that the square lacks "a draw" or a "wow factor" and fails to reflect Glasgow's status as a modern, vibrant city.
Ipsos MORI said its survey of a number of focus groups, described as an initial and small-scale scoping study, presented Glasgow City Council with the challenge of reconciling the public's views with those of city centre businesses and advises it to continue involving the public throughout the re-development.
A manifesto pledge by Labour in the run-up to the local elections, the George Square revamp was formally launched at the end of the summer, including the surprise plans to remove the dozen or so statues, potentially permanently.
However, the poll has confirmed public opposition to such a move. It states: "Participants tended to regard the statues as integral to the square and symbolic of Glasgow's history and heritage."
It also said there was universal support for the introduction of a water feature, with several insisting this would provide families with young children with a further reason to visit. | <urn:uuid:c0dab18f-6f99-429d-b2d3-44067c080d78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/public-want-city-statues-to-stay-in-square-105743n.19283287 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975874 | 382 | 1.773438 | 2 |
|A small boat full of? (not from this incident)|
My refusal to post the video is because the video takes everything out of context, being but a piece, I assume, of all the activity that led up to the action portrayed.
Assume that the ship had hired the guards to protect the ship, that in the course of that protection some suspicious boats began acting suspiciously like pirates and began to head in toward the protected vessel and that the suspected pirates in said boats were either waving weapons about or actually firing weapons in an attempt to force a boarding of the ship by the suspected pirates. Assume that the senior manager of the vessel, the Captain, was keenly aware of all these goings on and at some point, authorized the use of weapons to deter the apparent attack. Now, take a look at what the video does show - that, despite the gun fire coming from the vessel, the suspected pirate craft continued their approach to the ship, traveling at high speed, even to the point where a suspected pirate boat came alongside the ship in an apparent effort to allow boarding of the ship by some persons riding in the small boat. Further note that the apparent assault on the ship seemed to involve more than one small boat, and that as one boat was being engaged on one side of the ship, another boat was apparently making a run in on the ship on the other side.
So, if you are with me so far, it is not unreasonable to assume that the armed security guards were engaged in providing "self defense" for the ship as directed by the Captain in a situation where only the people on the scene had full knowledge of what they perceived to be a threat to their lives and their safety in an area known for its piracy.
Reckless gun use at sea could put the whole industry at risk of reputational damage, said Stephen Askins, a partner at the London-based law firm Ince and Co., who has negotiated with Somali pirates for the release of hostages. "You can't have a Blackwater out in the Indian Ocean," he said, referring to the 2007 incident in which Blackwater Worldwide security guards allegedly fired on and killed civilians in Baghdad. ***What? No, with all due respect to Mr. Askins, it is not "reckless gun use at sea" unless you ignore all the other circumstances, as set out by the president of the private security company involved:
He said the incident on March 25 last year was the second attempt to hijack the Avocet in three days. After spotting rocket-propelled grenades on the first skiff, the guards feared for their lives. The shootings were justified and the guards acted responsibly, Rothrauff said, firing warnings before aiming at the boat.
As for the safety and well-being of the suspected pirates - well, as I said earlier, the men operating the boat had full control of the situation. They chose to drive in toward the ship, so spare us the bleeding heart comparisons to an incident in Iraq under much different circumstances.
UPDATE: One problem with the rule of law with these pirates is that seems to be mostly a one-way street, tying the hands of counter-piracy forces while letting pirates go free, as set out in The Guardian's Outgunned Somali pirates can hardly believe their luck:Few countries are willing to prosecute and most captives suspected of sea piracy are eventually released:
Of course they are.
Commanders estimate that for every pirate captured and sent for trial, another three or four are released. This year dozens of pirates have been put quietly back to shore, despite good evidence to support prosecution.***So, without fanfare, more and more of the suspected pirates are being freed, the incentive to hunt them is slightly diminished, and the Somali criminals can hardly believe their luck. "When I have told them [the pirates] that we are putting them back to shore they are more or less celebrating," said Commander Anders Friis, captain of the Absalon. "They are very, very happy."
UPDATE2: Another note of concern sounded at the Christian Science Monitor's Does a military solution for Somali piracy work?:
The article concludes, as has been long asserted here, that any "solution" to the Somali pirate problem begins on the beaches of Somalia.
That, clearly, is the reason Somali gangs get into the pirate business. Do a few well-armed security guards onboard commercial ships, or a few naval patrol ships deter those pirates from taking to the high seas? Some point to the dropping number of pirate attacks – from 45 attacks in 2010 to 24 in 2011 – as a sign that naval patrolling and private security may be working.
It's unclear just why pirate attacks have dropped. Private security firms credit their use of guns and razor wire, while the European Naval Force takes credit with their increased patrols. The truth may be more complex, and even proponents of military force admit that the battle is far from won.
Indeed, there is no evidence that pirates are either staying home, or that they are being more selective about which country’s ships to attack and which to avoid, based on that country’s past tactics against pirates. | <urn:uuid:fc4afbc7-c5d3-4a04-8586-c3b89bdfe271> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eaglespeak.us/2012/05/somali-pirates-spawning-silly-concern.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978228 | 1,056 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Tackle child poverty – give everyone fair start
Your first person Column by Rory Palmer and article on child poverty (both January 25) made stark and sad reading.
It cannot be right, in 2013, that over a third of the city's children are growing up in poverty.
At the same time, from April, millionaires will get a tax break putting more than £100,000 in their pockets. I think this is obscene – some would say criminal.
It will only get worse as the Government's cuts and freezing of child and family benefits kicks in.
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Our children are paying a terrible price in the name of "austerity", largely because of the greed of the bankers and financiers which caused the world economic meltdown of 2008.
At that time the Labour Government had to pay tens of billions of pounds to bail out the banks.
Had they not done this, all of our savings would have gone down the tubes and the whole economy would have collapsed.
So we have a deficit which has to be dealt with. Nobody doubts this.
If we are "all in it together", as Mr Cameron tells us, we must work together, share the burden and protect the most vulnerable in our community.
Our pensioners, people on low incomes and especially our children should not be bearing a disproportionate burden.
In his article, Mr Palmer, as deputy mayor, rightly focuses on the City which is his responsibility.
But the problem of rapidly increasing child poverty is a national one.
I live and work in Thurmaston which adjoins the city. Some of our children are suffering, too, although, understandably, many good parents are too proud to admit how bad the situation is.
They face both rising prices and cuts. Some of them are paying £20 a week to bus their children to school and have a school dinner.
Other parents of very young children want to go back to work but just cannot afford the nursery fees.
I'm lucky enough to have a decent job but, as a single parent, £200 a week nursery fees takes a big chunk out of my wages.
Of course, as the deputy mayor points out, child poverty is not just a problem of here and now – it has terrible long-term consequences.
In later life these children will be more likely to suffer ruinous health problems.
A poorly-nourished child cannot flourish at school and this will diminish employment prospects.
What sort of society do we want? One in which fat cats get fatter or one in which everyone has a fair start and good prospects?
I think the latter and we must end the cruelty of child poverty now.
Kate Knaggs, Thurmaston parish councillor. | <urn:uuid:31f46f36-b0f4-43df-9c6d-503a63ccfc5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Tackle-child-poverty-ndash-fair-start/story-18002629-detail/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960636 | 689 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Almost 48 years have passed since a mob of white men beat up two civil rights demonstrators at a Greyhound bus station in Rock Hill, S.C. One white man and one black man, called Freedom Riders, were protesting segregated transportation. They tried to both go into a waiting room that on May 9,1961, was for "whites" only.
When asked Monday night if any of the people who beat him in 1961 in Rock Hill, or attacked the Freedom Ride bus days later in Alabama, ever apologized, U.S. Rep John Lewis, D-Ga. said, "Never. Until now."
One of the Rock Hill mob has apologized.
Lewis said Monday that man is forgiven.
In a telephone interview Monday night from his office in Washington, D.C., Lewis said he read and heard Monday about the apology of Elwin Wilson for past acts of hate, published Saturday in The Herald in Rock Hill.
"I accept that apology, and would love to have the opportunity some day to talk to that man if he wants to," Lewis said. "I have no ill feelings. No malice. This shows the distance we have come. It shows grace on his part. It shows courage."
Last year, Lewis received an apology from the current mayor of Rock Hill. But Wilson is the first to admit a role in the Rock Hill beatings.
Read the complete story at heraldonline.com | <urn:uuid:b73e2b7f-f40a-4be8-aec1-1db867422ae8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/01/27/60801/after-48-years-forgiveness-for.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967988 | 291 | 1.835938 | 2 |
might interest someone around here:
SOURCE: http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/ ... 17673.html
Twitter has announced that it is open sourcing work it has done to improve MySQL in its production systems. The microblogging and social networking platform is a major user of MySQL – using it for timeline, user data, interest graph and tweet storage – and has been adapting MySQL to its needs.
The changes include making MySQL more monitorable by exporting more InnoDB storage engine information and making MySQL more predictable by allocating buffers at startup on machines with large amounts of memory and improving timeouts and cancellations on queries. Other changes optimise MySQL for SSD-based systems by changing behaviour to reduce the number of writes to the disk which should, in turn, improve the lifespan of the SSD drives.Twitter has also developed a technique for exporting and restoring the InnoDB buffer pool which is used as part of its build tools to provide rolling restarts for systems.
Twitter's modifications have been published on GitHub under a New BSD Licence and documented; the change history is also available. The company will be presenting its plans for its other MySQL work, the sharding and replication framework Gizzard, at the Percona MySQL conference later this week. | <urn:uuid:cf3805e7-bd99-465b-bd77-f02922fb6d82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://atomicorp.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=33678 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94939 | 263 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Welcome to Current TV
Gay Bias Killings Highest Since 1999
NEW YORK - The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people killed in bias-motivated incidents increased by 28 percent in 2008 compared to a year ago, according to a national coalition of advocacy groups.
Last year's 29 killings was the highest recorded by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs since 1999, when it documented the same number of slayings, according to a report released Tuesday by the coalition.
"What we're also seeing, more disturbingly, is the increase in the severity of violence," said Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, which coordinates coalition.
Stapel theorized that at least some of last year's violence was backlash against issues that arose during the during the presidential campaign. She cited debates about same-sex marriage, the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and federal legislation that would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as possible flash points.
"The more visibility there is the more likely we're going to see backlash, and that's exactly what we see here," Stapel said.
Overall, the number of victims who reported anti-LGBT violence in 2008 increased by 2 percent compared to 2007, said the New York-based coalition of programs in 25 states.
Figures said to be more accurate
Coalition officials say their figures are more accurate than those from law enforcement agencies. As an example, they say, the FBI doesn't record bias crimes against transgender people because gender identity isn't covered by federal hate-crime law.
Also, victims sometimes are reluctant to report bias incidents to police because they don't want to reveal their sexual orientation or gender identity and/or they fear bias from police, officials said.
Reports of physical abuse by police increased to 25 incidents last year from 10 in 2007, the report said.
For the new report, programs in Milwaukee, Minnesota, Chicago, Los Angeles, Colorado, Columbus, Ohio, Houston, Pennsylvania, New York City, Kansas City, Missouri, Michigan and San Francisco submitted data.
Programs in Vermont and the Boston area participated in the 2007 report but not the current one. The program in Rochester, N.Y., participated in 2008 for the first time.
The largest increase — 64 percent — was in Milwaukee, where the number of reported incidents rose to 18 in 2008 from 11 in 2007, the report said.
Officials weren't sure whether reported increases were attributable to more people reporting incidents or an actual rise.
'It's a vulnerable population'
Meighan Bentz, a victim outreach advocate at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, which includes an anti-violence project, said, "I think it's a combination."
"Certainly there are more people reporting," Bentz said, adding that the project started in 2005. "As time goes on there are more people aware of our program as a resource."
Bentz added, "I do believe there are ongoing issues of violence and its affect upon LGBT individuals. It's a vulnerable population."
Many of 2008's incidents made headlines.
In December, a man was beaten to death in New York City while he walked arm in arm with his brother as their attackers yelled anti-gay and anti-Latino epithets. Two men have been charged with murder as a hate crime.
In February 2008, 15-year-old Lawrence King was shot to death at school in Oxnard, Calif., near Malibu after enduring harassment after he told classmates he was gay; a classmate is charged as an adult in the killing, which prosecutors classified as a hate crime.
Last June, a surveillance tape was publicized showing Memphis, Tenn., police officers beating Duanna Johnson, a transgender woman, and shouting slurs in a jail booking area; a public outcry erupted.
In November, Johnson was found fatally shot on a Memphis street
- recommended by:
more from Community:
from the community | <urn:uuid:ee4b4085-d341-4697-bff5-bb001e73943e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://current.com/community/90214999_gay-bias-killings-highest-since-1999.htm | 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 | 0.971123 | 823 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Five Minutes With« Audio & Video Home
Green Initiatives Save Money, Reduce Energy Use with Kim Farlin
Kim Farlin, maintenance coordinator with the Center for Prevention of Abuse in Peoria, Ill., discusses how lighting retrofits and changes to HVAC and controls systems have improved the bottom line
Center for Prevention of Abuse
What is your role on your organization's Green Committee?
As a member of the Green Committee, I am in charge of overseeing green initiatives that involve building maintenance, such as overseeing the recycling program, the HVAC programming, and water and electrical use.
As the maintenance coordinator, it is my job to: maintain control of the HVAC systems; collect recycling from the seven recycling stations and turn in a report every quarter to the county; determine areas that are wasting energy and make retrofits or changes to conserve energy - which in turn reduces energy costs; and analyze the energy cost and use reports the director of finance sends me.
After the inception of the Green Committee, a volunteer from the local community joined the committee and paid for an energy audit of the old building within the complex. The volunteer also funded the replacement of all of the light switches in the restrooms and copier rooms with motion-sensor light switches in all of the buildings in the complex. That was only the beginning.
What specific projects and retrofits did you undertake with grant money?
The current building complex has one building that is more than 25 years old and two additions that are six years old. With the help of the information from the energy audit on the oldest building, we determined that, as in most buildings, lighting was a big issue.
With the help of a $5,000 grant from the local utility, we retrofitted 50 light fixtures with new T8 ballasts and T8 bulbs. With the help of a $1,500 grant, we replaced all of the door-jamb and door-threshold weather stripping on five exterior metal doors. The retrofits also included hinge- and door-closer adjustments and replacements so the doors closed properly.
We also used this particular grant to upgrade an employee restroom with a low-water-consumption commode and a new faucet with a low-flow aerator.
The center also took advantage of the utility's energy program by making a request for the programmable thermostat program in 2009 and 2010. The center had five non-programmable thermostats replaced for free, including parts and labor. These programmable thermostats are linked with a satellite that adjusts the thermostats for peak electrical demand during the hot summer months, when air conditioning use is highest. The thermostats automatically increase the temperature 1 degree per hour of peak electrical demand throughout the utility's service area until the electrical demand decreases and temperatures go down.
What changes have you made to your building-controls system?
After being hired by the center in March 2009, I immediately started learning the BacNet and BacTalk building-controls system and the software that controlled that system for the six-year-old administration building.
I had to adjust programming to maximize the efficiency of the system, including: thermostat adjustments; zones we needed to shut down during specific times of the year; and troubleshooting zones with constant operating problems.
We put the HVAC filters on a schedule to be changed on a regular basis, and we cleaned the economizer vents to maximize the airflow when the system utilized the outdoor air to help regulate damper temperatures for building comfort. We also scheduled the system to enter unoccupied mode on holidays.
We studied blueprints and discovered zones that had floor heating we needed to turn on, as well as zones without reheat boxes we needed to turn off during winter months. We adjust these same zones accordingly when the weather gets warmer. With the use of the programmable thermostats in the old building, we programmed those HVAC units for occupied and unoccupied times.
What types of savings have these projects generated?
During the beginning of the Green Committee initiatives, comparing January-July 2008 to January-July 2009: electrical savings were 13 percent; water and sewer savings were 25 percent; and waste-management savings were 14 percent. These reductions resulted in a savings of about $10,000. We also incurred an 8 percent increase in the cost of natural gas due to colder temperatures from one year to the next.
In comparing 2009 to 2010, the percentages have continued to show a reduction in use and costs. The percentages for that time frame were: natural gas use down 2 percent; electrical use down 10.5 percent; water use down 13 percent; and waste management down 8 percent.
The Director of Finance continues to monitor energy costs and seeks to lock in lower fixed rates at the most advantageous times of the year, given market swings. This type of rate fixing allows for a more predictable budget. | <urn:uuid:f12360df-e07b-4e6a-9c80-15e7409a9b95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.facilitiesnet.com/lighting/audiovideo/Green-Initiatives-Save-Money-Reduce-Energy-Use-with-Kim-Farlin--22241 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940596 | 1,002 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Having trouble managing color in your workflow? This article presents an overview of color management and introduces the solutions and techniques you can use to optimize your output.
Having said that, it is also true that these lighting conditions would make no sense at all for many screen printers. A small change in light temperature can make a huge change in how we perceive certain colors. That’s why it’s important to view the colors under the conditions that the end-user will view them. So if you’re delivering P-O-P signage to Wal-Mart, you’ll want to view color under Wal-Mart’s lighting conditions.
Aid from the trenches
Ink manufacturers have chased the tail of changing color gamut all their lives, and they are a great source of information and tools for keeping things in control and for keeping you as close to perfect color as science will allow. They know very well all the variables you deal with and have a good handle on how different substrates respond to different ink pigments.
Screen-printing ink companies provide great resources for managing color in the context of screen printing. Many have even created their own swatch books, similar to the ones from Pantone, but using their own inks. Virtually every ink company has its own custom color-matching system.
Trade associations also offer training for those who are interested in the fine points of color management. For example, SGIA offers seminars, and PIA/GATF holds an annual color-management conference. Note that members of these organizations who wish to attend seminars and other events may be eligible for reduced rates.
Printing in four-color process offers its own unique challenges, more so for the screen printers who work with both spot and process colors on the same piece. You might also have occasion to convert spot colors into process colors for printing. If so, you may have been profoundly disappointed that the conversions came out looking muddy or flat. It’s not a probem with your output device, but an issue of color gamut. You simply cannot reproduce a significant number of Pantone solid colors with process-color inks.
Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to the magazine. | <urn:uuid:056ee6b7-e5b5-4d01-9172-8c64b8ed05e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://screenweb.com/content/tools-and-tips-color-management?page=0%2C4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947244 | 457 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Your next client: the government
Just like anybody else, the government needs to buy things. The question is, from whom?
To navigate the process of procuring a government contract, the Connecticut Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP) offers one-on-one business counseling and several other services to help companies find new opportunities for doing business with the government.
In order to level the playing field between large corporations and contractors and small to mid size businesses, most federal and state government entities have specific quotas outlining a percentage of government contract work that must be awarded to small businesses and minority- or women-owned businesses.
The Business Journal recently spoke with Brien Robertson, Connecticut PTAP program director, about the opportunities for businesses in contracting with state government.
The following are excerpts from the conversation:
Business Journal: What should companies know about doing business with the government?
Robertson: “A business should know that contracting with the government can be a lucrative avenue to pursue but that it takes special attention, lots of work and diligence. In today’s world, public bidding is heavily reliant on electronic formats so their computer skills need to be accomplished. Companies should realize that ethical standards are high, good record keeping is essential and things are forever changing.”
How can CT PTAP help?
“Congress established the Procurement Technical Assistance Program in 1985 because they realized that businesses had to have a resource for understanding government procurement policies.
“(PTAP) can assist a company in providing guidance and knowledge of the methods and procedures used in government contracting. For example, we generally try to find out about possible existing contracts and pricing histories before a company submits a bid for an ongoing product or service. We provide guidance in explaining registrations, marketing skills and procedures, FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) clauses, et cetera.”
How can a company find current bids and develop a proposal?
“The state’s online bid portal is the best source for finding state and municipal bids. The bid portal also includes bids issued by nonprofit organizations, parochial schools, et cetera. The bid portal contains a link in which vendors can register to get daily emails alerts when new bids (and) RFPs (requests for proposals) are issued.
“Every state in the nation now has a bid portal and companies frequently register with many states. Federal bids that have a budget estimate over $25,000 are posted on the federal website fedbizopps.gov. Generally, the old traditional (method) of keeping a bid list is a dated concept, but vendors should also visit an agency’s website for smaller quotations.”
If a business already contracts with the government, what other opportunities exist?
“There are always new opportunities. Because public contracting is very transparent, a company should focus on looking for unexplored markets. There are resources that allow companies to look at federal forecast and budget projections. Companies should be always looking around the corner. For example, once the state’s Bond Commission approves funding, in all likelihood, upcoming corresponding bids will be issued. Additionally, (Connecticut PTAP) frequently presents seminars about marketing to the government, in which new markets are explored.”
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of the Business Journal for the week of Jan. 21, 2013. | <urn:uuid:3f7ae3c6-8791-4757-96fb-89b4c113a6c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://westfaironline.com/51847/your-next-client-the-government/ | 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 | 0.94127 | 694 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Catskill Craftsmen has become the nation’s leading manufacturer of ready-to-assemble domestic hardwood kitchen islands, carts, and work-centers. Catskill Craftsmen manufactured items are made from naturally self-sustaining, non-endangered North American hardwoods, primarily Northern Yellow Birch. Lumber is purchased from area sawmills, then dried, manufactured, and packaged on site. All sawdust, shavings and waste materials generated during the manufacturing process is converted into wood pellet fuel, and used to heat homes. Beautiful and functional, this kitchen island features fluted legs and raised panel doors and drawer face. Additional features include two towel bars, locking caster wheels, side shelves, functional drawer, open and enclosed storage, and food safe butcher block top. Domestic, solid hardwood is used for the top, legs, drawer, doors and braces. Warp-resistant veneer side and back panels allow for precisely machined parts to assemble with greater ease.
Setting up a modular kitchen will not only provide a trendy makeover of the cooking space, but also makes it easier and more efficient. The modern design of kitchen furniture includes different parts of cabinets, each designed for a unique purpose.
Here are a few tips and guidelines in choosing the most suitable modular kitchen design.
Planning: Consider the space and layout of your kitchen. Modular Kitchens are available in various standard sizes and patterns and it is important that you have a model that the space of the kitchen and the needs of the family adjusts to choose. In case you are not able to make up your mind, it will be a good idea for a reputed interior designer for the best advice on.
Budget: It is important that you plan a budget before shopping for modular kitchen furniture as it is available in a wide range of prices. There are many models that bring together functionality and beauty.
Material: Kitchen design is available in different materials such as wood, glass, steel and stone. Choose a material that is strong, durable and easy to clean. The material should be strong enough to bear the weight of the cabinets and the colors should the decor and colors of the kitchen fit. Weigh the pros and cons of the different materials and choose the best.
Position: The modular kitchen should be installed in such a way that it does not block the light, so that the kitchen dark. If necessary, small lights to be mounted under the cabinet lighting.
Size: Select a model that is easy to use and reach. The height of the cabinets should be chosen as per the requirement and reach. The decoration and design of the cabinet should not hinder our movement in the kitchen or the comfort. More than flashy design, functional models are preferred. The cabinets must meet the daily needs of the residents of the house. Make sure that there are separate shelves and storage units for knives, spoons, plates, sockets, utensils and even devices.
Known Brand: Choose a brand name that he easily employed herein. Check the warranty card and the account to ensure that you get what you are promised.
You can hire a contractor to install kitchen cabinets Modular or do it yourself to try. Plan the layout carefully and take accurate measurements. There are detailed instructions and installation guides with step by step instructions. The cabinets must be evenly and securely fixed.
Install the upper cabinets first as it will ensure sufficient space to work on. Once you are done with the upper ones, fix the base and as the upper part it can also be set in place when the studs are easily spotted. Correct assembly and secure screws is of great importance. After the casting are installed, the sheet can be added. Cut into the correct dimensions, creating a space for the sink and can be screwed from below and sealed with caulk. | <urn:uuid:55d9f61c-b6ab-4017-8dc5-f888b8b02e38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://behomedesigns.com/kitchen-furniture/tips-to-choose-modular-kitchen-furniture-design-ideas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941759 | 777 | 1.53125 | 2 |
(CNN) -- Two packages found abroad that were bound for Jewish organizations in the United States contained a massive amount of explosive material that would have triggered a powerful blast, a source close to the investigation has told CNN.
U.S. officials believe that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, commonly referred to as AQAP, is behind the plot.
President Barack Obama confirmed that the packages -- intercepted in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates -- originated in Yemen, the stronghold of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
"We also know that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ... continues to plan attacks against our homeland, our citizens, and our friends and allies," he said during a press briefing on the incident.
In a statement Saturday, Dubai police said explosives in a package set to be shipped on a FedEx cargo plane had been "professionally" loaded in a package and connected via an electric circuit to a mobile phone chip hidden inside a printer.
"The plot style carries features similar to previous attacks carried out by terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda," the statement said according to WAM official news agency.
Another suspicious package, found at the UK's East Midlands Airport, contained a "manipulated" toner cartridge and had white powder on it as well as wires and a circuit board, a law enforcement source said.
The source close to the investigation said the type of material found in the devices was PETN, a highly explosive organic compound belonging to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin. Just six grams of PETN is enough to blow a hole in the fuselage of an aircraft.
PETN was allegedly one of the components of the bomb concealed by Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the Nigerian man accused of trying to set off an explosion aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it approached Detroit, Michigan, on December 25. AbdulMutallab is alleged to have been carrying 80 grams of PETN in that botched attack -- also believed to be the workings of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
By comparison, the source said the two devices found Friday contained multiple times more PETN. The source also said it appears the devices were designed to be detonated by a cell phone with the help of a smaller amount of a second unidentified explosive substance.
The cell-phone theory was seconded by a wireless engineer for a major U.S.-based manufacturer, who analyzed a photo of one of the devices at CNN's request.
"This size and the shape of the PCB (printed circuit board) are typical to a handset cell phone type device," wrote Olivier Clerc, hardware application engineering manager for a cell-phone-parts manufacturer.
Both packages were bound for the United States, "specifically two places of Jewish worship in Chicago," Obama said.
The packages led to increased searches of cargo planes and trucks in several U.S. cities, said law enforcement sources with detailed knowledge of the investigation.
White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said that "the materials that were found and the device that was discovered were intended to do harm."
Brennan said the discovery of the packages was made with help from Saudi Arabia, and issued a statement thanking the country for its "assistance in developing information that helped underscore the imminence of the threat emanating from Yemen."
A source with firsthand knowledge of the information told CNN that the Saudi Arabian government gave the United States tracking numbers of the two packages, allowing for quick tracing to the United Kingdom and Dubai.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-California, called the potential plot "a new novel thing -- and that is using FedEx and UPS planes to perhaps bring in something that might be explosive."
The Transportation Security Administration issued Friday afternoon a halt in the United States on all packages originating from Yemen, and shipping companies UPS, FedEx and DHL all said they were complying with the order.
Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told CNN she is very concerned about holes in the system to screen cargo coming into the United States, said that had a credible intelligence source not warned about the suspicious packages, they may not have been detected with standard security procedures.
Collins, who was briefed by TSA chief John Pistole, said intelligence officials do not know yet if this was part of a larger plot, but she does believe al Qaeda is "continuing to test for vulnerabilities in our security system, and it appears we do have vulnerabilities in our system for transporting cargo."
After the packages were found Thursday night and Friday morning, authorities were tracking other packages shipped from Yemen in the same time frame, a law enforcement source said.
A Yemeni diplomat in Washington said that his government has opened a full-scale investigation into the incident but that it was too early to speculate or reach any conclusions.
Counterterrorism officials are taking the threat "very seriously," Obama said.
The Department of Homeland Security said it "had taken a number of steps to enhance security," including "heightened cargo screening and additional security at airports."
Some Jewish religious leaders in Chicago were alerted to the potential threat Friday, said Linda Haase, spokeswoman for the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
"We were notified about this earlier this morning," she said. "We are taking appropriate precautions, and we are advising local synagogues to do the same."
Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, California, said that if synagogues were indeed the intended recipients of the packages, "this is just another indication of the dangerous world we live in where Jews are the principle target."
Meanwhile, U.S. authorities seemed most focused on inspecting cargo planes.
Investigators examined two UPS planes that landed at Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania and another at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, said Mike Mangeot, a UPS spokesman. Authorities later gave the "all-clear" at both airports, the Transportation Security Administration said.
The TSA said authorities acted "out of an abundance of caution."
CNN's Paul Cruickshank, Eden Pontz, Mark Norman, Ross Levitt, Jeanne Meserve, Susan Candiotti, Caroline Paterson, Per Nyberg, Alan Duke, Steve Kastenbaum, Fran Townsend, Mike Ahlers, Carol Cratty, Chris Lawrence, Elise Labott, Pam Benson and Allan Chernoff contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:4c079336-11bc-40fc-a18b-2917bae62bb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/10/29/security.concern/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965841 | 1,298 | 1.757813 | 2 |
technically about the sole thing they ever said that actually survives is "Nefermaat is he
who makes his gods in words that can not be erased.". Obviously from this it's safe to deduce
they were superstitious and so primitive that the only possible means to lift a stone is to use
a ramp. Nevermind that it's a five step pyramid and denies the possibility of ramps and virtually
proves stones were dragged up the side because "Nefermaat is hewho makes his gods in words
that can not be erased.".
I believe that it makes more sense to work with the words they actually chiseled into pyramids and
those words say that they used a henu boat to lift the stones. The words in the cemeteries support
this and also virtually proves they did not use ramps.
So we all bask in the certainty that they mustta used ramps right up until they open this cave and
actually start doing their jobs.
You can try to reinterpret it all you want, but the fact is that your henu boat still resides in a cradle ON A SLED. This is not something that would go up the side of a pyramid. That much should be obvious. | <urn:uuid:dc9a6cc9-0007-4317-83dd-2fb017b9c3a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?s=3a136ff72d996201653e4da9f44714b2&showtopic=239390&st=225&p=4601364 | 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 | 0.973986 | 254 | 1.71875 | 2 |
SERENA WILLIAMS: SUPPORTING HER SISTER'S DIET
NEW YORK (AP) -- Serena Williams says she has her sister's back -- when it comes to her diet. She says she has worked more raw foods into her diet to support her sister Venus. Venus has an autoimmune disease (Sjogren's syndrome) that can cause fatigue and joint pain. One thing that can ease the problem is cutting down on chicken and fish. Serena says the change in diet hasn't been a hardship on her. She says even though she is "a lot, lot thicker" than her sister, she has always been a better eater than Venus. For now, though, Serena says she looks forward to getting back to tennis -- and feels "100 percent" for the first time in a while. | <urn:uuid:b45ad10c-b880-4f4c-a5fe-0534d18dbbc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whas11.com/entertainment/slideshows/149817885.html?gallery=y&c=y&img=26&c=y&c=y&c=y&c=y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979644 | 166 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Bedbugs are being found in library books across the Lower Mainland, leading librarians to trash books and close branches in a bid to stop the bugs from spreading.
The discovery earlier this week of live bugs in a book borrowed from the Mount Pleasant branch of the Vancouver Public Library was the latest in a string of similar incidents. The discovery came shortly after the closure of libraries in New Westminster and Burnaby for their infestations.
“It’s gross. It’s awful,” said Mount Pleasant library patron Kari Madsen, who was borrowing books Thursday, two days after bugs had been discovered.
“I probably will now inspect them before I get home,” said the mother of two, who was holding a number of books when leaving the branch.
“It kind of makes me a bit uncomfortable.”
Vancouver Public Library is now planning to contract a company to inspect all of its facilities to determine the scope of the problem and whether further action is required.
According to Jean Kavanagh, a communications manager with the Vancouver Public Library, the occasional dead bug is nothing new to librarians, but the discovery of live ones has been surprising.
“The situation at Mount Pleasant was the first time we heard of a number of live bedbugs,” said Ms. Kavanagh, who represents city libraries – not those in New Westminster and Burnaby. She noted that the book in which the bugs were found had been borrowed from the branch roughly two weeks earlier.
Ms. Kavanagh said staff did a careful search of the section that housed the offending book but could find no trace of other bugs.
“This is one incident of about six bugs,” she said, adding that there had been no talk of closing the branch as a precautionary measure.
Patron Rebeca Reyes visited the Mount Pleasant branch Thursday afternoon and was surprised to hear of the discovery. She said she’ll “probably go to another library.”
According to Denise Louzecky at BC Bug, a Vancouver-owned pest control company, books are not ideal places for bugs to live and survive, but they will occasionally nest in them.
“People fall asleep with a book in their bed or on their bedside table,” Ms. Louzecky explained. She said bugs may choose to nest there because it’s close to where they feed.
Ms. Louzecky said people may want to check books before they bring them home.
“[Bedbugs]resemble an apple seed in size and shape,” she said, adding that they often leave traces of fecal matter or shed skins where they nest.
Some library patrons were not overly worried about the discovery.
“It’s concerning, but its nothing novel,” said Angela Skipper, who noted it’s not uncommon to find bedbugs in Vancouver.
Librarians across jurisdictions are now advising patrons to bag and seal any book that is suspected of being infested, and to notify the branch from where it came.
If it’s too late and the bugs have spread, you could always check your local library for books on controlling the pests.
Try The Bed Bug Survival Guide by Jeff Eisenberg. It’s in stock at the Mount Pleasant Branch, and yes, it’s bug-free. | <urn:uuid:78d7718a-fbff-4ce8-be7d-44134a3f6c7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/live-bedbugs-found-in-vancouver-library-books/article559393/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964063 | 709 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The U.S. Department of Education is inviting school districts to compete for $400 million in grants, taking its Race to the Top education initiative to the classroom level. The competitive program is open to school districts with at least 2,500 students at which at least 40% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunches. The awards will range from $15 million to $25 million for each winning district.
05/05/2013 - The library cooperative OCLC recently ran a conference at the University of... Get It
04/25/2013 - GETideas.org is the incubator where education leaders can develop their professional learning... Get It | <urn:uuid:d4b1fb23-c52d-41d2-ad62-9d38fd931e93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://getideas.org/news/u-s-education-department-sets-criteria-for-new-school-grants/?v=1341026454 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963169 | 134 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Since about 2002, the Department of Justice has had a special “Technical Committee” overseeing the development of Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The committee’s main job was to monitor the implementation of the Microsoft-owned middleware products that get (or used to get) installed by default on new computers like Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Messenger, and Windows Media Player.
The monitoring process was supposed to end last November but, according to Microsoft Watch, “Google (and some other Microsoft competitors) requested an extension, and U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly gave it to them: two more years of government oversight.”
Which means that the Department of Justice has been closely monitoring the development of Windows 7, which is thought to ship by the end of next year (or early 2010 at the latest). With Windows Vista, however, Microsoft has already changed the way it handles middleware. Joe Wilcox of Microsoft Watch says…
“Today, with the exception of Internet Explorer, Microsoft is pushing the same so-called middleware down from Windows Live to the operating system. The ties are ever so strong, but the products and services aren’t part of Windows by default. But I don’t doubt that Microsoft executives would like them to be.
The TC reviewed Windows Vista, but its middleware assessment didn’t satisfy Google, which complained about search defaults. Google’s complaints led Microsoft to proactively change Vista search, action that partly precipitated the two-year extension of government oversight.”
Another big area of contention, according to Wilcox, will be Internet Explorer 8. The DoJ is already examining the browser’s beta version and "Microsoft is making a godawful amount of Internet Explorer changes and taking risks with application and Web site compatibility,” which could raise some red flags for companies that make competing web browsers. I’d think that future versions of Internet Explorer would be more tied into installed programs, especially as more and more software and services move into the cloud. Seems like such features would have to be compatible with other browsers as well if Microsoft’s competitors get their way. | <urn:uuid:eaf9e668-becf-4ae5-af2d-b5d6304cf49f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techcrunch.com/2008/06/20/windows-7-development-overseen-by-dept-of-justice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948945 | 453 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Exton, John (DNB00)
|←Exshaw, Charles||Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 18
EXTON, JOHN (1600?-1665?), admiralty lawyer, born about 1600, was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. 1619-30, M.A. 1623, LL.D. 1634. In 1649 he was appointed by the parliament judge of the court of admiralty, and in this office he was confirmed and reappointed by the Duke of York after the Restoration. Exton died about 1665. He was married, and had a family. A son Thomas is noticed below. John Exton, perhaps an older son, entered Merchant Taylors' School on 11 Sept. 1628. Exton wrote 'The Maritime Dicæologie, or Sea Jurisdiction of England, set forth in three several books,' 1664; 2nd ed. 1755. This book, which is of some value, was written chiefly to maintain the jurisdiction of his court.
[Notes and Queries, October 1859, p. 310, November 1859. p. 389; Introduction to Black Book of Admiraty in Rolls Series; Cal. State Papers under 'Commonwealth' and 'Charles II;' Register of Merchant Taylors Sschool, i. 124.] | <urn:uuid:2855b4dd-f6e5-4ebe-99d4-1fd114960020> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Exton,_John_(DNB00) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970299 | 290 | 1.789063 | 2 |
If you think you might be pregnant, be sure to confirm this with an at-home pregnancy test. We sell them at the SHRC for $4, or you can get a test done by a doctor.
Note: Within 72 hours of unprotected sex, the emergency contraceptive pill (ECP) is an option if you wish to prevent yourself from becoming pregnant.
If you have confirmed that you are pregnant, you have three options.
You can take the pregnancy to term and raise the child. You will eventually have to tell your parents, partner and friends about this. Although this option can be very rewarding, it is likely you will need financial support. Also, it is important to consider where you would raise your child, the relationship you have with your partner and if you want to remain at school/work. There are many community services that can aid you if you decide to keep the baby, and can be found at the SHRC.
You can take the pregnancy to term and put the child up for adoption or have relatives raise him/her. This option has its rewards both for you and perhaps for the couple as well. Adoption may also be emotionally difficult; however, adoption agencies provide services to get you through this trying time. There are also options within adoption such as an open vs. closed adoption. This is a choice to consider if you feel you are unable to raise him/her yourself.
You can have an abortion and terminate the pregnancy. If you decide that this option is right for you, you can have the procedure done within 12 weeks of conception in Kingston. The Kingston Women’s Clinic offers many support and counselling services since this option can be as emotionally trying as the previous two. This procedure may require you to take some time off of school or work and a support person should accompany you to the clinic. The SHRC offers a confidential support service if you opt for an abortion, and we will accompany you to the clinic and back. | <urn:uuid:a08927f9-2e3d-42cf-8ace-9fb7a35864af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shrckingston.org/?page_id=28 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974183 | 400 | 1.78125 | 2 |
VOL. 127 | NO. 184 | Thursday, September 20, 2012
Rays of Wisdom
Dana and Ray Brandon
Don’t Buy Into TV Financial Programs
By Ray and Dana Brandon
Ray’s Take Programs offering insider investment tips and advice on financial strategy abound on television. You might occasionally learn a valuable nugget to apply to your own unique financial needs, but a study by Case Western Reserve University showed that investors who followed televised recommendations actually lost money over the six months following.
There are several reasons why television is not a wise source for investment advice. First of all, the primary goal for these programs is to attract the biggest possible audience in order to sell advertising. Those so-called financial experts are there for entertainment value at least as much as investment smarts. They will never be accountable to you for your results.
Secondly, the sheer volume of tips and advice televised financial shows have to offer up day after day leads to a lot of conflicting information. What is right and what is wrong? Neither the on-camera talking heads nor the unseen producers really care, they just want to keep their programs lively to build audiences. If they get lucky and get it right, it’s an opportunity to tout their success. If they get it wrong – there’s always the next program ahead.
Finally – and most importantly – a lot of the information shared revolves around predictions on how certain stocks or industries will perform in the short term – even in the next week. Making investments based on hot topics and predictions like these can wind up costing the average investor dearly. You could easily fall into the trap of buying at the highest price and, later, selling at a loss based on a “tip.” Worse yet, you are wasting valuable time and energy on distractions rather than focusing on a long-term sustainable financial plan.
If you just want to be entertained, stay tuned in. However, if you want thoughtful advice about your investments, turn off the noise, or go to an independent professional financial adviser who will focus on your best financial interest instead of higher ratings.
Dana’s Take Why limit turning off the television to programs about money and investing? The more your television is turned off, the more you can actively engage your body and mind instead of sitting there being passively entertained.
Books, games, conversations and walks are all excellent alternatives to vegging out in front of the flat screen. You might be surprised to find that less television can actually improve your mood and sense of wellbeing.
Consider television news: By incorporating dramatic music and powerful graphics, news broadcasts are designed to increase your anxiety level. To keep you tuned in and ratings high, television newscasters use their larger-than-life personalities to present news in the most sensational light possible.
Turning to newspapers and the Internet for your news instead of TV can significantly dial down the drama yet keep you just as informed. Just making this one change could have a positive impact on your outlook, and that’s certainly not a bad thing.
Ray Brandon is a certified financial planner and CEO of Brandon Financial Planning (www.brandonplanning.com). His wife, Dana, has a bachelor’s degree in finance and is a licensed clinical social worker. Contact Ray Brandon at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:c8a0f3b3-78ca-4c7d-9743-cdf7be568d63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2012/sep/20/dont-buy-into-tv-financial-programs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952772 | 685 | 1.554688 | 2 |
SEOUL: North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un has reportedly given copies of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" to his top officials, urging them to study it as a leadership skills ...
(15 mins ago) North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un has reportedly given copies of Adolf Hitler's ';Mein Kampf'' to his top officials, urging them to study it as a leadership skills manual. Kim handed out translations of the manifesto to select officials at the time of his birthday in January, reported New Focus International, an online news portal run by North Korean defectors, ...
/enpproperty--> The Democratic People's Republic of Korea seems to have taken a U-turn from its belligerent rhetoric after the United Nations imposed sanctions on it for conducting its third nuclear test and launching a satellite. Although earlier it had lashed out at the joint military drills between the United States and the Republic of Korea, on Sunday the DPRK proposed talks ...
picked up by Reuters on Tuesday. The commentary goes on to say: "Each individual is entitled to live and develop with dignity as a social being. But in American society, where the jungle law prevails, only the strong men's rights over the weak men are ...
CHICAGO -- Last December, rumors about a North Korean unicorn lair circulated on the internet. Word got out that an ancient Korean king once rode this mythical beast. But soon it was discovered that this "unicorn" was not an actual unicorn, but rather an English mistranslation of the word "unicorn." According to ...
In Jeff Nicholss Take Shelter, Michael Shannon gives the performance of the year as Curtis, a blue-collar Midwestern family man whose increasingly intense nightmares about an approaching storm begin to haunt his waking hours and compel him to construct and stock an elaborate stor ... ...
NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un is handing out copies of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf in an effort to sow fear among top officials. Kim reportedly handed out copies of Mein Kampf to mark his birthday, but North Korea-watchers believe the move is part of an effort to make him seem powerful, rather than drawing on Nazi beliefs."One source says there have been many overt attempts to imbue Kim ...
Kim Jong-il loved his yacht so much he was apparently buried with it. Now Kim Jong-un has shown he shares his father's penchant for a luxury cruiser, reportedly displaying a gleaming £4.5 million vessel in spite of international ...
The size of the appliances in a typical North Korean home says a lot about social standing. As such, the government uses refrigerators to reward loyal citizens, including its 2008 ...
VIENNA (Reuters) - The outside world may never find out what type of fissile material North Korea used in its nuclear test four months ago, leaving a key question about the explosion unanswered, officials and experts said on ...
Washington Post reports.The gift was part of a larger effort by Kim to encourage military leaders to study Germany's post-WWI reconstruction, and follow rumors that Kim carefully studied Hitler while attending school in Switzerland."Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in World War I, Kim Jong Un issued an order for the Third Reich to ...
Our nuclear programmes are completely transparent. But we are ready to show greater transparency and make clear for the whole world that the steps of the Islamic Republic of Iran are completely within international frameworks. The sanctions are unfair, the Iranian people are suffering, and our (nuclear) activities are legal. These sanctions are illegal and only benefit Israel.
Iran's president-elect was speaking after his historic election victory.
Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hawaii Hotel
This 5 star resort hotel is about 10 minutes drive from Waikiki, around from Diamond Head. The hotel was the ...Keep reading
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North Korea TimesNorth Korea Times | Oldest News Site in North Korea
Newspapers the world over strive to provide readers with the ultimate news coverage.
The North Korea Times is no exception.
As an online news service we have advantages over traditional newspapers in that stories can be added and updated 24 hours day.
Our objective is to provide the most comprehensive North Korean news available, from our resources, contracted wire services and an inventory of some thousands of sources comprising newspapers, cable and TV networks, radio stations, public broadcasters, NGOs and others, North Korean news is a priority.
National news comes first. We do however strive to provide a complete news services for our readers. World news headlines top several of our pages, we also provide news on what's happening in business, and in the financial markets.
Whether it's the latest Nikkei 225 reading in Tokyo, the sterling exchange rate in London, or the status of the Nasdaq in New York, whether it's local North Korea news, the weather forecast for North Korea you'll find it all in the North Korea Times.
From Najin to Pyongyang, the North Korea Times should be your number one choice for breaking news - local, regional, and national.
WASHINGTON - The United States has said it wants "credible negotiations" with North Korea as Pyongyang in its latest offer has expressed desire to start "senior-level" talks with America on regional peace and easing tensions.
President Barack Obama and his South Korean counterpart, Park Geun-hye, are said to have discussed the issue by telephone Sunday evening.
They agreed to close "coordination" on North Korea, both governments said.
"Our desire is to have credible negotiations with the North Koreans, but those talks must involve North Korea living up to its obligations to the world, including compliance with UN Security Council resolutions, and ultimately result in denuclearisation," US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
The latest offer from North Korea came Sunday, days after planned talks between Pyongyang and Seoul were cancelled after disagreement over delegates.
But the reclusive nation demanded talks "without preconditions" even as US officials have always suspected that North Korea has been using provocations
as a ploy to win concessions before offering dialogue and then resort again to raising tensions.
The US wants North Korea to take concrete steps to demonstrate a willingness to abandon its controversial nuclear weapons programmes before diplomatic discussions. ...
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- N. Korean leader stresses Hitlers skills report
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- There are no unicorns in North Korea | <urn:uuid:26d5a3f0-bb67-4302-b21c-305f77c6b0c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northkoreatimes.com/index.php/ed68ecccb9e5520c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935238 | 1,663 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Some students at the University of Minnesota say they are being charged for the university health care plan, even though they have private insurance and notified the U of their coverage when they registered for class last spring.
The problem appears to be related to a change in the university's health insurance verification process. The new system uses electronic verification when students register for classes to confirm that students are covered by a private insurance provider. The glitch is that the system recognizes only five major providers: Blue Cross and Blue Shield, HealthPartners, Medica, MinnesotaCare, and Preferred One.
Those students who do not have private insurance under one of these companies can't be verified
One of these students was senior Megan Gosh. A few weeks into the fall semester, she found an old email from the Office of Student Health Benefits that said she had to "act now" or she was going to be charged for the university health care plan, even though at registration she had provided her private health insurance information from another provider. She told the Watchdog that she had two days to waive the University of Minnesota insurance and provide proof of other coverage before the original Sept. 17 deadline.
Other students said they discovered they were enrolled in the U's insurance when they received an insurance card in the mail. They
Because the process is new, the university has extended the deadline to deny the university insurance until Wednesday, Oct. 31. If students have received an insurance card in the mail, or have an insurance charge on their tuition statement, they should go to Boynton Health Service before the deadline to keep using their private insurance.
Students are much less likely to go uninsured under the new system, according to Ferdinand Schlapper, the director and chief health officer of the Boynton Health Service. The U requires students to have health insurance to prevent illness and injury from disrupting or derailing their academic progress.
Under the old self-report system, 9 percent of students were left uninsured, according to Susann Jackson, the director of student benefits.
But some students, like Gosh, say the change caught them by surprise.
Jackson says the change was telegraphed to students in multiple ways. "We had quite the communication plan," she said, "We did a mailing home, an email and changed the registration screen."
The university sent an email in November 2011 along with a correspondence to parents to give students a warning of the upcoming change, Jackson said. An email and a mailing were sent home March 1 with updates about the insurance enrollment process a few weeks before registration began, she said.
But many students who spoke with the Watchdog didn't get the message.
"I didn't even realize there had been any warnings," Gosh said about the change in the insurance process, "I feel like it should have been brought up as we were registering."
But Schlapper said that the process change is for the students' benefit. Under the new system, students have to go through the health insurance process every two years, instead of every semester. So although students are required to do more paperwork under the new system, they have to do it only a couple of times in their academic careers. This poses other problems for students who switch insurance or lose coverage but, Schlapper said, the university will be doing periodic audits "to keep an eye on things."
Gosh still is not sure where she stands and says she got a U insurance card in the mail even after filling out all the paperwork to waive coverage. She's tried calling the health service but has had trouble getting through, and has been too busy to stop by the office during business hours.
The Watchdog urges University of Minnesota students who haven't checked on their insurance status to do so before the Oct. 31 deadline. Students who still see insurance charges on their tuition bills and those who have received insurance cards in the mail should:
-- Go to Boynton Health Service and fill out a waiver that denies the University of Minnesota insurance. (The service will accept waivers without approval of coverage, until the student can get one from an insurance provider.)
-- Talk to their insurance companies and have an approval of coverage sent to Office of Student Health Benefits.
-- If you have done both steps above and are still unsure where you stand, go to Boynton and talk with a staff member about what your status is.
Andrea Tritschler can be reached at 651-228-5580.
Editor's note: Feel like an underdog because of a problem with a business, government agency or school? To ask the Watchdog for help, go to TwinCities.com/watchdog, call 651-228-5419 or email firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow her at twitter.com/ pioneerwatchdog. | <urn:uuid:de59bd33-65a3-482e-9d34-8e0696d082ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_21884280/watchdog-u-students-say-new-health-insurance-process?source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977122 | 972 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Docu fest zooms in on school life
By Rachel Lee
In today’s society, school violence and bullying have become major problems.
EBS, the Educational Broadcasting System, is airing a number of socially conscious documentaries from around the world for its nineth festival.
“Education has become a very important concern around the globe,” said Kwak Duk-hoon, CEO of EBS, during a press conference held in Seoul on Tuesday. “And many countries have become interested in integrating education and documentary films.”
Launched in 2004, the EBS International Documentary Festival (EIDF) started with 115 works and gradually grew to become one of Asia’s favorite docu-fests.
Under the theme “Play the World,” the EIDF is to showcase 48 works from 31 countries. The films are to be shown on TV and in movie theaters.
According to the TV network on Tuesday, the total number of films submitted jumped to 710 this year, compared with 664 last year and 536 in 2010.
This year, the festival will open with U.S. director Lee Hirsch’s controversial film “Bully.” The 98-minute film features disquieting day-to-day lives of five kids and their families while examining the problem of school violence. The director is also to attend a conference at Seoul Museum of History on Aug. 20 to talk about the social issue.
Edu Choice, one of the two competitive sections this year, will have five works from around the world vying for the Grand Prix (with around 11 million won in prize money). The films include German director Edda Baumann-von Broen’s “Tall Girls — A Story of Giants,” which portrays the life of five girls standing above 1.85 meters; Polish director Pawel Wysoczanski’s “We Will Be Happy One Day,” about a young man from the poorest town in southern Poland; American filmmaker Judy Lieff’s “Deaf Jam,” which follows an Israeli-born deaf girl dreaming of seeing the world.
For the official competitive section Festival Choice, 10 works will compete for various prizes, including the Grand Prix (around 11 million won). The selected movies include Danish filmmaker Mads Brugger’s “The Ambassador,” and Swedish director Fredrik Gertten’s “Big Boys Gone Bananas!”
The festival opens on Aug. 14 and runs through 24 at EBS SPACE, Seoul Museum of History, Art House MOMO, Indie Space and Yongsan Art Center in Seoul. The films will be also screened on EBS channel. For more information, visit www.eidf.org. | <urn:uuid:45a6a932-a700-4b93-8f6f-e8de171159b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2012/08/141_116355.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938313 | 583 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Curious Case of the FIFA World Rankings, Where England Outclass Brazil
England have hit an all-time high of third in the FIFA world rankings for August. Only Spain and Germany are above them, while Brazil—favorites to win their 2014 home World Cup—are down in 13th place.
"What?" you say. "The England team who couldn't string two passes together at Euro 2012 and barely had the ball in their quarterfinal loss to Italy...higher in the rankings than Copa America winners Uruguay? Higher than the Brazil of Neymar, Oscar, Leandro Damiao and Co.?"
"How. Does. This. Happen?"
Well, here's the math. FIFA works out the number of points (P) awarded for each match by using the following calculation:
P = M x I x T x C
M stands for the number of points the team would have collected in league play—so three for a win, one for a draw, none for a loss (two for winning a penalty shootout, one for losing one). I is the deemed "importance" of the match (World Cups count greater than friendlies, for example). T is a score given to the opponent based on their most recent ranking (200 for the team ranked first, 199 for the team in second, and so on). C is a weighting given to the confederation an opponent belongs to.
Here's a working example, based on Spain's Euro 2012 final win against Italy.
P = 3 (M) x 3 (I) x 188 (T) x 1 (C) = 1,692 points
Each nation then gets a score based on their last four years of competition—being 100 percent of their average points total for the last 12 months, plus 50 percent of their average for the year previous to that, then 30 percent and 20 percent respectively for years three and four of the cycle.
This being math, there's no room for artistic merit. Like football itself, results rule and everything else is incidental. You can forget your dizzying possession numbers and golazos, and you can park the bus for eternity without a points penalty.
Hence, England are third. Because, while you can bemoan their style of play and failure to win a major tournament since 1966, they're still one of the most effective teams in the world at getting results.
England won five and drew three of their eight qualifying games for Euro 2012. And when they got there, as unconvincing as they were, Roy Hodgson's team still avoided outright defeat—winning twice and drawing twice, with Italy beating them on penalties in the last eight. They've also beaten Spain in a friendly in the past year.
Brazil, meanwhile, have not played a competitive fixture since the 2011 Copa America—where they fell at the quarterfinal stage to Paraguay, who were ranked 25th at the time. Since then, Brazil have played only friendlies and lost games to Germany, Mexico and Argentina.
There's no question teams outside Europe are at a disadvantage in FIFA's most recent rankings however. Euro 2012 gave 16 teams the chance to play matches of high importance against high-ranked opponents; thus, far more points were available than could possibly have been accrued elsewhere.
Considering Brazil don't have to qualify for the World Cup (hosts enter automatically), their ranking is likely to remain relatively low until we get there. Friendlies are scored with an importance of 1.0 by FIFA, while qualifiers come in at 2.5.
This means a victory for Brazil against Sweden (ranked 17th) in August would bring them 552 points. When you consider England can pick up 1,155 for beating Poland (ranked 54th) in a World Cup qualifier, it's easy to see the advantage—in rankings terms—of being involved in competitive matches.
In global terms, there's also a big advantage to being members of the UEFA (Europe) and CONMEBOL (South America) confederations, where there is more value put on success and more opportunity to play high-ranking teams.
But just because there's a rationale in FIFA's thinking doesn't mean its ranking system is a true reflection of teams' relative strengths. And when you consider FIFA rankings directly affect the seedings for the World Cup draw, it's little wonder questions are being asked of the process.
In researching this piece I looked at all 31 games at Euro 2012 to see how accurately the June rankings were reflected in their results. I found that eight of the matches were won by the lower-ranking team (see chart below). A further six games saw teams with a clear higher ranking (which I deemed to be more than five places above their opponent) held to draws or taken to penalties.
That amounts to 45 percent of matches at Euro 2012 going against the FIFA rankings.
|Greece (15)||1-2||Czech Republic (27)|
|Greece (15)||1-0||Russia (13)|
|Netherlands (4)||0-1||Denmark (9)|
|Denmark (9)||2-3||Portugal (10)|
|Portugal (10)||2-1||Netherlands (4)|
|Ukraine (52)||2-1||Sweden (17)|
|Sweden (17)||2-0||France (14)|
|Germany (2)||1-2||Italy (12)|
Many agree there's something not quite right. FIFA's ranking system has been widely criticized, and its general secretary Jerome Valcke was moved to make a statement in June addressing the high volume of negative comments.
Said Valcke, as per ESPN:
I know that these rankings are sometimes quite difficult to understand due to the level and numbers of criteria that are taken into account.
There are teams who are playing more friendly games than other teams and you can see a difference which is not very logical—but the ranking, I would say, is clearly still a good picture of the level of international football.
There have been internal meetings to discuss the ranking of the different nations. We want to be able to explain in an easier way how this ranking is based.
To be fair to FIFA, it's far easier to knock the system than it is to come up with an alternative. What's more, any change to the calculation would result in as many nations being disappointed as were satisfied.
One thing that does seem to make sense is allowing points gained at major tournaments to linger with greater influence, for longer. Uruguay won the Copa America in July 2011 and have gone unbeaten in friendlies since.
Put simply, they couldn't have done any more to influence their position. Yet still they find themselves below England, who were knocked out of Euro 2012 at the quarterfinals and lost a friendly to the Netherlands in February. That just doesn't seem right.
England up to best-ever position of 3rd in latest edition of FIFA's ludicrous World Rankings, above Uruguay, Italy, Argentina, Netherlands— Dan Roan (@danroan) August 8, 2012
That said, maybe England have finally found a competition they can thrive in. It's not the World Cup, and it's not the Euros. The Three Lions are roaring up the world rankings, and who knows, they might even hit the top spot one day.
You could say they're in danger of becoming football's answer to Luke Donald.
What is the duplicate article?
Why is this article offensive?
Where is this article plagiarized from?
Why is this article poorly edited? | <urn:uuid:22306a85-0c6c-4f44-9144-5f1f10215a34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1290794-the-curious-case-of-the-fifa-world-rankings-where-england-outclass-brazil | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969488 | 1,577 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The Japanese have said “Enough.” After a generation of stagnation, they’ve chosen an all-of-the-above policy to boost economic growth. The nation’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is promising a “three arrows” strategy: bold monetary easing, increased public-works spending, and structural changes, such as regulatory reform. He’s throwing the ramen against the shoji and hoping something will stick. Some of those ideas are good ones, some probably aren’t. But it’s clear that Tokyo’s priority is growth, growth, growth. Time to get Nippon moving again.
Nations probably never choose decline, at least not consciously. More likely they become victims of a creeping normalcy. Things once objectionable can become passively acceptable if they happen slowly, incrementally: the boiling-frog syndrome. Decline just sort of happens, year by year, decade by decade, one “meh” economic report at a time.
Last Thursday the U.S. Commerce Department reported that fourth-quarter GDP fell at a 0.1 percent annual rate. For the year, the U.S. economy grew a meager 2.2 percent. That’s a bit better than 2011, but about a percentage point less than what most economists think is the economy’s current potential. Even worse, the first few recovery years after deep downturn typically exhibit abnormally strong catch-up growth. But that’s not happening post–Great Recession. White House spokesman Jay Carney conceded the obvious, that the negative quarterly report was “not good news,” and then blamed congressional Republicans for creating a “headwind” of political uncertainty.
The next day the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate ticking up to 7.9 percent in January as the economy added 157,000 net new jobs. At that rate of job creation, with all else equal, the economy wouldn’t return to 4.4 percent unemployment — the George W. Bush administration’s low point — for another eight years. Oh, and that’s assuming no recessions between now and 2021. White House economist Alan Krueger said the report provided “further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the Great Depression.”
It must be terribly inconvenient for the Obama White House to be reminded every quarter and every month that the $800 billion stimulus — and subsequent mini-stimuli — failed to ignite the boom Obama economists repeatedly predicted through the first term. The president has so many higher priorities, after all: immigration reform, gun control, climate change, income inequality. Stuff with which to build a legacy.
Faster growth and faster job creation apparently don’t make the cut. A president deeply concerned about growth would perhaps have followed a few more of the recommendations of his own Jobs and Competitiveness Council before letting it expire, as Obama did last week. Sure, Obama acted on agenda items that comfortably synced with his ideology, like retrofitting government buildings for energy efficiency. But he ignored commonsense ideas that didn’t mesh, such as expanding domestic oil and gas drilling and revamping the corporate tax code. More high-skill immigration? Sorry, it will have to wait for comprehensive immigration reform.
Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners, points out that “it will require a multiyear period of above-trend growth to return unemployment to more normal levels.” He speaks of the “jobs gap,” the difference between current employment levels and what they would be if a few years of catch-up economic growth had reestablished the pre-recession trend. Assuming annual private-sector employment growth of 2 percent, the average of the past three decades, we’re 14 million jobs short. And because catch-up growth never happened — say, a few years of averaging 5 percent growth, as happened after the 1981–82 recession — even if the economy returns to steady 3 percent growth, GDP levels will be trillions lower in the future than they would have been otherwise, due to the lower starting point.
But right now output growth and job growth aren’t even back to trend. And that means every month the output and jobs gaps grow a bit wider. With an economy that hasn’t hummed since the 1990s, we’ve already had one lost decade. If we begin to accept and acquiesce to the creeping new normalcy, America risks suffering its own lost generation. Someone right now needs to say “Enough” — and then back up those words with action. It would be helpful if that person were Obama.
— James Pethokoukis, a columnist, blogs for the American Enterprise Institute. | <urn:uuid:d272367f-701f-4472-9a9d-b45e50f994f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nationalreview.com/articles/339652/america-s-creeping-new-normalcy-james-pethokoukis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949248 | 997 | 1.8125 | 2 |
DMC is an acronym that stands for Destination Management Company. A DMC is a third party firm that is hired to provide professional services for the planning and implementation of incentives, meetings, conferences and events for incoming groups to a destination such as Bogotá. A DMC has in-depth local knowledge of the area and/or region they represent, and is a highly specialized consultant for practically every aspect of event programming. Their services can include transportation, hotel accommodation, restaurants, activities, excursions, venue selection, themed events, gala dinners, meetings and creative incentive schemes as well as helping with overcoming language barriers. DMCs are able to provide preferential rates based on the buying power they have with their preferred suppliers. While a DMC maintains relationships with all hospitality-related services in their area, the firm’s primary customer is the organization planning the event.
Benefits of Using a DMC
- You save money. DMCs’ have the ability to negotiate rates and terms where possible to provide the highest quality of service in the most cost-effective manner.
- You save time. A full proposal that includes costs for consideration will be ready within forty-eight hours of contacting a DMC with an enquiry to their destination. Months of research is no longer needed.
- You make more informed decisions. DMCs’ have an abundant knowledge of their destination as they are located locally and known the ins-and-puts of their destination.
- You are exposed to creative ideas and plans. | <urn:uuid:12e597a4-c1d3-4b50-95fe-2070d665ec73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dmcolombia.net/about/what-is-a-dmc/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966206 | 312 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Modern and Contemporary Art
Portrait of Man Ray
George Biddle, American, 1885 - 1973
Oil on canvas
Currently not on view
1972-121-4Gift of the artist, 1972
LabelThe American Surrealist painter and photographer Man Ray (1890-1976) posed for this portrait in his Hollywood studio in 1941. Philadelphia artist George Biddle surrounds him with an array of strange objects, including a twisted piece of driftwood, a cow's skull, and a piece of drapery that Man Ray's cats eventually tore apart. The artist sits on a couch with his legs crossed, revealing his multicolored socks, while behind him hangs his recently completed painting Leda and the Swan, one of his most arresting and enigmatic Surrealist compositions. | <urn:uuid:0a1d6dbd-b0d0-40b6-b5cf-a703947ad1ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/67513.html?mulR=30497%7C7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962831 | 159 | 1.609375 | 2 |
We're ready to kickstart you into the realm
of gigantic creative possibilities!
Call Marie directly at 206-724-7724 or write to us below.
Wireframing is one of the core components of User Experience Design. It is the blueprint in which the product is conceptualized and provides direction on the execution of it—similar to the blueprints for an architect that gets handed off to an engineer. Wireframing usually requires many iterations and refinements, and there are multiple methods of wireframing. Each UX Designer has his or her own preference, so it boils down to what you are comfortable with and which method works best for you. Let's look at a few differen wireframing approaches:
My rule is "pencils before pixels." Before I even do anything on the computer, I draw ideas out, whether they are quick wireframes or figuring out workflows. A few reasons why I like wireframing with pencil and paper:
I've been using UI Stencils for more than six months now and absolutely love it. It is a very quick and simple way to draw out some realized sketches. I typically like to bring a sketchpad, stencil and pencils when meeting with clients to draw out solutions with them. I like to use UI Stencils when I want to pump out multiple wireframes. I quickly trace the stencils and it gives me a quick workspace to draw my ideas out.
If you're looking for a lightweight and quick mockup tool, Balsamiq Mockups is the one you want to use. I really like using Balsamiq when working with internal resources or developers whom I've worked with a lot. With a tool like Balsamiq, it is very simple and quick to pump out wireframes. The con is that it is a bit limited in the amount of detail your wireframes can be. That is why I use it when working with developers who are famliar with my approach. When I am looking for something a bit more robust and realized, I use Omnigraffle Pro. You also might want to try Mockingbird.
My favorite wireframing tool is Omnigraffle Pro. When I'm building wireframes to pass off to a developer, I use Omnigraffle because it provides the most detail and capability. The negative is that it may be a great learning curve for some people, but once you learn it, it is a very powerful tool. Some reasons I like Omnigraffle:
Another wireframing tool similar to Omnigraffle is Axure.
No tool is the right one. It is a matter of what you need to get the job done. Do you need to pass off detailed wireframes to a developer? Are these wires just to hash out ideas that will be more detailed in Photoshop? Explore each option and see which one works best for you!
Have a favorite that I didn't include? Leave a comment and share your experience with it. | <urn:uuid:265d939d-71fc-44a8-a809-a164cc59c714> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://awesomegiant.com/blog/wireframing-tools-trade | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952159 | 623 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Small Business Hawaii's Success Stories and Business Person of the Year! See conference story below.
Taxpayers Will Pay For City Rail Untruths
1996 Legislative Session Begins: Opprotunities Await
Byrne Named Small Business Person of the Year
SBH 20th Annual Conference Best One Yet!
Free Success Seminar Feb. 15
Franchising in February
Norquist Predicts 1996 Election
Small Business Views by Sam Slom
SBH Guest Commentaries
Gambling Would Negatively Impact Small Business
Beware: Lawmakers in Session!
Government's Black Hole of Spending
MAYOR HARRIS HAS LITTLE TO SAY;
TAXPAYERS WILL PAY!
After the project failed by a 5-4 City Council vote in 1992, the prime contractor, Oahu Transit Group (OTG), sued the City for various amounts allegedly owed for promises made, and "expenses." A Disputes Resolution Board awarded OTG $9 million on a $10 million claim but the facts and details of the settlement were kept secret by the City. Thus, the SBH lawsuit for release of the documents.
SBH contended that the Mayor was deeply involved in a plan to silence and discredit opponents of the transit plan, such as Cliff Slater and SBH, and that ultimately, taxpayers would foot the bill for political misconduct. Harris indicated his Administration would not use City tax funds to pay off the award to OTG, claiming the Federal Government would pay.
In October, 1995, Circuit Court Judge Wendell Huddy ruled the City Administration had no right to deny public access to documents related to an arbitration decision involving the City and OTG. Huddy strongly admonished the City for its attempt to keep the information from the taxpayers.
The Circuit Court previously awarded release of the information to the Plaintiffs but the City dragged its feet. Huddy ruled,"A governmental agency has the burden of showing a legitimate basis for confidentiality.... (in this case) there was no basis for confidentiality." He also said, "It is not the purpose for a governmental agency to delay a response without getting some sort of court intervention and this is what the court found objectionable."
When the plaintiffs did get to see the information, it was evident the City was still not making all the data available. Further legal action resulted in seeing-and copying-critical letters, memos and expense forms, in January, 1996. It is now clear why the City has been so resistant: it has plenty to hide, including the fact that City tax funds are necessary-and Harris knew it-to pay off about one-third ($3 million) of the award to OTG. Questions of allowable billable expenses also have arisen. Mayor Harris had nothing to say; City PR spokesperson, Carol Costa, offered her explanation.
KHON-TV News reporter Bill Brennan, who previously followed the lawsuit closely, broke the story on January 17 on the new inaccuracies uncovered. On January 25, City Council Budget and Finance Chair, Duke Bainum, held a formal investigation of the City Administration's involvement in past rail practices that adversely affected City taxpayers, and inquired as to whether or not the Administration was telling the truth.
1996 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Not much of substance is expected by many because this is an election year and controversial non-issues, such as same-sex marriage, threaten to obscure the real work.
Opening day speeches by Senate President Norman Mizuguchi and House Speaker Joe Souki did not reassure business, as once again, government reform, tax reduction and economic stimulation were absent. The House remarks-and those at the SBH Annual Conference by Majority Leader Tom Okamura-held out promise that the 51-member House was willing to look at spending alternatives, such as privatization, and other reforms, including term limits. Lt. Governor Mazie Hirono is working separately on worker comp options patterned after Maine, Arizona and Missouri.
In the Senate, the Majority Democrats promised government as usual: more taxes, more bureaucracy and the spectre of an expensive government run "Project Hope" long term care dependency for residents. Senator Rod Tam did call for an audit of the 8 years of Waihee-Cayetano fiscal mismanagement that led to today's budget deficit. Minority Leader Michael Liu offered positive options, but there are 2 Republicans in the 25-member body.
As SBH cautioned, unions, special interests and big government supporters will push:
* New G.E.T. and other taxes and "fees"
* Higher minimum wage
* Gambling on top of current taxes
* Enriched mandated benefit
* Additional stifling regulations Missing are substantial cuts in government spending, tax and regulatory REDUCTION for small business, a realistic policy for home-based businesses, workers comp and liability insurance priorities and incentives for Hawaii's business and investment climate.
Governor Cayetano's Jan 22 speech put business on the front burner; but lacked specifics and did not call for real changes.
However, there are always areas of opportunity, and small business can exert a real leadership role during the Session. There are more independent lawmakers than before who see the problem and are seriously looking for creative solutions. Business can't sit on the sidelines; let SBH know how you feel about these and other issues. Then YOU must get involved! You know your business best and the impact of legislation on you . Find a way to explain it to your lawmaker.
Join SBH's Legislative Action Committee (LAC) and Biz FAX Net. Bob Sigall SBH Director and owner of Creative-1 Marketing Chairs the LAC; Cindy Rasmussen of Worldwide Store Fixtures, is assisting. The next two LAC meetings are set for Thursdays, February 8 (12-1:30) and 22nd (11-12:30 at the SBH office. Call for details (396-1724).
PERSON OF THE YEAR
Desmond Byrne, of Honolulu Information Service, was selected for the top SBH award for his many years of business leadership and countless volunteer hours on behalf of business and resident taxpayers in the community. He has written articles, spoken out, given testimony and volunteered on numerous private and public organizations, including, Common Cause Hawaii and the Governor's Small Business Advisory Council. He has offered positive alternatives to the fiscal "crisis,' and has been a staunch advocate of open, responsive and accountable government. Through his untiring individual efforts, information on government budgets, taxation and spending, were revealed from reluctant government agencies, and have set the stage for genuine reform to come.
Lowell Kalapa, Tax Foundation of Hawaii, Inc., was selected for the new "SBH-George Mason Editorial Award," for his continuing, hard-hitting editorials on the importance of business and the problems of governmental taxation and regulation, and for his contribution to the legislative process.
Cherylle Morrow, Innervation, Inc. of Kailua, was awarded "Small Business Booster," for her "strong community involvement and personal commitment to small business issues." A leader in women's business issues, Morrow is the current Chair of the Women In Business Committee of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Timothy Moore, owner of Old Lahaina Cafe and Luau (Maui), awarded "Civic Leadership" for "his active participation in the legislative process and leadership efforts in the problems of government regulation." Moore was one of 16 Hawaii Delegates to the 1995 White House Conference on Small Business and helped organize Hawaii's first Congress on Small Business, in November, 1995.
Honored for legislative leadership and assistance in achieving an improved business climate, were Republican State Senator and Minority Leader, Michael Liu and Democratic State Representative Terri Nui Yoshinaga. She has taken a personal interest in privatization.
The SBH business awards were presented during the annual luncheon program. Recipients had been selected by the membership and the Board of Directors.
Scheduled keynote speaker, Grover G. Norquist, was caught in the Mainland blizzard and didn't arrive on time. Small Business awardee Desmond Byrne ably substituted at the last moment and enthralled the crowd with his passionate discussion and call to make Hawaii government responsible, and get business out of the shop and into the Capitol.
Byrne said of government, "Our expectations are unfortunately too low...and they are met."
BEST ONE YET!
More than 275 business owners and the public attended Small Business Hawaii's 20th annual Small Business Hawaii Business Conference at the Ala Moana Hotel, Wednesday, January 10-the first major business conference of Ô96. The evaluations from the audience suggested this was the "best" Conference in recent memory.
The theme of the day-long event was, "SMALL BUSINESS: LEADING HAWAII'S BUSINESS and ECONOMIC REVOLUTION."
The Conference was upbeat and positive, emphasizing the changes that will occur and the improvements that can take place during 1996 in Hawaii's hostile business climate, IF small business owners exert their leadership, experience, wisdom-and clout.
There was a wide range of speakers who presented many aspects of Hawaii's problems- and potential solutions. If acted upon, Hawaii's economic doldrums could see a dramatic upturn.
SBH president/executive director Sam Slom assured the attendees that 1996 IS the year the "Political Revolution" arrives in Hawaii. He said residents and business owners should no longer accept politics as usual here and should start making waves of change.
Orson Swindle, retired Marine, former POW, Reagan appointee and daily commentator on KHVH radio ("The Right Side") discussed the political landscape in Hawaii and the impact from Washington, D.C. Swindle reportedly will challenge Democratic incumbent Neil Abercrombie for one of two Hawaii U.S. House seats.
Lowell Kalapa, president of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii, discussed Hawaii's fiscal problems, over-taxation and the need to REDUCE taxes, particularly personal income rates which are the steepest in the nation. Kalapa also commented that while it is in vogue to always talk first of education, JOBS should be Hawaii's first priority, because without jobs, an education here means a ticket to the Mainland to find a career.
Pacific Business News founder George Mason, discussed ways of making government more accountable and getting "better government for less." He emphasized privatization, competition of services and gave numerous examples of Mainland cities and states (as well as New Zealand) where this approach has worked. He was enthused with County initiatives in Hawaii and said the State must get on board.
State Representative Quentin K. Kawananakoa followed up on Mason's remarks by offering specific legislative suggestions for "Legislating Competition in Government ".
A panel of State Legislative leaders, moderated by Bob Sigall, gave the audience an insight into what they can expect for business during the 60-day Ô96 Session which began January 17. Speakers included, State Senator and Senate Vice President, Mike McCartney; State Senator and Chair, Ways and Means Committee, Donna Ikeda ; State Senator and Minority Leader, Michael Liu; State Representative and Majority Leader,Tom Okamura and State Representative and Minority Leader, Gene Ward. Each was candid, informative, and answered questions.
One of the most inspiring features of the annual conferences, is introduction of SBH's Small Business Success Profiles. Each business awardee had been nominated by, and supported by, other business owners and consumers who praised the firm's service, integrity and quality. The 1995 awardees were: Alfred Vollenweider , owner of Alfred's At Century Center; Take and Gail Morohoshi , King Photo Service, Inc., and One Fas Lube's Donna McLaughlin. Each had important success tips and personal thoughts for other owners. McLaughlin's passionate and emotional presentation reduced the audience to tears.
A free one-hour seminar for SBH members, "Discover the Secrets of Business Success" is offered by member and business marketing consultant, Rich Budnick and Associates on Thursday, February 15, from 9-10 a.m., at the SBH office, 6600 Kalanianaole Highway, #212 (the same building as Roy's Restaurant).
Participants will learn how to gain new customers, more sales and increase profits. You will discover how to get ahead of the competition, learn irresistible promotion ideas, and how to make your customers happy.
"Times are getting tougher, and many businesses are struggling to survive. We want to help businesses learn how to prosper during the recession," Budnick explained.
Advance reservations required; seating is limited. RSVP by calling 396-1161.
If you are currently a franchisee, or aspire to have your own franchise, February is the month for you, with two big opportunities to gain insight into the pros and cons of purchasing an existing franchise, or franchising your own business.
On Friday, February 16, Franchise Partners, in cooperation with member Connecticut Mutual, presents, "Financial Strategies for Successful Franchises," at 9 - 10:30 am, in the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel. Small business expert, lawyer and CPA, Brian McKenna, from Hartford, Connecticut, will be the featured speaker. Topics include: protecting the value of your franchise business, attracting-and retaining-key employees and retirement planning. McKenna will present "10 Tips on How to Increase and Protect Your Net Worth." The seminar is offered in conjunction with the International Franchise Association's (IFA) Annual Convention (Feb 18-21). A special $50 cost includes IFA membership. Call 1-800-234-1007.
Then, on Thursday, February 22, also at the Hawaiian Village, Francorp of Chicago, will present the popular "Franchise YOUR Business" seminar from 9 am (registration at 8:30). SBH teamed up with Francorp, America's foremost franchise consulting firm in January, 1995. Members were pleased at the time. Mark Seibert, president of Francorp will lead this year's informative forum. The standard cost for the seminar is $145; SBH members can attend for $75 by calling Leslie Vloedman at 1-800-877.1130. See you there-and happy franchising!
This Issue of Small Business News
[Top of This Page] [Page 2] [Page 3] [Page 4] [Page 5] | <urn:uuid:1f41ca00-04ae-4779-9954-eafaf368be6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hotspotshawaii.com/SBH_on_H4/SBNews2-96.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956371 | 2,974 | 1.59375 | 2 |
As far as reef-keeping goes, trickle filters have gone the way of the Dodo bird. Not so the sump, however! Once the bio-towers were removed, aquarists found many new and innovative ways to utilize the sump making it one of the most versatile and beneficial aspects of a modern marine ecosystem. What makes this statement possible is in large part due to the method of getting the system water out of the aquarium and down into the sump itself. There are many possibilities in accomplishing this, but I will focus on the two most practical:
- Internal stand-pipes
- Overflow boxes
Stand-pipes are considered the "professional" approach as they are integral to the aquarium and enhance it's overall function. Many manufacturers call this a "reef-ready" option. Just a couple of examples: All-Glass has their Twin-Flo™ Corner Overflow system and The PetStop.com offers these type of tank options using Tenecor brand name aquariums, as many other aquarium suppliers do. However, tanks so equipped command a higher price.
The other option for those of us that have existing equipment, or for those that wish not to invest in a drilled tank, the overflow box is the way to go. | <urn:uuid:069c8cc1-62b6-4da7-8a08-e99557baa78e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/proteinfiltersetups/ss/proteinskimmer4.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950636 | 259 | 1.742188 | 2 |
March 24, 2006
|GET BUZZFLASH ALERTS||INTERVIEW ARCHIVES|
Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe Takes Us Down Into the Trenches of Global Warming Research
A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW
Few of us have the opportunity to camp out on the Greenland ice sheet or gaze at mammoth icebergs floating lazily in the bay. But journalist Elizabeth Kolbert has, and her report to the rest of us is both awesome and unsettling - which is her intent. Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change truly sounds an alarm. Kolbert visited key research sites herself. She questioned the scientists, as well as local residents, and observed not only the data, but the land and seascapes firsthand. Her report tells us in layman's terms what the world's top climate researchers are already seeing. She wants us all to understand global warming, and why we can no longer ignore or deny it.
* * *
BuzzFlash: In the Seventies we began the tradition of Earth Days, and we seemed to have a growing environmental consciousness. It seemed to be supported by conservatives and liberals alike. It was as American as apple pie. Now it’s a partisan issue. What happened?
Elizabeth Kolbert: In American politics in general, the environment, very broadly understood, is the public space. It’s the world that we all occupy. As an observer of American politics, I think the public space has been really devalued. There’s only one planet and we all share in it in some way, and it’s our commonality. There’s very little sticking up for the public good now, and the environment has fallen victim to that.
BuzzFlash: Why did you call the book Field Notes from a Catastrophe?
Elizabeth Kolbert: There was a struggle to find a title, it wasn’t something that just popped into my mind. I wanted to convey a sense of what the book really is, and it’s not a scientific treatise. It’s a series of notes – almost a travelogue. I go and I talk to people, and I am out in the field with a lot of people. So I wanted to give that sense of being out in the field. So that is “Field Notes.” And "Catastrophe" is pretty self-explanatory.
BuzzFlash: Global warming is the issue you investigate. But it’s a lot more complicated than that, of course. We’re getting to the point, as your book details, when the total global environment may reach a stage that will be catastrophic. Is that correct interpretation?
Elizabeth Kolbert: Yes. It’s a global phenomenon, and due to the sheer scale of it, the potential for irreversible harm is great.
BuzzFlash: You’re a journalist, but you went out like a scientist. You did, in essence, field research on this problem, looking at the problem in a variety of locations, with a variety of people studying it. What did you find?
Elizabeth Kolbert: I chose the scientists I followed quite carefully. They’re very eminent people, all of whom were doing very important research. But the one thing that I hope comes through is that every single one of these people was looking at very serious changes that are already occurring. And the ways they are looking toward the future are not at all speculative. Any global warming scientist will tell you, this is not a field rife with speculation. As one person put it to me, this is basically Physics 101. And they are all very, very concerned.
One of the scientists put it to me very well. He made the point that in many fields there’s a scientific opinion and a lay opinion, and the lay opinion is more hysterical than the scientific opinion. But in the field of climate science, the climate scientists are the ones who are saying, wow, wake up, this is really serious! If there’s one thought I’d really like to get out to people, it is that the scientists are really, really worried.
BuzzFlash: You begin in your Preface with a recollection from the Hotel Arctic on the west coast of Greenland. Can you tell us what you found, because this sort of sets the tone for the book.
Elizabeth Kolbert: The Greenland ice sheet is ice that’s up on land. That ice is always flowing. There are ice rivers that flow particularly fast and deliver a tremendous amount of water to the sea, in the form of these huge and really fantastically beautiful icebergs. They sort of float and laze around, and people come to watch them because it’s very spectacular. It’s believed that that probably was the source of the iceberg that sunk the Titanic.
But this ice stream has been moving faster and faster, and the height of the ice is sinking as it moves south. It thins out, and the point where the icebergs sort of break off and enter the water has been moving back very, very rapidly. All of that ice, as it’s delivered to the sea, contributes to the sea level rise. So it’s something that people are very worried about, and it’s something that the Greenlanders who live there will tell you is just astonishing. In places that used to be iced over all winter, there’s no sea ice. As I was told, “You can see a lot of strange changes.”
In the short term, some changes may be economically beneficial to them. They can take their fishing boats out all winter now. But they’re not happy about it.
BuzzFlash: We had a recent report that the Antarctic ice sheet is melting twice as fast as had previously been anticipated.
Elizabeth Kolbert: Both the ice sheets and the Arctic ice cap melting are reasons to be worried, for somewhat different reasons. They’re all showing signs of change.
The Arctic ice cap, which is floating, since there’s no land up there, is shrinking very fast. People say that it is possible that by the middle of this century, there will be no ice in the summer. That has tremendous ramifications. You could say, well, big deal. There’s no ice in the Arctic. I don’t go to the Arctic. What difference does it make? But ice is a very important regulator of our climate because it reflects light – that’s basically sun and solar energy that’s not being absorbed by the earth. When you start to melt back that ice, the water can absorb more heat - a tremendous amount of heat. Water is a very good heat absorber, so the increase in heat feeds on itself, and it basically becomes impossible to stop.
BuzzFlash: We have mostly a mythical conception of the Arctic circle, largely related to Christmas and Santa Claus. There's also the history of adventurers in the beginning of the century racing to get to the Arctic circle. When you say this is just ice, there’s something in the back of our minds – at least in my mind – that thinks somehow there’s something below that. But you’re saying, really, the Arctic Circle is just a massive accumulation of ice.
Elizabeth Kolbert: Go to your globe and look at it. Once you’re above Siberia and Alaska, there’s no land there. The continents make sort of a ring, and then there’s the Arctic Ocean. The ice cap is floating on the water, and it used to stretch all the way to the edge of the land. If you look at satellite data and the diagrams, which are in my book, you can see the ice is pulling away from the edges of the land. There are now places where the ice has pulled away many, many miles from shore. It’s just shrinking. It’s coming farther and farther up toward the North Pole. This makes people say, for example, that there will be a northwest passage. The much, much sought northwest passage will eventually open up.
BuzzFlash: There’s a positive benefit to global warming. We’ll have a northwest passage.
Elizabeth Kolbert: Another point I try to get across in the book is that we have lived under certain conditions as our society has developed. Human history has all happened very rapidly, from the perspective of geological history. We have become an industrialized society with six billion people, and that’s happened under a certain set of climactic conditions. You change those conditions, and a lot of people are not going to be able to live the way they were. You have to be concerned about what happens next. You have to be concerned about geo-political issues. You have to be concerned about humanitarian issues - people living in places where they are just barely scraping by and are just barely getting enough rainfall. If you change the rainfall patterns, you really can’t know what’s going to happen.
So yes, shipping companies may benefit, but it seems unlikely that change as a whole is going to be good for the six billion of us who are here right now.
BuzzFlash: Suppose there is a sudden rise in the earth’s temperature. The oceans could rise up to fifteen feet because of melting, particularly synergistically with a rise in temperature. Once you reach a tipping point, there’s really no going back. There’s nothing presently in our technology which would enable us to be like the surgeon and suddenly repair the hole in the ozone layers and so forth.
Elizabeth Kolbert: Right.
BuzzFlash: We want to emphasize to people who read this book that you did due diligence. You went way beyond getting on the Internet or reading a lot of books or just calling people. You were there in Greenland, and Alaska, and so forth. What do you say to people who say, well, this is gibberish? I don’t want to put you in a political spot, but the President of the United States would say this is just unproven.
Elizabeth Kolbert: The Administration takes a very complicated and somewhat internally inconsistent stand. They’re on record saying this is a real problem, and a serious problem. The President speaks of it, very rarely - you have to sort of piece it together out of these fragments - but their official position is that it’s a serious problem for which we have no solution at this moment, so we’re going to just sort of see, and maybe a solution will show up. That’s their position.
Now, there are people who are even further out there, like Senator James Inhofe, who will say, this doesn’t prove anything. There’s three or four places in the world that are actually getting colder, so what are you talking about? That is just another form of denial. It’s like Michael Crichton’s State of Fear, which is heavily footnoted as to be tricked out as science.
But unfortunately, it really doesn’t matter what people think or deny. It really only matters what’s going to happen to the world. The earth doesn’t really care about human opinion on this topic. You also can deny that smoking causes cancer. You can deny that, and you can smoke, and you can see what happens. But unfortunately it just doesn’t change the basic facts.
BuzzFlash: Let me back up a second to the Bush Administration. There is a political dimension, of course, to responding to the problem. The Bush Administration doesn’t just acknowledge the problem and say, well, we don’t know what the solutions are. But they also say that, even the proposed solutions, which seem to be common sense based, aren’t proven in any way to reduce the problem, so therefore we aren’t going to try to put those in place.
Elizabeth Kolbert: They use every imaginable reason to justify doing nothing. One of the justifications for doing nothing is, if you take something like the Kyoto protocol, which is generally accepted as our best hope for doing something at this point – they say, well, that isn’t going to really measurably impact the problem. And on some level, they’re right. The Kyoto protocol is inadequate. Every climate scientist would tell you the Kyoto protocol does not address this problem in a way that will really make a serious significant difference at the end of the day - the end of the day being a century from now.
That was always understood. The Kyoto protocol was always understood as a first step, and then you have to take even more serious measures. It’s f like saying, well, I’m fat, and if I don’t eat that candy bar today, is it really going to make a lot of difference? No - so I will just go to Dunkin Donuts, too.
These problems take a lot of hard work over a long time. But to just throw up your hands at the beginning and say, well, that’s not going to solve the problem, is to not even take the first step. That’s really the situation we’re in right now.
BuzzFlash: The American financial system and our way of life are sort of a carpe diem lifestyle. We live for today. We are a society that’s built on instant gratification and consumption, and a six-hour news cycle. How will Americans begin to understand that our lifestyle has long-term implications, although not that far away anymore?
Elizabeth Kolbert: I wish I had the answer to that. It’s the ultimate challenge to our political system, and this is not a completely partisan issue. A person I spoke to who really addressed this and is quite downcast was John McCain, one of the few people in the Senate who has really taken a strong stand on this. He said to me, our political system is designed to respond to crises. By the time you respond to this crisis, it is too late. So we really have to be taking proactive measures. It’s completely unclear that our political system is capable of doing that.
BuzzFlash: What might this mean in terms of world drought?
Elizabeth Kolbert: I’ve talked to enough people to tell you that one of the clear effects of climate change is going to be changes in precipitation. It is not that easy to predict exactly what they will be, and the models, in fact, sometimes show contradictory results. But changes in precipitation mean that some areas will get drier and some areas will get wetter, and that’s a pretty well-accepted impact. To go back to what I said before, we grew to the population that we are now with the rainfall patterns that we have had for the last fifty years, let’s say. You change those, and you can imagine it causing a lot of problems.
BuzzFlash: What would a rise in the sea level of fifteen feet do?
Elizabeth Kolbert: It would be catastrophic. You only get a rise in sea level of fifteen feet when you melt one of these ice sheets – either it’s the Greenland ice sheet or the West Antarctic ice sheet. And we are not going to see that tomorrow. It is not a process that happens overnight, but probably over the course of a couple centuries.
It is possible that we have set that in motion, and that our great-great-great-great grandchildren will feel the effects of that. Someone compared it to rolling a boulder down the hill. You can’t stop it. That's why what’s happened to the Greenland ice sheet is of intense interest to people. There’s a lot of change that’s already in the pipeline - the eventual melting of the Greenland ice sheet. One has to hope not, but one cannot be sure. We have seen changes in the ice sheet that are ominous – let’s put it that way.
BuzzFlash: In your Foreword you talked about the doubling of the speed of that ice stream that is flowing into the sea.
Elizabeth Kolbert: Right, that’s a huge change.
BuzzFlash: What would awaken Americans to this problem? It may not affect you now, but the legacy of not attending to this could be catastrophic to your children.
Elizabeth Kolbert: I would be happy to give you the answer, if I knew it. Why did I write this book? Here I am, doing what I know how to do. And many other people are doing what they know how to do. So there’s many people out there trying to work on this problem, and trying to say exactly that – wake up!
I do think we should be appealing to people as parents. Most Americans above a certain age are parents. Think of all the energy we spend, getting our kids ready to attend college and take the SATs, for instance. But this is their future. It is definitely my children’s generation that will really start to feel some potentially very, very serious effects, and certainly their children. We are society that claims to believe in the future - Americans always claim to be a forward-looking society – so we’ve got to look forward.
BuzzFlash: Well, Elizabeth, thank you for a wonderful book.
Elizabeth Kolbert: Thank you.
A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW
Interview Conducted by Mark Karlin.
* * *
Field Notes from a Catastrophe (Hardcover), by Elizabeth Kolbert, a BuzzFlash premium.
Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a BuzzFlash review.
Q&A: A Planetary Problem, an interview with The New Yorker.
Elizabeth Kolbert received the American Association for the Advancement of Science's magazine writing award for her three-part series on which Field Notes from a Catastrophe is based, published in The New Yorker. | <urn:uuid:f3b9b20a-a684-4d5d-af25-db46d5cfd96d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/06/03/int06010.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964118 | 3,761 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Whether by choice or necessity, millions of people are contemplating a new career. According to Good Housekeeping making a major change is not easy.
If you're thinking about changing careers, you should understand that it'll probably take a good 1 to 3 years to get started on your new career and you'll probably have to take a step back financially, income-wise, at least in the short term.
Good Housekeeping recommends making a list of the most enjoyable parts of your previous jobs. Then start a file of job descriptions that sound interesting. If you've been out of the workforce for some time such as a stay-at-home mother, consider whether you could get paid for what you're now doing for free.
Once you get a more specific idea of what sounds interesting, you can go to a great Web site CareerCast.com and look under the jobs rated link and you'll get an idea of how much you can earn, what sort of qualifications you need.
Finally, Good Housekeeping says these 5 positions are most likely hiring now and in the future.
Dental assistant, emergency dispatcher, court reporters, surgical technologist, and nutritionist or dietetic technician. I'm Terry Anzur for Good Housekeeping reports. | <urn:uuid:5a48cd3a-8947-4963-b3b8-2b97b21e200b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/video/how-to-switch-careers-video-42458649001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954036 | 253 | 1.664063 | 2 |
You know, it’s not always easy being the “baseball guy” at one of the nation’s top institutions of learning.
But it’s easier now than it used to be. Cultural Studies are acknowledged as an important part of higher education. Popular culture, sports, movies and the like are now in liberal arts curricula.
The phrase, “A Gentle Trinitarian Mysticism,” comes from an essay on baseball by the Catholic philosopher and prolific writer, Michael Novak, in his book, “The Joy of Sports.” | <urn:uuid:6d2f7cb7-4771-400a-907b-9a38764ef9ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://addisonindependent.com/category/section/sports-column?page=15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954395 | 121 | 1.765625 | 2 |
A Delta Hunt
In Mississippi, the week between Christmas and New Year's is set aside for deer and duck hunting.
The loblollies flash past as we roll on the Natchez Trace out of Madison, Mississippi, north of Jackson, in Andy Dyess’s white Dodge, bound for the Delta; and Andy’s laying out the week ahead, talking what William Faulkner knew made for “the best of all listening,” the talk of hunting. Andy is forty-something, baggy- eyed, with a bit of a paunch, a short boxed beard, and a bowl-cut head of chestnut hair. The radio is on, and Andy lights a Winston. In the pickup cab are a minimum of five long guns, a stockpile of ammunition, knives, binoculars, bedrolls, day packs, camo clothing, knee boots, and several unopened bottles of brown liquor. All of which are essential matériel for this particular time, because this is the week between Christmas and New Year’s, the week the hunters of Mississippi have been awaiting all year, the week when home is a cabin or a clubhouse, often stilted up above flood level; and the purpose of being there is, though not in its entirety, to find the Big Man white-tailed deer and, in the downtime, a few ducks.
The traditions of the Week may not be antebellum, but in their vitals they were codified long before Faulkner’s boyhood initiation into them. To some the traditions may seem antediluvian because the Week is not about work (definitely), wives (generally), or offspring (preadolescently). It is about heads and antlers and wild birds stilled in flight on pecky-cypress-paneled walls; groaning bunk beds and obdurate snoring; muttered predawn awakenings; shivering transport on ATVs or in boats; dipped tobacco; tree stands and shooting boxes or netting-covered waterfowl blinds; merciless japery; shared meals featuring, depending on the hour of the day, red meat grilled or fried, biscuits and gravy, butter-yellow scrambled eggs, boiled vegetables, grits cheese or plain, molasses, red-pepper sauce, and sweet tea; last-light deer borne in and suspended from the meat pole and dressed by lantern glow; sticks of hackberry flaming across sections of iron train rails in the open stone hearth inside; jokes, to some extent, artfully told; the odd game of chance; certainly whiskey in “salute,” as Faulkner would have it, to the quarries’ “virtues of cunning and strength and speed,” even if the whiskey is drunk now over ice in a Styrofoam go-cup rather than from the neck of a wicker-wrapped demijohn. Regrettable, of course, has been the adding of the cell phone and the big-screen TV, but at least they can remain turned off.
Andy does something in insurance but lives for whitetail. He has a certified Boone and Crockett trophy head in his home’s office. He spends much of his fall and winter in pursuit of wide racks, and the rest of the year maintaining and preparing his hunting lands for the deer that sport such “rocking chairs” on their heads. His hope is that the Week this year will coincide with the height of the rut.
By late afternoon on the palisades of the Delta we wind through the tiny tree-shadowed clutch of abandoned clapboard buildings that is Teoc—not only the birthplace of Mississippi John Hurt but also, in one of those peculiar entwinings of history, the locale where Senator John McCain’s great-great grandfather, felled in the War Between the States, owned a plantation and slaves. Then we are down in the Delta itself, driving past the table-level fields of “skeleton stalks of cotton” that grew “in rich deep black alluvial soil…taller than the head of a man on a horse” and turning up a muddy road that conveys us past palmettos and hardwoods and through the gate in a wooden rail fence to the clearing where the Timber Company (an approximate name) hunting club stands and Andy’s hunting friends of more than a generation, the three brothers McRee and Jeff Champion, are expecting us. | <urn:uuid:ff539a7f-7061-4e02-8985-1ee345d762e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gardenandgun.com/article/delta-hunt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947385 | 934 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The ClashRock Band
Birthplace: London, England
Best known as: The punk band who did "London Calling"
Hard-hitting songs like "London Calling" and "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" made The Clash one of the most famous punk bands of the 1970s. Once too radical for radio, The Clash became a pillar of modern-day rock. The band's members were: Joe Strummer (b. John Mellors, 21 August 1952, Ankara, Turkey, d. December 2002), guitar and vocals; Paul Simonon (b. 1956, London), bass; Mick Jones (b. 26 June 1955, London), guitar and vocals; and Nicky Headon (b. 1956, Dover, England), drums. The Clash was formed in 1976 (at the time with drummer Terry Chimes) and released their self-titled debut album in 1977. Songs such as "White Riot" combined the energy of hard rock with angry social consciousness, and the album became a favorite of the critics. With a sturdy following in the U.K., The Clash toured the United States in the late '70s and released their 2-LP set London Calling (1979), now considered by many to be their best (it included "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)," a hidden track that reached the top of the U.S. charts). The triple-album Sandinista (1980) proved The Clash still had a bone to pick with corruption and injustice, and revealed a variety of musical influences that included ska, dub and reggae. Amid rumors that co-songwriters Strummer and Jones weren't getting along, they released Combat Rock (1982) to great success -- and accusations by hardcore fans that they had sold out. The album spawned the hits "Should I Stay or Should I Go" and "Rock the Casbah" and the band headlined big festivals and arena shows. In 1982 Headon was replaced by original drummer Chimes, and in 1983 Jones left the band (and went on to form the group Big Audio Dynamite). With a new lineup, Strummer and Simonon forged on with Cut the Crap (1984), but the band was officially finished by 1986. After working on the compilation The Essential Clash, Strummer died in 2002, just a few months before the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their other tunes include "(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais," "Lost in the Supermarket" and "Clash City Rockers."
Extra credit: Joe Strummer's real name was John Mellors... The Clash were featured in the punk movie classic Rude Boy (1980), and Strummer co-starred with Courtney Love and Elvis Costello in the 1987 film Straight to Hell... Heaton was jailed in 1987 for his role in a friend's fatal heroin overdose.
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More on Clash from Infoplease:
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:502312f7-415f-4f4b-aa6b-125909eae818> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/theclash.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966718 | 624 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Lockheed Martin Fighter Plant Recommended For Environmental Standard
Fort Worth, Texas, April 7th, 1999 -- Following an extensive audit by a team of auditors from the British Standards Institution, Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems is being recommended for ISO 14001 registration, which certifies the company meets the international standard for effective environmental management.
The audit was conducted from March 29 to April 1, 1999. Auditors examined all aspects of the company's environment, safety and health management programs. The audit team reported the following observations:
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems occupies more than 600 acres and boasts a mile-long aircraft production line. The facility employs about 11,500 people.
"Obtaining the auditor's recommendation for registration is a real tribute to the months of hard work and dedication by employees throughout the company in preparing for this audit," said Robert T. Elrod, executive vice president of Tactical Aircraft Systems.
Bill Rosenthal, manager of Environmental Resources Management, said, "We expect that obtaining ISO 14001 registration will be a competitive discriminator that will help us win new business in a global market against competitors who do not have the registration."
Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth plant produces the F-16 for the U.S. Air Force and a number of foreign countries and is leading Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter team. The company also produces the F-22’s mid-fuselage section, is responsible for various subsystems of the air dominance fighter and is participating in the production of Japan’s F-2 fighter, which incorporates extensive use of advanced materials technologies.
The company has pursued an aggressive environmental compliance and impact reduction program since the mid-1980s and has received several environmental awards from the Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Texas. | <urn:uuid:83ee4f11-d98c-4be2-aa16-d95f0e04a043> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/1999/april/LockheedMartinFighterPlantRecommend.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932153 | 361 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Government negotiators met with representatives of the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Tuesday to attempt to seal what they call a "framework agreement" on major issues, including the extent of power, revenues and territory to be granted to a Muslim-administered region. It would be the most significant progress in years of negotiations on ending a rebellion that has left more than 120,000 people dead and held back development in the southern Philippines.
Western governments have long worried that rebel strongholds could become breeding grounds for al-Qaida-affiliated extremists.
Rebel negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said at the talks' resumption that they are "now on the home stretch and the smell of success is reinforced every day."
Iqbal warned that if the negotiations are not concluded soon, opponents might endanger a final deal. A breakaway rebel group has opposed the talks, and some Christian politicians, wary of losing land and power to minority Muslims, have been accused in the past of undermining the negotiations.
"If we cannot conclude it soon successfully, now that we are at the brink of the exercise, we will be in trouble," Iqbal said. "The greatest source of risk comes from spoilers, leaders, and parties who believe that these ... negotiations threaten their power and interests."
Government negotiator Marvic Leonen said that "to state that what we hope to be able to do again in the next few days is historical is definitely an understatement."
"We are on the brink of layering the written predicates that can frame the process of building trust as we usher in an era of peace, of hope and of recovery," Leonen said. But he added that both sides "must always remain guarded in our optimism" because of the challenges in implementing the political solution contained in the agreement.
The Moro rebel group has been fighting for self-rule for minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation's south. It dropped a demand for a separate Muslim state and now seeks an expansion of an existing Muslim autonomous region and more powers and resources to rehabilitate the violent, poverty-wracked area.
The initial accord is to contain general agreements on key issues. A transition commission would be established to flesh out the details of the preliminary pact and draft a law creating a new Muslim-administered region by 2015 and pave the way for the signing of a final peace deal the following year, when President Benigno Aquino III's term ends, according to Iqbal.
Iqbal earlier told The Associated Press that his group would not lay down its weapons until a final accord is concluded, adding that insurgents could form a political party and run in democratic elections to get a chance at leading the autonomous region for which they have been fighting.
In 2008, the planned signing of a preliminary pact was scuttled when opponents went to the Supreme Court, which declared the agreement unconstitutional, prompting three rebel commanders to attack Christian communities in the south. The attacks and an ensuing military offensive killed more than 100 people and displaced about 750,000 villagers before a cease-fire ended the violence. | <urn:uuid:2a5f9375-468d-4c2b-b759-1f2f55ef9a98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yorkdispatch.com/nation/ci_21679686/philippines-muslim-rebels-close-peace-deal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960948 | 632 | 1.5625 | 2 |
On Sunday, June 10, 2012 Japan's nuclear safety commission effectively approved the restart of two reactors at the Ohi nuclear plant. The units would be the first Japanese reactors to restart since the Fukushima accident in March 2011.
Although a number of industry analysts view the restart as a bullish sign for the global nuclear industry, we remain cautious and believe that at this stage the decision lacks conviction and is not a credible catalyst for nuclear equities:
- The Ohi reactor restarts are driven by commercial reasons aiming to diminish upcoming power shortages this summer. In an unusual move, Prime Minister Noda went on national television prior to the approvals to stress that Japan needs electrical output from nuclear reactors. But with most Japanese opinion polls favoring reduced dependence on nuclear and a relatively short shelf life of Japanese Prime Ministers, timely restart of the remaining nuclear fleet is anything but certain.
- The government is looking to develop a new national energy policy and has not yet defined long-term nuclear energy targets. We expect more details to appear at the end of this summer, but it is likely to target reduced reliance on nuclear energy in the 15%-20% range of total electricity generation (vs. 30% prior to Fukushima). Such a decline in the nuclear share of electricity generation would certainly be less than bullish. In addition, lack of long-term commitment from the central government would make approval from local municipalities significantly more challenging and further delay larger scale restarts.
We should look for more clarity on Japan's long-term energy policy and improvement in public sentiment as a more definitive positive catalyst. In the meanwhile the uncertainty will likely to continue to be an overhang on the performance of nuclear equities, including industry broad ETFs (NLR, URA, NUCL, PKN) and major industry participants (CCJ, PALAF.PK, SXRZF.PK).
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. | <urn:uuid:26bdb24e-e455-4094-816e-2aeb4661cb37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/656371-japan-s-nuclear-restart-lacks-conviction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938818 | 402 | 1.625 | 2 |
Hints and Tips for Your Book Club Discussion
Created By: BookBundlz
Book clubs are started for many reasons: to explore literature, to have one night a month where you can get together with your friends, to make new friends, to expand your horizons and explore books you might not have chosen for yourself, to have one night a month where you get to enjoy someone else's cooking, to broaden your appreciation for what you are reading, to be able to enjoy a glass of wine without finding a lego in the bottom of the glass, and many other reasons. Presumably though, at some point during the book club gathering there will be a discussion about the book.
The degree to which your book club is focused on the book varies from club to club. We know book clubs that MIGHT discuss the book for a bit between bites, sips and gossiping, and book clubs with strict "only talk about the book" policies. For the most part though, most of the book clubs lie somewhere in between - focusing on the book and allowing socializing too. Actually getting around to talking about the book can sometimes be a tough task. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to get the discussion started and to keep it going in a polite and fun manner.
Hints and Tips for your book discussion:
1. Download the Discussion Questions/Reading Guides
The fastest and easiest way we know how to structure your book club discussion is with reading guides and discussions questions. They conveniently provide talking points for your group to go over. We search out and gather as many new book guides as we can each month on BookBundlz. Go to Reading Guide/Discussion Questions Page to find possible discussion guides for your book.
If you can't find your book's reading guide there? See who the publisher is for your book and try their website. If you still don't have any luck, download BB's "Discussion Questions for any Book." for many great discussion points.
Fun idea: Some clubs have everyone come with a couple of questions they would like to ask or discuss. Have people pull the questions out of a hat or bowl to engage everyone. This is a great way to make the conversation even more tailored towards your specific book club's interests.
2. Set a time limit or structure for the evening.
It is best if a structure is agreed upon by the entire group ahead of time or during your first book club meeting. Keeping things loose and just seeing how the night goes seems like a open minded plan, but can often lead to frustration on the part of both book lovers and socializers. Some clubs start with a book discussion and save the socializing for when they are eating afterwards or vice versa. Others have mandatory "ONLY book talk for the first hour" policies and then they can move onto different topics. Some clubs we have talked to have two meeting times. Say, 6:00 for people who want to discuss the book, and 7:00 for people who just want to socialize. All options can help to please the diversity of any group. By creating a fun and structured environment for everyone...book lovers know ahead of time that indeed there will be a book discussion and when it will take place so they can also enjoy the socializing. And the socializers know they will have time to catch up so they will enjoy the discussion more.
3. Assign a Discussion Leader
Assigning a member to be the discussion leader can help keep the structure, flow and fun. The leader can gently steer the conversation back to the book. Typically, the discussion leader is the host for the evening, but some book clubs do assign this to be one person's task. As your book club grows, this can become a more essential role for the club - as with more people, more chaos can come about.
A designated facilitator for the group allows for steering the conversation back to the book. In the case of unwanted tangents, a good pause in the conversation can be the discussion leaders best friend. See the pause and pounce on it! Ask, "Does anyone have anything more to add about this discussion question. If not, let's move on to the next question..."
If the pause just doesn't seem to be coming and the book lovers of the group are starting to look annoyed. Jump in and remind the group of whatever structure you have already determined. Say something like, "You know, I think we could talk all night about _____! In order to get through the book discussion, do you mind if we resume this topic after?"
When all else fails, you may need to decide if the agreed upon structure for the group still works, and adapt accordingly to the needs and enjoyment of the group.
4. Set some rules for discussions.
Although you should come up with your own set of rules of exchange for your reading group, we have a couple here that might help get you started:
• What happens in Book Club stays in Book Club - Share your thoughts, enjoy your conversations, and create a free and fun environment where everyone knows it won't be water cooler talk the next morning.
• Book Club Discussion time is not therapy - Although at times we all go through crisis and life changing moments that consume our thoughts, it's best to restrict your talking about such things during your social time or not at all. The other members of your group have come to book club to explore books and relax and spend time with friends.
• Comment on the comments or the book, not the person making them - Keep your comments on the discussion points being talked about or the book in general - not about the person making them. Nothing should be personal. The fun of good book club discussion is in the different points of view.You may not agree with a statement that was previously made about the book, but don't take that statement as a generalization about the person making it. Instead you might say something like, "I had not thought about it that way. I interpreted it differently. I thought...."
• Be Respectful - Even if you might be thinking someone has said something completely idiotic - remember to mind your manners! Everyone's comments and thoughts deserve consideration and a respectful response.
With all of these ideas, it is best if you can go over the different topics at the onset of your book club so that all can be in agreement to how the club will be run and how much book discussions will actually be a part of the get together. We hope you have a great discussion! | <urn:uuid:82612aa5-028c-4d10-b1ae-8964ce2ed8e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookbundlz.com/BBArticle.aspx?articleId=52 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961551 | 1,333 | 1.796875 | 2 |
December 2009by Various
$3.00 Add to Cart
For more than thirty years, Tabletalk has existed as a magazine for laymen. Generally speaking, laymen receive either very little instruction in the weightier matters of the faith, or the instruction is far too academic, thereby making the material largely inaccessible to average person. This is the reason Tabletalk exists — to bridge the gap between these two poles, to explain to the people of God important, biblical doctrines and events while admonishing them toward holy living.
For this reason, we will continue to focus on significant themes of the Christian faith, like, for example, the already/not yet, or, how the kingdom of God has been inaugurated but has not yet been consummated. This is the theme of the December 2009 issue of Tabletalk, which intends to look carefully at this theme and how over-emphasis on one side or the other almost always leads to serious error. In the process, we hope to offer a correct view of living in this time between the times.
Contributors include R.C. Sproul along with Anthony J. Carter, Keith A. Mathison, Robert L. Reymond, Guy M. Richard, R.C. Sproul Jr., Jason J. Stellman, Gene Edward Veith, and R. Fowler White. Tabletalk features articles about topics central to the Christian faith and daily, in-depth Bible studies.
The 2009 Bible studies look at the apostle Paul’s life and thought in a study of the books the frame his career: Galatians, the very first letter he wrote, and 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, the last epistles to come from him. | <urn:uuid:3b342e2b-9458-46c9-ba02-49c6c48e7b4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ligonier.org/store/december-2009-tabletalk-magazine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948249 | 351 | 1.703125 | 2 |
zangskar wrote:In my opinion it's not a very big issue to accept the teachings of rebirth. I don't find the idea in any way harder to accept than the competing ideas of a) we go to heaven or hell after one life only, or b) we die and it's all gone, there is nothing that goes on, etc. All that is really needed is to accept that we don't know, and neither are we likely to be able to know - well not until we actually die. So it is not a big issue and we can simply give it the benefit of the doubt.
To you who have no predilection for a certain system of competing beliefs it isn't.
However, there are many reasons why some people resist to the idea of rebirth. Some, even without noticing, have been indoctrinated to think in a certain way by their education or the media. Others are more prone to resist because they fear being looked at as gullible by others who consider everything beyond metaphysical naturalism superstition. A certain mentality has developed which states that among educated people, publicly one should reject the belief in anything that has the faintest smell of supernatural (a definition I don't like, since I find rebirth as natural as gravity). There are many reasons, but you can't really find them in the data itself. The fact that technology is a great success and derives from a science that has been operating under materialistic assumptions blinds us to the fact that it still has produced no answers to the explanation, definition, origin or fate of consciousness and this is not a problem due to the lack of technology, but results from a deficient paradigm. I could go on and on discussing this, but I find no use to continue as it is a bit off topic.
It seems that we can find out through meditation if there is a rebirth or not, so we don't necessarily have to die. The idea that meditation doesn't give us any insight regarding the nature of reality is not correct, at least according to the Buddhist teachings.
But it's a very different issue once it gets down to actual claims of previous lives. This is where something that was a relatively abstract notion all of a sudden becomes very concrete, for everyone to see, if claims are made public.
If an empirical claim is made, it is only reasonable that people will want to scrutinize and investigate. If some "fault" appears here then it is not difficult to see that it may feed the fire of doubt, and not just the teaching of rebirth but the entire teaching possibly brought in question. So I think it is important that people do not stretch claims to concrete knowledge, and do not confuse knowledge with some subjective feeling, or with having faith in the teaching.
There seems to be the case that some claims were investigated and only with extremely far fetched theories could the possibility of rebirth be dismissed. It's not that there is no investigation. There has been and the data is there, but then comes the interpretation of data and that's where we find different explanations. In some cases, simply admitting that the current paradigm doesn't allow a plausible explanation seems the most intellectually honest behavior. Instead, now and then we see incredible justifications just to sustain a certain metaphysical paradigm. It's not that most scientists think this way, but those who militantly do make a lot of noise. These areas aren't profitable, so funds for research aren't easily available. Why things are like this is neither a mystery nor it comes from the data gathered, but has more to do with history of science and sociology than anything else.
All in all, I think proving rebirth would mess with the world in such a way that we would see a change happening from economics to philosophy. There are many people to whom the definitive proof of rebirth would become their worst nightmare. If people started acting fully aware that their negative actions would bare inescapable negative consequences, even when others didn't find out, the world would suffer a hell of a change. For the better, I think. If we knew, as clear as dropping an object and see it falling, that we can't escape the consequences of our actions (because we are tired of knowing about crooks who end up never being caught for their crimes, and some actions by people in power that send entire countries to starvation are not even considered criminal and so on and so forth) we would watch a whole new kind of behavior being adopted. Most people, even religious people, think that they can get away with it somehow. Knowing they can't, they would think twice before acting immorally.
All the best, | <urn:uuid:a6eb15f2-294a-45ed-871b-210b0526228e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=62849 | 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 | 0.979293 | 941 | 1.539063 | 2 |
JAMA. 2012 Jun 6;307 (21):2261-2 22706830
Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA. firstname.lastname@example.org
Most cited papers:
Mathematica Policy Research, Washington, DC 20024, USA.
BACKGROUND Despite the growth of managed care in the United States, there is little information about the arrangements managed-care plans make with physicians. METHODS In 1994 we surveyed by telephone 138 managed-care plans that were selected from 20 metropolitan areas nationwide. Of the 108 plans that responded, 29 were group-model or staff-model health maintenance organizations (HMOs), 50 were network or independent-practice-association (IPA) HMOs, and 29 were preferred-provider organizations (PPOs). RESULTS Respondents from all three types of plan said they emphasized careful selection of physicians, although the group or staff HMOs tended to have more demanding requirements, such as board certification or eligibility. Sixty-one percent of the plans responded that physicians' previous patterns of costs or utilization of resources had little influence on their selection; 26 percent said these factors had a moderate influence; and 13 percent said they had a large influence. Some risk sharing with physicians was typical in the HMOs but rare in the PPOs. Fifty-six percent of the network or IPA HMOs used capitation as the predominant method of paying primary care physicians, as compared with 34 percent of the group or staff HMOs and 7 percent of the PPOs. More than half the HMOs reported adjusting payments according to utilization or cost patterns, patient complaints, and measures of the quality of care. Ninety-two percent of the network or IPA HMOs and 61 percent of the group or staff HMOs required their patients to select a primary care physician, who was responsible for most referrals to specialists. About three quarters of the HMOs and 31 percent of the PPOs reported using studies of the outcomes of medical care as part of their quality-improvement programs. CONCLUSIONS Managed-care plans, particularly HMOs, have complex systems for selecting, paying, and monitoring their physicians. Hybrid forms are common, and the differences between group or staff HMOs and network or IPA HMOs are less extensive than is commonly assumed.
Boston University, MA, USA.
Using 1991-92 data for a 5-percent Medicare sample, we develop, estimate, and evaluate risk-adjustment models that utilize diagnostic information from both inpatient and ambulatory claims to adjust payments for aged and disabled Medicare enrollees. Hierarchical coexisting conditions (HCC) models achieve greater explanatory power than diagnostic cost group (DCG) models by taking account of multiple coexisting medical conditions. Prospective models predict average costs of individuals with chronic conditions nearly as well as concurrent models. All models predict medical costs far more accurately than the current health maintenance organization (HMO) payment formula.
Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE): an innovative model of integrated geriatric care and financing.
On Lok, Inc., San Francisco, CA 94109, USA.
OBJECTIVES The Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) is a long-term care delivery and financing innovation. A major goal of PACE is prevention of unnecessary use of hospital and nursing home care. SETTING PACE serves enrollees in day centers and clinics, their homes, hospitals and nursing homes. Beginning at On Lok in San Francisco, the PACE model has been successfully replicated across the country. In 1995, PACE was fully operational in 11 cities in nine states. PARTICIPANTS To enroll in PACE, a person must be 55 years of age or older, be certified by the state as eligible for care in a nursing home and live in the program's defined geographical catchment area. PACE participants are ethnically diverse. In 1995, the average PACE enrollee was 80.0 years old and had an average of 7.8 medical conditions and 2.7 dependencies in Activities of Daily Living. A significant number have bladder incontinence (55%). Many enrollees (39%) live alone in the community, and 14% have no means of informal support. INTERVENTION Medicare and Medicaid waivers allow delivery of services beyond the usual Medicare and Medicaid benefits. The PACE service delivery system is comprehensive, uses an interdisciplinary team for care management, and integrates primary and specialty medical care. PACE receives monthly capitation payments from Medicare and Medicaid. Patients ineligible for Medicaid pay privately. RESULTS Outcomes of PACE programs have been positive. There has been steady census growth, good consumer satisfaction, reduction in use of institutional care, controlled utilization of medical services, and cost savings to public and private payers of care, including Medicare and Medicaid. However, starting up a PACE program requires substantial time and capital, and the model has not yet attracted large numbers of older middle income adults. CONCLUSION The growing number of older people in the United States challenges healthcare providers and policy makers alike to provide high quality care in an environment of shrinking resources. The PACE model's comprehensiveness of health and social services, its cost-effective coordinated system of care delivery, and its method of integrated financing have wide applicability and appeal.
CONTEXT: Trust is the cornerstone of the patient-physician relationship. Payment methods that place physicians at financial risk have raised concerns about patients' trust in physicians to act in patients' best interests. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the extent to which methods of physician payment are related to patient trust. DESIGN: Cross-sectional telephone interview survey done between January and June 1997. SETTING: Health plans of a large national insurer in Atlanta, Ga, the Baltimore, Md-Washington, DC, area, and Orlando, Fla. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2086 adult managed care and indemnity patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: A 10-item scale (alpha =.94) assessing patients' trust in physicians. RESULTS: More fee-for-service (FFS) indemnity patients (94%) completely or mostly trust their physicians to "put their health and well-being above keeping down the health plan's costs" than salary (77%), capitated (83%), or FFS managed care patients (85%)(P<.001 for pairwise comparisons). In multivariate analyses that adjusted for potentially confounding factors, FFS indemnity patients also had higher scores on the 10-item trust scale than salary (P<.001), capitated (P<.001), or FFS managed care patients (P<.01). The effects of payment method on patient trust were reduced when a measure based on patients' reports about physician behavior (eg, Does your physician take enough time to answer your questions?) was included in the regression analyses, but the differences remained statistically significant, except for the comparison between FFS managed care and FFS indemnity patients (P=.08). Patients' perceptions of how their physicians were paid were not independently associated with trust, but the 37.7% who said they did not know how their physicians were paid had higher levels of trust than other patients (P<.01). A total of 30.2% of patients were incorrect about their physicians' method of payment. CONCLUSIONS: Most patients trusted their physicians, but FFS indemnity patients have higher levels of trust than salary, capitated, or FFS managed care patients. Patients' reports of physician behavior accounted for part of the variation in patients' trust in physicians who are paid differently. The impact of payment methods on patient trust may be mediated partly by physician behavior.
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-4283.
Do financial incentives used by health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to restrain the use of health care resources represent a conflict of interest between physicians' concern about their income and their concern about patients? To explore the contractual obligations of primary care physicians in HMOs, I mailed a survey to all 595 HMOs known to be in operation as of June 1986. In all, 302 of 595 HMOs (51 percent) responded. Sixty-seven percent of plans with capitation-based arrangements and 82 percent of plans with fee-for-service arrangements withhold a percentage of their physicians' income against potential deficits, but only 21 percent of plans with salaried physicians do so. Thirty percent of HMOs have other penalties in addition to this withholding. Eighteen percent of HMOs base the return of the withheld amount on the experience of individual physicians rather than on the collective experience of a group of physicians. For-profit HMOs are less likely to use salary-based payment, more likely to withhold a percentage of income, and more likely to base the return of this withheld amount on the experience of individual physicians. Most HMOs have mechanisms for sharing surpluses with participating physicians. I conclude that contractual arrangements in HMOs vary widely. Certain financial incentives, especially when used in combination, suggest conflicts of interest that may influence physicians' behavior and adversely affect the quality of care.
Gregory C Pope, John Kautter, Randall P Ellis, Arlene S Ash, John Z Ayanian, Lisa I Lezzoni, Melvin J Ingber, Jesse M Levy, John Robst
RTI International, Waltham, MA 02452, USA. email@example.com
This article describes the CMS hierarchical condition categories (HCC) model implemented in 2004 to adjust Medicare capitation payments to private health care plans for the health expenditure risk of their enrollees. We explain the model's principles, elements, organization, calibration, and performance. Modifications to reduce plan data reporting burden and adaptations for disabled, institutionalized, newly enrolled, and secondary payer subpopulations are discussed.
Primary care physicians' approach to depressive disorders. Effects of physician specialty and practice structure.
BACKGROUND: Because primary care physicians (PCPs) are the initial health care contact for most patients with depression, they are in a unique position to provide early detection and integrated care for persons with depression and coexisting medical illness. Despite this opportunity, care for depression is often suboptimal. OBJECTIVE: To better understand how to design interventions to improve care, we examine PCPs' approach to recognition and management and the effects of physician specialty and degree of capitation on barriers to care for 3 common depressive disorders. METHODS: A 53-item questionnaire was mailed to 3375 randomly selected subjects, divided equally among family physicians, general internists, and obstetrician-gynecologists. The questionnaire assessed reported diagnosis and treatment practices for each subject's most recent patient recognized to have major or minor depression or dysthymia and barriers to the recognition and treatment of depression. Eligible physicians were PCPs who worked at least half-time seeing outpatients for longitudinal care. RESULTS: Of 2316 physicians with known eligibility, 1350 (58.3%) returned the questionnaire. Respondents were family physicians (n = 621), general internists (n = 474), and obstetrician-gynecologists (n = 255). The PCPs report recognition and evaluation practices related to their most recent case as follows: recognition by routine questioning or screening for depression (9%), diagnosis based on formal criteria (33.7%), direct questioning about suicide (58%), and assessment for substance abuse (68.1%) or medical causes of depression (84.1%). Reported treatment practices were watchful waiting only (6.1%), PCP counseling for more than 5 minutes (39.7%), antidepressant medication prescription (72.5%), and mental health referral (38.4%). Diagnostic evaluation and treatment approaches varied significantly by specialty but not by the type of depression or degree of capitation. Physician barriers differed by specialty more than by degree of capitation. In contrast, organizational barriers, such as time for an adequate history and the affordability of mental health professionals, differed by degree of capitation more than by physician specialty. Patient barriers were common but did not vary by physician specialty or degree of capitation. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of PCPs report diagnostic and treatment approaches that are consistent with high-quality care. Differences in approach were associated more with specialty than with type of depressive disorder or degree of capitation. Quality improvement efforts need to (1) be tailored for different physician specialties,(2) emphasize the importance of differentiating major depression from other depressive disorders and tailoring the treatment approach accordingly, and (3) address organizational barriers to best practice and knowledge gaps about depression treatment.
Managed care and capitation in California: how do physicians at financial risk control their own utilization?
Department of Medicine, University of California, School of Medicine, Los Angeles 90095-1736, USA.
OBJECTIVE To describe the structure and range of utilization management methods initiated by physicians in response to capitation. DESIGN Cross-sectional questionnaire. SETTING A large network-model health maintenance organization (133 contracting physician groups) in California. PARTICIPANTS 94 (71%) physician groups caring for 2.9 million capitated patients. MEASUREMENTS Self-reported use of five major utilization management methods. RESULTS All physician groups reported using gate-keeping and preauthorization for certain referrals or tests. Most also used profiling of utilization patterns (79%), guidelines (70%), and managed care education (69%). Most physician groups asked gatekeepers to submit preauthorization requests for specialty referrals and restricted patient self-referral. For example, 60% of groups required preauthorization for an internal medicine subspecialty referral, and 7% allowed patient self-referral. Most groups also asked gatekeepers to obtain preauthorization for many tests (for example, 95% for magnetic resonance imaging and 53% for pulmonary function tests). Preauthorization requests were denied infrequently (less than 10% of the time) by more than 75% of groups. Of the 54 groups reporting utilization profiles to their physicians, 61% never adjusted for case-mix among patients and more than 60% suggested practice changes to their physicians based on utilization. Fewer than 35% of the groups used written guidelines for expensive tests that required preauthorization (such as angiography). CONCLUSIONS Physicians are responding to capitation by using utilization management techniques, some at early stages of development, that were previously used only by insurers. This physician-initiated management approach represents a fundamental transformation in the practice of medicine. | <urn:uuid:e50f7d23-4260-49cb-b243-ccc3db176514> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lib.bioinfo.pl/meid:169392 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95196 | 3,003 | 1.578125 | 2 |
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Romney Team Spins of the Positives of Cayman Island Accounts
Mitt Romney's 2010 tax returns show that in 2010, Romney and his wife, Ann, paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent on $21.6 million in income -- much lower than the 35 percent the country's top wage-earners pay -- and hold millions of dollars in multiple offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven. The official spin is that the Cayman accounts provide no particular tax advantage, that they pay higher interest rates and help "attract foreign investors." Romney's campaign counsel, Ben Ginsburg, assured journalists that Romney was in full compliance with U.S. tax laws, and Brad Malt, who operates the Romneys' blind trust, said Romney's Cayman funds are fully taxable and reported to the IRS. That may be so, but Rebecca Wilkins, a tax policy expert with Citizens for Tax Justice, points out that the federal government loses about $100 billion a year to just such foreign tax havens. Wilkins affirmed that the primary advantage to investors of setting up funds in places like the Cayman Islands is to help people avoid taxes. Jack Blum, a Washington, D.C. attorney who specializes in offshore banking and tax enforcement, said offshore investment vehicles allow investors to "avoid a whole series of small traps in the tax code that ordinary people would face if they paid tax on an onshore basis." | <urn:uuid:a2a73757-05e9-4940-981a-803de6363b85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prwatch.org/spin/2012/01/11258/romney-team-spins-positives-cayman-island-accounts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940852 | 311 | 1.726563 | 2 |
A senior healthcare adviser to Mitt Romney said a Republican HHS secretary could use the 2010 federal healthcare law to improve the nation's healthcare.
Mike Leavitt, the former secretary of HHS under President George W. Bush and current Romney adviser, said the federal government's historic $15 trillion debt will drive “hard” changes in healthcare system to reduce its costs. Those changes, including moving across healthcare from a fee-for-service model to outcomes based payment, may be facilitated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Romney has repeatedly urged repeal and replacement of the law.
The law “gives the secretary authority to do certain things that are clearly aimed at trying to move us in this direction,” he said in a brief interview after addressing a Washington gathering of the Cancer Action Network. “A lot of it will depend on how aggressively the secretary chooses to use the authorities in the law to move us in that direction.”
Leavitt said he doubted HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will use her new authorities under the law to implement the changes that are needed to control the ever-higher national debt.
Government-led changes he advocates included initiatives similar to Medicare's Part D prescription drug program, in which the federal government helps to “organize an efficient market,” and the establishment of health insurance exchanges.
“Why will they happen? It's a logical solution to a problem we've struggled with for a long time for individuals and small groups,” Leavitt said. | <urn:uuid:56061072-0867-4992-9fa9-bc1be12213a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20120228/NEWS/302289987/leavitt-sees-use-for-reform-law-in-gop-hands | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958321 | 311 | 1.632813 | 2 |
If predictions from Roy Chen, processor-maker ARM's worldwide mobile computing ODM manager, come true then we're going to see a whole lot of tablet computers in 2010. The exec said that he reckons there'll be more than 50 launched globally this year.
"The first tablet devices will launch in the second quarter by [mobile network] carriers", he said, during a press meeting, adding: "you'll see a lot more in the third quarter". Most are due to be launched in China, but a selection are likely to make it to the UK too. The inspiration, apparently, has been Apple's iPad plans.
ARM may know more than most about the plans of tech companies. As one of the first destinations for manufacturers planning the specs of new gadgets, the company gets to see an awful lot of prototypes. The big question is - what will the tablets run? Android, Linux, or Windows? | <urn:uuid:d84748f5-04fc-49c5-a9bf-85cdc97d1068> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/102702-arm-50-tablets-in-2010 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952827 | 186 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Materials-handling equipment, spurred on by advances in radio frequency technology, ergonomic considerations and more complex distribution system requirements, is no longer taking a back seat in the quest for heightened efficiency.
The supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link, a factor driving a growing number of retailers and wholesalers to upgrade their arsenal of materials-handling equipment, distributors told SN.
"If one area is not working efficiently, it could bog down other areas. Materials-handling equipment is as important as information systems, and both are as important as the people in the warehouse. Everything has to work together," said Corwin Karaffa, vice president of distribution, Certified Grocers of California, Los Angeles.
In just the last four months, Certified has upgraded its forklift fleet with both stand-up and traditional equipment. The investment was necessary because of the age of the existing equipment. "Reducing my equipment maintenance costs was a primary reason," Karaffa said.
Certified is also stepping up communications by installing radio frequency terminals on each of its lift trucks, he added.
"Three of our four warehouses have had the equipment mounted, but in some locations we still have lift trucks from 1985. We will be updating and improving our fleet over the next three to four years.
"I'm trying to get on a schedule where I am continually replacing and updating rather than buying everything at once and then having to retire everything at the same time," Karaffa said.
The marriage of information technology with materials-handling equipment, combined with the industry's strong emphasis on boosting productivity and cutting costs in all areas of the supply chain, has underscored the importance of all types of warehouse equipment, said Dennis Slater, safety and maintenance manager, Brookshire Grocery Co., Tyler, Texas.
"We know what our stores need in order to maintain their stock levels. If we don't have the equipment to get it there, what's the sense in getting the order?" Slater said.
To respond to the these issues, Brookshire this year began investing in new pallet jacks and forklifts.
"We especially looked at the maintenance costs of the equipment. We have some forklifts from 1960, and if we used them in a high production area, maintenance costs would go through the roof," he said.
Ergonomics also influenced the buying decision and prompted the firm this year to purchase propane-driven forklift equipment.
"We decided to buy a couple of propane forklifts. We looked at six different models, and the reason we chose the model we did was not cost or warranty, but because our operators liked it the best. They felt it was more comfortable and easier to get on to and off of. "Price-wise it was not the cheapest, but it also was not the most expensive. We evaluated the models from a maintenance standpoint, including cost of replacement parts and warranty. But the biggest emphasis was on what operators felt about it. Noise level and control layout were also considerations," Slater said.
City Market, Grand Junction, Colo., has updated some of its materials-handling equipment in the last two years, said Ed Crandall, maintenance supervisor. The 39-unit chain is part of Kroger Co., Cincinnati.
The most recently acquired equipment is designed to address ergonomic concerns, he said.
"The new ergonomic designs help reduce injuries from repetitive motion. Companies need to stay upgraded. A lot of equipment available now is better than what was out there four to five years ago. It focuses on ergonomics, such as how the arms rest and how the hand fits and turns the handle," Crandall said.
The chain is not planning wide-scale changes and upgrades in its materials-handling equipment, but is looking at testing some new technology, such as radio frequency to transmit orders electronically to forklift operators.
While the need to upgrade of materials-handling equipment is now a prime focus in boosting productivity, distributors are also taking a closer look at several other related warehousing issues in a bid to cut costs and enhance operations.
Certified of California, for example, not only is replacing and upgrading its forklift fleet, but also addressing some ergonomic concerns by making greater use of plastic pallets and automatic shrink-wrapping equipment for shipping some products, Karaffa said.
Traditional wooden pallets can weigh up to 70 pounds, vs. just 20 pounds for plastic pallets. Also, the plastic pallets are nestable and can be stacked 20 high, while wooden pallets can be stacked only eight to 10 pallets high, he said.
"Plastic pallets are a big improvement to the warehouse in terms of order selection and distribution. They also help retailers because they provide a better platform, occupy less space and are easier to handle," Karaffa said.
"Employees suffer less back strain from handling the plastic pallets, and shrink-wrapping provides better load control for shipping. The drivers don't have to spend as much time hand-stacking cases that then may topple over in the truck," he added.
Ergonomic considerations prompted Nash Finch Co., Minneapolis, to switch its reach truck supplier 18 months ago, said Warren Frank, manager of warehouse productivity and equipment for the wholesaler's 20 distribution centers.
The previous model featured a straight-ahead stand in which the operator stood facing the pallet load, but had to turn around to see anything else. The new reach trucks now being used have a side stand that allows the operator to see both ways much more easily. "It provides a greater field of vision to see oncoming traffic," Frank said.
How the warehouse is slotted is also a crucial ergonomic consideration, he added.
"For example, if 40-pound cases of tomato juice are stacked on the floor, a lot of bending and stooping could be required and increase the risk of back injury. We now have a computer program that helps us in slotting more intelligently to reduce risk of injury," Frank said.
"The system makes sure that we put the heaviest products at the most appropriate heights. As a result, there is much less stooping, bending or reaching overhead required, thus reducing the risk of back injury or product damage.
"The lighter items are put up higher or down lower while the heavy items are placed at waist level. We've instituted this system within the past 12 months," he added.
Seaway Food Town, Maumee, Ohio, has also implemented a program to slot its warehouse more efficiently, said Doug Pope, vice president of warehousing.
"The warehouse is now laid out so the selector is not lifting the heavier part of our inventory over his waist. We've been moving toward an ergonomically-friendly slotting program for the last couple of years. It's an ongoing program that is being continually refined. But it's been very successful for us," Pope said.
Seaway is also in the process of integrating its current warehouse management systems with new technology such as radio frequency, he said.
"The goal is to become more efficient. It is a slow and evolving process that tends to be accomplished on a case-by-case basis. We may not be able to implement the entire system across the entire spectrum of what we carry, but we are doing things with certain vendors and classes of product, such as handling of seasonal products." | <urn:uuid:86fe69df-7d72-46d1-b9a1-359856b7b765> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://supermarketnews.com/print/archive/handling-charge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972209 | 1,524 | 1.601563 | 2 |
For close to two years project development and civc engagement at NIST for the National Strategy for Trusted Identity in Cyberspace (NSTIC) has been delegated to a body known as the Identity Ecosystem Steering Group or IDESG.
While there has been a moderate-to-high levels of concern that this project could evolve into a national ID system, the input has fallen on deaf ears. Two of the first 5 project pilots going out were for biometric online ID cards for smartphone port at US borders and machine readable passport conventions which included biometrics.
While the IDESG has a civic engagement structure, it became very apparent that the group’s oversight and development of these programs were not consistent with any concerns expressed over a national ID system. One of the reasons is that the group’s organizers are a federated biometric’s lobby, Trusted Federated ID.
None of the civic input expressed at these IDESG meetings will fall on accountable grounds. The input good or bad will be fielded by a biometrics lobby. Any input expressed at the IDESG group meetings would not be fielded by an actual government body accountable to the public.
A biometric lobby will only seek its own interests. It should not be in a place to field or invite public input as fake, unaccountable government. This is an egregious conflict of interest.
They and others recruited by their interests at IDESG have been asking the public to attend these meetings and have even been claiming they are a government body by some members.
A conflict of interest complaint has been submitted to the Dept of Commerce, Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
What you can do?
More on that here: Thunderclap: Don’t endorse #biometric govt. | <urn:uuid:381967f8-31c2-4e2f-b52b-d81c0f9a2f52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://anonymissexpress.tumblr.com/post/42462559862/for-close-to-two-years-project-development-and | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952385 | 371 | 1.59375 | 2 |
PARIS -- The classic alarm button worn around the necks of some 450,000 French seniors is starting to look dated. All over France, more cutting edge ways of calling for emergency help are being tested: tablets, sensors, and intelligent watches. Mere gadgets? Not really.
Surprising but true: the touch tablet is well-adapted to older people, even the least tech-oriented. No cables, no complicated data structures, just single-function touch points. The result is that tablets can be used as an all-purpose communication tool: to keep up with the news, check the weather, play games, or conduct video conference calls with ones children, grand-children, and home-bound friends.
The tablet is also useful in linking various care givers, from nurses to home health aides. Again, videoconferencing can be used for group calls with friends or doctors and to transmit physiological data -- such as weight and blood sugar level -- to doctors.
If the market is just emerging, the results look promising. Serviligne, founded in 2008, has installed several hundred tablets in Nice, Marseille, Strasbourg, and Grenoble. As a complementary service, the company provides each user with the name of an association that makes maintenance house-calls, Olivier Clément, Servilignes director, explains.
Competitor Intervox, which has been bought by Legrand, the world leader in electric sockets, has for several months been conducting tests with tablets involving 300 people in Creuse. And in Haute-Vienne, an invitation to bid has been launched to equip several hundred households. Orange Labs also has a special senior tablet, as does the start-up Ezodis. Ezodis premiered its "TVsentiel" terminal in 25 homes in Val-de-Marne with the backing of the Val-de-Marne General Council.
And Japanese giant Toshiba, which leads a consortium in the Bas-Rhin, has just equipped some 15 retirement homes. This ambitious experimental project, geared to future telemedical plans, is considered to be "a global test that could be duplicated in Japan as well as other European countries, says Jeannot Allouche, who is piloting the project. The cost to each person is between 40 and 60 euros a month. A prerequisite is that the home already be connected to the Internet and have an Orange, Free, Numericable, Darty or other modem (cost around 30 euros per month).
High-tech help is on the way
Every year, 450,000 seniors who have suffered falls end up in the emergency room. Falls are the first cause of death by accident for those over 65. Available from Legrand is a light path for home use made up of several infrared sensors mounted on the walls to activate the lights when a person gets up during the night, to go to the toilet for example. The system, which was trial-tested in Creuse, reduced the number of falls by 30% and costs a few hundred euros.
Its competitor Osram, in partnership with Diroy, has come up with a universal foot board called Sweet Light that is slated to be launched in January 2012. It consists of a movement sensor and lighting and costs 150 euros. When the room is dark, one foot out of bed and the lighting goes on. Versions that function both day and night are also available.
They arent any larger than a coin and can be installed anywhere in the house. They can also be worn. Thus, captors that record a serious fall, or activity, are worn on the wrist like a watch. The bracelet may contain a shock detector, an accelerometer that measures the speed of movements, and a pressure sensor. At the least sign of something unusual, a signal is sent to the monitoring center. Among those selling the devices are Orange, Toshiba, General Electric, Intervox, Vivago, and Senioralerte.
At the least sign of something unusual, a signal is sent to the monitoring center. Other sensors mounted on the walls detect certain gases (carbon monoxide, butane, propane), smoke, flooding, or drops in temperature. A classic assistance plan costs around 20 euros a month plus an additional charge per sensor installed.
Already well-installed in the United States and the UK, electronic pill dispensers are also making their way into seniors daily lives in France. Four times a day, a dispenser bell rings reminding the person to take their medication. If they dont, the bell sounds again.
But dont these objects, conceived as aids for medical or social service teams, risk dehumanizing the daily life of older people even more? Experiments show that, contrary to expectations, older people are fairly open to such aids if they are paired with human contact. The problems lie elsewhere.
The new technologies are in the process of revolutionizing the balance of inter-generational relationships. "People have to accept relating to the older members of the family in different ways," says Didier Courquin of Intervox. Some older folks with tablets think their tablets are malfunctioning because having sent e-mails to their children or grandchildren they fail to get a response.
Read more from Le Monde in French
Photo - Ollie Grafoord | <urn:uuid:d766d320-f40e-45f5-b4f5-25dd70f6497e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldcrunch.com/tech-science/from-touch-pads-to-electronic-pill-dispensers-old-folks-turn-to-new-tech/c4s4065/ | 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 | 0.94756 | 1,085 | 1.828125 | 2 |
It sounds scandalous, but can Granny Smith cross pollinate with a Honey Crisp? Actually, it’s not a scandal. It’s a legitimate question posed to plant expert John Fech during the Channel 6 News Midday newscast Thursday.
To see the answer to that question, and others, click the video link to this story.
Among the other questions:
Someone severely pruned by my hydrangea a few years ago and it did not do well. This year, I did not touch it. Now it’s full of buds. Should I wait until the fall to do anything?
What should I use in my garden to boost the nutrients? Compost, hummus?
Is it possible to cut my spirea down to the ground now?
Designed by Gray Digital Media | <urn:uuid:d2ea02dc-f90e-4ad4-8bfa-26943a76d273> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Plant_Expert_Answers_Your_Questions_150981985.html?site=mobile | 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 | 0.944296 | 173 | 1.507813 | 2 |
A recent comScore report found that mobile has now reached mass penetration, with adoption now in the “late majority” stage of the technology lifecycle. But while mobile consumers have now really begun to integrate their devices into their daily lives, most advertisers remain stuck in the early-adoption phase of mobile marketing. But there is a group of early innovator advertisers who were among the first to try mobile, that are now moving onto more sophisticated targeting techniques.
For the most part, these early mobile advertisers have moved beyond broad-based awareness strategies and have started to embrace the value of identifying and targeting their audiences using mobile-specific targeting techniques while others are still using standard geo-targeting methods commonly used in more traditional media channels such as desktop and radio. To stay on top of this quickly evolving trend, it’s important to understand the different types of mobile targeting available, the tactics in use, the technologies that make them possible, and when they are most appropriate to use in your mobile advertising strategies.
Breaking Down Standard Location vs. Geo-Precision Targeting
Standard location targeting is a basic and well-known method of audience targeting which relies on static location data such as ZIP code, city or DMA to focus advertisements within specific geographic areas. While this method is the simplest of geo-targeting techniques, it can also be the most effective for certain types of businesses or campaigns. A recent study by Verve Mobile found that campaigns leveraging location targeting perform twice as well as other targeting techniques. An effective application of this type of strategy would be raising awareness among a more general audience within the confines of a specific area. It is also the mobile geo-targeting method that best aligns with other targeting techniques used across other media channels. In fact, standard location targeting is the most granular location targeting available today in desktop, demonstrating inherent limitations of the medium in our mobile age.
Geo-precision targeting, however, allows advertisers to move beyond the limits of traditional targeting techniques in order to more granularly target their audience based on the user’s specific location (or the exact location of particular points of interest). This type of targeting has proven effective for businesses whose goal is to raise awareness for a specific offering, product, service or events — but targeted to very specific local audience. This has proven to be highly effective in affecting mobile user decisions in the lower part of the purchase funnel by inciting location actions (such as driving in-store traffic and ultimately offline sales).
Place-based Audience Targeting
Place-based targeting allows advertisers to reach mobile users that are in or around specific business locations (as described in the grocery example above). Typically this targeting is combined with a technique called geofencing, which is the identification and creation of a virtual boundary around a physical geographic location via mobile location data such as GPS or wi-fi. Place-based targeting requires accurate user location data to ensure users are reached at the specific moment in time when they cross into a virtually fenced area.
An example of place-based targeting was leveraged by Calvin Klein in an effort to increase local market awareness and promote the brand’s latest line. The fashion brand geofenced Macy’s locations during store hours in order to drive in-store traffic to the major department store which carries the Calvin Klein line. The implementation of a place-based targeting strategy resulted in a 26% lift in CTR over the client’s benchmark, and helped to increase local sales during the length of the campaign. These results were strengthened even further in a recent report by Google that found mobile queries related to shopping are 2x more likely to be conducted in the store, and so they are most likely to take notice of the mobile ads when they are inside that retail environment.
As mobile targeting technology and strategies evolve, we’ve seen a growing number of implementations of behavioral audience targeting in mobile, either on its own, or as an additional targeting layer. Why? Though location data can be effective in reaching more general mobile audiences, location data alone is not an effective way to identify and engage specific audience types. When identifying geo-profiles, we leverage historical (and sometimes real-time) behavioral data as captured from specific networks or platforms as well as or in addition to 3rd party data sources to identify pockets of target audience activity.
Versions of this targeting method can be seen by companies such as JiWire and the use of their location graph as well as xAd with our use of geo-specific mobile search behaviors. This method becomes even more essential when the goal is to reach a specific audience with a specialized message, such as a coupon for baby clothes at a popular children’s boutique, or to drive awareness for a new hotel in the area that caters to the frequent business traveler. By utilizing this targeting technique, marketers can ensure the most efficient use of their ads funds and increased performance based on the relevancy of the ads.
It’s important to focus on not just the reach of a geofence, but also on effectively targeting your business’s relevant mobile audiences. A little extra strategic effort goes a long way, and there is much to gain from leveraging the variety of data currently available and layering it appropriately to suit your campaign’s specific strategies and tactics — and ultimately reach your mobile audiences.
Annisa Farese is the marketing and communications manager for xAd Inc., which leverages local search data to drive performance in search and display campaigns for clients that range from local SMBs to global brands. To learn more about xAd, visit www.xAd.com or follow it on Twitter at @xAdInc. | <urn:uuid:523866e4-7596-4ecc-b9c4-e66734ee6c24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://streetfightmag.com/2013/03/19/going-beyond-standard-location-targeting-to-reach-mobile-audiences/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952498 | 1,155 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Netflix announced on Thursday, Nintendo via Wii streaming functionality is on the way - oddly enough, in the mail.
Why do I use the word 'oddly?' Well, what Netflix is trying to do is turn your Nintendo Wii into a device for playing back movies from its Instant Streaming service. So you may wonder, why is it coming in the mail?...the streaming functionality only works with a physical disc you have to load in your console, like a DVD or a game.
If you know a bit of Netflix' history on video game consoles, inserting a disc to get streams going is nothing too new. PS3 users streaming movies from Netflix need to do the same thing. On the other hand, XBox 360 users have it an app installed on their operating system, which is a bit more convenient than constantly inserting a disc to download movies. And it's not like you can't install and download games on the Wii, so why the need for a disc - something Netflix has yet to share.
Either way, it's another great step at getting online video on living room televisions...the blurring between TV and the Internet...something I'm a big fan of if you read my articles. And with Wiis now having the capability to play back this instant streaming service, Netflix could potentially see a lot more business.
Here in the US alone, there around 26 million Wiis in people's households. 86 percent of those Wiis are located in the living room. For Netflix, this is awesome for its business model, as the company can only benefit from users streaming its services as opposed to mail ordering DVD's. Reports across the Web estimate it costs Netflix about $0.06 to deliver an SD stream and $0.09 to deliever an HD stream. In contrast Netflix spends about 78 cents out and back for sending a DVD via physical mail.
If you own a Wii and signed up to receive a disc in the mail, don't get your hopes up just yet. The first roll out of Netflix via Wii will be somewhat a test phase. Netflix said, "Today, we shipped out instant streaming discs for the Wii to some of our Netflix members. Their feedback will ensure that we deliver a great experience to everyone when we launch."
Some users commented on the blog saying they received email confirmation a disc was on the way, while others commented they were still waiting. Netflix did not announce how many lucky users they picked for this testing phase.
But when it does officially roll out to whoever wants Netflix via Wii, they won't have to pay a penny extra, not even for the disc. This is all fine and dandy if the Wii is your only option to get streaming video on your television - why? Nintendo Wii isn't in anyway High Definition. The console only supports resolutions up to 480p. Nothing close to the PS3 or XBox 360 which can run 720p and 1080p videos. Also, most titles available on Netflix' streaming service are bit older - it's actually quite rare to find a brand new release. | <urn:uuid:eb65cb50-ddbc-4178-9ac3-908d235e3830> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vator.tv/news/2010-03-25-netflix-streaming-on-the-way-to-your-wii | 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 | 0.951867 | 619 | 1.5625 | 2 |
FCC Plays for Time with Fast Publication of Network Neutrality Decision
News Analysis: The FCC rushed to publish its Network Neutrality ruling on the agency's Web site on Dec. 23. But whether this move will breathe long life into the regulations remains doubtful.
The Federal Communications Commission published its "Open Internet" decision on Dec. 23 just two days after the 3-2 party line vote to impose network neutrality rules on Internet service providers.
The FCC rarely publishes its decisions this quickly. After the rule has been published there is usually a 60-day delay before the rule appears in the Federal Register and the rule officially takes effect. The rush to publish the decision appears to be an effort to get the ruling into the Federal Register before lawmakers and industry opponents have a chance to act.
Congress has adjourned for the holidays and when it reconvenes in early January it will be preoccupied with organizing the new Senate and House of Representatives elected in November. The federal courts are also adjourned and it may be several weeks before a judge will be ready to hear motions for an injunction that would keep the rules from going into force.
It's clear that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who has shown that he is wise in Washington's ways of administrative infighting, published the new rules early to give them a chance to see the legal light of day. It would be easier for lawmakers and litigators to squelch the rules before they become official regulations than after they are published in the Federal Register.
But whether this maneuver will work remains to be seen. If Genachowski can move fast, so can ambitious lawmakers or industry opponents who employ top notch lawyers who know how to get the attention of federal judges. While Genachowski may have bought a few weeks of life for the new Network Neutrality regulations it seems doubtful they survive long enough to have any material effect on service providers or on Internet users.
So if the rule goes into effect as written, what happens? Initially, not much will change. Cable providers will still be able to offer tiered pricing; Comcast will still be able to slow down BitTorrent in the name of network management; you'll still get spam offers for nostrums to enlarge various body parts.
But that's what appears on the surface. Because the FCC exists in Washington, the ability to regulate translates into the ability to control. While Chairman Genachowski's intent to protect the consumer against some of the more egregious practices of ISPs is surely well intentioned, this is still Washington, where the road to Hell paved with good intentions.
Once given control, the FCC will surely assume more control over the Internet given time. What the result of that will be remains to be seen, but likely it will include control (or attempts to control) the content of Web sites, reports to be completed by ISPs and filed with the FCC about how they're not preventing access to legal destinations on the Web, perhaps even licensing of ISPs or even providers. All of these powers are fraught with danger for everyone who favors the free flow of ideas and content on the Web.
But while that's one future, it's not the only future. It's still more likely that the rule will never be allowed to go into effect. First, this was very much Genachowski's pet project. The other two Democratic members of the Commission gave lukewarm support at best, with one only providing partial concurrence. The two Republicans opposed it. | <urn:uuid:e7ca2f2b-5987-4b89-b3d3-94241105db74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/FCC-Plays-for-Time-with-Fast-Publication-of-Network-Neutrality-Decision-689138/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963316 | 700 | 1.617188 | 2 |
At Best Hawaii Vacation Blog, we are proud of sharing big Hawaii events which keep Hawaiian traditions and culture alive with all our friends who are in love with Hawaii. Hawaii vacation is not only about white sand beaches, as we all know, but also about the Hawaiian culture which we experience everywhere on the islands. Aloha spirit and hula are the biggest part.
In the past, we wrote many posts about the meaning of hula and hula festivals in Hawaii. The Merrie Monarch Hula Festival on Hawaii Big Island is coming up for its 48th anniversary this 2011 Easter. Good reason to get you in the hula festival mood with our Hawaii Hula Festival videos.
For those who have not heard about the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival, here is some basic information for Big Island visitors, who are in Hawaii and would like to visit Hilo for the Hula Festival this Easter. Merrie Monarch Festival is a non-profit organization that honors the legacy left by King David Kalakaua, who inspired the perpetuation of Hawaii traditions and culture, Hawaiian language and arts.
The week-long festival features an internationally acclaimed hula competition, a huge crafts fair, an amazing Hawaiian art show, a grand parade through Hilo town and last but not least, a three-day hula competition that has received worldwide recognition. This year's 2011 Merrie Monarch Festival takes place April 24-30, 2011.
In preparation of this Hawaii Hula Festival blog I perused many hula videos on youtube including some of the older Merrie Monarch Festivals. Enjoying all thess hula videos, the chants and songs, beautiful Hawaiian style costumes and the special sounds of Hawaiian music, I came across the following video by the Polynesian Cultural Center's about hula shows at Moanikeala Festival. I was so impressed by it that I decided to post it here.
Most impressive of this Hawaii hula festival video was for me that hula is a dance of all generations from the youngest keiki to the older generation. Please, enjoy this huge variety of hula dances.
We close our Hawaii Hula Festival post with a video from the 2008 Merrie Monarch Festival presenting Halau Hula Olana, which shows the grace, the love, the beauty and the commitment of the Hawaiian wahine in their hula performance.
Let us know what you think about these Hawaii hula videos and of course your experience with the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival. Mahalo and aloha, Pua
Hawaii Hula Related Posts
Hawaii Hula Festival
Biggest Hula Event in Hawaii coming up
Hawaii Hula Dancers
Learn How to Hula | <urn:uuid:db2b766d-d3c7-44b6-8edf-e1474b61a45f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kohalacoastweb.blogspot.com/2011/04/hawaii-hula-festival-videos.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940306 | 550 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The late Michael Crichton was the master of the science fiction and his superb psychological thriller "Sphere" is now available as a paperback (Harper).
Deep below the waters of the South Pacific, U.S. Navy discovered an enormous vessel resembling a spaceship, but the coral records indicates that the ship must be at least three hundred years old.
Within the spacecraft is a mysterious sphere which holds an incredible power that quite literally stretches the imagination.
Crichton will be remembered for his ability to explain to his readers everything from astrophysics to Jungian psychology and making an enjoyable and highly entertaining "lecture."
Reading Michael Crichton exercises the mind in a most delightful manner. | <urn:uuid:c2fdd59e-8d41-490a-9f93-978d9083f851> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ironmountaindailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/527420/-Spere-.html?nav=5087 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945998 | 140 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Down and dirty in a monster data centre
El Reg goes on tour with Rackspace
Cloud At 66,000 servers worldwide and counting, it’s hard to remember that 10 years ago Rackspace didn’t exist. Now its customers in its Slough data centre alone include the Ministry of Defence and Lloyds TSB. Use an Oyster card, or buy insurance from Confused.com, and your data is stored on one of the 16,000 Rackspace servers in the UK. And, of course, The Reg lives somewhere on its 5,000 square metres of floorspace.
Gartner puts Rackspace in the top right of its “magic quadrant. But what’s so clever about filling a building with servers?
Gary Boyd, data centre director of engineering and operations, let us through the secure doors into the parts where only rackers (the company’s name for its employers) who have a defined need can go.
Stop one on our tour was the cloud. Rackspace’s cloud services have been operational since January 2011, juiced by five 5-tonne “Huddles”, which bring provisioning time down from 10 days to a few seconds. One Huddle consists of 210 servers across 14 cabinets. The basic server spec is a dual Hex core, 12GB of RAM and three 500GB hard disks on a RAID5 configuration.
The basic server is built off-site by the manufacturer, and configured at the data centre: 116 components per cabinet, manually assembled. In the near future Rackspace will take delivery of pre-configured cabinets to plug in and connect up, so it can realise its dream of cabinets that no one touches from commissioning to decommissioning.
Burst your thirst
Bridging the worlds of cloud services and the traditional managed hosting servers on the floor, still is still the bread and butter of Rackspace’s business, is RackConnect. If you’re a hosting customer with bursty traffic – Christmas shoppers, a sporting event - RackConnect supplies a rapid link between managed hosting and public cloud servers. It is a Layer 2 connection between the two environments that guarantees equivalent security, but gives managed hosting customers the short-term capacity that they need to absorb demand.
RackConnect uses two devices: an F5 load balancer, and a Cisco ASA firewall to provide isolation for the traffic. It would lets customers use Rackspace hosting as a development platform to perform load testing for example; or simply let them burst to the cloud when they need it. Power and cooling are as much of a headache for Rackspace as for the rest of us. In Slough, each cabinet pulls between 1.5 and 3.5kW. The supply air temperature is maintained between 14 and 17C, the humidity between 40 and 60 per cent. The operational limit is 3.5kW per cabinet, without creating hot spots.
But for many data centres in the London area, the problem isn’t so much about hot spots as a lack of power. Rackspace is fortunate: it has space for one more data hall, currently under construction, and the power to supply it. A mess of ducting and concrete will be ready in eight months for 13,500 servers – almost doubling the data centre capacity – because the building has a supply up to 15MVA.
Yet Rackspace is still searching for fractions of a per cent efficiency. For example: “We would traditionally put in an isolation transformer at PDU level to get rid of harmonics,” Boyd says, “with new server technology, the risk of that has gone away … that gives us an extra 1.5 per cent that we were losing in distribution. We’re constantly looking for all these little areas.”
With its data centre approaching three years old – almost middle age in DC terms – Rackspace is in the middle of site selection for its next generation facility. What will be different?
Morphin power rangers
"In principle it will do the same things,” says Ricardo Degli Effetti, data centre manager, “but it’s going to be more efficient, more green.” The next generation will use outside air cooling, for example, when it comes on line in about 18 months.
The hot and cold aisles will be enclosed to minimise the mix of hot and cold air to improve the efficiency of the cooling system as a whole. The critical infrastructure will be more efficient too, simply because the equipment was not available four years ago, when Rackspace last went shopping: for example an uninterruptible power supply that is 98 per cent efficient, compared to 95 per cent for the current system.
Perhaps surprisingly, Rackspace isn't trying to sell a technology "secret sauce" as the foundation of emerging cloud services. It’s happy to show customers how it uses best practice, but relies for competitive advantage on its mantra of “fanatical support” – you don’t go long in the company of a racker without hearing this phrase.
It’s harder to work out what this means in practice, but Gartner buys into the Rackspace pitch big time, as this gushing paean shows: "Rackspace has long set the bar for customer service in the industry, with proactive, high-touch service and support … it has the industry's best practices in customer service, along with an excellent service culture."
Also, Rackspace believes that too much proprietary development will slow down the market, especially the adoption of hybrid cloud. For that to be a success, customers need to feel confident about interoperability and escape from vendor lock-in. To help this, in July 2010 it contributed the code that powers its cloud servers, together with NASA, to the Openstack initiative backed by Intel, Microsoft and Dell among others.
We have written about OpenStack elsewhere, but suffice to say here Rackspace is "very much behind the open source approach," says Boyd, "the industry needs to evolve. Rather than people spending time and effort to create intellectual property, we believe it should be shared." ® | <urn:uuid:466d47cb-751a-4e82-ab4c-f23289841ed6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/20/rackspace_interview/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941177 | 1,274 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Why Science at LTU?
Unlike large research universities, Lawrence Technological University is first and foremost an institution dedicated to teaching. The education and mentoring of students is the principal function of all Lawrence Tech faculty. The faculty of the Department of Natural Sciences is fully committed to this purpose.
As an undergraduate student in Natural Sciences at Lawrence Tech, you will receive individual attention from all the faculty in your discipline. Each will know you by face and by name, long before you graduate. You will never be taught a graduate student teaching assistant—even in your earliest laboratory courses. A member of the teaching faculty will always be the principal supervisor in the laboratory, sometimes assisted by advanced Lawrence Tech undergraduates. Adjunct faculty will teach in the advanced courses only when they bring a special expertise to the program. You will always be advised by the chair of the department or by a director or coordinator of your program.
The university is committed to providing the department and its students with the advanced instrumentation that they are likely to use in their future careers. All the instrumentation is available for undergraduate use and is often introduced at Lawrence Tech far earlier than at other institutions.
Multiple tracks of study are available in both chemistry and physics to enable students to tailor their programs to specific career goals such as biophysics or material sciences. Details of these programs can be found under the descriptions of the individual programs.
Finally, the Department of Natural Sciences takes seriously the university’s motto, Theory and Practice. Lawrence Tech graduates from the Natural Sciences have the reputation of being able to “hit the ground running.” Their extensive training in laboratory skills and in applied subjects enables them to contribute to an employer’s mission as soon as they are hired. In support of this goal, Natural Sciences students are encouraged to pursue co-op and internship opportunities in industry while earning college credit. In several programs an independent senior project is required for graduation. These projects can be carried out by a student individually or as a member of an interdisciplinary team, both of which are expected of technical workers in an industrial setting.
Lawrence Tech also offers two unique masters degree programs, the Master of Science Education and the Master of Educational Technology. Full details can be found by clicking on the program links at the left. | <urn:uuid:6ea3789f-0c63-407d-9c9e-6250783ad3d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ltu.edu/arts_sciences/naturalsciences/why_science.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959927 | 463 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The Santayana Society is an international and interdisciplinary organization, founded in 1980, to further work on The Santayana Edition specifically and to promote Santayana scholarship generally. George Santayana was Spanish born philosopher, poet, critic, and best-selling novelist.
The Society's publication, Overheard in Seville: Bulletin of the Santayana Society appears annually and is devoted to Santayana scholarship. The bulletin includes scholarly articles, announcements of publications and meetings, and recent updates to the Santayana bibliography which is maintained by Kristine Frost of the Santayana Edition. Angus Kerr-Lawson edits the bulletin. It is printed by Graphic Services, University of Waterloo, and it is published and distributed by the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI to 450 subscribers.
This collection is powered by CONTENTdm ® | <urn:uuid:fd069960-588c-4019-94c4-7df850d6c50a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/digitalscholarship/collections/Santayana?show=collection | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935954 | 171 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Women & Power: The Role We Play in Bringing about Social Change
In October 2012, Salaam Shalom welcomed to Bristol two speakers from the Middle East, Malaka Samara from Palestine and Leeba Gilad from Israel. Both speakers represented OneVoice, an international grassroots movement that aims to ‘amplify the voice of Israeli and Palestinian moderates’ in support of a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict. This event was held in partnership with Bristol Muslim Women’s Network, Bristol Multi Faith Forum and One Voice Movement
Leeba shared her experiences of the projects and campaigns she has been involved in, since joining OneVoice in October 2011. She spoke in particular about an art intervention held in August 2012 Tel Aviv, where hundreds of people congregated around an enormous ice wall, symbolizing the “freeze” in peace talks. The ice wall contained posters with information on dozens of under-funded social programs in Israel. Leeba also shared her belief that women in particular are desperate to see a peaceful end to the conflict, for the sake of their children.
Malaka then spoke from a more personal perspective, sharing her experience of choosing to campaign with OneVoice while coming from a very orthodox Muslim family. Malaka believes she has an important role as a Palestinian, to help bring a peaceful end to the conflict. Malaka then led a short meditation, which helped prepare the group for constructive discussions.
The first discussions themed around the role of women in activism; some interesting comments included, the recognition that gender roles and behaviours are not clearly defined as we are all individuals, yet there is still a great deal of expectation on both sexes to fulfil certain roles. It was acknowledged that women are still under-represented in positions of power, yet it was also recognised that women are often highly influential without being in the limelight.
Following this, were discussions about solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, where some members of the group challenged a two-state solution and others wanted to know how OneVoice impacted on a political level. Sharon Alsoodani- Director of OneVoice spoke about their work on a strategic level in consultation with members of government and also talked about their Youth leadership programme where young Palestinians and Israelis are given training in conflict resolution to make a difference in their communities.
As the evening drew to a close, discussions went on amongst the group. Feedback was very positive, thank you to all that attended and participated for making this such a stimulating event.
If you missed this event but would like to be kept updated for future events, please email firstname.lastname@example.org to request being added to Salaam Shalom’s mailing list. | <urn:uuid:f3212d0b-b0ca-436b-a2ff-b53c58e7cea8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.salaamshalom.org.uk/tag/women/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969553 | 552 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Both are necessary. Winning presidential elections means sympathetic justices, and scholarly research means arguments that stand up well at oral arguments and in decisions. You can’t do just one and expect victory. You have to do both.
Elections are short-term; building up a body of scholarly research is long-term. As an example, I started preparing for McDonald in 1991, when I began writing For the Defense of Themselves and the State (1994). I wrote several other books that prepared the groundwork (some of them not even gun-related, such as Black Demographic Data, 1790-1860 (1997)), because they had information in them that I thought would be necessary for other books that I knew that I would have to write.
There’s a lesson here for conservatives. Conservatives have been losing the battle for the Constitution for several decades now — and sad to say, this victory in McDonald wasn’t a conservative victory, but a libertarian victory. The Cato Institute pushed it — at a time when the NRA (probably correctly) didn’t think it was winnable in the courts. It is quite apparent to me that social conservatives have been focused on trying to win popular support for their positions in order to win elections. That’s fine; it is necessary and it is how a republic is supposed to work. But it isn’t enough. Social conservatives need to be funding historical and legal research to defend their positions — and if they want to win, this needs to be a long-term strategy. Writing briefs for a Supreme Court case is a short-term strategy; having conservative historians accurately and carefully argue the conservative point of view is absolutely necessary. Sad to say, social conservatives have shown no interest in the subject — and if they do not start to move forward now, it is going to be too late. | <urn:uuid:2e24994b-da41-4aa6-87a2-5b32b85b0fcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pjmedia.com/blog/lessons-from-mcdonald-v-chicago/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969961 | 379 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Nir Barkat wants to be mayor of Jerusalem. It would be an impressive job title. On a world scale, Jerusalem is a small city, with fewer people than Austin or Indianapolis. But it is the capital of Israel -- and of three religions' myths. Teddy Kollek, who served as mayor for 28 years, was better known internationally than many heads of state. His successor, Ehud Olmert, went on to become Israel's prime minister.
Barkat, however, is a singularly unimpressive candidate for the job. For his supporters in the Nov. 11 election, the former high-tech entrepreneur's appeal is purely in his identity as a secular Jew. For them, he represents an opportunity to end the ultra-Orthodox political hegemony of recent years in the Holy City.
But the culture war is a distraction. The nicest appellation for Barkat that I've heard among political activists is "shallow." His views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are hard-line right-wing. In fact, Barkat is the embodiment of the real cause of Jerusalem's steady urban decay. The 41-year experiment of forcibly binding Israeli and Palestinian Jerusalem has not only failed, it has rendered the mayor's job so unattractive that no qualified secular candidate wants it. Barkat's candidacy is one more proof that a city united against itself cannot stand.
This week Barkat gave a briefing for foreign journalists. Beforehand, one Jerusalem political activist compared Barkat's intellectual abilities to Sarah Palin's. After the briefing, I felt the comparison was unfair -- to Palin. Perfectly groomed, spouting fractured sentences about "vision," "process," and his experience in the "global marketplace," Barkat resembles a power-point presentation with slick graphics and garbled texts.
Barkat opened with a boilerplate endorsement of Jerusalem as "the united capital of Israel." Asked if he supported Jewish settlement in Palestinian neighborhoods -- a tactic of far-right groups that has dramatically increased tensions in the city -- he said, "Definitely yes." He likewise endorsed the exclusively Jewish account of Jerusalem's history presented by religious rightists who manage an archeological site at the City of David, inside the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. "That's where I connect to my Jewish roots," he said.
To reverse the city's economic decline, Barkat asserted he would bring 10 million tourists a year to Jerusalem (a seven-fold increase over current numbers), and attract high-tech and biotech companies. Why, I asked, would the private sector invest in the city, given the risk factors in a city riven by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
"Because it's the right thing to do," he answered. "If we look at vision, and where Jerusalem must be, that is the right thing to do. And I believe that Jerusalem has to be managed with a vision, and I think that the world has to play ball and help us strengthen and build the city of Jerusalem. It's a very simple answer." Oh, I thought. Just tell them to do it.
To understand how out of touch Barkat is, and why he still stands a reasonable chance of becoming mayor, look at the fault lines running through the Holy City. Jerusalem is home to 730,000 people. About 250,000 are Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after the 1967 Six-Day War to unify the city. Though East Jerusalemites didn't become Israeli citizens, they were given the right to vote in municipal elections -- with the hope that their participation would legitimize annexation. Precisely to avoid doing so, they've stayed away from polling booths. In a long march toward Palestinian independence, that decision makes sense, but it has come at a price. No one in city politics loses a vote for ignoring East Jerusalem.
The Arab side of town is a neglected stepchild. Streets lack sidewalks, parks are rare, schools are short on classrooms. City Hall spends only a tenth of its budget on the city's Palestinians, though they are 34 percent of the population, according to attorney Daniel Seidemann, an expert on Israeli-Palestinian relations in the city.
Unlike Palestinians elsewhere in the West Bank, East Jerusalemites can work and travel inside Israel. But the Israeli security fence cuts through the east side of the city in places, so that some residents must wait at checkpoints to work, study, or get to a hospital. Acquiring a building permit is difficult; housing is in short supply. For practical purposes, East Jerusalem is the first-class section of occupied territory.
The Jewish population is split as well. A third of the city's Jews are ultra-Orthodox, a group that deliberately segregates itself from the Israeli mainstream in order to live by a stringent, anti-modern interpretation of Judaism. Few men and no women serve in the army, a basic rite of civil belonging for other Israelis. Ultra-Orthodox women have an average of eight children, three times as many as other Israeli women, according to Dr. Maya Choshen of the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies.
For electoral purposes, the ultra-Orthodox population figures are deceptive twice over. Because so much of the community is under voting age, only about a quarter of the city's Jewish voters are ultra-Orthodox. But it is a mobilized constituency, with a turnout of over 80 percent. Since Kollek retired in 1993, the ultra-Orthodox have dominated local politics. They put Olmert in the mayor's office. When he moved on to national politics in 2003, they elected an ultra-Orthodox mayor, Uri Lupolianski. This year, they are running Meir Porush, a 53-year-old veteran Knesset member whose father and grandfather were prominent ultra-Orthodox politicians.
Economically, Jerusalem is the poorest of Israel's 50 largest towns. Outside of tourism, the private sector is distant rumor. High-tech and finance, the engines of Israel's economic growth, are in Tel Aviv. Young adults are abandoning Jerusalem. A backlash against ultra-Orthodox rule is building among Jerusalem's other Jewish residents, who see Lupolianski as funneling patronage and City Hall's meager budget to his own constituency. Barkat is running on that backlash. A rare survey on the race, performed nearly two months ago, showed Barkat leading Porush by an overwhelming 55 percent to 29 percent. But the potential gap in voter turnout between the two camps makes surveys about as reliable as reading tarot cards.
But the culture war is a fight over deck chairs on the Titantic. Jerusalem's real problem is that it straddles a national conflict. Tourists are skittish about visiting a place that regularly makes the news for political tension and terrorism incidents. Foreign investors share that feeling. "Cities in conflict -- Belfast, Nicosia, Berlin in its day -- fail economically," says Dr. Moshe Amirav, a former Jerusalem city councilor and today head of the public policy department at Beit Berl college near Tel Aviv.
Israeli cities depend heavily on funds from the national government. In Jerusalem, Amirav points out, the government has invested in building Jewish neighborhoods on the east side of the city in order to cement the annexation, rather than in economic development. Yet socially and politically, the annexation has failed. The division between Jews and Palestinians in the city has only deepened. For Palestinians, establishing their capital in East Jerusalem is the most basic requirement of achieving independence.
The city's future, as Amirav asserts, depends on agreement of a two-state solution -- including the political division of Jerusalem into two capitals. Only then would the conflict cease defining life in the city. Urban decisions could be made to serve urban needs rather than national claims.
Without peace, the major Israeli parties have despaired of finding candidates interested in the thankless job of mayor. Barkat has stepped into the breach. But to the limited extent that the mayor can affect the city's future, Barkat appears intent on policies that would further inflame Israeli-Arab relations.
It's striking to compare Barkat's views with those of outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who, like Amirav, began his career on the political right. In a recent interview -- perhaps his last as prime minister -- Olmert affirmed that he'd been "the first who wanted to enforce Israeli sovereignty on the entire city." Changing that position, he said, "contradicts our natural instincts, our innermost desires, our collective memories." Nonetheless, he asserted that "we have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, the meaning of which is that we will withdraw from almost all the territories, if not all the territories -- including in Jerusalem."
Olmert has never been clearer about the price of peace -- perhaps because he is a lame duck, no longer trying to hold a coalition together, perhaps because he has shed illusions during the negotiations of the past year with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas. In either case, he won't be making the critical decisions about the city's future. Nor, for that matter, will the next mayor, who runs City Hall but does not negotiate borders.
The choice of whether to divide Jerusalem to save it will be made in the diplomatic triangle of Israel, the Palestinians, and the United States, needed as sponsor and facilitator of peace talks. The next step depends on whether Olmert's likely successor, Tzipi Livni, will be as realistic as he has become, and on whether Abbas can retain domestic support for negotiating.
It will depend, as well, on whether the next U.S. president understands the need for deep American involvement in Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy. Most of all, it requires recognition that "eternally united Jerusalem" is a slogan that is destroying the city it purportedly comes to preserve.
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(If there's one thing we know about comment trolls, it's that they're lazy) | <urn:uuid:169a54a4-85b1-480a-acf2-a1647b17c016> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://prospect.org/article/city-united-against-itself | 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 | 0.962814 | 2,046 | 1.59375 | 2 |
NTSB Identification: CHI08FA054
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Thursday, December 20, 2007 in Warrens, WI
Probable Cause Approval Date: 12/28/2008
Aircraft: Piper PA-32R-300, registration: N1919H
Injuries: 1 Fatal.
NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
The air traffic controller who was working the tower position at the departure airport reported that the accident airplane had landed at the airport. Within about 10 - 15 minutes, the pilot departed again. It was dark, and the weather was "just above" visual flight rule (VFR) minimums during the airplane's arrival and departure. The pilot did not file a flight plan. Radar track data indicated that the accident airplane flew about a 131-degree magnetic heading at about 2,500 feet mean sea level (msl) from the departure airport to the airspace near the accident site at the time associated with the accident. The radar track data indicated that the airplane was in a left, descending turn prior to being "lost" from radar contact, consistent with spatial disorientation. The post-crash inspection of the airplane revealed no preexisting anomalies. The accident site bordered an area of instrument flight rule (IFR) conditions, and was within the area with marginal VFR conditions at the time of the accident. Weather data obtained from a reporting station about 100 miles east-northeast of the accident site indicated multiple freezing levels, first at approximately 1,000 feet above ground level (agl) with temperatures below freezing to 1,500 feet, and the second freezing level at approximately 4,746 feet msl.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: The decision by the pilot to fly into known adverse weather, and the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane due to spatial disorientation. Contributing factors include the clouds and the night conditions. Full narrative available
Index for Dec2007 | Index of months | <urn:uuid:9692015b-285c-4bc5-9d87-b3286313d95b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20071231X02011&key=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936475 | 451 | 1.539063 | 2 |
This is a difficult task in many ways. Are we grading the outgoing Superintendent? the Chief Academic Officer? the School Board? Many of us love the particular school where our children attend, but have strong animosity towards central district staff. How should that be reflected in the report card? And what standards should we use in our grading? Do we grade the district compared to what we think it should be able to do? compared to other urban districts? other districts in Washington state?
Geov Parrish, former Seattle Weekly columnist and founder of the local nonprofit community newspaper Eat the State!, shared his assessment of the district in a recent article in the Beacon Hill News, Defending the Seattle School District. I disagree with some of Geov's points, but also find places of agreement, like his assertion that:
...the same problems - declining enrollment, old physical plants, poor tests scores (especially among non-white students), overtaxed special-needs programs - face nearly every other major urban school district in the country. Seattle is not unique and, in many ways, is doing relatively well.
As I fill out my report card for the district however, doing "relatively well" only merits a C+. I expect more from the public schools in this well-off, well-educated city. I take little comfort from the fact that Seattle's schools are in better shape than Philadelphia's or New Orleans' schools. I want Seattle's schools to be among the urban schools cited as making unusual progress in combating the problems faced by urban schools around the country.
I want Seattle to win the Broad Prize for Urban Education, a "prize awarded annually to the best urban school districts in the nation that make the greatest improvement in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among ethnic groups and between high- and low-income students," but Seattle has never even been named a finalist. This year, Boston won the prize, which brings with it $500,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors. Four districts who were finalists (Bridgeport Public Schools, Jersey City Public Schools, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the New York City Department of Education) each got $125,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors. Learn more about the Broad Prize for Urban Education and why Boston won this year's award by reading the press release.
You could argue, pretty convincingly, that Seattle will never be in a position to win the Broad Prize for Urban Education as long as the state funding is so poor. But the lack of funding, while a real problem, is not a sufficient excuse for the current state of affairs in Seattle Public Schools. Unlike Geov, I believe that district "regime change" can make a real difference for our schools, and that while working to increase education funding in our state, vital organizational cultural and structural changes can be made by a talented, visionary superintendent.
So, with that said, here's my report card for Seattle Public Schools for the 2006 calendar year. I encourage you to fill out your own report card, changing and adding categories as you wish, and send it to the School Board and to Carla Santorno.
Introduction: This report card is based on my limited knowledge of the school district during the 2006 calendar year. With better and more frequent communication, and more genuine community involvement, you could see more accurate report cards from me and other Seattle citizens in the future.
Fiscal stewardship: B; according to the newspapers and School Board members, this is one area where concrete progress has been made.
Educational leadership: C, but showing signs of improvement including Carla's six key academic milestones presented in the fall, and recent moves toward more international schools and more arts in the schools.
Resource development: C-, for multiple reasons including losing the confidence of the Gates Foundation and a major grant along with it, and thumbing your nose at Stuart Sloan and the New School Foundation during Raj's first proposal for school closure and consolidation.
Equity: C-. While the weighted student formula does not appear to be achieving its stated goals, I'm concerned about a possible move towards equal funding rather than equitable funding.
Communication: D; really horrible throughout the school closure and consolidation process; inconsistent and unclear on topics including WASL scores, district finances, and the current Supreme Court Case on race-based tie-breakers for enrollment.
Community relations: D-; the lowest grade for any of the categories; too many reasons to list here; feel free to contact me for details or clarification.
School leadership: highly variable; the district practice of frequently reassigning school principals has contributed to problems at many schools.
Quality of instruction: highly variable; I question how much the district really knows about the quality of instruction in individual schools and what, if any, strategies the district has in place to improve the quality of instruction overall and especially in schools with the highest concentration of low-income students.
Suggestions for improvement: Take a careful look at other urban school districts in this country that are doing a better job of meeting the needs of all students. Identify the similarities and differences in funding, structure, leadership, staff development, communication, etc. between those districts and Seattle and then develop a strategic improvement plan with priorities for short-term change (2-3 years), and long-term change (5-10 years).
Note: This suggestion does not mean the creation of another document like the district's five-year plan. That plan is almost meaningless; an everything-but-the-kitchen sink plan with too many action items and almost no follow through or accountability. Instead, I want to see a clear, concise document that outlines top priorities in ways that everyone in the city can understand, buy-in to, and keep tabs on how much progress is made towards them. | <urn:uuid:d8b2f902-c356-41b6-8662-a5115186f062> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2007/02/report-card-for-seattle-public-schools.html?showComment=1172082360000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962309 | 1,180 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Should Lawmakers Re-Examine Gun Laws in Wake of Connecticut Shooting?
All of the 20 children killed Friday were age 6 or 7.
Within hours of Friday’s mass shooting in Newton, CT, gun-control debates began raging across the country.
The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, was armed with an assault rifle and two semiautomatic pistols, according to Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance. All of the weapons were registered to and legally owned by his mother, Nancy Lanza, who was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds at her home.
In the days since the shootings, some Democrats in Congress have been pushing for more gun restrictions in the United States, including a ban on military-style assault weapons.
While President Barack Obama has not specifically mentioned gun control in speeches to the public, he has emphasized that something must be done to prevent more tragedies like the one at Sandy Hook.
Efforts to restrict access to high-powered weapons are likely to be opposed by many Republicans as a violation to the U.S. Constitution's right to bear arms.
In recent months, there have been mass shootings at a movie house in Aurora, CO, during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises and at a mall in Oregon.
Locally, two people died and seven people were injured in March after John Shick went on a shooting rampage at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. Police in turn shot and killed Shick.
We want to know what you think? Should lawmakers re-examine gun laws? Is it fair to blame guns for mass shootings, or should the blame fall to people who opt to fire them?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
Check out some of today's other top stories here. | <urn:uuid:78c6d7eb-f0dd-4968-8ddf-c4a9db9d808b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pine-richland.patch.com/articles/should-lawmakers-re-examine-gun-laws-in-wake-of-connecticut-shooting-52a2d683 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97904 | 372 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The 50 th anniversarycelebration of the AFL-CIO in Chicago has been marred by internecine strife.The Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have brokenaway from the Federation, reducing its membership by 25 percent. At least threeother unions - UNITE-HERE (textile and hotel workers), UFCW (groceryworkers), and LIUNA (construction workers) - representing another 15percent of AFL-CIO members, may join the exodus. The dissidents call themselvesthe Change to Win Coalition (CWC).
Theissue behind the split is the survival of the American union movement in theprivate sector. In 2004 only 7.9 percent of private sector workers were unionmembers. By comparison, in 1900--before any union-friendly legislation hadbeen enacted--the figure was 7 percent. Private sector unionism is on theverge of irrelevance, and union leaders are trying to figure out what to doabout it. There are two principal approaches - politics and organizing.John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO since 1995, believes the solution to theproblem lies in spending union money to buy the favor of politicians who willin return change the law to make it more difficult for private sector workersto remain union-free. Sweeney has been following that strategy since 1995 to noavail. Andy Stern, president of the SEIU and prime mover of the CWC, says thatto survive and grow unions must pay attention to recruiting new members.
Stern has the morelogical approach. To survive and grow, businesses must constantly recruit andmaintain new customers and congregations must recruit and maintain new members.Why should unions be any different?
Thereis a deeper problem that unions must confront. Since Leo XIII's RerumNovarum (1891), Catholic social teachinghas supported labor unions as part of a general defense of freedom ofassociation. This defense has not extended, however, to unions that arecoercive or politically partisan. Freedom of association has two parts. First,each person is free to associate with any other willing person or persons for any purposes that do nottrespass against the rights of any third parties. Second--and this isimplied by the first--each person is free to decline to associate with anyperson or persons no matter how fervently those others may desire theassociation. American unions, formed and operated under the National LaborRelations Act (NLRA), are not voluntary.
TheNLRA forbids workers individually to decide whether a union represents them,imposes union fees on workers to pay for representation they do not want,forces employers to bargain with unions, and permits workers who choose not towork at terms offered by an employer to prevent other workers, who are willingto do so, from working.
My approval ofStern's desire to recruit new members applies only to recruiting activitiesthat are themselves based on freedom of association. Peaceful persuasion isfine, coercion is not. Lately some unions have turned to blackmail of employersthrough so-called “corporate campaigns” to force employers to give themmonopoly bargaining privileges over employees who want to remain union-free.For example, efforts to organize workers at Wal-Mart by peaceful persuasionhave consistently failed as evidenced by the failure of unions to win majorityvotes in every Wal-Mart representation election that has been held. Now thosesame unions are trying to bring community pressure on Wal-Mart to force itsworkers into monopoly bargaining arrangements.
JohnPaul II took a firm stand against Sweeney's strategy of relying on politics tosave unions in his Laborem Exercens (1981, n. 20). “The role of unions is not to play politics.... Unions do not havethe character of political parties struggling for power; they should not besubject to the decision of political parties or have too close links withthem.” Sweeney's goal of controlling the Democratic Party through the AFL-CIOhas always been at odds with the popes' emphasis on the common good.
Stern'sstrategy has the better hope of arresting the private sector decline of unions.In order for unions to continue to be a relevant force in pursuing workers'rights, organized labor must rely on persuasion rather than coercion. Workers'interests need to be contextualized within the globalization of competition,which is a necessary condition for sustained real economic growth in bothdeveloped and developing economies.Labor unions should not be immune from the challenge to constantlyrespond to their constituencies and changes in the marketplace.
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Phone: (616) 454-3080
Fax: (616) 454-9454 | <urn:uuid:b5c9ae61-da67-416e-86a7-3c0ff51d794b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.acton.org/pub/commentary/2005/08/03/voluntary-association-and-union-politics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944089 | 1,003 | 1.835938 | 2 |
It’s official. Argentina has decriminalized the consumption and possession of small amounts of narcotics. But how did this decision come about? And what does it really mean? Will travelers to Argentina now enjoy spliffs served in corner coffee shops, as they may in Amsterdam? To set you straight, here’s the skinny on this new development as it stands, and the word on what may come about in the near future.
As reported by the Associated Press, yesterday (August 25, 2009) the Argentine Supreme Court made a decision that struck down a law regarding prison sentences for the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use. The ruling was issued in a case involving a group of young men who had been caught in possession of several joints.
The court reached their ruling after taking into account a passage from the Argentine Constitution which states that, “each adult individual is sovereign to make free decisions about the lifestyle he or she desires without the state’s being able to interfere in that ambit.” Within the text of the court’s official ruling, the unanimous decision of the cabinet members urged that, “It is not acceptable to penalize private conduct that does not cause danger or damage to third parties.”
Before booking your tickets to Argentina for a no-holds-barred smoke out, however, heed this warning. Although the ruling does strike down a law concerning all narcotics (and not just pot), the decision does not legalize the possession and private consumption of drugs outright. The ruling has decriminalized only the private consumption of narcotics by adults, on the condition that said possession and consumption does not infringe upon the health, property or rights of any third party.
This decision is in concordance with previous statements made by Argentine President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner. President Fernandez has been encouraging the Argentine National Congress to pass similar legislation for well over a year now. The Congress has been awaiting this Supreme Court decision before moving forward with its own actions.
Although the draft of the upcoming legislation has not yet been made public, it is expected that the new law will involve two principal legal shifts. First, the possession and consumption of small amounts of narcotics will be decriminalized. In exchange, the government will publicly fund drug treatment programs for minor offenders and addicts, much like other nations, including the Netherlands and Spain. Second, by freeing up enforcement and judicial authorities from the persecution of minor offenders, this legislation will likely mandate the more forceful prosecution of drug traffickers. President Fernandez has stated that congressional action should be anticipated before year’s end.
In short, those visiting or living in Buenos Aires can still expect to get in trouble for smoking a doobie in public places, including parks, concerts and night clubs. At least for the time being, Buenos Aires will not be converting itself into the Amsterdam of South America, but stay tuned for further developments in this story.
Interested? Read more from the following sources:
“Argentine Court Just Says No to Prison for Pot Use,” Associated Press (25 August 2009): http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/25/world/AP-LT-Argentina-Marijuana.html?scp=3&sq=argentina%20marijuana&st=cse
“Argentine President Calls for Decriminalization of Drug Use,” CNN.com (1 August 2008): http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/08/01/argentina.drugs/index.html
“Supreme Court unveils awaited ruling: SC rules personal marijuana use punishment unconstitutional,” The Buenos Aires Herald (25 August 2009): http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/10082
William Chambliss, “Another Lost War: The Costs and Consequences of Drug Prohibition,” Social Justice 22, no. 2 (Summer 1995): p.101-. | <urn:uuid:0d1f320c-18df-4eec-a926-6327c398bcd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://landingpadba.com/drugs-decriminalized-argentina/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942003 | 824 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Center holes on 7" records were once a way to decifer what speed a record was cut at. 45 RPM records had large center holes and 33 1/3 RPM records had small center holes. These days people mix and match and even get creative with them.
Small center holes:
Small center holes are available for all sizes of records and all speeds and are no additional charge. They measure 1/4" in diameter.
Large Center Holes:
Large center holes are available for 7" records and measure 1.5" in diameter. Large Center holes are no additional charge.
UK Center Holes:
UK center holes were originally offered to give the ability to easilly convert a record to large hole for jukeboxes. The section around the small center hole is perforated and can be broken out to make the record large hole. Once the center is removed it can not be replaced but a regular 45 adapter can be used. UK centers for 7" records are $.05 each. | <urn:uuid:35ab9fa1-9bfd-41ff-8f39-d556126395cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urpressing.com/centerholes.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951308 | 205 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Why We Have Sex
Psychologists Cindy Meston and David Buss of the University of Texas, Austin, asked nearly 2,000 people why they had sex and assembled a list of 237 reasons.
Strangely, a few had sex “to get rid of a headache.” It’s No. 173. Aren’t headaches an excuse to avoid sex?
Other reasons include exercise, revenge, a sense of duty, adventure, an ego boost, desiring a gift, drunkenness, to keep warm, so my partner won’t have an affair, wanting a child… the list goes on, ranging from, “So my husband will put out the trash” to “It’s the closest thing to God” (perhaps explaining shrieks of “Oh God!”).
While evolutionary psychology claims women are more likely to have sex to get resources, men were actually more likely to do this. Men were also more likely to have sex to gain status. But then, women often lose status when they have sex, becoming “loose” sluts, whores or skanks…
This one’s interesting: Men were more likely to have sex because “the person demanded it.” Is that because men are more inclined to have sex for any reason, anyway?
Regardless of the reason, the researchers found that men were more likely to cite it, except for “expressing love” or “realizing I was in love.” I suspect women were also more likely to have sex to avoid taking out the rubbish. Consider that 84% of women admitted they’d had sex so her guy would do household chores or to put an end to sex-nagging. Older women were especially likely to have sex from a sense of duty. It’s what a wife does, they felt.
The good news? Men and women ranked the same reason most often: being attracted to the person. Actually, most of the top 10 were the same for each gender, including expressing love, being sexually aroused and having fun.
The psychologists placed the motivations into four general categories, as laid out in the New York Times:
- Physical: “The person had beautiful eyes” or “a desirable body,” or “was a good kisser” or “too physically attractive to resist.” Or “I wanted to achieve an orgasm.”
- Goal Attainment: “I wanted to even the score with a cheating partner” or “break up a rival’s relationship” or “make money” or “be popular.” Or “because of a bet.”
- Insecurity: “I felt like it was my duty” or “I wanted to boost my self-esteem” or “It was the only way my partner would spend time with me.”
- Emotional: “I wanted to communicate at a deeper level” or “lift my partner’s spirits” or “say ‘Thank you.’ ” Or just because “the person was intelligent.”
It is remarkable to see how often the motivations for sex lie outside of the pleasure of sex, itself. | <urn:uuid:fe15d936-efbb-4ff6-a77b-59fc41963eee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://broadblogs.com/2012/11/07/why-we-have-sex/?like=1&_wpnonce=9501e873bf | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976737 | 693 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Project ASPIRE: Using Technology to Improve Patient Care
Memorial Hospital is currently undergoing a $6.9 million complete technology overhaul. This technology improvement initiative has been nicknamed “Project ASPIRE” (Achieve Safety and Productivity by Improving Quality and Reducing Errors). Most aspects Project ASPIRE will directly affect patient care.
Project ASPIRE will result in patient records, charts, test results and other important data being immediately and always accessible to care providers from secured network capable devices, such as tablets, smart phones and laptops. This will allow physicians and other care providers to access all of their patients’ important info at once, from one location, which will allow them to spend more time caring for patients, and less time searching for records.
Check out Project ASPIRE details:
CREATING A CLOUD ENVIRONMENT– 75% Complete
Memorial Hospital has partnered with Netgain in order to create a private “cloud” environment. The cloud environment will allow physicians and associates to access the Memorial Hospital network and important medical information from anywhere with internet-capable devices. More than 200 Memorial Hospital servers are being redesigned from scratch to fit into the new cloud environment.
UPGRADING THE HOSPITAL NETWORK– 25% Complete
New network devices and cabling are being installed throughout the entire hospital, which will result in significantly faster network access for most users. In addition, the hospital’s wireless network is being enhanced with new wireless access points and re-strategized wireless access point placement.
ENHANCING REMOTE ACCESS TO THE HOSPITAL NETWORK– 75% Complete
COMPLETED: A new remote access portal has been implemented which supports nearly all network-capable devices, including iPads, Droid devices and Macs. The new portal is also expected to have virtually no downtime.
Network firewalls are being upgraded, which will greatly improve security, and help ensure more network uptime. Memorial Hospital is also upgrading bandwidth via partnership with OneCommunity. This will allow greater connectivity between Memorial and participating physician offices.
REPLACING HOSPITAL COMPUTERS – 25% Complete
Every hospital desktop system will be replaced during Project ASPIRE. Also, many new in-room computers and portable computers on wheel carts will be put into action during Project ASPIRE.
IMPROVING APPLICATION ACCESS – 50% Complete
More than 30 Citrix servers are being created or upgraded with Citrix version 6.5. During this process, many servers are being rebuilt from scratch, some are being replaced and others are being created. This process takes a significant amount of time, and is extremely complex.
COMPLETED: The IT department upgraded the application, Imprivata, to make it easier for users to switch workstations, as well as put an end to computers locking up due to inactivity.
UPDATING SOFTWARE – 25% Complete
We will be adding Midas, a new application that will change the way Memorial does business by being the data collector, aggregator and organizer for all clinical-related data.
In addition, Paragon will be upgraded to 10.2, the meaningful use certified version. Also, functionality for Computerized Practitioner Order Entry (CPOE), medication reconciliation and medication administration, as well as upgrades to the laboratory applications, will be added to in-use applications with the goal of improving patient safety and provider satisfaction.
COMPLETED: The upgrade of the Horizon Patient Folder means significant changes for our users. Gaining an understanding of the new features through training and hands-on experience will help users realize the benefits gained.
Emergency Department applications are being upgraded to create tighter integration with the hospital’s Paragon system and streamlined charting and billing processes.
Finally, we are implementing the new version of Merge PACs. This adds a great deal of functionality, including iPhone and iPad compatibility, and the ability to view patient information on any workstation at Memorial.
The estimated completion of Project ASPIRE is January 2013!
About the Author:
Andrew Smith has been with Memorial Hospital since 2009. Andrew has previously worked in marketing and development at The University of Toledo/Medical College of Ohio. He has also taught English at Terra Community College. Andrew is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio (go Hawks!) with a Bachelor of Arts in English/Creative Writing.
He lives in Fremont with his wife Erinn and their daughters Riley and Harper.
More Blogs by Andrew Smith >> | <urn:uuid:7855a223-2ad0-4466-8265-941ea1fba98c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.memorialhcs.org/Memorial-Hospital-Blog/bid/77215/Project-ASPIRE-Using-Technology-to-Improve-Patient-Care | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945619 | 918 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Hillary Clinton's campaign for United States Senate in New York, 2000
Hillary Rodham Clinton for U.S. Senate Committee
Friends of Hillary Committee
In 2000 a Hollywood fundraiser raised more than $1 million for Hillary's first Senatorial campaign. Peter Paul, the businessman who hosted the event, is also a convicted felon, which prompted the Clinton campaign to try and distance itself from Paul once that revelation was revealed in the Washington Post. Paul admitted in interviews with author Amanda Carpenter that the event was thrown as a quid-pro-quo exchange to get Bill Clinton to work as a spokesman for Paul's company.
For the Hollywood gala, more than $1.1 million in in-kind contributions were made to the Hillary for Senate campaign. But only $400,000 was reported to the Federal Election Commission. Five years later, the FEC issued a brief stating that the New York State Democratic Committee had failed to disclose $721,895 in in-kind contributions.
An FBI affidavit in 2002 "It appears that the true cost of the event was deliberately understated in order to increase the amount of funds available to New York Senate 2000 for federal campaign activities."
After Hillary's campaign publicly denounced Paul and returned a $2,000 campaign contribution, the relationship between the parties continued. Paul mentions to the author that he was asked for an additional $100,000, even after the campaign had issued a statement indicating a severing of ties.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy's Dossier on Hillary Clinton, Hardcopy Version: 25-49 of 320
- ↑ WND "Hillary's Finance Chief Indicted for L.A. Gala," January 7, 2005 | <urn:uuid:efd4b5c8-ad6a-443e-8c44-be0c39218b96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.keywiki.org/index.php/Hillary_Clinton's_campaign_for_United_States_Senate_in_New_York%2C_2000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962835 | 354 | 1.609375 | 2 |
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CHAPTER 7. MORE CONFIDENCES THAN ONE (continued)
'This was all; except that to-night when he watched my lips so closely as I was singing, besides feeling terrified I felt ashamed and passionately hurt. It was as if he kissed me, and I couldn't bear it, but cried out. You must never breathe this to any one. Eddy is devoted to him. But you said to-night that you would not be afraid of him, under any circumstances, and that gives me--who am so much afraid of him--courage to tell only you. Hold me! Stay with me! I am too frightened to be left by myself.'
The lustrous gipsy-face drooped over the clinging arms and bosom, and the wild black hair fell down protectingly over the childish form. There was a slumbering gleam of fire in the intense dark eyes, though they were then softened with compassion and admiration. Let whomsoever it most concerned look well to it!
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For information about public domain texts appearing here, read the copyright information and disclaimer. | <urn:uuid:c8e5c3cd-0214-4401-ae7c-17b06fe9daca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.literaturepage.com/read.php?titleid=edwindrood&abspage=71&changecolor=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948997 | 303 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The first drive-in movie theater was opened on June 6, 1933, by salesman Richard M. Hollingshead in Camden, N.J
. On the bill was a twilight showing of the British comedy Wife Beware
. And so the drive-in era was born, peaking in 1958 with almost 5,000 theaters in the U.S alone. These days you'd be hard pressed trying to find one but thankfully there are plenty of handy lists online
telling you just where to find one (there's even one for Aussies like me!
). And that's not all we have to be thankful for; the drive-in scene is apparently witnessing something of a "mini-revival" at present
. Don't feel like going out? Then why not make your own? First you'll need instructions on how to build one
. Then you'll need intermission-advertisements (you can download or even just watch heaps of them for free here
). And then you'll need a handy list of the kinds of films they used to show at the drive-in
. If you're in the US, you'll need to know some of the special rules the FCC has for drive-ins
, and if you have any more questions, I'm sure the fine folk at the United Drive-In Theater Owners Association
could help. All of this sound like too much work? Then just sit back and check out the videos and photos on this nice site
(it's about drive-ins, of course!).
posted by Effigy2000
on Feb 18, 2008 - | <urn:uuid:ace0a0d8-f954-4cd2-894d-1e45230960d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metafilter.com/tags/photos/26083 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966362 | 327 | 1.617188 | 2 |
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When Pete Hurley’s kids were younger, he carried juice and crackers in his car in case they got hungry. His son Jake liked a Kellogg Co. (K) brand called Austin Toasty Crackers With Peanut Butter. So Hurley started buying them in 48-package cases at a Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) outlet in Wilsonville, Oregon, where he lives.
In January 2009, Jake became pale and lethargic and started vomiting. Next came diarrhea, which, after three days, was filled with blood, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November issue.
Millions of Americans get sick from eating food that inspectors say is safe. A special report in the November 2012 issue of Bloomberg Markets explores the dangers.
“My wife and I were amazed at what a trouper he was, sleeping on the couch, walking to the bathroom, then returning to the couch to go back to sleep,” says Hurley, 44, a police officer in Portland.
Jake was 2 years old then. On the seventh day of his illness, doctors diagnosed him as a victim of salmonella poisoning. They advised Pete and his wife, Brandy, to keep Jake hydrated and let the disease run its course.
When he felt better, he started asking them for his favorite snack -- peanut butter crackers -- and they gave them to him. Pete says he doesn’t know whether that prolonged Jake’s illness.
While Jake was still marching to the bathroom, Pete saw reports on television of a salmonella outbreak caused by peanut butter. So he had several discussions with Bill Keene, an epidemiologist for the state of Oregon. Hurley had a few packs of peanut butter crackers in his car, which he gave to Keene.
The crackers, he says, provided public health authorities with their first DNA-verified link between the peanut butter producer and people who were ill.
AIB International had audited Blakely, Georgia-based Peanut Corp. of America on March 27, 2008, giving it a “superior” rating. That helped assure companies like Kellogg that Peanut Corp. products were safe.
Starting in September 2008, 714 people, including Jake, were sickened by contaminated peanut butter. Nine people died. FDA inspectors came to the plant in January 2009, just as newly reported illnesses were starting to diminish. They found the facility riddled with mold and dead cockroaches, and water stains were on the ceiling directly above packaging lines.
Craig Wilson, food safety vice president at Costco, responded to the peanut butter outbreak by making his suppliers responsible not just for what they produce but also for every ingredient they include in every product shipped to the company.
“We looked at ourselves and said, ‘Holy crap, how did we miss this?’” Wilson says.
After diarrhea that lasted 11 days, Jake started feeling better. He returned to preschool in another three days. Doctors tell his parents that the boy may suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and irritable bowel syndrome for the rest of his life.
Editors: Jonathan Neumann, Gail Roche
To contact the reporter on this story: John Lippert in Chicago at email@example.com;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Neumann at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:60207ce3-4f62-41ff-880e-d635fe18c5d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-11/policeman-son-s-peanut-butter-snack-means-salmonella-pain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981394 | 719 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Things always move at a hectic pace during meetings around the annual U.N. General Assembly, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may raise that bar higher this year.
Within four days, Clinton had already met with 21 heads of state and government and foreign ministers during a marathon schedule of meetings on the sidelines of the annual conclave of world leaders.
Clinton's days this week have been a blur of back to back meetings in hotel suites and meeting rooms near U.N. headquarters.
She has spoken with the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, and Myanmar as well as the prime ministers of Israel, Turkey and Lebanon. Middle East monarchs and foreign ministers from Belgium, Greece, and Britain have also had meetings with Clinton.
These talks do not include the many speeches she has or will give on issues like the crisis in Africa's Sahel region, the greater involvement of women in the world economy, peace and security in the Middle East, and the importance of water security around the globe.
There also are the remarks before the annual gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative, a meeting with the so-called P5+1 group addressing Iran's disputed nuclear program, and various lunches and dinners with multinational guest lists.
Any down time in Clinton's schedule appears scarce. Her schedule regularly starts before 9 a.m. and usually stretches past 10 p.m. There are quick handshakes for cameras before heading into meetings that run close to an hour on average.
Her staff holds out the possibility of more than 10 additional bilateral meetings if time allows before she is scheduled to return to Washington on Friday evening - possibly 38 overall.
The packed schedule has not gone unnoticed. It has even raised a few eyebrows among some who wonder why Clinton is holding some meetings that would have been handled by President Barack Obama in past years.
In a briefing with reporters this week on Clinton's meeting with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy, a senior State Department official said that Obama "has very limited time here, and I think that he has to make choices." | <urn:uuid:f4220f8d-a572-4575-b4d8-13b9ea0aad2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wlwt.com/news/national/Clinton-maintains-non-stop-schedule-at-U-N-General-Assembly/-/9837944/16754900/-/9l3gciz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964607 | 419 | 1.757813 | 2 |
By Mark Harrison, CFA
Opening the CFA Institute 65th Annual Conference in Chicago, behavioral investor James Montier condemned theorists, policymakers, and practitioners for creating the financial crisis with "bad models, bad policies, bad incentives, and bad behavior." Worse still, Montier contended, nothing much has been learned from the disaster - setting us up for yet another calamity.
Montier began his talk by attacking key financial models. "In finance, we forget we have made abstractions and take the models as if they were reality," he said. Value at Risk (VaR), a popular measure of downside risk and potential loss, "cuts off the very part of the probability distribution (the extremes) which you most need to worry about." VaR - combined with leverage and naïve calculations about volatility based on overly recent data - has escalated institutional risk to the point that it has become systematic risk. "You are introducing an enormous amplifying device into global markets," he added.
Also on Montier's list of bad models with bad assumptions is the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the bedrock of fundamental and quantitative investing. "Effectively they say that the only form of risk you need to worry about is volatility, that you can ignore illiquidity and leverage," said Montier. But the collapse of LTCM in 1998 showed the damage that illiquid assets can cause. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, it's a lesson that nobody seems to have learned, he added.
Behavioral biases and neuroscience can help investors understand such a failure of collective common sense. According to Montier, studies show that when experts are advising people they switch off the area of the brain associated with common sense. "Automation bias" makes people defer to and trust technology even if evidence suggests otherwise. Narrow framing explains why UBS's market risk committee relied on VaR without questioning the evidence. Professional fund managers anchor onto irrelevant data just as much as everyone else, he argued.
Montier reserved particular venom for professionals trying to "impress with complexity" by substituting theory for experience, because complexity impresses clients and justifies high fees. For Montier, if you don't understand something, then you just shouldn't invest in it. Investment advisers should take a form of the Hippocratic Oath, making explicit to clients any deficiencies and limitations in their models to discourage the temptation to test models that could prove destructive at the client's expense.
Regulators share a large part of the blame for promoting bad behavior. "Regulators adopting value-at-risk is a little bit like asking children to mark their own homework," Montier said. "Bad policy sets up bad incentives." He believes regulators are hostage to the industry over which they are meant to show oversight. This is a form of regulatory capture, and the impact can be seen in the banking industry's steadily increasing leverage, which grew from not much more than 1x assets in the 1850s to 35x or more in recent times, when regulators started using VaR - a model that leaves no margin for error. More recently, Montier said, the Federal Reserve fostered bad behavior among investors by cutting interest rates too far, promoting a chase for bond yields in an environment where bond issuers paid for their own ratings.
Investors have their own, numerous behavioral flaws to blame, according to Montier. For instance, they have failed to look out for the unexpected, or black swans, just around the corner. They are overly optimistic due to evolutionary development. They have an illusion of control, such as relying on VaR to capture the nature of risk. They are guilty of self-serving bias, for example, by getting rid of risk officers who ask too many probing questions about collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). In addition, investors suffer from inattentional blindness, or not anticipating surprises, the subject of a famous experiment by Simons and Chabris, and their own myopia leads to an overt focus on the short term, another evolutionary flaw.
So what solutions does Montier offer to a world in which, in his words, "everyone should accept that the model is over?"
His manifesto for change is that we should continue to develop more realistic models incorporating illiquidity and leverage, bad behavior, bad incentives, and delegation. Investment mandates should not be dictated by benchmarks but by breadth and skill. "Finance theorists should be banned from being finance theorists unless they have been practitioners," he contended. Use of classic Markowitz mean-variance optimization techniques should be abandoned in his view because, "instead of obsessing about optimality, we need to consider robustness and build portfolios designed to survive multiple different environments."
For Montier, risk/variance itself needs to be totally redefined. "Risk is not volatility," he told conference delegates," risk properly defined is the permanent impairment of capital."
The answer, Montier contended, is that leverage and financial innovation must be reined in and financial history must be studied more deeply. As John Kenneth Galbraith said, "The world of finance hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable version." Investors should be especially on their guard for financial innovation which disguises higher leverage.
Summing up, Montier said: "Central banks have to learn not to be asymmetrical, they must learn to lean against the wind." Markets do not always do the right thing and are, at least for Montier, highly inefficient. One solution is that capital adequacy should be contracyclical, encouraging bankers to up reserves in good times, rather than procyclical. Most importantly, regulators need to learn the right lesson from the crisis: It wasn't the result of investors taking on too much equity-like risk. It was rather due to overpricing of equity-like risk. Telling everyone to buy expensive bonds is not the solution: Central bankers "are sowing the seeds of the next recession by telling everyone to go out and buy expensive assets all over again." | <urn:uuid:eec36422-7596-4388-9b7c-717cfd6fdb39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/568161-more-realistic-financial-models-incorporating-illiquidity-and-leverage-are-needed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959539 | 1,234 | 1.695313 | 2 |
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