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Rose Scott, a governmental affairs specialist with URS Washington TRU Solutions LLC, the DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant management and operating contractor, was selected for the National Environmental Justice Advisory Board.
CARLSBAD, N.M. – Organizers say no similar opportunity or conference exists in America. In April, representatives from federal and state agencies, local governments, tribes, communities, business, academia and other groups will gather in Washington, D.C. for the 2012 National Environmental Justice Conference and Training Program.
DOE is a founding partner and sponsor of the event, which was first held in 2007.
Melinda Downing, DOE Environmental Justice Program Manager, said the conference provides federal agencies an opportunity to present collaborative environmental justice efforts at the national level.
“During the conference, communities will have direct access to federal officials and members of Congress,” said Downing. “It’s the largest and most diverse environmental justice conference in the nation.”
Environmental justice experts will guide conference participants through a variety of topics, such as strategies related to land use, mitigation of environmental hazards and socioeconomics. The conference training program offers professional-level educational credits to federal employees and stakeholders.
Rose Scott, a government affairs specialist with URS Washington TRU Solutions, the management and operating contractor for the DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), was recently appointed to the National Environmental Justice Conference Advisory Board. Scott is a former magistrate judge, former president of the New Mexico Democratic Women and current president of the Hobbs Hispano Chamber Foundation in New Mexico. Her Spanish-speaking skills have made her a key liaison at community meetings and asset to the WIPP Joint Information Center, should the need arise for emergency public information.
EM Update talked to Scott about her involvement in environmental justice:
How were you selected to participate on the advisory board?
I was contacted by Lessie Price, another URS employee who is involved in environmental justice efforts, and is a member of the environmental justice conference committee. She’s familiar with the work I’ve done here in New Mexico and asked if I might be interested in participating on the Advisory Board. My answer was “yes.”
What has been your interest in environmental justice?
I guess you could call me a community activist. As a former judge, I learned to listen and read between the lines. Sometimes what is said is not the issue at all. The same is true at public meetings. People often don’t speak what’s on their minds for fear of being seen as uninformed or argumentative. You have to engage them to get to the heart of the concern.
Why is environmental justice important to WIPP?
Before WIPP opened in 1999, our public affairs group conducted public meetings and educational outreach statewide on behalf of DOE to explain why WIPP was in the nation’s interest and how the proposed facility would operate. Because WIPP is the first facility of its kind, and significant Hispanic populations live in the communities surrounding WIPP, it was important to me that Spanish-speaking residents have equal opportunities to express their views and have their concerns addressed.
At the outset, EM pledged that WIPP operations would be protective of the public and the environment. In 13 years of operation, WIPP has been a model in transparency. We do our best to keep stakeholders informed about WIPP initiatives and let them know how they can become involved in the public process.
What have you learned from your experience?
I’ve learned that regardless of cultural background, most everyone wants the same things: a safe, clean environment to live and work in. The more informed citizens are, the better able they are to make decisions about their own well being. Consequently, the ideas and suggestions of citizens allow federal agencies to make better decisions and policies.
Why should people around the EM complex care about environmental justice?
EM sites typically manage hazardous materials. Members of the public have a right to know how the materials are managed and what impact, if any, it may have on them. They must have accurate information and a voice in decision-making processes. It has to be a collaborative effort to be successful.
The 2012 National Environmental Justice Conference and Training Program conference will be held April 11-13. For more information, contact Downing at [email protected] or the conference coordinator, Lloyd Moore, at [email protected] or (202) 827-2224. | <urn:uuid:ef55c0c8-d927-46f6-a3cb-033f13468cc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://energy.gov/em/articles/wipp-representative-selected-national-environmental-justice-advisory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958773 | 924 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Being human, we all make mistakes. In a job search, unfortunately, we will make mistakes. I once mailed a letter to a CFO and had the wrong name in the letter! We all do it at some point. Go ahead and get it out of your system and make the mistakes, then the key is to learn from them. I only made that mistake once!
You only have to be 10 minutes late for your interview or have bad grammar or spelling errors in your resume to learn you will never do that again. We become quick learners when those mistakes occur. The more common mistakes we all make come when meeting with a recruiter, a phone interview, an in-person interview, follow-up correspondence, a cover letter and much more.
Chances are, and you need to know everyone makes them, it comes down to mistakes we make with personal interaction related to an interview. Here is the good and bad news at the same time: since every person is different, every interview is different. The bad news is no 2 people are alike and therefore it is difficult to know exactly what the hiring manager really is looking for in a candidate. The good news is when you don’t receive a call back, you get to have a fresh attempt with someone new.
There is a tendency to believe if we can just get the interview we will land the job. But too often the interview is where most people struggle. Somehow we believe that we can walk in and ace the interview almost automatically. Sure we prepare, but we still believe we can perform extremely well the first time and every time.
Yet, conducting a successful job search uses the same mindset and perspective as when attempting to achieve any new goal. Whether climbing a mountain, learning a new skill or your first attempt at bowling, no one gets it right the first time. I have had my share of mistakes through the job search process. In fact I feel like I have made most all of the ones you can make. There was one company where I had always wanted to work, and on interviewed with them on two separate occasions. Neither time was good. On one occasion the interview with the HR person lasted no more than 15 minutes – I knew something was wrong then! This particular company had a very unique culture, and on my second attempt the position I was interviewing for was a step up for me. I ended up being intimidated by both scenarios and hence did not do well.
After the pain of many interviews I learned the value and importance of understanding the mindset of people and human behavior. This understanding helped me transform my job search although it took some practice.
Don’t get down on yourself because you didn’t get a call back on an interview, especially in hindsight if you can determine what you should have said or what you probably should not have said. Share your answers with someone and get their reaction. The key is to learn from the process and not be angry or disheartened. Once I truly factored into my interview process that every person is different, I learned the keys to on how to connect with each person, especially the hiring manager.
A job interview – talking with someone, especially in person is just as much of an art as it is a science. Even if done via Skype, there is still a personal connection to be made. Having great answers to 100 questions is important, but unless you understand the “art” of the process, it will be a challenge to personally connect with the hiring manager. One of the keys I learned was that I stopped trying to be someone I wasn’t. Instead, once I understood that there was much value in just being me, I was much more relaxed, confident and able to convey my expertise and skill set in a convincing manner.
While everyone is focused on key words in their resume and profile, keep spending more time focused on the key words you use in your interview and the key words you hear from the hiring manager. Learning how to listen and learning to interpret what you hear, including reading body language as you probably are discovering, are essential to a successful interview.
View each interview as an opportunity to learn and grow and you will land that job offer because you have become a great candidate. When you become poised and confident in the interview gained from your mistakes in previous interviews you will quickly become the perfect fit for the job.
Please share a comment or question. Struggling in your job search? Click here to break through in your job search. www.garyspinell.com/40keys | <urn:uuid:c6841e63-5987-4acb-8e8b-96f3c55f379c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://garyspinell.com/category/jobsearch/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973323 | 928 | 1.539063 | 2 |
WARNING: May contain opinions
The Occupy movement has united hundreds of thousands across the world in protest against economic and social injustice. In this episode, key Occupy activists talk global finance, politics, and direct action.
The former Deutsche Bank building in London plays host to this weeks discussion, which sees Julian discuss the origins, targets, and future of the Occupy movement with five high profile activists. The roots of the movement lie in the growing outrage many felt in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. However, according to Alexa O'Brien from Occupy New York and US Day of Rage, they are also responding to a "Global Political Crisis, because our institutions no longer function." Aaron Peters from Occupy London agrees that political failure is a "global phenomenon", with power shifting to unaccountable non-democratic institutions. However, the last word goes to David Graeber from Occupy New York, who jokes "there's nothing that terrifies the American government so much as the threat of democracy breaking out in America."
Add a Comment | <urn:uuid:11f54a95-9b92-4ebe-8f08-63b0471e09f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://occupii.org/video/the-world-tomorrow-occupy | 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 | 0.935049 | 206 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Six bills backed by NRA made law
Among the legislation signed by the governor, information on who holds concealed weapons permits is no longer public.
By ALEX LEARY
Published June 7, 2006
TALLAHASSEE — Neighbors, co-workers and anyone else who might be interested can no longer find who carries a concealed weapon under a bill Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Wednesday along with five other initiatives of the National Rifle Association.
Names, addresses and other identifying information of concealed weapon permit holders are now exempt from the state’s public records law.
“I think the right to privacy in this case outweighs the right of the public to know,” Bush said.
Advocates cited a case in which an Orlando television station posted a list of concealed weapons permits on its Web site.
“This is exactly the same information that everybody is screaming and yelling about now that has been breached with regard to veterans and service men and women,” said Marion Hammer, the NRA’s Florida lobbyist. But gun safety and open record advocates alike were appalled at the law that goes into effect July 1.
“This exemption more than any other exemption passed this session really makes a mockery of the constitutional right of access,” said Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee, an organization supported by newspapers including the St. Petersburg Times. Law enforcement would still have access to the concealed weapons permit list and information could be released by court order.
Petersen said a law already exists that provides a way for people who feel threatened or harassed to have private information withheld from public view.
“People have a right to know who’s carrying a gun so they can make a decision whether they want to be around someone,” said Arthur Hayhoe of Wesley Chapel, director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “The NRA says we the people do not have that right.”
The concealed weapons bill was one of six NRA initiatives Bush approved Wednesday. Shops that sell hunting and fishing licenses, including Wal-Mart, are now required to offer customers voter registration applications that they could take home and submit later. The law went into effect immediately, although it will take time for businesses and election offices to get the system in place.
Also effective immediately is a new law that strips Bush and future governors of the authority to order the confiscation of firearms during hurricanes, as was done during Katrina.
Another NRA-backed measure allows firearms in national forests and state parks. That law will go into effect October 1.
Yet the NRA’s biggest and most controversial push of the year died before reaching the governor. A bill seeking to penalize businesses that prohibit employees from having guns on company grounds, in their locked cars in the parking lot, never passed the Legislature. The battle split the Republican-controlled Legislature between two traditional GOP allies; business groups and the gun lobby.
“I’m disappointed,” Hammer said Wednesday. “But you can’t be too disappointed when six out of seven bills pass.”
Asked if she would be back next year to fight for the seventh, she replied a resounding, “Oh, yes.”
Bush also signed legislation that would partially repeal a 2003 law that paved the way for the largest telephone rate increases in state history. Under the new law Bush signed Wednesday, telephone companies can no longer raise rates as much as 20 percent without asking the state’s permission.
Times staff writer Jennifer Liberto contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:4ca80921-bced-4d1c-bf6a-59809c73693e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/07/news_pf/State/Six_bills_backed_by_N.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964735 | 737 | 1.726563 | 2 |
A longtime senior editor at The Bee, Mort Saltzman, retired before the 2008 presidential election, went home after his last day and did something working journalists can't do: He planted a campaign sign in his front yard.
He was almost gleeful when he told me about it. Like other journalists, he spent a career avoiding doing things many of you would consider to be a personal right, whether it be involvement in a local nonprofit or putting a political bumper sticker on your car.
I remembered that last week while catching up on a controversy out of Wisconsin, where Gannett Wisconsin Media alerted readers that 25 of its journalists signed the petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker. Gannett published that disclosure a week after its investigation revealing 29 circuit court judges signed the petitions.
Online, some vigorously defended the right of journalists to sign petitions, saying it was "old school" to think that was improper.
Call me old school. If a newspaper holds judges accountable for their actions, then its journalists need to be held accountable as well.
For journalists, the goal is to be accurate and fair, and as objective as humanly possible. Behavior matters because perception matters.
That means we can't contribute to political campaigns or hold fundraisers. We can't sign ballot initiatives but we can vote, a private action. While journalists might voice strong opinions over the dinner table, they need to not be publishing them on Facebook or Twitter unless, of course, they are an opinion journalist.
"There are just certain things you have to give up to do this," said The Bee's Capitol Bureau chief, Dan Smith. "You have a voice in how public affairs are conducted . It's a privilege. Everybody can be a citizen at that minimum level (voting), but everything beyond it is off the table, particularly if you're covering politics" but also with all newsroom staff.
Other professions have similar concerns about impartiality. Judges need to be above reproach as impartial arbiters, which is why it matters that they signed the recall petition.
In Sacramento, a well-known example of impartiality is the state Legislative Analyst's Office, whose credibility depends on the nonpartisan nature of its fiscal and policy analyses. So I called Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor to learn how he handles ethics.
Taylor said his office has guidelines to protect its reputation and also relies on the good judgment of staff. Analysts cannot participate in any legislative or gubernatorial political activity. Local political activity is fine if it's outside their policy expertise.
"I don't want a Republican member (of the Legislature) to see my staff with a Jerry Brown bumper sticker," he said as an example of behavior not allowed. "We want them to trust our analysis."
"It doesn't come up a lot. We make it very clear when we hire people about the kind of constraints we have," Taylor said.
The issue for journalists is the perception of bias as well as any actual bias. It's a concern beyond our political coverage as well.
Recently in our newsroom we've discussed whether it's appropriate for a reporter covering the proposed arena to spend a night out at a Kings game, given the importance to the team of a new arena.
It's a thorny question because of perception. Yet attending a game doesn't mean you support a new arena, or any public funding of an arena. It's not the same as signing a petition in support of an arena. Nor is it substantially different from attending a concert at the arena. It's just a night of entertainment.
We decided that yes, a reporter can attend a game. While sports journalists don't cheer or boo they're working and focusing on the game those paying for tickets and sitting with fans can behave accordingly.
A former Bee ombudsman, Sanders LaMont, weighed in on journalistic behavior last week as part of a lively discussion about the Gannett petition signatures on Jim Romenesko's Facebook page. (Romenesko is well known among journalists as the source of just about all industry news.)
"A proper response from the editor/publisher folk, it seems to me, would have been: 'You did what? How could you be so stupid? Don't do it again.' Then they needed to put their standards, whatever they may be, in writing for the readers' and staff's mutual benefit and education."
Here at The Bee, our standards are written into a newsroom ethics policy designed to protect the paper's credibility and our ability to do watchdog reporting.
"Our fundamental purpose is to protect the impartiality and neutrality of The Sacramento Bee and the integrity of its report," the policy says, in part. "Bee employees must avoid behavior or activities political, social or financial that create a conflict of interest or compromise our ability to report the news fairly and accurately. Our reputation rests upon the perception that The Bee is fair and impartial." | <urn:uuid:0b9ab6df-fdfd-4ffd-a03b-4ed48b1fe2eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/01/4380269/from-the-executive-editor-perceptions.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970881 | 995 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Wondering why we have conflicting reports on the S&P Case-Shiller Housing Index? One financial press source is singing hallelujah while another is glum? Because S&P is using not seasonally adjusted data in their press release and other news outlets are using the seasonally adjusted data. Not seasonally adjusted, the composite-20 index increased 0.7%, but the seasonally adjusted composite-20 housing index decreased -0.1%.
Same situation for the composite-10 index. The not seasonally adjusted composite-10 increased 0.8% from March to April, but seasonally adjusted? That flat-lined, no change.
The above graph shows the composite-10 and composite-20 city home prices indexes, seasonally adjusted. Prices are normalized to the year 2000. The index value of 150 means single family housing prices have appreciated, or increased 50% since 2000 in that particular region. These indices are not adjusted for inflation. The composite-20 index, seasonally adjusted is at it's June 2003 low of 148.93. Not seasonally adjusted the composite-20 index is 138.84, only sightly up from it's all time low of 138.16.
The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are calculated monthly using a three-month moving average and published with a two month lag. Their seasonal adjustment calculation is the standard used for all seasonal adjustments, the X-12 ARIMA, maintained by the Census.
So, why would S&P report the not seasonally adjusted data, when we all know spring is the start of house buying and building season? According to their paper on seasonal adjustments, they claim the not seasonally adjusted indices are more accurate. Why? It appears the housing bubble and bust has screwed up the cyclical seasonal pattern. What a surprise.
The turmoil in the housing market in the last few years has generated unusual movements that are easily mistaken for shifts in the normal seasonal patterns, resulting in larger seasonal adjustments and misleading results.
Regardless, we believe seasonal data should be reported for headline buzz. It is spring and assuming the housing buying months are not increasing the data is just plain wrong.
S&P does make it clear that data should be compared to a year ago, to remove seasonal patterns, yet claims monthly percentage changes should use not seasonally adjusted indices and data. From Winter to Spring? I don't think so! Below are the seasonally adjusted indices for April 2011.
For April 2011, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indexes shows 19 of the 20 cities tracked are down for the year.
It seems the only place going up is our never ending corrupt Washington D.C. area.
Below is the yearly percent change in the composite-10 and composite-20 Case-Shiller Indices. As you can see, there is clearly a new decline going on for 2011. This is what is meant by double-dip in declining home prices.
Below is a table are all of the cities of the composite-20 index for their year change. This should give a feel for the bubble and now current devaluations. Notice the stronger correlations in price declines to the unemployment rate and lack of job growth, such as Detroit.
The graph below, from Calculated Risk, shows how much prices have fallen from their peaks in the Composite-10 cities. Calculated Risk has additional custom graphs and data analysis and is the uber site for residential housing data and graphs.
Basically a decade of home appreciation is gone when taking inflation into account.
It's clear foreclosures and distressed sales are simply blowing up seasonal and not seasonal monthly adjustment data. More ominous is the backlog of foreclosures being held off of the market with estimates varying. One report says 2.2 million homes are currently in foreclosure. At the end of Q4 2010, foreclosures were 1.3 million.
Here is the March overview, unrevised.
S&P does a great job of making the Case-Shiller data and details available for further information and analysis on their website. | <urn:uuid:8c6207b2-c0af-4334-bb4e-fa55356bb37c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/case-shiller-home-price-indices-april-2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953777 | 840 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Top Poster: Lawn Tennis
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How do you assess a Skill Level?
Let's say you are about to play someone you've never played before in a local Tournament
and you have no idea what their skill level is, how to you evaluate it?
1. Pay Attention to details ...
(a) If your Opponent gets to serve first, take note of where they tend to direct most of their servers.
(b) Are they comfortable in mixing them up keeping you guessing
(c) Do they do a good job at disguising where the serve is going to go?
(d) Do the serves come in with kick, power, slice?
2. If you serve first what do you look for?
(a) How comfortable are they with servers to the backhand side?
(b) How quick are they at getting to a [down the tee] serve?
(c) What do they do with the return, do they just get the ball back in play or do they try to place you on defense from the start?
3. Continuing with the serve ...
(a) How does your Opponent handle your 2nd Serve, do they try to tee off on them or again just get it back in play?
4. Within a baseline rallies ...
(a) take note on their side to side - up & back movements.
(b) Are they quick to get to a drop shot and subsequent overhead?
(c) Does your Opponent seem to try everything to get to the Net?
Within the first few games, you should be able to tell what type of match you are about to have. It doesn't take long to figure out where their strengths & weaknesses are. Many Recreational Players have a strict mindset that works for them and they don't generally deviate from that. Are they a Chip & Charge type Player that wants to attach you from the Net or do they like staying back and hitting baseline rallies?
For the Players that tend to hang at the baseline, are you looking at mostly forehand shots from them or do they mix it up nicely attempting to feed you both forehand & backhand shots?
Another important sign to look for is whether your Opponent is comfortable setting up the point or do they try to put the point away from the first couple of shots?
Remember most recreational Players aren't capable of long extended baseline rallies. Thats for the Pros, who work the point until they get the opening they're looking for. With Public Park Players (Club Players) having the ball cross the net more than five times is not the norm. It's important to watch which side breaks down more often.
Take a few games to size up your Opponent and construct your Game Plan from that assessment.
Have fun and don't forget to pay attention
The only acceptable loss is when your opponent was better than you on that given day.
It is never acceptable to lose when your opponent was not.
I am no expert in tennis, but I try to teach my son to focus on his game and not his opponent's game. I believe if a player pays too much attention to his opponents then he is thinking too much about winning or losing, more harm than good.
In a similar vein, I wonder if someone could explain the rating number system for me?
Where I play I have only come accross:
How do the numbers relate to those and what is the highest number (say for Federer of Nadal)?
But to master both would be invincible. that is to play the ball the best you can to his/her weakness.
Originally Posted by rchen83
check this out mal: http://gustavus.edu/events/athletics...NGPROGRAM.html
Originally Posted by mal-j
now that is according to the USTA. that is how all us Americans rate ourselves. Nadal and Federer would be off the scale or a 7.0 When rating a woman, the ranks kind of compensate. In other words, a good match up between a woman and man would be a 4.0 man vs. a 5.0 woman. moreover, someone like Serena Williams or Kim Clijsters would be a 7.0 in the women ranks.
Thanks for that Lawn Tennis. Looking at that list I would guess that I am about a 4. If I could get to a 5 and never got any higher than that I would still be more than happy.
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Tags for this Thread | <urn:uuid:b91be6a5-2b7d-4d54-a1bb-f2368a036766> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tennisw.com/forums/showthread.php?6579-How-do-you-assess-a-Skill-Level&p=17431 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956793 | 1,043 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Lego ExplorerMagnesium engine blocks? Yesterday's news. Carbon-fiber bodywork? Puh-lease. No, the latest and greatest exotic material to grace Ford's 2012 production range isn't some space-age alloy. Instead it's something that'll already be familiar to parents nationwide: Lego bricks.
OK, so this awe-inspiring, life-size model doesn't actually drive anywhere. In fact, the doors don't even open. But it's none the less impressive for that. Created to mark the launch of Ford's latest Explorer SUV (and the upcoming opening of the world's largest Lego theme park), the model was constructed by a Connecticut-based team of 22 master builders, a task which took some 2,500 hours. In its finished state, it weighs over 2,600 pounds, more than half as much as the real car -- although about a quarter of its mass is down to a huge aluminum base that strengthens and supports the structure.
But don't try building it at home. In total, the Lego Explorer uses about 380,000 bricks -- which, at a typical market rate of about ten cents per brick, would cost nearly $40,000. And yes, that's indeed more than enough to buy you an actual, drivable new-model Explorer, with enough left over to spec out some nice options.
Instead, if you want to see Lego's Explorer in person, just head for Legoland's new 150-acre theme park in Orlando, Florida, which opens on October 15. And if you want to see the actual Ford Explorer in person, it's probably easiest to just head for your nearest Little League soccer game. | <urn:uuid:46e44530-2b1b-4652-b988-5f81ecec8223> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/life-size-lego-suv-impractical-awesome-215800705.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960065 | 340 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Pfizer Inc. has announced that it will support continuing medical education courses at academic medical centers, teaching hospitals and in programs sponsored by associations, medical societies and community hospitals.
But it said it would no longer directly fund such courses for physicians offered by for-profit medical-education and communication companies.
Continuing medical education is intended to help physicians and other healthcare professionals improve clinical care and improve patient outcomes.
Pfizer's move appears to be an attempt to address conflict-of-interest issues in which large drug companies may have been suspected of trying to promote the use of their medicines rather than fund ongoing education.
"Continuing medical education, when done right, improves healthcare provider understanding of disease, expands evidence-based treatment, and contributes to patient safety," Dr. Joseph M. Feczko, chief medical officer for Pfizer Inc., said in a July 2 company press release. "We understand that even the appearance of conflicts in CME is damaging and we are determined to take actions that are in the best interests of patients and physicians." | <urn:uuid:53a142a5-f5b6-46f7-b81c-fd09c3026755> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.mlive.com/kzgazette/2008/07/pfizer_to_support_continuing_m.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973357 | 215 | 1.734375 | 2 |
NED SHEEHY was servant-man to Richard Gumbleton, esquire, of Mountbally, Gumbletonmore, in the north of the county of Cork; and a better servant than Ned was not to be found in that honest county, from Cape Clear to the Kilworth Mountains; for nobody - no, not his worst enemy - could say a word against him, only that he was rather given to drinking, idling, lying, and loitering, especially the last; for send Ned of a five minute message at nine o'clock in the morning, and you were a lucky man if you saw him before dinner. If there happened to be a public-house in the way, or even a little out of it, Ned was sure to mark it as dead as a pointer; and knowing every body, and every body liking him, it is not to be wondered at he had so much to say and to hear, that the time slipped away as if the sun somehow or other had knocked two hours into one.
But when he came home, he never was short of an excuse: he had, for that matter, five hundred ready upon the tip of his tongue; so much so, that I doubt if even the very reverend doctor Swift, for many years Dean of St. Patrick's, in Dublin, could match him in that particular, though his reverence had a pretty way of his own of writing things which brought him into very decent company. In fact, Ned would fret a saint, but then he was so good-humoured a fellow, and really so handy about a house, - for, as he said himself he was as good as a lady's-maid, - that his master could not find it in his heart to part with him.
In your grand houses - not that I am saying that Richard Gumbleton, esquire, of Mountbally, Gumbletonmore, did not keep a good house, but a plain country gentleman, although he is second cousin to the last high-sheriff of the county, cannot have all the army of servants that the lord-lieutenant has in the castle of Dublin - I say, in your grand houses, you can have a servant for every kind of thing, but in Mountbally, Gumbletonmore, Ned was expected to please master and mistress; or, as counsellor Curran said, - by the same token the counsellor was a little dark man - one day that he dined there, on his way to the Clonmel assizes - Ned was minister for the home and foreign departments.
But to make a long story short, Ned Sheehy was a good butler, and a right good one too, and as for a groom, let him alone with a horse: he could dress it, or ride it, or shoe it, or physic it, or do any thing with it but make it speak - he was a second whisperer ! - there was not his match in the barony, or the next one neither. A pack of hounds he could manage well, ay, and ride after them with the boldest man in the land. It was Ned who leaped the old bounds ditch at the turn of the boreen of the lands of Reenascreena, after the English captain pulled up on looking at it, and cried out it was " No go." Ned rode that day Brian Boro, Mr. Gumbleton's famous chestnut, and people call it Ned Sheehy's leap to this hour.
So, you see, it was hard to do without him : however, many a scolding he got; and although his master often said of an evening, " I'll turn off Ned," he always forgot to do so in the morning. These threats mended Ned not a bit; indeed, he was mending the other way, like bad fish in hot weather.
One cold winter's day, about three o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Gumbleton said to him, Ned," said he, go take Modderaroo down to black Falvey, the horse-doctor, and bid him look at her knees ; for Doctor Jenkinson, who rode her home last night, has hurt her somehow. I suppose he thought a parson's horse ought to go upon its knees; but, indeed, it was I was the fool to give her to him at all, for he sits twenty stone if he sits a pound, and knows no more of riding, particularly after his third bottle, than I do of preaching. Now mind and be back in an hour at furthest, for I want to have the plate cleaned up properly for dinner, as sir Augustus O'Toole, you know, is to dine here to-day. - Don't loiter for your life."
"Is it I, sir ?" says Ned. " Well, that beats any thing; as if I'd stop out a minute !" So, mounting Modderaroo, off he set.
Four, five, six o'clock came, and so did sir Augustus and lady O'Toole, and the four misses O'Toole, and Mr. O'Toole, and Mr. Edward O'Toole, and Mr: James O'Toole, which were all the young O'Tooles that were at home, but no Ned Sheehy appeared to clean the plate, or to lay the tablecloth, or even to put dinner on. It is needless to say how Mr. and Mrs. Dick Gumbleton fretted and fumed; but it was all to no use. They did their best, however, only it was a disgrace to see long Jem the stable-boy, and Bill the gossoon that used to go of errands, waiting, without any body to direct them, when there was a real baronet and his lady at table; for sir Augustus was none of your knights. But a good bottle of claret makes up for much, and it was not one only they had that night. However, it is not to be concealed that Mr. Dick Gumbleton went to bed very cross, and he awoke still crosser.
He heard that Ned had not made his appearance for the whole night; so he dressed himself in a great fret, and, taking his horsewhip in his hand, he said,
"There is no further use in tolerating this scoundrel: I'll go look for him, and if I find him, I'll cut the soul out of his vagabond body ! I will by ---- "
"Don't swear, Dick dear," said Mrs. Gumbleton (for she was always a mild woman, being daughter of fighting Tom Crofts, who shot a couple of gentlemen, friends of his, in the cool of the evening, after the Mallow races, one after the other), " don't swear, Dick dear," said she; "but do, my dear, oblige me by cutting the flesh off his bones, for he richly deserves it, I was quite ashamed of lady O'Toole, yesterday, I was, 'pon honour."
Out sallied Mr. Gumbleton; and he had not far to walk: for, not more than two hundred yards from the house, he found Ned lying fast asleep under a ditch (a hedge), and Modderaroo standing by him, poor beast, shaking every limb. The loud snoring of Ned, who was lying with his head upon a stone as easy and as comfortable as if it had been a bed of down or a hop-bag, drew him to the spot, and Mr. Gumbleton at once perceived, from the disarray of Ned's face and person, that he had been engaged in some perilous adventure during the night. Ned appeared not to have descended in the most regular manner; for one of his shoes remained sticking in the stirrup, and his hat, having rolled down a little slope, was embedded in green mud. Mr. Gumbleton, however, did not give himself much trouble to make a Curious survey, but with a vigorous application of his thong soon banished sleep from the eyes of Ned Sheehy.
"Ned !" thundered his master in great indignation, - and on this occasion it was not a word and blow, for with that one word came half a dozen :
"Get up, you scoundrel," said he.
Ned roared lustily, and no wonder, for his master's hand was not one of the lightest; and he cried out, between sleeping and waking - " O, sir ! - don't be angry, sir ! - don't be angry, and I'll roast you easier - easy as a lamb !"
"Roast me easier, you vagabond!" said Mr. Gumbleton; "what do you mean? - I'll roast you, my lad. Where were you all night? - Modderaroo will never get over it. - Pack out of my service, you worthless villain, this moment; and, indeed, you may give God thanks that I don't get you transported."
"Thank God, master dear," said Ned, who was now perfectly awakened - " it's yourself anyhow. There never was a gentleman in the whole county ever did so good a turn to a poor man as your honour has been after doing to me: the Lord reward you for that same. Oh ! but strike me again, and let me feel that it is yourself, master dear ; - may whisky be my poison - "
"It will be your poison, you good-for-nothing scoundrel," said Mr. Gumbleton.
"Well, then may whisky be my poison," said Ned, "if 'twas not I was - God help me ! - in the blackest of misfortunes, and they were before me, whichever way I turned 't was no matter. Your honour sent me last night, sure enough, with Modderaroo to mister Falvey's I don't deny it - why should I ? for reason enough I have to remember what happened."
"Ned, my man, said ,Mr. Gumbleton, " I'll listen to none of your excuses: just take the mare into the stable and yourself off; for I vow to -"
"Begging your honour's pardon," said Ned earnestly, "for interrupting your honour; but, master, master make no vows - they are bad things: I never made but one in all my life, which was, to drink nothing at all for a year and a day, and 't is myself repinted of it for the clean twelvemonth after. But if your honour would only listen to reason: I'lI just take in the poor baste and if your honour don't pardon me this one time may I never see another day's luck or grace."
"I know you, Ned," said Mr. Gumbleton. "Whatever your luck has been, you. never had any grace to lose: but I don't intend discussing the matter with you. Take in the mare sir."
Ned obeyed, and his master saw him to the stables. Here he reiterated his commands to quit, and Ned Sheehy's excuse for himself began. That it was heard uninterruptedly is more than I can affirm; but as interruptions, like explanations, spoil a story, we must let Ned tell it his own way.
"No wonder your honour," said he, "should be a bit angry - grand company coming to the house and all, and no regular serving-man to wait, only long Jem; so I dont blame your honour the least for being fretted like; but when all's heard, you will see that no poor man is more to be pitied for last night than myself. Fin Mac Coul never went through more in his born days than I did, though he was a great joint (giant), and I only a man.
"I had not rode half a mile from the house, when it came on, as your honour must have perceived clearly, mighty dark all of a sudden, for all the world as if the sun had tumbled down plump out of the fine clear blue sky. It was not so late, being only four o'clock at the most, but it was as black as your honour's bat. Well, I didn't care much, seeing I knew the road as well as I knew the way to my mouth, whether I saw it or not, and I put the mare into. a smart canter; but just as I turned down by the corner of Terence Leahy's field - sure your honour ought to know the place well - just at the very spot the fox was killed when your honour came in first out of a whole field of a hundred and fifty gentlemen, and may be more, all of them brave riders."
(Mr. Gumbleton smiled.)
"Just then, there, I heard the low cry of the good people wafting upon the wind. 'How early you are at your work, my little fellows!' says I to myself; and, dark as it was, having no wish for such company, I thought it best to get out of their way; so I turned the horse a little up to the left, thinking to get down by the boreen, that is that way, and so round to Falvey's; but there I heard the voice plainer and plainer close behind, and I could hear these words :-
By my cap so red!
You 're as good, Ned,
As a man that is dead.'
'A clean pair of spurs is all that's for it now,' said I; so off I set as hard as I could lick, and in my hurry knew no more where I was going than I do the road to the hill of Tarah. Away I galloped on for some time, until I came to the noise of a stream, roaring away by itself in the darkness.
'What river is this?' said I to myself - for there was nobody else to ask - 'I thought,' says I, 'I knew every inch of ground, and of water too, within twenty miles, and never the river surely is there in this direction.' So I stopped to look about; but I might have spared myself that trouble, for I could not see as much as my hand. I didn't know what to do; but I thought in myself, it's a queer river, surely, if somebody does not live near it; and I shouted out as loud as I could Murder ! murder ! - fire ! -robbery ! - any thing that would be natural in such a place - but not a sound did I hear except my own voice echoed back to me, like a hundred packs of hounds in full cry above and below, right and left. This didn't do at all; so I dismounted, and guided myself along the stream, directed by the noise of the water, as cautious as if I was treading upon eggs, holding poor Modderaroo by the bridle, who shook, the poor brute, all over in a tremble, like my old grandmother, rest her soul anyhow ! in the ague. Well, sir, the heart was sinking in me, and I was giving myself up, when, as good luck would have it, I saw a light. 'Maybe,' said I, ' my good fellow, you are only a jacky lanthorn, and want to bog me and Modderaroo.' But I looked at the light hard, and I thought it was too study (steady) for a jacky lanthorn. ' I'll try you,' says I - 'so here goes;' and, walking as quick as a thief; I came towards it, being very near plumping into the river once or twice, and being stuck up to my middle, as your honour may perceive cleanly the marks of; two or three times in the slob [or slaib; mire on the sea strand or riyer's bank. - O'Brien] At last I made the light out, and it coming from a bit of a house by the roadside; so I went to the door and gave three kicks at it, as strong as I could.
"'Open the door for Ned Sheehy,' said a voice inside. Now, besides that I could not, for the life of me, make out how any one inside should know me before I spoke a word at all, I did not like the sound of that voice, 'twas so hoarse and so hollow, just like a dead man's ! - so I said nothing immediately. The same voice spoke again, and said, 'Why don't you open the door to Ned Sheehy?' 'How pat my name is to you,' said I, without speaking out, ' on tip of your tongue, like butter;' and I was between two minds about staying or going, when what should the. door do but open, and out came a man holding a candle in his hand, and he had upon him a face as white as a sheet.
" ' Why, then, Ned Sheehy,' says he, 'how grand you're grown, that you won't come in and see a friend, as you're passing by.'
"'Pray, sir,' says I, looking at him - though that face of his was enough to dumbfounder any honest man like myself - ' Pray, sir,' says I, 'may I make so bold as to ask if you are not Jack Myers that was drowned seven years ago, next Martinmas, in the ford of Ah-na-fourish.?'
" ' Suppose I was,' says he: has not a man a right to be drowned in the ford facing his own cabin-door any day of the week that he likes, from Sunday morning to Saturday night ?'
" ' I'm not denying that same, Mr. Myers, sir; says I, 'if 't is yourself is to the fore speaking to me.'
" ' Well,' says he, 'no more words about that matter now: sure you and I, Ned, were friends of old; come in, and take a glass; and here's a good fire before you, and nobody shall hurt or harm you, and I to the fore, and myself able to do it.'
"Now, your honour, though 'twas much to drink with a man that was drowned seven years before, in the ford of Ah-na-fourish, facing his own door, yet the glass was hard to be withstood - to say nothing of the fire that was blazing within - for the night was mortal cold. So tying Modderaroo to the hasp of the door - if I don't love the creature as I love my own life - I went in with Jack Myers.
" Civil enough he was - I'll never say other-wise to my dying hour - for he handed me a stool by the fire, and bid me sit down and make myself comfortable. But his face, as I said before, was as white as the snow on the hills, and his two eyes fell dead on me, like the eyes of a cod without any life in them. Just as I was going to put the glass to my lips, a voice - 't was the same that I heard bidding the door be opened - spoke out of a cupboard that was convenient to the left hand side of the chimney, and said, ' Have you any news for me; Ned Sheehy?'
" ' The never a word, sir,' says I, making answer before I tasted the whisky, all out of civility; and, to speak the truth, never the least could I remember at that moment of what had happened to me, or how I got there; for I was quite bothered with the fright.
" ' Have you no news,' says the voice, ' Ned, to tell me, from Mountbally Gumbletonmore; or from the Mill; or about Moll Trantum that was married last week to Bryan Oge, and you at the wedding?'
" ' No, sir,' says, I,' never the word.'
" 'What brought you in here, Ned, then?' says the voice. I could say nothing; for, what-ever other people might do, I never could frame an excuse and I was loth to say it was on account of the glass and the fire, for that would be to speak the truth.
" ' Turn the scoundrel out,' says the voice; and at the sound of it, who would I see but Jack Myers making over to me with a lump of a stick in his hand, and it clenched on the stick so wicked. For certain, I did not stop to feel the weight of the blow; so, dropping the glass, and it full of the stuff too, I bolted out of the door, and never rested from running away, for as good, I believe, as twenty miles, till I found myself in a big wood.
" ' The Lord preserve me ! what will become of me now !' says I. ' Oh, Ned Sheehy ! ' says I, speaking to myself, ' my man, your 're in a pretty hobble; and to leave poor Modderaroo after you!' But the words were not well out of my mouth, when I heard the dismallest ullagoane in the world, enough to break any one's heart that was not broke before, with the grief entirely; and it was not long till I could plainly see four men coming towards me, with a great black coffin on their shoulders. ' I'd better get up in a tree,' says I, 'for they say 't is not lucky to meet a corpse: I 'm in the way of misfortune tonight, it ever man was.'
"I could not help wondering how a berrin (funeral) should come there in the lone wood at that time of night, seeing it could not be far from the dead hour. But it was little good for me thinking, for they soon came under the very tree I was roosting in, and down they put the coffin, and began to make a fine fire under me. I'll be smothered alive now, thinks I, and that will be the end of me; but I was afraid to stir for the life, or to speak out to bid them just make their fire under some other tree, if it would be all the same thing to them. Presently they opened the coffin, and out they dragged as fine looking a man at you'd meet with in a day's walk.
" ' Where's the spit?' says one.
" ' Here 't is,' says another, handing it over; and for certain they spitted him, and began to turn him before the fire.
" If they are not going to eat him, thinks I, like the Hannibals father Quinlan told us about in his sarmint last Sunday.
" ' Who'll turn the spit while we go for the other ingredients?' says one of them that brought the coffin, and a big ugly-looking blackguard he was.
" ' Who 'd turn the spit but Ned Sheehy?' says another.
" Burn you ! thinks I, how should you know that I was here so handy to you up in the tree?
" ' Come down, Ned Sheehy, and turn the spit,' says he.
" ' I'm not here at all, sir,' says I, putting my hand over my face that he may not see me.
" ' That won't do for you, my man,' says he; 'you 'd better come down, or maybe I 'd make you.'
" 'I'm coming, sir,' says I; for 't is always right to make a virtue of necessity. So down I came, and there they left me turning the spit in the middle of the wide wood.
" ' Don't scorch me, Ned Sheehy, you vagabond,' says the man on the spit.
" ' And my lord, sir, and ar'n't you dead, sir," says I, 'and your honour taken out of the coffin and all?'
" ' I ar'n't,' says he.
" ' But surely you are, sir,' says I, 'for 't is to no use now for me denying that I saw your honour, and I up in the tree.'
" ' I ar'n't,' says he again, speaking quite short and snappish.
"So I said no more, until presently he called out to me to turn him easy, or that maybe 't would be the worse turn for myself.
" ' Will that' do, sir ?' says I, turning him as easy as I could.
" ' That's too easy,' says he: so I turned him faster.
" 'That's too fast,' says he; so finding that, turn him which way I would, I could not please him, I got into a bit of a fret at last, and desired him to turn himself, for a grumbling spalpeen as he was, if he liked it better.
" Away I ran, and away he came hopping, spit and all, after me, and he but half-roasted.,' Murder !' says I, shouting out; 'I'm done for at long last - now or never !' - when all of a sudden, and 't was really wonderful, not knowing where I was rightly, I found myself at the door of the very little cabin by the roadside that I had bolted out of from Jack Myers; and there was Modderaroo standing hard by.
" ' Open the door for Ned Sheehy,' says the voice, - for 't was' shut against me, - and the door flew open in an instant. In I ran, without stop or stay, thinking it better to be beat by Jack Myers, he being an old friend of mine, than to be spitted like a Michaelmas goose by a man that I knew nothing about, either of him or his family, one or the other.
" ' Have you any news for me?' says the voice, putting just the same question to me that it did before.
" ' Yes, sir,' says I, 'and plenty.' So I mentioned all that had happened to me in the big wood, and how I got up in the tree, and how I was made come down again, and put to turning the spit, roasting the gentleman, and how I could not please him, turn him fast or easy, although I tried my best, and how he ran after me at last, spit and all.
" ' If you had told me this before, you would not have been turned out in the cold,' said the voice.
" ' And how could I tell it to you, sir,' says I, 'before it happened?'
" ' No matter,' says he, 'you may sleep now till morning on that bundle of hay in the corner there, and only I was your friend, you 'd have been kilt entirely.' So down I lay, but I was dreaming, dreaming all the rest of the night, and when you, master dear, woke me with that blessed blow, I thought 't was the man on the spit had hold of me, and could hardly believe my eyes when I found myself in your honour's presence, and poor Modderaroo safe and sound by my side; but how I came there is more than I can say, if 't was not Jack Myers, although he did make the offer to strike me, or some one among the good people that befriended me."
"It is all a drunken- dream, you scoundrel," said Mr. Gumbleton; "have I not had fifty such excuses from you? "
"But never one, your honour, that really happened before," said Ned, with unblushing front. "Howsomever, since- your honour fancies 't is drinking I was, I'd rather never drink again to the world's end, than lose so good a master as yourself, and if I 'm forgiven this once, and get another trial - "
"Well," said Mr. Gumbleton, "you may, for this once, - go - into Mountbally Gumbletonmore again; let me see that you keep your promise as to not drinking, or mind the- consequences; and, above all, let me hear - no more of the good people, for I don't believe a single word about them, whatever I may do of bad ones."
So saying, Mr. Gumbleton-- turned on his heel, and Ned's countenance relaxed into its usual expression.
"Now I would not be after saying about the good people what the master said last," exclaimed Peggy, the maid, who was within hearing, and who, by the way,' had an eye after Ned; "I would not be after saying such a thing; the good-people, maybe, will make him feel the differ (difference) to his cost."
Nor was Peggy wrong, - for, whether Ned Sheehy dreamt of the Fir Darrig or not, within a fortnight after, two of Mr. Gumbleton's cows, the best milkers in the parish, ran dry, and before the week was out Mo'dderaroo was lying dead in the stone quarry. | <urn:uuid:3e2d9b8f-6f72-4dae-be94-f6988103b60b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/flat/flat38.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986831 | 6,178 | 1.539063 | 2 |
This fast, exciting card game makes use of principles of play not found in any other game. Two, three, four or six may play. When four play, the players sitting opposite each other are partners. When six play, form three partnerships of two players each. In the four and six handed games, each player may play for himself if two packs of cards are used.
The object of the game is to be the first player to complete a trip of 590 miles by playing to the table the following assortment of mileage cards:
- 8 25-mile cards
- 4 35-mile cards
- 2 50-mile cards
- 2 75-mile cards
No player may play any additional mileage cards and no other combination of mileage cards may be used to win the game. When three or six play it is recommended that one each of the delay cards (Stop to Refuel, Missed the Curve, Burning Oil, Broken Spring and Brake Adjustment) be removed from the pack and that the total mileage needed to win be reduced to 295 made up as follows:
- 4 25-mile cards
- 2 35-mile cards
- 1 50-mile cards
- 1 75-mile cards
The equipment consists of a pack of 99 cards made up as follows:
- 19 25-mile cards
- 10 35-mile cards
- 10 50-mile cards
- 12 75-mile cards
- 2 Broken Spring cards
- 13 Go cards
- 6 Freeway cards
- 3 Populated Area cards
- 3 Stop to Refuel cards
- 2 Brake Adjustment cards
- 7 Gasoline cards
- 3 Missed Curve cards
- 7 Wrecker cards
- 2 Burning Oil cards
One player is selected to deal. He shuffles the cards thoroughly and deals five cards face down to each player including himself. He places the remaining cards face down in the center of the table to form a draw pile. Each player picks up the cards that have been dealt to him, being careful to keep them concealed from all other players.
The player to the left of the dealer starts the game by taking the top card from the draw pile and adding it to those he already holds. If he holds a Go card he plays it to the table in front of him and his turn ends. If he does not have a Go card, he selects the card that he thinks he is least likely to need and places it face up alongside the draw pile. This card becomes the start of the discard pile. The turn then passes to the second player, who plays in a similar manner and other players follow in turn. Since a player on his turn always draws first and then plays or discards, he will always have five cards in his hand except while he is making a play. A player may play or discard only one card on any turn.
This card is the entrance card of the game since no mileage cards can be played by any player except when he has a Go card exposed on the table in front of him.
25 and 35 mile cards may be played whenever a player has a Go card exposed, but he must have, in addition, a Freeway card exposed before he can play 50 and 75 mile cards.
When a player has a Go card exposed he can play 25 mile and 35 mile cards. When he has both a Go card and a Freeway card he can play any mileage cards. Of course, he can play only one card on a turn. The mileage cards are the only cards that count toward winning the game and the only purpose of the other cards is to enable a player to play mileage cards or to prevent an opponent from doing so.
This card may be played on top of an opponent's Freeway Card and prevents him from playing 50 or 75 mile cards until he plays another Freeway Card. If a player exceeds the speed limit by playing a 50 or 75 mile card when he does not have a Freeway Card exposed, he forfeits the card to the discard pile. Since all trips are assumed to start in a populated area there is no reason to play this card on an opponent who has not played a Freeway Card.
Missed the Curve
This card may be played on an Opponent's exposed Go card. He may not play additional mileage cards until he has first played a Wrecker card and a Go card. This play thus delays an opponent for at least two turns and longer if he does not have the right cards.
Stop to Refuel
This card is also played on an opponent's Go card and prevents him from playing more mileage cards until he has first played a Gasoline card and a Go card. It thus delays him for at least two turns.
Burning Oil, Broken Spring, and Brake Adjustment
Each of these cards when played alongside an opponent's Go card takes away the mileage card indicated. which goes to the discard pile along with the delay card. Like other delay cards these can be used only against an opponent who has a Go card exposed.
If the draw pile becomes exhausted during the game, all the cards in the discard pile, the cards in each player's GO pile except the top card, and all cards in each player's Freeway pile except the top one are reshuffled and placed face down on the table to form a new draw pile.
In the four-handed and six-handed games, the first player to play the Go card for his side gets the trip started for his side and his partners play their cards on his playing space. All other rules are as described above.
WINNING THE GAME
The first player (or partnership) to complete the 590 mile trip (295 miles if 3 or 6) with the combination of cards described above, wins the game.
- These rules were OCR'd from a vintage game, and are provided as an educational resource for players, researchers, and students of the game. Any grammatical or typographical errors are an artifact of this process, and should not be attributed to the original document. © 1937, 1947, 1958, 1965 by Parker Brothers Inc.
- For a modern version of this game, check out Mille Bornes | <urn:uuid:597f7dec-066f-4e71-bc47-6d7425b1f708> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehouseofcards.com/rules/touring-rules.html | 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 | 0.974985 | 1,267 | 1.757813 | 2 |
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GONZAGA UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE
Dale Goodwin, Director
Peter Tormey, Associate Director
|Human Rights Advocate's Life Topic of Oct. 16 Talk|
Julia Esquivel was scheduled to speak at this Fig Tree Faith in Action Dialogue Series but is ill and will not come to Spokane from Guatemala for the events. However, the series will continue as planned with Gloria Kinsler as the keynote speaker. The news release below details Kinsler’s presentations.
Gloria Kinsler says her life was changed by the 13 years she lived in Guatemala teaching at the Seminario Evangelico Presbiterian because of her relationship with human rights activist Julia Esquivel. Kinsler will visit Spokane this month to discuss Esquivel’s life as part of the Fig Tree’s 2007 Faith in Action Dialogue Series. Esquivel was scheduled to speak, but became ill and must remain in Guatemala.
Kinsler, who lives in California, will read poetry and share stories about Esquivel in a presentation titled “Lives Intersecting: The Story and Poetry of Julia Esquivel.”
Kinsler will speak at the following locations and times :
3 p.m., Monday, Oct. 15 at the Women’s Hearth (920 W. Second Ave.);
Kinsler also will take part in a 4:30 p.m. workshop, Saturday, Oct. 20 at the Bioneers Conference at Spokane Falls Community College.
The series is offered through collaboration with Women Walking Together, Gonzaga, Whitworth, New Priorities Foundation, the Inland Northwest Presbytery and the Kalispel Tribe.
As an educator, pastoral social worker and writer during three decades of resistance to Guatemalan dictators, Esquivel spoke on behalf of people who were threatened, traumatized and murdered. She suffered and offered hope as she spoke out for human rights, economic justice and political power for Guatemala’s indigenous and poor. While some took up arms, she took up the pen and edited a magazine, Dialogo, to witness to God’s justice and compassion, and to bring healing to her land.
In 1980, death-threats forced her into exile, first in a monastic community in Switzerland, and then in Mexico and Nicaragua. She traveled in Europe and North America, telling of the “Guatemalan holocaust.” Returning to Guatemala in 1992, she started a ministry of reconciliation, expressing truth and compassion in her poetry to stir wisdom in the face of suffering and expressing a longing for love and hope to prevail.
In addition to her time in Guatemala, Kinsler also worked in Central America for 26 years with her husband as Presbyterian missionaries. A graduate of the University of Washington and the Princeton Theological Seminary, Kinsler also was sanctuary coordinator for the Southern California Ecumenical Council working with Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees. From 1987- 2000, she was invited to Costa Rica by the Seminario Biblico Latinoamericano to lead delegations of Presbyterian churches, presbyteries, synods, solidarity groups and seminaries throughout Central America. Now retired, she serves on the board of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, which is working on Sabbath Economics and Community Investing.
For more information, contact Gonzaga’s office of intercultural relations at (509) 323-3667 or the Fig Tree at (509) 535-1813. | <urn:uuid:866a85eb-4c6d-416f-b685-9a07957ebdab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gonzaga.edu/News+and+Events/newsdetail.asp?EventID=3341&DepartmentID= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949492 | 739 | 1.640625 | 2 |
“It’s not always about money; sometimes it’s just about helping others.”
A few weeks ago my friend posted a very moving story on Facebook that ended up touching hundreds, if not thousands of hearts around the country.
After reading the post a half dozen times, I realized it had a natural viral component to it, a feel-good story in a period filled with negative news, murder statistics, and political attack ads. So I posted Breanna’s story on the Cedar Point Facebook wall and opened up a PayPal Fundraiser to send the family to Cedar Point.
In less than 24 hours, the story had over 140 likes, 50 shares and $1k was raised. Within days we hit the $2,000 mark, Cedar Point donated the tickets, and a major local news station in Detroit did a story on the 5 o’clock broadcast.
How was this possible? Social Media.
Likes and Comments are nice, but the Shares are what made the story viral. Every time someone shared the post on their personal Facebook wall, all of their friends were exposed to the story. A perfect example:
A friend of mine shared the post on his Facebook wall. One of his friends, who I never would have met in real life, saw the post and used his connections to personally spread the word to the CEO, COO, as well as the head of national media relations at Cedar Point. Social media connected Breanna all the way to the heads of Cedar Point in a matter of days.
So what did I learn out of all this? People are genuinely amazing and are more than willing to go out of their way and make personal sacrifices to help those who are a little down on their luck. Breanna, the family, and myself, are so thankful for everyone who made this fundraiser a success. It is amazing knowing that collectively we all raised enough money to provide this family a trip of a lifetime. | <urn:uuid:272e81c3-5566-45a7-872e-4eb44b4fe4eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enlighten.com/2012/09/using-social-media-for-good/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973263 | 402 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Q. Some of your competitors accuse Emirates of enjoying an unfair advantage in terms fuel. Are these allegations valid?
A. Emirates purchases its fuel on the same terms as every other commercial airline at all airports at which it operates, including at Dubai International Airport. In 2008/09, fuel accounted for 35% of Emirates' total expenditures, which is comparable with the relevant expenditures of other long haul international carriers such as Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, Lufthansa or British Airways.
Like many other airlines operating on a fully commercial basis, Emirates was not spared the pain and suffering resulting from the unprecedented volatility in oil prices during the last decade. In the financial year 2008/09, Emirates’ fuel expenditures escalated to US$3,925 million from US$891 million in 2004/05 – even with our fuel efficient fleet. From a historically low base, the relevance of oil to Dubai over the last few decades has been steadily diminishing to the point that today oil related GDP represents less than 5% of Dubai’s total GDP.
Q. What about landing charges? Do you pay for those?
A. Emirates pays the full published landing charges at its main operational base, Dubai International Airport, and does not benefit from any form of volume related discounts. It pays the same standard over-flight charges applied to other airlines across its network and the same airport handling fees to dnata Airport Operations (an Emirates Group company and the ground-handling agent at Dubai International Airport), as would a similar high volume airline customer. Emirates is also subject to the same customs duties as all other airlines operating to and from Gulf Co-operation Council countries.
Q. And taxes?
A. Emirates is liable for all applicable taxes in all countries in its network. Like over 130 scheduled airlines (including some of our most vocal critics on the subsidy issue) operating at Dubai International Airport, Emirates is subject to a tax-free regime that prevails in the UAE and which existed before Emirates first started flying in 1985.
Q. What are your sources of Finance?
A. Emirates has always successfully raised funds from international and regional markets and major banks to obtain finance on a commercial asset-backed basis. No financing has been obtained from Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) or the Government of Dubai at concessional rates. In fact, apart from a single aircraft financing in 1987, neither entity has ever acted as a guarantor for any of the loans raised by Emirates.
Emirates has raised a total of US$21.6 billion to date for financing of new aircraft and other corporate finance requirements. This amount was raised from a wide range of sources, including operating leases, EU/US export credit agencies (just over 20%) and commercial asset-backed debt as well as non-conventional sources such as Islamic funding and equity from Japanese and German investors as part of tax-based cross border leveraged leases.
Emirates is fully and independently audited to the highest international standards by external auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), as well as by auditors from the Government of Dubai. The PwC audit is conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing issued by the International Federation of Accountants. Emirates’ accounts and annual reports have been published since 1993/94 and are fully accessible on the internet at ekgroup.com.
Q. To what extent does Emirates rely on sixth freedom traffic? (The right to carry passengers or cargo from a second country to a third country by stopping in Dubai)
A. Over recent decades most sectors of the global economy have opened up to competition. However, aviation has remained regulated by a web of bilateral air services agreements between states that, in many cases, significantly curtail effective competition by limiting the freedoms of the air. The exchange of third, fourth and fifth freedoms of the air normally form the core of air services agreement negotiations. Countries have not traditionally negotiated the exchange of sixth freedom traffic rights. Protectionist tendencies surface most often when a foreign airline is perceived to be ‘exploiting’ opportunities to carry sixth freedom traffic. Yet, the carriage of such traffic has been an important part of aviation for decades, is a key feature of the business models of all network carriers and a critical source of competition.
Large European airlines such as British Airways, Air France, KLM and Lufthansa have moved sixth freedom traffic over their hubs for decades. Singapore Airlines and Cathay have similarly carried significant volumes of sixth freedom traffic between Europe and Australasia and between Australasia and North America over their hubs. And even Air Canada carries large volumes of traffic to and from the US via its hubs. Sixth freedom traffic is an important part of the Emirates business model too.
Q. What is the relationship between Emirates and the Government of Dubai?
A. Emirates is 100% owned by the Government of Dubai through its commercial investment arm, Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD). Emirates received US$10 million from the Government of Dubai in start-up seed capital in 1985 and US$88 million invested in infrastructure, which included two B727 aircraft and the Emirates Training College building. This has been more than covered by total dividend payments to the Government of Dubai, which have totalled US$1.32 billion to date. The Government of Dubai and the management of Emirates have consistently made it clear that Emirates is required to be self-sustainable and profitable.
Q. What makes Dubai tick?
A. Dubai’s corporate model has its origins in the city’s historic position as an entrepôt, which has free trade and competitive open markets at its core. Whilst there is a close relationship between the Government and many of Dubai’s strategic commercial entities, Dubai is at its essence driven by commercial entrepreneurial principles. Each commercial entity is an independent company with its own profit targets and operational autonomy. Such a system is not dissimilar to the corporate structures followed in Asia for example by Singapore, Korea or Japan.
Q. Do you have labour cost advantages over say a European or Canadian carrier?
A. All Emirates staff are on the company payroll and are not classed as government employees. Emirates incurs significant social costs to attract and retain the high proportion of staff recruited from around the world (Emirates employs 156 nationalities) on expatriate terms and conditions. On average every year, Emirates has to bear a total cost of over US$400 million for expatriate employee benefits – including accommodation costs for employees and children’s education for management, pilots, engineers and other staff – costs which carriers such as Air France, Lufthansa, Air Canada and Qantas do not incur. Emirates’ cost structure of 13.32 cents per available seat mile in 2007/08 is comparable to that of leading international airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, among others.
Q. Why are Emirates’ views relevant to policy makers and other aviation stakeholders?
A. Within the next five years Emirates will have an all wide body fleet of over 200 aircraft, making it one of the top half dozen operators of this type and among the top 20 largest carriers by fleet size overall. In addition, over the course of the last decade Emirates Group has consistently been among the top ten airline groups by various measures of profitability. As one of the world’s leading airlines it regularly engages in national and international policy discussions and debates on key issues impacting the industry. Emirates is by choice not a member of any alliance, believing that customers' interests are best served by remaining independent. We see no tangible benefit from trading-in our own freedom of action. We continue to prefer the flexibility to also make numerous codeshare and interline agreements with other carriers where these are mutually beneficial. | <urn:uuid:5dc76951-e14a-4d7c-a212-cef592f634f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.emirates.com/cz/english/about/public_affairs/q_a.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957047 | 1,587 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Opinion 8.145 - Sexual or Romantic Relations between Physicians and Key Third Parties
Patients are often accompanied by third parties who play an integral role in the patient-physician relationship. The physician interacts and communicates with these individuals and often is in a position to offer them information, advice, and emotional support. The more deeply involved the individual is in the clinical encounter and in medical decision making, the more troubling sexual or romantic contact with the physician would be. This is especially true for the individual whose decisions directly impact on the health and welfare of the patient. Key third parties include, but are not limited to, spouses or partners, parents, guardians, and proxies.
Physicians should refrain from sexual or romantic interactions with key third parties when it is based on the use or exploitation of trust, knowledge, influence, or emotions derived from a professional relationship. The following factors should be considered when considering whether a relationship is appropriate: the nature of the patient’s medical problem, the length of the professional relationship, the degree of the third party’s emotional dependence on the physician, and the importance of the clinical encounter to the third party and the patient. (I, II) | <urn:uuid:4589ce51-5cab-4024-9378-badd6b5719bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medical-ethics/opinion8145.page | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946415 | 241 | 1.53125 | 2 |
In my sons nursery, we have the changing table against the wall. The problem is the only light in the room is in the middle of the room from a ceiling fan. So basically while your changing him you are blocking the light with your body.
So me and the wife went looking for a light to add to his changing table, we found one at IKEA that we like but it’s a ceiling mount light with 3 individual 35 watt flood bulbs, with cartoonish fish as the housings. I’m not about to drill a hole in the ceiling and install a wall switch (as the instructions state it’s supposed to be installed), so we looked around for something else but nothing caught our eye.
I decided to just get this fixture, and hack it.
In the lighting section of IKEA they have some DIY lamp kit, I just needed a cord since I’m going to be plugging this in the wall, and they’re pretty cheap. So I grabbed the neon green one since it looks cool.
First thing I did was open everything up to see what we are dealing with…
The first part to tackle will be the cord, Unscrew the cord lock, slide it down.
Continue using pliers / snips to cut the plastic down to a little nub.
Next thing to tackle is the light housing. A 3/8 drill bit should let you slide the plastic housing threaded area through but not the nub. (slide the wire completely out, then stick the nub inside the housing and point to the outside. You can then slide the wire and the wire nut back on and tighten it… You now have a nice clean wire grommet. This also helps keep the insides from pulling out if it were to be tugged on. You can wrap the wire on the inside using the existing square jig.
Next step would be to remove the grounding wire. The cord from IKEA is only a 2 wire, and the ground wire precaution is usually because its an installed fixture. If you have a 3 cord wire with a ground plug, feel free to connect it. Mine doesn’t, I’m removing it.
Then it’s time to get a switch, make sure its rated for at least twice the current draw of the lamp @ 120 volts… in this case we have 3x35w bulbs, so my 3 amp switch is fine. Solder 1 of the other color leads to one side of the switch, then the other wire of the other pair to the other side of the switch. Finally we need to mount the switch. In my case I needed to drill another 1/4 hole, and the switch came with mounting hardware.
It’s a good idea to double check your wiring and plug it in the wall and test it make sure its fine. Now we screw in the mounting plate to the wall, and mount the fixture.
Lastly some cable mounts to keep the cord safely adhered to the wall, and routed to the outlet are nice.
And there you have it. A fixture that was meant for ceiling mount and to be a permanent fixture converted into an easily movable non-permanent lighting fixture.
Basically the rule to learn here is while your out looking buying products, its important to look past what it is, and try to envision how you can turn it into something better. | <urn:uuid:d280e910-47a9-4cee-864c-14de259fc896> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://baltimorehackerspace.com/2010/08/ikea-weekend-light-fixture-hack/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960193 | 705 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Friday, 11 November 2011 11:22
MISSION — When retired U.S. Army Sgt. David Guzman sits in his backyard at the end of the day and listens to the mockingbirds sing and watches the trees sway in the wind, he asks himself what good, if any, he’s done for the day.
“I’m just here to do what I can,” Guzman said. “My second chance in life is to pass on what I can to other veterans.”
Tomorrow, Guzman and fellow veteran and Mission police officer Rolando Perez, both Mission residents, will honor wounded soldiers and remind the community that military members need all the support they can get.
The Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride will be in San Antonio for a 15-mile bike ride. The event allows wounded soldiers to “battle the physical and psychological damages of war,” through cycling officials said. | <urn:uuid:d7c7ea0d-ab86-4122-9511-bcf645159acc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.progresstimes.net/news/local-news.html?start=360 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932969 | 196 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Of course, it was to be held in a "heavily Muslim neighborhood" -- a provocation, to be sure. And yet I can't help but wonder what might have happened if a Muslim group in France had announced that it was going to do something in a non-Muslim area that many non-Muslims found offensive. (That would not be the same thing as holding the halal event in the same area, as described in the article below.) I expect that the same police who banned this party would be protecting the Muslims physically and lecturing the non-Muslims about "tolerance."
"French police ban planned street party serving pork and wine in heavily Muslim neighborhood," by Pierre-Yves Roger for Associated Press, June 15 (thanks to all who sent this in):
PARIS (AP) -- French police have banned a street party whose organizers planned to serve alcoholic cocktails and pork sausages in a heavily Muslim neighborhood of Paris, authorities said in a statement Tuesday.
Police said the party, called "Sausage and Booze," could have been viewed as a provocation in the Goutte-d'Or neighborhood of northern Paris, where many Muslims pray on the streets because there are not enough mosques. Alcohol and pork are forbidden by Islam and the party had been slated for just after Friday's main Muslim weekly prayers.
Organizers said they were holding the party to protest Islam's encroachment on traditional French values in the neighborhood. Muslim groups had announced a counterparty serving halal, or religiously approved, food.
Police banned both events.
"Because of the organization, location, day and timing chosen, as well as the counterparty plans, this event ... creates grave risks of public trouble," the police statement said. Police also said they met at length with organizers on Tuesday before announcing the ban.
French rights group SOS Racisme praised the ban on the party, which they called it a "flagrant call for hatred."
The woman who organized the party on Facebook and gives her name as Sylvie Francois denies any ties to the extreme right. She told the free daily Metro newspaper on Tuesday that she had launched the party as a way to "express exasperation."
She complained that the "Islamization" of her working-class neighborhood was "more and more ostentatious," and complained that Muslims now block several streets during Friday prayers.
"It offends my concept of the republic's secularism, I feel increasingly excluded in the neighborhood," Francois said.... | <urn:uuid:d0f62921-dcfc-479a-8047-7ed7d391847c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/06/french-dhimmi-cops-ban-sausage-and-booze-party-for-fear-of-offending-muslims.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980008 | 509 | 1.5625 | 2 |
I'm sorry. But no. Web MD is not accurate, at all.
Hmmmm....took me 5 seconds to find this. Sounds pretty accurate to me.
I can't get into an argument over this. The internet, including WebMD, has valuable resources. Of course, there is info that is misleading and wrong and needs to be filtered through. As I said, HA peeps should NOT self-diagnose. And, this is the crux of the matter, anyway.
Well, that's kind of common knowledge. I'm talking accurate in terms of searching your symptoms and coming up with crazy things. I've talked to so many doctors that say Web MD is crap.
H, I'm on your side. You're an anxiety peep....so am I. But, there is an important distinction to made here, IMHO. The information on WebMD is NOT false. Having anxiety disorder(s) / health anxiety doesn't make the information false. There, simply, is not any rational argument otherwise. What is false is how an anxiety person interprets the information related to their own, overall, health and the problem is how that information is filtered by someone who is really struggling with HA. As I have said so many times in my over 2000 posts, here.....HA peeps should NOT self-diagnose - period - end of story.
A healing path is never fostered when we continue to attempt to self-diagnose....I will never say (nor have I ever said) anything different.
The important distinction, to me, is that anxiety peeps eventually have to learn how to desensitize themselves to their fears. This is ultimately a major goal for all anxiety peeps. We hear a cancer treatment center commercial on tv and our HA minds begin to freak...."OMG cancer...cancer...cancer!" Does this make the actual intent of the commercial (one of trying to help, ultimately) false? No it doesn't. But, in an HA mind this information is filtered through our fears and all we really hear is: "Be careful, watch out, be vigilant or you're gonna get cancer". So what do we do? Do we turn the tv channel every single time for the rest of our lives or do we run out of the room every single time? Ultimately, we have to learn that this tv commercial has no actual relevance to our individual circumstance and has no compelling bearing on our quality of life. But, I know how anxiety peeps can get freaked, when they are struggling.
I'm not saying go to WebMD and symptom check. Or google your syptoms.These are such counterproductive habits for HA peeps
. And, if a person cannot regulate themselves in how they gather information, then it would be best to stay off medical websites completely. And, MANY peeps here, on the AZ, are in that stage off their struggles. They, simply, cannot filter the information without it going through an already amped up mind - a mind already predicated in believing their is something sinister going on in their bodies.
Having HA / anxiety doesn't change what's true.....and ultimately we want to get to a place where we can handle the truth, so to speak. Most, here, on the AZ, aren't at that point - I understand:) Having HA / anxiety is about working upon on perceptions and rationalizations with an understanding that most of what we are afraid of is not totally false, or a complete lie, but it is our anxious minds interpretations of things that do have a possibility
of happening. Most often, we can't say things shouldn't be around because they make us panicked. And, ultimately, that is a major goal for anxiety peeps - not avoiding things that are based in truth but can be skewed by an anxious minds:) | <urn:uuid:d392f4a3-081c-4848-8d1e-bdc2aad59d10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anxietyzone.com/index.php/topic,64484.msg371541.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958923 | 786 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Sadly, Judge Clark Douglas is the last of the rare "Judge Clark Douglas" species.
It was once known as, "the place where Noah left his ark."
I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for nature documentaries. Give me some exotic locations, cool animals, some faux-tribal music, plus a narrator with plenty of gravitas, and I'm pretty much set. It's rare to come across a nature documentary I actually dislike, but I'm particularly fond of the National Geographic documentaries because they do such a fine job of combining the aforementioned familiar elements in a compelling manner. Africa's Lost Eden is no exception.
The 50-minute special centers on Gorongosa National Park, located in Mozambique. Once one of the most popular parks in the entire world, in recent times it has suffered a great deal at the hands of (I'll give you one guess) humans. Wars that were fought in the region led to lots of extra hunting, poaching and general slaughtering, which severely damaged the animal population in the area (particularly some of the larger creatures like elephants, zebras, buffalo, hippos and lions). While this former paradise hasn't exactly been transformed into a trash heap (certain types of wildlife still thrive in the area), Gorongosa is certainly a shadow of its former self.
Africa's Lost Eden focuses on revealing the devastating nature of what has happened there and the attempts that are being made to restore Gorongosa. We watch the incredibly challenging process of capturing elephants from other parts of Africa and transporting them to Gorongosa in the hopes that they will mate with the native elephants there. This undoubtedly sounds difficult, but I had no idea just how complicated such a process would be. Despite being big creatures, a tranquilized elephant is easily susceptible to dying from complications if left unattended. In a rather heartbreaking twist, the elephant we follow over the course of the story (humbly named G-5) does not survive the process when forced to undergo it a second time.
Though the strongest material in Africa's Lost Eden focuses on the condition of Gorongosa, a generous portion of time is dedicated to that reliable staple of nature documentaries: animals hunting other animals. You'll see tension-filled footage of crocodiles hunting catfish, lions hunting gazelles, large birds hunting baby crocodiles, and so on. This material benefits from National Geographic's stunning nature footage and Keith David's (The Princess and the Frog) sonorous narration. It seems like I've been hearing David's voice more and more over the past year (a quick check of IMDb reveals him to be one of the busiest actors working today), which is fine by me as he has a tremendous set of pipes and is perfectly-suited for stuff like this.
Though the Blu-ray release undoubtedly gives Africa's Lost Eden its best possible presentation, the DVD actually looks very solid. Detail is excellent, blacks are rich and deep, shading is strong…the disc is about as strong as one can expect standard-def to be. Audio is also good, with David's deep voice coming through with strength and clarity. The slightly derivative music also sounds solid, and blends nicely with the natural sounds captured. The only extra on the disc is an additional special entitled Stalking Leopards, which is worth a look but lacks the depth and fascination of the main feature.
While I do think that Africa's Lost Eden could be priced a little lower given the brief running time (it lists for $20 and isn't being sold for much lower than that by online retailers), this is an exceptional entry into the nature documentary genre and is well worth checking out.
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Scales of Justice
Studio: National Geographic
• Bonus Program
Review content copyright © 2010 Clark Douglas; Site design and review layout copyright © 2013 Verdict Partners LLC. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:c52b37a4-1e46-4ffa-9edc-bc3ff8828888> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/africaslosteden.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946652 | 828 | 1.828125 | 2 |
White Plains, N.Y. – August 30, 2012 – Xylem Inc. (NYSE: XYL), a leading global water technology company focused on addressing the world’s most challenging water issues congratulates Luigi Marshall Cham, Jun Yong Nicholas Lim and Tian Ting Carrie-Anne Ng of Singapore, the winners of the 2012 Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP), the most prestigious international student competition for water-related research. The award was presented to the students last night at the annual World Water Week celebration in Stockholm for their research on the use of clay to remove and recover pollutants from wastewater. Xylem is the global sponsor of the award, which draws entries from students in more than 30 countries.
The team developed a method where bentonite clay is used to remove and recover non-ionic surfactant pollutants from the water without generating any waste products. These pollutants removed are soap-like additives used in industry as well as in household detergents and cosmetic products. The clay is able to absorb up to 100 percent of the non-ionic surfactants and can then be flushed clean with alcohol, allowing the compounds to be reused.
H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden presented the students with a $5,000 award. They also received an invitation to present their findings at the Water Environment Federation annual conference in New Orleans in October, the largest water quality and technology event in North America.
“Xylem is committed to inspiring innovation in science, technology and engineering to solve the world’s greatest water challenges. We commend Luigi Marshall Cham, Jun Yong Nicholas Lim and Tian Ting Carrie-Anne Ng for this honorable achievement,” said Gretchen McClain, president and CEO of Xylem. “We are impressed with the caliber of research represented by the young scientists who participated in this year’s competition and the ability of these projects to be applied to solve real water challenges.”
The selection jury also awarded a Diploma of Excellence to Alonso Alvarez and Daniel Barrientos from Chile for their project, which outlined how salmon waste from the fishing industry can be used for biofuel production.
The international SJWP is presented each year to students between the ages of 15 and 20 for outstanding water-related projects that focus on topics of environmental, scientific, social or technological importance. Winners from more than 30 countries competed for the international honor, which was awarded by an international jury of water professionals and scientists. The prize is administered by the Stockholm International Water Institute.
Xylem (XYL) is a leading global water technology provider, enabling customers to transport, treat, test and efficiently use water in public utility, residential and commercial building services, industrial and agricultural settings. The company does business in more than 150 countries through a number of market-leading product brands, and its people bring broad applications expertise with a strong focus on finding local solutions to the world’s most challenging water and wastewater problems. Launched in 2011 from the spinoff of the water-related businesses of ITT Corporation, Xylem is headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., with 2011 revenues of $3.8 billion and 12,500 employees worldwide.
The name Xylem is derived from classical Greek and is the tissue that transports water in plants, highlighting the engineering efficiency of our water-centric business by linking it with the best water transportation of all -- that which occurs in nature. For more information, please visit us at www.xyleminc.com.
Tom Glover (media) | <urn:uuid:6c775bbb-85bd-4f6a-be7d-4c8b52b4cb13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.xyleminc.com/en-us/news-and-events/press-release-archive/Pages/Xylem-recognizes-International-Stockholm-Junior-Water-Prize-awardees.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941508 | 723 | 1.625 | 2 |
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The procedures delineated in this section apply to students who were dismissed from Iowa State for academic reasons. Students who left Iowa State in good academic standing and who are seeking reentry should see Index, Reentry for more information.
1. Reinstatement is not automatic. Students who have been dismissed for academic reasons should contact the dean’s office in the college they wish to enter for instructions specific to that college.
The college Academic Standards Committee reviews each petition and other relevant information, and reinstatement is based upon that review. As part of the petition process, students must submit a plan for academic success that identifies the causes of their poor academic performance and demonstrates that they have taken actions to avoid or eliminate these causes.
2. Students can only be reinstated after at least one academic semester has elapsed since they were academically dismissed. The summer session is not a semester for the purpose of being out of school one semester.
3. Students who have been dismissed from enrollment two or more times are not eligible for reinstatement until at least two academic semesters have elapsed since their last academic dismissal.
4. Students who were dismissed by one college and subsequently reinstated by another college cannot transfer back to the original college unless permission is granted by the Academic Standards Committee of the original college. This procedure applies regardless of the student’s academic standing when the transfer is requested.
5. To be considered for reinstatement to the university, students must submit a petition to the Academic Standards Committee of the college in which they desire to enroll at least 45 days before the beginning of the semester. Students who have no been enrolled for a period of 12 or more months or who are international students must also file a reentry form prior to their return. http://www.public.iastate.edu/~registrar/info/ug-reentry.html (Students dismissed for the second time and requesting reinstatement in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences must submit their petition 70 days before the beginning of the semester.)
6. As a condition of reinstatement, students will reenter on academic probation and must accept whatever additional requirements are stipulated by the college Academic Standards Committee. Examples include full- or part-time status, specified credit hours, specific courses, specific GPAs, restriction on choice of major, and required counseling. | <urn:uuid:1cf1e96b-2073-4224-9144-5c8e6539a0d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.public.iastate.edu/~catalog/2007-2009/geninfo/reinstatement.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954156 | 505 | 1.546875 | 2 |
As people left a morning Mass on Sunday at St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas, many stopped at a table in the vestibule to bathe their hands in hand sanitizer. Church leaders also are advising parishioners that they can take just bread for Holy Communion and skip the wine, which is sipped from a shared cup. During the sign of peace when parishioners greet each other, they can nod or bow instead of shaking hands.
"There's a lot of head bowing or nodding toward your neighbor," said the Rev. Edwin Leonard.
The annual flu season hit earlier than normal this year and has been unusually vigorous. Health officials say the best way to protect yourself is to get a flu shot. People also should wash their hands frequently, cover coughs and sneezes, and stay home when sick.
At King of Glory Lutheran Church in Dallas, senior pastor Jon Bustard encouraged young and old in the congregation to bump fists instead of shaking hands Sunday. The announcement brought chuckles, but many indeed fist bumped, while others waved to each other as part of their greeting to start the service.
Later, during the point in the service when churchgoers say "peace be with you" and usually shake hands with those
As Donielle Graham and her family members left Mass at St. Rita, they all covered their hands in sanitizer. Graham said her family decided to stop drinking from the communion chalice around Christmas. "Just for right now—just in case," she said, noting that even they had all gotten flu shots, the virus could quickly run through a family with four young children.
Texas Department of State Health Services spokesman Chris Van Deusen said that the same advice should be given to any other large gathering of people. "Everybody needs to be taking precautions," Van Deusen said.
Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, chief of pediatric infectious Diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Medical Center, noted that someone can be contagious for a day or so before developing symptoms.
"It certainly makes a lot of sense during flu epidemics to limit the amount of contact between individuals," Kahn said.
Annette Gonzales Taylor, director of communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas, said the diocese has sent out recommendations for priests for the flu season, urging them to wash their hands frequently, use soap and hot water to clean the communion chalice and have those who serve the communion use hand sanitizer.
In the San Angelo diocese, which covers 29 counties in West and Central Texas, Bishop Michael D. Pfeifer said he hasn't received any complaints about his advice that parishes stop using a shared chalice during communion. He took the same step during the swine flu epidemic of 2009.
The Episcopal Diocese of Texas in Houston, which represents an area sprawling from Houston to Austin, is using social media and emailed newsletters to encourage parishioners to follow basic medical advice, including frequently washing hands, said spokesman Luke Blount.
"It's of course something that we're always mindful of," said Jimmy Grace, an episcopal priest at Christ Church Cathedral in Houston. "We have hand sanitizers around cathedral."
And while the church hasn't changed its process for communion, Grace said parishioners can decide not to drink from the shared cup.
And, he said, "They know that if they're not feeling well, they're not going to be coming to church."
Associated Press writer Diana Heidgerd contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:0b228786-3ede-4694-b8b5-60fff0390c35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elpasotimes.com/texas/ci_22414363/texas-churches-help-parishioners-avoid-flu | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972689 | 725 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris Catalog of the exhibition by Leah Dickerman, with essays by Brigid Doherty, Dorothea Dietrich, Sabine T. Kriebel, Michael R. Taylor, Janine Mileaf, and Matthew S. Witkovsky
Let Me Finish by Roger Angell
Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934–1971 by Stephen Walsh
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson
Box Boats: How Container Ships Changed the World by Brian J. Cudahy
Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee
Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey
Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor
Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco by David L. Phillips
The Foreigner’s Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq by Fouad Ajami
Ahmad’s War, Ahmad’s Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq by Michael Goldfarb
Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape Catalog of the exhibition by Gail S. Davidson, Floramae McCarron-Cates,Barbara Bloemink, Sarah Burns, and Karal Ann Marling
Rapids by Tim Parks
Talking About It by Tim Parks
Reaching for Power: The Shi’a in the Modern Arab World by Yitzhak Nakash
The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future by Vali Nasr
Brookland by Emily Barton
Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty by Cassandra Pybus
Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution by Simon Schama
The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution by Gary B. Nash
Justice in Robes by Ronald Dworkin
America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy by Francis Fukuyama
Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy by Stephen M. Walt
Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower by John Brady Kiesling
Larry McMurtry lives in Archer City, Texas. His novels include The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove (winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), Folly and Gloryand Rhino Ranch. His nonfiction works include a biography of Crazy Horse, Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen, Paradise, Sacagawea’s Nickname: Essays on the American West and, most recently, Custer.
John Ashbery is the author of several books of poetry, including Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award. His first collection, Some Trees (1956), was selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Series. He has also published art criticism, plays, and a novel. From 1990 until 2008 Ashbery was the Charles P. Stevenson, Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College.
Alison Lurie is a former Professor of English at Cornell. She is the author of two collections of essays on children’s literature, Don’t Tell the Grownups and Boys and Girls Forever, and the editor of The Oxford Book of Fairy Tales. Her most recent novel is Truth and Consequences.
Elizabeth Hardwick (1916-2007) was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and educated at the University of Kentucky and Columbia University. A recipient of a Gold Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she is the author of three novels, a biography of Herman Melville, and four collections of essays. She was a co-founder and advisory editor of The New York Review of Books and contributed more than one hundred reviews, articles, reflections, and letters to the magazine. NYRB Classics publishes Sleepless Nights, a novel, and Seduction and Betrayal, a study of women in literature.
Luc Sante is the author of Low Life, Evidence, The Factory of Facts, Kill All Your Darlings, and Folk Photography. He has translated Félix Fénéon’s Novels in Three Lines and written the introduction to George Simenon’s The Man Who Watched Trains Go By (both available as NYRB Classics). He is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and teaches writing and the history of photography at Bard College.
Pankaj Mishra lives in London and India. He is the author of The Romantics, winner of the Los Angeles Times’s Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and The Guardian. Mishra’s recent books include Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond and From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia.
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) was an American novelist, essayist, and playwright. His many works include the memoirs Point to Point Navigation and Palimpsest, the novels The City and the Pillar, Myra Breckinridge, and Lincoln, and the collection United States: Essays 1952–1992.
Witold Rybczynski is the Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania, and is the architecture critic for Slate. His book on American building, Last Harvest, was published in 2007.
John Updike (1932–2009) was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania. In 1954 he began to publish in The New Yorker, where he continued to contribute short stories, poems, and criticism until his death. His major work was the set of four novels chronicling the life of Harry “Rabbit: Angstrom, he two of which, Rabbit is Richand Rabbit at Rest, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His last books were the novel The Widows of Eastwick and Due Considerations, a collection of his essays and criticism.
David Cole is Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He is the award-winning author of several books, including The Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable (2009), Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror (with Jules Lobel, 2007) and Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism (2003) He has been awarded an Open Society Foundation Fellowship for 2012–2013 to write his next book, on the role of civil society in enforcing constitutional rights.
George M. Fredrickson is Edgar E. Robinson Professor of US History Emeritus at Stanford. His recent books include Racism: A Short History and Not Just Black and White, a collection co-edited with Nancy Foner.
Freeman Dyson has spent most of his life as a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, taking time off to advise the US government and write books for the general public. He was born in England and worked as a civilian scientist for the Royal Air Force during World War II. He came to Cornell University as a graduate student in 1947 and worked with Hans Bethe and Richard Feynman, producing a user-friendly way to calculate the behavior of atoms and radiation. He also worked on nuclear reactors, solid-state physics, ferromagnetism, astrophysics, and biology, looking for problems where elegant mathematics could be usefully applied.
Dyson’s books include Disturbing the Universe (1979), Weapons and Hope (1984), Infinite in All Directions (1988), Origins of Life (1986, second edition 1999), The Sun, the Genome and the Internet (1999), and A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe (2010). He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 2000 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.
Peter W. Galbraith, a former US Ambassador to Croatia, is Senior Diplomatic Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and a principal at the Windham Resources Group, which has worked in Iraq. His new book, Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened Americaå?s Enemies, has just been released. (October 2008)
Charles Simic is a poet, essayist, and translator. He has published some twenty collections of poetry, six books of essays, a memoir, and numerous translations. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Griffin Prize, and a MacArthur Fellowship. Simic’s recent works include Voice at 3 a.m., a selection of later and new poems; Master of Disguises, new poems; and Confessions of a Poet Laureate, a collection of short essays that was published by New York Review Books as an e-book original. In 2007 Simic was appointed the fifteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. His New and Selected Poems: 1962–2012 was published in March 2013.
Stanley Hoffmann is Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor at Harvard. His most recent books are Chaos and Violence: What Globalization, Failed States, and Terrorism Mean for US Foreign Policy and Rousseau and Freedom, coedited with Christie McDonald.
Jeremy Waldron is University Professor at the NYU School of Law and Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at All Souls College, Oxford. His most recent book is The Harm in Hate Speech. (February 2013) | <urn:uuid:64eafb78-1a95-4398-8db4-6440f4c01b63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nybooks.com/issues/2006/aug/10/ | 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 | 0.935676 | 2,088 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Every week Link TV's Documentaries team gives their unique insight into the doc industry, and also Link TV's own programming. Look for notes from Lorraine Hess, Link TV's VP of Acquisitions and others working to bring you the world's best films.
The countdown is on with little time remaining until Americans choose the next President of the United States. Most of us have already made up our minds who we will vote for when we enter the booth on November 4th. But if you are still on the fence or just need some reassurance that you are making the best decision, we have put together a week of programming to help you seal the deal. Instead of following the nightly horse-race that you’ll see everywhere else on TV, we thought we’d try to bring you a wider, global perspective on all the major issues the candidates are selling. So each day, from now until the fourth we will be featuring programs that focus on the issues, like the Economy and Globalization, the Environment, Voting Law (and fraud), Iraq and Foreign Policy, Civil Rights, Immigration and Healthcare. The films and programs featured will give you an in-depth, international perspective that we hope will help to fill in the gaps left by mainstream media.
Some of the films you may have already seen on Link - films like In Debt We Trust which we first aired in the winter of 2007 - way before anyone else was talking about a global economic meltdown. And Iraq’s Missing Billions, which documents the immense wealth gained as a result of the Iraq War, by independent contractors like Halliburton. And of course, The Planet, our popular 4-part series on Global Change. This hard hitting series lays out the environmental cost for human enterprise and consumption. In this alarming series, scientists and environmental specialists across the globe agree that the health of our planet is at stake. Increased emissions, diminished rainforests, depleting resources, species extinction and environmental refugees are among the issues they directly align with the breakdown of the earth’s systems. Scientists suggest that it will take about 50 years for the earth to replenish its natural resources and to reverse the damage caused by man. But not unless we are willing to sacrifice some of the practices and pleasures of life as we know it.
In the coming days we will also present some exciting new films. One not to miss is the broadcast premiere of The Corporal’s Diary: 38 Days in Iraq. One of the most poignant films you will see on Link this year and one that perhaps more than any other film, will make you question the decision to go into Iraq. This heart-wrenching film tells the story of Corporal Jonathan Santos from Fort Bragg, Connecticut, who documented his own tour in Iraq with his home video camera. Tragically, what starts out as an intimate glimpse of a young man full of fear yet hopeful for the future, ends up his final testament. And we in the process, bear witness to the futility of war and the waste of young lives. Stealing America, Vote By Vote, examines the irrefutable evidence that proves there were voting inaccuracies and suppression in US elections as far back as 1996 to the election of 2004. And The Warning, a first film from Truth to Power TV (T2PTV), an independent media org that shines the light on the critical issues the mainstream media chooses to ignore. In The Warning, five prominent political thinkers come together to expose the forces at work in the deteriorating transformation of our democracy into an “unconstitutional form of American government”.
So as Election Day 2008 approaches, take some time to carefully prepare yourself for one of the more important decisions you will make this year. Be sure that you and those you know are registered to vote. Locate the voting polls designated for your residential area. Then tune into Link TV for a clear understanding of the critical issues this election rests upon. From the extraordinary selection of programs we present as we countdown to the election you can get the facts and know the issues and feel right about the choice you make on Tuesday.
For a full schedule of all our election programming visit our Election Countdown and know the issues before you vote.
-Posted October 31, 2008 by Anne Kovach and Lorraine Hess
-Posted October 22, 2008 by Taryn Charles, Acquisitions Intern
I have a passion for volunteer work. Since arriving in New Zealand 10 years ago I have worked with a number of non-profit agencies, contributing what I can to their cause. When I made plans this summer to spend some time with a friend in New York, I decided that this would be a great opportunity to experience volunteer work in the USA. So I registered with volunteermatch.org and I was very excited to find Link TV. Visiting the website, I was immediately drawn to the concept of “Television Without Borders”. I felt I could bring an interesting and personal perspective to this idea - having grown up in South Africa before migrating to New Zealand as a young girl. I now live in Wellington where I work as a Negotiations and Policy Analyst in the Office of Treaty Settlements. The office is part of the Ministry of Justice and is responsible for settling historical Maori claims over land that was unfairly taken by the Crown.
It was 1998 when my family moved to New Zealand. We were a part of a mass migration of South Africans disillusioned by the instability of a nation in flux. Like many immigrants, we headed straight to Auckland, the biggest and most multi-cultural city in New Zealand with the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world.
We settled in Auckland. With rose-colored glasses, we looked forward to sleeping with our front door open and walking safely through the city at night - finally living a life free of racial prejudice. But the reality of New Zealand is something very different. On Bro’town (New Zealand’s popular animated comedy series) the South African character Joost van der Van Van says, "We came to New Zealand to look for milk and honey, but the milk was sour and the honey was yuck."
While European New Zealanders still make up the majority, ethnic minorities (including Asian, South African and Indian migrants) are growing in number and the country now struggles to adopt a changing identity. With a population of 1.3 million, over 300,000 are of Pacific Island or Maori descent. Though Maori (Indigenous) New Zealanders comprise 12.5% of the population they make up half of the country’s prison population. Pacific Islanders and Maori experience the most significant deprivation of any population in New Zealand and are more likely than any other group to be both a victim and a perpetrator of a serious crime. It is in this world of hardship and deprivation that Bro’town is set.
Bro’town has attracted a great deal of attention, both locally and abroad. It has been lauded as a rare example of local comedy that didn’t elicit the usual cultural cringe. Language like ‘peow peow’ is now a part of New Zealand’s lexicon. Immigrant culture in New Zealand is often marginalized, feared and treated as the ‘other’ and a show that so honestly and entertainingly represents that ‘other’ is a breath of fresh air for the nation. My family and I love the character of Joost van der Van Van. Seeing our South African culture so truthfully parodied on such a popular show is a great feeling. I imagine this is a similar for those from other cultures represented on the show. But when anything is startlingly and instantaneously popular, there will always be criticism and some critics have accused the show of reinforcing widespread and unwelcome social stereotypes.
It is easy to see where these criticisms come from. Bro’town is not subtle. It is filled with toilet humor and explicit use of racial stereotypes. “Jeff da Maori” has 8 fathers, sleeps on the front lawn and has poor personal hygiene. Vale and Valea’s father is a self-interested alcoholic, a compulsive gambler and an appalling parent. “Encouragement and praise is good? Beating kids until they lose consciousness is bad? Fascinating!”. These characters represent heartbreaking stereotypes. For about 3 years, I worked with an organization called Preventing Violence in the Home. Most of the women I worked with are mothers from ethnic minorities. Not only are they victims of domestic violence but their situation is compounded by the social isolation that often comes with being and immigrant. In recent years the country has been rocked by the deaths of the Kahui twins (six weeks old), Nia Glassie (two years old) and a multitude of other children. All were of Maori or Pacific Island descent and all were victims of horrific neglect and torture at the hands of abusive adults. For a country dealing with this kind of guilt and sadness, Bro’town humor can be unspeakably painful. For me the experience is mixed - I laugh, but at the same time I feel deeply sorry for the women and children who endure such abuse.
However, this is the reality and we must accept it. Bro’town humor is not based on the fantastical imaginations of the Naked Samoans, the creators of the show. Rather, it is based on the everyday reality of many New Zealanders. On the trivial side, kids in my school in South Auckland used the term “peow peow” on a regular basis. We all know at least one Pakeha (European New Zealander) who tries to be politically correct but comes off as nothing but patronizing (Ms Lynn Grey to Jeff da Maori – “I marvel at the Maori and their extended “whanau”… (Family).”) On the serious side, a number of my Maori and Pacific friends in high school were pregnant before the age of 15. In the episode Zealander, Jeff da Maori gets addicted to “P”, the New Zealand term for crystal methamphetamine. The widespread use of this drug has New Zealand gripped in one of the biggest drug-use epidemics in the Western world. Bro’town, however candidly, presents the real and often ugly side of New Zealand life.
The real strength of Bro’town, however, is the way the show turns the ugly into something positive. New Zealand has a great culture of ‘taking the piss’ or making fun of ourselves. In the 1980s Billy T James, New Zealand’s best loved comedian, demonstrated the success of this formula to great effect, “I’m half Scottish, half Maori. Half of me wants to get pissed, the other half doesn’t want to pay for It.” Through humor, he tackled social inequalities, stereotypes and colonial history and got people talking about these issues in a constructive way. Bro’town continues the spirit of Billy T James. In the episode, ‘A Maori at my Table’, Maori culture is simultaneously parodied and embraced. The ‘tangi’(funeral) for Auntie Queenie shows both the often-confusing nature of Maori protocols but also the open and heartfelt emotion of these ceremonies. We have pride in our Kiwi-ness, yet can laugh at and critique the bits that we aren’t so proud of. Being able to laugh at ourselves, and at our follies, is an essential part of the New Zealand experience. Bro’town has brought the truth of this experience to mainstream New Zealand, in an honest voice and an entertaining medium. And Link TV has brought Bro’town to the USA by removing the boarders.
To see more episodes of Bro’town streamed in their entirety, click here...
-Posted October 3, 2008 by Taryn Charles, Acquisitions Intern
We were honored when filmmaker James Longley offered LinkTV an exclusive window to bring you his special report about The MEK (AKA the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq). James's award-winning film 'Iraq in Fragments' made a profound impression on me so I was fascinated to see his Special report about this little-known organization and very proud to be able to bring it to you. You can watch the premiere of the report streamed here on LinkTV.org and it will also be airing on the channel on 25th September at 9pm Pacific/12 Eastern, and October 30 at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, ‘The U.S. State Department lists the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq as a terrorist organization for its association with Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime until the dictator’s ouster by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.’ It also states that ‘the MEK was blamed for Western targets in the 1970s and for supporting the 1979 American embassy takeover in Tehran. Over the last two decades, however, the group’s continued presence on the U.S. terrorist group list primarily involves its activities directed from Iraqi territory against Iran. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the MEK was disarmed and confined by American forces to the grounds of a former Iraqi military base. Still, the 2007 State Department report says that MEK maintains “the capacity and will” to attack “Europe, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, and beyond.”
We talked to James earlier today about his film:
Why did you make the film?
First of all, I don’t really look at this project as a “film” per se -- this is more like a special report, made exclusively for TV broadcast and Internet. I made the decision to put this report together because I think the subject matter is important; it has a strong impact on US-Iran relations although it’s a subject of which few in the United States are aware.
Are these former MEK members who gave interviews in any danger?
I was able to make contact with the former members of the MEK through an NGO in Tehran called the Nejat Society, which is an officially-sanctioned organization that helps the families of MEK members currently in Iraq and also provides support to former MEK members who have returned to Iran. Though I am sure the MEK itself might pose a danger to former members who speak about their experiences inside that organization, it’s important to recognize that I made these interviews with the blessing of an official organization in Iran, and not in secret. None of the participants in my report expressed any fear about giving interviews, since the Iranian government is already fully aware of their identities and history.
From what I can gather, it is now the position of the Iranian government to allow former MEK members to return to Iran without charging them with any crime, except for those who were in leadership positions inside the MEK or personally carried out terrorist acts - and there are relatively few of these people. In this way, the Iranian government hopes to dissolve the organization by allowing most people to leave it easily, and making it more feasible to shut down the main MEK Ashraf base in Iraq.
How did you come across the characters?
I contacted most of the former MEK members through the Nejat Society in Tehran. The journalists and historians I interviewed because of their published work on the MEK. People like Hans von Sponeck, who had been working for the UN in Iraq in the 1990s, I was able to interview just by chance. I was also able to interview the FBI agent in charge of investigating the MEK in the United States during the 1980s, though it took a long time to arrange this interview. I also contacted pro-MEK organizations such as the Iran Policy Committee, but after initially agreeing to an interview they eventually refused to go on the record. I also contacted Ali Reza Jafarzadeh - the former spokesperson for the MEK who now works for Fox News - to request an interview, but he never responded.
What are the characters in the film up to now?
Arash Sametipour, the main character in the report, finished his prison sentence and has been married for several years, living in Tehran where he works in a private company that teaches English to Iranians. Ronak, who was held against her will by the MEK in Ashraf base from the age of 14, is now in her early twenties and lives with her mother in the Kurdish area of Iran. Babak Amin, who carried out a number of terrorist operations in Iran including firing an RPG at the Ministry of Defense building, served a prison sentence and is now pursuing an engineering degree in Tehran. Yavar, the former MEK member who killed a young security guard in Esfahan after the 1979 revolution, served a long prison sentence and was saved from the death penalty by clemency granted by the guard’s mother, according to the Iranian legal system which allows family members of murder victims to pardon the murderer. Yavar adopted two young girls orphaned during the Iran-Iraq war and raised them as his own.
Have the MEK acted on any recent threats to the Iranian government?
During the 1980s and 90s the MEK carried out a number of terrorist operations against Iran, and even launched a land invasion in 1988, at the end of the Iran-Iraq War. However, since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the MEK has been largely disarmed and is no longer in a position to carry out large operations against Iran. Instead, they have been lobbying the US government to take military action against Iran, hoping to inspire a “regime change” that would allow themselves to come to power.
Has the U.S. government’s policy changed at all concerning the MEK?
My understanding is that there are deep divisions of opinion inside the US government regarding the MEK. On the one hand, the State Department, CIA and FBI all seem to regard the MEK and its lobbying efforts with a great deal of skepticism, because they understand the history and nature of the organization. After all, the MEK remains on the State Department list of designated foreign terrorist organizations, and they continue to be investigated by the FBI up to the present day. However, it is also clear that the MEK has managed to gain some favor both inside the White House and the Pentagon. Because of this overt and less-overt support, the MEK - a terrorist organization, according to the US government - is able to continue operating a base in Iraq under US military protection, and is able to continue fund-raising and lobbying efforts in the United States. So the MEK has come to represent a kind of hypocrisy on the part of the US government, because of their inconsistent enforcement of US anti-terrorism laws when it comes to the MEK.
Is the MEK an Islamic fundamentalist group like the Taliban?
No. The MEK can not really be compared to the Taliban - they are very different. Prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the MEK was a pro-revolutionary group that used many methods, including bombings and assassinations, to advance their goals. They espoused a philosophy which they called “Revolutionary Islam” which combined Marxist ideology with Islam. After the revolution when the the MEK was forced into exile, they became a personality cult under the leadership of Massoud and Mariam Rajavi, the husband and wife duo that has led the MEK since the 1980s. At that point, the actual political ideology of the group became secondary to the personality cult of the Rajavis.
Why isn’t the MEK well known in the United States, especially in the press?
Though the MEK has maintained an organized presence in the US since the 1980s and been under almost constant investigation by the FBI, they are not well known in this country since most of their activity has been focused inside their base in Iraq and their operations into Iran. The face they have presented in the United States is one of a democratic opposition group fighting for human rights in Iran, and they have been able to sell this image successfully among many members of Congress. The MEK has received some occasional press attention, but I think they are generally ignored because their story is quite complex and requires a great deal of explanation and background to tell properly, and US journalism tends to shy away from stories that cannot be told in sound-bites.
Why is it important for our viewers to see your film now?
Right now the US is faced with two vastly divergent paths that it can follow in terms of policy toward Iran. We can either go down the road of diplomacy and negotiations with Iran, or continue to build up a policy of sanctions and threats, and possibly war. The MEK is very much bound up in this choice, since if we choose to go down the diplomatic road with Iran then clear decisions have to be made to end all support for the MEK, whose main goal is the overthrow of the Iranian government, and to continue tacit support for the MEK clearly worsens relations with Iran and makes diplomatic efforts more difficult. To take a clear position to end US support for the MEK would ameliorate US-Iran relations and make negotiations on other issues far easier.
From an interview with James Longely, September 23rd, 2008. LinkTV.
For additional information on the subject of the film, the MEK, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMOI
Also, James has put up additional video and audio about the group here: http://www.daylightfactory.com/MEK/
James Longley Biography
James Longley was born in Oregon in 1972. He studied Film and Russian at the University of Rochester and Wesleyan University in the United States, and the All-Russian Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. His student documentary, Portrait of Boy with Dog, about a boy in a Moscow orphanage, received the Student Academy Award in 1994 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
After working as a film projectionist in Washington State, an English teacher in Siberia, a newspaper copy editor in Moscow, and a web designer in New York City, James traveled to Palestine in 2001 to make his first feature documentary, Gaza Strip. The film, which takes an intimate look at the lives and views of ordinary Palestinians in Israeli-occupied Gaza, screened to critical acclaim in film festivals and U.S. theaters.
In 2002, James traveled to Iraq to begin pre-production work on his second documentary feature, Iraq in Fragments, which was completed in January 2006 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded prizes for Best Documentary Directing, Best Documentary Editing, and Best Documentary Cinematography - the first time in Sundance history a documentary has received three jury awards. Iraq in Fragments went on to win the Nestor Almendros Award at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the Nesnady + Schwartz Documentary Film Competition at the Cleveland Intl Film Festival, the FIPRESCI International Critics Award at Thessaloniki, and the Grand Jury Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2007.
James Longley's short film, Sari's Mother, premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008.
James is currently working on projects in Iran.
-Posted September 24, 2008 by Lorraine Hess with contributions from Deepak Unnikrishnan
If you are a documentary film lover, and you have a few days free, you might consider a trip to Orlando for one of the most interesting film festivals I have found. The 6th Annual Global Peace Film Festival takes place from September 17th – September 21st in select locations throughout Orlando and Winter Park. For LinkTV documentary lovers, I think you will love their program as it features films from all over the world, many of which we have aired over the years, or will hopefully be airing in the future.
The Global Peace Film Festival was established ‘to utilize the power of the motion picture to further the goal of peace on earth. With a mission to expand the definition of peace beyond anti-war, ideology, activism or specific causes, the Global Peace Film Festival films and events suggest a more personal message as reflected in the daily lives of individuals and communities the world over.’
The GPFF presents films from around the world and global discussions that highlight the power of the extraordinary medium of film as it relates to new peace issues. Attendees can see films from around the world, attend educational panels, meet filmmakers and special guests, hear from local activists about their work and get involved.
That mission will sound familiar to avid LinkTV viewers and this is what I love so much about the choice of films and why I think the GPFF shares a lot of common programmatic thinking with us here at Link.
According to Nina Streich, GPFF Executive Director, ‘the 2008 program explores community in its myriad forms’ This year, the program presents feature length and short films telling powerful stories from around the world. Forty-seven films from nineteen countries in six continents make up the program that includes six films from the state of Florida.
In previous years, the festival presented films that we have also aired on Link. Films like In Debt We Trust, Nobelity and Texas Gold. Many more of the films, (both this year, and in previous years) selected by Nina Streich and Kelly DeVine, the festival’s brilliant Artistic Director, are films we would love to air but they might not always be available to us for various reasons.
This year, we will be showing at least one of the films selected by the GPFF. Our Arctic Challenge was recommended to us by Nina and Kelly and we are featuring it both on LinkTV and streamed as a ‘featured video’ here on LinkTV.com/documentaries.
Highlights of this year’s festival include Playing for Change: Peace through Music (USA, 2007, 76 mins.), a tribute to the unifying power of music. A Soldier’s Peace (USA, 2007, 88 mins) about a soldier returning from Iraq protests the war by walking the length of his home state of Utah, Everest: A Climb for Peace (USA, 2007, 63 mins.) which chronicles the journey of Palestinian and Israeli “peace climbers;” Beyond the Call (USA, 2006, 82 mins.) where three former soldiers travel the world delivering lifesaving humanitarian aid to civilian doctors in some of the most dangerous yet beautiful places in the world and the award-winning Pray the Devil Back to Hell (USA, 2008, 72 mins.) which tells the story of Liberian women, Christian and Muslim, taking on violent warlords and the corrupt Charles Taylor regime through non-violent protest, ultimately winning a long-awaited peace.
In addition to the films, a series of panel discussions will be presented at Rollins College. Subjects include “What is Peace?” and “Making Films that Make a Difference.” The “Peace Pitch” will present a work-in-progress and a discussion of that work. The “Media Day of Dialogue” is an interactive session between members of the media and the audience that focuses on how images and ideas are shaped in and by the media. The festival closes with a panel organized by the Interfaith Council of Central Florida in which representatives from different local faith communities will share how their community connects with caring for creation from a spiritual perspective with some provocative input from the environmental movement.
We are proud to be partners with such a great festival and for those of you who cannot make it to Orlando this year, but are thinking of putting it on your calendars for next, please visit the festival website at: http://www.peacefilmfest.org.
-Posted September 15, 2008 by Lorraine Hess
Note: This article by filmmaker and journalist Hannah Eaves originally appeared at SF360.org.
Earlier this month the Center for Social Media (CSM) and the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) at American University released a report called Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video or, as it was immediately zeitgeisted by boingboing, "HOWTO Make online videos without getting sued." For techies in the online world, "fair use," Creative Commons and net neutrality occupy the same level of heaven as bizarre sea creatures, steampunk gadgets and cryptozoology. But the paper also makes a very handy tool for ordinary Joes experimenting in the new creative freak zone of User Generated Content.
Fair use, for those not already accustomed to mixing and matching their video/text/art, is "the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances." This legal precedent (see also, this) is particularly relevant to documentary filmmakers whose projects can sometimes become crippled by overwhelming licensing costs, when the footage they’re using is actually essential to their point (for instance, the work of Adam Curtis, like The Power of Nightmares may never be seen commercially and/or legally in the U.S. because of its myth-makingly high licensing fee quotes). But it can also relate to mash-ups and other experiments in recutting, reusing and otherwise recycling content for wide public distribution. Note that fair use applies to both commercial and non-commercial work. This particular aspect just keeps on getting trickier the more that video-sharing sites like YouTube start offering ad revenue shares to uploaders. Proponents of fair use also quite often support other sharing-friendly philosophies, including limited-copyright licensing of creative work, unrestricted access to Internet bandwidth (especially as it relates to peer-to-peer file delivery, and companies that have been caught out secretly choking the bandwidth thereof), open source software, digital privacy advocacy, and the fight against Digital Rights Management (DRM – i.e., the thing that keeps you from putting your iTunes purchased songs on your friends’ computers).
The only place these connections really trip up is when you get to a certain school of precious older documentary filmmakers who get excited when they hear they could potentially use footage license-free (although they don’t really believe it), but would never condescend to make their own work available in any form online, except for maybe a short watermarked trailer or clip. I have worked with these people, and witnessed their strangled, auto-defensive posturing—more like ostriches with their heads in the sand than knights standing in the imagined forts that surround their livelihood. They are going to have to change. Bad luck.
The CSM report may have been released by the East Coast’s American University, but the Bay Area is in the forefront of the fight for filmmaker-friendly practices not only on the Internet, but in all-things-electronic. CSM’s guide (along with this one) may keep you from being sued in the first place, but if you are well intentioned and still push the boundaries over the edge, there’s a good chance that Stanford’s Fair Use Project at the Center for Internet and Society will provide you with free legal support. In San Francisco, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has long supported digital democracy. There has been a drawn out, Hollywood-backed effort to institute an industry-wide "broadcast flag" on everything delivered to you via DTV tuners, which would mean that in the future any TV content coming through a receiver would essentially be invisibly branded (think: the sound of sizzling cow flesh) and trapped there, so that it couldn’t move to any device like a DVD recorder or networked computer that was not officially supported and loaded with the same DRM management restrictions. For more details on this tricky effort click here. Thanks to the EFF’s court challenge, ALA v. FCC, it was thrown out, but the battle will no doubt resurface.
And, of course, the team at Creative Commons has done a breakthrough job promoting less restrictive copyright licenses for those who are actually excited at seeing what creative work others can do with their content. These come in commercial and non-commercial flavors, and have been adopted even by more well known artists like Hugo and Nebula award-winner Kelly Link, whose fantastic book "Stranger Things Happen," is available for free, non-commercial Creative Commons-licensed, download. If this philosophy were to be widely adopted by commercial concerns, the need for fair use could diminish, as more rights were opened up for free. However, the reluctance of many CC license holders to allow for commercial reuse of their work seems to be a barrier to long term realization of this dream. Lawrence Lessig himself has made his book Code 2.0 available for commercial reuse by others (hear him talk about this on To the Best of Our Knowledge’s recent show Re-Mix Culture).
Link TV, the non-profit satellite television station where I work, has long been a proponent of fair use. While the Peabody Award-winning Mosaic relies on official agreements with Middle Eastern broadcasters, Global Pulse banks on the tenets of fair use. It comments on world news, which is archived in our studio on to DVD recorders. The broadcast flag might conceivably have killed the show, which demonstrates how a law that is, on the surface, about copyright and not fair use, would impact legitimate makers and artists everywhere.
But so far in this article I’ve given you a lot of written words on a subject that just begs for video, so I’d like to present you with some examples of content that I think fits into the six Best Practices outlined in the CSM’s "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video," a.k.a. How To Make Online Videos Without Getting Sued. If you’re a read-along type (actually, even if you’re not), I recommend you download the report to fully understand the fine and sometimes blurry legal lines detailed within. I’d like to point out that I’m not a lawyer, or even a fair-use activist, but on many levels I’m the audience the report is aimed at. This is my interpretation of the document, and thus I do a neat act of pushing all blame off to the CSM’s wordsmiths if I have misread them. I’m sure these aren’t the best, wittiest or profoundest examples out there—and if I know online communities I’m sure I’ll hear about it – so I invite further suggestions. Please post in the comments section.
1. Commenting on or critique of copyrighted material
I can think of no better example than Kevin Lee’s excellent Shooting Down Pictures project. Kevin calls on his own knowledge, and that of cultural critics and filmmakers, to provide video essay commentary on films that are in the so-called "Top 1000" of all time. Bonus fair use points for diligent attribution, an essential element of all these uses (that doesn’t actually appear in most of my examples).
Shooting Down Pictures #919 (60): Two English Girls
"Featuring commentary by C. Mason Wells, co-writer/co-director of LOL, contributor to The Onion magazine and promotions coordinator for the IFC Center."
2. Using copyrighted material for illustration or example
I couldn’t find anything readily available online that wasn’t a professionally produced documentary with a life outside of the online world, so I’ve stuck with the CSM’s own suggested example. Feel free to post a link if you have one.
"In Refrigerator Mothers, about an era when mothers were blamed for their children’s autism, J.J. Hanley and David Simpson quoted popular films of the era.
They claimed fair use because the film clips, by demonstrating social attitudes of the time, reflected popular culture of the era."
3. Capturing copyrighted material incidentally or accidentally
There is a line between switching on your stereo to play a Beatles number while you’re shooting an interview and being in a bar where someone happens to have selected it on a jukebox playing quietly somewhere off in the distance. If you’re posting your home movie of your trip to Disneyland on YouTube, you will have captured some strictly copyrighted images. In fact, type Disneyland into YouTube and you’ll come up with over 54,000 results. But as the CSM report so poignantly points out, you can’t change reality.
Also check out the Superman logos and other copyrighted imagery in this Comic-Con video.
4. Reproducing, reposting or quoting in order to memorialize, preserve or rescue an experience, an event or a cultural phenomenon
Barack Obama Yes We Can
The use of network news footage of Obama’s speech for this video seems to fit squarely into the "preserving a cultural phenomenon" category. This video has over 13 million views on YouTube.
Bill O’Reilly Freaks Out (NSFW)
This is old news by now, but too perfect to pass up when I read this sentence in the CSM report: "Someone may post a controversial or notorious moment from broadcast television or a public event (a Stephen Colbert speech, a presidential address, a celebrity blooper)." This seems like a fit to me.
Bill O’Reilly Flips Out—Dance Remix (really, really NSFW)
Not so sure about this one, but somehow I can’t leave it out!
5. Copying, reposting and recirculating a work or part of a work for purposes of launching a discussion
When it comes to online discussion, the Bay Area-based Seesmic is the new cool kid on the block. They’ve even hosted a chat with superstar fair use lawyer and CSM report contributor Michael Donaldson, here.
And so Seesmic was the perfect place to go hunting to find a clip that had been posted for the purpose of starting a discussion. Here, a user has uploaded the closing credits from Brazil with this question, designed to prompt a discussion (not the best one as far as fair use goes, but the overall concept is clear): "Written by Ari Barroso, but does anybody know who sings this version?" Discussion ensues. Watch on Seesmic.
6. Quoting in order to recombine elements to make a new work that depends for its meaning on (often unlikely) relationships between the elements
This one could have been called the mash-up clause.
One of my personal faves is Requiem for a Day Off, benjifilms.
-Posted September 8, 2008 by Hannah Eaves
Andrew Berends, an established, award-winning American filmmaker and journalist from New York, was detained Sunday August 31st by the Nigerian military along with his translator, Samuel George. Andrew entered Nigeria legally in April 2008 to complete a documentary film.
For the latest updates on the situation, go to:
UPDATE: It's a great relief to hear that our dear colleague Andrew Berends, who had been arrested in Nigeria and charged with spying, has been provisionally released by the Nigerian security forces. But it's not over yet. Please read our Andrew Berends Topic at http://www.d-word.com to keep up-to-date.
-Posted September 6, 2008 by Andy Orin
As the Democratic Convention kicks off, the unprecedented hope, excitement and anticipation many are feeling is driven by a single idea: the possibility of Change.
Throughout the Primaries and now in the run up to the election, Change has been touted, shouted, mocked and promised by candidates on both sides. This has been called a Change election and it seems everyone is desperate for it. In a Gallup Poll in December, 70 percent of those asked said they were dissatisfied with the way things were going in the country. And no wonder -- the economy is taking a dive, gas prices are up, over 44 million Americans still don’t have health care and we are still waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan and at risk of getting embroiled in Iran .
Both Obama and McCain are men who are no strangers to Change. If Change also means personal transformation and growth then both have weathered enormous personal challenges and reinvented themselves into men of substance and character. If elected, both have declared they will change a host of major problems, and not only do we want to believe them, we hope they will live up to their promises.
But at the end of the day, Change, however much they promise it, and we want it, is surely more than a marketing gimmick. If we are not careful the word itself threatens, in its overuse, to become almost meaningless. Unless that is, we look at it and reevaluate what it means, what kind of changes we really want, and what sacrifices and rewards we might expect as a result.
For the next two weeks on LinkTV, we are focusing on What Change Looks Like. That means we will be reporting live from the conventions and asking people there what the question means for them. It also means we will be featuring over 35 documentaries and short films that tell stories of change and transformation that serve to remind us, inspire us and encourage us as we endeavor to live up to that lofty idea. Films like The Sermons of Sister Jane, My Terrorist and Super Amigos. The documentaries we have selected show often quite ordinary people simply putting their money where their mouths are and creating extraordinary, positive changes around them. Some films present stories of Change on a local or grassroots level, like the community based initiatives portrayed in The Healing Gardens of New York and Street Medicine. Other films like Nobelity and The Planet tackle Change by looking at a global perspective or the “big picture” of world issues through the lens of some of our world’s greatest thinkers.
I am reminded of how deeply touched I was when I read a quote by Anne Frank from her poignant diary:
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
Certainly, we should demand from our candidates that they deliver on the promises they have made. But it is in the spirit of Anne Frank that I hope you will appreciate the collection of documentaries we will be featuring these two Convention weeks. After all, if in their own ways, Anne Frank and the characters in these films are able to muster the courage to make meaningful change, maybe they will inspire us to do the same.
We hope you will enjoy this special presentation of programs we are featuring this week and next. In addition to the titles mentioned above don’t miss The Motherhood Manifesto, Noreena’s Agenda: The New Activism, Suzuki Speaks, The Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio and The New Heroes series - among others. Be sure to check our online schedule for broadcast times.
-Posted August 25, 2008 by Lorraine Hess
Link is excited to be showing the first and second series of bro’Town. The series is a huge hit in New Zealand and Australia and is only now getting to the USA via Link TV. It is also available via the Linktv.org website as all of the episodes are or will be available via online streaming concurrent with the television broadcast. Have a look at the full episodes, both Season 1 and Season 2.
The bro’Town program, now in its fifth year, has been likened to The Simpsons in that it is animated and deals with social questions and concerns with lots of wit and humor. But bro’Town has a style uniquely its own. Bro’Town could be written about in a way that is literally accurate, but which would miss the deep complexity and humanity of the series. For example, the series does feature poor urban youth in Auckland, New Zealand who speak with a dense street patois, and who have a support structure featuring a father who is a selfish drunk, and a school principal who is quite effeminate.
But while bro’Town is often laugh out loud funny and a sharp and knowing social satire, it is also a highly moral series. Each episode begins with a moral or ethical question, generally generated by God (in this case a humane and friendly Maori figure dressed in a lava lava, an outfit much like a sarong). And audiences are educated along the way. For example, the principal of the school is a Fa'afafine, who are biologically men, but who in childhood choose by their nature to be raised to assume female gender roles. This is not discouraged in the traditional fa'asamoa (Samoan society).
Opening up to alternative cultures can be a tricky process, especially when done with lots of humor. We know bro’Town is wonderfully entertaining and sharp in its insights and takes on human nature and society. But we understand that bro’Town can also push audiences up to and over the edge of what could be considered acceptable representations of race, class, and other potent subject matter.
The talents of bro’Town are an important presence in various communities of New Zealand. In fact, almost every important celebrity or public official in New Zealand has performed a cameo in a bro’Town episode. These include Prime Minister Helen Clark, Lucy Lawless (Xena: The Warrior Princess), and the famous New Zealand rugby team. The bro’Town creator shave also published a useful compendium of work done in various communities in a way that encourages content about the approach and content of the series (PDF).
We want to hear from you if you think the humor pushes the envelope a little too much or if you have questions about the series. Please visit our contact page and someone will respond to you as soon as possible.
The following are some useful reference links if you want to delve further into the culture around this fascinating series:
Bro’Town Home Page
bro’Town Backgrounder in Wikipedia
List of bro’Town Episodes
List of bro’Town Special Guests
bro’Town MySpace Site
-Posted August 20, 2008 by Neil Sieling
With the Olympics underway, steadfast idealists hope sport fosters global unity. Perhaps. But nothing is ever that black and white, especially political compromise, which inevitably has a tendency to walk into sporting arenas. The Beijing Olympics has had its fair share of controversies, the pro-Tibet protests being one of them. Even Nicholas Kritoff of The New York Times delved in on Tibet in a recent op-ed.
But perspective interests us. China rarely receives favorable reviews in the international press about Tibet. Instead of wondering if that's fair, we were interested to know if footage was available about the new Tibet China was allegedly creating. We found a taste of this in A Year in Tibet, a five part series that lays out the conundrums Tibetans face as they culturally adjust to a Tibet very different to the one the 14th Dalai Lama escaped from. Things have changed and then again they have not.
Certainly, the Chinese government is very meticulous in how it governs Tibet. That is more than evident in the other two films airing on Link TV, Dreaming of Tibet, and Beyond Fear. The human rights violations are disturbing and one hopes it ends.
In writer Pico Iyer's recent book The Open Road, he writes of a Dalai Lama constantly in study, evolving, learning, even now. As I read on, I began to wonder what would happen if the Dalai Lama passed and Tibet remained unresolved. Could hate leak into the next generation from the present one? Would it? I don't have the answers. However, it is important to question, to have discourse. One way to do this is to outline the different perspectives people carry about a subject. Link's Eye on Tibet programming, we hope, is a step in that direction. For one thing is certain, there is indeed a problem. Thoughts, comments are always welcome. Do write us.
-Posted August 13, 2008 by Deepak Unnikrishnan
As Vice-President of Acquisitions for Link Media, I would like to welcome you to our newly revised Documentaries web pages. As you can see we have been rearranging the furniture a bit and have added a few new features.
We are delighted that we are now able to provide you with a Featured Video at least twice a week that we will update regularly from our archive. You will find an ongoing selection of content that includes fully streamed documentary films, animated shorts, documentary shorts and in the near future, a selection of viewer generated content as well. We are also happy to present DOC360, an informative new space for connecting the voices of our documentary community. DOC360 will feature a variety of rotating content like doc blogs from a regular slate of contributors, notes from the field (the doc industry), film reviews, staff picks, and a more in depth spotlight on filmmakers. DOC360 will offer you the viewer a chance to contribute your voice to our page with viewer film picks, viewer film reviews, and other information you would like to submit to our editorial team to make a contribution to the world of documentary film.
As we inaugurate our new doc page I would like to also take this opportunity to introduce to you the folks who make documentaries on Link TV happen – our Link TV Acquisitions Team. Anne Kovach, Neil Sieling, and Deepak Unnikrishnan help coordinate most of the acquisitions on Link TV and also handle the scheduling for the channel. They will be contributing to the DOC360 blog in the future, so please do keep checking in for all of the new postings.
We’re excited to be launching DOC360, we thank you for your support, and look forward to hearing from you in the future.
Vice President of Acquisitions and Scheduling
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December 5 2005
Nearly half of the state's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) criminal investigation special agents visited accounting students on the campus of Indiana State University to offer an up-close look at forensic accounting and possible future careers as criminal investigators.
Students from Indiana State Professor Tom Harris' fraud, tax and auditing classes attended what's known as the Adrian Project, an event which uses real-world fraud cases to show how forensic accounting investigations work. The day-long event on Friday allowed ISU students to put their accounting and criminal investigation skills to the test.
The IRS' Detroit field office developed this hands-on project about five years ago as a recruitment tool, said Jack Massey, a special agent for the IRS Criminal Investigation Division. Adrian College (Mich.) was the first to host the event at that time. As a result, the agents adopted 'Adrian' as the project's formal name. Indiana State University is the first institution or organization in Indiana ever to host the event.
"Indiana State was essentially our Adrian College in the sense that they said 'Yes, come here, and let our students see what an IRS criminal investigator does.'" Tom Harris, an assistant professor of accounting at Indiana State, helped bring the Adrian Project to ISU. He said the event tied in well with the fraud classes the university now offers and with the forensic accounting minor that he and his colleagues are developing.
"I certainly have not been disappointed (with IRS agents' instruction)," Harris said. "It's been a great experience for our students."
Massey adds that the program is mutually beneficial to the students and IRS alike.
"It allows the students to get a taste of a career opportunity that they may not know about - the IRS criminal investigator," he said. "Also, if they're choosing a path in accounting that's not with the IRS, it will open their eyes up to things they need to be aware of and look for should they work for an accounting firm."
Participants were separated into seven groups, and each group was assigned a unique fraud case to crack. One or two IRS special agents instructed each group, teaching them the tricks of the trade as they worked to investigate the incidents and uncover wrongdoing.
"We have seven different scenarios," Massey said. "Everything from a drug dealer to an embezzler, to a business that's skimming receipts, to what we used to call a tax protestor."
The students spent the day solving the case and presented the information at the end of the session.
"The Adrian Project is important to students because forensic accounting is one of the hottest things going on right now," Massey said.
"It's going to be the accounting students who will wind up working for these firms, and they're going to be the front line in seeing the fraud, and seeing these books and records prepared."
Contact: Tom Harris, assistant professor, accounting, Indiana State University, (812) 237-2005 or Maria Greninger, associate director, Communications & Marketing, Indiana State University, (812) 237-4357 or [email protected]
Writer: Megan Anderson, student intern, Communications & Marketing, Indiana State University, (812) 237-3773.
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School children and teachers taken hostage in Philippines
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The head of a day care centre in Manila, Philippines, has boarded a bus containing 32 children and 2 teachers from the centre and is holding them hostage, demanding better education rights and better housing for them.
Jun Ducat and one other armed individual took the party hostage while they were going out on a trip with the day care centre.
The bus has been surrounded by armed Filipino police, and through negotiation, the hostage takers agreed to release all the remaining children on the bus at 11:00am BST (10:00am GMT), but the deadline for this has now passed with no sign of the remaining children being released as per the agreement.
One child has been released from the bus and taken away by police and emergency medical services suffering from a high fever.
Mr Ducat said that he had no intention of harming the people aboard the bus in any way, and indeed, the siege has ended with his surrender.
"I accept that I should be jailed because what I did was against the law," Ducat said in an interview with Associated Press. No child was reported physically injured, but they are undergoing medical checkups and psychological debriefings.
- "Children held in Manilla bus seige" — , 28th March 2007
- Manny Mogato. "Deal reached in Philippine hostage drama" — , 28th March 2007
- Paul Alexander, AP. "Philippines bus siege ends in surrender" — , March 28, 2007
|This page has been automatically archived by a robot, and is no longer publicly editable.| | <urn:uuid:bc2407ca-0e43-40d2-966c-68210ad891e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/School_Children_and_Teachers_taken_hostage_in_Philippines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9804 | 333 | 1.703125 | 2 |
By Isabel Alvarez
As soon as the turkey is out of the oven Thanksgiving Day, we’re on the quest to find the perfect holiday gifts. We scour the Internet, catalogs and shops for that hallelujah moment — when bells chime, lights shine and we exclaim, “It’s perfect!”
We hope to make a lasting impression. We want our family and friends to squeal in delight as they unwrap our thoughtful and deeply meaningful gifts. It’s all in the holiday spirit, and it’s precisely why this is such a joyful time of year.
But beware the enthusiasm, friends. We wouldn’t want the glittery holiday haze to distract you into making a poor pet decision.
First and foremost, pets are not gifts. Pets are a serious commitment. Regardless of size or species, all pets require a considerable amount of time and dedication. And they often come with a hefty financial obligation.
Pets are not toys. They are living, breathing creatures that require proper nutrition, care and exercise. Simply feeding them is not enough. Having the money to buy the very best and offer outstanding veterinary care is not enough. Loving them to pieces is not enough. Pets need all of the above and more.
Puppies look adorable with a festive bow, but there is a lot more to that sweet, squirmy surprise than you may bargain for. And the recipient of your special gift may not know the level of commitment it takes to raise a puppy, dog, kitten, cat, rabbit, turtle — you name it. Pets are a responsibility, not a gift idea.
What’s that? You’ve thought long and hard and still want a pet this holiday season? And you’re committed to raising your new friend right? Great!
Let’s discuss the obstacles that you may encounter in your search.
You may have heard the term “puppy mill.” If you have, the words should conjure up images of suffering, filth and, well, absolute terror. Puppy mills are hell on earth for dogs, and you want to avoid a puppy-mill pup at all costs. Cats and small mammals aren’t bred as poorly or as extensively as dogs because they are less popular in purebred form. But puppy-mill equivalents exist for many species and should be avoided.
A puppy-mill pet will not only come with extensive psychological issues, but may also cost you a fortune in veterinary bills as a result of deplorable breeding practices —including inbreeding, unhealthy and overbred moms and pops, and high levels of contamination. Buying from a puppy mill is as much a bad investment as it is an utter lack of social responsibility. Don’t do it.
How do you avoid a puppy mill? Start by doing your homework. Research the breed, contact a number of highly regarded breeders, and ask friends, colleagues and — most importantly — pet experts for recommendations. Once you’ve narrowed down your search, refuse to buy pets off the Internet or from pet shops, visit a number of breeders and observe their operation before committing to a purchase, and report questionable breeding practices to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Bad breeding is a vicious cycle, and we can contribute to its end. Buying a pet from a less-than-reputable breeder only helps fund future litters and encourages the disgusting scheme. You may have saved an animal, but you’ve supported the operation and ensured future generations of pets will similarly suffer.
I would skip the breeders and purchases altogether, considering the thousands of wonderful pets waiting for a home at local shelters and rescue organizations. This holiday season, open your heart and home to a pet that has dreamt of you their entire life — they will not only repay you in love but also in gratitude. Don’t make a purchase, save a life. What better way to celebrate the true spirit of the season?
Alexandria resident Isabel Alvarez owns The Wag Pack, a professional pet services company that the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters named its 2012 business of the year. | <urn:uuid:201b6689-b42e-4a07-98e4-391e195f44ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alextimes.com/2012/12/finding-the-perfect-friend-for-the-holidays/?pagenum=6&sort=id&dir=DESC | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936464 | 864 | 1.84375 | 2 |
A TINY but ’n’ ben is about to get a new – and noisy – lease of life. The cottage in Angus is the former family home of the American Scot who helped found the most iconic motorbike ever produced. Now devotees of the Harley-Davidson brand have used their own money to buy the cottage to turn it into a pilgrimage site for bikers around the world.
Genealogical research by an Angus Council employee discovered that the father of Arthur Davidson, who co-founded Harley-Davidson with his childhood friend William S Harley, lived in the stone-built house in the hamlet of Netherton of Melgund, near Brechin, until the mid-1850s when his family emigrated to the US. READ ON | <urn:uuid:6b60609d-28c6-4c6c-aae5-c7b4cea2723f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/travel/341-contacts/19400-harley-davidson-devotees-rescue-crumbling-scots-home-of-legendary-motorbike-maker | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974956 | 157 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Editor’s Note: This new weekly sponsored column is written by the staff of Georgetown Square Wine and Beer (10400 Old Georgetown Road).
I’m sure many beer drinkers have seen an array of Christmas and winter seasonal beers on your local store’s shelves already. There are tons of them, more than ever. I can barely keep up. Before this craze of new winter seasonal beers there was a more traditional winter beer style that people enjoyed during the cold months: Stouts.
Stouts are dark beers that use either roasted malts or roasted barley in the brewing process. The most famous and best selling is the dry Irish stout Guiness, which can be consumed at any time of the year thanks in part to its low alcohol content.
Inspired by Guiness and our Irish and English ancestors, American brewers have come up with some impressive delicious stout libations. Complimenting the roasted flavors of the stout style, American brewers have smartly added additional flavors such as more hops, ground coffee, chocolate and sometimes age the brew in bourbon or whiskey barrels. Some of these brews, like Brooklyn Black Ops and Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, are so sought after they’re almost impossible to get.
Out of all the different American stouts, coffee stouts seem to be the most-brewed style in the winter months. With the roasted dark malts and barley adding coffee to the brew makes a perfect compliment to the stout’s dark taste and structure. Great for any after dinner drink or on a warm night coffee stouts have terrific flavor plus give us a little caffeine fix at the same time.
As of now we have an overflow of coffee stouts in stock. Flying Dog’s Kujo Imperial Coffee Stout is a local favorite out of Frederick, MD. Lagunitas makes a great Cappuccino stout. Old Dominion makes an espresso stout named Morning Glory. Schlafly out of St. Louis is on fire with their seasonal offerings and continue that trend with their coffee stout. My personal favorite is the New Belgium Imperial Coffee Stout, which adds some chocolate to the brew that makes it delicious.
Chocolate stouts were originally called chocolate not because of chocolate added, but because of the dark chocolate color and the chocolate malt used. American brewers thought: why not add some chocolate to the brew making it more appealing to the American palate?
One of the few American chocolate stouts that does not add chocolate flavor that we carry is Brooklyn Chocolate Stout. Brooklyn brewery uses 3 different types of dark malts to derive a nice chocolate flavor in this beer. We also just got in Southern Tier Choklat Stout, which is brewed with chocolate and is a favorite of many.
American brewers have gone back to the old English ways of brewing stouts with oatmeal added. Originally oatmeal stouts out of England would use over 30% oats in the brewing process. This would turn the beer almost into porridge. More recently though in the 20th century brewers would use a less amount of oats into the process making it a rich complex and balanced type of stout. As of now we have Southern Tier Oatmeal Stout, Mendocino Oatmeal Stout and one of the originals (not brewed in the U.S.A) Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout.
The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BethesdaNow.com.
Community discussion guidelines: Our sponsored columns are written by members of the local business community. While we encourage a robust and open discussion, we ask that all reviews of the businesses — good or bad — be directed to another venue, like Yelp. The comments section is intended for a conversation about the topic of the article.
Wounded vets say Segways help them see the world at eye level.
What famous actor should be cast to play this guy?
J.K. Rowling scribbled notes and drawings in a first-edition copy.
Scenes from last night's show and spectacle in Las Vegas.(Photos) | <urn:uuid:3dbd56cc-a48a-41e4-ac58-6bded12d71f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtop.com/52/3147974/WWBG-Season-of-American-Stouts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942597 | 825 | 1.5 | 2 |
At this point, the Texas Virtual Academy shouldn’t exist. Under the state’s accountability rules, the school should have been shut down or overhauled after failing to meet state standards two years in a row. Instead, students are enrolled now for yet another year, thanks to a loophole for-profit companies contracting with state schools can exploit.
The Texas Virtual Academy, which last year had 2,400 kids, isn’t like other schools. The full-time school, geared toward students between third and eleventh grades, differs from other public schools in two major ways. It’s online-only, meaning students take their classes over the Internet rather than in a bricks-and-mortar classroom. And though it’s paid for with public dollars, operations are managed entirely by a for-profit company, K12 Inc.
But Texas Virtual Academy is still subject to the state’s accountability system—at least in theory. The school was rated unsatisfactory the past two years, despite an intervention team from the state. Normally that would mean the school had to be overhauled or shut down. But despite that performance, it’s still operating. In fact, not much has changed this year. The school’s website is still located on the K12 Inc. server, and the school’s teachers are still K12 Inc. employees rather than state workers.
But there is one slight change this year—location.
For the last five years, the Texas Virtual Academy contracted with the Houston charter Southwest Schools, which paid K12 to manage and operate the establishment.
But the virtual academy failed to meet state standards two years in a row and faced getting shut down. Southwest Schools severed the contract and no longer offered the online program. Yet that was hardly a problem for K12, which simply got a contract with a different charter school. This year, K12 operates Texas Virtual Academy through a contract with Houston charter Responsive Education Solutions. Texas Virtual Academy’s relationship with these charter schools is all on paper. So even though it swtiched host charter school, Texas Virtual Academy is virtually unchanged. The school is still going by the same name and operated by the same company, but its record is wiped clean.
The on-paper switch to a new host charter has given Texas Virtual Academy a completely fresh start.
David Fuller, the head of school for Texas Virtual Academy, shrugged off concerns about performance, explaining that the school was only failing among certain subpopulations and overall doing well. He defended the arrangement. “I don’t understand what you mean, there’s a problem,” he said.
Fuller explained that while the school would get a new identification number, the change wouldn’t be a big deal. “The curriculum is still the same,” he said. “It’s still K12.”
In an emailed statement, the Texas Education Agency said that because Texas Virtual Academy had switched host charters, the agency has little authority to regulate the school:
[A]s we understand it, the TxVA campus of Southwest School is gone and the kids dispersed to unknown locations, the Southwest School is no longer responsible for them, but neither is [Responsive Education Solutions]. Even if some of them enroll in the new campus of [Responsive Education Solutions], whatever it is called, we would not have any authority to intervene. If they all, or the vast majority, enrolled in the new [Responsive Education Solutions] virtual campus, or in their existing virtual campus, we don’t have procedures that address that situation. In summary, we are not certain that we have any authority in terms of requiring interventions for the closed campus, or any standing as related to a successor campus.
That’s quite a loophole.
Nowhere on the school’s website is the switch mentioned. In fact, it’s hard to tell how a parent now would even know about the school’s failing record—since it now has a completely different identification number than it did when it was housed under Southwest Schools.
The loophole has larger implications. After all, the Texas Virtual Academy was part of a larger state initiative to examine the possibilities of online education. The state authorized three such schools, two of which were to be run out of charter schools and one of which was run through the Houston Independent School District. The academy wasn’t unique—in all three cases, the virtual schools were managed and operated by for-profit companies. Presumably, all three could take advantage of the loophole.
As I wrote in my September story on educational industries, there’s a lot of enthusiasm around virtual learning:
It’s much cheaper, by and large, than traditional classroom instruction and, according to proponents, offers more innovative ways for students to learn. As the state struggles with long-term budget challenges, virtual learning will likely become an increasingly appealing option for lawmakers looking to save money—or increase “efficiencies”—as the number of students continues to rise.
But while the appeals of virtual learning are easy to see, the verdict is still out on just how to deliver it. Full-time, online-only schools are controversial, particularly when run through a private, for-profit company.
Texas prides itself both on tough school accountability and non-traditional approaches to education. In this case, K12 found a loophole to make them mutually exclusive. | <urn:uuid:60c596f1-a690-4b4c-9511-50ba706c7376> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.texasobserver.org/virtual-schools-virtually-unregulated/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969928 | 1,134 | 1.539063 | 2 |
« Star Trek Comics are weird
I didn’t even know about this movie »
by Zach, The Writer
I know everyone has already seen this, but it’s just too cool not to post.
This post has no tag
I don't know about everyone having already seen the video as this is the first time I saw this. Hilarious. Hahaha.. booyah!
Once upon a time, there was a "scientific" analysis of Empire technology versus Federation technology on a some web site. Using comparisons between how long it took different ships to burn through asteroids and such, the result was that an Imperial Star Destroyer could vaporize the Enterprise in about 0.3 seconds, IIRC.
This reminds me of the old fan film "Troops" which was sort of a cops/star wars spoof. It's pretty funny.
that sounds about right. Though there was an episode of TNG where Picard pretty much laughed at a ship that tried attacking the Enterprise with lasers.
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Egyptian - Syrian summit
Egypt-Syria, Politics, 5/8/2000
The Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and the Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad convened today a bilateral summit to discuss the developments in the area.
The summit focused on discussing the Arab causes, the Arab relations as the two leaders exchanged points of view concerning the peace process in the Middle East and its future on the different tracks as well as status in Lebanon in addition to the join coordination between Egypt and Syria on the Arab and international levels.
The two leaders also discussed the bilateral relations from its different aspects.
President al-Assad is accompanied on his visit to Cairo by Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara.
In parallel to the closed-door meeting held between President al-Assad and President Mubarak, the Syrian and Egyptian sides held a meeting attended by al-Shara, and chairman of the Syrian mission in Cairo Majid Abu Saleh. It was attended on the Egyptian side by Foreign Minister Moussa, Premier Ebeid, Egyptian Presidential Advisor Osama El-Baz and the Egyptian ambassador in Damascus.
The closed-door meeting between the two presidents was later joined by FM Moussa and FM al-Shara and PM Ebeid.
They voiced solidarity with Lebanon and for Israel 's withdrawal from its south according to UN resolutions 425 and 426. They also discussed Arab issues and means of strengthening bilateral relations.
Moussa had said the meeting between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad comes in the framework of the continuous contacts between the two presidents, as it is considered an important part of Arab coordination, especially in view of the problems confronting the peace process.
In answering a question on whether there was Syrian anxiety toward what is currently happening in south Lebanon, Moussa said, "There is a general Arab anxiety toward the last Israeli attacks."
Moussa had indicated that a comprehensive Arab summit is one of the subjects in the discussions today between the two presidents.
Al-Assad to visit Egypt next week
Final statement of tripartite agreement stresses agreement on various debated issues
Mubarak, al-Assad to meet in Sharm esh Sheikh next week
Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.
| Advertise on ArabicNews.com. MyFlowers.com sold more than $2700 of flowers in one month advertising on ArabicNews.com! Make your company, and products a success. Special rate for new and small business. Inquire!Advertising Info | <urn:uuid:a4f09b88-9990-4d4f-bd6d-b40198a869ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/000508/2000050857.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9585 | 533 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Each year The American Institute of Architects awards an engraved medal and certificate of merit to the top-ranking graduating student in each architecture program accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (or CACB for Canadian schools). A certificate of merit is awarded to the second-ranking graduating student. These awards are provided as part of the AIA Scholarship Program.
Formerly called "The School Medal", the AIA Henry Adams Medal and Certificate program began in 1914 and was awarded for "general excellence in architecture throughout the four-year course to graduating students of architecture schools recognized by the Institute." The graduate was later presented with a copy of Mont St. Michel and Chartres, written by Henry Adams. The copyright of this book was later bequeathed to the Institute by the author.
The Henry Adams Fund was established in 1921 with royalties from the book sales. The fund was used to award a copy of the book "to draftsmen who cannot afford to buy it." The School Medal and Henry Adams book awards evolved into the Henry Adams Medal and Certificate Program.
Schools interested in participating can download and submit a 2013 application. If the awards are to be presented at a school ceremony, allow a minimum of four to six weeks prior to the event for medal engraving and certificate preparation.
Please send inquiries to [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:14db808a-04c6-438c-83f6-59c18008e643> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aia.org/education/AIAB087873 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967655 | 274 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The Danish Exchange
On August 12, PPS welcomed colleagues of Copenhagen architect Jan Gehl to our office in New York for a discussion of placemaking and ways to effect change in cities. The Danish team presented a history of the decades-long effort to free the core of Copenhagen from auto traffic. By gradually pedestrianizing streets and squares over time, the car culture of the 60s has been completely transformed, and today pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers share the city center equally. Following the presentation, PPS staffer Ethan Kent led the guests on our famous tour of midtown Manhattan’s public spaces.
Before the exchange in New York, PPS President Fred Kent and Vice President Kathy Madden had met the Danish team in Copenhagen to talk about the principles of placemaking. The trip also included a meeting with members of the Danish Road Directorate, a government agency that has embedded the idea of context into their philosophy for the past 25 years. In their recent publication Beautiful Roads – From Concept to Reality, they state emphatically: “Roads exist not in isolation but as part of a totality, no matter whether they are in the open countryside or are a part of the urban landscape.” The meeting centered around context-sensitive design and PPS’s upcoming work for the Federal Highway Administration. (More details on this exciting project will be available in the next issue of Making Places).
Public Participation in Poland
While in Europe, Fred and Kathy traveled to Cracow, Poland to conduct a workshop at the invitation of the Polish Environmental Partnership Foundation. The workshop took place in the town square of Kazimierz, once a separate city that became the center of Poland’s Jewish culture in the 15th century. It was absorbed by Cracow in 1791 but retains its own distinct character. About 40 people participated in an evaluation of the square, including several planners from other Polish towns interested in applying lessons to the revitalization of their own squares. After the evaluation exercise, the group convened in Kazimierz’ 17th century town hall to discuss steps to improve the space. “As focused a group as I’ve ever seen,” Fred said afterwards.
Armenians Recapture Civic Life
Going even farther abroad, PPS Assistant Vice President Phil Myrick was in Gyumri, Armenia from July 19 to 28, introducing a community-based approach to the development of the city’s central square complex. Like many Armenian cities, Gyumri was struck hard by a 1988 earthquake that left 25,000 people dead and 100,000 more without homes. In 2001, Aram Khachadurian, former COO of PPS, joined the Urban Institute to help rebuild thousands of housing units for the displaced families, who were still living in temporary shelters in public spaces all over the city. With the success of this rehousing program, the central square is again available to the public, opening the way to plan its revitalization.
A grant from the Academy for Educational Development (AED) allowed PPS to come to Gyumri and, in partnership with the Urban Institute and a local steering committee of architects, planners, NGOs and city officials, put together the first effort since the earthquake to recapture some of the civic life that had characterized this cultural center. In fact, as Phil was later informed, PPS’s placemaking approach introduced public participation to the decision-making process for the first time in Armenia’s 6,000 year history!
At first, there was a certain amount of skepticism about the ability of Armenians to contribute to a conversation about public spaces because they were raised in the Soviet system, where experts and government officials made all such decisions. By the end of the visit, however, everyone was impressed by the reaction of citizens, professionals and government representatives alike, who all exceeded expectations. More than 70 people attended the workshop, and everyone was as vocal and eager to participate as any American audience. Local officials seemed receptive and told the audience they would incorporate the input into their decisions.
The follow-up activities after the workshop proved equally exciting, since the team immediately embraced the idea of revitalizing the square for three days in September as a demonstration project, utilizing many ideas that people came up with in the workshop. Among the planned activities and improvements are an open-air rollerskating rink on the square, cafes and umbrellas, a giant chessboard, children’s programs, TV news broadcasts from the square, outdoor films and concerts, and a folk dance. There are also several permanent improvements the team and the city will make for the September event that will leave a lasting mark on the square, including lighting the fountain, striping traffic lanes to keep traffic out of the center of the square, new street signs, flags or banners on light poles, and gardens planted by the church.
The initial ideas will be on display at the New Gyumri Festival and Placemaking Expo, from September 26 to 28. Click here for more about placemaking in Gyumri. | <urn:uuid:dd415299-1389-4560-80ae-cd2a629a597f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pps.org/reference/sep2003news/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962862 | 1,038 | 1.640625 | 2 |
A group of Israelis fed up with their government's failure to adequately defend residents in the south of the country from ongoing Palestinian rocket attacks took matters into their own hands on Thursday by launching an attack of their own on the Gaza Strip.
Taking up positions in the hard-hit southern town of Sderot, the group used homemade shoulder-mounted launchers to hurl eggs and tomatoes at the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, a favorite launching pad for Palestinian rocket crews.
The group's leader, Yahav Michaeli, who works as a stunts and pyrotechnics expert, told reporters that his aim was to highlight the absurdity that that innocent civilians in southern Israel continue after seven years to endure almost daily rocket attacks.
Israel National News reported that an Israeli army patrol at first responded to the food attack thinking that a rocket attack on Sderot was in progress. After learning what was in fact taking place, the soldiers withdrew and allowed the Israelis to continue pelting Gaza. | <urn:uuid:a582f91d-1c75-4411-b819-30c8614c927a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/13668/Default.aspx?archive=article_title | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968134 | 199 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Good design is inevitable. It's determined. It's relentless. Each iteration builds on the one before, becoming better and better each time. The work of Jonathan Ive, Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, is a near-perfect example of this. So is the iPhone 5.
Ive said as much in an interview with the Telegraph back in May:
“We try to develop products that seem somehow inevitable. That leave you with the sense that that’s the only possible solution that makes sense,” he explains. “Our products are tools and we don’t want design to get in the way. We’re trying to bring simplicity and clarity, we’re trying to order the products.
“I think subconsciously people are remarkably discerning. I think that they can sense care.”
You can not like the iPhone 5 design as a matter of personal taste. You can wish it were otherwise, or that Apple had chosen to go in a different direction. If you're "disappointed" in the iPhone 5 however, if you think it's too similar to previous iPhones, if you think Apple isn't innovating "any more", you're wrong. I'm not a "fanboy" and you're not a "troll" or a "hater". You're just wrong.
Back in 2005 Apple had a phone prototype called Purple. It was a flat, rounded rectangle with a big screen on the front and a metal plate on the back. It was, perhaps, their platonic ideal. Their form phone. And they couldn't make it. Not back then. They lacked the mobile engineering experience of an established player like Nokia, and they lacked the technologies and manufacturing processeses they themselves would later develop.
So Ive and Apple were forced to do what all great designers do. They were forced to compromise. And we got the original iPhone with its bloated sides and a big plastic band breaking its aluminium back. For the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, the metal back was removed completely, and plastic, bloated as the sides, took its place.
With the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, Ive and Apple were finally able to engineer their Purple phone. Flat. Solid. Stainless steel. But glass on the back and still not metal, and with an exposed antenna array that took a generation to get right.
Now we have the iPhone 5. Another step closer to Purple, the stainless steel sides are replaced by aluminium and the metal plate on the back has finally returned, albeit not completely. Another set of compromises demanded they keep radio-friendly glass on the top and bottom, and Apple's choice in a wider screen has forced them to abandon their golden ratio.
Jony Ive has many times said his goal is nothing less than making a better product. Phil Schiller said as much yesterday as well -- they started with the idea of an iPhone that was 20% or more thinner and lighter than an iPhone 4S without sacrificing any battery life, camera optics, or screen quality. And they did it while improving all of those things, and adding a faster radio as well.
Lost amongst the angst and howls of those for whom design is an appearance thing -- for whom ever more giant, creaky, plastic phones that are gray one year and blue the next, that are thin on one end and humped on the other, that sacrifice pixel quality for size, and consistency and cohesiveness for feature creep, are innovation -- is the leap forward Ive and Apple are taking here.
The leap from iPhone 4S to iPhone 5 is no less significant or impressive than the leap from the original MacBook Pro to the Unibody. In both cases, the end result bore familiarity of form, but was lightyears ahead in terms of process and results.
The iPhone 5 is an almost entirely new, entirely redesigned phone. Watch this video, particularly the part at the end about how the iPhone 5 is produced.
That Ive and Apple could do this and still make it look so similar is a testament to their talent and the integrity of their vision.
Jony Ive and Apple have made a better phone. It's profoundly thinner, lighter, and stronger, with a faster radio, better battery life and camera optics, and more screen than ever before.
They've made a better iPhone.
They had to. It was inevitable. | <urn:uuid:fedb95c3-80f5-44e7-8cdc-2fb1e5376099> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imore.com/comment/319162 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974761 | 903 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Ontario needs bold action to create jobs and grow the economy, but we also need fundamental reforms in core services that people rely on most.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the $47.3 billion we spend on health care—an estimated 25 per cent of which is spent inefficiently and could be better directed to front line care.
Ontario’s health system is in rough shape and stretched to a point where people have to fight to get the care they need. Health spending continues to increase, yet we are failing to meet the needs of many patients. And, if we continue down the path we are on, health spending will take up to 80 percent of the budget by 2030--the remaining 20 percent wouldn’t even be enough to cover the cost of education in Ontario.
Our local hospitals are bursting at the seams.
In Alliston, the emergency department that deals with the ill and dying doubles as the main entrance and registration desk where less serious patients sign in for procedures. On a recent tour of the hospital, it was pointed out to me that surgery patients, obstetrical patients and out-patients all enter and wait at the same location leaving them exposed to patients in the ER. We have been trying to secure funding for upgrades at this hospital for years.
In Collingwood, the hospital has had a capital expansion application into the government for almost a decade with no success. Some services have now been moved to portables outside the building.
If the health system doesn’t have money for hospitals, what does it have money for?
Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC Party know that our province can do better. And, as I explained in my column last week, we have put together a number of policy papers that lay out a better path for our province.
In Paths to Prosperity: Patient-Centred Health Care—one in a series of white papers—we put forward a number of proposals that would reform the health system so patients are put at the forefront of every health decision.
Our approach transfers power from bureaucrats to frontline health professionals who know firsthand the needs of patients in their communities. We focus each policy idea around three objectives: keeping Ontarians healthy, enhancing the patient experience and controlling healthcare costs.
One of our proposals includes the elimination of two costly layers of middle management--14 Local Health Integration Networks and 14 Community Care Access Centers. In their place we would build off the existing high performing health infrastructure of the hospitals we already have and create ‘healthcare hubs’ that will organize plan and commission services for patients in their respective regions.
This restructuring alone would remove 2,000 bureaucratic jobs from Dalton McGuinty’s bloated bureaucracy and save money that could be reinvested into frontline care.
The Ontario PC Party message is clear—more frontline patient care, less bureaucracy.
We can’t balance the books without reforming the delivery of health care and our policy paper demonstrates the way to do that.
Jim Wilson is the Progressive Conservative MPP for Simcoe-Grey. | <urn:uuid:94a32ff6-ffaa-4ed0-970c-b4e34c1a3e93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.simcoe.com/opinion-story/1997055-ontario-can-do-better-wilson/ | 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 | 0.953171 | 624 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The blogger Weaver of Grass posted a poem written and yet not written by R S Thomas. What she did was to take various lines from different R S Thomas poems and then assemble them to make a new poem. I thought I'd give it a try. About 20 minutes ago I turned to Thomas Hardy. Here then is the result. The poem is compiled from lines from different Hardy poems selected by 'feel'. The result surprised me.
Thomas Hardy's poem from beyond the grave
It is a storm-strid night, winds footing swift
the twinkling gleams of lamp's sad beams
a car comes up, with lamps full glare
the eternal question of what Life was
changed to a firmament-riding earthless essence
the substance now, one phantom figure
saying that now you are not as you were.
I seem but a dead man held on an end
we were irked by the scene, by our own selves; yes.
This is the weather the cuckoo likes
his crypt the cloudy canopy
a black cat comes,wide-eyed and thin
a longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore.
Church timbers crack and witches ride ...
(aided from the Beyond?)
*dumbledore here is a large bumble bee and definitely NOT a Harry Potter character. | <urn:uuid:ab2f77fd-e9f0-4065-8b25-1f009f2f0759> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://poet-in-residence.blogspot.jp/2010/06/thomas-hardys-poem-from-beyond-grave.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959062 | 275 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Individuals who take to social networks such as Facebook to galvanize friends to launch e-mail protests against entities, or respond to such calls, should rethink their intention as such actions may end up on the wrong side of the law, cautioned legal experts.
In a phone interview with ZDNet Asia, Rajesh Sreenivasan, partner and head of technology media and telecoms at Rajah and Tann, explained that encouraging others to pursue matters, for instance, by e-mailing their respective Member of Parliament or local political representative, is fairly common and the "right" approach to take, as this would mean the messages are directed to multiple accounts.
However, rallying people to e-mail a specific individual or organization's e-mail account--even without providing an actual e-mail address--can result in a criminal offense being meted out against the initiator, Sreenivasan warned.
If a person issues such calls via an online forum with visitors numbering in the thousands, even if only a portion heeds the call and e-mails at the same time, the mail server can potentially crash from the influx of requests, the lawyer pointed out. "It will be very hard for the individual to turn around and say, 'but I never thought this would happen'," he said. "You send [a message] out to thousands of people asking them to send an e-mail to a single person, what do you think the result would be?"
He pointed to a similar case several years ago in Singapore, where a man was found guilty of breaching the Computer Misuse Act as he had repeatedly sent e-mail messages to the Housing and Development Board (HDB) over the Christmas holiday period. That had led to a deterioration of HDB's mail server, noted Singapore-based Sreenivasan.
Over in the United States, an appeals court early this month overturned a district court ruling and deemed a company had grounds to allege a labor union had violated the country's Computer Fraud and Abuse Act because the union had asked its members to repeatedly send e-mail messages to specific employees of the company. The rally, sparked by what the labor union saw was an unfair dismissal of an employee, resulted in a high volume of e-mail messages which impacted the company's business operations due to an overloading of its e-mail servers.
That said, it does not mean Internet users are prohibited to casually suggest to their network of friends to register their concern or displeasure via e-mail to specific individuals or organizations.
Pointing to a recent case where Netizens in Singapore were unhappy with the outcome of a dispute between an Indian household and a native Chinese family over the smell of curry being cooked, Sreenivasan noted that individuals who, for example, commented on Facebook that people should e-mail the Community Mediation Centre (CMC), were not necessarily in "a situation that would to lead to an offense".
The CMC had helped the two feuding parties to reach a resolution some six years ago, where the Indian family agreed to cook curry only when their Chinese neighbors were not home.
However, if there were cases of "aggravated circumstances", such as the activists indicating a specific time to send protest e-mail or urging others to send messages repeatedly, the call could be interpreted as a coordinated or distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
Sreenivasan explained: "It has to be more than simply [to tell others] to 'send an e-mail to these people'...The message has to be, 'send an e-mail at this time, simultaneously'. That would show an intention to not just bring a message to the relevant person, but also to cause harm to the IT system of the individual or company."
Bryan Tan, director of Keystone Law, agreed that Net users might face legal action if they encouraged mass sending of e-mail messages to specific accounts, but pointed out that the volume of e-mail would have "to be pretty significant" before it obstructed the person's use of the computer.
This would be especially relevant now that a typical inbox capacity was no longer limited to 10 MB (megabytes) but 10 GB (gigabytes), Tan pointed out in an e-mail reply.
"Asking people to send in their opinions is unlikely to amount to a DDoS [attack]--it takes time to craft an e-mail and it would take a vast amount of e-mail within a short period to [qualify as one] these days," he said. "Asking individuals to send multiples of senseless e-mail [messages] may cross the line if the volume is sufficient enough but, short of that, providing views and opinions are pretty much legitimate activity."
Net users careful
Netizens ZDNet Asia contacted said they were cautious when supporting such calls to action, and would advise their friends to do the same.
David Chong, 34, who declined to reveal his occupation, said he "would be very careful in responding" to similar calls, particularly those targeting individuals or organizations.
"The extensive reach of social [media] platforms like Facebook is simply mind-boggling," Chong said. "It can go beyond geographical boundaries and, more scarily, involve even irrelevant parties--that is, anyone not privy to the background of the issues can be allowed to give their comments. And as casual readers browse through comments by others, they are easily swept by waves of emotions and colored views."
"Given the sheer size of casual readers, even if 5 percent of them decide to support the cause, the call would quickly gain critical mass," he added.
While Chong lamented that anyone now can post a comment on Facebook, hence, greatly diluting its usefulness in ensuring genuine causes are addressed, he said "a proper call of action can and should be formulated" for worthy causes for which existing systems cannot provide redress.
"My advice to friends would therefore be to first consider if there are any better channels to [air] their concerns before resorting to online social media," he noted. "And should they decide this is the best way to conduct their battle, they should reason out their arguments instead of appealing to raw emotions. Then they should aim for the moral high ground, instead of mudslinging their targets."
Chong added: "Finally, they must be prepared to take responsibility for everything they say and write, and be accountable to those who support their cause online."
Chua Boon Kien, a Malaysia-born IT professional working in New Zealand, said he has not come across appeals from friends and acquaintances to e-mail individuals or organizations, although he supported an online petition by registering his name and e-mail address at a Web site.
In an e-mail, the 41-year-old shared that he would consider such calls to action based on their "individual merits", and not merely as a demonstration of support for friends or contacts.
Chua said: "Pick your battles carefully, and be well-informed of the cause and potential repercussion. Don't let peer-pressure push you into things, even if it means you're going to lose friends.
"You also need to consider how your support will be handled and the integrity of the caller. There is [the] risk [of] someone using your support for the wrong cause--different from the one that you originally intended."
Most Netizens, Chua pointed out, are unaware of the legal framework and the potential legal risk and breach they are exposed to.
"They hide and shield themselves behind the anonymity of the Net, which in itself may not be that anonymous anyway," he said, adding that the online community should "stay informed of the legality of your actions".
Google+ a potential hazard
According to Sreenivasan, online users must word their call to action with care, making sure there is "no malice behind that request" or intent to go beyond voicing out concerns.
The lawyer advised the Internet population to consider the evolution of social media as "risks will become much more stark" once users start tapping Google+ to drive such rallies.
"On Facebook, it tends to be just your friends primarily and those you know, who would be able to access your messages. Google+ has a different model in which basically anyone can choose to follow you, so you essentially have no say. You can block them off if you want to, but by and large, a lot of people will basically have a lot more followers than they are aware of," he noted.
"And a lot of content [posted] will be searchable on the Internet, so be very responsible in terms of where you choose to share your information," cautioned Sreenivasan. | <urn:uuid:d383605d-8f07-4c2e-9509-907f9fff548d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zdnet.com/legal-risk-in-online-calls-for-e-mail-protests-2062301720/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968526 | 1,799 | 1.84375 | 2 |
This is a discussion on GPS question within the iPad Help forums, part of the Apple iPad Discussions category; With wi-fi and cellular turned off how long should it typically take iPad to get a satellite signal? I do have the wi-fi + 3G ...
With wi-fi and cellular turned off how long should it typically take iPad to get a satellite signal? I do have the wi-fi + 3G version, so out of curiosity wanted to see if I could use the GPS. Left it on for many minutes, but it never seemed to get a signal. I was in my yard with a (mostly) clear view of the sky, with a few branches between the iPad & sky.
08-10-2011 06:09 PM
I do not remember how quick it was when I got my iPad2 (wifi and 3G) but when I went to France this summer (from Canada), it sync'ed pretty fast, in phase from the Apple localization system and then to the accuracy of the gps. I certainly do not remember being long at all.
Sent from my iPad2 3G 32 gig / using iPF
You're gonna think I'm kidding ya but if it was today it could've been due to a solar flare.
Originally Posted by Mark29
Spot-on: Massive X-Class Solar Flare Could Disrupt Earth Communication: Scientific American Gallery
The iPad uses assisted GPS... Assisted GPS units like the iPad and just about all smart phones have to use a tiny (and inefficient) GPS antenna. This constraint is due to the size of the device....The assistance occurs when the device gets the information needed to get a proper satellite fix from the cell towers. The cell towers keep the satellite info on file and constantly update it. This method relieves the iPad or smartphone of some of the heavy lifting. You won't get a fix as fast with 3G off, but... With a clear view of the sky, you will eventually get a GPS fix without using the cell tower system.
Note.... If you've turned WiFi and 3G off using 'Airplane Mode', then you've turned off GPS as well.. Airplane mode also turns off the GPS receiver. This is because some airlines don't allow the use of GPS receivers while in flight.
By pEAcEmAKeR in forum Off-Topic
Last Post: 09-17-2011, 06:46 AM
By BrennB in forum Off-Topic
Last Post: 05-25-2011, 02:14 PM | <urn:uuid:6b0d5086-86f4-40d2-a0e8-e92d9eff5ba0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-help/42503-gps-question.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932642 | 522 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Although the sun was now shining on the Morven summits the Appin shore was still gripped by frost and shade. The Sgeir Bhuidhe lighthouse lies just offshore. It was built at the end of the 19th century but by 2001 was badly in need of replacement. The Northern Lighthouse Board were originally going to replace it with a standard rectangular structure but fortunately sense prevailed and the replacement was modelled on the old structure. The light has two flashes every seven seconds with white and red sectors. The original lantern is now on display in the village.
Jennifer and I ferry glided out into the ebb tide in the Lynn of Lorn. The 5km/hr current soon carried us away down the Lynn leaving the little Isle of Shuna far behind. Note that there is another Shuna 42km further SSW, to the east of Luing.
Alan and Tony were still in the shade as early morning mist hung over the wooded shores of Appin.
Then at last the sun cleared the hills and David and Phil were left blinking in its strong light. With a fair tide we were now off on our 37 km circumnavigation of Lismore. | <urn:uuid:61f76d3c-4320-41c6-a5a9-65f7b08e65d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seakayakphoto.blogspot.com/2008_12_30_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975234 | 249 | 1.75 | 2 |
Friday, February 29, 2008
Do not confuse this Bishop John Neumann with his contemporary, the English-born, Cardinal John Henry NEWMAN. The latter never came to America and was better known, probably because of his prolific writings. Cardinal John H. Newman converted from The Anglican Church to Catholicism and wrote several books defending the Roman Catholic Church. He has been on the path to sainthood and in 2007, his "sainthood was imminent". The Cause lacked further proof of miracles which he was purported to have performed. I don't know the criteria for sainthood, but at least one them is the power to perform miracles. Another criterion, though perhaps not official, is that there is little deterioration or decay of the body after death.
The Wikipedia (Feb 2008) states: "[John Henry Newman] held that, apart from an interior and unreasoned conviction [in other words, faith], there is no cogent proof of the existence of God; and in Tract 85 he dealt with the difficulties of the Creed and of the canon of Scripture, with the apparent implication that they are insurmountable unless overridden by the authority of an infallible Church. [JHN had once implied an opposition to the Catholic Church's policy that the Pope is Infallible]. In his own case, these views did not lead to skepticism, because he had always possessed the necessary interior conviction; and in writing Tract 85 his only doubt would have been where the true Church is to be found. But, so far as the rest of the world is concerned, his teaching amounts to this: that the man who has not this interior conviction has no choice but to remain an agnostic, while the man who has it is bound sooner or later to become a Catholic." [For non-Catholics, I imagine this would be hard to swallow]
"The University he founded, the Catholic University of Ireland, has since evolved into University College Dublin, Ireland's largest University which has contributed significantly to Ireland's development over the last 150 years."
On Xmas, 2007, my mother's first cousin, Henry J. Gailliot, sent me a card in which his family is pictured on the steps of "The Gailliot Center for Newman Studies"- a library founded by Henry at his Alma mater, Carnegie University, in Pittsburgh. The library will contain many of the writings by Cardinal John Henry Newman and apartments for visiting scholars. My family tree, both branches, seems to becoming entwined with these holy men of the Catholic Church. For more on the John Newman Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, go here and here.
Incidentally, the Catholic Newman centers and clubs at various universities across the county are named after Cardinal John Henry Newman, including my Alma Mater, the University of Maryland.
One time, as the kids jumped off the train, they heard a loud hiss and several of the railroad cars separated. They thought they had disconnected the cars by some mishap. As one of the riders told me many years later, "We not only cleared the fence, we didn't even seeee the fence".
Over the years, I've done quite a bit genealogical research regarding inhabitants of the town- going through local cemeteries, reading old parish records of the German Lutheran church, and searching censuses. I recognized some of the names on this souvenir card.
Julius Viebahn, one of the school officers, was a leader of the German community. His daughter, Elizabeth Viehbahn, was apparently a teacher at Pleasant Hill. While most of Julius' German associates were coal miners, I believe Julius was a very successful merchant. A few years ago, another researcher named Rick contacted me because he was trying to collect data on all the Viebahn families in America. I sent him a picture of "our" Julius' tombstone in Brisbin cemetery. I was disappointed he didn't acknowledge my donation. But he had posted on his web site an image of a beer stein imprinted with the name of Julius Viebahn which I now present and acknowledge below:
The mug was made in PA, so perhaps "our" Julius had them manufactured to promote his business in Houtzdale.
Sadly, one of Julius' young children died at 10 years of age. The Parish Record of the German Lutheran church recorded that "Emil Viebahn, son of Julius Viebahn and wife, Margarethe, was born in 1890, died 9 Nov 1900 and buried 11 Nov, in Brisbin Cemetery, PA. The funeral in church was overcrowded. - Pastor E.A. Born". That was the second son of Julius to die at a young age. Both sons are buried at the I.O.O.F. cemetery in Brisbin.
Some of the students listed in the souvenir booklet were actually related to the teacher's mother. Mrs. Margarethe Viehbahn, nee. Lewis, was the aunt of Mabel Samuels and her younger brother, Edward Samuels, through their grandfather, Owen Lewis. You will have to go to the genealogical chart of my Father's web site to follow that relationship. Point is: school discipline was probably a family affair.
There are two Barnes children listed as students. There were probably related to Mr Thomas Barnes who started up coal mining operations in a young town in Cambria County, PA, which they named Barnesboro in his honor. The honor did not last, because at the millenium in 2000, the towns' father's merged Barnesboro with the adjoining town of Spangler and created a "modern" entity which they called "Northern Cambria" which I think is forgettable (is it north or northern?). And darn, another piece of my heritage gone.
Incidentally, William Todhunter, President School Officer, was also an official of Barnesboro Coal Company.
Oh yes, Nellie Rhodes, another student, was the mother-in-law of Ellwood Zimmerman, who sent me the images of this booklet. Nellie Dainty's mother, Mary Ann, nee. Dainty, was linked to my Hartley Line through her sister's marriage (Emma Dainty married Thomas Hartley in 1892). Got all that?
Source of Souvenir Booklet: Ellwood Zimmerman
Thursday, February 21, 2008
"28 Oktober 2007. Grundsteinlegung zur Wiedererichtung der Flamisch- Gotishen Steinfassade der Rathaus der Hansestadt Wesel, 1455 erbaut- 1698 ernbuert- 1945 zerstort".
[translated: 28 Oct 2007. Laying of Foundation stone for the reconstruction of the Flemish- Gothic stone facade of the Town Hall of Hanseatic Wesel, built 1455, rebuilt 1698, destroyed 1945].
Some of the crowd which attended the laying of the foundation stone for the reconstruction of the Town Hall in Wesel, Germany.
The event took place during the Hanseatic Festival in October 2007. This picture was taken looking toward the southeast corner of the Great Market Square (Gross Markt). For centuries this is where vendors sold food and other goods to the citizens of Wesel. Behind the hand-held banner in this picture was the approximate location (No. 135 Gross Markt) for the residence of my ancestral Gailliot family in the year 1843. The former residence was destroyed in the last months of WW II.
A future view of the reconstructed Gross Market Square by Jaeger Architectural Firm- looking west toward the Willibrordi Dom (already rebuilt in the 1950s). The future Rathaus with cupola and restored stone facade is to the left of the Dom. The former residence of my great, great grandfather, Anton Gailliot, would have been to the far left, just out of view.
Source of the first two images: Mrs. Maria Kerbitz, born de Vries.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Most important in my gift package were copies of several pages from a recently published transcript, "Das Kirchenbuch der Katholisch Kirchengemeinde St. Mariae Himmelfahrt Wesel, Heiraten 1835 bis 1849", compiled by Kurt Grüter. This publication contains Marriage entries between these dates at the Catholic church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Wesel. Fortunately, both the first and the second marriages of Anton Gailliot were documented:
Firstly, Anton Gailliot, born 16 May 1816, in Saarbrücken, son of Johann GAILLIOT and Elisabeth PIERRE; married on 2 May 1841, in Wesel, to Maria DISSEL, born 29 Jan 1814, in Wesel, daughter of Andreas Dissel and Maria HÜNING. Zeugen (witnesses) Heinrich Müller, Gertrude Dehörs.
Secondly, Anton Gailliot, witwer (widower) of Maria Dissert (sic), born 16 May 1815, in Saarbrucken, son of Johann Gailliot and Elisabeth PIERNE (sic); married on 22 Oct 1848, in Wesel, to Johann Helena Theodora SCHLEBUSCH, born 2 Sep 1819, in Rees [Germany], daughter of Johann Schlebusch and Johanna OFFENBERG; Zeugen (witnesses): Heinrich Dissel, Mechtildis Wagener.
You may have noticed the discrepancy for Anton Gailliot's birth year and the different maiden surnames for Anton's mother (Pierre and Pierne). Close match, but anything less wouldn't be a challenge, would it?
Thank you Rudolf, I'm extremely grateful.
For more views of Niederrhein, including a few of Wesel, go to Heinz' Picasa album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/heinzkarthaeuser/AmNiederrhein
Recently, I discovered a reference which will substantially change our Gailliot Genealogy. Previously, I thought that Charles (or Karl) Gailliot was a half-brother of my great grandfather, Henry Caspar Gailliot, based on the former's estimated birth year. See picture of the early Gailliot family in previous blog entry. I have five sources for Charles Gailliot's birth year of which three indicated he was born in 1847; and two sources, in 1849. The difference in the two dates is significant, because the FIRST WIFE of Anton Gailliot, the father of Charles and Henry, died on 2 August 1848. So if Charles was born a year before his mother died, he would be a half-brother of Henry who was born in 1862 of Anton and his second wife, Helen Schlebusch. The evidence:
1. Charles Gailliot's tombstone inscription indicates his birth year was 1847.
2. The cemetery records of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Pittsburgh states Charles was fatally injured after being run over by a train in Mar, 1895, when he was 48 years old (estimated born about 1847).
3. From Charles Gailliot's Civil Death Registration at Pittsburgh courthouse his estimated birth year from his age, 48 years, when he died in Mar 1895 is 1847 (1895-48=1847). Also, it states his MOTHER was "Marie" who died in Aug 1848, suggesting that Charles must have been born before 1848.
4. Charles' parish marriage record states he was 25 years old when he married Barbara Weitmuller on 21 May 1874; estimated born 1849 (1874-25=1849).
5. From Pittsburgh Marriages Registration: Charles was 33 years old when he married his second wife, Mary Jund, in 1882; estimated born 1849 (1882-33=1849).
The most compelling evidence for Charles' birth year until now was the third source listed above- his Civil Death Registration. HOWEVER, I just discovered a pair of 1891 passport applications (at Ancestry.com) for both Charles Gailliot and his younger brother, Henry, which states Charles was born specifically on 10 June 1849. In other words, both Charles and Henry Gailliot could only be the sons of Anton's SECOND wife, who was Helen Schlebusch. Thus, Charles and Henry were full-blooded brothers rather than half-brothers.
Indeed, the parish death entry for Anton's FIRST wife stated she was survived by only one son, Laurenz Gailliot. Subsequently, I found a later parish record that stated Laurenz Gailliot died at 16 years and 6 months, on 7 Feb 1862- only 2 days before Henry Gailliot was born, on Feb 9th. What a mixture of grief and joy those days must have been for the Gailliot family.
Further evidence has been discovered by Rudolf Kerbitz, my genealogy collaborator in Germany, in a recent publication, "Marriage Transcriptions of St. Maria Himmelfahrt in Wesel". Anton Gailliot married secondly to Helen Schlebush on 22 Oct 1848- only 3 months after his first wife, Marie Dissel, passed away. And then, along came the birth of Charles Gailliot just 8 months later. It all seems to fit- ever so tightly!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
The first image above includes Anton Gailliot and the five children by his SECOND wife, Johanna "Helene" Theodora Schlebusch. Relatively more recent portaits of individual family members were miniturized and superimposed on the larger family portrait. A copy of the original, larger portrait was emailed to me by Beth Holycross Gailliot. However, the whole project was made possible through an international effort. The portraits of the parents, Anton and Helene, were emailed to me two years ago by Gunter Lade who resides in Halle/Saale, in former East Germany. Gunter is descended from Elise Gailliot, on far left, who married Friedrich Meier. She and her descendents remained in Germany. Gunter is my third cousin, once removed; our common ancestors are Anton and Helene. Gunter stumbled onto one my genealogical web sites for my mother's branch of the family tree at GeneaNet. Gunter recognized the connection, and later sent me pictures, including his 3x great grandmother, Elise. He also sent me images from several family documents, called Familienbuchen in Germany, which linked him to the Gailliot family and eventually to me.
In the second image, birth and death dates are included- some dates are unknown or approximated. Two brothers in this first generation, Karl Anton and Heinrich Casper, eventually emigrated to America after which they anglicized their names to Charles and Henry. Henry was my maternal great grandfather. The genealogy behind these photographs has also been an international effort. The family portrait was probably taken in Wesel, Germany which turned out to be significant. Indeed, a very special relationship has developed between myself and Herr Rudolf Kerbitz, who is a resident of Wesel. Our initial contact was through a simple email inquiry. Some of my father's ancestors were from Pommern (Pomerania in English) and I posted a baptismal note from a Bertha Johanna Kramp on my Father's branch website. She was baptised in Beckel, Kries Stolp, Hinterpommern (now part of Pomorski, Poland) and her patron was a man named Albert Kerbitz. Though we have not made a genetic connection between Rudolf Kerbitz and my family yet, we continue to search for the identity of Albert Kerbitz so that perhaps we can determine a family link.
Wesel, Germany, lies on the right bank of the Rhine River near the mouth of the Lippe tributary. During WW II, about 90 percent of the town was destroyed by Allied bombs. Every building and every church was reduced to rubble and obviously many church records as well as other historic items were lost. Amazingly the City of Wesel was rebuilt and is thriving today. I visited the city in 2001, and took many pictures of the rebuilt town and particularly its two Catholic churches, St. Mariae Himmelfahrt (Assumption of the Virgin Mary) and St. Martini. And I visited my friend, Rudolf Kerbitz and his family.
Remarkably, Rudolf has been a great help in providing data and history to the Gailliot genealogy. He enjoys rummaging through flea markets and has discovered several graphics of what the former city and churches looked like before the war and has generously shared these items with me. One Christmas, Rudolf sent me a phonograph record of a concert performed in St. Mariae Himmelfahrt, where my great grandfather, Henry Gailliot, was baptized in 12 Feb 1862. Incidentally, the baptism was recorded on microfilm by the LDS church, which apparently survived in the archives at nearby Munster. Rudolf was instrumental in translating this record first into German from the Latin and then from German into English. Though the source of this particular record was the LDS church, there have been many other records which were obtained only through the efforts of Rudolf Kerbitz, such as a vintage map showing the likely home of Helene's maternal family, the Offenburg family. And, a photograph of the actual house and the chapel in the Offenburg's home town. There is so much more.
I can't resist giving one more example here. The Gailliot patriarch was a Schumachermeister- a Master shoemaker or cobbler. In an old city directory, Rudolf found a listing of the former address of Anton's cobbler shop at No 913 Kreuzstrasse. In addition, Rudolf discovered a vintage photograph of the same street which showed a distant view of Anton's cobbler shop. With the help of Adobe Photoshop, Rudolf focused, magnified, and rendered a picture of the cobbler shop which now hangs in my house. Can you imagine the good fortune.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Yesterday, I scanned at total of about 70 of these color, glass slides including some black and white 35 mm negatives using my 9420 Visioneer Model scanner. For slides and negatives, one must use a much higher resolution, about 1600 dpi for scanning negatives versus 300 dpi for 4x6 prints.
Here, I posted one of Dad's pictures he took of my mother in about 1949. We were on a visit to the farm of my Dad's adopted father, Robert William Kramp, in Ramey, Clearfield Co., Pennsylvania. We called him "Pop Kramp". Looking at this image, I am reminded of how short life seems to be. My mother was just a girl here and now she'll be 88 this year.
Our neighborhood was a great place to grow up. My brother and I walked to Alta Vista and attended all six years of elementary school there before we had to walk or ride our bikes a little further to attend North Bethesda Junior High School. I served newspapers and probably served longer than any other subsequent deliverer. On windy or rainy days, I took a little more time-consuming effort to put newpapers inside stormdoors and was rewarded at Xmas time with a couple boxes of candy. My employer, The Washington Evening Star, had the bright idea of letting newspaper boys sell Calendars at Xmas time to make a small yearly bonus.
One day I came home from school to discover that Mr. Quack Quack had been given to Mr. Farmer to spend the rest of this days swimming in a very large beautiful pond. And Mom and Dad seemed to really enjoy the recovery of our lawn. | <urn:uuid:99983bbb-0f8a-46aa-8556-7c726427d4c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.travelstwo.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974764 | 4,154 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Beyond the beach: Great ideas for outdoor activities this summer
(BPT) - Basking on the beach or playing in the surf are high points of summer vacation for many people. In fact, going to the beach
is among the top five activities for American leisure travelers, according to the U.S. Travel Association
While beach time will always have its place in the hearts of anyone who loves being outside in summer, there are plenty more ways to enjoy the great outdoors beyond the surf and sand. Consider these tips from the outdoor fun experts at the Myrtle Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau:
* Warm up to wildlife - Look for an outdoor destination that will afford the opportunity to see native wildlife in its natural habitat. From dolphin watching to critter spotting, getting an eyeful of the local wildlife can be a fun, exciting way to enjoy the outdoors. Choose a spot that offers variety. For example, Huntington Beach State Park in the Myrtle Beach
area of South Carolina is home to more than 300 species of birds, making it a favorite birding spot for both beginners and dedicated birders. Further south, the Center for Birds of Prey also offers weekly flight demonstrations of wild birds.
* Play on and in the water - When you want to really enjoy all the water has to offer, look for a beach destination that offers an array of water sports, from windsurfing and parasailing to kayaking or fly fishing.
* Romp under the water - Splashing in the surf is great fun, but don't overlook the cool things that wait beneath the surface. Snorkeling for brightly colored fish and coral is great for the whole family or, if you're more adventurous, shipwrecks serve as homes to underwater sea creatures and make interesting viewing for explorers. Look for outfitters like Coastal Scuba in Murrells Inlet, S.C., that offer scuba adventures for divers of varying experience levels.
* Get the lay of the land - When you want to wander away from the water, look for a destination that offers interesting landscape beyond the beach. The best destinations will offer a variety of interesting hiking and biking trails, appropriate for people of varying skill levels.
* Go guided and organized - You can work up a sweat and enjoy the great outdoors with more sophisticated fun, too. Golf is the ultimate refined sport and a healthy way to savor time outside. It can even be an opportunity for family time. In Myrtle Beach, 46 courses offer free play for children during the summer months, including Arrowhead Country Club, which is renowned for its scenic Intracoastal Waterway views and all-day tee times. Another unique Myrtle Beach opportunity is "paddleboard yoga." Surf the Earth, a gear shop in Myrtle Beach, leads a paddle to a secluded beach where participants enjoy core-focused yoga.
When it comes to outdoor fun in the summer sun, no one wants to miss the beach. But when you're ready to get off the beach towel, keep in mind the plethora of other activities and opportunities the great outdoors offer. | <urn:uuid:35ea90fc-6875-4f50-bac0-f4a6096ab344> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scsuntimes.com/section/?template=araArchiveDetails&CategoryID=159&article=8063880305&archive=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940127 | 631 | 1.617188 | 2 |
USA Today has a fantastic little interactive map of the U.S. attached to an article about how money from stimulus contracts has been divvied up across states. I wish I could reproduce it here, but I can't. So I strongly suggest you check it out and scroll over some states to see how they've fared. The article itself is critical about this distribution of stimulus money, complaining that states hit hardest by the recession have not been blessed most abundantly by federal dollars.
In Michigan, for example -- where years of economic tumult and a collapsing domestic auto industry have produced the nation's worst unemployment rate -- federal agencies have spent about $2 million on stimulus contracts, or 21 cents per person. In Oregon, where unemployment is almost as high, they have spent $2.12 per capita, far less than the nationwide average of nearly $13.
Of course, in the case of Michigan, examining stimulus alone fails to take into consideration the auto bailouts, which if included would raise the government assistance per capita substantially. It also ignores the mortgage bailout, which almost certainly disproportionately helped states hurt by the housing bubble. Neither of these explanations, however, necessarily absolves Washington for failing to target the states that need stimulus spending the most.
Numerous other potential excuses could also be made. One might be that existing industry prevents certain spending, like clean energy or broadband infrastructure projects, from being aimed at specific suffering states, but long-term benefits might make that spending worthwhile. Another might be timing: due to their nature, many of the stimulus projects cannot get off the ground immediately, so that cash might not be spent a mere 100 days in. Similarly, Washington might argue that the benefits of such projects outweigh the delay.
Of course, both of these reasons also fail to address the criticism that congress should have targeted the worst state economies and provided more immediate relief. That is, after all, the purpose of a stimulus package -- to help people in economic distress as quickly and effectively as possible. Funding for projects that Washington believes will have long-term benefits to the nation? That's just regular old spending. | <urn:uuid:cc493abc-ac02-4153-965e-41d08f25df45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/05/suffering-states-not-feeling-stimulated/18447/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955285 | 426 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Bouleau nain cheese
Le bouleau nain is pressed, unpasteurised, cows' milk cheese produced by Sylvie and Jean Mathieu at Lajo, near St Alban in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. It is a farmhouse mountain cheese and takes its name from the dwarf birch trees which grow in the area.
Errors and omissions
If you are a cheese producer and your cheese does not appear to be listed on Cookipedia or the information on your cheese is incorrect or out of date, please do talk to us via the Contact the Editor link at the top of this page and we will update the information on your cheese. | <urn:uuid:05a126ef-8b30-45f1-beb5-08d9fcc44f66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cookipedia.co.uk/recipes_wiki/Bouleau_nain_cheese | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930821 | 143 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The herbicide from Bayer CropScience, Research Triangle Park, N.C., contains the active ingredient, indaziflam, according to the product label.
Indaziflam is a cellulose-biosynthesis inhibitor and belongs to the Herbicide Resistance Action Committee's Group 29.
It is effective against a wide array of broadleaf and grassy weeds and provides up to six months of pre-emergence residual weed control, according to a press release.
Alion is not a contact herbicide and is not effective on weeds that have already emerged.
California already had registered the herbicide on several other crops, including tree nuts, citrus, stone and pome fruit. | <urn:uuid:955ce501-3945-4acd-91c7-aa4e6a88836e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thegrower.com/news/chemical-updates/California-registers-herbicide-for-use-in-grapes-184454711.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930729 | 142 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Comments on my last blog got me thinking about this term, the Real Tenerife, that we use – a lot.
In finest Carrie Bradshaw fashion I couldn’t help but wonder what exactly we meant by it.
I suppose that to classify areas of Tenerife as the Real Tenerife implies that other parts aren’t. Surely that must be nonsense? Clearly if it exists it’s real? Well yes and no, depending on how you look at it.
The Mona Lisa is real, but then so is a fake Mona Lisa. But it isn’t exactly the genuine article. In that respect you could argue that the fake isn’t real.
When we decided to label our series of guides, websites, blogs etc. under the umbrella term the Real Tenerife we did it for a very specific reason.
The majority of visitors to Tenerife are interested first and foremost in the weather and that means that most British visitors head to the purpose-built resorts of the south of Tenerife. Subsequently many British views of Tenerife are fashioned by their experience of this part of Tenerife. If you were to check out TripAdvisor or other English language forums you could be forgiven for not realising that much of Tenerife is actually populated by Canarios living in towns that most tourists rarely venture into. Ironically, if you were only to read Spanish papers on Tenerife you could easily be forgiven for thinking that Playa de las Américas didn’t exist. The British press haven’t really helped. Whenever some travel writers venture outside of the ‘new upmarket’ Tenerife that they’re so fond of writing about it’s invariably to Masca and Mount Teide – beauty spots that the world and his dog know about even though some journos try to give the impression that only they and the local goat have ever been there.
When we arrived on Tenerife and started exploring, much of the island was a complete and pleasant surprise. It was not the place that we had read about and seen on TV- or at least there was much, much more to it than that. It certainly wasn’t just the purpose built holiday resort we’d been led to believe it was. That did and does exist, but it is in the geographical minority.
The reality was that much of Tenerife was a place where people lived, loved, worked and partied outside of the world of tourism. A place where culture and traditions were not only alive, but alive and kicking like a bucking bronco. It was a place with a fascinating history that stretched back as far as America’s and beyond. In summary, it wasn’t simply purpose built for hedonistic fun, it was real.
Hence the birth of Real Tenerife (plus real means royal in Spanish and we kinda liked that interpretation too). We make no apologies for continually using it, especially as it’s not meant as a criticism of anywhere on the island. Playa de las Américas is the consummate holiday destination for anyone seeking fun, sun, good restaurants and a lively, diverse nightlife. But it was built purely for tourism and subsequently there is nary a trace of Tenerife in the place. And again that’s not a criticism just an observation – I defend Las Américas constantly as it often receives unfair, biased and misinformed criticism from those who view it purely as Veronica’s.
But the point about the Real Tenerife tag is that it is meant to attract people like ourselves. People who like to taste the cultural differences in the places they visit…even if they happen to be based in a purpose built resort. It’s a nod and a wink that what we’re talking about in the main are the authentic Canario experiences. These cover an incredibly broad geographical and experiential range from rough ‘n’ ready agricultural fiestas to sleek city sophistication. We don’t care who’s doing what, we’ll go check it out – we’re experience junkies – and then we’ll share it.
So we’ll continue to harp on about the Real Tenerife because we believe discerning travellers coming to Tenerife want to know about it. In fact it’s time for the Real Tenerife brand to evolve.
Watch this space. | <urn:uuid:05416206-1989-4216-a400-32e14020ad08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tenerifevirgins.wordpress.com/2011/07/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958801 | 936 | 1.75 | 2 |
Special Children's Art Foundation
New project under construction at Sierra Vista Junior High
The Special Children’s Art Foundation is occupying one of the classrooms at Sierra Vista Junior High in Canyon Country while they put some of the finishing touches on their latest mural called “Community in Action” which will be displayed at the Santa Clarita Community Center later this month. The mural will be 31 feet long and 8 feet high.
The mural first began its life at La Mesa Junior High School on October 15. It then moved to Bridgeport Elementary on October 19 and stayed there until the 21st when it was moved to Sierra Vista. Each of the schools completed some aspects of the mural.
The project was brought about by the Special Children’s Art Foundation, and is painted by special needs students at local schools.
Special needs students ranging from those with slight learning disabilities to the severely handicapped interact with one another and with other students who help out. Friendships are created and lasting memories are established with each day of work on the murals.
The Special Children’s Art Foundation is a non-profit organization and the brainchild of Marc Kolodziejczyk (pronounced Kolo-Ja-Sick) and his associate Nicole Armitage. The foundation is designed to bring together students in schools with diverse populations.
They have recently completed a mural at Valley View Elementary School of children taking part in extreme sports. To view this art project story, click here
The foundation has also done a large mural of a jungle scene at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles in the surgery hall. The mural was 12 feet tall by 100 feet long. The mural was designed to help the kids going into surgery to calm down by focusing on the jungle scene.
The Special Children’s Art Foundation is working on a new project with the city of Santa Clarita which will be 20 feet high by 60 feet long and will be featured in the Santa Clarita Activity Center. Marc is hopeful that the project will start at the beginning of next year.
You can visit the Special Children’s Art Foundation website for more information at www.specialchildrensart.org | <urn:uuid:219b227b-cfba-4799-a1b3-695066d49c0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hometownstation.com/content/special-childrens-art-foundation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962401 | 443 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Workers on the Hibernia platform say they are not as safe as they could be on the rig as a result of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (CNLOPB) allowing reduced lifeboat capacity at the site.
Sheldon Peddle, a rig worker and co-chair of the joint occupational health and safety committee, said an exemption to a regulation requiring the rig to have 200 per cent lifeboat capacity - enclosed survival craft with space for at least twice the total number of people on board - creates a "very serious deficiency" at Hibernia.
The permanent exemption was requested by Hibernia Management and Development Co. (HMDC) on April 8.
It was granted by the CNLOPB's chief safety officer July 29.
Under the Atlantic Accord, the chief safety officer may modify a regulatory requirement if he/she is satisfied the change "will provide a level of safety equivalent to that provided by the original regulatory requirement."
Peddle said he feels the lifeboats exemption was "rubber stamped" by the regulator, does not meet the existing legislation and sets a "poor example" for safety regulation.
He has claimed the CNLOPB is "making excuses for the operator" when it comes to providing lifeboat capacity.
He said the decision regarding lifeboats on Hibernia should be reviewed immediately by the CNLOPB and, while a separate safety regulator would be a long-time coming, a stronger safety arm within the CNLOPB should be pursued.
Outside of internal discussions with Hibernia management, the regulator is the only real avenue for worker complaints relating to safety, Peddle said.
The CNLOPB has defended its approval of the regulatory exemption.
"Worker safety is the top priority of the CNLOPB. If the (CNLOPB's) chief safety officer or the experts at the certifying authority, Lloyds Register, had advised the CNLOPB that new or additional lifeboats were necessary, the CNLOPB would have acted on that advice immediately," stated spokesman Sean Kelly this week, following questions from The Telegram.
"The chief safety officer gave careful consideration to worker comments that new or additional lifeboats be installed on the Hibernia platform."
Dissent over decision
In the regulator's original statement on the exemption, Kelly said a review of the proposed changes by Hibernia management indicated any retrofit of lifeboats or addition of new lifeboats would include "a great deal of uncertainty and some risk."
Yet, in a formal statement of dissent, now filed with the CNLOPB, the rig's joint occupational health and safety committee has challenged there is a greater risk in not making the changes to increase capacity.
Peddle has acknowledged having less than a 200 per cent evacuation capacity for a rig like Hibernia is not unprecedented. However, he objected to the comparisons to operationss in other jurisdictions, like Norway and the United Kingdom, where they use different, more reliable, lifeboat systems or require more lifeboat capacity near temporary refuge areas.
As well, while chief safety officer Howard Pike referenced the Atlantic Canada Offshore Petroleum Industry's "Escape, Evacuation and Rescue Guide" in his decision, Peddle said this guide was developed without the input of offshore workers.
Management standing behind changes
For its part, Hibernia's operator, HMDC, has not indicated it has any plans to reconsider the rig's lifeboats. On Friday, public affairs manager for HMDC, Margot Bruce O'Connell, was asked if Hibernia management was aware of the continuing objections of rig workers to the latest changes.
"We have a very active joint occupational health and safety committee so any concerns are shared with us and discussed through the work of the committee," she stated.
As when the exemption was first granted, O'Connell said the safety of Hibernia's workforce and the public stands as a top priority for HMDC.
"We have more than adequate lifeboat capacity to ensure the safety of our offshore personnel and the CNLOPB concurs with our proposal for emergency evacuation," she said.
The review of the number and layout of lifeboats aboard Hibernia followed the release of a U.K. Health and Safety Executive from 2008 titled "Big persons in lifeboats." The study found the standard measure for a person, used to calculate the number of people a lifeboat can carry, was flawed. People are larger than expected by the standard and require more space, meaning fewer can be seated per boat.
Hibernia's enclosed craft were designed to hold 72 people, but were found to actually hold 54. With 280 people being allowed on Hibernia while it's producing oil, existing capacity does not cover the 200 per cent rule and therefore either an exemption or change in lifeboat type and/or number was required.
As part of the awarding of its requested regulatory exemption, Hibernia management has to submit a revised safety plan to the CNLOPB. | <urn:uuid:cdf9a4d6-2462-4d04-aec6-891ab6c7acfa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2011-11-26/article-2815972/Hibernia-lifeboat-changes-rubber-stamped%3A-workers/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96599 | 1,042 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The US Coast Guard-Interior Dept. Report released in September lay blame "squarely at BP's feet" based on "months of sworn testimony and subpoenaed records." In contrast, Obama's Jan. 2011 Presidential 'Oil Spill Commission' which had no subpoena power (parag. 10) said the cause was "industry-wide" problems. The official report in no way says this but congress allows Obama to continue slowing permits. He says he needs millions more tax dollars if we want him to move faster. Congress is wasting time on more investigations because none of them will stand up to Obama.
10/12/11, "Deep-water drilling lags behind pre-spill levels," Houston Chronicle, Dlouhy
"In the meantime, 11 floating rigs have left the Gulf, with seven heading to Africa, three going to South America and one more mobilizing to Vietnam, Shafer said."...(parag. 13)
9/14/11, "Key report blames Gulf oil spill on poor management decisions," News Herald, Panama City, with AP
PANAMA CITY, "After months of finger-pointing and accusations, the party ultimately responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf is BP itself, a newly released federal report charges.
The report goes further than other investigations in placing ultimate responsibility on BP for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history and the deaths of 11 rig workers, especially regarding the cement seal put in place the day before the explosion that triggered the spill.
“The findings don’t come as a surprise to me,” U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said Wednesday. “It’s another reason why BP shouldn’t get a tax deduction for writing off $11 billion in cleanup costs.”
The details were contained in the final report from the joint Coast Guard-Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement investigation, which was among the most exhaustive. The panel held hearings in the year following the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.
“It’s BP’s well and its BP’s responsibility,” Bay County Commissioner Mike Nelson said Wednesday. “They can point fingers at whomever they want, but companies like Halliburton were bit players.”
At one point in the oil spill investigation, BP tried to blame Halliburton, saying that company was responsible for the cementing operations that ultimately failed.
The report, released Wednesday, said in the days leading up to the disaster, BP made a series of decisions that complicated cementing operations, added risk and may have contributed to the ultimate failure of the cement job.
The report said BP, and in some cases its contractors, violated seven federal regulations at the time of the incident, including failure to take necessary precautions to keep the well under control at all times, perform a cement job that kept the oil and gas down hole, and maintain the blowout preventer — which is supposed to lock in place to prevent a spill in case of an explosion — in accordance with industry-accepted practice.
U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, said the regulatory process should also take part of the blame.
“While BP certainly deserves to shoulder its fair share of responsibility for the Gulf oil spill, we must also focus a close eye on the failed federal regulatory structure that allowed BP to run up over 700 safety violations in the years prior to this economic and ecological disaster,” Southerland said. “Had the proper safety measures been enforced, this tragedy may never have happened.”...
In the report’s 57 findings about the disaster, only one person — BP engineer Mark Hafle — is mentioned by name. It said Hafle’s failure to investigate or resolve anomalies detected during a critical test possibly contributed to the crew’s failure to detect the initial influx of gas and oil. Hafle also chose not to run a cement log, a test that evaluates the quality of the cement job, in violation of BP procedures, the report found.
Hafle — a key decision maker on the doomed rig — refused to testify before the federal panel in August 2010,
- citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination."...
Obama appears to be protecting BP.
9/22/11, "Gulf oil spill investigators silenced, U.S. House panel chairman says," New Orleans Times-Picayune, David Hammer
"A U.S. House committee was forced to postpone a hearing on the findings of a federal investigation into the causes of the BP oil spill because the Obama administration suddenly refused to let investigators testify, the committee chairman said.
The alleged silencing of the members of the joint Coast Guard and Interior Department investigative team comes in the wake of the sudden resignation of Interior's lead investigator, Hammond resident
- David Dykes....
- missed two deadlines,
President Barack Obama's Oil Spill Commission came up with significantly different findings about the cause of the spill than the Coast Guard-Interior report that was finally released last week. The presidential commission, with no subpoena power, determined the root causes of the spill were systemic and industry-wide, something that some experts disagreed with. By contrast, the Coast Guard-Interior report, the official accident investigation based on months of sworn testimony and subpoenaed records, placed the blame for key causes of the explosion
- squarely at BP's feet.
The (Presidential) Oil Spill Commission's findings in January helped justify the administration's deepwater drilling moratorium and cautious approach to resuming drilling activity under new permitting standards. The industry has long argued that a slowdown in drilling can't be justified if the causes of the Deepwater Horizon incident are
- specific to BP's management decisions."...
McClatchy used 'industry-wide' in the headline which is all many will see even though this isn't the definitive report, just Obama's version. His had no subpoena power nor months of sworn testimony (parag. 10).
1/5/11, "Panel: BP well blowout revealed industry-wide problems," McClatchy, Seibel
""The root causes are systemic and, absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur," the panel says in its final report..."The missteps were rooted in systemic failures by industry management . . . and also by failures of government to provide effective regulatory oversight of offshore drilling."...
- Later in the article it lists some specific errors that were made, but Obama's personal report comes 'reluctantly' to the conclusion that, it was Halliburton and Transocean more than BP, and America must suffer much more:
"Do we have a single company, BP, that blundered with fatal consequences, or a more pervasive problem of a complacent industry," commission co-chair William K. Reilly, a former head of the Environmental protection Agency, asked in a statement. "Given the documented failings of both Transocean and Halliburton, both of which serve the off shore industry in virtually every ocean, I reluctantly conclude that
- we have a system-wide problem.""...
10/13/11, "Hastings: U.S. blocking gulf development," UPI | <urn:uuid:56692364-f195-45f5-95d3-f771f9106e53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://impeachobamatoday.blogspot.com/2011/10/11-floating-oil-rigs-have-left-us-gulf.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954737 | 1,518 | 1.578125 | 2 |
We are America.
We are strong. We have shown that. Our ancestors built this country, the government, this convenience we have in this life. We’ve fought for our freedom, and won, and have protected that simple right we have, as Americans, for years.
We got knocked down.
We got beaten, bruised.
We had our feeling of safety vandalized.
We had our hearts, our souls, our perception changed.
But, We Did Not Fall.
We rose up higher, stronger, wiser, a bit worse for the wear, but still loud and here. We came out prouder than ever to call ourselves Americans. We strung our flags up high, we smiled at one another, we joined hands, and became unified.
United We Stand.
This isn’t about an Us versus Them. This is about no political party. No Agenda. No belief. No partisan action.
This is about Us, as a whole, as a Human Race.
This day, sadly, is what reminds me what it’s like to not be unified. What did you do on September 10, 2001? How did you treat those around you?
Now think about what you did on September 11, 2002. What did you do? How did you treat those around you?
It’s terrible that a tragedy is what brought us together as a country, but let us not forget that it did bring us together. Do not let the everyday tear us back apart.
May God Continue to Bless America. | <urn:uuid:0e8a72cc-a330-4199-b368-bc248d557512> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allofmywords.com/2012/09/11/911/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965741 | 322 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The controversy over using value-added ratings to judge teachers in Los Angeles — which has been the subject of many blog posts, including my own August comments — continues unabated with the release of a new report from the National Education Policy Center, challenging the methodology used by an L.A. Times consultant and reporters to create a massive ratings database and publicly identify what the newspaper claims are ineffective teachers.
Last week, L.A. Times writer Jason Felch, the lead reporter on the project, attempted to trump the release of the NEPC report by breaking the embargo date requested by the Center. (Embargo dates are routine business for newspapers and newsmakers—a necessary partnership that assures fair and wide distribution of newsworthy developments.)
It is transparently clear that Mr. Felch, who was given an advance copy of Due Diligence and the Evaluation of Teachers by its authors, jumped the gun in an effort to reduce the report’s splash and to muffle growing concerns both about the methodologies used to make the analysis and the ways in which the L.A. Times has used the data. Felch and the Times have not only mined the data to produce dozens of news stories but provided public access to the database through an online search engine that rates individual teachers by name and ranks the top 100 elementary teachers and schools in the vast LAUSD system.
The NEPC researchers found many flaws in the analysis conducted by Richard Buddin, a senior economist at the RAND Corporation (working as an independent contractor). Both Felch’s series of stories and the database developed by Felch and his editors relied entirely on Buddin’s work to identify “effective and ineffective teachers.” Yet when the NEPC researchers did their own analysis and compared it with Buddin’s results, they found that, for reading, “only 46.4% of teachers would retain the same effectiveness rating under both models,” and for math, only 60.8%.
The NEPC determined that the Buddin/Times statistical approach was “producing biased estimates of teacher effects because it omits variables that are associated both with student test performance and how students and teachers are assigned to one another.”
You can read the NEPC authors’ meticulous description of their own methods and analysis for yourself. What’s particularly notable is their contention that the nature of the data called for a more conservative approach to determining teacher effects:
Because the L.A. Times did not use this more conservative approach to distinguish teachers when rating them as “effective” or “ineffective”, it is likely that there are a significant number of false positives (teachers rated as effective who are really average), and false negatives (teachers rated as ineffective who are really average) in the L.A. Times’ rating system.
While the NEPC researchers concentrated on what they perceived as flaws in Buddin’s methodology and conclusions, that doesn’t let Jason Felch and the L.A. Times off the hook. After claiming that teachers’ personal rights to privacy (and, indeed, fair treatment) were trumped by “the public’s right to know,” Felch and his editors had an obligation to vet and re-vet their methodology before playing that First Amendment trump card. We can now see they did not go nearly far enough.
Remarkably, when Mr. Felch broke the NEPC report embargo and reported on its findings, the L.A. Times headline proclaimed: "Separate study confirms many Los Angeles Times findings on teacher effectiveness." Perhaps Felch and his editors were banking on the public’s aversion to reading reports about statistical methodology. But anyone who reads the NEPC executive summary will see that the newspaper’s choice of headline was self-serving and disingenuous — and that’s putting it mildly.
In response, the NEPC researchers were quick to release a fact sheet about the Times story, challenging its interpretation of their work and bluntly stating that the August publication by the Times of teacher effectiveness ratings was “based on unreliable and invalid research.”
WHAT IS most troubling about all this brouhaha — beyond the very real damage that the Times’ reckless actions has done to teachers who did not deserve the treatment they got — is this: Results-oriented teacher evaluations are very much needed. I could not agree more with Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute that VAM can be used to evaluate teachers, but only “carefully.”
Back in August I noted that:
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, under the auspices of its Measuring Effective Teaching project, is taking a very thoughtful approach to teacher assessment by looking at multiple measures of student achievement and linking other metrics (e.g., classroom observations, teachers’ analyses of student work and their own teaching, and levels of student engagement) to capture a more robust and accurate view of who is effective and why.
Very few accomplished teachers are likely to argue against better methods of determining who is effective and why. In a soon-to-be JUST-RELEASED paper from the Center for Teaching Quality, three teachers well-versed in the issues surrounding evaluation policy call for the strategic use of value-added data, with the VAM models’ limitations in mind. They strongly recommend that classroom experts be engaged to help sharpen these tools and their underlying student assessments, and by doing so, produce accountability systems that better support effective teaching and learning.
In a sensible society, concerned about the future of the children in its public schools, we would not — and I hope we will not — leave the evaluation of effective teaching to reputation-seeking journalists and their attention-seeking news organizations. | <urn:uuid:9d58d469-81f9-4ce5-9df2-472057121d80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://teachingquality.typepad.com/building_the_profession/2011/02/newspapers-shouldnt-be-in-the-teacher-evaluation-business.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964529 | 1,186 | 1.796875 | 2 |
On November 21, 2006, approximately 1250 mountain standard time, a Hughes 369E helicopter, N500FU, sustained substantial damage following a collision with transmission wires and subsequent impact with terrain while maneuvering near Jensen, Utah. The helicopter was registered to and operated by Pete Martin Drilling of Vernal, Utah. The commercial pilot sustained serious injuries, while his sole passenger received fatal injuries. The search and rescue flight was being conducted in accordance with 14 CFR Part 91, and a company visual flight rules (VFR) flight plan was filed. The helicopter departed the Vernal Airport, Vernal, Utah, at 1230. Use your browsers 'back' function to return to synopsisReturn to Query Page
In a written statement provided by the pilot and in a telephone interview with the NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC), the pilot reported that he departed the Vernal Airport for the Jensen Bridge (the section of Highway 40 which crosses the Green River) on a search and rescue mission for a missing woman; the pilot occupied the left front seat and a local deputy sheriff occupied the right front seat. The pilot stated that after reaching the search area the deputy instructed him to begin the search mode by making left hand circular patterns. The pilot further stated, "I began to descend and slow the aircraft down at this particular time. I made approximately two 360-degree orbits to the left, when suddenly multiple strands of power lines came in contact with the aircraft. The next thing I can recall after making contact with the lines, I was trapped in the water surrounded by power lines and aircraft wreckage." The pilot stated that he never saw the transmission wires and was not aware that they were in the area. The pilot also related that there were no anomalies with the helicopter prior to the flight. (Refer to the area map of the accident site, which is appended to the factual report.)
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aviation safety inspector, who traveled to the accident site, reported that the helicopter impacted terrain at Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates 40 degrees 21.630 minutes north latitude and 109 degrees 20.185 minutes west longitude, at an elevation of 4,750 feet mean sea level, which is approximately 3,500 feet south of Highway 40. The helicopter subsequently rolled down an incline in a westerly direction over a distance of approximately 150 feet before coming to rest about 20 feet from the east bank of the Green River. The aircraft was facing west on its right side, with half of the helicopter submerged in the water. The inspector estimated that between 10 to 15 feet of wire cable had become entangled around the main rotor shaft. The inspector's assessment of the wreckage included the tail boom being separated, the left skid remaining attached to the helicopter, while the right skid was separated from the aircraft. The main rotor blades (5) were separated at their respective hubs and the tail rotor blades remained attached to the tail rotor assembly, with the exception of about 3 inches off of each tip. The cabin/cockpit bubble was cut off, the center console remained intact, and both cockpit seats remained intact, with the right seat pushed aft.
Local law enforcement personnel provided the IIC with witness statements from three witnesses who observed the accident. Witness #1 reported seeing the helicopter go overhead, turn around by the [Jensen] Bridge, and came back overhead again before clipping the power lines prior to "...parts flying off and the body of the chopper hitting the water." Witness #2 stated that he was walking south of the Jensen Bridge when the helicopter came up behind him on his right side. The witness reported, "I look[ed] up just as it got in to the power lines. The chopper looked like it exploded in the air and then land[ed] in the water." Witness #3 stated, "I was on the east side of the red wash road on a ridge on a 4-wheeler. I saw the chopper circle around a small ridge and over the river then flip over, then heard the bang."
At 1253, the weather reporting facility at the Vernal Airport, located approximately 10 nautical miles northwest of the accident site, reported wind calm, visibility 10 statute miles, sky clear, temperature 8 degrees C, dew point -2 degrees C, and an altimeter setting of 30.22 inches of Mercury. | <urn:uuid:0a98dbc9-a77e-4fc2-ab8a-4ac13bc1cafe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20061122X01705&ntsbno=SEA07LA021&akey=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959051 | 887 | 1.828125 | 2 |
So Brad Pitt is set to play Steve McQueen in a biopic? Here’s the car he’ll have to master: McQueen’s 1963 Lusso. Some say it’s the most beautiful Ferrari ever built.
But a Ferrari in chestnut brown?
As far as I recall, these were my first words when I heard the news that Steve McQueen’s first Ferrari, chassis number 4891GT, was set to go on the auction block. While far from being a rosso corsa purist and nurturer of a great soft spot for midnight blue 612 Scagliettis, brown sounded all wrong for a Ferrari. Think brown and what’s the first thing that comes to mind? A UPS truck, no great friend of high-strung V12’s.
Little did I know that two years later, I would be looking at McQueen’s Lusso beneath the namesake for its paintjob—a chestnut tree—and realize that in person, it’s shockingly beautiful.
Not that it hails from a particularly hideous age of car design. Modena in the early Sixties was a proper Golden Age. The Lusso was the last act in Ferrari’s first great play, the 250, a ten-year-old construction by the time they introduced the Lusso in 1962. Since the first prototype had been tested in 1952, 250’s won everything there was to be won in road racing, to transcend mere cars and become the sort of objects car geeks approach with a visible trembling of the knee.
Most 250’s are beautiful but the Lusso—Italian for
luxurious luxury—stands out even in that crowd. As the name suggests, it was designed by Pininfarina as a grand tourer, with an eye on stylish, high-speed motoring as opposed to racing. There is ample luggage space behind the two seats swathed in beige leather, and the engine is set forward to allow for more legroom.
Beneath the aluminum and steel skin however, it’s a pure racer. The Lusso’s Borrani racing wheels, disc brakes, suspension and all-aluminum engine come from none other car than the 250 GTO. And the Lusso itself was more than suitable for racing: at 2,200 pounds, it weighed little more than a Miata and was in turn powered by the last version of the 3-liter V12 used in all 250’s, sucking air through three twin Webers to produce around 250 HP.
But forget all that. Though lovely numbers the Lusso has, they are not what make it interesting. What does is that the Lusso and its contemporaries—like the 250 GTO, the Breadvan or the Miura—stand out as the first generation of supercars to which we can relate to as proper cars. Pre-war Bugattis and Alfas are awesome, but they look way too fragile and old to be appreciated as actual cars as opposed to very nice objects on wheels.
Look at a Lusso instead and what you will feel is pure petrolhead lust. To fire up that V12, to motor out of wherever it’s parked, and to shove the go pedal right through the floor.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve McQueen drove it like that. Back in the 60s, when roads were sparsely populated, gas was ultra-cheap, and people knew how to party in style.
It almost makes you forget that these cars had live rear axles. Like Mustangs!
Photo Credit: Natalie Polgar and the author. Note: unfortunately, the owner of the Lusso was not around to pop the hood for us. The engine you see in the gallery is that of a Ferrari 250 GT SWB, very similar to the Lusso’s. | <urn:uuid:d5d15861-9fbc-4657-b82e-641c18d3ddbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jalopnik.com/5252193/steve-mcqueens-23m-ferrari-250-gt-lusso-what-can-brown-do-for-you?tag=brad | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964513 | 826 | 1.539063 | 2 |
We are able to provide tuition to your child, teen or adult at their home, in one of our clinics or via skype or webinar.
How does NETwork tuition work?
Firstly, we will have a chat with you to discuss the needs of your child. It may be that you require general tuition to keep up with peers, tuition to excel in certain subjects or tuition to make a particular grade for an exam.
Secondly, we will evaluate how much work is needed to move from Point A (where you are now) to Point B (where we all want to get to)
Thirdly, we develop a plan of action within the time and finance remits that you give us for us to get to Point B.
The next steps...
Contact us today to find out how NETwork is helping families and schools like yours.
For more information and resources please get in touch with us.
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"The observation and assessment period that NETwork complete at the beginning is difficult to understand at the outset, but it turns out that it is an intricate process that [does] indeed find the issues to work on and subsequently address and resolve."
"Dillan had significant behavioural issues and received a very late diagnosis of NVLD when he was 9 years old. This diagnosis did little to help our family. Louise quickly and efficiently set up a programme for our teenage son which rapidly identified his strengths and weaknesses. Shelley taught us and his teachers how to best address these, including language deficits which had previously remained unrecognised, Louise’s team worked within our budget, working hours and extensive travel commitments, working closely with school and our local authority to ensure everybody was on board and funding accessed. At times it felt as though Louise was coordinating a small army. Additional support of parent-counselling through Louise’s team proved invaluable, even though we were originally a little sceptical. It most likely made the difference between success and failure in our ability as parents to sustain a positive family unit whilst implementing the programme. We worked with NETwork Interventions for just under one year."
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"We would like to say a massive thank you for your hard work during the 2 day assessment. We are so grateful and highly impressed with your level of knowledge, confidence, professionalism as well as the kindness and respect shown to our family. Now, we really believe there is light at the end of the tunnel." | <urn:uuid:c30a7bb8-f158-459d-a108-0594b0fed94b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.verbal-behaviour-consultants.com/your-child/tuition | 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 | 0.980055 | 638 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Catholic World News News Feature
"My Baby!" May 01, 2004
In the course of the past generation, ultrasound examination has become accepted as a routine aspect of medical care for pregnant women in America. Ultrasound images are enormously valuable to doctors, who can use them to determine gestational age, assess fetal development, and even anticipate problems that might arise in the course of the pregnancy. For the pregnant women, too, the ultrasound image of a healthy baby can provide a welcome reassurance, along with an enormous infusion of excitement and pride.
Ultrasound technicians report that an extraordinary number of women, seeing the image from inside their wombs for the first time, will utter precisely the same two words: "My baby!" As anyone who has been through the experience can testify, that is an emotional moment; tears of joy are commonplace.
But for many women—those facing unplanned pregnancies, and considering an abortion—the first glimpse of an unborn child can have an especially powerful impact. A woman who may be confused and unhappy about her pregnancy may suddenly see things in a new light when she has her first glimpse of her unborn child. And if she reacts to the ultrasound image in the same way that the vast majority of pregnant women do—by recognizing "my baby!"—the future prospects of that child change dramatically. Once a probable candidate for the abortionist's scalpel, the unborn child is now more likely to be born. For the first time in his young, hidden life, the odds suddenly swing in favor of his survival.
In fact, the odds that an unborn child will be brought to term, rather than aborted, can be very nearly inverted by an ultrasound examination, according to a study undertaken by A Woman's Concern, a group of crisis-pregnancy centers in eastern Massachusetts. Before introducing routine ultrasound examinations for the women who visited their centers, A Woman's Concern (AWC) found that 61 percent of the women classified by counselors as "abortion-vulnerable" would opt for abortion prior to an ultrasound examination, while 33.7 percent would choose to carry the pregnancy to term. Once ultrasound examinations were provided, 63.5 percent of the same "abortion-vulnerable" women decided to continue their pregnancies, and only 24.5 percent chose abortion.
Founded in 1993 by an Evangelical Protestant pastor, the Rev. John Ensor, A Woman's Concern began modestly with a single storefront crisis-pregnancy center (CPC) in Boston's inner city. In the space of a decade, with strong ecumenical support, AWC has expanded enormously, opening centers at four other locations near Boston. These centers now provide counseling and assistance for more than 200 women every month, and in 2003 they celebrated the births of 236 children, the vast majority of whom would probably have been aborted if their mothers had not encountered AWC. [In the interests of fair disclosure, this writer should note that he serves on the AWC board of directors.]
Like most other CPCs, AWC was established to serve women who are alarmed by the prospect of pregnancy, and actively considering abortion. At the centers, trained counselors do their best to provide moral guidance and support to women who are often facing objectively horrific situations. If the women are living in poverty, the counselors discuss the various forms of help that might be available to them through government agencies, church groups, and private donors. Over the years AWC has managed to find work for unemployed single mothers, win legal status for undocumented aliens, secure temporary lodging for women who had been living in abusive households, and persuade frightened young fathers to shoulder their responsibilities. But in many cases, the best efforts of AWC counselors are not enough to change a woman's mind. For the first several years of the organization's existence, roughly two-thirds of the women who entered an AWC center planning to procure an abortion carried through with that plan.
From its outset, AWC has been committed to offering women objective information about pregnancy, fetal development, childbirth, and abortion. The organization gives counselors a checklist of topics that should be covered in conversations with pregnant women, including the stages of fetal development, viability, the possibility of miscarriage, the types of abortion, and the possible complications. All centers were provided with photos and models of babies in utero, giving the woman a way to picture her own unborn child.
As ultrasound technology became more sophisticated, and the clarity of ultrasound images reached the point at which untrained eyes could readily identify the fetus, AWC began offering free ultrasound examinations as well. These examinations served a twofold purpose: they provided a great deal of objective information about the woman's pregnancy, and they gave the woman an opportunity to see not a plastic model showing what her unborn child might look like, but an actual glimpse of her baby.
The results of these ultrasound examinations, beginning in 2000, were so impressive that AWC soon adopted "the medical model" for all five centers. Each location is now equipped with an ultrasound machine, operated by a trained and certified technician; the ultrasound examination has become a standard part of the AWC services for any women who request it. The results of the ultrasound examination are assessed by AWC's medical director, Dr. Eric Keroack, a board-certified ob/gyn. (To allow Dr. Keroack to examine images from the different centers without traveling back and forth across eastern Massachusetts, AWC set up a high-speed computer network, by which the electronic images are transferred from one location to another. Because federal law prohibits the transfer of medical information over the Internet, a custom-designed internal network was established, linking the five centers.)
THE INTRODUCTION OF ULTRASOUND
AWC counselors keep careful records of each visit with clients, and whenever possible remain in contact with women throughout their pregnancies and after their children are born. (The organization schedules occasional baby showers, and invites mothers to pose with their newborn babies for photos that line the message boards at the centers.) The counselors also make a determined effort to learn, in each case, whether a pregnant woman who visited a center even once ultimately chose to continue her pregnancy or procure an abortion.
These detailed records made it possible to compare the effect of the pro-life counseling efforts before and after the ultrasound examination became a routine part of AWC service. Dr. Keroack studied data collected from an 18-month period before ultrasound was used (from July 1998 through December 1999), in comparison with similar data covering an 18-month period after the introduction of ultrasound (from October 2000 through April 2002). In a research paper presented to medical colleagues, he concluded: "Cumulatively, ultrasound with intra-uterine fetal visualization influenced 75.5 percent of our clients to reconsider elective abortion."
The data collected by the AWC counselors were not perfect. Many of the women disappear from sight after a single visit to the centers, and since AWC treats all counseling sessions as confidential, it is often difficult to trace a woman for a follow-up interview. Some women ask counselors not to pursue them, and AWC respects that request. So a significant number of women—precisely one-third, in the course of the two 18-month periods of the study—were "lost to contact." There was no reliable way to determine whether or not they continued their pregnancies.
On the other hand, the number of clients "lost to contact" was roughly similar for the two sample groups in the study. In the 18 months prior to ultrasound, AWC was unable to determine what had happened to 38 percent of the women visiting the centers; in the later 18-month period, 28 percent of the outcomes were unknown. Otherwise there was no noteworthy variation between the two samples. The samples were of similar size (559 for 1998-1999, 611 for 2000-2002); the women had visited the same AWC centers. The counseling routine had been unchanged except by the introduction of a routine ultrasound examination for women who chose to accept it. All of the women involved in the study were given a pregnancy test, tested positive, and indicated in an initial interview that they were considering an abortion.
For those women who chose an ultrasound examination, a video monitor was set up to allow them to watch the process if they wanted to do so. Dr. Keroack conducted the examination, answering questions as he did so. The women were provided with photos taken from the electronic images, and with a written record of the examination that could be used for later obstetrical care. Additional counseling sessions were scheduled if the women requested them, and in some cases a second ultrasound examination was offered to answer unresolved questions.
The AWC study showed that among the women for whom counselors could obtain complete information, those who underwent an ultrasound examination were almost twice as likely to continue their pregnancies than those who did not, and less than half as likely to choose abortion. [See Table A]
Commenting on these remarkable findings, Dr. Keroack made the observation that while AWC is an avowedly pro-life organization, whose counselors seek to help women continue their pregnancies, the ultrasound examinations were conducted dispassionately, without any effort to stir the women's maternal emotions. Nevertheless, the impact of the ultrasound pictures was undeniable. He wrote to colleagues:
We also observed that during the utilization of these technical advances, our clients frequently demonstrated bonding responses to their pregnancies as well. Our examinations were not performed with the intention of creating such responses; they were performed in a fashion consistent with accepted medical standards for diagnostic ultrasonography. Location of the pregnancy was identified, fetal measurements were made, fetal heart rates were recorded, and other pertinent structures were identified according to the client’s gestational age. Clients were permitted to view these aspects of their examinations in real time whenever the physician was present. The viewing of their own ultrasound exams may have played a role in creating the observed effects on the decision-making process of our clients.
Whatever the subjective reasons may have been for the women's decisions, the objective results were clear. "In the final analysis," Keroack wrote, "only 1 out of 4 women initially considering abortion actually chose abortion in their unplanned pregnancy after receiving an ultrasound examination."
OTHER FACTORS IN PREGNANCY
In addition to the stunning increase in the number of women who chose to carry their pregnancies to term, the AWC study [Table A] showed one other noteworthy result. Among the women who were offered ultrasound examinations, a much larger percentage of the pregnancies (9.2 percent, as opposed to 5.2 percent) ended in miscarriage. This statistical anomaly is not the result of the ultrasound test itself; the test is non-invasive, and cannot increase the risk of miscarriage. Rather, the figures illustrate a seamy but little-known truth about the abortion business.
Roughly 10 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. Thus the number of women in the later AWC study who suffered miscarriages was in line with the overall statistics for American women in general. That number was suspiciously low in the earlier study—presumably because abortionists performed expensive and dangerous surgery on many women whose pregnancies would soon have ended spontaneously.
Standard over-the-counter pregnancy tests give women a simple, Yes-or-No result. But from a medical perspective the situation is not quite so simple. As Dr. Keroack notes, "the pink line on a urine test does not ensure that a woman has a viable intra-uterine pregnancy; it only confirms the presence of bHCG (a hormone associated with pregnancy) in her system." That hormone will also be present in the body of a woman who has an ectopic pregnancy (a serious condition that can be fatal if it is not promptly diagnosed), a blighted ovum, or any of several other conditions that generally result in miscarriage. While a urine test cannot diagnose these conditions, an ultrasound examination can.
A woman who confronts an unintended pregnancy will generally take some action between the 5th and 10th weeks after conception. At that point in her pregnancy, she is still a candidate for an early spontaneous abortion—better known as a miscarriage. But if she visits an abortion clinic, a positive pregnancy test may be enough to persuade her to undergo a surgical abortion. Abortion clinics rarely provide ultrasound services; the entrepreneurs who operate them obviously have no financial incentive to perform an extra procedure that could cut down on their business.
At a CPC, on the other hand, an ultrasound examination by a qualified physician might alert the pregnant woman to the presence of a condition that is likely to cause a miscarriage. Early in pregnancy, a woman has nothing to lose by waiting to see if that diagnosis is correct. Even if she is determined to end her pregnancy, she will still have the option of surgical abortion if the miscarriage does not take place; waiting 2 or 3 weeks will not make that procedure any more expensive or traumatic. If the miscarriage does occur, of course, she will have avoided a surgical procedure that is painful, expensive, and unnecessary by any standards. For the CPC counselors, meanwhile, the extra 2-3 weeks provide another opportunity to persuade the woman that she should continue her pregnancy. And if the process calls for a follow-up ultrasound examination, there is one more opportunity for the mother to bond with her unborn child.
In practice, an experienced doctor can generally recognize the signs of a likely miscarriage on the basis of an ultrasound examination. In the AWC study between 2000 and 2002, 39 out of 40 eventual miscarriages were predicted on the basis of ultrasound evidence prior to the 9th week of pregnancy. The ultrasound tests also produced the eye-catching result that 12 women—2.75 percent of the total sample—were not pregnant at all, but had some other medical condition that produced a false positive on a urine test.
Not even the most ardent feminist can recommend abortion for a woman who is not pregnant, or is likely to miscarry her pregnancy without surgical intervention. In the AWC study, 51 women fell into that category. And the figures were still more suggestive when the AWC results were broken down by the gestational age of the unborn child at the time of the ultrasound examination.
In 335 out of the 436 women involved in the later AWC study, the ultrasound examination showed that the pregnancy was in its first trimester. Of the 263 pregnancies observed during the early part of that trimester (the 5th through 8th weeks), 39 were diagnosed as likely miscarriages and all 12 non-pregnancies were detected. Thus at that stage, 19.8 percent of the women were not candidates for surgical abortions by any standards, despite their positive pregnancy tests. Moreover, since only 1 miscarriage was diagnosed by AWC after the 9th week of gestation [see Table B], the ultrasound results were 98 percent successful in pinpointing, during the first 8 weeks of pregnancy, the cases in which elective abortion would be indefensible from any perspective. If the AWC results are indicative of national trends, and 19.8 percent of the women who test positive on an early pregnancy test are either not pregnant, or likely to end the pregnancy through miscarriage, then as many as 250,000 American women may be undergoing unnecessary abortions every year.
Although AWC was formed by pro-life activists who were, and still are, actively involved in the American public debate over abortion, the services offered to individual women in the CPCs are not marked by partisan rhetoric. The vast majority of the woman involved in the AWC study between 2000 and 2002 reported that their experience had been helpful to them, and even the women who were determined to abort their children shared that perception.
But in fact, even if the ultrasound examination was conducted dispassionately, most women reported that the experience changed their attitude regarding their pregnancies. During the first six months of the ultrasound survey, AWC asked clients to answer a few questions about their experience. [See Table C] A striking 81.4 percent said that the ultrasound test had changed their minds, and 9.5 percent had become uncertain about their abortion plans; only 9.1 percent said that they were unmoved by the image of their unborn child on the video screen.
An ultrasound examination is a diagnostic procedure, not an emotional argument; the image that appears on the video screen is not affected by the feelings of the technician performing the test. So the woman who voluntarily undergoes the examination implicitly knows that she is not being manipulated; she is being offered concrete information, which—as the results of the AWC exit interview attest—she is most likely to recognize as valuable.
But the results of the AWC test raise another question: Why aren't all pregnant women given the same valuable information before they are expected to make a decision for or against abortion? Writing to fellow ob-gyn professionals, Dr. Keroack raised a similar point:
If all women were given this essential information regarding their choices during an unplanned pregnancy, would this reduce the number of elective abortions that occur annually in the United States? Are women who do not see the ultrasonic evidence of viability in their pregnancy being given adequate informed consent? In this era of increasing malpractice liability and growing emphasis on patient education prior to elective procedures, the importance of a client’s pre-operative understanding of her medical condition and therapeutic alternatives must not be dismissed. It behooves us as medical professionals to ensure that all of our patients are clearly informed of the basic facts concerning their conditions.
American society is seriously divided on the issue of abortion, but there is a broad consensus that patients should be given every possible opportunity to give their "informed consent" prior to any surgical procedure. As Dr. Keroack observes:
Most of us would insist upon seeing the X-ray of our fractured arm before we let an orthopedist place a cast on us, and casting is an easily reversible procedure. Shouldn't the standards for an irreversible elective termination of pregnancy be at least as high?
Women who undergo ultrasound examinations report that they receive useful information, and that information helps them to form—indeed, to change—their decisions regarding abortion. On the basis of those findings, clearly supported by the evidence of the AWC, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that an ultrasound examination is a prerequisite for "informed consent" to an abortion.
For pro-life activists in the political sphere, the AWC study suggests a promising new avenue of approach. In the current American political climate it may be impractical to seek new legislative restrictions on abortion itself, but the argument for "informed consent" is much easier to carry. Legislators might be convinced to require an ultrasound examination—ideally, conducted by an independent party with no financial interest in the result—as a precondition for abortion.
For medical personnel in the ob-gyn field, and for lawyers and insurers handling malpractice cases, the AWC study suggests that the question of "informed consent" has implications beyond the legislative realm. Even if the law does not require an ultrasound prior to abortion, a jury might be persuaded that the abortionist was negligent in failing to provide that service prior to an abortion that caused serious medical complications.
For crisis-pregnancy centers, the AWC study suggests that investment in ultrasound equipment—and qualified medical personnel handle that equipment—could be the most effective way to drive down the number of abortions. Women facing problem pregnancies have no reason not to accept the offer of a free ultrasound test, and the results of that offer could be dramatic.
According to Family Planning Perspectives—a journal with close ties to Planned Parenthood—45 percent of all pregnancies in American today can be classified as "unplanned." While that number may be high, and the definition of what constitutes an "unplanned" pregnancy could certainly be open to discussion, there is no doubt that many thousands of women each year face a crisis when they learn that they are pregnant. For these women, abortion represents not an abstract political issue but an immediate personal dilemma. In this crisis, women who are tempted toward abortion strive to determine what is best for them, in their particular circumstances. An ultrasound test, at this point, can answer the need of a troubled woman by providing not another abstract argument, but a very concrete, practical, and personal perspective. For the first time, the young mother finds herself almost literally face-to-face with her unborn child.
Proponents of abortion might argue that the ultrasound test is a form of psychological manipulation. But the ultrasound machine, like the camera, does not lie. It is "my baby!"
[SIDEBARS] Table A AWC clients with known outcomes Before ultrasound With ultrasound (7/98- 12-99) (10/00-4/02) Total women considering abortion 344 100.0% 436 100.0% Chose to continue pregnancy 116 33.7% 277 63.5% Chose to abort 210 61.0% 107 24.5% Miscarried 18 5.2% 40 9.2% Other diagnosis 0 0.0% 12 2.8% Total not pursuing abortion 134 39.0% 329 75.5%
Table B Diagnosis of first-trimester clients Total Miscarriage Not Pregnant % Diagnosed 346 40 12 —- ultrasound in 5th-8th week 263 39 12 98.1% ultrasound in 9th-12th week 83 1 0 100.0%
Table C—CA Client U/S Exit Surveys
Ultrasound exit Surveys filled out by Clients —— 220 (100%)
Visit was helpful/very helpful to Client —— 211 (96%) Visit not helpful/unclear to Client —— 9 (4%)
Ultrasound changed Client’s mind about aborting pregnancy —— 179 (81.4%) Ultrasound caused Client to become unsure of abortion plans —— 21 (9.5%) Ultrasound had no impact on Client’s plans to abort pregnancy —— 20 (9.1%) | <urn:uuid:e4a89858-1799-4fb4-ab44-a0d00681545c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=30080 | 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 | 0.965485 | 4,501 | 1.679688 | 2 |
When you have a business you want to make sure everything you put into that business pays off. You need to know that your investment is going to give you a profitable return on your money. This includes when you invest in alternative ways to clean your establishment.
A bar is a dirty place after a night of business. People come and go, they drink and spill liquids, they eat food and get grease and mess everywhere, and worst of all they probably smoke. No matter the mess your clientele leaves it will pale in comparison to the dirt and grime which smoke can leave in its wake. This is why you need an air purifier or smoke eater.
Now, you are probably asking yourself do air purifiers remove smoke? The answer is quite simple that yes, indeed they do. Getting rid of smoke is what they do best. See, the smoke lingers in the air because it is heavier the oxygen molecule. It can linger in the air or float around leaving a trail of dirt and odor.
What an air purifier does is cycle this dirty around and around into it so that the smoke filled air and all pollutants is passed through the internal air filters. These filters then collect and catch most of the dirt particles. Then clean air is then cycled back out into the bar. It is rather simple and easy. Over time you will see a vast improvement to how clean your bar is the ore you use an air purifier.
On the other hand, air purifiers are never able to remove every particle from the air, so they are not a complete defense against the health issues of second hand smoke.
When it comes to your business you want what is best. Sometimes what is best for your business is indeed what is best for your customer base. As with a bar, you need to cater to the smoking crowd but you also need to make a suitable environment for those who do not smoke. This is easier said than done of course. However with the use of air purifiers it is not impossible and can help you increase your flow through of business. Depending on the accumulation of smoke and the amount of dirt in the air of your bar will also determine the size or amount of air purifiers which are needed. | <urn:uuid:057f2617-41da-4792-aa55-03f4f28309bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.airqualitytips.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962544 | 451 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The Daily Word in shady dentistry, bear bile and riding a Ferris wheel for way too long
New Mexico's at the top of the list! Of worst droughts in the country!
And pumping water out of the ground just isn't working like it used to.
"El Dentista," an unlicensed dentist in Santa Fe who performed his "services" out of a van, left a trail of mouth infections and unnecessarily removed teeth in his wake. The New Mexico Department of Health is offering free counseling, blood testing and referrals to his victims. But remember, it could be worse.
Developers in Oklahoma are resistant to the idea of including tornado shelters in their homes because it costs too much money. Sad trombone.
Clinton Shepherd of Chicago just finished riding a Ferris wheel for two days straight. "I was thrilled and honored to be able to have all the love and support I did," Shepherd said.
And it turns out that increasing demand for bear bile (used in a nonsense "home-remedy") is really bad for bears. | <urn:uuid:920d1a76-545c-4564-a364-90883f8f9cf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alibi.com/?di=2013-02-07&scn=blog&staff_blogger=Ty+Bannerman | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969368 | 221 | 1.6875 | 2 |
GEORGETOWN, Texas -- As the drought continues across Texas, more cities are enacting tougher water restrictions.
On Monday, Georgetown goes into Stage 2 water restrictions, which means watering only twice a week.
The schedule is based on the last digit of an address. Those ending in 0, 3, 5 or 8 can water on Tuesdays and/or Fridays. Addresses ending in 1, 7, or 9 can water on Wednesdays and/or Saturdays. Those ending in 2, 4, or 6 water on Thursdays and/or Sundays.
Watering is allowed only between the hours of 7 p.m. and 10 a.m.
The restrictions apply to irrigation systems and sprinklers. Residents can still water by hand or bucket on any day. The restrictions also apply to other water uses, including washing your vehicle or filling up a pool. Anyone caught violating the watering schedule could get a ticket.
"It's kind of scary if you really think about how long it is going on. You see the lake drying up, see things drying up and say 'where are we going to get our water from?' So people need to really save," Austin resident R.A. Medina said.
Georgetown relies on water from Lake Georgetown for much of its supply. Right now the lake is down nearly 25 feet. Lake Georgetown also serves Round Rock and several other Williamson County areas.
The Brazos River Authority along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manage the lake. The Brazos River Authority has three stages for drought control: Drought Watch, Warning and Emergency.
Officials say it could reach the second stage, Drought Warning, by early 2012 if drought conditions continue. | <urn:uuid:c3103c56-af63-4e5d-9148-42315b17a1cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kvue.com/marketplace/green/Georgetown-enters-new-water-restrictions-130555673.html?ref=next | 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 | 0.954458 | 349 | 1.8125 | 2 |
There will be a showing of the “Invisible War”, a documentary film about sexual assault in the US Military.
More than 20 percent of female veterans have been sexually assaulted while serving; 80 percent of survivors do not report the incident. Claims are not treated seriously and the credibility of the victim is continually called into question. Rape cases are usually handled by men, as women are considered "too sympathetic" for the task.”
The movie will be followed by a panel consisting of Joyce Wagner, Francine Porter, Edith Bell and Scilla Wahrhaftig.
The AFSC PA will be joining as many as 30 different organizations in celebrating "One Billion Women Rising". Women from at least 188 countries around the world will be showing their collective strength and calling for an end to the abuse and rape of women.
In Pittsburgh we will be celebrating in Market Square with dance, spoken word, testimonies, etc.
USCIS granted Deysi’s U Nonimmigrant Status in the U.S. on November 4, 2010.
Deysi is originally from El Salvador and came to the U.S. in 2004 seeking a peaceful life from a turbulent one in her country. She fell in love and began to live with her boyfriend. From the beginning, he abused her. In 2007, police were called because she suffered extreme injuries on her body and especially in her face. This time, Deysi told the police about the abuse she had endured for many years at the hands of her boyfriend. He was taken to jail and convicted of aggravated domestic battery and was placed in a domestic violence shelter.
AFSC is a Quaker organization devoted to service, development, and peace programs throughout the world. Our work is based on the belief in the worth of every person, and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice. Learn more
Where we work
AFSC has office around the world. To see a complete list see the Where We Work page. | <urn:uuid:29b00fa7-c1f3-45c6-8d70-d2e332b9aa17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://afsc.org/category/topic/violence-against-women | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971783 | 407 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Why homeschooling? First, homeschooling is the most ancient form of Catholic education. For the first 300 years of the Church’s history, there couldn’t possibly have been Catholic schools. There couldn’t even be Catholic churches. The underground catacombs under the city of Rome were the churches. Schools were out of the question…
My two previous columns (available in the online newsletter archive) gave a brief history of the rise, and sadly the partial decline, of Catholic education in the United States. To accomplish the goal of a Catholic education for their children, parents are increasingly turning to homeschooling, but we homeschoolers have many lessons we can learn from the Catholic educators who came before us. For Catholic homeschooling to succeed and thrive in educating future generations, it must remain authentically Catholic, unapologetically rigorous, and marked by a commitment to diligence and order.
Last month’s column was the story of how a largely poor, immigrant population built a powerhouse parish school system that provided a first-rate scholastic education. By the mid 1960s, the Catholic system reached its peak with 4.5 million elementary school pupils, and another million students in Catholic high schools.
I never knew how much I didn’t know until I was homeschooled. I have been an “A-B” student since kindergarten, and I have attended private schools since second grade. I’ve always enjoyed the classroom atmosphere, and at this time last year, I would never have given it up for anything. I loved cheerleading, I loved sports and I loved to have fun. I was in every club and every contest; I was always on the run with my activities. At this time last year, I had just had my cap-and-gown 8th grade graduation, and I was trying to decide which of my three high school options was best for my needs, both socially and academically.
My personal pet peeves include books and authors who present homeschooling as an always fun and sunny alternative to institutional schools. If you believe some of what is written, you might easily think that our homeschooled children are sitting at their tidy desks, in their neat school clothes, diligently hammering at the books, while begging for more challenging work. Let’s face it: sometimes the truth is not quite so pretty, making it easy to lose sight of our goals.
I hope you don’t mind that I’m emailing you directly, but I wanted to reach out to you, as head of Seton, to tell you a little bit about my own experiences with the program, and what I am up to now.
In homeschooling, aim at a certain academic excellence. I claim that is the bonus that is always thrown in. If you seek first to defer harm, if secondly you permeate the situation with a Catholic atmosphere, the easiest part is the academic subjects.
My name is Katie Heenan Dodson and I am a proud graduate of Seton Home Study School. I am also a former gymnast and considered to be very accomplished, but accomplishments do not just happen. Of course, hard work, dedication, perseverance, patience, and a lot of other attributes are necessary, but a support system is also important. I can honestly say that without Seton Home Study, I would not have made it as far as an athlete.
We sometimes receive calls asking “Why should I study Algebra? I’ll never use it again,” or “Why should I study literature? There’s nothing practical in it,” or “Why should I study Latin? It’s a dead language,” and we recently had a new one, “Why should I study diagramming? My mom and dad never had to.”
The home schooling apostolate is a truly counter cultural movement, a contradiction to the current self-obsessed culture. The home schooling apostolate is evidence of an attitude of service to others most in need of our leadership, our love, our spiritual help, our teaching. | <urn:uuid:fe0d766a-fe4c-4a11-8aa3-255b38ea98b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.setonhome.org/tag/why/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977721 | 854 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Just Released: The Emergence of the New Anarchism
history of anarchism |
Monday May 11, 2009 00:35 by Robert Graham
Volume Two of Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas
Volume Two of Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas, subtitled The Emergence of the New Anarchism (1939-1977), has just been published by Black Rose Books (www.blackrosebooks.net). Edited and annotated by Robert Graham, with an introduction by Davide Turcato, The Emergence of the New Anarchism documents the remarkable resurgence in anarchist ideas and action following the 1939 defeat of the anarchists in the Spanish Revolution and Civil War. Topics include war resistance and anti-militarism, post-war anti-colonialism, national liberation movements, art, freedom and the utopian imagination, creating a counter-culture, anarchy and ecology, anarchist feminism, sexual revolution, gay liberation, science and technology, technobureaucracy and the emergence of the new class, the manufacture of consent to authoritarian institutions and policies, libertarian education, and the forms of freedom anarchists have proposed and put into practice. Contributors include Noam Chomsky, Daniel Guerin, Emma Goldman, Alex Comfort, Marie Louise Berneri, Paul Goodman, Murray Bookchin, Peggy Kornegger, Colin Ward, Paul Feyerabend, Carol Ehrlich, Ivan Illich and many others. There is material not only from Europe and North America, but also from India, Korea, Algeria, Australia and Latin America, much of it translated into English for the first time. Further information is available at Graham's weblog: www.robertgraham.wordpress.com.
This is the second volume of what is now projected to be a three volume anthology of anarchist writings from ancient China to the present day. Volume 1, subtitled From Anarchy to Anarchism (300CE-1939), begins with a Chinese Daoist text, “Neither Lord Nor Subject,” from around 300 CE, and concludes with the positive accomplishments and defeat of the Spanish anarchists in the Spanish Revolution and Civil War (1936-1939). That defeat has sometimes been portrayed as the end of anarchism both as a living body of thought and as a movement. What I hope to show in this second volume, which covers the period roughly from 1939 to 1977, is the falsity of such a portrayal. Even before the remarkable resurgence of anarchistic movements and ideas during the 1960s, anarchism had begun to move in new and exciting directions, albeit without the mass base of support it had enjoyed previously in such varied places and times as France during its revolutionary upheavals in 1789, 1848 and 1871, in the development of revolutionary working class movements in Europe and Latin America, in liberation movements in Japan, Korea and China, and in the Russian Revolution and civil war, particularly in Ukraine.
When the Second World War began in 1939, the world’s various anarchist movements were in eclipse, suppressed by Fascist, Communist, military and other government forces (Selections 2, 3 & 5). Even in those countries where a modicum of freedom of expression was tolerated, wartime censorship and persecution of anarchists for their anti-militarist activities made it difficult for anarchists to communicate and to organize. Nevertheless, anarchists in England and North America were able to continue publishing, and in the process began a transformation in anarchist ideas that has continued to the present day. In England, people like Herbert Read (Selections 1, 19 & 36), Marie Louise Berneri (Selections 4, 15 & 75), Alex Comfort (Selections 12 & 20), Ethel Mannin (Selection 14), and George Woodcock (Selection 69) wrote not only on more typical anarchist themes such as anti-militarism, war resistance, the State and revolution, but also about spontaneity, creativity, art, freedom of expression, technology, sexuality, utopia and personal liberation, themes that were again to come to the fore in the 1960s. In North America, Paul Goodman (Selections 17 & 37) and Dwight Macdonald (Selection 13) pursued similar lines of enquiry, arguing against hierarchical organization, mass society, consumer culture and technological domination. In Israel, Martin Buber, Gustav Landauer’s friend and literary executor, sought to revive the “utopian” tradition in socialist thought exemplified by Landauer, Fourier, Proudhon and Kropotkin (Selection 16).
In Europe anarchists opposed both Fascism and Stalinist Communism, with predictable results. Many perished in concentration camps, others were imprisoned or died fighting in France, Italy, Spain and later in Eastern Europe, particularly in Bulgaria (Selection 7). As the Second World War came to a close, the anarchists sought to regroup but were relatively isolated as a result of their refusal to support either post-war imperialist power bloc, following Marie Louise Berneri’s dictum, “Neither East Nor West!” (Selections 6, 8 & 10). In Asia, the pre-war anarchist movements in Japan, China and Korea (Selection 9) never really recovered, but in India Gandhi’s movement for nonviolent revolution was continued by people like Vinoba Bhave and Jayaprakash Narayan (Selection 32), who advocated decentralized, relatively self-sufficient, egalitarian village communities based on human-scale technology, a vision similar to the communitarian anarchism of Kropotkin, Landauer, the “pure anarchists” of pre-war Japan and post-war anarchists like Paul Goodman.
Anarchism enjoyed a resurgence in the arts, with surrealists such as André Breton (Selection 23) and the Automatistes in Quebec (Selection 22) coming out in favour of “resplendent anarchy.” In New York, Julian Beck, Judith Malina and the Living Theatre (Selection 24) pioneered new approaches to performance art, seeking to break down the barriers between artist, performer and audience in a manner consonant with anarchist ideals. Anarchists emphasized the need and value of living anarchistically in an authoritarian world, giving rise to communalist experiments and projects that sought to transform both the individual participants and the larger societies in which they lived. A decade before small-scale communes became popular among disaffected youth in the 1960s, David Dellinger (Selection 40) was writing about them in the anarchist paper, Resistance, edited by David Thoreau Wieck, which sought to expand the various spheres of freedom in existing society as part of a broader project of social transformation (Selection 39).
These new developments in anarchist theory and practice were not welcomed by all anarchists. Some anarchists, such as the Impulso group in Italy, continued to look to the working class as the agent of revolutionary change and denounced anarchist advocates of personal liberation and cultural change as “pseudo-revolutionaries” (Selection 38). Whether advocates of revolutionary class struggle or more piecemeal social change, anarchists opposed post-war European colonialism (Selections 28, 29 & 31) and sought to turn opposition to war, conscription and nuclear weapons into opposition to capitalism and the nation-state through direct action and mass disobedience (Selections 30, 31, 33 & 34). Echoing Bakunin’s critique a century earlier, Alex Comfort exposed the relationship between authoritarian power structures and criminality (Selection 26) and Geoffrey Ostergaard discussed the rise to power of the middle class intellectuals through the process of “managerial revolution” (Selection 27). This critique of the “new class” and their role in the rise of the “techno-bureaucracy” was to be considerably expanded in the subsequent analyses of Louis Mercier Vega (Selection 66), Nico Berti (Selection 67) and Noam Chomsky (Selection 68).
Herbert Read continued to advocate libertarian education through art (Selection 36), and Holley Cantine discussed the perversion of art and play in capitalist societies (Selection 21). The anarchist architect, Giancarlo de Carlo, emphasized the necessary role of the people themselves in rebuilding and designing their communities, and the uses of such direct action tactics as squatting and rent strikes in obtaining affordable housing (Selection 18).
To the surprise of many, including some anarchists, these various currents in anarchist thought resurfaced in the 1960s, when various movements, from the anti-war movements, to the student movements, the nascent ecology movement and movements for sexual, female, black and gay liberation, began to coalesce into new, broad based movements for social change that challenged the very basis of contemporary society. Murray Bookchin, drawing on the work of Herbert Read, argued for the necessary connection between anarchy and ecology (Selection 48). The Provos in Holland challenged the complacency, consumerism and regimentation of modern society using creative forms of direct action, such as placing free white bicycles around Amsterdam to undermine automobile culture (Selection 50). Daniel Guérin (Selection 49), Jacobo Prince (Selection 52), Diego Abad de Santillan (Selection 53), Nicolas Walter (Selection 54) and Noam Chomsky (Selection 55) brought to the attention of a new generation the positive accomplishments and living legacy of the historic anarchist movement. Some members of that new generation, such as the Cohn-Bendit brothers in France, translated these ideas into action during the May-June 1968 events in France, when a series of student strikes and workplace occupations almost brought down the government (Selection 51).
The May-June 1968 events in France revived interest in workers’ self-management, or “autogestion,” which Guérin traced back to Proudhon (Selection 49), and which various anarchists, particularly anarcho-syndicalists, had continued to advocate, some favouring factory councils or committees (Selection 59), others a combination of industrial, trade union, communal and regional organization (Selections 58, 60 & 61). Both Murray Bookchin (Selection 62) and Colin Ward (Selection 63) have sought to go beyond these “forms of freedom,” to embrace more expansive concepts of nonhierarchical community in which each person, regardless of his or her specific role (or lack thereof) in the production process, exercises effective control over his or her daily life.
The role of the state in the rise of hierarchical society and in the decline of communal self-regulation and mutual aid are considered by the anthropologist, Pierre Clastres (Selection 64), and by Michael Taylor (Selection 65). George Benello describes the “wasteland culture” that arises from our technological and organizational imperatives (Selection 44). George Woodcock discusses the role of the technology of time-keeping in the regimentation of society (Selection 69), and Paul Feyerabend launches a whole-scale attack on scientific reason and the hegemony of science in modern societies (Selection 71). Paul Goodman (Selection 70) and Ivan Illich (Selection 73) develop some criteria for evaluating technology, and Murray Bookchin sets forth his concept of “eco-technology,” or “libertarian technics,” in the context of his vision of an ecological society (Selection 74).
Volume 2 ends with a chapter on sexual and social revolution, beginning with Marie Louise Berneri’s early analysis of Wilhelm Reich (Selection 75), whose ideas were extended by Daniel Guérin in his writings on gay liberation (Selection 76). Guérin sees social and sexual liberation as necessary to each other and as part of a broader process of liberatory social transformation. Paul Goodman discusses the “politics of being queer” (Selection 77), while Penny Kornegger (Selection 78) and Carol Ehrlich (Selection 79) connect the anarchist critique of domination to feminist critiques of male domination and heterosexuality.
Each chapter ends with a brief note relating the material in Volume 2 to the material that will be included in Volume 3 of this anthology, which will cover the period from 1974 to the present day.
Although I have striven to include in this anthology material going beyond the standard scope of other anthologies of anarchist writings, my focus has been on the origin and development of anarchist ideas. This anthology was never intended to be a documentary history of the various anarchist movements around the world, an altogether different and gargantuan project. Anarchists have participated in and written about many events that are not specifically addressed in this anthology, but I hope that the ideas conveyed in the selections that I have included also convey the richness and diversity of anarchist thought, and suggest how anarchists would respond to any number of topics and issues.
Since the publication of Volume 1 in 2005, I have set up a web blog to provide additional commentary and selections that have not been included in the published volumes: www.robertgraham.wordpress.com. Readers are invited to contact me there with any comments or suggestions that they may have. | <urn:uuid:dd899ec6-e708-4eb8-aee0-4a86cc22247b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://anarkismo.net/article/13033?userlanguage=ca&save_prefs=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930376 | 2,697 | 1.507813 | 2 |
On this day in 1998, the cable network HBO airs the pilot episode of Sex and the City, a new comedy series chronicling the lives and loves of four single women living in New York City.
The show’s creator, Darren Star, was best known at the time for producing the long-running Fox TV series Beverly Hills, 90210, and its spin-off, Melrose Place. For Sex and the City, Star switched coasts, loosely adapting a book by the same name by Candace Bushnell, compiled from a number of her columns for The New York Observer. In the pilot, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), who authors a similar newspaper column for the fictional New York City Star, and her three friends--Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon)--discuss the issue of whether women are capable of having sex like men. Carrie also has an embarrassing first run-in with Mr. Big (Chris Noth), with whom she will begin a tumultuous relationship that will last the length of the series.
Sex and the City didn’t really break out with fans until the second season, when the format of the show changed a bit: Carrie stopped addressing the camera directly, and simply provided a voice-over narration, and the man-on-the-street-type testimonials by different characters were largely omitted. The main premise--that each episode provides fodder for one of Carrie’s columns, each of which features a different question about sex, love and relationships--remained constant throughout the show, as did the unusually frank discussion and portrayal of sex that became the show’s hallmark.
At the Emmy Awards, Sex and the City was nominated in the category of Outstanding Comedy Series in each of its six seasons; it won the award in 2001. In 2004, Parker collected an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, while Cynthia Nixon triumphed in the supporting category. To win, Nixon beat out co-stars Davis and Cattrall, who had been nominated in five out of the six seasons of the show’s run. Cattrall and Parker both took home Golden Globe Awards for their performances as well, and the show received three Globes for Best TV Series - Musical or Comedy.
As soon as the series wrapped up in 2004, buzz began about a possible big-screen adaptation. Though the project stalled due to questions over money and Cattrall’s reported reluctance to sign on to the project, the plans finally came to fruition in late May 2008, when Sex and the City: The Movie was released to mixed reviews but great box-office success, including a $55.7 million opening weekend haul. As with the series, Parker served as an executive producer for the movie, which was written and directed by Michael Patrick King. | <urn:uuid:ad9bfd53-5622-44ee-8c73-cbd62ed20ec4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sex-and-the-city-premieres-on-hbo | 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 | 0.962365 | 590 | 1.578125 | 2 |
|Also known as||
Driver of the Knight Bus
Ernie “Ern" Prang was the driver of the Knight Bus.
Harry Potter first encountered Prang in 1993, when he was picked up by the Knight Bus after leaving his Aunt and Uncle's house. Stan Shunpike, the conductor of the Knight Bus, sometimes calls Ernie by his nickname: Ern. When Harry was taken to the Leaky Cauldron Ernie followed him in and was forced to leave by Cornelius Fudge, the then-Minister of Magic.
Prang is described as an elderly wizard with very thick glasses giving him an "owlish" appearance. Ernie doesn't talk much (leaving that to Stan Shunpike, preferring to concentrate on his driving). His driving skills leave much to be desired as he frequently drives off the road and objects must jump out of his way (post boxes, lamp posts, trees, etc).
The name Ernie also belonged to one of J. K. Rowling's grandfathers, with the other one being named Stanley, which was the name given to Ernie's assistant Stanley Shunpike. His last name is a play on words, as "prang" is English slang meaning "to wreck an automobile".
Behind the scenes
- In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Ernie is played by the late Jimmy Gardner.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
- LEGO Harry Potter: Characters of the Magical World
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (Consoles and Windows versions)
- Harry Potter LEGO Sets | <urn:uuid:fc6141e1-63d0-416d-8f63-05b77e7a0975> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Ernie_Prang?oldid=749856 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947933 | 404 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Although we do not have a primary in the race for 6th District alder, there is a state-wide primary for the State Supreme Court and a local primary for Madison School District Seat 5. I firmly believe that it is important to exercise our right to vote and encourage you to do so on Tuesday. Primary elections have generally low voter turnout. If you have moved into the district since the Presidential Election, it may be easier and faster to register or make changes to your registration (e.g. name change) at the primary election when lines are shorter.
I’ve volunteered my time for many years as an election official for the City of Madison and enjoy watching the process in action. While state government recently has tried to make voting more difficult, the courts have held up the most onerous change requiring voter ID. That is not to say you should not be prepared when voting in your ward for the first time. It is too late to pre-register for the Primary Election, but you still are able to register at your polling location. To pre-register for the April 2nd General Election, see the City Clerk’s website on pre-registration. They also have information on what you need to register at the polls.
There are five different wards represented by the 6th aldermanic district. Each ward votes at a different polling location. They following wards and polling locations are in the 6th district. If you are unsure about which ward you are in, you can look that up on-line at the City Clerk’s website.
City of Madison Wards/Polling Location (With Link to Map):
- Ward 39 – Hawthorn Branch Library, 2707 E Washington Avenue
- Ward 40 – Olbrich Gardens, 3330 Atwood Avenue
- Ward 41 – O’Keeffe Middle School, 510 S Thornton Avenue
- Ward 42 – Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center, 953 Jenifer Street
- Ward 43 – Madison Municipal Building, 215 Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard
Please exercise your right to vote! Remember to vote for Scott Thornton for Madison City Council on April 2nd!
Registering to Vote on Election Day (From the City Clerk’s Website):
When you register to vote, you must certify that you have resided at that address for 28 days with no intent to move.
Wisconsin allows voters to register at the polls on Election Day, with one of the following acceptable forms of proof of residence:
- A current and valid Wisconsin driver’s license or Wisconsin identification card.
- Any other official identification card or license issued by a Wisconsin governmental body or unit
- An identification card issued by an employer in the normal course of business, which has a photograph of the cardholder, but not a business card.
- A real estate tax bill or receipt for the current year or the year preceding the date of the election.
- A current residential lease.
- A UW-Madison or Edgewood College ID card with a photograph of the cardholder, if student is listed on certified housing list.
- A utility bill for the period commencing not earlier than 90 days before the election.
- A bank statement.
- A paycheck.
- A check or other document issued by a unit of government. | <urn:uuid:73dcd1ca-653f-4293-8866-ea64b9412e52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thornton6.com/?p=302 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941782 | 675 | 1.546875 | 2 |
In The Spotlight
During the months of April and May, students and staff at the ELC have been promoting Autism awareness and asking for support for Autism Speaks. Autism Speaks is an organization that provides information about Autism and resources for families while funding research for the cure of autism. Students, staff and parents participated in an Autism Walk around Heritage Park on May 16, 2013. We started the walk with a balloon release and walked around Heritage Park. Some ELC staff and families will be walking for Autism Speaks in Chicago on May 18, 2013. Team ELC will be recognized for raising over $1000. Thank you to everyone that made a donation to support Team ELC and Autism Speaks. | <urn:uuid:7dfd7372-fabe-4cf3-b8df-a2820f652165> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cm201u.org/index.aspx?NID=3479 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963493 | 141 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Sudha is the only Indian vocalist to have participated in the Global Vocal Meeting organized by the 'BURGHOF' an Academy of Music and Arts at Lorrach, Germany and produced by STIMMEN VOICES INTERNATIONAL VOCAL FESTIVAL. This group has toured some of the best halls in the USA -Cleveland , Tuscon in Arizona, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Sudha participated in the Stimmen Festival, Lorrach in 2001 and presented a two hour Carnatic vocal recital. This concert was a part of the month long celebration of World Music and critics raved that Sudha took the audience into a trance - a divine one.
Le rythme de la parole…..The rhythm of speech 2005
A Persian, Indian and Malian world harmonized within an over-arching structural concept, which permits everyone to express themselves according to the rules and discipline of their own artistic tradition. As ever, the rhythm of speech has been drummed out through the fingertips and the hollow of the hand as new encounters, combinations and ways of accompanying have been explored in the course of numerous experimental sessions, concerts and discussions, culminating in the studio event of July 2005! And brought to life at l’Abbaye de Royaumont.
As the project got underway at Royaumont, the musicians worked with linguists. Kevyan Chemirani took, as the starting point, the metrical essence of each language in order to fit it to the singers’ breathing patterns. Rhythmical structures were revealed as motifs, tools, permitting easy passage from one musical culture to another. Basing itself on Indian and Persian verse, the work proceeded to a more complex stage in which Sudha Ragunathan searched for common modes of expression….modes not too far removed from each other, whether they are Carnatic, Persian or Malian! | <urn:uuid:380bac1a-cd5c-4520-b2b0-9fb6f5935879> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sudharagunathan.com/travelogue2.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933153 | 386 | 1.65625 | 2 |
I believe that forgiveness cleans your heart and clears your mind. Its best to forgive and move on being bitter only
hurts you. Learn from the experience and
look for the warning signs to prevent it
from happening again.
You know that the Dante reserved the ninth and lowest level of he11 for betrayers, yes? I believe that if folks'd betray your trust once, they'd do it again. You can forgive him if it makes you feel better - but trustin' him again is a whole 'nother ball of wax. Integrity is everything.
kewannap write: Oh, I could forgive, but I couldn't forget.
What's the point of forgiving if you cannot forget?
I would guess the reason would be thats its good for the soul. To carry around such things as anger or resentment is not good. You should give it a try..I bet you'll sleep much better at night.
You can forgive someone, but that does not mean that you give them a chance to do it to you again. If you believe that you cannot trust them anymore, then forgive them and move on. Don't take the bad feelings with you.
This is a tough question. There are many kinds and intents of betrayal and also many levels of forgiveness. If you are speaking about a friend who betrays you romantically then it may be a good thing that it happened sooner rather than later. Also a "friend" may, either consiously or unconsiously, have the best of intents in mind. As I said, there are many levels and kinds so it might be best to first think about the depth of the situation and then evaluate what your options and their consequences might be.
I can forgive anyone, what I really admire is when people make mistakes and own up to it accepting responsibility. We are all human, no one on this earth has not been w/o doing something that hurt someones feelings or heart. It is the ones that get their kicks from it I question. If someone done something w/o realizing the hurt they cause then they must have it brought to their attention so they don't do this someone else who may not be as understanding. I tend to evaluate people sometimes and find out the motive behind their deceit. Then there are just plain triflin people out there with no clue of what it is to be human!!!!!
If it was intentional NO WAY!!!!!If they KNEW what it was they were doing. NO WAY!!! Well I guess its good to forgive for YOUR soul but say TATA LOSER and take what happened as something you needed to learn so if it was to happen again you will know what to look for BEFORE it happens. And always know YOUR BETTER than them and you know your life is stressful enough and do not need that CRAPOLA in your life. Goodluck and remember YOU and only YOU know whats best for your life. BB Jeanie
I am ang?lique, 27, french, and looking for friends over the world. Hope we can start talking soon.
To answer your question, it depends, i guess, on the betrayal, and on the friend too. Sometimes, people want to forgive but cannot. Sometimes, the betrayal is not worth spoiling a long-termed friendhip.
i don't know if that helps, we can about it with pleasure though...
In my opinion, it doesn't matter what he did to you. He's the one who is going to have to live with his decisions and actions. Dont give anyone the satisfaction of taking away your joy by filling you with bitterness and hateful, hurtful, unforgiving feelings. Remember, 70 X 7, is how many times we are to forgive. Doesn't mean we will always forget, and is good to learn from these times. Do your part and purge yourself of that ugliness. You'll be better off for it.
Once the trust is broken, it is virtually impossible to move on. There will always be the question in your mind if he/she will do it again. This is why the trust between two people should be protected and guarded because it is a very precious part of a relationship.
Well I guess that depends on how he did it?? Little hard to give accurate advice if.. We don't understand the circumstances a little bit.. Ya don't have to go into detail..Just a idea of what happened..Sorry to hear by the way.. Hope it wasn't to bad what he did.. | <urn:uuid:c2052e34-7323-4a51-aeb7-e9363c650d57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.largefriends.com/forum?topic_id=100015388&from_page=default&count=18&owner_id=23009444 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975661 | 921 | 1.5 | 2 |
Only a referendum can preserve Israel´s social contract (ISRAEL INSIDER COMMENTARY) By Dr. Aaron Lerner 01/27/05)
ISRAEL INSIDER Articles-Index-Top
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon brought his Likud party a landslide
victory in an election campaign that focused on one issue --
unilateral withdrawal. Sharon explicitly and emphatically campaigned
against unilateral withdrawal.
Retreat supporters can roll their eyes and repeat a thousand times
that Sharon´s "painful concession for peace" actually
meant "unilateral withdrawal" -- but it was a lie the first time they
made the assertion and it is a lie today - no matter which Likud MK
or minister repeats it.
The hundreds of thousands of citizens who voted Likud because Sharon
ridiculed his rival´s proposal for unilateral withdrawal weren´t
idiots who misunderstood. They were betrayed.
And again -- let´s make this clear: the idea of holding a national
referendum on such a critical and momentous move as the uprooting of
thousands of Israelis from their communities and retreating to allow
for the formation of some kind of sovereign Palestinian entity within
arms reach of scores of communities and strategic targets is neither
new or novel.
Over a decade ago Yitzhak Rabin endorsed the national referendum
concept when he committed to having a plebiscite on any withdrawal
from the Golan
and the prime ministers who followed him repeated that commitment.
Rabin´s national referendum proposal was embraced by many of the same
politicians who today claim that a plebiscite is out of the question.
Retreat supporter can threaten a thousand times that if a national
referendum is held on the "disengagement" that it would open the
floodgates for referenda on various controversial proposals that
enjoy the support of the majority of Israelis but could never make it
through the give and take dynamics of the parliamentary system. But
these retreat supporters know damn well that a plebiscite could only
be held for a proposal that already was approved by the Knesset.
A national referendum on disengagement would not bypass the Knesset.
It would simply serve to assure, after the Knesset has endorsed such
a momentous and irreversible program, that the will of the People
regarding the program is truly honored.
But what about the polls? The "will of the People" isn´t expressed by
a random sample of 510 adult Israelis hurriedly answering a pollster
while the TV is blasting and the kids are asking for dinner. It is
citizens going to the polling stations at the culmination of a great
Israel had just such a great national debate on unilateral withdrawal
in the 2003 elections and roundly rejected the disengagement
Denying the People the opportunity to express its will today would
represent such a gross and cynical betrayal of the social compact
that binds us together that I shudder to think of the consequences.
(© 2001-2005 Koret Communications Ltd. 01/27/05)
Return to Top
MATERIAL REPRODUCED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY | <urn:uuid:d85f55e9-83fb-474b-b84a-cb04770453f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unitedjerusalem.org/index2.asp?id=547471&Date=2/2/2005 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933328 | 664 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Interview 1 | Interview 2 | Interview 3 | Interview 4 | Interview 5
Harvan: As you know, I've done very little work in color during my career in photography. I concentrated mostly on black and white. I did that because I was able to control all of the facets of it. I regularly got the film that I wanted, I could process the negatives, make the prints, and I could manipulate the prints any way I wanted to. Also, if I wanted to make them darker or lighter, or bring out certain highlights, I was able to do it. For that reason, I concentrated on the black and white. I stayed away from color because I felt I always had a lot more to say making black and white photos. Even to this day, I feel there are avenues that I could still pursue in working within black and white. A number of years ago, a friend, Henry Jones, from Bethlehem, gave me this SX-70 camera, a Polaroid camera that kind of spits out exposed film from out front. It takes a 2˝ x 2˝ picture. The film is called Time Zero and it has a plastic coating on the front and back. The emulsion is trapped between these two coatings. I read at one time that you can move this emulsion around with a sharpened stick or some other pointed object, and as long as you didn't rip the plastic, you can move it around, and change the image.
Dublin: Are you continuing to do a little more traveling and shooting in that medium?
Harvan: Yes. They work very well with buildings, certain types of buildings. I had traveled to different areas of the state when I was able. Places like the Hopewell Village, near Boyertown. And the Daniel Boone Homestead, and Jim Thorpe, with its mansions, or the old buildings in Wilkes-Barre. These are just a few of the places that I have photographed. At the outset I thought I could move around the eastern part of Pennsylvania and put images of these places on polaroid film. I knew they would be kind of unique. Eventually, I'll donate them to the Canal Museum, in Easton.
Dublin: That's an additional chapter in your work.
Harvan: It's kind of a fun thing, because you don't need a darkroom, just a few sharpened sticks. You take the picture, sit down, look at it and determine how you want to work on it. You can obliterate and use your imagination. Maybe there's a telephone pole or some power lines in the photo when you took it, something you had no control of. But now you could block them out. By moving the emulsion around, you could more or less take out objectionable objects. It does give you some freedom and a little more control. Almost like a painter has. He starts with a blank canvas and puts down whatever he wants to. Sometimes in photography, when we're taking a certain subject, you'll notice something that should not be there, but there's nothing you could do about it. You've got to include it, either that, or try to come in a bit closer, but at times this is not possible. But with this process, you could take out a lot of these objects that you don't feel should be in the picture. But the best part is that you change the photographic image to make a more painterly rendition.
Dublin: Do you ever feel like you'd like to work with a program like Adobe Photoshop or printshop, because it sounds like, that in the computer, digitized world, one can also manipulate a photo in a way that the old darkroom techniques don't allow.
Harvan: No, but I'm sure you can do that with Photoshop. It's a little late, I think, for me to get into that. There's still a lot I want to do with black and white in the conventional way. There's a lot I can learn in the medium. But I agree, if I was just starting out or had more time, I would definitely get into it. I don't approve of what some are doing with the digitized images. I don't think putting a man's head on a horse is the way to go. But I realize that there are uses for the modern technology and the digital way of doing things.
Dublin: It's one thing as art. It's interesting that the contradictions that it entails as a documentary record, because people can actually manipulate and doctor the records to make it appear as if a person was at a scene and a location when he wasn't. Or to take the person out. I mean, as the Russians used to take out political leaders when they went into disfavor at a certain point. So as a photographer can do something like that, which is problematic.
Harvan: In documentary photography though, you have to be very careful of what you take out. A photograph might include a row of buildings, with service poles, and wires connected to them. Someone might decide, "The picture's going to look a lot better if the poles and the lines were taken out. It's going to look nicer, cleaner." But, it's not going to tell the truth because not only is the building historic, but the poles that hold the wires are part of the actual scene. If taken out, it would falsify the record. I feel they should be left in.
Dublin: It's very confusing to the historian who wants to date a photo. All of the sudden, suppose you know that telephone poles were put in at a certain date. So you say this has to be before, let's say, 1895. On the other hand, it may be that some of the buildings on the street were only built after 1895, and yet, the buildings seem to be there, but the telephone poles don't. So, all of the sudden, it becomes a little too much a work of art and not enough a work of documentary photography. That, then, throws people off.
Harvan: That's why I said you have to be very careful with this new technology, that we don't go too far with it as far as changing the actual scene. I could understand where a rare photograph is torn or there's a big mark on it, someone should decide whether it is proper to take the mark out and restore it to its original form. In a way, you are altering that particular photograph, but maybe it would reveal more if it were restored, especially if the defect was occurring on a person's face or of that nature. I have noticed a lot of photographs of President Lincoln that good museums will not touch. If dirt marks or other blemishes are on the print they just let them on, they don't retouch. They just show them the way they are, and they have a point.
Dublin: This leads in very nicely, for some final reflections on your part, about what you tried to do in your career as a photographer. Maybe a little bit also how photography has changed in the years that you've been doing it. Do you have thoughts you want to reflect on? We've been doing your career in chunks, each of the interviews. But now maybe a bit a of an overview of your own.
I think the greatest accomplishment that I think I could think of is that
I was able to stay with photography for practically my whole adult life.
A lot of people get into certain things, and after a few years they try
something else. They branch into other fields. For some reason, I was
able to stay into photography and a certain type of photography. I'm really
not a maker of photographs, I'm more or less of a taker of photographs.
I have to see a certain type of situation, and be part of it. When I go
into a mine, for instance, I will never tell a miner to do something because
it's going to look better, or "Look this way, you're going to look better."
I would rather take him the way he is and what he is doing and let the
chips fall where they may. If it's a good photograph, fine. If it's not,
at least it's real. So that's why I think I'm a taker of photographs.
Many photographers set up different situations, and they're good at it.
They can manipulate lighting, manipulate subjects, and come out with very
good results. I can't do that. I have to work the other way. I think that's
what I've been able to do through the years. I do still-lifes every now
and then, I might set up some objects, mostly as an exercise in creativity.
But for my documentary photography, I would never alter it in any way.
As for the remaining years I have, I would just like to continue taking
pictures as long as I can.
Dublin: What do you do if you're using a 4x5 negative holder and negative, what do you do to block it so the light only hits the negative in a circular portion of that negative?
Harvan: All lenses give you a circular image. Camera manufacturers alter the above. They cut off a certain amount of the image, to suit their format. All images are round since the lens is circular. What designers do is if they want a square image, you have a square format, or they give you an oblong format, but in all cases you are missing part of the image from the top and bottom and from the sides. However, I am using the entire image just as the lens sees it. Nothing's cut off. Almost all the image, there's very little I'm missing with the round image. I think just that alone gives you kind of like a peephole effect. It's something that might attract your attention a little more than if I used a 47 millimeter that covered the entire 4x5 format. This is what the circular image is all about. I also am going to start printing my pinhole negatives, which I have been making for the last year or so. This is a very unique way of making photographs. I have collected about fifty negatives up to now, which I'll start to print whenever I can. I'd like to mount them eventually and have an exhibit of these unusual photographs.
Dublin: And this is through a pinhole camera that you've made?
Harvan: Yes, I have about six or seven different pinhole cameras, of various formats that I use. Some use photo paper as a negative base. These run up to 13" wide, 10"x13". Then I'll contact this paper negative onto a piece of paper. I'll expose right through the back of the negative onto a piece of sensitized paper. When you're in photography for a long period of time, you strive at times to get away from what you've already done. You don't want to duplicate what you've been able to do in the past. I have much better cameras now than I ever had. I have cameras I never dreamed I would own. Automatic Nikons, I have a 645 Pentax, with three lenses that 20, 30 years ago I would have given my eye teeth for. But, basically, they all give you the same type of picture that I was doing 20, 30 years ago. It's just your imagination that changes things. And sometimes, the instrument you use, like the pinhole or other cameras that I have made, that will change the way you see things. There are subjects that I take now using the circular image that don't work. Then you have to look for a subject that will work. I might go out for two or three hours and come back with two or three pictures only, but they will all be different, I never duplicate. I take one exposure and that's it.
Dublin: You think about a street scene. And it's extremely rectangular. The way we visualize and the way a city block is constructed, that might, for instance, not fit so well into a circular format. You would sort of lose some of the defining characteristics of that image.
Dublin: So, you end up seeing things differently, disciplining your work differently. There's no one picture that's a better picture than another. They serve different purposes or do different things. And you capture them in different ways.
Harvan: After a while, you want to go into different areas of photography, exploit other areas, where you have a better way of expressing yourself, or perhaps as you get older and you look at life a little differently and look beyond the obvious -- also try to get a little more of your feelings beneath the surface image. To make an image that is sharp and clear sometimes doesn't work. A soft image made with a pinhole, in which the depth of field is uniform but nothing is really sharp, can express your purpose a lot more. A subject can be 2 inches away, but all the surrounding area will still have the same degree of sharpness, but it will not be needle sharp, not like the image a good lens would give you.
Harvan: I think that's what it's all about. You're constantly striving to learn more and by using other instruments, it changes the way you think about different subjects. You can't take action shots, for instance, with a pinhole camera, because you're not going to get a satisfactory picture. So you have to choose a static subject, and you have to transform that static event into something that people look at and appreciate -- an image they could never visualize. If you can succeed to put that image onto a piece of paper and can look at it and wonder how that was made or what it is, then maybe you have accomplished something. I like to take an ordinary subject and transform it into something entirely different. Perhaps a new way of seeing a railroad engine or a railroad car. The pinhole image lets you do that in a kind of abstract way.
Dublin: There's an element of seeing things differently.
Harvan: Mysterious, in a way. I think that's what it is. A certain amount of mystery creeps into the image and that is what you try to show, something that you can't do conventionally. If you're working commercially, with a certain client, you can't do this. They would want to show their machinery to their best advantage, nice and clean and sharp. Then that's what you have to give them, but fortunately I don't have to do that (laughs).
Dublin: So you can express your understanding, or your vision of it, not someone else's vision.
Harvan: If I want to go overboard and let my imagination go, I can; it is all up to me. Documentary photography has to be made realistically. You just let your eye guide you to what you want to record. Not only your eye, but your own heart, how you feel about the subject. I think you have to understand your subject no matter what you photograph in order to make a successful image. I had to know the coal miners, for instance, not only when I was taking their pictures, but also when I listened to them, when they talked or kidded around with each other, constantly learning and taking it all in. I had to be part of them before I could photograph them properly.
Dublin: What you're expressing is not just what you see at that moment, but you're expressing all that you know about the world they are a part of, and their lives that lead up to that point when you document it.
Harvan: There was a lot of times when I wouldn't have the camera, and they'd be talking, and I would say to myself, "That's something I should be photographing now." But, you can't constantly keep using your camera. You've got to stop every now and then and sit back and just listen and observe. And then, put it in your memory bank, and perhaps exploit this memory later on should it come back to you and you could use it for vital elements of a photograph. It is like the memory you store when you take a picture inside of a coal mine. It's dark and cold, a couple of miners working at the breast, perhaps drilling. This is the image you make on the negative. Then you process the negative and print it; your memory that will tell you how the print should look, how it should be printed. This is how you saw it, and this is the way the print should look. That's why I believe a photographer should actually do his own printing. I can't visualize or imagine another person doing my printing. There is a lot of big name photographers, some like Cartier-Bresson, who never printed his own photographs. He always had someone make his prints and he's one of the most famous photographers in the world. It works for him but I couldn't do that. I could never give a printer enough information to print one of my negatives made inside a coal mine and have it look like the actual scene as I saw it, print the way I actually visualized and felt when I pressed the shutter.
Dublin: So your work as a photographer is not done when you snap the shot.
Harvan: Yes, and it's what you retain in your mind when you were taking the picture. There are certain aspects that you will think about when you are printing. You remember to inject a feeling on paper because this is the way it looked and felt to you. For instance, you take a picture on a foggy day; you could manipulate it so that it can almost look like it was made on a bright day. But, you don't want to do that. If it's a foggy day, that's the way you remember it and you want to print it as such, soft, with all the ingredients of fog and mist.
Dublin: There's obviously this wonderful fit between the choice you made coming back from the service in 1947 and the world that that's opened up to you and the way that you can continue now a little bit more than 50 years later to reflect on what that has made possible for you, and the growth and the continuing change. You probably wouldn't have imagined when you came back that you would have been able to do this life, this way.
Dublin: It's really changing so much, or it has so much potential for change in all this.
Harvan: Sure. We say it's one hundred fifty years old. I've been in it for 50, one-third of the time it has been in existence. That gives you an idea of how new it is.
Dublin: So you're a part of that art form. | <urn:uuid:18eccbc7-f700-48d7-a8e5-6bb24fe053c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol3/harvan/interview/harv5.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982061 | 3,890 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Martha Arndt had no idea whether she would be booed or simply given a stone-cold reception when she decided to march with the group Mormons Building Bridges in the June 2012 Pride Parade. The former LDS Primary president and Relief Society counselor was nervous as she dressed in her Sunday best, grabbed her scripture bag and headed out with a friend to drive from Logan to Salt Lake City.
Arndt is not your average “don’t make waves” Mormon. For example, she doesn’t fall in line with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ opposition to same-sex marriage. “I’d like to see the church recognize gay marriage as being a legitimate marriage,” she says. “But I would also like to see [LGBT people] take it to the point of obeying the LDS law of chastity, where the policy of no sex before marriage would apply to gay relationships, as well.”
Arndt likens her desire to see her church accept same-sex marriage to that of wanting an employer to change its policy on an issue. You may not be completely happy with either your church or your boss, but “you do a cost-benefit analysis and decide that the benefits are greater than the deficits.” She’d like to see politics removed from marriage, and for all nations to allow “any two mentally capable adults who were not coerced” to marry. She sees the church as taking “small steps” but acknowledges “allowing gay people to be sealed in the temple might be a bigger step than many Mormons could accept right now.”
Arndt has no relatives or friends who are openly gay. But, as an active Mormon, she wants LGBT folks to know that LDS Church members support them. “They don’t need to conform in order for us to love and accept them,” she says.
But while many in the LGBT community say such love and acceptance are long overdue, some wonder if it can be enough. The LDS Church’s doctrinal position is clear. An official statement on the church’s website reads: “Any sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong, and we define marriage as between a man and a woman.”
Such an unflinching position can strain family relationships. A May 22, 2012, article in LDS Living Magazine (which is a division of Deseret Book but is not an official church publication) titled “Relating to Your Son or Daughter Experiencing Same-gender Attraction: Advice to Parents” by M. Catherine Thomas illustrates the mental torment some Mormon parents live with. “At some point, parents are faced with situations in which they wonder what boundary lines might be appropriate because their love for their child versus their sense of right and wrong can create conflict in their minds. Such situations might include whether to attend a marriage or commitment ceremony, or what role a potential partner might play within the family.”
Thomas’ article refers to a 2006 interview with Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, and Elder Lance B. Wickman, a member of the Seventy. In the interview, transcribed on MormonNewsroom.org, Oaks was asked if parents should allow LGBT children to bring their partners home for the holidays. “I can imagine that in most circumstances the parents would say, ‘Please don’t do that. Don’t put us into that position,’ ” Oaks said. “Surely if there are children in the home who would be influenced by this example, the answer would likely be that.”
Oaks went on to say, “I can also imagine some circumstances in which it might be possible to say, ‘Yes, come, but don’t expect to stay overnight. Don’t expect to be a lengthy houseguest. Don’t expect us to take you out and introduce you to our friends, or to deal with you in a public situation that would imply our approval of your ‘partnership.’ ”
The church says it’s OK for its members to experience same-sex attractions as long as the feelings are not acted upon. Thus, you can be openly gay and a temple-endowed Mormon—just don’t plan on getting married or having sex with a same-sex partner the rest of your earthly life.
Oaks compared the prospect of being gay and unable to marry with that of being physically disabled: “The circumstance of being currently unable to marry, while tragic, is not unique. … life is full of physical infirmities that some might see as discriminations—total paralysis or serious mental impairment being two that are relevant to marriage,” he said.
It’s not just the church elders imposing their views on same-sex marriage. Church members themselves consider homosexuality socially unacceptable. According to a fall 2011 Pew Research Center, only 25 percent of Mormons surveyed said homosexuality should be accepted by society while 65 percent believed it should be discouraged.
So, what can a group of dressed-up-for-Sunday Mormons marching in a Pride Parade really hope to accomplish? It could amount to a complete disconnect if they raise the hopes and expectations of disfellowshipped LDS members, lulling them into thinking that the church will one day soon alter its position on homosexuality. And yet, judging by the outpouring of Utah Pride tears and embraces, the mild-mannered dissent/show of support expressed by the 300-strong Mormons Building Bridges group marching the parade’s six blocks in downtown Salt Lake City turned out to be a striking statement.
“Mom, I Really Can’t Do This”
When Erika Munson formulated her idea for Mormons Building Bridges, she mainly wanted to encourage gay members of the church to stick around. “There hasn’t been a way for Mormons to reach out to gay people. We haven’t known how to do it,” says Munson, a Harvard graduate, English teacher and mother of five who lives in Sandy. “When kids figure out that they are gay, they stop coming to church and disappear. They say, ‘I had to decide between my sexual identity and my church.’ It is the saddest thing. Straight, active Mormons often don’t realize how unhappy they are to leave.”
Two events in Munson’s life had brought her to this place: “As my kids have grown up and reached the age of 16 or 17, they sensed a disconnect of the unconditional love of Jesus that they learned about in church with an unwillingness to show that love to LGBT people.”
When her bishop planned to schedule an interview for her 18-year-old son to become an elder—a priesthood office in the church—“he looked at me and said, ‘Mom, I really can’t do this.’ He mentioned a teacher at his school who heads the gay-straight alliance, saying, ‘This guy is one of the most spiritual people I know. How could there not be a place in the church for him?’”
In another instance, Munson was visiting California during her daughter’s freshman year at University of California Los Angeles. “Everyone was talking about Proposition 8. The whole Relief Society meeting was about organizing for Proposition 8,” she recalls. “My daughter was really saddened by that and hasn’t gone back to church.”
Munson says that her commitment to LGBT people “stems from my faith in the teachings of Jesus Christ who preached not to judge and to love unconditionally, particularly those who may be marginalized by society.”
Two weeks before the parade, she met with local gay activist Troy Williams. “Erika Munson said something so different that I had been waiting for a Mormon to tell me for years,” Williams says. “She said, ‘I love you for who you are, not in spite of who you are.’ ” She mentioned her unprecedented idea of having Mormons march in the Utah Pride Parade. Williams thought, “This is one different kind of Mormon.” | <urn:uuid:cc9f2a56-978e-492f-8b60-77d4d5d51887> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-51-16318-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972056 | 1,730 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Richard Wellings told BBC 5 Live that the Department of Transport’s decision to allow Virgin Trains to continue running the West Coast mainline service is a good solution that should give a period of stability to passengers.
The twenty-three month contract extension will give the government a chance to look again at the whole process of rail franchising, making it simpler and more cost effective.
The structure of the British rail industry is hideously complicated. It would be far simpler and cost effective if the same company were to own the trains and the tracks themselves. This would mean cheaper ticket prices and less government subsidy of the rail network, Dr Wellings argued.
Listen to the full interview here. Segment starts at 19.45. | <urn:uuid:cac264c5-eb65-4077-9666-787e07555a4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iea.org.uk/in-the-media/media-coverage/west-coast-mainline-debacle-resolved-for-now | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939836 | 148 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Leadership, deservedness and religion
By Daniel M. Ryan
The popular media inevitably veers towards a juicy scandal, and the popular-science segment is no exception. Scandal sells, and pop-science writers can tell themselves they're agents of intellectual uplift when they join in. People tend to learn more, and be more receptive to learning, when they're interested in the result. "A Mathematical Modeling Of Brownian Motion In Molecules" has a lot less reach than "A Mathematical Method To Determine If Options Are Underpriced."
Perhaps unfortunately, it's the same thing with scandal. Try putting out a collection of memos and briefing books under the title "Building A Better Welfare: Recent Advances In HEW Administration And Social Assistance Distribution, As Seen In Real Time." You'll be lucky to sell ten copies, unless some professor or administrator agrees to make it part of a curriculum. On the other hand, a collection of memos from the Defense Department entitled "Warmongers Exposed: Secret Operating Procedure Of The Pentagon War Machine In Iraq", will sell like the proverbial hot-cakes.
LiveScience has seized the day by putting out a piece devoted to philandery. Inspired in large part by Tiger Woods' escapades, the website has published "Why Men Cheat: A Year of Philandering." The content had enough reach to make Yahoo! News.
Although the bulk of it is devoted to the causes of adultery, there's a section that deals with the question of leadership – one that's a real eye-opener.
Power and Entitlement
"Power can make a person stricter in moral judgment of others while being less strict of their own behavior, new research suggests." In other words, there's an innate tendency for the power-holder to become like the oft-sighted self-righteous hypocrite. All it takes is an I-came-into-my-own mentality to elicit such behavior.
Of course, there are differences between the lab and real life. These experiments examined people that were given power, as based upon assignment of roles. In the real world, power tends to be earned. It's unclear whether or not earning power drains that tendency to be stricter on others than on oneself.
The regular world has, or at least had, a method to check any tendency towards self-righteous hypocrisy. It was called "getting your hands dirty." When future bosses had to put time in the trenches just like everyone else, they learned what it was like to be on the short end of the power stick. Once empowered, they could be veered from self-righteous hypocrisy by talking about the old days when they were bossed. This solution isn't ideal, as the result was sometimes fair but harsh. "That's what I had to do when I was in the trenches, and that's what you're going to do too." Harsh, but fair.
However, a fair ride isn't the optimal outcome for those who want an easy ride. We all know that there's a tendency to redefine "fair" as meaning "unfair to my benefit." The same article explains how to get it from a power-holder, in a single sentence that says volumes: "Another experiment in this study found that people who don't feel personally entitled to their power are actually harder on themselves than they are on others."
Therein lies an optimality. Easy bossing can be derived by having a boss that believes (s)he isn't worthy of the power (s)he's gotten. When that type of leader is ensconced, (s)he is harder on self than on others. This type of boss in the kind who'd stay to midnight while letting others go home at five. "I'm not them, and the outcome matters more to me than to them. I'll just put in the time myself and not be too hard on my subordinates, as I don't want to treat them like a tyrant."
The job analogy comes easiest because it's the closest-to-home experience we have with bossing. However, political bossing is more pervasive and a lot harder to get away from. It seems more diffuse because a nation's a lot bigger than a company, and the boss-to-subject ratio is a lot higher. Rest assured, though, that any politico who insists or implies that government has first claim on all the wealth of a nation, definitely sees government officials as the bosses of the nation. The bossing may come through laws and regulations, not through less formal means, but bossing it is if that principle is accepted. To repeat: anyone who sees the nation's resources as being at the government disposal sees political leaders as the bosses of us all. Policies enacted under that rubric are in the same ballpark as disguised orders. And remember: insubordination in the workplace means disincentives are applied. Unfit for promotion, no raise, a scolding. At worst, firing and a bad reference. In the case of politics, "insubordination" means fines, jail, a criminal record. That's why the law has traditionally been hallowed as a space where ordinary power motivations are deemed petty.
If such venalities are let into the law-making process, then the incentive for easy bossing is ratcheted up considerably. There's a more urgent need amongst the subjects to have the political bosses be harder on themselves than on their inferiors – and a much greater need to scotch out the self-righteous hypocrite.
The "company country" model is, of course, most fully matched by socialism. Under a socialist system, the government is legally the boss of everyone. In one of history's ironies, the easy-bossing incentive is most fully matched by aristocracy. There is thus a tendency for a socialist system to become aristocratic, because of a desire for easy bossing amongst the bossed.
With that incentive in mind, the obvious weakness of aristocracy – people attaining power without doing anything to deserve it – becomes its strength. People who haven't earned their high station are aware of it, if raised properly, and can be reminded of it if they're not. Thus, there's a tendency for aristocrats to be bosses that are harder on themselves than they are on others. The underlying insecurity can even be inculcated by turning it into a virtue. To treat a mere peasant as if he should live by the higher law, how base and venal! Only the truly noble are capable of showing God's mercy and clemency to peasants!
The Influence Of Religion
Hence the interrelatedness of religion and aristocracy. After all, there's no guarantee that a scion won't fall into self-righteous hypocrisy. The not-to-be-questioned word of a Supreme Being acts as a checkrein on those who would otherwise show an entitlement mentality.
In more ordinary life, regardless of the political set-up, religion does a service by linking power with humility. All major religions – not just Christianity - inculcate the idea that displaying a self-righteous attitude offends the Supreme Being. It is simplistic to peg The Supreme Being as the top boss over all the faithful, but that characterization does clamp down on human arrogance. No wonder atheism and arrogance, in less mediated popular folkways, are so frequently associated with each other.
Daniel M. Ryan is currently watching The Gold Bubble.
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Older people make up a sizable, though often overlooked, segment of the video-gaming market. And they're just as quick on the trigger as teens
Barbara St. Hilaire spends about 50 hours a week wielding a machete, dismembering demons and battling a slew of thugs, zombies, and other nasties of the video-gaming world. Having recently nailed a 100% score in Outlaw Golf 2, she's now focused on mastering the top levels in God of War. It's a passion that has earned St. Hilaire, 69, the moniker "Old Grandma Hardcore."
"If you saw her in a grocery store, you would see an old, Midwestern diabetic with thick glasses leaning on a crutch or shopping cart," says her grandson Timothy St. Hilaire, who launched a blog recounting her gaming exploits -- and her colorful expletives. "She's a polite mother of five and grandmother of 12...but get her in front of a game, and she becomes a monster."
St. Hilaire represents the new older face of gaming. Despite the common perception that most gamers are busy coping with acne and adolescent awkwardness, many are instead concerned with getting their Social Security checks on time.
Some 19% of gamers are over 50, up 9% in five years, according to Peter D. Hart Research Associates. And 53% of game players expect to be playing as much, or more, 10 years from now. To the aging gamer, this isn't a fad -- it's a permanent part of their lifestyle. And with total U.S. hardware and software sales nearing $10 billion, it's eating up a growing portion of their entertainment dollar. PricewaterhouseCoopers projects spending on the global video-game market to reach nearly $55 billion by 2009.
Adult gamers have been playing an average of 12 years, says the Entertainment Software Assn., and those who grew up with games continue to play on as they grow older, according to Nielsen Entertainment's Interactive Group.
"A lot of people like us started gaming 20, 30 years ago, and we just stay with it," says 68-year-old Liam Murray. Murray and his wife have been gaming together since Pong, which they played on their first PC, which had an Intel 286 with 256K of memory and a 300-baud modem -- a system that cost $4,000. They once played so much electronic Mah-Jong that a ghost image of the tiles was burned into their monitor. Liam now plays about 50 hours a week with family and online friends, sometimes until 3 a.m. "Old people don't sleep much," he adds.
BANG FOR THE BUCK.
Old Grandma Hardcore has been firing away since 1975, in the Age of Atari. She started by stopping off at the mall arcade with her kids while shopping. "Then I really got into it when Nintendo came out with Super Mario. I remember playing with my son all night long, competing against each other." Since then, she has played hundreds of titles and worn out a long line of gaming consoles, from Atari to Xbox.
Though some may find it surprising, the senior gaming trend isn't hard to understand. For starters, many folks living on Social Security find they don't have a lot of money for entertainment or travel, and video gaming is a fun and affordable diversion, especially if you rent games or trade titles on the Internet.
"It makes total sense," says Robert Coffey, a gaming industry consultant and former executive editor of Computer Gaming World. "An increasingly large generation looks at gaming as a recreational activity like sports, a commonplace part of their lives. Older players take games for granted, the way younger kids now assume that TiVo and iPods were always around."
Research suggests that "gaming gray" might also have real benefits. A 2002 Harvard University report cited significant increases in reaction time for gamers over 60, while researchers at the University of Rochester reported that video games can help improve vision: Tests on nongamers found that playing just 10 hours of fast-paced video games improved their eyesight.
Gaming can also hone reflexes. Murray says it "keeps your mind alert, because you're forced to constantly think and react, you have to plan your moves and attacks…and it's sure good for arthritis!"
For St. Hilaire, gaming also has a social aspect: "It gives you a connection with your kids, something in common with the younger generation." In fact, St. Hilaire is the matriarch of a large gaming family who regularly play against each other online, ranging in age from 5 to 69.
How has the industry responded to the data showing a more diverse market? Not at all, judging by its marketing campaigns. "They obsess on one demographic," says Coffey. "All the magazine ads show these younger guys with their mouths wide-open and eyes bugging out while they play some game."
But Coffey thinks it would be a mistake to design games specifically for seniors. "The appeal of a game depends on your individual tastes, not your age," he adds.
"The worst thing in the world they could do is design for the elderly," agrees St.Hilare. Though some are trying to. The 2005 Game Developer's Conference in Europe offered this challenge: "How to design a game for Granny." One proposal: a game about cats -- because, of course, all old ladies love cats.
But don't expect Old Grandma Hardcore to play the proposed kitty game anytime soon -- unless, perhaps, it's a first-person shooter. As for Liam Murray, the old gamer says his hand will be firmly on the joystick until "the good Lord calls me. It's up to Him when I quit." | <urn:uuid:2fba62bd-c932-4319-9109-9618622a11b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-10-18/attack-of-the-gaming-grannies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969549 | 1,206 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Opinion: Was the president that bad?
John M. Crisp writes for Scripps Howard News Service.
I READ the news on the morning after the presidential debate, and I wondered if I hadn’t noticed that on the previous evening Abraham Lincoln had taken on Elmer Fudd. Nearly everyone said that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s performance was brilliant and triumphant, President Obama’s weak, even a “debacle.” Did I misread it that badly?
But as I watched the debate again on Friday morning I considered how much we and the media — liberal or conservative — love a new narrative, and “Underdog Whips Overconfident, Smarty Pants Incumbent” is one of our favorites. But let’s get a grip: The debate calls for two questions, and they both have the same answer.
First, did Romney do as well in the debate as many think? No.
He probably exceeded the expectations, but they were never high to begin with, and his staffers had been tamping them down for days.
Modern debates are largely about theatrics and the physical appearance of the debaters; Romney did fine in those categories. But it’s worth at least a paragraph or two to note that a lot of what he actually said in the debate was misleading or just plain wrong.
Examples are plentiful, but consider Romney’s charge that Obama has doubled the national deficit. Publications from The New York Times to the Christian Science Monitor have pointed out that when Obama took office in 2009, the deficit was already at $1.4 trillion. Now it’s at $1.1 trillion. That’s a lot of money, but it’s less than $1.4 trillion. Just plain wrong.
There’s much more, but I’ll leave the facts to the fact checkers. Romney got good marks for his appearance and energy, but it’s a stretch to call his manner “presidential.” How about “pushy,” instead? Obama may have revealed a moment of impatience with moderator Jim Lehrer, but Romney repeatedly talked over Lehrer, bullying past his efforts to keep the discussion under control.
In fact, Lehrer had a tough evening. Even if you intend to completely defund PBS, an institution that’s significantly enhanced American culture at a cost of about 0.00014 percent of the budget, why would you throw it in the face of one of its great icons in front of a national television audience? Especially with a dismissive line like, “I like you, Jim.” Thanks a lot, Mitt, that makes your contempt for PBS easier to take. Graceless? Condescending? Disrespectful? Yes. Presidential? No.
It’s no wonder that in his brief overseas trip this summer, Romney managed to miff the British, the Poles, and the Palestinians. And the word is that the Spaniards aren’t very happy about being singled out during the debate as Europe’s poster child for economic disaster. | <urn:uuid:3a005f93-efe3-433b-9c70-143805f56cce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/crisp_100912.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969765 | 649 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Posted by Dominique Verlato | Posted in SEO | Posted on 17-01-2013
Search engine optimization is vital for success on the Internet, but it can be hard to do it properly. An effective SEO campaign can boost your website’s search ranking and attract more visitors.
To increase your ranking on search engines, it is important to strategically place keywords within your site’s content. Do not put too many keywords at the beginning but make sure to put enough. It’s best to try and use your chosen keyword in your introductory paragraph two times. After that, the next 200 words on your page should contain as many instances of your keyword as you can, without overwhelming the page with it.
You should ensure that each META description tag is unique for each page. Using the exact same content in all of your meta description tags is frowned upon by the algorithms that the search engines use to rank you.
Sometimes, it is suggested to use keywords in the comment tags on a website to increase search engine visibility. It is more important to have quality content on your site.
Search engines are very smart; if they see you are trying to manipulate your site fraudulently, they will suppress your pages. Top search engines have been known to ban sites from appearing in their results for engaging in fraudulent activity. Use methods that won’t be interpreted as unethical to fine tune your SEO efforts.
This will greatly increase search engine ratings for your website. See your meta data as a “call to action” since it appears under several site hyperlinks in search results. With the right content management system, it is possible to edit your meta description for each individual page.
Every page of your website should be unique and have different content. You should focus on titles that you put on your page. Titles are of paramount importance when wanting positive search engine optimization results. Include the main keyword in your title to get the highest search engine ranking.
Groom your site for easy readability. If you design a website which is easy to navigate and read, including accessibility options like making the font size larger, you’ll find that your site ranks higher on search engines. Your website should be accessible and easy for your readers to engage in and simple for search engines to recognize.
You may also wish to include the keywords within the title of the page. Your title should be intelligent and relevant, because it is what search engine users will first see of your site. People are more likely to click on a link that they think will bring them to exactly what they are looking for.
Choose an SEO oriented style over an AP style to improve your site’s search engine positioning. In SEO style, you repeat your keywords as often as you can, as long as your article flow is not interrupted and your style remains unstilted. As search engines work partly by locating keywords and evaluating their density, this should improve your search engine rankings.
Make sure to always have new, useful content posted regularly. If people feel like they are reading old information they will not want to read it.
There’s a lot to search engine optimization, but as was stated earlier in the article, it’s absolutely essential to make sure your website gets the business it deserves. Make sure to apply these techniques to your website, as soon as possible, so that you can start getting more customers and more profits.
All Of The Basics Of Search Engine OptimizationTags: quality content, buy backlinks, Bright Neon Sign, main keyword, SEO oriented style | <urn:uuid:cf55dcbd-3cde-4abf-bf6f-f7387d60095f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asiastutteringassociation.com/tag/search-engine-optimization/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943328 | 727 | 1.6875 | 2 |
'The Insurgents': Petraeus And A New Kind Of War
In a new book, The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, journalist and author Fred Kaplan tackles the career of David H. Petraeus and follows the four-star general from Bosnia to his commands in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Central to the story are ideas of counterinsurgency. Kaplan says that while counterinsurgency is not a new kind of warfare, it's a kind of war that Americans do not like to fight.
"We tend to call it irregular warfare even though this kind of warfare is the most common," Kaplan tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. Kaplan, who writes the War Stories column for Slate, explains that Petraeus and a number of his West Point peers were interested in the writings of counterinsurgency theorists who believed that "insurgencies grow out of something. They don't grow out of a vacuum. ... They respond to people's needs in a country where the government is not satisfying those needs. And so, what you have to do is not merely capture and kill the insurgents, but change the social conditions. ... It was a different kind of warfare that required not just fighting, but what we now call 'nation building' [and] that required cultural sensitivity to the people around them, required living among the people, protecting the population, earning their trust so that they, in turn, will tell us who the bad guys are."
Petraeus implemented these theories with some success in Iraq, but less so in Afghanistan, where he lacked the familiarity with the country he had had in Iraq.
"The problem was, by his own admission, he knew nothing about Afghanistan," says Kaplan. "He'd been in Iraq three times. He knew that place well. He comes in and what's in his mind is Iraq. ... I was told that in a meeting with President Karzai once, Karzai laid out a problem and [Petraeus] said, 'Well, you know, in Baghdad we did it like this ...' to the president of Afghanistan. And the aide who was with Petraeus in the room — who had been both in Afghanistan and Iraq — when they were walking out he said, 'You know, it might be an interesting intellectual experiment for you to not even think about Iraq,' and Petraeus said, 'I'm working on it.' "
On bringing the mentality of heavy firepower into a conflict of insurgency
"You anger a lot of people. You kill the wrong guy, all of his brothers and cousins not just distrust you, but they join the insurgency. You flame the insurgency. You swell the size of the insurgency. So it's not just the wrong approach to the conflict; it is counterproductive. It causes more problems than it solves."
On how Petraeus put counterinsurgency warfare theories into effect in Mosul, Iraq
"He vetted candidates for an election; he held the election; he opened up the economy; he brought in fuel trucks from Turkey; he opened up the university; he opened up the border to Syria in northern Iraq all on his own initiative. ... There were no orders. So it worked for about a year and he was rotated out and a brigade half the size of his division came in with commanders who had spent the previous three months bashing down doors and killing and arresting people in Tikrit, and that's what they did in Mosul and the operation fell apart for another year or two."
On Petraeus' mentality going into Afghanistan
"His whole MO and his entire life was that he had overcome the odds. That he had defied expectations. You know, everybody knows the story that at one time when he was an assistant division commander he had been shot in the chest by a fellow solider whose gun accidentally went off in a live-fire exercise. He recovered much more quickly than the doctors said. He jumped out of a plane once, the parachute ripped, he free-fell for 60 feet, broke his pelvis. He recovered. His surge worked in Iraq ... to a degree that nobody had anticipated, and so he went into Afghanistan leery, but thinking that, 'Well, maybe I can pull this off.' "
On why Petraeus went to the CIA from the Army
"He always wanted to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but anybody who knows the military bureaucracy knows that that can be an exceedingly powerful position. ... Petraeus was distrusted by many members of the Obama White House. They thought that he boxed President Obama in on troop options ... in the discussions about Afghanistan. The perception was, this guy was too clever; he was too powerful. You didn't want a powerful general to be given such a powerful position. And so, in December in 2010, Bob Gates comes to Afghanistan, tells Petraeus, 'You're not going to get the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, what would you like [instead]?' and [Petraeus] came up with the idea of CIA director."
On the exposure of Petraeus' extramarital affair
"I've never met an unassuming four-star general and I think if such a creature exists he's probably not a very good general. But Petraeus had gotten used to creating his own rules, going his own way and ... getting away with it and I think that sometimes, if you do that too many times, the boundaries of your ethos begin to shift and begin to distort and I think ... that's eventually what happened there."
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. For 10 years now, Americans have become accustomed to seeing American soldiers fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our guest Fred Kaplan says that while America fought those wars, an internal conflict raged within the military about how to fight them.
When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, top commanders knew how to wage a conventional land war with devastating effectiveness. But they discarded long-studied principles of counterinsurgency: How to deal with a conflict in which the enemy lives and fights among the population, when the battle is more for the allegiance of civilians than for territory.
In his new book, Kaplan describes the efforts of civilian strategists and younger officers to turn U.S. military thinking around and pursue a more nuanced approach to the fighting in Iraq. Kaplan says the officers succeeded in selling their strategy, and while it helped in Iraq, it failed in Afghanistan. Fred Kaplan is a veteran national security journalist. He writes the War Stories column for Slate and has written three previous books. His latest is "The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War."
Well, Fred Kaplan, welcome back to FRESH AIR. After the debacle of the Vietnam War, you might think that strategists in the American military would decide that they need to focus on how you engage in limited war, how you fight guerrillas, how to more effectively, you know, engage in one of these limited conflicts. But you write they did almost the opposite.
FRED KAPLAN: Right, the generals decided they would never fight another war like this ever again. By coincidence, at the same time the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union were increasing their conventional armies in Europe, and so they turned their attention to that theater, and it was the kind of theater that they were comfortable with fighting, wars that depended on firepower and amassing men, and machines, and metal and dropping bombs and that sort of thing.
So they were never comfortable with Vietnam. They saw it a politicians' war. And so they decided not just to turn their attention to other kinds of war but to throw out, literally to throw out the field manuals, the training manuals, all the lessons, good and bad, that were learned in the previous conflict.
DAVIES: And of course that meant that officers that wanted to rise in the ranks, you know, study tank strategy and pursued that kind of war. But there were these younger officers who had a different interest, who read books about counterinsurgency. What made them think of that kind of war when top commanders were still thinking about the big engagements of tank and infantry?
KAPLAN: Well, you know, we're talking about the mid-'80s through the early '90s. So if you're a young officer coming up the ranks, where are you being deployed? You're being deployed in El Salvador, Somalia, Haiti, places like that. And yet at that time the Army defined war strictly as the big war, you know, major combat operations against foes of comparable strength.
They referred to these other small wars, they actually had a name for it. This was in capital letters, military operations other than war. They weren't even war. It was MOOTW, or mootwah(ph), and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time was once overheard saying real men don't do MOOTW. And yet these officers coming up the ranks in the '80s and early '90s - including David Petraeus and several others - you know, these places sure did feel like war to them.
And not only that, but they looked around them, and they saw these are the kinds of conflicts that the world is going to become engulfed in more in the coming years and decades. And as the Civil War tapered off and finally disappeared, this became more and more obvious to them. And yet the generals never really backed away from their Civil War proclivities toward the nature of warfare.
DAVIES: Now we're talking about David Petraeus, an officer named John Nagl, who wrote a dissertation, which is still influential on this stuff. Now, counterinsurgency, a lot of these ideas weren't exactly new. They - people read a former French officer named David Galula who had written a book about this. Do you want to just kind of outline some of the basic principles of fighting a counterinsurgency?
KAPLAN: Right, it's not new at all. It's just the kind of war that we don't like to fight. We tend to call it irregular warfare, even though this kind of warfare is most common. It should be called regular warfare. One of the characters in my book said basically the - the insight of Galula and other counterinsurgency theorists is that insurgences grow out of something. They don't grow out of a vacuum. They grow out - they respond to people's needs in a country where the government is not satisfying those needs.
And so what you have to do is not merely capture and kill the insurgents but change the social conditions. Galula, parroting Mao Zedong, wrote that these kinds of wars are 80 percent political, only 20 percent military, that in these kinds of wars a mimeograph machine can be as useful as a machine gun, sometimes, or cement can be as useful as mortar shells.
And it's not just that these wars were like the other kinds of wars but writ small, they were completely different kinds of things. It was a different kind of warfare that required not just fighting but what we now call nation-building, that required cultural sensitivity to the people around them, required living among the people, protecting the population, earning their trust so that they in turn will tell us who the bad guys are and that then you can use that as the basis for rebuilding the society.
DAVIES: Right, winning hearts and minds. Now, what happens if you bring the mentality of heavy firepower into that kind of conflict?
KAPLAN: Well, we saw it in the first few years of the occupation in Iraq. You bring that kind of mentality, you bash down doors, you kill or capture everybody that you think might be a bad guy, you anger a lot of people. You kill the wrong guy, all of his brothers and cousins not just distrust you, but they join the insurgency. You inflame the insurgency. You swell the size of the insurgency.
So it's not just the wrong approach to the conflict, it is counterproductive. It causes more problems than it solves.
DAVIES: Now if David Petraeus and John Nagl and a lot of these other bright, young officers got interested in these ideas in the '90s and were right about them and were talking about them, why then when the U.S. went to war in Iraq in 2003, when these ideas were swirling, were they so little valued at the time?
KAPLAN: Because they still weren't yet the three- and four-star generals. The three- and four-star generals were still the leftovers from the Civil War era. These were people who didn't want to get involved in those kinds of wars at all. And then you had a secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, who had become very enamored of an alternative strategy of warfare very popular at the time called revolution in military affairs, which put all of its trust in smart bombs.
And, you know, you didn't need such big armies. You could have a very small army and just use smart bombs from the air to attack targets. And so he went into Iraq with a very, very small force, much smaller than the generals told him was necessary, and hey, he was right. He was right.
You didn't need very many forces to overthrow a government and to topple an army. But they did not anticipate that the whole country of Iraq would implode, that all the mechanisms of governance would fall apart, and then there would be, out of this vacuum, out of this anarchy, would grow a resistance, an insurgency, and they had no capability to deal with it.
They didn't even call it that.
DAVIES: Right, therefore they used heavy-handed tactics, which only inflamed the insurgency and made it worse. But David Petraeus had a command then. He was in Mosul, this was in the early period of the occupation, and got a lot of credit for doing remarkable things.
KAPLAN: Well, it's very interesting. He was commander of the 101st Airborne Division at the time, and he was stationed up in Mosul in Northern Iraq. The command structure of the U.S. Army in Iraq was completely fractured. There was no overall command for anything. So if you are a creative commander, you could do a lot on your own.
And so Petraeus, who had studied counterinsurgency for a couple of decades, who had set up what amounted - and this is almost completely unknown - what amounted to a counterinsurgency, very clandestine counterterrorist group in Bosnia a few years earlier. He just - he decided to put Galula into effect.
And so he vetted candidates for an election, he held the election, he opened up the economy, he brought in fuel trucks from Turkey, he opened up the university, he opened up the border to Syria in Northern Iraq - all on his own initiative, without telling - I mean, he told people what he was doing, but there were no orders.
And so it worked for about a year, and then he was rotated out, and a brigade half the size of his division came in with commanders who had spent the previous three months bashing down doors and killing and arresting people in Tikrit, and that's what they did in Mosul, and the operation fell apart for another year or two.
DAVIES: Right, so at this point, I mean, I guess it's 2005 he rotates out of there, is that right, 2004?
KAPLAN: 2004, yeah.
DAVIES: Right, and the insurgency is growing, and the country is falling apart. Casualties are mounting among the U.S. veterans, among civilians, and the Pentagon suddenly realizes it has a terrible problem, and they don't even know that there's somebody here who has the germ of a solution. He gets rotated back to an assignment at Fort Leavenworth, right.
And then he and these other officers, who are - who have studied and believe in counterinsurgency, begin to come together and say we have to change things. You say it was actually a plot.
KAPLAN: It was a plot. I mean, that's not my word. The people who did this, they called themselves the cabal or the West Point mafia because a lot of them came out of the social science department at West Point. But around this time that you're talking about, two things happened that are quite pivotal.
One, there's a guy named Eliot Cohen, who's a Professor at the school of Advanced International Studies in Washington and a member of the Defense Policy Advisory Board. He goes to Iraq. He's the only member of this board who goes to Iraq. He sees what's going on. He sees that it's a disaster.
He's also a pretty pre-eminent military historian. He knows that an insurgency is going on. He knows what you have to do with an insurgency. He's also one of the leading neoconservative thinkers. He'd actually campaigned very heavily for Bush and Clinton before him to invade Iraq. He also has a son who, just like him, had graduated from Harvard and had just joined the Army and was about to be sent to Iraq.
He feels this tremendous pang of guilt and anguish. This was an administration that he's advised, a war that he advocated, and now his son is going to get sent to it. The commanders are completely clueless. So he forms a seminar in Basin Harbor, Vermont, for five days. He invites anybody who has ever written anything remotely interested in about counterinsurgency, and he invites them to this seminar.
And the pivotal thing about this isn't so much what they talked about, it's that they got to know each other. These people, most of them didn't know of one another's existence before this conference. They thought they were out in the wilderness on their own writing about this stuff, and they say my God, we form a community.
And we seem to be the only ones in the Army - a lot of them were junior officers - who understand what's going on here. We need to really put something in motion that will change things.
At this same time, Petraeus, as you say, comes back to Fort Leavenworth. Now, a lot of the people in the Army, a lot of senior officers, didn't much like Petraeus, because they didn't like officers who were bookish and who stood out, and Petraeus was guilty of both (unintelligible).
So Petraeus gets out to Fort Leavenworth. They think that they've sent the fair-haired boy out to pasture, literally. He realizes that Fort Leavenworth in the right hands can be the center of the Army, the intellectual center. They write doctrine. They control the training centers. They control the command and general staff college. And once he realizes all the levers that he has at his control, he says to himself: Holy cow, they've put an insurgent in charge of the Army's engine of change.
He saw himself as an insurgent. Now, he knew a lot of these people who were at the Basin Harbor Conference. And so he drew upon them to be his inner circle in writing a new field manual for counterinsurgency, in completely overhauling the training centers to emphasize that kind of warfare so that by the time he came back to Iraq as top commander in early 2007, the pins were all in place to change the way not just that the Army worked in Iraq but the way the culture of the Army worked in general in formulating doctrine, in the criteria for promoting officers across the board.
DAVIES: We're speaking with Fred Kaplan. His new book is called "The Insurgents." We'll talk more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.
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DAVIES: If you're just joining us, we're speaking with Fred Kaplan. He's a national security writer. He writes the War Stories column on Slate. And he has a new book, "The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War."
Well, while these officers and intellectuals were promoting counterinsurgency, I suppose it would not have worked had not people at the highest levels of the military and the Defense Department realized that they were in a terrible situation in Iraq. So they at some point realized that they had to embrace these ideas?
KAPLAN: Well, you're right, a lot of - the way that large organizations tend to change is if they're facing catastrophe. And in the mid-, the end of 2006, just about everybody realized that Iraq was a catastrophe and that something needed to be done. So three things happen at the end of 2006, or four things really.
Number one, the midterm elections happen, and Donald Rumsfeld is fired and replaced by Robert Gates. Number two, Petraeus goes back to Iraq as the top commander. Number three, Bush approves the surge, more forces for Iraq. And four, he also approves a new strategy, which is essentially a counterinsurgency strategy.
Now these things did not happen by coincidence. They too were part of this plot. While Petraeus was out in Leavenworth, he had a vast network of contacts throughout the defense bureaucracy: classmates, former students from West Point, underlings who were in his command as a division commander. But he also cultivated a backchannel into the White House, a woman named Megan O'Sullivan, who was President Bush's senior advisor on Iraq in the National Security Council.
And now picture this. This is really pretty outrageous mode of operation. Here's Petraeus, a three-star general, out in Leavenworth, and every day, practically, he's talking on the phone with the president's senior advisor on Iraq. She's telling him what General George Casey, the four-star commander in Iraq, is telling the White House why they don't need a change in strategy and what you think about that, General Petraeus, and can you provide me with some arguments against it.
So he's providing rebuttal arguments within his own chain of command. I mean, this is really pretty outrageous. I mean, he was right, he was right, but this tells you something about his style of operations.
At the same time, there was a private studies going on in Washington urging the need for a surge. Petraeus, through his network, got this study into the White House, into the Pentagon to the secretary of defense - the new Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates. So all these things were coming together at the same time, but it wasn't, it wasn't just a random set of coincidences. The timing on this was exquisitely planned.
DAVIES: So Petraeus goes to Iraq, he's had experience at Mosul, but now he's got his hands on all the levers. How does he take this counterinsurgency approach and mold it into actual specific policies and orders?
KAPLAN: Well, there were three very crucial things he did. Before he came, most of the soldiers, they do operations in the day. Then they'd go back to their large bases, surrounded by barbed wire, at night. And, of course, the insurgents could come back at night in the towns. So he set up these outposts in the cities, in the neighborhoods.
And, you know, it was a gamble. Initially, American casualties went up because they were more exposed to the insurgents, and he knew that would happen. But then he also did two, again, pretty outrageous things. One, there was already the Anbar awakening happening out in Western Iraq, which was coordinated by another West Point guy who - named Colonel Sean MacFarland - who understood counterinsurgency strategy.
The Sunni militants who had been allied with the foreign jihadists, including al Qaida, were getting upset with the high-handed methods of al Qaida. They were moving away from them and joining us. Petraeus applied this to the entire country through a program he called the Sons of Iraq, where he paid militants to desert and to come join us.
Now, he paid for this with the money in his own commander's discretionary fund. You know, it's money for, you know, paying somebody to clean the sidewalk or to set up a local auxiliary or something like that. He was paying people who had been shooting at American soldiers two weeks earlier and, who knows, maybe two months hence would start shooting at us again. He was paying them without telling anybody in Washington what was going on.
At the same time, he had to show that he was even-handed. There were Shiite militias in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City. And Prime Minister Maliki had told Petraeus' predecessor, General Casey, stay out of Sadr City because he had his own alliance with Sadr.
Petraeus simply ignored it. He just went in to Sadr City and busted up the Shiite militias. So he was able to play these sectarian units off of one another, and as a result, after about seven or eight months, casualties reduced enormously. Sectarian violence went down by staggering degrees. And so, in a tactical sense, it absolutely worked.
DAVIES: All right, in an overall sense, did it achieve strategic goals? Did it (unintelligible)...?
KAPLAN: Oh, see, that's where we get into a tricky thing, in Iraq and especially later on in Afghanistan. Petraeus had said all along, that the point of what he was doing was to create some breathing space, a zone of security, so that the sectarian factions in Iraq could get their act together.
Well, the fact is Prime Minister Maliki had no interest in getting their act together. He had no interest in working out an oil-revenue-sharing formula, no interest in recruiting very many of the Sons of Iraq militants into the national army, no interest in solving all kinds of problems like that.
And so we still have, in Iraq, although at a much, much lower level, we still have sectarian violence. We still do not have a stable state.
DAVIES: Fred Kaplan's new book is "The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War." He'll be back in the second half of the show. I'm Dave Davies, and this is FRESH AIR.
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DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross who is off this week. We're speaking with national security writer Fred Kaplan whose book chronicles a battle within the U.S. military to change strategic thinking about how to succeed in limited conflicts in which the enemy lives and fights among the population. Civilian strategists and a core of officers led by David Petraeus advocated a counterinsurgency approach which was ultimately effective in reducing violence in Iraq. Kaplan's book is called "The Insurgents."
Well, after his experience in Iraq, there came the question of what to do about Afghanistan. A new president came in, President Obama, and he had said all along that Afghanistan was the war that America needed to fight. And you write about a fascinating episode here, where one of the leading strategists of counterinsurgency, David Kilcullen, actually a man who had been an officer in the Australian Army who had come to the Americans, he drafted a counterinsurgency guide at the end of the Bush administration and he kind of took a different tack on the approach. You want to just tell us what was unique about what he came up with?
KAPLAN: Well, Kilcullen is a fascinating guy, as you said, an Australian officer who had had experience in insurgencies and counterinsurgencies, and who came over as an advisor in the United States. Initially, he saw his role - he was very colorful, he was against the invasion of Iraq. He thought it was it was just stupid. But once you're there and once you're facing an insurgency you have to know how to fight it. He thought that it wasn't the place of an officer to get involved in policy. That was for civilian leaders and if you don't like it you should throw out these people at the next election. But at the end of 2007, he realizes that no, as an expert he needs to get involved in questions of policy, that that really is the important thing.
So a group had assembled to write a manual about counterinsurgency for the civilian side of the government. And he took on this, but he decided not to make this a manual for bureaucrats in the same way that Petraeus' field manual on counterinsurgency was a manual for field officers. He decided to write something for policymakers and it was a pretty out-there document because one of the chapters - and he said this a couple times in the booklet, he said, it is folly - those were the words - it is folly to get involved in a foreign counterinsurgency expedition if you think that the government you're coming to help is not interested in reforming itself. Now you recall that a crucial part of counterinsurgency is making the government more appealing, more legitimate in the eyes of its people. If this seems completely unlikely, then it is folly, Kilcullen said, to get involved in the first place. He also said that policymakers must take a calculation of how likely this is before they go in at all.
Now, unfortunately, this manual, it was signed in mid-January of 2009, just days before a new administration was coming in. New administrations, you know, don't pay that much attention to things that the old administration did. Even the old administration wasn't paying very much attention to this manual. And so the lessons of that manual which were, you know, hard won by over a decade of experience in seeing what works and what doesn't, were thrown out, were ignored, where the existence of it was barely even known.
DAVIES: Right. And one of the other important points he made was that counterinsurgency takes a long time and a lot of troops. So and to...
DAVIES: ...to win hearts and minds, to isolate the population from the enemy, to build institutional authorities that would have respect among civilians takes a long time, so don't get in unless there's a government who wants to do it and you're prepared to make a long term commitment.
KAPLAN: That's right.
DAVIES: Which leads us to Afghanistan, and Obama has to make a decision here. What was Petraeus' position?
KAPLAN: Well, you remember during the latter half of 2009 President Obama held 10 meetings with his national security team to figure out what to do in Afghanistan. And Petraeus was leading the way in urging for a surge and a shift to counterinsurgency in Afghanistan just as what had worked in Iraq. And there really was almost no opposition to this around the room. President Obama was reluctant but he agreed to do it in a limited way. It had been recommended that he should put in 40,000 new troops. He put in 33,000 and said NATO will make up the 7,000 and will do counterinsurgency in the south and inside the cities. But then he put a kind of a spin on it because he saw this as an experiment, something that he would try but not get too deeply involved in.
And he told the generals in the last meeting, which was a smaller meeting, he said OK, I'm going to do this, but then after 18 months I'm going to start to pull out those surge troops. And I want - can you tell me that within this 18 months you will make enough progress that the Afghan army can take over the lead in the fight in a majority of the districts? And everybody around the table said oh, yes sir, yes sir, no problem. And what I find kind of unforgivable is that Petraeus certainly knew that this was not possible. It was going to take longer than 18 months. And what his calculation was, it was that we'll make enough progress so that by the time we get there the president will have to continue. Even though Petraeus - even though Obama had told them look, you're not going to get any more, this is it, still, he took the gamble. He told friends afterwards well, you know, it wasn't that kind of a meeting. It was a take-it-or-leave-it meeting. He didn't want advice. But, you know, I still think it's the obligation of an officer put in that kind of situation to give his best military advice on what can work and what can't.
DAVIES: What's interesting to me about this is that, you know, we just said that David Kilcullen had made this point that if you don't have a government willing to reform it won't work. And anybody who has looked at the experience in Vietnam know that if you try and do this with a, you know, a regime of corrupt oligarchs and gangsters, it's not going to work no matter how much time or how many troops you have, and surely David Petraeus knew this. I mean...
KAPLAN: Well, he knew it but, you know, he had manipulated Maliki pretty skillfully. He had...
DAVIES: In Iraq. Yeah.
KAPLAN: ...played good-guy-bad-guy stuff with Maliki in Iraq. He was actually not as optimistic in Afghanistan as he had been in Iraq, but he thought that he could do it. Look, here's a guy, his whole MO in his entire life was that he had overcome the odds, that he had defied expectations. You know, everybody knows the story that one time when he was an assistant division commander, he had been shot in the chest by a fellow soldier whose gun accidentally went off in a live-fire exercise. He recovered much more quickly than the doctor said. He jumped out of a plane once, the parachute ripped. He free fell for 60 feet, broke his pelvis. He recovered. His surge worked in Iraq to a degree that nobody had anticipated, and so he went into Afghanistan leery but thinking that well, maybe I can pull this off.
And but, you know, the problem was by his own admission he knew nothing about Afghanistan. He'd been in Iraq three times, he knew that place well. He comes in and what's in his mind is Iraq. So his aides would say, you know, we have a problem here. And he would say - I got this from these aides - he would say well, you know what, we did this in Mosul, what worked in Anbar was this.
I was told that in a meeting with President Karzai once, Karzai laid out a problem and he said well, you know, in Baghdad we did it like this, you know, to the president of Afghanistan. And the aide who was with Petraeus in the room who had been both in Afghanistan and Iraq, when they were walking out he said, you know, it might be an interesting intellectual experiment for you to not even to think about Iraq. And Petraeus said I'm working on it.
DAVIES: What were some ways that Afghanistan's reality was just so different from his Iraqi experience and that that presented problems?
KAPLAN: Well, you know, he knew this. This book that we mentioned earlier by David Galula called "Counterinsurgency Warfare," which he and others frequently took off the shelf and consulted, there is a chapter in that book called "Prerequisites For A Successful Insurgency." It listed the factors that were prevalent in a country where an insurgency would be likely to win, and it included things like a corrupt central government, a largely rural illiterate population, mountainous terrain along the borders, a neighboring state that can serve as a sanctuary for insurgents. I mean, you add it all up it was a description of Afghanistan. Yeah. It was a - and so this should have been seen from the beginning as very unlikely terrain. And I think - and what Obama finally did after that 18 month deadline was he called it off. He said OK, that's the end of the surge. We're withdrawing all the troops. We're reverting to a less ambitious strategy. We're going to turn - gradually turn things over to the Afghan population.
Now, he could portray this as a victory because in the meantime, you know, we had killed Osama bin Laden, we had decimated the Taliban army on the ground, so he could portray it as a victory, but in fact, he was retreating from the broader counterinsurgency strategy and adapting really the strategy that his vice president Joseph Biden had advocated all along, had been the only one in the room to advocate, which is namely, let's accelerate training of the Afghan army, let's go after the militants on the border, and - but we shouldn't get involved in this nation-building business.
DAVIES: And use the drones for specific attacks.
KAPLAN: Use drones, use commando raids, that sort of thing, which wouldn't have involved as big a surge as President Obama advocated. I think, you know, some people often wondered why he relied so much on Biden. You know, some people viewed Biden as kind of a blowhard. Afghanistan is a good case in point why President Obama values Biden greatly. He asks devil's advocate questions and the devil's advocate positions often turn out to be right.
DAVIES: We're speaking with Fred Kaplan. His new book is "The Insurgents." We'll talk more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.
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DAVIES: If you're just joining us, we're speaking with national security writer Fred Kaplan. He writes the War Stories column on Slate, and his new book about counterinsurgency in the U.S. military is called "The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War."
David Petraeus was a mythic figure in the Army when he went into Afghanistan. Why did he end up going to the CIA afterwards and not staying in the Army?
KAPLAN: Well, you know, he always wanted to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but anybody who knows the military bureaucracy knows that that can be an exceedingly powerful position. You've got control over some directorates of the Joint Staff who are some of the smartest colonels and one and two star generals in the Army. Petraeus was distrusted by many members of the Obama White House. They thought that he boxed President Obama in on troop options for - in the discussions about Afghanistan. The perception was, this guy was too clever; he was too powerful. You didn't want a powerful general to be given such a powerful position. And so, in December of 2010, Bob Gates comes to Afghanistan, tells Petraeus, you're not going to get the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, what would you like? And he came up with the idea of CIA director.
He - it's very little known. I go into some things in this book that have never been written about before, that he was in charge of a clandestine intelligency in Bosnia. In Iraq and both Afghanistan, he did a lot of interaction with all the intelligence communities. So it was sort of an ideal perch for him and he liked the job a lot. Some of his friends asked him a couple of months in, how are you liking the job, Dave? How's it going over there? And he said without any irony because he's not really a very ironic guy, he says, I'm living the dream.
DAVIES: Were you surprised by the extramarital affair and the scandal that took Petraeus down?
KAPLAN: Well, you know, I, like many people, the rumors of an affair had been going on for quite a long time with Paula Broadwell, she was, you know, given unusual access in Afghanistan. She was clearly a bit gaga for him. But yeah, most people thought that he wouldn't bite. But, you know, looking back, you know, this was a guy who broke the rules when he thought it was necessary. You know, what he had done in Iraq with creating the Sons of Iraq, with setting up a whole counterinsurgency operation in Mosul outside of anybody's purview, really going against the overall policy for the benefit in those cases of what he saw as military or political military victory...
...really going against the overall policy for the benefit in those cases of what he saw as military or political-military victory. But, you know, I think - as a backdrop I think, you know, I've never met an unassuming four-star general. And I think if such a creature exists he's probably not a very good general. But Petraeus had gotten used to creating his own rules, going his own way, and getting away with it.
And I think that sometimes if you do that too many times the boundaries of your ethos begin to shift and begin to distort. And I think that's eventually what happened there.
DAVIES: You know, as you reflect on this experience, I mean, one of the questions that comes up again and again is can the military ever learn to confront difficult truths and tell them to civilian policymakers? I mean, you know, back in Vietnam Kennedy and Johnson wanted the application of traditional firepower to be effective so the military adapted it. And despite all kinds of knowledge and experience to the contrary, continued to tell civilian leaders, yes, it was working.
You know, in Iraq terribly misguided thinking all this damage but got promotions by telling their superiors what they wanted to hear. I mean, this is true in a lot of big organizations but I wonder if you think - is the military particularly resistant to new thinking and can you see a change in its institutional culture?
KAPLAN: Well, you know, there's always a tension in this. You know, we do have a tradition in this country of civilian control of the military. And that's a good thing. And every general who is in the military today knows the story about General MacArthur and how he tried to defy President Truman in Korea. And how Truman fired him, which was a very risky thing to do politically because MacArthur was an amazing hero.
But everybody knows the MacArthur risk so you don't want to go up - there's a fine line between giving military advice to the president and bucking his authority. And that line, they haven't really - there's still a lot of ambiguity on how you tread that line. I think what we see going on now, we see the beginnings of what might be called a new American way of war.
Which is sort of a retreat to the Rumsfeld formula, really, of small footprints, smart bombs fired by drones in this case, small units of commandos. And, you know, I think in general, that that's fine. It's better than sending 100,000 troops to Mali or Uganda or Libya or some of these places. But there isn't a kind of a bedrock, there isn't a doctrinal base for this, really. It can have its own dangers.
You can get in the habit of thinking, well, I'm not really in a war because I'm not sending troops, I'm not getting killed. We don't see anything going on on the ground. So is this going to turn into another military operation other than war where we think that, you know, because we're 10,000 feet up in the air or only sending a few dozen people, we're not militarily involved?
It can lead to risk. It can lead to uncontrolled escalation. It can also be - it's just a little too easy. It sets up a situation where you can avoid doing serious strategic thinking about what it is we really need to do and what our role in the world is.
DAVIES: Our guest is Fred Kaplan. His book is "The Insurgents." We'll talk more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DAVIES: If you're just joining us, our guest if Fred Kaplan. He writes on national security and his new book is "The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War." I wanted to ask you about some other issues that concern the defense establishment these days. One, is President Obama's choice of former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense.
This is drawing a lot of opposition. There are people running ads against this. What's your sense of Hagel as a pick for Secretary of Defense?
KAPLAN: I think he's a fine pick for Secretary of Defense. The arguments against him, I think, are pretty ludicrous. The main substantive arguments against him are, one, that he opposed the surge in Iraq. But, you know, almost everybody opposed the surge in Iraq. Even the people who supported it, even someone like David Petraeus gave it maybe a 50 percent chance of succeeding.
And one could make the case is that really high enough odds to get more people killed, at least in the short term? The entire Joint Chiefs of Staff opposed it. Hillary Clinton opposed it. You don't see these people going after any of those guys. Second, you know, he's had some words to say about the influence of what he once called the Jewish lobby. And, you know, you have people like Elliott Abrams saying, oh, that's anti-Semitic to call it the Jewish lobby.
Well, you know, much of the Israeli press - the Israeli press - refers to APEC as the Jewish lobby. And if anybody wants to argue that APEC doesn't have disproportionate influence in the Congress of the United States, I don't think you can make that argument. I mean, it may have been impolitic, but I don't think it was incorrect.
I know some people - you know, the last few years Hagel has been head of the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. He sits in on meetings where very highly classified information is discussed, including new information on Iran and its nuclear program. I've talked with people who have been in the meetings with him. They see no sign of any ideological tilt. They see a serious guy asking serious questions and discussing the issues in a very serious way.
So I think - now, I think the defense budget is going to be cut and it's going to be cut even if there isn't a sequestering. It's going to be cut pretty heavily. And I think what really the Republicans object is that Hagel is a Republican. And so they're afraid that Obama will start cutting the defense budget and say that he's doing so with a Republican Secretary of Defense and therefore painting this as a bipartisan gesture.
That's what they're really upset about, I think.
DAVIES: Were you surprised at the decision to lift the ban on women in combat roles? I wonder if you see any fallout for the military there?
KAPLAN: I think it was going to happen at some time or another. Here's the real thing that's going on there. You know, in the old days you had combat troops and support troops. The combat troops were on the front of the battle line. The support troops were back in the rear. And you could have women back there and you had men in the front.
The kinds of wars that we've been fighting in the last 20 years, including these insurgency wars, there is no front. There is no rear. Everybody is potentially a combat soldier. Everybody is getting fired upon. Everybody is being called upon to shoot. And so there are cases - I think the reason why the Joint Chiefs of Staff are fine with this is that they themselves saw instances in Iraq, in Afghanistan, where women were doing things that in the past only men had done. And were doing it fine.
So the issue isn't any longer gender. The issue is: can this person do the job. Can the person, you know, walk 10 miles while carrying 100 pounds on his or her back? You know, the same thing happened with the fire department in New York City and many other cities. If they could pass the physical tests it doesn't really matter whether you're a man or a woman.
And, you know, the Army has had a decade or two of experience with women coming up through the ranks who are every bit as committed to the Army's mission and physically fit enough to perform a lot of, quote/unquote "combat missions."
DAVIES: As American troops pull out of Afghanistan, you know, the new center for Islamic extremism is in Mali in Northern Africa. The French, of course, have intervened there and are seeking U.S. assistance. What should the U.S. posture be?
KAPLAN: I think it should be pretty much what it is right now. You know, when Obama went into Libya with the French and Italians and NATO, somebody in the White House made an ill-advised statement that he said the policy is leading from behind. And that was pounced upon by a lot of Republicans as a non-sequitur and a cowardly sort of policy.
But viewed rationally, I think that's pretty much right. I mean, you look at Libya, you look at Mali, you have a country like France which has a vital interest in these places. We have an interest but not a vital interest. We have similar interests. The interests are the same. We are running on parallel tracks. Let them take up the bulk of it. We will do things that they can't do.
So, for example, we're providing long-range airlift - cargo transport planes that can bring in some of the weapons that they can't. We're providing the drones for surveillance. We're providing some logistics. But, hey, you know, for decades Republicans used to moan about how little the NATO allies were doing in their defense.
You know, we're carrying all the burden. The Europeans aren't doing anything. Now they're willing to do things that are in their own interest. I say let them. And to the extent that it coincides with our interests, and it doesn't cost more, that the costs to us are not incommensurate with the benefits or the gains, we'll help to the extent we can. But I think a low profile approach to this is just fine.
DAVIES: Well, Fred Kaplan, it's been interesting. Thanks so much for spending some time with us.
KAPLAN: Oh, thank you.
DAVIES: Fred Kaplan writes the War Stories column for Slate. His new book is "The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War." You can download podcasts of our show at freshair.npr.org. Follow us on Twitter at nprfreshair and on Tumblr at nprfreshair.tumblr.com. For Terry Gross, I'm Dave Davies. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | <urn:uuid:e8303d6a-f742-459f-bc63-89c91f83740d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kanw.com/post/insurgents-petraeus-and-new-kind-war | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985838 | 10,620 | 1.648438 | 2 |
At Anglicare you can talk with a counsellor one-on-one or with your family. We also run groups that you can come to with other children your age. In counselling we can talk about whatever you like.
We listen to stories about:
- Being bullied
- Parents fighting
- Parents breaking up
- Someone you love dying
- Being really angry, scared, sad or worried
- Someone hurting you
We usually meet for about half an hour once a fortnight, but that can be decided between you and your counsellor.
Stories can be told in many ways, through:
- Sand play
- Working with clay or play doh
- Puppet play
- Doll house play
- Story writing
Our counsellors are all experienced with qualifications in psychology, social work or counselling.
We see children and young people aged 4-18 years. The first session is often so your parent(s) or carer can tell us about what they want from counselling, and the next session is for you.
We provide a wide range of group based programs in both the community and schools. Some of our programs include:
- group therapy programs, such as:
- protective behaviours
- social skills
- anger management
- play/attachment groups
- a “kids club”
- family and individual support | <urn:uuid:d4fa2574-ee37-467d-8ed5-d2e70333a20c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anglicaresq.org.au/services/counselling-and-mental-health/childrens-programs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952199 | 281 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Connecticut College News
Professor awarded NEH summer stipend to continue study of labor migration in China07/8/2011
Amy Dooling, associate professor of Chinese, has been awarded an NEH summer stipend to continue her research.
Amy Dooling, associate professor of Chinese, has been awarded a $6,000 summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dooling, an expert on modern and contemporary Chinese fiction, is researching the relationship between the migration of laborers and subsequent cultural changes in post-Mao China. She is using the NEH grant to continue her research by analyzing data from previous trips overseas. Dooling is exploring the struggles of migrants and the creative expression that has grown from their experiences. She is reviewing the literary and artistic work of laborers who have relocated to urban areas. Her research includes poetry and fiction published in self-funded magazines and online forums, as well as public performances of drama and music. NEH summer stipends are highly competitive. Dooling, who has served as chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, is the author of several published works. In addition to a book-length manuscript, her recent publications include: "Writing Women in Modern China: The Revolutionary Years, 1936-1976" (Columbia University Press, 2005) and "Women's Literary Feminism in Twentieth-Century China" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). This project is 100 percent federally funded. - By Melissa Bennett | <urn:uuid:399b118c-bdc7-4cc8-980b-1a15d93fbcf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conncoll.edu/news/news-archive/2011/professor-awarded-neh-summer-stipend-to-continue-study-of-labor-migration-in-china-1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958468 | 308 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Mehndi beautifies the hands. In any occasion, without mehndi there is incompleteness. Mehndi completes the girls’ sola singhar. In muslims mehndi is usually applied on eids, weddings and other celebrations. In hindues mehnid is applied on weddding and on ther festivels as Karva Chouth, diwali, Bhaidooj and teej. Mehndi is a way of celebrating so it is an important part of different events.
Mehndi Designs are not only for the hands, it is also used to decorate the feet, neck, back, legs, belly other parts of the body. In the design of Mehndi, different shapes are made. Designs for the Hands are in different and beautiful styles.
According to different cultural background mehndi (HEENA) has different types and styles. Most famous types of mehndi designs are Arabic, Indian, Pakistani and African. Here is some information about different types of mehndi designs. And you can find the designs of each and every type on our blog.
Indian Mehndi Design:
Indian mehndi is the most popular, designs are very different. They range from simple designs to complex. Simple designs have a big dot. Finger tips are also covered by mehndi. These designs are very easy and can easily be mastered by armatures. They take very short time to be made and to be dried as well.
Complex designs include fine and heavy designs. Such designs are sketched on important occasions like wedding, nikah etc. Such designs are hard to master and they can take hours just to finish one hand’s design. Mostly such mehndi designs are worn by Indian brides.
Arabic Mehndi Designs:Arabic designs are much simpler. Arabic designs mostly consist of leaves, veins, flowers etc. These designs are perfect applicant if you want to extend the design from hand to arm or from foot to leg. Arabic Mehndi designs are most popular in especially Asian women in all over the world. Arabic Mehndi Designs for Hand are most attractive and cute
African Mehndi Designs:These mehndi designs are not filled. These designs are simple geometric shapes, consisting on lines, squares and dots. The space between the lines is not as much as that of Arabic designs. These designs cover your hands, arms like a fine mesh.
Pakistani Mehndi Designs:Pakistani mehndi designs are a combination of complex versions of Arabic and Indian mehndi designs. These designs are also much detailed and are worn by brides on mehndi, wedding. Even children wear simple edition of these mehndi designs on Eid festival.
We have a large collection of mehndi designs for you. Hope they will be helpful for you while selecting designs of mehndi for applying on any occasion, especially on Eid day. | <urn:uuid:252ff001-69f5-4ec7-abff-1074e5adb279> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newstylishfashion.net/2011/08/mehndi-designs-for-eid-special-heena.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94992 | 621 | 1.648438 | 2 |
UK Data Breach Costs Rise 68% in Five Years – Ponemon Study
The cost of a data breach for UK businesses has risen by 68% during the past five years, according to a new Ponemon Institute study, which says negligent employees and contractors pose the greatest data security risks to organizations.
Much like the U.S. study by Ponemon reported in this blog last week, organizational costs of a data breach in the UK declined from £1.9 million in 2010 to £1.75 million in 2011. The U.S. data breach report found that the average organizational cost per data breach was down 24% from 2010. That sounds good in headlines, but the fact of the matter is, the average U.S. business cost is still $5.5 million, while the cost per compromised record is estimated at $194.
For UK businesses, the average cost per lost or stolen record increased from £71 in 2010 to £79 in 2011. Employee or partner errors were attributed to 36% of UK data breaches last year, according to the study.
An analysis by InfoSecurity notes that the Ponemon report suggests that in some areas customers are becoming desensitized to data loss. Average abnormal churn decreased from 3.3% in 2010 to 2.9% in 2011. UK organizations employing a CISO with overall responsibility for enterprise data protection can reduce the average cost of a data breach by as much as £18 per compromised record, the report added.
Elsewhere in the world, the annual cost of a data breach among Australian companies was reported to be $2.61 million in 2011, a separate Ponemon report released this week found. The cost associated with the loss of a single stolen record rose from $128 in 2011 to $138 in 2011. | <urn:uuid:e0882288-dfb0-45b1-a33e-1ad367444055> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.redemtech.com/2012/03/uk-data-breach-costs-rise-68-in-five-years-ponemon-study.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963831 | 360 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The Toronto Star has published another article on the Section 23 Dufferin Peel Catholic board saga at St. Vincent De Paul elementary school. High-risk high school aged youth are sharing a school with elementary school children!
In the article, other school boards in the area, including Peel Public, Toronto Catholic, and Toronto Public boards understand that high school kids should be put in age appropriate settings. They also have a consultation with the community prior to putting a Section 23 class in high schools. These boards do not put high school aged kids in elementary schools.
Dufferin Peel Catholic claims to have this program in place for 20 years and yet they have no guidelines, policy or process to inform parents, consult the community or implement safety and security. It is left to the Principal and the PTA to decide whether they want to release this critical information. As I mentioned in my first post regarding this issue, this is an epic fail.
It is time for the Dufferin Peel Catholic Board to follow suit and listen to the parents and their colleagues. Put these high risk youth in an age appropriate school.
The parents are going to turn up the pressure until this issue is resolved. All parents please comment!
Update: The Section 23 program is also in St. Pio of Pietrelcina. I do not know if the parents of St. Pio are aware of this. More to come…
Update: This story also appears in the Mississauga News. You can also comment on their site. | <urn:uuid:4ce36dfc-dd46-4939-a1f6-8955dbe48bae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://supportspy.com/blog/st-vincent-de-paul/update-3-teens-put-in-age-appropriate-settings-in-other-boards | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963363 | 306 | 1.796875 | 2 |
In New York State, patronizing a prostitute is a Class A misdemeanor. Theoretically, offenders can get up to a year in jail, but most are issued a desk ticket and walk away with a small fine and maybe some community service. (The crime becomes a felony only if the prostitute is under 14.)
Among Eliot Spitzer’s one-time comrades in the effort to shut down human trafficking is Norma Ramos of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Ms. Ramos, who works out of a serene, unmarked office not far from the Korean brothels in the 30s, is a self-described “product of the New York City foster care system” who equates prostitution with slavery and calls herself an “abolitionist.”
Ms. Ramos was one of the advocates who arranged for Mr. Kelly to meet with what they call “prostituted women”—placing the responsibility on the traffickers and customers, a distinction that has rankled advocates for the rights of “sex workers.”
“I say to them, ‘Why should anyone have to give a blow job to eat a sandwich?’” Ms. Ramos said. “They stopped inviting me to debates, because they can’t answer how that is empowering.”
For their part, supporters of sex workers, like the writer Melissa Gira Grant, assail the new abolitionists as prudish “moralists” who don’t get that sex work is just another part of the service industry. “There’s nothing feminist or new in the current wave of antiprostitution reformers who say … that all sex work is ‘sexual enslavement,’” she wrote last year in The Guardian.
Ms. Ramos and her fellow abolitionists frame prostitution as a gender-bias issue. “We live in a world where the whole enforcement apparatus around prostitution is constructed in a hugely, chokingly gender-biased manner,” she said. “Those who are sold are overwhelmingly female. And the buyers and sellers are overwhelmingly male. And resources always go toward arresting the victims. But if we stand a chance of putting the trafficking industry out of business we have to end the demand.”
Melissa Farley, director of Prostitution Research and Education in San Francisco, produced a 2003 study based on interviews with 854 prostituted women around the world. She found that 68 percent of them met the criteria for PTSD. “The most severe damage of prostitution is not physical, it’s psychological,” she said. “The rates of PTSD are among the highest of any group ever studied.”
Prostitution, Ms. Ramos argued, has created “a class of human beings that are not allowed to say no.”
Former diplomat and Texas oil heiress Swanee Hunt has poured millions into the antitrafficking movement. Her Demand Abolition project surveyed 202 johns in Boston and found some disturbing attitudes. “I’ve never had emotional encounters with a prostitute,” said one unnamed survey respondent. “You tell a girl, like, can I put it in your ass and she’s like, ‘Oohh, I really like that.’ That has a good physiological effect.” More crucially, the survey found twice the level of criminality among the sex buyers it interviewed as among the nonbuyers.
The study recommended that police departments like Dallas, which have started to take DNA swabs of prostitutes they arrest—claiming that such women are more likely to be the victims of homicide—should start swabbing johns instead, since they are more likely to be involved in criminal behavior.
The “50 beauties” employed by Ms. Gristina, as the New York Post put it, were said to be a different type than the women enslaved by sex traffickers. They weren’t hookers, they were “escorts,” who come at a higher price and provide services that go beyond sex. Chief among such premium services is what Canadian journalist Victor Malarek, who has written a book on the john culture, calls the “Girlfriend Experience” or GFE (the basis for the Sasha Grey movie). | <urn:uuid:91754227-4f91-42c5-a7a1-69f47551943c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://observer.com/2012/03/with-piggy-loving-madam-cooling-her-heels-in-rikers-will-her-clients-get-off/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96012 | 898 | 1.75 | 2 |
The Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court says the state’s goal of boosting the number of so-called accountability courts will increase public safety. Justice Carol Hunstein made the remarks to the state legislature in her annual State of the Judiciary Wednesday.
Chief Justice Hunstein says no one doubts that Georgia is tough on crime.
In 1994, she said the state declared a sentencing policy of ‘two strikes and you’re out’ – tougher than the national trend of imposing a life sentence after the third serious offense.
But she says non-violent offenders become hardened criminals in prison:
“The bottom line is: all those three-year mandatory minimum sentences and get-tough prison measures did little to reduce our three-year reconviction rate, which has held steady for the past decade at nearly 30 percent,” she said.
In last year’s speech, Hunstein urged lawmakers to tackle sentencing reform. Soon after, Gov. Nathan Deal created a task force that’s now recommending the state set up specialized courts to deal with low-level drug offenses and other non-violent crimes.
In her speech, Justice Hunstein said it’s time to consider a similar reform for juvenile offenders.
She says state cuts to social services are taking a toll.
“Juvenile judges are too often faced with sending young people to locked facilities to get some kind of treatment or sending them home, where they get no treatment at all,” she said.
There are already 100 specialized courts in Georgia for offenders suffering from drug addiction or mental illness.
Deal is seeking $10 million in the 2013 budget for these courts. | <urn:uuid:13d8ad39-3e32-413b-97f3-bac938bb71b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gpb.org/news/2012/01/25/top-judge-surveys-georgia-judiciary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952685 | 344 | 1.757813 | 2 |
"Dear, I am a Truitt."
Having seen my Gran's signature on a dedication of a set of books to my elementary school when I was about 8 years old, I asked her about her name. I mean, I'd never seen her sign her name with "Truitt," and her reply was, "Dear, I am a Truitt." Nothing more and nothing less, but I remember she said it definitively. Like it didn't need any more explanation. Like her declaration was enough.
Now I "Get It"
However, apparently I needed more clarification. I've researched them, and now I "get it." I know what and who a Truitt is, and now that my Gran is gone, I wish I could ask her if she knew how she was a Truitt, or if she just had been raised with a certain attitude. An attitude that included pride, patriotism, and a long history.
George Truitt I
I would really like to know if my Gran knew her 6th great-grandfather was George Truitt I [a.k.a. "The Immigrant"], and that he was a Quaker. A man from England who came to Virginia in about 1635, married an Alice Watson who was also a Quaker, and was brought up on fornication charges in Accomack County, Virginia because he hadn't been married in the Church of England and the government did not recognize his marriage.
James Truitt I
Did my Gran know that her 5th great-grandfather was George I's son, James Truitt I? A man who married Mary Riley [another Mary ~ *rolling eyes heavenward*], daughter of Thomas Riley, Sr., and who sold his land that he'd inherited from his father ~Muddy Creek Plantation~ in Accomack Co., VA and with his brother, George II, moved to Somerset Co. Maryland to escape religious persecution in Virginia. Did she know that after Mary died James married her sister, Sarah Riley?
James Truitt II
Did my Gran know that James I and Mary [Riley] Truitt had a son named James II, who after his father died in 1718 was in charge of raising his brothers and sisters on the plantation in Somerset Co., MD?
Did she know that James II, her 4th great-grandfather, married Sarah Williams and bought land at "Chestnut Oak Ridge" in Worcester Co., MD with one of their sons, Riley, and that James II died in a year of great upheaval in the colonies, on the brink of the start of this great nation in 1775? That two of his grandsons ~Purnal/Purnell and James~ would fight in the American Revolution?
Did she know her 3rd great-grandfather was Peter, one of James II's and Sarah's sons, and that he, along with other Truitt family members, moved to Sussex Co, Delaware? That he met and married Elizabeth "Betty" Tatman [daughter of William Tatman] in 1759 in Sussex Co., Delaware?
John Burton Truitt
Did she know her 2nd great-grandfather was one of Peter's and Betty's sons, John Burton Truitt [b. 1771] who met and married Nancy Ross [daughter of William Ross, who signed an Oath of Allegiance to Delaware] and that their first child, Elizabeth, was born in Sussex Co., Delaware, but their next two children ~2 sons~ William Riley and Weldon were born in Kentucky? That John Burton and Nancy pulled up stakes and moved westward looking for new opportunities? That, sadly, Nancy died in 1802 in Fayette Co., Kentucky? That John immediately remarried in 1802 to Amelia [but everyone called her Milly] Gilbert and would continue westward through Logan County, Kentucky to Ralls County, Missouri, having 11 more children and finally dying in 1838 in Ralls County, MO? Did she know that John Burton's 3rd cousin was the 18th governor of Delaware, George Truitt?
William Riley Truitt
Did she know that her great-grandfather's name was William Riley, the son of John Burton and Nancy [Ross] Truitt, and that after his first wife's death [Catherine A. Morrow], he married Miranda Hurt [daughter of John Hurt] in Warren Co, KY in 1829? That their 12th child, Leroy Wood Truitt [born in Warren Co, KY] was her grandfather?
Leroy Wood Truitt
Did she know that after her grandfather's older brother fought in the Civil War, her grandfather, Leroy, lived with him in Marshall Co., KY? Did she know that Leroy met and married Magdalen A. McGee in Marshall Co, KY? That their first born son was born in Paducah, McCracken Co., KY, while their next 4 children were born back in Marshall Co., KY? That their first born was Claudius Roy Truitt ~her father [a.k.a the "jerk"]?
Claudius Roy Truitt
Did she know they pulled up their stakes and moved to Missouri, where Leroy's uncles, aunts, and cousins were located? That they had 3 more children there before moving on to Dallas, Texas sometime before 1900? That in the 1900 census, her father, Claudius Roy Truitt, was listed as being a salesman in San Antonio? Did she know what he sold?
Did she know that her father, Claudius Roy Truitt, met and married her mother Alice Vaughn in San Antonio, Texas in 1901? Did she know why my mother called him a "jerk?" Did she think her father was a "jerk?"
Yup, Another Mary... [Sigh.]
I may never know exactly what my Gran, Mary Alice Truitt Blacketer knew about her family. I may never know why my mother thought her grandfather was a "jerk." I do know, though, that just because somebody can be a "jerk," doesn't mean that they were a complete "jerk," and whatever he did to make my mother think he was one, doesn't mean Claudius Roy Truitt was a complete "jerk." [Of course, he might've been ~ I don't know.]
Far Be It From Me To Tell Them What They Should've Done, But...
It may mean, perhaps, he should've left behind his memoirs, so that we'd know exactly who and what he was and what he knew, if anything. That perhaps along the way through the generations of these Truitt's, an oral history ~or even better a written history~ should've been passed down of the triumphs and tribulations that this family went through, so that it wasn't just a feeling or attitude passed down, but the family's history.
So that today's Truitt's would know the part the past Truitt's played in American history.
So they'd know why they are able to worship freely in these United States.
So they'd know the Truitt's contributions to many states including Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri ~ to name a few.
So they'd know the "jerks" in the family too, or maybe just the "jerky" decisions made by imperfect people.
For, dear reader, even if Claudius Roy Truitt was indeed a complete "jerk," one "jerk" does not a family history make.
My proud and patriotic Gran did pass down one thing about her Truitt's to me. Something tangible. Something I can hold onto.
That I, too, am a Truitt. | <urn:uuid:151ead29-7d2b-430d-af60-a094819a8542> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yourfamilystory-cmpointer.blogspot.jp/2010/02/one-jerk-does-not-family-history-make.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988416 | 1,584 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The pros and cons of using SMS as a mobile app marketing tool
About a year ago, a social media expert predicted that before this decade ends, SMS as we know it will be dead. Around the same time, a report from the Pew Institute suggested that text messaging growth was already leveling off. The introduction of iMessaging in iOS 5 was interpreted by some as a final nail in SMS's coffin. If developers still considered SMS as part of their mobile app marketing strategy, it may have been too late.
More recently, however, a growing number of voices are suggesting the death of SMS, impeding or otherwise, is greatly exaggerated. Bloggers have pointed to data which indicates that in countries like the United States, SMS has overtaken voice calling in terms what users do with their smartphones. Firms like Portio Research show a bright future ahead for SMS, and firms like Tyntec continue to offer products and service to enable text messaging as part of the app experience.
Source: Jhaymesisviphotography/ Creative Commons
Last week, Tyntec released a white paper urging developers to capitalize on the potential of SMS as a way of acquiring and retaining the large proportion of consumers who tend to download apps and then abandon them. According to Markus Luehe, Tyntec's business development director, this has been the biggest pain point he's heard from developers at conferences and other industry events. SMS, he said, is a way to bridge the gap between how developers move from the Web to mobile.
"I think because app developers live in what you would call a social space, they have these skills [to use SMS] naturally," he said. "That's what they do day by day. SMS is just another channel and another opportunity to activate new users and reactivate old ones."
Mobile marketing isn't limited to SMS
Mobile marketers don't necessarily disagree. Jeff Rutherford, co-founder of APPetite PR, said SMS is just one of a wide range of techniques and tactics to build compelling user experiences, and to encourage repeat app usage. Others include social media sharing and device reminders. "We recommend that developers consider all avenues to building those compelling user experiences, including using SMS to communicate with their users," he said. "If developers treat it with care--for example, if they don't annoy users with repeated SMS messages in one day or one week--SMS can be a powerful tool."
Peggy Ann Salz, analyst with Mobile Groove who authored the Tyntec white paper, goes even further, suggesting that "SMS is the most effective marketing channel there is," and that retention should be top of mind for any app developer who wants to grow.
"Up until now most of them have been very focused on building their apps. What needs to happen is to turn a hobby into a serious business," she said. "It's starting to dawn on app developers that they are not just CEOs and CIOs of their companies but also the CMOs."
Tyntec sees SMS as a way to have a more immediate connection between developers and users. Salz said this will be important as more app downloads are driven by recommendations via trusted sources. "The core of text messaging is the expectation on the part of the user that this is going to be a conversation. You listen, you get back to me," she said. There's a social contract here."
Not everyone sees SMS as a way of keeping users engaged, however. Greg Hickman, a mobile marketing consultant and the founder of MobileMixed.com, said in an e-mail to FierceDeveloper that it may be better for developers to focus more on creating apps that people can't live without vs. figuring out a way to re-engage them after they've lost interest.
"They deleted your app for a reason. In my experience I'd possibly go as far to say that it would be appropriate to send those users one--only one--SMS in an attempt to re-engage. But, more importantly let me know why the[y] deleted the app," he said. "The problem is that most apps outside of news and entertainment serve no ongoing utility for the user that they need to continually come back time and time again."
Brian Akaka, founder and CEO of mobile marketing agency Appular, said developers need to think about the differences between SMS and push notifications.
"You need to know your users' phone numbers in order to send them an SMS. Most apps do not have access to a phone's number," he pointed out. "There is an unavoidable unit cost to sending an SMS, since you must send the SMS through the phone carriers' dedicated SMS system, whereas push notifications don't have any unit costs themselves."
Whichever options they choose, the key is figuring out the right frequency based on user's preferences, Hickman added.
"I agree that using SMS to make announcements related to the app and updates could be valuable as long as they are not being delivered via push as well. That would be over-communication," Hickman said. "Developers should look to connect with users in whichever way is stated by that user. For some that may be SMS, [for] others email…[for] others, push." | <urn:uuid:1eb4eabe-2475-4217-b499-6f2c89fb5173> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/node/4244/print | 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 | 0.970988 | 1,082 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
Gulf Oil Spill
Sun July 25, 2010
Operations Resume at BP Well Site
By Eileen Fleming
New Orleans, La. – Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says pressure readings and seismic tests indicate the broken well line is intact. He says it should be able to handle heavy mud that will be pumped down through the containment cap in the next few days in a process called a static kill. The ultimate solution remains the relief well killing the broken well from the bottom, which is expected by the middle of next month.
"I think we've learned early on we need to continue to understand we'll do the best thing we can to the optimum outcome right now is to lay that casing pump, do the static kill and proceed with the well intercept."
Meantime, ships are getting ready to stand by with production equipment in case the relief well doesn't work. Allen says the government is requiring the system be capable of capturing up to 80,000 barrels a day.
For NPR News, I'm Eileen Fleming in New Orleans. | <urn:uuid:ba11d591-0223-407e-8c02-8b357ab9b839> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wwno.org/post/operations-resume-bp-well-site | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949621 | 219 | 1.757813 | 2 |
To become a member of APEGM, a person must meet the following criteria:
Note: Technician or technologist degrees or diplomas alone are not sufficient and will be referred to the Certified Technicians and Technologists of Manitoba (CTTAM) for evaluation.
In order to determine if these criteria have been met, an IEEG must go through the following steps:
* Required for a full academic assessment.
It is recommended that you make an appointment with the Assessment Officer to review your documentation and ensure it is complete.
Note: Non-Engineering Bachelor's of Science degrees will not qualify for academic assessment, unless there is a subsequent post-graduate degree in engineering.
Exams are assigned to confirm the level of a degree, and in some cases to fill gaps between an applicant's degree program and the CEQB requirements. Options are available to satisfy exam requirements:
Confirmatory exams are meant to confirm knowledge, not to fill gaps. If you believe you have taken certain topics, these are topics you should choose to be examined in.
Once the date of academic qualification has been determined by one of the methods above, an IEEG will receive a letter inviting him or her to apply for the pre-registration program.
The National Professional Practice Exam (PPE) is typically written towards the end of the experience review process. It can be completed sooner if desired, but is required prior to registration.
A high level of language proficiency is necessary for internationally educated engineers and geoscientists to access more opportunities in the field in Manitoba. It is critical the IEEGs understand that limited English language proficiency may affect one's ability to advance in the profession, regardless of the degree of their technical skills.
For candidates who did not receive their academic education (undergraduate or graduate degree) in English, it is strongly recommended that they demonstrate a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) Level 8 in Reading and Writing before applying to write the CEQB examinations assigned by the Academic Review Committee.
In addition, to be eligible to enter the IEEQ program, an IEEG must demonstrate a CLB level 8 in all four skills (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking).
To arrange for a free language test to determine your CLB levels, contact the Winnipeg English Language Assessment and Referral Centre (WELARC). Note that if your CLB level is one or two benchmarks below the required level, you may receive a referral from WELARC to access language training programs.
Engineers Canada has launched a website to help newcomers plan their engineering careers. This site builds on changes to Canada's immigration system to help international engineering graduates begin their career in Canada more quickly and efficiently.
This website is a GUIDE only. Please contact APEGM for the information which pertains to Manitoba. If there are differences between the Engineers Canada website and APEGM's procedures, APEGM's procedures will be followed.
The Academic Assessment Officer can help you with any questions or guidance. | <urn:uuid:bdf3804d-4be8-47f9-9f99-e181f1e66106> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apegm.mb.ca/IEEG.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939406 | 615 | 1.585938 | 2 |
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It’s easy to freeze motion with a camera. Usually, a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second to 1/2000th of a second will freeze just about anything or anyone in place. But sometimes, that won’t matter. Some things that move should be shown moving. The problem is, you end up on the other end of the spectrum and the subject just looks blurry. The solution is to pan the camera with the subject to blur the background but yet, retain enough sharpness on the subject to convey the story.
The key to this is getting the right shutter speed first. Usually 1/30 to 1/60th of a second is a good starting point depending on ISO and the amount of ambient light. It takes several tries but start there. You don’t want a shutter speed that is too fast because that freezes everything. You don’t want one that is too slow because that makes everything too blurry.
The next thing to think about is focus. If you have fast autofocus, you should set it to work with moving subjects. If you don’t have AF you should manually pre-focus on a spot where you hope to intercept the action and go from there.
Once that’s all set, and you think you have the proper general exposure, you just have to practice moving the camera in unison with the subject.
I find that positioning myself at a 90 degree angle to the subject and background works best. I like to bend my knees in a wide stance so I can picture my body as a tripod with a head on it rotating through the shot.
Snap the picture at the point where you want the subject to intersect with the background. Repeat this using different shutter speeds until you get the result you want.
Be sure to try to keep the camera level as you pan with the action.
Sometimes you can use a flash to stop the action of the subject, while still blurring the background. This is a more advanced technique that I won’t cover here, but know that it is an option.
You should know that even the pros have to sometimes make several tries to get the shot they want. Be patient and work at it. It all boils down to timing. So make lots of attempts and eventually you’ll get the shot.
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, June 7, 2009 (ENS) - The Environmental Impact Report for a major expansion at the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, California is inadequate, a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge has ruled in a case brought by environmental, community, and public health groups.
In her decision Friday, Judge Barbara Zuniga decided that the environmental review failed to disclose that the proposed expansion would allow Chevron to process heavier crude oil than the facility processes now.
Three groups sued the City of Richmond for accepting a flawed Environmental Impact Report that did not fully analyze the project's health and environmental impacts.
The groups claimed that heavier crude oil can contain higher amounts of contaminants, such as mercury and selenium, which can cause serious health problems.
Judge Zuniga wrote, "The [Final Environmental Impact Report] project description is unclear and inconsistent as to whether [the] project will or will not enable Chevron to process a heavier crude slate than it is currently processing."
The court also held that the city improperly allowed Chevron to wait a year after the Environmental Impact Report process was completed before developing a plan to mitigate its greenhouse gases.
This is one of the first decisions addressing the deferral of greenhouse gas mitigations under the California Environmental Quality Act, says Earthjustice attorney Will Rostov, who argued the case for the plaintiff groups.
Chevron's oil refinery in Richmond, California (Photo by Todd Port)
Finally, the court agreed with plaintiffs that the Environmental Impact Report had omitted an important component of the expansion, a hydrogen pipeline. The pipeline would attach to a newly approved hydrogen plant - one of the project's four key components - and stretch to the ConocoPhillips Rodeo Refinery and Shell's Martinez refinery.
"The City of Richmond signed off on an oil refinery expansion plan that likely would have opened the gates for Chevron to refine heavier, dirtier crude oil," said Rostov. "This could have increased pollution in Richmond and surrounding areas."
"The decision is a victory for the community," said Koy Seng Saechao, a community leader with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, one of the plaintiff groups. "We need green and healthy solutions from Chevron and our city, not more pollution. The decision protects my family and neighbors from even more pollution and allows us to plan for a healthier future."
Chevron's Richmond Refinery is one of the largest and oldest refineries on the West Coast, producing petroleum products since the early 20th century. It covers 2,900 acres, has 5,000 miles of pipelines, and hundreds of large tanks that can hold up to 15 million barrels of crude, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, lube oil, wax, and other chemicals produced by the refinery.
Chevron first approached the the City of Richmond about the expansion project in October 2004.
In 2008, the city issued a permit to Chevron to expand the refinery, allowing it to process low-quality crude oil, including tar sands, and export hydrogen to four other Bay Area oil refineries.
According to the Expert Report of G.E. Dolbear & Associates, Inc. prepared for the California Attorney General, the increased refinery capacity "will allow Chevron to process increased levels of heavier crudes, and, if it does so, the refinery will likely increase its emissions of pollutants."
The Dolbear report also states, "If this Project enables Chevron to use a different, dirtier crude mix with greater polluting potential, this fact is not disclosed in the FEIR and the FEIR is legally deficient under CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] on this issue."
The Chevron expansion project has been subject of a two year campaign by the nonprofit group Communities for a Better Environment, which is demanding no net pollution increase, a fund for Richmond's future, and public involvement, including recirculation of the Environmental Impact Report.
In September 2008, Communities for a Better Environment, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, and West County Toxics filed the lawsuit to force the city to revise and recirculate the EIR, disclosing, analyzing and mitigating the project's environmental health and justice impacts.
Communities in Richmond, particularly low-income and communities of color, already suffer from industrial pollution-related health problems, including high rates of asthma and cancer. The Chevron refinery is the largest industrial polluter in the region.
"Chevron must stop its toxic assault on poor people of color," said Dr. Henry Clark of the plaintiff West County Toxics Coalition. "This is a significant environmental justice victory for Richmond and the country."
"Protecting our communities from additional toxic and global warming pollution is a huge victory," said Jessica Tovar, a community organizer with Communities for a Better Environment. "This is an opportunity to invest in clean green energy as a solution, instead of compromising our health by locking in a generation of refining dirtier crude oil."
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2009. All rights reserved.
|International Hydropower Association accused of excluding indigenous peoples and supporting Taib’s corruption USCC Releases Model Rule for Composting Operations ADA Carbon Solutions Announces New Hire of Vice President of Sales and Key Executive Promotions| | <urn:uuid:c574580b-ebb5-4635-99e8-e55477faa9cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2009/2009-06-07-091.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936249 | 1,060 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Lower eyelid and puffiness under eye (only 1 eye)
My son is 3 months old. Since birth, one of his eyelids has been noticeably lower than the other. From my understanding (and the Pediatrician), it is not a lazy eye as his vision is not impacted. However, he does have a puffiness under that same eye. It is always there, not just when he wakes up. I should mention that he has had torticollis (twisted neck) which is now almost gone. I just want to be sure there is nothing more concerning about his eye.
Also, does anyone know if there is a way to help him strengthen his eyelid so that it is more symmetrical with the other?
|All times are GMT -7. The time now is 12:07 PM.| | <urn:uuid:44a18791-73b4-4ebb-b65c-f8149107c689> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthboards.com/boards/eye-vision/865750-lower-eyelid-puffiness-under-eye-only-1-eye-print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992179 | 170 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Find answers to questions such as: What makes an ERM program effective? How should it be implemented?
How Strong Is Your Environmental Risk Policy?
As if there were not enough compliance issues to tackle during these trying times, here is one more: Is your bank’s environmental policy for commercial real estate up to date and does it meet your risk tolerances and the bank’s potential risks due to environmental issues?
The FDIC says, “The potential adverse effect of environmental contamination on the value of real property and the potential for liability under various environmental laws have become important factors in evaluating real estate transactions and making loans secured by real estate. Environmental contamination and liability associated with it may have a significant adverse effect on the value of real estate collateral, which may in certain circumstances cause an insured institution to abandon its right to the collateral.”
“As the economic landscape slowly comes out of the woods, banks have recently seen a rise in loan demand for real estate purchases; there are many buying opportunities for business owners as well as investors,” according to Marianne Plant, vice president-credit administration, senior credit officer at Tradition Bank in Houston, Texas. “As one of the many healthy community banks that made it through the recession, we do not want to make the same mistakes of the banks that are experiencing long, slow recoveries.
“Accordingly, many lenders, such as our community bank, have a much lower risk tolerance and are tightening our due diligence policies to ensure that high-risk contaminated properties do not end up in our loan portfolios,” Plant continued. “We are considering environmental assessments and associated environmental liabilities in the credit and collateral risk evaluations, and providing additional environmental risk training for our lending staff to ensure that we truly understand the environmental issues and risks in the reports that we order, and that risks could be inherent in all property types.”
Many lending institutions have environmental policies but are not sure how to implement their policies effectively. According to the FDIC, “Institutions need to implement an environmental risk program in order to evaluate the potential adverse effect of environmental contamination on the value of real property and the potential environmental liability associated with the real property.”
The main components of a lender’s environmental risk policy should include purpose, policy statement, identification of environmentally sensitive industries, and the environmental evaluation process, including existing loans with environmental exposure, questionnaires and vendor qualifications. Be aware that loan amounts may dictate that your internal policy be more stringent than what a government entity requires or what another lender’s risk policy entails. Therefore, knowing your bank’s risk tolerances and following your policy should result in fewer headaches and trouble-free audits.
“I think in today’s environment, younger bankers do not realize that past uses of properties can also have had historically environmentally sensitive businesses that may not be evident when looking at the property today,” said Buzz Stagg, executive vice president and chief credit officer for Green Bank in Houston. Old buildings may have lead-based paint that could result in liability depending on the property’s use, or asbestos products that may affect remodeling or require a management plan. While these activities with toxic chemicals or products may not have been used in many years, the liability may still be lurking for lenders and their customers.”
As surprising as it seems, not all environmental reports are created equal. Why is this so important? The FDIC says this: “The failure of an institution to evaluate potential environmental risks associated with real property may contribute to an institution’s inability to collect on its loans and affect the institution’s financial condition. It is also possible for an institution to be held directly liable for the environmental cleanup of real property collateral acquired by the institution. The cost of such a cleanup may exceed by many times the amount of the loan made to the borrower.”
Before accepting a report by an environmental consultant that has not been qualified by your institution, it is recommended that, at a minimum, any examinations are conducted by an environmental professional by the EPA’s definition 40 CFR 312 and the reports follow the current ASTM standards and EPA All Appropriate Inquiries rule.
“Over the past several years in banking, I have seen controversies concerning environmental risk topics, such as unimproved land,” according to Plant. “Some lenders do not perceive unimproved land as an environmental risk.
Nevertheless, I have seen environmental issues pertaining to a potential purchase on unimproved acreage in a rural area outside the Houston city limits. The environmental assessment revealed that there was a shooting range adjacent to the subject property that had contaminated a section of the proposed raw land to be purchased, thus requiring a site cleanup.
“Additionally, there were potential stormwater issues and wetland concerns. The present owner of the property was unaware of these circumstances,” said Plant. “Consequently, without an environmental assessment, these risks would not have been identified and the potential owner and customer could have inherited these issues. Going forward, the banking industry should see an increase in environmental due diligence for all types of properties.”
In a big hurry? Heed caution; the EPA is allowed 20 calendar days (per the ASTM standard) to complete the Phase I report and buried somewhere in the fine print from the consultant may be a disclaimer stating that you did not give him enough time to complete proper due diligence. Also, ASTM non-scope considerations (i.e., asbestos, lead based paint) may be erroneously included in the Phase I report and many times without the required licensed/certified individuals making those statements.
“A significant number of loans became troubled during the recession largely due to hard economic times for our borrowers,’’ said Aaron Sessions, environmental officer at Zions First National in Salt Lake City. “We have learned the hard way on a few loans when we didn’t really understand the environmental risk prior to making the loan, but we got the opportunity to understand it very well after making the loan. Environmental risk is a costly and time-consuming problem for financial institutions that we are working hard to minimize in the future.”
Points to Remember
- Know your consultants’ qualifications; review their current licenses, certifications and insurance policies.
- Phase I/Phase II reports should meet or exceed the current ASTM standard and EPA AAI Rule.
- Keep current; understand and follow the bank’s policy for conventional and government-guaranteed loans, foreclosures, etc.
Melanie Edmundson is principal, co-owner, Phase Engineering Inc., environmental consultants based in Houston, Texas. Contact her at melanie(at)phaseengineering.com.
Copyright (c) June 2012 by BankNews Media | <urn:uuid:7459f7a8-720c-4e53-bacc-2cd497617035> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.banknews.com/Single-News-Page.51.0.html?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=16528&tx_ttnews[backPid]=996&cHash=fc55a02b52 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95846 | 1,402 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Twas The Night Before Christmas: Edited by Santa Claus for the Benefit of Children of the 21st CenturyThe book is a yet-another-publication of Clement Moore's classic poem, but the publisher and illustrator have excised this iconic passage: "The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath."
Here's some commentary from a StarTribune column:
Not surprisingly, controversy has ensued, with the American Library Association protesting and Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert labeling the act "political cor-Xmas."..sanitizing of a famous photo of Winston Churchill by the removal of his cigar stub, and the printing of a U.S. postage stamp with the cigarette plucked from the fingers of the actress.
"I want people to get mad at tobacco, not librarians fighting with me. All parents don't want their children to smoke, so we're all on the same page." "I'm not cleaning up the most famous poem in the English language," McColl said. "I'm just coming at it from a smoking angle."
With regard to the latter, here is the incisive commentary of Roger Ebert:
Depriving Bette Davis of her cigarette reminds me of Soviet revisionism, when disgraced party officials disappeared from official photographs. Might as well strip away the toupees of Fred Astaire and Jimmy Stewart...
... Look, I hate smoking. It took my parents from me, my father with lung cancer, my mother with emphysema... When my mother was breathing oxygen through a tube, she'd take out the tube, turn off the oxygen, and light up. I avoid smokers. It isn't allowed in our house. When I see someone smoking, it feels like I'm watching them bleed themselves, one drip at a time.
So we've got that established. On the other hand, I have never objected to smoking in the movies, especially when it is necessary to establish a period or a personality. I simply ask the movies to observe that, these days, you rarely see someone smoking except standing outside a building, on a battleground, in a cops' hangout, in a crack house, in rehab, places like that. In an ordinary context, giving a character a cigarette is saying either (1) this is a moron, or (2) this person will die...
Two of the most wonderful props in film noir were cigarettes and hats. They added interest to a close up or a two-shot... These days men don't smoke and don't wear hats. When they lower their heads, their eyes aren't shaded. Cinematographers have lost invaluable compositional tools. The coil of smoke rising around the face of a beautiful women added allure and mystery. Remember Marlene Dietrich. She was smoking when she said, "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily."
...Movies can't rewrite reality. The MPAA cautiously mentions smoking in their descriptions of movie ratings (even if it's the Cheshire Cat and his hookah). If, by the time you're old enough to sit through a movie, you haven't heard that smoking is bad for you, you don't need a movie rating, you need a foster home. | <urn:uuid:4186c0f8-8613-4e2a-84ea-369f3106a9b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2012/12/should-santa-claus-be-depicted-as.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972477 | 679 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Boris Johnson: international political phenomenon, recently elected to a second stint as Mayor of London and described by Jeremy Paxman as “hairdresser’s despair”. Johnson is féted as the revival of the old school Tory of PG Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh novels – classically ‘posh’, undeniably privileged and a political cartoonist’s dream.
In spite of his reputation as an insult to the political classes and example of the ‘born-to-lead’ type now said to dominate the Conservatives Boris is immensely popular, and perhaps a little more need be said about this rogue element.
A former editor of The Spectator Boris has had his finger on the pulse of UK politics for a while now. Interviewing Lord Bingham for the publication in 2002 he discusses the creation of a Supreme Court in this country (now come to fruition) and delivers a typical Boris performance: “Lord Bingham is a wiry, athletic-looking fellow”. He has a reputation for haughty honesty, willingness to get involved and weakness for anything bicycle-related.
As for earlier life, he explains an exit from a career in management consultancy: “Try as I might, I could not look at an overhead projection of a growth profit matrix, and stay conscious.” His extra-mayoral career has had ups and downs, when standing for Rector of the University of Edinburgh in 2006 he prompted an unprecedented high turnout to make sure he didn’t get the post (finishing third of four) – clearly a man with a tendency to polarise public opinion.
As Mayor of London he has been successful, his campaign message this year highlighted previous achievement and a good track record: “the murder rate is down by a quarter, crime on buses by over a third. We have increased investment in our creaking transport infrastructure, and cut tube delays by 40 per cent.” Okay, so Boris only won by a 3pc margin over Labour’s Ken Livingstone (former mayor and polar opposite of Johnson) but it cannot be argued that the ‘Boris effect’ isn’t immensely powerful.
Boris has been in the news recently due to his criticism of the BBC being overtly left wing and biased against the Tories. In his column for The Daily Telegraph he criticises the “mentality of the BBC man” for holding “an innocent belief that everything in life should be “free” ”. Boris drops the bombshell when he states the British Broadcasting Corporation is “statist, corporatist, defeatist, anti-business, Europhile and, above all, overwhelmingly biased to the Left”. He calls for a Tory successor to the post of Director General this Autumn in a hope to help Britain rediscover it’s “spirit of enterprise”.
But surely being lefty and rude to politicians and the rich is sort of, well, the job of the BBC? Harriet Harman tweeted that Boris should stay out of it. A BBC spokesperson told the Huffington Post that “Our approach means asking difficult questions of politicians”. Labour MP Ian Austin tweeted that “BBC job is holdng(sic) politicians 2 account”. Dare we examine whether the BBC goes too far when it comes ‘2’ politicians? Or whether the Labour party should get to work on an economic policy instead of spending all day on Twitter?
The BBC programme Newsnight hosted by media attack dog Jeremy Paxman is a great platform for a bit of old fashioned bullying and character assassination under the banner of ‘holding politicians to account’. In October 2011 JP started his interview with Boris by calling him a “hairdresser’s despair”. Well used to underhand and lazy insults from those with no accountability Johnson chooses to ignore Paxman in order to get on with the interview (focussing on the significance of the London riots of last Summer). Paxman, sensing the opportunity to maul Johnson on the original topic slipping away, quickly turns the conversation towards Boris’ potential candidacy for future Conservative leadership. As mayor of the city one would think that Johnson has a certain interest in talking about London and not indulging Paxman’s idle speculation. Boris good-humouredly says how the main differences between himself and the PM is their bodyweight, and tennis ability. Paxman furiously decries the politician for his childishness: begging the question – if you wanted a serious interview why kick-off with a quip about the hairstyle of the Mayor of London?
Whether this treatment is reserved exclusively for Tories (or people with eccentric hair) is a discussion for another day, but surely the BBC would reduce the accusation of bias if they employed interviewers with a little more modesty than the likes of Jeremy Paxman and John Humphreys. The Today Programme is the breakfast listening of many and is rarely without a bit of minister-bashing, perhaps the BBC should consider whether people want to hear terrified young MPs being shouted at by stale interviewers over the chance to hear a bit of, dare I say it, informative broadcasting?
Are Boris Johnson and Jeremy Paxman so different? Paxman left an exclusive private school for Cambridge where he was some time member of the Labour Club. Boris left Eton for Oxford where he was a member of the exlusive Bullingdon Club – backgrounds identical in privilege but with Boris choosing the Tory path to wealth and Paxman the noble role of servant of the public in broadcasting? Nowadays Paxman receives over a million pounds a year from the BBC (funded by the British taxpayer) and Boris gets a mayoral wage of £143,000 (paid for by taxes). During his first term as mayor Boris introduced the ‘freedom pass’ to give elderly Londoners free access to public transport 24 hours a day. In that four years was there a 24 hour period in which Jeremy Paxman took the sour puss off his face?
Blondes have more fun.
- steeltraphyena likes this | <urn:uuid:05c5a90d-1aec-43fd-85b6-c1574b2b7764> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vronksyinvestigates.tumblr.com/post/23043070622/boris-and-blondes-vs-the-bbc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960149 | 1,253 | 1.671875 | 2 |
- (Photo: The Christian Post)
On his way to Lafayette, La., 19-year-old David Morales believed he was going to attend bible college, where he would learn the word of God and become a pastor. It was his dream. In many ways, it was the American dream, but before he even made it to his destination, David experienced a nightmare at the hands of immigration officials.
Morales came from a family of modest means, being the first in his family to graduate high school. Now, he believed, he was going to be the first one to attend college. That all changed when his bus was stopped, immigration officials came aboard, and asked David a single question:
"Are you an American citizen?"
After admitting that he was not a citizen, Morales was arrested and spent 17 days in jail before his family posted a $4,000 bond, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. He is now in the trial process and at risk of being deported to Mexico, a country he vaguely remembers and has few remaining ties to.
Morales was not born in the United States, but you would not guess that by talking to him. His family brought him to Utah from Mexico when he was 9 years old and was soon speaking more English than Spanish. He did well in school, kept out of trouble, and volunteered in his community, both as a fundraiser for homeless teenagers and as a Spanish interpreter during parent-teacher conferences at his local elementary school.
It could be said that David was a "model citizen" – and that is why, facing the threat of deportation, David has become the epitome of why supporters of the DREAM Act, which creates legal methods for undocumented immigrants to attain legal status, are still fighting to get the legislation passed, despite being struck down in December last year.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act hopes to give children who were brought illegally into the U.S. by their parents a "second chance" of sorts if they have shown to abide by a list of restrictions:
• Arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16
• Have proof of being in the country for at least five years
• Graduated from an American high school, obtained a GED, or has been admitted to an institute of higher education
• Be between the ages of 12 and 30 at the time of the bill's enactment
• Have registered with the Selective Service if male
• Be of "good, moral character" (a legal definition that essentially means one is not a criminal or troublemaker)
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, people who know Morales say he fits the requirements perfectly.
"David is one of those kids you don't want to lose," said Erik Contreras, co-chairman of the Utah Latino Legislative Task Force and a Morales family friend. "He is a role model. He is the kind of kid we need involved in our community."
Michele Callahan, Morales' high school principal, agreed.
"He was very unique for a kid this age. He was always thinking of others rather than himself. Everybody loved him," she said. "I hope for a good outcome for him. I know he had big plans."
However, with immigration being one of the country's hottest issues, there are people who say that despite the "good, moral character" of Morales, illegal immigration needs to be stopped.
"It's unfair at a personal level for Mister Morales to have to face a situation like that," Eli Cawley, president of the Utah Minuteman Project, told the Salt Lake Tribune. "But then again, life isn't fair. If you want fair, you join the Girl Scouts. There are lots of situations where children have to accept the unfair [circumstance] that is foisted on them by their parents."
Some have even said that the country's move towards stricter immigration laws, such as the recent Alabama legislation that has caused many Hispanic people to leave the state, according to an article on the conservative blog, Daily Caller. The Daily Caller also reports that hiring is up in one Alabama county because so many undocumented workers have left, causing job openings for legal residents.
"It is amazing to see the effects," said Chuck Ellis, a member of the city council in Albertville, Ala. "A large proportion of the illegal Hispanic community has moved … self-deportation is a real thing."
Ellis added that unemployment dropped from 9.5 percent to 9.3 percent over the last few weeks.
A .20 percent decrease is not an impressive number, and possibly unrelated to the Alabama immigration law – especially since so many of those who left were undocumented, meaning their jobs were not officially registered. However, in a time of mass unemployment, some will say that any decrease is significant.
Of course, human beings are more than decimal point figures, and mass desertions have much more of an effect on an area than a few job openings.
In Cullman, Ala., area businessman Bobby Noles said he would be losing money from so many Hispanic people leaving the area, according to the Cullman Times.
"I'll be losing about $4,000 a month in rent," Noles said. "Even if you try to explain that they can stay, they're nervous and don't fully understand the law. They believe there's something that could happen to cause them trouble."
In addition, Noles said that although undocumented workers do not officially pay income taxes, employers are able to legally deduct taxes from their books. Area businesses also benefit from having more people buying more products.
"You also have to think of the huge impact they’ve had on our economy when they arrived here," Noles was quoted as saying in the Cullman Times. "They buy gas, pay rent, buy groceries and a lot of other things. Sure they send money home, but they have to live while they’re here and they spend a lot of money to do that."
They also attend church.
Bishop William Willimon, of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, told The Christian Post Sept. 29 that when Republican Gov. Robert Bentley signed the bill into law in June, the impact was felt immediately in some churches.
"We were concerned. The minute the law was passed I started hearing from pastors," Willimon said.
"One of our congregations, the Sunday after this was passed, had a 50 percent drop in attendance," he said.
And then there is David Morales. Caught in the middle of the whirlwind of immigration legislation, the 19-year-old is currently living in Utah and awaiting his Dec. 8 trial, which will determine whether or not he can stay in the country where his family lives on a working permit good for one year, Morales told CP today. After that, he will have to keep re-applying for one-year permits in order to be in the U.S. legally until he is eligible for American citizenship.
If he is denied the working permit, Morales will ask to leave the U.S. voluntarily in order to avoid being deported, which will mean he will have to wait at least ten years before being allowed back in the country.
The setbacks have forced Morales to put his Bible college plans on hold for the time being. Oval Bible College in Louisiana does not accept undocumented students and Utah-area Bible colleges are reluctant to accept him due to his recent media exposure, Morales said.
Such is the bureaucratic process for Mexico-born, American-raised teenager who wants to be a pastor.
However, despite the setbacks, Morales has turned the negatives into a positive. He is currently attending his first semester at Salt Lake Community College and considering majoring in Sociology. He has also become heavily involved in the movement to get the DREAM Act passed by speaking out at schools and churches.
At a rally in Salt Lake City last month, Morales spoke to DREAM supporters about his and many others' experiences with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), KSL.com reported.
"What ICE is doing is wrong," he told the crowd. "What I had to go through was wrong. (It is) wrong for any hardworking American to live through what I went through."
But Morales and other DREAMers, as they like to be called, are getting their voices heard.
"Many are rising out of the shadows and raising their voices and saying we will no longer stand in silence," Morales said. "We are undocumented, unafraid and unapologetic."
"In a way, I'm glad I went to jail because I have been able to meet so many DREAMers," he told CP, adding that he has been able to assist many immigrants who do not know where to go or are just too afraid to find out.
"People who are afraid to talk, I can be a voice for them," he added.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration is expected to deport nearly half-a-million undocumented people this year – the most ever in a single year, the AFP reported. But Morales, who has not given up his dreams of attending Bible college to become a pastor, believes people should continue living their lives and not let the fear of deportation prevent them from living their lives or attending church.
"I don't think people should be afraid. If God brought us here to this country, it's for a reason," Morales said. "God has control over everything, so people should not be afraid of congregating…but we should pray."
Morales' optimism and faith leads him to believe that the legal threats undocumented people are facing will soon end.
"Something has to happen. This can't go on forever. We're not sitting still." | <urn:uuid:300696f3-3516-472b-9d6b-e2bc1646811b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianpost.com/news/aspiring-pastor-at-risk-of-deportation-speaks-out-for-immigrant-rights-and-keeping-faith-57505/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987267 | 2,022 | 1.695313 | 2 |
California Gov. Jerry Brown’s “Moonbeam” shtick has long passed its expiration date, taking about as long to go from “cute” to “annoying” as it did for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator references.
On Monday, in announcing that the state’s budget deficit ballooned from $9.2 billion to $15.7 billion in a mere four months, the governor let loose with this Brown-ism: “The capitalist system is not coincident with your expectations of exactitude.” In other words, the market system “doesn’t play out like we may want it to.”
That entertaining play of words might have gotten a chuckle or two in the past, but the governor—not the capitalistic system—is largely responsible for the budget mess he detailed that day. The state continues to face enormous shortfalls precisely because this governor, betrayed the promises he made to Californians.
Brown promised us an honest budget. But, according to economists who looked at a budget deficit that has grown by 70 percent since January, there was nothing in the economy that caused the tidal wave of red ink. The problem: Gov. Brown’s budget was dishonest. Just like Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis before him, Brown didn’t have the courage or political skill to bring state spending in line with revenues, so he relied on overly aggressive economic forecasts to paper over the enduring mess.
Brown has no interest in cutting government, even though the state’s still-huge budget is filled with waste, inefficiency and redundancy. The state government meddles in just about every aspect of our lives. California’s cost to provide services is far higher than most other states, thanks largely to the enormous overhead exacted from a public sector that enjoys the most lush pension and health care benefits in the nation. We’re supposed to believe the government is cut to the bone?
The Legislature has refused to pursue pension reform, which would not only slice needed dollars from the deficit, but would keep the state’s localities from hitting the financial wall. But legislators don’t have time for it, busy as they are with such pressing matters as banning foie gras. If Brown spent a tenth of the time pushing his pension plan as he does pushing for tax hikes, he might actually get somewhere.
Brown has tried to play on his cheapskate image, honed in the 1970s, by cutting a few pennies from, say, the Commission on the Status of Women, but he has not looked at serious reforms, alternatives to the government’s costly but shoddy provision of services. He recently joked that there’s plenty of money “sloshing around” in California, and that the rich are doing just fine. But such words are only a reminder of what a bore the man has become.
A growing economy could surely bring in new revenues, but the state’s leaders are too busy punishing the private sector to understand that message.
Like other leaders of his party, he doesn’t take seriously the evidence—such as California’s lowest ranking of states to do business, per Chief Executive magazine’s latest survey, or the USC survey showing dramatically slowing population growth—that the rich, moderately rich, and entrepreneurial middle class are high-tailing it to other states. Yes, people are still coming to California—but taxpayers are being replaced largely with tax consumers.
The California government’s war of attrition against the most productive members of its society might explain another reason that the deficit keeps getting worse. “California is suffering [a] tax drought even as most other states enjoy a revenue rebound,” The Wall Street Journal opined. “State tax collections were up nationally by 8.9 percent last year, according to the Census Bureau, and this year revenues are up by double digits in many states.” But California defied that trend.
I argued recently for Bloomberg that there’s a case for staying in California, in that we ought to stay put and fight for our home rather than pick up roots and try to find a better place. But it’s hard to imagine any new business choosing to move or expand here, despite localized growth (San Jose) and the state’s appeal for those who already have made their fortune. We have tools to revive our state (i.e., the initiative process), but someone save us from the crowd that governs us these days.
Brown, who helped create the state’s current mess during his last go round as governor thanks to the vast expansions of power he granted to public-sector unions and his small-is-beautiful approach to infrastructure, positioned himself as the man best able to wrestle with the state’s problems. Instead of confronting tough problems, he’s looking for the easy route—cobbled-together budgets and tax increases as he protects the coddled public sector from competition and reform.
Brown also is committed to spending our way out of the mess, as he promotes other dishonest schemes such as a bloated high-speed rail system based on phantasmagorical funding schemes and “green jobs” programs based on equal parts subsidy and fantasy. The cap-and-trade system embraced by Schwarzenegger and Brown alike is killing business and won’t provide any cleaner air, designed as it merely to prod other states and the feds into following suit. That’s California exceptionalism these days—following its own ideologically driven path right over the cliff. “You’ve got to try many paths because a lot of them don’t work,” Brown said at a March economics conference. “I’m open, I’m curious, and I like to try new things.”
But Brown is open to only one idea—new taxes. He’s using threats of draconian cuts to coerce the public into giving the state government and the unions that dominate it even more of their hard-earned money. Voters should understand that if they give him what he wants, we’ll never get real reform and Brown and his allies will be back asking for even more money sometime soon. That’s even less entertaining than the governor’s boring rhetoric.
Steven Greenhut is vice president of journalism at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. | <urn:uuid:24b9d693-9934-46eb-a824-f94d7fd5bdbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.com/archives/2012/05/18/jerry-browns-broken-budget | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965476 | 1,333 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Russia eyes oil, gas projects in Venezuela
- From: AAP
- January 30, 2013
THE chief executive of Russian energy company Rosneft says Russia will keep deepening cooperation with Venezuela's government in oil, natural gas and electrical projects.
Russian and Venezuelan officials signed five documents laying out plans for offshore natural gas and oil projects, the creation of a new joint company and the purchase of Russian-made oil drills.
Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin said the company plans to invest about $US10 billion ($A9.60 billion) in Venezuela in the coming years.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said that Russian and Venezuelan companies plan to jointly invest nearly $US47 billion in the next six year while increasing production in oil projects involving Russian companies.
He said that will include more than $US17 billion in direct investment by Russian companies.
Along with Rosneft, other Russian companies operating in Venezuela's energy industry include Lukoil, Gazprom and Surgutneftegaz.
Rosneft announced its plans to continue with major investments a day after Ramirez denied a news account that some foreign companies appeared to be holding off on their investments in oil projects due to uncertainty about President Hugo Chavez's health situation.
Chavez remains in Cuba seven weeks after undergoing his latest cancer surgery.
When asked by a journalist about Rosneft's expectations considering Chavez's complicated health situation, Sechin said he hopes for the company's projects with state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA to continue based on plans for "long-term cooperation".
"We're going to continue this work," Sechin said, adding that the company also plans to work with Venezuela in areas including electricity, infrastructure and the production of oil drills and other equipment.
The state oil company PDVSA currently produces about 230,000 barrels of oil a day in joint projects with Russian companies, Ramirez said.
He said that by 2021 the government aims to increase that amount to 1.1 million barrels a day.
Ramirez also announced that Venezuela's government plans to invite Russian companies to be involved in joint gold mining projects in the South American country.
Following a separate meeting with Sechin, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua told journalists that the Russian delegation "came to ratify the willingness, the decision by the government of President (Vladimir) Putin to continue deepening the relationship between Venezuela and Russia."
Speaking through an interpreter, Sechin voiced his government's best wishes for Chavez.
"President Chavez is going overcome these temporary health problems," Sechin said.
"We wish for his recovery and we admire him."
THE Australian Defence Force launches an urgent security review in the wake of the brutal murder of a soldier in London.
AUSTRALIA is paying tribute to Hazel Hawke, ex-wife of former prime minister Bob Hawke, who has died following a battle with dementia. She was 83.
GRAPHIC IMAGE: AS London awakes to its new terror reality, there are fears the attack could spark civil unrest similar to the 2011 riots. The mum who stood up to terror
FORD slammed the door on its Australian manufacturing business after accepting a total of $1.1 billion in taxpayer cash over the past 12 years. | <urn:uuid:00ef985f-3ca4-4264-b6b5-9784ca566c8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/breaking-news/russia-eyes-oil-gas-projects-in-venezuela/story-e6frea7u-1226564948330 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96084 | 667 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The announcement will back Nvidia’s efforts to expand offerings into Intel’s upcoming high-end desktop platform. Previously referred to as “Bloomfield”, now named Core i7. Nvidia had mentioned that is has no intentions to develop a platform specific chipset for Intel’s next-generation interconnect technology called QuickPath Interconnect (QPI). QPI is part of the Core i7 design.
On Thursday Nvidia mentioned that it will license its Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology for the Intel Core i7 processor. The SLI technology will work along with Intel’s X58 chipset which is due to ship in the fourth quarter.
SLI allows system to be configured with more than one Nvidia graphics solution. For example, end users could build systems with two, three or even four Nvidia graphics boards.
Essentially Nvidia is offering “native” licensing of its Scalable Link Interface to partners and system builders. Native licensing does not require the specific use of the Nvidia nForce 200 bridging chip, thus increasing the graphics support range on Core i7 based systems.
As of current, Nvidia has only ever offered nForce 200. nForce 200 is basically specialized PCI Express bridge chip that is the under workings of SLI. This has been the only solution. Nvidia plans to continue its nForce 200 offering going forward. The main distinction between native and nForce 200 is that native SLI allows for more common configurations.
It is rumored that Nvidia was losing ground to AMD-ATI by not offering a solution that appeals more to system builders and end users.
Nvidia also plans to announce a new high-performance motherboard based integrated GPU in the coming weeks. This will be a follow-on to its GeForce 8200 mobile GPU solution. The upcoming mobile GPU will be complete with the Intel G45 integrated graphics chipset. | <urn:uuid:3ac517f3-5c42-453e-ac1c-ae2b62b7d2a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-intel-core-i7,6310.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942075 | 379 | 1.507813 | 2 |
A Daily Devotional
This Devotional Is From Of A Special Series Related To Dependency And Co-dependency Issues. Rules Of Godly Common Sense Apply.
About believing other people are never there for you...
John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (NIV)
It is a cold hard truth that sometimes no one is there for us. All of us lead solitary lives. Even when we have close friends around us all the time, none of those close friends really and truly know what goes on inside our life like we know what goes on inside our life. Each of us lives on our own island. However, all of us have someone who is there for us. Christ is there for us every hour of every day for eternity.
Even when you make mistakes and friends turn against you, Christ is standing next to your heart. When you get sick and no one comes to visit, Christ is with you and is always visiting. When it seems no one cares, Christ cares. When you open your heart to Christ and find He is always with you, run to help others. Run to help others because others likely think you are never there for them like you think they are never there for you. Run to others and show them they are never alone because Christ is always for them and never against them.
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Care Ministries author and webmaster, Rev. Patrick Kelly, is affiliated through
ministerial ordination with Church of God Ministries, Anderson IN | <urn:uuid:98c52530-b96d-4be4-be17-6a40de9cb22a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.findthepower.com/dailydevotions/DevBelievingOtherPeopleAreNeverThereForYouJohn14_18_DCO.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968469 | 321 | 1.710938 | 2 |
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