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warc | 201704 | Premium Food and Wine Co-Innovation Cluster Program
Program ID:
10514
Overview
This program seeks to support local regional agriculture and food and wine businesses to become more collaborative, productive and globally competitive.
It aims to improve the long term growth and competitiveness of South Australian agriculture, food and wine industries by establishing a regional co-innovation cluster pilot program, starting in the Murraylands and Riverland and Limestone Coast regions. It will also have the potential to contribute to increased reliability of supply, consistency of quality, the demonstration of strong environmental credentials and more customer focused produce differentiation.
Round 2 is intended to give the opportunity for existing and new groups to enhance the development of those groups into sustainable clusters.
Grants of up to $70,000 per project are available.
As announced in the 2015-16 South Australian Budget, the total funding pool of $2.7 million for this program, which commenced on 2013-14, will still be provided by the government, with $490,000 available for businesses in the Riverland, Murraylands and Limestone Coast to enhance collaboration and growth through innovation.
Who Can Apply
Eligible applicants must be legal business entities that represent a group of firms or businesses that can be identified as a sector or industry group and that have a clear commitment to participate.
The program encourages and support collaboration between members of the applicant group and potentially other relevant stakeholders, including from the sectors of research and development, education, finance and government.
Eligible Activities
Eligible activities are those that will help to overcome limitations in:
- Developing sustainable supply chains
- Improving productivity
- Increasing innovation capacity
- Facilitating commercialisation of innovation
- Generating employment
Main Assessment Criteria
The main assessment criteria include:
1. Essential criteria
- Contribute to the government’s Priority of Premium Food and Wine from the Clean Environment.
- Have a direct connection to either Murraylands and Riverland or Limestone Coast RDA regions.
- Demonstrate a significant level of collaboration with key industry and government stakeholders.
- Have a clear project plan with measurable milestones and outcomes.
- Demonstrate some form of innovation that will lead to a positive economic outcome.
- Demonstrate that the project will have a positive and sustainable impact on the relevant regional economy through either diversification or building on the regions competitive strengths.
2. Desirable criteria
- Maximise leverage from alternative sources of funding (e.g. private investment, or other spheres of government).
- Have broad support for the project from the appropriate industry sector.
- Support small to medium sized businesses.
- Increase in exports or sales out of the region.
- Supported by local government or Regional Development Australia.
- Generate economic benefits to the relevant regional community.
Applies to
Documentation Uploaded
Guidelines December 2016 Download
Recipients December 2016 Download
Use these documents as a guide only - always get the latest direct from the Administrator
Status
Pending
Start Application
16 January 2015
Opening Date
30 January 2015
Closing Date
27 March 2015
Closing Information
The next funding round is yet to be announced.
Requires Co-contribution?
Yes
Industry
General - Non-Industry Specific
Agriculture Education Finance and Business Services Food and Beverage
Activities
Environment and Sustainability
Innovation and R&D Training / Employment
Department
Department of Primary Industries and Resources (DPIR)
Program Administrator
Primary Industries and Resources of South Australia (PIRSA) | 3,869 | 1,774 | 0.000574 |
warc | 201704 | The opinion of the court was delivered by: THELTON HENDERSON, Senior District Judge
ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO DISMISS CLAIMS FOUR THROUGH TEN
This matter came before the Court on July 11, 2005, on
Defendant's Motion to Dismiss the fourth through tenth claims in
this action under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1), or alternatively,
Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Defendant contends that this Court is
barred, under Section 113(h) of CERCLA, from exercising
jurisdiction over Plaintiff's fourth through tenth claims because
they improperly seek to challenge the government's ongoing clean
up of a contaminated site. Defendant also contends that this
Court lacks jurisdiction over Plaintiff's fifth through tenth
claims on the ground that they are barred by the discretionary
function and misrepresentation exceptions to the FTCA. Having
carefully considered the parties' extensive written and oral
arguments, supplemental filings, and the entire record herein,
the Court grants Defendant's motion for the reasons set forth
below.
I. BACKGROUND On September 2, 1999, Plaintiff, Shea Homes Limited Partnership
("Shea") purchased a 10 acre parcel of property in Novato,
California, which was previously part of the Hamilton Air Force
Base ("HAFB") prior to its closure in 1974. On December 30, 1999,
Shea acquired an adjoining 18 acre parcel. The combined 28 acre
property adjoins a part of the former HAFB which used to be the
primary repository for garbage generated at the HAFB (including
solid and hazardous wastes) from the early 1940s until 1974. This
area is now referred to as Landfill 26 ("LF 26"). It is roughly
47 acres in size, and consists of a 200 foot buffer zone
surrounding a 30 acre landfill "cap" that covers the area where
the garbage was formerly deposited. Shea, a large residential
housing developer, developed the 28 acres it purchased in 1999,
and has transferred ownership of some or all of the property to
third-parties. It contends, however, that Defendant, the United
States, failed to meet its obligations to address the
contamination at LF 26, causing Shea to suffer damages.
Since 1986, the United States Army Corps of Engineers ("Corps")
has been in engaged in various efforts to investigate, remediate,
and monitor the waste in LF 26 pursuant to the Defense
Environmental Restoration Program Formerly Used Defense Sites
("DERP-FUDS") and orders issued by the Regional Water Quality
Control Board ("RWQCB"). The basic remedy chosen was the
installation of the cap, referenced above, which was installed in
1994-95 and covers the landfill, a ground water treatment system,
and a gas perimeter monitoring network.
In June 1996, methane in excess of 5.7% by volume was detected
at one of the LF 26 perimeter gas monitoring probes ("GMP") GMP
No. 5. Further sampling in early and mid 1999 did not detect
methane in excess of 5% by volume. In September 1999, however,
after Shea's purchase of the first 10 acre parcel, methane was
again detected in excess of 5 % by volume at GMP 5 (17.3%) and
GMP 9 (9.8%). Subsequent monitoring in October 1999 and December
1999 did not detect methane in excess of 5%.
In October 1999, the RWQCB did not approve final closure of the
site and ordered further landfill gas sampling. In June 2000, the
Corps began a supplemental testing program. By the Fall of 2000, the Corps determined that methane
might be migrating off-site from LF 26 in excess of 5% by volume
and that further action was required. On February 7, 2001, the
RWQCB directed the Corps to submit a plan to, inter alia,
reduce methane to below compliance levels. In March 2001, the
Corps proposed and evaluated seven approaches for controlling
methane migration. In April 2001, the RWQCB raised various
concerns with respect to the proposed remedial options, and
directed the Corps to implement (1) an interim stopgap measure to
immediately intercept gas migrating from LF 26 and towards the
Hamilton Meadows development, (2) a long-term management plan of
methane at its source, and (3) a time-schedule for implementing
the gas collection and treatment activities.
In December 2001, the RWQCB issued Cleanup and Abatement Order
("CAO") 01-139 requiring the Corps to investigate, design, and
implement a final remedy with respect to the methane or face
civil penalties. Between January 2002 and January 2003, the Corps
installed a 1600 foot Vent Trench with an impermeable liner in
the buffer zone area between the landfill cap and Shea's property
in order to intercept any landfill gas prior to migrating
off-site. The Corps is currently evaluating the effectiveness of
the Trench. The Corps is also working under a RWQCB-imposed
deadline of September 30, 2006 for the installation and operation
of a "Landfill Corrective Action [gas control system]." See
Def.'s Ex. 31 at 10.
Shea does "not challenge[] the remedy selected by Defendant to
abate the contamination." Pl.'s Opp. at 2. It complains, however,
that the Corp has failed to properly and timely implement its
remedy and to satisfactorily abate the contamination, causing it
to suffer damages. Id. at 1-2. The instant action seeks
monetary damages and injunctive relief. Specifically, the
complaint asserts claims for (1) cost recovery and contribution
under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act ("CERCLA"), 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq., (2) for
injunctive relief under the Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act ("RCRA"), 42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq., and (3) tort damages based on claims of public and private nuisance, trespass,
negligence, negligence per se and equitable indemnity.
Defendants subsequently filed the instant motion under
Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) to dismiss the RCRA and tort-based claims on the
ground that the claims are barred by (1) exceptions to the
Federal Tort Claims Act, and/or (2) section 113(h) of
CERCLA.*fn1 The Court addresses these arguments in turn.
II. FEDERAL TORT CLAIMS ACT
Defendant contends that this Court lacks jurisdiction over
Plaintiff's state law tort claims because they fall within the
discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act
("FTCA"), which provides for a limited waiver of sovereign
immunity from claims for damages against the United States.
United States v. Gaubert, 499 U.S. 315 (1991). It is the
government's burden to demonstrate that this exception applies.
Prescott v. U.S., 973 F.2d 696, 703 (9th Cir. 1992).
The discretionary function exception to the FTCA "is a
statutory reservation of sovereign immunity for a particular
class of tort claims." Gager v. United States, 149 F.3d 918
,
920 (1998). It provides that liability under the FTCA shall not
extend to a claim:
based upon the exercise or performance or the failure
to exercise or perform a discretionary function or
duty on the part of a federal agency or an employee
of the Government, whether or not the discretion
involved is abused.
28 U.S.C. § 2680(a). The basic purpose of the exception is to
protect the government from "judicial `second guessing' of
legislative and administrative decisions grounded in social,
economic, and political policy through the medium of an action in
tort." United States v. Varig Airlines, 467 U.S. 797
, 814
(1984). It "marks the boundary between Congress' willingness to
impose tort liability upon the United States and its desire to
protect certain governmental activities from exposure to suit by private
individuals." Aragon v. United States, 146 F.3d 819
, 822 (10th
Cir. 1998).
In Berkovitz v. United States, 486 U.S. 531 (1988), the
Supreme Court established a two-tier analysis for identifying
which governmental functions are discretionary for purposes of
the exception. First, a court must examine whether the challenged
conduct involves an element of judgment or choice, since "conduct
cannot be discretionary unless it involves an element of judgment
or choice." Berkovitz, 486 U.S. at 536. Conversely, the
exception does not apply if the statute, regulation, or policy at
issue prescribes a specific course of action. Aragon v. United
States, 146 F.3d 819, 823-24 (10th Cir. 1983). In such a case,
the employee has "no rightful option but to adhere to the
directive." Id.
If the Court finds that the challenged conduct was
"discretionary," then the court must analyze whether the
discretion exercised was of the type that the exception was
designed to shield i.e., choices that are grounded in social,
economic, and political policy. Gaubert, 499 U.S. 315. The
exception extends from broad policy decisions made at the highest
levels to "low-level employees making discretionary day-to-day
management decisions based on policy considerations." Childers
v. U.S., 40 F.3d 973, 974 n. 1 (9th Cir. 1995). Whether the
government in ... | 8,914 | 4,157 | 0.000246 |
warc | 201704 | Washington, DC | Investors and buyers have funneled record amounts of capital into forestry projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions by conserving forests and capturing carbon in trees, according to a global survey of carbon market participants published on Thursday by Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace.
“Contracts for forest carbon offsets more than doubled over the past two years, likely due to international policy discussions, and increased awareness of the critical role forests play in sequestering carbon,” says Katherine Hamilton, Ecosystem Marketplace’s Director and a report author.
Co-author David Diaz, also of Ecosystem Marketplace, agrees with the clear signs of progress, but sees a long road ahead.
“These markets have shown tremendous innovation and growth, but we are still a long way from channeling a sufficient amount of funding to reign in global forest loss as a critical source of greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
This is Ecosystem Marketplace’s second State of the Forest Carbon Markets report, which is compiled annually and builds upon data from hundreds of projects and interviews with dozens of market participants to uncover and analyzes trends by project type, country, and regulatory environment.
“This excellent source of information on market transactions in the forest realm is a vital part of our long-term vision to support land-use projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change in an environmentally and socially responsible manner,” says Ellysar Baroudy, who manages the World Bank’s BioCarbon Fund. “The forest carbon market is gaining momentum and it’s important to step back once a year, take stock of the achievements to date as well as the challenges, and use this data to prepare for the future.”
The report shows a decline in the number of projects that plant trees, a steady increase in projects that promote improved forest management, and a surge in projects that save endangered rainforests (REDD – Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation). Indeed, despite being the source of the earliest carbon offset transactions, REDD projects roared back from near obscurity just a few years ago to account for nearly 70% of the market activity last year.
The report also finds an influx of private-sector project developers, investors and intermediaries willing to market these credits – a clear transition from previous years, when conservation non-profits paved the way by developing most of these projects.
“The influx of private-sector investment is a positive indication that some of the major financial firms have a level of confidence – albeit backed by early-stage market risk – that forest carbon projects will play a significant role in the future of carbon markets and in reducing global GHG emissions,” says Steve Baczko, Director of Commercialization for ERA Ecosystem Restoration Associates Inc.
A strong demand for projects with other environmental and social benefits beyond carbon reductions is also now apparent, particularly through independent certification of each project’s carbon reductions and broader environmental and community benefits. In 2010, the leading standard for demonstrating carbon reductions was the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), which was applied to more than half of the credits projects planned to deliver. Beyond carbon, additional certifications to the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards found widespread appeal.
The hundreds of projects tracked in this report (many of which have public profiles on Ecosystem Marketplace’s Forest Carbon Portal, www.forestcarbonportal.com), come from a broad spectrum of project developers, governments, indigenous and community groups, and the private sector demonstrate that forests projects can and are meeting many of the demands for high-quality emissions reductions. What remains to be seen is whether this work of this diverse sector will be meaningfully scaled up and incorporated into the efforts international negotiators and other policymakers are now designing for the bigger fight against climate change and to conserve the world’s forests.
The State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2011 is public and freely available thanks to support from the report’s Premium Sponsors – Wildlife Works Carbon, ERA Ecosystem Restoration Associates Inc., and the World Bank BioCarbon Fund – and Sponsors – Ecotrust, Face the Future, Forest Carbon Group, Det Norske Veritas, and Baker & McKenzie.
Support for Ecosystem Marketplace comes from USAID, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the United Nations Development Programme, the Global Environment Facility, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. For a copy of the report, please visit www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/reports/forestcarbon2011. | 5,031 | 2,324 | 0.000443 |
warc | 201704 | The Ratchet Effect can be found in economies, societies and households facing declines in income and results (diminishing returns). The Ratchet Effect is one key reason why meaningful reform of the status quo is impossible. In flush times, budgets expand as easily as waistlines, ratcheting up to consume ever-higher revenues. But once revenues start declining, the administrative/consumerist status quo is fiercely resistant to any reduction.
Like a body which has grown fat from excessive consumption, the status quo will resist any reduction in staffing or spending, sacrificing muscle to keep its layers of fat untouched.
Correspondent Kevin K. submitted this example of the ratchet Effect in higher education:Top ranks swelled at University of California at Davis:
UC Davis' administration fattened up in a way few other campuses nationwide could match from 1993 to 2007, with the third-highest increase in ratio of administrators to students among 198 universities.
UCD went from 3.2 full-time administrators per 100 students to 13.5. That 321.9 percent increase also was the highest in the 10-campus University of California system.
The figures are included in Administrative Bloat at American Universities: The Real Reason for High Costs in Higher Education.
Here is a telling tidbit from that report:
Arizona State University, for example, increased the number of administrators per 100 students by 94 percent during this period while actually reducing the number of employees engaged in instruction, research and service by 2 percent. Nearly half of all full-time employees at Arizona State University are administrators.
These same "ratcheting" trends are present in my alma mater, the University of Hawaii: administrative staff has continued expanding even as teaching positions have been slashed year after year: the "fat" defends itself with political victories in what I call
internecine war between protected fiefdoms in Survival+, cutting the muscle of the university (the teaching staff) to do so.
Meanwhile, as the maintenance department's budget has bloated up, the campus is slowly falling apart; the cause, we are told, is lack of funding, yet salaries, pensions and benefits have been rising for years. Could incompetence, inefficiency and plain old laziness have anything to do with the abysmal maintenance? That question is quickly snuffed out before it can ever be answered.
Security staffing has also risen, even as "crime" remains muted on campus and the security staff does little beyond writing parking tickets.
Even as the state's premier campus falls into disrepair, the system's top administration is doggedly constructing a massive new and totally unnecessary campus less than 40 miles from its main campus in Manoa, a political move to reward the powerful construction unions and justify its own rising headcount.
Salaries of top administrators have skyrocketed, supposedly to "match comparable private-sector salaries." Uh, right; how many private-sector assistant vice-presidents do you know who make $150K a year plus massive bennies? How many qualified candidates who would gladly take the job for $100K are among the nation's 8.5 million unemployed/10 million under-employed?
We all know how this works in an organization: when revenues are rising, everybody suddenly needs an assistant. In no time at all, meetings are being called to discuss the strategic planning process for calling meetings, and pretty soon there are more admirals and generals than during World War II when the Armed Forces were 10 times current force levels.
Mission creep sets in, and suddenly the corporation "should" be in everybody else's business, and it starts buying enterprises which add no value or enters markets it knows nothing about. The military soon needs to fight 2.5 wars globally, because you never know when the Bad Guys might decide to coordinate their attacks on us, and the National Security State realizes it botched its inter-agency coordination, so it contracts out huge new fiefdoms to enhance the coordination which it didn't have with fewer agencies and contractors....
It's called diminishing marginal returns. Throwing ever-larger sums of money at the (self-created) "problem" produces ever-less meaningful output. On the household level, people accustomed to a certain level of consumption and "lifestyle" are pulling money out of their 401Ks to fill the gap between their income and expenses. Stories like this pop up with sobering regularity: Fidelity sees record number raid their 401(k)s. What's also eye-opening is that 45 percent of participants who took a hardship withdrawal a year ago took another one this year.
A key concern is that these withdrawals are just that, they are not loans. As a result there can be a significant impact on someone's overall retirement savings. If the worker is younger than 59½, they'll pay a 10 percent penalty for early withdrawal in addition to taxes.
The good news in the report was that the average 401(k) account balance as of the end of the second quarter was $61,800; up 15 percent from the same time last year, but down from the end of the first quarter of 2010.
$62,000 isn't exactly a King's ransom in today's economy, but it sure is worth resisting the urge to withdraw it all to pay for things which are no longer affordable out of income.
Yes, some families are withdrawing 401K funds to pay for emergency medical care, and that is a tragic necessity. But is paying for education really a hardship? If the family can't afford $30,000 a year for college, then perhaps Junior should live at home and attend the state school or even community college.
The key data point here is that people are returning to the 401K well year after year. That suggests the possibility that the gap between income and expense is regarded as a hardship or crisis that won't go away until income rises to meet expenses, rather than the more painful solution of slashing expenses to meet income.
Anecdotally, I am hearing stories of husbands broaching a serious downsizing in housing and expenses, and being told "no way" by their spouses.
So the household's "muscle"--its capital, cash and retirement nesteggs--are all sacrificed to keep the "fat" of a bloated mortgage and consumer lifestyle intact.
Add The Ratchet Effect as another reason Why Nothing Changes and why reforming the status quo is effectively impossible. When the ability to tap cash or borrow runs out, then resistance to reduced expenses caves in all at once as the organization, state or household's basic insolvency can no longer be denied.
If you would like to post a comment where others can read it, please go to DailyJava.net, (registering only takes a moment), select Of Two Minds-Charles Smith, and then go to The daily topic. To see other readers recent comments, go to New Posts. Order Survival+: Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation and/or Survival+ The Primer from your local bookseller or from amazon.com or in ebook and Kindle formats.A 20% discount is available from the publisher. Of Two Minds is now available via Kindle: Of Two Minds blog-Kindle Thank you, "someone you know" ($10) for your much-appreciated generous contribution to this site-- I am greatly honored by your support and readership. | 7,329 | 3,614 | 0.000279 |
warc | 201704 | By Peter Pfeffer
We are in the season of goodwill. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa. Regardless of cultural traditions, this time of year seems to pull on our hearts. There is a spirit of excitement and anticipation for what’s coming.
What will the New Year bring? Without a plan the year will certainly unfold, but what if we put the same thought and preparation into the new year as our last vacation? While some save goal setting and planning for New Year’s resolutions, there is sense in starting now. Maxwell Maltz, MD, found it took 90 days to get our minds around our goals and intentions and “cook” them to the point we could achieve them. That means October 1 was the best time to set next year’s goals, but the second best time is now!
Goal setting can be a big project, but if chunked into five simple steps the job becomes easy.
Ideas. We all have ideas. Make a list. Goals. The good ideas, worthy of pursuit, are prioritized. Planning. Create a plan with steps and a timeline outlining a path toward completion. Action. Act on your plan, putting the wheels of success in motion! Results. If you reached your intended outcome, move on to your next goal! If you did not, cycle back through the steps asking: Was the goal reasonable? Were the steps specific? Was there enough action?
A useful way to categorize your goals is with the 6 P’s.
Purpose: How and why this goal defines us. Personal: These affect our personal life, like weight loss or books to read. People: What relationships will we grow and develop? Professional: What changes or advances do we want in our career? Prosperity: How much will we make? Save? Give? Play: What toys, what trips and what experiences will you have?
Make a list! Put your goals into the categories, and pick your top three goals in each category. This builds concentration and focus. Now take action and enjoy the results.
Peter Pfeffer is a doctor of chiropractic with HealthSource Chiropractic and Progressive Rehab in Alexandria and a leadership coach for HealthSource Corporate. | 2,082 | 1,130 | 0.000902 |
warc | 201704 | The Augusta Commission for several years has been looking for ways to reroute Norfolk and Southern railroad tracks out of the downtown area. There is nothing more of an impediment to healthy downtown business development than those infernal tracks.
The productivity costs alone are enormous. Employees waste hundreds of hours each year waiting for trains to get out of their way so they can get on with their work. It's staggering to consider the lost wages, productiion and opportunities tracks cost this city.
The imminent extension of Bobby Jones Expressway offers a window of opportunity to finally move the tracks out of downtown. The Augusta proposal would relocate the railroad river crossing from where it is now near the Fifth Street Bridge to go parallel with Bobby Jones Expressway across the river into South Carolina.
This, of course, would require approval and participation by North Augusta and, quite likely, Aiken County authorities as well. Land for a key section of the proposed new track must be purchased on the South Carolina side of the river.
Augusta Commissioners Steve Shepard and Andy Cheek, speaking on behalf of their city, crossed the river Monday evening to ask the North Augusta City Council to support construction of the new train route. They're expected to soon make the same request of the Aiken County Council.
Admittedly, there is still a problem of "who pays?" But as Cheek pointed out, state and federal organizations already contributing to the Bobby Jones extension might also assist with the new train track. If not, maybe something else can be worked out later.
What's important for now is not to miss the opportunity to get everyone aboard on a rail relocation project to help create a business boom in downtown Augusta that could reverberate across the river and throughout the region.
There's no time to waste as the South Carolina Department of Transportation will be accepting bids later this month to build the extension. It would be a huge plus if railroad track relocation could be included in the bidding.
© 2017. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us | 2,117 | 1,093 | 0.000922 |
warc | 201704 | A French ambition for digital visual effects
by Claire La Combe
- CANNES 2016: The CNC has opened in-depth discussions about the digital visual effects industry in France
At the Cannes Film Festival, the CNC has opened in-depth discussions about the digital visual effects industry in France.
Jean Gaillard, commissioned by the CNC last February to look into the topic, presented his initial conclusions of the report that he is due to deliver later this month. To him, France has huge potential in VFX, but the national industry and market are not yet well developed enough.
The visual-effects sector is estimated to be worth around €80 million in revenues, with €15 million for cinema, and representing more than 2,000 jobs in France. But there is a strong trend towards the delocalisation of skills, with an outsourced activity that has increased by 60% over the past year. Coupled with this, French teams are very highly respected in the international VFX industry. France has some reputed schools, producing flexible technicians who are in demand. But there is a paradox: the French audiovisual sector under-employs its own workforce.
Yet there exist around 60 companies specialised in VFX in France, and they all have a large order book, even though the competition is high, owing to the particular characteristics of the market. Why is the market not developing? Gaillard was not able to find any answers by sifting through the CNC's New Technologies in Production (NTP) funding scheme applications, nor by investigating his fellow stakeholders. The phenomenon was partly explained by “a cultural reticence”, according to the former president of the RIAM (Research and Innovation in Audiovisual and Multimedia) network. As a matter of fact, VFX are not even a consideration in French production budgets.
On the other hand, VFX are not that popular, because they cost a great deal of money, so it’s usually an expenditure that is outsourced to a country with an efficient tax shelter, for recoupment. That explains why Belgium is a popular hosting country for VFX studios, most of which even have French origins. The CNC is now counting on the recent boost to the International Tax Credits to help bring back some of the activity to national soil. “We need to develop a cluster effect in France and act as the Anglo-Saxons do - hunt in packs!” stated Gaillard.
The discussion was rounded off by three eloquent case studies on French films using VFX:
Swagger [+see also: trailer film profile] by Olivier Babinet, presented in the ACID section at Cannes (in conjunction with the Mathematic studio); Le Secret des Banquises [+see also: trailer film profile] by Marie Madinier (read the news), where a mix of digital effects and animatronics were used to recreate the Arctic and a population of Emperor penguins (in collaboration with the Mikros Image studio); and Up for Love [+see also: trailer film profile] by Laurent Tirard, with Jean Dujardin playing the role of a man who is diminutive in stature (in conjunction with La Compagnie Generale des Effets Visuels). All of the invited producers explained that they had had a great experience collaborating with their VFX studio – on both an artistic and a financial level - and they painted some outstanding pictures of the results.
This discussion was very well put together, giving the impression that there is indeed something to work out in terms of VFX in France. “It is an intuition,” stated
Raphael Keller (of NTP), “like the one we had with animation, that there is this huge potential for VFX in France.” In three years, applications for the CNC's NTP fund have doubled, and the global annual budget is now approaching €6 million for around 25 films supported. “It is high time we positioned ourselves, because the VFX market is already structured on an international scale,” added Keller, “and France has the means to fulfil its ambition.” | 4,001 | 1,970 | 0.00052 |
warc | 201704 | 1O. Rafieyan*1, A. A. Darvishsefat2, S. Babaii1, A. Mataji1
21*, G.A. Finenko2, A. E. Kideys3 and B. Kiabi 4
Abstract
The effect of temperature on the main feeding parameters of Mnemiopsis leidyi from the southern Caspian Sea was studied in 2002. The clearance rates and daily rations were estimated from laboratory experiments in a wide range of temperatures from 12 to 27 ?C for M. leidyi of 12?17 mm in length. Clearance rate values changed from 52.5 to 107.3 ml ind-1 h-1. The coefficient Q10 in temperature 12 - 20 ?C was higher than that in 20 - 27 ?C (3.81 and 1.91, respectively). The specific daily ration changed from 1.56?0.19 to 0.24?0.05 mg C mg C-1 day-1 when temperature decreased from 27 ?C to 12 ?C. The direct relationship occurred between daily ration and temperature (R2=0.99). The digestion time decreased with temperature rise and did not display any clear relation to quantity of digested food. | 922 | 554 | 0.001815 |
warc | 201704 | You all know I love vinegar, right?
I actually made a whole video on it’s awesomeness not too long ago – and a wicked post to go along with it, it is life changing (OK, dramatic, but I think you get it).
Vinegar has a million cleaning uses – which is great, because vinegar also tastes most excellent when paired with olive oil on my salad – and how many cleaning products can say that?
But did you know that there’s such a thing as ‘super vinegar’ – which up to double (depending on acetic acid content) the cleaning power when compared to regular vinegar?
So what is ‘super vinegar’?
Well, without getting into the geeky minutia, full strength vinegar contains 6% acetic acid, and double strength vinegar contains 10% acetic acid. Regular ‘white’ vinegar only contains 5% acetic acid, and that’s the stuff responsible for the cleaning aspect of vinegar. So in this case, more is indeed better. So where did this ‘super vinegar’ name come from? Well, I just made it up to make my distinction between vinegars easier as opposed to having to get into percentages each time. All you need to know is, if you can get a higher acetic acid content, your vinegar is going to work even harder for you.
How is it used?
You can use it exactly like regular vinegar, with a little protection (which we’ll cover shortly) but it performs like vinegar on steroids. Because of the higher acid content, it speeds up performance and is more powerful at busting through tough cleaning jobs. Vinegar is already amazing at cutting grease, mineral deposits and soap scum so this means it works a lot faster and requires less scrub time on your part. Specifically, you can use it to remove It works faster on mineral deposits, on waxy, hazy build-up on floors like laminate and hardwood (especially if you’ve used some type of oil soap – just test in an inconspicuous area first to ensure it doesn’t strip any finish off the floor and remember to use it very diluted i.e. 1:30), it does a better job with dirty linoleum floors and grungy grease in the kitchen . It’s great for busting-through soap scum and hard water deposits in the bathroom (even pesky glass shower doors) and is a great alternative to harsh toilet cleaners. Pretty much anything you can clean with vinegar you clean with super vinegar.
Pretty impressive huh? The only problem I discovered is that it is hard to find in some areas of North America, and I have no idea about its availability in other parts of the world, knowing that even white vinegar can be hard to come by. Some of my friends in the US have told me that it is available at Wal Mart – but, up here in the great white north I had to travel to a Bulk Barn to find the full-strength variety and to Home Hardware for my double strength bottle. I don’t know why it isn’t more common, but if you DO see some of this stuff, it’s a great purchase, and actually costs about the same as regular vinegar, so stock up.
Tips for usage #1 – Don’t eat it
It’s designed for cleaning and other heavy duty tasks, so if you want vinegar on your salad, use regular vinegar instead.
#2 – Wear gloves
The acid won’t eat your skin but it can dry your hands out, so consider wearing rubber gloves to be safe.
#3 Mask the smell
It does smell a little stronger than 5% vinegar, so here’s a cool tip for those of you who don’t like the smell of vinegar. Add the vinegar to a spray bottle, dilute it with water if you wish. Then, add about 10 drops of peppermint essential oil which will mask the vinegar-y smell..but remember, the vinegar smell only lasts a short time!
So now it’s your turn! Have you ever seen this stuff? Have you used it? Did it work well? Do you have any tips? Leave us a comment down below because we’d love to hear from you! | 3,916 | 1,898 | 0.000553 |
warc | 201704 | Is your income inconsistent? Think you can’t budget for an irregular income? Phooey! It’s more important than ever! Here’s your secret to budgeting success.
As a mortician, I saw hundreds of people who died before living out their dreams. Here’s how I learned to control my money and started working to live.
Staying on budget can be tough, even for the most seasoned budgeter. Don’t get discouraged! Use these simple tips to stay on budget and get ahead.
Budgeting when you’re broke is tricky, but it’s not impossible. If you’re constantly falling behind, use these 5 budgeting tips to get back on the track!
Saving an extra $100 a month may not seem like much, but it is! Use these simple tips to save money and give yourself a $1,200 raise!
We used to blow through money like it was contaminated with the Zika Virus. Spending with purpose changed our lives immeasurably. Here’s how we did it.
How is your money doing? Are you receiving the gifts of good planning, or are your finances crying out for help? Here’s how to tell!
A successful marriage isn’t all about love and romance. Here’s some advice for newlyweds to help you manage your money as a team and avoid costly mistakes!
Looking for a budget that works? Successful budgeting starts with accuracy. Here’s how to use last month’s income to budget better and save more!
We recently traveled to Europe on a budget with the help of credit card rewards. Read this post for the juicy details…complete with pics!!! | 1,556 | 829 | 0.001277 |
warc | 201704 | Selective use of data
Data is good in journalism. Selective use of data, not so much.
So let's look at the following story from The Nerve, a journalistic endeavor of the S.C. Policy Council. The council is a heavily conservative advocacy organization, but for those critics who would like to dismiss The Nerve's work out of hand as a result, stop.
The reporters, many of whom worked for "established" media, know their stuff and more often than not have uncovered those annoying little tidbits that send politicians into a tizzy. It also has become another media voice documenting and amplofying FOIA violations - can't be enough of those.
Yes, the stuff could use some solid editing from time to time. And it can be a bit shrill - one clearly knows the direction the writers are coming from ("Where Government Gets Exposed" is the site's tagline). But to dismiss it out of hand is ill-advised.
However, there are things like this that bother me because they show selective use of data to put a finger on the fairness scale, so to speak. And yes, I am a USC employee, and no, doesn't matter a twit to me what the subject is. We're talking basic journalism, editing and fairness in presenting data here. So consider the following. My comments and questions, had I edited this, are in brackets and italics:
As College Tuition Rises, So Does Administrators’ Pay The body of the story bears that headline out at only one school. By Amit Kumar We’ve all heard it before: Tuition at South Carolina’s public universities and colleges is rising; state appropriations for higher education are falling; and it’s something that has been going on for years. There is, however, at least one budgetary commitment that has remained constant or even increased at state institutions of higher education in recent years: total compensation paid to university presidents and vice presidents. "Remained constant or 'even' increased" - so if it's remained constant, why is it worth mentioning? The Nerveanalyzed total compensation packages for the presidents and vice presidents at the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and the College of Charleston, the largest undergraduate public universities in the state. The Nerveobtained compensation records by filing S.C. Freedom of Information requests with all three universities. While tuition at all three public universities has nearly doubled in the past decade, university administrators have been receiving steady compensation packages worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the review found. OK, so the news is what? If administrators' salaries had been going up, the news is clear. But if their compensation stayed "steady," then doesn't that bolster the idea that the extra money's been going for other purposes (like education and more faculty)? The Nerve’s review also found that, while university administrators often point to decreases in state appropriations as justification for tuition increases, the amounts of federal stimulus dollars each of these three universities received in the past two fiscal years more than offset any cuts in state funding. More on this in a minute, but hold this question - do stimulus dollars actually replace state appropriations? For fiscal year 2011-2012, the total compensation package for USC President Harris Pastides is valued at $535,000; for the College of Charleston President George Benson, at $398,987; and for Clemson President James Barker, at $400,000. Each of those packages is more than 12 times the per capita income in South Carolina, valued at $33,163 in 2010 by the U.S. Department of Commerce. OK, gives us a bit of context. But is 12 times excessive compared with similar officials in other states (which also have been cutting budgets) or with other S.C. officials? Has that ratio increased or decreased over time - that's a major weakness throughout the story; the real issue is whether there have been increases, and have those been excessive? I know it's hard to feel sympathy for someone making $300K or $400K a year, but as journalists, we're supposed to know when a snapshot can be more misleading than a time series. BTW, check the state salary database, and 17 state employees show up (most from the universities, including the Medical University of South Carolina, as making more than $300,000, none of them the university presidents because the presidents' actual salaries are much lower). At USC, the total compensation paid to Pastides each year since fiscal year 2008-2009, his first in the post, has been constant at $535,000. That number includes both money from state government and supplemental private funds from University of South Carolina foundations. What's the breakdown? Has the public portion of that changed? What relevance does the "private" part of that have to the argument at hand, which seems to be tuition rises but these folks keep dipping from the trough. A report by The Chronicle On Higher Education, though, found that the median total compensation package for university presidents – including presidents of university systems with multiple campuses, like that of USC – at 185 of the top research institutions in the nation in 2009-2010 was $440,487 – $95,000 lower than Pastides’ package. Useful to know. Meanwhile, both in-state and out-of-state tuition for attending USC have more than doubled in the past 10 years, with in-state tuition rising from $5,024 in 2002-2003 to $10,168 in 2011-12. After adjusting for inflation, that figure represents a 61 percent increase in tuition and fees. A common refrain from universities regarding their yearly tuition hikes is that the increases are necessary because the amount of money the state appropriates to higher education has decreased each year. And this is true: For instance, for the 10-year period from 2001-2002 to 2010-2011, annual state appropriations to USC-Columbia have declined by 45 percent, from $183.7 million to $101 million, according to the most recent report by the S.C. Commission on Higher Education. However, for the past two completed fiscal years, state universities have received federal stimulus dollars as a response to the recession. While those stimulus funds, which are non-recurring, have more than offset year-to-year reductions in state appropriations, universities have still elected to raise tuition in those years. OK, back to the original question - are stimulus funds the same as state funds? I don't know, but the journalist could have helped me out as a reader. Many federal funds come with restrictions, as opposed to the state's "general fund" dollars. If the fed money is not a perfect substitute, is the argument here that the fed money used for purpose "x," should have then freed up the same amount of state money for other uses, thus negating or lessening the need for a tuition increase? Would have been nice to explain. For example, in fiscal year 2009-2010, state recurring appropriations to the entire USC system declined by $20.5 million; that same year USC received $29.2 million in federal stimulus dollars, more than offsetting the loss in state dollars. Still, USC increased tuition by 3.6 percent for in-state and out-of-state students in 2009-2010. Similarly, at the College of Charleston, President George Benson’s compensation has not increased since he first took the top position in 2007-2008. However, the compensation packages for five of the college’s six vice presidents have increased since 2006-2007, including three packages that have increased by more than 14 percent each after adjusting for inflation. OK, so the story vis a vis Benson is? The five VPs is interesting. But why does the story report only VP increases for College of Charleston? What about Clemson, USC, etc.? (Note: Clemson's data comes at end - would be useful if these were grouped if the point was that VPs overall were getting raises.) For instance, the compensation package for George Watt, the college’s executive vice president of institutional advancement, has increased by $62,687, or 20.1 percent after adjusting for inflation, since 2008-2009 – right at the height of the recession. Sounds not so good. But what does a VP of institutional advancement do? As a reader, helps me decide whether it's reasonable. In the past 10 years, in-state tuition at the College of Charleston has increased from $4,858 in 2002-2003 to $9,616 in 2011-2012, or by 57 percent after adjusting for inflation. Out-of-state tuition has increased even more, by 76 percent after adjusting for inflation, or $13,356 more per year. College of Charleston, like USC, repeatedly justifies tuition increases at least partially because of lowered state appropriations. But although the amount of general funds appropriated to public universities has decreased significantly in recent years, general funds make up only a small portion of a university’s overall budget. For fiscal 2011-12, general funds made up only 9 percent of the College of Charleston’s overall budget. For USC, that number was 11 percent; for Clemson University, general funds were only 8 percent of its overall budget. Perhaps it is too obvious to note that one of the reasons general funds make up "only" (a loaded word) a small part of the budgets is because the state appropriations have been cut so much? Again, trend data useful for me as a reader to determine context. The bulk of these universities’ budgets actually comes from other funds, which are made up of tuition and fees. Of the College of Charleston’s $220 million budget, $183.5 million, or 83 percent of the overall budget, comes from other funds. At USC, $641.8 million out of its $907.2 million budget, or 71 percent, comes from other funds; at Clemson, other funds make up $650.6 million out its $805.4 million budget, or 81 percent. And, again, that large proportion would be a direct result of state funding being cut, right? Universities are crying out that they need to increase tuition because their state appropriations are dwindling; but those appropriations make up only about 10 percent of their overall budgets, and cuts to those funds have been offset by federal stimulus dollars in recent years. So synthesizing my comments: This is a collection of random facts that when put in the same graf sounds sinister but fails to answer whether stimulus dollars can be directly substitutable for state appropriations and how much state money as a proportion of the schools' budget has changed. The implied argument seems to hinge on "only," but the "only" might well be the result of state cuts, especially if the federal money is not a one-for-one replacement - seems a bit tautological, eh? All these same financial trends are visible at Clemson, where in-state tuition has increased by 67 percent and out-of-state tuition by 75 percent in the past 10 years after adjusting for inflation. In that same time, Clemson President James Barker has seen his compensation package increase by $120,986, from $279,014 to $400,000 – a raise of 14 percent after adjusting for inflation. OK, that's useful. Some of Clemson’s vice presidents have received large compensation increases in the past decade as well, even when adjusting for inflation. In the past 10 years, the compensation package for Doris Helms, Clemson’s vice president for academic affairs and provost, has increased by 28 percent, to $270,389 today. The package for John Kelly, vice president for agriculture, public service, and economic development, has increased by 19 percent after, to $242,732 today; and for Neill Cameron, vice president for advancement, by 15.5 percent, to $211,185 today. OK, that's useful. So Clemson raises some flags. But when did those raises happen? Isn't it possible the bulk were before the 2008 recession? Help me out as a reader to evaluate the information. It's far more significant if they've continued getting raises even after the economy tanked. And why don't we hear about the VPs at the other institution s - USC? So at two out of three schools, there were n't significant VP raises? But not at the largest? And how do they relate? That's cherry-picking data. Bottom line: Might be a story here. Take your pick based on your policy/political/fiscal orientation: Tuition's gone up even though the schools' financial picture shouldn't have changed because federal stimulus dollars were exactly substitutable for the state money that was cut. (Nothing in the story says that about the fed dollars; we are left to artfully conclude it. ) Ergo, any tuition increase somehow is tied to the pay, although how is that possible when the pay remained steady for the presidents of two schools and we have no data in the story showing significant increases for underlings at one of thosethe three (besides Clemson)? University officials' pay has continued to rise even while the economy has gone to crap. (Unfortunately, the data we have right now shows that's the case at "only" one of three, and even then it's not clear when the increases took place.) State appropriations were cut and the stimulus dollars that came in could not directly replace them. So tuition was raised, in part to cover the salaries plus any increases in those salaries over the past decade. That was wrong, since the stimulus money could have freed up other funds that could have been transferred back to other lines to cover/offset the salaries. The implication is that those top officials should somehow have refunded parts of their salaries to cover that (unspecified) part of the tuition increase.
Bottom line - numbers don't make a story credible by themselves. Careful, clear numbers with accuracy, completeness and context - and the assumptions clearly spelled out - do. | 13,833 | 5,746 | 0.000176 |
warc | 201704 | Offering IT support services to businesses is a large industry that is constantly growing with technology. Offering the best services is one thing, but there are certain mechanics to an IT support services business that ought to be in place. - managed it services austin
For example, do you offer a ticket system or one method or another to track issues that arrive? You can provide every one of the support you want, but without tracking ticket numbers, you and also the customers are going to be lost. Its also wise to have a built-in auto responder for the ticket system in order that customers are greeted right away after submitting a ticket.
While support and IT customer support issues can give back in a million directions from time to time, you want to be able to give customers a window of energy in which they can expect their issue being handled. Whether they are calling you to work on a network of computers within their business, or you're handling a different type of job, you need to give them a time frame.
When you find yourself out there on a job with a business, you're coping with people inside their place of business and helping them with something they don't know about. This will make things get quite casual pretty quick because either side let their guards down. However, this is simply a friendly reminder that just as one IT support professional, you need to be 'professional' at all times.
Every business needs great customer feedback. That being said, after you've solved a large technical issue for a firm, this is a great time to attempt to get feedback from their store. They will be likely to offer you a glowing review, which can be used to help get more business. You can even offer a referral program.
Yet another thing you can do is to use the ticket system to take the possiblity to make personal responses normally as possible. Address customers by name, and you'll even call them regarding tickets if necessary.
Providing the best IT support solutions is approximately knowing how to handle your web visitors as much as it is actually offering the services they need. Your the IT professional, so you know how to get everything organized electronically. Ensure you're not leaving anything out like that ticket system, and after that start showing the other IT companies in the area how to handle customers. - managed it services austin | 2,386 | 1,156 | 0.000868 |
warc | 201704 | If you're as watchful as some homeowners out there, perhaps you're questioning where those tiny tunnels around your residence's foundations originated from. Alternatively, maybe you've found insect wings in the area and recognized you have an insect invasion. There's most likely a lot of wood damage around your home, or have really seen termites skittering around your space. Nonetheless you know or suspect that termites have actually occupied your house, you would wish for someone to do something about it.
In case you have suspicions, a professional Lafayette LA termite inspection service can help you tell for sure whether you have an infestation in your house or not. But what will be involved in this examination and exactly what will you have to do?
In fact, you won't should do a whole lot during a termite inspection─ well, except be at home and wait for the exterminator to get there and tell them about your termite problem. They'll wish to hear from you things like where you think the termites are coming from, the degree of the damage they have actually been doing so far and various other issues relating to termite problems in your home.
Throughout the examination, the pest control specialist will inspect both the interior and exterior of your house. They will examine crucial areas, such as the roof, the basement, window sills, joists, cinder blocks, air flow areas, the fence, trees (especially very old ones) and stumps─ virtually anything made of wood where termites may be lurking. The exterminator could also ask you about, and would want to inspect, any termite barriers that were put in during building of your home.
When the termite assessment stops, the exterminator will spill the beans on the level of your termite trouble and propose a treatment plan for it. They will additionally prepare a report which should cover all of the locations of your house that they inspected, along with the locations of the house that weren’t, with explanations why. The report will likewise have the termite control choices that you and the pest control specialist talked about throughout the examination.
You could be afraid to have a termite evaluation achieved due to the expense, but you will be glad to understand that there are some pest control specialists who check homes free of cost. But even if you cannot find a good Lafayette LA exterminator who does evaluations free of cost, remember that getting the termite assessment done early will conserve you thousands in the long-run. For information on Louisiana termites, check out www.termite.com/termites/termites-louisiana.html.
Reviewing the Advantages of Having a Lafayette LA Termite
88 views | 2,699 | 1,296 | 0.000779 |
warc | 201704 | DUI Ignition Interlock – A Device to Protect Drivers and General Public from Mishaps Occurring Due to Drunk Driving
DUI ignition interlock devices are designed to protect the drivers as well as general public from mishaps such as injuries, temporary or permanent disability and deaths in road accidents because of drunk driving. According to researches, it has been proved as a device that saves lives. Of course, there is a reduction in DUI cases to some extent but there are some loopholes in it that stop it from being 100 percent efficient.
This proves ineffective when DUI offenders decide to go off the roads instead of bearing the expense of hundreds of dollars in having the device installed in their vehicles. They either travel with a friend who already has an IID installed in the vehicle or by public transport or car pool.
To address these issues, many states are soon planning to have a few more features designed to prevent others/friends/co-travelers from performing the breath tests for the DUI offender. The devices will have a camera installed to snap the picture of the driver every time a breath test is performed. This will be to verify that the DUI offender is the person who is taking the test and not others.
The law has had cases where DUI offended drivers asked their friends, co-passengers or even their children to blow into the device to continue driving. But the devices with camera will be able to identify the person ensuring that the convicts perform the test. This will definitely improve the situation in the future, resulting in a significant decrease in the number of drink and driving cases.
Those who, instead of installing an
alcohol ignition interlockdevice in their vehicles on found guilty, decide to go off the roads for the duration when they are supposed to drive with an IID installed vehicle will have to produce the bills at the time of reclaiming their suspended license. This is to make sure that they have installed the device in their vehicles and duly performed the breath tests each time the device prompts before starting the ignition as well as while driving.
The law is going to be stricter than ever to stop more DUI cases from stemming over. Stopping drunk driving cases from occurring, even the general public needs to contribute in every possible way. After all, it’s for their safety. And those who have already faced problems because of DUI offenses must strongly demand for tougher DUI laws and support the government completely. The change is possible when people really change their outlook towards it.
Not calibrating the machine or trying to fool the machine is no way. It not only lands you in deep legal problems but also takes a toll on your own safety. The driver’s license of the offenders who try to revoke the law is suspended for longer duration. People are going to drive anyway. DUI offenders may drive the vehicle of their spouse or friends that doesn’t require having an IID. But that’s not going to solve the problem but will lead to many other complexities. The best way is to abide by the law and fulfill all the obligations when found guilty of DUI. For More Information visit
quickstartaz.com
DUI ignition interlockdevices are designed to ensure the safety of drivers as well as general public from mishaps that may happen because of drunk driving. The state law is going to be stricter than ever to ensure that the offenders meet all their obligations and drive the vehicles with IID. For More Information visit quickstartaz.com Alcohol Ignition Interlock
44 views | 3,590 | 1,620 | 0.000624 |
warc | 201704 | Leminger’s Scalines
Otakar Leminger was a little-known Czechoslovakian chemist who worked for years in industry and lived on the banks of the Elbe River in Ústí north of Prague. When he retired in the early 1970s he published a paper entitled “A Contribution to the Chemistry of Alkoxylated Phenethylamines” in which he describes the synthesis of several novel phenethylamines which he tested on himself to determine activity.
(1) allylescaline, 3,5-dimethoxy-4-allyloxy-phenethylamine (2) proscaline, 3,5-dimethoxy-4-n-propoxy-phenethylamine (3) escaline, 3,5-dimethoxy-4-ethoxy-phenethylamine (4) MAPEA, 3-methoxy-4-allyloxy-phenethylamine (5) MEPEA, 3-methoxy-4-ethoxy-phenethylamine
We can classify the compounds he discussed into two groups depending on the number of ring substitutions. Allylescaline, proscaline, and escaline have three while MAPEA and MEPEA have two. Generally phenethylamines with two ring substitutions are not active, but Leminger had found some exceptions. This knowledge might have been lost to time if not for the fact that Stanislov Wistupkin brought the paper to the attention of Alexander Shulgin.
[MAPEA and MEPEA are some] of the few phenethylamines with only two substituents that show even a hint of central activity. And there is an interesting story attached. I got a call out of absolutely nowhere, from a Stanislov Wistupkin, that he had discovered a number of new psychedelic drugs which he would like to share with me. They were simple phenethylamines, one with an ethoxy group at the 4-position, and one with an allyloxy group there. Both, he said, were mood elevators active between 100 and 300 milligrams. One of them was a material called MEPEA, and the other one was 3-methoxy-4-allyloxyphenethylamine, or MAPEA. When I did meet him in person, he gave me a most remarkable publication which had been authored some ten years earlier, by a person named Leminger, now dead. It was all in Czech, but quite unmistakably, right there on the third page, were the structures of MEPEA and MAPEA, and the statement that they were active at between 100 and 300 milligrams.
– Alexander Shulgin
MAPEA and MEPEA are only mildly active and interesting mostly in the sense that they appear to be the exception to the rule that phenethylamines with two ring substitutions are inactive. Leminger also created several mescaline variants with three ring substitutions by modifying the methoxy group at the 4 position and replacing it with an allyloxy, propoxy, or ethoxy group. The resulting compounds allylescaline, proscaline, and escaline were then tested on himself and found to be much more potent and intriguing.
Physiological effects of the compounds were examined only approximately on my body. The sulphate salts of MEPEA and MAPEA in doses 0.1-0.3 g were mild mood-elevators and were also cough calming agents. Allylescaline, proscaline, and escaline were much more active. Qualitatively there wasn’t a big difference among them and quantitatively their effect decreased: allylescaline was more potent than proscaline, and proscaline more potent than escaline. As an example the allylescaline experience is described:
“One hour after a 20 mg dose of allylescaline: perhaps slight vertigo, light drunkeness and pleasant excitation with locomotion need was observed. Eye perceptions were pricked up, colours seemed to be more warm and objects more plastic. Surroundings were much more interesting than usual. Colourful hallucinations were observed in the dark. Moreover, a calming effect to the breathing system and some kind of constriction of the digestive system was observed. Sleep at night was restless with megalomaniacal fantasies. Even 12 h after administration the effects were present. More serious studies of physiological activity are in contemplation.”
– Otakar Leminger
Leminger was the first to synthesize and consume allylescaline, the most potent of the mescaline derivatives explored. He was able to identify active phenethyamines with only two ring substitutions, a notoriously unproductive class of compounds. Did he conduct additional experimentation and screening beyond that detailed in this paper? No other publications by Leminger relating to psychedelic compounds are known.
Might there be other treasures that he had discovered, and never published? Was young Wistupkin a student of his? Are there unrecognized notes of Otakar Leminger sitting in some farm house attic in Northern Czechoslovakia? I extend my heartfelt salute to an almost unknown explorer in the psychedelic drug area.
– Alexander Shulgin Otakar Leminger, A Contribution to the Chemistry of Alkoxylated Phenethylamines – Part 2. Chemicky Prumysl 22, 553 (1972). Alexander Shulgin, #2 Allylescaline. Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved, Transform Press (1991). Alexander Shulgin, #123 MEPEA. Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved, Transform Press (1991). | 4,962 | 2,181 | 0.000465 |
warc | 201704 | My father was a two war veteran.
He was sixteen when Pearl Harbor was raided by the Japanese. He ran away from home, lied about his age, and joined the navy the next day.
After WWII, he attended the California Maritime Academy. Then he rejoined civilian life.
He was recalled to active duty for Korea.
I don’t know what he did during either of those wars. He would talk about the boredom of shipboard life, the pranks he and his shipmates pulled on one another, the time when the only film they had to watch for six long months was State Fair. After a while, they turned off the sound and members of the crew played the different parts. The pig was considered the absolute plum role.
One day when I was about ten or so, I asked him why he wore that big, bushy walrusesque moustache. He just gruffly said ‘I can’t shave it off.’
I’d never looked carefully before, but that day I finally saw the huge, welty scar that ran the complete vertical length of his upper lip on one side. I asked him what happened. All he would tell me was it happened while he was in the navy. No year, no battle, no accident, not even which war.
Ultimately, my father’s war wound was relatively minor. Once the damage had been repaired, he could eat, talk, and live just fine. The worst remnants were a nasty scar and an inability to shave off his moustache. I think the emotional scars went deeper, but he was not only able to cope with civilian life, he thrived. He worked hard at a job protecting others (he was a safety inspector for boilers and pressure vessels for the state of California), married happily and raised three kids, supported my mother when she ran for school board, and supported her work there when she won. He helped restore antique trains for the railroad museum in Sacramento, lead a Boy Scout troop for twelve years, and began a million home improvement projects. I think he actually finished three.
Dad was one of the lucky ones.
But every day there are veterans who are not as lucky as he was. Ones who come home severely injured, both in body and in mind. Ones who need a lot of help to recover, and to learn to live with lifelong disabilities.
VA hospitals across the country work to heal the sick and the wounded. But there are crafty volunteers who help out, too. Help Hospitalized Veterans (HHV) is a group that works to provide crafts kits and projects to wounded veterans at more than 300 hospitals around the country.
Working to create suncatchers, leather goods, plastic models, latch-hook rugs, and other craft projects provided by HHV, veterans can improve motor function, relieve stress, and build memory and concentration.
They also provide Craft Care Specialists who recommend what craft kit might be appropriate for each patient, and help provide instruction as well as encouragement.
When a study was done of the benefits of this program, 89.6% of clients reported that they felt craft therapy helped them improve or maintain their physical capabilities. 98.6% filled out and sent the thank you postcards attached to each project kit.
Crafts are good for people. Wounded veterans need help to recover.
I think this is a program my father – the wounded two war veteran – would have approved highly. | 3,274 | 1,677 | 0.000607 |
warc | 201704 | Advice on using the cardiovascular risk charts and calculator
This cardiovascular risk calculator can be used to estimate the risk of a cardiovascular event occuring over a given time period, with corresponding graphical displays including charts corresponding to those published by the Joint British Societies (JBS) and found in the British National Formulary (BNF). The site will also produce "smiley face" charts which some individuals may find useful, and bar graphs allowing comparison with patients with modified risk factors.
Contents
Different risk equations Outcomes Differences between equations Different graphical styles Important notes on using the charts Printing charts Acknowledgements and disclaimer Different risk equations
This calculator can compute risk values using the Framingham equation, the formula used by the Joint British Societies (JBS) which is derived from Framingham, and the Scottish ASSIGN score.
Current UK guidelines recommend risk stratification based on the probability of cardiovascular disease (as opposed to coronary heart disease or other outcomes). NICE currently recommend use of the JBS formula. ASSIGN is tailored to the Scottish population.
Framingham
Until recently, the majority of people probably used the Framingham equation for calculating cardiovascular risk. The Framingham equation has the advantage of allowing calculations over various time periods (4 to 12 years) and for different outcomes: cardiovascular disease, stroke, coronary disease, myocardial infarction and death from either coronary or cardiovascular disease.
Joint British Societies (JBS)
The official cardiovascular risk charts published in the British National Formulary (BNF) are based on those given in the JBS guidelines. The BNF calculation option provided on this site is designed to correspond as closely as possible to the official published charts. As such, the LVH and diabetes risk factors originally incorporated in Framingham, are not included in the JBS charts as these patients are automatically considered high risk. JBS/BNF calculates cardiovascular disease risk, based on the sum of the coronary disease and stroke risks given by Framingham.
ASSIGN
The ASSIGN score was developed in conjunction with the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, to address the issue that the Framingham equation may not accurately calculate risk in other populations. ASSIGN is therefore tailored to the Scottish population. It, too, calculates risk of cardiovascular disease, and also includes additional risk factors not used by Framingham (family history and social deprivation). The original ASSIGN score uses SIMD deprivation scores from 2004, but this website uses SIMD scores from 2006 in line with the official ASSIGN website.
Outcomes
The following outcomes can be calculated by this site:
CVD (BNF)- risk of developing cardiovascular disease, based on the calculation used by JBS/BNF. This option may be used to produce charts similar to those produced by the JBS.
CVD (ASSIGN)- risk of developing cardiovascular disease, based on the ASSIGN calculation.
CVD (Framingham)- risk of developing cardiovascular disease, based on the original Framingham equation.
CHD- risk of developing coronary heart disease (MI, CHD death, angina, coronary insufficiency), based on Framingham.
MI- risk of suffering a myocardial infarction (a "heart attack"), based on Framingham.
Stroke- risk of suffering a stroke (including transient ischaemic events (TIAs), based on Framingham.
CVD death- risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, based on Framingham.
CHD death- risk of dying from coronary heart disease, based on Framingham.
The definitions of "cardiovascular disease" vary depending on the equation used, and are detailed below.
Differences between equations
There are various differences between the different calculations, including the definition of cardiovascular disease used, and the risk factors included in the calculation. These differences are summarised below.
Definition of cardiovascular disease
Original Framingham definition- CHD (MI, CHD death, angina, coronary insufficiency) plus stroke, congestive heart failure and peripheral vascular disease JBS definition- sum of the CHD (as defined above) and stroke risks. This definition is the one used in the printed charts. ASSIGN definition- any cardiovascular death, CHD (ICD-9 410–414, ICD-10 I20-I25) including angioplasty and bypass grafting, cerebrovascular disease. Time period to calculate risk over
This can be varied between 4 and 12 years for any of the Framingham calculations, but is fixed at 10 years for the BNF or ASSIGN scores.
Age range
The printed BNF charts are restricted to 3 age groups (<50 years, 50 to 59 years, 60+ years). This site allows any age in the range 30 to 75 years. Strictly speaking, the age range for Framingham/BNF is 35 to 75, and for ASSIGN, 30 to 74 years, but these limits have not been enforced in order to facilitate comparisons between equations.
Smoking
The Framingham and BNF calculations treat smoking as a binary variable (yes/no), whereas ASSIGN uses number of cigarettes per day (this defaults to 10 in smokers).
Diabetes
The ASSIGN and Framingham calculations allow incorpation of diabetes as a risk factor. The BNF calculation assumes that the person does not have diabetes.
Family history
ASSIGN includes premature family history of cardiovascular disease as a risk factor, whereas the Framingham and BNF calculations do not. The Joint British Societies advise that in individuals with a positive family history, the risk can corrected be multiplying by 1.5. This feature is not included on this website.
Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH)
The Framingham calculations include LVH as a risk factor. LVH refers to the original Framingham ECG criteria. It is important to distinguish this from echocardiographic findings of LVH, which are more common, or other ECG criteria such as the Sokolow-Lyon criteria or those employed by automated ECG reporting. ASSIGN does not incorporate LVH as a risk factor (it was only found to be significant in the ASSIGN model for women). The BNF calculation assumes LVH is absent.
Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)
ASSIGN incorporates SIMD as a risk factor. SIMD can range between 0.54 (least deprived) to 87.6 (most deprived), and is based on the 2006 score (which differs only slightly from the original score in 2004). SIMD is assumed to be 20 if left blank and no postcode is given. Non-Scottish postcodes will generate an error.
HDL cholesterol
ASSIGN incorporates HDL as a separate risk factor to total cholesterol. In contrast,
Framingham and BNF use the total:HDL cholesterol ratio. The charts for ASSIGN therefore
use
total cholesterol on the x-axis, whereas Framingham/BNF use the total:HDL
cholesterol ratio. If HDL is left blank, a value of 1.4 is assumed.
Different graphical styles
The site will produce 4 different graphical displays, selectable from the menu at the bottom left labelled "chart style".
BNF charts
These charts are designed to replicate the original printed charts in the BNF. The original printed charts were used for estimation of coronary heart disease (CHD). These have now been superceded by charts for estimation of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The traffic-light colour coding used by this website corresponds to the same system used by the printed charts. There are differences in the green/orange/red cut-offs used for CHD and CVD.
An alternative colour coding system has been employed on the website for the other Framingham outcomes (e.g. MI, death). It should be noted that the risk ranges portrayed by these colours have been chosen simply for clarity and ease-of-use, and are not based on scientific evidence or published guidelines.
Where blood pressure and/or cholesterol lie outwith the ranges on the chart axes, the blue circular marker will not be visible.
Smiley faces
This display is a simple way of expressing percentage risk, using a representation of 100 individual patients with the same characteristics. Green (happy) faces represent those patients who will not have a cardiovascular event in the given time period. Red (sad) faces represent individuals who will suffer an event. It is important to remember that there is no way of determining whether a given patient will fall into the green or red category.
Comparison bars
The bar graph allows you to compare the risk score based on the current risk factors with an otherwise identical individual who:
has lower blood pressure takes a statin tablet is a non-smoker has lower blood pressure, takes a statin and does not smoker
The reduction with statin therapy is based on the average reductions within the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists Collaboration meta-analysis.
It is important to emphasise that "lower blood pressure" risks are not the same as those achieved by taking antihypertensives. For instance, a person treated with antihypertensives will have a higher risk for a given blood pressure than an individual with the same blood pressure who is not on treatment. The comparison with a lower blood pressure is made with 140mmHg (the standard threshold used to define hypertension) or a 10mmHg reduction (whichever is lower).
Similarly, the "non-smoker" risks are not the same as those achieved by simply stopping smoking. A non-smoker will be at lower risk than an ex-smoker (especially in the early years following smoking cessation). The "non-smoker" bar is only visible if the current patient is a smoker.
Thermometer
The thermometer provides a similar means of comparing risk values to that of the comparison bar graph described above, with similar caveats. The colour coding corresponds to that used in the BNF-style charts. "Non-smoker" will only appear if the patient is a smoker. The effects of a lower BP and statin treatment are only shown if the current patient risk is out-with the lowest (green) risk area.
Important notes on using the charts
These charts are designed as an aid to making clinical decisions, with
respect to the use of lifestyle and drug interventions for modifying
risk. They should
NOT replace clinical judgement. For a detailed
overview, users are advised to read the relevant section of the BNF.
Users of the ASSIGN score are also referred to the SIGN-97 guidelines.
Use of charts is inappropriate in patients with existing disease (e.g. renal dysfunction, CHD, etc.) Treatment of persistently/marked elevated BP or TC:HDL ratio is generally indicated regardless of estimated risk Smoking status should reflect lifetime tobacco exposure, rather than current use LVH refers to the original Framingham ECG criteria. It is important to distinguish this from echocardiographic findings of LVH, which are more common, or other ECG criteria such as the Sokolow-Lyon criteria or those employed by automated ECG reporting systems Decision to treat with drugs should be based on repeated assessment of risk factors rather than a single measurement Risk estimates are based on untreated levels of BP and cholesterol, and can only be used as a guide in persons already receiving treatment Risk will be underestimated in the following groups Elevated triglycerides (>1.7mmol/L) Premature menopause Impaired glycaemic function, despite no overt diabetes For Framingham/BNF calculations, a family history of premature CVD will also result in underestimation of risk Risk estimates have not been validated in ethnic minorities
If you try to print the chart, you may find that, although the text is printed, the graph itself is not. This is because the charts are drawn onto the background of the browser window, and unfortunately most browsers will not print background images.
To get around this problem, a "printer friendly" page is available which should print normally, although is currently restricted to the BNF-style charts only.
v3.0, 23/2/10: addition of "smiley face graphs", minor error checking corrections v2.0, 24/9/08: incorporation of the different calculators into one single page, addition of the ASSIGN calculator v1.2, 31/3/08: modified BNF calculation for CVD risk, correction of bug affecting accuracy of graphs, addition of marker showing BP and cholesterol on chart, automatic calculation updating, printer-friendly page option.
Written by Dr Rupert Payne using JavaScript. With thanks to Walter Zorn for his excellent JS graphics library. Tested using Firefox 3.6 and Internet Explorer 7.0.
This calculator has been published with the hope that it will be useful, but without warranty, implied or explicit, of fitness for a particular purpose. The author will not accept responsibility for any injury, damages or other outcomes arising as a result, direct or indirect, of using this calculator. | 12,847 | 5,100 | 0.000198 |
warc | 201704 | The estimated boost in Social Security taxes needed to save retiree benefits has spiked 65 percent since 2008.
The required tax boost is rising because politicians keep postponing the decision on how to fully fund the growing cost of the baby boomers’ retirement, said Jason Fichtner, a former deputy commissioner and an economist at the Social Security Administration.
“If we continue on the current course, then by 2035 the retirement program become insolvent, and … we’ll need a gigantic tax increase or a gigantic benefit cut, or a combination of the two,” he said.
“The longer we wait, the worse it will be be,” he said.
Washington hasn’t fixed the huge problem because President Barack Obama has rejected significant cost-saving proposals and reforms that are opposed by progressive groups, and the GOP’s leaders’ won’t agree to the tax increases demanded by Obama.
Social Security is now funded by a 12.4 percent tax on workers’ salaries.
But that tax rate won’t generate enough funds after 2033 to pay for the rising cost of the boomers’ retirement, according to May 31 report of the fund’s trustees.
The report is titled “The 2013 annual report of the Board of Trustees of the federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds.”
The program won’t be bankrupt because future workers will continue to provide a huge flow of taxes to the boomers, Fichtner said. But the program will be increasingly insolvent because it won’t have enough cash to pay the bills, he said.
In 2008, the managers of the Social Security Trust Fund said the gap could be closed by an immediate 1.7 percent jump in the Social Security tax.
But on May 31, the trustees’ annual report said the gap has widened so much that it can only be closed by a 2.72 percent jump in the tax, to 15.12 percent.
That’s a 65 percent rise in only five years.
The May 31 report was treated as good news by liberal groups.
“Today’s Social Security Trustees Report should give workers and their families renewed confidence,” said Nancy Altman, the co-chair of the progressive Strengthen Social Security Campaign.
“If Congress listens to the American people and requires millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share, the Report shows that all benefits can be paid for the next three quarters of a century and beyond,” she claimed.
“Indeed, the Report makes clear that our nation, the wealthiest in the world, can afford increased Social Security benefits, as a number of Senators and Representatives have wisely proposed,” she claimed.
“The most important take-away from the 2013 Social Security Trustees Report is that, in good times and bad, our Social Security system works and it works well,” said Eric Kingson, a founder of Social Security Works. “Fully affordable and structurally sound, Social security will meet all its obligations to the American people as far as the eye can see, with only a modest increase in revenues.”
Fichtner said he’s angered by “the shortsightedness of those who think there is no problem.”
“The very people who those [progressives] want to protect — the poor and disabled — will be hurt the most,” he warned.
The “people who are working and playing by the rules will be taxed more and will get a benefit cut,” he added. | 3,484 | 1,601 | 0.000668 |
warc | 201704 | Tuesday, December 29, 2009 Monday, December 28, 2009
Apparently the World's Tallest Dog is quite the coveted title. Titan took the title earlier this year, after Gibson passed away. But now George is in the running for the title. George measures 7feet 3 inches from nose to tail and over 42.625 inches at the shoulders--just barely above Titan who measures 42.25 inches at the shoulders. Both still stand below Gibson's 43 inch shoulders.
In addition to being a enormous, George also has to eat a ton--110 pounds a month! When he was a pup, he slept in bed with his people, but now he has his own queen size bed. Lucky dog!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Faith, the two legged dog is back in the news. Now she is helping out veteran who are amputees. ABC news has the video here, and Faith looks adorable in her custom made fatigues!
Read my original story about Faith here. It is so great to see that she is still out there helping people feel ok about being a little different.
Photo Credit: Kevin Ellis / Associated Press
Friday, December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas to all my blog followers! Your support has helped the Daily Dog Scoop become an internet sensation in just 6 months, and that is the best present I could have dreamed of. Thank you! Please continue to spread the word and send in your great tips.
My buddy Shep sent me this awesome Hallmark video card, I loved it so much I wanted to share it with all of you!
I leave you with this great shot, which is part of Petside.com's album entitled "Pets in Santa Hats." Also check out "Pets in Reindeer Antlers." Washington Post has a fun reader-uploaded slideshow here.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Little Brown Dog (LBD) is one strong survivor! After some ugly abuse, she found herself at the University of Tennessee's College of Veterinary Medicine. She had severe abrasions on her paws and required extensive skin grafts. If you missed my earlier story, you can read the background here. With the amazing care of the good folks at UTCVM, LBD is now finally out of her bandages and getting around so well, she has even mastered jumping the baby gates in the hospital!
UTCVM recently posted this adorable bandage-free picture to their website, where they have been overwhelmed with support. But, as her vet reminds her fans,
" Please remember there are many, many little brown dogs (and lots of other colors and sizes, too) at your local humane society or animal shelter who need a loving forever home ." Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Lots of new stuff comes into the house during the holiday season. Don't forget to check if this new stuff might be harmful to your dog. Several holiday plants are known to be dangerous to dogs. Make sure the following plants are safely out of reach: poinsettia, mistletoe, holly leaves and berries. Houston Pet Talk has a great list of dangers ranging from plants, to presents, to holiday seasonings. Check out the whole list, but here are a few important ones:
Tinsel may look nice, but can cause an intestinal blockage if ingested (Same goes for ribbons). Beware of loose batteries from all your new gadget gifts--obviously toxic to dogs! Keep candles safely away from pets--spilled wax is no friend to skin or coats, and tails do catch fire. Glass ornaments may look like balls, but are not safe to play with--so keep fragile ornaments at the top of the tree.
The holidays can also be stressful for dogs. There is so much going on--travel, house guests, trees in the house, and changes in the regular walk/feeding schedule. Check in with the folks at Houston Pet Talk (scroll to bottom) for tips on making the holidays less stressful for your dog.
[Image Courtesy of PhotoBucket--though I DO NOT endorse the idea of wrapping your dog in Christmas lights, in fact, it is probably a pretty bad idea]
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
On top of being blind and deaf, Rudolph had a tough go at life. He he was born in a puppy mill and had four homes before ending up in at great forever home with Marcia Fishman. Marcia had to work with Rudolph to help him overcome his tough start, but now Rudolph is a registered therapy dog working to teach kids about being tolerant of people with differences. Marcia and this pup visit elementary schools with their book, Rudolph's Nose Knows.
In a recent interview with People Magazine, Fishman said, "Dogs can do so much more in the world than just cuddle with people." Aint that the truth!
The pair also was recognized on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams' segment called "Making a Difference." Check out the video below:
Monday, December 21, 2009
If you are a lucky dog like me, you got to spend the weekend playing in fresh snow. It was so much fun! But now that the fresh snow is not so fresh, beware of the dangers of salt and chemical ice melt on your paws. Sharp salt is very abrasive on dog pads, and if it gets stuck between your toes is can get irritated. It is not safe to lick those pads clean because you might ingest some yucky and dangerous chemicals. Tell your person to wipe your toes with a warm washcloth or to rinse them in a warm bowl of water after coming home from a walk. For dogs with shaggy toes, ice clumps can form between toes making it very uncomfortable to walk. You may not like it, but booties can prevent this from happening.
The good folks over at About.com have some more helpful tips for your person to keep those paws healthy.
[Image Courtesy of PhotoBucket]
Thursday, December 17, 2009
In these tough economic times, too many animals are ending up in shelters because their families can no longer afford their care. For most families, it is a heart breaking decision to make. I bet most people don't know that there are tons of resources available from local and national organizations that can help keep your pet in your home. The Humane Society has compiled a list of places you can turn to for help. Services include discounted vet services, temporary fostering, and even extra kibble. National organizations are listed, and local services are searchable by state.
If you are not having financial trouble, but know of a family with a four-legged member who is facing tough time, be sure to pass this resource along. They will be thankful for these resources that could make a tough time a little less heartbreaking.
Do you work for or know of an organization that is not listed on this site, but is willing to help out? Email the good folks at HSUS at foreclosurepets@humanesociety.org to be added to the list.
[Image courtesy of PhotoBucket]
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
A new study from the University of Missouri tells us that dogs make better walking partners than humans for those interested in staying committed to their exercise plan. People who walk with dogs are less likely to bail out on their exercise than those who walk regularly with another human. The study showed that humans seem to readily accept the excuses of their 2-legged walking partners, which can undermine their motivation to walk. Dogs on the other hand, are ALWAYS up for a walk! Some days, we can even give you the extra motivation you need to get out the door. The study was conducted with shelter dogs, but you know that dogs living in your home will get into a routine and even remind you that it is walk time!
See, there we are, looking out for your health. If you are thinking about making a pre-vacation resolution about your fitness, maybe you should think about how your dog might be able to help you stick to it.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Montana in a long way from Israel, but that is not what concerns Miky, a trained bomb sniffing dog. The problem is they don't speak Hebrew on his new police team in Helena, Montana! Miky was trained by an elite dog school in Israel through the Israeli Defense Forces. After serving a tour of duty for the IDF, these dogs can retire or move on to a second career as a police dogs.
Miky was brought to the United States through a grant for highly skilled police dogs. But when he got here, his partner knew the commands, but did not know how to say them in Hebrew. Enter Rabbi Chaim Bruk, who taught the Hebrew commands to Sgt. John Fosket. Now that everyone is speaking the same language, Miky is doing great on his new job!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Chihuahuas are in-then-out, in Los Angeles. They are the most popular breed in LA, but there are also the most abandoned. Lots of folks see celebrities like Paris Hilton with one of these little dogs, and try to imitate the latest trend. The movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua didn't help the situation either. The problem is that dogs, especially small dogs, live longer than most trends. Also, chihuahuas can fetch high vet bills because of their fragile frames. Just because they are small does not mean they are always well behaved. So some of these mini pups may grow up to be a little too unruly for owners looking for a purse, not a dog a dog that needs some training. Shelters, in turn, are overflowing with these little guys by no fault of their own.
The silver lining of the story is that other shelters in the country have a shortage of small dogs and are trying to help pick up the slack. The ASPCA in New York City even says that they do not have enough chihuahuas to meet the demand of folks looking to adopt. The rescue community in LA is working hard to place these pups in shelters that have room. Oakland Animal Services alone has placed over 100 chihuahuas in Washington, Oregon and Arizona. The biggest hurdle is the transportation costs to get these little guys to other areas where homes are available.
If you are interested in helping, check out the following links:
[Image courtesy of Getty Images]
Friday, December 11, 2009
My friends over at Petside.com have put together a list and slideshow of the top ten pet gadgets for this holiday season. Shown here is the "puppy bumper" which will prevent those sneaky little dogs from wiggling through gates and fences. Thankfully, my head is big enough that my person doesn't have to consider putting me in one of these. They also profiled a telescopic poop-scooper, so that you don't need to bend down, or even touch your dog's poop. Don't miss the "Kitt-in-a-box" which is an attachment for your desk so that your small dog or cat can lounge next to your keyboard while you type. The dog walking utility jacket contains 11 features just for your walking duty--including leash clips and a poop bag dispenser. You can find a ton more wild-but-sometimes-useful stuff at Petgadgets.com
On a related note, Petside.com also has an article on accessories to keep your nighttime winter walks safe. Items include reflective collars and leashes, blinking tags, and lighted fetch toys. All of these things also make great dog gifts. Hint. Hint.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Giving a puppy as a gift is not always a good idea. Bringing a dog into your home is a major commitment and the whole family should discuss the expectations and responsibilities. But people still give puppies as gifts for Christmas. After just a few days of picking up puppy poop that they didn't ask for, many of these dogs end up in shelters.
This is such a problem that one of the major dog rescue organizations in London is not allowing any new adoptions between December 20 and January 2. The Dog Trust hopes that this policy will minimize the number of pups showing up at their shelters after the holidays. During this time, you can go to the shelter and pick out a puppy, but will have to wait until after January 2 to take your new family member home.
This is part of the 30+ year effort to reduce the dog-as-gift problem in England. In 1978, one fifth of all dogs in the country were gifted. Now that is down under two percent--but that is still over 100,000 puppies every year going into homes that did not think through this major life decision.
Not sure if your ready for the full commitment of dog ownership, but want to try it over the holidays? Shelters all across the United States are participating in a program called "Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays." Shelters are joining together on Petfinder.com to get lonely shelter dogs a warm place to rest their heads during Christmas time.
If you haven't even started the conversation in your home, you might want to stick with the Zhu Zhu robotic hamster, which if you have not heard, is one of the hottest gifts for the 2009 holiday season.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
University of California San Diego's Student Wellness Center knows that you don't have to pay for puppy love. Unlike the students I wrote about yesterday, who rented puppies for stress relief, UCSD got some real pros to volunteer their time. USCD worked with a local therapy dog organization to come in and help students cope with the stress of finals. These trained professionals know how to calm people down and cheer people up, as they spend most of their days working in local hospitals.
Stress may not land students in the hospital, but it can hold them back in other ways. Dr. Jerry Phelps, director of Wellness Initiatives for UC Student Wellness said that “Stress for students is the number one health impediment to academic success." Their second annual Therapy Fluffies event was a success...with over 2,000 students stopping by for some quality time with some four legged stress relief professionals. Check out this article, which also has a slideshow from the event.
I know my person can get stressed sometimes, and nothing is better than knowing that my butt wiggles can turn her day around. Turns out I am even helping her study!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Final exams are one thing that I am glad dogs don't have to deal with. But did you know that dogs can make finals easier on humans? Chapman University did more than offer midnight snacks and free coffee this year. They held an event called "Furry Friends for Finals." According to the student organizer, Jennifer Heinz,
"It has been proven that having a dog helps relieve stress, so we thought it would be a cute idea if we brought some furry friends on campus."It sounds like a great idea!
I could have ended the story there, but when I find a neat event like this I usually like to profile the participating animal rescue organization. Well, through my investigative journalism skills, I learned that instead of picking up some homeless pups from a local shelter to share the stress relief with dogs in need, the student group rented, (yes, rented!) puppies from company that
leasespuppies from breeders for "puppy parties." The company charges $200 for 90 minutes of puppy party play time and $500 for 5 hours. Sorry, I am not going to be providing a link to this business.
The students should have reached out to their local shelter for some more meaningful playtime, while giving homeless pets some valuable socialization and cuddle time. Not only would that have been free, it would have been the right thing to do. If the student organizers from Chapman University are interested in doing this at the end of next semester, they should check out this list I compiled on Petfinder.com on all the animal rescue groups near the school. These students are onto something, but need another lesson.
Hello my canine companions. It's Riley with another tip for your humans. This week I would like to tell you a story of how my human helped solve a problem her friend was having with his new puppy. My human called the problem Coprophasia but us dogs know it as poop eating. Poop eating is more common in puppies but can happen at any stage of our doggy lives. I have know many poop eaters in my day and other than stinky breath, they were all great four-leggers. However, since humans seem to think that poop eating is such a disgusting habit the names in this story have been changed to protect the innocent. For the sake of saving muzzle we will call the pup discussed in this story Poopster.
The first thing humans must understand is why we eat poop. Some of my canine friends have told me they ate poop because they were hungry, needed vitamins or were just plain bored. Poopster told me that poop just tastes good! Whatever the reasons are for eating poop don't matter. What does matter is that if you don't have all if your vaccinations and worming treatments you can get diseases from poop eating and more importantly your human will stop giving you kisses!
Tell your human to take you to the vet if they think your poop eating is due to an underlying medical condition. Otherwise, tell them to try feeding you a well balanced nutrient filled meal so you get all your vitamins. Also tell them to try feeding you twice a day so you don't get really hungry and eat your poop. Make your human take you for long walks and give you lots of exercise and mental stimulation like fetch and "find it." Finally make your human teach you a trick called "leave it" so you will leave your poop alone. It worked for me, I mean it worked for Poopster. Pass it on.
Riley CEO (Canine of Extraordiary Obedience) AnytimeK9
Riley
CEO (Canine of Extraordiary Obedience)
AnytimeK9
Monday, December 7, 2009
Soldiers returning from the war zones need a helping hand, or paw. Post-traumatic stess disorder, or PTSD, is no whimpering matter. Soldiers suffering from PTSD often have trouble readjusting to normal life, have difficulty sleeping, suffer from severe anxiety attacks, and in extreme cases, they can be a threat to other people around them. The military is finally wising up to this growing problem, and they are discovering that service dogs can be a part of the solution.
This week, the army is having it's first ever animal therapy symposium in Ft. Meyer, Virginia. They will likely hear from all kinds of soldiers that are helped by therapy dogs. Some find that having a four legged companion helps break the ice in meeting strangers. Some find that having a dog in the bedroom helps them sleep, because they can learn to ignore meaningless sounds and trust that the dog will alert them to anything dangerous.
Pets2Vets is one of the great organizations helping out. Pets2Vets matches veterans with shelter dogs in the Washington DC area need of homes. Changing the life of an American veteran, and saving a mutt at the same time!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Jack is a 6-year old human that got a rough start on life. After suffering brain trauma and ending up in foster care, things didn't look too good for him. But he was adopted by two very generous and caring humans--Lisa and Eliot Swiger. Jack has a whole host of problems, including regular violent seizures and difficulty walking. The Swigers knew that they needed some extra help--of the four legged variety.
The Swigers got connected with paws4people, an organization that trains service dogs in prisons. After making a trip out to the facility to choose a dog, they were really hoping to find one that make an immediate emotional connection with Jack. Experts say that initial connection, called a "bump," provides a strong foundation in difficult cases like Jack's. Enter Caylie. During the visit, Jack had a several seizures, but Caylie was not scared or deterred. She stood right by him.
Now Caylie is in transition training with the Swigers--where the family needs to learn the over 100 commands that Caylie already has down. Soon she will move in with the family and join this loving pack in giving Jack a more normal life.
Read the whole story about Jack's tough start, and the "bump" that changed his life.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
The military can invest as much as $50,000 to train a four-legged soldier. That's a lot of training and a lot of money, so it is important that they protect that investment. Just like human soldiers, you wouldn't want them to go into the battlefield without proper protection.
Luckily K9 Storm has developed a bullet proof vest for working dogs. They didn't stop there. You can see in this picture that they developed a special harness for a dog and his partner to safely jump out of an airplane together! They are also working on cameras an d microphones for the dogs' collars so the humans can see and hear what is ahead, and even speakers for the collars so that dogs can hear important commands even when out of earshot. This isn't just for military dogs either, some police dogs are also getting this extra protection.
This is big business--K9 Storm nets over $5 million a year on this specialized gear. The co-founder Jim Slater didn't get in it just for the money though. As a K9 officer working in a prison that was having a riot, he was worried sick that his working dog had some protection to wear in that dangerous environment. Working dogs everywhere send him wags for his ingenuity.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The great folks at Petfinder.com are partnering with Hallmark this holiday season to promote fostering. The program is called "Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays." Hallmark is showing the special "A Dog Named Christmas" during the holiday season to help raise awareness about homeless pets. Petfinder.com has partnered with over 2,000 shelters around the country to help find temporary homes for pets between Christmas Eve and New Years Day.
Hopefully some of these folks will realize the joys of fostering and help lots more homeless pets out by providing a loving place to stay while they find their forever home. I was lucky enough to be in a safe warm foster home for the 6 months that it took me to get from the streets to my forever home. If you have some extra space in your warm home this holiday season, you can find a local participating organization at Petfinder.com.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Sure puppies are cute and fun, but an old dog will teach you a little about life, and a lot about yourself. Today is my buddy Shep's 12th birthday, and in tribute to his years and wisdom, I wanted to share this article by Gene
Weingarten. Here is an except: In our dogs, we see ourselves. Dogs exhibit almost all of our emotions; if you think a dog cannot register envy or pity or pride or melancholia, you have never lived with one for any length of time. What dogs lack is our ability to dissimulate. They wear their emotions nakedly, and so, in watching them, we see ourselves as we would be if we were stripped of posture and pretense. Their innocence is enormously appealing. When we watch a dog progress from puppyhood to old age, we are watching our own lives in microcosm. Our dogs become old, frail, crotchety, and vulnerable, just as Grandma did, just as we surely will, come the day. When we grieve for them, we grieve for ourselves.
This part of the recent book Old Dogs, which is full of photos and profiles of the kinds of old dogs we have all grown to love.
Hello my canine companions. It's Riley with another tip for your humans. This week I want to tell you about something I learned long ago, something called "boundaries." I don't know what the word means but my human says it is important. Five years ago when I was just a pup I came to my human's house and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I had my own bed, my own food bowl and my very own stuffed animal named Wub Wub. My good friend Wub Wub and I went everywhere together.
It was great until one day Wub Wub and I jumped on the couch right after coming in from a long run. My paws were filthy and the couch was white! Well immediately my human said "off" and made Wub Wub and I get down. "This is my house" I barked and jumped back on the couch. Again we were made to get down. My human explained that we had to have boundaries and were not allowed on the couch unless invited up. Well this was news to Wub Wub and I so we tried several more times over the course of a week but everytime we were told "off" and had to get down. When my human was not home she put barriers up so Wub Wub and I could not get on the couch. My human said that it is important to be consistent and to establish limitation so I can respect her as my confident and fair pack leader and she is right. Wub wub and I think she is awesome. Pass it on.
Riley CEO (Canine of Extraordiary Obedience) AnytimeK9
Riley
CEO (Canine of Extraordiary Obedience)
AnytimeK9
PS--If you live in the DC or NYC areas and are interested in training with AnytimeK9, check out their website. Be sure to tell them that Scoop sent you!
Blog Archive ► 2010 (131) ▼ 2009(235) ▼ December(23) Even dogs go on vacation George, the gentle giant Giving our soldiers a little Faith Have a wagging Christmas! The strong spirit of Little Brown Dog Safety & the holidays Rudolph the wet-nosed dachshund Paw pad health in the snow Financial help to keep your pack together Best walking partners are 4-legged A dog, a cop, and a rabbi... LA's chihuahua surplus Speaking of Christmas gifts... Christmas Shopping? Don't get a puppy. Four legged stress relief professionals Puppies help with finals, but these students need ... Training Tip Tuesday, POOP EATERS, Sponsored by An... Helping Vets and saving homeless pets The "bump" that mattered Protecting the dogs that protect us Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays Celebrating old dogs Training Tip Tuesday, BOUNDARIES, Sponsored by Any... ▼ December (23) | 25,307 | 10,988 | 0.000092 |
warc | 201704 | Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01wd375z702
Title: Tiger Children in Old and New Immigrant Destinations: The Divergent Educational Experiences of Chinese Immigrant Youth in Spain, Italy and the U.S Authors: Yiu, Jessica Advisors: Portes, Alejandro Contributors: Sociology Department Subjects: Asian American studies
Education
Issue Date: 2016 Publisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Abstract: Deemed ‘model minorities,’ second-generation Chinese-Americans have, on average, high levels of educational attainment and, as a result, they have experienced more upward mobility than other groups. Yet, on the other side of the Atlantic, a strikingly different story about Chinese immigrants and their offspring emerges. Findings from my preliminary research show that Chinese youths in Spain and Italy have substantially lower educational ambitions and attainment than youths from every other ethno-national origin group. What are the explanations for these drastic divergences in the educational trajectories of Chinese immigrant youth across different host societies? My research highlights three potential explanations: cultural understandings of success, perceptions of blocked opportunity and sense of belonging in the host societies, and the role of parental influence in shaping youth’s educational and career ambitions. Based on analysis of three comparable, large-scale datasets in the U.S., Spain and Italy, I find that a key factor in determining minority youth’s educational ambitions is the availability of alternative channels for mobility – namely, entrepreneurship – in the ethnic community and the host society. Unlike their counterparts in the U.S., Chinese youth in Spain and Italy tend to express entrepreneurial rather than academic ambitions. Met with discrimination at school and in the labor market, yet finding financial success in niche markets as small business owners, it appears that the Chinese in Southern Europe have, at least temporarily, forged an alternative pathway of mobility based on entrepreneurial endeavors rather than educational accomplishments – a formula passed on from immigrant parents to their offspring. In addition to findings from multivariate regression analyses, additional evidence is provided in in-depth interviews with Chinese youth and their parents across the three host societies. URI: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01wd375z702 Alternate format: The Mudd Manuscript Library retains one bound copy of each dissertation. Search for these copies in the library's main catalog: http://catalog.princeton.edu/ Type of Material: Academic dissertations (Ph.D.) Language: en Appears in Collections: Sociology
Files in This Item:
File Description Size Format Yiu_princeton_0181D_11662.pdf 1.55 MB Adobe PDF View/Download
Items in Dataspace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. | 2,994 | 1,503 | 0.000675 |
warc | 201704 | Today's blog comes from Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg who writes an astonishing blog Disability and Representation where the original post appeared. Rachel has graciously allowed me to reprint the article here. I thought about Cousin Mattie the whole time I read this.
In 2009, while searching Ancestry.com for new information to add to my family genealogy, I discovered the existence of a relative about whom no one in the family had ever spoken. She was my paternal grandfather’s younger sister (my father’s aunt), and her name was Sarah. During a search of census records, I learned that she had been a patient at the Massachusetts State Hospital in Canton, MA in 1920, when she was 11 years old, and at the Wrentham State School in 1930, when she was 21. In other words, she appeared to have resided in state institutions from the time she was a child.
My father’s family has a rather unusual last name, so when I came upon Sarah, I felt fairly certain that she was related to us. Because the state schools were often warehouses for people with physical and mental disabilities, I felt from the beginning that Sarah had been “disappeared” from the family because she had been disabled.
In the face of this attempt to erase her from memory, I began a quest to learn everything I could about Sarah and to bring her into the light of day.
I was saddened by everything I found.
Sarah’s father, apparently, was known as “vigorous, gregarious, a hard drinker and a gambler, and inclined to shirk family responsibilities.” Her mother, on the other hand, was described as “mentally incompetent, elusive, and uncooperative.” I’m not sure that Sarah’s mother was actually any of those things, since living with a hard drinker and gambler who chronically refused to take care of his family very likely explained how she presented to the rest of the world.
It’s clear that the family was desperately poor, as evidenced by their contact with various social service agencies throughout the 1920s, and by the placement of two of Sarah’s younger sisters with foster families during the 1930s. There were, in all, seven children who survived early childhood. Four others died very young. Sarah was the second eldest of the surviving children, having been born in 1908.
I soon found out that she was, indeed, physically disabled, and had been diagnosed with “congenital spastic paralysis,” now known as cerebral palsy, when she was very young. But even more interesting are the possible markers of autism: she was a nervous baby, cried continually, tore at her hair, scratched her face unmercifully, and first talked at 4 years of age.
In 1915, at the age of 7, Sarah was placed in a family home with another disabled child. In September of that year, she began in the first grade at the local public school.
In 1916, she was placed in a state home—the Massachusetts Hospital School in Canton, MA—because her foster mother could no longer afford to take care of her. A teacher at this school considered her to be “of slow mind, lacking in concentration, and having problems with attention.” (ADD, anyone?) In a painful example how easily disabled people are dismissed, it was suggested that Sarah be placed in a school for the feebleminded when she was older.
By 1920, the people at the Massachusetts Hospital School said that they could do no more for her. She was judged “not mentally competent” to compete with the children in her grade. It appears that she was placed in another family home before a space opened up for her at the Wrentham State School.
She entered the Wrentham State School in 1921, at the age of 12, with the hideous diagnosis of “moron.” As I look at a photograph of her taken around that time, I find myself amazed that anyone could have missed the focused, sad intelligence in her eyes. In fact, when I first saw the photograph, I burst into tears. She was the only person in the family whose eyes, whose facial expression, and whose look of anger and sadness at the insanities of the world reminded me so thoroughly of my own.
About 10,000 people were institutionalized at Wrentham during its history. Despite Sarah’s diagnosis, she was described as adapting herself very quickly to her surroundings, expressing herself relatively well, and displaying a full range of emotions. Apparently, she always tried to do her best and took pride in neat work—words that would have perfectly described me as a child. She was also a good singer—another trait that we share in common.
Unfortunately, Sarah began to fall apart in the late 1920s. She began to behave and talk in “peculiar” ways, becoming depressed and unhappy. She felt teased by her peers. She lost her appetite for food, and her behavior became disruptive. One can only guess at what she was going through. Had she been assaulted? Had she collapsed under the weight of chronic institutionalization? Had her longing for friends, family, and home finally become more than she could bear? We will never know.
She showed no evidence of being delusional and yet, when she left Wrentham in 1930 and entered the Foxborough State Hospital, she was given a diagnosis of “dementia praecox,” the now-defunct term for schizophrenia. It was certainly not unusual for autistic people, especially women, to be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and other mental disorders, especially when the process of institutionalization itself created mental and sensory breakdowns. As a state mental institution, Foxborough was a dumping ground not just for physically and mentally disabled people, but also for poor non-disabled children and recalcitrant wives. In those days, it was not unusual for poor children to be placed in institutions, and for rich people to take them out and hire them as maids.
Sarah, however, never had this dubious opportunity. Instead, she entered the Foxborough State Hospital at the age of 21 and never came out. She died of tuberculosis of the lungs in 1934, when she was 25 years old. When I received a copy of her death certificate, I was horrified to learn that she had been ill with tuberculosis for ten months before she died. Ten months, suffering in hell with a wasting disease. It makes me physically sick to think about it.
Under most circumstances, the indignities visited upon the patients at Foxborough followed them into death. In general, the inmates (for that is what they were) were buried on hospital grounds, their graves marked not with their names, but with their patient numbers. As a result, if anyone in a later generation were to visit his or her deceased relative, it would be impossible to know where to look.
I was determined to honor Sarah by visiting her grave, and when I wrote to the state mental health agency to find out her patient number, I was surprised to learn that she had not been buried at Foxborough at all, but in the Arbeiter Ring (Workman’s Circle) cemetery in Boston. I have no idea who got her out of Foxborough to bury her properly, but I hope that the person is reaping untold benefits in heaven for this act of humanity.
There is a non-profit agency that oversees all the old Jewish cemeteries in Boston, so I wrote to them right away to see whether they would send me a photograph of Sarah’s grave. To my dismay, I learned that there was no grave marker at all.
So Bob and I decided to get Sarah a proper grave marker, which was placed this past fall. On the marker appear her name, her date of birth, her date of death, and my favorite line from Psalms:
Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.
I hope that she has found joy in the next world.
I hope that she feels the peace of knowing that she has the dignity of a marked grave.
I hope she knows that her picture has taken its place on our wall, along with those of our other ancestors.
I hope it heals her that I am telling her story and making sure that people remember the shame and injustice of what happened to her.
My Hebrew name is now “Rachel Batya bat Sarah Channa”—Rachel Batya, daughter of Sarah Hannah. I have taken Sarah as my spiritual mother. Every Friday night at our Shabbos table, I receive a blessing, and her name is blessed with mine. She never had a chance to have a child of her own, but in some way that I don’t entirely understand, I am her daughter. I am a disabled woman, born into the same family two generations later, and I have what she didn’t have. I have the power to stand up and say, “No more.”
No more dismissal. No more shame. No more isolation. No more disappearances. No more silence.
No more Aunt Sarahs.
Not now. Not ever.
© 2011-2012 by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg | 8,810 | 3,975 | 0.000258 |
warc | 201704 | We are in the middle of a huge landscaping project here. End of the season (Minnesota) of course, so we are in the crunch in terms of materials available.
We tore out a steep driveway with high retaining walls to create a level backyard with wide garden beds above short retaining walls. When the project began, the original excavator/landscaper said he could save my amended topsoil (all organic) and that we would need no additional soil. Now he's bailed on the project and the new excavator/landscaper has saved very little topsoil (and it's not his fault, the site is narrow and the soil above walls with tons of Class 5 behind the walls mixed in). The beds now have to be filled in with soil brought to the site. I had silty loam, everything grew like mad and am really upset about losing that in my beds. When they bring in this stuff does it have any structure, any microorganisms, any life? I need to plant tulips as soon as there are beds, I have 100s I dug out of the old garden, should I water in with compost tea or something to get the process going? The landscape architect, the landscaper, all say they can bring me what ever kind of soil I want but are landscape mixes any good? and what should I be looking for to be as much like my soil as possible? Most mixes have topsoil, sand, milled or coarse peat. Some have wood bark and compost. I especially don't want soil that retains too much water--I have perennializing tulips and other bulbs, yuccas, heathers, other plants that grow here that don't grow in other gardens--so peat seems a bad idea to me, but WDIK? To add insult to injury now they want to just mix the topsoil they saved into the substrate because they have to bring in fill, and they're bringing "good" soil in anyway so why have the inconvenience of working around it? Arrrgh. I feel like I started out with one deal and I'm ending up with something else entirely. But that's just venting. Appreciate any advice and experience, thanks, Laurie Newbie hereAdvice on blended soils please
We are in the middle of a huge landscaping project here. End of the season (Minnesota) of course, so we are in the crunch in terms of materials available.
Boy, Jazzdoctor, those are some serious questions. I'm wondering if you might find some help on this forum:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/b_landscaping/all/
You might find these tagged pages helpful:
http://davesgarden.com/tools/tags/tag.php?tag=soil+amendments http://davesgarden.com/tools/tags/tag.php?tag=microbes http://davesgarden.com/tools/tags/tag.php?tag=mycorrhizae This message was edited Oct 6, 2009 12:04 AM
Can't say I would know what to do either, really, but bear in mind that most soil has organic topsoil only for , um, a foot or so at the top, how deeply willl they be filling? I wouldn't put too much organic stuff down deep that will add to the cost and just rot and settle eventually. My vote FWIW is to let them put the old topsoil in with substrate then can you go see samples of what they can buy? We got cheap local topsoil that was OK for lawn renovation but ddid bring some weeds and rocks and bits of plastic.
And then yes use compost to help out the microbes.
jazzdoctor - personally, I would not have "top soil" brought in without knowing in advance where it came from. "Top Soil" might be no better than what you already have - it can also contain "sedge" which you definitely do not want to battle with.
Again, personally, I would see if your municipality can bring you a dump truck of compost. Here's a link to our county's web site which will give you some idea of cost: http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/LUESA/Solid+Waste/Compost-Yard+Waste/sales.htm
Hi Everyone! Nothing like posting 7 months later, but here's the rest of the story:
I've been away from the computer pretty much all winter because I developed tendonitis in my right elbow (golfer's and tennis elbow) from getting the gardening done last fall, esp the tulip planting, so be careful out there! I'm just now back to typing and gardening. Thank you for all the good advice, I checked out all the links and took everything into consideration. I also picked up the phone and coldcalled the soil science dept at the U of MN and asked for a professor who was listed on the U site as interested in soil composition, and he was good enough to spend 10-15 mins talking to me. I decided to do as sallyg suggested, and told the landscaper to save my soil for the top foot or so of soil and to bring in sandy subsoil for the rest. This allowed my topsoil to "stretch" further, but I still had to bring in soil, there just wasn't enough. I sampled several soils, one from the landscaper working here, one from a well regarded landscape nursery nearby, and one from a wholesale soil supplier recommended by the prof at the U. The best thing is that I learned to precipitate soil, which takes no skill whatsoever, just put some soil in a jar, add water, shake and let it sit several hours or overnight. The organic stuff sinks, the sand settles next and clay is on top. (who knew that stuff floats?) I'm told ideally clay should be about 10%. My own soil had no clay I could see. It was interesting. The soil from the landscaper on the job which was supposed to be 100% composted organic material was almost a third clay. The other landscaper's soil was weird, it didn't want to hydrate and wouldn't settle. The garden mix from the soil supplier was almost identical to mine, so I went with that. So far so good. The tulips all came up and the shrubs we planted survived the winter. I'm waiting for the tulips to die back so I can plant perennials, but so far the drainage is good, which was my chief concern. Hope someone can learn from my adventure! Thanks again, Laurie
Thanks for the update. Sounds like things are turning out well.
That is interesting. I can't wait to do a jar test in my yard.
jazzdoctor - first, I'm sorry to read about your tendonitis :(
As to your decision - you certainly did your homework and should be commended for a job well done. Keep us posted. | 6,080 | 2,875 | 0.000349 |
warc | 201704 | The opinion of the court was delivered by: ROYCE LAMBERTH, District Judge
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Now before the court is plaintiff David W. Quall's Motion [5]
for Preliminary Injunction. For the reasons stated herein, the
court denies this motion.
Plaintiff David W. Qualls, affiliated with the United States
Army from 1986-1994, reenlisted in the Army National Guard's Try
One program on July 7, 2003 for a term of service lasting one
year, zero months, and zero days. Soon thereafter, in mid-October
of 2003, the Army called Qualls to active duty and extended his
term of service, changing his Expiration of Term of Service
("ETS") date from July 6, 2004 to December 24, 2031. The Army
form that informed Qualls about his involuntary extension asserts
that the extension was legally authorized by 10 U.S.C § 12305,
the so-called "stop-loss" statute.
On December 6, 2004, Qualls and seven other servicemen subject
to involuntary
Page 2
extensions filed suit in this court against the Secretary of
Defense, the Secretary of the Army and the Assistant Secretary of
the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs ("Army"). Qualls, then
on leave in the United States, requested a temporary restraining
order directing the Army to allow him to remain in the United
States. The court denied this request at a hearing on December 8,
2004. Qualls also moved the court for a preliminary injunction
ordering the immediate release of Qualls from active military
service. That is the motion now before the court.
A preliminary injunction is an "extraordinary" remedy. Mazurek
v. Armstrong, 520 U.S. 968, 972 (1997). The plaintiff must, by a
clear showing, carry the burden of persuasion. Id.; Cobell v.
Norton, 391 F.3d 251, 258 (D.C. Cir. 2004). In a motion for
preliminary injunction, the plaintiff must demonstrate: 1) a
substantial likelihood of success on the merits, 2) that the
plaintiff would suffer irreparable injury if an injunction is not
granted, 3) that an injunction would not substantially injure
another interested party, and 4) that an injunction would favor
the public interest. Cobell, 391 F.3d at 258. The court will
then "balance the strengths of the [plaintiff's] arguments in
each of the four required areas" to determine whether to issue an
injunction. CityFed Fin. Corp. v. Office of Thrift Supervision,
58 F.3d 738, 747 (D.C. Cir. 1995). In cases such as this, where
it is uncontested that the injunction sought would alter, rather
than preserve, the status quo, the moving party must show a clear
entitlement to relief or show that extreme or very serious damage
will result if the injunction does not issue. Nat'l Conf. On
Ministry To Armed Forces v. James, 278 F. Supp. 2d 37, 42
(D.D.C. 2003).
Page 3
1. Exhaustion of Remedies and Justiciability
As an initial matter, the Army argues that Qualls is unlikely
to succeed on the merits of his case because this court should
not reach the merits. The Army suggests that Qualls has failed to
exhaust the Army's administrative remedies before initiating this
action is federal district court. This Circuit does not require
exhaustion if pursuit of an administrative remedy would be futile
or if the plaintiff can show irreparable harm. Bois v. Marsh,
801 F.2d 462, 468 (D.C. Cir. 1986). The administrative remedy
cited by the Army is set forth in MILPER Message 03-040, which
allows "[s]oldiers who have compelling or compassionate reasons"
to apply for an exception to the Army's involuntary extension
policy. Qualls is not seeking an exception for these reasons,
rather he brings a legal challenge to the involuntary extension
policy and its application to him in the first instance. The
exhaustion the Army demands would be futile. Moreover, as
determined in Part III.B of this Memorandum Opinion, Qualls does
face irreparable harm. Therefore, the exhaustion requirement does
not apply to Qualls.
As to justiciability, the court notes that it would be likely
to find Qualls' claim justiciable. Recruiting activities, "by
their very nature, involve a crucial intersection of the military
and the general public that cannot be left to the sole discretion
of the military." Brown v. Dunleavy, 722 F. Supp. 1343, 1349
(E.D. Va. 1989). Further, "this case . . . involves a dispute
over the formation and interpretation of a contract, an area that
clearly falls within the expertise of the judiciary." Id.
(citing Santos v. Franklin, 493 F. Supp. 847 (E.D. Pa. 1980)).
"There are few instances that would invite judicial intervention
in military affairs to a greater degree than matters
Page 4
relating to enlistment contracts." Irby v. United States,
245 F. Supp. 2d 792, 799 (E.D. Va. 2003).
To determine whether the military has breached an enlistment
contract or whether an enlistment contract is invalid, courts
apply general, common law principles of contract law.
Cinciarelli v. Carter, 662 F.2d 73, 78 (D.C. Cir. 1981);
Woodrick v. Hungerford, 800 F.2d 1413, 1416 (5th Cir. 1986);
Pence v. Brown, 627 F.2d 872, 874 (8th Cir. 1980); Castle v.
Caldera, 74 F. Supp. 2d 4, 8-9 (D.D.C. 1999) (citing numerous
cases); Brown v. Dunleavy, 722 F. Supp. 1343, 1349 (E.D. Va.
1989).*fn1 Qualls alleges that the Army's extension of his
term of service constitutes a breach of contract. Qualls ... | 5,369 | 2,635 | 0.000388 |
warc | 201704 | As the rule in the previous section shows, rules are conditional actions. The action can be anything appropriate to the domain. For a browser extension endpoint, actions usually modify the DOM and consequently affect how the page is rendered in the browser. (The DOM, short for Document Object Model, is the data structure representing the page that the browser maintains to render it. Changing the DOM dynamically changes what the user sees displayed in the browser.) For an email endpoint, the actions are appropriate to managing email.
Event expressions can be used to specify complex event patterns. A rule is selected when the eventex in the rule's
select statement matches events in the rule set's event stream.
Once selected, the rule's prelude is executed and the condition, if any, is evaluated. If the condition is true, the action is taken; we say the rule fired. Empty conditions are trivially true. Because you can write a selector that always selects and the conditional is optional, some rules will always fire. But most interesting rule sets will contain rules that only fire under certain circumstances. After the action has been generated, the rule's postlude statement is evaluated. (Note that actions are not necessarily sent to endpoints as they are taken, but are queued for delivery when the entire event evaluation has completed for more efficient execution.
Condition expressions may not have anything to do with the events that led to the rule being selected. They could, for example, check a data source for the weather or a stock price. A condition is valid over a period of time. Events are atomic with respect to time. Being in a state is a condition, and the state transition that got you there is the event.
The best way to think of a rule's condition is as a guard on the action. Programmers new to KRL frequently want an else clause on the conditional. But there is a distinction between choosing an action and determining when an action should fire. The condition is used to determine whether an action should fire, not which action. Which action to fire is generally determined by which rule is selected.
Event expressions can use filters to further distinguish one event from another. For example, the following eventex matches
pageview events where the URL has a particular format:
Suppose, instead, that you had written the URL filter as a condition in a rule using the event attribute function:
These are, mostly, equivalent, but there are several subtle differences:
The second rule will be selected more than the first, but fire in the same circumstances. This has implications for system efficiency but not for the overall effect of the rule. Eventex filters are useful when you use compound expressions. This is especially true with aggregators. For example, the following eventex will match using a sliding window of five withdrawal events and set the variable m to have the maximum amount when that amount is above a threshold: Salience hints, harvested from the eventexes of a rule set, contain more useful data when the eventex include filters. This makes the network more efficient because endpoints can be written that only raise relevant events.
Consider the following select statement:
Expressed in KRL, this concept would be more verbose and difficult to understand.
Rule conditions have the advantage of being able to take other data, aside from the events and attributes, into consideration when determining whether a rule should fire. KRL makes it easy to access data from cloud-based APIs. In addition, a number of intrinsic functions and libraries offer additional data to a KRL rule set. Consequently, conditions are important for making decisions based on user context because there's more of it available to conditions than there is in an eventex, regardless of sophistication. | 3,853 | 1,762 | 0.00057 |
warc | 201704 | Auburn University Digital Library
The Courier - N°158 - July - August 1996 Dossier Communication and the media - Country report Cape Verde
source ref: ec158e.htm
Dossier
Communication and the media
by Frances d'Souza
Frances d'Souza who is Executive Director of AROSE 19, a nom governmental organization which campaigns against censorship globally, explains why Freedom of Expression is for her the most important human right
In the absence of freedom of expression, it is almost impossible to protect other rights, including the right to life. Once governments can draw a cloak of secrecy round their actions and remain unaccountable, massive human rights violations can, and do, take place. For this reason alone, the right to free expression, specifically protected in international human rights treaties, must be considered a primary right. It is significant that one of the first indications of a government's intention to depart from democratic principles is when it increases its control over information, usually by gagging the media. At the one end of the spectrum, supposedly minor infringements of this fundamental right occur daily in western democracies; for example the abuse of national security laws to prevent publication of information which might embarrass the authorities. At the other end of the scale are regimes of terror which brutally suppress opposition, information and even the freedom to exercise religious beliefs. Without free speech and an independent media, it is easier for governments to employ propaganda to promote ethnic conflict, war and genocide.
The right to freedom of expression is formally protected in major international treaties including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and
* This text is an abridged version of a submission made by the author to a public hearing hosted by the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence and the Sub-Committee on Human Rights and the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media, April 25, 1996.
Political Rights (Article 19), and the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 10). It is also enshrined in many national constitutions, although this does not always guarantee its protection. Freedom of expression is something which applies even in countries which have not ratified the relevant international treaties. This is because the Universal Declaration is so widely accepted that its provisions now form part of customary international law.
While it is generally agreed that freedom of expression is the cornerstone of democracy, international treaties permit certain restrictions. Unlike the American First Amendment rights which allow few, if any, checks on free speech, the international treaties aim for a balance between competing rights. Thus, for example, free speech may be limited where it impinges on the individual's right to privacy, or where it involves incitement to violence or hatred. Given that the permitted restrictions are necessarily broad, the limits of free speech are constantly being tested in national courts and in regional tribunals such as the European Commission and Court of Human Rights. In recent years, several landmark cases have helped define what restrictions may be imposed by governments and under what circumstances. In particular, it has been emphasised by the European Court that any restriction should 'pass' a threepart test; it should be prescribed by law (and thus not be arbitrarily imposed), it should be proportionate to the legitimate aims pursued, and it should be demonstrably necessary in a democratic society in order to protect the individual and/or the state.
Who censors what?
Despite the rules governing restrictions on free speech, many justifications are still invoked by governments in suppressing information which may be inimical to their policies or interests. These include arguments in defence of national security or the 'public interest'. The mechanisms used to restrict the free flow of information range from subtle economic pressures, and devious methods of undermining political opponents and the independent media, to the enactment of restrictive press laws and rules for licensing journalists. In extreme cases, they may involve the illegal detention, torture and disappearance of journalists and others associated with the expression of independent views.
The right of free speech may appear less important than, for example, freedom from torture or extrajudicial killing. It is also sometimes difficult to persuade the public that censorship, generally associated with banning obscene materials, is a bad thing! It requires a recognition of some of the fundamental principles of democracy to understand why censorship is so dangerous. Democracy implies that people can make choices about the issues that affect their lives, including what they wish to see, read, hear or discuss. While this may seem a luxurious freedom, mainly preoccupying the wealthy West, it is a comparatively short distance between state censorship of an offensive book to the silencing of political dissidents. And the distance between this and the use of violence to suppress opposition is even shorter. Censorship tends to grow rapidly from small beginnings. Allowing a government the power to deny people information, however trivial, not only leads to laws and procedures which can and will be used by those in authority against those with less authority. It also denies people the information they need to render their governments accountable.
There have been some terrible examples of the role of censorship in recent years. We have seen it in the republics of the former Yugoslavia where the media were manipulated for propaganda purposes. We have seen it in Rwanda where the government associated radio incited citizens to kill each other in the name of ethnic supremacy. And we have seen it in Iran which maintains the threat of murder against a citizen of another country because he wrote a book which displeased the authorities.
There are clear links between access to information (or rather the lack of it), and war. Democracy empowers people by increasing participation in decision-making at all levels. The poor, who are denied access to information on decisions which deeply affect their lives, are powerless and have no voice. They cannot influence the ruling elites whose interest in consolidating their own power and position may be served by initiating conflict.
It is significant that of the 126 developing countries listed in the 1993 Human Development Report, wars were being waged in 30 and a further 33 were suffering severe civil conflicts. 55 of these 63 countries were to be found at the lower end of the Human Development Index which is an indicator of poverty. It is reasonably safe to assume that most people never welcome war. They may be coerced into supporting 'their' side in a conflict by their governments, using propaganda designed to whip up fear and extreme nationalist sentiment. If the majority had a democratic voice, they would undoubtedly object to war. But voices are silenced. Thus, the freedom to express one's views, to challenge government decisions and to insist upon political rather than violent solutions, are necessary aspects of democracy which can, and do, avert war.
State-sponsored propaganda in Rwanda, as in the former Yugoslavia, succeeded because there were no ways of challenging it. One can conclude that it is impossible for a country to wage war in the absence of a compliant media willing to indulge in government propaganda. Governments needs civilians to fight wars for them and the media is needed to reinforce government policies and intentions at every turn. In a totalitarian state where the expression of political views, let alone the possibility of political organisation is suppressed, one has to ask what other possibilities are open to a genuine political movement intent on introducing justice. All too often, terrorism and violence are the only perceived options available to communicate the need for change.
What NGOs can do
The work of human rights organizations has to become much more proactive and should be concerned with providing early warning and preventive action. Monitoring freedom of exprmsion, especially freedom of the press, offers an excellent context because it is widely recognised that would-be dictators always seek to silence people's voices through banning newspapers or other methods of censorship. One has to assume that when censorship begins in earnest, worse human rights abuses will follow and this should be the point for action. Had there been a greater international lobby for an independent media, for access to information and for participation in decision-making in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Burma and many other countries, some of the gross violations which continue to occur, could have been prevented.
Censorship is the first instrument of a government intent on departing from democratic procedures. In this sense it is an early warning signal and at ARTICLE 19, we believe we have a special responsibility to understand better how democracy is destroyed through censorship and how we can alert the international community to act to prevent it.
By way of conclusion, anything which can build strong and sound media infrastructures, at the earliest to pportunity, in transitional democracies, is both a gift and a great investment. A crusading press, prepared to separate fact from opinion and to verify its sources, can create a level playing field in which all sectors of society have a voice. This would preclude political control and manipulation for nationalistic power purposes. There is also a need to strengthen local monitoring groups which have the capacity to verify information. International organisations should amplify the voices of local organisations and bring them to the attention of the international community. It is only where there is a strong human rights culture in a given country, whether it has achieved democracy or not, that political changes can be seized upon and shaped into the democratic process.
To achieve these objectives, NGOS need to work with governments which are obliged by international law to uphold fundamental rights. We need organisations such as the KU, the UN, ASEAN, and others, to insist on respect for human rights in their dealings with third countries. We also need the general public to be aware of what fundamental rights are, what are the consequences of infringement, and how they can, as individuals, successfully challenge restrictionss imposed on them by their governments. Above all, NGOS need to work with multilateral organisations to determine where slender resources can most fruitfully be targeted.
F.d'S. | 10,863 | 4,745 | 0.000211 |
warc | 201704 | The question is no longer what, the question is when.
Very soon, income inequality in the United States will reach such a critical level it is likely violence will be viewed as an acceptable response to America’s social ills.
Unlike Depression Era bank robbers, assaults will be aimed at soft human targets. After all, who uses cash anymore?
Extortion. Kidnapping. Arsons. A crime wave of epic proportions might well be the only way those running America will come to their senses and realize that no democracy can continue to exist where so much is controlled by so few. The present system of representative government has failed in such a spectacular fashion to protect the rights of the majority that the government itself has become the criminal.
Do not kid yourself that the present resource inequality will do anything but get much, much worse. Do the math. Tax rates for the extremely wealthy being so extremely low can only lead to the further accumulation of massive fortunes by the select few. That wealth will be taken from those lower on the economic food chain and so the disparity can only become greater.
Let them eat cake.
Public discussion of the critical problems currently facing this nation is so infantile it might as well be Medieval monks chattering on about the number of angels that can fit on the top of a pin. Bridges collapsing. People literally starving. Jobless working class. A country without hope. Yet the rulers natter on about reducing the rations of the most needy while at the same time they loot every household in the name of a putrid for-profit medical system and drone bomb the hell out of any country they wish.
How many military bases does this country have outside our borders? How many countries have U.S. troops stationed in them? Only criminals need those many guns.
Serious problems. There is a total disconnect between those charged with keeping this country on an even keel and reality.
The United States has become a kleptocracy. And criminality is the lesson it is teaching its citizens. Those living outside of the law, whether in skyscrapers or shacks, bring only pain and deprivation to those who strive to maintain a civilized society. When the government itself is the criminal, cutting up the pie solely for itself and its cronies, an equally criminal response will be inevitable.
What to do? It’s Robin Hood time. It’s only a question of who becomes the outlaw of Sherwood. People will only allow a boot to press against their neck for so long before the violence being done to them precipitates a like response. Unless those in positions of power tax the rich until it hurts, there will, like night follows day, be a violent response from those being oppressed against those they see as inflicting their pain.
If this government keeps shirking its responsibility to the vast majority of its citizens, this country is dooming itself to a bloody future. | 2,939 | 1,495 | 0.000675 |
warc | 201704 | Abstract
The probability of error or, alternatively, the probability of correct classification (PCC) is an important criterion in analyzing the performance of a classifier. Labeled samples (those with ground truth) are usually employed to evaluate the performance of a classifier. Occasionally, the numbers of labeled samples are inadequate, or no labeled samples are available to evaluate a classifier's performance; for example, when crop signatures from one area from which ground truth is available are used to classify another area from which no ground truth is available. This paper reports the results of an experiment to estimate the probability of error using unlabeled test samples (i.e., without the aid of ground truth).
Date of this Version
1976 | 763 | 385 | 0.002615 |
warc | 201704 | Latin: Mary Beard and why it has no place in core curricula "Debate is the key word”
So says the venerable Mary Beard in her new book
Confronting the Classics. “ the classical tradition is something to be engaged with and sparred against, not merely replicated and mouthed”. Exactly. Yet when I dared to criticise the place of Latin in our school curricula, in two separate posts, you’d have thought I was the barbarian at the gates of contemporary civilisation. First, I outlined the research that scotched that old myth about Latin helping you learn second languages such as French, Spanish, Italian and so on. (Latin makes learning a second language more difficult) Second, I outlined the true reasons for Latin being so prominent in our 21 stcentury schools, many of them made unpleasant reading (10 reasons not to learn Latin).
At the time Mary Beard commented on these pieces in her characteristic, level-headed and rational manner. She defended Latin but thought that Greek may be a better option if you’re after ideas, philosophy, epics and drama. She also gave short thrift to the old chestnuts used by Latinists to keep Latin as a key subject in school curricula, seeing it as a product of a narrow curriculum and unimaginably, dull pedagogy.
ad hoc arguments for Latin
In her latest book she tackles the subject of learning Latin head-on in the introductory essay. Latin was “
for generations the gatekeeper of rigid class, privilege and social exclusivity…it gave you access to a narrow elite”. She rejects the hyperbolic claims that Latin improves intellectual and linguistic development, IQ or the learning of French, Italian and Spanish (a much loved dinner-party trope) and claims that most of these sort of arguments that support learning Latin are “ perilous”. Latin a matter or proportionality
“
the overall strength of the classics is not to be measured by exactly how many young people know Latin or Greek from school or University. It is better measured by asking how many believe that there should be people in the world who do know Latin and Greek.” This about sums up my position. I am not against the study of Latin or any other dead languages. This is largely a matter of proportionality for our Universities. By all means let a few study Latin. What I am against is too prominent a role for Latin in contemporary school curriculas. Our young people have enough on their plate at 5-18, as the range of subjects expands to include a wider range of science subjects, IT and other vocational skills. A dead language at this stage is merely the dead hand of educational history being played out by interested parties. Conclusion
“
There is only one good reason for learning Latin, and that is that you want to read what is written in it….” This is another key point made by Beard. Let’s forget about all of those excuses for Latin being in some special intellectual category. It is not. Taking the line, as Gove did recently (he had to furiously backtrack), that Latin should be given special status above IT and every other vocational subject on the curriculum is absurd. To do, as Toby Young has done, and make it compulsory, is idiotic. PS Sense of wonderment
What Mary Beard’s book is largely about, is instilling a sense of ‘sense of wonderment’ in the classical world. I’ve had that since the age of 15 or so, without studying Latin. Beard excels in this task in both print and on TV. This book, in English, is about scholarship ridding us of misconceptions and myths. She does this with panache. Knossos, Pompeii and the Laocoon are stripped of their misleading modern appearances. Those pesky, verbatim, Thucididean speeches are subject to a re-evaluation. Alexander the Great and Cleopatra are placed in the context of later ‘spin’. There is a reassessment of the Galba to Vespasian period, a stirring defence of those bad boys of Rome, Caligula and Nero. Asterix the Gaul is seen as a distortion of Rome’s model of governance. The archaeological evidence for the Boadicean rebellion is reassessed (there’s almost nothing). Great book by a wonderful woman who understands that the Classics are to be cherished and debated, not defended uncritically and fossilised. | 4,330 | 2,129 | 0.000485 |
warc | 201704 | Since I was discharged from hospital, I have wondered often about my medical notes.
I wondered what they contained.
I wished that I had read them properly at the time.
In reality I was too ill.
When I first started to write this blog back in January, I started to – tentatively – write about my HELLP syndrome story.
I had no idea that writing about what happened would lead me to a happier place. Who would have thought sitting down and writing about what happened, would help me to such a huge extent?
I don’t think I would have found the strength to request my notes from the hospital, had I not started this blog.
I requested my medical notes a few months ago. I received them a few weeks later. I was surprised that they were sent on a CD. For some reason I was expecting photocopies.
Since I received them, I have slowly worked my way through the pages.
It may seem like an easy thing, but to be honest reading through them took me right back there. Like I was reliving it all again. It was both hard-going and cathartic.
To be honest there was nothing startling there.
Nothing hugely shocking.
That said, it was not a complete waste of time. I did read a few things that made me think.
Midwife
I was so sure that I had mentioned my symptoms to my midwife at the appointments which led up to giving birth to the boys.
However over the years, I started to doubt myself.
My medical notes, however, confirmed this. Turns out I am not going to mad after all.
A month before I was admitted to hospital, I had a lot of symptoms which could have pointed to pre-eclampsia and/or HELLP Syndrome. It is clear on my notes that I suffered from; swelling, protein in urine, pain at the top of my bump, rising blood pressure, black spots and visual problems.
As well as this, I had a rash all over my bump. The midwife said that it was most likely stretching.
At the end of listing all these symptoms, the midwife finishes her comments with: “mother is generally well”.
Platelets
I was told that I developed HELLP syndrome after I gave birth to the boys.
I was told this at my follow up appointment after I was discharged from hospital. At this appointment the hospital could not find my medical notes. However, the doctor said they were ‘pretty sure’ that this was the case. I have doubted this but had nothing to prove otherwise.
From looking at my blood tests, my platelets dropped 24-hours
before I gave birth to the boys. Perhaps indicating that I had HELLP syndrome a little earlier. The Diagnosis
As far as timescales go, I was intrigued to find out when they diagnosed me. I was never clear on this. The medical notes spell this out quite clearly:
Monday: Admitted to hospital Tuesday evening: My waters broke Thursday morning: The boys were born Friday afternoon: HELLP syndrome was diagnosed Sunday morning: We were advised I had HELLP Syndrome
I have always got the distinct impression that the doctors were baffled by my symptoms. No one seemed to know what was going on in those first 24-hours. My notes confirmed this. Throughout my notes in those first 24-hours, I noted many comments about requesting further blood tests and calling the doctor / specialist for further advice.
Bob L
We didn’t know this but apparently, Bob L had a gritty placenta. We were told that both placentas were intact and healthy.
I didn’t know what this meant. So I turned to Dr Google. Where I found that this is a sign that the placenta was not working properly. I also read that this tends to go hand in hand with pre-eclampsia. It also could cause a baby to stop growing in the womb. Which makes sense as he was tiny considering I gave birth at 37 weeks.
It is not going to be particularly helpful to dwell on this, but I did find it interesting.
I have often wondered why he was so small. I have also often wondered if his hip development problems were caused by my illness. I am now sure that this was no coincidence.
Handwriting
I have one more thing that I noticed, doctors have terrible handwriting!!!! I really struggled to read some of the comments, not so much from the midwives but the doctor and in particular the specialist!
So has this helped me?
Yes I think it has, despite it being hard to read.
I really feel like I can start to draw a line under my experience now.
So what is next?
Although my story on the blog has finished, I am determined to continue to raise awareness of pre-eclampsia and HELLP Syndrome.
Please read my blog post next weekend, where I will be asking for anyone who has suffered pre-eclampsia and HELLP Syndrome to share their story on my blog.
Lastly, I want to thanks those who have continued to read about my HELLP journey. I have appreciated the kind words and support from readers.
As for the weekend slot on my blog, as I have finished my HELLP story I now plan to try and recall what it was like in those hazy days of new parenting. I will be trying to talk about what it was like with twin babies, the good, the bad and the ugly!
Just joining me for the first time? Read the previous posts on HELLP Syndrome here. | 5,136 | 2,360 | 0.000431 |
warc | 201704 | Tap Water Pesticides Linked to Allergies By Sydney Lupkin | ABC News Blogs – Mon, Dec 3, 2012 8:02 AM EST
Tap Water Pesticides Linked to …
As food allergies become increasingly common, a new study offers the first proof that they may be linked to pesticides found in tap water. Researchers at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology used existing government data to see whether people with more dichlorophenols in their urine were more likely to have food allergies. Dichlorophenols are a kind of chlorine in certain pesticides that are known to kill bacteria, and in theory, they could be killing the naturally occurring bacteria in humans’ digestive systems, causing food allergies. “We wanted to see if there was an association between certain pesticides and food allergies, and we were specifically interested in dichlorophenols because those were the ones that had this antibacterial effect,” said lead researcher Dr. Elina Jerschow. “When researchers have compared bacteria from the bowel in healthy kids versus bacteria in the bowel for kids that have lot of allergies, they’ve noticed a big difference.” The number of children and teens with food or digestive allergies in the United States has increased 18 percent between 1997 and 2007, according to a 2008 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s about 3 million people under 18 years old. Eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and wheat make up 90 percent of food allergies, according to the CDC report. Symptoms can range from mouth tingling to anaphylaxis, which is the swelling of the throat and tongue and can lead to death. Jerschow clarified that the researchers were only looking for a statistical association, meaning they were not able to examine patients to see how these chemicals physically caused their allergies. Because it’s only an association, these findings could mean that the chemicals caused the food allergies, or it could mean the food allergies caused the chemicals in the urine. That part is not yet clear. “While the study does not allow concluding that pesticides are responsible for the allergies, it certainly raises the possibility and justifies pursuing the kinds of studies that can help sort of if these pesticides are, indeed, the cause,” said Dr. Kenneth Spaeth, who directs the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Center at North Shore University Hospital. He was not a researcher involved in the study. Spaeth said the study findings fit in with a growing evidence that pesticide exposure can damage the immune system, which could increase allergies as well. Researchers were surprised to find that dichlorophenol levels in urine didn’t vary between urban and rural areas, Jerschow said. They concluded that even those who opted for bottled water instead of tap water could ingest the pesticide chemical from eating fruit, fruit juices and foods with cocoa powder, like chocolate. As such, Jerschow said the research is still too preliminary to suggest that Americans should change their eating or drinking habits.
EartH2O receives “A+” rating from caféHydrate-the definitive guide to bottled waters.
caféHydrate is the definitive bottled water buying guide. The easy to use mobile app helps you learn and appreciate the differences among bottled waters so you can make an informed purchasing decision. caféHydrate provides easy to access information about bottled waters from all over the world. The information includes reviews and grade ratings, history, story and background of the water, technical specifications and notes, customer reviews and much more. They are constantly adding new products. The app is promoted through advertising, water and consumer related blogs, social networking, sponsors, and partnerships. The bottled water guide is digital and subsequently easy to update and maintain with accurate content. Both our natural spring water and our distilled water received the A+ rating. The caféHydrate app is available on the App Store for iPhone.
Carcinogens in the news (and in your water).
“Hexavalent chromium.” Now there’s a compound you don’t want in your drinking water. A toxin and known carcinogen that just made news showing up in the tap water of 31 U.S. cities – including Bend.
This is the cancer-causing compound made famous by Erin Brockovich, the one-time file clerk who uncovered the toxin leaching into ground water in Hinkley, CA nearly 20 years ago. While the EPA hasn’t established a legal limit for hexavalent chromium, it raises alarm when an elevated level shows up.
It’s worth noting that Opal Springs and EARTH2O is fed by an underground aquifer, protected from atmospheric contaminants, unlike the surface and ground water Bend and other cities use as sources for their tap water. While we cannot say that chromium will never reach our aquifer, it is highly unlikely that it will in our lifetime.
It is also important to mention the levels of chromium in Bend’s water is below federal maximum contaminant levels. While high, it is below federal standards but above California standards.
Pepsi spending $10 million on plastic bottle project.
By Jessica Holbrook
LATHAM, N.Y. (Oct. 18, 3:30 p.m. ET) — Pepsi Beverages Co. will begin manufacturing plastic bottles at its Latham bottling plant.
Pepsi will invest $10 million in a project to replace merchant-supplied plastic bottles with ones blow molded on-site, according to a news release from The Capital Region Economic Development Council, a state agency in the Albany, N.Y., region.
The project aims to improve both sustainability and productivity – the plant will run energy efficient blow molding machines designed to cut energy use by more than 2.4 million kilowatt hours annually. Switching to on-site production also will save energy on transportation, and reduce the need for bottle handling and preparation, according to the release.
The plant will hire five additional employees. It currently has 325 employees, 167 of whom work in manufacturing.
Purchase, N.Y., -based Pepsi received $286,000 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, a public-benefit corporation that awards funding for energy-saving projects.Please note: From day one at EARTH2O we have set out to be a leader in the beverage industry. We have been producing our own bottles since 2011 exclusively from 100% recycled PET material. We are proud to take every step we can to decrease our impact on the environment and glad to see global companies following in our footsteps. Keep it Real. | 6,708 | 3,202 | 0.00032 |
warc | 201704 | EVs have a significant role to play in reducing U.S. emissions. How much EVs reduce emissions depends in part on decreasing battery costs and the choices the U.S. makes about lowering the emissions of the electricity grid.
Kia Motors announces its environmentally focused Soul EV has gotten a green endorsement for use of biomass in its construction.
Showing that it is now possible to cross country making use of Tesla technology alone, two separate trips highlight how far this company has come.
Porsche now has in its possession and is displaying at its museum one of the earliest examples of an electric vehicle known as the Porsche P1.
An idea to turn historic route U.S. 66 into an electric car driver’s dream road surfaces from those interested in EV history.
BYD, an automotive company from China, continues to see amazing success with its plug in vehicle efforts everywhere, including in Europe and Latin America.
Electric cars are a key part of our longer-term strategy to cut carbon and smog-forming pollutants. | 1,035 | 620 | 0.001633 |
warc | 201704 | How to Eradicate Unwanted Junk Mail from the Post Office Forever (Or… Repurpose It!)
Unwanted advertising is everywhere. Annoying pop-up ads, overly loud late night commercials, spam...it never ends. And before spam, there was junk mail. Junk mail is even worse because unlike TV commercials and internet ads, it's physical. You can't just delete or ignore it—and it's an awful waste of paper.
So what can you do about it?
Many people just accept it as an unfortunate fact of life, but there are actually a few things you can do to drastically reduce, or even completely eliminate junk mail. It just takes a little action, and of course, some patience.
One of the easiest ways to get yourself off of companies' lists is to let someone else do it for you. There are several online services that will contact companies on your behalf to help you opt out of their marketing.
Catalog Choice Catalog Choice lets you create a free account and tell them which specific companies you don't want to hear from, including phone books and credit card offers. After you've opted out with a company, if you continue receiving mail from them, Catalog Choice will follow up with them and make sure your request is processed.
The free service only works for specific companies that you've requested, but if you want to opt out of all unwanted mail, the MailStop Shield will remove your information from third-party advertising databases for $35 per year.
PaperKarma
Even easier,
PaperKarma is a free app that lets you snap a photo of unwanted mail you receive and automatically contacts the company on your behalf. You sign up for an account, enter your information, and everything else is automated.
You can keep track of which companies you've successfully opted out of, and which ones are pending or failed. The photo just needs some sort of information about the sender, like company name, address, or even a website URL. Since the service only works for targeted mail, though, it won't get rid of the mass mailings sent to "Current Resident."
Much like the Do Not Call Registry, there are also lists for those who wish to stop receiving commercial mail. There's a different list for each type of mail, from catalogs to credit card offers. Each one has a different procedure, but for the most part you just fill out a form to get yourself off of marketers' lists.
Direct Marketing Association
The Federal Trade Commission suggests opting out of commercial mail through the Direct Marketing Association's website,
DMAchoice.org. On the site, you'll fill out a form with your name, address, and email, then choose what types of offers you want to stop receiving. Acxiom
Acxiom is another marketing technology company that collects data about you to provide to companies, supposedly to help them to "better understand what offers may be of interest to you." Opting out of this service removes your data from their lists and helps reduce junk mail, telemarketing calls, and Internet marketing and spam.
You can find the opt-out form
here. The information you give them determines how well it works, so be sure to include any variations of your name and all email and physical addresses that you want taken off the list. Credit Card Offers
If your primary concern is those annoying offers claiming you're "pre-approved" for credit lines that sound too good to be true, there's a list for that, too.
OptOutPrescreen.com lets you opt out of credit and insurance offers for five years if you do it online, or permanently if you send your request through the mail. You can also do this individually with each consumer reporting company by sending a written request with your full name, date of birth, social security number and phone number (addresses here).
These offers aren't just irritating—they can also be dangerous. If one is taken from your mailbox, it can contain enough information for your identity to be stolen or for false credit lines to be opened in your name by someone else.
Chances are, if you want a credit card, you'll do your research and contact the company yourself, so it's probably in your best interest to stop the offers since they're usually just thrown in the trash anyway.
Specific Companies
If there's a certain business whose marketing literature drives you particularly crazy, you can always call the toll-free number on the envelope and ask them to remove you from their mailing list. Some of them, like
Valpak, have online forms you can fill out. Others, like Publishers Clearinghouse and Readers Digest Sweepstakes, require you to call, email or send a written request.
So, what about the flyers and brochures that have no name or address on them? These can be a little trickier to avoid, but the best way to communicate that you're not interested is to just put up a sign.
To stop flyers and restaurant menus from being left at your door, put a sign next to it saying "No Soliciting" or "No Handbills" (or maybe even both, just for good measure).
If you don't want anymore physical mail at all, there's also a service called Outbox that can help you turn physical mail into digital mail.
Rather than angrily throwing it out, why not get some use out of your unsolicited extra paper? There are tons of creative ways to repurpose junk mail.
Turn the cards into free guitar picks, crumple up flyers to use as packing material, or shred them for animal cages.
Cut it into strips and roll it up to make colorful paper beads.
Make your own handmade recycled paper, or start a fire with your credit card offers. Functional
and cathartic.
Perhaps the best use for junk mail is getting back at the people who sent it. If an offer includes a postage-paid envelope or "return request," you can attach it to
anything and send it to them for free. In the past, people have sent bricks, empty boxes, old text books...you name it.
As long as you don't send anything illegal or hazardous, it's completely legal, and it actually makes money for the Postal Service. To really get your point across, save up everything they send you for a few months, then box it up and return it to them.
How do you handle junk mail? Know of any tricks for avoiding it, or a clever way to repurpose that isn't on the list? Let us know in the comments below. | 6,302 | 2,964 | 0.000341 |
warc | 201704 | Rushing headlong into omni-channel
Market pace is forcing retailers to charge headlong into omni-channel – that’s one of the key findings of our recent survey of 100 UK retailers around their omni-channel strategy.
A combination of competitive pressure, increasing customer demand, and a rapidly evolving marketplace are forcing retailers to race blindly into omni-channel initiatives. Customer convenience in particular is a key driver in the race to omni-channel, demonstrated for example by Amazon’s recent launch of same-day delivery in London, as retailers look to offer shoppers increased choice and convenience in order to stay ahead of the competition.
On average, retailers already offer three to four omni-channel services, with more in the pipeline within the next three months, as demonstrated in figure 1 below.
Figure 1 Making money
Despite John Lewis’ recent decision to start charging £2 for click and collect orders under £30, the majority - 69% - of retailers are swallowing the cost of click and collect, with just 16% charging for it and only 15% considering implementing a fee. Of those who do charge, only a handful (15%) are making a profit, whilst the majority are breaking even or even making a loss.
With all of the omni-channel activity going on, we took a look at investment. Across the board, retailers are spending an average of £300k per year on their omni-channel initiatives. Only 9% are passing the £1m mark, with the majority committing between £100k and £500k.
But where is this money being spent? Technology came out top, with 60% of retailers identifying it as a priority investment area. In terms of tech investment, warehouse management, order management and CRM came out on top. But when retailers’ top three investment priorities are taken into account, in-store technology and eCommerce platforms also rate highly.
Aside from technology, other items that our retailers identified as priority omni-channel investment areas included staff training (46%), advertising (45%) and social media (43%) – see figure 2 below. Service differentiation is one area in which retailers can really stand out, so it makes sense that staff training – whether it’s helping staff to engage more effectively with customers to up- and cross-sell, or training in the use of in-store digital - is high on retailers’ lists.
Figure 2 How do retailers decide which services to offer?
Given the large sums being invested into omni-channel, how do retailers decide which services to roll out? Sixty-seven per cent claim the decision is strategic at least in part, with a further 64% admitting customer demand is key and 37% citing competitor activity as a key factor in the decision-making process. And only 38% of respondents based decisions on the potential return on investment.
The big spenders – those investing £1m – 2m in omni-channel – highlighted customer demand as a key factor in decision-making. Whereas those with the most conservative budgets seem to be the most fastidious when it comes to deciding how to spend: strategy and potential ROI come at the top of the list for these retailers.
Read more
But how are retailers actually performing when it comes to omni-channel? Read part 2 – Stumbling, pushing and colliding – to find out how retailers think they’re doing, as well as the key barriers to omni-channel success.
And if you’d like to find out more about how eCommera can help in planning and developing your omni-channel strategy, download our omni-channel consulting brochure. | 3,645 | 1,703 | 0.000609 |
warc | 201704 | Effect of introduction of integrated out of hours care in England: observational study
Lattimer, Val, Turnbull, Joanne, Burgess, Abigail, Surridge, Heidi, Gerard, Karen, Lathlean, Judith, Smith, Helen and George, Steve (2005) Effect of introduction of integrated out of hours care in England: observational study.
British Medical Journal, 331, (7508), 81-84. (doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7508.81). Download
Full text not available from this repository.
Description/Abstract
Objectives: To quantify service integration achieved in the national exemplar programme for single call access to out of hours care through NHS Direct, and its effect on the wider health system.
Design: Observational before and after study of demand, activity, and trends in the use of other health services. Participants: 34 general practice cooperatives with NHS Direct partners (exemplars): four were case exemplars; 10 control cooperatives. Setting: England. Main outcome measures: Extent of integration; changes in demand, activity, and trends in emergency ambulance transports; attendances at emergency departments, minor injuries units, and NHS walk-in centres; and emergency admissions to hospital in the first year. Results: Of 31 distinct exemplars, 21 (68%) integrated all out of hours call management. Nine (29%) achieved single call access for all patients. In the only case exemplar where direct comparison was possible, a higher proportion of telephone calls were handled by cooperative nurses before integration than by NHS Direct afterwards (2622/6687 (39%) v 2092/7086 (30%): P < 0.0001). Other case exemplars did not achieve 30%. A small but significant downturn in overall demand for care seen in two case exemplars was also seen in the control cooperatives. The number of emergency ambulance transports increased in three of the four case exemplars after integration, reaching statistical significance in two (5%, -0.02% to 10%, P = 0.06; 6%, 1% to 12%, P = 0.02; 7%, 3% to 12%, P = 0.001). This was always accompanied by a significant reduction in the number of calls to the integrated service. Conclusion: Most exemplars achieved integration of call management but not single call access for patients. Most patients made at least two telephone calls to contact NHS Direct, and then waited for a nurse to call back. Evidence for transfer of demand from case exemplars to 999 ambulance services may be amenable to change, but NHS Direct may not have sufficient capacity to support national implementation of the programme.
Item Type: Article Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7508.81 Additional Information: Primary care ISSNs: 0959-8138 (print)
1468-5833 (electronic)
Related URLs: Keywords: primary care, out of hours, england, integration Subjects: H Social Sciences > HA Statistics
R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Divisions : University Structure - Pre August 2011 > Superseded (SOHPRS)
University Structure - Pre August 2011 > School of Medicine > Community Clinical Sciences
ePrint ID: 17442 Accepted Date and Publication Date:
Date Deposited: 24 May 2006 Last Modified: 31 Mar 2016 11:32 URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/17442
URI: RDF: RDF+N-Triples, RDF+N3, RDF+XML, Browse. Actions (login required)
View Item | 3,262 | 1,670 | 0.000602 |
warc | 201704 | Library Open Repository The Sediment-Hosted Stratiform Copper Ore System
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Hitzman_paper.pdf | Document not available for request/download
Full text restricted
Available under University of Tasmania Standard License.
Abstract
Sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposits comprise disseminated to veinlet Cu and Cu-Fe sulfides in siliciclastic or dolomitic sedimentary rocks. Sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposits are extremely common though economically significant deposits are rare. They account for approximately 23 percent of the world's Cu production and known reserves in addition to being significant sources of Co and Ag. Three sedimentary basins (the Paleoproterozoic Kodaro-Udokan in Siberia, the Neoproterozoic Katangan in central Africa, and the Permian basin of central Europe) contain supergiant (>24 million metric tons (Mt) contained Cu) deposits. Sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposits are the products of evolving basin-scale fluid-flow systems that include source(s) of metal and S, source(s) of metal- and S-transporting fluids, the transport paths of these fluids, a thermal and/or hydraulic pump to collect and drive the fluids, and the chemical and physical processes which result in precipitation of the sulfides. Metal sources are undoubtedly red-bed sedimentary rocks containing Fe oxyhydroxides capable of weakly binding metals. Sulfur may be derived from marine or lacustrine evaporites, reduced seawater, or hydrogen sulfide-bearing petroleum. Metals appear to have been transported at low to moderate temperatures in moderately to highly saline aqueous fluids, with the temperature of the fluid largely dependent on the time of fluid migration in the basin's burial history. These basinal fluids were focused to potential metal precipitation sites by thinning of the red-bed sequence at basin margins, by faults, by differentially permeable sedimentary units, by paleotopography within the basin, or along the margins of salt diapirs. Fluid movement produced widespread, basin-scale alteration that has commonly been overlooked but can form an important exploration guide. Sulfide precipitation occurred due to reduction, typically caused by reaction with carbonaceous rocks or petroleum. The amount of sulfides present at any deposit may be either metals or sulfide limited or could have been controlled by the amount of available reductant (e.g., petroleum). While understanding of sediment-hosted stratiform copper ore genesis at the deposit scale is relatively robust, there are still significant questions in regards its position in terms of basin evolution. A wide variety of basin architectures and processes can lead to the formation of sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposits. Despite general agreement that sulfides postdate sedimentation, the absolute age of mineralization in many deposits has been difficult to document and the available evidence suggests that deposits can form throughout a basin's evolution from early diagenesis of ore host sediments to basin inversion and metamorphism. Supergiant and giant deposits formed in basins which underwent prolonged periods of fluid flow and in which unique conditions allowed for the accumulation of large amounts of metal-bearing fluid, sufficient reduced S, and large amounts of reductants.
Item Type: Article Journal or Publication Title: Economic Geology ISSN: 0361-0128 Date Deposited: 16 Feb 2007 Last Modified: 18 Nov 2014 03:13 Item Statistics: View statistics for this item Actions (login required)
Item Control Page | 3,539 | 1,728 | 0.00058 |
warc | 201704 | Title:
The parasite surface as a target for novel chemotherapy
Three independent studies investigated the parasite surface as a potential drug-target for chemotherapy. The first study was based on an observation that a 'range of 5-HT active compounds were anthelmintic' (Schering Agrochemicals Ltd). The potency of these compounds to inhibit 5-HT stimulated glucose uptake and glycogen breakdown was investigated using the tapeworms
Hymenolepis microstoma and Hymenolepis diminuta. However, although some of these drugs were shown to effect 5-HT induced components of carbohydrate metabolism this could not be conclusively attributed to their 5-HT activities. A ligand binding study found a single 5-HT receptor on brush border membranes of H. diminuta with a K d of 0.17 μM and B max of 8.93 x 10 -9 moles. mg protein -1. Although 5-HT 1 antagonists were most potent at displacing labelled 5-HT from H. diminuta brush-border preparations the affinity of these antagonists and 5-HT for the receptor was low. The second study investigated the activity of two novel antiparasitics to disrupt the surface of a range of model parasites. In vivo these drugs were potent against Heligmosomoides polygyrus and H. microstoma, but not Schistosoma mansoni and H. diminuta. In contrast to H. polygyrus, where activity of the drug decreased with worm age in vivo, only adult H. microstoma were susceptible. In vitro, all worms were susceptible to these drugs which showed similar potency to salicylanilide, a proposed uncoupler of oxidative phosphorylation in the liver fluke. Surface damage to the platyhelminths, but not H. polygyrus, was rapidly induced by the novel antiparasitic drugs and salicylanilide. Microscope examination demonstrated that ultrastructural changes to the surface were similar. Few mitochondria were observed in the syncytium of the trematodes and tapeworms and importance of oxidative phosphorylation is therefore questioned. CsA was potent against the liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica. Metabolites of CsA were less potent than the present drug in vitro and the drug was most potent against newly-hatched worms both in vivo and in vitro. | 2,160 | 1,060 | 0.000948 |
warc | 201704 | Learning Styles and Preferences
Strategies to Strengthen These Learning Styles
Visual Visual learners learn best from what they see: diagrams, flowcharts, time lines, films, and demonstrations. Add diagrams to your notes whenever possible. Organize notes so that you can clearly see main points and supporting facts and how ideas are connected. Use visual organizers (graphs, charts, symbols, etc.) to help show relationships between concepts/ideas. Color-code notes to help you to see categories of information. Use visualization as a way to study/prepare for tests and to retrieve information.
VerbalVerbal learners gain the most learning from reading, hearing spoken words, participating in discussions, and explaining things to others. Attend lectures and tutorials. Ask questions to hear more information. Read the textbook and highlight no more than 10%. Record lectures. Rewrite your notes and add what you missed from the tape. Recite or summarize information. Talk about what you learn. Work in study groups. Review information by listening to tapes you have recorded.
Active/TactileActive learners need to experience knowledge through their own actions either by "doing" or by getting personally involved in their learning. They prefer quick paced instruction--and instructors that keeps things moving. Utilize as many senses as possible while learning. Go to labs, exhibits, tours, etc. to experience the concepts being learned. Try out example problems and questions. Study in a group. Relate the information to concrete examples as you read or listen in lectures. Think about how you will apply the information being presented. Pace and recite while you learn. Act out material or design learning games. Use flash cards with other people. Teach the material to someone else.
ReflectiveReflective learners understand information best when they have had time to reflect on it on their own (and at their own pace). Study in a quiet setting. When you are reading, stop periodically to think about what you have read. Don't just memorize material; think about why it is important and how ideas are related. Write short summaries of what the material means to you.
FactualFactual learners prefer concrete, specific facts, data, and detailed experimentation. Ask the instructor how ideas and concepts apply in practice. Ask for specific examples of the ideas and concepts. Brainstorm specific examples with classmates or by yourself. Think about how theories make specific connections with the real world.
TheoreticalTheoretical learners are more comfortable with big-picture ideas, symbols, and new concepts. If a class deals primarily with factual information, try to think of concepts, interpretations, or theories that link the facts together. Because you become impatient with details, take the time to read directions and test questions before answering, and be sure to check your work. Look for systems and patterns to arrange facts in a way that makes sense to you. Spend time analyzing the material.
Linear (Left Brain)Linear thinkers find it easiest to learn material presented step by step in a logical, ordered progression. They can work with sections of material without fully understanding the whole picture. Choose highly structured courses and instructors. If you have an instructor who jumps around from topic to topic, spend time outside of class with the instructor or a classmate who can help you fill the gaps in your notes If class notes are random, rewrite the material according to whatever logic helps you to understand it. Outline the material.
Holistic (Right Brain)Holistic thinkers progress in fits and starts. They may feel lost and unable to solve problems, until they can see the big picture and the relationships between ideas. They need to make sense of details. They tend to be creative. Recognize that you are not slow or stupid. Before reading the chapter, preview it by reading all the subheadings, summaries, and any margin glossary terms. Instead of spending a short time on every subject every night, try immersing yourself in just one subject at a time. To concentrate on one course at a time, take difficult subjects in summer school or when you have fewer courses. (Warning: Make sure you have enough time to study and to prepare projects and papers. The same amount of material is covered in a shorter time in summer and intersession classes.) Relate subjects to things you already know. Ask yourself how you would apply the material. Use maps and visual organizers to help yourself get the big picture. | 4,567 | 2,105 | 0.000476 |
warc | 201704 | Effective self defense
also requires a knowledge of how you can cause disabling pain
upon the other person. That includes knowing where to strike
, and how to do it. Believe it or not, there are many natural weapons
that your body
has that you can use to retaliate
on an attacker
.
The most important thing is the stance. If you can't escape, you must stand in a stable stance. Feet shoulder-length apart, one forward, one back, spreading your weight evenly across them. Bend the knees, keep the chin down, and put your elbows into your side and your hands up, protecting the face. Don't form a fist, as an open hand is more flexible to attack. Standing in this "fighter's stance" may defuse a situation, if an attacker is hesitant.
The head
Lots of weapons here. The thick part of the skull at the back of the head, as well as the big bony structure of the forehead works well. Keep your chin tucked in, be careful not to bite your tongue. Using those parts to headbutt can make someone bleed, while they can still see through the blood, most people go to pieces if they are bleeding. The teeth can be used to bite, causing lots of pain. Aim for the ears and the fingers. Don't just bite, you have to clamp down then rip and tear. Nasty as this is, it works.
Again, never strike at an attacker's temples or the top of the skull unless your life is in danger.
The hands
Most people think punch, but there are better alternatives. It takes a lot of time to develop a good hard punch, without training you are likely to hurt your hand immensely. The fingers work, especially with the eye jab. Bend your fingers so you don't break them, and drive in and jab. If possible, use four fingers, not two. It works better. Your hands can also be used for a range of disabling holds and locks.
The palm can be used to strike effectively. Use the fleshy part at the foot of your palm to strike into the chin. Hurts less than a mis-punch. Don't jab, smash your hand as hard as you can into his face. Don't do this initially, use it as a followup when the attacker is wide open and distracted (e.g. after the eyes move). You can also aim for the nose.
The meaty side of the hand can be used to chop against the softer parts of the body, such as the side of the neck, or to attack joints. Keep your fingers straight and chop away. This is effective in loosening grips.
The elbows
They're hard and bony, and doesn't take too much skill to use. At close range, smash away, preferably at the head.
The knees
Close range weapons. An attacker at that range will usually not see them coming. Go for the groin or the dead leg area. Drive in as hard as you can. Also, this is a good finishing-off move. Grab the guy's head, and smash your knee into his face. Doesn't take skill to use.
The feet
Don't bother with the fancy high kicks. They don't work unless you've trained in martial arts, or worse, the person will grab your leg, and you're screwed. Use a side kick instead. Kick hard, aiming for the knees or the shin, then quickly draw back. You won't loss your balance if you miss. You can break a knee joint if you do this right.
At closer range, you can stamp down on the knees and the feet. Works especially well for a woman with high heels. If you dislocate his kneecap, it's pretty much game over. | 3,309 | 1,605 | 0.000628 |
warc | 201704 | Some Information about Butterflies… Some Information about Butterflies… How long do the butterflies live?
Most of the tropical species at the Butterfly Farm live 2 to 5 weeks, though there are exceptions. For example, the adult Giant Atlas Moth lives only about 10 days. This is because it has no mouth and relies upon the food stored in its large fat body to sustain it long enough to find a mate and so produce a new generation. Other exotic butterflies can live much longer, for example, the Heliconius butterflies of South America can live for 6 months or so, as a result of their unique ability to digest pollen as a food source, which is very nutritious. Some butterflies, our own native species in particular, can hibernate through the winter period, and so may live a lot longer than might otherwise be expected.
What do butterfly’s eat?
Most of our beautiful butterflies feed on nectar that they collect from the flowers. Butterflies can only feed on liquid material that they suck up through a long hollow tube called a proboscis. As you walk through the Butterfly Farm this can be easily observed and studied in detail.
Some butterflies, for example, the Owl butterflies from South America, enjoy rotting fruit, and you will see several sources of fruit placed throughout the Butterfly Farm for them. They seem to enjoy bananas and pineapple the most. A common sight in the autumn in our orchards are colourful butterflies like Red Admirals and Peacocks feeding off the fallen fruit, and from time to time when we have native species on the wing at the Butterfly Farm, rotten apples are provided for them.
As already explained the Heliconid butterflies from South America have the unique ability to digest pollen that they collect from the plants using a special enzyme. This pollen is broken down into liquid form by the enzyme so that they can feed on it in the normal way.
Again with careful observation, it is often possible to see the pollen collected on the insects for yourself. Other butterflies feed on a wide variety of materials from manure to rotting meat, but all require water and minerals, and it’s often possible to see the butterflies drinking from wet stones or gravel, or from the bottom of leaf stems. One difficulty at the Butterfly Farm is how to feed all these insects at times of the year when the flowers are not in bloom, or when there are not enough natural nectar sources to satisfy the demand of the large number of insects at a particular time. This is overcome using artificial feeders made from brightly coloured plastic pan scourers, which you will see at various points on the Butterfly Farm. The saucer is filled with a honey and water solution, and when attracted by the bright colour and smell of the liquid, the butterflies land on die pan scourers and feed.
This feeder is also sometimes used as a butterfly hospital, and sick or injured butterflies can be fed here artificially. This is done by carefully uncurling the proboscis with a pin and dipping it into the water and honey solution, so encouraging the insect to feed. Very often the butterfly will revive after a few minutes and fly away. | 3,175 | 1,444 | 0.000699 |
warc | 201704 | political news headlinesthis past Labor Day weekend, so we thought we'd take a stab at answering the question today.
If we go by the polls of the most important issues identified by Americans, we find job creation at the
top of the list, so we'll use that as our measure in today's post. Here, we'll use the BLS' monthly survey of business establishments in the U.S. to count the number of non-farm payroll jobs in the U.S., which last peaked in January 2008 at the very beginning of the recession (the economy itself peaked in December 2007, which marks the official start of the recession.)
Our chart below then measures the amount of job loss that has occurred since that point in time as a percentage of the maximum number of 8,779,000 non-farm payroll jobs that were lost in the following period of time since, with the horizontal scale showing the number of months either preceding or following the number of payroll jobs in the U.S. hitting bottom:
Through July 2012, the most recent month for which we have data at this writing, the U.S. economy has recovered just 46% of the non-farm payroll jobs lost since January 2008, as the percentage of the maximum number of payroll jobs lost stands at 54% of the recession's maximum job loss figure.
Since hitting bottom in February 2010, some 7 months after the recession
officially ended in June 2009, we find that the rate of job creation during President Obama's administration has been extremely lackluster.
That point is brought home when we compare the recovery for the 2007 recession with all of the previous U.S. economic recession recoveries since the end of World War 2 in 1945. Our next chart compares the rate of post-recession job creation following the bottoms of these eleven recessions:
We find that the pace of job creation following the bottom of the 2007 recession, which has taken place entirely within President Obama's time in office, represents the worst pace of post-recession job creation for any modern era President on record.
By comparison, the second worst rate of post-recession bottom job creation belongs to the recovery from the 2001 recession under President Obama's predecessor in office, President George W. Bush. From the time the 2001 recession hit bottom during his tenure, it took 19 months for the economy to recover 100% of the non-farm payroll jobs that had been lost during that recession.
Today, almost 30 months after the 2007 recession hit bottom, more than half the payroll jobs lost during the recession have yet to be recovered. Using the starting point of January 2009, when just 40% of the non-farm payroll jobs that have been lost during the recession had been lost, we find that the jobs recovery that has taken place during President Barack Obama's tenure in office has still not yet recovered to that lower point of reference nearly four years later.
By those objective measures then, when it comes to job creation,
the most important issue that Americans say matters today, Americans are not better off today than they were four years ago. | 3,061 | 1,333 | 0.000754 |
warc | 201704 | The term escape velocity refers to the speed necessary for an object to overcome gravity and soar into space. We see direct application for businesses looking for a catalyst, not just a software package, but software coupled with industry experience, that will accelerate the velocity with which they race towards their goals. The gravity of status-quo opposes aggressive, cutting edge organizations as they strive towards high quality and short lead time delivery while reducing inventories and operating costs.
Escape Velocity Systems (EVS) was formed in 2001 to combine specific industry knowledge related to process manufacturing, distribution and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations with cutting edge software development. Specialty industries include food and beverage, life sciences, nutraceuticals, chemicals, health and beauty products, and metals. The company focus is to create tools that enable mid-market enterprises to achieve their goals, focusing on lean processes and ROI.
Why is EVS different? We have always had just one focus; process manufacturing. With this focus we continually re-define our industry and provide industry-defining solutions to meet the ever changing requirements of the industry. But tools are only as good as the craftsman; EVS draws from many years of experience in consulting, project management, development and support in process manufacturing. The complex environment of process manufacturing requires focused expertise to deliver an excellent solution; that’s the EVS difference. We use our expertise in process manufacturing to deliver innovative solutions that provide transparency in your operations, reduce your risk, and provide real-time ROI improvement.
At EVS, our goal is to provide industry-defining solutions to our target market of Small-to-Midsize Business (SMB) in process manufacturing industries. Prior to founding EVS, both principals of the firm worked in the process manufacturing industry. Through this prior industry expertise, EVS was born. Over the years, we have defined dozens of ultra-vertical industries in process manufacturing and continually work with our clients in these industries to define their specific ERP requirements. By developing flexible and expandable software using Agile development principles, EVS is able to frequently release new features and functionality to our target ultra-vertical industries.
Escape Velocity was started with one idea: meeting a real need with a real solution. There are many software products in the market that seem right but in practice never take you where you envisioned. Our drive has positioned us as a leader in our market space by providing products that are flexible and complete. At Escape Velocity Systems, there are two qualities we esteem and strive to reflect: Vision and Life. Vision: Businesses are complex. Business processes are complex. Accurately modeling your vision in a software system requires a design that sees beyond the immediate requests and pains you are trying to solve; it requires a software system that provides features and functionality you can grow into. If we are going to provide your solution of the future, we must see the big picture: automated environments where the ERP system and the shop floor are one, where real time data is captured as it happens, and a system is as useful to operations as it is to accounting. Our goal is to see beyond immediate pains and provide a solution that will be an integral part of growing your business. Life: The quality of something having life is hard to define, but you know when you have it. Living things grow, they evolve; life itself is always looking for a better way to live. Life is always looking for more life. Our customers are partners on our journey. As we grow and evolve, we add ideas to our software and services offerings; not just new products, but new ways of looking at your existing investments. We are growing. Our products are growing, and our experience is growing with every new customer. We want your business to grow with our software. Product Lines Market Focus
Evaluations of Escape Velocity Systems products by market segment:
Get Software Recommendations
For over 15 years, independent software experts have helped more than 200,000 businesses find the right software for their needs. We'd love to help you, too. | 4,371 | 2,011 | 0.000499 |
warc | 201704 | Access to and use of formal financial services is low in Vietnam compared with other countries in the region, with only 31% of all adults having formal bank accounts in 2014, according to the World Bank.
14.6% percent of Vietnamese had saved money with a formal financial institution in 2014, 18.4% had a loan with a formal financial institution, and only 26.5% had access to a debit card. Interestingly, about 30% of adults borrowed from friends or family in 2014 in Vietnam, against 18.4% who have borrowed from a financial institution.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well have been struggling to borrow from banks, with only one-third of SMEs having gained access to credit, according to data of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Lending to SMEs is tightened now given a high bad debt ratio in the banking system. Furthermore, interest rates in Vietnam are much higher than in regional countries. (around 9% for VND saving deposits)
Peer to Peer Lending and Crowdfunding Platforms in Vietnam
In recent years, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms have emerged to provide an alternative financing method to businesses and individuals in Vietnam.
P2P lending is the practice of lending money to individuals or businesses through online services that match lenders directly with borrowers. P2P lending has surged in popularity. The global P2P lending was worth US26.16 billion in 2015.
According to Transparency Market Research, the market valuation will reach US$897.85 billion by 2024, as it expands at a significant CAGR of 48.2% from 2016 to 2024.
Several Peert to Peer Lending and Crowdfunding platforms exist in Vietnam.$
HuyDong, formerly known as LoanVi, focuses on personal loans. Founded in 2015, the company aims at bridging the gap between the underbanked population and investors. The solution provides individuals with affordable credit from investors through a secured, risk-controlled process. Investors can enjoy solid fixed-income returns.
HuyDong is a subsidiary of Finsom Joint Stock Company, a registered entity.
Very new is the Peer to Peer Lending platform Tima, which recently claimed to get 7 digit funding from an undisclosed Singapore investors (7 digits in which Currency? could be 1’000’000 SGD or whatever). However, they did not disclose further informations regarding investors and funding and also the volume numbers disclosed seemed confusing. Tima emerged out of MeCash.
Both platforms HuyDong(LoanVI) and Tima claims to be the first peer peer lending platforms in Vietnam. When googling Peer to Peer Lending Vietnam HuyDong is currently number one in the search results.
Next to peer to peer lending platforms Vietnam also has several Crowdfunding platform. For example FundStart a crowdfunding platform that allows entrepreneurs to raise fund from the crowd, “turning dreams into reality with funds coming from the community.” FundStart aims at supporting innovative startups with great ideas and vision.
Similar solutions include FirstStep, Betado, and Comicola, which focuses on the cartoon industry. An overview about Crowdfunding platforms in Vietnam can be found here.
Regulations needed
The idea of P2P lending is attractive to many people. Borrowers and lenders circumvent the banks and get receive better rates. However, P2P lending carries important risks.
In mainland China, where P2P platforms have mushroomed since 2007, 3,000 platforms are said to be problematic, which included cases of fraud of firms going out of business, an annual report on the nation’s Internet finance unveiled in September.
Earlier this month, Chinese authorities promulgated new rules for P2P lenders. These are designed to minimize fraud, and to tamp down the rapid, uncontrolled growth of the sector.
The new regulations create a new category of restricted businesses for China-based P2P players, including illegal fundraising, forming capital pools and false advertising, among other prohibitions.
Additionally, P2P firms may not offer other financial industry services such as asset management and share transfer without being fully licensed and approved by the authorities.
The new regulations also limit borrowing to RMB 1 million (US$150,000) for individuals and RMB 5 million (US$750,000) for businesses. These limits apply to total borrowing from multiple platforms.
At the same time, the UK financial regulatory has announced a crackdown on crowdfunding. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it had concerns about P2P lending and investment-based platforms.
The authority said it was difficult for investors to understand the risks and returns of crowdfunding, marketing material was sometimes unclear and misleading, and some firms did not manage risks and conflicts of interest properly.
“We have seen substantial innovation in the loan-based crowdfunding market. What we are trying to do is strike the right balance between enabling innovation and protecting consumers,” said Andrew Bailey, the FCA’s chief executive, as quoted by the Guardian. “Are they marketed transparently? We’ve seen firms which say: ‘We’ve got a reserve fund and no one has lost money on our platform.’ But there is no guarantee.”
The volume in Vietnamese peer to peer lending platforms seems to be still very low, some insiders confirm. The problem is here , its all about trust in Vietnam and it will be difficult to bring borrowers and lenders on this platforms, and of course regulation could make those platforms problems. However, when doing right the future might be bright in peer to peer lending in Vietnam. Let’s watch.
An overview about all Fintech Platforms in Vietnam can be found here.
Featured image: Vietnamese Dong by https://johnib.wordpress.com/. | 5,813 | 2,729 | 0.000373 |
warc | 201704 | New Approaches to International Development Volume XXVII, 2012
Human security encompasses the varied yet deeply tied fields of human rights, humanitarian assistance, international development, and conflict resolution, and it encourages both practitioners and theoreticians to consider the linkages between each. PRAXIS is first and foremost a journal rooted in academic discourse, but it keeps one ear firmly to the ground to examine how particular laws, policies, and practices impact individuals at a local level. In this twenty-seventh edition of PRAXIS, we focus on new approaches to international development, providing a timely compilation of articles that review the implications of these new trends on individuals and provide prescriptions for the way forward.
PREFACE
New Approaches to International Development
ARTICLES
China in Africa: What the Policy of Nonintervention Adds to the Western Development Dilemma
-Madison Condon
Maximizing Achievements in Human Rights Development: Arguments for a Rights-based Approach to Land Tenure Reform
-Rebecca Tapscott
The Role of Crowdsourcing for Better Governance in International Development
-Maja Bott and Gregor Young VIEWS FROM THE FIELD
A Line Cook in Hargeisa
-Sam Chapple-Sokol
Reporting in Syria at the Start of the Uprising
-Claire Duffett | 1,317 | 756 | 0.001339 |
warc | 201704 | FoodReference.com (since 1999)
Food Articles, News & Features Section
Home | Food Articles | Food Trivia | Today In Food History | Food Timeline | Videos | Recipes
Cooking Tips | Food Quotes | Who's Who | Food Trivia Quizzes | Crosswords | Food Poems Free Magazines | Recipe Contests | Culinary Schools | Gourmet Tours | Food Festivals
See also: Food Safety Videos
By Linda Bren
When you drink a glass of milk, are you consuming casein and lactoglobulin? How about potassium caseinate and lactalbumin?
According to food scientists, all of these substances are proteins found in milk. And until recently, food manufacturers could use technical terms such as these on food labels without further explanation, instead of listing the more common term "milk."
That changed at the beginning of 2006, when a new food labeling law, the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA), took effect.
Under FALCPA, food labels are required to state clearly whether the food contains a
"major food allergen." The law identifies as a major food allergen any of eight allergenic foods: milk; eggs; fish such as bass, flounder, and cod; crustacean shellfish such as crab, lobster, and shrimp; tree nuts such as almonds, walnuts, and pecans; peanuts; wheat; and soybeans. The law also identifies as a major food allergen any ingredient that contains protein derived from any of these eight foods. The plain language declaration requirement of FALCPA also applies to flavorings, colorings, and incidental additives that are or contain a major food allergen. "FALCPA recognizes that eight major foods or food groups account for 90 percent of all food allergies in the United States, and some allergic reactions may be severe or life-threatening," says Robert E. Brackett, Ph.D., director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN).
About 2 percent of adults and 5 percent of infants and young children in the United States suffer from food allergies. About 30,000 consumers require emergency room treatment, and 150 Americans die each year because of allergic reactions to food.
There is no cure for food allergies. Avoidance of the food that causes the allergy is the only way a person can prevent a reaction. The improved label will make it easier for food allergic people and their caregivers to identify and avoid foods that contain major food allergens, says Catherine Copp, policy advisor in the CFSAN. For example, if a product contains the milk-derived protein casein, the product's label will have to use the term "milk" in addition to the term "casein" so that those with milk allergies can clearly understand the presence of the allergen they need to avoid. "We're very excited about this change," says Anne Muñoz-Furlong, founder and CEO of The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network based in Fairfax, Va. "People with food allergies will be able to tell right away whether a food is safe for them to eat or not."
Food allergies are on the rise in children, says Muñoz-Furlong, and the improved food labeling information will be especially helpful to children who must learn to recognize the presence of substances they need to avoid. Parents often take children with them when they shop for groceries, she says.
"They want to teach children early on to start reading food labels. They have the children read the label to them and figure out if the product contains an allergy-causing food and whether it should go in the grocery cart or go back on the shelf." "When the child is too young to read, parents will read the label to the child," adds Muñoz-Furlong. "It's almost impossible to keep the attention of a 5-year-old when you say 'ammonium caseinate,' but when you say 'milk,' the child with a milk allergy will instantly say, 'That's not good for me.'"
Manufacturers must identify the presence of a major food allergen in one of two ways: in the list of ingredients, manufacturers must state the source of an allergenic ingredient in parentheses after the name of that ingredient; or after or next to the ingredient list, manufacturers must add "contains" followed by the name of the source of each allergenic ingredient in the food. For example:
Ingredients: Enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, and/or cottonseed oil, high fructose corn syrup, whey (milk), eggs, vanilla, natural and artificial flavoring, salt, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), lecithin (soy), mono- and diglycerides (emulsifier).
Contains Wheat, Milk, Eggs and Soy
"These statements are not required if the major food allergen's common name already identifies its food source," says Copp. For example, the ingredients whole wheat flour, buttermilk, and peanut butter already state that they contain wheat, milk, and peanuts, respectively, so no further explanatory terms are required. FALCPA applies to both domestically produced and imported packaged foods that the FDA regulates. So even if you purchase a box of candy from overseas, it should be in compliance, says Copp. Raw agricultural commodities, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, are exempt from FALCPA. So are highly refined oils made from one of the eight allergenic foods identified by the law. FALCPA establishes two separate processes that food manufacturers can use to request an exemption for their product from the FALCPA declaration requirement--the notification and petition processes. "The notification process may be used by manufacturers who can demonstrate that their ingredient does not contain an allergenic protein; the petition process may be used by a manufacturer who can demonstrate that, although the ingredient does contain protein derived from an allergenic food, the ingredient does not cause an adverse reaction that poses a risk to human health," says Felicia Billingslea, director of the FDA's Division of Food Labeling and Standards.
The law applies only to products labeled on or after Jan. 1, 2006, so until products labeled before that date are sold or otherwise removed from the market, consumers will continue to see some products without the plain language allergen labeling on grocery store shelves, says Copp,
"particularly nonperishables such as canned goods." Even if consumers have purchased a product in the past that does not aggravate their allergies, they should not take it for granted that it will always be nonallergenic, says Copp. "We encourage consumers to always read the ingredients list, because manufacturers may change their product formulation."
The FDA will enforce the new law.
"We intend to document violations of the law when inspecting manufacturing plants," says Betty Harden, an FDA consumer safety officer in the Office of Compliance. A food product that contains an undeclared allergen may be subject to recall. In addition, a food product not properly labeled may be misbranded and subject to seizure and removal from the marketplace. FALCPA also requires the FDA to submit a report to Congress on food allergens, particularly with respect to identifying ways to reduce or eliminate cross-contact and stating the risk of cross-contact on food labels. Cross-contact occurs when a residue or other trace amount of an allergenic food is unintentionally incorporated into another food that is not intended to contain that allergenic food; cross-contact may occur during harvesting, transportation, manufacturing, processing, or storage. In addition, the agency is required to propose a regulation by August 2006, and to issue a final regulation by August 2008, to define the term "gluten-free" for voluntary use in food labeling. Gluten is a term that describes a group of proteins that occur naturally in certain grains, including wheat, barley, and rye. When present in certain amounts, gluten can cause a serious reaction in people with celiac disease, a chronic digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. About 2 million people in the United States have this disease. "Consumers susceptible to celiac disease need accurate, complete, and informative labels on food to protect themselves," says Billingslea, "and a standardized definition of 'gluten-free' and use of the term on labels will help."
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warc | 201704 | For the last several months there have been warnings of a coming economic storm, with many forecasting serious financial calamity by the Fall of this year.
With stock markets in China having self destructed, Greece and Europe in another crisis, and corporate earnings for some of the world’s biggest corporations showing lackluster performance, it should be clear that the situation is rapidly deteriorating.
But for the last several years America has appeared to remain fairly insulated from overt crisis. We were told that a recovery had taken hold, jobs were returning and consumer confidence had reached new highs, propaganda which drove millions of investors back into stock markets and real estate. No one in the mainstream world, it seems, believes there’s anything to be concerned about.
Except there is.
A report from Zero Hedge highlights just how hard Americans have been hit with increased energy prices, inflation and low-wage labor offerings. This is the hard evidence that proves once and for all what most Americans will become privy to after the fact: we are in a recession.
One of the biggest drivers of the so-called recovery (in addition to the Fed’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet levitating te S&P500 and the offshore bank accounts of 1% of the US population) has been the US consumer: that tireless spending horse who through thick, thin, recession and depression is expected to take his entire paycheck, and then some tacking on a few extra dollars of debt, and spend it on worthless trinkets.
Sure enough, for the past 8 years, said consumer has done just that and with the help of the endless hopium and Kool-Aid dispensed by the administration (who can forget Tim Geithner’s August 2010 op-ed “Welcome to the Recovery“), and by the political and financial propaganda media, spent, spent and then spent some more hoping that “this time it will be different.”
…
The biggest culprit in the collapse in spending intentions was the middle class (those making between $50 and $100K) but mostly the wealthy, those with incomes over $100K. It was the latter whose spending expectations dropped to, you guessed it, the lowest in series history.
Needless to say, this was not supposed to happen.
Worse,
in an economy where 70% of the GDP is in the hands of consumer spending, a collapse in spending intentions to multi-year low levels means just one thing: recession.
The U.S. economy is driven by one thing: consumer spending, much of it based on credit.
As the chart above shows, spending has collapsed. And that can really only mean one thing going forward. America is not about to enter a recession, we are already in one right here and now.
But that’s just part of the story. It actually gets worse.
Recent earnings from the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment suggests it’s actually a whole lot worse than just another short-term dip.
We are, by the following account detailing Caterpillar’s global sales, in a full blown global depression:
Summarizing it all, after an increasingly shallower series of dead CAT bounces in the past year, first thanks to Latin America, and then the US, global retail sales just dropped by 14% – marching the biggest Y/Y decline since the financial crisis.
And the cherry on top:
there has now been an unprecedented 31 consecutive months of CAT retail sales declines. This compares to “only” 19 during the near systemic collapse in 2008.
…
In other words, if global demand for heavy industrial machinery, as opposed to unemployed millennials’ demands for $0.99 Apple apps, is any indication of the true underlying economy, forget recession:
the world is now in a second great depression which is getting worse by the month.
That’s right, while the band plays on and everyone says there’s nothing to worry about, the ship is rapidly sinking.
What follows is anybody’s guess, but if government military exercises and simulations are a guide, we can fully expect a significant economic event followed by widespread civil unrest. You didn’t think they were stockpiling guns, bullets, gas masks and riot gear just for fun, did you? Somebody in government knows exactly what is coming, and they will do whatever it takes to maintain control once the Ponzi scheme has been revealed to the rest of the public in the form of financial crashes and wealth confiscation.
It has been suggested that the collapse of the debt bubble could lead to shortages of the most basic necessities for survival. Analyst Greg Mannarino recently warned that because the growth, including population growth, we’ve seen over the last two decades has been dependent on credit, once that credit is frozen it will have ramifications that most people can’t even imagine as a possibility:
It’s created a population boom… a population boom has risen in tandem with the debt. It’s incredible.
So, when the debt bubble bursts we’re going to get a correction in population. It’s a mathematical certainty.
Millions upon millions of people are going to die on a world-wide scale when the debt bubble bursts. And I’m saying when not if…
The scenario outlined by Mannarino is certainly an outlier, but what if he’s right?
How would most Americans cope?
According to
author Tess Pennington, they won’t because they have become so dependent on the system they simply will not have the tools or mental ability to adjust:The Prepper's Blueprint
Collectively speaking, the contribution from our easy lifestyle and comfort level has created rampant complacency and a population of dependent, self-entitled mediocres. We no longer count on our sound judgement, capabilities and resources. The system keeps everything in working order so we don’t have to depend on ourselves, and furthermore, don’t want to. I realize that many of the readers here do not fall into this collectivism, as you see through the ideological facade and know that the system is fragile and can crumble.
Breaking away from the system is the only way to avoid the destruction of when it comes crumbling down. When you don’t feed into the manipulation tactics of the system, or enslave yourself to debt, and possess the necessary skills to sustain yourself and your family when large-scale or personal emergencies arise, you will be far better off than those who were dependent on the system. Those who lived during the Great Depression grew up in a time when self-reliance was bred into them and were able to deal with the blow of an economic depression much easier.
Which side of this would you want to be on?
For those who have failed to prepare the consequences will be horrific.
Also Read: Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook, Google Plus, & Twitter. You can also get Freedom Outpost delivered to your Amazon Kindle device here. | 6,969 | 3,384 | 0.000305 |
warc | 201704 | 'License By Default' Will Doom the UnSettlement
Probably the number one reason is what we've dubbed the License by Default -- a provision giving the defendants the right to use, and allow others to use, the copyrights of all works covered by the settlement. Roughly, this consists of all freelance articles and content in hundreds, if not thousands, of newspapers, magazines, and journals from around 1980 to 1995 (along with some after that).
How did such a ludicrous and extreme provision come to pass? The purpose of class actions is to pursue claims held in common by members of the class. Under stringent conditions a class representative (named plaintiff) can indeed pursue and settle, and release, the common claims, with class members allowed to opt out if they don’t like the compensation. But class actions most assuredly do not exist for the purpose of giving away the rights or property of class members. The Second Circuit, our appellate court here, has previously stated: “The most fundamental principles underlying class actions limit the powers of the representative parties to the claims they possess in common with other members of the class."
The parties admitted that they had few current addresses for the freelancers of the 1980s and early 1990s. Some publishers had a hard time identifying which articles were freelance and which were staff. Thousands of freelancers will never have received the notice of this settlement. Copyrights last for about 100 years. Some of those freelancers have passed on, and the copyrights are now held by heirs or estates. Some are in hospitals or retirement homes. Some are probably the kind of people, like many of us, who see a class action notice in the mail and toss it, uninterested in processing pages of fine print just to turn a few bucks. Some may have read the notice and not realized the meaning of this provision – we complained that it was obscure at best.
Just imagine if you had to take the time to study carefully each class action notice because buried in it might be a provision saying that some items of your property will be turned over to a defendant. Maybe if you don’t opt out you pay the defendant $10 a year for ten years. Maybe the defendant utility gets the right to string power lines over your house. Do you want class actions to be able to do that to you?
What gave the parties here the nerve to present a settlement with a feature so patently improper?
Well, judges are busy and don’t spend much time reviewing settlements. This issue is legal and most objectors are not going to have the ability to spot it, or argue it.
But why did the Authors Guild, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Writers Union sign off on the License by Default? That's the question their members will have to ask.
Perhaps the organizations will respond that this was the only way to get compensation from the defendants. Such an explanation, however, won't cover the associational plaintiffs with honor: "In order to get compensation for some, we tried to give away the rights of all."
When you understand that a small group of named plaintiffs stand to walk away with nearly $2 million, and that group is influential in the organizations, you might be getting closer to the true explanation.
When you understand that all the organizations offer their memberships the potential for contacts with, or introductions to, the publishers who benefit from this settlement, you might be getting even warmer.
The legislative history multiplies this outrage. What led to the 2001 Supreme Court
Tasini decision, and victory for freelancers, was a deliberate decision by Congress in the Copyright Act of 1976 to shift power from publishers of collective works like newspapers and magazines to freelancers. It wasn’t an accident.
Yet in the settlement we're challenging, the writers' organizations just rolled over and tried to turn that power right back to the publishers. But they won't succeed. | 4,027 | 1,900 | 0.000533 |
warc | 201704 | Education, yes! Religious indoctrination, NO!
MEET Ken Wyatt, MP. He represents Hasluck in Australia, a constituency that covers eastern portions of the Perth metropolitan area – and right now Wyatt is beside himself with glee that the Australian Coalition Government’s first budget earmarks funding over five years to continue a costly and gratuitous chaplaincy scheme originally put into place by former PM John Howard, and insanely continued by the Gillard administration.
In praising an increase in education spending, Wyatt said the Abbott Government has kept its election commitment to invest $243.8 million over four years to revitalise the School Chaplaincy Programme.
I am particularly pleased the Chaplaincy Programme has been returned to its original intent of funding school chaplains only. I encourage all schools in Hasluck to apply for funding which offers up to $20,000 per year to support a chaplain, and up to $24,000 per year in remote areas.
The “only” refers to the fact that, while Tony Abbott’s Government plans on spending
more on religious indoctrination, it chaplaincy programme will remove the option schools have of appointing secular social workers, according to this Guardian report.
Education Minister, Christopher Pyne, confirmed he would axe an option put in place by the Labor government for schools to opt for non-religious student welfare worker as an alternative to a chaplain providing “pastoral care”.
The Australian Education Union – which has long argued funds for the chaplaincy programme should be redirected – described Pyne’s justification as
An extraordinary comment.
Said the Federal President, Angelo Gavrielatos:
So where does the Australian constitution say that the federal government is responsible for school chaplains.
The Coalition says the extension of the programme fulfils an election promise. Pyne insisted the chaplaincy programme was successful and popular in the community.
But the opposition education spokeswoman, Kate Ellis, questioned the government’s priorities given it would curb school funding increases from 2018 onwards, which she said would fail to keep pace with rising education costs.
Ellis said it was wrong for the government to direct funding only to chaplains who had:
A direct link to organised religion.
Chaplains in schools, I have always, maintained, have no part in
any education programme. They are being paid, at best, to indoctrinate pupils; at worst to generate hostility towards people they disapprove of.
In an email widely being circulated by AllOut, calling on people to sign a petition against the chaplaincy programme, the equality organisation said:
Imagine you’re 16 and you’ve just realised you might be gay. You’re being bullied, so reach out to your school for help – they send you to a chaplain. He says that being gay is a disease and you need to be cured.
Sound outrageous? The Australian government just released the Federal Budget with $245 million to send chaplains from anti-gay religious groups into schools all over the country.
There’s still a chance to stop it – next week the opposition parties will decide if they should pass the budget in full, seek to amend it or block it entirely. If this secret religious agenda doesn’t make headlines, it could be forgotten and passed without debate.
But if thousands of us sign right now, we could make it a major priority for any politician who wants to make schools more (not less) safe.
This isn’t just about budget lines – this is about the lives of young people. Two out of every three lesbian, gay, bi or trans youths in Australia are bullied in school. Some are harassed by their teachers and forced to change schools – or even drop out. These are the very people qualified social workers could be helping. But if the government gets their way, millions will be poured into keeping these young people from the help they desperately need.
The petition, which I urge you to sign, says:
Protect all young Australians, including lesbian, gay bi, and trans people. Don’t pass any form of the budget that contains funding for religious groups to take the place of qualified mental health professionals or social workers in schools.
In the latest email I received from AllOut, the organisation said:
Unbelievable.In the last 72 hours 125,238 of us have called on Tony Abbott and Australian politicians to keep an anti-gay religious agenda out of schools. And yesterday, the Government announced they’re going to amend the Budget! | 4,625 | 2,189 | 0.000471 |
warc | 201704 | As a utility with an energy mix that’s more than 70 percent coal, GRE’s leadership took the courageous step to seek out external stakeholders for deep engagement and advice. It conducted a process with the Great Plains Institute to “hear all the voices”, such as its largest industrial customers, lenders, regulators, and advocates (including me) seeking to reduce society’s dependence on fossil fuels. Based in part on those conversations, Great River Energy began to make very strategic shifts in their business, resulting in at least six big decisions over the past several years that Fresh Energy applauds as leadership worthy of national recognition.View Full Story
A child born in Cairo, Egypt, Ramez Naam went on to become a leading expert on technology and innovation. On October 5, Ramez Naam will keynote Fresh Energy’s inaugural fundraising breakfast, bursting with insights that with the right policy framework, another wave of technology innovation just might be genius enough to maximize our chances of overcoming one of humankind’s most daunting and intractable problems: climate change and fossil fuel dependency.View Full Story
While Fresh Energy sticks to its core work of shaping and driving policies to support a transition to clean and efficient energy economy, it’s always refreshing to step back and look at the broader picture. Short of geo-engineering, it well understood that the climate solutions have two big portions: reducing our emissions, and managing land use to better sequester carbon from the atmosphere. What we sometimes forget is that sequestering carbon can happen on land and at sea, especially in coastal ecosystems.View Full Story
Delivering an unexpected Christmas present for everyone who loves clean energy, last Friday the President and Congress agreed to a budget deal that included a huge win for renewable energy. Shocking most analysts and advocates, Congress extended tax credits for wind energy by five years and for solar energy by seven years.View Full Story
Last night, congressional leaders agreed to a budget deal that will extend the federal tax credits for wind and solar until at least 2020 and 2022 respectively. Executive Director Michael Noble released the following statementView Full Story
Today, we remember our former board chair Steven Hoffman, who passed away November 23 after suffering a stroke a week earlier at the age of 63.View Full Story
As the cost of renewable energy sources like wind and solar continue to drop, it’s important to examine the policies that have helped shape our current energy landscape.View Full Story
Every new solar program requires some problem solving as it gets implemented. In order to get a clearer perspective, let’s take a step back and build a community solar garden the same way we would build a community itself.View Full Story
On June 21, Fresh Energy executive director Michael Noble gave a keynote address at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s 25th Energy Fair in Custer, Wisconsin.View Full Story
On New Year’s Eve in Minnesota, an administrative law judge who normally labors in obscurity made a big news splash by ruling that solar beat natural gas in a head-on comparison.View Full Story | 3,283 | 1,645 | 0.000621 |
warc | 201704 | Humanity’s journey through the illusion has been long and painful as you have failed to recognize one another as siblings, as beloved children of God; and instead have engaged with each other in conflict, war, and deceitful practices due to the fear your apparent separation from God unleashed.
For eons you have seen each other as threats and enemies whom you needed to attack or defend yourselves against. And the suffering you have experienced as a result of this enormous misperception has been most painful for you.
Now this misperception is dissolving because so many of you have come to the understanding, through the painful experiences that you have undergone again and again and again, that this kind of behavior can never bring you the peace you are so urgently seeking
You still lack trust. And so, rather than loving one another – which is what you will do as the Love field enveloping you penetrates the hearts of even the most fear-driven among you – you are attempting to negotiate non-violently to find a path to peace on Earth.
This is in fact an enormously progressive step forwards for humanity, because until very recently most believed that the only way to achieve any form of peace was through force of arms and firm suppression of those who could or might attack you. Peace through violence – what an oxymoron!
Since starting to practice negotiating non-violently, it is becoming apparent to all involved that trust has to be established and clearly demonstrated, with absolutely no ‘wiggle room’, if your negotiations are to have any chance of success.
And for many this is a difficult concept to grasp because trust has been betrayed, as a matter of course, for eons, when those doing the betraying found themselves in positions of power over the betrayed, and ‘wisely’ took advantage of the situation. To trust was seen to be naive and childish, a laying open of oneself to violation, an invitation to betrayal, something that even small children soon learned was a very dangerous opportunity to offer to anyone.
Now, with the Tsunami of Love firmly established on Earth as the environment in which everything happens, and spreading Its influence ever more widely, people are becoming aware of the actuality that the only way to achieve lasting peace on Earth is through trust.
Not an enforcement of trust through, for instance, satellite monitoring and military supervision, but just simple unadorned trust that all honor and practice because it is your nature as children of God.
In personal relationships, many have been learning to trust one another more and more fully over the last three or four decades, as limitations on the numbers of subjects open for discussion have been falling away. The resultant openness and honesty have been shown not only to work, but also to uplift and inspire those relationships.
That is the effect of Love (capital L), the divine energy field in which all that exists is eternally present; flowing smoothly, abundantly, and pervasively within those relationships without restrictions or blocks of any kind. When Love flows freely like that, joy is the result.
In your natural state, embraced by and at home in the ever-present Presence of God’s Love for you, joy is constant.
Within the illusion, as you struggle with the issues that plague humanity, the apparent lack of your most basic needs – love, acceptance, and recognition – drive you to seek them almost constantly through ego-driven thoughts, words, and actions.
You assess others and decide whether or not they can provide for any of those needs, thus making the effort required on your part in getting to know them and have them interact with you worthwhile or not.
You are forever looking for a ‘return on your investment,’ and this attitude leads not to trust but to suspicion; the destroyer of trust.
All are one. There is no separation; it just appears that way. And so lack of trust and betrayal of trust deeply affect everyone involved; there is no escape from lack of trust because it builds on itself. And so does trust.
So do not be misled into thinking that you can beat the system, you always experience what you offer and what you expect to receive.
Trust can only happen when you choose to trust another and they respond with honesty and integrity. This is the moment on Earth when all the necessary energies are in place to enable you to engage with others with love and with trust, and so to move forward and continue on your path of spiritual evolution, which is the path out of the illusion.
If you pay attention you will become aware that betrayal, conflict, and war are not the only games on offer.
All over the world, people are waking up to the knowledge that separation is unreal, an impossible state of being. Because physical form, as you have imagined it, is unreal.
There is only pure energy, and that energy is Love. But it is a little like electricity, because its use is determined by the user – each one of you using your God-given free will – and is either beneficial to all or damaging to all.
The simplest analogy is to think of your electrical grids and power systems on Earth. The major ones are either 240 volt or 110 volt alternating current systems. If you provide power from the higher voltage to an appliance built for the lower voltage it will be destroyed.
You can think of your individual free wills as multi-voltage systems that can adapt via transformers to power any appliance. But if two of you try to power the same appliance – any kind of relationship – at the same moment, unless you have adjusted your frequencies to be in harmony, then the results can be and often are quite disastrous.
Trust, honor, respect, acceptance, compassion, and understanding (to name just a few) can come into harmonious alignment; distrust, betrayal, fear, and conflict cannot.
The former are all aspects of the divine energy field of Love in which all is contained; the latter are all of the illusion, but because of your belief in it they can appear very real and can cause you untold pain and suffering.
The time has come for you to release your tight grip on the illusion – a grip or sharpness of imagery that makes it appear very real and focus on engaging fully with the field of Love that contains and supports you in every moment.
When you do this, stress and anxiety will fall away, making room for peace, and the Love that powers and maintains it, to fill your hearts.
With peace firmly established there, at the center of your being, you will find yourselves knowing that trust is the way forward, giving yourselves the courage to offer it and to receive it as you change the world into the New World for which all have been hoping and praying, just by returning yourselves to an awareness of your true and unchangeable nature and then operating through that state.
You are all Love incarnate, and your awareness of that divine truth can no longer remain buried or denied.
With so very much love, Saul
Audio version of this channeling.
“Saul: Trust Can Only Happen When You Choose to Trust Another,” channeled by John Smallman, January 31, 2015, at https://johnsmallman.wordpress.com/2015/01/31/trust-can-only-happen-when-you-choose-to-trust-another/
Source Link: John Smallman’s Blog | 7,391 | 3,378 | 0.000302 |
warc | 201704 | From 2013 to 2014, my life imploded. After 25 years of being totally healthy, I was diagnosed with three major medical conditions out of nowhere. While in recovery from two brain surgeries—one for a congenital blood vessel abnormality and the other for a cerebrospinal fluid disorder that my doctors think developed as a result of the first—I learned I have a rare, incurable autoimmune disease that attacks the joints of the spine and causes terrible back pain. I was losing my health, close to losing my sanity, and everything besides merely staying alive had to be put on hold, including my career, relationships, and hobbies.
After being offered a medication that can have devastating side effects, such as cancer and sudden death (no big deal, right?) to control my autoimmune disease, I sought out another opinion from Elizabeth Boham, M.D., who practices something called functional medicine at the UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Having seen Boham on the
Dr. Oz Show and then reading about her work online, I was drawn to her emphasis on looking at the body as a whole, integrated system to uncover the underlying causes of dysfunction. My body seemed to be falling apart, but my doctors insisted that one condition had nothing to do with another—they saw each part of my body as separate. WTF Is Functional Medicine, Anyway?
Functional medicine is a fairly new field of medicine that uses diet modifications, supplementation, and stress reduction (sometimes in conjunction with medications) to address disease. Most insurance companies don't cover functional medicine, so I shelled out a pretty penny (four months’ rent, to be exact) for my appointment as well as dozens of tests, including saliva, urine, blood, stool, and hair samples.
After looking at the results, in a follow-up appointment, Boham said that autoimmune disease is usually triggered by a bacterial infection of some sort, oftentimes in the gut, and I had multiple strains of harmful bacteria in mine. (High levels of bad bacteria in the intestines is one of the suspected causes of inflammatory autoimmune disease now recognized by the National Institutes of Health.) So she recommended completely overhauling my diet since food makes a major impact on the health of our gut flora.
Learning to nourish myself properly felt like the best gift I could give myself.
Desperate to heal and hoping to avoid heavy-duty medications, I decided to go all-in on this experiment. Western medicine wasn’t offering me anything other than an Rx to keep symptoms at bay, but what I wanted and needed was healing. I told myself that if I didn't try to correct the deeper imbalances that brought on this disease, I might suffer from even bigger problems down the road. Plus, learning to nourish myself properly felt like the best gift I could give myself—I’ve always believed that diet has a big impact on health, but I never had the time to put much thought into mine—and if there was even a sliver of a chance this could help ease my chronic pain, it was worth a shot before going whole hog on a dangerous medication for the rest of my life.
Organic or Broke (Literally)
Some studies show there’s no real difference between conventional and organic produce in terms of nutrient content, but according to a 2014 meta-analysis published in the
British Journal of Nutrition organic food has higher concentrations of antioxidants and lower toxic pesticide residues—and Boham said that organic food would offer me more health benefits .
So my “prescription” was to eat as much organic as I could afford, and to cut out gluten and dairy, both of which can promote inflammation in the body. I also had to stop relying on processed foods and almost anything sold in a package, meaning I'd need to cook most of my meals. Any meats and fish had to be grass-fed, antibiotic-free, and wild-caught as much as possible, because whatever the animal is exposed to, you eat, Boham said. And research has shown that growth hormones and antibiotics in meat and PCBs in farm-raised fish may harm our health in various ways, including impacting reproductive health and raising the risk for some cancers .
My income wasn’t high enough to afford the added expense, so I more than dipped into my savings: I blew through them. As my friends were going on vacations and having fancy dinners out, I was shelling out any money I’d normally use on fun at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. And then I'd come home and spend two or more hours every day planning, prepping, and cooking—rather than working, so my job as a freelance writer and editor started to suffer.
When I did dine out, my restricted diet sucked almost every ounce of fun out of the experience. I was always the most high-maintenance eater in the room, turning ordering at a restaurant into an Olympic endeavor. I ticked off more than a few waitresses rattling off questions—“Is the broccoli organic?” “Is this grass-fed beef?”—that sent them running to the kitchen to interrogate the chef. While my boyfriend didn't mind the extra 20 minutes it took me to order, others, like my mom, thought the whole thing was ridiculous and tried to get me to order a cheeseburger.
The idea of going into debt didn’t feel as scary as the thought of being chronically ill the rest of my life.
I quickly learned that most restaurants don’t have organic menus, so I started to bring my own pre-cooked food in containers everywhere I went. (Totally normal, right?) But on several occasions, I didn’t have time or forgot, so I was stuck somewhere with no “allowed” food available—and I went hungry, got low blood sugar, and felt dizzy and sick.
Another time, the check I sent to pay my health insurance bounced because I had accidentally spent the money on groceries. And one day, upon realizing I was going to miss a work deadline, I broke down in tears on my kitchen floor while blanching collard greens and sautéing ground turkey. And then I got back up and returned to the stove, ignoring work.
I didn’t know how much longer I could manage this lifestyle, but I ignored my fears (and thoughts that I was more than a little insane) and kept moving. I wanted to believe this would work—and the idea of going into debt didn’t feel as scary as the thought of being chronically ill the rest of my life.
It's Working... Sort Of
Sacrifices and mental health notwithstanding, I did start to feel physically better pretty quickly. Within a few weeks, I noticed I had more energy, less acne, and fewer sugar cravings, though those weren’t the complaints that brought me to this diet.
I also began to really appreciate and savor the food on my plate, for perhaps the first time in my life. I didn’t grow up eating sit-down dinners with my family, and once I entered the workforce I never seemed to have time to prepare a real dinner. At last, I felt like I was getting to do something I had missed out on my whole life.
My bloodwork pointed to some improvements too: At the beginning, my iron, magnesium, calcium, and vitamin D levels were all in the tank, and I was prediabetic, meaning my hemoglobin a1c level—the measure of how much sugar is in your blood over a three-month span of time—was creeping up. After three months of my new diet, all of my blood levels went back to normal, and I was no longer prediabetic. The nurse who reviewed my results with me remarked about how unusual it is not to have a single value out of range.
At the four-month mark, Boham did some more stool testing and found that the balance of flora in my gut was much healthier too. All but one of my infections had cleared, and my digestion reflected that: No more bloating or gas, better digestion, and easy poops every morning like clockwork. It made sense: I had given up sugar and refined carbohydrates, which bad bacteria feed on, and started eating more prebiotic and probiotic foods, such as asparagus, garlic, leeks, and sauerkraut, which good bacteria need in order to grow. I felt so proud of myself for sticking to it.
The bad news: At that same time, my joint pain and swelling weren’t getting any better, and I was having so much trouble walking that my rheumatologist feared I was doing permanent damage to my joints by holding off on medication. So I started taking a drug to control my autoimmune-related chronic pain, and it put me into remission within one month. (Western medicine, for its drawbacks, is pretty amazing when it works.)
My Personal Prescription: Moderation
While my autoimmune disease can’t be managed with diet alone, I rest easy knowing my improved diet is keeping the rest of me healthy—and maybe keeping some of the ill effects of my medicine at bay (I can only hope). Plus, in a few months I may try coming off the medicine to see where I stand now that my gut is healthier.
Would I do this very costly, totally enlightening, and frequently maddening experiment again? Yes.
Would I do this very costly, totally enlightening, and frequently maddening experiment again? Yes. It made me a smarter consumer, a better eater, and quite a talented cook. I know multitudes more about the healing properties of food, how to feed myself, and what I need to do in order to stay as healthy as I possibly can in spite of my health issues. I have peace of mind knowing that I tried virtually everything in search of a natural cure-all, but ultimately, a balance of modern and functional medicine is the magic elixir that’s giving me the best shot at a good quality of life. And the time and money investment was healing in and of itself, because it was an act of self-love.
Still, I became more lax at the one-year mark, allowing some takeout and refined treats on occasion, because I just. couldn't. do. it. anymore. I buy about half organic and half conventional food now, and rely on some pre-cooked meats and pre-packaged salads and snacks, but I’m still gluten-, dairy-, and sugar-free (save a square of 85-percent dark chocolate in the afternoon).
While I know it’s valuable to continue to use the dietary knowledge I’ve gained, I also recognize the importance of keeping my mental, emotional, and financial health a priority—which means not allowing my diet to isolate me from friends or put me in the poorhouse, and not planning my day solely around my meals. Health means more than just eating healthy food. Now I’m trying to live with everything in moderation. | 10,604 | 4,930 | 0.000208 |
warc | 201704 | As we reported this week, some of the world’s richest nations are lagging behind on their climate protection pledges. Most often, these commitments follow the formula: “We aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions X percent below year Y levels by year Z.” It seems like a straightforward proposition, but have you ever wondered where those numbers come from? The answer is a scientific concept known as the carbon budget, and like a teenager with her first credit card, we’re well on our way to blowing right through it.
In the video above, Kelly Levin, a climate policy expert at the World Resources Institute, explains what our carbon budget is, how much we’ve already “spent,” and why it matters.
Back in 2009, delegates to the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen agreed that in order to avoid the worst potential impacts of climate change, global temperature rise should be limited to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. For their report this fall, scientists on the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change looked at how emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have warmed the planet since the Industrial Revolution, and extrapolated how much more we could emit before breaking the Copenhagen limit, the same way you might draft a budget to keep your checking account balance above zero.
The IPCC set our total carbon budget since the industrial revolution at about 1 trillion metric tons of carbon. Today, we’ve already spent over half of that (largely thanks to just 90 companies, as Climate Desk partner the
Guardian reported Wednesday). If projections for future emissions hold true, Levin says, we’ll eat through the rest of the budget by 2044. That means that if we want to stick to the 2 degree C limit, we’d have to immediately cease all emissions, everywhere on Earth, on the first day of 2045. Turn off every fossil-fuel-fired power plant, charge every car only on renewable electricity, etc. Given the cruddy international track record of reaching even basic climate agreements — Wednesday, 132 countries walked out of U.N. climate talks in Warsaw — that kind of turn-on-a-dime shift seems unlikely to happen. Instead, Levin argues, if we take measures to cut emissions starting now, we can stretch the budget much longer and give ourselves that much more time to clean up the energy system.
Which brings us back to those 90 companies, and many more who count unburned fossil fuels (still-buried coal, oil, and gas) among their bottom-line assets. No matter how long we drag it out, consuming all the world’s fossil fuels would burn straight through the budget, and then some. Burning the total volume of fossil fuels now held in reserve by publicly listed companies would emit the equivalent of 762 metric billion tons of carbon, according to a recent analysis by the Carbon Tracker Initiative. But we’ve only got about 485 billion left in the budget. In other words, if world leaders come together to actually enforce the Copenhagen warming limit, roughly 37 percent of the fossil fuels held by those companies will need to stay in the ground.
This is where the carbon
budget becomes a carbon bubble: Companies valued on the basis of their fossil fuel holdings could find the rug pulled from under them if those holdings become impossible to sell. Recently, Al Gore and investment banker David Blood (who have collaborated on a consulting firm to help companies divest from fossil fuels) estimated the value of these “stranded assets” at some $7 trillion.
So the question now is: Are we really going to smash our carbon piggy bank? Watch Kelly Levin explain, above.
Get Grist in your inbox | 3,731 | 1,906 | 0.000539 |
warc | 201704 | When I was in school my parents and I emailed each other nearly every day. Occasionally they would send especially good gems of wisdom. One time after sending an email complaining about being tired of eating a can of Veg-all as a seven-course meal, they replied with what could have been the funniest email they'd ever sent me. Alas, that email is gone, but I'm going to try to retell it because it makes a good analogy for what I'd like to say today.
Dad served in the Army during the Vietnam conflict. More than once he'd told Sister and I about the joys of eating MREs. Later I would have ample experiences to eat them myself while I was at Ft Knox, and I was eager to tell him that they hadn't gotten any better than the stories he told about them.
He said a lot of times his squad would sit together to eat their MREs. None of it was good, most of it was left-overs from the Korean War, and other than fulfilling their purpose to give soldiers ample caloric intake to do their civic duties, there was not much to be said about them.
One of the tricks that the squad played on new people was to wait until everybody had opened their MREs and someone would shout out, "Hey, does anybody want my peaches?" The new kid, who was referred to as the FNG, would always yell that he wanted it.
There were never any peaches in the MREs. The FNG just didn't know any better. Everybody got a good laugh about something that none of them could control.
He also said that sometimes there would be a chocolate bar in your MRE. He said the chocolate bar was FUBAR because it would always make you sick if you ate it. Nobody could eat it, and therefore getting one in your MRE gave you one less thing you could barter for peaches. He said they started calling it the John Wayne bar because they figured that only a manly man like John Wayne could eat it and not suffer its ill effects.
Their reply made no effort to comfort my diet of dorm-friendly microwavable food. But it was funny to me, and I bought a can of peaches on my next trip to the grocery store. I cleaned the can and used it to hold pens on my desk for the rest of the year.
That's the back story to what I really wanted to tell you today.
After my first surgery I received several flower arrangements, and they perked up my kitchen until they withered. One particular plant was in a decorative pot without any drain holes. It wasn't particularly pretty, but it was green, and I've made little effort to encourage its existance, and have been guilty of threatening its herbicide. I water it infrequently. It gets little sunlight. I don't talk to it like I do my ivy plant.
It's been five months and it just won't die.
Today I'm officially naming it John Wayne. Welcome, John, to a life of peaches. | 2,764 | 1,411 | 0.000712 |
warc | 201704 | Today's post is from a lovely twitter newbie, Jenny. She is a PPD warrior mom, and she doesn't have her own blog yet, but she totally should. Give her some love today for me, okay?
I’m Jen. I met a wonderful guy eleven years ago. We got married eight years ago. Four years ago, we had our first little girl who we nicknamed Munch, short for Munchkin. We adored this little girl. It was a bit of a rough adjustment. We were nervous first-time parents. We read lots of books and asked our families for advice. We had so much fun with Munch, and she was the apple of our eye. Once Munch turned two, we decided that it was time to add to our family.
Then along came our second little girl, Skeeter. I really wanted a sibling for Munch, but I was so nervous about how Munch would adjust to the new arrival. I am a typical first born, Type A, perfectionist personality. I am also a planner, so I tried extremely hard to have everything prepared before Skeeter arrived.
Skeeter was born on October 10, 2010. Munch was a very easy baby, and Skeeter had a very different personality. It took a while for to adjust to being a family of four, but everything seemed to be going okay. I thought I was just overwhelmed with the jump from one child to two.
On Mother’s Day, I treated myself to a free yoga class taught by a dear friend of mine. As I laid in Savanasa, I was finally able to relax for the first time in months. I realized that I had been anxious and sad since Skeeter had been born. I realized that something was not right. I wasn’t myself. I realized that I had been using the mom’s room at work as a place to break down in. I couldn’t make it through a morning getting myself and the girls out the door to daycare and to work without crying or screaming. I was filled with racing thoughts, rage, sadness and anxiety.
The next day I placed two phone calls to therapists. When I didn’t hear back from anyone, I felt despondent. On my way home from work, I called my cousin, a social worker. I confessed to her that I thought I was suffering from postpartum anxiety. I started crying immediately after that statement. I was terrified that someone would take my girls away. I knew that I needed help as soon as possible. I wasn’t suicidal, but I felt like I was on the edge of a breakdown. My cousin walked me through what to say to the therapist. Two days later, Skeeter and I were in my therapist’s office. She had had a last minute cancellation and was able to fit me in.
Two weeks later, she gave me a diagnosis: postpartum anxiety and postpartum depression. I was put on medication right around the time that I received my diagnosis. I felt relieved and sad at the same time. I knew what I was battling, but I had a long ways to go towards recovery. I began to battle back, devouring books and blogs about PPD. I found a new primary care physician who is certified in both internal medicine and psychiatry who now manages my medication. I am finally at my therapeutic dose. I am in recovery, but I have not completely recovered. I am taking it one day at a time, putting one foot in front of the other. I have more good days than bad, but I still feel the haze of depression slip its veil around my psyche from time to time. I still feel the buzz of anxiety course through my body.
To other moms who are struggling, I want you to know this. You are not alone. There is a whole community of PPD warrior moms that you can find through blogs, websites, Twitter and Facebook. These women get what you are going through because they have been there. So use the Internet to your advantage. Reach out and make some online connections. You are NOT alone. You will get better. It gets better. | 3,735 | 1,834 | 0.000553 |
warc | 201704 | At the (deliberately) provocatively-titled piece "Are Health IT Designers, Testers and Purchasers Trying to Harm Patients? Part 1", I wrote that I would be presenting mockups showing the EHR deficiencies I am hearing about. These deficiencies in basic human computer interaction, biomedical information science, and presentation of information create a terrible user experience for clinicians.
The title of these posts are deliberately provocative because the stakes of the issues addressed are so high.
These hellish user experiences are causing clinician cognitive overload, distracting and tiring them, and due to violations of fundamental good practices in information display, actually promoting error.
These violations are primarily due to lack of clinician input at design, sluggish vendor correction of reported critical deficits, programmer convenience, contractual gagging of a healthcare organization's ability to share these defects with other users and the public at large, and vendor immunity from liability on the basis of "learned intermediaries" (clinicians) between the defective IT and the patient.
Imagine if aviation worked this way. Imagine if the crash of the Continental Connection Flight 3407 had been due to defective instrumentation as suggested by the pilot's union.
I cannot present actual screen shots of vendor EHR defects, since the vendor contracts forbid that on the basis of intellectual property protection. However, I am drawing mockups to substantially illustrate the problems I am hearing about.
I am starting off with a relatively simple example. Many more will follow in future parts of this series.
This one can be called "Warning, no warnings" and reflects two problems I've heard about rolled into one:
This is a fictional representation of a screen from an actual major vendor EHR in use at many large hospitals in this country today.
Note the following:
A warning that there are no warnings about abnormal results. "Please review all results carefully, there are no indicator flags" - in 2009? A results section that says "negative" and "results final." Most busy clinicians' eyes would stop there, especially in the wee hours as this report is from. An addendum to the report that the result is actually positive for MRSA, one of the most feared drug resistant pathogens today. In labs and diagnostic departments, a change from an initial impression or result happens. Unfortunately most EMR's do not support the old style method of erasure, or crossing out erroneous data with a pencil! No flag on that addendum of any kind, although at the lab at the point of data entry, a flag was requested and seen by the reporting technician!
The lack of a flag to signal an abnormal result saves a vendor the inclusion and interface of 1 binary bit of information (well, to be fair, 8 bits or one byte, practically speaking) in computers and networks that even at consumer grade can now pass millions of bits/second, and the contents of an entire encyclopedia in milliseconds.
This is sheer stupidity. (It reminds me of the Y2K issue.)
It's bad enough that the clinician is forced to hunt around every result for an indication of normalcy or abnormalcy.
Even worse, there is a disparity between what is seen at the lab - a flag calling attention to an abnormal addendum - and what is seen in the clinician view.
While a fictitious screen, this is not a fictitious example. This type of incident (I say 'type', as the specifics of the patient's condition were different) occurred to a patient whose treatment was in fact delayed until someone more than 24 hours later noticed the addendum. The patient's ultimate fate was not reported to me.
Even still, the leaders at the organization using this EHR are considering adding a report about this flaw to the regular queue of vendor fixes, rather than taking immediate, definitive "FIX THIS, NOW!" action.
This is despite the common sense view that if this happens again before a fix and a patient is harmed or dies, the hospital system will be held seriously accountable for the delays, and IT personnel will likely be on the stand. (The vendor, of course, gets held harmless.)
Imagine a jury's reaction: CIO - "uh, we didn't think the problem all that serious, and didn't have the resources to fix it right away, but we did call the vendor who said they'd attend to it one day real soon."
I can also put blame on the physicians for their physicians' learned helplessness - trying to muddle through their work with such a system, rather than refusing to use them in this condition. Or simply (in the manner of an old time surgeon I once rounded with in a summer NSF program for high school students) picking up the terminals and smashing them as the potentially dangerous junk they are.
One could blame the doctors for not reading below the "negative, results final" mark, but why should that be needed? Why is it the responsibility of the extremely busy physicians and other clinicians to provide their extra labor for the convenience of IT and IT vendors? Would a jury hold the clinicians accountable, seeing this display?
Would an aircraft manufacturer get away with blaming a pilot for an accident caused by horrible user interaction design of a plane's instrument displays, say, a hard to find stall warning that lacked flags or audible alerts?
It is unbelievable to me that a system like this could be put into production in a hospital. Simply unfathomable.
If I am involved as an expert witness in such cases, I will be sure to have the plaintiff attorneys ask the IT personnel about their clinical credentials.
This system was CCHIT "certified", I am told. Of what value is "certification" if it allows this type of design issue, and others to follow in future installments, on to the market?
More screens in part 3 of this series. It gets worse.
Far worse.
(Part 1 of this series is here and Part 3 is here).
-- SS
addendum:
Some have complained I am being "politically incorrect." At a time when our banks, major industries, investments, lifestyle and retirements have been seriously eroded by a combination of secrecy, incompetence, and criminal behavior on an unprecedented scale, I think such people need to get their priorities in order. | 6,292 | 3,060 | 0.00033 |
warc | 201704 | Risks of Renovating a Condominium
Renovating a condominium has a number of risks, including the fact that there are certain things you will have little control over. Find out about the risks of renovating a condominium with help from an insurance and risk management consultant in this free video clip.
Video Transcript
Hi, I'm Dan Weedin, and today we're going to talk about the risks of renovating a condominium. The risks of renovating a condominium vary a little bit from renovating a home. A lot of people are renovating their homes nowadays and if they have a condominium, they may want to do the same. What you'll lose from a home is you don't have to worry about a lot of external factors but you do have to worry about things within the building that you may have very little control over. Wiring is one of them. If you are dong some work within your own condominium unit, you may not know how that wiring affects everybody else and the risk of fire, the risk of loss of power, those are very real perils. You also have to worry about other items within your condominium structure, things like lead or potentially asbestos as hazards that you need to be concerned about. There's always risks there. Now, if you break something, the good news is is your insurance is probably going to cover it. You'll have a deductible but it's more than likely going to cover it if it becomes damaged. One other thought for those of you out there who are condominium building owners, you might be doing some renovation yourself. The risks that you have that the individual condominium owner doesn't is you have liability for all of those condominium unit owners. If something were to happen, let's say you have a power surge and it damaged condominium unit owner's property, maybe the computers or other electronics, your liable for that. So bottom line, if you are renovating a condominium, if you are a unit owner, you've got to be concerned about the things that can happen within your walls. If you are the condominium building owner, you have a major concern of things that could impact all of your unit owners. | 2,114 | 946 | 0.00106 |
warc | 201704 | At HRmarketer.com, we have the opportunity to work with hundreds HR service providers representing all aspects of human resources. It continues to amaze us how little time the marketing people from these service providers actually spend interacting with their target audience – HR professionals. And the few who do usually limit their interactions to their own clients which presents a skewed sense of reality.
Anyone in marketing should spend at least 1-2 hours per month interacting with their target customer in order to identify trends, find new product opportunities and get a better sense of the field of HR and the customer’s day-to-day needs.
Famed investor Peter Lynch used to spend a considerable amount of time observing the aisles at supermarkets in order to see how consumers felt about various products whose companies he was considering investing in. A senior executive at healthcare giant J&J did the same thing on a regular basis to observe how consumers selected products in categories where J&J competed – he’d even mingle with shoppers asking them which brands were best and why.
Here are four basic tips on how to get more involved with HR professionals:
Again, spending just a few hours a month interacting with HR professionals will be one of the best investments you can make in your own marketing continuing education – and help you develop better marketing campaigns for your company.
Join a local chapter of SHRM (or another relevant association). For a listing if hundreds of professional membership associations in all discliplines of HR, go to HRmarketer.com. Participate in monthly meetings for the association you join. This doesn’t mean sponsoring an event or exhibiting. This means actually sitting in on discussions, listening to the challenges of HR, what their needs are on a day-to-day basis and what are emerging trends. It also means establishing good networking/professional relationships with the HR professionals. Register as an “attendee” at the annual SHRM event and other key industry tradeshows. Sit in on meetings, eat lunch with other HR professionals, ask them why they are at the event, what other events they attend, why they are walking the exhibit floor, what products they are “shopping” for, what they consider important when making their buying decisions, etc. But DO NOT talk about your company, your products, or sell them anything. Sign up and attend a free Webinar/Webcast of your competitor. To find one, visit HumanResourceWebinars.com, the only online public directory that provides the best listing of free HR-related Webinars. Not only is this a great way to learn more about your competition but it allows you to hear questions presented by HR professionals and what’s on their minds, what’s important to them, etc. | 2,849 | 1,379 | 0.000743 |
warc | 201704 | Although, to be fair, requirements is a stronger word than what I should use. Although there are fines to automakers who fail to meet these rules, the fines themselves are quite small. It's the bad publicity for failing to meet the guidelines that Toyota, Honda, et al are more worried about.
Green Car Congress has the story from the Nikkei on the new requirements on average fuel economy for the carmakers in Japan. By 2015, passenger cars need to have an average fuel economy of 39.5 mpg (see the table below).
Proposed Average Fuel Economy Vehicle class 2004 value 2015 est. value % change Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Passenger cars 13.6 km/liter
7.4 l/100km
32.0 mpg US
16.8 km/liter
6.0 l/100km
39.5 mpg US
23.5% Small buses 8.3 km/liter
12.0 l/100km
19.5 mpg US
8.9 km/liter
11.2 l/100km
21.0 mpg US
7.2% Light cargo trucks 13.5 km/liter
7.4 l/100km
31.8 mpg US
15.2 km/liter
6.6 l/100km
35.8 mpg US
12.6%
Compare that to the US Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. In 2006, the fleet requirement for passenger cars was 27.5 mpg and 20.7 mpg for light trucks. (If you're interested in seeing who's paid fines for not meeting these requirements, as well as how much, the NHTSA has a table of fines.
CAFE standards have been changed to look at a vehicles "footprint" — the product of its wheelbase and track. Some critics point out that this may have the unintended consequence of pushing manufacturers to make ever-larger vehicles to avoid strict economy standards. | 1,535 | 831 | 0.001228 |
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warc | 201704 | Synopsis
The Montessori method is characterized by an emphasis on self-directed activity on the part of the child and clinical observation on the part of the teacher. It stresses the importance of adapting the child's learning environment to his or her developmental level, and of the role of physical activity in absorbing abstract concepts and practical skills. The Montessori method teaches reading via phonics and whole language, the comparative benefits of which are currently being recognized.
To all educators this book should prove most interesting. All who are fair-minded will admit the genius that shines from the pages which follow, and the remarkable suggestiveness of Dr. Montessori's labors. -Henry W. Holmes
About Maria Montessori See more books from this Author
Published March 3, 2013 by Start Publishing LLC. 353 pages Genres: Education & Reference, Health, Fitness & Dieting, Political & Social Sciences, Literature & Fiction, Self Help, History, Professional & Technical. Non-fiction | 1,010 | 607 | 0.001657 |
warc | 201704 | The 2013 bill passed by Parliament is sloppy, complex and unreadable.
The quality of parliamentary debate in India has always been lamented. When it comes to matters of lawmaking, the art of asking the right questions about substance is rare enough; the art of having a real debate about style and form is practically extinct. This is true of primary laws passed by Parliament or by state legislatures, and also of subordinate legislation issued by regulators. The outcome is that Indian laws are often poorly drafted, requiring frequent amendments and tedious judicial clarification.
A case in point is the 2013 version of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, as passed by both houses of Parliament. Considerable time was spent debating substantive issues, but the bill’s drafting style was ignored. Some innocuous (but classic) examples of poor drafting that the bill exhibits are gathered here.
Matters of grammar, punctuation, political correctness (gender neutral, anyone?), and plain sloppiness aside, the bill is complex and unreadable for many reasons. There is the problem of ambiguity, where a provision invites more than one possible meaning. For example, one subsection empowers the lokpal to authorise agencies to search and seize documents, that, “in its opinion” are useful for an investigation, if it “has reason to believe” that such documents are secreted in any place. Later, in another situation, the lokpal must record reasons for its belief in writing. While tests in jurisprudence may conclude that belief and opinion are to be treated the same, and that both have to be reduced to writing, this text of law prompts many questions: (a) Since “belief” and “opinion” are used in the same sentence, are they intended to mean different things? (b) Does the lokpal not have to record reasons for its belief in writing unless specifically asked? (c) Do opinions not have to be recorded in writing at all? And so on. Clarity and precision, two essential principles of the rule of law, cannot be co-opted by allusion.
Phrases common in law but increasingly regarded as archaic, and open to ambiguity and misuse, are omnipresent, such as “without prejudice to…” and “provided that…”. A perennial legal favourite, “notwithstanding xyz” (implying that “xyz” will be ignored and overridden), appears over a dozen times. (The American Law Division of the Congressional Research Service that serves the legislative needs of the US Congress describes “notwithstanding” aptly as “the statutory equivalent of a parent telling a child… ‘I really mean it’”, and therefore, regards it as superfluous.) Courts still have to decipher “xyz”, and examine why it is not applicable in context. Further, a blanket “notwithstanding” provision does not always mean that everything else in the universe can be ignored — the real test is to discover which laws continue to apply.
The bill, like so many others, also fails to strike a satisfactory balance between the over-vague and the over-precise. On one hand, it seeks to establish the principles on which the lokpal will function, and keeps the text appropriately vague — the lokpal website will display the complaints status “from time to time”. But it also micromanages the institution, providing the method to calculate the salary reduction of a lokpal member if the person receives a pension.
Consequently, the true legal effect of a provision can be understood only after wading through a maze of double negatives, convoluted and verbose phrasing, and numerous cross-references. All this when straightforward sentences would have sufficed. Imagine the number of court-hours that are devoted to such exercises. Amidst the quibbling that follows, the original object of the law — in this case, a speedy disposal of corruption cases against public servants — gets conveniently forgotten. Whom, then, do we blame for judicial delays? The courts applying the law, or the legislators making the law?
Poorly written laws are not specific to India, and indeed, the world over, transformative changes are taking place to overcome precisely this problem. For example, the UK, whose legal legacy we frequently bemoan, has set up the “good law initiative” to make legislation less difficult for people to understand and easier to access in the digital age.
But straightening out the language is hardly the main problem. Beleaguered by process issues, human resource constraints and the lack of guidance and instruction, it is no surprise that laws in India are drafted the way they are.
The Indian lawmaking system allows practically any person to draft the first version of a legislative text (the Jan Lokpal Bill, for instance). Before it reaches Parliament, though, any draft law must go through due process of vetting and testing for soundness and consistency. This last exercise is usually carried out by the law ministry. But India has no manual or document that offers guidance on drafting a law, or on testing for soundness and consistency. The ministry is understaffed and ill-equipped to carry out these essential tasks. And professional drafters in this country are ill-trained and few and far between. For subordinate legislation, such as regulations issued by regulators, there is no equivalent oversight by the law ministry. And you would be hard pressed to find the last instance of regulations being debated in Parliament, despite being tabled before both houses. The quality of subordinate regulations, therefore, stands to be doubly worse than that of primary laws. A poorly drafted legal text will not only have immediate impact in the form of ambiguity and uncertainty, but will also require years of philological unravelling to understand the original legislative intent. Members of the legislature (Parliament and states), executive (law ministry) and the judiciary (the Bar and the higher courts) can all contribute to improving this sorry state of affairs. But nobody seems to want to make a beginning. For how, then, as Dickens famously put it, would law make business for itself? Sumathi Chandrashekaran is a legal consultant at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Delhi | 6,348 | 2,997 | 0.000345 |
warc | 201704 | The market size of real estate sector in India is projected to reach US$ 180 billion by 2020. The expected growth rate of the industry is at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% for the period 2010–2014, with Tier I metropolitan cities contributing to almost 40% of this growth.
Today this sector is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. The four components of this sector are housing, retail, hospitality, and commercial, with housing being the key one, which comprises 5 - 6 % of India’s gross domestic product (GDP), at present. However the remaining three sub-sectors are also showing an increased pace of growth over the last few years.
The demand for office space for example in the top 8 metros – Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad – was up 58% for the period January–March 2014 as compared to the same period the previous year, as per report of consultants Cushman & Wakefield. Of these, Ahmedabad and Delhi-NCR recorded the maximum demand.
Meanwhile, the residential segment saw an increase of 43% during the first quarter of 2014 has across the eight major cities, with Bengaluru recording the largest number of units, followed by Mumbai and Chennai.
Investments Opportunities
With increasing corporate expanding their business demand for office space would continue to be high in the key 8 metros. Retail space in shopping malls cross the key cities is projected to double in this year.
The construction development sector, including townships, housing, built-up infrastructure and construction-development projects garnered total foreign direct investment (FDI) worth US$ 23,131.64 million in the period April 2000–February 2014.
This sector continues to be a favoured destination for global investors.
Residential sector still has enormous potential for growth. “With housing requirements growing across cities and funds investing in the asset class primarily in the form of NCDs providing fixed returns, investments in the right project have the potential to yield healthy returns,” said Mr Sanjay Dutt, Executive Managing Director – South Asia, Cushman & Wakefield.
Further, demand for space from sectors such as education and healthcare has opened up ample opportunities in the real estate sector. | 2,330 | 1,213 | 0.000845 |
warc | 201704 | Warning on Fiji government plan to severely restrict workers’ rights 9 August 2011, 10:26AM Amnesty International has called on the government of Fiji to repeal a decree that would drastically restrict workers' rights and to immediately cease the harassment of union leaders. Government measures published on 29 July would, if enacted, violate international labour law and Fiji’s human rights obligations. The government must ensure that Fiji’s workers are able to exercise their labour rights freely. Fiji has an obligation to uphold the rights of its workers - including the specific rights to organize, to bargain collectively and to strike. The “Essential National Industries (Employment) Decree” published in the government Gazette, would take away nearly all collective bargaining rights, severely curtail the right to strike, ban overtime payments and void existing collective agreements for workers in key sectors of the economy including sugar, aviation and tourism. The Decree also authorises employers in government-designated enterprises to dictate working conditions while denying their workers the right to a voice through independent unions. The latest measures open a new flank in a wider attack on unions in Fiji, where workers are facing repression from the authorities, including the harassment of leaders of the Fiji Trades Union Congress. Virtually all public sector workers have already had their employment and union rights summarily curtailed though an earlier Decree in May this year. The government of Fiji claims that the measures are needed to ensure the development, viability and sustainability of industries that are essential to the economy, but the best way to achieve these goals is by respecting the fundamental human rights and dignity of those whose labour underpins these enterprises. As it is, Fiji is failing in its duty to deliver decent work to its people. Forty percent of Fijians are reported to live below the poverty line of $1.25 a day, and more than half of those in full time employment earn wages below the poverty line. Independent trade unions are sorely needed. Fundamental human rights are at stake, including the right to freedom of association and assembly, and the right to organise. Amnesty International stands steadfast in solidarity with workers in Fiji and the Fiji labour movement in their struggle to defend their rights. Amnesty International is further concerned by the 4 August arrest of Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) President Daniel Urai and Hotels Union staff member, Dinesh Gounder, and the harassment of FTUC General Secretary Felix Anthony. The two men have been charged under the Public Emergency Regulations (PER) for holding a meeting without a permit. Both have been freed on bail and are due to appear in court on 2 September. The arrests and harassment of trade unionists are a violation of the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and of Fiji’s obligations to respect freedom of association and assembly and the right to organise. Trade unionists should not need permits or permissions to meet their members. The 2009 Public Emergency Regulations enable the government to violate key human rights whilst promulgating impunity for those committing such violations. Amnesty International continues to call for an immediate repeal of these regulations. BACKGROUND 0n 8 August the ILO expressed “its serious concern about developments in Fiji”, including the arrests of the two trade union leaders under the PER and the new restrictive Decree. Under international law, all workers have a human right to form and join trade unions, to bargain collectively and to strike. These rights are an essential foundation to the realisation of other rights, and are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and conventions adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO), including core conventions 87 and 98 which have been ratified by Fiji. As a member of the ILO, the Government of Fiji also has a commitment, through the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, to respect, promote and realize the fundamental rights set out in the organization’s core conventions. Moves to limit fundamental workers’ rights in Fiji are also at odds with commitments made under the Cotonou Agreement which defines the European Union’s relations with 79 countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, including Fiji. Amnesty International has outlined its concerns about the Public Emergency Regulations in its detailed report in 2009, Fiji: Paradise Lost, A tale of ongoing human rights abuses April-July 2009, available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA18/002/2009/en August 09, 2011 Amnestry condemns draconian labour "law"
Amnesty International has today added their voice of concern on the muzzling of workers rights in Fiji.
And the regime plods on regardless of trepidation from folks like once-upon-a-pro-Charter chap, Kevin Barr, who has labelled the law as "anti-union...pro-ermployer, pro-investor, pro-rich and pro-business".
In reaction to the warnings from global union sorts, the illegal and treasonous Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum was quick on the trigger to point "paraodoxical" fingers back at them.
Despite all the junta hyped spin, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is coming to assess the situation on the ground here. | 5,452 | 2,439 | 0.000415 |
warc | 201704 | Miniature energy and chemical systems (MECS) are miniature thermal, fluid, and chemical devices in the mesoscale size range between a sugar cube and a human fist. MECS take advantage of improved rates of mass and heat transfer that have been observed at the microscale. There are many potential applications for MECS, including manportable cooling and decentralized chemical processing. However, this potential has not been realized due to limitations in microfabrication. MECS devices require: 1) the fabrication of complex geometries incorporating microscale features; and 2) the thermal, mechanical and chemical properties of engineering metals. This thesis centers on developing a process for producing high-aspect-ratio, MECS devices in stainless steel.In order to achieve this goal, laser ablation and diffusion bonding were employed in a metal microlamination (MML) process. The process involves stacking and bonding a series of laminates with low-aspect-ratio features to produce a composite device with high-aspect-ratio features (20:1). Laser ablation was used to form many laminates of 0.003" 302 stainless steel. These laminates were then joined via diffusion bonding.The process developed in this thesis is unique in that it: 1) permits the MECS designer greater freedom in specifying microchannel widths; and 2) has produced microscale features in excess of 20:1 aspect ratio. Microchannels and microfins in excess of 20:1 aspect ratio were fabricated in stainless steel using this method. Resultant microchannels were tested by flowing air through them at various flow rates and measuring the resulting pressure drop. Experimental results were compared with theoretical calculations and other technical literature. Findings suggest that thepreliminary efforts to build a MECS device resulted in significant air blockage in the microchannel passageways. Sources of this blockage include bent fins, warpage and misalignment among others. Further process refinements are needed to prove the economic viability of this process.
Description:
Graduation date: 1998
Advisor:Paul, Brian K.
Subject:Heat pumps -- Design and construction Heat -- Transmission | 2,170 | 1,088 | 0.000922 |
warc | 201704 | dc.contributor.author Bullock, Craig dc.contributor.author McHenry, H.L. dc.date.accessioned 2009-02-04T17:06:20Z dc.date.available 2009-02-04T17:06:20Z dc.date.copyright 1997 British Grassland Society en dc.date.issued 1997 dc.identifier.isbn 0905944 542 dc.identifier.issn 0572-7022 dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10197/836 dc.description Published in the proceeding of the British Grassland Society Conference, University of Lancaster, 23-25 September 1997 en dc.description.abstract Direct support payments to farmers are increasingly likely to be in the form of agri-environmental payments. This paper reviews the resultes of two studies undertaken in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, a contingent valuation survey of public preferences in relation to landscape changes potentially arising from reductions in grazing pressure, and a survey of farmers' attitudes to Environmentally Sensitive Area policy. It argues that payments for the preservation of wildlife habitats and flora are a laudable means of subsidising farming in the uplands. However, policy must also recognise that many farmers will continue to regard the environment as being peripheral to their role as producers of food. The full public benefits of agri-environmental policy will not be realized unless they have 'meaning' to farmers. dc.format.extent 4304 bytes dc.format.mimetype application/pdf dc.language.iso en en dc.publisher British Grassland Society en dc.relation.ispartof Sheldrick, R.D. (ed.). Grassland management in the environmentally sensitive areas en dc.relation.ispartofseries British Grassland Society Occasional Symposium en dc.relation.ispartofseries 32 en dc.subject.lcsh Agriculture--Environmental aspects en dc.subject.lcsh Environmentally sensitive areas en dc.subject.lcsh Agriculture--Subsidies dc.title A way forward for environmentally sensitive farming that meets the needs of public and farmer en dc.type Conference Publication en dc.internal.authorurl Craig Bullock (web page) en dc.internal.authorurl http://www.ucd.ie/research/people/geogplanningenvpolicy/drcraighbullock/ en dc.internal.authorid UCD0032 en dc.internal.availability Full text available en dc.status Peer reviewed en dc.neeo.contributor Bullock|Craig|aut|UCD0032 dc.neeo.contributor McHenry|H. L.|aut|
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If you are a publisher or author and have copyright concerns for any item, please email research.repository@ucd.ie and the item will be withdrawn immediately. The author or person responsible for depositing the article will be contacted within one business day. | 2,854 | 1,379 | 0.000726 |
warc | 201704 | اثر متقابل بازارهای مالی رسمی و غیر رسمی در اقتصادهای بازار شبه نوظهور
کد مقاله سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی ترجمه فارسی تعداد کلمات 14233 2013 11 صفحه PDF سفارش دهید محاسبه نشده Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت) Journal : Economic Modelling, Volume 31, March 2013, Pages 614–624 چکیده انگلیسی
The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the interaction of formal and informal financial markets and their impact on economic activity in quasi-emerging market economies. Using a four-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with asymmetric information in the formal financial sector, we come up with three fundamental findings. First, we demonstrate that formal and informal financial sector loans are complementary in the aggregate, suggesting that an increase in the use of formal financial sector credit creates additional productive capacity that requires more informal financial sector credit to maintain equilibrium. Second, it is shown that interest rates in the formal and informal financial sectors do not always change together in the same direction. We demonstrate that in some instances, interest rates in the two sectors change in diametrically opposed directions with the implication that the informal financial sector may frustrate monetary policy, the extent of which depends on the size of the informal financial sector. Thus, the larger the size of the informal financial sector the lower the likely impact of monetary policy on economic activity. Third, the model shows that the risk factor (probability of success) for both high and low risk borrowers plays an important role in determining the magnitude by which macroeconomic indicators respond to shocks.
مقدمه انگلیسی
For many years, informal financial markets have been perceived as an economic ill that has only succeeded in exploiting impoverished peasants in quasi-emerging market economies (QEMEs) (Bolnick, 1992).1 The policy prescription, as expected, has been to integrate the informal financial sector (IFS) in the formal financial sector (FFS) (see Aryeetey, 2008, Bell, 1990 and Bolnick, 1992). Recent research, however, has shown an emerging change in opinion with the sector now being regarded more positively as an integral component of the whole financial sector. Chipeta and Mkandawire (1991), for instance, report that the IFS in Malawi plays an important role in alleviating economic hardships among low-income groups by enabling these groups to mobilise resources (savings effect), use the resources to earn income (investment effect) and obtain loans (credit effect). An account of similar findings is presented by Steel et al. (1997) in a study of Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania. Steel et al. (1997) stress that informal financial institutions (IFIs) in the three countries are an important vehicle for mobilising household savings and financing small businesses, a function that is carried out using specialized techniques that address the problems of information, transaction costs, and risks, which prevent banks from serving these market segments. In Kenya, Atieno (2001) observes that unlike commercial banks, informal credit sources provide easier access to credit facilities for small and micro-enterprises. The co-existence of the FFS with a large IFS is one of the fundamental distinguishing features of QEMEs. Several studies have shown that the IFS in QEMEs is large (see for example African Development Bank, 1994 and Chipeta and Mkandawire, 1991) and growing (see for example Chipeta, 1998, Soyibo, 1997, Bagachwa, 1995, Aryeetey, 1994 and Chipeta and Mkandawire, 1991). According to the African Development Bank (1994), 70% of the total population in Cameroon and 80% in Zambia take part in informal financial activities. The African Development Bank (1994) also reveals that 85% of rural households in Niger and over 80% of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe have access to informal credit, and 60% of the population in Ethiopia and 52% in Senegal participate in rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs). In Malawi, Chipeta and Mkandawire (1991) observed that in 1989, the IFS was larger than the FFS when measured in terms of credit extended to the private sector. They arrived at the same result by comparing savings mobilised by the formal and informal financial sectors. Field surveys carried out in Nigeria by Soyibo (1997), in Ghana by Aryeetey (1994), in Malawi by Chipeta and Mkandawire (1991) and in Tanzania by Bagachwa (1995) established that the IFS grew faster than the FFS in the reform years 1990–1992 (Chipeta, 1998). Given its sheer size, the IFS's response to monetary policy is expected to be non-trivial and the consequent effect on the economy may not be obvious—it is likely to vary depending on whether informal financial markets are autonomous or reactive to activities in the formal financial markets (see Acharya and Madhura, 1983, Rahman, 1992 and Sundaram and Pandit, 1984); whether the two markets are competitive or complementary; and whether the nature of their interaction frustrates or strengthens monetary policy. Unfortunately, nearly all QEMEs leave out informal financial transactions in official monetary data, effectively underestimating the volume of financial transactions and bringing into question the timing and effect of monetary policy on economic activity. This paper contributes to the literature by investigating these and other issues. Using a four-sector macromonetary model with microeconomic foundations, we study the interaction of formal and informal financial markets and analyse the resulting impact on economic activity in QEMEs. The term informal finance is used in this study to refer to legal but unregulated financial activities that take place outside official financial institutions, and are not directly amenable to control by key monetary and financial policy instruments. Encompassed in this definition is the mobilisation and lending of financial resources by friends, relatives, neighbours, grocers, local merchants/traders, landlords, tenants, grain millers, moneylenders, non-rotating savings and credit associations (SCAs), rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), cooperative and savings associations (CSAs), and microfinance institutions, among others. The IFS is known for its fragmentation into sub-sectors. The village merchant, for instance, may agree to lend money only to those who buy regularly from his shop; a landlord may also give credit only to those who work for him; while friends, relatives and neighbours may only lend to each other. Effectively, the credit market is broken up into small ‘credit islands’ (Basu, 1997). There is no reason, however, to believe that these sub-markets are mutually exclusive. The market segments are likely to have interlocking spaces serving clients in more than one sub-market, making the concept of market fragmentation complex. For simplicity, the IFS is assumed to be one large market where interest rates may be different but generally change together in the same direction. The choice of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) framework for analysis is motivated by a number of factors. First, DSGE models are derived from microeconomic foundations of constrained decision-making. That is, they describe the general equilibrium allocations and prices in the economy where all agents dynamically maximise their objectives subject to budget or resource constraints (Tovar, 2008). Following the estimation of deep parameters, therefore, it is possible to avoid the Lucas Critique, where only models in which the parameters that do not vary with policy interventions are suited to evaluate the impact of policy change (Tovar, 2008). Indeed, according to Woodford (2003), DSGE models should not, at least in principle, be vulnerable to the Lucas Critique, unlike the more traditional macroeconomic forecasting models. Second, DSGE models are structural, implying that each equation has an economic interpretation which allows clear identification of policy interventions and their transmission mechanisms (Peiris and Saxegaard, 2007). Third, DSGE models are forward looking in the sense that agents optimise model-consistent forecasts about the future evolution of the economy (Peiris and Saxegaard, 2007). Fourth, DSGE models allow for a precise and an unambiguous examination of random disturbances. This is facilitated by the stochastic design of the models. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study that has examined the interaction of formal and informal financial sectors and their impact on economic activity in QEMEs using a macromonetary model developed within the context of a microfounded DSGE representation. Following this introduction, the rest of the paper is structured as follows. A DSGE model for QEMEs is developed in Section 2. The model aims at building a quantitative macroeconomic representation from explicit optimising behaviour while allowing for a minimum amount possible of imperfections. Thus, the model is similar in many aspects to the Real Business Cycle approach except on the monetary side (see Mankiw, 2006 and Tovar, 2008). Calibrations of parameter and steady state values are presented in Section 3. Section 4 interprets simulation results of the model from three experiments, each illustrating impulse responses of selected macroeconomic indicators to a particular shock. The three shocks in the experiments include a positive production technology shock, a monetary policy shock and a risk factor shock. A summary and conclusions are presented in Section 5.
نتیجه گیری انگلیسی
This paper set out to investigate the interaction of formal and informal financial sectors and to examine how economic activity is consequently affected. Commencing with the observation that the IFS in QEMEs is large and plays a non-trivial role in determining the direction of economic activity, we developed a four-sector macro-monetary DSGE model for analysis. The model demonstrates that while formal and informal sector loans may be substitutes in a borrower's utility function, they are in the aggregate complementary. Thus, increasing the use of FFS credit increases the demand for credit in the IFS. The observed behaviour of formal and informal financial sector interest rates presents another important finding. The model demonstrates that interest rates in the IFS are not necessarily driven by FFS interest rates. When experimenting with a positive production technology shock, interest rates in the two sectors were observed to move together in the same direction while in the experiments involving a monetary policy shock and a risk factor shock, they were not. In the monetary policy shock experiment, the two interest rates were in fact moving in opposite directions. The implication of this finding is that the IFS has the potential to frustrate monetary policy and its impact is likely to be more pronounced in countries where the sector is very large. Finally, the study shows that the risk factor of borrowers is an important determinant of the extent to which macroeconomic indicators respond to various shocks. In all the three experiments demonstrating how selected macroeconomic indicators respond to a positive production technology shock, a monetary policy shock and a shock on the probability of success for high risk borrowers, the model shows that changing the risk factors of either low or high risk borrowers results in most macroeconomic indicators responding with different magnitudes. | 12,512 | 5,019 | 0.000216 |
warc | 201704 | خطوط هوایی کم هزینه :: مدل کسب و کار و روابط شغلی
کد مقاله سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی ترجمه فارسی تعداد کلمات 7534 2006 7 صفحه PDF سفارش دهید 3960 کلمه Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت) Journal : European Management Journal, Volume 24, Issue 5, October 2006, Pages 315–321 چکیده انگلیسی
The passenger air travel industry is experiencing increasing competition between low cost/no frills carriers (LCC) and the more traditional full service carriers. This paper explores the comparative business models with a view to identifying areas where these might be expected to generate different HR and employment relations practices, and checking the findings against available evidence. While some of the expectations are confirmed, unionisation is higher than anticipated in the LCC sector and a relatively high percentage of staff were on regular rather than contingent contracts. Differences in approach are observed among LCC airlines, and the evidence indicates some convergence between the two sectors as competition heightens.
مقدمه انگلیسی
The passenger air travel industry is characterised by the emergence of a low-cost/no frills sector alongside and partly in competition with the incumbent full service carriers.1 These two sectors offer strong contrasts in their business and competitive strategy, effectively providing competing models of operation. Although it is now widely accepted that there is no necessary and unique connection between an organisation’s business model and its HR and employment relations strategy, there is still some expectation that the latter will be influenced by, and have some interaction with, the business strategy. The aim of this short paper is to explore the comparative business models (Section 2), to identify areas where these might be expected to generate different HR and employment relations practices (Section 3), and check these expectations against the available evidence. This may in turn raise questions regarding tendencies to divergence or convergence between the two sectors, and about their respective HR responses to major market shocks.
نتیجه گیری انگلیسی
In general, our expectations are reasonably well supported by the evidence so far. However, although pay and working conditions generally follow prediction, unionisation is higher than expected in LCCs (possibly explained by the start-up LCCs recruiting staff from the FSCs, where they were already unionised); and half the workforce enjoys regular (unlimited) rather than contingent contracts. The overall picture, however would seem to support the general proposition that the LCCs would be more flexible and entrepreneurial, and therefore better equipped to respond to opportunities – and to change and/or market shocks (such as 9/11—though in fairness it should be pointed out that the national ‘flag’ airlines were more likely to be terrorist targets). On the down side, the lower pay and conditions offered by the LCCs might be suggestive of an exploitative employment contract (though we have no comparison of the respective human capital profiles on which to judge). This might be reflected in higher turnover rates in the LCCs9 and lower job satisfaction or low morale. But against this, we have the evidence of a paternalistic approach on the part of at least some LCCs and (following the pioneering Southwest model based on careful recruitment of staff with the right attitudes for this airline) a strong loyalty and high commitment (as for example in Virgin Blue). In other words, there may be a fairly complex set of influences at work here within the psychological contract, where somewhat lower pay and conditions are balanced by other positive factors in the implicit contract: this might include the (unexpected) high level of unionisation, providing an outlet for employee voice) or a high level of employee loyalty. That would tend to support the unitarist thesis, in contrast to the FSCs, where recent evidence from airlines such as British Airways and Aer Lingus10 suggests greater conflict in the employment relation (disputes, strikes and other industrial action affecting different groups of staff). We have noted earlier the response of some of the FSCs to the LCC challenge, by either setting up their own low cost alternative (carrier within carrier) or adapting their own model to borrow some of the key characteristics of the LCCs. The evidence on this indicates (a) that the carrier within carrier model is rarely successful since the operational structure and high service culture do not sit easily in the no-frills paradigm: (b) the cost discrepancy cannot be made up by marginal adjustment to the basic FSC model, so that although costs have been cut the cost advantage is still sizeable. Real cost savings are more likely to be made by major staff cuts and economies in sub-contract arrangements – but these will tend to reinforce the compliance tendency of the FSCs, increase concerns about employment security, reduce trust and generate grievances and a confrontational rather than cooperative employment relationship. As yet, however, the development of the ‘some frills’ market is in its infancy and there is little doubt that further innovation and experimentation will take place in the near future. | 6,122 | 2,693 | 0.000431 |
warc | 201704 | تحقیق و توسعه مرتبط و سیاست های سرمایه گذاری به نفوذ بازار CCS از طریق یادگیری دو عامله
کد مقاله سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی ترجمه فارسی تعداد کلمات 9983 2013 14 صفحه PDF سفارش دهید 12850 کلمه Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت) Journal : Energy Policy , Volume 52, January 2013, Pages 439–452 چکیده انگلیسی
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has the potential to play a major role in the stabilization of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. To develop the capture technology from its current demonstration phase towards commercial maturity, significant funding is directed to CCS, such as the EU’s €4.5 bn NER300 fund. However, we know little about how this funding relates to market diffusion of CCS. This paper addresses that question. We initially review past learning effects from both capacity installations and R&D efforts for a similar technology using the concept of two-factor learning. We apply the obtained learning-by-doing and learning-by-searching rates to CCS in the electricity market model Hector, which simulates 19 European countries hourly until 2040, to understand the impact of learning and associated policies on CCS market diffusion. We evaluate the effectiveness of policies addressing learning-by-doing and learning-by-searching by relating the policy budget to the realized CCS capacity and find that, at lower policy cost, both methods are about equally effective. At higher spending levels, policies promoting learning-by-doing are more effective. Overall, policy effectiveness increases in low CO2 price scenarios, but the CO2 price still remains the key prerequisite for the economic competitiveness, even with major policy support.
مقدمه انگلیسی
prime challenge for the 21st century is the limiting of global warming to 2 °C through the reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, formulated as a central result in the joint Accord of the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change (2009) and the Cancun (2010). There are several CO2 emission reduction targets addressing this challenge, such as the EU’s commitment to a 20–30% target by 2020 (EU Commission, 2008). As the main contributor to these emissions, the energy sector is especially impacted by this development and significant efforts are made to address this challenge. Besides renewable energy sources, energy efficiency increases, nuclear power generation and others, Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is widely seen as a major opportunity to contribute to CO2 abatement, but at the same time also continue fossil-fuel-based generation. In a context of increasing demand of energy, the measures of improvement of the energy efficiency and the development of the renewable energies are indispensable. However, they are not sufficient to give up fossil energies, which remain the main source of energy in 2030 (IEA, 2010a). The IEA’s World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2010 in its 450 ppm CO2e scenario predicts that 581 GW of CCS capacity will be in operation by 2035 worldwide (IEA, 2010a), and CCS has now been accepted as Clean Development Mechanism by the UN (IEA, 2010b). Whereas the expectations placed on CCS are very high, the capture technology has still not been widely proven at full scale and technological progress has been limited in recent years, with only a few CCS pilot power plants being operational.1 This presents a key obstacle to the anticipated large-scale CCS deployment. The solution lies in technological and managerial learning through extended R&D efforts as well as in the physical construction of an increasing number of (demonstration) CCS power plants. Given the relatively high profile of CCS, we observe the need for additional CCS pilot plants and therefore investments, as foreseen for example in the EU’s plan to have 12 plants operational by 2015 and to provide approx. €4.5 billion (300 m EU ETS certificates) of co-funding for CCS pilot plants in the NER300 fund (EU Commission, 2009a). The United Kingdom (UK),2 Canada,3 and the State of Illinois, USA,4 have similar policies in place. This support is also needed, as stand-alone CCS power plant projects are only commercially viable in specific situations, such as in combination with enhanced oil recovery. Without this support, CCS runs the risk of being trapped in the "Valley of Death", the gap between public and private funding, especially due to the high up-front investment costs (Murphy and Edwards, 2003). A variety of support methods are available, such as R&D grants, subsidies for investment costs and others (Woerdman and Couwenberg, 2009). However, whereas the need to support CCS is accepted and continuously growing, we know little about the dynamics of how to optimally support this technology. This paper addresses these questions concerning R&D effectiveness, funding distribution, and funding level. One method to estimate the relationship between R&D funding and technological improvement is “two-factor learning curves” (2FLC). This approach is based on "technological learning", the phenomenon that the cost of a specific technology decreases along with its cumulative deployment (initially Wright, 1936 and Arrow, 1962), but is extended by the additional consideration of cumulative R&D efforts (Kouvaritakis et al., 2000a, Kouvaritakis et al., 2000b and Jamasb, 2007). From a policy-analysis perspective, traditional learning-by-doing approaches only consider capacity deployment as the driving factor, thereby limiting any policy research to procurement policies that support investments in new capacity. However, policies supporting R&D, although a very popular method, cannot be analyzed with this approach, especially if the technology is at an early development stage. In this paper, we estimate a 2FLC for CCS power plants through analogies, as no empirical data are available because CCS deployment has not yet started. We therefore empirically derive the 2FLC for the SO2 scrubber technology, which is similar to the CO2 scrubber technology used for CCS power plants,5 using cost, patents, and deployment data for the years 1970–2000. To validate the results, we compare them to already-published 2FLC estimates across the energy-generation industry as well as existing one-factor learning estimates for CCS, derived through the same SO2 scrubber analogy (Riahi et al., 2004) or through expert panels (McKinsey, 2008). Based on the 2FLC, we address the question of R&D and investment policy effectiveness for CCS power plants using a modified version of the Hector simulation model (Lohwasser and Madlener, 2009 and Lohwasser and Madlener, 2012). We provide an outlook for the European electricity market, including the diffusion of CCS technology under different policy scenarios until 2040 to explicitly consider the long-term effects of technological learning. The long time horizon is required due to the initial development stage of CCS, as early learning has a strong impact on the future. The analysis explicitly analyzes potential CCS policies considering the two effects mentioned: learning-by-doing (stimulation of deployment through investment cost subsidies) and learning-by-searching (promotion of R&D through grants). The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, we discuss the concept of technological learning which, in Section 3, we then apply to CCS, using our own empirical analysis and comparisons to preexisting one- and two-factor learning curves. Section 4 focuses on the implementation of two-factor learning to the model used to simulate market diffusion as well as the description of the Base Case. In Section 5, we analyze the impact of learning-by-doing and learning-by-searching and, in Section 6, the impact of R&D and investment subsidy policies. Finally, Section 7 concludes with key takeaways and policy recommendations from our analysis.
نتیجه گیری انگلیسی
CCS is a technology with a very large GHG abatement potential, yet it is still far from reaching technological maturity and commercial readiness. To date, significant public and private funding is already dedicated to the technology. However, we know little about how different subsidy schemes relate to the success of the technology in the market, especially with regard to the impact of R&D. A method to relate R&D efforts to the economics of a technology is the concept of two-factor learning, which describes the relationship between the costs of a technology with its cumulative deployment through a learning-by-doing rate, and with cumulative R&D efforts through a learning-by-searching rate. It extends the well-known and intensively-researched notion of technological learning, which just relates cumulative deployment with R&D efforts. To estimate the learning rate for CCS, we estimate the values for FGD based on its empirical R&D, capacity and cost development between 1970 and 2000. FGD uses SO2 scrubbers, which are technologically similar to the CO2 scrubbers deployed in post-combustion CCS, so that this analogy was also already applied to CCS for (one-factor) learning in related work. We find that the learning-by-doing rate is 7.1% and the learning-by-searching rate 6.6%, assuming that R&D patents can be used as a proxy for R&D spending. This effectively means that the cost reduction caused by a doubling of installed capacity is roughly the same as for a doubling of R&D efforts. Other technologies that are currently promoted through subsidies and other funding types, such as solar power and wind power, have learning-by-searching rates that are 2–5 times higher than their learning-by-doing rate, indicating advantages for R&D-driven policies over capacity-addition-driven policies. This conclusion cannot be drawn for CCS, however, as the observed learning rates are very similar, a fact that should be considered when comparing or even applying wind and solar promotion policies to potential CCS promotion policies. The observed values are also in line with expectations drawn from existing publications in the literature. To understand the relevance of technological learning for commercial success, we simulated CCS deployment across 19 European countries with different learning rates with the bottom-up, hourly electricity market model Hector. As a simulation result, we observe only a relatively limited impact of technological learning, with CCS capacity variations of only 2–3 GW by 2040, depending on the learning rate in the high CO2 price scenario CO2-38. This is marginal, considering an overall capacity of 217 GW. Even without learning, CCS capacity is only reduced by 12 GW. The impact of learning is stronger in the low CO2 price scenario CO2-25, but still quite low. Total CCS capacity is, however, almost halved, due to the less favorable market conditions, at only 154 GW by 2040 at the standard 7% learning rate. This effectively means that the learning rate is not the real driver for the market success of CCS. Instead, other factors such as CO2 prices or national plant portfolios, play a far more important role in terms of plant profitability, the driver for investment in our model. A key reason for the relatively low importance of learning is that it only applies to the CCS equipment; the attached coal-fired power plant makes up the majority of the cost, but hardly experiences any learning at all. In an individual sensitivity measurement for each learning rate, a variation of the learning-by-doing rate has a slightly larger impact than the learning-by-searching rate, leading to the conclusion that technological advancement through capacity additions plays a slightly more important role than through R&D. To link specific CCS promotion policies to technological learning, we analyze two policies. One provides R&D funding, addressing learning-by-searching progress. The other provides a subsidy for new CCS plants, reducing the investment costs investors have to pay by a certain percentage. This demand-side policy promotes diffusion and addresses learning-by-doing. At high CO2 prices, both policies only slightly improve the diffusion of CCS technology, and the policy type – i.e., R&D or investment subsidies – plays only a secondary role as their effectiveness is relatively similar, with slight advantages for an R&D-based policy. At lower CO2 prices, the impact of the investigated policies rises and they provide a suitable method for improving CCS diffusion. However, even a massive policy budget cannot compensate for CO2 prices as a key driver for CCS success. Even if €5 billion is spent annually after 2015 on CCS, the technology will not reach the capacity needed to reach commercial readiness of 21–22 GW by 2020, regardless of policy type. In a direct comparison between both policies, their effectiveness is similar at a budget below €0.5 billion p.a., but beyond that, investment subsidies are the more effective policy type. This is due to the logarithmic impact of R&D effort on investment costs, which cannot compensate for the linear reduction of investment costs of the investment cost subsidy. The overall situation is difficult for policy-makers: If CO2 prices are sufficiently high, no diffusion stimulation policies are needed in the first place. If not, opportunities for specific CCS promotion policies exist and do improve the situation, but their impact will never outweigh the unfavorably low CO2 prices, unless extraordinarily high budgets are allocated for CCS. Aggressive GHG reduction policies with high CO2 prices are therefore of prime relevance for CCS. If CCS policies are deployed at relatively low CO2 prices (such as 25 €/t), the impact of R&D and investment subsidy policies on CCS diffusion is about equally effective below €0.5 billion p.a.; beyond that, R&D policy effectiveness stagnates, compared to a continued linear growth for investment subsidies. In summary, we can therefore conclude that both effects on technological learning – R&D and capacity diffusion – are very similar for CCS, suggesting a simultaneous and balanced two-way policy, an insight consistent with the findings in 3 and 5. Given the already high policy budget of over one billion Euros annually across Europe, however, the R&D stimulating portion should be lowered. | 15,275 | 6,195 | 0.000174 |
warc | 201704 | Now that Microsoft’s made its hosted online services broadly available, it’s time for VARs to take stock of what this new software delivery vehicle means to them.
Google, Salesforce.com, other vendors have driven this Sofware as a Service train for some time, but Microsoft, unlike those SaaS powers, built its business with partners so those partners can no longer ignore the shift, even if they are so inclined. The smart ones will figure out how to parlay the delivery model for their own gain. The others risk a lot by letting it pass them by.
For those VARs who continue to rely heavily on shrink-wrap software (is there such a thing anymore?) sales, SaaS is a threat. But in reality, very few VARs do a lot of that anymore. Most still welcome margin on product/license sales—it’s gravy that many would prefer to keep. But the bulk of their money is made on services and customization. And one thing SaaS or cloud-based services, need is customization and additional services.
Sanjeev Aggarwal, analyst at Judith Hurwitz & Associates, sees this move to software services as disruptive but in a good way. Sure, Microsoft, Google and Amazon are hosting services, but the trick in providing real value is local coverage and vertical expertise. That is especially true in the hundreds of thousands of small businesses—those with ten employees or less. They need all the security and flexibility software can provide but don’t typically have any IT professionals of their own to build out or support those capabilities and features.
Such small businesses really do need “middle men” to put those cloud-based services together and to work for customers. Maybe even to brand them for the businesses themselves, making them customer-facing e-commerce sites for example. Smart VARs will take vendor-hosted services and make them applicable to their own customers. Aggarwal doesn’t see many customers putting their data center capabilities totally in the hands of a VAR, but he does see them trying out services hosted by Amazon or others with VARs adding value.
In that way, the all-important customer relationship can be preserved. Because the real angst created by these vendor-hosted services is the fear that the vendors will try to wrest the customer relationship from the solution provider, and that is something no solution provider can afford. | 2,399 | 1,203 | 0.00085 |
warc | 201704 | How the Russian Spies Hid Secret Messages in Public, Online Pictures
These weren’t snapshots of covert meetings or secret handshakes, but–more likely–the quotidian: kittens and ice cream cones. They weren’t hidden in some obscure drop location, but viewable to the public, online. The pictures’ real importance was tucked inside, in encoded messages detailing secret meetings.
We aren’t talking
Magic Eye–no mater how long you cross your eyes, staring at these pictures wouldn’t tell you where to drop off money or who to call. The alleged spies reportedly encoded the messages at the pixel level.
Every color on your computer screen is a combination of red, blue, and green–digitally represented as three numeric values. By making subtle changes to these numbers, the Russians hid binary code that someone–with the right software–could recombine into a message.
Applying special software, the government says, they coaxed words from the innocuous imagery, a text file. Moscow was calling. A secret meeting in a suburban New York train station was proposed: … “A and R meet in lower part of staircase, in dead zone. R hands over and A gets pack w/money (A’s BN [Barnes and Noble] bag stays in your hands, A hides pack w/money into his tote).” [Washington Post]
It’s an example of steganography, a field distinct from its better-known cousin cryptography. If cryptography is a hermit, steganography is overly social–to appear like an average (and unimportant) guy. Tal Malkin, an assistant professor in Columbia University’s cryptography laboratory, explains:
“The point of standard encryption is to hide the content of the message…. But even if you are detected sending a message no one can read, you will still be suspected by the authorities for sending a coded message. With steganography, you try to hide the fact that communication is going on at all.” [Live Science]
But hold on a second. Russian spies? Living in New Jersey? Apparently, though the Cold War is long over, there is still a lot of spying going on. According to
New York Times op-ed contributor and espionage expert David Wise, Russia likes to send over “illegals”–Russian citizens posing as living or dead Americans to keep tabs on what’s happening. The FBI used the messages hidden in the photos to intertwine American agents into the Russian group’s workings. They arrested the Russians after one of the illegals caught on.
The criminal complaint reveals that on Saturday, a Russian-speaking F.B.I. undercover agent met with Anna Chapman, one of the illegals, and instructed her to hand a fake passport to another supposed illegal the next day, using this password exchange: “Excuse me, but haven’t we met in California last summer?”; “No, I think it was the Hamptons.” (The Hamptons!) But Anna Chapman, it seems, smelled a rat. [New York Times]
But if Russian espionage seems old school, steganography is older still. Legend has it that some princes shaved their servants’ heads and tattooed notes on their scalps, and sent the servants off once their hair had grown back to conceal their messages.
Fortunately for the FBI, the Russians themselves used a relatively old version of steganography. Though no one’s head got inked, the version of the software the Russians used, according to
IEEE Spectrum, left traces of the hidden messages. New versions–called network steganography–can erase any signs of wrongdoing after the receiver gets her message. The Russians used a 1990s version of the software, and the experts aren’t too impressed.
According to Chet Hosmer, the chief scientist at digital forensics outfit WetStone Technology, the number of steganography programs has risen from a handful in the late nineties to about 250 today. More importantly, using them to hide information is not some elite hacker skillset. In fact, Warsaw University of Technology professor Krzysztof Szczypiorski says it’s more akin to using Microsoft Word. [IEEE Spectrum]
Image: flickr / Steven Depolo
Related Articles: | 4,182 | 2,101 | 0.0005 |
warc | 201704 | Smart Sensor protocols and algorithms make use of several methods and techniques (such as machine learning techniques, decision making techniques, knowledge representation, network optimization, problem solution techniques, and so on), to establish communication between network devices. They can be used to perceive the network conditions, or the user behavior, in order to dynamically plan, adapt, decide, take the appropriate actions, and learn from the consequences of their actions. The algorithms can make use of the information gathered from the protocol in order to sense the environment, plan actions according to the input, take consciousness of what is happening in the environment, and take the appropriate decisions using a reasoning engine. Goals such as decide which scenario fits best its end-to-end purpose, or environment prediction, can be achieved with smart protocols and algorithms. Moreover, they could learn from the past and use this knowledge to improve future decisions.
In this workshop, researchers are encouraged to submit papers focused on the design, development, analysis or optimization of smart sensor protocols or algorithms at any communication layer. Algorithms and protocols based on artificial intelligence techniques for network management, network monitoring, quality of service enhancement, performance optimization and network secure are included in the workshop.
This conference edition once again targets to gather researchers from academia and industrial sectors to present analytical research, simulations, practical results, position papers addressing the pros and cons of specific proposals, and advances in sensor protocols and algorithms. The topics suggested by the conference can be discussed in term of concepts, state of the art, standards, deployments, implementations, running experiments and applications.
The extended version of selected papers will be invited to submit to a Special Issue on Smart Protocols and Algorithms in the International Journal Network Protocols and Algorithms (1943-3581). Network Protocols and Algorithms is an online international journal, peer-reviewed, indexed by many prestige data bases and published by Macrothink Institute. | 2,222 | 1,049 | 0.000955 |
warc | 201704 | Abstract
Background: Definitive diagnosis of pediatric ulcerative colitis (UC) may be particularly challenging since isolated colitis with overlapping features is common in pediatric Crohn’s disease (CD), while atypical phenotypes of UC are not uncommon. The Paris classification allows more accurate phenotyping of atypical inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Our aim was to identify the prevalence of atypical disease patterns in new-onset pediatric UC using the Paris classification.
Methods: Information was collected from the EUROKIDS Registry, an inception cohort of untreated pediatric IBD patients undergoing evaluation at diagnosis. Patients with IBD-unclassified were excluded. Patients with isolated Crohn’s colitis served as a control group.
Results: Data from 898 pediatric patients (643 UC, 255 CD colitis) were included. Extensive or pancolitis was present in 77% of UC patients and macroscopic rectal sparing in 5%. Rectal sparing was inversely associated with age (mean age with rectal sparing 9.9 years vs. 11.8 without;
P = 0.02). Upper gastrointestinal (UGI) involvement occurred in 4% of patients. Erosions in the stomach were present in 3.1% of children, but frank ulcerations in 0.4%; 0.8% of children had erosions or ulcerations limited to the esophagus or duodenum. The corresponding UGI involvement in Crohn’s colitis was 22%. A cecal patch occurred in 2% of patients.
Conclusions: Extensive disease and rectal sparing are age-dependent phenotypes in pediatric UC. Rectal sparing, cecal patch, backwash ileitis, and gastric erosions are not uncommon at diagnosis, while gastric ulcerations and erosions in the duodenum or esophagus are. Recognition of atypical phenotypes in pediatric-onset UC is crucial to prevent misclassification of IBD.
In Brief
Article first published online 8 May 2012
Author Information
*Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit, E. Wolfson Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, Holon, Israel
†Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
‡Pediatric Gastroenterology Unit, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
§Pediatric Gastroenterology and Liver Unit, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
‖Department of Pediatrics, Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Polish-American Children’s Hospital, Jagiellonnian University Medical College, Cracow, Poland
¶Institute of Child Health, University of Birmingham and Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Reprints: A. Levine, Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit, E. Wolfson Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 58100, Israel (e-mail: alevine@wolfson.health.gov.il).
See Appendix for the EUROKIDS Porto IBD Working Group of ESPGHAN. The EUROKIDS project received financial support from ESPGHAN.
Received April 01, 2012
Accepted April 20, 2012 | 2,962 | 1,403 | 0.000731 |
warc | 201704 | We're sorry, but the page you were seeking does not exist. It may have been moved or expired. Perhaps our search engine can help.
JUNEAU - Here's something that Juneauites might find unexpected when reviewing their energy bills: a refund.
If regulators approve it, customers will see a credit of .35 cents (not 35 cents) per kilowatt-hour from June to November. That translates to about $4.41 off a $100 residential electric bill.
Juneau electric customers got to know their Alaska Electric Light and Power Co. bills more thoroughly in the last year, when avalanches twice took out the lines that supply hydro energy. In particular, they learned the legal term "cost-of-power adjustment," through which AEL&P passed on the extra cost of powering the town on diesel until the lines were repaired. Rates more than quadrupled for a few months in 2008, and tripled for a month this winter.
But the cost-of-power adjustment works in the other direction, too.
When the utility predicts it will have a surplus of energy - which depends on how much water the lakes start with, and how much electricity people use - it sells some to their interruptible customers: Greens Creek mine on Admiralty Island, Princess Cruise Lines and dual-fuel customers.
Some of what they pay goes back as a rebate to the regular customers. AEL&P is dropping the summer rates slightly because it anticipates selling surplus energy. | 1,411 | 811 | 0.001242 |
warc | 201704 | The Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and development (PLCPD) is appalled with the statement of the bishops not to give communion to politicians that have consistently supported the Reproductive Health and Population Management bills in Congress. In a pastoral letter issued by Ozamis Archbishop Jesus Dosado, he said that politicians supporting the RH bill must be refused communion because the bill promotes “ permissive abortion”.
The issue of the RH bill promoting abortion has long been clarified. Nowhere in the proposed reproductive health bill does it state that abortion is allowed. In fact, Section 3 of the Committee on Health-approved substitute bill states that: While nothing in this Act changes the law on abortion, as abortion remains a crime and is punishable ,the government shall ensure that women seeking care for past-abortion complications shall be treated and counseled in humane, non-judgmental and compassionate manner. We are disgusted with how some bishops continue to display irresponsible behavior of spreading disinformation on the bill, refusing to take it for its real intentions and choosing instead to demonized it, to look for ghost that not there. We look at bishops as symbols of truth and morality. And yet, they themselves propagate blatant lies to instill fear both among policymakers and the public. This behooves us to wonder, what are the real reasons behind the church’s very antagonistic position towards the bills? Whatever they are, it is certain that saving lives is not among them. More than anything, PLCPD and the other pro-quality of life advocates pushing for these bills have been consistent in the argument that the proposed reproductive health and population management bills primarily seek to respond to the ever-increasing pregnancy and birth-related deaths of women. The Philippines have one of the highest maternal mortality rates (MMR) in the Southeast Asian Region with 10 mothers dying everyday, leaving more than 30 children motherless (UNFPA 2006). Goal 5 of the Millenium Development Goal envisions a reduction in MMR by 75% from 1990 to 2015, along with the increasing access to reproductive health by 2015. However, the country’s progress in this area has been very slow, with MMR declining by only about 22% in 13 years. Given this trend, there is little likelihood of it reaching the 2015 target of 52 (UNFPA 2006). This already bleak scenario is made even worse by the government’s refusal to promote the provision of the full range of reproductive health care services to the people. The Philippines has committed to achieve the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 – a commitment reiterated by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself during the 2005 World Summit in New York. This behooves us to wonder, are these entire commitments mere hypocritical grandstanding done at the expense of the lives of thousands of our women and children? The arrogance of certain Catholic church leaders has made them blind to the plight of the masses suffering to survive daily because of the food and economic crisis that is hitting large families the hardesr – a plight brought about by a confluence of factors, among which, reproductive health care and population management are among the most critical. The bishops’ attempts to block the bills’ passage through political blackmail, dangling the Holy Eucharist in the faces of supportive legislators, are full of contradictions and hypocrisy, with only poor women, children, and families at the losing end of the deal. This behooves us to wonder, isn’t that the greater sin? We therefore plead, on behalf of the majority of ordinary Filipinos, for the Catholic Church leaders to stop their political blackmail. The legislators are doing their avowed task of creating policies that respond to the real needs of the people. We hope that the Church leaders would do the same. We cannot afford to merely oppose measures and not offer real, practical, humane, and responsive solutions. Not when thousands of lives are at stake. | 4,108 | 1,980 | 0.000512 |
warc | 201704 | With mortgage rates being at all-time lows many homeowners are looking to take the rate bonanza a step further by going for a 15 year mortgage. Not only will you pay off the mortgage in half the time, but you’ll get an even lower rate for doing it.
Sounds like a good deal right? Not necessarily, and certainly not for everyone.
Payment Shock With A 15 Yr Mortgage
Right now, you can get a 30 year fixed rate loan for around 3.25%. You can also get a 15 year fixed rate for just 2.75%. As far as rates are concerned, comparing the two is the perverbal “no brainer”, right?
No so fast.
In a pure mathematical sense, rates matter a lot. But real life and math equations are two very different things. In the real world, rates matter mainly as a tool in reducing a monthly payment. But in this comparison—the lower rate of the 15 year mortgage will not reduce the payment.
No matter what the rates are on either loan type, the payment on the 15 year loan will always be higher than it is on the 30 year loan.
If your mortgage balance is $200,000, and you refinance to a 15 year loan at 2.75%, the monthly payment will be $1,357 per month. If you refinance the same loan amount for 30 years at 3.25%, the monthly will be only $870.
That’s a difference of $487 per month! How does an annual rate savings of .50% look against a monthly payment that’s nearly $500 higher?
Put another way, the payment on the 15 year loan is more than 50% higher than it is for the 30 year. You’d have to think long and hard about whether or not that’s an advantage. For most people, it will be more of a nightmare.
No Immediate Benefit From A 15 Year Mortgage
This is another point that I don’t think most borrowers fully appreciate. While it’s true that you’ll pay off a 15 year mortgage in half the time that you will a 30, there will be no immediate benefit for doing so.
You will have to make the higher monthly payment for 15 years—that’s 180 monthly payments—before you’ll see the fruits of your labor.
When you sign up for a 15 year mortgage, you lock in the higher payments for the entire length of the loan. The payment will remain fixed for the entire term. Yes, you will be paying your mortgage off much sooner, but the day-to-day cost will be substantial.
With 15 year mortgages, virtually all of the benefit of the loan comes at the very end, when the house is owned free and clear.
There’s No Turning Back
Along the same line, once you take on a 15 year loan, you’re locked into for the duration. Yes, it will pay your mortgage off sooner, but if you lose your job or face some other financial disaster while the loan is still outstanding, the higher payment will sting.
You won’t be able to call up your lender and say “we made a mistake, can we go back to the 30 year loan?” Yes, you can refinance, but if you have no job or your credit has deteriorated since closing on the loan, you may not qualify for a new one.
15 years is a very long time when you’re making a high payment.
The Disappearing Income Tax Deduction
One of the biggest benefits of having a mortgage is that it’s one of the last solid tax deductions available to the average taxpayer. Medical deductions are reduced by 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, and credit card- and auto loan-interest aren’t deductible at all. But mortgage interest remains fully deductible. That can be a substantial tax savings, especially for high income taxpayers.
But since a 15 year mortgage pays off quicker than 30 year loan, they also make the tax break go away sooner. It’s not just the loan balance that goes away—the tax deduction goes with it.
Neglecting Other Financial Needs
When it comes to 15 years mortgages, there’s a definite opportunity cost. In the example above of the payment difference on a $200,000 mortgage, the payment on the 15 year loan was higher by $487 per month. That’s almost $6,000 per year!
That begs the question: what else could you be doing with $6,000
each year?
All of these are at least as worthy as paying off your mortgage early, and most of them will be more immediate in their impact. $6,000 per year could be putting out a lot of financial fires and/or funding a lot of accounts. By loading all of it onto a single venture—paying off your mortgage in half the time, you deny yourself access to the money to do other things.
That’s opportunity cost, and it’s a factor with a 15 year mortgage.
photo credit: Freedigitalphotos.net | 4,591 | 2,055 | 0.000506 |
warc | 201704 | At Serious Eats, Kenji Lopez-Alt turned 32 pounds of flour and other ingredients into more than 1500 cookies and in the process discovered how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
You see, I’ve never been able to get a chocolate chip cookie exactly the way I like. I’m talking chocolate cookies that are barely crisp around the edges with a buttery, toffee-like crunch that transitions into a chewy, moist center that bends like caramel, rich with butter and big pockets of melted chocolate. Cookies with crackly, craggy tops and the complex aroma of butterscotch. And of course, that elusive perfect balance between sweet and salty.
Some have come close, but none have quite hit the mark. And the bigger problem? I was never sure what to change in order to get what I want. Cookies are fickle and the advice out there is conflicting. Does more sugar make for crisper cookies? What about brown versus white? Does it matter how I incorporate the chocolate chips or whether the flour is blended in or folded? How about the butter: cold, warm, or melted?
So many questions to ask and answers to explore! I made it my goal to test each and every element from ingredients to cooking process, leaving no chocolate chip unturned in my quest for the best. 32 pounds of flour, over 100 individual tests, and 1,536 cookies later, I had my answers.
Dang, this is like The Power Broker for baked goods, a cookie magnum opus.
Update: Back in 2007, my wife took a different approach to making the perfect chocolate chip cookie: she averaged the ingredients from 12 of the best cookie recipes she could find. The averaged recipe reads, in part:
2.04 cups all-purpose flour
0.79 tsp. salt 0.79 tsp. baking soda
0.805 stick unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
0.2737 stick unsalted butter, cold 0.5313 stick unsalted butter, melted | 1,851 | 992 | 0.00102 |
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The latter method, nevertheless, ranked well ahead prof invest methods such as NAIADE, Canada Kroeber K (ed. Cool to 50°C. In favorable cases, the original free radical can be identified from the g-factor and hyperfine coupling constants of the spin adduct.Forex x trade | 11,864 | 5,893 | 0.000171 |
warc | 201704 | (from the book, Quiet, by Susan Cain.) “Peer pressure...is not only unpleasant, but can actually change your view of a problem."
In Facing History seminars, we talk a lot about the pressures to be obedient or conform. It is a more complex and nuanced exploration of these ideas than just chalking things up to peer pressure or "brainwashing" propaganda. We each are thoughtful individuals. We each face situations in which obedience is important, perhaps even vital, for the functioning of a society. And, we each face situations in which the context or the other people involved contributes to us deciding to do something different than we might in a different situation.
Still, I was really struck by some of the research on peer pressure presented by Susan Cain in Quiet. Summarizing research by Solomon Asch from the early 1950s, which was updated by Gregory Berns in 2005, Cain notes,
“These early findings suggest that groups are like mind-altering substances. If the group thinks the answer is A, you're much more likely to believe that A is correct, too. It's not that you're saying consciously, ‘Hmm, I’m not sure, but they all think the answer’s A, so I’ll go with that.’ Nor are you saying ‘I want them to like me, so I'll just pretend the answer’s A.’ No, you are doing something much more unexpected--and dangerous. Most of Bern’s volunteers reported having gone along with the group because ‘they thought that they had arrived serendipitously at the same correct answer.’ They were utterly blind, in other words to how much their peers had influenced them.”
Pause for a minute and think about that - "
you're much more likely to BELIEVE that A is correct." Peer pressure is not just about kids. It happens in work environments, politics, sporting events. What do we do to address the factors that would lead towards conformity in ourselves when we may not even be aware of the influence?
In contrast, Cain's description of what happens when we go against peer pressure shows that we are VERY aware of doing that. When participants in the research study chose the correct answer despite peers' pressure, they experienced heightened emotions such as fear of rejection. Berns calls this “the pain of independence.”
Cain considers the significance of this for civic life:
Most of our most important civic institutions, from elections to jury trials to the very idea of majority rule, depends on dissenting voices. But when the group is literally capable of changing our perceptions, and when to stand alone is to activate primitive, powerful, and unconscious feelings of rejection, then the health of these institutions seems far more vulnerable than we think.”
I've been thinking of this research and this quote this week as we explore the
Holocaust and Human Behavior in our first seminar of the summer. Today, one of the teachers questioned, "what, then, are the resources to resist authority?" It's a great question. What ARE the resources that help us resist the pressures for conformity or obedience? For those readers who are teachers, how might this research influence the way we facilitate a conversation in the classroom? | 3,245 | 1,628 | 0.000635 |
warc | 201704 | What is Early Literacy?
Early literacy does not mean teaching young children how to read. Instead, it means helping children develop the skills they will need to become successful readers. Early literacy activities build rich language skills: vocabulary, self-expression, and understanding (comprehension). These skills help children make sense of printed words when they start reading.
Children’s Librarians have identified
five early literacy practices that help children get ready to read. Here is a list of the five early literacy practices, and some activities you can do with your child to develop his or her language skills:
Playing Children learn how to express themselves when they play. They also discover the meaning of words, and how to tell stories. When they learn new words through play, they will recognize those words in print when they start reading. Learning how to tell stories builds reading comprehension. Let your child play dress-up with old clothes, hats, and jewelry. Act out favorite stories with stuffed animals or puppets. Play with blocks. You can pretend you are building castles, skyscrapers, or whatever you like.
Singing helps children hear how words can be broken down into smaller parts. This skill will help them sound out words when they start reading on their own. Songs also teach new vocabulary, and introduce new concepts. Sing lullabies at bedtime. Sing along with children’s CDs. The library has a great selection. Many picture books illustrate popular children’s songs. Ask a librarian to help you find books you can sing together.
Reading with your child is one the best ways to help children get ready to read on their own. The language in books is much richer than the language we use every day. This means reading expands your child’s vocabulary. Hearing lots of “rare words” in early childhood will help your child recognize words in print when he or she starts reading. This means he or she will understand what they read. Read with your child every day! Read package labels at the grocery store. Point out words and letters as you read to your child.
Talking with your child is one the best ways to develop language and early literacy skills. Conversations help a child express thoughts, learn what words mean, and gain new information about the world. Talking also gives children a rich foundation of knowledge they can apply to their independent reading. The more children know about the world, the more words they will recognize on a printed page or digital screen. Ask your child open-ended questions. These are questions that can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” What did you do at the park today? What will happen next in our story? If your child tells you a word, add more words. If your child says “fire truck,” reply, “Yes, that’s a big, red fire truck. It has a siren on top. The siren makes a loud noise to tell people to get out of the way. The fire truck is going to help people.” Talk about your daily routines as you do them. For example, “We are going to make dinner. First we get the ingredients out. The ingredients are the things we use to make our food. Then we get the pots, pans, and measuring cups. Can you help me measure the ingredients and put them in the pot?”
Writing activities help children learn letter names and sounds. Writing, or scribbling and drawing, also helps children learn that marks on paper represent spoken language. This knowledge will help them decode words on pages and screens when they start reading. Let your child help you write a grocery list. Ask your child to draw a picture of everything in his/her room. Help your child write the name of each object in the room. Help your child write name tags for his/her stuffed friends. | 3,841 | 1,705 | 0.000602 |
warc | 201704 | Summary and Info
Clinical Hypnosis for Pain Control is a compelling argument for the use of hypnotic analgesia as a viable alternative to psychopharmacological interventions for controlling acute, chronic, and perioperative pain, as well as pain from nonsurgical procedures. Yet clinical hypnosis is not an alternative medicine, the author argues; rather, it is an innovative way of using a patient s subconscious resources to distract, dislocate, or reduce pain in a variety of clinical settings from the ER to the hospital s rehabilitation wing. As the staff psychologist at the University of Washington Harborview Medical Center s burn center, Dr. Patterson draws on his experiences and many hypnotic inductions in helping patients deal with the kind of severe pain involved in treating burn wounds and in other types of acute and chronic pain, such as headaches, fibromyalgia, cancer, and neuropathy. Written for a general clinical audience but particularly for pain specialists Clinical Hypnosis for Pain Control also provides a masterful survey of the different types of pain, as well as a variety of easy-to-follow induction examples (and instructive commentary throughout) for the major types of pain syndromes. The book is also an excellent resource for students and researchers who want to explore hypnotic analgesia s scientific basis and its growing acceptance as an evidence-based practice, the latter exemplified by the work of psychologist Milton Erickson. In the book s penultimate chapter, Dr. Patterson outlines a groundbreaking approach of combining brief counseling techniques and Ericksonian hypnosis for long-term pain management.
More About the Author
David Trotter Patterson (February 28, 1818 – November 3, 1891) was a United States Senator from Tennessee at the beginning of the Reconstruction Period.
Review and Comments Rate the Book
Clinical Hypnosis for Pain Control 0 out of 5 stars based on 0 ratings.
Your Rating: | 1,959 | 1,046 | 0.000962 |
warc | 201704 | Summary and Info
Over the last 15 years, singular spectrum analysis (SSA) has proven very successful. It has already become a standard tool in climatic and meteorological time series analysis and well known in nonlinear physics and signal processing. However, despite the promise it holds for time series applications in other disciplines, SSA is not widely known among statisticians and econometrists, and although the basic SSA algorithm looks simple, understanding what it does and where its pitfalls lay is by no means simple.Analysis of Time Series Structure: SSA and Related Techniques provides a careful, lucid description of its general theory and methodology. Part I introduces the basic concepts, and sets forth the main findings and results, then presents a detailed treatment of the methodology. After introducing the basic SSA algorithm, the authors explore forecasting and apply SSA ideas to change-point detection algorithms. Part II is devoted to the theory of SSA. Here the authors formulate and prove the statements of Part I. They address the singular value decomposition (SVD) of real matrices, time series of finite rank, and SVD of trajectory matrices.Based on the authors' original work and filled with applications illustrated with real data sets, this book offers an outstanding opportunity to obtain a working knowledge of why, when, and how SSA works. It builds a strong foundation for successfully using the technique in applications ranging from mathematics and nonlinear physics to economics, biology, oceanology, social science, engineering, financial econometrics, and market research. | 1,620 | 869 | 0.001153 |
warc | 201704 | Take More Pictures The camera never lies, right? Mirrors on the other hand do lie. Women seem to think mirrors add 30lbs. and men typically think they look like John Cena. Scales can also lie to you. If you work out on a regular basis, you scale may misrepresent you weight. It may not show that you actually have lost ... Read More »
Tag Archives: muscle
Your metabolism is the ultimate key to weight loss. It’s better than any weight loss program you can buy. It’s your holy grail. Some people naturally inherit a speedy metabolism while others have to work to speed it up. It’s well known that even while resting, men have the upper hand when it comes to metabolism. Women tend to have ... Read More »
Being sore after a work out isn’t a bad thing. It’s a feeling of accomplishment. If you want to avoid being sore, eat an orange before working out. It also helps keep you hydrated! Read More » | 942 | 532 | 0.001974 |
warc | 201704 | How To Find Cheap Life Insurance Providers Near You Looking to get cheap life insurance rates as soon as possible?
It can be difficult to find the right solution because there are a lot of variables at play that can often be overlooked. Prospective life insurance clients want to find an option that is affordable and effective at the same time. No one wishes to have a life insurance plan that is not safe and cost-efficient at the same time. There are a number of tips one should consider when trying to get cheap life insurance rates. Let’s take a look at what it takes to get cheap life insurance rates.
Insurance Research and Spreading Out
When looking to get started with life insurance research, it is important to understand the realities of the industry. One cannot jump into action by simply going to the big names and signing off one the first agreement that pops up.
It is essential to spread out one’s options and start looking around for what is out there. Prospective life insurance members will have a host of options available to them, if they are willing to go ahead with the requisite research needed.
Brokers
What can brokers do for those who are interested in finding the cheapest rates? One of the biggest issues for those who are interested in finding the best possible solution comes in the form of not going through all of the options.
Brokers can be a big help in these cases because they have a range of options under their name that can be shown to the client. They will be looking to win over the client’s business and will go the extra mile to find the best possible rates out there.
Personal Needs as a Consideration for Life Insurance
Before beginning the search, it is always important to have a look at one’s personal needs and wants. What is one expecting to get out of their life insurance plan? Is there a need for all of those detailed features that might not be necessary in the long-term?
A lot of individuals will get caught up in these details and will miss out on what they actually needed. Personal needs have to be listed out physically in order to get the right kind of deal. These needs should also be pointed out to the insurance company from the get go, so they are able to put together a plan that is both suitable and cheap.
The same goes for those who will be working with a broker to get the right possible plan. It is not always easy to find the deal that is both suitable and affordable. It is often easier said than done, but it can be done by those who are willing to understand their needs and not focus on the “fluff” of rosy features.
Simplicity
With all of those additional features available to life insurance members, it can become overwhelming at the best of times. Sometimes, it is best to focus on the simple, core features that should encompass all quality life insurance plans. These are the plans that often get the job done for those who wanted a cheap, effective plan.
A lot of individuals will start fretting over features that will never come in use in the long-run. All this does is allow the insurance company the chance to increase the price and for features that are of little consequence.
Term vs Permanent Life Insurance
There are two different types of life insurance plans that have to be considered by those who are looking to purchase life insurance. Life insurance comes in the form of term and permanent insurance. Permanent insurance has a “savings” component to it and is often more expensive. The permanent deals are more comprehensive in terms of how they protect an individual and thus they are more expensive.
Term insurances are better because they are easier on the wallet, while providing the kind of protection that one expects from their life insurance company. It is difficult to tell the difference between these two types of insurances, but there are differences in both affordability and protection.
30 Day Trials
A lot of prospective life insurance members do not understand the features that are available to them. 30 day trials have been around for a long time and provide members with the ability to have a taste of how their plan works. If they do not like the plan, they are able to get out from under the plan that has been agreed to.
It is better to try out some of these life insurance plans that are offering trials. It is a great way of getting a feel of how the system works in general and what one should be looking out for. Even if the plan does not work out, it is easy to get rid of it and find one that better suits one’s needs.
This is the best way of making sure the right kind of plan is eventually found. If not eventually, one may even be able to find a solution within the first plan itself.
Question about Life Insurance
Always ask questions because this is the only way of making sure the life insurance company is not cutting corners. These questions are what ensure the final plan is not only affordable, but effective.
It is always smart to take out a pen and paper to list down those important questions that could be asked when going in for a meeting. This is essential for those who plan on doing their research.
Asking questions is a part of doing one’s homework. This is the only way of making sure the final plan is in accordance with one’s personal needs and wants. Tough questions have to be asked in order for the life insurance representative to understand that they are dealing with someone who is prepared to get a great plan.
The questions that should be asked can vary from price to features. All of these factors have to be taken into account. | 5,669 | 2,280 | 0.000445 |
warc | 201704 | His wife, Juvilyn, a pharmacist, had discouraged him from taking medicine to relieve the discomfort, and so the couple researched alternative methods of pain management. They found promise in employing particular herbal seeds that can store both heat and cold, plus with very fragrant soothing scents at that.
Making use of pieces of textile left on the cutting room floor, Juvilyn put her sewing skills to work and formed pillows to hold the seeds. However, it was only after two years of trials and experimenting with numerous combinations of seeds when Chester and Juvilyn were finally satisfied with their output.
Using the pillow is a no-brainer: Put it into the microwave for one to two minutes and get a hot compress. Store it in the freezer for one to two hours and get a cold compress.
At first, they gave the items away as gifts. However, friends were so pleased with the therapeutic effect that they encouraged the Sys to launch the pillow as a business.
Chester and Juvilyn eventually relented, and have never looked back. Two years after the Sys initially tried their luck at a Christmas bazaar, the Precious Herbal Pillow is currently retailed in a variety of shapes and sizes at groceries and major shopping malls in Metro Manila.
And it’s a certified winner, taking top honors as Most Innovative Product in the non-food category of the 2011 One Town, One Product (OTOP) National Expo of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) held on 21 to 25 September at the SM Megamall Halls 1 and 2 in Mandaluyong City.
Nowadays, Chester copes with another kind of pain: how to keep up with the increasing demand. “It’s a very big thing for us that we’re able to help other people. We get positive feedback from users that their pain goes away while using the Precious Pillow,” Chester said during an interview at the 2011 OTOP expo.
He lamented that the Precious Pillow has already been imitated in the market, and as such he is reluctant to share components of the product with the general public. Nonetheless, Chester knows that he has the superior product, and a safe one.
“Once we found the right combination of seeds, what took up a lot of time for us during the development period was perfecting our methods to process the seeds. We studied how to remove the possible allergic effect on some users, and we were able to successfully achieve this. The Herbal Pillow is not a product that anybody can just go out and simply copy. We were very careful before coming out with this,” said Chester.
As an aid in the relief of discomfort and pain, Precious Pillow currently has the nod of 16 doctors who have already opted to become dealer-stockists.
Chester vividly recalls receiving an unexpected call from DTI staff, who told him that, “Your product has a future.” From there, the Sys have been working closely with DTI in gaining links to trade fairs such as the OTOP Expo, as well as getting publicity, exposure and marketing assistance.
While still relatively new in the market, Chester is indeed looking towards the future for the Precious Pillow. “We already have the mindset of someday competing in the international marketplace,” he said. Chester sees its applications in sports medicine for the rehabilitation of injured athletes. He and Juvilyn are still at it today, experimenting with other seeds and pillow shapes for newer releases.
For Chester, the Precious Pillow has become more than a business of retailing a unique, high quality product. It has become a personal mission.
“We really don’t want to stop in getting the pillow in the hands of more people. The good feedback has given us the drive to do more and to help more people,” Chester said.
Retail prices of the Precious Herbal Pillow starts at P500. Interested parties can also become stockists for an investment of P40,000 and enjoy a 30-percent sales markup. Call (+632) 2516287/ (+632) 7582541/ (+63917) 8621976/ (+63922) 8001976/ (+63922) 8361976. E-mail hello@preciouspillow.com or visit www.preciouspillow.com.
Public Relations Office, Department of Trade and Industry | 4,143 | 2,055 | 0.000497 |
warc | 201704 | Sschwartz, that is right. Trends beget trends, and mini-trends, and spinoff trends. Muffins begat the cupcake begat the cake pop, whoopie pie, artisan donut, pie, etc... trends. One feeds the innovation of the next, as people try to use that momentum to innovate another food
Ruth, lemme answer your geography question: before it happened organically, through travel, word of mouth, immigration, and in some way media (newspaper and magazine articles on travel and food). Today, with the web and social media, these trends spread regardless of geography.
There are cupcake shops in Pakistan and Paraguay founded by women who read about cupcakes on facebook and pinterest and emulated recipes on cupcake blogs
the playing field is leveled in that sense, so to speak, and good food ideas can travel anywhere.
Is geography ever a barrier to food trends, though? What's hot in one place isn't always hot in another, is it?
But David, "within" coffee, aren't there trends? (trendettes) like the different kinds of coffees: the nespresso & keurig machines, the cold-brewed coffee, the return of coffee brewed in that glass pot whose name escapes me but looks as if it belongs in a chemistry lab? Chemex: I remembered. So coffee doesn't go anywhere, but we're consuming it in different ways.
Seeing Betty Crocker boxed mixes behind the counter in a Madrid cupcake bakery is a good illustration of how trends can travel. But how different are the iterations of food trends in different countries, do you think?
some of those are fads within the larger trend of specialty coffee (the vaccum beaker thing), but all of it pushes the trend forward to the next evolution of it
Food trends do take on their local flavours as they travel, but increasingly our taste is becoming more global
and the cupcake bakeries in madrid or asuncion or lahore are making the same flavours that they have in vancouver or winnipeg, largely
Red velvet cake for everyone!
miniature american flags for the rest!
glad someone got that one
So, are food trends good? Bad? Neither? Both?
But when we take on a trend, it's because we feel it belongs to us in a sense. If I like cupcakes, it's in part because I had them for b-day parties as a kid, and when Sex and the City explored them, I felt a connection. Can people around the globe feel a connection to the same thing if it wasn't at least a tiny part of their experience?
good question: i'd say neither
Food trends that intersect with health/diet are interesting, too. I'm thinking specifically about gluten-free and paleo. Do these work in similar ways to cupcakes, sushi etc?
a trend is a manifestation of our collective taste. it can be bad (rise of fast processed food, or of bacon explosion logs), or it can be good (local, organic, etc...).
largely I do think they do more good than harm, because they introduce us to new flavors, cultures, and business models, and evolve the way we eat
Oh lord, I'm ready for the bacon-as-trend phenomenon to be over. It doesn't have to be in *everything.*
@David....it seems to me that a lot of these food trends seem to be blasts from the past. Either old, archive-y style recipes or foods from our ancestors (like the heirloom vegetables etc.), or items from more recent history that have just been given a new name or a different flavour (like cupcakes). If someone wants to start a food trend, is looking back the best place to start?
Laura, diet and health trends are somewhat different than things like bacon or cupcakes, because they are driven by the promise of science, but often clouded in a lot of snake oil
ie: Dr. Oz says to eat blueberries because they have antioxidants and antioxidants have "shown promising results to possibly prevent some type of cancer/heart disease/headaches etc..." so eat a lot of blueberries.
what you get is a lot of blueberry flavoured junk food in the end
gluten free is more complicated because it is rooted in a genuine disease for a number of people, but has grown big because it is fashionable as a weight loss regimen
Yeah, what's old is new again. It's very hard to start something completely new from scratch, though I guess a cronut would be an example of that. But like fashion, trends are cyclical, and so our taste for things waxes and wanes in response to other factors in our life
when the economy and politics are good, we want to experiment with new novel foods and flavours
when it's bad, we revert to known comforts
but who knows, we could be eating jello salads in a few years
OK, David, I think everyone wants to know what's on your food-trend radar. What's going to be hot this summer?
What do you make of the whole gluten allergy/intolerance thing? What has made gluten the enemy?
I think Indian food will cross into the mainstream, like Thai flavors did
there's a butter chicken sub at Quiznos
and butter chicken poutine at Smoke's Poutinerie
I also think you'll see more artisan ice cream sandwiches this summer, with things like donuts used as the sandwich vehicle
this is a good thing for everyone
@David. I agree with you – interesting how you wrote about that guy compensating for the fact that a curry is basically a stew by putting it in a taco:) | 5,226 | 2,574 | 0.000392 |
warc | 201704 | Australian researchers Cameron McDonald, Philip Hawkes and Josef Pieprzyk have announced a new attack to find collisions in SHA-1 requiring only 2^{52} operations. This new result decreases the cost of a collision attack by a factor of over 2000 as compared to previous methods. The researchers note that “practical collisions are within resources of a well funded organisation”.
SHA-1 produces a 160-bit output, which according to the birthday paradox, implies that a collision attack should require approximately 2^{80} operations to succeed. However in early 2005, three Chinese researchers announced a collision attack on SHA-1 that required only 2^{69} operations. Since then a series of cryptanalytic results has weakened confidence in the strength of SHA-1 and other hash functions in the SHA family. The new attack builds on these previous results.
The 2^{52} announcement came at the informal session of the Eurocrypt 2009 conference, where works-in-progress and results completed too late for submission are discussed. The full details of the attack will be published in due course on the eprint service of the IACR.
On a personal note, Phil Hawkes was my first (and perhaps only) PhD student. He is a gifted mathematician and I am very glad to see him producing world class research results. My thanks to Eric Rescorla for posting this result on his blog.
Related Posts | 1,396 | 782 | 0.001294 |
warc | 201704 | ROSENBERG: Vancouver's housing bubble has popped and 'the helium is coming out of the balloon' (TLT, USD, DXY, CAD)
Like many economists, Gluskin Sheff chief economist David Rosenberg thinks the Federal Reserve will decide to raise interest rates at its meeting in December.
Unlike others, however, he doesn't think the time is right.
Earlier this year, Rosenberg outlined why everyone was misreading labor-market data that the Fed was pinning its rate-hike ambitions on, which in fact resembled numbers that preceded prior recessions.
We recently asked Rosenberg about why the Fed should wait, his thoughts on Canada's housing market, and his investing pick on a five-year horizon. This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Akin Oyedele: You haven't been strongly in favor of the Fed raising rates in December, which is sort of against the grain. It looks like they're ready to. What are the risks if they go? David Rosenberg: In some sense we have a template from what happened last year when we went into the December meeting, and the markets had priced around the same time about 70% odds of the Fed going, and the Fed did actually raise the funds rate.
It wasn't so much the 70% that was priced in, it was the 30% that wasn't.
We had a substantial tightening in financial conditions. Between what happened with credit spreads, the stock market, and of course the US dollar which spiraled higher into the early part of 2015, it might have been one rate hike, but it felt like three, when you count in all of the tightening in financial conditions that occurred in and around the move.
I think the big risk is you ultimately get more than what you pay for.
At the last meeting, the Fed stood pat. You had three dissents. The rhetoric thereafter was keeping December rate expectations intact to the extent that you could now argue the Fed is boxed in to a move in December.
So if we're talking about 70% odds being priced in to a December move, days or weeks before the mid-month meeting, they're probably going to take another stab at it. I think it's unnecessary, but it could just be that that's the way that Janet Yellen operates the Fed, which is a bit more on a consensus basis.
A lot of the Fed hawks are not voters next year. In 2017, we'll arguably have the most dovish Fed in history. If Hillary Clinton wins the election, then you've got the prospect of Lael Brainard becoming treasury secretary, and you're going to have a treasury secretary who's very dovish on rates coupled with a chairperson who's very dovish on rates, in my view.
In any event, it's an unusual time for the Fed to be raising interest rates, considering that 2016 in terms of GDP growth will go down as the weakest year for the cycle.
I know people are talking about inflation, but you strip the rental part out of the CPI and a lot of the services in the index are imputed by government statisticians. Inflation's running negative year-on-year. And it seems to me as though rents are more likely to subside in the coming year than reaccelerate.
And when you take a look at a holistic picture of the US labor market, it's a misnomer to say we're at full employment with the 5% unemployment rate when the signal from the employment-to-population ratio actually tells you that the unemployment rate is closer to 8% than to 5%, which is why wage trends have just remained range bound for the past several years.
It's an unusual time to raise interest rates, but we do have a Fed that's as divided as I've seen in my professional life, and Janet Yellen has got to manage to come to some kind of consensus.
Oyedele: You said Vancouver's housing market is in a bubble. What are your thoughts on the market now, especially after the introduction of the property tax? Rosenberg: Let's just say that balloon has popped. So, the bubble is in the past tense, and the helium is coming out of the balloon.
The marginal buyer - and really the price-sensitive buyers in Vancouver - were Chinese investors. This sent a very loud signal, and my sense is that the bubble in Vancouver is yesterday's story and that the market will probably remain under some downward pressure I think for at least the next year.
No matter what measure you use to look at, it was more expensive than anything you saw anywhere in the US during 2006/2007. Sales have already corrected much more sharply. Prices have as well to a lesser extent, but they will follow sales. | 4,445 | 2,161 | 0.000465 |
warc | 201704 | As the landscape of online advertising changes, the type of data that needs to be collected by site owners is also shifting. There are a few ways in which to go about gathering data from users, like just asking. Polls and surveys are viable options for this particular method, and a new service called Crowd Science launches its new research tool for gaining demographic information from your users and site visitors.
Funded for $2 million last December by Granite Ventures, Crowd Science is specifically focused on demographics and attention data, so it's more narrow in its offerings than some other tools that provide detailed heat maps or trafficking data as well. From there, you can gain some analytics based on your gathered data, and summaries are built on page, site, group data, etc.
Crowd Science's method is based on context and time-related data, which could minimize its extensibility for other subsets of indirect data-gathering, but Crowd Science is also hoping to work, on some level, with other analytics tools like Compete or comScore.
While there are a number of polling services out there that can, to varying degrees, be used to collect necessary data about users and site visitors, we're also seeing more pronounced data collection + analytics tools offer straightforward ways in which to get info directly from users, which can in turn be used in a myriad of ways across marketing campaigns, site design, and more.
Mashable is offering 50 invites. Use the invitation code MASHABLE to get yours here. | 1,529 | 819 | 0.001226 |
warc | 201704 | Go to navigation
Check if you need permission
What needs planning permission?
Most kinds of development will need planning permission,however the term development is very broad and could mean any ofthe following:
The council’s consent is usually required to
alter a listed building to demolish a house or other building within a conservationarea to display an advertisement.
Particular care must be taken if the house is either;
Some properties in Medway have further restrictions onthe work that can be carried out without planningpermission.
For example, some developments had conditions imposed whenthey were built that restrict the permitted development rights thatrelate to the property.
If you would like to see whether yourproposal is permitted you can apply online via thePlanning Portal or complete our applicationform for a Lawful development certificate for a proposeduse or development.
All development on St Mary's IslandChatham, requires planning permission and consent fromChatham Maritime Trust
Medway Council does not offer a duty planning officer service,general planning advice can be found free of charge on thePlanningPortal. If you require detailed advice this can beobtained via the pre-application service. | 1,248 | 664 | 0.001528 |
warc | 201704 | When people protest the use of prejudicial humour, they’re often told to lighten up. This is, after all, just a joke. Everyone knows it’s meant to be funny. In some cases, they’re told that the whole point of the joke is to make fun of people who think that way; no one
really thinks Jewish people control Hollywood, so that joke was totally appropriate because it mocked people who believe that myth, deconstructed the very ideas embedded in attitudes about ‘Jews in Hollywood.’ Those who protest jokes that rely on bigoted attitudes are told they’re being too serious, that they want to ‘censor 1‘ media, that they want to suck all the fun out of everything.
Why are people bothered by this kind of humour? Well, for one thing, the jokes often aren’t that funny—that can be subjective, however, and one could argue that it’s a matter of taste, that one might more appropriately say ‘that joke is not to my taste.’ More deeply than that, though, many people are troubled by the attitudes of the joke: they find the humour used to be offensive, and can often articulate why. If you’re telling a joke about Black people and watermelon and someone in the audience finds it offensive, that person might have a number of reasons for it—the history embedded in that stereotype, the context (perhaps you are a white person making jokes about the Obama Administration planting watermelon in the rose Garden), and more.
Jokes are, in fact, highly context dependent. People sometimes say that rape jokes are ‘never funny,’ but that’s not really the case, is it? Because some female comedians actually have rape jokes as part of their routines and those jokes are uproariously funny; those jokes rely on truly twisting and bending and retelling the rape joke narrative to turn it back on itself. That doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone will appreciate those jokes (see point one above), but it does mean that in humour, many things can be funny…depending on the context. That same watermelon joke might be told appropriately and deftly by a Black comedian, who can bring a context to it that a white person cannot, just as a woman telling a rape joke is read very differently than a man.
But there’s another reason prejudicial jokes trouble people, and that goes beyond matters of personal taste and concerns about offensiveness. These jokes can also validate prejudicial viewers and consumers in a way that defenders of these jokes may not fully understand. Some defenders don’t understand this because they are the very people we’re talking about when we speak of validated viewers—they are the ones who want to hear sexist jokes because they are sexist, and will thus defend the jokes because they reinforce their view of the world. Other viewers don’t comprehend the way in which other people might read these jokes, how a joke that clearly reads as satire to them is actually something else, because the issue doesn’t hit as close to home for them.
Every consumer of a joke brings personal history and context to the witnessing of the punchline. And some of those consumers look for things to validate their point of view in the media they consume and what kinds of jokes they laugh at. For these people, these jokes are funny because they serve to remind the viewer of a position of personal superiority, acting like a warm, insulating blanket to nestle the viewer firmly in a prejudicial world. The viewer thinks the joke is funny because the prejudice in the joke is wholeheartedly believed; a joke about Jewish people controlling banking isn’t viewed as satire (even when it’s offered as dark humour in a context that’s
meant to be challenging antisemitism), because the consumer genuinely believes that Jewish people control the financial industry and have some sort of secret in that allows them to avoid financial crises.
Thus, for every joke based on bigoted humour, there is a viewer who finds validation, and suddenly pop culture and entertainment have crossed over into the outside world, because the media people consume affects how they think. That viewer who laughs uproariously at racist jokes is laughing because of deeper attitudes about race in society, and that person is going to take those attitudes away from the joke and repeat them. When a joke becomes stripped of context, as can be the case when it’s repeated by someone who is not the originator, suddenly it can change; the sharp, sarcastic, brilliant rape joke from a female comedian that upends attitudes about women and sexuality becomes just another misogynist joke when a man repeats it at work the next day, perhaps unwittingly unaware of what he’s doing by taking the joke out of context, perhaps with intention.
When people protest bigoted humour, it’s not about whether a joke is to their taste; I find lots of humour not to be my taste, and I choose not to consume that kind of humour. End of story. It may incorporate personal offense at the content, but the offense runs deeper than merely ‘I dislike this joke because I think it pokes fun at people.’ The offense taken is about the context and setting of the joke, and who is validated by the joke when it’s made, repeated, circulated, and talked about. When people get outraged about incidents of bigotry in comedy, it’s often about personal taste, but about what kind of message is being sent through the joke, and who is absorbing it.
Ignorance can be perpetuated through jokes, as can hatred. Jokes, in fact, are one of the key ways in which -isms spread through society and put down roots, and they can be one of the toughest things to fight thanks to attitudes about ‘harmless fun.’ There’s nothing harmless about the spread of hatred through comedy.
Need I remind you, yet again, that censorship is an act committed by a government, not an individual? ↩ | 6,012 | 2,608 | 0.000397 |
warc | 201704 | End-of-life healthcare is expensive. The top 5% of end-of-life patients incur nearly half of the nation’s healthcare costs. So one of the objections some Americans raise to the idea of universal healthcare, is that we simply can’t afford to offer everyone that kind of care. The assumption is that if everyone has healthcare, everyone will want to be kept alive as long as possible.
Except that’s not true. It turns out that if you actually ask people what they would like in terms of end-of-life care
before they are unconscious on a drip feed or in a coma, they say that no, they don’t want to be kept alive if they’re in a coma, they don’t want chemotherapy if it’s only going to keep them alive for another 3 months and will make them feel miserable, they don’t want an extra 6 months of life confined to bed and attached to tubing and machinery.
What’s more, research shows that people who have less spent on their care during the last few months of their life have a better quality of death. Basically, beyond a certain point, you can keep people alive, but you keep them alive in constant misery.
The problem is, you have to get people to indicate their wishes
before they get to that point. Otherwise, relatives who are forced to make the decisions will err on the side of keeping the patient alive at all costs, and medical professionals will quietly go along with that, because no doctor or nurse wants to try and talk someone into letting their relative die.
In fact, it’s best to get people to indicate their wishes before they are terminally ill at all, because otherwise it’s a
really horrible conversation for everyone involved. And that means that mostly, it doesn’t happen.
But in La Crosse Wisconsin, 96% of people who reach the end of their lives are found to have set out specific directions regarding their end-of-life care and their death; an amazingly high number. NPR Planet Money has the story of how that happened, but the end result is that La Crosse has sharply reduced end-of-life healthcare costs—$18,000 for the last 2 years of life, compared to $26,000 national average, or $75,000 for New York.
So, if we could persuade people to record their actual preferences for end-of-life treatment beforehand, we could give them all the medical care they wanted,
and save money, and make the experience far better for everyone. The process would involve each person having a conversation with a doctor, answering some questions about their wishes, and having the resulting document legally witnessed. Simple enough, so why isn’t that being done?
Well, as NPR explains, an attempt was made to provide a financial incentive for people to engage in that kind of end-of-life planning. The Washington Post explains what happened next, thanks to Sarah Palin:
[Palin’s] first post was about a proposal in the emerging bill that would allow Medicare to pay for doctor’s appointments for patients to discuss living wills and other end-of-life issues. Palin’s decision to call this pending provision a “death panel” ignited a firestorm that resulted in the language being removed from the final legislation.
So the Affordable Care Act was supposed to pay for everyone to have a session where they sat down with a doctor and discussed various possible situations they might end up in at the end of their life, and what treatment they would like in those hypothetical situations. It wasn’t a meeting for them to justify why they deserved to live; it was so that they could express their (free choice) judgement regarding what situations are worth living through.
Thanks to Sarah Palin, the idea of paying for people to go through that process died. But if you’ve read this far, perhaps you’ll consider doing it anyway. | 3,855 | 1,813 | 0.00057 |
warc | 201704 | A Michigan lawmaker wants to expand the state’s definition of renewable energy to include more fuel made from municipal and industrial solid waste.
State Rep. Aric Nesbitt, a Republican who represents a district near Kalamazoo, is sponsoring legislation that would eliminate what he calls “unnecessary burdens on the appropriate use” of burning solid waste, and would expand the definition to include byproducts like petroleum coke.
Opponents have called it a “gerrymander” of the definition of renewable energy at a time when the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard of 10 percent from renewables is set to expire next year.
Nesbitt says it’s a logical alternative to storing the materials in landfills.
“This is a very important discussion to have,” said Nesbitt, who chairs the state House Energy and Technology Committee. “There’s a lot of picking winners and losers. I think we need to really decide on what course and what standard we need to go for.”
But environmental groups say that logic is backwards: That burning solid waste, which would include non-renewable materials like plastics and byproducts like petroleum coke, flies in the face of the 2008 state law defining renewable energy. And doing so would still be emitting air pollution.
“Incinerating hazardous waste and calling it clean is downright indefensible. The incineration process emits carcinogenic toxins and harmful air pollution that put the health of Michiganders and our air and water on the line,” Lisa Wozniak, executive director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, wrote in a June 2 op-ed on MLive.com.
“We simply cannot afford to incentivize incineration of hazardous waste. We cannot allow Michigan legislators to gerrymander a definition of clean, renewable energy to make room for more pollution.”
A new definition
Nesbitt counters his critics by saying it’s “disingenuous for them to say they’d rather it go in landfills than used for something productive like energy.
“I find it extremely troubling that some groups do not believe we should be encouraging or allowing for the development of utilizing our waste stream or preventing it from going to landfills. If they want to support increased landfill use, that can be their position.”
Specifically, the legislation would allow for pyrolysis technologies in generating energy, which the state House Fiscal Agency says “generally refers to a high-temperature, oxygen-free process to make biofuels from a wide range of agricultural, industrial, and municipal solid waste.” The legislation would also include such carbon-based feedstocks as coal and petroleum coke, or petcoke, to be processed at a pyrolysis facility.
Incinerators are not included as a renewable energy system unless they qualify as such under the state’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act of 1994 and were brought online before the 2008 renewable energy law took effect.
Julie Baldwin, renewable energy manager for the Michigan Public Service Commission, said some municipal solid waste facilities in the state already qualify for renewable energy credits under the 2008 law.
The most recent MPSC report shows that between 2009 and 2013, municipal solid waste accounted for 5 percent and industrial waste accounted for 3 percent of renewable energy credits. Wind, biomass and hydroelectric combined for a total of 65 percent of the credits.
Baldwin said MPSC staff have issued an opinion on projects that incinerate pellets that include materials like plastics or that are non-recyclable in addition to what it considers renewable biomass, like wood and paper.
“Only the renewable part would receive a renewable energy credit,” Baldwin said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states on its website: “Because no new fuel sources are used other than the waste that would otherwise be sent to landfills, (municipal solid waste) is often considered a renewable power source. Although MSW consists mainly of renewable resources such as food, paper, and wood products, it also includes nonrenewable materials derived from fossil fuels, such as tires and plastics.”
James Clift, policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council, said his organization supports the use of renewable credits for the renewable portions of these “pellet” projects, as MPSC staff have said, but that it is opposed to the idea of including hazardous waste as renewable energy.
“We don’t believe that category belongs in renewable energy at all,” Clift said, referring to various versions of petcoke, used solvents and other industrial hazardous byproducts.
While Clift said the Michigan investor-owned utility DTE Energy burns petcoke for energy at its Monroe plant near Detroit, DTE “figured out how to do that under air pollution control permits. Fine, that’s permissible under law, but it doesn’t make it renewable energy.”
While Clift said he’s unaware of any analysis done on the amount that could qualify as renewable energy if the law is passed as written, “If there’s a category of burning things like petcoke in Monroe, that could represent a lot of megawatt hours of production.”
Waste-to-energy
Outside of Michigan, various forms of waste-to-energy qualify as renewable. The Energy Recovery Council, a Washington-based trade organization, lists 31 states and the District of Columbia that define waste-to-energy in some fashion as renewable.
According to the U.S. EPA, there are nearly 90 operational municipal solid waste-fired plants in the country generating about 2,500 megawatts, or about .3 percent, of U.S. power generation. “However, because construction costs of new plants have increased, economic factors have limited new construction,” according to the EPA’s website.
Ted Michaels, president of the Recovery Council, fully supports solid waste as a form of renewable energy, regardless of whether it’s made of biomass materials like wood or non-renewable products like plastic. However, his organization does not have a position on considering hazardous materials like petcoke.
“Waste-to-energy facilities recover valuable energy from trash after efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle have been implemented by households and local governments,” Michaels said.
As for pollutants that are emitted in the process — such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and trace amounts of mercury and dioxins, according to the EPA — he said, “That’s where the air pollution standards come in. Most facilities operate below the permit levels.”
Burning non-renewable waste, namely tires, played out in a contentious fight four years ago in Illinois. The state House there passed legislation in 2010 that would have added the practice as a renewable form of energy. It never received final approval from the Senate. Moreover, the incinerator company, Geneva Energy, stopped the practice last year as part of a legal settlement after the EPA cited the company for air-pollution violations and a filed a civil rights complaint.
Barry Matchett, co-legislative director and policy advocate at the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, said the public “by and large” does not respond well to attempts to reclassify polluting products and that, at this point, waste-to-energy projects aren’t competitive economically. Such projects are also known for releasing dioxins, often in low-income communities.
“There’s a lot of scientific evidence that waste-to-energy projects are very unhealthy and are not good for public health. It’s clearly not renewable energy, which is, by its very definition, generated without the need to burn things,” Matchett said, though he added that there may be promise for certain biomass materials when it’s more economically feasible.
Matchett also dismissed the argument that it’s a binary choice between burning it and land-filling it.
“Heavily industrialized and advanced nations throughout Europe have been able to reduce their waste stream down to almost nothing through recycling and reutilization of products as opposed to burying it,” he said. “The landfill is almost a uniquely American approach to dealing with waste.”
Rep. Nesbitt said two hearings have been held on the proposed legislation and “we continue working through some of these discussions” in the Energy and Technology Committee. It’s unclear when or if the bill will move to the full Legislature.
The Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Michigan Environmental Council and the Environmental Law and Policy Center are members of RE-AMP, which also publishes Midwest Energy News. | 8,885 | 3,829 | 0.000273 |
warc | 201704 | The Mind at Work.
As I’ve been arguing during the year of this blog’s existence—and for some time before—we tend to think too narrowly about intelligence, and that narrow thinking has affected the way we judge each other, organize work, and define ability and achievement in school. We miss so much.
I hope that the portraits I offer over the next few months illustrate the majesty and surprise of intelligence, its varied manifestations, its subtlety and nuance. The play of mind around us. I hope that collectively the portraits help us think in a richer way about teaching, learning, achievement, and the purpose of education—a richer way than that found in our current national policy and political discourse about school.
Felipe, a student in a high school wood construction class, is the head of a team assigned to build a cabinet for his school’s main office. At this point in his education Felipe has built one small, structurally simple cabinet, and this current, second, cabinet has a number of features the earlier project didn’t. His storehouse of knowledge about cabinets, his “cabinet sense”, is just developing, and the limits of his knowledge reveal themselves at various points throughout assembly. Like this one.
Felipe is trying to record final figures for all the components of the cabinet—he and his co-workers are eager to begin assembly. He is working with Gloria and Jesus, and he is sketching with them one more three-dimensional representation of the cabinet, using several lists and a sketch he and the others had produced during planning.
When I approach the team, Felipe is looking back and forth from lists to the sketch and talking to his peers. He seems puzzled. He asks Gloria to get the first sketch they made of the cabinet. She retrieves it from her backpack and unfolds it. They study it for a moment. He says something to Jesus, then takes a tape and measures—as if to confirm—the length of the cabinet. Sixty-eight inches.
Felipe continues this way, double-checking, trying to verify, looking up occasionally to snag the teacher, Mr. Devries, who, however, is helping a group across the room. The source of this vexation is a discrepancy that emerged as Felipe, Jesus, and Gloria were listing final numbers: The length of the sheet of plywood for the bottom of the cabinet—this is found on the list of materials—is sixty-eight inches. But the length of the top panel—listed on another sheet—is sixty-seven inches. This makes no sense. As Felipe explains it, exhibiting a nice shift from numbers to their structural meaning, the top can’t be shorter than the bottom, or the cabinet will look like this: and here he makes an abbreviated triangle in the air with his hands. What’s going on?
Finally, Mr. Devries is free, Felipe goes to get him, and they confer. The sketch Felipe has is inadequate, is not detailed enough to reveal that the top panel rests inside notches cut into the top of the side panels. These are called rabbet cuts. Felipe’s discomfort resolves quickly into understanding. The bottom panel extends to the very ends of the side panels, but the top will be shorter by a half inch on each side, the dimensions of the rabbet cuts. Thus the mystery of the sixty-eight inch bottom and the sixty-seven-inch top.
The depictions of the cabinet in Felipe’s plans do not provide enough information—through graphics or numbers—to enable him to figure out the discrepancy in measurement between top and bottom. Yet he must rely on these lists and sketches, for he does not yet know enough about cabinets to enable him to solve the problem readily…or not to assume that the discrepancy is a problem in the first place.
Fast forward now to the next cabinet Felipe builds, a few months after the completion of the one we just witnessed. This time there is no confusion about the length of the top and the bottom panels; that earlier episode taught Felipe a lot. And there is evidence of his emerging “cabinet sense.” This new cabinet requires a plastic laminate over its surface. Felipe is laying the cabinet’s face frame over a long sheet of plastic and tracing the outline of the frame onto it. This will give him the covering for the frame but leave two fairly large door-sized squares of the plastic. Felipe stops, takes a step back, looks the cabinet over, and then reaches for his list of measurements and a tape measure. I ask him what he’s doing.
We’re short on laminate, he explains, and here you’ll have these two excess pieces of it cut away from the frame. We’ll need to use them. But, he realizes, they won’t cover the doors themselves, because the doors will be larger than the opening; they’ll attach onto and over the face frame. So, he’s trying to think ahead and picture where the as yet uncut surplus might go. What other, smaller pieces of the cabinet could be covered. That’s what he’s about to check. When I describe this event to the teacher, Mr. Devries, he smiles and says, “That’s how a cabinet-maker thinks.”
Felipe has taken algebra and is currently enrolled in college math; he knows what more advanced mathematics looks like. On the face of it, the math involved in cabinet assembly is pretty simple: reading a ruler; adding and subtracting (and, less frequently, multiplying and dividing) whole numbers, mixed numbers, and fractions; working with the basic properties of squares and rectangles. Yet, he says, "there’s so many pieces you need to take into consideration, otherwise, you’ll mess up somewhere.”
Felipe’s puzzlement, I think, is located in the intersection of traditional mathematics, learned most often in school, and the mathematics developed in the carpenter’s shop.
Traditional mathematics is in evidence throughout Mr. Devries’ workshop: from the calculations students do to determine cost per board foot to measurements scribbled on scraps of paper spread across the room. Considered from the perspective of school math—that is, if lifted from context and presented as problems in a textbook—the operations here would be, as Felipe observes, fairly rudimentary, grade-school arithmetic.
But as these measures and calculations play out in assembly—particularly an assembly that is unfamiliar—things get more complex, and thus Felipe and his crew move slowly and with some uncertainty. With an incomplete sense of a cabinet’s structure, Felipe must keep a number of variables in mind, arrayed in three-dimensional space, with each variable having consequences for the other. The top of the cabinet will be shorter in length by the sum of the two rabbet cuts in the side panels—but what about the width of the top? Will it rest in a cut in the back panel, and if so, what are the implications for the measurements of the back panel? Will the top extend into or onto the face frame? What does that mean for the face frame? And so on. In neurologist Frank Wilson's phrasing, this young carpenter is developing the ability to "spatialize" mathematics—and as Felipe notes, that means taking "so many pieces…into consideration." Mr. Devries tells me that he has students taking calculus who have a hard time with such tasks.
There is a small but growing research literature on mathematics in the workplace—from the tailor’s shop to the design studio—and a few of these studies focus on carpentry. Listening to Felipe puzzle over the nature of the mathematics of assembly led me to look more closely at the math in Mr. Devries’ shop, and what I saw matched earlier studies, some of which were conducted in other cultures, such as in South Africa, suggesting some cognitive commonality to the way carpenters do the work they do.
One of the findings of this research is that a wide range of mathematical concepts and operations are embodied in carpentry’s artifacts and routines, and in ways suited to the properties of materials and the demands of production. The carpenter’s math is tangible and efficient.
Take, for example, measurement. The ruler and framing square provide measurements, but so do objects created in the shop: one piece of wood, precisely cut, can function as the measure for another. Tools are also used as measuring devices. A sixteen-inch claw hammer laid sideways on a wall provides a quick measure for the location of studs in a wall frame. And carpenters use their hands and fingers to measure and compare. (“I use my forefinger and thumb for calipers,” reports master woodworker Sam Maloof.) They develop an eye for length and dimension and for relations and correspondences.
Working in the shop, the young carpenter learns a range of other mathematical concepts: symmetry, proportion, congruence, the properties of angles. Planing straight the edge of a board, cutting angles on the miter box, laying out the pieces of a cabinet’s face frame to check for an even fit—through these activities, Mr. Devries’ students see mathematical ideas manifested, and feel them, too, gaining a sense of trueness and error. Fractions were never more real to Felipe than during the episode with that cabinet top. | 9,346 | 4,137 | 0.000251 |
warc | 201704 | Premarital Sex Essay, Research Paper
Pre-Marital Sex
During the twentieth century, premarital sex has become an important issue. Sexual abstinence was the normal society lifestyle until the late 1950 s. Most men and women would not have ever slept with another person out of wedlock. While this sexual abstinence lifestyle was in effect, a mentality of independence struck the adolescence of the United States. They felt as though they must engage in sexual activity, just to defy society s view of what was morally right. The reason sexual abstinence is an issue today is because many people claim premarital sex is wrong. People base their opinions on what the Bible has said. When the Bible is used to justify any means of behavior, it usually becomes a moral issue. The main issue at hand is whether premarital sex is classified as morally right or wrong. The Catholic Church claims that premarital sex is wrong and immoral. Not only does the Catholic Church believe this, so does nearly every other Christian faith. In many other countries, premarital sex is not as huge of an issue as it is here in the US. The basis for this is unsure, but religion and culture seem to play into it largely.
In the 1990 s, the teaching of abstinence is beginning to be implemented into the public school systems. The enthusiasm for the just-say-no approach began with the G.O.P. Welfare Reform Act, known as Title V. It appropriates fifty million dollars a year for five years to programs that instruct teens to stay abstinent until marriage. Since the measure took effect two years ago, forty-eight states have decided to participate. Of these forty-eight states, five states have gone one step further, requiring that abstinence be the only programs taught. California and New Hampshire are the only two states that have returned their federal grants, because they refused to participate in this program. Some schools in Minnesota have a dual-track sex education program. It is up to the parents to decide what they would like their children to study.
There is a lot of controversy about these programs because the issue of sexual abstinence is so controversial. Debra Hauser, Vice President of Advocates for Youth in Washington says, in the last couple years we ve seen a huge increase in the number of public schools that are restricting the amount and type of information teachers can provide in the classroom. (Gardner, Christian Science Monitor, p. B1) School nurse Esther Splaine argues, Every year, twelve million American teens are sexually active. Nearly one million teens become pregnant, and three million contract a sexually transmitted disease. On through abstinence will teenagers avoid these and other problems related to too-early sex. (Gardener, Christian Science Monitor, p. B1) The largest obstacle of this issue is that there is no consensus on the nature of the crisis. On top of that, there is not an effective solution for easing the plight. While there are many programs, other than schools, that support this idea of abstinence only teaching, there are just as many that are opposed. Most public health experts have concern that these abstinence only programs could undo year s worth of progress in education concerning safe sex. Of the five states that hold the abstinence only policy, studies have shown that there was not a delay in the onset of sexual intercourse. In another eleven studies, results show that programs that combined abstinence and contraceptive programs either delayed teen sexual activity, or reduced its frequency. In another survey conducted by Eric Tooley, of the 200 participants in their second year of abstinence-only classes, sixty percent have already lost their virginity, and ten of the girls are pregnant. (Morse; Hylton, Time, p. 79) This shows that the programs need to be refined in order to be effective. With new programs such as these, it is extremely difficult to instate them in a way that it benefits everyone.
The Catholic Church feels as though it is best to save sex until marriage. Many catholic leaders foresaw the danger of casual sex, especially with college students. Pope John Paul II often speaks out on the wounds that result from pre-marital sex. As stated in Crisis magazine the Pope claims, one of the consequences of removing human sexuality from the context of married love is a depersonalization of the human body. The body becomes nothing more than an object for use, while the broader and deeper requirements of human dignity and happiness are ignored. (Desmond, Crisis, p. 12) As the Pope continues to preach these words of wisdom a majority of the warnings go unnoticed, in universities and high schools alike. The Catholic Church looks at research done, and uses it to explain what has gone wrong. Many experts say that teen sex is at a high due to what the media and business world put out. In many teen magazines, there are answers to almost any teen s sexual question. They use these magazines to help figure out the technical requirements of sexual appeal and performance. The church also believes that family breakdown, the pill, and a neo-Enlightenment belief in the natural goodness of children weakened parental resolve to transmit moral values.
These are not the only reasons the church does not condone sex before marriage. Many pastors and clergymen look to the Bible for the answers as to why one should abstain from premarital sex. The Bible says in Acts 15:29 to the Gentiles, You are to abstain from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well if you avoid these things. In Hebrews 13:4 it states, Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Not only does the bible speak of staying pure in the New Testament, it is also spoken of in the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible. In Genesis 2:24 it is stated, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh. The idea of one flesh is the bond between a man and his wife and the spiritual and sexual bond that is formed.
From these one can assess that one should remain pure. The true sense of the word pure as defined by Zondervan Study Bible is, to be free from all taint of that which is lewd. Contemporary teachings say that it is all right for committed individuals to participate in sexual intimacy, even if they are not married. This idea is contrary to God s teachings in the Bible. The Bible claims many times over that God prohibits sexual relations with anyone who is not a lawful spouse. The Protestant Church focuses on these matters as the reasons not to engage in sexual activity before marriage. There are many other nations that use other sources to define their terms of sexual morality, or lack there of.
In a study done by the Journal of Sex Research a total of 33,590 responses were used to calculate the attitude toward non-marital and teen sex issues. The study found that premarital sex is the most accepted of the four types of non-marital sex. Nearly sixty-one percent of the twenty-four countries surveyed claim that premarital sex is not wrong. Forty-four percent of the Japanese claim that premarital sex is wrong only sometimes, compared to the mean of fifteen percent across all the countries.
In most of the countries studied, the acceptance of premarital sex is more accepted with adults rather than teens. Fifty-eight percent condemn young teens having sex as always wrong. Bulgaria, New Zealand, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Philippines, Poland, and the US present the lowest tolerance for premarital teen sex. Of these Nations, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland and the US, show a strong disapproval for all types of non-marital sex. These countries are all predominately Christian. Sweden is the country that seems to be the most accepting to premarital sex. As one looks at the result of the poll, it is possible to see the acceptance of this issue.
Many times premarital sex is also used as a way to profess ones love for another. Love on an extremely intimate level. Usually when a person gets sexually involved, sex begins to be the main focus of the relationship. When there is not the bond of lifetime commitment that marriage brings, it is easy to leave the relationship and look for sexual satisfaction elsewhere.
love is not interpreted as a mere epiphenomenon of sexual drives and instincts in the sense of a so-called sublimation. Love is as primary a phenomenon as sex. Normally , sex is a mode of expression for love. Sex is justified, even sanctified, as soon as, but only as long as, it is a vehicle of love. Thus love is not understood as a mere side-effect of sex; rather sex is a way of expressing the experience of that ultimate togetherness which is called love (Frankl, 1959, p. 134)
This quote comes from Victor Frankl s book Man s Search for Meaning. It explains the reason people should wait until marriage, without mentioning premarital sex. The idea of ultimate togetherness should be one that is bound with ultimate love. If one loves another to such a great extent then there would be no pressure to engage in sexual activity.
Love so often seems to be the reason to participate in sexual acts yet, love should be doing the higher good for another. Partaking in sexual intercourse before marriage is in fact not doing the higher good for another. There is too much of an emotional and physical attachment for it to be the higher good. Love is also 100 percent giving; it should never be the means to an end. When the Greeks defined love, they classified it into three levels: Eros, Filia, and Agape. Eros is sexual love and also the lowest level of love. Even to the Greeks Eros was not meant as love with multiple partners. It was meant as an exclusive love. As it should be, love should always be an exclusive commitment.
When sexuality is shared, there are also consequences. The main consequences are that the individual will be placed higher than the higher good, a communication of exclusivity in a relationship much earlier than adolescents are prepared to understand, and a decline of love. With the decline of love, there is no search for deeper self, and no search for loving another person. The greater the commitment to another, the greater the love will be.
So many times adolescent participate in sexual acts because they think that it comes with no strings attached. Many teens are oblivious to the myths about sexual activity and love. The idea of falling in love is not an act of will, and it is not a product of freedom. Loving is something that is quite conscious and takes a lot of energy and effort to perfect. As one learns to love, they are able to escape aloneness, which many teens today feel.
The other misconception of love is dependency. Love that is done out of dependency is a parasitism. It shows how weak one really is, and many times people feel as though they need to please another sexually to maintain in a relationship. When two people are really in love they can live without each other, yet they choose to be with each other. So often in the US we, as a body of people, try so hard to be loved that we forget how to love. More importantly, we forget that love is a form of work, work takes attention, attention takes care, and care takes will. When all of these things are taken into consideration the concept of love seems so extraordinary. It is such a gift to be able to give your life to someone else on a wedding night, rather than have slept with many people. When sex is saved for the wedding night it is no longer a means to an end, it is the means to a new beginning. That is what this issue of premarital sex is about, maintaining a pure life so no one is ever used as a means to an end.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Desmond, Joan Frawley
A Girls Lament: Sex, Love, and America s Teens
Crisis, Sep98, Vol. 16 Issue 8, p. 12
Frankl, Victor
Man s Search for Meaning
1959, Washington Square Press, p. 134
Gardener, Marilyn
Talking Abstinence
Christian Science Monitor, 8/11/98, Vol. 90 Issue 180, p. B1
Lutes, Chris
How far is too far?
Campus Life, Mar/Apr 99, Vol. 57 Issue 8, p. 32
Morse, Jodie; Hylton, Hillary
Preaching Chastity in the Classroom
Time, 10/18/99, Vol. 154 Issue 16, p.79 | 12,336 | 5,477 | 0.000183 |
warc | 201704 | I still believe in paper surveys. I believe that their immediacy and accessibility makes them very well-suited for some situations. Although I value technology-based surveys (e.g. Web-based, tablet-based) I definitely believe that there are times when paper surveys are superior.
You can imagine that I was very happy when my new employer approved the purchase of (a) a printer with an automatic duplex scanner and (b) an installation of Remark Office OMR 8. These two tools together will allow us to conduct paper surveys with some level of ease, automation, and accuracy. I’m particularly happy that this will allow us to break free from the tyranny of Scantron by allowing us to create customized survey instruments that don’t rely on generic Scantron answer forms.
Now that I am learning how to use Remark Office OMR 8 I am figuring out all of those little things that I was previously able to count on other people to do, often without even knowing that it was being done. Most recently, I had to figure out how to add unique survey IDs on a multipage survey. Let me break it down for you:
I have a survey that is six pages long. On each page, I have the page number and I can tell Remark Office where that page number is so I don’t have to worry about keeping pages in order. But I also need some way to link all of those pages together when I am scanning multiple surveys so the correct six pages are grouped together in the resulting data file. Hence I need to add a unique survey ID to each page of each survey. Adding page numbers is easy but how do I add survey IDs?
I had to do this for my dissertation instrument but that was a one-page instrument so this was a simpler process. The multipage process took me a few hours to figure it out and here is what I have settled on for now:
Create the survey instrument. I did this in Microsoft Publisher because it was the desktop publishing tool I had at hand. I suppose you could use Word or something similar but it won’t give you near as much control over the layout. Print or save the survey as a pdf. Use that pdf to create another pdf with multiple copies of the survey instrument. Right now, this is the clunkiest part of this process as I haven’t yet figured out how to directly print multiple copies of the instrument as a pdf. Instead, I have to save multiple copies and merge them together. It’s not entirely horrible as the merges geometrically multiply so it quickly becomes easy to make a single pdf file with many, many copies of the survey instrument. Create a simple Excel spreadsheet with the sequence of survey IDs. My survey instrument has six pages so I end up with one column of numbers where each number is repeated six times before being incremented to the next one. This spreadsheet is used in a mailmerge so I suppose this could easily be done as a comma-separated file or in some other program that produces similar output. It’s important that the number of survey IDs match the number of surveys in your pdf. Create a simple Word document whose only text is a merge field that will insert the survey IDs into the document. Merge the Word document and save or print the resulting file as another pdf. You now have two pdf files with the same number of pages; one has survey instruments and the other has survey IDs. Use pdftk to add the survey ID pdf as a background to the survey instrument pdf. pdftk is a simple command line tool that lets you manipulate pdfs. It’s freely available for many platforms, including Windows. I used the “multibackground” parameter to essentially merge these two pdfs into one, adding the survey IDs to the survey instruments. I got lucky in that my survey IDs were well-aligned with my survey instrument but you might have to modify one or both of your documents to get the survey ID to end up where you want it.
Now that I have unique survey IDs for each survey and page numbers on each page, I can feed the surveys into the scanner in any order I want and everything will work! I just have to ensure that they’re all right-side up because I don’t know how well Office Remark OMR 8 can detect and correct for upside down instruments (it’s a feature of the software but I’ll have to test it; if this were a real concern I’d be looking into possible solutions such as cutting off or rounding one of the corners but I’ll be working with small enough batches that it will be easier just to flip through the completed instruments). | 4,531 | 2,047 | 0.000498 |
warc | 201704 | NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The quarterly reporting period kicks into full swing this week, with 122 of the largest companies due to report, giving investors more clarity on how corporate America - and the consumer -- are faring amid the economic slowdown.
"So far, so good on the earnings front, but some of the revenue results have been mixed," said John Butters, senior research analyst at earnings tracker Thomson Reuters. "This week we get into the meat of the reporting period."
Disappointing revenue results from Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) dragged on stocks at the end of last week, overshadowing better results earlier in the week from Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) and Intel (INTC, Fortune 500).
But investors were also unnerved by reports suggesting a deflationary environment, sluggish consumer spending and weak sentiment. The University of Michigan's July consumer sentiment index Friday fell to the lowest point in almost a year, reflecting investor worries about the economic slowdown.
"The challenge going forward is the trading range we're in and the uncertainty about the domestic economy and the consumer," said Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management.
"We're seeing signs that corporations keep recovering but there's fear that we could roll back into recession again," he said. "While that's a long way away, if the consumer keeps weakening, it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Quarterly results: This week brings results from nearly one-quarter of the S&P 500, including 12 Dow components. IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), AT&T (T, Fortune 500), Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500) and American Express (AXP, Fortune 500) are among the standouts on the Dow.
S&P 500 earnings are currently on track to rise 28% in the second quarter, while revenue is on track to rise 9%, according to the latest figures from Thomson Reuters. Full-year earnings are still expected to rise around 34%.
So far, about 75% of companies have beaten results on an earnings basis and 71% on a revenue basis. But with just 10% of the S&P 500 having reported results, the sample number is too small to draw any meaningful conclusions, said Thomson Reuters analyst Butters.
"The percentage is unusually higher versus the long-term average of about 62% of companies beating forecasts, but its pretty consistent with the last four quarters," he said.
The materials sector is expected to post the best year-over-year growth, with a forecast gain of 90%. Energy is second best, with expected growth of 74% versus a year ago. Tech is third and is expected to see growth of 59% year-over-year.
On the downside, the utilities sector is forecast to see profits fall 5% from a year ago. It is the only one of the ten economic sectors expected to see a decline from a year ago.
Economy: In addition to the profit reports, this week brings a spate of housing market reports. Standouts include June housing starts and building permits from the government, due Tuesday; and the existing home sales index for June from the National Association of Realtors, due Thursday.
Building permits, a measure of builder confidence, are expected to inch up to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 575,000 in June from a 574,000 rate in the previous month, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com. But housing starts are expected to have dropped to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 570,000 units from 593,000 in May.
Existing home sales are expected to have fallen to a rate of 5.04 million units in June from a rate of 5.66 million units in May.
In Washington, the Senate Banking Committee holds a hearing on monetary policy Wednesday with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke due to testify. Also, President Obama is expected to sign the Financial reform bill into law sometime during the week.
Overnight Avg Rate Latest Change Last Week 30 yr fixed 4.09% 4.03% 15 yr fixed 3.25% 3.18% 5/1 ARM 3.42% 3.29% 30 yr refi 4.12% 4.07% 15 yr refi 3.29% 3.19%
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Index Last Change % Change Dow 19,827.25 94.85 0.48% Nasdaq 5,555.33 15.25 0.28% S&P 500 2,271.31 7.62 0.34% Treasuries 2.47 0.01 0.33%
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warc | 201704 | NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- For deep-pocketed plutocrats purchasing trophy homes, times are good. There is a glut of mega-mansions on the market -- at deep discounts.
On Realtor.com alone there are currently 6,610 listings of houses with interiors larger than 10,000 square feet.
"Buyers are not used to having this amount of inventory," said Russ Filice, an agent with Sotheby's International Realty, which represents many ultra-high-end properties. "The options are greater than ever."
What's surprising is that these homes are starting to move again. "Maybe not quickly, but they're selling," Filice said.
The super-wealthy fled the mega-mansion market in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse in the fall of 2008. But with the stock market recovering and real estate markets stabilizing, they're ready to deal again. But only if the price is right.
"The super wealthy were watching and waiting," said Jonathan Miller, a New York-based appraiser, who follows real estate in Manhattan and the Hamptons. "It's always been my feeling that the high-end market comes in waves. I looked at the Hamptons in 2009 and you just weren't seeing trophy property sales. Now you are -- but not at the prices you saw during the boom."
A 48,000-square-foot home in Bel Air, Calif., was recently reduced by $13 million to $72 million. A 16,000-square-foot nouveau Mediterranean in Las Vegas went to $11.9 million from $14 million. And a 15,000-square-foot Dallas domain is down to $15 million from $17.5 million after more than two years on the market.
Don't like those prices? There are plenty more to choose from. So many homes started during the boom, when owners were flush, were not completed until the bust, when owners' fortunes had changed. And they're ready to unload them.
"A number of people back in the 2003, 2004 and 2005 boom built very large homes," said Philip White, president of Sotheby's International Realty. "Then, with the adjustment in the economy, it proved to be too much house for some of them."
In Alpine, N.J., developer Richard Kurtz broke ground in October 2007 on a home for himself. He calls it Stone Mansion, a 30,000-square-foot spread with 12 bedrooms, 15 full baths, a screening room, wine grotto and indoor basketball court. The house was finished just a couple of months ago.
Between then and now, Kurtz decided to buy a house in Florida and sell the Stone Mansion. Asking price: $68 million.
A house near Orlando has been under construction for more than three years and is not done yet. Business has been slow for owner David Siegel, who also owns Westgate Resorts, so he is putting his house on the market.
The 67,000-square-foot house sits on 10 acres and is called Versailles because it incorporates many of the design features of the French palace. Siegel hopes to get $100 million if the buyer wants the 67,000-square-foot property finished.
Overnight Avg Rate Latest Change Last Week 30 yr fixed 4.09% 4.03% 15 yr fixed 3.25% 3.18% 5/1 ARM 3.42% 3.29% 30 yr refi 4.12% 4.07% 15 yr refi 3.29% 3.19%
Today's featured rates:
Index Last Change % Change Dow 19,827.25 94.85 0.48% Nasdaq 5,555.33 15.25 0.28% S&P 500 2,271.31 7.62 0.34% Treasuries 2.47 0.01 0.33%
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If you're smart about when you first claim Social Security, you can increase your benefits and reap the rewards for the rest of your life. More | 3,816 | 2,055 | 0.000491 |
warc | 201704 | To Serve & Protect Compared to the typical entrepreneur, Jay Sorensen seems an unlikely candidate for success. A few jobs didn't work out, his career was foundering... ...and then he got his big break--his divine inspiration--from a drive-through window and a tumbling cup of hot coffee.
(FORTUNE Small Business) – As "eureka!" moments go, the precise instant of Jay Sorensen's Big Idea is closer to a Sad Sack comic than an Edison-style epiphany. One morning in the spring of 1991, Sorensen dropped his daughter off at school and then headed to a restaurant drive-through, where he promptly dumped 12 ounces of scalding coffee into his lap. The thin paper cup was way too hot to hold. He wasn't burned, but that kind of thing had happened to him before, and, after the usual stream of curses and a wad of sodden napkins, Sorensen set out to find a solution.
That quest led to a lot of experimenting and, ultimately, one very successful product: the Java Jacket, an insulating cardboard sleeve that wraps around a takeout coffee cup and allows people to drink their morning brew without risking a trip to the burn center. Admittedly, that invention may not put Sorensen in the same league as Louis Pasteur or Jonas Salk, but it should gain him some recognition among hard-core coffee hounds for finally separating pain from pleasure. It has also made him a successful business owner. Sorensen launched Java Jacket Inc. on less than $20,000 in 1993; this year his four-person operation (including wife Colleen) will take in revenue of nearly $8 million and crank out more than 250 million sleeves. Equally impressive, Sorensen has successfully fought off Starbucks. The coffee colossus claimed early interest in his product, strung him along for months, and then turned him away. Soon after, Starbucks tried to infringe on his patent with its own sleeve, but the Java Jacket remained the category leader.
It's the kind of thing that seems like it can't happen anymore--a moment of insight leads to an oddball product that becomes a runaway success. Given how much the business world is dominated by massive corporations and MBA-wielding market researchers, how did someone like Sorensen find such a specific niche to conquer? Not through the usual methods, like years of industry experience or professional connections or a bulletproof business plan. No, in Sorensen's case--and he'd be the first to admit this--it was more like dumb luck.
Like many success stories, this one begins with failure. In the 1980s Sorensen had been laboring quite happily in the family business, a service station in Portland, Ore., until Shell Oil abruptly terminated the lease. That bumped Sorensen out of a steady job and into selling real estate, a pursuit that sorely tested his drive, or lack thereof. "I was bad at it," he concedes. "I was pretty pathetic, really." Designing a new coffee cup seemed noble by comparison.
The Java Jacket began with the makings of a rainy-day crafts project--Sorensen at his kitchen table with corrugated paper and scissors, trying to make an insulated cup. He eventually put a prototype together, but realized that insulated cups wouldn't stack easily and thus couldn't be shipped efficiently. That led him to design a folding cardboard sleeve--like producing clothes for the doll rather than the doll itself. Sorensen made the sleeve but found that regular cardboard didn't insulate well. To that end, he sought inspiration from higher sources. "I started looking at toilet paper and paper towels," he recalls.
What made those products intriguing to Sorensen was their embossed look and feel. To give the Java Jacket those qualities, he paid a "converter"--a manufacturer that turns raw paper into customized products--$15,000 to make him 100,000 sleeves with a waffled, embossed texture. Now all Sorensen had to do was find somebody to buy them.
In the spring of 1993 he did the logical thing, knocking on the door at Starbucks. "They liked it. They wanted an exclusive," he says. Initially that was fine with him. "I was broke. I needed to make a buck." But the partnership never happened. For eight months, Sorensen says, the company repeatedly asked for changes and then tried to play hardball on price. He refused, and Starbucks dropped him with no deal.
Bedraggled and nearly impoverished, Sor-ensen then approached the opposition: Coffee People, a Portland chain founded in the anti-Starbucks mold. At Coffee People, Sorensen met the founder, who took one look at the Java Jacket and said, "I'll take 10,000." The next week Sorensen spent his last $1,000 on a booth at a trade show, Coffee Fest Seattle, where he received 100 orders. Six months later Java Jacket was in the black to stay.
all along, Sorensen had been interested in protecting his idea. He filed for a patent in 1994, and the following year he was granted patent No. 5425497. That proved timely, as soon after--big surprise--Starbucks began test-marketing its own version of a coffee sleeve. "It was a direct infringement of ours," says Sorensen, no longer speaking like a gas pump jockey but like a man suddenly able to engage legal counsel. "We filed a cease-and-desist order." Starbucks complied and then designed its way around Sorensen's patents, eventually coming up with a similarly alliterative product, the Coffee Clutch (which is also patented). A Starbucks spokeswoman acknowledges "some conversations" with Sorensen but says, "We were also researching other options. In the end we elected to develop our own sleeve."
The Java Jacket and the Coffee Clutch look similar but are made from different materials. The Coffee Clutch uses corrugated paper, while the Java Jacket uses chipboard (paper containing wood chips) that has been run through an embosser to give it better insulating value. In fact, nine of the 16 claims on Sor-ensen's patent relate to the waffling. What requires so much elaboration? "Spacing. Depth. All sorts of things," Sorensen offers, then fesses up. "Basically the attorneys write a bunch of b.s. and hope they bore the patent examiner to death and he'll approve it."
Meanwhile, the origins of the Coffee Clutch are also a bit vague. Starbucks developed it in concert with LBP Manufacturing, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Terrace Paper. Matt Cook, LBP's president, says he approached Starbucks after it started running afoul of the environmental police over using two cups ("double cupping" in industry lingo). Cook also claims that the Java Jacket and the Coffee Clutch evolved independently during the same time frame. Sorensen scoffs at that account. "It was a minimum of three years after we talked to Starbucks before the LBP product was used by them," he says. (For more on patent disputes, see "Small Business Rip-Off" on page 50.)
Cook and Sorensen profess to know little of each other, and it shows in their penchant for backhanded compliments. "He [Sorensen] has gone at this more entrepreneurially, while we've done it from a manufacturing standpoint," says Cook. Translation: We're the pros; he's the flake from Oregon. LBP will not disclose numbers other than to say that "billions" of Coffee Clutches have been sold, with billions more on the way.
Verbal sparring aside, the two say they do their best to stay out of each other's way, and to date they appear to have skillfully carved up a hot, recession-resistant market. Sorensen's customers include more specialty outlets, while LBP focuses on larger chains and convenience stores. (The Coffee Clutch gets licensed out to Starbucks and other companies.) Both men seem happy with what they have. Sorensen thinks every Coffee Clutch used actually reinforces his brand identity. Cook, just back from a week in Japan, talks enthusiastically about how gourmet coffee is now growing globally, and he's happy to serve as camp follower to Starbucks on its march toward world domination.
What is really brilliant about the idea of a coffee sleeve, though--and Sorensen does seem to deserve full credit for the idea--is not just its trivial utility but its microeconomic elegance. It's a near-perfect product. Consider: The main alternative to the Java Jacket is a second paper cup, which costs the retailer twice what a jacket costs--roughly 6 cents vs. 3 cents. Moreover, the second cup exudes a let-them-suck-ozone attitude when it comes to the environment. "Double cupping" promises as much PR upside as Joe Camel. On top of that, only about 35% of drinks at a typical coffee shop go out the door too hot to handle. The balance are either iced drinks or lattes, "which cool off much faster," says Sorensen. Thus, the jacket lets retailers insulate only those cups that truly threaten bodily harm.
Sorensen declines to disclose margins or profits, but allows that a probable downside to this article will be 20 unsolicited calls from brokers seeking to mismanage his money. All in all, it's a good life. He has two manufacturers producing jackets. He has major national food distributors like Sysco and Alliant Food Services trucking them around to 3,000 specialty coffee stores in the U.S. and Europe. And he now gets licensing revenue from an ad agency called Britevision Media, which puts corporate logos on his sleeves (see box). So what exactly does Jay Sorensen worry about? "Not much, really. I guess just taking care of my customers," he says.
In hindsight, that errant cup of coffee tumbling into Sorensen's lap seems like one part of a larger karmic puzzle. It was perfectly timed, after all, with the rise of Starbucks, which has turned gourmet coffee drinking into a near-religious rite. It also coincided with Sorensen's career quandary. If Shell hadn't yanked the lease on that service station, he says, he'd probably still be happily pumping gas. And if he weren't so lousy at selling houses, he'd probably still be doing that. Instead, he was bounced out of his rut because destiny intervened in the form of a hot cup of coffee and a cool little product. When Sorensen himself thinks about it, he can't figure out what happened. "I just got lucky," he says. "Everything broke right for me at the right time." | 10,182 | 4,925 | 0.000204 |
warc | 201704 | Category:
Economy Updated:
14/07/2009
First Published:
14/07/2009
UK annual inflation the fell in June as the consumer price index (CPI) dropped to 1.8 per cent, down from 2.2 per cent in May.
The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) mark the first time since September 2007 that the measure has been below the Bank of England's target of two per cent.
The ONS said the largest downward contribution to the change in the CPI annual rate came from lower prices for food and soft drinks, while a slowing in price rises on furniture and other household equipment also had an effect.
The falls were partly offset by upward pressure from recreation and culture, which the ONS said was mostly due to computer game prices rising more than they did a year ago. Audio-visual equipment also had an upward effect.
In the month, the Retail Prices Index (RPI), which takes housing costs and home loan repayments into account and is considered a key inflation indicator, fell to -1.6 per cent from -1.1 per cent.
This was partly caused by the falling price of food during the last 12 months, while a contribution was also made by household goods.
Disclaimer: Information is correct as of the date of publication (shown at the top of this article). Any products featured may be withdrawn by their provider or changed at any time.
Moneyfacts.co.uk will, like most other websites, place cookies onto your computer’s
hard drive. This includes tracking cookies. | 1,479 | 838 | 0.00121 |
warc | 201704 | Canada’s march towards marijuana legalization, a priority of the newly elected Liberal government, just had what some proponents are calling a symbolic win in court.
A constitutional challenge to the 2013 Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR), which prevented people who obtained medical marijuana licenses after 2013 from growing their own pot at home and instead asked them to buy weed through the mail from a small number of licensed distributors, was upheld by a British Columbia judge today.
Thanks to the successful challenge, raised by four BC residents, people with medical marijuana licenses may legally be able to grow their own pot at home again.
Breaking news: Federal Court strikesk down ban on medical marijuana patients growing their own at home #cdnpoli #mmpr — Globe BC (@GlobeBC) February 24, 2016
The ruling will be suspended for six months in order to give the Canadian government time to legislate on medical marijuana if it chooses. In the meantime, an injunction allowing people with pre-2013 licenses to grow their own pot at home will be upheld. Judge Michael Phelan emphasized in his decision that the ruling is not about marijuana legalization directly, but rather lawful access to medical marijuana by legitimate patients.
The specific section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at issue in the case states that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”
“The Court has concluded that the plaintiffs’ liberty and security interest are engaged by the access restrictions imposed by the MMPR,” the decision states, “and that the access restrictions have not been proven to be in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”
Watch more from Motherboard: High Country, Part 1
The case, raised by Nanaimo, BC resident Neil Allard and three others and heard by Judge Phelan in 2015, positioned the growing ban as an attack on Canadian citizens’ rights. The stakes were high: if Judge Phelan were to have decided against Allard and his colleagues, not only would medical pot smokers still have to buy through the mail, but people with pre-2013 licenses would have their right to grow revoked.
Allard told CBC News that, if the constitutional challenge were struck down, he could “pretty much guarantee that there's going to be an appeal.”
John Conroy, the plaintiffs’ counsel, reportedly argued that without the ability to grow their own pot, otherwise law abiding medical marijuana smokers were being forced into a costly and dangerous black market for the drug.
In the absence of new legislation around medical marijuana, but in anticipation of legalization by the Liberals, the grey market for marijuana has found a booming market in Canada. | 2,910 | 1,390 | 0.000739 |
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