fasttext_score float32 0.02 1 | id stringlengths 47 47 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float32 0.65 1 | text stringlengths 49 665k | url stringlengths 13 2.09k | nemo_id stringlengths 18 18 | is_filter_target bool 1 class | word_filter bool 2 classes | word_filter_metadata dict | bert_filter bool 2 classes | bert_filter_metadata dict | combined_filter bool 2 classes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0.99402 | <urn:uuid:d0204433-9b3a-437f-b9e7-05284d8501be> | en | 0.971371 | Please Donate Today!
Popular content
Why Are There No War Crimes Trials?
Obviously there is a subtext to the TV series: If that war was the most terrible ever and yet was necessary, what about the subsequent wars and the present war? It is, I suspect, the reason that the Journal's critic is so measured in her approval.
Why was it necessary to invade Iraq? Because they attacked us? But they did not. Most of the 9/11 killers were in fact Saudis. Because they had weapons that might kill us? It turns out that they did not. Why is it necessary to continue this pointless, never-ending war? For the sake of democracy in Iraq? For victory? Because the president says it's the "right thing" to do? So that a future president will be blamed for "weakness?"
And I think of that young woman in St. Angela Church in 1943 and of similar young women today and wonder why we don't have war crimes trials for unnecessary wars.
Comments are closed
59 Comments so far
Show All
| http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/05/4344 | dclm-gs1-096580002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.023721 | <urn:uuid:38a47a4c-6b90-4431-9333-5db7d290ccab> | en | 0.971058 | Arafat & the Original 'October Surprise'
By Morgan Strong
November 2, 2004
A top aide to Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat has dropped a new clue about the original October Surprise mystery of 1980: the name of the Republican operative who sought the Palestine Liberation Organizations help to block President Jimmy Carters negotiations to free 52 Americans then being held hostage in Iran.
Longtime Arafat confidant Bassam Abu Sharif said that in mid-1980, he met in Paris with John Shaheen, a friend to both Ronald Reagan and Reagans campaign chief, William J. Casey. Abu Sharif told me that Shaheen, a former U.S. intelligence officer of Lebanese origin, extended a Republican offer of improved U.S. relations with the PLO if the Arafat-led organization would assist in persuading the Iranians to delay the hostage release until after the November 1980 elections.
Shaheen, who died in 1985, has long been a central figure in the so-called "October Surprise" case, allegations that Republicans sabotaged Carters hostage negotiations as a way to ensure the 1980 election of Reagan as president and George H.W. Bush as vice president. Though Abu Sharif and Arafat have previously discussed the Republican overture, they had refused to identify the Republican intermediary until now.
The alleged secret deal between the Reagan-Bush campaign and the Iranians popularized the idea of an October Surprise, a last-minute event that might alter the outcome of a U.S. presidential election. The phrase was coined by then-vice presidential candidate Bush in the context that Carters success in freeing the hostages might be his October Surprise, though it later came to refer to the alleged Republican scheming to derail Carters hostage talks.
Republican leaders have long denied that any deal with the Iranians was struck, although more than two dozen witnesses including Iranian officials, European intelligence officers and international arms dealers have described aspects of the 1980 Republican-Iranian contacts carried out behind President Carters back.
In 1992-93, a House Task Force conducted a half-hearted investigation of the controversy and judged the allegations of a Republican-Iranian deal to be false. But it was later discovered that the Task Force had concealed evidence that pointed in the opposite direction, including a classified report from the Russian government stating that Bush, Casey and CIA officers had met with Iranians in Europe in 1980 to strike a deal. [For details, see Robert Parrys new book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.]
Amazing Tale
I first heard of the amazing tale of the 1980 Republican "October Surprise" overture to the PLO while meeting with Arafat and Abu Sharif in Baghdad in 1988. They told me that they had been contacted in Beirut in mid-1980 by an American of Palestinian background. According to Arafat and Abu Sharif, this emissary claimed to represent a high-ranking member of the Reagan campaign who was seeking the PLOs help to make sure the 52 American hostages in Iran wouldnt be freed until after the 1980 election.
As a result of the Beirut meeting, Abu Sharif said he flew to Paris in July 1980 to meet the Reagan associate, who turned out to be Shaheen promising that if the PLO helped arrange the delay with the Iranians, the PLO would be rewarded. We were told that if the hostages were held, the PLO would be given recognition as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and the White House doors would be open for us, Abu Sharif said.
PLO Influence
Shortly after the hostages were seized on Nov. 4, 1979, President Carter had sought Arafats help. Arafat, who had close ties to Irans new Islamic government, arranged the release of 13 hostages on Thanksgiving Day 1979, a move that helped whittle down the number to 52.
The PLO had a strong relationship with the Iranian revolutionaries, in part, because Abu Sharif had helped train Iranian militants at PLO camps in Lebanon several years before the 1979 revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran from power.
Abu Sharif also was an icon to many Islamic militants because of his leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was regarded by Western governments as a terrorist organization. Abu Sharifs picture was on the cover of Time magazine in 1970, headlined The Face of Terror, after his group hijacked three airliners, forced them to land at an abandoned British airbase in the Jordanian desert and then held the several hundred passengers hostage until a number of Palestinians jailed in Israel were released.
The leader of the Iranian students who had seized the U.S. Embassy in November 1979 had taken the nom de guerre of Abu Sharif in Bassams honor. Bassam Abu Sharif, who had direct contact with the student militia, told me that in 1980 before the Republican contact he was working to free the remaining American hostages for Carter.
Besides Abu Sharifs influence, Arafat had traveled to Teheran several times to meet with Irans Islamic leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. A staunch supporter of the PLO, Khomeini had repeatedly told the U.S. government that the solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was central to peace in the Middle East and crucial for the establishment of normal relations between Washington and Irans revolutionary government.
Following the meeting in Paris with the Republican intermediary, Abu Sharif said the PLO stayed on the sidelines of the hostage negotiations. But Abu Sharif told me that he came to the conclusion that the Republicans had succeeded in brokering a behind-the-scenes deal with Iran to prevent the hostages getting released before the 1980 election.
Some sort of deal [was] made with Reagans campaign, Abu Sharif said.
In 1988, however, Abu Sharif and Arafat would not give me Shaheen's name or other details of the PLO-Republican meetings in 1980. They wanted to hold back that part of the story to gain leverage with the Reagan-Bush administration, which in their view had reneged on the purported promise to recognize the PLO.
Abu Sharif and Arafat, claiming to have tape recordings of the conversations with the Republican intermediaries, said they would make that evidence public if the administration denied the story of the 1980 contacts.
Playboy Article
I wrote an article about the PLOs October Surprise claims for the September 1988 issue of Playboy magazine.
A few weeks after the article came out, according to Abu Sharif and other of my Middle East sources, the PLO was contacted by U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia Robert Pelletreau, who had been instructed by Secretary of State George Shultz and Vice President Bush to begin a dialogue that would lead to the recognition of the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.
The Reagan-Bush administration demanded that Arafat must publicly recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist and renounce terrorism. Arafat did that in a speech to the United Nations in Geneva in December 1988. Arafat and Abu Sharif also continued to keep whatever evidence they had about the 1980 October Surprise secret.
Approached by PBS Frontline in 1990, Abu Sharif repeated his assertion that a senior figure in the Reagan campaign had contacted Arafat and the PLO in Beirut about engineering a delay in the hostage release.
It was important for Reagan not to have any of the hostages released during the remaining days of President Carter, Abu Sharif said. The offer was, if you block the release of hostages, then the White House would be open for the PLO. In spite of that, we turned that down.
I guess the same offer was given to others, and I believe that some accepted to do it and managed to block the release of hostages.
But Abu Sharif would not give Frontline the name or offer proof either. Other PLO sources told Frontline that Arafat discovered during a September 1980 trip to Iran that his intervention was superfluous since the Republicans already had established other back channels to the radical Islamic mullahs. [For details, see Robert Parrys Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery.]
In the mid-1990s, Arafat also told Jimmy Carter about the Republican overture of 1980.
There is something I want to tell you, Arafat said, addressing Carter at a meeting in Arafats bunker in Gaza City 15 years after the end of the Carter Presidency. You should know that in 1980 the Republicans approached me with an arms deal [for the PLO] if I could arrange to keep the hostages in Iran until after the [U.S. presidential] election.
Arafat insisted that he rebuffed the offer, but he supplied Carter with few other details, no name of the Republican representative nor exactly when and where the approach was made. But the conversation was recounted by historian Douglas Brinkley, who was present when Carter and Arafat spoke. Brinkley included the exchange in an article for the fall 1996 issue of Diplomatic History, a scholarly quarterly. Later, through a spokesman, Carter confirmed that the conversation with Arafat had occurred as described by Brinkley.
Opening Up
Today, with Arafat and Abu Sharif increasingly marginal players in the game of Middle East power politics, Abu Sharif finally volunteered to me the name of the Republican emissary whom he says he met in Paris almost two and a half decades ago: John Shaheen.
Shaheen, a New York-based businessman, claimed to have known Reagan since childhood in Tampico, Illinois, and reportedly was the person who convinced Casey to support Reagan in the 1980 Republican primaries. After Reagan lost the 1980 Iowa caucuses, the former California governor turned to Casey to run the campaign. Casey, a renowned wheeler-dealer who had once headed the Securities and Exchange Commission, brought his ruthless business style to guiding Reagan to the Republican nomination and then to the presidency.
Casey and Shaheen had known each other for decades, having worked together in the World War II-era Office of Strategic Services, the CIAs forerunner. Later, the two men collaborated in business deals associated with Shaheen's oil-and-natural-gas ventures.
Shaheen also was a business associate of Iranian banker Cyrus Hashemi, who was assisting the Carter administration in its 1980 hostage negotiations. Some of the October Surprise allegations focus on Hashemi acting as a double agent, betraying Carter by secretly helping Shaheen and Casey sabotage Carters efforts. [See Parrys Secrecy & Privilege.]
Whatever the full truth about Republican-Iranian contacts, Carters negotiations did fail to win the hostages release before the November 1980 elections. Carters perceived ineptness contributed to a late surge behind the Reagan-Bush campaign, which won a resounding victory on Nov. 4, 1980, exactly one year after the hostages were seized. The 52 hostages were finally released on Jan. 20, 1981, just minutes after Reagan was sworn in as the nations 40th president.
Some of the same characters connected to the October Surprise mystery resurfaced in the Iran-Contra Affair of 1985-86, in which U.S. arms were traded to Iran for help in winning the release of other U.S. hostages then held in Beirut, Lebanon. The Iran-Contra cast included Casey, Shaheen and Hashemi who were early advocates of enlisting the Iranian mullahs over the Beirut hostage crisis.
None of this trio Casey, Shaheen and Hashemi was ever publicly questioned about the 1980 "October Surprise" case, which emerged as an issue in the later part of 1987. Shaheen died in 1985; Hashemi in 1986; and Casey, who collapsed with brain cancer in late 1986, died several months later.
Morgan Strong is a journalist and consultant on the Middle East.
Back to Home Page | http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/2004/110204.html | dclm-gs1-096620002 | false | true | {
"keywords": "candida, engineering"
} | false | null | false |
0.026315 | <urn:uuid:cedeb765-b886-480c-953a-65eb941b9535> | en | 0.944757 | Mustique island
Mustique is a privately owned island in the St Vincent & Grenadines archipelago just 5 minutes flying time from Kingstown, St Vincent and 45 minutes from Barbados. The island is managed by The Mustique Company. A controlled development plan dictates that the island currently has just one hotel and one hundred private residences. It is the island's constant warm climate, private and unspoilt island lifestyle that attracts sophisticated international guests, many who eventually become owners.
Mustique is such a peaceful island that even during peak season, there is little traffic, congestion or noise. Many of the roads are not paved and there is minimal signage, thus there is a very non-commercial feeling to the island. All of the power and telephone lines are underground. You may find yourself totally alone on its white sand beaches and even renowned spots such as lovely Macaroni Beach remain tranquil and uncrowded.
English is the common language but due to an international scope of owners and guests, languages such as French, Italian, German and Dutch are often spoken.
The Cotton House is as intriguing as it is beautiful. Originally an 18th century sugar plantation hidden away on the island of Mustique, Lord Glenconner gave it a new lease of life in the early seventies, blending lush tropical beauty with plantation-style elegance and creating an exclusive retreat tailormade for visiting high flyers.
cotton house caribbean map.jpg | http://www.cottonhouse.net/mustique | dclm-gs1-096640002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.078606 | <urn:uuid:4da4496a-9b62-4a8c-be1b-50a1b4ba310e> | en | 0.94125 | Reply to a comment
Reply to this comment
Josey_Wales writes:
Well the verdict is now in. This Marduke should be ashamed to be seen in public. How much cash did he get to cover up this madness?
The following is from
Democrats of the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce just released a new report detailing chemicals used in the toxic gas exploration process known as Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking or fracing). Fracking is a technique used to extract natural gas from oil shale beneath the earths surface. Communities are increasingly concerned about fracking polluting public water systems and the environment, when the chemicals leak into aquifers, rivers, streams and the atmosphere.
Presently, the natural gas industry does not have to disclose the chemicals used, but scientists have identified known carcinogens and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.
This clown Marduke needs to given a nice glass of polluted water and made to drink it.
| http://www.courierpress.com/comments/reply/?target=61:345836&comment=1380872 | dclm-gs1-096660002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.254758 | <urn:uuid:925cbb1b-bb21-4e7e-bbcb-9f6f36ff676f> | en | 0.947212 | bugs in the closet
hotel room with my husband yellow carpet long table dressed for dinner closet begins to have water leaking in it my clothes are laid on the bed black bugs come out of the closet finally a huge spider exits and begins to climb up on my bed then a female friend comes in the room and takes the spider out of the room. | http://www.divinecaroline.com/bugs-closet | dclm-gs1-096790002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.021166 | <urn:uuid:8571d239-189a-435b-bd5b-ee8b32790709> | en | 0.978351 | September 15, 20109/15/10 0 comments
Thank you, Mrs. Lundstrom (or Lunchroom, if you’re a kindergartner)
I am sure everyone can think back over their educational career and know there were a few significant people that stand out who helped us along the way in one way or another. There are also people in your everyday life at work or in the community too that you may have turned to for advice.
It may have been your kindergartner teacher taking you by the hand to introduce you to other children because you were so shy; your coach spending extra time with you so you finally got the right move down in basketball even if you never won a game; or your advisor listening to you cry because you think you just failed your finals and you do not know what you will do with your life now. It seems like there is someone there when you need them the most to guide you by giving you insight, recommendations or just a listening ear.
Looking back who knew that those mentors were shaping you to be who you are today even though you may have not realized it at the time nor have you seen that person for years.
To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world. Fellow alumni, I urge you to consider being a mentor to DMU students; register today.
-by Mary Carr Peterson, PA-C’04, now a clinician at Story County Medical Center in Nevada, IA
Behavioral med in video games
Lunch event TODAY, Thursday! | http://www.dmu.edu/dose/2010/09/mentors/ | dclm-gs1-096800002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.019432 | <urn:uuid:3f215f67-7f9e-48f6-bba6-dbfbc5a23e9e> | en | 0.960534 | A Christmas Tree
Document Sample
scope of work template
Short Story: “A Christmas Tree”
Author: Charles Dickens, 1812–70
First published: 1850
The original short story is in the public domain in the
Readers outside the United States should check their own
countries’ copyright laws to be certain they can legally
download this e-story. The Online Books Page has an FAQ
which gives a summary of copyright durations for many
other countries, as well as links to more official sources.
This PDF ebook was
created by José Menéndez.
I HAVE been looking on, this evening, at a merry company of
children assembled round that pretty German toy, a
round table, and towered high above their heads. It was
brilliantly lighted by a multitude of little tapers; and
everywhere sparkled and glittered with bright objects. There
endless capacity of being wound up) dangling from
innumerable twigs; there were French-polished tables,
other articles of domestic furniture (wonderfully made, in
preparation for some fairy housekeeping; there were jolly,
broad-faced little men, much more agreeable in appearance
than many real men—and no wonder, for their heads took
fiddles and drums; there were tambourines, books, work-
brighter than any grown-up gold and jewels; there were
baskets and pincushions in all devices; there were guns,
swords, and banners; there were witches standing in
enchanted rings of pasteboard, to tell fortunes; there were
fruit, made artificially dazzling with gold leaf; imitation
as a pretty child, before me, delightedly whispered to another
pretty child, her bosom friend, “There was everything, and
more.” This motley collection of odd objects, clustering on
4 A CHRISTMAS TREE
the tree like magic fruit, and flashing back the bright looks
directed towards it from every side—some of the diamond-
few were languishing in timid wonder on the bosoms of
pretty mothers, aunts, and nurses—made a lively realisation
trees that grow and all the things that come into existence on
the earth, have their wild adornments at that well-
remembered time.
the house awake, my thoughts are drawn back, by a
fascination which I do not care to resist, to my own
upon the branches of the Christmas Tree of our own young
Christmas days, by which we climbed to real life.
Straight, in the middle of the room, cramped in the
freedom of its growth by no encircling walls or soon-reached
dreamy brightness of its top—for I observe in this tree the
singular property that it appears to grow downward towards
the earth—I look into my youngest Christmas recollections!
pockets, who wouldn’t lie down, but whenever he was put
he rolled himself still, and brought those lobster eyes of his
to bear upon me—when I affected to laugh very much, but in
my heart of hearts was extremely doubtful of him. Close
sprang a demoniacal Counsellor in a black gown, with an
CHARLES DICKENS 5
least expected. Nor is the frog with cobbler’s wax on his tail,
far off; for there was no knowing where he wouldn’t jump;
and when he flew over the candle, and came upon one’s
hand with that spotted back—red on a green ground—he was
the same branch, was milder, and was beautiful; but I can’t
ghastly, and not a creature to be alone with.
When did that dreadful Mask first look at me? Who put
meant to be droll; why then were its stolid features so
intolerable? Surely not because it hid the wearer’s face. An
apron would have done as much; and though I should have
preferred even the apron away, it would not have been
absolutely insupportable, like the mask. Was it the
immovability of the mask? The doll’s face was immovable,
but I was not afraid of her. Perhaps that fixed and set change
coming over a real face, infused into my quickened heart
some remote suggestion and dread of the universal change
reconciled me to it. No drummers, from whom proceeded a
melancholy chirping on the turning of a handle; no regiment
permanent comfort, for a long time. Nor was it any
6 A CHRISTMAS TREE
knowledge of its existence anywhere, was sufficient to
awake me in the night all perspiration and horror, with, “O I
know it’s coming! O the mask!”
I never wondered what the dear old donkey with the
panniers—there he is! was made of, then! His hide was real
round red spots all over him—the horse that I could even get
upon—I never wondered what had brought him to that
strange condition, or thought that such a horse was not
commonly seen at Newmarket. The four horses of no colour,
were brought home for a Christmas present. They were all
right, then; neither was their harness unceremoniously nailed
works of the music-cart, I did find out, to be made of quill
in his shirt sleeves, perpetually swarming up one side of a
wooden frame, and coming down, head foremost, on the
other, rather a weak-minded person—though good-natured;
but the Jacob’s Ladder, next him, made of little squares of
red wood, that went flapping and clattering over one another,
each developing a different picture, and the whole enlivened
Ah! The Doll’s house!—of which I was not proprietor,
but where I visited. I don’t admire the Houses of Parliament
half so much as that stone-fronted mansion with real glass
windows, and door-steps, and a real balcony—greener than I
but a poor imitation. And though it did open all at once, the
CHARLES DICKENS 7
could believe. Even open, there were three distinct rooms in
assortment of diminutive utensils—oh, the warming-pan!—
two fish. What Barmecide justice have I done to the noble
feasts wherein the set of wooden platters figured, each with
to it, and garnished with something green, which I recollect
as moss! Could all the Temperance Societies of these later
through the means of yonder little set of blue crockery,
which really would hold liquid (it ran out of the small
like Punch’s hands, what does it matter? And if I did once
shriek out, as a poisoned child, and strike the fashionable
company with consternation, by reason of having drunk a
little teaspoon, inadvertently dissolved in too hot tea, I was
never the worse for it, except by a powder!
the green roller and miniature gardening-tools, how thick the
many of them, and with deliciously smooth covers of bright
red or green. What fat black letters to begin with! “A was an
archer, and shot at a frog.” Of course he was. He was an
beyond Xerxes or Xantippe—like Y, who was always
8 A CHRISTMAS TREE
changes, and becomes a bean-stalk—the marvellous bean-
stalk up which Jack climbed to the Giant’s house! And now,
those dreadfully interesting, double-headed giants, with their
clubs over their shoulders, begin to stride along the boughs
in a perfect throng, dragging knights and ladies home for
dinner by the hair of their heads. And Jack—how noble, with
his sword of sharpness, and his shoes of swiftness! Again
I debate within myself whether there was more than one Jack
original admirable Jack, who achieved all the recorded
Good for Christmas-time is the ruddy colour of the
cloak, in which—the tree making a forest of itself for her to
trip through, with her basket—Little Red Riding-Hood
comes to me one Christmas Eve to give me information of
the cruelty and treachery of that dissembling Wolf who ate
her grandmother, without making any impression on his
appetite, and then ate her, after making that ferocious joke
have married Little Red Riding-Hood, I should have known
it but to look out the Wolf in the Noah’s Ark there, and put
to be degraded. O the wonderful Noah’s Ark! It was not
well shaken down before they could be got in, even there—
which was but imperfectly fastened with a wire latch—but
what was that against it! Consider the noble fly, a size or two
smaller than the elephant: the lady-bird, the butterfly—all
triumphs of art! Consider the goose, whose feet were so
small, and whose balance was so indifferent, that he usually
CHARLES DICKENS 9
tumbled forward, and knocked down all the animal creation.
Consider Noah and his family, like idiotic tobacco-stoppers;
tails of the larger animals used gradually to resolve
themselves into frayed bits of string!
Hush! Again a forest, and somebody up in a tree—not
passed him and all Mother Bunch’s wonders, without
mention), but an Eastern King with a glittering scimitar and
looking over his shoulder! Down upon the grass, at the tree’s
asleep, with his head in a lady’s lap; and near them is a glass
Arabian Nights.
Oh, now all common things become uncommon and
enchanted to me. All lamps are wonderful; all rings are
recipe of the Vizier’s son of Bussorah, who turned
pastrycook after he was set down in his drawers at the gate
sewing up people cut into four pieces, to whom they are
taken blind-fold.
Any iron ring let into stone is the entrance to a cave
necromancy, that will make the earth shake. All the dates
10 A CHRISTMAS TREE
imported come from the same tree as that unlucky date, with
whose shell the merchant knocked out the eye of the genie’s
concerning which the Commander of the Faithful overheard
the boy conduct the fictitious trial of the fraudulent olive
merchant; all apples are akin to the apple purchased (with
two others) from the Sultan’s gardener for three sequins, and
associated with the dog, really a transformed man, who
jumped upon the baker’s counter, and put his paw on the
horse,—there he is, with his nostrils turned completely
inside-out, indicative of Blood!—should have a peg in his
father’s Court.
Yes, on every object that I recognise among those upper
the white snow dimly beheld, outside, through the frost on
the window-pane, I hear Dinarzade. “Sister, sister, if you are
the Black Islands.” Scheherazade replies, “If my lord the
only finish that, but tell you a more wonderful story yet.”
execution, and we all three breathe again.
At this height of my tree I begin to see, cowering
among the leaves—it may be born of turkey, or of pudding,
or mince pie, or of these many fancies, jumbled with
Robinson Crusoe on his desert island, Philip Quarll among
the monkeys, Sandford and Merton with Mr. Barlow, Mother
CHARLES DICKENS 11
Bunch, and the Mask—or it may be the result of indigestion,
assisted by imagination and over-doctoring—a prodigious
nightmare. It is so exceedingly indistinct, that I don’t know
why it’s frightful—but I know it is. I can only make out that
it is an immense array of shapeless things, which appear to
eyes, and receding to an immeasurable distance. When it
remembrances of winter nights incredibly long; of being sent
waking in two hours, with a sensation of having been asleep
two nights; of the laden hopelessness of morning ever
dawning; and the oppression of a weight of remorse.
And now, I see a wonderful row of little lights rise
smoothly out of the ground, before a vast green curtain.
Now, a bell rings—a magic bell, which still sounds in my
ears unlike all other bells—and music plays, amidst a buzz of
magic bell commands the music to cease, and the great green
curtain rolls itself up majestically, and The Play begins! The
devoted dog of Montargis avenges the death of his master,
foully murdered in the Forest of Bondy; and a humorous
of that dog is indeed surprising; and evermore this jocular
conceit will live in my remembrance fresh and unfading,
white, and with her brown hair hanging down, went starving
through the streets; or how George Barnwell killed the
worthiest uncle that ever man had, and was afterwards so
12 A CHRISTMAS TREE
comfort me, the Pantomime—stupendous Phenomenon!—
when clowns are shot from loaded mortars into the great
chandelier, bright constellation that it is; when Harlequins,
like amazing fish; when Pantaloon (whom I deem it no
irreverence to compare in my own mind to my grandfather)
puts red-hot pokers in his pocket, and cries “Here’s
somebody coming!” or taxes the Clown with petty larceny,
by saying, “Now, I sawed you do it!” when Everything is
capable, with the greatest ease, of being changed into
Anything; and “Nothing is, but thinking makes it so.” Now,
too, I perceive my first experience of the dreary sensation—
often to return in after-life—of being unable, next day, to get
the bright atmosphere I have quitted; of doting on the little
Fairy, with the wand like a celestial Barber’s Pole, and
stayed by me!
Out of this delight springs the toy-theatre,—there it is,
with its familiar proscenium, and ladies in feathers, in the
boxes!—and all its attendant occupation with paste and glue,
of a few besetting accidents and failures (particularly an
unreasonable disposition in the respectable Kelmar, and
time, adorned with these associations as with the freshest
garlands of the rarest flowers, and charming me yet.
CHARLES DICKENS 13
But hark! The Waits are playing, and they break my
childish sleep! What images do I associate with the
Christmas music as I see them set forth on the Christmas
through the opened roof of a chamber where he sits, and
thick darkness coming on, the earth beginning to shake, and
only one voice heard, “Forgive them, for they know not what
they do.”
Still, on the lower and maturer branches of the Tree,
Christmas associations cluster thick. School-books shut up;
impertinent inquiries, long disposed of; Terence and Plautus
14 A CHRISTMAS TREE
dances and plays too!
short holiday—the longer, the better—from the great
boarding-school, where we are for ever working at our
been, when we would; starting our fancy from our Christmas
Away into the winter prospect. There are many such
and fogs, up long hills, winding dark as caverns between
thick plantations, almost shutting out the sparkling stars; so,
larger in the windows, and the opposing rows of trees seem
intervals, all day, a frightened hare has shot across this
whitened turf; or the distant clatter of a herd of deer
silence too. Their watchful eyes beneath the fern may be
growing larger, and the trees falling back before us, and
the house.
There is probably a smell of roasted chestnuts and other
good comfortable things all the time, for we are telling
CHARLES DICKENS 15
wood is burnt on ancient dogs upon the hearth, and grim
portraits (some of them with grim legends, too) lower
distrustfully from the oaken panels of the walls. We are a
middle-aged nobleman, and we make a generous supper with
our host and hostess and their guests—it being Christmas-
time, and the old house full of company—and then we go to
We don’t like the portrait of a cavalier in green, over the
fireplace. There are great black beams in the ceiling, and
tombs in the old baronial church in the park, for our
particular accommodation. But, we are not a superstitious
nobleman, and we don’t mind. Well! we dismiss our servant,
Well! we can’t sleep. We toss and tumble, and can’t sleep.
The embers on the hearth burn fitfully and make the room
look ghostly. We can’t help peeping out over the
counterpane, at the two black figures and the cavalier—that
wicked-looking cavalier—in green. In the flickering light
any means a superstitious nobleman, is not agreeable. Well!
we get nervous—more and more nervous. We say “This is
very foolish, but we can’t stand this; we’ll pretend to be ill,
and knock up somebody.” Well! we are just going to do it,
when the locked door opens, and there comes in a young
Our tongue cleaves to the roof of our mouth, and we can’t
16 A CHRISTMAS TREE
bunch of rusty keys. Well! there she sits, and we can’t even
won’t fit one of them; then, she fixes her eyes on the portrait
“The stags know it!” After that, she wrings her hands again,
dressing-gown, seize our pistols (we always travel with
We wander away, and try to find our servant. Can’t be done.
We pace the gallery till daybreak; then return to our deserted
wretched breakfast, and all the company say we look queer.
attached to that family, and famous for her beauty, who
drowned herself in a pond, and whose body was discovered,
water. Since which, it has been whispered that she traverses
the house at midnight (but goes especially to that room
it may be hushed up; and so it is. But, it’s all true; and we
responsible people.
There is no end to the old houses, with resounding
galleries, and dismal state-bedchambers, and haunted wings
an agreeable creeping up our back, and encounter any
CHARLES DICKENS 17
have little originality, and “walk” in a beaten track. Thus, it
himself, has certain planks in the floor from which the blood
will not be taken out. You may scrape and scrape, as the
with strong acids, as his great-grandfather did, but, there the
blood will still be—no redder and no paler—no more and no
less—always just the same. Thus, in such another house
sigh, or a horse’s tramp, or the rattling of a chain. Or else,
shadowy, immovable black carriage which at such a time is
always seen by somebody, waiting near the great gates in the
and, being fatigued with her long journey, retired to bed
table, “How odd, to have so late a party last night, in this
Lady Mary replied, “Why, all night long, the carriages were
driving round and round the terrace, underneath my
window!” Then, the owner of the house turned pale, and so
did his Lady, and Charles Macdoodle of Macdoodle signed
After breakfast, Charles Macdoodle told Lady Mary that it
was a tradition in the family that those rumbling carriages on
18 A CHRISTMAS TREE
months afterwards, the Lady of the mansion died. And Lady
King always said, “Eh, eh? What, what? Ghosts, ghosts? No
such thing, no such thing!” And never left off saying so, until
he went to bed.
Or, a friend of somebody’s whom most of us know,
the Spirit to return to this earth after its separation from the
friend; the two young men having progressed in life, and
many years afterwards, our friend being in the North of
moonlight, leaning on a bureau near the window, steadfastly
regarding him, saw his old college friend! The appearance
very audibly, “Do not come near me. I am dead. I am here to
disclose its secrets!” Then, the whole form becoming paler,
Or, there was the daughter of the first occupier of the
picturesque Elizabethan house, so famous in our
neighbourhood. You have heard about her? No! Why, She
went out one summer evening at twilight, when she was a
beautiful girl, just seventeen years of age, to gather flowers
hall to her father, saying, “Oh, dear father, I have met
myself!” He took her in his arms, and told her it was fancy,
but she said, “Oh no! I met myself in the broad walk, and I
CHARLES DICKENS 19
was pale and gathering withered flowers, and I turned my
head, and held them up!” And, that night, she died; and a
picture of her story was begun, though never finished, and
face to the wall.
Or, the uncle of my brother’s wife was riding home on
him, in the very centre of a narrow way. “Why does that man
in the cloak stand there!” he thought. “Does he want me to
ride over him?” But the figure never moved. He felt a
strange sensation at seeing it so still, but slackened his trot
up the bank, in a curious, unearthly manner—backward, and
without seeming to use its feet—and was gone. The uncle of
my brother’s wife, exclaiming, “Good Heaven! It’s my
cousin Harry, from Bombay!” put spurs to his horse, which
was suddenly in a profuse sweat, and, wondering at such
strange behaviour, dashed round to the front of his house.
sister was sitting there, alone. “Alice, where’s my cousin
Harry?” “Your cousin Harry, John?” “Yes. From Bombay. I
instant.” Not a creature had been seen by any one; and in that
hour and minute, as it afterwards appeared, this cousin died
in India.
at ninety-nine, and retained her faculties to the last, who
incorrectly told, but, of which the real truth is this—because
it is, in fact, a story belonging to our family—and she was a
20 A CHRISTMAS TREE
connexion of our family. When she was about forty years of
age, and still an uncommonly fine woman (her lover died
young, which was the reason why she never married, though
heir, and who killed the young boy by harsh and cruel
there was a Cage in her bedroom in which the guardian used
night, and in the morning said composedly to her maid when
she came in, “Who is the pretty forlorn-looking child who
has been peeping out of that closet all night?” The maid
replied by giving a loud scream, and instantly decamping.
She was surprised; but she was a woman of remarkable
strength of mind, and she dressed herself and went
downstairs, and closeted herself with her brother. “Now,
Walter,” she said, “I have been disturbed all night by a
pretty, forlorn-looking boy, who has been constantly peeping
out of that closet in my room, which I can’t open. This is
some trick.” “I am afraid not, Charlotte,” said he, “for it is
do?” “He opened the door softly,” said she, “and peeped out.
shuddered, and crept in again, and shut the door.” “The
closet has no communication, Charlotte,” said her brother,
“with any other part of the house, and it’s nailed up.” This
was undeniably true, and it took two carpenters a whole
CHARLES DICKENS 21
her brother’s sons, in succession, who all died young. On the
been playing under a particular oak-tree, in a certain
meadow, with a strange boy—a pretty, forlorn-looking boy,
that the course of that child whom he chose for his little
playmate was surely run.
Legion is the name of the German castles, where we sit
up alone to wait for the Spectre—where we are shown into a
room, made comparatively cheerful for our reception—
where we glance round at the shadows, thrown on the blank
walls by the crackling fire—where we feel very lonely when
the village innkeeper and his pretty daughter have retired,
roast capon, bread, grapes, and a flask of old Rhine wine—
where the reverberating doors close on their retreat, one after
another, like so many peals of sullen thunder—and where,
about the small hours of the night, we come into the
knowledge of divers supernatural mysteries. Legion is the
name of the haunted German students, in whose society we
has chosen for his seat, when the door accidentally blows
the boughs!
Among the later toys and fancies hanging there—as idle
often and less pure—be the images once associated with the
sweet old Waits, the softened music in the night, ever
unalterable! Encircled by the social thoughts of Christmas-
time, still let the benignant figure of my childhood stand
22 A CHRISTMAS TREE
unchanged! In every cheerful image and suggestion that the
season brings, may the bright star that rested above the poor
roof, be the star of all the Christian World! A moment’s
blank spaces on thy branches, where eyes that I have loved
far above, I see the raiser of the dead girl, and the Widow’s
turn a child’s heart to that figure yet, and a child’s
trustfulness and confidence!
Now, the tree is decorated with bright merriment, and
Innocent and welcome be they ever held, beneath the
branches of the Christmas Tree, which cast no gloomy
going through the leaves. “This, in commemoration of the
remembrance of Me!”
Shared By:
How are you planning on using Docstoc? | http://www.docstoc.com/docs/87896966/A-Christmas-Tree | dclm-gs1-096810002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "monkey"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.032004 | <urn:uuid:3909b784-c271-42d2-9cb8-cf22e0ef7f19> | en | 0.932874 | Moscow Domodedovo Airport (DME) Reviews
Moscow Domodedovo Airport (DME) Airport
Description:Domodedovo is located in Moscow and is the largest airport in Russia in terms of flight traffic.
Newest Review: ... souvenirs (which are vastly overpriced compared to the centre of town, so best avoided). Airport shops will generally accept a number of credit cards and currencies, including Rubles, Euro and Dollars, but it should be noted that payment in foreign currency anywhere else in Russia is generally prohibited. The departure gates are in the same hall as the shopping complex, which can get very ... more
... busy at peak times and on key travel dates, such as public holidays. As such, given the relatively small size of the seating areas at the departure gates for ordinary travellers, it can be hard to find somewhere to sit down. This airport gives no real ince...more
Customer Moscow Domodedovo Airport (DME) Reviews (1)
Crowned ReviewMoscow Domodedovo Airport (DME): A Modern Gateway Into An Enigmatic Land (1028 words)
by - written on 11/01/11, updated on 24/01/11 (Very useful, 194 readings)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ARRIVING IN MOSCOW BY AIR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Domodedovo (DME) is the largest (in terms of passenger numbers and cargo) of the three major airports that serve Moscow (the others are Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo). The airport is located around 40 kilometres (roughly 25 miles) to the southeast of the Russian capital, and as such is the furthest from the centre of town. Originally built in 1964, recent redevelopment and expansion has turned it into a quality transport hub, and it is currently the only airport in Russia capable of handling the Airbus A380, the largest operating passenger jet. The improvements in ... Read the complete review | http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/airports/moscow-domodedovo-airport-dme/ | dclm-gs1-096830002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.128916 | <urn:uuid:8b83c933-7b83-42b1-97e0-e05bd311bdfa> | en | 0.973977 | THE province generally known as Aceh, at the north-western tip of Indonesia, was last year officially named “Aceh, Abode of Peace”. Despite being an ancient historical title, it is sadly inaccurate. The Acehnese have long battled for independence, first from Dutch colonialists, and later from the government of Indonesia. Since the latest insurgency began in 1976, tens of thousands have been killed, most of them civilians. But on December 9th, the province's name should become a little more apt. That is when the government and leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (known by its Indonesian acronym, GAM) are due to sign a peace deal.
The agreement proposes an immediate ceasefire, followed by an “all-inclusive dialogue” about the political future of this province of 4.5m people and, in 2004, by elections. In the meantime, the Indonesian army is expected to withdraw some of its forces, while GAM will begin to disarm. Special “peace zones” are to be demilitarised altogether, paving the way for humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
But several issues need to be settled before the deal can be signed. The two sides do not yet agree on where the “peace zones” will be, or what sort of police force will keep them peaceful. Nor have they yet fixed the mechanism for disarming GAM. The current idea, of depositing weapons in independently monitored cantonments, sounds suspiciously similar to a system that has done little for the peace process in Northern Ireland. Some GAM members are already disavowing the deal. And even if all these questions are resolved in time for the signing, the deal could still come unstuck later, like a previous ceasefire the two sides signed in 2000.
On the other hand, the Henry Dunant Centre, a Swiss organisation that brokered both deals, seems to have learned from its past mistakes. There will probably be around ten times more monitors than before to verify that both sides are keeping to their promises, although the exact number has yet to be fixed. This time, a third of the monitors will be foreigners.
The agreement also tries to plan for the worst, by acknowledging that renegade elements on either side might try to scupper the ceasefire, and prescribing joint action to counter such a move. What is more, both sides have made critical concessions: GAM by agreeing to set aside the goal of independence for the time being, and the government by allowing foreign monitors to meddle in what it has always considered to be an internal matter.
However, that does not necessarily mean that both sides are acting in good faith. Some Acehnese argue that the government is too taken by its recent military successes to allow the detail of the peace agreement to work. Others say that GAM is only feigning acceptance of the agreement to save the skins of a big group of its fighters under siege in a swamp near the town of Lhoksumawe, and to regroup.
But even on that score, there are grounds for hope. If the Indonesian government really thought it could deliver GAM a knockout blow, it presumably would not have hesitated to do so. The likelihood is that the insurgency would have continued, even after a disastrous defeat for GAM, albeit at a lesser intensity. Both sides might genuinely see a peace deal as preferable to that. | http://www.economist.com/node/1455234 | dclm-gs1-096910002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "knockout"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.060669 | <urn:uuid:dd6cdb04-b950-41b4-931c-44506594834c> | en | 0.985869 | #5 Aw... It's over :'(
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Well, I haven't done a Blog in a while so I'll try and remember what's happened.
Since the last Blog I've hung out with Rhys again, he's always a hoot (alot like Jayne in many ways actually). We ended up having a serious conversation and he told me about how he feels like I'm the only person he can really talk to, I feel the same, I have lots of girlfriends but they're not like me so there's a little bit of a barrier. This situation kind of sucks because there are some things I just can't talk to a guy about. Back to the conversation, basically there's an issue with his brother. His brother and him aren't very close, his brother actually tried to kill him a few times when he was younger. It's really not my place to tell but suffice to say it's bad. I'm trying to talk him into talking to his mom or dad or someone but he's afraid of his brother. As an added bonus Luke (Rhys is sort of like a mutual friend for me and Luke but we've been getting closer for reasons that will be explained in the next Blog I promise), has been getting sucked into WoW, we're hoping it'll cool down once we get into the school year. WoW is a fun game and I'll be it addicting but it's just unhealthy how much he's playing.
That's the ugly, we're gonna work our way down to bad now. School's starting in a couple days and I have homework to do. I'm not talking any old homework, I'm talking Niska and Math all mixed together.
Here's the good. On Monday morning, I get to find out if Mrs. Beale (my Music teacher) liked Firefly! I lent it to her for the Christmas break and I want to see what she thinks; I'm also just really happy to get my disks back. I'm worried she fell in love with Wash, because then I'll have to give her Serenity and she'll hate me and let's just not go there. More good, on Tuesday I get to resume my bass lessons, w00t w00t! And yes, even more good, tonight was awesome! My mom went out with some of her friends from work so my dad came over to my grandparents house, we listened to music, ate good food, made fun of people and made fun of eachother, we pretty much laughed the whole night, apparently my grandfather doesn't understand the words "careful, it's hot". My dad and I almost broke my grandmother's computer because we both wanted to use it. I wanted to talk to you guys and he wanted to talk on his nerd board. Final good, I realized that my grandparents dog is exactly like Mal. His name is Pablo but he's like Mal in every way, he responded to me when I called him that. Oh and I almost forgot, I'm starting to memorize the Mandarin phrases in the back of my Serenity RPG book.
Some just plain weird things, I recieved e-mails telling me that I had won some UK lottery, I don't even live in the UK! Also, recently my speech pattern has started changing so I have 2 modes, Encyclopedia Sarah and Jayne Sarah, it's really weird and because I'm brushing up on my Mandarin it's becoming impulse to swear in Mandarin instead of English.
I'm pretty sure that's all the notable stuff, I guess the only other thing really worth saying is that i am slowly but surely making my way to the $200 needed for my dream bass.
I hope you all have a shiny week, I'm gonna miss being able to talk to you as regularly as I have been.
Monday, January 8, 2007 1:32 PM
Wow...that's a lot to digest there, Gomi;)
Still...glad to hear you had a good time with your da, and that the Browncoat Nation might soon have another convert amongst its ranks. Though the Wash-love does admittedly pose issues for watching the BDM:(
You must log in to post comments. | http://www.fireflyfans.net/blog.aspx?bid=5845 | dclm-gs1-097020002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.104353 | <urn:uuid:b05af30b-7974-4877-ab3d-7b194e7dfbd4> | en | 0.808039 | Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
FreeBSD Man Pages
Man Page or Keyword Search:
Man Architecture
Apropos Keyword Search (all sections) Output format
home | help
PMC(3) FreeBSD Library Functions Manual PMC(3)
pmc -- library for accessing hardware performance monitoring counters
Performance Monitoring Counters Interface Library (libpmc, -lpmc)
#include <pmc.h>
The Performance Monitoring Counters Interface Library (libpmc, -lpmc)
provides a programming interface that allows applications to use hardware
performance counters to gather performance data about specific processes
or for the system as a whole. The library is implemented using the
lower-level facilities offered by the hwpmc(4) driver.
Key Concepts
Performance monitoring counters (PMCs) are represented by the library
using a software abstraction. These ``abstract'' PMCs can have two
+o System scope. These PMCs measure events in a whole-system manner,
i.e., independent of the currently executing thread. System scope
PMCs are allocated on specific CPUs and do not migrate between CPUs.
Non-privileged process are allowed to allocate system scope PMCs if
the hwpmc(4) sysctl tunable: security.bsd.unprivileged_syspmcs is
+o Process scope. These PMCs only measure hardware events when the pro-
cesses they are attached to are executing on a CPU. In an SMP sys-
tem, process scope PMCs migrate between CPUs along with their target
Orthogonal to PMC scope, PMCs may be allocated in one of two operational
+o Counting PMCs measure events according to their scope (system or
process). The application needs to explicitly read these counters to
retrieve their value.
+o Sampling PMCs cause the CPU to be periodically interrupted and infor-
mation about its state of execution to be collected. Sampling PMCs
are used to profile specific processes and kernel threads or to pro-
file the system as a whole.
The scope and operational mode for a software PMC are specified at PMC
allocation time. An application is allowed to allocate multiple PMCs
subject to availability of hardware resources.
The library uses human-readable strings to name the event being measured
by hardware. The syntax used for specifying a hardware event along with
additional event specific qualifiers (if any) is described in detail in
section EVENT SPECIFIERS below.
PMCs are associated with the process that allocated them and will be
automatically reclaimed by the system when the process exits. Addition-
ally, process-scope PMCs have to be attached to one or more target pro-
cesses before they can perform measurements. A process-scope PMC may be
attached to those target processes that its owner process would otherwise
be permitted to debug. An owner process may attach PMCs to itself allow-
ing it to measure its own behavior. Additionally, on some machine archi-
tectures, such self-attached PMCs may be read cheaply using specialized
instructions supported by the processor.
Certain kinds of PMCs require that a log file be configured before they
may be started. These include:
+o System scope sampling PMCs.
+o Process scope sampling PMCs.
+o Process scope counting PMCs that have been configured to report PMC
readings on process context switches or process exits.
Up to one log file may be configured per owner process. Events logged to
a log file may be subsequently analyzed using the pmclog(3) family of
Supported CPUs
The CPUs known to the PMC library are named by the enum pmc_cputype enu-
meration. Supported CPUs include:
PMC_CPU_AMD_K7 AMD Athlon CPUs.
PMC_CPU_AMD_K8 AMD Athlon64 CPUs.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_ATOM Intel Atom CPUs and other CPUs conforming to ver-
sion 3 of the Intel performance measurement
PMC_CPU_INTEL_CORE Intel Core Solo and Core Duo CPUs, and other CPUs
conforming to version 1 of the Intel performance
measurement architecture.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_CORE2 Intel Core2 Solo, Core2 Duo and Core2 Extreme
CPUs, and other CPUs conforming to version 2 of
the Intel performance measurement architecture.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_P5 Intel Pentium CPUs.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_P6 Intel Pentium Pro CPUs.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_PII Intel Pentium II CPUs.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_PIII Intel Pentium III CPUs.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_PIV Intel Pentium 4 CPUs.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_PM Intel Pentium M CPUs.
Supported PMCs
PMC supported by this library are named by the enum pmc_class enumera-
tion. Supported PMC kinds include:
PMC_CLASS_IAF Fixed function hardware counters presents in CPUs con-
forming to the Intel performance measurement architec-
ture version 2 and later.
PMC_CLASS_IAP Programmable hardware counters present in CPUs conform-
ing to the Intel performance measurement architecture
version 1 and later.
PMC_CLASS_K7 Programmable hardware counters present in AMD Athlon
PMC_CLASS_K8 Programmable hardware counters present in AMD Athlon64
PMC_CLASS_P4 Programmable hardware counters present in Intel Pentium
4 CPUs.
PMC_CLASS_P5 Programmable hardware counters present in Intel Pentium
PMC_CLASS_P6 Programmable hardware counters present in Intel Pentium
Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Celeron, and Pentium M
PMC_CLASS_TSC The timestamp counter on i386 and amd64 architecture
PMC_CLASS_SOFT Software events.
PMC Capabilities
Capabilities of performance monitoring hardware are denoted using the
enum pmc_caps enumeration. Supported capabilities include:
PMC_CAP_CASCADE The ability to cascade counters.
PMC_CAP_EDGE The ability to count negated to asserted transi-
tions of the hardware conditions being probed for.
PMC_CAP_INTERRUPT The ability to interrupt the CPU.
PMC_CAP_INVERT The ability to invert the sense of the hardware
conditions being measured.
PMC_CAP_PRECISE The ability to perform precise sampling.
PMC_CAP_QUALIFIER The hardware allows monitored to be further quali-
fied in some system dependent way.
PMC_CAP_READ The ability to read from performance counters.
PMC_CAP_SYSTEM The ability to restrict counting of hardware events
to when the CPU is running privileged code.
PMC_CAP_THRESHOLD The ability to ignore simultaneous hardware events
below a programmable threshold.
PMC_CAP_USER The ability to restrict counting of hardware events
to those when the CPU is running unprivileged code.
PMC_CAP_WRITE The ability to write to performance counters.
CPU Naming Conventions
CPUs are named using small integers from zero up to, but excluding, the
value returned by function pmc_ncpu(). On platforms supporting sparsely
numbered CPUs not all the numbers in this range will denote valid CPUs.
Operations on non-existent CPUs will return an error.
Functional Grouping of the API
This section contains a brief overview of the available functionality in
the PMC library. Each function listed here is described further in its
own manual page.
pmc_disable(), pmc_enable()
Administratively disable (enable) specific per-
formance monitoring counter hardware. Counters
that are disabled will not be available to
applications to use.
Convenience Functions
Returns a list of event names supported by a
given PMC type.
Convert a PMC_CAP_* flag to a human-readable
Convert a PMC_CLASS_* constant to a human-read-
able string.
Return a human-readable name for a CPU type.
Return a human-readable string describing a
PMC's disposition.
Convert a numeric event code to a human-read-
able string.
Convert a PMC_MODE_* constant to a human-read-
able name.
Return a human-readable string describing a
PMC's current state.
Library Initialization
pmc_init() Initialize the library. This function must be
called before any other library function.
Log File Handling
Configure a log file for hwpmc(4) to write
logged events to.
Flush all pending log data in hwpmc(4)'s
Flush all pending log data and close hwpmc(4)'s
side of the stream.
pmc_writelog() Append arbitrary user data to the current log
PMC Management
pmc_allocate(), pmc_release()
Allocate (free) a PMC.
pmc_attach(), pmc_detach()
Attach (detach) a process scope PMC to a tar-
pmc_read(), pmc_write(), pmc_rw()
Read (write) a value from (to) a PMC.
pmc_start(), pmc_stop()
Start (stop) a software PMC.
pmc_set() Set the reload value for a sampling PMC.
Retrieve the capabilities for a given PMC.
pmc_cpuinfo() Retrieve information about the CPUs and PMC
hardware present in the system.
Retrieve statistics maintained by hwpmc(4).
pmc_ncpu() Determine the greatest possible CPU number on
the system.
pmc_npmc() Return the number of hardware PMCs present in a
given CPU.
pmc_pmcinfo() Return information about the state of a given
CPU's PMCs.
pmc_width() Determine the width of a hardware counter in
x86 Architecture Specific API
pmc_get_msr() Returns the processor model specific register
number associated with pmc. Applications may
then use the x86 RDPMC instruction to directly
read the contents of the PMC.
Signal Handling Requirements
Applications using PMCs are required to handle the following signals:
SIGBUS When the hwpmc(4) module is unloaded using kldunload(8), pro-
cesses that have PMCs allocated to them will be sent a SIGBUS
SIGIO The hwpmc(4) driver will send a PMC owning process a SIGIO signal
+o If any process-mode PMC allocated by it loses all its target
+o If the driver encounters an error when writing log data to a
configured log file. This error may be retrieved by a subse-
quent call to pmc_flush_logfile().
Typical Program Flow
1. An application would first invoke function pmc_init() to allow the
library to initialize itself.
2. Signal handling would then be set up.
3. Next the application would allocate the PMCs it desires using func-
tion pmc_allocate().
4. Initial values for PMCs may be set using function pmc_set().
5. If a log file is necessary for the PMCs to work, it would be config-
ured using function pmc_configure_logfile().
6. Process scope PMCs would then be attached to their target processes
using function pmc_attach().
7. The PMCs would then be started using function pmc_start().
8. Once started, the values of counting PMCs may be read using function
pmc_read(). For PMCs that write events to the log file, this logged
data would be read and parsed using the pmclog(3) family of func-
9. PMCs are stopped using function pmc_stop(), and process scope PMCs
are detached from their targets using function pmc_detach().
10. Before the process exits, its may release its PMCs using function
pmc_release(). Any configured log file may be closed using function
Event specifiers are strings comprising of an event name, followed by
optional parameters modifying the semantics of the hardware event being
probed. Event names are PMC architecture dependent, but the PMC library
defines machine independent aliases for commonly used events.
Event specifiers spellings are case-insensitive and space characters,
periods, underscores and hyphens are considered equivalent to each other.
Thus the event specifiers "Example Event", "example-event", and
"EXAMPLE_EVENT" are equivalent.
PMC Architecture Dependent Events
PMC architecture dependent event specifiers are described in the follow-
ing manual pages:
PMC Class Manual Page
PMC_CLASS_IAF pmc.iaf(3)
PMC_CLASS_IAP pmc.atom(3), pmc.core(3), pmc.core2(3)
PMC_CLASS_K7 pmc.k7(3)
PMC_CLASS_K8 pmc.k8(3)
PMC_CLASS_P4 pmc.p4(3)
PMC_CLASS_P5 pmc.p5(3)
PMC_CLASS_P6 pmc.p6(3)
PMC_CLASS_TSC pmc.tsc(3)
Event Name Aliases
Event name aliases are PMC-independent names for commonly used events.
The following aliases are known to this version of the pmc library:
Measure the number of branches retired.
Measure the number of retired branches that were mispredicted.
cycles Measure processor cycles. This event is implemented using the
processor's Time Stamp Counter register.
Measure the number of data cache misses.
Measure the number of instruction cache misses.
Measure the number of instructions retired.
Measure the number of interrupts seen.
Measure the number of cycles the processor is not in a halted or
sleep state.
The interface between the pmc library and the hwpmc(4) driver is intended
to be private to the implementation and may change. In order to ease
forward compatibility with future versions of the hwpmc(4) driver, appli-
cations are urged to dynamically link with the pmc library.
The pmc API is currently under development.
pmc.atom(3), pmc.core(3), pmc.core2(3), pmc.iaf(3), pmc.k7(3), pmc.k8(3),
pmc.p4(3), pmc.p5(3), pmc.p6(3), pmc.soft(3), pmc.tsc(3), pmclog(3),
hwpmc(4), pmccontrol(8), pmcstat(8)
The pmc library first appeared in FreeBSD 6.0.
The Performance Monitoring Counters Interface Library (libpmc, -lpmc)
library was written by Joseph Koshy <>.
FreeBSD 8.3 November 24, 2008 FreeBSD 8.3
Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
home | help | http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pmc&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+7.3-stable | dclm-gs1-097060002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.27295 | <urn:uuid:401fae53-a3e2-4d5d-9015-d5da2ddbf9e9> | en | 0.952651 | Not the time for political calculus regarding bombing Syria
War is the single biggest driver of inflation globally. This needs to be considered in the Syria response question.
The most important investment analysis, in terms of outcomes and forecasting, relate to inflation and deflation. Low and stable inflation removes one of the greatest uncertainties confronting investors, and uncertainty is the greatest headwind to investment returns. The distinction between “real assets” and “financial assets” hinges upon inflation and deflation. In a broad portfolio sense, the inflation environment certainly trumps the success or failure of individual CEO’s or companies. It even trumps, in terms of driving investment returns, the underlying economic growth of nations and the globe. Historically, war is the single biggest driver of inflation globally and in the US.
The implications of war for inflation, and for financial markets are profound.
Therefore, I want to tap the wisdom of historians and military experts to shed some light on the Syrian entanglement. First is President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Second is Secretary of State and General Colin Powell. Third is commissioned officer in US Navy and Cato Institute Scholar Christopher Preble. These military leaders, better than civilians, understand the cost of war both in terms of personal cost and sacrifice for military personnel, and the implications for domestic and foreign civilian populations.
Though Eisenhower was anything but a pacifist he understood that securing America’s leadership and prestige pivoted on “how we use our power in the interest of world peace and human betterment (1).” During his presidency, the major threat was Soviet expansion and destabilization of sovereign states on the edge of the Soviet sphere of influence.
He sought to limit U.S. involvement to those cases where the United States was invited by democratic, or at least non-communist, leaders to provide military assistance. He was instrumental in the winding down and transitioning the WWII military economy of U.S. and Europe to a peacetime economy, and for example launched the Atoms for Peace program.
In his Presidential farewell address, he warned his successor to guard against the ”unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
Over the subsequent 50 years, and to this day, his warnings went largely unheeded. He suggested that at our universities, government contracts had become “virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity,” and that we should remain alert to danger that “public policy could itself become the captive of the scientific-technological elite.” Prescient! In the closing paragraph of his address he expressed words that ring true to this day:
General Powell’s finest years were as chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff from 1989 to 1993 where he formulated the “Powell Doctrine,” summarized by the following eight questions (2) that all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:
1. Is a vital national security interest threatened?
2. Do we have a clear attainable objective?
6. Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
7. Is the action supported by the American people?
8. Do we have genuine broad international support?
In addition, Powell echoed Casper Weinberger’s admonition that U.S. troops only should be committed wholeheartedly and with the clear intention of winning.
Christopher Preble has written extensively on the perils of the U.S. assuming the role of uninvited policeman to world. In his books he stresses the huge cost to the US of allowing nations and regions around the globe to free-ride on US Military expenditures of funds, resources and soldiers’ lives. He recently wrote(3) :
Some market participants argue that since Syria’s population is merely 20 million, and pre-war production of oil of just 385,000 barrels a day mostly consumed internally, that what happens in Syria shouldn’t have a major impact on global markets. Such suggestions are misguided. U.S. entanglement in Syria augers a precipitation of WWIII, pitting Obama and Hollande, against Russia, China, Iran, numerous countries in the middle east, sectarian and secular populations around the world, notably the US congress, and US military leaders.
Obama has options other than bombing Syrian targets to dissuade dictators from using chemical weapons. At this time it appears that he has been turned back by the United Nations, by our allies, by Congress, and by American people. There is no loss of face in doing the right thing. “Standing Down," not following through with enforcing the “Red Line” involves some political cost. But now is not the time for Obama to calculate the political cost of losing face. And it is not the time for hawks on his left or right to seize on the potential political gain.
Page 1 of 2
comments powered by Disqus
eNewsletter Signup
| http://www.futuresmag.com/2013/08/30/not-the-time-for-political-calculus-regarding-bomb?t=financials | dclm-gs1-097110002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.357055 | <urn:uuid:94f6eecf-d041-40b4-a043-dd2708bd7b30> | en | 0.918472 | Reply to a comment
Reply to this comment
AisA writes:
I still have not received a direct answer to the question as to how background checks threaten your freedom? If you are not a criminal, mentally ill, or in any other way legally prohibited from buying a firearm, how are your 2nd Amendment rights being violated?
Sign up for email updates
| http://www.gosanangelo.com/comments/reply/?target=61:150650&comment=343957 | dclm-gs1-097170002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.059743 | <urn:uuid:5c6dbbc9-40bc-4e63-9e67-f2fb1271dc77> | en | 0.933208 | 1. Mediaite
2. Gossip Cop
3. Geekosystem
4. Styleite
5. SportsGrid
6. The Mary Sue
7. The Jane Dough
8. The Braiser
★ What is Gossip Cop? Find out!
Adam Lambert Working on Songs for Kris Allen?
Truth rating: 10
Lambert, a one-time competitor, is now a collaborator, helping Allen write some of the tunes for his debut album. Allen told MTV News: “Adam will get a song, and he’ll be like, ‘Listen to this,’ and I’ll tell him what I think about it . . . He was listening to some things of mine . . . He had some good things to say, some critiques to say as well . . . We’re just trying to help each other out.”
Too bad neither helped out Taylor Hicks.
You might like:
CloseSubscribe to Gossip Cop's newsletter: | http://www.gossipcop.com/adam-lambert-working-on-song-for-kris-allen/ | dclm-gs1-097180002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.024312 | <urn:uuid:d11d0d9f-69aa-4d3d-97c4-25cf68f6a14a> | en | 0.96756 | Zachary Tyler
From Grand Theft Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Zachary Tyler is a character in Grand Theft Auto IV. He appears on PLR's "The Intelligent Agenda" with a plan to end hunger. However, his plan is to reduce the number of people through involuntary euthanasia, thereby solving supply and demand. At the end of the show, he is spanked by John Hunter.
According from "Intelligent Agenda", he is eleven years old and he is a champion of National Spelling Bee. | http://www.grandtheftwiki.com/index.php?title=Zachary_Tyler&mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile | dclm-gs1-097200002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.023907 | <urn:uuid:950c4b8b-03a0-4a8d-81a7-6c7105a4cb8e> | en | 0.895975 | • The Hollywood Reporter on LinkedIn
• Follow THR on Pinterest
Reality TV: THR's 50 Most Powerful List
• 0
From singing competitions to the Kardashians, unscripted TV today is driven by these 50 behind-the-scenes talents (ranked, of course) who keep adding juice to the red-hot genre.
PHOTOS: THR's 2012 Reality Power List
What does it really mean to wield power in reality TV? Is it about having 10 shows on the air or in production, as does The Real World creator Jonathan Murray? Or is it, like Jersey Shore creator SallyAnn Salsano has done, about making even the most mundane activities of Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino into breaking-news headlines? Or maybe power comes in the form of creating a giant hit like The Voice, which, under the guidance of NBC’s Paul Telegdy, went from quirky experiment (Cee Lo! Spinning chairs!) to one of the year’s most-buzzed-about pop culture phenomenons. Or, could it be turning one of the highly polarizing events in pop culture last year (i.e., Kim Kardashian’s 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries) into one of the guiltiest -- and most lucrative -- pleasures ever broadcast, as did E!’s Lisa Berger?
Reality power comes in all these forms and more. Among the 50 featured on the following pages are high-powered executives, prolific producers, newcomers making waves and veterans of the industry who, in keeping with their world, live and thrive by the only rule that matters: Make it real, and make it really good.
Items 31-40
1. 31 Michael Davies
President, Embassy Rowread more
2. 32 Nick Emmerson
President, Shed Mediaread more
3. 33 Tom Forman
CEO, RelativityREALread more
4. 34 Nigel Lythgoe
CEO, Nigel Lythgoe Productionsread more
5. 35 Kristen Connelly Vadas
Senior vp alternative programming, The CWread more
6. 36 Morgan J. Freeman
Founder and president, 11th Street Productionsread more
7. 37 Jason Klarman
President, Oxygen Mediaread more
8. 38 Matt Kunitz
Executive producer, FremantleMedia North Americaread more
9. 39 Jeff Olde
Executive vp original programming and production, VH1read more
10. 40 Holly Jacobs
Executive vp reality and syndication programming, Sony Pictures Telev...read more
• 0 | http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/reality-power-list-ryan-seacrest-324309/group/Items%2031-40 | dclm-gs1-097270002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.321856 | <urn:uuid:670ecb85-d29f-45f3-a99a-7a1f3197b03a> | en | 0.927129 | The Gross Margin
Loading the player...
A business’s gross margin measures how much sales revenue the company retains after all of the direct costs associated with making a product or providing a service are accounted for.
Related Videos
1. Operating Income
Amount of profit realized from a business's operations after taking out operating expenses - such as cost of goods sold (COGS) or wages - and depreciation.
2. Calculating Operating Margin
Learn more about the measurement used to calculate what proportion of a company's revenue is left over after production costs.
3. Calculating Net Income
Otherwise known as the "bottom line", net income is the most commonly used indicator of a company's profitability. Learn more about how it an investor's decision to own or sell a stock.
4. Understanding Profit Margin
Learn a primary method investors use to analyze a company's profitability.
5. Working Capital
6. Dividend Ratios: Payout And Retention
comments powered by Disqus
Related Slideshows
1. 6 Ways To Recession-Proof Your Financial Job
2. 5 Tips For Reading A Balance Sheet
3. Baby Buffett Portfolio: His 6 Best Long-Term Picks
Find out which stocks one of the world's best investor is putting his faith in.
4. 8 Signs Of A Doomed Stock
Companies provide distress signals long before they go under. Find out how to read them.
Trading Center | http://www.investopedia.com/video/play/gross-margin/ | dclm-gs1-097420002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.022916 | <urn:uuid:fd33be42-d95f-42d9-bf17-6bb5d70f0f83> | en | 0.974735 | He Ru Follow us: Make a7 your Homepage
Free Daily Israel Report
Arutz 7 Most Read Stories
Rare Peace Now Approval for ‘Settler’ Rabbi
Peace Now head joins right-wing MKs in eulogizing proud ‘settler’ rabbi as a symbol of peace.
By Maayana Miskin
First Publish: 3/5/2013, 3:37 PM
Rabbi Menachem Froman
Rabbi Menachem Froman
Flash 90
The death Monday night of Rabbi Menachem Froman, rabbi of the town of Tekoa in Gush Etzion, has brought together Israelis from the entire political spectrum.
Rabbi Froman was mourned even by the far-left group Peace Now, despite being a proud “settler” during his life. “Rabbi Froman was a symbol of peace between Jews and Arabs,” Peace Now head Yair Oppenheimer wrote Tuesday on his Facebook page.
“While most see religion as an excuse for conflict between peoples, Rabbi Froman proved that religion can be a bridge to peace and coexistence,” he continued. Rabbi Froman’s legacy will continue until the Israel-Arab conflict ends, he added.
Rabbi Froman believed that people with strong religious beliefs could more easily reach common ground than could politicians, and he met with many Muslim and Arab leaders.
MK Hilik Bar of the Labor party eulogized Rabbi Froman as well, saying he “embodied a different kind of religious leadership. In his unique way, Rabbi Froman managed to bring together different groups within the nation, based on the factors that unite, not divide.”
MK Naftali Bennett, head of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party said in a Facebook post Monday morning that Rabbi Froman “loved peace and pursued peace,” a reference to Perkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), a chapter of the Mishna.
“He was a Jew with an enormous heart,” Bennett said. “May his memory be for a blessing.”
MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Bayit Yehudi) said he was pained to hear of Rabbi Froman’s passing. “I still remember his devotion to Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook of blessed memory, and his dedication to learning Torah, which was part of his essence.” | http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/165892 | dclm-gs1-097430002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.285874 | <urn:uuid:6d120011-25ad-443a-89b6-f95893da9dc2> | en | 0.746742 | David Canavese’s Tiny Star Wars Papercraft
We’ve seen some highly detailed papercraft creations in the past. After having seen David Canavese’s creations, we can now add amazingly tiny as a descriptor. Adding to the wow factor, Canavese spent roughly eight hours to complete the above half inch Millenium Falcon. Hope over to the gallery to see other coin or palm sized Star Wars papercraft creations.
Image Source: Geekologie viaOtherLife | http://www.killahbeez.com/2013/03/14/david-canaveses-tiny-star-wars-papercraft/ | dclm-gs1-097500002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.026131 | <urn:uuid:b626a3a5-b7b2-4521-ab12-1cb4b20016a2> | en | 0.966194 | Reply to a comment
Reply to this comment
EatMoreBacon writes:
There are good atheists and bad atheists just like there are good Christians and bad Christians etc. It's about what you do with what you know and what you learn to help others who actually need it that are down. If one focuses on all the negative aspects of what is going on around them then that will eventually be the determining factor in their life. We all have a predestined path. Yes, I believe in God and that Jesus did die fer my sins. That may be laughable to some but I give zero fluks. I can say this from personal experience and faith. The global elite wants everyone fighting and everyone to be suppressed about speaking up about what they believe to their peers. Everyone has their personal right to beliefs. Me personally, I believe in everything. Even the flying spaghetti monsta that atheists talk about (rolls eyes).
| http://www.knoxnews.com/comments/reply/?target=61:422747&comment=2560235 | dclm-gs1-097530002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.018748 | <urn:uuid:3645a9ff-17bc-4310-86a5-df4cc0c55be2> | en | 0.929523 | Guy Clark - Shut Up and Talk to Me Lyrics
Writer(s) : Clark, Susanna Wallis / Clark, Guy / Sykes, Keith
Artist: Guy Clark Lyrics
Popularity : 14 users have visited this page.
Album: Track 3 on Dublin Blues
Rate: Shut Up And Talk To Me gets avg. rating 7 out of 10 based on 1 ratings. Rate the song now!!!
Love is never gonna be a solid bet
It's kinda like workin' without a net
Don't be afraid to let your feelin's out
That's what lovin' is all about
Come on Baby and give me a break
It's how do you feel, not what do you think
Stop rattlin' your keys
Shut up and talk to me
You know I've known you long enough to know
There's nothin' you can hide that still don't show
You ain't foolin' anyone but you
When you put me through what you put me through
Come on Honey and tell me the truth
Gimme chicken fried steak, not a Baby Ruth
I'm not that hard to please
Shut up and talk to me
Shut up and talk to me
You can talk about the weather
Till it drives me nits
You can rattle on about
Why, who, what
A little conversation
Wouldn't hurt that much
A little somethin'
With a human touch
Now, if you're hurtin', Baby, tell me so
If you need attention let me know
I'm not the one that you're hidin' from
It doesn't matter what the ever you done
You can have your cake and eat it too
That's the kinda stuff I want from you
How hard can it be
Shut up and talk to me
Shut up and talk to me
Add a comment and share what Guy Clark Shut Up And Talk To Me Lyrics means to you with your friends: | http://www.lyrics007.com/Guy%20Clark%20Lyrics/Shut%20Up%20And%20Talk%20To%20Me%20Lyrics.html | dclm-gs1-097610002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.031899 | <urn:uuid:a97d7f63-542d-4612-9a17-743933d41a03> | en | 0.933431 | Samiam - Sky Flying By Lyrics
Artist: Samiam Lyrics
Popularity : 4 users have visited this page.
Album: Track 7 on Soar
Rate: Sky Flying By gets avg. rating 4 out of 10 based on 2 ratings. Rate the song now!!!
Nothing has divided you
It's growing older faster than it should
Pieces of me outside your door
So you're not at home
I'd like to not wonder where you are
Blurry eyed my feet leave the ground
See that sky flying by
See the streetlights spin and blend
Proving it's not a faster scar
So I'll just leave it there
You could maybe pick it up
Only you could see what it was
And I'll just lay it to rest
I'll get up and leave knowing
That you'll see it lying there
Add a comment and share what Samiam Sky Flying By Lyrics means to you with your friends:
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing | http://www.lyrics007.com/Samiam%20Lyrics/Sky%20Flying%20By%20Lyrics.html | dclm-gs1-097620002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.46874 | <urn:uuid:f62aa492-20ab-4aaf-a0db-93f5dfb71f72> | en | 0.968299 | Overwhelmed by check-out-line charity
Charity coupons in a check-out line at a Whole Foods store in New York City.
Kai Ryssdal: Tell me if this has happened to you recently at the supermarket. You unload your basket onto the conveyor belt, browse the tabloids as you wait for the cashier, and then that cashier hits you up for a donation while he's ringing up your groceries. It's tough to get through your shopping these days without being asked to give to one thing or another. A dollar here and a dollar there can really add up for what are often worthy causes. But Michael May explains that there are some hidden costs.
DAVID FICKECK: Would you like to make a donation to the KEYE food drive today? They're a $1, $5 donation, or you can pick a bag over here we can gladly scan for you.
That's David Fickeck, a cashier and store director at the Randall's supermarket in Austin, Texas. He does more than ring up groceries. He's a fundraiser.
Randall's supermarket is owned by Safeway, which does four national charity drives each year in its more than 1500 stores. The regional chains, like Randall's, can elect to do other drives as well, like this one benefiting the food bank. Connie Yates is director of public affairs for Randall's.
CONNIE Yates: It's very important to give back to the community. It's very important to be involved in charities that matter to our customers.
The drive raises $15,000, and about 10,000 pounds of food. Kerri Qunell is with the Capital Area Food Bank. She says Randall's was the first supermarket to do a checkout charity drive in Austin.
KERRI Qunell: Since then there have been other programs that have blossomed in our community and across the country to replicate that. So it is becoming a more popular and more convenient way for grocery shoppers to be able to donate to their local food bank.
And all sorts of other charities. That can put pressure on workers, who have to do the asking. Ron Lind is the president of UFCW local 5, a union that represents supermarket employees. He told me that workers have complained about being pressured to solicit. And when I asked some Randall's shoppers what they thought of the checkout charity drive, they were divided.
Emily Hampton gives at the register, but doesn't like being confronted every time she shops.
EMILY HAMPTON: Yeah, it does really put you on the spot. And when you say no, the people around you, at the back of the line, I'm thinking, they don't know how often I'm here! We shop at Randall's quite a bit.
Last year, Safeway raised more than $50 million for causes like Breast Cancer, and the Special Olympics. Safeway's executives choose which charities the chain will support. For instance, Safeway's Executive Vice President Larree Renda is also a vice president of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The grocery chain raised $10 million last year for the charity.
Randall's offers some choice. It allows shoppers to link their rewards card to their favorite charity. And at the end of the year, Randall's will make a donation equal to 1 percent of what was spent on the card. Connie Yates again.
Yates: It's our money, our contribution that we are making, but our customers tell us what matters to them.
But to give, they must shop at Randall's. Stacy Palmer is the editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy. She says check-out charity programs have become popular during the recession.
Stacy Palmer: Certainly any effort to tie charitable giving to shopping is a growing trend, in part because retailers want to find a way to persuade people to buy.
Palmer says checkout fundraising gives charities access to millions of potential givers. But she says there are drawbacks.
PALMER: When you make a donation in response to direct mail appeal or a telephone thing, they can call you back, they can ask you again and again. And that's really how charities raise a lot of money. So the downside of this for the charity is that they don't have a way to reach you again.
That is, until you need more groceries.
In Austin, I'm Michael May for Marketplace.
Log in to post11 Comments
I avoid Safeway for 2 reasons. 1st. Their Safeway card requires you to give your personal information for a discount off the regular price. Well even after I give them that info for their discount card, I am still paying
more than than the other store down the road for the same items.... What a deal. 2nd. Is the charitable contribution request every time I go through the line. How much is Safeway charging for managing/collecting for the charity? 10%, 30%, 40%??? Haven't found a charity that does not keep a portion for themselves. The other thing is every time I go through the line and say no.. they are publicly causing me defamation of character... IE making it appear to my neighbors in line that I am a tight wad, cheap, selfish, when I choose to actually donate to my church where I know the money is used properly.
I don't personally bother with making it a tax exemption, because I feel that means I am not truly making a donation, I am looking for a return on my charity from Uncle Sam... which degrades my joy of donating without expectation of something in return. So I shop down the street where they don't bilk me before and after I give them my personal information, and the don't defame me in front of others.
Hi. I'm curious, does anyone know "for sure" that Safeway takes the whole tax deduction from the charity contribution? I mean, is that even legal for them to do? Does anyone know?
OK, I read the other comments here. The smart people have it figured out: Safeway gets a tax deduction for the money it collects from it's willing shoppers who are intimidated into donating to the current charity. Do those shoppers get a receipt with the non-profit organization's ID number and a statement that "no goods or services were given in exchange for the donation"? If not, they can't deduct this from their taxes like Safeway tells them they can. Check your IRS booklet.... Donate directly to charitable organizations and let Safeway contribute some of it's PROFITS (not yours).
Williams-Sonoma gives 85% of every dollar to the charity. Safeway says that information is proprietary. Whole Foods didn't reply to my email.
This got me thinking...
Now I know why my company pressures it's employees so much to give to United Way - they get a friggin' tax deduction on my dime! And it's not like a new employee can say no.
Count me among the cynical and annoyed. The company gets the benefits from the donation, and I'm subjected to a refined form of panhandling. I've taken to avoiding stores where this sort of thing goes on, in keeping with my philosophy of never rewarding behavior that I find objectionable.
Very interesting piece on check-out charity, but you missed the biggest reason corporations like Safeway do this - they get 100% of the tax benefit from the charitable donations funded by their customers. So you're reducing their tax bill with every dollar "you" donate - it's all given in their corporation's name.
I do feel put upon when asked to donate in the check-out line. My response? "No thank you, but THANK YOU for asking!" said with cheery over-enthusiasm. Everybody's happy.
Is there more to the story? How does the store post the donations to their books? How does the $50 Million in donations by Safeway affect their books? Larree Renda is certainly feeling satisfaction with helping the Muscular Dystrophy Association and she is honored with the MDA Directors' Award. She is also the honorary VP for the MDA and will go on the Telethon to present a check to Jerry Lewis. So, does Safeway get a big tax deduction and Ms. Renda a lot of recognition for what is really your and my donations? I hate to be so cynical, but I always try to see the total picture.
What I've always wanted to know is whether companies are obtaining a tax credit from their customers' donations.
With Generous Support From... | http://www.marketplace.org/topics/your-money/overwhelmed-check-out-line-charity | dclm-gs1-097640002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.022209 | <urn:uuid:4b287ca0-c53d-4cbe-841a-7138113cde44> | en | 0.902426 | MissionAnnouncementsLink To UsLinksBookmark UsContact
Media Positive Radio
Media Positive RadioGenres TermsMusic Industry DirectorySubmit MusicEventsAdvertise With Us
Click Here To Listen host talk show
vocal contest
tell a friend
submit music
Return to Genres Terms SEARCH
Search Site:
A little tidbit about Dance Music...
What is dance music? Dance music is composed solely for the purpose of social dancing. Comprised of varieties of music styles, dance music includes country, disco, electronic, house, pop, rock and roll, tango, techno and trance. Waltzes are also considered dance music. Of course since the 1980s, electronic dance music has more or less become popularly referred to as "dance music" alone. Notwithstanding hip-hop, break dancing, drum and bass and other forms of dance music.
Often played in night clubs, dance music is also popular at sporting events. Artists who have made dance music what it is today include Tag Team, with their song "Whoomp! There it is!" C&C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat;" M/A/R/R/S' "Pump up the Volume;" and even the Village People's "YMCA," to name a few dance music artists.
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
Return to Genres Terms
End CapAwardsPress ReleaseTerms of UseSite MapEnd Cap | http://www.mediapositiveradio.com/genres/dir/dance | dclm-gs1-097670002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.05608 | <urn:uuid:a6b4c800-973b-4089-adb2-d1b70bdc5d84> | en | 0.910397 | Window Lyrics
from Then Comes The Sun
"Window" was released on 10/31/2006. It is track #9 on the album Then Comes The Sun.
Window Submit Correct Lyrics
Submit Corrections Cancel
If you open the window,
I'm free from the words that are hard to come out
Like a weeping willow,
You're fingers in my hair when the wind comes to play
Its music
Its music | http://www.metrolyrics.com/window-lyrics-elisa.html | dclm-gs1-097730002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.019043 | <urn:uuid:3b7371ea-08db-4c22-a9b9-00d69f1b9b0c> | en | 0.963912 | Monday, April 6, 2009
How to Shop on a Budget while eating Sustainably--UPDATED 4/6/09
Eating can be expensive. How do I keep my budget between $120-$200/per week, while feeding a family of four only Sustainable Foods?
It took practice.
At least twice a month and typically on Fridays, I hit Whole Foods and buy a week or two (depending on the next time I will get out there) worth of meat. I buy whatever is on sale. I spend $20 to $30/weekly on meat. Note: Rocky Whole Chickens are ALWAYS $1.99/lb and the butchers will chop them up into 8 pieces.
I also buy my dairy at Whole Foods. I buy Strauss or the store brand, 365. (365 is supplied by Clover at my local store) I buy 1/2 gallon of milk, butter, and plain Greek style yogurt. I spend $15-$20 on dairy. Note: We do not drink Milk in our home. If we did, it would be raw milk, but since I only use it in cooking and baking I buy pasteurized to keep costs down.
I also raid the bins for nuts, seeds, rice and beans. I only buy what is on sale. $20 Remember to refrigerate these when you get home!
That night I sit and plan our meals for the week using the items that I bought at Whole Foods. This makes all the difference. (DON'T GO TO WHOLE FOODS WITHOUT A PLAN. Always, buy what you need and eat what you buy.)
Saturday, I wake up and hit the Farmers Market (or the Farmers Wife depending on the time of year). I take $40 cash with me. I walk around once taking note of price and quality. I also take time to talk to the farmers. I find that many of our local farmers use organic practices (or beyond) but aren't certified. (note: sometimes I take $60, if I am planning on buying items like nuts, honey, preserves, eggs, bee pollen, etc).
I walk out of there fully loaded.
On the weeks I dont hit Whole Foods I stop buy Trader Joe's on the way home from the Farmers Market and pick up bread (organic sprouted 8 grain $2.99) and anything else I might need.
Items I don’t count for in this budget are: Fish. I am lucky to have a father and/or husband that goes fishing in Alaska and out the SF bay many, many times a year. I get the bounty of the fish.
Sound Like a lot of driving around? I get it all done in a matter of a couple of hours, once a week. Calculate how much time you spend in one week going in and out of the store, drive thru or other restaurants.
We don’t waste anything. I make most everything from scratch. We snack on foods that we would normally eat for meals just in smaller proportions. We don't typically eat out at restaurants.
My husband takes leftover dinners for his lunches.
Our breaksfasts are typically the same Eggs/grains/veg or yogurt/nuts/berries or panckaes made with freshly milled flours or leftover dinners made into breaksfast.
If I spend more than my budget allows in one week, I make up for it the following week. My monthly budget is between $480 and $800 (which is 120 to 200/week).
This post is part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday.
Hetal said...
Hey thanks for sharing this useful information...would love to see u on my blog.
Lo said...
It's great to see others committing to eating as much seaonsal, local, organic food as possible. We've also made this commitment at our house. And, although it's taken some practice, I'm always impressed at how far we've come. Living in Wisconsin, the "local" piece can be the hardest (we stray a bit on this count). But, as we approach summer, I'm always encouraged by the amount of local produce that we can find to use!
Mary Ann said...
Great ideas. I can't wait for the local farmers market to start, but it won't be for a few more weeks. Thanks for the tips!
Kristen said...
I'm glad to see someone telling others this can be done and how. Very well written!
tastymealsathome said...
Thanks for the great information. I can really understand how tough it is to conserve money on a tight budget when you are only buying organic!
Cheryl said...
I am so glad I found your blog, I have been researching buying eggs and produce locally and organic.
amandalouden said...
Remember to think beyond organic labeling. Many small farmers can't afford the organic certification, and many "organic" factory farms do not have practices up to true organic standards. This is why eating local (you can talk to the farmers) or doing research on the company is always best.
Good luck.
Robin Plan said...
Excellent article. I'm glad to see you are educating about "organic" labels. Eating organic is great but if the food travels across 5 states makes you wonder how fresh and nutritious it really is. I do know it's not always possible to buy local and buy in season so we have to do the best we can.
Thanks for sharing.
Jared said...
Very good ideas. Impressive you are able to keep your budget so low while giving you family fresh, healthy meals.
Tea Party Girl said...
Amanda, what brand of yogurt do you buy for the kids? What amount of sugar is ok? They love it, and I don't live with a Whole Foods. Some of the yogurt at the mainstream store can't be the best choice, yes?
P.S. I heard about you from my sister-in-law and mother, a former nutritionist lecturer who enjoyed your class last Thursday night. High praise, indeed!
amandalouden said...
Hi Tea Party Girl! Thanks for the question. yogurt is hard. Really buying plain whole or low fat yogurt is best. You can add fresh fruit and a little maple syrup for sweetness. I know this won't fly with most picky kids, so I like to buy Brown Cow, Stoney Field, or Wallaby--all pretty common brands. I still buy Yo Baby for both my kids and myself. Its only 4 oz which is really all we need.
Thanks again, Your mom is fantastic (and Leslie too, of course!)
Anonymous said...
What is a farmers wife? and what farmer markets do you hit?
amandalouden said...
Hi there. I shop the Sunrise market every Saturday. Its year round and super great.
The Farmers Wife is a local produce stand, open daily April 15th to Oct 31st. Its located at the corner of Hackberry and Winding Way in Carmicheal, CA.
Janet said...
Thanks for this thoughtful plan to shopping, something I am always trying to improve on. A question about things I didn't see included: what about paper/plastic products and snacks/drinks for the kids? These are 2 categories I seem to spend a lot on and I would like to tweak.
amandalouden said...
Hi Janet, good question. Non-edible grocery store items like plastic and peper goods are separate in my budgeting. I get those at a "big Box" type of store, costco, walmart or target.
As for the "snack foods" both kids and parents basically eat the sames things we would for meals in smaller portions. Fruit, grilled cheese, nuts and seeds, etc. We pop a lot of popcorn. I will sometimes buy a bag of chips or pretzles at Whole Foods, but we talking $2.50 per bag, every couple of weeks. Not a huge impact on the overall budget. Water is the only thing the kids drink. One son likes a small glass of OJ in the morning too.
amandalouden said...
Let me clarify...the parents dont eat the grilled cheese for snacks, just the kids!
Kelly said...
I was pretty excited to see the title of this post, until I saw what your actual budget was. I am yet again convinced that I simply can't afford to go all out on the whole organic thing. I can't even afford to buy most of my produce fresh even if it is in season. Do you have any suggestions for someone who can only afford to spend $120-150/month on food? What would you say are the most important things to spend a little extra on?
amandalouden said...
Hi Kelly My budget is the same as yours. I only go up to the $200/week range on extra stuff like wine and $$ specialty items. But most of the time we keep it under $150.
Here's an article I wrote last month.
5 Budget Saving Tips to Sustainable Eating
By Amanda Louden
February 8, 2009
Times are tough, and everyone (at least everyone I know) is counting pennies. Food is often one of the biggest expenses, especially for families. It is evident by the rise in fast food dollar menus that people are turning to inexpensive, low quality food in order to eat on a budget. I believe that eating well (real food that’s sustainable) doesn’t have to break the bank. In fact, eating high quality traditional foods such as beans, grains, fruits, and vegetables are very inexpensive and allow enough room in a budget for higher priced sustainably raised meat, eggs, and dairy.
Here are 5 Tips to eating well while remaining on a budget.
1. Increase Produce
An average family of two parents and 2.5 children ages 6-17, should be spending a minimum of $160 per month on fresh produce. $40 a week on produce is a lot of food, especially if you are shopping a local farmers market where good deals along with local produce are abundant.
The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) states that a typical family meeting the description above consumes only $46.75 per month on fresh fruits and vegetables. Instead of fresh produce people are eating too much fast food, snack foods, and other processed foods. According to the BLS, the typical family consumes $336 in meals outside of the home each month. That’s a lot of money going to food where quality is questionable.
To give you an idea of how inexpensive produce can be, let’s look at a few of the items that I bought this past weekend at the farmers market.
1 large bunch of Carrots = $1
1 large bunch of Turnips = $1
1 large head of Kale = $1.50
1 large head of Sweet Chard = $1.50
2 Russet Potatoes = $1
1 large stem of Brussels Sprouts (approx 3 dozen sprouts) = $7.00
Soups and stews are a great use for vegetables, especially the weird ones! Spending approximately $40 per week on a fresh fruits and vegetables paves the foundation for a healthy life.
2. Make Meat a Side dish
While recognizing that some people do better on vegetarian diets, most people do not. I do not advocate for most people to give up meat. I love meat and consume it in some form almost daily. But meat, in all of its glory, is better off as a side dish. Sustainably raised meat, eggs and dairy are a lot more expensive than their commercially raised counterparts. Eating high quality sustainably raised meats are often the last step people take to eating well. Small servings along side a heaping load of produce, grains and/or legumes is not only a healthier way to eat, but saves your greenbacks too. By consuming meat as a side dish, you will be stretching those roasts and whole birds into multiple meals thus saving you countless dollars.
3. Add Beans and Grains for a Source of Protein and Unrefined Carbohydrate
Beans and grains are cheap! Combined together and, like meat, make a complete protein. Depending on the bean or grain, the price can vary from $.50 to $3 per pound. Personally, I like to wait for the more expensive items to go on sale and typically don’t spend more that $1.50/lb on any one legume or grain. Combining beans and grains in a soup or salad create a tasty and versatile meal or side dish.
Some of my favorite beans are:
• Black Beans
• Black-eyed peas
• Butter Beans
• Cannellini Beans
• Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)
• Cranberry Beans
• Edamame
• Great Northern Beans
• Kidney Beans
• Lentils
• Lima Beans
• Mung Beans
• Navy Beans
• Pinto Beans
• White Beans
Some of my favorite grains are:
• Amaranth
• Barley
• Buckwheat
• Brown Rice
• Corn
• Kamut
• Millet
• Oat Groats
• Rye
• Spelt
• Quinoa
4. Buy What You Need And Eat What You Buy
Why do we waste so much food? There was a time (long ago) when I would throw out bags of spoiled or unwanted foods each week. It’s so simple people BUY WHAT YOU NEED AND EAT WHAT YOU BUY! Don’t buy the whole bunch of carrots if you only need two for a recipe. If for some reason you don’t get around to consuming the two carrots, chop them up and throw them in your freezer until your next pot of vegetable soup. Everything can be frozen. Think of the large food manufacturers that make frozen foods and meals. You can too. Leftover produce, grains, beans, or meat make great additions to soup, salad or simply freeze them for later use…I give you permission.
And remember, it’s only a “good deal” if you need it! 10 for $10 is only a good deal if you need 10! My dear friend buys anything that is on sale. She loves a bargain and will buy any sale item without have a purpose for “it.” Say it with me, buy what you need and eat what you buy!
Consumers save money when they don’t waste. We don’t waste when we buy only what we need.
5. Get organized
Getting organized is extremely important for saving money and eating well. It requires a “planning-shopping system” that works for you and your family. When a plan is in place, it’s easy for consumers to buy only what they need.
By getting organized and having a plan, a consumer can save both valuable time and money. Having a shopping list that is derived from a meal plan allows the consumer to walk into a grocery store or farmers market with a purpose and shop efficiently. When a meal plan is in place the age old question, “what’s for dinner?” is already answered, and relieves stress. Because a shopping list was created directly from the meal plan, you will have all of the necessary ingredients to make a healthy home cooked meal; and therefore, are less likely to pack up the family and head to the local drive through.
How do I do it?
• Twice a month I stock up on sustainably raised meats, grains, and beans that are on sale.
• On Fridays, I meal plan. I plan almost all of my meals, breakfast lunch and dinner. A good place to start is with 4 to 6 dinners which seems doable for most people. A shopping list is derived from the meal plan.
• On Saturdays, I hit the farmers market and load up on my produce. Then I hit the grocery store on the way home for anything else my family needs.
Kelly said...
Thanks for the tips. Most of the things you suggested I'm already doing. I am already an avid meal planner, and have a spreadsheet full of weekly meal plans, their corresponding shopping lists. It allows me to choose a menu, go through my cabinets to see what I have and what I need, then head straight to the store in about 20 minutes, while still allowing for variety and change in seasonal availability. I'm continually searching for ways to provide my family with a healthier way to live, but I still can't justify quadrupling our spending on groceries to make it happen. I guess I was more looking for where to splurge if I have a few extra dollars when I tally up the bill. What would you still say was worth it if you only had 25% of your current budget. As much as I'd like to, I can't spend my entire grocery budget on fresh produce. We love the summer when the farmer's market is open (only April to October around here), and our garden is just getting exciting, but buying primarily frozen, canned and dried fruits and veggies will have to do the rest of the year.
amandalouden said...
Hi Kelly, I'm sorry I just re-read your post. Can you first tell me how many people you are shopping for? Is it just you or do you have a large family like mine?
amandalouden said...
Also Kelly, what part of the country are you in?
Kelly said...
I'm in Oklahoma. I'm cooking for 3 generally. I'm nursing, so I'm still eating a lot, too. About 1-2 times per month we have friends over for dinner, 6-8 adults. I also prepare snacks for a Bible study that meets at our house once/week.
amandalouden said...
Hi Kelly, Sorry its taken me a little time to get back to you, I have been thinking about the right direction for you and your family.
My advice to you at this time is to not worry about jumping up to organic produce. My bigger concern is that you are not eating enough fresh produce. Regardless if its farmed conventionally or organic, 9-10 servings of FRESH produce should be our goal each day. Frozen is okay, but canned (unless you are canning them yourself) is never a good option (except for tomatoes which retain their phytonutrients).
I have done a little research and Oklahoma has a LONG growing season at 211 days. You can grow a lot on your own.
Look for items that have been grown in the USA when buying produce at the store. Bananas are always an exception! By buying produce grown in the US you will likely be purchasing fruits and veg within their growing season.
(out of season produce typically comes from countries with longer or opposite growing seasons).
This should save you money and ensure better taste and quality.
So to answer your question, "where to splurge?" First, you have to consume adequate produce. Hands down.
Hope This helps.
vehementflame said...
I am so glad you updated this post- this was one of the first posts I read on your blog and I LOVED it! You have the BEST tips and tricks! I have followed your advice for a while now and have noticed a huge difference in our grocery bill...It's cheaper!!! I can't wait til farmer's markets open up this year- the local part is the hardest for me...and that's so neat that you were in that magazine!
Related Posts with Thumbnails | http://www.mydailydiner.com/2008/06/how-to-shop-on-budget-while-eating.html | dclm-gs1-097820002 | false | true | {
"keywords": "f protein, e protein"
} | false | null | false |
0.019129 | <urn:uuid:913f7a58-2b17-42ed-9275-9426cb441ba7> | en | 0.819395 | Display Settings:
Send to:
Choose Destination
J Am Chem Soc. 2012 Nov 14;134(45):18599-605. doi: 10.1021/ja308490a. Epub 2012 Nov 2.
Predicted lithium-boron compounds under high pressure.
State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, Jilin University, Changchun, People's Republic of China.
High pressure can fundamentally alter the bonding patterns of light elements and their compounds, leading to the unexpected formation of materials with unusual chemical and physical properties. Using an unbiased structure search method based on particle-swarm optimization algorithms in combination with density functional theory calculations, we investigate the phase stabilities and structural changes of various Li-B systems on the Li-rich regime under high pressures. We identify the formation of four stoichiometric lithium borides (Li(3)B(2), Li(2)B, Li(4)B, and Li(6)B) having unforeseen structural features that might be experimentally synthesizable over a wide range of pressures. Strikingly, it is found that the B-B bonding patterns of these lithium borides evolve from graphite-like sheets in turn to zigzag chains, dimers, and eventually isolated B ions with increasing Li content. These intriguing B-B bonding features are chemically rationalized by the elevated B anionic charges as a result of Li→B charge transfer.
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Supplemental Content
Icon for American Chemical Society
Loading ...
Write to the Help Desk | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23088280 | dclm-gs1-097850002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.02227 | <urn:uuid:9d1a1350-2565-41ee-967a-e1418e2f3589> | en | 0.993428 | BASEBALL; League Has Cases Wrong, 2 Umps Say
Published: August 02, 1999
Drew Coble is one of nine umpires whose resignations Gene Budig, the American League president, accepted last week. The only problem is Coble said he never resigned.
Budig also accepted Greg Kosc's resignation, but Kosc said he had rescinded his resignation in the same period when other umpires withdrew their resignations and saved their jobs.
Coble, a crew chief in his 18th year with the league, was notified in a letter from Budig dated July 26 that he had received on July 15 a letter of resignation from Coble dated July 14.
''I deeply regret,'' Budig wrote, ''that you decided to take part in this concerted resignation plan instigated by the Major League Umpires Association. However, you have left me with no choice but to accept your resignation and to fill the vacancy that your resignation has created along with the other vacancies that were created by this mass resignation strategy.''
But Coble said yesterday that he did not sign a resignation letter dated July 14 and that he did not attend the meeting in Philadelphia that day at which more than 50 umpires did sign such letters. Coble said he was at home in Graham, N.C., with his wife. ''Kim had chemotherapy that day in the hospital,'' Coble said by telephone from his home.
Coble said he was so involved with his wife's illness that he was not even aware of the umpires' action until a few days later.
He said he laughed when he received Budig's letter, but his unemployment, scheduled to begin Sept. 2, the date of resignation in the umpires' letters, is no laughing matter.
''It was tough for them to accept a resignation they never got,'' he said. ''The letter said my letter was dated July 14. I didn't even know what went down until the 17th of July.''
Once he did learn of the step his colleagues had taken to try to induce baseball officials to begin negotiations for a new labor agreement, Coble said, he decided to join them. ''I signed a letter July 22 and sent it to Richie,'' he said, referring to Richie Phillips, the umpires' lawyer and labor leader. ''To my knowledge, Richie never sent it to the league office.''
Phillips would not confirm that Coble had sent him a letter of resignation, but whatever it was, Phillips added, ''I did not forward to the league office.''
Phillips, however, issued a news release July 22 saying that Coble and Ted Hendry of the American League and Greg Bonin of the National had advised the leagues that they were resigning. But both Hendry and Bonin have kept their jobs, ostensibly because the league offices never received their letters.
Coble said he had heard from no one in the American League office. ''They haven't even called to ask how my wife is,'' said the 51-year-old umpire, who has not worked since July 3. Asked if he has thought about calling the league, he said, ''I've been tempted to call Budig, but I'm sure he doesn't have any answers for me, so I've resisted the urge.''
Budig was not at home yesterday, and Phyllis Merhige, the league's senior vice president, said the league would have no comment.
Kosc's circumstance is different. He resigned, rescinded his resignation and then rescinded his rescission. But like Coble's letter, Phillips said, Kosc's letter reinstating his resignation was never sent to the league even though he, too, was part of the union's July 22 news release.
Kosc, in his 24th year with the league, was en route home after umpiring a game in Cleveland yesterday and could not be reached. But Phillips said Kosc revoked his resignation, just as eight other umpires did, before the league hired 12 new umpires. Even if he did change his mind, Phillips said: ''They don't have anything from him. They went by newspaper accounts apparently.'' | http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/02/sports/baseball-league-has-cases-wrong-2-umps-say.html?ref=genebudig | dclm-gs1-097930002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "ns gene"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.351564 | <urn:uuid:487757ec-5c3e-43c8-ab0b-b212270e3b6c> | en | 0.832576 | Message Her
Find better matches with our advanced matching system
—% Match —% Friend —% Enemy
28 / F / Bisexual / Single
New York, New York
Profile Photos
Album details
Mean Girl practice.
I know what boys like.
Irked by someone saying they couldn't tell what I look like from my photos. Really? Okay. This is who will show up. Probably a slightly less hungover version, actually.
Yeah, if you don't want a booze-soaked cucumber or a joke about it, look elsewhere.
Holiday party 2011. Verifies approximately 4 statements in my profile.
booze cruise: brooklyn brewery themed. very. very. awesome.
Pre Dinosaur BBQ.
"Gina, do the Ashley DuPre."
It's a sparkly crying robot holding a rose on the side of a van DUDE MY DEGREE OF EXCITEMENT IS TOTALLY UNRELATED TO MY LEVEL OF SOBRIETY
this is what happens when Katy Perry's Firework comes on in bars where I am. | http://www.okcupid.com/profile/jokeisonthesun/photos | dclm-gs1-097950002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.1818 | <urn:uuid:43e0d062-a8ce-48b2-b9e9-6313496c1eee> | en | 0.85811 | Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks DiBona
Don't ask to ask, just ask
Re^3: Detecting if a scalar has a number or string
by davido (Bishop)
on Nov 18, 2004 at 23:52 UTC ( #408918=note: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help??
in reply to Re^2: Detecting if a scalar has a number or string
in thread Detecting if a scalar has a number or string
If it acts just like a number as far as Perl is concerned, then it's a number as far as I'm concerned.
You can let Perl tell you what it thinks then...
#!perl use strict; use warnings; sub seems_like_number { my $thing = shift; use warnings qw/FATAL all/; # Promote warnings to fatal, so # they can be trapped. The effect is # lexically scoped. eval { $thing += 0; }; return $@ ? 0 : 1; } while ( <DATA> ){ chomp; if( seems_like_number( $_ ) ) { printf "%10s seems like a number.\n", $_; } else { printf "%10s doesn't seem like a number.\n", $_; } } __DATA__ 1234 1.234 -2.345 1-1+2 0.032 .321 ASDF ASDF1234 1234ASDF
The first line after __DATA__ is intentionally blank, to test whether or not an empty string will qualify as a number... and of course it won't.
Ok, now if Perl thinks it's not a number, you'll know about it, and if Perl doesn't object to it being considered a number, you'll know that too.
Comment on Re^3: Detecting if a scalar has a number or string
Download Code
Re^4: Detecting if a scalar has a number or string
by tye (Cardinal) on Dec 15, 2004 at 18:54 UTC
Note that looks_like_number() tells you exactly the same thing, just without all of the overhead. (:
- tye
For the record, you're absolutely right. Scalar::Util's looks_like_number() is 655% faster than my eval trap fatal warning approach. But for some reason I do get a sort of a kick out of the idea of letting perl (the interpreter) tell me if a scalar is a number, rather than Perl (the script). Consider my solution purely an academic enveavor, and use the module for production code.
The benchmark script:
The results:
Rate Seems Looks Seems 38.8/s -- -87% Looks 297/s 665% --
Log In?
What's my password?
Create A New User
Node Status?
node history
Node Type: note [id://408918]
and the web crawler heard nothing...
How do I use this? | Other CB clients
Other Users?
Others chilling in the Monastery: (7)
As of 2013-12-12 08:38 GMT
Find Nodes?
Voting Booth?
How do you parse XML?
Results (276 votes), past polls | http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=408918 | dclm-gs1-098090002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.02736 | <urn:uuid:a37c561d-f977-4f6a-bc17-048d4c4658e7> | en | 0.97236 | The newly introduced law in the US state of Minnesota could mean millions of dollars for the wedding industry in the state.
The law for Minnesota came into effect yesterday allowing weddings to begin just after midnight, and 42 couples were expected to be married at Minneapolis City Hall in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Budget officials of Minnesota estimated that about 5,000 gay couples would marry in the first year. Its enactment comes as a fast turnaround after voters rejected a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage last year.
Companies catering specifically for same-sex couples have begun to emerge in the state, and some have suggested that the legal recognition of same-sex marriages in the state could prove lucrative for businesses who market their services in the right way.
The national gay rights group Freedom to Marry estimates that from Thursday morning, about 30 percent of the US population now lives in places where same-sex marriage is legal.
Earlier this week, police in Minneapolis, Minnesota said they were looking for a man in a wheelchair who was caught on CCTV throwing eggs at a church, which authorities believe stems from its support of equal marriage. | http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/08/01/us-minnesota-same-sex-weddings-could-add-130-million-to-local-wedding-industry/ | dclm-gs1-098120002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.092238 | <urn:uuid:fc6ba28e-07c6-47e5-b4cd-f42799bee221> | en | 0.968125 | Will He? Won't He? Do We Care?
Chris Graythen
Lance is going to confess. Maybe...
Lance Armstrong, owner of various records in the way of nullified Tour de France success, hijacked another news cycle beginning last night when the New York Times began publishing passive-voice sentences about how someone thinks he's about to confess to some or all of his well-documented doping practices. This is not a knock on the Times or Juliet Macur, who ran with what she had, even if it wasn't much and even if it quickly elicited a statement from Lance's attorney denying that a confession was on its way. As of right now, it is what it is. CN has a good roundup of all the well-documented reasons why, as a practical matter, he would be reluctant to confess. The only known reasons he might do this would be to spare the Livestrong Foundation the continued embarassment, or to reduce his competition ban. Or, and this is highly speculative, to cleanse his "soul".
Here at the Cafe, the wait for real news goes on, and we stand at the ready to peck out whatever there will be to say. Personally, my first reaction was so what? This was followed closely by a flash of anger and a tweet that while we're at it, we should recount the votes from the 2000 election. The damage has been done, and if Lance is suddenly willing to go back on his nauseating stonewalling, because he'd like to do some triathlons, well, I can't help but think that maybe he should go do the anatomically impossible instead.
But the devil will be in the details. If nothing happens, then he's wasted our time again, perhaps intentionally, as some people don't like being out of the news too long. [Lance? I don't know the guy, but he's been playing the media a long, long time.] If he does confess, only to make his life more convenient, then again, don't waste our time. If on the other hand he apologizes, not for the doping but for the secrecy and the stonewalling, well... I'll believe that when it happens. But as far as I can tell, that's about the only thing I can think of that would be of use to the world right now. That's plan A. Plan B is to crawl back into his cave and stay there. If you're looking for a plan, Lance. You're welcome.
As for y'all?
Log In Sign Up
use Yahoo! or OpenID
Forgot password?
We'll email you a reset link.
Forgot password?
Try another email?
Almost done,
Join Podium Cafe
You must be a member of Podium Cafe to participate.
Join Podium Cafe
You must be a member of Podium Cafe to participate.
Choose an available username to complete sign up.
| http://www.podiumcafe.com/2013/1/5/3840176/will-he-wont-he-do-we-care | dclm-gs1-098130002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.040543 | <urn:uuid:3039249b-cf47-4b18-a9ca-a497950efc47> | en | 0.966653 | Rap Basement
Rap Basement
T.I. Talks Young Jeezy & DJ Drama Beef
Rapper T.I. recently spoke about the way he felt when Young Jeezy and DJ Drama put their problems aside and called a truce. Although he was locked up during a lot of it, TIP says he was well-aware of the beef bein squashed.
"I thought that was real big of both lof them. I started the idea of them sitting down and speaking. We all sat down, but it seemed to unravel shortly thereafter. It was either Jeezy's homeboys or Drama's homeboys, or something Jeezy said, or something Drama said–maybe it was something said before the sitdown that came out after. I think it was just a matter of time. It's only so many tickets you can sell to the feud. It's only so long motherf*ckers even care about beef unless it escalates and escalates. Now, it's in both parties' interest to unite for the same reasons, like Jay and Nas. People look for dramatic events, and another dramatic event is when you get together."
Young Jeezy And DJ Drama Call A Truce
T.I.'s NEW Complex Magazine Cover
Social Networks | http://www.rapbasement.com/ti/072010-ti-talks-about-the-beef-between-young-jeezy-and-dj-drama-details-here-watch-now-click-now.html | dclm-gs1-098240002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
1.00001 | <urn:uuid:62bb27b7-c6d7-4bce-95f5-31708dcfb487> | en | 0.939969 | As You Like It
As You Like It
by William Shakespeare
As You Like It: Looks Like a Lady True or False
1. With whom is Silvius, the shepherd, in love? -> Rosalind
2. With whom is Phoebe in love? -> Rosalind
3. Why does Oliver decide not to kill Orlando? -> Because Orlando saves his life
4. How does Rosalind get Phoebe to marry Silvius? -> She reveals to Phoebe that she is really a woman
5. What happens to Duke Senior? -> He is given his dukedom back | http://www.shmoop.com/as-you-like-it/looks-like-a-lady-true-false.html | dclm-gs1-098360002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.018959 | <urn:uuid:1146210d-cc68-4c5e-a087-f0144447d9c9> | en | 0.984963 | < Previous week
Recaps for Daily Recaps | 2005
Following week >
Monday, March 21, 2005
At the Brady home, Bo tried to comfort Billie with a hug just as Hope came home. An huffy Hope told Bo he should be out looking for their son who took his bike and drove off to god knows where. Billie apologized for monopolizing Bo's time, but Hope didn't think she was sorry. While Bo was off making phone calls to start a Shawn search party, Billie tried to explain to Hope that she told Bo to go to Shawn, but it was his decision to stay. Not quite believing her, Hope informed Billie that Kate confirmed she was after Bo. Rolling her eyes, Billie exclaimed she was sick of Hope's insecurities while Hope retorted she was just sick of Billie. After making his phone calls, Bo returned and told Hope it was his decision to stay with Billie. With her mouth agape, Hope stared in disbelief. Furious, she asked Bo who was more important: Billie and Georgia or Hope and the boys. Bo said the question was unfair, but Hope insisted he has consistently chosen Billie and Georgia up until now.
In a fitful sleep, Belle dreamed that Philip came home in a casket. Standing over his body, Philip opened his eyes and said, "When you told me you still loved Shawn, I had nothing left to live for." Belle seemed to startle awake, but was still dreaming. This time a visage of Hope blamed Belle for Shawn's death because she denied Shawn's love. Belle saw another casket, this time filled with the body of Shawn. Shawn opened his eyes and told her he was there because of her. "You killed our love and you killed me," he muttered. A horrified Belle backed away as the phone rang. A relieved and now awake Belle answered the phone. Bo asked her if she had seen Shawn but she said no. Once she hung up, Belle noticed the "I love you" heart on her mirror and knew where to find him.
A sulking Shawn took a six pack of beer up to the special place in the woods where he made the snowman for Belle and declared his love. Shawn thought back to Belle's emotional turmoil over Philip and continued to drink himself into a stupor. Suddenly, Belle appeared behind Shawn to tell him his parents were worried. Worried herself, Belle added that he never used to drink up at their special place. A frustrated Shawn punctuated the moment by smashing a beer bottle against a rock. Near tears, Shawn complained he didn't mean as much to Belle as her husband. But a scared Belle proclaimed she would die if anything happened to him. Aggressively, Shawn pulled Belle to him and said no matter what they do, it won't bring Philip home. They began to kiss, and Belle quickly succumbed to her ex's charms.
Down on the Salem docks, John clutched his new bag of drugs and prayed for help from Doc. He envisioned her coming to him out of the fog like she did so many years ago, only to find Marlena was actually there. John grabbed her passionately and began to kiss her but slowly realized the woman was actually Kate. Kate questioned his presence down on the docks but he insisted it was not because of drugs. Kate gently broke the news that if he were lying, she would go to the cops. John changed the subject, lamenting that he wasn't strong enough to go find Philip. A devastated Kate had to tell John about Philip's video, which depressed John even more. Once they returned to the penthouse, John turned on the television and watched the video. An emotional Kate dropped a tray of tea when she realized what John was watching and John rushed to hug her and console her.
In the DiMera castle, a newly optimistic Roman felt like there were other prisoners and perhaps one had escaped. Marlena laughed, remembering the pessimist he used to be. Then Marlena became sad again thinking their loves had moved on. Continuing with his new found optimism, Roman told her the video feed of John and Kate was selective and tailor made to mislead them. Right on cue, the television clicked on to show John hugging Kate. When John announced to Kate they should turn in to bed together, Roman finally began to believe Marlena was right and that John and Kate really were falling in love. Sobbing, Marlena begged Roman to hold her.
At the Deveraux house, Bart giggled over the fact that Jack was conscious on the floor but paralyzed by Tony's drugs. A cop in the neighborhood prevented Tony from being able to spirit away Jack so Bart had to wait, gun in hand, for Patrick and Jennifer to enter from the front walk. Jennifer continued to feel Jack's presence nearby and thought about when he proposed to her, when she proposed to him, and the birth of Abby. Jennifer fondly remembered Jack, recalling how misunderstood he was and how no one took him seriously. "I thought that he was the most loyal and caring man in the world," said Jennifer. Jack listened from inside as Jennifer continued, "He was my best friend, my lover, and my partner and I could not have asked for a better husband." In his mind, Jack agreed that he could not have asked for a better wife. Bart slowly began to drag Jack's body away from the front hall as Jennifer finally decided to enter her home for the evening. Just as she entered with Patrick, a surprised Jennifer exclaimed, "Jack!"
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Hope is furious with Bo for repeatedly choosing Billie especially tonight, when Shawn really needs him. Bo explains about the phone call and audio tape Billie received and although Hope is sympathetic, she points out that Billie has other people she can turn to... Billie is tired of Hope attacking her and storms out. Bo is upset that Hope made Billie leave and Hope is left incredulous -- Bo is angry at her?! She warns Bo that if anything happens to Shawn it is over between them.
Alone on the pier, Billie hears an eerie young girl's voice calling "Mommy, why haven't you saved me?"
Shawn and Belle almost make love but Belle stops at the last minute. Shawn is frustrated about the entire situation. Belle, even though she loves Shawn and wants to be with him, won't commit to him physically while Philip is still missing. If Philip dies she can't be with Shawn or any other man. Shawn, upset, drives off on his motorcycle and to Belle's horror, has another accident.
Jennifer enters the house and reacts to an overwhelming sense that Jack is there. She and Patrick search but the house is empty. Jennifer finds a magazine with dog-eared pages exactly as Jack was in the habit of doing; she is convinced that Jack is alive and must have been in the house. Patrick says that anyone could have done the page folding; Abby could have been "shopping." Patrick goes to look for Abby; she is out past curfew again. Jennifer still thinks it is possible Jack could have been in the house but if he was, why would he have left?
Jack, the sedation wearing off, is with Bart in Tony's limo and headed to the airport. Jack is more convinced than ever that Patrick is working for the DiMeras and that Jennifer is in danger. He manages to untie his ropes but Bart pulls a gun and Jack is stuck.
John uses his computer to locate Philip. Kate finds drugs in John's jacket and goes to call the police. John smashes the phone and tries to talk her out of turning him in. Kate finally agrees not to call the police if John will let her get rid of the drugs. John threatens: if Kate throws out those drugs Philip will die.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Shawn crashes his motorcycle. Belle rushes over to him and Shawn looks dead! Belle revives him but he is in bad shape but he won't go to the hospital. He has been drinking, driving with a suspended license and already has charges pending against him - he doesn't want to go to jail. Shawn begs Belle to take him home and she is very torn. While driving him home Shawn slumps over unconsciousness.
Hope warns Bo if anything happens to Shawn because Bo was too busy with Billie, Hope will never forgive him and it will be over between them! Bo gives Hope a gift of family photos trying to reassure her of his love and his commitment to their family. Hope is moved but thinks Bo's actions will speak louder than words. They are at an impasse when the cops call with the news that they have found Shawn's wrecked bike but no body. Hope pales, fearing the worst.
Billie hears a little girl's voice calling for her and thinks it is Georgia; she finds a talking doll deliberately set out to taunt her. Billie hears a noise and realizes someone is there... Patrick arrives. They wonder who planted the doll and who would want to be so cruel? Lurking nearby is Sami/Stan and we see that she planted the doll for Billie to find. Patrick and Billie hear a noise and go to investigate; Stan seems to be cornered.
John gives Kate an ultimatum: give him back the painkillers or Philip will die. Kate is aghast at John's use of emotional blackmail but John is sincere. He is the only one capable of rescuing Philip but he has to be sharp and focused to get the job done. He demands Kate give him back the drugs; he is only trying to help Kate and Belle. Kate is deeply torn. John gives Kate time alone to think it over and she makes a private decision and leaves the penthouse. John returns to find Kate gone and in a withdrawal-induced rage, goes ballistic.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Belle drives Shawn home in very bad shape; she thinks they should go to the hospital but Shawn refuses. When they get home Shawn wants/needs to be close to Belle and wants to sleep next to her. They argue again about how long Belle can be faithful to her wedding vows. Belle wants Shawn to think about her needs instead of his own for a change. Shawn apologizes says Belle is right, he won't pressure her anymore.
Bo and Hope rush to the scene of Shawn's accident and see the mangled bike. Officer Cesarez thinks he was thrown off the deadly cliff. Hope blames Bo. They are tremendously relieved to hear that an eyewitness saw Shawn walk away from the accident and that he got into a car with a young woman. Bo and Hope figure it had to be Belle so they go to the loft and let themselves in with Hope's emergency key. Bo and Hope find Shawn and Belle asleep in bed together and they prays Shawn and Belle will be together and that Philip won't always be an obstacle... like Billie has been for them. Bo tries to reassure her but Hope is afraid their marriage will not last.
Kate visits Lexie for advice about John and his addiction. Abe hears that John is an addict and surprises them with his opinion: he thinks Kate should give John the [illegal] drugs; if any drug, even street drugs, could cure Abe's blindness, he would take them in a heartbeat. Abe adds that John is strong enough to beat the addiction and Lexie is very upset. She urges Kate not to give John his fix. Kate leaves and once alone with Abe, Lexie expresses her distress over Abe's attitude -- his blindness has made him bitter. As they argue, we learn Abe is not able to be a true husband to Lexie. Lexie vows her undying love but we see their marriage is under real strain.
Kate returns to John and learns he got a call from Shane Donovan -- the ISA wants him to oversee the search for Philip. John really needs the painkillers now.
Sami/Stan hides from Patrick and Billie and is almost caught when Patrick gets a cryptic phone call. A mysterious voice orders him to let Sami/Stan get away. Billie points out that Bo is going to suspect Patrick of planting the talking doll; Billie trusts Patrick. Patrick hides the truth regarding the phone call he just received and assures Billie there is no reason to suspect him of anything.
Mimi knows Rex wants to have his own biological children so she offers to cancel the wedding. Rex will not hear of it and reminds her of his love and says he can't imagine himself with anyone else -- besides, it is not Mimi's fault that she can't conceive. Sami/Stan is lurking, listening and unnoticed. When Rex moves off to get ice cream, Sami/Stan confronts Mimi with the knowledge he knows of her abortion. Mimi freaks and Rex will return and find out her secret.
Friday, March 25, 2005
Kate considers giving John the pills but then tells him she will not barter drugs for her son's life. She dumps the pills and John angrily tells Kate to get out. Upset she goes to pack while in a fit of rage John pushes some furniture around. He notices a few errant pills and quickly pops one and calms down. Kate comes back downstairs and John apologizes; he asks her to stay and we see Kate is torn. John tells her how much she means to him and Kate is drawn to John.
Jack is taken back to the Euro DiMera castle and he tells Tony he will break out again. In a surprise move he cold cocks Tony and finds his way to Roman and Marlena. They have found a map of the castle! Jack attempts to spring Marlena and Roman but is eventually caught. Jack is taken to his room and Tony confiscates the map from Roman/Marlena. Jack has a vision of Jennifer.
Patrick and Billie arrive at Jennifer's house where Patrick explains about the talking doll. Alone with Billie, Jennifer wants to know that if it is proven that Georgia is not alive, will Billie be able to move on without Bo?
Rex runs into Abby and Chelsea. He sees they have a fake ID and thinks Abby should tell her mom. Chelsea claims the ID as her own and they leave. Patrick is looking for Abby and when he finds her he tells her that he is suspicious of Chelsea; they walk home. Chelsea emerges from her hiding spot only to have Sami/ Stan offer help to reel in Patrick Lockhart.
Mimi is taunted by Sami/Stan -- he threatens to tell Rex everything about the abortion unless she breaks up with him. Rex shows up and chases Sami/Stan off; Mimi tells Rex that she cannot marry him.
Making headlines on | http://www.soapcentral.com/days/recaps/2005/050321.php | dclm-gs1-098410002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.047111 | <urn:uuid:8176f335-3aef-466e-a9c3-d2a7a1859c10> | en | 0.897485 | Can you name the Capterra Directory by Buyer's Needs Part II?
created by elias006
• Click any empty A Buyer Needs... or Directory to answer for that location
• This quiz has not been verified by Sporcle
Show Missed Answers
A Buyer Needs...Directory
to monitor positions and capture trading opportunities. Also, to handle risk management, trader decision support, movement actualization and invoicing.
to generate price quotes and itineraries, as well as manage reservations for tour customers.
to forecast and maintain records of project costs. He/she needs to manage payroll, timesheets, materials, inventory, billing, and purchase tracking--all viewable in a single interf
to help prevent counterfeiting, embezzlment, and other abuses in their financial system.
to solicit proposals, as well as manage the RFP process. He/she needs to quickly create responses to RFPs that are customized to the needs of each proposal.
to automate warehousing, transportation mangement, shipping, and other logistical functions, as well as to monitor the flow of products from supplier to user. Also, he/she needs in
a collaborative, continuous conduit through which to institute changes, and distribute information throughout an enterprise. He/she needs to use the softwrae to coordinate the busi
to manage his/her website and edit web content. Also, he/she does not have a strong knowledge of HTML or a webmaster.
to keep track of his/her horse information including pedigree, training and competition results, and vet visits.
to identy and repair distruptive errors in his/her information infrastructure.
A Buyer Needs...Directory
to speed up the identification of authorized personnel without having to use multiple access keys and passwords.
to provide his/her field personnel with access to service histories, contract, mapping services, job management, and scheduling tools.
to help prioritize objective, evaluate alternatives, and simulate results. He/she needs data visualization, decision trees, and scorecards.
to track materials throughout 3 warehouse locations. Also, needs inventory control, procurement, and accounting.
to manage inbound service calls, appointment scheduling, and dispatch for their heating and airconditiong business.
to capture success stories from customers, keep track of reference usage, and access past actions, plans for future outreach, and any feedback that a customer has submitted.
to improve at locating, managing, and growing donor sources for his/her non-profit. Also, to track pledges and manage contributions.
to handle ordering, billing, accounting, receipt printing, and table tracking for his/her restaraunt.
to assist in managing his/her occupational therapy practice. He/she needs to track patients, handle scheduling, and use EMR.
to automate matching and dialing of groups of telephone numbers in his/her call center.
You might also like these games:
Famous Foursomes'A' GameFast Food Restaurants
0 Comments (warning: may contain spoilers)
Can You Name the Capterra Directory by Buyer's Needs Part II Quiz
1. by elias006
Friend Scores and Standings
Loading friend results.... | http://www.sporcle.com/games/elias006/can-you-name-the-capterra-directory-by-buyers-needs-part-ii | dclm-gs1-098470002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.018301 | <urn:uuid:f13d2833-403e-4cba-b79a-80f261af2f40> | en | 0.967929 | printable banner
U.S. Department of State - Great Seal
U.S. Department of State
Diplomacy in Action
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
February 25, 2004
Poland is a multiparty democracy with a bicameral parliament. Executive power is shared by the Prime Minister, the Council of Ministers, and, to a lesser extent, the President. Alexander Kwasniewski was reelected President in elections in 2000. The social democratic Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) formed a majority coalition government with the Union of Labor (UP) and the Polish Peasant Party (PSL) following parliamentary elections in 2001. The PSL withdrew from the coalition on March 1, leaving the SLD/UP in a minority coalition government. The judiciary is independent; however, it was inefficient.
Local police, a national office of investigation, and city guards (uniformed, unarmed officers) maintain internal security. The Minister of Interior oversees the internal security forces. The civilian Minister of Defense has command and control authority over the military chief of the general staff as well as oversight of military intelligence. Civilian authorities maintained effective control of the security forces. There were no reports that security forces committed human rights abuses.
The country was in transition from a centrally planned to a market economy and had a population of approximately 39 million. The primary sectors of the economy were manufactured goods, chemicals, machinery and equipment, and agricultural products.
The Government generally respected the human rights of its citizens; however, there were problems in some areas. Prison conditions remained generally poor. Lengthy pretrial detention occurred occasionally. The court system was hampered by a cumbersome legal process, poor administration, and an inadequate budget, and court decisions frequently were not implemented. The Government restricted the right to privacy, specifically through the use of wiretaps without judicial oversight. The Government maintained some restrictions in law and in practice on freedom of speech and of the press. There were incidents of desecration of graves in both Jewish and Catholic cemeteries, and anti-Semitic sentiments persisted. Women continued to experience serious discrimination in the labor market and were subject to various legal inequities. Child prostitution was a problem. There were reports of some societal discrimination and violence against ethnic minorities. Some employers violated worker rights, particularly in the growing private sector, and antiunion discrimination persisted. Trafficking in women and children was a problem.
a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
A civil case against Pomeranian police in connection with the 1998 beating death of 13-year-old Przemek Czaja in Slupsk remained pending at year's end.
The retrial of former Interior Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak for his role in the 1981 killings at the Wujek mine remained pending at year's end. In February, the appellate court annulled the verdict acquitting the riot police accused of killing the miners, opening the way for a new trial.
The Warsaw District Court trial of former Communist leader Jaruzelski and five others who allegedly ordered police to shoot workers during the 1970 riots in Gdansk remained pending at year's end.
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
The trial of four policemen for the 1997 beating of soccer fans in Gdynia remained pending at year's end.
Civil action against prison administrators in the 1996 case of a mentally retarded boy who was beaten and sodomized by inmates was dropped after the Supreme Court determined the boy had been wrongfully imprisoned and awarded his family approximately $5,000 (20,000 PLN).
Prison conditions remained generally poor. Overcrowding, damp cells, and a lack of medical treatment were the chief problems. The prison system urgently needed additional funding. In September, the Government opened a new prison for 600 prisoners in Piotrkow Trybunalski. The Ombudsman for Human Rights continued to complain about the safety of prisoners, noting that inmates were often the victims of violent attacks by other prisoners and warders. The ratio of prisoners to rehabilitation officers was very poor. Women were held in 21 detention facilities, but only 5 were strictly for women; in 16 detention facilities, men and women were held separately. Minors (defined as 15- to 17-year-olds) sentenced for a crime were held separately from adults. Juveniles (17- to 21-year-olds) accused of serious crimes were usually sent to pretrial detention. They were not separated from adult detainees.
The Government permitted visits by independent human rights organizations. During the year, the Human Rights Ombudsmen monitored 20 detention facilities, and the Helsinki Foundation visited 7 detention centers; some visits were announced, while other visits were unannounced.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
The Constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these prohibitions. Courts rather than prosecutors issue arrest warrants.
The police force, consisting of 100,000 employees, is a national body with regional and municipal units. While the public generally regarded the police positively, low-level corruption within the police force was considered widespread. Instances of corruption and serious criminal misconduct were investigated by the National Police's office of internal affairs. The personnel division handled minor disciplinary offenses. There was also concern over the extent to which political pressure was brought to bear on the police. In October, national police commander Antoni Kowalczyk resigned after it was revealed that he had changed his testimony during the investigation into the "Starachowice affair," a corruption scandal in which senior government officials tipped off suspects of an impending raid by the national police's Central Bureau of Investigation. Two senior Interior Ministry officials also were disciplined for failing to prevent leaks of this data.
Detainees may be held in pretrial detention for up to 3 months and may challenge the legality of an arrest by appeal to the district court. A court may extend the pretrial detention period every 3 months for up to 18 months until the trial. Total detention time before the court issues a first sentence may not exceed 2 years. Under certain circumstances, the Supreme Court may extend the 2-year period.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
There is a four-tiered court and prosecutorial structure. The courts consist of regional, provincial, and appellate divisions, as well as a Supreme Court. These tiers are subdivided further into five parts: Military, civil, criminal, labor, and family. Regional courts try original cases, while appellate courts are charged solely with appeals. Provincial courts have a dual responsibility, handling appeals from regional courts while enjoying original jurisdiction for the most serious types of offenses. Appellate courts handle appeals tried at the provincial level; the Supreme Court only handles appeals about questions of law. The prosecutorial system mirrors the court structure with national, provincial, appellate, and regional offices. Criminal cases are tried in regional and provincial courts by a panel consisting of a professional judge and two lay assessors. The seriousness of the offense determines which court has original jurisdiction.
Judges are nominated by the National Judicial Council and appointed by the President. They are appointed for life, guaranteed complete immunity from prosecution, and can be reassigned but not dismissed, except by a court decision. The Constitutional Tribunal rules on the constitutionality of legislation. Constitutional Tribunal decisions are final and binding.
The court system remained cumbersome, poorly administered, inadequately staffed, and underfunded. The courts had numerous inefficiencies--most notably, many districts had more criminal judges than prosecutors--that contributed to a lack of public confidence. Many effective judges and prosecutors left public service for the more lucrative private sector. Court decisions frequently were not implemented. Bailiffs normally ensured the execution of civil verdicts such as damage payments and evictions; however, they were underpaid, subject to intimidation and bribery, and had a mixed record on implementing decisions. Civil and administrative rulings against public institutions such as hospitals often could not be enforced due to a lack of funds. In 2002, there were over 2 million cases pending from years prior to 2001. Simple civil cases can take as long as 2 to 3 years to resolve, and the pretrial waiting time in criminal cases could be several months. The backlog and the cost of legal action appeared to deter many citizens from using the justice system, particularly in civil matters such as divorce. The long wait for routine court decisions in commercial matters was an incentive for bribery and corruption.
The Government has introduced measures to alleviate the backlog of cases within the courts. According to the Council of Europe, the Ministry of Justice utilized budget increases to hire over 200 judicial assistants, enacted procedural changes to simplify and accelerate court proceedings, and extended judicial staff work hours in order to expedite processing of cases.
Once charges are filed, a defendant is allowed to consult an attorney, who is provided at public expense if necessary. Once the defendant is prepared, a trial date is set. Defendants must be present during trial and may present evidence and confront witnesses in their defense. Prosecutors can grant witnesses anonymity if they express fear of retribution from the defendant. This law, designed to help combat organized crime, impairs defendants' right to confront their accusers. Trials are usually public; however, the courts reserve the right to close a trial to the public in some circumstances, such as divorce cases, trials in which state secrets may be disclosed, or cases whose content might offend public morality (see Section 1.f.). The courts rarely invoked this right. A two-level appeal process is available in most civil and criminal matters.
The law allows a defendant and a representative, in addition to the prosecutor, to be present for a provincial appellate court's examination of a verdict.
There were no reports of political prisoners.
The Government has not established a program for restitution or compensation for private property seized during the Communist or Nazi eras. The Treasury has estimated that there were 56,000 claims outstanding for property valued at approximately $12.5 billion (50 billion PLN). During the year, the Government held internal discussions regarding the possible form of restitution legislation. Despite the lack of a national law, some property nationalized illegally has been restituted and compensation given. The Ministry of Economy has returned approximately 1,600 properties (mostly mills, factories, and sawmills) with an estimated total value of approximately $350 million (1.4 billion PLN). In addition, it has paid compensation of nearly $50 million (200 million PLN) to former owners whose property could not be given back. The City of Warsaw has returned ownership of buildings and given an 80-year lease on land in approximately 1,000 cases.
The Constitution prohibits such actions; however, the Government did not always respect these prohibitions in practice. The Constitution provides for the general right to privacy; however, there is no legislation that provides for this right.
The law prohibits arbitrary forced entry into homes, and search warrants issued by a prosecutor are required to enter private residences. In emergency cases, when a prosecutor is not immediately available, police may enter a residence with the approval of the local police commander. In the most urgent cases, police may enter a private residence after showing their official identification if there is no time to consult the police commander. There were no reports that police abused search warrant procedures.
The law prohibits the collection of information about a person's ethnic origin, religious convictions, health, political views, or membership in religious, political, or trade union organizations. However, the law allows that personal data may be released if necessary to carry out the statutory objectives of churches and other religious unions, associations, foundations, and other non-profit-seeking organizations or institutions with a political, scientific, religious, philosophical, or trade-union aim. Other exceptions include provision of information necessary for medical treatment, the establishment of legal claims, and scientific research, so long as the results are not published. All exceptions are subject to some restrictions. In practice, some private organizations have persisted in asking for information such as nationality in questionnaires; although violators are subject to prosecution, there were no known cases during the year.
The Government maintained a large number of wiretaps without judicial review or oversight. The law permits police and intelligence services to monitor private correspondence and to use wiretaps and electronic monitoring devices in cases involving serious crimes, narcotics, money laundering, or illegal firearm sales. Under the Criminal Code, the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Interior must authorize these investigative methods. In emergency cases, the police may initiate wiretaps or open private correspondence at the same time that they are seeking authorization. There were no credible estimates on the number of police wiretaps.
Parliamentarians and human rights groups expressed concern about the lack of control over wiretaps. There was no independent judicial review of surveillance activities, nor was there any control over how the information derived from them was used. A number of agencies had access to wiretap information, and the Police Code allows electronic surveillance to be used for the prevention of crime as well as for investigations.
Under the law on "lustration," designed to expose officials who collaborated with the Communist-era secret police, persons caught lying about their past may be prohibited from holding public office for 10 years. The law requires officials to provide sworn affidavits concerning their cooperation with the secret police; the public interest spokesman (lustration prosecutor) verifies the affidavits and brings cases of misrepresentation before the lustration court, a special 3-judge panel whose decisions may be appealed. In February, legislation was enacted exempting persons who cooperated with intelligence and counterintelligence agencies from this process. In June, the Constitutional Tribunal found the legislation to be unconstitutional on procedural grounds. In October, a new law was enacted with many of the same provisions as the earlier legislation.
In November, the Supreme Court returned the case of a Deputy Defense Minister who was judged to have lied in his affidavit to the appellate court, and the appellate court upheld its earlier ruling. Many similar cases were closed to the public because they involved classified documents (see Section 1.e.). Critics continued to voice concern that the vetting procedure may be unfair because secret police records were subject to loss or tampering.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these rights and provided for academic freedom; however, there were a few restrictions in law and practice. The Criminal Code states that an individual who "publicly insults or humiliates a constitutional institution" of the country is subject to a fine or imprisonment of up to 2 years, while an individual who insults a public functionary is subject to a fine or imprisonment of up to 1 year. Individual citizens and businesses may also use the Criminal Code to protect their good name.
There is no restriction on the establishment of private newspapers or distribution of journals, and there were numerous private newspapers and magazines representing a wide variety of viewpoints.
The National Radio and Television Broadcasting Council (KRRiTV) has broad power to monitor and regulate programming on radio and television, allocate broadcasting frequencies and licenses, and apportion subscription revenues to public media. Council members are legally required to suspend their membership in political parties or public associations.
The Government owns the most widely viewed television channel and 17 regional stations. Center-right politicians, watchdog institutions, and commentators accused public television of being influenced by politicians from the ruling SLD and PSL parties, whose members also have majority seats in supervisory and management boards in public television and radio.
Private television, including satellite and cable services, was available across most of the country. Private television broadcasters operated on frequencies selected by the Ministry of Communications and auctioned by the KRRiTV. Polish Television (TVP) (two channels) was the most widely viewed television, with a 46 percent market share, but had strong competition from the private TVN and Polsat networks. Catholic TV, which presented a conservative point of view, went off the air in March. Cable television and various satellite services carried the main national channels, as well as local, regional, and foreign stations, to viewers throughout the country.
The Government owned 5 national radio networks. Private radio flourished on the local, regional, and national levels alongside public radio. Companies with shares in nationwide dailies expanded networks with local radio stations. To cut costs, small local radio stations set up several networks to facilitate advertising and programming.
The law allows for the prosecution of citizens who publish or otherwise betray state secrets.
The law provides for the protection of journalistic sources, except in cases involving national security, murder, and terrorist acts.
The law stipulates that programs should not promote activities that are illegal or against state policy, morality, or the common good and requires that all broadcasts "respect the religious feelings of the audiences and, in particular, respect the Christian system of values." The law also requires public television to provide direct media access to the main state institutions, including the presidency, to make presentations or explanations of public policy. Both public and private radio and television stations provided coverage of all ranges of political opinion.
In May, the newspaper Zycie appealed a Warsaw district court ruling ordering it to apologize to President Kwasniewski for publishing untrue information. The case remained pending at year's end.
In February, the Warsaw Prosecutor's Office filed charges against journalist Jerzy Urban for his article in Nie, which criticized the Pope for senility and made other derogatory remarks shortly before the 2002 Papal visit to Poland.
Books expressing a wide range of political and social viewpoints were widely available, as were periodicals and other publications from abroad.
Offending religious sentiment through public speech is punishable by a fine or a 3-year prison term. In July, artist Dorota Nieznalska was fined and sentenced to 6 months parole and 120 hours of community service for displaying her artistic collection, which included a picture of male genitalia attached to a cross, in Gdansk.
The Internet was widely available and was not regulated or restricted. The Government did not restrict academic freedom.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Permits are not necessary for public meetings but are required for public demonstrations; demonstration organizers must obtain permits from local authorities if a demonstration might block a public road. Organizers also are required to inform the local police of the time and place of large demonstrations and their planned route. Every gathering must have a chairperson who is required to open the demonstration, preside over it, and close it. Authorities issued permits for public gatherings on a routine basis.
Private associations need government approval to organize and must register with their district court. The procedure essentially requires the organization to sign a declaration committing them to abide by the law. In practice, the procedure is complicated and may be subject to the discretion of the judge in charge.
c. Freedom of Religion
There are 15 religious groups whose relationship with the State is governed by specific legislation that outlines the internal structure of the religious groups, their activities, and procedures for property restitution, plus 139 other religious communities. Religious communities may register with the Government; however, they are not required to do so and may function freely without registration. All churches and recognized religious groups share the same privileges, such as duty-free importation of office equipment and reduced taxes.
Although the Constitution provides for the separation of church and state, crucifixes hang in both the upper and lower houses of Parliament, as well as in many government offices. State-run radio broadcast Catholic mass on Sundays, and the Catholic Church was authorized to relicense radio and television stations to operate on frequencies assigned to the Church, the only body outside the National Radio and Television Council allowed to do so.
The law provides that offending religious sentiment through public speech is punishable by fine or prison term (see Section 2.a.).
Although the Constitution gives parents the right to bring up their children in accordance with their religious and philosophical beliefs, religious education classes continued to be taught in public schools. While children are supposed to have the choice between religious and ethics instruction, the Ombudsman's office stated that, in most schools, ethics courses were not offered due to financial constraints. The Government employed Catholic Church representatives to teach religious classes in the schools. Such classes constituted the vast majority of all religious education, since the population was approximately 95 percent Catholic. However, parents could request religious classes in any registered religion, including Protestant, Orthodox, and Jewish religions. Non-Catholic religious instruction existed but was not common. The Ministry of Education paid instructors, including priests, for teaching religion classes. In addition, Catholic Church representatives were included on a commission that determined which books qualified for school use.
The laws governing restitution of communal property allow for the return of churches and synagogues, cemeteries, and community headquarters, as well as buildings that were used for other religious, educational, or charitable activities. Of approximately 10,000 communal property claims filed, nearly 4,000 have been resolved, and over 1,000 properties have been returned.
Relations between various religious communities were generally amicable; however, sporadic incidents of harassment and violence against Jews and occasional desecration of Jewish and, more often, Catholic cemeteries continued, mostly by skinheads and other marginal elements of society. On January 22, 37 tombstones and several crosses were knocked down and destroyed at a parish cemetery in Swietochlowice. On April 22, 23 tombstones were destroyed in a memorial Jewish cemetery in Legnica, the site of similar destruction in 2002. Authorities found no indication of any sect or cult activity in either case and labeled them acts of vandalism.
There were no developments by year's end in the 2002 cases of desecration of tombstones in Czeladz and in a Jewish cemetery in Wroclaw.
The investigation by Katowice authorities into the 2001 anti-Semitic, anti-European Union (EU) demonstration by approximately 400 Polish ultra nationalists remained pending at year's end.
The National Memory Institute published a white paper and discontinued its investigation of the Jedwabne massacre after concluding that beyond those persons already brought to trial, there were no other living persons against whom charges could be filed.
There is some public concern about the growth of groups perceived to be "sects" and the influence of non-mainstream religious groups. According to the National Sect Protection Committee, a private monitoring group, more citizens were joining such groups.
The law provides for the granting of refugee and asylee status to persons who meet the definition of the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. In practice, the Government provided protection against refoulement and granted asylum and refugee status. Persons recognized as refugees under the Convention are granted permission to remain in the country permanently. The Government cooperated with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in assisting refugees. In 2002, the Government received 5,158 petitions for refugee status, of which 258 were approved. During the year, the Government received 7,748 petitions, of which 219 were approved.
The law provides all prospective refugees access to a procedure for adjudicating refugee status. Prospective refugees may appeal negative status decisions by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to an independent board. The Bureau of Repatriation and Aliens (BRA) controlled the various refugee centers and agencies and had some political control over the border guards.
The BRA has 6 months in which to render a decision on an application for refugee status. An alien may appeal the denial of a petition to the BRA's refugee board within 2 weeks of delivery of the initial decision. If the board finds a claim to be "manifestly unfounded," the alien may file an appeal within three days of the initial finding. The BRA refugee board's decisions may be appealed in the country's administrative courts. While the law calls for a decision granting or denying asylum to be rendered within 6 months from the date of the initiation of the procedure, the average application processing time was 8 months, with some cases taking as long as 18 months. The length of processing time left applicants living in legal limbo, unable to work legally, while awaiting decisions on their cases. Approximately 3 percent of all applicants were granted refugee status. A slightly higher percentage of Chechens (3.4 percent) received refugee status.
In September, the country adopted a new Aliens Protection Law. The law includes provisions relating to refugee status determination, provides for the protection for unaccompanied minors and children, and also addresses asylum issues.
According to a September UNHCR report, there was a significant increase during the year in the number of persons abandoning the procedure for securing refugee status or leaving refugee centers. Between April 14 and June 6, 1,112 Chechens applied for the discontinuation of the refugee determination procedure and subsequently sought refugee status in the Czech Republic. UNHCR also expressed concern over the number of refugees leaving the country because of difficulties integrating into society.
Unlike in previous years, there were no reports of harassment of refugee camp inhabitants by local residents or mistreatment of refugees by police.
During the year, the BRA provided extensive training for its personnel. Staff responsible for conducting interviews and refugee center staff received training on issues related to unaccompanied minors and the new "tolerated status" provisions of the Aliens Protection Law. UNHCR provided training for judges at the Supreme Administrative Court adjudicating asylum cases.
The Constitution provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of universal suffrage. Citizens 18 years of age and older have the right to vote and to cast secret ballots, and voting is voluntary. Multiple candidates from various political parties participated in the elections and had access to the media. Reform of the country's political and economic structure led to an invitation in 2002 to join the EU in May 2004.
The most recent national elections took place in 2001. Average voter turnout for these parliamentary elections was 46.3 percent. The elections were regarded as free and fair. Only minor irregularities (e.g., registering of hospital patients, ballot boxes too small to hold the number of ballots cast) were reported.
There were no restrictions on the participation of women in politics or government. There were 95 women among 460 members of the Sejm and 23 women among the 100 members of the Senate. There was one woman in the 16-member Cabinet.
There were two members of the German minority party in the Parliament. The electoral law exempts ethnic minority parties from the requirement that they win 5 percent of the vote nationwide to qualify for seats in individual districts.
The Constitution states that "no one shall be discriminated against in political, social, or economic life for any reason whatsoever," and the Government attempted to ensure that these provisions are observed; however, violence and societal discrimination against women and ethnic minorities persisted.
Violence against women continued to be a problem. In a 2002 public opinion poll, 12 percent of women stated that they had been victims of domestic violence, while 7 percent stated that they had been beaten on multiple occasions. Additionally, 43 percent of respondents stated that they knew at least one woman who was physically abused by her husband. Police statistics indicated that approximately 74,000 women were victims of domestic violence in 2002. Women's organizations asserted that the number of women suffering from domestic abuse is probably much higher because battered women usually refused to admit abuse even to themselves. Violence against women remained hidden, particularly in small towns and villages. Physical abuse is illegal and spousal rape is treated in the same manner as other types of rape.
Police intervened in cases of domestic violence. The police, in cooperation with the State Agency for Solving Alcoholic Problems, use the "blue card," a record-keeping system designed to document incidents of spousal abuse. However, the program had limited effect due to inadequate funding. Sentences for abuse of family members range from 3 months to 5 years, or from 2 to 10 years if the victim attempts suicide as a result of the abuse. Most convictions resulted in suspended sentences. A police spokesman stated that there were 23,921 cases of family abuse reported in 2002, of which 213 involved particularly severe abuse. According to NGOs, courts often treated domestic violence as a minor crime, pronouncing lenient verdicts or dismissing cases.
In 2002, 2,345 rape cases were reported. However, women often were unwilling to report the crime and NGOs estimated that the actual number was 10 times higher than reported.
The Government had a vice-ministerial level Plenipotentiary for the Equal Rights of Women and Men. During the year, the Plenipotentiary focused on development of a National Program for Women, which the Government approved in August, and the introduction of new anti-discrimination provisions into the labor code. Parliament passed the revised labor code, which was signed by the President in December. In addition, NGOs operated 15 centers to assist victims, provide preventive treatment and counseling to perpetrators, and train personnel working with domestic violence victims. The Office of Victims' Rights Spokesman at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration was responsible for ensuring that violence victims were treated with respect by law enforcement and the judicial system. The office provided legal and psychological assistance for victims and their families.
The law does not provide for restraining orders to protect battered women against further abuse. In divorce cases, courts frequently granted a divorce without issuing a property settlement, forcing women to return to abusive husbands. This problem was exacerbated by a lack of alternative housing. Women's advocacy groups also complained there were a small number of state-supported shelters for battered women.
Prostitution is legal; however, pimping or paying for sexual activity is illegal. Due to a crackdown on prostitutes who work along major thoroughfares and at truck stops, much of the prostitution industry moved to brothels, massage parlors, or agencies offering escort services. Police estimated that there were 7,000 prostitutes in the country of whom 3,000 worked in one of the 700 agencies in operation and 3,400 worked in hotels, pubs, discos, and on the streets. The remaining 600 prostitutes worked on major thoroughfares and at truck stops.
Trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation was a problem (see Sections 6.f.).
While there are no laws specifically addressing sexual harassment, social awareness of the problem continued to increase, and there are mechanisms available to deal with the problem. For example, the Criminal Code states that whoever takes advantage of a position of power in a relationship to gain sexual gratification may be sentenced to up to 3 years in prison. According to a Supreme Court advisory opinion, such a relationship can occur between employers and employees, supervisors and subordinates, or teachers and students; however, this provision can be invoked only when alleged sexual harassment occurs between a supervisor and an individual in a subordinate position.
The Constitution provides for equal rights regardless of gender and grants women equal rights with men in all areas of family, political, social, and economic life, including equal compensation for work of similar value. However, in practice women frequently were paid less for equivalent work, mainly held lower level positions, were fired more readily, and were less likely to be promoted than men. The 2003 government statistical bulletin indicated that men had a higher employment rate (50.7 percent) than women (38.1 percent) and that women had a higher unemployment rate. In July, 51.2 percent of those unemployed were women, despite the fact that they comprised a smaller share of the population actively seeking work. Despite having a generally higher level of education, women earned on average 30 percent less than men. The labor code prohibits discrimination in hiring, and the employer has the burden of proof to show that discrimination did not occur. Women are prohibited from working underground or in jobs that require heavy lifting. Apart from the Constitution, there are no laws that provide equal rights for women.
Women were employed in a wide variety of professions and occupations, and a number held high positions in government and the private sector. In agriculture, women comprised 20 percent of all principal managers of farms. Men and women had the right to take time off to care for a sick child. The pension law requires earlier retirement for women (age 60) than for men (age 65), with the result that women received approximately 60 percent of the average pension received by men. However, women may appeal forced retirement at age 60 to the labor court.
On January 14, the Sejm passed a National Development Plan that included programs to promote the equalization of women with men in all areas of work, society, and politics.
The Ombudsman for Human Rights monitored women's rights within the broader context of human rights; however, the broad scope of the office's mandate diluted its ability to function as an effective advocate of women's issues. There are several women's rights NGOs, including the Polish Foundation for Women and Family Planning and the Women's Rights Center, that were active advocates of gender equality and advanced their goals through research, monitoring, and publishing. There were also several church-sponsored women's advocacy organizations, but their cooperation with other women's NGOs was limited.
The Constitution extends some state protection to the family and children, and there is a Sejm-appointed Ombudsman for Children's Rights.
The Ombudsman--mandated to protect children from violence, cruelty, neglect, and other mistreatment--is the official point of contact for complaints about violations of human rights of children and submits requests to the appropriate law enforcement or other authorities for action. The Ombudsman submits an annual report to the Sejm on the children's rights situation and may suggest legislation to improve the human rights situation of children.
Education is universal and mandatory until age 18, and public schools are free. The Government sponsored some health programs targeted specifically at children, including a vaccination program and periodic checkups conducted in the schools; however, budget shortfalls prevented complete implementation of these programs.
Although child abuse occurred, there was no societal pattern of abuse. The law prohibits violence against children, and anyone who physically or psychologically abuses a juvenile may receive a prison sentence of 3 months to 5 years. The sentence is increased if the victim attempts suicide or the perpetrator acted with extreme cruelty. However, abuse was rarely reported, and convictions also were rare. Schools did not have procedures to protect children from abuse by teachers, and the teachers' work code provides legal immunity from prosecution for corporal punishment in the classroom.
Trafficking in children, primarily for the purpose of sexual exploitation, was a problem (see Section 6.f.). The law prohibits child prostitution; anyone who, with the purpose of obtaining a material benefit, incites a minor to prostitution or facilitates such prostitution is subject to a sentence from 1 to 10 year's imprisonment.
Men and women reach majority at the age of 18; however, a woman can reach majority at the age of 16 if she has entered into marriage with the consent of her parents and the guardianship court. Men are not permitted to marry without parental consent until the age of 21, whereas women may do so at the age of 18 (see Section 1.f.).
Persons with Disabilities
There was no discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, education, or in the provision of other state services. There were approximately 5.5 million persons with disabilities in the country by year's end. In 2002, approximately 20 percent of persons with disabilities but able to work were unemployed, slightly higher than the national unemployment rate. Advocacy groups claimed that the rate was much higher. The law allows individuals from certain disability groups to work without losing their disability benefits. Approximately 46 percent of the persons with disabilities had no more than an elementary education, compared with 32 percent of those without disabilities, and only 4 percent had a university education, compared with 9 percent of persons without disabilities.
The law mandates access to buildings for persons with disabilities; however, public buildings and transportation generally are not accessible to persons with disabilities. Implementation falls short of rights set forth in the legislation since the law provides only that buildings "should be accessible."
There were reports of some societal discrimination against persons with disabilities.
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
There were occasional incidents of skinheads clashing with Roma and racially motivated violence directed at Roma. There were no developments in the 2001 case in which three suspects were arrested for vandalizing automobiles and other Romani vehicles at a resort camp.
Individuals of African, Asian, or Arab descent also reported isolated incidents of verbal, physical and other types of abuse. In 2002, two Polish men in Krakow shouted racial slurs and assaulted two foreigners of African descent; legal proceedings in the case were ongoing at year's end.
Instances of violence against Muslims were also reported. In Warsaw and Wroclaw, a number of Arabic restaurants were attacked; in Lodz a group of skinheads picketed a student residence and beat up an Arab student; and in Gdansk windows were shattered in a mosque.
Societal discrimination against Roma, who have been considered a national minority since 1998, was commonplace, and some local officials discriminated against Roma in the provision of social services. According to its leaders, the 30,000 Roma in the country faced disproportionately high unemployment and were hit harder by economic changes and restructuring than were ethnic Poles. Romani leaders complained of widespread discrimination in employment, housing, banking, the justice system, the media, and education.
The small Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities occasionally experienced petty harassment and discrimination.
The Open Republic Association reported that the greatest number of racist publications were anti-Semitic, anti-Ukrainian, and anti-German, with fewer anti-Roma and anti-Catholic publications.
There were a number of steps taken to improve the treatment of minority groups. In March, 3,500 students, journalists, and politicians joined in the fourth annual "Color Tolerance" day, removing vulgar and racist slogans directed against various ethnic and racial minorities from walls in the city of Lodz.
The Government continued to cooperate with local governments to develop and finance programs to assist the poorest Roma. Some local governments became more active in dealing with the problems of local Romani communities. During the year, the Government spent approximately $770,000 (3 million PLN) on a pilot project to help the Romani community in Malopolska Province to increase the number of students completing high school, reduce unemployment, and improve health care and safety by providing books, training staff liaisons to the Romani community, and improving the educational and residential infrastructure in Romani communities. The school enrollment rate among Roma children has increased from 30 percent to 80 percent and a number of new homes are being built for Romani residents.
The law provides for the educational rights of ethnic minorities, including the right to be taught in their own language. There were an estimated 50,000 Lithuanians in the country, and Lithuanian minority rights, including language instruction, were addressed routinely during governmental talks. There were 31 Lithuanian-language textbooks in use during the year at different education levels, including textbooks on mathematics, physics and geography financed by the Government.
The German minority in Opole Province makes up one-third of the area's 1 million inhabitants. Some community members continued to complain of inadequate use of German in the province's schools. In 2001, the Government rejected the application by a 170,000-member Silesian community for official minority status. The Association of People of Silesian Nationality (ZLNS), which claimed a heritage distinct from that of both the Polish majority and German minority populations in the region, took the matter to the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR). In December 2001, the Court found that the Government had not violated freedom of association provisions and upheld the prior decision to deny official minority status. At the request of the ZLNS, the case was referred to the ECHR's Grand Chamber. The Grand Chamber heard arguments on the case in July, but had not issued a ruling by the end of the year.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
The law provides that all workers, including civilian employees of the armed forces, police, and frontier guards, have the right to establish and join trade unions of their choosing, and workers exercised these rights. The law sets minimum size requirements for establishing a trade union: 10 persons may form a local union, and 30 may establish a national union. Unions, including interbranch national unions and national interbranch federations, must be registered with the courts. A court decision refusing registration may be taken to an appeals court. The law does not give trade unions the freedom to exercise their right to organize all workers. For example, workers on individual contracts cannot form or join a trade union. In state-owned enterprises, such as the health sector, water, and forestry, there were cases in which workers had their normal employment contract terminated and replaced by an individual contract that took away rights they formerly enjoyed as permanent employees.
There were approximately 360 registered national-level unions. There is no precise data on work force unionization; according to press reports, 14 percent of the workforce were union members.
As a rule, newly established small- and medium-sized firms were nonunion, while union activity in most cases carried over into privatized (former state-owned) enterprises. The Independent Self-Governing Trade Union (NSZZ) Solidarity had nearly 1 million members. Small spin-offs from mainstream Solidarity include the rival factions Solidarity '80, August '80, and the Christian Trade Union Solidarity.
The other principal national unions are those affiliated with the All-Poland Trade Union Alliance (OPZZ) and its affiliate, the Polish Union of Teachers. The OPZZ claimed approximately 1.3 million members, of whom 870,000 were employed; independent surveys suggested that its dues-paying membership was considerably smaller than Solidarity's.
The law prohibits antiunion discrimination; however, labor leaders reported that employers discriminated against workers who attempted to organize or join unions, particularly in the growing private sector. The law also did not prevent employer harassment of union members for trade union activity; there were unconfirmed reports that some employers sanctioned employees who tried to set up unions.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
The law provides for and protects enterprise-level collective bargaining over wages and working conditions. The Tripartite Commission (unions, employers, and the Government), chaired by the Minister of Economy, Labor and Social Policy Jerzy Hausner, was the main forum that determined national-level wage and benefit increases in sensitive areas, such as the so-called budget sector (health, education, and public employees). The Commission served as an important forum for the social partners to discuss differences and grievances and often to negotiate agreements before problems erupted into conflict.
The law does not require verification of union membership in order for unions to be considered "representative" negotiating partners for management and government. Solidarity protested some unions' (largely OPZZ affiliates) participation in negotiations with the Government on the ground that their membership figures were unsubstantiated.
Many disputes arose because of the weakness of the employer side of the union/employer/government triangle. Key state sector employers (largely in heavy industry and the budget sector) remained unable to negotiate with labor without the extensive involvement of the ministries to which they are subordinate, thereby complicating and politicizing the Government's labor relations.
The law provides for parties to take disputes first to labor courts, then to the prosecutor general, and, as a last resort, to the Supreme Court. In a typical year, Solidarity takes several thousand cases to labor courts, several hundred to the prosecutor general, and dozens to the Supreme Court for resolution. In an overwhelming majority of these cases, the courts ordered employers to correct practices or reinstate dismissed workers, or ordered unions to reimburse employers for activity found to be illegal. However, penalties were minimal and were not an effective deterrent.
Unions have the right to strike except in "essential services"--uniformed services, state administration, and local government--where they only have the right to protest. A majority of strikes were technically illegal because one or both of the sides did not follow each step exactly as required by law. Labor courts acted slowly on deciding the legality of strikes, while sanctions against unions for calling illegal strikes, or against employers for provoking them, were minimal. Arbitration is not obligatory and depends on the agreement of disputing parties. Unions alleged that laws prohibiting retribution against strikers were not enforced consistently and that fines imposed as punishment were so minimal that they were ineffective deterrents to illegal activity. Workers who strike in accordance with the law retain their right to social insurance but not to pay. However, if a court rules a strike illegal, workers may lose social benefits, and organizers are liable for damages and may face civil charges and fines. The social partners (unions, employers, and government) continued to work out ambiguities in dispute resolution mechanisms provided for in the Labor Code.
On August 16, striking employees occupied the Wagony S.A. rail car plant in Ostrow Wielkopolski to protest wage arrears. The strike ended September 2 following partial payment of back wages. In August, workers at the Tonsil electronics plant struck to protest lack of payment and steel workers occupied the county offices in Stalowa Wola. Unionists from the Odratrans barge company blocked boat traffic on the Oder River in Szczecin and Wroclaw on September 2 to protest proposed changes to the company's supervisory board.
On September 2, approximately 10,000 Silesian miners protested mine closings in Katowice. On September 11, a similar number took part in a Warsaw march, which saw violent clashes with police and destruction of property.
In November, the Solidarity trade union organized a "Days of Protest" campaign against the Government's social policies. The campaign included protests by coal miners in Silesia and healthcare workers in Warsaw and a demonstration by persons with disabilities and pensioners in front of Parliament. The campaign ended on November 26 with an estimated 5,000 persons taking part in over 50 actions across the country.
In response to 2002 labor disturbances at the Ozarow Cable Factory, the Council of Ministers and Telefonika Cable's Industry Development Agency agreed to set up an economic zone in the Ozarow area. There was no activity on this project through the end of the year.
There are no export processing zones.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Bonded Labor
The law prohibits forced or bonded labor, including by children; however, there were reports of child labor and trafficking in adults and children for labor (see Sections 6.d. and 6.f.).
d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment
The law prohibits the employment of persons under the age of 15. Persons between the ages of 15 and 18 may be employed only if they have completed primary school and the proposed employment constitutes vocational training and is not harmful to their health.
The State Labor Inspectorate (PIP) reported that increasing numbers of minors worked and that many employers violated labor rules by underpaying them or paying them late. Inspectors found violations in restaurants, on stud farms, and, in some instances, in small private sector businesses and factories. Sanctions for the illegal employment of children range from warning letters to orders to cease employing underage children. The police may enforce such orders by demanding the transfer of underage employees or shutting down all or part of the workplace, or, working through the Ministry of Labor, imposing fines ranging from approximately $5 to $125 (20 to 500 PLN) per offense. Cases may also be referred to an administrative tribunal, which can levy fines of up to $1,250 (5,000 PLN). Jail sentences may be imposed for serious infractions; such cases generally involve serious injury or death. In 2002, the PIP conducted 1,450 investigations involving 6,890 possible underage employees. Fines were levied in 606 cases, amounting to approximately $30,300 (121,210 PLN).
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
The Ministry of Labor, the unions, and employers' organizations negotiate a revised national minimum wage every 3 months. The national minimum monthly wage was approximately $200 (800 PLN); it did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. A large percentage of construction workers and seasonal agricultural laborers from the former Soviet Union earned less than the minimum wage. The large size of the informal economy and the small number of state labor inspectors made enforcement of the minimum wage very difficult. With unemployment high, workers often agreed to inferior working conditions and lower pay to find or keep their jobs.
The standard legal workweek is 40 hours. The law requires overtime payment for hours in excess of the standard workweek, but there were reports that this regulation is often ignored.
The Labor Code defines minimum conditions for the protection of workers' health and safety. Provisions are strict and extensive; however, enforcement was a major problem because the PIP was unable to monitor workplaces sufficiently. In 80,494 work-related accidents reported during 2002, 520 individuals were killed and 1,037 seriously injured. During the first 6 months of the year, 232 workers were killed and 460 were seriously injured. The Government reported that while most accidents were in the public sector, most serious accidents occurred in the private sector, where proportionally more deaths also occurred. Solidarity contended that the problem lies not in the law, which establishes safe standards, but in its enforcement, because sanctions for illegal behavior by employers are minimal. Employers routinely exceeded standards for exposure to chemicals, dust, and noise. In addition, there was a lack of clarity regarding which government body had responsibility for enforcing the law. The PIP may shut down workplaces where it finds unsafe conditions. Workers may remove themselves from dangerous working conditions without losing their jobs, but there were reports that fears of employment loss prompted workers to remain on the job.
The National Unemployment Office estimated that 100,000 to 150,000 foreigners were working illegally in the country. Other estimates ranged from 250,000 to 1.5 million persons, the majority working in jobs and for wages that were unacceptable to citizens. Most illegal workers came from the former Soviet Union, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan, although an increasingly large number were coming from Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam. The country's relatively high wages compared to source countries and its status as an EU candidate were mainly responsible for this phenomenon.
f. Trafficking in Persons
The law prohibits trafficking in persons; however, the country was a source, transit point, and destination for trafficked persons, primarily women and girls but also, to a lesser extent, boys.
Several Criminal Code provisions specifically address trafficking. The law prohibits trafficking in persons and pimping and imposes sentences of up to 10 years on those convicted. It also prohibits recruiting or luring persons into prostitution; penalties for this offense are also up to 10 years. The most severe sentences are for individuals trafficking in children and luring women into prostitution abroad. In September, the country ratified the U.N. protocol prohibiting and punishing acts of trafficking.
Legal authorities dealt with child traffickers more severely than traffickers in adults, in part because laws on statutory rape were easier to prosecute. As a result, the activity has been driven completely underground. Authorities did not always recognize trafficked children because traffickers used false documents identifying them as adults.
During the year, the Government sought stricter sentences and increased investigations of alleged traffickers. From April 2002 through March, police conducted 149 trafficking investigations that led to 47 arrests, 18 prosecutions, and 8 convictions and uncovered 167 trafficking victims. In January, the court sentenced 48-year old "Jerzy K." to 9 years in prison for 48 counts of criminal activity, including lying and coercing girls into prostitution, selling girls to brothels in Berlin and Belgium, and pimping. In May, a Warsaw judge sentenced three Bulgarian traffickers to 4 to 9 years in prison after a Ukrainian girl, bought and forced into prostitution, went to Warsaw police for help. The men were also charged for trafficking in two other cases, even though the females reportedly worked willingly. While child prostitution is a crime, prostitution by adults is neither prohibited nor regulated by law, making it more difficult for the police to pursue trafficking of adults.
The Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice have primary responsibility for anti-trafficking efforts, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs engaged on a bilateral and multilateral level. There were 11 agencies involved in anti-trafficking efforts. The Plenipotentiary for Equal Rights for Men and Women, who works out of the Prime Minister's office, was also involved in anti-trafficking programs.
The National Police participated in several bilateral task forces that shared information, tracked the movement of traffickers and victims across borders, and coordinated repatriations and casework. Bilateral efforts include task forces with the Czech, German, and Swedish police forces. A multilateral task force coordinated anti-trafficking with Baltic state police forces.
Individuals are trafficked to and through the country, primarily from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus, and Moldova. Individuals, including citizens, were trafficked to Western Europe, including Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Some internal trafficking occurred. The extent of the problem is unclear, since statistics on prostitution did not distinguish trafficking victims from those willfully engaged in prostitution and other aspects of the sex trade. The international NGO La Strada estimated that 60 percent of foreign women working as prostitutes in the country were trafficking victims. NGOs believed that the trafficking problem was likely much larger than reflected in the number of arrests and prosecutions.
Ukraine was the largest single source of foreign women trafficked in the country. Women from Bulgaria tended to be from the Turkish and Romani minorities. Of the estimated 7,000 prostitutes in the country, 2,100 (30 percent) were estimated to be of foreign origin. Women and girls who were trafficked were recruited from areas with low socioeconomic conditions, sometimes quite openly. Those from the lowest socioeconomic levels were most vulnerable to trafficking and subjected to the worst conditions. For example, Roma and ethnically Turkish Bulgarians tended to be employed as prostitutes on highways, spending a few months in the country before being trafficked further west. In contrast, women from other East European countries were trafficked into agencies run as brothels. Educated Polish and Russian women were more likely than others to be employed voluntarily by escort services. One NGO reported that some adults and children were also trafficked into the country to provide illegal labor.
Traffickers attracted victims through such means as fake employment offers, arranged marriages, fraud, and coercive measures. Some victims believed that they were accepting employment as waitresses, maids, or nannies abroad. While en route to their purported destinations, traffickers took their passports and identity papers and exerted control over them through fear and intimidation. Traffickers threatened victims with violence, and those who resisted or tried to flee were raped, beaten or purposefully injured.
In recent years, trafficking has become increasingly organized and has been associated with a rampant growth in document fraud. As many as 90 percent of persons trafficked in the country had false travel documents, and the trafficking of a victim usually involved a network of criminals. One criminal would recruit the victim; a second would provide false travel documents and traffick her across the border; and a third would supervise her work with clients, functioning as a pimp. For example, police detained a Bulgarian woman on several occasions, each time with a new identity and passport.
La Strada and the police reported large-scale auctions of women in Warsaw and other cities. Prices for trafficked women and girls reportedly started at approximately $1,500 (6,000 PLN). Victims usually were trafficked by nationals from the same source country; for example, Bulgarian women were trafficked by Bulgarians. Foreign traffickers systematically paid a percentage of their receipts to local traffickers operating out of the same region of the country.
Since the border guards and police could consider them to be liable for deportation due to violations of immigration laws, trafficking victims often were afraid to turn to officials for help. While the Government generally lacked resources to support victims financially, it cooperated extensively with NGOs, who provided a wide range of support services. The Government provided a public building to an NGO to use as a shelter for trafficking victims and gave another organization a grant to build a similar shelter. However, since the number of shelters remained inadequate, NGOs frequently resorted to ad hoc arrangements to shelter victims. The law allows foreign victims with illegal status to remain in the country during the investigation and trial of their traffickers. During the year, the Government provided full assistance to three victims who cooperated in prosecutions. NGOs and police cooperated on police sensitivity training to improve treatment of victims during investigations. The Government developed a pamphlet for police officers on treatment and resources for trafficking victims. NGOs reported improvement on the part of police officers in recognizing trafficking cases.
Nonetheless, victims were not always identified as such and, therefore, were not always informed of their legal status or rights. In many cases, such unrecognized victims were deported as soon as possible, preventing the Government from providing assistance. Some deported victims were met at the border by traffickers, who quickly provided them with new travel documents and returned them to the country. There was no specific assistance set aside for victims repatriated to Poland, although they were eligible for unemployment and welfare benefits. Poland cooperated fully with other countries in anti-trafficking efforts and the repatriation of victims.
Numerous NGOs were involved in anti-trafficking initiatives and victim services. NGOs and educational institutions often worked closely with local authorities to identify trafficking victims and develop training programs for local authorities. La Strada, the only NGO dealing exclusively with trafficking, cooperated with Caritas and other groups. These organizations provided a range of services, including victims' assistance hotlines, safe accommodation, therapy and psychological support, and contacts who could help victims with legal problems and reintegration into society. An increased number of trafficked women came forward for assistance; it was not clear if this was due to an increase in trafficking or because trafficking victims were more aware of or willing to seek assistance from NGOs and government offices that dealt with trafficking.
La Strada also provided training on prevention and victim support to professionals such as police, border guards, prosecutors, judges, social workers, teachers, and journalists. La Strada's "Guardian Angel" program, developed with the Helsinki Foundation, trained social workers to help victims with legal issues so they could be advocates for the victims before the courts, police, and prosecutors. La Strada also conducted various types of instruction on trafficking issues, including awareness training for police, training of Helsinki Foundation personnel, and seminars to university students. In November 2002, La Strada worked with the Government to coordinate an inter-ministerial roundtable to develop a national plan to combat trafficking. The Government adopted this plan in September.
Back to Top
| http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27858.htm | dclm-gs1-098500002 | false | true | {
"keywords": "surveillance, assembly"
} | false | null | false |
0.027753 | <urn:uuid:8a0c5715-8c0f-4fde-bad6-b62654021106> | en | 0.887939 | YAGF - graphical front-end for cuneiform and tesseract
YAGF is a graphical interface for cuneiform and tesseract text recognition tools on the Linux platform. With YAGF you can scan images via XSane, import pages from PDF documents, perform images preprocessing and recognize texts using cuneiform from a single command centre. YAGF also makes it easy to scan and recognize several images sequentially.
System Requirements
Download YAGF
Digitizing text with YAGF consists of several stages: images acquisition, images preprocessing (if necessary), the recognition itself, and saving the results.
Image Acquisition
You can recognize text from the images stored on your hard drive, or you can scan new images and pass them to YAGF directly. Use File/Open Image... command to load an image from your hard drive (you can load several image files at once). You can also drop image files on the dark side bar on the left side of the program's main window (or simply on the program's icon if the program is not running yet). YAGF supports all major raster graphics formats (JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, PNM, PPM, PBM). If the loaded file's name is in the form nameXXX.ext, where XXX is some number, you can move between previous/next file in series with the navigation buttons. For example, if you have loaded the file named MyPage06.jpg, the "Move to next image" button will try to open the next file, that is, MyPage07.jpg. All the opened images will be displayed on the image bar.
If your system's clipboard contains an image, you can paste it to YAGF using an appropriate command.
Scanning pages from the YAGF application
You can acquire images directly from a scanner using XSane. While in YAGF, choose File/Scan command. XSane program will be started. Set up the scanning options with XSane and press XSane's "Scan" button. When the scanning is done the scanned image is opened in the YAGF image viewing window. If you want to scan several pages, you can repeat these operation several times. Each time the last scanned image will be shown in the YAGF image viewing window. You can move to previous images using navigation buttons. You can keep XSane window open while working with YAGF. When you exit YAGF this window will be closed automatically. In order to navigate between scanned images use navigation buttons as it was described above. All acquired images are shown as thumbnails on the image bar. You can save these images into a separate directory using Save button on the image bar.
Importing pages from PDF documents
You can also acquire pages from unencripted PDF files. Use "File|Import from PDF..." command. You will be propted for a PDF document name and the number of pages you want to import (the whole document or some range of pages). Then you will be prompted to select an empty directory to save imported pages. You may create one in the process.
Preparing an image for recognition
There are several preprocessing options available in YAGF. You can rotate loaded images if they are not positioned correctly. Images may be rotated by 90 degrees (counter-) clockwise and by 180 degrees. There are special buttons for this at the top of the image-viewing window. If you don't want to recognize an entire page but rather some part of it, you can select a rectangular block for recognition (more than one block may be selected). The block is selected in the image-viewing window with mouse. Simply hold the left mouse button down and start dragging. Release the button when you are done. Repeate the operation to select another block (keep in mind that blocks cannot overlap). If you click with the left mouse button at come block its color chages to pink and it becomes resizable. You can resize it by dragging mouse pointer on its edge. If you click the image with the right mouse button, the context menu will appear. In this menu you can select one of several options to clear all blocks, to delete the block you clicked on or to recognize the text in the block you clicked.
If the scanned image is skewed, you can deskew it by pressing the Correct skew button. The image will be rotated so that text lines go in parallel with the window boundaries. This will make it easier to select text blocks and recognize text. You can also use a selected block of text as a pattern for deskewing. Select the text block you want to be deskewed (the bigger the block the better), right-click on it and select the Deskew Block command from the context menu.
You can also split the scanned text image into blocks automatically. Press the "Split text into blocks" button or select the command of the same name from the context menu. The blocks will be added to the image selecting text columns and paragraphs. Sometimes you have to deskew the image before splitting text into blocks but if the scanned page lies straight you can split it without additional deskewing. Note that when you call automatic text splitting, all blocks added before will be removed.
While usually the scanned page doesn't fit into the image-viewing window, you can scale an image up or down to make the selection process more convenient. This operation doesn't change the resolution of the image passed to cuneiform for recognition. You can also scale images using Ctrl++ and Ctrl+- keys combinations or with the mouse wheel while holding Ctrl key down. You can change the font size in the text editor window the same way.
The Text Recognition
There is a "prepare for recgnition button" button that combines several page-prepaation tasks (page skew elimination, block-splitting) into a single step.
Now you can select the OCR tool to use (cuneiform or tesseract). This is done with the menu "Settings|OCR Settings" command. The tesseract OCR engine allows recognition in some languages not supported by cuneiform (Greek, Turkish, Hebrew, Finnish and so on). The list of available languages in the language selection box depends on the OCR engine chosen.
Before recognizing text you should select the recognition language (or a language paire if the document to be recognized is written in several languages).
Each newly recognized text fragment is added to the recognized text editor window at the end of the already recognized text as a new paragraph.annot find a dictionary for the selected recognition language. Turn spell-checking off if you don't want to see these warnings.
If you have several images opened in your Image bar, you can use batch recognition to recognize text from all the images in a sequence. Click "Recognize All Pages" button. If the are blocks selected on the pages, only the text in the blocks will be recognized during the batch recognition. If the pages loaded into YAGF have diffrent scale or orientation or different blocks selected on them, YAGF will remember this information until the program is running. The images will be automatically loaded and recognized one after another and the progress dialog will appear. You can stop the recognition process by clicking the progress dialog's Abort button.
Saving the Results
You can save all acquiored pages, their modifications and selected blocks as a project for the later work. Go to File menu and select the Save Project command. New dialog box will appear prompting you to select the directory where the project will be saved. The directory for a new should be empty. You can also reate a new directory from the dialog box. After ou have selected the directory all the open images and project settings will be saved there. To load previously saved project go to the File menu and select the Load project command. Oce agan the dialog box will appear where you will be able to select the project's directory. You can also save the reopened project using the same command that you use to save a new project. Currently recognised text is not saved with the projects. It should be saved separately.
The recognized text may be saved to disc as a text or html file in UTF-8 encoding or copied to the clipboard. The "Copy to Clipboard" btton copies either a selected text fragment or the whole text if no fragment is selected.
YAGF Downloads (release date December 6 2013)
Source Code (requires CMake to build):
The project SVN repository and bug tracker are available at http://code.google.com/p/yagf
Contact me: anb@symmetrica.net
If you like this page, please press the button: | http://www.symmetrica.net/cuneiform-linux/yagf-en.html | dclm-gs1-098580002 | false | true | {
"keywords": "mouse, importin"
} | false | null | false |
0.087342 | <urn:uuid:f60255af-508a-4e0e-bfe8-05434c9692f9> | en | 0.973743 | England 2 VS Holland 1
Sunday, 06/09/2009
Kick off 17:00 BST at Tampere Stadium, Tampere
England - Kelly Smith 61' Jill Scott 116'
Holland - Pieete 64'
England reach Final
Sunday, 06 September, 2009
Jill Scott heads England into the Euro Final.
Julian Bennetts
Jill Scott headed a dramatic extra-time winner as England’s women reached the Final of the European Championship for the first time since 1984.
Hope Powell’s side had dominated the game and fully deserved their victory but were made to work hard for it by their Dutch opponents.
It had looked as if England were well set when Kelly Smith gave them the lead just after the hour, but a lack of concentration allowed Marlous Pieete to equalise almost immediately.
But Scott rose highest with just five minutes left to ensure England will meet either Germany or Norway in Thursday’s Final.
England started like a team on a mission and unsurprisingly it was Smith who came to the fore, tormenting the Dutch defence with a series of mazy dribbles that demonstrated just why she is considered to be one of the best players in the women’s game.
Yet the Dutch team were proving to be obdurate opponents, demonstrating the same resolve that saw them stop France from scoring in their quarter-final, a game they eventually won on penalties.
England were growing increasingly frustrated as their opponents were content to sit back and soak up pressure.
But the breakthrough Powell’s side had been searching for arrived just after the hour when Eniola Aluko stole the ball on the edge of the area and drove towards goal before laying the ball back perfectly for Smith. The former Arsenal striker never looked likely to miss and duly drove the ball into the far corner.
Yet England then allowed their concentration to slip, conceding a soft equaliser just three minutes later. Manon Melis was given far too much time to measure a cross into the box and Pieete swept the ball home, giving Rachel Brown no chance.
As soon as they equalised the Netherlands were content to sit back and allow England to attack, but Powell’s side were unable to make their pressure count as the game went to extra-time.
Yet England should undoubtedly have been ahead four minutes into the first extra period when Karen Carney raced to the byline and pulled the ball back for Lianne Sanderson, who could only hit the bar from just six yards out.
It was all England by this point, and the decisive goal they fully merited came with just five minutes to go thanks to Scott.
The Everton midfielder had looked dangerous from set pieces throughout the game and rose highest to meet Carney’s corner and plant her header into the corner to spark scenes of delirious celebrations, both on the pitch and the touchline. | http://www.thefa.com/England/womens-seniors/News/match-centre/2009/England_Holland | dclm-gs1-098650002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.169409 | <urn:uuid:3a5c8506-8cf1-41a7-b313-3f2b2b052206> | en | 0.87895 | Timeout New York
Make the most of your city
Best pet stores
Forget Petco: These indie boutiques offer personalized service and one-of-a-kind goods for four-legged friends.
Manhattan | Brooklyn | Queens
The Jumping Bulldog
Tania Firrigno's chic, inviting boutique is dedicated to her French bulldog Oskar, who "in reality, is the one who runs the show," says Firrigno. Pick up luxury products typical of Manhattan pet stores, sans the inflated prices. No time to give Fido a bath? Pat him down with Earthbath Green Tea wipes (100 for $15), infused with Hawaiian awapuhi extract, aloe vera and vitamin E. If he's good, reward him with a locally baked Robbie Dawg organic biscuit ($7) in flavors like Brooklyn pizza and honey BBQ chicken. Entertainment comes easy with a Simply Fido plush lamb toy ($15), which is Chinese-made and certified organic. 28-10 23rd Ave between 28th and 29th Sts, Astoria (718-274-2510, jumpingbulldog.com)
Whiskers Holistic Petcare
Think of Randy Klein's holistic shop as a Whole Foods for dogs, cats, birds and other small animals, complete with organic skin-care products and high-quality munchies. But it's not just the comestibles that are socially conscious: Whiskers donates a portion of its proceeds to local shelters and offers in-store cat adoptions. Calm Fluffy's nerves by following the instructions on a Whiskers pet reflexology chart ($1) and make bathtime chemical-free with Dr. Shawn's organic itch-relief shampoo ($23). And if a certain kitty is obsessed with treats, she'll go wild for Kookamunga catnip blowing bubbles ($6). 19-25 Ditmars Blvd between 19th and 21st Sts, Astoria (718-626-8590) * 235 E 9th St at Second Ave (212-979-2532) * 1800whiskers.com
Manhattan | Brooklyn | Queens
See more in Shopping
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
Write your own review
1. * mandatory fields | http://www.timeout.com/newyork/shopping/best-pet-stores?pageNumber=3 | dclm-gs1-098810002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.996427 | <urn:uuid:96458699-012e-4070-ac5b-a60823531a66> | en | 0.938886 | Reply to a comment
Reply to this comment
WFFL writes:
in response to Trapper:
I have an interesting question, if a person kills a bunch of people with a bomb or an airplane, why do we not blame the bomb or the airplane instead of just labeling that person/persons as terrorist?
But if a person uses a firearm to kill a bunch of people it is always the FIREARMS fault.
I know right, If we could conceal carry airplanes and bombs, then the good guys with airplanes and bombs could stop the bad guys with airplanes and bombs.
BTW, you have to be licensed to fly a plane and go through a million tests. Also there have been tons of new regulations on airlines and air travel since 9/11 and there hasn't been another attack of that nature since. So the argument actually works in favor of tougher regulations.
| http://www.timesrecordnews.com/comments/reply/?target=61:151068&comment=190588 | dclm-gs1-098820002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.276452 | <urn:uuid:2e8fbb99-3386-4a8b-a3b1-da062d68a278> | en | 0.940901 | Quick Tip: Old games can't find /dev/dsp
If your old games, like UT, Quake2, or Rune, won't start or don't have sound due to the error "can't find /dev/dsp" on your modern Linux systems, it's because they were made when OSS (Open Sound System) was the preferred sound system in Linux. Alsa doesn't make the old /dev/dsp device so old games can't find the device to use.
If you run a Linux system like Mandriva or Ubuntu, that build their kernels to try and suite the masses, then OSS emulation is probably built as a module but maybe not loaded at boot. In that case all you really need to do as root is:
/sbin/modprobe snd-pcm-oss
If you built your own kernel, you may need to make sure you have:
set: Device Drivers > Sound Card Support > Advanced Linux Sound Architecture > OSS PCM (digital audio) API to M | http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/39056 | dclm-gs1-098880002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.089433 | <urn:uuid:fa2bbcbc-fd52-4c24-8420-35d1b1232acb> | en | 0.884189 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like mixie:
1. Mason Moore
Proper Noun: Smooth talking, sweetest person you will ever meet. Very reserved, but outgoing and hilarious when in a comfortable environment. Usually depressed, but will always tends brighten your mood. Best sex you will ever get.
Mason Moore is so fucking epic, i want to lick the clothes off of his body
rss and gcal | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mason%20Moore&defid=3912596 | dclm-gs1-098940002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.95675 | <urn:uuid:fb19708c-e6df-4cdf-a401-8251cf0b7eaa> | en | 0.949414 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like selfie:
1. SwollSack
Someone who is a beast and is extremely talented in the weight room. A person you are not ready for and that doesn't fuck around. One who gets buff, and gets bitches.
#1- " That guy does not fuck around."
#2- " C'mon son you're not ready, that guy is a SwollSack."
rss and gcal | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=SwollSack&defid=5921943 | dclm-gs1-098960002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.425058 | <urn:uuid:37cefc7d-b125-411c-9eda-2492ae68e1f0> | en | 0.89231 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like mixie:
1. Turffin
To send in private message or post on social media a photograph of the beer you intend to drink before you drink it.
A way to say "This is my property (or turf), be jealous and don't touch."
"Chad keeps Turffin me his lame PBR."
"I actually found a Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA, I am so Turffin this!"
rss and gcal | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Turffin&defid=6516349 | dclm-gs1-098970002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.06841 | <urn:uuid:30aaeab9-a014-4539-a8b8-3c23e9db905a> | en | 0.825113 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like mixie:
1. Up in the grillz!
To have a foreign object or other obstruction in the way of personal space. It can also be used to describe an intrusion or some interruption.
"Yo, homie what you be doin' getting all up in my grillz!?"
"Hey Clarence check out those wasps all up in the grillz!"
rss and gcal | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Up%20in%20the%20grillz%21&defid=4259473 | dclm-gs1-098980002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.996306 | <urn:uuid:1544d62a-3c42-4398-b76c-6f38cf43ff73> | en | 0.94141 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like fishermans haircut:
1. Wilburing Device
The act of using a Banana Peel to Masturbate. Derived from combining the news of an Australian Celebrity named Wilbur Wilde's ex-wife's admission to him having an abnormally large penis and a bizare method of masturbating!
Why were you so long in the toilet? Were you using your Wilburing Device?
rss and gcal | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wilburing%20Device&defid=1590296 | dclm-gs1-098990002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.416715 | <urn:uuid:a6647ee9-f8e3-405a-86b4-a02f7a70e6f4> | en | 0.953165 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like cenosillicaphobia:
17. wood pusher
a no tallent wannabe who thinks that what they do is extream or hard. the kids at the skate parks who do the same line every time, and cry when someone gets in their way. they think that they are cool cuz they can grind a rail for 5 seconds.
Q:what do skateboarders do when they aren't going to land a trick?
A:kick their gay boards away and land on their feet.
same question for skaters
A:take the fall get the fuck and and try again
wood pusher:omg these kids are getting in my way of doing the same trick that i just did. here comes that damn skater(quick call him a fruit booter)
skater:stfu you think what u do is hard, try grinding a rail for more than two seconds. better yet try jumping over a sidewalk with a 5ft piece of grass behind it onto a rail that is about chest high and grind the whole thing.
1. woodpusher
Woodpushers suck ass
2. wood pusher
me: wow look at that gay poser wood pusher.
by roller January 04, 2005 add a video add an image
3. Wood pusher
by anonymous September 25, 2003 add a video add an image
4. woodpusher
by BenF October 04, 2003 add a video add an image
5. wood pusher
the name forced by the name fruit booter
6. woodpusher
7. wood-pusher
Person 2: Yeah I'm really good!
rss and gcal | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wood%20pusher&defid=2031739 | dclm-gs1-099000002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.261803 | <urn:uuid:b1a7ac68-33b4-4052-bd7a-3be18488ad96> | en | 0.923909 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like yolo:
1. yogurt rasins
a white person who wants to be black
some people think that Eminem is a yogurt rasin, but those who say that are profoundly retarded.
by bojizzle June 26, 2004 add a video add an image
rss and gcal | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yogurt%20rasins | dclm-gs1-099010002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.052786 | <urn:uuid:c7ce4bdc-b4e8-42c0-b2eb-a602865d6742> | en | 0.964076 | ARIES [March 21–April 19] For a limited time only, you're in a position to consciously choose your next problems, so don't allow this to go to waste. By being proactive, you can ensure the arrival of fun and interesting dilemmas, thereby avoiding the frustrating and draining kinds. If you go looking for provocative new challenges, the same old tired and trivial trouble won't come looking for you. I suggest you begin the quest as soon as possible.
TAURUS [April 20–May 20] Actor Sean Penn lives a few miles from where I am right now. An out-of-town friend of mine who's an aspiring screenwriter is pleading with me to drive by Sean's house and hurl a hard copy of her latest script over the high wall that affords him and his family privacy. My friend imagines that Sean will find it, read it excitedly, and call her up to begin negotiating for rights to use it in a future film. I may do what she asks. It's my policy not to discourage people's fantasies about making the connections they need, even if they're far-fetched. In that spirit, Taurus, I urge you to pursue any hunches you might have about forging alliances that could further your dreams.
GEMINI [May 21–June 20] "Opportunities multiply as they are seized," wrote Sun Tzu in The Art of War. Now I'm conveying this idea to you, Gemini, as you enter one of the most opportunistic phases of your astrological cycle. What else can you do to get yourself in the right groove? First, adopt a perceptive, receptive attitude that attunes you to budding possibilities. Next, respond expeditiously to every little invitation that appeals to you. Finally, keep in mind that luck tends to happen to those who have done the hard work to generate it.
In addition to this column,
Rob Brezsny offers
designed to inspire you.
To buy access, go here.
PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:
How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
by Rob Brezsny
Check out Rob's band World Entertainment War.
Related Stories
More About
CANCER [June 21–July 22] If you ask young men what experiences have afforded them the most adventurous fun of their lives, a majority will talk about indoor activities. Some will say video games; others, their sexual escapades. Only a minority will describe far-flung events in the great outdoors or exotic locales. What about you, Cancerian? Under what circumstances have your most amazing forays into the unknown unfolded? Where have you been transformed in ways that helped you stretch to meet your destiny? I'd like to suggest that it's time to go beyond those previous benchmarks. You're ready to transcend your personal limits as you wander into the frontier.
LEO [July 23–August 22] "Dear Rob: In my dream last night, I was playing with a lion in my garden. Suddenly, it jumped up, put its paws on my shoulders, and got face-to-face with me. I realized it could either swallow my head or kiss me. I was excited by the possibility of the kiss and scared because I sensed it wanted something from me, but I didn't know what. Can you offer any insight? —Leo in Limbo." Dear Leo: A lot of Leos are dealing with themes like this right now. The thing that's most appealing to you happens to be wild. You need to exercise caution as you go forward to engage with it more intimately. Just as you want something from it, it's asking for something in return. You'll have to know exactly what that is in order to protect yourself from its wildness.
VIRGO [August 23–September 22] In a fiction-writing class at Sarah Lawrence College, professor Mary LaChapelle encourages her students to practice the art of enchantment. "How do we avoid succumbing to safe and unoriginal decisions," she asks, "and aim to recognize and trust our more mysterious and promising impulses?"Keep this in mind right now, Virgo, whether you're about to create something or are starting a new chapter in the epic story that is your life.
LIBRA [September 23–October 22] Evolution has given the human body a profound capacity to cure itself with its own resources, writes Roger Jahnke in The Healer Within. And yet most of us neglect to call on this inner reserve of natural medicine, looking mostly to drugs and doctors for the miracles we long for. I hope you deepen your relationship with your inner healer in the coming weeks. It's prime time to take a more active role in shaping your well-being.
SCORPIO [October 23–November 21] Benjamin Franklin said that the U.S. Constitution "only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself." That's a good reminder for you as you enter a phase when you'll probably have more success than usual if you hunt for joy and bliss. I suggest you create a list of at least three sources of delight with which you want to commune. Then write descriptions of how you're going to increase and expand their presence in your life.
SAGITTARIUS [November 22–December 21] At the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, the value of petroleum rose 40 percent. But by mid-January, it had plummeted, losing 12 percent in one day. Suppliers started withholding large reserves from the market. For weeks, supertankers full of fuel circled aimlessly offshore, refusing to unload their precious cargo until prices rebounded. Consider imitating their behavior, Sagittarius. Don't make your best stuff fully available until your target audience is ready to reward you for its true worth. It's OK to tease, though—or do anything ethical that will increase the demand for your services.
CAPRICORN [December 22–January 19] Even when you are not feeling your best, you try hard. Where there is hurt, you rise up with resilience to provide help. If there are people who don't know where they are or where they're going, you are often a beacon of calm. I applaud your urge to fight for justice not only in service to yourself but also on behalf of others who can't be as composed as you are when things are broken. And I'm happy to inform you that the favors you're doling out now will ultimately be returned in kind when you least expect it.
AQUARIUS [January 20–February 18] I feel much better. Today, I underwent plastic surgery for the first time. An intervention specialist over at the Consumer Counseling Center removed 40 percent of my credit cards from my wallet. She then cut them in half and burned them, releasing fumes that sent me spiraling into an altered state of consciousness that revealed to me the steps I must take to upgrade my approach to money. In that state, I was also able to have psychic visions about the nature of your financial karma. What I saw is that you, too, would benefit right now from expanding your mind and changing your habits in all matters related to earning, spending, and saving money.
PISCES [February 19–March 20] A study at Newcastle University in the U.K concludes that if a cow is given a name by her owner, she generates more milk than a cow that's treated as an anonymous member of the herd. "Placing more importance on knowing the individual animals and calling them by name," said Dr. Catherine Douglas, "can significantly increase milk production." I suggest that you give everything in your world names, including (but not limited to) houseplants, insects, cars, appliances, and trees. Of course, this is always a good idea, because it enhances your connection with all of creation. But it's an especially smart approach now, when getting more up-close and personal should be your specialty.
Homework: What's your secret beauty—the great thing about you that no one knows? Testify at
Show Pages
My Voice Nation Help | http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-02-18/columns/free-will-astrology-february-18-through-24/full/ | dclm-gs1-099050002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.998739 | <urn:uuid:4ffb09b9-50bc-4642-99bf-86377521d429> | en | 0.840716 | Here's the Morning Mind Bender Trivia question:
This costs the average American woman $30,000, while European gals pay nearly 90 percent less -- about four grand. What is it?
Answer: Child birth
Winner: Mayra Ortiz is today's winner of a $25 Tablefields gift card. Mayra, please e-mail Zac@WMYI.com for details on how to claim your prize.
Sponsored by: | http://www.wmyi.com/pages/zacandmarne.html?article=11453217 | dclm-gs1-099170002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.048101 | <urn:uuid:c0304283-f8d8-4770-9192-2c7648c98a73> | en | 0.961641 | Perfecting basic football skills should be a priority
FOOTBALL Association chairman Greg Dyke (The Press, September 5) is right to say that our Premier League is awash with foreign players simply because they are mostly more skilled and adaptable to the current game.
Until our outdated coaching methods are drastically altered nothing is likely to change.
Our aim should be to create footballers, not full-backs or midfielders etc. From a very early age we need to coach basic skills such as ball control, dribbling (the dying art) and have them perform solely in five-a-side league formats until about the age of 12 or 13.
By then they will have developed as a footballer and their best position will have evolved naturally and only then should their introduction to the eleven-a side game be considered.
Unfortunately, under the current system a young lad is designated a full-back, midfielder or forward and is lumbered forever with that tag.
Therefore only a very few reach the top of the English game and as a consequence our national side will continue in the second or third tier of world soccer.
Bill Bevan, Eastfield Crescent, York.
Comments are closed on this article.
About cookies
I agree | http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/features/readersletters/10662946.Perfecting_basic_football_skills_should_be_a_priority/ | dclm-gs1-099290002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.29017 | <urn:uuid:f0c6daad-b1f1-4b59-bb10-0c3be7ff9fbe> | en | 0.917611 | Originated From
AOL Search
Does anyone use word problems made easy by otter creek?
Liked this question? Tell your friends about it
Related Questions
Asked: How do I solve this simultaneous equation. Been a ...
-462=x-y x=-2y The question is with regards to a three bar model and the residual stress in welds. The answer is: x=-154 MPa and y is +308 MPa x is actually stress2 and y is stress1 I'm so ...
Asked: Science
What are the various forms of evidence for evolution?
Asked: Meaning of words in science
More Questions
How do I access words with friends on my android 4.0
Are people ultimately judged by the kindness of ...
Smart, good buy Yeah, he's often a winner. but what about the smart, bood guy? Or the bard smood guy The Dad bumb guy sounds like a cartoon. Dad gumbbuy--- I'm going with the smart, good bye.
What words have i, h,g,o,e,d,j
No word has all those letters. The highest scoring word is JOG.
What does the word
Nishpur or Nishapur is a city in northeast Iran, formerly Persia, on the Silk Road and close to Afghanistan, and close to turquoise mines. The language is Persian. It is named after Shapur I. Wikipedia says the name presumably stems from *n?v-??p?r "fair, good city of Shapur."[ | http://aolanswers.com/questions/word-problems-easy-otter-creek_149130814931835 | dclm-gs1-099420002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.079016 | <urn:uuid:fd4c1e08-9384-4cb4-a589-316b289dfa96> | en | 0.924316 | Tell me more ×
I have done a clean Natty install having bought a new SSD and find that in applications (ahem) such as Minecraft, and in the default web browser Firefox, the mouse scrolls too far .
So for example in Minecraft the mouse wheel jumps multiple items rather than one with each mouse wheel roll. With Firefox the page leaps quite a distance with each mouse wheel roll.
Any ideas where I might adjust this?
share|improve this question
Hello, if you have fully updated your system then this could be related to this bug. Not sure though. – user8592 Jun 5 '11 at 16:31
add comment
2 Answers
As a workaround, try unplugging your mouse and plugging it back in. I run into this issue when the mouse is plugged into my laptop when Ubuntu boots up. Using this workaround fixes the issue for me.
share|improve this answer
This fixed it for me and I was pretty suprised! This fix was kinda surreal and like most folks I didn't believe it until I did it: Turns out some MS mice have a scrollwheel bug. As Tarek found, > Try unplugging the USB cable / dongle then plug back in. That's it! Now my mouse moves normally (one line at a time, not half a screen!) This worked even though I use a 4-port screen/keyboard/mouse KVM box ! Yeah! – Michael Durrant Feb 6 '12 at 16:42
Thoughts on mice that don't plug in (ie, bluetooth)? – Ken Oct 17 '12 at 0:43
Disconnect/Reconnect? TBH I have no clue why that works, but I imagine issue seems has something to do with a hand-off of the mouse control between two subsystems; the second taking the (incorrect) parameters from the first. – Tarek Fadel Dec 4 '12 at 12:28
add comment
Firefox scroll rate:
For changing global scroll rate: How can I change the mouse's wheel scroll rate?
Did you search before posting?
share|improve this answer
It's not a global setting that's the problem, or one with Firefox. It's that the JVM is reporting double ticks for each event. – Ken Oct 17 '12 at 16:29
add comment
Your Answer
| http://askubuntu.com/questions/47100/mouse-wheel-scrolling-too-fast?answertab=votes | dclm-gs1-099460002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "mouse"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.028003 | <urn:uuid:99ead5ff-aeba-48e5-aa5d-26f89a86377f> | en | 0.981307 | Surviving Travelers Fly to Chennai (Madras)
Trip Start Feb 23, 2009
Trip End Mar 18, 2009
Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
Flag of India , Tamil Nadu,
Monday, March 9, 2009
We flew back to India on this day, and we wished we'd been able to spend more time in Sri Lanka. The beach at Unawatuna was the most relaxing place we went, and we loved seeing the more tropical inland parts of the island, including rubber plantations and tea plantations, and buying amazing fruits and nuts from the side of the road. We had great food everywhere we went, and really liked the Sri Lankan people we met. Unfortunately, even on the day we left there was a suicide bomber at a mosque about half an hour from Unawatuna, who killed 16 people at a religious celebration.
Our flight from Colombo to Chennai was different than any other flight we took. It was filled with a rowdy male crowd who steadfastly ignored requests from the flight crew to sit in their assigned seats, or not walk around during takeoff, etc. They all had duty-free bags stuffed in the overhead lockers, and as soon as the bump of the landing, they all jumped out of their seats and started rustling around in the bing. In the Chennai airport, I saw that most of them had 12-packs of beer in those bags. We thought we saw some of them stealing from others, so we kept a close eye on our belongings. Jae said, "This is the first time on the trip that I've been uncomfortable." None of the group had any luggage, so it seemed to be a group of workers who flew back and forth all the time.
Chennai was another big, chaotic hot city. We checked into the rather nice Eco-hotel called The Rain Tree, which had been recommended by a friend who's living in Chennai, and he met us for drinks at the rooftop restaurant that night. Our friend, an American who moved there to live for about a year with his wife and kids as he supervised a film special-effects house, described his experiences being the only American in his office where he supervised hundreds of Indian artists and technicians.
I asked Jae, "What makes something an Eco-hotel?" She said it was because they used bamboo in making the flooring, used flourescent lights, managed power useage, and other things. What they didn't manage to control was the lousy music in all the public areas; light jazz, usually played by Kenny G, that was audible in every lobby and restaurant. Almost every hotel we went to on this trip thought they were doing us a favor by programming "pleasant" American light jazz, and I hated it, particularly because I wanted to hear local music.
End of tirade. For now.
Slideshow Report as Spam
Use this image in your site
Copy and paste this html: | http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/randfamily/1/1237310280/tpod.html | dclm-gs1-099570002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "survivin"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.228577 | <urn:uuid:df9eb058-38d6-43e3-a22c-4141e8465b2f> | en | 0.916967 | The best way to drink water
I really don’t like drinking water. It is plain, boring, and doesn’t do much for me right away.
When I don’t drink water, though, I can tell. Many people who are accustomed to being well-hydrated drink water to avoid the lousy feeling they get when they aren’t.
People who aren’t used to drinking water don’t usually know the difference. They ask, “Can’t I just drink caffeine-free diet soda or black coffee or crystal light instead?” I have to say no.
Do I drink only water and milk, and avoid soda and coffee? No way. It isn’t realistic for most people to do that. Practicing moderation, however, is important. Here’s why coffee, diet soda and flavorings shouldn’t replace plain water.
On coffee:
We do know that consuming too much caffeine can cause ill effects on the heart, gastrointestinal upset and dehydration. So drink your coffee in moderate amounts (up to 400 mg daily), and you will be fine! For the record, one cup (8 ounces) of regular coffee has about 150 mg of caffeine.
On diet soda:
Besides artificial sweeteners, colas also contain caffeine and phosphoric acid, which can affect calcium absorption. Recent research also shows that people who consume more soda drink fewer beverages with calcium. In some people, it has actually been shown to be harmful from increasing appetite, to causing migraines and beyond. In others, a diet soda a day helps curb a sweet craving and is a minor indulgence worth having. Again, I take the “everything in moderation” stance.
On flavorings:
While crystal light doesn’t have caffeine, it does contain aspartame, which makes it less helpful than plain water. The body recognizes water as a natural, necessary nutrient. When that water has other ingredients, it just isn’t the same anymore.
The body is made mostly of water, and if you don’t drink enough, the body will have to somehow convert what you do drink to water or adjust to being dehydrated. Adjusting to dehydration means electrolyte imbalances, decreased energy and performance, and organ system malfunction over time. These are just to name a few!
Most people function best with at least 64 ounces of water a day, though some people need more than that. Whatever change you make in your water intake, remember that feeling better, losing weight, sleeping better and performing better are just some of the effects you will likely notice from drinking more water.
Leave a Reply
| http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/2012/08/08/the-best-way-to-drink-water/ | dclm-gs1-099600002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.985854 | <urn:uuid:a6786164-f8b9-486c-8e6a-56bb84e323ab> | en | 0.933083 | The Gamble
A unique statistical history of the 2012 presidential election, analyzing the strategic choices of both Romney and Obama that decided the outcome of their respective campaigns.
| http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/The-Long-List/The-Gamble/ba-p/11477 | dclm-gs1-099640002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.018311 | <urn:uuid:3f0b0bfa-4e16-4f36-abfb-c96b64f9bbba> | en | 0.945213 | An Android app that can help hackers spy on your home
A new phone app, created by US military experts, can make your phone camera take secret pictures, and in turn help hackers spy on you and your home.
The "PlaiceRaider" app was created at the US Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana, to show how cyber criminals could operate in the future, the Daily Mail reported.
The app can turn on a phone's camera, and personal data and private moments can be gleaned from images.
The software can build up a 3D model of a home, from which hackers can inspect rooms, and even take information about valuables in homes.
The military team gave infected phone instruments to 20 individuals, who did not know about the malicious app, and asked them to continue operating in their normal environment.
Researcher Robert Templeman said the app can run in the background of any smartphone using the Android operating system, the daily said.
The team, however, offered various ways in which phone manufacturers could secure their systems, for instance making it impossible to disable the shutter sound on phones so that a user will know if a picture is being taken.
Additional Information: | http://cyberwarzone.com/android-app-can-help-hackers-spy-your-home | dclm-gs1-099750002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.019227 | <urn:uuid:bcf5bdc7-5bae-40f1-b590-62b260c40a60> | en | 0.888237 | Science Dictionary
antibody (ān'tĭ-bŏd'ē) Pronunciation Key
(click for larger image in new window)
Any of numerous proteins produced by B lymphocytes in response to the presence of specific foreign antigens, including microorganisms and toxins. Antibodies consist of two pairs of polypeptide chains, called heavy chains and light chains, that are arranged in a Y-shape. The two tips of the Y are the regions that bind to antigens and deactivate them. Also called immunoglobulin.
Our Living Language : Like other vertebrates, humans possess an effective immune system that uses antibodies to fight bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Antibodies are complex, Y-shaped protein molecules. The immune system's B lymphocytes, which are produced by the bone marrow, develop into plasma cells that can generate a huge variety of antibodies, each one capable of combining with and destroying an antigen, a foreign molecule. Antibodies react to very specific characteristics of different antigens, binding them to the top ends of their Y formation. Once the antibody and antigen combine, the antibodies deactivate the antigen or lead it to macrophages(a kind of white blood cell) that ingest and destroy it. High numbers of a particular antibody may persist for months after an invasion, eventually diminishing. However, the B cells can quickly manufacture more of the same antibody if exposure to the antigen recurs. Vaccines work by "training" B cells to recognize and react quickly to potential disease molecules.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Cite This Source
Previous Definition: antibodies
Next Definition: antic line
Words Near: antibody
More from
Synonyms and Antonyms for antibody
More from
Search for articles containing antibody
Copyright © 2013, LLC. All rights reserved.
• Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature | http://dictionary.reference.com/science/antibody | dclm-gs1-099780002 | false | true | {
"keywords": "antibody, antigen"
} | true | {
"score": 0.9394705891609192,
"triggered_passage": 0
} | true |
0.148248 | <urn:uuid:f1f4d927-b08b-4f73-a858-707f208b5d04> | en | 0.767846 | AskSubmitNext pageArchive
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over… it became a butterfly.
"Always by my side."
Thank you
Leave the world behindDeviantart link: http://dymx.deviantart.com/art/Leave-the-world-behind-398165186
SasuSaku <3I love Sakura with long hair ;A;
Super old fanart! I think I should draw more SasuSaku smut because tumblr won’t remove them like DA does :3
Time to sleep zzzzzzz
Was listening to this on repeat.
OCs: Vaness & Tamara
Dat Haruno booty *__* Always thought she had a nice ass lololWIP.. It will be finished later
Haruno Sakura | http://dymx.tumblr.com/ | dclm-gs1-099790002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.055098 | <urn:uuid:9e6fd680-785a-4c4a-ade0-99aecfbc95b6> | en | 0.959144 | Treaty of the Bogue
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Treaty of the Bogue (simplified Chinese: 虎门条约; traditional Chinese: 虎門條約) was an agreement between China and the United Kingdom, which was concluded in October 1843 in order to supplement the previous Treaty of Nanking. The treaty is mostly known for the fact that it granted extraterritoriality and most favored nation status to Britain.
In order to conclude the First Opium War, imperial commissioner Qiying and Henry Pottinger concluded the Treaty of Nanking aboard the British warship HMS Cornwallis in 1842 in Nanjing on the behalf of the British and the Qing Empires. The treaty became the first of a series of commercial treaties, often referred to as "Unequal Treaties", which China concluded with Western powers.
Already during the negotiations in Nanjing, China and Britain agreed that a supplementary treaty be concluded, and on 22 July 1843 the two parties promulgated the "General Regulations of Trade with Britain and China" in Guangzhou. These regulations were included in the "Treaty of the Bogue," which Qiying and Pottinger signed on 3 October 1843 on the Bogue outside Guangzhou.
The treaty laid down detailed regulations for Sino-British trade and specified the terms under which Britons could reside in the newly opened ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Fuzhou and Guangzhou. While Britons were allowed to buy property in the treaty ports and reside there with their families, they were not allowed to travel to the interior of China or carry out trade there.
The treaty also granted extraterritorial privileges to British subjects and Most Favored Nation status to the United Kingdom, which meant that Britain would enjoy any privilege granted to other powers.
In China, the treaty is widely regarded as an imperialist treaty, which paved the way for the subjugation of China to Western imperialism. The treaty consolidated the "opening" of China to foreign trade in the wake of the First Opium War and allowed Britons to reside in parts of China, which had not been opened to foreigners before. In 1845, local Qing authorities and the British authorities promulgated the Shanghai Land regulations, which paved the way for the foundation of the International Settlement. Similar agreements were concluded in other treaty ports, which created a social divide between the Europeans and Chinese citizens in the cities.
See also[edit]
• Hertslet, Edward, ed. Treaties, &C., between Great Britain and China; and between China and Foreign Powers; Orders in Council, Rules, Regulations, Acts of Parliament, Decrees, and Notifications Affecting British Interests in China, in Force on the 1st January, 1896. 2 vols. London: Homson, 1896. | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_the_Bogue | dclm-gs1-099870002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.079253 | <urn:uuid:5cf8a4c7-c7b5-4076-bd89-cd100973ef9b> | en | 0.966171 | The Trap of Ignorance
Today is Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent. Wikipedia defines Ash Wednesday as the “Christian practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God” and Lent as “a time of sacrifice for Jesus”. I didn’t know that this religious holiday was today until a 20 year-old came into my office with ashes on her forehead and lamented that she is giving up chocolate, again, for Lent and expressed how much this pains her. So I asked her, “why”?
She was surprised by the question and said, well, um, because I like chocolate a lot. “Yes,” I said, “but why are you giving it up?” Well, um, because you’re supposed to give up what you like the most for Lent. “Yes, but why?” Well, um, so you can appreciate it more after 40 days of not having it. “Okay, but why are you doing this? I mean, what is the purpose of Lent, why was it created?” Well, um, I don’t really know but it’s part of my faith and that’s how I grew up. “So you just do it because that’s what’s always been done?” Well, um, yeah, I guess so. I suggested she just keep eating chocolate, Jesus would probably be happier to know she was enjoying herself.
It doesn’t bother me that she is observing Lent, what is bothersome is that she doesn’t even know why she’s observing it. What makes us creatures of habit to the extent that we are willing to do things just because that’s the way they’ve always been done? Blind faith is one thing but faith without a clue as to why we even have it just makes me keep asking, why, why, why?
The human condition is so strange, especially when humans, like gerbils on a wheel, keep repeating patterns by running in circles as if by doing this, everything will somehow be okay. What motivates me on this path of freedom is to constantly un-write the illusions and burdens of out-moded belief systems that no longer work while dancing joyfully and in a constant state of creation.
I’ve been thinking about what my friend in India said about changing the word spiritual to understanding. What we need to do is deepen our understanding about our beliefs, our humanity and ourselves. Take, for instance, the above scenario. The 20 year old believes she is a good Christian because she is upholding a tradition, right? What she is doing is simply upholding a tradition in order to be perceived as a good Christian without even holding awareness of it, much less understanding the ritual in which she is participating.
Wouldn’t people want to know why they are participating in various rituals? I’ve participated in many different rituals and ceremonies, but I never went into one without first becoming at least knowledgeable enough to understand why it exists in the first place and why it is performed. Participating in a ritual has the potential to become a habitual behavior, lacking depth and understanding and ultimately fixating our assemblage points. Some of these rituals were created centuries ago and continue to fixate the assemblage points of masses of people.
Participating in ritual does not necessarily deepen spirituality. Anyone can and does participate and may potentially believe that they appear more spiritual as a result of doing it. More importantly is to approach ritual with an interest in knowing why it exists and how we can increase our understanding as a result of it. Maybe we will find that we come to understand spirituality in a new way, attain fresh insights or inner realizations or comprehend freedom better but I believe the bottom line will be that when we are open to explore with awareness, we come to understand ourselves better.
About these ads
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s
Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.
Join 387 other followers | http://femalewarrior.net/2011/03/09/the-trap-of-ignorance/ | dclm-gs1-099940002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.023922 | <urn:uuid:5a3b519d-3e80-4bf7-9ac1-04f79fe3383e> | en | 0.953368 | Small Messengers
Photo by Laura K. Deal
I have a history with bees. The associations are multiple and interconnected, and bees are showing up in my dreams and in waking life.
From running barefoot in the backyard, I had my share of childhood beestings. They hurt like crazy, and then my foot would swell and it [...]
Audrey Assad “Even the Winter”
When Love Arrives
Tweet [...]
Butterfly–7 Days a cappella
Thanks to Maia Raeder for finding this:
You are not born knowing how great an artist or how powerful a healer or how stalwart a friend you could be in this lifetime. You are not born knowing how deeply you can love and care for another. You have to learn to act with courage, self-confidence, and faith. These are the potentials you [...]
Unlikely Animal Pairs
“Cooperating works.” Yes, indeed.
Friendship on Fire
~Bruce Lee
Advice from Oz
My grandfather, Harold Osborne, had a penchant for nicknames, and often referred to himself as Oz. I think he’d get a kick out of me posting some nuggets from his letters to the world.
Thursday, February 12, 1942 “Well, life moves on and time goes fast, and if there is a burbling over from this [...]
“How close I want to be”
By Roger Peterson
How close I want to be to you my love I smell your heat I taste the breath upon your lips And I am made a man
Understand my love this wall between my longing and my having. So small an obstacle but strong is the fear that keeps me from [...]
“The Silent Meadow” Excerpt
Here’s the scene from “The Silent Meadow” that helped me overcome my fear of bees. I was terrified of them as a kid, and after writing this story I work beside them in my garden without fear, and they work around me. Writing is magic.
Art by Leah Palmer Preiss
With new understanding, [...] | http://firstchurchofmetaphor.org/tag/love | dclm-gs1-099970002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.021078 | <urn:uuid:ba9d6505-f981-4f13-9138-a556de5fe81e> | en | 0.967995 | April 14, 2010
TUSCALOOSA _ Although University of Alabama coach Nick Saban frequently talks about explosive plays with his players and during press conferences, he isn't just referring to when the Crimson Tide has the ball.
Stopping explosive plays is just as important, if not more so, than executing them.
"The more explosive plays the offense has the better chance for them to win the game, so the more explosive plays we take away the better chance for us," defensive end Damion Square said Tuesday evening.
While the offense has the prescribed Saban goal of nine explosive plays per game, the defense has a much simpler focus and approach.
"None," Square said. "No explosive plays."
How many times did Alabama do that last season while winning the national championship?
Just once.
The average opponent had 4? explosive plays and the Crimson Tide gave up more big gains as the season progressed, although that also had to do with facing tougher opponents like Florida in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game and Texas for the national title.
Saban has said in the past that he considers an explosive play a run of 13 yards or more or a pass of 17 yards or more. Here's the defensive breakdown from 2009:
Virginia Tech: 3
Florida International: 3
North Texas: 3
Arkansas: 6
Kentucky: 4
Ole Miss: 5
South Carolina: 2
Tennessee: 5
LSU: 5
Mississippi State: 5
Chattanooga: 0
Auburn: 8
Florida: 8
Texas: 6
Overall, opponents had 63 explosive plays compared to Alabama's 104. Twice as many were passes (42), than from a run (21) - although nine of those carries were by quarterbacks. The Tide shut out four opponents on the ground: Florida International, North Texas, Tennessee and Chattanooga.
Three teams had more explosive plays against Alabama. Auburn was plus-five, Tennessee two and Ole Miss one while Arkansas tied. Not surprisingly, those first two came the closest to beating the Tide, while the Rebels and Razorbacks both found themselves in early holes and never seriously threatened.
Still, Alabama's defense was considered outstanding. It ranked second in total defense (244.14 yards), scoring defense (11.71 points), rushing defense (78.14 yards) and pass-efficiency defense (138.50 rating). It created 31 turnovers (seven fumble recoveries and 24 interceptions), while the Tide gave up only 12.
It boasted the Butkus Award winner for linebacker of the year with Rolando McClain, two other first-team All-Americans in cornerback Javier Arenas and nose tackle Terrence Cody, and next week cornerback Kareem Jackson could join a teammate or two as a first-round draft pick.
Yet no one on the Tide is ready to concede anything.
"From top to bottom, we have so much speed," quarterback Greg McElroy said. "It's just unbelievable. We might not have the size we had last year, obviously with Rolando being 265-, 270-pound middle linebacker, and Dont'a right next to him and Cory (Reamer), our guys might be a little bit smaller right now but they're tenacious and they play extremely hard.
"I don't know whether or not they're playing with a chip on their shoulder, but they're playing with a vengeance. They're really making it difficult for us."
Actually, they are playing with a chip, not to mention the extra motivation of competition, because all they've been hearing is the talk:
- Alabama has to replace at least eight starters (Nico Johnson got three starts last season at weakside linebacker after Dont'a Hightower was lost for the season due to a knee injury).
- It will never be able to replace Cody in the middle, McClain's leadership or the experienced cornerbacks.
- The defense is the weakness and too young for the Tide to repeat as national champions.
"It's motivation," said safety Mark Barron, a third-team All-American.
"I can't speak for everybody else but we lost a lot of seniors, a lot of veterans," Hightower said earlier this spring. "With the young guys we have here if we can teach them techniques and the way to do things right I feel like we have a little bit more talent this year than last year."
The biggest test, of course, will come in the secondary, where everyone but Barron must be replaced on the two-depth chart including the nickel and dime backs. One of the key statistics that will measure their effectiveness and growth next season, and for the defense as a whole, will be explosive plays.
"We talk about making a legacy of our own," defensive end Marcell Dareus said. "We can't live on the past."
Statistical information ?2007 STATS LLC All Rights Reserved. | http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1074593 | dclm-gs1-099990002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.038972 | <urn:uuid:ab38a13f-03f9-4e25-bf11-0e25c12de4a4> | en | 0.962472 | Say "Yes" to Avatar
Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by skisdlimit, Jan 1, 2011.
1. skisdlimit
skisdlimit Well-Known Member
Bellevue, WA
Remember "The Dark Side of Oz?" Well, it was bound to happen that someone would eventually turn Roger Dean's Tolkienesque album-cover art for Yes (and other bands) into a major motion picture, but this time the movie would be calibrated to the music. That film, I strongly believe, is James Cameron's Avatar.
Like many folks, I was underwhelmed by the plot of Avatar, which seemed too much like a Dances With Wolves redux, but was duly impressed by its visuals (especially in 3-D). I also couldn't help but notice stark resemblances in the film to Dean's various Yes landscapes (floating mountains, "Keys to Ascension"-type arches, etc.). So over Xmas, following a discussion about Yes with my brother on the "organic" qualities of Close to the Edge (there was a very funny thread here recently describing the dilemma of people who like Yes which prompted me to create this thread), he suggested I try to sync Avatar to Yes music.
The results were astonishing! Using visual cues from the film related to Yes song titles and content, this is what I eventually came up with (approximate time references are to the single-disc DVD):
1.) 00:00:26 Start with "Revealing Science" from Tales from Topographic Oceans - This first part is, after all, where we learn about the avatar science. Because I knew I would be using both CTTE and Relayer, the most logical next album choice was Tales given that it is the studio album released between those others. As an album, Tales remains as inaccessible as ever, but as incidental film music, its lengthy numbers work brilliantly well. Using the extended intro version, you should hear the sounds of waves (wind?) when the first film visuals appear. I suggest beginning the disc about 5 seconds after the 20th Century Fox logo disappears. This song ends as Jake is speaking to Colonel Quaritch but about a minute or so before the first real foray into Pandora.
2.) 00:22:56 "5% for Nothing" from Fragile - This was actually the last sync-up I did mainly to fill-in dead space. As it turns out, the short "song" works here as an in-joke (at least for Yes fans) because this is where the Colonel is making a sort of "deal" with Jake.
3.) 00:23:41 Start Close to the Edge and play the album in its entirety. It seemed pretty obvious that the title track would begin at the point where you see a flock of purple-ish birds flying over nearly the exact waterfall featured, if memory serves, on the original album's inner artwork. The trick, though, is to actually begin the disc slightly before that, namely when the previous scene shifts to Dr. Max preparing Jake for his link. I won't spoil the fun for you, but I will say that it was the success of this first sync I did (particularly during the "I get up, I get down" sequence) that encouraged me to continue matching up the rest of the film.
Note: I used the '80s CDs for all Yes albums, except Tales where I used the '03 remaster. If your CD has different time breaks/indexes between songs, simply use the (again approximate) DVD start times I have provided as a guide.
4.) 00:42:25 "And You And I" from CTTE - This song should start as Jake is untying his legs from a rope.
5.) 00:52:35 "Siberian Khatru" from CTTE - This song should start as Jake "plugs in" to a (Siberian?) horse creature.
6.) 1:01:40 "The Remembering" from Tales - Start this song when you see a close-up of the viper wolf family. Because I had already used the first track from this album, it made sense to continue with the second one here. Also, this is right about where Jake has to "remember" what both Neytiri and Norm are teaching him, and there is a scene where the Na'vi children "remember" Grace as she returns to the Omaticaya clan.
7.) 1:22:32 "Ritual" from Tales - Start this song when Jake "plugs in" to the sacred willow(?) tree. Although this is the last track from the original album, I chose it here because the previous song ended with the ceremonial "ritual" of Jake becoming part of the Omaticaya clan, and this track begins with the mating "ritual" of Jake with Neytiri. (I don't recall that they ever actually "plugged in" to each other! :love: I guess if they had, then the film would have received an "R" rating instead of "PG-13"! :D)
8.) 1:44:25 "The Ancient" from Tales - Start this track with the aftermath following the assault on home tree, which was an "ancient"; the initial cymbal crash should be heard when the tree crashes to the ground. It was not too difficult to choose this one because it was the only unused track from Tales. The track ends with the death of Grace under another "ancient" tree.
9.) 2:03:06 Start Relayer and play this album in its entirety. Like CTTE, this was one of the first Yes opuses I thought to use because the climax of the film depicts a global battle ala "The Gates of Delirium." That track is self-explanatory, but I find it works best when started roughly at this point where Jake declares to the clan "And we shall show the Sky People...."
10.) 2:25:00 "Sound Chaser" from Relayer - This track should begin as the Colonel is flexing his fingers. Another viewer commented on how the music intensified the violence, rendering it less cartoony. I agree that both "Sound Chaser" and "Gates" can be brutal pieces, but they are very effective here for the final confrontations.
11.) 2:34:30 "To Be Over" from Relayer - This track should begin right after Neytiri kisses Jake. It plays, appropriately enough, over the closing credits with about a minute to spare.
To reiterate, in order to "Say Yes to Avatar" you will need: Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans, Relayer, and optionally Fragile; plus, of course, the single-disc Avatar DVD. While I fully understand that the brain makes connections to any music being played to visuals, even my brother (who still says "no" to Yes) enjoyed the uncanny accuracy of this experience. In fact, I really wouldn't be the least bit surprised if an "official" sync version is released sometime in the near future at a hefty premium.
In the meantime, please do share your thoughts on Avatar, Yes, or any other fine-tuning suggestions you might have. Coincidence? You decide!
Happy New Year! :cheers:
2. ledsox
ledsox Well-Known Member
San Diego, CA
Just came across this. I have to say, nice work to the OP.
I've never seen Avatar but I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy it more done the way you suggest here.
3. jlc76
jlc76 Well-Known Member
Austin, TX, U.S.A.
I have seen it and I'd definitely enjoy this method more, and I'm not even a yes fan. Great visual effects but the whole story was complete cliche.
4. tommy-thewho
tommy-thewho Forum Resident
detroit, mi
Great visual movie...
5. skisdlimit
skisdlimit Well-Known Member
Bellevue, WA
:wave: Thank you, so much! I thought this thread had died...or there was no one else here as nerdy as me to actually try this (even hardcore Yes fans who I know are here)! ;)
Truly, it is a very fun experience, which for me both improved the Avatar film as an alternate soundtrack, and ultimately got me back into Yes in a big way. In particular, this finally gained me some newfound appreciation for Tales from Topographic that's no small feat! :righton:
Users Viewing Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 0) | http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/say-yes-to-avatar.237755/ | dclm-gs1-100010002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.066494 | <urn:uuid:16815f3c-cc45-45b7-98cb-eb7243a3e208> | en | 0.944773 | Save Our Bluths From Television ExtinctionIt didn't take long for an online campaign to save Arrested Development from a possible cancellation to crop up. The Save Our Bluths page on the Amazon Honor System is accepting donations to raise a thousand bucks to buy some "custom-printed banana stress balls" to send to Fox president Gail Berman, hoping that a day squeezing foam toys is going to make her ignore the show's ratings for a little while longer. Maybe that grand would be better spent supporting an effort to kidnap local, rosy-faced McDonald's fry cooks, in hopes of depleting the available talent for Arrested Development's likely replacement (according to an angry David Cross), America's Cutest Retards. Or, you know, trying to convince more people to actually watch the show. They don't keep American Idol on the air because it's a critical darling. | http://gawker.com/032777/save-our-bluths-from-television-extinction?tag=networks | dclm-gs1-100060002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.018721 | <urn:uuid:4467e64d-a6e8-4aa4-be7d-c8d989a99410> | en | 0.96547 | Is Sex Positive Ever Negative?
Lili Bee interviews Dr. Robert Jensen about what’s at stake when talking about our sexual differences.
Recently me and one of my best male friends, Lance, who happens to be gay, were talking about our love lives and then about work, when I detected a shift between us. As I spoke about my work with people who found themselves partnered with sexual compulsives, he grew quiet.
It was hard not to notice that the room seemed suddenly darker, lifeless; the air wasn’t charged any more with the sparkle that Lance always delightfully brings in with him. When I finally asked if he was ok, he replied, “I just hope you’re not going to turn into Anita Bryant on us.”
After getting over the shock of hearing my work with sexual compulsion being conflated with a fundamentalist, conservative, religious, homophobic political leader of yesteryear, I asked why he’d even make such a comment. His response was that Anita Bryant and Co. seemed terrified of their own sexuality and needed to control everyone else’s as a result.
Lance and I always trusted one another with details about our intimate histories. I suspected he trusted me with his sexual details because he could tell from mine that I neither blush easily nor do I condemn others easily. He knew I had a secular education site specializing in often badly-needed resources when there is sexual compulsion/ addiction present and he knew we work with all sexual orientations. Anita Bryant?!
He went on to say,“I’m only talking about how the anti-porn groups always lobby to get politicians into office who are totally right-wing assholes, who hate gays and anyone who doesn’t fit their picture of mainstream, and that’s a no-win situation for us.”
My center doesn’t advocate for legislation against pornography and we certainly don’t shill for any religious groups. I created my business precisely because I could barely find resources that weren’t religiously-based, when I desperately needed help myself years ago and searched everywhere. How ironic Lance might find it, then, that when people call us who require religious reinforcement for their beliefs that what their husband (or wife) is doing is morally wrong, we send them to another site that is overtly religious in their approach.
“Google ‘sex positive’ and read everything you possibly can,” Lance said, “it’ll help offset anything puritanical out there while you’re doing your work on helping people who are freaking about sexual practices they don’t approve of. And remember, Lili, you might be cool, but just be careful because all this anti-sex stuff just ends up damaging people. Those conservative movements would be happy to get gays back into the closet and besides creating otherwise restrictive environments. Everybody’s sex life should be their own business.”
“So…what, Lance, if someone doesn’t want the stigma of being called “anti-sex”, does that mean they have to condone porn use in their relationships, just as one example?”
“I don’t know, but…”, Lance offered, getting more frustrated by the minute, “I moved to New York because I want to live in a sexually free environment. I just feel that sexual conservatism is so, I don’t know….backwards, so puritanical. “
“Ok! But then, who gets to decide what sexual “conservatism” even is? Your ‘sex-positive’ peeps?”
“Yeah! Why not? I’ll take Anthony Weiner over Anita Bryant any day!”
“Do you really think there’s nothing in between?”
But Lance wasn’t interested in any further questions; he was firmly entrenched in a belief system, one I’d like to know more about.
Why couldn’t we work our way towards anything even resembling a constructive talk? Why was our conversation breaking down reliably into overly-simplistic categories of bad/ good? All the myriad distinctions worth discussing were being lumped into polarized categories: black and white, right and wrong. This was as bad as my childhood religion, and that was not a good thing in any way.
Whenever I tried to zoom out to discuss the big-picture implications of pull-out-all-the-stops, in-your-face, commercialized sexuality that many didn’t want questioned, he’d drop into using personal anecdote to shore up his point of view. I’d no sooner join him there in the personal realm, when he’d swoop back up into the higher strata of how my views would hurt the politics of the country. It seemed to me that trying to collect spilled mercury off the floor with a spoon would be easier than having this conversation.
I laid awake that night and wondered just how many educated, aware people like Lance linked anyone who had an opinion that didn’t conform to the “sex positive” ideology with that person being anti-sex, or sex-negative? What forces were at work, I wondered, that had all but obliterated any nuance, or even interest in all of us having an authentic, expansive, respectful conversation about sex, rather than frequently resorting to vitriolic put-downs of those with differing views?
I decided to include “Sex positive as a term” on my list of topics to bring up with one of my mentors, an educator and activist I most respect for his passionate, unapologetic and committed stance on politics, feminism, racism, patriarchy, classism and the military industrial complex, Dr. Robert Jensen. As Hurricane Irene barreled her way up the eastern seaboard, Dr. Jensen and I Skyped: me hunkered down at my storm-proofed lair in Manhattan, him out in Austin under a clear, blue Texas sky at the beginning of the fall semester where he’s a professor at University of Texas, Austin Journalism School.
We talked about a lot of things besides the sex positive issue. We talked about masculinity, humanism, erotica vs. porn, power dynamics between the genders, and some of the more profound and personal insights into the heart of intimacy I’ve had the privilege of hearing a man share with me. I’ll post those other portions of our talk next week.
Lili’s talk with Dr. Robert Jensen Part I
Lili: So, Bob, let’s talk about sex. In particular, let’s talk about what I’ll call a movement with a cheery sounding name, the Sex Positive movement.
First, let me just say I find the term challenging. For all it’s implied positivism, there are problems with it, such as who dictates which activities are accepted, or not accepted within that movement’s sanctioned forms of sexual expression? To me, it comes across as a movement that just grants carte blanche to any and all sex acts/ sexual lifestyles and the only real issue seems to be, well, if you have an issue with any of it.
Premised on that, then, if one is ok with many or even most sexual activities, but expresses objections to, let’s say, one activity in particular, there are those within the Sex Positive movement who are very quick to dismiss that person, to call them a conservative, a rabid feminist or a religious fundamentalist.
Can you speak to the term “Sex Positive” because I’m more aware of the divisiveness of the term?
Bob: I think the whole notion of it is absurd. The notion of a “Sex Positive” category or a sex-positive feminism is truly ridiculous since no one I know of in these arenas is sex negative. The only people who might be truly sex-negative are extreme religious fundamentalists who believe that sexual conduct is somehow inherently shameful.
Within feminism I know of nothing that one would call sex-negative; in fact, the term sex negative isn’t a meaningful category, it’s an insult and an attempt to undermine a critique of the underlying power dynamics in sex.
I come out of a tradition called “radical feminism” and anti-porn feminism, feminism that’s critical of the sexual exploitation industries, critical of the oppression inherent in men’s buying and selling women’s bodies. That movement is sometimes called “sex negative” and I’ve never understood what that means. I’ve met literally hundreds of people in that movement and I’ve never met anyone who’s against sex or who thinks sex is a bad thing.
Lili: I live in sexually progressive New York City and everywhere I look, I see so many varied forms of sexuality being openly expressed. I also grant that New York is not an accurate litmus test of how sexual mores are received elsewhere in the country. Let me say that up front.
The people who call themselves “sex positive” seem to be advocating a sexual freedom that’s a response or even a rebellion against any kind of sexual repression. Where do you see us at this point in time with regard to repression?
Bob: Well certainly there are elements of contemporary culture that are repressive sexual arenas, especially conservative, religious trends for instance which have problems with all sorts of sexual expression. To me, the question isn’t about sexual liberation versus sexual freedom, the question is:
How do we construct a healthy sexual culture that understands sex in the context of fostering healthy human relationships?
The so-called sexual liberation of the 1960′s did many positive things: it broke down some of those old, repressive mechanisms. Much of that had to do with feminists critiquing the sexual control, the domination/ subordination dynamic in patriarchy. But that period of time also reinforced patriarchy in certain ways, especially in the way in which the sexual exploitation industries became more normalized and more mainstream. And by sexual exploitation industries I mean prostitution, pornography, stripping—the primary ways in this culture that men buy and sell women’s bodies for the sexual pleasure of men.
So, you have to look at how this played out. Some of it was positive, from my point of view, some of it was extremely negative. Some of it challenged patriarchy: the claim of legitimacy for lesbian and gay people was a challenge to the patriarchy, and it’s constricting gender norms and sexual rules. The assertion that women are fully autonomous sexual beings and not simply objects or vehicles for male pleasure – that challenge to the patriarchy was extremely healthy and positive. But there was also a flip side to it that reinforced some of that patriarchal ideology.
So the question now is: How does one fashion a healthy, sexual culture and the question I use to frame that is to ask: “What is sex for?” Sex has a role in human life. Obviously it has a basic role in procreation but it’s much more than that. The question is, and at any given point in time, sex can mean many different things and what do we want it to mean?
We have to fashion a sexual ethic, and by sexual ethic I don’t mean the assertion of rules that are imposed on people, but a sexual ethic that emerges from honest conversation.
To ask that question is not to impose a single answer, it’s to recognize that not all forms of sex are consistent with healthy, human relationships. The most obvious example is sexual assault- that’s a form of sex but no one would argue it’s consistent with healthy human relationships. And so those are the kinds of things we have to ask.
How do you build a culture in which human beings flourish? is the fundamental question – part of that question has to do with sex: How do you build a culture in which human beings flourish sexually? There’s no one answer to that, but that’s the conversation we have to have.
The sex positive or so-called sexual liberation perspective tends to assume that anything sexual is consistent with human flourishing but I think the evidence is quite clear that that’s not true. So, we have to fashion a sexual ethic, and by sexual ethic I don’t mean the assertion of rules that are imposed on people, but a sexual ethic that emerges from honest conversation. And as you’re pointing out, when especially women in contemporary culture resist the pornographic nature of this culture, by saying, “I don’t want to replicate pornographic sexual scenes in my personal life”, those women are often the targets of insults or pejorative labels like “sex negative” and that’s what we have to overcome.
Lili: When one looks at the tone of many of the comments following articles about porn use, one can really get a sense of the contention and hostility. So it leaves me wondering: Whom does it really serve to create distinctions like “sex positive”? Why even create the distinction?
Bob: Well, it serves the people who want to undermine critique by labeling any critique as being “sex negative”. That’s the only function it serves as far as I can tell, which is why I don’t use the terms and don’t accept the terms in conversations or debates I might be in.
Lili: So let’s talk about what I call the language of “shaming.” One of the questions recently posed to the Advice Columnist at GMP centered on a man who felt uncomfortable with the vast amount of attention his new girlfriend attracted by insisting on wearing very little on the beach—“three half-dollar sized pieces of cloth”, was how he put it. He was looking for advice on how he might share his request that she wear even a small bikini, vs. almost nothing.
And one of the female commenters told him, quite aggressively in my opinion, that he should stop “slut shaming” her and basically, to get over it. This kind of exchange appears frequently enough that I wonder if we’re using the “shaming” term as a way to shut people up who have a different view of sexuality than our own. What are your thoughts on this?
Bob: I think there are two separate questions about shame: one that has to do with men and one that has to do with women. So the question isn’t about shaming or not shaming in the context that you raise, the question is:
What leads people in an oppressed category to behavior that seems to intensify or deepen those oppressive forces?
So let’s say you have a society in which women are routinely treated as objects for male sexual pleasure, that is you have contemporary patriarchy in which women are routinely bought and sold for male sexual pleasure and in which women even outside the sexual exploitation industries are encouraged to present themselves as sexual objects.
The question when a woman engages in self-presentation like that is: “What is the motive force behind that choice of hers? Is she doing it because it’s some expression of her authentic sense of her own body? Is it an authentic style of hers? Or is she simply buying into the cultural pressure to present herself as a sexual object?” Because there are certain kinds of rewards for that.
I don’t know the answer to that in the case of any specific woman. If one is going to engage a specific person in that conversation, one would do it as you would engage people in any kind of difficult conversation: with respect, and with a sense of true openness, wanting to understand. But when you step back from any individual case and you look at the patterns, I don’t think there’s any doubt that women, especially younger women, increasingly engage in that kind of self-presentation routinely. And I don’t think there’s any doubt that one of the serious factors in that is the cultural pressure for women to present themselves that way. That has nothing to do with shaming, that has to do with inquiry into the nature of the society in which you live and how people shape their own sense of their own bodies, their own desires, and their own value in the world. Ok, well that’s what a decent society would do, to step back and look at those patterns, and ask: “What are the power dynamics in which those patterns are rooted?” and ask again,
“Are they consistent with human flourishing?
There is nothing new about this. Feminists have been critiquing the way women are pressured into self-presentation that objectifies themselves for male viewing—that critique’s been around for a long time, there’s nothing new about it. It’s just that, as you point out, in this particular moment, this fundamental feminist critique has been so marginalized, so beaten back, so buried, that it’s not part of the cultural conversation and that’s unfortunate from my point of view.
Lili: Yes, and when I do raise the question in conversation, it’s not uncommon to get a considerable amount of pushback from women, who’ll say, “No, I do love walking around in a see-through dress with no underwear on in public”, or “I love when I know my man is out enjoying himself at strip clubs” or any of these statements which I have to admit, sound bizarre to me.
And with the colossal amounts of money being made in what you call the sexual exploitation industries, I can’t help but wonder if as women, we’re being hoodwinked into adopting these stances that prove that we’re cool, we’re the fun girls that are down with whatever, with the unspoken threat being that if we resist or question it, we risk marginalization or worse.
I believe in everyone dressing to please themselves, yes, but I also can’t help think many of us would be much happier if we didn’t feel this tremendous pressure to conform to the cultural standards of beauty which can be pretty fascist and plenty sexist. I really believe we would stop stressing about those extra five or ten pounds we carry around but which render us not “porn-worthy” as one man characterized the cultural ideal in conversation with me.
Bob: Well, that’s right, and body size is another thing—it’s very difficult to have a sensible conversation in this culture because on the one hand, there are cultural pressures on women to be thin, cultural pressures on women to look a certain way, to have a certain body type and those are unhealthy. They lead to eating disorders and all sorts of things.
These are difficult conversations to have in a society that’s essentially gone mad, from my point of view.
It’s also true however, that the celebration of non-traditional body types in a culture that has serious obesity problems and health problems is also difficult. The goal isn’t to impose a single body type on everybody. The goal is to ask, “What kind of nutrition and physical activity is consistent with a long-term healthy body?” It’s pretty clear that starving yourself to be model-thin isn’t consistent with that. It’s pretty clear that eating lots of high-fat, high-calorie, processed foods is inconsistent with that. The question is: “How do we shape lives that are sensible, sane and consistent with both physical, emotional and mental, long-term health?”
People present themselves to other people in ways that have lots of different objectives, including the desire to be sexually attractive. There’s nothing psychologically pathological about wanting to be sexually attractive. The question is, “How much of our time are we spending on those activities around presentation, and how are those gendered?” “How are the pressures different on women than on men, for instance?”
The other question is, “How much of that comes from authentic desire?” and ‘authenticity’ is a difficult word in this context because all of our desires are in some sense, conditioned by society. I’m not sure anybody has individual, authentic desires. What I come to desire is always going to be, in part, shaped by the society around me. But we have to be able to ask, “How are those social pressures sometimes healthy, or unhealthy? How are they sometimes connected to domination/ subordination dynamics in oppressive systems like patriarchy? That also ties in not just to clothing and weight, but the growing prevalence of cosmetic surgery where people engage not only in dieting and such, to shape their bodies, but literally, to go so far as to mutilate healthy tissue to shape a body into some, what they think is socially desirable form. All of these questions, are, I think, profound indications of how disturbed this culture is.
Lili: And it’s not just women. I’m hearing more frequently now from men who feel pressured to conform to some often difficult-to attain ideal of male beauty. I’m not really seeing much of that, though, not even an iota of what I see we, as women, put ourselves through. Especially disturbing to me is how young it starts, too….
Bob: Well, there’s two points about the assertion that men are now under the same kind of pressure.
Number one, to some degree it’s true. There are certainly more intense pressures on men to present themselves in ways to be sexually desirable. But, number one, as you’re pointing out, are those equal to the pressures on women, especially girls…and the answer is obviously no.
And the range of presentation that men can engage in and be in the category of attractive is far wider than the range for women. So these aren’t equivalent. But, even if there are more pressures on men to look a certain way, that’s not a sign that we’ve reached equality. It’s just a sign that the culture’s degraded even further.
So then in patriarchy now, even though male dominance is still the defining dynamic, men have internalized some of the insanity themselves. I don’t see that as something to celebrate; it’s just another indication of the corrosive nature of this culture.
Here, we’re not just talking about patriarchy—of course, we’re also talking about capitalism. These are trends fueled not only by the dynamic of male domination / female subordination—they’re also trends fueled by the relentless, pathological quest for profit, especially in late-consumerism capitalism when we’ve been sold virtually everything we can be sold, so the market consistently tries to find new ways to generate profit, no matter how psychologically damaging they are to people. That’s the cosmetic industry, much of the fashion industry, and the non-medically necessary plastic surgery industry. They’re all a sign, from my point of view, of a culture in collapse, a culture in which human flourishing is subordinated to, in this case, the desire for profit.
Read Part 2 of the interview: Erotica, Patriarchy, and Pornography
About Robert Jensen, Ph.D
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of “All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice” (Soft Skull Press, 2009); “Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity” (South End Press, 2007); and several other books. Jensen is also co-producer of the documentary film “Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing,” which chronicles the life and philosophy of the longtime radical activist.
Jensen can be reached via Email and his articles can be found online.
photo: (main) djnavv (inset) toestubber on Flickr
Premium Membership, The Good Men Project
About Lili Bee
Lili Bee is the founder of an online Resource Center for Partners of porn/Sex Addicts at An ordained Interfaith/ Interspiritual Minister, she offers spiritual counseling as well as writing and officiating at weddings and other rites of passages. She is a member of Spiritual Directors International. Contact her via email at, follow her on Twitter, or visit her blog.
1. The Wet One says:
Lil Bee, you ask:
I suspect that it was because your friend is gay. Now, I fully admit that I may be entirely wrong and I fully acknowledge that you know him and I simply don’t. However, I am fairly aware of the polical struggle for gay rights in North America (I’ve been following it with interest for many years) and anything that threatens the advances that have been made are a big threat to gays. Anything that smacks of Anita Bryant as your friend said, in whatever area, if it is a threat to gays political achievements is not to be supported. That probably results in a few unintended casualties (like your discussion with him).
Anyways, just throwing that out there as a possible answer to your questions.
2. The Wet One says:
Just a question, what about male stripping for women, Playgirl and gay porn?
Also, what about the all sex = rape line of feminism? I seem to recall that statement being taken out of context, but at the same time, some women when considering male enjoyment of sex seem to pretty much agree agree with the sentiment of “all sex = rape.” They take a rather dim view of male sexuality as it presently expressed in the culture. I say this because I know that if I said “as it actually is” there would be all kinds of pushback against the very concept of “male sexuality as it actually is,” even though I’m a guy who has a certain sexuality and it is very much as it actually is and I’ve enjoyed porn, prositutes and the kind of woman I like for most of the last 5 years (porn for a lot longer) after finally throwing off the yoke of what feminists thought I should act like. I must say, it was a damn good time too! Met more women and learned more about people than I ever did before.
• I think Robert touched on your question actually The Wet One.
I don’t think Robert is advocating that strip clubs for women are any better. However, they are no where near as popular for strip clubs for men. You’ll find 10 more strip clubs for men to every 1 strip club for women. Women are not turned on the same way men are and porn is a further example about how men want women to be turned on just like they are. And some women do fall into that and begin to objectfying themselves and other women under more of the same “sex positive” talk.
3. The Wet One says:
Interesting discussion for sure. Should be plenty of head scratchers, outrageous hilarity, inanity and idiocy coming up in the next little while (re: the upcoming posts). I look forward to it with relish!
4. Really quickly, I have to say that recently, feminists say sex absolutely does not equal rape. Sex is a CONSENSUAL, usually fun, sometimes awkward act that can be done for love, pleasure, to cure boredom, make the most of a relationship, alleviate boredom, make a baby, etc… Rape, on the other hand, is a violent act about power and humiliation. I’ve written it somewhere else, but that’s why soldiers in Bosnia and Libya were ORDERED to rape their enemies, why women in the Middle East are raped so that someone can get back at the victim’s fathers or brothers, why people brag about coercing their victim into sex (date rape) in conversations with friends, and why powerless people like young kids and people in nursing homes get raped…
Rape is assault. It’s a violent act that sometimes uses the penis as a weapon (not always, as women rape too, and people rape with objects). Sex is a (hopefully!) awesome act, and if the man isn’t supposed to enjoy it, there’s something wrong there… There’s also nothing wrong with enjoying porn and prostitutes, as long as you treat sex workers with respect, avoid places that exploit underage women who have no choice, and don’t let it get in the way of your relationships with your actual partners. I know all of my partners have enjoyed porn. But if, during our relationship, he chose porn over me, took sex lessons from girls who moan because they’re paid to do so, or showed a very disproportionate affection for large, 15 year old black women (something I could never be), I’d be bothered. If I wasn’t getting laid because my partner was spending it all on prostitutes, I might have to look elsewhere since there’s only a limited amount of porn and strip clubs that cater to women’s needs. I guess that wasn’t as quick as I thought it would be…
5. You’re also right, Wet One, that this should be an interesting discussion. I predict myself getting pissed off a lot and agreeing with radicals occasionally just to get a word of agreement in. The article really did bring to my attention that the sex-positive movement also brings with it the implication that people who don’t completely agree are “negative.” I’m not actually sure how to deal with that yet.
This quote particularly makes me wonder:
“And as you’re pointing out, when especially women in contemporary culture resist the pornographic nature of this culture, by saying, “I don’t want to replicate pornographic sexual scenes in my personal life”, those women are often the targets of insults or pejorative labels like “sex negative” and that’s what we have to overcome.”—I always thought that part of sex-positivity was accepting of all sexual preferences. I’m referring not just to orientations, but levels of monogamy, kinks, backgrounds, etc. If you chose to wait until marriage, that’s great (whether it’s religion based or looking at sex as something very personal). If you’re a serial monogamist who has sex on the 5th date, that’s your thing. If you want to have as many partners as possible and party it up, good luck! The whole point is to not let anyone tell you what you should want or not want, as long as you don’t judge others for wanting/not wanting it. Just understand what you want and need, let your partners know at the proper time, and make sure to look into yourself and recognize what you actually want and what society makes you think you want. I don’t think any sex positive person wants every woman to copy Jenna Jameson, but they also don’t want anyone to feel like a bad person for expressing what they want sexually.
6. Lili – when you believe and say things like the following just below, it makes it very difficult to take you seriously. Your bias is overwhelming. If you truly want to foster open conversation, then I would suggest you tone down the extreme rhetoric.
7. Henry Vandenburgh says:
The current media (including porn) treatment of sex is what Marcuse called repressive desublimation. You sell the surface, but repress in essence. Still, I think we’re currently in an intensely sex negative time. I’m reading Sex at Dawn, which says that women’s repression of their natural eroticism is quite understandable due to the non-support and non-safety coming from patriarchy. We’ve 8,000 years of evolved institutions that have developed to do just that. I disagree with radical feminism, however, because the approach to male sexuality is often very sexist.
8. Hi Elissa- Am I presenting a particular bias? We all are and obviously writers take a position from which they write. Is someone going to take exception with my views? Probably! And that’s ok and the point of opening up a hopefully expansive discussion.
The whole point of my article was to wonder why we couldn’t have more conversation that’s inclusive of differing sexual views from our own, so perhaps your comment illustrates exactly what I meant. You see me as biased and practicing “extreme rhetoric” and therefore, not someone to be taken seriously. That’s the kind of put-down that I mention in my article that is polarizing all of us since it shuts the door on discussing issues further.
Just as I did with Lance, I am partial to asking questions about why/how we arrive at the perspectives we do. So I’ll ask you: Can you give some examples of how you see these issues differently? I am interested.
• Lili – to have a fruitful conversation I need to understand your base assumptions and beliefs. If you believe that sex positivism is a movement that grants “carte blanche” to “any and all sex acts / sexual lifestyles” – these are your words, no? – then I don’t think you are qualified to be having this conversation – want to be very frank with you. You can certainly hold those beliefs, but I cannot oblige them in a discussion.
If an analogy helps – I would not have a geology discussion with someone who believed the earth is 2000 years old.
• Elissa, please explain what sex-positivism to me if not carte blanche approval of any/all sexual acts. Please tell me where the discernment exists both on an individual level and as a culture.
This is a genuine request so that I can understand.
Thank you.
• Maia Pinion says:
Thank you Terre and Lili! I too would like to know what Elissa means by sex-positive. I think its fascinating that people take a writer’s article so personally when they are clearly not addressing one reader.
If Elissa had followed any of Lili’s other articles on GMP she’d know that there were quite a few readers/commenters who did have an “everything but the kitchen sink…Wait! Throw the sink in too, what the hey” attitude about sexual conduct and outside of anyone actually admitting pedophilia or bestiality (no bestiality might have been been on the ok list as well for some readers) there were no rules of engagement.
So, just so you don’t feel like you’re being singled out and for the sake of discussion, open up your commentary by expressing your definition of the term “sex-positive” before you summarily dismiss the writer or this article.
• I can’t answer for Elissa but I know a lot of women and men in the sex positive community and boundaries and consent and ethics play a HUGE role. At least in the communities I run with. Things like….don’t be drunk and high if you are trying to negotiate a scene, things like if you are poly then everyone meets each other, things like group policing of people who behave in date-rapey ways. I’ve rarely seen a “fuck all the rules” POV, though I have seen a lot of questioning of rules. In the sex pos system you’ll have people with the highest levels of thoughtfulness on a topic “Is BDSM just an excuse to play with oppressive power dynamics and gender roles.” And you’ll also have people who think, “That’s hot.” and there will be no further discussion.
But you’ll find that in any political system. I don’t see people behaving in a carte blanche manner at the events I’ve gone to. I see a lot of communicating, open-ness, disagreement,establishment of group norms and behaviors and heavy duty negotiating. FWIW, YMMV.
• Maia Pinion says:
What is this text speak? FWIW – For What Its Worth, YMMV – what does that stand for “Your Monkey May Vote?”
All the acronyms aside, that’s great to hear that the various communities you belong to actually adhere to boundaries and are somewhat cerebral about their proclivities.
As long as no stones are thrown at those who don’t embrace the same style of intimate physical relationships.
Just as those who consider themselves “sex positive” don’t want to be labeled as freaks, nymphos, sluts, sex addicts, etc., monogamous people who prefer to only have one long-term partner or spouse without the laundry list of third party stimuli whether artificial (porn) or organic (polyamory) don’t want to be called “sex negative.”
• The Wet One says:
YMMV means (I think) Your Mileage May Vary. At least that’s what it means in the circles I’ve travelled in.
• I haven’t called you Sex Negative, Maia. And most of the folks I know who consider themselves Sex Positive have boundaries. It isn’t some kind of thoughtless ravening all day all night orgy ;)
Do people really think that’s what sex positive communities are like? Got the porn going 24/7 and predating on hot bi babes every chance we get? Cause it isn’t, in my experience. It’s people wanting to design better relationships for themselves, and yes, have more pleasure in general after being brought up in a world that tells them pleasure is suspect.
Many of my friends are monogamous as well. For what it’s worth :)
Are there people who don’t know some of the academic levels of detail around oppression and patriarchy that Jensen references (with respect to sex work, stripping, porn)? Sure, of course there are. Hell, I barely know enough to keep up with him and I have a masters and think about this stuff all the time. I work in social justice.
Are there people who know McDonald’s isn’t a really good healthy place to eat (on physical and moral planes both) but still grab something to go on occasion? Yes.
I think the issue is less with visual representations of sex (porn) and more the industrial and corporate models within which they are meat-ground out. Just like there isn’t much wrong (to me) with fried chicken, but I’d rather have organic hens and have a good chef prepare it. Bad combo there and I am in no way comparing women to animals ok? I’m comparing corporate industry to artisinal preparation.
It’s a process, yes? the learning of how many levels of oppression are out there? And I think there should be dialogue and education to clean up some of the misconceptions.
Wish I could talk more, but I’m on my way to San Fran for a, ha! Sex positive reading event!
• Maia Pinion says:
Well I’m relieved to see that there are those in the sex positive community who are mindful and have thought out their decisions. That’s great and really good to know!
It’s when people are not aware of collateral damage that it becomes an issue to review more closely. As long as there are no hard feelings; that no one gets hurt at the end of the day and everyone who enters into the “arrangement” knows what the score is then there’s little to discuss.
Again, and if this doesn’t apply to you, you need not feel pressured to respond- there ARE those who feel that if you’re not championing an “anything goes” attitude then you’re “sex negative.” I repeat, if this does not apply to you, you do not need to respond.
There was one commenter on another article of Lili’s who felt it was totally appropriate to have her young children be exposed to her many and varied partners. She espoused polyamory after her monogamous marriage of many years had failed. Totally fine for her but I must say that I’m not sure how that would affect her young children. She was quite hostile in her comments and dismissed every other person who commented as “sex negative.” There were a few others who felt the same. I’m not saying its any of my business how anybody raises their kids either, I just know that young minds are fertile ground so you need to take great care when choosing which seeds to plant. It’s your responsibility as a parent. End of story.
As I’d stated in a previous response, there are a lot of people who are taking what they’re reading quite personally. No one is sleeping under your bed (I hope,) no one is spying into your sex life (if they are you have more important issues than reading or writing here) and if people are judging you on an online forum, you don’t know them so why do you even care?
These forums should be for open, healthy discourse on topics that should inform and educate us all.
We need to realize that even if we take different stances on issues, we need not resort to name-calling or labeling. It’s simply juvenile and I’m sure that even those without advanced degrees would agree that churlish, childish behavior in adults would be a red flag for any number of emotional challenges that are best handled somewhere else.
• The Wet One says:
It’s funny that you say that. Are you aware of the many laws against things like homosexuality, oral sex, fornication (sex between unmarried people) and sex toys? Are you aware that they are ACTUALLY ENFORCED?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!
As ridiculous as that all sounds, such laws exists and are enforced (not on a regular basis, but they are enforced). In a sense, yes, there are people interested in your sex life and its the police. How’s that for sex negative.
Crikey, I could go on, but I think you get the point. And yes, people do actually get charged with this nonsense and face real criminal problems because of them notwithstanding the fact that these laws are so, ummmm, what’s the word? Anti sex? Archaic? Victorian? (I don’t know, put in your own terms).
Beware what you do in your bedrooms in the U.S. You’re probably breaking the law. Especially you sex positive types. Maybe the sex positives ought to get the laws changed (or at least get enough “sex negatives” on board) to moderate some of the retarded horse dung that passes for criminal law in your respective necks of the woods.
9. Clearly Lili’s friend Lance was afraid that Lili’s stance on porn that agreed with even a tiny fraction of the far right would endanger the few gains that the gay community has garnered. I want to know about that. That matters to me even if I am not engaged with the all-or-nothing platform approach. That fear is clearly fueling the high-octane fury around the issue of sexual mores.
My fear is that discouraging individuals (especially women) from setting clear sexual boundaries and developing their personal relationship discernment, other women will experience the eighth-ring-of-hell that my own lack of discernment and weak boundaries brought me. I nearly committed suicide from the nightmare. If I could prevent that trauma for even one other soul, my work is all worth it.
We really are going to have to discuss things that we disagree about. And honestly state where we currently stand. Lili’s observation is that the sex-positive movement is rather rigid in its insistence that all things sexual are to be declared acceptable without discernment on a personal and/or social level is her observation. I honor that stance and certainly take her seriously. As I take her friend Lance seriously. His concerns diserve discussion also.
The point is: the discussion about sexual mores is about levels of discernment, not a cavalier tossing aside of all discernment. Each voice deserves to be heard and taken seriously.
• Truly beautifully said Terre…along with Lilii’s comments as well. I see this issue the same exact way you and her both expressed and couldn’t have put it better.
• Terre – I think the point you miss is “approval of all CONSENSUAL sexual acts”. That’s a big one, and if you knew the first thing about about sex-positivity, you’d know the concept of consent is pretty damn central. And that non-consensual violations of other’s sexuality is very frowned upon. The flip side is that non-consensual *restrictions* on other people’s sexuality is likewise frowned upon. You might dismiss this as “lack of discernment on a social level”, which to my mind puts you on the same level as conservatives who use the specter of legalized pedophilia as an argument against gay rights. This “surely there must be SOME standards” as an argument against consensual behavior truly is prudery and sexual conservatism in it’s purest form.
And, BTW, I find your invocation of your own personal problems with sex addiction very telling. You seem to be in that self-righteous phase of recovery where you see anybody who hasn’t chosen your particular brand of straight-and-narrow as being on the road to ruin. Much like the recovering alcoholic who sees every non-teetotaler as as a drunk in the making. I do hope you reach the point in your recovery where you manage to move past this.
• You misread, iamcuriousblue. I had the misfortune of being involved with a sex addictwho claimed to be a sex-positive . Once it was diagnosed, I was out. Therefore, no recovery needed
• Pardon my getting that detail wrong. However, I’ve looked at your website ( and it seems you’re coming from the “codependency” or “partners of” side of the recovery equation. I still see that as part of the recovery movement, with the same problematic pseudoscientific “spiritualist” excess and prohibitionist views. Very much like the hard-line pro-”War on Drugs” politics that too many in the drug recovery movement are prone to.
10. The only way I can explain my thoughts on the sex positive movement is with an anecdote. I’ll try to keep it as short as possible.
A while ago, I was living in a different country from my boyfriend for about three months. We were going to be seeing each other for a weekend once a month or so in that time. It was a fairly new relationship (6 months). We both had pretty high sex drives, so we decided to have an open relationship for that time, so we could each get our sexual needs (well, wants) met. And I told my friends about it, so they wouldn’t get freaked out if they saw me hitting on other guys.
I was astounded – and terrified – by the reaction I got. My friends, men and women in their early twenties who would all have described themselves as feminists, were up in arms. They assumed my boyfriend had somehow forced me into the agreement. They called me a nymphomaniac to my face and a slut behind my back. They suggested that if I couldn’t “go without” for a month at a time, I must be some kind of sex addict.
They didn’t understand that while I could “go without” for however long, I didn’t see the point in doing it for the sake of a monogamous ideal that neither myself nor my boyfriend subscribed to. And, fundamentally, they didn’t understand that I could desire sex for the sake of sex.
This is why we need a sex positive movement. Their reaction represents a great example of modern sex negativity. Sure, it’s not an example of massive oppression, but it was pretty hurtful. It represented the belief that women can’t just want to have sex, that there must be something wrong with them (or they must be being manipulated) if they think they do. It’s a horrible, patronising assumption to make, and I would hope that I wouldn’t have to explain all the reasons why it’s wrong and all the negative consequences of it on a website like this one.
• The Wet One says:
Do certain regular commentators (commenters?) here reflect the same attitudes and reactions of your friends described in your personal annecdote? I certainly seem to sense some sex negativity amongst certain folks on GMP. Just a feelling of course, but the Force is passingly strong with me so…
11. jfpbookworm says:
I keep seeing this assertion that sex-positive feminism advocates against the setting of personal boundaries when it comes to sex, and this puzzles me, as everything I’ve encountered suggests the opposite. (The closest thing that comes to mind is Dan Savage’s sketchy “good, giving and game” formulation, but he’s hardly a sex-positive feminist.) Where is this coming from?
I’m not saying prude-shaming doesn’t exist. We live in a culture that simultaneously slut-shames and prude-shames; one just can’t win. But I just don’t see it being expressed within the framework of sex-positive feminism, and in fact I quite often see the idea that one has the right to set whatever boundaries one wants, no matter whether someone else thinks they’re appropriate/rational/a good idea, expressed as an integral part of sex-positive feminism.
• The Wet One says:
Dan Savage may not be a feminist, but he sure as heck is a sex positive gay man! I think he is a feminist though (more so than not, he’s no male chauvanist that’s for sure). How is GGG sketchy? Do tell? That is extremely odd to me…. Should we all try to meet each other halfway or forget having a relationship with that person? Seems totally reasonable to me, or am I on crack and not know it????
That one is a real headscratcher their friendo. A real headscratcher… Hmmm….
• The Wet One says:
Note that’s “there” not “their.” Ei Carumba! That’s a brutal typo!
• jfpbookworm says:
Just like there’s a difference between religious/cultural based anti-porn activism and feminist anti-porn activism, I think there’s a difference between a “pro-sex” outlook and sex-positive feminism. Dan Savage is most definitely pro-sex, but has never struck me as all that feminist, and to my knowledge he doesn’t claim to be.
If I were making the world’s shortest feminism/sexuality quiz, it’d probably have the following categories:
Mainstream/patriarchy: non-sex-positive (*not* necessarily sex-negative!), non-feminist (also *not* necessarily sexist/misogynist!)
Anti-porn feminist: non-sex-positive, feminist
Pro-sex: sex-positive, non-feminist
Sex-positive feminist: sex-positive, feminist
(Obviously, this is biased as hell.)
GGG is sketchy to me because it comes across as saying that one should not stick to one’s boundaries in a relationship, and that not being “game” = not being good.
• The Wet One says:
That’s why Savage says you shouldn’t be in a relationship with that person if they don’t suit your needs. He’s pretty big on dumping people who don’t work for you. I think it’s part of his belief in personal agency and personal responsibility. Could be wrong though…
12. Emma, I’m sorry your friends treated you badly. I think that’s a very good example of people having a culturally determined view of sex and the ethics around that sex that only fit one “right way” to do relationships. In your case, non-monogamy might have helped your relationship flourish and grow (or not) but you felt it was a healthy and positive place for you to be and you came up against a great deal of shaming connected to group norms. “We don’t do this!”
We come up against this all the time in our society. I recently have been following a case of an an artist who produces and directs sexually based films, works in the industry, and has recently also become a mother and is now also promoting breastfeeding (there is more to the issue but in the interest of the post I’ll be brief). Her work has come under some serious attack, much due to hearsay rather than actual journalism because people find it appalling that she can have two identities (porn/erotica producer and mother/artist) that she wants to blend and integrate. I find that to be a very negative reaction to her. Shaming in the highest degree (you should have seen the tweets!).
What I found fascinating about the situation was that her art was provoking a response and boy did it get it. People were clutching their GD pearls over the idea she could, in her life, art and activism, blend motherhood and her life as a “brand” in the industry.
No where in the debate on twitter or blogs were the questions Jensen was raising except in the most moralistic and judgemental ways. “Mothers SHOULDN”T DO THAT!” What if she’s got flourishing amazing relationships? What if she’s intelligent enough to read academic articles and decide these things for herself (she is, and how).
There is a level of negativity around a lot of things sexual/sensual in this culture. I’m not always sure sex positive as a framework is the answer, but it’s a hell of a lot better than what I personally grew up with.
13. As I understand it, sex positivism actually is applying to same rules to sexual behavior as exists for non-sexual behavior. Basically, anyone can make a suggestion, but one must have the consent of all parties involved before actually acting. Forcing someone to play scrabble would be immoral and bizarre, thus rape is like that but much much worse. In my experience, and others seem to agree, sex positive discussions spend just as much time emphasizing the importance of consent as they do the importance of sexual freedom and non-repression. Actually a lot of sex positive feminist discussion can get into the same things mentioned in the article. However it’s merely problematic rather than immoral.
The thing that makes sex positives angry at “sex-negatives” is the perception that these feminists have used a variation of feminist theory to label a narrow set of sexual behaviors as the best kind, the few that are most consistent with human flourishing, and that everything else is in fact not only not as good, but downright EVIILLL!!!!!!!!
Also non-sex-positive feminists seem to make broad generalizations. Claiming that since most porn is exploitative or misogynistic, that porn is exploitative and misogynistic by definition (Catherine Mackinnon), or worse that because many men are rapists, that essentially all men are. Sex positive feminists assert than feminist porn is possible and encourage it’s creation. It is typically very different from mainstream porn. Also typically they try to help sex workers by making their lives easier rather than ‘rescuing’ them from their profession (unless they really are forced, which again is an issue of consent). Male sexuality is only bad when it ignores consent (which often it does, especially when sex is thought of as an achievement on the part of the man).
I think sex positive feminists assume that because people are unique, the sexuality that is most consistent with human flourishing really depends on the specific human, and that it is best to rely on each person to figure that out on their own. Sex positives generally trust people to know what kind of sex is healthy for them. Though there is plenty of room to educate them are gender issues and sexuality, which helps them come to the right decision. If do the wrong thing you could say there is a problem for that person and even for society if you explain why, but that’s different from shaming them for their chosen act or calling their act evil (unless it transgresses against consent).
So yeah as long as it is between consenting adults, it might be problematic but not immoral.
• The Wet One says:
Generally a good comment.
However, I completely disagree for my own part that my sexuality is often about ignoring consent when sex is thought of as an achievement (not even sure what that means in fact, but I loudly disagree all the same). I suggest all the men stand up and call bullshit on that one too, because it sounds like man bashing to me. You seem to suggest that men seeking to acheive orgasm through sex are rapists. Ummm… NO!
Please clarify or retract that ridiculous idea.
• There seems to be a way of looking at sex where sex occurs because the guy is (for lack of a better word) awesome. Not because two people wanted to do that thing, but because the guy is awesome and got his just rewards in the form of pussy. Men who are obsessed with ‘getting laid’ seem to see things this way. The woman’s desires and actions are rarely mentioned in such narratives, only the man’s actions. I guess the woman friendly version of this is the Dreamboat who “wins her heart” and “sweeps her off her feet”. Either way the focus is on what the man is doing. He chases her. She can resist or give in to him. Though is he is masculine/awesome enough and makes enough effort, even the world’s most chaste woman can be his!
i.e. a view of sex that focuses exclusively on what the man does to get the girl, and never what the woman wanted or did seems to invite rape. Of course a view that ignores the woman’s agency like that is by definition sexual objectification too (even if couched in romantic terms).
• The Wet One says:
Ummm… What?
I can’t connect a thing you’ve just said to my criticism above. I’m pretty sure you were trying to respond to me, but I’m honestly not sure. Could you run that by me again, a bit less jargon laden for me. I missed that class at the U, so I’m not following your language too well.
Sorry to be so dumb, but I want to be sure what I should reply to you before I reply to you lest I err in my comprehension.
14. That’s a beautiful comment, Quantuminc.
15. Susie Bright, Patrick Califia, Carol Queen, Tristan Taormino
These are some self identified sex positive types. Though I’m sure there are some disagreements within the group, I can assure you that none would support a “carte blanche anything goes” philosophy. A healthy discussion on the politics of sexuality cannot sustain a premise that non-consensual, illegal, unethical activities may be part of the “carte blanche” category. Anal sex is not a gateway entry to cultish divinity sexual sects in Montana. The Bible might be though, but I’m not totally sure about that either…these slippery slope, highly polarized attack argument are akin to religious conservatives’ worry about homosexual teachers trying to convert students to gay.
So – the list of proponents above both reflects my personal views (not perfectly mind you) as well as being highly representative of the movement. Lili can peruse all their websites and show their support for “anything goes” philosophy. She may find that the BDSM community, for example, is so heavily laden with rules and lines of negotiations that it may be hard to differentiate it from a government organization –
There should be a ton of nuance within discussions that attempt to knit individual and societal sexual ethics. That it’s so often missing, is so often telling.
16. this is an important conversation worth thinking about.
however, i find it painful that some of the most insightful and critical minds on the issue have to ask questions like, “How do we shape lives that are sensible, sane and consistent with both physical, emotional and mental, long-term health? … How do you build a culture in which human beings flourish? is the fundamental question – part of that question has to do with sex: How do you build a culture in which human beings flourish sexually?”
i know it’s easy to vilify the church, but there is a God who created us, and who has a solution for those questions not just on an individual and arbitrary level, but as part of a structure that is inclusive, fulfilling and healthy for all of humanity.
17. There’s so much to unpack about this interview and so much that’s problematic about it that I decided it would be better to write a post instead of just a comment. Here’s my take on why Robert Jensen Doesn’t Understand Sex-Positivity.
While I’m here, I’d also like to offer some thoughts on how sex-positivity can help people learn how to set boundaries and offer some clarity on the topic of sexualization, both of which seem relevant to this discussion.
• The Wet One says:
That’s a really good article there Charlie! Gotta give you some props for that. That was a thorough, well thought out reply to the article here.
I would suggest that the editors link the reply to this article in some fashion, but may cross some line or another….
18. Hi Julie- Thanks for writing and explaining the inner workings of the poly community. Two things:
I don’t think the issue being taken is with how those of like mind in those communities play together. If I understand Lili right, the issue is that though those in the sex positive communities want to be respected for their rights to live the way they want, more and more, many in that movement are taking on the characteristics of fundamentalist religions by “shaming” those not into the sexual activities they’re into.
For ex: porn use. Like Terre wrote, if you’re not into porn, you just need to read comments on these threads to get a big dose of shaming that you’re not sex-positive, that you’re conservative, prude, etc.
There’s no thoughtful discourse, it’s just “you’re prude” or “you’re conservative”. Oh really? I think the point the writer here was making, is that just like religions do, the sex-positive community seems to have made the rules and is now judging others by them which is the very thing they’re fighting against having others do to them. Ironic, isn’t it?
Second point: You write about the negotiations inside the communities you hang in:
In the communities I hang in, behaving in “date-rapey” ways is cause for either getting arrested, the crap beat out of you, and/or any other number of responses to having your NO not being heard. Am i the only one who finds the casual mention of this behavior, as almost an aside, alarming?
19. Also wanted to add as an aside, that Dr. Jensen aptly said: “…it’s very difficult to have a sensible conversation in this culture….” He’s right, we are so polarized about the issues of sex. There is no grey in our society or culture these days. Right wingers lean all the way to the puritanical and old ways, and the leftists say everything should be allowed. No! I don’t abide by either of these two extremes. Quite frankly, I find them frightening and supremely unhealthy.
That’s why this article is so great because at least we are having a dialogue. So many men and women define their “hip-ness” with being soooo ultra sex positive ie: Sexy clothing that leaves nothing to the imagination, plastic surgery, cool cars, posting your ass on u-tube, porn, orgies, erotica….u name it. The more sex you have the cooler and more loved you must be! Ugh!
I’m no prude, nor do I consider myself “Sex Negative”, but I don’t define myself by my “sex” and hate being defined or labelled by others as to where I supposedly fit in on the spectrum of opposites. I’m somewhere in the middle. I think there should be a dignity about sex and one’s sexuality. That’s what I find missing. All the objectification for someone else’s projection, sexual lack or benefit. I define myself by my mind and my loving, respectful relationships with others. That’s the bottom line. Lili’s site at PoSARC was created for those who have partner’s who have become addicted to too much exposure to all of this crap, and as a result, can’t have a healthy, intimate relationship.
• It’s not much of a dialogue, given that both Bee & Jensen share a lot of the same perspectives. Real dialogue emerges when we have room for different points of view.
• Charlie, Good point and hopefully you can follow this up with expressing your opinion. This is the chance to have and participate in this dialog. My POV is that there should be no fences, no sides, no labels. That everyone has a deep respect for eachother’s humanity through dignity and kindness. I can quickly say that this will never happen in my lifetime.. but if I truly believe and follow my intention then this will be achieved in my lifetime, in my life, and that is where it matters.
20. I must say it is a struggle to stay in conversation with those who refuse to believe that sex trafficking, sex slavery, porn addiction/compulsivity exist in statistically meaningful numbers. I will because we simply must keep talking until we hear each other.
I have worked with partners/spouses of sex addicts/NPDs for over four years and the numbers here in Atlanta are NOT small or insignificant. I am also an activist for the abolition of sex slavery and sex/human trafficking. That is happening here also. Sadly, just last week the two causes intersected. One of the sex addicts (whose spouse I have worked with) was arrested at a strip club for attempting to solicit a sex slave for a two-month overseas trip he had planned. Tragic for the spouse and children.
Actually, I want—with every fiber of my being—those who choose alternative sexual arrangements to be quite frank about their inclinations and associate with each other. I read Charlie’s blog about his take on the sex-positive motions. That was helpful. I want all those whose shame is high enough that they are not up to being truthful to align themselves with like-minded persons and become entirely whatever it is they want to become and/or do.
Here’s a surprise: I have participated in a pretty wide variety of sex play that involves “consenting adults.” And it was coerced or at best coming from a compromised ability to stand up for myself. I sold out over and over again until I reached a low that I would not wish upon anyone. I cannot help but wonder how much of that same selling out (especially on the part of women) is going on in sex-positive communities.
Robert Jensen speaks powerfully on the notion of choice in his book “Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity”—in short, that the degree of power one has in a relationship and community determines the that person’s ability to actually make a truly free choice. Women in a patriarchy do NOT have the same choices men do. Especially sexually.
Making rebellious sexual choices is as enslaving as obeying the rules without questions. Discovering one’s most genuine preferences is a very subtle inward process for women.
Before I get toasted for being sex-negative, let me re-state that I actually want those who refer to themselves as sex-positives to continue to strive for honesty and introspection and to NOT be shamed for their activities. I also want trauma counseling available for those like me who had weak boundaries. Some of my experiences were deeply traumatizing.
Conversely, those whose sexuality is being shamed from religious dogmatists deserve trauma therapy also. We are walking a thin line and sniping at each other must eventually become conversation. I remind myself over and over again that this current era of contention is just the part where pent-up frustration and anger is spewed before all sides are spent and we join together to honor all as humans who are exactly where they are right now.
1. [...] the comments under this interview with anti-porn lapdog Robert Jensen on The Good Men Project. Well, that’s a [...]
2. [...] I think you are on the right track with saying nothing, because women like this are looking for a reaction, a war. The person who goes right on being happy bothers them. Then if finally you do speak, your words have incredible power. These girls are either born this way or they were raised this way. You're not going to make them better human beings. I've dealt with the "snakey" women and developed a persona around them of even-mindedness, that the words they say can just hang there in the air without my anger. Sometimes I just walk away without comment. There are men like this, too. Another tactic is to repeat their words back to them, "Did I just hear you say that. . ." Then everybody gets a replay of the hurtful words, which puts the other person on the defensive. Powered by Yahoo! Answers Mandy asks… How to deal with workplace bully? How to deal with a person who's a two-headed snake?…m-content"> [...]
3. Trackback Link…
Speak Your Mind | http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/is-sex-positive-ever-negative/comment-page-1/ | dclm-gs1-100110002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "monkey"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.311384 | <urn:uuid:5592dbc4-d7da-49e5-85b7-0128ccb97c81> | en | 0.865019 | Editing a Profile
When you create a new Profile, you define the listening IP address for remote connecting clients, the listening IP address and port for the server inside your network, and any IP addresses exceptions. After the Profile is created, you can edit the Profile's configuration as necessary. You can also rename or delete the Profile. When you make a change to a Profile, before you click Apply, an asterisk appears in the tree next to the Profile that you are editing. You must define a unique IP address/port combination for each Profile.
To edit a Profile
1. In the Navigation pane, click the Profile that you want to edit.
2. In the Configuration pane, click the General tab.
3. Specify the Listening IP for incoming Clients box and the Listening IP for Server. Refer to Specifying the Listening IP Addresses for detailed information.
4. In the Port box, provide the port number over which connections are allowed.
5. In the Configuration pane, click the Access tab.
6. Specify the IP addresses or IP mask of servers that are allowed or denied access.
7. In the toolbar, click Apply Changes. If the IP address and port are not unique, an error message appears; otherwise, the DMZ Gateway will allow the server to connect.
If you have made multiple edits, you can revert to the last-saved state by clicking Revert Changes (undo) before clicking Apply Changes. However, once you click Apply Changes, you cannot go back. | http://help.globalscape.com/help/dmz3/editing_a_profile.htm | dclm-gs1-100130002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.023748 | <urn:uuid:f0d5312e-711f-46bb-be5c-ee7c2482b011> | en | 0.943438 |
Re: speculations to characterize issues for Debian Enterprise
CJ Fearnley wrote:
Can you mention why you don't think puppet is the right solution? Clearly the defaults on any package will not suit every enterprise, and some customisation is required. Puppet can do that just as well as a vi session, or a local configuration package.
(every client seems to have different requirements and so needs different
software with different integration behavior). Plus due to organizational
network firewalls plus host-based firewalls plus several extra layers
to protect ssh).
we need a configuration management tool that can flexibly work with
approaches that provide leverage primarily for homogeneous use cases.
I'm overwhelmed by excessive heterogeneity. The only thing in common
our customizations!
can do anything but increase complexity.
Based on my experience I think that if you do get around to that item on your todo list, you will find advantages to using puppet. We currently only have 12 nodes in our manifest (a node corresponds to a server in puppet parlance). Despite such a small number we already see it as a benefit to have used puppet, though we are intending on rolling out more servers managed by puppet. So if you've got a client with 10 computers, they would probably find the same benefits.
Just because you are using puppet to push out configuration doesn't mean that you can't use LDAP, or AD, or unix accounts. And it doesn't mean that if you use postfix for one client, you can't use exim for another. It probably doesn't make sense to have your different clients connecting back to puppet master you run centrally, but it might make sense to deploy a puppet master to run at some of your clients. Or to simply have a git repository at the clients site, and use some cronjobs to pull the manifest to each host and run local puppet runs against the manifest.
+-Geoff Crompton
+--Debian System Administrator
+---Trinity College
Reply to: | http://lists.debian.org/debian-enterprise/2010/08/msg00020.html | dclm-gs1-100340002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.05964 | <urn:uuid:7f01ea79-419d-4c4a-9b9f-836b9f14fb3f> | en | 0.949228 | Switch to Desktop Site
Crisis deepens as Russia-Ukraine gas deal unravels
The dispute threatens to paralyze economic relations.
About these ads
Moscow maintains it's simply a matter of weaning Ukraine from the Soviet-era subsidies that saw it paying less than half the global market price for its gas as recently as last year. Mired in economic troubles, Ukraine's ability to pay the $450 per thousand cubic meters that Russia is now demanding seems uncertain. Ukraine relies on Russia for 75 percent of its gas needs, and the fuel is essential to power the steel and chemical industries that are the economic backbone of the former Soviet country of 50 million. But as observers' heads spin over the on again off again flow of Russian gas, which accounts for a quarter of Europe's total supply, there are growing suspicions that hidden concerns over Ukraine's geopolitical choices and high-level corruption in both Russia and Ukraine may be the real factors driving this dispute.
Page: 1 | 2 | http://m.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2009/0114/p04s01-woeu.html | dclm-gs1-100380002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.018582 | <urn:uuid:39ebcc18-0e51-4357-9914-1e8b39452e73> | en | 0.968236 | August 16th, 2013
“Terrorism” Drills: Amerika Is Now Literally A CRAZY Country
This article comes to us from Scott Lazarowitz’s blog.
by Scott Lazarowitz
I have written quite a bit on how our own country is becoming more and more like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. (See this, this, this, this, this, and this.) Many people are in denial and don’t like such a characterization. But it’s really the truth. And a lot of what is going on is in the name of “fighting terrorists,” or “preventing terrorism.”
But when you have government and police themselves terrorizing the people, then the terrorists are now those people in our own government whose actions are by definition terrorist actions.
For example, according to this report by Julie Wilson, local government police in the small town of Rossford, Ohio staged a terror drill in the form of hijacking a school bus with students on board. The report does not say whether or not the students themselves knew about it in advance, although they probably did. But parents and teachers were waiting in a parking lot actually viewing the whole scene as broadcast to them from a camera on the bus. How sick is that?
Of course, Amerika has experienced soooo many school bus hijackings, I just can’t count them all, it’s way too many to keep track of. Here is another article from last year on how government police and school bureaucrats are taking things a bit too far. They’re literally crazy, these people.
When I was in school, thank God those in charge didn’t do these things to me. Frankly, doing all this now is just as unnecessary as it was during the 1960s and 1970s. But if I had kids in school now, and I heard that school imbeciles and police criminals put my kid through this kind of crap, I would not only sue personally those responsible, but I would insist on criminal charges being pressed against them as well!
You see, these government-employed goons are literally terrorizing innocent kids, putting them through a totally unnecessary experience, and for no good reason. But the sheeple parents and school employees there in Rossford, Ohio have no problem with it. They apparently actually believe that this is the way to prevent terrorists from taking over the country.
And reporter Julie Wilson has more on these kinds of endless terror drills which government buffoons are inflicting on Americans, not just school children. Here is another report on Infowars of these widespread yet useless drills being implemented to terrorize the population into submission.
If you haven’t seen enough, then here is another report on how local S.W.A.T. teams are being used to issue regular arrest warrants at people’s homes, which are extremely alarming to the neighbors of these victims of Amerika’s legislating away our freedom and security.
Read more here.
Read More Posts
6 Responses to ““Terrorism” Drills: Amerika Is Now Literally A CRAZY Country”
1. 1
Cal Says:
Good points brought up. “our own country is becoming more and more like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union” is so true. All one has to do if they feel they do not have time to study the history not taught in US schools is read the Opening Statement by Justice Robert H. Jackson, Chief of Counsel for the United States – Nuremburg Trials. It is realitively short, but still covers much of
what happened, such as:
The Nazis created a plan way before they took over; each step it would take, what step would follow the other in getting to the desired result. As they implemented their plan, it left the populace with the feeling something was not right, but no true idea of what the real problem was.
Never before was a hidden agenda of such scope used for world domination – usually it was straight out physical attacks to dominate the target country as even the Trojan horse was a deception left when physical battle did not work.
“Never before in legal history has an effort been made to bring within the scope of a single litigation the developments of plan that covered a decade or more, covering a whole continent, and involving a score of nations, countless individuals, and innumerable events.
Some of their (Nazi) declared purposes sounded good to many good citizens, such as: “profit-sharing in the great industries,” (sound familiar?)
a land reform suitable to our national requirements,” (UN’s Agenda 21)
The Party said that a “strong centralized government” was needed. It demanded the creation of a strong central power with unconditional authority,
and a “reconstruction” of the educational system.
The National Socialist German Workers Party felt it was needed to end civil liberties and there could be no freedom of the press – the press had to completely support the Party.
“No greater mistake could be made than to think of the Nazi Party in terms of the loose organizations which we of the western world call “political parties”. In discipline, structure, and method the Nazi Party was not adapted to the democratic process of persuasion. It was an instrument of conspiracy and of coercion
The Party was organized to take over power in the German State by creating the appearance of the support of a majority of the German people… (Key word is “appearance”.)
There was practiced violent interference with German elections
The Party had its own secret police, its security units, its intelligence and espionage division, its raiding forces, and its youth forces {DHS, TSA, look up “Obama youth” on youtube.com}. It also established administrative mechanisms over time {Patriot Act, NDAA, warrantless searches, warrantless spying, TSA, etc} to identify those who supported the legitimate government. They “encouraged” the populace to inform on their own neighbors, friends, family {“See Something, Say Something”, and other videos the DHS put out here in America}.
Justice Robert Jackson, Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials
Germany had economic problems at that time, which led to problems within the politics; plus there was also a worldwide depression at that time which added to the uncertainties of the general populace within that country.
A presidential decree was created suspending the extensive guarantees of individual liberty contained in the constitution of the Weimar Republic….
Those decree’s were restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion – including freedom of the press, on the right of peaceful assembly, the right of association, and violations of the privacy: postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications; and no need for warrants for house-searches, orders for, confiscations as well as restrictions on property, etc all taken away under the guise of “keeping the people safe”. {much like what is happening within the USA today, as all of the “restrictions” on our freedoms are “for our own safety”} Many were arrested as “belligerents” – no real crime committed, just disagreeing with the destruction of their legitimate government.
TEll me how this is not an echo of that only with more modern tools.
2. 2
Ron Jr. Says:
I’ve been telling this to anyone who would listen to me for the last 5+ years Cal! I’m a history buff. I know what happened to Germany and am aware of how it happened. The funny part (not really funny!) is how no one sees it but for a few. And the response you get when you mention it to people is “that can never happen here” My response is the German people didn’t know what hit them! And neither are you if you don’t wake up.
These progressives are a smart sneaky bunch. But I feel that if people do wake up they’re (meaning progs.) are going to be in for a rude awakening. They are underestimating the American persons resolve. I noticed a few years back with this political correctness and how certain words were not cool to say anymore. And now it has progressed to the point that it has indoctrinated people that this is excepted speech and thinking. (thus control) the progs know that the psyche of Americans is to win. You know as well as I that we hate to lose. So they play on that and people will go along.
Just as the article says the people get duped into thinking that everybody wants this or that. So they go along so they don’t feel out of the loop.
So Cal the way I look at it I’d rather be a dead patriot fighting for what I believe my country and my constitution and flag actually DO stand for than be put into submission by a bunch of lying P’sOS
3. 3
Ron Jr. Says:
By the way Cal I’ve never served in the military or have taken an official oath to anybody or organization except the oath I took to myself, which would be one and the same as the official oath you and your fellow oathkeepers took! So in a sense we ARE brothers. God Bless you people! you give us others hope and strength.
4. 4
Dianna Says:
People need to b telling their mayors and sheriffs that they do not want these mock setups in ther cities and if it happens they will b firing them! Americans should stand up another allow this to happen and it starts n our cities
5. 5
Mike Says:
Those guys are standing to close together, One anti-personnel mine or a burst of auto fire and they would be dead. When it happens, I hope guys like that are coming.
6. 6
Deborah Says:
Raids taking place at business, Duncan Outdoors, Mountain Pure Water, many more across the country under Holder. 50 agents armed take over of companies and theft of documents and never returned nor are they charged for anything, plus much money taken from their business accounts. Raided, robbed.
Leave a Reply
| http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2013/08/16/%E2%80%9Cterrorism%E2%80%9D-drills-amerika-is-now-literally-a-crazy-country/ | dclm-gs1-100520002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "assembly"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.023888 | <urn:uuid:7b4d9e91-baf5-47e9-968c-49d1fd559553> | en | 0.950255 | Anonymous asked: i'm really sorry if i'm being obtuse but what is happening in the last panel of your snk winter art?
The shadow of a titan hovers ominously over a snowman (OR a titan pauses in their winter frolicking to appreciate a snowman.)
Hahah it’s okay, I think lots of people are confused. The tags seem to be divided between thinking it’s super cute, and asking me what I did with my heart.
Waalking in a winter wonderland.
I’m about an hour away from finishing today’s winter thing, so in the meantime, here’s days 2-6 all grouped together.
How many oceans have you been to?! What are dolphins like?! Have you ever seen a manatee? Do you sleep in giant shells? Tell. Me. Everything.
[Day 6]
Look, I just want to draw some medieval knights AU. Also I really need that window in my apartment.
[Day 5]
There’s just no way to recover from your umbrella inverting in public.
[day 4]
It’s cold season. Please be patient with those of us who aren’t good at being sick (or being caretakers.)
[Day 3]
Someday i’m gonna do a beach scene with everyone that’s not bittersweet.
[Day 2]
Characters that thought they were weak, but are turning out to be pretty strong!
[Day 1]
I recently finished [this] project for Newsweek/The Daily Beast! Scott Simon of NPR reads some of the tweets he wrote during his mother’s last days, both her words and his. A very sad but sweet family portrait, which I’m so honored to have been asked to work on.
That said, at 5 mins of animation in 1 month, this is truly the most ambitious thing I’ve ever tried to tackle. (I also really recommend thinking hard before you sketch a rotation of a piano into your storyboards.) | http://oliviawhen.tumblr.com/ | dclm-gs1-100530002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.026297 | <urn:uuid:889c6653-67a5-4152-8ef0-da0328d6d11f> | en | 0.975417 |
Timeline: Dell's Ups and Downs
From Public to Private ... and Back?
Founder Michael Dell said he is ready to engage in a proxy fight if his buyout proposal is defeated. Reuters
Ahead of last week's postponed vote, the buyout group held a slim majority of the shares that voted, people familiar with the matter said.
Now Mr. Dell is taking up the mantle personally in a last gasp effort to save the deal. Last week, he pitched shareholders in a personal letter. This weekend he answered, in an email, questions from The Wall Street Journal.
Here are excerpts from that email interview.
WSJ: Is this buyout proving more or less difficult than you originally anticipated?
Mr. Dell: I knew it would be a journey and I was ready for it because think it is the right thing to do for the company. The biggest issue has been the developments since we signed and the way these have impacted the vote requirement. In particular, the emergence of a large shareholder who bought stock only after we announced the deal and the unexpectedly low turnout, which has allowed our new large shareholder to organize a blocking position that could defeat our offer even though the majority of the unaffiliated shares voting would like to accept it. Based on the number of shares currently voting on the deal, it only takes about 23% of the outstanding shares to block the transaction. This is an unfair result that does not accurately reflect what the shareholders want.
WSJ: Who have been your closest confidantes in this process?
Mr. Dell: My wife Susan is always my closest confidante. I also have a great group of advisers supporting me and a strong group at Silver Lake who share my vision and passion for the company.
WSJ: What have you learned from working with Silver Lake's Egon Durban ?
Mr. Dell: I did not know Egon before this process started, but I have been very impressed with him. Egon and Silver Lake share my vision for the company and are ready to help us through the transformation the company needs with both patience and commitment. We speak regularly.
WSJ: Were you surprised by how adamant some shareholders have been against the deal? In particular, what about Southeastern Asset Management Inc. and Carl Icahn who have their own proposal for a leveraged recapitalization?
WSJ: What changed leading to the price bump? Would you bump again?
Mr. Dell: This is our best and final offer, as we stated clearly in our letter last week. The fact that many parties over many months looked at this company and were not willing to pay more than $13.65 per share made it hard to justify an increase. But we ultimately decided that it was appropriate to put more on the table in connection with asking for a change in the voting standard to allow a majority of the unaffiliated shares voting to determine the outcome.
WSJ: Will you leave Dell Inc. if the deal falls through?
Mr. Dell: If the deal does not go through, I plan to stay and continue to do my best to make the company successful. I will not support the kind of recapitalization and sale of assets some shareholders are suggesting. Given where we are today, I believe the challenges we would face as a public company, including a potential proxy fight, would be significant. But I am ready to fight and I am committed to doing what I believe is right for the company.
—Shira Ovide contributed to this article.
Write to David Benoit at | http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324354704578633991112022534?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_Markets | dclm-gs1-100540002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.803429 | <urn:uuid:8a285c95-d8da-4050-b0cb-b07c15307ff7> | en | 0.962037 | Communication Equipment
Created by edi2do
5 terms · Know what these are and what they do.
answering machine
an answering machine is a device which is attached to the telephone that has the capability to record messages of the people who call when the person they are calling cannot answer the phone because they are away from the phone or not available.
fax machine
a fax machine is a device that usually consists of an image scanner, a modem, a printer, and a telephone. It is used for sending copies of documents over a telephone network; the advantage being that this allows documents to be delivered faster than by mail or being carried.
a modem is a separate device, or part of, a computer that can convert data into transmittable signals, which can then be relayed to another modem that then converts the signal back to data at the other end. it can also receive signals from another modem and covert them to data to be seen by the user.
A pager is a small telecommunications device that a person usually carries with them that receives alert signals(by sound or vibration)that lets the person receiving the signal know that they have a message(or some other type of communication) This type of device is convenient for people expecting telephone calls or messages that are not near a telephone, and are not able to take, or return, calls immediately.
voice mail
voice mail is a system of recorded messages that when a call is made to the system the caller can be directed to the person or department they wish to speak to. This is usually done through a series of options available to the caller. It also allows the caller to leave messages for the one they want to speak to. | http://quizlet.com/1863754/communication-equipment-flash-cards/ | dclm-gs1-100620002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.976011 | <urn:uuid:70ef502e-451a-427d-827b-5f5e218679b5> | en | 0.915466 | Nutritional Science 10 Lecture 12
Created by fl1p1npr1d3
29 terms
What are some characteristics of disordered eating? What can it do?
overeating, undereating, dieting, skipping meals, avoiding food groups, becoming a vegetarian, it can increase the risk of developing an eating disorder
Dieting..what is special about it? Why do people go on it?
the most common form of disordered eating, every eating disorder starts with dieting to feel good, to be healthy, etc.
How many people suffer from eating disorders? How many are men? How many women are dissatisfied with their appearance?
24,000,000 people nationwide suffer from eating disorders, 10% are men, 80% of women are dissatisfied with their appearance
Anorexia Nervosa...what's so special about it? What is it's mortality rate? What are the types? Characteristics?
has the highest premature fatality rate of any mental illness, 10% mortality rate, weight below 75% of expected normal body weight, intense fear of gaining weight, girls between 15-24 are 12 times more likely to die because of anorexia nervosa than the death rate of all causes of death, types: restricting type (no bing-eating/purging behavior), purging type (episodes of binging followed by purging, excessive exercising, laxative abuse)
Bulimia Nervosa..types? characteristics?
purging type: self induced vomiting or misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas, non-purging type:exercise bullimia, fasting, diabulimia (lowering insulin intake for starvation)...characs: bing eating, lack of control, recurrent behavior to prevent weight gain, typically normal or slightly overweight
Binge Eating Disorder..characteristics?
frequent binges w/ sense of loss of control, without purging & w/ weight gain, often triggered by negative emotions & associated w/ depression
Food Avoidance Emotional Disorder (FEAD)..characteristics?
weight loss, low weight, mood disturbances: depression, anxiety, obsessionality, phobias, emotional disorder
Food Refusal..characteristics?
refusal often episodic, intermittent or situational, eat favorite foods, typically does not impact health bu can affect quality of relationship w/ the child
Functional Dysphagia..characteristics?
food avoidance of certain type and texture, fear of swallowing, vomiting, choking
Pervasive Refusal..characteristics?
profound refusal to eat, drink, walk, talk, or self-care, underweight, dehydrated
Selective Eating..characteristics?
narrow range of food of particular brand, type or color, diet often high in carbs., resistant to expanding food repertoire
Restrictive Eating
typically never been very interested in food, always been small eaters, growth moves normally until puberty hits when they are unable to keep up w/ nutritional needs
What are the stereotypical characteristics of an anorexic?
white, middle class, educated, female, perfectionist, high achieving
What are the biological contributing factors for eating disorders?
genetic predisposition, medical conditions
What are the psychological contributing factors for eating disorders?
life stresses, low self-esteem
What are the societal contributing factors for eating disorders?
social& peer pressures, family pressures, sports, fat prejudice
What are the physiological maintaining factors for eating disorders?
starvation, disordered eating patterns
What are the psychological maintaining factors for eating disorders?
eating disorder as a way of coping w/ emotions, self-worth based on size and weight, starvation syndrome
What are the characteristics of the starvation syndrome?
personality changes, poor concentration & memory, introversion, loss of interest in usual activities
What are the maintaining societal factors of eating disorders?
peers and family reinforcement, dominant social values related to thinness
When should you suspect an eating disorder?
sudden weight loss, significant weight fluctuations, failure to gain weight while gaining in height, amenorrhea, constipation, involvement in certain sports
What are the health consequences of anorexia nervosa?
slow heart rate, low blood pressure, changes in the heart muscles, muscle loss & weakness
What are the physiological signs of bulimia nervosa?
puffiness in the cheeks, broken blood vessels under the eyes, sore throat, tooth decay, gum disease, top of fingers have small cuts or calluses, weight fluctuation 10-15 lbs., mood swings
Out-patient Treatment Team.. characteristics?
weekly follow up w/ PCP w/ low weight anorexics, psychotherapy, psychiatrist, nutritional evaluation
Outpatient medical visit..characteristics?
physical exam, monitor for weight changes, food is medicine
What medications are recommended in treating eating disorders?
multivitamin & minerals, calcium, estrogen (controversial), antipsychotic
How are eating disorders in adolescents usually handled?
parents are given charge to feed the child
What is the Maudsley Method?
family based approach, weight restoration is primary initial focus of treatment, parents are empowered to take charge of refeeding to bring child back to health
What are the keys to succesful treatment of eating disorders?
early ID, mobilization of resources and allies, aggressive treatment | http://quizlet.com/6106193/nutritional-science-10-lecture-12-flash-cards/ | dclm-gs1-100630002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.347265 | <urn:uuid:cd83a16d-fc77-4909-bb1b-818db9aa9f45> | en | 0.950771 | Though I do this to be heard, I’mma do it to death
Wale has been accused of conforming to Rick Ross and MMG’s style. Although he has changed, he has also gotten more praise. He may be doing the same shit everyone does so he can sell, but he’s gonna do it better than everyone else
| http://rapgenius.com/597338/Tyga-kings-and-queens/Though-i-do-this-to-be-heard-imma-do-it-to-death | dclm-gs1-100660002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.587695 | <urn:uuid:8e6bfbd6-9e69-41c1-bf3c-a3bf383e36b2> | en | 0.959448 | where the writers are
Sno Balls | Sno Balls
jennifer-kathleen-gibbons's picture
I am in a blue mood. It's nothing really; as Anne Lamott would say it's very very gold-plated. A workshop I would love to go to is a thousand dollars. A thousand dollars. I looked at the screen blinking, hoping it would change to a hundred dollars. Not to be rude, but who can afford thousand dollar... | http://redroom.com/blog-keyword-tags/sno-balls | dclm-gs1-100680002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.033243 | <urn:uuid:748a753b-68ac-4a05-b23b-0b3899b9dcfe> | en | 0.808655 | Frae Wikipedia
Lowp tae: navigation, rake
Confine is a village locatit in San Marino. It belongs to the municipality (castello) o Chiesanuova. Its name, in Italian language, means "border".
The village is situated in the south-western side of its castle, close to the borders with Italy and the municipality of San Leo.
See an aa[edit]
Template:Curazie o San Marino Coordinates: 43°55′N 12°25′E / 43.917°N 12.417°E / 43.917; 12.417 | http://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confine | dclm-gs1-100710002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.024943 | <urn:uuid:4b4addbc-4db7-48de-a181-38c7086a9a9e> | en | 0.752163 | Tell me more ×
I'd like to know how I could insert the special tag
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="XYZ.xslt"?>
in a document, just after the <?xml version="1.0" ... ?> and before the Doc root element ?? I currently use libxml2 version 2.7.8
Best regards
share|improve this question
add comment
1 Answer
It helps to know that this "tag" is actually a processing instruction, and you can create processing instructions using the XSLT instruction
<xsl:processing-instruction name="xml-stylesheet">
<xsl:text>type="text/xsl" href="XYZ.xslt"</xsl:text>
share|improve this answer
Thanks for answering...but i was wondering if there is any specific API is available in LIBXML2 (ver 2.7.8) to create the <?xml-stylesheet....?> tag. – mujahid May 17 '12 at 6:02
add comment
Your Answer
| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10618005/how-to-add-xml-stylesheet-tag-in-a-xml-file-using-libxml2/10619995 | dclm-gs1-100810002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.682189 | <urn:uuid:c460a386-de17-4238-b596-e673deae9977> | en | 0.877121 | Tell me more ×
How can you get the HTTP Referrer when redirected from another website, not when they click on a link since it would work for $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], but it doesn't work when a user has been redirected a website and the referrer would be empty.
What will be the method to get the referrer?
share|improve this question
add comment
3 Answers
up vote 5 down vote accepted
How can you get the HTTP Referrer when redirected from another website
You can't. If the redirection takes place under your control, you can add the original referer as a parameter, but if the external redirector doesn't do that, you have no way to get hold of the information.
share|improve this answer
Aw. So there is absolutely no way to know where the user came from when the user got redirected? – Burning the Codeigniter Oct 28 '10 at 13:13
@YouBook not as far as I know, no. – Pekka 웃 Oct 28 '10 at 13:16
add comment
Have a read of this:
share|improve this answer
This won't help in this specific case, where REFERER has a different value – Pekka 웃 Oct 28 '10 at 13:32
@Pekka Did you look at the whole article? It explains why the value may vary and be in this case. – ExtPro Oct 28 '10 at 13:52
I read the whole article. I still think it misses the point. The OP wants to get the referer's referer, which is by definition not possible, unless the previous page passes it on. The cases the article refers to (if I read it right) are when the client decides to suppress sending the referer. – Pekka 웃 Oct 28 '10 at 14:05
@Pekka, aha! I didnt read the question as referring to the referrers referrer, merely the immediate referrer (from the page referred), in which case you're right – ExtPro Oct 28 '10 at 14:11
add comment
An example of how I did it. Say we have 3 pages, one calling the next. -> ->
in get the using:
when redirecting to page3, send $referrer as a GET parameter$referrer
in page3 read the $referrer from the get.
$initialReferrer = $_GET['referrer'];//
share|improve this answer
add comment
Your Answer
| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4043196/get-http-referrer-on-redirection | dclm-gs1-100820002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.061722 | <urn:uuid:00f79461-8b10-463e-93d8-668f35873eb7> | en | 0.687419 | Tell me more ×
I dont know how to compare fields from database in dataset. I am working with and c#.
and after compare two dataset i want to insert in anothere table.Any help, thanks.
public void btnProcess_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
if (rdBusinessUnit.Checked == true)
DataSet ds1 = new DataSet();
DataSet ds2 = new DataSet();
SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(strConn);
string sql1 = "";
string sql2 = "";
sql1 = "SELECT * FROM CTORGPROJ ";
if (conn.State == ConnectionState.Closed) { conn.Open(); }
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(sql1, conn);
da.Fill(ds1, "temp");
//int i="';
//i dont know how to compare in here
sql2 = "select * from PY33PAYRP WHERE PAPBRCH
='ds1.Tables[] [CTPAPBRCH]' ";
SqlDataAdapter daa = new SqlDataAdapter(sql2, conn);
daa.Fill(ds2, "temp");
// ds2.Merge(ds1);
catch { }
else if (rdPreviousMonth.Checked == true)
share|improve this question
Compare what and insert what ?, Can just compare the counts and dump all the data into the database .. Specify your question is way too vague – V4Vendetta Jun 23 '11 at 9:37
You need to read about joins instead of datasets? – Waqas Raja Jun 23 '11 at 9:39
I have 3 tables that CTORGPROJ,PY33PAYRP,CT33PAYRP. I want the EMPLOYEECODE that compare with CTORGPROJ.CTPAPBRCH like PY33PAYRP.PAPBRCH AND CTORGPROJ.CTPAPDIV like PY33PAYRP.PAPDIV etc. The I'll insert the result to CT33PAYRP. – z0mbie Jun 23 '11 at 9:43
Have a look at this question it solves your problem. – Bibhu Jun 23 '11 at 9:45
add comment
Your Answer
Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question. | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6452022/compare-two-dataset-and-insert-to-another-table | dclm-gs1-100830002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.023214 | <urn:uuid:3e9f354e-5aca-4d46-9c23-66d1e6402ec4> | en | 0.963551 | Gundling v. Chicago - 177 U.S. 183 (1900)
U.S. Supreme Court
Gundling v. Chicago, 177 U.S. 183 (1900)
Gundling v. Chicago
No. 209
Argued March 22, 1900
Decided April 9, 1900
177 U.S. 183
The ordinance of the City of Chicago, authorizing the issue of a license to persons to sell cigarettes upon payment of one hundred dollars, and forbidding their sale without license, is no violation of the federal Constitution, and the amount of the tax named for the license is within the power of the state to fix.
The case is stated in the opinion.
MR. JUSTICE PECKHAM delivered the opinion of the Court.
The plaintiff in error was convicted in a police court of the City of Chicago of a violation of an ordinance of that city forbidding the sale of cigarettes by any person without a license, and was fined fifty dollars. From the judgment of conviction, he appealed to the Criminal Court of Cook County, where it was affirmed, and thence to the supreme court of the state, where it was again affirmed, and he now brings the case here on writ of error.
Sections 1, 2, and 8 of the ordinance referred to read as follows:
"SEC. 1. The Mayor of the City of Chicago shall from time to time grant licenses authorizing the sale of cigarettes within the City of Chicago in the manner following, and not otherwise."
"Any person, firm, or corporation desiring a license to sell cigarettes shall make written application for that purpose to
Page 177 U. S. 184
the commissioner of health, in which shall be described the location at which such sales are proposed to be made. Said application shall be accompanied by evidence that the applicant, if a single individual, all the members of the firm, if a copartnership, and person or persons in charge of the business, if a corporation is or are persons of good character and reputation. The commissioner of health shall thereupon submit to the mayor the said application with the evidence aforesaid, with his opinion as to the propriety of granting such license, and if the mayor shall be satisfied that the persons before mentioned are of good character and reputation, and are suitable persons to be entrusted with the sale of cigarettes, he shall issue a license in accordance with such application upon such applicant's filing a bond payable to the City of Chicago, with at least two sureties, to be approved by the mayor, in the sum of $500, conditioned that the licensed person, firm, or corporation shall faithfully observe and obey all laws of the State of Illinois and ordinances of the City of Chicago now in force or which may hereafter be passed, with reference to cigarettes; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be held to authorize the sale of cigarettes containing opium, morphine, jimson weed, belladonna, glycerine, or sugar."
"SEC. 2. Every person, on compliance with the aforesaid requirements and the payment in advance to the city collector at the rate of $100 per annum, shall receive a license under the corporate seal, signed by the mayor and countersigned by the clerk, which shall authorize the person, firm, or corporation therein named to expose for sale, sell, or offer for sale cigarettes at the place designated in the license; provided, that no license shall be granted to sell within 200 feet of a schoolhouse."
"SEC. 8. Any person who shall hereafter have or keep for sale or expose for sale or offer to sell any cigarettes at any place within the City of Chicago without having first procured the license provided shall be fined not less than fifty dollars and not exceeding two hundred dollars for every violation of this ordinance, and a further penalty of $25 for each and every day the person, firm, or corporation persists in such violation after a conviction for the first offense. "
Page 177 U. S. 185
The other sections are not material to this inquiry.
The plaintiff in error made no application to the health commissioner to obtain a license from the mayor in accordance with the above-mentioned ordinance. He specially set up in the courts below that the ordinance was invalid, because in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, as depriving him of his property without due process of law. He contended in the state courts that the Common Council of the City of Chicago had no right to pass the ordinance in question because no such power was given to it under the general act of the State of Illinois which incorporated the City of Chicago. The supreme court of the state, however, in construing that act, decided that it did authorize the city to pass the ordinance, and the plaintiff in error admits that this decision is conclusive upon us as the decision of a question of local law by the highest court of the state.
He makes two claims here upon which he bases the statement that the ordinance violates his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the federal Constitution. Quoting from counsel's brief, these claims are:
"First, that the state itself, acting through the Common Council of the City of Chicago, is inhibited by the federal Constitution from making those provisions in the ordinance which delegate to the mayor the entire subject of granting and revoking licenses to persons engaged in the business of selling cigarettes; second, that the ordinance is unconstitutional and void as being an unreasonable exercise of the police power by imposing a license fee of $100, a sum manifestly greater than the expense of issuing the license and providing for the regulation, thereby depriving persons of their liberty and property by an interference with their rights which is neither necessary to the protection of others nor the public health."
He claims also that he has been denied the equal protection of the laws because in other kinds of business, where licenses are granted to persons engaged in any trade or occupation, no
Page 177 U. S. 186
member thereof is
It seems somewhat doubtful whether the plaintiff in error is in a position to raise the question of the invalidity of the ordinance because of the alleged arbitrary power of the mayor to grant or refuse it. He made no application for a license, and, of course, the mayor has not refused it. Non constat that he would have refused it if application had been made by the plaintiff in error. Whether the discretion of the mayor is arbitrary or not would seem to be unimportant to the plaintiff in error so long as he made no application for the exercise of that discretion in his favor and was not refused a license.
But, assuming that the question may be raised by him, we think the ordinance in question does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, either in regard to the clause requiring due process of law or in that providing for the equal protection of the laws.
The case principally relied upon by the plaintiff in error is that of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356, relating to the regulation of laundries in the City of San Francisco. The ordinance in question in that case was held to be illegal and in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment because, with reference to the subject upon which it touched, it conferred upon the municipal authorities arbitrary power, at their will and without regard to discretion in the legal sense of the term, to give or withhold consent as to persons or places for carrying on a laundry with reference to the competency of the persons applying or the propriety of the place selected. It was also held that there was a clear and intentional discrimination made against the Chinese in the operation of the ordinance, which discrimination was founded upon the difference of race, and was wholly arbitrary and unjust. It appeared that both petitioners, who were engaged in the laundry business, were Chinese, and had complied with every requisite deemed by the law, or by the public officers charged with its administration, necessary for the protection of neighboring property from fire or as a protection against injury to
Page 177 U. S. 187
"The ordinance therefore also differs from the not unusual case where discretion is lodged by law in public officers or bodies to grant or withhold licenses to keep taverns or places for the sale of spirituous liquors and the like when one of the conditions is that the applicant shall be a fit person for the exercise of the privilege, because in such cases, the fact of fitness is submitted to the judgment of the officer, and calls for the exercise of a discretion of a judicial nature."
Page 177 U. S. 188
reasonable conditions upon the performance of which a license may be granted to sell such article does not violate any provision of the federal Constitution.
Regulations respecting the pursuit of a lawful trade or business are of very frequent occurrence in the various cities of the country, and what such regulations shall be and to what particular trade, business, or occupation they shall apply are questions for the state to determine, and their determination comes within the proper exercise of the police power by the state, and unless the regulations are so utterly unreasonable and extravagant in their nature and purpose that the property and personal rights of the citizen are unnecessarily, and in a manner wholly arbitrary, interfered with or destroyed without due process of law, they do not extend beyond the power of the state to pass, and they form no subject for federal interference.
As stated in Crowley v. Christensen, 137 U. S. 86,
Whether there is or is not a delegation of power by the Common Council to the mayor is not in this case a federal question.
We have no doubt that the ordinance, so far as the objection above considered is concerned, was clearly within the power of the state to authorize, and must be obeyed accordingly.
The other objection made to the validity of the ordinance is that the amount of the license fee ($100) is an improper and illegal interference with the rights of the citizen, and is therefore a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The amount of the fee is fixed by the Common Council for the privilege of doing business, and the text of the ordinance and the amount of the fee therein named would seem to indicate that it is both a means adopted for the easier regulation of the business and a tax in the nature of an excise imposed upon the privilege of doing it. In either case, the state has power to make the exaction, and its exercise by the city under state authority violates no provision of the federal Constitution.
Page 177 U. S. 189
In speaking of a license to do business, it was said in Royall v. Virginia, 116 U. S. 572, 116 U. S. 579:
"The payment required as a preliminary to the license is in the nature and form of a tax, and is a due to the state which it may demand and exact from every one of its citizens who either will or must follow some business avocation within its limits, to the pursuit of which the assessment is made a condition precedent. It is an occupation tax, for which the license is merely a receipt, and not an authority, except in that sense, because it is laid and collected as revenue, and not merely as incident to the general police power of the state, which, under certain circumstances and conditions, regulates certain employments with a view to the public health, comfort, and convenience."
It is not a valid objection to the ordinance that it partakes of both the character of a regulation and also that of an excise or privilege tax. The business is more easily subjected to the operation of the power to regulate where a license is imposed for following the same, while the revenue obtained on account of the license is nonetheless legal because the ordinance which authorized it fulfills the two functions, one a regulating and the other a revenue function. So long as the state law authorizes both regulation and taxation, it is enough, and the enforcement of the ordinance violates no provision of the federal Constitution.
| http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/177/183/case.html | dclm-gs1-100850002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "public health"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.023074 | <urn:uuid:e10dbefc-9bec-43fd-a4e7-2928fad0958e> | en | 0.918139 | About لسكس
فريال يوسف more traditional triangle cups that lift and shape the breasts. تنريل A notable exception to the association of Lycanthropy and the Devil, comes from a rare and lesser known account of a man named Thiess.
لسكس Their efforts ensured that the Devil and his minions did not carry off the abundance of the earth down to hell. The exact mechanisms by which the relatively modest variations in the Earth`s orbit and axis direction might not result in such large effects as the ice ages are well established. لسكس Let me tell you where these hidden treasures are hiding. لسكس Virgin Islands. تنريل We had decided that he would go back to work for someone else but could not find anything out there.
Related Video Searches
سوالف حريم جنسيه
اخ و اخته في الحمام
اقو سكس
اوضاع الجماع للحامل
Random Searches
سكسي مباشر
کس نیوشا ضی
Http://tamugaia.com/ssvs/video.php?v=فیلم سکسوعکس سکسportal=youtube
سکس باحیوانات
Most Recent
Lisa Ann
افلام اكشن
Sxs Dogs
صورزينب العسكري
Brother And Sister Fighing | http://tamugaia.com/ssvsch/index.php?v=%20%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%B3 | dclm-gs1-100870002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.021104 | <urn:uuid:73ebf4f5-f18f-4da4-8b3d-5ad427ba3da6> | en | 0.971028 | Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The Unhappiness of Jack Bauer
Monday, November 26, 2007
Who cares about politics?
Last month, the New York Times published an article on the presidential candidates' clothing – not what they're wearing (although that's been analyzed too) but what they're selling. Mostly, candidates sell themselves, but they're also selling T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers and buttons. Conversely, they're buying ad space: all over American's bumpers and bodies. The Times article was specifically about whose cars and chests they're targeting: Obama's pink baseball tees are a clear pitch to young women, while the target audience of Clinton's "Wellesley Women for Hillary" lapel pins is obvious (what's not so obvious to me is who's wearing lapels at a women's college.) I'm all for catering to outside-the-mainstream constituencies if it will make our government more representative. But what's missing here is any substantive appeal to these voters, implying that their allegiance can be bought by pink baby doll tees. Where are the articles on how Clinton's health care policy will affect young women or Obama's plans to improve education?
It doesn't matter if the President of The United States of America has good taste or good hair. It doesn't matter if the president is black or white or a woman. What matters is whether, by the next election, America will be stronger, wealthier, more respected, safer, healthier and happier. The candidates all know this, the people at the New York Times certainly know this, and I think most of America, if they bothered to ask themselves, would realize they know this too. But it doesn't make for great reading, and you can't run photos of pink T-shirts alongside it. It's more fun to criticize a candidate for yesterday's slip of the tongue. Comparing candidates' war chests is like a game. Analyzing the colors of their ties and suits makes for aesthetically appealing news reports. Taking 7-second sound bytes out of context provides instant gratification. It's all a lot sexier than reading and listening carefully to their plans and positions.
And so voters wind up reading and watching coverage of politics instead of government until they can't distinguish between the two anymore. And then we end up with articles like this one in the Times, reporting on what amounts to meta-politics that in the end really shouldn't matter at all.
But in the short-run, and perhaps to the detriment of our country, it does matter. The candidates, all of whom probably genuinely believe that they would be the best president for America, are willing to pander to voters' shallow sides in order to get elected. They know it's not really about the merchandise, but they also know that it won't matter if they campaigned "ethically" if they don't get elected. Isn't it better to sell out first and change the world later than do neither?
That's a question for another time. For now try this experiment: visit your favorite candidate's website and try and determine where he or she stands on "the issues." For an added challenge, try and find a position on issues that aren't high-profile partisan ones (a.k.a. gay marriage, Iraq, immigration, etc.) Try and find a vision for the future of America. If I could find one candidate who gave me that information before asking for my (monetary) support, he or she might actually stand a chance of earning my vote. As it stands, I remain "undecided."
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Blackwater Blues: Vigilantes in Iraq
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Bush and Brown: Revising the Anglo-American Relationship
The American-British relationship is a contingency. Despite appearances of being firm, it is subject to revaluation and remodelling. The new British Prime Minister is no exception to this. Your allies once burned the Library of Congress (perhaps with sufficient cause), and used American power as a shield to consolidate an empire. The Anglophones may be, as Winston Churchill suggested in his A History of the English-Speaking Peoples bound by the same language and cultural ties. But this is hardly an insurance against disagreements.
A historical précis may be useful. Rudyard Kipling famously extolled a white man’s burden he hoped Americans would share; Theodore Roosevelt found much in common with the empire-building Cecil Rhodes, sharing a common dislike for the darker races. But another, somewhat more bristling side of the relationship was never far away. Historian Edward P. Crapol on economic nationalism (see his America for Americans) suggests the innate hostility that existed in parts of the United States towards Britain just as empire builder as Rhodes was waxing lyrical about it. (This imperialist junkie did allow 32 places for American recipients of the scholarship that bears his name.) Economics played a hand, as it would during the interwar years: the fear that Britain was exerting a threatening influence over the range cattle industry and other fields of foreign capital investment.
The populist movements which yielded rich electoral rewards for that grand populist William Jennings Bryan were largely inspired by antipathies towards Britain. It was all and good that Americans and Brits were proud, sterling whites with a penchant for civilising, but that was not always enough. Other works, John E. Moser’s being prominent amongst them, move the debate forward, seeing the British in the interwar years as a lion whose tail was twisted.
A joust conducted through the mail on December 1919 between a certain Dwight M. Lowrey and Senator William E. Borah of Idaho, implacable opponent of the Versailles Treaty and the League of Nations, sheds light on what would become common themes in forthcoming global struggles. Lowrey, in responding to Borah’s oration that month attacking the League, found various references in the Senator’s speech to British colonial rule discomforting. “India and Egypt under British control, and to Ireland, an inseparable part of the great Commonwealth of Great Britain and Ireland, awake doleful memories of old High Tariff harangues, German propaganda, and Sinn Fein [sic] delirious and seditious extravagances.”
Lowrey, wearing ideological goggles with a clear imperial tinting, argued that, “The spirit of the British Empire is freedom, not mastery.” The task of finding “A modern instance of spoliation under the Union Jack” would be “difficult”, and it was a task he did not endure for long. Borah, on the other hand, was happy to undertake it: “India sweltering in ignorance and burdened with inhuman taxes after more than 100 years of dominant rule; Egypt trapped and robbed of her birthright; Ireland with 700 years of sacrifice for independence.” Such language ignored the values of English thrift and administrative skill. Indian oppression was not quite right, argued Lowrey: the English were simply prudent to re-enforce existing hierarchies in the name or order. One form of social class stratified consciousness is just as any other, or so Lowrey would have us believe. The battle continues to rage today.
Recent directions seem to point to a revision of this relationship between America and Albion. The new staffers in Downing Street suggest a vigorous spring-clean of tried truths: going it alone, or with a few Anglo-centric partners in international relations, may not only be dim, but destructive. International Development Secretary David Alexander snorted against “unilateralism”, preferring “new alliances, based on common values.” (For the speech go to: On Radio 5 Live (13 July 2007), he stubbornly insisted that, “We will not allow people to separate us from the United States of America in dealing with the common challenges that we face around the world.” Britain will be both with the Americans, and with the others, a testy balance to say the least.
On Iraq, the tensions are mounting. 5,500 British soldiers looks somewhat less impressive than 45,000, but the reduction has been taking place for months. The aim is ultimately something the Americans will have to yield to: the transfer of full sovereignty to the Iraqis. The American Right (or at least sections of it) are sniffing out for signs of a betrayal. American military officials speculate on British failure in Basra, a convenient distraction from the clay-footed imperialism that operates in other parts of the country. General Jack Keane has been labouring in the frontlines against his British counterparts: British policy in Basra has bred, he told the Daily Telegraph (24 August), nothing less than “gangland warfare”.
There is much to be said on how the British might affect the policy in Iraq, though holding up in Basra and hoping for the best is hardly a sound advertisement for success. George Michael’s animated antics in Shoot the Dog featuring a canine Blair fetching the White Lawn Frisbee thrown by an intellectually challenged Bush may not be applicable to Brown. He has already eschewed Bush-nosing with care. Withdrawing now will leave the American-led forces in the lurch, despite the diminishing returns of the British garrison. If they do, Britain will have entered another phase in its long-term association with Washington.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Bye bye, Alberto Gonzalez
Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez will resign after much controversy which has plagued his tenure. Gonzalez has been dragged through the mud repeatedly by Democrats and civil liberties groups. His departure is no surprise.
What we all may have forgotten is that Alberto Gonzalez was the first Hispanic/Latino Attorney General. That is a tremendous accomplish. Partisan politics aside, he should be a hero to the Hispanic community. He may have been overly conservative or perhaps too easily swayed by Karl Rove, but he did serve this nation during a very difficult time for the Bush Administration and should be a hero to many Hispanic youth.
Drawing a line between respecting a man for his accomplishments and despising him for his horrible indiscretions is difficult. Hopefully history will not through the baby out with the bath water. Gonzalez made mistakes and he is a member of an Administration that does not have a lustrous track record, but he is still a success story. Civil rights and liberties have not been an area of success for the Bush Administration. It should come as no suprise that Alberto Gonzalez was not eagerly protecting rights. We knew he would not. Through all of this though, he has lived the American Dream.
I am offended by his judgment, a damaged Department of Justice, and the Bush Administration, but I respect a man who has given Hispanics a goal. Much like L. Douglas Wilder and Elizabeth Dole blazed trails, so too has Alberto Gonzales. We ought to pull the pearl out of this ugly mollusk of a story and embrace what we can. Condemnation and unfettered disgust does not good policy make, nor does idle ranting spark change
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
LA on my mind
Are we even talking about the same Massachussetts?
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Death in Detention
Via Kaiser Network:
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Apparently the safety net is only catching men
Friday, August 10, 2007
Sick and tired of racism?
Two studies, both concerning Asian Americans, found evidence of a causal connection between discrimination and depreciated health. The first study examined experiences with discrimination amongst Korean immigrants to the United States and measured those findings against the mental health quality of the subjects. "Researchers found that both overt and subtle discrimination seemed to influence participants' mental health. Overt discrimination was associated with the erosion of positive mood, while subtle racism was associated with symptoms of depression, possibly because more subtle forms of discrimination create 'ambiguities in terms of social identity.'" A second study looked at the impact of discrimination on chronic illness. They observed associations between discrimination and various respiratory, cardiovascular and pain-causing conditions, concluding:"that the everyday perceived discrimination minorities experience could cause stress that can lead to chronic illnesses."
Studies like these have a lot of interesting implications. They illustrate the extent to which cumulative disadvantages still track to characteristics like race not simply because of class conditions, as some materially inclined post-racists may conjuncture. but as a tangible result of discrimination that is currently happening. They also raise a tough moral dilemma for proponents of a health system like the one in the status quo (though I will admit now they do not go far enough to establish the moral necessity of a completely socialized health system).
If we take up the meritocratic position held by many (though certainly not all) opponents of socialized medicine which states that people's capacity to afford health care should, and more or less does, track to decisions about work, education and life-path that people have freely made themselves the status quo would be easier to accept. As one anonymous interlocutor put it in an online forum, claims that the 40 million or so uninsured Americans represent a failure of distributive justice suffer from "
a lack of true knowledge as to why those "40 million" are uninsured (here's a hint - a significant number choose to be that way for a variety of reasons beyond "I can't afford insurance") and we start getting down to the real issues at hand." Following this argument to it's conclusion, the quality and cost of a person's health care, and indeed whether a person has any at all, is just if it indexes to that persons choice. So if I choose to remain unemployed or to become obese then I deserve whatever hardships come my way in the market-based health system. Bracketing the (numerous) complications that employment, obesity and the like raise in terms of cumulative disadvantage, we will take that idealized, rationalist approach and put to it the question of race.
A Korean American who either (1) suffered from a mental health disorder as a result of discrimination or (2) suffered from a chronic illness as a result of stress caused by discrimination would face considerable difficulty in paying for health care. At best, our hypothetical Korean would pay much higher premiums and/or deductible and face still higher expenses in treatment. At worst, she or he might be totally unable to find a provider, as many people with chronic and mental illnesses are.
Now, in this person's case there is absolutely no sense in which she or he could be said to have "earned" discrimination, even indirectly by putting oneself in a risky position. Yet she or he may well be priced out of insurance simply as a result of a prejudiced society. Why should our Korean have to face inordinately high costs of health care - or worse, go without any - simply because living as a Korean in a racist white society is difficult?
The moral dilemma illustrated by these studies, put simply, is that there are systematic inequalities in the allocation of health burdens in our society, which impose costs on the people burdened with them that are, as Rawls would have said, arbitrary from a moral point of view. Yet we ask that those people face the costs with whatever resources they can cobble together (forgetting for now that their capacity to do so will be inhibited by their health conditions ). Why shouldn't all members of a society marked by inequality that is arbitrary (morally) and systematic (distributively) have some obligation to contribute to offset those disadvantages?
Giving Good Face: What Jeremy Bentham and Facebook Have in Common
--Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punishment, 1977
A message popped up in September 9 last year for those lucky enough to see it. It was scripted by a self-made millionaire (or billionaire?), one of those flip-flop wearing college drop-outs Marc Zuckerman:
It was also an apology. He had failed to explain the new features of his networking system to subscribers. He was merely ‘trying to provide [them] with a stream of information about your social world.’ What were these features? The ‘Media-Feed’; the ‘News-Feed’. We could effectively chart the everyday lives of fellow human beings on the network. One could see, in chronological fashion, instant updates across the entire network one was a member of. You could see when a new ‘friend’ was added, what time it took place, which date it occurred on.
Then there is the ‘poke’ facility. It is one Zuckerman has been kind enough to offer his users. In most cultures, it is an affront. There is a sexual sting in the statement. My personal space is violated; my dignity is affronted by the conceit of familiarity: do you really think you know me? My virtual space, however, is another matter. My comfort zone is global (at least across networks). Anyone who is part of this system can see me; can ‘poke’ me.
The Facebook facility keeps company with other public forums where information about individuals is shared. Myspace and Xanga – programs which espionage agencies would have saved millions had they pioneered them during the 19th and 20th centuries – jostle on the cyberspace platform for paramountcy. Users of the facility have complained (some did even before the Zuckerman statement): Facebook displays too little, cordoning off access to certain members; or, Facebook has become too informative.
This year, Facebook became saviour – survivors of the Virginia Tech massacre ‘facebooked’ (a now common and obscene verb) fellow students telling them they were ‘OK’. ‘Facebook saved me’ became a catch-cry. It is a matter of time before Facebook messages appear in lieu of flowers at a funeral.
Three decades ago, Big Brother was the enemy. Now, with the proclaimed defeat of ‘totalitarian’ communism, the surveillance culture has moved into private life with our consent. The spawn of Solzhenitsyn’s Grand Strategist or Orwell’s Big Brother are dead; we have nothing to fear. Our quibble is which surveillance feature we want. Big Brother is an invitee – and not merely in the capsule of human drudgery and slime called ‘the Big Brother house’. On the contrary, we like surveillance – take the British as an example. We like accountability, so we like people watched. We are watched to protect us from our more sinister motives.
So, employers now look at Facebook. They even issue advertisements on it. They hire and in some cases fire on the basis of a Facebook profile. Universities scan the profiles of their students.
Facebook, Zuckerman assures us, issues its own privacy controls. We have choices as to what to put on our profile. Apparently, the democratic preserve is maintained: we can choose, so we are free. It is the classic American exposition of the human condition of freedom: ‘As long as you can vote, we are free’. ‘As long as you can decide what to disclose, you are free.’ ‘I am free because I can adopt the Fifth Amendment.’ ‘I am free to profile myself on Facebook.’ We do not have to let our political views be known; we do not have to disclose our political interests, but it is advisable to do so. We do not need to know if we like men or women, but of course, we want to.
Perhaps it is time to return to personals that do not reek of voyeuristic profiling and ‘pokes’. Consult the London Review of Books instead: ‘I celebrated by fortieth birthday last week by cataloguing my collection of bird feeders. Next year, I’m hoping for sexual intercourse. And a cake.’
This article first appeared on Counterpunch, August 7, 2007.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
The Visible Vote
I'm going to live-blog the Visible Vote forum that LOGO and HRC are hosting. All of the Democratic candidates - excepting Biden and Dodd - will be appearing to discuss issues of concern to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies. I've also submitted some questions, mainly at the intersection of health policy and LGBT rights. But my guess is they're a bit on the wonkish side for a general debate.
The hosts: Journalist Jonathan Capehart, singer Melissa Etheridge, and HRC President Joe Solmonese. You can stream the debate live here.
Obama is up first.
9:06 PM - Obama draws an analogy between the outsider status he has often confronted due to his racial and ethnic heritage and the marginality faced by LGBT people. He argues strongly from anti-discrimination/civil rights framework for civil unions that are legally equivalent to marriage. He wants to leave marriage up to individual religious denominations. One of the panelists presses this - what about civil marriage?
9:08 PM - Obama just concern trolled the gays. He said they should choose their battles, and maybe the lack of access to civil marriage isn't the one they should focus on. He also said that whether or not civil marriage was available to same-sex couples was mostly a semantic issue. That does not sit well here. He actually comes of as dismissive and patronizing.
9:15 PM- One of the hosts, Mr. Capehart, raises the issue of homophobia in the black community. Barack responds that he has previously addressed to black audiences the impediment that homophobia has raised in adequately responding to the crisis of AIDS amongst black Americans. He also laments the use of homophobia to fragment progressive alliances between blacks and LGBT people. He is very good on this issue. His answer is very thoughtful and considered. I believe him when he says he will advocate for LGBT people not solely when he's on the burner before America's wealthiest gay rights group.
9:22 PM - Edwards steps up to the plate. I've previously blogged (quite unfavorably) on his discursive representation of LGBT people in public debates. Let's see how he does tonight.
9:24 PM - Melissa Etheridge has a great moment where she touches on the solidarity she feels with Elizabeth Edwards in their mutual struggle with cancer. She pivots from there to the incredible privilege she and Edwards share in being able to afford their expensive treatments. She asks if Edwards understands that the health care crisis hits LGBT people especially hard given that they cannot depend on employers and spouses to provide health care for them like most Americans.
Edwards answer is okay, but not impressive. He plugs his universal health care plan. Then he discusses his empathy for the large portion of LGBT people who are homeless as a result of discrimination. He does touch on an actual answer - between his stances on civil unions and his universal health care plan he'd see the problem addressed. He doesn't seem to have much to say about LGBT health at all, and is instead trying to soundbite on as many issues as possible.
9:29 PM - Edwards states, albeit equivocally, that he would support education about sexuality in public schools that emphasizes the naturalness of homosexuality and the need for tolerance. He comes across as empathetic, but admits he hasn't thought through the specific policy issues involved. It shows.
9:31 PM - Why, oh why, has Edwards spent the past three minutes talking about Anne Coulter?
9:33 PM - Edwards takes the first transgender specific question of the night - how would he react to the knowledge that one of his staffer was trans-identified and planning to transition? Edwards replies that he would be tolerant and as supportive as he could be (fair enough), and expresses his support for a transgender inclusive federal ENDA. This is his strongest answer yet.
9:35 PM - Edwards is finally taking on the marraige question. He says that he cannot impose religious views, that he believes in equality to his core and that he can understand why anything short of full equality before the law will be seen as a sleight to the LGBT community. But he doesn't give a direct justification for his policy. So he is asked for one, in a question that strongly indicts his "I'm on a journey" crap. His answer... is that Don't Ask Don't Tell ought to be repealed. Very disappointing.
9:41 PM - Kucinich takes the stage to the warmest welcome of the night. Right away Capehart points out that Kucinich seems to stand with the LGBT community on every issue. He then asks Kucinich why he stands in such a minority amongst candidates in his support for same-sex marriage. His response, simply, is that he stands for true equality. Capehart takes this and runs - is Kucinich saying that Obama and Edwards, who speak for equality as well, have jettisonned the LGBT community for political reasons. Kucinich takes the high-road and doesn't endorse Capehart's theory, but he gives a great answer on the role the federal government can play as an agent for social change.
9:47 PM - Kucinich is still getting a lot of flattery. The moderator calls him "evolved." Kucinich accepts the compliment. He says his role is to help all Americans "evolve" with him. He also emphasizes that his path is easy - he just has to listen to LGBT people and then act. They are the ones who have to struggle courageously with discrimination. How can he not help them? Kucinich understands solidarity, I'll say that.
9:49 PM - Are you serious? I guess this can't be a cakewalk the whole time, so Etheridge (after endorsing Kucinich's candidacy to his face) throws him a question on medicinal marijuana, citing the pain caused by AIDS and cancer in the gay and lesbian communities. Kucinich says - yes. He does not waffle. Just, yes - as a matter of compassion our approach to marijuana should be informed primarily by health policy not criminal justice. He also plugs his health care plan: the only universal single payer health care plan proposed by a candidate, the only one that is not-for -profit. Nice, but he sure swallowed a heck of a soundbite on the pot question.
9:52 PM - The panelists seem to concede that Kucinich can't win this as much as they'd like him to. They ask if he is electable. Kucinich is giving a terrific answer. He replies that middle America does believe in tolerance and equality. He'd like to lead that America, but at the same time his candidacy is not just about representation - it's also about transformation. He is trying to transform and persuade even as he positions himself for the White House.
9:54 PM - Now Kucinich gets the wonkiest question of the night: will he make HIV/AIDS prevention funding part of Ryan White? For those not in the know, Ryan White Care Act is the source of most federal funding to care for people living with HIV/AIDS but does not cover preventative care. Kucinich says he would advocate for that. Succinct, but he doesn't seem prepared to talk in detail about Ryan White, so he just talks about health care generally for awhile. Not a stellar answer.
9:59 PM - Kucinich's closing remarks are very eloquent. He talks about love and his wife, transformation and equality. I'd like to point out that Kucinich is the candidate who has talked least about "tolerance." He never uses the word. He talks about equality a lot, love almost as much and occasionally uses the word justice. But he is not talking about tolerance. It does not seem rehearsed, he just seems to be past that point. I'm consistently impressed by this man, and tonight is no exception.
10:05 PM - Now Gravel is on. He gets a question about how, as a member of his generation, he talks about his support for LGBT rights generally and same-sex marriage specifically. He answers that most of his generation is wrong, and in time the issue will not be one.
Gravel blames demagogues for dividing America on marriage equality. He thinks most Americans, if they followed their sense of fairness, would support marriage.
10:08 PM - Interesting and ballsy: Gravel calls out LGBT voters for supporting people like Clinton and Obama when candidates like himself and Kucinich are doing the hard work on LGBT issues. Point taken, sir.
10:10 PM - Capehart turns the blade at Gravel: Why aren't you as popular as Clinton and Obama with LGBT voters? Gravel seems to backtrack and acknowledge that there is a political liability that he does take on by supporting LGBT equality. And he says he does not want the support of Democrats who are not willing to take on that liability as a show of solidarity.
10:13 PM - Gravel has talked a lot about politics and public opinion. This is working against him because he isn't getting to talk much about the range of issues that Edwards and Obama did. He comes off as committed, but not particularly informed.
10:14 PM - Gravel is talking about nuclear testing in the Pacific? He's also kind of being a dick to Joe Solmonese, but that's probably okay since no LGBT activist worth their rainbow stripes actually likes the HRC.
10:17 PM - So now Gravel is giving a great schpeel on the prison system, the war on drugs and de-criminalization. It's decent enough... but unfortunately the question was about HIV/AIDS in the inner cities. Not particularly convincing.
10:19 PM - Now it's Richardson's turn.
10:22 PM - Richardson's "concern troll" is a lot more convincing than Obama's. He talks about using winnable battles against hate crimes, against No Child Left Behind (which he points out hurts good sexuality education and anti-bullying work). But he emphasizes using these battles to build the community of allies concerned with LGBT support and to transform public consciousness. He sounds like a realist, where Obama and Edwards just sounded evasive.
10:25 PM - Richardson apologizes the "miracon" gaffe, and minimizes. He wants to talk about his record, which is impressive (pioneering support for transgender rights, working against hate crimes, and moving aggressively for domestic partnerships and against DOMA). He is tremendously focused on talking about (1) what political goals are achievable for LGBT issues, (2) what his political record is and (3) how the community can move forward.
10:28 PM - Now Richardson takes a hypothetical: if you could sign a marriage act into law, would you? This is a great question because it challenges Richardson's position, which is the "achievable" bit keeping his own stances out of the picture. He dodges a lot, before finally saying that he isn't "there yet." Saw that coming. I think Richardson still comes off great. He admits that he isn't there, but neither are most Americans. And he seems to have really thought about how he will transform American politics for LGBT people. He has a plan.
10:31 PM - Interesting. Richardson says at first that homosexuality is a choice. Then he waffles. But his answer, that he continues forward with, is that categories don't matter. LGBT people are people, and whether they have chosen, been acculturated, or been born a certain way then they should not give up their rights. I agree. But I also agree with Etheridge's answer that it is alienating for LGBT people to be told that they have chosen their identity when their personal narrative reads otherwise. When pressed, Richardson makes it clear that he is about politics, not identity. He can't say what homosexuality is like, or what being transgender is like - but he can offer political protection. This is actually where I stand as well. There is no need to define identity to make a political coalition. I respect a man who demures from doing so, especially when he has the humility not to define the identities of others.
10:36 PM - And here comes Clinton, closing out the show.
10:38 PM - Mr. Solmonese asks why Clinton has never introduced legislation against Don't Ask Don't Tell, being a vocal advocate against it for so long and given her place on the Senate committee working on military issues. She basically answers that the political climate is wrong and we need an executive branch that will accommodate the change (or at least not veto the bill).
10:42 PM - Clinton isn't against same-sex marriage, she's just really for civil unions. Ick. She says equality matters, and civil unions can provide full equality. She wants states to make decisions. But she is personally against same-sex marriage. Her position is much like Edwards and Obama's: she doesn't have a plan to provide justice for LGBT people, but she sees the country moving in that direction and will not obstruct that movement. But she is herself unwilling to take the position (and political risk herself).
10:45 PM - Clinton says the states are better battlegrounds for LGBT people than the federal governments. I'd agree if so many states hadn't explicitly repudiated that hypothesis with bblatantly discriminatory statutes last November.
10:47 PM - Next to Kucinich, Hilary is doing the best job of answering the questions she is asked. But her discussions is kind of wonky, she talks a lot about the powers that be - not the powers the she will use and the moves she'd like to make for LGBT people. She also isn't talking much about her record, other than emphasizing her record with HRC (oh boy). She is coming off as a political advisor and something of a political historian even. In apologizing for the conditions facing LGBT people now she gives phenomenally informed answers on why their legal position is the way it is. But she seems lacking on vision, on a gameplan, and on a record. She understands the political waters, but doesn't know where she wants to swim.
10:50 PM - Clinton says she wants to reverse the "mean-spirited assault" political assault on LGBT people. Other than that, she doesn't seem to have much to offer.
Commentary: I loved the format. Very intimate, like a conversation. Questioners could follow-up easily, and answers were lengthier. The answers were even more substantive, where the candidates wanted them to be. I applaud the planners for that. I really feel like I know where each candidate stands.
Kucinich was clearly the star of the evening. Richardson would be my second - he isn't on my page on all the issues, but I know exactly what he'd do for me as a gay citizen were he to sit in the White House. Obama performed well when talking about race, AIDS and progressive coalitions. But his answers on marriage were nearly offensive. Gravel was alternatively solid and way off topic. Clinton just didn't seem to have much to say other than that she wanted to support LGBT people but needed to change the political climate to do that effectively. Edwards was awful.
There's an exit poll on the LOGO site seeing how people felt. I'd expect to see it swing a bit now that the debate has ended. But here's the breakdown:
Question: Who's your candidate?
1. Barack Obama (37%) - My 2nd choice candidate, 3rd best performance tonight
2. Dennis Kucinich (24%) - My 1st choice candidate, 1st best performance tonight
3. Hilary Clinton (19%) - My 4th choice candidate, 5th best performance tonight
4. John Edwards (9%) - My 5th choice candidate, worst performance tonight
5. Bill Richardson (5%) - My 3rd choice candidate, 2nd best performance tonight
6. Mike Gravel (4%) - My 6th choice candidate, 4th best performance tonight
Question: What's your issue:
1. LGBT Rights (40%) - my 2nd choice out of the poll
2. Health Care (31%) - my 1st choice out of the poll (and 1st overall in this election)
3. Gay Marriage (29%) - my 3rd choice out of the poll (and important overall, though I'd be hard pressed to rank it precisely)
Invisible and barely getting by
The rhetorical weight swung hardest in debates over socialized medicine is the ghastly number of Americans - over 40 million - who live without health insurance. Overlooked too frequently are the stories of Americans who can afford health insurance, but not comprehensive health insurance, who spend their entire lives fighting with their providers over plans, omissions, coverage gaps and reimbursements. They often find that themselves uncovered and unable to pay for crucial medical treatment and preventative care. What I found most powerful about Moore's SiCKO was not it's celebration of nationalized systems in Canada and Europe, but the haunting portraits of insured Americans for whom the system does not work.
Take for example, childhood immunizations. New reports indicate that children who are underinsured (as opposed to fully insured or uninsured) are the least likely to get vaccinations on time and at affordable rates. Working class families are left to choose: pay thousands for the injections, or let their kids go without critical preventative medicine. For families with good plans, the costs are covered - but many providers simply don't cover the vaccinations. And for those without any insurance, there's Medicaid and the FQHC system. As with so many other places in the American class system, its those who barely get by who feel the squeeze.
All the same, libertarians like John Stossel lambaste the type of government guidelines for providers that would close these coverage gaps:
Absent those "intrusions", however, the full cost of health care is passed on to the people who are not able to pay, but who all the same are not the listless hordes of welfare-state-dependents that libertarians like to deride (a blogger at KXMC seems convinced that anyone who can't afford to pay for every health expenditure is a "lay-about").
Free marketeers and fiscal conservatives don't like to discuss the working poor because they defy easy stereotyping: they don't have much money but are demonstrably hard working; they pay taxes but still need state assistance. They make visible the long spectrum between dependency and autonomy that rabid individualists can't seem to grasp as the fundamental quality of social life. | http://thesocialreport.blogspot.com/ | dclm-gs1-100910002 | false | true | {
"keywords": "surveillance, immunization"
} | false | null | false |
0.132086 | <urn:uuid:529b77a3-d8f4-4442-85a6-f29bdf730e82> | en | 0.945207 | The Sensai and The Gwasshoppa….Such an inspiration working with this gentleman…get ready for that audio medicine!!!
Lettuce have a moment…my GOD
*passes out*
When he takes his dick out of your mouth for a second
lmao girls are funny
NY under water.
"I. Hate you. My soul is missing I know you took it. i miss smiling & happiness is an out dated concept. Karma will come for you with a baseball bat, and when you’re blood stains the earth I will smile. I built my ‘castle’ I will also tear it down. If you had a heart i would eat it, if you had a soul I would steal it.
But i’m not cruel, so i’ll just leave you.
I’m a friend of the devils, are you a friend of mine?” | http://thinkreckless.tumblr.com/ | dclm-gs1-100940002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.106176 | <urn:uuid:62ce4349-410d-44f2-8905-79023eb4ccf0> | en | 0.965622 |
I am a web developer, artist and technical researcher.
M Arch Living Architecture from Rachel Armstrong
The creative process would be something like as follows:
A recap
Here is a quick recap since it's been a while I've written here (I've written a bit on my blog in though).
When the spanish protest camps made their decision to shift focus from camps to assemblies in each neighbourhood, back in June, I started going to my local commission meetings. It was a brilliant experience, to sit with other spaniards and see what we actually wanted to implement from our experience of the camp. I took part in the culture group and talked about participative art, and how you can use flashmobs and quite innocent actions to get people involved, or at least questioning things. We organised a cabaret where we brought together lots of local people for a memorable performance in our local square. This was in Sant Andreu del Palomar. I've since moved to the city centre, so am too far away, but I have about 4 different assemblies to choose from here, and getting energy to get stuck in a bit more.
Sant Andreu in Barcelona is an area with small streets and old and beautiful mediterranean houses a bit like Gracia, but without the drunken tourists. It was a bastion of resistance to franco, and before then, one day in 36 it was the area where thousands of rifles were siezed by local anarchists - contributing massively to their short but inspiring time of self organised local democracy. One assembly participant said the soldiers there had left their bullets in a different warehouse across the yard so they couldn't shoot them! Another described the taking of plaza catalunya back then, as told by grandparents - that the fascist soldiers were expecting the civil guard to be on their side, but they weren't - and they didn't have a chance, and he showed me which way everyone had gone. Back to this century - we then organised an end-of-summer "university" with the Universitat Indignada, which led to me talking about Transition Initiatives together with Antonio Scotti of Barcelona en Transició to a full square, and showing In Transition. Somehow there were also 3 other Peak Oil related talks, one of which was Martí Olivella, doing the rounds with his own version of Transition - applied in his case to politics. Soon after, we started an urban garden project with a lot of enthusiasm from pretty much everyone who passed: someone asked - "when do you meet? Every Monday?" "I don't know it's our first time, but okay!" and they are still at it...
With all the other members of Barcelona en Transicio, this cultural revolution that was the 15-m protest movement emerging from the squares, really got us energised, as people were now asking real questions, not just about the economy but about the earth, and family and the future. I just got the news the other day that 400 people have signed up, in a village out in the countryside, to support a politically oriented version of the Transition Towns recipe, pioneered by one of the speakers at our Uni Indignada: Marti Olivella, and an enormous stretch of land once used by Coca Cola is now to be proposed as a project to the local city council for food growing projects, and of course there is Calafou - the post-capitalist experimental factory space outside Barcelona, by the fantastic Montserrat Mountains. In Calafou, there is a hackerspace and a brewery project, as well as many smaller workshop spaces and living spaces - all closely linked with local assemblies so as to provide an alternative system in which to start to inhabit, and slowly stop being so dependent on what are now very fragile and unequal societies.
The hackerspace for now is inhabited by Lorea developers, the creators and maintainers of the 15-M's own ELGG based social network (but federated, secure, private, collaborative, and task/collab oriented) -
Of course I played a lot of gigs for fundraisers, and got out a lot of old chilean Nueva Trova songs that I'd not played for years, but somehow fit the times again....
Now that the Occupy movement has joined in this incredible form of protest and reinvention that began for us back in May, things are really starting to change on a global level. I expect the governments and powers that be might even make some token concessions at this point, to try and get everyone christmas shopping.
The occupy movement has inspired a huge amount of creative, projects that work across disciplines in modern culture creating international IRC networks, teamspeak meetings, physical journeys or meetings. Some of these projects and initiatives start to build a symbiotic rather than parasitic kind of technological and social system around us. Now we are dominated by algorithms that determine all the decisions for us.
And then, there's the urgent problems around. Who am I to say anything, but this is meant to be a global movement for democracy so here is my suggestion:
It's a plan for a way to do a global people's meeting, like a giant physical and virtual assembly where we all, the people of this earth, as a one off, meet, and decide once and for all the future of the planet and what we are going to do about it. Think of it as a people's Bretton Woods, without the bickering. There are lots of smaller regional initiatives going on, but it's hard to organise larger get togethers, but we can start to think of distributed ways for it to happen, although I first thought of it as a time constrained thing, where we were all at it simultaneously.
Here is the piratepad where we're working on more of it. Feel free to contact me and join in. One of the things about it is that it needs skills that are already there around us, and abilities that are pretty widespread already. I really hope something like this can happen.
If there was such a global meeting, I would take my non-crazy robot idea there. (see next post!)
Ban Robot Violence
[IN PROGRESS - need to add links. Sorry but I'm into participative process, please comment and help me write this! I was just thinking about this thing about robots - online or physical, or more tentacular cybernetic systems like what international corporations and/or tech companies have built up around us over the years and how it interacts with us. I felt I should come and write it down.]
There is terrible totalitarian news starting to edge it's way in to passive acceptance, from the government injustice and brutality across the world, and the international coordination of this violence (that goes all the way to the top), from that to the drones that patrol prisons and are made to kill people.
I've spent a little time working with electronics, making and conceiving of materials to make a symbiotic musical, solar, improviser bot, and programming software based bots to guide kids around a 3D reconstruction of Sydenham Crystal Palace in London (and Second Life). I learnt that through the years, robots have been acquiring the basic ability not only to be a bit overly specialised towards human interaction, but to carry out all the functions required to be considered alive, even when some of those functions are made through their relationship with us. In the case of killer or surveillance drones, their creators, the teams of scientists who work in places like and are completely insane, as are the structures who made them exist. And I wonder how many of them believe in a creator god.
There's one thing they probably don't want us to realise: We the people are the creators of robots. Everyone can join in by learning a bit of programming and electronics, and a huge DIY scene is still around making UAVs or just robots of all kinds, just from open designs - recently to film a protest.
We invented robots. Nowadays the killer robots aren't that autonomous, but they are getting there. They can mimic human behaviour in loads of ways already, but they shouldn't have to, as they are completely wonderful things, if you think that they can be made from just about anything. But soon, this intelligence, but also growth in availability of sensors and software libraries for interpreting them, so a robot will do as told and travel autonomously to kill selected people without much need for a human "pilot".
But robots shouldn't be made to do these horrible insane things. They come from our invention, from all our wonderful science that's supposedly so opposed to judeochristian religion, but that is the same white boys club, who deep down wouldn't mind a go as all powerful creator gods too. To want to not only kill you but create a robot but make it kill you more efficiently than a human in a plane or helicopter could, is psychopathic, and all the people involved in doing this should be tried for international war crimes and put under care and long term psychoanalysis for psychotic disorders. In the end though, the system as usual is to blame.
We know that it's going to be a huge crisis here on earth, with the euro falling apart and banks crashing any minute, no new fuels in sight and an environmental catastrophe after another. Some fear we really might not make it through as a human race in the slightly longer term, which has most other species sighing with relief! So if that's even a remote possibility, I imagine how the people in these companies and government departments react to that thought, wondering what their legacy might be.
Our robot brethren are whatever we make them, and we can get them not only to survive us , but be positive creatures. Maybe they will be merciless killers like in a space blockbuster, but maybe they can be ethical, positive things too, and I realise this must come from popular demand, not passive acceptance of these trends.
So I propose a ban NOW on robot violence. No robot shall ever be made, or forced to be violent to people. We owe it to them as their creator gods. And just as non-crazy people. Thank you.
Is peaceful cohabitation with self organisers possible?
"teach noam chomsky in schools"
And then in the longer term there's the upcoming financial crash.
Cacerolada Acampada Barcelona Miercoles 19 by alefernandez
10 More minutes: From gift economies to celebration economies
An article by Richard Heinberg, "Economic History in 10 Minutes" which I read the other day, inspired me to look a bit more into more elaborate economies than simply gift/tribal based, that might escape people's thoughts as they search for alternatives to the current (failed?) economic system.
His article is a good summary of a lot of peak oiler economics although I've heard him and others say these things before lots of times and in different ways. Heinberg points to our addiction to fossil fuels as the central reason for lots of current problems, and the article treasures hunter gatherer cultures with their gift economies as a possible future or as something to move towards. Doing something in 10 minutes is bound to leave something out. It would be easy to believe, reading his article, that we once were all happy and shared everything, then - boom! - iPods. (He actually says "So letting go of the gift economy was a trade-off for progress—houses, cities, cars, iPods, and all the rest").
After painting a pretty negative picture of the history of money, involving the sin of Usury, Charles Ponzi and Fractional Reserve Banking, leading to the current situation, he then goes on to make a call for more general knowledge of our shared economic history and to say "Is this the end of the story? As society dramatically simplifies itself in the wake of fossil fuel depletion, will we revert to some form of gift economy? Or will we catch and steady ourselves on some intermediate rung on the ladder of economic development?"
Well I'd like to take 10 more minutes to talk about a couple of those rungs I happen to know about.
You see, my dad is an economic historian, and also comes from a small Aymara ethnic minority (on my grandmother's side). So I grew up in a house full of books on economics, and in this family of refugees of the Pinochet regime, my only connection with the Aymaras were many pairs of Ojotas (sandals made from recycled tyres), lots of colourful cloths and clothes, memories of a couple of visits to villages like Putre and Codpa in Chile, and a few of the books in between the economics ones, which spoke of Aymara culture and their world view.
One book, "Holocausto al Progreso - Los Aymaras de Tarapacá" fascinates me still, with it's descriptions of preincaic aymara culture. It includes a reconstruction of what life must have been like for a few thousand people, who had adapted from around the 5th century BC up until the arrival of the Incas in the 14th century, to live in a really difficult environment involving the Andes mountains and the most arid desert in the world. And now it's on the internet, for any Spanish speaker to enjoy! This little stretch of Northern Chile, which is now just sea, desert and mountain, then also included some forests, which have since been swallowed by the Atacama desert. Here is a bit of a picture from the book, which I hope can help to show this:
So there were at least 4 distinct climates, and none of them could adequately support a large population on it's own. Living there were fishermen, hunter gatherers, shepherds and farmers. By sharing, these distinct groups made this area incredibly rich and varied. I wish I could have seen it.
Here is a google assisted translation of a few paragraphs of Holocausto al progreso showing this vivid picture, punctuated by community rituals, harvest times and hunting seasons, the building of dwellings, and sharing of produce that couldn't have been accomplished unless people got organised. From around page 99:
A schematic reconstruction of this so varied indigenous economy conjures the following image:
In autumn, i.e. March or April, the shepherds would leave their homes, major residential centers located high in the Cordillera, and their summer grazing grounds at altitudes above 4000m, and make their way towards winter grazing lands, at altitudes from 3000 to 3500 meters, where they occupy shacks and makeshift houses in the open fields.
Part of the male population would then migrate, taking with them a herd of llamas loaded with produce from these high altitudes (dried meat, wool, leather, textiles, quinoa, herbs, salt, animal fat etc.), to lower environments: the agricultural area, where small nuclei of farmers belonging to the same community, and seen as relatives, would have been busy working the fields during the summer, irrigating the terraces, and working and defending the crops against the local animals and birds.
When harvest times drew near, the shepherds would arrive from the mountains to assist in these efforts and in the conservation and storage of agricultural produce. A portion of the produce from the high Cordillera (and possibly even the Altiplano and the eastern valleys: coca and herbs), was provided to supplement the diet of the farmers and after the harvest feasts and ceremonies, the llama herders would take, in return, a part of the agricultural produce (potato, garlic, corn, squash, etc..) to the western lowlands.
In the forests of the longitudinal valley they would stop for a while to gather the fruit of the carob tree and to shepherd the pack animals, using the pods and fruits that this tree produces.
Later, in winter, these well fed shepherds and their herd of animals would cross the desert and coastal mountains and visit the fishermen and hunter gatherers of the coast. The herdsmen would take part in fishing, and in hunting seals whose inflated skins were made into rafts, on these shores devoid of timber. They also participated in shellfish harvesting, in the preservation of these products and in the collection of white guano, which was - along with rotten fish and locally mined saltpeter - a popular fertilizer for the agricultural terraces higher up.
With spring approaching, the herders would prepare for the return trip, leaving behind the rest of the produce they had brought from higher altitudes, and taking sea and coastal produce in exchange.
After another stop in the woods of the Tamarugal they would again help farmers in the foothills by cleaning the irrigation canals, preparing new terraces and sowing new seeds. They would leave there much of the seafood they had brought from the coast and, after the planting season, they would take some produce back to supply the shepherds and the community centers in the Andes.
The shepherds would still be in their winter pastures at this point, but once the herders arrived, they would return to their homes in the mountains, together with their relatives and join their entire herd, bringing products from the countryside, the coast and sea, as an indispensable supplement to their diet.
So in this way, the faldas del morro or "Hillslope" Aymara culture was able to maintain a much larger population than they could have if all those groups had been independent. The "economic" activities were not seen as travail as contemporary europeans would have called it. They had instead a religious and cultural dimension in which work was seen as celebration, and was indeed punctuated by lots of festivity. This image is a bit out of focus but it shows the calendar of festivals that accompanied this migration for the shepherd communities and the farming ones:
Going back to Heinberg's economic rungs, as we fall down the ladder from fractional reserve banking - I hope we don't forget these creative moments in our economic history, perhaps valuing "economic" migration and the celebration of work, as we adapt to the issues of the new millennium.
Free open source multitrack recording on an android phone
Bristol's Budget Conversation and Town Hall BEPs
In case you are from Bristol and haven't noticed, there's currently a "big debate" being held over at in the comments area.
Basically, the city council are asking the public how to cut the huge sums of money that they will have to do without anyway from very soon.
There are lots of reasons why this is flawed. As one commenter posted,
"This “consultation” is a pointless exercise without access to a clear summary of what is for the chop and doing it on the internet just encourages the lunatics. Are there any plans for proper town hall style meetings? Or is this just a sham?"
But still, I thought I'd publicise it, even if it's a sham, in case somehow it can get a bit closer to becoming an actual debate and taking of responsibility by all parties.
So how do you sift through all these comments and start to extract something resembling usefulness from it all? And how can the public actually get the data they need to make their choices with? Maybe Open Source Software can come to their aid, but as a method rather than as a piece of actual software:
Open Source projects are often overrun by suggestions or even implementations of disparate and confusing features and they have evolved ways to keep this problem at bay.
As the Python programming language project, an open source project, grew quickly towards the end of the 90s, it became obvious that a new way of managing feature requests was needed.
Some of these requests were duplicates of others, or deeply flawed or unimplementable, but each one would be argued on mailing lists or various forums each day. Also, with open source the problem is that sometimes the people making the suggestion don't actually have any ability to or interest in *doing* the work.
So the PEP(Python Enhancement Proposal) came into being. It's a standard document you fill out, that forces those submitting complex feature requests to turn them into focused, clear suggestions. PEP editors on the python team then reject or accept them based on these parameters.
I think a Bristol "town hall" group like the one proposed in the quote above, should be tasked with publishing appropriate stats and data, reviewing pep-like proposals by the wider public, and consulting with those affected by that proposal to ensure it actually makes a difference and doesn't cause more spending somewhere else. It could then also put these in action if passed, after which it would have to monitor the council's progress on them and report back on that too.
If this happened, I for one would help find venues to do this in, help set up the space and even figure out how to get everyone some refreshments!!
Ecologising Open Hardware
I've come to realise, through my experiments and readings, and through spending months in the world of instrument design, that I had until now marvelled in the idealistic beauty of Open Hardware without considering it's limitations in much depth. I thought it might be time to start to see where this fantastic creative world still might fall short from the point of view of the various "green" threats around us.
This shiny new thing is the possibility of:
• Having a brain wave.
• ordering some cheap parts online,
• Going through a creative process to produce
1. a circuit diagram,
2. a materials list and
3. parts list,
4. a printed circuit board
• before finally assembling an item
Whilst designing what turned out to be my Bird Symbiot, a prototype of a system for outdoor sound generation, I visited and contacted lots of people in different occupations. It's not the most essential of applications but I do know a bit more about what happens between me recording some music, and it being played by a device, and about how it can be powered in a more sustainable way. As a project it spanned acoustics, mathematics, electronics, world music, sound generation and clay making. I had a lot to learn.
One of these visits was when I got help assembling my first circuit (a lady ada sound shield) from Marcus Valentine. He has been working in electronics for many years and has a home workshop for electronics design. The circuits he designs - usually the pieces in a larger pool, are sent off as diagrams and parts lists to process. They come back in a way similar to construction sets, with 200 or more mini circuit boards all printed together from the same slab of plastic.
This then, in a typical small electronic item's production process, goes back to a large company which then manufactures thousands of them.
At another point while making my Maker Faire exhibit, I needed some good solar panels, and synth maker Tom Bugs offered to give me some that he had ordered but never managed to use. He runs Bugbrand, which is an online shop, and also a small workshop in the area, doing electronics design of sound making devices. On the borders with open hardware, Bugbrand items are designed mostly in this mini Stokes Croft factory, and an online shop deals with the sales. Selling crazy music making electronics and boards seems very fitting in a place with as much experimental music in it as Bristol, and he also runs workshops internationally, where people make them themselves. I saw in his workshop a PCB printing work area for creating small runs or prototypes of circuit boards. He confessed he hadn't used it much. A colleague built the boards while he pretty much ran around concieving new boards, answering forum questions, ordering parts and selling the finished products online.
It was only much later, by speaking to other inventors and hackers at the Maker Faire, that I got to see more of the true Open Hardware manufacturing approach. Open Hardware makers will work alone as needed, but will often team up with small shops or other projects to order parts or design aspects of their work. The landscape of this creativity is really a friendly ecology of helpers, a small world where people begin to know each other.
Of course, the main benefit of open hardware is the supposed availability of plans and designs for the good of everyone else, but there is still no equivalent of the GPL or CC license when it comes to actual objects and things.
The open hardware approach seems to be going towards ordering components, then assembling and selling items in online markets in a semi bespoke manner. It's true, some are starting to do more: Feral Trade sells Cube Cola, which once amazed the BBC when they once sent for many litres of it. The order was neatly placed at the centre of their huge van, in a tiny concentrated bottle.
Cube Cola is published under the GPL, but beyond that, it has hit on a brilliant distribution method centred on the ready availability of sugar and fizzy water to dilute and prepare it with.
There is a convergence between the green and the techy in open sourcing Hardware - as seen in projects like the Reprap or larger open source cousins that can cut or shape metals or even precious stones. But this is not a typical aspect of it's lifecycle.
We have to begin cutting down on this politically, monetarily and ecologically fragile, long distance distribution network occurring at either end of this beautiful creative centre.
Another problem is the predilection for and reliance on high wattages. Maybe this is just the "macho" side of electronics - typically a men's world. There is little use of freely available energies that can be channelled to help these processes.
For the bird symbiot I realised pretty early on that making something audible at low power would mean using natural amplification. This turned out to mean using clay - something whose production I found to be readily available by using an old rag, some sticks and by ordering basic materials from a few miles outside Bristol, and a firing process used cooperatively in a local art studio.
But there is also a bias in some aspects of the tinkerer world, towards a repulsion ("ugh - knitting!") for what is seen as lesser "craft" rather than a welcoming of other disciplines in order to collaborate towards creating a device. But I hope this is only a marginal problem, and that some healthy partnerships can emerge soon. It will be significant to see some of the main open hardware proponents start to work in projects with larger scope than just the basic circuits, and requiring a wide range of skills and work shared by many different kinds of people.
At the Maker Faire in Newcastle, some of the biggest attractions used a tremendous amount of electrical power. Lots of the items I saw seemed to use a lot of money and electricity to run. I recently saw a lot of people turn their backs on what I thought was an interesting bike power project because people see it as not enough power to do anything useful. The bird symbiot uses the equivalent in solar power of 2 AAA batteries, and can burst into song with some good sunlight flying by it. A 3v fan on an oven or a wind powered pump for some water can mean the difference between a gruelling existence and a plentiful life.
But I think a basic flaw in the current open hardware lifecycle is just that: We rely still on the generation of power as if it had to be something separate from the rest of the device. It's excluded from the design process as soon as it ceases to be about electronics. So it all needs a more holistic and inclusive approach.
I also have some problems to do with why circuit design has evolved to be flat, and this makes the BEAM robotics world so fascinating - because they stich parts directly to each other creating a device that is by it's nature 3d and doesn't particularly need a board.
What will we do if with vanishing fossil fuels and the need for technologically aided alternative power, we can't make a transistor? A semiconductor? A resistor? - this new open hardware lifecycle needs to green itself at all levels.
So how do you do these things locally and sustainably?
If modern telecommunications and technology is to avoid a crash or stagnation due to whatever natural or man made catastrophes, there have to be freely available applications and designs of every type of electronic item. From vital to domestic, electronic ideas and inventions should be available to the public regardless of their wealth or place in the world. I think this is probably even a human right, linked directly to the right for an education - we have to know how to create and evolve the technologies that our lives and cultures depend on.
All aspects of modern electronics need thorough re-examination so as to find and document cheap ways to recreate them openly in light industry at a local scale, anywhere in the planet.
Label Cloud | http://tziteras.blogspot.com/ | dclm-gs1-100980002 | false | true | {
"keywords": "surveillance, assembly"
} | false | null | false |
0.761406 | <urn:uuid:d7c08855-9d0b-4472-bce7-121208404b13> | en | 0.973384 | How Did Rockefeller Spend His Money?
Rockefeller was born in 1839 by the names of John Davison Rockefeller in Richford, New York. He was an industrialist and philanthropist and also founded the Standard Oil Company that controlled the oil industry. He was termed the world's richest man and he is estimated to have been worth $ 663.4 billion as of 2007. Rockefeller spent most of his money developing research, modernizing and creating foundations for philanthropy.
Q&A Related to "How Did Rockefeller Spend His Money?"
John D. Rockefeller donated his money more than spent it. He gave a lot of it away to improve upon different things.
He gave. money. to the Union cause, as. did. many rich Northerners who avoided combat.
Answer He spent his money on turdie pawnches and eggplants.
He spent alot of his money on libraries, schools and universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. He also invested in railroads, oil derricks and bridges.
Explore this Topic
John D. Rockefeller spent his money carefully. Even as a young man he was known to loan small amounts to neighbors. He supported the Union cause with his money ...
Rockefeller made his money by selling standard oil for a lot of money, while he paid his workers very little. This gave him huge returns yearly. Rockefeller's ...
Rockefeller donated money to the Union cause like many wealthy men, and up until 1937 donated $500 million for medical research, universities, and Baptist churches ... | http://uk.ask.com/question/how-did-rockefeller-spend-his-money | dclm-gs1-100990002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.018702 | <urn:uuid:f26a0872-540a-4f5b-8c6e-de051ca20f9d> | en | 0.902578 | Are shared libraries still appropriate?
Currently, I am trying to remove some dependencies of Uxul-World. I was thinking of completely kicking LTK – though I like LTK – but as this is just part of the Level-Editor, till now I just thought I should keep it. On the other hand, it produces additional dependencies – lisp-magick right now, maybe I will switch to cl-gd or to my own little ffi-binding. On the other hand, if I did all that stuff directly without LTK, inside SDL, I would just have to use sdl-gfx to stretch and captionize Images.
However, hardlinking with SBCL against ffi-bindings is hard to impossible, and the License of SDL forbids this for free software anyway as far as I remember. Under Linux, SDL may be a default library which is nearly always installed, while under Windows, I dont think so. Under linux, there is no problem with providing a simple package-dependency-list, as long as the packages are not too exotic and can be easily installed. But of course, I also want the game to be playable under Windows, without having to install a whole Unix-Like Environment before. So maybe, under Windows, I should use OpenGL instead. Well, I will see that.
I am currently not concentrating on portability but on finally getting some playable content into it. In general though, its good to already think about it: I dont want to produce a dependency-hell. I hate dependency-hells. Having a lot of additional dependencies in a software package can really make me sad. Mostly this leads to a lot of strange Download- and Installation-Procedures, since every project has its own policies, and in the end the only thing I have is additional knowledge about small libraries which I didnt even want to know about.
Having libraries like the zlib or libpng linked dynamically is something that really sounds anachronistic to me. Maybe in embedded devices this makes sense, but on every modern PC, the additional memory footprint should be negligibly small. A real dependency-monster depends on thousands of such small libraries, such that the footprint can get remarkable large. When using dynamic libraries, the executable code can be mapped multible times between different processes by the kernel, which needs less memory, and makes the code really “shared”.
But in the end, the only real bottleneck when just hardlinking against everything and deploying large binaries with small dependencies is the Usage of RAM. Neither hard disk space should be an issue nor should the additional needed traffic be.
And again, the solution I would suggest to this could come from deduplication technologies. Assume you download a binary, and execute it. Then the kernel has to read it, and can therefore create an index of checksums of the memory blocks the binary contents. Assuming that mostly the same libraries are hardly linked, and thus, the same or very similar binary code occurs, the kernel will notice that it loaded equivalent blocks into memory already, and can therefore map them together, like it would do with shared libraries. A main difference would be that the pages would have to be mapped as copy-on-write-pages, since some software may change its executable code (willingly or through a bug ). The binary could additionally provide hints for the kernel, for example flags that tell the kernel not to try to deduplicate certain parts of the loaded process image, for it may change or will only be used in extremely seldom cases, or flags telling to what library (and source-file) some memory-pages belonged, so the kernel can optimize the memory-deduplication.
Just to emphasize this – I am not talking about deduplication of all of the RAM-Memory, only about a small procedure run at the start of a new process, which searches for identical pages that are already mapped somewhere. I am sure this would take longer than just softlinking. But it shouldnt take too much additional time, and one could add heuristics for very small process-images not to deduplicate at all to make them load faster.
In any case, I think it would make the work with binaries easier, as well deploying as using, especially outside some package manager. For example it would produce an easier way of maintaining multiarch-systems.
And – imo – it fits more into the world of free software, where you have a lot of chaotic dependencies and a developer cannot keep track of all of these dependencies’ newest versions and installation procedures, so he would just put everything inside his project directly.
Its basically giving up a bit of infrastructure while getting a new way of solving problems for which this infrastructure was basically created. And it sounds like everything is already there to implement this. Of course, I am not a kernel developer, I cant say how hard it really is. I am pretty sure, in Linux there wont ever be such a thing, but maybe more innovative Operating Systems like Open Solaris could provide it – as Solaris is known for its propensity to new technologies.
Eine Antwort zu Are shared libraries still appropriate?
1. [...] Are shared libraries still appropriate? « Dijkstrabühl [...]
Kommentar verfassen
Du kommentierst mit Deinem WordPress.com-Konto. Abmelden / Ändern )
Du kommentierst mit Deinem Twitter-Konto. Abmelden / Ändern )
Du kommentierst mit Deinem Facebook-Konto. Abmelden / Ändern )
Google+ photo
Verbinde mit %s
Erhalte jeden neuen Beitrag in deinen Posteingang.
%d Bloggern gefällt das: | http://uxul.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/are-shared-libraries-still-appropriate/ | dclm-gs1-101020002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.108452 | <urn:uuid:2dc99936-07f7-4d3c-a093-ca838f8c4f67> | en | 0.941604 | from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
• proper n. A fictional British spy in the novels of Ian Fleming and the motion pictures based on these novels, famous for his suavity, ingenuity, ruthlessness and supply of gadgets.
• n. a secret agent of similar ability to the fictional James Bond
The fictional character was named after the ornithologist James Bond (Ian Fleming was an avid birdwatcher) (Wiktionary)
| http://wordnik.com/words/James%20Bond | dclm-gs1-101040002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.126718 | <urn:uuid:91f35097-4ece-4197-95db-99b0da40ab83> | en | 0.944788 | Study finds teens who text and drive are more likely to develop other bad habits in the car
More dangers with texting and driving
Texting while driving_20100520192556_JPG
Posted: 05/13/2013
Do you know what your teen is doing behind the wheel? One in 4 teens admit to texting while they drive, and experts say that can lead to other risky behavior.
In 2011, 45% of students 16 and older surveyed admitted to texting or emailing while driving, according to a USA Today article. In the study released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers found that teens who texted while driving were far more likely to engage in other risky behaviors while driving a car.
For example, the study found teens who texted in the car almost everyday were 40% more likely to not consistently wear a seat belt. Teens who texted while driving were also five times more likely to drive after drinking alcohol than those who didn't text.
Experts say the risky behavior can go beyond the car. During the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, researchers also reported teens who text and drive are also more likely to binge drink, use drugs and have unsafe sex.
CDC Director Thomas Frieden says one way parents can teach their children good behavior while driving is to set the example. "Multitasking may be fine if you're sitting at your desk, but not when you're driving a car," Frieden told USA Today. "Things can go so badly so quickly. That's what I think teens don't recognize."
• Comments
Special Reports
1. Baltimore police, gangs battle online
Baltimore police, gangs battle online
2. Police overtime bulks up salaries
Police overtime bulks up salaries
3. Berkshire insurance payments criticized
Berkshire insurance payments criticized
• Stay Connected | http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/national/study-finds-teens-who-text-and-drive-are-more-likely-to-develop-other-bad-habits-in-the-car | dclm-gs1-101080002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "centers for disease control and prevention"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.045521 | <urn:uuid:1b838678-55ca-4c97-9a48-5c87ac010de4> | en | 0.933183 | by Carl Kimlinger, Apr 13th 2012
Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing
Episodes 13-21 Streaming
Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing Episodes 13-21 Streaming
Luscinia has set his sights on the isolationist northland of Glacies, hitting it full force. The battle is so terrible that instead of consolidating Ades' grip on the world it tears everything apart. Sickened by Luscinia's relentless bloodshed, the Federation's leadership fragments and child empress Sārā becomes the focal point of a internecine power struggle. As the war escalates still further, Fam, Giselle and Millia are drawn into the bloodshed, but a chance meeting with Sārā opens an unexpected door to peace. But can Fam's dream of peace really survive the ingrained hatred of Earth's long war? Or will it be Luscinia's apocalyptic vision of peace by the sword that triumphs?
The second half of Fam is big—full of epic battles and equally epic twists of fate—but also compressed. Like someone took an entire series' worth of world-shaking events and crammed them into ten episodes (nine if you discount the recap episode). It's undeniably exciting—equal parts eye-popping spectacle and painful wartime drama. There's always the sense, though, that it would hit just a little harder if it was given the time to properly throw its punches.
If Gonzo was looking to show off its post-downsize capabilities, it certainly succeeds here. The sheer spectacle on display is breathtaking. The Ades Federation's assault on Glacies kicks the second half off with a localized apocalypse, leaving nothing but fire and destruction in its wake as missiles give way to artillery and artillery gives way to carpet bombing and carpet bombing gives way to...something we don't yet have words for. A clash of titans? And it's just the first such battle. Gonzo has always had a knack for blowing things up and it takes every opportunity here to show it off. Battleships are consumed by flames, crushed by metallic tentacles, riddled by missiles, crashed into walls, or simply blown apart by enemy fire. Artillery emplacements vanish in bursts of CGI flame. Fleets of fighters explode into 3D clouds of smoke and debris. The series ends with a planetoid-sized spacecraft shedding its component parts until its vast skeleton plows into the earth. Spectacular is the only word for it.
It isn't just the new Gonzo's strengths that are on display though; its limitations are too. Awe-inspiring though they are, the battles feel flatter and less visceral than those in the more modest first half. Instead of following Fam as she zips in and out and through the unfolding chaos, the camera generally places us outside looking down as fleets move on fleets. Movement becomes less important than art: fantastical rock formations; ragged, demonic fortress-cities; a port perched atop mist-shrouded stone walkways; landscapes cratered and ravaged by unspeakable violence. Which is fine, but also reduces the vigor of the action and indicates as surely as anything that the series' budget is in decline. On a smaller scale, the constricting budget can also be felt in the mobility of Range Murata's adorable characters, who are less expressive than originally and tend to move in linear and limited ways.
To justify the epic destruction, screenwriter Kiyoko Yoshimura devises an equally epic dance of conflict and change. It's pretty messy at times, but what it lacks in clean progression it makes up for in dynamism. There's hardly an episode in these nine (again discounting the recap) where Fam's world doesn't fundamentally change. The balance of world power alters permanently with the battle in Glacies. When Fam returns to her pirate hometown, it isn't the same place. Afterwards revolution rewrites the political map yet again as allies become enemies and enemies allies. Capitals rise and fall, armies are raised and razed, peace is gained and lost, unity achieved and shattered and achieved yet again. The world, and Fam and her allies' positions in it, is constantly in flux, right to the end.
It's almost too much: too many huge events, too many turnarounds, too many seismic political and military shifts. They come one on the heels of the other and suffer from a certain pulled-from-the-rear randomness because of it. The motivations for Luscinia's final acts in particular are never satisfactorily explained. For every poorly supported twist, though, there's generally another that is cleverly planned: a mid-battle betrayal that pivots neatly on emotions established in the first couple of episodes; the wily stratagems of mild-mannered military geezer Sadri. The plot is uneven to be sure, and certainly rushed in parts, but it is vigorous and gripping as well.
And the show isn't dumb enough to rely solely on the large-scale. No matter how deafening the plot is, the characters are always within earshot. It's the bitter reaction of the surviving Glacies soldiers and the bleak survey an obviously disturbed Sorūsh and Ōrang make of the subsequent devastation that really drives home the Glacies spectacle. And it is on those emotions that the series later pivots when navigating two very different plot turns. Millia, Giselle, Dio, even old man Sadri and a few missing favorites from the first series—they all make their mark in the series' final run. Most of all Fam: Fam in her first dress dancing on Sadri's feet during a peacetime soiree. Fam thawing a pair of frosty Glacies pilots with a burst of her bright cheer. Fam reacquainting the battle-blinded Sky Pirates with their true, fun-loving nature. Fam infecting young Sārā with her happy dream of the Grand Race. You want to hug her every time she pokes her round cheeks into the picture. Which makes the struggle to keep her little flame of hope alight all the more poignant.
Unfortunately, not even the characters are immune to the series' compression. In its rush to move the plot on, the show ends up pushing Fam and Sārā's scenes way too hard. Their rapport is cute but unnatural and too brief to carry the weight that the series forces on it. Character issues that are peripheral to the plot, most notably the issue of Fam's birth, are treated even worse: pushed aside altogether or at best dealt with summarily. You can almost see the cuts where the series pared away the subplot's meat, leaving only its skeleton in place.
There are far too many such issues—and larger issues of pacing and of execution—for this half of the series to ever be as good as it once promised to be. But while Fam will never be great, at its best certain isolated moments can be. As when Fam returns to her hometown, has a fight with Millia and runs away to shanghai one of the village boys into racing her. Soaring through the skies on her chugging little machine, threading the eyes in eroded rock formations, buzzing over cheering crowds, and tearing up the sides of stone pillars, she screams out all her frustration—at her friend who is so wounded by betrayal that she would kill her own sister, at the world that prefers fire and blood to her dream of happiness and peace—into the wind. At times like that Fam is as good as anything out there. If only it was that good all of the time.
Production Info:
Overall (sub) : B
Story : B-
Animation : B
Art : A
Music : A-
+ Bold plotting, epic scope; magnificent battles; nearly every character gets their chance to shine; gorgeous vocal insert songs.
Crams too many big events into too small a space; forces some of its emotions and short-changes some of its subplots.
Director:Koichi Chigira
Series Composition:Kiyoko Yoshimura
Yuniko Ayana
Koichi Chigira
Shuichi Kamiyama
Takaaki Suzuki
Kiyoko Yoshimura
Koichi Chigira
Koji Iwai
Hiroko Kazui
Minoru Ohara
Masahiko Ohkura
Hisaya Takabayashi
Yukio Takahashi
Episode Director:
Koichi Chigira
Nao Higa
Tetsuo Ichimura
Akira Kato
Daisuke Kurose
Hiroyuki Okuno
Toshiya Shinohara
Yasufumi Soejima
Hisaya Takabayashi
Masahiro Takada
Yukio Takahashi
Junichi Takaoka
Toru Yoshida
Shunichi Yoshizawa
Unit Director:
Hiroko Kazui
Yasufumi Soejima
Character Design:Range Murata
Art:Hiromasa Ogura
Animation Director:
Ryotarou Akao
Mayu Fujimoto
Kenji Fujisaki
Koji Haneda
Osamu Horiuchi
Sayaka Ikeda
Hiroko Kazui
Yuka Kudo
Takeshi Kusaka
Masahiko Matsuo
Shinichiro Minami
Range Murata
Eri Nagata
Hiromi Okazaki
Yukihide Oku
Eri Sano
Shosuke Shimizu
Takuro Shinbo
Ayako Suzuki
Junichi Takaoka
Moriyasu Taniguchi
Norimoto Tokura
Yoshio Usuda
Dai Wada
Toshiya Washida
Shunryō Yamamura
Animation Character Design:Osamu Horiuchi
Executive producer:
Shinichiro Ishikawa
Shigeaki Komatsu
Masami Abe
Hiroyuki Birukawa
Tadashi Hoshino
Full encyclopedia details about
Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing (TV)
discuss this in the forum (16 posts) |
bookmark/share with:
Add this anime to
Around The Web | http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/last-exile/fam-the-silver-wing/episodes-13 | dclm-gs1-101150002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "survivin"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.083146 | <urn:uuid:c9ccf1ab-15a1-451e-810b-04ccd20e7aa0> | en | 0.911877 | Armpit Tickling?
Armpit tickling is probably one of the two most common tickling sites. The other common location to tickle would be the soles of the feet. Not everyone is ticklish, however.
Q&A Related to "Armpit Tickling?"
1. Try to catch the person you want to tickle when he is shirtless or wearing something without sleeves like a tank top for example. 2. Tickle them on a bed or couch, so no one gets
Armpit tickling is touching someone's armpit to cause involuntary twitching movements or
Armpit tickling hits one of the most sensitive spots on the body that takes you into a
Usually, the fingers. In light/slow moving motions. Drives a girl crazy:)
Explore this Topic
The best item to tickle girl's armpits with is a matter of personal choice. Some people prefer to tickle with their fingers, while others prefer to use a feather ...
The tickling is feeling somewhere beatween plesure and pain.It is caused by touching lightly some parts of body like soles of feet ore armpits.Tickling is reflex ...
There is not a video of Selena Gomez being tickled available to the public. She has stated she is ticklish on her feet, armpits, neck and both of her sides. ... | http://www.ask.com/question/armpit-tickling | dclm-gs1-101170002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.026262 | <urn:uuid:566dcf93-90dc-4e3c-bc12-c56329fd91a7> | en | 0.970646 | Saturday August 24, 2013
Staff Writer
BENNINGTON -- Town officials want to make a deal with a water bottling company to use the town’s backup water supply as a source of bottled water.
Which bottling company, or companies, that turns out to be depends on which ones express interest, said Michael Harrington, economic and community development director for Bennington. He said for now he is putting the word out that the town is entertaining offers, but if none take notice then he will begin contacting companies directly.
Bennington’s main water supply comes from Bolles Brook in Woodford, but the backup supply is from Morgan Spring, the head of which is off Bradford Street near the Bennington Recreation Center.
Selling water from the spring is not a new idea and is being done now.
Town Manager Stuart Hurd said that for the past 10 years the town has had an agreement with Vermont Pure that permits the company to draw 100,000 gallons of water from Morgan Spring per day. Vermont Pure pays the town about three fourths of a cent per gallon, Hurd said, but its trucks do not remove anywhere near the 100,000 gallon limit. The money goes into the water fund.
"We are not taxing either of our water sources, and we have plenty of room to grow," Hurd said.
Harrington said the Morgan Spring source should be quite attractive to bottlers as the water is pure and plentiful. Any agreement the town would enter, he said, would include language regarding draw limits during emergency situations like the one during Tropical Storm Irene. Flooding cut Bennington off from the Bolles Brook supply and for a few days the town was using water from a reserve tank on Chapel Hill Road. Water from Morgan Spring is pumped to Chapel Hill Road and during the flooding had to be filtered. Harrington said the warning to conserve water had more to do with the reserve tank’s refill speed rather than the spring. Morgan Spring, he said, can produce about six million gallons per day. The town only uses about three million gallons a day from Bolles Brook. When the reserve is tapped, it is usually because fire fighting efforts have caused a drop in water pressure.
Expansion of the spring could happen two ways, Harrington said. Either more trucks, from Vermont Pure or other places, could come in or a company might build a bottling plant nearby. These options are not without challenges, as the spring is nestled in a residential zone. Harrington said it is not likely that a large bottling company would build a plant just because of the spring, but a mid-sized company or a start-up might have an interest. The purity of the water makes it attractive to companies that want to bottle it, he said.
A bottling plant would be ideal, Hurd said, as there are some locations Morgan Spring water could be pumped to easily enough, and it would create jobs. Years ago the town mulled bottling the water itself, but the water testing regulations proved too stringent and expensive. Hurd said when Vermont Pure began pumping water from the spring, it paid for a purification system required by the state of New York, where its primary customer was located.
Any final agreement would have to be approved by the Select Board, said Hurd.
| http://www.benningtonbanner.com/localnews/ci_23930908/bennington-aims-court-water-bottlers?source=rss | dclm-gs1-101210002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.051729 | <urn:uuid:493a581e-4bae-4176-9343-19b5b3315c12> | en | 0.959482 | Foo - Using Credit Wisely
View Full Version : Using Credit Wisely
10-27-08, 04:47 PM
Had a question.
Lets say I have 7 credit cards with a total limit of $22,250. I only have a balance on one card of $2100 that is 0% right now and will be paid off soon, pry have to spend one month at the 9.99% APR. Then I am switching to another Credit card with 0% for 15 months and 8.99% fixed
Is it better to close the cards I'm not using or have credit cards open and just use my credit wisely. I thought it was to keep them open, because it shows credit agencies that you don't eat up all your limits.
I'm pretty sure I have awesome credit because of the rates i get on cards. I rent and do not have a house, but do have a car that i have a 0% loan from GMAC. I have never paid any interest my whole life. Also never had a late fee.
10-27-08, 04:58 PM
It is not good to close credit cards you're not using if you carry balances.
A major part of your credit score is the proportion of your total balances to available credit. You do best not to use more than 10% of your total available credit, which is about where you are now.
You should use your "dormant" cards once per month to maintain activity with the creditor. Outside of that, just keep doing what you're doing (using less than 10% of your available credit) and you'll do just fine.
Also, it's probably better not to open new accounts unless you need them, which you don't. Credit-seeking behavior will ding your score pretty hard.
10-27-08, 05:13 PM
Is this really necessary? I have a card with almost a year of no usage and am wondering if I should get it out of the safe. It's the same company as my checking account, so maybe that's why it hasn't been a problem. Or it's a problem and I don't know it.
10-27-08, 05:16 PM
Make an excel spreadsheet charting your payments down to zero. Incorporate all cards in this.
Over the life of that debt the same "best rate" card may not remain the best. You can schedule
when good rates are due to run out so you can transfer balances on time. It will allow you to
easily see the big picture.
10-27-08, 05:23 PM
If you really want to make out, max out the cards with the 0% rate and put the money into a savings account, and when the period is up, transfer it to a another card with a 0% rate (assuming the interest earned on the amount is great enough to offset any possible balance transfer fees).
10-27-08, 05:26 PM
Hmm... maybe buy some type of securities with the 0% rate cards, so when its time to pay back everything, if you have any return at all, you pretty much have gotten free cash back. However, the 0% is usually only for a relatively short time, and there are usually some fees somewhere, so it may not be profitable. | http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-480990.html | dclm-gs1-101240002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.033749 | <urn:uuid:b58c0a3b-d822-43d8-84ae-117b39b8be88> | en | 0.963137 | Even as Democrats Stay Mostly Silent While Thousands Are Illegally Purged from Voter Rolls...
By Brad Friedman on 10/18/2008, 6:51pm PT
Rightwinger Laura Ingraham ably filled in for Bill O'Reilly in the "No Spin Zone" this week, by seeing her argument dismantled by constitutional attorney, prosecutor, and former (Republican-appointed) special counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, John Flannery on Fox "News."
Ingraham just couldn't believe there would be "all these reports" on the news about "massive voter fraud going on" all over the country, led by ACORN, if they weren't all true! (As we showed both here and at UK's Guardian, it's not true. It's a GOP hoax. More at our special coverage page here.)
Despite being in way over her head, having fallen for the hoax, Ingraham, naturally, played the loyal dead-ender and stuck to her empty guns. (Gosh, we hope there are no typos on Ingraham's own driver's license or voter registration, or she might find herself purged from the voting rolls entirely this November, as they're doing in Florida and so many other state, not mentioned on Fox "News," or even by the Democrats.)
The video follows below, along with further evisceration of Ingraham's "If this were happening to the benefit of the Republicans, the Democrats would be screaming fraud" argument...
You know Ingraham's argument is truly bankrupt when she's forced to cite GOP "voter fraud" hoaxster John Fund of the Wall Street Journal as a credible source of information on this stuff. (By the way, I'm scheduled to appear tomorrow, Sunday, on Fox "News" at 5:40pm ET, with Fund, unless he runs away as he did during a recent interview when I challenged him on his nonsense.)
"If this were happening to the benefit of the Republicans, the Democrats would be screaming fraud," Ingraham charges in the video above, with no evidence to support her claim.
Really? Would they be screaming, Laura? Perhaps in the DNC, no one can hear you scream. In fact they (and Fox, naturally) have been almost completely silent concerning most of the following reports that have been published over just the last coupla weeks:
Golly gee willikers, Laura, can ya hear all those Democrats screaming about all of the above? Almost all of which will inordinately affect Democratic voters "to the beneift of the Republicans"? Funny, I don't hear a thing.
Go check your voter registration now, people!
| http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6532 | dclm-gs1-101280002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.117889 | <urn:uuid:2867a5e7-96cc-4277-b2d0-984e2ba3df1a> | en | 0.940481 | linear algebra
Vectors and vector spaces
Vectors are often expressed using coordinates. For example, in two dimensions a vector can be defined by a pair of coordinates (a1a2) describing an arrow going from the origin (0, 0) to the point (a1a2). If one vector is (a1a2) and another is (b1b2), then their sum is (a1 + b1a2 + b2); this gives the same result as the parallelogram (see the Vectors can be added together by first placing their tails at the origin of a coordinate system such that their lengths and directions are unchanged. Then the coordinates of their heads are added pairwise; e.g., in two dimensions, their x-coordinates and their y-coordinates are added separately to obtain the resulting vector sum. As shown by the dotted lines, this vector sum coincides with one diagonal of the parallelogram formed with the original vectors.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.). In three dimensions a vector is expressed using three coordinates (a1a2a3), and this idea extends to any number of dimensions.
Linear transformations and matrices
When studying linear transformations, it is extremely useful to find nonzero vectors whose direction is left unchanged by the transformation. These are called eigenvectors (also known as characteristic vectors). If v is an eigenvector for the linear transformation T, then T(v) = λv for some scalar λ. This scalar is called an eigenvalue. The eigenvalue of greatest absolute value, along with its associated eigenvector, have special significance for many physical applications. This is because whatever process is represented by the linear transformation often acts repeatedly—feeding output from the last transformation back into another transformation—which results in every arbitrary (nonzero) vector converging on the eigenvector associated with the largest eigenvalue, though rescaled by a power of the eigenvalue. In other words, the long-term behaviour of the system is determined by its eigenvectors.
Finding the eigenvectors and eigenvalues for a linear transformation is often done using matrix algebra, first developed in the mid-19th century by the English mathematician Arthur Cayley. His work formed the foundation for modern linear algebra. | http://www.britannica.com/print/topic/342069 | dclm-gs1-101290002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "vector"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.057183 | <urn:uuid:7acfdd6f-e145-4d17-a2ca-05f634def061> | en | 0.956157 | apple iphone 5c
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Apple is usually quick to gloat about its iPhone pre-orders. But pre-orders for the 5C began five days ago and the company has stayed quiet.
The 5C was positioned to be an iPhone for mass consumption. The colorful device is cheaper than the iPhone 5S and it has a plastic shell. But critics stay the price point at $99 isn't cheap enough.
Apple's silence may be the driving force behind its slipping stock. On September 13, the day 5c pre-orders began, Apple's stock was $475 per share. Today it's hanging just below $450, a 4% drop from yesterday.
How unusual is Apple's silence?
The Verge's Chris Welch sums it up nicely:
In 2010, Apple announced that the iPhone 4 had seen 600,000 pre-orders in 24 hours — the most the company had ever received in a single day. Things only grew from there. The iPhone 4S surpassed one million pre-orders in 24 hours, with the iPhone 5 doubling that success one year ago. Last year, Apple's update came on the Monday after pre-orders began, but the company's PR team has been mum today.
Update: It's worth noting that Apple's other phone, the 5S, hasn't gone on sale yet. That may account for Apple's silence around 5C sales. Apple may not feel the need to share early sales figures before the entire line is out.
iPhone 5s sales will arguably be more important than 5C sales. The 5C is meant to resemble the 4S and appeal to emerging markets. But the 5S an actual, upgraded device with fingerprint scanning technology, a better camera and gold trim. Its sales will be comparable to the iPhone 4s. The iPhone 5C is a much different kind of product. | http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-is-strangely-quiet-about-its-iphone-5c-pre-orders-2013-9 | dclm-gs1-101300002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.145876 | <urn:uuid:703c9345-9bd1-478a-968f-bac2029cf188> | en | 0.963549 | Malicious Meddling in Washington: Just What Is the Government’s Business?
The battle over spending continues in Washington. Despite decades of grotesque federal malfeasance, President Obama believes that government can easily fix the world — including us, the people in it. Republicans don’t believe much of anything, other than they don’t want to raise taxes. It’s a good instinct, but not much of a political philosophy.
The fundamental issue is not government expenditures, but the role of government. If you believe most of human affairs should be conducted, and controlled, by the public sphere, then you must support lots of government spending. If you want to limit those outlays, you have to reduce the state’s responsibilities.
America has become a transfer society in which Uncle Sam subsidizes virtually every noisy and noisome interest group, as well as scores of dubious friends and allies overseas. Subsidies is where most of the money goes — Social Security and Medicare, which are middle class welfare; Medicaid, for low-income people; the Pentagon, which devotes much of its resources to defending other peoples, such as the Europeans, Japanese, and South Koreans, who could defend themselves; and endless smaller benefit and grant programs for education, housing, income support, training, transportation, and more. Roll back domestic and foreign subsidies for those who don’t need them and Americans would be well on their way to solving the current budget crisis.
Some government programs don’t cost a lot but still lead to the obvious question: Why is that activity government’s business? Even if such actions were costless, they still would be inappropriate. There are some things which the state simply should not do, at least in a society which purports to be “free.”
For instance, in little more than two weeks 100 watt incandescent bulbs will be illegal. After failing in the war on drugs, Uncle Sam is about to initiate a war on bulbs. Luckily, I stocked up earlier this year. I don’t go through them very quickly, so I figure I should be set for the rest of my natural (and even unnatural) life. Perhaps I can make a little black market profits on the side and leave a few bulbs for my heirs.
But the 100 watt bulbs are only the start. Lesser wattages will be banned in coming years. Naturally, it is supposed to be for our own good. Our betters in Washington believe that average people are too stupid to choose the right bulbs. So in our name we are being forced to raid the college fund to purchase expensive compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs, which take a long time to reach full brightness, yield an inferior glow, and require a hazmat team to deal with breakage. For the latter the government urges people to open windows, evacuate the room, and toss any clothes contaminated by mercury from the wonderful CFLs.
Yes, yes, we are told — there is no ban on incandescents, only a standard which they cannot meet. Just purely coincidental that they all will be illegal. And the CFLs are getting better, much better, and shouldn’t be rejected because of consumer prejudices. No, of course not. We should just let the smart people decide that everyone should buy Pepsi rather than Coke, or Coke rather than Pepsi, or Diet-Rite instead of the other two, or just drink water instead.
Why are the light bulbs we buy the government’s business?
Last year Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) decided that Wal-Mart and friends needed a break. So he led an effort to cut the “swipe” fees charged by banks to retailers for debit card purchases. Sen. Durbin was just outraged at the thought that America’s retail giants were being gouged by companies allowed to set their own prices. Imagine! In America! Companies allowed to charge whatever they want!
Just like the big merchants themselves.
Of course, passage of the law led to a bitter regulatory fight to influence the Federal Reserve, which was tasked with arbitrarily setting the swipe fees. Then the retailers whined that the new, lower fees were too high, which meant they weren’t getting as much of a return on their investment in lobbying as they had expected. So they did what most Americans do when disappointed, sued.
After having their swipe fees cut by the government, several banks announced plans to raise costs on consumers. Under protest most backed down — for now, but their forbearance may not last forever. Moreover, smaller retailers aren’t doing nearly as well as the big boys: banks have dropped discounts they once offered and companies which process debit transactions are raising their fees. Obviously, it is dangerous to allow too much freedom in a free market! Maybe Sen. Durbin needs to push legislation for a new round of price controls on everyone, retailers included. I think everything should be free!
Why are swipe fees the government’s business?
The Food and Drug Administration, which has killed tens or hundreds of thousands of people by delaying safe drugs from reaching the sick, is now considering legislation to reduce the amount of salt in our food. Not recommend that consumers use less. But mandate that producers use less. After all, notes the agency, long one of Washington’s worst national nannies, consumers’ “taste preference for sodium is acquired and can be modified.”
Presumably that is the case for broccoli, lima beans, and tofu as well. What will the health fascists next come up with? Everyone must eat Spam! No doubt, most Americans would benefit from a healthier diet. But which one?
Even the elites who are supposed to know better than the rest of us rubes often fall victim to fads and battle each other over who is the biggest, baddest genius. My Cato Institute colleague Walter Olson observed: “the government’s dietary advice has changed often through the years, and its recommendations in retrospect have regularly proved to be unfounded and even damaging. Sure enough, reports have begun to come out that the salt panic has been exaggerated and may even pose some health dangers of its own.”
Great. The government already has multiple ways to kill its citizens, starting with foolish, stupid, and unnecessary wars. Now it is planning to impose the latest diet fads.
Why is people’s salt consumption the government’s business?
Flying is a pain. After years of losing money while sending millions of people to thousands of destinations, the airlines are trying to make a profit by charging fees on everything but bathroom use, and that may be next. One of the most irritating costs to passengers is for checking luggage. Which encourages people to carry more bags onto planes, irritating flight attendants. So Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) wants to save us all. He has introduced legislation mandating that everyone gets one free bag and banning any charges for carry-ons.
After all, bags have a constitutional right to travel free. But why stop there? Passengers also should have a right to free booze. And better meals. Travelers shouldn’t have to pay more for good seats. Moreover, it is a time to think outside the box. Airlines should have to provide live music entertainment. That would spice up an otherwise boring time in the air. There are so many other items that belong on a list of passenger freebies.
In fact, government regulation of airline luggage policies is an idiotic idea. Personally, I prefer one (higher) price for everything. But there’s a good argument for people who ship more bags paying more than people who carry their own. I don’t know which business model is better. But I am certain that Sen. Cardin doesn’t have the slightest idea. As Milton Friedman observed, There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch!
Why is the cost of checking luggage the government’s business?
A battle recently opened over which religious organizations should be forced to provide coverage for birth control as part of their health insurance policies. Complained Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Col.): “I think in the 21st century, most people are stunned to hear that we would even be talking about whether women can buy birth control through their insurance policies.”
Of course, people should be stunned, since in a normal, sensible, nonpolitical world, birth control would not be covered by health insurance. People normally seek insurance to cover large, unexpected costs, not pay for modest, recurring expenses of activities freely chosen. Apparently Rep. DeGette is not familiar with the fact that sex normally is a voluntary activity, the frequency of which is under individual control. Imagine auto “insurance” which covered gas fill-ups, new stereo systems, and fancy detailing. It doesn’t take a genius to realize the cost implications for everyone. A company might decide that covering contraception would still be cheaper than paying for unplanned pregnancies, but Rep. DeGette is not the one to make that decision.
States have been playing this game for years. The podiatrists show up in the state capital and insist that health care policies cover their services. Then the acupuncturists make the lobbying trip. Followed by doctors doing hair transplants. Soon the legislature is forcing everyone is to pay for everything, even if most people would prefer an inexpensive catastrophic policy — real insurance. Now ObamaCare has Washington deciding what everyone in America must pay for, raising both health care costs and government outlays.
Why is insurance coverage of birth control the government’s business?
There’s a reason government is so costly. It does too much. But some of its worst abuses are more intrusive than expensive. It simply is not government’s business which light bulbs we buy, what banks charge for debit transactions, how much salt we eat, what airlines charge for checked bags, and whether insurance policies cover birth control. None of these issues should be dictated by the enlightened public servants of civics education myth, let alone the cynical vote-seeking politicians of Capitol Hill reality.
The Founders intended to create a limited government dedicated to protecting individual liberty. There can still be disagreement over what is necessary for the framework of a free society, but today Washington vastly exceeds its proper role. As a result, government costs far too much. And interferes far too much with our liberty.
| http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/malicious-meddling-washington-just-what-is-governments-business | dclm-gs1-101330002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.021069 | <urn:uuid:b039e90a-6cf9-4af4-9ca1-86905cb41feb> | en | 0.951223 | Monday, April 27, 2009
Creature Feature
Lady Cow, err Bird...uh Bug!
Whatever you call them, beetles from the family Coccinellidae are one of the most beneficial insects in the garden. The shells of the adult lady bug vary in color from red to orange and dark yellows. All of dark black spots but in differing numbers and arrangements. It has been estimated that there are nearly 5000 different varieties of lady bugs in the world and at least 400 types in North America. Most of these vary regionally and have adapted to fit in their local climate.
While most people have very fond feelings for the adult lady bug, the larvae of the Coccinellidae family are so evil looking that one has a hard time resisting the temptation to stamp the life out of them then and there. However, doing so would be a big mistake and is an example of the necessity of knowing your insect before seeking its death.
The benefits that the lady bug provides are many. Primarily they are a major predator of insects from the Hemiptera family with their favorite prey being the aphid. In a healthy ecosystem, wherever you see an outbreak of aphids you are sure to see a lady bug or two having a feast. Unfortunately, the over use of chemicals may disrupt the natural predator/prey cycle. When you kill both beneficial and harmful insects, it is the sad case that usually the harmful insects rebound quite quickly with large, uncontrollable populations.
Lady bugs are available from many sources that sell natural pest control products and are marketed as biological control. While it is very gratifying to release a boxful of lady bugs into your yard, don't be so naive as to believe that they will remain inside the boundaries of your yard. In fact, the only ones that may stay are those with bent wings and missing legs. As mentioned earlier, there are a large number of lady bugs and each one is adapated to a specific climate. Any lady bugs that you buy will certainly move on to preferred climates and those that hang around may not make it through the winter to reproduce the next year. Whatever your situation, the best way to make biological control happen in your yard is to promote a healthy ecosystem with a balanced predator-prey cycle.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Courtney's Tool Box
Weed Fabric - More of a nuisance than the weeds?
It has been a common practice in the landscape industry and among do-it-yourself homeowners to install weed fabric in planter areas under the mulch for the purpose of deterring weeds. Many products are available ranging from black plastic to thicker mat-like fibrous materials. The idea is to install a barrier between the mulch and the soil so weeds will not be able to take root. While this may seem like a good idea, the reality is that it's a very temporary solution to a long term problem - and the negative consequences of installing weed fabric are long term too.
Of all the weed barrier products, plastic - whether clear or black - is probably the worst. It creates an impermeable barrier to water and air, which are both necessary for plant root growth. Plastic also deteriorates rapidly. It does not go away however, it just falls apart and starts moving to the surface where it soon becomes unsightly. Other products, while they do allow water and air to pass through somewhat, still create an unnatural barrier in the soil. All weed fabrics are extremely burdensome when it comes time to make changes to the landscape. If you have ever had to remove weed fabric, it's easy to understand that it would be better if it was never there in the first place! Furthermore, the effectiveness of weed fabric is only temporary. It only takes a few months for mulch (both rock mulch and organic mulch) to begin to decompose and create a nice new fertile layer on top of the weed fabric where weed seeds will readily germinate. You may argue that these weeds can easily be pulled because they are not rooted in the soil. True, but the same is true for weeds growing in a 4 inch thick layer of mulch.
Maggie Wolf tugs on a piece of weed fabric in the Conservation Garden Park. Weed fabric in the Garden is being systematically removed.
So, if weed fabric is not a good idea, then how do you prevent weeds? Well, it takes work! Unfortunately there is no easy way to do it. However, there are three things you can do to drastically reduce the amount of weed growth without using weed fabric.
1. Maintain a 3 to 4 inch layer of mulch on the soil. This can be rock or wood mulch or whatever you prefer.
2. Where practical, use a pre-emergent herbicide which prevents seeds from germinating in the first place.
3. Minimize the amount of water you apply to the landscape. Nothing grows weeds like water! Drip irrigation applied only where it's needed by plants will produce far fewer weeds than spray irrigation broadcasted everywhere.
It also helps to control weeds regularly while they are small. Whether you pull them or spray them, don't let the problem get out of control. Happy gardening and don't let those weeds get the best of you!
- Courtney
Katy's Bloomers
What's blooming now
Even with the weather making its unpredictable changes from warm to cold and back again the Crocuses seem to be a dependable indicator that spring is on its way. We have a wonderful array of Crocus bloom ranging in colors from deep purple, lavender, bright yellow, to white and even some striped varieties. Their bright yellow stamen and style are a great accent to all these colors and a welcome sight for the few brave bees that have already made an appearance.
Also highly anticipated is the appearance of the Miniature Iris in the woodland landscape. With their stunning rich purple color and a hint of yellow they really are a happy surprise among the browns of winter. The Lenten Rose graces us this time of year with its Victorian eloquence. The Miniature Daffodils have also delighted us with their bright yellow color and their hint of green foliage.
The Pasque flower is our newest appearance found in the perennial yard. From their soft, furry foliage appears a beautiful six-petaled magenta flower with yellow stamen. It’s a graceful delight for any photographer or the passerby who takes time to examine its wonderful characteristics.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Plant of the Month - April
Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris)
March is supposed to come in like a lion and out like a lamb. Most years it comes in like a lion that morphs into some sort of lion-lamb monster in the middle and end up worse than it started. I am writing this as another in a long line of blizzards is storming outside. Very appropriate for April 1st.
Pasque Flower is one of the few intrepid plants that bloom during this unpredictable time of year, giving gardeners everywhere a feeling that maybe, just maybe, there is hope for warmer and more seasonable weather ahead. The Pasque Flower is named from it's tendency to bloom near Easter (paschal means of or pertaining to Easter) and is often seen poking through snow drifts and even before developing much foliage at all, it will push out a multitude of dark-purple to lavender goblet shaped blooms with bright yellow centers.
It grows natively in Eurasia with a range that extends from the British Isles to France and on to the Ukraine. Due to it's hardiness (USDA zones 4-8) it also flourishes in Utah and many other areas of the United States. It reseeds easily and will spread gently in areas where it is happy. Far from being invasive, this tendency to spread actually helps to develop showy clumps from just a few original plants.
The foliage of the Pasque Flower is finely-dissected, meaning fern-like. Buds, stems and leaves are covered in silky hairs and often appear light or gray-green and eventually develop into handsome clumps that range from 8-10" tall and wide. Once finished flowering, the blooms develop into equally interesting, if not showy, plumed seedheads. Removing spent blooms will not promote further flowering but will remove the seeds, so decide if you want it to spread before deadheading.
Flowering color is somewhat variable in the species but are more consistent with certain varieties. 'Alba' produces consistenly white flowers while the blooms on 'Rote Glocke' are more red in hue. | http://www.cgpblog.org/2009_04_01_archive.html | dclm-gs1-101350002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.018901 | <urn:uuid:9a07b3d0-021b-4d85-9fa2-0c051cf2a4b6> | en | 0.905898 | JUST A PINCH: Juicy nectarines and plump blackberries cavort merrily in a lattice-top pie. Black pepper adds an intriguing dark note to the crust. (Spencer Weiner, Los Angeles Times / June 20, 2007)
Summer fruit pies are America's birthday cake. Just as the blueberries are ripening in Maine, the peaches blushing in Georgia and the olallieberries deep-purpling in Washington, we gather in backyards and on patios to cheer the founders and make best wishes for our national future.
So, of course, we celebrate (now and all summer long) with the dish that defines us as Americans.
Honey-sweet apricots and winy cherries together under one flaky-crisp crust, a trio of berries thickened into a jam-like filling in another, the rich fruit flavors of nectarine and blackberries playing off each other in a third -- thanks to the abundant fruit of orchard and bramble, pies that we make at this time of year can be a glorious blend of flavors.
Some of our best-loved pies are single-ingredient classics, but there's great reason to mix and match: The more complex interplay of flavors in a two- or three-fruit filling is admirably set off by the simple sweet flakiness of pie crust.
And you don't have to peel the apricots. Or blanch the nectarines before peeling. For baking, the nectarines should be firm but not hard; they should give to gentle pressure when pressed with your thumb.
Use less sugar and a smaller amount of thickening agent (such as tapioca) than you might have seen called for in the past. With the wide availability of gorgeous farmers market produce, it's best to use both sparingly and allow the true fruit flavors and textures to be enjoyed. Which is not to say these pretty pies are plain-Jane creations in any way. Well-chosen details give them originality and oomph.
A judicious pinch of black pepper in the crust of a nectarine-blackberry pie adds a mysterious and intriguing dark note; vanilla bean enriches an apricot-cherry filling.
To bring the combination of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries to their full expression of flavor, add a little Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, the sweet peach-scented wine from the southern Rhone region of France. You could also use another sweet white wine such as Sauternes or Monbazillac.
A few notes on technique are helpful, even if you're an experienced pie maker. Use glass pans to make fruit pies; they won't react with the acid in the fruit. And chill the dough before rolling it out. If you've gotten distracted and left it in the fridge longer than an hour, let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes before rolling it out.
Don't shy away from making lattice or cutout crusts -- they're not hard to master and it's so rewarding to see the glowing colors of caramelized fruit revealed through the windows of golden brown crust.
Stars and pies forever.
Nectarine-berry pie with black pepper crust
Total time: About 2 hours
Servings: 8
Note: From Donna Deane You can substitute Demerara with any large-crystal sugar, such as Sugar in the Raw.
2 cups flour | http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/la-fo-encore24-2008-jul24,0,6116728.story | dclm-gs1-101360002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.