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FTC releases children’s privacy FAQ: The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday provided further industry guidance on its amended children’s privacy rules, covering questions about how companies should modify their apps and Web services to comply with the amended Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
The FAQ, posted on the agency’s Web site, covers topics such as multimedia content, geolocation data, methods of obtaining parental consent for data collection and rules about disclosing information to third parties.
The FTC had released its updated guidelines in December; they are scheduled to go into effect in July. App developers and advertisers had asked the agency to delay implementation, saying that they still had questions about the policies — a request opposed by privacy advocates.
ECPA reform: The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill Thursday to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The bill will now move to the full Senate for a vote.
Under the proposed legislation, government and law enforcement officials would have to obtain a warrant to see electronic communications regardless of how old they are.
Under the current law, no warrant is required if messages are older than 180 days as the government used to consider these messages “abandoned.”
Lifeline fund hearing: The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing Thursday to examine the Lifeline Program — nicknamed by critics as the “Obama phone” program — which provides phone service subsidies to low-income subscribers.
Critics have targeted the $2.2 billion fund as an example of government waste. The Federal Communications Commission has taken steps to crack down on fraud within the program, saying that it saved $214 million in spending from the program in 2012 and is predicting that it will save $400 million this year.
Ahead of the hearing, 31 organizations including the NAACP, Consumer Action, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the World Institute on Disability sent letters to the House subcommittee asking that the program be continued.
Google, EU: The European Commission on Thursday said that it is seeking comment on commitements Google has offered to address competition concerns related to its online search business.
Google’s proposals include the commitments to change its search layout, protocols for specialized search products and advertising practices.
The proposals should remain in effect for a period of five years.
Google updates transparency report: In a company blog post Thursday, Google said that it continues to see increases in requests for user information from governments around the world.
Google updated its transparency report, saying that it received 2,285 government requests between July and December 2012 to take down 24,179 pieces of content across its services.
That, the company noted, is an increase from the 1,811 requests it received for 18, 070 pieces of content in the first half of the year.
The firm noted that it had seen a “sharp increase” in requests from Brazil, largely related to the municipal elections that took place in that country this past fall. Brazil made the most requests, followed by the United States.
The company also saw a rise in requests from Russia, which recently passed a law that allows the government to blacklist sites that are deemed harmful to children; 104 of the 117 requests from Russia cited this law, the company said.
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An entry in The Crocodile Prize
Cleland Family Heritage Writing Award
SEMBELIE, my son, our country is changing. What your grandfather and grandmother taught me is not what it is today. My hope is that when you read this story you will not forget that beneath all the technology and modern facilities lies the real you.
You were born to a woman who waited for so long for you. I would not have changed one bit of my past to have you in my life today. My wish for you is that you hold on to the values that daddy and I teach you and know that real strength comes from a pure heart.
Know the difference from right and wrong and fear God because in Him do we live and in Him do we exist.
Sembelie each day is full of change.There is construction everywhere. The city is changing and mountains are cut down to make space for roads. Trees that have stood for years are cut down for three-lane roads and even a flyover.
This is development, son, and one day when you are old enough to drive your own vehicle you will see.
Mummy and daddy want you to have a good education so you can make it to a good university and get a good job. Mummy never had the choices that you have today. Appreciate what you have now because nothing stays the same for long accept the word of God.
Home is where your roots are, so keep your father’s words close to your heart and remember what he says to you. He will tell you who your uncles and aunties are and one day he will take you to where your grandfather is buried in a beautiful part of this country where there are hamlets and plains. Where the land is fertile and food is not scarce.
This is your village, Holic, in the Yangoru District. Your grandfather was a chief and a powerful man. He was very influential and could speak with authority like your father. He had that fighting spirit that I know lies in you. My son this is your heritage and your identity. It makes you unique, special and blessed.
Mummy comes from the islands, where you need to get on a boat to reach very far away on a rocky island beachfront called Baluan.
Fish and octopus are smoked there and you can get taro and yam. It is not like your father’s land but similar because food is in abundance. But today the weather is changing, son. The island is getting smaller and the sea is taking away the land.
I hear stories from your Papau’s (Bubu) in the village and my heart saddens. It is now the place where our government has placed a refuge centre for asylum seekers. Son, I fear for my island and read and watch from a distance.
Marriage will one day take you away, my son, but do not choose hastily and take your time in courtship. Remember that beauty is only skin deep and don’t be fooled by what’s on top. Strive to see what’s in her heart.
You and many others who are born today hold the key to our future. Strive for wisdom in all you do and remember your roots at all times. Bless others with what you have because God will repay you tenfold.
Beware of pride and arrogance because it will bring you down. Noken paitim bros tumas, that is what Bubu Beula said and lastly son make me and daddy proud, my son, my hope, my Sembelie.
Lower photo: Ilangin Sangkol and her husband Casper Marru
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Absent From The Body Present With The Lord
By G. Marsh Hilbourne & Michael T. Wark
Excerpts from "Thou Shalt Surely Die"
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Cor. 5:8)
This verse is familiar to almost all who have been taught the immortality of man, but at the same time it is one of the most misunderstood and misquoted of any verse in the Bible. In order to understand this verse properly, we must see the thrust of Paul's argument in the preceding verses. Let us study this verse in its context, using a literal translation:
For we are aware that, if our terrestrial tabernacle house should be demolished, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eonian, in the heavens.
For in this also we are groaning, longing to be dressed in our habitation which is out of heaven, if so be that, being dressed also, we shall not be found naked.
For we also, who are in the tabernacle, are groaning, being burdened, on which we are not wanting to be stripped, but to be dressed, that the mortal may be swallowed up by life.
Now He Who produces us for this same longing is God, Who is also giving us the earnest of the spirit.
Being, then, courageous always, and aware that, being at home in the body, we are away from home from the Lord, (For by faith are we walking, not by perception),
We are encouraged, and are delighting rather to be away from home out of the body AND to be at home with the Lord. (2 Cor. 5:1-8, C.V.)
Verse one states that there are two tabernacles, or bodies, one heavenly and the other terrestrial (earthly). Verses two and three explain that at the present time we are burdened in our earthly, mortal bodies; but our hope is that some day we shall be "dressed" in the heavenly body, "that the mortal may be swallowed up by life" (vs. 3).
When will this mortal "be swallowed up by life?" The moment we die? No, for Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 15:52-54 that our mortality will not be changed to immortality until "the last trump." Paul makes it plain that he looked forward to the resurrection, not to the day of his death:
. . . we are not wanting to be stripped [die], but to be dressed. . . [resurrected] (vs. 3)
Did Paul then turn around and say in verse 8 that when he died, he would be "present with the Lord"? Of course not. He simply repeated what he had previously stated: (1) that this mortal body was burdensome, and (2) that he would rather be dressed in his resurrected body AND "be at home with the Lord."
Notice that even in the King James Version, verse 8 does not read that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." That reading is a deliberate misquotation designed to prove an unscriptural theory.
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better (Phil. 1:23).
Some time ago a well-known minister said that if Phillippians 1:23 was the only verse in Scripture teaching man's immortality, he would believe it, disregarding all the rest of Scripture to the contrary. But we do not believe that the Bible contradicts itself, and we shall show that this passage is no exception.
Notice first that Paul says "to die is gain" (vs. 21). He does not say that to die is heaven, or that to die is to be with the Lord. He says it is gain. Whose gain will it be, Paul's or Christ's?
If the reader will read verses 12-21, it will be clear that Paul was saying that his death would be gain for Christ, not for himself. Paul had been cast into prison, but instead of the other Christians hiding themselves, they were "waxing confident by my bonds" and openly preaching the gospel. Thus, Paul says:
But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. (Phil. 1: 12)
After spending much time rejoicing over "the furtherance of the gospel," Paul finally begins to discuss the possibility of his being executed for his faith:
. . . So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For [because] to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Phil. 1:20, 21)
We see, then, that Paul is telling us that the Gospel of Christ would be spread further… whether he lived or died, and Christ would be magnified. As Tertullian testified in the second century A.D., "The blood of Christians is seed. . ."
In verse 23 the phrase, "I am in a strait betwixt two," as it reads in most Bibles, is misleading. The Greek verb used is sunechomai, a form of the word sunechoo, which means "to hold together, to press." The same word also occurs in Luke 8:45, "the multitude throng thee and press thee." It occurs again in Acts 7:57, when the Jews "stopped [pressed] their ears." Thus, the beginning of Philippians 1:23 should read, "I am being pressed. . ." In most Bibles the next phrase reads, "betwixt the two." The Greek word here is ek, which all Lexicons and Concordances render "out of." This is the only verse in the Bible where it has been mistranslated to read "betwixt."
Thus, the entire phrase should read: "I am being pressed out of the two . . ." The next word in this verse which we shall discuss is analusai, rendered "to depart." This word is found only one other time in the Scriptures, where it is rendered "return."
And [be] ye yourselves like unto men looking for their Lord, when he shall return [analusai] from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straitway open unto him. (Luke 12:36)
The Companion Bible tells us that this word was used often in the Apocrypha as well, where it frequently was translated "return." It also states that "to depart" should be translated "for the return." Thus, the entire verse, translated properly, reads:
Yet I am being pressed out of the two, having the desire for the return and together with Christ to be, for it rather is much better.
Having established the proper translation of the passage, we can now proceed to interpret it from the beginning. Paul was preaching in jail, and the Christians outside were taking courage because of Paul's example. So Paul concludes that Christ would gain glory, whether he (Paul) would be executed or acquitted.
These were the two "choices" that Paul mentioned. If he was executed, Christ would be magnified; if he was acquitted, Christ would be magnified as well. Paul says that he did not know which would be the most gain for Christ, so he decided not to state any preference to the Philippians: . . . yet what I shall choose I wot not. [literally, "I am not making known"]
So Paul would not state his preference, for he was "being pressed out of" the two choices. In other words, he could not choose either of them. Instead, he introduces a third choice, which was his real desire-"the return" of Christ. This is the hope of the Christian, and it is "much better" than either living or dying.
Even as it is translated in the King James, verse 23 which seems to say if he departed (died) he would be with Christ, can be explained by death as unconsciousness. Paul knew that if he did die, the next conscious moment would be his resurrection at which time he would then be with Christ.
We conclude, then, that Paul did not believe that when he died, he would be with Christ immediately. His hope was the return of Christ, when the dead believers would be raised to inherit the Kingdom.
PAUL'S REWARD — WHEN?
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (2 Tim. 4:6-8)
This passage is quite similar to Philippians 1:20-23. The word "departure" is in Greek, analusis, from analuo. We have already shown in the previous section that analuo means "return."
Thus Paul said that "the time of my returning is at hand." Where would Paul return? Well, where did Paul come from? If Paul pre-existed in heaven, then obviously, he would return to heaven. But we have already shown that man originated in the dust of the ground and that death is a return to our origin (Gen. 3:19).
Paul's reward was "laid up" for him, and he expected to receive it "at that day." At what day? The last part of the verse tells us that Paul expected to receive it at the same time the other believers received it, for he says:
. . . and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Furthermore, a look at the context proves that Paul was thinking of the return of Christ, for verse one says:
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. (2 Tim. 4:1)
Paul's reward was laid up for him in heaven, but he shall not receive it until Christ returns, for Jesus said:
And behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. (Rev. 22:12)
All of the world's major religions teach that man receives his reward when he "dies." The Bible says that no one, not even Paul, receives any reward until the return of Christ and the resurrection of the dead.
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“I have ever had the single aim of justice in view… ‘Do equal and exact justice,’ is my motto, and I have often said to the grand jury, ‘Permit no innocent man to be punished, but let no guilty man escape.'”
-Judge Isaac C. Parker, 1896
Judge Isaac Parker often called the “Hanging Judge,” from Fort Smith, Arkansas ruled over the lawless land of Indian Territory in the late 1800s. In 1875, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) was populated by cattle and horse thieves, whiskey peddlers, and bandits who sought refuge in the untamed territory that was free of a “White Man’s Court.” The only court with jurisdiction over Indian Territory was the U.S. Court for the Western District of Arkansas located in Fort Smith, Arkansas, which was situated on the border of Western Arkansas and Indian Territory.
Judge Isaac Parker was born in a log cabin outside Barnesville, Belmont County, Ohio on October 15, 1838. The youngest son of Joseph and Jane Parker, Isaac helped out on the farm, but never really cared for working out of doors. He attended the Breeze hill primary school and then the Barnesville Classical Institute.
To help pay for his higher education he taught students in a country primary school. When he was 17 he decided to study law, his legal training consisting of a combination of apprenticeship and self-study. Reading law with a Barnesville attorney, he passed the Ohio bar exam in 1859 at the age of 21. During this time he met and married Mary O’Toole and the couple had two sons, Charles and James. Over the years, Parker built a reputation for being an honest lawyer and a leader of the community.
After passing the bar he traveled west to St. Joseph, Missouri a bustling Missouri River port town. He went to work for his uncle, D.E. Shannon, a partner in the Shannon and Branch legal firm. By 1861, he was working on his own in both the municipal and county criminal courts and in April he won the election as City Attorney. He was re-elected to the post for the next two years.
In 1864, Isaac Parker ran for county prosecutor of the Ninth Missouri Judicial District and in the fall of that same year, he served as a member of the Electoral College, casting his vote for Abraham Lincoln.
In 1868, Parker sought and won a six-year term as judge of the Twelfth Missouri Circuit. A new judge, Parker would soon gain the experience that he would later use as the ruling Judge over the Indian Territory.
On September 13, 1870, Parker was nominated on the Republican ticket for the Seventh Congressional District. To pursue his political ambitions and devote all his energy to the campaign, Parker resigned his judgeship. The heated campaign ended with Parker’s opponent withdrawing from the race two weeks prior to the election and Parker easily defeated the replacement candidate in the November 8, 1870 election.
As a freshman representative, Parker took his seat in the first session of the Forty-second Congress convened on Saturday, March 4, 1871. In November 1872 he easily won a second term and gained national attention for speeches delivered in support of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
By the fall of 1874, the political tide had shifted in Missouri, and as a Republican, Isaac Parker had no chance of reelection to Congress. Instead, he sought a presidential appointment to public office and submitted a request for appointment as the judge of the federal district court for the Western District of Arkansas, in Fort Smith. On March 18, 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant nominated Parker as the judge for the Western District of Arkansas.
After the Civil War, the number of outlaws had grown, wrecking the relative peace of the five civilized tribes that lived in Indian Territory. By the time Parker arrived at Fort Smith, Indian Territory had become known as a very bad place, where outlaws thought the laws did not apply to them and terror reigned.
Replacing Judge William Story, whose tenure had been marred by corruption, Parker arrived in Fort Smith on May 4, 1875. At the age of 36, Judge Parker was the youngest Federal judge in the West. Holding court for the first time on May 10, 1875, eight men were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Judge Parker held court six days a week, often up to ten hours each day and tried 91 defendants in his first eight weeks on the bench. In that first summer, eighteen persons came before him charged with murder and 15 were convicted. Eight of them were sentenced to die on the gallows on September 3, 1875. However, only six would be executed as one was killed trying to escape and a second had his sentence commuted to life in prison because of his youth.
When the fateful day of September 3, 1875, arrived the hanging became an extraordinary media event when reporters from Little Rock, St. Louis and Kansas City flocked to the city. Other newspapermen traveled far from eastern and northern cities to catch the “scoop.” Beginning a week before the hanging, the city began to fill with strangers from all over the country, anxious to view the hangings. On the day they were to be condemned more than 5,000 people watched as the six men were marched from the jail to the gallows.
The Fort Smith Independent was the first newspaper to report the event on September 3, 1875, with the large column heading reading: “Execution Day!!” Other newspapers around the country reported the event a day later. These press reports shocked people throughout the nation. “Cool Destruction of Six Human Lives by Legal Process” screamed the headlines.
Of the six felons, three were white, two were Native American and one was black. Seated along the back of the gallows, their death warrants were read to them and each was asked if they had any last words.
When the preliminaries were over, the six were lined up on the scaffold while executioner George Maledon adjusted the nooses around their necks. The trap was sprung all six died at once at the end of the ropes.
Though the hangings were an indication that the once corrupt court was functioning again, Parker’s critics dubbed him the “Hanging Judge” and called his court the “Court of the Damned.” However, most of Parker’s critics didn’t live in the frontier and did not understand the ethics (or lack thereof) of the untamed Indian Territory. Most of the local people approved of Parker’s judgments, feeling like the utter viciousness of the crimes merited the sentences imposed. From these first 6 hangings in 1875, there would be 73 more until his death in 1896.
Though Parker was hard on killers and rapists, he was also a fair man. He occasionally granted retrials that sometimes resulted in acquittals or reduced sentences. Though Parker actually favored the abolition of the death penalty, he strictly adhered to the letter of the law. At one time he said, “in the uncertainty of punishment following a crime, lies the weakness of our halting justice.” However, Parker reserved most of his sympathy for the crime victims and is now seen as one of the first advocates of victim’s rights.
Parker’s jurisdiction began to shrink as more courts were given authority over parts of Indian Territory. The restrictions of the court’s once vast jurisdiction were sometimes a source of frustration to Parker, but what bothered him the most were the Supreme Court reversals of capital crimes tried in Fort Smith. Fully two-thirds of the cases appealed to the higher court were reversed and sent back to Fort Smith for new trials. In 1894 the judge gained national attention in a dispute with the Supreme Court over the case of Lafayette Hudson.
In 1895 a new Courts Act was passed which would remove the last remaining Indian Territory jurisdiction effective September 1, 1896. Following the escape attempt of Cherokee Bill in the summer of 1895, which resulted in the death of a jail guard, Judge Parker again came into conflict with his superior when he blamed the Justice Department and the Supreme court for the incident. Cherokee Bill was eventually hanged in Fort Smith on March 17, 1896. But the debate was not yet over and a very public argument was carried on between Judge Parker and the Assistant Attorney General.
When the August 1896 term began, Judge Parker was at home, too sick to preside over the court. Twenty years of overwork had contributed to a variety of ailments, including Bright’s Disease. When the jurisdiction of the court over lands in the Indian Territory came to an end on September 1, 1896, the Judge had to be interviewed by reporters at his bedside. Scarcely two months after the jurisdictional change took effect, the Judge died on November 17, 1896.
In 21 years on the bench, Judge Parker tried 13,490 cases, 344 of which were capital crimes. 9,454 cases resulted in guilty pleas or convictions. Over the years, Judge Parker sentenced 160 men to death by hanging, though only 79 of them were actually hanged. The rest died in jail, appealed or were pardoned.
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Laboratory Animals > Vivisection
PETA Europe, based in London, was launched in 1993 and was PETA's first international office. PETA Europe operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment. PETA Europe policy makers and the public about animal abuse and promoting an understanding of the rights of all animals to be treated with respect.
Ratings/Review of this resource:
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1) What is foster care?
The foster program is an extension of our shelter. It allows us to care for more animals than we would be able to otherwise. We are able to work with animals that need more time to grow or heal before going up for adoption.
2) What type of animal could be a candidate for foster care?
The most common foster candidates are kittens that are under two months of age that need to gain weight and socialization. We also send kittens and cats that need to be on medications for upper respiratory infections or other medical concerns. We sometimes see puppies or small animals that benefit from the foster program. Any animal whose chances of adoption could be improved by having extra time away from the shelter is considered for foster care.
3) What behavioral changes do you see in animals when they’re given a chance to get away from the shelter for a bit?
Animals that come back to foster may take a day or two to re-adjust to the shelter environment, but general are much more social. They often solicit attention from the public, and this increases their chance for adoption.
4) How many volunteer foster families are there in your program?
We currently have 127 foster families. Around 110 of those families foster cats and kittens.
5) What is the most unique case of foster care you’ve ever encountered?
While every foster animal comes from a unique situation, one of our most recent success stories is a kitten who came in because he was attacked by a dog in his home. He suffered a lot of trauma and we were concerned that he may not recover. Although he is still in foster, he is recovering so well and we are all very impressed by how well he is doing.
6) What is kitten season?
Kitten season begins around May-June and continues into December. Although we do see kittens all year round, we have a significant increase during this time and look for a lot of support from our foster families during these months.
7) What does foster care for kittens involve?
Typically, fostering kittens includes making sure they have a clean area with fresh food and water daily. They need to be socialized every day (played with and petted…tough work I know!) and make sure they are healthy, and showing no signs of a cold. They come into the shelter about every 2 weeks for a general health check and to update their vaccinations.
8) How old are kittens when they are no longer dependent on their mother?
Ideally, kittens should be 6-8 weeks before going to foster care on their own. However, even at this age some kittens still need more time with their mom if they are not eating well on their own. If kittens come in with a mom, we usually send the mom to foster care with them. If kittens are really little and do not have a mom we would send them to one of our foster homes who specialize in bottle fed kittens, needing 24 hour a day care.
9) How does kitten season upset the daily routines at the shelter?
There are so many families looking for kittens at this time of the year. With so many kittens that we house here that leaves less space for our adults cats. It also takes away some of our adopters for adult cats, if someone coming in looking for an adult cat adopts a kitten, that is one less home for our cats.
10) What steps does the MSPCA take to reduce cat overpopulation?
We spay and neuter all of our animals, including kittens before they leave the shelter!
11) What can kids do to help the shelter’s efforts to reduce cat overpopulation?
Kids can encourage people to spay and neuter their animals!
12) I know you do many other jobs at the shelter. How does coordinating foster care compare in difficulty?
I am also a full time animal care and adoption counselor. Coordinating the foster program is pretty different than adoption counseling. I work with a unique group of awesome volunteers that are very good at what they do. We depend on them in order for the program to run successfully. After all, without them there would be no program.
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
How Many Credits Should I Take?
Sometimes it can be hard to figure out how many credits you can handle in a given semester, taking into account your other life responsibilities with work, family, leisure time, religious activities, and community work. As you decide which courses to take for spring, you might want to try filling out this form. It is a way to help you think realistically about how much time you have available for your classes, including how much time you need to set aside for each class you take in order to do well in it. Filling the chart out honestly can be a real eye-opener! It can be tempting to take lots of classes at once when you are eager to complete your degree or program, but you also want to be sure to plan appropriately so that you have the time necessary to succeed in those classes. Whether you need to cut back on classes, or cut back on other responsibilities to give yourself more time to study, planning ahead about how you'll manage your time will often be the key to your success. Good luck!
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Marine Fisheries Course
Perhaps you are a Long Island teacher looking for an interesting course
to take. Or you are a person seeking to fulfill your desires to learn
more about the local fisheries and the saltwater environment. Then you
should register for the following class which is expertly led and carefully
coordinated by Capt. Jerry McGrath. The course, which is sponsored by
the Suffolk County Organization for the Promotion of Education (SCOPE),
is offered twice a year, once in the Spring and again in the Summer.
Students are introduced to the many aspects of fishing, both commercial
and sport, that are practiced on Long Island. The following is a description
of the class as it appeared in a recent course catalogue distributed
Marine Fisheries .......... The Past, Present, & Future
Instructor - Jerry McGrath
3 Credits (45 Hours)
Visit the North and South Forks of Long Island and learn about the
methods and traditions of the fishing industry. Hear first hand from
lobstermen, charter captains, dragger fishermen, clammers, recreational
fishermen, fish farmers, and baymen about the pros and cons of harvesting
from the sea. History of Long Island fisheries, the impact of electronics,
fishing alternatives, and the current state of the industry will be
discussed. Included are visits to marinas and retail and wholesale fish
markets. Additionally, there will be a full day excursion on a Long
Island fishing boat. Details will be outlined on the first day of class.
An excellent course for history, science, economics, technology,
geography, and elementary teachers.
Car pooling will be necessary for the four days of classes.
21 – 8:00 A.M. - 6:30 P.M.,
22 – 8:00 A.M. - 7:30 P.M.,
23 – 8:00 A.M. - 6:30 P.M. and
30 (Boat excursion day) – 6:00 A.M. – 6:30 P.M.
- Rain date
for boat excursion trip is Thurs. July 2.
Mon., July 28
– 8:00 A.M. - 6:30 P.M.,
29 – 8:00 A.M. - 7:30 P.M.,
Wed., July 30
– 6:00 A.M. - 6:30 P.M. (Boat excursion day) and
31 – 8:00 A.M. – 6:30 P.M.
Rain date for
boat excursion trip is Mon., August 4.
ACTIVITIES FEE: $105.00 - due 1st class. Fee covers museum fees,
speakers fees, cost of a seafood luncheon on Wednesday, and the
fare for an excursion on a Long Island fishing vessel.
Expect to spend some additional monies if you choose to lunch at
local seaside eateries. Appropriate preparations should be made for
inclement weather conditions i.e. raingear, extra clothing, motion sickness
Jerry McGrath is a retired elementary school
teacher and a U.S. Coast Guard licensed boat captain. A lifelong, avid
fisherman, Jerry has run boats, including his own charter boat, out of
Montauk and other ports. He has also taught classes for community
education programs and the Suffolk County Dept. of Parks for over 20
years. In 1994 he was bestowed a "Teacher of the Year" award for his
efforts. Jerry has given instructional talks to many Long Island groups
including libraries, colleges, and clubs. He has co-produced an
instructional videotape titled “Sportfishing On Long Island” and has
recently presented the “Fish N Kids” program at public schools
throughout Long Island. Capt. Jerry begins his 15th year teaching for
SCOPE. Additional information may be obtained on the website:
This class is attended mostly by teachers; however, a sizeable number
of people choose to take the course for audit.
For more information and registration details, contact:
SCOPE Education Services
100 Lawrence Ave.
Smithtown, NY 11787
(631) 360 - 0800
(631) 360 - 0356 Fax
View photos from the SCOPE
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To protect the health of children, schools should have a plan to prevent and combat asthma.
When a problem affects one out of every 13 children, it clearly is an issue that schools must address.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that is the incident rate for asthma among the nation's children. The inflammatory disease causes a person's airways to constrict, leading to wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing.
As part of its Indoor Air Quality “Tools for Schools” program, the EPA has put together a guide, “Managing Asthma in the School Environment,” to help reduce the incidence of the disease.
“Since children spend most of their time in schools, day care facilities, or at home, it is important to reduce their exposure to environmental asthma triggers as much as possible in each of these environments,” the EPA says.
The guide states that the best strategy for managing a child's asthma is to address both the medical management of the disease and avoidance of environmental triggers. Common triggers found in schools include cockroaches and other pests, mold resulting from excess moisture in a building, dander from animals, secondhand smoke and dust mites. In addition, the guide says, some health advocates believe that products used in schools — cleaning agents, perfumes and sprays, for example — can trigger asthma episodes.
The guide lists 10 ways to manage asthma in schools:
Use the IAQ “Tools for Schools” kit.
Control animal allergens. Remove classroom animals from the school, if possible. If not, place them away from sensitive students and ventilation systems.
Control cockroach allergens. Use integrated pest-management practices to prevent cockroach and other pest problems. Store food in tightly sealed containers, and place dumpsters away from the building.
Clean up mold, and control moisture. Fix moisture problems and thoroughly dry wet areas within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth. Clean up hard, moldy surfaces with water and detergent, and then dry thoroughly.
Eliminate secondhand smoke exposure.
Reduce dust mite exposure. Make sure school facilities are dusted and vacuumed thoroughly and regularly.
Develop an asthma management plan for your school. Include school policies on inhaler and other medication usage, and emergency procedures for school staff to follow when a student experiences an asthma attack.
Provide school-based asthma-education programs.
File student asthma action cards. Encourage students to work with their healthcare providers to identify their asthma triggers. Make sure students with asthma turn in copies of Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America action cards to their teachers and school nurses.
Gather additional asthma information and resources. Establish a file on existing asthma and allergy-related information sources to use as a reference during the school year.
|1 of 13||The number of school-age children in the United States that have asthma.|
|14.7||In millions, the number of school days missed per year because of asthma.|
|Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Managing Asthma in the School Environment”|
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Tanzanite Jewelry Tips
Tanzanite is a modern gemstone. The gem was discovered in the shadow of Mt. Kilamanjaro
in 1969. It was called zoisite. Zoisite was transparent and has a
naturally reddish brown color. It was found that this gem can be heated to a
stable blue to violet, the mesmerizing color of modern Tanzanite.
Legend says that Masai cattle herders on East Africa's
savannah plains discovered the gem after lightning strikes revealed brilliant
blue jewels. The world's only source of tanzanite is the deposits in Tanzania,
This exquisite form of zoisite was named tanzanite by New York's Tiffany
jewelers and it was celebrated as "Gemstone of the 20th Century.” It has
now become the second most popular color stone in America, second only to
The gemstone experts literally held their breaths when they were shown the first
deep blue crystals mined in the Merelani Hills near Arusha in the north of
Tanzania. Millions of years ago, metamorphous slates, gneiss stone and quarzites
shaped impressive flat insular mountains on the wide planes near Mount
Kilimanjaro. In the core of these unusual rises there are stored the valuable
crystals. For a long time they remained hidden from the eyes of men, until one
day some Massai-herdsmen passing by noticed crystals sparkling in the sun and
picked them up.
Today at Merelani the popular crystals are searched for in several, usually
Naturally trichroic, tanzanite shows different colors when viewed through each
of its three crystal axes: blue, red-violet and yellow-green.
The majority of tanzanite must be heated to create this color. Usually stones
are cut and polished prior to heating to about 700 degrees Fahrenheit, when the
yellow-green color is converted to deep blue. A very small fraction of Tanzanite
rough heat treats to a green or blue green color which are grabbed by
collectors. In the trade, all Tanzanites are assumed to be heat treated and the
color is stable.
Tanzanite is the birthstone for December.
Tanzanite is sometimes confused with sapphire. In fact, in the early days,
the lure of Tanzanite was that it was a lower cost alternative to Sapphire.
Because of limited supply and the fact that it is only available from Tanzania,
the price of Tanzanite has gone steadily up. There are lot of synthetics in the
market. People also sell kyanite and amethyst disguised as Tanzanite to
capitalize on the demand for Tanzanite.
Tanzanite is now the second most popular selling colored stone in the US.
Tanzanite and elegance are synonymous. You can buy different jewelry
One word of caution regarding the use and care of Tanzanite jewelry.
Tanzanite is quite fragile; it has hardness between 6 and 7 on the Moh’s scale.
Compare this with Tanzanite and Sapphire which has hardness of 9. Tanzanite is also
very brittle. For this reason, be very gentle with this exotic gem. Do not use ultrasonic
cleaners to clean the jewelry with Tanzanite.
With an appropriate setting and
some care, all kinds of tanzanite jewelry including Tanzanite rings will provide
their wearers with endless pleasure. Daily wear will dull the finish of the gem. Jewelry in the form of bracelets, earrings, and
necklaces are preferred over rings. Wear tanzanite rings only when you are
going out and do not wear it for day to day use.
Tanzanite earrings, bracelets, and necklaces will go well with amethyst rings.
Dazzling as Tanzanite earrings and Tanzanite necklaces, this rare gemstone
speaks volumes about the wearer’s personality and sense of style.
Next: Value Considerations
[Tanzanite Page 1]
[Tanzanite Page 2]
Products with Tanzanite
Therapeutic Properties of Tanzanite
Gemstone Infocenter Home
Gift Selections incorporating Gemstones
Guide to Caring for Gemstones
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The Washington Post is feeling pressure to generate more revenue from its web audience.
The Washington Post says it will begin selling digital subscriptions this summer, asking frequent website users to pay a fee.
The Post announced plans yesterday for a metered subscription model. It will require a paid subscription after viewing 20 articles or multimedia features per month. The company hasn't announced how much it will charge.
Subscribers who pay for home delivery of the newspaper will have unlimited digital access. Also, students, teachers, government employees and military personnel will have free access at school and work.
Post Publishers say news consumers understand the high cost of maintaining top-quality newsgathering and in-depth reporting.
Washington Post Company Chairman Donald Graham has voiced worries that a paywall could reduce the size of the digital audience.
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Lecture 5 Building a site using semantic XHTML and CSS Analysis of existing markup Internal style sheet Poor names (not meaningful) Terribly poor CSS
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Handy Handouts® Six Early Literacy Skills Predict ... begin developing in the first 5 years of life ... from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6610494.html.
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The CRAAP Test is a list of questions to help you evaluate the information you find. Different criteria will be more or less important depending on your
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Handouts Available For You to Download and/or Print and Bring! http://www.captain.ca.gov/handouts.html AGENDA DAY 1 October 16, 2014 WIRELESS INTERNET: SJCOE Guest
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Introduction This chapter describes how to add new slides to the presentation and how to format them. It also explains how to format both the Notes and Handouts views.
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I was looking through my Jewish library and noticed something really incredible: The longest chapter in Psalms (chapter 119) has 176 verses. The longest parsha in the Torah, Naso, has 176 verses. And the longest...More
The Number 30-
I am turning 30 in a few weeks, and I'm wondering if the number 30 has any significance in Judaism?
The Number 40-
In my Torah studies I keep running across the number 40 - for example, Moses on Mount Sinai for 40 days. Is there an underlying message of the number 40?
Torah Codes Explained-
I found the Discovery Seminar's presentation on Bible Codes very convincing and it has captured my interest. How exactly do the Codes work?More
Torah Source for Pi-
I am a scientist and enjoy studying the Torah lessons found on Aish.com. But from a professional standpoint, I feel that scientific information is more accurate and reliable. Is that a valid perspective?
| 195,347
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Lock Haven health science students shine at PA Public Health Conference
LOCK HAVEN — A group of Lock Haven University students, faculty and community leaders recently attended the Pennsylvania Public Health Association (PPHA) annual conference. The group, led by Health Science Professor Dr. Beth McMahon, presented research and engaged with industry leaders from across the state.
The theme of the 2017 PPHA conference, “Addressing the Health Care and Public Health Needs of Vulnerable and Underserved Populations: Issues and Solutions for the Delivery of Quality Community-based Services,” was particularly fitting for the group from Lock Haven University which has consistently been named a leader in preparing students to meet the needs of underserved populations.
Seven of the 10 students attending presented research over the course of the conference. Junior health science major Anthony Eck, of Hanover, presented about the Lycoming County Health Improvement Coalition’s (LHCIC) use of task forces to address priority health issues identified in the county.
“Positive changes have been identified in the county including the Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS) data reporting a reduction in alcohol and cigarettes by sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th graders,” Eck said.
Student Danielle Boyles, of Clearfield, presented her research evaluating the impact of community-based exercise program Strong Women/ Growing Stronger, which showed that, “community-based programs like Strong Women/Growing Stronger are inexpensive and effective at filling gaps in underserved rural communities of Pennsylvania.”
“The conference reinforced my desire to remain active in community/public health education through my career,” said senior health science major, Rebekah Hershey. “Learning about interventions and collaborative approaches different populations are taking to solve problems and enhance health made me really excited to continue in the field after graduation.”
For McMahon, witnessing LHU students interact with public health leaders and presenting high-quality research is a point of pride.
“During the conference our students met powerful leaders in our field including Tom Quade, president, American Public Health Association; Jessica Boyer, president, PA Public Health Association; Lisa Davis, director PA Office of Rural Health; Dr. Karen Murphy, secretary of health, PA Department of Health and many more,” McMahon said.
She said that along with gaining high-value skills, the conference is an important opportunity to network. Many of the students intend to pursue future projects and collaborations with individuals and organizations in attendance, both during their time as students and upon graduation.
The conference also provided students with the ability to bring learning to life. Student John Reilly said that witnessing first-hand the health disparities present in underserved populations across the state had a distinct impact.
“We often talk about health disparities and underserved populations in the classroom setting, but seeing the different groups of people that have unserved or underserved healthcare needs was an eye-opener,” Reilly said.
Many of the students came away from the conference energized about their field of study and future career. If the goal of public health education is to incite change and awareness at the community level, LHU’s students now have more tools to positively influence the Commonwealth.
“The PPHA conference gave me an appreciation of things that are going on outside of my community,” Hershey said. “I also found it really refreshing to see people working so hard to enhance health, break down barriers, and collaborate within communities.”
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Environmental record a key Landcorp concern
Landcorp has to play a greater role in improving farming's environmental footprint, the organisations chief executive Steven Carden said.
The lack of real solutions to reducing nitrogen leaching was extremely worrying, Carden said in his keynote address at the Agricultural Communicator of the Year Awards in Hamilton.
"I think at this point it's unsolvable based on the current science that exists, the technologies that exist and the farm systems we are using."
"The one thing that worries me the most and our viability as a long term industry is our ability to get the whole environmental piece right," he said.
Carden signalled a shakeup at the organisation as he tries to turn the company into the best large scale farming business in the country.
Landcorp, along with other organisations had to work really hard to try and fix environmental issues.
If they don't there will not be a sustainable farming sector in the future, he said.
"I don't want that and I know most people in this sector don't want that."
The environment will be central to the stories Landcorp wanted to tell about their organisation going into the future.
Issues around nitrate leaching were a national issue and was the biggest challenge farming faced environmentally.
"More work needs to be done in the industry before we can be confident that we are going to be able to solve the nitrogen issue environmentally without compromising productivity."
The only alternative was to destock and deintensify farming systems, which would come at an environmental cost, he said.
Landcorp's 137 farms varied across the country in stock and land class. That allowed the company to build up a wide range of knowledge around how to manage nutrients effectively.
Landcorp had environmental plans for each of their farms which outlined how they are to develop environmentally. That allowed their farm managers to accurately measure the N impact across different farming practises. "That will be quite useful for the research community going forward as well as looking for techniques to mitigate."
Landcorp had achieved wealth and productivity on its farm that were on land that was a challenge to farm on, he said.
It was a cost to the taxpayer when it was established, bleeding $30-$40 million to the taxpayer every year. Today, it has 137 farms and employs 700 people nationwide.
"This year we will make an operating profit of $30 million and for the last 27 years we have returned a dividend to the government of 25 of those 27 years."
There was a lot that Landcorp could do better, he said.
"We have 137 farms, some of which are fantastic, but there's a whole bunch that are pretty average and mediocre.
Landcorp had an obligation as the country's largest farmer to show some leadership in an environment that was getting increasingly tougher to farm in.
Carden wanted Landcorp to be lean, hungry, flexible and adaptive and become the world's best farming organisation. He said the organisation would have no credibility if it was not focused on achieving the best financial result day in day out on all of their farms.
He also wanted to focus on turning Landcorp into an organisation that focused on the end consumer and tailor what they were producing to what the end consumer wanted.
The best days of the New Zealand primary sector were ahead of it, but the extent of which the industry needed to lift its game could not be underestimated.
Farming's reputation greatly concerned young people. As a result, it was struggling to attract them into the industry. Farming had a horrible track record when it came to safety. The hard, rugged farming persona was an inappropriate attitude that needed to change.
Landcorp would put huge amount of effort in the future into people. Their success was based on having the best managers running their farms, he said.
He said the organisation's workers cared deeply and passionately about Landcorp, farming and its future. Carden said it infuriated him when people told him that Landcorp employees were uncaring.
Landcorp had a "dodgy" reputation amongst people, which Carden said was due to a lack of understanding about the organisation's role.
"We have some unbelievably good staff across the organisation, but like any organisation we have a whole range of staff that are probably not as good as they should be and have probably reached the point where they don't care."
In an organisation that is desperate for talent and striving to improve, Landcorp cannot have people that do not care as passionately as others, he said.
He said he was under no illusion his priorities would be extremely difficult to achieve.
"The whole company is full of energy to improve performance by being safer, more efficient and more productive farmers.
"We want to demonstrate that profitable and environmentally responsible farming go hand in hand."
He wanted New Zealanders to see how good farming was for the country, and for young people to see farming as a career.
"Our goals are ambitious, and we won't always get it right, but we'll always front up and share with the industry and all New Zealanders the places we are finding success, as well as where we still need to do better."
- Waikato Times
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Hey guys. I need some help to make this program. It should work for every cubic equation (only one unknown) and solve it with desired method -bisection, secant or newton- with outputing every step. It'll be a Win32 console application. I'm just new at C++ and my professor gave this homework to class..
I don't expect an entire source code, even some tips would be helpful I guess.
Thanks in advance :)
The problem is that I couldn't even approached it :D It's our just third homework and we have just 3-4 week experience on coding. So this is a bit harsh.. One of our university's mathematicians put forward this homework idea. I think noone has been able to do something :D
| 237,253
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Wesley Joseph Mills
The Children’s Menu
Bite size lessons on the Gospel Message for children and their families. Based on Scripture, following the seasons of the Christian worship year, and indexed to lectionary readings of the Bible.
USA $ 18.00 UK £ 12.00
THE REVEREND DR. WESLEY J. MILLS loves teaching and has devoted much of his life work to education. With degrees from Gordon College, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Andover Newton Theological School, he is ordained with the American Baptist Churches, U.S.A. but has also served Congregational and Mennonite churches. In addition, he was a founding director of the Institute for Ministry, specializing in the training of lay pastors. The Children’s Menu is the result of his experience as both a pastor and professor. Currently, he teaches composition, ethics, religion, and political science at southern Maine college and an online course on Dietrich Bonhoeffer with Andover Newton. His view of education as a transformative movement from the “known” to the “new” is reflected in the method and messages set forth in The Children’s Menu. Dr. Mills comes from a family with a history in seafaring, boat building, writing, and teaching vocations. He has three children and enjoys the shorelines and islands of coastal Maine.
Combining theology and pedagogy, The Children’s Menu is a primer for communicating biblical themes to children and youth and their families within the weekly worship setting. The book delineates helpful guidelines for interpreting and presenting biblical lessons in a manner that is theologically lucid, pedagogically sound, and liturgically appropriate. After an introduction that underscores a method for understanding and sharing the biblical message, the book unfolds a menu of sample lessons for reference and use throughout the Christian worship year. In this way, The Children’s Menu is a clear and concise resource interpreting and communicating essential biblical lessons.
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(Investigator 20, 1991 September)
The poem below expresses the Christian belief that the Bible as originally written was without errors. This idea that the Bible is infallibly accurate is called "Biblical Inerrancy" and it’s a belief that is still common
Belief in the Bible's inerrancy has always been the usual or "orthodox" position of Christians. In the Bodleian Library of Oxford, for example, is the manifesto drawn up in 1865 by the British Association and signed by 617 scientists and which begins:
We, the undersigned students of the natural sciences, desire to express our sincere regret that researches into scientific truth are perverted by some in our own times into occasion for casting doubt upon the truth and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures.
We conceive that it is impossible for the Word of God as written in the book of Nature, and God’s written word written in Holy Scripture, to contradict one another, however much they may appear to differ.
We are not forgetful that physical science is not complete, but is only in a condition of progress, and that at present our finite reason enables us only to see through a glass darkly, and we confidently believe that a time will come when the two records will be seen to agree in every particular.
Is such a belief testable? Could it be investigated in a way that both the skeptic and the Christian believer would see as fair and unbiased?
Recently I browsed through several 19th-century books which defended religion and was disappointed.
In LETTERS TO A SCEPTIC (1875), for example, the author includes without proof numerous ideas like "Holy Ghost", "Immortal Soul", "Purgatory", etc. After 320 pages of making value judgements and describing his own attitudes and emotions the author finishes without giving the "sceptic" a procedure for testing "the Faith" non-commitally.
The last two lines quoted above from the Manifesto and the third verse of the poem below do imply tests we can make to test Biblical Inerrancy.
We would have to distinguish the person who tests a theory he already believes in from the skeptic who wants to see if he can come up with the theory (of Biblical Inerrancy) from the basic data in the first place.
THE ANVIL OF GOD’S WORD
Last eve I paused beside a blacksmith's door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers worn with beating years of time.
"How many anvils have you had," said I,
"To wear and batter all these hammers so?"
"Just one," said he, and then with twinkling eye,
"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."
"And so," I thought, "The anvil of God's Word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon,
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is unchanged, the hammers gone."
Hundreds of articles investigating the Bible's accuracy:
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Alone, the hidden 12th Imam satisfies this condition. His name disappeared born 868, Mohammed Al-Mahdi, 939. He is invisible and is waiting for a sign from God, to to return. Shia believe in different ways in the return. Many of them not really thinking. Of course it is possible theoretically tomorrow, but at the same time 100 000 years later, such as Ayatollah Khomeini, who once noted founder of the Islamic Republic. Mystical Sufis like Azmayesh expect a spiritual manifestation of God’s light, the return in the heart”, and they are accused by the fanatical groups, not to believe in the physical return of the hidden Imam.
However, another group believes that he very soon will return to life and give themselves to us. Her name is Hodjatieh. According to this group, believers can accelerate the end of times. As in the Bible, evidence of character even in the writings of Islam”, which become apparent prior to judgment day, all sorts of chaos can be donated to arbitrarily. Summarized the following picture by opponents and own goals of this trend emerges: from bloody Islam of Sunni Taliban, Wahabis and Salafis as terrorist forms of Islam they clearly are. The so-called American”Islam of the Sufis in the aspect of tolerance and individual development are important, is clearly rejected by them. The Islam of Shia, who live of the hidden Imam Mahdi in expectation and do everything we can to prepare his return, is their ideal. The radical ayatollahs would oblige every true Muslim to this position.
This has implications: the Sunnis are not the Imam, which is false Islam; Sunnis need to be tackled. The Sufis have their champions and expect not the Mahdi, which is false Islam; Sufis have to be combated. The Shiites must prepare as many problems, that God sends the Mahdi as a Savior. That is the way of Islam for their opinion; This view must be spread. The hardliners from Qom fear nothing more than to develop their thinking people who want to independently care for their spiritual development and learn independently. You want to instead tell everyone what he or she think, do and should leave. If this backward-looking forces continue to set in Iran’s power centres and that might be possible with the current cleansing – threatens the global application of a Bill through which by the Iranian Parliament to apostasy. Every Muslim as a result receives an order from the Islamic faith to kill fallen anywhere in the world. June 2009, Helmut N. fork
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Brand: Geoponics Corp
Availability: In Stock
Web site: pondcolorant.com
Aquaveil filters out sunlight and creates a more pleasing appearance to the pond and lake water, by offering a natural blue look. It will not stain birds, fish or plants when applied at the recommended rates. It is non-toxic and is compatible with most aquatic herbicides and algaecides
Read and follow all label instructions
Apply at the rate of 1 gallon of Aquaveil per 1 surface acre of water 4 feet deep. Apply in several different locations to ensure even dispersion of pond colorant Protect from staining hands by wearing gloves For optimal use, apply early in the spring season before aquatic weeds and algae become established
Calculate the pond’s surface area in acres
If your pond is rectangular or egg-shaped, multiply its length in feet by its width in feet, then divide that figure by 43,560.
If your pond is circular, measure the total distance in feet around the shoreline, then multiply this number by itself (for example, if it’s 100 feet, multiply it by 100). Then, divide that figure by 547,390.
If your pond is irregularly shaped, compute its size buy using the straight boundaries of the actual shorteline, multiplying its length in t feet by its width in feet and divide that by 43,560.
Pond depth in feet What is the average depth of the pond in feet? If unknown, take measurements spaced uniformly over the entire pond. Add these together and then divide by the number of measurements taken.
This will give the average pond depth in feet.
3 Final step:
Pond volume in acre-feet Multiply the surface area in acres by the average depth in feet.
The result equals the volume of your pond in “acre-feet.”
Geoponics Corporate (877-667-6330) Office, 3415 Radio Road Number Naples, FL 34104.
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On a seemingly ordinary Monday morning in November 2017, reporter Cecilia Nasmith walked into the offices of Northumberland Today. She was preparing for an interview scheduled for 10 a.m. Suddenly, she and the rest of the staff present were called into the tiny boardroom. “I sure hope this doesn’t take long,” Nasmith whispered to a colleague. It didn’t. The paper had recently been involved in a community–newspaper swap between Torstar and Post Media, and the new owners greeted them abruptly: “Effective immediately, your services are no longer required.” Nasmith and her coworkers were ordered to clean out their desks. She was given a thumb drive to download personal pictures off her laptop. In a rush, she forgot to take all of her belongings with her.
Northumberland Today was one of the 40-plus papers involved in the Torstar/Postmedia swap in late 2017. Torstar acquired Northumberland Today along with 16 other local papers. Northumberland Today was then immediately shut down. Now, only four of the other papers are still in operation. Northumberland, located approximately 125 kilometres east of Toronto, is comprised of seven small municipalities: Cobourg, Port Hope, Trent Hills, Brighton, Hamilton Township, Alnwick/Haldimand, and Cramahe. The closure left the rural area of about 85,000 people without a daily print newspaper—a problem faced by an increasing number of small communities in Canada and elsewhere.
Yet, journalists in many of these towns are trying out new and distinctive solutions. In September 2018, the Northumberland Hub was launched by John Miller, a retired journalist and former chair of Ryerson University’s School of Journalism, along with the Local News Northumberland group, which comprises local journalists and community volunteers. The Hub compiles local news every weekday and puts it all in one place in an attempt to replicate the experience of reading the daily newspaper. In Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, employees at the Prince Albert Daily Herald bought their paper in 2017 when it was threatened with closure. In Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, an ex-writer at the daily paper, the Moose Jaw Times-Herald, began an independent news site after it shuttered. Citizen–journalism ventures have also been popping up, including a DIY paper run by a librarian in New Hampshire.
Though it’s a precarious time for local journalism, with ruthless slashing of jobs and papers closing across the continent, there are some small green shoots sprouting up across the impoverished local news landscape. It’s too early to tell if any will truly succeed, but with all the doom and gloom out there, it’s good to be reminded there is also room for hope and optimism.
In 2017, Miller released a research project, The Shrinking Mirror, which compared the local coverage of Port Hope by the Port Hope Evening Guide in the nineties to the local coverage of Port Hope by Northumberland Today in 2017, when the paper was owned by Postmedia. Miller’s research showed that by 2017 more than 75 percent of the content in the paper came from wire services compared to only 13 percent in 1996. He also concluded that as of 2017 only 7.5 percent of news stories in the paper were actually about Port Hope. That same year, no letters to the editor were published and all editorials were written elsewhere by Postmedia employees.
Miller pointed out four worrisome trends in his research: the issue of concentration of corporate chains owning community papers; the increase in newspaper closures and mergers; the decline in advertising; and lack of quality in the content. The findings showed that 55 percent of Canada’s 1,083 community papers were owned by 10 corporate chains. It also stated that 225 weekly newspapers had closed or merged since 2010, and so had 27 dailies, while revenue at Canadian community newspapers had declined by one-third ($400 million) since 2012. In addition, Miller noted the lack of quality work, quoting his old colleague, Torstar chair, John Honderich: “There is a crisis of declining good journalism across Canada, and at this point, we only see the situation getting worse.”
In 2012, the Communication Policy Research Network (CPRN), a network developed by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Communication and Democracy, found there are eight critical information needs for communities. These information needs are: emergencies and risks, health and welfare, education, transportation, economic opportunities, the environment, civic, and political. CPRN, along with social scientists and legal scholars, concluded that every community deserves access to these information needs. Often, it is the community newspaper that provides this information.
When these critical information needs are not being met, Ryerson journalism professor April Lindgren refers to it as “local news poverty.” Data collected by the Local News Research Project, led by Lindgren, showed there have been 216 direct newspaper closures and 44 closures due to mergers over the past 10 years in Canada. Out of those 260 closures and mergers, 189 of them were community papers. These small, local outlets make up about 73 percent of the closures. Two years ago, the Columbia Journalism Review created an interactive map of the local news deserts in the United States. In Canada, the Local News Research Project created a crowd–sourced local news map that tracks closures and launches of local news.
To fill the void in urban areas, new publications, such as The Pointer in Brampton, the West End Phoenix in Toronto, and The Sprawl in Calgary, have cropped up. They are independent spaces that rely more on combinations of subscription, paywall, and donation dollars than ad revenue. But they are all located in areas served by several other journalistic outlets.
By contrast, some small towns have only one outlet for their local coverage. A study conducted by the New Rural Economy Project published in the Journal of Rural Community Development, concluded that it is critical for local media to relay information to communities. This study was a part of the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation, a national initiative focused on understanding rural change since 1997. But what happens in small towns when the sole news source gets taken away from its citizens? How are local journalists attempting to keep that sense of community and democracy alive?
In June 2016, Star News Publishing Inc. bought the Prince Albert Daily Herald, along with 12 other local Saskatchewan papers. By late 2017, Star News was looking for a buyer for the paper—which employed approximately 20 staff members—or else it would have to close the paper down. So, publisher Donna Pfeil, with help from colleagues, devised a plan for the employees to buy the Daily Herald. Pfeil won’t disclose details of the purchase, but she says it was a long process with lots of negotiations. Ultimately, the staff—including the publisher, media manager, advertising staff, reporters, and others—bought the paper and became an independent entity. “It’s such a small community, so that’s why, for me, closing down just wasn’t an option,” Pfeil says. “To me, a paper is kind of like the glue that actually holds a community together, keeps everybody informed.”
Since May 2018, the employees have owned and operated the paper. Decisions are made much quicker now, as everything is done in-house and doesn’t have to go through a chain of command. As of early 2019, editor Peter Lozinski and staff reporters Lucas Punkari and Jason Kerr make up the editorial team. They report on sports, art, council, community news, or whatever needs to be covered that day. Lozinski and Punkari are from Ontario but moved to Prince Albert within the last couple years. The rest of the staff are originally from Prince Albert and the surrounding areas.
“We know our community. These are our neighbours, friends, volunteers that keep our activities going within the community,” Pfeil says. “What’s important to us as community members may not always be important to bosses living outside of the community…They don’t always see the value in some of these littler things like [a Little League] baseball tournament that you’re supporting.” Prince Albert is a small city of 35,000 people. Punkari covers Little League games, the Western Hockey League team, the junior hockey team, and the high school teams. It’s something that people care about and bond over in the community that would be difficult for someone outside of the city to report on. “Fifty faces in the paper” is one of Pfeil’s goals, which means that she always wants the local community to see themselves represented, especially on the cover.
The Daily Herald doesn’t always have the resources to jump on breaking national news, but it always prioritizes the local news you won’t hear anywhere else, giving local people a voice. That lack of resources is one issue that Lozinski says arises with an independent, employee-owned newspaper, but he says they find ways to make it work for them. Still, Lozinski says that everyone gets paid fairly and gets vacation time. “It’s been the most comfortable I’ve felt in any job in local media,” Lozinski says. “There’s definitely a lot of obstacles in the way, but for many reasons you’re able to connect to a community instead of having a perception you’re being told what to do from a big firm…To see that we were now living and working in their community, producing their paper instead of someone they didn’t know, was a big thing,” Lozinski says. “People like to support local business and they see us in that light. But I think the independent outlets is the way to go. I think for many, many reasons. I think that’s the way we’ll see things working out.”
“We know our community. These are our neighbours, friends, volunteers that keep our activities going within the community,” Pfeil says. “What’s important to us as community members may not always be important to bosses living outside of the community…”
Last year, in the city of Moose Jaw, eight women came forward with accusations of sexual harassment against a senior official at the Downtown Facility and Field House. The man is no longer employed at the facility. Three city councillors were sanctioned for failure to deal with the complaints. “There is serious news happening in these communities,” says former Moose Jaw Times-Herald reporter Mickey Djuric. “Politicians haven’t had watchdogs in a while. The courts haven’t had watchdogs in a while. There haven’t been journalists at these meetings for years. It’s crazy what I’m sure can be uncovered in all these small towns across Canada.”
The Times-Herald ceased publishing in late 2017, after 128 years. Djuric says after the paper shut down, a lot of people began to get their news from social media. Djuric, a 29-year-old originally from Toronto, launched the Daily Jaw in June of 2018. The idea sparked after she quit her job as a reporter at the Moose Jaw Times-Herald in 2015. The Times-Herald had refused to publish a video she had taken of Saskatchewan MP Tom Lukiwski’s victory speech. In the video, Lukiwski said that a Tory candidate is “too important of an MLA [Member of Legislative Assembly] to let go down to an NDP…” The word that follows NDP is either “whore” or “horde.” It isn’t clear. In an editorial addressing the matter, the Times-Herald said it did not want to publish the video without being certain which word was used. Djuric claims it was common for the Times-Herald to avoid publishing anything that might be unfavourable. “I just knew that I could find a niche reporting on news that was extremely underreported in this community,” Djuric says.
After leaving Toronto, Djuric’s first journalism job was in Wainwright, Alberta where her editor instilled in her a deep love of community news. After working at the Times-Herald, she developed an affinity towards the town of 33,000 people, and wanted to bring them the local reporting they deserved. “I know the town. I know the people. I had great relationships with my sources. I said, ‘I’m just going to do it.’ I saw news failing and I was like, ‘I think I could do this.’” Currently, there is no funding for the site. Djuric is working out of her savings. She originally planned to go six months to a year without monetizing the site just to get things off the ground, but by month two she already had advertising offers from local businesses. As of early 2019, she’s starting to consider taking on advertisers. It’s just her doing the reporting right now but she hopes to expand her team once she gets more funding, and hopefully increase coverage of sports and the arts. Djuric will sometimes spend 18 hours a day running around interviewing and covering events.
In 2018, there were three major murder cases going through Moose Jaw’s courthouse, a pretty significant number for a small town. When Djuric started covering court, it became clear in her reporting that the city has an underlying issue with meth addiction, something that had little coverage in the city. “The community has been missing out on hard-hitting investigations,” she says. At first, the community was a bit shocked at all the things she was covering, but ultimately, the feedback has been extremely positive, Djuric says. At the time of writing, the Daily Jaw has over 3,000 likes on its Facebook page and over 1,000 followers on Instagram. Positive engagement with the community can be seen on these platforms as well as on the site itself. “I was lucky because I did come from the Times-Herald, and I think that’s why I do have the level of respect that I do in this community,” Djuric says. “I’ve worked 18 months at the Times-Herald and fostered those relationships.”
On a March evening in 2018, four months after the Northumberland Today closure, about 200 community members piled into Cobourg’s historic Victoria Hall for a town hall meeting. With its high painted ceilings and 19th century architecture, the hall has been a staple of the community for almost two centuries. Moderated by CTV broadcast journalist Tony Grace, community members voiced their opinions about the paper closing and proposed solutions. Displays showcased the initiatives happening to fill the void: a couple of radio stations, a weekly paper, and a few websites.
The product of the meeting: The Northumberland Hub.
Today, in the Northumberland area, there are 15 different local news outlets, which include online sites, TV channels, and radio shows, all covering bits and pieces of local action. The Northumberland Hub would post the headlines and pictures of local stories from all of these outlets and links to them, providing access to all the content in one neat place. The team would aggregate this content every weekday, voluntarily. The site launched in the summer of 2018. It was meant to be a place where people could find local news sources to come back to. In February of 2019, the Northumberland Hub announced that it would stop publishing after the Local News Northumberland group, which Miller is a part of, conducted a survey in December. Based on the statistics gathered, the survey revealed that the need for the Northumberland Hub’s services had faded. Additionally, it wrote that “the group’s resources have dwindled.” Miller says the loss of local news outlets has a strong effect on democracy. “When you’re electing a government for four years and less than a third of the people bother to turn out to vote, you don’t have a very healthy democracy.”
One of the sites the Northumberland Hub aggregated was called Today’s Northumberland. After Northumberland Today closed, Nasmith wasn’t sure what to do with herself. She had worked at the paper for 29 years. One of her colleagues, Pete Fisher, started his own site with Steve White, the former national photo editor at Postmedia, called Today’s Northumberland. The publication does its best to provide local coverage on everything from crime to sports. Now, Nasmith writes and reports on a volunteer basis for them as well as for the local radio station. “It’s great. I get to still do what I did before,” Nasmith says. “It’s just not in an organized or paid way.”
“Politicians haven’t had watchdogs in a while, the courts haven’t had watchdogs in a while…It’s crazy what can be uncovered in all these small towns across Canada.”
In some cases, it’s not always journalists stepping up to the plate. In the tiny farm town of Weare, New Hampshire, local librarian Michael Sullivan has taken it upon himself to start a DIY local newspaper called Weare in the World. Sullivan drives around every Tuesday to drop off the paper at various spots around town, including local businesses, town offices, gas stations, and restaurants—the most popular being Dunkin’ Donuts. Sometimes, there are people waiting there for him to make sure they get a copy. Weare’s local paper shut down due to lack of funding over two years ago. At the time, Sullivan was new to the area, having just started as a full-time librarian at the Weare Public Library. Sullivan’s only previous journalistic experience came from his days at his high school newspaper, but a local resident suggested the library do something. “People were kind of crying out for somewhere for local news,” Sullivan says.
Sullivan uses about $25 of the library’s budget to produce each weekly issue, most of which goes towards photocopying fees. The real cost is Sullivan’s time, as he usually spends eight hours of his work week putting the paper together. “It’s a labour of love,” Sullivan says. “We don’t have a town centre. We don’t have a community centre. We don’t even have sidewalks…We [don’t have many things] that bring people together, and this newspaper has really been an eye opener for people.”
Citizen-driven journalism like Sullivan’s has been one response to newspaper closures, producing mixed results. In some cases, a collaboration between citizens and professionals has emerged to fill the void. In Toronto in 2010, former CNN foreign correspondent Wilf Dinnick launched OpenFile. It was a community journalism website where anyone could pitch a story, supply photos or links, and then, if deemed newsworthy, a journalist employed by OpenFile would write it up. It provided a sort of local, public service journalism. The site was credited with being extremely innovative. Dinnick won J-Source’s Canadian newsperson of the year award in 2012. But later that year, several freelancers weren’t paid and Dinnick suspended the publication indefinitely.
In the United States, Europe, and Australia, an app called NextDoor acts as a platform for people who live in the same neighbourhood to interact and post about what’s happening in their community. In the United States, news organizations have partnered with it to infuse community feeds with news stories relevant to them. But in 2015, the platform started receiving media backlash for the racial profiling that was taking place, which Nextdoor has since addressed. The 2016 report by Canada’s Public Policy Forum “Does serious journalism have a future in Canada?” states, “Even if one accepts that new standalone or citizen journalists are taking their place, it does not constitute the same contribution to serious journalism.”
In July 2018, a 17-year-old boy died in a two-vehicle collision in Prince Albert. He was part of Prince Albert’s Thomas Settee Boxing Club, which the Daily Herald reported was like “his second home.” The paper ran a heartfelt tribute to the boy, and people came into the offices to buy the paper and thank the staff.Some even came to the office in tears. “It wasn’t a big news thing,” Pfeil says. “But it’s a community, and that’s the stuff you miss out on [in] the big papers. This is what’s important to the community.”
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Mold is a fungal problem that can easily make its way into your home, contaminating the air and growing on walls. You can find it in just about any type of building, and it has the potential to infect your personal belongings as well. It is caused by moisture and must be removed as soon as possible to limit the possibility of damage and further spreading. You can take steps to limit the chance of your home being invaded by mold because there are some things you can do yourself.
- Check your house for moisture problems
Too much moisture in your home can cause mold to grow and ruin any exposed materials. Ensure that none of the water pipes are leaking or that you check for standing water in any area, including your basement. This way, you don’t have to worry about mold hazards in your home.
- Keep your roof in good repair
If you live in a household above the ground, or one that must be waterproof, ensure your roof is in good repair. Some spots on the top can allow moisture to seep into and start growing mold. Check for any holes or water damage to your roof and get them fixed before you can do any further damage.
- Keep humidity down
It may seem counterintuitive to try and keep your home dry when trying to prevent mold, but high humidity levels can increase the growth potential of mold spores and lead to various costly problems. If you have an air conditioning system or an effective ventilation system, this will allow for a lower humidity level and keep it from getting too high.
- Replace your air filters
When air filters get too dirty, they can cause moisture from the air to accumulate in the home instead of outside. Air conditioning systems have filters to catch large particles, but the air filters installed in your home are meant to trap smaller particles. Don’t trust your filters to see everything; replace them every month or season. If you suspect a mold problem, this will help prevent any new growth from forming.
- Check storage areas
Keep any items prone to getting damp or have molding potential in a dry area. The plastic helps keep moisture out and your items safe. If you leave these materials exposed, they can quickly develop a mold problem. Don’t store them in areas where they will be exposed to outside moisture, like a leaking roof. Make sure any furniture you have is water resistant; if it isn’t, cover it with plastic wrap until you find something better suited to the job.
6. Keep Carpets Clean and Dry
Carpeting and padding can easily harbor mold and mildew. You must regularly deep clean your wall-to-wall carpeting to prevent mold and mildew from developing. It is relatively inexpensive to hire a carpet cleaning service to clean your carpets twice a year. Get a free consultation and quote from ASAP Carpet Cleaning.
A mold problem can cause many problems and put you in a position where you have to pay to renovate everything. Before anything like that happens, make sure you are doing everything possible to prevent mold from getting into your home in the first place.
Having a clean home can help to ensure that you minimize your risk for colds, flu, and coronavirus. There are many different steps you can take to ensure that the home is clean and healthy.
1. Regular Cleaning
Cleaning your home regularly should be a top priority. You should clean your home thoroughly every week, and you should create a schedule to make sure that you do not miss anything. Ensure that you wipe down walls, mop floors, and dust to ensure that there are no germs around. Use a sanitizing spray at least once a week to ensure that you cut down on germ and bacteria growth. Regular carpet cleaning is a must to reduce dirt dust and odors in your home. Click here to learn more.
2. Air Duct Cleaning
Over time, your air ducts can become full of dust and debris. This can clog your ductwork, and you could be breathing in all these particles. If you see a lot of dust build up in your home and find yourself dusting frequently, this may be a sign that your ducts need to be cleaned. If this is the case, you will want to call your local air duct cleaning company to clean your ducts. Cleaning the ducts will help to ensure that the air you are breathing in your home is clean.
3. Adding a UV Light
Another great way to ensure that your home is healthy and fresh is to have a UV light installed in your HVAC system. UV lights come on and kill any germs or bacteria in your air. This is great to ensure that the air is completely clean. UV lights can kill almost anything, including the coronavirus. Having one installed is affordable and will do wonders for the health of your family.
4. Getting an Air Purifier
If you want to make sure that the air is fresh and healthy, you should consider purchasing an air purifier. Air purifiers have filters that will trap bacteria, allergens, and mold. The air purifier not only scrubs the air clean but also helps to eliminate any odors that may be lurking in your home. There are many options when it comes to air purifiers. You can get a whole-house air purifier, or you can get small purifiers for each room.
With just these few steps, you can ensure that the air in your home is clean and healthy. When the air in your home is clean and healthy, so is your home. Just remember to do all that you can to minimize allergens and bacteria from coming into your home.
Having unwanted pests around your home can create major problems. Not only are the pests bothersome, but they can also do a lot of damage to your home. The good news is that there are several ways that you can prevent animals from damaging your property.
The best thing that you can do to prevent rodents from damaging your property is to clean up. Get rid of all of the debris and clutter. Pick up everything that might attract critters. If the area around your home is clean, then it will be less attractive to critters. Clean carpets will also prevent pests from taking up residence.
Secure the Trash
Critters are attracted to trash. That is why if you have a trash can outside of your property, then you will need to make sure that it is secured. Food waste should be put in a compost bin. You may also want to put the trash cans in your shed and garage. If you don’t have a shed or garage, then you should tie up the garbage cans.
Invest in a Chimney Cap
If your property has a chimney, then you should put a cap on it. This will not only keep the critters out, but it will also keep the rain out.
Get a Dehumidifier
Rodents tend to dwell in places that are humid and damp. You should invest in a dehumidifier. You should put a dehumidifier in the most humid places of your home, which are the attic, basement, or crawl space. A dehumidifier can keep the critters out.
Avoid Leaving the Food Out
Rodents and pests tend to go from place to place looking for food. That is why it is important for you to avoid leaving food out. If you have leftover food, then you will need to put it in a container. You should wash your dishes as soon you have finished cooking or eating. Additionally, you should wipe down your counters.
Keep in mind that pet food can also attract pests. You should feed your pets at specific times. Pick up the food as soon as your pet has finished eating.
Make All of the Necessary Repairs
A pest can enter through the small holes in your home. If there are any parts of your home that need to be repaired, then you should make them as soon as possible. You will also need to seal the cracks around the foundation and walls.
Hire a Pest Control Company
To be absolutely sure that pests, rodents, and other small animals stay outside where they belong. A professional pest control company will have the knowledge, expertise, and equipment to ensure that pests go away and stay away.
The exterior of a home conveys to passersby how much the owners care about their property. If you’re trying to sell your home, curb appeal can encourage prospective buyers to take a closer look.
The meaning of curb appeal
Curb appeal is how attractive a home appears to someone when it is looked upon from a street distance. A freshly-cut lawn and trimmed hedges make the exterior of any home stand out.
Improving the curb appeal of your home
People can’t help but smile when they see that the exterior of a home is well kept. The good news is that your house can be a tiny one, a mansion, or somewhere in between. Take a little time to enhance its curb appeal. When you do, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the difference it can make in how you and others view your home. What’s more, curb appeal always adds benefits you can measure in terms of home value.
Handle those unattractive aspects around your property
Since you’re used to seeing your home from the outside every day, you might miss what a passerby who has never before seen your home notices. To get a reality check, take pictures of every side of your home. Doing so will help you bring distracting elements into focus.
Specifically, pay attention to:
- Cracking concrete
- Fencing in disrepair
- Graffiti on structures and walkways
- Overgrown grass and weeds
- Too plain of a yard, not interesting
- The trash in the yard and overfilled trash cans
As you can tell, many of those things mentioned are simply exterior upkeep. Fixing them will help you make a great impression when you’re trying to sell your home. With our busy lives, it’s easy to get distracted. However, if you make improvements to your home’s exterior, buyers will take notice.
Public property is another matter. Typically, maintaining clean sidewalks and pothole-free streets in front of your home is the city’s responsibility. To get the debris removed or street repairs completed, call the city and put in a request for maintenance.
A plain exterior needs sprucing up
A bare exterior can cause a home to be overlooked just as much as one with many unattractive elements. If your home’s exterior looks clean but is on the plain side, liven it up. Add some color with flowers, a few complimentary shrubs, maybe even a fruit tree. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. Just by making a few plant additions, you’ll add to your home’s curb appeal.
Powerwash exterior surfaces
This is one of the easiest things you can have done to your home. Matter of fact, hiring a pressure washing service is the best way to bring any dull surface back to life.
Use a professional exterior cleaning service to wash your home:
You don’t want to try to handle an HVAC problem on your own. You need an HVAC contractor. However, you have to choose the right contractor. You will need to consider the following before you hire an HVAC contractor.
Proper Licensing And Credentials
It is illegal for an HVAC contractor to work without the proper credentials and licensing. However, some will try to do it anyway. You should make sure that your HVAC contractor is licensed and possesses the proper credentials. Hiring someone who is inexperienced may initially be cheaper, but it can cost you a lot more in the long run. You will have to hire a professional to fix the problem because an inexperienced person likely won’t do the job the correct way.
Better Business Bureau Rating
The Better Business Bureau is an organization that helps people find businesses that they can trust. You should check with the Better Business Bureau before you hire a contractor. If the contractor is reliable, then they will have an A+ rating from the Business Bureau Bureau.
HVAC contractors are trained to fix just about any type of problem that your HVAC system has. However, some contractors have more experience in certain areas than others. That is why it is important to find a contractor who has been trained to fix the specific issue that your HVAC system has. For example, if you have a commercial HVAC issue, then you should choose a contractor that has been trained to fix those issues.
You want to choose a contractor who is within the price range that you have set. HVAC contractors should be transparent about their pricing. Any estimate that you get should be in writing. However, you should not choose a company that charges you the lowest price. The price may reflect the type of service that you will get.
HVAC contractors will try their best to make sure that mishaps do not occur. However, they can still happen. That is why an HVAC contractor should have insurance to cover any mishaps that occur. If they don’t have insurance, then you may be the one who is responsible for paying for the damages.
HVAC problems do not always occur during normal business hours. They may occur late at night or on the weekends. That is why it is important to choose someone who offers emergency services.
Visit https://modernmechhvac.com/ to learn more.
In order to have a healthy environment for you and your family to live in, you must clean your home. If you want your home to be as clean as possible, you need to use eco-friendly cleaning techniques. Here are five eco-friendly cleaning tips.
Make Your Own Cleaners
You don’t need to purchase cleaners from the store in order to thoroughly clean your home. You can actually make your own cleaners fairly easily. If you want to make an all-purpose cleaner, you need to mix four tablespoons of vinegar and two tablespoons of borax with 3 cups of very hot water. You can put this mixture in a spray bottle to clean your counters or cabinets. If you are wanting to make a window cleaner, you simply need to mix one part vinegar with one part water.
Read Ingredients On Products That You Use
If you already have store-bought cleaners on hand that you want to use, you really should read the ingredients first. Even if the label says it’s safe to use, you might find that it isn’t green or eco-friendly. This is why you need to read the ingredients on the packaging of the products. If you come across any ingredient that you aren’t familiar with, you can simply search online to find out if it’s safe. If you find that the product isn’t eco-friendly, you are better off not using it.
Freshen up Your Carpet With Baking Soda
It’s not uncommon for carpets to develop an odor, and they may need to be freshened up. Fortunately, you don’t have to turn to harmful chemicals to do this. Baking soda can get rid of odors that are being emitted from your carpet. Just sprinkle a few tablespoons on it, let it sit for several minutes, and vacuum your carpet.
The Power of Steam
Steam cleaning is a completely non-toxic and powerful method. Steam breaks up everything from baked-on food on kitchen surfaces, to mold and mildew in bathrooms. There are several steam-cleaning machines on the market that make this easy to do yourself. If you employ professional cleaners, be sure that they use steam cleaning methods for disinfecting and sanitizing rather than harsh chemicals. Steam carpet cleaning is the preferred method for many companies.
Use Natural Items To Freshen The Air
Your house may not smell as good as you’d like it. Don’t use an air freshener to add a fragrance to your home. Turn to natural items. Boil orange peels, cinnamon sticks, or cloves. You could also try baking a cake or cookies in order to create a sweet aroma in the air. If you like foliage, consider adding some indoor plants that emit an odor like Peace Lilies.
Don’t Bring Toxins Inside With You
You can have an eco-friendly home by not bringing toxins inside with you. Leave your shoes by the front door. They can track in dirt, animal feces, and basically anything that you have walked on throughout the day. Change your clothes as soon as you get home, and place them in the washing machine. They can be filled with things like bacteria and germs.
Cleaning and maintaining a dirt-free space is a necessity for healthy home living. But, many people either do not have the time or energy to do this work themselves. This leaves a great market for entrepreneurs looking to start a profitable cleaning service. Whether you’re offering maid and janitorial services, carpet cleaning or just don’t mind getting your hands dirty, here are five tips to starting a new cleaning business.
Make sure you have the necessary funding
Luckily, there is little experience required in starting a cleaning business. All you need is determination and a little patience. Still, you need to decide how you want to finance your new business to ideally keep startup costs low and debt at a minimum. Though it depends on how big you want your service to be, common budgetary items include buying cleaning supplies in bulk and securing transportation. There may also be necessary business permits or licenses required to operate your specific service for a public market. Make sure you do your research ahead of time to see if your service falls into this category.
Target the right audience
The competition in the cleaning service industry can be strong. With so many businesses providing services, understanding your target audience and what they want is crucial. If you don’t have adequate transportation at the start to carry supplies, creating a circle of clients within walking distance will be key. Though it’s important to get clients, you should also be selective in the jobs you take. Quality over quantity!
Register your business
Once you begin making over a few hundred dollars a month, you may want to consider registering your business to begin reporting income to the IRS. There are many ways to structure your business, including becoming a sole proprietor, an LLC or a partnership. If you are working with corporate clients, it’s also necessary to have all proper tax documentation on hand if asked for.
Give each job a personal touch
Regardless of what kind of service you’re offering, clean like you’re cleaning your own living room or office space. Clients will also appreciate a service that goes the extra mile, whether that’s putting a little more TLC into the bathrooms or leaving a personalized card to call for the next cleaning.Check out http://brevardtilecleaning.com/.
Establish your brand
Though advertising through flyers, the internet and other channels of communication can be beneficial, word of mouth marketing remains key, especially in the cleaning service industry. Satisfied clients will be more than happy to sing your praises to friends, so consider asking them to write a review. The worst they could say is no!
Allergies can precipitate numerous untoward symptoms and make an individual’s day-to-day life uncomfortable. In many instances, these bothersome ailments are caused by particles like dirt, dust, pollen, pet dander and other air pollutants. Fortunately, however, those afflicted with these maladies might be able to reduce incidents or overcome them by executing the following changes and practicing these relatively simple do-it-yourself cleaning methods:
Healthcare professionals recommend that everyone, especially allergy sufferers vacuum their homes at least twice per week. That said, the homeowner in question is strongly encouraged to use an apparatus equipped with a High-Efficiency Particulate Air, or HEPA filter. These products possess the capacity to collect even the tiniest dirt or dust particles and prevent said substances from re-circulating into surrounding air.
Promptly Eliminate Mold
Mold is a potentially dangerous substance that forms in places prone to excessive moisture, such as bathrooms, basements and attics. Homeowners with allergies are urged to have less frequented spaces like attics and basements examined for leaks and make execute immediate remediation is such issues are detected. Moreover, said subjects are advised to routinely clean bathroom tiles and components. Furthermore, they should periodically but thoroughly wash shower curtain.
Increased clutter, such as boxes, piles of papers and books stacked atop tables and desks provides additional venues for particles like dirt and dust to gather.
Never Air Dry Laundry
Individuals who do not own a clothes dryer and strongly urged to bring said articles to a laundromat. When clothing is air-dried, said items are liable to collect large quantities of dirt, dust, pollen and other allergens capable of circulating in the open air.
Consider Throwing Out Carpeting
Individuals stricken with allergies are encouraged to consider getting rid of their home’s carpeting. Rugs are a breeding ground for dirt, dust and many other irritants. Should finances permit, said subjects are urged to replace rugs with hardwood floors. Alternatively, you can have your carpets professionally cleaned.
A Kansas City, MO carpet cleaner can help to thoroughly remove allergens.
Run Air Conditioner During The Summer
Opening the windows and allowing fresh air to enter one’s home is a solid way to save money. However, this practice can prove detrimental to allergy sufferers because said action allows various air pollutants to enter. Operating the air conditioner not only provides significant cooling but eliminates associated humidity and prevents irritants from penetrating the air.
Avoid Using Scented Cleaners
Cleansing products with scented fragrances should not be used by persons with allergies. Though aromatic, such substances have been known to trigger untoward allergy symptoms.
If you’ve got an oriental rug that’s lost some of its luster, chances are that it’s just picked up a lot of dirt and dust over the years. Cleaning it is sure to restore some of its former vitality. The easiest way to do it is by taking it to a rug cleaner who uses giant machines to extract the dirt, and a centrifuge to extract the water. Alternatively, you could hire an oriental rug cleaning service to come to your location. But it’s not necessary to go through that expense when you can easily clean it at home.
Equipping yourself for this job is easy. You’ll need some dish soap and a bucket, a squeegee, and a rug beater. If you don’t have a rug beater, there are several other things you can use, such as a wooden spoon, a whisk, or a baseball bat. You are going to be beating it, after all!
First, take the rug outside where giant plumes of dust aren’t going to bother anybody; and for the sake of your own breathing, try to use a simple painter’s mask like you’ll find at Home Deport or any auto part store. Hang the rug up on a clothesline, a fence, or if you see a good one, a heavy branch (hopefully as horizontal a branch as you can find).
With the rug hanging at equal lengths on either side, use your rug beater or substitute and hit it with flat strokes evenly over the entire thing. Do this on both sides. If it’s been a while since you’ve done this – and it’s likely to be, as it only needs to be done once a year – be prepared to stand back and avoid getting the dust in your eyes. You’re likely to create a massive cloud of dirt. Shake it from about halfway up the rug, and again from near the top. This will release any remaining dirt and dust that settled back on to it. In some cases you may have to beat it again.
Next, sponge it off with very soapy water on both sides. This will take some time, but you want to make sure both sides are soaked right through. Now spray it with a garden hose, being sure you don’t stop until the water runs clear. Then squeegee it until all excess water is removed. You don’t want to leave any water in the fibers, or you’ll create mold on the underside when you lay it back down.
Now, you’ll need to let it dry. Depending on how large your rug is, and how thick, this can take an entire day of hanging in the sunlight.
Caring for your oriental rug once it’s back inside and in place will help maintain the color of the rug and minimize its wear. Rotate the rug every couple of months, and in the case of rugs with a lot of fringe on the ends, flip it. This will keep the fringe from getting knotted and minimize wear. Direct sunlight over an extended period of time can fade the colors, so keep the sun off of it whenever possible. Changing the room around so traffic is directed to keep people off the rug will help it to wear more evenly.
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Despite a shrinking economy in the first quarter and outright declines for consumer spending and manufacturing in April, the May jobs report delivered the fourth-straight monthly gain above 200,000, with nonfarm payrolls jumping 217,000. This is the best four-month increase since late 1999. And finally — after five years — total U.S. payrolls rose above the previous employment peak set in January 2008. (On the 10th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s death, it’s worth noting that the Gipper’s supply-side policies reclaimed all the lost jobs from the 1981-82 recession in a matter of months.) As for the unemployment rate, it held steady at 6.3 percent. And the underemployment rate (U-6) dropped a tenth to 12.2 percent.
So overall, this was a positive report. And it’s good to see more Americans working. But there are still some serious warts in the jobs story.
One of those warts is a low 2.1 percent wage gain for the workforce. Wage growth for the last couple of years has been stuck around 2 percent. Even optimistic economist Mike Darda calls this “unimpressive take-home pay.” Worker wages are barely running ahead of inflation.
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Another blemish in the jobs picture is the rock-bottom employment-to-population ratio. It’s sitting at only 58.9 percent, versus a pre-recession peak of 63.4 percent. And the labor-force participation rate didn’t move in May. It’s stuck at 62.8 percent.
Looking at working-age demographics, some believe there’s a jobs gap of nearly 7 million. And economist Scott Grannis notes that while private-sector jobs have been growing at roughly 2 percent for years, productivity has slumped to less than 1 percent.
So putting it all together, overall economic growth is still trapped in a sub-par growth zone. And it will remain there, Grannis says, “unless and until policies in Washington become more growth-friendly (e.g. reduced tax and regulatory burdens).”
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Aha! Growth-friendly policies.
As you know, this is an election year. So let’s see where the two political parties stack up on the subject of growth.
The Democrats want a minimum-wage hike. That may sound great on the surface, but it’s actually a big job loser for the least-skilled and poorest among us. President Obama and his EPA have launched a war on coal, which will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs if implemented. And then there’s Obamacare, which the CBO estimates will cost at least 2.5 million jobs.
Not a lot of growth-friendly policies coming from the Democrats.
But what of the Republicans? Where are their growth policies? Alas, with some notable individual exceptions, I fail to see a united GOP growth message.
The YG Network, chaired by Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, has put out a white paper called “Room to Grow.” Nice title. But the chapter on tax reform actually attacks supply-side economics, and it never even mentions corporate tax reform.
Readers know that corporate tax reform is my single-favorite pro-growth policy. Actually, I’d like to abolish the corporate income tax altogether — including all the cronyist, big-government special favors, carve-outs, deductions, and exemptions. Out with all the K Street mischief.
You know who the biggest winners would be? Wage earners. That’s right. Corporations don’t pay taxes. They merely collect, and then pass on the tax cost in the form of lower wages and higher consumer prices.
Want to maximize wages? Forget the minimum wage and embrace corporate tax reform.
Know which European country has the fastest growth rate right now, at 3 percent? Great Britain. And the Brits have a 20 percent corporate tax rate. Compare that to our 35 to 40 percent rate.
It’s no secret why corporate profits are going overseas, and thus destroying American jobs at home. High corporate tax rates.
I go back to the work of Laurence J. Kotlikoff, economics professor at Boston University. In his models for the elimination of the U.S. corporate tax, the real wages of unskilled and skilled workers rise by 12 percent, real GDP growth increases 8 percent, and capital investment soars 23 percent.
In other words, significant U.S. corporate tax reform would jack up wages and jobs — predominantly middle class wages and jobs. It would attract investment from all over the world. And to U.S. companies that shelter profits overseas, we’d be able to say, “Come home to America.”
The growth impact of significant corporate tax reform would also drive up the value of the dollar and allow the Federal Reserve to normalize interest rates much more quickly. That, by the way, was the Reagan policy. It worked for two decades, producing nearly 45 million jobs and a roughly 4 percent wage growth.
Lower tax rates and King Dollar. It’s a recipe for prosperity. Will any of you Republicans who claim to be Reagan followers make that case? Where is your Reagan economic voice?
COPYRIGHT 2014 CREATORS.COM
The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by WesternJournalism.com.
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Beware Cambodia’s Europe Sanctions HypePosted by: Leadership Skills | Posted on: February 2, 2019
Beware Cambodia’s Europe Sanctions Hype
Claims of threats to the country’s sovereignty are vastly exaggerated and miss the broader point about how foreign economic relations work.
Op-Ed: The Diplomat
By David Hutt January 30, 2019
For the last 18 months, the Cambodian government has seen foreign conspiracies everywhere it looks. The largest opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was plotting
The list goes on. Two reporters for Radio Free Asia were charged with espionage in late 2017. An Australian filmmaker was convicted as a “spy” for filming a CNRP rally. There are numerous other instances of the government’s myopic mirages of Cambodians, from senior opposition politicians to jaded social media users, who are plotting its downfall.
Amid this, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) – which came in power in 1979 thanks, ironically, largely to the support of the Vietnamese military in ousting the genocidal Khmer Rouge – claims that it is the protector of peace and stability, and the only guarantor of Cambodia’s national sovereignty and independence.
Cambodia’s sovereignty, it says, is now also at stake as the European Union (EU) threatens to remove Cambodia from a preferential trade deal, unless the CPP’s political chokehold loosens. This is important. Under the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme, which grants most Cambodian exports into Europe duty-free status, Cambodia exported roughly $5.8 billion worth of goods to the EU in 2017, making Europe its largest export market and main purchaser of its most profitable products, garments and footwear.
The government’s response to possible sanctions has oscillated between victimhood and vainglory, between saying Cambodia’s economy won’t be too badly affected by the EBA’s withdrawal and saying that if the EU goes ahead with its threat, it will destroy of livelihoods of millions of Cambodians, mostly the poor. Naturally enough, the government has been steadfast in calling possible sanctions an assault on Cambodia’s national sovereignty and independence.
In reality, however, all the EU is doing is reaffirming the conditions of a benevolent trade scheme that explicitly stipulates standards on democracy, human rights, and a free society as previsions for membership. The Cambodian government doesn’t have to accept the EU’s demands, of course. Brussels isn’t threatening to physically intervene in Cambodia. Indeed, the choice is clear: The Cambodian government can do what it likes, just not if it wants the trade benefits Europe offers — and which happen to prop up Cambodia’s export-driven economy.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has recently responded with his own violent ultimatum. “If you want the opposition dead, just cut it,” he said earlier this month, referring to the EBA’s withdrawal and the death of the CNRP. “If you want the opposition alive, don’t do it and come and hold talks together.” But he stands to lose much more.
Despite the Cambodian government’s perception of hostility, is the EU’s position different from any other trade deal? When China offers Cambodia millions of dollars’ worth of loans (which is has on numerous occasions, including $600 million just last week) they come with conditions, obviously. China doesn’t say that the Cambodian government can set whatever terms it likes and then Beijing will blindly comply. No, Beijing states what amount should be paid back, with how much interest, and when, among many other conditions, some of which are controversial.
And, importantly, in order to meet these repayments, the Cambodian government must change its domestic policy. So that its national debt doesn’t grow too costly and there is enough money to make loan repayments, the government modifies its budget; it must curb spending so that it has enough capital to repay the debt. Is this an affront to Cambodia’s sovereignty? Most people, correctly, think not.
Isn’t this also the case with foreign investment? Hasn’t the Cambodian government changed its laws to attract foreign investors? One only has to look at the tax cuts, special economic zones, higher wages, and more investment in infrastructure, among other policies, that the government has introduced over the decades to boost investment.
There are other analogies, too. Cambodia is party to numerous international treaties, while it must change its domestic laws to comply with rules set by the World Trade Organization and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). What about changes of the law required by free trade deals? Are they infringements on its independence and sovereignty? The Cambodian government has never thought so.
The point is that the government often has to change its domestic laws so it can enjoy the benefits provided by trading with foreign nations. Making adaptions to stay within the EBA scheme is, on paper, no different. The only actual difference is the EU’s conditions mean the CPP will have to loosen its political stranglehold, something less palatable than tax cuts.
A few other observations. First, it is not Cambodia’s inherent right to be part of the EBA scheme; it was designed by the EU to help boost the developing economies. Second, the scheme lays out clearly what conditions must be upheld if a country wants to remain part of the deal. It isn’t as though the Cambodian government has suddenly been informed of these; they were in black-and-white when it joined the EBA scheme years ago. My colleague Luke Hunt spelled this out clearly in the Diplomat recently: “EBA is not a trade pact open to negotiations – it is a trade preference gifted to financially impoverished countries and designed to encourage democratic and social reforms more attuned with European standards, whose taxpayers are footing the bill.”
This brings up my last point. Remember, too, that many European businesses lose out because of the EBA scheme. Providing cheap Cambodian exports with duty-free status, of course, negatively impacts European producers who cannot compete with the costs. This was the chief reason why, unrelated to the EBA scheme, the EU this month imposed tariffs on Cambodia-produced Indica rice exports, so as to “safeguard” Italian and Spanish rice-growers.
As Hunt also notes, the EBA scheme costs European taxpayers, who are basically subsidizing Cambodian exporters. Is it not, then, within the sovereignty of the EU and European nations to determine who remains part of the EBA scheme or, more so, the right of European states to protect their own producers even if this comes at the cost of Cambodian workers? Interestingly enough, sovereignty and independence cut both ways.
In the end, all talk of national sovereignty and European inequity is up against a ticking clock. Factory owners in Cambodia are troubled by possibly having to pay tariffs in the future, and some appear to be bailing out, while investors also seem to be putting their money in countries other than Cambodia, where labor is now cheaper and infrastructure better. Things will only worsen as uncertainty lingers over Cambodia’s EBA status.
No one, in truth, thinks that the EU really wants to remove Cambodia from its EBA scheme out of malice; most of its politicians just want to see some political progress in the country and think economic threats are the best way of achieving it. But they have now laid down their conditions, which every policymaker in Phnom Penh clearly understands, so it is up to the Cambodian government to respond. Like with any other trade deal, the government doesn’t have to agree to them. But it ought not to get angry when it cannot have it cake and eat it, too. Isn’t there another cliché about biting the hand that feeds?
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'Another snow/ice producer' is on the way as US endures brutal blast of winter weather blamed for at least 20 deaths
An unrelenting winter weather pattern – one of the most merciless in years – showed no signs of letting up Tuesday as it left a trail of destruction, power outages and subzero temperatures across dozens of states.
And more foul weather was on the way: Another winter storm with snow and ice was forecast to pummel portions of the South and Midwest on Wednesday before slamming into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Thursday.
In all, as of late Tuesday, 115 million Americans were in the path of the next storm, all the way from Texas to Massachusetts, the weather service said.
At least 20 people have died as a result of a series of storms that moved from coast to coast over the past few days, including three in a tornado that tore through a seaside North Carolina town late Monday night.
Authorities in multiple states reported deaths in crashes on icy roads, including two people whose vehicle slid off a road and overturned in a waterway in Kentucky on Sunday, state police said. A Mississippi man died after losing control of his vehicle, which overturned on an icy road Monday night near Starkville, Oktibbeha County coroner Michael Hunt said Tuesday.
In Texas, over 3.2 million customers remained without power as of late Tuesday night, according to poweroutage.us, a tracking website. Oregon and Kentucky were both reporting more than 100,000 customers without power.
Across the middle of the U.S., another bitter cold day Tuesday brought more record-low temperatures, and additional snow was expected to bury parts of the southern Plains on Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service said.
In the Chicago area, the storm dumped up to a foot and a half of snow, shuttering schools to in-person classes as officials urged residents to stay off the snow-filled roads. Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation for Illinois.
Why is itso cold? How the polar vortex brings record low temperatures and winter storms
More power outages could be coming in Texas, the weather service said, threatening people's ability to heat their homes amid record-cold temperatures.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday said the state's National Guard had been deployed to conduct welfare checks and help bring people to one of the 135 warming centers established across the state.
The bitter cold across the state has led to some power companies being unable to produce electricity from coal, natural gas and wind because of the freezing temperatures, Abbott said.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages power for 26 million customers, said Monday that it was beginning controlled outages "to protect the electric grid from uncontrolled, cascading outages."
Tracy Liu of Austin discovered the power was off in her house at 2:07 a.m. on Monday and remained off Tuesday afternoon. “I thought it was rolling blackouts,” Liu said, adding that the city could have given better instructions. “We could have bought nonelectric heaters or other nonelectric appliances. No one was prepared for it.”
Much of east Texas was under a winter storm warning Tuesday in anticipation of the next round of snow and ice. In Dallas, the weather service said more ice and another 2 to 6 inches of snow were expected Tuesday evening.
"Ice accumulations ranging between a quarter to a half inch are possible, which would make for hazardous travel conditions, induce more power outages, and cause additional tree damage in these areas," the weather service said.
Frozen pipes? Here's how to thaw pipes during winter storms.
Forecasters in Houston, where north of the city could also see up to half an inch of ice, said the accumulations could be "potentially devastating should these amounts be even higher." Early Tuesday, a woman and a girl died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning at a home without electricity from a car running in an attached garage, police said.
At least 13 children were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, the hospital said in a social media post, which warned that families were “going to extreme measures to warm their homes” — with propane or diesel-burning engines and generators, gas ovens and stovetops.
Also in the Houston area, three children and their grandmother died in a house fire early Tuesday while it’s believed they were trying to stay warm during a power outage.
Farther south, Corpus Christi was expected to issue a boil water notice Tuesday after a major water main break. “We are experiencing a major water main break somewhere in our system and we are investigating that right now, and it’s led to low water pressure or no water service,” city spokeswoman DeAnna McQueen said.
Meanwhile, a new winter storm was expected to develop in the southern Plains on Tuesday and head for the South on Wednesday, the weather service reported.
Across the Lower Mississippi Valley and into the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, about 3 to 6 inches of snow could accumulate on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.
Parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas could see up to 8 inches of snow by Tuesday and Wednesday, local forecasters said.
The forecast office in Norman, Oklahoma, said light winds Tuesday could lead to "periods of very dangerous wind chills," dropping below negative 20 degrees in Oklahoma City and much of the northern part of the state.
The northern part of Louisiana may only see a couple of inches of snow, but nearly half an inch of ice was possible, the weather service said. More than 76,000 people were without power Tuesday morning.
"We can’t tell exactly when the thaw-out is going to happen, and the roads may go from being unsafe to safe to unsafe again so we need everybody to be very mindful of that," he said.
In Nashville, forecasters said the storm Wednesday will be "another snow/ice producer, although not of the magnitude as this past system." Memphis could also see up to half a foot of snow through Thursday.
More than 50 million people could see temperatures dip below zero during the next several days, according to the Capital Weather Gang.
On Monday, record-smashing cold accompanied the storm across the central U.S. Hundreds of daily record-low temperatures have been or will be broken during this prolonged "polar plunge," the weather service said, "with some February and even all-time low temperature records in jeopardy."
The weather service said the cold Tuesday could lead to "daily anomalies … between 35 to 45 degrees below normal."
Contributing: Jordan Culver, USA TODAY; Dian Zhang, USA TODAY; Emma Dill, Wilmington Star News; Vicky Camarillo, The Corpus Christi Caller Times; The Associated Press
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For world peace to happen, the voices of women must be heard. I know this because I listen to women. I know this because I am a woman and feel it in my bones. When women have spoken, we have been silenced. When women have spoken, we have been ridiculed, threatened, shamed, punished, beaten, imprisoned and murdered. The suppression of our voices, the decisions made behind closed doors in rooms that we continue to be prevented entry, have served to maintain and continue to escalate this violence and exclusion. Exclusion that has resulted in poverty, lack of health care, lack of access to free education, lack of freedom of choice, lack of caring for the earth, and routinely, the death of women and girls who step out of line.
For world peace to happen we need to address and change the system which has been built over centuries and which is designed to maintain a world in which men have control, and in which men control women. We are told that this is the way it has always been, that this is the way it is meant to be. Societies that have existed and do exist with women leaders, communities living in harmony, are part of hidden history. What women have accomplished as courageous leaders, as brilliant writers and scientists, as powerful athletes, as defenders of the earth, as protectors of their communities continues to be hidden. “Traditions” have been put into place that profoundly harm girls and women. The vast majority of women worldwide have faced violence and continue to be restricted in movement, in life choices, in expression of our opinion that life can be different. New forms of violence continue to be invented with impunity.
When women speak up we are told that that we are being unrealistic, unreasonable and dangerous to the correct order of society. That men are meant to be in control. Women may enforce this system to stay safe themselves. Many current religions reinforce this. Politicians reinforce this. Business owners, even teachers reinforce this. But we did not create this. When we question these rules, we are told either that “this is the way it is meant to be” or that “change takes time”. Our foremothers were told that change takes time. For centuries we have been told that change takes time. I understand now on a deeper level after watching generations being taught the same message, that this is the excuse to not face change. That we have no business speaking about this. Who made up these rules? Not women. Who is being so controlled? Women. This is patriarchy.
The system we are facing is one in which the world economy is controlled largely by men, men who have developed an economic system that breeds an obscene difference between people, with largely untaxed money held privately offshore in the hands of a very few, with corrupt government systems that have created extreme poverty, lack of medical care, unattainable education costs, ruination of the earth and increasingly vicious methods of war, with more people than ever before in forced migration, and with extinction of animals - all forming the disastrous direction we are hurtling toward - self annihilation. We are told that change is unrealistic. We know that this is not true. As women, as givers of life, as mothers of children we continue to be silenced. As women we are chastised for speaking about this control of women by men, called biased, man-haters, while boys and men continue to be taught that they have the right to silence any woman who speaks out. Girls are murdered for being in public or defying the rules of their fathers. Boys are taught that to grow into a man acceptable to other men, that they need to control women, that as men they need to protect the power of men to control the world. This is patriarchy, and this is what needs to change.
As long as the current priorities are in place, we see little change. The earth and its people are extremely and dangerously off balance, and it is the silencing of women that maintains this direction as we free fall toward ruin. With every woman and girl who is silenced, or murdered, we fall deeper. As women we know what is needed. We have a different vision. We feel, we mourn the lack of peace and security daily. We experience the closed doors, the ridicule, the violence when we step forward to say that there is another way, a way that would benefit everyone. That these simple and humanitarian measures have not been put in place long ago speaks to the selfishness of those determined to keep privileged lives for themselves, both in individual families, and on a world leadership level. If offshore moneys were taxed fairly we could solve world poverty and put in place global medical care. If we as women were to have respect with equal voice, we would rearrange priorities, ending violence, ending poverty and ending war.
For world peace and security to happen, the priorities of women need to be in place. Everyone with homes, enough food to eat, safe water to drink, forests protected. For world peace to happen we need wars to end, gun running to stop, and all forms of violence against women and girls, and against men and boys who refuse to take part in the current expectations of “manliness’, to end.
We need to change the narrative. The idea that men have the right and duty to dominate women was made up by men. It is a lie that continues to be not only told but horribly enforced. That women want to do to men what men have done to us is also a lie, promoted to undermine our intentions and to create fear of change. We need the truth of history to be brought forward. It has not always been this way, and it is not this way these days, everywhere. We need societies in which women leaders are present, and respected for the unique perspectives we have to offer. We need gentle men to step forward and teach boys that gentleness and fairness is of benefit to them as well, and that men do not have the right to ever harm women or girls. We need community meetings on every level. We need free schooling for every child on this planet, schooling that does not hide the truth of where we are at now, and that encourages moving forward together, encouraging the best in every child, education that encourages the brilliance of girls to thrive and lead the way to a different future.
We need to to live in harmony with the land. We need to live in harmony with each other. We need the truth to be told, that what has been missing for far too long, what is missing today, and what is needed for our future is the leadership of women.
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Most of us learn about basic frog reproduction in grade school. In the rain forest, red-eyed tree frogs usually mate on a leaf. Frogs lay their eggs in water, which are hatched into tadpoles and eventually grow as frogs. About fifty percent of all frogs follow these steps. There are instances when frogs cannot reproduce, causing sterility.
In this post, you’ll learn about frog reproduction and the min causes of sterility.
Here are rules of thumb that you need to know about frog reproduction.
Frogs reproduce sexually and also hatch from eggs.
Fertilization of eggs happens outside the body of the female rather than inside.
Females release their eggs and males release their sperm at the same time.
Male and female frogs get into a mating posture, which is referred to as amplexus, wherein the male climbs onto the back of the female and clasps the forelegs around the female frog’s middle.
Frogs usually stay in amplexus for several hours or a couple of days, and the female releases one or several hundred eggs.
It is easy to determine male from female frogs. In fact, many frog species are described as sexually dimorphic. It means that there are color and other physical differences between male and female frogs. In some species, male and female frogs are hard to determine. Male frogs in this species usually create a release call when they are clasped by another male frog. During the mating season, release calls are used to decipher male from female frogs.
Sterility in Frogs
Many reproductive disorders, which involve the increased occurrence of the intersex gonads and damage gametocyte growth, have been claimed in wild aquatic organisms and in the contaminated sites within the world. The study of some common potential reasons for these kinds of reproductive disorders has mostly paid attention to the environmental chemicals that interfere with estrogen. The progesterone gesture has gained very small attention regards as a main target of the disruption. However, it is the main key to a regulatory alley in the growth as well as the function of the female reproductive organs.
The synthetic progesterone is also known as the Progestins are medicines that usually used in a human as well as veterinary medicine, in contraceptives, and also in other hormonal therapies. These combinations are let out into an aquatic surrounding from the sewage medical care plants, medicine industries, and in the agricultural places like the farm animal waste.
Additional details on the result of the progestins on the aquatic animals are required to assess the danger in surroundings that effects these kinds of compounds. Progesterone is involved at a number of stages of the oogenesis. However, the process of its action remains to be as clarified. The progestogens have been proposed to be part of the following:
- The earliest period of oogenesis as well as the follicular congregation of mammals
- Becomes the vitellogenesis in the amphibians, reptiles as well as in fish
- Encouraging the final occurring of oocyte maturation.
But still, the genuine physiological prompt of the reopening of meiosis in vivo looks like to be as androgens. Since the progesterone is readily turned to androgen by the stimulant in the oocyte, the engaging role of progesterone in the last oocyte discharge seen in vitro might become the substrate for the production of androgen.
The outstanding model organism is the Xenopus tropicalis, which was used for the study of reproductive as well as the endocrine toxicity for so many reasons.
- Xenopus tropicalis is very delicate regarding endocrine-disrupting compounds.
- Xenopus tropicalis has a relatively short time, which is 6 months; it provides a unique chance, unlike with the other species of frog.
- It is closely-like to Xenopus laevis and a well-defined model for the used for studies regarding oocyte maturation. Yet, another cause must be that organization and parts of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal alliance are just the same for those like in mammals.
- Xenopus tropicalis is very fit to be the model in the experimental in some aquatic toxicology because x.tropicalis is a water-dwelling kind for the rest of their life.
Most of the amphibians, as well as the terrestrial kinds, are bred in the water that might be nearby to be vulnerable to a water-borne chemical in the course of their egg maturation cycle. However, the vulnerability setting in the latest research is somehow ecologically related.
The essence of the main intention of the latest study is to characterize the progestogenic effects on the full stage of oogenesis in the frogs and to regulate the amphibians’ reactiveness to the environmental progestogenic compounds regarding the reproducing-related reaction in females. The female Xenopus tropicalis were vulnerable to LNG with the environment water for about 7 up to 28 days after their full stage of oogenesis that includes the early cycle of meiosis as well as the complex of reproductive organs, and the subordinate characteristics of sex have been also analyzed.
It became visible to the frog that they are very tactful to progestogens. Progestogens are a type of medication that is released into the surroundings. The main subject to an abnormal ovarian and oviduct growth are the female tadpoles that usually swim in water that contains particular progestogen levonorgestrel. This might be the result of adult sterility. This becomes visible by a new study administrate at Uppsala University and issued in the journal named Aquatic Toxicology.
Almost all of the medicines that the humans are usually consumed are released from the surroundings via sewage systems. The progestogens are endocrine gland preparations that are usually used in some contraceptives, cure in cancer, and in the hormone substitute therapy for menopausal irritation. There are divergent kinds of progestogens that have been recognized in waterways in different countries.
The associate professor named Cecelia Berg and the student of doctoral named Moa Kvarnryd at the Department of Environmental Toxicology at the University of Uppsala have exhibited that the levonorgestrel can commonly cause sterility in female frogs. However, during absorption, it is not much higher than those that have been measured in the surroundings. This kind of research group is to the extent of MistraPharma, one of the world’s biggest research networks that central point on every pharmaceutical as well as the environment.
The female tadpoles that commonly swam in the water, which contains a low congregation of the levonorgestrel, shows a bigger part regarding the immature ovarian egg cells as well as lacking oviducts can be, entailing sterility. The West African clawed frog, also known as the Xenopus Tropicalis act as the main model organism. This is commonly done during the tadpole period that usually the development of every frog reproductive organs starts.
The procedure is presided over by the hormone structure. The discovery emphasizes the significance of studying how might be the pharmaceuticals can have an effect on most animals in the environment. This is one of the main purposes of MistraPharma. Their studies manifest that the pharmaceuticals other than the estrogen can become the usual reason for the permanent damage to the aquatic animals that usually unprotected during their early life periods.
When you are experiencing a hard time about breeding your frogs, it might be because of the water that they were nurtured during when they are tadpoles. There is research that recently published in the scientific journal named Aquatic Toxicology recommends that the frogs are very sensitive regarding progestogens, which are hormones that usually extend to appear as a surroundings contaminants. Sometimes these also used as a by-product in human therapeutics.
A tadpole female frog that resides in the water, which contains the lowest level of concentrations of the levonorgestrel, shows to be a greater part of being an immature ovarian egg cell. They are also considered as no oviducts, which means that they are sterile because they have the need for this vital anatomical element of their reproductive system.
The probability of danger to the wild frog populations is very clear. Progestogen-Induced infertility might lead to an unexpected or a dramatic fall down regarding the success of the reproductive in the frog population or, certainly, the species for threatening to its survival. Actually, by the time comes that the reason for the complication is finally discovered, it might actually become too late to diverse the common effects.
This is mainly because the physical has an influence on the female tadpoles that have been sterilized because of its exposure to progestogens. In this situation, it cannot be reversed. The best long-term defense to protect is for the continuing keep track of the progestogen levels in the waterways that commonly become polluted with these kinds of hormones.
There are many reasons why frogs become sterile, such as environmental and chemical factors. Also, exposure to progestogens may cause sterility among frogs. Most of the metabolites of a lot of medicines that people are commonly taking are still come into the environment beyond the sewage systems. Various kinds of progestogens have so far been recognized in a waterway in the most number of countries. That’s why tracking the progestogen levels of frogs should be carried out.
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|This was the Imperial that Henry drove with pride|
When Henry wasn't attending to my father's transportation needs, he spent most of his time at the garage of the federal office building in which my father worked, hanging out with the other drivers, and polishing his car, of which he was extraordinarily proud. And he had every right to be, because it was—in retrospect—a true beauty. Henry drove an ocean-liner-size, black-and-chrome, four-door 1958 Chrysler Imperial. For readers who are younger than Reggie, and who may not be familiar with the Imperial brand, it was the Chrysler Corporation's luxury marque brand and was positioned to compete directly with General Motors' Cadillac and Ford's Lincoln brands. The Imperial's heyday was from the late 1950s through the 1960s.
In addition to driving my father around town on business, Henry and his 1958 Imperial were also available during working hours for my father's personal, non-business related use. That included ferrying members of my family around town, too, from time to time. My mother, MD, would occasionally use Henry's services when she went out on an afternoon's shopping trip or to a ladies' social gathering. She would also sometimes have Henry pick me or my siblings up at school or at friends houses after a play date, at least when she was otherwise engaged.
I doubt that in today's far stricter times such personal use of government property and services would be allowed, but in the mid-1960s it was unexceptional, and expected. It was, in reality, the norm for quite a few of the children that I went to school with and played with, many of whose fathers were also senior government officials or appointees. Having a car and driver available to these men and their families was part of the package.
In the fall of 1966, when I was ten years old, I got carried away by having seen a Disney movie called "Almost Angels" about the Vienna Boy's Choir that was shown on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, and I auditioned for and was accepted into the Washington National Cathedral's junior boys' choir. This required attending the choir's weekday practice sessions and Evensong service performances in the Cathedral's Bethlehem Chapel. Although the Cathedral's campus was but a few blocks from our house in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, my attendance at the choir's rehearsals and services was complicated by the fact that I was enrolled in a country day school in Virginia at the time, about a forty minute's drive away. On the days when the choir was not in session I took a school bus to and from the country day school, but on the days when the choir was in session it required that someone pick me up at the school in the mid-afternoon and deliver me to the Cathedral's campus in time to attend the choir's sessions.
|The National Cathedral, where I sang as a boy|
At first this task fell upon my mother, who came and picked me up on the two afternoons a week that the choir was in session. However, she soon began to chafe at this commitment and decided that it would be far more convenient and preferable for Henry, my father's driver, to pick me up at the school and drive me to the Cathedral's campus instead. As a result, Henry and I came to know each other rather well. Henry called me "Master Reggie" and I called him, well, "Henry." This was, after all, the mid-1960s, and south of the Mason Dixon line.
I enjoyed being picked up at the school by Henry in the Chrysler Imperial and driving into the city and to the Cathedral campus in the large, shiny black car, sitting in the back seat wearing my school uniform and talking with Henry in the front, who would be wearing his uniform of a black suit, white shirt, black bow tie, and chauffeur's cap. That is, until Freddy Fonsworth, a rather mean-spirited classmate of mine, saw me being picked up one day. The next morning, in front of my other classmates, he loudly exclaimed that the car I was being picked up with was grotesquely old and laughably out of style, and that only a "stupid jerk" would ride around in such a car. I felt the hot flush of embarrassment when he said this. It had never occurred to me that the car, which was almost nine years old at the time, was so out of date versus what everyone else was driving then (this was back in the day when most affluent Americans kept their cars for no more than two or three years at a time). But once Freddy pointed it out to me I knew immediately that he was right, and that Henry's Chrysler Imperial was an outmoded, out-of-date, fin-bedecked embarrassment.
|I would have preferred at the time that Henry|
had driven a more up-to-date model
The next day, when Henry picked me up at the school, I asked him why it was that he drove such an old car, and wouldn't he prefer to drive a newer, more modern model? He responded, "Why, no, I wouldn't, Master Reggie, because there ain't no finer car than this here Imperial. They don't make 'em like this anymore. My manager keeps tryin' to get me to take a new car, but I turn him down every time he asks, because I love this car. I don't ever want to have to give her up."
Later that evening, when I came home after choir practice, I had the following exchange with my mother:
"Mummy, why don't you pick me up at school anymore, but rather send Henry to pick me up instead?"
"Because it is more convenient for me to have Henry do it. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I'd rather that you picked me up instead of Henry."
"What? I thought you of all people would enjoy being driven around in a chauffeured car! What's the matter with Henry?"
"It's not Henry . . ." I said, trailing off.
"So what's the matter, then?" she asked.
"It's that the car he drives is so old and weird looking, and it embarrasses me to be seen being picked up by it at school."
My mother rolled her eyes and snorted, and said, "For Chrissakes, Reggie, what's the matter with you? That car is the love of Henry's life and he's very proud of it. It's a wonderful car! You should be grateful that you are picked up at school and driven to choir practice by Henry—like some little Pasha. I am not going to pick you up at school simply because you are embarrassed that Henry doesn't drive a later model car. Forget it!"
|To my eyes today, the 1967 Imperial looks almost as|
antique as the 1958 model, except its blander and more boring
And so I did. But I never quite got over my embarrassment at being picked up at school and dropped off at choir practice by Henry in his enormous 1958 Chrysler Imperial. And I felt ashamed of myself for feeling that way, when Henry was so obviously proud of his car and his profession as its driver. By making fun of me in front of my classmates, Freddy Fonsworth had succeeded in sucking all the fun out of my trips with Henry, and I came to no longer enjoy them, as I was convinced that every time I got into the car's back seat I was followed by a chorus of derisive laughter from my schoolmates as they saw me drive away in the ancient, contemptible Chrysler Imperial.
I lasted only a year in the junior choir, before dropping out and resuming my normal school-day routine and traveling back and forth to school on its regularly scheduled school bus runs. I only rarely was driven by Henry thereafter, usually in the company of my mother or my father. Within a year or two my father left the Johnson administration and returned to private practice, which brought to an end his days of having a car and driver assigned to him to ferry him and his family members about town.
Today, when I see school children at Manhattan's private schools being picked up by drivers after school in black shiny cars, I recall my own experience and think how fortunate I was to have been regularly picked up at school by Henry in the afternoons when I was in the Cathedral's junior choir. And I kick myself for not appreciating at the time how fortunate I was, and that there would come a time all too soon in my life when I would only dream of having such a car and driver at my disposal.
|I got a chuckle out of the headline to this advertisement!|
Particularly if it were a triple-mint condition, perfectly maintained, gleaming black and chrome 1958 Chrysler Imperial, with Henry in the front seat prepared to take me wherever I wanted to go . . .
All vintage Imperial advertising courtesy of the Online Imperial Club; the vintage postcard is from Reggie's own collection.
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Learn about an Indonesian volcano that glows blue
in the March 2015 issue of National Geographic Kids magazine.
Explosive volcanoes also cause deadly mudflows or lahars. The strong and fast lahar rolls downhill clearing everything in its path.
Photograph by Elena Kalistratova, Shutterstock
The hottest lava, made of basalt, reaches temperatures as hot as 2140 F (1170 C). That's more than four times hotter than a kitchen oven! That's hot enough to melt many kinds of metal including gold, silver, and iron.
Photograph by RZ Design, Shutterstock
Lava creates glass called obsidian. Obsidian is usually black, very strong, and has edges sharper than steel.
Photograph by Alexey Kamenskiy, Shutterstock
How Volcanoes Form
In 1980 in Washington, after 123 years of hibernation, Mount St. Helens erupted. The blast destroyed and scorched 230 square miles (370 square kilometers) of forest within minutes. The eruption released an avalanche of hot ash, gas, steam, and rocks that mowed down giant trees up to 15 miles (24 kilometers) away.
When magma finds a way to escape from beneath the earth's surface, it creates a volcano.
Volcanoes erupt in different ways. Some, like Mount St. Helens, explode. Explosive eruptions are so powerful, they can shoot particles 20 miles up (32 kilometers), hurl 8-ton boulders more than a half mile (0.8 kilometers) away, and cause massive landslides. Explosive eruptions also create an avalanche of hot volcanic debris, ash, and gas that bulldozes everything in its path. Explosive volcanoes cause most of the volcano-related fatalities.
Volcanoes, like Mauna Loa in Hawaii, are effusive. Rather than a violent explosion, lava pours or flows out. Fatalities from effusive volcanoes are rare because people can usually outrun the lava. However, some people get too close or become trapped with no escape. The flowing lava burns, melts, and destroys everything it touches including farms, houses, and roads.
A volcanic eruption forever changes the landscape. Though volcanoes destroy, they also create mountains, islands, and, eventually, incredibly fertile land.
Carpet of Ash
Volcanic eruptions can cause damage hundreds of miles away. Volcanic ash causes airplane engines to fail, destroys crops, contaminates water, and damages electronics and machinery. The ash carpets the ground, burying everything, sometimes even causing buildings to collapse. Mount St. Helens produced more than 490 tons of ash that fell over a 22,000 square mile (56,980 square kilometer) area and caused problems in cities 370 miles (600 kilometers) away.
• The surface of the earth is called the "crust." The crust is cracked or broken into massive pieces called "plates." Magma flows beneath the crust. Volcanoes often form along the edges of where the plates meet.
• Most volcanoes and earthquakes, about 80%, happen close to where two (tectonic) plates meet.
• In the last 200 years, more than 50 volcanoes in the United States have erupted one or more times.
• The eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 created the largest landslide in recorded history.
• It may be the same hot stuff, but it's called "magma" when it's below the surface. When it's above the surface, it's called "lava."
Text by Ruth A. Musgrave
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What basis, morality?
11 May 2004
The April 2004 cover of Discover magazine poses the question, ‘Are Right and Wrong Wired Into Our Brains?’ The article’s author details the work of postdoctoral researcher, Joshua Greene, who has been studying the biochemical reactions within people’s brains when they are faced with moral decisions.
As a result of his study, Greene has discovered that clusters of neurons in the brain begin to react under an MRI scan when people are making moral judgments. From his perception of this biochemical reaction, Greene hypothesizes that our moral judgments are not based solely upon reason alone but also upon emotion. Furthermore, Greene believes that such responses are the result of millions of years of evolution and that, ‘A lot of our deeply felt moral convictions may be quirks of our evolutionary history.’1
Is Greene right? As the magazine asks, ‘Are right and wrong wired into our brains?’ The inquiry is a false one. Rather than questioning whether or not evolution has hardwired morality into our brains, the researcher should be questioning how the evolutionary hypothesis can claim anything is right or wrong at all.
For an evolutionist, life exists merely as a result of chance mutations occurring within a chemical ‘soup.’ The same primordial soup that produced human beings produced plant life, animals and all of the seemingly infinite varieties of things which we observe on earth. In such a system, there is indeed no basis for determining value for anything aside from the shifting sands of human opinion. For example, one may believe that sending airplanes into skyscrapers is evil and wrong, and another may believe that it is pleasing to God and correct. But, without a higher moral code than just one’s own beliefs, how could anyone be able to say that he or she is right and another individual is wrong? There can be no such universal principles as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in an evolutionary system as there is no higher authority for such principles than man himself—who is no more valuable than his own opinion would deem him to be.
Greene seems to recognize this problem within his evolutionary framework when he addresses people’s questions concerning morality by stating that it is simply another biochemical process. According to Greene, ‘People sometimes say to me, “If everyone believed what you say, the whole world would fall apart. If right and wrong are nothing more than the instinctive firing of neurons, why bother being good?”’
Disturbing as that question is, Greene still insists that this is what the research indicates. ‘Once you understand someone’s behavior on a sufficiently mechanical level, it’s very hard to look at them as evil,’ he says. ‘You can look at them as dangerous; you can pity them. But evil doesn’t exist on a neuronal level.’2
Greene is right. Good and evil cannot possibly exist within a world that defines everything by chance. In his evolutionary belief system, only (fallible) human preference can determine ideals of right and wrong, and such preferences may shift from society to society.
In the beginning, a holy and immutable (unchanging) God created human beings with a sense of right and wrong built into their very being. This sense of right and wrong is known as God’s moral law. God, the moral lawgiver, also revealed His moral standards more perfectly and directly following creation, by way of the Ten Commandments revealed to the children of Israel and subsequently in the New Testament through Jesus Christ.
Although man’s moral intuition has been severely damaged through the effects of sin (from the Curse of Genesis 3), each human being can see right and wrong; we are all without excuse before God and man for our evil actions.
Evil and good do objectively exist because they emanate from the fact that there is an unchanging, omniscient (all-knowing), and holy God. These are not subjective opinions invented and written down by man. Rather, ‘good’ expresses the innate characteristics of God Himself that He has built into every human being, and every human being is responsible to live up to those standards. And the absence of good defines evil.
But, evolutionary ‘science’ will likely never recognize this simple truth. While continuing in its quest to overturn the existence of God in the mind of society, it is inadvertently revealing the truth regarding the ghastly implications of evolutionary philosophy. With the Discover magazine article, we are witnessing the ‘leading edge’ of evolutionary research drawing towards the inevitable and logical conclusion that in a world without a God there is no objective basis for moral truth. There is only human preference. A frightening, anarchical proposition.
The question is, will society continue to blindly follow this flawed theory of origins and life?
- Carl Zimmer, Whose Life Would You Save? Scientists say morality may be hardwired into our brains by evolution. Discover, p. 60, April 2004. Return to text.
- Ibid, p. 64. Return to text.
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Here we are going to provide some basic safety tips on the BJJ mats to keep you and your team safe. These are all observations of things that have happened or have been avoided. We already deal with everyday soreness and creaks from the body due to the just basic training, so there is no reason to get hurt from things that are avoidable. The professors and instructors can only do so much, so we also as students hold responsibility of keeping
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a beautiful gentle art, but if not taken seriously, there are some dangers involved that can, for the most part,
General Rules of Precaution on the Mats
Don’t just continue to roll to see if others move.
- Respect higher belts and take initiative to move if you see they are about to enter your space.
- Speak up
to yourteammates if you see something about to happen.
- If you are with a lower belt, remind them of technique over strength.
- Notice your placement if you are getting close to the edge of the mat and just reset.
- Properly fall and base during rolls to prevent injury.
Be A Good Teammate on the Mats
Showing up to class and being ready to roll is great and a big part of BJJ, but also being a good student of the art means to help your fellow teammates out during rolling when times are right. Always keep an eye out for yourself and the people around you. This means that if you see an aggressive roll going on around you, move or if you are resting, buffer the people rolling to prevent them from rolling into others if needed. Also, the intensity is different for everyone, and you do not know if someone is healing from an injury, has a past injury, or is just at a low level of energy for the day. A pre-roll talk of how hard you want to go is not a bad idea if you feel the need, especially if it is a new student or someone you have
Mindful Concepts For BJJ Training
These are just some concepts that I have seen that keep people safe while doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at Casarez BJJ in Cary, NC. I personally have decided to adopt these tactics while rolling to keep myself safe and others. I would say it is common knowledge for many who have been doing this for a while, but anyone new to the sport must realize each gym is different. The biggest takeaway from this post is simply being mindful of your space while on the mats. Having both kids
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Urban survival is basically an oxymoron. If you have extensive survival or military training, it is possible – but the chances of making it through a SHTF disaster for even an above average person in a city environment, is exceedingly slim.
There are plenty of reports on the internet attempting to teach you how to survive in an urban environment, and a plethora of others urging you to “bug out to the woods” – following the instructions and advice in many of those types of pieces will likely get you and those you love, killed.
If you are looking for a report that is simply going to reinforce your plans to ride out the apocalypse in a city or to get potentially life-saving advice on how to do it, this article is not going to do that. Nope, it is going to give you the cold hard truth and hopefully, the type of brutally honest guidance you need to begin making a feasible plan to survive a long-term disaster.
Top 8 Reasons Why Urban Survival Isn’t Possible
Once the power goes out or the grid fails, as it ultimately will in any type of disaster, you will have no way to get water to drink, to wash, or for use in food preparation other than rainwater collection. Does it rain every day? No, yet you need to consumer water every day.
Going without water for three days is long enough to cause severe dehydration or even death. You will not be the only city dweller desperate to set up bowls and buckets on the apartment building rooftop to collect rainwater. Do not think another panicked human being with an equally dire need for water would not kill you over a bucket containing only a few ounces of water.
Your only other options for water (because all available bottled water will disappear from store shelves just a few hours after a disaster, at best) is using a LifeStraw or similar device to suck water out of any puddle you find. Decorative water features and fountains will contain dirty and likely chemically treated water that a LifeStraw could filter enough to make it safe to drink, but you have to beat hundreds to thousands of other people to the water source first.
Reason #2: Food
Urban gardening and homesteading is a positive and growing trend, but that food would have to be protected by armed individuals for it to not disappear just about as quickly as water when a disaster hits. Unless you live right next to an urban community garden, the chances of you reaching it before the food is gone, or even reaching it safely once the growing plots have been raided, are just about zero.
Growing food inside your apartment or townhouse, or other type of urban dwelling that could even have a tiny backyard, would be your saving grace for a brief amount of time. If others in your neighborhood, even folks you think of as friends or nice acquaintances, beat you home from work, your food source could disappear before you get to harvest what can be pulled and take it inside the home.
Do not underestimate the desire to stay alive and protect the family that everyone will be feeling, folks who never thought of stealing anything before in their lives could be reduced to it in an instant. You could always forage, even in the city wild edibles are growing.
But, there are several downsides to foraging in an urban environment during a SHTF situation. The first thing to consider is safety, any time you are out in the open you are a target for attack and the theft of whatever you risked your life to find. Second, the weeds and other wild edibles you could find to eat are most likely contaminated with chemical pesticides municipal employees have sprayed to eliminate them from sidewalks and parking lots.
You could go to the part to potentially find a greater abundance of wild edibles in one space, but those plants and weeds have also been sprayed with chemical pesticides and the competition for them will increase the danger you will face while bending over to pick them and then tote them home.
Reason #3: Food Preparation
Let’s say you were an avid indoor and outdoor vertical gardener who has a crop ready to harvest and was able to scurry it inside before it was taken. Now what are you going to do with it? Sure, you can eat fruits and veggies raw, but they should be washed first and you have no or precious little, water.
Did you grow protein-rich crops to help keep you strong and healthy during a disaster? If not, you better have plenty of long-term storage food tucked away inside your limited storage space. Unlike rural or even suburban preppers who understand the value of a survival homestead, you cannot keep even small livestock at your home or have access to hunting and fishing areas to supplement your stockpiled food.
Most varieties of long-term storage food require the addition of hot water. You do not have a heat source and again have no or only a tiny and unsustainable amount of water. If you insist upon living in an urban environment and want to prep, your best chance of staving off starvation is to use every single inch of space that you can to stockpile long-term storage food and water.
If you live in a small apartment, use floor to ceiling wall shelves in each room to store your preps. Will this look very unappealing, especially when non-prepping guests come over. Yep, but do you want to attempt to survive in the city, or not? This is the type of stockpiling that will be required to get your through a short term disaster, and to provide you with the food and water you need to flee via vehicle immediately after it strikes.
The feasibility of fleeing the city either by vehicle or by foot and where to go if you get out, is a topic that will be covered in greater detail below. In order to be able to prepare food and boil water, purchase a camping stove and an ample supply of the propane tanks necessary for it to operate.
Remember, the prepping motto, “One is none and two is one” and buy two camping stoves and spare parts. Are you cringing right now thinking about where you are going to put 10 long-term food storage buckets, 36 cases of water, and the camping stove you need to attempt survive even a short-term disaster? Good. That’s means you are an intelligent person determined to learn how to develop a survival plan that will actually work.
Reason #4: Energy
As noted above, expect the power to go out if not immediately, within days after an apocalyptic event. The vast majority of metropolitan areas would not permit a resident to live off grid. When the power goes out, how will you heat your home, boil water to make it safe to drink, light the home, and prepare food?
The camping stove will be a viable option as long as the propane tanks don’t run dry. Unlike rural and suburban preppers, you cannot purchase a multi-fuel generator and have it hard-wired to power the essentials inside the home – nor can you have a wall-mounted propane heater or wood burning stove to keep your warm or boil water and prepare food upon. If you are lucky, you have an apartment or townhouse with at least a fireplace.
A fireplace is not efficient enough to properly heat a home, especially during the winter. If you close off all the rooms except the one the fireplace is in and have stockpiled wood (you still have storage space, right?) you will not freeze. You could burn your furniture, but it will release toxic fumes because it is treated wood and would require the opening of a window, at the very least – which would let the cold in.
What could you do for light and heat if you live in an urban environment during a disaster? Purchase a small portable and lightweight solar generator and place it on your balcony or fire escape (you better guard it 24/7 or it will probably be stolen) so you can run an electric space heater and a few lamps – as long as the solar generator is getting enough sun.
Reason #5: Freedom of Movement
If you live in an apartment building, as most city dwellers do, the elevator will not work after the power goes out. Your only means of exiting and entering the property will be via the stairs or fire escape. Not only will this be a time-consuming and labor intensive process, it will also be a highly dangerous proposition.
Any thug desperate for, well, anything to help them survive or steal to use for barter, will be waiting in the stairway or on the fire escape.Common street thugs will be willing, heck some may be eager, to physically attack you, rape your, and claim your apartment as their own. We have all seen the looting and violence that takes place during riots on the news – those scenes will seem mild compared to the civil unrest that will occur during a disaster situation.
Reason #6: Medical Emergencies
You will not be able to call 911 for help during a long-term disaster. Stockpiling over-the-counter and prescription medications, as well as common first aid items, will be essential to your very survival. You still have enough storage space left for all the medical preps you will need to treat anything from small injuries up to a gunshot wound, right?
Reason #7: Weapons
Hopefully you already have your concealed carry weapons (CCW) permit. If you do not, get it ASAP. You must store enough weapons, handguns, rifles, shotguns, ammunition, knives, and even bows and arrows, to protect what is yours, yourself when you leave your dwelling, and to get out of the city when you finally have to admit survival in an urban environment is not possible.
Do you know how to use all of these types of weapons? If not, learn. Do you have space to store them? Ammunition, the amount you will need in order to survive, takes up a lot more space than you might think. You will also need to stockpile spare parts for your guns, learn how to fix problems on your own, and ideally, purchase reloading equipment and learn how to use that as well.
Unlike in rural areas, and even many suburban areas, you will probably be surrounded by more bad guys with guns than good guys and gals with legal guns. Let this fact sink in for a little bit, and then start contemplating how you could relocate for your work or work from home in either the same career or a new one so you could move somewhere safer, with an abundance of natural resources, and be surrounded by like-minded and prepared individuals.
Reason #8: Bugging Out
Hesitation will kill your quicker than a lack of food, sleeping cold, or even a lack of water. If you think you must live in a city for work and access to quality medical care (which does not have to be true) then you must have an exit strategy, one that has been practiced excessively, allowed for obstacles, and includes a backup contingency plan.
If you wait, hoping that help is on the way, that local heroes in blue will be able to get things under control, or simply because the situation in front of you has frightened you into a state of immobility, you will die. When a disaster strikes there will be a brief moment of collective shock, this is when you need to go if you are going.
Once the shock wears off and the thousands or tens of thousands of your neighbors fully grasp the catastrophe that has occurred, it will not be safe to be out on the street and the roads will be clogged worse than any traffic jam you have ever experienced. Fleeing when the rule of law no longer exists in society will make you and your family not only a target if trying to leave the city on foot with only what you can carry, but when you are stopped on the road in jammed traffic.
What do you think the odds are of you either not running out of gas when stuck in stagnant traffic or finding a gas station that is either still functional or with pumps that are not already dry? You can stockpile fuel in your trunk, but when a bad guy or bad girl decides to attack you while you are stuck in traffic and take it, you will be on foot in an environment that is just as dangerous as the one you left a few miles back in the city.
Let’s say you do get out, you leave quickly and beat hundreds of other panicked drivers trying to escape the city – where will you go? Please, please, I am begging you, do not simply, “bug out to the woods” or “bug out to the country.” Only those with expert survival skills would make it living in the woods, and even such learned preppers or veterans would still be facing possibly insurmountable obstacles.
Every state park or national park in the country will become filled with frightened (temporary) survivors who left their homes with nowhere to go. Instead of a threat being present around every street light, it will now be lurking around every tree. If you know how to hunt and are lucky enough to bag a deer before the population is overly taxed and disappears, that guy behind the tree could be willing to kill you for it, or at least hurt you to get it.
Simply because the water in a stream or pond in the woods, state park, or national park is clear, that does not mean it is safe to drink. You will have to pack both enough survival gear and knowledge to garner clean water, food, wild edibles, to build a shelter (the cabins and tents at the park will disappear quickly and you might have to fight to the death to keep it) build a fire, etc.
So many novices trying to shoot game and build fires will likely lead to copious amounts of accidental deaths and even destroy the very woods you counted on to keep you alive. As for the “bugging out to the country” faux survival plan, that can get you killed as well.
Do not think for a single moment all of the millions of country folks like myself will not be standing armed on the country line to prevent the marauding hordes – good people or not, from the city AND the suburbs, from coming into our area. We will protect our natural resources fiercely because the lives of those we love depend on it.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume you were lucky enough to get to a state park in time to set up a camp or score a cabin to stay in. How long will the food you carried in on your back keep you alive? Would it last long enough to kill enough wild game and find enough wild edibles that no one could take from you, and preserve it until you could plant crops with the seeds you carried in and tend to them without getting them stolen?
What if the SHTF event occurred during the winter? Now, that changes things a bit doesn’t it. Although there are fewer of them, wild edibles do grow in the winter. Not all game hibernates, so you could still hunt. But the readily available food sources you were counting on to supplement what you carried in and planned on growing, will be significantly diminished.
I recently read an article about urban survival that tried really hard to find some pros to add to a long list of cons. I think I laughed out loud several times when the write made some urban to rural prepping environment comparisons.
First, the preparedness writer claimed it would be a lot easier to scavenge needed materials like scrap metal, fencing, and batteries in the city. This guy really must have not spent much time away outside of the city if he does not think most country folks keep ample of this type of scrap around in their backyards, pole barns, or at one of the many junk and scrap yards that dot the rural landscape like chain-stores do in metropolitan areas.
The second survival-related chuckle I was unable to stifle was when the writer claimed urban buildings will be better at stopping bullets because they are made out of concrete. Urban buildings sure are taller and yes, some boast incredibly thick concrete that will provide protection from incoming fire, but a lot of country folks build their homes out of poured concrete walls because of both cost and to keep the interior of the home cool in the summer.
There are also many brick homes and log homes that were built with either a concrete wall covered by thin timber or incredibly thick hardwood. One of the major differences between urban dwellings and suburban and rural ones is that we can walk out onto our acre or into spacious backyards without the threat posed by a dense population that has struggled with a high crime rate by taking only a few steps, not thousands of steps down a pitch black stairwell into the dangerous unknown.
The goal of this article is not to lambaste your plans to try to survive in an urban environment, but to educate you about what it will take, so you can devise a better plan and join the rest of the prepared Americans who already know living in a city is a recipe for death during a SHTF event. We want you to join us in the survivor’s club, so you have some major life decisions to begin making…right now.
If you absolutely cannot move (and really, I think that you could if you made some lifestyle choices that would likely greatly benefit your overall health and quality of living in the end), consider buying rural land and creating a real bugout retreat or leasing space from a rural resident who is willing to let you park a camper on the land year round.
You need somewhere to go and store the survival items you need and a space to learn and hone the survival skills you and your family will need to make it through the doomsday event and beyond.
Build up a relationship with the community where you buy or the person you are leasing from, get your face seen around town and always carry proof that your own or lease in the area so you can make it across a security guard after the SHTF.
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There's a really fascinating conversation going on at Ta-Nehisi's place about morality vs. self-interest and people's motivations. It's a debate that's sprung up in the wake of the passing of Proposition 8. Really, go read it (And comment if you want!). I did want to highlight one part of the argument (that I somewhat disagree with) because I think it ties into some issues about theatre that we discuss on this blog from time to time.
I don't think people really do things--en mass and maybe even individually--that isn't in their interest. I don't believe whites began supporting Civil Rights in the 60s strictly out of an attack of moral conscience--they were notinterested in being a member of a community which sanctioned the fire-hosing of children. It's clear that Jim Crow and segregation worked to the immediate advantage of some white people, but I've never believed that it worked to the long-term advantage of most white people. The price of international embarrassment, of essentially shrinking the middle-class, of destroying valuable brain-power, of sowing resentment amongst a substantial minority of the populace, of creating ghettos is high.
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The central ambition in The keys to life to tackle health inequalities – in access to healthcare and life expectancy remains critical. Social care will continue to play an important role in the lives of many people with learning disabilities.
However, unlocking futures and enabling people with learning disabilities to realise their full potential is about more than that. The vast majority of people with learning disabilities now live in the community and want to play their full part in it. Young people with learning disabilities today have vastly different expectations than they did just a generation ago.
Our refreshed approach acknowledges these changes and challenges.
It will take a whole system, whole population and whole person approach.
Our approach stretches across local and national government, the third and private sectors. Within Government we are working hard to ensure that the needs of people with a learning disability are discussed across a wide range of Scottish Government policies and are properly embedded in some of our key strategies:
Our approach is about the whole life journey from childhood to older age and addresses key elements of that journey from health and social care support to education, housing and employment – and beyond.
Our approach is about the whole person, recognising the capabilities and talents of people with learning disabilities as well as the challenges they face. We also understand how important relationships and communication are for the wellbeing of people with learning disabilities, both personal and professional.
A rights based approach
People with a learning disability have human rights and our approach continues to be rooted in recognising those rights, reflecting the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Scottish National Action Plan on Human Rights (SNAP) commitment to Participation, Accountability, Non-discrimination, Empowerment and Legality (the PANEL approach).
A Fairer Scotland
The Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework commits us to being a society that treats all of our people with kindness, dignity and compassion and to working with local government to deliver a fairer Scotland.
We will continue to work with our strategic partners, the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability and the Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory and with a wide range of delivery partners across the third, public and private sectors.
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Film no. 12 was going to be Against the Wind but given George Baker’s death yesterday, I thought we’d look at one of his two Ealing appearances, in The Ship that Died of Shame, a taut and engrossing film with supernatural overtones. (Baker’s other Ealing film, 1956’s The Feminine Touch will also be featured soon). This film tells the tale of a wartime ship and her crew who find themselves on the wrong side of the law in the uncertain landscape of post-war Britain. There are echoes of The Cruel Sea here, not least in the source material (the film is based on a novel by Cruel Sea author Nicholas Monsarrat) and the focus on the central relationship between ships officers and the ship that they serve on. But to my mind this film is in a different league from that earlier Ealing naval tale, with stronger performances, a taut central narrative that is well told visually and, frankly, a fantastic title.
[a quick tangent: film titles are curious things. Of the films featured here so far, the titles have included the prosaic and straightforward (The Magnet is a film about a magnet, The Love Lottery is about a love lottery), literature references (Went the Day Well? is a quotation from John Maxwell Edmonds; Against the Wind comes from a Byron poem), and the more pun-informed (Fiddlers Three with its Nero-centric plot). While The Ship That Died of Shame could be seen as prosaic – it sums up one aspect of the narrative – it also raises questions, gives the film an added layer of intrigue and interest]
So, this Michael Relph-produced, Basil Dearden-directed film focuses mainly on two characters: Bill Randall (George Baker) and George Hoskins (Richard Attenborough). During the war, Randall captains the 10-87 ship, with Hoskins as his Number 1: using their fast little ship, they attack coastal defences along the French and Dutch coasts. From the first, it is clear that Randall is the moral compass, with Hoskins’ morality more fluid (early on, they argue over Hoskins’ habit of painting a list of ‘confirmed kills’ on the side of the ship), but Randall’s centre is lost when his wife Helen (Virginia McKenna) is killed in an enemy air-raid. The film skips around a lot in this opening section – a tense depiction of the 10-87 attacking a coastal town and destroying gasometers, the crew of the 10-87, Helen & Bill’s fledgling marriage, Helen’s death, the end of the war, Bill’s depression and post-war uncertainty around career and direction – but becomes more coherent when Hoskins waltzes back into Randall’s life at the Coastal Forces club.
The core of the film is the interplay between Baker and Attenborough: while the latter appears to have more fun with his morally ambiguous character, it is Baker that we follow through the whole film, and on whose shoulders the emotional and moral realisations have to fall. That the film works is largely because Baker’s performance allows us to believe a war hero could be waylaid by an old comrade and lured into shady dealings; equally, Baker shows how the lies and half-truths break down Randall’s joy at being back on board 10-87, flickers of anger and self-hatred that reveal to the audience Randall’s realisation of how far he has sunk from the brave naval officer that opens the film. As for Attenborough, it is easy to forget the power of his early work given his later, more prominent directorial career, but this film emphasises the mix of youth, malice and conniving intelligence that can be seen in films like Brighton Rock (1947). While Baker is the central figure here, Attenborough has a more colourful role, playing up Hoskins’ cocky, sly, spiv-like qualities (described as being too chatty and ‘la-di-da’ in the film by Bernard Lee), and in danger of stealing several key scenes. From the moment he saunters into the club, dressed up to the nines, with his silver cigarette case, expense account and expensive tastes, and his eyes set on Baker, it is clear that this is a character to be wary of. (there is also a lovely aural irony here: as Hoskins lures Randall in, a female singer leads other ex-servicemen in a rendition of ‘We’ll Meet Again’ – just one example of the film’s streak of black humour)
Of course, Randall is simply happy to see his old ship mate. Before long, they have rescued and restored the 10-87, roped engineer Birder (Bill Owen) into the crew, and are bringing certain illegal (though essential) ‘luxuries’ (nylons, wine, brandy) into the country from the Continent. The film is not coy about this activity – the crew acknowledge they are smugglers, but insist they are just doing it ‘to make people happy.’ The crew are happy, even able to mislead and confuse customs officer Bernard Lee – but, naturally, Hoskins’ plans for expansion soon change that.
As the narrative increases the tension (smuggling banknotes, then guns, then a mysterious mute man who is revealed to be a child killer), so does the film enjoy exploring the relationship between Hoskins, Randall, Birdie and, increasingly, 10-87 herself. Because it is here that the subtle supernatural element appears. At no point does the film say the ship is alive. Yet the continual electrical, steering and engine-related issues increase as the crew’s activities become more illegal and immoral. The film also suggests a link between the ‘female’ ship and the only other female character, Helen. As in The Cruel Sea, women are absent for most of the film. Here, however, they provide a wider moral compass that the male characters largely lack (or drift away from): while Helen’s death sends Randall into depression and uncertainty, it is because he forgets her words (‘You’ll never do anything silly with that ship of yours, will you? Promise’). The other woman in his life (10-87) soon demonstrates that ‘silly’ choices have consequences: Randall comes to his senses (by remembering Helen’s words) at the last minute, as the ship is about to crash onto the rocks and destroy itself, and is thus able to save both himself and Birdie.
While that reasserts a certain moral message – illegal activities will be punished, by either the law (Bernard Lee) or some larger force – it also presents a more feminine presence in this otherwise masculine film. It also works to undercut Attenborough’s sly comment that 10-87 is ‘like the perfect woman’ when Baker confirms she won’t ask any questions about the jobs they are doing.
The film also looks great: the location work is strong, most of the back projection works (though there is a shockingly bad painted background about thirty minutes in when Randall and Birdie meet again), and the model work is strong (notably in the final scenes where the ship tosses around in the stormy seas). There are also some beautifully composed images and scenes: canted angles on several of the Attenborough/Baker arguments on board 10-87, the misty location work on a mysterious stretch coastline (where 10-87 herself slips in and out of image, lost amid the fog), and strong depth of image in two scene’s with Bernard Lee’s customs officer. The first takes place in a meeting on the hunt for escaped child-killer Raines: Lee is in close-up in the foreground, silent while the meeting continues in the background. Yet as more information is given, Lee’s expression shifts to convey his memory of a small, fast boat that meets that description. The second time is a confrontation between Lee, Attenborough and Ronald Culver (the smuggler’s employer, Major Fordyce) where the focus shifts between faces in fore- and back-ground, with Attenborough’s face often completely obscured by shadows, as Culver shoots Lee. A nicely paced and well-shot sequence, it also sets up a later scene where Birdie finds the injured Lee – with the camera angled down the stairs at Birdie, Lee’s arm suddenly (and unexpectedly – we think he’s dead) falls across the screen.
With such great performances, well-composed imagery and strong editing, this is a perfect example of the kind of film I’d hoped to find more of in Ealing’s back catalogue (and one that I hope will be matched by others still to be viewed). It is also one that raises larger questions about the film’s depiction of a post-war Britain (questions that Relph and Dearden arguably pursue further in The League of Gentlemen five years later): as Baker says in the final moments of the film, ‘and so she died. She gave up and died, in anger and in shame.’ Is it too much to see a larger analogy for Britain here? A Britain ten years after that moment of wartime pride and victory, a country that is still recovering from post-war austerity, with its concurrent increase of black marketers and spivs, a country that has perhaps lost its way...
That may be reading more into the film than was intended, but if Ealing truly believed they were ‘projecting Britain,’ what version of the country were they trying to ‘project’ by this stage in the 1950s?
Next time: back to spy film Against the Wind (1948)
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The Fox and The Rooster
A wax seal necklace with a fox and a rooster.
The words framing this piece reads in French:
Fin Contre Fin…
(End Versus Expected Ending)
From the Aesop childhood fable “the Fox and the Rooster” we all learn how the rooster turns the tables and beats the fox at his own game.
The charm symbolizes a person who is clever, will not fall for flattery and sees through lies and deception.
The Aesop fable The Fox And The Rooster:
A rooster was perched on a branch of a very high tree, crowing loudly. His powerful exclamations were heard throughout the forest and caught the attention of a hungry fox who was out and about looking for a prey. The fox saw how high the bird was positioned and thought of a sly way to bring the rooster down for his meal.
“Excuse me, my dear proud Rooster,” he gently spoke, “Have you not heard of the universal treaty and proclamation of harmony that is now set before all beasts and birds and every creature in our forest. We are no longer to hunt or prey nor ravish one another, but we are to live together in peace, harmony, and love.
Do come down, Rooster, and we shall speak more on this matter of such great importance.”
Now, the rooster, who knew that the fox was known for his sly wit, said nothing, but looked out in the distance, as if he were seeing something.
“At what are you looking so intently?” asked the fox
“I see a pack of wild dogs,” said the rooster, “I do believe they’re coming our way, Mr. Fox.”
“Oh, I must go,” said the fox.
“Please do not go yet, Mr. Fox,” said the rooster, “I was just on my way down. We will wait on the dogs and discuss this new time of peace with all.”
“No, no,” said the fox, “I must go. The dogs have not heard of this treaty of peace yet.”
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When you think of the accusatory bombardment the government communication machine faced throughout its century long life – from being the agent of nannying politicians to being complicit in their political propaganda – it should come as no surprise to learn that it was born amid conflict.
The Great War still had 21 bloody months to run – and the Russian Revolution was kicking off – in February 1917 when ministers established a Department of Information. It began a process that, 84 years later, led to the government becoming the UK’s biggest advertiser.
You might argue – as the government’s current communication chief, Alex Aiken, does – that much hasn’t changed during those hundred years. Helping to transform people’s behaviour at home while managing Britain’s reputation abroad, including countering Russia’s dissembling, has been its constant raison d’être.
What sparked that machine to life in 1917, however, was challenging the kaiser’s propaganda.
The PR campaign mounted against the Germans, which had begun at the war’s outbreak in 1914, was based very much on intellectual argument. A stellar group of literati – among them HG Wells, Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Conan Doyle – was invited to a meeting in London by the then British War Propaganda Bureau and several agreed to write books and pamphlets making the government’s case.
The literary link was carried forward into the Department of Information, whose first head was a newly promoted lieutenant colonel and former army intelligence officer paid the princely sum of £1,000 a year. His name was John Buchan, author of The 39 Steps.
By early 1918, however, the government, having decided to put propaganda in the hands of a political heavyweight, appointed Daily Express owner Lord Beaverbrook as minister of information.
With the armistice, the ministry was felt to have outlived its usefulness. Communication, now devolved to individual government departments, became half-hearted and sporadic because ministers felt little need for it. Campaigns that did run were almost exclusively devoted to bolstering Britain’s image abroad.
The return of hostilities in 1939 kick-started the government communication machine again. Within a day of war being declared on Germany, the Ministry of Information was back in business. This was partly because of an urgent need to fill gaps in public services caused by the drafting of so many men into uniform, but also because of an acknowledgment that maintaining civilian morale would be crucial.
It started badly for the ministry, which quickly gained a reputation for bungling incompetence and an association with lumbering bureaucracy that its post-war successor, the Central Office of Information, found hard to shake off.
It was epitomised by the dithering over the now famous "Keep calm and carry on" posters, of which 2.5 million copies were printed before officials expressed last-minute doubts about whether the message was too patronising or obvious. Unable also to settle on an appropriate time for the posters to run, the majority of them were pulped.
Little wonder the place broke the spirit of three ministers of information. One of them, Duff Cooper, told Winston Churchill that he was quitting in 1941, after one year in the job, because his heart wasn’t in it. "I suppose it was my fault," the prime minister said. "You should never harness a thoroughbred to a dung cart."
Nevertheless, the war years were the period when government advertising hit its stride, particularly because the Newspaper Society agreed to do its bit by offering the government a discount on the full rate for ad space.
Familiar issues such as road safety and blood donation were promoted in newspapers and on posters, along with more unusual ones such as killing rats, not being defeatist and curbing loose talk.
By the war’s end, government communication had built up a sufficient head of steam to ensure there would be no return to the devolved days of the interwar years. Not least because Clement Attlee’s 1945 Labour government, elected on the promise of radical reform, was ushering in the new National Health Service and a social security system in need of objective communication.
The upshot was the formation of COI in 1946. With more than 1,500 staff, it enjoyed a high degree of autonomy from the beginning. Determined it should not become the Ministry of Propaganda, Attlee ordered that no government minister should be given responsibility for it, although it was under the Treasury’s wing.
Not having its own minister, though, was a double-edged weapon. While it brought COI a high degree of independence, the problem was that it had no friends in high places to fight its corner when the chips were down. This became sadly apparent when, as an adjunct to the Cabinet Office, it was given the chop in 2011.
Sixty-five years earlier, though, it had a tidy annual budget of £15m and a big say in how this was to be spent. Ostensibly, government departments and public-sector bodies could choose to appoint their own agencies, but two major ones – Transport for London and National Savings & Investments – were never in COI’s fold.
Others, though, welcomed COI’s hand-holding, particularly those faced with running privatisation campaigns, such Young & Rubicam’s "Tell Sid" for British Gas that promoted wider share ownership among the public. COI handled 25 privatisation campaigns between 1981 and 1996, helping departments through the complex flotation "dance steps".
These government relationships produced a string of iconic campaigns. None more so than the 1986 Aids awareness activity through TBWA that warned "Don’t die of ignorance" and its compelling demonstration that British advertising could be an overwhelming force for good.
But as the relationship with its "clients" changed – and COI began being paid out of departmental budgets for the services it provided – it was forced to grow more commercially astute. Once seen as a "semi-retirement home" for civil servants seeking an undemanding last post, COI began tapping into adland’s talent.
"Unless you’re running your own agency by the time you reach your early forties, you can feel very vulnerable," Peter Buchanan, a one-time Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis senior manager who became COI’s deputy chief executive, says. "But these people had bags of experience and we set out to hire them."
This policy was a major factor in the accumulation of a COI reel crammed with award winning work, much of it from up-and-coming creative agencies that were nurtured and encouraged.
And if agencies were never going to get rich on COI business, they never had to chase payments, while creatives relished the freedom no other accounts allowed them.
This change in emphasis also manifested itself at the very top of COI, where first Tony Douglas and later Carol Fisher set a trend for appointing heads from a marketing and advertising background.
Alan Bishop, who succeeded Fisher in 2003 and a former Saatchi & Saatchi global chairman, was a particularly popular figure at COI’s North Lambeth home. He brought the kind of expertise that COI prized, providing it with a user-friendly outward face and, through his cultivation of Howell James, the first and only permanent secretary for government communication, ensured COI’s voice was heard where it mattered. Bishop’s abiding love of the arts, though, led to his resignation in 2008 to become chief executive of the Southbank Centre.
By the time Mark Lund replaced him, COI executives could see the government’s knives flashing. Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s strategist and one-time Saatchi & Saatchi executive, believed people’s habits could be changed using the right "nudges" rather than overt messaging.
At the same time, there was a growing belief among the Tories that much of COI’s output was politically tinged and "nannying", while COI itself was creating a demand it had to fulfil.
For their part, COI senior executives were resentful that they were being made scapegoats for a government marketing spend of £530m – 40% of which went on advertising – that they had no power to control.
Fighting for its life, COI proposed slashing staff from 650 to 150 and drastically reducing its activity. Whether or not this reinforced a long-standing criticism that COI was a bloated organisation is a moot point.
"You could make that argument," a former COI senior manager acknowledges. "In fact, the idea gained no traction and we knew we’d reached the point of no return."
He and others might be forgiven for their schadenfreude at the chaos that followed the decision to shut COI without thought of the consequences.
The Government Procurement Service, set up to centralise procurement and take over COI’s advertising remit, had no permanent specialists with marketing expertise. The resulting shambles so appalled the IPA that it passed an unprecedented motion of no confidence in the system.
Out of the mayhem emerged the Crown Commercial Service, boasting a wider remit and broader expertise than the GPS. It also saw the arrival of Aiken, Westminster City Council’s former communications chief, as the executive director for government communications.
"He’s a redoubtable and clear-thinking figure," an associate says. "What’s more, he’s done a lot of things COI was working towards in terms of fewer and bigger campaigns."
With a marketing spend of £250m to oversee, the CCS can be expected to put an emphasis on campaigns telling people how they can stay healthy and ease the pressure on an overworked NHS. Anything that can help bring a return on government investment, from boosting small businesses to encouraging young people to become apprentices to stimulating inward investment, may also get high priority.
Others suggest government communication may also be forced to sail close to the political wind by helping to bring about social cohesion in the post-Brexit era. M&C Saatchi won a £60m brief to tackle extremism last year. Aiken believes it’s very easy to define the line between public information and political spin. "It’s never an issue," he insists.
At the same time, the CCS has to balance the need for cost-consciousness and the temptation to use PR and social media when more traditional communications are still needed. Aiken himself acknowledges how well out-of-home performed in a recent trial campaign for universal credit in Greater Manchester.
The CCS, no longer under the scrutiny of an independent Advisory Committee on Advertising, unlike COI, has already sprung some surprises. While new rosters were expected to include more regional and smaller shops, the axing of long-time government roster shops such as Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, Leo Burnett and McCann London caused some dismay.
One observer has described it as a "tick-box exercise" but suggests that agencies, hampered by the short amount of time given to complete the hundreds of questions posed on the procurement specification, did themselves no favours by assigning the job to junior staff.
"It’s been painful," a senior manager at an agency that found itself unexpectedly dumped admitted. "But while I don’t much like the new roster, it does seem pretty sensible."
Aiken believes he has a system that will work while delivering optimum value for money – unlike COI, which, he contends, clearly did not. "We have built very good relationships with the creative and PR industries," Aiken adds. "And I’m sure we have the best companies in place."
What remains to be seen is whether a government roster populated by so many small agencies will be effective. The upside is that those outside London and the south-east may be closer to the issues in their local communities than Soho shops.
And the downside? "It may make it harder to run an integrated campaign if your agencies are in Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol, and need to be talking face-to-face," Buchanan says. "You also have to ask if an agency with no more than 20 full-time staff has the necessary resource."
What’s certain is that, in its centenary year, the government’s communication machine remains unique.
Why? "Because of the repertoire of things in which it has to involve itself," a long-time observer says. "The commercial world doesn’t come close. Government communication is like water running downhill. The water might get blocked – but it always finds a way through."
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Abstract: Judge, LW, Petersen, JC, Bellar, DM, Craig, BW, Wanless, EA, Benner, M, and Simon, LS. An examination of preactivity and postactivity stretching practices of crosscountry and track and filed distance coaches. J Strength Cond Res 27(9): 2456–2464, 2013—This study sought to determine the effectiveness of coach certification courses in promoting proper preactivity and postactivity stretching practices in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, II, and III crosscountry programs. Distribution of questionnaires to 770 NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III programs in the U.S.A. resulted in 111 coaches (88 [78.2%] men and 25 [21.8%] women) participating. Chi-square analyses revealed that noncertified coaches reported significantly greater (χ2 = 21.582, p = 0.0174) usage of static stretching alone as their preactivity modality (18.9%, n = 9) vs. their certified counterparts (1.8%, n = 1). In addition, certified coaches reported a higher usage of dynamic flexibility only during the preactivity period (47.4%, n = 27) vs. their noncertified peers (32.4%, n = 16). Coaches were also asked if they allowed for static stretching between interval work and events in track and field, and a significantly higher percentage (χ2 = 11.948, p = 0.0177) of noncertified coaches (45.5%, n = 23) reported allowing the athletes to perform static stretches between intervals at practice than certified peers (37.9%, n = 22). These significant differences help demonstrate that coaching certification courses are an effective tool for communicating current information about stretching practices. However, the results also revealed that there are still many certified coaches who are not implementing best practices in preactivity routines.
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Erythroderma Poems | Examples of Erythroderma Poetry
Erythroderma Poems. Below are examples of poems about erythroderma. This list of poetry about erythroderma is made of PoetrySoup member poems. Read short, long, best, famous, and modern examples of erythroderma poetry. This list of works about erythroderma is a great resource for examples of erythroderma poems and show how to write poems about erythroderma. Definitions may be included where appropriate.
New Erythroderma Poems
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Fragments of a Quran manuscript found in a British university library are from one of the world's oldest surviving copies of the Islamic text, and may even have been written by someone who knew Prophet Mohamed, researchers said on Wednesday.
Radiocarbon dating indicated that the parchment folios held by the University of Birmingham in central England were at least 1,370 years old, which would make them one of the earliest written forms of the Islamic holy book in existence.
"They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam," said David Thomas, Professor of Christianity and Islam at the university.
Researchers said the manuscript consisted of two parchment leaves and contained parts of Suras (chapters) 18 to 20, and was written with ink in an early form of Arabic script known as Hijazi.
The university said for years it had been misbound with leaves of a similar Quran manuscript which dated from the late seventh century.
The radiocarbon dating, said to have a 95.4 percent accuracy, found the parchment dated from between 568 and 645. Mohamed is believed to have lived between 570 and 632.
"(These fragments) give us glimpses into potentially how something which we now call the Quran might have been used in this early period and how it might have been recorded," said Sajjad Rizvi, Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter
Thomas said the tests carried out on the parchment of the folios strongly suggested the animal from which it was taken was alive during the lifetime of the Prophet Mohamed or shortly afterwards.
"The person who actually wrote it may well have known the Prophet Mohamed. He would have seen him probably, he would maybe have heard him preach. He may have known him personally," Thomas told BBC TV.
The manuscript was part of the university's collection of 3,000 Middle Eastern documents which was acquired in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana, a Chaldean priest born near Mosul in Iraq.
His trips to acquire the manuscripts were funded by philanthropist Edward Cadbury, whose family made their fortune in chocolate, to raise the status of Birmingham as an intellectual centre for religious studies.
"The parts of the Quran that are contained in those fragments are very similar indeed to the Quran as we have it today," Thomas said. "So this tends to support the view that the Quran that we now have is more or less very close indeed to the Quran as it was brought together in the early years of Islam."
Muslim scholars said the discovery, along with similar recent finds and studies in Europe, would help academics piece together the development of the manuscript into its modern form.
"The discovery of the written Quran dating back to the time of Mohamed may serve as an opportunity to make us reconsider the scholarly paradigm that Islamic culture is more oral-aural rather than visual," said Hatsuki Aishima, a lecturer in Modern Islam at the University of Manchester.
"Tears of joy"
The University of Birmingham said it would put the manuscript on public display in October, and Muhammad Afzal, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, said he expected it to attract people from all over Britain.
"When I saw these pages I was very moved. There were tears of joy and emotion in my eyes," he told the BBC.
Whilst some manuscripts are major attractions elsewhere in the world, their appeal to visitors is determined more by the status of the person who is understood to have recorded them.
"The problem with this particular fragment is that we don't actually know where it comes from," Rizvi said.
However, he said that the fragments would be studied worldwide if, in line with the recent trend for such finds, digital images were published on the internet, and that there was potential for other significant discoveries in Britain.
"The catalogues of which were in collections in Britain are not complete in most cases. It's quite possible we might find some further things – even in the British Library itself."
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Gov. Branstad said state officials are trying their level best to implement the Affordable Care Act. From Sarah Palin's "death panels" to Charles Grassley's "pull the plug on Granny" to the GOP-controlled U.S. House voting to repeal it 40 times, all we've seen from Republicans is a three-year-long pouty refusal to go to work each day. They keep saying it is the worst law ever written, which should've made it relatively easy to come up with a slew of alternatives, but no prominent Republican has presented even one.
In reality the Affordable Care Act is a hybrid of Romneycare and Republican Sen. John Chafee's "Health Equity and Access Reform of 1993." The GOP is so indignant that Obama co-opted their ideas and used them that their most radical members are adopting anarchical measures to force the ACA's defunding.
Despite the Register, AARP and the government dispelling many oft-repeated myths, the GOP continues to be guilty of pouring sugar in the Obamacare car's gas tank and then calling it a lemon.
- Tim Facto, Des Moines
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The cost of health care in the U.S. has been ballooning: A recent report found that the U.S. collectively spends about $9,000 per person on health care each year, which adds up to 17 percent of the country’s GDP.
But what happens when patients can’t afford to pay their bills? At nonprofit hospitals, an unpaid bill either becomes bad debt for the patient or is written off as “charity care.” Nationally, this adds up to $57 billion in uncompensated care. But a group of researchers argue that the way charity care is given out could be made more efficient.
A new report by The Hamilton Project, an initiative of the Brookings Institution, looks at a proposal to improve the charity-care system in the U.S. Three researchers at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management—David Dranove, Craig Garthwaite, and Christopher Ody—argue that the supply and demand for charity care are not geographically aligned. That is, hospitals with the most resources to offer charity care aren’t in the places where people most need it. In high-income areas, hospitals are better funded and more able to provide charity care. But it’s in the hospitals in low-income areas where the demand is highest.
To address this mismatch, the researchers propose a “floor-and-trade” system, where all hospitals are required to provide some charity care to low-income patients. Currently, the average nonprofit hospital devotes 2.3 percent of its operating expenses to charity care. In the proposed system, hospitals would set a “floor,” or a minimum, for the amount of charity care they’ll provide each year.
To incentivize hospitals to provide charity care and rectify the current geographical mismatch, hospitals would be able to purchase and trade charity-care credits. Under this system, a hospital in a low-income area can receive funding allocated for charity care from one in a high-income area that’s not providing as much charity care.
Craig Garthwaite, one of the researchers, says that as the Affordable Care Act has rearranged the flows of patients to hospitals and decreased the number of uninsured Americans, it’s a good time to reconsider how hospitals commit themselves to serving their surrounding communities. “I think it is important to realize that the floor-and-trade aspect of this policy means that we can increase the charity care provided to people falling through the cracks of the ACA in the most efficient way possible,” he says. “It is also important to note that unlike a cap and trade policy this does not create industry wide cost, but instead shifts resources across hospitals.”
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For many years, we were told that the human appendix was a leftover of our evolutionary development and the proof was in the fact that it does nothing useful. If anything, that thing dangling off your intestine can only do you harm when it becomes infected and doesn’t get removed in time. For Christians, however, we humbly rest in the fact that we have a Creator and he knows far more about human anatomy than we will ever know. He created us with an appendix and the Designer knows why. Perhaps we will eventually discover that reason or perhaps not.
It turns out scientists are beginning to discover why we have an appendix after all. Already in 2007, medical researchers were starting to find evidence that the appendix is important to overall intestinal health. Duke University published findings that proposed the appendix as a “safe-house” for helpful bacteria while the intestines are being flushed out by illnesses. In 2011, a follow-up study at Winthrop University Hospital determined that “individuals without an appendix were four times more likely to have a recurrence of Clostridium difficile,” a nasty illness often found in hospitals.
Australian molecular immunologist Dr. Gabrielle Belz has recently (2015) published research that confirms and develops these earlier findings. According to her team’s work, the appendix definitely holds a key role in maintaining good digestive health. When gut health is threatened, the appendix works to keep the digestive system populated with the right bacteria.
Of course, when the appendix was considered useless it served as proof of evolution – the appendix was a vestigial organ leftover from plant-eating ancestors. Now that it’s found a purpose, it still serves as proof of evolution because, according to one scientist, “it no longer serves the function for which it evolved.” No matter which way the evidence points, it can never point to a Creator! You see, it’s not really about the evidence after all. When God is ruled out at the beginning, all evidence to the contrary has to be seen in that light.
SOURCES: Randy J. Guliuzza’s “Major evolutionary blunders: our useful appendix – evidence of design, not evolution”; Rob Dunn’s “Your appendix could save your life”
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Actions and Detail Panel
UNDER 18 - Essential Wilderness Survival Training | One day
Wed 5 July 2017, 08:30 – 17:30 AEST
Under 18 - Essential Wilderness Survival Training
Our junior survival course is one of the most popular and exciting adventures kids can experience. Not only does it teach kids practical survival skills in a safe and supervised environment, it also teaches kids how to problem solve, be resourceful, be patient, respect and understand nature.
This one day course is designed for children aged 12 to 17. It teaches kids how to prepare for their next outdoor adventure and the fundamentals of survival in case something goes wrong while they are out and about. It will be an educational and rewarding experience that both inspires and encourages kids to spend more time in the wilderness, and gives them the confidence they need to do it safely.
It is conducted entirely outdoors in all weather conditions. The class size is limited to groups of 8.
Training modules include: phycology of survival; using a knife for survival purposes; making knots; building bush shelters; lighting fires; getting help for rescue, finding water, navigation essentials.
Your instructor Cyril Delafosse-Guiramand, is a seasoned adventurer that learnt these skills in the most remote and rugged environments with local tribesmen. He has trekked, sailed and driven in many expeditions around the world including walking 11,000km from Siberia to Laos and has been a survival adviser during the production of Hollywood film.
- duration: 1 day
- meeting time: 8:00am
- start time: 8:30am | End time: 5:30pm
- price: $175 (+card fees if purchased on Eventbrite)
- lunch included
- weather: our programs runs in all weather
- location: near Canberra (on Sutton Rd)
- course date: once per school term.
Booking & Availabilities :
call us at 0402293531
or email us at firstname.lastname@example.org
or book online here
for more information visit our website: www.survival-encyclopedia.com
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Posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 by Roger Smith
A large part of Paul Goodman’s legacy lies in his adherence to gay rights and promotion of sexual equality before the Gay Liberation movement formally began. He once stated, "I have been fired three times because of my queer behavior or my claim to the right of it, and these are the only times I have been fired." (Read more quotes here.)
Unfortunately, Goodman lived in a time before stringent laws against workplace discrimination were codified. But even today, the U.S.
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Madame Andree was the nom de guerre of New Zealand born resistance fighter Nancy Wake who became no 1 on the Gestapos most wanted list in occupied France, during WW2. The music is written and performed by the Australian group Madame Andree as a tribute, and is currently being performed live in a neo-noir cabaret style. The songs are in English and French, and detail events such as her heroic 400 kilometre bike ride through occupied France (Velo d'Helene), and her personal tragedies, as in (Neige blanche) in which while escaping to England, from high up in the Pyrenees, she predicts the fate of her husband who would soon to be captured and tortured by the Gestapo.
Madame Andree will continue to perform and release material from the show 'White mouse'
Music written and produced by Martin Elepans. Vocals Etoile Marley. Lyrics Martin Elepans and Etoile Marley.
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Making the world’s best paperboard is easy. You need water, carbon dioxide and sunlight to grow a seedling into a tree. Then you need sustainable forest management that can deliver first-class timber. There must be a pulp mill and a paperboard mill, and then distribution channels to get the paperboard to everyone who wants to use it. Most important of all, though, to the manufacture of Invercote are the skilled professionals who do their best – people who are proud of what they achieve and do not compromise on the quality of their work. Iggesunds Mill has traditions stretching back to 1685. Throughout that time dedicated individuals have done their utmost to use the renewable forest to benefit other people.
A world-class mill
Iggesund Mill (including Strömsbruk Mill) in Sweden is one of the most advanced, fully integrated pulp and paperboard mills in the world. Not least thanks to our long term majority owner, we have very well invested mills. There are many benefits having an integrated saw mill – we manage raw material together and we can use all the waste from their production to either make pulp or energy. In return we feed the saw mill with steam used to dry the timber. At Iggesund Mill, 100% of the pulp used to make Invercote is produced on location and pumped wet to the board machine. This means that we use no market pulp. Not drying the pulp preserves some mechanical properties of the fibres.
This advanced technology – hundreds of metres of paperboard machines – is controlled by employees with various forms of special expertise. The machines work around the clock and year round to produce tonne after tonne of dazzling white paperboard. Technical perfection and numerical control processes are all well and good but for excellent results you also need team spirit and a good working atmosphere. Invercote’s unique properties are the result of the interplay between expertise, a positive spirit and cutting-edge technology.
Actively investing in bioenergy
In 2012 the new recovery boiler was inaugurated at Iggesund Mill, an investment made possible by the long term perspective of our majority owner. With it in operation, the mill produces all the heat it needs, and can also provide district heating to the nearby community. It also produces nearly all the electricity needed for the mill, and is connected to the grid to be able to output excess electricity if needed. As the new boiler was trimmed into operation, it drastically reduced a lot of emissions between 2013 and 2014: fossil CO2 by >85%, particles by ~45% and sulphur by ~35%
With the installation and trimming of the new recovery boiler, emissions to air have reduced drastically from already low levels – graph being updated shortly. Measurements have shown that only 1% of particles in the air of Iggesund village comes from the mill. The majority of particles comes from domestic fire places and cars.
Care for our customers and their businesses
Paperboard must be there when the customer needs it. All the quality features in the world are meaningless if the deliveries don’t arrive in time. Delivery precision is a high priority. A maritime transport system guarantees overseas customers receive shipments with the lowest possible environmental impact. The service doesn’t stop there. Every tonne of Invercote comes with access to documentation and knowledge about how to make best use of the paperboard. The knowledge and market-based technical support provided by Iggesund, help customers to achieve dazzling end results and optimal production economics.
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There may be hope on the horizon for homeless residents on the far northern edges of Los Angeles County.
A combination of political will and a sense of urgency will result in the creation of as many as 327 permanent and temporary units in Lancaster that could be available as soon as March, officials said.
Officials from the city, county and organizations that provide homeless support services will break ground Thursday on Kensington Campus, at 32nd Street West and Avenue I.
“I’m very pleased to join forces with Mayor (R. Rex) Parris and our partners in the Antelope Valley and across the county in our effort to develop the most effective strategies and resources to combat homelessness in our communities,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger in a statement. “This new campus will serve as a model site providing permanent supportive housing, interim housing and supportive on-site services that will help individuals and families stabilize and exit the cycle of homelessness for good.”
Lancaster residents, who have spoken to the City Council, have expressed mixed reactions about the project.
But despite concerns, the Kensington Campus will house 50 permanent supportive units for the chronically homeless and 156 bridge housing beds for homeless men, women and children. They will receive services while they are waiting to be placed in permanent housing. During Phase 2, an additional 51 units of permanent supportive housing will be built along with potentially 70 mini-homes for additional permanent supportive housing and an Enterprise Job Creation building.
The project took eight months from the initial idea to Thursday’s groundbreaking and it will be completed in 14 months from the project’s inception– March 2019. Wah Chen, founding partner of InSite Development, said a project of this size usually takes between eight and 10 years.
RELATED STORY: As winter grips the Antelope Valley, a rare 24-hour homeless shelter opens
Chen said the project wouldn’t have happened without political pushing from the beginning, including support from Barger and Parris.
Residents will receive intensive services for mental health, including one-on-one therapy and group therapy, substance abuse services, crisis intervention, wellness and life skills classes and health care onsite. These services will be provided by The People Concern, one of L.A. County’s largest social services agencies.
County documents show the total cost of the project to be about $21 million. The county, through Measure H, will pay at least $7 million for the support services that will be provided to Kensington Campus’ residents. In 2016, Los Angeles County voters approved the measure, a quarter-cent sales tax that is estimated to raise $355 million a year for 10 years to help homeless people transition into housing.
RELATED STORY: On LA County’s remote north end, the homeless are stuck. Is hope on the horizon?
Funding for the project also came from the Community Development Commission of Los Angeles County, city of Lancaster, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and financial institutions.
Officials said there is a need for this type of housing in Lancaster.
The city’s only year-round drop-in homeless shelter closed in August due to lack of funding.
The Antelope Valley’s homeless population has its own unique set of challenges compared to other communities in Los Angeles County. On the far northern end of the county, the area is vast and sprawling between Lancaster and Palmdale and its unincorporated communities. The weather is also a challenge as there are searing hot temperatures on summer days and freezing cold nights in the winter. Some homeless residents have dug makeshift bunkers in the desert to escape from the elements.
RELATED STORY: LA County’s homeless need more than housing to stay off the streets, report says
There was some progress made this year in reducing the number of homeless people in the region, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s annual count.
The Antelope Valley showed an 18 percent decline from 3,825 in 2017 to 3,203 this year, according to LAHSA’s data. However, 79 percent of homeless people were unsheltered as of the 2018 count. Thirty-one percent of the Antelope Valley’s homeless residents suffer from a serious mental illness, 30 percent are chronically homeless and 31 percent have a chronic illness.
RELATED STORY: Homeless numbers fall in LA County, but in San Fernando, San Gabriel valleys and South Bay, it’s a different story
Homelessness across the county declined by 3 percent. It was the first decrease in four years.
In 2016, Lancaster voters rejected a parcel tax to generate $4 million annually for homeless services and law enforcement.
After that plan failed, Barger along with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas authored a motion to form an Antelope Valley homeless consortium and charged it with analyzing what services are needed and propose solutions. The consortium consisted of advocates, law enforcement, government officials and non-profit organizations.
When the city approved the financing agreement with InSite Development for the project in January, the residents who spoke to the board City Council had mixed reactions. David Paul said he was proud of the city for taking on the project, while small business owner Robert Teller said the project isn’t in the city’s best interest and suggested that there were better ways to address homelessness in the city, according to City Council meeting minutes.
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Valagro won the award! –
The Agrobiobase award is granted to companies having developed bio-based products derived from plant based chemistry.
The award is a prize of 5,000€ to the winning company and press coverage that contributes to its recognition in the world of bio-based products.
The jury evaluates candidate bio-based products according to three criteria:
- its innovative features,
- its bio-based content,
- its environmental and socio-economic impact.
The 4 products selected by the jury for the final of the Agrobiobase award 2015 edition have just been revealed by Jean Bausset, Agrobiobase Manager & Competitive Intelligence Officer.
- BELOUKHA produced by JADE
Meeting the need for less hazardous pesticides, Beloukha was selected by the jury. This biocontrol product has been on the market for less than one year.”
- Edulis Exudactive® (PAT)
Launched in 2013, this product has convinced the jury thanks to the innovative extraction technology used and its commitment to a limited environmental impact.
- PLHT 201 produced by Natureplast
PLHT 201 was selected thanks to its mechanical and thermal properties superior to standard PLA grades. It thereby open access to applications for which PLA is generally not used (automotive, consumer electronics). The product has been on the market for less than one year.
- SAP-BIO-09 produced byValagro
The jury has retained this innovation which is stille at the pilot scale, in viewof the market perspectives ofsuperabsorbents,a promising mass market for the bio-based sector, .”
The Agrobiobase awards 2015 will be presented during the International Congress Plant Based Summit taking place from April 8 to April 9 2015 in Lille, France).
- What are Bioplastics and Biopolymers?
- Bioplastics Brands
- Bioplastics Awards
- What is the Difference Between Biodegradable, Compostable and OXO Degradable?
- The History and Most Important Innovations of Bioplastics
- What are Drop-In Bioplastics?
- History of Cellophane
- The History of Elephant Grass Bioplastics
- Bioplastics Companies
- Top Bioplastics Producers
- Polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA)
- What is Bio-BDO?
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- Psychological Issues
Has this ever happened to you? You’re working on a project and you start to think about another project or task you have on your list. You begin to question if the one you’re working on is the right one and your focus and energy moves away from the task at hand.
Not much fun is it? Without good clarity we can’t operate at our best. Without confidence in our plans, we cannot achieve our goals.
We live in a complex world. Time was when our choices were easier because they were simply more limited. Today, with so many things to choose from, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
All too often, we avoid making important choices because we don’t want to make a mistake. Sometimes we choose what’s convenient and then second-guess our decision. When we do this we lose valuable time and energy because we’re conflicted. Unless you’re a circus performer, it’s pretty hard to ride more than one horse at the same time.
A good coach, consultant or therapist can be invaluable in helping us to gain greater clarity and be confident we’re investing our time and energy in the best way.
As we discover our core values, we’re better able to make important choices. As we get clearer on what we want–and why we want it–we can be more effective and gain greater fulfillment.
But I’ve found very few people willing to invest the time thinking and meditating upon these things. Only a small percentage of the people I’ve encountered really know what they want. And most of THESE people still aren’t sure what they should be doing to get there.
Having so many choices can sometimes work against us.
But when we ask the right questions, objectively rank the values and examine the tradeoffs, we gain clarity and position ourselves for greater results.
How do you set and maintain your priorities? Do you know your most important goals? How do you sort out the projects that will provide the greatest payoff? Do you consider them carefully or do you just “shoot from the hip”?
I’m all for using our intuition and following our gut, but we also need to bring our left brain into the equation.
It doesn’t matter what system we use as long as we use one. Because not having this clarity–not handling first things first–can cost us dearly.
Clarity leads to power. More clarity equals more power. Better focus equals better results.
If you’re looking for some tools to do this better, we’ve developed a simple yet powerful system for ranking goals, projects, obstacles and even purchases. It’s called Priorities (of course) and we’ve found it extremely helpful in making good decisions.
Copyright 2002 Michael Angier & Success Networks. Part of Success Net’s mission is to position you for greater success. Download their free eBooklet, KEYS TO PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS from the Success Networks Website. Free subscriptions, memberships, eCourses, eBooks and SuccessMark Cards are available at http://www.SuccessNet.org – InfoPlease@SuccessNet.org
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Skip to comments.The summer of Woody Guthrie
Posted on 07/14/2012 7:09:13 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
Woody Guthrie will always be remembered as the guy who wrote "This Land is Your Land."
But he was so much more. If you're not sure why his 100th birthday, which would have been Saturday, is being celebrated far and wide this summer, here's a clue from Country Joe McDonald, the famed Woodstock festival veteran who knows a thing or two about penning catchy protest songs.
"I think he's become the embodiment of the American dream," says the Berkeley musician, "at a time when the American dream is kind of dying." To be sure, those familiar with Guthrie's work know that the protest songs he wrote decades ago about workers' rights, immigrants, income disparity and the environment seem more relevant than ever.
"Woody was writing about the '1 percent' long before it had a name," says UC Berkeley professor Peter Glazer, who has written a stage musical about Guthrie.
Guthrie, who died at age 55 of Huntington's disease in 1967, captured an era in American history like no other songwriter. His humbly poetic lyrics, which portrayed the Everyman perspective of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, profoundly influenced generations of protest songwriters, from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen to the Bay Area's own Joan Baez and Michael Franti.
That influence extends beyond American shores, McDonald points out: "People all over the world love Woody Guthrie."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Even Wikipedia doesn't hide it...
[In the 1930s,] while appearing on the commercial radio station KFVD, owned by a populist-minded New Deal Democrat Frank W. Burke, Guthrie began to write and perform some of the protest songs that would eventually appear on Dust Bowl Ballads.
It was at KFVD that Guthrie met newscaster Ed Robbin. Robbin was impressed with a song Guthrie wrote about Thomas Mooney, believed by many to be a wrongly convicted man who was, at the time, a leftist cause célèbre. Robbin, who became Guthrie's political mentor, introduced Guthrie to socialists and communists in Southern California, including Will Geer. He remained Guthrie's lifelong friend, and helped Guthrie book benefit performances in the communist circles in Southern California. Notwithstanding Guthrie's later claim that "the best thing that I did in 1936 was to sign up with the Communist Party,"he was never a member of the Party. He was noted as a fellow traveleran outsider who agreed with the platform of the party while not subject to party discipline. Guthrie requested to write a column for the Communist newspaper, The Daily Worker. The column, titled "Woody Sez," appeared a total of 174 times from May 1939 to January 1940. "Woody Sez" was not explicitly political, but was about current events as observed by Guthrie. He wrote the columns in an exaggerated hillbilly dialect and usually included a small comic; they were published as a collection after Guthrie's death. Steve Earle said of Guthrie, "I don't think of Woody Guthrie as a political writer. He was a writer who lived in very political times."
With the outbreak of World War II and the nonaggression pact the Soviet Union had signed with Germany in 1939, the owners of KFVD radio did not want its staff "spinning apologia" for the Soviet Union. Both Robbin and Guthrie left the station.
“This land is your land
This land is my land
Looks like somebody
Forged the deed to this land”
- Dave Barry
No, Woody, this land is NOT your land. Because you’re not content to let it be MY land as well. You and your thieving communist ilk steal what I own and hand it over to others in the name of “equality” and “compassion.”
Woody was a good-ole-communist boy whose gift to us is still kicking.
My late wife’s Great Uncle grew up with Guthrie. They were from the same town and I assume, went to the same high school. They were also the same age.
One day at a family get-together, one guy was asking him about Woody. I happened to hear when he asked what kind of guy he was.
Well the Uncle paused and thought for just a minute and said: “I guess the best way to describe him, is he was just plain sorry”.
His politics were despicable, but his influence on music was undeniable. His children’s music (”Let’s go riding in the car”) holds up pretty well. “Roll on Columbia” is a nice celebration of progress, although he just wrote the words there and not the tune.
Virtually every warbler in those days who called him or herself a folksinger was most likely a commie. Naturally, that fact was covered up by their fellow travelers in the media. That covering also applied to helping commie writers and “news” people. I remember Dick Cavett interviewing I.F. Stone in the sixties on Cavett’s show. At no time did Cavett mention Stone’s communist affiliation. All old commie writers and folksingers were described as having a “progressive” stand or being fighters for truth and justice. I did read one time Pete Seeger said Guthrie officially refused to join or was denied membership in the Party because he refused to deny the existence of God. At any rate, official commie member or not, Guthrie was far left in his political beliefs.
He wrote “This Land is Your Land” because he hated “God Bless America”.
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
Google's home page for the 4th of July consisted of "Google" in red/blue created by the words "This land is made for you and me" and a cartoon guitar.
That's right. No patriotism; just a communist song by an American communist.
The only people who used the word “fascist” were commies. It was their default word for anyone who wasn’t them.
Well,however misguided Guthrie might have been in general you must,at least,give him credit for that.
Wikipedia citation above says something similar:
“Notwithstanding Guthrie’s later claim that “the best thing that I did in 1936 was to sign up with the Communist Party,” he was never a member of the Party. He was noted as a fellow traveleran outsider who agreed with the platform of the party while not subject to party discipline.”
...but note that Guthrie’s later claim that he WAS a member. Who ya gonna believe? The man himself? Or a biographer? Maybe he was like Obama, just polishing up his street cred?
Many of the commies refused to join the Party because the Party was under the control of the USSR. When WW2 started, Germany and the Soviets were allies and the Party was anti-war, which appealed to the little c communists. When Germany invaded the USSR, the Party flipped and demanded the US get into the war. The little c communists walked out on them.
The Party was rife with the perennially unemployed and red diaper trust fund kids. In short, people who lived a life devoted to doing nothing but drawing attention to themselves and playing the victim. That’s why the Party faltered.
The thing that bugs me most about these ‘sons of the working class’ is that they’re not working class. Sure, they like to wear jeans and talk folksy, but their ideals and bank accounts speak otherwise. There is nothing a leftist likes to do more than wrap themselves in the sweat staing clothes of the working class. Well, that is when they’re not wearing the flag or talking like black folks.
Guthrie was a communist and I toss Springsteen into a nearby pot because he is no Patriot who respects the US values that have made him a multi-millionaire. Bruce S. is a POS!
“He had a guitar that had the words this machine kills fascists on it.OK,fair enough. But there was plenty of room to add and Communists. For some reason he failed to include *those* words.”
Guthrie was an out-and-out communist, that’s why.
Probably moreso than his contemporary, Pete Seeger, who himself garnered a lot of attention over his life for being one.
Pete once made a remark that Guthrie might have attained national stardom, but the fact that Woody was a communist precluded that from happening.
Regardless of their political beliefs, I still enjoy listening to both of them, so long as they don’t “lay it on too thick”...
That outfit was the typical garb of a merchant seaman during WWII. Well, maybe a black watch cap instead of the one he was wearing.
My Father’s outfit was one of the early ones to enter Berlin after the Russians captured it.
Daddy said every time they would meet with a Russian soldier, they would say in English, “Death to Fascists”.
The American soldiers were for the most part not all that knowledgeable about those political issues. The Americans would sort of stare at them, like what are you saying?
He said after a couple of weeks they quit saying it.
I think the word “Fascist” has become a particular code word to the hard left.
Yup but you can bet your bottom dollar that “che” shirts will be on display aplenty at the “celebrations” of this piece of garbage to be held in.............where else? The bay area. Probably see an upsurge of sales for them at the tables outside displaying all sorts of commie crap.
Helping keep mankind warm for 65 years.
You could be right but I don't think that anyone can be certain at this point.However,the statement that "driftless" made,the one to which I responded in post #12,is either correct or it's incorrect.If,by chance,it's correct than I'll give Guthrie credit for that.Hell,I'll even give Osama Obama credit for not having been involved in JFK's assassination.Of course that's about all I'll give him credit for.
That's very true. The Nazi party was officially the National Socialist German Workers Party. The reds would never say "nazi" because "nazi" would remind everyone how close the nazi ideology really was to the communist ideology.
Help Celebrate "Know Your Commies Day"
Which is why I like Wagner's music despite the fact that he was an anti-Semitic creep. I like a lot of Guthrie's songs as well. For that matter, George Orwell never gave up his belief that some form of socialism was the way of the future. He just disliked communism.
See my post #21. The Soviet army was actually under orders to say "fascist", and not "nazi".
The Nazi party was officially the National Socialist German Workers Party. The reds would never say "nazi" because "nazi" would remind everyone how close the nazi ideology really was to the communist ideology.
The first such “celebration” may be in Berkeley, but the article points out they are being held all over the country this summer. Probably in conjunction with the OWSers in the same camps.
“Guthrie was an out-and-out communist, thats why. Probably more so than his contemporary, Pete Seeger...”
The main difference between Guthrie & Seeger is that the latter is alive, well into his nineties thanks to evil capitalist healthcare, and living large the bourgeois lifestyle made possible by the social & economic system he has so despised for so many decades.
Unregenerate Stalinists, both of them.
” Steve Earle said of Guthrie,”
Who cares! Steve Earle has admitted that he’s a communist in several articles.
Screw you Steve!
Re the photo in your post #16...Wikipedia (again) — “Guthrie believed performing his anti-fascist songs and poems at home was the best use of his talents; Guthrie lobbied the United States Army to accept him as a USO performer instead of conscripting him as a soldier in the draft. When Guthrie’s attempts failed, his friends Cisco Houston and Jim Longhi pressured Guthrie to join the U.S. Merchant Marine. Guthrie followed their advice: he served as a mess man and dishwasher and frequently sang for the crew and troops to buoy their spirits on transatlantic voyages. ... In 1945, Guthrie’s association with communism made him ineligible for further service in the Merchant Marine, and he was drafted into the U.S. Army.”
As Maine Mariner says in #20, that’s his Merchant Marine garb, not an affectation.
Marine and longshoremen unions in that era were completely dominated by communists. I’m sure he fit right in. Of course, that’s true of unions to this day. After all, communism has its roots in the workers throwing off the shackles of the capitalist bourgeoise class.
So true. Take a look in Wikipedia at Burl Ives and Will Geer.
According to Wikipedia, his son Arlo (b. 1947), best known probably for his "Alice's Restaurant" song, is a registered Republican and supported Ron Paul in 2008. Arlo's mother is Jewish and he studied for his bar mitzvah with Rabbi Meir Kahane. Maybe not what you would expect of the son of a card-carrying Communist.
Country Joe McDonald was sued for copyright infringement for his song, “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag” by the estate of the composer of the song “Muskrat Ramble”. McDonald lost the suit and a lot of money. Just goes to show that the “noble” progressives and communists are not above stealing for their own gain.
Let’s not forget that the song “This Land is Your Land” was about the fact that ALL land should be ‘your’ land and that there shouldn’t be private land.
Thank you for that info. Sorry to say that I was among those fooled by this song.
I didn’t know that interesting tidbit about McDonald. Thanks for putting it up here.
“Appropriating” somebody else’s private property — how perfectly commie.
This was supposed to be The Summer of George!
No. A Communist never symbolizeed “American Dream.”
Stephen Foster will still be sung long after Guthrie is totally forgotten.
Funny you mention that. This is one of my favorite CDs. Highly recommended...
Think? It has been for at least 70 years.
See the Hayek quote on my FR profile page for some insight into some of the main reasons why. It’s the 3rd one down, the two-paragrapher.
Beyond that, read Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism for additional history and insights on this subject.
Years ago in primary school, we had to sing a lot of what I later found out where Stephen Foster songs. But you don't hear his work much lately. "Tis summer, the darkies are gay" and "Still longing for de old plantation" don't quite go over well nowadays.
Woody Guthrie, a songwriter? I don't think he actually created those melodies. They were traditional or by long forgotten composers with maybe a few minor changes. His lyrics weren't always very memorable either. We've had great songwriters -- plenty of them -- but some people are stuck on the folk thing and don't care about talented songwriters who don't fit in with it.
Beautiful Dreamer was my Mother’s favorite song. It is also one of mine.
At Mother’s funeral a Cousin who has a professional tenor voice sang it along with the choir. A perfect song for such a beautiful and sweet Mother.
Glazer adds that Woody likely had no idea how timeless the material he was writing would turn out to be.Really? Timeless? Outside of a few aged (formerly aging) hippie never-have-beens in Berkeley, I'd say his stuff is pretty forgettable, and pretty much long forgotten.
Beautiful Dreamer is a wonderful song. How very nice to have it sung at your mother’s funeral. It must have been very touching. Check out Suzy Boguss’ version on American Folk Songbook.
Suzy does a magnificent version of “Ah, May The Red Rose Live Always” also by Stephen Foster and on the same CD. Lyrics are just wonderful and the counterpoint of the plaintive fiddle against her sweet voice is incredible.
Communists are Fascists in overalls.
To his credit, Seeger renounced Stalin many years back.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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All those hours of community service in high school paid off: you've been accepted into college. You did your good deeds for the world -- and let's be honest, to brighten up that application -- and you're done. Now it's time to focus on your future for the next four years, right? Wrong. College is the perfect time to look at volunteering with a fresh set of eyes. Not only can the experience give you a leg up come job-hunting time, but it can also help to give you a better understanding of your new surroundings, and to develop stronger leadership skills.
If you're interested in volunteering, most college campuses have a community-service center that can point you in the right direction, and support your goals along the way [see sidebar]. Many offices offer short-term and long-term projects, on- and off-campus service opportunities, lists of partner organizations, and often offer leadership training to build interpersonal skills.
"Our goal is to get as many students involved in the Rochester community as possible," says Molly McGowan, director of the Leadership Institute & Community Service Center at the Rochester Institute of Technology. "They learn to work with diverse groups of people and build leadership skills." RIT has gotten students involved with programs like the Boys and Girls Club of Rochester, Cancer Act, and The Children's Institute. But those are only a few of the Community Service Center's more than 200 community partners.
Giving back is the perfect way to meet new people as you navigate your way through campus life. A wide array of student groups either center around community service or make getting involved part of their missions. These groups are a great option if you are unsure about committing to a project, or think you don't have enough time, as they can help you stay connected throughout the chaos of classes and exams. It helps to have a support group that can keep you focused. Information on many of these groups are can be found during orientation week, at club fairs, on your school's website, or through the community service office.
"Try to get connected as soon as possible; it's a great way to meet other students and learn about the community," says Adam Lewandowski, assistant director of Nazareth College's Office of Community Service.
The earlier you get involved, the more opportunities will be available to you. And as you become an upperclassman, your network of connections will grow. Service trips like alternative spring break--intensive service projects, such as building homes with Habitat for Humanity -- are often only open to students with volunteer seniority, so it helps to get involved in the community early to secure your spot. These trips allow you to travel to places like North Carolina, Florida, or Georgia to help others in need, as well the possibility of enjoying a nice day at the beach or exploring a new city. Going beyond the cheap vacation and balmy skies, the work is focused and in-depth, which can lead to even bigger personal rewards and leave a positive mark wherever you happen to go.
In addition to making a positive impact on the community, volunteering can add major brownie points to your resume, connect you with potential employers, and open up opportunities for internships. "Employers definitely want to see a well-rounded student," says RIT's McGowan. "Co-ops [and internships] are competitive."
The skills learned from volunteering can be extremely useful in any career. Learning how to properly nail siding, teaching someone how to read, or understanding how to manage a non-profit organization can all contribute to landing a job you want in small or even big ways.
Community service can also help you decide what you want to do with your future. "It gives students the opportunity to get involved in a chosen career field," says Nazareth's Lewandowski. For those interested in service opportunities Nazareth has partnerships with Generation Two, Hillside Family of Agencies, and The Sojourner House; those interested in education can partner with the Rochester City School District, the Southwest Community Center, or the YMCA, to name a few. A volunteer position may help you to decide what you do and do not like about the realities of your dream job, so you can tailor your classes toward what you know you want, and make the right choices for your future.
Jessica Rose, a junior at University of Rochester, is proof of the benefits that come from giving back. "People always say, 'You're doing great work,' but you get as much out of it as you put into it," she says. "I've grown into a person I like." Rose currently works as an intern at Mary's Place Outreach on Lexington Avenue, which services Rochester's refugee community. There she teaches children ages 8 to 15 basic English and helps them acclimate to Rochester's public school system. But her list of community service is both extensive and exciting.
It started in high school with a church mission trip with friends to Kentucky, where they helped to fix housing and worked on other projects. "The first year it was just, 'This is fun,'" says Rose. "By the second or third year we understood what we were doing." When she got to college, it was only natural for her to continue volunteering, and Habitat for Humanity had a familiar mission. The more she looked, the more she found, and before long she was building homes in Thailand. "You learn a lot about human decency," Rose says. Volunteering "makes you more aware of the world."
Giving back helps you learn about the community around you. Rochester is your home for the next four years, and by getting involved with it, you'll be introduced to the people of this city, its places, and be reminded that people exist from all walks of life.
"There is a huge need in the local and global community for students to step up and get involved," says McGowan. Now it's your turn.
On-Campus Volunteer Centers
Nazareth College Department of Community Service
Golisano 155, 389-2307
University of Rochester Community Service Network
RIT Leadership Institute & Community Service Center
RIT Campus Center, Building 3, Suite 1030, 475-4110
SUNY Brockport Community Development
B105 Seymour Union, 395-5245
St. John Fisher Community Service Office
Campus Center 225, 385-8196
NOTE: Not all campuses have an office for community service, but that shouldn't stop you from getting involved, as student groups and other volunteering opportunities still exist. You just have to find them.
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EPA cites 2 county farms for water quality violations
Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, December 26, 2004
According to Phillippa Cannon, spokeswoman for the EPA, Zwemmer Dairy LLC, located on Berne Road in Elkton, and TeVoortwis Dairy LLC, located on Stein Road in Bad Axe, were cited.
"The dairy operations, both classified as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), have to correct violations of the Clean Water Act by improving their facilities and management practices," Cannon said. "We (the EPA) have the option to fine them, but the first priority is to just get them into compliance, and it appears that both farms are doing so."
If the farms don't comply, they could face fines and criminal sanctions until they do so.
The two farms in Huron County weren't the only farms in Michigan to be cited. Another farm in St. Louis, along with 13 other farms in Indiana and Ohio, were cited by the EPA to prevent them from allowing discharge from their farms into streams and creeks.
According to the official documents from the EPA, the citations report that both the TeVoortwis and Zwemmer dairy farms "have discharged or have the potential to discharge pollutants to ditches that drain to the Pinnebog River, which empties into Lake Huron."
"Manure and silage leachate are problems because they contain bacteria and nutrients that can lead to excessive algae growth, kill fish and cause infectious diseases in people," Cannon said. "CAFO production areas must not discharge any manure, litter or process waste water pollutants into waters."
All 16 farms cited by the EPA in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio were built by Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development of Wauseon, Ohio.
Jake Zwemmer owns Zwemmer Dairy LLC which maintains 2,400 mature dairy cattle, both milking and dry. The facility was constructed in 1999. Zwemmer has taken steps to correct some of the violations cited by the EPA. The EPA noted that the discharge from the farm allegedly came from the facility's storm water system. The flows are conveyed through ditches, to a drain on the east side of the facility and into a field to the McMullen Drain which then runs into the Pinnebog River. Four areas were noted as "violations or deficiencies" at the Zwemmer farm.
Zwemmer said the cost was about $10,000 to make further improvements to contain pollutants at his farm.
TeVoortwis Dairy has 1,250 dairy cattle, both milking and dry, according to EPA documents. TeVoortwis Dairy could not be reached for comment.
According to the EPA, the pollutants allegedly discharged from the TeVoortwis facility went "into the waters of the U.S. through a device, namely, the facility's storm water system. Flows are conveyed through ditches to a tile which is connected to the Moore Road ditch. The ditch runs north to the Pinnebog River." The EPA found nine separate areas at the dairy that were "violations or deficiencies" that were noted during the November inspection. And based on their findings the EPA ordered the dairy to "cease and desist all unauthorized discharges."
The EPA reports that the Pinnebog River is listed on the State of Michigan's reports as having a "nutrient enrichment impairment."
The EPA citations report both farms could be fined up to $27,500 per day, and operators could face criminal penalties, including imprisonment, if the violations aren't corrected under a detailed schedule.
Zwemmer already has made numerous improvements, installing additional manure storage and a pit for leachate, to become verified under a voluntary Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program overseen by the state.
Under the citation made against Zwemmer, his farm also has to apply for the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit from the state.
Under an agreement between the state and the EPA, existing large farms can operate without a permit only if they don't have any discharges at their farm. But now that the Zwemmer farm has had a discharge, he will be required to obtain a permit for the farm in Elkton.
Construction on Zwemmer's new Chandler Township dairy farm, called Z-Star, has been under way for months now. He received a discharge permit for that farm on June 11.
For more information regarding the citations, contact the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5 at (312) 353-6218.
Stacy Langley (989) 269-6461 firstname.lastname@example.org.
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Rococo Rebels paint sample set
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The YesColours Rococo Rebels paint edit was inspired by the stories of Marie Antoinette, the controversial fashion queen and Madame Pompadour, a talented creative spirit who influenced politics within Versailles.
The Rococo period was full of elaborate design, pastel colour schemes, depicting themes of love, myths, youth and playfulness. This famous ornamental style first emerged in France but the luxurious interpretations were favoured by The Prince Regent here in the UK. So the Rococo revival spread across the pond and inspired The Regency Era. Think Jane Austen, William Blake, Brighton Pavilion, Greek inspired fashions, pastel silks and lace. It's all very #bridgerton.
So we wanted to celebrate more of our neutral paints, pastels and some audacious pinky hues by showing them in a way which sparks creativity, experimentation and a little bit of cheekiness.
Have fun, be playful and as Madame Pompadour once said; "every day, I wish to make the world more beautiful than I found it".
Let's do the same with colour. Try pairings and combos on woodwork in living rooms and hallway spaces.
This set contains 10 x 60ml paint samples:
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Get some advice on how to use this paint colour, or match it with others in our colour range. Our consultations are made to get you feeling confident about your colour choices, no matter your taste.
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I was in Houston, Texas, this time of the year 4 years ago and it’s sad to see how badly affected the city and its people are today by tropical storm Harvey. The BBC news just reported that this is the worst floods Texas has faced in 50 years. At least 5 people are reported to have died (New York Times). Meanwhile, the UK had the hottest August bank holiday on record today. All these extreme weather events are signs of climate change.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that “the global warming of the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities, predominantly the burning of fossil fuels.” Yet, the current US government, who doesn’t believe in climate change, has decided to undo any effort from previous governments to reduce the use of energy from fossil fuel.
NOAA published the key findings of the US National Climate Assessment in their website. Some of the findings are listed below:
- Some extreme weather and climate events have increased in recent decades, and new and stronger evidence confirms that some of these increases are related to human activities.
- Human-induced climate change is projected to continue, and it will accelerate significantly if global emissions of heat-trapping gases continue to increase.
- Impacts related to climate change are already evident in many sectors and are expected to become increasingly disruptive across the nation throughout this century and beyond.
- Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways, including through more extreme weather events and wildfire, decreased air quality, and diseases transmitted by insects, food, and water.
- Infrastructure is being damaged by sea level rise, heavy downpours, and extreme heat; damages are projected to increase with continued climate change.
Carbon Brief carried out an analysis which suggests 63% of all extreme weather events studied to date were made more likely or more severe by human-caused climate change. Heatwaves account for nearly half of such events (46%), droughts make up 21% and heavy rainfall or floods account for 14%. The report includes an interactive map which shows 144 extreme weather events across the globe which has been studied scientifically. The Carbon Brief analysis points out that “taking into account all modeling results, the probability of an event like the one in south Louisiana in 2016 has increased at least by a factor of 1.4 due to radiative forcing.” Link
The BBC news also reported that President Trump is to visit Houston. Hopefully, he will believe now that weather extremes are becoming comon place everywhere, including the USA, and hopefully he will begin to believe that the effects of climate change are real and think about his recent actions.
Some photos I’ve taken during my one-day stop in Houston, Texas, this time 4 years ago.
van de Wiel et al., (2017) Rapid attribution of the August 2016 flood-inducing extreme precipitation in south Louisiana to climate change. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 21, 897-921
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The health crisis triggered by the death of over 40 people, who consumed contaminated drugs made at Panama's health institution's laboratory, has prompted Panamanian President Martin Torrijos to announce new measures to resolve a health crisis.
Torrijos said that the government had since closed the laboratory that was owned by the Social Security Body (CSS), permanently in a bid to win back confidence in the country's social security system.
AdvertisementMedicines including cough syrup made at the CSS laboratory were found to be contaminated with toxic di-ethylene glycol that causes death by causing kidney failure. Over 40 people fell seriously ill after taking the contaminated medicines. According to Torrijos he would sign an executive order later in the day which would make an ethylene glycol test mandatory. He also added that he had instructed Health Minister Camilo Alleyne to present plans for an autonomous quality and security control body to the cabinet within 90 days.
The ministry has planned to restructure Panama's medical care system by creating a fund that would care for uninsured citizens.
Torrijos said that a new presidential office would compensate victims of the poisoning, although the victims could still make claims through the nation's courts.
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Lemony Yellow Lentils (Moong Dhuli Dal)
Lentils are staple in North Indian households. There are several types of lentils and severals ways to cook them. Yellow lentils are low in calories, easy to digest and fast to cook. I served them as a soup to my son and tex-mex style with salsa for me and my husband.
3 cups water
1 cup split yellow lentils (Moong Dhuli Dal)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
salt to taste
red/black pepper powder to taste (although I did not use any)
1 tbsp lemon juice (or more to taste)
1 tablespoon ghee/ or cooking oil (clarified butter)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 pinch asafoetida powder (hing powder)
Combine the water, lentils, turmeric, pepper powder and salt in a large pot and cook over high heat; bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Cook until the lentils are tender and water and lentils are nicely blended together, about 15 -20 minutes. Alternately, you can pressure cook the same (5 minutes!)
Heat the ghee in a medium pan (I usually use little bit more ghee than 1 tbsp for my son’s benefit). Add asafoetida powder, after few seconds add cumin seeds, and let the seeds splutter. Stir the mixture into the lentil mixture. Turn off the heat and add lemon juice.
1. For my son, with a dollop of sour cream. He did have few bites so I can say it is worth a try again!
2. On bed of rice, pour lentils, 2 tbsp fresh salsa, 1 tsp sour cream. Thats my tex-mex spin on a classic Indian lentil dish. Although you don’t see tortilla chips in the picture, but I am pretty sure I must have had some with this bowl!
- Hearty Chicken Curry (Slow Cooker Recipe)
- Punjabi Chole (Chickpeas Curry)
- Ma Chole ki Dal (Slow Cooked Split Black lentils and Split Bengal Gram Curry)
- Achari Baingan (Slow Cooked)
- Sukhi Urad Dal (Slow Cooked tempered dry lentils)
- Methi Malai Paneer
- Creamy Pesto Macaroni
- Chana Biryani
- Mili-Juli Sabzi (Mixed Vegetable medley with chickpeas)
- Tortellini with roasted vegetables
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What is the 24Fit Workout?
A 24-week, 13-DVD workout program developed by Herbalife with the renowned physical therapist Robert Forster. The workouts are co hosted by coaches Tom Holland and Samantha Clayton. The DVDs covers flexibility, posture, metabolic workouts and strength training. Plus you receive the usual personalised nutrition programmes provided by Herbalife.
The calories you burn during workouts are inconsequential to your overall body weight or body fat content! Instead, it is how well you use your exercise time to reprogram your daily physiology that matters. Take a look at this graphic comparing “What people think they need to do, to look better, lose fat get in shape” v What people actually need to do”?
- 24Fit gradually increases in intensity so you dont workout harder you workout smarter. Over the 24 week programme, during the 3 seperate phases trains your body to burn fat instead of carbs.
- Addresses common vulnerabilities of the human body regardless of age or previous activity level. Herbalife24FIT is a program of handpicked exercises proven to make your body more resilient to injury. It also includes built-in rest days to allow for recovery and make your body stronger
- Periodization training so you need to sequence your training, to develop one aspect of fitness at a time and then use that as a foundation to build the next. And principles which recognises that all exercise is much less effective if rest and recovery periods are not provided.
- Workout lasts for 30 mins, the time it would take you to drive to the gym and back!. This length of workout is achievable over time. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
- You will be less likely to quit Herbalife24FIT once you get started because it follows scientific training principles. The program progresses your fitness naturally, so that you not only keep going, but never want to stop!
- Hit a weight plateau? Step up your strength training. It builds muscle & increases your metabolic rate. Every pound of muscle in our bodies burns 7-10 calories a day, while each pound of fat burns just 2 calories per day. Get into the good habit of strength training at home 3 times a week. Cardio only workouts = limited results.
- Establishes stability and flexibility before your you move onto the later phases of building strength and power. Phase 1 on the 24 Fit program covers stability where the body is hardened against injury. This involves the use of light weights and other exercises to strengthen all the little “helper muscles” around the joints, which, along with a lot of stretching insures that each joint is functioning properly. Then moves onto the larger muscles to increase overall strength. Training for any “challenges”, prepare your body first with Phase 1 of the workout!
- Improve posture with 24Fit. Standing up straight can improve breathing and digestion. And uses less energy. A good antidote for all those people stuck at their desks all day.
- Your body will become a more efficient calorie-burning machine, changing the body’s physiology so you are going to burn more calories all day ( not just when you are working out)– whether you are at work, at play or even whilst you sleep.
- Has 3 levels of difficulty so any age, any condition, anyone can build a better body! ( beginner, intermediate and advanced)
- Leading fitness experts have developed the programme and provided instruction for: Robert Forster, Tom Holland and Samantha Clayton
- Robert Forster a physical therapist has worked with top athletes such as Pete Sampras, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Florence “Flo-Jo” Joyner, Greg Foster, Allyson Felix, as well as weight management clients looking to burn fat. Thirty years of experience in a set of 13 DVDs!
- Wellness solution, rather than just and exercise solution. Applying the basic concept of 80% nutrition and 20% exercise we can reach any fitness goal. Use personalised nutrition intake to get optimum results. A protein shake after training accelerates lean muscle growth, which in turn revs your metabolism and burns more fat. To help preserve muscle mass, aim for at least 20 grams of protein( plant and animal protein) at every meal.
- Its a 24 week programme, with 12 DVDs plus the intro DVD. Watch video clip on this link.
- Focussed on measurable results, unlike most health clubs!
Buy the Herbalife 24 Fit DVDs – Contact us for details about availability in your country: email@example.com
What types of pre-workout meal do you have? What are you drinking during your workout ? And has it become the norm to take a recovery drink after your workout? More information on workout nutrition.
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New ideas, not money or machinery, are the source of success today, and the greatest source of personal satisfaction.
The creative economy is revitalising manufacturing, services, retailing and entertainment industries. It is changing where people want to live, work and learn – where they think, invent and produce.
The creative economy is based on a new way of thinking and doing. The primary inputs are our individual talent or skill. These inputs may be familiar or novel; what is more important is that our creativity transforms them in novel ways. In some sectors the output value depends on their uniqueness; in others, on how easily it can be copied and sold to large numbers of people. The heartlands are art, culture, design and innovation.
The creative economy brings together ideas about the creative industries, the cultural industries, creative cities, clusters and the creative class.
Howkins & Associates
John Howkins is a leading figure in the global development of these ideas. His book, ‘The Creative Economy’, published in 2001 and completely revised in 2013, was the first account of the new economy,
Howkins & Associates have developed the Creative Triangle and the Creative Audit. These enable companies and policy-makers to benefit from the new oportunities.
Our priority activities in 2014 cover
How to be Creative
Managing Creativity and Innovation
The Creative Economy: Global Trends
Creativity in Europe, America and China: 2010-2020
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Rape laws: Before knee-jerk responses, all dragged feet
- HSBC Indian list just doubled to 1195 names. Balance: Rs 25420 cr
- Manjhi expelled, Nitish stakes claim to form govt in Bihar
- Hanging of Afzal Guru was 'wrong' & 'badly' handled, says Shashi Tharoor
- Have given it my all, not nervous about result: Kiran Bedi
- Japanese girl allegedly raped by tourist guide in Jaipur
While the UPA government has announced a three-member panel to look into possible changes in sexual assault laws, one question that needs to be asked is why successive governments have ignored all recommendations by various ministries and panels, including the Law Ministry and Law Commission of India, in the matter.
Last week, in a knee-jerk reaction to the anger over the brutal gangrape in a moving bus in the Capital, the Delhi government announced setting up of five fast-track courts to deal with rape cases. Knee-jerk because a recommendation to set up special courts to deal with sexual offences, including rape, was made by the Law Commission of India on March 25, 2000. Thereafter, the Law Commission in 2003 drafted the Sexual Offences (Special Courts) Bill, 2003. Nothing has been done as a follow-up to this proposal.
While Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde introduced the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, in the Lok Sabha on December 4, proposing to amend laws dealing with the offence of rape, the Bill is silent on special courts to deal with sexual offences in a time-bound manner. Most of the clauses in the Bill are pending for legislative action for over 12 years.
Ironically, while MPs are now demanding special session of Parliament to pass stringent rape laws, none of them bothered to push the government to pass these laws during the recent Winter Session — only Akali Dal's Harsimrat Kaur Badal declared her intention to move an amendment to ensure that rapists get death. In fact, the government and Opposition colluded to postpone the introduction in the Rajya Sabha of the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2010, while the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) was not even taken up for discussion.
What we are witnessing is all reactionary rather than affirmative action. With the government indicating it is not averse to accepting demands for death penalty, one only hopes that MPs do their homework and not play to the gallery while passing important legislations. Views of those opposing the death penalty should be given due weightage. NHRC chief Justice (retd) K G Balakrishnan, for example, has pointed out that any such law could result in rapists killing victims to destroy evidence.
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Understanding the General Data Protection Regulation
Enacted in May of 2018 by the EU, the GDPR is considered the most stringent privacy protection and security law in the world. Although the EU enacted the regulation, it applies to any organization, regardless of location, that handles the personal data of anyone visiting or living in the EU.
Personal data is defined as “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.” Under this definition in the GDPR, “any information” encompasses a range of personal data.
There are six data protection principles outlined in the GDPR related to how personal data should be processed (summarized below from Article 5 of the GDPR. See the full text for a complete description of each item):
1. Personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner.
2. The reasons for collecting the data must be specified, explicit, and legitimate.
3. Organizations must focus on “data minimization” — data collection must be limited to what is necessary.
4. Data must be kept accurate and up to date.
5. Data must only be stored for as long as necessary for a specified purpose.
6. Data processing must be done in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data.
In the last point, appropriate security extends to many security measures for personal data. These include protecting against unauthorized or unlawful processing of the data, accidental loss, and destruction or damage. Data protection and cybersecurity measures such as encryption can be enacted to safeguard personal data against threats such as data breaches. Touchstone’s GDPR Compliance Service can help you identify areas for improvement where you can implement security measures in alignment with GDPR’s complex requirements.
Disclosure: in no way is this document to be considered legal advice, as this is our best attempt at interpreting the GDPR. Always seek legal counsel when in doubt
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October 6th, 2009
Shirley Laska at Book Signing for Catastrophe in the Making. Photo by Hubie Vigreux 9-22-09
The authors of a just-released book describe what they think is the most dangerous project built by the US Army Corps of Engineers in regional New Orleans. Catastrophe in the Making describes how the MRGO
(Mississippi River Gulf Outlet) put New Orleans and nearby St. Bernard Parish in harm’s way by allowing salt water intrusion that killed protective cypress forests and buffering wetlands.
The book also explains how similar, equally harmful projects are going on in many places including the California Delta and metro St. Louis.
Read the original post
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Note: Principal Investigator Ernst Pollmann particularly requests higher-resolution (at least 10000) spectra of gam Cas. - Elizabeth O. Waagen, 21 May 2020
January 31, 2020
AAVSO Forum threads (scroll to the bottom of a thread for latest posts):
- Campaigns and Observation Reports: https://www.aavso.org/gam-cas-campaign
- Spectroscopy: https://www.aavso.org/gam-cas-campaign-01
Ernst Pollmann (International Working Group ASPA (Active Spectroscopy in Astronomy)) has requested AAVSO observers' assistance in obtaining spectra of the very bright Be star gam Cas (HD 5394, 1.6-3V) in support of a long term study underway of HeI 6678 V/R periodicity in this star.
Pollmann writes that he is "reactivating a long-term study of HeI 6678 V/R periodicity in gamma Cas. Stee et al. (1998) proposed that the He excitation and ionization region, responsible for the emission in the HeI 6678 line, extends to 2.3 stellar radii. Thus, the HeI 6678 line has an important diagnostic value of activity close to the stellar surface.
"The time-dependent mass loss from the primary component of the gamma Cas binary system assumes that both photospheric and disk density variations lead to the double peak profile variations of HeI 6678.
"The analysis of the V/R periodicity (448 day) of the Hel 6678 double-peak emission for the period August 2009 to September 2019, cannot confirm the period, published [in] IBVS 6103 (2014), probably because of the few data available until 2014.
"The 448 day period found today, is based on a much longer monitoring time and a three times larger data set, from the data bases BAA, BeSS, and my own spectra."
CCD spectra with spectral resolution of at least 10000 (or better) should cover at least the wavelength section from 6650 to 6700 Angströms. One spectrum per week is requested.
The campaign is running already and should last at least through 2024.
Coordinates: R.A. 00 56 42.53 Dec. +60 43 00.3 (2000.0)
AAVSO finder charts for gam Cas may be generated using the AAVSO Variable Star Plotter (VSP).
Spectra should be sent directly to Ernst Pollmann <email@example.com> and also submitted to the AAVSO Spectroscopy Database (AVSpec, https://www.aavso.org/apps/avspec/), as well as to any other sites the observer chooses.
This AAVSO Alert Notice was compiled by Elizabeth O. Waagen using material provided by Ernst Pollmann.
SUBMIT OBSERVATIONS TO THE AAVSO
Information on submitting observations to the AAVSO may be found at:
ALERT NOTICE ARCHIVE AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
An Alert Notice archive is available at the following URL:
Subscribing and Unsubscribing may be done at the following URL:
Please support the AAVSO and its mission -- Join or donate today:
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One nice feature of the TLC5940 is that it is daisy chainable, which means that one chip can be connected to the next one and so on for plenty (500+)of pwm ports. Each one of the ports is individually controllable from only using 5 pins from the microcontroller. This creates great possibilities like creating low resolution screens or light patterns which is fully customizable and so on. Also control of motors and other outputs is possible.
In this Instructable I will show how to solder the breakout board and also how to connect it to an arduino and control leds.
The kit with the pcb and everything else needed can be purchased at http://blushingboy.org/content/dawm where also many other open source projects are sold.
The datasheet for the TLC5940 can be found here with all the specs http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tlc5940.pdf
A library for controlling it from arduino can be found here http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/TLC5940
Since this is my first Instructable I would love comments on it...
Step 1: Material and tools
1 The Dawm (breakout board) available now by mailing me or soon from here http://blushingboy.org/
1 TLC5940 available as an sample from Texas Industry for free or from Digikey (Digi-Key Part Number 296-17732-5-ND ) or similar vendor
38 female pin headers (not necessary but makes life easier)
1 resistor which size depends on the current you are going to be using. (more about that further down)
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DENBIGHSHIRE is facing a debt crisis as huge numbers of people seek help with their money problems.
New figures from the Insolvency Service reveal that the county ranks as the local authority in the UK with the highest number of debt relief orders granted.
The numbers of orders being granted in the county are so high that Denbighshire accounts for four times the Welsh average.
Paul Roberts, money advice manager at Denbighshire Citizens Advice Bureau, said: “We are seeing an ever increasing demand for debt advice.”
Full story in this week's Free Press
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Businesses are always looking for ways to lure more customers without affecting their bottom line too much. One thing that can be started almost immediately is email marketing. If you haven’t heard about this Internet marketing technique for growing your business, keep reading. In the following paragraphs, you’ve find some essential advice.
Do not send emails that were unsolicited. Your emails may be marked as spam by people who are not interested in receiving them. Along with getting a bad reputation, you might find that your IP address gets blocked by certain ISPs if they get too many complaints.
Send out emails that correspond to your target audience. After you have established a small reader base, try to get them to spread the word to their friends. Include subscription links in your emails so that your readers can pass them off to friends. This way your base will grow organically.
Make use of A/B testing for variations on your subject lines. Choose one email, randomly split the mailing list in two and send each half the same email with different subject lines. You can learn which subject wording is most influential in getting your customer base to open your messages.
It is important that you obtain subscriber consent before you begin emailing them. If you spam your customers you will find that you will never be taken seriously. It could become bad enough that people decide not to buy from you at all and completely detach themselves from your company.
Keep in mind that the sole purpose of building an email list is to sell your wares. Your marketing emails should drive customers to purchasing your services or products. This can be done in a few different ways, including providing information on new product launches, revealing new ways to use existing products, or offering discounts on popular products.
Create informative and entertaining content for your marketing with email campaigns, not just information about the items you sell. Provide subscribers with special access to informative articles not available elsewhere on your site. Another idea is to have special offers that are only available via email. Sending holiday messages or birthday greetings will demonstrate your interest aside from business purchases.
Look at how spammers run their messages, for a lesson in what you should never do. Get a free account and sign up on a few websites. The spam should come in quickly. Educate yourself on how these spammers are incorrectly using marketing via email and go your own way. If you wish to have a brand that’s credible, take measures to be different from spammers.
As time goes on, more and more of your subscribers will be viewing your emails through a mobile device such as a smartphone. The lower resolution of those devices means that there’s less space on the screen to display your messages. Test your emails out so that you know they’re legible on mobile screens.
Your emails should contains calls to action. You should explain to the recipient of the emails what it is that needs to be done. If you use links, include instructions on what to do with them. You might want to consider repeating links in your email so that they appear at the top, and then again at the bottom, of your notice.
An obvious but important tip when it comes to marketing via email is ensuring all the email addresses are accurate. You don’t want to waste precious time hunting down addresses and resending e-mails after getting dozens of bounced back messages from invalid addresses. It’s a total waste of time!
When people first sign up for your mailings, have a spot to at least get their first name. This way, you could customize your recipient’s email by addressing them individually, making the email more personal. That personal touch helps your emails get more attention.
Try to make the message in your emails sound somewhat personal. The customer response will be more positive to this kind of message in comparison to impersonal ones. If your message is sent by the President, CEO or other company bigwig, it will have a bigger impact on your customers.
Remember that you’re working on enhancing your reputation when you’re developing your email marketing campaign. Do not be cheap when it comes to email quality, be careful to target the right customers for your business, and stay away from any tactics that could be considered misleading. It’s important to keep in mind that the reputation of your business is at stake. Make business choices while remembering that.
Now you can plainly see that marketing with email is a great tool for a business of any size to build its customer base. With email promoting as cheap as it is, there is really no excuse for not using it. Try the helpful tips below to get started.
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It probably doesn’t occupy the daily thoughts of normal people, this question of how music recommendations will work in the future. But go to trendy “future of music” conferences and panels and the like, and you’ll hear from countless prognosticators consumed by the dilemma. Many of the solutions amount to clever algorithms, machine solutions to working out what you’re hearing and what you might like. It’s no surprise in this era of data mining and search engines and endless connected choice, but it might make you wonder if there’s a place for the humans.
Enter Pete Tong – the legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ. (It’s fitting that “It’s All Gone Pete Tong” shares a name with a film about a fictional DJ losing his hearing – restoring hearing to the mobile machine listener here is precisely the idea.)
What’s interesting about this app is that it restores the human to the equation – even as it uses algorithms to analyze your music library. So, sure, it’s a bit of a gimmick – down to the Pete Tong branding on the app. But there is a human element that might make it worth using. And it’s a hint that the future is part machine, part human – cyborg recommendations over robot recommendations alone.
In something that might make artists take notice, too, incentives for buying are woven into the app, as well.
Functionality for the new app:
- Music recommendations based on what’s in your library
- Automatic playlist organization, based on what you’ve got, alongside those recommendations
- New concert notifications
- In-app purchasing of music and live event tickets
- Social networks connect to sharing, browsing, saving.
Where does Pete Tong come into all of this? His music picks are fed directly into the app, so that rather than a big bucket of all music ever, the machine analysis and recommendations connect to human-selected tracks. Presumably, that additional focus will provide some human character to what you hear. Tong also makes an appearance via an in-built Twitter feed, though, hopefully he’ll stay more on-task than other ever-hilarious characters from the UK like Stephen Fry (or, better yet, Mrs. Stephen Fry).
Tong also shares tracks he’s playing on a weekly basis; a crossfader lets you select more of his music – versus more of your own – as you build playlists.
For now, on iPhone:
Android, Windows and Mac versions are coming, though, say the developers.
[Note: we'll have an update on our own App directory soon. Stay tuned.]
I’m not sure this is the last word in how humans could be involved in recommendations, but it could already be more intriguing than just another dreary trip to “Spotify recommends.” And how many of you still find humans – and friends – more useful than algorithms?
Side note: I’m part of a panel entitled “The Future of Music is Social” at Campus Party Europe later this month, if you happen to be roaming abandoned airports then. None other than the guy behind MP3 will be there. That’s their title, not mine – I hope I’ve worked out my thesis between now and then.
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Each side says the fight was forced upon them by the other, and now the climactic showdown is at hand: Voters in 11 states will decide Tuesday whether to impose constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.
Rarely in American history have so many voters -- close to one-fifth of the electorate -- had a chance on a single Election Day to express themselves on such a highly contentious social issue. Most, if not all, of the bans are expected to win approval, though national gay-rights groups are spending heavily in Oregon and a few other states in hopes of avoiding a shutout.
"We are huge underdogs in every one of these battles," said Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "Our side simply does not have the time, the resources or the infrastructure to beat back the forces being unleashed against us in this election year."
The 11 ballot items result from a backlash to the court ruling almost a year ago that made Massachusetts the only state with legalized gay marriage. Seeking extra protection against any comparable future rulings, legislators in five states and signature-gathering citizens' groups in six states placed proposed constitutional amendments on Tuesday's ballots that would limit marriage to one man-one woman unions.
"This is an issue that reaches deep and wide across this country," said Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council. "The people are taking the lead -- they're not waiting for the politicians to act."
Conservative leaders say the ballot campaigns were a necessary response to gay-rights lawsuits seeking marriage equality and Congress' failure to pass a federal amendment banning gay marriage -- though conservatives plan to raise the amendment issue there again. Many gay-rights activists see the campaigns as a mean-spirited tactic to boost conservative turnout on Election Day at the expense of gay and lesbian couples.
"We were not looking for this fight," said Stacy Fletcher of Arkansans for Human Rights. "There is no gay agenda. All our community was doing was working, paying taxes and trying to live our lives."
The proposed amendments in Mississippi, Montana and Oregon refer only to marriage. Those in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Utah would ban civil unions as well, and those extra provisions have generated controversy.
In Utah, for example, all three candidates for attorney general -- including incumbent Republican Mark Shurtleff -- oppose the amendment because it would forbid granting "the same or substantially equivalent legal effect" as marriage to other relationships. The candidates say this could bar the Legislature from extending even basic partnership rights such as hospital visitation to any unmarried couples.
In Ohio, similar concerns have prompted several top Republicans, including Gov. Bob Taft, to oppose the amendment -- even though its presence on the ballot is viewed as a potential benefit to President Bush.
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When left to grow naturally, okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) towers above its garden companions, often crowding out needed sunlight. Many growers prune okra into a bush shape--a technique that also encourages a larger harvest. Okra grows in any of Sunset's Climate Zones; it only needs 60 days of moderate temperatures. This fast-grower produces fluted, white flowers, similar to the hibiscus. Harvest the post-flower pods and enjoy this Cajun delicacy in your favorite southern dishes. You can dry okra and use it potpourri too.
Put on cotton gloves to protect your skin from the irritating leaves of the okra. Wear a long-sleeved shirt too if you have allergy sensitivities to plants.
Stake the okra plants while they are seedlings. This provides support for bush-type growth. As the okra grows, it naturally vines around the stake. Position the stake behind the seedling, about 2 inches away.
Choose a stem to be the main trunk of the plant. Tie this stem loosely to the stake using yarn. This guides the plant upward, making it stronger. Leave two or three other stems to grow as the plant's branches.
Prune the plant back every few days, removing vine offshoots with pruning shears. Snip the offshoots flush to the branch. Clip the top and sides of the okra into a bush shape once a week.
Harvest pods when they reach the desired length. Cutting off pods triggers more pod production. Be gentle when removing pods. Tugging or snatching pods off can damage your plant.
Fertilize the okra plant with a 10-10-10 fertilizer every two weeks to boost bushing.
Things You Will Need
- Cotton gloves
- Long-sleeved shirt
- Wooden stakes
- Pruning shears
- Sharp knife
- 10-10-10 fertilizer
- Buy a dwarf okra for easier bush shaping.
- PhotoObjects.net/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
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New architectural design requirements under carbon neutrality goals
With rapid urban and economic development, energy consumption is increasingly posing threats to the natural environment while the quantity and intensity of energy use in buildings are growing. As the Paris Agreement is leading a global shift towards a Greener economy and sets out the minimum actions required to protect our planet, it is having a huge impact on worldwide political and economic activities. With China’s pledge to peak its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, carbon has now officially become the world’s environmental index. According to the China Building Energy Consumption Report published by China Association of Building Energy Efficiency in 2020, the building sector will be contributing 51.3 per cent of the carbon emissions from industry, building and transportation—the three main sectors in need of Green reform. Therefore, the design, operation, management and use of buildings will directly affect the effectiveness of carbon neutrality efforts in cities. Putting emphasis on architectural design to save energy, cut emissions and create carbon sinks has also become one of the preferred strategies for tackling climate change and meeting carbon targets.
LWK + PARTNERS believes that zero energy buildings are a key means of achieving China’s carbon goals and therefore a future market trend. They require a technical approach that features ‘Passive first, active enhancement, maximise renewable energy use, and human-oriented post-occupancy evaluation’. It aims to ensure a healthy building interiors, functionality and efficiency, formulate carbon-neutral design features, create new low-energy building typologies, improve energy efficiency and smart integration, promote passive design and renewable energy use, and foster ever-better energy saving performance in buildings.
This article investigates the aspects of designing zero energy buildings with a case study in China, contributed by Professor Stephen Lau, Design Research Director leading the Design Research Unit at LWK + PARTNERS.
Applications of low-carbon building innovations
The Carbon-Neutral Building Design project in Guangdong, China is close to transport infrastructure and consists of five large buildings, taking up a site of 80,000 square metres with a maximum building density of 48,000 square metres. During the early design stage, a strength and weakness analysis was conducted on existing solutions, so it was decided to integrate the project with low-carbon design. LWK + PARTNERS works closely with the client to evaluate traditional methods and develop better design frameworks. In response to carbon neutrality objectives, it involves a close review of the site, building envelope and roof for informing low impact development, and low-energy integrated design based on ‘passive first’ and ‘maximise renewable energy’ principles. Below are the low-carbon technologies applied by the team:
Building envelope design
The Carbon-Neutral Building Design project is classified under the ‘hot summer and warm winter zone B’ in the thermal zoning of Chinese buildings, which emphasises natural ventilation, heat insulation and solar shading. According to China’s General Principles of Green Factory Assessment and Assessment Standard for Green Buildings, factories are recommended to save materials, energy, water and land, minimise harm and use renewable energy through the choice of materials, structures and lightings. The thermal insulation performance of the roofs and external walls should also meet requirements stated in the national standard of GB 50176 Thermal Design Code for Civil Buildings. This is why, in addition to maintaining a standard level of insulation of the structures, like focusing on insulating the western side of the building, using materials with lower heat transfer coefficients and applying light-coloured finishes and insulative paints, LWK + PARTNERS also proposes five key strategies for designing the building envelope:
Strategy 1: Orient the building to receive more solar radiation
Strategy 2: Adopt uneven façades to reduce transfer of heat
Strategy 3: Use ventilated façades to raise energy efficiency
Strategy 4: Adopt intelligent materials to optimise energy use and assist with energy management
Strategy 5: Apply passive design features to save energy
In line with Strategy 2, the Carbon-Neutral Building Design project is slightly slanted and adopts uneven façades. In order to raise energy efficiency and cut CO2 emission. For example, on the summer solstice, for the best results in cooling and smoke extraction, horizontal devices along the façade can be adjusted at 28° 27′, exactly the same as the respective angle of sun. This setting is recommended to last till 5pm on the day. Under Strategy 3, ventilated façade are designed to form double-skin curtain walls through its supporting structures, creating a stack effect to activate convective air circulation and improve the acoustic and thermal insulation of the building, thus increasing energy efficiency.
Climate-resilient design as a key tool of passive design needs to reach a higher level to bring down energy demand for heating and air-conditioning in buildings, while giving architects and designers greater opportunities to implement design objectives. Based on climate analysis, the most appropriate passive design strategies are shading, indoor heat gain, natural ventilation for cooling, dehumidification and optimisation of air-conditioning efficiency. These strategies are effective in improving energy efficiency and indoor comfort. The following example, again with the Carbon-Neutral Building Design project, shows how canopy design can facilitate shading.
The project’s canopies are designed in response to the angle of the sun’s shadow. Considering the canopy’s position in relation to the façade, two types of canopies are adopted. Type 1 canopies are designed to shield building walls, which means they fend off direct exposure to the sun during spring, summer and autumn to minimise heating/cooling loads of building surfaces. Type 2 refers to canopies over entrances and glass curtain walls. These are spots where people gather, so the main consideration is to bring sunlight into the interiors during winter for lighting and warmth. Combined with calculations of the canopy dimensions and height of the building’s southern façade, Type 1 features louvres for shielding radiation when the angle of the sun exceeds 13°. From site analysis regarding sun paths, aluminium louvres can provide good shading from noon to around 5pm. For the canopies to be excluded from plot ratio calculations, they must be at least 80 per cent hollow while the slanting of aluminium louvres must be less than 11.5°. To maximise slanting for shading, the canopy itself must be slanted at 11.5°.
Besides, LWK + PARTNERS proposes to add a second layer of canopy above the first, to further shade the roof while squeezing out the heat between the first and second canopy layers and the roof, helping reduce the cooling load on the building space. The double roof structure works with an air chamber to achieve separation, while the layer in between provides additional architectural lighting. If the layers have the same rate of hollowness, this kind of design also enlarges the shaded area, creating a sheltered outdoor living space.
Aquatic design and landscape system for low impact development
In terms of climate, the Carbon-Neutral Building Design project sits on subtropical land susceptible to monsoons, humid weathers and generous rain. To reduce water consumption, which indirectly increase carbon emissions, the project contains features that collect rainwater from different sources including the roof, surface run-off and vegetation catchment. Water from initial disposal tends to be cleaner and can be reused for miscellaneous purposes after a simple treatment. It is estimated that reusing rainwater alone can supply 100 per cent of the miscellaneous water use for this project. The area’s water supply mainly serves office buildings, factories, plant watering and road sprinkling.
Referencing local low-impact development (LID) requirements, the project also includes a range of other green features. These are often landscape features based on blue-green design principles that aim to promote carbon sinks, water recycling, sponge city concepts, artificial wetland landscape and water savings. A LID strategy is mainly proposed for the southern side of the site. The first strategy addresses the large volume of rainwater runoff and potential overflow from the project site. This water can be used for a storm water wetland, retained through physical devices, aquatic plants and microorganisms. The wetland can both be an ecological landscape as well as a public space. The second strategy addresses the body of underground, still water. Multiple layers of vegetation is used to build a revetment, with permeable paving, rain gardens and other measures to create artificial wetlands. This way, rainwater undergoes infiltration, storage, regulation and purification, simulating the nature environment. The stepped arrangement of these semi-natural structures not only meets LID objectives, but also serves a variety of other functional needs.
Photovoltaic (PV) system
Maximising renewable energy means to offset and balance a building’s energy consumption through exploitation of renewable energy. In the Carbon-Neutral Building Design project, LWK + PARTNERS makes great use of the building skin and tap nearby sources to generate renewable energy. Again the local climate and angle of the sun were studied. PV simulation software is used to analyse rooftop radiation, the optimal tilt angle of the PV panels and the distance between the panels to derive the optimal amount of solar power to be generated annually, thereby estimating the reduction in electricity consumption of the building. This is then combined with electricity emission factors to calculate how much electricity-related CO2 emissions are saved after the use of PV panels.
Information on electricity emission factors is obtained from 2010 Average CO2 Emission Factors of China’s Regional and Provincial Power Grids published by the Department of Climate Change of the National Development and Reform Commission of China on 11 October 2013, on the China Climate Change Information website. The preset value of the electricity emission factor is 6.379 tonnes of CO2 per million kWh, according to the Guangdong Enterprise (Unit) Carbon Dioxide Emission Information Reporting Guide (Revised 2020). By multiplying the amount of PV-generated power and the electricity emission factor, the team gets the amount of carbon emissions saved. In the Carbon-Neutral Building Design project, PV panels help save approximately 89.3 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year and will reduce 1,339.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions over its entire life cycle, assumed to be 15 years.
Conclusion and prospects
Overall, all buildings take more or less the same technical approaches for saving energy and cutting emissions. In 2019, China authorities launched the Technical Standard for Nearly Zero Energy Building. For the Carbon-Neutral Building Design project illustrated above, the design strategies mainly centre on ‘passive first’ and ‘maximise renewable energy use’ principles. To supplement the three approaches set out by this standard, LWK + PARTNERS proposes a fourth element, which is ‘human-oriented post-occupancy evaluation’. This closes the loop by taking into account the experience of real users to inform future design and further enhance a building’s performance in carbon reduction. LWK + PARTNERS will apply this to the Carbon-Neutral Building Design project throughout the whole building life cycle from design to operations, management and use, tracking post-occupancy data through digital platforms. The practice believes that closely monitoring post-occupancy data has an informative effect on carbon emission control, the making of user experience as well as building cost control. In the long term, such data is also key to achieving carbon reduction goals.
Passive design is an effective tool to enhance building form and spatial design while upgrading the energy system. At the same time, low-carbon innovations are vital for integrating renewable energy use in architectural design and capturing human factors through user behaviour. As the threat of climate change looms large, architects and engineers have a leading role to play in China’s carbon reduction goals and our future urban development on the whole.
*The article first published on FuturArc
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Plant remains as evidence for seasonality of site use in the Mesolithic period
Dark, P. (2004) Plant remains as evidence for seasonality of site use in the Mesolithic period. Environmental Archaeology, 9. pp. 39-45. ISSN 1749-6314
Full text not archived in this repository.
Official URL: http://www.envarch.net/publications/envarch/vol9-1...
Attempts to identify the seasons during which Mesolithic sites may have been occupied have usually concentrated on evidence from faunal assemblages, while the potential of plant remains has been largely neglected. In this paper the use of plant remains as indicators of seasonality is discussed, especially where they represent the accidental charring of species unlikely to have been deliberately collected and stored. This is illustrated with reference to the early Mesolithic site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire, and discussed in the context of other Mesolithic sites from which assemblages of charred plant remains have been recovered.
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Because of an editing error, a review on June 11 about ''The Good Fight,'' a book on American liberalism by Peter Beinart, gave an incorrect source for a quotation by Harry S. Truman that illustrated one of his foreign-policy principles. It was in a speech at the 1945 United Nations conference on international organization in San Francisco, not in his 1949 Inaugural Address, that he said, ''We all have to recognize -- no matter how great our strength -- that we must deny ourselves the license t...June 25, 2006, Sunday
To the Editor: Re ''The Death of Multiculturalism'' (column, April 27):April 29, 2006, Saturday
George M. Elsey's newly published memoir is full of revealing glimpses of a vanished Washington - and implicit lessons for some of today's less self-effacing officials.November 21, 2005, Monday
A re-enactment in Monroe, Ga., depicted a lynching in which two black women and two black men were killed by a mob of white men 59 years ago.July 26, 2005, Tuesday
Dwight D. Eisenhower used to occasionally patronize Headquarters Restaurant, which was originally at 108 West 49th Street.July 17, 2005, Sunday
With the cost of health care exploding and the number of uninsured growing, the time will soon be ripe for another try at universal coverage.June 13, 2005, Monday
Are President Bush's nominees for federal judgeships faring worse than those of his predecessors?May 19, 2005, Thursday
The early days of espionage hold keys for today's intelligence reforms.December 10, 2004, Friday
Truman's library makes the president an actor within history. Clinton's library makes him the focus of history.November 25, 2004, Thursday
The tradition started back in the summer of 1952, when Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson, as candidates for president, were briefed by intelligence officials on the deployment of Soviet forces and diplomatic relations with Iran; the briefings included a session offered in a stagecoach at a Denver rodeo. Within a decade, top officials at the Central Intelligence Agency had decided to avoid, as best they could, these classified cram sessions, concluding, by one agency acco...August 03, 2004, Tuesday
Franklin D. Roosevelt once defined great presidents as those who were ''leaders of thought at times when certain ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified.'' By that reckoning and most others, Roosevelt himself earned a place on the list of greats for rallying the nation in the Depression and leading it to the brink of victory in World War II. Washington, who bent to the hard work of nation-building; Lincoln, who saved the union; and Jefferson, who codified some of its ideals, are ...June 11, 2004, Friday
Between 1940 and 1968, the American people trusted the Democratic Party in times of war. But Vietnam shattered that trust. So if we're going to talk about Vietnam during this campaign, as I guess we are, let's not talk about how many days George Bush served in the National Guard, or how many rows John Kerry sat from Jane Fonda at a protest rally. Let's talk about the meaning of the Vietnam War, and what lessons each party has drawn from that disaster. The Democrats Americans trusted, from Ha...February 17, 2004, Tuesday
The Pentagon spent more than $1.2 billion this year to fly troops and supplies to Iraq on commercial aircraft, giving airlines a financial lifeline as they struggled with the weak economy, the emergence of SARS and travelers' reluctance to fly because of the war in Iraq. According to a military report that outlined the use of passenger and cargo airlines in the Iraq conflict, the government paid $636.2 million to 10 airlines that flew troops overseas during a 131-day emergency mobilization f...December 26, 2003, Friday
Richard E. Neustadt, the White House adviser, historian and authority on presidential power, died on Friday in England. He was 84. His death was reported by a spokesman for the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, for which Mr. Neustadt was a founding faculty member and had served as professor emeritus since 1989, The Associated Press reported.November 02, 2003, Sunday
To the Editor: The Democratic Leadership Council (front page, July 29) should heed Harry S. Truman's observation that given the choice between a Republican and a Democrat who acts like a Republican, voters will choose the Republican every time. CHRIS PROTOPAPAS New York, July 29, 2003July 30, 2003, Wednesday
To the Editor: William Safire (''Truman on Underdogs,'' column, July 14), writes about the former president's diary entries, which the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum dismissed as typical of ''cultural anti-Semitism that was common at that time.'' I agree with Mr. Safire that such excuses are unacceptable. But I would take the issue of cultural anti-Semitism one step further.July 17, 2003, Thursday
A 5,500-word diary in President Harry Truman's handwriting, unnoticed for decades, recently turned up at the Truman Library in Independence, Mo. Three pages were mysteriously loose and interleaved in the journal. On these detached and reinserted pages was this entry: ''6:00 P.M. Monday July 21, 1947. Had ten minutes conversation with Henry Morgenthau about Jewish ship in Palistine [sic]. Told him I would talk to Gen[eral George] Marshall about it.''July 14, 2003, Monday
A newly discovered diary kept by President Harry S. Truman in 1947 tells of a private conversation in which he urged Dwight D. Eisenhower to seek the Democratic presidential nomination the next year, with Truman as his vice-presidential running mate, the National Archives announced today. Although there was speculation of such a plan at the time, Truman always denied it. The diary, however, shows that he was concerned that Gen. Douglas MacArthur, then the military governor of Japan, might wi...July 11, 2003, Friday
Harry S. Truman left office in 1953 a failure, his administration seemingly undone by the Korean War, rumors of Communists in the government and corruption in several federal agencies. In his waning days in office, the public bestowed on him a dismal approval rating of 23 percent. Since then it's only been up for him. These days, politicians of both parties assert on the campaign trail that they're latter-day Trumans, and voters, unbidden, surprise political reporters by telling them that th...December 21, 2002, Saturday
To the Editor: Thomas E. Mann (Op-Ed, Oct. 6) pointed out useful lessons from the Truman administration for President Bush: Be patient, avoid pre-emptive action, work through the United Nations, help build defeated nations (Afghanistan), and respect the constitutional authority of Congress.October 11, 2002, Friday
SEARCH 8891 Articles:
As President Obama seeks common ground with Republicans, The Times’s Sam Tanenhaus looks at major deals Democratic presidents and conservative legislators have reached.
Leaders of the Federal Reserve and Supreme Court after World War II, and the presidents who chose them.
There are three evacuation zones in New York City that are based on the strength of the hurricane making landfall. Mayor Bloomberg has issued a mandatory evacuation of Zone A.
Photos of some of Harry S. Truman’s homes in Independence, Mo., the differing fates of which reflect the current circumstances of this city.
The Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black force of pilots during World War II, helped persuade President Harry S. Truman to desegregate the military in 1948. They have been invited to Barack Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20.
- Cool for Cats
- Target Struck in the Cat-and-Mouse Game of Credit Theft
- Al Goldstein, a Publisher Who Took the Romance Out of Sex, Dies at 77
- Private Lives: I Found Myself in a Dark Wood
- Hypertension Guidelines Can Be Eased, Panel Says
- Under Seattle, a Big Object Blocks Bertha. What Is It?
- State of the Art: Wireless Speakers Let Music Roam Free
- Op-Ed Columnist: Candy Crush and Mr. Christie
- Op-Ed Columnist: The Tragic Situation
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Cyber Scams: 'Tis The Season To Be Cautious
During the holiday season, cybercriminals are the Grinches of the tech world, trying to wreck everyone's holiday cheer with cyber scams. This year, security vendor McAfee says scammers will be working overtime to trap online gift buyers. What follows is McAfee's prediction for the 12 scams of Christmas.
Malware has recently been discovered that targets QR codes, a digital barcode consumers can scan with their smartphones to learn about products or find deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. More than half of U.S. consumers are expected to use their phones for holiday-shopping activities this year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Malicious Mobile Applications
Downloading smartphone apps from unfamiliar sites can land a user into trouble. Malicious Websites will offer mobile apps designed to steal information from smartphones or to send out expensive text messages without a user's consent. Such apps are usually offered for free and masquerade as games.
Phony Facebook Promotions And Contests
Facebook has become a favorite of cyberscammers. Using phony promotions and contests as lures, scammers ask users to fill out forms with personal information. A recent scam advertised free airline tickets to trap victims.
Scareware Or Fake Antivirus Software
Web surfers who stumble upon a malicious site will sometimes get a message saying their computers are at risk or are already infected with a virus. The remedy: download or pay for phony anti-virus software. Such scareware tactics works on an estimated 1 million victims each day, according to McAfee.
PC users need to be extra cautious in downloading holiday-themed screensavers, ringtones and e-cards. Such items are favorite traps to get malware onto PCs. A recent screensaver promising to let you "fly with Santa in 3D" was found to contain malicious software.
Mac users would be wise to be extra careful this holiday season. With Apple's PCs growing in popularity, cybercriminals have written a new wave of malware directed at Macs. MacAfee found 5,000 pieces of Mac-targeted malware as of late 2010, and that number has been increasing 10 percent month to month.
Holiday Phishing Scams
Scammers use holiday-themed e-mails to trick recipients into revealing personal information by following a link in the message. Tricks include phony notices from UPS and warnings that bank accounts have been compromised. The latter alert is also sent in the form of a smartphone text that directs consumers to call a phone number to reactivate accounts, asking for social security numbers and other personal information as identification.
Online Coupon Scams
Scammers are taking advantage of consumers' love for redeeming online coupons to get people to hand over personal information. Popular scams include promising the chance for a free iPad and offering a coupon code that first requires credit-card details, passwords and financial data.
Mystery Shopper Scams
Stores often hire people to shop and report back to customer service on the experience. Scammers will send text messages offering to pay people $50 an hour to be a mystery shopper. People who fall into the trap are asked for credit card and bank account numbers and other personal info.
Hotel 'Wrong Transaction' Malware E-mails
With lots of people traveling during the holidays, cybercriminals send out lots of travel-related email scams with links to malicious web sites. One scammer recently sent a phony e-mail purported to be from a hotel claiming a "wrong transaction" on the recipient's credit card. The remedy: filling out an attached refund form. Clicking on the attachment loaded malware onto the computer.
'It' Gift Scams
Every year scammers take advantage of hot holiday gifts that often sell out at legitimate retailers. Cybercriminals will advertise the gifts on rogue web sites and social networks in an attempt to get people to head to malicious web sites to pay for the item with credit cards.
'I'm Away From Home' Scammers
People need to be careful about posting vacation plans on social networking sites. Cybercriminals will search such sites to find the best time to break into a home. Addresses are often easy to find through a quick online search.
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Bright Side of News claims NVIDIA's Fermi GPUs will be available in much higher quantity than anticipated. Some early rumors said only 9,000 boards would be available at launch, but the site heard this is totally wrong and that more than 50,000 GeForce GTX 400 series graphics cards should be available in the first 10 days of sales. For comparison, AMD had about 20,000 Radeon HD 5800 cards available at launch, and even today it's still hard to get your hands on cards like the Radeon HD 5970.
Moreover, BSN also learned that NVIDIA shifted allocation of its 40nm wafers from low-end DirectX 10.1 parts to Fermi. These DX10.1 parts not only played in NVIDIA's plan to capture 80 percent of Arrandale design wins, but also enabled the GPU maker to keep the highest possible allocation of TSMC's 40nm nodes for itself.
For instance, we learned that more than one AIC vendor ordered 10,000 boards all on their own, and that was the volume higher than some of malicious rumors that were spread around by ill-informed individuals. While we do not have the complete number for "Day 1" of sales, we know that nVidia sales team approached all sizes of AIC manufacturers and even accepted the terms from vendors that only wanted to see the GPUs. Yes, we should even see a custom design GTX 400 at launch. According to leaked images online, don't be surprised if we see more than one board design carrying DisplayPort connectors.
Getting back to the subject of nVidia's allocation and how come it has more than 2:1 ratio with Cypress GPU at launch, we learned that there is quite a good reason why nVidia's GeForce GTX 480 will come with 480 cores, as we first reported here. According to the sources at hand, nVidia was only able to produce a lowly board figure with 512 cores enabled [low 10s of thousands], thus there was a situation with potential shortage and a media and market backlash. The company acted upon the situation at hand and limited the number of cores, radically increasing the amount of functional GF100 dies. As a result, there should be more than 50,000 Fermi boards [this may not be the final figure, as we could not contact all AIC vendors and OEMs] available in the first 10 days of sales. According to our sources close to heart of the company, nVidia wants to overtake the number of Cypress GPUs [both Hemlock and Cypress, i.e. 5800 and 5900 Series] by the end of this summer. This does not include the mainstream parts of Evergreen family, to which AMD is steadily approaching the number of three million shipped dies [the three million mark should be hit very soon, if not hit already].
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Do you ever wonder why people in your pictures have red eyes when you use a flash?
Well, it is the flash reflecting your blood vessels in your eyes.
So what can you do to avoid it?
It’s easier if you have DSLR with an external flash, but You have a compact camera with built-in flash. Don’t worry!
1. Most compact cameras nowadays have a feature called red eye reduction. What it does is to flash twice. First just before you take a picture, then when you take a picture. First flash causes people’s pupils to contract, reducing red eye dramatically.
2. Ask people to look away slightly. You can ask people to look at each other, so it does’t look awkward that everybody is looking toward the same direction. You can be creative with poses!
3. Use a flash diffuser, which looks something like this.
Is there something you always wonder about when you take pictures?
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23 December 2012. 4th Sunday in Advent
Mic 5:2-5. Salvation would come from insignificant Bethlehem – to unite the nation under God.
Heb 10:5-10. Only Christ, our supreme High Priest, can effect reconciliation between us and God.
Lk 1:39-45. Elizabeth praises Mary’s faith and recognises the unique child that she carries within her.
For a more detailed background to the Sunday readings I warmly recommend Fr. Kieran O’Mahony’s input at http://www.tarsus.ie/resources/Advent4C13.pdf — which is summarised at the end of this posting. If I get a response to this from our readers, I would regularly include a link to that source, with Kieran’s gracious permission (http://www.tarsus.ie/page6/index.html).
First Reading: Micah 5:2-5
The Lord says this: But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and he shall be the one of peace.
Second Reading: Hebrews 10:5-10
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’ (in the scroll of the book it is written of me).”
When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Gospel: Luke 1:39-44
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.
When a mother is expecting a baby all the focus is on the mother. She gets loads of advice – ‘be careful’, ‘don’t lift that’ and ‘don’t forget the afternoon nap’. Once the baby is born the mother recedes into the background, and now the attention is on the baby – ‘who does she look like?’ ‘what name will you give him?’ …and so on. So on the last Sunday before Christmas the Gospel is always about Mary, the mother. This year the Gospel is the story of the visit of Mary to her cousin, Elizabeth.
It is interesting that Mary is even more honoured in the Eastern Orthodox Church than she is in the Catholic West. In the West, after the 16th century reformation, many Protestants stopped honouring Mary. Shrines were levelled, thousands of stained glass windows were broken, statues of Mary shattered, pictures of the Madonna burnt. Not all Protestants disowned Mary. Probably the most frequently quoted line about her is William Wordworth’s, in which he refers to her as ‘our tainted nature’s solitary boast’. Martin Luther had a deep lifelong devotion to Mary. He even kept a picture of her on his desk, though many Lutherans seem unaware of this.
All Christians, whether Catholic or Protestant, like to meditate on the Magnificat, a prayerful song that brims over with anger at the way the world is tilted against the poor. It is Mary’s cry for justice: He has filled the hungry with good things/ And sent the rich away empty. This is Mary who inspires us to challenge injustice.
The two pregnant women in our Gospel today are very different in age, yet both full of joy and concern for each other. Mary goes to visit Elizabeth because of her advanced age and the attendant dangers of so late a pregnancy. This visit is a clear sign of Mary’s generosity and goodness. Through the light of the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth recognised Mary’s privilege as the mother of Christ. She greets her in the words we are so familiar with in the Hail Mary. And Mary responds in the equally familiar words of the Magnificat.
These two great women understand the miracle of conception and birth. But in each case there was a direct intervention of God in a truly exceptional way. The Gospel tells us that both were informed of this fact by the words of an angel-they each had a direct message from God telling them so.
But God uses the extraordinary to highlight the significance of the ordinary. The fact that these two women had this extraordinary intervention only demonstrates that our own lives too are a gift of God-what you could call an ordinary intervention if you like. It is from this understanding that the Church takes its position on all life issues.
At particular moments we might recognise the hand of God in our lives. Maybe it was when we felt we had a priestly or religious vocation or when we finally decided on our partner in marriage. Maybe it was in the birth of a child, a change in job circumstances, or the death of a parent. Maybe it was a moment in prayer, the grace of a sacrament, advice in the confessional, wise words from a friend or relative at a critical moment.
God continues to work with us and for us. He takes the long view and there are periods of seeming barrenness, seeming aloneness. But these are all part of that gestation period which is life on earth. We were born into this world and we will be reborn into eternal life.
Every now and then like John the Baptist we leap in this womb of ours, which is our life on earth. Every now and then we recognise God’s presence, just as John recognised Jesus’ presence, and we leap with joy. But life is constantly moving on and God is always with us. He caused us to come into being, he sustains and feeds us, and he will welcome us into life eternal. We celebrate a birth at Christmas — a birth, a life, a death and a resurrection.
More detailed commentary, from Kieran O’Mahony’s Sunday feature on www.Tarsus.
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life Sunday 23 December 2012 (Advent4C) Micah 5:1-4 (2-5); Ps 80 (79); Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-44
Blessed are you among women Luke 1:39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” 56 And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
The lectionary offers the short form of the story, but the Magnificat is equally part of it and therefore is restored here. This vignette, unique to Luke, brings the two prophets together in their respective mothers’ wombs. As such it forms part of Luke’s theology that John and Jesus are related, on the level of the history of salvation, and at the same time the second prophet, Jesus, is greater than the first, John. This distinction is already made clear in the various things which have been already about each child (see the annunciations to Zechariah and to Mary) and now, John, an unconscious child, signals the arrival of the Messiah. The passage which follows this greeting by Elizabeth is one of the most subversive in the New Testament, Mary’s hymn of praise, the Magnificat. How historical these stories might be can be gauged from a moment later in the Gospel according to Luke: The disciples of John reported all these things to him. So John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” (Luke 7:18–23) And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. (Luke 1:56). That Mary stays three months and then departs is a bit odd (six and three being nine) but the presence of Mary at the birth of John would have complicated the tableaux unnecessarily and served no purpose.
Old Testament Background
Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock. (Deut 28:4) Then Uzziah said to her, “O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all other women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to cut off the head of the leader of our enemies. (Jdt 13:18—not wholly inappropriate given the political nature of the Magnificat which follows!)
What kind of writing is this?
This single scene makes sense only against the background of Luke 1-2 seen as a whole. The Infancy Narrative of Luke may be seen to fall into seven very skillfully constructed tableaux, as in the chart. Each scene having three characteristics as described below. (1) Each tableau begins with a setting of the scene, whether historical or biblical. (2) Entry of chief personality/s, and in due course, their exit / a concluding statement. (3) Climax in the form of some kind of revelation (which highlights the theological significance of the scene the Angel’s message in 1, 2 and 5; an inspired canticle in 3, 4 and 6 and Jesus’ first recorded words in 7). The only “encounter” between the two sets of protagonists is the Visitation, which thereby has almost disproportionate significance.
New Testament Foreground
There are explicit connections with the rest of the Gospel. These links are always on a thematic level; no one within the ministry seems to “remember” any of this, not even John the Baptist himself. But the theological themes anticipated her are present in the two volumes of Luke-Acts. “To fill” or “to fulfil” (Luke 1:15, 20, 23, 41, 57, 67; 2:6, 21–22, 40; 3:5; 4:21, 28; 5:7, 26; 6:11; 7:1; 9:31; 21:22, 24; 22:16; 24:44; Acts 1:16; 2:2, 4, 28; 3:10, 18; 4:8, 31; 5:3, 17, 28; 7:23, 30; 9:17, 23; 12:25; 13:9, 25, 27, 45, 52; 14:26; 19:21, 29; 24:27) Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15, 35, 41, 67; 2:25–26; 3:16, 22; 4:1; 10:21; 11:13; 12:10, 12; Acts 1:2, 5, 8, 16; 2:4, 33, 38; 4:8, 25, 31; 5:3, 32; 6:5; 7:51, 55; 8:15, 17, 19; 9:17, 31; 10:38, 44–45, 47; 11:15– 16, 24; 13:2, 4, 9, 52; 15:8, 28; 16:6; 19:2, 6; 20:23, 28; 21:11; 28:25) Joy, rejoice (Luke 1:14, 44, 47; 10:21; Acts 2:26, 46; 16:34). Blessed (Luke 1:45; 6:20–22; 7:23; 10:23; 11:27–28; 12:37–38, 43; 14:14–15; 23:29; Acts 20:35; 26:2) At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Luke 10:21–22)
But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you— and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me. (Phil 2:17–18) Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. (Phil 3:1) Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. (Phil 4:4) I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. (Phil 4:10)
The two story lines of birth are brought together here. Elizabeth pronounces a brief hymn of praise and Mary a much longer one (not in the selected reading). Verse 39 The “hill country” and “Judah” are mentioned again in Luke 1:65. Verse 40 Mentioning Zechariah reminds us of the earlier epiphany to him. Verse 41 The leaping—the “quickening” of the womb—is symbolic of the arrival of salvation. For Luke’s purposes, it constitutes an acknowledge of the Messiah by the Baptist. As above, the Holy Spirit is the energy behind the project of Jesus and the proclamation of the Good News. For leaping in the womb: cf. Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.” (Gen 25:21–23) Verse 42 See the OT references above. Verse 43 “My Lord” means that Jesus is already proclaimed Lord. It is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that Elizabeth recognizes the moment of salvation. Verse 44 The reason for the leaping is given: joy, a key theme in Luke-Acts. Verse 45 The contrast is with Zechariah who did not believe and was struck dumb. Mary did believe and gives her great canticle before Zechariah gives his. This is a key verse for the Lukan theology of Mary as model disciple. Cf. Lk 8:19-21; 11:27-28; Acts 1:14. NB the omission of “in his own house” in Lk 4:24, in considerable contrast with Mk 6:4.
Pointers for Prayer
1. The greeting of Elizabeth to Mary “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb” is a joyful welcome of the child to come. Bringing new life into the world through pregnancy and birth is one of the most awesome human experiences. How have you experienced this for yourself or in someone close to you?
2. The image of the pregnant Mary going a distance to visit her cousin is a symbol of willingness to look beyond one’s own needs to the needs of others. When have you witnessed that kind of generosity in others, or have been able to act in this way yourself?
3. Mary is praised for her faith, because she believed the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled. In what ways have you experienced blessings from your faith and trust in God’s promises?
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How to compress data in a table?
Storage optimization by way of compressed data was made available as of 11.50.XC4. You can compress a table or table fragments using SQL Admin API commands. Either “task” or “admin” API functions can be used to execute SQL Admin API command. In this document we will use the task function.
As user informix or a user with connect permission to the sysadmin database, perform the following steps to compress data in a table:
1. Connect to sysadmin database
2. Before 11.50.xC6, compression has to be enabled in order to use it. This is done using the command:
EXECUTE FUNCTION task(“enable compression”);
3. You can perform data compression for a table or table fragments. Compression can be performed in one step or two steps. A compressed table requires a compression dictionary and the compression operation in order to complete the compression task. When the operation is done in one step, the operation will automatically create the compression dictionary, if it not already created.
Table compression syntax:
EXECUTE FUNCTION task("table compress",
" TableName" , " DatabaseName", "OwnerName" );
The name of the table that needs to compress
The name of the database that contains the table
The name of the database owner
Table fragmenting syntax:
EXECUTE FUNCTION task("fragment compress",
The list of partition numbers that belong to the same table
Use space as a delimiter
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Saturday, September 26, 2009, 05:35 pm PT (08:35 pm ET)
Report: Apple pushed Intel to develop Light Peak cablingFollowing a demonstration by Intel of an advanced new optical data port called Light Peak, a new report says Apple actually brought the concept to Intel and that the new standard will play "a hugely important role" in upcoming Apple products.
Engadget reported the news first, based on "an extremely reliable source." The site said it reviewed evidence that Apple began talks with Intel in 2007 to develop a new cabling standard with the capacity to handle "massive amounts of data" and replace a variety of existing ports, including USB, FireWire, and DisplayPort.
The article said initial conversation and fleshing out of the Light Peak standard began between Steve Jobs and Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Apple expressed a need for a single port and that optical signaling made the most sense.
Apple is expected to incorporate Light Peak quickly and will use it to replace other legacy ports, much as it did with USB on the original iMac, albeit on a smaller scale. Engadget said that based on what it saw, it expects Apple to roll out the new connector on machines next fall, replacing existing ports for networking, display, and general peripheral use.
Within another year, it expects Apple to begin rolling out a low power version suitable for use in mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPod touch, and a version of the tablet device Apple is expected to bring to market early next year.
Light Peak uses optical rather than electrical signaling to achieve an initial throughput of 10Gbps ("you could transfer a full-length Blu-Ray movie in less than 30 seconds" Intel says). That's similar to high-end optical Fibre Channel or HDMI, and ten times faster than Gigibit Ethernet, more than twenty times faster than USB 2.0, and three times faster than eSATA/SATA 300. Within a decade, Intel expects to achieve speeds of 100 Gbps.
Unlike bulky copper cables (like HDMI), Light Peak achieves its speeds over fibre optic strands the size of a human hair. And unlike existing ports focused on solving a specific problem, such as USB for simple peripherals, DisplayPort for video, SATA for disk drives, and Ethernet for networking, Light Peak can handle multiple protocols over a single cable.
Replacing nearly all of the external ports on existing notebooks or mobile devices with Light Peak would enable a new generation of industrial designs without sacrificing features, as the MacBook Air had to do to achieve its thin outline. It would also enable users to run a single cable to an external display to provide video, audio, touch input, and peripheral expansion that included blazing network performance and high speed disk access.
In an introduction of the new standard, Intel explains on its website, "existing electrical cable technology in mainstream computing devices is approaching practical limits for speed and length, due to electro-magnetic interference (EMI) and other issues. However, optical technology, used extensively in data centers and telecom communications, does not have these limitations since it transmits data using light instead of electricity. Light Peak brings this optical technology to mainstream computing and consumer electronic devices in a cost-effective manner."
On Topic: Future Hardware
- Apple's interest in reversible USB plugs detailed in new patent application
- Continued production issues may force Apple to delay 'iWatch' until 2015, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims
- Intel's 'Core M' chip announcement suggests Broadwell-based MacBook Pros won't arrive until 2015
- Plethora of alleged 'iPhone 6' parts show Apple logo, cables & camera ring
- Offhand comment stirs hope that Apple could announce 'iWatch' in Sept. [u]
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Less than two weeks before leaving office, President Shimon Peres on Sunday distributed scholarships totaling NIS 1.6 million to eight doctoral research students working in one of his favorite causes – the advancement of science and technology for the betterment of humanity.
Future historians looking back at the Peres presidency will reach the conclusion that more than anything else throughout his seven year tenure, Peres has pushed for Israel to maintain its qualitative edge in science and technology and has urged that everything possible be done to attract young people to science-and-technology-based studies and careers.
Moreover, five of the eight recipients of the scholarships awarded from a fund established two years ago by Peres and a group of philanthropists were women.
One of the hallmarks of the president’s advocacy is equal opportunities for women in all fields of human endeavor.
Peres has unfailingly voiced his delight at appointments and prize-giving ceremonies when the number of women of merit exceeds the number of men.
He did so again on Sunday.
All eight recipients of scholarships worth NIS 200,000 each, and covering three years of university studies and research, are in their early thirties, with the exception of Daria Feldman, 28.
Five of the recipients are graduates of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one is a graduate of the Haifa Technion, one of Tel Aviv University, and one of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Prof. Shmuel Wolf, dean of the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the Hebrew University, spoke on behalf of his jury colleagues from six of Israel’s institutes of higher learning. He was pleased that Peres had chosen to give scholarships this year to researchers in agriculture, quality of the environment, and water purification and management, particularly in view of the amazing agricultural breakthroughs that have been and are being made in the Negev.
Quoting Israel’s founding prime minister David Ben-Gurion, who on retiring from politics made his home in the Negev, Wolf said: “If the state does not conquer the desert, the desert will conquer the state.” All the agricultural research at Sde Boker is geared toward the realization of Ben-Gurion’s dream to make the desert bloom, he said.
Wolf recalled that when he had first come to Kibbutz Yotvata in the Arava, it was considered impossible to have a dairy farm in the south of the country.
But Yotvata is flourishing from its milk products, which are its main source of income. Wolf credited technology with making that possible.
As for water, the Israeli development of drip irrigation enables the watering of all fruits and vegetables to exactly the required need without any waste of water. The drip irrigation method is now being used all over the world, he said.
The next stage he added is bio-technology, in which the medicinal value of plants will be harnessed to enable more people to be healed from illnesses for which current medications are too expensive for the non-affluent to afford.
Almost simultaneously, research is being conducted into increased and better yields of crop production to feed the world’s starving millions, said Wolf, citing a United Nations report that there are 842 million under-nourished people in the world today.
He forecast that the scholarship winners would bring about a revolution in their respective fields, because they have been judged to be the best of the brightest.
Before relating to the subject at hand, Peres spoke of the hostilities between Gaza and Israel, declaring the current conflict to be a battle against terrorism.
“We didn’t look for it, we didn’t want it, we don’t want to kill anyone” he said.
“We’re in this because we have no choice.”
Peres stated that the reality in which five million people, including women and children, are running to bomb shelters is intolerable.
The Gazan leadership’s declared reason for attacking Israel, said Peres, is because it wants to put an end to occupation. But he noted that Israel is not occupying Gaza, which it left nine years ago. Gaza could have been prosperous – “another Singapore” – said Peres, but instead it opted for terrorism.
“We don’t want to conquer Gaza again; we want Gaza to conquer itself and rid itself from terrorism so that women and children will not be killed,” he said.
Peres warned that if Gaza continues on the path it has chosen, “it will not gain anything. It only stands to lose.”
Turning to the benefits that Israeli scientists and technologists can share with the world at large, Peres said that there is one large country in the world in which there is no anti-Semitism – China, because the Chinese respect and admire Jewish wisdom and Israeli know-how.
Because of the technological advancements in Israeli agriculture that have been adopted by the Chinese, there is less starvation in China and people are living better.
One of the best ways to prevent terrorism, said Peres, is to provide food for the hungry by showing them how to grow it themselves. People turn to terrorism when they are desperate, he opined.
The eight scholarship recipients were biochemist and food scientist Feldman, desert researcher Gil Eshel, plant scientist Itay Ofner, chemist and biologist Shadma Filler, environmental engineer Noga Fridman-Bishop, plant scientist Adi Kliyot, ecologist David Shachmi, and molecular biologist and ecologist Lidor Shaar.
Think others should know about this? Please share
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Thinking about purchasing a Bichon Frise? Then read our breed profile including a brief description, information on height, weight, color, coat, temperament, grooming, activity and history. Purchasing a new puppy is a commitment that may last ten or more years so please educate yourself on the Bichon Frise breed, including all stages of their life from puppy hood to older dog.
Ask yourself will I be a good owner? Do I have the time it takes to train a new puppy? Do I have the resources to give my new dog a rewarding life. Do I have a local veterinarian that I can take my new dog to? Do I have a groomer or can I do the grooming myself on a regular basis. Fundamental requirements for a being a good Bichon Frise owner;
Before making a purchase talk to the breeder, ask them many questions about their dogs and the breed in general. A good breeder will teach you about the Bichon Frise and they will have many questions for you about your home and life style and if this breed is suited for you and your family.
Questions you may want to ask an Bichon Frise Breeder:
It is recommended that you sign a contract with the breeder so that there will be no misunderstandings on the arrangements made. Then bring home your new Bichon Frise and enjoy as "there is no greater love then a dog's devotion."
Bichon Frise Breed Profile
The Bichon Frise is a small, sturdy, white powder puff of a dog whose merry temperament is evident by their plumed tail carried jauntily over their back. The Bichon's coat puffs out all over, rather than hanging down. They are small, sturdy dogs that are slightly larger than a Maltese. The ears are set high on the head and drop down, if ever you could see them in the poil frise (curly coat). Bichon Frise (Bichons) love to be the center of attention and are always eager to please. This Tenerife Dog is a bouncy, friendly dog that will exercise with their owner to the end. Bichons are perky, playful and friendly to all. They are affectionate, responsive, and are apt to cuddling. They make a delightful and amusing companion. Used in the show ring often, their coats require much grooming and intricate care to maintain the accepted puffy appearance. Bichon a Poil Frises can often be seen in doggy beauty parlors. Although they are small and appear high maintenence, Norwegian farmers have recently discovered that this breed can be trained to round up sheep! The Bichon is also free of skin problems, as many small white-haired dogs are not. Gentle-mannered, sensitive, and very playful the Bichon Frise is good with children and other pets.
Other Names: Tenerife Bichon, Tenerife Dog, Bichon Tenerife, Bichon a Poil Frise
Type: Companion Dog; Non-Sporting Dog
9 - 12 inches.
cream or apricot up to 18 months of age. Can be buff, cream or apricot around
the face and ears, but all white is desirable.
Frise are friendly, active, gentle-mannered, playful, energetic and willing
to cuddle. They can be very adaptable, bold and lively. The Tenerife Bichon
is responsive, sensitive, and loves to play. They tend to bark, even in the
house. They may also be difficult to housebreak as they can be stubborn, but
they are also known to be patient dogs. Sometimes when they are happy they will
"zoom" or "blitz", in which they run in circles from a sudden burst of energy.
Watch-dog: High. These dogs
are aware of their surroundings, and may bark a lot to get attention or to warn.
Bichon Frise Care and Training:
The Bichon Frise requires daily coat care. These Tenerife Dogs require brushing,
periodic trimming, and regular bathing. Trim around the eyes and ears with blunt
nosed scissors. Clean the eyes to prevent staining. Cleaning gums and teeth
is important as well, as Bichons tend to acquire tartar and gum infection. Tenerife
Bichons are also hypoallergenic. For the show quality grooming, a specific hair
cut is required by the groomer. As for simply pet-owners, the "puppy cut" will
suffice. Most of their exercise needs can be met with just playing, but they
do love to walk and romp in open areas. Bichon Frises will exercise as long
as the owner can stand, and are happy to do so.
Activity: Outdoors - Medium.
Indoors - Very High. Bichons are very high energy and require much attention
from their owner. They will run and play for quite a while.
Bichon Frise Health Issues: Bichon Frises are fairly healthy dogs, but some common health concerns include luxating patellas, bladder problems, block tear ducts, skin ailments, cancer and autoimmune disease, as well as cataracts and epilepsy.
Life Span: 12 - 16 years,
although some have been known to live up to 21 years.
Country of Origin:
First Registered by the AKC:
Copyright1997-20013 by Puppy Shop Inc. All rights reserved.
Monday, August 19, 2013
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Green Button is the common-sense idea that electricity customers should be able to securely download their own easy-to-understand energy usage information from their utility or electricity supplier.
Armed with this information, consumers can use a growing array of new web and smartphone tools to make more informed energy decisions, optimize the size and cost-effectiveness of solar panels for their home, or verify that energy-efficiency retrofit investments are performing as promised. Consumers can even use fun innovative apps that allow individuals to compete against Facebook friends to save energy and lower their carbon emissions.
Not all utilities currently participate in the Green Button program but those that do will allow consumers to easily access and securely download their own household smart meter data eventually leading to the ability of consumers to share their smart meter data with companies delivering smart thermostats, remote home control systems and smart appliances.
Tools enabled by Green Button
- Energy Star Home Energy Yardstick: Yardstick tool from EPA for consumers to assess the energy efficiency of their homes and see how it measures up to similar homes.
- EnerNOC: A company that helps commercial, institutional, and industrial organizations use energy more intelligently, pay less for it, and generate cash flow that benefits the bottom line through a complete suite of energy intelligence software and solutions.
- Melon Juice Report: An energy analysis tool for building owners to easily calculate their energy score with detailed insights into their energy use.
- Opower Social App: An easy to use app to see how your energy use stacks up against friends and homes across the US.
Recent news articles
- U.S. Department of Energy's Chris Irwin provides a good overview of the Green Button program in PowerGrid International's May 2013 issue.
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Ever on the look out for cleaning supplies that are plant friendly, we found some that are made of plant materials. Non-toxic, biodegradable, grey water recycling friendly, and no waste. Even the packaging is made from recycled materials. They have everything from glass cleaner and bathroom cleaners to vegetable washes. We are using the Glass & Window Cleaner, All-Purpose Cleaner, and the Bathroom & Odor Neutralizing Cleaner. Our package came with a re-usable spray bottle. Just mix the crystals with water and spray. Made in the USA was a bonus!
Our Glass and Glass & Window Crystals Compound Additive cleans without streaks and uses no harsh chemicals. Excellent for effectively cleaning glass, mirrors, chrome, and other hard surfaces around your home.
Comes in packages of 1, 3 and 12
From our clamshell packaging made from recycled materials to our biodegradable and water soluble sachets of crystallized cleaning concentrate, Bio Green Crystals are the most environmentally friendly products available.
Bio Green Crystals is proudly made in the USA, by both Union and non-union workers.
Bio+Green Crystals are revolutionary new compounds. Products in water-soluble pouches containing premeasured amounts of powdered concentrates. When immersed in the water, pouch and powder dissolve formulating a precise cleaning solution for specific cleaning purposes. Bio+Green Crystals are proud to be ZERO-WASTE products.
Crystal Additives and Boosters can be added to any type of cleaner.
Bio+Green Crystals refills are the safest and most eco-friendly cleaners on the market.
They generate zero waste, 100% biodegradable product and carrier reduce your secondary carbon footprint at home, the office and everywhere else they are used.
These products achieve a carbon footprint reduction throughout the entire supply chain.
Bio+Green Crystals are sustainably manufactured and can help your company reduce waste
We can help you save water, save energy and reduce waste:
Environmentally the Bio+Green Crystals are the only true zero waste product on the market. When one weighs the enormous benefit of Bio+Green Crystals with today’s demand for environmental consciousness, added safety and overall value; bio+green crystals are simply the greenest choice for the planet.
Every time you use a bio+green crystal refill, you are conserving 20-40 Megajules of energy and countless amounts of water.
If your Company really wants to save, then do the math on your waste!
* This is the energy and water used to make the plastic bottle and sprayer from manufacture to disposal.
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Yesterday, the University of Richmond earned the unfortunate distinction of playing host to FIRE’s February Speech Code of the Month with its Standards of Student Conduct policy, which bans “inappropriate behavior or expression.” A private institution, the University of Richmond promises to promote academic freedom and expression—but its speech code shows the university does not live up to its commitment.
Thankfully, unlike her school’s administration, Richmond student Gigi DeJoy does understand the value of free expression. In an op-ed published today in her campus paper, The Collegian, DeJoy says that it is student expression that makes a school unique, not the beauty of its campus, and that without free speech her education at Richmond is lacking:
This might not matter to everybody, but a main reason that many students choose a liberal arts college is for an expectation associated with that title: That they will be exposed to new ideas, have their convictions challenged, and have the resources to share their own beliefs. Students need the space and rights for this to happen fluidly, naturally and without hierarchy or censorship
DeJoy says it’s time for a “little less sterility and a little more free expression” on Richmond’s campus. That’s true—and in that, the University of Richmond is hardly alone.
Check out DeJoy’s great article in The Collegian!
Image: “Boatwright Library, The University of Richmond.” – Panoramio user sedgwick
Schools: University of Richmond
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Edmund Kirby Smith
Found 10 Records, 10 Photos and 35,736,570 Family Trees
Born in St Augustine, St John, Florida, USA on 16 May 1824 to Joseph Lee Smith and Francis Kirby. Edmund Kirby married Cassie Selden and had 11 children. He passed away on 26 Mar 1893 in Sewanee, Tennessee, USA.
- Caroline Selden Smith1862-Unknown
- Frances Kirby Smith1864-Unknown
- Edmund Kirby Smith1866-Unknown
- Lydia Kirby Smith1868-Unknown
- Rowena Selden Smith1870-Unknown
- Elizabeth Chaplin Kirby Smith1872-Unknown
- Reynold Marvin Smith1874-Unknown
- William Selden Smith1876-Unknown
- Josephine Kirby Smith1878-Unknown
- Joseph Lee Smith1882-Unknown
- Ephraim Kirby Smith1884-Unknown
Ready to discover your family story?
Simply start with yourself and we'll do the searching for you.
English: occupational name for a worker in metal, from Middle English smith (Old English smið, probably a derivative of smitan ‘to strike, hammer’). Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents were perhaps the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is the most frequent of all American surnames; it has also absorbed, by assimilation and translation, cognates and equivalents from many other languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).
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How do we make sense of our place in the world? How much does where we are from determine who we are and what we can be? Where are we going in life? All of the questions are to be answered in WHERE IN THE WORLD, the 2013 three minute online monologue competition from THE VOICES PROJECT.
The call for entries has now closed. Check out this year’s entries, here.
Check out what STEPHEN FRY (yes, THAT Stephen Fry) thought about THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE, one of last year’s entries which we developed with 17 year old writer/performer Kim Ho, here.
We are looking to find fresh new voices who have something to say about place – your place in the world,the place that matters to you, the place you are from or the place you are heading for. The place can be real or imagined, but the key is that you can tell us about it in three minutes in the form of an original fictional monologue for a young character (16 to 26).
Check out the INSTRUCTIONS here.
THE CATEGORIES and PRIZES
There are TWO categories and THREE top prizes:
14 to 17 year olds
18 to 26 year olds
The THREE top prizes across the two categories are 3 month mentorships with some of Australia’s leading playwrights, to develop your 3 minute piece into a 7 to 8 minute piece. At the end of the mentorship, all 3 will be considered for filming by young and emerging filmmakers with whom we are working on THE VOICES PROJECT.
In addition, a school/drama class or youth theatre group will win a weekend workshop with one of the leading writers for the Australian stage.
17 year old Kim Ho was one of the winners of the 2012 competition (LOVE BYTES) and you can read about his experience, here.
Got a question? Here’s lots of them answered.
Want advice on writing a monologue? Here’s 10 great tips from leading playwright Caleb Lewis.
Watch Kim Ho’s monologue, TRANSCENDENCE, one of the winners of last year’s competition, below, and then watch what we developed with Kim from it, the acclaimed short film THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE (which has been seen 240,000 times since its launch on 11th April). Click here to see what Stephen Fry thinks about it.
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Flowers are the best gift from nature that do wonders in human’s life. With its mystic fragrance, it spread positivity to all your surroundings. Through its eternal beauty, flowers can bring unlimited joy to the people who hold this in their hand. Not only that, but blooms also possess the unique characteristics of helping an individual express inner emotions. So, whenever you want to convey your feelings to your loved one you can go for online flower delivery.
Still, blooms have various varieties and different types communicate different emotions. Among them, you are the one who has to pick the right floral to brighten up the day of your dear ones. And some of the greatest flowers you can buy for your beloved are listed here. By picking the one from this you can bring unlimited joy to the day of your favorite people.
At the thought of send flowers online, anyone’s mind will definitely land on roses. Through its eternal beauty, this flower can attract everyone in an instant. So, when you want to capture the heart and soul of your dear to the deepest level you can go for roses. You know what? Even in ancient times, the color red is known as the symbol of love. So if you are aiming to buy flowers for the love of your life you can fetch red roses. Here without you uttering the word this bloom let alone can tell how much you need their presence in your life.
Want to show your care through flowers delivery? Then why don’t you choose to get jasmines? This one is well-known for its rich fragrance that helps people to lift their moods. Apart from these all, this bloom possesses the unique characteristics of reducing stress. That’s so when you give this to your loved ones, this can help them to have a relaxed and happy day. Another important thing about this bloom is that jasmine can reduce the risk of heart disease. So by giving this to the important people in your life, you are showing your love and care.
Getting a lily as a bunch of flowers would never go wrong. This bloom has its presence for more than centuries, still loved by a wide range of people. It’s because just through its eye-catching appearance lily made everyone lose them in it. You may or may not know that compared to other blossoms one needs patience and persistence to grow this one. You know by yourself how these are important in any relationship, right? Sometimes it tells you that no matter what happens you’ll be by the side of your heart. That’s so getting lilies would never go wrong.
If you want to get flowers as a flower gift for your dear then gardenia is your choice. When people give something to their loved ones they expect it to create a long-lasting impression on them. Another thing everyone wants is to create the experience which stays forever in the soul of their darlings. Here without any doubt, gardenia can satisfy all your expectations. Because people always believe this bloom can help people to think about all their beautiful past memories. So when you give it your beloved’s mind, land on the moments that you want to cherish forever.
One of the famous choices for flower bouquet is surely tulips. With its help, you can express your deepest and unconditional love to your near ones. It’s not like you are only going to have this feeling for your partner, right? You love your parents, siblings, children, cousins, friends, and many close people. So, when you give it to your beloved this can say how much you value their presence in your life. Especially if you fetch this from MyFlowerTree you can choose to personalize the floral. Now, with it, you can attract them on a personal level.
Here is another popular pick for flower delivery in Delhi. No one can hate this aesthetic and eye-pleasing bloom. That’s why this floral always tops the list when it comes to buying blossoms for loved ones. Especially, if you get these as online flowers they can deliver your feelings in a silent yet romantic way. From cheerfulness to purity there are several meanings associated with this floral. In this, if you want to pick the right one concentrate more on its colors. Through that, you can get a suitable flower that helps in getting a blissful day for your beloved.
Are you confused about buying the perfect gift for your dear and near ones? When flowers are there for you there is no need to get worried about what to pick for your loved ones. More than anything, by getting the right bloom you can communicate all your emotions. It’ll result in you attracting the heart and soul of your beloved to the deepest level.
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It's difficult to imagine that repeated, international, multi-billion dollar marketing initiatives routinely fail - yet that is what doctors ask us to believe when they claim immunity to infection from "Big Pharma's" spin. This over-confidence (and unreliable self-diagnosis) is expected, since doctors are experts in human physiology and disease, not business, psychology or the pathology of this insidious strain of advertising.
What's more worrying is the lack of self-awareness or understanding of their own susceptibility. This means that many doctors unwittingly expose themselves to dangerous exposure levels without taking reasonable precautions.
The remedy? Since the contagion is so deeply ingrained, simply cutting it out would jeopardise the entire system. Without surgery, we'll have to fall back on early broad spectrum inoculation for trainee doctors, ongoing monitoring of the population and, if wanton recklessness persists, quarantining the carriers.
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Posted by ESC on August 04, 2005
In Reply to: The wood-pile posted by Sylvia Butler on August 04, 2005
: I just found this website and find it fasinating.
: I was always told the phrase "Nigger in the wood-pile" meant that there was someone of Black ancestry had mixed in a white family but in was unspoken of as not to let anywone know, they wanted to keep it hidden, sometimes the phase is said if someone white has very very curly hair and or very full lips and tanned very dark.
I can see how someone might use it in that manner. In my reading, I came across the "saying" that "a drop of black blood brings out the beauty."
Here's what was posted previously:
NIGGER IN THE WOODPILE (OR FENCE) - "Some fact of considerable importance that is not disclosed; something suspicious or wrong; something rotten in Denmark. The sayings with 'fence' and 'woodpile' developed about the same time and about at the period 1840-50, when the 'Underground Railroad' was flourishing successfully. Evidence is slight, but because early uses of the expressions occurred in Northern states, it is presumable that they derived from actual instances of the surreptitious concealment of fugitive Negroes in their flight north through Ohio or Pennsylvania to Canada under piles of firewood or within hiding places in stone fences." From "Heavens to Betsy" (1955, Harper & Row) by Charles Earle Funk.
A second reference agrees with the time period when this expression "appeared." ".nigger in the woodpile, a catch or hitch in a situation, a flaw, dates from 1852." From "I Hear America Talking" by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976).
A third source, a novel, indicates that meaning has to do with a black person being killed and buried on a property:
"One time I told Will (that) Fox Run was a beautiful place. He said, 'Don't let it fool you. All these places got a nigger in the woodpile.' I wasn't sure what he meant, though.' He tilted his head inquisitively, waiting for me to speak, as if somehow we were old friends.
'So Vidrine repeated a racist remark that confirms what you already knew,' Helen said in her office an hour later, 'Maybe a convict was killed on the LeJeune plantation fifty years ago. Or maybe not. We didn't find a body, bwana.'..." From "Last Car to Elysian Fields" by James Lee Burke (2003 Simon & Schuster, New York), Page 262.
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Complications of Septal Surgery
02 June 2008 (online)
Complications associated with submucous septal resection or septoplasty may originate in incorrect indication and diagnosis because of wrong or incomplete analysis and interpretation of the anatomical structures of the nose and nasal function tests. Complications can arise from technical failures during the procedures of septal surgery from the incision to the reconstruction of the septum. Early and late complications can be caused by infections in the postoperative period involving only the midfacial region or the whole body. Postoperative and late complications may also arise from damage to the septal soft and hard tissues. Although septal surgery complications may interfere with nasal function, cosmesis, and general health, prospective studies with subjective and objective data are extremely rare.
submucous septal resection - septoplasty - complications - sequelae
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- Year Published: 1903
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Source: Poe, E.A. (1903). The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition, Volume 5. New York: P. F. Collier and Son.
- Flesch–Kincaid Level: 1.0
- Word Count: 192
Poe, E. (1903). To --. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Lit2Go Edition). Retrieved June 29, 2016, from
Poe, Edgar Allan. "To --." The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Lit2Go Edition. 1903. Web. <>. June 29, 2016.
Edgar Allan Poe, "To --," The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Lit2Go Edition, (1903), accessed June 29, 2016,.
The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see
The wantonest singing birds
Are lips—and all thy melody
Of lip-begotten words—
Thine eyes, in Heaven of heart enshrin'd
Then desolately fall,
O! God! on my funereal mind
Like starlight on a pall—
Thy heart—thy heart!—I wake and sigh,
And sleep to dream till day
Of truth that gold can never buy—
Of the trifles that it may.
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Ninth Century Shields from Tira Bog, Latvia
Peter Beatson - NVG Miklagard
Shield 1 from hoard deposited in Tira peat bog, Liepaisk region, Latvia. Left - the artefact. Right - a reconstruction. From Yrtan (1961).
Shield 1 - Dated to the ninth century by associated artefacts, this near intact shield is constructed of six spruce or fir planks (Yrtan 1961). The shields diameter is 85.5 cm, the thickness of the planks is 0.6 cm. It is covered on both front and rear faces with leather, with pressed grass laid beneath, probably for shock-absorbing purposes. The leather is fixed somehow at the edge - in the reconstruction the rim appears to be whipped over with (?leather) lace.
Interestingly, the boss of Tira shield 1 is made of wood, though identical in size and hemispherical shape to local iron examples (Yrtan 1961) . The boss is 13.1 by 10.5 cm, and it covers an opening in the board 11.5 cm wide. It was held on by 14 nails (which did not survive). The grip, for which no details are provided, appears to be lashed on in the reconstruction.
Marks of blows on the leather face and the boss suggest that the shield was used in combat.
Shield 2 - Most of a single middle plank of a second round shield was also discovered at Tira. It is from a conifer species, 68 x 11.8 x 1.4 cm. A quadrangular opening for the hand is located (presumably) in the original centre of the board, allowing the width of the entire shield to be estimated at 73 cm. Interestingly, the board is curved, possibly for a convex shield (Yrtan 1961).
Another wooden boss of cruder form was discovered at the Slavic settlement of Groß Raden, in northern Germany (Schuldt 1985).
SCHULDT, E. (1985). 'Groß Raden: Ein slawischer Tempelort des 9./10. Jahrhunderts in Mecklenburg'. Schriften zur Ur- und Frühgeschichte 39. Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR Zentralinstitut für alte Geschichte und Archäologie: Berlin.
YRTAN, V.A. (1961). 'Drevnie shchity na territorii Latviiskoe SSR'. Sovietskaia Arkheologii 1961(1), p.216-224.
BACK TO VIKING SHIELDS
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July 28, 2011
Majority Of Netflix Subscribers Use Game Consoles
Half of all Netflix subscribers are using their video game consoles to watch movies and television shows, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on Wednesday.
Those figures originate from a Nielsen survey which, according to the AFP wire service, analyzed the viewing habits of both Netflix and Hulu users. Of the 12,000 people who participated in the March study, a majority of them reported watching content on their televisions, using a Nintendo Wii, a Sony PlayStation 3, or a Microsoft Xbox 360.
Just 42-percent of Netflix customers stated that they streamed films and TV programs directly on their computer. In contrast, 89-percent of Hulu consumers reported using desktops and/or laptops to enjoy the service's content.
Users of the two services also differed on the types of content they watch, according to Nielsen. AFP reported that 73-percent of Hulu customers said that they preferred watching TV shows, with 9-percent stating that they watched primarily movies. Meanwhile, 53-percent of Netflix users reported viewing primarily movies through the service, while just 11-percent opted mostly for television.
When considered individually, each of the three current generation gaming consoles came up short in comparison to the computer as the preferred means for viewing both services. The Wii was used by 25-percent of Netflix users and just 3-percent of Hulu users. The PlayStation 3 also was used by 3-percent of Hulu customers, but just 13-percent of Netflix customers, while the Xbox 360 scored on percentage point lower than its Sony-developed counterpart with users of both services.
Other devices consumers reported utilizing to view Netflix and Hulu content included Internet-connected Blu-Ray players, Internet-connected televisions, Roku set-top boxes, mobile devices, iPad tablet computers, Tivos, Google TV, and Apple TV.
"The findings highlight the strong appeal of TV sets for streaming digital video, connected through myriad Internet-enabled devices," AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle wrote in a Wednesday analyzing the results. "Appetite for such video continues to soar. In May, more than 15 billion videos were streamed, an all-time high, according to Nielsen,"
On the Net:
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Sharing content on social media comes handy when your post is quite new. It quite difficult to rank your post in Google search results for high volume keywords since your Domain Authority and Page Authority are still low.
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What content on social media should be part of digital marketing strategy?
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- Blog post (website links)
- Brand Promotion (video, graphics, or any other media type)
- Brand Awareness (infographics, video or any other media type)
- Polls (surveys, questions or any other types of polls)
- Responding to customers and solving their problems.
Content Marketing: For a list of Free content tools that you can use to obtain your digital marketing goals. Your wait is now over below is the list of FREE authentic methods to receive FREE content for your website or Blog.
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In my post "Anne Boleyn Places: Where She Lived, Where She Died", I barely mentioned the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, where the unfortunate queen of England was buried. I think it's time to remedy that and share a bit more about it, don't you?
Anne Boleyn died, unjustly, as a traitor and was thus denied a proper burial with Christian service. Instead, after her death, her sobbing maids wrapped her head and body in a white cloth, took them to St Peter ad Vincula, the Tower Chapel, and placed her remains in an old elm chest which had once been used to store bow staves.
Although a chapel had been standing there since before the Norman conquest, the building in which Anne was buried, and which has survived to our days, was rebuilt in 1519-20 by Sir Richard Cholmondeley Anne isn't the only queen buried there. In the following year, her cousin Catherine Howard and Jane Grey were executed at the Tower of London and laid to rest in its chapel too.
Over the century, it fell into disrepair until, finally, during the reign of Queen Victoria, restoration works began. During these works, the body of Anne Boleyn was found. It was identified by Dr Mouat, who described them thus:
The bones found in the place where Queen Anne Boleyn is said to have been buried are certainly those of a female in the prime of life, all perfectly consolidated and symmetrical, and belong to the same person.
The bones of the head indicate a well-formed round skull, with an intellectual forehead, straight orbital ridge, large eyes, oval face, and rather square full chin. The remains of the vertebrae, and the bones of the lower limbs, indicate a well-formed woman of middle height, with a short and slender neck. The ribs show depth and roundness of chest. The hand and feet bones indicate delicate and well-shaped hands and feet, with tapering fingers and a narrow foot.
Since then, there's been some controversy over whether these bones were really Anne's, but that's a topic for another post. For know, suffice it to say that the Victorians dug where they expected to find her and Dr Mouat's conclusions seem to fit in with what we know of Anne Boleyn. But we can't tell for sure the bones are hers.
The Chapel can still be visited today but, because it is also a place of worship, you should either go after 4:30pm or visit it on a guided tour.
MattHucke of http://www.graveyards.com
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This is the essential one-stop guide for parents of children and young people with tic disorders and the professionals who work with them. Drawing on current research and their own clinical experience, the authors provide up-to-date information on tic disorders and review the psychological, medical and alternative methods of managing symptoms. Written in clear, accessible language and with practical advice on how to support children with tics at home and in school, the book also includes essential information on the common co-occurring conditions and difficulties, such as ADHD, anxiety, OCD, autism, self-esteem issues and behavioural difficulties.
- Ano de Edição: 2016
- Ano: 2016
- País de Produção: Canada
- Código de Barras: 2001052348186
- ISBN: 9780857009173
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Jerusalem is once again the subject of U.S. Supreme Court consideration.
In January of 1950:
By a vote of 60-2 with members of Mapam and Herut abstaining, the Knesset adopts a proclamation declaring Jerusalem the capital of the State of Israel. In December 1949, the cabinet had drafted the resolution following a compromise between those who wanted an official legislative act declaring the city as capital of the country and those who felt that such an action was unnecessary.
After the recapture in 1967 of the portions of Jerusalem that had been under illegal occupation by Jordan, the government hemmed and hawed over whether any further legislative action was needed, but in 1980 passed a law declaring that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel".
Nevertheless, except for a couple of small nations, no country in the world has yet recognized the Jewish State’s traditional and proclaimed capital. The United States, for example, refuses to accept Jerusalem as the capital and keeps its embassy in Tel Aviv.
This is despite numerous Acts of Congress, most of them bipartisanly unanimous, directing the Department of State to relocate our embassy to Jerusalem and recognize that city as the capital of Israel. These instructions have been uniformly ignored by president after president, including most recently George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
All the same, Obama has made it a point on several occasions to state clearly that he insists that Jerusalem “must remain” the capital of Israel, and that it “must remain undivided.” That turned out to be just campaign pandering to American Jewish groups.
As a matter of practicality, although Jerusalem is and should be Israel’s capital, Congress can pass acts and resolutions until it’s blue in the face; and the Executive Branch has no need to follow them, as foreign relations fall under the White House’s purview.
The present Supreme Court case, however, is not about whether or not Jerusalem is Israel’s capital; it is about whether Jerusalem is in the State of Israel at all.
In 2002, Congress passed a law that permitted the State Department to list Israel as the place of birth for Americans born in Jerusalem. When President Bush signed the bill into law, however, he made clear he viewed it as advisory, since a mandate would infringe on the president’s authority on foreign relations.
As a result, his administration – along with President Obama’s – declined to move forward with the suggestion. Since both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city as their own, the US has refused to recognize any country’s sovereignty over Jerusalem in the absence of a negotiated deal between the two parties. Current US policy is to list Jerusalem as a place of birth but to exclude the country name.
The case at hand is that of a young man, an American citizen, who was born in Jerusalem and wants the U.S. State Department to note in his passport that Israel was his place of birth, something which they have steadfastly refused to do, listing his birthplace simply as Jerusalem, as if that city exists in some sort of geographical limbo, and as if that city nor any part of it lies within the State of Israel and is instead some kind of fictional “international city.”
This is a particularly tough case for SCOTUS, although I think the basic issue is clear. The days of “international cities” such as Danzig or Trieste, are long gone. If Jerusalem is not in Israel, then, indeed, where is it? If it’s not in Israel, then how can that country have its seat of government outside itself any more than the United State would locate its capital someplace in Mexico or Canada?
In my book, the Executive Branch is all in the wrong morally and practically. Bush ought to have and Obama should fully recognize Jerusalem as being a part of Israel and being its capital. Obama was quick enough to accept the annexation of Crimea by Russia; why can he not turn his campaign lies into action by accepting the annexation of the recaptured parts of Jerusalem to re-create Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, as it had been for so many centuries.
But the Supreme Court is not being asked to do what is right. It is being asked to do what is legal under our Constitution. Technically, Congress has no authority (other than the powers of war and appropriations) to dictate the conduct of foreign relations; and campaign promises are hardly enforceable. Yet, the Court has been known to bend the Constitution when it suits its purpose – as when a majority managed to turn a “penalty” into a “tax” in the ACA case.
A strict constitutional interpretation would have the Congress unable to direct the Executive in this area. A president who wasn’t busy shoving Israel under his favorite bus would be having his State Department do the right thing by moving our embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing it as the capital, and noting in Jerusalem-born Americans’ passports that they were, indeed, born in Israel.
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A loose term for several Siberian languages that have in common only that they don't appear to be related to any other languages in the wider world. But they don't have any detectable genetic relationship to each other, either, so the term is not a very good one to use. None of them has any significantly large number of speakers. They are
and sometimes including also
Some linguists try their damnedest to connect even isolates with distant groups. If they are to be believed, Yenisei is closer to the great Sino-Tibetan group, Yukaghir is distantly related to the Uralic group, and the rest may possibly be connected at some level with the common run of Eurasian languages in the Nostratic macrofamily.
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HB 495 – IdahoStatus: Inactive / Dead
Year Introduced: 2018
HEALTH CARE BILLING EQUITY ACT: Adds to existing law to enact the Health Care Billing Equity Act. This medical services consumer protection bill protects patients who receive health care services in an in-network hospital, under their insurance plan, from being billed extra for out-of-network provider services. Patients admitted to a hospital for emergency or elective services with the understanding that it is a facility covered under their insurance policy are sometimes surprised to receive billings from out-of-network providers for care without the patient’s consent. This bill would preclude that practice except for elective care under certain conditions. In emergency situations, the out-of-network provider would be paid a specified rate by the patient’s insurance plan and prohibited from billing the patient for anything more than the normal deductible or copay required under the policy. In elective situations, the out-of-network provider may balance bill if an agreement for such service is signed by the patient prior to the day of admission.
Return to Database Search
© 2018- The SLIHCQ Database. Initial funding for this project was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
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The image of the mule emerges repeatedly in different contexts throughout the novel, but remains consistent in its figurative meaning as a symbol of victimization and bondage. The image of the mule first appears when Nanny tells Janie that black women are the mules of the earth, meaning that they are the lowest creatures, used by others. It then appears again when Logan Killicks goes to buy a mule for Janie to use when working behind a plow; his forceful attempt to make Janie work makes her feel as though she herself is being treated as an animal. Finally, the mule reappears once again when the townspeople of Eatonville make fun of Matt Bonner's sad looking mule, which Janie pities. When Jody purchases the mule to appease Janie's sense of pity for it, the town regards Jody as a savior, and adopts the freed mule as a kind of emblem. Throughout the novel, the mule symbolizes victimization, a theme that appears throughout the novel in various ways.
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Year R had a fantastic first half term. Well done everyone!
Our topic this half term is Space and Aliens.
We will also be learning about shape, colour, pattern, forces and materials.
Watch this space, you never know what might happen…
Autumn B dates to remember:
8th November – Individual school photos
w/c 11th November – Book fair week
14th November – Read Write Inc presentation to parents @ 2.50pm in Reception
19th & 21st November – Parents evening 4pm until 7.30pm in the School Hall
29th November – Occasional day (school closed)
18th December – EYFS Christmas performances 10.30am & 2.30pm in the School Hall
20th December – Time to relax and enjoy the Christmas holidays!
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