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Report: North Korea could launch rocket by next week, could reach Los AngelesSubmitted by emalvini on Wed, 12/05/2012 - 20:33
Report: North Korea could launch rocket by next week, could reach Los Angeles
December 5, 2012 1:10 PM
WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – With all stages of a long-range rocket apparently complete, North Korea could be ready to launch as early as next week.
South Korea’s Yonhap News agency cites unnamed officials in the latest sign that preparations to fire off a rocket are imminent. According to the report by the agency, the rocket could be launched between December 10-12.
A South Korean expert told Yonhap the rocket could potentially reach a distance of about 10,000 kilometers, reaching as far as Los Angeles.
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We unveil that singular Business Leader of the Year and our 2013 Businesses of the Year in the May issue. Subscribe online today.
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|Geeks to the Rescue|
|Published Friday, September 4, 2009 7:00 am|
Ted Henry is on pleasure overload these days. An engineer at Ektron in Nashua, he's designing the company's first iPhone application for its social networking software. Henry's work is a labor of love-giving him a chance to work on the newest hottest thing. For Ektron, Henry's work provides the company a competitive advantage.
And in this economy, it isn't superheroes swooping in to save the day, but guys with highwater pants and innovative ideas who will jumpstart the economy. Suddenly it's cool to be a geek.
Henry says geeks are the brains behind emerging technologies such as Twitter, which played a critical role in reporting Iranian elections. Geeks design armor and missile systems that keep soldiers safe. And geeks design the infrastructure needed for NH's economy to function.
Oh, and all that innovation contributes to above average wages. In the third quarter of 2008, engineers in NH made on average twice as much as other private sector jobs, according to the
Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau at NH Employment Security.
So it's no surprise that economists point to engineers as rays of light. "The bright spot for the economy is technological entrepreneurship and innovation," says Ross Gittell, The James R. Carter professor at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of NH in Durham. "The innovations that drive the NH economy ... will be the technological improvements that help businesses, government and people do things better and more efficiently."
Problems Today, Solutions Tomorrow
Today's biggest challenges include energy and health care, and in both fields, engineers are answering the call. In the case of energy, money follows.
During a 15-month period ending March 2008, 75 percent of the 170 energy-related startup companies nationally receiving venture capital funding had at least one founder that was an engineer. Joseph J. Helble, the dean of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, who helped conduct that research, says engineers play a crucial role as problem solvers. "These are problems that are very technical, and being an engineer is almost necessary to address them," he says.
Helble says renewable energy and engineering in medicine are so critical that Dartmouth has built engineering curriculum programs that emphasize those areas.
And opportunities abound for engineering graduates. Portsmouth-based Powerspan develops pollution control systems for power plants including carbon dioxide capture technologies. It recently closed $50 million in new financing. It also added 30 jobs in the last 18 months, bringing its workforce to 70.
"We all want to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but we still need to keep the lights on and provide the power that businesses need," says Phillip Boyle, president and chief operating officer of Powerspan. "You can't convert to wind and solar power overnight or even over many years. So someone has to come up with a reasonable economic way to meet the climate challenge."
Those types of projects, Gittell says, will lead NH out of the current recession, as will health care advances.
"After the early 1990s deep recession it was more information technology, new software and hardware," he says of the sectors that helped pulled NH up. "Coming out of this recession, it's going to be new kinds of technology-quite a bit of it will be related to energy efficiency and the so-called
On the Front Lines
Whether it's designing and engineering local roads, bridges and wastewater treatment plants or improving body armor and weapons for soldiers fighting worldwide, engineers are on the front lines when it comes to safety and protection.
At the federal level, that mostly means funds for defense-related technologies. In fiscal year 2008, NH received more than $50 million for defense-related research and development projects according to nonprofit Alliance for Science and Technology Research in America (ASTRA) in Washington, D.C.
BAE Systems, which has more than 4,700 NH employees, received the largest chunk of that money. Engineering and innovation is the lifeblood of BAE Systems, says Clark Freise, vice president and general manager of technology solutions for BAE's Technology Solutions business area in Merrimack. The military and "war fighters," as BAE refers to soldiers, need better, lighter and more efficient capabilities as the face of war and conflict changes. And Freise says the military needs those capabilities to fit within its current "platforms," whether that is a plane, tank or even soldiers. "We're looking at enhancing the extended capability of platforms [through the use of our technology]. It's a unique engineering feat," he says.
BAE received a $33.6 million contract in June to provide U.S. Navy fighter aircraft with electronic defenses against radar-guided missiles. Freise says engineers are critical for such jobs, adding that the lives of soldiers depend on them. "If you don't have that engineering capability, you can't protect [soldiers] through time."
Small engineering companies are providing equally critical defense technologies, for both soldiers and more locally, police in the United States. Ceradyne-Diaphorm in Salem has only 15 employees, but its technology includes thermal plastic composite ballistic helmets. The helmets are 15 percent lighter than other helmets and used in both combat and non-combat situations.
The company also has a contract with the U.S. Army research labs to develop new materials for armor to protect troops.
Engineers are essential in the success of such companies, but today's engineers must possess skill sets that extend beyond the theoretical. "The story about engineers is you need to be highly flexible, especially in a growth environment," says Bob Miller, general manager of Ceradyne-Diaphorm. Ceradyne Inc. acquired Diaphorm Technologies for $9.5 million in June. "You can't just be behind the computer or in the shop."
Savvy engineering firms are helping clients find ways to save money as well as find funding to move projects forward. Wright-Pierce in Portsmouth, which focuses on water and wastewater technologies mostly for municipalities, employs in-house experts to help clients land funding for projects, many of which cost tens of millions of dollars, says President William E. Brown.
A few years ago, Wright-Pierce worked with the town of Jaffrey to secure state and federal funding worth $11.7 million, or 65 percent of the cost of the town's upgraded wastewater treatment plant, which is now completed. The company has spent much of this year working with companies to apply for stimulus funds to support their current infrastructure needs. "Our niche is coming up with cost-effective ways to upgrade [municipal infrastructure]," says Brown, whose company also works on other municipal infrastructure. That means not only keeping project costs down, but incorporating energy efficiency into projects to generate cost savings long term. A recent wastewater treatment facility the company designed for Falmouth, Maine, reduced the town's power costs by 40 percent.
And that's just one location. Brown notes that water and wastewater facilities consume 3 percent of this country's power. Reducing that power usage helps the bottom line and the environment.
The company recently won an award for a Hanover water treatment upgrade that uses membrane treatment technology to recycle 98 percent of backwash water and treat the water without a chemical or biological process. "If you're trying to attract businesses, they not only want quality infrastructure service at an affordable cost, they also want a nice environment, and a lot of our projects enhance the environment," Brown says.
Engineering firms are also helping clients take advantage of the stimulus bill. The Louis Berger Group Inc. in Manchester recently expedited the design of a bridge for the town of Salem so that plans were deemed "shovel ready" and eligible for some of the $13 million made available through the stimulus program's transit funds for NH.
State officials are well aware of the importance innovation plays in the NH economy and are promoting innovative Granite State companies. "Innovation Rocks!" is a monthly award that honors companies that have designed and developed technologies with a significant impact on the state. The project is a joint venture of the NH Business Resource Center and Rock 101 WGIR FM, and winners receive on-air recognition and a commendation from the governor, among other things.
"Anything that is made today in the U.S. is going to be mass produced overseas tomorrow," Roy Duddy, interim director of the Division of Economic Development, says of many technologies. "Companies need to be unique, ingenious and provide cutting-edge technology."
One of the 33 honorees recognized since June is Ektron, the Nashua developer of social media networking software technology for such disparate sectors as education, health care and golf. The company now has more than 200 employees and continues to hire more engineers. Its software is used by 7,500 customers worldwide, 60 percent of those for public sites and 40 percent for Intranet sites.
"Web sites are becoming much more dynamic and we're trying to build the technology to make it transparent so non-technical people can do it," says Bill Rogers, CEO and founder of the company. "Marketing budgets are smaller, but they are focusing on the digital marketing strategy and their Web sites are part of that."
That means creating sites that give users the versatility to interact easily through many media, including the ability to create interactive forms or surveys in seconds, or partnering with others to offer "widgets" or mini-applications that users can download and install on their sites to add new functionality.
That innovation has spurred the company's success despite the recession. "We're not seeing any toughness in the economy," Rogers says, adding the company continues to hire employees.
It's that type of thinking that has companies shouting, "Viva La Revolucion!" Now, unleash the geeks! n
Editor Matt Mowry contributed to this story.
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How to make your own Bank Note?
August 18, 2010 2:31 PM Subscribe
What are those cool swirly whirly patterns called on the back of playing cards and on Bank Notes? I want to create some, how do I go about finding how these are made? Is there source materials/tutorials for vector programs to get started?
posted by flexiverse to computers & internet (11 answers total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
I've searched everywhere on the web and can't find how to make your own back of playing card patterns or designing your own banknote!
I'd use an vector app like illustrator but I'd prefer to use the open source ink scape.
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FEMA Official Says 900 From Monmouth-Ocean Remain in Shelters
A FEMA official says the agency is still trying to find homes for 900 Monmouth and Ocean County residents
About 900 Monmouth and Ocean County residents are still in shelters or hotels after Hurricane Sandy forced people from their homes, a Federal Emergency Management Administration official said Tuesday night.
Tom Davies, FEMA's liaison to Ocean County, said there are about 300 people are in shelters, 500 in hotels and St. Mary's is providing shelter for an additional 100 people.
"People are still in shelters and our aim is to get them into transitional housing," Davies said at the Toms River Township Council Meeting on Tuesday. "This could take time."
Interviewed last night after the Stafford Township Council meeting, Township Administrator Jim Moran told Patch that the town has presented a plan to FEMA about a possible location for FEMA mobile homes, but he said FEMA is still trying to determine what the demand would be before deciding how many - if any -would be brought to the township.
"At this point, I would say the best bet for people [who have been displaced and want to stay in the area] is to look at some of the rentals on LBI," Moran said. He noted that many areas of Long Beach Island were "basically untouched" by the storm, and rental properties are available.
Davies spoke to the Toms River Council when local officials were briefing the governing body and public about the response to the storm, which devastated communities along the Monmouth and Ocean shoreline.
They include Sea Bright, Union Beach, Bay Head, Mantoloking, Lavallette, Seaside Heights and the Ortley Beach section of Toms River, where the storm flooded many waterfront neighborhoods and left thousands without power.
Davies said FEMA has provided $66 million to Ocean County residents already. More than 2,000 FEMA representatives are in New Jersey already and 43,000 people in Ocean County have registered for federal assistance after Hurricane Sandy.
That did not satisfy Dr. Maureen Persi, a resident of Ortley Beach who has been displaced from the storm and only knows that her house is standing after seeing the tip of the roof from her home on a bus tour.
Persi said she has made six separate phone calls, including one from a disaster relief center that has not produced any results. She has stayed with relatives and then at a hotel in Bordentown, until she was able to find a hotel room in Toms River on Sunday, Nov. 11.
"Everybody just gives you lip service," she said. Her repeated attempts to get help from FEMA still have not provided success, despite expectations that the poor response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 would have led to improvements in disaster relief.
"They nailed (President George W.) Bush on that and I don't see where the improvement is," Persi said.
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The independent candidate is probably better known for not being able to get on TV than for what her policies are, so here’s a quick guide to the various bits of Siobhan’s Benita’s manifesto. (We understand there are sections on environment and citizens to come, but it’s getting a bit late in the day so we went with what’s available.)
Siobhan would freeze all fares at current prices until 2014, reduce fares for students and people earning less than the London Living Wage as well as free travel to anyone looking for work. She advocates a smarter congestion charge, with variable charges throughout the day, to ease congestion and charging companies for digging up the roads. An affordable ‘waterbus’ for the Thames is also planned.
The one transport policy that caused many of us here at Londonist Towers to audibly groan, however, is the promise to run the tube an hour later on Fridays and Saturdays. A few months ago we published a list of transport promises you shouldn’t trust; this was one of them. Boris pledged to do it in 2008, but soon discovered that the knock-on effect for people travelling in early on Saturdays and Sundays wiped out the benefits. She has an answer though, and you can read what it is tomorrow when we publish our interview.
To help cyclists, she would redesign the most dangerous junctions, make sure all new road projects take cycle safety into consideration, make residential roads 20mph and review the cycle network looking at separating traffic and creative shared space schemes. She also says she would make sure all dangerous road users are prosecuted – and that includes cyclists.
After the Olympics, Siobhan would instigate a comprehensive and independent review of the Metropolitan Police, covering efficiency, productivity and also police culture. Any reorganisation of the service would be based on evidence; it’s a refreshing alternate view from the three main male candidates yelling about police numbers. She wants action to protect young people from gangs and organised crime, looking at the reasons people join gangs not just working to break them up. She also plans awareness campaigns and action on violence against women and girls and hate crime.
Siobhan thinks housing is London’s most urgent problem and would establish Homes for London – as requested by Shelter – as a department within City Hall. She’d create a fixed-price housing market for the city, building 20,000 homes a year for sale or rent at half to one-third of commercial rates. Unlike the current system, where a home is only affordable once, hers would be permanently affordable; views that are similar to the Greens. These homes would remain as GLA leasehold properties and could only be sold back into the Homes for London market.
For the rest of the rental market, Siobhan would implement a Mayor’s Lettings MOT that would accredit landlords. She’s also talking about getting Battersea Power Station de-listed so it can be developed – it’s a bold idea, and it’s not like the current situation has found a solution.
A much vaunted plank of Siobhan’s manifesto is primary school education. She wants to increase the capacity of primary schools, marking the end of portakabin classrooms and keeping class sizes to 30 or below, and to create 167 new primary schools by 2015. She also wants to improve the transition between primary and secondary school, and get more focus on skills that will get young people into work. The Mayor doesn’t have any power over education, but Siobhan says she’d appoint an Education Commissioner for London to work with councils and government. She also wants to protect libraries – a popular pledge if ever we saw one, but again something that would involve a lot of lobbying, since the Mayor has no direct power in this area.
She’d also sacrifice £43k of her Mayoral salary to fund a Young Mayor for London.
Business and jobs
Another big policy is to create an Office of Budget Responsibility for London, that would try to stop Mayors splurging money on populist vote-winning schemes that might not actually provide value for money. There’s the expected stuff about keeping up investment in infrastructure – with a pledge for citywide WiFi access – attracting inward investment and promoting schemes to get people into work. She is also very much in favour of a third runway at Heathrow.
Read more of Londonist’s election coverage
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please call or email us
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The Brain Zone exists to meet the diverse academic needs of all students. In addition to a wide range of curriculum designed to address and overcome learning, processing, and attention issues we also offer general tutoring for all ages of students that simply need a leg up and maybe a little homework help. Our brilliant educational experts are equipped to assist in any scholastic endeavor. Our doors are always open to struggling students, and our goal is to send them out as confident achievers. There is no assignment that should be insurmountable – that’s why we are here; we can help.
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The Augusta Council found out Tuesday night that the primary that will feature nine candidates in three wards will cost the city about $4,178. The city will pay these costs out of the Electric Administration Fund.
General elections don’t cost the city anything, but special elections and primaries do come with a cost.
The city could also face a tough financial decision if legislators in Topeka go through with plans to pass legislation that would remove the tax burden from “trade fixtures.”
Trade fixtures are equipment and machinery that are affixed to real property. Those have been assessed as real property.
The new legislation would provide a savings to manufacturers, but the cost to local government would be significant.
In fact, Augusta would have to increase the mil levy by almost 4 mils to make up for the lost revenue.
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Sales tax I Letter
November 22, 2011 · 4:25 PM
Enactment of a one tenth of one percent sales tax, in our county, might allow us to have a mental health court. There, a delusional nonviolent offender could be promised a clean record in exchange for complying with taking their prescribed meds, and for keeping their appointments with counselors, a psychologist, ARNP or psychiatrist.
The importance of meeting with caregivers is that the mentally ill learn how to strengthen their involvement with groups and organizations. Gaining personal relationships is also highly important. Those who enter recovery can lead to more education and maybe stable employment.
Empowerment, self-advocacy, hope and resiliency are Washington state goals for the mentally ill.
More than 30,000 veterans reside in Kitsap County. Certainly, a veterans court will be helpful. Our population in 2000 was 231,969 residents. Can we find a way to help veterans and non-veterans as we have the fondest wishes for both groups? And let’s not forget a supportive apartment or dorm complex for both groups too.
John Freeburg, MA, DMin, CPC
President NAMI Kitsap County
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JOSEFINA AYERZA: I see in your catalogue that Klaus Ottmann goes right into Lacan's theory on the mirror stage-the images of the fragmented body the idea of anticipation following deficit, the shielding. Are your shields depicting the ego?
Mary Kelly: Of course the famous dictum of Lacan is to say that the construction of any identify is fictive, a misrecognition but the premise is that it's necessary. I am very interested in two things: how the viewer actually negotiates this space - there could be a certain narrativization, registers of visual images compounding - and sees and read the story on the shield. The second is how the reflective surface of everything is a kind of metaphorical way of invoking the military facade and the basis for the spectator calling up the notion of the mirror phase perhaps literally. He has to fight for his own point of identification with the character in the story.
JA: Does the viewer see himself in the shield?
MK: Well, in a very distracted way, because there is also lighting. You negotiate the lighting and the reflections to find a place where you don't see yourself but you are still captured by the glimpse you got of yourself.
JA: The discs were hung curiously high. Is this meaningful?
MK: Just a joke on how one could state certain notions about masculinity, about what I've called its pathological variety. It takes shape historically at a moment when there's war and there's a mobilization of that ideology by the military.
JA: Does masculinity come from the top because it's the highest?
MK: No, not simply because you can look up. It's about intimidation - something that is also in Lacan. The military emblems don't actually present the logos as they are. They are a very simple montage.
JA: Some of the figures in the discs have been cut into halves, and then you juxtaposed these two halves. Why have you done this?
MK: There's a simple exchange, just enough to make some ironic comment on the logo. For example, when you put the officers' candidate school together with aviation, you get the wings of the dove on the end of the sword and the slogan "Follow Me," which looks quite sinister.
JA: It goes against your own version of hysteria: the fragmented hysterical female body splits in two while the male body defies difference. Aren't these male signs?
MK: This soldier/male, as positioned within the troop, determines a perfect machine; so much so that he will lose sense of concern with his individual self, with his corporeal reality becoming this kind of exoskeleton... Thus the military apparatus encompassed the notion of an ego, a shield, the military emblem. It impresses upon you the notion of unity, integrity and authority, and a certain hysteria is thus involved in cutting it, joining it together, making it somehow ridiculous. But I've left it intact enough so that it can still invoke the sign.
JA: When war comes along the body breaks up, loses pieces. There may be your pleasure, but this certain hysteria could be anticipating what may befall the military apparatus...
MK: Yes, that sort of anticipates something else which night be sort of implicit, not explicit. I am dealing with the
facade of this military presence and then trying to parody it. Immediately you are struck by what is actually left out or expelled from that scenario: what the woman in the last story does by getting rid of the soft bit of her body is a kind of abjection of war, the other side of the facade, or as you say, what really happens to the human body, its abjection, its degradation...
JA: What does the woman do? What is this "soft bit of her body" she is supposed to lose?
MK: In the last story, the woman on the exercise machine is not really trying to make herself beautiful. Rather she becomes out of control and has a fantasy of mastery which pins down the dissociation from what is soft or decaying or wounded... the other side of the war.
JA: When we talk of body-social body, body politic-are
we addressing the idea of Lacan in the enjoyment of it, or the being jumping into another body? Physical traits are not the sexual body, right?
MK: The body of fantasy, right.
JA: In Lacan's text on the "Purloined Letter," the body in the figure of a gigantic woman compromises the minister's room; her sex, the chimney, is where the minister hides the letter. This soft part which can be thrown out, wasted, burned in the chimney. Thus, going to the democratic body politic, do you think it could be feminine although its soldiers are men?
MK: Only if you are thinking of the body as the body of desire. I would agree with Catherine Millet who says it's the object of desire which is feminine, not the object of love; thus the axis of idealization and identification constructs different bodies.
JA: Identification follows the father relation, right?
MK: That is why this work is not about that body, because l am interested in the other side, in what constitutes the ideal: the axis of identification, the object of love which is not always what is feminine.
JA: Sure, already for Freud the first object of love is not the feminine but the father.
MK: Yes, this project is about the masculine ideal and how that applies to women as well as men. Raised in a very practical way in the scenario of the Gulf War, women say they demand the right to go to the front and kill, gay men ask why they are excluded from the R.O.T.C. You actually have to ask what is being suggested in the name of equality and what it is one actually aspires to; what is the ideal? It's not that all masculine identification is pathological. With the feminine, with the body as the object of the gaze, with woman playing her part as this sexual travesty through masquerade, what we didn't acknowledge was Lacan's reference to display. He hardly addresses it, but I'm always interested in the gaps in Lacan, what is not there...
JA: He hardly addresses it, as opposed to the masquerade which takes place in the symbolic register. Display, on the part of the male gets played out in the imaginary.
MK: Of this little part, I am interested in a tiny reference: he is writing about women being constructed as the object A for the man. Lacan doesn't actually draw out what the implications might be for the women. Literally, display applies to the man, but he couldn't have possibly restricted it since it's heavily implicated in a much deeper kind of trajectory around the mirror phase as he brings up the question of mimicry.
JA:So does the display counteract the masquerade?
MK: He also has the masquerade and she also has the display, and those are the things that haven't been theorized.
JA: What is the concept?
MK: Display seems to be the man's equivalent to the woman's masquerade. In the case of display, usually on the part of the male animal, or in the case of grimacing swelling by which the animal enters the play of combat in the form of intimidation, the being gives of himself or receives from the other something that is like a mask, a devil, an envelope, a torn-off skin, in order to cover the frame of the shield. Immediately you call up the defensive structure of the ego. I think display has at least two other meanings: one linked to the description of intimidation and one linked to the notion of camouflage. Both camouflage and intimidation come into play when elaborating on the larger concept of mimicry. So, taking camouflage as a start, Lacan says it's not a question of fading into the background, but of becoming mottled against it.
JA: Does this mottling against the background hook up with the "cause" or the " want to be" concerning the phallus?
MK: You are imitating it, as it were while, speaking a very mute kind of language that only signifies that one is Other. So when I close the display against it I am saying that the eradication of our visible traces of Otherness in the culture is part of the process of our incorporation in its authoritative voice. The process of colonization has to do with mimicry, with the so-called colonized attempts to be what the colonizer is. There is something almost parodic about the colonizer saying: "Oh no, that is not me." That horrible attempt has totally failed, right? But still it's a moment when you can see something else happening.
JA: What else is happening? Does the intimidating factor as much as you don't resist it, make for the sinister as much as for a sense beauty ?
MK: The shiny surface of the shields, of the trophies, with their scatological comments like "cut it off and kill it," or "kick ass," and then the logos being high up, all this invokes intimidation. It is also sinister, beautiful but sinister.
JA: We may be dealing with the splitting of the ego a big ego. In English we write "I" with a capital letter. Yet this image of the "I" is very close to the "I."
As you divide the 1 in the military insignia, in a male context, what are you dividing? We know that woman is always divided; there is no problem in splitting the woman. But is it so simple with men?
MK: It occurs to me that by splitting, one challenges the discourse of mastery. This, going back to Lacan, would be the hysteric's discourse. In all the stories that I've written, the men start out in this position where they are mastering something. One is mastering nature on his fishing expedition, the other steps up to the plate to bat and the young boy starts off resisting his mother, being transgressive, but in every case they fail. The fishing story turns around with the hero watching him and taking his fish and controlling him.
JA: How does the third concept of display come in?
MK: The third concept of display invokes this defensive structure of the ego. Lacan doesn't say that it has anything to do with identification, but I wonder, can you talk about the ego without talking about identification, ultimately? And if you think about not just the ego in the military, but in artists, any institutional concept or context, and how it negotiates what was originally the prototype of those ideals. The family to which these egos belong is narcissistic.
JA: Intimidation and defense seem complimentary. Only by being intimidating can you defend yourself, unless you invent the whole thing in a very narcissistic way. How does stigma relate to intimidation?
MK: The grimacing and swelling is always a slightly regressive structure. This is how it takes you back to a kind of aggression which does not even recognize what is being done to the other. It reminds me of what happens in war. The further back you go, the closer you get to your own vulnerability and annihilation. I can't help thinking on the other side of this idea of war that we started with, and Bataille's notion that death has to do with the total disintegration of our integrity as a separate body. At the other extreme, from the notion of display as intimidation and the obliteration of the visible body, in order to have a position and to become a shield, you pass through this whole field, like a prism. Finally death and decay obliterate it on the extreme other end of its being abject. Is that possibly how the stigma might be linked to the notion of intimidation?
JA: I would say the stigma is what makes for the hysteria, what accounts for the division you were talking about...
MK: There are two different poles of obliteration. In the negotiating of the body between those two extremes it's the woman's body and Christ's body, and the other forms it takes on its route to abjection.
JA: How does the contemporary woman relate to abjection?
MK: I am very interested in the way that throughout popular culture there are more images of woman as aggressive, as breaking the glass ceiling, or the canvas ceiling in art, or whatever actually is necessary. I still see that it's conceived of along the lines of the masculine ideal. That is, a kind of pervasive ideal, there is no other way to make it or enter into it on those terms to obliterate something.
JA: In the late Lacan, the name of the father is the "real." How does the splitting of the logos deal with this?
MK: Well... the splitting of the semaphores or logos can invoke a splitting of the name of the father, insofar as you have these military institutions representing a kind of paternal order in a very explicit way.
JA: Is it really intervening the structure?
MK: Yes, absolutely.
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Hispanic American scholars--Texas--Houston--Interviews;
Minority college teachers--Texas--Houston--Interviews;
American literature--Hispanic American authors--Publishing;
Hispanic American literature (Spanish);
Dr. Nicolás Kanellos, a scholar whose expertise is the literature of the Hispanics in the United States, talks about the contributions of this minority group in all aspects of cultural life; his career as a scholar, college professor, and...
Businessmen Welcome Wilson has served as Assistant Director of Civil Defense for the city of Houston; assistant to former Mayor Roy Hofheinz; State Director for the Defense Mobilization headquarters in Denton, Texas; and real estate and financial...
Born in Cameron, Texas, Drayton McLane Jr., followed his father's footsteps in learning various aspects of the wholesale grocery business. Having an MBA in marketing, he moved into management and became the CEO and Chairman of the McLane Company in...
Hall, Anthony, 1944-;
Municipal officials and employees -- Texas -- Houston -- Interviews;
African American legislators -- Texas -- Interviews;
Texas -- Politics and government;
Houston (Tex.) -- Race relations;
City of Houston Chief Administrative Officer (2004- ) Anthony Hall, talks about his political career. He served as a State Representative in the Texas Legislature from 1973 to 1979, on the Houston City Council from 1979 to 1989, as Chairman of the...
Mindiola, Tatcho, 1939-;
Civil rights workers--Texas--Houston--Interviews;
Mexican Americans--Social conditions--Texas--Houston;
Mexican Americans--Civil rights;
University of Houston Central Campus;
Tatcho Mindiola, director of the Mexican American Studies program at the University of Houston, describes race relations in Houston in the 1950s and 1960s, and talks about his career as a community activist.
Sakowitz, Robert, 1938-;
Sakowitz Department Store -- History;
Family-owned business enterprises -- Texas -- History;
Robert Sakowitz talks about his family business in Houston, the Sakowitz stores; about the city of Houston at the time the stores were established and developed; and the personalities he met while doing business.
A successful Banker and a top graduate from Stanford Business School, Marc Shapiro was the President and Chief Executive of the Texas Commerce Bank. He retired in 2003 as Vice Chairman for finance and risk management at JP Morgan Chase & Co. He is...
Hirusaki, George J. -- Interviews;
Japanese American researchers -- Interviews;
Japanese American engineers -- Houston (Tex.)
Fluid power technology.
Born in Beaumont, Texas, George J. Hirusaki spent his early childhood with his father, a rice farmer in Texas, learning about agriculture and fluid flow. He graduated from Lamar University and Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from Rice University. He...
Becker, Alan J. -- Interviews;
Life insurance agents--Interviews;
Houston (Tex.)--Growth and development;
Born in Houston, Texas, and graduating from the University of Texas in Marketing and Business, Alan Becker started his career in Life insurance. In this interview, he discusses the rapid growth and development of Houston in the 1950s, and the...
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In The News
Accordia Calls for Greater Investment to Build African Healthcare Leadership
June 18, 2009: To improve health outcomes in Africa over the long term, the continent’s healthcare leadership must be strengthened and expanded at the individual, institutional, and network levels, Accordia Global Health Foundation’s new report concludes.
Building Healthcare Leadership in Africa: A Call to Action notes that it is time to move from emergency responses to the infectious disease crisis to investment in Africa’s long term capacity to address the health needs of its citizens. A key element in this capacity-building effort must be the development of a strong cadre of leaders and managers at all points along the healthcare continuum, and at all levels of responsibility. Although considerable progress has been made in improving Africa’s health outcomes in recent decades, there is still much to be done. The report explains:
“Africa’s healthcare structure and those who serve within it are faced with dynamic economic, policy, and political contexts as well as evolving forces of globalization that create a tremendously challenging environment. However, the opportunities also have never been greater. Leadership at all levels of the health system is required to scale up effective interventions, discontinue those that are not working, align global funding streams for sustainable impact, and motivate a health workforce that is faced each day with basic challenges and resource shortages.
“Success depends on adoption of a bold, sustained approach to improving health in Africa that includes an explicit emphasis on the development of leading individuals, institutions, and the networks that connect them, bringing together expertise from around the region and globe to drive fundamental change. This includes essential investment in leading African medical schools and regional Centers of Excellence that will build lasting institutional knowledge, as well as teach and nurture the next generation of health leaders.
The report is informed by the 2009 Infectious Diseases Summit, held in Kampala, Uganda in April, which brought together leading physicians, researchers, government officials, and non-profit organizations from around the world to discuss the need for healthcare leadership. The Summit produced a Call to Action that lays out roles for individuals, institutions, and the global community to play in advancing African healthcare leadership; it is included in the report.
Contributing authors to the report include Joseph Dwyer, Director of the Management and Leadership Program at Management Sciences for Health; Dr. Peter Ngatia, Director, Capacity Building for the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF); Dr. Nelson Sewankambo, Principal of Makerere University’s College of Health Sciences in Kampala, Uganda; Theresa Riddle, Managing Director, The Crossland Group, Ltd.; and Kelly Willis, Senior Vice President, Program Development, Accordia Global Health Foundation. Ambassador Mark Dybul, former U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, authored the report’s foreword.
Building Healthcare Leadership in Africa: A Call to Action will be released at an event in Washington, D.C. at 3 p.m today. Electronic copies of the report are available at http://www.accordiafoundation.org/news-events/publications/reports/index.html
Accordia Global Health Foundation is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) global health organization building Africa’s capacity to fight infectious disease through training, research, care and prevention. Accordia works in partnership with individuals, corporations, foundations, NGOs, and governments from Africa, Europe, and North America to achieve our vision of a healthier Africa. For more information please visit www.accordiafoundation.org.
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Having complained bitterly about what appears to have been a flagrant attempt to break Pfc. Bradley Manning’s will – if not his mind – at Quantico, I have to regard it as good news that Manning is being moved to Leavenworth, and that his period in solitary confinement appears to be over.
From a distance, it’s hard to say what this means. Did the President, despite his rather callous dismissal of the problem in public, pass the word down the chain of command that torture was a no-no? Was the vicious handling at Quantico actually the decision of a sick-minded commandant, rather than a matter of high policy? (If so, that reflects very badly on Secretary Gates.) Or did the pressure on Manning work, with Manning agreeing to testify against the real target in the case, Julian Assange?
P.J. Crowley, who lost his job at the State Department for speaking out about Manning, thinks the move resulted from heavy pressure on the Pentagon: pressure from both inside and outside the government.
Update Manning’s lawyer reports that he was about to file for a writ of habeas corpus to challenge the conditions of Manning’s confinement.
Footnote: The Guardian story refers to the group that protested about Manning’s treatment at an Obama fundraiser as “supporters of Manning.” That may be true of some of them, but it needn’t be.
It’s possible to disapprove of torture even when applied to people whose conduct you disapprove of. I surely wouldn’t call myself a “supporter” of Manning; modulo the presumption of innocence, the President’s comment that he “broke the law” is almost certainly factually true, and it’s not a law I disapprove of generally. Secrecy is often overdone, and whistleblowing can be an honorable and even heroic action, but just doing a core-dump of classified cables wasn’t really a good idea.
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Volunteering at The Grand Rapids Civic Theatre
& School of Theatre Arts
Central to the Civic Theatre's success through the years are the many volunteers who help make it all happen! Just about everywhere you look at the Civic Theatre you will find volunteers: actors, singers and dancers, technicians and carpenters, costume sewers, ushers and coat check attendants, tour guides, and stage crew — they are all volunteers. In fact, the Civic Theatre has a network of over 800 volunteers who donate countless hours of time each year to bring this stage and theatre to life. With nine mainstage productions each season, and hundreds of education classes, we've got room for anyone who wants to be a part of our team!
Please register to become a volunteer at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre & School of Theatre Arts. We have a place for everyone, no matter what talents, skills or abilities you may (or may not) have. You can become a part of making the theatre experience come to life for 120,000 West Michigan neighbors every year.
Here are some ways you can volunteer at the Civic Theatre:
Actors - Anyone who ever wanted to act, from the novice to the most seasoned actor, is welcome to audition for our productions. Watch our website for upcoming audition information to learn more about how to prepare for an audition and what to expect. Some auditions require advance registration.
Set Construction/Painting - Volunteers help build, repair, paint and tear down sets. It is helpful for volunteers in this area to have some construction or painting background. Daytime and night hours are available.
Lighting/Sound - Training will be provided. We need people who are availalbe throughout the enture run of a show. Some jobs can be shared with another person, and some require that you are there ever performance and throughout tech week prior to the show opening. This is a job that requires a strong commitment, and the ability to follow a script.
Props - This position is part of the stage crew. Properties are all of the set dressings and small articles used in a production. Time commitment is the full run of the show plus tech week and some rehearsals.
Costumes - Volunteers are instrumental in sewing costumes as well as putting finishing touches on projects. Time requirements vary with each show, but hours are flexible with your schedule.
Stagehands/Running Crew - Each show requires many people working back stage to make everything on stage happen. From cleaning before a performance, to preparing the set, coordinating special effects, bringing flys in and out, and moving set pieces for each scene change, there's a lot happening back stage. Time commitment is the full run of the show plus tech week. Volunteers can work every night of a production or trade shifts with another volunteer. This requires a highly responsible person.
Ushers - This is a great way to get started volunteering and meet a lot of people. Ushers are friendly and helpful. The are responsible to greet the public, take tickets, help patrons find their seats, and hand out programs. We use 10 ushers for each show. Arrival time is 45 minutes before performance.
Doorpersons - Act as the host/hostess of the theatre by being in the lobby and taking tickets for the downstairs patrons. They answer any questions that come up and arrive to volunteer 45 minutes prior to start of performance.
Coat Check - Arrive 45 minutes prior to performance and are required to stay and work after the performance to pass out coats to patrons. If short staffed in other areas, you may be asked to usher.
Consessions - Work in our new consession booth in the lower lobby selling candy and drinks. Proceeds from the same of these items help to support our theatre.
Business Office - Volunteers are often needed to assist in data entry, filing and general office work. Time and commitment vary, but daytime hours only.
Maintenance - With a building as large as the Civic, you can imagine there are a lot of odd jobs for all different skill levels. We can always use help with general cleaning, maintenance and upkeep of the theatre. Daytime hours are typically required for this type of volunteer.
Hospitality - Volunteers are regularly needed to assist board members with special events, such as cast parties and technical lunches. We always need people on call to help.
Tour Guides - Training is required and then each tour last approximately 1 hour. Must be good with people and have a good memory. Also must be able to climb multiple stairs around theatre.
Bookholders and Assistant Directors - This is a great opportunity to work closely with the Director of a show. You must be availalbe to come to all rehearsals. Bookholders watch the script and blocking and take notes for the Director. Assistant Directors works with the Director and must to have previous acting or directing experience.
For more information about volunteering at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, please contact us.
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Testing CSS Against Multiple Browsers
In the past, my website design work has either been so basic that the formatting would appear similar on any browser, or I was using something like BEA's AquaLogic web portal system or Joomla! templates; in those cases the templates took care of the differences in multiple browsers for me. But now, most recently, I've landed projects in which I had to go back to hand coding CSS without the assistance of a template that is supported by an entire team of website design professionals.
This current experience has landed me smack dab in the middle of designing and coding web pages, by hand, and wanting them to look as close to the same as possible in a myriad of browsers and browser versions. A colleague said to me the other day, "Is this a field you really want to get into?" I thought to myself, 'I thought I was already in the field…' But technology travels at warp speed and even browsers that you thought was safe to design for can easily throw you curve balls. For example, you probably knew that Firefox 3.6 does not support the </ br> tag, but Firefox 4.0 and Internet Explorer do.
Because of this, if you have FF 4.0 installed, you could start using the </br> tag to add a break in a line without the extra space that a <p> tag does. However, if a visitor hasn't upgraded to FF 4.0 yet, they are not going to see those breaks. Hence, your design is broken. Suddenly, performing cross-browser testing becomes extremely important. And it is not a simple process, but here are tips to simplify the process.
Clients and Browsers
For my particular project, the first question I asked was, "What browser is the client using?" I thought that would be a great way to start; by coding specifically for the person that was going to use it and test it first. However, that would be short lived. Eventually, the site will be in the wild and any number of browsers will be used to view the site. For example, in the office that I work in, I use Firefox 4, Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome 11. My boss uses IE 8 and can't upgrade to 9 because he has Windows XP installed; I have Windows 7.
Meanwhile, a consultant down the hall has Firefox 3.6 installed. Because of these different browsers, the three of us all see different things when I send around the link for a preview of the latest updates. For the client, we just send him screenshot images taken from the browser that looks the best, which is Firefox 4. However, if he's using IE 8, he could be in for a rude surprise when the final site goes live. Therefore, we have some work to do on cross-browser designing. Luckily, there are several tools and code that you can use to get around a potentially disastrous scenario.
Test With Multiple Browsers
To get started, you need an environment in which you have available several different browsers. To gain an idea of which browsers your visitors use most, consult your analytics. Google Analytics provides this information for free. It's a safe bet that you're going to want to code your CSS for Firefox 3.6 and 4.0, Internet Explorer 9, 8 and 7, Chrome (version doesn't matter much here in that Google provides automatic updates and does not force the user to manually install new versions) and Safari.
The problem here is that to install multiple versions of Internet Explorer, you'll need to set up an emulator that allows you to run another copy of Windows within your existing set up. Sounds like a pain, doesn't it? Another problem is that Firefox won't even allow you to download 3.6 anymore. So, unless it's already installed and you haven't upgraded yet, you're kind of out of luck. This brings us to the availability of online tools such as crossbrowsertesting.com and browsershots.org.
These are two different sites that allow you to perform browser testing. I cannot vouch for the paid versions of these sites, but I believe I'm going to be approaching my boss soon about buying a professional license for about $50 per month. But first, I'll experiment with the free trial version. I played around with the free version of browsershots.org and came away mostly frustrated.
The results are not instant, they give you a range of five minutes to an hour as to when the results are ready, and the results will quickly expire if you don't view them the instant they are made available. Interesting enough, browsershots.org has a link to crossbrowsertesting.com, which may or may not be a paid advertisement link, it's too hard to tell for sure. According to the crossbrowsertesting.com site, they have over 31,000 happy customers, which include Sony and the Los Angeles Times, so if those testimonials are to be believed, they must have a good, working service. At the very least, you now have a means to test your CSS across multiple browsers.
Then there's the W3C CSS Validator. This is a useful tool if it's important for your code to be compliant with W3C standards. To use the validator, you simply plug in the URL you want to test, or upload a file, or submit a direct input and it spits back the results to you, showing where the errors are. Just for kicks, I entered the URL of a well-established design site. I figured, these guys are in the design trenches day in and day out. It's a good bet their code is up to standards.
Imagine my surprise when the validator returned well over 100 errors. This just goes to show that not all professional designers adhere to W3C standards. It's up to you and your clients if that's important to you. However, one good use of using this tool is to find any possible errors if you're stuck on trying to fix something.
Using CSS for Cross-Browser Compatibility and Graceful Degrading
Now that you know which browsers you want to design for, and you know about possible tools for testing, you'll need to know how to set up your web pages to allow for different CSS files to be used with different browsers. It's my current understanding that it's best to first code for Firefox and Chrome, as these two browsers allow for the most CSS3 and HTML5 and they don't have the hang ups like Internet Explorer. When you're done with the coding, then test it in Internet Explorer 9 and then 8, possibly even 7. Hopefully, when you ran your analytics report you did not see IE 6 and you can put that monster to bed.
When you learn which differences you need to account for Internet Explorer in your design, most likely spacing issues and any vendor-specific code you might have used, create a special new style sheet that incorporates your updates. Then in the <head> tag, add in the following code:
<!--[if gte IE 7]>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="iespecific.css" />
In the first line of that code, gte, stands for greater than or equal, which means the special style sheet will work for any version of IE 7 or higher. If you want to account for a specific version of IE, then you can omit the gte portion of the code:
<!--[if IE 6]>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="iespecific.css" />
This code will work only for version 6 and no other versions. The order in which you list your style sheets is important. The browser will run through them in order, with each preceding style sheet overriding any tweaks from the previous. Therefore, if you initially styled your page for FireFox and made tweaks for Internet Explorer, then list the main style sheets first and then list the Internet Explorer sheet last with the extra code. For example:
<link rel='StyleSheet' href='css/main.css' type='text/css'>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/secondary.css" />
<!--[if IE]><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/ie.css" /><![endif]-->
In the above example, the main and secondary style sheets will appear in Firefox, but the tweaks for IE will only appear in IE browsers. Probably the best, easiest and quickest way to test this is to change the color of a border or text in the special IE style sheet. Then view the page in Firefox and then in Internet Explorer to see if the changes take place. And yes, of course you can install FF, IE and Chrome all on the same machine at the same time. It's just the different versions that cause a headache. And that's why a tool like crossbrowsertesting.com can come in handy. Hopefully, you can charge the monthly fee back to the client.
|
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|
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|
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|
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|
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Verification code 7da699
Technical drawing tuitions for ICSE 9th and 10th , mumbai
Technical drawing tuition for class 9 and 10 (ICSE).Accurate and concise notes. Sufficient practice.board papers with solutions.
group of 4-5 students ONLY.Batches will be formed according to convenience of all the students .there is also an option for Individual tuition.
Our batches are flexible.So this is an excellent option for students who have not opted for guidance in this subject earlier, but now wish to do so.Queries are welcome any time of the year. We would be happy to help and can also arrange for short duration courses according to the students requirements.
Class room located in dadar, near shivaji park .Specially furnished to be able to conduct technical drawing classes.
Tutor is an ICSE student (ex student of Bombay scottish School) and also an engineer having expertise in engineering/technical drawing and has extensively studied the ICSE technical drawing syllabus and its requirements.
Mumbai / Dadar
|
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|
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|
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|
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|
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| 0.957643
| 219
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|
According to a housing needs study on Bozeman, the city is in desperate need of low-income apartments and houses. But a new action plan hopes to remedy that.
"I think one thing that we haven't had... is low-income housing tax credit projects built since 2005" Bozeman Planning Director Tim McHarg said.
It's been several years since the city's seen affordable, subsidized rental housing.
And McHarg said it hasn't been matching the demand.
"28 percent of homeowners and about 44 percent of renters are paying over 30 percent of their income on household costs" McHarg said.
According to a housing needs study conducted this year, over a quarter of homeowners and nearly half of renters in Bozeman would qualify for some form of housing assistance.
To help solve the problem, McHarg said they've put together a housing plan.
He hopes it'll encourage builders to step forward and fulfill the need.
"Building lower-cost housing is challenging" building contractor Phil Rotherham said. "There needs to be coordination between all the parts and pieces- the design team, the developer, the contractor."
Rotherham, who owns Rotherham Construction, said it can be difficult for a private builder to undertake an affordable housing project.
Simply put, it comes down to profits. And that's something that low-income buildings may not yield.
"It comes down to assessing the risk, understanding costs" Rotherham said. "If there's more and more risk and less and less expectation of sales, nothing's going to get built."
McHarg said one of the aspects of the plan is streamlining the application process for builders, reducing certain fees and offering incentives.
He said the plan has already garnered interest.
"We want to encourage and incentivize developers who are doing that to provide some level of units at those reduced income levels" he said.
The Bozeman City Commission will vote on adopting the action plan during their May 21st meeting.
You can view the City of Bozeman Affordable Housing Action Plan: 2012- 2016 by clicking here.
McHarg said they are accepting public comment on the plan. You can weigh in by clicking here, or by giving comments at the commission meeting.
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03 April 2012
04 April 2012
05 April 2012
06 April 2012
08 April 2012
10 April 2012
11 April 2012
12 April 2012
13 April 2012
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30 April 2012
ACE CAFE & ROCK `N´ ROLL
Britain, particularly from 1956 to 1963, like much of the world, went crazy with the eruption of Rock 'n' Roll. Many UK teenagers identified with the new Rock 'n' Roll sounds, sounds that initially could only be heard on jukeboxes in transport cafes and coffee bars, though when a fair came your way, you knew you were in for a good time as every ride and sideshow would have Rock 'n' Roll, blasting out nice and loud.
This first wave of Rock 'n' Roll music gave youngsters a spontaneous worldwide voice - the voice of wild rebellion. This led to the adoption of specific styles of dress, behaviour and conduct. It was not uncommon that those meeting at places such as the Ace Cafe London, with its jukebox, were then motivated and inspired to create their own sounds. The sound of British Rock 'n' Roll. The British boys made good, and gave the enthusiastic audiences what they wanted and loved, live Rock 'n' Roll.
Rock 'n' Roll venues and clubs were opening, jukeboxes were being installed as fast as possible, with sales of tea and coffee booming! The energy of the new British stars such as Terry Dene, Wee Willie Harris, Marty Wilde, Tony Crombie, Billy Fury, Cliff Richard and many others, found a groundswell of support and identity from places like the Ace Cafe, which most would visit or call in at whilst on tour, and there listen on the jukeboxes to their own music.
Times changed as the sixties progressed, with the advent of The Beatles and the Mersey sound. It appeared to some that Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde etc. had semi retired.
Nevertheless, bands from the Ace Cafe, such as Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, provided a focal point for British Rock 'n' Roll, at a time when U.S. artists such as Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent appeared to have a greater following in Britain, rather than over there! With Gene Vincent insisting, we are told, on visiting the Ace, which was by then not only a well established meeting place for Rockers but also a stop off for touring bands.
With the rise of Carnaby Street, the Rock 'n' Roll sound so redolent of the fifties and sixties, could by now only be heard in a few places. One of course being the Ace Cafe, which sadly closed with the sixties in 1969.
During the 1970`s things began to look better for Rock 'n' Roll.
The Mersey bubble had burst, and it was obvious that Rock n´ roll was here to stay.
Groups like The Wild Angels, Hell Raisers, The Rock `n´ Roll All Stars, Impalas and ex Cafe man, Graham Fenton´s Houseshakers and later Matchbox, all added to this rejuvenation.
However, Rock 'n' Roll did not get that much radio airtime, and in 1976 a massive London march of Teddy Boys and Rockers demanded "More Rock 'n' Roll on radio".
By the late seventies things really began to take off again, with clubs seemingly opening everywhere.
With the 1980´s more new groups appeared on the Rock 'n' Roll circuit, many involving the new rockin´ teenagers who were looking for that elusive, powerful sound called Rock 'n' Roll.
Today we can clearly see that the Rock 'n' Roll scene is still very much with us, there being a tremendous variety, as never before, of sounds being released on CD and in that historic format, vinyl. With numerous record labels the world over, which together with the increasing number of Rock n´ Roll "Festivals", "Weekenders" and gigs to choose from, all underlining the importance and relevance of authentic original venues like the Ace Cafe.
You can see and feel the powerful energy of the Rock 'n' Roll spirit at the Ace Cafe Reunions - we´re working to unleash that spirit trapped in the Ace Cafe London. Beware!
Hail Hail Rock 'n' Roll
Thanks for the kind assistance of Mick Hill from "Rock You Sinners" - The mag for British Rock 'n' Roll.
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Dec 22nd, 2012, 05:36 AM
need help for a web service for a decision support system
Hi everybody, we are a group of students. We are studying the basis of the web services technology. We have to create a complex informative system, part of which consists of a DSS (decision support system). We need to use something already existing, giving in input our alternatives and criteria and receiving in output a graph, or a classification of the alternatives. The criteria are 4 and fixed. We don't need constraints. the alternatives are not fixed.
We've been searching for a web service like this for 2 weeks; the best solution we found is this: http://www.decision-deck.org/ws/wsd-IRIS-CppXMCDA.html
Our teacher says we can do better, because this site doesn't provide any API and we should write down the DAOs by our own.
Does anyone know a better web service that could help us?
Thank you in advance
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http://forum.springsource.org/showthread.php?132951-RestTemplate-is-changing-the-UTF-8-charater-to-junk-value&goto=nextnewest
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Traumgedanken is a book about a dream within a dream. It features a collection of written works on dreams, with a twist. Its author and creator, Maria Fischer, combined colored thread with fine typography to produce this imaginative work—leveraging both the tactile and visual senses of the reader.
In an e-mail, Fischer said that the idea for this book on dreams occurred to her one morning when she was “half sleeping and half awake.” How appropriate.
Although her initial vision might not have been fully developed, the final version is an impressive achievement. A creation like this requires a designer that can do more than simply communicate with words. The pages themselves are part of the work. According to Fischer, the white space on each page was designed to compliment the threads. The “elegant” serif typeface “picks up the thread’s fine and fragile appearance.” Smooth paper was chosen to “emphasize the book’s haptic character.“
The intricate designs were carefully crafted with ordinary sewing thread. The colors were chosen by the author to highlight certain keywords from the collected works on dreams. After some experimenting, the final stitch work took about “two weeks, working from early morning till late at night” to finish, according to Fischer.
Her advice for others who want to pursue their dreams? “Realize your ideas, even if they might seem weird.”
And that sort of ties it all together.
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©1963 Kurt Vonnegut, Jr; (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers
Hey Audible, don't raise prices and I promise to buy lots more books.
To say that I worship at the alter of Kurt Vonnegut would be more mawkish than overstated. He is and will probably always remain one of my all-time, favorite authors. When picking up a book, one can only hope that the author can write; the surprise comes when an author’s contributions transcend what is on the printed page. Such is usually the case with KV. Not only can he write his butt off, he has the absolutely, incredible talent to hold up this mirror for all of us to see the travesty of so much we hold sacred in this American Experience and then laugh at the same time that we cry at our reflection.
About writing itself, KV once said in an interview, “Well, I've worried some about, you know, why write books ... why are we teaching people to write books when presidents and senators do not read them, and generals do not read them. And it's been the university experience that taught me that there is a very good reason, that you catch people before they become generals and presidents and so forth and you poison their minds with ... humanity, and however you want to poison their minds, it's presumably to encourage them to make a better world.” Bottom line for me, that’s what KV’s writings are always about: Humanity.
In 1971 the University of Chicago awarded KV his Master's degree in anthropology for Cat's Cradle. While at first blush that might seem a bit over the top, after reading this treatise on such subjects as science and technology, religion and morality, ethics and law, it becomes quite clear about his critique, KV did his homework. And, the originality of his work is unmistakeable. There are folks out there today such as Al Franken and Jon Stewart for whom KV had to have been an influence. KV was one of the originators of the movement for modern, self-reflection at least in contemporary America. That being said, this is not an unapproachable work reserved for the academic elite. This book is for the entertainment and edification of anyone and everyone: the unread generals, unwashed presidents and your any, off-the-street, Joe Blow, the Plummer. I cannot imagine anyone with a scintilla of humanity not loving this book. You're not into social critique you say. Great, read it just for the fun of it. It is funnier than _ _ _ _, well, it's just plain fun.
The narration could have possibly been done differently and still worked. It's hard to believe that it could have been done better.
Kurt's Vonnegut "Cat's Cradle" is one of the most strange books I've ever read.
The plot starts quite innocently with the narrator presenting himself as a writer planning to write a book about the American nuclear bomb inventor. This goal has perfect sense and is aimed at showing how "normal" was the life of those who, by their activity, created means to kill masses of people. In his pursuit, the narrator makes friends within the family and co-workers of the bomb inventor. They may hid the great secret of late father of the bomb - the mysterious Ice-9.
At this stage of the narration a fictional religion of Bokononism is introduced, with is fundamental concept of karass - the group of people, who are working together to fulfil God's will.
The plots goes crazy when the narrator arrives to a fictional island of San Lorenzo. Here, the events spiral quite fast. Shortly after arrival he is offered to become the president of the nation of the island - and he accepts that post, being in love with the women who was destined to be the wife of the president. Just at the moment of his inauguration as the president, the small plane crashed at the rock on which presidential palace stood and that crash ignited the sequence of events ending in the ultimate cataclysm with almost all the population of the island gone and with all water transformed at room temperature into hard ice after the spillage of Ice-9 in the accident.
Through this crazy plot, Vonnegut tells the most ironic refutation of our society, military pursuit, political system, "forbidden fruit" man-made religions and cults. The most important of those is the mockery of man-made religions. Bokononism, invented for the purpose of the novel, reveals so close resamblance to some cults and sectarian groups that we can only marvel about Vonnegut's wit and Machiavellian wisdom...
This novel is typical Vonnegut and requires that you think ... but not too much throughout. If you over think it, you won't understand it ... but if you are expecting to be spoon fed a a story with all the plot lines hilighted for simplicity, then this is certainly not for you.
The narrator gives you the feeling of sitting down around a fire and listening to your grandfather tell a tale of days long past. I actually quite enjoyed it.
A futuristic mind-opening analogy of the pathetic state of humanity in search of meaning through religion. A masterful work of literature from a man who has actually lived through the some of the worst things one can endure during a human experience. Highly recommend.
I was really excited to find Cat's Cradle, as I am a huge Vonnegut fan. But this recording is old and somewhat garbled, the narrator is dry, and does a poor job defining the characters so it is hard to follow. He really destroys the excitement and mystery of the story, which is too bad. Are there any better recordings out there for this book?
Fun, irreverent, intellectual
Bokonon, a central character, a cult figure that is seen directly only in the closing pages of the book, but is present via the descriptions of the other characters from the first chapter. "I would have been a Bokononist then, if there had been anyone to teach me the bittersweet lies of Bokonon."
Excellent narration without trying too hard at the various voices.
I enjoyed the book and was glad I listened on audio. The interview with Vonnegut at the end was a delightful bonus. I've not read the print version so can't really make a comparison.
Love Vonnegut but the narration is brutally bad -had to stop listening and was so bummed.
Loved Ethan Hawke doing Slaughterhouse, but run from this one and read the book.
He was awful.
Yes, I enjoyed listening to this. I had read it but listening to it was different.
The new religion.
I remember being far more engaged with this book when I read it several years ago than when listening to this version.
Report Inappropriate Content
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Course-Level Student Learning Assessment
Faculty have the responsibility to directly measure and document student learning goals at the course level. A course syllabus is required from each faculty and is expected to be submitted to the respective school office for archival purposes. This follows the College’s Curriculum Committee guidelines, “What should be in a syllabus?” found here: http://www.utica.edu/academic/facultyinfo/curriculum.cfm
Course level assessments include direct measures identified by each individual faculty member.
Course-level student learning goals are not on a specified schedule. Faculty have the freedom to assess at the course level as he/she deems appropriate.
Collecting the data and sharing the results:
Faculty document the course assessment data individually. It is expected that academic programs will meet to engage in conversations about student learning at the course level and the direct relationship these results have with the program-level student learning goals. Many departments find it most efficient to align course-level assessment with the department-level goal so that the department level assessment can be informed by assessment at the course level.
Closing the loop:
While it is not required, many academic programs provide a common “retreat” activity to discuss the respective academic program. This often includes conversations about student learning goals at the course level. When programs have aligned course and program level assessment, documentation can include both levels and any resulting actions.
Linked to budget:
Course-level student learning goal assessment results are part of the support related to program level budget requests, as needed.
Sustaining the Course Level Student Learning Assessment Process
This level of the student learning assessment is the responsibility of the faculty. Follow-up on course syllabi is facilitated by the school offices. Adjunct faculty are provided the syllabus guidelines as a reference and the Office of Academic Assessment provides support for professional development related to writing student learning goals.
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The End of Suffering
March 21, 2012 Length: 66:10Dr. Scott Cairns, renowned poet and visiting professor at St. Katherine College, assays the meaning of suffering, beginning from the ubiquity of grief and the shallow nature of many explanations. Drawing from the insight of St. Isaac of Syria that love of God proceeds from our conversing with him, Cairns explains that the conditions for such a conversation point to a way of coming to grips with suffering.
"I don't think it's a stretch to say that I've spent HUNDREDS of hours listening to AFR over the past 8-9 months. I have not had an AFR-free commute for many, many months! To say that AFR has played a crucial role in my journey would be an understatement. Without the ministry of AFR, it's safe to say that I would not have the clarity and confidence to move forward into the next phase of the journey that God has for me. I just want you all to know—the AFR folks on the ground and the Priests, Monastics, and Laypeople that provide content for the podcasts—that you're doing a great, God-ordained work that is having an amazing impact."
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Bible: James 2:1-13; 5:1-12
Prejudice and the Law of Love
2:1 My brothers and sisters, 1 do not show prejudice 2 if you possess faith 3 in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. 4 2:2 For if someone 5 comes into your assembly 6 wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and a poor person enters in filthy clothes, 2:3 do you pay attention to the one who is finely dressed and say, 7 “You sit here in a good place,” 8 and to the poor person, “You stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor”? 9 2:4 If so, have you not made distinctions 10 among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? 11 2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! 12 Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor! 13 Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts? 2:7 Do they not blaspheme the good name of the one you belong to? 14 2:8 But if you fulfill the royal law as expressed in this scripture, 15 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” 16 you are doing well. 2:9 But if you show prejudice, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as violators. 17 2:10 For the one who obeys the whole law but fails 18 in one point has become guilty of all of it. 19 2:11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” 20 also said, “Do not murder.” 21 Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the law. 2:12 Speak and act as those who will be judged by a law that gives freedom. 22 2:13 For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over 23 judgment.
From Adam to Noah
5:3 When 6 Adam had lived 130 years he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and he named him Seth. 5:4 The length of time Adam lived 7 after he became the father of Seth was 800 years; during this time he had 8 other 9 sons and daughters. 5:5 The entire lifetime 10 of Adam was 930 years, and then he died. 11
5:6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father 12 of Enosh. 5:7 Seth lived 807 years after he became the father of Enosh, and he had 13 other 14 sons and daughters. 5:8 The entire lifetime of Seth was 912 years, and then he died.
5:9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. 5:10 Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Kenan, and he had other sons and daughters. 5:11 The entire lifetime of Enosh was 905 years, and then he died.
5:12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel.
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— The United States says it shares French goals in striking militarily against Islamist rebels in northern Mali and is working with neighboring states to deploy a regional intervention force. But the Obama administration says there must also be a political solution to the conflict.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says Washington is reviewing several French requests to support its ongoing military campaign against al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists in Mali.
She says the Obama administration is also ready to send military trainers to Africa this week to help prepare troops from neighboring countries that might be sent to Mali to support the transitional government in Bamako.
U.N. Security Council members have been discussing an intervention force with the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, for months. But those talks got dragged down by questions of which countries would send how many troops, for how long, at whose expense.
"Clearly, when the rebels started moving south, that was a wake up call to everybody. And now with the urgent Malian call for outside help, I think it was not just to the French but it was also to ECOWAS to please speed it up, so we're all focused on that as well. So our sense from our ECOWAS contacts is that they are rolling up their sleeves now to try to get in as quickly as they can," she said.
Despite early French gains in pushing back rebels on some fronts, Islamist militants Monday seized the town of Diabaly, about 400 kilometers north of the capital.
Nuland says "there is no purely security solution to the problems in Mali."
"We are, in concert with the security track, pushing hard on all stakeholders in Mali to commit to and begin preparing for the elections that are supposed to take place by April of this year. That's going to require a free, fair, transparent electoral process," she said.
Beyond restoring democracy, she says there must be an economic commitment to address the grievances of under-developed communities in the north and a concerted push to appeal to those who are wiling to renounce terrorism.
"You have hardcore fighters, whether they're from the outside or whether they are local rebels committed to a violent resolution of their grievances. You have other actors in the community who are dissatisfied with the government and therefore may be attracted to an extremist course of action if they don't feel like that have any other alternatives," she said.
Nuland says the United States remains concerned about the political and military influence of last March's coup leader Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo and is urging both Mali's military and its transitional government to marginalize him.
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A Regional Transit Authority for metro Detroit may get derailed by the politics surrounding right-to-work.
The bill creating the RTA was up for final passage in the state House on Wednesday, which was the last step needed in a 40-year journey to try to improve public transportation in metro Detroit. But Democrats, who said they support the concept, refused to vote for the bill while the contentious question of the possible introduction of right-to-work legislation was still in play.
Right-to-work is vehemently opposed by unions and many Democrats. It would make it illegal to require financial support of a union as a condition of employment.
"We're committed to working in a bipartisan manner with the governor and Republicans," said state Rep. Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, who will be taking over as minority leader of the House in January. "But not in the toxic atmosphere created by right-to-work."
The RTA bill would create an authority to coordinate the city and suburban bus services provided by the Detroit Department of Transportation and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transit (SMART). It also would spearhead the creation of a light-rail line and a bus rapid-transit system.
The federal Department of Transportation said it is ready to inject millions into mass transit in metro Detroit -- including $25 million for a light-rail line from downtown Detroit to New Center, called the M-1 Rail project -- if the state and region can craft a regional cooperative effort that would improve public transportation.
Without an authority, though, the federal dollars will disappear.
Republicans were poised to pass the bill, a priority for Gov. Rick Snyder. They passed the bill out of the House Transportation Committee on Wednesday morning without any Democratic votes.
"I was told by someone that Republicans hate Detroit, so I guess I'm shocked today with this vote," state Rep. Paul Opsommer, R-Dewitt, said sarcastically. He voted with his fellow Republicans to move the bill to the full House.
But when the time came to vote on the bill by the full House, it was falling short of the 56 votes needed to pass because the Democrats were opposing it and not all Republicans were on board. Republicans hold a 64-46 majority in the House.
The House leadership cleared the voting board before the vote was finalized and may take the issue up again today or next week.
"The Democrats are going to have to decide if they're going to support it or continue to play politics," said Ari Adler, spokesman for Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, R-Marshall. "The statement they're making is that they're willing to throw their constituents under the proverbial bus to play politics."
But Democrats said they are protecting working families by opposing right-to-work.
"The House Dems are standing firm when it comes to protecting the middle-class families, even if it comes at the expense of our own bills and priorities," said Katie Carey, spokeswoman for the House Democratic caucus.
The vote was the 24th time that lawmakers have tried to create a transit authority for the region. The bill passed the Senate last week and has the support of the regional leaders of metro Detroit and Snyder.
"The numbers show that regional transit is being used," said Sandy Baruah, president of the Detroit Regional Chamber. "People of all stripes take regional transit because it makes life a lot easier.
"And the economic development atmosphere flourishes around mass transit," he added.
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Israel’s minister of communications Eden Bar-Tal has indicated that the government is examining the licensing process for fourth-generation services, Globes Online reports. With the Ministry of Communications (MoC) currently discussing its work plan for the coming year, a number of options relating to the issue of 4G concessions are reportedly being studied. Further, it is understood that the state hopes to not only hold a tender for such frequencies this year, but to allocate frequencies with a view to allowing operators to begin planning, and even establishing, networks before the end of 2013.
The news source notes that Bar-Tal has previously suggested the state will allocate spectrum in the 1800MHz band for 4G networks, and with mobile network operators Cellcom and Partner Communications already holding such frequencies it is thought the duo will be barred from acquiring additional spectrum in the band. With the tenders committee expected to convene in the near future to decide on how much spectrum will be made available, it has been claimed it will also consider matters such as what course of action to take should Cellcom and Partner look to use their spectrum to quickly roll out 4G networks, while other operators would have to wait for the allocation of any new frequencies. While the MoC has reportedly said that it aims to prevent such a situation from occurring, it has yet to detail how it aims to achieve this.
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When senior citizens, who are depending on their Social Security checks as their only source of income, hear the word "denied," to a one-time stimulus $250 check to help them out because they have not had a cost of living increase for the past two years, one can be assured that many low-income families will be pushed back into poverty during the next two years.
If you look back before Obama, former President George W. Bush put us all into this great depression. The unjust war in Iraq has plummeted us into a giant quicksand hole that we might never be able to get out of.
Who will suffer the most? The children, elderly and the disabled.
As for the rich? Many will do everything in their power to get there.
For example, Sarah Palin, quitting being governor of Alaska just to boost her bankroll with speeches and book and television reality deals. Even Bush, who left a sinking Washington behind, moving into his new multi-million dollar home and a fat check waiting for him for the book he is now promoting.
Mainers, beware of Republican Paul LePage and his new Republican cronies who will be governing our state. They will make major cuts into programs that will be affecting the poorest of Maine citizens — the elderly, children and those who are disabled.
Rolande Caron, South Paris
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DRAWN & QUARTERED
COURTESY FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
Reprinting recaptures perfection of cartoonist’s line
Singers reach for their note, guitarists struggle for tone, writers work on their voice, athletes go into the zone. Now, with cartoonists, cartoonists try to find their line.
"Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1951-1952"
624 pages., $24.95)
Where the ink hits the paper is like where the rubber meets the road. Is it smooth? Will it clot? Will it swoop in graceful curves or get all jangly and skritchy-scratchy? It's all OK, mind you. It's just that the line on paper is how the cartoonist communicates, it's their craft and reason for being, and finding the right, balanced scramble of ink-and-paper interface is a lifelong dream for most cartoonists.
Hank Ketcham, though -- that boy could draw. To this day, cartoonists are not only in awe of his economy of line, but of his cinematic perspectives and compositions. That attention to pedestrian detail. The suburban characters and neighborhood of Ketcham's classic "Dennis the Menace" is likely the most complete world ever rendered in the fewest amount of lines.
And he did it without even creating a comic strip. Ketcham's forte was the single "gag" panel, a daily one-shot, and one that rarely works with continuing characters and story lines.
Dennis' character was spun off into comic books, animation and even a live-action TV series and movie, and the characters laid down by Ketcham were so indelible that they survived mostly intact.
COURTESY FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
Hank Ketcham worked wonders with the daily "gag" panel of Dennis the Menace.
I'LL COME CLEAN here and reveal that when I moved to Hawaii in the '60s, my primary guide was a tattered copy of "Dennis in Hawaii." It remains a surprisingly accurate introduction and beautifully drawn by Ketcham protégé Al Wiseman, published in 1958 to coincide with Hawaii's drive for statehood. I've just discovered that it is also likely the best-selling comic book of all time, as well as the first to send its creative team "on location."
All this bubbles to the surface because Fantagraphics, the publishing company dedicated to preserving the best in American cartoon art, has begun a massive project of reprinting every "Dennis" panel ever drawn. Yikes. The first volume begins on the first day of syndication -- Ketcham had no trouble placing the project, and his sample drawings became the lead-off gags -- on March 12, 1951, and then covers the next two years.
"Love and Rockets" comic book illustrator Gilbert Hernandez, commenting online, noted that Ketcham's work was an inspiration because "among all the American newspaper cartoonists who could draw people that LOOKED like people, Ketcham was far and away the best. ... (He) captured real folks in a naturalistic environment the way no on else could. A perfect blend of slickness and warmth."
The book makes it clear that the style was there from the beginning, and is quickly refined within a few months. Dennis isn't a bad kid, he's just enthusiastic and mischievous, and the gags use a sophisticated, sly wit that often rides on the perfection of the drawn panel to make its point.
And they were funny from day one.
The package is designed by Jack Covey and includes a forward by "Mutts" master Patrick McDonnell, another cartooning genius who has found his line in life.
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Let’s Back up a Minute
By Lee Johns, VP Product Management - When it comes to storage there is debatably no more important an issue than backup and recovery. Storage vendors go to great lengths to protect the customer’s data. Dual controllers, redundant components, parity based data protection (RAID), mirroring, replication, snapshots, and clones are all methodologies used to help customers insure that there data is protected from failure. With all of that technology protecting the data you might wonder why do you need backups.
The truth is that your data is too valuable not to have a backup. No matter how proactive the storage array is in deploying data protection technologies there are always things that can go wrong. Power loss, natural disaster, malicious data destruction and data corruption come to mind.
In 2011 Google lost the mailboxes of about 150,000 Gmail users. Despite having 3 copies of the data, there was corruption of them all. The link below describes the resolution of the issue.
As a professional organization that understands the value of the data Google had tape backups. Customers were without their data for a while but it was ultimately retrieved.
At Starboard Storage we build in multiple data protection mechanisms for your data into our AC72 Storage Systems but you need to backup your data and we are therefore thankful for our partnership with Acronis.
Starboard Storage is focused on consolidation of mixed workloads and so is Acronis. They will backup your entire environment and with their vmProtect 7 product they not only enable you to quickly backup VMs but they will provide a complete disaster recovery plan with each backup.
If you would like to learn more about how Starboard Storage and Acronis can help you with you storage, backup and disaster recovery needs please register for our joint seminar.
Your data is too important not to have a plan.
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After watching Obama's breakthrough speech on television, Thomas was instantly hooked to the "skinny kid with a funny name," (as President Obama referred to himself that night), and his vision of a new kind of politics.
"I'm somebody who became civically engaged around the Obama campaign," said the 38-year-old Thomas. "I followed politics when I was a teenager but never really put myself out there."
This changed quickly after Obama announced his presidential candidacy in February of 2007. Thomas had been following Obama's lightning-quick political ascension - from DNC keynote speaker to U.S. Senator to presidential hopeful - with interest. Once Obama officially threw his hat in the ring, Thomas, a Clinton Hill resident who works for a film company and as a consultant, decided to jump on board.
"I knew that I supported him and felt very deeply about his presidential candidacy," Thomas recalls thinking at the time. "I wanted to involve my friends and family but didn't have a plan."
Taking advantage of the internet technology Obama's campaign would soon become famous for, in February of 2007 Thomas used a feature on the official Obama campaign website to start his own grassroots organization, which he called Brooklyn for Barack.
Within four days more than 70 people had joined the group. All of them, said Thomas, were "clamoring for action."
The group began meeting regularly and as more and more members joined developed a concrete mission. "We wanted to be a clearing house where we could ensure there was activity in every neighborhood focused on getting Obama the [Democratic presidential] nomination," Thomas said.
As Obama's popularity grew, and he emerged as Hillary Clinton's only rival for the party's nomination, Brooklyn for Barack expanded. Once Obama secured the nomination in the summer of 2008, and prepared for a grueling general election campaign against Arizona Senator John McCain, the group exploded.
"We estimate that there were at one time more than 7,000 people volunteering for our organization," said Thomas. During the nearly two-year primary and general election campaigns, Brooklyn for Barack volunteers, working out of two Brooklyn offices, and in coordination with Obama's New York campaign team, spearheaded borough-wide voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote initiatives, did canvassing, and even bused activists to the neighboring battleground state of Pennsylvania.
The group's signature moment came in August of 2008, when it co-hosted a large Obama campaign rally at the Brooklyn Marriot hotel. Obama spoke there, and called Thomas personally afterwards to thank him for his work.
"The guy's got a world-class mind," said Thomas of the president, who he met four times during the campaign. "I really like how he can bring people together from different backgrounds and have a respectful conversation. I find that very appealing."
Thomas said Brooklyn for Barack has no plans of slowing down just because their man made the White House. The group is thinking of filing officially as a non-profit, and exploring ways to establish itself as a permanent grassroots organization.
"We are considering how to help folks empower themselves and strength Brooklyn," said Thomas, who is currently writing a screenplay based on his experiences of the past two years. "We really are trying to build something that's going to have longevity."
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Evercare pilots need financial support
VOL: 19, ISSUE: 10, PAGE NO: 7
Anne Duffy is Director of the Community and District Nursing Association (CDNA)All those working in primary care are aware that health practices must change to cope with the escalating numbers of elderly, frail people living in the community.
This role is a very labour intensive and so the APN will have about 55 to 60 patients, identified from the number of hospital admissions and based on strict criteria. The initial findings from a series of the Evercare programme were revealed in the DH press release at the beginning of May. It stated that: - The development of the APN role can lead to better co-ordination of pro-active care of older patients and better collaboration with GPs and geriatric consultants - Better monitoring and education of older patient populations means high-risk patients can be identified and treated before hospital admission becomes necessary - The work is already addressing the needs of vulnerable older people in the community, using primary care - local doctors and nurses - as the main way of delivering care. The Community and District Nursing Association (CDNA) cautiously welcomes Evercare. However, it does have concerns that, without extra resources in the community, the extra pressure this will put on district nurses will push the service to breaking point. Proper funding needed
Everyone working in primary care is aware that practices must change to cope with the escalating numbers of frail, elderly people living in the community. We welcome the fact that the Government is taking this issue seriously but urge it to ensure new initiatives are properly funded. District nurses are best placed to take on this new role, provided adequate support is in place. It is an exciting time for nurses working in the community precisely because they will be involved in shaping nursing to ensure the care delivered meets future needs. Staff delivering care have the power to challenge the present power base and aim for equality among health professionals. But giving them the support to achieve that is a key ingredient. www.cdna.tvu.ac.uk *The nine primary care trusts piloting the Evercare model are Airedale; Bexley (care trust); Bristol North; Bristol South and West; Halton; Luton; South Gloucestershire; Walsall and Wandsworth. A tenth, North Tees, is looking at data and analysis for more effective commissioning and clinical governance. DH press release 2004/0159, 3 May 2004.
Online training units, written and reviewed by experts. Earn two hours' CPD and a personalised certificate for your portfolio.
Subscribers get five FREE learning units and non-subscribers can access each learning unit for £10 + VAT.
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Aloft in the Forest
Among the many problems of urban living in Portland, Oregon, are raccoons, deer, and falling trees. It’s not just that woods and forests persist inside the city limits but also the fact that a city was densely built amidst them. Despite such hazards, Stefan and Nicole Andrén built a sleek modernist loft nestled in trees atop a forested ridge that snakes behind the city’s downtown. The setting is urban, in a Portland kind of way. And Stefan and Nicole enjoy the woods just as a downtown loft dweller might enjoy the street scene: Perched on the roof deck, they gaze down at the busy deer and rustling leaves, sipping cocktails with friends who’ve made the short drive up from Portland’s heavily developed Pearl District. “We never go into the forest,” Stefan explains. “It’s much nicer on the deck. And that means the deer aren’t afraid to come out."
In 2003, Stefan and Nicole moved to Portland from Milan, Italy, taking design jobs as a product designer at Nike and a freelance studio artist at advertising powerhouse Wieden + Kennedy, respectively. They first thought they’d find a loft in one of the city’s burgeoning downtown neighborhoods. Tightly coordinated planning and an unusual culture of cooperation between developers and the city have given Portland its biggest housing boom since 1905, much of it concentrated in newly developed neighborhoods directly abutting downtown, such as the Pearl District. But lofts in the Pearl cost upwards of $300,000. So, as Stefan recalls, “More for fun than anything else, we started sketching on napkins and scrap paper. With quite similar tastes, a house very quickly took shape, so I did a fi rst pass at building a 3-D CAD model. At this stage we were too excited to turn back, so after a signifi cant amount of research, and about 50 CAD variations on the same idea, we had something worth taking to an engineer.” Stefan and Nicole (who earned her bachelor’s degree in architectural studies) put form to their fantasy by laying out the elements that would make their dream home: guest rooms for visitors well away from the master suite; a high-ceilinged open plan organized around a fireplace; floor-to-ceiling windows opening west, away from the street. “We approached the house from how it was going to be used,” Stefan explains, “concerning ourselves with proximity of spaces related to daily and occasional functions, rather than with the design of a particular room. Once this was worked out, the rest fell into place fairly easily.”
Stefan translated their napkin sketches into a CAD mock-up that the two played with for over a year. “We agreed on everything except the front door,” Nicole announces. “He wanted it yellow and I wanted it bright orange. In the end we painted it over with chalkboard paint, so it can be anything we like.” The CAD mock-up is on Stefan’s desktop and a quick tour of it confirms that their imagined home was built exactly as planned, with no significant changes.
The Skybox, named for its site on Skyline Boulevard, turns its back on the two-lane road winding out of downtown. Indeed, the modest rectangle of brown visible from the road suggests a kind of modernist Nordic cabin or a skiers’ shelter, belying the spacious geometry of the broad, three-story cube. Clad in darkly stained cedar and punctured with only a few small windows on three of its sides, the house opens up to the west as the steep, wooded slope drops away. Sixteen-foot-high windows wrap the western wall, framing the sparkling lights of nearby Beaverton and Hillsboro, visible through the thick forest overstory. “We mixed the stain specifically for this site, so the house sort of blends into the trees,” Stefan points out. The wood cladding reveals a burnishedaluminum interior wherever the cube’s geometry has been disturbed (a tall narrow slice is taken out of one edge) or extended (as where a metal stairway traverses the southern wall, up to the roof deck).
Inside, the 2,250-square-foot volume unfolds in a pleasing sequence of well-proportioned spaces. Between entry area and main living room, the stained-wood floors step up 18 inches, obviating the need for any divider. At the same threshold, the overhanging master suite ends and suddenly the ceiling is 16 feet above you, the room wrapped in high walls of four-by-eight-foot glass panels, slimly framed by two-inch profile steel.
“This is the clean floor,” says Nicole. “It’s such an easy house, with all the entertaining in this one great open space or out on the deck, and then the bedrooms and study all tucked away upstairs and down.”
“We wanted that feeling of an open loft space,” Stefan adds, “but with room for guests; a nice, sunny office; and extras like the master suite and sauna.” With the right CAD software, a strong design sense, and the willingness to be patient and learn from their engineers and contractors, Stefan and Nicole managed to achieve all their goals while acting as their own architects. “Perhaps our greatest challenge was to come up with a solution within our budget,” says Stefan. “But we can honestly say that the house came in not much, but slightly, under our budget.” Now they’re ready to offer their expertise to others: On the broad white tabletop of their shared office, shadows dapple the outlines of a new house design they’re working on for a friend.
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According to new data from the mobile ad network Jumptap, the older and wealthier you are the more likely you are to engage with ads shown on your mobile device. Users 40 and over are close to five times more likely to interact with an ad than those younger than 40, and people earning over $50,000 a year are twice as likely to do so than people earning less. These statistics were taken from “an analysis of the 10 billion ad requests made to the Jumptap network by its audience of 83 million unique users in April.” The study also discovered that “58% of mobile Internet users are getting content through their browser, compared to 42% via ad-supported apps.” Smartphone users are often wealthier and older than feature phone users and typically use more mobile data. Jumptap, and other mobile ad networks are widely aware of this and ad targeting on cell phones is being used more now than what was originally seen on the PC Web.
(Source: Online Media Daily 05/11/11)
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By FPA member Mitchell E. Kauffman, CFP®, MSFP, MBA
Last Updated: February 11, 2011
As more Baby Boomers approach their Golden Years they are faced with a plethora of challenges. Especially for those with greater resources, the issues can be formidable. To the extent that these are effectively addressed, the promise of those Golden Years can be more readily achieved with less stress both during and after the transition.
Henceforth the top 10 most common mistakes to avoid:
- Procrastinating: Often people do not begin their retirement planning until retirement is upon them. Depending on your situation, most experts urge that this process begin no later than five years prior; ideally at least 10 years or more before is advisable.
- Not Considering How Much Retirement Income Will Be Needed: Estimates vary as to how much a person’s or couple’s expenditures will change once they retire. Generally, 75 percent of current income is a rule of thumb. Obviously this has to be adjusted for factors such as projected mortgage (if any), downsizing of residence, travel, etc.
- Not Estimating How Long Retirement Income Will Need To Last: You hear it all the time; people are living longer, and hopefully you will be among the growing number of centenarians. Other issues may arise as well, such as the likelihood of needing to provide financial assistance to your parents, children or even siblings. Careful, objective planning and on-going management will be needed to make sure there will be enough income.
- Over Reliance on Social Security: This program was always intended as a safety net and not to meet all of a retiree’s income needs. With questions arising as to the system’s soundness, it is more important than ever to have sound planning in our own financial affairs.
- Postponing Social Security Benefits: Those eligible for Social Security retirement benefits may want to consider taking the money now, rather than waiting. Although some people in the highest income-tax bracket or with a family history of longevity may find reasons to wait for the larger payment, for most retirees the decision is a simple question of mortality statistics. On average, Americans live into their early or mid-80s. Calculations show that a 65-year-old who waits five years to begin taking maximum Social Security payments won’t recoup the forgone money until he or she approaches their early 80’s. Of course, the recipient’s plans to continue working should be weighed carefully in this decision.
- Dismissing the Possible Need of Long-term Care: It is easy to not think about the prospect of long-term care, particularly if someone close has not fallen victim to chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The reality is that if not properly planned, the ever increasing costs of long-term home and nursing care can rapidly deplete a lifetime of savings. If necessary, long-term care insurance can make the difference between a comfortable, calm retirement and one filled with financial insecurity.
- Retiring Early without Adequate Planning: An early retirement can present exponentially greater challenges to one’s savings. Not to say it should not be done, but it is particularly critical that a game plan be developed well ahead of time to help assure there will be enough income to last.
- Assuming Retirement Planning is a One-time Event: Especially with the rapidity of life’s changes today, a plan constructed even a year ago could be sorely in need of revision. Changes in the markets, interest rates, even our own personal preferences, necessitate periodic, on-going review and adjustments.
- Forgetting About Income Taxes: Just because we retire does not mean income taxes go away, starting with how to best handle lump sum distributions from a retirement plan. During retirement, income tax planning can be even more critical to preserve the nest egg. Especially with the onset of required retirement plan distributions, it is important to continually evaluate whether to take the minimum or to accelerate withdrawals.
- Believing in Retirement Nirvana: Just like “the grass is always greener…” retirement can be seen as the cure for many of life’s woes. For those unprepared, the added time available can create a whole new set of challenges. Statistics show that the average new retiree spends about 45 hours a week watching television. For a fulfilling retirement, it is important to prepare for the psychological as well as the financial aspects. Just as a surgeon is advised not operate on themselves or loved ones, it is often invaluable to have independent, objective, expert advice in developing and managing a program for your retirement years.
FPA member Mitchell Kauffman, CFP®, MSFP, MBA, provides wealth management services to corporate executives, business owners, professionals, independent women, and the affluent. He is one of only five financial advisors from across the U.S. named to Research magazine’s prestigious Financial Advisor Hall of Fame in 2010, and among a select list of 100 over the past 20 years. Kauffman is an Instructor of Financial Planning and Investment Management at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Community College, and Pasadena City College.
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Over the years our game has changed. A lot! At the very beginning we played on large fields and shot paintballs that were very costly. We could count on our fingers and toes the number of balls we shot during a multi-hour session. Over the years, as the number of players increased and paintballs were produced and sold in higher volumes, the price of paintballs dropped and we could all afford to buy and shoot a little more.
At the same time technology was advancing and our markers went from shooting very slowly to considerably faster. The number of players was still increasing as well. This allowed paintball producers to increase production and saw many new paintball manufacturers enter this relatively new and continually growing market. Each of these manufacturers thought they could cash in on this growing market. The push was for players to come out of the bush where they had been shooting far fewer paintballs, onto speedball fields, using high tech equipment, and shooting huge volumes of paintballs.
The industry was promoting the opening of fields to further fuel this rapid growth. Field starter kits were advertised in every magazine. The talk was that if you opened a field, the money was in selling paintballs. Fieldowners were encouraged to build smaller fields with shorter game times to promote players to shoot higher volumes of paintballs. It worked. More and more fields, many in areas that had not had fields available before meant more and more new players, all being encouraged to shoot high volumes of paintballs.
Since there was a higher chance of success on the field shooting more paintballs, players hungered for even faster technology. We were the fastest growing extreme sport in North America; new fields and new players everywhere. High volume paintball usage by all these players meant that manufacturers could develop technology and use economies of scale to their advantage and produce paintballs for less and less. Coupled with a high degree of new competitors entering the market, paintballs got very cheap at the wholesale level.
The promotion for players to open new fields had worked very well. There were fields everywhere, many often catering to the same market. This meant competition among fieldowners. Like any other business, competitors all want a bigger share of the market. How do you attract a bigger share of paintball players? Like almost everything else in the world, you lower prices. Sell paintballs cheaper than the other guys and you will attract more customers. As a fieldowner you weren’t really going to make a lot less money as paintball players all want to shoot more paintballs, especially if it gives you an advantage when playing. So fieldowners would undercut the field across town by selling paintballs cheaper, but would make up for it by selling more paintballs.
This was the trend from very close to the start of our industry and for the most part is still the trend today. There are some isolated pockets in North America that didn’t go this route, but for the most part, that is the way it has played out. And that is where we are today. Where the first paintball players could count the paintballs they used in a day’s session on their fingers and toes, today’s average player needs the fingers and toes of 100 friends to count the paintballs he uses in a day’s session.
As one could imagine, there is little resemblance to the original game. The original game was fun for most who tried to play it. Hence, why it started to grow at such a tremendous rate. It was still fun for most who tried it when players started shooting a few more paintballs. Sure, a higher percentage of those who tried probably didn’t come back for a second outing, but overall, the vast majority had fun and came back. As the number of paintballs shot kept increasing, a higher and higher percentage of first time players didn’t come back a second time. The industry started to see a slow down in the growth rate of our sport.
The push had been on for many years to promote speedball. It was thought that speedball was the future of the game after all. Small fields, lots of paintballs shot in a short time and with increasing popularity, the sport was bound to make it on to TV and become an even bigger hit. But the high volumes of paintball being shot on a speedball field, was keeping many players off the speedball fields. It was time to do some back peddling. Maybe speedball wasn’t all that we hoped it would be. A few entrepreneurs saw an emerging market within the industry. Over the years, even though speedball was getting most of the attention of the promoters and media, there had always been more players in the woods than on the speedball fields. Here was a great opportunity to give these players in the woods some of the technology developed for speedball fields that would get these players shooting more paintballs. Since the majority of players obviously prefer to play in the woods instead of on speedball fields, the industry shifted their thinking and started concentrating on these players. Equipment was produced that looked more at home in the woods, but capable of the same high rates of fire as its speedball counterpart.
All was good again for a while. Manufacturers had tapped into this market they had practically ignored for many years and had turned them into high volume shooters. Paintball manufacturers were selling massive amounts of paintballs again. For a while.
But sometimes history does repeat itself. Just as many players had chosen not to take part in speedball, because the high paintball usage was just too extreme for their taste, now people were choosing not to take part in the woods as well. New players that had traditionally started playing paintball in the woods where the game was much more mellow, came once, didn’t like the experience, and didn’t come back.
Eventually, as the game started reaching extreme volumes of paintballs, the percentage that actually had enough fun and decided to come back a second time was not enough to replace the players that typically leave a sport due to natural attrition. The extreme sport that had the fastest growth rate in North America, started to decline.
This created quite a dilemma for the industry. We have competing paintball manufacturers able to churn out paintballs at an incredible rate, paintballs that are selling for very little cost. We also have a continuously dwindling number of players, further decreasing the demand for these paintballs. We have fieldowners that are losing the numbers of customers they used to have, all competing for a bigger share of the pie that’s left. Paintball prices are brought down to the lowest possible prices in hopes of attracting new players. Competing paintball manufacturers are doing the same, supplying these fields with paintballs for very little. Fieldowners are passing these savings on to their customers in hopes of attracting new customers. All this is great for the players still playing the game. Never before have they been able to buy so many paintballs for so little money. Players can shoot volumes of paintballs never before seen. And more and more new players aren’t coming back a second time. Quite a dilemma.
What created the situation? Good old capitalism. Free enterprise. It’s what our society in North America is built on. Give the consumer what he wants for less money and you will sell higher volumes. It works well with almost everything. In paintball however, there seems to be a little flaw. Quite a dilemma.
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Maryland's teacher preparation programs remain lackluster as the state continues to fall short in standards that would attract candidates with strong academic backgrounds, and ensuring that teachers are properly qualified to teach in their subject areas, according to a report published Wednesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality.
The Council, a leading policy group that advocates policies for strengthening the teaching profession, issued the state's teacher preparation policies a grade of D+- --the same grade it received last year-- which mirrors the national average for all states in 2012.
According to the report, Maryland needs to raise admission requirements for teacher prep programs in schools of education, and hold the programs accountable for the quality of the teachers they produce.
The NCTQ also recommended the state do more to ensure teachers are proficient in their subject areas and grade-levels, and that they better prepare elementary school teachers for the shift to teaching common-core standards which focuses heavily on literacy.
"With so much attention on the issue of teacher effectiveness, the relative lack of attention to how candidates for teaching are prepared for the job in the first place is puzzling," said Kate Walsh, president of the NCTQ and former Maryland state school board member, in a release.
The state did, however, receive higher marks for its accessibility to alternative certification programs.
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So you've contracted a virus that's taken over your computer, and you can't even boot up to try and troubleshoot the problem. The solution: Create a rescue CD, boot into a safe environment, and rid your PC of any nefarious software while it sleeps. Here's how to do it with minimal effort.
This year, a new product called the FixMeStick came out that makes virus eradication dead simple. With just a couple of clicks, you can boot using your FixMeStick so that it can attack the viruses while they're inactive, leaving them defenseless. The only problem: the FixMeStick costs $59.99, which is more than most people are willing to spend.
Luckily, you can easily create your own FixMeStick-like rescue disc with just a blank CD and one of many free programs. Here, we'll show you how to put one together and use it to eradicate any viruses on your system.
Note: This is meant to be a beginner's guide to system rescue. If you're an experienced user, you may prefer to use something like Hiren's BootCD, which contains a ton of other diagnostic tools you can use to figure out what's wrong with your computer and retrieve important data. For the purposes of this guide, though, we're trying to make it as simple as possible, so anyone can get the job done with minimal effort. If you're already familiar with the process, be sure to send it to your friends and family so they can be too!
How to Create Your Rescue Disc
If you can't boot into your computer, you'll need to borrow one from a friend to burn your rescue disc, but other than that, all you really need is a blank CD. Here's what you need to do:
- Download the Avira Rescue System and save it on your spare computer. Avira is one of our favorite antivirus programs, and it makes creating a rescue disc very easy—though if you prefer, you can download similar discs from Kaspersky, AVG, and other antivirus makers.
- Insert a blank CD or DVD into your computer, and double-click on the Rescue System installer that you downloaded. Pick your disc drive from the list, and it will install the rescue disc for you. Note: If you don't have a CD drive, you can download this Avira Rescue ISO from this page instead, and use Unetbootin to create a bootable flash drive instead. It takes a bit more work, but it'll work on computers that don't have a disc drive.
- Once your disc has finished burning, insert it into the affected computer and press the power button. If it boots into the Avira Rescue System interface, skip to the next section.
If your computer doesn't boot into the Avira Rescue System interface, you'll need to tweak a setting in your system's BIOS. To do so, reboot your computer. When it first boots up, you should see a screen that says something like "Press DEL to enter setup." Press and hold the key it requires to enter setup. Everyone's computer is different, but somewhere in those menus you should find an option that says something like "Boot Order." Change that setting so that your CD drive is number one on the list, save your settings, and exit. When you reboot, you should find yourself in the Avira Rescue System.
How to Scan Your Computer with Your Rescue Disc
Now that you've successfully created your rescue disc, it's time to clean out that infection. Once you've booted into the Rescue System, here's what you need to do:
- When you first boot up, Avira will ask you if you want to boot into the AntiVir Rescue System. To do so, type
1and press Enter. It will then go through the process of booting.
- When it's done, you should be greeted with the screen at the right. You can browse around the Configuration if you want, but you should be fine with the default settings. Just go to the "Virus Scanner" tab and click "Start Scanner" in the bottom left-hand corner.
- As the scanner runs, it should repair any infected files it finds. When it's done, reboot your system and see if you can boot back into Windows. With any luck, Avira should have done its job and you'll at least be able to get back into your system.
If you're still having problems after running your rescue CD, you may need to take more drastic measures. However, if your rescue CD worked and you can boot your computer up correctly, you're almost home free. You should probably run your regular antivirus program to see if there's anything else left on your system, and clean up any malicious files it finds.
Once you get everything running properly, it's time to think about long term protection. After all, you don't want to have to do this again. Make sure you have a good antivirus program running at all times. You don't have to pay money for one, either—Microsoft Security Essentials is more than good enough. While you're at it, you should set up a simple backup system so you never lose your important files to a virus or other disaster again.
Emailable Tech Support is a series of easy-to-share guides for the less tech savvy people in your life. Got a beginner tech support question you constantly answer? Let us know at firstname.lastname@example.org. Remember, when you're just starting out computing, there's very little that's too basic to learn.
Photo remixed from natu (Shutterstock).
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I’m off getting married and honeymooning and all that so, in my absence, some good friends are filling in. Today’s look at how the lakefront could be better used to exercise comes from Bryant Ousley — yeah, the dude in the picture, the one with only 7 percent body fat. He’s been training me for the last few months, and I have to thank him for getting me into the wedding dress.
The city’s lakefront is consistently filled with runners, joggers, and many exercise enthusiasts. This seventeen mile stretch provides an excellent backdrop for anyone who wants to escape the monotony of the gym. But despite its spacious location, centered in nature, surrounded by the elements, and bordering one of the nation’s largest cities, the lakefront does little to facilitate any progress among the 60% of people who are obese. This part of the city turns its back on the largest population of people that need special consideration with their exercise programs.
With bike lanes that double as jogging lanes, it is very difficult, if not extremely dangerous, to enjoy more than one person’s company while you move along the path. A group jaunt becomes almost impossible. And the problem with this is that the fit – those who already have the discipline to work out alone — keep getting fitter and the fat keep getting fatter. There is not much within our lakefront to encourage group fitness activity and even less to facilitate involvement of overweight people.
The list of physical activities consistently enjoyed by groups provides another example of how the fit get fitter. Before you mention basketball, volleyball and other popular sports, keep in mind that the skill set required for these sports must be taken into consideration. No one blindly walks onto a court or playing field and gets involved with a game without having some type of prior experience or previous intent for such to occur.
This is not to say that team sports don’t serve their purpose. But teams don’t just happen – and out of shape people may be the least likely to organize and regulate any type of physical activity. People who need exercise must make a concerted effort to get exercise, something that they are unfamiliar with in this day and age. The days of waking up and actually having to walk someplace are gone. Chopping wood is left to the manufacturer; incidental labor is rarely performed. For the person who lacks motivation, working out can be an arduous task.
America has shifted to a place where no one can accidentally get exercise. There are buses on almost every corner, trains to take you to every side of the city, and cabs to take you where public transportation will not. And in the one place, the lakefront, where vehicle can navigate, Segways have become available to make getting around easier and quicker. In order for the average person to make any progress toward physical activity, a great deal of planning and mental preparation must be involved.
As a trainer, I have had countless individuals schedule training sessions with me who, before we even begin, give me a list of arbitrary restrictions they put on themselves, like: no funny looking exercise, no exercises involving more than one movement and my favorite: “nothing that makes me tired.” The mental side of exercise is often the deal breaker.
The lakefront, which is the summertime epicenter for fitness makes little effort in the fight against obesity. Aside from a few fitness boot camp classes and some sponsored run/walks the lake is bereft of assistance for what I call de-conditioned individuals. The mini fitness centers with chin-up and parallel bars leave everyone out except for gymnasts and the select few that can perform pull-ups.
I implore people to take a a proactive approach when going to the lake with friends. Within the same bag that your refreshments are held, add a soccer or football. Games of Ultimate Frisbee do not need to be relegated to college campuses. Use some creativity, for many games that you can play outside, sticks and other objects that you find can be used to make goals and set boundaries for the playing field. Get out of the mind frame that exercise is something you must do alone. The most elite athletes are in terrific shape because their job is to play a sport – which is just another name for a game. Find something that is enjoyable; there are so many different activities to choose from.
Without the support system and companionship that friends offer, getting in shape is often a mountain-size task that many feel they are forced to do alone. The discipline that it takes to get in shape is often overlooked. I have heard people speak with such conviction about getting in shape that it inspired me, but once the challenge ensued, the motivation was lost. Trick yourself into getting in shape by doing something that is enjoyable for you and your friends.
Bryant Ousley graduated from DePaul University in 2009. Shortly after graduating he obtained certifications from NASM along with a specialty ISCA certification for kickboxing. Bryant possesses over ten years of experience participating in multiple athletic events. As a Mixed Martial Arts fighter, he has practiced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai and has had more than 7 years of Capoeira experience. Bryant has also completed several sprint distance triathlons, half marathons and practices yoga regularly. He has been a personal trainer since late 2009. He is committed to a healthy and fit lifestyle, believing that patience and passion for what you really want in life will propel you towards achieving your goals.
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The Department of History of Art is an internationally recognised centre for the research and teaching of history of art at one of the UK's most prestigious universities.
In terms of research activity, the Department plays a key role in University research initiatives, and in developments with collaborators across a wide range of institutions, nationally and internationally. Our 7 full-time members of staff encompass a wide range of art historical periods, methods and approaches. We are particularly active in the areas of British and European art from Medieval to Modern. Staff research ranges across Medieval altarpieces, Tudor Portraiture, Victorian aestheticism, French and British modernism, Soviet visual culture, German Expressionism and aspects of contemporary art. Geographical and historical periods are also complemented by research on art theory and criticism.
Staff and research students from the department engage widely in the activities of Bristol Institute for Research in the Humanities and Arts (BIRTHA) and the Association of Art Historians. Close links also exist with national scholarly institutions such as the British Academy and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
At postgraduate level, we offer an innovative taught Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in History of Art. Staff in the Department also supervise postgraduate students taking higher degrees by research (M.Phil, M.Litt & PhD) and there is a lively postgraduate research community which actively contributes to and participates in the dynamic research culture of the department.
The research interests of the staff are also fully represented in our undergraduate degree programmes, which attract students of the highest academic potential from a wide range of educational, social and ethnic backgrounds. The Department offers BA courses in History of Art, History of Art with Study Abroad and History of Art with a Modern Language.
Since August 2009 the Department of History of Art has been located within the 'primary unit' of 'Historical Studies' within the School of Humanities in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Bristol. Historical Studies consists of History and History of Art, which are overseen by a single Head of Subject and a single Head of Education. The School of Humanities occupies a number of Victorian villas in Woodland Road. These are linked by attractive and sympathetically developed modern buildings to the rear that are arranged around a series of gardens. Despite the merger of History and History of Art into one 'primary unit', the two departments retain a distinctive identity, each delivering their own undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. While the administrative merger of the departments into 'Historical Studies' will certainly lead to greater opportunities for undergraduate students from History of Art to take units from History in future (and vice versa), there are no plans to merge the degree programmes, both of which are extremely popular and successful.
The Head of Subject is Professor Ronald Hutton, who has responsibility for all matters that pertain to research, including research students.
The Head of Education is Dr Hugh Pemberton, who has responsibility for the taught programmes within Historical Studies. As such he has overall responsibility for both the BA and the MA programmes in History and History of Art.
Please address all correspondence as directed on the Department's general enquiries page or, if you wish to contact an individual member of our staff within History of Art, you can find their email address and / or telephone number on our staff contacts page.
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A controversial airplane route that polluted the skies with noise during its trial run has been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The “TNNIS Climb” — in which departing LaGuardia Airport traffic turns left to the north off Runway 13 — has been given the green light for takeoff, FAA officials said, even after borough leaders and residents said the changes caused a nonstop barrage of low-flying planes to torment their northeast Queens neighborhoods.
“Frankly, it is a disgrace the FAA has decided to go ahead with these departure changes, which will have a profound effect on the residents in northeastern Queens, without the proper input from the community,” said State Senator Tony Avella. “In this case, the FAA has decided to disregard the voice of the people.”
Borough Board members lambasted FAA officials in September, when they said they were not given notice about the six-month trial period that concluded in August.
The test was to ensure the required separation between John F. Kennedy International Airport arrivals and LaGuardia Runway 13 departures while using a new, precise navigation system called “RNAV,” said Ralph Tamburro, the agency’s New York traffic management officer.
Local leaders and residents said the FAA ignored public comment when it made the route permanent at the end of November.
“If they choose to make this permanent, that means I’ll have to move,” said Flushing resident Priscilla Tai. “I can’t survive with this. I need to work and I need quality sleep.”
An air traffic official said the FAA is “working to determine the best way to implement the use of this procedure with these other runway configurations.”
“Our primary mission is to endure the safe and efficient use of our nation’s navigable airspace,” said Elizabeth Ray, vice president of Mission Support Services, in a November letter. “Despite our best attempts, we acknowledge it is impossible to reduce noise levels in every area.”
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Today’s Irish Newspaper Headline Touts Ban on Titantic Stairway Visits Staying in Place!
Newspapers in Northern Ireland today announce that the ban on visits to the location of the reproduction of the Titanic’s iconic stairway at the Titanic Belfast permanent exhibition will remain in place. They built the stairway in their banqueting area which means that the only people who will get to take advantage of a photo op on or in front of the stairway are those who have receptions and/or events in that area of the Titanic Belfast museum attraction.
The American architect who designed the building announced on TV last week that the stairway would be open to all visitors, even those who didn’t buy an admission ticket. That caused a major broohaha because “it just ain’t so!’ Today, the attraction’s management reaffirmed that the iconic stairway will only be available to a select few who have an event at the place.
I was told that when there are no events in the banqueting area there may be, on a case by case basis, the opportunity for some to see the stairway. I can understand why the folks that made the investment, the MAJOR investment, in building this homage to the Titanic don’t want to have every pair of feet that enters the building cavorting on the stairway but I can tell you that if you want that photo op on the Titanic stairway you can go to either the Titanic attraction in Branson, Missouri or the one in Pidgeon Forge, Tennesse, both owned by the visionary, John Joslyn, who clearly understand the attraction of visitors to want to have a photo taken in front of the stairway.
So I had 2 potential solutions for the Titanic Belfast exhibition which evolved into 6 suggestions:
1) Direct people, in small groups, to where the stairway is and allow those traveling together, couples, families, small groups, to enter the area where the stairway is if the events area is not in use.
2) Allow only official photographs taken by your photographer and charge for the photo, as is done on cruise ships and other tourism attractions, which will act as another profit center (or should I say profit ‘centre’) and limit the experience to those with the discretionary pounds sterling to invest in the photo.
3) Limit access to those taking photos to the first 2 steps of the stairway for their photo op.
4) Consider selling a special additionl ticket to see the stairway which includes the souvenir photo. There is precedent for this at so many attractions worldwide.
5) Consider creating a High Tea experience in the banqueting room which includes the souvenir photo. This could extend the use of the banqueting room on days when there are no events, boost the value of the user’s experience and draw a variety of groups that want to visit the attraction and enjoy High Tea in the presence of the stairway.
6) And, for those who can’t, don’t want to, or won’t spend the additional monies or while you are getting your act together to offer any of the above suggestion, consider making a huge photo mural of the stairway, building 2 steps that sit on the floor in front of the photo mural, creating a queue area for people to line up for a photo in which they are standing on the bottom one or 2 steps, depending on how many are in their group and have your professional photographer and/or allow visitors to snap their own photos. Once photographed, like the photos of models on a beach in a magazine which are taken in front of a photo mural of the beach and some sand thrown around the studio floor to simulate the beach, the end result will look like the people in the photo were standing on the actual stairway.
For such a creative and positive new offering in Belfast, Titanic Belfast shouldn’t be seen as giving with one hand and taking back with the other.
By the way, I’ll send you my invoice for this consultation in the morning! Right now, I’m off to Giant’s Causeway, on to Solis Lough Eske in Donegal, making my way to Mount Falcon in Foxford, County Mayo and on from there to Lahardane to attend the memorial service for the Titanic victims and survivors who came from that wee little town and nearby Addergoole.
Will keep you posted so stick with me.. . we’re going to have such fun together today!
--Gotta Fly Now!sm
Your Personal Travel Expert
Nationally syndiated radio show host
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
hello?is anybody home?
Detroit photo by kevin bauman
It was about 2 years ago when I discovered the ghettos of Detroit. From the safety of my computer, I stumbled upon the most amazing photos and videos of what was once a booming,industrious city.I am drawn to these photos again and again. The images are haunting. The strangest things will remind me of those images. Detroit now has a ghetto about the size of the city of San Francisco, with about 12,000 abandoned homes. When I first came across images of the ruins of Detroit, I felt sick to my stomach, and I am moved to tears. What happens when all the lights go out in a neighborhood, or the mail is no longer delivered? I wish I could have been there in the heyday of the city.I try to imagine the people going in and out. Where did they go? I think some of my feelings come from my love of America. Deep down, I want to hold on to the feeling I had as a child, listening to my Dad talk about Chevy and Ford. That was when America sparkled and shined like a new Mustang. It was an America that didn't have a ghetto the size of San Francisco.
Kevin Bauman is selling limited edition series called 100 abandoned houses.A portion of the proceeds will go to an organizations doing positive work in Detroit, Habitat for Humanity, and The Greening of Detroit. To purchase one of these photos, visit Kevin HERE.
Is there hope for Detroit? I am sure there is. Imagine how lovely it would be if a new industry popped up, and these neighborhoods were repaired, a small section at a time. These homes are not the ugly cookie cutter,same same,tract houses we see everywhere. They have character,and style.
Thank you sfgirlbybay for reminding me of Detroit once again.
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JTA Cutting Riverside Trolley Service
In the Summer of 2010, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority expanded the Riverside Trolley from its then current terminus of Five Points to the Shoppes of Avondale. Prior to the relaunch, MetroJacksonville.com Board Members expressed concerns about the headways, route and service periods, and felt the service wouldn't be successful because of these issues. Wednesday, JTA announced that the Riverside Trolley would return to its previous terminus at Five Points, citing the neighborhood's failure to embrace the service.
Published September 23, 2011 in Transit - MetroJacksonville.com
Riverside Trolley History
May 2008 - JTA Launches the Riverside Trolley, an attempt to get choice riders (those that own a car but choose to use transit) to use their services during lunchtime from Downtown to Five Points. The service launched with 10 minute headways during the business week from 10:30am to 2:30 pm. The service is well received.
September 2010 - JTA consolidates the Riverside Trolley with the WS1 Bus Route. This change extended the operating hours from 5:00AM to 7:30PM Monday-Saturday, the headways went to 35 minutes weekdays and 70 minutes on Saturday (with 12 minute headways during the weekday lunch), and the route went to Boone Park, just past the Shoppes of Avondale.
December 2011 - Citing low ridership, JTA shortens the route back to a Five Points terminus. The headways will be "approximately 10 minutes, except for Saturdays which will have longer headways". The service hours will remain the same. JTA would not elaborate on the Saturday headways.
According to JTA, approximately 150 people use the service on a daily basis. They explained that because of the low ridership, the service was costing them just over $9 per person.
MetroJacksonville.com's critiques from the September 2010 change
- The Headways: MetroJacksonville.com cited the long headways outside of lunchtime hours. Specific examples included customers commuting, as a 35 minute headway will take a commute from Avondale to Downtown from 10 minutes by car to up to 50 minutes by trolley (considering that a person could be waiting for up to 35 minutes for a vehicle). MetroJacksonville.com recommended that if shorter headways could not be achieved, the service would be better served ending at King Street with shorter headways. JTA refused to to listen, citing the WS1 consolidation as the reason. What wasn't brought up by JTA at the time was that the WS1 was a poor performing route anyway, so the need to structure it around the existing poor-performing service was minimal.
The Riverside Trolley never attracted the employees of businesses along Riverside Avenue like JTA hoped
- The Service Times: MetroJacksonville.com cited that a 5:00AM-7:30PM was a poor choice, and that by adjusting the hours to 6:30AM-9:00PM would be better, as folks could use it for dinner during the week. Again, JTA refused to to listen, citing the WS1 consolidation as the reason which, as it turns out, wasn't really an issue.
- The Route: It was cited that Riverside Avenue wasn't a good choice because of it's southern location, and that Oak Street, just one block further north would be better. Once again, JTA did not consider these issues.
- JTA never reached out to the neighborhood when they discovered the service was not performing. Instead they dictated their service cuts to the neighborhood, as if the neighborhood folks had to use the service. JTA did not explain why they didn't reach out to the neighborhood to discuss the service's poor performance.
- When the service originally launched in 2008, the signage at stops explained the service times, the headways, and the route. When the service was altered in 2010, not only did the new stops not have the new maps/times/headways, the old maps/times/headways were left up at the old stops, confusing riders.
Not only did JTA not re-do the map and headway signs along the reconfigured trolley route in 2010, they left the old (wrong) signs up for weeks after the reconfigured service launched
- When asked if JTA considered other alternatives to scaling back the service as dramatically as they did, they said yes, however refused to elaborate as to what was considered.
Prediction for the new service
This new service might be a poorer performer than the original Riverside Trolley route. While having the early morning and evening service is nice, not actually having the service extend into the residential areas of the neighborhood could doom the service to failure. The lunchtime riders should remain, but having the same number of riders with longer service times will increase the cost per rider, thus making it a poorer performer.
It's been obvious for years that JTA has little interest in listening to the neighborhood's suggestions. This is just another example of that. For any transit agency, riders in older, pedestrian friendly urban core neighborhoods are usually a gold mine. Not only does JTA not embrace this thought, by setting the service up for failure it makes the neighborhood look transit unfriendly when campaigning for future services. JTA did the same thing with the San Marco Trolley in 2003. For those who don't remember, JTA ran a trolley in a one-direction, 30 minute loop that was poorly received. Turns out people don't always want to turn right by literally making three left turns. This made San Marco out to be a neighborhood that doesn't embrace transit.
In the mobility plan, one of the projects is a streetcar from Downtown to King Street. Will JTA cite poor trolley ridership as opposition for this new service? Perhaps the issue isn't the residents of the neighborhood, but the leadership (or lack thereof) at JTA, and their repeated failed execution of services, particularly services that attempt to attract choice riders into the network.
Update by Steve Congro
This article can be found online at: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-sep-jta-cutting-riverside-trolley-service
Copyright 2013 MetroJacksonville.com
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Easy-to-Use Safely Monitors Facebook Activity
Monitoring screen time and time on social networks is a tricky beast. On one hand, you don’t want to be the helicopter parents, always looking over your kids’ shoulder but on the other hand, it’s important to know what they’re doing in order to ensure they’re behaving safely and responsibly. Instead of spying, it’s important to create conversations about being a responsible digital citizen. Talk to them about why you need to know who they’re interacting with and who they’re socializing with on Facebook to ensure their safety and make sure they’re behaving appropriately.
Safely Social Monitor is a free, easy to setup service that provides parents with a wealth of information into their child’s Facebook world at a glance and allows you to create the kinds of conversations about what a good friend looks like online and off. Safely allows you to quickly navigate through the information generated about your family’s Facebook activity thanks to the simple interface. A preview of the number of friends your child has, top friends, and photo thumbnails is generated and sent to your email. It also generates a Safely Report with a score out of 100 based on your child’s activity.
It also sends immediate alerts when the software picks up key words or questionable photos through scans. The easy-to-read web dashboard makes for a comprehensive service for busy parents who want to keep an eye on what their kids are doing yet help facilitate conversations about the daily drama of friendships both on and offline.
Signing up for and setting up a free Safely Social Monitor account can be done quickly and in four simple steps. You’ll need to provide your child’s Facebook credentials in order to link the accounts so be sure to talk to them about why Safely helps you keep your family safe.
Image courtesy of Safely
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By Hu Xiaocen | 2012-11-27 | NEWSPAPER EDITION
CHINA'S gold consumption will more than double the production of bullion by 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.
But China, the second-biggest consumer in the world after India, will continue to see a wider deficit in gold supply in the country as consumption is set to surpass 1,000 tons in 2015, the ministry said in a statement published on its website yesterday.
Although consumption in India remained above China's in the first three quarters of the year, the World Gold Council predicts China to become the biggest market this year, according to its quarterly report unveiled this month.
Since 2007, China has been the world's biggest gold producer. It aims to produce between 420 tons and 450 tons of gold in 2015.
The country is also the biggest gold jewelry producer, taking up about 60 percent of the global production, according to the ministry.
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Can You Change Your Body PH? The Alkaline Diet Scam
Filed under Raw Food & Health by Frederic Patenaude
I recently received the following question from a reader:
A few years back my mom was following pretty much Dr Robert Young alkalarian diet – with NO fruit at all, where he considers fruits – high sugar content ones specially – to be acidic, as a perfect and only greatest discovery diet ever.
I would like you to say something about this ‘insanity’ of not eating any fruits. What do you think about high content sugar fruits to be acidic to the body?
To be more specific, I have been eating much more fruits than greens nowadays, and my family is pretty much concerned about my eating choices, so I want to be able to show them a consistent answer about this choice and why it has nothing to do with Dr Young’s Alkalarian diet.
Hope to hearing from you soon.
ANSWER BY FREDERIC:
I’m familiar with Dr. Young’s approach, and as I’ve always said, every diet has something to offer usually because of the bad things they *remove* rather than what they add in. The Alkalarian diet by Dr. Young does a good job at removing some of the most unhealthy foods most people eat, but is completely misguided when it comes to its recommendation on avoiding fruit.
First of all, Dr. Young is wrong in implying that what you eat or drink has any effect on your body’s PH. It’s actually pretty embarrassing that he would even say something like that, given that he pretends to be a scientist.
Your body and your blood maintain a stable PH that *never changes significantly* no matter what you eat or drink! Therefore you cannot make your body “acidic” or “alkaline” by eating a certain food or avoiding certain foods. In fact, if your blood’s PH changed significantly it would mean *very bad news* for your health, it would mean your body did not have enough mineral reserves to buffer the change and bring yourself back to neutral.
The body always wants to be at homeostasis, if it changed constantly one way or the other you would likely not be alive, the body is very intelligent and has evolved in a way that it can handle almost anything you drink or eat and yet remain at the same PH.
That being said, the foods you eat can become acidic or alkaline *after they are digested.* This means that certain foods, after they are digested, will produce acidity in the digestive tract, and others will produce alkaline base materials. But remember that technically speaking, the digestive system is *outside* the human body! F
rom your mouth to your colon is a complete system that is not actually part of the rest of your body, nothing goes directly into your blood without being processed, and filtered. Picture a date and its stone pit, the stone being the digestive track and the date itself being the body. One is inside and one is outside.
Some people test the PH of their urine and think it means anything, but it doesn’t since urine, again, is outside of the body and bloodstream. The only way to test the PH of your body would be to test the blood.
Your digestive system and organs only use what it needs and not everything you eat or drink “hits” your bloodstream. You cannot make your blood acidic or alkaline, it always stays the same PH. The body uses what it needs from the digestive tract and discards what it doesn’t through waste products and those never “enter” the body or affect your PH.
Whether a food produces an alkaline or acidic reaction after digestion is measured by a chart known in medical science as the “Renal Acid Load Chart.”
If you study this chart, you’ll discover that *all* fruits and *all* vegetables are alkaline-forming. On the other hand, animal products are quite acid-forming while grains and beans are slightly acid forming.
The acidity created from the digestion of certain “acid-forming foods” must be buffered by the alkaline mineral reserves of the body. That’s why it’s important to eat diet composed mainly of alkaline foods such as fruits and vegetables.
What this means to you, is that you need to eat more fruits and vegetables to have more alkaline mineral reserves generally in your bones. If you eat only meat and grains, your body will take alkaline minerals from your bones to buffer any extra acid produced in digestion and that can lead to problems like osteoporosis where you have weak or brittle bones from a lack of certain minerals like calcium which is alkaline.
Please note that I said it’s important to eat “fruits and vegetables” and not just “vegetables.”
Also keep in mind that the body and the blood themselves are not getting more alkaline or acidic by the foods you eat. Anyone who says the contrary is just making stuff up, and claiming that fruits are acid-forming because of their fruit “acids” and somehow harm the body is even more ludicrous.
Ask any medical practitioner or even med student and they will tell you that it’s impossible and that the blood or body cannot change PH based on what you eat. It just doesn’t work that way.
This also goes for alkaline or acidic water, water is buffered by the body just like food, so don’t be duped into thinking the PH of your drinking water means anything, especially when you’re eating a high mineral diet of fruits and vegetables. Your body is getting more than enough to maintain it’s reserves to buffer any slight change from what is produced by digestion.
Eat your fruits, eat your vegetables, and you’ll be healthy!
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City Council has taken the first step to making the city's secretive Charter Board a little less hush-hush.
Concerns have been raised over the board's lack of transparency. The charter does not allow the board's decisions to become public until the subject of the ruling has exhausted all of his or her appeals.
At its meeting Monday night, council introduced an ordinance that would amend the Charter Board ordinance to make the decision public at the time the board issues its final order.
"I believe in openness and transparency," Council President Francis G. Acosta said.
Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz, who brought the issue before council, agreed, saying transparency is vital in all city business.
"If we're going to say that's important, we need to make sure we follow through," she said.
Susan Gibson, Charter Board chairwoman, said earlier Monday that she was unaware council would be considering a change to the Charter Board ordinance. She said the board follows applicable laws and consults with its attorneys when determining what can be public and what has to remain private.
She said the board will continue to do so whether the law changes or not.
Council is expected to vote on the ordinance in two weeks.
The secrecy issue came to light in part because of rulings against Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer.
The board voted twice recently that Spencer violated the charter. However, because of its confidentiality rules, the board was unable to make those decisions public as Spencer appealed each.
Contact David Mekeel: 610-371-5014 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
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“Future of WTO” report launched, with some controversial proposals
The World Trade Organisation on 17 January launched a report on “The Future of the WTO” which addresses several institutional issues, with recommendations to reform the way the organisation works and how decisions are made.
The 86-page report was authored by a Consultative Board set up by the WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi and chaired by Peter Sutherland, a former Director-General of GATT and the WTO, and presently Chairman of two corporate giants, Goldman Sachs International and British Petroleum.
In a foreward, Supachai explains that the eight-member Board was asked to clarify the institutional challenges faced by the WTO system and to consider how the WTO could be “reinforced and equipped” to face them.
The report addresses the WTO’s role in globalisation, responding to the many criticisms the organisation is facing. In separate chapters, it looks at preferential trade arrangements (PTAs), coherence between the WTO and other agencies, relations with civil society, the WTO dispute settlement system, the decision-making process, and the role of the Director General and the Secretariat.
The other Board members are Jagdish Bhagwati (the free-trade economist from Columbia University), Kwesi Botchwey (chairman, African Development Policy Ownership Initiative and former Ghana Finance Minister), Niall FitzGerald (Chairman of Reuters and former CEO of Uniliver), Koichi Hamada (Yale University economics professor), John Jackson (Law Professor, Georgetown University), Celso Lafer (Sao Paulo University law professor and former Brazilian Foreign Minister) and Thierry de Montbrial (President, French Institute of International Relations).
Many of the proposals can be expected to be controversial, including those that had been introduced by certain members before but rejected by others.
The controversial measures in the area of WTO decision making process include the use of the plurilateral approach for suggested new agreements when consensus among members for such rules is not possible, the establishment of a Ministerial-level “consultative group” of up to 30 members (with some being “permanent members”), and greatly expanding the powers of the Director General and the Secretariat so that they can play pro-active and even leadership roles in negotiations.
Other suggestions include that Ministerial meetings be held annually (instead of once in two years) and a Summit-level meeting once in five years.
The report dwells at some length on the WTO’s consensus principle. It notes that there is more legitimacy for proposals to be adopted by consensus but there are also disadvantages as the majority’s will can be blocked by even one country.
The report is not in favour of departing from the consensus principle (saying that voting is rarely if ever a wise alternative) but makes two recommendations: that the problems related to the consensus principle be further studied with possible distinctions made for certain types of decisions; and that a Declaration be made at the general Council that a member wanting to block a measure that has very broad support shall only block the consensus if it declares in writing (with reasons) that the matter is of vital national interest to it.
The report then raises the possibility of what it calls “variable geometry” in WTO commitments, where some members may choose to take on more or less obligations. This turns out to be just another term for the plurilatral approach, which enables “sets of WTO members wishing to negotiate more ambitious commitments to do so.” The remaining members can take part in negotiations of a plurilateral agreement but can opt out, or else they are excluded from negotiations but can opt in at a later stage.
This plurilateral approach, with complicated “opt-in” and “opt-out” possibilities, had been put forward by the European Union before in the run-up to the 2001 Doha Ministerial conference, and again raised by the EU before and even after the 2003 Cancun Ministerial, in respect to the Singapore issues, when it found widespread opposition to its proposal to launch negotiations for new treaties.
This plurilateral approach had been repeatedly rejected by many developing countries, most notably in a joint communication by 45 members at the General Council meeting of 15 December 2003 on the Singapore issues, saying that the plurilateral approach was not appropriate in a multilateral organisation like the WTO.
The report recognises that “clearly, this is a divisive approach that would enshrine a multiclass membership structure. It could take the multilateral trading system backwards rather than forwards.” It warns that small groups of members should not be permitted to bring into the WTO issues which are opposed by substantial sections of the rest of the membership.
However, it also states that the plurilateral approach has an advantage, that it dissuades the most powerful members from taking alternative routes, especially through regional and bilateral arrangements.
The report then proposes that possible plurilateral approaches to WTO negotiations should be re-examined, and that an experts group be established to consider the implications.
It also suggests that a GATS approach (where each member decides its own pace for market opening and national treatment) could be used as an alternative to the plurilateral approach in developing new disciplines.
[It should be noted that the GATS-type approach had also been advocated by the EU as a modality for an investment agreement, and had been included as an issue for clarification in the investment issue in the Doha Declaration. As a result of the opposition of many developing countries to the launch of negotiations, the Singapore issues was taken off the Doha negotiating agenda as part of the July 2004 package].
The report also suggests that, wherever possible, the provision of technical assistance and capacity building for LDCs should be included as a contractual right (including for funding arrangements) in future new WTO agreements.
Calling for more political involvement in the WTO, the report proposed that Ministers should meet annually and the Director General should report to Ministers on key WTO developments in writing every six months. A summit of heads of government should also be held in the WTO every five years.
It added that capital-based senior officials should be in Geneva more often, with special General Council sessions extended for such officials every three or six months.
The report proposes that, alternatively, a consultative body at the level of Ministers or senior officials or both be established, to give political guidance to negotiators. It might, adds the report, replace the informal “mini-Ministerial” format which is resented and often ineffective.
However the report is in danger of proposing an even more unpopular format, since the envisaged consultative body, to be chaired by the Director-General, would have a “restricted membership to be effective, an absolute maximum of 30.” And of these, some major trading nations would be permanent members and the majority of seats would rotate, drawing from geographical areas or regional trading arrangements.
The report discusses in some detail the relation between WTO members and the Secretariat. It laments that “member-driven” nature of the WTO has the drawback of diminution in the Secretariat’s role, and that the Secretariat’s capacity to “inject creative proposals into the negotiating process” is less welcome now than before. In various parts of the report, specific proposals are made to greatly enhance the Secretariat’s functions.
Regarding the running of Ministerial meetings, the report recognises that “much criticism” has been directed at the conduct of such meetings in terms of their process and organisation.
However, the report does not propose changes to the basic ways in which Ministerials have been run -- including the use of “facilitators” appointed by the Director General or conference Chairman (rather than selected by the members) and the convening of exclusive or restricted “Green Room” meetings.
Indeed, the report calls for the reinforcement of the practice of appointing facilitators by announcing their names earlier. The report emphasises that the appointments be made by the conference Chair and the Director General and “should not become part of a further bargaining process.”
The report advocates a leading role for the Secretariat at Ministerials. One option is for the Director General to chair them. In any case, the DG and Secretariat should have the standing to be “at the centre of negotiations” during the Ministerials.
“Not only should Deputy Directors-General and divisional directors work closely alongside facilitators throughout the proceedings, they should be expected and encouraged to make proposals that will contribute towards the achievement of consensus,” says the report.
These proposals are bound to be controversial with at least some members, since the meaning is clearly that not only the DG but several other staff are asked to play central roles in the negotiations at the organisation’s highest organ, i.e. the Ministerial conference.
In reality, Secretariat staff have been playing crucial functions at previous Ministerials, but much of these activities were carried out informally and behind the scenes. The report is proposing that these functions be recognised, legitimised and strengthened.
The report also says that “Green Room” meetings with limited access are necessary and appropriate. To make the meetings more representative, the report suggests a constituency structure based on regional representation. The report advises that the Director General explore with relevant groups how to increase coordination and group representation in restricted meetings, and the support to be provided to such groups.
On the role of the Secretariat, the report bluntly criticises the attitude that the WTO is a member-driven organisation and the Secretariat’s role is solely one of support and not initiative or defence of the system. “The principal losers from this attitude are the WTO members themselves,” it says.
It proposes that the powers and duties of the Director General be spelled out clearly by the General Council, with advice to be given by present and past holders of the post. It favours a much greater role for the DG, including chairing of negotiating committees and councils. If the DG is envisaged to be a political figure, spending time outside Geneva, a deputy should be appointed as CEO to run the Secretariat, chair key councils, and interface with the delegations.
The report goes so far as to say that the WTO needs an institutional voice, and “if members are not prepared to defend and promote the principles they subscribe to, then the Secretariat must be free to do so”; indeed, even required to do so. The secretariat should also be seen as “the guardian of the treaties that comprise WTO law.”
These proposals can be expected to generate debate, since the WTO members often have different interpretations of the rules or how they can be implemented, and these differences are brought up during meetings, with sometimes heated debate. It would indeed be a major leap of faith for members to make Secretariat staff the guardian of the treaties.
The report also asks that members “should not be afraid of asking the secretariat to provide policy analysis” and to encourage the secretariat to provide greater intellectual output.
In the appointment of a new Director General, technical competence and appropriate experience should be prerequisites, says the report. There should not be requirements that WTO members can nominate only their own nationals, or that candidates must have the backing of their own governments. Alternating between developing and developed countries, and choosing candidates based on regional sequencing, should be avoided.
In a chapter on “the erosion of non discrimination”, the report warns that the practice of the most-favoured nation (MFN) principle is no longer the rule, and it is almost the exception. “The term might now be better defined as LFN, least favoured nation treatment,” it says, lamenting the ‘spaghetti bowl’ of customs unions, common markets, regional and bilateral free trade areas, preferences and trade deals.
It defends the fact that some agreements, mentioning the EU and NAFTA, can be positive, acting as spurs to the multilateral system. However it points to major new problems: the great proliferation of preferential trading arrangements (PTAs), causing confusion and administrative costs; PTAs are more likely to be stumbling blocks rather than building blocks to the multilateral system; and there is a diversion of negotiating resources from the multilateral process into PTAs.
The report also warns that non-trade objectives have been injected into PTAs, citing as examples the one-sided provisions on IPRs, labour and environmental protection undertakings, and restrictions on the use of capital controls. The report fears that such requirements become templates for further PTAs and the forerunners of new demands in the WTO. “If such requirements cannot be justified at the front door of the WTO they probably should not be encouraged to enter through the side door.”
Another controversial part of the report is its analysis of and proposals on special and differential treatment (SDT). Stating that there a “fault lines” in S&D for developing countries, the report says S&D remains a valid concept, but in light of present realities, these mechanisms require further study.
It questions the two basic assumptions of S&D. The first assumption is that the economics of trade liberalisation is not valid for poorer countries, so demands for reciprocal trade concessions from them are inappropriate.The report says empirical studies show that inward-looking policies harm developing countries, and that protection undermines developing countries’ export performance.
The second assumption is that reciprocal concessions from developing countries are not worth the bother as their markets are insignificant. The report says this does not hold for many developing countries today, hence the demands for “graduation.”
The report points to what it considers the disadvantages of preferential market access. It suggests that in the longer term, reducing MFN tariffs to zero can eliminate the spaghetti bowl problem, as the preferences would then also go down to zero.
If old PTAs cannot be scrapped and new ones cannot be prohibited, says the report, the remedy to discriminatory preferences that they spawn is to attack them indirectly by reducing MFN tariffs and non tariff measures in multilateral negotiations. Another route is to clarify GATT Article XXIV and administering its provisions better, says the report.
In its chapter on the WTO’s relations with civil society groups, the report does not propose anything new. It says the main responsibility for engaging civil society in trade policy matters rests with the members themselves, especially at national level. WTO members should also develop a set of clear objectives for the WTO secretariat’s relations with civil society.
The report also provides several proposals on the dispute settlement system, including opening panel and Appellate Body hearings to the public, and developing criteria and procedures for handling amicus curiae submissions.
The WTO members will have the opportunity to give their views at a special meeting on the report in the WTO on 24 January.
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I think the PSU may e a good guess. But, if you are overclocking, stop. Go into bios and set optimized defaults and only change the items needed such as boot order and sata controller. Bios will also tell you the voltages it is reading from the PSU. Let us know what they are. But, even so, it does not tell what the voltages are when the system is under strain. If you have another PSU or have somewhere you can borrow one, you could try that. I wouldn't spend money on a new PSU unless I was relatively sure that is the problem. Ram can also be the issue. Here is an excellent tutorial on testing ram
. I would let it run overnight or until you see errors. Make sure all your drivers
are updated. Try those things and post back.
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Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 developed and emerging economies who met in Moscow on Feb. 15-16 have issued a communique stressing the need for G-20 member countries to refrain from actions that might confuse currency markets — such as actions aimed at driving down the value of their own currencies.
The communique came out amid a significant weakening of the yen as a result of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy of pursuing massive monetary easing. Although Mexico had criticized Japan during the meeting for trying to achieve economic growth by weakening the yen, Japan managed not to be singled out for criticism in the communique for driving down the value of the yen through manipulation. Instead, the communique said, “We will refrain from competitive devaluation. We will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes.”
Officials of emerging economies also expressed strong dissatisfaction over the market turbulence that could result from monetary easing in developed economies. The easing could encourage inflows of money that push up food prices as well as perhaps cause economic bubbles.
In the G-20 meeting, Finance Minister Taro Aso said the aim of Japan’s monetary easing is to end long-continuing deflation — not to manipulate foreign exchange rates. The Japanese government and the Bank of Japan need to show through concrete actions Japan’s readiness to cooperate with other economies to help bring stability to the global economy.
Importantly the communique said: “We reiterate our commitments to move more rapidly toward more market-determined exchange rate systems and exchange-rate flexibility to reflect underlying fundamentals, to avoid persistent exchange rate misalignments, and in this regard to work more closely with one another so we can grow together.”
There is a view that various factors have combined to encourage a weaker yen, including Japan’s announcement of drastic monetary easing as well as moves by traders to buy back the dollar and the euro due to signs of economic recovery in the United States and abatement of the worst of the European sovereign debt crisis.
But Japanese officials should take utmost care in their public statements to ensure there will be no accusations that Japan is manipulating foreign exchange rates.
In the recent past, Mr. Abe said he wanted to realize a “cheap yen” and high stock prices. Some Cabinet members even mentioned desirable currency exchange rates. They should be careful about what they say.
The communique said that long-term funds for investment, including investment in infrastructure construction, are an important factor in achieving economic growth and creating employment. This appears to endorse the Abe administration’s massive investments in infrastructure.
But the communique also said that Japan and the U.S. need to eliminate their fiscal uncertainties. The Abe administration has worked out a ¥20 trillion emergency economic package that includes ¥5 trillion for public works projects.
The Diet should prevent the government from using public money for wasteful or unnecessary projects and ensure fiscal discipline by scrutinizing Mr. Abe’s economic policy.
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SECRETARY STEVEN CHU: Thank you, room. A lot of people here. That’s a good sign. As long as the attendance keeps rising over the coming years, we will be very, very happy.
Let me talk about what we’re facing. This is a recent history – inflation-adjusted history of oil prices from 1996 to 2011. Well, that goes to 2010 but that’s the price today, roughly speaking, $100 a barrel. And, you might ask, by 2020 or 2015, what will the price of oil be? And the answer is we don’t know. It could be down here at $40 a barrel, it could be here at maybe 80 (dollars) or $90 a barrel, or it could be up here.
And so, what do we do? Do we hope for the best, plan an economy at $40 a barrel, or plan for something different? Now every time the price of oil goes up we do this. (Laughter.) And when the price of oil goes down, we do this. (Laughter.) So what I suggest is let’s take a longer-term, more measured approach to solving this problem.
This is the oil trade – lots of arrows going back and forth, lots of arrows coming into the United States. About a billion dollars a day worth of oil comes in. About a billion dollars worth of money goes out. It’s also redefining all the geopolitics of the world. And so, again, this is something I want to remind you of, that there’s a lot of money flowing out of the United States.
There’s also going to be a tremendous increase in the demand for accessible, affordable clean energy, and the accessible, affordable is very important. The sun and the wind actually are in most countries, and so that’s another reason why there will be a deeper demand for accessible clean energy.
And our national security is very dependent on our energy security. And I want to stress this; that the energy we create at home is wealth creation at home, and that’s very important. So, I think our strategy should not be one of hoping for the best and planning for the best, but let’s decide where the world is going to be and skate where it’s going to be, not where it’s been. And I think Wayne Gretzky’s “I skate to where the puck is going to be” is a good philosophy, and I think America should follow that philosophy.
So we have to decrease our dependency on oil, so what are the steps we’re taking? Well, we’re increasing fuel efficiency. Just in case you’re wondering, these are pictures of the Ford Fusion and the Chevy Volt. We are working to electrify vehicles. This is a FedEx all-electric truck and a Nissan Leaf.
And we’re also working on next-generation biofuels. These are Department of Energy bioenergy institutes. They’ve been in operation for about two-and-a-half years, maybe three years, creating a bevy of patents, already spin-offs going to companies.
And these are some of the – Amyris is one company, for example, that is taking some of the intellectual property generated in these bioenergy institutes, JB in particular, and has already contracted with Brazil to set up a pilot plan. They think they can produce – using bacteria and feeding it simple sugars, they can produce diesel fuel and market it at $4 a gallon. So this is going to be testing whether this is commercially viable.
Another biotech company being supported by RPE (ph) so that the – this company is working on something that’s – within the plant itself there are peptide chains that would fold into enzymes after the harvest of the plant, and those enzymes would help digest a plant, so that the most costly part of the process of reducing grasses and straws and lignocellulose would then be actually supplied by the plant itself. So that’s another novel approach, not quite ready for prime time but rapidly advancing because some of the most rapidly advancing areas in science are in biotechnology.
So, anyway, there is a race going on to develop clean energy technologies that the world will demand. China, the EU countries, and others, recognize there are huge opportunities and they’re investing big time. How much are they investing? Well, the top-10 countries in clean energy investments as a fraction of the GDP, we have Spain, China, the United Kingdom, Brazil and so on, and the United States is down here not doing as well.
If you look at China in particular and look at how they’re dealing with this energy challenge, they have, for example, installed the highest-voltage and highest-capacity and lowest-loss high-voltage lines in the world. They have an 800-kilovolt DC line and a 1,000-kilovolt AC line. The DC line, for example, can transmit electricity 1,200 miles with a 7 percent loss in energy.
I looked up what the highest voltage/lowest-loss DC lines in the United States were. If you wanted to transmit that far a distance with those lines, it would have lost 80 percent of the energy, not 7 percent. And so they’re clearly now world leaders and, surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, they feel that there’s a huge market in the United States which will have to rebuild its high-voltage infrastructure.
Out of more than 60 nuclear power plants that have broken ground recently, China has broken ground at 25 of them. They’ve just recently surpassed the United States as the world’s fastest supercomputer.
They hold the record for the highest-speed rail in the world and in some of the rail lines they have scheduled speeds – not one-time record speeds but actually schedules with 220-mile-an-hour operational lines with plans for 5,600 miles of high-speed rail now under construction. By comparison, Japan has 1,500 miles. France has 1,100 miles. And the U.S. – defining high-speed rail as anything 100 miles an hour – has zero.
And China will achieve – certainly in their plan, mandatory they will achieve 15 percent renewable energy by 2020, but the odds – spending odds is they’re going to get to 18, possibly even 20 percent renewables by 2020.
They are also hard at work and not only manufacturing – it’s not only low-cost manufacturing; it’s high-tech manufacturing. And this is the growth – the green curve is growth – of China. The blue curve is the United States. The EU is holding steady. And if you go to China’s factories you find highly roboticized factories, hardly any people – very, very modern factories.
Now, where are these investments coming from? And so, there are several types of investments. There’s asset financing. This is like project financing. This is what the United States and China and the rest of the world uses to install, for example, wind farms. And it’s an indicator of deployment and it directly is related to job creation. And you see that China is way out in front of the world; U.S. is second in asset financing.
This is the deployment of clean energy technologies. There’s public market financing. This is essentially selling stocks. And, again, China is in the lead, although not as much in the lead as the United States, followed by the rest of the EU countries.
There’s one area where we’re ahead, and that’s venture capital funding. And the United States is way in the lead. China is way down here. And so this is certainly one of the small businesses – the venture capital firms are certainly one of the things where we excel in and continue to excel.
The mix of investments in venture capital are very different. In the previous slides you see a large deployment of – blue is wind, by the way. Yellow or orange is solar. And green – all the rest are renewables. So there’s a huge deployment of wind because that’s getting to be a fairly mature technology and close to competitive with fossil fuel. But the venture capital money is now going to next-generation biofuels – solar energy, energy efficiency and smart grid technologies – a very different mix.
So, we have a race. To repeat what I said, China, the EU countries and others are moving because they see this incredible economic opportunity, and what about the U.S.? Well, we are doing this. We’ve recognized that to create jobs is a strength and a security, and in the clean energy race, we do also need long-term range – long-range policies, sustained commitments to support energy innovation. And our president is committed to making America the world’s innovation leader.
So what are we doing? Well, I was fortunate to accompany the president to Penn State to tour one of the engineering labs, and this happened to be sort of a meeting at Penn State where we were showcasing an energy hub that would develop energy efficient buildings.
Now, the accessible energy part is there, all countries have it, but the real question is, can the costs of clean energy – and by that I mean the full costs. The levelized costs of energy, CapEx, the operating expenses, the maintenance, the decommissioning, everything – can it really be competitive with fossil fuel?
So this is from the “America’s Energy Future,” a National Academy of Sciences and Engineering report, and it shows what the current cost of energy is by this dashed line. The new forms of energy, whether it even be new gas or new coal, will be slightly higher than this.
But it also shows you where other forms of energy are. For example, here we have nuclear energy, which is more costly, but there’s a large uncertainty because we don’t actually know whether the new generation of plants can be built on time and on schedule.
And so, one of the things the Department of Energy is trying to do is help the industry get started to demonstrate that these new plans can be built on budget and on schedule. And if we do that, the costs will be driven down.
There is a tremendous amount of headroom – that is to say, room for technological improvement in solar photovoltaics and possibly concentrated solar power and thermal power. Coal/CCS will never be – coal with carbon capture and sequestration – will never be as cheap as without it, but this is – coal and fossil fuel plants and gas plants with carbon capture will be a higher form of energy because it’s really energy on demand, and so one has to fold that in.
But the point here is that we believe, in the Department of Energy – and we look very carefully at the roadmaps of some of these technologies and we believe in certain instances that they can be competitive with fossil fuel. Whether it’s 10 years from today or 15 years from today is the issue, but that is what’s really driving this. If you get renewables that are actually cost competitive with fossil fuel, then it’s a very, very different world
And so, federal support of research and development is critical, and let me give you one example. We’ve had some support of advanced batteries. The Department of Energy supported research that led to the invention of the lithium ion battery by a fellow named John Goodenough, who got one of the most prestigious science awards in the U.S., the so-called Enrico Fermi Award. That was invented by an American but it soon migrated over to Asia, to Japan in particular, and it was Sony that developed the commercial lithium ion battery.
Now there’s a competition between Japan and Korea. However, just because we lost the lead doesn’t mean we can’t get it back, and researchers at the Oregon National Laboratory developed a unique set of patents that describe the cathode material not only made of lithium but actually with a mixture of manganese.
And so, this additional new material has made these batteries much safer, less likely to catch fire, longer lasting, higher energy density and less costly to manufacture. The remarkable thing about this battery is it grew out of very basic research by this team of Argonne scientists using an intense x-ray source of synchrotron facility light source.
The transition from scientific discovery to patent to licensing was just a few years, and then the discoveries that they have made are going to be going into the next-generation Chevy Volt. Already LG Chem and General Motors are beginning to license their suite of patents, so very, very quick adaptation and deployment.
Here’s another basic research study that lent itself to very quick adaptation. We have tremendously high-performing supercomputers in the Department of Energy, and BMI Corporation is using these supercomputers to look at the airflows around the long-haul, you know, 18-wheeler trucks. And by using these aerodynamic simulations they can actually reduce the wind resistance on these trucks.
And BMI, they found that if you actually modified the undercarriage slightly, you can achieve fuel savings between 7 and 12 percent per truck. And if this was installed on all long-haul trucks, we’re talking about 1.5 billion gallons of diesel fuel a year that are saved.
And if you recall how rapidly the streamlining on the upper part of the truck went into place as soon as this was noted, just a few years we will expect that there will be a very rapid deployment on the undercarriage as well.
RPE is also funding some cutting-edge research. In carbon capture and sequestration we have an existence proof that there need not be a large energy penalty in capturing carbon dioxide, transporting it and putting it somewhere else. You’re doing this as I speak now, as you breathe, because, after all, your cells are generating carbon dioxide for metabolism.
Your blood is able to pick up that carbon dioxide, transport it to your lungs. You exhale and the carbon dioxide is expelled. This is all done without any overt energy penalty. And so, if we can then think of catalysts or enzymes that can actually capture the carbon dioxide, and then, with the change of pressure or something like that, release it, this could be greatly – it could greatly decrease the energy costs of carbon capture.
RPE is also looking at a new approach to wind turbines. This funny-looking thing is actually taking its lessons from modern turbine jet engines and then training flows with these jet engines, and in that sense it can actually become much more efficient than the turbines of today.
Looking at a number of other things – building efficiency through innovative thermal devices, looking very closely at whether you can completely rewrite the book on air conditioning. This is the amount of energy per kilogram of cooling.
Cooling is a strange thing. It’s still described in tons. Just in case you’ve ever wondered, that tons of ice. In the old days you had a block of ice and you blew air over it. So, in any case, it’s still – it’s like horse power. Never mind. (Laughter.) What are they, say the younger generation? Anyway, in any case, we could really rewrite the book, we think, in terms of air conditioning, which will be in high demand around the world.
One other thing, we need some sort of guidance so that the – some sort of guidance that will guide the private sector in making investments. And in President Obama’s State of the Union address, he said that, “Clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they’re selling.”
So, in the State of the Union address he proposed a clean energy standard, and what does a clean energy standard do? It says, we can define clean energy as nuclear or sun or wind or hydro. Gas can count half clean because it’s half the carbon emissions of coal. Coal with carbon capture and sequestration, if it captures 90 percent of the carbon, counts as 90 percent clean, and so on. So it doesn’t actually say which technology will win, but it does guarantee a market for any clean energy technology.
Today, using that accounting scheme, we’re roughly 40 percent clean energy, and he asked by 2035 to go to 80 percent. So it will give you a guaranteed market for clean energy. As long as you build something competitive, you have a market for it.
That market means there’s investment certainty, and so companies can go to people who can loan them money and say, well, we can sell this for sure. That market certainty actually means that there’s going to be a business, domestic supply lines spring up, especially in the heavy-duty equipment, for example wind turbines in new power plants, new nuclear reactors.
You need a certain number of orders in order for a manufacturer to actually set up a domestic supply line, but if it’s heavy stuff, it’s much more economical to set it up in the home country, and that’s why China is deploying so rapidly. They actually want to set up domestic supply lines.
And, finally, if you look at the states that have renewable energy portfolio standards, that this demand certainty will actually stimulate long-term planning of the grid. So, if you start with a clean energy standard of 2035, all of a sudden you’re going to get planning of the transmission distribution system, which you don’t see in states that, for example, don’t have this. So this again stimulates the best type of investments over the longest period of time.
So, my take-home message – and this is the last slide – is that we still have the opportunity to lead the world in clean energy and capture jobs in the 21st century, but time is running out. Other countries realize this economic opportunity. They’re moving very fast. It is a race and the train is leaving the station. Thank you.
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June 30, 2012 1 Comment
Interacting with amazing paintings seems to be a new trending activity going on around the world.
“Trick-Eye Museums” have been built throughout Asia that allow people to take pictures with some of the trickiest images ever.
These museums feature various well-executed trompe l’oeil (French for “deceive the eye) artworks that either look like they’re coming out of the frame, or that you’re stepping in.
3D Street Artwork has become very popular as well, and people love becoming part of the paintings.
Check out these amazing images: Read more of this post
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Among the most prolific sluggers in the history of Major League Baseball, Manny Ramirez possesses a rare combination of quick hands and a smooth, powerful stroke that has made him one of the most productive hitters of his generation. Identified as a potential superstar when he was a teenager, Ramirez developed his immense talent into a long and successful career, highlighted by World Series championships, including the astonishing Boston Red Sox win in 2004. However, Ramirez has also been viewed by many as a frustrating character, whose impressive record of accomplishments is tainted by unusual behavior and a suspension for using a banned performance-enhancing drug. Once described by a sportswriter as "endearing, aggravating, clueless, and clutch," Manny Ramirez remains an enormously important and compelling figure in the world of sports.
In this colorful new biography, readers will find an engaging narrative telling how Ramirez has persevered to become one of the best hitters in baseball and how he approaches life both on and off the diamond.
Full-color photographs. Feature boxes. Footnotes. Chronology and timeline. Sidebars. Bibliography. Web sites. Further reading. Notes. Index.
About the Author(s)
Ian C. Friedman is the author of Latino Athletes, Freedom of Speech and the Press, and Education Reform, all for Facts On File. He is the coauthor of A Biographical Dictionary of Presidents and American Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Business Visionaries. A graduate of the University of Michigan and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Friedman has worked as a teacher in Los Angeles and Chicago and has presented at several history education conferences across the United States.
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At Heaven's Gate
HAVING arisen from the tomb, a Woman presented herself at the gate of Heaven, and knocked with a trembling hand.
"Madam," said Saint Peter, rising and approaching the wicket, "whence do you come?"
"From San Francisco," replied the Woman, with embarrassment, as great beads of perspiration spangled her spiritual brow.
"Never mind, my good girl," the Saint said, compassionately. "Eternity is a long time; you can live that down."
"But that, if you please, is not all." The Woman was growing more and more confused. "I poisoned my husband. I chopped up my babies. I - "
"Ah," said the Saint, with sudden austerity, "your confession suggests a very grave possibility. Were you a member of the Women's Press Association?"
The lady drew herself up and replied with warmth:
"I was not."
The gates of pearl and jasper swung back upon their golden hinges, making the most ravishing music, and the Saint, stepping aside, bowed low, saying:
"Enter, then, into thine eternal rest."
But the Woman hesitated.
"The poisoning - the chopping - the - the - " she stammered.
"Of no consequence, I assure you. We are not going to be hard on a lady who did not belong to the Women's Press Association. Take a harp."
"But I applied for membership - I was blackballed."
"Take two harps."
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President Obama won North Carolina by about 14,000 votes in 2008. But Rick Thames, editor of the Charlotte Observer, says Obama faces a challenge to win the state this year.
The Observer’s new poll of voters shows that 23 percent of white Democrats surveyed voted for Obama in 2008, and this year only 9 percent indicate they will.
Thames says as a swing state, North Carolina is very important to Republican party nominee Mitt Romney, who can’t win the White House without it. The President is expected to fight to hold onto North Carolina, so Thames expects a pitched battle there.
- Rick Thames, editor of the Charlotte Observer
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Whether you realize it or not, a brand's logo speaks to its viewer on many levels.
There's the initial recognizability factor—if a logo is too complex or unrelated to its brand, it risks being glanced over without communicating its brand's message. For that reason, modern logos tend to err on the side of boldness and simplicity.
But a closer look at many logos reveals more subtle marketing tactics.
You may have noticed the subliminal features of some of these designs in the past. But have you looked hard enough to see them all?
FedEx — The FedEx logo hides an arrow in its negative space. Even a glance subliminally inspires thoughts of efficiency and forward motion.
Baskin Robbins — This logo, introduced in 2005, cleverly uses the company's initials to advertise its number of ice cream flavors (31).
Tour de France — Slightly more abstract than the other examples, the Tour de France logo contains a well-integrated biker.
Toblerone — See the dancing bear in the mountain? The design is a tribute to the Swiss town where the chocolate was developed.
Milwaukee Brewers — It's easy to miss the second meaning of this throwback logo from the baseball team.
Amazon — The cleverness of this logo is twofold. The arrow points from a to z, referring to all that is available on Amazon.com, and it doubles as a satisfied smile (with dimple).
Tostitos — The not-so-hidden design within this logo conjures up feelings of togetherness and friendship over chips and salsa.
Click here for the full list of logos.
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An antiwar movement is stirring -- an overdue fact and a necessary one, as the Bush crowd lick their chops and the odds of war with Iraq rise by the minute, against reason, against allies, against American doubts.
The odds of one or another catastrophe in the short, middle, or long run are terribly high, and the chances of a smooth, slick, low-cost, high-gain victory are terribly low. Surely, the moment cries out for a smart, extensive, inclusive popular movement against the gangbusters approach that the Bush administration favors. Surely, the sobriety and skepticism of the American people deserve organization and mobilization.
Might this nascent antiwar movement be that redemptive moment, when the national conscience surges into the streets to take over where a supine Congress stands aside? Unhappily, no. This movement is far too weak and provincial to stop the coming war.
What a smart movement could do is put out the markers, create the organizational networks, and establish the foundation on which a more substantial antiwar movement might later be built. Alas, that is also unlikely.
The leadership of the current antiwar movement is building a firebreak around itself, turning the movement toward the bitter-end orthodoxy of the Old Left and away from the millions of Americans whose honest concerns and ambivalence might fuel it. If antiwar sentiment turns out to have any impact on the course of events, it will probably be despite the organized protests, and not because of them.
I spoke at an antiwar rally outside the UN on September 12, the same day that President Bush, inside, addressed the General Assembly. The turnout was ragged, 300 or so. But the numbers weren't the most dismaying aspect of that gathering. The signs were.
Most of the printed placards held by the protesters said 'NO SANCTIONS, NO BOMBING.' The international sanctions against Iraq have been a humanitarian disaster for the country's civilians. But doesn't Saddam Hussein bear some responsibility for that disaster? Must that not be noted? The bombing -- US and UK attacks in the no-fly zones of northern and southern Iraq -- are taking place under the auspices of a mission to protect Iraqi Kurds in the north and Iraqi Shiites in the south. Again, the Iraqi leader bears responsibility; Washington and London have made a credible case for the no-fly-zone sorties because and only because Saddam Hussein has trampled these long-suffering people in more ways than there is room to describe in this space.
Those picket signs are emblematic of a refusal to face a grotesque world. They express a near-total unwillingness to rebuke Saddam Hussein, and a rejection of any conceivable rationale for using force. The left-wing sectarians who promote 'NO SANCTIONS, NO BOMBING' don't want the US, or anyone, to lift a finger on behalf of the Kurds -- to whom you might think we have a special responsibility, since our government invited them to rise up in 1991.
Now, those same cynics of the hard left have moved to the front of the current anti-war movement. The sponsors of what's being billed as a national anti-war demonstration in Washington on October 26, and their eminence grise, Ramsey Clark, express no displeasure with Saddam Hussein. Their world is two-toned and, as with the Old Left at its worst, it's always clear who's wearing the black hats. (Ramsey Clark belongs to the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, after all.)
This will not play in Peoria. It does not deserve to play in Washington.
Clark and others of his mindset are not only morally tainted, they're doomed. And the antiwar movement is doomed if they are allowed to lead it. Liberal-left antiwarriors need to be out-front patriots if they expect to draw the attention and the support of Americans at large.
Many are the compelling arguments against Bush's preventive war. For one thing, it would boost the odds that Saddam Hussein will use weapons of mass destruction either in the Middle East or, if he can manage it, in the United States. That risk and others are not hard for Americans to grasp. But these arguments are not made by self-proclaimed anti-imperialists who seem to have little to no interest in the security of Americans or the world. (If you think I exaggerate, take a look at the www.internationalanswer.org.)
Marc Cooper, that rare journalist of the left who calls know-nothings by their proper name, put it bluntly and well in the Los Angeles Times on September 29 ("A Smart Peace Movement Is MIA"), writing that "If the left is not for war against Hussein and is also opposed to economic sanctions, what is it for? If the left is for containment instead of invasion, then isn't it the U. S. armed forces that must do the containing? ... If, at the end of the day, Hussein does foil weapons inspections, what is to be done then?"
To the unswerving Ramsey Clarks of the world, such questions are trivial or worse. So how did they end up at the front of the antiwar parade? In part, it's because they're always ready, and because they always have the same answer to every question: US Out of Everywhere. In part, it's because they're organized. They stay "on message" -- a horrible political phrase to describe the discipline of fanatics. In part it's because other antiwar groups, chiefly pacifists, are grateful simply to have company in resisting the stampede.
Where is the party of sense? Now that the Democrats having caved in -- most are too calculating by half -- who will mobilize the millions of Americans who think the Bush doctrine is dangerous, but are sure to flee left-wing pieties? Will the silent majority of American antiwarriors stand up?
Those who care about global peace and security, and reject preventive or preemptive war as the means to achieve it, should be organizing teach-ins -- real teach-ins. They should be holding debates, not rallies of the faithful, mouthing nonsensical slogans.
Right now, the hard left is in charge by default, and the antiwar movement is lame on arrival as a result. If sensible antiwar forces make a valiant effort to speak outward to the American public, not upward to the gods of the hollow left, then and only then will we stand a chance of usefully weighing in against the rush to war.
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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2002/10/who-will-lead
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Sen. Boxer has proposed using the government's control over Fannie and Freddie to change the way they process refinances. According to HousingWire GSEs have about 2 million mortgages in the mortgage-backed securities they own that would be targeted for preferential treatment, relative to similar mortgages that are not owned by the GSEs.
These targeted homeowners would have to be current on their mortgage (so not those who have strategically defaulted) but underwater as a result of falling housing prices. The bill would "eliminate the negative equity restrictions and the upfront fees Fannie and Freddie charge when evaluating current homeowners" so that these borrowers would refinance.
If a company wanted to do this, they could change their rules. If the GSEs thought it would be a good idea for their business to do this, in theory they could as well. But they haven't. And neither have private firms. Somehow, Sen. Boxer thinks she knows the mortgage business better.
By using the power of law to direct business activity Sen. Boxer is doing what has been a fear of many over the past few years as Fannie and Freddie have languished in conservatorship, using legislative pressure for political gain.
There are good reasons why the GSEs have not pulled back fees or rules for not refinancing homes with severe negative equity. One reason is rules mandating homes not have LTVs higher than 125% (i.e. the loan is 125% of the value of the home, or a $125,000 loan for a $100,000 house). But if these homes are as underwater as Sen. Boxer argues, then many of them would exceed this threshold upon refinancing. Imagine a borrower putting 10% down on a $100,000 home (a 90% LTV). Assume that borrower has paid off 5% of the principal since purchase, so they owe $85,000. But home prices have fallen 30% to 40% in some areas. So now the house is only worth $65,000—which is an LTV of 130%. If the loan is refinanced it will have to be reappraised and the LTV will go from 90% to 130% (assuming the same principal but with a lower interest rate).
The HousingWire story quotes Sen. Boxer's staff as suggesting the GSEs could push these loans out of MBS and into their portfolio after refinancing. But the porfolios are shrinking 10% every year according to the terms of the conservatorship, that is not a long-term solution.
In principle, being underwater shouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for a homeowner, unless they want to sell. This bill is to help homebuyers refinance from their current terms, paying investors 6% or more, to today's interest rates, which are as low as 4%. It isn't going to keep people from defaulting necessarily, unless they've lost their job and can't afford the payments they were once able to make with ease.
Investors would lose out in this situation and may be opposed. The GSEs could face balance sheet problems and seem to be opposed. But Sen. Boxer would get a political win.
Seriously, why do we still have these guys around?
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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Get the facts on holiday gift giving. The holidays are approaching. Do you want to be like the average American, who overspends on gifts every December?
These costs can make the season more stressful than it should be.
You shouldn't be worrying about how much money you spent on the gift for your best friend. That takes away from the best aspects of the season—food, family, and friends.
Instead, make a simple holiday budget and follow it. You'll save money and enjoy your stress-free holiday.
Avoid the hassles
Shopping for gifts should be fun, easy, and affordable. That's the exact opposite of the complete hassle that it tends to be. To make it easier, decide:
- How much money you want to spend
- Who you want to give gifts to
- What you want to give them
Write down the answers to those questions. This is the first part in creating a personal budget...
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://googolplex.cuna.org/10034/ajsmall/article.php?doc_id=1244
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Use of GPUs for HPC seems to be reaching a new stage of adoption, based on activity we’re seeing. NVIDIA announced the eagerly anticipated next generation solution, Fermi, last month. By adding in capabilities such as Error Correction, Fermi provides a level of accuracy that had not been an inherent feature of GPUs, given their prime use in games and graphics. Not a showstopper, as developers could work around that, but it has been a limiting issue for some.
Just this week, Georgia Institute of Technology announced it had received $12M NSF funding for a GPU-integrated HPC system. The participants in the project, called Keeneland, include Georgia Tech, Oak Ridge National Lab, University of Tennessee, NVIDIA and HP. An auspicious name, as the funding is part of NSF’s Track 2 awards. The announced plan is to build the system with the Fermi GPUs.
We’ll be showing some GPUs demos at SC09 booth next month, using the currently shipping NVIDIA Tesla. Each 1U Tesla S1070 has four GPUs (with 960 cores). Our HP ProLiant DL160 se has an added PCI slot relative to standard DL160. This enables us to support 3 Teslas with two 1U servers. That’s over 12 TFLOPS peak from just the Teslas, in 5U. These GPUs are not just for gaming anymore. That baby’s got game.g
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http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Hyperscale-Computing-Blog/bg-p/619/label-name/georgia%20tech
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Comments for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Ian Fleming is best known for James Bond who appeared in twelve novels and nine short stories and spawned a movie franchise but he also wrote a children's novel called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car (1964). The novel was later adapted into a film (1968) staring Dick Van Dyke.
Except for the car, the book is a very different story from the film. The car in both the book and film can fly and seems to be alive. Fans of the film though might be disappointed by the simplicity of the book. Here the Potts family go head to head with gangsters in France after flying to an island to spend a day at the beach.
What makes the book special beyond seeing a different side to Ian Fleming is the artwork by John Burningham. His multimedia illustrations help bring Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to life. I have to admit to enjoying Burningham's illustrations more than the story itself.
I've read this to both of my boys and love it everytime. I made sure we read the book before they saw the movie, so of course they think the book's better:-) The illustrations are definately half the fun of the book."
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2008/comments_04/chitty_chitty_bang_bang.html
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First of all, I would check whether the neck is straight.
Place a ruler against the frets (the edge of the ruler against the frets) and if there is any space between any of the frets and the ruler, the neck is not entirely straight. If there is no access to any sort of truss rod adjustment, then you will probably have to put up with the high action. If there is a bow in the neck, the action will appear higher at higher frets. If you lower the saddles in order to fix that high action, you will get fret buzz at the lower frets.
If the frets are straight, try adjusting the action at the bridge. Nearly all basses have a setting somewhere on the saddles that allows height adjustment. Once you have them a comfortable height, or the lowest you can without any buzzing, you will need to check, and possibly, fix the intonation.
Tune the guitar to pitch using a tuner. Play the 12th fret harmonic on the string, and then the 12th fret note. In short, the rule is:
If the fretted note is higher (sharper) than the harmonic, then the length of the string needs to be lengthened. If the harmonic note is sharper, then the length of the string needs to be shortened.
The way you adjust string length depends on the type of saddle, but most cheapo basses usually have a Phillips screw of some sort that you can adjust.
There might be a problem with the nut, but I don't know a lot regarding them.
In this case, I would usually recommend the instrument be taken to a guitar tech. They usually do a fantastic job on fixing the instrument's little niggles straight (and your bowed neck if necessary), you will be able to hear and feel the difference when you get it back. Depending on the service, it may be a tad pricey (£40/$64) but as you say the bass is pretty cheap, so it shouldn't hurt too much anyway. You can always fix further issues yourself, but whenever I happen to acquire an instrument I always like to have it perfect and go from there.
Hope this helps :)
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/2028/lowering-the-action-on-a-bass-guitar/2031
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|
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The Fellowship of Life
A joint letter has been sent to Bill Morris, Olympics Director of Ceremonies objecting on the grounds of genuine animal suffering; presenting a false picture of modern industrial farming and lack of imagination.
Read entire letter (PDF) here. Text:
June 21, 2012
21st June 2012
Dear Mr Morris and Committee Members,
We, the undersigned organisations, made up of leading UK animal protection groups, formally voice our opposition to the proposed use of live animals during the Olympic opening ceremony, on the following grounds:
Sheep, chickens, horses, geese and ducks are prey animals and
therefore have a well-developed instinct towards “flight” in
situations that they find distressing. Subjecting these animals to
more than 62,000 cheering people, bright lights, high sound levels and
the frenetic atmosphere of the event, while preventing them from
exercising their natural instinct to remove themselves or hide, will
be a highly stressful and probably terrifying experience for them. The
recognition of the risk that the ceremony is highly likely to cause
fear and distress renders the Olympic organisers liable to
Many members of the public have already registered their opposition to the plans by writing directly to organisers or by putting their names to one of at least two petitions that have attracted over 11,000 signatures after just one week. We expect the opposition to continue to grow considerably. The message is clear: a large body of opinion does not want the UK to be represented on this important global stage in this manner. The Olympic organisers must listen to the voice of the public.
We hope that you are also aware that the portrayal of free ranging
animals in lush green pastures is simply unrepresentative of the
contemporary UK farming industry. The majority of animals farmed in
Great Britain are subjected to intensive farming methods; crowded into
cages, barns and
We recognise that the decision to use animals is unlikely to have been taken with the deliberate intent of causing harm and suffering to those individuals involved, or to paint a false picture, as it does, of farming today in the U.K., but the problems have now been clearly set out and cannot be simply ignored and false impressions cannot be a part of the show we all look forward to seeing do our nation proud. You can turn the tide on the growing opposition by taking the simple, ethical and compassionate decision to cancel the use of animals in the opening. After all, the Olympics present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase British animatronics and theatrical expertise to a global audience. A stage show like War Horse has enthralled far greater audiences by displaying wonderful puppetry skills than had they unimaginatively used live horses. With the immense talent in this country, we respectfully ask you to reconsider and follow their compassionate example.
Please make the right decision: do not exploit animals for entertainment in our nation’s name.
We would be happy to meet with you to discuss any of the points
raised in this letter and look
Return to Announcements
This site is hosted and maintained by The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation
Thank you for wisiting all-creatures.org
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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|
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15-Jun-2006 -- After successfully visiting the S27 E148 confluence I wanted to do more. So on our way from Roma to Windorah we decided to attempt the S27 E147 confluence. We drove south from Morven on what I believe is the Nebine Road. The road was at first sealed as it passed through the Tregole National Park, but later became a dirt road which was in reasonable condition. The road went fairly close to the confluence, (within 5km or so, according to the map) easily walkable in case we didn't find a track suitable for the car which would get us closer.
We knew from looking at satellite photos of the area that there was some sort of track going through the woods that would get us closer to the confluence than the main road. So once we were at a similar latitude to the confluence we started looking for the track. Slightly south of the S27 latitude we found a fence running straight west, towards the confluence, with cleared areas on both sides of the fence that looked driveable. After managing to drive 1km along side the fence the cleared area became very rocky, so after hearing some rocks scrape the underside of the car we decided to continue on foot.
We continued following the fence for just over 2.5km, passing some dried up creeks, seeing some kangaroos in the woods and lots of traces of cattle, until the fence we were following ended at another fence line heading NE to SW. We followed this new fence line NW about 150m or so, and then headed straight through the woods towards the confluence.
The woods were easy to walk through as the trees were a fair distance apart. We reached the confluence at 12:35 after having walked about 3km from where we had left the car. Then it was a simple matter of more or less retracing our steps to the car and back out to the road and head north back to Morven again.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=12401
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|
en
| 0.980911
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Just when you thought things couldn't get more confusing, along comes an additional tax as part of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) to affect you as a business owner or self-employed individual.
The Affordable Care Act imposes an additional level of Medicare tax, starting with 2013 income, and includes unearned income (income from investments, dividends, capital gains, and other types of passive income).
The basic Medicare Tax (part of self-employment tax) is 2.9%; the increased tax is 3.8% on your total income including wages from employment, self-employment income, and unearned income, above a threshold:
- $250,000 for married filing joint filers and qualifying widows or widowers;
- $200,000 for single and head of household filers; and
- $125,000 for married filing separately filers.
Since self-employment tax is not withheld, you'll need to speak to your tax advisor to increase your estimated tax payments.
Of course, there's lots more detail than this. William Perez, Guide to Tax Planning, has an excellent article that explains Medicare Tax and Unearned Income; his article includes a calculation to show how the increased Medicare Tax might work, and some tax planning strategies for minimizing Medicare taxes.
Also, in case you missed it, don't forget that you must increase withholding for Medicare tax from higher-income employees starting January 1, 2013 by .9%, to account for this increased tax. Read more details on how the increased Medicare tax affects your payroll accounting.
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<urn:uuid:142d7288-e049-462b-8ae4-6d24f8a65f0d>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://biztaxlaw.about.com/b/2013/02/18/sorting-out-the-new-medicare-tax-for-business-owners-and-self-employed.htm
|
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|
en
| 0.972013
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On April 16th, Miss America 2013 Mallory Hagan and Prevent Child Abuse America will be joined by hundreds of volunteers to display 5,000 pinwheels in Times Square in support of child abuse prevention! Now is the time to act! To be part of the solution, please consider one of the following ways you
Everyone can play a role when it comes to promoting healthy child development; what role can you play in your community?
With April's Child Abuse Prevention Month set to start next Monday, please share with us, why you feel it is important we promote the healthy development of our nation's children?
Now that Jerry Sandusky has been found guilty of child sexual abuse, the question before us as a society is: What have we learned? We have learned that communities are prepared to come together and support healthy, happy childhoods and the prevention of child sexual abuse before it ever occurs.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.causes.com/societyagainstchildabuse?recruiter_id=812720
|
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|
en
| 0.954767
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But not so fast ...
France's Constitutional Council on Saturday rejected a 75 percent upper income tax rate to be introduced in 2013 in a setback to Socialist President Francois Hollande's push to make the rich contribute more to cutting the public deficit.
The Council ruled that the planned 75 percent tax on annual income above 1 million euros ($1.32 million) - a flagship measure of Hollande's election campaign - was unfair in the way it would be applied to different households.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the government would redraft the upper tax rate proposal to answer the Council's concerns and resubmit it in a new budget law, meaning Saturday's decision could only amount to a temporary political blow.
While the tax plan was largely symbolic and would only have affected a few thousand people, it has infuriated high earners in France, prompting some such as actor Gerard Depardieu to flee abroad. The message it sent also shocked entrepreneurs and foreign investors, who accuse Hollande of being anti-business. (Reuters, via Drudge)
So if the tax is largely symbolic, why do it in the first place? To make those less fotunate jealous and to make them feel like the government is doing something to level the playing field.
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<urn:uuid:c2531707-3c1b-4af8-8537-cfa4a45fcbbd>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2012/12/french-court-rejects-75-percent-millionaires-tax.html
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|
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| 0.96296
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|
Earlier this week Google announced Keep, their new service for quickly storing notes from your phone and online. As others have pointed out, it’s similar to the popular Evernote. Feature comparisons aside, the launch of new services providing common, even essential, access to my information highlights a disconcerting trend.
Faith in Services
Underlying these product decisions is the manifestation of the products that we use. Historically we purchased physical media that we would hold and use as much as we wanted. Despite a company going out of business, ending a product or even upgrading the version we could choose to keep using the product as we had originally acquired and intended. Whether that was Word Perfect or Windows 95, we were in control.
With the advent and ubiquity of connectivity and the Internet, we have become more reliant on services – popularly referred to as The Cloud. There are numerous benefits to this architecture such as scalability, reliability, accessibility, and maintainability. Users can access information from almost any device whenever they need it without worrying about location, versions, or upgrades.
Consequently we put our faith in the service and the trust that there is connection to the internet, the service will be working, that our information is not leaked or shared, and even that the company or product continues to exist. We are now reliant on decisions for which we have little or no control.
Reality of Providers
Evernote has a vision to create a 100-year company, a nearly unique perspective for a new information technology company. It is the kind of pledge that instills a confidence that considers building a long-term relationship with users and exhibiting through products and services.
By contrast, invested and publicly traded companies have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profits and increase shareholder value. They are legally required to change their products and business to contiuosly get the most money possible. Users are not shareholders and as such are beholden to the decisions to improve revenue. This is not bad per se, but can have consequences in products that live or are shutdown that may seem arbitrary to users.
Google is well known for this behavior, as recently in shutting down Google Reader, though even more relatedly the Keep-similar closing of Google Notebook that was part of a regular “spring cleaning”.
Beyond mere existence of these services we are still reliant on the stability of the service provider. The recent launch of SimCity was plagued with service failures due to scaling and security. And there are many more intentional service related restrictions, particular if the service provider is a hardware manufacturer with clear incentives to lock you into their physical platform.
Trust in Data
The point is that we must realize the vitalness of protecting and accessing our data. Whether my personal notes, email, photos, business plans, or any other information that I have, it is imperative that we retain ownership and rights to the underlying data. Users should be able to hold their data with permission to access, use and reuse regardless of future business decisions.
Services are a value-add. They make my data more useful and perform amazing capacity such as character recognition, entity extraction, geocoding, analysis, and recommendations. But these cannot come at the detriment of control and access to the information that exists independent of a particular product.
Consumers are relatively new to technology, and there is a constant flow of marketing, features, and new products to try. These are easily appealing and exciting while overlooking to the potential implications of investing into a particular service. I hope the culture evolves to where access to the data is not an esoteric or unrelated conversation but is a forthright requirement of any new service.
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<urn:uuid:056abd78-be87-418e-af64-fb5de16fab51>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://highearthorbit.com/category/technology/
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|
en
| 0.960344
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| 1.789063
| 2
|
August 3, 2010
Do No More
Let us play pretend for a moment. It is October 3, 1951, and Bobby Thomson just hit The Shot Heard 'Round the World. You go to bed that night with the kind of glow that only a baseball game like that can give you, but strange things happen overnight. Rip Van Winkle and you awake nearly 60 years later.
You notice immediately that much has changed, from the TV you watch the game on to the automobile in which you ride. Oh, you can still get a Coke, sailors still get tattoos, but you quickly notice that so, too, do college coeds in places you didn't know they had places when you went to bed.
At least, you assure yourself as you head to the ballpark, that you can count on baseball, the game that never changes, to remind you of your roots.
Aren't you in for a surprise, for baseball has changed like everything else.
To begin with, even before the game is played, you notice differences. You come early for batting and infield practice, but there is no infield practice. Coaches no longer consecutive grounders to the third baseman, second baseman and first baseman, then rolling a "bunt" out for the catcher to field.
No more, "OK, let's get two", as the coach repeats the process, except this time the fielders are expected to turn a double play instead of throwing to first base. And no more infield up drill, just to get loose, just to get the feel of game.
Damn, I miss infield practice.
At least you can watch the players having some fun playing pepper, a simple little game where they stand three or four in a line and there's a batter about 15 feet away and he hits the ball back at them and they catch it, sometimes doing all this fancy stuff like the Harlem Globetrotters that helped make the Gashouse Gang famous.
But alas, there are no more pepper games. In its place are signs saying "No pepper games!"
You look around you and are surprised at the ballpark. No more cigarette signs. Why way back then, when you went to sleep, there was that huge pack of Chesterfields out in left field at the Polo Grounds and announcer Russ Hodges was sending thousands of cigarettes to our troops in Korea when home runs were hit. If the North Koreans weren't going to kill them, Giants home runs would.
You look at the players and something is different. It's the socks, if you can see them at all.
Most of the players always showed a lot of sock when you last saw the game, and they had these things call "stirrups." Try finding stirrups on today's player. David Wright of the Mets wears them on day games, but that is a superstition, not a style statement.
If it's a cold day you look for those turtlenecks that became popular under the uniform but can't find a one, any more than you can find a player on the coldest day displaying his bare guns the way Ted Kluszewski used to do, showing off the biggest arms of the pre-steroid era.
If it's a sunny day you know your player won't be losing the ball because of his flip-down sunglasses, only you can't seem to find anyone with them, save maybe for the Diamondbacks' Bobby Crosby. Ever since Jose Canseco showed up wearing Oakleys, everyone wears wraparounds. But do you really want Canseco to be your guide to catching fly balls when he once let one bounce off his head and over the wall?
During batting practice, you notice, that the batting helmets all have earflaps. Baseball didn't even have batting helmets back when you fell asleep, but just about that time Pirates general manager Branch Rickey and his traveling secretary, Charlie Muse, invented the first one. Because players didn't want to look afraid, it was more a replica of the cap.
As you sit at the game, you ask the guy sitting next to you when the next scheduled doubleheader is, and he looks at you kind of strangely. Doubleheader? They haven't scheduled one in years.
A shame. You used to like those two-for-the-price-of-one days instead of what you get now, one for the price of two.
OK you say, you'll go to the Old-Timers' game and you're told they don't have that anymore, either.
A least, you say, they still have grass on the field and the guy tells you that is something "new," too, for back in the late 1960s they had to invent this thing called AstroTurf because they couldn't grow grass in the Astrodome, whatever that was, and the artificial turf spread across baseball like an epidemic of leg injuries, which it caused.
But now they're back to grass with modern drainage systems that almost assure a game will be played.
So now it's time to play the game and it doesn't take long after the bottom of the first inning to notice that the players all bring their gloves into the dugout. Why? Back when you went to sleep, they would just flip their glove on the ground out at their position and pick it up when they returned to play defense.
Honest, that's what they did until 1953, risking tripping over that pesky piece of leather so that they didn't have to carry it all the way into the dugout. Some changes were for the good.
The game is played and a player is tagged out sliding into second base and you wonder why he didn't hook slide, only to find out they don't do that anymore. It may have been good enough for Ty Cobb and Phil Rizzuto, but today the hook slide has gone the way of infield practice.
It gets to the seventh inning and the pitcher that is losing, 1-0, is removed from the game and you can't understand that, but that's what baseball has become. At least you don't have to watch them ride a reliever in on a golf cart, like they did in the '70s. I guess that jog of 100 yards or so was too much. The golf cart became extinct in 1995 in Milwaukee.
Oh, there are other differences that you can't even see, too. The players don't have roommates on the road any more, doing away with such complaints as Roberto Clemente used to have about roommate Roman Mejias keeping him awake with his snoring.
Besides, where would their wives sleep, since they now accompany their husbands on many of the road trips?
With it all, it's still a great game, just not the one you went to sleep to a half century or so ago.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?type=2&articleid=11652
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|Uploaded:||August 31, 2009|
|Updated:||August 31, 2009|
I always wanted to do a lesson on one of my favorite characters from the anime series Bleach in chibi form. I have a few chibi Bleach characters but there is one that I don’t have. That is what I will be teaching you today. I will show you “how to draw chibi Ichigo from Bleach step by step". This character is one of my ultimate favorites. I absolutely love the way he came out in chibi form. Although he has the body of a small cute child, and the face of a baby, he still tries to remain with his angry stare and his bold stance. I had a lot of fun drawing chibi Ichigo out and I know that you guys will love him as well. All the steps and instructions are simple to follow which will enable you to do a really good job. Drawing chibi characters has been such a fun and creative art to me nowadays, and I am extremely glad that I am sharing my love for drawing with you all. Hopefully the lessons I provide for you all meet your standards so you can proceed onto becoming a better artist. Well I have a few more lessons that I have to put up still and I think that one of the few will be a gigantic hit. Have fun ya’ll with this tutorial on “how to draw chibi Ichigo from Bleach step by step”. Peace out gang and happy drawing chibi style!
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http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/2941/4/1/how-to-draw-chibi-ichigo-from-bleach-drawing-sheet.htm
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Iranian President Vows Not to Retreat under Sanctions
Tehran, May 12 (RHC) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the Islamic republic will not retreat an iota from its rights under pressure of sanctions.
Talking in the northeastern city of Torbat-e Jam, Ahmadinejad said that "They (the West) should know that this (Iranian) nation will not retreat even an iota from its inalienable rights," said the report.
Ahmadinejad made the remarks referring to the successive Western sanctions on the Islamic republic over the country's nuclear program.
On May 7, the United States urged India to further reduce its oil imports from Iran.
Earlier in the month, U.S. President Barack Obama also ordered the treasury department to target foreign entities and individuals who evade the U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Iranis under substantive sanction pressures, especially on its oil industry and oil exports, by the West.
Iranian Foreign Ministry has said that any new sanctions against Iran by the West will "affect the spirit" of next month's nuclear talks.
The last round of nuclear talks between Iran and the UN Security Council's five permanent members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- plus Germany (P5+1) concluded in Turkey's Istanbul in April, with all sides describing the talks as positive and agreeing to meet again in the Iraqi capital on May 23.
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http://www.rhc.cu/ing/news/world/7009-iranian-president-vows-not-to-retreat-under-sanctions.html
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It seems that each time I write another Relationship “Essential” I always think it’s the most important one. I know I said that last time when I talked about the toxic effects of blame. Studies show that one of the most important habits of successful couples is that they know how to react effectively when their partner is upset – disapproving, hurt, sad, etc. With unsuccessful couples, when one partner gets upset, it’s not long before the other partner gets upset as well. The upset seems to spread like a virus, jumping from one person to the other. Everything seemed OK and then all of a sudden you find yourself in a conflict. Sound familiar? Well join the club, most of us struggle with this if we’re honest. Now instead of just one partner being unstable, there’s two unstable people which of course causes most couples a lot of distress. I call this reciprocal, triggering pattern the dreaded “love loop.” You find yourself saying things (out loud and in your head) like, “here we go again,” I can’t take this anymore,” “you’re so difficult,” etc.
Some of you may be thinking “when my partner’s upset, I just don’t say anything or show my true feelings and I keep it all in.” This is a bad strategy as well because what you think and say to yourself internally is more important and than what you say verbally. Studies show that at least 80% of communication is non-verbal and even it you try to hide your true feelings, your partner will inevitably pick up on it.
What’s the solution? When your partner’s upset try to look for the understandable reasons why. Nobody gets upset for no reason; there’s always some understandable factor in why your partner feels the way they do. Brent Atkinson recommends his clients ask themselves these kinds of questions:
- Maybe your partner was having a bad day.
- Maybe your partner didn’t have all the facts.
- Maybe your partner was reading something between the lines that you didn’t intend to be saying.
- Maybe this issue was more important to your partner that you previously understood.
- Maybe your partner wasn’t upset so much about this particular situation as s/he was about where s/he feared things might be headed.
- Maybe your partner felt threatened by you in a way that you didn’t understand.
- Maybe your partner was afraid s/he was going to lose something very important to him or her if s/he did things the way you wanted.
- Maybe your partner was acting this way because s/he felt (or had recently felt) criticized or dismissed by you, and s/he felt resentful and uncooperative because of this.
- Maybe your partner just has really different priorities or expectations than you do. Maybe s/he was acting perfectly consistent with his/her priorities.
Flooding & Time-Outs
If you do find yourself in a nasty conflict, you’re brain is likely FLOODED. If your heart beat goes over 90 – 100 beats/ minute, your brain goes into fight or flight mode. You lose your peripheral vision, hearing shuts down and your brain is focused on pure survival. You can’t hear, see or think…not a good situation for problem solving and effective communication! The answer: take a 20 minute time out. Science tells us that’s precisely the minimum length of time it takes for our brain chemistry to normalize. Make an agreement with your partner to take a time out when this happens. A hand signal works well and also communicates that you’re NOT leaving the relationship and that you DO CARE – you’ll resume the conversation and deal with the issue after you’ve calmed down.
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in reply to
Avoiding silly programming mistakes
Lots of good advice already, but I had a couple of things to add. First, it's likely programming will always allow you to make stupid errors relatively easily. Programmers design and build systems so that other people (or computers) won't be able to make stupid mistakes. In order to do that, a language has to give us lots of flexibilty, which equates to lots of rope to hang ourselves. It's just part of the job.
Secondly, I find Eclipse with EPIC really useful (there are other tools that give you similar functionality. That's just what I use). A lot of stupid errors are detected right away. Maybe not *everything*, but small errors like typos are highlighted as you type, so you don't have to run anything to find your compilation problems. A small time saving, you might say, but lots of small savings can add up to something big, allowing you more time to track down the really nasty problems.
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Date: December 25 2012
From back-alley barbecues and plates of sandwiches for a few needy people 50 years ago, Sydney's free Christmas Day lunch volunteers now feed and cheer up thousands.
Not even heavy downpours could dampen spirits at the free lunches in the city on Tuesday, hosted to help out the homeless, the hard-up and the lonely.
Reverend Graham Long of the Wayside Chapel at Potts Point said an annual Christmas Day street party had been hosted there since 1964.
"Originally it started out as a smallish barbecue in the back alley and it just grew over the years," he said.
An estimated 1000 people were fed on Tuesday.
New volunteer Sheila said it was her first time skipping Christmas Day mass, but she'd waited 35 years for an opportunity to contribute at Wayside.
"Just very gently, you've touched somebody in your life," she said.
Ken Sharpe, 80, said he thought the party was "a damn good idea".
"Look around - the feeling. As the daughter says, she hugs and kisses people that another time you'd cross the street to get away from," he told AAP.
"People should do good things for other people and they don't need religion as a crutch - they should just do it."
At a Christmas Day lunch at Ashfield in Sydney's inner west, the Exodus Foundation laid on more than 65 hams, 55 turkeys, 220 litres of gravy and 330 litres of custard to feed an expected 3000 people.
Reverend Bill Crews it was the foundation's 27th free Christmas Day lunch and each year there were increasing number of people turning up.
He said the annual lunch began with a plate of sandwiches for two lonely people 27 years ago and this year was set to be the biggest yet.
"Just because you're lonely or you can't afford Christmas doesn't mean you have to go without," Reverend Crews said.
At Eveleigh in inner Sydney the Salvation Army's Streetlevel Mission fed about 1500 people in its 16th year of operation, with 150 volunteers giving part of their day to help out.
Meanwhile, thousands of worshippers attended church services across the state.
It was standing room only at St Mary's Cathedral for the morning service led by the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell.
In his homily, Cardinal Pell said the birth of Jesus contained a message "that produces love and goodness".
"This baby did grow up to redeem us by his life, death and resurrection," he said.
Outside church, one worshipper, Sean, said the service was a chance to connect with his family's past.
"My father has always come, my grandfather has always come, and my son has decided he wants to come - it goes back generations," he said.
Sydney's St Andrew's Cathedral hosted a Lord's supper on Tuesday morning, followed by services through the day, including an address by Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen.
In his annual Christmas message released earlier, he said Christmas was a time to fix feuds and forgive.
This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.
[ SMH | Text-only index]
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http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/free-christmas-lunches-spread-cheer-in-nsw-20121225-2bv13.html?skin=text-only
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Being a volunteer firefighter is like getting a second job, and when you already work two jobs sometimes there aren't enough hours in the day for a third.
Joining a company requires sacrificing unbroken nights of sleep to battle fires and spending hundreds of hours in training, committing more hours to maintaining equipment and collecting thousands in donations, dollars and quarters at a time. In today's world it's simply too much for many. Across the state membership in volunteer fire companies is on the wane, and local fire companies have not been spared.
It gets to the point anymore, where it's just difficult to get people to volunteer, said Mike Zoshak, president of the Fearnots Volunteer Fire Company in Foster Township. I'm 43 and I feel like I'm the young guy. That's sort of concerning. What does the future hold?
Now the state government is seeking to offer some relief to volunteers in the form of tax credits. A bill that passed in the state House earlier this month would let municipalities and school districts give earned income and property tax credits to volunteer firefighters and emergency responders. Municipalities could establish earned income tax credits at their discretion, and municipalities and school districts could give property tax credits of up to 20 percent of the total taxes a firefighter owes.
The bill's author, Erie County Rep. John Hornaman, said the bill is needed to take on a crisis of declining membership in volunteer fire departments, which provide coverage to more than 70 percent of Pennsylvania's land area. In 1970 the state had more than 300,000 volunteer firefighters; today there are about 70,000.
It's not only the recognition of what the volunteer fire services and EMT services give to the community, but hopefully what this does is it will aid in recruiting new members, Hornaman said.
But is it enough?
Hanover Township Fire Chief Jeff Tudgay said firefighters spend a lot of time on activities other than fighting fires. Becoming a firefighter in his department requires about 220 hours of training; a whole year two nights a week, and that's just the beginning. Refresher courses take place regularly and firefighters also travel for training to maintain state certifications.
Then there are the boot drives, the raffle ticket sales, bazaars and other fundraising commitments that command at least 10 to 20 hours a week, and often more, Tudgay said.
Right now we're in the process of trying to build a new fire headquarters, so we're looking at millions of dollars that we're trying to put together, Tudgay said. A couple weeks ago we put in about 15 hours demolishing the building.
And on top of it all, the fire department responds to more calls today than it did years ago; Tudgay said the department now handles 900 to 1,000 calls a year, or between two and three a day.
When I got in the fire service 30 years ago, if we had 60 calls in a year that would be something, Tudgay said. Last year we ran 970.
Jerry Paxton, safety officer for the Shavertown Volunteer Fire Company, said the demands of the job have made recruitment more challenging.
In the modern day world now, most of the families, mom and dad are both working, Paxton said. Their kids are in school; they're trying to keep active with their kids' school events. They feel they don't have the time to participate in the fire department training.
That has made staffing difficult. Paxton said his department has about 40 regular volunteers, but only five of them are available to respond during the day. It's meant the department has needed to rely more heavily on mutual aid response by neighboring departments.
Tudgay said firefighter retention can be just as challenging as recruitment. Firefighters get new jobs that require them to move or devote more of their time to work, or family commitments eat up more of their time. Sometimes the training they've received as volunteers allows firefighters to land paid jobs in other departments.
So will a tax credit be enough to tackle the problem?
Paxton said it could be a step in the right direction, but was hesitant to guess how much the measure could accomplish.
I do believe that if they're given a break on their taxes or whatever, that's an incentive for them to join, but it's still a factor of these people having the time to do it, Paxton said.
Zoshak also felt the bill would have a limited impact.
That would be good, but if I'm a single guy, that doesn't own any property, where do I benefit from the property tax relief, Zoshak said.
It's got to be user-friendly, and easy for people to take advantage of, he added. If it's cumbersome then people aren't going to use it and people are going to shy away from it.
Tudgay said he didn't have an answer how to make it better, but he suggested another starting point.
Not everybody has to be that guy who goes inside the burning building and makes the save or pulls the hose line, Tudgay said. The fire department needs the behind-the-scenes people just as much as it needs the front line people. If we could get people to do the fundraising and that behind the scenes, it frees up others to go and do that training.
‘I'll run potato pancakes or I'll run a ticket raffle for you;' we need those people as much as we need an on the scene firefighter.
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http://www.timesleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?avis=TL&date=20121111&category=news&lopenr=311119780&Ref=AR
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By Hena Zuberi
Most of us have heard the the reports out of Egypt, but this is not just an Egyptian problem. It is experienced in many Muslim countries. Many women in Muslim countries don’t even know that this is a crime.
Lets look at the stats coming from Egypt more closely. In 2008, Abul Komsan, the woman’s rights activist, polled 1,000 women from all parts of the country. What she found shocked her. 98 percent of foreign women polled said they had been sexually harassed. And about eight out of 10 Egyptian-born women said the same thing. She also surveyed Egyptian men, and almost two-thirds of men polled actually admitted that they harassed women. And before the holier than thou start preaching that this only happens when women are uncovered, no it does NOT. One of the most important aspects of this study was that it found that 72.5% of victims surveyed were wearing hijab when they were sexually harassed. It happens to all women, even ones that are in full niqab, under several layers of cloth . This survey may superficially shatter the claim that hijab does not protect from molestation. But remember these were just 1000 women in a country of 18 million and the study was taken in an urban city. Anecdotal evidence suggests women may be harassed less depending on where they are, if they cover and as they age. I am not refuting the research but do think more research needs to be done in Egypt and in other Muslim countries, as well. ( I will examine the hijab=protection issue in another post, inshaAllah. Here in the U.S. I have never be sexually harassed after donning my hijab, maybe because the mindset is totally different or maybe the outer garment screams ‘don’t come near me’.)
Before the all is perfect in the West crowd pipes up – this a definitely not a problem exclusive to Muslim countries, either. From Mexico City to Chicago, this is a male problem. According to National Crime Records Bureau, the fastest growing crime in India is violence against women. Walking down the street, taking public transportation or having a career, all put women at risk for sexual harassment and sexual assault, no matter the city, country or continent. Catcalls, fondling, violence and indecent exposure are an everyday occurrence for women in the United States as well. iHollaback.org is a website dedicated to ending street harassment where young women across the nation share their stories and, if they’re quick enough, post photos of their harassers in this safe, online space. Gawaahi.com is the Pakistani distant cousin of Hollaback, where women are speaking about harassment and abuse.
Sexual harassment in Egypt
What is definitely worth studying are the responses of the men in the ECWR study.
Perhaps nothing illustrates Egypt’s loss of a moral compass than the responses of some men in the ECWR study. Some said they harassed a woman simply because they were bored. One who abused a woman wearing the niqab said she must be beautiful, or hiding something. As a professor in Cairo, I see these misogynistic sentiments on display all too often. A woman is called a whore in public? She is seen as dressing like one. Groped by a man on the subway? She must’ve allured him beyond his control with aromatic fragrances and entrancing pheromones. An urban ambler exposes himself to a girl on a sidewalk? She was probably staring lustfully at him… a law can help but it needs to be accompanied by an ideological shift. Young Egyptians, both male and female, must be convinced that the burden of blame for sexual harassment doesn’t belong to the hunted. The guilt of sexual abuse, by logical definition, is the predator’s alone. Justin D. Martin is a journalism professor at The American University in Cairo.
Sexual harassment in Bangladesh
Mona Eltahawy: Women in Egypt
(CBC) Mona Eltahawy, a commentator on Arab and Muslim affairs, talks about the alleged beating and sexual assault of CBS reporter Lara Logan and the plight of women in Egypt.
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FORT WAYNE, Ind.—Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) will host the 2013 Science Olympiad, Saturday, February 2, beginning with registration at 9 a.m. in the lobby of Neff Hall.
The Science Olympiad a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of K–12 science education; increasing male, female, and minority interest in science; creating a technologically-literate workforce; and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by both students and teachers.
The Science Olympiad events fall into five broad categories:
Jeffrey Nowak, associate professor of education and director of the northeast Indiana STEM Resource Center, and Ahmed Mustafa, associate professor of biology, are the co-directors of the IPFW Science Olympiad.
Nowak says a typical IPFW Science Olympiad event day begins with team registration, followed by an opening ceremony, with competition following that ceremony. The awards ceremony will conclude the day's events, starting at 3:30 p.m. in Neff Hall, Room 101. Each event competition is directed and judged by an IPFW faculty member or local expert in each field.
The public is invited to attend and observe all the events. For more information, contact Nowak at 260-481-6960 or email@example.com.
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The PlayStation 4 will not only be using the cloud-gaming service, but it will still maintain its roots with allowing most games to be run via a physical copy.
All of this is supposed to be unveiled at the PlayStation event this coming week along with a more advance for the PlayStation Mov camera and a new touch-pad screen.
There are no guesses right now as to how much this service will be costing gamers, but it's another step away from the used gaming side of business.
We previously documented what Gaikai is looking to do heading into whatever function it serves next.
Gaikai will incorporate a streaming service to gaming platforms that is time sensitive, but still at the same time, maintains high quality graphics and gaming content.
"Games are uploaded to our datacenters located broadly around the world. They are then streamed using high-end servers to internet-connected devices, similar to the way videos are streamed to your computer, except interactively.
"Our technology is such that we can stream the world's most graphically rich video games and other content instantly to almost any device, anywhere," Gaikai said.
Sony's acquisition, which occurred during July of this year, was driven by the reputation that Gaikai has built up and the inevitable shift gaming will eventually make toward cloud gaming.
"Gaikai has developed the highest quality, fastest interactive cloud-streaming platform in the world—a platform capable of delivering games and other interactive content instantly to consumers via the Internet.
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http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1137044-playstation-4-nearly-confirmed-to-be-using-gaikai-used-gaming-being-phased-out/page__p__595528060__k__880ea6a14ea49e853634fbdc5015a024__settingNewSkin__70
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Half a world away tonight, in Germany, a college basketball game will be taking place at Ramstein Air Base as the Michigan State Spartans and Connecticut Huskies begin the college basketball season in the Armed Forces Classic.
It’s the second consecutive season the Spartans have started their season in an innovative game. That’s because Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis is one of the most creative, outside-the-box thinkers in intercollegiate athletics.
He won’t be at the air base in Rheinland-Pfalz because of NCAA Selection Committee duties. But Hollis, no doubt, will be watching the game. He will also have one eye on the action going on in Mount Pleasant, S.C. That’s where one of his many creations will be playing out – the second edition of the Carrier Classic.
Nine years ago an idea came to Hollis. While working for the Western Athletic Conference, he fondly recalled football players and service members interacting on carriers during Holiday Bowl festivities. But watching family members say goodbye to loved ones – possibly for the last time – as they ventured off to war-torn countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, also struck him.
“As conflicts our men and women were involved in broke out, my mind immediately raced to the families that were left behind on those docks as I used to watch the carriers leave in San Diego,” Hollis told Eleven Warriors.
So he traveled to Washington. In a meeting with officials at the Pentagon, Hollis pitched his idea for a basketball game on the deck of a United States aircraft carrier.
“Everyone thinks I’m crazy,” Hollis said.
But big ideas are his M.O. Hollis was the brains behind the “Cold War” hockey game in 2001 at Spartan Stadium between Michigan State and Michigan. The game set a world record for attendance at a hockey game with 74,544 spectators.
Two years later, Michigan State and Kentucky played in the “Basketbowl,” a basketball game at Ford Field in Detroit. The court was placed at midfield and the current regional final and Final Four setup was born. The game also set a college basketball attendance record: 78,129.
Later this season, Michigan State will play Tuskegee at Jenison Fieldhouse, the Spartans’ home for 50 seasons before the Breslin Center, to commemorate the 1963 NCAA Tournament game between Mississippi State and Loyola (Chicago).
Mississippi State, consisting entirely of white players, defied a state prohibition against playing integrated teams and traveled to the tournament site in East Lansing in the middle of the night to avoid detection. Loyola won the game and, eventually, the national championship. The two teams will meet again in Chicago this season and Starkville in 2013.
When Hollis first pitched the carrier idea to the Pentagon, he described their initial reaction as curious.
“They definitely weren’t in a ‘no’ stance,” he said. “But they were looking for the reasons why something can’t get done versus the reasons why something can get done. When we get something in the back of our minds at Michigan State, we get like little bulldozers – we look at the reasons why things can get done. I’m glad we worked so hard at it because it sends the right message that we respect and care.”
It looked like the idea would finally take flight – or float – three years after the initial discussions. In 2006, a tentative plan took form that included two games – Michigan State-Navy and North Carolina-Air Force – on the deck of a carrier in San Diego. But the plan fell through after security concerns.
Undaunted, Hollis’ vision never wavered or blurred. In 2010, he finally had the breakthrough he was looking for when a CBS producer introduced him to Mike Whalen, the founder of Morale Entertainment, a company that provides entertainment for troops.
On year later, Michigan State and North Carolina were on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson.
“I think they could see the passion we came in with,” Hollis said of those he worked with at the Pentagon. “It was interesting that the office we walked into eight years ago was exactly the same office we came into to close the deal. Many of the same people were in the office. It was cool to see people that were involved eight years ago to put the finishing touches on it.”
The game had finally come to fruition, but it wasn’t until the teams stepped on the court the day before when Hollis was most impacted.
“(Game) night was absolutely surreal,” Hollis said. “But the day before, to see Draymond (Green) and the other players interact with soldiers and the level of respect that flowed both ways – you had soldiers’ jaws dropped as these basketball players entered their home. And, at the same time, our players’ jaws dropped looking at the men and women of our areds forces.
“That practice, watching Carolina come on and our team come on the ship for the first time, I wish you could have sold tickets for that. That was the moment that was absolutely priceless and rewarding. It hit the vision that was there eight years ago of connecting.”
The process of getting Ohio State's men's and women's teams, the Marquette men and Notre Dame women together for the 2012 Carrier Classic was much easier. Instead of eight years of legal wrangling, it took less than eight months of red tape.
Ohio State men’s head coach Thad Matta was the first person contacted about possibly playing in the game. Then women’s head coach Jim Foster was notified. Both coaches were all for being part of a once-in-a-lifetime game.
“We felt like it was a good thing to do once we were asked and started to look at what it meant contractually,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. “So we got down to the details and made it happen.”
Making the second edition even more unique is the addition of a women’s game. Ohio State will take on Notre Dame at 4 p.m., prior to the 7 o’clock start for the men’s game.
Smith and his colleagues not only added the women’s game, but took the necessary steps to make sure it was televised. There were concerns at the outset that the women would play second fiddle to the men. The original plan was to have the men’s game first and be the only televised game. That would have meant the women’s game started well into the night.
“That’s not good for our kids,” Smith said. “I felt really good that they were able to have that happen for our kids.”
The women’s game also made possible a family reunion of sorts for one Buckeye family. Cait Craft, the sister of point guard Aaron, is making her Ohio State debut. Aaron will be able to see her career take flight and the family’s military roots will be a theme for the night. The Crafts’ brother, Brandon, is currently serving in Afghanistan.
“It is definitely going to be special for me,” Cait said. “I’ve thought about it a lot. I sit here and stress about games and being prepared when, in reality, my oldest brother is in Afghanistan fighting to give us the right to even play this game. So it holds a little bit of sentimental value for Aaron and me to play for Brandon. He hasn’t seen the last couple years of my life. Obviously it’s not his fault, but it will be very special. I will remember it for a long time.”
Brandon was a three-year football player at his hometown University of Findlay before a knee injury put an end to his career. That’s when he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. The family was split on the decision at the time, with all the usual and warranted fears accompanying them.
But the Crafts, which have a past military history in their family, have supported Brandon and his choice to defend the country.
“I have a better appreciation for what he does,” Aaron said. “Being able to talk to him every two weeks has been great for me. Just hearing the stories about how much guys over there love watching sports, being able to (play) is going to be bigger than a basketball game.
“It’s going to be a good time for the Craft family.”
Brandon was first deployed in March on the day Ohio State beat Syracuse in the East Regional final to secure its spot in the Final Four. He returns to the United States on Nov. 17, and Aaron said the family would see him during Christmas. Aaron last spoke to Brandon on Tuesday.
The game will also hold special meaning for Marquette sophomore guard Derrick Wilson, whose father is a 20-year veteran of the US Army. Dennis Wilson is a retired service member with the rank of Sergeant First Class. He served in Operation Desert Storm.
“The men and women of the armed forces go over seas for months and months at a time,” Hollis said. “I think all of us that are left behind have a tendency to take that for granted. These events really bring home the dedication and the work that they put in to protect the freedoms we take for granted. That’s why the event was done. I view it as our responsibility as leaders to make sure that we can take sport and recognize social and cultural events.”
The Michigan State-North Carolina game was a rousing success by nearly every statistical measure. What may have been most important, however, was the nearly half a million dollars raised.
“It’s cool to be a part of that,” Smith said. “They have a charity event (today) where the dollars go back to military families. We don’t receive funding, we’re paying our own way down and we don’t get a guarantee. It’s a nice deal where we can support our military families. It’s really cool.”
Supporting the troops, giving a few hours of time back to those who protect the country and raising dollars is the main focus of the event. Winning is important for the teams involved, as well, but the experience is greater than a season-opening win.
The consensus among Ohio State’s men’s and women’s players is excitement.
“I’m really excited,” senior forward Evan Ravenel said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something like that.”
Tayler Hill, a preseason All-Big Ten selection and starting guard for the Ohio State women, shared Ravenel’s opinion.
“It’s exciting,” she said. “It’s something a lot of people don’t get to experience.”
Said Hollis: “I’d like to see where it becomes an annual event where it gets shared by a number of schools. It’s an opportunity for the collection of the NCAA to extend that appreciation back. It’s a memory-maker for the kids that get to play. But it’s also a memory-maker for the exchange that takes place between kids that are pretty much the same age, whether it’s a basketball player or a military member.”
For Ravenel its just another notch on a career venue list that’s as impressive as any current player. Having played at Boston College for two seasons, he’s played at Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Dean E. Smith Center, among the other ACC arenas.
Ravenel has added basketball cathedrals such as Indiana’s Assembly Hall, the Breslin Center and Allen Fieldhouse to his list since transferring to Ohio State. The Buckeyes also played at TD Garden and the Louisiana Superdome in last season’s NCAA Tournament.
In present day intercollegiate athletics, money is the end-all, be-all. Nearly every important decision is made based on the bottom line and what can generate the most revenue. But there are still wholesome events that revolve around something bigger than winning or losing a sporting event.
The Army-Navy football game remains one of the sport’s most cherished annual events. Now, in just its second year, the impact the Carrier Classic is having on the sports world and beyond has been vast.
“You can play games and drive numbers and have conference realignment and television contracts,” Hollis said. “All those things are very important to the livelihood of where intercollegiate athletics is. But the other part of it is, it’s a game. How can you take a game and really have an impact on people’s lives?
“That’s where these things came from.”
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Electric vehicles, charging stations, and EV accommodations are all on the facility management radar moving into 2013. Late last night, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, released a blog post that disputes New York Times writer John Broder’s review of the Tesla Model S electric car.
The full blog post “A Most Peculiar Test Drive” can be viewed in full length at the corresponding link. Some of the more incendiary charges include information from alleged data logs and include the claim that the Model S battery never ran out of energy at any time, including when Broder called in a flatbed truck.
A sample of other statements:
- At the point in time that he claims to have turned the temperature down, he in fact turned the temperature up to 74 F.
- Drove right past a public charge station while the car repeatedly warned him that it was very low on range.
- The display said "0 miles remaining." Instead of plugging in the car, he drove in circles for over half a mile in a tiny, 100-space parking lot.
The blog post details a previous experience with a Tesla Motors vehicle appearance TV show Top Gear that resulted in careful data logging of all media test drives.
Does the data speak for itself?
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German train drivers have gone on a one-day strike, disrupting services and bringing delays for commuters.
Officials say a prolonged dispute would hurt the economy
Negotiations collapsed after train operator Deutsche Bahn's (DB) failure to improve its wage offer, the GDL union said.
The union says its train drivers are underpaid compared with counterparts elsewhere in Europe.
DB said about half of regional services were cancelled, but that long-distance rail services are "stable".
Wage rise row
The GDL union, representing some 34,000 drivers, began walkouts on regional services at 0001 GMT on Friday.
It is holding out for salary increases of up to 30%.
DB has already agreed a smaller deal with two other unions which will see workers receive a 4.5% rise in wages.
Government officials have warned that a prolonged strike could damage the German economy.
Deutsche Bahn carries some 5 million passengers daily.
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'); } -->
Business leaders in Myrtle Beach, S.C., tried every tactic they could to win $1.3 billion in funding for Interstate 73, a six-lane gateway to their seaside getaway.
They coaxed dozens of members of Congress to tour the area, including five who’ve chaired key committees, escorting some of them aboard helicopters for aerial views of clogged traffic in one of the country’s most popular resort communities.
The highway’s backers commissioned economic studies that showed the road would generate jobs, industry and development. They bought TV ads. They hired former congressmen and a onetime chairman of the Democratic National Committee to lobby in Washington.
Myrtle Beach-area businessmen, road builders and their family members poured nearly $1.4 million into the campaign coffers of South Carolina Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint, three home-state congressmen, state legislators and political parties.
“I-73 is the largest economic development project in South Carolina history,” Graham has said repeatedly.
Environmentalists hit back with studies that said upgrades to existing highways could deliver almost as much economic benefit at a tenth of the cost. But they found themselves outmatched by the deep-pocketed, well-connected alliance pushing the new road.
Beginning in 2005, I-73 boosters secured more than $125 million from Congress and the state Department of Transportation for a 5.7-mile stretch of asphalt that would give them the beachhead they sought: an exit from I-95, the busiest travel corridor along the Eastern Seaboard.
But for all the money the highway’s supporters spent, the lobbyists they hired and the positive reports they printed, they have yet to get it built.
And for all their warnings of environmental destruction and runaway development, opponents couldn’t stop it, either.
In a testament to the condition of the nation’s highway finances, South Carolina ran out of money before it could put the first shovel in the ground.
With the country short at least $14 billion a year in federal funding to maintain bridges and highways, other states are putting the brakes on new projects, including many for which their members of Congress secured priority status and federal funding.
A deeper look at the still-unfinished saga of I-73 and Myrtle Beach offers a glimpse of how private interests may influence decisions over highway spending and put projects on a fast track.
“There’s no appropriate strategy for introducing Congress and the state legislature to our transportation issues in this region of South Carolina that we have not taken full advantage of,” said Republican state Rep. Alan Clemmons, who leads a six-state coalition that’s seeking funds for I-73.
Their efforts, however, have collided head on with a nationwide fiscal crunch.
In the absence of clear national goals for federal transportation funding, projects such as I-73 have turned into a tug of war between highway promoters and environmentalists.
Both sides commissioned studies that came to opposite conclusions.
The environmentalists say that upgrading existing roads would be cheaper without destroying forests and wetlands. The highway backers say the new interstate would generate thousands of jobs and save thousands of lives by creating a hurricane evacuation route.
Without a truly independent analysis, it’s hard to know whether the road is worth building.
“I-73 would have the largest environmental impact of any infrastructure project in this state in a generation,” said Nancy Cave, who directs the Coastal Conservation League’s operations along South Carolina’s northern coast.
A study that Cave’s group paid for concluded that upgrading U.S. 501, a parallel four-lane highway, for about $150 million would avert any environmental damage and achieve much of the desired economic growth.
The backers of I-73 countered with their own study. They paid Parsons Brinckerhoff, an engineering firm that designs highways, for an analysis that showed an upgraded U.S. 501 couldn’t compare with the economic boon of a six-lane interstate.
Brad Dean, the president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, told McClatchy that the study and others financed by I-73 backers had found that the interstate would create more than 29,000 jobs, boost tourism and industry, and provide a fast hurricane-evacuation route that would “save 40,000-plus lives.”
But the argument over I-73 wasn’t ultimately lost or won based on economic development or environmental protection.
The business interests behind I-73 seemed to have two huge advantages: money and powerful political allies.
For more than a decade, I-73 has been the Myrtle Beach chamber’s top priority, Dean said. The chamber joined forces with the larger six-state coalition in the 1990s to galvanize support for I-73 and a second interstate, I-74, that would connect the Midwest with the Carolinas.
The chamber’s strategy wasn’t, however, about creating new freeways to the Midwest. It was to lock in money for the road it wanted, starting with what I-73 supporters dubbed the “interchange of hope,” an exit from I-95 that would take vacationers straight to Myrtle Beach.
“I think it’s an established principle that as soon as you lay your first foot of asphalt, you’ve now taken the project from concept to reality,” Clemmons said.
In 2000, members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation had secured the first of tens of millions of dollars in congressional earmarks for a bypass near the town of Conway, 20 miles northwest of Myrtle Beach. That $386 million project, completed with state and county funds, eventually would link with I-73.
Next the I-73 forces set their sights on the 2005 federal transportation bill, which contained 6,300 earmarks for projects around the country. The road’s lobbyists, including two former South Carolina congressmen and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler, roamed the hallways of Congress.
I-73 was a big winner, getting the first of nearly $100 million in earmarks. It was designated a “Project of Regional and National Significance.”
Chamber President Dean credited Graham, Republican then -Rep. Henry Brown, who was on the House highways subcommittee, and Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, then the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, as instrumental in getting the designation, which sounded important but was in reality a way for members of Congress to protect funding for pet projects.
In 2007, Graham invited then-U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, a former federal highway administrator, to visit the area.
Graham has received at least $78,619 in campaign donations from the businesses that back the interstate and another $158,951 from state road builders and highway engineers in the past 15 years.
The South Carolina Transportation Commission, whose members are appointed by state politicians and must approve spending by the state DOT, voted in March 2007 to pass a resolution naming I-73 the state’s top transportation priority.
Two months later, the state legislature passed a law that required Transportation Department engineers to evaluate a host of criteria – including traffic projections, financial viability, environmental impact and economic development benefits – in considering interstate highway projects.
I-73 didn’t make the cut.
South Carolina’s state-owned highway network grew during a spending splurge to more than 41,000 miles, the fourth most in the nation, even though the state ranks 40th in land area.
Numerous state officials criticized rural legislators who demanded that the proceeds of a nickel-a-gallon hike in the state gasoline tax in 1987 be used to produce a maze of outlying highways.
As a result, some four-lane state highways led “from nowhere to nowhere,” such as from Abbeville to Greenwood, with a combined population of 28,000, said Republican state Rep. Tracy Edge of North Myrtle Beach, an I-73 supporter.
But times have changed in South Carolina, which was swept by anti-tax fervor and hasn’t raised its 16-cent-a-gallon gas tax in a quarter-century. It’s now the third lowest in the nation.
Jim Warren, the state Transportation Department’s chief financial officer, said South Carolina faced “a broken paradigm” in its highway funding.
Slow to fully recognize the impact of these combined forces, state officials kept commissioning highway projects until the money ran out in the summer of 2011, forcing some contractors to wait months for payment. The state also deferred maintenance, which multiplies future repair costs.
In December, South Carolina’s Transportation Infrastructure Task Force reported that it would cost $48.3 billion to bring the state’s highways to “good” condition over the next 20 years – exceeding anticipated funding by $23 billion.
The pro I-73 forces had positioned themselves well by 2009.
The North Eastern Strategic Alliance, a business group that represents nine counties along the proposed route, hired Republican former U.S. Rep. John Napier and Fowler, the former DNC chairman, to lobby for I-73 in Washington. The alliance’s backers included Burroughs & Chapin, a large real-estate development firm that’s perhaps Myrtle Beach’s most influential company.
The six-state coalition made its home in the Myrtle Beach chamber’s offices, with Clemmons serving as its chairman and Dean its president.
The groups targeted “the movers and shakers of Congress,” bringing them to town to see the area’s traffic congestion, Clemmons said.
Dean and Clemmons said that at least 75 members of Congress got tours in the past decade, including four lawmakers who’ve led the congressional panels that write transportation legislation: Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young, Democratic former Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota and his successor, Republican Rep. John Mica of Florida, as well as Oklahoma Sen. Inhofe.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Hal Rogers, the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, was among the guests who got chopper rides, Dean said.
Meanwhile, the Grand Strand Business Alliance – a group that represents hoteliers, restaurateurs, golf course operators and other merchants in Myrtle Beach and surrounding cities – showered campaign donations on key state lawmakers.
The alliance’s political action committee and affiliated PACs have given more than $250,000 to legislators, their challengers or statewide candidates since 2006, state campaign records show.
The alliance advised the Myrtle Beach Sun News, a McClatchy newspaper, that it also had contributed more than $377,000 to the state Republican Party from 2004 to 2010. It also gave $70,000 to both major parties’ legislative caucuses.
In addition, The Sun News reported in 2010 that Dean and other officials tied to the chamber helped deliver more than $200,000 in campaign money in 2009 to Republican gubernatorial candidate Gresham Barrett and state legislators from obscure companies, at least two of them bankrupt, triggering an ongoing investigation by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service.
Dean declined to comment on the matter.
END OF THE ROAD
Building the first 42 miles of I-73 probably would require financing from either the state transportation commission or the state Transportation Infrastructure Bank, both of which have the authority to float private debt.
I-73 had allies at the commission and the bank.
Danny Isaac, a Myrtle Beach construction contractor who’s on the boards of the six-state I-73 coalition and the Grand Strand Business Alliance, chaired the state transportation commission in April 2011 when it voted to approve a bond package that included nearly $100 million for the road.
But late last year, facing a financial squeeze, the commission voted to cancel the money.
“We still don’t have enough money to do all of these projects that people are wanting to do,” said John Edwards, the owner of a piping and machinery company in the western part of the state who’s now the panel’s chairman. “The citizens of South Carolina may not be happy if we go borrow all that money to build a road to Myrtle Beach.”
The infrastructure bank has virtually exhausted its borrowing capacity, said its director, Debra Rountree.
While I-73 couldn’t get enough financing from the state or the federal government or even solid backing from the state Transportation Department, the die-hards aren’t giving up.
Clemmons and Dean said they were considering every option to gin up enough revenue to move ahead, including building the highway as a toll road or even bringing in foreign investors.
“We haven’t had enough clout to get it funded yet,” Dean said. “We’re committed to pressing forward.”
David Wren of The Sun News contributed to this article from Myrtle Beach, S.C.
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- Star Trek: The Motion Picture
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
- Star Trek Generations
Walter Koenig — actor, director, screenwriter, novelist, acting professor, and comic book creator — played Ensign Pavel Chekov in the orignal Star Trek begining with Season 2.
Born in Manhattan in 1936 to Lithuanian Russian Jewish parents, Koenig was bitten by the acting bug early in his youth. He studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, where he worked with fellow students James Caan, Elizabeth Ashley, and Dabney Coleman. His stage career spans 30 years and includes stops in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and many other cities. He appeared in many plays and television shows of the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the Mr. Novak series, and even produced and wrote his own feature film in 1967, I Wish I May. And then in 1967 came Chekov.
Koenig of course has also played Chekov in the first seven of the big screen Star Trek films and played the recurring character of Alfred Bester in the TV series Babylon 5. Aside from two genre roles, he has appeared in 40 different TV series and television movies, including "Anthony and Cleopatra" starring Timothy Dalton and Lynn Redgrave.
A natural writer, Koenig has written for the television shows Family, Matthew Starr, Land of the Lost, Class of '65 and others. His first book, Chekov's Enterprise, which recounts the making of the first Star Trek movie, was published in 1979. He has also written a satiric fantasy novel, Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot, and a three-part comic book series entitled Raver. Koenig wrote and performed a one-character piece entitled "You're Never Alone When You're A Schizophrenic," which was a finalist in the 1996 New York Film Festival Awards. While not a member of the cast for the Star Trek animated series, he did pen one of the episodes, "The Infinite Vulcan." His autobiography, Warped Factors : A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe, was published in 1998.
In a 1997 internet poll of favorite television bad guys, Koenig was the top choice of 12,000 voters for his role as Bester on Babylon 5. He was also voted the favorite guest star on Babylon 5.
Koenig and his wife Judy Levitt live in Los Angeles.
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Bali, Indonesia, Nov 01, 2012 (ACN Newswire via COMTEX) -- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation appreciates Indonesia, especially Bio Farma for hosting an esteemed Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) Annual General Meeting in Bali from October 31st - November 2nd, 2012.
Dr. Kim Bush of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said at a meeting at the DCVMN on Thursday that his organization appreciates Bio Farma for hosting this prestigious conference. Bio Farma, according to Bush, is now in the position to offer cooperation with other developing countries vaccine manufacturers.
Bush attended the conference as Director of Life Science Partnerships - Global Health at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He received a Bachelor of Science from University of Tennessee-Knoxville, with honors, and a master in clinical sciences at University of Alabama, and attended the executive development programme at Columbia Business School.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation itself is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. The primary aims of the foundation are to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology globally. The foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, is controlled by its three trustees - Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
Bush believes Bio Farma is an example of a successful vaccine maker in the developing world not only for being able to produce various types vaccines prequalified by the WHO, but for its initiatives and cooperation on vaccine research with many developing countries as well.
"Bio Farma and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have been discussing the possibility of producing more specific vaccines such as for meningitis and pneumococcus. We have synergy in this aim," Rahman Roestan, Secreatry of Bio Farma, said a press conference following the meeting.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, known collectively as the meninges. The inflammation may be caused by infection with viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms, and less commonly by certain drugs.
Pneumococcus is a bacterium that causes several different types of serious infections in children, of which the most common is pneumonia. Although the vast majority of children with pneumonia recover, the disease is occasionally fatal.
According to Rahman, Indonesia has already achieved a "sound, technological platform" in vaccine production and therefore looks forward to establishing cooperation in vaccine research and developments with other countries.
The Bio Farma President Director Iskandar said earlier he had participated in the Global Health Product Development Conference 2012 in Seattle, 1-3 May 2012, where he gave a presentation on the achievements of Indonesia's only vaccine manufacturer, which is today 122 years old.
In the international meeting Iskandar explained Bio Farma has produced 11 types of vaccines and all have world-class recognition, namely the recognition of pre-qualification from the World Health Organization (WHO).
This fact interested partners of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the originator of the international meeting in Seattle, and many of them expressed interest in working with Bio Farma in conducting clinical trials and the development of vaccines, Iskandar pointed out.
The Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) aims to protect people against known and emerging infectious diseases globally by increasing the availability and enhancing the quality of vaccines produced in emerging countries. The purposes of the Association are carried through the provision of technical assistance, training and research in vaccine production, informational programmes aimed at educating the public about the availability of safe and effective vaccines from developing world manufactures, and related workshops. For more information, please visit www.dcvmn.com.
Since its establishment in 1890, Bio Farma has been active in supplying high quality vaccines aand serum for people. Currently, Bio Farma is among the largest vaccines manufacturers and suppliers in the world. The need for EPI vaccines in Indonesia has been supplied solely by Bio Farma.
Bio Farma has existed for a century and proven its strength and experience world wide. The company has also grown and developed to become a vaccine and serum manufacturer of international reputation. This can be seen from its qualifications and ability to acquire WHO prequalification for all of its EPI Vaccine products. For more information, please visit www.biofarma.co.id.
Aat Surya Safaat General Manager, Corporate Business Development Perum LKBN ANTARA - Indonesian News Agency T: +62-21-3802-2383 ext 251 M: +62-811-225-2228 E: email@example.com www.antaranews.com
Copyright (C) Japan Corporate News NetWork
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- Sep 01, 2009 2:43 AM EST
- [num] Comments
AMTSO is an independent international coalition that was created to provide a forum for discussing anti-malware product testing, writing and publicizing guidelines for objective testing, and providing education and tools to help those engaging in anti-malware testing. In addition its "Review of Reviews" board provides analysis of anti-malware tests and reports on how well they follow the AMTSO guidelines.
The AMTSO testing guidelines may seem like simple common sense, but they're the end result of hours of discussion among many members. In many cases the members are competing vendors, yet they work together amicably to improve testing for the whole industry. These are the guidelines:
- Testing must not endanger the public.
- Testing must be unbiased.
- Testing should be reasonably open and transparent.
- The effectiveness and performance of anti-malware products must be measured in a balanced way.
- Testers must take reasonable care to validate whether test samples or test cases have been accurately classified as malicious, innocent or invalid.
- Testing methodology must be consistent with the testing purpose.
- The conclusions of a test must be based on the test results.
- Test results should be statistically valid.
- Vendors, testers and publishers must have an active contact point for testing-related correspondence.
The full guidelines document explains in detail what's meant by each of these nine points.
AMTSO members are generally companies, though some individual researchers belong. Membership includes many of the large security companies including Symantec, McAfee, Kaspersky, Panda, Trend Micro, and BitDefender. Testing labs form another membership group. AV-Test, AV-Comparatives, Cascadia Labs, ICSA Labs, NSS Labs and West Coast Labs are among those represented. I rely on a number of these in my own security reviews. The full list of members is available on the AMTSO web site.
As an advisory board member for the Anti-Malware Testing Standards organization I'm currently meeting with the group's board of directors to discuss strategy for the next few years.
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A proposition widely asserted is that President Obama is a president who makes pragmatic decisions.
The first four years of the Obama administration can be seen as a struggle to accomplish much of anything, with those accomplishments being radical compromises that frustrated both sides.
Whether it be the president’s healthcare reform act or his tax policies, his pullout of troops from Iraq, or his increasing use of drones, Obama has consistently been forced to accept "victory" within the political reality of his time.
For many of the president’s supporters from 2008, including myself, his central concerns for compromise and political realism have proven to be remarkably disappointing when compared to the vision of the great ideological leader we hoped he would be.
Instead, the president has forged his administration as an attempt to broker peace through compromise, attaining achievements in legislative matters in accordance with the conditions he was forced to work under.
Essentially, Obama has proven himself to be a president who has concern for what is practically possible and expedient, not necessarily with what is morally or principally important.
There are benefits that can arise from a political leader’s concern for the practical reality he is forced to make decisions within. In one sense, Obama has achieved many things in his first term that may have been impossible if he had pursued his vision.
By scrapping a single-payer and universal healthcare system, the president was able to achieve healthcare reform. By using drones to attack suspected terrorist cells throughout the world, he has been able to avoid another American ground war.
What must be remembered, however, is how much this president has failed to achieve as a result of this manner of thinking and, more importantly, the horrifying results his failures will have.
Because he wanted to "achieve" healthcare reform in a practical way, Obama failed to bring this nation into concert with the rest of the developed world that has a universal healthcare system.
Because he did not want to appear weak with regard to terrorism, this president has emboldened our enemies abroad by his weak and cowardly use of drones in addition to his failure at closing Guantanamo Bay.
Because he did not want to expend political capital on curing ourselves of an ecological crisis, the president has failed to bring this world back from the abyss that global climate change threatens us with.
All this is the result of Obama’s pragmatic mentality in making his decisions with regards to the political reality of his time.
A president is not a dictator, and Obama does not possess either the constitutional or moral authority to demand that his policies be implemented. Compromise is the most essential element of an effectively managed democratic government, but a leader must lead by standing strong on principles and vehemently attacking those who seek to deny these principles.
Obama has not proven himself an effective leader because he does not possess any principles he can stand on, relying instead solely on ensuring politically viable successes where and when he can.
Though his successes have been broad and impressive, they are semblances of a true victory, residing solely on the surface without bringing any authentic change to this nation.
The people of this nation elected Obama to a second term, a decision I agreed with and hoped would occur. My only hope is that in the next four years of this administration, he will seek to make decisions on principle and firm belief and not allow the fear of possible political failure to scare him away from this.
Great leaders are those who follow their dreams in the face of almost certain failure; if this president wishes to become a great leader he must start acting like one.
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In an ungated NEJM Perspectives piece worth a full read, Marsha Gold summarizes the lessons from Medicare Advantage:
- Neither the private sector (Medicare Advantage) nor government (traditional Medicare) has a magic solution for controlling health care costs.
- Studies comparing Medicare Advantage plans with traditional Medicare in terms of quality of care are limited, but their results do not justify a large differential in payment based on quality.
- Medicare Advantage has increasingly attracted beneficiaries who seek to lower supplemental premiums, limit cost sharing, and consolidate their benefits, but cost sharing in the program can still be substantial.
- The highly skewed distribution of health care spending and the selection patterns of Medicare Advantage enrollees have meant that risk-adjusted payments are essential to an equitable private-plan offering.
- In the absence of strong oversight, Medicare beneficiaries are vulnerable to unscrupulous insurers who may use questionable marketing practices and offer products that may not meet expected performance standards.
It’s interesting to observe the extent to which these lessons are applied in premium support proposals or recognized by those promoting them. I hate to say it, but I detect some disconnect between researchers and policymakers on this front.
UPDATE: The other just-released NEJM Perspectives piece on Medicare Advantage, by Jeet Guram and Robert Moffit, includes a nice summary of how the plans are paid, as well as a defense of the program.
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Well, if we use this metric and the USA Today forecast, Obama will be facing lower economic growth than what Bush faced in '92 and his son faced in '04. That's real nail-biter territory. The regression line suggests Obama getting 50.9 percent of the vote, although, as the graph shows, that line is being pulled upward a bit by Eisenhower's unexpectedly good performance in 1956. If you take out that case, the Obama forecast is 50.03 percent of the vote. In other words, don't expect to get a lot of sleep on election night next year.
All the usual caveats apply here. The forecast for 2012 economic growth is just a prediction -- it could get substantially better or worse. And this is just a bivariate regression model, which doesn't include things like foreign policy or ideological extremism or campaign quality. And, of course, past performance does not necessarily predict the future.
But this could be a really, really close race.
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Museum hosts army of civilized apes, radiation-crazed super humans
RALEIGH — The bizarre world you met in “Planet of the Apes” was only the beginning. What lies beneath may be the end! Or it might just be the second of five Ape Planet movies. Either way, “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” (1970) is this month’s feature film shown at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences on First Friday, April 5 at 7pm. Free.
When astronaut Brent is sent to search for the missing astronaut Taylor, he suffers a similar fate — crash landing on a post-apocalyptic planet ruled by talking apes. Brent soon finds Taylor’s former traveling companion, a mute human female in a fur bikini named Nova. Together they discover a cult of psychic-powered humans, a band of cranky monkeys, and a divine doomsday bomb — all beneath the atomic rubble of what was once the city of New York! Can you say “recipe for disaster”?
Brent is portrayed by James Franciscus, who is best known for his recurring roles in a number of television series, including “Naked City” (1958), “The Investigators” (1961), “Mr. Novak” (1963) and “Longstreet” (1971). As co-founder of Omnibus Productions, Franciscus also produced many classic movies for television, such as “Heidi” (1968), “Jane Eyre” (1970), and “The Red Pony” (1973). Burt Reynolds was actually considered for the role of Brent before Franciscus was cast.
Maurice Evans reprises his role as the Dr. Zaius, orangutan with an attitude. Evans was one of Broadway’s more illustrious interpreters of Shakespeare in the late 1930s and ‘40s, and was awarded a special Tony in 1950 for his body of stage work. Evans also won an Emmy award in 1960 for his TV version of “Macbeth.” Yet he is probably best known for his recurring appearance on the “Bewitched” TV series in the late 1960s, as Elizabeth Montgomery’s loving but unapproving warlock father named, well, Maurice.
The ever helpful chimpanzee Zira is played by the accomplished Kim Hunter, who made her Broadway debut performance as Stella in “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1947, for which she won the Critics Circle and Donaldson awards. Hunter reprised Stella alongside Marlon Brando’s Stanley in the big screen version of the Tennessee Williams play in 1951, for which she won an Oscar.
Calling all teens! What new lessons can you learn from an ancient disease? Come find out at this month’s Open Minds: Teen Science Café (6pm in the Daily Planet Café), when Dr. Bill Goldman from the University of North Carolina will talk about plague, the deadly disease that changed the course of European history during the Middle Ages. Why do scientists continue to study this disease, and what can it tell us about the evolution and emergence of highly virulent pathogens? Goldman will provide insight into modern research on the bacterium Yersinia pestis and how we can continue to learn about new diseases by understanding old ones.
The Museum and the new Nature Research Center stay open from 5 to 9pm on the First Friday of every month, inviting visitors to witness a (classic) sci-fi or horror movie, wander through eye-catching exhibits, groove to live music, or enjoy food and beverages at the Daily Planet Café. “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” is now open and First Friday visitors can see it at a discounted rate ($3 off adult tickets). Additionally, the Museum Store offers after-hours shopping and an opening reception for painter Anthony Ulinksi, whose exhibit “The Places In Between” runs April 5-29 in the Nature Art Gallery. All exhibited art is for sale.
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While Lee is in a distinctly unpleasant position with respect to its shareholders and lenders, it is important to note that the business generated $207.2 million in operating profits last year on sales of a bit more than $1 billion. Its operating margin of 20.1% surpasses that of Exxon Mobil Corp., which generated a 19.1% margin in the last 12 months. And Lee’s profitability positively blows away Wal-Mart, the largest Fortune 500 company, whose margins were only 7.4% in the prior 12 months.
As rich as Lee’s profits are, however, they used to be richer. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were 30.7% lower in 2008 than in the previous fiscal year. And that’s a big problem for a company that shouldered some $1.4 billion in debt to buy Pulitzer in 2005 in the expectation that rising sales and profits would enable it to repay the loans.
Unfortunately for Lee and several other publishers who also loaded up on more debt than they can handle, newspaper ad sales began collapsing after reaching an all-time industry high of $49.4 billion in 2005. (In 2008, sales probably were no better than $38 billion, reflecting a 23% plunge in just three years.) You can blame the collapse on major changes in the behavior of consumers and marketers, aggravated last year by the scariest economy since the Depression.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Blog examines future of St. Louis Post-Dispatch parent company
In the wake of an auditing firm's statement of concern about the possibility of Lee Enterprises defaulting on $1.4 billion worth of debt, the Reflections of a Newsosaur blog, written by former San Francisco Chronicle and Chicago Sun-Times editor Alan D. Mutter, offers an examination of what could happen to the company, which numbers the St. Louis Post-Dispatch among its holding:
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Home The Americas US West
Buddhist scholars gather for conference
By Jason Kosareff, Pasadena Star News Staff Writer, Jan 16, 2006
Rosemead, CA (USA) -- A major event in the Buddhist world quietly got under way Monday at the University of the West. The seventh International Conference on Humanistic Buddhism kicked off with a small gathering of some of the world's top Buddhist scholars, who will present papers during the weeklong conference.
The University of the West sits atop Walnut Grove Avenue. It was founded in 1991 by Master Hsing Yun, who founded Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, the largest Buddhist temple in the Western hemisphere.
The theme of this year's conference is Humanistic Buddhism and Sustainable Economic Development. The Venerable Hui Chi, abbot of Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, said he sees much in common between the studies and practices of economics and Buddhism.
"Between supply and demand, there's a need to balance, to harmonize," Hui Chi said.
During a series of seminars this week, scholars from Italy, Britain, South Asia and Southeastern Asia will present to the public and their peers treatises on global economic development from a Buddhist perspective. The papers submitted at the conference will be published in a journal widely read in the Buddhist world.
"The idea is we're trying to prevent inbreeding of ideas from this university," said Dr. Ananda Guruge, dean of academic affairs at the university.
The practice allows critique of the university scholar's works, preventing an "ivory tower" syndrome, said The Venerable Bhante Chao Chu, abbot of the Rosemead Buddhist Monastery.
The conference also fulfills Master Hsing Yun's vision of Buddhism applied to the real world. The master's founding of Humanistic Buddhism marked a departure from Buddhism's emphasis on the spirit world, Guruge said.
In a written statement read Monday night at the inauguration of the conference, the master said Buddhist tradition encourages people to acquire wealth as a way to help their families, friends and community.
"The heart of Buddha's teachings on wealth is to acquire it honestly and use it to help others," he wrote.
The conference schedule is available on the University of the West Web site at www.uwest.edu.
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At first glance, Camp MeadowWood looks like any other summer camp. Kids age six to 13 arrive every day with swimsuits and sneakers, ready for a day of fun in the sun.
Through all the fun, however, Camp MeadowWood is working toward a deeper goal: to provide children with emotional, behavioral and developmental tools for leading happy, rewarding lives.
"The objective is to help children practice their social skills and to provide therapeutic activities as well as fun camp activities," said Cherry Hitt, director of Camp MeadowWood.
In 1999, Carol Woods Retirement Community stepped in to help the Chrysalis Foundation, which sponsors the camp, achieve this goal. Carol Woods lets the Chrysalis Foundation use its facilities and 120-acre campus at no charge, and a group of Carol Woods residents donate three weeks of their summer to plan and participate in fun, interactive activities with the campers.
"One of the big benefits is that the children get to interact with residents at Carol Woods," Hitt said. "They really form good friendships and relationships with the people here."
The first few years of camp were so successful that Carolina Meadows, another retirement community in Chapel Hill, decided to join Carol Woods, splitting the weeks of camp between the communities. The name of the camp was then changed from "Camp Carol Woods" to "Camp MeadowWood." For their role in hosting, planning and inspiring the expansion of the camp, Carol Woods recently received the 2006 Social Responsibility Award from the N.C. Association of Non-Profit Homes for the Aging.
Carol Woods resident Lewis Woodham is the go-to person for the camp -- he recruits volunteers and oversees the activities every morning for the three weeks that camp takes place at Carol Woods.
"It is very much what I've been involved with in my career as far as services to youth with special needs," said Woodham, who worked with at-risk youth through the New York State Department of Social Services for several years before retiring to North Carolina. "[The camp serves] to help them build social skills, to help them build self-respect and self-control, and to function as part of a group. They can read people and each other very quickly, and by the end of the week, they are a group."
While Woodham uses skills from his career to benefit Camp MeadowWood, other Carol Woods residents share their hobbies and personal passions with the campers.
Sue Fletcher, head of Carol Woods' Bluebird Trail, spends every Monday morning teaching a new group of campers about bluebirds' nesting habits. Fletcher takes the campers on a walk to a bluebird house, and the children stand in a row waiting for Fletcher to carry the nest with the baby birds in it to them. Most of them have never seen birds this small and hang on every word Carol Woods' resident bluebird expert tells them about how bluebirds are born and when these babies will be flying on their own.
"The high point of the day is when they go out and see the birds," Fletcher said. "It has been fun for me. It brings back my teacher memories."
Barbara Koch also brought her group-leading experience to bear when she taught the campers how to weave on Tuesday mornings. This is the first year weaving was offered at MeadowWood, but Koch had done weaving projects with Girl Scout troops and other groups of children, so she knew how to set up the weaving station so that each child could have a turn and things would run smoothly.
"They only had time to do a certain amount of weaving, and bracelets were what we came up with," Koch said. "One of the purposes was to give them something they could carry away."
Throughout the years, Koch and other residents have shared a number of craft projects with campers.
"Last year I helped with the kite building and the year before we were making little pots of dried plant arrangements," Koch said. "I like working with children on a limited basis and I enjoy doing things with my hands. This combined the two."
While some campers were experiencing the weaving station, others had the chance to make paper butterflies and boxes.
"I enjoy relating to the kids and showing them how to do it," Fran Hollister explained. "We elders benefit from it, and maybe some of the kids do too."
J.J. Gwyer also helped with crafts this year, but has volunteered with many different MeadowWood activities over the years.
"When we first had camp, I was with the fish group at the pond," Gwyer said. "We had a ball down there, but some of the kids didn't like putting the worms on the hooks!"
One activity that has stood the test of time is croquet.
"We decided [the first year] some of our croquet players would get together and pair up with the kids on a one-on-one basis. We have six kids and six mentors," said Whit Bartley, chairman of the Carol Woods' Croquet Committee. "We have special rules -- very forgiving rules."
The campers are each paired with a resident, and they compete in the croquet tournament together.
"They have a good time," Bartley said. "We usually manage to get in two games of our modified version of croquet."
Whether playing in a tournament, sharing a doll collection or flying kites, Carol Woods' residents and campers find points of connection throughout their week together.
"I like to be with the kids," said Kala Herlands, who teaches the campers to play bocce. "I enjoy playing myself, and maybe I can pass along a little spirit with it."
Indeed, residents and campers pass a contagious, joyful spirit between them.
"Particularly when [Carol Woods residents] can work with an individual or couple of youngsters one on one, they can communicate a sense of caring and kindness," Woodham said. "Even if it is only an hour, it can be a very therapeutic experience for the youngster that says 'I do care about you.'"
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.
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Does anyone find it a bit odd how it seems like the longer Fallout's history goes on, the more it seems like the latest games are set within a short time of the bombs falling?
Take Fallout 1 for instance. For the most part, it seems like civilization in Fallout 1 is mostly concerned with its own problems without too much concern for the pre-war times. The Hub, for instance, has a storied history of caravan wars that took place decades before the Vault Dweller came -- but still decades after the bombs fell. While some physical remnants of the Old World remain, no one claims to have any allegiance to the United States of America which was obliterated eight decades prior. Myriad new cultures are developing, from isolated agricultural communities to vicious raider tribes to trading hubs to techno-religious monastic orders, but none of them seem to have much concern for the old USA as such.
Fast forward to Fallout 2, eighty years later. It's somewhat similar to Fallout, but we learn that there is the Enclave, a remnant of the former U.S. government. Okay, so they were around all this time, but they kept a very low profile while working on their grand schemes. Fine.
Fallout 3? Not only is the Enclave back, but pre-war robots are used to guard many towns, Chinese ghouls are still fighting for the People's Republic against the Running Dog Lackeys of Capitalism, and the Enclave thinks they can appeal to American patriotism. If the Enclave had tried that in Fallout 1, 116 years before, people would have been baffled. Young people in Shady Sands probably would have had to ask Aradesh what this "president of the United States" thing meant. There are also some pre-war people still alive, but trapped in a perpetual dream state. Historic preservation is an obsession of many in the capital wasteland.
Fallout: New Vegas: had a pre-war businessman central to the plot. To make things even odder, he's had no influence on the outside world until around 2274 or so. From 2077 to 2274, House was either in cryostasis or not doing much but looking for the chip, while various tribes of scavengers and such squatted in the remnants of Las Vegas. From 2274 to 2281, he rebuilds the strip, trains the families to be his minions, and converts The Strip into an oasis of the Old World.
Does this seem strange to anyone else? It seem like the Old World has more influence in 2281 than it did in 2161.
Idhan 03:30, September 30, 2011 (UTC)
- Not really. In Fallout 1 the civilization was recovering on its own. By 2281, they've started actively harnessing the Old World legacy, rather than leeching off it like scavengers. Oh yeah, BTW, House lay in wait until 2274 waiting for the opportune moment to emerge. You can't start rebuilding unless you can estabilish a stable source of income and the various tribes inhabiting the Mojave previously make poor patrons. Tagaziel (call!) 07:50, September 30, 2011 (UTC)
- Tagaziel is right, it isn't that strange. Look back at history - immediately following the fall of the Roman Empire, there wasn't that much of a focus on restoring the glory of it. Fast forward more than a thousand years, and we have lunatics resurrecting the symbolism and (what they think are) the ideals of the Roman Empire.
- The further away from the time of the Great War the series goes, the less it becomes a post-apocalyptic setting and the more it becomes a pre-civilisation setting. And what better model for a new civilisation is there than the very one that destroyed the world? --Johnny Trash (Talk) 13:33, September 30, 2011 (UTC)
- I wouldn't call the Holy Roman Empire lunatic. It was a shrewd political move and coupled with the rediscovery of Roman law in the 11th century and the later activity of glosators (11th-13th) and commentators (14th-16th century) opened a new age in the development of law and legal thinking. It was quite awesome, really. Tagaziel (call!) 14:51, September 30, 2011 (UTC)
- Immediately following the fall of the Western Empire, probably people did not regard it as having fallen. The fact that Odoacer named himself King of Italy and vicar of the emperor in Constantinople rather than installing some Roman as a puppet Western emperor as Ricimer had done was not a massive change. Immediately following the fall of the Eastern Empire... well, people other than the Eastern Romans themselves didn't care that much, but I'm not sure they ever really did subsequently either. The Greeks themselves, when they finally overthrew the Ottomans in the 19th century, had no fond memories of the Eastern Empire either, other than maybe "at least they weren't the Turks." Idhan 18:44, September 30, 2011 (UTC)
"Lunatics resurrecting the symbolism...of the Roman Empire" -Mussolini's Italy perhaps? --Fezgod 15:09, September 30, 2011 (UTC)
- Nicely picked up, Fezgod, but look a little further north. The Nazi Party referred to themselves as the Third Reich for a reason.
- The Holy Roman Empire was definitely not awesome. It marked a transition to a theocratic power base in European politics, which had some rather horrific repercussions a little later. --Johnny Trash (Talk) 00:40, October 1, 2011 (UTC)
- Way I understand it, the 'first reich' was the Holy Roman Empire, the second reich was Germany under the Kaisers, and the third was Hitler's idiocy. Though I suppose you could look at it either way; still, I don't think Germany was trying particularly hard to emanate Rome. Moussolini seemed more obsessed with the idea, and even created a highly detailed scale model of the ancient city itself. Йура 18:05, October 5, 2011 (UTC)
Of course, you also have to take the difference of setting into account. A good portion of Fallout 1 and 2 took place out in the desert in the middle of nowhere. The only pre-war elements that many people were exposed to were the ruins of random small towns. Fallout 3, meanwhile, takes place in and around the ruins of Washington D.C. Being the pre-war capital of the USA, it's full of museums, monuments, and other testaments to pre-war times. There are also several old military bases, and the National Guard was in full deployment in the area at the time the bombs fell. It makes sense that there would be a bigger pre-war influence on the people of the Capital Wasteland when compared to the people of the Core Region (and the Midwest Wasteland and Texas Wasteland, for that matter). Now, I've yet to play New Vegas, so I can't say much about that. 18.104.22.168 17:54, October 5, 2011 (UTC)
If you haven't read a "Canticle for Leibowitz" I can't recommend it enough. Clearly the developers of Fallout did as the first section reads basically like a Fallout universe novel (the main character even looks through an old metal lockbox for schematics.) It's largely about civilization's recovery after atomic war. The first few generations have no idea about the pre-war world (Fallouts are believed to be monstrous creatures that sound very similar to Deathclaws) but the further in time you get from the war the more civilization recovers and is able to reclaim the past in various ways including knowledge.--MikeJTanner 18:47, October 7, 2011 (UTC)
I really think the developers are looking for a way to 'kill' the old world. You can see themes starting to emerge from the series where isolated voices are talking about the dangers of resurrecting the past: Moira Brown, Lord Ashur,Caesar, Ulysses, the themes of dead money and old world blues. The New World has to bury the old world, they have to let it go and find their own way. Move on with history. My theory is that in the cannon version of new vegas ends with an independent new vegas victory and the defeat of the legion and NCR. Part of the reason I feel like this is true is because the last 4 dlcs dealt with letting go of the past. NCR was marching inexorably from west-to-East like the united states only in reverse and Caesar's march of conquest has been much like the real caesar.House believes in the same insane vision that led to the end of the world in the first place. All three seem too easy... We probably will see more of the old world vs new world dichotomy in the next fallout.--Boredintheusa 18:55, November 11, 2011 (UTC)
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Today I ran to Central Market to pick up some vegan/vegetarian items (yes, I'm still attempting to go vegan...). As I meandered my way to the check-out line, I picked up a few magazines to read on my down time. One magazine, Yoga Journal, had a very interesting article that I'd like to share with you all. Entitled "Who do You Think You Are?" (author: Sally Kempton), the article illustrated the simple differences between the "vidya," which means wisdom or knowledge, and the "avidya," which means fundamental blindness of reality. So often, we live in the state of avidya. This term does not mean essential ignorance; instead, it defines our innate inability to detach from what is impermanent to produce a pure sense of Self. Kempton shares what she describes as our blindness to what is real; our true Self. Basically, true Self is free from "mistaking the impermanent for the eternal, the impure for the pure, sorrow for happiness..." (Patanjali's Yoga Sutra II) As humans in a fallen world where people chase money, power and acceptance, we tend to over-think the perceptions we gather from outside (and often flawed) stimuli. We believe that the one and only way we can feel happy is to manipulate others into loving us. We have to feel needed by others. We look to the world for happiness, and when the world lets us down, we feel depressed and cast away by those we love.
Vidya, on the other hand, is true wisdom and knowledge. In the state of vidya, we are able to recognize that this world is not permanent, and when we look to impermanent things for our permanent happiness, we end up very unhappy. "But when you apply the sutra on a deeper level, you see that it is describing what is a passing state - a complex of thoughts and emotions and bodily sensations - for the pure consciousness that is your true Self." (Kempton)
Kempton continues her article with two important concepts: happiness and sorrow. She explains that "real joy is the natural delight that arises spontaneously from within us, the delight in life itself." Essentially, the primary source of happiness is not contingent upon another factor; it should come within ourselves.
Many of you know that I am very interested in the transference of energies. I believe that every single person on this earth is born with the ability to transfer energy from themselves onto another person. Growing up, it was hard for me to befriend kids who were always mean and cruel to the other kids at school. While I understand that statement sounds very juvenile and naive, I like to look at that fact on a deeper level; a level of energies rather than a level of surface attitude. I am not able to surround myself with negative people.
On that same note, I believe that people have the ability to hone in on their own positive energy. Positive energy is more powerful than any self-help book, any drug or any shrink (trust me, I've experienced all three). Positive energy is more than being happy all the time or being courteous and polite. Energy is the essence within us that drives us; it determines our motives and tells us how to interact with the world. To tie this idea into Kempton's article, I will say that the best feeling in the world is to produce happiness within ourselves. It may sound like a crock, but I truly believe that everyone has the ability to do this. However, it is only when we stop looking outside of ourselves and recognize the never ending possibilities within, will we be able to attain this enlightened and peaceful mindset.
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Double-shot of news about KiOR on a wet Wednesday morning, so let’s jump right into it.
First, a correction to our story that ran in the Feb. 28 edition about a study MSU did that determined there’s ample timber in Mississippi to support the three facilities KiOR plans to build here. We reported that each of the facilities — in Columbus, Newton County and Franklin County — would use between 2,500 and 3,750 tons of wood daily to produce the re-crude that can be later refined into diesel or gasoline.
That isn’t exactly right. The Columbus facility, which is under construction now, will only use about 500 tons of wood per day. The other two, while they are larger than the Columbus facility, will use “significantly less” than the 2,500 and 3,750 per-day total, according to a KiOR spokesperson. Sorry if we caused any confusion. There’s a lot of excitement across a range of industries about KiOR’s plans for Mississippi.
That was intensified Tuesday, when KiOR announced it had reached a purchase agreement with Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based Hunt Refining Company, which will buy and refine the renewable gasoline and diesel blendstocks and fuel oil produced in Columbus.
This is perhaps the biggest development since KiOR’s announcement last summer, because the company couldn’t take advantage of the $75 million in state incentives until it had reached an offtake agreement with a refinery.
No details were available about the length of the agreement.
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Australian Youth Climate Coalition working for action, and we all should
Carbon age must end or we will, Canberra Times , October 19, 2012, Bob Douglas“…….For now, the climate-change denial industry remains in the ascendancy. National consensus that climate change is the greatest moral challenge of our time rose and fell with Kevin Rudd. Neither side of federal politics now sees it as the cataclysmically important issue that it is. We are much more concerned with Peter Slipper’s texts and Alan Jones’s outbursts.
It would seem that until there is visible electoral expression of concern about these issues, government policy commitments will remain timid and largely ignored by media that are preoccupied with trivia.
The good news is that many Australians are now acting and that the 50,000 strong Australian Youth Climate Coalition is working strategically with politicians on a number of fronts to awaken the dreamers to the reality that the threat is here and now.
The Manning Clark conference heard from former Liberal leader John Hewson, who is leading an international ratings agency that is monitoring the extent to which trillions of dollars of investment and superannuation funds are being used to prop up fossil fuels rather than promote renewable technologies. This is a brilliant strategy to force investors to a reality check on how their funds are being used.
A decisive rejection of fossil fuels and an enthusiastic embrace of renewable energy is our best hope for a future for our grandchildren. This is a moral and not an economic issue http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/carbon-age-must-end-or-we-will-20121018-27tqz.html
No comments yet.
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Brown’s Adviser Plans To Ration Holiday Flights And Issue Personal Co2 Ration Cards
By Ian Drury
Lord Turner wants the Government to restrict the number of flights individuals can take each year
Millions of families could be barred from taking holidays abroad under a proposal to ration flights.
Gordon Brown’s ‘environment tsar’ is calling for limits on how many plane journeys travellers can take each year.
Lord Turner suggested that Britons might have to cut back on their overseas breaks.
He said the Government should urgently consider imposing individual restrictions to help reduce pollution caused by planes.
Lord Turner, chairman of Parliament’s climate change committee, said: ‘We will have to constrain demand in an absolute sense, with people not allowed to make as many journeys as they could in an unconstrained manner.’
His remarks will anger business and tourism groups, as well as infuriating those who make regular trips abroad.
The airline industry is also fiercely opposed to limits on flights.
But Lord Turner insists that the Prime Minister must take action to cut aviation pollution.
His committee is drawing up a report into whether the airline industry can meet a target of limiting its emissions to below their 2005 levels by 2050.
Under Lord Turner’s plan, the extra runway - part of a £9billion expansion of the [Heathrow] airport - would work at only half of its capacity in order to curb emissions.
Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, has promised that the runway will be capped at 125,000 annual flights - fewer than the originally planned 220,000 - until 2020.
Families could be barred from taking holidays abroad if Lord Turner’s suggestion is taken up by Gordon Brown
The Government has already doubled air passenger duty to £10 for short-haul flights and £80 for long-haul journeys, a move which costs travellers £1billion a year. The aim was to make flying less attractive.
Last year, the Government floated the idea of ‘personal carbon trading’, a green scheme for compulsory fuel and air ticket rationing.
The idea, recommended by an all-party committee of MPs, was that every adult would be given an annual carbon allowance and a ‘carbon ration card’ to use each time they buy petrol, oil, gas, electricity and flights.
Anyone who exceeded these rations would have to pay to top up a ‘carbon bank’.
Officials estimated the start-up cost at up to £2billion, with a further £1billion to £2billion in annual running costs to pay for the 45million ration cards which would have to be produced and for the vast database to store the information.
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"The little church stood in its beautiful setting of trees--just
a House of Prayer--in the old days. No Sunday School room or any place
for choir practice, then. Only a little slip of a room, narrow and
small, at the left of the chancel where the Rector might put on his
With a gift of land and the support
of Angelica and Richard Lockwood, Emmanuel Episcopal Church was built
in 1866 and consecrated one year later in October, 1867.
Emmanuel Episcopal Church 1867
It was a
country church then, built to resemble the one Angelica Lockwood knew
while growing up in Shepherdstown , Virginia [now West Virginia]. There
were just eight families (although large ones!) on the original
register. Through the dedicated hard work of its parishioners, Emmanuel
has continued to grow and flourish; approximately 400 families
are currently on the register. The "little church" has seen many
building additions and improvements to accommodate the growing parish.
Trinity Episcopal Church, Sheperdstown, W.VA
Home Church of Angelica Lockwood
several occasions Mrs. Lockwood, and my mother also, heard people who
knew no better, speak of the church as the 'Lockwood Church.' Both
these church women gently, but firmly, rebuked the speakers, explaining
to them that the church was called Emmanuel, God With Us, and was God's
house alone, built for his glory and worship, and everlasting praise."
1867 the people of Emmanuel Episcopal Church have been building on the
solid spiritual foundation originally provided by the Lockwoods. It is
our continuing source of strength and faith to know the story and to
keep it alive.
Emmanuel Episcopal Church 1915
[ Reminiscences are from
Angelica Jenkins (1868-1959), written in 1933. She was the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. George Robinson, two founding members of our parish.]
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McCafferty's teaching doesn't stop there. She also instructs continuing education classes in fine arts painting at Hagerstown Community College and an occasional fine arts section at A.C. Moore.
Decorative painting is often used to beautify ornaments, plaques, furnishings and other objects. Traditional styles such as tole are often used. In this style, also commonly called one-stroke, brushes are sometimes loaded with more than one color so that highlights, primary colors and shadows can be applied with one stroke.
When she's teaching a decorative class, McCafferty will usually complete a sample and lead the class step by step through the painting techniques needed to finish the project.
"We'll cover the highlights such as shading and how to use different brushes," she said. "We might start with the base and then, for example, do shading of the face."
Fine arts classes start with a sketch as students bring in a picture of what they want to paint. McCafferty said she usually has two sections of fine arts students during the fall semester and two or three in the spring at HCC. Usually, there are from seven to 10 students in each of the sections, which meet weekly over a six-week period.
Beginning students are welcome in many of the classes. Sometimes they become success stories.
"One of the students I had at the college, Alla Maier, had never painted before," McCafferty said. "She recently had a show at which she sold six paintings and now is being featured in some galleries."
McCafferty herself gained an extra measure of recognition in 2004 when her hand-painted holiday ornament was one of more than 300 to adorn the official White House Christmas tree.
She is a member of the Society of Decorative Painters, which was chosen by first lady Laura Bush to provide ornaments for the tree that year.
"The theme that year was musical instruments. The society purchased them and sent them to participating painters for shipping costs," McCafferty said. "We were to stick with deep colors and gold accent strokes."
Painters received whatever instrument the society sent them. McCafferty received a small wooden harp. She didn't like the harp's plastic-looking strings and replaced them with strings of thin golden metal, which meshed nicely with the gold paint accents.
As one of the winning artists, McCafferty was invited to a reception at the White House hosted by the first lady.
"You get so nervous that you're shaking when you see that big envelope with 'White House' at the top. It was a thrill to be there and meet Mrs. Bush, who was very gracious," she said. "It was quite an honor to be selected."
McCafferty displayed an artistic bent early in life. She received a scholarship to the Delaware Art School at age 10 and continued taking classes there through high school. She graduated from Towson State College (now Towson University) with a degree in fine art and also studied at the Maryland Institute of Art.
Her working career included positions as art director for various magazines. In Columbia, Md., she started a monthly magazine, "Columbia," as art director for the Columbia Association, which was the governing body of Columbia. In Connecticut, she was art director for magazines such as "Medical, Marketing & Media" and "Perspectives." She also had a graphic design business called Design Studio, which created graphics for logos, brochures and magazines as well as "wearable art" for upscale boutiques.
For her own paintings, McCafferty works mainly in acrylics.
"They dry fast, and you move right along," she said.
Interested in gardening (she's a member of the Clear Spring Garden Club), she enjoys painting landscapes with garden scenes.
"It's kind of a way to dream of how I'd like my garden to actually look," she said, smiling to indicate that "dream" was the operative word.
McCafferty recently started work on a series of paintings she calls "Hints of Hagerstown."
"It will be snippets of Hagerstown. Rather than a whole house, it might be little vignettes, something such as the fence, or a door."
McCafferty belongs to the Hagerstown-based Valley Art Association, and some of her work is on display in the Mansion House at City Park. She has a one-person show scheduled for April in the Mansion House's North Gallery.
Her decorative painting work is often sold through festivals. For information on McCafferty's work and classes, go to her Web site at www.mariemccafferty.com.
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by Naomi Klein
Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, is condemned for not calling off "Maude's Mob." Activist Jaggi Singh is in jail for allegedly possessing a weapon that he never owned or used -- a theatrical catapult that shot stuffed animals over the infamous fence in Quebec City during last week's Summit of the Americas.
It's not just that the police didn't get the joke, it's that they don't get that they the new era of political protest, one adapted to our post-modern times. There was no one person or group who could call off "their people," because the tens of thousands who came out to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas are part of a movement that doesn't have a leader, a center, or even an agreed-upon name. Yet it exists, undeniably, nonetheless.
What is difficult to convey in media reports is that there weren't two protests that took place in Quebec City -- one a "peaceful" labor march, the other "violent" anarchist riot. There were hundreds of protests. One was organized by a mother and daughter from Montreal. Another by a van load of grad students from Edmonton. Another by three friends from Toronto who aren't members of anything but their health clubs. Yet another by a couple of waiters from a local cafe on their lunch break.
Sure there were well organized groups in Quebec City: the unions had buses, matching placards and a parade route; the "black bloc" of anarchists had gas masks and radio links. But for days the streets were also filled with people who simply said to a friend, "Let's go to Quebec," and with Quebec City residents who said, "Let's go outside." They didn't join one big protest, they participated in a moment.
How could it be otherwise? The traditional institutions that once organized citizens into neat, structured groups are all in decline: unions, religions, political parties. Yet something propelled tens of thousands of individuals to the streets anyway, an intuition, a gut instinct -- perhaps just the profoundly human desire to be part of something larger than oneself.
Did they have their party-line together, a detailed dissection of the ins and outs of the FTAA? Not always. But neither can the Quebec protests be dismissed as vacuous political tourism. George W. Bush's message at the summit was that the mere act of buying and selling would do our governing for us. "Trade helps spread freedom," he said.
It was precisely this impoverished and passive vision of democracy that was rejected on the streets outside. Whatever else they were searching for, all were certainly looking for a taste of direct political participation. The result of these hundreds of miniature protests converging was chaotic, sometimes awful, but frequently inspiring. One thing is certain: after at last shaking off the mantle of political spectatorship, the last thing these people are about to do is hand over the reins to a cabal of would-be leaders.
The protesters will, however, become more organized, a fact which has more to do with the actions of police than the directives of Maude Barlow, Jaggi Singh, or, for that matter, me. If people wandered and stumbled to Quebec City, profoundly unsure of what it meant to be part of a political movement, something united us all once we arrived: mass arrests, rubber bullets, but most of all, a thick white blanket of gas.
Despite Canada's Liberal Party line of praising "good" protesters while condemning "bad" ones, treatment of everyone on the streets of Quebec City was crude, cowardly and indiscriminate. The security forces used the actions of a few rock throwers as a camera-friendly justification to do what they have been trying to do from the start: clear the city of thousands of lawful protesters because it was more convenient that way.
Once they got their "provocation," they filled entire neighborhoods with toxic fumes, forcing families to breathe through masks in their living rooms. Frustrated that the wind was against them, they sprayed some more. People giving the peace sign to the police were gassed. People handling our food were gassed. I met a 50-year-old woman from Ottawa who told me cheerfully, "I went out to buy a sandwich and was gassed twice." People having a party under a bridge were gassed. People protesting their friends' arrests were gassed. The first-aid clinic treating people who had been gassed, was gassed.
Tear gas was supposed to break-down the protesters but it had the opposite effect: it enraged and radicalized them, enough to cheer for "Black Blockers" who dared to throw the canisters back. It may be light and atomized enough to ride on air, but I suspect the coming months will show that gas also has powerful bonding properties.
April 23, 2001 (http://www.monitor.net/monitor) All Rights Reserved. Contact email@example.com for permission to use in any format.
All Rights Reserved.
Contact firstname.lastname@example.org for permission to use in any format.
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