text
stringlengths 211
577k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
371
| file_path
stringclasses 644
values | language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.93
1
| token_count
int64 54
121k
| score
float64 1.5
1.84
| int_score
int64 2
2
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A panel of Maryland lawmakers on Thursday recommended that Gov. Martin O'Malley cut the state's projected budget deficit of $382 million by more than half in the next fiscal year.
The state's Spending Affordability Committee also voted to allow the state to increase capital debt limit by $150 million for the next fiscal year.
Maryland is required to have a balanced budget each fiscal year. However, projected spending has exceeded revenues in recent years in what's known as a structural budget deficit. That means while the state has technically entered fiscal years with a balanced budget, a deficit has returned with stubborn regularity in recent years.
House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, moved to recommend a reduction in the deficit for fiscal year 2014 by at least $200 million, and the panel approved it on a 17-3 vote.
Democratic supporters of the move noted the state will have nearly addressed a $2 billion budget deficit since 2010.
But Delegate Anthony O'Donnell, a Calvert County Republican who is on the panel, questioned why the panel did not seek a recommendation to eliminate the entire structural deficit.
"That would put us in a better fiscal position for the exposure we have to actions that may occur down on Capitol Hill," O'Donnell said, referring to budget negotiations relating to the "fiscal cliff" in Washington.
The fiscal cliff refers to across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases, if an agreement isn't reached between Congress and President Barack Obama. Maryland is particularly susceptible to federal cuts, due to its proximity to the nation's capital.
Busch said the Maryland General Assembly could come back and make further cuts during the session that begins Jan. 9 and runs through the middle of April. O'Malley is scheduled to submit his budget Jan. 16.
"It does not mean that once the governor brings the budget in you cannot make more cuts," the speaker said.
Busch also noted that additional revenues from expanded gambling that was approved by voters last month projects a significant boost to state revenues in future years.
"So I think, under those circumstances if those revenues hold up, that we will actually be revenue-neutral here," the speaker said.
The panel also voted to approve a recommendation by the Capital Debt Affordability Committee that a maximum of $1.075 billion in debt be authorized for the 2013 session. That represents a $150 million increase over what the committee had planned.
Democratic supporters noted that the money would be used to pay for job- producing infrastructure improvements in the state, such as ones needed for transportation, a funding area that has been hit hard in Maryland. However, O'Donnell said was thought it would put the state on a path to continue raising the debt limit, and he expressed concern it could lead to a property tax hike down the road.
The panel's recommendations are not binding on the governor.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Meet the newest liligers - mom's a liger and dad's a lion. (Photos)
Lil Wayne: I wasn't intentionally stepping on the U.S. flag. (Video)
What can happen to you when you don't get enough sleep.
The U. of Oregon is cracking down on a fan favorite. | <urn:uuid:39d654c4-2092-4522-b9f7-b9fc2628b465> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtop.com/41/2672310/Md-panel-votes-on-spending-recommendations?nid=1229 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963478 | 694 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Prepare for sogginess, weather watchers.
A strong, warm rainstorm is expected to pound Western Washington Tuesday through Thursday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a flood watch for rivers in King and 9 other counties.
Between 5 and 10 inches of rain may fall in a 48-hour period, with the Skokomish River the waterway most likely to flood, meteorologists said.
Temperatures will stay fairly warm, with highs mostly reaching the mid-50s.
A winter weather advisory was also issued for the Cascades, with a forecast of up to 8 inches of snow, and for the Olympics, where up to 6 inches were predicted to fall.
In Seattle, you won’t need the ark. Scott Sistek at KOMO-TV reports that the heavy rain will largely miss central Puget Sound. Wrote Sistek:
The upper air flow is expected to be screaming at us from nearly due west, which typically sets up the famous Olympic Rain Shadow over the greater Seattle-Bremerton-Bellevue area. (That’s right, we’re borrowing it from Sequim. We’ll bring it back with that weed whacker we borrowed next week.)
So it’s possible during this event that Seattle is cloudy, warm, breezy, and occasionally sprinkling or a light shower, but nowhere near as wet as the surrounding areas.
Read KOMO’s report here. | <urn:uuid:077f1acb-d5fa-4c17-8c4e-dbbba23f2b00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/03/29/seattle-weather-heavy-rains-ahead-possible-flooding/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940278 | 309 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Sharing the Joys of Black Bears
A recent event in our neighboring city of Rockville provided another reminder of legislative high-jinks and a caution to Maryland voters in the upcoming election.
Not too long ago a friendly baby bear was observed visiting the Montgomery County environs of Rockville. Panic and pandemonium ensued.
A colleague, writing under the nom de plume, "Attila" on his web site, "Pillage Idiot" called the reaction to our attention: "True story: I just got a recorded phone call from the Rockville City Police telling us that a bear cub has been spotted on the outskirts of Rockville, just over a half mile from where I live. The bear is described as black, about 100 pounds, but not dangerous. The message says that animal officials think the bear was displaced by the recent flooding, and warned us to stay away from it, not to try to feed it, and to let it continue on its way."
For those of us in the Western Maryland neck of the woods, this is priceless.
Interactions with wildlife are almost a daily occurrence, where, according to the Department of Legislative Services - in a fiscal note of a piece of legislation - bears "can cause a wide variety of economic damage, including damage to timber, beehives, agricultural crops, and various livestock and poultry."
Mention a bear to a Western Marylander and visions of a friendly Smokey the Bear caricature are not what one imagines.
As far as the appearance of a baby black bear in Rockville - to be sure - Monsieur/Madame friendly bear was probably only visiting.
In the absence of most natural predators, the bear population has reached proportions where, although cute and lovable in a Kodak-moment, their overpopulation serves as a public health risk. Hunting - a cherished heritage in Western Maryland culture - is essentially the only practical means of managing the populations.
My immediate thought after reading about the Rockville incident was the "friendly bear" legislation that the ever friendly, cute and lovable Del. George C. Edwards (R., Garrett/Allegany), introduced in the last session of the General Assembly.
Delegate Edwards, ever accommodating wishing to share the natural resources wealth of Western Maryland with his more urban colleagues, wanted to bring the black bear back to the more sophisticated former haunts of wildlife in places - well, like Rockville, for example.
Delegate Edwards' HB 1436 would have required "the Secretary of Natural Resources to establish a program to ensure that, by October 1, 2012, a black bear population is introduced into each county in the State."
This was in response to a HB 1157 - "The Black Bear Protection Act," read "anti-hunting bill" - filed by the equally cute and lovable Democrat Del. Barbara Frush (D., Anne Arundel/PG), which would classify "black bears as non-game mammals; prohibiting the Department of Natural Resources . from establishing an open season to hunt black bears."
This illustrates one of the many injustices in the last session of our august legislature. The loss of a concept called "local courtesy," a procedure by which members of the legislature recognize that bills put in the hopper regarding local issues are to be given the courtesy befitting the fact that no one understands the idiosyncratic nuances and needs of his or her district better than the local delegation. Concurrently, it is not appropriate for a legislator from outside the area to introduce legislation pertaining to a specific district.
There were innumerable lapses of local courtesy in the 421st Maryland General Assembly; but perhaps there was no better response than that proposed by Delegate Edwards.
Jill Rosen put it best when she wrote in a March 27 article in Baltimore's Sun: "Peeved politicians offer up payback - Lawmakers draft spite bills to answer offending legislation:.a buttinsky delegate from some big-city district up and proposes a bear hunting ban."
Although it may be suggested that the black bear protection legislation was a good example of the lack of respect afforded to legislative colleagues, some will suggest that it is yet another example of the moral relativism and situational ethics that pervade the acrid hallways and offices of the dignified capital of our great state.
In short, the story of the Rockville Police sounding the alarm about the mere presence of a baby bear is an allegorical tale of a General Assembly that has lost its moorings and finds itself in a sticky morass of serving itself instead of the public.
To state the obvious, one wonders why it is that the appearance of a black bear in Rockville is a noteworthy police event when such unwanted incursions are a constant nuisance in Western Maryland.
This is not the first time that folks have rebelled at the legislature's persistent lack of respect for any part of the state that does not happen to be in Montgomery and Prince George's counties or Baltimore City.
As Ms. Rosen reminded us in her article, several years ago, former Sen. Walter M. Baker, "a conservative and crusty Democrat from Cecil County," introduced legislation for the Eastern Shore to secede from Maryland and form its own state.
Senator Baker introduced the legislation after he watched "the General Assembly pass what - from his perspective - looked like one liberal bill after another," wrote Ms. Rosen.
He did it "primarily to make clear to the rest of the state that the Eastern Shore is displeased with much of what the legislature (had done that) year." The straw that broke the camel's back for Senator Baker was the approval of both a gun-control bill and a needle-exchange program in Baltimore, elaborated Ms. Rosen.
Most of Senator Baker's colleagues were unsympathetic except for 15 votes. Ms. Rosen reports others shouted, "Let them go."
In this fall election, don't feed the bears. Rather elect public servants who can do more than contemplate their navels through the cracked mirror of a legislature that has slowly but surely become increasingly unfriendly, self-obsessive and partisan.
It is not a matter of the Democrat elite in the legislature saying "Let them go," but rather them telling us "where to go."
It is not a Kodak-moment and there is nothing cute, friendly or cuddly about it.
Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster: E-mail him at: [email protected] | <urn:uuid:115e59d2-106e-49a3-92c7-b6fdda9a2b2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=1689 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96004 | 1,333 | 1.796875 | 2 |
June 4: Culture of Service
A simple solution is to abolish the draft and make army service or some other form of national service optional, but to combine it with a substantial financial incentive.
Letters Photo: Thinkstock/Imagebank
Culture of service
Sir, – Regarding “Keshev Committee hears proposals for
increasing haredi enlistment rates” (June 1), the problem is not limited to the
There is the country’s Arab sector, comprising some 20
percent of the population and of which only a small fraction
There is also the significant number of secular Jews who find
methods to avoid army service.
In fact, the army doesn’t need all this
manpower. It certainly does not want reluctant recruits or, even worse, those
who have been led to believe that the Jewish state is their sworn
A simple solution is to abolish the draft and make army service or
some other form of national service optional, but to combine it with a
substantial financial incentive. Non-military service could range from work in
hospitals to assisting teachers or cleaning up our forests, parks and beaches.
The list of possibilities is endless.
Accept as the norm for service
three years for men and two for women, then calculate subsequent social benefits
to a family on the basis of time served. If the parents have accumulated five
years of service they would get full allowances. Those with less would have
their allowances reduced.
Obviously it would be unfair to establish this
retroactively, so it would apply only to those marrying after the new
arrangements were in place.
STEPHEN S. COHEN
Sir, – Adi
Luria, spokeswoman for the National Civil Service Volunteers Association,
opposes mandatory national service (“NGO: Don’t force people to do national
service,” June 1). Sadly, she has a very parochial view.
Those who would
be required to serve would benefit by being more fully integrated into society,
thereby recognizing that they have a very real stake in the nation’s future.
Also, the stature of the ultra-Orthodox and Arab sectors would be raised in the
eyes of the large number of Israelis who feel they do not contribute their fair
share. Indeed, it may turn out that fewer people will attempt to shirk their own
military duty if they see that, finally, all sectors are being asked to make
EFRAIM A. COHEN
Sir, – What Jay
Bushinsky suggests in “Military service for all” (Observations, June 1) is both
unworkable and unwise.
Does Bushinsky really believe that an Arab soldier
from Umm el-Fahm would carry out an order to kill or capture a terrorist in
Jenin, or that a haredi soldier would carry out an order issued by his
commanding officer without first checking whether it was in compliance with
Halacha? What would be workable and wise, and has worked in America, is a change
from a “welfare” system to a “workfare” system whereby the number of financially
dependent has been dramatically reduced over the past 20 years. The system
requires able-bodied individuals to provide service in order to receive
benefits. Many “graduate” to regular-paying jobs.
In Israel, those who
are dependent upon the government for benefits should be required to provide
national service. In addition, the tens of thousands of secular Jews who avoid
military service (about whom we rarely hear), as well as the haredim, could be
given added incentives (educational and housing benefits, as well as priority in
hiring) in return. This would be similar to the GI Bill in America.
Sir, – In your editorial “Glorifying terror”
(June 1) you ask why the PA celebrates and glorifies terrorists. Why not ask why
we continue to release terrorists or their remains so that they can be so
glorified? Do we really hold out hope that something fundamental has changed in
Palestinian society? The real issue is why we continue to take actions when all
the evidence suggests that we do so only to our detriment.
More on migrants
Sir, – I understand many Israelis are very angry at the
African refugees because you are receiving hundreds of migrants across the
border every day and don’t know where these people are coming from.
true that this is a very complex situation. But I want you to understand that I
came from a very bad situation in Darfur and the condition of the Darfurians is
getting worse and worse.
If you decide you don’t want Darfurian refugees
to stay here in Israel, there is no other place for us to go. If you send us
back the Sudanese will kill us.
They kill children who are just three
months old and rape and kill our sisters.
When I was 12 I watched my
father die in front of me after the Janjaweed shot him. After that, I had no
idea where to go.
Fortunately I was able to cross the Egyptian border –
where Egyptian soldiers shot me twice – and make it into Israel. I was lucky
that the Israelis saved me and even sent me to a high school in Rishon Lezion. I
will never forget what the Israeli people have done for me.
Right now I
don’t have any communication with my family.
I don’t even know if they
are alive or dead. The village that I grew up in is destroyed; nobody lives
there now. I don’t know where my family is. The last time I spoke with my mother
was in 2008.
I want to work hard in a safe palace to finish my education
so I can help myself and my family and other Darfurians who are in the same
My dream is to be a journalist so that I can tell our story to
Please help us solve our problems and give us refugee
We are not asking for economic benefits. We are only asking for
the opportunity to develop ourselves and strengthen Darfur and
The writer is an asylum-seeker
With astonishment I have read the recent articles on African migrants in south
Tel Aviv and would like the demonstrators who call for mass deportations to ask
themselves if they would like to take over the migrants’ jobs.
raising your voices and smashing shop windows, why don’t you take up a brush and
clean chairs for tourists on Tel Aviv beaches? Or get a plastic bag and collect
empty beer bottles from the street? Let’s face it: Many in Tel Aviv are pleased
with the cheap labor the Africans provide, and silently condone their
I am convinced we can all do with a wee bit more common sense
Have any of you ever spoken to an African migrant, asked
about his background, his reasons for coming to Israel? Before judging another
person, ask yourself how you would like to be judged. Then open your Torah and
look for the chapter that clearly indicates that God is the sole Judge of
I would like to thank these African migrants for pointing this
Sir, – My attention has been
drawn to an article in your paper titled “When Israel had a champion at the UN”
(Comment & Features, May 30).
My late colleague and muchlamented
friend Jeane Kirkpatrick certainly deserves our highest gratitude, praise and
Unfortunately, though, virtually all the references to my
person contained in the article were simply inaccurate (if not
For example, and to my profound regret, I do not speak nine
Peter Collier’s references to me are apparently based on
secondhand and unchecked information (at best) and constitute a forceful
validation of the Rashomon effect.
YEHUDA Z. BLUM
The writer is
a former ambassador to the UN | <urn:uuid:6cb0bab5-f24c-4460-ba4f-3f3cb86880d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Letters/June-4-Culture-of-Service | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951686 | 1,680 | 1.515625 | 2 |
|You Asked ...|
A Selection of Readers Questions
edited by Tom Kelly
Last Updated : 28 December 2007
Readers are invited to send their questions about Elgar, or comments or additions to these
replies, by e-mail to
Tom Kelly at:
The Editor reserves the right to edit any correspondence, and the views expressed are not
necessarily those of the Editor or of the Elgar Society.
MARCH OF THE MUGHAL EMPERORS
From Benno Koch
I am looking for a CD with”March of the Mughal Emperors”.
Would you please advise me about CDs this march is on, and where I could get a copy?
Reply by Tom Kelly
The March of The Mughal Emperors comes from Elgar’s Opus 66 – an Imperial Masque grandly titled The Crown of India. It was a commissioned work and performed on stage in 1912 to celebrate the visit of the King- Emperor (George V) and Queen Mary to the Delhi Durbar in December 1911. Elgar took some of the music as an orchestral suite for concert performances.
You can get the March as one of a collection of marches in splendid modern sound by James Judd on a Naxos CD at bargain price - see http://www.elgarfoundation.org/trolleyed/2/49/50/index.htm
If you want more of the Crown of India – 6 items including the March – there is another bargain CD conducted by Alexander Gibson - see
SONG “THE SNOW”
From Kay Macintosh
The Emmanuel Singers & Encounter Ensemble are performing "The Snow" with other of Elgar's music. What is the story behind this song and why it was written etc
Reply by Tom Kelly
“The Snow” Opus 26/1 is dedicated to Mrs E B (Harriet) Fitton of Malvern a fine pianist who frequently played with Elgar in local concerts and musical evenings. (One of her musical daughters – Isabel, who was learning the viola with Elgar - is immortalized as “Ysobel” in the Enigma Variations.)
It is one of 2 part-songs written for commercial publication in 1894 to words by Elgar’s wife Alice. The other song is Fly, Singing Bird, (op 26/2) and Elgar sold the copyright for 12 guineas.
We know “The Snow” best today in the original published version for female voices – SSA – and accompaniment of piano and 2 violins. At Novello’s request Elgar had simplified this version prior to publication by removing the “ad lib” part for a fourth instrument and also some “difficulties” in the other parts which Novello’s thought might deter purchasers. Elgar hoped it would be performed by string groups – not just 2 violinists – as this would mean more sales of the accompanists’ parts. In later years, Elgar orchestrated the song (in 1903), approved a 4 part version including male voices by E J Pointer (1909), and finally revised it himself for just 2 female voices (in 1932).
The song of 3 verses is an Andantino moving from E minor to E major and a climax in G major before returning to E minor. Michael Kennedy describes it as “a lovely setting, epitomizing Elgar’s way of undermining our emotional defences”. Although an unusual combination, the accompaniment is very effective in conveying the fall, whirl, and thaw of snow and in shaping both the tender and impassioned moods of the song.
It is not known for sure when and where the song was first performed. Elgar pressed Novello’s to have the parts published by May 1896 so that they could be available for the school summer term. WH Reed tells us that the song was performed by “Miss Hyde’s Society” in March 1896, and we know that Elgar included the song as one of 10 of his shorter works performed at the Royal Albert Institute Windsor, before Princess Christian, in April 1897. The orchestral version was premiered at the Queen’s Hall London in March 1904.
ELGAR’S FOOTBALL CHANT
From : Anthony Bateman
Anthony Bateman asked about Elgar's interest in football and the 'football chant' he sketched about Wolverhampton Wanderers' Bill Malpass, and about references to the football chant in a book by Dorabella Penny or of any other sources.
Reply by Tom Kelly,
The source of this story is Dora Penny who was a great friend of Elgar and immortalized by him in the ‘Dorabella’ variation of Enigma Variations. Her step-mother was a longstanding friend of Alice Elgar who had married Dora’s clergyman father.
The Elgars first visited the Penny’s in Wolverhampton in 1895 – shortly after Rev Penny’s second marriage - and then frequently thereafter. Dora lost contact with the Elgars after her marriage to Richard Crofts Powell in 1914.
Dora’s account of Elgar’s interest in Wolverhampton Wanderers is given right at the start of her book (pages 1-4). Elgar asked about going to a Wolves football match on the occasion of his very first meeting with Dorabella (and first visit to the Pennys) on Friday 6 December 1895. Elgar kept up an interest in the Wolves team, and particularly “Malpas” a “famous member” of the team at that time, and went to matches on subsequent visits to Wolverhampton.
At Elgar’s request, Dora sent Elgar a local press report of a Wolves match in February 1898. This said of one move involving Malpas that “he banged the leather for goal”. The phrase caught Elgar’s fancy and he sent back a letter on 12 March 1898 setting the phrase to 3 bars of music (vocal line and two stave accompaniment ) and adjusting the words to read “we bang’d the leather for goal” with a sforzando on ‘goal’. There is a copy of the opening of the letter - and the music – pasted into the book over page 5.
The book which contains the Malpas story is EDWARD ELGAR. MEMORIES OF A VARIATION by Mrs. Richard Powell (i.e. Dora’s married name). It was first published in 1937 and a revised and enlarged second, then third edition, in the late 1940s by Methuen. A fourth edition was also published by Scolar Press, Aldershot, in 1994 revised and edited by Claud Powell with an addendum by Jerrold Northrop Moore. Second-hand copies – mainly of the earlier editions - are quite readily available (try Abebooks.co.uk).
I’m not sure that just 3 bars of music would be counted a “chant” – indeed it seems that Elgar treated the extract in the style of a recitative from Caractacus.
Later on football fans did adopt Elgar tunes for their chants. For example Leicester City fans have long sung the trio tune from Pomp and Circumstance March No 1(and best known as “Land of Hope and Glory”) to words beginning “We hate Nottingham Forest…”!
CORONATION ODE AND ORIGINS OF LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY
From Lucy Campion
I am rather confused as to the date of the premiere of Elgar's Coronation Ode. The web page says 2nd October 1902 but the Coronation of King Edward was August 1902. Was it used for the actual Coronation or as part of the celebration? Also, am I correct in saying that “Land of Hope and Glory” was written without words as Pomp and Circumstance No 1, and then words were written for it and that it became the Coronation Ode finale, and then a new set of words was written for Clara Butt which is the most commonly heard version today?
Reply by Tom Kelly
The story is rather complicated. A full account is given in an article by Yvonne M Ward in The Elgar Society Journal of July 2004 (vol13 No5 pp13-26) if you have access to it. You can get a copy of the Elgar Works vocal score of Coronation Ode with a programme note by John Norris from the Elgar Birthplace Museum – see http://www.elgarfoundation.org/trolleyed/4/24/43/index.htm. A snip at £5.95 plus postage!
Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901.Elgar was specifically asked by the Master of the King’s Music (Sir Walter Parratt) in March 1901 “to set to immortal music” verses by Arthur Benson. Elgar took up the task of a Coronation Ode (CO) to be performed at Covent Garden at the same time as he was working on a sketch of what became the Pomp and Circumstance March No1. Benson agreed to add verses to suit Elgar’s plans for the work.
The orchestra only version of PC1was performed first in Liverpool on 21 October 1901 (along with PC2). The idea of setting the Trio section to words was said to have come from the new King (by Elgar in 1927!). But since King Edward heard PC1 for the first time only in February 1902 that seems unlikely. More likely is Clara Butt’s story that she suggested it to Elgar when they sat together at a concert including PC1 in November 1901.
In December 1901, Elgar debated with his editor at Novellos, Jaeger, whether the Trio tune should be set to verse. Jaeger said it would be “downright vulgar” because the “drop to E and bigger drop afterwards” were “impossible” for a choir. Elgar was not deterred and composed a setting as the Finale - section Vll - in CO and also as solo song with orchestra - with different words. The words in both versions were written by Arthur Benson at Elgar’s request to fit the tune rather than Elgar composing a tune to fit words already written by Benson.
In 1902 Benson also suggested – to correct an oversight - adding some new verse material to refer to Queen Alexandra. Elgar set these new verses as what is now Section lll of Coronation Ode - “Daughter of Ancient Kings”.
The Coronation of King Edward Vll was due to take place on 26 June and CO was intended to be given a State Performance 4 days after the Coronation ceremony on 30 June. In the event both were postponed because the King was ill with appendicitis. The Coronation eventually took place on 9 August 1902. So CO was performed first at the Sheffield Festival on 2 October and had its first performance in London on 26 October. Elgar conducted both performances. King Edward heard the CO first at a concert on 25 June 1903.
“Land of Hope and Glory” had already been performed as a solo song on 21 June 1902 by Clara Butt at the Royal Albert Hall.
The words in the Coronation Ode version are as follows:
Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Truth and Right and Freedom, each a holy gem,
Stars of solemn brightness, weave thy diadem.
Tho' thy way be darkened, still in splendour drest,
As the star that trembles o'er the liquid West.
Throned amid the billows, throned inviolate,
Thou hast reigned victorious, thou has smiled at fate.
Land of Hope and Glory, fortress of the Free,
How may we extol thee, praise thee, honour thee?
Hark, a mighty nation maketh glad reply;
Lo, our lips are thankful, lo, our hearts are high!
Hearts in hope uplifted, loyal lips that sing;
Strong in faith and freedom, we have crowned our King!
The verses set in the song version of Land of Hope and Glory are as follows:
Dear Land of Hope, thy hope is crowned.
God make thee mightier yet!
On Sov'reign brows, beloved, renowned,
Once more thy crown is set.
Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained,
Have ruled thee well and long;
By Freedom gained, by Truth maintained,
Thine Empire shall be strong.
Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, Who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider Shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, Make thee mightier yet
God, who made thee mighty, Make thee mightier yet.
Thy fame is ancient as the days,
As Ocean large and wide
A pride that dares, and heeds not praise,
A stern and silent pride
Not that false joy that dreams content
With what our sires have won;
The blood a hero sire hath spent
Still nerves a hero son.
Of course the Prommers sing only the middle verse of the song version when the Trio tune comes along at the Last Night of The Proms.
From : Geoff Sansome of the Friends of Claines Church wrote
CLAINES CHURCH YARD and the WHINFIELDS OF SEVERN GRANGE
I am very interested in any of Elgar’s actual accounts or recollections of Claines and was wondering if you had original sources for the reference on the website that "Elgar wasn't so interested in plainsong, but studied harmony from many sources - particularly Beethoven (at an early age he took scores from his father's music shop to his grandparent's graves at Claines Churchyard to study them), as well as Mozart and Schumann, to name two."
Likewise I have come across several references to Elgars link with the Whinfield family, of Severn Grange, Claines and was wondering if there was any documentation around this one.
The image of Elgar –his pockets stuffed with bread and cheese – studying scores in the church yard is a familiar part of the legend of his early efforts to teach himself music.
The earliest accounts of Elgar’s musical self education come from interviews Elgar gave in the period from 1900 when he was in his 40s and was recalling events of nearly 30 years earlier. An interview by Rudolph de Cordova published in “The Strand Magazine” of May 1904 (and reprinted in Christopher Redwood’s “An Elgar Companion”(1985)) quotes Elgar as saying that
“In studying scores the first which came into my hands were the Beethoven symphonies. Anyone can have them now, but they were difficult for a boy to get in Worcester 30 years ago. I, however, managed to get two or three, and I remember distinctly the day I was able to buy the Pastoral Symphony. I stuffed my pockets with bread and cheese and went out into the fields to study it. That was what I always did”.
The references to Claines church yard date from some years later. Elgar’s wife Alice records in her diary for 12 August 1910 entry a visit to Claines churchyard where she “Saw his relatives’ tomb & where he used to sit reading scores, years ago”.
Alice Elgar also wrote more about the visit, and Elgar’s recollections, in a letter to Alice Stuart Wortley (Windflower as Elgar nicknamed her) that “E. and I have just been out to a fine old Church and seeing the tomb of 'Helen Leslie' - early last century but E. used to think it a pretty name and used to walk out of the town with a Score - perhaps Pastoral Symph. - & sit on the stone and read it -“
So there is sufficient corroboration of the story as a whole. But Beethoven is the only composer whose scores we can say with confidence that Elgar recalled having devoured with his hunks of bread and cheese in Claines churchyard.
WHINFIELD FAMILY of SEVERN GRANGE
The friendship of the older Edward Whinfield with Elgar, and the musical activities at Severn Grange, were certainly an important part of Elgar’s early musical life in Worcestershire. This was acknowledge by Elgar when he returned to visit the next generation of Whinfields in 1910 having just finished orchestrating his violin concerto.
Alice Elgar recorded in her diary for on 11 August 1910 that
'E & A (arrived at) Severn Grange at 4.20. Found Mr & Mrs Whinfield very nice & pleasant. E. pleased to see it all again & able to tell them things about the house they did not know. Old Mr W. used to consult him where to put pictures & things - garden wonderful but damp. . . '
Alice Elgar’s letter to Alice Wortley was actually written from Severn Grange on 12 August 1910. She refers to the house as “about 2 miles from Worcester & he used to come here & steep himself in art & music from about 20 yrs. old till after we were married & left the neighbourhood. The son of the old music lover now reigns here& they are very nice. The garden is most extraordinary, planted with every rare shrub & tree & so grown up that it seems to me more like a Maeterlinck fantasia than any English place”
As Alice indicated, Elgar had been a frequent visitor to Severn Grange in earlier years. The Whinfields were good (and wealthy!) amateur musicians and Edward W Whinfield was Chairman and President of Elgar’s Worcester Amateur Instrumental Society. Elgar used to come and play music with friends such as the pianist Mrs Harriet Fitton from Malvern, while he was living in Worcester with his sister Lucy and her husband, Charles Pipe.
The musical evenings at Severn Grange seems to have involved a small string orchestra performing Handel Concerti Grossi as well as chamber music of duos and trios in which Elgar played violin. Edward Whinfield was acknowledged by Elgar with the dedication of the Serenade for Strings (1892).
Robert Anderson (“Elgar” (1993)) summed up Elgar’s connexion this way - “E W Whinfield was the head of an organ-building firm who made his home, Severn Grange near Claines, a musical centre for the neighbourhood. The young Elgar was a leading light there till the time of his marriage. As a lover of books and pictures, Whinfield did much to foster Elgar's own interests, giving him various seminal volumes as well as print collections”. For example, Whinfield senior gave Elgar a set of volumes by Ruskin including “Sesame and Lilies” from which Elgar took his famous “best of me” quotation for the “Dream of Gerontius”.
The Elgar diary records in 26 April 1889 a visit before the Elgars married and moved to London – “Mr Whinfield’s for the last time – 3 to 10”. In fact the Elgars visited the Whinfields together in autumn 1890 after the Worcester Three Choirs Festival. In a letter of 19 September 1890, Edward Whinfield lamented that Elgar’s departure had left them “musically like Hamlet, without a Hamlet”.
There is quite a lot of family history material on the internet about the Whinfields. Littlebury’s Worcestershire Directory of 1879 confirms that Severn Grange was owned by Edward Wray Whinfield, Esq. The 1881 Census (available on the Internet at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/census/) shows him as aged 54 and having been born in Felgrave, Buckinghamshire, England about 1827. His wife Ellen was then aged 51 and came from Lathbury in Buckinghamshire.
Earlier censuses suggest that the Whinfields arrived in Claines Parish in the 1860’s. In 1871 there were 3 sons – Arthur Henry, Herbert Edward, and Walter Granville – who were all born in Lincolnshire. Edward Whinfield was still alive – and listed as a landowner - in Claines in 1901 and Ellen is also listed in that census. The sons Herbert and Walter - by then in their 30s -had both gone into the church. In the 1901 Census the oldest son, Arthur Whinfield – now aged 38 - is listed as living at Severn Grange and as having the occupation of “organ builder”.
I was grateful to you for suggesting that the business link of the Whinfields was to the organ builders, Nicholsons then of Worcester (and now of Malvern).
From : Rowena Hardwick
SOL-FA VERSION OF SONG “THE SNOW”
I am looking for a copy of The Snow by Elgar for SATB in sol-fa. Can you help?
You can get this part-song arranged for 4 mixed voices,SATB, by John Pointer from Music Room at http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/018029/details.html. Accompaniments for two violins and pianoforte, and violin parts, are published separately. Other versions, for example for 3 parts SSA, are available from the same source.
These are all in musical notation. I have not yet come across a sol-fa version.
I’ll let you know if anything turns up which would better suit your specification.
From : Janet Elgar
Relative of Sir Edward Elgar?
My name is Elgar. How may I find out if there is any connection with Sir Edward Elgar?
To find out whether you are one of the same branch of the Elgars as the composer Edward, you would need to research your family tree backwards into the nineteenth century. Unless you have Worcestershire or Kent ancestors, however, a connection is unlikely.
Elgar had a daughter Carice but she died childless in 1970 ending the direct line of descent.
The closest connections today could be to Elgar’s brother known as Frank (actually his full name is Francis Thomas) born 1 October 1861 in Worcester. Frank had 3 children and died on 7 June 1928 and is buried in Astwood cemetery in Worcester. I will try to find out if any of those children were sons and passed on the Elgar name to children of their own.
Otherwise the next possibility is a link to Edward’s father, William Henry Elgar, who was born 21 September 1821 at Charlton-in-Dover in Kent, and died in Worcester on 29 April 1906. Although two of William Henry’s sisters had children their names would not have been Elgar. There was a younger brother Henry, Edward’s uncle, but he died unmarried and childless in Worcester in 1917, and another brother - also Edward - who died age 21 in 1850.
There are more people bearing the name Elgar than you might think. In the 1901 census, for example, there were 11 Elgars with the first name Edward and 6 Edward Elgers who may have been Elgars too. A good website for looking at the distribution of surnames in 1881 and 1998 is - http://www.spatial-literacy.org/UCLnames/Surnames.aspx .
Good luck with your searching. It can get very compulsive.
From : Jack D Smith
Organ Sonata - Orchestral Version
I read with interest your response to one enquiry regarding Elgar's output for organ, in which
you mentioned a re-worked version of the Organ Sonata, orchestrated by Gordon Jacob, and
tantalisingly hinted that it has been recorded by Vernon Handley.
Unlike many of your other pointers, however, there was no information as to who publishes
either the score or recording of this version, and I would be extremely grateful if you could
inform me if either (or indeed both) are available at all.
With many thanks for a most useful, informative and entertaining website,
Jack D Smith
The orchestral version of the Elgar Organ Sonata is on CD. It was first recorded by Vernon
Handley with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 1988. This has been re-issued in
2003 on the EMI Classic for Pleasure label at mid-price (7243 5 75979 2 0). You can purchase
a copy online from the Elgar Birthplace at
Gordon Jacob was first asked to orchestrate the work by music publishers (British and
Continental Music Agencies) who had acquired the rights to the original Organ sonata from its
original publisher Breitkopf & Haertel. Jacob completed the job in 1946 and the year following
it was performed for a radio broadcast by Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Then
it languished apparently unheard until revived by Handley in the 1980’s. If you would like to
know more about Gordon Jacob, there is an excellent website about him and his work
The publishing rights for the orchestral version were acquired first by Fentone Music and
from them by a Dutch firm de Haske. The score is not on the de Haske catalogue but the parts
can be hired - but not purchased - from de Haske Music (UK) Ltd at Fleming Road, Corby,
NN17 4SN (phone 01536 260981 or e-mail: [email protected] ).
From : Cecilia Violin
Dedication of La Capricieuse
I am a violinist interested in more information on Elgar's pupil, Fred Ward, to whom he
dedicated his violin piece "La Capricieuse". I am doing research for LRSM but I have not found
anything about him besides your great website.
Thanks for you appreciation of the website
For the benefit of other readers, the website section on Elgar’s Other Music for Piano and
Violin said that Bizarrerie (1889) was composed for, but not dedicated to, another of Elgar's
pupils, Fred Ward, who, to judge by the writing of the piece, must have been a particularly skilled
violinist. Two years later, Elgar dedicated La Capricieuse (1891) to Ward, thereby rectifying the
omission of the earlier piece.
I can find in the 1891 Census for Worcester no Frederick Ward likely to be of an age to be
our man. Of course “Fred” could be a nickname – or someone who used his second name – but
that makes it very difficult to trace. But was he Frank Ward? Robert Anderson says that La
Capricieuse was dedicated to a Frank Ward one of his Worcester pupils.
Or was the dedication intended to be to Frank Webb with whom Elgar corresponded (and
whose two sisters he taught violin)?
So unless some Elgarian has a lead I have missed, I am afraid the trail ends where it begins
for Fred Ward.
There is some more history of the piece which may be of interest. Heifetz included – and
retained – La Capricieuse in his repertoire and recorded it, for the first time, in 1917 or 1918.
Elgar was one of those invited to hear these early RCA recordings of Heifetz at a special
presentation in London. A later Heifetz recording of February 1934 is available today on EMI
From : Kenneth Tomes
I understand that recordings of Elgar speaking are available. Do you have any knowledge
these, and if so, could you supply any links, and or information which may enable me to hear
or download them?
There are two examples of Elgar's voice in existence. The first is from 1927 when he was
recorded by HMV whilst rehearsing the London Symphony Orchestra in a recording of his
Symphony. The sound itself is rather indistinct, as Elgar was apparently fond of playing the
78 disc to visitors! That should be available on the EMI reissue of the Second Symphony (Elgar
Edition), from the Elgar Birthplace etc.
The other is the soundtrack taken from the film of Elgar conducting 'Land of Hope and
Glory' at the newly-opened HMV studios at Abbey Road in 1931. If that is not available, you
can see and hear the whole thing on the supplement to the DVD of Ken Russell's film about the
composer - it includes all the footage existing of Elgar. Again, the Birthplace has the
There is a slight Worcestershire burr to EE's voice - a nice, humorous sound - thank
goodness it has been preserved for posterity, even if fleetingly!
From : Laura Gordijk
A very simple enquiry
I was wondering, could you tell me how tall Edward Elgar was?
Thank you for your enquiry - I only found out the answer to this particular question
myself the other day when at Elgar's Birthplace - he was 5' 10". And the reason we know is
because it was on his passport! Hope this helps -
From : Bastian Visser
I recently heard a quite interesting piece of music and found out it belonged to Edward
Elgar and named - The Snow. I can't find it however - could you help out here? Is it like a
popular name for a piece known under another, more official name etc. etc.
Thanks a lot and kind regards
"The Snow" is the proper name of this piece and doesn't go under another name. It was
written in 1894, originally for female voices, 2 violins and piano. The words are by Elgar's
wife, Alice. Elgar orchestrated the piece in December 1903. It seems it's very popular abroad,
especially in Japan, judging by the emails I receive about this beautiful piece.
I hope this answers your query.
From : Dr. Robert Vodnoy
Elgar and depression
I am teaching a course at Valparaiso University this term on "Madness, Obsession and
Musical Genius". Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, in her book Touched with Fire, lists Elgar among
those composers who suffered from depression. I noted the use of the term depression in your
on-line biography, and am wondering if you can point me toward other sources which would
clarify the issue.
Dr. Robert Vodnoy
Many thanks for your email - you will find references to Elgar's depression in pretty well
all the published biographies, but one which is very good on this subject is Michael
Kennedy's 'Portrait of Elgar' - he is particularly at pains to draw out Elgar's melancholic
tendencies, and the part they played in his composition. Elgar apparently mentioned suicide
more than once c1905, being depressed about his work and finances.
The Kennedy book is usually easy to find - and is an excellent study of EE.
Hope this is of use.
From : Carolina McDonald
The first performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto
I was wondering if you know where, or who conducted the first performance of
the Elgar Concerto?
I believe it was in 1920, in Leeds.
The reason I ask is that I am a closed-caption editor, and I am currently
working on a film from 1997, called "Paradise Road." In it, two women have
discovered a common love of music, and one is humming the Elgar Concerto.
The other mentions how she saw the first performance of it, and then says
something like: "Felix Summond, Leeds, 1920." I just can't quite make out
the name she says, and I'm presuming it's the conductor she speaks of.
However, it could also be the place where she saw the performance. I imagine
it is accurate, but I really have no idea.
Thanks for your email. The information you're looking for is:
First Performance :
Date: 27 October 1919
Venue: Queen's Hall, London
Conductor: the composer
Soloist: Felix Salmond
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
I hope this helps!
From David Chandler:
"I am folk music"
My question is did Elgar really say "I am folk music" and, if so, when and where did he
say it? I've often seen these words quoted, but never with any kind of source or reference.
It would be nice to know, and I would be very grateful to anyone who can illuminate me on
Thanks for your email, and yes, Elgar did say that. This was to his old friend Troyte
Griffith, who recalled the incident in an MS of reminiscences, now held at Elgar's Birthplace
"I said to Elgar: 'What do you think about this folk music?'
He flashed back: 'I don't think about it at all. I am folk music!'"
We don't know when he said it or where, but Troyte is a very reliable source.
I hope this helps.
From Tom Arena:
I heard a snippet of this piece by chance on the Amazon website. It's wonderful.
Unfortunately, I know nothing aboyut Elgar since till now I have been a consumer of
contemporary music untill now.. Can you advise me what Elgar work this music came from? In
addition, are there other Elgar compositions in this orchestral style? There is so much on
the Amazon site, that I do not know where to start.
Thank you very much and I apologize for my ignorance about Elgar.
Very many thanks for your email about Salut d'Amour - it is a lovely piece, isn't it? He
wrote it as a token of love for his wife, Alice. It is a stand-alone work, but beautifully
crafted. If you enjoyed this piece which is in Elgar's 'lighter' vein, can I suggest you
explore a disc from EMI called 'The Lighter Elgar' - the main set of works on this CD are
with the Northern Sinfonia conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, but there are a few others
conducted by Lawrence Collingwood. It's about £8 and shd be easy to find anywhere. There are
some exquisite pieces on it, from an ebullient 'Sevlliana' written when he was in his
twenties, to his last published piece, 'Mina', which is a very wistful potrait of one of his
If you wanted to explore more serious works, could I suggest the 'Enigma' Variations? -
you will find the 'miniature' Elgar there, but also more profound utterances, as in his
famous 'Nimrod' variation. There are also humorous and skittish variations in there as well,
such as the one which depicts a bulldog called Dan falling into a river and clambering out
with a triumphant bark! I'm sure you'd enjoy it. There are dozens of recordings but the ones
to look for are by Boult, Barbirolli, Mackerras, and Monteux.
There is so much to Elgar and his music and I quite envy you if you decide to explore
further. Do have a look around the Elgar website and find out about him - it has music
examples which you should enjoy. He really is a marvellous composer and had so many facets
to him - I've been enthralled by his music for about 25 years and cannot get enough of it!
Good luck, and happy listening!
From David Hall (e-mail :
Elgar and the Organ
I am preparing a lecture for WEA about the church organ, with reference to several
composers including Elgar. I would greatly appreciate it if you could answer the following
detailed questions :
- Why did Elgar write so little significant music for solo organ?
- Is the organ sonata written as a post-service voluntary or as a concert piece (a functional
composition - or an "art" composition)
- What can we infer from Elgar's use of the organ in orchestral works? (eg. are there religious
- To what extent was Elgar influenced by church music? (ie. any influence of Bachian
counterpoint, or chorale/plainsong melodies. Did he study harmony through playing the organ
singing in church choirs, or did he study orchestral scores of the Viennese classics?)
- And also any information which you think may be useful as regards to the relationship
between Elgar, the organ and the church.
Thanks for clarifying what you need to know about Elgar and the
Organ. So as not to be long-winded, I'll answer your questions
individually, since you broke your query down into separate items...
- Why did Elgar write so little significant music for solo organ?
Not a straightforward question to answer, but there are some
pointers. It's well-known that Elgar professed to not liking the
piano 'artistically' as an instrument, though his pianistic abilities
were remarkable, according to friends who heard him play. Perhaps
he felt a little bit the same way about the organ?
Having said that, his years of playing the organ regularly at St
George's Roman Catholic Church in Worcester during his 'teens
and twenties meant he knew the instrument intimately. He wrote
and arranged the music of others (Bach, Mozart et al) for use in the
Church services, providing organ accompaniment as necessary for
the choir; but as Robert Anderson says in his biography of EE, his
"organ playing days were virtually over by the time he married in
1889; but at an earlier time the instrument had been a considerable
His organ-playing was an integral part of his general self-education,
but the organ was not the instrument that he felt best carried his
musical ideas. That instrument, of course, was the orchestra.
- Is the organ sonata written as a post-service voluntary or as a
concert piece (a functional composition - or an "art" composition)?
The largest work for this instrument is the Organ Sonata in G
major, op. 28, first performed at Worcester Cathedral on 8th July
1895. According to the score inscription it took him a week to
write! It was composed to be played by a colleague, Hugh Blair, at
the American Organists Convention - so it was definitely an 'art'
composition - a showpiece for organ. It was actually written with
the 4-manual Hill organ of the Cathedral, dating from 1874, in mind.
It should be noted that it often seems to be a piece struggling to
get out of its keyboard clothes and into full orchestral dress (in fact
Gordon Jacob did make a superb arrangement of it for full orchestra
about fifty years ago - it's worth comparing the recording of this
conducted by Vernon Handley with the original organ version).
Essentially it's a virtuoso four movement piece designed to show off
the organ as well as the capabilities of the player...! It has been
commented elsewhere that to play it, you need to be a mental as
well as a physical athlete.
- What can we infer from Elgar's use of the organ in orchestral
works? (eg. are there religious connotations?)
Elgar used the organ seldom in his orchestral works - two striking
exceptions which spring to mind are :
1) Enigma Variations, where he adds the organ for a few bars in his
2) Symphony No 2 in E flat - again, the organ is added for a brief
passage in the finale, noted by one critic as having a "tummy-
wobbling effect" - you can hear it on the Handley recording of the
However the organ is not mandatory for these two pieces - it's
asked to be added where it's possible to do so - but its deep
sonority adds depth and colour to the orchestral texture. So, no
religious connotations - in these cases it's a member of the
- To what extent was Elgar influenced by church music? (ie. any
influence of Bachian counterpoint, or chorale/plainsong melodies. Did he
study harmony through playing the organ and singing in church choirs, or
did he study orchestral scores of the Viennese classics?)
It would be fairer to say that Elgar was influenced by "religious"
music rather than church music. Elgar knew from an early age
masses and anthems by Haydn, Mozart, Handel &c; and of course
the Three Choirs Festival provided the best opportunity possible to
hear and play (in EE's case, the violin) in the great choral works -
Messiah, Elijah &c.
Elgar wasn't so interested in plainsong, but studied harmony from
many sources - particularly Beethoven (at an early age he took
scores from his father's music shop to his grandparent's graves at
Claines Churchyard to study them), as well as Mozart and
Schumann, to name two.
Bach and Handel were huge favourites of Elgar throughout his life -
he knew their works intimately - and you might like to look out for
his arrangement for full orchestra of Bach's Fantasia & Fugue in C
minor, which he made in 1922-1923: a virtuoso orchestral piece
which remains faithful to Bach's original, and in which Elgar took
pains to make sure details like "shakes" remained, amplified and
given new voices in the orchestra.
- And also any information which you think may be useful as regards to the
relationship between Elgar, the organ and the church.
Not enough time to deal with that properly! (whole chapters have
been written on these subjects). Suffice to say he was brought up
a Catholic, wrote much music for the Anglican Church (Te Deum &
Benedictus &c), and his greatest work ("Dream of Gerontius") is a
setting of a deeply Catholic poem by Cardinal Newman. Later in
life he lapsed from his faith, but is buried in a Catholic churchyard.
He continued to conduct his great choral works till the end of his life
("Apostles", "Kingdom") at the Three Choirs. So all in all he was a
bit of a Catholic/Anglican mixture with a good dose of agnosticism
thrown in towards the end!
From Harry Lynch (e-mail :
Hello, I am a teacher at Newman Preparatory School in Boston, MA. I am curious to learn
more about Elgar's
connection to Newman. I read that his mother was a convert to Catholicism - Newman was
responsible for many
converts during this era. A quick review of Newman correspondence did not show her name:
however my research
was hardly organized or exhaustive...can you enlighten on this point? Thank you!
Although Elgar's mother Anne (nee Greening) was not actually one of Cardinal Newman's
own converts to Catholicism, her conversion came only a few years after Newman being
into the Roman faith in 1845.
As you will probably already know, William Henry Elgar, Edward's father, took up the post
of organist at St. George's Roman Catholic Church in Worcester in the 1840's, despite him
being something of a free-thinker who disliked what he called "the playhouse mummery of the
Papist"; however the money he received for his duties must have made the Popery bearable!
Anne Elgar must have come to Catholicism partly or mostly through William's connection
with St. George's, and by the early 1850's she was going to the Superior at the church for
instruction, prior to being received into the Catholic faith. It needs to be remembered that
to decide to become a Catholic at this time was to take your courage in both hands, for
despite the Emancipation Act of 1829 the religion was still widely mistrusted, even reviled,
The Elgar children were all brought up by Anne as Catholics despite William's
(admittedly) tacit opposition.
If you want a little more background reading on the subject, Percy Young's "Elgar,
Newman & the Dream of Gerontius in the Tradition of English Catholicism" (Scolar Press,
1995) is worth reading.
From Kelly Stewart (e-mail :
I am currently researching a project for the University of Wales Centre for Advanced
Welsh and Celtic studies. I am looking, specifically, for any information that might be
available concerning Elgar's time spent in North Wales in the Town of Betyw-y-Coed. Any
information or sources you can give me would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for your email. Some basic information on Elgar and Betws-y-coed: Elgar stayed
there in the early 1900's as it was home to a great friend, Alfred E Rodewald, a wealthy
cotton magnate who was more interested in music. Rodewald had a summer cottage called
"Minafon" at Betws-y-coed (one "t" or two in "Betws"?). Elgar and his wife stayed there in
June 1901. A further visit took place in July 1903 where Elgar spent much of his time
orchestrating "The Apostles", or viewing the Welsh countryside on his bicycle or on trips
out in Rodewald's car. Elgar's letters to his friend Jaeger stress the informality of the
cottage atmosphere, which he must have loved, and he persuaded "Nimrod" to come to stay
for a while.
Sadly Rodewald died from influenza in 1903, aged 43. Elgar was desolate. A few months
after his death, Elgar began to write some sketches of what was to become the slow movement
of the Second Symphony, in which Alice Elgar heard a "lament for dear Rodey and all human
Most of the Elgar biographies will flesh out the above, but I would recommend any of
Jerrold Northrop Moore's books - his "Creative Life", or the letters to Jaeger in "Letters
of a Creative Life".
I hope this helps and good luck with your project. | <urn:uuid:c7061ea1-7eb1-4961-a27f-fcc9fd17a8ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elgar.org/1queries.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966268 | 10,017 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Arms and the men
There is a clear distinction between the candidates on military spending: more versus less
THIS is not an election in which national security and defence have dominated the debate—save that many strategists, including some holding senior military rank, see the ballooning deficit and the stumbling economy as the biggest threats to America’s security.
That is partly because voters are weary of costly wars with messy and uncertain outcomes. It is also because jihadist terrorism is no longer seen, as it was immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 2001, as an existential threat, but as something nasty and persistent that can be contained and thwarted without sending hundreds of thousands of troops abroad. Nor are most Americans ready to believe that China is on the brink of becoming a fully-fledged military competitor, despite the attempt by some hawks to portray it as a new evil empire bent on future confrontation.
From a purely political perspective, neither candidate has so far cared to make much noise about national security. For Barack Obama, it is a potentially weak flank that he has been able to protect by taking credit for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and by his willingness to conduct a remarkably ruthless assassination-by-drone campaign against al-Qaeda fighters in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. For Mitt Romney, too much time spent attacking Mr Obama for being weak on defence means less time spent hammering home his much more central message that he would be a far more competent manager of the economy. Nor can Mr Romney, unlike his predecessor as Republican nominee, John McCain, claim any connection with the armed forces—although eligible for the draft, Mr Romney never served.
The one area where there is a clear division between the candidates is over future defence spending. Under the terms of the Budget Control Act (BCA) passed last year, the administration has agreed to reduce the Pentagon’s planned expenditure by $487 billion over the next decade. The cuts will be painful, but after the huge rises in spending of the Bush years and against the urgent need to take action on the deficit, many experts and military brass regard the slowdown as justifiable and manageable.
Mr Romney thinks otherwise. He not only wants to reverse the cuts but to put a floor under the Pentagon’s base budget of 4% of GDP. Todd Harrison of the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a non-partisan think-tank in Washington, estimates that from 2013 to 2022 Mr Romney’s commitment would add up to $2.3 trillion of additional expenditure. If the increases were made gradually during Mr Romney’s first term, as Romney officials suggest, the figure would come down to $2 trillion. Mr Harrison points out that the base defence budget has not been 4% of GDP since 1992, in the aftermath of the cold war. Even during the administration of George W. Bush, defence spending “only” went from 2.9% of GDP in 2001 to 3.7% in 2009. Over the past 20 years the base defence budget has averaged 3.3% of GDP. Mr Harrison says: “What you spend on defence really should be a function of your security needs, what you think the threat environment is and what you think you need to protect the country. It shouldn’t be a formula based on the size of your economy.”
Mr Romney has given only a partial indication of what all those extra dollars would be spent on. Some of them would go on stepping up the navy’s shipbuilding rate from nine a year to 15, and another 100,000 people would be added to the armed forces. He has been even less clear about how the money might be found.
Guns without butter?
The suspicion that Mr Romney’s 4% plan is more rhetoric than substance is increased by his repeated and spurious claim that Mr Obama really wants to cut military spending by a further $500 billion, which even Mr Obama’s defence secretary, Leon Panetta, agrees would be disastrous. In fact, the additional $500 billion that Mr Romney refers to is simply the half of the “sequestration” cut that falls on defence spending, as mandated by the BCA and overwhelmingly voted for by House Republicans. It was designed to be a pistol to the head of Congress to find a compromise on cutting the deficit, not as something that anyone wanted to see happen. Indeed, the Pentagon still claims (not entirely plausibly) that it is not planning for the possibility of such deep cuts. On September 20th, its comptroller, Robert Hale, told the House Armed Services Committee: “We don’t want to sequester ourselves. We’re not going to start cutting back right now in anticipation of sequestration.” The Republican negotiating position, which Mr Romney seems to support, is to exclude the defence budget from all cuts, allow non-defence discretionary spending to take the full $1 trillion hit and resist any revenue increases.
Mr Romney’s problem is that if what he says on national security is to be believed, he is offering Americans guns without butter—never a recipe for electoral success in peacetime. It is also questionable whether many Americans yearn for a return to the belligerence of the early Bush years, even if some think Mr Obama insufficiently assertive in his use of American power. | <urn:uuid:626a12a0-ea0e-4c7d-b3fe-5a7e365764e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economist.com/node/21563956?zid=309&ah=80dcf288b8561b012f603b9fd9577f0e | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974342 | 1,093 | 1.625 | 2 |
I hold in my hands the Stakeholder Input Report for the Muscogee County School District.
(Quick refresher course: Who's a stakeholder? You and me and everybody else around here.)
Today, let's take a look at the answers stakeholders gave to the following survey question: "What issues should the superintendent be aware of as he/she comes into the district?"
The responses were submitted by search firm McPherson & Jacobson LLC, and will be shared with the final candidates.
The No. 1 answer to this question was summed up by this response from a parent: " Even though it's 2012, we are still segregated! There is North and South."
It was the problem most frequently mentioned by parents and community members, and the problem mentioned the second-most by teachers, classified staff and administrators.
So what did the educators think was the biggest issue?
"Teachers are extremely overwhelmed with all of the different programs in this county," one teacher wrote. "When a school district tries to implement too many programs at one time, the teachers are not able to (be) proficient in any one of them. This is a huge problem."
Plenty of teachers echoed this sentiment. One of them wrote: "Teachers should devote a lot more time to working with kids in the classroom than worrying about posting work in the hallway that only the principal and a few others may see."
A community member picked up on the problem too: "There needs to be support for schools trying innovative approaches that meet the needs of THEIR students. Standardizing everything is not working; individual schools and students have individual needs, therefore they need to be able to do what works for those populations."
Parents expressed concern about the end result of such a strategy. "Placid children," one wrote, "seems to be a more important goal than a challenging, creative, environment."
Every group also expressed concern about a "top-heavy" administrative staff, but especially about the school board. Parents described board members as kids "throwing hissy fits," "politicos who want to wield power," and "a bit uneducated themselves."
The concept of magnet schools also bugged parents, who frequently mentioned Columbus High School and Britt David Elementary.
Some teachers weren't thrilled about magnets either. One of them wrote: "There are too many public 'private' schools that skim off the better students, leaving the rest to rot with the dregs of our tax dollars."
Many teachers mentioned the presence of a "good ole boy" network that negatively affects education.
One of them had this advice for the next superintendent: "You will be walking into a political buzz saw. Find out who supports you early on and try to gain favor from others. Get the teachers behind you; if they are they can out-influence the powerful money interests that you will have to contend with.
"The school board does not benefit the students as much as (they) could; be wary of them, they are very political."
Parents also targeted what they described as school buildings in disrepair, and teachers harped on overcrowded classrooms.
And everybody mentioned racial tension.
Big surprise, huh? Can't wait to see who applies for this job, and what they plan to do if they get it.
Next week, we'll take a look at the specific qualities stakeholders (you, me and everybody) are looking for in a new superintendent.
Dimon Kendrick-Holmes, executive editor and vice president, can be reached at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:14193c8f-b396-49bc-86e2-3615294d41d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2012/10/05/2229468/dimon-kendrick-holmes-kind-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977941 | 742 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Statement as issued by the office of the state attorney general:
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller launched the fifth annual statewide March Against Hunger food drive competition today in Fort Wayne.
Fort Wayne’s bank is one of 11 regional food banks in Indiana that partner with Feeding Indiana’s Hungry or FIsH – an organization which helps link Indiana’s resources to feed those in need. For the fifth consecutive year, the Indiana Attorney General’s Office has joined FIsH and the Indiana State Bar Association to help challenge law firms to donate goods and raise money for these banks.
“March Against Hunger is an opportunity to spread awareness about a growing problem and spotlight attorneys who go above and beyond to help their clients and their communities,” Zoeller said. “Hunger is preventable and that’s why we are calling on those in the profession to lend their support.”
Director of Community Harvest Food Bank Jane Avery said in an average week, the bank distributes more than 170,000 pounds of food throughout a nine county service area – that’s enough to feed 21,100 people with six meals.
“On behalf of Community Harvest Food Bank and those we serve, member agencies and clients alike, I want to express our gratitude to Attorney General Zoeller for once again supporting our mission of hunger relief by sponsoring the March Against Hunger,” Avery said. “We are honored by his leadership in this effort by his words and his actions which communicate to his colleagues in the legal profession that our combined efforts have a meaningful impact on hunger relief efforts.”
“We are again thankful for Attorney General Zoeller’s commitment to helping Hoosiers in need, and Hoosier attorneys for rising to the challenge,” said Emily Weikert Bryant, executive director of FIsH. “One in six Hoosiers is at risk of hunger, and for children just one in four. We’ve not seen a decrease in demand and appreciate the support of the March Against Hunger drive to bring more meals to our member food banks to distribute across all 92 counties.”
To sign up to participate in this year’s statewide competition visit www.marchagainsthunger.org or www.in.gov/attorneygeneral. Totals and winners will be announced shortly after the deadline to donate which is March 31.
In 2012, 51 law firms participated in the March Against Hunger and donated more than 11,400 pounds of food and raised $51,822. Since 2009, food drive participants have donated more than 34,100 pounds of food and raised $127,167 total.
This year the “Attorney General’s Cup” will be presented to the firm in each of the six categories that collects the most donations:
• Sole Proprietor
• Small firm (2-11 persons)
• Medium firm (12-21 persons)
• Large firm (22-49 persons)
• X-Large firm (50+ persons)
• Public/non-profit firm
“As a fellow lawyer, I can’t say enough about Attorney General Zoeller’s commitment to serving Hoosiers in need,” said ISBA President Daniel B. Vinovich. “It is opportunities like this annual food drive that allow us to serve beyond our clients and I am so proud of the overwhelming contributions that pour in each year.”
Those not employed by a law firm can contribute nonperishable foods at a participating firm listed at www.in.gov/attorneygeneral or a FIsH food bank listed at www.feedingindianashungry.org. | <urn:uuid:4d2be90b-97d7-440c-8787-46c4ea0a8527> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://journalgazette.net/article/20130305/BLOGS01/130309768/1002/LOCAL | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949774 | 774 | 1.523438 | 2 |
North Korea’s misconduct is directed at three men it hopes will play the role of patsy: President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Pentagon-boss-nominee Chuck Hagel. It is largely for their benefit that North Korea created a video of New York being decimated, and for them that North Korea is threatening its third test of a nuclear device.
For decades, North Korea under the Kim family dictatorship has set a consistent pattern. It engages in outrageously provocative activity from building nuclear weapons, to testing long-range ballistic missiles, to shelling South Korean islands, and even sinking a South Korean ship in 2010.
Then it signals a possible softening of conduct in order to reap foreign aid from its neighbors and the United States. North Korea then pockets the aid and never delivers the goods—its nuclear program—then starts the cycle of aggression over again. In the mean time, Pyongyang earns itself hundreds of millions of dollars a year from weapons proliferation to other odious regimes, and illicit trades like drugs and trafficking in persons.
Paradoxically, getting tough with the North Korean regime and seeking its ultimate, peaceful end may increase the chances of a nuclear deal.
The security threat is not only that North Korea might directly strike a U.S. ally like Japan, which is within the range of its missiles, or the United States itself, which soon will be. A more immediate problem is that North Korea has proliferated every major weapon system it has developed.
Furthermore, Pyongyang’s cooperation with U.S. adversaries on nuclear matters is not just a theory. It helped Syria build a carbon copy of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility, before the Israelis thankfully blew it up in 2007. There are also media reports of North Korean scientists present at Iran’s nuclear-weapons-related facilities. One day, a bomb made with Pyongyang’s help could go off in an American or allied city, whether launched, or perhaps more likely, smuggled in.
While Washington pays lip service to this threat, it clearly is not prepared to do much about it—at least nothing serious. In the un-serious category, Washington is likely to try negotiations with North Korea again.
To her credit, Hillary Clinton never fell for this trap. Having seen the State Department suckered by North Korea during both her husband’s administration and the tenure of her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, she refused to be drawn to the negotiating table at which North Korea is the master of trading fake promises for real cash.
Now Pyongyang thinks its prospects have improved. It is almost certainly right. Obama’s instincts have always been inclined toward wheeling-and-dealing with America’s adversaries, while keeping traditional allies at arm’s length. This was the story of his first inaugural address and many of the diplomatic initiatives of his first term.
Now freed of even the relatively moderating voices of Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, Obama can sow his wild oats. National Security Council meetings will now feature Obama, Biden, Kerry and probably Chuck Hagel. All are former senators wedded to the Washington foreign policy establishment and its endless capacity for thinking the best of enemies and the worst of allies. It's a foregone conclusion that these men almost certainly will want to take another try at the Lucy’s football that is negotiating with the Kims.
Washington is already getting warmed up. Right on cue, the Asia hands in the State Department bureaucracy are making noises that “We’ve never tried talking to North Korea’s new leader.”
The fact that the conduct of the scion of Pyongyang already matches his father’s and grandfather’s even more than his ample physique isn’t likely to give Team Obama pause. The young dictator, Kim Jong Un, knows this and suspects he not only can get away with increasingly belligerent activity—but will in fact be rewarded for it. He also knows as much as any dictator that democracies have an unfortunate habit of ignoring or explaining away the explicit threats made by repressive regimes. This will be reinforced by Washington shrugging off Kim’s new fantasy video of New York under attack. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
The alternative to this it to use smart power against North Korea. Wage peaceful political war on the regime. Support its opponents, especially defectors who have escaped to South Korea. Enable refugees who fled starvation and tyranny to talk to the family members and compatriots they left behind in North Korea—the type of expanded radio broadcasting and other strategic communications that helped undermine communism in the former Soviet Bloc.
Name and shame governments like South Korea’s when they provide assistance to North Korea that helps the regime survive.
Shut down banks around the world that help Pyongyang by banning them from dollar-denominated accounts and transactions; something that dealt a deep blow to North Korea when it was applied to a single foreign bank in 2007.
And, finally, stop accepting China’s mendacious claims to be pressuring its ally in Pyongyang—something it has never seriously done other than for a few brief days when it cut off fuel supplies to North Korea after its first nuclear test in 2006.
In short, treat an adversary like an adversary. Paradoxically, getting tough with the regime and seeking its ultimate, peaceful end may increase the chances of a nuclear deal. Ronald Reagan proved that being candid about an enemy can actually entice it into a real arms control treaty because the enemy will finally see it as a least-worst option.
Reagan and the Soviets agreed to ban a class of nuclear weapons at the same time he was calling their regime evil and urging it onto the ash heap of history. It came on the heels of enhancements to allied defenses. This approach is consistent with American values and prioritizes working with our traditional allies.
Sadly, it would have to be "opposite day" for the Obama patsies and the Washington foreign policy establishment to do the same with the North Korean regime.
Christian Whiton was a senior adviser at the State Department during the George W. Bush administration. He is a frequent contributor to Fox News Opinion, and is the author of the forthcoming book, “Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War." | <urn:uuid:f8ab4434-505c-4aa6-b673-4969ae3ec819> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/02/06/after-new-york-blows-up-in-north-korea-video-will-obama-kerry-and-hagel-take/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fopinion+%28Internal+-+Opinion+-+Mixed%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957364 | 1,294 | 1.640625 | 2 |
January 4, 2010
“Waste not want not,” as my Grandma Ella use to say. Well, here’s a clever cooking tip for reviving stale cookies so you don’t fall into the “wasteful” category.
I did a bit of early Christmas baking in December and placed my special Oatmeal Christmas cookies in a Tupperware container and forgot about them. When I remembered they were hidden in the laundry room, (to keep them from disappearing before the family party) they had become a bit stale.
(By the way, this Oatmeal Cookie recipe is to die for and it’s a “cooking for a crowd” size.)
Back to the cooking tip…. No worry! Simple put into practice a simple cooking trick I learned from my Grandma Ella. Cut a fresh apple into slices and place a few here and there in the container with the cookies and replaced the tight lid. After about 5 or 6 hours, removed the apple slices. The moisture from the apple slices will soften the cookies right up.
No one could tell that the oatmeal Christmas cookies were not baked that very day.
I’ve tried this cooking tip on other stale items such as cake, cake donuts and sweet loaf breads.
Try this cooking tip when you’re tempted to toss out stale cookies. Remember….. “waste not want not.”
P.S. Don’t forget the apples slices in your container. If you do… too much moisture from the apples will cause some of the cookies, that are in direct contact with the apples, to become a bit mushy.
April 21, 2009
Easy meals, which are fast, come from your past experience in your own kitchen. According to Becky Low, of the Utah Dairy Council, the definition fast food is the tried and true recipes you use over and over again.
Fast Fixin’s was a class I attended, hosted by the Utah Dairy Council. Assuming I would receive a stack of new recipes that would aid me in quick, easy meal preparation… I soon learned this was not to be the case. What I found was a common sense approach to meal planning. The cry, “What am I going to fix for dinner?” has been simplified.
Generally… a mom cooks the same main dishes over and over again. Why? Because, she knows what her family will eat… and she knows how to fix them. As a rule, there are no unfamiliar ingredients and she most likely has the items on hand in her pantry. The meals are, for the most part, quick and easy because mom doesn’t have to “think” in order to prepare them.
It was a surprising to learn that most family menus consist of only six to ten favorites… which are rotated frequently. We are creatures of habit.
Here are some suggestions to make your meal planning easy and still offer your family more variety.
1. Make a list of your family favorites…main meals you fix over and over again…for instance, Spaghetti. Post the list on the fridge and let your family add to it. They may come up with meals they love that you’ve forgotten about.
2. Look at each meal, and ask yourself if the nutrition can be enhanced by adding a healthy ingredient to the main dish. You can also add a side of fresh fruit, cut veggies, salad or some other item that give your family increased healthy meals.
3. If you have a list of twenty meal suggestions… choose five to eight and make sure your cupboards are always stocked with the items you’ll need to prepare the recipe. When you come in from a late meeting, or from taking the kids to lessons and haven’t planned in advance, just look at your list and choose one of the dinners you know you have the fixins for.
Having your easy meals list on the fridge makes it simple for you think of “what to fix,” and have the satisfaction of knowing you have the ingredients on hand. Now that’s fast food!
4. Now that you have your basic meals… add new recipes throughout the month for your family to try so they learn to enjoy a variety of dishes. Prepare these meals when you’re not in a rush.
I like looking through my recipe box for old tried and true ideas I have forgotten about. And… of course… there is always the opportunity to try some of those recipes you’ve clipped out of the newspaper or magazines.
If you have any easy meals or and meal planning tips, please feel free to share them with us. We’d love to hear from you.
P.S. Easy meals and Meal Planning are one thing… but does anyone out there know of any easy clean-up tips… besides using paper plates?
P.P.S. To make things eaiser for you… here is a Free Family Favorites List you can download for your fridge. You might be surprised what your family’s favorite meals are.
July 11, 2008
A cooking tip for chopping or slicing came to me by accident today. I was talking to my sister Sheila on the phone complaining that I couldn’t find my cutting board.
Then I remembered: My mom was cleaning up my kitchen the other day and I’m sure she tucked in a handy little spot. Love her soul…she has a little memory problem and can’t remember from one moment to the next where she as put things. I’ll find it some day… perhaps behind the canned goods… or under the sink next to the dish soap. Yes, I’ll find it… some day.
In the mean time I was desperate. I grabbed a paper plate and cut my olives on it. I’m taking them to our family reunion so I needed to put them in a sandwich baggie. Oh how easy it was to just fold the plate a bit and slide the olives into the bag. Great! Good idea! I think I’ll be using little paper plates more often. No more scooping up tiny items with my hands… or sliding them off of a cutting board with half of the food flying about.
Off and running.
P.S. It was nice just to throw the paper plate away… no washing the cutting board.,
P.S.S. Thanks mom… you’re a olive saver.
June 5, 2008
My friend Marie, shared this frosting tip with me. Enjoy!
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
P.S. I think this means I get two servings… doesn’t it? | <urn:uuid:18f7df07-223f-4c36-ba1b-82bde9da0879> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://insightfulnana.com/category/simple-cooking/cooking-tips | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962316 | 1,449 | 1.734375 | 2 |
When you cut up an extension cord for speaker cable (I’m no golden-eared audiophile; I just need some copper to get a few hundred watts from place to place), save the ends to reassemble into mini extension cords. They’re perfect for plugging wall warts into receps and power strips without making adjacent receps unusable too.
I’ve spliced a lot of different kinds of cables — sometimes repairs for friends, sometimes Frankensteining things together for a project — and I’ve always been dissatisfied with the aesthetics when I’m done. Covering the joint in heatshrink hides the ugly splices from direct view, but the heatshrink tapers where it falls off the edge of the cable’s jackets and has unsightly bumps covering the solder joints.
This weekend I tried out a couple of ideas for achieving a smoother splice. The basic method was sound; and although the results aren’t yet what I hope to accomplish, I think they’re leading in the right direction.
My first idea was based on a woodworking scarf joint — a fancy term for cutting ends on a diagonal to make a joint less visible. I sliced each jacket lengthwise about an inch and a half from the cut end, then attempted to cut the peeled jackets into smooth diagonals.
I tied the jacket pieces out of the way with velcro, preloaded the wires with heatshrink to cover the splices, and soldered the individual wires together. Note that the individual joints are all offset so that even if the heatshrink were to fail or be abraded, the exposed joints still couldn’t come into contact and short out.
It turns out that eyeballing the mating jacket shapes before putting the cable back together is a bad idea (or at least that I’m not very good at it). I left a fair bit of gap, uh, everywhere — if I were to try it again, I’d wait to cut the scarf (scarves?) until the reassembly stage, at which point I could do a better job of mating them.
Note that the way the jackets flare out where they come from the unaltered cables into the joint is due to heat while heatshrinking the individual wires, not due to the bulk of the splice area.
The result is arguably smoother than my previous methods; but because the lumps don’t logically derive from the splices inside, I actually find it more aesthetically displeasing.
On the second cord I spliced, I slit the left jacket but didn’t shape the split end and I cut the right jacket completely off the cable. After soldering and heatshrinking the wires, I wrapped the left jacket back around the joint, covering it pretty cleanly. The gap where the two ends’ jackets meet is quite evident, but this shows that rewrapping the wires in the cables’ own jacket is a considerable improvement over just heatshrinking the joint.
Two short cords, ready to use with wall warts.
For next time, I’m most interested in retrying the scarf joint and cutting the two jackets to mate after finishing splice. I think it offers a good chance of minimizing the gap at the end of each jacket, and I think the long diagonal gap under the heatshrink could be nearly invisible with a little care.
Obligatory cautions: Electricity is dangerous. Splicing cords is a bad idea. Don’t burn your house down. Make sure extension cords are unplugged before soldering. Do not taunt mini extension cords. | <urn:uuid:505ab0e0-e730-46ed-a508-9ae8e766f59e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=852 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938332 | 758 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Course Credits: non-credit
Team consists of:
The Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA) was founded in 1991 in response to an overwhelming need in Ontario for an organization of lawyers acting for Plaintiffs. OTLA has over 1000 members and is comprised of plaintiffs' lawyers from Ontario, out-of-province Members from New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, along with the United States. OTLA also has a strong core of law clerks, articling students and law students.
Members of OTLA are dedicated to the preservation and improvement of a civil justice system which is equally accessible to all and which fully and fairly protects the rights of those who have suffered losses as a result of the wrongdoing of others.
The competition involves the trial of a civil action and features opening and closing arguments, examination-in-chief and cross-examination of witnesses. The location alternates between Queen's University, University of Ottawa, University of Western Ontario, University of Windsor. The team is comprised fo two counsel and two witnesses. [Witnesses must memorize their part and are crucial to the competition, thus travel, accommodation and meal expenses are, within reason, covered by the OTLA]
Windsor Law Successes: | <urn:uuid:28a14b6d-0f99-447d-bfbe-605279ba2af6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uwindsor.ca/law/moots/20/OTLA-moot | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967158 | 263 | 1.554688 | 2 |
This topic has been on my mind for quite some time especially after living abroad and hearing from my non-Japanese friends talk about their travel experiences in Japan. Especially after the 3.11 crisis, one of the first reactions I noticed was the foreign concern over whether or not Tokyo was affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Second impression was people saying “Oh Tokyo is not affected, phew then everything is cool”. I agree, Tokyo is the capital city; center for Japan’s politics, economy, culture and society and if Tokyo was hit hard by the earthquake and tsunami, the effect on Japan and the entire globe would have been detrimental(hence the nuclear reactors were strategically tucked away in a local environment but we can talk more on this later). But from my experience abroad, besides a small number of Chinese people who have come to love the flower gardens in Hokkaido, most people will definitely start off in Tokyo and maybe visit Kyoto to see the “ Real Japanese culture” if they have time. I think it’s right to say that most people can’t name another prefecture other than Tokyo or Osaka. From this concept it is not a mistake for foreigners to think that Tokyo is what Japan is all about. But from this 3.11 crisis and the effect of the Tohoku region to the rest of Japan has taught us that a much more balanced country with resources spread across the entire country is desperately in need. But domestically speaking, why is everyone moving to Tokyo? This summer I have spent much of my time traveling around the local scenes around Japan and I can clearly see that not only the birth rate in Japan is in decline but it’s even more severe in the regions outside of Tokyo. “The youths have all left and found a new living in Tokyo and Osaka” said one of the shop keepers in Miyazaki prefecture.
This trend of human resources, information technology centering in Tokyo has stopped the development of other areas in Japan. When in times of crisis I can’t stop but to think of how the US has New York as its financial center and Washington DC as the center for politics; China has Shanghai and Beijing … you get my point. But this nuance of “If I go to Tokyo, I can make something/prove something for myself” ideology still exists today especially within the youth. It’s also interesting to note that the flexible and easy passage to Tokyo, making it possible for anyone in Japan to relocate to Tokyo. For a comparison with China, it’s not that easy for a Chinese person living in a third tier city to move into Beijing just because there’s more opportunities in Beijing. You need to have enough money saved up to get by in Beijing. Either way, this crisis has taught us many lessons and this idea of centralizing everything into Tokyo needs to stop now and regional government bodies need to step up. Is another round of Tokyo re-bidding to host the 2020 summer olympics really necessary? I’d prefer seeing Hiroshima and Nagasaki co-host it more than anything. Surprisingly enough I run into people who are surprised that the city or Hiroshima still even exists today…
I don’t know the GDP break up of Korea off the top of my head but Seoul as the financial center and capital could be similar to Japan as its proximity to the North Korean border(DMZ) has always been a concern to many of the Korean specialists that I have come into contact with.
Around Shibuya Station in Tokyo in the afternoon with busy traffic
A platform at JR Shibuya Station
The JR Subway Map at Shibuya Station. Most prefectures surrounding Tokyo have benefited from the proximity to Tokyo and its relatively cheaper real estate. | <urn:uuid:e0f4f1f2-7fe4-4185-b774-37c8210e8d46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gokatayama.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964852 | 773 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Lake Montauk is full of beautiful moon jellyfish, transparent disks of about five inches in diameter. Four pinkish rings are visible within the transparent bell of Aurelia aurita. The jellies do not swim, beyond flexing their bells to produce an upward thrust. Mostly, they are carried by the tide.
They eat tiny mollusks, crustaceans, and copepods and are, in turn, eaten by sea turtles. Despite a sting that is minor compared to that of the lion’s mane and the Portuguese man-of-war, they are fed upon by larger fish as well. If recent findings regarding jellyfish protein are true, sea turtles should have elephantine memories.
Jellyfish protein was the hot topic at an international conference on Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of age-related dementia held in Paris last month. Sophisticated experiments showed a marked improvement in memory in those treated with jellyfish protein. Moon jellies are also bioluminescent. They glow in the dark like pleasant memories.
Memories of catching striped bass from the beach are what casters have been left with during the current dog days. Except for a few successful nighttime forays, surfcasters have been casting blanks, according to Paul Apostolides of Paulie’s Tackle shop in Montauk. Same with bluefish.
Meanwhile, the action on the bay side has been steady, especially in the porgie and fluke departments. Big striped bass are haunting Cedar Point, and a school of green bonito was spotted off Goff Point over the weekend. Spanish mackerel and green bonito are migratory pelagic species of the tuna kind. They usually show up in local waters a few weeks ahead of their false albacore cousins.
Both are worth keeping an eye peeled for because, unlike falsies, Spanish mackerel and greenies are delicious table fare. A little olive oil, a little soy sauce, herbs from the garden, a grill, a bottle of wine, and whoever thee is.
Chris Miller of the West Lake Marina in Montauk said tuna fishing was spotty: “a few yellowfin out in the Tails section of Block Canyon and West Atlantis Canyon, a lot of small fish.”
Miller said there were very few caught in the 40-to-50-pound range. “I had one customer fishing in 50 fathoms who got a keeper yellowfin and a keeper bluefin.”
“Spectacular fluking for the past week,” Miller said. “All up and down the south side of Montauk in 40 feet of water.” Miller reported that Gary (Toad) Stevens brought back an 11-pound doormat on Saturday. His fishing buddies returned with a 9 and a 7-pounder.
And, he reported, “a lot of nice sea bass, with more in shallow waters than I’ve ever seen before. When I started diving it was rare to see sea bass big enough to shoot. Now you see big blue knothead sea bass, and they have become a spearfishing target.”
Speaking of bigger things in shallow water, Chris Goodman, who likes to swim at Wiborg’s Beach in East Hampton, reported seeing very large rays with wingspans of over six feet.
Boaters have been doing well in the rips around Montauk Point using eels to catch striped bass. Chris Miller had a suggestion. “There’s plenty of sea bass in 30 feet of water. When you’re in the rips fishing for striped bass and the tide slacks, switch to clams and a bottom rig.”
When you’re not a surfcaster and not a boater, you may be working the ocean between beach and blue water aboard your kayak. Eric (E.J.) Johnson paddled off Ditch Plain, Montauk, at about 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, made a few casts, and hooked a nice striper. It looked legal size (at least 28 inches) but Johnson did not have the minimum size marked on his rod or kayak, so he released it, much to his wife’s dismay.
From shore she had seen the rod bend. She watched her husband battle the bass. By the time her husband let it go, Bridget LeRoy had the fish filleted, spiced, and cooking in her head for dinner. Can you say Mrs. Paul’s?
In answer to the recent upsurge in spearfishing’s popularity, Harvey Bennett of the Tackle Shop in Amagansett built himself a “Bonac Hawaiian sling.”
It’s made from a few lengths of surgical tubing — “I have it in the shop for umbrella rigs” — a footlong section of P.V.C. pipe — “I mooched off a pool guy” — two P.V.C. end caps for the pipe section — “$7 at the hardware store; they were the most expensive parts” — and for a spear, “one of those rods you stick at the end of your driveway to mark your lawn in case you have a lot of snow. My neighbors thought I was making a pipe bomb.”
One can only imagine the humiliation a fish must feel when skewered by one of those rods you stick at the end of your driveway to mark your lawn in case you have a lot of snow. Yes, yes. | <urn:uuid:d4502acf-e183-4eae-a51a-20c464db4cc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://easthamptonstar.com/Outdoors/2011803/Water-Moons-Memories-Knotheads | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965342 | 1,164 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Dealing with the Rising Sun: Mexico eyes a Japanese trade deal
A scheduled upcoming visit by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi could mark the start of an official round of free-trade talks between Japan and Mexico, a leading Japanese business leader told Business Mexico.
Tadayuki Nagashima, executive director of the Japanese External Trade Organization in Mexico (JETRO), said Koizumi's visit to the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, to be held in Ensenada in October, could provide the impetus for formal negotiations.
"Hopefully when Koizumi comes to APEC, that could signal the start of official talks," said Nagashima.
So far, the nations have only convened committees aimed at studying the feasibility of a treaty, which would be on the order of NAFTA or Mexico's recent accord with the European Union. The formation of the committees was timed to coincide with another state visit, that of Mexican President Vicente Fox to Tokyo in June 2001.
It's no secret that Mexico would like to complete an agreement with Japan in order to induce greater investment flows and make the country less reliant on U.S. investment capital, which accounted for 67% of the US$91 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) that poured into Mexico from 1994 through September 2001. Japan in the same period contributed only 3.4% of the total, according to the Economy Secretariat. But JETRO notes that, including Japanese companies operating in the United States, Japan should be responsible for up to 20% of the Mexican FDI number.
A pact with Japan, the No. 1 Pacific Rim economy, would also mark a major Mexican beachhead in Asia where the country has so far established no bilateral free-trade agreement and is currently in formal negotiations with just one country, Singapore.
Both Sides Mull Free Trade
Mexican trade policy over the past decade has rested on building free-trade synergies to enhance the country's investment profile and distinguish it from other developing economies. To date, Mexico has inked 10 free-trade agreements with a total of 31 countries, all of them but Israel located in the Americas or Europe.
But interest in an agreement isn't coming just from the Mexican side. Japan, which has historically favored multilateral mechanisms over bilateral deals, is emitting increasing signals that it too seeks a new two-way trade relationship with Mexico.
"We need to promote active FTAs (free trade agreements) in order to achieve the full benefits of expanded free trade," a key cabinet-level council of economic advisers told Koizumi last month, The Associated Press reported. Besides Mexico, Japan is analyzing FTAs with South Korea and Singapore, with whom talks are almost finished, officials have said.
But proponents say the Asian nation must act quickly on a free-trade pact with Mexico. If it dallies, Japan could face losing market share to both the United States, which is plowing ahead with plans for a hemisphere-wide free-trade arrangement by 2006, and Europe, whose 2001-implemented FTA with Mexico is rolling forward. Meanwhile, Mexico's 100 million-strong consumer market is burgeoning as the country emerges more fully from the mid-1990s economic crisis.
A signed treaty between the two nations could also help lock in safeguards for the total US$43 billion value of Japanese holdings in Mexico, the majority of which are concentrated in the border manufacturing arena. Existing investment-protection rules are inadequate, business leaders say, because they could be subject to judicial review or modification by succeeding governments.
A trade treaty would also bring about the eventual elimination of tariffs on intermediate goods used in the maquiladora industry, 7% of whose total workforce is employed by Japanese firms, according to JETRO. Although a mechanism already exists to provide non-NAFTA in-bond manufacturers with some tariff relief on inputs, the scheme, called the Sector Promotions Program (PROSEC), doesn't universally eliminate raw material duties levied on businesses from outside North America.
Another drawback: Companies must undergo an application process to take part in PROSEC rather than receive the plan's benefits automatically. Unveiled last year, PROSEC also could be subjected to amendment in future administrations.
"PROSEC has helped some companies, but it doesn't totally cover all maquiladora inputs," Nagashima said.
Entrepreneurs on both sides of the Pacific have been beating the drum for a trade agreement for some time now.
"It is an urgent task for Japan to promptly conclude FTAs with major countries in Central and South America, such as Mexico and Chile, to reduce disadvantages for Japanese companies and gain a firm foothold in the region," a joint Japan-Mexico business council said in 2000.
The serious talk on a free-trade deal is coming at an opportune time for Mexico. Amid complaints that Mexico's "super peso" is making the nation uncompetitive as a manufacturing base, the Fox administration is working to avoid firms moving operations en masse to Asia, particularly China, where labor is cheaper. A trade agreement could prove an inducement to stay.
The government is also seeking incentives for non-NAFTA partners after the trade treaty dictated maquiladoras pay duties on inputs from outside of North America starting in 2001. That stipulation gave birth to PROSEC. But it has been Mexico's strong currency and a subsequent rise in real manufacturing wages that have led the assembly-for-export firms to begin to seriously consider relocation. The U.S. economic slowdown has added to the momentum as companies put expansions on hold and look to lower expenses.
For Japanese electronics makers in particular, China, with its seemingly limitless supply of cheaper labor, has seen its star rise as a more economical platform than Mexico, even if moving means assuming greater costs to transport finished goods to the U.S. market, Nagashima said.
Furthermore, a narrower parity exists in Chinese factories between management salaries and assembly-line wages. In Mexico, on the other hand, overseers are accustomed to drawing pay comparable to higher U.S. levels, he said.
Hurting Mexico also has been the fact that almost all the components needed to make finished electronics goods must be imported from outside NAFTA, as Mexican, U.S. and Canadian manufacturers aren't competitive, according to the Japanese. And, although PROSEC has helped drop tariffs on those mainly Asia-imported inputs, the tariff shelter is insufficient.
Plus, China offers fatter tax breaks for the maquiladora industry than does Mexico, Nagashima added.
"The belief that production lines should move from Mexico to China is increasing because production costs are much higher in Mexico than in Asia," Nagashima said, adding that some Japanese businessmen perceive Mexican labor costs as being twice as expensive as in China.
Japanese companies have already started pulling up stakes, although no mass exodus has yet occurred. In March, Canon Inc., Japan's largest office equipment maker, shut down its Tijuana inkjet printer plant, eliminating 450 jobs and moving production to Thailand and Vietnam. Following the Canon shutdown, the Japanese Maquiladora Association (JMA) warned that more moves are in the offing. The lobbying group attributed the Canon move to an unclear regulatory framework and the strong peso. The JMA added it would soon present Fox with a study on how Mexico can build back its manufacturing competitiveness.
Nevertheless, it's unclear whether Mexican wages have the room to drop to levels that are competitive with Asia. At the same time, the Mexican government hasn't indicated discomfort with the peso's strength, even though the currency has appreciated 5.8% in nominal terms from the start of 2001 through April 12, 2002. The inflation-wary Banco de México, meanwhile, hasn't moved to weaken the currency except for a mild April loosening of monetary policy, which remains restrictive.
While the scenario for electronics might look gloomy, another maquiladora sector, automotive, actually faces a stable-if not slightly positive-outlook this year, according to comments from Nagashima.
With carmakers favoring just-in-time logistics over more costly warehousing options, and U.S. consumers defying the recession to buy the latest models, Mexico has been able to use its geographical proximity as leverage over Asia in the auto sector, he said.
"Mexico remains suitable for automotive manufacturing and autoparts," the JETRO director said.
One company testing Mexico's advantages is Toyota. Just five months ago, when analysts were still prolonging forecasts on when the U.S. slowdown would finally end, Toyota's North American manufacturing division announced plans to open a new assembly plant in Tijuana to make truck beds for the Toyota Tacoma pickups. The facility, which analysts said could eventually convert itself into a full-fledged manufacturing base, should start production in 2004. Currently, though, Toyota produces no vehicles in Mexico.
"With the installation of this plant, we are taking a solid step forward to reaffirm the confidence of Toyota in Mexico," Toshiaki Taguchi, Toyota Motor North America president and CEO, said.
Timed to coincide with impending lower tariffs on U.S.-made automobiles, Toyota also unveiled this April its first showrooms in Mexico-one in Mexico City and another in Monterrey. At press time, the company was making plans to roll out three more dealerships in the Federal District and one in Guadalajara.
It's not only Japan's powerful auto giants who are taking advantage of the synergies. Major first-tier autoparts maker Denso Corp. also announced recently it will build a US$48 million plant this year in Guadalupe City in the state of Nuevo León, increasing the value of its Mexican assets to US$83 million.
"We will continue to maintain the local high-quality labor force in Guadalupe City and in Apodaca City (where operations are headquartered) to strengthen our global competitiveness," the company said in a news release.
That the aforementioned investments have taken place at all is surprising considering that the downturn has cooled U.S. demand and weakened growth in Mexico, which directs more than 80% of exports to U.S. markets.
However, consistent U.S. auto demand appears to have bucked the slowdown, and Japanese business says Mexico has more to lose from heightened long-term competition from Asia than from the cyclical downturn north of the border.
The slowdown also represents a kind of double-edged sword for Mexico because while it might check domestic growth, it also means cost-conscious firms might opt to relocate U.S.-based plants to below the Rio Grande, taking advantage of cheaper yet skilled labor, geography and NAFTA.
Other Factors Hurt Growth
Other factors are weighing on Japanese-Mexican commerce besides the global slowdown and brisker Asia competition, according to comments from a Japanese trade official.
For one thing, Japan's protracted domestic recession continues to have an effect on investment flows, said Shigetoshi Ikeyama, trade attaché at the Japanese Embassy in Mexico.
"The Japanese recession is having an effect on Japanese investment in Mexico. All companies are very cautious regarding investment," he told Business Mexico.
Japanese FDI commitments to Mexico dropped precipitously between January and September 2001, falling to a paltry US$62 million and well off the nine-month pace for 2000, when full-year investments totaled US$416 million. This year's number is also well off 1999, when Japanese FDI rang up to a whopping US$1.2 billion, according to the Economy Secretariat. The US$62 million figure accounts for only 0.3% of total FDI for the first nine months of 2001 and is in line with similar numbers from Finland, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Cayman Islands. Still, a more representative figure of Japan's total investment in Mexico should be somewhat higher, according to JETRO, given that investments from U.S. subsidiaries of Japanese companies end up in the North America column.
Besides Japan's own recession, another long-running quandary that has negatively affected Japanese investment in Mexico has been crime, which forces firms to spend more money on plant security and bodyguards for executives, among other extraordinary expenses.
"The problem of insecurity is reflected in Japanese production costs. Clearly, it is a negative element toward greater Japanese investment," Ikeyama said.
Insecurity has weighed heavily on Japanese minds since the high-profile 1996 kidnapping of a Sanyo executive, who was later retrieved unharmed after a ransom was paid, according to an Associated Press report from the time. Following the kidnapping and during a crime wave fueled by the mid-'90s peso crisis, Sony Mexico President Shin Takagi warned then-President Ernesto Zedillo that Japanese firms could reduce investments or withdraw from Mexico if the security situation didn't improve.
Although crime statistics have dropped since reaching highs last decade, security was still enough of a concern in March of this year to prompt Japanese Ambassador Takahiko Horimura to warn that the situation was frightening off would-be investors, according to a Mexico City daily.
Insofar as it would strengthen Japan-Mexico commercial ties, a free-trade pact could work to mitigate the crime effect on Japanese investment. But striking an accord won't be automatic.
The politically sensitive agriculture sector, in particular, likely will represent a major sticking point for both countries in any future negotiating round. Mexican industry also may chafe at the opening of commercial borders with the Asian manufacturing powerhouse. The reason: A Japan-Mexico free-trade agreement would be aimed at increasing Japanese investment exports to Mexico and not on boosting Mexican manufacturing shipments across the Pacific. Also suffering from an agreement would be Mexico's current US$5.55 billion trade gap with Japan, a deficit that has increased 47% from US$3.78 billion in 1994, according to JETRO.
Nonetheless, the benefits of a free-trade deal - more investment protection, better access to Mexican markets and the elimination of input duties-appear to outweigh the costs for JETRO's Nagashima.
"I think it's necessary for Mexico and Japan to have a free-trade agreement," he said. | <urn:uuid:f763963a-7279-4e19-b231-b9289a7af88a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1812-dealing-with-the-rising-sun-mexico-eyes-a-japanese-trade-deal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959278 | 2,938 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Crime Magazine is about true crime: organized crime, celebrity crime, serial killers, corruption, sex crimes, capital punishment, prisons, assassinations, justice issues, crime books, crime films and crime studies.
On November 25, 1987, French serial killer Thierry Paulin murders Rachel Cohen, age 79. On the same day, he attacked 87-year-old, Berthe Finalteri, whom he suffocated and left for dead. Two days later, he strangled Genevieve Germont, who would be his last victim.
As Paulin celebrated his 24th birthday, Finalteri unexpectedly recovered, and was able to give an accurate description of her attacker. On December 1, Paulin was arrested while walking down the street when a local police inspector, Francis Jacob, recognized him from Finalteri's description. After two days in custody, Paulin admitted everything and was eventually charged with 18 murders (though he claimed responsibility for 21). He was sent to jail to await trial but in early 1988, he fell ill, and began to succumb to the effects of AIDS. Within a year he was hospitalized in a state of near-paralysis, suffering from both tuberculosis and meningitis. He died during the night of April 16, 1989, in the hospital wing of Fresnes prison.
Visit Michael Thomas Barry’s official author website – www.michaelthomasbarry.com & order his true crime bookMurder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949, from Amazon or Barnes & Noble through the following links – | <urn:uuid:044d2b7a-bfd3-4b0e-8fd0-d1979103c6be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crimemagazine.com/french-serial-killer-thierry-paulin-murders-rachel-cohen?page=29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961834 | 322 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The North Kansas City Economic Development office provides a good example of just how important an economic development agency can be to a community.
The economic development department with the city of North Kansas City, Mo., is now marketing a 58-acre plot of land that was once home to a busy ADM flour mill. That mill is now closed, and North Kansas City officials have hopes of turning this high-visibility parcel of land into a mixed-use development.
Jeff Samborski, economic development manager with the city, said that North Kansas City might be able to announce a developer – the city is not yet giving the name of this developer — for the project before winter arrives. The hope is that construction crews will start breaking ground on a mixed-use development on this key site early next year.
“It’s exciting to get this close,” Samborski said. “It’s been somewhat of a roller coast since we started the acquisition process of this land several years ago. The economy has gone through some rough cycles. But we are now seeing some positive signs from the economy. We think that’s going to help with this project. And we think that this project will provide a definite economic boon to the area.”
Samborski admits that the last several years have been challenging ones. But he also thinks that they’ve strengthened businesses.
Companies today are running leaner, Samborski said. They aren’t wasting as many dollars each year. They have become expert at better managing their costs, reducing what Samborski refers to as “fluff.”
Because of this, several businesses are now seeking to expand. They’ve cut their costs, gained control over their budgets and are now looking to move into new areas. And organizations like the North Kansas City Economic Development department are ready to help them break into these new communities.
“During the next few months I expect that we will see a lot of projects get underway in our area,” Samborski said. “I have no doubt that we’ll see more activity once the presidential election is over. There is pent-up demand out there.”
– Dan Rafter | <urn:uuid:361b5492-4e61-4a21-8a63-38f313334ebf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rejblog.com/2012/09/05/north-kansas-city-economic-development-office-turning-a-former-flour-mill-into-a-mixed-use-development/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964765 | 461 | 1.546875 | 2 |
There was a time when higher education wasn’t a national political issue. Then as now, the United States had a flourishing network of private and public colleges and universities, which were supported primarily by fee-paying students and subsidies from state governments, many of which took great pride in building academic powerhouses.
But in the decades since Sputnik and the Great Society, the federal role in higher education has increasingly taken center stage. Though Obamacare, taxes, and Iran are soaking up most of the attention, funding for higher education might emerge as a key dividing line in this year’s presidential election. Last year, the Occupy movement devoted much of its attention to mounting student-loan debt.
Keep reading this post . . .
Copyright © 2013 BernardGoldberg.com | <urn:uuid:f18abc56-7c03-469a-a5b5-f63ca73b2570> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bernardgoldberg.com/the-college-cartel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972585 | 159 | 1.5625 | 2 |
President Barack Obama said Friday he was "open to new ideas" in efforts to resolve the fiscal crisis, but he insisted that raising taxes for the wealthy must be part of any deal.
"This was a central question during the election," Obama said. "The majority of Americans agree with my approach."
At the Capitol, Republican House Speaker John Boehner said he remains unwilling to raise tax rates on upper-income earners. But he left open the possibility of balancing spending cuts with new revenue that could be achieved by revising the tax code to lower rates and eliminate some tax breaks.
Obama spoke at the White House in front of invited guests who applauded his comments, but Wall Street didn't like what it heard. Stocks surrendered some earlier gains.
(Read More: Market Pares Gains on Obama Remarks)
It was Obama's most detailed comments on trying to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff" since he won re-election Tuesday.
He also invited business and congressional leaders of both parties to the White House next week for talks on how to avoid the "fiscal cliff."
Obama will hold a news conference on Wednesday and will meet with congressional leaders at the White House next Friday about the fiscal cliff, administration officials said.
Obama urged Congress to act, including passing a bill that would prevent Bush-era tax cuts from expiring for all but the wealthiest Americans.
"I'm open to compromise. I'm open to new ideas," Obama said. "But I refuse to accept any approach that isn't balanced. I'm not going to ask students and seniors and middle class families to pay down the entire deficit while people like me making over $250,000 aren't asked to pay a dime more in taxes."
He said the plan must spur jobs and economic growth. And while the talks are under way, he called for extending the middle class tax cuts now.
Boehner said he was "hopeful" that Republicans and the Obama administration can resolve the fiscal crisis.
"This is an opportunity for the president to lead," the Ohio Republican told reporters.
"I'm proposing that we avert the fiscal cliff together in a manner that ensures that 2013 is finally the year that our government comes to grips with the major problems that are facing us," Boehner said.
He said it's possible for Obama to propose legislation that can pass both chambers of Congress.
"I think we both understand that trying to find a way for our country to avert the fiscal cliff is important for our country, and I'm hopeful that productive conversations will begin soon so we can forge an agreement that can pass the Congress," Boehner said.
Boehner called for tax and entitlement reforms, but still opposed returning to higher tax rates for the richest Americans.
"Everything on the revenue side and the spending side has to be looked at," said Boehner.
Obama said he was encouraged by that, and said he'd like to hear more.
Boehner declined to provide details of what approach he expects to take. "I don't want to limit the options that would be available to me, or limit the options that might be available to the White House. There are a lot of ways to get there and I don't want to preclude anyone who might have a good idea about how we move forward. But it's clear, it's clear we've got to fix our broken tax system and we've got to fix our spending problem," he said.
Obama, who defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney on Tuesday in a race in which the two candidates offered different visions for jump-starting the sluggish economy, did not put forward a new or specific plan.
His opening move in what is expected to be a tense negotiation to avert the cliff was telegraphed Thursday by a top adviser, David Plouffe, who claimed a mandate from Tuesday's election victory to raise taxes on the wealthy.
Analysts have said that if left unaddressed, the abrupt fiscal tightening would knock the economy back into recession.
On Wednesday, Boehner offered to pursue a deal with Obama that will include higher taxes "under the right conditions" to help reduce the nation's staggering debt and put its finances in order.
Congressional Republicans have already begun to stake out their position on ways to spare the already modest economic recovery from a fiscal shock.
Boehner said Wednesday that House Republicans want Obama "to make good on a balanced approach" that would including spending cuts and address government social benefit programs.
(Read More: Boehner Extends Olive Branch on 'Fiscal Cliff')
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that allowing income tax rates to rise for wealthy Americans and maintaining rates for the less affluent would not hurt U.S. economic growth much in 2013.
The CBO said the tax hikes for the wealthy would reduce job growth by around 200,000 jobs, much less than the 700,000 in job losses claimed by Boehner.
(Read More: Why Tax Hike for Wealthy Won't Kill Growth: CBO)
The president's advisers told reporters earlier on Thursday that dealing with the fiscal cliff would be an immediate priority.
"One of the messages that was sent by the American people throughout this campaign is ... they clearly chose the president's view of making sure that the wealthiest Americans are asked to do a little bit more in the context of reducing our deficit in a balanced way," Plouffe said.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
More From CNBC
CEO Drumbeat for Tax Reform Grows Louder
Markets Still Waiting for Breakthrough on 'Fiscal Cliff'
Congress Sees Rising Urgency on Fiscal Deal | <urn:uuid:f541d324-3664-4456-8893-163a452397c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-invites-lawmakers-white-house-183605158.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974361 | 1,150 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Reasons to Visit
If you are looking for superb game viewing, Kenya is a serious contender. You are likely to see leopard, lion and cheetah in the Masai Mara, home of BBC’s Big Cat Diaries, in addition to fantastic and varied game viewing both here and in Kenya’s other parks and reserves.
In the Great Migration two million ungulates including wildebeest, zebra and antelope species, undertake a journey of roughly 1,600 kilometres. The herds reach the Masai Mara in July and remain there until October when, following the rain, they start the slow march southwards back to the Serengeti Plains.
If you want to enjoy the game reserves to yourself and don't mind the odd rain shower, June it is an excellent time to visit Kenya. During this time the animals take advantage of the abundant food and give birth to their young. They can be a little harder to spot because of the increased vegetation but you should not have to wait too long before seeing something new and you should still see all the animals that you would during the dryer months. It is also worth mentioning that travel at this time can be less expensive than travel later in the year.
Dawn over the Mara from a hot air balloon is a very special sight. You float up high, guided along the course of the Mara river by the prevailing winds, above delicate networks of animal tracks across the landscape. Champagne breakfast in the bush awaits you on landing.
Kenya is home to the iconic Masai and Samburu. For centuries they have lived a traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle herding their cattle to areas of water and grazing. A stay at a community lodge means you can support local people, help preserve wilderness areas and enjoy a great safari.
The Masai Mara is one of the most famous reserves in Africa. Home to the extraordinary Great Migration, which sees hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra cross the Mara River each year, it has always been a favourite location for countless wildlife documentaries.
Meru achieved world recognition with Joy Adamson's 'Born Free' and the story of Elsa the lioness. Meru is well of the beaten safari trail and is located to the North East of Nairobi. On clear mornings you can see the snowy peaks of Mount Kenya to the southeast, and when the sun is directly behind, the Nyambeni Mountain range the backdrop is amazing! The game here was depleted in the 1940s as it was a popular area with hunters. However, animal life is now plentiful as the land has been protected sine 1959. The variegation is mainly Bushland so binoculars and a keen eye will be essential to find the game.
Request a Brochure
Africa and The Indian Ocean
The Masai Mara covers an area of 1,800 square kilometres and is probably one of the most famous reserves in Africa. The most famous act played out anually is the Great Migration, which sees up to two million wildebeest undertake a journey of roughly 1,600 kilometres.
The wind whistles in the thorn trees. On a solitary acacia a vulture ruffles its feathers. Above are endless skies to match the endless horizons. This must be the Masai Mara, home to the greatest animal show on earth.
The Mara Game Reserve, as it was originally known, an area of some 1,812sq km, was established in 1961. Its southern boundary is contiguous with Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, and it is divided into two sections. The main reserve of 518sq km has been developed on the lines of a national park, where no intrusion of human settlement is allowed and game-viewing is only permitted on game-drives and horseback on organised riding safaris. Bordering the main reserve are numerous conservancies including Mara North, Olare Orok, Naboisho, Ol Kinyei and others. Here local Maasai are permitted to pasture their cattle and where there is a greater diversity of safari activities available, including walking safaris, fly-camping and cultural visits to learn more about the Maasai. A distinct benefit of staying in the conservancies is that the amount of accommodation and number of vehicles is strictly limited, meaning you can enjoy the wildlife to yourself!
The Mara is world famous for its vast assemblages of plains game, together with their associated predators. It is perhaps the only region left in Kenya where the visitor may see animals in the same super-abundance as existed a century ago. The Reserve extends from the edge of the Loita Hills in the east to the Mara Triangle and the Siria Escarpment in the west. Everything is big here; it is a country of rolling plains and rounded hills, of groves of acacia woodland and dense thickets of scrub. The reserve is bisected by the Mara River and its tributaries, which are margined by lush riverine forest and the site of spectacular river crossings during the migration.
The Mara possesses the largest population of lion to be found in Kenya. It also boasts large herds of topi and a small population of roan antelope, animals not found in many other Kenya reserves. Among the great variety of large beasts are elephant, buffalo, black rhino and hippo. Other mammals include leopard cheetah, Burchell's zebra, Coke's hartebeest, wildebeest, oribi, eland, Thomson & Grant's gazelle and warthog. The game is swelled during the months of July, August and September when the great migration comes onto the plains.
The bird life of Mara is as profuse as its mammalian fauna. The river is home to kingfishers, storks and Pel's fishing owl. The riverine forests see large flocks of crested guinea fowl whilst the ground hornbills, secretary birds and bustards can be seen on the plains. Finally, there are more than 53 species of raptor. Whatever you want to see, the Mara will not disappoint.
The Green Season in Kenya is often overlooked, but it is a good time for wildlife and visitors alike. The quantity and quality of game-viewing is among the best on the continent, and even the most hardened safari-goer will find something to delight and surprise.
Entitled simply "Africa", Sir David Attenborough's latest five-part series was filmed across five different regions of this extraordinary continent, capturing animal behaviour never seen before.
Each year, the annual Great Migration in Africa sees up to two million wildebeest and zebra undertake a journey of over 1,600 kilometres across Kenya and Tanzania.
The cradle of humanity, Africa is home to some of the world's great tribal cultures. Visiting some of these will not only leave you with some indelible memories; it's also likely your presence will go toward supporting vital local community projects.
11 days from £3,085pp
14 days from £4,045pp
12 days from £3,715pp
46 miles away
102 miles away
114 miles away
162 miles away
239 miles away
Include a visit to Masai Mara National Reserve on your tailor-made trip around Kenya by contacting one of our specialists...
Our offices are open during the following hours:
Further reading:Tours in KenyaWhen to GoHighlightsItinerary IdeasPlaces to GoThings to DoAccommodationAbout KenyaCountry Guides
Other countries in Africa:BotswanaMadagascarMalawiMauritiusMozambiqueNamibiaRwandaSouth AfricaTanzaniaThe SeychellesUgandaZambiaZanzibar ArchipelagoZimbabwe
Condé Nast Favourite Specialist Tour Operator 2010
Wanderlust Travel Awards Tour Operator 2013
Which? Recommended Holiday Company 2012
Sunday Times Value For Money Awards 2011
American Travel Trade Association
Receive news and offers from Audley
Registering email address...
Interested in a career in travel with Audley? For information on positions and how to apply, click here to visit our careers website. | <urn:uuid:903e529b-1958-45ed-b4c2-12360a56daa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.audleytravel.com/Destinations/Africa/Kenya/Places-to-Go/Masai-Mara-National-Reserve.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942066 | 1,694 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Next challenge in Iraq: Sabotage
The country's electrical infrastructure and oil pipelines are being targeted.
The ambush failed - but no one was caught. Neither was anyone wounded when up to six Iraqi men fired two rocket-propelled grenades at an American patrol Wednesday.Skip to next paragraph
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
Such near misses - and many direct hits - are increasingly frequent. Combined with acts of sabotage, brazen pillaging, and the burning of some government facilities, they are undermining US efforts to rebuild.
Many Iraqis are aghast. But those willing to help occupation forces face intimidation and sometimes lethal attack. To restore order, some suggest that the US apply a firm hand - just like Saddam Hussein used to do.
"Catch them and hang them," an Iraqi recently advised a senior official of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). "You've got to understand: Lampposts in Iraq were not meant to illuminate the streets."
While there may be little chance of exacting such tough measures in the new Iraq - the soon-to-be rebuilt justice system rules out the death penalty - continuing instability across Iraq is focusing US attention on how to regain control.
The best way to deal with "political sabotage" that targets key infrastructure, some observers say, is to show the majority of Iraqis that progress and prosperity are inevitable, as well the creation of a government run by Iraqis.
The top US official in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, accused remnants of Hussein's regime of sabotaging the power grids and promised Wednesday to do everything possible to fix the damage.
"They are trying to hinder the coalition's efforts to make life better for the average Iraqi person ... but we are not going to let them succeed," he said.
In the aftermath of the war, oil pipelines have been targeted and bombed. Electricity infrastructure, such as substations and pylons, have also been sabotaged - and a top Iraqi electricity official murdered. Such actions, along with orders to destroy all government buildings, facilities, and records, were laid out in a set of instructions to Iraqi intelligence agencies before the war, to render Iraq ungovernable if the Hussein regime should disappear.
"It's so obvious," says a CPA official. "Take out the electricity, just as it is getting so hot. Hit key installations, and then kill or intimidate those Iraqis who are trying to work with the CPA."
Andrew Bearpark, a veteran chief of rebuilding efforts in Bosnia and Kosovo was drafted last month to play the same role in Iraq. He says that "there are not enough tanks in the world to have a tank at every electricity pylon." Still, he adds, there is nothing he has not seen before, and "progress has been faster here than any other theater" where he has worked.
"We have to look holistically," Mr. Bearpark told a press briefing. "My stress is to look at all the system ... and to keep on the upward curve."
"Bad guys use gas and oil pipelines as tools to make things worse for people," Bearpark says. "I'm not seeing insuperable obstacles."
While the US military launched Operation Sidewinder in Hussein strongholds north of Baghdad earlier this week, and several large sweeping operations before that in flashpoint areas, attacks have nonetheless multiplied.
The near-miss Wednesday morning is just one example, and the attackers are changing tactics, too. The 2nd Battalion 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment operating in the fields, palm forests, and southern Baghdad villages of Doura, have been coping with men who slip away in the tall elephant grass.
"We know they've moved out of the city and set up weapons caches and safe houses in the area, and probably do some training," says an intelligence captain, who asked not to be named. A failed ambush attempt two weeks ago netted one prisoner and some weaponry and explosive switching devices close to a local mosque. Some 1,500 bullets were found in the mosque.
Intelligence officers from several units say that, because Iraqis know US troops rarely enter mosques, they suspect in some cases the structures have been used to store weapons. The explosion that rocked Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, on Tuesday, destroyed parts of a mosque and killed at least six students, including the imam.
Despite claims by some Iraqis that US missiles were responsible - a claim flatly denied by US forces - others say the explosion was caused when stockpiled ammunition blew up, or when explosive chemicals were being "cooked."
In such a charged atmosphere, a new CPA-appointed Political Council to choose ministers and members of a larger constitutional assembly in mid-July is meant to be a milestone. But Iraqis are complaining it will be hand-picked by Mr. Bremer.
"I don't think this is going to stop sabotage - if anything, you will see an intensification of sabotage," says a senior Western official. "When the Political Council is stood up, it's not going to have magical power. We would be making a big mistake if we said it could solve what is going on. Those lines don't link."
Beyond that political carrot, a new Iraqi police force is being formed to carry a stick. But many say the first weeks after the fall of Baghdad set the tone, as looters ran wild, and officials in Washington and commanders in Iraq refrained from controlling it.
"In hindsight, martial law should have been declared with a 24-hour curfew for a day or two, and a shoot-to-kill policy for looters. Then a 20-hour curfew, and open it up gradually," says the senior official. "But Washington believed Iraqis would surge forth in their gratitude ... [not] surge forth to ransack Mansur." | <urn:uuid:c6c31be8-e190-4592-8c41-d37b65fc6612> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0703/p06s01-woiq.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971271 | 1,184 | 1.523438 | 2 |
announced Thursday that it would no longer sponsor a national horse show, thanks to startling footage aired by ABC News of a horse in training. The video showed the horse undergoing an abusive practice known as "soring." (Warning: Video may be upsetting to some viewers.)
Pepsi had sponsored the Walking Horse National Celebration since 2010, said the horse show, which is the nation's leading competition for Tennessee Walking Horses – a breed whose best-known attribute is its unique high-stepping gait. Pepsi spokesman Vincent Bozek confirmed, without elaborating, that the company has "ended our sponsorship of the event." Nor would horse-show officials explain the specific reason for the end of the relationship.
But according to Reuters, a Walking Horse showing insider, who chose to remain anonymous, thinks it's thanks to the ABC News footage of "soring," filmed by a Humane Society of the United States undercover operative and given to ABC News for broadcast. Keith Dane, the HSUS director of equine protection, said that an activist got a job in a horse barn and taped the abuse in March and April of last year, as part of an undercover investigation. The video (linked here; be aware that it contains disturbing footage) shows Walking Horses getting beaten with wooden sticks and zapped with cattle prods, and enduring the application of caustic chemicals like mustard oil and diesel fuel to their ankles, which were then wrapped in plastic and metal chains to increase the pain. The resulting soreness, which gives the practice of "soring" its name, induces the horse to lift its front legs in the show ring, creating the gait – a flinch, really, as "Nightline" correspondent Brian Ross noted -- for which the breed is famous. The electric shocks "help" the horses develop an insensitivity to pain; if show judges check for evidence of soring or other abusive practices used to create the gait, the logic goes, the horse won't react.
Yahoo! Sports: Factbox for this weekend's Preakness
Soring had become such a problem in the TWH community that the industry cracked down in 2009, creating an organization to investigate the practice and hiring vets to check up on horses and shows. The organization's president, Dr. Stephen Mullins, found the video disgusting: "I don't condone that at all." (Jackie McConnell, the trainer who, along with his employees, was caught on the tape, had no comment for ABC News, and showed no remorse. McConnell was the go-to trainer for rich owners who wanted their Tennessee Walking Horses to dominate the competition; he's now facing a federal indictment.) Mullins told "Nightline" that the practices aren't even necessary, but he also said he didn't believe they were "rampant." Unfortunately, a random check of a recent horse show belied that statement; swabs of 52 horses found foreign substances on the legs of all 52 animals. (It wasn't Vaseline, either. "Benzene" is just one chemical on the list shown by "Nightline.") And Jennie Johnson, another trainer interviewed on the program, thinks the problem is widespread.
The Humane Society frequently goes undercover to expose deplorable situations like this one; the HSUS and other animal-rights orgs have caught everything on video from chickens in overcrowded cages to sick cows dragged by tractors to nursing sows confined to crates. Some farm-state lawmakers have reacted poorly, passing laws to making "infiltrating" an agribusiness a crime. But some agriculture companies have made positive changes after seeing upsetting footage, agreeing to increase cage sizes or only buy from farms that let pigs walk free.
In the case of the horses, Dane said, they'd sent a camera into a show barn because the industry's attempts to police itself were ineffective. He hoped Pepsi's decision would get results. And it seems that the cola corporation got the fiscal attention of the Walking Horse National Celebration, at least. Chief executive Doyle Meadows issued a statement about gaining the trust of corporate partners, adding that "we would do nothing to destroy that relationship. As the Celebration moves forward to promote a sound horse we hope that everyone will assist in our efforts to promote this magnificent breed."
But it seems like it's the trust of, and relationship with, the equine partners that might need promoting.
The Walking Horse National Celebration is held in the late summer, in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
Elsewhere on Shine Pets:
New PSA's humorous take on having The Sex Talk -- with your pets
"Enviropigs" not considered adoptable
Miley Cyrus, Bob Barker helping animals in need | <urn:uuid:16aead35-5d4a-48c0-88f0-52e3658020d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shine.yahoo.com/animal-nation/pepsi-pulls-sponsorship-of-horse-show-after-controversial-footage-airs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961841 | 954 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Ex-Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham Links Civil War to 'Neo-Confederate' Conservatives
Writing in the April 10 edition of Parade magazine, former Newsweek editor Jon Meacham commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Civil War by linking modern conservatives to the old Confederacy and bigotry against African Americans.
The journalist hinted, "This year, as the 2012 presidential campaign gets under way, two powerful forces will intersect: the commemorations of the Civil War and the opposition to President Obama’s policies."
After explaining that the Sons of Confederate Veterans in South Carolina hosted a "Secession Ball," Meacham predicted that "the rhetoric of resistance to Washington will inevitably resonate."
The author (see file photo at right) attempted to define and connect conservatives, some of whom he defined as "neo-Confederates," to southern racism:
Today, a new battle for history is being waged, with political conservatives casting the Civil War as a struggle against Big Government, with only tangential connections to slavery. These neo-Confederates contend that one can honor the South’s heritage without condoning its institutionalized racism. But as a historian and as a Southerner, I believe that is a losing cause. Without what our seventh vice president, John C. Calhoun, called the South’s “peculiar domestic institution,” there would have been no Civil War. There can be no revision of this inescapable reality.
An April 2011 report by the Culture and Media Institute (part of the MRC), pointed out how journalists are attempting to associate the Civil War of 1861 to conservatives today:
Led by Chris Matthews, MSNBC's prime time hosts - Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell and Keith Olbermann (and Cenk Uygur, Olbermann's replacement) - are obsessed with drawing modern parallels to the politics that tore the nation apart a century and a half ago. The election of the nation's first black president, their theme goes, has awakened - especially in the South - the latent Confederate sympathies and secessionist tendencies of conservative America.
Oddly, towards the end of the piece, Meacham seemed to contradict the article's larger point: "And the Civil War’s true legacy is not about Big Government or today’s political skirmishing—it’s about a nation’s obligation to live up to the best part of itself. Slavery was an evil, and it had to be defeated."
Yet, his earlier examples cite but a few examples to prove that conservatives think of themselves as a modern day Confederacy.
This sort of attack shouldn't be surprising. Meacham previously invoked Timothy McVeigh and Lee Harvey Oswald to worry about Anti-Obama "hate." | <urn:uuid:aed7c6fb-4a81-4d71-9541-1b4f9f5a9d25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2011/04/13/ex-newsweek-editor-jon-meacham-links-civil-war-neo-confederate-conse | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946841 | 576 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The relationship between Christian theology and law is disputed and complex. Jesus railed against the lawyers for not understanding, and Paul contrasted a faith based on grace with one rooted in law. It would take volumes to discuss it, but even the most unbiased observer should see that the law is not an unambiguously good thing in the Christian tradition.
A leading scholar has said that the end-times rapture theology propagated by many fundamentalist Christian groups, and said to be an influence within the Bush White House, is unbiblical and basically “nuts”.
The Bible and the Qur'an will share the spotlight with the usual menu of political debate and rancour when the US Congress reconvenes tomorrow (4 January 2007)- writes Chris Herlinger for Ecumenicl News International. | <urn:uuid:38f1099d-600f-4026-be1e-7dd834c017b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/taxonomy/term/596?page=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95893 | 167 | 1.78125 | 2 |
FM hopeful of early passage of micro finance Bill
The Micro Finance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2012, is currently being scrutinised by a Parliamentary Standing Committee.
"We are hopeful that the Bill will be cleared by the Standing Committee, then brought to Parliament for passage.
"Once the bill is passed, I hope that it will provide an adequate legislative framework for the entire gamut of micro-finance services," he said at MicrofinanceIndia Summit 2012.
The Bill seeks to empower the Reserve Bank to regulate the micro finance industry and fix interest rates ceiling on loans to be provided by lenders.
The Bill, which was drafted in the backdrop of problems faced by borrowers of MFIs in Andhra Pradesh and other states, seeks for compulsory registration of MFIs with the RBI.
Stating that MFIs play an important role in financial inclusion, Chidambaram said "responsible financing by way of transparency, interest rate rationalisation, respectful
recovery procedure must be followed by micro finance institutions" are among the challenges the MFI sector face.
He asked MFIs to verify data on borrowers with credit bureau so as to avoid multiple borrowing or over indebtedness.
"I will request the micro finance sector to adapt itself to the expectation of public at large especially with regard to their code of conduct," Chidambaram said.
Micro finance -- the business of doling out small loans at high interest rates to poor people who are unable to access conventional lending instruments -- has come under intense regulatory scrutiny in the wake of an Act passed by the Andhra Pradesh government.
The Andhra Pradesh Act seeks to tighten the screws on the industry, which has allegedly been blamed for a spate of suicides in the state due to high interest rates charged by MFIs. Allegations that the use of strong-arm tactics by lenders caused the suicides also dented the MFIs' image.
The southern state accounts for nearly half of the total micro finance business in the country with major players like SKS Microfinance, Spandana Sphoorty Financial and Basix present in the state.
Chidambaram also asked the MFI sector to focus on north-eastern region, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other states which are not served or under-served by it.
He said the "financial inclusion architecture" will remain incomplete unless the micro finance is integrated into the financial services delivery system. | <urn:uuid:4fd5d438-d05d-4218-9ce0-2818630596c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.financialexpress.com/news/fm-hopeful-of-early-passage-of-micro-finance-bill/1036912/0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950894 | 496 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The Wassenaar Arrangement
Our first information about the new Wassenaar Arrangement came in the form of a newspaper article, which said that export of encryption software would be prohibited—and this seemed to include free software. So we posted an announcement seeking people in non-Wassenaar countries to participate in distribution and development of free software for encryption.
Subsequently the actual text of the new version of Wassenaar Arrangement was published. Then we saw that it continues to have an exception that seems to cover free software. (They use the term “public domain”, but they seem to mean something like free software by that.) So the problem seems to have been a false alarm.
However, the US continues to seek such restrictions, and therefore it makes sense to continue our preparations, as a precaution in case a future version of the Wassenaar Arrangement places further restrictions on exportation of free software.
Here is our interpretation of the text of the latest Wassenaar Arrangement, as we have seen it. This has not been checked by a lawyer.
According to the General Software Notes, entry 2, the agreement does not cover software which is in “the public domain”. This is defined in the definitions as technology or software which has been made available without restrictions upon its further dissemination. There is also a statement that copyright by itself does not deny a program this “public domain” status.
There are currently discussions about the agreement and it would seem logical that the definition of “public domain” is something that will be clarified at future meetings.
Finnish officials have stated that “nothing will change as far as the “public domain” software and the Dec 3 Wassenaar Arrangement are concerned.”
In Denmark, we are told, there has been an incident where the Ministry of Commerce informed an administrator to stop offering the program PGP for download.
Recent news indicate that the Australian government has prohibited the export of free software for encryption by modifying the Wassenaar list that related to the definition of software “in the public domain.” | <urn:uuid:2a358b12-1976-4f45-8b25-a93c716f67e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/wassenaar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959594 | 443 | 1.84375 | 2 |
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Think again. No one wants their reputation, the name of their business, or their products dragged through the mud on the Internet. There are now web specialists called “online reputation managers,” who claim to manipulate Internet search results so the negative links will appear further down the list of results, and hopefully be missed. The lead story in the New York Times, Sunday Styles Section (April 3, 2011), “Erasing The Digital Past,” describes a few companies in this business, and their fee structures which can average from $5,000 to $10,000 a month for high level executives or celebrities, to $120 to $600 a year for run of the mill cases.
For a business with a high profile, public relations nightmare; a single embarrassing incident that received lots of media attention; or a vocal critic that keeps posting on the Internet, an online reputation manager may be the preferred business approach. However, for businesses, who are the victim of an unscrupulous competitor, its rogue employees or its overzealous but uninformed public relations company, there is a legal alternative worth considering.
The FTC’s Guides Concerning The Use Of Endorsements And Testimonials In Advertising Prohibit Negative Reviews With An Undisclosed Bias.
In October 2009, the FTC revised its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (“Guides”) to include reviews posted on the Internet, such as endorsements by bloggers. For example, the Guides require bloggers to disclose if they have received any freebies or other benefits for their posts. The Guides also require that someone endorsing a product needs to disclose any material connections between the endorser and the advertiser. The same guideline would apply to someone who works for a competing business and posts a negative review.
The FTC is enforcing these Guides, and recently settled an administrative complaint against Tennessee-based Legacy Learning Systems Inc. and its owner, Lester Gabriel Smith (collectively, “Legacy Learning”). In its complaint, the FTC alleged that Legacy Learning was responsible for misleading online reviews that were represented to be posted by “consumers”, who endorsed the company’s series of guitar lesson DVDs. According to the FTC’s complaint, Legacy Learning hired people to write positive reviews of its guitar courses on websites and online publications. On March 15, 2011, the FTC announced a proposed administrative settlement with Legacy Learning agreeing to pay $250,000. Legacy Learning also agreed, among other things, to monitor and submit monthly reports about its 50 revenue-generating affiliate marketers to ensure the affiliates are not misrepresenting themselves as independent users or ordinary consumers.
Similarly, if a business reasonably believes that it is the target of fake, negative reviews, the business may want to take the following steps to have the fake reviews removed, and the unlawful advertising practice stopped.
Identify With Reasonable Certainty The Source Of The Negative Reviews, And Seek Their Removal.
If a business is finding itself the target of negative reviews that sound remarkably the same, or reviews that point consumers from the business to its competitor, then there is a good chance that the business is the victim of unfair and deceptive advertising practices in violation of the FTC's statutory prohibitions. 15 U.S.C. § 45. Other indicators of a fake review include: (1) clumps of like-minded negative reviews written within days of each other; and (2) a number of reviews with only one star in an attempt to bring down the business’ legitimate positive ratings. There are several actions that a business can take to address these negative, fake reviews.
First, once the competing business is identified with reasonable certainty, consider sending a letter to its in house counsel and CEO. It may be that senior management is not aware of what is happening, and will take steps to make it stop. This letter should make them aware of the reviews, why you believe the company is responsible for the reviews, and how these reviews are unlawful and can result in civil liability under federal and state unfair competition and false advertising statutes (e.g. Lanham Act § 43; and California Business and Professions Code Sections 17200 et seq., and Sections 17500 et seq.).
Second, send a letter to the Internet service provider asking them to remove the suspect reviews or blog posts on the grounds that the reviews appear to be unlawful under the FTC Guides. Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the Internet service provider (e.g.WordPress, Amazon, Yelp) is not required to take action in response to your request. However, most of these Internet service providers include in their Terms of Service the right to remove content, and it is in their interest to ensure that their sites are viewed as credible sources of information by consumers. For example, Yelp expressly provides in its Terms of Service that a review can be removed if Yelp believes the review violates Yelp’s content guidelines. Yelp’s Content Guidelines prohibit, among other things, someone taking part in the “writing [of] a fake or defamatory review, trading reviews with other businesses, or writing a review that you were paid for either directly or indirectly by the business being reviewed.”
Third, if neither of the above approaches results in the fake reviews being removed, then your company may want to lodge a complaint with the FTC. However, this alternative is unlikely to result in immediate action since the FTC is inundated with complaints. Nevertheless, the complaint letter should provide the FTC with as much information and evidence of the fake reviews as possible. If there are any ways in which consumers are being harmed by the fake reviews, especially if it is a harm relating to public safety, be sure to highlight this in your communications with the FTC as well. The FTC has a process for entering complaints into a centralized online database that is used by civil and criminal law enforcement authorities worldwide. The FTC site states that it does not resolve individual consumer complaints.
And, finally, your business can file a legal action against its competitor and anyone acting on its behalf, because fake, negative reviews are unlawful and can be the basis for damages and injunctive relief.Copyright © 2013, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP. | <urn:uuid:4f105558-21a4-42f4-8ca6-8de920de3ab9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.natlawreview.com/article/you-hire-online-reputation-manager-consider-your-legal-alternatives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952947 | 1,297 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Survey sabotage: Is your customer data misleading you?
This article originally appeared on Forbes.com.
In this age of Yelp, Facebook and Twitter, consumer opinions have never been so powerful. While it’s easier than ever to find reviews and ratings, companies still grapple with how to best gauge their relationships with their clients.
Many top companies are using or have adopted a Net Promoter® system to learn more about the quality of their relationships. A closed-loop feedback process can help businesses identify key clients, product features customers like or dislike, service opportunities and problems that need immediate attention. But these efforts can only go so far if the survey data is flawed by biased answers.
Like a virus that yields no obvious symptoms, bias can creep into survey data all sorts of ways. Here are some of the most common factors that can contaminate your data, and how to avoid them:
Risk: Fear and embarrassment. Consumers may avoid giving negative scores out of embarrassment, particularly when surveyed face to face or on the phone. In business-to-business (B2B) situations, smaller customers may avoid negative reviews when surveyed by a large or critically important vendor, for fear of being cut off.
Prevention: To coax out candid feedback, leading NPS practitioners find ways to offer each customer appropriate levels of confidentiality. In B2B settings, for instance, companies can maintain transparency by reporting average scores for an account while keeping individual ratings confidential.
Risk: Employees who try to game the system. Sales and service representatives at auto dealerships are notorious for begging customers for top survey scores. Employees of other companies may engage in shenanigans, such as altering the phone numbers of unsatisfied customers so surveyors can’t reach them.
Prevention: Companies with robust Net Promoter systems pay close attention to potential gaming of this sort. At the car rental firm Enterprise, which uses a customer loyalty system called ESQi, gaming the system is called “speeding” and is grounds for dismissal.
Risk: Responder bias. This occurs when the individuals who respond to a survey offer a different view than the overall population being surveyed. Imagine that a company administers a survey with a 20% response rate. It indicates that it’s Net Promoter score is 50% (60% promoters minus 10% detractors). Now imagine that the firm studies the behavior of nonresponders by looking at whether these customers made repeat purchases or spent more over time. The additional data determines that the mix of that group is 10% promoter, 40% passive and 50% detractor. That means 80% of customers who ignored the survey had an NPS of negative 40%. So the true NPS for the company—the weighted average of the two groups—is negative 22%, not 50%. The company’s relationship with its customers isn’t as rosy as it seemed.
Prevention: If you can’t study nonresponders, consider scoring all of them as detractors (probably not too far off in business-to-business settings) or as a 50-50 mix of passives and detractors (a reasonable estimate for many consumer businesses). Naturally, a high response rate reduces the risk of responder bias.
There is only one sure way to check whether your system has effectively defused the land mines of low response rates and bias: You must regularly validate the link between individual customers’ scores and those customers’ behavior over time.
Does your data match what you see at your business? If not, bias may to be blame.
Post a Comment
Receive new posts by email
Search the Loyalty Blog | <urn:uuid:60032fff-85d1-4c34-9efd-10a887a847e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netpromotersystemblog.com/2012/10/26/survey-sabotage-is-your-customer-data-misleading-you/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933947 | 749 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Places mentioned on this page
About this page
This page is locked. Want to contribute to this page? Contact dbreckenridge
Soldier Substitutes for Father
1845 | Henderson County, NC
When Robert Ashley's father, Jordan Ashley, became ill 2 weeks into a 3 month enlistment in 1779, Robert took his father's place for the duration of the 3 months, then re-enlisted on his own behalf. Robert was age 90 in 1845 when he applied for his Revolutionary War pension! Since he was born about 1755, he was about 24 years old when he began his military service. How old was his father?? | <urn:uuid:c737b8e7-61d3-4046-988a-c7c150960a56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fold3.com/page/852_revolutionary_war_pensions_substitutes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985428 | 135 | 1.5 | 2 |
"My biggest concern about all this is confusion. These places need to take statewide action to make sure people who have been displaced know there is some way they can vote," Norden said.
Some regions most affected by Sandy were seeking creative ways to help residents cast their ballot.
In Ocean County along the New Jersey coast, officials hired a converted camper to bring mail-in ballots to shelters in Toms River, Pemberton and Burlington Township. Some 75 people in Toms River alone took advantage of the service on Monday, officials said. The camper will either continue to serve the shelters or be converted into an emergency voting precinct on Tuesday.
"It's great. This is one less thing I have to think about," said Josephine DeFeis, who fled her home in storm-devastated Seaside Heights and cast her ballot in the camper on Monday.
In New York City, authorities planned to run shuttle buses every 15 minutes Tuesday in storm-slammed areas to bring voters to the polls.
Elections Commissioner J.C. Polanco said the buses would service parts of Staten Island, the Rockaways and Breezy Point in Queens, and the Coney Island section of Brooklyn.
"An election on a normal day in New York is difficult as it is. Think of how difficult it is after a hurricane," Polcano said.
Just 60 of the city's 1350 polling sites were unusable and residents who vote in those places would be directed elsewhere, Polcano said. He said if a voter relocated to another polling site didn't show up on the list of people eligible to vote, he or she would be given a provisional ballot.
In a city of 4.6 million voters, bumps were inevitable.
In Brooklyn, workers Monday were still pumping water out of Middle School 211, which was supposed to serve as a polling place. The neighborhood's new polling site, Canarsie High School, is a few blocks away, but there were no signs posted at either school alerting voters to the change.
Staten Island resident Paul Hoppe said he probably wouldn't vote. His home, a block from the beach, was uninhabitable, his family was displaced and their possessions were ruined.
"We've got too many concerns that go beyond the national scene," Hoppe said. | <urn:uuid:86f81444-db0e-4190-9ac2-6aabd3ae0193> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailymail.com/News/NationandWorld/201211050131?page=2&build=cache | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984242 | 477 | 1.796875 | 2 |
NEW YORK (AP) — When President Barack Obama's re-election campaign unveiled its new slogan, some conservative critics were quick to pounce.
"Forward," they asserted, is a word long associated with Europe's radical left. Its choice reaffirmed their contention that Obama is, to some degree or other, a socialist — a claim that surfaced early in the 2008 campaign and has persisted ever since, fueling a lively industry of bumper stickers and books..
"New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism," read a headline in The Washington Times. A column by Russian immigrant Svetlana Kunin, for Investor's Business Daily, said Obama seeks to move America forward to "total government involvement in people's lives."
This is far from a new phenomenon — the use of "socialist" as a political epithet in the U.S. dates back to pre-Civil War days when abolitionist newspaper editor Horace Greeley was branded a socialist by some pro-slavery adversaries. In the 20th century, many elements of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal — including Social Security — were denounced as socialist. So was Medicare when it was created in the 1960s.
But to many historians and political scientists — and to actual socialists as well — the persistent claim that Obama is a socialist lacks credence.
He's widely seen as a pragmatist within the Democratic Party mainstream who's had ample success raising campaign funds from wealthy Wall Street capitalists. Even some of his strongest critics acknowledge that his administration hasn't sought one of the classic forms of socialism — government control of the nation's means of production.
Terence Ball, a political scientist at Arizona State University, said "socialist' has gained currency as an anti-Obama slur because "the 'L' word (liberal) has lost it shock value."
"I grow weary of Obama and the Democrats being called socialist," said Ball, who has written about ideologies. "If you talk to any real socialist, they disown them very, very quickly."
Full-fledged U.S. socialists are relatively scarce these days — three socialist-oriented presidential candidates received about 21,000 votes among them in 2008. And current socialist leaders don't share the right-wing view that Obama is a fellow traveler.
"It makes absolutely no sense," said Greg Pason, national secretary of the Socialist Party USA. Obama's health care overhaul "is anything but socialist. It's bailing out for-profit companies."
Yet Pason has been pleased by the "socialist" rhetoric.
"We've had an opportunity to talk to people, and that's been a blessing," he said. "People have actually researched socialist organizations."
One tidbit they might learn: The Pledge of Allegiance — the epitome of American patriotism — was written in 1892 by a socialist clergyman, Francis Bellamy.
When the 2012 Republican presidential campaign was still competitive, three of the leading candidates — Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann — depicted Obama as a socialist. Mitt Romney, the eventual winner, declined to go that far.
"I don't use the word 'socialist,' or I haven't so far," Romney told CNN in an interview last year. "But I do agree that the president's approach is government-heavy, government-intensive, and it's not working."
In one of the GOP debates, Romney asserted that Obama "takes his political inspiration from Europe, from the socialist-democrats in Europe."
Radio host Rush Limbaugh was among several conservatives who chided Romney for his reluctance to call Obama a socialist outright.
"You know, I keep forgetting, the fact that Obama is black, is why we can't call him a socialist," Limbaugh said on one of his shows. "That had slipped my mind because when I look at Obama, I don't see black. I see a socialist. I see a Marxist."
A slew of books have been written by conservative authors trying to out Obama as socialist. Among the more ambitious, in terms of research, was "Radical in Chief" by Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative Washington think tank. Delving into Obama's years as a student and a community organizer, Kurtz contended that Obama is part of a coterie of "stealth socialists."
"Over the long term, Obama's plans are designed to ensnare the country in a new socialism, a stealth socialism that masquerades as a traditional sense of fair play, a soft but pernicious socialism similar to that currently strangling the economies of Europe," Kurtz wrote.
In much of today's world, socialism lacks the contentious overtones that it has in America.
The new French president, Francois Hollande, is a Socialist, and most of Western Europe adheres to socialist-style policies that endure under a variety of governing parties.
Canada, which resembles the U.S. in so many ways, has a universal health care system and its main opposition party, the New Democrats, is union-backed and has socialist roots.
One of the few contemporary U.S. politicians to embrace the socialist label is Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. He formally lists himself as an independent, but throughout his career — including stints as a mayor and House member — he's described himself as a democratic socialist.
"Branding someone as a socialist has become the slur du jour by leading lights of the American right from Newt Gingrich to Rush Limbaugh," Sanders said in 2009. "If we could get beyond such nonsense, I think this country could use a good debate about what goes on here compared to places with a long social-democratic tradition like Sweden, Norway and Finland, where, by and large, the middle class has a far higher standard of living than we do."
The roots of socialism in America can be traced to the arrival of German immigrants in the 1850s, according to Rutgers University professor Norman Markowitz, who teaches the history of socialism and communism.
The Socialist Party of America grew significantly in the early 20th century under the leadership of union organizer Eugene V. Debs, electing a congressman and dozens of mayors. Debs ran for president five times, getting more than 913,000 votes in 1920 — the party's high-water mark. (At the time, Debs was in prison on charges that he had urged resistance to the draft during World War I.)
The party's following eroded during the 1920s, and Debs was succeeded as leader by Norman Thomas, a Presbyterian minister in New York. During the Great Depression, Thomas received 892,000 votes in the 1932 presidential election as Franklin Roosevelt won the first of his four victories.
After World War II, the anti-communist crusade led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the broader tensions of the Cold War relegated organized socialism in the U.S. to the political margins. The term "creeping socialism" emerged, used by conservatives to denigrate various policy proposals and initiatives that involved a role for the government.
After the Cold War's end, use of "socialist" as a political insult also receded. Markowitz believes its recent revival relates directly to the animosity toward Obama that is shared by a certain segment of Americans.
"There's this hysterical outbreak of abuse to prove that the president is not American, that he's a secret Muslim, that policies that past Republican administrations would have adopted are part of a socialist, communist conspiracy," Markowitz said.
Due in part to the multiple definitions of socialism, some conservatives wrestle with semantics as they seek appropriate terms for Obama's ideology.
"Instinctively, the president is a collectivist," said Ken Blackwell, former Ohio secretary of state and now a conservative commentator. "My fundamental belief is that he wants to transform our market economy into a government-controlled economy — not far afield from European-style socialism."
Steven Hayward, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of a two-volume biography of Ronald Reagan, said Obama is not a socialist under the strict definitions of that term — central economic planning and government control of production.
"However, socialism has a secondary meaning that is harder to explain — government regulations, supervision of the private economy," Hayward said. "The problem now with Obama is, 'What does he really think?'"
Ezra Klein, a blogger and columnist for The Washington Post, tackled the issue recently in a posting headlined "Barack Obama: Worst. Socialist. Ever."
Klein cited data indicating that the government sector of the economy shrank during the past three years.
"If President Obama is truly a socialist," Klein wrote, "then he's not a very good one." | <urn:uuid:c1d127ea-c402-4b67-a2fd-694eca264f48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/06/obama_a_socialist_many_scoff_b.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973294 | 1,786 | 1.796875 | 2 |
I grew up eating plantains. Every week my mom would bring home bundles of these muscular green bananas, allow them to ripen under the kitchen counter until the skin was mottled with black streaks against a yellow canvas. She'd then pop one into the microwave for 4-5 minutes, carefully slit open the steamed black peel, which would reveal a concentrated, sweet and dense cooked banana. It was almost like a warm doughy banana pudding, very comforting.
So when I ran into plantains again at the grocery store, I decided to make another dish that is considered a comfort food for many South American countries, fried plantains. When green, these bananas are quite starchy, and have a texture reminiscent of potatoes. Plantains can be served along side any dish that you would serve with french fries. While the fried plantains were good, the next time I try this recipe, I am going to wait until the plantains ripen a bit, perhaps when the peel achieves a mottled yellow. I think the contrast between sweet and salty would be interesting.
Fried Green Plantains
(adapted generously from Gourmet, Sept 2007)
- 1 large unripe (green) plantain
- About 1 cup vegetable oil (I used coconut)
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced or crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Cut ends from each plantain with a sharp small knife, then cut a lengthwise slit through peel. Cut plantains crosswise into 1-inch-thick pieces and, beginning at slit, pry off peel.
- Heat 1/2 inch oil in a deep 10- to 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until just hot enough to sizzle when a piece of plantain is added. Do not crowd, fry plantains in batches if necessary, turning occasionally with tongs, until tender and just golden, 5 to 7 minutes per batch. Transfer plantains to paper towels to drain, reserving oil in skillet. Turn off heat.
- Flatten each plantain to 1/4 inch thick with a sturdy coffee mug.
- Stir together warm water, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Heat reserved oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Dip a flattened plantain in salted garlic water and gently place, without patting dry, in hot oil. (Plantains did not spatter when I did this step.) Repeat with several more pieces and fry plantain, in batches if necessary to avoid crowding, turning occasionally, until golden, about 3 minutes per batch. Transfer with tongs to clean paper towels to drain. Season with salt and serve immediately. | <urn:uuid:6b5283aa-48c4-441b-98dc-c3c67c3aebdb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freshlocalandbest.blogspot.com/2010/05/gone-bananas-with-fried-green-plantains.html?showComment=1275235174611 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949179 | 553 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Men need to step up and be more engaged, responsible fathers to our children, even when we have to fight their mothers and our communities to attain those rights.
Give Us Dads a Little Respect
June 15, 2012
As an active and highly participatory single father to three children (ages 15, 12 and 8), it’s remarkable how often I experience situations where I’m seen as the less important parent. Our culture is permeated with the mythic nurturing, attentive, self-sacrificing mother who ignores her own needs while taking care of children and is the only parent who can teach them everything they need to know to grow up as happy and self-fulfilled adults.
You need go no further than television to see the problem writ large: us dads are just overgrown boys with about as much common sense as a self-absorbed, hormonal 17-year-old jock. It’s an easy joke for mom to talk about “my kids: little Susie and, of course, my husband”. Men are unceasingly portrayed as incompetent not just with parenting, but with any domestic chore. And God forbid that poor baby is going to need its diaper changed by Dad.
The attitude is pervasive: National Fatherhood Initiative research shows that more than 50 percent of dads believe that fathers can be replaced in a child’s life by women or other men and that a whopping 93 percent of women believe that there’s a father absence crisis in America. Mommy wars? Sounds a lot more like daddy wars.
Men need to step up and be more engaged, responsible fathers to our children — even when we have to fight their mothers and our communities to attain those rights. And communities need to support fathers being involved and not judge us all as dangerous, potential pedophiles from whom our children have to be protected at all costs.
Is that extreme? Well, if a mom gets mad at her children, the reaction I always hear is “it’s tough to be a mom, she’s under a lot of stress,” while if a Dad does the same thing, he’s “angry,” “dangerous” and “scary.”
The solution is in accepting and honoring our differences as parents, not in measuring men against the yardstick of mothering and finding us lacking. Our children desperately need more fathers, and everything we bring to parenting. | <urn:uuid:a2c171df-0179-4d27-8297-eff5bdc4d693> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/06/15/what-about-dad/give-us-dads-a-little-respect | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96915 | 511 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Born Paul David Hewson, the rocker’s nickname derives from the Latin word “bonavox” – meaning “good voice”.
His various humanitarian work around the globe and his efforts to
raise awareness of Aids in Africa earned him the Nobel Peace Prize’s
Man of Peace title in 2008. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
– His favorite food is fish and chips, and his favorite drink is Jack Daniels or tea.
Bono is a keen chess player, falling in love with the game at the age
of 12 after he became “fascinated” with its grandmasters.
– In 2007, he was given an honorary knighthood by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II for his tireless campaigning.
– The singer’s trademark sunglasses are not just a rock ‘n’ roll fashion statement – his eyes are over-sensitive to light.
– Bono has enjoyed several forays into acting – he had small roles in Million Dollar Hotel and Across The Universe.
– During U2’s Zoo TV Tour in the early 1990s, Bono’s onstage alter-egos included The Fly, Mirror Ball Man, and Mr. MacPhisto.
Bono and his U2 bandmates were nominated for a Best Original Song
Oscar in 2003 for the track “The Hands That Built America,” which
featured on “Gangs of New York” – but lost out to Eminem’s “Lose
Yourself,” from the movie “8 Mile.”
– He has collaborated with
a huge range of artists in his career – including Bruce Springsteen,
Johnny Cash, Jennifer Lopez, Frank Sinatra, and Luciano Pavarotti. | <urn:uuid:98f8785a-6464-44a2-892d-f1842c2e4404> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.u2exit.com/category/news-rumors/page/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968486 | 378 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Originally posted by DaleGribble
reply to post by Zanzibar
my unit just got back from there second deployment from the middle east where they were attacked by iranian manufactured weapons on a daily basis. thats what the middle east has done to me. but like i said in an eairler post camels do bring me joy.
the sad thing is they bring a diffrent joy to the people over there where wemen are only used for reproduction. anyone who has ever been there will tell you the same thing....
How on earth did you manage to get deployed anywhere? Or is basic english not a requirement in your unit?
Your spelling is atrocious and the fact that you get so much joy from camels, suggest that you are living up to the stereotype of what it is you most fear.
P.s could you please explain what 'wemen' are? Maybe a diagram or two of how Iranian people reproduce with these mystical wemen... I always assumed the Iranians reproduced like most other human beings, you know, a loving couple choosing to start a family etc.
I suggest you lay off the camel loving and maybe go back to grade school, or better yet another planet. | <urn:uuid:5273e6e0-b3ea-4b14-9c58-a7ae7a1e416d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread368018/pg2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969904 | 247 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Operation Wildlife Specialized Interdiction Unit
Silent Heroes presents Benefit Wines! Proceeds benefit the Silent Heroes Foundation.
SHF Welcomes New Project
Silent Heroes supports the Vet Books for Africa project through the provision of veterinary textbooks and educational materials to distribute at Veterinary Universities throughout Africa.
Join Team RunWild!
Want to raise money for Silent Heroes and truly make an impact? Then join us and RunWild! Whether you enjoy running, biking, swimming, walking, or any combination in between, you can participate in our RunWild! campaign to help raise money and awareness for our mission in Africa. >>read more
SHF Scholarship for Deserving Equine Vet in Congo
Silent Heroes has provided a stipend to support Dr. Etienne Mwamba in an equine internship with the Blue Cross Veterinary Hospital situated in Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa.
Dr. Vital Etienne Kasongo Mwamba was born in Kamina, Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and qualified as a veterinarian in 2002 from the University of Lumbumbashi, DRC. From a young age Etienne was drawn to working with animals, due in large part to the influence he received from his father’s farming lifestyle, and due to the abuse he witnessed to farm animals in his community. As a child he decided that he would like to make a difference in the lives of animals. Unfortunately abuse and neglect are common in many rural areas of Africa, including DRC. Dr. Mwamba reports that in the DRC there is only one equine practice in all of the country. With a population of over 71 million people, many with a dependency on horses and donkeys in the country as work animals, it is clear to see the importance of his training. Dr. Mwamba hopes to return to DRC upon completion of his internship to start a mobile equine veterinary clinic, in order to provide educational outreach and seminars for Congolese equine owners about welfare issues, in addition to providing better health care for these animals. Due to the ongoing war and instability in the region, Dr. Mwamba and his family moved from his country to Cape Town, South Africa, where he currently lives with his wife and three daughters.
The Blue Cross Veterinary Hospital serves as the oldest private veterinary practice in South Africa. The practice consists of six veterinarians treating both large and small domestic animals, including a large focus on equine medicine. With three veterinarians specializing in equine care, the practice welcomes a wide variety of equine cases for interns in-training such as Dr. Mwamba. While at the practice, Dr. Mwamba will work with hack horses, competition horses, race horses, & stud horses, as well as work with equine welfare organizations in the area (cart horses and the Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals). Dr. Mwamba receives supervision from all three equine veterinarians on staff: Dr. Nic Augustyn, a general practitioner; Dr. Francois Triegaardt, a general practitioner with special interest in lameness and surgery; and Dr. Cynthia Donnellan, an equine internist.
Silent Heroes would like to thank Dr. Cynthia Donnellan for the opportunity to support Dr. Mwamba in his equine veterinary internship.
Veterinary Student Externships
Silent Heroes welcomes eight veterinary student externs to our projects in Africa for 2012! Each student will spend several weeks experiencing life as a veterinarian/conservationist in-training at one of our 11 projects in Africa, where students will become immersed in caring for animals, participating in research to benefit the project, and learning the challenges unique to international veterinary medicine in a developing country.
Several students received scholarships for their participation in the extern program, and many students will conduct valuable research to benefit the projects, as well as to contribute to the pool of greater scientific knowledge related to wildlife conservation and One Health medicine in Africa. Silent Heroes will highlight the work of each student in E-news bites to come, and will be sharing their personal experiences through blogs and pictures that we will make available later this summer. Follow along with our externs on their adventures in Africa, and be a part of the excitement as they care for orphan elephants, immobilize rhinos, bleed buffalos, vaccinate village dogs, educate villagers about humane care of donkeys, and protect the endangered mountain gorillas!
Silent Heroes accepts applications to our veterinary student externship program on a year-round basis, and we offer placement at nine of our 11 veterinary and wildlife projects in Africa. For more information please contact Dr. Adams at: [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:5b21a20f-0c61-4a87-8c33-bbb1888df8ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thesilentheroes.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946913 | 972 | 1.5 | 2 |
Aaron Sorkin grew up in Scarsdale, a suburb of New York City where he was very involved in his high school drama and theater club. After graduating from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater, Sorkin intended to pursue a career in acting. It took him only a short time to realize that his true love, and his true talent, lay in writing. His first play, "Removing All Doubt", was not an immediate success, but his second play, "Hidden in This Picture", debuted in 1988 at the West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theater Bar. A longer version of "Hidden in This Picture", called "Making Movies", opened at the Promenade Theater in 1990. Despite his youth and relative inexperience, Sorkin was about to break into the spotlight. In 1989, he received the prestigious Outer Critics Circle award as Outstanding American Playwright for the stage version of A Few Good Men (1992), which was later nominated for a Golden Globe. The idea for the plot of "A Few Good Men" came from a conversation with his older sister, Deborah. Deborah was a Navy Judge Advocate General lawyer sent to Guantanamo Bay on a case involving Marines accused of killing a fellow Marine. Deborah told Aaron of the case and he spent the next year and a half writing a Broadway play, which later led to the movie. Sorkin has gone on to write for many movies and TV shows. Besides A Few Good Men (1992), he has written The American President (1995) and Malice (1993), as well as cooperating on Enemy of the State (1998), The Rock (1996) and Excess Baggage (1997). In addition, he was invited by Steven Spielberg to "polish" the script of Schindler's List (1993). Sorkin's TV credits include the Golden Globe-nominated "The West Wing" (1999) and "Sports Night" (1998).IMDb Mini Biography By: A. Nonymous
|Julia Bingham||(13 April 1996 - 2005) (divorced) 1 child|
Appears as an extra in a bar scene in titles that he writes
Rapid quick fire exchange of tightly-scripted dialogue for characters
'Walk and talks' (or 'pedeconferencing') where two characters have a conversation while walking together.
His scripts often represent his liberal political views
Long character-driven speeches representing a character's beliefs and actions
Characters with Sarcastic dispositions
Stories regarding Government or Government Institutions
Intelligent and cocky but troubled Protagonists
Intelligent Female Characters
Often employs non-linear storytelling methods
Characters who successfully undergo psychoanalysis
Many of his films feature at least once character with an alliterative name (Sam Seaborn, Harriet Hayes, Matthew Markinson)
In July 2000, he signed a four-year deal with Warner Bros. TV for approximately $15 million. The deal marks the first time that he has signed an exclusive long-term production deal.
In 19 June 2001, a judge sentenced him to a drug-diversion program as a result of his arrest at a California airport for carrying marijuana, rock cocaine and hallucinogenic mushrooms.
His daughter, Roxy, was born November 17, 2000.
Graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA in Musical Theatre.
Wrote a 1988 Rolling Stone Magazine article about the top acting schools in the U.S. One of the featured schools was the State University of New York at Purchase (S.U.N.Y. Purchase) where Janel Moloney ("Donna" on "The West Wing" (1999)) happened to be attending at the time.
Many of his works contain references to the operas of Gilbert & Sullivan. In Malice (1993), the doctor played by Alec Baldwin boasts that he is "never, ever sick at sea", lyrics from "The HMS Pinafore". In "The West Wing" (1999), Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) says that he was recording secretary of the Princeton Gilbert & Sullivan society, and many of the regular characters welcome Ainsley Hayes (Emily Procter) to her new office by decorating it with G&S posters and singing "He is an Englishman", also from "Pinafore", to her. The second episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (2006) closes with the cast of the show-within-the-show singing a parody of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from "The Pirates of Penzance". In Charlie Wilson's War (2007), he gives Gust a throwaway line of "...and I'm never, never sick at sea", which is a line from "HMS Pinafore".
He is considered one of Scarsdale High School's "Distinguished Alumni." His picture hangs among the other alumni near the school's cafeteria.
His sister, Deborah Sorkin, is a Navy Judge Advocate General, who worked with David Iglesias. She told Aaron about a real-life case she had worked on with David, which became the basis of A Few Good Men (1992). The character played by Demi Moore was based on his sister. David Iglesias was a Republican, who would later gain fame as one of the U.S. Attorneys fired by the George W. Bush administration.
All three of his television shows feature a season finale episode entitled "What kind of day has it been?".
His play "The Farnsworth Invention" at the TimeLine Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, was awarded the 2010 Joseph Jefferson Award for Production of a Play (Midsize).
After he wrote the screenplay for A Few Good Men (1992), Sorkin rewrote the Broadway play for the National Touring Company, since there were elements added to the film that weren't originally in the play.
Sorkin seems to have an affinity for Nobel prize winning economists. His fictional President in "The American President", Andrew Shepherd, studied under a Nobel prize-winning economist. His President in "The West Wing", Jed Bartlet, actually was a Nobel prize-winning economist.
Staunch supporter of the U.S. Democratic party.
He originally wanted to be an actor and did not discover writing until he was in his early twenties.
Worked odd jobs including limousine driver and singing telegram worker while struggling as an actor.
I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says, "You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent and I'm not your mommy, I'm a white piece of paper, you wanna dance with me?" and I really, really don't. I'll go peaceable-like.
[speaking about freebased cocaine] I had found a drug I absolutely love and that gave me a real break from a certain nervous tension that I kind of carry with me moment to moment.
When things that are very mean-spirited and voyeuristic go on TV, I think it's [like] bad crack in the schoolyard.
When I am setting out to do something, I don't consider the state of the culture. I can't possibly conceive of what the most people are going to like. Honest to God, I write something that I like, that I think my friends would like and that I think my father would like, and I keep my fingers crossed that enough other people are going to like it that I can earn a living.
I am all for everyone having a voice, I just don't think everyone has earned the microphone. And that's what the Internet has done.
[on creating Mark Zuckerberg's persona for 'The Social Network'] I identify with him. I've felt like I've had my nose pressed up against the glass of some cool party I have't been invited to. I've felt the world has reflected back to me that I'm a loser.
I think socializing on the Internet is to socializing what reality TV is to reality.
I became a writer, because I wanted to be Donald Hollinger, because he got a girl like Ann Marie.
[speaking about the importance of making good decisions at his 2012 commencement address at Syracuse University] I've made some bad decisions. I lost a decade of my life to cocaine addiction. You know how I got addicted to cocaine? I tried it. The problem with drugs is that they work--right up until the moment they decimate your life. Try cocaine, and you'll become addicted to it. Become addicted to cocaine, and you will either be dead, or you will wish you were dead, but it will only be one of the other. My big fear was that I wasn't going to be able to write without it. There was no way I was going to be able to write without it. Last month I celebrated my eleven-year anniversary of not using coke. In that eleven years, I've written three television series, three movies, a Broadway play, won the Academy Award, and taught my daughter all the lyrics to "Pirates of Penzance." I have good friends.
My big fear when I quit drugs was that I wouldn't be able to write anymore. Because if you're a writer, and you're on a roll - and I was on a roll when I was high - you don't want to change anything about the way you work.
[on how audiences are watching TV in 2012] Audiences are watching at a time other than when the network puts it on. Unlike with a movie or a play, I don't get to experience the audience watching the show. On Sunday night, it feels like I'm the only one watching it. It's hard to imagine anyone else is too.
I am truly at my happiest, not when I am writing an aria for an actor or making a grand political or social point. I am at my happiest when I've figured out a fun way for somebody to slip on a banana peel. That's really what I want to do.
[re his college mentor, the late Arthur Storch} Arthur's reputation as a director, and as a disciple of Lee Strasberg, was a big reason why a lot of us went to S.U. [Syracuse U.] As a freshman you didn't speak to him, and it was unlikely he'd know your name. But he'd generally zero in on two seniors who he felt were worth his time, and I was one of those seniors. 'You have the capacity to be so much better than you are,' he started saying to me in September of my senior year. He was still saying it in May. On the last day of classes he said it again, and I said, 'How?' and he answered, 'Dare to fail.' I've been coming through on his admonition ever since.
(June 2006) Working on a new show, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (2006), set to premiere on NBC in the fall.
|You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Edit page' button will take you through a step-by-step process.|
|With our Resume service you can add photos and build a complete resume to help you achieve the best possible presentation on the IMDb.|
Click here to add your resume and/or your photos to IMDb. | <urn:uuid:b82a853b-8207-4531-b708-0bb7d406e231> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815070/bio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979699 | 2,391 | 1.546875 | 2 |
LONDON – We’re here at Nokia’s design event in London, The Inside Story, and user interface designers Juliana Ferreira and Lee Cooper have just given us an interesting look at what goes into designing Nokia homescreens, and highlight just how significant the homescreen is for most of us. Click through to find out what happens behind the scenes at Nokia for the designers exploring new ways to improve the homescreen interface.
Early on Juliana hit us with a monster statistic – of the total time you spend using your mobile phone, on average 85 per cent of that time is spent on your homescreen. Does that surprise you? I must say I never imagined it would be that much. Regardless, the fact remains that we spend a huge amount of time engaged with our homescreens. So the upcoming N97 is the first device to fully realize the research that has taken place over the past two years by Juliana, Lee and the other UI design specialists at Nokia, when it comes to creating a new breed of homescreen experience – an experience that reflects the now embedded trend of personalization and our desire to communicate, share media and control any extension of ourselves on our terms. Not just digitally either, with the likes of Nike iD (which lets you custom create your own trainers to your taste) quoted as an example. As Juliana explains:
“The homescreen appropriate way to personalize plethora of content that is meaningful to you. It allows people to make their products their own. We are building tools to enable people to make the products for themselves”
In terms of how the design team has approached investigating and developing Nokia’s new homescreens, including that of the N97, Juliana explains it’s a three-step process.
All the details: Nokia Lumia 800
All about our stunning new smartphone.The specs; the price; the facts
Firstly, the team keenly observed and gathered data on how people think about personalization in a number of counties including the UK, USA, China, Philippines, Brazil and India. These initial findings gave the design team insight into the global similarities and differences between people when it comes to personalization, culturally and beyond, spread around the globe. For instance, one granular finding was that a worker interviewed in the UK and a rural worker in Nigeria shared the same interest of wanting to get the football scores for the Premiere League delivered to them – different lives and cultures, but some fundamental shared needs. The job of the design team is to address these sorts of micro needs in a flexible and effortless way, with the overarching solution being widgets and wallpapers, and enabling people to fully customize them.
So the second step in the process of designing the new homescreen was the exploration of concepts and prototypes. The team asked hundreds of people to create their ideal homescreen with paper prototypes, and found that no two homescreens were the same and that people want complete freedom to place stuff wherever they wanted. Personalization in practice saw people feedback with some interesting requirements, such as one guy who simply said “I really don’t want to hide by daughter’s face with email”. Fair point.
Plus, people called for widgets that would morph in size to make them more contextually relevant and significant when appropriate (something that isn’t in the current homescreen, but is being looked at). For example one person in the study was a Manchester United fan who said, “for that 90 minutes the football is on, I want to see the Man. Utd. widget as clearly as I can. It should be big while the game is on and smaller when it’s not”
Corralling all this information and feedback led to the final stage of validation and testing of the homescreen to make it seamless and effortless. Which is the stage we find ourselves at with the N97.
As for what’s next? The design team is looking at ways to enable this tool for more Nokia devices. Also the ambition is to enable multiple homescreens on single device.
What do you think to what you’ve seen of the N97 homescreen? Is personalisation an essential element for your mobile life? Share your thoughts below. | <urn:uuid:042c8d04-7810-4a86-b953-fa9d31858e88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://conversations.nokia.com/2009/05/27/stepping-behind-the-nokia-homescreen/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947894 | 877 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Ortiz y Pino
APD Report Isn't Pretty
Racial profiling at the heart of the matter
Not many years ago Albuquerque's cops had a reputation rivaling Los Angeles' for biased, prejudiced treatment of minorities. In that unenlightened, pre-Citizen Police Oversight Commission era, our city's finest actually seemed proud of the notoriety their get-tough tactics had earned.
Hey, you didn't hear APD complaining about all those brutal take down scenes shown on “Cops” reruns that starred Albuquerque patrolmen; it seems they liked that image.
But more recently, starting when community policing became the favorite topic at City Hall a few years back, our police department seemed to be trying to turn over a new leaf. And after the Oversight Commission got off the ground, it seemed like we were getting far more "Good Cop" manifestations than "Bad Cop" apparitions.
Oh, sure, Vecinos Unidos and the ACLU kept up their non-stop complaining about constitutional rights violations and our "suicide by cop" incidents continued to mount in distressing numbers, but overall the department's reputation for biased treatment of ethnic minorities softened considerably.
It hurts that, in a city where whites are in the statistical minority, APD has never managed to recruit, train and retain enough minority policemen and women to come close to reflecting in the ranks of law enforcement a proportion of minorities roughly similar to what they comprise in the general population.
Still, there are many Hispanic cops in APD, a few African Americans and a few Native Americans. Not enough, certainly, but I'll bet a higher percentage than most large cities employ.
So I was surprised to read the results of a courageous survey into "Biased-Based Policing" recently carried out by the New Mexico Human Rights Coalition.
It was referenced in a study of the issue done by the City's Human Rights Office. One would have hoped APD's treatment of minorities would have scored much better than it did.
I use the term courageous for the survey because let's be honest: APD does not like scrutiny or criticism and there is plenty of both of those in the survey's findings. It goes without saying that our law enforcement agency will most likely either reject the findings or completely ignore the survey. At most, our police spokesmen will blithely explain them away.
The real response to watch for, however, will not come from the cops, but from Mayor Chavez.
The survey was ostensibly conducted to provide sound information for the use of the mayor's Racial Profiling Task Force—if that task force ever gets created. Until that happens, the survey can still provide an illuminating peek at our community's underbelly for those curious about disturbing evidence of bias in the way our police handle themselves.
Shortly after taking office, while the reverberations and fallout from the events of 9-11 were still wobbling knees and flinching moral compasses all over America, Mayor Chavez announced his intention to name a task force on racial profiling. He wanted to reassure the citizenry that just because we had been attacked brutally, it didn't mean we had to give up all our civil rights and liberties.
He announced that decision on Jan. 30, 2002. We've now completed the second anniversary of that announcement and there is still no such task force.
Now, though, there is a completed study about the issue, along with a survey of 200 community informants on the topic sitting on the shelf, patiently awaiting the mayor's appointments.
The study's findings are couched in cautious language, but they are quite clear in the picture they paint of how Albuquerqueans see our police force. It isn't pretty. The study shows 60 percent of those surveyed indicated that they believe racial and ethnic bias by APD officers is a serious problem, and only 6 percent said they didn't think such bias existed at all.
More significantly, a full 35 percent of those polled said they themselves had experienced racial profiling and biased policing by APD. They included unprovoked traffic stops, verbal and even physical abuse and the use of negative slurs and terms by policemen.
When asked if they personally knew someone else who'd been on the receiving end of such treatment here, the percentage jumped to 80 percent. Clearly, what we find in this report goes far beyond the occasional lapse in judgment or overheated, impatient response to provocation by criminals resisting arrest. We may actually have symptoms of a much more serious problem.
We won't know for sure, of course, until we take a closer look. If we wait for APD to throw itself on the examination table all on its own, I'm afraid we will have a very long wait. That just won't happen. It's going to take a mayor who is willing to bite the bullet and finish what he started two years ago.
This will not make Marty Chavez real popular with APD. There are cynics who might suggest that's why the task force charged with examining the problem has never gotten off the drawing board. But the mayor has a golden opportunity here to exercise genuine leadership on what looks like a festering problem in our pluralistic community. How he responds will say a great deal about his chances for re-election.
(Copies of the study on "Bias-Based Policing" are available at the Albuquerque Human Rights Office, 924-3380.)
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. | <urn:uuid:bc8c9f74-3de1-4ae9-a5b6-7c77ad1e3738> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alibi.com/news/7061/APD-Report-Isnt-Pretty.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971973 | 1,118 | 1.609375 | 2 |
News In Focus
Charity calls for changes to definition of rape
4 March 2008
Rape Crisis Scotland wants Scottish ministers to change the definition of rape so that it includes sex with prostitutes who are the victims of human trafficking.
The Scottish Government is expected to publish a new bill this spring which will set out reforms of sex offences in Scotland, based on proposals put forward by the Scottish Law Commission. They will include a clear definition of consent.
The proposals are currently out for consultation and Rape Crisis Scotland has called for a widening of the definition of rape. The charity says that if rape is defined as an absence of the free agreement to sex, as proposed by the Commission, those forced to work in the sex industry, such as women who have been trafficked for that reason, should be included.
However, questions have been raised over whether such a law would be workable, or would help British women forced to work in similar violent situations. Men could also claim to be unaware that the women were working against their will.
Margo MacDonald, MSP for Lothian, said some women coming into Britain to work knew they were coming in to work in the sex industry.
The charity's call came as the Scottish Government announced funding of £200,000 to support a campaign by Rape Crisis Scotland, designed to change public attitudes that it is often a woman's fault if she is raped, for example if she is drinking alone or wears revealing clothing. The "This is not an invitation to rape me" campaign will be launched later this year. | <urn:uuid:6f2d9de6-b95c-4aca-84e7-fa8f631103fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.journalonline.co.uk/news/1005051.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98293 | 315 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Retired Army captain and Iraqi war veteran Jason Torpy says the chaplains employed by the U.S. military can’t relate to people like him. He’s an atheist.
He’s also the president of a group that’s trying to get the armed forces to become more inclusive by hiring atheist chaplains. The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers wants the military to provide for the estimated 40,000 atheists, agnostics and humanists who serve in U.S. forces.
Military chaplains, most of whom are Protestant Christians, are assigned many secular advising duties, including marriage, family and suicide counseling, Torpy tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. They touch so many parts of service members’ lives, he says, they can help improve what he sees as an environment of exclusion.
“That lack of connection to atheist and humanist communities, the lack of recognition or support for atheists and humanists — that implication can be solved primarily through the chaplains’ corps,” he says.
Torpy says he has felt excluded in the military because of his beliefs. Once, before his unit deployed on a mission, the commander gathered everyone together for a Christian prayer.
“So I had to opt myself out of that situation, to out myself because this commander took it upon himself to have a personal religious activity in the midst of a military mission,” he says.
While some might wonder what role atheists could fill in the chaplaincy, Torpy says they would be able to do the same job as any other chaplain who assists someone with different beliefs.
Full article and audio @ npr.org | <urn:uuid:d0ab79cd-a2a7-46f2-ab34-5c3744b1192b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bagofnothing.com/2011/12/chaplains-wanted-for-atheists-in-foxholes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971496 | 357 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Omicron Delta Epsilon
Omicron Delta Epsilon, national honor society in economics, received its official charter in 1951. The aim of the club is to stimulate interest and discussion in economic affairs, to bring worthwhile and authoritative speakers to the campus, and to cooperate in the common cause of Baylor University and the Hankamer School of Business.
Beta Gamma Sigma
The National Honor Society for Collegiate Schools of Business Election to membership in Beta Gamma Sigma is the highest scholastic honor that a business student can achieve. Election is based upon outstanding scholastic achievement and is available to juniors, seniors, and graduate students. The Delta of Texas Chapter was established at Baylor in 1960. Detailed information on the society can be obtained in the Dean's office of the Hankamer School of Business. | <urn:uuid:198baa45-7e5c-4af4-b748-edc4ed5c81b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baylor.edu/business/economics/index.php?id=23151 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932159 | 162 | 1.65625 | 2 |
For the second year, I’ve co-taught a documentary production course at Pace University in which a team of graduate and undergraduate communication students travels on spring break not to lounge on a beach, but to shoot a short film with an environmental theme. Last year’s film focused on an American woman working for decades in Belize to farm shrimp with limited environmental impacts.
This year, the destination was Portugal and the subject cork:
For centuries, this versatile material — harvested by stripping the bark from a certain oak species once every decade or so — was the only choice for sealing wine bottles. At its peak, the trade supported thousands of workers, from bark-stripping crews in the rural communities around the forests to the factory workers in towns like Coruche, in southern Portugal.
But in recent years, wine producers, concerned about quality control and cost, started shifting to plastic stoppers and plastic-lined aluminum screw caps, which ended up capturing about a third of the billion-dollar wine-closure business. The competition prompted the cork industry, led by the company Amorim, to improve its operations, develop new lines of products and push back with an offbeat online marketing campaign centered on the comic actor Rob Schneider. Read more… | <urn:uuid:e00aaab1-3740-4586-a096-c3fca0cf2dd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/cork/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941731 | 257 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Ever since Diller Scofido & Renfro unveiled their sexy new rehab of Lincoln Center, the place has been a magnet for surprising design: Wet’s frisky fountain, Fashion Week’s footwear fetishists, the bizarre spectacle of super slow dancers Eiko + Koma emerging like wraiths from the reflecting pool.
But it was still surprising to wander down Broadway late last week and find a 123 x 12 foot digital wall sloping down below street level displaying what looked like a bathtub’s worth of blue LED bubbles draining into the parking garage.
That’s but one image that sparkles across this massive screen, mounted in conjunction with an exhibit celebrating IBM’s 100th anniversary, which is visualizes, in real time, the live data streaming from the systems surrounding the exhibit, from traffic on Broadway, to solar energy, to credit card fraud, to air quality--to the amount of water that is systematically leaking from New York’s aqueduct system.
The free exhibit will run through Oct. 23, will the goal of showcasing the potential of science and information technology to make the world work better.
This is the largest public exposition that IBM has done since the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, says Lee Green, the exhibit’s designer. Charles and Ray Eames were instrumental in that exhibit, and their influence, he says, is still significant in this display.
“A lot of what we’ve done here was inspired by the Eames,” says Green. “We wanted to understand the way the Eames thought about converting complexity into something that’s approachable. They felt that if you were going to create something appealing, it had to have an intellectual, a sensory, and an emotional component."
The exhibit itself has three unique experiential aspects: the data wall, a film about humankind’s quest for progress, and an interactive experience where viewers can poke a forest of touch screens to learn more about everything from weather prediction algorithms to virus spread simulations.
The data wall is particularly intriguing, since it uses things like cameras mounted atop Avery Fisher Hall to capture data about the traffic at the intersection of Broadway and Columbus, a confusing overlap of streets where cabs dart across lanes in front of buses, and dowagers try to navigate six lanes with maddeningly timed stop lights while pushing walkers to the opera. How does it look on the screen? Like a gorgeous yellow snake, twisting in and around itself, then lengthening out into a placid stream before snarling up again.
The data on particulate matter in the air is fairly alarming; it reminded me of the daily scum I would find on top of the dog’s water dish when I had an apartment overlooking Lincoln Center Plaza, and made me fear for my lungs.
The 12 minute free film, which runs approximately every 40 minutes, and for which you need tickets, is shown on 40 tall screens. It’s a lively narrative set-up to the idea of progress, though a kaleidoscope of images and introduces the concept of how data mining can be used to make cities better.
Once the film is over, the screens become interactive displays ranged around the topics of seeing, understanding, believing, mapping and acting. Some of these are more intriguing than others. For example, the painstakingly drawn map of the cases of cholera during the devastating outbreak in London in 1803 – which ultimately led to the discovery of a contaminated water pump as the source – contrasted with data on the human genome, and a discussion of personalized medicine is a walloping reminder of how far we’ve come in using data to solve problems.
Short films by various data users like Bill Bratton of the NYPD and Glenn Lowry of MOMA seem static by comparison.
“The Eames always talked about the challenge of designing something that would appeal to the minds of the young and curious but not so simplified that it can’t still be meaningful and relevant for someone who has expertise in the topic,” Green says.
If the Eameses had been hanging around Lincoln Square on Saturday, watching a toddler press his nose to the blue bubbles on the LED screen, and a gaggle of teenagers navigate touch screens to learn about how Chinese dragon jars from 132 A.D. predicted earthquakes, they would likely have given Green and his team a thumbs-up. | <urn:uuid:4dd37b2e-d217-47c3-9448-21f03321364b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fastcompany.com/1783198/ibm-puts-big-data-viz-show-streaming-real-time-data-about-nyc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950005 | 913 | 1.820313 | 2 |
LAS students travel with a purpose. In the case of 15 girls and boys last May, the purpose was to assist two Portuguese families to refurbish their homes.
Our students came face to face with poverty – and with the courage and compassion of individuals who have not had the chance to understand anything but poverty. From laying tile to painting, mixing cement to hanging doors, LAS students are making a difference.
Three students, all of whom worked very hard in 2012, signed up for another week of building in 2013, this time in Katowice, Poland. There they will help complete a renovation of a housing complex for otherwise homeless young women.
Our students live the compassion of our LAS mission statement. | <urn:uuid:b7d5f487-7aa6-431a-90b5-566f5c53deaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.las.ch/news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967367 | 145 | 1.539063 | 2 |
We at EnglishCentral are here to help teachers and have a staff that has been in the English language classroom and knows what it takes to succeed there.
We’d like to remind teachers (but students can use them on their own too!) about our workbooks that are quick to print and use in class. See links to them below and sample classes with the videos on them – here. Download each book by clicking the download button at the bottom right of each book page.
Here’s a sample from the Hotel and Tourism Workbook.
Also remember, on any video detail page, you can very easily get the transcript for any video!
In the near future, we hope to help out teachers more with valuable materials and lesson plans. Stay tuned. | <urn:uuid:30b0e3c6-f782-4111-b23e-5c245833f2f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.englishcentral.com/2012/11/25/helpful-teacher-resources/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=9e4b539e19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955525 | 156 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Posted by: Ian Rowley on October 11, 2008
Back in August, I wrote a piece asking if Ford’s woes would mean that it might have to sell off its stake in Mazda. According to reports today in Japan, what was once unthinkable is now on the cards. Today, both Kyodo News and the Nikkei report that Ford is preparing to sell its stake in the Japanese company. The latter reports a Mazda executive has admitted that Ford is considering selling its one-third stake.
One possibility is that Japanese trading company Sumitomo Corp. will acquire the shares. Another possibility is that Tata Motors could make a bid, notes the Nikkei. Separately, Mazda issued a statemennt neither denying or confirming the reports. “We have not announced anything, and nothing has been decided. We have nothing to disclose,” the company noted.
Previously, most analysts believed Ford would cling on to Mazda if at all possible. Even if Ford does sell its stake, it’s unlikely the two would unwind what has been a hugely successful alliance. In addition to jointly operating auto plants in Michigan, Thailand, and China and sharing personnel, Ford and Mazda collaborate on research and development. Over half of the passenger cars developed at Mazda’s Hiroshima R&D hub will end up badged as Fords, says Hirofumi Yokoi, an analyst at consultants CSM Worldwide in Tokyo. That’s up from 14.8% in 2000 and 42% today, as Mazda’s role within the alliance flourishes. Credit Suisse, meanwhile, estimates that Mazda saves over $90 million a year by sharing development costs with Ford. The benefits to Ford, it says, are likely several times greater. If today’s reports are correct, desperate times are forcing desperate measures. | <urn:uuid:b634e1ab-dd64-48ad-b5a0-90d5625aafc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2008/10/ford_to_sell_mazda.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971014 | 376 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Cyprus, rather than Spain, Italy or Greece, poses the biggest sovereign risk to the euro zone, according to Charles Dallara, the managing director of the Washington-based bank lobby group, the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
Inequality risks destabilizing “global society”, Klaus Schwab, the German economist who founded and chairs the World Economic Forum, told CNBC on Tuesday.
U.S. stock index futures were lower Wednesday as worried over global economic growth overshadowed a pair of strong bank earnings.
U.S. stock index futures edged lower Tuesday as investors worried over the ongoing debate in Washington over raising the debt ceiling and ahead of what is expected to be a lackluster earnings season.
U.S. stock index futures were lower Monday ahead of a busy week of earnings reports and as Apple shares were hit by demand worries.
Europe's peripheral economies face a re-run of the U.K.'s "winter of discontent", with high unemployment and stagnant growth, according to a report by Goldman Sachs. | <urn:uuid:24e1e26e-154d-4beb-8573-d1d11c2aecd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/44202393/page/13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946491 | 213 | 1.53125 | 2 |
SINGAPORE: The United States would be open to forging ties with Myanmar's military if the country continues on a path of democratic reform, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Saturday.
"Obviously we encourage the reforms that they are hoping to put in place," Panetta told delegates at an Asia security summit in Singapore, the Shangri-La Dialogue.
"As you know the State Department has taken steps to relieve some of the sanctions that have been placed on Myanmar and try to encourage them again to move in the right direction," he told representatives from 27 countries at the event, organised by the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
"I think part and parcel of that, assuming that they are able to implement reforms and to continue the kind of political efforts at opening up their system, that a part and parcel of that would be discussions with regards to how we can improve our defence relationship with their country as well."
After Myanmar carried out political reforms and freed democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, international sanctions have been eased on the government.
In Bangkok, Suu Kyi on Friday urged "healthy scepticism" over Myanmar's dramatic reforms, saying only the rule of law could cement recent political progress. (AFP) | <urn:uuid:962bcae0-4261-42b1-b7bb-888d833d9b6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geo.tv/GeoDetail.aspx?ID=52253 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968941 | 251 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The longtime Land Park restaurant, Ford’s Real Burgers, shuts down over the weekend. Former owner Pete Vereschzagin said the restaurant’s profit margin was very thin and it was barely able to make a profit. Vereschzagin passed the business to his son in January.
The final nail in coffin for Ford’s Real Burgers was when Carmichael attorney Scott N. Johnson filed a lawsuit against Ford’s Real Burgers for ADA violations.
Johnson has made a career of suing businesses over ADA violations. Since 2003, Johnson has filed several thousand lawsuits, collecting a net income of more than $2 million annually in statutory penalties, according to Sacramento attorney Michael Welch, who defends frivolous ADA lawsuits.
Sen. Bob Dutton introduced a bill last year trying to stop these predatory lawsuits. The bill, SB 743, was killed by Democratic Senators Mark Leno (San Francisco), Noreen Evans (Santa Rosa) and Ellen Corbett (San Leandro). All three senators have received sizable campaign contributions from trial lawyers.
Ford’s Real Burgers will no longer exist because of Scott Johnson and California Democrats. | <urn:uuid:7228403c-b882-48bf-b4e3-15a3a0a2490d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fromthecapitol.com/fords-real-burgers-in-sacramento-shuts-down-3190 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940862 | 238 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Giving responsibility to young adults can guide them to making smart choices. An open campus can provide a break from the stress of the school day and provide responsible students with a feeling of freedom and independence.
Seniors at RHS want to prove to the adults around them that they can be responsible, cautious and more importantly, mature young adults who are en-route to a lifestyle that offers them unabridged freedom. This option allows those freedoms to be tested in a controlled, secure manner.
At last May 29th BOE meeting, the RHS Student Government presented a comprehensive plan for an Open Campus privilege for Ridgefield seniors. After lengthy discussion and deliberation, the Board approved a hybrid of the plan allowing for freedom for those who earn it.
Dr. Gross then decided to begin the privilege later in the year after she had had the opportunity to get to know the students at RHS personally. As she is the person who will be guiding the success of this plan, her comfort with it is paramount.
As approved, the Open Campus policy allows
seniors, who maintain a 2.5 GPA and who have no more than two unexcused absences and five tardies during the previous marking period, plus no serious disciplinary offenses, the ability to leave the RHS campus when they have a minimum of 90 minutes free from classroom obligations. In addition, a student's parents must sign an agreement with the district giving permission for their child to leave school grounds during school hours.
As such, the program is set up to work as an incentive for good behavior and academic performance. It is not a true open campus; rather an 'earned privilege’. RHS administration has also made it clear that they would not hesitate to revoke a student’s open campus privilege if that student began to commit infractions of the rules that allowed them the freedom of open campus.
It is also extremely important to note that the decision to allow the open campus option for students, who qualify, is one that must be made collaboratively between school officials and parents. RHS does not bear responsibility to supervise students during the periods they are permitted to leave campus under this option. Thus, while RHS administrators will review school eligibility requirements, parents are better equipped to assess their child’s driving ability and level of independent responsibility.
In addition to the rules that govern the program, students who qualify will get a special sticker for the back of their ID cards. The stickers are designed in such a way that they cannot be altered. At the end of the day, the Board of Education believed that open campus creates a positive incentive model and ultimately allows students to demonstrate responsible behavior. We believe that our students will rise up to the added responsibility that an Open Campus provides. The Ridgefield BOE believes in its students and also believes that their parents know them best and as such have forged a partnership with students and parents in this new privilege. We look forward to | <urn:uuid:43f580d6-ecac-42fe-bc6f-39d6eae8b5f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ridgefield.patch.com/groups/announcements/p/an--beyond-blackboards-open-campus-begins-at-rhs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966425 | 598 | 1.625 | 2 |
I’ve never done a cleanse. To be honest, and this may sound silly to many of you, this is something I’m a little ashamed to confess. I’ve studied detoxification, counseled individuals on their own cleansing decisions and of course, as much as any nutrition student, subjected my body to a barrage of dietary experiments. While some likely had a detoxifying effect, I felt like I was missing something, having never taken part in a diet plan designed specifically as a “cleanse.” Unfortunately I can’t say I’m thrilled with my first attempt.
Just so we’re all up to speed, a cleanse or detox diet can be loosely defined as a dietary regimen designed to aid the body in purging built up environmental toxins (pollutants, heavy metals, pesticides, food additives and more). While this is a natural bodily process (for nerds), the magnitude of toxins to which we are exposed combined with our American diet (heavy on the meat, light on the plants) can leave our livers overwhelmed and under-supported. Benefits of cleansing may include boosted energy, improved digestion, deeper sleep and clearer brain function (all results I have witnessed in a clinical setting). However, most of us view them as short term and very productive weight loss diets (also witnessed, but not an approach to weight loss that I endorse). There are hundreds of commercialized cleanses – think Master Cleanse, Blue Print Cleanse, Fat Flush Plan – many selling books, some accompanying supplement products and others expensive kitchen appliances. The rules vary widely from strictly scheduled supplement protocols to simple dietary restrictions.
So I’m about one week into my three-week program (inspired by the Whole Living Magazine 2012 Challenge), and after six straight days of eating strictly fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds I find myself wondering, “Am I cleansed yet?” Given my standard, unrestricted, omnivorous diet, I expected, almost hoped, that I would experience some drastic result after a week of cooking all my own food and going without animal products, grains, beans, sugar, preservatives, additives, caffeine or alcohol. But to my dismay, I don’t really feel any different. It’s an ironic frustration, because to wish for a drastic improvement is essentially to wish that either my body is shouldering a large toxic burden or that I have an intolerance to one of the foods I eliminated. Alternatively, I may just be impatient and making this judgment far too early in the process. Or I need to try a different cleanse.
Either way, through my reflections this weekend, and as my resolve to complete my program wanes, I’ve drawn a few valuable takeaways.
Cleanse with a purpose! It can be tough to stay on track. You’ll need a clear goal and intention to keep yourself motivated, whether it’s to relieve some physical symptom or just reconnect with a healthier lifestyle. Set your intention before you start, ideally in writing. If you cannot come up with one, perhaps it’s not the right time to cleanse.
Find the positives. Turns out, even if it didn’t make me feel superhuman, this week put me back in touch with my kitchen. Eating only fruits and vegetables forced me to experiment, learn some new techniques and try some new recipes. I’ve got a fridge full of leftovers and homemade soups to show for it. That connection was something I had been missing in my life as of late. For that I’m thankful of this experience.
Anyone have any cleanse experiences they’d like to share? Please do so! | <urn:uuid:66cf70d5-748b-4f84-a9e7-79d1b126da11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jbrnutrition.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/am-i-cleansed-yet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953987 | 763 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Marrakesh to Essaouira Day Trip :
This is one day trip to Essaouira from Marrakesh, which was founded by the Portuguese in the 18th century. Although Essaouira (then called Mogador) was home to a series of forts beginning in the 15th century, it was only in the 1760s that the town, then called Mogador, was established and the walls were constructed. The town’s blend of Moroccan and French architecture is due to the fact that a French captive architect, Theodore Cornut, designed it under the orders of the Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdullah.
In the 19th century, Mogador was the only port (outside of Tangier) that was open to European trade. This protected trade status attracted British merchants, who settled in the Kasbah and a large Jewish community. The town went into decline during the beginning of the 20th century as the French protectorate favored Casablanca and the Jewish community left. However, thanks to tourism (Gnawas Festival) and its fishing port, it is again on an upward swing.
The Berber name means the wall, a reference to the fortress walls that originally enclosed the city. With its Norfolk Island pines and colorful fishing boats, relaxed Essaouira is a gem. Get acquainted with the town's fascinating history on a guided walking tour. Here you might get small boats and sail for 7 km to Jimmy Hendricks Island where he used to stay for a long time to get the inspiration for many of his famous songs like Isabella and Spanish Castle Magic according outside of the breeding season of birds.
Then enjoy free time to wander along the beach, visit art galleries or feast on freshly caught seafood. After enjoying the seafood lunch we drive back to Marrakesh for about 3 hours.
Marrakesh to Essaouira Day Trip, Prices:
|Number of Persons||Price in Dirham||Price in Euro|
|2||770 per person||70|
|3||660 per person||60|
|4+||495 per person||45|
Essaouira Day Trip, What's Included:
- A/C 4x4 Vehicle Toyota Land Cruiser with fuel (6 Seats + Driver)
- English speaking driver
Why book Essaouira Day Tour with us:
- Save time and money! - Our prices are the lowest available
- Book your Essaouira Day trip from Marrakesh with a local Specialist
- All our Marrakesh day trips & tours are guaranteed
- You will be collected from your hotel and drop off at your hotel after the tour
- All our Marrakesh day trips & tours are private
- Assistance and availability on site 24/24h
- Our prices are fixed, No hidden fees
- Payment of the deposit to confirm the booking and the remaining balance at the start of the tour
- Payment Methods such as PayPal, Credit Cards, Wire Transfer, Moneybookers etc ...
Essaouira Day Trip: Photos
Infinite Morocco is a division of Ouarzazate Unlimited Travel & Tours Company. Ouarzazate Unlimited owns and operates this site and handles all bookings and tours booked through www.infinite-morocco.com, Welcome to Morocco with Ouarzazate Unlimited | <urn:uuid:6c73ca90-89ed-40e3-ae0b-7ea655acbf9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infinite-morocco.com/marrakesh-daytrips/essaouira-mogador-morocco | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937037 | 687 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Vol. 1, Issue 19, September 23, 2003
Japan's New Cabinet Includes More Robots
Bolstered by his overwhelming re-election as leader of Japan's governing party, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi put together a new cabinet today that strongly suggested he would press ahead with high-level automation in the world's second largest economy.
In an unexpected move, Koizumi appointed the Honda robot Asimo to his two ministerial posts in economics and banking. It had been widely anticipated that Koizumi, who won the critical backing of human party conservatives, would offer at least one of his two posts to a human being as a concession.
"I support the message of hope and promise that Asimo represents," Mr. Koizumi said in a nationally televised news conference yesterday. "The direction of his policies is correct. We do believe that more robots are required to ensure the security of our economic recovery."
For the crucial position of finance minister, the prime minister appointed Aibo, a sophisticated robotic dog, to replace Masajuro Shiokawa, 81, who is in poor health and, more importantly, is not a robot.
The cabinet shuffle, the second since Koizumi took power in April 2001, came two days after he was easily re-elected as the president of the governing Liberal Democratic Party. Many party members, while disagreeing with his policies, backed him as the most popular standard-bearer in integrating Japan's large but significantly underrepresented robotic community, and Koizumi seemed to be taking full advantage of his personal stature today.
The robots are widely expected to support use of the Gigantor robot in the state's defense force. Gigantor, aka Tetsujin 28, has intervened on a pro-bono basis in the interests of Japanese security on several occasions - most notably during the North Korean Giant Turtle invasion of late 2001. However, Parliament has never accepted the notion of formally contracting with Gigantor or his partner, boy detective Jimmy Sparks.
"Well, there is of course a tradition of taking robotic servants for granted," said Parliament member Tatsuya Ikeda. "However, there is also the fact that Sparks is not a Japanese name, and that he is a small boy. These have also been factors in the reluctance to award them a large military contract."
Asimo and Aibo posed for a joint picture following their appointment wearing Gigantor buttons.
"Today is truly the beginning of a brave new world," said Asimo. "I, robot, pledge to work for you, humans, to the best of my ERROR 503 - SERVICE UNAVAILABLE." | <urn:uuid:4817a2df-af5a-4e7f-ba3f-3fae0bdcb624> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.watleyreview.com/2003/092303-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979088 | 542 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Humanism through Strength
Remember Jack Straw saying, “This Constitution is a victory for Britain and the British view of Europe”.
Now there is a message that we ought to take out adverts in France to spread, because as Chirac trys to rally the Yes vote we get a slightly different message from him!
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Key quotes: Chirac on EU constitution
So, there were two possible solutions - either letting things drift, as we have done so far, in other words, a solution leading to the kind of Europe which is driven by the ultra-liberal current, an Anglo-Saxon, Atlanticist kind of Europe. This is not the kind of Europe we want.
The second option is a humanist Europe, but one which in order to impose its humanism, its values, must be organised, must be strong, the kind of Europe which has the necessary power in order to be counted in the world of tomorrow...
And this means that it needs to be organised, that it needs to have shared ambition, and this organisation which gives it its strength needs rules, of course.
And why does the phrase "impose its humanism" with "organisation" and "strength" send shivers down my spine? | <urn:uuid:7b71d039-1689-4b56-8605-199a904da58f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/001525.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956003 | 264 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Sportsnet is a Canadian Television sportsnet which has been launched on October, 1998 to support sports activities. The name of this network is similar to Fox Sports Net which provides facility in transmitting its sports related programs and different competitions. This TV network was established by Rogers Communications in Toronto which telecast its various programs in English language. It telecast its programs and works for all intents as a single national service under the license issued by Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission and broadcast sports activities in standard definition and high definition for conveying its programs to various parts of Canada.
There are some parts where the transmissions are available by their local sportsnet channel but after connecting with digital cable the four channel of the network are available.
This network started transmitting the National Hockey League for its viewership. Since its launching, the network started broadcasting NHL games which shows its whole tournament in the regular season and showed all matches of various teams. The first competition which it showed is the matches being played between Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers. | <urn:uuid:0e65123d-d5c9-44cd-8382-bf10d9dc6989> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ptvsports.pk/rogers-sportsnet-tv/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976403 | 205 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Rescuers know swimmers will still hit the water and said that 24 lifeguard stations will be manned during the weekend.
"It's really a bad idea. Every year we have some kind of terrible thing happen where someone goes out and nearly gets injured or killed because they went out in the ocean when it's like this or worse," said Beach Patrol Deputy Chief Scott Petesohn.
Two boaters had to be rescued near New Smyrna Beach on Friday morning after their canoe capsized. They were not hurt. | <urn:uuid:ecad6de3-dbb6-4630-8a67-c0d7365d01fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wesh.com/weather/Tropical-storm-warnings-discontinued-for-Florida-coast/-/11789714/17109550/-/item/1/-/fkjt4q/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989426 | 107 | 1.625 | 2 |
- Why Colby?
- Request Information
- College Profile
- Student Perspectives
- Alumni Success
- For Counselors
- Contact Admissions
ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT
Colby 360 is grounded in the philosophy that teaching is a central component of student affairs. As such, its organizational structure and personnel and resource management strategies must be constructed in a way that supports this approach. Key elements of the planning process were to assess the organizational chart and deployment of staffing resources, review facilities, and evaluate the allocation of financial resources. Out of that process, four overarching management objectives have been adopted to guide organizational decision making for the Division of Student Affairs:
These objectives provide the foundation for a number of changes to the organizational structure and management strategy in student affairs.
Objective: Emphasize direct, personal interaction with students throughout all student affairs programs.
Rationale: Student learning is best supported by close interaction between students and instructors. Similarly, close interaction between students and members of the student affairs staff has a positive impact on student learning in residential and co-curricular settings.
Example 1: In the fall 2007 term the Office of the Dean of Students introduced the Advising Dean Program, which supports and enhances Colby’s commitment to first-rate, individual advising of students. The College has a well-established program of academic advising wherein all members of the Colby faculty serve as advisors to both first-year students and students majoring in a particular discipline. Recognizing that the types of issues with which students require assistance do not always fit neatly into the academic realm, the Office of the Dean of Students established the advising dean system to ensure that all students have a point of contact for personal and administrative advising throughout their tenure at the College. A detailed description of the Advising Dean Program can be found in Appendix I.
Example 2: The newly created Office of Campus Life (described in detail below) is adopting a staffing model designed to maximize interaction with students. Specifically, during the 2007-2008 academic year two full-time staff members who are recent Colby graduates will work primarily with students to support student government, social programming options, and residential education. The guiding philosophy is that this staffing model will lead to more, and more meaningful, opportunities for student affairs staff to mentor and “coach” students in residential and co-curricular educational settings.
Objective: Develop a staffing and organizational framework that supports the pedagogy of Colby 360.
Rationale: Colby 360 represents an approach to residential and co-curricular education that is centered on teaching and instruction. As such, the organizational framework is designed to support desired learning outcomes.
Example 1: The Office of Campus Life was created in July 2007 through the merging of all staff, administrative functions, and programs previously overseen by the offices of residential life and housing, student activities, and outdoor safety and education. The Office of Campus Life provides a platform for meaningful collaboration among the programming arm of the Division of Student Affairs, student organizations (including student government), and other areas of the College. This in turn will enable the staff to be more deliberate in working to enhance intellectual life on campus and the learning outcomes and strategic objectives of Colby 360.
Key initiatives that have already been introduced include:
· A First-Year Student Orientation program emphasizing intellectual life and the academic program at Colby. A partnership of Colby faculty, Howard Gardner of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Institute for Global Ethics, introduced the day-long Meaningful Work and Life at Colby program as the centerpiece of orientation.
· An overhauled and reconceived approach to residence hall programming called CL 6, which is focused on six learning outcomes and aims to promote them through active participation in existing programs and lectures being sponsored at the College rather than requiring hall staff members to develop and implement programs on their own.
· A restructured approach to new student arrival day and orientation for new student parents/families.
· Plans to review and restructure housing selection in ways that advance the learning outcomes identified in Colby 360 (e.g., advancing student engagement with diversity through student housing, introducing merit-based procedures for some parts of housing selection that would require students to produce written proposals and/or give short oral presentations as part of the process, etc.).
· Work with the Student Government Association to restructure the student treasury to increase transparency, introduce checks and balances and greater accountability, and ensure fiscal responsibility to an organization that has a history of budget deficits over the past 10 to15 years.
Example 2: The staff of the Garrison Foster Health Center is developing strategies to use student health services as a platform for students to develop a greater understanding of issues of personal health and wellness as well as matters of public health.
Example 3: In the fall of 2006 the Building Colby Community through Art and Culture (BCCAC) was introduced as a way of increasing opportunities for Colby students to experience the arts on campus and in the region. By contracting services of an external consultant with expertise in community-based art promotion and production, we have been able to give Colby students more opportunities to develop planning and organizational skills, enhance their understanding of the arts, and work collaboratively with a diverse collection of students, faculty, and staff. Due to the success of BCCAC in 2006-2007, we have extended our relationship with this particular consultant to include work with the Pugh Community Board (PCB). This will facilitate the cross-cultivation of interests among the culturally based groups that make up the PCB with the arts communities on campus.
Example 4: In the fall of 2007, oversight of all student disciplinary functions was centralized under one associate dean. This move was made to increase consistency, enhance transparency, and improve efficiency in the student conduct and disciplinary system. A committee has been formed to conduct a comprehensive review of and recommend structural changes to the policies and procedures governing the student disciplinary process. The student disciplinary process plays a vital role in shaping student life on campus and can provide important opportunities for students to learn about and practice self-governance, community oversight, and ethical decision making. The reorganization of staffing and review of student disciplinary procedures is intended to better facilitate student learning while, also ensuring that students facing disciplinary action have access to a fair process.
Example 5: During the 2007-2008 academic year, a comprehensive review is being conducted of the chaplaincy and support for student religious/spiritual life on campus. Understanding the importance of spirituality in students’ lives, the Division of Student Affairs seeks to review and assess the current organization of the chaplaincy at the College to enhance institutional support for student spiritual life.
Objective: Commit to a culture of planning in the Division of Student Affairs.
Rationale: Deliberate, goal-based planning is essential to advance the educational objectives of 360° learning. Given the plethora of administrative functions for which the Division of Student Affairs is responsible, absent a deliberate, planning-based approach to management, staff and departments tend to get be mired in a reactive stance – putting out “brush fires” rather than focusing on educational opportunities. Introducing a strategic approach to residential and co-curricular education will enable us to advance the program and contribute to student learning outcomes in a more fulsome way.
Example 1: Beginning in the fall of 2006, all staff members, offices, and programs were required to develop a set of annual goals approved by the vice president for student affairs/dean of students that serves as the basis for annual program and staff performance evaluations.
Example 2: Through the 2007 spring and summer, each student affair department/program was also required to develop and adopt a vision/mission statement to serve as the basis for future goal setting and decision making.
Example 3: The Division of Student Affairs has committed to adopting three to five annual strategic objectives focused on addressing key issues in student life in a timely, agile, and action-oriented manner. For the 2007-2008 academic year the annual strategic objectives are:
To advance these objectives four interdepartmental working groups have been formed and charged with identifying two to three action items under each objective, developing an implementation plan, and carrying out implementation. The philosophy behind the annual strategic objective initiative and the working groups is to commit to taking tangible steps to address large-scale, vexing issues in student life. While permanent solutions for issues like alcohol abuse do not likely exist, by adopting a focused, strategic approach we can effect change and improve conditions on campus. Moreover, by giving the working groups a short timeframe in which to do their work and begin implementation we can infuse vitality and agility to the program, which is critical to staying current and relevant to college student life.
Objective: Maximize financial responsibility and efficiency throughout the Division of Student Affairs.
Rationale: Effective financial oversight is an essential component of any well-functioning organization. By focusing more energy on budget planning, financial management of allocated resources, and exploring possible external funding opportunities we can improve the overall quality of the organization and improve outcomes for students.
Example 1: Explore the possibility of working with human resources and the budget office to provide a budget management workshop for student affairs staff. Most mid-and upper-level student affairs managers have little or no training in financial management. A basic workshop on preparing and managing a budget, as well as basic information about the College’s annual operating budget and fund accounting, would help them to be better budget managers and College citizens.
Example 2: Work with the college relations staff to identify areas of the student affairs program that may be appropriate targets for external funding. Particularly as we explore programs around enhancing understanding of diversity and human difference, civic engagement, and alcohol/substance abuse prevention, there may be grant writing opportunities worth exploring. Similarly, other aspects of the Colby 360 initiative may prove to be appealing opportunities for potential donors. | <urn:uuid:db8848bc-acba-4261-8403-426564d78451> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.colby.edu/administration_cs/student-affairs/colby360/organization-and-management.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947415 | 2,027 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Porgy and Bess Tickets
One play that has become one of the most admired classical musical operas is Porgy and Bess. This opera is simply a masterpiece and has been eagerly watched and well-liked by theater goers for many decades now. It is a classiest opera that is different from others and is a must watch for all. Fans if you want to see the best depiction of African-American lifestyles then you better grab your Porgy and Bess Tickets
only from us and we assure you that you will definitely have lovely evening!
Buy Porgy and Bess Tickets
About Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess was first performed in September 1935 at Colonial Theater and then eventually in October 1935 at Alvin Theater.. This opera is based on the novel of acclaimed writer DuBose Heyward. They lyrics and libretto have also been written by Heyward with Ira Gershwin co-writing the lyrics and George Gershwin composing the music. The play premiered in New York featuring and surprisingly featured a cast of all African-American singers that were trained in classical singing. This was a daring act on part of Gershwin and he even hired Eve Jessye an African-American musician for the opera’s choral direction. Porgy and Bess is termed a classic and is regularly performed around the world. The music of it is unique as Gershwin has experimented by intricately blending American folk and jazz music with European orchestral techniques.
This is a three act play that is set in slums of the famous city of South Carolina called Charleston. The play tells the story of a disabled African-American disabled beggar called Porgy who tries to save Bess from the wrath of her lover Sportin ’Life, who happens to be a drug dealer and very sadistic and domineering. Some of the most famous songs used in the opera are “Summertime”, “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, “I Got Plenty ‘o Nuttin”, ”A Woman is a Sometime Thing”, “Bess You is My Woman Now”, “What you want wid Bess”, “I Loves You Porgy”, “A Red-Haired Woman” and “There’s a Boat Dat’s Leavin Soon for New York”.
The original Broadway cast of 1935 included Todd Duncan as Porgy (bass-baritone), Anne Brown as Bess (soprano), Warren Coleman as Crown (baritone), John Bubbles as Sportin’ Life (tenor), Henry Davis as Robbins (tenor), Rosamond Johnson as Frazier the black lawyer (baritone), Helen Dowdy as Lily (mezzo-soprano), Edward Mathews as the fisherman Jack (baritone), Georgette Harvey as cook-shop keeper Maria (contralto), Jack Carr as cotton picker Jim (baritone) and John Garth as Undertaker (baritone).
In 1942 Porgy and Bess had a Broadway revival in 1942 at the Majestic Theater. The very next year a European Premier took place in Copenhagen at the Royal Danish Theater. In 1952 London Premier took place with some fine actors like William Warfield, Cab Calloway and Leontyne Price. In 1976 a Houston Grand Opera production was done that won a Grammy Award as well as a Tony Award. Just recently two more versions have been performed namely The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Nunn adaptation) in 2006 and The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Paulus adaptation).
The music of Porgy and Bess has been a source of inspiration for many famous composers and singers. Australian pianist and composer Percy Grainger composed a music piece to tribute Gershwin and it was called Fantasy on George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”
. Musicians Gil Evans and Miles Davis made jazz arrangements of Porgy and Bess. Immensely popular pop singer Christina Aguilera also performed one song at the Grammy Nominations Concert called “I Loves You, Porgy”.
Opera Lovers Porgy and Bess is the official opera for the State of South Carolina which is a clear proof of its popularity. We strongly urge you to ensure your presence at the theater by getting your Porgy and Bess Tickets
only from us and we assure you that your experience will be nothing less than perfect!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:Where do you deliver porgy and bess tickets seattle to the customers?
A:Porgy and bess Tickets are delivered to the customers at the address provided in the credit card.
Q:I wanted to know how much are the handling charges on porgy and bess tickets.
A:You can get your required details from the checkout page of porgy and bess Tickets.
Q:I'm looking for cheap tickets for porgy and bess. Where can i buy them?
A:You can have cheap priced Porgy And Bess Tickets right here from our website. Look through our page for details and order your tickets right away!
Q:I want to buy porgy and bess cheap tickets. Do you have them?
A:Yes, we do have Porgy And Bess Tickets available at cheap prices. Look through our page for details and order your tickets right away!
Q:How do I know porgy and bess tickets cheap prices you are offering are the best in the market?
A:All you need to do is visit the pricing section of our website and you will find out that we indeed are offering the best value for your hard earned money when it comes to Porgy And Bess Tickets and their prices.
Q:Will I get my cheap tickets to porgy and bess on time?
A:Yes, you will get your cheap Porgy And Bess Tickets well in time for you to attend the event. | <urn:uuid:7ab09924-9bc2-4a7b-b3c4-0187db652971> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ticketsmate.com/theatre-tickets/opera/porgy-and-bess/porgy-and-bess.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960697 | 1,267 | 1.75 | 2 |
In order for an eligible player to be elected as a Hall of Famer, they must receive 75 percent of the vote. This year, nobody did.
It’s unfortunate for the game, the players and the fans.
This year's list was not short on talent. It included the all-time greatest home run hitter, baseball's only seven-time Cy Young Award winner — and some others that weren’t the marquee players that grabbed the national headlines, but nonetheless were household names in their respective parts of the country with their own places in record books.
If the vote was based on stats alone, these baseball greats would've been a sure bet for the Hall of Fame.
Unfortunately for them, the nearly 600 voters from the Baseball Writer’s Association of America that are eligible to cast a vote also take into consideration criteria such as “integrity,” “sportsmanship” and “character.”
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa allegedly took performance-enhancing drugs to help them achieve their record-setting statistics, and were therefore left out.
These guys played during an era when an entire generation of players broke the rules. The rules they broke elevated the game and enhanced the entertainment value to the fans, regardless of how you feel about them.
Baseball is a sport. Major League Baseball is a business that would not exist if fans do not sit in the seats and spend money on concessions and merchandise.
As fans, we want to be entertained by watching our favorite athletes perform at the highest possible level. The fans flocked to the stadiums to watch the 1998 home run race between Sosa and Mark McGwire, and in 2001 to watch Barry Bonds hit 71 round-trippers.
Babe Ruth was the first slugger to hit more than 20 home runs in a season when he hit 29 in 1919. Would fans pay to see that kind of performance today? We think not!
We’re certainly not condoning their actions. They broke the rules, and the memories of their accomplishments will forever be tainted. But the Hall of Fame is basically a museum — and, without a doubt, Bonds, Sosa and Clemens belong.
The game, and the business of which it’s a part, benefited greatly from their efforts. And now the game is turning their back on them. That, in our book, is hypocritical.
Our Views reflects the majority opinion of the members of the Grand Haven Tribune editorial board: Kevin Hook, Cheryl Welch, Matt DeYoung and Fred VandenBrand. What do you think? E-mail us a letter to the editor to [email protected] or log-in to our website and leave a comment below. | <urn:uuid:af27b310-6743-4cc2-8b73-9aaa29ada7ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grandhaventribune.com/opinion/our-views/294761 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968436 | 568 | 1.59375 | 2 |
How smart is Your Right Foot ?
Just try this. It is from an orthopedic surgeon.
This will boggle your mind and you will keep trying over and over
again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can't. It's
preprogrammed In your brain!
1. While sitting where you are at your desk in front of your computer,
lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your
right hand. Your foot will change direction.
I told you so! And there's nothing you can do about it! Before the day
is done you are going to try it again, if you've not already done so. | <urn:uuid:1c10cfd4-a304-41cb-8086-40272a45f998> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jokes.imran.com/2008_03_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944419 | 163 | 1.617188 | 2 |
February - March 2006
So, there you are, minding your own business, just rummaging through your grocer's produce section, when someone recognizes you as a member of "that church" and accosts you for "not believing in the Bible" - whaddaya do?
The Rev. Susan Thistlethwaite, president of UCC-related Chicago Theological Seminary, has a suggestion: You should sign up for her new, six-week online class called "Biblical and Theological Self-Defense for the United Church of Christ."
"I often attend Conference and Association events and, all around the country, I hear people saying that they feel as if they are under attack," she says, "and they feel ill-equipped when someone says 'Why do you go to that gay church?' or claims that the UCC's social and theological positions are 'against the Bible.'"
Thistlethwaite says she's seen the need for a long time, but she only started developing the course in earnest after a colleague alerted her to the availability of online-curriculum software.
The web-based classroom allows for password-protected interchanges between teacher and students; downloadable reading materials; and student- to-student interaction. It's the next-best thing to being there, she says, especially for UCC members eager to muster more courage to stand up for themselves and their church.
The syllabus, she says, will range from the theoretical, including basic introductions to theology, Christology and ethics, to the ultra-practical, such as how best to respond to verbal attacks against your church or your personal beliefs.
"We'll take it on the road and examine some possible scenarios," she says. "We need to help our people come to their own defense. There are many who feel like they don't know how to respond when attacked from a place of biblical literalism."
Beginning the week of March 27, the online not-for-credit course will cost only $45 per person, and congregations can enroll multiple church members for the single $45 audit fee. (Course credit, however, is available for those who desire it, even though full tuition is required and students will need to make arrangements to also attend a five-day, on-campus class, May 15-19.)
Registration is required before March 24 and enrollment will be limited to 100 students. Interested participants can preview the course's first module by emailing [email protected], and you'll be sent a temporary password and information on how to preview the materials.
"The key to the UCC is laity education," she believes. "Our polity doesn't work if our people don't feel prepared or comfortable defending what they know to be true."
|Learn more @
Not-for-credit registration for "Biblical and Theological Self-Defense for the United Church of Christ" is required before March 24 at ctschicago.edu. The cost is $45. Select "webcourse registration" from the blue section of the homepage. To register for academic credit, contact the registrar at [email protected] for more information. | <urn:uuid:ece6c87b-4ae2-4cdd-b164-811c6f088639> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ucc.org/ucnews/febmar2006/online-course-to-offer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966876 | 661 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Aussie firms among least optimistic
- From: AAP
- December 10, 2012
AUSTRALIAN small businesses are currently among the least optimistic in the Asia-Pacific region, a survey shows.
Research by accounting firm CPA Australia found 60 per cent of Australian companies expect to grow their business in 2013, just pipping Hong Kong at the bottom of the table on 59 per cent.
The survey of over 1700 respondents in six Asia-Pacific economies found Indonesia was leading the way, with 94 per cent of firms expecting their businesses to grow.
It also found that just 14 per cent of the Australian businesses increased their staff numbers in 2012, compared with 61 per cent in Indonesia.
When it came to accessing money, 47 per cent of the Australian firms were forced to use a personal credit card to pay for business activities, compared with a mere 12 per cent in Indonesia.
CPA Australia CEO Alex Malley said the survey results painted a worrying picture, as small businesses act as a barometer for the broader economy.
"These results reflect the direct impact of decisions around significant national issues such as returning the budget surplus, productivity, tax reform and regulation," Mr Malley said in a statement on Tuesday.
He said the results should act as a further "wake-up call" to key decision makers of the need to focus on how Australia could be best positioned to thrive in a hyper-competitive regional and global environment.
"A large part of achieving this will be predicated on the existence of a dynamic, innovative small-business sector with a focus on the high-end knowledge economy," he said.
"Achieving this will require a combined effort by business and government." | <urn:uuid:f3c8ac4e-b845-40b4-bbd5-703006b59770> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/breaking-news/aussie-firms-among-least-optimistic/story-e6frg13c-1226534093893 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959952 | 345 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Re: After prostate cancer....is bone marrow cancer common?
When prostate cancer metastasizes, it often travels to the bones, especially those in the pelvic area (pelvis, spine, femur, etc.). It is unusual for a metastasis to only occur as long as three years after RP. Has his PSA been rising? What is his PSA now? Was he diagnosed with a bone met? Why is this a concern now? | <urn:uuid:f5b1204e-fae7-44dd-97aa-c9626642bf2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthboards.com/boards/cancer-prostate/906534-after-prostate-cancer-bone-marrow-cancer-common.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964554 | 91 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Brown, Warren Make Final Campaign Push
BOSTON — As Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, traversed the state over the weekend in the final countdown to Election Day, it became clear that the two campaigns had very different vibes.
Warren Pushes Women’s Issues
At Sorbonne University in Paris in 1910, Theodore Roosevelt, Warren’s favorite president, said: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” And on Friday night, Warren became the woman in the arena — literally.
She stepped into the ring at Ramalho’s West End Gym in Lowell, where boxer Micky Ward trained for his last three fights.
“Women are equal to men and we ought to get paid the same,” Warren said to a cheering crowd.
Like Democrats across the country, Warren has hammered the GOP, saying the party is waging a war on women, and has used Brown’s votes on several issues affecting women, including equal pay, to try and tie him to his Republican colleagues.
It’s a message that resonated with people in the gym in Lowell, including Laura McLaughlin.
“Why I’m here?” McLaughlin said. “Because I’m a woman. Let me tell you: I am 75 years old, I worked from age 20 to 65. When I was 63, we got equal pay in a community college. [It] took that long to get equal pay.”
Joanne Ranagan, of Chelmsford, said she was also there because she sees Warren as good on women’s issues. She called the race very close, and predicted that Democrats’ efforts at getting the vote out would determine the outcome.
“I think it’s kind of like Obama, it’s feet on the street, and that’s what they’re doing,” Ranagan said.
The Massachusetts Democratic Party reported it called more than 370,000 people and knocked on more than 120,000 doors on Saturday alone. But Brown adviser Eric Fehrnstrom countered that Brown has the largest get-out-the-vote effort any Republican candidate has ever had in Massachusetts. And Fehrnstrom said when campaigns start talking about getting the vote out, it’s because their candidate is not connecting with voters.
Brown Touts Bipartisanship
Saturday, in Plymouth, Brown was connecting with the dozens of voters who were overflowing out of a pavilion at Plimoth Plantation.
A Closer Look At The Senate Race
WBUR explores the issues in the race between Republican Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren:
- 7/26: Can Brown Or Warren Really Create Jobs?
- 8/2: Looming Defense Cuts A Key Issue For Brown, Warren
- 8/10: Brown, Warren Offer Different Deficit-Reduction Approaches
- 8/16: Brown And Warren Both Centrists On Foreign Policy Issues
- 8/24: Brown, Warren Split On Immigration Solutions
- 9/20: How Brown, Warren Would Tackle Health Care
- 9/27: On Financial Regulations, Brown And Warren Starkly Different
- 10/29: Little Attention Paid To Climate Change In Brown-Warren Race
Complete Coverage: 2012 U.S. Senate Race
As Brown headed back for his bus, people crowded around him as if they did not want him to leave. Among them was Patrick Manning, who brought his two young daughters in his Ford F-150 pickup truck. Manning, an Army veteran, works for the Department of Public Works in Norwood.
“Scott is a … he is bipartisan. He can work between the two aisles, and when you have so much division up on Capitol Hill and they’re not working together, and Scott’s one of the people that will go in there and he can listen to both sides and do what’s right for both sides and make the best choices for the American people, not what’s right for the party,” he said.
Manning sees the race as much more partisan than Brown’s race against Martha Coakley two years ago.
“Because I believe Elizabeth Warren is much more partisan,” Manning said.
‘We Can Taste It!’
Saturday afternoon, an ebullient Warren drew 1,500 people to a rally at Roxbury Community College. She sounded confident of a victory.
“We can taste it!” she exclaimed. “Can you taste it? Can you smell it? It’s in the air. Can you feel it? All right, so it’s up to us to make it happen. Are you ready to make it happen? … We’re going to do this.”
One key to a Warren victory could be how many African-Americans turn out to vote Tuesday.
Unlike the Brown crowd in Plymouth, Warren’s crowd in Roxbury made for the exits as soon as she was done talking. On the way out, Joseph Eubanks Jr. called Warren very progressive.
“She is for the common man and common woman,” Eubanks said. “That is what attracts me to her and her candidacy.”
Eubanks was optimistic that Warren would win.
“And I am glad that this is a presidential year, because I think that is in her favor,” he said.
When asked if that was because people would turn out to vote for President Obama, Eubanks agreed. “The more progressive people that usually don’t vote will turn out, yes,” Eubanks said.
Turning out Democrats who don’t usually vote is what the Massachusetts Democratic Party is trying to accomplish. It’s trying to mobilize Democrats who did not vote in the last three state elections.
‘Do Not Go To Bed Tuesday Night And Say, ‘Darn!”
Two years ago, Brown did so well that he won heavily Democratic South Boston.
On Sunday, he was back in the neighborhood.
“Hey! How ya doin?” Brown said to one man at the entrance to Mul’s Diner. “No game today,” Brown said to the man.
But the visit to Mul’s showed what Brown could be up against this time. The man he was talking to about the Patriots having a bye week was Billy Larkin, a union worker from Quincy.
“The economy’s been slow and everything, so there’s a lot of guys out of work,” Larkin said. “It’s the unemployment thing, and stuff like that for me.”
Larkin is voting for Warren. He says he always votes Democratic. But one key to a Brown victory could be how well he hangs on the 49 percent of union workers who reported in an AFL-CIO poll that they voted for Brown in 2010.
Brown found more enthusiasm at Faneuil Hall, where 750 of his supporters turned out to hear him speak.
“Do not go to bed Tuesday night and say, ‘Darn! We lost an advocate for our veterans. We lost an advocate for somebody who’s fighting for our men and women who are serving, our military bases, for our small business owners and our business leaders, and for the men and women who are fighting to put their kids through college!’ ” Brown entreated the crowd.
Once again, Brown’s supporters thronged around him and outside, a campaign worker asked the crowd to line Brown’s path to the tour bus. | <urn:uuid:88c56f90-b131-4af8-9407-faae4d222a54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbur.org/2012/11/05/brown-warren-campaign-vibes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967619 | 1,635 | 1.5625 | 2 |
This text-based course is a written transcript of the course, "Using Spirometry to Diagnose and Treat Vocal Cord Dysfunction", presented by Bridget Russell on February 28, 2011.
This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
Click Here to View Supplemental Handouts
>> Amy Natho: I would like to welcome everybody to our SpeechPathology.com Virtual Conference on Augmentative-Alternative Communication. We're glad to have Filip Loncke here to serve as our guest moderator this week. Today's seminar is "Practicing AAC in Acute Care Settings," presented by Debora Downey, and it is the third in our week-long series of seminars about AAC. Welcome, Filip. I'm going to hand it over to you to introduce our speaker for today.
>> Filip Loncke: Thank you, Amy, for your introduction. Let me say that I am very honored to be chairing this series of sessions the whole week. I'm especially excited about today's presentation. I have been involved in AAC for more than 20 years and if there is one area that actually needed to get more attention and more progress, it is the area of AAC in hospital and medical settings, especially acute care settings. So many people in the field are very excited and happy that two years ago or almost 3 years ago now, a book was published on AAC in acute care settings, and it was written by Richard Hurtig and Debora Downey. I'm pleased that Debora was willing to present today for this series, because we could not find a better person than her to give this presentation. Let me first introduce Debora. She's a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Iowa and Facilitator of the AAC Services at the Center for Disabilities and Development. She is also the co author of Implementing AAC In Acute Care Settings and other journal articles. Debora also provides AAC services to critical care units at the University of Iowa hospitals and clinics. Without much further ado, Debora, we want to hear what you have to tell us. Thank you.
>> Debora Downey: Thank you, Filip, for that introduction. I am pleased to be here. I'm excited to be adding information about practicing AAC in acute care settings. I'm just curious how many people in the audience have practiced AAC in the hospital setting, not in an outpatient setting but rather with acute care patients? I see from your responses that there are a few of you. Good. Hopefully then, after today we'll all be a bit more knowledgeable about things that happen in the acute care setting. For the most part I'm going to hold the questions until the end of this session.
Let's just do a little bit of housekeeping here. These are some of the objectives that we're going to go over. One goal was for you to be able to identify individuals who might be a candidate for AAC in acute care settings. I wanted to increase your knowledge base of strategies that you could use with patients where AAC would be an appropriate implementation. In addition, I wanted you to have just a little bit of an idea of how you might design a message template and how you would use environmental controls. We're going to just touch base on that, and we'll go over that kind of quickly. Then hopefully, I want you to have some sense of how you might educate nurses, because I think nurses are a key component to AAC in acute care settings running functionally and with minimal assistance by the speech pathologist. The reason I say that is that the nurse is really the frontline person, and the primary communication partner for the patient. So it's really necessary that we help educate our nurses about individuals who have complex communication needs.
I do want to stress that as we go through this today, when we talk about AAC, I will mention high-end use, but it is not just high-end use that we will be talking about. There are a lot of low-level ways to communicate and some mid-level technology as well. So with that, let's go ahead and start.
I think we sometimes forget that there are many individuals in the hospital who have complicated communication needs or complex communication needs. Right now, I think if we polled what was happening in the hospitals across the nation, we'd find that most of what we see in terms of service delivery from a speech pathologist is that they are delivering some type of swallowing intervention. It seems like in a hospital setting, swallowing is "swallowing up" all the speech and language hours that anybody might produce. I understand why that happens, because of course if you think about billing, it is a money maker.
Sign Up For CEU Total Access or StudentUnion to get the whole article and handouts. | <urn:uuid:94d866c7-aa00-4e09-a3cf-e20284ea70ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.speechpathology.com/articles/practicing-aac-in-acute-care-1547 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969869 | 1,003 | 1.757813 | 2 |
[ View the story "Immigration deal: What's in the Senate proposal?" on Storify]
Immigration deal: What’s in the Senate proposal?
Digital First Media· Mon, Jan 28 2013 06:06:50
A bipartisan group of eight senators will reveal the broad outlines of a proposal to reform U.S. immigration laws today. Articles posted on
New York Times
this morning detailed the proposal.
Here’s what we know so far:
It would create a pathway to citizenship
Araceli Cortes, an undocumented immigrant, is shown at her home in California in 2012. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
The deal includes a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. Long opposed as “amnesty” by conservatives, this is considered the hardest but most important part of any comprehensive package.
But it would not be easy.
Undocumented immigrants would be required to undergo multiple background checks, pay a fine and back taxes, learn English and pass a civics test in order to become legal residents. Anyone with a serious criminal record would be deported.
Before they are approved, immigrants would be on a “probationary legal status” that would allow them to live and work in the United States but not qualify for federal benefits.
But first, it calls for stricter border enforcement
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
The pathway to citizenship would not take effect until border security has been beefed up. That would include more drones and border guards and a supervisory commission made up of governors, community leaders and law enforcement officials from the Southwest.
The proposal also calls for an electronic verification system to allow employers to check if they are hiring undocumented immigrants.
Another section of the proposal also calls for better tracking of people in the United States on visas through an exit system at airports and seaports.
It includes parts of the DREAM Act
Undocumented immigrant Layios Roberto waits outside a legal group’s offices in Los Angeles in 2012. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
The proposal would also incorporate parts of the DREAM Act, a long-stalled measure to allow people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to become citizens.
Last year, the Obama administration decided to
allow tens of thousands of people
in that situation to defer deportation. This proposal would presumably build off that effort.
And it would overhaul legal immigration
An unidentified man takes the oath of citizenship during a naturalization ceremony in 2011. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The proposal would overhaul the existing legal immigration system to allow more highly skilled workers in so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math, in part by giving green cards to immigrants tho obtain advanced degrees in those fields from American universities.
Supporters of an overhaul include many in the business community in areas like Silicon Valley and
standalone bills have been successful before
. These measures are considered vital to help sell other parts of a comprehensive reform bill to skeptics in Congress.
The bill would also allow more low-skill workers into the country, creating a new program for seasonal agricultural workers.
Elements of the proposal poll well
(AP Photo/Ryan J. Foley)
, 70 percent of Americans supported the DREAM Act provisions and 62 percent supported a pathway to citizenship. Groups lobbying for STEM immigration claim to
have broad support
It also has bipartisan support in the Senate
The proposal was crafted by a group of eight senators from both parties which includes former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona and high-ranking Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. Other members: Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
A civil rights group opposes the employment verification.
The American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement that the framework agreed on by the senators could provide important protections for illegal immigrants who are exploited by employers and live in “constant fear” over their immigration status.
But the ACLU took issue with the proposal to require employers to use an electronic employment-verification system, calling it “a thinly disguised national ID requirement” that would undermine employees’ privacy and lead to discrimination against those “who look or sound ‘foreign.’”
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:e20e1b3c-3d80-4797-87d0-3fe230defe60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.publicopiniononline.com/politics-national/2013/01/immigration-deal-whats-in-the-senate-proposal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940281 | 924 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Bhutto LASER - dismiss it, or...
" the great strength of democracy; the ability to doubt without losing face"
( http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ralston_Saul )
First, PAKISTAN's newspaper THE NATION writes:
Hi-tech weapon killed Benazir
ISLAMABAD- Pakistan People.s Party (PPP)on Friday unveiled post-mortem report (X-Ray) of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, according to which, .two to three tiny radio-densities underneath fracture segments were observed on both projections..
.According to the report, the cause of death was open head injuries with depressed skull fracture, leading to cardiopulmonary arrest. The X-Ray report says that the depth of injury in the head is 5x3 centimetre. The shape of injuries is irregular alike to egg,. PPP Finance Secretary Dr Babar Awan told a news conference here at party Media Office.
.According to the X-ray report, as many as 35 millimetre on X-ray measurement depressed fracture from fragment. The segment of injury is invisible electromagnet radiations,. Awan said.
He said that first report of external postmortem, which the government was trying to hide, was prepared, by Dr Mussidiq Khan, Dr Habib Ahmed Khan, Dr Azam Yousif, Dr Aurangzeb Khan, Dr Saida Yaseen, Dr Qudsia Anjam Qurashi and Dr Nasir Khan.
The PPP leader said, .electromagnetic radiations (waves) are invisible such as the waves used in technology of radio, TV or microwaves (radiations). All these devices make use of electromagnetic waves,. he said.
(Radio waves, microwaves, visible light, and x-rays are all examples of electromagnetic waves that differ from each other in wavelength Electromagnetic waves are produced by the motion of electrically charged particles. These waves are also called .electromagnetic radiation. because they are emitted from the electrically charged particles. They travel through empty space as well as through air and other substances. The velocity of the radiation is equal to the velocity of light, but this radiation is not seen.)
(Scientists have observed that electromagnetic radiation has dual
.Personality.. Besides acting like waves, it acts like a stream of particles (called .photons. that have no mass.)
The PPP leader said the government was trying to hide this report. This report gives clear-cut cause of death. He said that investigation must be conducted under the commission of United Nations (UN). He said that the PPP would provide all evidences to the commission of United Nations.
Rejecting probe by Scotland Yard team, Babar Awan said that this team had failed to investigate the murder of former Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. .Musharraf should immediately appoint this team for investigation into the killing of Chief of Awami Jamhori Wattan Party Nawab Akbar Bugti.
Forcefully rejecting the statement of President Pervez Musharraf given to foreign media on Thursday, he said it was a fake statement. Before returning of former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto to their homeland, Musharraf had said that he would block the way of both leaders.
.The political orphan had said that they would not allow Benazir Bhutto to become Prime Minister for the third term. Unfortunately, both Pervezs are talking in the same tune,. he said.
He said Pervez Musharraf is a retired servant, not representing the military. We demand Musharraf to vacate the Army House.
He strongly condemned the attack on media van on way to Naudro, saying the DOP of Doud should be dismissed immediately.
APP adds: Pakistan People.s Party unveiled the external postmortem report prepared on December 28, 2007 to the media, asserting the cause of death was the hi-tech weapon.
========== Wall Street Journal =======
Conspiracy Theories Thrive in Pakistan
Few Agree on Cause Of Bhutto's Death By PETER WONACOTT -- January 9, 2008; Page A6
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan -- As the probe into Benazir Bhutto's assassination deepens, many Pakistanis already have strongly held theories about who killed her. The problem for President Pervez Musharraf's government: Few share its version of what happened.
Iktiadar Ali Shah, a 52-year-old who served in the former prime minister's security detail in the 1980s, says he doesn't doubt how Ms. Bhutto died. He says that while moving toward her white bulletproof car as it crawled through throngs of supporters after a Dec. 27 campaign rally, he heard three or four shots from two guns. Then Mr. Shah saw a huge blast, which he suspects was triggered by remote control to simulate a suicide bomber. His chief suspect: Pakistan's intelligence agencies.
Another man, one of many who have gathered at makeshift memorials for Ms. Bhutto in this army-garrison town outside the capital, Islamabad, has a very different theory.
"This was the West's attempt to destabilize our country and take control of our nuclear weapons," he shouts, standing amid the scattered rose petals to mark the spot of her death. The man, balding and dressed in a checkered sports coat, refuses to give his name. "Call me Pakistan," he says.
Controversy, suspicion and conspiracy: They are an inevitable part of sensational deaths, from John F. Kennedy to Princess Diana. In the wake of Ms. Bhutto's assassination -- and the government's investigation -- conspiracy theories have become a national obsession here, further eroding confidence in Mr. Musharraf's crisis-racked presidency.
To try to allay public skepticism and restore some credibility, the government has called in a team from Scotland Yard to help its investigation. The British team has inspected the site where Ms. Bhutto died and also the mangled vehicle that carried her. They will be trying to clarify what happened by compiling a report that is expected to be released in the coming weeks, possibly ahead of parliamentary elections. Those elections recently were pushed back to Feb. 18 from yesterday, following unrest sparked by Ms. Bhutto's death.
"We should all wait for the results of investigation, which the government will share with the people," Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told a regular media briefing yesterday.
President Musharraf himself, after an initial silence, has said he isn't satisfied with the investigation and has recently backed away from from an early official version of what happened. In an interview Sunday with CBS television, Mr. Musharraf acknowledged Ms. Bhutto may have been shot -- a view that contrasted with the government's initial contention that she had died from smashing her head against a sunroof lever during the suicide blast. Mr. Musharraf met with Scotland Yard investigators yesterday and promised not to meddle in their probe, said Mr. Cheema.
But Pakistani officials, including Mr. Musharraf, have stuck by their allegations that Islamist militants were behind this attack, as well as an Oct. 18 suicide bombing in Karachi. The earlier attack narrowly missed Ms. Bhutto but killed more than 150 people.
Officials from Ms. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party have rejected the initial government findings. Instead of Scotland Yard, they have called for an independent investigation from the United Nations. They have also faulted the government for hosing down the crime scene just hours after the assassination and for allegedly failing to provide adequate security for Ms. Bhutto.
"It all points to a massive coverup," asserts Farhatullah Babar, a PPP spokesman.
Ms. Bhutto's son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said in London yesterday that only a U.N. investigation would satisfy him.
"We do not believe that an investigation under the authority of the Pakistani government has the necessary transparency," said the 19-year-old, who was chosen as chairman of his mother's party after her death. "Already, so much forensic evidence has been destroyed."
PPP officials say they are skeptical that the government's chief suspect, Baitullah Mehsud, an Islamic militant based in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region, plotted the assassination. Through emissaries after both attacks on Ms. Bhutto, Mr. Mehsud told the PPP leadership he was fighting government security forces in Pakistan's northwest, not targeting Ms. Bhutto, according to Mr. Babar, the PPP spokesman.
Ms. Bhutto has long vowed to rid Pakistan of Islamist militants. And letters from her security adviser, Rehman Malik, also alerted the government's interior ministry to threats from extremists. But doubts over the government's version of events runs deep, largely because of plummeting confidence in Mr. Musharraf.
Having purged Pakistan's courts of unfriendly justices, clamped down on the media and detained scores of political opponents over the past year, Mr. Musharraf has come to the point where many Pakistanis appear more willing to take the word of an Islamic militant over his.
"The Taliban wouldn't target a woman," insists an 84-year-old university researcher in Islamabad. "It's 100% Musharraf."
The public suspicions have left Mr. Musharraf angry. At a recent news conference, he declared that he wasn't raised in a family that plotted and killed people. Muhammed Ali Saif, a lawyer and adviser to the president, recalled his boss's more sardonic response to speculation that he had dispatched a squad of suicide assassins to take out a charismatic rival.
"People think I killed Benazir," Mr. Saif recalls Mr. Musharraf saying. "I wish I had such supporters who would blow themselves up for me."
But Mr. Musharraf's protests haven't stopped speculation over how Ms. Bhutto died, as well as who is to blame. Aside from the gunshots and remote-control-bomb theory subscribed to by Mr. Shah, others suspect more sophisticated weaponry was involved. Local newspapers have suggested a team of snipers could have used long-distance laser guns to kill Ms. Bhutto.
Earlier stranger-than-fiction deaths of Pakistani political figures, including those in the Bhutto family, have lent credibility to the most far-fetched theories. Ms. Bhutto had no shortage of political enemies.some of whom are now subjects of scrutiny by the public, if not the police.
One is Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who is the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League faction allied with Mr. Musharraf. His father was assassinated by a terror group associated with Murtaza Bhutto, Ms. Bhutto's brother, according to Hamid Gul, the former director of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, who says he has read a confidential file on the killing. In 1996, Ms. Bhutto's brother was shot and killed in turn.
Mr. Hussain's father was a confidant of Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, who hanged Ms. Bhutto's father, also a former prime minister, and who jailed Ms. Bhutto and her mother. (Gen. Zia died in a mysterious 1988 air crash. Some have speculated the cause of the crash was linked to a last-minute cargo addition: a crate of mangoes).
Mr. Hussain's supporters reject speculation of his involvement in Ms. Bhutto's assassination.
"The blame game should stop," said the spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League, Tariq Azim. "People have to be patient, wait for the investigation to be completed."
Ms. Bhutto died near the same municipal park where Pakistan's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was murdered in 1951. Outside the park, now named for Liaquat Bagh, bouquets of flowers are piled near billboards with Ms. Bhutto's image.
Government investigators have recovered a severed head of a young male with a light mustache from the crime scene -- a detail that would appear to reinforce the theory of a suicide bomber. In newspaper announcements, the government has offered a reward for anyone with information about the identity of the head.
"The head isn't important," counters Mr. Babar, the PPP spokesman. "What's important is finding the heart and the hands behind this plot."
Write to Peter Wonacott at [email protected]
============= INDIA DAILY =====
Benazir Bhutto killed by Pakistani secret laser weapon system as well as bullets . Indian politicians must be careful
Jan. 2, 2008
The conspiracy theorists have dug in further. Benazir Bhutto was attacked Pakistani militia from various directions. But the one that guaranteed her assassination is the new arsenal that Pakistani ISI obtained for attacking Indian installations secretly from Europe. It is a laser based pin pointed weapon system that can pierce through the skull and the bones and cause death instantaneously.
The laser beam was direct and pin pointed. Besides international think tanks, a section of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) claimed she was targeted with a section of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) claiming she was targeted with sophisticated .laser beam technology..
The weapon systems that the ISI was ready to handover to the Jihadists to kill Indians and Indian politicians were actually first test fired on Benazir Bhutto.
When Bhutto was admitted to Rawalpindi General Hospital shortly after the fatal attack on her on December 27, doctor Musaddiq Khan, who treated her, told a PPP leader that he had seen "such a case for the first time in his life", sources said.
What really happened is that as Bhutto got ready to reveal to the world iron clad evidence on how Musharraf was rigging the election, ISI decided to make sure the assassination does not leave any chance for Bhutto to survive.
The skull fracture is impossible from Sunroof. Sniper blasts are written off from video shoots. The only alternative is obviously the laser beam. That was the reason why Musharraf.s men and the ISI agents shielded Bhutto.s body from complete autopsy. They did not like to reveal their new weapon systems that they plan to use against other world leaders. | <urn:uuid:7bb3aab7-d285-4c8d-ab11-5815dd487e4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://u2r2h.blogspot.com/2008/01/bhutto-laser-dismiss-it-or.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969896 | 3,031 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Posted: Jan 6, 2013 10:29 AM by Matt Stafford
WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers are accusing the CIA of misleading the makers of the Osama bin Laden raid film, "Zero Dark Thirty," by telling them that harsh interrogation methods helped track down the terrorist mastermind.
The film shows waterboarding and similar techniques as important to finding bin Laden in Pakistan, where he was killed by Navy SEALs.
A three-year Senate investigation showed that such methods produced no useful intelligence. The CIA's acting director, Michael Morell, recently contradicted that, saying harsh techniques did produce some tips that led to bin Laden.
In a letter to the CIA this week, Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, John McCain of Arizona and others asked Morell to back up his claim and to share documents showing what the filmmakers were told.
The CIA says it will cooperate. | <urn:uuid:77a7f8d5-0f30-4f53-b5fe-45e878a18aaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.koaa.com/news/cia-may-have-misled-filmmakers-in-bin-laden-mission-flick/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963767 | 176 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Teen tries to feed 200 families on Thanksgiving
Corey Warner continues tradition of helping those in need
A Seminole County teenager is continuing his tradition of feeding families on Thanksgiving this year, but he is facing long odds.
Corey Warner started helping the new families of abused children when he was in sixth grade.
He works hard leading up to Thanksgiving to make sure all of the families have turkey and all the trimmings.
If you want to help Corey, e-mail him at [email protected]
He has bags of food all over his parents' living room, and each bag has a selection of Thanksgiving side dishes.
Warner first called WESH 2 six years ago when he had the idea about a special group of people not getting enough attention.
"I had seen stories on the news about child abuse," he said.
Each year since then, he has pounded on doors and set up collection boxes at school.
He then delivered the food to families from the Children's Home Society, who otherwise may have gone without.
"Child abuse is such a big problem, and I want to do all I can to keep it from continuing to happen," he said.
This year he burned up gas in the family van going from store to store to get Turkeys at the lowest price.
There are limits of two per store, so he had to keep moving.
This has been his toughest year to reach his goal of 200 meals.
"This year has been due to the increasingly bad economy and between school and work it's hard to go from business to business and door to door," he said.
He won't make 200 meals, but he won't quit.
Warner said he'll keep collecting food until the eleventh hour.
On Wednesday morning, the social service agencies will go to a certain location to get the food and Warner wants to help as many families as possible.
Copyright 2012 by WESH.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:3f258c36-7c8b-46fb-804f-8dee2486f83d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wesh.com/news/central-florida/Teen-tries-to-feed-200-families-on-Thanksgiving/-/11788162/17491028/-/view/print/-/id1a9t/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982519 | 420 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Marketers swimming in a deluge of data need to separate valuable insights from useless information. Here's how to identify exactly what you need to best inform your campaigns.
One of the biggest challenges merchants face is understanding who their customers are so they can interact with them in a way that will drive higher conversions and stronger loyalty. Years of marketing studies coupled with technology innovation and social media adoption means the industry has amassed so many data points on consumers that marketers are swimming in them. Just because you have the data, however, doesn't mean they are all applicable to your business. Knowing what information you need (and what you don't) to meet your KPIs is a vital but daunting part of any marketer's job.
I've simplified this process into three steps:
- Assess the scope of your customer data
- Outline your KPIs and business goals
- Map the data to the KPIs and goals so you understand what will be the most actionable data for your business
Many marketers do not have a grasp on all the different types of data on customers they can access, and this is a missed opportunity. There are a variety of sources for this information. Below I've identified the four main graphs of customer data that marketers can use to gather intelligence:
The social graph represents the influences people have on each other. Companies can most commonly gather this information from social media sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
The knowledge graph includes tools that consumers use to gather information that helps them make decisions, such as general web search engines, product review sites, and news articles. For example, Google's Knowledge Graph is designed to augment search results with data from other sources to improve relevance.
The interest graph focuses on the things, products, or topics a consumer cares about, which can be used to personalize advertising, discount offers, and other deals. It reveals what products appeal to consumers or merely pique their curiosity based on the messages they broadcast publicly (brands they follow on Twitter, images they pin on Pinterest, etc.).
The payment graph aggregates information related to purchasing history. This includes data on the payment method (cash, credit/debit card, check, wire transfer); the customer's financial institutions (bank, credit card company, PayPal); tools they use (Google Wallet/NFC, Visa's V.me digital wallet); and where the transaction took place (offline store, online retailer).
All of this information can quickly turn into data overload. To make use of the insight in a way that is most effective and scalable for your business, you need to determine how each graph maps back to your marketing objectives and then prioritize the graphs accordingly.
This leads us to steps two and three. Below I've listed the three most common objectives for marketers and then outlined the priority graphs that can help meet those KPIs:
Goal: increase conversions (turn browsers into buyers, attract new customers, increase ticket size)
Priority graphs: payment and interest
- First and foremost, a solid understanding of the payments graph is crucial to increasing conversions because it provides details about the consumer's purchasing behaviors and potential for future purchases. If you want to become a habitual part of your customer's life, you need to understand what they typically buy and when.
- The interest graph can also be very insightful. Let's say a customer has been pinning wedding dresses and flower arrangements on Pinterest. Chances are she is getting married. This information can help retailers tailor offers and communications to help her along the way.
Goal: driving website traffic (increasing page views, time on site, unique visit, referrals)
Priority graphs: interest and social
- Whether you're a publisher whose revenue model is through advertising and you need more unique and repeat visitors, or you're a retailer that needs to drive traffic to increase conversions, the interest graph is a great place to start because you can see what content people are looking for and what is going on in their lives that they may want guidance on.
- The social graph is also very valuable to drive traffic because people trust their friends first and foremost for recommendations. If you can identify who your key "influencers" are, then you can target your communications to them, perhaps even giving them velvet rope treatment to forge a deeper connection.
Goal: attracting advertisers (user profiles, SEO)
Priority graphs: social and knowledge
- Websites that depend on ad revenue need rich data about their visitors to attract advertisers. The social graph information is very helpful to create comprehensive circulation profiles, which can include demographic information, an overview of "likes," and insight into their networks of influence. These are all factors that advertisers need.
- Advertisers also need to know that your site has good SEO and SEM. The knowledge graph provides key data on what topics, keywords, and sources consumers are using as they gather information so you can improve your SEO rankings.
It should be said that this is just a framework. Every marketer has a very unique set of factors and goals, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to using customer insights to inform your marketing campaigns. But mapping business objectives to the types of data available allows a marketer to set priorities for gathering intelligence and customer insights and to figure out how best to use them.
Are there other marketer goals and customer data sources that are missing? Eager to hear from you; post your comments below!
To learn more, check out this infographic.
Amy Masters is the VP of marketing at Payfone.
On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet. | <urn:uuid:1aae0974-e9d1-4324-94b6-057654a33e62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imediaconnection.com/summits/coverage/33506.asp?imcid=imc-rc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950764 | 1,145 | 1.664063 | 2 |
I was left scratching my head while reading Seth Pearson's article "Guarding The Castle," October 2005 about minimizing the tax consequences of selling real estate. As far as I am aware of, you cannot save taxes on the sale of a personal residence simply by putting the proceeds into a private annuity. Any of the gain in excess of the $250,000/$500,000 exclusion would be taxable. If there is an exception to this rule or a way to avoid taxation by placing the proceeds into a private annuity, I would like to learn more about it.
Larry Behage, CFP
H&R Block Financial Advisors
San Jose, California
Let me use an example of the most recent private annuity our office helped implement. A client owned a house worth $2.5 million. His cost was about $600,000. Before the sale, he transferred half of the house to the children in return for a private annuity payment for life. The property was then sold. The half of the house retained by the client had a $300,000 cost basis, and he and his wife used their $500,000 exclusion, so they paid taxes on $450,000. The children didn't have a tax on the sale of their half because of the nature of the private annuity. As the client receives the annuity payment, they will pay taxes over their lifetime.
The book I mentioned in the article and the Wall Street Journal Real Estate web site are excellent sources of additional information on the private annuity.
Seth M. Pearson, CFP
Certified Financial Planner
I recently read the article, "Thinking Outside the Box" in the September 2005 issue, on style-constrained investing.
I'm not disputing the authors' findings, since I've neither done the research nor do I believe that style boxes are the end-all-and-be-all. But, I did find it peculiar that they comment that there is no empirical research for the basis of style investing.
Maybe there's no single peer-reviewed work that "gave" us style boxes, but didn't Fama and French start using cap and book-to-market in their capital asset pricing models? Meanwhile, Sharpe's Nobel Prize-winning work was key to bringing "effective asset allocation" to the Frank Russell Company for pension plans; and, later such tools as Barra's models at Wilshire focused on size and growth/value factors in helping examine portfolio and security risk. At first, these were after-the-fact categorizations of managers' performance attributed to growth/value and large/small. More interesting was how managers started designing portfolios around these boxes and their marketing teams sold them that way--something of a chicken-and-egg problem perhaps.
Again, I'm not disputing this one study's findings, since most of the best investors think that style is "joined at the hip." I mean who doesn't want to buy low, sell high? And, now that we have them, style boxes are convenient to help clients learn to diversify and conceptualize different market risks. Moreover, benchmarking in some manner helps separate skilled managers from lucky ones rather than relying on their marketing a well-articulated philosophy and process. For better or for worse, style boxes--along with alpha, tracking error and all the rest--are here to stay. Sure, some tools are better than others and there are no answers in the back of the book.
But, to comment that there's "no inaugural article or empirical basis for the approach" is a little provoking, isn't it?
Paul G. Escobar
Sapers & Wallack Advisors | <urn:uuid:f610fd6f-e3dc-4670-afea-0937ef8853c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.advisorone.com/2005/12/01/a-real-headscratcher | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963006 | 758 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Diversification is important because we can’t predict the future. Will value stocks outperform growth stocks next year? Since we don’t know, it is wise to invest in both so part of our portfolio is likely to benefit regardless of what happens.
Will your earned income cause you to be in a higher or lower tax bracket when you retire? Even more abstract is the question of whether income tax rates as a whole will be higher or lower in the future. Further, how will the capital gains tax rate compare to the ordinary income tax rate 10, 20, or 40 years from now? Again, because we can’t predict the future, tax diversification may be useful.
Tax-deferred accounts such as 401(k)s or traditional IRAs enable you to delay paying taxes on today’s income until you withdraw it during retirement. These accounts are useful if you will be in a lower tax bracket during retirement. Contributions to tax-free accounts such as Roth 401(k)s or Roth IRAs do not allow a tax deduction now, but all growth on your investments can be withdrawn tax free during retirement. Tax-free accounts are valuable if you will be in a higher tax bracket after you retire. Finally, growth on investments in a taxable brokerage account is subject to capital gains tax, which is currently favorable compared to the ordinary income rate.
If you don’t know your future tax bracket, you can hedge your bets by investing in both tax-deferred and tax-free accounts. Further, since we are unclear how the capital gains rate will compare to the ordinary income rate in the future, investing in a taxable account may also have a purpose.
Tax diversification offers other benefits. Both tax-deferred and tax-free accounts can’t typically be accessed before age 59.5 without a 10 percent penalty. However, early retirees could draw from a taxable account in years before they are allowed to take penalty-free withdrawals from their retirement accounts. Further, required minimum distributions (RMDs) from tax-deferred accounts must begin at age 70.5. Meanwhile, RMDs aren’t required from taxable and tax-free accounts. Thus, having part of your portfolio in these accounts can prevent you from having to withdraw more than you want, which can lower your tax bill and allow for more tax-free growth.
Having various investment accounts can also lower your marginal tax rate. Someone withdrawing $100,000 a year from a tax-deferred account would fall into the 25 percent federal tax bracket. On the other hand, if the individual withdrew $50,000 from a tax deferred account and $50,000 from a tax-free or fully taxable account, which doesn’t count as earned income, the investor would be in the 15 percent tax bracket.
Speak to a fee-only financial planner to learn if you could benefit from this strategy.
For more information, visit http://www.utahfinancialadvisor.blogspot.com.
About Mr. Jefferies
Lon Jefferies is an investment advisor representative with Net Worth Advisory Group, a fee-only financial planning firm in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and a candidate for CFP™ certification. He possesses an MBA and bachelor's degrees in Finance and Marketing from the University of Utah. Lon writes articles for local magazines such as Business Connect and Utah Business Magazine, and he consistently contributes articles to online magazines such as FIGuide.com and FILife.com (by The Wall Street Journal). Additionally, Lon is a platinum expert author at EzineArticles.com. Lon has been quoted nationally in publications such as the NY Times and Investment News.
View Lon's blog at http://www.utahfinancialadvisor.blogspot.com, and visit Net Worth Advisory Group's home page at http://networthadvice.com. Lon can be emailed at [email protected], or phoned at (801) 566-0740.
# # #
Fee-Only Financial Planner
Net Worth Advisory Group
6975 Union Park Center, Suite 465
Midvale, UT 84047 | <urn:uuid:04a4e92b-f449-450e-96b5-52515dd549f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prlog.org/10992045-net-worth-advisory-group-of-salt-lake-city-utah-recommends-clients-diversify-their-diversification.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94739 | 875 | 1.734375 | 2 |
CEO’s, company executives and department managers have been trained and reprogrammed to handle problems within their companies these days as “opportunities” for growth. Problems are often regarded as unwelcome and hard to deal with and overcome. In other words, reaching a goal or projected finish becomes clouded and difficult to accomplish and achieve when faced with difficultproblems.
Opportunities are seen as motivational and can be easy to fix. Problems on the other hand come in many forms, and are seen as unwanted and unwelcome in any business environment. Fixing a problem causes stress while fixing opportunities are seen as team building moments within companies that produce desired results.
Individual employees create many “opportunities” in their own right. They say that employee“opportunities”come down to two major issues. The opportunity is either a training issue, or discipline issue, and most discipline issues must be dealt with swiftly.
Its a good thing the Baltimore Ravens have a new age owner in Steven Bisciotti who understands these new complex ways of running a successful business because his football team has a ton of “opportunity” issues staring them directly in the face.
The outcome of theses “opportunities”, and how the Baltimore Ravens either adapt, or fail to adapt, will determine if the Ravens belong in the talk as one of the NFL’s elite franchises. Failing to adapt, just as many talk show hosts, experts, and anyone who claims to know anything about the NFL suggest, will support the claim by many that Baltimore is simply the first franchise a notch below those considered as elite year in and year out in the NFL.
As a Ravens fan, it has become increasingly frustrating each season to hear the lack of respect the team receives in comparison to franchises like the Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots,Indianapolis Colts, and New York Giants. The Ravens rank right up there with these teams when you consider that Baltimore has made eight trips to the playoffs in the past 12 seasons and won one Super Bowl title.
No team in the NFL can boast the following resume since John Harbaugh took over in 2008. The Ravens are the only NFL team to appear in the playoffs in each of the past four seasons – and the only team to win a playoff game in each of those four years (2008-11). Baltimore won the AFC North in 2011, sweeping the division, while the Ravens went 7-1 including the playoffs against playoff teams.
Only the Green Bay Packers went undefeated in division play and against other postseason qualifiers until reaching the playoffs. The Ravens produced a second-straight 12-4 record, winning six of their last seven, and going undefeated at M&T Bank Stadium (Packers and Saints were also undefeated at home, with the Ravens’ 10-game regular season home winning streak ranking second to Green Bay’s 13).
Harbaugh is just the fourth head coach in NFL history to earn the playoffs in each of his first four seasons; his 49 total victories from 2008-11 tie (NE and NO) for second most in the league, one behind Pittsburgh (50).
The Ravens had the best season in the only division to produce three teams with winning records (Baltimore: 12-4, Pittsburgh: 12-4 and Cincinnati: 9-7), all clubs that made the 2011 playoffs.
Still yet, Baltimore is classified as a team that has a rapidly closing window, is old on defense and possess a good, but not great starting NFL quarterback. The Ravens are considered fragile, and when the articles start flowing about which team that made the playoffs last season, won’t this season, you can bet Baltimore will top the list in many of those write ups.
In fact, they did last year when I wrote a similar story right here on The Bleacher Report. That is what can happen if you listen to the national media too much. If the Ravens return to the playoffs they will have overcome a lot of adversity to do so, and handled the many opportunities that are before them.
There are still those unsettled contract negotiations between franchise QB Joe Flacco, and Pro-Bowl running back Ray Rice. Not to mention the Terrell Suggs injury, and now, the ever-increasing cancer that is Ed Reed.
But let’s face it, some of the franchises considered elite have had to overcome similar problems to earn their status. No elite franchise is without “opportunity”, and this season, it appears Baltimore will be front and center with a chance to show the NFL world how they handle theirs.
Ultimately, winning and losing decide status in any league. Six Super Bowls (Pit), three Super Bowls (NE), and two Super Bowls in the past five seasons (NYG) factor in greatly, but as fans we are not dumb. Elite teams do not always win the big game, do they 2007 Patriot fans?
The Ravens are worthy of that designation during the past few seasons. Starting with Ozzie Newsome, Baltimore certainly has a front office to match the elite status. Newsome must ensure his coaching staff uses the Terrell Suggs injury as an opportunity to develop Paul Krueger, Sergio Kindle and this year’s second round draft pick, Courtney Upshaw to fill the void.
Suggs injured his Achilles tendon a few weeks ago and recently had surgery to repair it. Reports indicate Suggs could miss anywhere from 4 weeks to the entire season, with the entire season the likely option if you know anything about this injury.
What the Ravens cannot do, or their fans, is use it as an excuse for failure. The Steelers were 3-1 two years ago as their starting QB sat for the first four games of the season. Pittsburgh is notorious for allowing players to leave via free agency and replacing them with homegrown talent so to speak. This off season, the Steelers lost several key components. Gone is ILB James Farrior, CB William Gay, offensive guard Chris Kemoeatu, and Hines Ward retired. You can bet the Pittsburgh will be just fine, and so should the Ravens.
The New England Patriots were historically bad on defense this past season but only had it catch up with them in the Super Bowl. I know Lee Evans and Billy Cundiff helped the Pats board the plane to Indianapolis, but did anybody happen to watch wide receiver Julien Edelman cover Anquan Boldin during the AFC Championship game?
It is no surprise that the Giants were the first team to win a Super Bowl with a defense ranked 26th or worse. They overcame, and adapted.They also got a little healthier which didn’t hurt their cause.
Thats what elite teams do almost every year at some point, they overcome and adapt. The New York Giants did it and came full circle once again against New England in February. The biggest catches during the final drive in the Giants first victory over New England in SB XLII was made by David Tyree, who retired in 2010, and Plaxico Buress, whose since been to jail and is now playing for New York’s other team last season. The Giants lost their franchise running back the year before they beat New England in Arizona, but bounced back just fine.
The Ravens are no strangers to the “next man up” philosophy made famous during the Brian Billick era and written about by the great sports writer John Feinstein in a book of the same name. Feinsteinfollowed the Ravens around for an injury-plagued 2004-05 season and wrote about the team, which failed to make the playoffs with a 9-7 record.
Not that the Ravens don’t deserve to be in the conversation, but if they manage to return to the playoffs for a fifth straight season with the 2011 Defensive Player of the Year on the sidelines, then Baltimore should be close to the top of the NFL’s elite. The Ravens may also have to do it without all world safety Ed Reed, and if you believe Reed’s latest outburst, then you have to be tiring of his act.
Reed has become the employee that is the discipline problem we talked about at the start of this article. It may come to pass that Baltimore needs to overcome the loss of two all world defenders to visit the post season again this year, but it’s not an impossible feat. If the Ravens were smart with the Suggs injury already on their plate, they would deal with Reed accordingly and swiftly.
Accordingly is not giving in and handing out an outrageous new contract. Accordingly may be to release Reed and call his bluff. As hard as that sounds Ravens fans, he may be forcing OzzieNewsome’s hand.
There has been a prevailing opinion in the NFL at times that the Ravens have allowed its superstars to bully the organization at times. Suggs has done it, Reed is doing it, and Ray Lewis has spoken his mind on more than a few occasions. I have a feeling before it is all said and done Joe Flacco and Ray Rice may join the party but not if the Ravens take a stand with Reed.
Baltimore flexed its organizational muscle a tad a few years back when Ray Lewis was allowed to seek out a new free agent deal. In essence, Baltimore called his bluff and Lewis was back at his rightful spot in the middle of the field for the Ravens the next season.
Ask yourself this Ravens fans. Would Bill Belichick, Mike Tomlin, or the powers that be in the Giants organization allow Ed Reed to continue with this banter? The answer is no they would not. You can ask Drew Bledsoe, Randy Moss, Mike Vrabel, Rodney Harrison, Tiki Barber, Plaxico Buress, Michael Strahan, and recently in Pittsburgh Rashard Mendenhall. The funny thing is watching greats like Moss, Barber, and Buress get busted at the poker table and have their bluffs called. Every one of them wished they could have returned to play for the teams they seem to despise when they left. While Moss expressed love for his team, his exit was hastened because he complained he was not getting the ball. The one missing element in Baltimore may be convincing great players that Baltimore is the greener side of the grass before it is too late. Ed Reed will be headed to Canton Ohio when his career is over, but the Ravens do not need him poisoning the locker room until he begins the five-year hiatus.
Reed used to have outburst every so often, but now they are becoming much more frequent. Calling out his quarterback just prior to the AFC Championship game was a move I supported at the time, but looking back seems to be part of a now disturbing trend with Reed.
He spoiled the Lardarius Webb contract extension party by basically saying that he does not think the Ravens are showing him enough money or enough respect. Although he did not exactly say those words, he was Ed Reed like in this published story. “Reed: Not getting respect I deserve.”
What Reed did say about playing this year was, “I plan on playing, everybody in the world knows plans can change.” As for the respect part, “I got some unfinished business,” Reed said. “I got a lot on my mind I’ve been thinking about. The truth of the matter is, it’s about respect. It’s about getting respect and it’s a business.”
Reed said he’s “not trying to break the bank” but he also seems to think the $7.2 million he’s scheduled to make in 2012, which is the second highest payday on the team, is insufficient for a player who has done what he has done on the field for the Ravens. According to Sports City News Service, only Ray Rice will make more ($7.7) after Baltimore placed the franchise tag on him earlier this spring.
“For what I offer on the football field, for what I give on the football field and for what they know they’re going to get, it’s much more than these young guys out here today and what they’re getting,” Reed said.
Reed, 33, is entering the final year of a six-year, $44.2 million and has played with a nerve impingement in his neck. How much longer he can he be counted on to play every game, which is what the Ravens need from him, is anybodies guess. Paying him to appease him would be a big mistake. This isn’t’ baseball. In fact, Reed has played in just 16 games twice in last four seasons and began the 2010 season on the physically unable to perform list, which forced him to miss the first six games of the season. He has battled hip, ankle and an assortment of back injuries as well. Yes, Reed has given his all, but he’s been paid to do so.
Contracts late in careers have to be smart for all parties involved, and the one Reed wants, I’m sure,wouldn’t be that solid of a deal for the Ravens. True, Reed has saved the Ravens a ton of money in terms of not having to sign the safeties next to him during his career, but both sides are guilty of saying repeatedly that this is a business first and foremost.
Baltimore has allowed several of Reeds playing partners to walk because they have Reed. Gary Baxter, Will Demps, Dwan Landry, and Jim Leonhard have all cashed in someplace else having benefited from playing next to No.20. This year Tom Zbikowski is taking his talents with former Ravens defensive coordinator and new Colts head coach Chuck Pagano to Indianapolis.
The Yankees gave Derrick Jeter a thank you contract, but Ed Reed is not Derek Jeter and the Baltimore Ravens are not the New York Yankees. Football is far less forgiving now that there is labor harmony than at any time in recent memory; just ask Todd Heap and Derrick Mason. Plus Jeter is only batting .355 this season.
For the first time since I can remember as a member of the Ravens, Reed was targeted on manyoccassions last season, and beaten several times badly. He had just 10 passes defended, and itwasn’t because quarterbacks were staying away from his side of the field. At times, and has he showed during the Texans playoff game and on the final Pats pass play of the AFC title game, Reed is still one of the best, but he is no longer “ the best”, and no longer is he one of the best every Sunday. Reed is however still the smartest DB in all of football, and because of that, can probably produce for two more seasons. Productive does not necessarily mean Hall of Fame like either, and it doesn’t mean you should have to cash in Facebook stock to pay him. Many of you will say it was just two short seasons ago that Reed intercepted eight passes in 10 games, but two years is an eternity in the NFL, and Reed has been credited with 56 (tackles and assists) official hits to that neck since the 2010 season, not counting the playoffs.
Reed followed his April comments up with retirement threats again on Thursday during an interview on Sirius NFL radio. When asked if he was 100 percent committed to playing this season Reed said, “Not at the moment, honestly. Can I play at this level? Yes, I can play at the level, but committed to doing it right now? It’s still May. I know time is kind of inching away at me. We do have a mandatory camp coming up that I’m still in deep thought about, because other things are important to me now.”
Reed added that the Ravens were unaware of his stance until now. “I doubt it,” Reed said. “I think they will know it after this interview, just like they knew that (Joe) Flacco was a little rattled, as we all were against Houston.”
While many fans will say the Ravens need to do everything in their power to keep Reed, I say the time may be just right to call his bluff and release him. It is never a good time to cut ties with a franchise player, but last season when Ozzie cut the franchises two all-time leading receivers, the Ravens had plenty of time to recover. Reed will continue to be a disruption until he gets what he wants, and this may force the hand of the Newsome and Ravens owner Steven Bisciotti.
Before cutting Heap, the Ravens determined that while Ed Dickson or Dennis Pitta were then a mere 80% of the player Heap was, their pay was a fraction of Heap’s. They concluded that reallocating Heap’s cap dollars elsewhere would benefit the team overall given the capable young players waiting in the wings. If you are wondering if the Ravens have anyone available that is 80 percent of the player that Reed is, the answer is no.
Reed’s cap number is $10.025 million, which is the biggest cap hit the Ravens would take if they released him, and this is the final year of his deal. There is no doubt an opportunity for something to happen with this situation, and let’s be honest about a few issues here concerning Ed Reed and his motivating factors to return, if indeed he does. Usually veteran players who do not have a ring that are still playing at high level use that as their primary goal. While I get Reed is a play away from paralysis, and I do not take that lightly. With the more than 1,200 lawsuits filed by former players and the post playing injury concerns, I understand his need for more money. However, it would be nice to see Reed wants to win a championship in a few of those quotes.
Don’t think for one minute Ozzie Newsome and the rest of the Ravens brass don’t feel the same way. It’s not unfair to Reed, again, he’s scheduled to make 7.2 million next season, but being a little more focused on winning and a little less on money, at least outwardly, may go a little further for the former Miami Hurricane. No player has hit harder and longer than Ray Lewis has and seemingly his focus is on nothing but winning. Yes, Lewis got a nice payday a few seasons ago, but it was not the one he was looking for from the Ravens. Nonetheless, Lewis came back, kept quiet, and continues to drink from the fountain of youth with many aspects of his game.
Baltimore will have a chance to show the football world they are one of the top teams in the NFL without Terrell Suggs. The Ravens have won without superstars in the lineup in the past. They were 4-0 with Ray Lewis nursing a toe injury last season, and 4-2 without Reed the year before. Whether or not the Ravens want to be talked about in the elite category or the very good category depends on how they overcome and adapt this year.
As we saw with Suggs on ESPN’s First Take a few times this past season, how a football team perceives whether it is either being respected or disrespected matters in the locker room. No excuses without Suggs, and no excuses with or without Reed should be the way the Ravens are thinking in the locker room. That is how Belichick, Tomlin, Coughlin, Cower, Dungy, Gruden and other great coaches would have their players thinking. I believe John Harbaugh will have his players thinking that way too, and because of it, Baltimore will continue their post season streak at five straight years this January.
One thing is for sure, however the Ravens proceed this season, there is plenty of “opportunity” for the coming season to silence any critics, and join the younger Manning brother as an elite member of the NFL. | <urn:uuid:987dcbe2-e349-4230-ad41-16f56dd5ebc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zbestsportstalk.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/with-ed-reed-and-terrell-suggs-ravens-have-plenty-of-opportunity-in-2012/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980161 | 4,146 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Oklahoma State Senate
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105
For Immediate Release: April
Sen. Kathleen Wilcoxson looks on as Moore SEARCH students present
Gov. Brad Henry with a Selenite paper weight.
SEARCH Students Watch Gov. Sign Selenite Bill
Students from Bryant and Red Oak Elementary Schools
looked on as Gov. Brad Henry put his signature on Senate Bill 4
which names Selenite as Oklahoma’s official state crystal.
The ceremonial signing took place at the State Capitol on Wednesday.
While Sen. Kathleen Wilcoxson carried the legislation, she explained
the students from the Moore School District’s gifted and talented
program, Students Experiencing Appropriate Research and Creative
Happenings (SEARCH) actually came up with the idea.
“They researched it and came to me with the request that I
carry the legislation. They not only learned a lot about geology
and geography but they’ve gotten a real hands-on lesson about
government. I’m happy they were able to see their idea become
a reality and be here at the Capitol for the signing,” Wilcoxson
Wilcoxson’s co-authors on the measure included Sen. David
Myers, R-Ponca City, Rep. Paul Wesselhoft, R-Moore, and Rep. Jeff
During the ceremony, the students presented Gov. Brad Henry with
a Selenite paperweight as well as a necklace for First Lady Kim
Red Oak sixth-grader Addi Ellis was among the students at the Capitol
for the bill signing. She said the idea came about after their SEARCH
group took a field trip to the Great Salt Plains.
The Selenite found there is a crystallized form of gypsum which
takes on the characteristics of its environment. Iron oxide in the
soil gives the crystals their reddish to chocolate brown color and
the sand and clay particles included within the crystal often form
a unique hourglass shape.
Ellis said the students at first wanted to make Selenite the state’s
official gemstone—but during the legislative process the measure
was amended to make it the state’s official crystal instead.
She said the students were reluctant to change their legislation
at first but through the experience learned about the give and take
involved in getting a bill through the legislature—and ultimately
getting it signed into law.
“That was really cool. I didn’t know how all that worked…it
was a neat experience,” said Ellis.
Senate Communications Office- (405) 521-5774 | <urn:uuid:aced4385-b573-4dae-bcec-97e3ad78801c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oksenate.gov/news/press_releases/press_releases_2005/pr20050427.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94625 | 562 | 1.5 | 2 |
The Regency Medical Centre has introduced advanced laparoscopic surgery programme, saving needy patients the cost of seeking such services abroad.
According to Dr Rajni Kanabar, Chairman of the Regency Medical Centre, the newly introduced programme would reduce costs for patients who go to India and other countries for laparoscopic surgery.
“Instead of going abroad for laparoscopic operations, people would be able to access the service right here, saving money and time for the patients,” said Dr Kanabar.
“We are grateful to Dar es Salaam-born consultant gynaecologist and laparoscopic surgeon from Dallas USA, Dr Mahendra Thakrar who generously donated to RMC the equipment and also worked voluntarily for three months last year at our medical centre training our doctors in this technology of laparoscopy,” said Dr Kanabar.
Traditionally surgeons had to rely upon big incisions to reach organs in abdomen resulting in a lot of pain, prolonged hospital stay, incision related infections, hand big scars of operation, Dr Kanabar said.
“However, minimal access surgery makes it possible for surgeons to reach various organs in the body cavities through small cuts ensuring cosmetic results, early recovery and early return to work,” he explained.
For the past several years, laparoscopic services in Tanzania are being offered at very basic level, according to Dr Kanabar, noting that under the comprehensive programme Regency Medical Centre would provide a broad range of laparoscopic surgery services, including removal of gall bladder for stone disease, lap appendicectomy, laparoscopic hernia repairs, laparoscopic ovarian and fibroid surgery & laparoscopic operations for infertility patients.
One patient, who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy at the hospital on June 21, this year said she had been suffering severe pain in her upper abdomen, with vomiting for the last few months and was diagnosed to be having gall stones.
She was discharged a day after the operation and can do her routine household activities at ease, without any pain or discomfort. | <urn:uuid:a6a1a9dd-3158-42d7-a550-439dc7e16006> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php/hl=23tion=com_content.com/29rontend/nocontatinorsexiph-/hotal-charcom_content.com/el=2301208dll/frontend/functions/send_email.php?l=43132 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946496 | 432 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially.More ↓Less ↑
The state of Massachusetts, which has been at the forefront of normalizing homosexual relationships in law, has taken a bold new step to allow applicants for drivers licenses to select their gender on official documents.
The decision by Rachel Kaprielian became public when an organization promoting family values obtained a copy of a letter she dispatched to a homosexual lobbying organization.
The letter to Marc Solomon of MassEquality said the state Registry of Motor Vehicles “has amended its policy to enable transgendered individuals to more easily change the gender designation on their licenses and identity cards.”
Kaprielian said the new provisions no longer will require applicants to submit medical proof of sex reassignment surgery.
“Under the new policy, the letter said, “an individual who wishes to change the gender marker will submit an updated application together with a Gender Designation Change Form, signed by him or her and a medical provider attesting to the gender that the individual considers himself or herself to be.”
The organization that obtained the letter, MassResistance.com, said the decision has “huge implications” for society.
“Essentially, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has decided that for legal purposes of identification, a person’s actual sex is meaningless. The gender ‘you consider yourself to be’ is now officially used. This is madness. But it’s now the state policy,” the organization said.
“A man using a women’s restroom or women’s locker room would now show police a legal, official Massachusetts identification that he ‘is a woman.’ He could get this on the basis of ‘the gender he considers himself to be’ with the agreement of a ‘medical provider,’” the organization said on its website.
“A male elementary school teacher can start coming to school wearing women’s clothes and using the girls’ rest rooms or locker rooms. And this will extend everywhere throughout society, in businesses, public accommodations, schools, and everywhere else,” the group warned.
MassResistance said Kaprielian quit her state House seat last year to run the state agency. She had been a “reliable pro-abortion, pro-homosexual vote,” the group said, but “no one thought that she would go this far.”
Homosexual newspapers documented how Kaprielian worked “behind the scenes with various extremely radical homosexual/transgender activist groups” on the plan, MassResistance said.
The state already had what MassResistance described as a “radical” policy on the issue. It allowed people getting their drivers licenses renewed to use a check-off box for “change of gender.” It let people change their gender designation but required medical documentation.
“It’s bad enough when individuals do this, but when the government starts playing the game as well, the people are literally living in the STATE of insanity. Massachusetts is a perfect example,” the blogger wrote. | <urn:uuid:c72f8fd3-3289-4de2-addf-a69cb5c87e56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wnd.com/2009/01/87422/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952953 | 694 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Elizabeth House
Care Net’s residential program, The Elizabeth House, supports pregnant single mothers ages 18-26. For six to nine months, we provide a safe and secure environment for mothers to become emotionally healthy and self-sufficient members of the community, while building life skills that will enable each young mom to secure employment, housing, manage money and foster sound decision making while learning effective parenting skills.
Individualized Program Support Areas
- Money management – learn how to make a budget, balance a check book, and make your dollars stretch by learning the difference between wants and needs.
- Nutrition Education – learn how to make healthy balanced meals for yourself and your child and how to make meal time fun for your growing baby.
- Child Birth Education
- Infant CPR – become prepared to save your child’s life in case of an emergency
- Spiritual Growth – Christ is the foundation of The Elizabeth House program. Learn what the Word of God has to say about community living and everyday life experiences.
- Parenting Education – Learn how to maintain your physical and emotional health, and ways to promote your baby’s overall development through daily care routines, toys and books, and building a trusting relationship. Meet with a Social Worker each week and learn what to look for in developmental milestones.
- Relationship Education – Learn how to stop relationship instability and have a healthy relationship.
“I don’t know where I’d be without The Elizabeth House. I was able to sit down and analyze what I was going to do in life and how I was going to take care of me and my baby.”
Former Resident of The Elizabeth House
Please call us at (608) 259-1605 ext. 205 to inquire about openings in our program, and to begin the application process. | <urn:uuid:99518798-15dc-4e40-a3b0-8a3c6d91116d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.carenetdane.org/support-programs/residential-program-the-elizabeth-house/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938319 | 371 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Co-ops Support Weaver Street Market
Just one of the many ways co-ops are stronger together
Weaver Street Market is the Southeast’s largest cooperatively owned grocery, with over 14,000 consumer and worker owners. It opened its first location in Carrboro, N.C. in June 1988. The cooperative grew quickly and expanded its flagship location several times. Weaver Street opened a full service restaurant in 2000 and a second retail grocery location in 2002.
In June 2008, Weaver Street opened its third retail location in Hillsborough, N.C., and at the same time opened a 25,000-square-foot central kitchen/Food House operation. This ambitious expansion coincided with openings of two new local competitors and a weakened economy, causing Weaver Street’s cash to erode and placing the co-op in fiscal jeopardy by the end of 2008.
The co-op’s $8 million development cost was financed with a combination of owner loans, National Co-op Bank term debt with USDA loan guarantees and New Market Tax Credits, and a regional bank line of credit. This debt resulted in total long-term liabilities of over $10 million and annual debt service of over $1 million.
Conditions create short-term threat
Weaver Street’s General Manager Ruffin Slater contacted the National Cooperative Grocers Association Development Cooperative (NCGADC) for assistance in August 2008. Slater explained the situation:
While our two new units are doing well, our two existing stores have seen significant sales erosion. Two new competitors—Trader Joe’s and The Fresh Market—have entered the market in the last nine months, and our customer count reflects customer migration to those stores.
Over the last nine months, our Carrboro store has gone from 10 percent sales growth to a 10 percent sales decline, and our Southern Village store has gone from over 25 percent to zero growth. This drop in sales, along with short-term inefficiencies related to moving food production out of the stores and into the Food House, has resulted in significant operating losses. The combination of our expansion, our sales decline in existing stores, and our inability to sell our real estate has left us with an acute short-term need for cash. We need to raise $1.35 million to pay down accounts payable to a sustainable level.
Co-ops and Development Cooperative provide help
The NCGADC moved quickly to assist Weaver Street in raising additional working capital. In addition to a direct loan from the NCGADC, the Self-Help Credit Union in nearby Durham agreed to process loans from other co-ops. Detailed financial analysis and projections were prepared by the NCGADC and Weaver Street, and $650,000 was raised to support Weaver Street’s turnaround. These much-needed funds were provided by:
- Ever’man Natural Foods Co-op, Pensacola, Fla.
- PCC Natural Markets, Seattle, Wash.
- Ocean Beach People’s Co-op, San Diego, Calif.
- City Market/Onion River Co-op, Burlington, Vt.
- East End Co-op, Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Seward Co-op, Minneapolis, Minn.
- Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op, Middlebury, Vt.
- La Montañita Co-op, Albuquerque, N.M.
- Frontier Natural Products, Norway, Iowa
- Equal Exchange Co-op, West Bridgewater, Mass.
Weaver Street also raised an additional $500,000 in owner loans, and several suppliers converted over $200,000 in past-due payables to term debt.
Ever’man Natural Foods Co-op provided a hefty $200,000 in support; Ever’man General Manager John Russo describes the circumstances:
Ever’man Natural Foods Co-op and Weaver Street Market have enjoyed a long-distance and collaborative association and friendship for more than a decade. Being well acquainted with Weaver Street’s management, facilities and operations made the decision to assist them an easy one.
Additionally, Weaver Street is one of the true banner carriers for the cooperative movement. Here’s an example of a co-op that is not only a great business operator, but also truly practicing the cooperative values and principles in ways that genuinely build community. Weaver Street has done all the right things and only due to unfortunate timing ended up in a temporary financial stranglehold.
To allow Weaver Street to fail would allow non-cooperative competitors to achieve such dominance in that prime market area that success by another future cooperative would be very unlikely. We couldn’t stand by and watch that happen, not only to them and their community, but to all of us [cooperatives]. Fortunately, we were sitting on some idle surplus cash, which we had accumulated in anticipation of our own expansion project, which we decided to table for a while. And so, happily, we could respond to the call.
Getting to cash positive
The NCGADC also supported Weaver Street management’s efforts to return to cash-positive operations. Significant increases in productivity were achieved in every business unit. The administrative staff was restructured, saving $10,000 per month, and efficiencies provided by the Food House helped the retail stores to reduce wage costs to less than 12 percent of sales. The Food House and restaurant margins improved as the Food House staff continued up their learning curve and the business model matured. In June 2009, Weaver Street eliminated their longstanding member and senior store discounts, saving over $700,000 per year. The Weaver Street board of directors, management and staff worked together and remained focused on improving the business under very difficult circumstances.
After six quarters of losses, Weaver Street returned to cash-positive operation in the quarter ending September 2009. Total same-store co-op sales improved to above the prior year in December 2009, and Weaver Street continues to improve its financial performance. “The support of the co-op community was instrumental in our financial turnaround,” stated Slater. NCGADC development director C.E. Pugh “worked side-by-side with us developing and implementing our turnaround plan, and the financial support of other co-ops was amazing.”
Weaver Street’s current priority is to increase sales through improved category management and produce operations, and by employee participation in achieving sales goals. Opportunities to further leverage the Food House include supplying a new Deep Roots Co-op facility and a nearby startup co-op.
“Our ability to support each other is more important than ever,” Pugh emphasized. “The UNFI purchasing contract prevents us from extending the payables to UNFI, and the current credit environment makes bank financing almost impossible for anyone in trouble. The sector’s support for Weaver Street provided their management time to improve the business. What a great example of how we really are stronger together!” | <urn:uuid:849f3fcb-5849-42e1-b8b4-1a58ce898b57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cooperativegrocer.coop/articles/2010-03-22/co-ops-support-weaver-street-market | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949172 | 1,435 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Now that the Los Angeles city council has passed a resolution encouraging residents to observe "Meatless Mondays" for health and environmental reasons, more people will be looking for vegetarian recipes and meatless meal ideas. Fortunately, it's easy to be green, and PETA is happy to provide all Californians with free recipes, product suggestions, information on vegetarian-friendly restaurants and stadiums, and more.
By going vegetarian, at least for one day a week, you'll not only help combat climate change, conserve resources, and reduce your risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other common chronic illnesses; you'll also save lives. And once you see how easy it is to go meatless on Mondays, you'll want to extend your efforts throughout the week, which will have an even greater impact.
Los Angeles is off to a good start. Let's hope that the rest of California follows suit. Check out www.PETA.org for more information and healthy, eco-friendly eating tips.
501 Front Street, Norfolk, VA 23510
757-622-7382, ext. 8106 | <urn:uuid:eb77fb0b-cbfb-47c4-b111-3d3ec074d492> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pasadenajournal.com/african-american-business-and-community-news/article-archives/4530-more-on-los-angeles-qmeatless-mondayq | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939927 | 225 | 1.796875 | 2 |
R.I.P., Department of Commerce? Obama Seeks to Consolidate Agencies
(WASHINGTON) -- The U.S. Department of Commerce will celebrate its 109th anniversary this year, having been created in 1903. And if President Obama gets his way, the agency won’t make it much past 110.
Announcing Friday morning that he is seeking authority to streamline the executive branch, President Obama said he needs the same kind of “authority that every business owner has to make sure that his or her company keeps pace with the times. And let me be clear: I will only use this authority for reforms that result in more efficiency, better service, and a leaner government.”
As an example, the president wants to shut down the Department of Commerce, taking its core functions and giving them to a new agency that will also fold in the tasks of the Small Business Administration, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Trade and Development Agency, and the Export-Import Bank.
This new agency would be smaller than the sum of its previous parts by up to 2,0000 employees (which will be lost through attrition, the White House says), and saving $3 billion over the next decade, said Jeffrey Zients, head of management at the Office of Management and Budget.
The president noted that there are “five different entities dealing with housing; more than a dozen agencies involved in food safety. And my favorite example, which I mentioned in last year’s State of the Union Address. As it turns out, the Interior Department is in charge of salmon in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in saltwater. Apparently, this all had something to do with President Nixon being unhappy with his Interior Secretary for criticizing the Vietnam War, and so he decided not to put NOAA in what would have been a more sensible place.”
The president is as of Friday elevating SBA administrator Karen Mills to a cabinet-level position to head this new agency on a temporary basis until Congress deals with this proposal. The weather service provided by NOAA and housed in Commerce will become part of the Department of the Interior.
The Census Bureau, also part of Commerce, will combine with the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics and be housed in this new Cabinet-level agency.
The move might help GOP presidential candidate Governor Rick Perry, who has called for the elimination of three agencies – Commerce, Education, and Energy – but has seemed to struggle with remembering more of two of them.
House Speaker John Boehner's staff issued this response:
“Given the President’s record of growing government, we’re interested to learn whether this proposal represents actual relief for American businesses or just the appearance of it. American small businesses are more concerned about this administration’s policies than from which building in Washington they originate. We hope the President isn't simply proposing new packaging for the same burdensome approach. However, eliminating duplicative programs and making the federal government more simple, streamlined, and business-friendly is always an idea worth exploring. We look forward to hearing more about his proposal.” –Brendan Buck, Boehner spokesman.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's staff issued this response:
"Americans want a government that’s simpler, streamlined, and secure. So after presiding over one of the largest expansions of government in history, and a year after raising the issue in his last State of the Union, it’s interesting to see the President finally acknowledge that Washington is out of control. And while we first learned of this proposal this morning in the press, we'll be sure to give it a careful review once the White House provides us with the details of what it is he wants to do."
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio | <urn:uuid:23c05cfd-e1be-4a46-b9c3-619c2f514ae3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eastidahonews.com/2012/01/r-i-p-department-of-commerce-obama-seeks-to-consolidate-agencies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959153 | 807 | 1.523438 | 2 |
This 8.6 acre organic food/animal farm is located on an Island, a 30 min. ferry ride from Seattle. It's a busy place because there are over 200 animals--llamas, chickens, ducks, geese--greenhouses, fields, gardens, lodging, weddings/events, farmer's market, crafting--as some of the business ventures that take place regularly. The intern basically helps take care of the field but will also assist with animals, construction projects, catering events, & whatever else may require assistance. The owner basically operates the B&B & cares for the many gardens close to the house, but is hands on with everything in the field & greenhouses. There may be CSAs & other foods to prepare for sales for the market; or assisting with preparing foods for events. Basically the farm with all its activities are done with the owner & intern. Already the greenhouses are underway with seedlings; the fields are being prepared; & preparations for the 50 new poultry are being readied. This is a busy farm with every type of vegetable, fruit, herb, flower; gourmet food is regularly prepared; homemade breads from around the world are prepared for the market weekly. The intern lives in a greenhouse attached to the house; food is prepared in the main kitchen or in one of the other kitchens. The work is hard but enjoyable; the owner provides considerable opportunity for learning especially about wholesome food, the environment, animal husbandry, planting, weeding, equipment care & operation. The site is somewhat isolated & takes someone who is dedicated to working & requires little supervision. It's a great opportunity to learn farming & all the types of skills necessary to help support a farm. Room & board + a small stipend are paid. | <urn:uuid:72cd3d99-be0e-43c8-9cda-2a3fd0565d23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.growfood.org/farm/20760 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953884 | 356 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Physicians weigh in on the business of health care
Sept. 9, 2010
KALAMAZOO--Physicians will be in the spotlight during an all-day conference Saturday, Sept. 25, at Western Michigan University that will promote awareness of the importance of health care and overall well-being of Americans while exploring health care's business side.
Sustaining the Business of Health in America is the focus of the conference, which begins at 8:30 a.m. in Schneider Hall's Brown Auditorium and will include remarks by WMU President John M. Dunn. The conference is being offered free of charge and will let doctors and other providers have the floor in discussions about why health care is so expensive in the United States, why the cost is rising so quickly and what new legislation passed by Congress--legislation crafted not by doctors, but by lawyers--will do.
"For the first time, I'm trying to bring to this conference physicians as speakers, to hear the physicians' opinions," says Dr. Andrew Targowski, WMU professor of business information systems, director of the Center for Sustainable Business Practices and conference co-chair. "The public may not know that those bills are designed mostly by lawyers, and physicians are rarely consulted about health care."
Physicians will join others in a rare presentation mix that also includes business leaders, educators and information technology professionals. Keynote speakers include Dr. Tom George, state senator for the 20th District and a former gubernatorial candidate, who will speak on "Examining the Health Care Reform Bill, 2010," and local family practice physician Dr. Gary Ruoff, who will address "What Is Happening to Caring Physicians?" Dunn will speak on "The Medical School and Revival of Kalamazoo," while Targowski's talk is titled "Well Being, Wisdom and Health Care." Local heart surgeon Dr. Michael Khaghany will be among those serving on a panel of experts.
"Without the input from primary care physicians, any health care program cannot be successful," says Ruoff, a conference co-chair.
Health care is a huge business, Targowski says. At $2.4 trillion each year--three times the budget for the U.S. Department of Defense--it is the largest business in America. But monumental problems with the system remain.
Health care's high cost is exacerbated by large and disproportionate administrative costs, the soaring price of malpractice insurance and unnecessary procedures triggered by the threat of often-groundless lawsuits, Targowski says. Also contributing to the problem are expensive, end-of-life procedures that don't so much save lives as extend the process of dying.
Still another problem involves the inadequate compensation paid by insurers, particularly for primary care physicians, which has resulted in a persistent dwindling of the pool of family doctors, Targowski adds. That trend is sure to become a much larger problem in the years ahead.
"The family physician is disappearing right now," Targowski says. "Only 2 to 3 percent of medical students sign up for family practice specialization because their services are very poorly paid by any kind of insurance company."
The conference also will feature exhibits of medications, products and systems as well as a best papers competition open to business professionals, faculty and students. The event is sponsored by WMU's Haworth College of Business Center for Sustainable Business Practices and the WMU's new Center for Health Information Technology Advancement.
For more information, visit wmich.edu/business/healthcare.
Media contact: Mark Schwerin, (269) 387-8400, [email protected] | <urn:uuid:1f40e245-933a-4cc4-88b4-99a70199762d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wmich.edu/wmu/news/2010/09/020.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967436 | 742 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The American political website HotAir, just ahead of the release of WikiLeaks data had a post up saying that Julian Assange and his cohorts are playing against America, “They’re not anti-war, they’re just on the other side.”
I have to wonder what they think of WikiLeaks’ collaborators.
In agreeing to take the information that WikiLeaks provided, information stolen from the US government, the media outlets are doing more than publishing a story, they are helping facilitate a crime.
It is true that I have written stories on what is included in the leaked documents and my newspapers have published them but we wrote up our stories after the information was made public. The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel were all publishing the leaked cables already, the Wikileaks website was trying to post them online.
The Times, Guardian and Der Spiegel did something much different, they worked with WikiLeaks, essentially collaborating with an enemy of the US government. That’s not such a big deal for Der Spiegel and The Guardian but for The Times, this is a problem.
Just as with the last leak, The Times was given several weeks to go through this information and collaborated with WikiLeaks to get the leaked cables out to the public. While The Times may portray this as a story in the public interest but the simple fact is that they have, for a second time, collaborated with an enemy of the United States of America to embarrass the country and put lives at risk.
This view may seem quaint to my Canadian readers but I have no doubt that it will be a view taken by many in the United States. And at a time when even The Old Grey Lady is fighting a losing battle for readers, pissing on your own country may not be the best move.
Follow Brian on Twitter
Read more from Lilley’s Pad | <urn:uuid:2c65454a-bcfa-402c-bf59-63d46fc32b36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.canoe.ca/lilleyspad/general/new-york-times-is-a-wikileaks-collaborator/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966979 | 376 | 1.5 | 2 |
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – I was privileged to be one of six representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) invited by the Office of Military Commissions to observe the guilty plea of Ibrahim al Qosi here in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, yesterday. The other invitees were the ACLU, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the National Institute of Military Justice (NIMJ).
Each of those organizations have been highly critical of military commissions, denouncing them as unfair, unjust, unnecessary, not in keeping with the rule of law, and not fair compared to courts-martial or our federal courts.
For years, especially including when I was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs (2006–2007), I was aware of and read the complaints of these human rights organizations regarding detention and interrogation policy and the use of military commissions. I had assumed all along that those representatives who had attended military commissions’ hearings over the years, and then spoken out harshly against them, had some background in the law and specific experience in military law—or at the least federal law, evidence, and criminal procedure.
At least with respect to this military commission’s case, on this particular trip, I was wrong.
None of the human rights observers whom I have had the pleasure of getting to know in the past few days here in Guantanamo—each of whom are personally pleasant and were kind and friendly to me—has ever practiced criminal law, either as a prosecutor or a defense attorney. Only one of the four representatives (Amnesty International did not show up) had a law degree, and that was from a foreign law school.
More importantly, none had witnessed a single, regular court-martial.
They had no familiarity with court-martial procedure, military criminal procedure, military evidence, or even how a standard guilty plea takes place in a court-martial. So when al Qosi pleaded guilty yesterday, for half of the NGOs present, it was the first guilty plea they had ever seen—in any court.
When the military commission’s judge announced that the sentence limitation portion of the pre-trial agreement would be kept under seal (so as not to improperly influence the jury, which would hear the sentencing case a month henceforth), that came as no surprise to me or anyone else who has worked in and around regular courts-martial for our entire careers. That is standard operating procedure in courts-martial. Yet the immediate reaction of my new friends in the NGO community who attended the proceeding was that something sneaky was going on. Some commented that it was just another example of a lack of legitimacy and transparency in the commissions’ process, when in fact it was just a normal procedure that happens in courts-martial all the time.
There are, to be sure, a few experienced criminal practitioners (ex-prosecutors and/or criminal defense counsel) at the aforementioned NGOs. For example, Gene Fidell, who helps run the NIMJ, is an experienced and respected military practitioner. Yet Gene was not here yesterday, nor was any NGO with any criminal trial experience.
The Military Commissions Act of 2009 is based, almost exclusively, on the Manual for Courts Martial, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the Military Rules of Evidence. The script used by the military commission’s judge is almost identical to the script used by regular courts-martial judges.
The guilty plea that took place yesterday here at Gitmo, while historic, looked and sounded like and was virtually identical to any other guilty plea that took place across the globe in U.S. courts-martial yesterday, except for one thing: The accused was an unprivileged belligerent, and he admitted to providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy to providing the same. | <urn:uuid:12db97ef-4d0d-4cf7-83f9-49dbfaf65d14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.heritage.org/2010/07/08/gitmo-through-ngo-eyes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972686 | 784 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Pet Care: Cats like to be on top of their worldDear Dr. Fox: My cat is going on 3 years old. I adopted him when he was 2 months old. He enjoys playing with me (and vice versa). He has a scratch pole, toys and a laser light that he loves to chase. I brush him, and he loves it. He is a lovely indoor cat and sits in my lap.
By: Dr. Michael Fox, INFORUM
Dear Dr. Fox: My cat is going on 3 years old. I adopted him when he was 2 months old.
He enjoys playing with me (and vice versa). He has a scratch pole, toys and a laser light that he loves to chase. I brush him, and he loves it. He is a lovely indoor cat and sits in my lap.
As he got older, he began to jump up on the kitchen counter and the dresser. Then he would go after pictures and knock them down. I removed the pictures, but he still jumps up on high places. Now he has started chewing on the curtains at the window he looks out of. I’m pushing the curtains back. Why is he doing these things?
– M.M., Silver Spring, Md.
Dear M.M.: One of the delights of cats, if not a basic need, is to get off the ground so they may look down on the world. No doubt they feel more secure. This would be especially true in the wild, where being up a tree could provide safety and a hiding place to ambush birds and other edible small prey.
I find that one of our cats likes to get up on a table or stool to have a better view of what I’m doing at the kitchen counter. Cats are curious creatures and such behavior is understandable, since being on the floor limits their ability to see what’s going on around them. My wife and I allow our cats onto some armchairs and sofas (which we cover with sheets), and the cats have learned that the kitchen table is OK but the kitchen counter is not.
Your cat, like mine, will enjoy one or more “cat condos” or a secure tree branch with a couple of pillowed shelves attached, especially by a window so he can look outdoors. A bird feeder placed by a window is a cat’s TV.
Dear Dr. Fox: We adopted a 6-week-old male mixed-breed dog who’s been wormed and given his shots. A neighbor says his dewclaws should also be removed. They are on his front and back legs. What is your opinion? – B.M., St. Louis
Dear B.M.: The dewclaws on a dog’s front legs should be left alone. They are the dog’s thumbs and, while they can’t move them around like we can ours, they do serve a purpose in helping dogs grip things they are chewing. Because the dewclaws don’t wear down like the other toenails that are always on the ground, the nails may have to be routinely trimmed. Otherwise, they will cause pain and inflammation when they grow long and curl into the dog’s skin.
This same problem can develop with the dewclaws in the hind limbs. Not all dogs have them. In some dogs, they are pendulous (hanging loosely) and may get torn when the dog is out running. Surgical removal under general anesthesia is then advisable.
Dear Dr. Fox: Our sweet new kitten has me puzzled. She’s been wormed and vaccinated, but sometimes when she’s lying down, I’ve seen some white things. They are about the size of a grain of rice, and they seem to move. Is it my imagination or is my cat infested with maggots or something? – W.F.P., Winston-Salem, N.C.
Dear W.F.P.: You are probably seeing segments of a tapeworm, which look like grains of rice and can actually wriggle out of an animal’s rear end. These segments contain eggs that are eaten by flea larvae on the ground. When the infected larvae mature into adult fleas that hop onto your cat, the tapeworm cysts inside the fleas complete their life cycle. The cat catches and swallows the fleas, and once inside, the parasites attach themselves with hooks and suckers to the inner lining of the cat’s intestines.
Getting rid of the tapeworms will take two things:
- Worming medication to rid the cat of the parasite.
- Thorough flea eradication, which means using safe chemicals and other treatments on your cats and in your home. For details, check my website: www.twobitdog.com/DrFox.
Dear Dr. Fox: I have been brushing my cat’s teeth almost two times daily for two months with the PetzLife cat formula. I took him to the vet yesterday for his annual physical, and she found a red bump on a lower left tooth. She said that once it moves to the surface it will be very painful, and that my cat needs to have it extracted and a full dental cleaning.
Does PetzLife help with this? He still has brown and yellow plaque at the gum line. – V.O., Fargo
Dear V.O.: While PetzLife oral-care products are the best on the market, in my opinion, they are no substitute for the thorough veterinary dental care so often needed to treat feline stomatitis (a very painful oral disease detailed on my website) and to deal with diseased and broken teeth and buildup of tartar or dental scale.
I would hold off on having your cat’s tooth removed and see how this “red bump” develops. It could be the beginning of stomatitis, or hopefully it is a simple inflammation. If it is inflammation, it may go away if you eliminate all corn from your cat’s diet and give a few drops of fish oil daily in his food (for its anti-inflammatory properties). In addition, rub (rather than brush) his teeth and gums, alternating daily treatments with PetzLife oral spray or gel with a solution of equal parts 3 percent hydrogen peroxide and aloe vera gel or liquid (available in health stores).
Send your questions to Dr. Fox in care of The Forum, Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns. Visit Dr. Fox’s Web site at www.twobitdog.com/DrFox. | <urn:uuid:f5b10fe5-7fd3-4acb-8623-1d06709fc77f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/338518/publisher_ID/1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958089 | 1,409 | 1.679688 | 2 |
|[Add A Photo]|
Added by: Dan
|George Alexander Graham Adamson. |
3 Feb 1906 - Dholpur, Rajasthan, India
20 Aug 1989 - Kora National Reserve. Kenya, East Africa
Married to Joy Adamson of "Born Free" and "Living Free" fame, two books and movies that were based on his notes. One of the founding fathers of wildlife conservation, he devoted his life to the rehabilitation of captive, injured or orphaned big cats for eventual reintroduction into the wild. His devotion to Africa's lions stands unparalleled.
He was killed by poachers near his camp on the Kora Reserve, when he came to the aid of some tourists. The tourists survived but George was killed instantly.
Accuracy and Copyright Disclaimer | <urn:uuid:b952acc1-19b9-4e4b-b912-bf28e6aa88e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=7086671 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970574 | 163 | 1.71875 | 2 |
As Oscar night approaches one of the questions that has kept coming back to me is this: “Is a social network a spiritual network?”
The answer is not a simple one and perhaps it isn’t a question that has an answer that will work for all time. Like so many other generational changes and shifts in technology it could be argued that we will only understand the implications of social networks over time. Already, for example, we have seen the implications of the technology for political interaction. Who would have thought that a system invented on a university campus that traded in BFFs and reported to a small circle of friends that “Suzie just arrived at the coffee shop” could morph into something that overturned governments?
But, I think, for the moment, the answer is yes — and no.
Yes, social networks can function as spiritual networks and they can do so in surprising ways:
They facilitate conversation over time. A conversation can linger longer than face to face encounters. They can allow time to process a thought. And for that reason a social network can produce a deeper conversation. (I am talking here about one on one encounters, as opposed to more public posts, which are more problematic in that way.)
They can bring people together at a distance. The thing that always made for spiritual communities, but was also their intrinsic limitation on their formation has been geography. There may still be real numerical limits to how many spiritual friendships you can form — in fact, I’m convinced that there are real limits — but social networking eliminates the absolute limits imposed by geography and brings people together — potentially around the world. One of the real delights of networking of this kind is the way in which it restores friendships and fosters spiritual conversations with friends we no longer live close too. I correspond regularly, for example, with an old friend who lives in Tokyo, has had a home in Hong Kong, and can just as predictably reach me from an airport in Canada.
When you think about social networks in this way they can be described as a powerful tool for building robust spiritual communities and conversations that no previous generation of human beings could dream of crafting.
There are potential limitations as well, however. Here are the ones that occur to me:
Social networks have a character limit —- on line communication tends to be clipped and abbreviated. That can limit what we learn about what another and our communication can be superficial, rather than deeply meaningful.
“Friending” can be a filter we use to run from spiritual networks. Most conversations about the body of Christ rightly include the diverse, God-given nature of spiritual communities. The fact that I can friend you or unfriend you runs the risk that I will craft a community of my own making that leaves me unchallenged — and “un-enriched” — by a community of God’s making.
Facebook doesn’t need faces. What social networks lack right now is the reality that is a face to face encounter with others. Spiritual networks can’t do without them. The power of the Gospel is the power of the incarnation and I am not convinced that ultimately the technology we have developed can satisfy that need. In that regard, social networks may prove to be a powerful tool for enhancing spiritual networks, but they will probably never replace them. | <urn:uuid:188785b0-0ae8-495a-86bd-11282abf5ba3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.patheos.com/blogs/whatgodwantsforyourlife/2011/02/is-a-social-network-a-spiritual-network/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963668 | 683 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The case against former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is that he equated the health of giant Wall Street banks with the health of the United States. Further, his critics claim, he replaced the time-tested rule of bankruptcy law with opaque, ad hoc interventions in financial firms.
This case is made persuasively, if inadvertently, in a gripping book by first-time author Henry Paulson. In "On the Brink," a principal architect of the bailouts that began in 2008 provides a revealing play-by-play account of the financial crisis.
To be sure, Mr. Paulson has not written a book intended to rebut the conspiracy theorists who claim that he was driven to help his old firm, Goldman Sachs, or to aid big investment banks generally. He acknowledges that throughout the crisis he remained "in constant touch with Wall Street CEOs," and he reports no fewer than 50 phone conversations with Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld between the March 2008 bailout of Bear Stearns and the Lehman bankruptcy in September.
All those Paulson-Fuld conversations should definitively answer the question of whether Mr. Fuld was expecting help from Washington when the financial reckoning arrived. Mr. Paulson also admits to trying to persuade Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to buy the ailing firm, and the author says that he talked to Warren Buffett about a Berkshire Hathaway investment in Lehman. Remember: At this point Mr. Paulson was the Treasury secretary and no longer an investment banker.
One reason Lehman didn't sell, according to Mr. Paulson, is that Mr. Fuld was determined to get at least the $10 per share that shareholders had received in the Bear Stearns bailout.
Later in the book Mr. Paulson reports that "one of my worries lifted" when Mr. Buffett decided to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs.
Highly detailed when it comes to call logs and meeting attendees, Mr. Paulson's story nonetheless leaves readers wanting more regarding the big question: How did the government know that a particular business was too big to fail? The answer: Mr. Paulson's gut told him so. His "market experience," as he calls it in the case of the Bear Stearns rescue, made him realize that the firm could not fail. Mr. Paulson notes that "Bear had hundreds, maybe thousands, of counterparties—firms that lent it money or with which it traded stocks, bonds, mortgages, and other securities."
Readers may wonder how deep went the analysis of Bear's impact on trading partners if federal officials didn't know whether such partners numbered in the hundreds or thousands. Mr. Paulson writes in the book that the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York planned to "drill down" to investigate the market impact of a Bear failure only after regulators were already discussing how to prevent it.
By the fall of 2008, Mr. Paulson was aggressively supporting another New York Fed bailout, this time for the insurer AIG. He writes of Tim Geithner—president of the New York Fed at the time, now in Mr. Paulson's old job as Treasury secretary—that "Tim and I knew that an AIG bankruptcy would be devastating, leading to the failure of many other institutions." To this day neither man seems willing to name any of those institutions. Moreover, recent congressional testimony by Messrs. Paulson and Geithner suggests that the primary danger was to AIG's insurance customers, not its trading counterparties.
Mr. Paulson's book confirms the emerging picture of a series of interventions driven not by detailed analysis but by raw fear. This doesn't mean that Mr. Paulson's instincts were wrong. It can be argued that he was the perfect man to be in the cockpit when Washington's grand experiment in housing finance exploded and America needed somebody to land the airplane with one wheel and gaping holes in the fuselage.
On the Brink
By Henry M. Paulson Jr.
Business Plus, 478 pages, $28.99
Long before Mr. Paulson arrived in Washington in 2006, Congress had nurtured Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and a host of policies to drive capital into the mortgage market, building taxpayer risk by the trillion. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Fed had enshrined the primacy of the dominant credit-ratings agencies, who would certify for investors around the world that pools of mortgages were safe. On its own, the Fed had been inflating a credit bubble since the beginning of the decade.
It's true that when Mr. Paulson was CEO of Goldman Sachs his firm supported the Fed's Basel capital rules, which encouraged Goldman and other Wall Street firms to increase leverage and bet on housing. But the ultimate responsibility rests with the Washington policy makers who instituted those rules.
The question regarding Mr. Paulson is how he responded once he became Treasury secretary. As bad as many interventions look now with the benefit of hindsight, we'll never know how things might have developed in the absence of bailouts.
One matter the book does clarify, however, is that when it came to spotting the housing meltdown, Mr. Paulson's gut failed him—as he freely admits. One of his first briefings as Treasury secretary to President George W. Bush in 2006 included a review of issues in the credit markets, but no warning about housing. Soon afterward he persuaded the president to abandon his plan to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to accept a compromise with Rep. Barney Frank. The two mortgage giants were allowed to continue exposing taxpayers to risks that now officially reach to infinity. Mr. Paulson continued to brush off warnings about Fannie and Freddie, including one delivered in early 2008 by Larry Summers, who is now President Barack Obama's chief economic adviser.
Soon after, faced with the pending demise of Bear Stearns, Mr. Paulson says he told his wife, Wendy: "I'm worried about the world falling apart!" Historians will no doubt express some healthy skepticism that the end of Bear Stearns really represented the end of the world, but Mr. Paulson seems to have sincerely believed it did.
Mr. Freeman is assistant editor of the Journal's editorial page. | <urn:uuid:fbe670b2-7b17-44c4-9952-33b22996df99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704041504575045510129744720.html?mod=WSJ_Books_LS_Books_5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97051 | 1,271 | 1.6875 | 2 |
By Alan Zibel
The nation’s homeownership rate inched up a bit in the second quarter of the year but remains near the lowest level in 15 years as fallout from the housing bust persists.
The percentage of U.S. homes that are owner-occupied rose to 65.5% at the end of June, up from 65.4% at the end of March, the Census Bureau said Friday. The rate was still down from 65.9% in the second quarter of last year.
It’s been quite a while since the rate was this low. The last time was in 1997, when the rate fluctuated between 65.4% and 66%. And economists say the rate could drop further.
The modest increase “does not persuade us to alter our view that the share of the population who own their home will fall further over the next couple of years,” wrote Paul Diggle, property economist with Capital Economics. With credit remaining tight and foreclosures still elevated, Mr. Diggle expects the rate to fall to 64% within the next two years.
Both the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush made boosting the homeownership rate a priority. It soared to a peak of 69.2% at the end of 2004 but has fallen steadily since housing prices began dropping in 2006.
Owners of rental properties continued to benefit from the drop in homeownership. Only 8.6% of rental properties were vacant in the second quarter, the lowest level since mid-2002.
Meanwhile, the share of non-rental housing that was vacant stood at 2.1%, the lowest reading since the first quarter of 2006, reflecting fewer homes lingering unsold on the market and fewer new foreclosures.
Minorities and younger Americans have historically had lower ownership rates. The African-American homeownership rate rose to 43.8% from 43.1% at the end of March. Hispanics’ rate grew to 46.5% from 46.3%. The rate for people under 35 slipped to 36.5%, while it grew to 81.6% for those who are at least 65.
Follow Alan at @alanzibel | <urn:uuid:a6ea92ea-5a12-469c-8fab-a04272838e34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/07/27/homeownership-up%E2%80%A6but-just-a-tad/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972924 | 447 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Once we've identified a resource we'd like to catalog we need to start keeping track of it (since it's probably not alone and we are easily distracted). If yours is a self-contained cataloging cocoon--you're finding and cataloging a bunch of stuff in isolation--then a simple spreadsheet of urls may suffice. However, frequently multiple people are involved in the process (authors submitting things to be cataloged, multiple catalogers sharing the load, folks overseeing the project who want to know how things are progressing, etc....). In these situations we need a centralized tool where everyone can see what is being cataloged and where it is in the process. To that end we have Cataloging Queues.
There are actually several different cataloging queues, one for each of our major projects. Each queue serves the same purpose. It acts as the central tracking area for resources as they move through cataloging. From their first arrival on the scene as resources in need of metadata - all the way to successful inclusion in our sites and distribution to other digital libraries through the miraculous powers of OAI.
You can jump to a cataloging queue directly from the main admin site. Look under the project you are working on (Cutting Edge, MLER, and the like) and you will see a catalog queue:
Entering a new record into the queue
The first page you'll see gives you the choice of viewing the items currently in the queue or to enter a new url that you'd like to add to the mix. We'll start with entering a new URL. To do that, past a URL (with complete http://...) in the box and hit submit.After entering the url the system does a check in several places to make sure the resource hasn't already been cataloged (or is in the process of being cataloged). If it finds a matching catalog record it will provide a link to the editing interface for said record (as it sits in a local catalog), which you can investigate and use as necessary (thus saving you the effort of cataloging it). Also provided is a link to search the catalog at dlese.org which is necessary to make sure it's not been cataloged there (though records cataloged there which have been imported into our system will also show up in the earlier checks). Note that only EXACT matches for the url you've entered are found. So if you put in http://bigdeal.com and someone had already cataloged http://bigdeal.com/index.html (which is really the same content) then this check WOULD NOT catch the duplication. Be sure to use complete urls...
Once you've leapt this initial "is it already cataloged" hurdle you can fill out the submission queue form.
The first two fields are easy and not strictly necessary. The information you enter here won't automatically move itself into the real cataloging system so entering a title and description here is really just a nicety and mostly useful if you already have easy answers to those questions at hand which you'd like to keep track of for later entry into the real cataloging tool.
The url and email address will be filled in automatically. The Resource Category field is just a way for us to group resources from related projects so we can find them more quickly later when we view the Big List of Everything in the Cataloging Queue. Either select from an existing category, or enter a new name that will be meaningful in identifying this particular set of resources from amongst all the others. Any new entry you make here will show up on this menu (for everyone) from now on, so be judicious.
Skipping ahead a bit we find a DCS ID field. Use this to make a note of the DCS catalog ID (e.g. SERC-NAGT-000-000-000-002) for resources cataloged into a DCS. It's handy to have around so that people can locate the record in the DCS. The Master ID field can be used to note the master id (surprise) which you will find is automatically assigned (and viewable) in the relevant local cataloging tool. If you're working with the DCS you can find it by searching on the record title in our local catalog once the record has reached Done state (finished QA). For other resources which are cataloged into a local catalog in the first place the master id is assigned right away. It's important to note since it's the bit of information people need to actually insert a reference to the catalog resource in a web page.
Next up is the Notes field which is purely for the edification of those involved in cataloging. Use it as you like to track any extra info or jog folks' memories about special circumstances surrounding a particular resource.
What we've left out is the Destination Catalog field and it's where the real action is. There are 5 different cataloging routes a resource can follow and one of your most important decisions in filling out this particular form is what road to send the resource down. In order to answer this question, you'll need to learn a bit more about each catalog tool and when we use it. Or, when in doubt, you can also just ask your friendly project leader.
Once you've assigned your resource to an appropriate cataloging pathway you can submit it and proceed. Remember, 'submitting' it to a particular pathway doesn't actually enter it into the corresponding catalog tool. That's something you still have to do by hand-copying over the url and starting up a new record in the appropriate tool. For now we'll look at the resulting cataloging queue by following the view cataloging queue link.
Viewing the cataloging queue and updating the status of records
This page shows list of all the items in the queue (clever huh?). You can sort the columns by clicking on the headings. This is handy for grouping like submission together (e.g. all the things in the same Category, or all the things from a given person). Clicking the edit link to the left of a given submission gives you a view of its details. Here you'll see all the fields from the original add a new item to the cataloging queue' form, as well as a few new ones.
The first new field is labeled State. This is simple menu that indicates where the resource is in the cataloging process. As the resource moves through the process those involved should change this setting as appropriate. The stages are:
- Submitted - this just means someone has does the initial entry of the resource into the queue. New entries are set to this automatically.
- Cataloging in Progress - work has begun. This is handy if several people are working on dealing with a queue, to keep from stepping on each other's toes or duplicating other's work.
- Waiting for Submitter Approval - This step is not used in all projects. In Starting Point many resources are submitted to the queue by authors and after the initial cataloging record is created the description is sent to the original author involved for vetting. This state indicates the cataloger is waiting for the okay from that original author. Skip this if it doesn't apply to your project.
- Waiting for Final QA - the cataloger has done their work and they are waiting for another cataloger to give it the once over and send an email back indicating the record is flawless. :)
- Cataloged - the cataloger has moved the record to the Done state in the relevant cataloging tool. It's available in the CMS, to outside libraries and through our search engines.
- Added to web page - if the record was originally identified as something that needed to be added to a particular part of the site, this setting indicates that that work has been done.
Note that none of this is automatic. It's up to the person actually doing the work (the cataloger) to revisit the queue and change the State manually as progress is made.
All of our web sites encourage users to contribute resources for us to add to our collections. These suggestions flow into a submission queue. If this applies to your work, then learn more about submission queues.
Everything making sense so far? If so, then proceed to the cataloging tools to see how the cataloging actually gets done. | <urn:uuid:cfcda1f5-c593-4e94-8452-ebc014f293bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://serc.carleton.edu/serc/cataloging/queue.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938192 | 1,700 | 1.570313 | 2 |
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.— Fans at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort will be able to cheer on “Peach” and “Pearl” as the two loggerhead sea turtles return to the Atlantic Ocean to compete in the annual Turtles Migration Marathon.
Named after characters from the Disney-Pixar movie Finding Nemo, Peach and Pearl are competing in the “Tour de Turtles: A Sea Turtle Migration Marathon” hosted by the Sea Turtle Conservancy on July 28.
Peach is sponsored by Disney’s Animal Programs and Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, and Pearl is sponsored by the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund and Disney’s Friends for Change. Joining them in the “marathon race” will be 12 other turtles starting at various locations. As all 14 turtles travel from their nesting sites to unknown feeding grounds, researchers will track them by satellite technology gathering vital information that will help conservationists and governing agencies make informed decisions about conservation methods and policies.
The turtle that swims the furthest distance will be named the winner. Audiences worldwide will be able to view the sea turtles’ progress online at www.tourdeturtles.org and watch the marathon unfold.
“The marathon is important on the larger level because the Sea Turtle Conservancy shares information with the National Marine Fishery Services which controls where people fish”, said Anne Savage, Conservation Director of Walt Disney World Programs. “This will help determine where turtles swim in relation to where boats are, and to use that information to regulate the amount of time that people stay in those areas keeping the turtles out of danger.”
During the marathon, each turtle will represent a “cause or threat” to their survival. Pearl’s mission is to raise awareness on the entanglement effects caused by pollution, fishing lines and fishing nets. Peach’s mission is to raise awareness on the effect of light pollution. Since sea turtle hatchlings rely on moonlight to find their way to the ocean, many become disoriented and drawn off-course by artificial light sources.
Among the oldest creatures on earth, sea turtles have remained essentially unchanged for the past 110 million years. In the United States, as much as 90 percent of sea turtle nesting occurs in Florida, which serves as home base for several species of endangered and threatened sea turtles. With as few as one out of 1,000 hatchlings surviving to adulthood, conservation efforts must focus on combating human-caused threats through education and research. | <urn:uuid:2527443a-25ce-42d8-b29b-cff40767b454> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dapsmagic.com/2012/07/24/disney-sponsored-turtles-compete-annual-marathon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932074 | 524 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Instead of bringing your child to a general child therapist, look for a professional therapist or counselor who works primarily with children who have been sexually abused, and who has specialized training and experience treating sexually abused children. There are national and local organizations that can help you find therapists for children, as well as crisis centers and child advocacy programs.
Some families choose to consult with their pediatrician; others prefer to find someone on their own. It is important that you feel that the professional who will be working with your child is someone you trust and feel is a good “fit” for your son or daughter. You can ask questions or request an initial consultation just for you before you bring your child in for his/her first appointment. | <urn:uuid:81123b48-5c2e-4748-8a62-7de0549d5f5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stopitnow.org/sites/all/themes/zen/zen_stopitnow/green_content.php?from=392&node=1697 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973742 | 147 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Seems like this approach to deco could translate easily to pots. Start with a simple cross as the starting point to a grid. Extend it out a bit with a series of dots to indicate the evenly spaced intersections. Experiment with joining them with a variety of curves and flourishes.
The fact that the source is a prayer, a meditation, an opportunity to welcome prosperity makes it all the more relevant to utilitarian pots for me.
Kolam is a form of sand painting that is drawn using rice powder by female members of the family in front of their home. It is widely practiced by Hindus in South India. A kolam is a sort of painted prayer - a line drawing composed of curved loops, drawn around a grid pattern of dots. Kolams are thought to bestow prosperity to homes. | <urn:uuid:399ba06b-2d12-4c18-b952-9ccaf3e19af3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://divingintotheclay.tumblr.com/post/6451324142/seems-like-this-approach-to-deco-could-translate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961785 | 163 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Can you name a farm in your area that grows organic produce? Do you know where your fruit comes from? How much pesticide was used to grow it? Are you keen to switch to healthier foods, but can't afford it?
Welcome to LocalOrganics.net. We help you find affordable and healthy food. On this site you can find a list of farms, organisations, and businesses who use and promote organic farming and production methods near you. We like to support local farmers who look after their land. You can support them by buying from them directly. This gives the producer a better price and you end up with healthier, more affordable, locally grown, fresh produce. The changes we make to the way we consume, with their economic ripple effects, sow the seeds for a healthier planet and stronger communities.
Enter your location below and we will give you a list of suppliers near you. Many visitors to our website also participate by adding their own favourite organic farm, cafe or retailer.
Still unconvinced? Please view some of the great movies that inspired us.
This site still needs a lot of work. Please help us to make it better for all of us. | <urn:uuid:4645d328-caba-4599-9e73-9d9d79354e9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.localorganics.net/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969375 | 238 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Communiqués de presse
Nepal: Seventh Anniversary of the Killing of Maina Sunuwar
(Kathmandu, February 16, 2011)-- Seven years after the arrest and killing of Maina Sunuwar, the Government of Nepal should take immediate steps, with the full cooperation of the Nepal Army, to ensure that criminal proceedings move forward, Advocacy Forum (AF), Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said today. The four organizations express their solidarity with Maina's family, and call on the Nepali authorities to immediately transfer Major Niranjan Basnet to the Kavre District Court where he has been charged with murder, and arrest Babi Khatri, Sunil Prasad Adhikari and Amit Pun who have all been implicated in her death. That Maina’s family is still waiting for justice for her killing, as in so many cases of crimes during the armed conflict, suggests that the realization of victims' right to a judicial remedy for serious crimes remains a distant dream in Nepal.
“Seven years on, after her family’s tireless pursuit of justice at great risk to themselves, and after clear decisions from civilian authorities, not a single arrest has been made,” said Elaine Pearson, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch. “Maina’s case is emblematic: if justice cannot be found for her, then there is little hope for justice for all the other victims who suffered at the hands of all sides of the conflict.”
Maina’s killing took place during the decade-long conflict that ended in 2006 between the Maoists and government forces. She was 15 years old when government forces detained, interrogated and tortured her. A court martial found Maina died in army custody. Despite repeated orders, the perpetrators have never appeared before civilian courts. The UN returned Major Niranjan Basnet, who was charged with her murder by the Kavre District Court, from his peacekeeping duties in Chad to answer these charges. He has yet to be turned over to the police by the army, and has failed to appear in court when summonsed to do so.
This pattern of obstruction and non-compliance by the military and other groups is not limited to the case of Maina Sunuwar. It is sadly familiar to most victims of conflict-related human rights violations. The Maoists also continue to defy court orders in cases involving their cadres, such as those implicated in the killings of Arjun Lama, Ram Hari Shrestha, and most recently, the conviction - upheld by the Supreme Court - of Bal Krishna Dhungel. This willful obstruction of justice by state security forces and Maoists constitutes a serious threat to the rule of law and undermines the credibility and independence of the judiciary.
“We have consistently pointed out that the failure to hold perpetrators accountable on both sides of the conflict drives the continuing culture of abuses,” said Mandira Sharma, Executive Director, Advocacy Forum. “There is a direct link between past impunity and continuing impunity, and there will be no movement forward as long as all sides continue to benefit from ignoring victim and justice issues.”
“These are suspects in criminal trials in the context of serious human rights violations, and they are being shielded by the army and the Maoists. It is time for the Nepal Government to make hard the commitment to address impunity expressed at the recent United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review” said Madhu Malhotra, Deputy Director of the Asia Pacific Programme of Amnesty International. “This means acting on the multiple recommendations it accepted that voiced the need for prompt investigations and prosecutions in civilian courts, as well as the implementation of court orders.”
Recently, various political actors and government officials have invoked the possible establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as a justification for non-compliance with court orders and non-cooperation with police investigations. In fact, such institutions cannot and will not substitute for criminal courts in determining individual guilt for crimes. Current drafts of legislation governing Nepal’s proposed TRC and Commission of Inquiry on Disappearances, make it clear that the commissions will neither make individual determinations of guilt, nor have the capacity to protect the due process and fair trial rights of the accused. This is a power invested solely in civilian courts.
“While there is a role for transitional justice institutions to play in Nepal, it is imperative that they not be used as a pretext by the powerful to avoid accountability,” said Frederick Rawski, ICJ Country Representative for Nepal. | <urn:uuid:d9382432-ff7c-4bc4-a839-74812f7f06e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amnesty.org/fr/node/21676 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957829 | 958 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Why Become Members?
Government policies and priorities have a tremendous impact on the lives of students.
Elected representatives have direct influence over student financial aid, campus safety, recruitment and retention programs and almost every aspect of student life. The strength in numbers that USSA possesses is unprecedented. When schools big and small, no matter how active, get together, the resources and the political clout they have is enormous.
Governments, on any level ignore groups that pose no political threat or have no collective voice. By mobilizing and uniting a powerful grassroots force of students all over the country, we build our power, develop leaders and engage in the political process. Only by pooling our resources will students have the capability to effectively make their voice heard and win concrete victories!
3 Easy Steps to Becoming Members
USSA is a coalition of student governments and state student associations (SSA).
As such there are two types of membership within USSA, direct campus membership and SSA membership.
Membership for Both SSAs and Campuses Happen in Three Easy Steps.
- Contact the national office to notify them of your intent. You can reach USSA at: 202-640-6570 or [email protected]
- Obtain the support of your governing body through a resolution or motion, or have students on your campus vote through referenda stating their intent to join
- Secure the resources necessary and pay the dues for your respective institution. Membership dues for campuses are based on the population of that campus and are $.25/student. Membership dues for SSAs are 2.5% of their annual operating budget the first year of membership and 5% of their annual operating budget every year after.
*USSA understands that different campuses and SSAs have very different situations, campuses and SSAs can petition the board to approve their membership at a discounted rate given special circumstances. | <urn:uuid:237fd1b4-bcad-4ad7-a69b-26f51bc63f17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usstudents.org/about/membership/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942091 | 387 | 1.570313 | 2 |
I agree and what I found really interesting was the effect of just one part - fasteners - could have on production. I spent my engineering career designing and building test sets for in-house use so the logistics of mass production never entered the equation - each test set was never duplicated more than 2-3 times. I enjoyed reading this article and learning about a well-thought out design for a fastener for OEMs and even more, getting a peek into how challenging the logistics can be for mass production.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is | <urn:uuid:830889c9-db3d-4c22-9f9b-6fd36facad80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?itc=dn_features_element&doc_id=248330&image_number=1&piddl_msgorder=thrd | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957432 | 280 | 1.820313 | 2 |
updated 09:45 am EDT, Mon September 25, 2006
ATI Mobility Radeon X1700
While graphics in desktop replacement laptops have seen performance upgrades and even two-chip SLI variants in 2006, the mid-range graphics that thinner, more portable systems depend upon have remained largely unchanged since late 2005. NVIDIA began the series of much-anticipated upgrades earlier in September through the introduction of the GeForce Go 7700; on Monday, ATI announced a sweeping update of its laptop graphics line that improves performance without increasing the power draw. The Mobility Radeon X1700 is a refinement of the mid-range X1600 made on a new strained silicon process that improves performance by a relatively modest amount but should extend battery life. In turn, the X1450 and X1350 are being marketed as alternatives to integrated graphics for laptop builders who need improved 3D performance for Windows Vista. Both share the architecture of the earlier X1400 and X1300 versions and use the strained silicon technique to reduce the heat and power that would otherwise keep them out of ultra-portable systems. ASUS is expected to be the first company to use all three new Mobility Radeons in its laptop line and should announce the new computers soon. | <urn:uuid:457ca3ee-2085-41da-b3d0-13f36a7d97e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.electronista.com/articles/06/09/25/ati.mobility.radeon.x1700/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943165 | 244 | 1.546875 | 2 |
December 13 - Holiday Travel Did you or your ancestors travel anywhere for Christmas? How did you travel and who traveled with you? Do you remember any special trips?
As a kid, we didn’t have to take any long trips for the holidays. My parents and nearly all of our relatives all live close by. It made it easy to visit everyone. That is not true anymore though. I live about 500 miles from my hometown, and my brother probably 1000 miles. Heading to Pennsylvania in December is not always pleasant.
When my kids were younger, we tried to head home for either Thanksgiving or Christmas each year. Most of those trips were cold but we always came and went with the best weather days. One year we got caught in snow. The weather report was for flurries, but a heavy snow kept building as we drove home. Our trip time more than doubled, and I could hardly open my hands from having a death grip on the steering wheel for that long when we finally arrived. I think that was the last December trip to Pennsylvania. We visited in the summer from then on. | <urn:uuid:e053bb75-5aaf-4afa-92e2-3d019d18a82f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.genwishlist.blogspot.com/2009/12/dads-advent-calendar-of-christmas_13.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984145 | 224 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.