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warc | 201704 | Much has been done with making search more social. Bing has partnered with Facebook to bring Facebook-integrated search results. Google has made several algorithm tweaks to make localized and social results more relevant. Yet both of the major search engines’ social offerings seem to be lacking in some key areas. So far, neither search engine has found the right mix of dynamic, social results and the more traditional SERPs. It is also a challenge to find a social platform to make recommendations or social algorithm tweaks possible. The search engines need a warehouse of social data to pull info from.
While much time and effort has been put into social search by the Big Two, another company has produced a far superior social search engine without even trying.
Twitter’s primary function is to exchange bits of information with your social network, but this model has in turn produced a great search engine. Like any good social search engine, Twitter indexes real-time results (tweets) from a variety of sources (Twitter users). You can pull in ‘results’ from a generous mix of sources including firsthand observers and experts, in addition to completely random Twitter users. Instead of going to Google and finding a bunch of static pages and a few newly published news articles, I’d rather head straight to Twitter to read on-the-fly commentary.
Time for some examples. Here are the two resulting pages for a search of Jerry Sloan, an NBA coach who is expected to announce his retirement today:
It is amazing to me how similar the results are. Google’s algorithm is based on links while Twitter’s algorithm is based on ‘Retweets’, yet both push trustworthy, relevant information to the top.
Let’s look at another example. Say I wanted to see what was going on with the turmoil in Egypt at the moment:
In this example, if you want to see what is happening in Egypt right now, Twitter’s results are much more useful. You have the latest and most important news updates at the top with humor, opinion and other thoughts being constantly updated below. Google’s results are much more static despite the addition of recently published news stories.
As a search engine, Twitter serves a much more niche purpose than Google does, yet is obviously less robust. But nevertheless, I’ve found myself turning to Twitter more and more recently, whereas I would have once turned to Google. The simplicity is refreshing and the large volume of updates coming in by the second is extremely powerful.
Here’s a couple of examples:
McDonald’s recently began offering oatmeal on the menu and I’d like to see how it is. Instead of going to Google and filtering through a bunch of other pages that are not of interest to me, it is much easier to just search for “McDonald’s oatmeal” in Twitter and read what people are saying about it right now.
During a major news or sporting event, I used to search on Google for related blogs or forums to read live commentary. Now a single query in Twitter provides an up to the second glimpse of the world’s thoughts on any particular issue.
This is interesting because Twitter isn’t designed to be a search engine. This functionality is a byproduct of Twitter. Yet it does a much better job at providing the elusive social search that Google and Bing have, generally speaking anyway, failed at for years.
The inherent truth to take away from this is the importance of being engaged in the social conversation. Are you engaged? | 3,574 | 1,696 | 0.00061 |
warc | 201704 | Canadian consumers’ confidence in the Canadian economy has held relatively stable for the week ending June 26
th
according to data from Bloomberg and Nanos Research. The main index of the weekly poll shows that there was a slight increase to 56.81 from 56.61 a week earlier and reveals that the housing market is the main reason for the optimism: “Real estate remains the one positive driver of consumer sentiment in Canada,” said Nanos Research Group Chairman Nik Nanos. “Any negative changes in the real estate market would have a material downward impact on the confidence in the Canadian economy.”
The sub index on real estate prices and the economy as a whole increased slightly despite the percentage of those polled who expect higher home prices in 6 months slipping to 36.97 from 37.25. Positive sentiment in the economy and personal finances also declined while job security optimism grew. Consumer confidence was highest among renters.
Are you looking to invest in property? If you like, we can get one of our mortgage experts to tell you exactly how much you can afford to borrow, which is the best mortgage for you or how much they could save you right now if you have an existing mortgage. Click here to get help choosing the best mortgage rate
More market watch: | 1,308 | 696 | 0.001473 |
warc | 201704 | This excerpt taken from the WTNY DEF 14A filed Nov 17, 2008.
Representations on Anti-Takeover Effect
As referenced earlier, the authorization of the preferred stock could have the effect of making it more difficult or time consuming for a third party to acquire a majority of our outstanding voting stock or otherwise effect a change of control. Shares of the preferred stock may also be sold to third parties that indicate that they would support the board of directors in opposing a hostile takeover bid. The availability of the preferred stock could have the effect of delaying a change of control and of increasing the consideration ultimately paid to the Companys shareholders. Although the authorization of the preferred stock would also afford us greater flexibility in responding to unsolicited acquisition proposals and hostile takeover bids, we do not intend to use the preferred stock in this manner. The board of directors represents that it will not, without prior shareholder approval, issue any series of preferred stock for any defensive or anti-takeover purpose, for the purpose of implementing any shareholder rights plan or with features specifically intended to make any attempted acquisition of Whitney more difficult or costly. Within the limits described above, the board of directors may issue preferred stock for capital-raising activities, acquisitions, joint ventures or other corporate purposes that have the effect of making an acquisition of Whitney more difficult or costly, as could also be the case if the board of directors were to issue additional common stock for such purposes.
The board of directors believes that as structured the preferred stock is in the best interests of Whitney and its shareholders because it is consistent with sound corporate governance principles, it enhances Whitneys ability to take advantage of the Capital Purchase Program and it will provide flexibility for other future capital-raising transactions, acquisitions and joint ventures. | 2,007 | 916 | 0.001094 |
warc | 201704 | Native Plants Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Search Smarty Plants rate this answer Saturday - August 27, 2011 QUESTION:I live in Illinois and have an Arizona Cypress that looks like it is dying but I notice today it has bugs inside its cone. Can you tell me why and what can I do? ANSWER: Cupressus arizonica (Arizona cypress) is native to North America; from our webpage on this tree: "USA: AZ , CA , NM , NV , TX , UT Native Distribution: W. TX to extreme s. NV, s. AZ & n. Mex. Native Habitat: Hot, dry canyons & stream banks from 3000 to 7000 ft."
From the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service on
Cupressus arizonica:
"It is found naturally on dry, sterile, rocky mountain slopes and canyon walls, but does very well when planted on better soils or when irrigated. It requires a minimum of 10 to 12 inches of water annually. It is not recommended for soils with a high water table."
Doesn't sound much like extreme northeastern Illinois in USDA Hardiness Zone 4b, with average annual minimum temperatures of -20 to -25 deg F, does it? How long have you had that tree and did you buy it locally? Just because a plant is sold locally does not mean it will thrive locally. On top of everything else, you are very close to Lake Michigan and we are guessing you have a high water table, not recommended for this tree. This sort of situation is why the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is dedicated to the growth, propagation and protection of plants native not only to North America but to the
area in which the plants are being grown.
Frankly, we don't think it possible for this tree to survive in your environment, and the bugs are probably just taking advantage of a weakened, dying tree. Before you purchase plants, we suggest you go to our Native Plant Database, do a Combination Search for Illinois, designating type of plant (tree, shrub,etc.) under General Appearance. You can also specify Light Requirements where the plant will go, Soil Moisture, even projected height as you search. You can go to our National Suppliers Directory, type your town and state name in the "Enter Search Location" box and you will get a list of native plant nurseries, seed companies and landscape professionals in your general area. All have contact information so you can find out if they have a plant you are looking for before you go shopping.
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October 20, 2012 - Is it possible for live oak trees to make a buzzing sound? We have heard this sound under our live oak and were worried it was bees but we don't seem to see any. I also heard the buzzing under my mot... view the full question and answer
Something eating Monarda didyma in Washington DC
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Why is my recently planted Esperanza doing poorly in Texas City, TX?
May 28, 2010 - I have an Esperanza I planted about 2 months ago. It has been doing well, except today all but one stem of the plant is wilting and the leaves are rolling. I see no bugs on the plant. Any idea what... view the full question and answer
Mosquito repellant plant?
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warc | 201704 | Washington, D.C. - The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) launched the Transgender On-campus Nondiscrimination Information (TONI) Project, our nation's first online hub for trans students to share trans-affirmative college policies and practices, and exchange ideas for organizing and action.
NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling said, "With the start of another academic year, the TONI Project is urgently needed. Colleges and universities have always been at the forefront of the progress we've made in trans inclusion. But there are still too many trans college students who have trouble getting to, paying for, and graduating from college." Keisling added, "That's why NCTE and our allies came together to develop this site and hope it'll go a long way to make the challenges of college life just a little bit easier to overcome."
Learn more about the TONI Project at www.transstudents.org and sign up for a webinar here: www.transstudents.org/how-use-site.
Key features of the site include a searchable database of campus profiles that document a range of campus policies such as housing, records and documentation, healthcare, safety, and curricula. TONI is accessible to current and prospective students in search of trans-affirmative colleges and universities. TONI Project users also have access to a community forum where they can share ideas for taking action.
Keisling added, "Study after study from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey to the Campus Climate Index tells us that trans and gender non-conforming college students face real problems on campus. Fifteen percent leave school because they faced severe harassment. We can't continue to allow trans students to make choices as important as this without having all the information in front of them. And we have to hold colleges accountable for how they treat young people in our community."
TONI serves as a tool to counteract these challenges, empowering transgender students to advocate for their rights and complete their education. As a platform for transgender students to connect and share valuable information, the TONI Project will spread valuable knowledge and encourage activism on campuses across the nation.
The National Center for Transgender Equality is a national social justice organization devoted to ending discrimination and violence against transgender people through education and advocacy on national issues of importance to transgender people. By empowering transgender people and our allies to educate and influence policymakers and others, NCTE facilitates a strong and clear voice for transgender equality in our nation's capital and around the country. The National Center for Transgender Equality is a 501(c)3 organization. | 2,759 | 1,310 | 0.000767 |
warc | 201704 | Learn something new every day
More Info... by email
Metalworking tools are used to cut, shape, bore, and thread various types of metal. Many different types of metalworking tools are available for these tasks. These tools may be hand operated or powered by electricity or air. The most common types of hand operated metalworking tools include hacksaws, shears, hammers, and files. Powered tools typically consist of grinders, band saws, drills, taps, and dies.
A hacksaw is a tool designed especially for making precision cuts in metal. This saw typically has a narrow blade with numerous fine teeth. Hacksaws can be used to cut almost any type of metal including hardened steel, cast iron, copper, aluminum, and brass. This metalworking tool usually leaves a rough surface behind after the object has been cut. Hacksaws are frequently used in the plumbing trade for cutting copper piping.
Shears are a metalworking tool typically utilized for cutting sheet metal. Although most shears are operated by hand, mechanically powered models are also available. Small, hand operated shears are sometimes referred to as tin snips. Large, compound action shears are typically used for cutting thicker metal. Shears usually produce a straight, smooth cut in sheet metal materials.
Hammers are generally employed in metalworking to straighten or curve a work piece. A hammer is also used to thin metals and make them more flexible. This tool is frequently utilized on heated metal in the ironworking trade. A file is often required to smooth rough edges left behind when cutting metal. Files are also needed to shape or notch a workpiece.
Grinders shape areas of metal that are too large for a file. This powered metalworking tool can be hand-held or table mounted. It features a rapidly spinning abrasive wheel or disc and may be used for several purposes. Typical uses for this tool include sanding, polishing, cutting, and sharpening. A grinder may be electrically or pneumatically powered.
A band saw is a mechanically powered hacksaw capable of quickly cutting large pieces of metal. This tool is available as a bench mounted or hand-held model. Bench mounted models are generally much larger than hand-held varieties. A drill, another variant, is a metalworking tool used to bore holes in a metal workpiece and may be table mounted or hand-held. This tool can bore holes in a variety of diameters and depths and can be electrically or pneumatically powered.
Taps and dies produce a threaded surface on the inside or outside of a metal work piece. Taps cut threads on the inside of a workpiece while dies produce threads on the outside. These tools are often utilized for metal piping although they are also needed for many other applications. These metalworking tools are also useful for repairing damaged threads.
One of our editors will review your suggestion and make changes if warranted. Note that depending on the number of suggestions we receive, this can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Thank you for helping to improve wiseGEEK! | 3,058 | 1,363 | 0.000736 |
warc | 201704 | Learn something new every day
More Info... by email
A residual dividend policy is a means of calculating dividends that are based on the amount of equity that remains after capital expenditures associated with the investment have been met. The approach calls using the company’s cash flow to meet its current financial obligations, then issuing dividends to investors based on the residual, or what is left after those obligations are fulfilled. Most companies will use a specific formula to determine what percentage of the residual is utilized in calculating dividend payments.
One of the benefits of using a residual dividend policy is that the arrangement does tend to support the ongoing financial security of the business. This is important to investors who plan on holding onto the shares issued by the company over the long term. Since the company is paying its capital expenditures first, then moving on to determine the amount that will be paid out in dividends, the business is likely to remain stable, hold a steady credit rating, and in general be considered a good risk. This in turn means that the stock issued by the company is more likely to hold its value and possibly even incrementally appreciate.
For the business, using a residual dividend policy makes it easier to keep the operation going without having to engage in any type of creative accounting processes. Since the capital expenses are paid out of cash flow, there is less of a need to borrow in order to continue the basic operation. Depending on the strength of the cash flow, it may be possible to cover all relevant expenses, issue dividends using that remainder or residual after settling the capital expenditures for the current period, and even set aside funds to aid in future expansion projects. Companies of all sizes and types can make use of this approach to issuing dividend payments, since it does allow businesses to calculate the payments in a manner that is less likely to produce an adverse affect on the core operation.
The particulars of how dividends are calculated using a residual dividend policy will depend on how the company chooses to structure the process at the time the shares are issued. Typically, there are some differences based on the types of stock issued by the company, with preferred shareholders receiving dividends calculated using one method and other investors using a different method or percentage. One potential drawback of using a residual dividend policy is that if there is not much left in the way of residuals after the capital expenditures are settled, this will mean fewer dividends for the stockholders.
One of our editors will review your suggestion and make changes if warranted. Note that depending on the number of suggestions we receive, this can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Thank you for helping to improve wiseGEEK! | 2,886 | 1,298 | 0.000774 |
warc | 201704 | Springfield, Ohio — Internationally known psychologist, author and science journalist Daniel Goleman will discuss his latest work, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, with members of the university and Springfield communities during the Witt Series-sponsored Fred R. Leventhal Family Endowed Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2, in Wittenberg's Pam Evans Smith Arena, HPER Center, 250 Bill Edwards Drive.
One of world's foremost experts on the brain and behavioral sciences, psychologist Daniel Goleman has been a sought-after speaker and writer for more than a decade. A longtime reporter for The New York Times, Goleman has addressed numerous audiences internationally, including business and other professional groups as well as college students, on brain and behavioral science-related topics.
In 1995, Goleman's book, Emotional Intelligence, held a coveted spot on The New York Times bestseller list for more than a year, with more than 5 million copies in print worldwide. The book was also translated into 30 languages in more than 50 countries. The Harvard Business Review (HBR) called Emotional Intelligence "a revolutionary, paradigm-shattering idea – the kind of idea that does not just advance the conversation, but permanently alters it."
Three years later, Goleman authored Working With Emotional Intelligence, which argues that workplace competencies based on emotional intelligence play a far greater role in star performance than do intellect or technical skill, and that both individuals and companies will benefit from cultivating these capabilities. The book became an immediate New York Timesbestseller.
That same year, Goleman penned an article for the Harvard Business Review titled "What Makes A Leader," which garnered the highest reader ratings ever, becoming the best-selling reprint in the history of the HBR. His follow-up article in a spring 2000 issue of the HBR, "Leadership That Gets Results," became another best-selling reprint.
A former visiting faculty member at Harvard University who The Wall Street Journal recently ranked as one of the top 10 most influential business thinkers, Goleman further examined the emotional intelligence of leaders in the 2002 co-authored release of Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence. The book unveiled new scientific evidence demonstrating that a leader's emotional intelligence has an enormous impact on the performance of groups being led and on an organization's bottom line. His latest New York Times bestseller, and the topic of the Fred. R. Leventhal Family Lecture at Wittenberg, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, explores the groundbreaking neuroscience behind everyday interactions and what it means for success in life.
Co-founder of the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning at the Yale University Child Studies Center (now at the University of Illinois, Chicago), and co-chairman of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, based in the School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University, Goleman has received multiple journalistic awards for his writing including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize for his articles in the Times, and a Career Achievement award for journalism from the American Psychological Association. In recognition of his efforts to communicate the behavioral sciences to the public, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
A magna cum laude graduate of Amherst College, where he was an Alfred P. Sloan Scholar, Goleman received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard in clinical psychology and personality development, where he was also a Ford Fellow.
Made possible by a gift to Wittenberg University from the Fred R. Leventhal family of Springfield, the endowed Witt Series-sponsored annual lecture has welcomed numerous distinguished guests since 1982, including Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter and author David Halberstram; influential financial analyst Malcolm Forbes; Harvard law professor Arthur Miller; Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel; historian Doris Kearns Goodwin; journalist Carl Bernstein; and environmental lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Witt Series annually brings distinguished lecturers and performing artists of national and international prominence to the campus and local community. For more information about the Series, visit the university's Web site. To make special arrangements, reserve a Series poster or become a friend of the Witt Series, contact Jeannine Fox, Series coordinator, at (937) 327-7470 or via e-mail.
Written By: Karen Gerboth | 4,715 | 2,276 | 0.000442 |
warc | 201704 | The present report focuses broadly on developments in the United Nations regarding violence against women, its causes and consequences, over approximately 20 years. The objective is to provide a snapshot view of these developments, including the expanding conceptualization of the theme of violence against women, its causes and consequences. The analysis of continuing challenges is underpinned by the work of the mandate as identified through thematic reports, country missions and participation in conferences and meetings.
جميع الحقوق محفوظة لشبكة " نساء في ظل قوانين المسلمين", 2009 | 807 | 450 | 0.003055 |
warc | 201704 | When we talk about the coastline, we mean the land which meets the sea. Most countries across the globe have coastlines and its only a few, a fifth are landlocked. When you have access to the sea, which comes with a thousand advantages from ports, beaches, and easy access to trade.
Here are the top 10 countries with the largest coastlines 10. China
It has 5000 islands, with its coastlines totaling 14,500 kilometers. China is located on the west of the Pacific Ocean, eastern part of Asia. It has a population of 1.3 billion people making it the world’s most populated country, and based on land area, it is the world’s second largest country. Though it has one of the longest coastline, most of its population lives inland.
9. New Zealand
It boasts of a coastline which has a total length of 15,134 kilometers. It is an island country which is in the Southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. It is a group of islands which are located in the Oceania. Fishing accounts for 5% of its export products. New Zealand has an exclusive economic zone of 1.3 million square nautical miles.
8. United States of America
America is the third largest country in the world based on the total area and it boasts of being the world largest economy. Even if most of its states are landlocked, it has some of the best beaches in the world with Hawaii and US Virgin islands leading the pack.
7. Norway
It has a total coastline of 25,148 square kilometers and it is best known for its deeply coastline and narrow arms of the sea with steep cliffs surrounding it. Most of its harbors and cities are situated along the coastlines. Norway is located in northern Europe and its coastline face the Barents Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
6. Australia
It has a coastline length totaling to 25,760 kilometers. It is the world’s 6
th largest country in relation to the land area and it is the 12 th largest economy in the world. You will find the Great Barrier Reef, which is the largest reef, in Australia. It contains the world’s most diverse range of sea creatures. The Australian coastline has more than ten thousand beaches. Surfers and tourists visiting Australia love visiting Bondi Beach. 85% of the Australian population live very close to the beach. 5. Japan
It has a coastline with a total length of 29,751 kilometers. Being an island nation which is located in East Asia, it consists of 6,852 islands. It is the world’s 3
rd largest economy after the United States being number one and China number two. 4. Philippines
Philippines has a total coastline length of 36,280 kilometers. It is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean and it is a state in South East Asia. It is a country with more than 7,000 islands and has a diverse range of sea creatures in its waters. Most of the Filipinos live a few minutes away from the coastline and fish industry is one of the largest industry in the Philippines. One of the famous beaches include Boracay, which was named the best island in the world over in 2012.
3. Russia
Russia has a total coastline length of 37,653 kilometers. It is the largest country in the world based on territory and its coastline is along the pacific ocean and arctic. Ice covers the coastline which is on the east and north of Russia.
2. Indonesia
It has a coastline length totaling to 54,716 kilometers with a total of 17,000 islands. It is an important trade area due to its accessibility to both land and sea. It has the second largest biodiversity with Brazil topping up. It is the world’s 16
th largest country with its northern coastline consisting of swampy and low areas of mangrove forests while the southern coast like the Bali and Java are exposed to the swells of the Indian Ocean. 1. Canada
With a coastline length totaling to 202,080 kilometers, coming from a total of 52,455 islands, it is the world’s number one country with the largest coastline. Canada borders three oceans; the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans. Nearly a 3
rd of the world’s fresh water is in this country.
We have just named top 10 world’s largest coastlines and how they benefit their countries. Don’t be mean, share the information with your friends on social network. | 4,239 | 1,811 | 0.000562 |
warc | 201704 | Why Japan Needs Science and Technology Diplomacy
Japan has concluded science and technology agreements with 42 different countries, but a mere 16.7% of these are with developing nations in Asia, Latin America, and Africa-a percentage that is far outstripped by the corresponding percentages for the US (48.6%), Germany (37.9%), and France (48.1%). In regional terms as well, a mere 11.9% of the cooperative science and technology relationships that Japan has established are with Asian nations, compared to 24.3% for the US, 20.7% for Germany, and 14.8% for France. In terms of agreements with African nations, those established by Japan constitute a mere 2.4% of all their agreements, compared with 13.5% for the US, 3.4% for Germany, and 11.1% for France.
This indicates that Japan's science and technology cooperation agreements are unique in that there is a strong bias towards agreements with the industrialized nations, though the country has already reached an industrialized stage. In contrast, Japan's ODA support is heavily oriented towards the developing nations. In short, there has been a tendency to pursue two separate tracks, with leading edge science and technology being shared with the industrialized nations, and less advanced "middle of the road" technology going to developing nations.
There is nothing wrong in and of itself with Japan's bias towards science and technology agreements with industrialized nations. However, Japan probably ought to make greater contributions to developing nations in Asia and Africa if it wishes to demonstrate international leadership in terms of using its top notch science and technology capabilities as a soft power diplomatic resource.
This would seem to require innovative science and technology policy-and the necessary policy innovation has taken the form of science and technology diplomacy. For example, it has been recommended that, as part of Japan's science and technology diplomacy, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly undertake an "environmental leaders educational program" commencing in Asian and African countries. In addition, there is a joint international project on the global environment aimed at developing nations and run by Japan Science and Technology Agency (under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) that involves water resources, disaster prevention, and the environment. Japanese universities have been providing support for rice cultivation in Asian and African countries and have established centers for research into emergent and re emerging infectious diseases in Asia and Africa. These initiatives do not involve run of the mill technology, but technology of a fairly high level. In other words, the use of cutting edge Japanese science and technology to make contributions in developing nations increases Japan's soft power. This represents a major difference between science and technology diplomacy as policy innovation and past government-to-government agreements in science and technology.
Over time, however, any government's innovative policy can lose its momentum and meet its demise due to a change in administration or a reshuffle that causes its active supporters to be replaced-in effect, the policy passes its sell by date. Science and technology diplomacy is no exception to this rule, and it is essential that this be fully comprehended. Future challenges for science and technology diplomacy, as discussed below, should be viewed in this light.
A series of international conferences have thrust Japan into center stage: the science and technology ministers' conference in Okinawa in 2007, the fourth African conference held in May 2008, the G8 Summit held in Toyako in July, the Science and Technology Ministers' Round Table Meeting in Kyoto in October, and the Japan Africa Science and Technology Ministers' Meeting the same month. Consequently, it was possible to cast science and technology diplomacy in a positive light, even with its many inherent demands. However, the next G8 summit will be held in Italy, and it is likely that the Italian government will put an Italian perspective on African issues. It is also likely that, with regard to global environmental issues, there will not be the same emphasis on science and technology that there was at the G8 summit in Japan.
Although it was Japan that first set out the concept of science and technology diplomacy, any other country adopting and developing a similar program would also increase the synergetic effects between its diplomacy and its science and technology and thus its soft power. If such countries were to emerge in great number, Japan would be regarded as a leader in the realm of world politics. In fact, diplomacy is an area that requires qualified personnel. Science and technology diplomacy is no exception. We need new enlightened diplomats to incorporate science and technology as an important diplomatic resource. In the meantime, we need equally enlightened scientists and engineers to serve as private diplomats and actively engage scientific and technological communities overseas. In order to refine science and technology diplomacy and to cultivate future manpower resources for this area, a new joint degree course or a similar academic program is needed in which students majoring in science and technology could study alongside students majoring in the social sciences. One day, hopefully, science and technology diplomacy will be added to the subfields of the discipline of international relations.
Taizo Yakushiji ([email protected]) is Research Director at the Institute for International Policy Studies in Tokyo and Professor of Political Science at Keio University. He was also a member of the Council for Science and Technology Policy in the Japanese Cabinet Office. | 5,971 | 2,485 | 0.000403 |
warc | 201704 | 4 Time Saving Tips For Internet Marketing Entrepreneurs by Sam Mauzy
Internet marketing follows a consistent approach that at its basic roots, starts with creating or obtaining a product and ends with convincing others to purchase this product. Most Internet marketers want to reach the last state as quickly as possible so that they can start earning money. Before they can improve their time management skills, they must first understand every step of the process.
1. Be Organized.
One thing that can waste time is the confusion that occurs when an Internet marketer does not know what the next stage of the project is. This can lead to paralysis, which wastes time. The best way to avoid this paralysis is to create a series of steps that allow you to know every single thing that you must do to bring the project to fruition. Then, you can check off each step when you have surpassed a certain milestone and can move immediately to the next step.
2. Batch Processing.
Another approach that can improve time management is batch processing. This is where you try to do similar tasks together. For example, if you need to send an email to one of your affiliates, you might as well send all of the emails that you meant to send at the same time. When switching between tasks, there is usually a brief period of downtime as you orient yourself toward the next task. By trying to do similar tasks in close proximity, you will spend less time trying to remember what you should be doing.
3. One Task at a Time.
Try to only do one task at a time. Multitasking is a popular method of trying to get multiple things done more quickly. This approach almost always fails because the brain can only focus on one task at a time and normally has to switch between tasks very quickly. This reduces productivity.
To stay focused on only one task at a time, make sure to try to cut out as many distractions as possible. If possible, consider disabling the Internet until you need it so that you can completely focus on the task at hand. Remove all stimuli from your environment that does not help you focus. Some people find that music helps them think, while it is distracting to others. Internet marketers should learn what things help them remain more focused and what things take them off track.
4. Avoid Distractions.
The worst distraction can be a friend or family member whom you communicate with through Instant Messenger, email or a social networking website. While staying in touch and networking are important, time should be set aside for these things. When it is time to work, personal matters can wait.
Disorganization can be a major productivity killer. One of the most effective tools to help keep an Internet marketer’s life organized is the effective use of bookmarks. Many browsers allow users to create multiple folders and fill them with bookmarks. This makes it possible for Internet marketers to quickly visit websites that they commonly use, helping to boost productivity. There are numerous other ways that Internet marketers can organize their work spaces to get more done.
Another effective way to save time is to outsource. Internet marketers should try to outsource those tasks that they are not good at to professionals. For example, if an Internet marketer is great at writing, but poor at research, a virtual assistant can be useful.
Sam Mauzy is a blogger and copywriter with a background in internet marketing.
This is an article contributed to Young Upstarts and published or republished here with permission. All rights of this work belong to the authors named in the article above. | 3,624 | 1,696 | 0.000593 |
warc | 201704 | Australia’s best performing market over the three years to April, which reflects the latest statistics from RP Data, shows that the country’s biggest surge in property prices was not in an inner city suburb, mining town or area that’s frequently in the news.
Rocky Point, a small town close to the northern-most tip of Queensland, has witnessed its property prices more than double over the last three years. This is growth that trumps every other property market in the country and has occurred despite the town being accessible by just one road.
Can you afford to buy in this suburb? Find out how much you can borrow
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warc | 201704 | Property value increases in Sunshine Bay have tracked close to the NSW average of 7.15% over the last 12 months.
Over the longer term, Sunshine Bay has seen property prices show investors a 8.45% return over the last 3 years. This is worse than over the last 12 months
Property investors looking for a bargain in Sunshine Bay should be aiming for at least -3.14% off the asking price, which is the average vendor discount being achieved at the moment.
Using the current median advertised rental of $395 and the average annual increase in value of a median property of 1.67%, investors should hope to achieve an overall return of 4.51%
At number 588th in the list of Australian suburbs ordered by increase in median house value over the last year, Sunshine Bay, 2536 is in the top 40% with a property value increase of 6.54% recorded in median house prices.
Sunshine Bay, 2536 is offering NSW ‘s 379th most discounted properties when looking at the average discount being offered by vendors. This puts it in the bottom 20% of discounts offered by this NSW. | 1,067 | 551 | 0.001836 |
warc | 201704 | For some couples, asking to talk is an easy tell to a potential argument.
Conflict is a part of any healthy relationship but arguing in an emotionally charged, hyped-up, compulsive way is corrosive. Fighting isn't always about true conflict — it is often about letting off steam, transferring unconscious, uncomfortable feelings to another, sabotaging pleasure, closeness, etc. or infusing a "blah" stretch of time with some fire.
This type of fighting and petty arguing can be avoided but it takes skill. Here are four leadership skills to prevent a fight so that you and your partner can instead channel your energy into having fun and getting through the tough times together.
1) Study The Signals When a big storm is coming, mother nature lets you know. Wind, clouds, humidity and barometric pressure all change in established and predictable ways. Relationship patterns are not so different from weather. If you want to change the stormy patterns in your relationship, I recommend you begin to look for the warning signs in your partner, and take cover. "Can I ask you a question?" That has become the tell-tale sign that my partner wants to get into something provocative. I used to take the bait and say, "Sure!" every time he asked and walk into a steaming pile, but now that I know it's a signal of potential provocation, I have choices.
The fact that my partner asks this question is an easy tell. But it's not always so easy to spot. What are the facial expressions of your partner as he or she comes looking for a fight? Is there a squint, a scowl? What is the tone of voice? You may need to get subtle in your research. People are not usually aware when earthquakes are coming, but animals are tuned in and start to freak out. Your partner's signals may require you to get into your animal instincts, but once you pick up on them, you begin to see options. You can stay and prepare to duke it out, you can leave the premises and return fortified, or disengage and simply do something you love. The impulse to spar may get diffused simply by your skillful ignorance.
2) Identify The Patterns I was once in a long distance relationship that was pretty symbiotic. Because our time together was precious, we would hole up in our own little bubble. Somehow, every time we had to leave the cocoon, we would have a fight. It was always stupid stuff -- who would drive, when we would leave, where we would eat. Finally, we both recognized the pattern and that it had to do with facing the outside world. We developed a strategy for leaving that helped us fight less and get throughout the inevitable fights quicker. For a little diversion you can read about what ultimately happened in that relationship. 3) Pre-empt This is a powerful diverter and may need some practice. There are times when I need to bring things up that I know will provoke my partner into a reaction, but I also know they need to be communicated in order to move the relationship forward. When this happens, I can circumvent or diminish explosiveness by pre-empting: "I know you are going to get upset, but I have to talk about this." This accomplishes two things: it makes space for healthy arguing and it alerts the other to their own reactivity.
Other examples of effective pre-empting: "What I am about to say or do may lead to a fight but my hope is that if it does, we'll wind up in a better place." Or the playful pre-empt: "How are we going to fight on the way to the airport today? Cold and distant, or up in each other's face? Should we fight about the luggage, the time or both?
4) Stay In Play There is really little your partner can do to bait you if you are determined to make light of it all. I had a boyfriend who loved to complain. This irritated me. At first I would shut down in reaction to his whining and things would be tense, until I figured out that I didn't have to join him. One time, during his complaining, I simply said in a lighthearted, narrative voice: "My boyfriend, the curmudgeon." He smiled. I began to call him "Mudgy," for short, whenever he went into that place. "My little mudgy!" I would coo, like I was talking to a cute animal. He would laugh so hard. We both ended up laughing instead of getting bogged down and tense.
This is an advanced technique that is worth mastering. It requires that you not be so serious about yourself, your flaws, or things always going the way you want. It does take time to develop the strength to let go of your own agitation enough to be truly lighthearted, so don't be surprised if your first attempts come across as sarcastic on your way to playful.
I hope these tips have been useful to you in thinking about keeping your partnership in top shape. Let me know how it goes. Contact me if you need help.
Learn how to fight fair and constructively in my course for couples.If you think you, or you and your partner, could use help with this issue, don't hesitate to check out Blair's new Lovers and Leaders course! And remember, Love Yourself No Matter What. like us on facebookIf you 'like' us, we'll LOVE you! | 5,097 | 2,508 | 0.000401 |
warc | 201704 | What will they think of next? It’s easy to overeat, we are all guilty of doing so from time to time. Would you be willing to use a new ‘smart-fork’ that is designed to stop you from eating too much? Check this out, a new gizmo to help you on your weight loss quest — the $99
HAPIfork!
The
HAPIfork come complete with flashing lights and a USB connector, and monitors how many forkfuls you shovel in each minute and times how long you pause between bites. And just to embarrass you, it vibrates when you pig out by shoving in more than one bite every 10 seconds.
If you really think this could help, I could see using it in the privacy of your own home, but would you ever feel comfortable enough to take it out to eat with you? I can just hear my friends and all the jokes and snide remarks they would make if I pulled one of these out of my purse at the dinner table!
Click here to see the HAPIfork online!
Would you really use something like the HAPIfork to help you control your eating habits? | 1,024 | 596 | 0.001725 |
warc | 201704 | Perhaps in the next 10-20 years big bank financial advisors (aka mutual fund salespeople) will become a thing of the past with the fintech explosion and millennial uptake of robo advisors becoming the go to resources for retirement planning. Young and Thrifty recently wrote a Complete Guide to Canada’s Robo Advisors and you can see that there are many robo advisor options available in Canada. This post specifically reviews WealthBar, a robo advisor based out of Vancouver, BC. WealthBar has helped Canadians plan over $625,000,000 since starting.
Click here to immediately sign up with WealthBar and get the following special promotion:
Dedicated Young and Thrifty readers get their first $20,000 managed by WealthBar for FREE for the first year. You have 30 days to let your WealthBar advisor know of this offer after signing up. Who’s Behind WealthBar
The two co-founders are a husband and wife team! Tea and Chris Nicola both have engineering backgrounds and are from Vancouver, BC. Tea has a special place in my heart since her bio explains that she enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons! Tea has focused on working as a financial advisor and Chris got his involvement in the financial world working for his father’s wealth management company, but also cut his teeth as a software and web developer. They both worked on and off for John Nicola, owner of Nicola Wealth Management who has a clientele comprised of high net worth individuals and has $4 billion in assets under management. When Tea and Chris wanted to make financial advice available for the other 99%, they created WealthBar with John’s support.
The other members of WealthBar impressively include portfolio managers, CFA designates, and financial advisors. Of course there are marketers, software developers, and graphic designers as well.
WealthBar is a registered Portfolio Manager in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI. The money that you invest in WealthBar is protected by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund for up to $1,000,000 CAD. The Custodians for WealthBar are BBS Securities Inc., Interactive Brokers Canada Inc., National Bank Corespondant Network, and Credential Securities Inc. These are the institutions that actually hold your assets. For more on what this means, check out our in-depth robo review.
How It Looks and Ease of Use
WealthBar looks sleek and I think the design of their site would definitely appeal to the millennial generation. Lets just say I really enjoy the colour scheme and the design is very appealing to the eye yet simple to nativate. When you go to the dashboard, it also is easy to use and easy to get to where you want to go. Setting up the account is a fairly simple process as well. A helpful message pops up while you’re opening the account to see if you need any WealthBar assistance (and a mini-face icon) so you know who you’re talking to.
How it Works
As with other robo advisors, how WealthBar works is you first start off by signing up for an account. You can do this in the comfort of your own home, wearing your pyjamas, and drinking wine (an introvert’s dream).
Then they ask a series detailed questions, collect your Social Insurance Number, ask you to take a picture of your government-issued ID and then you’re off to the account creation races.
Because you’re cutting out the middle man (the big bank and their massive maintenance costs) you save considerable money on the Management Expense Ratio fees (something you can say about all of the robos we’ve looked at).
As with other robo advisors, when it comes to re-balancing Wealthbar will automatically adjust your asset allocation if it deviates from your original target by more than 5%, when distributions or contributions are made to the account, and at a minimum quarterly.
What WealthBar will Cost You
WealthBar has a multi-tiered pricing system and charges a fee dependent on your portfolio value. The fee that you pay WealthBar includes transaction costs, administrative costs, and financial planning. If your fees are in a tax deductible account, you can deduct the fees on your tax returns.
If you have less than $5,000, management is free. If you have $5,000-$150,000, it costs 0.60% If you have $150,000-$500,000 it costs 0.40% If you have over $500,000 to invest, it costs 0.35%
In addition to these fees, there will be a fee of 0.29% – 0.35% depending on which exchange traded funds they have invested in for you.
Types of Accounts Available
It is difficult to find the types of accounts available on WealthBar, but seemingly, the types of accounts available include:
TFSA RRSP Spousal RRSP RESP Corporate Non-Registered Account LIRA- Locked In Retirement Account Joint Non-Registered Savings Account RRIF and Spousal RRIF LIF Open-Non-registered accounts
The portfolios depend on your risk level and there are a number of different portfolios depending on what you are investing for and your risk tolerance. When you invest with WealthBar, they will create a portfolio for you comprised of 8-10 exchange traded funds.
These are the funds that WealthBar uses. It is an interesting collection of exchange traded funds, I had never heard of NWM as an ETF, then looking it up realized that NWM is a pooled fund and not an ETF. And NWM is Nicola Wealth Management, which owns a stake in WealthBar and is a financial planning company for high net worth individuals. As you can see their MER is a little higher than the rest. To invest in the NWM funds, you will need to have a portfolio of more than $1,000,000. From what I understand, the value proposition with NWM is that it gives high net worth investors access to a slightly more diversified pool of assets such as direct real estate and infrastructure holdings that are normally the domain of institutional investment arms. Kind of a neat feature, but not likely one I’ll be ready to make use of any time soon!
Here is a screen shot of the different portfolio options available at WealthBar.
What Makes WealthBar Unique
What makes WealthBar unique is that they are backed up and teamed up with Nicola Wealth Management. and can access their pooled funds – but you need a minimum investment of $1,000,000.
You can open an account with WealthBar, chat with an advisor, set up a phone call, and create a financial plan or have it reviewed by an advisor from WealthBar. You will have a dedicated advisor WealthBar appears to be trying very hard to define itself as being the most focused on personalised advice.
WealthBar also sells independent insurance and they are a Full Life Insurance Agent in the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario. None of the other robo advisors I’ve looked at have been involved with insurance to the best of my knowledge.
Finally, WealthBar includes a cash portfolio option that gives you a rate of return of 1% to park your cash, which is an interesting alternative to a big bank high-interest savings account (although not as good as what some of Canada’s online banks offer).
What It Looks Like
When you start to open up an account, it doesn’t make you go through 25 questions about your risk tolerance and gets pretty much to the point. They ask you what you would do if you lost 10% of your portfolio, and some other questions, and are slotted into a recommended ETF portfolio. You can see the asset allocation for the growth mix below.
Then they ask detailed questions, such as if you have dependents, your martial status, etc., and finally, you show a copy of your ID. It seems very thorough.
Once your account is set up, the dashboard looks like this:
When you click on your financial plan, you can see personalized information where you can customize your net worth and calculate how much you will have by a certain year depending on rate of return and savings rate. This is just a demo and not reflective of my own financial plan!
Act Now! How to Open a WealthBar Account
Just make sure you have the information below handy and then Click Here (remember to snag our Young and Thrifty promotion).
In order to fully open an account and start growing your nest egg you’ll need:
Your social insurance number (SIN) Your beneficiary’s SIN (if applicable) Images of the front and back of a piece of government issued photo ID An image of a recent bank account statement or screenshot from your online banking Your bank account information (a cheque is the easiest)
I’m excited to see such intense competition within the robo advisor space. At the end of the day, the more elite market entries such as WealthBar, the more relatively small-fry consumers like myself can benefit! | 8,787 | 3,994 | 0.000254 |
warc | 201704 | I have finally put a pathology request form in my handbag that was written out by my Endocrinologist for April, 2014. The anticipation is killing me and I am so glad! Finally, I want to know what my HbA1c is, and how a few other “levels” are tracking.
Around November last year my health took an unexpected turn. All of a sudden diabetes had to take a backseat and it was very unfamiliar territory. Unfortunately the health changes I was experiencing affected my diabetes control so much so that I simply disengaged. The exhaustion I was feeling due to not really knowing what was wrong with me was winning over.
Every time my blood glucose level jumped to a destination that wasn’t on the itinerary, I didn’t even throw my hands in the air anymore. I just rolled my eyes, plugged a correction into my pump, or a hypo treatment into my mouth and carried on. I simply didn’t care because I had no idea what the outcome was going to be. Why hope? It would inevitably lead to disappointment. In more recent times I have also been quite overwhelmed with a new batch of specialists, diagnostics, treatment options and potential outcomes. I have learnt so much about the healthcare system that reaches beyond the bounds of diabetes care. All of this has echoed well into 2014.
But for some reason, I have reached a point where I feel like knowing how my diabetes is tracking again! My other health issues aren’t resolved. A particular set of symptoms are a little more under control, but that’s about it for now. The cause is yet to be discovered as more symptoms line up at the door. I have surmised that this renewed desire to find out my diabetes-related levels is because I have made some progress which I didn’t actually think I had to make…
I have suspended judgement on myself.
By choice I have been doing it really tough behind a cheery exterior. I haven’t wanted these health issues interfere with my beautiful life; I have so much to be grateful for. So I have finally decided to congratulate myself for prioritising my health needs. I have chosen to stop feeling guilty about letting my diabetes control slip. To me guilt is also a choice and I know I have been doing the very best that I can given my current circumstances.
So no matter what my blood work reveals, it will simply be information. And I won’t let anyone else do anything with that information except read it and file it.
I am showing other people how to treat me by putting the gavel down. | 2,524 | 1,304 | 0.000787 |
warc | 201704 | In Ireland we have a big problem. We have all these “experts” who advise our political masters. Nothing unusual about that, every democratic nation has those. And there’s also nothing unusual about those advisers having their own political axe to grind.
No one half of the big problem we have is that not so long ago (5-ish years) a group of financial leaders knowingly lied through their teeth about how deep the financial hole they’d just walked in to actually was. We now know they knew precisely how bad it was, and that they played the government of the time like a cheap fiddle. Though that’s not to say that the government of the time weren’t just as bad in their own ways.
The other half of the big problem is that those fraudsters are most likely going to get away scot-free from this. They’ve stolen the futures of probably the next two generations of Irish people, and then in some cases walked away to a very comfortable early retirement and lovingly provided with nice golden parachutes to help keep them in their dotage. The poor dears. After all there’s nothing will make you more tired than knowingly defrauding an entire nation of dozens of billions of Euro’s of taxpayers money.
So my idea. Well, there I sat on the toilet, noisily evacuating my bowels when it suddenly hit me. Maybe it was the proximity to a large quantity of shite, maybe it was the rank smell of that same shite wafting gently on the breeze. I don’t really know. But one second I was thinking about how nice it would be to not have to spend most of every day on the toilet, the next second one word went running through my mind, screaming at the top of it’s lungs, while waving sparklers. That word?
Perjury.
Now this won’t work for falsehoods spoken in the past, but in the future it could maybe, just maybe, make our own shower of self-serving, lying scum-bags (certain political advisers, politicians, civic leaders of various stripes, senior bankers) think twice before they lie with utter blatancy. Lying knowing full-well that those lies will never come back to haunt them, beyond a little embarrassment here or there.
How about laying out a law that requires an oath of truthfulness of any adviser to any member of the government who is Cabinet level or higher? The same would go for anyone, anyone at all, speaking before either of the House of the Dáil.
That way if it is later proven that they have knowingly misled the State, or officers of the State well we can immediately put them somewhere secure. Where we can always find them if we need to ask them any probing questions while the reason for those lies are investigated by the police, NOT the government itself.
Sure it’ll mean having someone in Dáil Éireann, pretty much all the time, who can actually legally witness and record an Oath to the State. But hey, surely some civil servant in there has enough free-time to add that to their
résumé.
Who knows maybe “National Officer of Oaths to the State.” could be a nice little feather in the cap in the future. | 3,127 | 1,573 | 0.000659 |
warc | 201704 | How large is the share of public procurement to GDP in middle-income and low-income countries and how it is evolving? If sizable, can public procurement be used as a policy tool to make markets more competitive, and thus improve the quality of government services? Can it be used to induce innovation in firms? Can it also be a significant way to reduce corruption?
Bahrain
The demographic clock is ticking on both sides of the Mediterranean, from an aging workforce at one end to a workforce surplus on the other. Yet, whatever the demographic dynamics, the Mediterranean area is facing an incredible challenge, that of providing a safe, buoyant and prosperous future for its youth, one which would benefit its societies, their economic development, and progress.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has witnessed a surge of conflict and economic uncertainty and, while the causes of conflict vary, there is no ambiguity about the negative impact it has on people’s wellbeing. Today, the region is both the world’s largest host for displaced populations and the single largest source of forcibly displaced people.
Every high school student in North America understands the importance of what they do during the summer break. Whether it’s working for the minimum wage at a restaurant or waking up early for an internship, the colleges they apply to will evaluate the commitment and effort they put into work experience. Chances are that colleges—and future employers—won’t be very impressed if students spent the whole summer doing nothing.
This year, I was given the incredible opportunity of a summer internship at the headquarters of the World Bank Group in Washington, DC, researching the different levels of investment that countries in the Middle East and North African (MENA) have made in Early Childhood Development (ECD). As a result, I gained insights into development issues I would not otherwise have been aware of, nor would I have had any idea of how to go about making improvements.
In Part II of her interview, Safaa El Tayeb El-Kogali, World Bank Practice Manager for Education, explains the initiatives being take to improve all levels of public education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and how important it is for children to be able to go to school, especially when their countries are affected by conflict.
With the school year starting in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), millions of children are busily preparing to resume their studies. Some, caught in conflict, may not be able to go to school at all; others may be joining schools in countries neighboring their own. At peace or in war, throughout MENA more emphasis is being placed on early education and care. World Bank Practice Manager for Education, Safaa El Tayeb El-Kogali, co-authored a study on Early Childhood Development (ECD) in 2015, which found that, with a few exceptions, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) was faring poorly.
Market access is critical to the growth of start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Start-ups seeking to scale up their operations need to think in terms of regional, rather than solely national, growth strategies from day one. However, maneuvering themselves into new countries is a complex process, and one that hinges on finding the pathways, people, and partners for market expansion.
Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Policy Program and the Center on Children and Families at Brookings released a study on multidimensional poverty and race in America. The study shows why it’s important to look at poverty through the dimensions of low household income, limited education, lack of health insurance, concentrated spatial poverty, and unemployment, and why we should consider ways to de-cluster and reduce the links between them.
55 is the magic number. Sure - 175 parties (174 countries plus the European Union) signed the Paris Agreement in April in New York City earlier this year. But this alone is not enough. It matters not only how many countries signed the document, but also how many countries ultimately join the Paris Agreement by ratifying it. | 4,168 | 2,008 | 0.000504 |
warc | 201704 | China economy
Since beginning its transition 30 years ago, China’s economic development has been miraculous.
The average annual growth rate of GDP reached 9.8 percent, far exceeding the expectations of most people in the 1980s or even early 1990s, including Deng Xiaoping who initiated the reforms. Deng’s goal was to quadruple China’s economy in twenty years, implying an average annual growth rate of 7.2 percent per year.
In 1979, China was inward-looking and its trade as a percentage GDP was only 9.5 percent. Now China is the world’s largest exporter and the third largest importer, with trade contributing around 70 percent of GDP. Over 30 years, more than 600 million people got out of poverty.
China’s miracle raises the following five questions. | 786 | 461 | 0.002258 |
warc | 201704 | Fathers are being victimized by spouses, these same women abusers are left with the Children; Dad has NO SAFE HOME to take US too!
Overwhelmingly, victims seeking shelter are women (and there are a lot of reasons for this too) and donors, grantors, and foundations that fund such programs rely on statistics which tell them that most men are better able to work to support themselves; so allocation of resources for men is minimal. There actually used to be shelters specifically for abused men; one in California, and at least one in Colorado Springs (started just like most domestic violence shelters are…by victims) – but since even most MEN can’t be convinced that men can be victims of domestic violence, they’ve all pretty much closed due to lack of funding. Even the Domestic Violence Hotline for Men, which was actually founded by a woman, ended up changing to a more general purpose hotline, and is now the Domestic Violence Helpline for Men & Women (at 888-743-5754). If you are a man reading this article, please consider that, in order to remain as a viable resource, that hotline and programs in your local community, need YOUR financial support.
Craig Norberg-Bohm has 30 years of experience building support systems for men. He has worked with men who perpetrate domestic violence as well as male survivors of sexual assault. As coordinator of the Boston-based Men’s Initiative for Jane Doe Inc., the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, he now promotes men’s role in ending violence, abuse, and oppression.
Great information obtained from “Good Men Project” & “Aardvarc”
Yes the increasing number of men who are victims are leaving relationships, they leave those children behind suffer additional abuse from the abuser. Creating another generation of abuse. On a mission to do BETTER.
SOULutions to Heal the SOUL
Lateresa
MEN you do have resources:
888-743-5754 800.656.HOPE rape,abuse,incest | 2,002 | 1,094 | 0.000942 |
warc | 201704 | Our earlier post, The Inflexion Point for the IT industry, generated a lot of interest. There were more than 140 comments and it’s been quite a revealing debate, with views from all angles.
One of the players fighting the TCS “layoff” posted what they say is the recording of a “termination interview” recently.
Now, let’s be honest and say that this could have been handled with more subtlety. I’ve had my mistakes too in firing people, and that deep sinking feeling in your stomach stays for days because you know you took away something beloved to the person: a job. But this interview should make the TCS HR think about how to lessen the impact.
Secondly, I’d like to put it on record that the
firing is fair: The person does have a lower rating than other people and probably the pay-to-performance ratio was low; but this should or could have been communicated better. The person gets a three month severance; she doesn’t have to report to office in the interim. This is quite fair.
Some people demand one month for every year served as severance. I think this is just too much about entitlement; if the company gives it, that’s nice, but it’s not anyone’s right to such a severance. Three months is fair, no matter what. You could argue it should be six, and that’s a matter of judgement, but to say that this is inhuman is nonsense.
Thirdly, the only thing the employee was unhappy about was that her performance was being questioned. You can’t question someone’s performance and say that the underlying data that proves such underperformance is “confidential”. That is stupid and unfair. If the deal is that you’re getting rid of all “C” rated people since they’re rated lower than “A” or “B”, then it might be easier to just say that.
It’s as real to anyone that’s less privileged; we routinely fire long-standing household help without much of a “severance” and will balk at even giving one month’s notice to such people, and we expect six months when we are fired ourselves? I think that’s quite unfair. (And of course no one will fight for that maid or driver!)
Let’s Get Real: This Could Happen To You
There’s nothing earth-shattering about being fired. You do not lose your dignity. You do not lose “face” with your relatives. The job market was tough, you couldn’t keep up, and you need to reskill yourself.
When I fired myself in 2005 (from my own company, because I was adding no further value and just eating up my salary) I realized one thing: that I couldn’t survive being an IT programmer alone. I had some programming chops, but I realized I needed more than that; managerial skills are a dime a dozen and that’s not an advantage. So what would it be?
I was broke, I was just married, and I needed a job. I got one, luckily, thanks to someone who I cannot name because he doesn’t like me to. I helped build that company and I kept learning about markets, money and trading. When the company was acquired, I had saved enough to startup once again; and when that didn’t work out I fired myself all over again. It’s now about 10 years since then, and it’s been a rough and crazy ride, but that change was the best thing I did with my life.
Everyone cannot be that crazy, but the lesson that I learnt was that there is no such thing as job security. There is no entitlement to a job. There is a darn good reason why you can be fired tomorrow, and you’ll never be able to avoid it. What you can do is to be prepared for it and be ready to move on.
What Can Be Done: My 2 paise
Prepare for an
alternate source of income and have an emergency fund. I now have 12 months of expenses in a safe place. I also have a source of income (investing in stock markets) that helps. (But then I don’t have a salary at all, and have invested and lost a lot of money in the education, so don’t just blindly follow). Today, such opportunities are even more: You have the ability to buy small stakes in startups which might give you a great exit You can buy real estate with savings and have rental income You can buy stocks that might serve you well with dividends You can even write a blog or create a web site in your spare time which might be a great asset at a later date.
None of these are sure shot successes but the diversification helps. It’s easy to say that there is no time for such things. But as we’re increasingly finding out, it might turn out we get too much such time.
Update: TCS Denies Layoffs, Says Less than 3K “involuntary” attrition
TCS has denied that it’s kicking out people. It says the number of people who left “involuntarily” are just 2574 which is 0.8% of their workforce. But many might be forced into a resignation, which would not count as “involuntary”.
However, my opinion is: no matter what the reason, getting fired is normal. TCS can’t be forced to keep people they don’t want. They can only up their severance, which would be a nice gesture. (3 months is nice enough in my mind) If we try to create laws to force companies like TCS to keep paying high salaries, we will be the losers. If you can’t fire you will not hire.
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warc | 201704 | Pain Evaluation in Rheumatoid Arthritis (Douleur-PR)
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory chronic rheumatism where the pain remains the priority domain of improvement for the patients instead a good control of the inflammatory disease by treatments, even biotherapeutics .
Some studies show that less than 50 % of the patients is satisfied by the care of the pain, whereas the criteria of evaluation of the RA improve under treatment. The chronic pain, is a complex and multifactorial subjective phenomenon requiring a multidimensional evaluation, while the current criteria of follow-up of the RA (DAS28, ACR criteria) investigate the pain in a single dimension that is the pain intensity.
So, the investigators do not arrange explanation for this observed dichotomy between the improvement of the clinical and biological inflammatory criteria of the RA and on the other hand the persistence of pain.
On the other hand, the interleukin (IL)-6, IL-17 and IL-33 are cytokines occurring in the physiopathology of RA and probably in the pain processing according to recent data of the literature.
The aim of this study is:
to assess the multidimensional origin of the pain in RA patients by means of questionnaires to look for a possible correlation between the serum level of cytokines and pain.
Condition
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Study Type: Observational Study Design: Observational Model: Cohort
Time Perspective: Prospective
Official Title: Multidimensional Evaluation of Pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis (Douleur PR) Evaluation of the pain [ Time Frame: At day 1 ]Multidimensional evaluation of the pain using standard questionnaires: HAS, Beck and Speilberger , Erosion Narrow Score and Fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria Patients pain care [ Time Frame: At day 1 ]Estimate the satisfaction of the patients towards the coverage (care) of their pain by means of VAS and verbal scale of satisfaction Correlation [ Time Frame: At day 1 ]Estimate the correlation between the activity of the RA and the multidimensional evaluation of pain using DAS28 questionnaire
Biospecimen Retention: Samples Without DNA
Estimated Enrollment: 300 Study Start Date: October 2012 Estimated Study Completion Date: September 2015 Primary Completion Date: December 2014 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure) Learn About Clinical Studies.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01706029
France CHU Bordeaux- Pellegrin Bordeaux, France, 33000 CHU Gabriel Montpied Clermont-Ferrand, France, 63003 CHU Hôpital R. Salengro Lille, France, 59037 Service de Rhumatologie Limoges, France, 87000 CHU Hôtel-Dieu Paris, France, 75004 CHU Bois-Guillaume Rouen, France, 76230 CHU Hautepierre Strasbourg, France, 67092
Principal Investigator: Pascale Vergne-Salle, MD CHU Limoges | 2,819 | 1,374 | 0.000735 |
warc | 201704 | Turbulent transport in the outer region of rough-wall open-channel flows : the contribution of large coherent shear stress structures (LC3S) Date2007-02-15 MetadataShow full item record Citable URIhttp://hdl.handle.net/1912/2059 As publishedhttps://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112006004216 DOI10.1017/S0022112006004216 Abstract
Acoustic Doppler velocity profiler (ADVP) measurements of instantaneous three-dimensional velocity profiles over the entire turbulent boundary layer height, δ, of rough-bed open-channel flows at moderate Reynolds numbers show the presence of large scale coherent shear stress structures (called LC3S herein) in the zones of uniformly retarded streamwise momentum. LC3S events over streamwise distances of several boundary layer thicknesses dominate the mean shear dynamics. Polymodal histograms of short streamwise velocity samples confirm the subdivision of uniform streamwise momentum into three zones also observed by Adrian et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 422, 2000, p. 1). The mean streamwise dimension of the zones varies between 1δ and 2.5δ. In the intermediate region (0.2<z/δ<0.75), the contribution of conditionally sampled u'w' events to the mean vertical turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) flux as a function of threshold level H is found to be generated by LC3S events above a critical threshold level Hmax for which the ascendant net momentum flux between LC3S of ejection and sweep types is maximal. The vertical profile of Hmax is nearly constant over the intermediate region, with a value of 5 independent of the flow conditions. Very good agreement is found for all flow conditions including the free-stream shear flows studied in Adrian et al. (2000). If normalized by the squared bed friction velocity, the ascendant net momentum flux containing 90% of the mean TKE flux is equal to 20% of the shear stress due to bed friction. In the intermediate region this value is nearly constant for all flow conditions investigated herein. It can be deduced that free-surface turbulence in open-channel flows originates from processes driven by LC3S, associated with the zonal organization of streamwise momentum. The good agreement with mean quadrant distribution results in the literature implies that LC3S identified in this study are common features in the outer region of shear flows.
Description
Author Posting. © Cambridge University Press, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of Cambridge University Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics 574 (2007): 465-493, doi:10.1017/S0022112006004216. | 2,640 | 1,290 | 0.000784 |
warc | 201704 | You’ve got the skills and the fitness but is the secret to winning races all in the mind?
Readers of Dirt Magazine will be familiar with this feature we call “The Question”. We thought it would be interesting to throw it out to you lot on the World Wide Web to hear your thoughts and views.
The race season has started, all the training has been done, but when it comes to the crunch just how important is the mental approach to winning?
So we posed the question, when it comes to winning World Cup downhill races how much is about the physical/skill side of the sport and how much is down to a rider’s mental approach?
Both are important, but how do you think the balance works for the top riders?
FABIEN BAREL EX WORLD RACER AND URGE BIKES PRODUCT OWNER
I sincerely believe that you need to be fully prepared to win a World Cup race. And for that, all parameters need to be well calculated and fully pushed to each limit. The limits are often not at the maximum but more where I would call the ‘optimum’. The optimum is the perfect compromise where skills and preparation meet fun on the bike.
Every top rider must have been facing the situation where fun has gone because there is too much pressure on results. This is where the mental side of riding will interfere with performance. We will develop our own philosophy to transform this situation into a force.
Every top athlete will have a different point of view but each of us will find the one that suit him the best to perform. I have seen many very skilful riders over the year and only very few will reach the top. It means one thing to me, that you have to be a good rider to reach World Cup level but you have to be mentally strong to win it.
DARREN ROBERTS HEAD OF PERFORMANCE AT RED BULL UK
Physical fitness is of course extremely important – strength, power and agility can help you in a run, but if you really want a fast time, be fast on the bike not fast in the gym. Conditioning simply enables you to cope with the demands of a season of racing World Cup DH rather than just the specific three–minutes of a run.
Stringing together a winning run for World Cup DH is more than fitness or skill, it’s mental acuity and toughness. There is no room for error and any mistake can cost you the win – that brings with it enormous performance pressure. It’s as singular and incisive as a 100m sprint. The one thing all the top riders have in common is the ability to absorb that pressure and to some extent use it, they’re not phased by it…at all. They use specific warm ups for the mind as well as ergogenic aids like caffeine.
In the world of elite athletes, mental acuity and toughness is king. World Cup DH is no different, our bodies are the instruments of our mind. I don’t care how fit, fast or strong you are, if you haven’t got the mental acuity and toughness to hold it together for a DH run at world level, the win will be out of reach.
STEFANE GIRARD MOUNTAIN BIKE COACH
Training for a World Cup downhill competition is a long and complicated process. Downhill is indeed a very demanding sport. You need amazing riding skills. You of course need to be able to develop high sprint power, but you also need to be fit in order to survive a whole day (sometimes three or four days) of training before entering he actual competition as fresh as possible. Last but not least you also need to have strong mental strength in order to ride at 100%, controlling fear, excitement, stress and pressure.
Whatever they say, all of the top 20 World Cup contenders train or at least try to train those different areas. Some of them seem to do it with better success than others, so what matters the most? The key to training is to base it on the individual. This means that a training program should be made for you based on your strengths and weaknesses, if your skills are your weakness, work on them…
But the psychological side of performance is definitely the most complicated and the hardest to measure, this is what will get you to use 100% of your full potential or not. What makes it so complicated and crucial is that psychology can change dramatically over a very short amount of time, based on any fact or situation that can affect confidence in a positive or negative way. Weather conditions, opponents, the way your training went, a few words exchanged with some people (mechanic, manager, coach), etc. You can go from 100% down to 75%, or from 90% up to 100%.
Nobody can really say fitness is X%, skills Y% and mental Z%, but what we all know is that mental strength can change a performance in no time, when typically the fitness and skills you have developed don’t really change in a couple of days.
At the end of the day when it comes to entering the top ten or not, getting on the podium or not, or ultimately winning or not, the psychological side will be what does make the difference.
So whatever the ratio between fitness, skills and mental strength are, when we are looking at small differences in performance mental strength is the factor that can have the biggest influence and most of all can change the result in a very short time.
The Question Future racers | The Question 29ers in Downhill Racing? | The Question How important is the mental approach to winning races? | The Question Are Mountain Bikes Too Expensive? | The Question Strava, good or bad? | The Question What is your favourite race track? | The Question Who is the most talented bike rider ever? | The Question Favourite downhill mountain bike track | The Question What do you want from a product? | The Question Who do you think is the most talented mountain bike rider ever? | The Question Tear offs - good or bad? | The Question What is your dream holiday? | The Question Why do bike companies feel that they have to produce a new range every year? | The Question What's the greatest mountainbike product of all time? | The Question Electric bikes - spawn of Satan or harmless fun? | The Question Who is your hero? | The Question Are 29" bikes right? | The Question 29 Inch Wheels in Downhill Racing? | The Question | 6,175 | 2,811 | 0.000362 |
warc | 201704 | _________________________________________________________________
CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUMAttack on American Free Enterprise System DATE: August 23, 1971 TO: Mr. Eugene B. Sydnor, Jr., Chairman, Education Committee, U.S. Chamber of Commerce FROM: Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
This memorandum is submitted at your request as a basis for the discussion on August 24 with Mr. Booth (executive vice president) and others at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The purpose is to identify the problem, and suggest possible avenues of action for further consideration.
Dimensions of the Attack
No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack.This varies in scope, intensity, in the techniques employed, and in the level of visibility.
There always have been some who opposed the American system, and preferred socialism or some form of statism (communism or fascism). Also, there always have been critics of the system, whose criticism has been wholesome and constructive so long as the objective was to improve rather than to subvert or destroy.
But what now concerns us is quite new in the history of America. We are not dealing with sporadic or isolated attacks from a relatively few extremists or even from the minority socialist cadre. Rather, the assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued. It is gaining momentum and converts.
Sources of the Attack
The sources are varied and diffused. They include, not unexpectedly, the Communists, New Leftists and other revolutionaries who would destroy the entire system, both political and economic. These extremists of the left are far more numerous, better financed, and increasingly are more welcomed and encouraged by other elements of society, than ever before in our history. But they remain a small minority, and are not yet the principal cause for concern.
The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking.
Moreover, much of the media — for varying motives and in varying degrees — either voluntarily accords unique publicity to these “attackers,” or at least allows them to exploit the media for their purposes. This is especially true of television, which now plays such a predominant role in shaping the thinking, attitudes and emotions of our people.
One of the bewildering paradoxes of our time is the extent to which the enterprise system tolerates, if not participates in, its own destruction.
The campuses from which much of the criticism emanates are supported by (i) tax funds generated largely from American business, and (ii) contributions from capital funds controlled or generated by American business. The boards of trustees of our universities overwhelmingly are composed of men and women who are leaders in the system.
Tone of the Attack
This memorandum is not the place to document in detail the tone, character, or intensity of the attack. The following quotations will suffice to give one a general idea:
William Kunstler, warmly welcomed on campuses and listed in a recent student poll as the “American lawyer most admired,” incites audiences as follows:
“You must learn to fight in the streets, to revolt, to shoot guns. We will learn to do all of the things that property owners fear.” The New Leftists who heed Kunstler’s advice increasingly are beginning to act — not just against military recruiting offices and manufacturers of munitions, but against a variety of businesses: “Since February, 1970, branches (of Bank of America) have been attacked 39 times, 22 times with explosive devices and 17 times with fire bombs or by arsonists.” Although New Leftist spokesmen are succeeding in radicalizing thousands of the young, the greater cause for concern is the hostility of respectable liberals and social reformers. It is the sum total of their views and influence which could indeed fatally weaken or destroy the system.
A chilling description of what is being taught on many of our campuses was written by Stewart Alsop:
“Yale, like every other major college, is graduating scores of bright young men who are practitioners of ‘the politics of despair.’ These young men despise the American political and economic system . . . (their) minds seem to be wholly closed. They live, not by rational discussion, but by mindless slogans.” A recent poll of students on 12 representative campuses reported that: “Almost half the students favored socialization of basic U.S. industries.”
A visiting professor from England at Rockford College gave a series of lectures entitled “The Ideological War Against Western Society,” in which he documents the extent to which members of the intellectual community are waging ideological warfare against the enterprise system and the values of western society. In a foreword to these lectures, famed Dr. Milton Friedman of Chicago warned: “It (is) crystal clear that the foundations of our free society are under wide-ranging and powerful attack — not by Communist or any other conspiracy but by misguided individuals parroting one another and unwittingly serving ends they would never intentionally promote.”
Perhaps the single most effective antagonist of American business is Ralph Nader, who — thanks largely to the media — has become a legend in his own time and an idol of millions of Americans. A recent article in Fortune speaks of Nader as follows:
“The passion that rules in him — and he is a passionate man — is aimed at smashing utterly the target of his hatred, which is corporate power. He thinks, and says quite bluntly, that a great many corporate executives belong in prison — for defrauding the consumer with shoddy merchandise, poisoning the food supply with chemical additives, and willfully manufacturing unsafe products that will maim or kill the buyer. He emphasizes that he is not talking just about ‘fly-by-night hucksters’ but the top management of blue chip business.”
A frontal assault was made on our government, our system of justice, and the free enterprise system by Yale Professor Charles Reich in his widely publicized book: “The Greening of America,” published last winter.
The foregoing references illustrate the broad, shotgun attack on the system itself. There are countless examples of rifle shots which undermine confidence and confuse the public. Favorite current targets are proposals for tax incentives through changes in depreciation rates and investment credits. These are usually described in the media as “tax breaks,” “loop holes” or “tax benefits” for the benefit of business. * As viewed by a columnist in the Post, such tax measures would benefit “only the rich, the owners of big companies.”
It is dismaying that many politicians make the same argument that tax measures of this kind benefit only “business,” without benefit to “the poor.” The fact that this is either political demagoguery or economic illiteracy is of slight comfort. This setting of the “rich” against the “poor,” of business against the people, is the cheapest and most dangerous kind of politics.
The Apathy and Default of Business
What has been the response of business to this massive assault upon its fundamental economics, upon its philosophy, upon its right to continue to manage its own affairs, and indeed upon its integrity?
The painfully sad truth is that business, including the boards of directors’ and the top executives of corporations great and small and business organizations at all levels, often have responded — if at all — by appeasement, ineptitude and ignoring the problem. There are, of course, many exceptions to this sweeping generalization. But the net effect of such response as has been made is scarcely visible.
In all fairness, it must be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking insidiously and constantly to sabotage it. The traditional role of business executives has been to manage, to produce, to sell, to create jobs, to make profits, to improve the standard of living, to be community leaders, to serve on charitable and educational boards, and generally to be good citizens. They have performed these tasks very well indeed.
But they have shown little stomach for hard-nose contest with their critics, and little skill in effective intellectual and philosophical debate.
A column recently carried by the Wall Street Journal was entitled: “Memo to GM: Why Not Fight Back?” Although addressed to GM by name, the article was a warning to all American business. Columnist St. John said:
“General Motors, like American business in general, is ‘plainly in trouble’ because intellectual bromides have been substituted for a sound intellectual exposition of its point of view.” Mr. St. John then commented on the tendency of business leaders to compromise with and appease critics. He cited the concessions which Nader wins from management, and spoke of “the fallacious view many businessmen take toward their critics.” He drew a parallel to the mistaken tactics of many college administrators: “College administrators learned too late that such appeasement serves to destroy free speech, academic freedom and genuine scholarship. One campus radical demand was conceded by university heads only to be followed by a fresh crop which soon escalated to what amounted to a demand for outright surrender.”
One need not agree entirely with Mr. St. John’s analysis. But most observers of the American scene will agree that the essence of his message is sound. American business “plainly in trouble”; the response to the wide range of critics has been ineffective, and has included appeasement; the time has come — indeed, it is long overdue — for the wisdom, ingenuity and resources of American business to be marshalled against those who would destroy it.
Responsibility of Business Executives
What specifically should be done? The first essential — a prerequisite to any effective action — is for businessmen to confront this problem as a primary responsibility of corporate management.
The overriding first need is for businessmen to recognize that the ultimate issue may be survival — survival of what we call the free enterprise system, and all that this means for the strength and prosperity of America and the freedom of our people.
The day is long past when the chief executive officer of a major corporation discharges his responsibility by maintaining a satisfactory growth of profits, with due regard to the corporation’s public and social responsibilities. If our system is to survive, top management must be equally concerned with protecting and preserving the system itself. This involves far more than an increased emphasis on “public relations” or “governmental affairs” — two areas in which corporations long have invested substantial sums.
A significant first step by individual corporations could well be the designation of an executive vice president (ranking with other executive VP’s) whose responsibility is to counter-on the broadest front-the attack on the enterprise system. The public relations department could be one of the foundations assigned to this executive, but his responsibilities should encompass some of the types of activities referred to subsequently in this memorandum. His budget and staff should be adequate to the task.
Possible Role of the Chamber of Commerce
But independent and uncoordinated activity by individual corporations, as important as this is, will not be sufficient. Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations.
Moreover, there is the quite understandable reluctance on the part of any one corporation to get too far out in front and to make itself too visible a target.
The role of the National Chamber of Commerce is therefore vital. Other national organizations (especially those of various industrial and commercial groups) should join in the effort, but no other organizations appear to be as well situated as the Chamber. It enjoys a strategic position, with a fine reputation and a broad base of support. Also — and this is of immeasurable merit — there are hundreds of local Chambers of Commerce which can play a vital supportive role.
It hardly need be said that before embarking upon any program, the Chamber should study and analyze possible courses of action and activities, weighing risks against probable effectiveness and feasibility of each. Considerations of cost, the assurance of financial and other support from members, adequacy of staffing and similar problems will all require the most thoughtful consideration.
The Campus
The assault on the enterprise system was not mounted in a few months. It has gradually evolved over the past two decades, barely perceptible in its origins and benefiting (sic) from a gradualism that provoked little awareness much less any real reaction.
Although origins, sources and causes are complex and interrelated, and obviously difficult to identify without careful qualification, there is reason to believe that the campus is the single most dynamic source. The social science faculties usually include members who are unsympathetic to the enterprise system. They may range from a Herbert Marcuse, Marxist faculty member at the University of California at San Diego, and convinced socialists, to the ambivalent liberal critic who finds more to condemn than to commend. Such faculty members need not be in a majority. They are often personally attractive and magnetic; they are stimulating teachers, and their controversy attracts student following; they are prolific writers and lecturers; they author many of the textbooks, and they exert enormous influence — far out of proportion to their numbers — on their colleagues and in the academic world.
Social science faculties (the political scientist, economist, sociologist and many of the historians) tend to be liberally oriented, even when leftists are not present. This is not a criticism per se, as the need for liberal thought is essential to a balanced viewpoint. The difficulty is that “balance” is conspicuous by its absence on many campuses, with relatively few members being of conservatives or moderate persuasion and even the relatively few often being less articulate and aggressive than their crusading colleagues.
This situation extending back many years and with the imbalance gradually worsening, has had an enormous impact on millions of young American students. In an article in Barron’s Weekly, seeking an answer to why so many young people are disaffected even to the point of being revolutionaries, it was said: “Because they were taught that way.” Or, as noted by columnist Stewart Alsop, writing about his alma mater: “Yale, like every other major college, is graduating scores’ of bright young men … who despise the American political and economic system.”
As these “bright young men,” from campuses across the country, seek opportunities to change a system which they have been taught to distrust — if not, indeed “despise” — they seek employment in the centers of the real power and influence in our country, namely: (i) with the news media, especially television; (ii) in government, as “staffers” and consultants at various levels; (iii) in elective politics; (iv) as lecturers and writers, and (v) on the faculties at various levels of education.
Many do enter the enterprise system — in business and the professions — and for the most part they quickly discover the fallacies of what they have been taught. But those who eschew the mainstream of the system often remain in key positions of influence where they mold public opinion and often shape governmental action. In many instances, these “intellectuals” end up in regulatory agencies or governmental departments with large authority over the business system they do not believe in.
If the foregoing analysis is approximately sound, a priority task of business — and organizations such as the Chamber — is to address the campus origin of this hostility. Few things are more sanctified in American life than academic freedom. It would be fatal to attack this as a principle. But if academic freedom is to retain the qualities of “openness,” “fairness” and “balance” — which are essential to its intellectual significance — there is a great opportunity for constructive action. The thrust of such action must be to restore the qualities just mentioned to the academic communities.
What Can Be Done About the Campus
Staff of Scholars
The Chamber should consider establishing a staff of highly qualified scholars in the social sciences who do believe in the system. It should include several of national reputation whose authorship would be widely respected — even when disagreed with.
Staff of Speakers
There also should be a staff of speakers of the highest competency. These might include the scholars, and certainly those who speak for the Chamber would have to articulate the product of the scholars.
Speaker’s Bureau
In addition to full-time staff personnel, the Chamber should have a Speaker’s Bureau which should include the ablest and most effective advocates from the top echelons of American business.
Evaluation of Textbooks
The objective of such evaluation should be oriented toward restoring the balance essential to genuine academic freedom. This would include assurance of fair and factual treatment of our system of government and our enterprise system, its accomplishments, its basic relationship to individual rights and freedoms, and comparisons with the systems of socialism, fascism and communism. Most of the existing textbooks have some sort of comparisons, but many are superficial, biased and unfair.
We have seen the civil rights movement insist on re-writing many of the textbooks in our universities and schools. The labor unions likewise insist that textbooks be fair to the viewpoints of organized labor. Other interested citizens groups have not hesitated to review, analyze and criticize textbooks and teaching materials. In a democratic society, this can be a constructive process and should be regarded as an aid to genuine academic freedom and not as an intrusion upon it.
If the authors, publishers and users of textbooks know that they will be subjected — honestly, fairly and thoroughly — to review and critique by eminent scholars who believe in the American system, a return to a more rational balance can be expected.
Equal Time on the Campus
The Chamber should insist upon equal time on the college speaking circuit. The FBI publishes each year a list of speeches made on college campuses by avowed Communists. The number in 1970 exceeded 100. There were, of course, many hundreds of appearances by leftists and ultra liberals who urge the types of viewpoints indicated earlier in this memorandum. There was no corresponding representation of American business, or indeed by individuals or organizations who appeared in support of the American system of government and business.
Every campus has its formal and informal groups which invite speakers. Each law school does the same thing. Many universities and colleges officially sponsor lecture and speaking programs. We all know the inadequacy of the representation of business in the programs.
It will be said that few invitations would be extended to Chamber speakers. This undoubtedly would be true unless the Chamber aggressively insisted upon the right to be heard — in effect, insisted upon “equal time.” University administrators and the great majority of student groups and committees would not welcome being put in the position publicly of refusing a forum to diverse views, indeed, this is the classic excuse for allowing Communists to speak.
The two essential ingredients are (i) to have attractive, articulate and well-informed speakers; and (ii) to exert whatever degree of pressure — publicly and privately — may be necessary to assure opportunities to speak. The objective always must be to inform and enlighten, and not merely to propagandize.
Balancing of Faculties
The methods to be employed require careful thought, and the obvious pitfalls must be avoided. Improper pressure would be counterproductive. But the basic concepts of balance, fairness and truth are difficult to resist, if properly presented to boards of trustees, by writing and speaking, and by appeals to alumni associations and groups.
This is a long road and not one for the fainthearted. But if pursued with integrity and conviction it could lead to a strengthening of both academic freedom on the campus and of the values which have made America the most productive of all societies.
Graduate Schools of Business
The Chamber should enjoy a particular rapport with the increasingly influential graduate schools of business. Much that has been suggested above applies to such schools.
Should not the Chamber also request specific courses in such schools dealing with the entire scope of the problem addressed by this memorandum? This is now essential training for the executives of the future.
Secondary Education
While the first priority should be at the college level, the trends mentioned above are increasingly evidenced in the high schools. Action programs, tailored to the high schools and similar to those mentioned, should be considered. The implementation thereof could become a major program for local chambers of commerce, although the control and direction — especially the quality control — should be retained by the National Chamber.
What Can Be Done About the Public?
Reaching the campus and the secondary schools is vital for the long-term. Reaching the public generally may be more important for the shorter term. The first essential is to establish the staffs of eminent scholars, writers and speakers, who will do the thinking, the analysis, the writing and the speaking. It will also be essential to have staff personnel who are thoroughly familiar with the media, and how most effectively to communicate with the public. Among the more obvious means are the following:
Television
This monitoring, to be effective, would require constant examination of the texts of adequate samples of programs. Complaints — to the media and to the Federal Communications Commission — should be made promptly and strongly when programs are unfair or inaccurate.
Equal time should be demanded when appropriate. Effort should be made to see that the forum-type programs (the Today Show, Meet the Press, etc.) afford at least as much opportunity for supporters of the American system to participate as these programs do for those who attack it.
Other Media
The Scholarly Journals
It is especially important for the Chamber’s “faculty of scholars” to publish. One of the keys to the success of the liberal and leftist faculty members has been their passion for “publication” and “lecturing.” A similar passion must exist among the Chamber’s scholars.
Incentives might be devised to induce more “publishing” by independent scholars who do believe in the system.
There should be a fairly steady flow of scholarly articles presented to a broad spectrum of magazines and periodicals — ranging from the popular magazines (Life, Look, Reader’s Digest, etc.) to the more intellectual ones (Atlantic, Harper’s, Saturday Review, New York, etc.) and to the various professional journals.
Books, Paperbacks and Pamphlets
Paid Advertisements
If American business devoted only 10% of its total annual advertising budget to this overall purpose, it would be a statesman-like expenditure.
The Neglected Political Arena
It is still Marxist doctrine that the “capitalist” countries are controlled by big business. This doctrine, consistently a part of leftist propaganda all over the world, has a wide public following among Americans.
Yet, as every business executive knows, few elements of American society today have as little influence in government as the American businessman, the corporation, or even the millions of corporate stockholders. If one doubts this, let him undertake the role of “lobbyist” for the business point of view before Congressional committees. The same situation obtains in the legislative halls of most states and major cities. One does not exaggerate to say that, in terms of political influence with respect to the course of legislation and government action, the American business executive is truly the “forgotten man.”
Current examples of the impotency of business, and of the near-contempt with which businessmen’s views are held, are the stampedes by politicians to support almost any legislation related to “consumerism” or to the “environment.”
Politicians reflect what they believe to be majority views of their constituents. It is thus evident that most politicians are making the judgment that the public has little sympathy for the businessman or his viewpoint.
The educational programs suggested above would be designed to enlighten public thinking — not so much about the businessman and his individual role as about the system which he administers, and which provides the goods, services and jobs on which our country depends.
But one should not postpone more direct political action, while awaiting the gradual change in public opinion to be effected through education and information. Business must learn the lesson, long ago learned by labor and other self-interest groups. This is the lesson that political power is necessary; that such power must be assidously (sic) cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination — without embarrassment and without the reluctance which has been so characteristic of American business.
Neglected Opportunity in the Courts
American business and the enterprise system have been affected as much by the courts as by the executive and legislative branches of government. Under our constitutional system, especially with an activist-minded Supreme Court, the judiciary may be the most important instrument for social, economic and political change.
Other organizations and groups, recognizing this, have been far more astute in exploiting judicial action than American business. Perhaps the most active exploiters of the judicial system have been groups ranging in political orientation from “liberal” to the far left.
The American Civil Liberties Union is one example. It initiates or intervenes in scores of cases each year, and it files briefs amicus curiae in the Supreme Court in a number of cases during each term of that court. Labor unions, civil rights groups and now the public interest law firms are extremely active in the judicial arena. Their success, often at business’ expense, has not been inconsequential.
This is a vast area of opportunity for the Chamber, if it is willing to undertake the role of spokesman for American business and if, in turn, business is willing to provide the funds.
As with respect to scholars and speakers, the Chamber would need a highly competent staff of lawyers. In special situations it should be authorized to engage, to appear as counsel amicus in the Supreme Court, lawyers of national standing and reputation. The greatest care should be exercised in selecting the cases in which to participate, or the suits to institute. But the opportunity merits the necessary effort.
Neglected Stockholder Power
The average member of the public thinks of “business” as an impersonal corporate entity, owned by the very rich and managed by over-paid executives. There is an almost total failure to appreciate that “business” actually embraces — in one way or another — most Americans. Those for whom business provides jobs, constitute a fairly obvious class. But the 20 million stockholders — most of whom are of modest means — are the real owners, the real entrepreneurs, the real capitalists under our system. They provide the capital which fuels the economic system which has produced the highest standard of living in all history. Yet, stockholders have been as ineffectual as business executives in promoting a genuine understanding of our system or in exercising political influence.
The question which merits the most thorough examination is how can the weight and influence of stockholders — 20 million voters — be mobilized to support (i) an educational program and (ii) a political action program.
Individual corporations are now required to make numerous reports to shareholders. Many corporations also have expensive “news” magazines which go to employees and stockholders. These opportunities to communicate can be used far more effectively as educational media.
The corporation itself must exercise restraint in undertaking political action and must, of course, comply with applicable laws. But is it not feasible — through an affiliate of the Chamber or otherwise — to establish a national organization of American stockholders and give it enough muscle to be influential?
A More Aggressive Attitude
Business interests — especially big business and their national trade organizations — have tried to maintain low profiles, especially with respect to political action.
As suggested in the Wall Street Journal article, it has been fairly characteristic of the average business executive to be tolerant — at least in public — of those who attack his corporation and the system. Very few businessmen or business organizations respond in kind. There has been a disposition to appease; to regard the opposition as willing to compromise, or as likely to fade away in due time.
Business has shunted confrontation politics. Business, quite understandably, has been repelled by the multiplicity of non-negotiable “demands” made constantly by self-interest groups of all kinds.
While neither responsible business interests, nor the United States Chamber of Commerce, would engage in the irresponsible tactics of some pressure groups, it is essential that spokesmen for the enterprise system — at all levels and at every opportunity — be far more aggressive than in the past.
There should be no hesitation to attack the Naders, the Marcuses and others who openly seek destruction of the system. There should not be the slightest hesitation to press vigorously in all political arenas for support of the enterprise system. Nor should there be reluctance to penalize politically those who oppose it.
Lessons can be learned from organized labor in this respect. The head of the AFL-CIO may not appeal to businessmen as the most endearing or public-minded of citizens. Yet, over many years the heads of national labor organizations have done what they were paid to do very effectively. They may not have been beloved, but they have been respected — where it counts the most — by politicians, on the campus, and among the media.
It is time for American business — which has demonstrated the greatest capacity in all history to produce and to influence consumer decisions — to apply their great talents vigorously to the preservation of the system itself.
The Cost
The type of program described above (which includes a broadly based combination of education and political action), if undertaken long term and adequately staffed, would require far more generous financial support from American corporations than the Chamber has ever received in the past. High level management participation in Chamber affairs also would be required.
The staff of the Chamber would have to be significantly increased, with the highest quality established and maintained. Salaries would have to be at levels fully comparable to those paid key business executives and the most prestigious faculty members. Professionals of the great skill in advertising and in working with the media, speakers, lawyers and other specialists would have to be recruited.
It is possible that the organization of the Chamber itself would benefit from restructuring. For example, as suggested by union experience, the office of President of the Chamber might well be a full-time career position. To assure maximum effectiveness and continuity, the chief executive officer of the Chamber should not be changed each year. The functions now largely performed by the President could be transferred to a Chairman of the Board, annually elected by the membership. The Board, of course, would continue to exercise policy control.
Quality Control is Essential
Essential ingredients of the entire program must be responsibility and “quality control.” The publications, the articles, the speeches, the media programs, the advertising, the briefs filed in courts, and the appearances before legislative committees — all must meet the most exacting standards of accuracy and professional excellence. They must merit respect for their level of public responsibility and scholarship, whether one agrees with the viewpoints expressed or not.
Relationship to Freedom
The threat to the enterprise system is not merely a matter of economics. It also is a threat to individual freedom.
It is this great truth — now so submerged by the rhetoric of the New Left and of many liberals — that must be re-affirmed if this program is to be meaningful.
There seems to be little awareness that the only alternatives to free enterprise are varying degrees of bureaucratic regulation of individual freedom — ranging from that under moderate socialism to the iron heel of the leftist or rightist dictatorship.
We in America already have moved very far indeed toward some aspects of state socialism, as the needs and complexities of a vast urban society require types of regulation and control that were quite unnecessary in earlier times. In some areas, such regulation and control already have seriously impaired the freedom of both business and labor, and indeed of the public generally. But most of the essential freedoms remain: private ownership, private profit, labor unions, collective bargaining, consumer choice, and a market economy in which competition largely determines price, quality and variety of the goods and services provided the consumer.
In addition to the ideological attack on the system itself (discussed in this memorandum), its essentials also are threatened by inequitable taxation, and — more recently — by an inflation which has seemed uncontrollable. But whatever the causes of diminishing economic freedom may be, the truth is that freedom as a concept is indivisible. As the experience of the socialist and totalitarian states demonstrates, the contraction and denial of economic freedom is followed inevitably by governmental restrictions on other cherished rights. It is this message, above all others, that must be carried home to the American people.
Conclusion
It hardly need be said that the views expressed above are tentative and suggestive. The first step should be a thorough study. But this would be an exercise in futility unless the Board of Directors of the Chamber accepts the fundamental premise of this paper, namely, that business and the enterprise system are in deep trouble, and the hour is late.
—–
Additional Resources: The Powell Memo with an introduction and Lewis Powell‘s footnotes is available on the Reclaim Democracy website.
Other overviews of the Powell Memo can be found at the following sources:
Lee Drutman and Charlie Cray, The People’s Business: Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2004. More information available at:http://www.bkconnection.com/ProdDetails.asp?ID=1576753093.
Kim Phillips-Fein, Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan. New York: Norton, 2009. More information available at:http://books.google.com/books/about/Invisible_hands.html?id=CcU7z9jLqXcC.
Jerry Landay, “The Powell Manifesto: How A Prominent Lawyer’s Attack Memo Changed America,” Media Transparency, August 20, 2002. Available at:http://old.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=21.
Lewis H. Lapham, “Tentacles of Rage: The Republican propaganda mill, a brief history,” Harpers Magazine, Vol. 309, No. 1852, September, 2004. Available at:http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Republican-Propaganda1sep04.htm.
Mark Schmitt, “The Legend of the Powell Memo,” American Prospect, April 25, 2005. Available at: http://prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=9606.
Chip Berlet, “Right-Wing Rollback: The Powell Memo,” Z Magazine, October 2009. Available at:http://www.zcommunications.org/right-wing-rollback-the-powell-memo-by-chip-berlet.
Dave Wheelock, “The Pencil Warrior: Lewis Powell’s Memorandum was a Blueprint for Corporate Takeover,” Common Dreams, February 23, 2006. Available at:http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0223-25.htm.
Henry A. Giroux, “The Powell Memo and the Teaching Machines of Right-Wing Extremeists,” the Commonweal Institute/Truthout, October 1, 2009. Available at:http://commonwealinstitute.org/archive/the-powell-memo-and-the-teaching-machines-of-right-wing-extremists.
John Amato, “The Powell Memo,” Crooks and Liars, June 23, 2011. Available at:http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/powell-memo.
“40 Years Since ‘Powell Memo’ Laid out Corporate Agenda,” Institute for Public Accuracy, August 30, 2011. Available at: http://www.accuracy.org/release/40-years-since-powell-memo-laid-out-corporate-agenda/.
“Attack on American Free Enterprise System: Background,” Media Transparency, December 12, 2008. Available at: http://old.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=22.
“The Powell Memo,” Twink.org. Available at:http://www.thwink.org/sustain/manuscript2/PowellMemo.htm. | 39,219 | 15,734 | 0.000066 |
warc | 201704 | Which Joe gave his name to ‘sloppy joes’? We look at five interesting sandwiches and their lexical origins.
adjective
[attributive] Denoting or relating to a process of recovery from an addiction by following a twelve-stage programme, especially one devised or similar to that devised by Alcoholics Anonymous.
‘Anyway, for him, it's great news, as he has managed to swerve a trial for possession of coke and heroin by pleading no contest and doing the twelve-step reshuffle.’ ‘They founded treatment facilities, twelve-step programs and halfway houses.’ ‘Through AA and its allies, both the concept of addiction and AA's twelve-step method became widely accepted modes of defining and treating personal problems.’ ‘In his study of the twelve-step programs, Chalfant found that the students who attended the group meetings distinguished the personal, spiritual approach of the programs from the institutionalized form of religion.’ ‘In the States, explained Kells, there are twelve-step programs everywhere, and everybody knows when they meet.’ ‘He'd considered joining one of those twelve-step groups after his marriage hit the skids and his bank account consisted of a few bills in his pocket.’ ‘I've already joined a twelve-step program to help me with my aggression.’ ‘Melvin's words, sweet as they are, are dripping with twelve-step rhetoric.’ ‘In addition, Chalfant examines the spiritual elements in twelve-step groups.’ ‘I remember someone saying once that they really hated my books because they weren't ‘inspiring,’ but I just can't get with this idea that literature is a twelve-step program.’ ‘Perhaps this twelve-step approach has helped some people suffering from sexual addiction.’ ‘The third article presents a twelve-step approach to alcohol problems.’ ‘The answer in twelve-step programs is ‘No,’ an answer which points toward a very important distinction: spirituality and religion are not the same!’ ‘‘Take one day at a time,’ they say in the twelve-step system.’ ‘Can the principles of twelve-step programs be applied to child-raising?’ ‘Simply by being on the show, all six witnesses, as they were known, received free treatment in the twelve-step program of their choice.’ ‘I'm thinking of forming a twelve-step group for authors addicted to Amazon.com.’ ‘Maybe I can get into a twelve-step programme for this.’ ‘No need for a twelve-step program or a sponsor or a little plastic chip that told me how many days it had been since my last shot.’ ‘Seekers must embrace the ethical requirements of truth and compassion, whether in an eightfold way or a twelve-step program.’ verb[NO OBJECT]often as noun twelve-stepping
Undergo a twelve-step programme.
‘Beer: it's a national pastime, a vice, a Saturday night solace, a problem to be twelve-stepped over and now, it's a newsgroup.’ ‘Or, are these twelve-stepping starlets an out-picturing of a culture that is in pain and doesn't know any way out of it other than by numbing it?’ ‘My brother (several months sober at the time) had twelve-stepped me into Al-Anon a few years earlier.’ ‘He unapolegetically hasn't twelve-stepped his way into old age; indeed, at this point in his life, he'd probably croak if he stopped.’ ‘We always knew twelve-stepping was the best substitute for booze.’ ‘Despite all the hundreds of alcoholics he intensively twelve-stepped, despite earnest prayer and moralistic self-examination, his obsession with alcohol was not lifted.’ ‘So much for the effectiveness of AA, and twelve-stepping in general.’ ‘But even though Babbit gets carried away at times trying to be silly while making a point (homosexuality is not something that can be twelve-stepped away), her absolutely ideal cast keeps the comedy anchored in exaggerated but emotionally true performances.’ ‘We tend to think of our own culture as being overly therapized, New-Aged, twelve-stepped on, too ready to turn to the latest fad diet, homeo-aromatherapy ear candles, or Alexander technique to tell us how to lead our lives.’ ‘But you're right, something about twelve-stepping doesn't sit well with me, so I'm looking for a better path.’
We take a look at several popular, though confusing, punctuation marks.
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, discover surprising and intriguing language facts from around the globe.
The definitions of ‘buddy’ and ‘bro’ in the OED have recently been revised. We explore their history and increase in popularity. | 4,770 | 2,233 | 0.000485 |
warc | 201704 | Natural heritage
Heritage is that which is
inherited from past generations, maintained in the present, and bestowed to future generations. The term "natural heritage", derived from "natural inheritance", pre-dates the term "biodiversity." It is a less scientific term and more easily comprehended in some ways by the wider audience interested in conservation.
The term was used in this context in the United States when Jimmy Carter set up the Georgia Heritage Trust
[1] while he was governor of Georgia; [2] Carter's trust dealt with both natural and cultural heritage. [3] [4] It would appear that Carter picked the term up from Lyndon Johnson, [5] who used it in a 1966 Message to Congress. (He may have gotten the term from his wife Lady Bird Johnson who was personally interested in conservation.) President Johnson signed the Wilderness Act of 1964.
The term "Natural Heritage" was picked up by the Science Division of The Nature Conservancy when, under Robert E. Jenkins, Jr., it launched in 1974 what ultimately became the network of state natural heritage programs -- one in each state, all using the same methodology and all supported permanently by state governments because they scientifically document conservation priorities and facilitate science-based environmental reviews. When this network was extended outside the United States, the term "Conservation Data Center (or Centre)" was suggested by Guillermo Mann and came to be preferred for programs outside the US . Despite the name difference, these programs, too, use the same core methodology as the 50 state natural heritage programs.
Legal status[edit]
An important site of natural heritage or cultural heritage can be listed as a World Heritage Site by the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO. The UNESCO programme, catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity. As of March 2012, there are 936 World Heritage Sites: 725 cultural, 183 natural, and 28 mixed properties, in 153 countries.
The 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention established that biological resources, such as plants, were the common heritage of mankind or as was expressed in the preamble: "need to be preserved as part of the world heritage of mankind as a whole.". These rules probably inspired the creation of great public banks of genetic resources, located outside the source-countries.
New global agreements (e.g., the Convention on Biological Diversity), now give sovereign national rights over biological resources (not property). The idea of static conservation of biodiversity is disappearing and being replaced by the idea of dynamic conservation, through the notion of resource and innovation.
The new agreements commit countries to conserve biodiversity, develop resources for sustainability and share the benefits resulting from their use. Under new rules, it is expected that bioprospecting or collection of natural products has to be allowed by the biodiversity-rich country, in exchange for a share of the benefits.
In 2005, the World Heritage Marine Programme was established to protect marine areas with Outstanding Universal Values.
References[edit] http://maps.csc.noaa.gov/RoisDatabaseEntry/lawDetails.jsp?lawID=107 The creation of the Heritage Trust Commission, Georgia Heritage Trust Act, Official Code of Georgia (O.C.G.A.) Section 12-3-70 President Jimmy Carter http://alumnus.tennessee.edu/issues/contents/spring-2007/ Paul Pritchard, founder and president of the National Park Trust p. 311, The Governors of Georgia, 1754-2004 By James F. Cook, ISBN 0-86554-954-0, 2005 Mercer University Press Kiely, Kathy (2009-01-22). "Lady Bird Johnson dies at 94". USA Today. Retrieved 2010-05-20. | 3,755 | 1,876 | 0.000537 |
warc | 201704 | ERIC Number:ED540601 Record Type:Non-Journal Publication Date:2012-Sep Pages:32 Abstractor:As Provided Reference Count:24 ISBN:N/A ISSN:N/A
Validating Measures of Algebra Teacher Subject Matter Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge. CRESST Report 820
Buschang, Rebecca E.; Chung, Gregory K. W. K.; Delacruz, Girlie C.; Baker, Eva L.
National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST)
The purpose of this study was to validate inferences about scores of one task designed to measure subject matter knowledge and three tasks designed to measure aspects of pedagogical content knowledge. Evidence for the validity of inferences was based on two expectations. First, if tasks were sensitive to expertise, we would find group differences. Second, tasks that measured similar types of knowledge would correlate strongly, and tasks that measured different types of knowledge would correlate weakly. We recruited and assessed four groups of participants including 46 experienced algebra teachers (2+ years experience), 17 novice algebra teachers (0-2 years experience), 10 teaching experts, and 13 subject matter experts. Results indicate one task differentiated among levels of expertise and measured several aspects of knowledge needed to teach algebra. Results also highlight that future studies should use a combination of tasks to accurately measure different aspects of teacher knowledge. (Contains 7 tables and 4 figures.) [This paper was supported under the Educational Research and Development Centers Program.]
Descriptors: Validity, Measures (Individuals), Test Interpretation, Algebra, Mathematics Teachers, Experienced Teachers, Beginning Teachers, Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Teacher Characteristics, Expertise, Correlation, Differences
National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). 300 Charles E Young Drive N, GSE&IS Building 3rd Floor, Mailbox 951522, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1522. Tel: 310-206-1532; Fax: 310-825-3883; Web site: http://www.cresst.org
Publication Type:Reports - Research Education Level:N/A Audience:N/A Language:English Sponsor:N/A Authoring Institution:National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing | 2,243 | 1,130 | 0.000889 |
warc | 201704 | Barker, H. W., G. L. Stephens, P. T. Partain,
J. W. Bergman, B.Bonnel, K. Campana, E. E. Clothiaux, S. Clough, S. Cusack, J. Delamere,J. Edwards, K. F. Evans, Y. Fouquart, S. Freidenreich, V. Galin, Y. Hou,S. Kato, J. Li, E. Mlawer, J.-J. Morcrette, W. O'Hirok, P. Raisanen, V.Ramaswamy, B. Ritter, E. Rozanov, M. Schlesinger, K. Shibata, P. Sporyshev,Z. Sun, M. Wendisch, N. Wood, and F. Yang, 2003: Assessing 1D atmosphericsolar radiative transfer models: Interpretation and handling of unresolvedclouds. J. Climate, 16, 2676-2699.
ABSTRACT
The primary purpose of this study is to assess the performance of 1D solar radiative transfer codes that are used currently both for research and in weather and climate models. Emphasis is on interpretation and handling of unresolved clouds. Answers are sought to the following questions: (i) How well do 1D solar codes interpret and handle columns of information pertaining to partly cloudy atmospheres? (ii) Regardless of the adequacy of their assumptions about unresolved clouds, do 1D solar codes perform as intended?
One clear-sky and two plane-parallel, homogeneous (PPH) overcast cloudcases serve to elucidate 1D model differences due to varying treatmentsof gaseous transmittances, cloud optical properties, and basic radiativetransfer. The remaining four cases involve 3D distributions of cloud waterand water vapor as simulated by cloud-resolving models. Results for 25 1Dcodes, which included two line-by-line (LBL) models (clear and overcastonly) and four 3D Monte Carlo (MC) photon transport algorithms, weresubmitted by 22 groups. Benchmark, domain-averaged irradiance profileswere computed by the MC codes. For the clear and overcast cases, all MCestimates of top-of-atmosphere albedo, atmospheric absorptance, andsurface absorptance agree with one of the LBL codes to within ±2%.Most 1D codes underestimate atmospheric absorptance by typically 1525W m
2 at overhead sun for the standard tropical atmosphereregardless of clouds.
Depending on assumptions about unresolved clouds, the 1D codes were partitioned into four genres: (i) horizontal variability, (ii) exact overlap of PPH clouds, (iii) maximum/random overlap of PPH clouds, and (iv) random overlap of PPH clouds. A single MC code was used to establish conditional benchmarks applicable to each genre, and all MC codes were used to establish the full 3D benchmarks. There is a tendency for 1D codes to cluster near their respective conditional benchmarks, though intragenre variances typically exceed those for the clear and overcast cases. The majority of 1D codes fall into the extreme category of maximum/random overlap of PPH clouds and thus generally disagree with full 3D benchmark values. Given the fairly limited scope of these tests and the inability of any one code to perform extremely well for all cases begs the question that a paradigm shift is due for modeling 1D solar fluxes for cloudy atmospheres. | 2,944 | 1,494 | 0.000672 |
warc | 201704 | I was watching How I Met Your Mother the other day and the episode called ‘The Mermaid Theory’ was on. Great show by the way. Barney was in Marshal’s office and started talking about how Marshal might become attracted to his very homely secretary. Marshal laughed this off because one, he is very much in love with his wife, and two, his secretary wasn’t very attractive. Barney then goes on to explain the Mermaid Theory which goes as follows; even very unattractive women will become attractive to a man after a certain period of time. It’s called the mermaid theory because Barney made up a story about how fishermen used to be out at sea for long periods of time and they would see these manatees lying on the rocks. After a while however, with the low-level of sexual activity, the manatees started to look like hot fish women.
Here’s a clip of Barney telling the story
Now this is a comedic story commentating on the horndoggery of men, but if we try hard enough, which we always are able to do, we can see how this little story is able to open up a discussion on the creation of faeries. Some people believe that 100% no word of a lie faeries exist and are active in the every day (oh Marshal). A more popular belief in most developed countries is that faeries are mythological beings that are told in fairy tales and (really stretching it here) history/ english class. This would be a theory for the latter group.
If you don’t believe in faeries, you have to wonder how the idea of them came into existence. If you look at almost every culture, at some point or another there was this belief in these supernatural beings that manifested themselves on earth through nature. Faerie is one of the more popular words (as it is the word the English used for them and we were all conquered by the English and now speak their language), but there are many different names and different kinds of beings recognized around the world.
It’s interesting to think that at some point, someone came along and thought that this idea was important. Necessary. Why would thousands upon thousands of people not only believe but live their lives according to the fact that there are magical people who live in trees? Or under mountains? Or in oceans? Maybe it was to discover some truth, understand the rhyme and reason of the universe, to just know more about the earth. Maybe it was to put fear into the people. To keep them safe and out of trouble, to take care of their surroundings. Maybe it was to just have a bond with the universe that could be understood personally, humanized if you will. There are a lot of different theories floating around and a lot of time and paper have gone into trying to understand this fascination, and the seeming necessity of supernatural belief. On a semi related but very much tangential note I read an interesting book a while ago called The Faith Instinct by Nicholas Wade. If you’re interested.
There has always been skepticism with the topic of faeries, or anything requiring faith or belief, magic or miracle, but despite that constant skepticism, that faith and belief is always there, even when you don’t see it. And when you don’t see it is when it’s the most important because it means that it’ is intrinsically a part of you and you’re too close to the situation to notice. This is kind of what I take out of the mermaid theory (in this context). Nothing is ever just as it seems and your mind will always be messing with you, but the degree to which you begin to believe in a fantasy and the context of that fantasy dictates whether or not we think it’s acceptable. If I were to walk into work and tell people I believe in gnomes and nymphs I might be labelled as a person who’s not all there… maybe wasn’t love enough as a child. If I were to listen to someone talk about this ‘mermaid theory’ however, I would be able to relate that experience to how people interact with each other and think to myself, oh man isn’t that guy just an observant son of a gun. Both ideas are talking about the mind recognizing a truth that your eyes may not understand, but only one of the stories would be deemed credible because of the setting and the audience. Something to think about. | 4,322 | 1,998 | 0.000514 |
warc | 201704 | SUBJECT: Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income for First Quarter 2011 and Proposed Revisions for Second Quarter 2011
The attached materials pertain to the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report) for the March 31, 2011, report date. Please plan to complete the preparation, editing, and review of your bank's Call Report data and the submission of these data to the agencies' Central Data Repository (CDR) as early as possible. Starting your preparation early will help you identify and resolve any edit exceptions before the submission deadline. If you later find that certain information needs to be revised, please make the appropriate changes to your Call Report data and promptly submit the revised data file to the CDR.
Except for certain banks with foreign offices, your completed Call Report must be received by Saturday, April 30, 2011, in accordance with the filing requirements discussed below. No extensions of time for submitting Call Report data are granted.
As the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) previously advised, the agencies are implementing a number of revisions to the Call Report this quarter (see FIL-9-2011, dated February 14, 2011). For the March 31, 2011, report date, banks may provide reasonable estimates for any new or revised Call Report item initially required to be reported as of that date for which the requested information is not readily available. The reporting changes include:
Additional data on loans that are troubled debt restructurings; certain deposits with a remaining maturity of one year or less; commercial mortgage-backed securities; loans and other real estate covered by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) loss-sharing agreements; and bank-owned life insurance;
New data on consumer automobile loans; nonbrokered deposits obtained through deposit listing services; consolidated variable interest entities; captive insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries; and, for banks with total assets of $100 billion or more, credit valuation adjustments and debit valuation adjustments included in trading revenues;
Instructional revisions pertaining to construction loans and residential mortgage banking activities; and
Quarterly reporting of collective investment fund data by banks with significant fiduciary activities.
On February 7, 2011, the FDIC adopted a final rule that redefines the deposit insurance assessment base for all insured depository institutions as required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The final rule also revises the risk-based assessment system for all large institutions, generally, those institutions with at least $10 billion in total assets (see FIL-8-2011, dated February 9, 2011). To provide the data needed to implement the redefined assessment base and the revised large institution assessment system, the agencies have proposed revisions to Schedule RC-O – Other Data for Deposit Insurance and FICO Assessments that would take effect June 30, 2011. The agencies encourage you to review the proposal and comment on those aspects of interest to you. Comments may be sent to any or all of the agencies by the methods described in the agencies' Federal Register notice, which can be accessed at http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/federal/2011/11noticeMar16.pdf. All comments will be shared among the agencies and should be submitted by May 16, 2011. Please refer to this quarter's attached Supplemental Instructions for additional information on the proposed assessment-related reporting changes.
The Call Report forms and an instruction book update for March 2011 are available on the FFIEC's Web site (http://www.ffiec.gov/ffiec_report_forms.htm) and the FDIC's Web site (http://www.fdic.gov/callreports). Banks also should refer to this quarter's attached Supplemental Instructions for additional guidance on certain reporting issues. Report forms and instructional materials can be printed and downloaded from the FFIEC's and the FDIC's Web sites. Please notify the person responsible for preparing the Call Report at your bank about the electronic availability of the report forms, instruction book update, and Supplemental Instructions for March 2011.
Each bank must file its March 31, 2011, Call Report data in one of the following two ways:
By using computer software to prepare and edit its report data and then electronically submitting the data directly to the CDR (https://cdr.ffiec.gov/cdr/); or
By completing its report in paper form and arranging with a software vendor or another party to convert its paper report into the electronic format that can be processed by the CDR. The software vendor or other party then must electronically submit the bank's Call Report data file to the CDR.
Electronic submission of Call Report data will be considered timely if the data are received by the CDR no later than Saturday, April 30, 2011, and pass FFIEC-published validation criteria (validity edits and quality edits) or, where necessary, contain explanations for any quality edits that are not passed. Explanatory comments should be prepared in accordance with the "Guidelines for Resolving Edits" published on the FFIEC's Web site at http://www.ffiec.gov/find/documents/resolvingedits.pdf.
A bank with more than one foreign office, other than a "shell" branch or an International Banking Facility, is permitted an additional five calendar days to submit its Call Report data. Such a bank must electronically transmit its data to the CDR no later than Thursday, May 5, 2011. In addition, on or about each April 30 and October 30, the FDIC conducts a telephone survey of some banks with more than one foreign office to obtain certain deposit data needed to estimate insured deposits.
For technical assistance with the CDR, banks should contact the CDR Help Desk by telephone at (888) CDR-3111, by fax at (703) 774-3946, or by e-mail at CDR.Help@ffiec.gov. For further information concerning the Call Report, state member banks should contact their Federal Reserve District Bank. National and FDIC-supervised banks should contact the FDIC's Data Collection and Analysis Section in Washington, D.C., by telephone at (800) 688‑FDIC (3342) or e-mail at insurance-research@fdic.gov.
Timothy W. LongSenior Deputy Comptroller andChief National Bank ExaminerOffice of theComptroller of the Currency
Patrick M. ParkinsonDirectorDivision of BankingSupervision and RegulationBoard of Governors of theFederal Reserve System
Sandra L. ThompsonDirectorDivision ofRisk Management SupervisionFederal DepositInsurance Corporation | 6,627 | 2,905 | 0.000346 |
warc | 201704 | If you work in pharmacy, this has been on your radar since Zocor went generic years ago. Lipitor has been the biggest drug worldwide, and I believe the spend in the US is still almost $7B a year even with generic Zocor available. (See Consumer Reports on statins)
Now, it appears that generic Lipitor (atorvastatin) will be available 11/30/11 according to the Pfizer site. It looks like Ranbaxy who was first to file the ANDA will get the 180-day exclusivity (but I know several other generic manufacturers have challenged the patent).
So, what does this mean?
Lipitor will likely move to the 3 rdtier either immediately or at the next formulary update period once the generic is available on the market. Atorvastatin will become a part of statin step therapy programs. Pharmacies in states that have mandatory generic laws will begin auto-substitution of atorvastatin for Lipitor prescriptions unless there the script has a Dispense As Written (DAW) indication. Depending on the pricing of the generic, PBMs and pharmacies will be very aggressive about encouraging use of the generic version (as allowed with the AG settlements from years ago).
We’ve already seen Pfizer take some action which is to promote a $4 copay card (or 30-day sample) for patients. This is to protect market share, but it also makes me wonder if they won’t do something like Merck did by pricing the generic below the Ranbaxy price (see WSJ article).
Given that Pfizer owns a generic company (Greenstone), I have to imagine that they plan to sell atorvastatin thru that company. But, I think the big question that I would be focused on is whether there will be an “authorized generic” (look at the FTC interim report on this topic). This is a big topic in the industry. It allows the manufacturer who owns the patent to allow a generic manufacturer to make and produce a generic version outside of the ANDA process. Right now, it appears that Watson may get to bring an authorized generic of Lipitor to market.
Will you see the same energy around this as you did around Zocor? I remember having a whole “control room” that we developed at Express Scripts to encourage utilization of generic Zocor. It was built around several key things:
What were all the channels that a patient communicated with the PBM and how did we educate them around the new generic? [And which could we do at what time so as not to limit the short term rebates that our clients were getting on brand Zocor which kept the prices down until the generic was available?] Member portal Mail order invoices / stuffers Inbound IVR messaging while on hold FAQs Training call center reps Formulary notification programs How did we inform physicians? Academic detailing – fax, letter, phone consultations, face-to-face visits What plan design changes did we encourage? Step therapy What could be done at the POS with the retail pharmacies? What could be done at mail? How would we track success?
Personally, as a PBM or pharmacy, I’d be trying to lock in a period of exclusivity with Watson or Pfizer to have the limited distribution of the generic Lipitor for a period of time. That would be a huge deal (if it could be pulled off). | 3,224 | 1,635 | 0.000621 |
warc | 201704 | A Comparables Approach To Measuring Cashflow-At-Risk For Non-Financial Firms
Cashflow-at-Risk (C-FaR) is an attempt to create an analogue to Value at Risk (VaR) that can be used by non-financial firms to quantify various kinds of risk exposures, including interest rate, exchange rate, and commodity price risks. There are two basic ways to attack this problem. One is from the "bottom up," which involves building a detailed model of all of a company's specific exposures. The C-Far approach presented here is a "top-down" method of comparables that looks directly at the ultimate item of interest-the companies' cashflows. The fundamental challenge facing the top-down strategy is that, for any one company, there is not enough data on its own cashflows to make precise statements about the likelihood of rare events. To get around this problem, the authors match a target company with a large set of comparable companies that are expected to have similar cashflow volatility. The comparables are chosen to be close to the target company on four dimensions: (1) market cap; (2) profitability; (3) industry risk; and (4) stock price volatility. 2001 Morgan Stanley.
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Volume (Year): 13 (2001) Issue (Month): 4 () Pages: 100-109
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warc | 201704 | Disciplinary Corporate Takeovers: Evidence for Australia
This paper tests the relationship between takeovers and poor management performance, known as the market discipline hypothesis. We create a proprietary new Australian dataset for this study by individually researching company reports for executive retention data. We assess takeover targets for pre-bid managerial inefficiency and find evidence that Australian target companies exhibit negative abnormal returns prior to takeover. In particular, we find that disciplinary targets underperform their non-disciplinary counterparts. Our tests take into account the difference between friendly and hostile takeovers, and the industry sector in which the target firm operates.
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Volume (Year): 15 (2012) Issue (Month): 03 () Pages: 1250018-1-1250018-22
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warc | 201704 | Do College Students Learn By Correcting Missed Exam Questions?
This study determines the learning benefit of correcting missed exam questions. The results show that in addition to exams being an assessment tool, they can also be used as a tool for student learning. The availability of this information will provide help considering design, development, and improvement of traditional assessment methods for student learning.
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warc | 201704 | The Taxation of Income from Capital: A Comparative Study of the U.S., U.K., Sweden, and West Germany--The Theoretical Framework--
This working paper presents Chapter 2 of a book that has been submitted to the University of Chicago Press for publication consideration. The point of the book is to compare taxes on income from capital infour countries,accounting for corporate, personal, and property taxes, and including national, regional, and local level taxes. We describe statutory tax ratesand other tax rules in each country, and calculate overall effective marginal tax rates for different combinations of asset, industry, source of finance,and ownership categories.This chapter defines the methodological problems of estimating effective tax rates on income from capital, and it defines the limits of this analysisby pointing out areas that are excluded by this study. It sets out the parameters that need to be estimated for each country, and describes other data requirements involving the amount of each capital asset located in each industry, financed by each source, and owned by each ownership category.
Length: Date of creation: Jan 1983 Publication status: published as King, M. A. and D. Fullerton. "The Taxation of Income From Capital: A Comparative Stdy of the U.S., U.K., Sweden, and W. Germany--Theoretical Framework." The Taxation of Income From Capital: A Compartivie Stdy of the U.S., U. K., Sweden and W. Grmny, ed. by M> King & D. Fullerton. Chicago: UCP (1984 Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1058 Note: PE Contact details of provider: Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
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Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services. | 2,923 | 1,435 | 0.000701 |
warc | 201704 | Your mother was wrong: Sitting up straight is bad for you. Scottish radiologists confirmed in a study last year that a 130-degree angle of recline between torso and thighs reduces pressure on the discs in the lower back. This (and its sleek design) is why the ubiquitous Aeron chair was so ahead of its time in 1994. It deeply reclined by pivoting at the hips.
But designers find that the features of chairs like the Aeron (see image below) are lost on most sitters. The array of levers and knobs—recline tension, lumbar support, seat-pan depth, forward tilt—are commonly ignored by users, who only think to change the chair’s height.
above: The revolutionary Aeron Chair
This neglect has manufacturers such as Herman Miller and Humanscale looking toward the next frontier: a self-adjusting chair. “We’re working on a chair that will listen to who’s sitting on it and adjust itself to their weight,” says Bill Dowell, director of research at Herman Miller, which makes the Aeron.
Humanscale’s Freedom chairs (shown above) include a counterbalance system that adjusts itself like scales to the sitter’s weight as he or she reclines, eliminating the need for recline controls.
above photo by Nick Kaloterakis
Or perhaps the chair of the future isn’t one at all. Chairs contribute in part to the high rate of back pain, which, according to the National Institutes of Health, affects eight out of 10 Americans. “Our notion of a machine for sitting may not make sense in a globalized world,” says Herman Miller designer Cameron Campbell. Galen Cranz of the University of California at Berkeley points out in her book The Chair that the Indian practice of squatting and the Muslim practice of stretching five times a day to pray have great ergonomic benefits. Ten years from now, one worker may settle into a low recliner, another will kneel on a soft carpet, and they’ll talk across a pile of office cushions.—
This article is reprinted from THE FUTURE OF WORK-Pimp Your Cube 2017
The ultimate self-adjusting office chair plus seven more concepts that will make your daily grind a little smoother By Peter Hall and Lauren Aaronson | February 2007 Peter Hall | 2,232 | 1,220 | 0.00085 |
warc | 201704 | The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has awarded a $200,000 grant to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation in an effort to help the tribe meet its water needs over the next ten years. In an interview with Indian Country Today Media Network, Serdar Çam, president of TIKA within the office of the Turkish prime minister, discussed the first-of-its-kind award from the agency and ongoing efforts to generate more economic partnerships between Turkey and tribes. How was the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation chosen to receive the grant?
The application process began after a grant announcement was released via the National American Indian Housing Council's (NAIHC) mailing list in September 2012.The Turkish Coalition of America, a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit that aims to foster better understanding of U.S.-Turkey relations, facilitated the grant submission and review process and collected applications through October 2012. A total of 32 proposals were submitted and reviewed by an independent panel comprised of Native Americans on a point scale based on how the project met the needs of the community, estimated impact in the short and long term, and overall objectives. When all entries were tallied, the Confederated Tribes of Warms Springs Reservation was the top scorer, and was therefore selected as the recipient of the first grant by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, an agency within the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey.
What does the tribe plan to do with the grant?
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon are currently building an 80,000 square foot elementary school facility on their reservation that will serve 648 children in K-8th grade. The TIKA grant will aid with the construction of a 500,000-gallon water tank to meet the water demands of the growing student population over the next 10 years. Moreover, the tribes' current water resources are inadequate to fully protect lives and structures on the reservation and the water tank that will be built with TIKA funds is also necessary for protection against fire in high risk areas.
How will you measure the success of the grant?
The TIKA delegation has already paid a visit to the reservation and will stay in close contact with the tribes to ensure the construction timeline is met and the funds are expended per the agreement.
More broadly, do you think that ties are growing between Turkey and Indian country?
There has always been an affinity among Turks towards Native Americans due to certain similarities ranging from rug motifs to family structures. The development of a more structured and consistent approach to expanding ties between Turkey and Indian country, however, began first with the Turkish Coalition of America’s Study Abroad Scholarships to Native American college and graduate students who chose Turkey as their study abroad destination. A total of 16 scholarships have been awarded to Native American students since the inception of the TCA scholarship program in 2008. The educational exchanges paved the way for cultural, political and economic exchanges between Tribes as TCA coordinated multiple trips to facilitate growing ties between Turkey and the tribes.
Legislation that would help strengthen the economic relationship between Turkey and Indian country has not been able to make it through the U.S. Congress. Why do you think that is?
The legislation introduced [last year] by Mr. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) is a welcome first step in cementing the growing ties between Turkey and Indian country. The sole purpose of this legislation was to involve Native Americans and private companies from all over, World Trade Organization countries, in a way to develop a new understanding that will eventually bolster economic growth in Indian country. The legislation, which was supported by nearly two-thirds of House members, unfortunately did not meet the required majority due to opposition by some members on issues extraneous to the legislation itself. Regardless, we continue to explore ways to deepen and strengthen the relations between Turkey and Native American communities, with the awareness that this will not just help the Native Americans, but will also bring a new dimension to the strategic partnership between Turkey and our friend and ally the United States.
Finally, will Turkey be giving more tribal grants in the future?
TIKA was established in 1992 to provide development assistance to countries to improve cooperation through projects and programs in economic, commercial, technical, social, cultural and educational arenas. TIKA currently maintains 26 coordination offices in 23 countries across Africa, Asia, and Europe. This is the first TIKA grant to North America. Earlier this year, TIKA provided a grant to Strategies for International Development (SID) to assist poverty alleviation efforts in Peru, Guatemala and Bolivia. TIKA grants aim to facilitate economic, commercial, technical, social, cultural and educational cooperation with recipient countries via development assistance projects. In fulfillment of its mission, TIKA works to enhance infrastructure; improve living standards; provide vocational training and employment; protect cultural heritage and improve cultural relations; and strengthen information and publishing services. While this is the first grant by TIKA to the tribes, there may be other opportunities in the future for the Turkish Agency to collaborate with Indian country.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. | 5,603 | 2,504 | 0.000401 |
warc | 201704 | English français Essays in Empirical Corporate Finance
This dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter examines whether the availability of credit default swaps (CDS) has consequences for creditor governance. CDSs offer creditors the opportunity to hedge credit risk and may impact their willingness to renegotiate debt agreements after covenant violations and to monitor firms. I show that firms implement more conservative investment and financing policies after covenant violations if CDSs are traded on their debt, consistent with heightened renegotiation frictions. Moreover, firms with traded CDS contracts exhibit significantly worse operating and stock performance after covenant violations. Overall, these findings point to an exacerbation of debt-equity conflicts due to the availability of CDSs. Finally, I analyze the interaction of creditor governance and internal governance, and provide evidence suggesting that the possibility to hedge risk through CDSs also reduces creditors' incentives to monitor firms. The second chapter models the joint effects of debt, macroeconomic conditions, and cash flow cyclicality on risk-shifting behavior and managerial pay-for-performance sensitivity. I show that risk-shifting incentives rise during recessions and that the shareholders can eliminate such adverse incentives by reducing the equity-based compensation in managerial contracts. I also show that this reduction should be larger in highly procyclical firms. Using a sample of U.S. public firms, I provide evidence supportive of the model's prediction. First, I find that equity-based incentives are reduced during recessions. Second, I show that the magnitude of this effect is increasing in a firm's cash flow cyclicality. The third chapter analyzes the impact of the formation of universal banks on corporate investment by looking at the gradual dismantling of the Glass-Steagall Act's separation between commercial and investment banking. Using a matched sample of U.S. firms and their relationship banks, I show that firms curtail investment after positive shocks to the underwriting capacity of their main bank. This result is driven by unrated firms and is strongest in the first two years after a shock. Moreover, I obtain similar results for borrowing firms' net debt issuance activity. As an exogenous shock to the formation of universal banks in the U.S., I also use the 1997 loosening of restrictions on commercial banks' securities activities. My findings suggest that universal banks may pay more attention to large and transparent firms that provide more underwriting opportunities while exacerbating financial constraints of opaque firms.
Programme doctoral en Finance
Collège du management de la technologie
Institut suisse de la finance à l'EPFL
Chaire du Prof. ordinaire Morellec
Jury: Prof. P. Collin Dufresne (président) ; Prof. E. Morellec, Prof. R. Fahlenbrach (directeurs) ; Prof. Ph. Valta, Prof. C. Salva Lopez, Prof. L. Mancini (rapporteurs)
Public defense: 2015-6-26
Reference
Record created on 2015-06-22, modified on 2016-08-09 | 3,116 | 1,509 | 0.000669 |
warc | 201704 | At last week’s Internet of Healthcare conference, we caught up with experts to discuss if – and how – practitioners and hospitals are approaching the Internet of Things (IoT) age.
When it comes to the IoT, certain sectors are much more advanced than others in terms of understanding and adopting these technologies.
At our
Internet of Healthcare conference in London, we were reminded that the healthcare sector is not the driving force behind IoT adoption, at least not in the UK.
A range of speakers from different backgrounds converged to attend the event. But, from citizen hackers to pathologists, general practitioners to clinicians, the message was loud and clear: widespread use of IoT technologies in healthcare remains a long way off.
IoT in healthcare: what’s the problem?
Some familiar problems facing healthcare professionals flared up over the course of the two days. In short, the need to do more with less.
“It just needs money behind it,” claimed one GP turned digital health strategist over a discussion about the NHS in England. Yet others argued that simply throwing money at the problem does not help you overcome the numerous cultural differences.
We also heard regularly that doctors and care workers simply do not understand IoT, and even those that do are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data.
“The joy of technology is that we’re data rich,” Dr Muhammed Ali, a clinical director at Epsom Health and Care told the conference. “The misery is that we have no idea what to do with it.”
Doctor-turned-CEO, Ajay Bakshi, emphasized the need to put tech-savvy clinicians at the heart of any change. It’s a successful practice that he’s employed at Manipal Hospitals in India, we heard. He said that it’s all about putting ‘hospitals at the heart of the IoT healthcare ecosystem.’
Yet, employing different people is only part of the solution. You can’t simply replace your current staff with tech-savvy individuals.
A much longer process of education and upskilling needs to take place.
Even then, there’s still a weak link in the chain. Almost everyone we spoke to explained the desperate need to empower patients, for them to control their condition and their data. And yet, despite this, some were unconvinced that this will ever be possible.
“The limitation is the patient, not the technology,” said ‘citizen health hacker’, Tim Omer. “What use is real-time data if I can’t access it real-time?”
Power to the people?
So, if we give patients more power through technology will that help?
One argument was that by giving patients access to their data, they will feel more in control of their own health.
“If you give the patient their data, the information governance problems go out of the window!” Dr Shahid Ali, GP and national clinical leader, informed the audience.
Despite these calls, speakers from DigitalHealth.London reminded us that, while 96 percent of 18-24 year olds in the UK have smartphones (71 percent of the general population), only two percent of healthcare interactions are happening on mobile devices.
A dose of reality
What became increasingly clear is that for those looking to change the status quo, the odds are stacked against them. There is a lack of agreement on the best way to encourage adoption of such nascent technology like IoT, and realistically hospitals and GPs have greater things to worry about.
Indeed, it seemed odd that the same event tackling the future of healthcare through IoT sensors, beacons and Artificial Intelligence, healthcare professionals also spoke ruefully about the downsides of fax machines and paper notes. The gap between the possibilities and the reality could not be larger.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, however. Speakers from hospitals across Europe stood out with shining examples of what can happen if you have the chance to start from scratch.
Professor Henny van Laarhoven outlined how the standardized, flexible architecture of the Orbis Medical Centre in Zuyderland, Netherlands, was reflected in the standardized, flexible ICT systems they implemented.
The hospital has 12 robots doing the logistics and supply work that 20 people would be required to do in any ordinary hospital.
Similarly, speakers from the Odense University Hospital in Denmark showcased how video-conferencing and online consultations can actually prevent patients from coming into the GP or hospital. If it sounds straightforward that’s because it is, and in its own way, it’s a technological means to empower the patient.
Overall, the number of IoT use-cases remain few and far between in this sector. We’re looking forward to next year’s conference to see how things have changed.
The best from social media
— Internet of Business (@InternetofBiz) September 22, 2016
— Charles Lowe (@LoweCM) September 22, 2016
Innovation requires funding, and knowing how to access the money is crucial – Joe McGilligan #HealthyIoT
— Keith Grimes (@keithgrimes) September 21, 2016
— Loy Lobo (@4LoyLobo) September 22, 2016
For more of our latest news, reviews, events and features? Sign up for our weekly newsletter here ! | 5,303 | 2,589 | 0.000403 |
warc | 201704 | ch
ool
Johnston Elementary School Hopkinton, Iowa u te s to S S afe
Ro
Johnston Elementary School
School Location: 131 Culver Rd. Hopkinton, IA 52237
Present Conditions Number of students: 79
Parent Surveys Student surveys were administered to parents of children attending grades kindergarten through 5th at Johnston Elementary School, during the month of January in 2011. Parents were asked to fill out the survey form about their child’s transportation to school. The survey asked parents about the safety of their child’s route to school and what they viewed as impediments to walking or biking to school.
Travel Mode to School 47 parents at Johnston Elementary School responded to the survey, and this constitutes 59% of the student body. Parents responding to the survey stated that their child travels to school most often by school bus (61.70 %), family vehicle (23.40%), and walking (8.51%).
Travel Time to School 31.91% of parents responding to the survey stated that their child spends less than 5 minutes traveling to school. 31.91% of parents who responded stated that their child spends 11-20 minutes traveling to school. 19.15% of parents responded saying that their child spends more than 20 minutes traveling to school.
[1]
Travel Distance to School 59.57% of parents responding to the survey stated that their child travels more than 2 miles to get to school.
Grade Level Allowed to Walk/Bike to School Parents responding to the survey viewed 3rd grade (14.89%), and 5th grade (8.51%) as an appropriate, allowable age for a child to walk or bike to school. 53.19% of parents responding to the survey stated that they would not feel comfortable allowing their child to walk or bike to school.
Environmental Factors Impacting Walking/Biking The most common changes that would encourage more students to walk or bike to school included safety of intersections, and a shorter distance to school. The major issues brought up by parents were distance and safety of intersections along the route to school.
[2]
Interest in Behavior Change Programs Parents were asked to describe their willingness to participate in the following programs. Program description are below the corresponding pie chart. Parent Remote Drop-Off
Bus Remote Drop-Off
Shared Rural Bus Stops
Bike Racks on School Buses
Parents drop students off within a walkable distance of school. The students then walk the remaining distance.
The bus driver drops students off within a walkable distance of school. The students then walk the remaining distance
Students walk to a shared bus stop and the bus picks them up from this location.
Students ride their bike to the bus stop and use the bike rack on the school bus to transport the bike to and from school.
Incentives/Programs The top parent suggestions for increasing walking and biking were: 1. Adult supervision 2. Safety education 3. Crosswalks The streets cited most often by parents as being unsafe included: 1. Highway 38
[3]
School Administrator Input Sta met with Johnston Elementary School administrators and local oďŹƒcials to discuss problems impacting children who walk or bike to school. During these meetings, both structural and educational solutions were discussed. The following table contains the problems and solutions that were suggested at the meeting.
1
[4]
Problem Crossing HWY 38 is not safe for the students since drivers are not paying enough attention to pedestrians trying to cross.
Solution A crosswalk along with signs would create more awareness for the drivers and cause them to pay more attention to walkers and bikers.
Mapping Johnston Elementary School Project List Based on the input received during public meetings and input sessions with school administrators, city planning and engineering sta, and the local police department, the following map was created to provide a visual representation of the projects. Each marker on the map corresponds to an issue in the table on page 4.
1
[5] | 4,089 | 1,724 | 0.000599 |
warc | 201704 | Sunday, April 12, 2009 – Some Improvement
Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius. ~ William Blake
Though all society is founded on intolerance, all improvement is founded on tolerance. ~ George Bernard Shaw
To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement. ~ Thomas Jefferson
I hate it when people say somebody has a “speech impediment,” even if he does, because it could hurt his feelings. So instead, I call it a “speech improvement”, and I go up to the guy and say, “Hey, Bob, I like your speech improvement.” I think this makes him feel better. ~ Jack Handy
Those who would administer wisely must, indeed, be wise, for one of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity. ~ Andrew Carnegie
Every improvement in communication makes the bore more terrible. ~ Frank Moore Colby
All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. ~ Samuel Johnson
The rich adopt novelties and become accustomed to their use. This sets a fashion which others imitate. Once the richer classes have adopted a certain way of living, producers have an incentive to improve the methods of manufacture so that soon it is possible for the poorer classes to follow suit. Thus luxury furthers progress. Luxury is the roadmaker of progress: it develops latent needs and makes people discontented. In so far as they think consistently, moralists who condemn luxury must recommend the comparatively desireless existence of the wild life roaming in the woods as the ultimate ideal of civilized life. ~ Ludwig von Mises
The diffusion of taste is not the same thing as the improvement of taste. ~ William Hazlitt
It’s the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you’re mad, then dangerous, then there’s a pause and then you can’t find anyone who disagrees with you. ~ Tony Benn
Time advances: facts accumulate; doubts arise. Faint glimpses of truth begin to appear, and shine more and more unto the perfect day. The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn. They are bright, while the level below is still in darkness. But soon the light, which at first illuminated only the loftiest eminences, descends on the plain, and penetrates to the deepest valley. First come hints, then fragments of systems, then defective systems, then complete and harmonious systems. The sound opinion, held for a time by one bold speculator, becomes the opinion of a small minority, of a strong minority, of a majority of mankind. Thus, the great progress goes on. ~ Thomas Babington Macaulay
But for the silly chaps, we would still be living in the Stone Age. ~ Sir Christopher Cockerell
A collection of good books, with a soul to it in the shape of a librarian, becomes a vitalized power among the impulses by which the world goes on to improvement. ~ Justin Winsor
I feel not unlike a small boy, waking from a bad dream to find reality not much of an improvement. ~ John Byrne
If the world were extremely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. That makes it hard to plan the day. ~ William Allen White
No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing it is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them. ~ Alan Watts
The Cube is an imitation of life itself – or even an improvement on life. ~ Erno Rubik
That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head. ~ Charlie Chaplin | 4,248 | 2,135 | 0.000477 |
warc | 201704 | Salas, L.A. and Bedos, A. and Deharveng, L. and Fryer, S. and Hadiaty, R. and Noerdjito, M. and Rahmadi, C. and Riyanto, A. and Ruskamdi, A. and Struebig, Matthew J. and Suhardjono, Y. and Suyanto, Agustinus and Vermeulen, J.J. and Walck, C. and Wiriadinata, H. and Meijaard, Erik and Stanley, S. (2005)
Biodiversity, endemism and the conservation of limestone Karsts in the Sangkulirang Peninsula, Borneo. Biodiversity, 6 (2). pp. 15-23. ISSN 1488-8386. (doi:10.1080/14888386.2005.9712762) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided)
The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication) Official URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2005.9712762
Abstract
The Sangkulirang Peninsula in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo has been highlighted as a global priority for karst ecosystem conservation. A team of 19 scientists led by The Nature Conservancy and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences conducted a 5-week biological survey of Sangkulirang's karst mountains between July and August 2004 to determine the conservation relevance of the area based on its species richness and endemism levels. Preliminary results suggest that the peninsula is home to high levels of diversity for plants, snails, insects, birds and bats. The results underline the complementarity of species assemblages in this karst landscape, which is an important result for conservation planning. Because of these differences, more than one site must be protected to ensure the adequate protection of most species in one taxon. Several new species of plants and animals were discovered, including what is probably the largest cave cockroach in the world and a very small blind crab. Preliminary results also show significant threats to this biodiversity due to large-scale fires and, in some areas, illegal logging and hunting. The results of this survey will be used to elaborate or complement a proposal for legal protection and management of the Sangkulirang Peninsula karst ecosystem, in joint efforts with partner organizations and stakeholders, through a World Heritage site nomination.
Item Type: Article Subjects: Q Science > QH Natural history > QH75 Conservation (Biology) Divisions: Faculties > Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation > DICE (Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology) Depositing User: Matthew Struebig Date Deposited: 03 Oct 2012 11:43 Last Modified: 18 Jul 2014 09:16 Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/31195 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) | 2,752 | 1,420 | 0.000706 |
warc | 201704 | No human being will work hard at anything unless they believe that they are working for competence. – William Glasser
After my induction in my first job, first work assignment I got was to help my corporate trainer in a training program. Trainer sent me a participants question paper & asked me to print 30 copies of it.
The problem was – I didn’t have enough skill to take print out – I don’t know how to connect my machine to printer, how to print a document and even I don’t know where the printer is situated. I was so shy tell him I don’t know this job or ask him right questions to do the activity. I stayed late in the evening & do something about it, but my mind filled with fear & I was not ready to face the trainer next day without completing the job.
I took time-off next day & returned the job the day after. I was hiding here and there to escape from the trainer. During lunch, he met me and asked me “why did you do like this?” I stood in front of him quietly. He told me “If you don’t know the job, tell you don’t know it & ask for help. People will help if it is possible or if it is so urgent, they will get help from others in right time. You wasted my time” & went off.
Though printing is a simple activity, it requires certain basic & sufficient knowledge and skill to produce the printouts. I can read books to get basic knowledge but that is not enough. I need to get the skill to perform the activity by doing it or by trying to do it. Like printing, every activity requires the sufficiency in skills to produce the right outcome.
Sufficient Knowledge & Skill to perform an activity is called Competency. One of the important factor that divide an experienced from an inexperienced is Competency. In a job, Expected Level of Competency varies based on role & tenure in the job (experience). In Project Management, HR Management closely deals with competency. Competency is one of the required Leadership Skills for leaders which I listed in Leadership Champions – Leadership Rubik Cube.
Let me close this post with apt quote from Roosevelt.
“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” ― Theodore Roosevelt | 2,310 | 1,155 | 0.000909 |
warc | 201704 | Title: Novel Tools for Conservation Genomics: Comparing Two High-Throughput Approaches for SNP Discovery in the Transcriptome of the European Hake Authors: Milano, Ilaria × Babbucci, Massimiliano Panitz, Frank Ogden, Rob Nielsen, Rasmus O Taylor, Martin I Helyar, Sarah J Carvalho, Gary R Espineira, Montserrat Atanassova, Miroslava Tinti, Fausto Maes, Gregory E Patarnello, Tomaso Bargelloni, Luca # Issue Date: Nov-2011 Publisher: Public Library of Sciene Series Title: PLoS One vol:6 issue:11 pages:- Article number: e28008 Abstract: The growing accessibility to genomic resources using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies has revolutionized the application of molecular genetic tools to ecology and evolutionary studies in non-model organisms. Here we present the case study of the European hake (Merluccius merluccius), one of the most important demersal resources of European fisheries. Two sequencing platforms, the Roche 454 FLX (454) and the Illumina Genome Analyzer (GAII), were used for Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) discovery in the hake muscle transcriptome. De novo transcriptome assembly into unique contigs, annotation, and in silico SNP detection were carried out in parallel for 454 and GAII sequence data. High-throughput genotyping using the Illumina GoldenGate assay was performed for validating 1,536 putative SNPs. Validation results were analysed to compare the performances of 454 and GAII methods and to evaluate the role of several variables (e.g. sequencing depth, intron-exon structure, sequence quality and annotation). Despite well-known differences in sequence length and throughput, the two approaches showed similar assay conversion rates (approximately 43%) and percentages of polymorphic loci (67.5% and 63.3% for GAII and 454, respectively). Both NGS platforms therefore demonstrated to be suitable for large scale identification of SNPs in transcribed regions of non-model species, although the lack of a reference genome profoundly affects the genotyping success rate. The overall efficiency, however, can be improved using strict quality and filtering criteria for SNP selection (sequence quality, intron-exon structure, target region score). ISSN: 1932-6203 Publication status: published KU Leuven publication type: IT Appears in Collections: Laboratory for Animal Biodiversity and Systematics (-) | 2,364 | 1,321 | 0.000759 |
warc | 201704 | Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28060
Title: Reading the Stranger of Asylum Law: Legacies of Communication and Ethics Authors: Johnson, Toni Ann Marie First Published: 21-Jun-2013 Publisher: Springer Verlag Citation: Feminist Legal Studies, 2013, 21 (2), in press Abstract: In this paper I argue that the way in which the UK asylum system currently functions, fails to legally and discursively acknowledge the UK's culpability and contribution to contexts that generate refugees via, for example, legacies of colonialism and engagement in neoliberal economic practices. I claim that these legacies fundamentally and detrimentally impact on, and delineate the relationship between, asylum claimant and Immigration Judge. Responding to these legacies and the concurrent interpersonal impact, I draw on the work of Iris Marion Young and Emmanuel Levinas in order to reframe the relationships between the interlocutors. Using an ethical framework I focus on the benefits that engaging with, and bearing responsibility for the other may have on the provision of justice for refugees. I rely in part on Iris Marion Young's understanding of a communicative ethics based on 'asymmetrical reciprocity', which is indebted to Levinas' conceptualisation of the 'other' - the other as unknowable, and irreducible, and to whom we are obligated - in order to address the place of an ethics of responsibility. DOI Link: 10.1007/s10691-013-9237-x ISSN: 0966-3622 eISSN: 1572-8455 Links: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10691-013-9237-x
http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28060
Version: Post-print Status: Peer-reviewed Type: Journal Article Rights: Copyright © 2013, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Deposited with reference to the publisher’s archiving policy available on the SHERPA/RoMEO website. The final publication is available at link.springer.com. Appears in Collections: Published Articles, School of Law
Files in This Item:
File Description Size Format FLS_Revision_10.pdf Post-review (final submitted) 290.89 kB Adobe PDF View/Open
Items in LRA are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. | 2,204 | 1,235 | 0.000817 |
warc | 201704 | Despite popular belief, left-handers are no more gifted than their right-handed counterparts, with Flinders University research finding that some left-handed children actually have significantly lower cognitive abilities.
The study, undertaken by Flinders Professor Mike Nicholls and colleagues from Monash University and the University of California, analysed data from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to test the theory that left-handed children are smarter, naughtier and more prone to illness and injury than right-handed children.
The researchers measured physical health, mental health and cognitive development across four key areas – vocabulary, mathematics, reading and comprehension.
Professor Nicholls, head of the Brain and Cognition Laboratory at Flinders, said the team found little evidence to suggest that left-handed children have a higher probability of injury, illness or behavioural problems compared with right-handed children.
However, he said left-handed children achieved significantly lower cognitive development scores for all areas except reading.
"It's often claimed that left-handers are more likely to have health problems such as asthma but we didn't find any different outcomes between left and right-handers," Professor Nicholls said.
"Some evidence suggests that left-handers are also more accident-prone but our results show that isn't the case – if left-handers do experience injury it's probably not due to clumsiness but rather the struggle of interacting in a right-handed world," he said.
"But in all areas with the exception of reading, a significant number of the left-handers were at the lower end of the IQ scale – it's not that they all did badly but there was a sub-set of left-handers who had really low scores which brought the entire group down.
"The American President and the Australian Prime Minister are both left-handers and there are many other high-performing left-handers in the world so there's a myth that left-handers are naturally brilliant.
"If that was the case, however, we should have seen an over-representation of left-handers with very high cognitive ability scores – and we didn't see this pattern."
Professor Nicholls said the data showed a distinct subset of left-handers with lower cognitive abilities, suggesting that perhaps some left-handers acquire developmental problems at birth and may benefit from extra tutoring.
"Based on our findings it's likely that left-handed children will need a bit of extra help with schooling to get them up to a higher level but it could also be a matter of making their work environment better so they're not constantly bumping arms with the kid next to them or using right-handed scissors.
"The most important thing is not to change a child's left-handedness."
As a left-hander, Professor Nicholls said the findings were not intended to offend.
"Our past research has revealed very similar findings and left-handers can get upset with what we report. However, it's not a matter of opinion; we're simply reporting what is there.
"To be honest, when I started this research, I expected left-handers to do better and this would have fitted in much better with genetic theories of why left-handers exist in the first place."
Explore further: Singles feel singled out More information: Handedness, health and cognitive development: evidence from children in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, has just been published in the International Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. | 3,557 | 1,616 | 0.000628 |
warc | 201704 | Just a short post today. There be writin’ that needs doin’.
I’ve realized that I’m pretty out of touch with politics. I’ve had enough going on in my personal life that I haven’t paid much attention to the governing bodies in our society.
Plus, as a former philosophy student, I get frustrated with most political issues and debates because the roots of most disagreements lie at a baser level. They require discussions about ethics, etymology, metaphysics, theology, and a slew of other schools of thought.
So, basically, discussions about healthcare, taxes, welfare, and the involvement of the government in business are just surface discussions: a ton of “hidden” beliefs fuel those debates, and
those beliefs and values are what we need to talk about.
However, since our presidential election is almost upon us (maybe the Mayans were anticipating this?), I feel it necessary to get my political ducks (or elephants and donkeys) in a row.
So, I’m making a mini-vow to follow what’s going on in the political world. It seems the only way to do that effectively is to visit different news sites (since every single one of them has a bias, so you gotta shop around to get a complete picture). I’ve done a bit of catching up already, and I’m almost regretting it, but it’s important to stay informed, right?
…….
RIGHT? 😦
Do you follow politics? Do you feel they impact your life directly or is it something you couldn’t care less about? | 1,536 | 856 | 0.001251 |
warc | 201704 | Tags
73, allowance, benefit, benefits, Coalition, committee, Commons, Conservative, deaths, Debbie Abrahams, Department, disability, disabled, DWP, employment, ESA, government, health, IB, Incapacity Benefit, Malcolm Harrington, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, Paul Litchfield, Pensions, people, politics, recipients, sick, social security, specialist, Sue Marsh, support, Tories, Tory, Vox Political, WCA, welfare, work, work capability assessment
An evidence session on Employment and Support Allowance and Work Capability Assessments was held by the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee on Wednesday – and was notable for the fact that the ‘expert’ hired to review the system claimed to know nothing about the thousands of deaths taking place because of the current system.
Dr Paul Litchfield OBE was hired to take over from Professor Malcolm Harrington to carry out the fourth annual independent review of the assessment process. It seems Prof Harrington was replaced amicably, but evidence has come to light that he was not happy with political decisions that ran against his findings.
A claim that the government was taking “appropriate steps” in areas singled out for improvement by Prof Harrington was disproved when it was revealed that almost two-thirds of the 25 recommendations he made in his year one review were not fully and successfully implemented.
The government also claimed, repeatedly, that Prof Harrington had supported the migration of Incapacity Benefit claimants to ESA. When fellow blogger Sue Marsh contacted him for confirmation, he responded: “I NEVER—repeat–NEVER agreed to the IB migration. I would have preferred that it be delayed but by the time I said that, the political die had been cast. I then said that I would review progress of that during my reviews. The decision was political. I could not influence it. IS THAT CRYSTAL CLEAR?”
The vehemence of his response suggests some friction with his former employers at the very least –
and over “political” decisions.
Now we have Dr Litchfield, who claims to have no information about the staggering number of people who have died after going through the assessment system he is being paid to review.
Doesn’t that seem – at the very least – a little odd?
He could have, at least, looked up the government’s own statistical release ‘Incapacity Benefits – Deaths of Recipients’ from July 2012. It is long out-of-date and pressure on the government for fresh figures has been stonewalled for two years, but it does show that 10,600 people died between January and November 2011 – including an average of 73 people every week, when the system claimed they were still being assessed or should be getting better. These figures are believed to be inaccurate measures as the government does not monitor deaths of people who have been refused the benefit – the vast majority of claimants.
It seems we are dealing with another Tory yes-man, hired not to improve ESA, but to make it and the government look good.
Dr Litchfield’s attitude is revealed on the video record of the meeting, which is available on the Parliament UK website, starting two hours, 11 minutes and 41 seconds into the recording.
Committee member Debbie Abrahams (Labour) had just received a Tweet stating: “Litchfield doesn’t want to come out and say scrap WCA because 10,600 dead or he’ll be out of a job, slime bag.”
Turning to Litchfield, she said: “I’ve just been contacted by someone who is commenting on the number of people that are dying every week as a result of being found fit for work after an assessment. I don’t know if you’d like to comment on that?”
The response – from the man who is supposed to have every scrap of information about ESA, let us remember – was as follows: “I don’t have any information of that type; I haven’t seen numbers on that. Clearly every case would be a tragedy.”
That is infuriating for campaigners – one of whom contacted
Vox Political and stated: “The wicked toad said he had no knowledge of the deaths. What a lie, how evil – it’s common knowledge, it’s DWP’s own figure, it’s been brought up many times in House of Commons debates… They should sack him and not believe a word he says… no impartiality whatsoever.” It seems the tragedy, in this case, is the hiring of Dr Litchfield.
Thanks to Katy Marchant for flagging this up.
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@MidWalesMike
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Alternatively, you can buy the first Vox Political book, Strong Words and Hard Times in either print or eBook format here: | 5,009 | 2,385 | 0.000443 |
warc | 201704 | The San Francisco Unified School District missed out on more than $100,000 in future funding Wednesday, as attendance numbers in the Mission District and other parts of the city plummeted because students skipped school to join the Giants for the team’s World Series celebration.
“They want their kids to go to the parade. It’s taken over the city,” Norma Gamino, the attendance secretary at John O’Connell High School, said Wednesday.
Administrators, she added, fought with parents all morning on Wednesday about pulling their children out.
The high school has an attendance rate of 598 students on a normal day, but approximately half were absent on the day of the parade.
San Francisco Unified School District receives $37.75 per student per day from the state this year. Every day a child is absent from school, the district effectively loses out on that money.
Average year-to-date attendance for schools in the district hover around 96 to 97 percent of total student enrollment. District-wide on Wednesday, there were 3,222 more students absent than usual. That totals a potential loss of $121,630 in next year’s funding.
The state uses average daily attendance numbers, rather than total enrollment, to determine future funding. The logic is that funding is based on how many students schools need to educate. Normal attendance fluctuates, but when it takes big drops, the impact will be felt in funding the next year.
With half of John O’Connell’s students gone, the school contributed more than $11,000 to the district’s total loss.
“With parents, we hope we’re on the same page,” said another John O’Connell administrator, talking about the need for families to make attendance a priority for students. “But it’s a struggle. Parents will lie, making excuses it’s just personal.”
Despite years of decline, daily attendance averages have leveled out in San Francisco, according to the school district. But with the large state deficits, including what is expected to be upwards of $12 billion for the next budget, the amount of money school districts receive has dropped significantly in recent years.
The $37.75 the district receives this year is a 10 percent drop from its 2009-2010 allocation, according to Gentle Blythe, San Francisco Unified’s public outreach and communications director.
Not all Mission schools were hit with significant drops. Educators at Cesar Chavez Elementary and Bryant Elementary School felt they didn’t see much difference in attendance. “We had one parent brave enough to say we’re taking our child out for the parade,” a Bryant Elementary administrator said Wednesday morning.
Other, smaller schools were not as lucky. Horace Mann Middle School had nearly one third of its student body out, Edison Charter Academy had 30 students absent and June Jordan School for Equity in the Excelsior District had 34 students absent. On a normal day, only two to three children are no-shows at June Jordan.
Mission High School, which has a normal attendance of 875, had 100 kids absent. That number is approximately 50 percent more than its average tally.
Gamino said that some parents at John O’Connell called because they thought changes in public transportation service or large crowds would prevent them from getting children to school. Many, however, admitted bluntly that they wanted to take their families to see the parade. | 3,490 | 1,641 | 0.000633 |
warc | 201704 | November 17, 2011;
Source: Columbia Journalism Review | There are many nonprofit, 501(c)(3) news organizations already in existence. MinnPost, ProPublica, Voice of San Diego, National Public Radio, Mother Jones, the Center for Public Integrity, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Austin Bulldog, even videographer James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas—they’re all 501(c)(3)s (though three decades ago, the IRS initially tried to reject the tax exempt status of Mother Jones). But now the IRS has pulled back on the reins and is delaying approvals of nonprofit applications of the San Francisco Public Press (which accepts no advertising and is run totally by volunteers), the Lens (an investigative journalism site in New Orleans), and the Investigative News Network have all had their 501(c)(3) applications stalled.
Apparently, the IRS has long been uncomfortable with the notion that “journalism” is an inherently charitable activity. To the IRS, journalism sounds and feels commercial and is not enumerated as a potential tax-exempt activity in the 501(c)(3) statute. The strategy of nonprofit newspapers had been to count on the IRS accepting journalism as an educational activity, but the IRS has always had more of an academic or community benefit definition of “educational.” The expectation of newspapers that a vigorous news reporting capability is educational may not pass IRS muster.
What is likely to happen? A few possibilities:
While the IRS compiles newspapers’ (c)(3) applications for the purpose of coming up with a precedential ruling, some of these not-for-profit newspapers could suffer, with donors uncertain or reluctant about making donations to entities with tax exemptions still pending. IRS could tell applicants what they could do to make their operations more “charitable” or “educational” or less “commercial.” The challenge would then be whether the IRS’s advice is practical/pragmatic. Questions about the “nonprofitness” of nonprofit newspapers might make those that already have (c)(3) status a little queasy about the strength of their charitable bona fides. It has happened before without this kind of tax status impetus, but perhaps some might eschew public charity status. Congress and the White House might consider adding a 27th category to the twenty-six 501(c) organizational types. A nonprofit category for journalism would be just as justifiable as 501(c)(13) cemetery companies, 501(c)(14) state-chartered credit unions and mutual reserve funds, 501(c)(16) cooperative organizations to finance crop operations, and 501(c)(25) title-holding corporations or trusts with multiple parents, etc.
Undoubtedly the IRS is committed to freedom of the press. It just seems to have a problem with the thought of a nonprofit press.—Rick Cohen | 2,872 | 1,441 | 0.00072 |
warc | 201704 | One year ago, a group of private sector leaders sat down with Administration and agency officials to offer to help the government adopt management best practices. The group, the President’s Management Advisory Board (PMAB), decided to spend the next year focusing on a variety of topics, including how the government buys information technology (IT).
And the effort has paid off. Over the past three years, the Federal Government has done much in adopting private sector practices to triage broken IT investments, reduce the IT infrastructure footprint, and innovate with less. For example, at today’s PMAB meeting, the Department of the Interior showed that by modernizing IT infrastructure and aligning resources to improve customer service, they will realize $100 million in savings from 2016 to 2020, for a cumulative total of $500 million. To date, there have been $11 million in cost avoidance by updating the scope of projects and $2.2 million in redirection of funds due to IT Spending Reviews.
These agency successes are a good start, but we need to do more. We still face an unacceptable amount of duplicative and low-value IT. That is why Acting Director Jeff Zients today is signing a memorandum launching a new tool for agencies to use to assess the current maturity of their IT portfolio management process and make decisions on eliminating duplication across their organizations. This tool – which we’re calling “PortfolioStat” - gives agencies tools to look into the darkest corners of the organization to find wasteful and duplicative IT investments.
Over the next year, agency Deputy Secretaries or Chief Operating Officers (COO), are required to lead agency-wide IT portfolio reviews within their respective organizations, working in coordination with Chief Information Officers, Chief Financial Officers, and Chief Acquisition Officers. This level of executive sponsorship is a direct reflection of our belief that IT is a strategic asset that can dramatically improve productivity and the way agencies execute their mission. By June 15, agencies will complete a high-level survey of agency IT portfolio status and a bureau level information request for specific types of commodity IT investments that will used to baseline the maturity of agency portfolios.
Then, using the portfolio data gathered combined with other data available at the bureau and agency level, COOs will establish targets for commodity IT spending reductions and deadlines for meeting those targets; illustrate how investments within the IT portfolio align with the agency’s mission and business functions; establish criteria for identifying wasteful, “low-value,” or duplicative investments; and improve governance and program management utilizing best practices and, where possible, benchmarks.
Though this process is new for Federal IT, leading private sector companies have been leveraging improved IT portfolio management tools for some time. Private sector organizations that waste millions on duplicative and low value IT are destined to disappear. Competitive pressure has forced change and efficiency. Though there are differences between public and private sector work, my time in both makes me extremely confident that the best practices from a well-run company can be applied effectively to the Federal Government.
Steven VanRoekel is the Federal Chief Information Officer – for more information visit www.cio.gov. | 3,476 | 1,682 | 0.000605 |
warc | 201704 | MarketReportsOnline.com adds "The U.S. Rent-To-Own (RTO) Market: Trends and Opportunities (2014-2019)" report to its research store.
The report titled “The U.S. Rent-To-Own (RTO) Market: Trends & Opportunities (2014-2019)” provides an in-depth analysis of the US rent-to-own market with detailed analysis of market sizing and growth, market share and economic impact of the industry. The U.S. rent-to-own market is highly fragmented with a large number of small companies holding one-third of the market share. The U.S. rent-to-own market has low penetration rate, presenting big growth opportunities for the small players. Detailed rent-to-own consumer behavior analysis has been presented in this report.
The report also assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the rent-to-own industry. Growth of the overall U.S. rent-to-own industry has also been forecasted for the period 2014-2019, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends.
Complete report available at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/406481.html.
Competition in The U.S. rent-to-own market is stiff and dominated by the big players like Rent-A-Center and Aaron’s Inc. Further, key players of the U.S. rent-to-own industry like Rent-A-Center, Aaron’s Inc. and Easyhome Limited are also profiled with their financial information and respective business strategies.
The rent-to-own (RTO) industry concept was introduced in the 1960’s and now RTO has grown into an important sector of the retailing industry. Rent-to-own business offer the facility of long-term leasing to consumers for using goods such as furniture, appliances and various electronic products. The rent-to-own industry has grown over 8,600 stores in the U.S., annually providing service to over four million consumers.
The core of the RTO arrangement is consumers gain instant access to new or used merchandise - most commonly appliances, electronics or furniture-with neither a credit check nor down payment in exchange for a number of fixed rental payments due either weekly, biweekly, or monthly. A consumer who respects the terms of the contract and pays all rents before acquiring the good leased, generally pays, in total, twice even three times the actual value of the good. Low Income population group because of the low disposable income are expected to rely on the rent-to-own business activities. And the needs of the low-income population will be met by the increased penetration and transparency of the rent-to-own market.
Purchase a copy of this research report at USD 800 (Single User License) http://www.marketreportsonline.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=406481.
The high growth in online penetration is attributed to the proliferation of virtual rent-to-own business activity. As suppliers look for more efficient means of distribution, their participation in the virtual rent-to-own market has increased. With Aaron’s largest investment to date in 2014, which it paid for Progressive Financials, a leading virtual RTO provider, the virtual rent to own market has certainly got a new fillip. Progressive is not the only virtual rent-to-own provider, as Rent-A-Center created Acceptance NOW in 2010.
Few points from List of Tables & Figures (http://www.marketreportsonline.com/406481-toc.html) are listed below:
Table 1: Profit Margin of the U.S. Industry
Table 2: Return on Equity of the U.S. Industry Table 3: The U.S. Rent-to-Own Market: Revenue of Key Players Table 4: The U.S. Rent-to-Own Market Key Players Business Portfolio Table 5: Rent-A-Center Segment Details Table 6: Overview of Easyhome Ltd. Business Segments Other Related Reports on Consumner Goods Market: Global Smokeless Tobacco Market Report: 2015 Edition (http://www.marketreportsonline.com/404225.html) Smokeless tobacco is tobacco that is not burned. It is also known as chewing tobacco, oral tobacco, spit or spitting tobacco, dip, chew, and snuff. Most people chew or suck (dip) the tobacco in their mouth and spit out the tobacco juices that build up, although “spitless” smokeless tobacco has also been developed. Global Luxury Goods Market Report: 2015 Edition (http://www.marketreportsonline.com/404147.html) Luxury goods refer to products which are commonly characterized by their premium quality, craftsmanship, recognizability, exclusivity and reputation. These high-end goods tend to satisfy socio-psychological needs in greater form and bring esteem to the owner. Global apparel markets: product developments and innovations, 4th quarter 2014 (http://www.marketreportsonline.com/405159.html) This report analyses some of the latest developments and innovations in the global apparel industry, including: colour trends; finishes for denim fabric; new collections; new dyes; sports apparel; thermoregulating apparel; three-dimensional (3D) printed apparel; and wearable technology. United Kingdom - Games Consoles (http://www.marketreportsonline.com/405272.html) The UK games consoles market had total revenues of $1,328.1m in 2014, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -5.1% between 2010 and 2014.Market consumption volumes declined with a CARC of -10% between 2010 and 2014, to reach a total of 3.6 million units in 2014. About Us:
MarketReportsOnline comprises of an online library of 2,50,000 reports and in-depth market research studies of over 5000+ micro markets. We provide 24/7 online and offline support to our customers. Get in touch with us for your needs of market research reports.
Contact Us: Ritesh Tiwari Corporate Office TX, Dallas North - Dominion Plaza, 17304, Preston Road, Suite 800, Dallas 75252. Tel: + 1 888 391 5441 E-mail: sales@marketreportsonline.com | 5,818 | 2,652 | 0.000381 |
warc | 201704 | Napa Valley and the Premium Wine Industry
Frog's Leap: Background and Peformance
Generic Strategy
What is Frog's Leap generic strategy?
SWOT
Financial Performance
Agenda
Frog's Leap Philosophy of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility
Frog's Leap Winery
Consumer Segments for Premium Wines
Overview of the premium wine industry
Sustainability of California's wine industry
Introduction and analysis of Frog's Leap Winery
Sustainability and corporate social responsibility of Frog's Leap
How sustainability has affected Frog's Leap SWOT
Strengths
"Green" Winery
Family Oriented Work Structure
EMS is best in Napa Valley
Long-term debt associated with the 100 acre land purchase
Too focused on being "Green", might be severely hit if such "Green" trend fades away
Growing LOHAS consumer segment, Frog's Leap sustainable practices can help the company attract more consumers from this segment.
Focusing investments made from the extra acres in Rutherford could provide a hedge against shortages and rising prices of grapes.
Age
Ethnicity
Education
Consumer Demographics in the United States
Green Consumers
Source: Silicon Valley Bank, State of the Wine Industry Report 2015, pg. 49
Sophia Damasceno Andrea Flores Daniel Quinn Anthony Schepis
Andrea Flores
Daniel Quinn
Anthony Schepis
Classification of premium wineries:
Boutique wineries (fewer than 50,000 cases per year)
Midsized wineries (between 50,000 and 499,999 cases per year)
Large wineries (499,999+ cases per year)
Between 1999 and 2010, the number of premium wineries increased from 329 to 1,250.
92% of premium wineries can be classified as "boutique"
Background:
Sustained real strength in the US economy posits a favorable environment for wineries.
"Trading up" has been a clear trend since mid-2014 and is expected to continue in 2015.
Growth of sales of wines priced above $20 was driven by increasing volume despite the increase in prices.
The fine wine category of the industry is expected to experience an annual growth rate in the 14-18% range.
United States: World's largest consumer of wine by volume and dollar value, consuming 340 million 9L cases of wine in 2014.
Italy: World's largest consumer of wine per capita, reaching 48.1L per capita in 2014.
2015 Wine Industry Outlook:
Green consumers by gender...
and by ethnicity...
In the year following the Great Recession, the premium wine industry experienced a small but significant rebound. This trend has been sustained in the past four years.
To be a meaningful consumer of fine wine, you need to be in the top 25% of wage earners in the U.S. However, the vast majority of the nation's wealth lies with baby boomers.
According to the Silicon Valley Bank...
Health awareness trends have contributed to higher red wine sales across all age groups, especially among baby boomers.
Overrepresentation of college grads within the wine-drinking population.
Accounting for 24.3% of the population, but 39.9% of the wine-drinking population.
Consumers belonging to the white ethnicity accounted for 78.5% of the wine-drinking population in 2010...
...while accounting for 68.9% of the general population.
Another contributing factor...
Part of an emerging demographic segment called LOHAS.
LOHAS: Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability
LOHAS consumers embrace concepts of natural, sustainable and socially conscious shopping and are more selective of what they buy and where they shop.
As of 2013, LOHAS consumers represented more than $300 billion in buying power.
Relatively younger, with an average age of 40 years.
Relatively more educated since 31% have a college degree.
Relatively richer, with a median household income of $65,700.
Green consumers are
Traditions
Dry Farming
Growing grape vines without using drip irrigation
Minimal water use
More European style and wine flavor profile
Lower alcohol content and fruitiness than other wines
Organic and Biodynamic Growing Techniques
Cover crops and compost
Resistance to disease
Natural-based soil fertility
Sustainable Farming
Cases Sold Increased
Growing Net Sales
Gross Profit Increased
Long-Term Debt
Compost
Byproducts of winemaking, coffee grounds, garden waste and vegetable scraps
Saved money by not paying someone to haul waste away
Energy Self-Sufficiency
Characteristics
Geothermal and solar power
Solar power system generated electricity to power 150 homes
Excess power generated was sold back to public utility
Cost Advantages
No cost to operate geothermal heating and cooling
Pumps use electricity from their own solar power
Do you think Frog Leap's philosophy of sustainability and corporate social responsibility provides them with a sustainable competitive advantage?
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Potential market saturation: everyone jumping into the "sustainable bandwagon" might leave the company with no differentiation basis.
Possible "green fatigue"?
Bias against organic wines: early experiences with non-sulfite organic wines sometimes have been negative.
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3
Additional Sources
https://store.frogsleap.com/shop.ams
LEED Certification
Three Overlapping Principles
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Socially Equitable
Environmentally Sound
Industry's first LEED-certified wine tasting and office facility, primarily from recycled building materials
lower operation costs
approximately 30 to 40 percent less energy use
40 percent less water
Rob McMillan. State of the Wine Industry 2015. Silicon Valley Bank.
From 2004 to 2009 the number of Vineyards organizations grew from 813 to 1,237
Companies were forced to differentiate
Caused an increase in new brands
A focus on reducing costs
http://m.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/top-wine-consuming-country-volume-article-1.2088489
http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/35469-Green-Consumer-Market-Grows-Up-LOHAS-Conference-to-Update-U-S-Businesses-On-the-Influential-Customer-That-Is-Transforming-the-Marketplace-June-18-20-2013-in-Boulder-CO
"Green" Wine Market Trends: From Green Roots to Great Wines. Ann Thrupp.
http://foster.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/HongKong_exec.pdf
http://www.planetvarner.com/featured-articles/the-frog-is-green-and-the-wine-organic/
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Social Responsibility
Frog's Leap provided full-time, year round employment and benefits for winery personnel, who were mainly immigrant laborers.
Worker's don't have to be laid off
In between seasons, the workers prune rees, turn compost, bottle wine, harvest broccoli, rack and wash barrels
Work full time - get paid three-week vacations, 401(k) plans and health benefits
Fewer safety isssues, because they're well-trained and experienced.
Reduction of workfroce hindered industry
Focusing on cost
Decrease investing in capital
Sustainability
Sustainability of the California Wine Industry
Sustainable Growth
Issues With Sustainability
Industry entered a "Hyper-Competitive" trading environment
Issues with growth due to problems with wholesalers and distributors
Triple Bottom Line Effect
Industry was defined by this term
Means producers need to be aware of impact on external factors
Social, Environmental, and Economic value created by organizations
In 2009, 329 winery owners participated in sustainable winegrowing program
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Paticipation of Wineries
404 premium wineries in Napa Valley
only 60 were classified as "Green" or "Sustainable"
Improvement
Frog's leap hosted sustainable wine growers conference every year since 2006
Number of members grew from 10 to 250 in five years
Looked to share information and best practices to the industry
Threats
California Sustainable Winegrowing Program
Long term mission
Establish high standards of sustainable practices for whole community
Enhance education to improve the future of the industry
Working together to address concerns and maintain positive results
General Discussion:
(Hint: not low-cost or best-cost)
Economically Feasible
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Started production in 1981 with 653 cases of Sauvignon Blanc.
Founder and CEO: John Williams
Staff headcount grew 100% over 12 years, from 25 to 50 employees.
Quietly developed the industry's most sophisticated environmental management system (EMS). | 8,297 | 4,022 | 0.000255 |
warc | 201704 | Ground-water samples were collected from 71 wells screened in or open to three aquifers in the central part of the Passaic River basin during 1959-88. Water samples from aquifers in glacial sediments and aquifers in sedimentary and igneous bedrock of the Newark Supergroup were analyzed for major ions. Most samples were analyzed for metals, nutrients, and tritium; 38 samples were analyzed for purgeable organic compounds. Calcium and bicarbonate were the predominant ions in ground water in the study area. Ground water was dilute (median dissolved-solids concentration 239 milligrams per liter) and slightly basic (median pH 7.89). Concentrations of inorganic constituents were within U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) primary drinking-water regulations. Concentrations of benzene, tetrachloroethylene, and trichloroethylene, however, were greater than USEPA primary drinking-water regulations in six samples. Ground-water samples from aquifers in sedimentary bedrock were enriched in barium, calcium, magnesium, strontium,and sulfate relative to samples form the other aquifers. Such ion enrichment can be attributed either to disolution of carbonate and sulfate-containing minerals or to human activities. Ground-water samples from two wells screened in glacial sediments near swamps contained sulfate in concentrations higher than the median for the aquifer. Sulfate enrichment could result from downward leaching of water enriched in sulfur from the decay of organic matter in the swamps, from the disolution of sulfate-containing minerals, or from human activities. No regional trends in the chemical composition of the ground water in the study area were identified. Sulfate concentrations in ground- water samples from the sedimentary bedrock tended to increase with decreasing altitude of the deepest opening of the well; the correlation coefficient for the ranks of sulfate concentration and the altitude of the deepest opening of the well for 17 pairs of data is -0.690. Concentrations of tritium were greater than the detection limit in 33 of 35 ground-water samples, indicating that most ground water in the study area is more recent than 1953.
Additional publication details
Publication type:
Report
Publication Subtype:
USGS Numbered Series
Title:
Ground-water quality in the central part of the Passaic River basin, northeastern New Jersey, 1959-88
Series title:
Water-Resources Investigations Report
Series number:
92-4083
Edition:
-
Year Published:
1994
Language:
ENGLISH
Publisher:
U.S. Geological Survey ;USGS Earth Science Information Center, Open-File Reports Section [distributor], | 2,638 | 1,218 | 0.000828 |
warc | 201704 | As a new homeowner, it can be challenging not to be overwhelmed by all your new responsibilities. Houses require near-constant maintenance, for example, and getting settled in to your new home requires considerable energy—not to mention money—as you discover any number of unanticipated needs. But buying your own home is also an investment in financial stability and security. Which brings us to some more practical aspects of security. As a new homeowner, it’s important to take steps to secure your property. You might think that doors, windows and locks are all that’s required to secure your home. But burglars would beg to differ. A burglary occurs something like every 10 seconds in the United States, and the majority of such intrusions happen to residential properties. Surprisingly, a majority of those incidents involved access gained through an unlocked door or window. Here are some examples of mistakes not to make: 1) Don’t bother to lock your doors and windows. Clearly, safety begins with locking your doors and windows. Don’t make it easy for criminals. Invest in quality locks, with top-tier strike plates, and remember to use locks whenever possible, even when home. Criminals are opportunistic. They’ll grab any opportunity that presents itself. The trick is to make your house more difficult to breach. 2) Don’t hide your valuables. Leaving high-value items in plain sight is asking for trouble. Research suggests that once inside, criminals typically head for the master bedroom, where they’ll look for lightweight, portable items such as jewelry, expensive electronics, or cash. Leaving these items out in plain view is playing with fire. 3) Don’t have visible security. Just the sight of a camera on your property is likely to deter criminal activity. If a potential burglar evaluates homes in your neighborhood for vulnerabilities, and sees that your neighbor has a surveillance system, but you don’t, guess which property he’ll choose to steal from—and which he’ll avoid. 4) Don’t trim back any thick shrubs around the perimeter of your home. Low, especially thorny shrubs can discourage criminals from lurking beneath windows. But large, dense shrubs, or other landscaping elements, could simply provide cover. Strike a logical balance between these two extremes. Keep landscaping in check, so criminals have nowhere to hide. 5) Do rely on a single security system. It takes more than just motion detectors to deter crime. Consider installing a variety of security systems for the best possible protection. Alarms, motion detectors, motion-activated cameras (programmed to begin recording when triggered), and night vision for those cameras are all important elements of a comprehensive system of security systems.
Posted on | 2,830 | 1,398 | 0.000736 |
warc | 201704 | It's hard to resist a product that claims to reduce or completely eliminate your electricity bills, and it's even harder to believe that system is affordable for middle-income homeowners.
But both of those facts are true about solar energy.
You're probably curious about what it actually takes to make the switch to solar energy, but with so many conflicting articles floating around the internet, it may not be so easy to separate the facts from the myths.
Today we're going to discuss—and debunk—the top 9 myths about going solar.
After today's article, you'll have all the information you need to make an informed decision about whether making the switch to solar energy is right for you and your family.
Let's get started!
1. Solar Energy's Just for Hippies, Rich People, and Tech Geeks
Quite the contrary, solar energy is for anyone who wants to save money on their monthly electric bill.
Taking better care of the environment is clearly a huge positive of solar energy, but it may not be the main reason the majority of solar adopters choose to make the switch.
In fact, the biggest trend in solar is its emerging popularity among middle-income families looking to save extra cash every month.
Not only will most solar power units completely eliminate your electricity bill (or come very close), they even offer you the chance to sell the power your system generates back to the electric company at a profit. Some months you may earn more than you have to pay.
Add on all the incentives, credits, and rebates your state may tack on to make going solar attractive, and the decision to go solar becomes easy for tree-huggers and corporate ladder climbers alike.
Solar energy is enjoying a revolution in homes all across the country. Think about this: A solar energy system is installed every 83 seconds in the United States.
2. Solar Energy Doesn't Produce Enough Power
While you do have the option to go off the grid when you install your own solar panels, to do this effectively you'd need to invest in costly batteries and backup generators to ensure that you always have enough power to provide electricity for your home.
This can be a bit of a pain.
That's why most solar panel owners don't go off the grid. They connect to it.
See, when your solar panel provider installs your system, they will connect you to your area's local power or electrical company's power grid.
What this means is that your solar panels will generate electricity during the day—but probably more than your home will actually use. Whatever your home doesn't use will be sent back to the power grid for the electric company.
Don't worry, you're not giving the electric company your solar-generated energy for free.
At night when your solar panels are not capturing the sun's rays, your home will still enjoy power thanks to being connected to the power grid.
While you're used to paying for the electricity you use, your electric charges after you install solar energy panels will be the difference between the energy your home used and the energy your solar panels generated and sent to the power grid.
Usually, solar panels create an excess of energy so your electricity bills are either completely eliminated or incredibly small.
What really works out well is the fact that your solar panels will be creating the most energy during the same peak hours your home will be consuming the greatest amount of energy. The electric companies typically charge a premium for usage during times of high, primetime demand. However, you won't have to pay for this rate hike due to the energy your panels produce.
You get the best of both worlds: You have access to electricity whenever you need it and you enjoy very low electric bills every month.
3. It's Too Hard to Install Solar Panels
While you can certainly take on the home-improvement project to add solar panels to your home, you can also totally skip this option.
All you have to do is find a reputable solar energy company, schedule a (typically free) consultation to estimate the size and power requirements of your property, and request an installation quote.
Your solar company may even be able to guess how much you'll be able to save in electricity every month to offset the cost of installation.
Once you decide to go solar (awesome!), your solar company will take care of all the necessary permits, inspections, and paperwork so you don't have to get involved if you don't have time.
4. Solar Energy is Too Expensive to See an ROI Yet
The World Wildlife Organization says that "97% of Americans overestimate the cost of solar panels."
Don't let this myth stop you from getting an installation quote.
Solar energy starts producing a return on your installation investment starting from day one.
When you first hook up your solar panels to the electricity grid, you're sending the power company energy that they'll credit to your account.
97% of Americans overestimate the cost of solar panels.
Homes with high electricity bills have the potential to not only completely eliminate their high monthly payments, but also earn extra cash if their power utility pays a high price for the energy their solar panels generate for the grid.
These savings, coupled with each state's different tax credits and rebates, make solar panels one of the quickest and easiest returns on investment.
Options such as solar leasing let you install a solar energy system with little or no money down so you can start reaping the electrical savings immediately.
Keeping your solar energy system running efficiently, you could pay off the system in under 10 years, or under 5 if your state has great incentives and rebates you can count towards the price of installation.
Currently 48 states have solar or renewable energy incentives ranging from a minimum of 30% of the cost of your installation to as much as 85% of the costs.
Add the 30% federal tax credit and that cuts your startup costs even more.
5. Solar Technology is Still New and Unreliable
Unlike cell phone models that change drastically from one year to the next, solar energy has been building upon the same technologies first developed in the 1960s at a steady, gradual pace.
You won't install solar panels and have to replace them the following year for an updated system. Most solar equipment comes with a 25 year guarantee, which does not come standard on many electronics these days.
Because the solar panels hardly ever have to be replaced, they can last for decades with very little maintenance required.
Connecting to a power grid means you always have a reliable source of electricity so your home is never without power.
As long as you're running your solar energy system effectively, you'll never use the word ‘unreliable' to describe your electricity.
PS: The U.S. military is one of the largest consumers of solar energy. They rely and depend on solar technology to power their home bases and those abroad. Still think solar energy's unreliable?
6. It's Hard to Keep Up With Solar Panel Maintenance
This myth is totally BUSTED.
Since solar panels don't have any moving parts, regular maintenance for them is a breeze.
Here's the most you'll have to do to keep your solar energy system running at its most efficient:
Rinse off the panels at least once a year with a hose. Accumulated dust or bird droppings can block sunlight from getting to your panels. Don't use any detergent that may create a film on your panels. If you live in an area with heavy rainfall, you can even let Mother Nature take care of this one for you. Make sure debris stays off your solar panels. Take a walk by your unit every so often to check for leaves, feathers, or garbage that may be blocking the sun's rays from getting to your panels.
Many solar systems now have monitoring software included with your installation so you can see drops in output efficiency immediately. Others are even connected to your solar installation provider so they can keep an eye on your system and tell you what's wrong if something does happen.
You'll have access to information you can use to track your output, usage, and even how much money you're saving every month. Most systems will allow you to check these numbers from your mobile device or a small, wall-mounted unit inside your home.
7. Solar Only Works in Sunny Areas
Don't tell that to Germany.
During June 2014, "Germany reached a significant milestone and national record by satisfying more than 50 percent of its electricity demand with 23.1 gigawatts of solar power—which was half of the entire world's production at the time."
Germany gets about as much sunshine as Alaska does, which is to say, not very much.
The sunniest parts of Germany get around 1,600 hours of sun each year while parts of Arizona can clock in close to 4,300 sunny hours a year.
[During June 2014] Germany reached a significant milestone and national record by satisfying more than 50 percent of its electricity demand with 23.1 gigawatts of solar power—which was half of the entire world's production at the time.
It may be strange to think, but solar panels don't actually need bright, hot sunlight every single day of the year to capture the UV rays it needs to create electricity.
How many times have you skipped wearing sunscreen on an overcast day only to return home with a sunburn?
That same logic applies to solar panels.
While you can't see the sun, the sun's rays are still poking through the clouds and landing on your skin, or getting absorbed by your solar panels.
In fact, solar panels perform better in cooler climates that don't have a ton of direct sunlight every day. They exceed output expectations when they're not overheating under the sun's extreme rays.
8. Solar Panels Damage Your Roof
When properly installed, solar panels will not destroy your roof.
In fact, solar panels will actually protect your roof from weather-related issues and keep your roof pristine underneath its panels.
If you're worried about the aesthetic look of solar panels ruining the design of your roof— especially if your home has classic or historic architecture—you're in luck.
The demand for attractive solar panels has been transforming this former eyesore into a sleek update any homeowner would be proud of.
Those big, bulky solar panels from the 1960s have been replaced with modern, slim panels. Companies even make shingles of solar panels for seamless roof integration and sunlight capturing.
9. Solar Energy Raises Your Property Taxes
This myth could not be further from the truth.
Installing solar energy on your property is property-tax exempt in most U.S. states. Plus, incentives and rebates for going solar will drive the cost down of your solar installation even more.
You will start saving money on your electricity bill with a tax-free investment that will literally pay for itself.
Speaking of investments, did you know that adding solar energy to your home also raises its appraisal value?
That's right; you could make a zero-tax investment, save money on your bills, and add close to $20,000 to your home's value.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, every $1,000 you save in annual electric costs nets you an additional $20,000 in home value.
Now that you have all the facts, do you feel more confident about going solar?
Whether you can afford the initial solar energy investment with the help of state rebates and incentives, or if you're considering a solar lease plan, the decision to go solar will not be one you're likely to regret.
Once you start seeing the savings roll in every month you don't have to pay an electricity bill, you'll probably wonder what took you so long to separate the facts from the myths about solar energy. | 11,810 | 5,100 | 0.000198 |
warc | 201704 | Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets A death sentence here and abroad Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” – Henry Kissinger, quoted in “Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW’s in Vietnam”Vietnam was a chemical war for oil, permanently contaminating large regions and countries downriver with Agent Orange, and environmentally the most devastating war in world history. But since 1991, the U.S. has staged four nuclear wars using depleted uranium weaponry, which, like Agent Orange, meets the U.S. government definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Vast regions in the Middle East and Central Asia have been permanently contaminated with radiation. And what about our soldiers? Terry Jemison of the Department of Veterans Affairs reported this week to the American Free Press that “Gulf-era veterans” now on medical disability since 1991 number 518,739, with only 7,035 reported wounded in Iraq in that same 14-year period. This week the American Free Press dropped a “dirty bomb” on the Pentagon by reporting that eight out of 20 men who served in one unit in the 2003 U.S. military offensive in Iraq now have malignancies. That means that 40 percent of the soldiers in that unit have developed malignancies in just 16 months. Since these soldiers were exposed to vaccines and depleted uranium (DU) only, this is strong evidence for researchers and scientists working on this issue, that DU is the definitive cause of Gulf War Syndrome. Vaccines are not known to cause cancer. One of the first published researchers on Gulf War Syndrome, who also served in 1991 in Iraq, Dr. Andras Korényi-Both, is in agreement with Barbara Goodno from the Department of Defense’s Deployment Health Support Directorate, that in this war soldiers were not exposed to chemicals, pesticides, bioagents or other suspect causes this time to confuse the issue. This powerful new evidence is blowing holes in the cover-up perpetrated by the Pentagon and three presidential administrations ever since DU was first used in 1991 in the Persian Gulf War. Fourteen years after the introduction of DU on the battlefield in 1991, the long-term effects have revealed that DU is a death sentence and very nasty stuff. Scientists studying the biological effects of uranium in the 1960s reported that it targets the DNA. Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist retired from the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab and formerly involved with the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in soldiers from the 2003 war as “spectacular … and a matter of concern.” This evidence shows that of the three effects which DU has on biological systems – radiation, chemical and particulate – the particulate effect from nano-size particles is the most dominant one immediately after exposure and targets the Master Code in the DNA. This is bad news, but it explains why DU causes a myriad of diseases which are difficult to define. In simple words, DU “trashes the body.” When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Fulk was more specific: “I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people.” Soldiers developing malignancies so quickly since 2003 can be expected to develop multiple cancers from independent causes. This phenomenon has been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the U.S. military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure. Just 467 U.S. personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 2000 there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. This astounding number of disabled vets means that a decade later, 56 percent of those soldiers who served now have medical problems. The number of disabled vets reported up to 2000 has been increasing by 43,000 every year. Brad Flohr of the Department of Veterans Affairs told American Free Press that he believes there are more disabled vets now than even after World War II.They brought it home Not only were soldiers exposed to DU on and off the battlefields, but they brought it home. DU in the semen of soldiers internally contaminated their wives, partners and girlfriends. Tragically, some women in their 20s and 30s who were sexual partners of exposed soldiers developed endometriosis and were forced to have hysterectomies because of health problems. In a group of 251 soldiers from a study group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the Gulf War, 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. They were born with missing legs, arms, organs or eyes or had immune system and blood diseases. In some veterans’ families now, the only normal or healthy members of the family are the children born before the war. The Department of Veterans Affairs has stated that they do not keep records of birth defects occurring in families of veterans. How did they hide it? Before a new weapons system can be used, it must be fully tested. The blueprint for depleted uranium weapons is a 1943 declassified document from the Manhattan Project. Harvard President and physicist James B. Conant, who developed poison gas in World War I, was brought into the Manhattan Project by the father of presidential candidate John Kerry. Kerry’s father served at a high level in the Manhattan Project and was a CIA agent. Conant was chair of the S-1 Poison Gas Committee, which recommended developing poison gas weapons from the radioactive trash of the atomic bomb project in World War II. At that time, it was known that radioactive materials dispersed in bombs from the air, from land vehicles or on the battlefield produced very fine radioactive dust which would penetrate all protective clothing, any gas mask or filter or the skin. By contaminating the lungs and blood, it could kill or cause illness very quickly. They also recommended it as a permanent terrain contaminant, which could be used to destroy populations by contaminating water supplies and agricultural land with the radioactive dust. The first DU weapons system was developed for the Navy in 1968, and DU weapons were given to and used by Israel in 1973 under U.S. supervision in the Yom Kippur war against the Arabs. The Phalanx weapons system, using DU, was tested on the USS Bigelow out of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in 1977, and DU weapons have been sold by the U.S. to 29 countries. Military research report summaries detail the testing of DU from 1974-1999 at military testing grounds, bombing and gunnery ranges and at civilian labs under contract. Today 42 states are contaminated with DU from manufacture, testing and deployment. Women living around these facilities have reported increases in endometriosis, birth defects in babies, leukemia in children and cancers and other diseases in adults. Thousands of tons of DU weapons tested for decades by the Navy on four bombing and gunnery ranges around Fallon, Nevada, is no doubt the cause of the fastest growing leukemia cluster in the U.S. over the past decade. The military denies that DU is the cause. The medical profession has been active in the cover-up – just as they were in hiding the effects from the American public – of low level radiation from atmospheric testing and nuclear power plants. A medical doctor in Northern California reported being trained by the Pentagon with other doctors, months before the 2003 war started, to diagnose and treat soldiers returning from the 2003 war for mental problems only. Medical professionals in hospitals and facilities treating returning soldiers were threatened with $10,000 fines if they talked about the soldiers or their medical problems. They were also threatened with jail. Reporters have also been prevented access to more than 14,000 medically evacuated soldiers flown nightly since the 2003 war in C-150s from Germany who are brought to Walter Reed Hospital near Washington, D.C. Dr. Robert Gould, former president of the Bay Area chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), has contacted three medical doctors since February 2004, after I had been invited to speak about DU. Dr. Katharine Thomasson, president of the Oregon chapter of the PSR, informed me that Dr. Gould had contacted her and tried to convince her to cancel her invitation for me to speak about DU at Portland State University on April 12. Although I was able to do a presentation, Dr. Thomasson told me I could only talk about DU in Oregon “and nothing overseas … nothing political.” Dr. Gould also contacted and discouraged Dr. Ross Wilcox in Toronto, Canada, from inviting me to speak to Physicians for Global Survival (PGS), the Canadian equivalent of PSR, several months later. When that didn’t work, he contacted Dr. Allan Connoly, the Canadian national president of PGS, who was able to cancel my invitation and nearly succeeded in preventing Dr. Wilcox, his own member, from showing photos and presenting details on civilians suffering from DU exposure and cancer provided to him by doctors in southern Iraq. Dr. Janette Sherman, a former and long-standing member of PSR, reported that she finally quit some time after being invited to lunch by a new PSR executive administrator. After the woman had pumped Dr. Sherman for information all through lunch about her position on key issues, the woman informed Dr. Sherman that her last job had been with the CIA. How was the truth about DU hidden from military personnel serving in successive DU wars? Before his tragic death, Sen. Paul Wellstone informed Joyce Riley, R.N., B.S.N., executive director of the American Gulf War Veterans Association, that 95 percent of Gulf War veterans had been recycled out of the military by 1995. Any of those continuing in military service were isolated from each other, preventing critical information being transferred to new troops. The “next DU war” had already been planned, and those planning it wanted “no skunk at the garden party.”The US has a dirty (DU) little (CIA) secret A new book just published at the American Free Press by Michael Collins Piper, “The High Priests of War: The Secret History of How America’s Neo-Conservative Trotskyites Came to Power and Orchestrated the War Against Iraq as the First Step in Their Drive for Global Empire,” details the early plans for a war against the Arab world by Henry Kissinger and the neo-cons in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That just happens to coincide with getting the DU “show on the road” and the oil crisis in the Middle East, which caused concern not only to President Nixon. The British had been plotting and scheming for control of the oil in Iraq for decades since first using poison gas on the Iraqis and Kurds in 1912. The book details the creation of the neo-cons by their “godfather” and Trotsky lover Irving Kristol, who pushed for a “war against terrorism” long before 9/11 and was lavishly funded for years by the CIA. His son, William Kristol, is one of the most influential men in the United States. Both are public relations men for the Israeli lobby’s neo-conservative network, with strong ties to Rupert Murdoch. Kissinger also has ties to this network and the Carlyle Group, who, one could say, have facilitated these omnicidal wars beginning from the time former President Bush took office. It would be easy to say that we are recycling World Wars I and II, with the same faces. When I asked Vietnam Special Ops Green Beret Capt. John McCarthy, who could have devised this omnicidal plan to use DU to destroy the genetic code and genetic future of large populations of Arabs and Moslems in the Middle East and Central Asia – just coincidentally the areas where most of the world’s oil deposits are located – he replied: “It has all the handprints of Henry Kissinger.” In Zbignew Brzezinski’s book “The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives,” the map of the Eurasian chessboard includes four regions strategic to U.S. foreign policy. The “South” region corresponds precisely to the regions now contaminated permanently with radiation from U.S. bombs, missiles and bullets made with thousands of tons of DU. A Japanese professor, Dr. K. Yagasaki, has calculated that 800 tons of DU is the atomicity equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. The U.S. has used more DU since 1991 than the atomicity equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki bombs. Four nuclear wars indeed, and 10 times the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from atmospheric testing! No wonder our soldiers, their families and the people of the Middle East, Yugoslavia and Central Asia are sick. But as Henry Kissinger said after Vietnam when our soldiers came home ill from Agent Orange, “Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used for foreign policy.” Unfortunately, more and more of those soldiers are men and women with brown skin. And unfortunately, the DU radioactive dust will be carried around the world and deposited in our environments just as the “smog of war” from the 1991 Gulf War was found in deposits in South America, the Himalayas and Hawaii. In June 2003, the World Health Organization announced in a press release that global cancer rates will increase 50 percent by 2020. What else do they know that they aren’t telling us? I know that depleted uranium is a death sentence … for all of us. We will all die in silent ways. Sources used in this story that readers are encouraged to consult: American Free Press four-part series on DU by Christopher Bollyn. Part I: “Depleted Uranium: U.S. Commits War Crime Depleted Uranium Definitively Pentagon Hides DU Dangers to Deny Medical Care to Vets”, Weapons: Poisonous Uranium Munitions Threaten World”, August 2004 World Affairs Journal. Leuren Moret: August 2004 Coastal Post Online. Carol Sterrit: “Marin World Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference, Hamburg, Germany, October 16-19, 2004: International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan. by Akira Tashiro, foreword by Leuren Moret, DU Information Radiation causes cancer and heart problems as many of us know. What Happened In Iraq. How it affected children.
International Petition to Ban Uranium Weapons
Uranium weapons, often called ‘depleted’ uranium (DU) weapons, are manufactured from radioactive waste materials produced during the nuclear fuel chain and the production of nuclear weapons. They cause widespread and long lasting radioactive contamination of the environment. These weapon systems are radiologically and chemically toxic.
Many people – innocent civilians especially children, military veterans, industry workers – have illnesses and medical problems, which may be due to their exposure to ‘depleted’ uranium. In areas such as southern Iraq, where uranium munitions were used by the US and the UK, there have been reports of increases in cancers, leukemia and birth defects.
At least 18 countries possess these weapons, the use of which is contrary to existing humanitarian law.
We, the people, need to let governments and the United Nations know that these weapons can have no part in a humane and caring world. Every signature counts!
The Fourth International Day of Action: 4th – 6th November 2005
November 6th has been set by theUN as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. ICBUW is therefore asking all groups and individuals to organise actions to ban uranium weapons. Just having a small-scale study meeting or doing a one-person petition on the street will contribute a lot to gathering momentum for the international campaign. So please join us!
There are planned events in Glasgow, Manchester and London, if you’d like to organise something in your own area, or join in with one of the three events mentioned already, please get in touch.
CADU have a wide range of campaign resouces available – posters, leaflets and information packs, contact us for bulk purchases on the cheap..
You really have to watch these. Radiation impairs your intelligence. Among other things. Connecting the Dots is a wealth of information.
6 video series on Du, Nuclear, and Gulf War Syndrome. The Planet cannot sustain this type of pollution any longer. They go on for an eternity that cigarettes cause cancer. Well Radiation causes a whole lot more. The wind blows and it goes. There is a cancer epidemic on the planet and this is the major cause along with pesticides and other assorted things. But this is truly one of the worst. You can’t see it, you can’t smell it and it is around you every day because it doesn’t go away.
US DU AND Experiments on the American people Gulf War Illness
DEPLETED URANIUM ALERT! Invisible War, This is also a six part series but one seems to be missing.
POISON DUST tells the story of young soldiers who thought they came home safely from the war, but didn’t. Of a veteran’s young daughter … all » whose birth defect is strikingly similar to birth defects suffered by many Iraqi children. Of thousands of young vets who are suffering from the symptoms of uranium poisoning, and the thousands more who are likely to find themselves with these ailments in the years to come. Of a government unwilling to admit there might be a problem here. Filmmaker Sue Harris skillfully weaves the stories of these young veterans with scientific explanations of the nature of “DU” and its dangers, including interviews with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, New York Daily News reporter Juan Gonzalez, noted physicist Michio Kaku, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Dr. Helen Caldicott and Major Doug Rokke- the former U.S. Army DU Project head.
Every American who cares about our troops should watch this film. Everyone who cares about the innocent civilians who live in the countries where these weapons are used should watch this film. And everyone who cares about the hatred of Americans that may result from the effects of our government’s actions in using these weapons, should watch this film. Is there a cover-up?
They also use their military bases around the world for testing their weapons. This video shows a few of their testing grounds I have to wonder out of the over 737 how many more are used for such tests. They are contaminating the world with Radiation. I think it’s time the people of the world all stood up and said no more DU or any other radioactive materials. The US has created more illness around the world then you could ever imagine.
Video Depleted Uranium used in Afganistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia!
Which means our soldiers will come home sick or get sick and many will die. AGAIN
DU Contaminates Europe
This is about how Radiation DU can travel and how it did to the UK because of the War in Iraq. A rather interesting read. Seems the wind blows and it goes. Like one needs to be a rocket scientists to figure that one out. It also travels anywhere else the wind blows. Seems a lot of Europe is now contaminated. I am guessing Bush knew this but like everything else Lied. One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out either. Bunker Busters This is an animation of a Bunker Buster. It also give an idea of how radiation is easily spread. At this point have apparently been scraped.
Recent reports suggest that the Bush administration is considering
using nuclear weapons against Iran. The very fact that nuclear weapon use is being discussed as an option—against a state that does not have nuclear weapons and does not represent a direct or imminent threat to the United States—illustrates the extent to which the Bush administration has changed U.S. nuclear weapons policy.
“The Bush administration has explicitly rejected the basic precept
that the sole purpose of U.S. nuclear weapons should be to deter the use of nuclear weapons. It has assigned a new, and provocative, mission to U.S. nuclear weapons: to dissuade or prevent other countries from undertaking military programs that could threaten U.S. interests in the future. A ‘preventive’ nuclear attack on Iran would fall into this category. It has also blurred the line between nuclear and conventional weapons by declaring that nuclear weapons can be used as part of military operations.
“This nuclear policy increases the likelihood that nuclear weapons
will be used, and ultimately decreases U.S. as well as international security. Instead, the United States should commit itself to strengthen the taboo against the use of nuclear weapons that has developed over the past 60 years.
“Plans to use nuclear weapons against Iran also fail to recognize
the immediate dangers inherent in the use of nuclear weapons. The administration is reportedly considering using the B61-11 nuclear ‘bunker buster’ against an underground facility near Natanz, Iran. The use of such a weapon would create massive clouds of radioactive fallout that could spread far from the site of the attack, including to other nations. Even if used in remote, lightly populated areas, the number of casualties could range up to more than a hundred thousand, depending on the weapon yield and weather conditions.
“Threatening to use nuclear weapons against Iran provides the
strongest of incentives for nuclear proliferation, since it would send the message that the only way for a country to deter nuclear attack is to acquire its own nuclear arsenal. The administration cannot have its cake and eat it, too—it cannot have a viable nuclear non-proliferation policy while continually expanding the roles for its own nuclear weapons.”
I really didn’t want to look at this page again, but here’s what I’m talking about.
[Warning: heartbreakingly, mindnumbingly, soulscreamingly graphic photos!] THAT is why DU *IS* considered a WMD, illegal under international law – a full-blown Crime Against Humanity!
In Russia I believe it was after bomb testing near a town these same things happened. I remember a documentary I watched on it. The doctors documented all the cases. Right down to children being born with no eyes. There were tons of cases of deformities. Also mentally challenged children being born. Life expectancy was extremely short as well. Cancer rates etc were over whelming. Those pictures reminded me of that Documentary. Exactly the same thing.
Triggering of Landslides, Tsunamis and Earthquakes
At least one major test-related landslide and consequent Tsunami in Moruroa, on July 25, 1979. Apparently, the 120kiloton weapon, which was supposed to be lowered into a shaft of 800 meters, got stuck at a depth of 400 meters and could not be dislodged. The French authorities decided to explode the device anyway. This explosion resulted in a major underwater landslide of at least one million cubic meters of coral and rock and created a cavity, probably 140 meters in diameter. The underwater landslide produced a major tidal wave comparable to a tsunami, which spread through the Tuamotu Archipelago and injured
“Hiroshima, 70 Times Over. ”
hey folks, this is, uh, intelligent?? “Hiroshima, 70 Times Over. That is what ONE so-called “Bunker Buster” bomb would unleash. Calling this a “Bunker Buster” is like calling the bomb used on Hiroshima” a few fireworks. ” The US Government decided not to use them right after the recent Earth Quake in Pakistan, Afganistan and India.
DESERT STORM
Deadlier than Vietnam?
ArmyIn Vietnam, between 1964 and 1975, 47,410 Americans died in combat,
while another 10,788 died from other causes, a total of 58,198.1 During Operation Desert Storm, the reported combat deaths were 148, with another 235 dying from other causes.2
Veterans’ advocates say statistics from Desert Storm should be much higher,
however, reflecting the impact of Gulf War Illness.
Former U.S. Air Force Captain Joyce Riley, for example, expects that in the
next 10 years – or 22 years after the conflict – deaths among the veterans deployed to the Persian Gulf will rise to between 80,000 and 100,000.
49,783 – 69,783 Deaths* Gulf War (1990-1991)
47,410 Battle Deaths Vietnam War (1964-1975) 385 Battle Deaths Spanish-American War (1898-1902) 1,733 Battle Deaths Mexican War (1846-1848) 2,260 Battle Deaths War of 1812 (1812-1815) 4,435 Battle Deaths American Revolution (1775-1783)
* Projected range of Gulf War veterans’ deaths attributable to Gulf War
Illness by 2013, if present trends continue.
Source for battle deaths: “America’s Wars Fact Sheet,” Department of
Veterans Affairs, May 2001.The Atrocities of DU Upon the Unborn and Newborn – Exposure Wednesday, 5:09 PM
These are some of the atrocities that are caused by the DU weapons used in the Middle East since the first Gulf War. The effects of DU are taking their tolls on civilians, as well as U.S. servicemen and their new born children.
The Great Depleted Uranium Cover-Up
While the use of DU in the 1991 Gulf War was not denied, it is striking that amid all the post-war hype over the success of expensive, high tech weaponry, DU weapons received surprisingly little public praise from Pentagon and US defence industry officials, in the wake of the war.
The US and other NATO governments have always refused to admit to any serious health risks from DU, or to acknowledge the so-called Gulf War Syndrome illnesses suffered by their former soldiers (let alone the “enemy” victims), and the US has consistently refused to even test its Gulf vets. However, it is abundantly clear that the US authorities have always been aware of DU’s lethal properties, and their silence and refusal to countenance any ill effects from DU, is motivated by a desire to keep on using it, as well as the fear of a flood of compensation claims from their own soldiers (let alone reparations from their victims). The parallels with Agent Orange in Vietnam are all too clear, but the stakes are far higher this time. Early Knowledge
As early as October 30th 1943, senior scientists from the Manhattan Project (the American WW2 drive to develop the atomic bomb) sent a letter to their director, General Leslie Groves, actually discussing the use of DU as a terrain contaminant, a gas warfare instrument for inhalation and ingestion (“gas” probably refers to the aerosol clouds), and a contaminator of the environment. They predicted (with, as we can now see, great accuracy) that uranium inhalation would lead to:
bronchial irritation coming on in a few hours to a few days … Beta emitting products could get into the gastrointestinal tract from polluted water, or food, or air. From the air, they would get on the mucus of the nose, throat bronchi, etc and be swallowed. This proposed usage of DU was not pursued, because its effects were deemed too drastic and longlasting, for the sensibilities of the wartime Allied leaders. Sources: Dr Doug Rokke and Dr Helen Caldicott
In the late 1950s, the Tennesse senator Al Gore Senior (father of the failed 2000 US presidential candidate), proposed dousing the demilitarized zone in Korea with uranium as a cheap safeguard against an attack from the North Koreans.
The Pentagon Memos
Given all the evidence that they were always aware of the dangers, it may seem surprising that no action has so far been taken by any western government to halt the use of DU munitions, or properly investigate its impact on civilians and soldiers.
The reason why they are so protective of their silver bullet is probably encapsulated in the now infamous March 1991 memo from Lt. Colonel Ziehmn of Los Alamos National Laboratory (one of the Pentagon’s main nuclear research centres), stating: There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. Therefore if no one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and be deleted from the arsenal. If DU penetrators proved their worth during our recent combat activities, then we should assure their future existence (until something better is developed) through Service/DoD proponency. <!– The memo ends: I believe we should keep this sensitive issue at mind, when, after action, reports are written. –>Source: Canada’s CBC TV – image of original memo Translation: DU is militarily useful, so don’t make a fuss about the dangers
At about the same time, Greg Lyle at the US Defence Nuclear Agency sent this memo to Dr Doug Rokke (head of the US cleanup team in the Gulf), indicating their awareness of the dangers:
Alpha particles (uranium oxide dust) from expended rounds is a health concern but, Beta particles from fragments and intact rounds is a serious health threat, with possible exposure rates of 200 millirads per hour on contact. Source: Canada’s CBC TV – feature on DU NB: Levels of 200 millirads/hour and more were subsequently measured in the Gulf War battlefields, thus exceeding in 30 mins, the recommended US annual radiation dose of 100 millirads.
An eerily prescient July 1990 US Army report (ie. the month
before Saddam invaded Kuwait), called , had already predicted that large amounts of DU oxides could be inhaled, with Kinetic Energy Penetrator Environmental and Health Considerations “potential radiological and toxicological effects”, and had warned that public knowledge of the dangers of DU could lead to pressure to ban it. The report also acknowledged that:
Assuming US regulatory standards and health physics practices are followed, it is likely that some form of remedial action will be required in a DU post-combat environment.
However, after the scale and cost of cleaning up the DU residue in the post-war Persian Gulf region became clear, the US Army Environmental Policy Institute informed American policymakers in a June 1995 report (
), that: Health and Consequences of Depleted Uranium use in the US army
no international law, treaty, regulation, or custom requires the United States to remediate the Persian Gulf War battlefields.
Source: Fahey report,
(Lesson 5) Depleted Uranium Weapons – Lessons from the 1991 Gulf War
Despite their denials, the Pentagon obviously knew well that DU was dangerous. The June 1995 US Army report referred to above, also stated that:
Depleted uranium is a low-level radioactive waste and, therefore, must be be desposed of in a licensed repository. As the journalist Felicity Arbuthnot remarked, the report does not advise disposing of it on a school, hospital, TV station or Chinese embassy. The UKAEA Warning
Back in the UK, Mr Bartholomew, Business Development Manager at UKAEA, sent a classified paper to the Royal Ordnance on 30 April 1991 (ie. 2 months after Gulf War), warning of a health and environmental catastrophe in Iraq and Kuwait. The UKAEA had calculated that if 50 tonnes of DU dust were inhaled, half a million deaths from cancer would potentially result within 10 years, and his covering letter added:
The whole subject of the contamination of Kuwait is emotive and thus must be dealt with in a sensitive manner. It is necessary to inform the Kuwait government of the problem in a useful way. This memo’s existence was disclosed on 2nd March 1998, by UK Armed Forces Minister Lord Gilbert, in response to information tabled in the House of Lords, but was then downplayed by both the British government and media. In fact, Gilbert’s reply that day shows a breathtaking level of ignorance (or more likely, dishonesty) of the facts about DU. Furthermore, the UKAEA paper itself relied on the ICRP’s radiation guidelines, which anti-radiation campaigners such as the LLRC bitterly dispute. Source: Lords Hansard, 02 March 1998 (includes UKAEA paper and Bartholomew’s covering letter) Also reported by Felicity Arbuthnot, in the Sunday Herald, 14 January 2001 The Cleanup Team – Dying To Decontaminate The Battlefield
During the Gulf War, the physicist Dr Doug Rokke was recalled to active duty 20 years after serving in Vietnam, and he served with the US Army Preventive Medicine Command, helping to prepare for nuclear/chemical/biological exposures.
After the war, he led the Theatre Depleted Uranium Assessment Team (a handful of officers and civilians), cleaning up contaminated American vehicles that had been hit by DU rounds, and in 1994 he was recalled again, as Director of the army’s Depleted Uranium Project.
In accordance with his directives, Dr Rokke compiled training manuals and videos for assessing, containing and cleaning up DU munitions, and caring for contaminated casualties. His team also made several explicit recommendations: the immediate clean-up of all affected sites, medical screening for anyone possibly exposed to DU, strict use of protective and detection equipment, and prevention of recycling of any materials possibly contaminated.
However, the US military declined to disseminate these instructional materials amongst the US and Allied forces, or to the civilian medical personnel treating affected populations. Nor did the US military comply with any of his recommendations. Rokke asserts that this is motivated by financial concerns, and fears of massive settlements and war reparations. Dr Rokke now calls for a permanent ban on DU (including on the recycling of it for use in civilian products) and for the US to shoulder the cleanup and medical costs of using DU in Iraq.
At the time of their cleanup operation in the Gulf, Rokke and his team were not equipped with protective gear, or given training about what to expect. They only wore surgical masks rather than gas masks (which might have kept out the DU particles, but then again, they had never been advised to wear them), due to the desert heat.
They measured radioactive emissions inside destroyed vehicles at 2.6 to 10 mSv/hour. The maximum permissible radiation dose to members of the public is 1 mSv per year, so Iraqis (and the many US vets) who entered these vehicles received this in less than an hour. Dr Rokke’s team also discovered that DU projectiles fragmented in the same way when fired at wooden targets, contradicting official claims that the uranium oxide dust would only result from impact with the most heavily armoured Iraqi tanks. The implications of this, are that there are much larger quantities of DU oxide floating around southern Iraq. Within weeks of returning to the US, Rokke’s cleanup team began to fall ill. Over 20 of the 100-strong team died in the following 8 years (so said Dr Rokke at the November 1999 CASI conference, where he summarised his findings in the Gulf as – Rokke’s presentation is Session 6), and virtually all the rest are ill. Rokke himself suffers from several ailments, including short-term memory loss, breathing difficulties and vision problems. “Oh my God !”
He reports a catalogue of obstruction, interference, deception and the discarding/destruction of evidence, by US officials. He describes how one 1994 checkup revealed that he had 5,000 times the permissible level of uranium in his body, but he was not told for another two and a half years (thus preventing correlation of symptons with this known exposure – a common experience of sick Gulf War vets).
If Rokke’s experience in the Gulf demonstrates one thing, it is that the cleanup cost is incalculable – if indeed it’s still physically possible. His team took three months to clean up 24 tanks for transport back to the US. The army then took another three years to fully decontaminate them, in a purpose-built vacuum-sealed plant in South Carolina.
Dr Rokke addresses US Senate, 10 November 2000
Hansard, 15 December 1999 – Dr Rokke gives evidence to UK Parliament’s Select Committee on Defence
Disaster News Network interview with Dr Rokke, 28 December 2002 – updates the number of subsequent deaths on his 100-strong cleanup team to 30.
Plutonium Contamination
The January 2001 book,
by Martin Meissonnier, Federic Loore and Roger Trilling (published by Robert Laffont, France), was among the first to report that uranium at the US plants which process DU was contaminated with transuranics – highly radioactive elements including plutonium. The plants were meant to process natural uranium, but in the 1950s, without notifying the workers or surrounding communities, the US Department of Energy decided to reprocess spent fuel from military nuclear reactors. Depleted Uranium: The Invisible War
In other words, the many hundreds of tonnes of DU fired in the Gulf and in the Balkans contained elements many thousands of times more dangerous than U238. It was in response to a 17th January 2001 question from Roger Trilling, that the Pentagon (in the the shape of spokesman, Kenneth Bacon) first acknowledged the plutonium contamination which independent scientists began to suspect in the early 1990s.
Lara Marlowe – Irish Times, 1st February 2001
On 20th January 2000, the US Energy Secretery revealed in a written response to Tara Thornton of the MTP that:
One would have to assume depleted uranium includes traces of plutonium. Der Spiegel – 23rd January 2001
Traces of U236 (a highly radioactive man-made isotope of uranium), plutonium and other transuranics have since been found in American DU munitions. DU produced by other countries such as Russia and Pakistan may be even “dirtier” than the US stockpile. Indeed, depleted uranium should perhaps be better known as uranium-plus.
See The Fire This Time’s plutonium page, for more information on the plutonium contamination.
Disinformation and Sophistry in Collusion
In a brazen illustration of the power of the nuclear industry to evade inspection, the WHO is bound by a 1959 agreement with its fellow UN agency, the IAEA, which gives the unequivocally pro-nuclear IAEA a veto over any attempts by the WHO to research the effects of radiation.
As if to reinforce the point, the US Government, supported by some 40 countries including the UK, voted to cancel a WHO study into the effects of DU on civilians in Iraq in November 2001 – even if the WHO limited itself to the toxicological effects. However, the UN Sub-Committee on Minorities and Human Rights has charged three times that DU is a weapon of mass destruction.
Which is not to say there’s no official research going into the effects of DU. The Olin Corporation is the main US manufacturer of DU anti-tank rounds, and its foundation is generous in funding DU research – “research” which purports to show that DU has no harmful effects …
In December 1984, the FAA issued Advisory Circular 20-123 –
. Avoiding or Minimizing Encounters With Aircraft Equipped With Depleted Uranium Balance Weights During Accident Investigations
It is still in effect, and states:
If particles are inhaled or digested, they can be chemically toxic and cause a significant and long-lasting irradiation of internal tissue.
It advises investigators to wear protective clothing at crash sites, and dispose of them afterwards as radioactive waste.
Source: From The Wilderness – November 2001
So the FAA didn’t and doesn’t think DU is safe either !
Bill Mesler writes in the The Nation, 13 May 1997, about how the Pentagon covered up the test-firing of DU in its bases on allied territory.
Pentagon Poison: The Great Radioactive Ammo Cover-Up But why would they want to conceal such a perfectly harmless activity ? OSAGWI Investigations In 1997 the Pentagon established OSAGWI, and after 5 years it had spent nearly $150 million without ever publishing one medical research report or offering a single treatment program for ill Gulf War veterans. In fact, as of 1998, only 24 GWS victims had ever been examined for uranium in their lungs – and that was prior to OSAGWI’s establishment. Using old insensitive equipment, Dr Belton Burroughs and Dr David Slingerland of the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Boston, were able to identify 14 of the 24 as having measurable amounts of DU in their lungs. Their testing was then ordered to stop, and all their records were subsequently “lost”. Some urine samples were sent to the US Army Radiochemistry Laboratory in Maryland, for testing. Some of them never reached the laboratory, and the results of those that did were supposedly “lost”. After Dr Asaf Durakovic, an internationally recognized expert in internal radioactive contamination, testified about this to the US Congress, he subsequently lost his job with the VA (a Pentagon agency) in 1997. from Dr Bertell’s 7th May 1998 address at University of Toronto
As concern over GWS and the disaster in Iraq began to grow, an OSAGWI-funded RAND report,
, was issued in April 1999 and (in contradiction of all the prior official reports and memos I’ve already quoted) repeated officialdom’s public denials that DU was harmful. It also employed a recurring trick, by obfuscating the meaning of the term “natural” uranium, eg. at one point they state that DU is less radioactive than natural uranium (which can only be true if by “natural”, they mean the post-mining but pre-enrichment metal), and then they go on to state that the natural level of uranium concentrations in our water have never done us any harm (but this type of “natural” uranium is millions of times more diffuse than the refined metal – in fact, uranium does not even exist as a solid metal in nature). A Review of the Scientific Literature as it Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses, Volume 7: Depleted Uranium
Dan Fahey (Gulf War vet who served as a naval officer, and is now an anti-DU and veterans-rights activist with the NGWRC, MTP and Swords to Plowshares) responded with a series of four reports:
in April 1999, Dod Analysis I in June 1999, Dod Analysis II: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in August 1999 and A Fear of Falling in March 2000. Don’t Look, Don’t Find
Fahey attacked the RAND report as biased and incomplete, charging that it made no reference to over 100 relevant information sources, and ignored known studies which demonstrated a clear relationship between DU and harm to human health – for example, those carried out by the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute. He demonstrated that the RAND authors (one of whom was a member of OSAGWI staff) were clearly ignorant of much existing literature about DU hazards and previous experiments (literature which the RAND report claimed to have reviewed) and they had also based their conclusions on faulty DU exposure estimates provided by the Pentagon. Furthermore, significant information from OSAGWI interviews was also missing from the body of the RAND report.
In a broader critique of the Pentagon’s track record, he points out that not one of the US friendly-fire casualties hit by DU munitions was even tested till the DU Program was established in 1993, and then only a handful were monitored. Even when one of that handful later developed a tumour, the RAND report didn’t mention that, and in fact when VA doctors removed the tumour, they refused to release it to the patient, for independent testing.
In , Fahey damns the Pentagon thus: A Fear of Falling
US military leaders are trying to ensure the unrestricted future use and proliferation of depleted uranium weapons, while attempting to conceal their past failures to prevent DU exposures. Through public relations campaigns disguised as investigations, military leaders promote the illusion of the ‘clean’ war where no one dies, and no one gets sick.
In
, Fahey brings up the issue of plutonium contamination, and refers to a 1963 study that showed plutonium levels in the DU stockpile to be hundreds of times above established limits. He concludes that the burden of proof is on the Pentagon, as to whether DU ammunition contained high levels, or merely trace amounts, of plutonium and other transuranics. Don’t Look Don’t Find
Some earlier DU papers by Dan Fahey include:
September 1996:
Collateral Damage: How US Troops Were Exposed to Depleted Uranium During the Persian Gulf War (link is an excerpt only – full report is in the IAC book, ) Depleted Uranium: Metal of Dishonour
September 1998:
Case Narrative – DU Exposures (3rd Edition) UK Royal Society In May 2001, the UK Royal Society – an establishment body, manned by a cosy self-congratulatory coterie of the great and good in waiting for their knighthoods – got in on the denial game, by publishing its own report on DU, . This report was based on a review of existing literature, rather than any new investigations of their own, and contained the astounding claim that a soldier inside any vehicle struck by a DU penetrator – the most dangerous scenario – has only a slightly increased risk of lung cancer. Health Hazards of Depleted Uranium Munitions
Their report was derided by the LLRC, which described their findings as “absolute nonsense” and “lying” and also criticised their methodology, for not taking into account the specific hazards of internal radiation sources.
The Laka Foundation’s June 2001 review gave the Royal Society credit for at least allowing Dr Chris Busby of the LLRC to address them, but was otherwise no kinder to their report.
Dr Malcolm Hooper, advisor to the British Gulf War vets, also criticised their report, on 14 June 2001.
In March 2002, the Royal Society produced a follow-up report on the health effects of DU, concentrating on the chemical and long-term environmental risks. It concluded that even for soldiers on the battlefield, exposure levels would be too low to have any adverse effect on any organ. Dr Chris Busby of the LLRC made a series of suggestions to the report’s draft copy all of which were ignored in the final copy, and which led him to conclude that:
There was no real intention to research the area except in ways that were guaranteed not to find anything. Similarly Malcolm Hooper, Chief Medical advisor to the British Gulf War Veterans commented that: This is an attempt to give a scientific imprimatur to the stance of the government, which is unacceptable. See CADU and NRPB comments on the Royal Society’s work. Canadian DU Researchers Pay The Price – The Case Of Sharma And Horan In April 1999, Dr Hari Sharma, a nuclear chemist at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, found DU traces in the urine of 14 British vets, out of a group of 30 who had send him their samples. Based on his findings, he predicted 1,500 to 10,500 extra cancers among the UK cohort of 53,000 vets. Soon after, he was sent soil and urine samples by some Wolverhampton prison officers after a fire at a neighbouring DU factory (see Featherstone fire, on UK page), but was sacked from his 30-year university post before they arrived. The samples then went “missing”. Patricia Horan, a geochemist at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, later backed up Dr Sharma’s results for the British vets, using more sensitive equipment. She worked on DU from 1999, but was forced out of her job in July 2002 (and her assistant was dismissed on the same day), having already experienced break-ins and burglaries, and harrassment by her new boss. In August 2002, she co-published her findings with Dietz and Durakovic of the UMRC. BBC, 27 August 1999 Dirty Tricks The references to the handling of GWS on the other pages of this site, provide many more examples of the official obstruction of any investigations. Indeed, they often went beyond that, into intimidation and coercion. The 7th September 2001 Big Issue even reported that Dr Doug Rokke had been shot at, the journalist Felicity Arbuthnot rammed off the road on the A11 in Cambridgeshire by an unmarked car, and British vet Ray Bristow’s DU research stolen in a burglary. However, I have been unable to find alternative corroboration of any of these stories, apart from Ray Bristow’s burglary (which was actually a raid by MoD police, and is documented in Arbuthnot’s September 1999 New Internationalist article, ). This undated Squall article gives a bit more detail, but appears to be based on the same source. Poisoned Legacy
There are also reports of unknown authenticity, that Dr Guenther was seriously injured by a drive-by shooting in Germany. | 49,163 | 20,888 | 0.000049 |
warc | 201704 | Chemical equations are symbolic representations of what is known as a chemical reaction. Balancing chemical equations involves changing the scalar number of each chemical formula. Therefore, same charge must be present on both sides of the balanced equation. On the left hand side of the equation are the “reactants” while on the right side are the “products”. Both the reactants and the products must at the end of any balanced equation have an “absolute value” of the stoichiometric numbers.
It is important not to forget that smallest whole number coefficients are used at balancing chemical equations but if a chemical formula doesn’t have a coefficient, it is assumed that the coefficient is 1.
In balancing chemical equations, there are certain fundamental laws for the purpose of this lab report format which helps in making the balancing of equation much easier. These laws include:
There are several symbols used in Balancing chemical equations. These symbols are used when denoting how to write a coursework on the reaction type in different chemical reaction. They are
Other symbols used include
Different approaches to solving or balancing chemical equations have long business paper being postulated and till date, those ways still work.
Methods used for balancing chemical equations are
Before balancing chemical equations, notice both left and right hand side of the equation has 2 nitrogen denoted with the symbol N. Both nitrogen is balanced as there is 2 on each side of the equation. Let’s check out the oxygen denoted by symbol O, 3 oxygen on the left but only 2 oxygen on the right side. This means oxygen need to be balanced. Likewise, the hydrogen denoted by the symbol H, it has 4 hydrogens on the left and just 2 hydrogens on the right side making the equation unbalanced. Thus, it needs balancing. In this situation, both hydrogen and oxygen can be balanced together by adding a coefficient 2 behind the hydrogen symbol on the right hand side of the equation.
The above equation has now been balanced on both sides of the reaction while the mass conservation is satisfied as well. Balancing chemical equations by method of inspection is not that difficult rather too easy.
Let’s use the below chemical reaction:
To Balance Chemical Equations algebraically, unknown coefficients will be added in front of each molecular species in the equation
In this case case study topics, there are 4 unknowns, x, y, z and w; For Carbon, we have the condition: 4x = z; for hydrogen: we have 10x = 2w; For oxygen: we have 2y = 2z + w. This gives a set of only 3 equations for the 4 unknowns. The 4th condition comes from identifying the chemical equations which specify the relative amounts of both the reactants and products before balancing the chemical equation. We may take one of the coefficients to be 1, which then leaves us with only 3 unknowns and 3 conditions to determine them. Thus, the balanced equation could be written as.
This is a perfectly fine way of writing the equation, however, customarily, it is necessary to use integers as coefficients while attempting balancing chemical equations, in accordance with the law of combining volumes and Avogadro's hypothesis. Therefore, multiplying all through the equation by 2 on both sides and obtain the final result:
Some philosophers, postulated theories of transformation or the process of synthesizing of raw materials. Any substance is made up of 4 basic elements, they include: fire, water, air and earth. Scientists in the middle ages tried to convert lead into gold and for this purpose, they use reactions consisting of lead and lead-copper alloys with sulfur. Chemical substances that do not naturally occur in nature has long been tried. The process synthesizing chemical substances involved heating of sulfate and nitrate minerals e.g. sulfate, alum and saltpeter. This been said, balancing chemical equations can easily be done. In the 17th century, Johann Rudolph Glauber synthesized hydrochloric acid and sodium sulfate by combining sulfuric acid and sodium chloride. The development of the lead chamber process in the year 1746 as well as the Leblanc process, paved way for a large-scale production of sulfuric acid and sodium carbonate.
Chemical equations are classified according to 4 patterns:
Chemical reactions are used in the field of chemical engineering for the production of new compounds from some natural raw materials. These raw materials can either be petroleum or mineral ores. With the help of catalysts, the amount of energy needed for the reaction to occur is reduced while its reaction rates are being increased. | 4,681 | 2,037 | 0.000498 |
warc | 201704 | Menn kan ha sin månedlige med noe som ligner PMS symptomer, tatata.:-))
"Stomach cramps, mood swings, and hot flashes are all tell-tale signs it’s that time of the month for women — and men. A new survey conducted by VoucherCloud (Think UK version of Groupon) found a quarter of men believe they experience monthly “man periods,” suffering premenstrual (PMS) symptoms from cramps to food cravings.
Jed Diamond, therapist and author of The Irritable Male Syndrome, has done some exploring on the existence of the man period in the past and believes “men have hormonal cycles just as women do.” Contrary to popular belief, men become violent when their testosterone levels go down, where irritability, depression, and withdrawal come with a deficiency of the hormone. Testosterone levels in young men can fluctuate as much as four times daily. However, what is less clear is how these levels vary day by day and week by week."
Les mer her
http://www.medicaldaily.com/do-men-have-periods-quarter-men-experience-pms-symptoms-due-daily-hormonal-changes-362462?utm_source=FBPAGE&utm_medium=Social&utm_term=Health%20&%20Wellness&utm_content=507282762&utm_campaign=Medical%20Daily%20-%20MedicalDaily | 1,234 | 761 | 0.001362 |
warc | 201704 | Social media books are a dime a dozen. Well, here’s another one to add to the list. Ivy Worldwide, the social media agency, recently contacted me about the release of its new book, Social Media Judo, by Chris Aarons, Geoff Nelson and Nick White with Dan Zehr. If nothing else, you’ve got to love the title.
The authors claim that by using the techniques found in Social Media Judo, marketers now have the information necessary to create their own “judo moves” that will
* Increase sales
* Cut marketing costs * Boost engagement and, most importantly * Pay for themselves with real revenue
Based on successful social media campaigns for major corporations as Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Adobe, AMD, AT&T, LG Electronics, Microsoft and Time, Inc. as well as a number of startups, the authors proved that social media marketing is effective in achieving maximum results without much effort on the part of the clients. Many companies start to use social media, but once it begins to work, they consider their campaign finished—they do not leverage the enormous untapped potential that is available with just a little more effort. The authors detail the best ways to help any business become “greater than the sum of its parts.” This is a huge point!
According to the press release announcing the book’s launch: “Social Media Judo is a compelling read, full of fantastic information for any marketer that is trying to increase his or her company’s ROI through the very powerful medium of social media. The authors don’t hesitate to share their early failures as well as their successes, explaining how they rebounded after a particularly disastrous media campaign. They used their lowest point as a springboard for great success, and they offer concepts that can be utilized by any business, regardless of their size or what they are trying to sell.”
You can find more information and order a copy of the book at http://socialmediajudo.com.
Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer | 2,049 | 1,092 | 0.000948 |
warc | 201704 | India’s DGCA (Directorate General for Civil Aviation) has benned the use of drones, even for civilian purposes, till it sets further, specific rules for the same. DGCA is the government body which sets laws regarding the use of Indian airspace by civilan aircrafts.
DGCA has notified via a circular on Monday that although it has started formulating laws for the use of drones by commercial and civilian operators, but till the time laws are formulated, their use is banned.
In the circular, DGCA said,
The UAS (unmanned aerial system) has potential for a large number of civil applications. However, its use, besides being a safety issue, also poses a security threat. The airspace over cities in India has high density of manned aircraft traffic. Due to lack of regulation, operating procedures/ standards and uncertainty of the technology, UAS poses threat for air collisions and accidents
Several commercial organisations, including the likes of Amazon, have shown considerable interest in operating drones for delivery purposes.
For example, last month, Economic Times reported that Amazon was planning to deploy its Prime Air service in India, even before the U.S., as getting operational clearance in the U.S. was taking quite a bit of time. Amazon, later declined the same to Tech-Portal.
Not only commercial ventures, even Government bodies, like Mumbai Police and Delhi Police, have used drones in the past for surveillance purposes at large events. DGCA, further said that its is in the process of formulating laws for the use of drones, and “globally harmonize those” for certification and operation for use of UAS in the Indian civil airspace. | 1,679 | 881 | 0.001151 |
warc | 201704 | Are you taking advantage of design to generate strategic business differentiation?
I got turned onto the topic of design thinking from Cone Johnson – an iRise user who helped organize an event around design thinking in Dallas today.
So what is design thinking?
From the Design Thinking event site, they talk about design thinking as follows:
“Classic business models are threatened—the economics of competition have changed. Quality, efficiency and price are quickly matched. Being different requires flexibility—it’s squishy. Squishy seems to imply risk.
Such is the conundrum of the balance between science and art—a balance readily facilitated by Design Thinking, fundamentals for strategic business differentiation.”
At the Corante blog, Paula Thornton describes design thinking as “leveraging implicit elements of design practices, as a means to approach problem solving” and calls it a “critical factor for innovation”. Paula also notes that “Good Design Thinking is the ability to see things not readily apparent to others (that’s where market differentiation can occur).”
The Noise Between Stations blog provides 6 building blocks of design thinking:
Collaborative, especially with others having different and complimentary experience, to generate better work and form agreement Abductive, inventing new options to find new and better solutions to new problems Experimental, building prototypes and posing hypotheses, testing them, and iterating this activity to find what works and what doesn’t work to manage risk Personal, considering the unique context of each problem and the people involved Integrative, perceiving an entire system and its linkages Interpretive, devising how to frame the problem and judge the possible solutions
The net-net is that design is good – and that design can and should be leveraged to even greater heights by coupling it with business strategy to generate new innovations. I’d love to hear comments about how others are using design to solve problems.
10/25 update – Here’s some more information I ran across this morning on Design Thinking from Bruce Nussbaum’s blog (NussbaumOnDesign) where he compares Design to Design Thinking. | 2,286 | 1,154 | 0.000911 |
warc | 201704 | It would be easy to complain about how, as a culture, no one seems to care about advent. And most Catholics have probably heard similar complaints or even rants, from priests and the devout, who do very much care about advent. I’ve heard the complaints of Christmas decorations appearing after Halloween, whereas before it was always Thanksgiving—the cynics swear that soon it will be Labor Day! These are common with religious and non-religious alike. But for Catholics, even post-Thanksgiving is not Christmas time. It is advent. So there are complaints about carols, nativity scenes, and trees being up too early. ‘It’s advent, people!’ they say.
To these complaints I usually give my customary half smile, which not even I know the meaning of, while thinking: ‘quit your bellyaching… what’s the big deal.’ I think it’s pointless, pious party pooping.
Okay. Personally, I can’t stand the 24/7 holiday music stations, cranking out cool yule from Thanksgiving to Christmas. But not because they are jumping the gun. Rather, because it’s terrible music for the most part. Even in the years following my father’s death when holidays were more painful and awkward than pleasurable and eagerly anticipated, it was not that this music was a prolonged pouring of salt in the wound, but simply that hearing Feliz Navidad for the twentieth time in a week was even more painful and awkward than grief. And that’s saying something. (Not to mention—Feliz Navidad is such a repetitive song to begin with that hearing it once is already equivalent to having heard it three consecutive times.) One of the contributing factors to the annoyance of prolonged holiday music is that there simply aren’t that many good holiday songs. (Technically, this is not true. There are tons, but they don’t get recorded by mainstream artists. According to iTunes, my collection of mediaeval and renaissance Christmas music alone lasts about three days. I can’t get enough of that.) How many times can one hear ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Sleigh Ride’, ‘The Christmas Song’, and ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’ in a day without the screw coming just little bit loose? Only a few listens can cause one to realise what a manic and deranged tune the ‘Ukrainian Bell Carol’ is. It doesn’t really matter that these same songs are being tastelessly performed by a whole variety of pop artists. It’s the same few songs, over and over; one arrangement and performance more unconvincing than the next. And I’m not saying that one has to be a good Christian to make good Christmas music. The Jews have made most of the best Christmas music in the past 100 years. I say, ‘Amein to that!’
My view is not so negative, though: if the music lifts your spirit for a month and helps you get through the other dreary months of winter, I’m all for it. Though, I don’t work in a cubical, or for a retailer, so I may be biased.
The trees and the lights I love. If I could have my druthers, the lights would stay up all year—on everyone’s house, not just the creepy guy’s who is either too eccentric or too lazy to take them down. Further, there are few amenities more therapeutic than the ambient glow of delightfully adorned Fraser Fir in a dimly lit living room. You can bet I’ll be marinating in that for a solid 25, at least. And if this temporary installation causes even a few couples to sit quietly a while, closely snuggled together on the couch, in lieu of ‘her’ watching the
Real Housewives of Atlantawhile ‘he’ checks his fantasy football team stats, then I shall sing a hymn to thee, O Tannenbaum.
Even though I have more admiration for the real St. Nicholas than the Coca-cola Santa at every mall in the country, if as a society we still encourage belief in a chubby white male who is actually loving and benevolent, rather than a corporate criminal, then I say, ‘Thank God! It really is the season of hope!’
What does bother me, (even more than people being merry and bright, believe it or not) is when even intelligent Catholics get advent totally wrong. As frequently as it happens, I still startle every time I meet someone who thinks advent is about preparing for the birth of Jesus. Spoiler alert: Jesus was born somewhere between the years 4 and 6 B.C. Yet, I see this misunderstanding of advent being most frequently employed. In many ways it is the very ethos that drives the aforementioned pointless, pious party pooping—no tree, no lights, no little figurine in the manger until Christmas eve. This misses the point and embodies the snivelling to which the pseudo-pious are prone. Advent is not the season when we pretend or act as though Jesus has not yet been born.
But, since no one likes a bitter know-it-all, I have preferred that such opportune encounters spark a deeper understanding and appreciation, within my own life and thinking, of what advent really is all about. I don’t claim to have all the answers, and the realisation of this is in many ways one of the great lessons of advent. Nevertheless, here are some thoughts.
A good place to start is the word itself, ‘advent,’ and what a remarkable word it is. It comes from the Latin,
adventus, which comes from advenire, meaning ‘arrival.’ However, there is a sense in which ad venirecan indicate the ‘coming toward one’ of something from someplace else, as in something ‘other,’ something beyond us, that transcends us in a marvellous way and is approaching. Thus, this word is saturated with mystery, evoking thoughts of pregnant expectation, but also the shattering of expectations; patience, but also ardent longing; hope, but also uncertainty. An ‘advent’ is something utterly astonishing, that invites us to become adventurers, pursuing the strangeness of what has manifested itself in our world as a kind of inbreaking. So there is a directionality to this word, indicating that something is coming toward us. And the whence of this coming toward is connected to the future. In Latin there are two kinds of directionality when it comes to the future. Futurumexpresses future in the sense that we in English usually mean it, as the point to which we are progressing in chronological fashion. The word adventusalso is connected to the idea of the future, but it is the future approaching us. The German language also allows for two kinds of ‘future’ with these two different trajectories. Futurexpresses our chronological movement toward the future, and Zukunftexpresses the future’s approach toward us. So, the future is not simply something that we arrive at through our projects and human striving in the passing of chronological time, but it is also something arrives at us, with its own plans and intentions, which exceed our limited understanding and expectations. There can seem something unsettling in this idea. Our tendency is to want to control our destiny, to make plans for how things are going to go, and we prepare things so that they will go our way, the way we would like them to go. But this sense of advent in some way tells that we cannot prepare for something definite, but would do better in preparing to be surprised.
The Latin,
adventus,is preceded by the Greek word, παρουσία (parousia), well known in theology as the arrival of the ‘Second Coming,’ or the arrival of the fulfilment of creation, the fullness of time. The word also means something like ‘becoming present.’ In some theologies this Second Coming is seen in rather harsh terms as Judgement, a day of great sorrow and great exaltation, or as the Day of YHWH, where the world will be obliterated and a new one will replace it. Though these ways of thinking have some validity, a more robust response that seems better able to accommodate more elements of tradition more coherently speaks of this Second Coming as the full realisation of God’s intentions for humanity, to share most abundantly in God’s love. The advent that we await with joyful hope is the fulfilment of the reign of God.
In Jesus’ ministry, he tells us that the reign of God is at hand already, if one changes one’s way of seeing and thinking and being, attuning oneself to God’s intentions for human life. This change is referred to as μετάνοια (metanoia), which can be translated as: going beyond the mind that you have, or a radical, holistic change from a way of being that is curved in on itself (
curvatus in se) and fearful, toward a way of being that participates in a trusting relationship with God, allowing God to empower oneself. In many ways, original sin, famously depicted in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, represents the tendency for humans not to trust in God. Though many readings of this story focus on who was at fault in eating the fruit first, and the true meaning of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, I think these discussions often miss the point. For me, the most important aspect of the story is that it is the serpent who convinces Adam and Eve that they too could be gods, but that God doesn’t want them to be because God is trying to keep them down, in a subservient way. Thus, the serpent convinces Adam and Eve that God is their competitor rather than the one in whom they can trust most ultimately. It is when they turn toward themselves in an autonomy wherein God becomes extrinsic to their lives, as a competitor or judge, that they becoming fearful and attempt filling the void in their lives and shielding themselves from without by the proverbial fig leaves. And today these fig leaves are represented in all of the goods we feel we need or must have in order to feel safe, secure and fulfilled. This autonomous state in which we feel we must be gods ourselves, at odds with God, causes a mindset of fear which is the root of all sin and evil. Although this can sound simplistic and ‘too easy’ an explanation, it is remarkable how well this perspective holds up. Try to think of an evil in our world today that is not caused by fear. In many ways, this story predicted the unfolding of world history, in nuce.
Jesus’ ministry predominantly focuses upon getting people to move out of that fearful state and into a state in which one realises that he or she is profoundly loved by God, and that God desires from him or her an empowering relationship of love and trust. When one allows oneself to be empowered by this relationship of love and trust, and this relationship enhances one’s attunement to God’s intentions for humanity, then one begins to see with the eyes of the reign of God and can begin to bring that more just way of life to realisation. Thus, Jesus calls us to live in and work toward the reign of God here and now. Of course the reign of God is not complete, nor will it be completed by us. The reign of God is completed by the advent of God’s fulfilment of creation. This is where our human efforts to create a more loving and just society, in which it is possible for all to enter into loving relationship with God and neighbour, are brought to fulfilment by God. Our movements forward meet God’s loving embrace toward us in the advent of the perfect fulfilment of creation.
Advent, then, is a time in which we recommit ourselves in working toward the bringing about of the reign of God, continuing the work of Jesus’ ministry, in the joyful hope that we will more deeply experience the reign of God present in our world now, seeing the world as God intends it to be, not in the distorted vision caused by fear; preparing for when God brings this reign to its fulfilment. It is fitting that the advent season marks the ‘new year’ of the liturgical calendar, since this season calls us to envision a new way for humanity, of peace, justice, and healing. We are asked to ponder possibility, in hope. The line from ‘O Holy Night’ that I have come to appreciate most is expressive of this: ‘For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!’
This is connected with the other sense of
parousia, ‘becoming present.’ During advent we prepare for the celebration of the incarnation of God, God’s having become human, and thus made present to us in the most radical manifestation. The way in which we properly celebrate this incarnation, God’s becoming concretely present among us, is to live in the way that Jesus, God incarnate, did. In this we allow God to work through us, so that God’s presence among us can be more fully recognised, and that humans might live in happiness with one another, which is precisely why God loved the world into being in the first place. Human persons are made in the image and likeness of God, the Imago dei, and thus we are called to be like God by being empowered by God, and living in a way that participates in and reflects that love. Due to the human tendency not to live in this way, we tend to forget what a proper life in relationship to God looks like. And so God became human in Jesus to provide a perfect example of what human life should look like, and by imitating this example, we are able to be restored to proper relationship with God, and can live once again as citizens of the reign of God. Jesus shows us how to be properly human. It is interesting to note that in German, the word for incarnation is M enschwerdung, which literally means ‘becoming human.’ We become most like the image and likeness of God when we are most human. We are not most Godly when we try to be false gods, but when we are who God intends for us to be as humans. This is the true realisation of human freedom, wherein we are free to be us.
St. Gregory of Nazianzus speaks of the doctrine of divinisation. His famous phrase states that “God became human so that we might become divine.” Of course he doesn’t mean that we become God, but that we participate most fully in the divine life in following the example of Jesus’ relationship of love and trust in God, which enabled him, as it will us, to proclaim the reign of God. He also uses the example of a fresco, which has become dirty and decrepit, in the same way that the human image has become decrepit by millennia of sinful behaviour. Jesus comes as the restored image, showing us most profoundly how to be human in the most full sense of the
Imago dei. Thus it is important to recognise that God’s voluntary entrance into humanity is a wondrous affirmation of the immensely positive possibilities for humanity. In advent we commit ourselves to refining our vision for imagining these possibilities within us and for our world. The best way to celebrate the incarnation, God’s profound presence among us, is to continue to deepen the way in which our way of life makes God manifest among us.
We still struggle with doing this, with putting on Christ. One of my favourite ideas to reflect upon in advent is a famous quotation from Karl Rahner, S.J.: “It is both terrible and comforting to dwell in the inconceivable nearness to God, and so to be loved by God Himself that the first and last gift is infinity and inconceivability itself. But we have no choice. God is with us.” This is profoundly expressive of the desire for but also the difficulty in accepting God’s invitation, the gift of God’s self. It is ironic that as often as we seem godlike in our own ambitions and projects, we often do not count ourselves worthy or able to do God’s work; yet this irony magnifies the delusional state that is at stake. In advent we prepare ourselves to recognise more significantly how God is trying to become more present in our lives and in our world. And that indeed this is the greatest gift we can receive, and the greatest gift that we can give to one another. God is with us and completely for us. We are still struggling to accept this.
Perhaps it is by preparing a space within ourselves and rethinking the arrangement of our priorities that we might allow God a more profound space within us and our world; the outward manifestation of which might indeed proclaim, but with authentic expression of love, “It’s advent, people!”
Adventus for the Rest of Us
December 3, 2012 by gregorygrimes2012 | 16,556 | 7,016 | 0.000148 |
warc | 201704 | The
chronic inflammatory disorder called rheumatoid arthritis can cause significant
pain and discomfort. Though most diagnoses occur in individuals between ages 40
and 60, the early signs and symptoms can occur prior to this and may easily go
unnoticed.
Early Signs Can Go Unnoticed
According
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1.5 million adults in
the United States suffered from RA in 2007. Many more may have it. The early
symptoms of this condition can go unnoticed for years. Many healthy individuals
living an active lifestyle may already have the condition by the time they
enter their middle years.
To
complicate diagnosis even more, patients do not often suffer the same symptoms.
What one individual experiences is not necessarily experienced by another. This
fluctuation of symptoms results in three possible characterizations of the
condition.
In some
individuals, the condition is monocyclic, meaning symptoms occur once and may
not occur again for two to five years. Others experience activity levels of
these symptoms that change over the course of the condition, worsening and
improving throughout. This is called polycyclic. A third characterization is
often more common. The RA presents itself and increases in severity over a
period of time; it does not come and go.
This
makes spotting early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis difficult to do in some
individuals. However, if it is possible to diagnose early on, treatment may
help to reduce pain.
Common Early Symptoms
In most
cases, early symptoms of RA are present in smaller joints first. The most
common occurrence is in the fingers at the joints that connect the fingers to
the hands. It can also occur in the toes in its earliest stages. Symptoms may
include:
tender joints
swelling in the
joints
a feeling of
warmth in the joint areas, sometimes spreading outward
Many individuals
wake up to stiff or difficult-to-move joints in the early stages that
improves over a period of hours.
These
symptoms are often most commonly associated with the condition. However, other
symptoms may also occur that tend to not relate specifically to joint pain. For
example, many individuals have a low-grade fever that is unexplained by other
sources. Some people have a general feeling of being ill, though they may be
unable to pinpoint a specific cause. Others have a loss of appetite at this
stage, again without any easily identified cause.
The Progression
Most
individuals with RA will see a significant worsening of symptoms over time. The
early signs of rheumatoid arthritis progress from this point to symptoms such
as the following:
red and swollen
joints that are painful
painless, red
lumps on the skin, called rheumatoid nodules, that can occur on other
joints including the knees, toes, and elbows
chest pain and
difficulty breathing
dry mouth and
painfully dry eyes
According
to Johns Hopkins Medicine, early symptoms can begin to occur as early as age
20. Some, on the other hand, experience symptoms as late as age 50 without
having previously experienced any associated joint pain or discomfort.
Early Diagnosis
The
only way for doctors to know if a patient has the early signs of RA is to
conduct diagnostic testing on the individual. This often begins with a patient
history and an exam. Most often, doctors will use X-rays to gather specific
data, but this is possible only when the symptoms begin to affect specific
joints. Blood tests can help to pinpoint autoimmune rheumatoid factors, as
anemia is present in about half of those with the condition.
Ultimately,
though, there is no test to specifically define early-stage RA. Rather, doctors
will need to use long-term observation to determine if there are changes
occurring to the joints and, if so, if the condition seems to be rheumatoid
arthritis rather than other types of arthritic conditions.
There’s
no cure for RA. There’s no way to prevent it or to slow its progress. By
understanding the early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, though, doctors may
be able to provide pain management to patients. | 4,158 | 1,919 | 0.000533 |
warc | 201704 | SAN DIEGO—San Diego is host to many of the nation’s top athletes working toward peak performance at the Olympic Training Center. But according to a recent report by the California Department of Education, San Diego is also home to a large number of out-of-shape school children.
Of the thousands of fifth-, seventh- and ninth-grade students in San Diego that took a 1999 fitness test, more than 40 percent ran a mile so slowly that they failed an aerobic capacity test. Nationwide, the U.S. government estimates that 6 million children are now overweight enough to endanger their health. The American Council on Exercise (ACE), which works to promote healthy, fit lifestyles for children and adults, is concerned by these statistics.
“Not every child is going to become an Olympic athlete,” says Ken Germano, executive director of ACE and founder of its youth fitness initiative, Operation FitKids, “but we need to get them away from the television and turn them on to exercise and fitness. More than 90 percent of U.S. children watch several hours of TV each day, which can lead to a sedentary and obese population.”
Now that the 2000 Summer Olympics are almost here, parents can harness the athletic zeal promoted by television coverage to get themselves and their children off the couch and moving. But before turning off the television, families should sit down together and watch some Olympic programming, working in a discussion of what types of events the children most enjoyed watching, and which ones they might like to try themselves.
ACE offers these suggestions for parents on how to motivate their children to exercise.
· Don’t just tell your children that exercise is fun—show them! Go biking, hiking or in-line skating together. Join younger children on the jungle gym, which is a great piece of equipment for building strength and coordination.
· Include children in vigorous household tasks, such as gardening or washing the car, by making them fun activities rather than chores.
· Plan outings and activities that involve walking, such as trips to the zoo, a theme park, the mountains or even the mall.
· Check if your local gym or fitness center offers special exercise programs for children.
· Create a reward system to motivate children on the move. Recognize good fitness habits with new equipment, such as a soccer ball, jump rope or even a bike.
· Emphasize the positive aspects of participation in organized sports, such as improved health, teamwork and self-esteem. Avoid focusing on competition and failure.
· When trying to motivate teenagers to exercise, appeal to their need for entertainment and social interaction. Whenever possible, include their friends in your fitness activities.
· Exercise and nutrition are equally important to good health. Be a good role model with your own eating habits, and don’t battle with children about food. Make changes in eating habits gradually, and continue to include some food items they enjoy. Offer reasonable alternatives as you replace high-fat, high-sugar foods with healthier items.
The American Council on Exercise (ACE) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the benefits of physical activity and protecting consumers against unsafe and ineffective fitness products and instruction. As the nation’s “workout watchdog,” ACE conducts university-based research and
testing that target fitness products and trends. ACE sets standards for fitness professionals and is the world’s largest nonprofit fitness certifying organization. For more information on ACE and its programs, call (800) 825-3636 or log onto the ACE Web site at www.acefitness.org.
Operation FitKids is the youth fitness initiative of the American Council on Exercise. Through the initiative, “recycled” exercise equipment is provided and fitness facilities are created for children with no access to physical education programs. Facilities are established at high schools, Boys & Girls Clubs, community centers and housing developments. | 4,121 | 1,996 | 0.000518 |
warc | 201704 | 12-22-2010
Should you encourage your children to make New Year’s resolutions? Are young children even mature enough to understand what it means to make and keep resolutions? What is the parent’s role in the process?
These are just a few of the issues addressed in a new video from Akron Children’s Hospital, featuring Georgette Constantinou, PhD, a pediatric psychologist.
While the making (and breaking) of New Year’s resolutions has become something of a joke in our culture, Dr. Constantinou believes discussions about self reflection, improvement, and the setting and keeping of goals are valuable for children and parents alike.
“Minus a magic wand, we need to help children understand that there are steps involved in change. Change is not instant,” Dr. Constantinou said.
Other tips from Dr. Constantinou include being specific in goal setting and offering rewards. For example, instead of resolving to “get better grades,” it may be more effective to target ways to achieve this goal, such as doing a better job of bringing home the homework assignments and remembering to turn them into the teacher the next day. It may also be effective to have children chart their progress on a calendar.
To view the podcast, go to www.akronchildrens.org/story and type in the key word “resolutions.”
Should you encourage your kids to make New Year's #resolutions?
What to expect when coming to Akron Children's
For healthcare providers and nurses
Residency & Fellowships, Medical Students, Nursing and Allied Health
For prospective employees and career-seekers
Our online community that provides inspirational stories and helpful information. | 1,702 | 911 | 0.001141 |
warc | 201704 | A genus of decapod Crustacea including some of the most common coast crabs of Europe and North America because the rock crab Jonah crab etc See Crab
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any malignant growth or cyst brought on by unusual and out of control cell unit; it may distribute to many other body parts through systema lymphaticum or the system (astrology) someone who is born whilst the sun is within Cancer a small zodiacal constellation inside north hemisphere; between Leo and Gemini the fourth astrological sign; the sunlight is in this indication from about Summer 21 to July 22 type genus of family members Cancridae A genus of decapod Crustacea, including some of the most common shore crabs of Europe and united states, because the stone crab, Jonah crab, etc. See Crab. The 4th of this twelve astrological signs. The first point is the northern limit of the sun's program during the summer; therefore, the sign of summer time solstice. See Tropic. A northern constellation between Gemini and Leo. previously, any cancerous growth, esp. one went to with great pain and ulceration, with cachexia and progressive emaciation. It had been so named, possibly, from the great veins which surround it, compared because of the ancients towards the claws of a crab. The definition of is currently restricted to these types of a rise consists of aggregations of epithelial cells, either without assistance or embedded inside meshes of a trabecular framework.
An abnormal growth of cells which will proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in many cases, to metastasize (spread).
The disease caused by an uncontrolled unit of abnormal cells in an integral part of the body.
Old English disease "distributing aching, disease" (additionally canceradl), from Latin disease "a crab," later, "malignant tumor," from Greek karkinos, which, such as the Modern English term, has actually three meanings: crab, tumefaction, and also the zodiac constellation (late Old English), from PIE root *qarq- "become tough" (just like the shell of a crab); cognates: Sanskrit karkatah "crab," karkarah "hard;" as well as perhaps cognate with PIE root *qar-tu- "hard, powerful," way to obtain English difficult. Greek doctors Hippocrates and Galen, amongst others, noted similarity of crabs to some tumors with enlarged veins. Indicating "person born underneath the zodiac sign of Cancer" is from 1894. The sun's rays becoming in Cancer at summertime solstice, the constellation had connection in Latin writers because of the south with summer heat. Cancer stick "smoking" is from 1959.
Cancer is an astrological sign, which will be associated with the constellation Cancer. It covers the 90-120th degree of the zodiac, between 90 and 125.25 amount of celestial longitude, that the Sun transits this area typically between Summer 22 to July 22 annually.
cancer tumors
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cervical cancer tumors cancer of the breast lung cancer
cancer of the breast
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Cancer cancer tumors
some of numerous problems described as the uncontrolled cell division that often occupy surrounding tissue and metastasize to new human anatomy web sites because a build up of anomalies within a cell. These anomalies can be congenital or obtained after birth through environmental factors. Typical tissue is growth-limited, in other words., mobile reproduction is equal to mobile demise. Feedback controls limit mobile division after a particular amount of cells are suffering from, allowing for muscle repair not development. Cyst cells tend to be less responsive to these restraints and will proliferate to the point in which they disrupt structure architecture, distort the movement of nutrients, and usually do harm. Cancer malignancy are named for the type of cellular which makes within the cancer tumors (lymphoma - a disease originating in lymphatic tissue, sarcoma - a cancer originating in the connective tissue of bone or muscle mass, carcinomas - a disease originating in skin, digestive tract or glands, etc.) or perhaps the organ for which they begin (breast disease, cervical cancer, cancer of the skin, bone tissue cancer tumors, etc).
A clear understanding of how fiber might protect against colon cancer risk remains somewhat elusive. | 4,229 | 2,024 | 0.000498 |
warc | 201704 | NuCulture™ combines 5 clinically studied powerful probiotic strains and a revolutionary prebiotic. Powered by 15 billion CFU and backed by 70+ clinical trials, NuCulture™ is the probiotic of the future deployed in a sophisticated patented delayed-released system. Take control of your gut health.
AlternaScript is dedicated to unleashing ideas and products that make the world a better place.
We believe you should be able to try our products before you purchase anything. That's just our philosophy. We're a small and humble company based out of Austin, TX, with one clear goal: Create amazing products backed by science and create exceptional experiences. Our free trial is a leap of faith we're willing to take as a testament to our confidence in our products. You're going to love them.
NuCulture combines 5 clinically studied probiotic strains in 15 billion CFU with a revolutionary prebiotic that targets harmful bacteria.
"Spore form probiotics are the Chuck Norris of probiotics: total tough guys...Wimpier types -- including live cultures in yogurt -- often throw in the towel."
Bacillus subtilis is a spore-forming probiotics, also known as a soil based probiotic. Unlike other strains, Bacillus subtilis forms an endospore to protect itself from harsh conditions. This patented strain is clinically tested to help the proliferation of beneficial bacteria and crowd out other bacteria in your gut.*
Bifidobacterium lactis is an important probiotic for immune health. There are 50 research studies performed on this specific strain, with at least 14 clinical studies. It's been linked to immune system modulation and gastrointestinal function.*
Lactobacillus acidophilus is one of the most commonly known strains of probiotics and for good reason. There are 315 research studies performed on this patented strain with over 40 clinical studies. It's linked to GI function, gut ecology, immune system modulation, and other health-boosting benefits.*
Bl-04 is another patented form of Bifidobacterium lactis with 9 clinical studies demonstrating it's efficacy on gastrointestinal ecology, immune system enhancement, and overall safety. It's thought to help maintain healthy respiratory function and overall health.*
Lactobacillus paracasei has over 10 clinical studies suggesting it improves gastrointestinal ecology, immune system function, and overall digestive health. It's predominantly known for maintain gut health in children.*
Learn more about NuCulture™ and how it was scientifically designed to help you.
Take 1 capsule every morning with or without food. Each bottle contains a 30-day supply.
Store in a cool, dry location, away from humidity & direct sunlight. No refrigeration required.
Patented, delayed-release capsules protect probiotics from harsh stomach acid.
Revolutionary PreforPro® targets harmful bacteria while providing food for beneficial bacteria.
NuCulture™ is formulated to a manufacturing target of 28.3 billion CFU.
Visit our support center for more information. | 3,044 | 1,421 | 0.000714 |
warc | 201704 | Largest Telehealth Player Now Serves More than 15 Million Covered Lives Boston, Mass., (October 8, 2014) – Today, national telehealth leader American Well® announced the expansion of its executive management team to support the company’s rapid growth. Mobile industry veteran Mike Putnam joins American Well in the role of senior vice president of consumer markets. Formerly at TripAdvisor and Rue La La, Putnam helped acquire millions of new customers through his leadership. Also joining American Well is Steve Aylward as senior vice president of sales. Aylward previously led Microsoft Corporation’s Health and Life Science solutions, where he was responsible for sales, strategic relationships, and solution development for health systems, health plans, and the life sciences industry across the United States.
New hires, internal growth and an expanding client portfolio at American Well reflect a much larger trend in healthcare. The industry has begun to see telehealth as the answer to managing healthcare costs and, as a result, market demand is skyrocketing. According to global professional services firm Towers Watson, in 2015 the number of U.S. employers offering telemedicine as a benefit will increase by 68 percent, leading to a potential savings of more than $6 billion a year in healthcare costs for U.S. companies.
“Telehealth is one of the most practical solutions for managing costs,” said Roy Schoenberg, MD, CEO of American Well. “By giving consumers the option to see a doctor over video for acute care, we are replacing higher cost settings such as the emergency room or urgent care clinics. Each telehealth visit saves employers an average of $140.”
American Well has seen this upward curve reflected in its own business The company has more than tripled the number of covered lives to over 15 million through its health plan, delivery system, and employer clients, making American Well the largest provider of telehealth services in the marketplace. Beyond executive leadership, the company has added talent throughout the organization — expanding its staff by more than 35 percent to date in 2014.
“We will continue to grow to meet market demand,” continued Schoenberg. “With all eyes on telehealth, it’s onwards and upwards from here!” | 2,340 | 1,189 | 0.000869 |
warc | 201704 | Gee-Grp Fibreglassing Pond lining is available in a range of materials and brand names but the easiest choice to make is a fibreglass onsite moulding.
Fibreglass
pond lining is the ultimate choice after you have spent time planning and building you pond and want it to look the best it can. Fibreglass pond lining also creates the best habitat to nurture fish and wildlife. Fibreglass linings also eliminate the risk of leaks.
We are a
fibreglass manufacturer who employs a large workforce offering you a broader, more flexible and responsive fibreglass moulding service.
We are a
fibreglass manufacturer with finishing and laminating departments that serve the whole of the UK. A lot of our production goes abroad and our products can easily withstand hostile environments. We have provided high-spec instrumental panel sunshades for use in the Algerian desert.
If you are building a pool, we have a choice of pool liners to make your construction decisions a lot easier to make. Making a decision on the type of pool liners you use can be difficult but our expert service can help.
Pool liners can come in pvc, vinyl liner, tiles or fibreglass and all these options have their own benefits. However, fibreglass is the better choice. It has amazing long-term cost effectiveness and is exceptionally durable.
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Fibreglass roofing is resistant to temperature change, has high flexural strength, long life expectancy. We also offer fibreglass roofing in an extensive range of colours and non-slip textures.
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flat roof replacement is water impervious and it has no joints. It is ideal for flat roof construction. You do not need to worry about it leaking and you save money because it does not require regular repair and maintenance. | 2,579 | 1,212 | 0.000832 |
warc | 201704 | A:Thank you for your question. It is safe to eat sushi during pregnancy provided you consuming sushi from reputable establishment with the freshest of ingredients. This will prevent food poisoning. Furthermore, to prevent the possibility of heavy metal toxicity, we recommend that you do not consume seafood more than once or twice a week. Also, if you are not certain that you have any allergies to exotic seafood, we recommend that you wait until after your baby is born until you consume such sea food. If you have been ordered to follow any specific diet by your ob/gyn we recommend that you consult them first before trying any new foods to be certain they will be ok for you.
(*)These Q&A’s are for educational purposes and should not be relied upon as a substitute for medical advice you may receive from your physician. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911. These answers do not constitute or initiate a patient/doctor relationship. | 960 | 550 | 0.001833 |
warc | 201704 | The District of Columbia has released a revised set of building codes to make it a leader in green construction. Under the new codes, new buildings will use 30% less energy than projects under existing regulations.
The new codes will apply to all new or substantially renovated commercial buildings larger than 10,000 sf and multifamily residential buildings that are four stories or taller. D.C.'s codes were last amended in 2006.
Click here to learn more.
+ | 464 | 307 | 0.003293 |
warc | 201704 | Buy more stuff when you recycle
A new scheme, based on loyalty rewards and vouchers, is going to reward greener households. those who actually separate stuff and that.
A £5 million fund has been set up to reward the greenest, in a bid to increase recycling rates in England.
Councils that offer weekly bin emptying services, instead of fortnightly, can bid for a share of the cash to increase their recycling rates by providing the incentives to those who recycle.
The scheme was originally piloted back in 2010, and was found to be quite the success with recycling rates increasing by 35%.
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles, that one off the telly, said: “Rewards for recycling show how working with families can deliver environmental benefits without the draconian approach of punishing people and leaving out smelly rubbish."
"Councils with fortnightly collections will not receive government funding and are short-changing their residents with an inferior service."
The closing date for bids is November 7th, and those who've been the most successful will be unveiled in January. | 1,111 | 631 | 0.001617 |
warc | 201704 | This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Daily Labor Report® is the objective resource the nation’s foremost labor and employment professionals read and rely on, providing reliable, analytical coverage of top labor and employment...
By Ben Penn
Feb. 17 — The top two House Democratic leaders have quietly begun to comply with the spirit of a forthcoming Labor Department regulation by paying overtime to more staffers, but the rule is creating administrative headaches in other lawmakers' offices, legislative sources told Bloomberg BNA.
Relaying a conversation he recently had with one member's chief of staff, Brad Fitch, president and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 16 that House “Democratic chiefs of staff are freaking out” about finding room in their budget for overtime wages. “That was her clinical assessment of the managerial challenges,” he said.
Whether the DOL's eventual final rule to open up overtime pay to millions of new employees winds up applying to the legislative workforce remains to be seen. But a short list of House Democrats sprang to action anyway after the proposal was unveiled last June .
Still, outside of the House leadership, which receives greater funding for payrolls than other members, there are Democrats who support the DOL's rulemaking but don't know if they can afford to compensate staffers accordingly because of steep cuts in their office budgets.
“We don’t have a set-hour kind of situation here; some kids work 12, 14, 16 hours a day, weekends, and I feel terrible that I cannot afford to give raises to the staff,” Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 11.
With $320,000 slashed from members' representational allowances (MRAs) over the past four years, “I don’t see how we could pay overtime” for the “17 or 18 people that each of us is allowed to have—that’s problematic for me,” added Hastings, a senior member of the House Rules Committee.
The mounting trepidation on Capitol Hill comes as a wide range of employers have argued against the regulation for imposing unnecessary costs. Republicans have opposed the DOL proposed rule, citing the burdens placed on employers. They're considering a legislative challenge once the final version is released later this year .
Democrats overwhelmingly support the proposed expansion of overtime wages. Worker advocates have praised the administration for modernizing overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act and boosting the middle class.
On the Senate side, offices have more room in their budgets to compensate staff time-and-a-half for additional hours beyond 40 in a workweek. The overtime issue has presented less of a conflict thus far in that chamber than in the House, Fitch said.
That leaves House Democrats in a unique bind. They largely favor the DOL's proposal to more than double the minimum annual salary for overtime exemption to $50,440 from $23,660. But they understand that providing overtime pay for their employees—many of whom earn below $50,440 and are prone to work well over 40 hours some weeks—may not be financially feasible.
Jim Moran, who resigned last year after 24 years as a Democratic representative from Virginia, told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 9 that the concern will be widespread on the Hill. “Most members are of the sentiment that it's impractical to be paying overtime,” observed Moran, who was a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch in the previous Congress.
“The problem is that this is the body that makes the laws that others have to comply with, so it’s a little awkward when you exempt yourself from the very laws that you’re expecting others in the public and private sector to comply with,” Moran added.
The CMF's Fitch confirmed Moran's characterization of the dilemma, saying he's already had conversations with about five to 10 House members' chiefs of staff who have sought guidance on overtime.
“They feel it would be unfair or hypocritical to support this kind of ruling for the private sector and not implement it in their own offices,” Fitch said.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), one of the more vocal worker advocates in Congress, acknowledged the budgetary constraints, but said that won't stop her from paying overtime once the DOL publishes a final rule.
“We are dealing with challenges, with MRAs being cut,” DeLauro told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 11. “It puts people in a difficult spot.”
The MRAs for House members were reduced by about 20 percent from fiscal years 2011 to 2013, according to an analysis by the CMF, an independent organization that provides operations and management training for congressional offices.
House members “don’t have any surplus funding in their MRA account, but the funding is flexible, so what they would have to do is reduce the size of their staff or” cut back on constituent communications, said Moran, now a lobbyist with the law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP. They might also consider eliminating a district office to afford overtime wages, he suggested.
What chiefs of staff fear, Fitch said, is the prospect of being forced to send staff assistants and legislative correspondents home at 5 p.m. because the office can't incur additional expenses. In doing so, they'd be “degrading the quality of services” available to both the member and constituents, he said.
The need to maintain an internal policy that is consistent with standards a lawmaker believes are proper for the overall workforce is what motivated House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to adjust the overtime protocol for her staff.
“Starting this year, the overtime compensation caps in” Pelosi's “leadership and personal offices increased to $50,440 in order to comply with this new rule,” Evangeline George, the minority leader's spokeswoman, told Bloomberg BNA in a Feb. 5 e-mail. “Leader Pelosi has long believed that workers in every field and every industry should be afforded the respect of wages that recognize the long hours given by so many—and that includes her office,” George said.
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) also responded to the agency's rule by paying overtime for the newly nonexempt staff, Mariel Saez, a spokeswoman for Hoyer, told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 3.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce's Democratic office has paid workers overtime dating back at least 10 years, a senior committee staffer who requested anonymity told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 17.
Then, in reaction to the DOL proposed rule, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the committee's ranking Democrat, encouraged colleagues to follow suit on overtime. The committee source was not aware of any office that has enacted such a policy but said some members have expressed interest in doing so.
The Workforce Committee Democratic staffer said it should be an easy rule to comply with, provided that a legislative office requires workers to get approval before they work overtime, and only approve it when it can be afforded.
Representatives for Hoyer and Pelosi both declined to comment specifically on the economic hurdles for their colleagues to also provide overtime wages. “Individual offices may implement their own workplace policies,” Pelosi's spokeswoman said.
The Workforce Committee's Republican leadership has been outspoken in disapproval of the DOL proposal for the overall workforce. Asked to respond to how the rule affects its own staffers, Tyler Hernandez, spokesman for the committee's majority staff, didn't provide Bloomberg BNA with a comment.
Higher ranking and higher paid positions such as chiefs of staff and legislative directors should remain exempt from overtime unless the DOL were to dramatically increase the salary threshold in the final rule.
The latest available data from the Congressional Research Service shows that as of FY 2013, median annual pay of several other job titles on the Hill would fall under the new threshold for overtime pay if the department's proposal were to apply.
For instance, staff assistants ($35,501), legislative correspondents ($38,052), schedulers ($48,199), legislative assistants ($48,622) and field representatives ($49,500 per year) all typically earned below the DOL's proposed $50,440 to qualify for exemption from overtime pay.
Even if members opt not to voluntarily observe the spirit of the regulation, they may be required to comply with the letter of the law, depending on a decision by a small agency that oversees workplace policy in the legislative branch.
The Office of Compliance enforces the Congressional Accountability Act, which extends some FLSA protections to legislative branch employees. Upon the release of the DOL final overtime rule, the OOC will issue a separate regulation covering congressional staff.
Under the Congressional Accountability Act, the OOC is mandated to write a rule that adopts the same provisions as the DOL regulation unless the OOC determines that a modification is necessary because of factors specific to the congressional workforce.
Paula Sumberg, deputy director of the OOC, told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 8 that her office has been closely following the DOL rulemaking process, but hasn't formally started its review.
Faced with an unknown rulemaking outcome and a limited budget, some Capitol Hill offices may simply take the wait-and-see approach. After all, Congress typically doesn't tend to a crisis until it's “staring at” it “in the face,” Fitch said. “I don’t think managers have yet estimated or assessed the potential impact of this regulation.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Penn in Washington at bpenn@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan J. McGolrick at smcgolrick@bna.com
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warc | 201704 | Social data is exploding and companies of all sizes are struggling to understand how to make sense of the data. Even the largest and most sophisticated brands are just scratching the surface of social business potential.
DataSift is powering the next generation of social business for leading brands, social technology companies and agencies around the globe. We are transforming how organizations convert social data into key insights that drive better decisions for brand leaders and market disrupting companies. Join Chris Parsons, Product Marketing Manager at DataSift, for a live webinar on Thursday, April 10, where he will share how to unlock the potential of social data, including: *Making social make sense in the real world – what the core tenets of a successful social strategy are and where you should start *How to move from data to insight: A closer look at common use cases and brand best practices *How to get started and get to fast impact: Actionable steps and best practices to unlock social insight and value for your business | 1,055 | 587 | 0.001717 |
warc | 201704 | Types of programs and development of studios
There are a number of distinguishable types of programs that are broadcast, but they often overlap in technique, subject matter, and style. Radio, for example, broadcasts speech and music, but in an endless number of combinations. Television adds the visual element, greatly increasing the number of possible program forms. Most sizable broadcast organizations, however, have several categories for administrative convenience. But the definitions cannot be too precise, and lines of demarcation are necessarily vague.
Entertainment
Entertainment can include comedy, impossible wholly to differentiate from drama; quizzes, not always easily distinguished from relatively serious programs of information and education; popular music, in which the frontier with jazz and serious music is anything but rigid; and variety, or a series of unrelated acts, nearly always linked by a popular presenter or established performer.
From the early days of radio there was a tendency to make use of a variety format, and, as this approach represented an extension of old music-hall traditions, success was achieved by many programs in this vein. From the music-hall–variety-type program emerged the “gang show,” in which a cast of performers remaining the same from week to week would make use of a series of humorous situations or catchphrases, gradually building up a familiar background against which the incongruities of the script could exploit humour to the full. A further development was the “situation comedy,” in which a number of characters, such as the members of a family, remain in the same situation week after week but experience comic adventures. Though these laughter programs lost popularity on radio as television gained popular acceptance, they have become the mainstays of television. A contemporary phenomenon has been the comedy program involving substantial amounts of political and social satire. The situation comedy has also been influenced by this trend.
The many types of comedy entertainment programs that are produced around the world all have one common characteristic: not only have the performers needed the stimulus of a studio audience, but also the listeners and viewers are stimulated by the laughter and applause of the audience. This has led to some abuses, such as the superimposition of laughter and applause on prerecorded programs, a practice that is frowned upon but still practiced. It has also meant that large studios are required to accommodate not only the performers, frequently including more than one music combination, but also the audience. In television there must be room for settings that have become increasingly ambitious and for dancers and choruses. Broadcasting organizations have generally been able to build studios of appropriate size, though radiobroadcasters in the early days preferred to purchase or rent small theatres.
In their form and structure, children’s entertainment shows resemble those for adults. Animated cartoons, however, represent an exception to this rule; the Hungarians, the Poles, and the French have achieved genuine distinction in this area.
Drama
Radio and television drama is not best produced in a theatre; the nature of the studio is therefore different. Early radio drama was produced in a relatively small studio, often with a single microphone, just as early television plays were produced with a single camera. Radio engineers soon began to employ a control panel with inputs from more than one studio and sound effects ingeniously achieved; their counterparts in television expanded their use of cameras and sets. Mixing in radio from one studio to another and in television from one set to another and employing increasingly sophisticated sound effects and background music have all become accepted techniques in drama production. Inevitably, television drama has borrowed substantially from the techniques of film production.
Feature films, usually originally made for the cinema, continue to form an accepted and important element in television schedules throughout the world. Both radio and television occasionally broadcast live stage plays from theatres, but there is a general feeling that such offerings do not adequately exploit the advantages of either medium. Since the earliest days of radio and television, the studio-produced drama has been an important ingredient in program schedules; in television, as in films, it was not long before shooting on location also became an accepted practice. Offerings have included classical Greek drama, Shakespeare and other Elizabethan dramatists, the Spanish and French theatre, Russian and Scandinavian plays, and modern works.
Serial presentations on television and radio have included adaptations of famous works of literature, such as the novels of Charles Dickens, Honoré de Balzac, and Leo Tolstoy, the
Forsyte Saga of John Galsworthy, historical costume dramas based on the lives of such figures as Henry VIII and Elizabeth I of England, and, of course, the romantic melodramas aimed largely at the daytime viewer or listener, known as “soap operas.” Radio and television serials of fantasy and adventure are also produced for children.
Three other distinguishable types of drama have achieved almost universal popularity: western adventures; shows involving gangsters, crime, and police; and shows set in hospitals and other medical situations. Violent episodes in some crime and western adventure programs have drawn criticism from those who believe that such violence is harmful to children. In response, many broadcasting organizations have introduced codes of practice to minimize such scenes.
Western adventure programs, largely produced in the United States, have been popular with studios because of their relatively low production costs and ready salability abroad. Dramatic series of this type have been shown all over the world, often with dubbed sound tracks. Although these exported American productions are often much less expensive than home-produced programs, Australia has been able to produce some western-type series, and Canada has exploited its legendary “Mounties.” So many American television programs have been exported, however, that broadcasting organizations in some nations, such as Japan and the United Kingdom, have taken steps to ensure that home-produced dramas have priority in terms of percentage of schedule hours and prime time (peak placing).
Spoken word
Spoken-word programs have included entertainment types, such as “This Is Your Life” and many of the “talk shows,” in which a personality interviewer questions celebrities, sometimes with interludes of music or comedy or with serious discussions, documentaries, or lectures. A fear of controversy, the problem of maintaining an overall impartiality, and sometimes the belief that the mass audience would be alienated by programs demanding a conscious effort and concentration combined, in the early days of radio, to limit the time given to serious spoken-word programs. It was not long, however, before many broadcasters developed a sense of pride and responsibility in their function and regarded it as their duty to provide information and opinion. In countries where broadcasting achieved a substantial measure of independence, some broadcasters gradually became concerned not only with the exposition of fact and controversy but also with the task of exposing the ills and abuses of their society.
News continues to be the most important element in spoken-word radio. Since it was inescapable that broadcast news would affect the industry, newspaper proprietors in the early days of radio either made efforts to restrict the sources of news and the times at which it could be broadcast or sought themselves to enter the field. In areas where broadcasting was commercialized, the press was further concerned, because radio competed with it for advertising revenues and because radio could almost always get a story to the public before the newspapers could. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that radio news reduced the circulation of newspapers; some have even maintained that radio whetted the appetite of listeners for news and increased newspaper sales. It would seem, however, that television has adversely affected the daily press and, even more so, weekly or monthly magazines. Long before television outstripped radio, broadcasting organizations were employing reporters and special and foreign correspondents and were supplementing the service received from news agencies. Some broadcast reporters became public personalities in their own right.
Television news presented additional production problems; the announcer at the microphone reading from a script or TelePrompTer was not satisfactory, and it was not long before the greater part of television news was appropriately accompanied by relevant pictures. The need for film shots and the cost and difficulty of obtaining them were, and to some extent remain, serious problems. In spite of substantial expenditure on the supply of such shots, television news is open to the criticism that news values and objectivity are distorted by the availability or nonavailability of pictures.
In general, however, broadcasting organizations have adjusted to the much higher cost of television news. The syndication of film reports, the development of live networks on an international basis, such as Eurovision, and satellite communications have overcome most problems of news reporting on television. On the other hand, it has become apparent that the psychological impact of film shots of war and civil disturbance, as of accidents and disasters, is far greater than that of the radio report. Television reports of, for example, the Vietnam War did far more to influence public opinion than radio news bulletins could have done. Radio has the advantage, however, of not requiring the same degree of attention; the trend has been toward frequently repeated short bulletins. In the United States there are radio stations that restrict themselves entirely to news, usually in a continuous magazine format, plus, of course, the advertising spots. The newsmagazine, or newsreel, in radio was introduced even earlier on BBC. A series of brief reports, interviews, and extracts from speeches, making use of many voices and exploiting the technique of frequent renewal of stimulus, proved to be a successful formula. This technique has spread into news bulletins and is increasingly used in the coverage of current affairs, both in radio and television. In all these programs of news and comment, one of the problems has been that of the anchors, or presenters, and the degree to which they may be given freedom to project their personalities or express their views. In the United States there have been fewer inhibitions in this area than in countries where broadcasting is or has been a monopoly and where the need for and tradition of impartiality have been dominant. In the case of the BBC, newsreaders were long anonymous; but on television the identity of a newsreader, or of the presenter of a magazine of news or comment, cannot be concealed, and these inhibitions have broken down. Nevertheless, in western Europe and Commonwealth countries the impartiality of broadcasting services remains an issue of greater importance than in the United States or Latin America. In Britain, when the Independent Television Authority was created, it was enjoined to see that in the coverage of controversial matters each program was balanced in itself. The BBC, with greater freedom, makes no effort to ensure balance in any one program, provided that an overall balance in respect of any issue is achieved over a reasonable period of time. In all developed countries elaborate programs are prepared to report the results of elections, though it is in the United States and the United Kingdom that these are most ambitious.
In radio straight talk persists in some countries, though less so than in the heyday of the medium. Nevertheless, some successful lectures at much greater length have been scheduled occasionally on television and in some countries on radio. Straight talk of 10 minutes or more does not lend itself to exciting television production, unless it is accompanied by filmed illustrations to the point where it all but becomes a documentary.
Another pattern popular in many countries involves a panel of distinguished figures under a chairman, answering questions of a topical nature from members of a studio audience. In some cases a parabolic microphone is employed so that questions may be asked from any part of the studio or hall in which the program is mounted; others may call for written queries in advance so that questioners can be conveniently seated in the first row. Some radio panel programs also solicit queries from members of the listening audience who call them in on the telephone.
Development of the radio documentary stemmed from drama as writers searched for new material especially appropriate for broadcasting. Not surprisingly, early documentary was in dramatic form, and most of it was based on well-known historical events, of which the programs were in effect dramatic reconstructions. Production of radio documentaries was simplified by the invention of magnetic recording tape that was far easier to edit and use on location than its predecessors, the wax-coated disc and the wire recorder. Ironically, just when these technical advances had made the best form of radio documentary possible, the television documentary on contemporary themes began to supplant its radio counterpart. Documentaries have become more expository of public (current) affairs concerned with international relations, domestic politics, and social problems.
Religion
There have been, in the main, two types of religious program: devotional and information-discussion. The former comprises prayer, religious services, or hymn singing, either mounted in a studio or as outside broadcasts from a church, a chapel, or a hall. A third type is the dramatization of a religious theme, though the tendency has been to devote a good proportion of religious broadcasting time to documentaries, discussions, and interviews. Some sects have produced broadcasts that combine political and religious material. Missionary bodies, mostly under the control of one of the many international or regional religious broadcasting organizations, either buy time on commercial stations or operate stations in many parts of the world, including Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Outside broadcasts
Although broadcasts do not constitute a distinct and definable form, they nevertheless have been since the birth of radio the most popular and arresting of all material transmitted on either medium. Sports of every description and ceremonial and political events have exercised an unfailing appeal and, in general, attract the largest audiences. Outside broadcasts have stimulated the imagination and taxed the ingenuity of television-broadcasting engineers to such an extent that they have accustomed the public to feats unimaginable to the pioneers of radio. The improvement of line communications, the development of mobile transmitters, and, above all, the use of satellite communications have given the outside broadcast an elasticity and an almost limitless range.
Music
Radio has had two important effects on the musical life of the world: it has widened the audience for all forms of music, and it has made easier the development of new forms, such as electronic music. Music remains a staple ingredient of radio in its own right, whereas in television, though there are programs of music as such, it is more often an adjunct to something else, as, for example, dancing, or as a small component of a mixed program. In the field of popular music, radio has immensely aided the rapid changes of fashion, which have coincided with technical advances in the making of recordings and their popularity and sales. A recognition by recording companies of the enormous power of radio in popularizing a song or performer has led to some abuses. In the United States record companies gave “payola,” or bribes, to prominent radio personalities in return for promotion of their songs.
The development of stereophonic sound techniques has revolutionized the record industry and has played an important role on radio, though earliest in the field of serious music. Frequency modulated (FM) radio broadcasts of serious music, and later of other forms of music, have been popular in many areas; some recordings are broadcast stereophonically but can be received on monophonic radios (
see sound).
Opera too has profited from broadcasting, and outside broadcasts from opera houses, as well as studio performances on both radio and television, have done much in European and many other countries to bring this form of music to a large public. Music programs have presented more difficulties than most others in the matter of studios, partly because of the size of studio required for a full symphony orchestra and partly because of the delicate balancing of acoustics for proper reproduction of such performances.
Internal organization, administration, and policy control
The organization and administration of broadcasting bodies can, in the case of a small independent station, be relatively simple, and the policies can be implemented with ease. Sizable organizations, however, have a complex problem, because it is not possible to determine success or failure purely on the basis of financial returns. Monopoly organizations, though in theory their sole purpose is public service, in practice often must take into account the views of the government. In the case of nonprofit public-service operations dependent upon license fees for revenue but with commercial competition, ratings cannot be completely ignored, and these organizations must compete for mass audiences to some extent in order to justify their existence at the expense of the listening and viewing public.
The broadcasting administration has two essential functions: first, programming—i.e., allocation of funds and setting of schedules—and, second, production, the preparation of programs. The former is in effect a branch of direction, and those in charge of planning program schedules and allocating funds have a power that if not checked can be absolute. On the other hand, these planners are dependent on the goodwill of the production and supply departments.
A main problem arises in the treatment of controversial subjects in the field of current affairs. Where broadcasters are under no obligation to be impartial, as in the Netherlands, or where, as in totalitarian countries, only one point of view may be aired, the problem does not arise. In democratic countries, however, where the broadcaster has independence and where there is a need to achieve an overall impartiality, the problem is very serious. Even though decisions may be reached by discussion and a consensus of opinion, the responsibility usually has to be carried by one person. No broadcasting organization has been able to find a complete solution to the problem that does not involve rigid control and intrusion on the independence of the editorial and production staff.
Administration must also deal with routine matters, such as staff pay and conditions of service, recruitment, finance, accounting, negotiations with unions, procurement of equipment, and provision of office and studio space. In general, it has been found best to subordinate such routine management operations to the needs of those directly concerned with the principal function of broadcasting. Much the same may be said of engineering and technical staff, though their research work and technical advances influence the decisions of direction and development of broadcasting. | 20,040 | 7,994 | 0.000126 |
warc | 201704 | Manchu-Tungus languages , also called Tungusic languages, smallest of three subfamilies of the Altaic language family. The Manchu-Tungus languages are a group of 10 to 17 languages spoken by fewer than 70,000 people scattered across a vast region that stretches from northern China across Mongolia to the northern boundary of Russia. Apart from the moribund Manchu and the now-extinct Juchen (Jurchen) languages, these languages have not been written. Relatively little is understood about the historical development of individual members of Manchu-Tungus or the relationships among them. This state of ignorance is likely to endure because most of the languages are extinct or near extinction.
Historically, the Manchu-Tungus peoples lived in fishing communities along the Pacific coast of Asia or formed nomadic bands of hunters and reindeer herders. The latter occupations could support only a limited number of individuals, with the result that hunting bands were small. The linguistic consequence of this scattered and only loosely associated social organization was extensive dialect differentiation. Because the language versus dialect distinction is often unclear, the precise number of Manchu-Tungus languages currently spoken is uncertain.
Linguistic history
The oldest attested member of the Manchu-Tungus family is Juchen (Jurchen), which was spoken by the founders of the Chin dynasty (1115–1234) in northern China. Almost nothing is known about this now-extinct language because few examples of written Juchen remain, these being inscriptions on stelae found in Manchuria and Korea. Juchen script was borrowed from the Khitan, a people whose empire the Juchen overthrew, but the Khitan writing system was altered to resemble Chinese characters more closely.
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Altaic languages: The Manchu-Tungus languages
Perhaps the most familiar member of the Manchu-Tungus family is Manchu, the language of the Ch’ing dynasty of China (1644–1911/12). Although the language had official status and a written form, its use in the Ch’ing empire steadily diminished owing to the pervasiveness of Chinese in daily affairs. A voluminous corpus of written Manchu from this period consists chiefly of official documents written bilingually in Manchu and Chinese and of translations from Chinese literature. The Manchu people were so thoroughly Sinicized that, by the time of the Ch’ing dynasty’s collapse in the early 20th century, a culturally or linguistically distinct Manchu community had virtually ceased to exist. As of 1982, reports listed only 70 elderly speakers of the language.
The vitality of all the Manchu-Tungus languages is in rapid decline. Speakers are bilingual in Russian, Mandarin Chinese, or minority languages, and in most cases, younger members of the communities have limited aptitude in their traditional language. In small part, this decline in use can be traced to the numerical and cultural dominance of Russian and Chinese speakers in the areas where Manchu-Tungus languages are found. The more direct causes of Manchu-Tungus obsolescence, however, were deliberate government policies of Russification and Sinicization. During Stalin’s era, for example, all cultural and linguistic diversity was suppressed in an attempt to create a homogeneous Soviet population. The traditionally nomadic Tungus peoples were forced to settle and were relocated in regions dominated by ethnic Russians. Their deer herds were collectivized. The Russian language was unofficially promoted as the sole medium of instruction in the schools, and in larger villages a boarding-school system was organized in which children from ages 1 to 15 were removed from their homes for six days a week. This system thus produced several generations of Tungus people who had no understanding of their traditional culture or language.
Classification and linguistic characteristics
Linguistic description of the Manchu-Tungus languages dates to only the middle of the 19th century, but by the 1950s linguists had reached a general consensus that the family consisted of two branches, a Southern (Manchu) group and a Northern (Tungus) group. This broad picture of the Manchu-Tungus languages, laid out in detail by the Russian linguist V.I. Cincius (1949) and the German linguist Johannes Benzing (1955), is based on several linguistic features that typically differentiate the two groups. The Tungus languages exhibit a contrast between short and long vowels; Manchu on the other hand does not exhibit a contrast in vowel length but is characterized by vowel clusters (
e.g., Manchu uihe versus Oroqen iige ‘horn’). Word initial f in Manchu corresponds to an initial vowel in Tungus (Manchu fulha versus Solon ula ‘poplar’).
With respect to morphology, Tungus languages, but not Manchu, have a highly developed system of nominal suffixes which indicate possession (Oroqen
murin-iw ‘horse-my,’ murin-iy ‘horse-your,’ murin-in ‘horse-his,’ etc.). Similarly, the use of case inflections is more prominent in Tungus. For example, Evenk has at least 11 distinct case suffixes, whereas written Manchu has 4 (Evenk bira-wa ‘river [accusative],’ bira-du ‘river-on,’ bira-la ‘river-in,’ etc.). Finally, Tungus languages exhibit subject agreement on verbal forms, but Manchu does not.
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Parlez-Vous Français? And Other Languages
Although the division between Southern and Northern branches is theoretically well established, the assignment of individual languages to one of the branches is in many cases controversial because certain languages have characteristics of both. For example, Ho-chen (Hezhe), usually considered a dialect of Nanai, is phonologically similar to the Manchu group, but morphologically similar to the Tungus group. This ambiguity has led some scholars to propose a third branch, the Central group, for Manchu-Tungus languages. Undoubtedly, the patterns of contact with other languages have helped to obscure the genetic affiliations of the Manchu-Tungus languages. Members of the Southern group have been affected in varying degrees by Chinese, while members of the Northern group have been particularly influenced by Russian and Mongolian languages.
A complete classification of the Manchu-Tungus family is hampered by many obstacles. Historical comparison is impossible, because only Manchu and Juchen have literary traditions that predate the 20th century; many contemporary Manchu-Tungus languages still lack a written form. Further, the Northern branch of the family is characterized by extreme dialectization, so that even Udihe—said to be spoken by only 100 individuals—is said to have at least seven varieties. Last, the paucity of published material on the languages also limits the extent to which the relationship between Manchu-Tungus and other Altaic languages can be determined. | 6,981 | 3,113 | 0.000328 |
warc | 201704 | North Avenue Pilot Project
What's New: North Avenue Pilot and School Travels:
North Avenue is a crucial corridor for parents and students traveling to and from neighborhood and magnet schools in Burlington. We ask for your patience and feedback as we test the new lane configuration while schools are in session. If parents, students, staff, and/or administrators have any feedback on the pilot project or would like to learn more, please contact DPW.
We are continuing to make adjustments to the the pilot. Thank you for the emails, phone calls, and outreach to help us troubleshoot some areas: Additional green-time has been added to North Avenue signals north of Shore Road to help with morning rush hour. A bus pull off has been constructed at the southbound bus stop in front of the Ethan Allen Shopping Center. While the buses won't be entirely out of the roadway, people driving and bicycling will be able to see around and pass a stopped bus in either the 3-lane or 4-lane configuration. After hearing from drivers, we took a close look at the Ethan Allen Parkway intersection and discovered it was not operating as intended. Adjustments were made to provide more green-light time for North Avenue traffic during morning and evening rush hours. In response to concerns about the number of barriers in the protected bike lane and the lack of space to pull aside for emergency vehicles in this area, we removed many of the barriers for less visual clutter and to make rooom to pull to the right. Additional barriers will be removed the week of September 12 to allow room to pull aside for emergency vehicles. In response to concerns for bicycles riding in the wrong direction, "Wrong Way, Ride With Traffic Signs" have been installed along North Avenue. In response to concerns for motorcycles crossing the scarified pavement, warning signs have been ordered and will be installed as soon as they arrive. For More Information:
Please contact Nicole Losch - Email: northavepilot@burlingtonvt.gov Phone: 802-863-9094 x3
Opportunities for Public Input Comment by e-mail (northavepilot@burlingtonvt.gov) Comment by phone (802-865-5833) Participate in phone and print surveys in spring 2017 Project Links
Road Segment Concepts:
VT 127 - Institute Road, Institute Road - Washington Street, Plattsburgh Avenue - Shore Avenue, Shore Road - VT 127 Washington Street - North Street
Pilot Overvi ew
The North Avenue Pilot Project involves signal improvements, measures to make North Avenue safer for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists, and temporary restriping and intersection changes between Washington Street and Plattsburg Avenue. These changes were recommended in the North Avenue Corridor Study the first phase of a three-phase process for making North Avenue a “Complete Street”
The 4-lane segments of North Avenue will be reconfigured to 3 lanes, and bike lanes and other changes will be made to enhance safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists. For a comprehensive list of changes that will be made, please click here.
The city hopes that these pilot measures will decrease the number of and the severity of crashes, calm traffic, reduce speeding and make North Avenue safer for cars, pedestrians and bicyclists, while still providing efficient traffic flow.
Results from the pilot will determine whether the middle section of North Avenue should optimally be designed with three or four lanes. This determination is critical as it will direct the design of future improvements called for in the corridor study including signalization, transit stops, crosswalks and bike facilities.
This is a pilot. All the modifications that will be made are reversible, and DPW is committed to removing modifications that are problematic.
Pilot Timeline Travel Times
A vehicle traveling at the speed limit (30 mph) that received all green lights would take 1 minute and 36 seconds to travel the 0.8 mile 4-lane section.
Travel time data collected during the morning and evening commute hours in June and November 2015 found that, on average, it takes about two minutes to drive northbound, and slightly over two minutes to drive southbound.
The pilot is designed to calm traffic while still providing efficient travel times, so if you are one of the 86% of drivers who currently speed on North Ave, your driving time is likely to increase slightly.
Once the pilot is in place, we can determine what effect these changes have on driving times. DPW will closely monitor travel times and will, as needed and as possible, make modifications to optimize roadway and intersection efficiency. If pilot components result in unacceptable increases in driving times, it will be removed.
Speeding and Crash Rates
Between 127 and Ethan Allen Parkway, 86% of cars speed, and between the Shopping Center and Shore Road, 46% of cars speed[1].
Project Cost
The pilot installation will cost approximately $155,000. DPW’s annual street and sidewalk capital budget is $2.4 million.
T he Decision Making Process
The City Council directed the Department of Public Works to:
Collect data throughout the course of the pilot, Conduct a public input survey, Keep the project area City Councilors apprised of pilot developments, and Make recommendations to the City Council 4 months into the pilot regarding the removal or continuation of the pilot components.
Pilot Traffic Data
Traffic Data files collected from the Pilot will be posted on this project website. "Before" data is available on the Corridor Study website.
What We're Hearing (in development)
Can the yellow lines be crossed? Yes, the yellow lines can be crossed when it is safe to do so. Click here for a video depiction of how to use the center left turn lane. What are the tall posts and low barriers in the roadway near BHS? Because this is a pilot project to determine how a revised lane configuration on North Avenue works, we are testing ways to ensure everyone's safety by separating the bike lane from cars, trucks, and buses. If the new lane configuration is retained, we will consider other ways to separate the lanes, such as planter boxes or elevating the bike lane. Click here for more information on protected bike lanes.
We have installed two kinds of low-cost, removable lane separation devices for the pilot:
Bollards (also called flex posts) = vertical, flexible posts with reflective bands
Cycle lane delineators (also called "armadillos") = black and white oval mounds with reflective white stripes, accommodating passage of emergency vehicles and trash/recycling collection.
What happens to the protected bike lanes during winter? The materials in use for the pilot will be removed for winter snow removal, and other materials can be applied if a protected lane is desired for any area of North Avenue in its final configuration. In response to concerns with the number of bollards and the lack of space to pull aside for emergency vehicles, we have removed many of the barriers to create less visual clutter and make more room to pull to the right. Let us know if what we've tried is or isn't working: Does the roadway seem less cluttered? Is it easier to pull aside? Is a protected lane desired over a painted bike lane, but not with these materials? How can emergency vehicles pass? Please put your hazard lights on and pull over to the right as far as possible. In order to make it easier for drivers to pull over near the protected bike lanes, we have increased the spacing of the bollards. If cars are traveling on both sides of the Avenue, it may be necessary to stagger vehicles or to pull off into a driveway to accommodate the emergency vehicle. What are the double white lines north of Shore Road? This area has a buffered bike lane, separated from motor vehicles by paint. If the new lane configuration is retained, the buffer area could be enhanced with additional paint, this area could become a protected bike lane, or the buffer could be removed to accommodate turn lanes or parking lanes. What are the white lines north of the VT 127 intersection? For the pilot project, areas with excess pavement have been marked with fog lines to keep a single lane in each direction. If the new lane configuration is retained, this area will be remarked to better distinguish the travel lanes, turn lanes, and bike lanes. Can buses be passed when they're stopped? If it is safe to do so, buses may be passed when they're stopped. We will be creating a bus pull off at the southbound bus stop in front of the Ethan Allen Shopping Center. This will allow buses to move out of the car travel lane and improve traffic flow at this location. How can I access the 127 now that the ramps are closed? The 127 can be accessed from the signalized portion of the intersection on North Avenue. What do the flashing arrows mean? Flashing yellow arrows mean you may turn when it is safe to do so, yielding to oncoming traffic or pedestrians in the crosswalk. Flashing red arrows mean you may turn, after coming to a stop and ensuring it is safe to turn. For a quick video tutorial courtesy of MNDOT, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIkanxT72KI.
[1] Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission.
[2] This crash rate does not include crashes on side streets and in the shopping center.
[3] For more information on crash rates, please see pages 30-31 of the Corridor Study.
[4] High crash locations are locations that have 5 or more crashes in a 5-year period and have an Actual/Critical ratio of 1.0 or higher. | 9,528 | 4,074 | 0.000247 |
warc | 201704 | SOURCE: Nebraska Poison Center, news release
THURSDAY, Dec. 25, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- During the hustle and bustle of the holidays, poisonings involving children increase, experts say.
The Nebraska Poison Center offers the following advice for a safe holiday season.
More than 50 percent of calls to the poison center involve medications, according to a center news release. Relatives and friends often bring medications when they come to stay over the holidays. Never leave medications on a nightstand or anywhere else children can find them. Store medications up and out of reach of youngsters.
Alcohol -- which is found in gifts such as perfume and cologne as well as in beverages -- is a threat to children. Immediately after a party, remove all items that may contain alcohol and keep them out of the reach of small children.
Empty all ashtrays. Just a few cigarette butts can send a child to the hospital.
Take care with lamp oil in candle lamps. These fuels can be attractive to small children because they look like colorful drinks. Aroma and fragrance oils are also widely used during the holidays, and can attract children because they smell good. In large amounts, these oils can cause vomiting and seizures in children.
Don't give children toys with magnets, and watch out for products with disc batteries. If swallowed by a child, these batteries can become lodged and cause serious injury or death.
Keep small children and pets away from seasonal plants such as mistletoe, holly berries, yew plants and poinsettias. Icicles and tinsel can be choking hazards if swallowed. Pressurized cans of snow spray can cause eye damage if sprayed directly in the eye.
Protect your pets. Chocolate, raisins, grapes and some nuts can be highly toxic to some animals.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about holiday health and safety. | 1,893 | 1,013 | 0.000994 |
warc | 201704 | If God is truly in control, He must be able to control weather events and natural disasters. The question then becomes if God is truly good, how could He allow so many people to die as the result of something under His control? Why does God allow natural disasters?
We will never know all of the reasons behind a particular natural disaster, but the Bible does offer insight. First, natural disasters are "natural" in the sense that they are the result of the natural laws of our world. The God who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1) designed the laws of nature, and those laws periodically lead to earthquakes, hurricanes, or tsunamis.
But can't God prevent natural disasters from taking place at certain times and locations? Of course He can and likely does at times. James 5:17-18 teaches, "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit." How many storms and natural disasters have been
averteddue to the prayers of godly people? Only God knows.
The Bible also reveals that Jesus holds all of nature together (Colossians 1:16-17). Jesus exercised His power over the forces of nature during His time on earth. In Mark 4:35-41, Jesus calmed a storm upon the sea. The disciples' response was, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" Nature recognizes its Maker.
So, if God can prevent natural disasters, why doesn't He? There may be a variety of reasons. In some cases, God may use the forces of nature to focus our attention on Him and the greatness of His power (Mark 4:35-41). Historically, God has used certain natural disasters as a judgment on sin (Numbers 16:30-34). Still other natural disasters may occur because God plans to use the event to bring about a greater good (Romans 8:28).
One word of caution regarding our human evaluation of natural disasters: we must not claim to know for certain
whya particular natural disaster has taken place. To speak of a specific earthquake or tsunami as a judgment from God on a particular sin is pure speculation. Christians are called to help those who suffer in difficult situations, using the opportunity to show Christ's love (Matthew 25:37-40).
Natural disasters are a tragic part of life on earth, but we cannot understand the "why" of their occurrence. When we do not have the answers, we depend on the power of our heavenly Father, knowing "that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).
Related Truth:
Did God create evil?
Why does God allow evil?
Why does God let bad things happen to good people?
Why does God let innocent people suffer?
Why does God allow sickness?
Truth about God | 2,868 | 1,404 | 0.000719 |
warc | 201704 | Many in today's culture believe that homosexuality is just another form of human sexual expression and that people are born that way. If someone feels an attraction to someone of the same sex, then it's obviously a natural (and therefore good) inclination to be acted upon. However, this way of thinking is not in agreement with the Bible. Are homosexual feelings sinful? Is homosexual / same-sex attraction a sin?
In the beginning God created all things perfectly without any error. He created man and then created woman for man (Genesis 2:18–22). Every single mention of homosexuality in the Bible is in a negative context. The plain teaching of the Bible is that homosexuality is outside the bounds of what God designed and is against His will. No matter how strong the attraction or the feelings of "love," homosexual behavior is always sinful; in fact, it is the result of people rejecting God and receiving the punishment for doing so in their own bodies (Romans 1:21–27).
What about those who struggle against homosexual feelings? Some seem to have a natural proclivity toward homosexuality, and we would respond that
allpeople have a weakness toward sometype of sin. We are all born sinners, and we all exhibit tendencies toward one type of misbehavior or another. Not everyone struggles with lying, but, for some, lying seems to be second nature. The same holds true for heterosexual lust, stealing, out-of-control anger, etc. These proclivities stem from our being born in a fallen condition due to the corruption that entered the world through Adam (Romans 5:12). We are all born sinners. However, to say that sin is natural and therefore permissible simply because we are born with a weakness for it is absurd. A person with a weakness for alcohol abuse may feel that the addiction so permeates him as to be part of the very fiber of his being, but that does not make his drunkenness acceptable. A kleptomaniac feels a strong desire to steal, yet his stealing is not justified.
Having homosexual feelings is not, in itself, wrong, for the simple reason that it is not a sin to be tempted. Having a homosexual thought does not make someone a homosexual. It's always how we deal with the temptation that determines whether or not we sin. To yield to homosexual feelings—to indulge in them, foster them, or act on them—is to sin. To yield to the Holy Spirit is to take a stand against personal sin and resist the feelings that would lead us astray. As believers, we " alk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:4).
We live in a fallen world, and our human natures are depraved. We struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and confused feelings and aberrant desires are part of the mix. The fact that more people appear to be identifying with or supporting homosexuality as normal could be a sign of a general decline in morals and lack of concern for God. This "sliding away" from God seems to get worse with passing years (see 2 Timothy 3:13). But, even if every person on earth disagreed with God on this matter or any other, it changes nothing about God's truth (Romans 3:4). God has determined the proper order in sexuality and every other aspect of life. When people oppose Him, they do so to their own peril.
Related Truth:
Is homosexuality a sin?
Does the Bible talk about lesbianism? What does the Bible say about being a lesbian?
Does the Bible say anything about bisexuality? Is being bisexual a sin?
Does the Bible say anything about transsexualism / transgenderism? Is gender dysphoria / gender identity disorder the result of sin?
Can someone be gay and Christian? Is it possible to be a gay Christian?
Truth about Sin | 3,720 | 1,781 | 0.000568 |
warc | 201704 | MIME MIME 221 221 P. P. O. H. S. Assignment #2 1. The Silo Effect is a business term which stands for the deficiency of communication and cross-departmental support which can be found quite often in large companies. In such situation teams work only on their own problems and needs, frequently ignoring those of others. This way information and customers’ concerns get lost in the middle. The Silo Effect gets its name from the farm storage form silo: As if there were two silos standing closely, and if some people were inside them, they would not be able to exchange even a few words through the walls. 2. Intellectual Property (IP) is any product or form of expression that is produced with an individual’s intellect, very original and unique. Examples of IP may include artistic work, computer software, business strategies, chemical formulas, genetically-engineered organisms, industrial technological processes, et cetera. There are four main ways of legal IP protection: trademarks, patents, designs and copyright. Individuals, as well as institutions can own their innovation exactly how they can own physical property. A possessor of IP can manage and receive payment for its use; thus, IP has value in the commercial field. The IP that results from research at McGill is the product of a cooperative work among university staff, students, and the University itself. In many cases when research is done in close collaboration with other individuals (i.e. fellow students, supervisors, co-researchers), IP is shared according to the Law and the McGill IP Policy. All creations become protected by the Copyright Act which provides a legal right to the creditor. Inventions normally fall under the Patent Act. In this case, the inventor and the University have a shared interest in this IP, according to the McGill IP Policy. Any data produced in one’s research project is only protected under the Copyright Act. If the University has provided all resources that allowed one to gather the data, it also has an interest in any resulting of its use. In general, research data is equally owned by the researcher and the University; thus, both have the right to use it. If the research project was funded by a sponsor who has been given rights to the data (ex. in a service contract), then the sponsor also has IP rights over the data but not over the technologies used to obtain the data. For graduate students and post- | 2,440 | 1,246 | 0.000808 |
warc | 201704 | iBeacons: A High-Tech Approach in Retail Marketing
Technology has surpassed thresholds with its ever developing phenomenon. It has managed to make its reach to higher and diversified formats thereby providing better convenience to the masses. One of its insights has been in the field of marketing.
There have been lots of developments in the marketing world during the recent years. With the commercial sector getting more aggressive, every enterprise now wants to market its products directly to the people.
No doubt, there have been various strategies for such a purpose, but this is now even more possible through the use of incredible technique which has been termed as beacon. This method after its evolution has resulted in the revolutionary transformation among the fraternities.
What are Beacons?
These are small sections of hardware which are utilized to transmit messages and directions directly to smart phones within a specific range through the use of Bluetooth technology.
Beacons have emerged as a better alternative when the specific niches like retailers, enterprises, institutions and other organizations want to converse virtually with the people.
Let’s consider an instance. A consumer is in a mall for shopping and while he passes across your store; his smart phone instantly receives a discount offer! This is what one of aspects of beacons.
Apart from this, beacons have also been implemented for other arrays of other purposes. They could be very well used for offline contactless payment system especially in the retail stores in order to expedite the checkout process.
And if we consider past retail marketing, then beacons have also turned out useful in the sectors such as airports along with ground transit hub for the proper management of check-in process and to provide updates on passenger’s smart phone regarding departures and delays of flights.
Likewise concert venues, theme parks, museums and many more sectors could be integrated with beacons technology. Conversely some of the brands like PayPal, Qualcomm, Estimote, Swirl and GEShopper have adopted the beacon management platform.
The various incorporated feature of beacons go truly advantageous to you as an entrepreneur. Further, Apple has taken a step by introducing this technique to receive beacon signals into its smart phones through the application known as iBeacons.
What is an iBeacon?
This is a promising technique which could be used for various ecommerce applications. It is a standard technology acquired by Apple which permits mobile apps to receive messages from beacons implementing the effective technique of Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE.
Additionally, BLE is based upon wireless networking that could send data over short distances. Well, this technology is beneficial when compared to traditional Bluetooth version in some of the following terms-
Applications Power consumption Minimal cost
Keeping up with iBeacon, this technique has been specifically designed for mobile apps to determine the exact position of application enabled gadgets thus delivering small data packets or information based upon the location.
Any iBeacon installed smartphone when comes in the range of beacon equipped area then it responds to the received signals.
The App Enabled Devices-
iBeacons could work conveniently upon iPhones and iOS devices. The technology entirely supports to some of the following Apple devices which include-
iPhone with version 4s or higher iPad with third generation or higher iPad mini iPad touch with fifth generation or later
Other than that, Android 4.3 and higher versions are also well supported with BLE technology.
A Resourceful Solution-
No doubt, major ratio of people use smart phones today. Hence the gadgets appended with iBeacons prove out a beneficial aspect for the entrepreneurs. You could easily convey or advertise your product to the people available in range of your beacon enabled retail stores.
This enables the people to know about the associated services, products, offers and other information. Thus, this technology provides you the opportunity to cover as much people within the range of your store to convert them into prospective consumers.
To consider real world references, many stores like that of Lord & Taylor stores in United States and Hudson’s Bay stores in Canada have acquired this exclusive in-store marketing through smart phones.
iBeacon because of its assorted features is gradually getting into the main stream of marketing. It’s progressively getting well accredited by the people. As an entrepreneur you could instantly send notifications, alerts, greetings and schemes.
This is a sort of location based marketing method of its own kind. Besides getting alerts, iBeacons also result in creation of maps and locations. One of the surprising features of this application is that it could display 3D view of the object regarding its appearance in actual.
The technology could be stated as a big leap towards new methods of marketing techniques. Furthermore, with the effect of this technology you could expect for a probable rise in the growth of your store’s sales.
Wrap Up –
Meanwhile iBeacons is in its testing stage but still it has shown favorable results specifically for the entrepreneurs. Apparently, once this technology comes to the trend, it would establish better interaction medium between the retailers and shoppers. The marketing experts too consider it as one of the acute options for future marketing trends. | 5,549 | 2,530 | 0.0004 |
warc | 201704 | Jean Cadena gives us an inside look at Kofax Enterprise Software. Tell us about Kofax and how its work impacts the Dallas Region.
Founded in 1985, Kofax has grown from a small startup to a versatile software company with a large portfolio of capture, process management, analytics and mobile solutions. With the goal of simplifying the business-critical First Mile™ of information intensive customer interactions, Kofax creates more rewarding business relationships for both enterprises and consumers.
The Dallas Region’s economy is a key driver of business activity in the United States with a diverse collection of firms in the logistics, technology, health care, energy, and hospitality industries, among others. It has been a magnet for the placement of corporate headquarters and major company operations. Several companies in North Texas currently use Kofax software and solutions, and we expect to help many more enterprises thrive in the next 5 years.
For example, one of Kofax’s local industrial clients achieved 74 percent faster invoice processing and 83 percent lower cost per invoice by using accounts payable automation software. And a manufacturing customer reduced its order processing time by 65 percent and its labor by 40 percent by using an innovative order-to-cash solution.
Given the concentration of businesses in the area and its economic growth, Kofax has appointed a dedicated resource to help them be more productive and efficient. Kofax software automates important financial processes and makes critical information digitally available. As a result, C-level executives and their teams are able to make informed decisions and optimize their operations.
How does your company help other businesses become more effective through digital solutions?
The purchase-to-pay, record-to-report and order-to-cash processes an organization undertakes are often bogged down by inefficient, manual work and an inability to harness the large amounts of unstructured data that aren’t managed by an ERP. End-to-end financial process automation (FPA) solutions from Kofax are designed to bring order to data and processes by automating an organization’s entire financial cycle. By doing so, routine and manual tasks are eliminated and staff members and stakeholders across the company gain complete visibility into key metrics and process performance.
What differentiates Kofax from other companies in your industry?
Kofax has the most complete capture portfolio on the market, offering OCR, cloud-based, mobile and intelligent capture solutions. Our software works within a company’s ERP, instead of around it, making workflow intuitive and seamless. Kofax solutions can be integrated with any existing ERP, including SAP, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle PeopleSoft, Microsoft Dynamics and Infor Lawson, as well as with multiple ERPs.
When considering financial process automation projects, organizations often require expert guidance to envision how technology can simplify complex processes and create opportunities for increased insights and efficiencies. Kofax has a highly experienced professional services team that has assisted with implementations across all ERPs and industries.
How has our business evolved in the last 5 years?
The last five years have brought exciting changes to Kofax, with the addition of key technologies, like robotic process automation provider Kapow, to our solutions portfolio. In 2015, Kofax, ReadSoft and Perceptive Software became part of the same family of solutions, further widening the company’s product offerings and financial process experience.
What is one thing people do not know about Kofax?
Kofax’s 15,000+ accounts payable customers process more than two billion invoices per year using our solutions.
What is a special project you are working on or recently completed, and how it has benefited a client?
Kofax worked with W.R. Grace & Co. to implement solutions that revolutionized its accounts payable processes. With large amounts of paper invoices coming in, the company struggled to keep track of documents and lost about 60 percent of invoices during processing. After implementing capture and workflow solutions, the specialty chemicals and materials giant achieved the following results:
According to W.R. Grace & Co. leadership, the implementation has been “100 percent successful.”
The DRC welcomed 14 new members in the month of September. Learn more about each organization below.
Brasfield & Gorrie
DataMob DevMountain Drive Construction FIG Tree Capital Ventures Fogo De Chao Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Our Door to Yours Catering Services Parc at White Rock Pixegon PSA Constructors, Inc. Silva, Feliciano & Company, PLLC Traveling Thing Two Men and a Truck
Interested in learning more about membership with the DRC? Contact G. W. Hail, Senior Vice President of Membership and Revenue Growth, at gwhail@dallaschamber.org.
The DRC welcomed 12 new members in the month of September. Learn more about each organization below.
CliftonLarsonAllen LLP
Conway MacKenzie Gruber Elrod Johansen Hail Shank It Crowd Marketing Kofax Migration Brokers Corp Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille Rising Fall SCORE Dallas Valerian Technologies Verizon Wireless
Interested in learning more about membership with the DRC? Contact G. W. Hail, Senior Vice President of Membership and Revenue Growth, at gwhail@dallaschamber.org.
Steven Edwards, Ph.D., Distinguished Chair, Professor, and Director of the Temerlin Advertising Institute, gives us an inside look at SMU and highlights a new executive program. Tell us about SMU’s new executive education program and how it benefits our region. Entrepreneurship in Dallas is catching on like wildfire. Even Fortune 500s like AT&T are seeking a start-up culture to drive innovation. Innovation is great, but must be managed effectively for business to succeed.
The SMU Accelerator is a new Dallas-based learning platform to solve business problems. What does that mean? Executives come together, share, receive coaching and mentorship, solve problems, and bring back solutions to their respective companies for immediate implementation.
Our purpose is to accelerate individuals’ careers with new knowledge while at the same time aiding sponsor companies in DFW with solutions to their most pressing business problems.
Our board members include representatives of Texas Instruments, AT&T, Brinker International, The Dallas Morning News, The Richards Group, and others. This group has identified topics of interest to their businesses. We have contracted with industry leaders to serve as coaches in the intimate setting of the Accelerator.
Our initial offering tackles Digital Disruption and Organizing and Managing for Innovation, with a focus on the Customer Experience and Design Thinking. The Accelerator provides a Digital Essentials Roadmap for Digital Marketing, Social Media, and consultation with working professionals actually implementing Big Data on a daily basis.
Many conferences offer wonderful speakers and best practices, but implementing these broad ideas is difficult. Getting answers to your specific situation solves problems. The mentorship of course leaders is a point of differentiation as they will contribute to building Dallas’ businesses.
The Digital Certificate runs November 14-17 at SMU. Register and read more. The DRC’s strategic plan has a focus on talent attraction and talent development. Why do you think it is important to attract and retain talent for our region?
As a university, we always want to keep the best and brightest near. Developing talent is what we do and is what the Accelerator is all about. A focus on talent attraction and development fits nicely with SMU’s plan to engage with our broader Dallas community. From my perspective, quality mentorship is critical for future success. The strength and value of the various Universities’ alumni networks cannot be overstated and makes it attractive for our students to remain in Dallas. Retention of high quality graduates and those willing to mentor others creates a self-reinforcing system that powers growth in the area.
How has SMU changed over the last five years? SMU is on a trajectory of constant improvement, in terms of faculty, facilities, students, and academic rigor. We are an entrepreneurial group and seek to impact the world around us. Our students are active in the community, and programs have been created to support applied work in engineering, education, and the arts, along with many other disciplines. What is one thing most people don’t know about SMU? SMU is welcoming, with many great speakers and free events open to the public. It’s also a great place for a walk! The Meadows Museum is a gem, housing one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain.
In the aftermath of the tragic events of July 7, many of our members and others in the community contacted us, asking how to support our brave and courageous law enforcement officers. The DRC was honored to work closely with several partner organizations that established funds to assist the families of our fallen heroes and to help in the healing of our community.
In the coming weeks, we will provide updates on the efforts to date of our partner organizations, including the Unite Dallas Relief Fund, The Line of Duty Fund and Assist the Officer Foundation, and share how you may still support these worthy causes.
We recently visited with Jennifer Sampson, President and CEO of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, which raised more than $1 million for the Unite Dallas Relief Fund in its first 10 days. This is a long-term fund that includes mental health services to support victims, first responders and their families, and civilians, as well as to initiate efforts to bring the community together.
Sampson says this has been the largest fundraising response to a crisis they have seen since the response to Hurricane Katrina.
You can listen to more of our conversation with Jennifer Sampson here.
United Way officials and community leaders will assess the longer-term needs of the community in the aftermath of this tragedy, and the funds will be disbursed to non-profit organizations via a grants process with the input and guidance of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and other city leaders to support those affected and the most urgent needs as they work to unify our community.
The United Way’s grant application process is now underway and proposals for the United Dallas Relief fund are due by Friday, September 9.
Dallas has always been unified by a commitment to serve one another for the greater good, and we are grateful to the United Way and their leadership in this regards.
The United Way is thankful to all of the individuals and companies that have contributed to the healing of our community. Some of the largest donors for the United Way’s Unite Dallas Relief Fund include:
AAA
AT&T Bank of America BB&T BBVA Compass Bank Celanese Corporation Central Market/HEB Copart Dallas Sings/Dallas Strong Deloitte Dex Media East West Bank EY Fluor Corporation Grant Thornton LLP Haynes and Boone JCPenney Jones Day JPMorgan Chase KPMG Lockheed Martin Nationwide Pioneer Natural Resources PwC Tenet Healthcare (*and subsidiaries) Texas Instrument Toyota US Bank Wells Fargo
We welcome your questions and comments. To request more information about area businesses or to share an idea, contact us: | 11,601 | 5,270 | 0.000192 |
warc | 201704 | FDA Adds Heart Warning For Seroquel
A new warning label for the popular antipsychotic Seroquel cautions against taking the drug in combination with certain other medications.
The warning, made public last week, comes at the urging of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after federal regulators received reports of arrhythmia — a condition in which the heart beats irregularly or abnormally — in some who took high doses of Seroquel.
This led to worries that use of the antipsychotic alongside drugs that have been linked to arrhythmia could lead to sudden cardiac arrest.
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As a result, the new label will caution against taking Seroquel at the same time as certain antiarrhythmic medications, some antipsychotics including Geodon and select antibiotics, among other drugs.
Seroquel, manufactured by AstraZeneca, is approved for treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression, but has also been known to be prescribed off-label for those with autism and other conditions.
Despite the new warning, FDA officials are quick to say that they are not prohibiting use of the drug combinations. Rather, they are merely recommending that doctors avoid prescribing Seroquel alongside the specified drugs, reports The New York Times. To read more click
here. | 1,328 | 721 | 0.001408 |
warc | 201704 | My first conference experience since joining Distilled back in October couldn’t have been better; SMX London is a great event. I took a great deal away with me, learning some tips and tricks of the trade, as well as making some new friends in the SEO world. This is not your typical roundup. There were a few clear themes running through the many panels I attended across both days. I thought I might identify four of these and show some examples from the various speakers I listened to.
Theme One: Engagement
By this, I do not mean a proposal and a ring. Engaging with your audience was discussed across the board. It’s not just about posting a link here or submitting some content there; it’s also about the follow-through. Social media was made to be social, and conversations just come with the territory. Below are some of my favourite key points related to engagement from SMX:
From the ‘Brand & Reputation Management Strategies’ panel, Mel Carson mentioned today’s consuming audience being engaged as well as “responsive, savvy, wireless, and mobile”. With this in mind, Mel showed the audience how Microsoft uses social media to their advantage through Twitter, their own blog and forums, and Facebook. Lyndon Antcliff talked about the importance of discussion on your blog during the ‘Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques’ session. He recommended posting “discussion-sparking content” on your blog and inviting authority bloggers to participate in the debate, while maintaining what Lyndon refers to as a “mild temperature”. Getting a company’s policy to align with their social media strategy is key, according to Lucy Langdon. On ‘What’s New With Social Media Marketing’, Lucy noted that engagement from the company members is crucial in their social media efforts. From the same panel, Massimo Burgio invited the audience to listen first before participating in social media conversations. He mentioned that there is no rush, and that we should all be zen and do yoga! How true! Theme Two: Return On Investment
Admittedly, ROI is a term I have only learned since working in SEO, but one that was heard a lot during this year’s SMX London. It only makes sense that, during a recession, companies are concerned with the return on their investment in search marketing. Luckily, there were many insights offered through some of the panels I attended.
If there is overall better measurement of your SEO efforts, then a company’s SEO and PPC budget will be increased. Nigel Townend and Linus Gregoriadis highlighted this point right at the outset in ‘Searchscape: Latest Stats About The Search Engines’. Chris Cathcart pointed out that rankings are not an accurate measurement of SEO success. In ‘Analyzing & Converting Organic Search Traffic’ on day one, Chris showed the relationships between volume and intent versus effort and conversion. Massimo Burgio redefined ROI as “Relevant Optimized Interaction” when talking about social media marketing. ☺ In a valiant effort to win the epic “presentation-off” during ‘Analytics Every SEO Needs To Know’, Rand Fishkin discussed using a mashup of metrics when explaining ROI to your client, rather than just one alone. However, Will Critchlow was proclaimed the victor in the end with his suggestions of filters and customisation techniques. If you’d like more detailed notes on these analytics tips, please email Will, though he asks to please be patient! Theme Three: Privacy Concerns
As search has become increasingly personalised, naturally consumers are more aware of their own privacy. Google Profiles, for example, has made a user’s identity completely transparent and, while there is still a level of control in the hands of the user, this is worrying to some. It’s great that we are able to find out more about a searcher’s activity from an SEO perspective, but there are growing concerns for the future.
In order to more closely target demographically as well as behaviourally, Andrew Girdwood explained that this requires private details. However, during the ‘Understanding Searcher Needs & Intent’ panel, he discussed the “site verifying” feature from Norton that enables safer searching. When asked about the future of search in the same session, Shari Thurow responded that the proverbial s**t will hit the fan with privacy issues. Everyone should prepare themselves for Operation: Searcher Backlash. At its core, Reputation Management is about privacy concerns. Our own Rob Ousbey gave a tip during the ‘Brand & Reputation Management Strategies’ session of hiding your referrer when probing sites for potential threats. Additionally, social media takes a level of privacy away from those who are engaged. Dean Chew explained the various advantages of using Facebook Connect with your website during the ‘What’s New With Social Media Marketing’ panel, allowing users to use existing credentials they trust on a different site. Theme Four: Client Communication
One of the strongest themes running throughout the conference was the idea of an increase in communication with the client. It seemed like a simple idea to me; that the client knows their market the best and should therefore have an active involvement throughout the SEO process. However, this is easily overlooked when agents and SEMs have their own tools and expertise.
The keynote address, given by Brian Fetherstonhaugh, included a strong message of getting search on the mind of the Chief Marketing Officer of a company. At the moment, Brian told us that search only accounts for about 1.5% of a CMO’s agenda. There is a wealth of data in the Research & Development and ‘Insights’ departments of a company. Chris Cathcart suggested spending more time using internal insights to understand target demographics for your campaign on the ‘Understanding Searcher Needs & Intent’ panel. Ralph du Plessis urged the idea of getting the consumer involved in keyword research and having them write a content brief. In ‘Analyzing & Converting Organic Search Traffic’, Ralph advised the audience against just giving the client a list of keywords. Following from a previous SEOmoz blog post, Rand Fishkin explained how to communicate analytics data to a client in the ‘Analytics Every SEO Needs To Know’ session. Providing a range of metrics from sites like Compete, Alexa, and Quantcast shows a more closely correlated estimation to the real picture.
Oh - and a shoutout to Spoonfed who provided some quality entertainment suggestions for us after the conference. They have awesome things to do in London, check em out!
And if you’d like some more details from the conference, here a few more roundups for your reading pleasure: | 6,933 | 3,226 | 0.000323 |
warc | 201704 | At the time, the Norwegian shipping industry was experiencing rapid growth and breaking out of its traditional local boundaries. An emerging, nationwide market for marine insurance was needed. Three years later in Germany, a group of 600 ship owners, shipbuilders and insurers gathered in the great hall of the Hamburg Stock Exchange. It was the founding convention of Germanischer Lloyd (GL), a new non-profit association based in Hamburg.
GL was formed out of a desire to achieve transparency. Merchants, ship owners and insurers often received little information about the state of a ship. As an independent classification society, GL was created to evaluate the quality of ships and deliver the results to stakeholders. GL’s first international ship classification register from 1868 reports 273 classed ships. By 1877, the number had grown tenfold. The surveyor network extended rapidly as a result.
The DNV fleet also grew rapidly. First agents, then permanent surveyors were appointed in a number of countries to serve Norwegian vessels abroad. Steamships were introduced in the 1870s, dramatically changing the classification business and the work and competence required of surveyors.
GL and DNV began collaborating from the very beginning. DNV Council records from September 1868 list plans to create a common class register for the two organisations. These discussions were ultimately unsuccessful, as were similar talks in 1891 over the mutual recognition of certificates and a common ship register.
Social drivers Society became an increasingly demanding stakeholder in the predominantly private, liberal industry. Load lines developed by Samuel Plimsoll became compulsory on every British ship from 1891, saving the lives of seamen along the British coasts. Load lines became mandatory in Norway in 1907.
The Titanic disaster in 1912 brought safety at sea to the forefront of public concern. International classification societies played an important part in discussions on ship safety. Nevertheless, GL’s managing director Carl Pagel and Johannes Bruun from DNV were the only official classification industry delegates at the adoption of the first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).
The cost of war For GL, the First World War was a severe setback. International relationships were severed and foreign-flagged ships changed class. The inter-war period represented improvement and new growth until the Second World War took its toll. Germany’s economic recovery following WWII led to rapid improvement and growth for GL.
After WWI, the transition from sailing ships to steamers brought a fundamental change in technology and skills needed for the classification industry. The outdated rules were no longer in harmony with the shipbuilding methods of the time. Between 1920 and 1940 DNV was technically independent, and established a new culture prioritizing engineering, construction and design. Then came the hardships of WWII, and DNV was almost split as an organization. | 3,040 | 1,556 | 0.000648 |
warc | 201704 | Job Clubs and Career Ministries in Your Community
The Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships (CFBNP) recently marked the one-year anniversary of its Job Clubs Initiative. It was on May 24, 2011 when the CFBNP launched the initiative with a national webcast featuring Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and job club leaders from across the country and circulated a Training and Employment Notice to the workforce investment system from Assistant Secretary Jane Oates. Over the past year, the CFBNP has connected with more than 1,500 new and existing job clubs, facilitated partnerships between job clubs and a range of groups, and heightened awareness of the valuable role job clubs are playing in getting Americans back to work.
The CFBNP has also had an opportunity to host a series of regional events that highlight the work of job clubs and explore partnerships with the workforce system and other public and private programs. Ben Seigel, Deputy Director of the CFBNP has recently led events in Kansas City, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Grand Rapids, Los Angeles, and Nashville. Several more events are being planned for this summer. Stay connected with the Job Clubs Initiative through the Partnerships Community of Practice.
Job Club Workforce Partnership Spotlights
The Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships encourages and facilitates partnerships between job clubs and the workforce investment system. Job Clubs and One-Stop Career Centers provide complementary services and resources to a wide range of job seekers. The Partnership Spotlights below offer two, distinct examples of such collaborations.
Faith in the Future Job Club Initiative Brevard County, FL
Brevard Workforce's Faith in the Future Job Club Initiative partners with congregations to launch and expand job clubs. Lisa Rice, President of Brevard Workforce, the local Department of Labor funded Workforce Investment Agency, discussed the project.
Lisa Rice
Why did you create Faith in the Future?
"Brevard Workforce understood the significance of connecting people with jobs and job readiness skills in a holistic setting that addresses the emotional and spiritual components attached to job loss. Faith in the Future Job Clubs provide job seekers with an opportunity to network with others seeking employment at their place of worship. Participants share their wisdom about job search challenges and successes, and support techniques that energize the job search. Brevard Workforce provides technical assistance to the Job Clubs and easy access to our Career Centers, as needed."
How does the partnership with Job Clubs contribute to Brevard Workforce's mission?
"Our mission is to be the catalyst for workforce services in Brevard County. The Job Clubs support our mission by performing outreach, making connections, developing relationships, and educating the community about the resources that Brevard Workforce offers. Although the Job Clubs are facilitated by faith-based organizations, Brevard Workforce augments their presentations with a multitude of resources."
What has been the response to the initiative from the community?
"With 18 partners, and growing, the response has been tremendous. Each Faith in the Future Job Club is crafted to what the organization feels their congregation needs. Therefore, some of them are working with specific populations like former aerospace workers and others are planning field trips to the Career Centers to help ease people into using our system. Plans are growing with this initiative to include youth outreach and technical support to congregations using web-based tools."
Shepherd of the Hills, Imagine Job & Resource Fair Los Angeles, CA
The People Between Jobs Ministry at Shepherd of the Hills Church in Los Angeles, CA combines networking, job search resources, and spiritual counseling to help congregation and community members get back to work. On June 4 and 5, Shepherd of the Hills is hosting their first-ever job fair that includes a partnership with the Chatsworth WorkSource Center, the local Department of Labor funded One-Stop Career Center. Paula Cracium from the church and Jaime Pacheco-Orozco, Director of the Workforce Development Division within the Community Development Department of the City of Los Angeles, discussed the partnership.
Paula Cracium
What are your goals for the job fair?
"Our goal is to reach beyond simply connecting employers with employees, which is incredible enough. We also want to help job seekers become better prepared for the ever-changing job market and leave with a renewed sense of hope. So, our job fair will also include assistance with résumés, interviewing, and online job search; expert-led symposiums; and even free services from make-up artists, hair stylists, and wardrobe advisors to help job seekers develop a professional look." Paula Cracium
How are you partnering with the local WorkSource Center?
"We couldn't have done this job fair without the support and partnership of the Chatsworth WorkSource Center. They have helped connect us to a range of agencies and their expert staff will lead symposiums, such as the résumé writing and interview preparation sessions." Paula Cracium
Why does the City of Los Angeles Workforce Development System partner with Job Clubs?
Jaime Pacheco-Orozco
"We know that many job seekers turn to faith-based organizations not only for spiritual guidance and counseling, but also for economic assistance and help with getting their next job. The activities that occur within Job Clubs prepare job seekers to access the services available at our WorkSource Centers that can lead to employment. By working together to successfully place individuals with employers, both the City and Job Clubs are recognized by the employer community as trusted partners." Jaime Pacheco-Orozco
What are the benefits to the Workforce Development System in partnering with Shepherd of the Hills job fair?
"The Shepherd of the Hills Job Fair is an ideal opportunity to extend the reach of our WorkSource Centers to better serve the job seeker and employer community. Through these contacts, the City is more likely to learn about 'hidden' jobs, more likely to help secure employment for job seekers, and more likely to meet the needs of employers." Jaime Pacheco-Orozco
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issues new guidance on criminal records
A resource for community organizations and leaders who serve formerly incarcerated individuals
On April 25, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued enforcement guidance on the consideration of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This is the first time the EEOC has released updated guidance on this topic in more than 20 years. It is designed to be a resource for employers, employment agencies, and unions covered by Title VII; for applicants and employees; and for EEOC enforcement staff.
The Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships asked Donna Lenhoff, the Senior Civil Rights Counsel with DOL's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), an agency that works closely with the EEOC, to clarify the new guidance.
How is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act relevant to the use of criminal records in employment decisions?
There are two ways in which an employer's use of criminal history information may violate Title VII. First, Title VII prohibits employers from treating job applicants with the same criminal records differently because of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (this is called "disparate treatment discrimination").
Second, even where employers apply criminal record exclusions uniformly, the exclusions may still operate to disproportionately and unjustifiably exclude people of a particular race or national origin (this is called "disparate impact discrimination"). If employers do not show that such an exclusion is "job related and consistent with business necessity" for the position in question, they may not automatically bar everyone with an arrest or conviction record from employment.
Why did the EEOC issue the new guidance?
Since the EEOC last issued guidance on this issue, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 codified the Title VII disparate impact analysis. In addition, technology advancements over the last 20 years have made criminal history information much more accessible to employers. Finally, the EEOC examined social science and criminological research, court decisions, and information about various state and federal laws, among other information, to further assess the impact of using criminal records in employment decisions.
Why is the new guidance important to the DOL Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs?
OFCCP enforces equal employment opportunities for job applicants and employees that companies doing business with the federal government must abide by when they get a federal contract. Under Executive Order 11246, contractors agree not to discriminate in their employment practices on the bases of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin and OFCCP follows the principles of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which also prohibits discrimination in employment on these bases) in interpreting their nondiscrimination obligations. Because EEOC is the lead agency for interpreting Title VII, OFCCP expects federal contractors to follow the EEOC's new guidance. Federal contractors employ one in four workers in the U.S.
Reaching Out to Asian American Pacific Islander Communities
White House and Department of Labor Efforts
The Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community experienced a 43 percent population growth between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As a result of such significant growth of the AAPI community, which now numbers 15.2 million people in the U.S., the federal government is taking a close look to ensure that programs and services are adequately reaching AAPI communities. In April, the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders held the first ever National Philanthropic Briefing on the AAPI community. The briefing featured several Department of Labor initiatives, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Susan Harwood worker safety training grant program, which has recently awarded competitive grants to AAPI serving nonprofit organizations. More than 200 people attended the event, engaging in substantive planning and strategy sessions. The Ford, W.K. Kellogg, and Kresge Foundations pledged $1 million to support further planning and development of ideas that emerged from the briefing.
In another recent AAPI event, Phil Tom, Director of the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, participated in the National Council of Asian Pacific American Policy Summit, where he discussed DOL's efforts in helping AAPI communities know their rights as part of a housing and economic justice roundtable. Finally, DOL's Chief Economist recently released a report on the AAPI labor market during the economic recovery that analyzes overall trends of the 7.5 million AAPI workers in the American workforce.
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warc | 201704 | >
Find out why over 1,200 dealers have already made the switch to Auto/Mate and experience the DMS that does business differently. LEARN MORE
As security breaches and data theft become more commonplace, businesses will encounter increasing regulatory and consumer pressure to protect that data. I’ve written numerous articles on the importance of data security in dealerships, especially when dealers share that sensitive customer information with their vendor partners.
According to a recent article in Entrepreneur, however, Forrester Research found that “36 percent of data breaches resulted from employee errors.” Even more disturbing is that, according to the government IT Network, MeriTalk, that number is even larger. MeriTalk found that “49 percent of compromises occur when workers bypass security measures…” With sensitive customer data floating around dealerships in CRMs, DMSs, credit applications in deal jackets and many other places, it’s quite apparent that consumer information is readily available to employees who may wish to do your business harm. Add to that the increased risk when employees share that information with vendors or allow vendors to take the information on their own, and dealerships are presented with a plethora of gaps in their efforts to keep this data secure.
As companies get sued, the FTC gets involved and Congress reviews these data breaches on the heels of yet another huge data breach involving JP Morgan—which could affect 76 million households—this problem isn’t going away anytime soon. On the contrary, it’s only going to increase the need for businesses to take greater actions to secure data. Some of the largest collectors of personal data are already under scrutiny by the government, which is deciding whether or not to allow these companies to continue to sell this information to marketers. As big data is big business and essential for marketers to effectively deliver their client’s message to a highly targeted audience, it seems unlikely that government will completely disallow this practice. What seems more likely, however, is regulations that will restrict who these big data companies will be able to share the information with. More than likely, marketing agencies will be restricted to those that use the highest data security methods available and implement strict control, access and processes to maintain the security of the information.
Dealers need to start reviewing their security processes by taking a long look in the mirror. Security is only as good as the weakest link in the chain. All it takes is a single employee downloading the wrong file via e-mail or visiting the wrong website to open a portal for people who want access to that information. This doesn’t even take into consideration that disgruntled or malicious employee looking to damage your business. By tightening access to only those who need it, requiring scheduled password changes and restricting password sharing, dealers can start taking the necessary steps to better protecting the data of the people their livelihoods depend upon—their customers.
Security doesn’t stop internally, however. Many times, the employees tasked with sharing this information with vendors aren’t effectively trained and don’t know what exactly is being shared. E-mailing or FTP’ing databases of customer information is far too common and many times information is unnecessarily shared simply because nobody took the time to review and edit the information prior to sending it. Or vendors are permitted unrestricted access to data just because it was the solution that required the least amount of effort.
The same MeriTalk report revealed “66 percent of respondents see security as time consuming and restrictive, while 60 percent believe their work takes longer due to additional cyber security tactics. Another 20 percent say they can’t complete their work due to security measures and 31 percent skirt around security measures at least once per week.” If your dealership has 100 employees, that would collectively equate to 100 opportunities per week in which your customers’ data is vulnerable.
Whether hackers are getting bolder or security companies are getting better at identifying breaches remains to be seen. The facts are that this is happening on such a large scale and affecting too many people for lawmakers and regulators to ignore. It may not be too far in the future when dealerships start including assurances of data security in their marketing messages. Consumer concern is increasing and consumers will start becoming less likely to share their personal information with you. When that happens, dealerships will find it more difficult to complete sales immediately and secure financing for consumers, as they start opting to circumvent dealerships in favor of dealing directly with banks.
Start preparing now by implementing in-house security processes and policies of the highest standards and hold employees strictly accountable for their actions. Take the time to train at least one employee on how to securely share data with your vendors and make sure that the vendors you are sharing it with respect and protect the data you share. | 5,310 | 2,422 | 0.000423 |
warc | 201704 | Pune
DSCI Pune Chapter was established to connect the security and privacy professionals in Pune and neighboring cities. It provides a platform for discussions on data protection matters and helps members remain abreast with the latest developments in the field. The Chapter, anchored by
Dr. Arvind Tilak, AIPL India, regularly organizes events in Pune, actively participate in DSCI national events, and is contributing to the fast evolving ecosystem of data protection in the country. Please register to be a part of the growing fraternity.
Enlarge
It is my pleasure and privilege to take over as the Chairman of the Pune Chapter of DSCI and lead the activities.
Cyber security, online privacy, piracy and data thefts are emerging as very major concerns not just for enterprises but also for every citizen and user of internet and communications technology. The crimes being perpetrated in these areas are ruining fortunes and reputations of companies and individuals alike. Loss of productive resources and time is another impact of these crimes. In other words vulnerability to cyber threats and attacks is increasing every single minute.
While these threats are increasing, we see a very dismal picture in terms of awareness about these issues and threats and also how to fight these. Preventive and corrective measures and processes are not being followed in even the most disciplined and vulnerable organizations. At individual levels like that of senior citizens and young adults, the picture is even more disturbing.
At DSCI we are committed to do our bit and work tirelessly to increase awareness about these issues. But we don’t want stop at just that but also actually enable organizations and citizens to fight the crimes and build a secure and well managed cyber world. The task is mammoth and ongoing efforts will be needed to achieve even limited results. However, we cannot be deterred by the enormity of the task and must start the campaign in earnest right away.
For this let’s build a very cohesive and structured organization of volunteers and security professionals and implement the programs that are on the drawing board. We will seek support and cooperation from likeminded organizations and also Police and administration machinery
I appeal all of you to actively join the movement and contribute in the efforts to build secure cyber world.
Thank you,
Dr. Arvind Tilak
Quarterly Chapter Updates
Chapter Meetings from July-September Download: Chapter Meetings from April-June Download: Join the discussion Connect with security professionals across India Contribute to Public Advocacy Organize meetings and discussions Participate in all DSCI activities, initiatives, and public outreach programs DSCI Chapters 13 Chapters Over 2500 security and privacy professionals Across sectors – IT, BPM, Banking, Finance, Security, Insurance, Healthcare, Energy, Telecom Represent senior management, academia & LEAs | 2,959 | 1,481 | 0.000682 |
warc | 201704 | This paper uncovers evidence on the distribution of wages in Belarus in the second half of the 1990s. The returns to education and work experience are high and stable, which is atypical for a transition country. This might be due to the pervasive role of the state in fixing wages in the dominant budget sector, rather than to market forces coming into play. Women experience contained, though largely unexplained discrimination coupled with higher than average returns to education. A wage curve effect is found, which is similar in size to that of other transition countries, but much higher than in market economies.
Subjects:
wage distribution returns to education gender wage gap wage curve Belarus | 707 | 399 | 0.002521 |
warc | 201704 | The big data era holds a lot of promise, but it requires many traditional industries to rethink the way they gather information, verify data quality and make decisions. Marketing, for example has been turned on its head, Information Management reports. The industry, once characterized by creative individuals who relied on their gut instincts, is now pressing people to interpret data and spreadsheets - something many hoped to avoid by entering this field.
Big data is different than previous business intelligence strategies because it harvests more content than older systems can handle. The flood of data means that analytics require additional resources. Businesses are realizing they have to break down traditional silos in order to gain insights that will help them reach their big data goals, which is forcing chief marketing officers and chief information officers to collaborate, the source adds.
If teams do not work together and develop a unified approach to data analytics, they could end up with inaccurate or misleading information about customer intentions. When departments collaborate, they can successfully gain a better understanding of their customers' needs and desires through web analytics and feedback behavior, according to ClickZ.
Copyright ©, 2014-2017. All rights reserved.
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warc | 201704 | 2 Answers | Add Yours
Please check out previously asked and answered questions tagged with society at the links below.
Arthur Miller's
The Crucible is one of those wonderful/terrible works of literature with countless levels of meaning. Certainly the story itself stands as one level. It is mesmerizing, suspenseful, mysterious, and shocking.
The historicity is an accurate representation of what happened in Salem, MA between 1692 and 1692. People decried common sense and rational evidence as a reaction to fear of something they didn't understand.
Miller, as you may know, actually wrote the play during the years when people in the US had an deep-abiding fear of communism. The Cold War was a terrifying time in US history because no one really knew what may happen if the Soviet Union determined to attack the US. As a result, anyone who showed any kind of sympathy toward communists or who held ideals that might have been construed as "communist" were labled as "un-American" and often lost their livelihoods. Senator Joe McCarthy was the de facto leader of the movement which, like the with trials of Salem, relied on rumors and fears rather than reason and facts.
At this point, you may see just how this play still relates to society. How many current events are inflamed or even caused by someone's irrational fears, rumors, or false assumptions? Political, sports, and entertainment figures are frequently victims of rumors that cost them both money and reputation. (See rumors of "doping" by cyclist Lance Armstrong as one example of how hard it is to redeem a reputation sullied by false accusations.)
In current society, people are quick to react rather than thoughtfully and rationally respond. Whether it is a political vendetta or an accusation of wrong-doing, emotional reactions are often quick and powerful. With a 24 hour news corps, emotions are often reported as fact in order to "scoop" other media. Once reported, "news" is spread quickly (Michael Jackson's recent death is an example) via Twitter, Facebook, and other similar newtworks. Whether the news is accurate is rarely verified. Retractions are usually buried (if they are published at all.) People then respond with a mob mentality before all the facts are truly understood. Of course, the Salem trials often led to execution, which allowed for no redemption.
Since society is made up of individuals, it follows that, even without the influence of a mob mentality, it is easy to react first and think about it later. Visceral emotions are tied to fears, usually of the unknown or unfamiliar. When a thing is unknown, the reasonable and rational response is to stop and gather information. Fear, however, often causes individuals to lash out emotionally, sometimes causing irreparable hard to others.
Miller understood humanity's need to understand as well as he recognized humanity's fear of the mysterious. Whether the reaction is related to historical events of the 17th century, political fears of the mid-20th century, or personal insecurities about the unknown, it is far better to respond to the facts rather than react to the fears.
We’ve answered 319,201 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question | 3,225 | 1,656 | 0.000609 |
warc | 201704 | Regular exercise and physical activity are extremely important and beneficial for long-term health and well-being. Hundreds of studies show that, besides helping to control your weight, exercise lowers your risk for serious health problems. These include heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, as well as some forms of cancer.
What’s more, it can enhance your mood, improve your sleep and boost your sex life. Put simply, exercise and fitness helps you feel better, look great, and live a longer and more satisfied life.
This section will provide more detail about the benefits you can expect from regular exercise and fitness. It also provides you with a comprehensive list of medical conditions that can be prevented or managed with an effective and targeted fitness plan.
To motivate you to get started, there’s a section to help you create a well-rounded exercise plan that fits your life. It details the right blend of exercises to undertake and why they’re good for you. With an exercise plan in place, you can choose the best gyms in Dubai and gyms in Abu Dhabi via our Find & Book search engine.
Regardless of your age, sex and physical ability, regular exercise can offer a wide range of benefits. It’s a wonderful way to boost your mood, gain health benefits and have fun in the process. Generally, most people should aim for 30 minutes of exercise every day. Though remember to check with your doctor before starting a new fitness program, especially if you have any health concerns.
Mayo Clinic explains seven ways exercise can improve your life:
While exercise programs often vary from person to person based on fitness levels and goals, current recommendations urge all adults to include aerobic exercise, and resistance and flexibility training. This section also includes information on relaxation exercises, because while the science supporting their benefits is not as plentiful and well-established, the available evidence does suggest many health benefits. It isn't necessary to fit each of these elements into every fitness session, but factoring them into your regular routine can help you promote fitness for life.
Aerobic exercises, also known as cardio or endurance activities, are great for burning calories and eliminating unwanted fat. Aerobic exercises include any physical activity that uses large muscle groups and increases your heart rate. Some examples are walking, jogging, biking or swimming. Engaging in aerobic exercises temporarily boosts your heart rate and breathing, allowing more oxygen to reach your muscles. These are the activities that are associated with lower risk for many diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, and lengthening life span. Aerobic exercise should be the centerpiece of your fitness program, since the bulk of research on disease-quelling benefits of exercise revolves around cardiovascular activity. Aim for at least 2 ½ hours a week of moderate aerobic activity or 1 ¼ hours a week of vigorous aerobic activity.
Resistance or strength training, at least twice a week, builds muscle and protects against bone loss. Technically, strength or resistance training takes place any time your muscles face a stronger-than-usual counterforce, such as pushing against a wall or lifting a dumbbell. Resistance training typically involves the use of equipment such as weight machines, free weights and resistance bands. Your own body weight counts too, such as push-ups, abdominal crunches and leg squats. Using progressively heavier weights or increasing resistance makes muscles stronger.
Flexibility exercises like stretching, yoga and pilates gently reverse the shortening and tightening of muscles that typically occur with disuse and age. Shorter, stiffer muscle fibers may make you vulnerable to injuries and contribute to back pain and balance problems. A well-stretched muscle more easily achieves its full range of motion and promotes better posture. Regular flexibility training can even help relieve stress. Before you stretch, warm up by doing a low intensity exercise for 5 to 10 minutes. Better yet, stretch after you exercise, when your muscles are warm and receptive to stretching. To achieve lasting effects, stretch daily or at least several times a week.
Relaxation exercises like meditation are not a component of every exercise or fitness program. They do, however, reduce stress and often improve a person’s quality of life and health. Consider incorporating some disciplines, such as yoga, tai chi and pilates, into your fitness program. These disciplines simultaneously improve strength, flexibility and balance while easing stress and relieving pain.
Regular exercise and physical activity are extremely important for long term health and well-being. Research shows that regular physical activity can help reduce your risk for several diseases and health conditions and improve your overall quality of life. These include: | 4,970 | 2,244 | 0.00045 |
warc | 201704 | Chondroitin sulfate is a dietary supplement which is available as the sodium salt in the form of capsules or tablets. In the field of alter¬native medicine, the intake of chondroitin sulfate is recommended as treatment for degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis. According to the United States Pharmacopeia, the determination of sodium chondroitin sulfate in dietary supplements is performed by turbidimetric titration using the DP5 Phototrode. What are dietary supple¬ments?Dietary supplements are commonly used to complement the daily diet by increasing the intake of ingredients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and metabolites. Generally, they are ingested in the form of capsules, effervescent tablets or syr¬ups. Well known examples of dietary supplement include multivitamins and minerals.
Today, a wide range of products are available whose composition is not only limited to a single active ingre¬dient but includes vitamins, miner¬als, other nutrients, botanical sup¬plements, as well as ingredients and extracts of animal and plant origin [1]. People use nutritional supple¬ments with the aim of improving general health and also in the hope of treating a specific disease, since it is also believed that their use results, in some cases, in a cure. Recently, an increasing demand by consum¬ers as well as evidence that some of these supplements actually help pa¬tients, has increased the production of dietary supplements. In parallel, the need for accurate quality control in the production plant has also in¬creased: rapid, robust and accurate analytical techniques are needed to achieve efficient control in the pro¬duction line.
Chondroitin sulfate, CS, is a dietary supplement which is available as the sodium salt from drugstores, gro¬ceries and pharmacies in the form of capsules or tablets. Although the medical community is not yet con¬vinced of its effectiveness, it is cur¬rently used by consumers to treat the pain resulting from osteoarthritis. In fact, it has been shown in medi¬cal studies that chondroitin sulfate is helpful in treating this disease, and it was also reported that patients with back and neck pain have also considered the use of this nutritional supplement as an alternative treat¬ment to traditional medicine [1].
Why chondroitin sulfate as a dietary supplement?Chondroitin sulfate is a constitu¬ent of cartilage, i.e. of the struc¬ture covering the ends of the bones, which protects them from mechan¬ical friction and absorbs shocks. In particular, cartilaginous proteins lubricate the joints to prevent damage during movement. To im¬prove their shock absorption and lubricating characteristics, poly¬saccharides are bound to cartilagi¬nous proteins, with each polysac¬charide consisting of hundreds of sugar molecules. The function of chondroitin sulfate, a complex polysaccharide, is to provide struc¬ture, hold water and nutrients, and to allow other molecules to move through the cartilage. This is an essential property, since no blood is present in the cartilage to allow for exchange of metabolites. | 3,198 | 1,413 | 0.000737 |
warc | 201704 | Give people the chance to talk about sex and they will do it. We could honestly spend hours talking about sex, whether it is the best sex we’ve had, the kinkiest sex we’ve had, or our favourite things to try in the bedroom.
With all of these discussions there seems to be one key thing that we talk about, and that is what really matters in the bedroom. When we talk about kinky sex, it is important we have fun. When we talk about the favourite things to do in the bedroom, we want to make sure our partner enjoys it.
So what are the most important things when it comes to sex? Setting the mood…
Some people seem to think that you can’t have good sex unless you set the mood. They feel that playing some romantic music, giving your partner a long and sensual massage, before moving slowly on to oral sex and passionately fucking into the night.
However,
some of us believe that you don’t have to set the mood to have some really great sex. Have you ever been simply going about your day and had the urge for sex? You’ve waited all day to have some sex and then, when you finally meet up with the person you’re seeing, you don’t have to set the mood because we are totally ready for it.
That said, setting the mood can actually be great for making sex better. Creating the right atmosphere can help your partner get in the mood and, when they are there, they will anticipate what happens next. That will make them wet as they wonder just what you will do to them.
When done correctly,
the atmosphere and mood before sex can actually be part of the foreplay. It is a long game of teasing and is a lot of fun to do, especially when you see that your partner is desperate for you to fuck them and fuck them hard.
You can then carry on the teasing by tying them up and kissing your way slowly all over their body, avoiding the areas they really want you to touch. Try it out and see what happens.
Skills
Obviously, just jumping straight to sex can work for some people, but
if you don’t have to right skills the sex will get very boring very quickly, and you might end up looking elsewhere to get what you want.
You need to take an active part in sex, otherwise it all feels very one sided and your partner is left feeling as though they have to put in all of the effort all of the time. This doesn’t just apply to when you are having sex, either, as many will find that they are the ones initiating sex all of the time.
Talking to your partner can be a great way to get ideas on improving your skills. It might be that they enjoy it when you give them oral sex, or that they love nothing more than a little dirty talk in the bedroom. If so,
there is only one way to improve your skills, and that is by doing it.
If you have the skills in the bedroom that your partner really loves it makes sex a lot better and you might even find yourselves having more sex than usual. Try it out and see what happens.
Orgasms!
Ask anyone if size really matters and you’ll get the response of “no”, followed by a long list of reasons: “personality is more important”; “chemistry makes good sex, not a big dick”; and so on and so forth. We aren’t about to turn around and say that size does matter. After all, we talked in a lot of detail about that in our Sex Myths Debunked article earlier this week.
However, something that really does matter in the bedroom is getting the end results and achieving orgasm. Imagine having sex and never getting an orgasm, no matter what positions you try, and that your partner gets to enjoy one. Even worse, what if neither of you get an orgasm?
The problem is that far too many people are so fixated on getting an orgasm or getting their partner to come that they ruin the mood or rush things.
You can’t rush or force an orgasm, and going ridiculously fast to get your partner there doesn’t help.
Instead, slow things down. Work on building up the tension and just doing something they really enjoy the feeling of. You don’t have to make them scream in ecstasy in the first few minutes of sex, and if you take the time to slowly build up to a really intense orgasm, it will be better for them.
The main problem is that some guys find themselves coming before their partner does, and what happens in those situations is that the man will then stop and go and clean himself up. For some reason,
people think that sex ends with the man’s orgasm, but if you want to keep having truly good sex you will go back to your partner and lick them to orgasm. The most important thing
For me, one of the most important things is getting an orgasm. It doesn’t have to happen every time as sex can be good without it, but if I’m seeing someone who can’t give me a single orgasm I begin to feel very dissatisfied and will go looking elsewhere.
As you can see,
we all have different things that matter to us in the bedroom, and you might not feel that the things we’ve listed above as important are as important to you… so tell us what you think. What is the absolute most important part of sex for you?
Tell us by writing your thoughts in the comment box below. You could also check out the Escort Norway forum and see what others are saying there.
You might even have some ideas for future blogs for us. What would you like to see us talk about here? Do you want to read some sex tips or are you more interested in the dirty happenings of the world?
Since then she has gained a fine reputation with her blogs on sex advice, sexual health and amusing news stories from around the globe. She is also a campaigner for the rights of sex workers from all over the world.
In her spare time, Lara keeps herself active by going running, and is something of a film buff. She also loves to go travelling. | 5,865 | 2,588 | 0.000398 |
warc | 201704 | BY Richard Summerfield
Over the course of the last decade or so, Google has played a pivotal role in the lives of billions of people. Though the company began as a mere search engine, today Google has become a global conglomerate offering everything from video hosting to high speed fibre broadband, restaurant reviews to ‘smart’ home heating systems, and self driving cars to venture capital investments.
However, going forward this is all going to change, as Google will soon become a wholly owned subsidiary of a new holding company, Alphabet. “Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable. So we are creating a new company called Alphabet,” said Google chief executive Larry Page in a blog post on the company’s website.
In creating Alphabet, the company caught many analysts and investors off guard. But it is important to note that there will be no material change for consumers or investors going forward. Google’s fundamental businesses – and its experimental ‘Google X’ division – will remain the same under the Alphabet banner.
Indeed, Google's core units – search, YouTube, Android and maps – which account for almost all of the company’s annual revenue of around $66bn and its $460bn stock market capitalisation – will remain within the Google subsidiary. However, Google itself will have a new chief executive, Sundar Pichai, who had been senior vice president in charge of products. Mr Page and Google co-founder Sergey Brin will run Alphabet, Google’s new parent company. Other subsidiary companies including Nest and Calico will sit alongside Google.
Though the move was unexpected, it has been heralded as a positive step. The reorganisation of the sprawling and diffuse Google business marks the first time that any of the major Silicon Valley powerhouses has attempted to streamline their units. Companies such as Amazon and Facebook, which themselves have acquired a litany of tech start ups in recent years, will surely watch Google's reorganisation with interest.
Investors have almost universally supported the realignment of Google's business. Shares of Google Class C stock rose more than 4 percent on Tuesday morning, the day after the announcement was made. The move is expected to bring greater balance-sheet accountability and reduce Google's spending on speculative endeavours. As Mr Page noted, “We plan to implement segment reporting for our Q4 results, where Google financials will be provided separately than those for the rest of Alphabet businesses as a whole.”
How the reorganisation will affect Google’s antitrust battles in Europe remains to be seen, however. | 2,746 | 1,398 | 0.000742 |
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