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A BJP MLA Sadhna Sadhna Singh said that BSP leader is “worse than eunuchs”. In a rally on Saturday, the MLA said, “She (Mayawati) has no self-respect... she was almost molested earlier and yet... in history, when Draupadi was molested, she took a vow to seek revenge... but this woman, she lost everything, but still sold her dignity for the sake of power. We strongly condemn Mayawati Ji. She is a blot on womankind. A woman who gulped insults for comfort and power... is a blot on womankind.” Now that you have known what the controversy was all about, here is something that you must have noticed in colleges-debate clubs etc. In a well mannered political debate done in debate clubs, when one side quote’s another side, a special phrase is used: “My learned friend”. Even if the other side is not, the phrase ‘my learned friend’ is used to acknowledge that 1) You respects another side, and you think they are learned at least on the very topic the debate is about and 2) You are not enemies. One shall not be an enemy of other just because of a short-lived debate. There is a lot of contrast between the two phrases: “My learned friend” and “worse than eunuchs”. What’s the reason the reason behind this degradation. Let’s speculate a few. To get entry into a debate club, you have to pass certain criteria. There are a number of filters you have to pass through. But there is no such thing in Politics. Anyone comes on stage, and anyone speaks whatever comes first in their mind. If someone uses derogatory language, His/her membership is instantly cancelled. But does same happens in politics? Sadhana Singh released a statement saying, “My intention was not to insult anyone. I only wanted to remind Mayawati Ji of the support BJP provided to her after the unfortunate guest house incident on June 5, 1995. I apologise if my words have caused grief to anyone.” So, her intention was not to insult anyone. Didn’t see that coming! BJP has not yet released an official statement. And the National Commission for Women has said it will send a notice to Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sadhana Singh for her derogatory remarks. That’s all. An MLA said so and so about a national level leader and got away with it without any severe backfire. Aren’t Eunuchs Humans? Another thing that is missing from the talk is that everyone is saying that the MLA shouldn’t have said so and so about Mayawati Devi. But about Eunuchs. Sadhna Singh just didn’t insult Mayawati, she insulted the whole community of Eunuchs. He exact remark was “worse than eunuchs”. That means Eunuchs are bad and Mayawati is far 'bad' than them. What’s bad in Eunuchs? According to a report by ThingsAsian, “India is the only country where the tradition of eunuchs is prevalent today. There are about 1 million of them. Eunuchs, or hijras as they are called here, have become something to be feared. Nobody wants to be accosted by one of them - be nudged with their elbows, stroked on the cheek, taunted, cursed and flashed. It's by taking advantage of this discomfort and embarrassment at their existence, that hijras in 21st Century India are making their living. Begging isn't their only source of income. It's an age-old custom in the country to have hijras bless childbirths, weddings, housewarmings and other auspicious occasions. The eunuchs are believed to possess occult powers, and their blessings - and curses - are both considered potent.” But they are making their living out of begging or blessings because they don’t have any other choice. In a society where even leaders say on record “worse than eunuchs”. What chances do eunuchs have of making a better living? Conclusion: The National Commission of Women can say that the statement is condemnable, but I would argue that her statement is punishable. A journalist is booked under National Security Acy because he was a critique of Government, but a leader got away with her ‘crtique’ just because the subject of ‘critique’ was not government this time. As a society member and a voter, we should and must fight for two things. One – for pushing words like “my learned friend” in political discourse and two – for giving eunuchs the place they deserve.
Arthritis discomfort, like most pain caused by inflammation, is brought on by the release of hormone-like compounds called prostaglandins. Studies show, however, that preventing the release of these compounds can stop or reduce arthritis pain. A key to this may lie in inhibiting the enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), one of the triggers that causes the release of prostaglandins (Nutrition Science News, August 2000). COX-2 inhibitors were introduced in 1991 and are slowly taking the place of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen and aspirin, which can cause undesirable side effects. Recently, the FDA approved two new pharmaceuticals, Celebrex and Vioxx, that are synthetic COX-2 inhibitors offering relief from arthritis pain. But these products can be expensive. The following are several natural and less expensive COX-2 inhibitors to consider. OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS: Found in fish oil, these can change prostaglandin production, helping to control inflammation. This is accomplished by the oils' ability to moderate the production of proinflammatory mediators like prostaglandins, therefore altering their original function. THUNDER GOD VINE: This plant has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for many years and has produced positive results in people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. FLAVONOIDS/PHENOLICS: Recent studies show that five of these plant-based chemicals can decrease COX-2 activity. These include genistein, kaempferol, quercetin, resorcinol and resveratrol. Remember, dosages vary, so check with your health practitioner before trying these.
The Intercept’s Lee Fang discusses his recent exposé on how In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, is funding the manufacturer of Clearista, a popular beauty product. Clearista’s parent company, Skincential Sciences, has developed a patented technology that removes a thin outer layer of the skin, revealing unique biomarkers that can be used for a variety of diagnostic tests, including DNA collection. AMY GOODMAN: All right, this piece that you just wrote about the CIA’s venture capital arm funding skin care products that collect DNA, what is this all about, if you buy this cream that, oh, erases blemishes and softens your skin? LEE FANG: We did a story on Friday that revealed for the first time that In-Q-Tel, which is the venture capital arm of the CIA, had invested—is investing in Skincential Sciences. This is a company that developed a special patented technology that combines water, detergent and a pen-like device to rub against the skin and remove an upper—thin upper layer of skin in a painless way for diagnostic purposes. This could be used for medical purposes, early detection of melanoma, but also for collecting DNA for potential identification purposes or other purposes. As this company progressed, they realized that this technology also had a cosmetic value. So, the public-facing side of this company has a product line called Clearista. And you— AMY GOODMAN: Clearista. LEE FANG: Clearista. And you might have seen it on YouTube. They market it very heavily on social media, in Oprah’s magazine, O magazine, and other places. And, you know, this is an interesting product line. But what hasn’t been acknowledged or publicly reported is that this company also has a partnership with the CIA. And the CIA is very interested in developing technology where they can use biomarkers to collect DNA. AMY GOODMAN: So, explain more how it works. LEE FANG: It’s kind of like a Tide pen. You know, instead of rubbing this pen against your clothes to remove stains, this is a special pen used to rub against the skin and removing a thin upper layer. AMY GOODMAN: So it removes a thin upper layer of the skin? LEE FANG: Right, and clearly, it also has a cosmetic value, because folks have used it, and it’s been modified to be used to erase blemishes, to get rid of dark patches on the skin. But the CIA is also interested because they’re interested in ways to collect DNA, though they haven’t been more specific about their intent on how to use this technology. AMY GOODMAN: So, it’s called Skincential Science? LEE FANG: Yes. This company is one of hundreds of companies invested in by In-Q-Tel. In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, was founded in 1999 by then-CIA Director George Tenet as a way for the CIA to develop partnerships in Silicon Valley and to find cutting-edge technology that could then be used by either the CIA or other partner intelligence agencies. We don’t know much beyond that, because In-Q-Tel does not disclose all of its investments. Our disclosure of the relationship with Skincential Sciences was new; it was not previously reported. And we don’t know exactly how they use the technology that they gather through these venture capital partnerships. Very little is reported out. In-Q-Tel reports to the CIA’s inspector general and through classified briefings to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. But beyond that, there’s very little revealed to the public. AMY GOODMAN: So, you interviewed the chief executive of Skincential Sciences, Russ Lebovitz? LEE FANG: Yes, that’s right. We had a long interview. And Russ Lebovitz said he was very confident in the partnership with the CIA. He called them “great partners.” But he said that he didn’t know the exact intent of the CIA in why they’re investing in this company. He suggested maybe that this technology could be used by law enforcement, perhaps at crime scene DNA collection, for those purposes, or potentially for drug tests, you know, testing for drugs through the skin rather than perhaps hair or blood tests. But he didn’t know, beyond that, why the CIA is investing in his company. And I found that very interesting. AMY GOODMAN: The CIA fund has described human skin as a “unique, underutilized source for sample collection”? LEE FANG: Yeah, that’s right. You know, In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, has invested in several hundred tech companies, but a small handful of biotech companies. And they’ve published some research, that we featured in this article, showing that they’re very interested in harnessing the latest developments in medical-type technology for intelligence purposes. AMY GOODMAN: David Petraeus, what was his role as director of the CIA, talking about In-Q-Tel? LEE FANG: Well, there’s been some published criticism of In-Q-Tel, even from folks who are sympathetic to the intelligence agency, saying that, you know, we really don’t know if this taxpayer-funded effort to partner with Silicon Valley really provides useful intelligence technology. But David Petraeus was very supportive of In-Q-Tel, giving a speech a few years ago saying that these technological breakthroughs are critical for the CIA and other partner intelligence agencies. So, he gave it a ringing endorsement. AMY GOODMAN: Well, it sounds like people should beware of Clearista. They may be revealing more than they are concealing. Thank you very much, Lee Fang. LEE FANG: Thank you, Amy. AMY GOODMAN: Lee Fang, investigative journalist at The Intercept covering the intersection of money and politics. We’ll link to his piece, “CIA’s Venture Capital Arm Is Funding Skin Care Products That Collect DNA,” the headline, “Beauty Secrets of the Spies.” We’ll link to it at democracynow.org. When we come back, we look at police killings here in California of a homeless man, most recently, and we’ll talk about the story of Alex Nieto. Stay with us.
It is more difficult to get my creative juices flowing when the world around us is in turmoil. An article by Alyson Stanfield, What’s The Point of Making Art When The World Is So Screwed Up? came to my email just in the knick of time. Her 8 points on why artists should keep painting lifted my spirits and my creativity. I'll be happy to share this article with you, just leave a comment that you would like a copy. So, here's my process: I spend hours looking through images and recreating a memory in my mind that went with that photo. I might need to do additional research before I even consider that image. I have to feel that excitement from that memory in order to start the process. It reminds me of the same choices when deciding what is for dinner -- some days I want to fix chicken and others fish. The same process goes for deciding on a theme to paint for several months. Once I have identified at least 3-5 possible subjects from photos, I use my projector to enlarge the image to see what size looks the best and whether it is going to be a vertical or horizontal or square painting. I need to decide what it is that attracted me to that image while thinking about design and composition. Does it measure up to the standard or will I be able to carry off a "breaking of the rules?" Yes there are rules and they are there as guidelines but most successful artists have used them in their paintings. Secondly I decide if this painting is best painted on which surface: watercolor paper (cold press or hot press}, on a clay surface or Yupo. If I choose the latter, on a cradle so no framing or matting will be required or 1/8" to put in a frame. Now I do a value study using the App on my Iphone, NotanIzer, and usually use 4 values. Once I have the values fine tuned , I can transfer the image from my projector to the surface I will be painting on (enough to get the prospective and important details in pencil). I can choose my colors now. I really love that the midtones have been selected through this process so I can concentrate on the lightest and darkest tones. Now the fun of painting can begin. Sometimes the painting can be completed that same day. When it is more complicated, I want to be more deliberate and take it in stages over several days. Often I paint on more than one painting at a time if there are similar treatments to do at the same time. Hope that helps when you see a painting. You can still ask me how long it took me but you'll have to hear about the steps........... Sharing my paintings with others is one of the joys in my life. Educating others about how I paint and the media I use is very important and why I wanted to reach out through this blog. Hope you will add a comment about what you see.
Dingo Lane Farms Dingo Lane Farms was formed in 2010 to manage two adjoining family-owned properties in the Myocum Valley just outside of Mullumbimby on the far north coast of New South Wales. Starting wiht 60 hectares (150 acres) of neglected ex- dairy farmland, we have strived to establish a working farm. Farm management incorporates strategies aimed at continual enhancement of the health of the soil, water and vegetation on the farm. Farm production emphasis preservation of rare and threatened heritage livestock species. It is now the home of a thriving herd of the beautiful and rare British Whtie cattle as well as breeding flocks of a variety of traditional heritage breed farm chickens, turkey and geese. Live heritage breed chickens are seasonable available from our stall at the Mullumbimby Farmer’s Market or direct from the farm by appointment. Purchase of other poultry, British White cattle or pasture-fed beef can also be arranged by contacting the farm.
Most incidents of domestic violence are committed behind closed doors, shielded from police patrols and witnesses. And chances are an abuser will lie when law enforcement is called. Survivors can, in turn, become jaded toward police. They can feel like they’re not being heard or believed; they can become more isolated than they already are. It’s an unfortunate, all-too-often occurrence. That’s why preparation and knowledge about how to talk to police is key. Here are 10 tips for talking to police that will help a survivor yield the most positive outcome. The Initial Call 1. Call from a safe place. If you are in immediate fear of your safety and can safely extricate yourself from the situation, do so, then call the police from another location. If you’re unable to leave, dial 911 and give the call-taker a brief synopsis of why you need help. In worst-case scenarios where you can’t let on you’ve called, dial 911 and leave the line open so the 911 operator can identify your location and send help. Calling from a cell phone often will not give the operator your exact address, but may give a general GPS area. So whenever possible, voice your exact location. It is also important survivors report the abuse as soon as it occurs, and not wait to call until a later date. Often times, delayed reporting can affect the chances that an abuser is appropriately charged in court. 2. Give pertinent information. While on the phone with the 911 operator, state your name and why you’re calling—“he hit me” or “she’s threatening me.” If you are able, tell the operator if your abuser has any weapons, whether or not you need medical attention, if there are any children present and whether or not there are any court orders being violated. 3. Reporting delayed acts. If you aren’t in immediate danger but still wish to file a police report, call the department’s nonemergency line. Then, be available for when an officer calls you back to take your report, which may be minutes or hours later, depending on the volume priority calls. If it’s unsafe for police to call you back at your home or on your cell, make sure you give them a number that is safe and that you’re near, such as your office or a neighbor’s house. Speaking with Officers Sign up for emails Receive new and helpful articles weekly. Sign up here. 4. Separate yourself from your abuser. Officers should interview you and your abuser separately, but if they don’t, ask to speak privately, away from the offender or any children. 5. Take a few deep breaths. In an emergency, emotions run high, but you’ll be better able to report the facts to police if you can remain calm. Because batterers aren’t the ones victimized, they can sound more calm and rational when police arrive, says Alesha Durfee, PhD, associate professor at Arizona State University in the School of Social Transformation. “I hate saying that because there are good reasons for the victim to feel the way they do, but anything you can do to try and calm down and respond to questions will be beneficial.” 6. Start at the beginning of the current incident. Police will start with an open-ended question like, “What happened?” This is your chance to tell them the facts. Walk them through the specific events of the incident and what led up to you calling for help. “By the time a victim is open to making a report, often they get caught up in wanting to tell the history of their abuse,” says Kelli Dillon, a domestic violence survivor and victim advocate. “Some feel this will make their story more credible.” But it’s best to stick to what happened today, at least initially. See number 9 below for when it’s best to give more details. 7. Tell the truth. Abuse isn’t easy to talk about, but officers need to know what happened in order to make an arrest or know how to help you. Don’t lie about the facts of the case or you’ll risk your credibility and officers may not be able to appropriately assess the situation. For instance, if you invited the offender over, say so. That’s not a crime. But saying he or she showed up unannounced will hurt your case when officers determine otherwise. 8. Say how you feel. Police may come off as very “matter of fact,” but the truth is, law enforcement and prosecution is comprised of people with feelings. If you are in fear for your life, tell them that. When police can articulate such things in a report, it gives your case higher priority. 9. Give background where appropriate. The officers will likely ask you a series of questions called a lethality assessment or danger assessment. If they don’t, be sure to mention if your partner has ever threatened you with a weapon, threatened to kill you or your children, strangled you or threatened or attempted to kill themselves. Mentioning drug or alcohol abuse by your abuser also can be helpful. These are all red flags to police and should help get your case the attention it deserves. 10. Ask for resources. Request to speak with a domestic violence advocate whether or not an arrest is made. If an arrest is not made and you do not feel safe staying where you’re at, ask to make arrangements with a local shelter while still in police presence. Receive new and helpful articles weekly. 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An innovative form of methamphetamine addiction treatment is currently being tested in Houston. An experimental substance that could treat addiction, called ADAPT-2, is being assessed in Houston and in six cities across the country. The experimental drug is a combination of two different medications that are intended to obstruct the euphoria produced by meth and diminish the withdrawal symptoms. The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is where the clinical trial is being led. Their mission is to educate health science professionals, find new information about advances in the medical field and employ the best forms of medical care. Much of their work revolves around innovative forms of technology that can be used to prevent and treat diseases. If their experimental research is a success, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could approve the new substance for meth addiction treatment. According to nine Department Enforcement Agency (DEA) offices, methamphetamine remains the main drug threat in Texas. In 2016, there were 715 meth-related deaths in Texas, in comparison to 539 heroin-related deaths, according to a report from the University of Texas at Austin. The report highlighted that meth is more potent now than when it was created with pseudoephedrine — reaching a potency rating of 95 percent. Between 2014 and 2016, there was a 103 percent surge in meth confiscations at the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2016, 17 percent of drug addiction treatment admissions were related to meth, which was primarily smoked, injected or inhaled. Meth is not just a Texas problem, it is widespread throughout the entire country. According to a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 684,000 people who were 12 years or older suffered from a methamphetamine use disorder in 2016 — about 135,000 people between the ages of 18 and 25 and 539,000 people aged 26 and over had suffered from methamphetamine use disorder in the last year. The two drugs being used in the new meth addiction treatment trial are naltrexone and the antidepressant bupropion. The mixture has been shown to be successful in treating meth addiction among limited sample sizes, which researchers hope can be an indication that the combination may help fight against methamphetamine use disorder. This is not the first time researchers have attempted to formulate a drug to counteract the effects of meth. In 2015, experts at the Scripps Research Institute used a medication called Blebbistatin (or Blebb) on methamphetamine-addicted rats. After that trial was concluded, the rats no longer craved the drug. The difference is that the experimental drug used in that study acted more like a memory cleanser that erased the high caused by meth. The drug in the 2015 trial did not stop cravings, it just made the user forget about them. The ADAPT-2 research study does not erase memories of methamphetamine use but blocks the opiate and dopamine receptors in the brain, which enables users to potentially quit using over a long-term period. A total of 370 people are participating in the research study. At UTHealth, there are 55 people — half of them are receiving the medicine while the other half are being given a placebo. The medication being used in the trial is not recommended for long-term use for meth addiction. Some of the side effects include an increased blood pressure, heart problems, and death. This clinical trial began on May 5, 2017, and is set to conclude in March 2019, after each patient is tested individually through a 12-week period.
Accounting & Finance Study with us and prepare to stand out from the crowd. With our rigorous curriculum and exceptional teaching, you’ll build world-class foundations for graduate employment or further study. You’ll also get a taste of real business – learning from expert faculty members and guest speakers, as well as through hands-on work placements and international study opportunities. With our flexible programmes, you’re in control – choosing a route that suits your own interests and career aspirations. From financial and management accounting to financial markets – our flexible degrees allow you to focus on one or more key areas. from 3 to 4 years Typical A-level offer Collegiate university; International opportunities; Placement opportunities; Ranked top in HESA survey for graduate employment and further study; 5th in The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018 and 6th in The Complete University Guide 2018 Accounting and Finance You’ll study a breadth and depth of finance and accounting subjects to take your knowledge to a new level. Areas of study include accounting information; the legal, regulatory and social context within which accounting operates and the design and operation of information systems. What’s more, if you choose the relevant modules, you may be exempt from some of the ACA, ACCA and CIMA examinations once you’ve completed your degree. Just another small step that’ll help make your way up the career ladder a little easier. Accounting and Management This course is designed to give you a strong foundation of accounting knowledge while also offering the opportunity to develop particular expertise in management. Areas of study include accounting information; the legal, regulatory and social context within which accounting operates; entrepreneurship; marketing principles; and managing in a global environment. What’s more, if you choose the relevant modules, you may be exempt from some of the ACA, ACCA and CIMA examinations. - BA Accounting and Management (3 years) - BA Accounting and Management with business placement (4 years) - BA Accounting and Management with study abroad (4 years) This specialist degree prepares you for a career in the financial world by providing a curriculum which enables you to acquire a critical understanding of theories, empirical evidence and practical application concerning finance and financial markets. You will learn about corporate finance, investments, financial institutions and the vast array of sophisticated financial products traded in today’s global financial markets. Furthermore, you will acquire the quantitative techniques needed to analyse in depth financial data and financial securities. What our students think "The course offered me a great chance to apply my theoretical and practical learning experience gained in my first three years to my (final) fourth year. Also, there was a vast range of module choices which enabled me to explore aspects of accounting which I had never encountered before."
Responding to a growing need for affordable housing, Kaiser Permanente announced Friday the company will invest $200 million for new housing and community needs for low-income residents. The Oakland-based health care giant plans to shift funds from its investment portfolio to support affordable housing and support services. The company sees the investment as an extension of its health care services, saying that public health is bolstered by stable living conditions and shelter. Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson said at an announcement in Washington, D.C., that the investment would alleviate a major risk to health — homelessness. “We now get it,” Tyson told a group of housing advocates and mayors from around the country, including Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. “It is about total health. It is about mind. It is about body. It is about spirit.” No projects have been announced, and the company expects to invest the funds over the next three to five years. Funds initially will focus on preventing homelessness in low- and middle-income families across the country. New affordable housing developments have dwindled in the Bay Area, as high land and construction costs and fewer government funds have developers focusing on market-rate properties. State planning guidelines show Bay Area communities are building about one-quarter of the housing needed for the poorest 25 percent of families. The average rent for a two-bedroom in San Jose in March was $2,570, according to Apartment List. In Oakland, a typical two-bedroom leased for $2,270 a month. High housing costs have driven workers into makeshift, temporary housing around the region, including rented rooms for entire families, RVs lining suburban streets and tent villages at highway exits in cities. Schaaf said Kaiser Permanente’s investment would foster new relationships between cities and companies to address a growing homeless population. “In Oakland, housing is not just a crisis,” she said, “it is the crisis.” Oakland has tried new initiatives, including a recent move of homeless residents into an encampment of small Tuff Sheds, Schaaf said. But more needs to be done, she said, noting that a recent census showed the homeless population growing in the city. Recent studies have found better living conditions improve a person’s health and can cut the cost of health care and social services. For example, a program in Los Angeles that provided shelter and support services for the chronically homeless cut health care and social costs for each participant by about $60,000, according to a study by The Commonwealth Fund. Other studies have found lack of permanent housing causes stress and leads to more mental and physical ailments. Dr. Bechara Choucair, chief community health officer for Kaiser Permanente, said the investment would expand the work the company is already doing in several of the communities it serves. A panel of medical and financial professionals will make investment decisions based on social and financial impacts, he said. Any financial gains are expected to be reinvested in the fund. “Our understanding of health has been evolving,” Choucair said. The nonprofit serves 12.3 million members in 8 states, including California, and the District of Columbia. Jennifer Loving, CEO of Destination: Home, said the investment sent a powerful message of support for affordable housing needs throughout the U.S. Destination: Home is part of a network of Santa Clara County housing support agencies that have placed nearly 5,200 residents in housing during the last three years. “It’s fantastic,” Loving said. “We have this massive crisis. We need all hands on deck.” Dr. Joshua Bamberger, an associate clinical professor of family community medicine at UC San Francisco, has been treating homeless people in San Francisco since 1991. “Every illness I can treat is made worse” by patients lacking shelter, he said. Kaiser Permanente’s large investment could encourage other health care providers to follow, Bamberger said. “It’s not just the money,” he said. Kaiser Permanente joins other Bay Area companies seeking to improve housing for poor residents. In March, Cisco pledged $50 million to alleviate homelessness in Santa Clara County, where a 2017 census estimated nearly 8,000 county residents were without shelter.
Is There a Standard for Meeting Standards? Over the past several years, we have focused on the setting and assessing of standards for K-12 education, paying scant attention to the warnings of the local practitioner. These practitioners have cautioned that the separate standards-development efforts could create a smorgasbord of incompatible criteria for whose attainment they will be held accountable. They also point out that although assessing success and insuring success are related processes, present "outside-in'' efforts have it backwards. Supposedly parallel assessment processes are being developed as an overlay on the work of schools and classrooms, not as an integral function aimed at increasing daily effectiveness. In effect, current standards-setting and assessment-development processes are defining the beginning and end points of a journey that America's schools are expected to undertake. At one end, assessments documenting the current status of American schools--such as those of the National Education Goals Panel--are beginning to provide a snapshot of the starting point. At the same time, the various groups defining "world class'' standards for how America's students must perform are picturing where schools must go. In the gap between that beginning and end, one finds little coherent, coordinated national effort to suggest and support the best ways of getting there--i.e., standards for meeting the standards. (The "opportunity to learn'' standards and strategies envisioned in the new Goals 2000: Educate America Act primarily will address resource requirements, not how to apply them to attain desired ends.) In the local world of public education, meanwhile, the processes for meeting new (or, for that matter, old) standards have become a hodgepodge of multiple theories and strategies for curriculum content and organization, instruction, and school structure. But there is yet no clear agreement on the real task: how to address the interdependence of each of those areas so that entire organizations move on a continuing journey of incremental change as part of their daily work. The negative consequences of this missing standard can be seen in major school districts. In one well-publicized urban district, 26 national foundations or reform groups have developed collaborative initiatives and partnerships. Somewhere in this district's schools one can find an example of every major school reform being considered today, including the state's new curriculum frameworks. Yet, with no regular way for the district to learn from these pilot settings what it needs to know to address the needs of all its students, the 26 well-intentioned change efforts actually sub-optimize the district's capabilities to transform itself. Are there standards for meeting standards? Any organization whose work integrates diverse efforts to attain common purposes or results employs a fundamental--if not implicit--process standard that influences the nature of continuing choices and decisions at all levels. In the physical world of travel, this process is called navigation; in the psychological world it is called trial-and-error learning. Both purpose-driven processes are characterized by a fundamental principle: Regardless of where you are going, you have to start from where you are. From that point on, the process continually feeds the creation of understanding how to get there. This Commentary was selected for inclusion in The Last Word: The Best Commentary and Controversy in American Education, published in 2007. Get more information on the book from the publisher. In the management world of human-service organizations (other than education) the starting point for standards-driven daily work is the current status of the individual before them. Core organizational processes are aligned to support the continuing diagnostic-prescriptive decisions of first-line practitioners. Even nonservice industries have belatedly recognized that their responses, too, must start with the present needs or requirements of their "customer.'' In fact, a world-class process standard--a standard for meeting standards--is emerging. The common structural core of world-class organizations--regardless of the nature of their services or products--is a systematic process that allows improvement to be a continuing and supported part of the entire organization's daily work. This process may be called Continuous Quality Improvement, Total Quality Management, or sometimes even just quality. Whatever the label, quality management's systemically applied, systematic strategies and tools provide ways to structure the interactions necessary for the organization to learn from its work. Organizational transformation becomes the consequence of that learning. One way to envision how this plays out is to picture the structure on a traditional organizational chart. Leaders in successful world-class work settings create a connected learning infrastructure that fills in the spaces between the boxes. They link the people whose daily decisions and choices move the organization toward its goals, purposes, or standards. In other words, quality management formalizes the informal structure of an organization--the problem-driven interactions and information exchange usually left to chance meetings, grapevines, and other informal, individual get-togethers. As such, it is standard-driven, content-free, and manageable. Leaders can be held accountable for its results. But what about schools? The logical question for those concerned with systemic transformation of K-12 education through "standards'' and "assessments'' is to what extent that task can be addressed through the types of world-class process standards associated with quality management. In the past several years, educators have not been far behind their private-sector counterparts in sensing that the theories, strategies, and tools of quality management have some relevance to their work--and have similarly been struggling to figure out how it "fits'' with what they know they have to do. But the current national debate on opportunity-to-learn standards suggests that a fundamental barrier exists to the acceptance of these process standards for the daily work of schools. Local school practitioners--who will be accountable for meeting new national and state standards--are handicapped by two "naÃive'' theories about the work that takes place in schools (i.e., theories developed from direct observation; such as, the earth is flat, the sun and planets circle the earth, or heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones just because they appear to). One such unquestioned theory deals with the observed work of schools as a delivery process, the other with the role of the teacher as an isolated practitioner performing repetitive tasks who does not need to, or have time to, learn from her or his work. The delivery paradigm frames the actions of some curriculum reformers who believe that schools "transmit,'' "communicate,'' or "transfer'' knowledge. Yet practitioners who work in schools every day know that they no more "deliver'' instruction than hospitals "deliver'' medicine. Modern hospitals, however, do deliver appropriate medicine because they are structured around an information-driven process standard that allows continuing generation and analysis of individual "assessment'' information. This supports diagnostic decisions about appropriate medicine and other interventions that meet the requirements of world-class wellness standards. The isolated-professional paradigm shapes many actions of those who think teacher autonomy is the answer to better schools. They assume that local school practitioners already know how to function in new roles and relationships, and only need to be freed to act. Returning to the hospital analogy, medical professionals have autonomy--interdependent autonomy. They recognize that autonomy without knowledge and collaborative support is not freedom. As local educators have begun to explore the meaning of C.Q.I. or T.Q.M., they are discovering a base of knowledge about schools as connected systems of intrinsically driven knowledge workers that shatters these old theories much as Copernicus's understanding destroyed the Ptolemaic paradigm. What is emerging from their work with quality management in schooling is a systemic view of a school district as a managed supportive infrastructure--one that provides the technical, social, and psychological context to support the fundamental trial-and-error nature of individual decisions that strive to respond to human needs. This infrastructure of work roles and relationships provides: - Regular opportunities for reflection, learning, and planning as part of daily work; - Regular access to hard data on results and soft data in the form of shared expertise and experiences; - Tools and processes to focus everyone's knowledge and effort on the core functions of teaching and learning; and - Support for the development of new, more effective, and satisfying roles for all staff members. What will it take? If the current national-standards debate is an example, these local learnings about process standards and accountability are not effectively trickling up. Yet understanding the need for and feasibility of these ideas cannot wait for research to "prove'' their effectiveness. If schools are to have the support required to meet world-class standards, we must make visible this universal management process standard. Policymakers must become aware of the power of this type of process--one that systemically supports and enables its participants to learn how to improve and institutionalize improvements as part of the job. Federal and state policies must support local development of an accountable process infrastructure--framed by learning standards and fed by continuing assessment information--that aligns all roles and relationships to the core functions of teaching and learning. Without such a manageable, widely applicable process standard, the only thing bridging the gap between where schools are and where they must be will be the hides of local practitioners who once more will be blamed for not already knowing how to get there. Organizational transformation, the management expert W. Edwards Deming noted, is a "journey.'' To attempt that crossing without standard tools for navigating through dynamically changing conditions would not be tolerated in any modern endeavor ... except schools. Vol. 13, Issue 28, Pages 33, 40Published in Print: April 6, 1994, as Is There a Standard For Meeting Standards?
The Road Less Taken Most see it as a pit stop off a quiet country road that leads to somewhere, something better. Of course, they don't all think of it that way at first, but it happens soon enough. Teachers with good intentions, or those who have lost their way, come to Southeast Halifax High School, park their lives amid the tobacco fields and pine groves for a year or two, then resume their journeys along that long, winding stretch of asphalt. They can't stay, they say with a shake of their heads, but thanks anyway. It's enough to make Viola Vaughan-Holland's head and heart ache. Last school year, 42 percent of the principal's teachers quit. She had 21 vacancies to fill this past fall. "I lost all of my science teachers and all but two of my special education teachers," Vaughan-Holland says, cloaking her face in gold-rimmed sunglasses. Not to mention a majority of the English department. She's not sure why they quit-she's often notified by the central office of the departures after educators are gone-but she can guess. The pay is less competitive than in other places, she says, and the work just as demanding, if not more so. Housing is limited, as much of the land is locked up with crops. Consequently, those who work at the school commute up to an hour each way. Many teachers hope to further their own educations, but because of the rural nature of the county, they find themselves again behind the wheel driving miles and miles to a college of education. Vaughan-Holland makes do, though, hiring uncertified educators to staff her classrooms, asking substitutes to take full-time positions, and paying extensive headhunting fees to import teachers from outside North Carolina. State data reveal that half the high school's teachers were not fully licensed during the 2001-02 school year, meaning they had earned bachelor's degrees but generally had not taken all the education courses required to be fully credentialed. Some had no academic backgrounds at all in the subjects they taught. Forty percent had less than three years' experience in the field. Vaughan-Holland says her staff is well-meaning and works hard, but, she adds, many teachers have yet to master the academic content or instructional strategies needed to be most effective in the classroom. Halifax County schools Superintendent Willie Gilchrist sighs: "We have some real problems we need to address." The woes of Vaughan-Holland and Gilchrist are a staple of conversation among school administrators throughout rural America. The issues at Southeast Halifax High "typify districts that are high-poverty, low-income, and low-performing," says Doris Terry Williams, the director of the capacity-building program for the Rural School and Community Trust. The Washington-based nonprofit group studies hard-to-staff rural schools. Such districts, Williams says, ultimately "have to hire teachers who can't go someplace else, or those who really, really want to be there." "It is a perpetual cycle," she adds. "Districts can't get or keep teachers, so student performance is really low. Teachers inclined to go there are then actually discouraged from applying because of the districts' reputations. Halifax, the home of Southeast Halifax High School, is one of several tiny burgs located in the county of the same name, North Carolina's third-largest geographically. The sandy earth stretches for miles, punctuated by lush forests, prickly cotton plants, and clusters of prefabricated houses. Farm tractors amble down the two-lane country roads followed by logging trucks piled high and headed for processing. Poverty defines the northeastern region of the state. The unemployment rate now hangs around 12 percent, following the recent closing of a textile plant, Superintendent Gilchrist says. That was more than twice the national rate as of last fall. Nearly 70 percent of the 724 students who attended Southeast during the 1999-2000 school year were poor enough to receive subsidized lunches from the federal government, the state reports. About 99 percent of the school population is African-American, and most students come from single-parent families. According to teachers, a majority of teenagers here spend their time hanging out and watching television at home; no public transportation exists to shuttle them to and from school activities. A dozen or so girls enrolled at the school are pregnant. School achievement, as defined by North Carolina's standardized-test scores, is so bad that officials deemed Southeast Halifax "low performing" during both the 2000-01 and 2001-02 school years. Only 29.7 percent of student test scores were ranked "proficient" by the state last year. Vaughan-Holland and several teachers attribute the poor scores, in part, to the staffing problems. "At the high school level, you need consistency over a three- or four-year span," the principal says, because it takes time for teachers to learn the academic content, textbooks, and culture of a school. Staffing the school has always been hard, Vaughn-Holland says, but as more and more teachers retire, filling a larger number of vacancies has grown exceedingly difficult. In part, fewer beginners are available to choose from, she says. North Carolina must hire 80,000 new teachers over the next nine years, according to the Southeast Center for Teaching Quality, a regional office of the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future. Meanwhile, colleges and universities in the Tar Heel State produce only 20 percent of the new teachers hired each year, leaving districts to import faculty recruits from other states or to steal talent from one another. While the state's salaries for beginning teachers are second in the Southeast only to Georgia's, pay varies greatly in North Carolina. The average compensation for new teachers was $29,786 during the 2000- 01 school year, according to the American Federation of Teachers. Halifax County, however, paid only $25,500. Nearby districts trumped that considerably with signing bonuses of up to $3,000, in addition to other perks. The 5,900-student Halifax County district just can't afford to offer generous incentives, though it supplemented salaries with up to $500 this school year only, says Gilchrist. The tax base is low, and enrollment is decreasing, he explains, just as school services are growing more expensive. Every dollar spent on teacher recruitment, he points out, means less money to buy textbooks and pencils. Meanwhile, neighboring Virginia and South Carolina are offering tempting packages and luring away teachers who might otherwise consider Halifax County. In 2000-01, starting pay was $28,139 and $26,314, respectively, in those states, the AFT found. Even if the district could afford financial incentives, the district's marked problems and geography would act as a deterrent, Gilchrist says. As Southeast's principal over the past four years, Vaughan-Holland has tried all avenues to find teachers. Her first strategy each year is to call North Carolina teacher-preparation programs, but most graduates either have the promise of a job or aren't interested in hearing from her, she says. A handful, though, hail from Halifax County and want to return to teach at their alma mater. Mostly, Vaughan-Holland interviews applicants who aren't fully licensed and thus are more or less blackballed by other districts. Such prospective teachers often would have preferred working in other fields, but couldn't find jobs. Instead of collecting unemployment, they look for teaching jobs in Halifax County. Vaughan-Holland also scoops up a couple of future educators who live in the area and are switching careers. In addition, she turned to Teach For America for help this school year, paying the New York City-based program a total of $2,000 to provide her with three English teachers and a physics instructor. "I interviewed 42 people to get 15 teachers," Vaughan-Holland says. "Most came here because they didn't think they had any other choice." ‘You Can’t Work Here Forever’ It's October, a month into the new school year, and the newest crop is having doubts. "There is no possibility I could maintain the pace we’re constantly working," says Kristopher Miller, a tousled 23-year-old who came to Southeast Halifax High School from Wisconsin through TFA. "You're swimming so hard upstream," he says, slumping in a library chair and rumpling his black suit. The students are often unmotivated--or worse, uninterested, he says. The school has set up channels to provide aid to teachers, but the help the school gives "is a little less than you'd hoped for," according to Miller. It is probably just a matter of time before Kenyetta S. Gadson, also 23, heads back home to South Carolina. "This is a good place to start off, but you can't work here forever because the money isn't good," says Gadson, who shares the rent with three other teachers to stretch her paycheck. The tennis and basketball coach and English teacher has already had another offer from school officials in South Carolina. They would have paid her at least $5,000 more than what she's earning now. "The word got out [about the offer], and my students were angry and crying and saying people always leave them," says Gadson. "Basically, that's the only reason I'm still here." It isn't just the novices who are considering their options. Band instructor Derrick D. Wiggs has spent the past six years building up the middle and high school band programs, but now worries that Southeast's reputation as a low-performing school will leave a black mark on his résumé. "I am very concerned about trying to apply [elsewhere] and the stigma of having worked in two low-performing schools," the saxophone player says in a quiet voice. Wiggs says he is proud of his accomplishments--the band has played at Disney World twice and will give a repeat performance this year--yet he worries he'll be stuck in a dead-end job with a baby to raise. Others say they, too, are happy at Southeast, but have had trouble passing the exams necessary to obtain their permanent licenses. Chiara J. Wallace loved teaching Algebra 2, but was reassigned to a middle school last fall after failing the state certification exam for the third time. Such problems are common, Vaughan-Holland says. Educators who don't have full certification are often so overloaded with the demands of the job, they fail to prepare well for the tests, she says. Many teach a variety of classes--which last 90 minutes each--and volunteer to lead extracurricular activities. After the school day ends, they return home to study or drive great distances to one of the colleges to take classes themselves, as the state requires for full certification. Even if teachers prepare for the test, some are so broke, they don't have the $100 required to pay for it, Vaughan-Holland says. "I have," she says, "personally loaned them the money to take the test." Superintendent Gilchrist has served in his position for nine years and says his challenge is to think creatively about the problems that plague his district. With a lean $49 million budget, he knows his schools won't be saved by cash alone. The key, he believes, is to use what little he has to provide better working conditions and build a sense of community so that teachers feel supported and enjoy their jobs. Three years ago, administrators here dug deep to come up with stipends to pay retired teachers to work as mentors, Gilchrist says. Each mentor observes at least five newcomers twice a week and dispenses tailored advice. Additionally, rookies receive mentors through the state. The district provided a one-time salary stipend of $500 this school year, the superintendent says. "I had new teachers coming in here who didn't have money for food or rent," Gilchrist says. "I had no choice." Vaughan-Holland, for her part, started weekly tutorial sessions this school year at Southeast Halifax. Newbies observe more experienced educators teach minilessons weekly, then discuss strategies with them. In addition, the principal is out in the classrooms daily to help educators. New teachers get another dose of professional development at monthly Saturday meetings. There, administrators who act as school consultants help teachers work through their concerns. "The only other thing we can do," Gilchrist says, visibly frustrated, "is be a good ear for them and work through the difficulties." That may not be enough, though, for teachers like 22-year-old Nicolette Bond, who is struggling to teach 17 "repeaters" 9th grade English. Her class happens to be all-male, and keeping order is a challenge. "I've been trying everything," Bond says, her hands folded atop a student desk, "But I only get in about a half hour of instruction." Vol. 22, Issue 17, Page 25-27Published in Print: January 9, 2003, as The Road Less Taken
New Orleans Chief Calls For ‘Renaissance’ Of Low-Performing Schools Public school leaders in New Orleans are pushing an aggressive plan to shake up the city’s worst schools, even as a recent audit revealed that the district continues to be plagued by financial mismanagement. Superintendent Anthony S. Amato was scheduled last week to present the Orleans Parish school board with his plan to create a "renaissance district," made up of failing schools that must show improvement or face state intervention. The centerpiece of the plan—which the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education must approve—includes phasing out many of the worst-performing middle schools by forming K-8 schools. Mr. Amato, who was not available for an interview, prepared a PowerPoint presentation to give the board on April 1 that was peppered with research showing that students in K-8 schools often perform better academically and socially than students in middle schools, which typically include grades 6-8. The plan for "renaissance" schools also calls for an extended instructional day, "double doses" of literacy and mathematics, and a requirement that all teachers in the special district be highly qualified. A superintendent would be hired to oversee the district and would be required, according to the presentation, to have a "demonstrated record of improving academic achievement of urban students." As Mr. Amato moved ahead with his plan, the Louisiana education department had identified 14 New Orleans schools that could be the target of state intervention if they failed to show improvement. Under a law passed by the state legislature last year, schools that are failing under accountability programs spelled out by both the district and the state are eligible for takeover. ("States Train Sights on School Districts for Interventions," Jan. 28, 2004.) Two Reform Efforts The law calls for the schools to be placed under the control of a special state school district, called a "recovery district," overseen by the state department of education and the state school board. Nonprofit groups are eligible to help run recovery schools. So far, 13 nonprofit organizations have expressed interest in doing so, according to Leslie Jacobs, a member of the state board. "There are two reform efforts converging on New Orleans," Ms. Jacobs said. If the state board approves Mr. Amato’s renaissance plan and the targeted schools show improvement, she explained, they would not face a state takeover. But if the plan is rejected and the district can’t present another successful reconstitution plan, failing schools in New Orleans would be eligible for intervention and placed in the recovery district. Ms. Jacobs expressed initial support for Mr. Amato’s plan to establish K-8 schools. "It’s a good idea," she said. "There is some national and state data that shows students’ performance does go backwards during middle school." Meanwhile, a recent legislative audit of the 80,000-student district revealed that long-running finance-related problems continue to plague the system. The March 24 audit found, among other concerns, that between 2001 and 2003 the district paid out some $3 million to former employees who continued to receive payroll checks even after they left the system. "The Orleans Parish school board did not have adequate management, nor did it establish policy to safeguard public funds and prevent the payments to terminated employees," the audit report says. Cheryl Mills, the president of the district school board, did not return calls requesting comment. The board has adopted resolutions pushing Mr. Amato to ferret out individuals or companies that have received illegal payments from the district. The school system is also facing an ongoing investigation by the New Orleans district attorney’s office into allegations of fraud and other financial abuses. ("New Orleans Schools Focus of Fraud Probe," Oct. 22, 2003.) State Sen. Tom Schedler, who is the vice chairman of the legislature’s audit advisory council, said the district must come up with a plan to institute a functional finance department. "This has just been a totally inept process, with people who don’t know what they are doing," he charged, referring to district finances in New Orleans. "If you can’t keep your books straight, how are you going to educate the children?" Mr. Amato, who was tapped for the top school post in New Orleans in February of last year, has a reputation for turning around troubled districts. A former superintendent in Hartford, Conn., and in New York City’s Community School District 6, Mr. Amato helped improve the academic performance of those districts in quick fashion. But James Meza, the dean of the college of education and human development at the University of New Orleans, said the superintendent has been forced to focus on cleaning up the district’s financial house. "He’s had to shift his energies from academics to finances," Mr. Meza said. "It’s a dysfunctional system operationally. "Amato has to transform a system that has been under ineffective leadership for eight to 10 years," he said. Vol. 23, Issue 30, Page 10Published in Print: April 7, 2004, as New Orleans Chief Calls For ‘Renaissance’ Of Low-Performing Schools
News in Brief Funding a Problem for Va. Virtual Schools Virginia legislators adopted a law last year allowing private companies and school districts to run virtual school programs, but how to pay for those virtual schools remains a thorny issue. A study released last month says Virginia should develop a different method of financing virtual schools, rather than using the existing model, in which funding goes to school districts. In Virginia, state education aid system essentially assumes that students live in the districts where they go to school. But virtual schools allow a student to live in one place and, technically, attend school in another. Vol. 31, Issue 13, Pages 4-5Published in Print: December 7, 2011, as Funding a Problem for Va. Virtual Schools
"Schools to Learn From" High schools with higher-than-average academic outcomes for English-language learners found that the schools share common design elements, including intentionally hiring immigrants and former ELLs, according to a Stanford University Graduate School of Education study. Staff members at six case-study schools often speak students' home languages and have significant international traveling experience, which helps them "understand ELLs' perspectives, communicate with them, and serve as role models for students," the report found. The featured schools, which have higher-than-average graduation and college-going rates for ELLs, are: Boston International High School; Newcomers Academy, also in Boston; and the High School for Dual Language and Asian Studies, It Takes a Village Academy, Manhattan Bridges High School, Marble Hill School for International Studies, and New World High School, which are all in New York City. The 245-page report found that the schools frequently assess students' language capacity from entry through graduation and adjust instruction and course offerings based on the data. Frequent communication between staff members and families in their home languages and the availability of wraparound services such as health, housing, food, and employment resources was also a hallmark of the schools. The Carnegie Corporation of New York funded the report. Vol. 35, Issue 22, Page 5Published in Print: February 24, 2016, as English-Language Learners
GAO: Vouchers Leave Parents in Dark On Special Ed. Rights States are not doing enough to inform parents about the special education rights they give up when they enroll their children in private schools with publicly funded vouchers. That's according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that also urges Congress to compel states to tell parents about the tradeoffs they make when they opt to participate in a private school choice program. Expanding private school choice is a priority for U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos—a longtime philanthropic booster of school choice who drew condemnation from special education and civil rights advocates during her confirmation hearing when she appeared to be confused about basic principles of federal education law. More than half of the state private school choice programs, which include tuition vouchers and education savings accounts, are specifically targeted to students with disabilities. Even though vouchers are funded with public money, when a parent switches their child from public to private school, they waive crucial special education rights granted to them under federal law—such as "discipline procedures and least restrictive environment requirements," said the GAO report. That's something that parents of students with disabilities may not be aware of, said Selene Almazan, the legal director for the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, or COPPA. Eighty three percent of students using special education vouchers are participating in programs that provide inaccurate or no information at all on the federal protections families are giving up, the GAO found as it reviewed websites for voucher programs and the private schools that participate in them. The GAO analyzed 27 currently running voucher and education savings account programs and interviewed officials with the Education Department and the six largest private school choice programs, among others. Only three of the 15 programs for students with disabilities offer advice on their websites about how families should go about choosing a school that meets their children's needs. The GAO estimated that only about half of the private schools that participate in special education voucher programs offered any disability-related information on their school websites. That percentage of schools remained about the same when the GAO looked at all types of voucher programs. "I was surprised to read that," said Almazan. COPPA helped connect the GAO with families and lawyers to interview. "I think it's difficult for families who are ready to utilize private schools or choice options ... to make an informed choice if there's no information available for them." The report, which was requested by Democratic representatives from Wisconsin and Ohio, concluded just that: as private school choice expands, it is increasingly important to help parents make educated decisions. However, even when parents understand the tradeoffs, many still opt to waive their children's special education rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to send them to schools they hope will better provide for their children. Since Betsy DeVos' nomination to be education secretary, Democrats have zeroed in on how private schools that receive taxpayer dollars are regulated. Democratic representatives Gwen Moore and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, and Marcia Fudge of Ohio, asked the GAO to also look more broadly into accountability and transparency requirements for private school choice programs. Overall, the GAO found that most programs have some kind of academic and administrative accountability, but far fewer require financial accountability from schools. Among the findings: • One third of 27 private school choice programs examined by the GAO require that schools publicly report test results; • Seventeen programs require participating private schools to perform background checks on staff; • Fifteen programs require site visits; • Fifteen programs require schools to prove that they are fiscally sound before they accept voucher dollars; • Only eight programs are required to be audited annually. Some program officials expressed concern to the GAO over the lack of financial accountability provisions for private schools—and their lack of authority to boot financially unstable schools from the program. Still other program officials told the GAO they struggle to make sure private schools are in compliance with general rules due to limited resources. In addition to requiring states to inform parents about what special education rights they lose when they taking a voucher, the GAO also recommends that the Department of Education review the information states publish relating to vouchers and federal education law and work with states to correct any inaccuracies. The report has met little resistance from private school choice supporters, who are often wary of increased government regulation of choice programs, especially from the federal level. "Broadly speaking, I agree with the results—we want parents to make informed decisions," said Michael McShane, the director of national research at EdChoice, a school choice advocacy and research group. "As a person who frequently fears government overreach—it's rarely government overreach when a government informs people of their rights." Vol. 37, Issue 15, Pages 6-7Published in Print: December 13, 2017, as GAO: Vouchers Leave Parents in Dark On Special Ed. Rights
Proactive or reactive: How do we want the companies we buy our seafood from to act? Attention to seafood, both wild catch and aquaculture, is growing as the social, environmental and economic issues are becoming more apparent in seafood supply chains. Such issues are visible though habitat loss, pollution, human rights violations and coastal community degradation. Whilst nearly all major issues occur within the first two tiers of the value chain (on boats, at the pond or tank, and within the processing stages), consumers, NGOs and other green groups often look towards those further down the line for answers. Acting as a link between the oceans and consumers, retailers and hotels have the authority over brand and species selection; the ability to determine which suppliers to source from; and can provide consumers with accurate information to make informed purchasing decisions. In Asia, both of these sectors are growing rapidly. The hotel industry is expected to continue on an upward trend of 4.1 percent per year in Asia.1 Similarly, the amount of foreign investment in retail is increasing– brands such as Carrefour (France), Metro (Germany) and Wal-Mart (U.S.), can now be found around in Vietnam, China, Thailand and Malaysia. As these industries continue to grow in the coming years, so too will their influence and power. With this in mind, CSR Asia has launched a new “Briefing Report on Seafood for ASEAN Retailers and Hotel Groups”, which aims to shed light on the concept of sustainable seafood in the ASEAN region. The report discusses seafood industry related risks, makes the business case to improve the inclusion of smallholders and women in procurement strategies, and reviews the state of corporate disclosure on seafood from hotels and retailers. It also highlights five companies who are demonstrating leadership in their industries, and offers a series of private sector oriented recommendations that encourage a holistic approach to seafood procurement to the benefit of businesses, communities and the environment. Missing information on important social issues A key takeaway from the report is that communicating with consumers on what strategies, policies and practices are in place helps to demonstrate commitment and attention paid to sustainable seafood sourcing. Many times, this communication is done through annual and sustainability reports. When reviewing these public disclosures, our research found that within the ten hotels and ten retailers benchmarked, the majority share environmental data within their seafood supply chain. Yet, few are communicating the data on social issues. The report also points out that disclosing data on social issues, however, is just as important. What cannot be ignored in the region is the relevance of small-scale producers. Of the 158 million working globally in the seafood sector, 90 percent are small-scale operators.2 For example, in the Philippines, the ratio of those working in small-scale operations compared to commercial is 16:1.3 Looking at the current state of disclosure of policies related to smallholder inclusion, though hotels were more likely to communicate on this topic, only 20 percent of retailers shared any information on policies related to smallholder inclusion. This is of particular importance as small-scale producers account for more than half of all fish produced globally.4 Though there is still much to be done, there are a few examples of companies taking the lead in responsible sourcing by integrating policies, plans and targets that actively strive to improve procurement practices and drive the industry towards increased transparency. These include Hyatt, Hilton, Tesco and Aeon – all of which openly communicate their performance on seafood sourcing. Hilton, for example, employs a strong commitment to seafood sustainability, and in 2016, a series of targets were announced, which follows a Buy from the Best, Invest in the Rest motto: - Buy from the Best: Purchase at least 25 percent of global seafood volume for owned, managed and leased properties from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)-certified fisheries and farms - Invest in the Rest: Supply the remaining volume from sources working towards certification and sustainable improvement, following “green” seafood species on WWF seafood guides, and/or procuring tuna products from International Seafood Sustainability Foundation participating companies Aside from these customer-facing companies, there is also notable influence coming from within the value chain. Thai Union is one of the largest tuna processors in the world. By 2020, it is their goal to source at least 75 percent of tuna from MSC-certified fisheries or from fishery improvement projects (FIPs). On top of this, the company is making strides in addressing labour issues by establishing partnerships with organisations such as Issara Institute, Labour Rights Promotion Network, and setting policies such as Zero Recruitment Fee Policy. Greenpeace has applauded their leadership, as it is actions like this that will pressure others to show similar levels of ambition and drive needed change throughout the industry. How responsible sourcing can bring benefits to business: Aside from minimising environmental and socio-economic harm, there are tangible benefits to consumer-facing businesses who increase the sustainability of their seafood, such as: Reputational lens: Human rights organisations and other NGOs are known to publicly out retailers who sell seafood processed in factories with substandard working conditions. For example, Greenpeace has developed a ranking of American grocery stores on their Grocery Store Scorecard, to help consumers make better seafood purchasing choices. Addressing human rights and other sustainability issues in the supply chain helps to avoid potential reputational damage to the company. Long term security lens: If fish are pulled faster from the sea than they can be replenished, or if the environment is damaged in the process, it is possible that these stocks will be completely depleted. Consumer demand lens: With growing middle class and consumer awareness, shoppers have begun to drive demand for certified sustainable seafood, which currently accounts for 14 percent of the global seafood market – up from 0.5 percent in 2003.5 This pace of growth is ten times faster than the market for conventionally-sourced seafood, presenting both leadership and commercial opportunities. Employee engagement: A literature review published in Research in Hospitality Management found that employees who perceive their organisation’s endeavors as being positive and meaningful will be more engaged. It also improves the ability to recruit and retain highly talented candidates. The “Briefing report on seafood for ASEAN retailers and hotel groups” can be found on CSR Asia’s publication portal or by clicking the cover image to the right. 1. Asia Pacific hotel pipeline for March 2017 – Accom News 5. State of Sustainability Initiatives Review: Standards and the blue economy – International Institute for Sustainable Development
AROMA FREEDOM TECHNIQUE what is it? AFT is Aroma Freedom Technique. It is a step-by-step process for identifying and releasing negative thoughts, feelings and memories that interfere with reaching our goals and dreams. AFT is meant to be used as a way to set a person's emotional energy flowing in a positive direction, towards growth and expansion rather than contracting in fear, doubt and paralysis. It uses Young Living Essential Oils to trigger a permanent shift in how we view ourselves and the world. How does this process work? Smelling the oil disrupts the memory complex itself. The oil stimulates a new feeling, which in a sense, displaces the previously identified feeling. Because two different feelings cannot occupy the same space at the same time, the memory complex dissolves.
Using SMS to ensure a safe match Nottingham Forest Football Club, a "soccer" team from the UK, are using SMS to provide additional safety and security to fans. Imagine the following scenario; you are sitting in the stands enjoying the game with your kids when someone behind you starts yelling foul and abusive language, racist chants or causing trouble. You cannot tackle them, for fear of what they might do (especially if they have had several beers). Getting a steward or the police over will draw attention to you and let the yob know that it was you who complained. So you put up with it or alternatively you leave early, either way you probably will not want to take your family to the City Ground in a hurry again. Fortunately such instances are rare at Forest thanks to the efforts of the Safety Officer and his team. They are extremely proactive and through their meticulous planning and intelligence database, it is safer to watch the Reds now than it’s ever been. But if the worst strikes, SMS has been implemented to help.
HTML 5 is a correction of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the official programming language for explaining the contents and appearance of Web pages. HTML5 was developed to solve agreement problems that affect the current standard, HTML4. One of the common significant differences between HTML5 and previous versions of the rule is that older versions of HTML require restrictive plugins and APIs.... HTML5 provides one standard interface to make loading components easier. For example, there is no want to install a Flash plugin in HTML5 because the element will run by itself. One of the design goals for HTML5 is to support for multimedia on mobile devices. New syntactic features were introduced to help this, such as video, audio and canvas tags. HTML5 is the newest evolution of the standard that describes HTML. The term represents two various ideas. It is a new version of the HTML language, by new components, attributes, and behaviors, and a broader set of technologies that allow the building of more diverse and authoritative Web sites and applications. This set is seldom called HTML5 & friends and often shortened to just HTML5.
Since the archaeological discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946, the word "Essene" has made its way around the world--often raising a lot of questions. Many people were astonished to discover that, two thousand years ago, a brotherhood of holy men and women, living together in a community, carried within themselves all of the seeds of Christianity and of future western civilization. This brotherhood--more or less persecuted and ostracized--would bring forth people who would change the face of the world and the course of history. Indeed, almost all of the principal founders of what would later be called Christianity were Essenes--St. Ann, Joseph and Mary, John the Baptist, Jesus, John the Evangelist, etc. The Essenes considered themselves to be a separate people--not because of external signs like skin color, hair color, etc., but because of the illumination of their inner life and their knowledge of the hidden mysteries of nature unknown to other men. They considered themselves to be also a group of people at the center of all peoples--because everyone could become part of it, as soon as they had successfully passed the selective tests. They thought, and rightly so, that they were the heirs of God's sons and daughters of old, the heirs to their great ancient civilization. They possessed their advanced knowledge and worked assiduously in secret for the triumph of the light over the darkness of the human mind. They felt that they had been entrusted with a mission, which would turn out to be the founding of Christianity and of western civilization. They were supported in this effort by highly evolved beings who directed the brotherhood. They were true saints, Masters of wisdom, hierophants of the ancient arts of mastery. They were not limited to a single religion, but studied all of them in order to extract the great scientific principles. They considered each religion to be a different stage of a single revelation. They accorded great importance to the teachings of the ancient Chaldeans, of Zoroaster, of Hermes Trismegiste, to the secret instructions of Moses and of one of the founding Masters of their order who had transmitted techniques similar to those of Buddhism, as well as to the revelation of Enoch. They possessed a living science of all of these revelations. Thus, they knew how to communicate with angelic beings and had solved the question of the origin of evil on the earth. One of their major preoccupations was to protect themselves from any contact with evil spirits, in order to preserve the purity of their souls. They knew that they would only be on earth for a short time, and they did not want to prostitute their eternal souls. It was this attitude, this strict discipline, this absolute refusal to lie or compromise, that made them the object of so much persecution through the ages. The Essenes considered themselves the guardians of the Divine Teaching. They had in their possession a great number of very ancient manuscripts, some of them going back to the dawn of time. A large portion of the School members spent their time decoding them, translating them into several languages, and reproducing them, in order to perpetuate and preserve this advanced knowledge. They considered this work to be a sacred task. The Essenes considered their Brotherhood-Sisterhood as the presence on earth of the Teaching of the sons and daughters of God. They were the light which shines in the darkness and which invites the darkness to change itself into light. Thus, for them, when a candidate asked to be admitted to their School, it meant that, within him, a whole process of awakening of the soul was set in motion. Such a soul was ready to climb the stairs of the sacred temple of humanity. The Essenes differentiated between the souls which were sleeping, drowsy, and awakened. Their task was to help, to comfort, and to relieve the sleeping souls, to try to awaken the drowsy souls, and to welcome and guide the awakened souls. Only the souls considered as awakened could be initiated into the mysteries of the Brotherhood-Sisterhood. Then began for them a path of evolution that could not stop anymore through the cycle of their incarnations. Everybody knew the Brothers and Sisters in white. The Hebrews called them "The School of Prophets"; and, to the Egyptians, they were "The Healers, The Doctors". They had property in nearly all of the big cities; and, in Jerusalem, there was even a door that bore their name: the door of the Essenes. Despite some fear and joking, due to the rejection of that which one does not know, the people as a whole felt respect and esteem for the Essenes because of their honesty, their pacifism, their goodness, their discretion, and their talent as healers, devoted to the poorest as well as to the richest. They knew that the greatest Hebrew prophets came from their lineage and their School. Moreover, even if the Brotherhood was very strict about the law of secrecy with regard to its internal doctrine, it cultivated many points of contact with the people, notably through places of lodging for the pilgrims from every horizon, through helpful actions in difficult periods, and especially through the healing of illnesses. These places of primary teaching and of healing were located in precise areas where people could go freely.
Google and its Chinese search rival Baidu are exploring similar options in their quest to expand into online video in China. According to Reuters, both companies have been holding preliminary talks with video sites concerning the possibility of cooperation or acquisition, but neither Google nor Baidu has secured a specific target. Google is deciding whether to simply translate the existing YouTube into Chinese, or build a Chinese YouTube through acquisition or partnership. Google reportedly had several problems understanding the Chinese market when the company first set up shop there. Part of the trouble is that the Chinese interact online in a different manner than Americans or Europeans do. For example: Where Americans prefer e-mail, the Chinese apparently prefer message boards. Google has had problems gaining market share against Baidu. Google owns about 25 percent, whereas Baidu owns over 60 percent.
Is the Linux kernel getting buggier? According to Andrew Morton, the lead maintainer of the Linux 2.6 kernel, in a CNET report from the LinuxTag conference in Germany, theres getting to be too much bad code in the kernel. "I believe the 2.6 kernel is slowly getting buggier. It seems were adding bugs at a higher rate than were fixing them," said Morton. Indeed, Morton thinks that so many bugs are entering the kernel that "We may possibly have a bug fix-only kernel cycle, which is purely for fixing up long-standing bugs." But, is it really that bad? Morton himself admits that this is simply his impression, and that he has no hard proof that the bug rate is actually increasing. This isnt the first time that Morton has publicly been concerned about bugs in the kernel. Last year, in Canberra, Australia, he said that more attention needed to be paid to testing to avoid bugs proliferating in the kernel. Theres also a question as to whether some of these "bugs" are what most people would consider bugs. Morton sees a failure to support "a 5-year-old peripheral that no one is selling any more," but is still being used, as a bug. To me, this seems more like a backwards compatibility concern rather than a bug.
Now, the company is revealing more about what this new Linux software distribution system will look like. First, in a letter to Linspire customers, Kevin Carmony, Linspires CEO and president, wrote, "Because the new CNR.com system was designed from the beginning with the intention of supporting multiple distributions (both Debian and RPM), most of the work for supporting a new distribution will already be done. "The vast majority of the work is in building the overall system and has nothing to do with a specific distribution. This means that with just the small additional effort-specific to a new distribution, we can leverage 100 percent of the CNR system." Thus, once the universal CNR is in place, we can expect to see new distribution support rolled out quickly. Why would Linspire, which supports both its own self-named distribution and the community-based Freespire, support other desktop Linux distributions? Carmony explained, "We want Linux to succeed on the desktop. We want Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu and all other Linux distributions to get as many users as possible. The real challenge for Linspire isnt from the other Linux distributions, but from the legacy hold Microsoft has on the desktop."
Last December, the Earth got a Christmas present we weren’t even aware of. The second-most powerful asteroid detonation in 30 years struck on December 18, when a bolide exploded over the Bering Sea. The blast was an estimated 173kt — roughly 11.5x more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and more than enough to guarantee a really bad day for anything unlucky enough to be hit by it. We missed the explosion until now because it blew up over an unpopulated area of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. There are shots of it entering the Earth’s atmosphere, courtesy of Japan’s Himawari satellite. Some colour views of the #meteor that flew over the North Pacific in December 2018, taken by Japan's #Himawari satellite. The meteor is really clear here – bright orange fireball against the blue + white background! — Simon Proud (@simon_sat) March 18, 2019 The fact that we missed this rock is a testament to our rather incomplete picture of space around Earth, as well as the difficulty of tracking rather small space rocks in the first place. The BBC reports it may take NASA another 30 years to finish mapping all of the asteroids near Earth that are up to 140 meters in size. There’s no chance of a rock that small causing an extinction-level event, but the impact on a region can be considerable. The Tunguska Event, on July 30, 1908, illustrates the importance of tracking even small meteors. On that day, an explosion in the Siberian Taiga flattened some 2,000 square miles of forest, after a likely air burst meteor detonation. The Tunguska impactor is believed to have been just 60-190 meters wide (broad estimates reflect uncertainty about whether it was an icy body or a rocky one). The December 18 bolide was much smaller, at just a few meters, and it detonated 25.6km above Earth’s surface, not the 5-10km at which Tunguska blew. The most modern estimates of its explosive force put it at 3-5 megatons of TNT, easily matching the explosive power of modern nuclear weapons. No known asteroids are on collision courses with Earth, but close encounters like this are an unsettling reminder that the rocks are out there. The good news is, on galactic time scales, there are a lot fewer rocks out there than before. Jupiter may have done us an enormous favor by sweeping debris out of the solar system early in our own history. The so-called Late Heavy Bombardment may have done a serious number on our planet as well as Mars, but the decrease in massive impact events over the billions of years allowed for life to flourish. There are estimates that Mars may have been hammered by 100km rocks every million years or so early in its history. To put that in perspective, the Chicxulub impactor is estimated to have been 11-80km. Life on Earth would be, shall we say, profoundly disrupted had the local neighbors not quieted down and stopped throwing rocks.
Zuccarelli, Francesco fränchĕs´kō tso͞ok-kärĕl´lē [key], 1702–88, Florentine landscape painter and decorator. He twice visited London, where he decorated the Opera House and was well known through popular engravings of his scenes on the Thames. He was a charter member of the Royal Academy. His facile paintings of landscapes with ruins and small figures are best seen in Windsor Castle and in the Academy, Venice. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. See more Encyclopedia articles on: European Art, 1600 to the Present: Biographies
In the past year the banking, insurance and finance industry has been rocked by crisis and scandal. Systematic management failure, obsession with targets and a failure to respect both customers and staff has stripped away trust and confidence to the point where something must be done. Staff across the finance industry feel this management failure every day through understaffing, stress, bullying and now blame shifting away from poor culture driven from the top and towards frontline workers. We've had insurance policy holders with claims denied because they had the wrong type of cancer, or they failed a 70 year old definition of a heart attack. We've had customers charged for services they they never received and we've had customers sold products they didn't want, need or understand. As a result, much of the community now believes that our industry struggles to find, let alone use its moral compass. The issues affecting our industry are wide reaching but they all have one thing in common, without the right intervention finance workers may become the individual scapegoats of systematic cultural problems within their organisations. Some of these issues include; - Conflicted pay, where remuneration drives poor customer outcomes - Whistleblower protections - Banning Bankers for breach of code of conduct - Banking Code of practice - Consumer complaints - Stronger Regulator
Making your home or place of business more comfortable is essential for a peaceful and productive setting. Making these places more comfortable can be much easier than you think. Little improvements can make a big, and lasting, difference. One of the biggest ways to make a difference in the feeling of your home is by improving the air quality. There are many ways to make the air quality in your home or at work better, and more comfortable. One of the most effective ways is a damper. Dampers help regulate the flow of air, and help keep the air fresh and clean, and allow for zone control for more efficient heating and cooling. Many people cut corners when it comes to the quality of the air in their home or at work. Good air quality can make all the difference, in how you feel, and how comfortable you are. There are many different types of dampers that can be used to regulate the air distribution in your home. There are motorized dampers, backdraft dampers, pressure relief dampers and make-up air. Each has its benefits and no matter what your needs are there is one that is perfect for your situation. FAMCO provides a variety of different dampers to help suit whatever your needs may be. It is important not to skip out on things that improve the overall quality of your home. Dampers are affordable pieces of equipment that are well worth the investment. All of our products come with a warranty, and we ensure the quality and workmanship of all of our products. Whether you are looking to improve the quality of air in your home, workplace, or any other building dampers are one of the best pieces of equipment to invest in. At FAMCO we pride ourselves in our products abilities to improve the air quality in your home or workplace. We reduce the number of moving parts in our products to ensure they last longer and don’t require nearly as much maintenance as other products. Having good air quality in your home can also help other factors and other parts of your home function better. Bad air quality can create a lot more cleaning and maintenance that could be easily avoided with a damper. You will be surprised at all the positive changes that come with having quality air.
“So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial forever.” In this interesting story, the Hebrew people are on the move to the promised land with the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant, for the Hebrew people, contained the presence of God on earth. They would eventually place it in the middle of the Temple in Jerusalem (the Holy of Holies). In this portion of scripture, God tells Joshua to command the people to pick up twelve stones from the Jordan river and carry them with them to the other side. They were to set them up as a memorial to their journey so that their children would eventually ask them the meaning of the stones. It was then that the Hebrews would tell the stories of God liberating them from Egypt and leading them through the wilderness, providing for them along the way. These stones were to be stones of remembrance, eben ezers, that would remind the Hebrew people and the generations that followed to be grateful for God’s presence and guidance along the journey. What are the stones of remembrance in your own life? Maybe they aren’t stones, but a family Bible or even photos of an experience. How do those objects stir gratitude in you? How do you pass those stories on to others? We learn from the Hebrew people that our gratitude for experiences will shine through in the way we retell those experiences. How are you retelling your significant life experiences with gratitude?
The Health Star Rating scheme is driving positive reformulation of current foods and the innovation of new ones, says FGC. The NZ Herald asked FGC if there had been any discussions with the new Health Minister, and if FGC members would be receptive to his wish to work with the industry to improve labelling and setting sugar reduction targets. Also, are current labelling requirements enough and will companies be able and willing to reduce the sugar in their products? Katherine Rich responded: The Food and Grocery Council is keen to engage with the Government on all food and grocery issues, as we have said previously. We believe that the current labelling requirements we share with Australia are well established and that the Health Star Rating is driving positive reformulation of current foods and the innovation of new ones. We would be delighted to look at any further detail around what the Government may propose in the future. Our member companies have been reformulating foods and beverages for many years to remove sugar, salt, and fat, in line with consumer preferences, and they will continue to do this. I’ve congratulated the Minister of Health, David Clark, and the Minister for Food Safety, Damien O’Connor, on their appointments but we’ve not had a meeting. I hope to do so in the new year.
Teachers will soon be able to educate youngsters on all things food and farming thanks to a trial Science Farm series designed by the NFU. The initiative was launched on Monday (February 12) on the ethos ‘farms are the perfect place to learn about science’. It came following concerns there was a ‘huge lack of knowledge’ among children about how and where their food is produced. NFU deputy president Minette Batters said: “We are really excited with these new educational digital tools that will allow teachers to provide truly memorable lessons where children will get the opportunity to explore where their food comes from and how it is grown. “We believe passionately about educating young people and we feel strongly that food production should be a core part of the national school curriculum. “As farmers, it is not just our job to grow the food we eat but to engage and reconnect with the public including children.” The education package will be taught as part of the national science curriculum in England and will offer learning on the farm-to-fork journey through videos and activity sheets. Pupils from St. Barnabas primary school will also help explain how carrots are produced before students will have the chance to plant their own carrots and record their growth using a special carrot diary. The students will also learn about the food chain of a day’s school dinner and have the opportunity to create their own sensory trail to ‘explore the farm with [your] five senses’. Joshua Payne, NFU education manager, added: “Farming is such a natural context for so many areas of the Key Stage One science curriculum – children will get to learn about life processes and their own bodies all while discovering about the countryside environment. “We have worked really hard to ensure the activities are hands-on and practical which will hopefully lead to really cementing learners’ scientific understanding.”
ShareFacebook Twitter AddThis France is upping its restaurant game with a new labeling system for foods that are “homemade.” Beginning today, a new black and white logo in the shape of a casserole with a rooftop will appear on restaurant foods that are presumably made from scratch. The new labeling system was approved by the government in an effort to shed more light on the deceiving practice of reheating pre-cooked meals and passing them as fine cuisine, The Telegraph reports. Currently, as many as 85 percent of restaurants in the country serve vacuum-packed and frozen food without telling its customers, according to the Union of Hotel Industry Professions. While the “homemade” system already has its critics, it’s intended as a means to reward chefs who observe high quality standards in producing in preparing meals from raw ingredients. However, there are a few loopholes in the system. For instance, frozen fries at fast food restaurants cannot carry the label but all other frozen vegetables that have been peeled, chopped and frozen industrial can be considered “homemade” if they go into a dish that’s prepared at the restaurant. To be considered homemade dishes must be made only from “raw ingredients,” which is defined as "a food product having undergone no significant modification, including being heated, marinated, assembled or a combination of these procedures,” according to The Telegraph. The law does allow for some exceptions such as bread, pasta, wine, cheese. What do you make of France's “homemade” system? Will it increase restaurant standards? Should other countries follow suit? Tell us in the comments below.
Sign up to Fischy Music Online We believe children should have access to songs that will help them feel better and build coping strategies. Our songs are accessible and inclusive, linking to the curriculum for 3 – 12 year olds, with topics including loss, friendship and transition. Thousands of children are benefitting from our songs each week, through our streaming platform, Fischy Music Online. To subscribe, just follow these simple steps: Ensure you have a good Internet connection, required for streaming songs Select a subscription (you can listen to 45-second song clips here) Go to our shop to sign up or select an option from the table below (payment by debit/credit card, PECOS/PO or invoice) Give log in details to all teachers and staff, so children can sing simultaneously in class and at assemblies Select a module and school size from the table to subscribe now. If you are a church or faith-based group, select the ‘Small School’ option. Fischy Music Online in the classroom (0 - 99 pupils) (100 - 199 pupils) (over 200 pupils) All subscriptions include ‘Do the song’ videos Our musicians singing with actions to make participation easy for children in classrooms or assemblies, with song lyrics at the bottom of the screen. Excellent for younger children or those with additional support needs. To sing along in class or assemblies or for use in the classroom, for example, helping children with mindfulness or a high energy song when tidying up. Search by Emotions, Older Children, Practical Songs, Relationships, Tough Times, Wider World and Younger Children. ‘Learn the song’ videos Let our musicians teach you, or the children directly, the words, actions and melodies of Fischy Music songs. Lyrics and sheet music Enabling staff who wish to accompany singing. Extensive lesson planning material Use our fantastic resources to support children and adults with lesson plans and teaching ideas, for example, circle time questions. Create your own playlists.
With the technology and companies growing, the identity theft is unavoidable. This is very dangerous and can take personal information and uses it without your knowledge. The thief may commit several unpleasant tasks like they may debts or even commit crimes in your name. Identity thieves are not always after your money. They can use your name to steal from businesses, account details, and other info. well, this is really very frustrating situation and needed to be prevented as soon as possible. So here, I tried my best to put together the basic tips to prevent identity theft.
Cash flow is a way of measuring how effectively a company receives money from different sources, like sales and investments, compared to the way it spends money on operating expenses, investments, etc. It is one of the most vital financial metrics a business can track to determine performance. If a company is not diligently managing how cash enters and exits the business, it can stifle growth and cause the business to hit a ceiling beyond which it will be unable to grow or possibly recover. The good news is that there are a number of things you can do to improve your company’s cash flow. Optimizing financial processes can free up cash flow that can then be used to expand products and services offered and allow the company to invest in growth drivers. This ultimately results in a company that is financially strong and helps increase shareholder value. In order to optimize your cash flow, the first step is to measure it in order to determine a baseline. If you are not happy with your current cash flow position, set targets that will allow your business to thrive and take the necessary steps to achieve those goals. It is also important to continually monitor cash flow to ensure you stay on track. A great place to start improving your cash flow is to optimize your accounts payable and accounts receivable processes, which account for the majority of the cash that flows in and out of your business. Centralizing AP and AR processes, developing a procurement strategy and automating both AP and AR can lead to significant cash flow improvement. Keep in mind these three ways to optimize cash flow - Reduce inventory held - Reduce days sales outstanding - Increase days payables outstanding Best-in-class companies are achieving these outcomes by having Procurement, AP and AR work closer together and in a more symbiotic fashion. This is a major shift from the silo approach that has historically governed these areas. A more holistic approach to Procurement, AP and AR will make it easier for you to make the necessary changes in those key areas that will, in turn, generate new and creative ways to optimize cash flow.
Müller Milk & Ingredients (MMI) has announced it could cut up to 40% of its 835 fresh milk and cream SKUs in the UK as part of a major cost-cutting drive. Labelled the ‘SKU rationalisation programme’, the move forms part of Project Darwin, which was announced by the business in February and aims to save £100 million. The Darwin initiative includes a comprehensive review of every aspect of MMI’s operations – including logistics, back office and people organisation – in order to simplify the business and reduce costs. By working collaboratively with customers to focus on popular SKUs, MMI said it will improve its environmental performance, supporting its long-term sustainability. The project will allow the business to remove 400 tonnes of plastic from its core fresh milk SKUs, while reducing distribution costs. Patrick Müller, CEO of Müller Milk & Ingredients, said: “At a typical dairy, more than 90% of the milk we buy from farms is manufactured into less than 80 different product formats, meeting customer requirements for different milk types, pack sizes and labelling formats. “At the same dairy, the remaining 10% of milk would be processed into a further 125 SKU formats, which is staggering. Typically, this milk will be packed into smaller or unusual formats, which tend to be far less efficient not only in terms of manufacturing but through the whole supply chain. “The environmental cost of persisting with some of these less common SKU’s is significant, requiring our dairies to halt production whilst pack formats are changed for very small production runs, causing unacceptably high levels of product waste, energy use and complexity throughout our business. “We are working closely with our customers who are fully aligned with the need to simplify and improve environmental and business performance and we are extremely encouraged by the response we’ve had. “Fresh milk is a loved, iconic British tradition and it’s in 96% of the nation’s fridges. With Project Darwin, we have an opportunity to reinvigorate the industry and we will do so by challenging established practices that have become the norm, benefiting the whole supply chain in the short, medium and long term.” In January, Müller announced the introduction of a new recyclable cap in the UK, which uses 13% less plastic. All the company’s branded and private-label fresh milk products in the country now include the lighter cap. © FoodBev Media Ltd 2019 World Dairy Innovation Awards – now open for entries Enter before 10 May to ensure you are part of the industry’s leading awards scheme. Don’t miss out on having your dairy innovations recognised.
Post-colonial Britain projects soft power. It no longer meets the classic definition of a superpower, a nation with the will and ability independently to project its political, military and economic power around the world. But it retains influence beyond its size, partly because of its alliance with the U.S. and partly because in a world of globalization, micro-nationalism and non-state powers, where the nation-state, let alone empire, is an increasing anomaly, power is no longer the ability to subject but to exert the soft suzerainty of commercial, cultural and moral ideas. The ending of World War II left hard global power in the hands of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The old European colonial powers, of which Britain was pre-eminent, were broken or defeated. The new superpowers were firmly of a mind not to let them rebuild their empires, especially as they had their own emerging ones of surrogates and proxies to consolidate. An exhausted and impoverished Britain had failing desire and less means to project what little imperial power it still had. At the same time, popular sentiment in the country matched a growing tide of anti-colonial movements around the world. There was, as British Prime Minister Sir Harold MacMillan would put it, "a wind of change blowing." His predecessor, Sir Anthony Eden, was, in the words of The Times (London), "the last prime minister to believe Britain was a great power, and the first to confront a crisis that proved she was not." Once the last thrash of empire--the Suez Crisis of 1956--was behind it, Britain decided to withdraw as peacefully as possible from its empire, and to redefine its world role as the bridge between the U.S. and the rest of the world--an "honest broker" in Macmillan's words. In place of empire, Britain left a commonwealth of nations: a loose-knit group of countries that share a broadly similar view of parliamentary democracy; police, military and judicial systems based on English common law; and a widespread use of English--all of which arguably have helped many of its former colonies to make their way in the modern world better than former French, Dutch, Portuguese, German, Italian or Russian possessions. The period of decolonization that followed World War II was the final stage in a half-century unwinding of what had been the largest empire in history. The empire on which the sun famously never set had been 300 years in the making, reaching its zenith at the start of the 20th century, when a political map of the world was awash in British imperial red. Britannia then governed nearly 500 million people, then one-quarter of the world's population, controlled the same proportion of the globe's land mass and ruled most of waves between. Today Britain's colonial possessions are reduced to a few specs of rock: Bermuda and five island territories in the Caribbean, five in the South Atlantic, one apiece in the South Pacific and Indian oceans, Gibraltar and the British Antarctic Territory. It was not an empire whose power waxed and then waned in one sweeping historical arc, like the Roman or Aztec empires. It did not collapse, nor was it overthrown so much as it ran down, particularly after World War II. Even before then, the British empire was no monolith, and imperial administrators showed surprising flexibility. Some North American colonies were lost in the late 1700s, and within a century the remainder, save for Newfoundland, had become semiautonomous dominions (self-governing, including trade and foreign policy where it didn't conflict with British interests, with their own parliaments but retaining the British crown as head of state). The colonies in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland had followed suit by 1910. India, the jewel in the imperial crown, became a dominion in 1947 and a republic in 1950. Ireland was a dominion between 1922 and 1937; it, too, became an independent republic, in 1949. As both these cases remind, decolonization didn't always come without struggle, often violent. Mutiny, revolt and rebellion are part of the imperial lot. Paul Kennedy, a Yale professor of history, put forward in his 1988 book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers the notion that a great power's economic rise and fall in relation to its rivals was as important to its longevity as its military supremacy. Finance, commerce and the popular arts have extended Britain's sway long beyond its time. For the U.S., declining economic growth and rising military commitments won't necessarily signal the decline of Pax America unless others become disproportionately richer and stronger. That is why the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia are such threats to American power. And while it is difficult to imagine the U.S. accepting a diminishing status gracefully, it will have to find a destiny in that seam where finance and commerce meet politics and strategy. Post-imperial Britain shows a possible path. It will require a greater mastery of soft power than the U.S. has hitherto exhibited. Britain's colonial rulers were also deft, like the Romans, Ottomans and Mongols before them, at co-opting their most talented and useful subjects into their imperial systems, and with it went a certain degree of toleration, adaptation and accommodation to the lands they ruled. It was an effective deployment of soft power, which meant the bayonets only came out in extremis. The U.S., in contrast, has global reach and a global military footprint without having the permanent colonies to provide a mechanism for such co-option. Rough persuasion can impose its economic and military power. But it will need to find gentler ways to exert its ideological and cultural influence.
A look at how physical play serves broader UNICEF goals for vulnerable children in education, protection, social inclusion and empowerment. There are many reasons why parents from all countries and cultures might encourage their kids to play sports. And now there's a pile of new evidence to back them up. A first-of-its-kind global study by the UNICEF Office of Research Innocenti, with support from the Barça Foundation, the philanthropic arm of legendary Football Club Barcelona, demonstrates how sport and other kinds of physical activities support kids by helping them reach their full potential, while promoting social and personal growth. Getting Into The Game: Understanding the Evidence for Child-Focused Sport for Development, released on March 28, 2019, also examines how participation in sport helps drive results in core areas related to UNICEF's mission: education, child protection, social inclusion and empowerment. The report features evidence from 77 published studies and analyses of over 300 Sports for Development (S4D) programs in 100 countries. "It's long been understood that sport promotes children's health and physical development," UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Charlotte Petri Gornitzka said. "Now we have solid evidence to suggest that sport can have a powerful impact on their overall education and life skills development. We must use this evidence to inspire investment in sports for children, especially the most vulnerable." The United Nations has long recognized the broader value of sport and recreational play in advancing human rights and promoting peace and understanding across borders and cultures, while also driving social and economic development. In 2013, the UN General Assembly proclaimed April 6 as International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. The Getting into the Game report offers recommendations and guidance for how to design and execute sports programs to maximize these many benefits for children. Researchers are already planning to test the recommendations through UNICEF-supported sports programs in Brazil, China, Ghana and South Africa, and in countries affected by conflict or disaster. Gustavo Suárez Pertierra, Chair of the UNICEF Spanish Committee, noted that the report is a first step in overcoming barriers that prevent vulnerable children from enjoying sports in a safe environment. "Sport is not only inspiring, it is also a real tool for inclusion and to guarantee fundamental rights of children, such as the right to play," Pertierra said. "Sport is not only inspiring, it is also a real tool for inclusion and to guarantee fundamental rights of children, such as the right to play." FC Barcelona's Barça Foundation has been a UNICEF partner since 2006, reaching close to 2 million children with sports, play, education and child protection initiatives. Learn more about UNICEF's partnership efforts to leverage the power of sport to deliver sustainable and large-scale results for children. For over 70 years, UNICEF has been putting children first, working to protect their rights and provide the assistance and services they need to survive and thrive. With a presence in 190 countries and territories, UNICEF has helped save more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world.
The Center for Spiritual Living Kaua‘i is offering Flying Solo, a free empowerment theater arts program, which provides teenagers aged 13 to 18 the opportunity to explore their creativity, tell their stories and share their truth through theater. During the six-week course, beginning Sept. 8, participants will learn character development, writing, improvisation, voices and pantomime as they are guided to choose a significant life event, define their point of view and create and write their own stories. The program culminates with each teen “flying solo,” by publicly presenting a 10-minute performance of his/her story. “Theater is such a fun way to release creativity, while empowering teens to have a voice and make choices in a safe and non-judgmental environment,” said the Rev. Patrick Feren, who along with his wife, the Rev. Rita Andriello, will teach the Flying Solo course. “We are offering this program of inspiration, empowerment and self-discovery free of charge as an important part of our teen outreach effort.” The husband-and-wife team founded CSL Kaua‘i in 2013. Each have more than 20 years of experience in education, theater, writing, performing, producing and directing in Los Angeles and New York. The couple has had a successful track record with the Flying Solo program, which they launched in Los Angeles in 2008, where it was implemented in numerous setting, including the California Prison System and Los Angeles Family Housing. Their first Hawai‘i-based Flying Solo program for adults was completed this past spring at CSL Kaua‘i. “We are offering Flying Solo to all Kaua‘i teens who want to have fun together and awaken to their own magnificence,” said Andriello, noting that no acting experience is required. “Our goal is to help all teenagers discover what lights them up, recognize their own power and provide a safe place for them to grow and live their authentic self.” Sessions will be held on Thursdays from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. starting Sept. 8, with the final performances presented on Friday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. at CSL Kaua‘i, at 4-1579 Kuhio Highway in the East Kaua‘i Professional Building, Suite 101 across from the Kapa‘a Neighborhood Center.
Forgot your bank card? No worries. Chase has you covered. Continue Reading Below The New York City-based bank announced that it has expanded its cardless access to nearly all of its 16,000 ATMs nationwide. The new technology will allow customers to get cash through their phone’s mobile wallet without needing a physical debit card or an access code for authentication. Users can simple “tap” their smartphone on the ATM to “easily and securely access money on the go.” “Cardless no longer means cashless,” Sol Gindi, chief administrative officer of consumer banking at Chase, said in a statement. “As more of our customers are using digital wallets to pay, we’re pleased to be able to provide them with the same experience at the ATM.” JPMorgan Chase first rolled out this feature, which uses the “near-field communication” technology that enables transactions from mobile wallets in 2016. Other big banks, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, later followed in 2017. And while swiping an ATM card doesn’t require strenuous efforts, bankers think going card-free will be a hit with customers. Jonathan Velline, Wells Fargo’s head of ATM and branch banking told The New York Times in 2017 that it’s all about having a choice. “If you’ve lost your card or left home without your wallet, chances are you still have your smartphone in your hand,” he said. And, as far as new security measures with the cardless machines, a Chase spokesperson told FOX Business that they are a completely secure way to take out cash. “The third party wallets never have your card number; they use tokens that are sent to the ATM and we can use those to match and determine which card the customer selected,” the spokesperson said, adding that customers also use their thumb print to access their wallet which adds another layer of security "since those cannot be replicated.”
BOM tells why they got the winter forecast so wrong THE Bureau of Meteorology has revealed why their winter forecast was off the mark, saying their system "does not do a good job" when the seasons change. Their forecast, which was six degrees warmer than what the Mackay region shivered through, was widely slammed by weather chasers - and even Federal Dawson MP George Christensen. Official predictions for Friday, June 1 showed that temps in Mackay wouldn't dip below 11, but early risers shivered through morning temperatures of 5.5 degrees at 4am while at 7am the Airport registered a 'feels like' temperature of 3.1 degrees. Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Dave Crock said the combination of low humidity overnight and a very dry air mass that formed Friday resulted in a very chilly start to the season that was difficult to predict. "What the issue is, is the system we use to forecast does not do a great job when we get a change of season," he said. This prediction issue is particularly prevalent in coastal regions where warm off shore humidity and dry and cold inland masses combine to cause unpredictable temperatures. He said the prediction system which combines an average reading of atmosphere and temperature trends is not good at predicting sudden drops in air temperature because the result it shows is an average "consensus" of recent temperatures. "The coast can be pretty tricky... we do edit the output of that system quite a bit so that is what we would have done because we are on the coats it can be tricky," Mr Crock said. Another cold one for nth and inland #Qld! #Clermont 0.6, #Longreach 6, #Mackay 6, #Townsville 9. With such a dry air mass, #winter mornings can feel much colder than the air temp suggests. "Feels like" temp accounts for humidity and wind - learn more here https://t.co/AlZsgSR4Ru pic.twitter.com/4D1OrJkgeX— Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) June 3, 2018 Monday morning saw another chilly one in Mackay as temperatures reached single digits around the region, again hitting colder temps than most of our southern capital cities. The BOM predicts a warmer start for tomorrow but, early morning temperatures further inland will continue to sit in single digits. Clermont residents experienced the lowest temps of the region, their thermometers reading 0.6 degrees Monday morning. Although it felt much colder as icy winds in the region and humidity contributed to an ambient 'feels like' temperature of -2.1 at 6.30 this morning. Coastal winds kept places nearer to the coast quite warm, Mackay airport registered a read of 6 degrees, while the harbour (10.1 degrees) and Hamilton Island (17.2 degrees) saw the warmest temperatures in the region.
Was a love of music a defining essence of the life you are remembering? Consider imbuing your ceremony with those beloved tunes. Following are two examples of possible ceremonies, but the possibilities are as infinite as music is. The Grateful Death “Fare you well, fare you well, I love you more than words can tell”* Perhaps your loved one was a Dead Head. We will create a celebration that honors that passion replete with bootleg tape recordings, scarlet begonias, and tie-dye t-shirts (and just about anything else you come up with). Brokedown Palace, Robert Hunter All That Jazz “The devil aint got no music. All music is God’s music.” Billie Holiday’s Gloomy Sunday, Mose Allison’s Hello There Universe, Pat Metheny’s Bright Size Life. Whatever jazz genre spoke to the life you are celebrating, we will create a musical tribute that speaks to the joy and tears jazz can bring.
The Tax Foundation's blog notices a Los Angeles Times article about a dispute between the IRS and Michael Jackson's estate about the value of the estate. One key issue is the value of Jackson's image, or "likeness": The estate valued Jackson's likeness at just $2,105. The IRS put it at $434.264 million. The Tax Foundation comments: This of course feeds into another major issue with the estate tax: the Jackson estate will be willing to pay a lot in legal fees in order to prevent the IRS from valuing the estate to be over a billion. One of the major problems with the estate tax is that is raises very little revenue for the U.S. government (approximately .42 percent of total federal collections), but it costs perhaps more than this in compliance costs (legal fees, estate planning, accountants, and life insurance providers). This is money that would have been otherwise spent in more useful ways than in fighting the IRS. These valuation issues, especially on intangible assets such as a "likeness," are among the reasons a wealth tax on the living is a bad idea.
This blog post was inspired by one recently written by Dilbert creator Scott Adams. He is now a must read for me. He is such a brilliant guy and was so right about Trump that I will forever hold him in the highest of esteem. Scott Adams talks about two very powerful psychological coping mechanisms: cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias. It’s a very thought-provoking piece. It is very uncomfortable for most people to be riddled with doubt or uncertainty. It can be psychologically and emotionally unnerving. This is known as cognitive dissonance. It is a situation in which mental stress or discomfort results from: - Holding two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or ideas - Carrying out an action contrary to one’s beliefs, values, or ideas - Being confronted with new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, values, or values A state of disequilibrium can only exist for so long before equilibrium re-emerges or there is some kind of breakdown. According to the Wikipedia entry about cognitive dissonance, the ways an individual can find relief from the tension that results from it are: Cognitive dissonance theory is founded on the assumption that individuals seek consistency between their expectations and their reality….According to Festinger, dissonance reduction can be achieved in four ways. In an example case where a person has adopted the attitude that they will no longer eat high-fat food but eats a high-fat doughnut, the four methods of reduction are: - Change behavior or cognition (“I will not eat any more of this doughnut”) - Justify behavior or cognition by changing the conflicting cognition (“I’m allowed to cheat every once in a while”) - Justify behavior or cognition by adding new cognitions (“I’ll spend 30 extra minutes at the gym to work this off”) - Ignore or deny any information that conflicts with existing beliefs (“This doughnut is not high in fat”) One can see that people employ a few powerful antidotes to eliminate inconsistencies between their expectations and reality by either changing one’s behavior or, more likely, through justification, willful ignorance, or denial. And when people have staked out their position it can often be a matter of psychological and emotional life and death to maintain it and they will either ignore disconfirming evidence or look for data to support their position, otherwise known as confirmation bias. I wrote about this in one of my investor letters in the context of some timeless lessons provided to the world by Heraclitus who was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. All that is left of his writings were cryptical epigrams, some of which have some strong application to investing and well-being. Two of the most applicable to this blog post (and political environment) actually speak to man’s inherent discarding of that which he doesn’t understand or believe and the importance of not holding fixed beliefs. Heraclitus said the following: Dogs bark at what they don’t understand That which opposes produces a benefit The former speaks to how people often respond with a lot of emotion and noise to that which they don’t understand, particularly if it runs counter to their beliefs. This is essentially another form of confirmation bias. I came to learn the value of the first epigram about dogs barking at things they don’t understand. There was a time I remember during the recession of 1990 and I was talking to a co-worker about how high the deficit was and how would we ever pay back all of this debt we were racking up and what would happen to interest rates. We were both deeply concerned and a bit bummed out by it. And yet, as time went on the debt grew and interest rates kept dropping. I had to take a step back and assess the situation objectively. Were all of the people barking at deficits and debt accumulation, including me, barking at something they didn’t understand since interest rates were not behaving as most people thought they should? It was then that I started becoming aware of the cognitive dissonance I was experiencing between intellectually having issues with larger debt piling up and interest rates coming down. How could the two coincide? I needed to find some relief. If you read my book you will find out about the journey I went on that completely shifted my thinking and led me to conclude that deficits were nothing to worry about when there is slack in the economy and higher interest was not to be feared. I found my relief by choosing option one above (or so I think I did, but maybe I’m deluding myself and actually chose number four). This led to our aggressive use of variable rate debt since I know longer feared interest rates moving higher materially and as a result, our investors have saved over $60 million in interest over the past five years without taking into consideration much lower prepayment penalties for loans we paid off early. In terms of the second epigram, I have to turn to yours truly from my 2012 investor letter and how it applied to housing and the aftermath of the subprime blow up: This is the idea that everything is becoming its opposite at all times. Another name for it is enantiodromia and has great relevance to the U.S. housing market and the shift to a renter nation. It is the tendency of things to change into their opposites, especially as a supposed governing principle of natural cycles and of psychological development. America went collectively insane with its unhealthy focus on creating an ownership society related to housing. It was completely unbalanced and generated terribly negative consequences as people were given credit to purchase an expensive, illiquid asset with high transaction costs. This was especially counterproductive at a time which required more and more geographical flexibility as people change jobs much more often than they used to. When this is combined with such financial inflexibility resulting from minimal down payments, inadequate savings to cushion income interruption or unanticipated expenditures, and high debt levels, particularly for student loans, it was a recipe for disaster. Eventually, there is such an extreme to one way of thinking that it causes a breakdown that requires it to swing the other way. That is why Heraclitus said “that which opposes produces a benefit” because it often times represents a good check and balance to make sure things don’t go to extremes. And this is beneficial for renting as the nation swings psychologically the other way from salivating over home ownership to almost detesting it. This turned out to be an accurate assessment as the following chart shows how the homeownership rate has dropped significantly in the aftermath of the housing bubble and its subsequent crash. While we all need and use certain psychological coping mechanisms to get through our lives, many of these can be detrimental to our long term well being and investment results.I have come to learn that the need for certainty, clarity, and absence of doubt may be a short term panacea for dealing with the vicissitudes of life, but inevitably it will come to pass that these are foundations built on quicksand as reality will hit us hard and shatter our illusions when we come to learn that life is no longer meeting our expectations. And through this pain, it becomes revealed just badly we were deluding ourselves. These coping mechanisms are particularly dangerous when it comes to investing because they put us in great peril of making poor investment decisions. On the one hand our need for certainty and being, without a doubt, can enable us to have a strong enough conviction to make an investment, but on the other hand, we have to go against our nature and be flexible, humble, and open-minded enough to assess whether our thesis is correct or not. This is extremely difficult to do as looking situations objectively requires us to be prepared to admit that we were wrong and then be willing to take a loss if we think the situation will get worse or stay stagnant. Good luck with that. I will leave you with a short interview that Stanley Druckenmiller did talking about selling all of his gold holdings after the market tanked when it became clear Donald Trump would win the election. The world changed and he reacted accordingly. He had one thesis that now proved to be incorrect and he took counter action. Notice in the interview that he says he always remains open minded. He also had the courage to act on his convictions and turn on a dime when he realized he was wrong or he saw the world changing in ways that told him he should exit his position. That is one of the reasons why he has one of the best investing track records of all time. Druckenmiller followed the advice of John Maynard Keynes when he famously said, “When the facts change I change my mind. What do you do sir?” According to Scott Adams, very few of us will change our mind. It’s just how human beings are wired. It is often too painful to let go of long-held beliefs.“When the facts change I change my mind.' - Stanley DruckenmillerClick To Tweet A wise man once advised me to hold my judgments very lightly. As I get older, I continue to see how wise he was. He knew that strongly held and inflexible beliefs can lead to poor decisions or very painful cognitive dissonance that would reconcile itself often in unhealthy ways. Things change and those changes beget other changes. Once we can accept the inevitability of change, our inability to control outcomes, and that uncertainty is the norm, the more we can begin to enjoy the journey and not be so fixated on where we have to end up. In the words of the Robert Hunter in the Grateful Dead song Crazy Fingers: Who can stop what must arrive now? something new is waiting to be born Dark as the night you’re still by my side shine inside. Gone are the days we stopped to decide where we should go, we just ride. Gone are the broken eyes we saw through in dreams gone, both dream and lie. Over to you: Remember, disequilibrium can only exist for just so long before equilibrium re-emerges or there is some kind of breakdown. My question, when faced with facts or when the facts change will people change their minds?
Paradox Resources finalised closing of its upstream and midstream assets in August of 2017, and work has been underway since December of 2017 to restart the Lisbon plant in order to get the company’s additional gas to market. Paradox Resources has three workover rigs running, multiple nitrogen (N2) jetting units, and has several multistage recompletions scheduled for June. Paradox’s production has gone from 4million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) to 10 mmcfd over the last two weeks and 14 mmcfd steady by mid-July is targeted. The company currently has 50 billion cubic feet (BCF) of PDP (Proved Developing Produced) and behind pipe reserves, with an additional 50BCF of PUDS (Proved Undeveloped). The company owns multiple oil and gas fields in Colorado and Utah which feed the Lisbon plant. The Lisbon Plant is a 50 mmcfd rated treating plant, with a 40 mmcfd cryogenic plant and a 4,500 BPD (Barrels Per Day) fractionation train. The Paradox team has slightly reconfigured the plant and brought in membrane N2removal unit (NRU) and Cryo units to run it more efficiently from a current Opex perspective with plans to “flex up” moving forward. It has a helium (He) facility which can strip and polish up to 500 mcf/d of He to 99.999% purity. Paradox CEO, Todd A. Brooks, commented, “Our Paradox Basin assets include upstream, midstream and the Lisbon gas processing plant. This combination gives us advantageous flexibility as we produce and develop these long-life assets out of cash flow. The source rocks in the basin are interesting, and there is potential for developing unconventional fracture plays as well. With long life oil & gas reserves, stable production and cash flow, ~100,000 net acres HBPdand significant infrastructure, we are well positioned.” The Paradox Basin has been noted by the United States Geological Survey(USGS) as having one of the largest undeveloped oil and gas fields in the US.
Bonding, Just Not at Thanksgiving - Posted on: Jul 15 2016 Bonding. You remember it from that experiment discussed in your Psych 101 class where the monkey bonded with that wire mesh surrogate monkey. You remember your Mom saying that “This Thanksgiving will be a wonderful time for you to bond with your cousins, you know, the ones who just got out of prison.” Or maybe you just spent the weekend watching endless James Bond movies on TBS and you called the exercise “Bonding.” Well, despite the obvious benefits of all of those sorts of bonding, at Gentle Dental we have a better form of bonding, dental bonding. Dental bonding is the easiest, least invasive way to repair overly decayed, scratched, chipped, or even cracked teeth. What is dental bonding? In dental bonding (sometimes called composite bonding) resin is used to cover, fill, or reshape teeth. The resin is applied to the tooth and then is cured with a special light. Bonding can correct all sorts of cosmetic problems with teeth. Bonding is a cosmetic procedure, however, so should not be confused with a restoration such as an implant. In fact, any problems such as decay needs to be addressed before any bonding is done. What can be done with bonding? Think of bonding as a way to cover up flaws, damage, or other problems with a tooth or teeth. If a tooth is chipped, that corner can be replaced with bonding resin. A cracked tooth can be covered, returning strength and hopefully saving the tooth. A tooth with lots of decay (after the decay is removed) can be filled and strengthened with bonding. If a person has gaps between his or her teeth or if their teeth are uneven, bonding can be used to make them uniform. Resin can even be used in place of silver amalgam fillings. Overly stained teeth can be covered with bonding. What are the drawbacks of bonding? Despite the ease of a bonding treatment, there are drawbacks. The resin is not as strong as other options such as porcelain veneers or dental implants. Plus, bonding resin is not as enduring as porcelain veneers and it can chip or break if the patient eats some questionable foods or bites down wrong. How is bonding done? First the teeth are cleaned. Then your Gentle Dental dentist will select the resin color that is the best match for your natural tooth color. Next the tooth to be bonded will be prepared by lightly roughing up the tooth surface, and then coating it with a conditioning liquid. The resin is then placed on the tooth and molded into the necessary shape. Once the dentist is satisfied with the shape the resin is cured with a laser or UV light. After curing, the bond is shaved off as necessary and then polished so that it closely resembles your adjacent natural teeth. Interested in covering up some cosmetic flaws on your teeth? Call us at Gentle Dental, 732-549-5660, and let’s talk about bonding. Posted in: Dental Bonding
The Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS) is an intensive graduate program that educates students in data and knowledge systems. U.S. News & World Report ranked our program 24th nationally for student services and technology, 8th for teaching practices and student engagement, and 5th for admissions selectivity. The 30-hour online program begins with a strong foundation in databases, artificial intelligence and Web systems followed by specializations in data mining, data warehousing and distributed database systems. Our program enables you to develop a balance of industry-relevant practical skills that will enhance your professional development and future employment in the IT industry. The online MSCS program is structured specifically to provide a rigorous but flexible master’s program for people currently working in the information technology industry, as well as for those who wish to enter the field and for current undergraduate students interested in advancing their education. Applicants with bachelor's degrees in other disciplines can take a series of prerequisite classes designed to help students meet the requirements in data structures and systems software. What makes us different? Concentrations in: Data Mining and Data Warehousing making us one of a handful of such master's degree programs in the world. Hold a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science or in a related field (Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Information Systems, Software Engineering, etc.) from an accredited program. Have a cumulative GPA of 3.0/4.0 or its equivalent. Students are required to attend a mandatory orientation session in Atlanta. Accreditation & Licensing Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges Consent for Contact I understand that by submitting this form, WGU and Get Educated will be contacting me by email and phone. Submitting this form also constitutes my express written consent to receive phone calls and text messages from WGU, at the phone number(s) I have provided, including a wireless number. I also understand that consent is not a condition of enrollment.
Google has officially released a full version of their search quality rater guidelines in the form of a 160-page handbook. These guidelines are used by Google’s evaluators who assess the quality of Google’s Search results, providing feedback on algorithmic changes and experiences. The ratings from evaluators do not necessarily determine individual site rankings but provides feedback to the quality of Google’s experiments. The Guidelines reflects what Google thinks search users would want. This move by Google is not unprecedented. In 2013, Google published a human rating guideline to provide additional transparency to what webmasters should understand what they are looking for in a web page. Of course, the guidelines provided in 2013 does not translate now due to the recent trend of mobile searches making up a large portion of all search queries. The new guideline is the first update of its kind since then, noting that all major changes to the guideline reflect directly with the growing number of mobile search queries on mobile devices. The downloadable version of Google’s Search Rating Guideline is not the final version, Google plans on updating the guidelines periodically.
The truth of beauty, the beauty of truth Beauty attracts everyone. Poets sing about it; lovers bask in it; people dream about it. Many give up everything else for its sake. They see beauty as the highest truth. Gita wisdom enables us to see beyond appearances. It helps us see the soul beyond the body, the spirit beyond matter, God beyond the world. Does this philosophical vision cause us to reject the beauty that we see in the world? Yes and no: yes when worldly beauty distracts us from real eternal beauty, no when it reminds us of that supreme beauty. Worldly beauty often captivates and entangles us. This takes away our impetus to see beyond the surface. Yet saying no to anything pleasant is never pleasant. That’s why we usually find it extremely difficult to turn away from worldly beauty. Thankfully, Gita wisdom offers us a higher devotional understanding of worldly beauty. The Bhagavad-gita (10.41) indicates that worldly beauty is a spark of Krishna’s supreme beauty. Krishna is the highest manifestation of the Absolute Truth. The beauty of truththen is the beauty of Krishna, which is the crowning reality of existence. Krishna’s beauty is what we are seeking, whether we realize it or not. And the truth of beauty – the true nature of worldly beauty – is that it is a reflection of Krishna’s supreme beauty. We don’t have to reject it as false. Instead, we can use it as a reminder of Krishna’s irresistible beauty. Worldly beauty may also seem irresistible, but because it is temporary, it just can’t satisfy our heart’s perennial longing for beauty. If we desire lasting satisfaction, we need to redirect our attraction from worldly beauty to Krishna. By careful cultivation of Krishna consciousness, we can fulfill our heart’s longing for beauty fully and forever. “O Kṛishna, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the demigods nor the demons, O Lord, can understand Your personality.”
Steve Plogsted, a pharmacist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, is an expert on gluten in medications. His website, glutenfreedrugs.com, is widely recognized as the most reliable source of information on gluten-free prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Have a question about gluten and medications? Send it to [email protected]. Q: I get very frustrated when I ask my pharmacist or physician if a medication I am prescribed contains gluten. Nobody seems to know the answer or where to find it. Can’t the federal government help this situation? A: Our celiac community received some important help from the government. On Dec. 12, 2017, the FDA issued guidance to drug manufacturers on voluntarily labeling medications to state that no known gluten-containing ingredients were used in their product. This effort has been ongoing since 2015, when Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) introduced legislation to Congress. His persistent efforts, along with those of other experts and stakeholders in the celiac community, paid off. Although this legislation asks for voluntary compliance for now, it could lead to more mandatory labeling in the future. I am particularly excited because Congressman Ryan’s office has contacted me to provide them with some background information on gluten in medications. This legislation also addresses the sugar alcohol issue. Sugar alcohols, or polyols, are substances used as sugar substitutes in food products. Some manufacturers categorically state that their drug product contains gluten simply due to the presence of one of these sugar alcohols. While sugar alcohols could be derived from a wheat source, the gluten protein is removed during the manufacturing process. The major celiac organizations do not recommend avoiding these sugar alcohols. Since there is no official definition of gluten free in drug products, this is the best they can do at this time. You can read the legislation at http://bit.ly/2CzPCug. For more of Steve Plogsted’s advice and information on gluten-free medications, read these past Q&As: - Does immunglobulin therapy contain gluten? - What steps are taken to minimize or prevent cross-contamination in a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility? - Is a drug that is considered gluten free in the United States also considered gluten free in Canada? To read resident dietitian Amy Keller’s advice on following and thriving on the gluten-free diet, check out these Q&As: - We have two family members who eat gluten free. What should I include in an emergency kit for them? - How am I going to manage a gluten-free diet along with diabetes? - Recently, I decided that I’d like to become a vegetarian for health reasons. What options do I have to get enough protein and iron without meat?
East Asia today is a hotbed of urban expansion. Cities such as Singapore, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai are expanding at a prodigious rate, an ongoing process of modernization that is bringing rapid and widespread change to this part of the globe. Peter Rowe's East Asia Modern is a timely comparative study of urban development in the region, examining the process by which new construction has taken place in recent years. The author, well known in the field of East Asian architecture and urbanism, focuses on how the modernizing process might most usefully be understood, especially with regard to city building approaches, methods and projects. He explains what modernization has meant for the general cultural diffusion of largely Western ideas, how East Asian urban regions have developed their own distinct kind of modernity and what lessons can be learned from the contemporary East Asian experience. This book also provides a historical assessment of the region, showing how cities have developed over the last century and setting into context their individual paths towards modernization. East Asia Modern challenges many of the common conceptions and misconceptions about life in contemporary East Asia and provides a readable critical assessment of the cities of the region, while also pointing to possible ways forward for the future. Rektion Books, 2005
In the wake of a new month, Twitter users had caught a bad news when Twitter via its official Blog announced the news of around 250,000 twitter accounts being compromised. A serious vulnerability in Android can lead to complete Data Wipe on your Android Device, Find if your device is vulnerable to this attack and Learn how to fix it before you lose your precious data. The latest update of Java has lead to a huge security vulnerability. The vulnerability leaves your PC open to Hackers and they can infect you without any any Security softwares alerting the intrusion. DNS Changer Malware is still found to be active on thousands of computers, The FBI has decided to shutdown the rogue servers on Monday, users whose network has been infected will not be able to log on to the internet. Labnol.org and other websites in Amit's network were hacked and deleted. You can access the site by following this tutorial.
'Wake & Sleep': Teaching Babies to Sleep on Their Own All parents want to know, “When will my baby start to sleep through the night?” And, that reveals one of the top myths about infant sleep! Because no baby…no child…no adult EVER sleeps through the night! Yup! You heard me right! Three to four times a night, we all rouse at least a tiny bit. So your goal is not to really to get your baby sleeping through the night, but to help her learn how to self soothe when she – inevitably – begins to wake up in the middle of the night. As tempting as it is to rock your baby to sleep and then gently slide her into bed, doing that every night makes your little one more reliant on your help during those little middle of the night wakings. Of course, you can enjoy letting your baby sleep in your arms, but I suggest you also help her develop the skill to fall asleep on her own – and she can! This technique is called “wake and sleep” because when you gently place your sleeping baby down for naps or at night you need to wake her up…just a little. You can start training your baby in this way from day one. Here’s what you do: Every evening at bedtime, swaddle your little one, turn on rough white noise as loud as a shower, feed and burp her, let her fall asleep in your arms and then lay her down. BUT, right after you slide your munchkin into bed, rouse her until her eyes open (tickle her neck, scratch her feet, etc). After a few seconds she will close her eyes again and she’ll slide back into slumberland. If she fusses, she may be hungry or uncomfortable, so pick her up to feed and calm her, but be sure to wake her again when you put her back down. I know it sounds crazy, but those few seconds of drowsy waking are the first baby steps to helping your infant learn how to sleep through the night! Did you know? Happiest Baby’s SNOO Smart Sleeper was actually developed using the same scientific principals from the wake and sleep method. Between 4-6 months, the smart sleeper gradually weans your baby off noise and motion, training her to sleep independently and make an easy transfer to a crib. Learn more.
Nobody Is Stereotyped at This Hands-On Film Camp in Vermont Zeno Mountain Farm is a camp whose goal is to teach kids and young adults how to make films. From recording to acting to post-production, everyone involved gets to learn new skills and participate. What may surprise you is that from making musicals to filming action sequences, the participants who learn and create these films are often disabled. Zeno Camp is showing the world how much we’re missing by making assumptions and stereotyping.
June’s Journal in August! Let’s talk about snakes! What do you know about them? I had to do some homework on this subject since there are no snakes in the office! The vets were all talking about snakes after one of the horses got a snake bite right on the tip of his nose! Seems unfair, but from what I hear, horses like to put their noses into everyone’s business! In Virginia there are ~ 35 types of snakes but only 3 are venomous (Copperheads, Timber Rattlesnakes and Cottonmouths.) Only 2 of the venomous types show up in Northern Virginia. Northern Copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix mokeson) are our main culprit for snake bites as they are pretty common. Copperheads can be up to 48 inches in length and they like to hang out anywhere that there are rodents (barns, wood piles, sawdust piles.) They typically have a copper colored head with hourglass patterns of brown on a lighter brown or grey background. They also have dark spots on the sides of their belly (but who really wants to get close enough to see a snake’s belly?!?) Younger copperheads often have a sulfur yellow tail tip. Rarely, the Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus horridus)make it into our area. They can be up to 60 inches in length! Timber rattlesnakes have 2 color phases. In the black phase, the head and front 1/3 of the body is black and they have black saddles and incomplete chevrons that are hard to see on the dark background of the body. The yellow phase is much more distinct with the saddles and chevrons being easily seen. A third venomous snake, the canebrake rattlesnake is a variation of the timber rattlesnake and is typically limited to Southern Virginia. A good source of information and images is: http://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com The quick ways of identifying venomous snakes in Northern Virginia are: (1) The venomous snakes in NOVA are pit vipers, meaning that they have a heat-sensing pit between their eye and their nostril. (2) Our venomous snakes have a single row of scales along the underside of their tail. Nonvenomous snakes have a double row of scales on the underside of their tail. (3) Our venomous snakes have an elliptical pupil, while their nonvenomous counterparts have round pupils. (4) Venomous snakes tend to have a more triangular head than nonvenomous snakes. It is important to remember that these differences are a general rule only. I know that I don’t want to get close enough to a snake to see whether they are venomous or not! The best rule: DON’T HANDLE SNAKES! This doesn’t mean that snakes are not a good part of our ecosystem. Having snakes around the barn will keep your rodent population down. If you don’t want snakes around, the best plan of action is to make your barn/yard/home uninviting. Keep things clean and tidy so there aren’t good hiding places. You should also make sure grain and treats are protected from rodents. According to the Center for Human-Wildlife Conflict Resolution snakes are classified as a non-game protected species. You can look at their site http://www.humanwildlife.org/ for the legalities of snake removal/management. As with all wildlife, non-lethal control measures should be exhausted before any lethal measures are used. You can also look at the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries website for information about snakes and other wildlife: https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/nuisance/snakes/. So what actually happens with a venomous snake bite? Well, the venom of the Copperhead and Timber Rattlesnake is typically hemotoxic and destroys blood and lymph cells. Horses typically get bitten on the nose as they tend to use them to investigate. Occasionally they get bitten on the lower limb or body. Adult copperhead bites can be serious but they tend to inject less venom than the younger ones (typical that adults are more in control of their venom than the juveniles!). Rattlesnake bites tend to be much more serious than those of the copperhead. Any venomous snake bite can be life threatening to your horse! If your horse is bitten by a venomous snake it is considered an emergency situation. Why? Well, if a horse gets bitten on the nose, the subsequent swelling can block their airway leading to death or the venom can cause systemic shock or anaphylactic shock which can lead to sudden death. Care may include anti- inflammatories, antibiotics for secondary infection, IV fluids and possibly a tracheostomy to maintain an airway. Sometimes the swelling and infection is so bad that surgical intervention is needed to treat/remove the affected tissue. Some horses must be euthanized due to secondary complications even when they survive the initial envenomation. What should you do if you suspect that your horse has been bitten by a snake? (1) Call us immediately, (2) Confine your horse and keep him quiet, (3) identify the snake if you can do so without endangering yourself. Prognosis for a snakebite if you’re a horse? Guarded to good. Only about 1/2 of the horses bitten receive enough venom to put them at risk of life threatening reactions but there is no way to know at the time of the bite how much venom was injected. Snakes are much maligned and we need to remember that they play an important role in our ecosystem and they deserve respect. Snakes are actually pretty cool critters! Unfortunately sometimes our interactions have severe consequences.
The sexual health assessment is an important piece of the nursing evaluation. Nevertheless, many nurses and nursing college students find this part of the assessment to be awkward. When completing a sexual health evaluation, there are some suggestions and strategies you should utilize to make it much less uncomfortable for both you and the affected person and on the similar time, let you get the data you need. The momentary care covers you and your dependents till you’re eligible for health plan coverage through your province, territory or non-public plan. some studies show acupuncture can scale back melancholy. One in all these studies from the College of Arizona that discovered sixty four % of the 33 women decreased despair after acupuncture than 27 percent of girls who did not. Spring Detox Cleansing Suggestions. Spring is an efficient time to do away with the toxins which are in your physique deposited within the winter. Cleansing treatment is necessary to scrub your physique and pores and skin. You may make an aromatic and scrumptious selfmade syrup mixing anise, cloves and chamomile. Prepare chamomile tea, boil after which add the anise and cloves. Let boil for 5 minutes for all of the flavors and properties arising, flip off the warmth and let stand for five minutes. Come by for a go to. New associates are nice to have on board. Hugs to you Herald. Dwelling Health Aides : That is positive, except that a rising variety of HHA agencies are requiring particular training and a certificates to develop into an HHA. For a menu of Schooling & Prevention presentation options, please go to our Presentation Request web page. Western Wisconsin Health appreciates your feedback. Tell us how we’re doing so we can provide the very best take care of all. This information supplies a normal overview and will not apply to everyone. Talk to your loved ones physician to find out if this info applies to you and to get more data on this subject. Chartered in Canada in 1865, Sun Life is without doubt one of the world’s leading financial providers companies. With headquarters in Toronto, Solar Life and its accomplices in the present day work in key markets total together with Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, India and Singapore. Good hub. Stress can positively hurt you or kill you by the selections they will drive you in the direction of. Love the, combat back and seek solutions to an issue quite than stress the issues, encouragement in your hub. Great simple advice. enable insurance coverage firms to require people who have greater health care prices to contribute extra to the insurance pool that helps offset all these prices, thereby reducing the price to these individuals who lead good lives. They’re healthy; they’ve performed the issues to keep their our bodies healthy. And proper now, those are the individuals who have performed things the correct way which might be seeing their costs skyrocketing.
More Knowledge with Fewer Animals on Tour What is the state of the art of animal free testing of today and which innovations do we need in the near future? How do innovative models, like organoids, organ-on-chip and Microphysiological Systems (MPS) contribute to medical science? What do we gain and what is still out of reach when using animal free testing strategies? And what is needed to make future innovations possible? In the afternoon of 13 December we will discuss this with several speakers who develop and work on animal free innovations. They will talk about the possibilities and impossibilities of these innovations and discuss the potential routes to take in the future. Invited speakers are: prof. dr. Sue Gibbs (VUmc), Carine van Schie (Nederlandse Brandwonden Stichting), prof. dr. Jolanda van der Velden (VUmc), Dr. Katja Wolthers (AMC), prof. dr. ir. Theo Smit (AMC) and Dr. Wiep Scheper (VUmc). More Knowledge with Fewer Animals is a research programme of ZonMw. If you want to join this meeting, please subscribe here.
Idaho cities offer high employment prospects for medical transcriptionists. In many cities, the population ranges between 45,000 and 80,000. Boise, the capital, holds a population of about 200,000. With high populations, healthcare needs equally go up, creating more demand for medical transcriptionist services. To practice as a medical transcriptionist in Idaho, you require some postsecondary education. It also helps to get certified for the field. The steps outlined below will help you to prepare for practice in Idaho. Medical Transcription Training and Education Requirements in Idaho Training for medical transcriptionists in Idaho is offered by various schools and community colleges. Some schools offer an online learning option. Training programs may be at the certificate or associate’s degree level. Certificate programs usually take six to eight months to complete. However, some certificate programs take 12 months to complete. Programs equip students with basic skills in medical transcription, which prepares them for entry-level jobs in the field. The certificate coursework covers areas such as basic anatomy, computer skills, legal issues in healthcare documentation, and medical terminology. Many community colleges offer both certificate and associate’s degree programs. The associate’s degree program covers areas such as advanced anatomy, ethics in healthcare documentation, medical terminology, medical transcription technology, pharmacology for medical transcriptionists, and risk management. Graduates of associate’s degree programs are awarded with an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in medical transcription. Most programs require students to complete a supervised internship in a healthcare center, hospital or other setting that uses medical transcription services. Medical Transcription Certification Requirements in Idaho Certification for medical transcriptionists is a voluntary decision in Idaho. However, medical transcriptionists who choose to get certified greatly enhance their professional development. Certification helps to distinguish you in the field, and improves your salary prospects. Many employers prefer to hire certified transcriptionists because they are well-trained. Certification for the field is offered by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), which offers basic and advanced certifications for healthcare documentation specialists. If you are just preparing to join the job market, you may want to consider the Registered Healthcare Documentation Specialist (RHDS). For those who already hold the RHDS, and have at least two years’ work experience, the Certified Healthcare Documentation Specialist (CHDS) is a good choice. Both credentials are issued for a three-year period. Idaho State Licensing Requirements Idaho, like most US states, does not have licensing requirements for medical transcriptionists. Nonetheless, it is best to verify licensing requirements, if any, with the Professional Licensing Services of the State of Idaho or the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Staying Current and Continuing Education Medical transcriptionists who hold the RHDS and CHDS credentials need to recertification in order to keep their credentials active. Recertification for RHDS-certified medical transcriptionists involves taking a current credentials course. RHDS-certified transcriptionists are also required to take a recertification exam. CHDS holders are required to earn a minimum of 30 continuing education credits during the three-year certification period. Medical Transcriptionist Job Prospects and Potential Pay In many of Idaho’s cities, the annual salary for medical transcriptionists is much higher than the national range of $27,600 to $40,800. Cities with the highest number of jobs for medical transcriptionists in Idaho are Boise, Coeur d’Alene and Nampa. Most medical transcriptionists in Boise and Nampa earn between $36,600 and $45,800 annually. In Coeur d’Alene, earnings for the profession range between $37,500 and $46,900. Other cities with a fairly high annual range are Meridian, where the annual salary falls between $36,600 and $45,800, Idaho Falls, with a range of between $35,400 and $44,400, and Pocatello, where the annual range is between $32,100 and $40,200. In Caldwell, the annual salary falls between $36,600 and $45,800, while in Twin Falls, many transcriptionists draw an annual salary in the range of $32,100 to $40,100.
Why It Is Not A Good Idea To Try To Lose Weight Quickly It is completely understandable why a person would want to lose weight quickly. Many people want to lose weight for an upcoming event. Others want to lose weight because they have been told that their weight is affecting their health. However, it is not good for anyone to try to lose weight quickly. First and foremost, fast weight loss is not healthy. There are many dangerous side effects that are associated with quick weight loss. Some of them include dehydration, irregular menstruation and dizziness. Fast weight loss can also increase the risk of gallstones. Additionally, malnutrition is often a side effect of quick weight loss. It is also important to note that many people who lose weight quickly are not losing fat. They are actually losing water weight. It is very hard for the body to burn a large amount of fat calories in a short amount of time. This is why many people end up losing water weight rather than fat weight. Rapid weight loss can also cause the loss of muscle tissue. Furthermore, you probably will not get permanent results from losing weight quickly. It is very easy to gain the weight back when you lose it quickly. Rapid weight loss can stimulate the starvation response. The starvation response leads to a decrease in leptin production. Leptin helps control appetite and metabolism. If you have lower levels of leptin in your body, then you will be more likely to overeat. This is one of the reasons people gain weight quickly after losing it. In fact, many people end up gaining more weight than they lost. Lifestyle changes are required to permanently maintain weight loss. Many people do not train themselves to adapt lifestyle changes, which is another reason that it is common for people to gain weight after losing it. Some people go through cycles where they repeatedly lose and gain weight. This cycle is referred to as yo-yo dieting, which is not healthy. Slow, Steady Weight Loss With Max International's Meta-Switch System You will have the greatest chance of maintaining your weight loss if you steadily and slowly lose weight. If you need extra help losing weight, then you may want to consider trying Max International's Meta-Switch System. The Meta-Switch System features two amazing products, the Curb Snack Bars and Switch Supplement Capsules. The Meta-Switch System is designed to be used along with a diet and exercise program. The Switch Supplement Capsules are designed to boost your metabolism. It helps the body burn fat by using it as a source of fuel. The Switch Supplement Capsules also have a blend of nutrients that help reduce hunger, food cravings and lower your appetite. The Curb Snack Bar has 120 calories and 12 grams of fiber. It is also free of artificial preservatives. The Curb Snack Bar has both soluble and insoluble fiber. Both soluble fiber and insoluble fiber are extremely important for weight loss and overall health. Soluble fiber helps keep the blood sugar stable. Blood sugar spikes are often the cause of food cravings. Soluble also helps keep you full longer by slowing down your digestion. Additionally, soluble fiber helps you maintain a healthy cholesterol level. Insoluble fiber cannot be digested by the body, but it helps clean out your digestive tract. It also helps remove toxins from the body. Additionally, insoluble fiber can help prevent constipation. The Max International Meta-Switch System encourages steady weight loss. One of the many great things about the Meta-Switch System is that the products are free of stimulants and caffeine.
Do you feel that you have tried consuming just about every vegetable there is? Then it’s high time that you consider having more sea vegetables in your life. One of those superfoods from the ocean that you should try is ogonori because it’s so easy to incorporate into one’s diet, and it’s super nutritious, too! Also called “ogo” or “sea moss”, ogonori is commonly eaten in Japan as well as various parts of Southeast Asia. It is also cultivated in so many countries like Taiwan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines since there are so many ways of growing this sea vegetable. Actually, it can be farmed in lagoons and even tanks. Commonly, ogonori is served cold. However, it’s very much possible for it to be roasted, sautéed, stir-fried, boiled and steamed. A lot of people simply throw some of it into their soups and salads. By the way, have you heard of the food thickener called “agar”? Well, it is obtained from ogonori. Ogonori is usually available at the Asian grocer or gourmet market in your area. If you happen to come across this sea vegetable, it’s a good idea to purchase some of them. That’s because there are so many different benefits that it offers to your health. Some of those that can really impress are the following: Ogonori and so many other sea vegetables are good for you because they are excellent sources of iodine, which is so important for the proper functioning of your thyroid gland. Located in your neck, the said gland is responsible for controlling so many bodily processes, from your heart rate, core temperature to metabolism. Normalized Bowel Movement Even though it’s coming from the sea, ogonori is just like any other vegetable that you can think of — it supplies your body with fiber. This only means that the regular addition of ogonori to your diet can help make your bowel movement regular, meaning it’s less likely for you to have a bout of constipation. You can obtain good amounts of vitamin C in every serving of ogonori. So in other words, consuming this vegetable from the sea can help make your body more defended against viruses that cause flu and the common cold. Vitamin C, by the way, is also crucial for healthy and beautiful skin, hair and nails. According to scientist, ogonori contains powerful anti-inflammatory compounds, and that’s why it is something that can help in warding off an assortment of health issues related to inflammation. For example, regular ogonori consumption is recommended for people who often suffer from painful and swollen joints. Stabilized RBC Count RBC stands for red blood cells, and they’re the ones that enable your blood to distribute oxygen from the lungs to the various parts of the body. To keep the number of your RBCs optimal, consuming iron-rich foods such as ogonori is important — such can help ward off or even reverse iron-deficiency anemia. In awe of the many health benefits associated with the regular consumption of ogonori? Then kindly share this on your various social media accounts and let your family and friends know about this amazing sea vegetable, too!
Faith Leader Resources Talking with your congregations Religious beliefs often play a major role in the medical decisions people make. As a result, communication and cooperation between faith communities and healthcare providers is key. As part of Henry Ford Health System's involvement with "The Conversation Ready" project, recent efforts have been made to reach out to the local faith community to facilitate better discussions around end-of-life planning. - Sermon by Rev. John Duckworth (Christianity / Missionary Baptist) - Sermon by Rabbi Dorit Edut (Judaism) - Sermon by Imam Mustapha Elturk (Islam) A conversation we all need to have: A recent survey conducted in California by the California HealthCare Foundation (2012), found that 60% of people say that making sure their family is not burdened by tough decisions is “extremely important.” But 56% of those surveyed have not communicated their end-of-life wishes to their loved ones (www.theconversationproject.org). Talking with loved ones about end-of-life wishes does not fly in the face of our faith tradition. Rather, having these conversations is a way to ensure that the traditions and rituals of our faith are honored as we make our transition from this life. Talking with loved ones about values and beliefs and what we do and do not want can make our death and dying easier on those who love us, because they can find comfort in the honoring of our wishes. If you have not yet had the conversation with your loved ones, please consider doing so. Don’t wait, as we never know when our time on this earth will come to an end. For information on how to get started with the conversation, please visit www.theconversationproject.org.
For many Americans, the Christmas season is something to be endured, not enjoyed. The crowds and traffic, the grinding obligation of shopping schedules and deadlines, the continual advertising of overblown materialism---all these factors combine to make the Christmas season a time of stress and nausea for many. However, the word 'Christmas' literally means 'Celebrating Christ'. The emphasis in the word 'Christmas' has to do with Christ. Granted, Christian human beings can enjoy the process and activity of celebrating Christ, but remember that Jesus Christ should be the intended 'target' and recipient of our celebration. Why should He be? "Because to us a child is born, to us a son is given" (Isaiah 9:6). The ultimate Christmas gift was promised by God, then given at the time of God's choosing. "When the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman...that we might receive the full rights of sons" (Gal.4:4-5). The Gospel is about the reconciliation of believing sinners with a Holy God through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ; this is not because we are worthy to receive such a gift, but because God is so lavish and extreme in His giving. The gift of abundant and eternal life is wrapped up in Christ. Christmas life is for every day and every season; therefore, this gift, this Person of Jesus is to be treasured and celebrated at all times. What a gift, what a miracle, has been given to us. Laurence Houseman summed up the miracle in these words: Light looked down and beheld Darkness. 'Thither will I go' said Light. Peace looked down and beheld War. 'Thither will I go' said Peace. Love looked down and beheld Hatred. 'Thither will I go' said Love. So came Light and shone. So came Peace and gave rest. So came Love and brought Life.
This term 1L worked with our poet-in-residence Cheyrl Moskowitz. We decided that we would write about things we could experience and we linked our work to our science topic of Autumn. We went for a walk in the wild life area and used our sense to think about Autumn. After exploring, we wrote down ways to describe Autumn. We used these ideas to create our own poems. Then the children decided they would like to write about fireworks as the had been enjoying Guy Fawkes celebrations. The finished work was made into shape poems.
M-RCBG Associate Working Paper No. 18 Growing the STEM: Encouraging Interest in STEM subjects among low socio-economic Australian secondary students The client for this paper, the Australian Business Community Network, was established to harness business resources to address educational inequities in Australia. The organization is a network of 30+ large Australian companies, which designs and runs business-to-school mentoring programs for students in ‘high-need’ schools. - Problematically, given Australia’s deeply held desires for equity and intergenerational mobility,1 socio-economic status (SES) is positively associated with the educational engagement and performance of Australian secondary students. The relationship is observable across all of the key subject areas in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), rendering it possible to claim that “the higher the level of socioeconomic background, the higher the student performance.” - This paper focuses on the weak participation and poor performance of low SES students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related subjects. Like the general data, a disproportionately high number of low socio-economic students perform poorly in STEM subjects. Somewhat unsurprisingly given the weak performance of low SES students in junior-level subjects, a disproportionately low number undertake senior STEM subjects. - The weak participation and poor performance of low SES students in STEM secondary school education has both negative equity and economic implications.
The layman’s terms of interior design can be quite challenging to put in articulate words. It is a vast genre, and you can squash so much into a small crash course. However, there are some design principles that everyone should be aware of, especially if you’re thinking about undertaking an interior design venture of your own. Singapore is a country where home interior designing has become quite a qualitative market. Everyone wants a home that looks the epitome of stylish, but every few people take those first baby steps that will get them in the right direction. It’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into before you even reach out to a consultant. So here are 5 design basics you should study up on before going for full-scale renovation. It may seem like the looks and overall aesthetic are the most important part of your home interior design, but do not underestimate the importance of actual function. Yes, the overall style is important, but that does not mean that you get to overlook the function. So always pay special attention to the layout of your interior design. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a lot of things that look really pretty, but are functionally redundant. A good example of this would be when you overestimate the amount of space you’ll need for the living area, and end up with a tiny, inefficient kitchen space instead. Educate Yourself In The Basic Principles Of Design The basic principles of design are basically like the ten commandments of interior design. They include: - Balance: This is when all of your spaces and designs look absolutely equilateral and every asymmetric object is counterbalanced. - Symmetry: This is the easiest one; you just have to create a regular visual pattern in the space in order to invoke symmetry. - Colour: Colour schemes are always the most important part. However, you cannot go forward with a single colour for your entire interior. Similarly, you cannot go forward with too many colours at once either. Try to create contrast and use may two or three colours at once only. - Harmony: Harmony is when your overall interior design looks absolutely holistic. Every element complements the other. - Rhythm: rhythm engages your eye within the space and keeps things interesting. It can be done with a clever arrangement of photo frames, patterned wall paper and even ceiling designs. Each time something looks off about your space, it means that one of these basic principles have been overlooked. So train you eye to see past the obvious and look underneath. The details will be your guide. Considering the style and theme of your home interior design is an absolute must when you’re looking to renovate. You cannot simply collect a number of varying ideas from Instagram or Pinterest and choose what stands out best. There always has to be a logic to the madness. There are a lot of interior design styles you’ll be able to look up on the internet. You’ll have to choose one and then stick to it. You cannot put cottage style wooden beams in the middle of a sleek modern interior just because they looked stunning individually. Lighting is basically what makes or breaks the ambiance and atmosphere of your home interior design. Many people overlook the importance of a good lighting plan when they take on an interior design venture. However, you should always pay special consideration to good lighting. Otherwise, you can end up with a stunning interior design that gets lost in interpretation because of bad lighting choices. Your home interior design should always be a reflection of your personality, otherwise you will never feel comfortable. You should think about how you can add some personal touches to the space when it would be done. You can do it by using accessories, photo frames and even artwork. Visualizing the end product can always help you get ahead in the game, after all. There are a lot of things that should be considered before you reach out to your consultant, and this was the basic gist of it. We hope it helps you understand the initial process of a successful interior design on the client’s part.
One of the leading energy suppliers in the UK has published research that suggests more than 75 per cent of Britons are ignorant to the savings potential of smart meter technology. Claiming that 37 million people in Britain need to increase their ‘energy smartness’, E.ON also asserted that 60 per cent of energy consumers would use less electricity in the home if they were able to visualise the amount they use. The figures were collected and analysed by E.ON’s Smart Metering Centre of Excellence, which only recently celebrated its first anniversary. The energy giant’s research suggests that the majority of Britons do not realise the benefits that can be derived from using smart meter technology. E.ON’s Head of Customer Learning for Smart Meters, Jean Fiddes, said: “Technology is playing an empowering role in our lives and our research highlights [how] people are keen to extend this to their energy use”. Ms Fiddes added: “Smart meters allow consumers to easily visualise their energy consumption daily, weekly and monthly, meaning they have increased transparency into their daily energy habits, providing accurate bills and greater management of their finances”. Smart meters provide households with an opportunity to manage their energy consumption in a way that was never before possible. Representing electricity usage in bar charts, pie charts and other graphical depictions, smart meters highlight which appliances consume the most energy. By replacing energy-inefficient goods with more environmentally friendly substitutes, households can save money on their energy bills. The devices also provide information on when energy is used. Few electricity tariffs stay the same throughout the day. Most suppliers charge more for energy used during the day, while off-peak consumption tends to be cheaper. Understanding energy usage in this way can help households save money on bills by encouraging them to change when they carry out energy-intensive tasks, such as washing clothes or running on a treadmill. E.ON’s research also uncovered several surprising facts about the way men and women view energy usage. The study revealed that women are more likely to alter their energy usage if consumption could be visualised, while only half as many women as men want to install a smart meter at home.
Till was a 14-year-old Chicago teenager when he was brutally murdered for whistling at a white woman on August 28, 1955, while in Mississippi. Till's murder became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. Tuesday evening, Till's family is holding a march and rally to commemorate the date but also to help stop the violence in Chicago. The march started around 5:30 p.m. at 71st and Vincennes. It will end with a rally at St. Columbanus Church.
Student editors of a high school paper in Philadelphia are engaged in a war of words with administrators over the use of the school's team nickname, the Redskins. The debate over free speech began after student editors at the Neshaminy Playwickian wrote an editorial on Oct. 27 on "why we refuse to use the 'R' word" -- a topic they claim "no one wants to discuss, but one that needs to be discussed" because of its offensiveness to American Indians. "It is one of the most controversial issues in Neshaminy's history," began the editorial. "The word 'Redskin' is racist, and very much so. It is not a term of honor, but a term of hate." The move comes as the D.C. Council made an appeal to the Washington Redskins to change their nickname for the second time in history, which was backed by hundreds of American Indians who protested the NFL team's nickname last week. "Detractors will argue that the word is used with all due respect," read the editorial, which was supported by 14 of 21 members of the paper's staff. "But the offensiveness of a word cannot be judged by its intended meaning, but by how it is received." Numerous editors of the Playwickian had talked about banning the use of "Redskins" since 2001. Some had avoided it, but others weren't quite so circumspect. "We have been debating this, but now that it's taking flight we're like, 'We definitely need to take a stand,'" one of the paper's editors, 15-year-old Eishna Ranganathan, told ABC News Radio. "In previous years we have definitely brought it up." For their efforts, the editors received a summons from Principal Robert McGee who praised their efforts as "valiant," but ordered they reverse the decision, students said. McGee told The Associated Press he believes the alleged harm of using the word is debatable and that the roughly 2,600 students at the school, who are each required to write an article for Playwickian for course credit, shouldn't be precluded from writing about the Neshaminy Redskins. "I don't think that's been decided at the national level, whether that word is or is not (offensive). It's our school mascot," he said. "I see it as a First Amendment issue running into another First Amendment issue." The student law center and American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania see it differently. "I understand that there's an inclination to want to protect a tradition at the school. But the First Amendment is a longer and a better-established tradition," Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., told the AP. "It's exactly what we tell young people in the abstract we want them to do: use their voices in positive ways to bring about social change. And yet when they tried to do it in practice, the school slapped them down," he said. "That's a bad place for an educator to be. McGee said he has spoken with the school solicitor and others on the issue, while students will also be getting together with their own lawyer when they return to school on Monday. Meanwhile, Ranganathan said the decision is actually having a positive effect at her school. "What I've been actually finding out, a lot of people now they're actually saying they want to become more educated on this issue," she said. The AP and ABC News Radio contributed to this report.
AGO Opinion 01006 Environmental Audit Law; Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21-254 et seq DATE: March 1, 2001 SUBJECT: Environmental Audit Law; Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21-254 et seq. REQUESTED BY: Michael J. Linder, Director, Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) WRITTEN BY: Don Stenberg, Attorney General Mark D. Starr, Assistant Attorney General QUESTIONS: 1. Does Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,261(1) restrict the agency's ability to obtain injunctive relief? 2. Does the environmental audit law exempt an audit from disclosure in the face of a request to the agency made under the Public Records Act? CONCLUSIONS: 1. No, but other sections of the environmental audit law may limit the evidence which can be used in the quest for such relief. LB 395 was enacted in 1998 to remove the specter that a voluntary environmental self-audit would be used against the business or entity which arranged for it, provided that steps were taken within a reasonable time to rectify problems highlighted by the audit. It was believed that voluntary environmental compliance would be improved if such audits were used, but that the fear that their own audits would be used against them had discouraged persons from conducting them. See Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,254 (Cum. Supp. 2000). The legislation provided that a qualifying environmental audit would not be admissible as evidence in any civil or administrative proceeding or enforcement proceedings under local ordinances. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,256 (Cum. Supp. 2000). There are exceptions, but a discussion of them seems unnecessary for present purposes. The legislation also encourages the prompt reporting and correction of violations which come to light through such audits. The encouragement comes in the form of immunity from civil penalties. Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 25-21,260 and 25-21,261 (Cum. Supp. 2000). Your first question is whether Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,261(1) (Cum. Supp. 2000), restricts NDEQ's ability to obtain immediate and complete injunctive relief. You give the example of a facility which discloses that it has been operating without a permit, where such permit was required prior to commencing operations. You wonder whether, assuming the facility submitted a complete permit application within a reasonable time, the section would prevent NDEQ from obtaining an injunction to prohibit further operations until a permit was obtained. You point to Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,262 (Cum. Supp. 2000), which provides that, "[e]xcept as specifically provided in sections 25-21,254 to 25-261, such sections do not affect the regulatory authority that any department or agency has to require any action associated with the information disclosed." Section 25-21,261(1) applies to exempt a person from civil penalties where timely disclosure has been made and appropriate corrective action taken. The disclosure must be made within sixty days of the date the violation comes to light through a voluntary self-audit. See Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 25-21,260 and 25-21,261(1) (Cum. Supp. 2000). Section 25-21,261(1) specifically addresses what corrective action will be deemed appropriate in the event the violation is a failure to obtain a permit. In such a case, "appropriate efforts to correct the noncompliance may be demonstrated by the submission of a complete permit application within a reasonable time and a permit for such activities is subsequently issued by the agency." Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,259 (Cum. Supp. 2000), dealing with instances where an environmental audit is admissible in evidence, includes a similar provision. According to paragraph (1)(a)(ii) of that section, an environmental audit will be admissible if the person failed to take appropriate steps to remedy the problem. In the case of operating without a necessary permit, what is required is the completion of the permit application within a reasonable time. In our view, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 25-21,261(1) and 25-21,259 do not address the availability of injunctive relief during the interim between the discovery of the violation and the obtaining of a permit. Section 25-21,261(1) addresses civil penalties only, and section 25-21,259 has to do with the admissibility of the audit. Neither section would prevent the regulatory agency from obtaining any injunctive relief authorized by law; provided the agency is able to make a case for such relief. The agency may encounter practical difficulties, however, since the environmental audit law may preclude the use of certain evidence. The auditor and any potential witness to whom the audit results were disclosed may be ineligible to testify. See Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 25-21,256(2) and 25-21,257 (Cum. Supp. 2000). Also, in its quest for an injunction the regulatory agency may need to establish that its evidence has been obtained from sources independent of the environmental audit. See Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,258(5) (Cum. Supp. 2000). You next ask whether an environmental audit is subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act. We assume that your inquiry is directed at audits which come into NDEQ's possession as a result of Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,256(1)(b) (Cum. Supp. 2000), a paragraph which gives a regulatory agency the authority to obtain and review such audits "for the limited purposes of determining if the audit exists and if any exceptions to the liability provisions of sections 25-21,254 to 25-21,264 exist with respect to the audit." We have not considered written notices of possible violations, as described in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,260 (Cum. Supp. 2000), as being encompassed by your query, since such notices are distinct from the audits which give rise to them. The Nebraska Public Records statutes generally allow interested persons in Nebraska the right to access public records in the possession of public agencies. Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 84-712 to 84-712.09. Do the limitations of § 25-21,256 on the uses to be made of the audit or the testimonial and evidentiary protections afforded by the environmental audit statutes, generally, create an exception to the usual rule of accessibility? Neb. Rev. Stat. § 84-712.01 (Cum. Supp. 2000) provides that public records do not include particular information or records which another statute expressly provides shall not be made public. This does not mean that those exact words must be used. For example, in Orr v. Knowles, 215 Neb. 49, 337 N.W.2d 699 (1983), the court considered whether Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-347(2) (Cum. Supp. 1982), a statute directing that the court maintain confidentiality as to certain legal proceedings involving a minor who is seeking an abortion, was an exception to the Public Records statutes and statutory "open courts" provision. The court concluded that it was, citing 28-347's confidentiality directive, and language in other statutes which accorded confidentiality to information on certain prescribed forms which were apparently related to such legal proceedings in some way. The focus of the environmental audit law, though, is more on protecting against evidentiary use of the information in the audit than it is upon preserving the confidentiality of the audit. In fact, when it started to wend its way through its last legislative course, the bill repeatedly referred to "confidentiality protections" and included a section which would have made it a crime for a public employee or official to divulge or disseminate all or part of the information in an audit. These things were eliminated prior to passage. Also, the evidentiary protections are qualified; that is, there are various conditions which must be met to secure and retain the protections. The statutes do not expressly provide that the audits shall not be made public. Therefore, assuming an audit which is in the possession of a regulatory agency pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,256 would be considered to be a record of, or belonging to, the state (see Op. Att'y Gen. No. 97033 (June 4, 1997)), it is believed that it would be subject to disclosure pursuant to a Public Records Act request. A comment made during legislative debate on the bill gave us some pause. When addressing the amendment which struck the "confidentiality" language and eliminated the penalty for disclosure, Senator Priester, the bill's most vocal opponent, expressed concerns about the continuing inability to use the audits to prove wrongdoing. During this discourse he stated, "Also these documents would not become public records. DEQ could still only see them to determine whether or not any exceptions apply...." Floor Debate on LB 395, 95th Neb. Leg., 2nd Sess. 14613. This remark obviously is at odds with our conclusion. However, there is no indication that the environmental audit law was intended to change the public records act. Also, the legislature is presumed to know existing law and could have readily inserted a provision stating that such audits were not to be made public. Finally, even if a court would resort to the floor debate, it is questionable whether much weight would be given to the isolated statement of a single senator made during the give and take of legislative discourse. It may not represent the intent or belief of the Legislature as a whole. A good discussion of the potential error into which one may be drawn by such attempts at divination may be found in Omaha Public Power Dist. v. Nebraska Dept. of Revenue, 248 Neb. 518, 532-36, 537 N.W.2d 312, 321-23 (1995)(Caporale, J., concurring). Mark D. Starr Assistant Attorney General
Pediatric Disclosure Materials: Booklet 3—Living a Life of Health Living a Life of Health is the third in a series of four booklets designed to help adults facilitate health-related discussions with children and adolescents, in this case on the topic of HIV. This booklet was written to be used with children over 9 years of age. The booklets are available for download in color and in black-and-white. Accompanying cue cards offer guidance for health care providers to use in introducing these booklets to caregivers. The other booklets in the pediatric disclosure series include:
Language in the news Let's take a look at markets - their size, potential, components and rankings - and speculate about the role of freelance interpreters. Along the way we visit some ideas on how language shapes the way we think, a new gadget, and paying attention to enhance quality of life. The Language Market in Europe The European Commission recently sponsored a study on the language industry in Europe. (Disclosure: I've always had trouble with the term language industry, which inherently seems to be dominated by big companies whose power is predicted to increase. But assume for now that it reflects a reality: does that make me (a non-company) a language industry worker? I would be happy with the classification if it carried with it the right to unite with my peers to better protect our lot in life. But alas, in a world in which individuals and small companies find it difficult to compete, we are denied that right in the name of competition!) A Europa press release says "The study... covers translation, interpreting, localising and globalising, subtitling and dubbing, language technology tools, multilingual conference organisation and language teaching. It puts EU-wide turnover at EUR 8.4 billion (2008). This is set to increase by at least 10% annually... This is one of the highest growth rates in EU industry." You can go straight to the full study here. Some salient quotes: "The EU institutions spend around €1bn on translation and interpreting every year, representing about 1% of the EU budget or €2.50 per citizen." (EurActiv) - The combined turnover of the 15 biggest translation companies in the world represents 10% of the world market and 50% of the market for translation companies (p. 24) - Market consolidation represents a threat to small businesses and individuals: the high production capacity reached by the big companies cannot be matched... increased monopolization of the market can be expected (p.24) More on markets "This article aims to address the state of the translation industry in Eastern Europe, so from here on in by high cost countries I mean those in Western Europe and the by low cost countries I mean those in Eastern Europe." See How Eastern Europe Fits into the European Translation Market on Omniglot. "Globalization... will provide the GILT sectors (Globalization, Internationalization, Localisation and Translation) with an enormous boom. The European Union of Associations of Translations Companies (EUATC) assumes that the translation market will observe an annual growth of approximately five percent during the next few years." What does that mean? See The Translation Market in Ten Years' Time - a forecast at Tecom. One estimate put the Chinese translation market at 2.5 billion USD in 2005. Read about some of the bumps in the road: "It's a simple truth that translation should be done by professional translators... But we translators have to fight very hard to convince the public and the client of this truth." More about The Translation Industry in China on the Translators Association of China website. Further to the south, the Business Standard of India reports that "(T)he $500-million language translation sector is poised for big growth as more and more multinational companies are setting up shops in the country." And yet more... rankings Common Sense Advisory, "an independent research firm committed to objective research and analysis of the business practices, services, and technology for translation and localisation," offers statistical information on the global market. Anyone can view report abstracts, but you'll have to register to read full reports, and some content is available only to subscribers. Their 2008 ranking of translation companies shows that the top 25 players now control about 24% of the global market. The tables are organised by company name and country (US and UK-based firms still dominate). Freelancers Voice Their Views on the Economy gives some space to practitioners. "When asked about their financial situations, more than half of the language service professionals surveyed described things as 'satisfactory' (53.1%)." (The other half can be seen in the photo.) Global Watchtower seems to be allied with or a part of Common Sense Advisory, but I couldn't find any information on the exact relationship. They use a good Bob Dylan quote at the top of the page, but it's still mostly about big business rather than the common woman. The scams keep coming We had $50 lunches for American troops; now we have $390/hour video relay services (VRS) that didn't really exist. "VRS was first launched in Texas in the mid-90s as a way for the deaf to communicate via telephone," explains an ars technical report. From CBS: "26 people from seven companies in eight states were indicted... for stealing more than $50 million from a government fund that provides video interpreters...for the deaf and hearing impaired." The world isn't flat but there is an Edge "To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves," is what Edge claims to do. Check out How does language shape the way we think? by Lera Boroditsky. "Language is a uniquely human gift, central to our experience of being human. Appreciating its role in constructing our mental lives brings us one step closer to understanding the very nature of humanity." I've always wondered what it would feel like to walk into a bathroom/toilet/lavatory and really feel that I was going to the loo. No, this is not about bathroom humor, but nostalgia for something I knew only from books and movies. Thanks to Roger Cohen for taking me back to where I've never been in his NY Times piece Loos and Language. Good ending, Roger. And while in the country Many have been lamenting the state of foreign language know-how in the UK. Even the House of Lords has debated the matter (scroll to column 807), with dire predictions that "(A)nglophone Britons will become one of the most monolingual peoples in the world." Read more on Timesonline: Modern Languages or - "What's French for entrepreneur?" Japan/France vs China/USA? I love it (really): take a quote from a movie and then examine the scene as if it were reality. Follow James Fallows in The Atlantic, first with Ivory Coast = France = Japan, in language habits at least, and then the follow-up in Language politics: Germany, Japan, Côte d'Ivoire. Richard W. Sonnenfeldt, chief interpreter for American prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials, recently died at the age of 86. "Mr. Sonnenfeldt, at the time a US Army private who had helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp, was plucked out of an Army motor pool to be chief interpreter, recognized as a rare native German speaker who had a firm command of English," points out this Boston Globe obituary. Mr. Sonnenfeldt published an autobiography - Witness to Nuremberg. "By the time he was 18, Sonnenfeldt had grown up in Germany, escaped to England, been deported to Australia as a 'German enemy alien', arrived in the U.S., and joined the U.S. army." (From an introduction to the book on goodreads.) Prototype of retinal imaging device for translation It's not ready yet but a version is expected in 2010 for use in transmitting operating instructions to factory workers. "NEC's gadget is designed to interpret foreign languages and project a translation onto the retina, making it possible to have a conversation without an interpreter." Read more (and see a photo) at PhysOrg. Multitasking? Doesn't exist! "In Rapt, acclaimed behavioral science writer Winifred Gallagher makes the radical argument that the quality of your life largely depends on what you choose to pay attention to and how you choose to do it." From Penguin. From a NY Times article: "Multitasking is a myth," Ms. Gallagher said. "You cannot do two things at once. The mechanism of attention is selection: it's either this or it's that." Read an excerpt from wowOwow. Articles published in this section reflect the views of the author(s) and should not be taken to represent the official position of AIIC. Anything to say? You must be logged in to comment. Sign-in
\|Diet\|\|Bioenergy of most lifeforms\| The Metroid is an ectoparasitoidic, predatory life form created by the Chozo to combat the X Parasite on SR388. However, due to their ability to collect life energy and feed off of it, Metroids have been harvested for experiments and use as bioweapons by the Space Pirates and later the Galactic Federation. On SR388, the X Parasites threatened to destroy the ecosystem, due to the high rate of reproduction. However, The Chozo colonized the planet, and then created Metroids to keep the parasites in check. "Metroid" is the Chozo word for "ultimate warrior." The Metroids kept the X Parasite numbers in check, and became the dominant predators of SR388. Cultivation and ExtinctionEdit The Space Pirates saw Metroids as a weapon they could use, due to their parasitic properties. The Space Pirates captured and cloned many Metroids, with some damage to their own numbers. With the Metroids as well as juvenile Pirates, the Space Pirates engaged in experimentation, using phazon for mutations. Other forms of Metroids mutated due to the phazon, such as the Hunter Metroid and the Fission Metroid. Metroids were brought to Zebes, Tallon IV, and Aether, where they were experimented on and cloned. While on Tallon IV, a life form called the Metroid Prime was discovered in the core of the planet. Seeing the dangers the Metroids posed to the galaxy, the Galactic Federation attempted to destroy them. After two failed attempts by the Federation's army to eradicate the Metroids on their home planet of SR388, they called on Samus Aran to deal with them, as she had previously been the only person able to survive an encounter with the creatures. Samus destroyed all the Metroids on the planet, including the Queen, save one; a larvae that had imprinted Samus as its mother. Samus brought back this larval Metroid to Ceres Space Station to be used for research. This didn't last long however. Soon Ridley of the Space Pirates captured the larva Metroid and brought it back to Zebes to be cloned. There, the Space Pirates first unsuccessfully cloned the Metroid, creating the Mochtroids. They did manage to clone the Metroids successfully eventually, only to be destroyed by Samus. During Samus's battle with Mother Brain, the Metroid that believed Samus to be her mother gave Samus back life energy during a critical moment, leaving Samus to destroy the Mother Brain. However, the Metroid did not survive the encounter, leaving the Metroids to be presumably wiped out from the Galaxy. It should be noted that the Metroid which saved Samus Aran was massive, likely due to the considerable amount of energy it was able to feed off of over the short time span since its arrival on Zebes. Effectively it could be called a Super Metroid. Once all the Metroids were gone from SR388, the X Parasite could reproduce again, and became a threat to the ecosystem. Samus Aran attempted to fight the parasite, but was unsuccessful. The parasite entered Samus's body, leaving Samus's body integrated with her suit as she passed out and the suit could only be removed while she was awake (very likely a safety protocol). Most of it were surgically removed, but she was dying. There was a solution, however: a Metroid vaccine. The Metroid vaccine killed the X parasite, and saved Samus's life - again. The larval Metroid that Samus had brought back from SR388 had been cloned on the BSL Research Station orbiting SR388, presumably by DNA sequences sent to them by the Ceres Station. The Federation managed to clone each form of Metroid up to the Omega Metroid using artificial biospheres of SR388's many ecosystems. Whether they managed to clone a Queen, or why, is unknown. The Metroid cloning center was jettisoned into space and self-destructed after a SA-X breached it. Biology and Life Cycle on SR388Edit The Metroid has a several-stage lifestyle. On Planet SR388 a Metroid will evolve like this: Metroids start out as eggs, presumably laid by the Queen. They then eventually hatch into small Metroid larvae. The larva is small, and floats in the air. Its tentacles will turn into teeth. The Metroid has a thick gelatinous membrane, resembling a sort of solid jellyfish, which contains a set of red, raspberry-like nuclei. They have two pairs of mandibles, one for gripping their prey while the other extracts its life energy. Metroids hover in the air, defying gravity by using kinetic energy they store in their body. Once attached to their prey, they are very difficult to dislodge and will otherwise drain their victim of their life energy completely, killing it. They have an endless appetite and will feed on any and all living creatures they come across, with the single exception of their own species. This immense threat is compounded by their invulnerability to most forms of known weaponry. They have only one real weakness: an extreme sensitivity to cold temperatures. Once their membrane is frozen it can be shattered with explosives, such as a small explosive projectile. When a Metroid takes in energy, it grows in size. Eventually, it will metamorphose to its next form. However, the exact transformation is entirely dependent on the planet or location in which they are growing in, to maximize their adaptive abilities. The Alpha Metroid is the next stage in the Metroid's natural life cycle, which takes place on SR388. While Alpha Metroids can hover like their previous form, they have four limbs, strange tusks, a horn, and two pairs of eyes. The Gamma Metroids are a grown version of the Alpha Metroid. The limbs are now longer and more muscular, the carapace is thicker and bigger, and the horns are stronger and thicker. Another pair of eyes is added to the head of the Metroid. Gamma Metroids also have gained the ability to generate bolts of energy as a means of attack. Zeta MetroidEditZeta Metroids are more of a dinosaur-like analog. This form of the Metroid has only a small bit of the blue membrane from the unmorphed Metroid left over. The Zeta has two muscular legs, two short arms with claws at the ends, and a tail. Having lost the ability to hover, they use their legs to leap with great speed as well as strength. The Zeta Metroid has also lost the Gamma Metroid's energy bolt attack, but this shortcoming is compensated by it now being able to spit a powerful corrosive acid. Besides the Queen Metroid, this is the fullest a Metroid can naturally evolve. The blue membrane, usually on the underbelly on the Metroids, is now concealed. The legs, arms, and tail are now fully developed. Another pair of eyes are added, making a total of four pairs of eyes. An Omega Metroid's large leg muscles make it a quick runner and a mighty jumper. The Queen Metroid is so far the only form of Metroid known to be able to reproduce normally. The Queen is much larger than any other form of Metroid, and stands on all fours as opposed to walking on two, like the Zeta and Omega Metroids. The neck of the Queen can extend to impressive lengths, to better protect her young. Tallon IV MetroidEdit The Metroids from Tallon IV evolve along a different path, transforming into a Hunter Metroid as opposed to an Alpha, although this is due to their exposure to phazon and lack of certain elements from SR-388's environment. Through dedicated research it has been discovered that the process of feeding phazon to metroids is not at all enjoyable to them. Federation scientists have stated that the Metroid's reaction to phazon is "much like a Human's reaction to a cocaine milkshake." The Tallon Metroid exposed to orange phazon evolves into a Fission Metroid. The Hunter metroid is slightly larger than a Tallon metroid, and has a red-orange membrane. Its mandibles have turned into tentacles, and it has the ability to vampirize life-energy from a distance. Metroid Prime´s origin is unknown. It could have evolved from a Metroid Larva exposed to severe doses of Phazon; this theory is suggested by Space Pirate Log which mentioned that Metroid Prime was at first at a small form, and now it is growing bigger. At first, Metroid Prime is covered in a durable exoskeleton. When fighting with Samus Aran, is exoskeleton was heavily damaged, and then its essence was leaked. While unencumbered by its exoskeleton, Metroid Prime is able to create Tallon Metroids and its variants, make wave attacks, and become invisible to the naked eye (likely by bending light around itself). Metroid Prime's essence is extremely resistant to effects due to phazon mutation, causing it to only be able to be wounded by phazon-based weaponry. Samus used phazon pools created by the Metroid Prime, activated her Phazon Beam and killed it. With its last breath (assuming of course that they breathe) Metroid Prime stole Samus' Phazon Suit from her and while she escaped used it to formed into Samus' new enemy: Dark Samus. There are rumors that Metroid Prime is part X Parasite; this is false. The reasoning behind the rumor is because when Samus defeated Metroid Prime and it reverted to an spheroid form, people thought it looked like a Core-X. One must keep in mind however that Dark Samus and the many SA-X's are two completely different characters. SA-X seems to have Samus' face. SA-X only uses techniques it copied over from Samus. Dark Samus has its own style. Using the Phazon suit that it stole from Samus, Metroid Prime evolved into Dark Samus, a Phazon-based clone of the original Samus containing her genetic material. Samus' first encounter with her "evil twin" was on Planet Aether, which was recently damaged by a phazon meteorite. The meteorite created a Dark version of Aether. Somehow, in Dark Aether, a lifeform known as The Ing was born, devastating the true planet Aether. Dark Tallon MetroidEdit The Ing have parasitic properties and infect potential fighting creatures, using them as a vessel for combat. When the host is killed, the Ing escapes and finds a new host. The Metroid are enemies of the Ing and attack them on sight. However, some ings have managed to successfully infect Metroids, making them even more powerful. In the events of Metroid: Other M, a research team had started a Metroid breeding program on a research station called the Bottle Ship. One of the results of the program was the Unfreezable Metroid, a new strain of Metroid that could not be harmed by freezing temperatures. Without this weakness, the Metroids were invincible. The majority of these Metroids were kept in an area called Sector Zero, which was jettisoned and destroyed by Adam Malkovitch. The last of the Unfreezables, a Queen Metroid found in a hidden lab area, was eradicated by Samus Aran. Extrapolated Life Cycle Due to Phazon ExposureEdit Due to experimentation by the Space Pirates on Tallon IV, as well as numerous logs, it can be safely determined that the life cycle of a Metroid is altered by atmospheric conditions. The presence of phazon will cause a Metroid to undergo a number of different kinds of mutations, many of them varied. Stage 1: Phazon/Tallon MetroidEdit It is said that the Phazon Metroid is related to the Tallon Metroid, due to its reliance on phazon. It is likely that this particular strain is either native to the planet Phaaze or was placed there by Space Pirates. Similarly, the related Tallon Metroid may have been native to the planet Tallon IV long before Space Pirates arrived with Metroids. Either possibility yields a similar end. The Phazon Metroid is characterized by its complete dependence on phazon. Phazon Metroids are able to attack enemies with energy bolts, and their ability to become intangible allows them to evade missiles and phase through walls. Stage 2A: Metroid HatcherEdit The Metroid Hatcher is an enormous Metroid mutated through phazon exposure. The Metroid Hatcher has a large maw and long tentacles. It "births" live Metroids through its maw. This variant serves to increase the Metroid population quickly without the need for beta-ray fission or egg gestation time. It is unknown whether this variant also lays eggs. It is also unknown what conditions cause the phazon mutation to lead to this form rather than the "Hopping Metroid" (see next). Stage 2B: Hopping MetroidEdit In this variant of Metroid mutated by phazon exposure, the creature has lost its ability to fly and has gained the use of powerful legs. It is believed that either this form or the "Phazon Metroid" lays eggs, due to their presence being unexplained by the "Hatcher Metroid", which "births" live young. It is believed that this form can only be found where metroids are exposed to massive quantities of phazon, such as Phaaze, or proximity to a Leviathan/Seed. Stage 3: Metroid PrimeEdit Metroid Prime is currently thought of as the height of Phazon Metroid mutation. It is a direct mutation of the "Hopping Metroid" due to obvious similarities and evidence. There have been two documented instances of this creature. One instance is on Tallon IV, where this creature was found lurking in the Impact Crater. We know that the planet was impacted by an interstellar object originating from the planet Phaaze. This object was presumably a natural Leviathan (natural having the meaning of lacking the Space Pirate technology gained in later years by the entity Dark Samus; technology which augments the Leviathan into a rapidly acting phazon seed). When this Leviathan was near death, sometime after impact, it followed its natural instinct by choosing a creature in close proximity and corrupting it with immense quantities of phazon to cause it to act as a guardian until the planet has been transformed. It is debatable how the dying Leviathan came into contact with a Metroid, but it would appear that it mutated first into a "Hopping Metroid", and then through continued massive exposure, into the creature known as Metroid Prime. The second instance is found on the planet Phaaze, where dead husks can be found which are said to be identical to the creature fought in the crater on Tallon IV. This instance is simple to explain. The planet Phaaze is, in essence, entirely phazon-based. The level of phazon radiation there is enormous. Whether the Metroids found there are native to the planet or were brought by Space Pirates is irrelevant. Their presence confirms that the massive levels of phazon would eventually mutate each Metroid into a "Hopping Metroid", and then into a "Metroid Prime". All three forms are present on the planet Phaaze, including vast amounts of "Hopping Metroids" therefore presumably there were other "Metroid Prime" bioforms on the planet, perhaps elsewhere.
\|happy mitten making!\| No, not that sort of plaid. Rowan Plaid. In need of a bulky mitten pattern. (Got another gauged yarn? Get Ann Budd's pattern book for great basic mittens!) - one ball Rowan Plaid or other bulky yarn in same gauge - one set double-pointed needles, size US 10 1/2 or size required to get gauge - tapestry needle for weaving in ends approx. 3 st./in. 10" long, 4 1/2" wide Cast on 32 stitches onto 4 double-pointed needles (8 stitches on each needle). Join to work in the round. Begin knitting in 2x2 rib. Continue 2x2 rib for 2 inches. On next row, begin stockinette stitch, decreasing as follows: K2tog, K to end of needle, on next needle K to last 2 stitches, SSK, on third needle, K2tog, K to end of needle, on final needle, K to last 2 stitches, SSK. (28 stitches) Increase for thumb gusset. Next row: K14, M1R, place marker, K1, M1L, K to end of round. Increase one stitch before and after marked stitch every 3rd row, 4 more times. (38 stitches) Next row: K14, place next 10 stitches on scrap piece of yarn. Cast on one new stitch over gap (using backward loop method) and continue to knit to end of round. (29 active stitches) Continue knitting hand portion of mitten until it reaches tip of pinky. Next row: K2tog, K to end of round. (28 stitches - 7 on each needle) Begin decreases: K to last 2 stitches on needle, K2tog, repeat for each needle. (24 stitches) Knit one round without decreases. Repeat decrease round. (20 stitches) Knit one more round without decreases. Repeat decrease round again. (16 stitches) Repeat decrease round twice more. (8 stitches) Pull yarn through remaining stitches, pull to close top of mitten. Move first two stitches of thumb gusset from scrap yarn onto first needle. Place next 4 on second needle and final 4 on third needle. With fourth needle pick up two stitches over gap and knit the two stitches from needle one. Continue to knit around (12 stitches on 3 needles) until only tip of thumb sticks out of thumbhole. Begin decreases: K2tog, K to end of needle, repeat for each needle. (9 stitches) Knit one round without decreases. Repeat decrease round. (6 stitches) Pull yarn through remaining stitches, pull to close top of thumb. Weave in ends and enjoy your warm "plaid" mittens! You want flip-top mittens?? See Megan's alterations to this pattern! You know what would go great with these mittens? A Plaid neckwarmer. One ball should do. Cast on 60 stitches instead of 85 and follow pattern as written. all patterns and images © Alison Hansel and are shared here for individual personal use only
Book Reports / Hunger Games Autor: Greek 01 July 2012 Words: 2241 \| Pages: 9 There is a long process from the time a book is published to when it hits the screen. Movie studios buy the options to books, and a script is then drafted. Usually, the author does not have a say in the matter. In any case, the transition from page to the silver screen can leave behind the story as we know it. The first book of The Hunger Games trilogy was recently released as a film. The best seller by Suzanne Collins went through a lot of changes in the movie version. The Hunger Games book is about a future dystopian society in the county of Panem. The county is divided into 12 districts plus the capital. In order to remind the population of the foolishness of a failed uprising, every year each district has to send two teenagers to fight in a televised death match called The Hunger Games. The heroine, Katniss Everdeen, fights to survive while also helping Peeta, who is also from District 12, and has declared his love for her. The cover of The Hunger Games is black, featuring a gold mockingjay —a crossbreed born from genetically engineered male jabberjays, and female mockingbirds— with an arrow inscribed in a circle. This is an image of the pin given to Katniss by the District 12 mayor's daughter, Madge Undersee, which Katniss wears in the arena. The image matches the description of the pin that is given in the book, except for the arrow: "It's as if someone fashioned a small golden bird and then attached a ring around it. The bird is connected to the ring only by its wing tips” (Collins, 42). The Hunger Games books were published by Scholastic, and the movies are being distributed by Lionsgate. Producer Nia Jacobson has said, "The suspense of 'The Hunger Games' is heightened by its spirit of moral inquiry, and Suzanne has entrusted Lionsgate and me to bring that moral perspective to the adaptation -- a charge we fully intend to honor." However, the Hunger Games book and movie had their differences. In The Hunger Games movie, there is a competition to the death (designed as a punishment for rebellion) among children (chosen at random) in different regions. Katniss’s sister is chosen to compete, so Katniss volunteers instead. She takes part in the completion against other children, including a potential love interest. Katniss has to win The Hunger Games so she can help her starving family. In the movie, she is more motivated to avenge the death Rue, a young black girl killed during the competition. Suzanne Collins portrays Katniss’s fel ...
The Wave is a book about a man named Ben Ross and his class. Mr. Ross is teaching his class about the Holocaust, but they didn't understand, so he decided to do an experiment. This experiment involved creating “The Wave”. The Wave's motto was “Strength through discipline.” The Wave was made for just Mr. Ross' class, but soon they involved the whole school. In less than a week, the school was out of control. People were beating other people up if they didn't join the wave and turning on their best friends. Mr.Ross was in danger of being fired. The main characters in the book are Laurie, David, Ben Ross, and Amy. Laurie from the beginning doesn't like the Wave, so she teams up with another kid to try to stop it by writing an article in the school newspaper. David is Laurie's boyfriend. He is in The Wave from the beginning, but when he hurts Laurie with out realizing it because of The Wave, he quits. Amy is Laurie's best friend. Amy comes to dislike Laurie because Laurie is fighting against The Wave. Amy didn't see how wrong The Wave was until after it was over. Ben Ross is the Leader of The Wave. He started The Wave, and once he saw how bad it had turned, he ended it and showed the students in The Wave that they had become just like the Nazis. The review of this Book prepared by Cloud City
Kerry seems to find presidential politics in the era of Karl Rove as treacherous as riverine warfare, and he has run for the presidency in much the same way. From the beginning, Kerry's advisers said that the election would be principally a referendum on Bush, whose approval ratings, reflecting public anxiety over Iraq and a sluggish economy, were consistently low for a president seeking re-election. All Kerry had to do to win, the thinking went, was to meet a basic threshold of acceptability with voters and avoid doing or saying anything that might be fatally stupid. The riverbanks were lined with hostile Republicans and reporters, lying in wait for him, and Kerry's goal as he sailed upriver was simple: Stay down. Exercise caution. Get to November in one piece.In this light, consider the quote, also in the NYT article, from Richard Holbrooke, who seems to be the most likely candidate for Kerry's secretary of state: Which is exactly what it's like to interview Kerry as he runs for the presidency; he acts as if you've been sent to destroy him, and he can't quite figure out why in the world he should be sitting across from you. When I met him for our first conversation, in his cabin aboard the 757 that shuttles his campaign around the country, Kerry didn't extend his hand or even look up to greet me when I entered, and he grew so quickly and obviously exasperated with my questions about his thoughts and votes on Iraq that he cut the interview short. ... Kerry's guardedness has contributed to the impression that he does not think clearly or boldly about foreign policy. ... Kerry's adversaries have found it easy to ridicule his views on foreign policy, suggesting that his idea of counterterrorism is simply to go around arresting all the terrorists. "We're not in a war on terror, in the literal sense. The war on terror is like saying 'the war on poverty.' It's just a metaphor. What we're really talking about is winning the ideological struggle so that people stop turning themselves into suicide bombers.''Bai confronts Kerry about this, and Kerry does not directly agree with the Holbrooke statement, but ultimately, Bai concludes: One can infer ... that if Kerry were able to speak less guardedly, in a less treacherous atmosphere than a political campaign, he might say, as some of his advisers do, that we are not in an actual war on terror. ... If Kerry's foreign-policy frame is correct, then law enforcement probably is the most important, though not the only, strategy you can employ against such forces, who need passports and bank accounts and weapons in order to survive and flourish. ... [Kerry] may well be right, despite the ridicule from Cheney and others, when he says that a multinational, law-enforcement-like approach can be more effective in fighting terrorists. But his less lofty vision might have seemed more satisfying -- and would have been easier to talk about in a political campaign -- in a world where the twin towers still stood. UPDATE: I'm looking at the paper version of the NYT Magazine now. The cover photograph is quite striking. Possibly the picture is completely neutral and you just project your own opinion of the candidate onto it, but if so, the opinion I'm projecting is: blankness. A willfully blank facial expression fits with the thesis of the article: Kerry is withholding his real plan for how to deal with the war on terror. This thesis, I note, would account for his continued use of the phrase "I have a plan," which is frustrating to some people, who perhaps find themselves yelling at the TV screen: Yeah, what is it? Maybe Kerry really does have many plans, wants to be seen as a man who plans things quite carefully, but is also trying very hard to avoid revealing what his plans are. It may well be that our uneasiness with him is that we sense that he's doing this. Interesting that the NYT, who I assume strongly supports Kerry, is printing this article. Maybe the NYT thinks that most of its readers really would like to see terrorism reconceptualized as organized crime.
Who is Althouse? * View only LAW posts * Contribute * Shop AMAZON* This dog is beginning to irritate!!! Are you beginning to see dogs as coyotes? Maybe the dogs are awaiting a signal to rise up against their masters. Nevermind, that is just the old Southern fear re-expressing itself. Palladian: Holly would be pals with your Boston Terrier if ever they met. She isn't really a coyote. Althouse just likes to pretend. ...just like she doesn't really have a red wing. That's a blade of red grass I stuck in her collar as a joke. Althouse can be easily amused. I would miss a dog like that if I moved away. I would also be concerned about how well it would be taken care of under new management. Yes, NKVD, I will miss Holly. I'm sure there will be visits. And I know her owners - my good neighbors - will continue to take very good care of her. Put a woman’s head on that photo of Holly and you’ll have a new kind of sphinx.If you lift its tail, you’ll see its sphinxter Ha ha ha. That reminds me, Bissage -- Holly the anubis. An ankh for her dog collar and she's all set! What does Holly symbolize for Althouse? There must be something to this but I'm stumped. "Althouse can be easily amused."A fine trait. My wife is that way too. She is a good natured soul and if she is easily amused by me (she is) she is definitely easy to amuse.Today is our fourth wedding anniversary and we still amuse each other greatly.But we know that our dog is not a coyote. "What does Holly symbolize for Althouse?"Holly is the animal that doesn't object to being seen in photographs on this blog. Ah, amusement! One of the keys to a long and happy marriage. Admit it professor, you love Holly and take her pictures the most, but try to say it's a viewpointy thing. Wait until you have a granddaughter and see how many pictures you take of her. The New York Times, earlier this year:“In a bit of genetic sleuthing, a team of researchers has determined that black wolves and coyotes in North America got their distinctive color from dogs that carried a gene mutation to the New World.“The finding presents a rare instance in which a genetic mutation from a domesticated animal has benefited wild animals by enriching their “genetic legacy,” the scientists write in Thursday’s Science Express, the online edition of the journal Science. Because black wolves are more common in forested areas than on the tundra, the researchers concluded that melanism — the pigmentation that resulted from the mutation — must give those animals an adaptive advantage.” Does anyone know kind(s) of dog Holly is? She looks very much like my dog-of-unknown-provenence. You won't know what Holly does, or does not, object to until it's too late. Holly is the animal that doesn't object to being seen in photographs on this blog.Which animal objects? The red Poodles don't object to being seen in photographs on this blog. They rather like it. An experienced dog will sabotage photographs, usually by dropping what's being held, or moving so the desired background is no longer in the background relative to you. Althouse, maybe you need one of these to keep around the house in Madison. It could accompany you to work. "Does anyone know kind(s) of dog Holly is? She looks very much like my dog-of-unknown-provenence."It looks like a Groenendael or black Belgian Shepherd.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Shepherd_Dog#Groenendael jpr9954: Cool. But I think Holly is a shepherd/border collie mix. She came to my neighbors through an organization called Sheltered Paws. Post a Comment
The presidential campaign of 2004 promises to be the most expensive in U.S. history. Unfortunately, and not by accident, the most expensive presidential campaign in history also threatens to be the least enlightened. The enormous sums available to campaign organizations are for the most part invested in television commercials that deal in the shorthand of images and slogans and reduce important campaign issues to shallow sound bites. Last September, the U.S. Catholic bishops, as they do every four years in anticipation of a presidential election year, issued Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility, which identified what the bishops saw as the important questions to be addressed in the national debate that presumably takes place in an election year. The bishops assigned first priority to the protection of human life against the dangers of abortion, euthanasia, pre-emptive or preventive use of military force and “our nation’s increasing reliance on the death penalty.” The bishops also urged national concern for the promotion of the human family, the pursuit of social justice and the practice of global solidarity. The agenda the U.S. bishops set for the national debate is an imposing one; some might consider it unrealistically ambitious. But the formidable challenge the bishops posed in defining their agenda stands in disappointing contrast to the actual record of Catholic participation in the campaign thus far. An inordinate amount of public attention has been paid to a few Catholic bishops who have inserted themselves into the campaign by publicly warning that they would refuse Communion to Senator John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic candidate. Senator Kerry identifies himself as a practicing Catholic, but his voting record of consistent support for an unlimited right to abortion is an embarrassment to the Catholic community. The U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference has established a committee, chaired by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., charged with developing a policy statement on the responsibilities of Catholics in public life. Although the committee is not expected to publish its statement until after the November elections, Cardinal McCarrick has observed that he would be very reluctant to use exclusion from participation in the Eucharist as a sanction for Catholic politicians whose legislative decisions seem inconsistent with Catholic teaching. It is likely that most U.S. bishops share Cardinal McCarrick’s distaste for such sanctions, and certainly many in the Catholic community, including the editors of this journal, would find the imposition of such sanctions to be pastorally offensive and politically inept. In fact, the imposition of such ecclesial sanctions suggests that the abortion issue is one of denominational discipline, a “Catholic issue,” rather than an issue of human rights, around which a broad coalition of religious and nonreligious traditions can unite. When questioned by Catholic News Service, European and British bishops showed no interest in employing the denial of Communion as a weapon to control the Catholic politicians in their countries. The Tablet of London even reported last year that Pope John Paul II gave Communion to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a pro-choice Anglican, during a private Mass. One Italian bishop identified the underlying issue with admirable simplicity: “Faith is one thing. Legislation is another.” Legislators who believe that abortion is immoral may, rightly or wrongly, decide that legalized abortion is the least of several possible evils in a pluralistic society. At the same time, Catholic bishops and voters have a right to expect Catholics in public life, who affirm their personal belief in the immorality of abortion, to demonstrate that commitment by working to reduce the number of abortions that take place each year. Such efforts will include but not be limited to legislative initiatives. Catholic bishops and Catholic voters can take the measure of a candidate’s total record on abortion, but the bishops would be wise to let the voters come to their own conclusions on the records of individual candidates. Unlike some religious leaders of smaller congregations, the Catholic bishops of the United States have traditionally refused to endorse particular candidates or parties. In this difficult political season, a time of new and unsettling dangers and a voting public that seems sadly polarized, the bishops should be wary of singling out individual candidates by public admonitions that inevitably become politicized in the heat of partisan politics. Instead, by directing the public’s attention to the agenda they set forth last September, our bishops may help rescue the presidential election campaign of 2004 from a mindless barrage of televised attack ads made possible by the oversupply of money and the shortage of integrity that characterize our current political climate.
Setting the Precedent: Four Women Who Excelled in Business You will meet four American women in this online exhibition who succeeded in business in the twentieth century. Each woman—Freda Diamond, Estelle Ellis, Dorothy Shaver, and Brownie Wise—was exceptional in many respects. An influential industrial designer, a prolific magazine publisher, a prominent department store retailer, and a top-ranking business executive, each achieved a degree of visibility in her field enjoyed by few other women. Read about their lives and accomplishments, and learn about their careers through interactive games. Visit Web site The papers of each woman are preserved in the Archives Center.
this opinion piece by A. J. Jacobs from the New York Times. It's a good read. The focus is the rewards and risks of mega-family trees, like Geni.com, which compiles input from anyone who cares to contribute. Geni is popular placing fifth among genealogy websites according to the GenealogyInTime top 100 list. It claims over 100 million profiles, unchanged from three years ago. The NYT article highlights the fun of finding links to famous ancestors using Geni. It turns out the article author's wife’s great-uncle’s wife’s first cousin once removed’s husband’s uncle’s wife’s son’s wife’s first cousin once removed’s husband’s brother’s wife’s nephew is former New York mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Isn't that impressive! Where I part company with the article is the latter part of the sentence "Traditional genealogists demand rigorous proof of every relationship, but the new, less cautious genealogists argue that we have to work with probabilities." Working with probabilities does not mean being less cautious. If anything it reflects a considered approach, being more cautious in our claims and acknowledging that in even the most rigourously researched relationship there's a chance of error. That's entirely different from the entertainment approach, throwing caution to the wind, compiling a mega-tree rag bag of careful research, fanciful opinion and unenlightened adoption of other's work where you conclusion is only as strong as the weakest link.. Thanks to Eric Dodman for the tip. The image is a snippet from a larger illustration in the NYT article by Jim Stoten.
Royal Penguin (Eudyptes schlegeli) The Royal Penguin inhabits the waters surrounding Antarctica. Royal penguins look very much like Macaroni Penguins, but have a white face and chin instead of the Macaronis' black visage. Royal penguins are found in the southern hemisphere near the Macquarie and Campbell Islands to the south of New Zealand. There is some controversy over whether Royal penguins are a sub-species of Macaroni penguins as both have black and yellow crests on their head. Individuals of the two groups have been known to interbreed, though this is a relatively rare occurrence. Indeed, other penguins have been known to form mixed-species pairs in the wild. One way to spot the difference is that Macaroni penguins have black chins and Royal penguins have white chins. Royal Penguin Characteristics Royal penguins have an orange, yellow and black crest that sticks out on the penguins head with white/grey throats and black backs. Royal Penguin Diet Royal penguins eat crustaceans (mostly krill), fish and squid caught by pursuit-diving normally at depths of 50 to 150 feet. Dives rarely exceed two minutes in duration. Like all penguins, they are excellent swimmers, using their webbed feet, powerful flippers and streamlined bodies to 'fly' through the water at speeds approaching 20 miles per hour. Royal Penguin Behaviour Royal penguins form long-lasting bonds and nest in large and dense colonies. Royal penguins have a highly synchronized breeding cycle beginning when the males arrive in late September to claim nest sites. Royal Penguin Reproduction The males return in the first week of October to reclaim their former nest site and are joined by the female a week later. They usually breed for the first time at the age of five. Intruders are kept at pecking range and waving of wings is an indication to the intruder they are too close. Their nests consist of shallow depressions in the sand or grass and are lined with stones and grass. Two eggs are commonly laid but usually only one chick is reared. Incubation lasts for 35 days and is done in 12 day shifts by both parents. Once hatched the male guards the chick for 10 - 20 days whilst the female feeds the chick daily. The chicks will then join a creche and will be fed every 2 - 3 days. At 65 days the juvenile is ready to go to sea. Royal Penguin Predators In the wild, Royal penguin predators include Leopard seals, skuas, giant petrels and Wekas. Royal Penguin Conservation Royal penguins are classified as Vulnerable by the 2000 Red List of Threatened Species. They are only found on one island group so a natural or human disaster could greatly reduce their numbers. At present there is a total of 850,000 pairs. A list of Penguin Species featured at Animal Corner: Adelie Penguin \| African Penguin \| Chinstrap Penguin \| Ecrested Penguin \| Emperor Penguin \| Fiordland Penguin \| Galapagos Penguin \| Gentoo Penguin \| Humboldt Penguin \| King Penguin \| Little Penguin \| Macaroni Penguin \| Magellanic Penguin \| Rockhopper Penguin \| Royal Penguin \| Snares Penguin \|
Giant-cell arteritis is a condition that involves inflammation of arteries. It is more common with older age and rarely occurs before age 60 years. Another name for the condition is temporal arteritis because it most often involves the temporal arteries. The temporal arteries are located on the sides of the forehead. Inflammation of the arteries can cause them to narrow and can block normal blood flow to areas of the body that the arteries serve. Symptoms of giant-cell arteritis include head, face, jaw, or scalp pain; fever; fatigue; and loss of appetite. A serious complication of giant-cell arteritis is loss of vision. Timely diagnosis and treatment with steroid medications can prevent this. However, the high doses of steroid medications necessary to treat giant-cell arteritis can have side effects, so doctors want to be certain that patients have the condition before prescribing a long course of treatment. Treatment after loss of vision occurs will not restore normal vision but can prevent further vision loss. Unfortunately, giant-cell arteritis can be difficult to diagnose without doing a biopsy of the temporal artery. A biopsy is a minor surgical procedure that allows doctors to obtain a piece of tissue to examine under a microscope. Some reports have suggested that ultrasound tests of the temporal artery can be helpful in diagnosing giant-cell arteritis, but the role of ultrasonography in diagnosing this condition remains uncertain. Ultrasonography involves using sound waves to take special pictures.
Bitcoin Bolsters Antiwar Activism: An Interview with Antiwar.com’s Angela Keaton Recently, I was interviewed by MK Lords, a manager at Roberts & Roberts Brokerage and correspondent for Bitcoin Not Bombs, of which Antiwar.com is a proud member. The transcript can be found here. Ms. Lords asks me all the major questions about antiwar activism, crypto currency for a peace economy and the ACLU’s lawsuit on behalf of our founder Eric Garris and editorial director Justin Raimondo. MK: So, there’s been all this targeting by this administration and I think a lot of people [supporters] weren’t really expecting the Obama administration to be so gung-ho about spying and punishing whistleblowers. But do you think having a strong presence on the web is a form of protection from detainment or are you kind of fearful that it makes government spying easier? AK: It’s hard to course it out because what we’re doing isn’t really normal so it’s hard for me to compare it to anything. Barack Obama, on his order, had Yemeni journalists detained in Yemen for reporting things like drone strikes, which of course should be reported on as a journalist, too. In terms of detention, Barack Obama’s war on whistleblowers and journalism is the ongoing project of the security state and empire. This is what having endless war does, your civil liberties keep being reduced and you thank people today for their service and what you’re thanking them for is fewer and fewer rights and less and less dignity. So that’s why today is sort of a bitter and obnoxious day, people are being self-congratulatory for racist and genocidal wars, occupation and colonialism [in countries] for which they have no right to be in. This is sticking people who were drafted or conscripted into slavery in the US military. We have Vietnam vets who discuss this pretty frankly. What do I think? Do I think we’re in any danger; that the staff is necessarily in any danger of detainment? I don’t think so currently, but I’ve been surprised. What will be curious is if Greenwald’s ever allowed back in the US. I’d like to see how that plays out. People have already learned the hard way from the Chelsea Manning case; people know of course that is does not pay to be a whistleblower; you need to take that material and run. Whistleblowing just opens the door for you to be tortured and certainly imprisoned for the rest of your life.
The fields of Industrial Relations formerly known as the Institutional Labor Economics and the School of Personnel Management (originally known as Employment Management) which later on evolved into what is called at present as Human Resource are seen as two separate and distinct areas of studies and specialization. Tracing its origins and development the two areas are the responses in order to identify the causes of labor problems as well as to provide resolution to those problems which is very much inherent in the domain of labor and capital in the industry. At the outset of the establishment as academic inquiries and practices in the commercial and business organizations, labor problems were seen as unitary and capitalist in nature wherein there is a general struggle between labor and capital over the control of production and distribution. However, another view was introduced which defied that particular perspective. It was pluralistic by character which recognizes that labor problems may not solely be the cause of labor-management conflict but may take different forms such as those that afflict both employers and workers. Moreover, it was seen not only as existing under a capitalist economy but also in socialist system. These labor problems provide the central position of investigation in the field of Industrial Relations. It defines the field as including those problems of human behavior involved in the reciprocal relations of the worker with four types of situation - the laborer’s work, fellow-worker, worker’s employer and the public. Industrial Relations was believed to lead increased efficiency in the organization through the means of improved production methods, motivation and cooperation between management and workers. These labor problems were recognized as field specific and were then labeled as personnel problems. As the labor problems were streamlined so as the schools of thoughts themselves. As Industrial Relations focuses in the study of key forms of behavior focusing on the employment relationship a new field of personnel management was being formed. Industrial Relations was then viewed as the inquiry and Human Resource as a practice. Personnel management or Human Resource emerged as a fusion of Scientific Management and welfare work which then evolved with the emergence of human relations movement. Personnel management maintains the view that the root cause of labor problems and conflict between labor and management is not intrinsic in the defects of the capital market but in the organizational and administrative practices of the management. Hence, labor problems are management problems and improved industrial relations is a responsibility on the part of the management. Both try to take forward the knowledge on the varying aspects of the employment relationship such as problems in the prevailing business practices as well as the working conditions faced by the workers. Furthermore, both try to seek reforms in the workplace and achieve efficient employee-employer relations or employment relationships. Departure of Human Resource from the field of Industrial Relations The major point of disagreement between Industrial Relations and Human Resource is on the discussion on the most effective way to resolve labor problems and appropriate role to be played by the labor unions and collective bargaining. Moreover, it is deemed as the former is more concerned with the organized and unionized relationship in the workplace while the latter is centered in the individual work relationship of labor and management. Human Resource believes that alternative forms of industrial democracy or joint representation other than having labor unions and collective bargaining could materially take forward both the interests of the workers and the management. Another point of contention between the two areas is on the view on improving the work and work relations of both workers and employers. In order to achieve the goals of Industrial Relations which are improved efficiency, equity and human well-being in the workplace industrial democracy, social justice and societal and institutional transformation should be employed. On the other hand, Human resource posits that achievement of those could be attained by creating an organizational climate that promotes a mutuality of interests between management and labor and high levels of job satisfaction and productivity among the workers. Convergence of IR and HR The field of industrial Relations and Human Resource are of the same view and analysis that there is a need for employment reformation. They also maintain similar views on the essential elements of reform to achieve increased efficiency and those could be achieved through the means of improved production methods, motivation, supervision, and cooperation between management and workers, greater equity in pay, good working conditions among others. Both have recognized that in order to resolve the problems it is important to take into consideration the human factor in structuring and managing work. The two schools of thought believed that the autocratic, master-servant type of employment relations between workers and the management should be replaced with the type that would foster decent and fair treatment to its workers such as appropriate representation rights and due process in the establishment. Moreover, the two fields believed that the basic institutions of capitalism, private property and free labor markets should be maintained as these elements are the underpinnings of work and employment in which both workers and employers are apparently part of. In the current context of Industrial Relations and Human Resource both as fields of study and as practices in the organization, the convergence is as follows: - In the domain of the workplace, IR is the study of human relations while HR is the study of people management. - Both disciplines are concerned with organized and individual relationships within the organization. The basic process of IR is rule making while decision making is the course of action in HR. - Both are concerned with increased productivity and efficiency as well as empowerment of workers in the organization. - The inputs of both fields such as the environments in the economic, legal-political and socio-cultural sphere affect the structure and its processes. Note: The discussion with reference to the ideas, concepts and principles of both IR and HR were derived from the references below. - Kaufman, Bruce. 1992, Industrial Relations in the - Human Resource Development: A field in Transition
I just recently bought a mac-mini server and love it. It currently is being used in a small work environment for communication purposes and storage/backup use. However I have noticed that there is a wiki page application residing on the server and available for use. Are there any user guides out there for this application, Im not very familiar with it and want to learn how to use it more in depth. Also, can this application serve more purpose than just displaying information in a wikipedia format? I'm basically looking for more functionality such as template creation and modification.
Current students must register through the Recorder’s Office, which also oversees student files and posts grades. Associate Director of Student Affairs Phone: (812) 855-1888 E-mail: adlanham [at] indiana [dot] edu Indiana Law students can build their own plan of study by taking classes from a number of different areas, or they can choose an area of focus. Description Despite a burgeoning scholarly literature chronicling the reconstruction, expansion, and proliferation of laws, courts, and lawyers in China since 1979, scholars disagree about the significance and implications of these developments. Does the Chinese legal system offer meaningful redress to people with grievances, or should it be understood as ornamental #window dressing#? Does it do more to limit or to strengthen the power of the government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? Does it do more to help people challenge or to prevent people from challenging the government and the CCP? In this interdisciplinary seminar we will not only explore and debate these questions, but will also (re)consider conventional scholarly notions about authoritarianism and popular political participation, single-party rule and judicial governance, democracy and political legitimacy, and legal professionals and their fights for legal and political freedoms. In the process we will scrutinize recent developments in China, including allegations of a #turn from law# and a crackdown on lawyers. Our inquiry will be heavily empirical and evidence-based. When we attempt to reconcile, adjudicate, or explain scholarly disagreements, we will scrutinize available data on the issue at hand. Our approach will be not only empirical, but also comparative. Throughout the semester we will endeavor to situate China in comparative global perspective. Note This course may offer writing credit. Faculty E. Michelson \|Spring 2014 - 2015\|\|Seminar in Law & Society of China\|\|Michelson, E.\| \|Spring 2013 - 2014\|\|Seminar in Law & Society of China\|\|Michelson, E.\| \|Spring 2012 - 2013\|\|Seminar in Law & Society of China\|\|Michelson, E.\| \|Spring 2011 - 2012\|\|Seminar in Law & Society of China\|\|Michelson, E.\|
An overview of which rpm based distributions, providing native apt support can be found at: - The (a) repository is located More about apt at Conectiva can be found - Macromedia offers its products (flash) via an apt repository. The repository for most of the mainstream linux distributions can be found - The repository is located here. A description of apt usage in Poldek can be found here. This description includes references to the sources.list file as well. Their homepage can be found - A description of the apt repositories provided for OpenNMS can be - Click here if want to know which rpms are being provided for (e.g.) RedHat. - A description of the apt repositories provided for postfix can be - The page above refers to the sources.list file. SLUG Linux User Group - The SLUG Linux User Group provides apt mirrors for Macromedia. More information can be found: The page provides a short explanation about apt as well. Have a look at the following frequently asked question: Why does apt upgrade almost every installed packages first. There is a dedicated APT for SuSE website, please read the information provided on that site! - Gesellschaft fuer Wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung Goettingen (GWDG, SuSE's primary mirror) provides an apt repository for SuSE-7.3, SuSE-8.0 and SuSE-8.1at: - Funktronics provides an apt repository for SuSE-8.0 and SuSE-8.1 at the sources.list file for SuSE-8.1 can be found - The university of Erlangen (Germany) provides apt repository from 7.1 up to and including 8.1. The starting point of the repository is: repository can be connected via http as well. In that case use this: An example SuSE 7.1 sources.list file can be retrieved from the url just mentioned. For the other versions just change the version number in the url. - An exact mirror of the apt repository hosted by gwdg can be found at: Yellow Dog Linux - Have a look at Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) Last modified: 23 Februari 2003
Whales inhabit every ocean on earth. The only known enemy of any whale species, other than killer whales, is mankind. Whaling as a commercial industry began several hundred years ago, but it has only been in more modern times that hunting has caused a major impact on the population of many whale species. This is due to bigger and faster ships and enhanced hunting methods. Although commercial whale hunting is now banned worldwide, the extent to which some species were hunted caused devastating impacts to their populations, some nearly to the point of extinction. The largest mammal on earth, the blue whale, was placed on the protected species list in 1966 by the International Whaling Commission. When it was determined their numbers were not recovering, the World Conservation Union placed them on the endangered species list in 1986. It is estimated that there are only 10,000-25,000 remaining. Yet another whale species that is well-known for its beautiful and haunting sounds is the humpback whale. This whale is migratory and can be found from the north Pacific to more temperate climes off the coast of southern California and Mexico. Before the hunting ban was in place, there were only about 1,500 of these whales. Numbers have slowly increased and it is now estimated that they have recovered to approximately 15,000. North Atlantic Right Whale While there are a number of different right whales, the most endangered of the whale species is the North Atlantic right whale. There may be as few as 500 of them left in the wild. Their numbers were decimated as they were considered easy to hunt and kill and could produce enormous amounts of oil that were highly useful at the time. These whales are slow to mature and only give birth every 3-5 years, so recovery of their population is extremely slow in comparison to other whale species.
Have you noticed that some shelves at Southeast Regional Library in Gilbert are still bare? That’s how they will stay for now, with the exception of the children’s collection, which has received an infusion of new titles. But even those shelves are emptying fast because of heavy borrowing for summer reading. The bare shelves are a result of the Maricopa County Library District’s decision to change its classification system. The Dewey Classification System is out. What’s in is a new book-shelving and cataloging system — earlier called Deweyless for want of a better name, but now named ShelfLogic. “When the conversion process ends, we anticipate that some shelves will not be as populated with books as they were previously,” said Nelson Mitchell, spokesman for the library district. Last summer’s weeding, the first step of converting the classification system, reduced the collection by 40 percent. Mitchell said that the county’s goal has been to get rid of outdated books, those in disrepair and items that are no longer popular and don’t circulate. The other goal is to create more visibility for popular items. The biggest victim of the weeding was non-fiction. Titles such as “Chronology of Hispanic American History” and “Japanese Cooking” didn’t get checked out much, so they were chucked, along with hundreds of others. The features of the new classification system include lower shelving to accomplish a more browsing-friendly, neighborhood bookstore feel, which is supposed to improve visibility and make it easier to access materials. Books — sparser in number but more relevant — are to be organized according to major categories and subcategories. Couches are to be placed nearby. Dewey is an internationally used library classification developed in 1876 that organizes shelved books in a specific and repeatable order with decimals that supposedly make it easy to find any book and return it to its proper place. The ShelfLogic classification was developed during former library director Harry Courtright’s tenure; Courtright thought the Dewey system was more complicated. Gilbert’s Interim Parks and Recreation Director Melanie Dykstra said that the projected budget for the reconfiguration would be available to her office by December. She said that the county was gradually working through implementing ShelfLogic in its 17 branches. In 2009, Gilbert’s Perry Branch Library opened with the new classification. “Southeast Regional Library is the largest branch and (the county) left us to the last because they were learning through the process at all the other branches to see what works best and how it’s most affective in order to do it the best way they could on our behalf,” she said. Mitchell conceded, “The process is slower than anticipated because of limited staffing; we don’t want to have to pass additional costs on to the town of Gilbert, so we are going a little slower than anticipated with the staff we have. We hope to have the conversion process completed sometime into the next fiscal year in conjunction with design changes.” Dykstra said: “Once we have the final ShelfLogic space plan done that then helps identify truly what is more effective, the level of collection that you need and the interest people have because then you’ll find that more books get used because people can see them better.” Although the library’s item count was whittled down last year, it’s inching up once again. The current count, including books, CDs and DVDs, is 130,395. In the past 90 days, Southeast Regional has received 9,742 new items, according to Mitchell. This year, children’s books were added on several occasions to Southeast Regional. In January, 60 art books and 115 titles of animal and nature books were purchased for $3,000 from the Materials Assistance Program. In April, 500 board books at a cost of nearly $3,000, juvenile non-fiction titles at a cost of $12,000 and picture-book titles at a cost of $5,000 were ordered. About $54,000 worth of children’s and young-adult books including picture books, beginning readers, juvenile fiction and non-fiction, teen fiction and non-fiction, and graphic novels were ordered in May and are to arrive by the end of this month. Most children’s books are traditionally checked out during the first month or so of summer reading, Mitchell said. “Therefore, during the first few weeks of the summer reading time frame, children’s bookshelves are more vacant than at any other time of the year. When children’s new or popular books arrive and are shelved, they almost instantly are checked out,” he said, quoting the library manager.
- Filed Under Gov. Rick Snyder has some compelling ideas for reforming public education. We would need to see safeguards for low income and special needs students before we offer our endorsement for the governor's plan, but we think it's a good first step for improving Michigan's schools. Critics who argue that schools of choice is destroying public education might find little to like in the draft bill, expected to be introduced as part of Snyder's budget presentation in February. Michigan Board of Education president John Austin called it a "voucher system," and indeed it places an inordinate amount of faith in the ability of markets to correct what ails our schools. But because the governor is leaving a lot of time for legislators and the public to debate the plan's merits, let's focus for a minute on what we think are the better aspects of his proposal: ? The plan would allow students to access online learning from across the state, with the cost paid by the state. Districts that provide online courses would receive public funding based on performance. It's long past time for districts to embrace virtual schools as a strategy for students who learn best in such environments. We understand the skeptics who believe classroom time is a critical component for learning, but pioneers in the field are already proving the skeptics wrong, and more youth should have this opportunity. ? Snyder's proposal will provide for per-pupil funding to follow students to whichever districts they use to learn, with one student's funding potentially split among multiple districts. School of choice is a fact of life in Calhoun County, and we agree with critics who say that some schools have gained at the expense of others. Still, the opportunity to leverage the strengths, assets and facilities of several districts - particularly in Battle Creek - opens a new door for inter-district collaboration. Magnet-school strategies at the regional level could be a game-changer in our community. ? The plan provides a framework for funding based on performance, once the proper assessment and testing mechanisms are in place. The devil is in the details. Identifying the proper assessment matrices will entail a thorny debate, but it's a debate we need to have. ? The bill would give scholarships of $2,500 per semester, to a maximum of $10,000, to students who finish high school early. Dual enrollment and partnerships with community colleges are already putting students on track for early graduation. We like the incentive to encourage more to follow the same track. ? Encourage year-round schooling by having a 180-day school year spread over 12 months instead of nine, with breaks of no more than two weeks. The current model, based on an agrarian economy, is outdated and counter-productive to learning, and it needs to change. Let's be clear: We believe that public money should go to public schools and that charter schools should operate transparently, subject to the same requirement for openness as public schools. Charter schools, and to some degree schools of choice, are leading us to a dual education system - one in which low income students are less likely to receive an education on par with peers fortunate enough to attend wealthier districts. It's a disgrace, and educators and advocates for our young are right to fight that battle. A market-based education model creates winner and losers, and that's simply unacceptable. At the same time, the defensive culture of our education system has been painfully slow to adopt innovative approaches. That culture is as much to blame for students being left behind as are the cuts that have crippled schools in recent years. Snyder's plan is short on strategies for ensuring the benefits of a quality education are extended to all children, but it provides a good starting point for dialogue. Let's get started.
Voter disenfranchisement, lost votes, and counting irregularitiesAs a basic guarantee of electoral fairness, all voters should feel secure that they will not be subject to discrimination or intimidation during an election, and that their votes will all be counted fairly and consistently. Over the past election cycle, a number of irregularities in counties across North Carolina have appeared to challenge this. These have included disputes about provisional ballots, unreliable voting and counting equipment, and administrative errors. In some cases, the problems were severe enough to call the outcome of elections into question. The most extreme problems occurred in Gaston and Carteret Counties. Unilect, the supplier of voting equipment to Carteret County, failed to tell officials that voting machines could only store 3000 votes. As a result, over 4000 votes were lost after the memories of the machines became full during early voting. Since the margin between the first two candidates was less than 4000 in one state-wide race (for Commissioner for Agriculture), the State Board had to make a decision about how to had to proceed. The board initially ordered a revote within the county, in which only those whose votes were lost, or who failed to participate the first time round can vote, but this was struck down in court. The revised decision called for a new statewide election, at an estimated cost of $3 million. This solution too has been rejected by the court, and months after the general election, how the race will be decided remains unsettled. In Gaston, election officials failed to include 12,000 votes in their unofficial vote totals. These uncounted votes included almost all of the early votes, as well as an entire precinct in Dallas. It took six days, after media reports pointed out that the totals of the number of people recorded as having voted and the ballots counted didn't match, for the local Board of Elections to notice its mistake. Gaston County officials were also censured by the State Board of Elections for allowing an employee of Diebold, the makers of their voting machines, to transfer ballots to the central vote-tabulation computer without sufficient supervision. This may be where the irregularities originated. The fiasco led to the resignation of both the county Elections Director and the Board of Elections chairman, following a meeting with the state board. The failings of the county board of elections illustrate many of the dangers of having a fragmented voting system, where rules are unclear or inconsistently applied. North Carolina deserves elections of the highest possible quality. For this to happen, past problems need to be confronted so that real solutions can be reached.
\|After days of hype, we finally saw the first lesbian kiss on daytime television--and it didn't disappoint. The kiss was emotional and sweet (if a little chaste by daytime standards), relevant to the larger storyline, and sympathetic to viewers because the characters in question on All My Children--Bianca (played by Eden Riegel) and Lena (play by Olga Sosnovska)--are integral characters to the show, and their relationship has been building up to this moment for the last several weeks. Bianca has been unlucky in love since she came out as a lesbian two years ago, repeatedly falling in love with women who aren't interested or aren't gay (or mysteriously disappear). The most recent object of her affection prior to Lena was her friend Maggie (Elizabeth Hendrickson), which led to the creation of a BAM (Bianca And Maggie) a fan group which has lobbied AMC over the last several months to get Bianca and Maggie together. In fact, the kiss between Lena and Bianca is partly the result of BAM's efforts, since they made it clear to that there was fan support for a lesbian relationship on the show. But when All My Children finally polled viewers on the subject they found that while there was overwhelming support for Bianca to have a girlfriend, the majority of fans wanted it to be with someone new (not Maggie). Enter Lena, a bisexual woman scheming to steal the secret anti-aging formula known only to Bianca's friend Boyd. When Boyd won't give it up, Lena becomes friends with Bianca, hoping to get it out of her--until she unexpectedly begins to fall for Bianca and decides she just can't seduce her and then break her heart. Instead of telling Bianca the truth, however, Lena decides to leave the country. Tired of being rejected by everyone, Bianca pours her heart out to an old family friend, who advises her to go after Lena, so she does. Bianca finds Lena at the airport and asks her to give their relationship another chance. After several long moments of conversation, in which Bianca tells Lena with tears in her eyes "you touched my heart" and Lena keeps trying to tell Bianca that this isn't about her, Lena slowly starts to crumble and finally grabs Bianca and kisses her. Five seconds later, the episode fades out. In an 2000 interview creator Agnes Nixon attributes the idea for this storyline to reading Chastity Bono's memoir and to Nixon's own experience having a lesbian housemate in college in 1947. Although her first attempt at introducing a new lesbian character to All My Children in 1983 wasn't very successful (the character only lasted two months), what she learned from that experience, according to Nixon, is that "if you want to do a story about a social issue seriously [on a soap], the character has to be really well integrated.” So this time around, instead of introducing a new lesbian character, chose to bring out a character who was already well-established and well-liked--and who is more integral to the series than Erika Kane's daughter, a girl whom fans had watched grow up under their very eyes over the last sixteen years? So in 2000, Bianca became the first lesbian teen on daytime television, creating television history with suprisingly little fanfare at the time. ABC is no stranger to lesbian-related controversy itself--in 1988, the network introduced the first recurring lesbian character on primetime TV (Marily McGrath, played by Gail Strickland, and her lover Patti, played by Gina Hecht on and in 1994, ABC weathered a rash of protests and advertiser backlash over Roseanne's kiss with Mariel Hemingway on an episode of (which several local ABC affiliates refused even to air). Audience, advertiser, and affiliate reaction was much more mixed in 1997 when the hoopla started around Ellen Degeneres' character coming-out on her ABC sitcom, and by the time ABC aired the first kiss between lesbian/bisexual teenage characters in 2002 (on the drama Once and Again), there was no negative advertising impact and only one ABC affiliate (in Virginia) refused to air the episode. / 2 - Next
- About Us The Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) believes the media is controlled by a small group of corporations. In response, it created the open source video player Miro as a way to make media available to the masses. Although the foundation receives funding from organizations like the Mozilla Foundation and Skyline Public Works, PCF relies heavily on hackers in the open source community and a small bevy of paid programmers to help develop its software. As a nonprofit organization, PCF sometimes has to get creative in order to pay the bills -- and thus its latest release. This week, PCF opened the Miro Store and began selling T-shirts to generate some cashflow and help compensate the on-staff programmers for the time they spend working on improving Miro. Though many open source development teams sell branded items as a way to infuse projects with cash, these fundraising shirts let less technically savvy people contribute by submitting shirt designs of their own for consideration. In fact, according to PCF's executive director, Nicholas Reville, the artists who designed the initial group of shirts aren't hackers at all. While they didn't contribute to Miro's codebase, "They are involved because they believe in the mission and support what we're doing," Reville says. The first two shirts to be rolled out were newly designed for the store's opening. Miro Bird was created by commercial artist Dan Funderburgh, and Exploding TV by graphic artist Jamie Buckmaster. Shirts bearing the Miro logo designed by Jon Hicks, creator of the Firefox icon, are available in three colors. The shirts are printed by VG Kids in Michigan and cost $18 each plus shipping. "About $7 to $9 per shirt goes to support Miro, and the rest covers the cost of printing and shipping the shirts," says Reville.
This is a revised version of a paper first presented in May 2013 in the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg University. Whereas the objective of the campaign against the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) did not change during these last two years, tactics became more sophisticated as they are no longer centred on the legitimacy of trying criminals but on the legitimacy of the Bangladeshi legal framework that, quite similarly to those addressing Nazi atrocities during Second World War, forbids revisionism of atrocities in the Bangladesh case. Whereas the technical intricacies of the issues involved remain certainly a fertile ground for interesting law expert debates, this paper continues to concentrate on the politics behind the debates. Continue reading What instigates genocide With the Taliban dominant, ISIS will have trouble making space in Pakistan—though the group is becoming more popular The brutal methods that the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) has become notorious for were already seen some years ago, first in Afghanistan and later in Pakistan, as the two branches of the Taliban in those countries took root. The Pakistani Taliban, in many ways, are the closest analogue of the terror group now expanding across the Arab world. Formed in 2007, the Pakistani Taliban seized territory, imposed its own brutal brand of Islamic law, executed opponents — including landowners, politicians, and others they deemed to be guilty of crimes of “vulgarity” and “heresy”. Women from among the famous “dancing girls of Swat” were found dead, their bodies dumped in the central square of Swat’s main town. Preachers of Sufi Islam, a syncretic form of the religion that puts a heavy emphasis on ascetic practices, were brutally killed – their bodies cut apart and hanged publicly. Continue reading ISIS and TTP – Pakistan a breeding or a battle ground? (By Frederic Grare) Bangladesh has plunged once again into one of those recurrent crises that have punctuated the country’s political life since independence. Khaleda Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition party, decided to commemorate the first anniversary of the 2014 parliamentary elections as the day of “the murder of democracy” at the start of the year, calling for a demonstration that was immediately outlawed by the government. Continue reading The inevitable crisis in Bangladesh By Asif Haroon Raja After absorbing 565 princely states at the time of partition of India, India annexed Hyderabad, Junagadh, two-thirds Kashmir, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Goa, Diu & Daman, Sikkim and cut Pakistan into two. India has water disputes with Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan and it is using water terrorism as a tool to humble Pakistan. India has border disputes with all its neighbors. Tied to four-fold caste system, India’s 2.8% ruling Brahmans have been carrying out massive human rights violations against all the minorities in India. Continue reading Is India a compulsive liar? Pakistan Cricket team have been leading the search quires on search engine giant Google, a study by search engine. Despite following the humiliating defeats from India and West Indies, the Green-shirts are still leading the search race. Continue reading Pakistan WC Team most searched on the internet Senate passes four bills pertaining to rape, honour killing, custodial offenses and privatisation The Parliament’s Upper House Monday passed four bills, including Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2014, and Anti-Honour Killings Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2014, moved by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Syeda Sughra Imam. Senator Imam said that honour killings are common throughout the country, claiming the lives of hundreds of victims every year. She quoted the Aurat Foundation’s statistics, saying that 432 women were reportedly killed in the name of honour in Pakistan in 2012, 705 in 2011, 557 in 2010, 604 in 2009 and 475 women were killed in 2008. Continue reading Bills pertaining to rape and honour killing passed in Senate The high level meeting of the provincial apex committee responsible for the implementation of the anti-terror National Action Plan in Karachi has shifted the focus back on Karachi operation. Chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, this meeting was attended by Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, Corps Commander Karachi Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar, DG ISI Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar, DG Rangers Bilal Akber, Pakistan People’s Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and other ministers and security agencies officials. Continue reading A new decisive phase for Karachi operation? The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, during the ongoing search and strike operation throughout the province, arrested 257 suspects on Sunday. Police also recovered 58 weapons of different kind. During snap checking on 134 checkpoints, 200 suspects were held while a total of 46 unregistered Afghan nationals were also detained and 20 cases registered against them. Security inspections of 788 educational institutions were also carried out and various institutions were advised to beef up security arrangements further. Continue reading KP police arrest 257 suspects throughout the province Soon after taking oath, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Sunday stoked a controversy saying Hurriyat, militant outfits and “people from across the border”, an oblique reference to Pakistan, allowed conducive atmosphere for assembly polls, drawing sharp reaction from NC leader Omar Abdullah who demanded that BJP clarify its stand. “I want to say this on record and I have told this to the Prime Minister that the we must credit the Hurriyat, Pakistan, militant outfits for the conduct of assembly elections in the state,” Sayeed said during a press conference here after being sworn in as head of the PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir at a ceremony which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Continue reading Why did the new CM of Indian Occupied Kashmir thank Pakistan? Waking up from a deep slumber after decades, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Textbook Board has begun developing books on Ethics as an alternative subject to Islamiat for non-Muslim schoolchildren in the province. Currently, Islamiat is not compulsory for non-Muslim students at schools. They can opt for Ethics subject in place of Islamiat. Ironically, the KPTB hasn’t yet developed Ethics textbooks for public and private schools in the province. Continue reading Non-Muslim students to get new Ethics text books in KP
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Feel that biological clock starting to tick? No need to worry, say researchers. There's no medical reason to prevent healthy women in their 50s from turning back their biological clocks and having babies with donated eggs, according to the biggest study of motherhood after menopause. Researchers said older women were likely to have Caesarean births and faced high rates of pregnancy-induced diabetes and high blood pressure. But those conditions are temporary, treatable and not reason enough to exclude them from trying to get pregnant.
During my childhood, our kitchen sink and washing machine were connected to a grease trap. It was an outdoor, underground concrete tank that periodically needed scraping to remove all the fat, scum and grease that filtered through the plumbing. Washing and cooking for four girls meant the grease trap and its sibling septic tank were always working as hard as they could. If the grease trap overflowed on a hot summer day, you didn't want to be near it. Dad always dreaded cleaning it out. Plants never thrived near it. Nowadays, everyone thinks garbage disposals - and public sewage systems - provide a fat-free lifestyle. That's false thinking. What you put down your drain or in your garbage disposal can have an adverse impact on the environment - and your plumbing. Which is why the Hampton Roads Sanitation District is promoting its "Trash the Fat" campaign and Web site that encourages everyone - restaurants and homeowners - to scrape plates clean before washing and to pour cooking grease and oils into a container for proper disposal later. The James City Service Authority launched a similar effort - "Don't Strain the Drain." Putting fatty, oily and greasy materials - meats, sauces, salad dressings, deep-fried dishes, cookies, pastries, icing and butter - down a sink can lead to a clogged sewer line that can cause wastewater to back up in your home or business, spill into streets and even find its way into storm drains and along beautiful beaches, according to local "grease busters." Sanitation experts also ask that you don't pour oil down a storm drain because it's the same as pouring it directly into a waterway. "Only rain in storm drains," they plead. What can you do to help? Grease busters offer these tips: Never pour grease down sink drains or into toilets. Avoid using hot water to wash grease away because it just pushes the problem further into the sewage system. Remove excess grease left on cookware and kitchen utensils with a paper towel and dispose of it in the trash. Scrape excess food scraps left on cookware and plates into the trash, not down the garbage disposal. Pour cooled oil and grease into an old glass jar or can and dispose of it in the trash or take it to one of the fats, oils and grease recycling containers. In James City County, they are located at 1204 Jolly Pond Road, 107 Tewning Road and 185 Industrial Blvd; for more information, visit www.jccEgov.com/jcsa or call 253-6859. York County accepts grease at the recycling center on Goodwin Neck Road. More recycling sites can be found at www.FatFreeDrains.com. You also can store cooking oil in the original container for future use. Strain out any particles and freeze; oil can be kept for up to six months and reused for up to six hours of fry time. *Freeze and throw hardened oil away on trash day. Or, mix it with unscented kitty litter, sawdust or sand to solidify the oil; dispose of it in the trash. DECORATE WITH LANDMARKS Visions of the bandstand at Fort Monroe, the Emancipation Oak at Hampton University, the Hampton Carousel and the Cape Henry Lighthouse are new additions to the 25 handcrafted holiday ornaments in the Virginia Heirloom Ornaments collection at McDonald Garden Center, 1139 W. Pembroke Ave., Hampton. Call 722-7463 for more information. THINGS TO DO Christmas Market. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Browse for Christmas greens and wreaths, local produce, furniture, gourmet foods and more along Main Street in Yorktown. Model trains, Santa, entertainment, classic cars, special shops/museums open and free trolleys, too. Free admission. 890-3500. Living decor. 2-3:30 p.m. Saturday. Learn how to use live cuttings to decorate for the holidays during a workshop at Smithfield Gardens, Route 17, Suffolk. Free; register in advance. 238-2511. Christmas Festival. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Shop for wreaths, fresh-cut trees and greens, greenhouses filled with flowers and more at Maplewood Gardens, Route 13, Eastern Shore. Hayrides, food and music, too. Free. www.maplewoodgardens.com; 757-442-9071. Holiday exhibit. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, until 8 p.m. Tuesday/Thursday in December. U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., features nine trains around a holiday tree, National Mall display, poinsettias and holiday trees. Free admission. www.usbg.gov; 202-225-8333. Antiques/Artisans Show. 10 a.m.-5 pm. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Shop for furniture, decor, jewelry and art during the Colonial Christmas Antiques and Artisans Show at the George Washington Inn and Conference Center on Second Street in Williamsburg. $6 adults, free ages 12 and under. www.AAShow.com.
The coming year will represent "the chance of a lifetime" for many of Orange County's estimated 100,000 illegal aliens, who are expected to apply for legal resident status under the new federal immigration law. The Immigration and Naturalization Service will not begin accepting applications until early May, but hundreds of undocumented residents have been briefed on the new law at church workshops and have begun collecting documents needed to support their amnesty applications. Illegal aliens who have lived in the United States continuously since Jan. 1, 1982, are eligible for temporary resident status under the new legislation. The five-year requirement does not apply to farm workers, however, who are eligible for legal resident status if they worked at least 90 days in the fields between May 1, 1985, and May 1, 1986. Father Jaime Soto, director of Catholic Charities in Orange County, estimates that between 50,000 and 60,000 of the county's illegal aliens will apply for amnesty before the May, 1988, deadline.
The precarious Northern Ireland agreement has an uncertain future. Its success will depend largely on the forgiving acts of people labeled Republican or Unionist, Catholic or Protestant. The choice before them seems simple. They may forgive and follow up the act with consequences, which means beginning the long process of finding peace and enjoying productive lives. Or they can continue to act on the basis of anger and the impulse to wreak revenge. Forgiving in such circumstances is not forgetting; the aggrieved and raging partisans cannot forget their wounds even if they try. If they feel wronged, as they do, they will not let wrongdoers off the hook and excuse them with a "never mind!" The mind, conscience and emotions do not work that way. They are wrenched by the temptation to hold on to their instinct for revenge, but they do not give in to it. The South African reconcilers do want to hold the guilty responsible for their evils. They will not let the experience and recall of evil have the last word. Their kind of forgiveness also occurs in one-to-one relations. When, a few years ago, Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin of Chicago met with a young man who had falsely accused him of terrible acts, or when Pope John Paul II met the man who had almost succeeded in killing him, they both forgave. In no case did they contribute to a world in which everything is allowed. In both traumas, they had suffered terrible wounds, in the pope's case, of a physical sort that must have hurt almost as much as Bernardin's psychic wounds. These Catholic leaders were not wiping a slate clean or softly excusing people. They were actively, willfully, turning their natural impulse to store up rage into gifts that showed their self-respect and that were liberating for themselves and their wrongdoers. They would say they could act and will this because God was their forgiver, their model.
The driver of a trailer carrying 12 military veterans and their wives in a Midland, Texas, parade continued through a railroad crossing even as the intersection's warning lights and bells alerted traffic to stop, federal investigators said Saturday. But what National Transportation Safety Board officials have not determined is whether the driver in Thursday's crash noticed the warnings and whether the crossing system's safeguards were working properly, giving the driver sufficient time to act. In a briefing Saturday, NTSB member Mark Rosekind listed what happened in the moments before the accident, a meticulous breakdown of the events leading to four deaths and 16 injuries: Twenty-one seconds before the crash, the crossing's southbound traffic signal turned green. At 20 seconds, the crossing's warning lights began to flash and the bells sounded. At the same time, the lead parade float's trailer crossed the southern edge of the track's rail and made it through. Thirteen seconds before impact, the crossing arms began to come down. One second later, the trailer carrying the veterans began crossing the track, its front tires rolling over the northern edge of the rail. Three seconds later, the train engineer blasted his horn, stretching out the blare for four seconds. Seven seconds before impact, one of the crossing arms crashed into a flagpole on the parade float. Two seconds later, the engineer hit the emergency brakes. At 4:36 p.m., the 80-car train slammed into the trailer at 62 mph. It took more than a minute to come to a complete halt. “What we're really looking at is layers of protection here,” Rosekind said. The lights and bells start so traffic can stop, but the gates come down several seconds later so vehicles can get out of the way, he said. The 20-second warning time is the federal minimum. “There's typically going to be at least a 20-second period before the train is going to be in that crossing,” Rosekind said. “It doesn't always happen that way.” The Union Pacific locomotive had a pristine maintenance record and had no mechanical anomalies, investigators concluded. The track speed limit in that area is 70 mph, so the train was going slower than required. Investigators interviewed the train's conductor and engineer Saturday. They have reached out to the driver's company, which they did not identify. NTSB officials have said the driver voluntarily gave police a blood sample. The accident was a tragic end to what was supposed to be the start of a relaxing weekend for the veterans. Besides the parade, the group was booked for an all-expenses-paid hunting trip. Instead, a community is grieving. Police identified the dead as Army Sgts. Maj. Gary Stouffer, 37, and Lawrence Boivin, 47, who were pronounced dead at the scene, and Sgt. Joshua Michael, 34, and Sgt. Maj. William Lubbers, 43, who died later at Midland Memorial Hospital. Four people remained hospitalized, including one in critical condition. [For the record, 9:36 p.m. Nov. 17: A previous version of this article incorrectly said that the first float to cross the tracks carried the veterans. They were on the second float.]
Dinosaurs Alive, an exhibit of life-size, robotic prehistoric animals, opens tomorrow in Scranton's Nay Aug Park. Although the dinosaurs already have been in major museums in Philadelphia, New York and Washington, officials at Scranton's Everhart Museum figure thousands of people still have not had a chance to see them. And those who have might want to see them again. "There have always been lines in every city that has had them," said museum spokesman Ken Medd. The dinosaurs will be in an enclosed pavilion at the park, where the museum is located, through July 14. They include Tyrannosaurus Rex; Allosaurus; Aptosaurus and its baby; Stegosaurus and its baby; Triceratops; Dimetrodon, and Pachycephalosaurus. The exhibit will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until dusk Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is $4, $2 for children under 13. Medd expects weekday afternoons will be the least crowded time to go. The dinosaurs are expected to attract many new visitors to the Everhart, which has related displays in its lower-level gallery. The museum, the only one of its kind in northeastern Pennsylvania, houses natural history, science and fine-arts collections. For information, call 717-346-8370. VACATIONS START WITH PLANNER Pennsylvania's 1991 Spring/Summer Travel Planner is a 129-page guide filled with vacation ideas -- including historic sites, outdoor activities, museums, attractions and more than 700 special events. For a free copy, write: Pennsylvania Department of Commerce, Bureau of Travel Marketing, Box 61, Warrendale, Pa., 15086. Or call 800-847-4872, extension 99. HISTORIC GARDENS WEEK IN VIRGINIA Two hundred owners of Virginia's outstanding homes and gardens will welcome visitors during the 58th Historic Garden Week, which begins Saturday and continues through April 28. Historic Garden Week claims to be the oldest, largest and only state-wide house and garden tour in the United States. Visitors will enjoy grounds and gardens at 50 historic landmarks, plus plantations and the homes of six U.S. presidents -- all displaying important architecture, rare art and priceless furnishings. A free 180-page guidebook will be available at locations on the tour. The event is sponsored by the Garden Club of Virginia. For details, call 804-644-7776 or 804-643-7141. * The 6th annual DooDah Parade -- a showcase for suitcase drill teams, raisin brigades and kazoo bands -- will be noon Saturday in Ocean City, N.J. The light-hearted march will be led by the Philadelphia Chapter of Friendly Raccoons, which emulates characters from Jackie Gleason's "Honeymooners" TV show. Musical groups will include hobo and bagpipe bands, as well as string bands. To enter the parade, or for more information, call 609-399-6111, ext. 222. * A Nostalgia Days Festival -- a Gay Nineties celebration -- will be Friday through Sunday in Rehoboth Beach, Del. It is part of the seaside resort's year-long 100th birthday celebration. Entertainment, including nightly band concerts, is scheduled all three days. Activities begin at 1 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. Saturday and noon Sunday. Fireworks will be at 8 p.m. Saturday. For more about the festival and other centennial events, call 302-227-6181. For accommodations, call 800-441-1329 or 302-227-2233. * The Wilmington & Western, Delaware's only passenger train, begins its 26th year with trips at noon and 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Round trips lasting two hours begin at Greenbank Station, along Route 41 just north of Route 2 near Wilmington. Admission is $10, $8 for seniors, $5 for children 2 to 12. For reservations, call 302-999-9008. * The 9th annual Washington Craft Show, featuring 100 artists selected from more than 1,275 nationwide, will be Thursday through Sunday in the Smithsonian Institution's Departmental Auditorium, 1301 Constitution Ave., Washington, D.C. The site is across from the National Museum of American History. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, until 8 p.m. Friday. Admission is $6, $5 for those under 12 and over 65. Call 202-357-2700. * Children's Day will be 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Old Barracks Museum in Trenton, N.J. Youngsters will make kites, dip candles, participate in 18th-century games and dances and learn about the Revolutionary War from Continental soldiers. Admission is $2, $1 for seniors and students, 50 cents for children under 12. Rain date is 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. The museum is on Barrack Street, next to the New Jersey State House. Call 609-396-1776.
On November 14th through the 16th, 2014, an event will take place in Ashland, Oregon that may change the way you view art in the world. It will bring together some of the world’s most creative minds for a weekend of inspirational workshops, discussions and presentations. Think “TED” talks with hands-on workshops. Our artists/presenters will lead workshops aimed at inspiring regional art students from middle school through college as well as adult students. Plus, our evening presentations will be inspirational to anyone who attends. We are proud to feature these guests artists for Art Inspires Ashland 2014! Dan Thompson lives and works in New York City, where he focuses on painting and drawing from life. His work has been exhibited in public and private collections throughout the world, including the Eleanor Ettinger Gallery, John Pence Gallery, Arcadia Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Pasadena Museum of California Art, the National Arts Club in New York, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. and The World Art Museum in Beijing. Since 2006, he has co-founded two schools of art in New York City and regularly conducts workshops all over the United States. Jean Williams Cacicedo received a BFA in Sculpture from the Pratt Institute, New York, in 1970. Based in Berkeley, Jean has been both teacher, curator, lecturer and visiting artist in many schools including CCA Oakland, Penland School North Carolina, Spilt Rock Arts Program U of Minnesota, Shakerag Workshops Tennessee, RMIT Melbourne, Australia, and Hong Kong Polytechnic China. Jean was a prime innovator in the Wearable Art Movement of the 70’s. For over three decades she has worked both on and off the body, incorporating a special process she developed for wool fabrics as well as works on paper. In 2000, a 30-year retrospective of her work was featured at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, California. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the de Young Museum, San Francisco, Oakland Museum of California, and Museum of Art and Design, NYC. Natalie Fletcher creates incredible landscape camouflage illusions blending models into natural scenery. Originally from Texas, Natalie moved to Ashland, Oregon in 2006 to attend a four-year intensive painting program. After graduating, Natalie got her first job as a body painter. She instantly loved it: the interactions and the excitement of painting a human. It was new and fresh and unlike painting on canvas. During 2014, Natalie was a contestant on the reality-television body painting competition called Skin Wars. And, on September 24th, 2014, Natalie Fletcher became the first Skin Wars champion! In the final episode, when asked what she would do if she won the $100,000 prize, she said she would become an art advocate for body painting and show how beautiful an art form it is.

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