text
stringlengths 211
577k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
371
| file_path
stringclasses 644
values | language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.93
1
| token_count
int64 54
121k
| score
float64 1.5
1.84
| int_score
int64 2
2
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
He has written approximately 220 works including 3 symphonies and 5 operas.
His 5 operas are:
- O Protomastoras (The Masterbuilder) (1912)
- Mother’s Ring (1917)
- Shadowy Waters (1948)
- Dawn (1952)
- Konstandinos Palaiologos (1962)
He founded and directed the Hellenic Conservatory and later the National Conservatory (not the Athens Conservatory, which is a distinct institution).
He was elected a member of the Academy of Athens.
(contribution by Hari Politopoulos <bestharihotmail.com>)
He has been director of the Athens Conservatory for many years. Following the example of the national Russian musical school, he tried to form a Greek musical school, using tradional rythms and tempos. | <urn:uuid:81c3a603-01a9-4305-8c8e-586c4562c7d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/kalomiri | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932404 | 180 | 1.765625 | 2 |
One of the goals for this Detox Challenge is to reduce the use of sugar and sweeteners. Sugar cravings are one of the hardest things to get under control. The bacteria and yeast in the gut feed upon sugar and undigested carbohydrates. I call them sugar craving yeastie beasties. They are formidable when it comes to taming their siren call. However, it has been done by many and it can be done by you. I’ll show you how.
In my clinical experience, people who harbor yeast overgrowth tend to have difficulty controlling sugar cravings. The candida yeast borrow through the intestinal mucosa and create openings that contribute to leaky gut syndrome. This sets off the immune system and can also lead to hormonal imbalances. Constipation goes hand in hand with this clinical picture. The goal is to starve out the yeastie beasties.
Drink bone broth throughout the day
This will provide easy to digest nutrients, vitamins and minerals that will not feed the yeast but will feed you. It practically needs no digestion. This allows your digestive tract to rest and yet still be fed. Many times, a sugar craving will come when you are tired or need a nutrient boost. The bone broths will give you that and will keep you hydrated.
Fat is a neutral factor in blood sugar regulation. There are no spikes and drops in blood sugar when you eat fat. If you get a sugar or carb craving, have something fatty. I admit, sometimes I eat a small pat of butter right off the spoon! You could eat some vegetables smothered in butter and/or extra virgin olive oil. You could have a small handful of crispy nuts; pecans, walnuts or macadamias have the highest fat content. You could take a spoonful of homemade nut butter. You could mix coconut oil into a smoothie.
Each meal should have fat in it. Cook with good saturated fats from grassfed animals such as lard, tallow, duck fat and chicken fat. There is a lot of beneficial CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) in grassfed beef. Eat the cartilage and gristle off the bones of your beef and chicken meals.
Eat fermented foods
This will start a restoration process that will favor the beneficial bacteria. As time goes on and you add more and more of these foods to your every day diet, the pathogenic bacteria and yeast will slowly start to die off.
Take a spoonful of homemade sauerkraut if you have a sugar craving. The sour taste will stop that craving in its tracks. Have a homemade pickle or any other small amount of a fermented food. Generally this would include fermented dairy, but for the GAPS Intro, dairy is not allowed. Save that idea for when you are through the Intro stages.
Drink fermented juices. I think fermented juices are high in nutrient value.
Make and drink fresh vegetable juice
Just the process of making fresh vegetable juice will distract you from the sugar craving. Of course, you must plan ahead in order to have the vegetables on hand to juice. The more inconvenient a food is to make, the more you appreciate its value towards your goal of beating the yeastie beasties. There are many recipes for making fresh juice. Any combination will do. Just add half an apple, as this gives a little sweetness and the pectin helps digestion.
The less sweet foods you eat the easier it is to stop
I find that as soon as I can get over 2 -3 days of not eating any sweet things, the cravings become much less. However, the minute I eat something sweet, the cravings come back. After two weeks of not eating sweet things I do not feel any cravings at all and I am able to have something sweet without falling off the wagon so to speak.
How are you doing without sweets? Leave a comment and let me know!
If you would rather purchase fermented vegetables and fermented juices, (as part of the GAPS Intro protocol) our supplier of these products is offering coupon code: DETOX1: For 10% off all orders from their site over $50 (plus free shipping in mainland USA), valid until March 31. Please note that this coupon is for US customers only. | <urn:uuid:03fa73f2-9446-4f8a-b55f-d4f7fa925a46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://realfoodforager.com/conquer-the-sugar-craving-beast-4-ways/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95264 | 875 | 1.65625 | 2 |
PARIS (AP) — Paris fashion's enfant terrible, Jean Paul Gaultier— whose design signatures include the nautical stripe — has inaugurated his first international exhibit in the Netherlands.
The "Fashion world of Jean Paul Gaultier" at Rotterdam's Kunsthal gallery traces about 35 years of the designer's avant-garde creations including loans from Madonna — whose post-feminist conical bra is now the stuff of fashion legend.
More than 140 original creations, from the 60-year-old Gaultier's haute couture line to his ready-to-wear, also include movie costumes loaned from Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar.
Though Rotterdam is far from Paris, Gaultier brought it a little nearer to his home by decorating a Thalys train with his famed nautical stripes that links the French capital with Rotterdam.
The exhibit opens to the public Sunday and runs until May 12. | <urn:uuid:c3536699-65bb-4edf-8815-ac0e065ded1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/apexchange/2013/02/08/eu--netherlands-gaultier-exhibit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956699 | 201 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Public debate on the situation between Iraq and Kuwait
(New York, October 17, 2002)
Statement by Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso, Permanent Representative of Colombia
My delegation endorses the statement made by Costa Rica on behalf of the Rio Group. We are also grateful also for the statements that have been made here by so many delegations during the past two days where we find a variety of perspectives on this issue that will serve as a frame of reference for further discussions within the Security Council.
In recognizing the importance of this general debate on Iraq, we wish to stress the centrality of this multilateral forum in discussing this situation that has attracted enormous attention on the part of the Security Council over the past twelve years. We also stress the special importance of using multilateral means to respond adequately and legitimately to issues of global concern. We trust that, at the end of our exchange, the actions adopted will confirm the Security Council as the central and indispensable actor in any international decision regarding Iraq.
Colombia is participating in the consideration of this issue, motivated essentially by the need to preserve the role and effectiveness of the United Nations and the multilateral system; by the need to stress the role of the Security Council as the principal guarantor of international peace and security; by the need to have all Member States comply unconditionally with its resolutions, and by the need to reaffirm international law and the general principles that make possible our peaceful coexistence.
We are aware of the general dissatisfaction in the international community regarding the response the Iraqi Government has given in the past to the demands set by the Security Council following the events of 2 August 1990. Up until just a few weeks ago, the attitude of Iraq towards the Secretary-General was intransigent. Its communications with regard to the Council were defiant and its views on the resolutions adopted were a source of considerable surprise. Iraq sowed doubt and mistrust in the international community and thus, in turn, well-founded suspicions were created with regard to the possibility that Iraq was continuing its programmes for the development of weapons of mass destruction.
We value the intention of Iraq to cooperate unconditionally with the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) for the return of weapons inspectors. We recognize the progress made and the practical results achieved in negotiations between the Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC and the Baghdad Government. But we note, at the same time, that the work of the Security Council and each of its members would have been considerably easier if, from the outset, the Baghdad authorities had cooperated unconditionally in applying the Security Council resolutions in accordance with Article 25 of the Charter.
It was clear to the international community that its unequivocal signals that measures would be taken in the case of Iraq's non-compliance with Security Council resolutions led to a change of attitude on the part of the Iraqi authorities.
We firmly support the work of Dr. Hans Blix and his UNMOVIC team, as well as that of Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA. Their professionalism and great diplomatic skill have been evident in recent weeks. We are certain the Security Council will continue to support their leadership so that they can achieve the objective of disarmament, which has not been possible for more than a decade.
We consider it indispensable that the weapons inspectors should be able, as soon as possible, to finish the work that the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was unable to complete. It is urgent that they examine and verify the information the Iraqi Government is obligated to provide its compliance with Security Council resolutions. We are sure there will be credible, serious, respectful, professional and firm inspections, for which purpose we need genuine cooperation on the part of the Iraqi authorities.
UNMOVIC, however, must arrive on site with a renewed mandate from the Security Council that validates its determinations and adapts them to the new realities. For Colombia, there are political and legal reasons that make it necessary to define with precision, firmness and clarity the parameters for the inspections. This would be consistent with the statements of Dr. Blix to the effect that it is advisable to begin activities on the ground after the Council has reached a decision.
Our greatest challenge is striking a balance between, on one hand, the willingness of the Baghdad Government to fulfil its obligations, and, on the other, the steadfastness and determination that the international community must maintain to prevent a repetition of the challenge faced by the Council during the last four years.
Given present circumstances, this is a unique opportunity and, in any event, the only opportunity for a nation that must overcome isolation and rejoin the community of nations on equal footing. Therefore, the greatest challenge for Iraq is to demonstrate to the world that it does not constitute a threat to anyone.
Iraq not only has problems relating to its potential capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction. There is a disturbing humanitarian situation concerning the Iraqi population, for which the Iraqi Government is directly responsible. The oil-for-food programme established by the Council to respond effectively to that situation has shown favourable results, despite difficulties in its implementation.
There are also other pending issues which must be resolved satisfactorily. We refer to the return of Kuwaiti property by Iraq, especially the national archives, on which a commitment was recently reached. Additionally, there is the matter of prisoners-of-war and missing persons who are nationals of Kuwait and other States. The discussion on the return of weapons inspectors should not distract us from those obligations of the Baghdad Government.
Twelve years ago, when Iraq launched its terrible invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Colombia was, at that time also, a non-permanent member of this Council. On that occasion, Iraq disregarded the decisions of the Council and other means had to be resorted to, which, unfortunately, did not achieve their goal. This time we have great confidence in the statesmanship of the actors involved and their ability to ensure that we will not become involved in a political and military cycle similar to that of 1990. We, the Council members, must make a fundamental contribution, which would begin with a supreme effort to narrow differences and decide, in a cohesive, even unanimous, manner, what course to follow to resolve this critical conflict.
Let me conclude with two thoughts. First, we should separate the subject of this general debate from the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue. The political motivations that underlie our positions on the two situations are substantially different.
Secondly, developments in this situation and in other situations on the Council's agenda should not distract us from the fight against international terrorism, which is the biggest challenge facing today's world. Terrorism does not rest, and it has continued to show its almost unlimited capacity for causing destruction and death. We must continue facing it with renewed determination. | <urn:uuid:e07eb9dc-14dc-4a9b-8927-d4cb8a4784a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.colombiaun.org/English/Security%20Council/Colombia%20Non%20Permanent%20Member/Documents%202002-2001/Statements%202002/statement_17oct_02.html | 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 | 0.964519 | 1,386 | 1.570313 | 2 |
HOUSTON (AP) - At least two tornados have touched down in Texas on Christmas Day as chunks of the eastern and southern parts of the state remain under a broad tornado watch.
National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Carbin says a tornado has been reported in Trinity County and another in Houston County. He says it appears only one building was damaged in the East Texas city of Crockett in Houston County.
Carbin says 21 counties in Texas are under a tornado watch until 4 p.m. CST. The weather service also warns severe thunderstorms can be expected.
The severe storms are resulting from a meeting between a cold front and warmer Gulf air
Parts of North Texas, including Dallas and Fort Worth, could get snow later Tuesday.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:d7195095-e0f0-4a7f-b4c3-2b62b1ad9495> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/20422058/christmas-day-tornado-watch-in-parts-of-texas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9559 | 175 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Village Wins Award for Storm Water Management Project
The village won the APWA Lake Branch Project of the Year Award.
While the construction along Hillside Avenue last year was a headache for many, the village is getting recognized for their innovative environmental work that caused the construction delays.
The village was honored with the American Public Works Association Lake Branch Project of the Year Award for creating a storm water management pond next to Baker’s Lake.
“There were a lot of sensitive environmental issues that were involved in this project,” said Darren Monico, Assistant Director of Engineering and Building.” The village had a choice to put the storm sewer directly connected to Baker’s Lake, or find out a better environmental alternative.”
Baker’s Lake is part of the Cook County Forest Preserve, and is home to one of the largest bird rookeries in the area.
“Instead of directly connecting the storm sewer to Baker’s Lake, the village worked with local conservation groups to create a storm water management pond located in the old savannah on the south side of Hillside to the west of Baker’s Lake,” Monico said.
The new storm water management pond has several environmental-friendly uses. In addition to water infiltration, it collects the sediment and debris from the roads.
“The water drains through the grasses towards Baker’s Lake, and that also saves the village 500 feet of pipe,” Monico said.
The village was presented with the award at the March 12 Board of Trustees meeting. | <urn:uuid:3b8dac92-0754-4bb7-9a2e-be2fc1010693> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://barrington-il.patch.com/articles/village-wins-award-for-hillside-avenue-storm-water-retention-project | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967988 | 326 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Feds Seize 9 Domains For Copyright Infringement, But Based On What Law?
According to the Wall Street Journal, federal authorities seized 9 domain names of sites that were offering pirated movies.
The nine domain names were registered using U.S.-based registrars, allowing authorities to take control of their site addresses.
Some of the sites themselves were run on computers based in the U.S, in Colorado, Florida and Illinois, but others used computers based in Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K. and the Czech Republic.
The domain names seized according to the report were:
TVSHACK.NET, MOVIES-LINKS.TV, FILESPUMP.COM, NOW-MOVIES.COM, PLANETMOVIEZ.COM, THEPIRATECITY.ORG, and ZML.COM, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net.
These sites allegedly allowed visitors to stream or download popular television shows and movies.
The report did not cite under what law the domain names were seized.
As far as I know there is no federal law that allows the seizure of domain names.
That of course is the troubling part.
Although I have no love for sites that allow the distribution of protected works for free, when the federal government starts making up their own remedies for violation of laws, its a problem.
Moreover all that happened here was a claim by the government of improper conduct by the site.
There does not appear to been a hearing where any of the domain owners got notice or what you would call due process, which is an opportunity to defend themselves prior to the domain seizure
It is unclear whether the domains could have or would have been seized as quickly had they been registered with a non-US registrar.
The following notice is now on at least of the seized domains, zml.com: | <urn:uuid:b89fb834-bd8f-4ebe-bd33-9d90f2aac0c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedomains.com/2010/07/01/feds-seize-9-domains-for-copyright-infringement-but-based-on-what-law/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962726 | 390 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Amazon’s ongoing fight with state legislatures over sales tax collection has become a familiar story. In state after state, the company and legislators have followed the same script. But now, in California, both sides are looking for a different ending.
The sales tax war began in New York when lawmakers asserted that online retailers could be considered to have a physical presence in the state if they paid commissions to in-state “affiliates.” Amazon, whose popular affiliate program was clearly the target of the law, is suing.
The issue of physical presence, or nexus, is significant, since the Supreme Court has said companies can only be required to collect sales tax in states where they have employees or facilities. Technically, consumers are required to pay the sales tax that out-of-state companies don’t collect directly, but in reality, almost no one does this.
As the New York lawsuit has slowly worked its way through the court system, Illinois, Arkansas, Connecticut, North Carolina and Rhode Island have all passed their own “Amazon laws.” Rather than starting duplicate lawsuits in multiple states, Amazon has responded in each case by ending relations with affiliates. Both sides lose in this situation. States don’t get the sales tax money they’re after and they risk Amazon affiliates moving their businesses, and their tax dollars, to other states. Amazon, meanwhile, loses referrals. But, for some reason – most likely pure desperation – states continue to pass these laws.
At first it seemed California would repeat this pattern. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a sales tax collection law on June 29, and Amazon immediately announced that it was terminating relationships with its approximately 25,000 California affiliates. But instead of ending there, the battle in the Golden State continued with Amazon seeking to take the issue to the streets through a voter referendum.
California’s new law differs from previous iterations by claiming that subsidiaries, in addition to affiliates, can be used to establish a company’s presence, even when those subsidiaries are not involved in any retail activity. While Amazon is itself based in Seattle and has no offices in California, its wholly-owned subsidiary A2Z does have offices in the state. Those offices house the software gurus responsible for development work on Amazon’s online music store and its top-selling product, the Kindle reader. Though Amazon has shown that it is willing to sever ties with affiliates, moving A2Z would prove harder.
In addition to the higher stakes posed by the subsidiary clause, California’s relatively easy ballot access makes the situation different from those Amazon has faced so far. A second lawsuit would be costly and redundant, but the possibility of a referendum lets Amazon take its case to a new audience.
Most likely, Amazon’s motivations are rooted more in self-interest than principle. Many voters who end up supporting the referendum will likely be guided by self-interest as well, looking to save a few dollars at the online checkout screen. But all of that self-interest may end up bolstering an important legal principle that is critical for small businesses.
For a large retailer like Amazon, the administrative costs associated with collecting sales tax are more or less negligible, making the main disadvantage higher costs for customers. For a smaller business, however, the burden of keeping track of the laws and tax rates of 50 states (with thousands of local variations in rates and taxable items) would be difficult or impossible to meet. Legislatures’ growing disregard for the nexus principles that limit tax collection responsibilities to in-state businesses poses a real threat.
Palisades Hudson has offices in only three states – Florida, Georgia and New York – but the nature of our business allows us to serve clients across the country and around the world. None of the states where we have offices apply sales tax to tax preparation services, so we never collect sales tax when we prepare returns. However, a few states, including South Dakota, West Virginia, and in some circumstances Ohio, do consider tax preparation services to be taxable. Without the protection of nexus rules, we would be required to track the relevant laws in each jurisdiction where we have clients.
While laws like the ones passed in New York, California and other states pay lip service to the fundamental principle of nexus, they disregard the physical presence test that the Supreme Court clearly laid out nearly 20 years ago in a suit brought by mail-order retailer Quill against the state of North Dakota. The affiliates that states are trying to use to attribute physical presence to out-of-state firms are individuals or independent companies that are paid commissions for delivering customers through “click-through” links on their own sites. If a state like Illinois can attribute nexus to Amazon through its commission-based affiliates, there is nothing to stop it from attributing presence to Amazon through the internet service providers whose facilities Amazon uses to reach customers in Chicago. North Dakota tried to do just that by attributing nexus to Quill via the phone companies and postal services Quill used to serve customers there; the Supreme Court said no dice.
Not every retailer opposes what states are trying to do. Not surprisingly, the companies that back states’ efforts to force Amazon to collect sales tax are the ones that already must collect sales tax nearly everywhere because they have stores nearly everywhere. Wal-Mart, Target and other big-box retailers claim that online retailers’ freedom from sales tax collection duties gives them an unfair advantage by allowing them to offer consumers what amounts to a discount.
It may be true that not collecting sales tax is one of the advantages of doing business online, but that doesn’t mean it is an unfair advantage. Physical stores also have advantages, like being able to offer products immediately with no shipping costs. But those are not unfair advantages; they are just the results of choosing to run a certain kind of business. There is no reason why governments should “level the playing field” by making online-only retailers pay the costs of a system whose benefits they have consciously foregone.
I hope California voters side with Amazon, not because I want Amazon or its customers to avoid taxes, but because nexus is an important principle that is worth defending. Without it, modern businesses can never know which far-off locality might claim jurisdiction over them or what burdens such a locality might impose. The conveniences and efficiency of modern communications will be lost in a tangle of revenue-seeking red tape. | <urn:uuid:c85ec012-6317-4ab0-ac7a-22771724819b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-latest-tactic-in-an-old-fight-2011-7 | 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 | 0.963881 | 1,310 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Sheffield road deaths lowest ever
Last year 30 lives were lost on the county’s roads and 441 people were seriously injured - down from 34 fatalities the year before, 59 in 2008, and 63 in 2002.
Relatives of victims welcomed the figures but said more needed to be done to improve road safety.
Leasa Ward, aged 37, whose son Mitchell Mason suffered a serious brain injury when he was hit by a car on Harborough Avenue, Manor, Sheffield, last summer, said: “We know only too well the impact crashes can have. “Mitchell has been left with severe epilepsy and mobility problems and has to be home-schooled.
“Lowering speed limits is something I agree with – but the problem is enforcing the limits.”
The statistics come at the start of national Road Safety Week and the launch of a new campaign by road safety group Brake, which is calling for 20mph limits in built-up areas.
South Yorkshire’s Safer Roads Partnership is also running events across the county this week, talking to motorists about the responsibilities of driving in a bid to push casualty numbers down further.
Younger drivers, aged 17 to 25, will be targeted especially - local figures reveal they are involved in 32 per cent of all fatal collisions, despite nationally making up just seven per cent of the drivers.
Ken Wheat, South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership manager, said: “In South Yorkshire last year there were 30 people killed and 441 seriously injured on our roads.
“We must remember that collisions like these have a tragic and lasting impact on friends, families and loved ones.
“Whether you’re a driver, a motorcyclist, a pedal cyclist or a pedestrian you must remain aware and take responsibility for your actions on the road.”
Martin Howard, of road safety charity Brake, said: “Everyone should be able to walk and cycle in their community without fear or threat.
“Road Safety Week this year is all about defending that, and enabling people to live active lifestyles.”
Sheffield Council voted over the summer to roll out 20mph limits across the city, starting in residential areas around schools.
But Brake is calling for more councils to follow suit and wants 20mph limits introduced in all communities.
Search for a job
Search for a car
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Friday 24 May 2013
Temperature: 4 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 25 mph
Wind direction: North east
Temperature: 6 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North west | <urn:uuid:ad6f4440-8b2b-4e95-8ddd-95a9717bb604> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/local/sheffield-road-deaths-lowest-ever-1-5144764 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94608 | 543 | 1.789063 | 2 |
1976. . . a year for revelry throughout the country as Americans celebrated their country's bi-centennial with fireworks, festivals and historical reenactment. In Tomah, Wisconsin, members of the Monroe County Agricultural Society started a little revolution of their own. No longer content with the Fair of their forefathers, they declared 1976 to be the year of the Tractor Pull.
The rest, as they say, is history. That first Pull, sanctioned by the National Tractor Pullers Association, on a single track at the local fairground, drew 15,000 fans who watched two classes of Modified Minis, and four classes each of Super Stocks and Modifieds vie for a cash purse of just over $17,000. A noble beginning.
Today the competition, now known as the Budweiser Dairyland Super National Tractor Pull, draws over 60,000 fans and tourists to Tomah for the annual event which features a cash purse of over $200,000. Annually, the Pull brings more than $15 million into the community. Motels and campgrounds in the greater Tomah area are booked a year in advance.
Tomah is a premier event, on the NTPA Championship Pulling Circuit, for pullers and their fans, as well as festival lovers in general. Celebrating its 36th birthday this year, the Tomah Tractor Pull is one of the country's most prestigious competitions, and has won "Pull of the Year" over 20 times.
The best vehicles and drivers come to Tomah, as do fans from throughout the nation and many foreign countries A Puller's Dinner is hugely popular with contestants and their guests. Tourists and fans mingle in the flea market and craft show, or treat themselves to cotton candy, beer, or Wisconsin bratwurst while visiting some of the dozens of vendors who work the event.
But it is the two tracks that hold the heart and steals one's breath. The double track is built of clay laced with lime, which prevents the surface from becoming too slick or too hard. It is known as a tough, power track, able to withstand the speed and pounding of today's muscle machines. The tracks were completely renovated in 2007.
The grand success of the annual Pull has generated income to subsidize the Monroe County Fair and to construct seating and buildings for Fair venues and a sports complex near the high school.
The single track of the 1976 Pull featuring one grandstand and a set of portable bleachers has morphed intopermanent grandstands with six times the seating capacity of the original track. Tractor Pull proceeds have funded an office, public restrooms, and buildings used for hockey and other activities and which house livestock during the Fair.
In 1976, Sundrop Pop, owned by Orange Crush, sponsored the event. Later Old Style Beer (a Wisconsin company) sponsored the Pull. In 1982, the Tractor Pull gained national attention when Budweiser became its name and title sponsor.
In the years that followed, Coca-Cola, NAPA, Vander Chevrolet of Tomah, and Massey-Ferguson joined the ranks of sponsors, bringing the competition into national prominence with bigger purses and exceptional merchandise awards. The most recent competition included 625 vehicles in 27 classes.
The Pull Today
This year's competition includes six sessions, beginning Thursday evening. The Tomah Pull is the only event on the NTPA circuit that hosts every division of competition-twelve--with each division hooking twice. That gives us a total of 27 classes competing in six sessions in four days. The Tomah event is the only Truck and Tractor Pull ever aired "live" on national TV. TNN broadcasted the Pull "live" in 1997 and 1998. It is also featured on the RFD Channel again this year.
The Monroe County Agricultural Society, the founding organization of the Budweiser Dairyland Super National Tractor Pull, has brought on board more than twenty local organizations to help with the operation of this now nationally recognized event. | <urn:uuid:71f0e5e1-8af3-44c9-8c6e-1674a6abc22b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tomahtractorpull.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10&Itemid=10 | 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 | 0.955856 | 824 | 1.546875 | 2 |
12/8/2012 11:42:11 AM
Times Union: A model partnership
ALBANY — With a public-private partnership that's publicly led, Albany has turned into a hub for nanotechnology, a magnet that attracts companies and their jobs.
Now, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is seeking to replicate the model in Buffalo, where Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is teaming up with Albany Molecular Research Inc. to establish a drug discovery research and development center, said Alain Kaloyeros, CEO of University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.
The state will spend $35 million on new equipment and $15 million to improve lab space, all of which will be publicly owned, Cuomo said earlier this week.
Pharmaceutical and biomedical companies will be able to use the equipment and lab resources, which will be owned by Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
AMRI was chosen to be the anchor tenant because it previously has worked under contract with major pharmaceutical companies to conduct research and development.
"This is something we could never have done on our own," Thomas D'Ambra, AMRI's president and CEO, said of the new effort. | <urn:uuid:4b17b682-746e-4326-abe3-b330c43f935a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnse.albany.edu/Newsroom/IntheNews/Details/12-12-08/Times_Union_A_model_partnership.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959702 | 238 | 1.585938 | 2 |
I wrote this review of the classic 1965 documentary film “And This is Free” for Stomp & Stammer about a year ago, but since S & S didn’t archive it online, I’ll re-publish it here. Shanachie reissued “And This is Free” on DVD in 2008, and hopefully now more people will discover this remarkable film, which I believe is one of the landmark documentaries of the 1960s. For this review, I did an interview with Gordon Quinn, who is the only member of the film crew who is still living. Gordon provided some invaluable insights about “And This is Free”. I’ve embedded a clip from the film that I found on YouTube: a street performance by the Chicken Man, one of the many bizarre characters that used to grace the Maxwell Street market in Chicago.
My pick for the DVD reissue of 2008 is Shanachie’s deluxe edition of the great 1965 documentary And This is Free. The film had been out-of-print for several years but had developed an underground reputation largely because of its amazing musical sequences, especially one in a back alley that features the great bluesman Robert Nighthawk.
Mike Shea directed And This is Free. Shea had established himself as a successful freelance photographer in the 1950s, and his work was regularly featured in Life, Time, and Ebony. By the early 1960s, though, Shea was ready to transition out of photography, in part because of the downturn of the major photo magazines like Life and Look. It was at this time that Shea met Gordon Quinn, who was an undergraduate at The University of Chicago. They were both impressed by the new kinds of documentary films that were being made in the early 60s with the portable, untethered 16mm cameras and audio equipment. Quinn later remarked on seeing these spontaneous, observation-based films with Shea, “We saw them together, and [Mike] was like, ‘This is it.’ This is what he had been waiting for his whole life to be able to make these kind of films.”
In August 1964 Shea and Quinn began shooting what would eventually become And This is Free. Their location was the Maxwell Street market, located on the west side of Chicago. They shot only on Sundays, the only day the Maxwell Street market was in full swing. After about four months, they had amassed over twenty hours of film footage and countless hours of audio recordings.
And This is Free is revered by blues aficionados because it features some of the only film footage of Robert Nighthawk. In fact, Robert Nighthawk was one of the central reasons why And This is Free was made.
Born in 1909 in Helena, Arkansas, Nighthawk was one of the early practitioners of downhome acoustic blues (he made his first commercial recordings in 1937). He migrated to Chicago after the war and, along with Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and others, helped to establish the sound and style of urban electric blues. Waters and Wolf became recording stars on the Chess label in the mid-1950s, but Nighthawk never managed to establish more than a small regional reputation in Chicago and in Mississippi. His passion for making records was limited, and he didn’t have the alluring stage presence of the Chess Records stars. As Waters, Wolf, and the other Chess standouts performed at the large clubs in Chicago, Nighthawk continued to play at small bars and on Maxwell Street on Sundays.
During some of Nighthawk’s Maxwell Street jam sessions in the early 60s, he was joined by the young, white guitar prodigy Michael Bloomfield. Unlike Nighthawk, who lived the quintessential blues life of rambling and hard times, Bloomfield grew up in a well-off family on Chicago’s North Side. As a young teenager, he began frequenting the blues clubs of Chicago’s South Side and was periodically invited to come onstage to sit in with his musical idols. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, Bloomfield had become a fixture within the Chicago blues scene. He managed a club, played in several different bands, and began to get steady session work.
It was during this time that Bloomfield met Mike Shea. Shea was a serious jazz fan, and most jazz aficionados in the postwar era appreciated blues because it was viewed as one of the key ingredients in the development of jazz. Bloomfield suggested that Shea film some of the blues performances on Maxwell Street, and, because Bloomfield knew almost all the blues musicians who played at the market, he offered to serve as a mediator between the film crew and the musicians.
Bloomfield played guitar alongside Nighthawk during the performances depicted in And This is Free, but Shea decided not to include Bloomfield in the frame when he filmed these scenes. Gordon Quinn explains why Shea did this: “Because [Bloomfield] was white, when we filmed down on Maxwell Street in some of those scenes on the back porch. . . [Shea] framed [Bloomfield] out of the picture. [Shea] was very much into quote authenticity even though he was well aware that the traditional musicians had enormous respect for Bloomfield.”
In 1965, when And This is Free was quietly released, Bloomfield achieved major success as a member of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and a member of Bob Dylan’s first electric band.
Blues isn’t the only kind of music featured in And This is Free. The most stirring performance in the film is the rendition of the gospel tune “Power to Live Right” by Jim Brewer’s street corner band. Brewer and his band are steady, but it’s Carrie Robinson who steals the show, alternating between screechy singing and ecstatic dancing.
The “Power to Live Right” performance embodies the style and spirit of observation-based documentary films of the early 1960s, a genre which has to come to be known as direct cinema. Like the famous moment in the 1960 film Primary, in which cameraman Albert Maysles films John Kennedy as the candidate makes his way through a crowded hall, Shea puts the viewer in the middle of the “Power to Live Right” street performance through the use of long, mobile takes.
In many respects, And This is Free adheres to the basic style and strategies of early direct cinema—all the action is observed and not staged, subjects generally don’t interact on screen with the camera and the filmmakers, and there is no voice-over narration—but the film diverges from early direct cinema in one critical way: the intricate editing by Howard Alk.
Like Shea, Alk was a generation older than Quinn. In 1959 he was one of the founders of The Second City, Chicago’s legendary improvisational comedy troupe. At some point in the 1950s, he was taught film editing by Johnny Link, who had been editing Hollywood films since 1930. In 1959 Alk edited his first major film, The Cry of Jazz. Centered around the contentious (and fictitious) debates about jazz and race among black and white members of a Chicago jazz society, The Cry of Jazz includes stunning footage of jazz performances, most notably of Sun Ra and his Arkestra.
Alk’s editing in And This is Free is imaginatively associative. Sometimes the associations are merely repetitions of words that help ease the transitions between scenes, like when Alk cuts from the performance of “Power to Live Right” to a salesman demonstrating sparkplugs who tells the assembled crowd, “When you talk about power, watch this!” In other scenes, the editing associations are more complex and ambiguous, like when Alk cuts together shots of merchants selling old machine parts over a performance of the old folk tune “John Henry,” subtly tweaking the song’s message about the triumph of machine over man
And This is Free was conceived as a broad portrait of the Maxwell Street market where music was to be just one (albeit highly significant) part, but, in the editing room, Howard Alk emphasized the musicality of every aspect of street culture. Gordon Quinn explains: “We considered calling it ‘The Music of Maxwell Street,’ but we didn’t think it would convey what we meant because we meant the kid who plays the box, we meant the pitchman, we meant the guy who’s selling the little sparkplugs that you put in your car. That’s a kind of music too. We thought of it in a broader sense that there were a lot of people who were doing different kinds of performances on the street and we weaved those different things together and that those performances had a rhythmic quality and sometimes other qualities that made them a kind of music.” Alk emphasized the internal rhythms of each performance and then assembled all the performances into one continuous forty-seven minute street symphony. (Howard Alk greatly influenced Gordon Quinn, who went on to co-found Kartemquin, the documentary collective responsible for Hoop Dreams, among other notable films.)
Mike Shea had high hopes for And This is Free. He sank nearly all his money into the project and hoped that it would get him established as a documentary filmmaker. Unfortunately, though, the film had very limited success and was seen by very few people. The educational television station in Chicago at the time even refused to air it. Part of the film’s failure can be attributed to Shea’s naiveté about the film industry but also because, in 1965, there was very little infrastructure for theatrical documentaries. In a few short years, with the success of documentary filmmakers like Emile de Antonio, D.A. Pennebaker, and the Maysles Brothers, that would begin to change, but, in 1965, there wasn’t much of a market for theatrical documentaries, especially one that was only forty-seven minutes long.
Although it was widely neglected upon release, And This is Free slowly developed an underground reputation over the years, partly because countless music documentaries have used clips from the film, including Martin Scorsese’s blues series from 2003. Perhaps now, with this new deluxe Shanachie edition, And This is Free will be recognized not just as one the best films about Chicago blues and gospel music but also as one of the landmark documentary films of the 1960s. | <urn:uuid:7a095a3c-d7f5-4f2f-9bdd-c338ca2a7c0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://downhometraces.com/category/chicago/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975408 | 2,157 | 1.5 | 2 |
On a desperate journey, two runaways meet and join forces. Though they are only looking to escape their harsh and narrow lives, they soon find themselves at the center of a terrible battle. It is a battle that will decide their fate and the fate of Narnia itself.
This was the fifth book written in The Chronicles of Narnia. It now stands as the third book in the series.
Don't miss any of the books in C.S. Lewis' classic Chronicles of Narnia series.
©1954, 1982 C.S. Lewis Pte. Ltd; (P)2002 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
I'm not blind drunk, I'm just blind.
Set some years after the events of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe but before Prince Caspian, The Horse and his Boy tells the tale of how young Shasta, an orphan boy raised on a small island by a solitary, dour fisherman, suddenly finds himself embarked on a grand adventure to reach the land of Narnia. He is accompanied by the talking horse Bree, former steed of a cruel lord from Callormen who intended to buy Shasta as a slave. THe pair is soon joined by Aravis, a girl who fled her father's estate with her own steed Hwin, another talking horse, to escape an arranged marriage . An excellently written tale brought superbly to life by British actor Alex Jennings. Each character has his or her own personality, from Shasta and Aravis to the horses to the sinister Tarkons of Callormen, who even now plot an invasion of Narnia to steal away Queen Susan. This of course puts Shasta in the desperate position of having to reach Narnia's southern neighbor, Archenland, in time to warn of the invasion. And in the course of his adventure, Shasta lerns a startling truth about his own past and how he came to be raised by the fisherman.
All in all this is an excellent listen. As I said in the title I could hardly turn off my IPod.
I had read the books before, but to have them read to me while I drive was amazing. Great story with some good Bible based lessons. The lessons are not pointed out, but they are certainly there.
this book was so good, i loved the person that reda it he had everything a reader needed...i wish i knew his name get him to do someother books caus ehe made me feel like a i was in the book no doubt a great reader...if you want send this to the person that read the The Boy and his Horse awsome!!!!!
Here we see a talking horse helping out a boy who is lost. Instead of telling the story from the perspective of the boy, we see it from the horse's perspective. We see a young orphan making his way across a country wondering why people keep wanting to catch him. We see the kids from the ‘Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ as adults leading as they talk about at the end of that book. We see Arsheesh coming back and playing the prophet/Christ figure in the story. In the end it’s a good story for kids to listen to.
I would highly recommend this. This is the best unabriged audio version of this book. Our entire family gets drawn in every time someone turns it on.
I love how the story brings everything together toward the end, and the action, while not shy of danger, is not gory. The style is well suited for boys and girls of many ages.
Toward the end, the main character is shown how he was cared for all along, though he had seen it as nothing but trouble. The time his eyes are opened is rather moving.
A clean, good natured, fun story. Anyone that likes Narnia will enjoy this story as much as the others.
this is a favorite series, I realy enjoyed listening to it and the reader did an excelent job to actualy draw me into the story.
This might be my favorite of the Narnia series but all are good and a must read. I absolutely LOVED the narration by Alex Jennings! I wish he narrated all in the series - and all of my favorite audio books!
My son and I enjoyed reading/listening to it, but we enjoyed LWW & MN much better. Perhaps this story will become clearer after reading Silver Chair & Last Battle (books 6 & 7).
Report Inappropriate Content
If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action. | <urn:uuid:dbde2e2e-7528-4157-93fc-7be473e74c12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sa_10?asin=B002V57SW0 | 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 | 0.97369 | 973 | 1.625 | 2 |
AFRICANGLOBE – Black America, If you haven’t read the works of Chancellor Williams of George James, you may still be amongst the thinking Blacks who realize that misinformation about the standing of Africans and Black America has been the order of the day for centuries.
But if you are a dead brained ignoramus who passes on the latest piece of mythology about Black America, you should do the race a service and either educate yourself or solder your ignorant lips shut.
Black mythology is one of our greatest challenges, because when a people believe they are in a specific state, or doing specific things, those beliefs and thoughts dictate their actions.
One of the most glaring problems facing African Americans is the media’s love affair with Black America, especially Black men. They love having us on the news, but the coverage is largely relegated to perpetual poverty, crime and other “bad” behavior. While we are neither the dominant nor the majority population, the negative media coverage is disproportionately high when it comes to us.
Many of our other difficulties stem directly from the misinformation that we pass on to each other, presenting lies and half-truths as “known facts.” But if one of us presents factual information to challenge the lies, the ignorant are likely to challenge right back with: “where’s your data?” That question will be launched even if data has been presented and even though no challenge was ever issued when the lie was accepted and passed around.
It is no secret that Black America have an image problem. It is also no secret that the media misrepresents African Americans. What is ostensibly a secret is that many of the most egregious things being said about Black people are being perpetuated by Black people.
In another Black Top Ten list, I’d like to dispel some of those myths.
Accordingly, these are the top ten things that Black people should stop saying about Black America:
1 There are more Black men in prison than in college.
False. The misleading “evidence” comes from studies such as the one conducted periodically by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), a Washington-based research group. JPI found that there were 791,600 Black men in jail or prison and “only” 603,032 of them in colleges or universities. They presented the findings as “evidence” of more Black men in prison than in college. As late as 2004, the US Census reported that there were 864,000 Black men in college. The numbers that people (including the JPI) quote are ALL of the Black men in prison, versus ONLY the free young Black men of college age, which spans the late teens to the early twenties. And yet, the myth is still a myth. Any of us can do the math: Out of the 40 million-plus African Americans that the 2008 Census found, less than one million are in jail or prison. The reality is that while there are too many of us in prison and more of us in there than others, there are NOT more of us on the inside than on the outside.
2 Black people, particularly Black men are lazy.
False. How can a people who built this nation and did it for free suddenly become the laziest people in the nation?
According to the US Census Bureau, 68.1% of all Black men and 62.3% of Black women over the age of 16 are in the civilian labor force, compared to 73% of White men and 59.9% of White women. With racial discrimination and other challenges, more of us are still working than sitting at home.
While the Blacks have a higher percentage of poverty than Whites in America, the majority of Black people are NOT poor. Of the 40 million-plus Blacks in this nation, 8.1 million have incomes below the poverty line.
Now, what we do with our money is another story…
3 Black people abuse the Welfare system and are swelling it beyond capacity.
False. First, the actual number of Black families on Welfare has been decreasing since the early 1970’s, when 46% of the recipients were Black. By the end of the 20th century, that number was down to 39%, as compared to 38% Whites who were non-Hispanic. If the comparison were strictly based on race without ethnic identification, Whites clearly outnumber Blacks on the Welfare rolls.
In addition, 40% of the families on Welfare have only one child, while the number having five or more is only 4%. And, by the last decade of the 20th century, Welfare accounted for just over 2% of the Federal Budget, while defense accounted for 24%.
Benefit programs for predominantly White farmers and big businesses far outweigh the Welfare program. Who is abusing welfare?
4. Most Black men are married to White women.
False. According to the most recent Census statistics, more than 90% of all Black men who are married are married to Black women.
Please stop lying about what you see (which isn’t data—you could be looking at co-workers) and stop using celebrities to cast an indictment on an entire group.
5. Affirmative Action unfairly provides opportunities for Black America.
False. First, Affirmative Action is inappropriately used to define Black preferential treatment and “quotas” but it was actually designed to benefit a number of groups who have been discriminated against, creating parity in the workplace. Since the 1970’s, Affirmative Action has benefited White women more than any other group. Secondly, no one who perpetuates this myth ever talks about other types of Affirmative Action, which benefit other races. For example, the Japanese descendants in America, who were each rewarded $20,000 in 1988 as reparations for internment during WWII, or the legacy programs which benefit people such as the dimwit son of a Bush who screwed up the world economy while in the white house. | <urn:uuid:6fb7bf0c-6bf9-469c-aa44-f9034bc2593d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.africanglobe.net/headlines/top-10-myths-black-america-read/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960784 | 1,226 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Keep the Stress in Check This Holiday Season
Let’s not forget…the holidays are supposed to be a break to relax and enjoy time with friends and family. But with (seemingly) endless errands to run, gifts to buy, dishes to prepare, and lights to light break can quickly become breakdown. We’ve compiled tips to de-stress from several sources, and would love if you shared your own!
1. Just say no. Take a deep breath, prioritize which events or commitments are most important to you, be realistic and remind yourself there’s only so much time (and sanity!)
2. Give back. Whether its volunteering or donating to a toy or food drive, helping those in need will have a positive effect on your holiday outlook (and sets a great example for toy-crazed kids)
3. Let it out. There’s power in numbers…do your present or grocery shopping with a friend and vent, after shopping treat yourselves to a soothing cup of green tea or a peppermint stick.
4. Reign in the sugar. Fluctuating sugar levels can make you depressed and bloated (and even more anxious over weight gain when the time comes to make those resolutions!)
5. Don’t forget “me”. While you’re out grabbing gifts to impress for those around you, get something small for yourself that will help alleviate stress—think holiday scented candles, a new book, or bubble bath to keep calm.
6. Keep the focus. These are holiday memories in the making, so slow down and laugh with the people around you! | <urn:uuid:6c58f5e1-08ad-4c8b-b914-4d830c534a8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.uniformadvantage.com/2011/12/09/keep-the-stress-in-check-this-holiday-season/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=8149a33672 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934869 | 336 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Son of Waler O'Malley and former Los Angeles Dodger CEO and Owner
The son of Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, Peter O'Malley majored in business at Wharton school of finance, before going to work for the Dodgers. He was the director of Dodgertown in 1962 and was president and GM of the Spokane Indians in 1965-1966. He moved to the big leagues as vice president in charge of stadium operations in 1967, becoming executive vice president in 1969. When his father became chairman of the board, Peter became President of the Dodgers in 1970. Upon the death of his father in 1979, Peter and his sister inherited the club. The Dodgers won two World Series in the 1980s under O'Malley's leadership. In 1998, he sold the team to the Fox Entertainment Group.
Peter O'Malley relinquished the club presidency to become chairman and CEO; he resigned those posts at the end of the 1998 baseball season. Murdoch appointed NewsCorp subsidiary's Fox Television executives to oversee the Dodgers, with mixed results. The sale was reported as an estate and tax planning move for the O'Malley family, as Terry had ten children and Peter three. None had immediately emerged as a candidate to succeed Peter, and he acknowledged that the new economics of the game had dictated that the days of family baseball ownership, without support of a separate corporation, were largely over. NewsCorp sold the Dodgers in 2004 for $430 million to Frank McCourt, a Boston developer.
In 1996, after earlier consideration and partly owing to a request by Los Angeles city authorities, Peter O'Malley met with NFL officials to discuss the possible construction of a football-only stadium on Dodger-owned property surrounding Dodger Stadium. His plan offered solutions to a number of problems faced by the NFL in locating a team in Los Angeles, following the departure of both the Rams and the Raiders. First, it provided for scarce, centrally-located land. Second, the proposal came attached to highly-regarded, established sports franchise management via the O'Malley involvement. Third, like Dodger Stadium, the new facility would be privately financed, and thus not entangled in lengthy municipal funding debates. Fourth, the plan called for alignment with an expansion team, meaning that no existing franchise would have to be moved.
Published reports indicated that O'Malley spent upwards of $1 million on an initial round of architectural renderings, land use studies and environmental impact research, and quickly garnered substantial support among NFL owners who would have to vote their approval. As meetings continued over the next year, O'Malley received a call from Mayor Richard Riordan, asking him to cease pursuit of the NFL franchise. The city had decided that the team should play in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, already over 70 years old, and absent any of the considerable amenities now standard in NFL stadiums.
O'Malley reluctantly shelved his work and withdrew, noting that while he believed strongly in the viability of his proposal, "you can't fight City Hall." No significant progress, or even agreement as to how the nation's second-largest market would attract a team and build a stadium, has occurred since.
Hallmarks of Peter O'Malley's baseball career were his deep involvement in the U.S. Little League program, his contribution to baseball's introduction as an Olympic sport, and his years of promotion of baseball globally, particularly in Latin America, Japan, and China, where a donation he made provided for construction of the country's first baseball stadium in 1986. Named Dodger Stadium, it is in the coastal city of Tianjin. He also funded the building of the O'Malley baseball fields in Corcaigh Park in Clondalkin, West Dublin, Ireland, considered the main home of Irish baseball. He believed that these initiatives would bolster baseball's popularity around the world, while also benefiting both the Dodgers and the future of American baseball in general. He has been widely credited with running the Dodgers as a professional, highly respected and emulated organization, operated with consistent methods and values, encompassed by a style known as "The Dodger Way." Among his unique business practices were treating his staff to ice cream at 2:00 P.M. every day that the Dodgers were in first place, and to overseas trips in the off-season after particularly successful years.By BR Bullpen
More From Around the Web
On May 22, 1990, Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson breaks ...
On May 22, 1975, Hall of Fame pitcher Robert Moses “Lefty ...
On May 22, 1969, Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron is lifted ... | <urn:uuid:a9369c19-2289-417e-9ff7-1e4e452173d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebaseballpage.com/history/peter-omalley | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978611 | 937 | 1.757813 | 2 |
By Heidi Stevens, Tribune Newspapers
January 29, 2013
From our panel of staff contributors
I'll pass along what a colleague told me when I was expecting: The days are long, the years are short. In other words, don't expect those days with baby to be all bliss. It's not always easy and sometimes is even lonely when they're very young and you're tethered to home. But suddenly, as they say, they're graduating and off to college.
Save or record everything. The craft projects, the 1-year-old birthday parties, the toy teacup for which you paid $85 (actually, that's what you paid the plumber to remove it from your toilet). It happens so fast, and the next thing you know you're singing a teary-eyed "Sunrise, Sunset" in Ballroom C in the Marriott.
Be mindful of the baby's need for sleep. In the beginning, if she's been up for two hours, it's probably time for a nap. If she looks tired, it's probably time for a nap. And when she starts regulating sleep patterns, remember the counterintuitive point that if you want her to sleep later, get her to bed earlier. Dr. Marc Weissbluth's book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" (Ballantine), includes a lot of useful information even if you don't follow his program.
As a great friend once told me: You (the parents) are not the only ones raising your children. So are the people you surround them with. Relatives, good friends will all influence your children, whether it's a neighbor lady who teaches a child how to bake or an uncle who teaches your kid how to water-ski or a cousin who takes time to soothe, diaper, listen when mom and dad are overwhelmed.
Pretend you're the grown-up. Far too often — acting on their desire to provide options, give their child a sense of self or behave like a beloved peer — contemporary parents forget that the parent/child relationship is not one between equals. Kids come into the world with plenty of stuff mapped onto their brains — we call this innate response mechanism, their temperament. What they don't have is an understanding of how things work, a sense of limits, or an ability to deal with broad choice and abstraction. You need to help guide them through these things. This doesn't mean you should be a heartless dictator, simply that you should remember your job description and not be afraid to engage your superior brain power, size, knowledge and sense of structure. So when you find yourself in an impossible or exasperating situation with your child, take a step back and ... ask yourself, "What would I do if I were the adult?"
— Brett Berk, early childhood expert and author of "The Gay Uncle's Guide to Parenting" (Three Rivers Press)
Sometimes comparing babies is good, and sometimes it's awful. You will be reassured or you will freak out. So, remember, while there are typical stages of development for all babies, each baby is different. Each reacts and behaves in response to development, her/his nature, and the fit s/he has with you. So, listen to your parent friends, but take what they say with a grain of salt.
— Betsy Brown Braun, parenting coach and author of "Just Tell Me What to Say: Sensible Tips and Scripts for Perplexed Parents" (HarperCollins)
Have a solution? You want to teach your teen to do laundry. He'd rather wear dirty clothes. How to proceed? Find "The Parent 'Hood" page on Facebook, where you can post your parenting questions and offer tips and solutions for others to try. | <urn:uuid:defb3f61-3a59-4474-b113-a70cd92cb037> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunny1015.com/wnsn/lifestyle/parenting/sc-fam-0129-parenthood-new-mom-20130129,0,1947395,print.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956088 | 770 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has shot down a challenge from the Prime Minister Najib Razak for him to name a Shadow Cabinet.
“There (is) no need for a shadow Cabinet, because we already have our parliamentary committees which oversee aspects of governance from the PM’s department to other ministries,” he was quoted as telling reporters yesterday.
However, I strongly disagree. In any parliamentary democracy, there is a government and there is an opposition. The role of government is written in black and white and the opposition’s job is to provide a check and balance to the government of the day.
In Malaysia, it is easier said than done, due to our being an almost one-party state for the greater part since independence. Over the years in Malaysia, the role of the opposition has become somewhat ambiguous, with many people not really knowing or understanding the proper role of an opposition.
One way to formalise and consolidate the role of the opposition is via a shadow Cabinet, whereupon the leader of opposition is officially mandated to appoint his own team of ministers to shadow the actual Cabinet. Basically, every government minister will be shadowed by his opposite from the opposition benches.
The role of the shadow ministers will be to keep tabs on their respective counterparts and also come up with appropriate and suitable alternative policies. A shadow Cabinet will in turn keep the opposition on their toes; most importantly, it will be an excellent platform to put forward their own ideas and policies into the forefront.
A point to consider is the current Klang Valley MRT fiasco; we have the opposition up in arms crying foul on this and that. It is their job to do so, period. But don’t you think it will be more effective and practical if there was a shadow minister to keep tabs on this issue, come up with alternative plans and promote them instead.
The situation now is that, everyone is jumping up and down with their five sen worth, but no one is suggesting any concrete alternative or solution to anything. Where is the opposition “parliamentary committee” in charge of public transportation in this?
When an opposition goes around town saying they are a government in waiting, they have to substantiate that sort of rhetoric with facts and solid action. They have to show us what they have to offer, how they will govern and what sort of policies they have to offer and prove to the voters they are capable of better governance compared to the government of the day.
Running a country is more than scrapping the ISA, UUCA, OSA, Printing and Publications Acts, eradicating corruption, increasing bonuses for civil servants and creating racial unity; granted those are all important issues.
What matters more to the man on the street are more down to earth bread and butter issues such as the state of the economy, public transportation, crime, healthcare, education, inflation, employment, price of basic food items, taxation rates, urban development, rural development and the list goes on and on.
But we don’t really know where the opposition stands on these basic issues, do we? It is one thing to promise the moon and the stars, but for starters, they can maybe start telling us how they intend to actually go about delivering it.
I suggest that members of the shadow Cabinet also be given a monthly salary by the state to further formalise their roles as shadow ministers and as recognition on the importance of their posts.
To further underscore the importance and seriousness of a shadow Cabinet, shadow ministers will have to do this full-time and forgo any other income generating commitments they may have. Public service is serious business and we cannot leave any room for conflicts of interest.
I further suggest since we follow the Westminster parliamentary system, we also follow the UK format of a shadow Cabinet for now. Give it a few years to stew and we can eventually modify the system to suit Malaysia better.
I am not suggesting we ape the UK in everything we do, but let us follow a system that works first and then slowly adapt it to our own local requirements.
Dear Leader of the Opposition, form a shadow Cabinet pronto, I say.
* Azeem Ambalam reads The Malaysian Insider | <urn:uuid:e6b1aff2-d0c0-441b-abbe-687529ca2960> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pr.bonology.com/2011_02_25_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963856 | 862 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Vietnam's Gold Demand to Fall as Government Curbs Bite: Research
Investment demand for gold in Vietnam could be a quarter less in 2013 than last year as the government tightens its grip on the bullion market to stabilize the country's currency, metals consultancy GFMS said.
People in Vietnam tend to store gold as a hedge against inflation, once among the highest in Asia, while the dong currency is often pressured by accumulation of the dollar for use in smuggling in the metal, given the absence of official imports.
"We saw a sharp fall in access to gold bars from the second half of 2012, as the government now has much stronger control over what is minted and how much is minted," said Cameron Alexander, a senior metals analyst at GFMS.
As a result, investment demand, which contributes about 85 percent of total gold demand in the world's No.9 bullion consumer, is expected to fall 22 to 25 percent in 2013, he said.
Vietnam's consumer gold demand, including jewelry and investment bars, dropped 24 percent to 77 tons last year from 100.8 tons in 2011 after the government moved to curb gold speculation that had contributed to the dong's volatility, says GFMS, a unit of Thomson Reuters.
The demand estimates are based on scrap supply and the unofficial inflow of gold, GFMS said. Vietnam, Asia's No. 4 gold consumer after India, China and Thailand, has not officially imported any gold since late 2011.
(Read More: In Case You Missed This: Vietnam Stocks Up 17%)
Similar to Vietnam, top gold consumer India has been trying to curb its gold demand, which has contributed to a ballooning current account deficit. India raised an import duty on gold to 6 percent from 4 percent in January.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has said it will directly import gold and trade the precious metal with gold companies and banks as part of the plan to control the domestic market.
"Vietnam is essentially a three-currency economy now: dong, dollar and gold," said Jonathan Pincus, dean of the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's commercial center.
"SBV wants to discourage speculation in gold and eventually reduce the role of the dollar and gold in domestic transactions and as a store of wealth. Controlling the domestic supply of gold is part of this strategy."
(Read More: Brace for Big Drop If Gold Breaches This Level)
The government has taken several steps to control the market, by slashing the number of gold trading outfits by almost 80 percent to about 2,500 by the end of 2012 and ordered banks to stop taking gold deposits and lending the metal by the first half of 2013.
The SBV has also limited trading to just one brand of gold bars minted by state-owned Saigon Jewellery Company Limited (SJC), which should help curb the flow of smuggled gold from neighboring countries as other brands of gold bars lose favor with Vietnamese investors.
Domestic premiums on gold bars surged to a record of more than $200 an ounce last week over global spot prices as a lack of imports created a shortage of the metal, helping keep buyers at bay.
(Read More: Currency War? Here's How to Hedge It With Gold)
But demand may creep back up as premiums have come off highs this week, dropping to just above $100 on Thursday.
"I am still keeping gold, no matter what the issues are on the domestic market," said Pham Hoang Anh Tuan, an investor in Ho Chi Minh City. "If it (the premium) narrows, I will pour more cash into it." | <urn:uuid:cb5ff4fe-3e40-4fba-8cfc-217f83c7b9c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/100480506 | 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 | 0.958142 | 762 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The Student Senate shall have the power to make recommendations for the improvement of any phase of campus.
The Student Senate will legislate in areas relating to the conduct and discipline of the men and women of the Student Body. Such legislation must remain within the limitations of federal, state, and local laws. Such legislation shall be monitored and passed in cooperation within the appropriate University Committees.
The Chief Justice and Student Senate shall have the power to bring forth charges against and prosecute any violator of regulations and policies of the University of Rio Grande Handbook of Regulations. | <urn:uuid:f4f942a0-16c6-4602-a4d8-970ab844ea14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rio.edu/student-senate/About.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932308 | 110 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Moshi — The name of a Tanzanian, Wilfred Moshi (33) is set to be in the Book of Records after becoming the first climber from the country to conquer Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world.
He reached the summit of the mountain on May 19 this year. The plane carrying the hero touched down at Kilimanjaro International Airport at 12.30 p.m. and the several individuals who attended the welcoming party led by the Kilimanjaro Regional Natural Resources and Tourism Officer, Isaria Massamu burst into tears of joy after getting a glimpse of their hero.
Talking to the press, Moshi, who was flanked by his wife, Agnes, said the expedition was hard but challenging as he was required to have oxygen cylinder to upkeep breathing at such high altitude, adding that he had to acclimatize with walking on the ice along long trails as he sauntered way up the roof of the world.
"It was an arduous expedition, for sure," he quipped, arguing youths to expose themselves to such feats as where there is a will there is a way.
He said after reaching the peak of Mount Everest, he shed tears for achieving his dreams, adding that prior to scaling the Asian mountain he had hit the top of Mount Kilimanjaro more than 80 times.
The hero was received by the Acting Regional Administrative Secretary, Ruth Malisa at the Heroes' Ground in Moshi, where she officiated at exhibition to mark the National Milk Drinking Promotion campaign and he was presented with a crate of fresh milk to maintain his health status. | <urn:uuid:08fa39d5-5ed6-4332-a9ae-0366b299df4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/201206010711.html | 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 | 0.983392 | 329 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Dana Baldelli, a pseudonym, currently lives in New York City.
But You Don't Look Jewish...
It was the fifth day of Passover and we were gathered around the table to start lunch. My nana, who was an amazing cook, grabbed my plate and piled on the lasagna. I tensed up, knowing that she would once again be confused.
"Nana," I replied gently. "It's Passover. You know I can't have bread."
She smiled. "I remembered. That's why no garlic bread for you and only lasagna, right?"
I didn't know what to say. After the million times we had been through this, it was the same thing ever year. I pretended to take the plate and passed it over to my father when she was not looking.
Growing up in an interfaith family has its inconveniences. My father, who never converted to Judaism, still obviously eats bread on Passover, goes to work on Yom Kippur, and doesn't quite understand the point of Sukkot. His family has been excellent in trying to adhere to our differing customs and traditions, but sometimes they just do not comprehend the meaning. Although the fact that my father is Catholic is inconvenient, and possibly even frustrating, I would not change it for anything in the world.
Although there is no "typical" Jewish-looking person, many people still make assumptions. Because my hair is blonde, my eyes are blue, and my last name is overtly Italian, I have rarely been taken for Jewish. Even people who know me sometimes claim, "Well, you are not really Jewish. Your dad is Catholic. You even look Italian." But they are wrong.
When my Catholic father talks to people of our family situation, he states simply, "I live with three Jews." And he is right. Although I have been exposed to certain aspects of Christianity, I am not any less Jewish than a Hassidic man living in Israel. My parents raised me Jewish, and I think I'm quite fortunate.
My mother is one of the most open-mined people I have ever met. She knows everyone in our town and something as simple as going food shopping can take two hours because she literally has to stop and talk with every person. Her genuine kindness to people of all backgrounds may be why she was more open to dating non-Jews. When I was young, this mentality made me more open to befriending children who grew up in different backgrounds than I did.
Ideally when I get married I would like the man to be Jewish. But the wonderful thing is I don't feel pressure from my parents; it is simply my own decision. I've seen situations where people get married to non-Jews and their grandparents refuse to attend the wedding. I know that for me, my parents will understand my decisions no matter what.
I don't feel as if I have had a disadvantage growing up in an interfaith home. From my more religious friends, I have received some scrutiny over "how Jewish" I actually am. In my heart, I know it is a ridiculous mindset. On my wedding day, I know my Catholic father will be by my side, wearing a kippah, head covering, because he knows it will be important to me. And that's all that matters. | <urn:uuid:4fd8fc71-73a9-4a13-b14b-09bc18c5fdeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.interfaithfamily.com/holidays/passover_and_easter/But_You_Dont_Look_Jewish.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987338 | 685 | 1.617188 | 2 |
SAMBATH SUONG CAME to Seattle from a refugee camp in Cambodia, and dance helps remind her of her homeland.
When the 30 members of Suong's Rainier Vista Cambodian Youth Dance Group perform in the fifth annual Dance This . . . program (7 p.m. Saturday, July 12, Paramount Theatre, 206-292-2787), it will help reinforce a sense of belonging and appreciation for the culture their families left behind in Southeast Asia. The kids that Suong mentors are the children of refugees, with little firsthand knowledge of Cambodia but a deep understanding of what it is to be a stranger in a different environment. The community that has formed around the dance group anchors these kids in the larger world.
Suong helped start the group in her living room as an offshoot of a program at the local elementary school.
"The bilingual aide asked, 'Can I borrow your house to do rehearsal?' so I moved my sofa," she recalls. "Finally, I threw my sofa away."
THE REHEARSALS became social occasions, a chance to eat together and for the parents to network while their children worked to master the intricate postures of Cambodian court dance.
"Back home, we socialize in temple or market," Suong reflects. "But here, we don't have a group place to go." Though the program is now more formal, it's still a community-based project.
Several of the groups that will perform Saturday have used dance as a social tool as well as an art form. When Darrlyn Smith started a tap program at Martin Luther King Elementary School, which would develop into the TTAAPP Central Studio, she thought the attention to rhythm and pattern would help students with their math skills. The Iintombi Zilapha Dancers from South Africa were founded by a schoolteacher in Guguletu, a local township in Capetown, to keep young girls off the streets and away from violence. (Their name means "the girls are here.") For companies like Slieveloughane, performing the intricacies of traditional Irish step dancing helps kids master complex and challenging material. And the Discover Dance collaboration between the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Ewajo Dance Workshop is designed to give kids who might otherwise not have the opportunity a chance to study a wide variety of styles.
Whatever the agenda, pride in the dancing links all these groups. We're a country in which everyone, at some point in the family tree, came from somewhere else. The young performers this weekend want to bring that heritage with them, and proudly share it with the rest of us. | <urn:uuid:cd05479e-e3e1-4add-9f96-2e4f48fc309c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattleweekly.com/2003-07-09/arts/take-this/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958358 | 538 | 1.71875 | 2 |
|Photos||Video & Audio||Blogs||Statistics||Archive||Games||Mobile|
The summer of 1951 will go down into cricket history as one that did not set a high standard of play. After the breezy exhibitions of batting by the West Indies the previous year the stolid defence of the South African batsmen provided a big contrast and the same dourness pervaded most of our county batsmen. To some extent the weather was to blame. The month of May was bitterly cold and subsequently, particularly in the North, rain constantly interfered with the game. Cricketers need sunny days to give of their best and only the ardent enthusiast will brave the cold and wet weather. But the fact remains that attendances fell to an alarming degree and the number of drawn games in the County Championship rose to such an extent that they reached 50 percent of the total fixtures.
Happily we are not being complacent and I was specially pleased to hear Colonel R. S. Rait Kerr draw attention to the problem when the county secretaries met at Lord's in December. He was right in referring to the Select Committee's report of 1944 (see Wisden 1944, page 83). I am grateful to Colonel Rait Kerr for sending us his speech in the form of an article which precedes these notes and at the same time I welcome the article by Neville Cardus who deals with the same problem from another angle. In short, cricket, and not only English cricket, needs an injection of culture and enterprise.
Judging by the results of the Test matches in 1951, English cricket has begun the long awaited upward trend. In March, at Melbourne, F. R. Brown's men broke Australia's long reign of supremacy by winning the Fifth Test--our first victory over our main rivals since 1938. Next, England went to New Zealand where we drew the First and won the Second Test--our first win over New Zealand since 1937, and last season in England we carried off the rubber by beating South Africa at Lord's, Manchester and The Oval after losing the First Test at Nottingham. For this improvement in the International sphere England has to thank first of all the captain, F. R. Brown, whose courage and leadership is duly recognised here in the article by Vivian Jenkins. Brown follows the tradition of the great amateurs who made this game of cricket as we know it in the first-class sense. There is always room for the talented professional but the amateur brings the essential spirit of adventure.
That is where cricket generally and county cricket in particular is failing at the present time. Fancy Jack Hobbs stating that he finds more pleasure in watching a village match than modern county cricket which he says consists of the same old stuff served up time after time. He emphasised that he did not regard his generation as being better than any other, but in his opinion there are few personalities in the game to-day. Hobbs thinks that the game should be improving because the youngster gets more chances than in his day, but instead it is going back. He pin-pointed one of the biggest faults for slow scoring when he remarked, "A good cricketer should be able to score off good bowling, instead of waiting for the loose ball," and he paid tribute to Denis Compton for being a fine cricketer and to Hutton whom he described as a classical batsman.
The truth is that for the time being the majority of players do not adopt the dynamic attitude towards the game, whether batting, bowling or fielding, as demanded in the Select Committee's report. How many counties have followed faithfully this directive in the five post-war seasons? In my opinion not one could reply they have done so consistently, but a few like Yorkshire, Middlesex, Glamorgan, Lancashire, Surrey and Warwickshire have forced the pace when in pursuit of the Championship.
The general lack of really first-class players and the gradual retirement of those who made their names before the war, coupled with an almost total absence of all-round cricketers, are some of the causes of listless cricket. Another drawback is the constant day-to-day fixture list. The Select Committee recommended that each county play 26 matches; that number has been increased to 28. Many players are cricket-weary and travel-tired before August arrives. We should prune the competitive programme or players should be rested in turn as they are when on tour.
Some people go as far as suggesting the restriction of first-class cricket to week-ends until August arrives so that more amateurs would be available, but such a reform would probably cause a big fall of county members and further embarrass the treasurers. One of the factors which has prevented some counties recovering their pre-war strength has been the appointment of immature men as captains, particularly in 1946. There does not seem to be much wisdom in expending large sums of money trying to find and develop young talent when those same young players are drafted into teams labouring under the handicap of poor captaincy.
And here let me congratulate Warwickshire on winning the County Championship. Their triumph emphasised the importance of skilled leadership, for in Tom Dollery they possessed a man able to get the best out of his team both off and on the field. Dollery a professional, led an all-professional eleven, and while twentieth century conditions rob the game of the real amateur Dollery showed that the paid player can become a captain in the real sense of the word. By his astute work Dollery has raised the status of the professional just as Hobbs did in the days when every county club had one dressing-room for the paid and another for the unpaid.
There were no stars in the Warwickshire team--none of their men was chosen for England--they were a well-balanced side splendidly equipped in bowling. Perhaps the match winner was W. E. Hollies, a grand leg-spinner in this country, but the whole attack was capable of exploiting any type of pitch and they did not pursue the fetish of in-swing and off-break. Much credit for Warwickshire's achievement must also be given to the Committee and Secretary, L. T. Deakins, for shrewd team-building.
Warwickshire certainly played dynamic cricket. Twice they beat Yorkshire, their main challengers, and six other games were won in two days. At the celebration dinner given by Lord Iliffe and his fellow directors of the Birmingham Post, Dr. Harold Twaite, the president, presented a gold watch to each member of the team. In praising his side Dollery said: "You will see many better cricket teams, but I doubt if you will see a keener one. And I know that there never has been a more loyal one, not only to the club but to the captain."
To some people the success of Warwickshire gave dissatisfaction because only two of the regular players, F. C. Gardner and C. W. Grove, were qualified by birth for the county. The majority were acquired by special registration but none were obtained from other first-class counties. Warwickshire set an example in making every effort to improve their standard of cricket. In the absence of home talent they looked elsewhere as they were entitled to do under the qualification rules. They made no secret of their policy. Two years ago in a special article approved by the club for Wisden M. F. K. Fraser wrote: "Warwickshire were persistent challengers for the Championship in 1949(the first year Dollery became full-time professional captain). The President and Committee are confident it can be won--and held--in the near future. With a record membership and record support at the turnstiles they are willing to back their confidence by outlay wherever it may be made usefully. There are critics of this policy which has turned the Warwickshire staff into a Cricket League of Nations: but the Birmingham public, nurtured on the liberal transfer system of Soccer, will not worry where their cricket favourites come from so long as they play attractively and win matches.
It would be a sorry day for cricket if players were bartered in the transfer market, but no one need fear such a happening for already the problem has been tackled and Warwickshire were one of the counties represented on the small committee which has tightened the Special Registration rules. Now only two new registrations are permitted each year by any county and from 1953 no county will be allowed more than ten specially registered players on their list including eight professionals.
While much has been written about the decline of English cricket there are signs that the corner will be turned if we continue to produce players like P. B. H. May, T. W. Graveney, D. S. Sheppard, F. A. Lowson, R. Tattersall, R. Appleyard, F. S. Trueman, D. J. Insole, M. C. Cowdrey, J. B. Statham, J. M. Parks and D. B. Close, and instil into everyone the joy of playing cricket keenly the whole time.
Excessive pad play is responsible for much negative cricket. To discourage batsman adopting this method of defence Sir Donald Bradman advocates that a batsman should be l. b. w. even if standing outside the off stump. Tampering with the laws has not always produced the results desired, but if this idea would bring about a return to leg-break bowling and thereby encourage batsmen to cultivate the off drive--one of the glories of cricket--it would be worth a trial, but so far not even Australia are wholly in favour. Linked with this problem of pad play is the leg-bye which many people think is an unfair penalty to the fielding side. The number of leg-byes might be reduced by this proposed extension of the l. b. w. rule.
The need for all-rounders was emphasised in the composition of the England team in the five Tests against South Africa. We would not have dared face Australia with such a long tail, and during the winter the same thing handicapped the M.C.C. team in India and Pakistan. When England were left to make 238 in an hour and forty minutes in the Second Test at Bombay, N. Howard could not instruct his batsmen to go for the runs because the batting strength ended at number six.
The cricket at Worcester and Old Trafford on July 27 provided striking examples of the way different teams tackle similar problems. Nottinghamshire left Worcestershire forty minutes to make 131 runs--over three runs a minute. There were only 2,000 people present and they were rewarded for their loyalty to their local club on the third day for they saw a glorious finish. Worcestershire not only attempted what seemed to be an impossible task but hit off the runs in 12.1 overs with five minutes to spare and won by nine wickets. Lancashire, on the other hand, were not so closely pressed for time. They wanted 110 in forty-eight minutes to beat Northamptonshire and, apparently, thought so little of their chance that they sent in their tail-end batsmen who in eighteen minutes made three runs for the loss of two wickets. The extra half-hour was not claimed so a position which had aroused the small crowd to a high level of excitement brought disappointment as they witnessed the farcical ending. While praising Worcestershire for their enterprising cricket one must also congratulate R. T. Simpson, the Nottinghamshire captain, and his men for the prompt way they moved to their places between the overs.
This action of Simpson's showed he was not unmindful of the necessity to provide attractive cricket, yet at Trent Bridge cricket has become so negative that the county club appointed a special committee to thrash out the problem. The matter boiled up in the Nottinghamshire and Glamorgan match when after a drab period during which the Glamorgan batsmen scored only 12 runs from fifteen overs on a perfect afternoon, Simpson bowled lobs to W. Wooller the opposing captain. Wooller voiced the opinion of many cricketers when he said, "The root of the trouble at Trent Bridge is the feather-bed state of the wicket. Visiting teams know that unless there is interference by the weather they are fighting for four points, not an outright victory. The Nottinghamshire fielding strategy is to bowl to a deep-set defensive field hoping that visiting batsmen will take chances and give catches. If batsmen are not prepared to do this, scoring rates of between 30 and 40 an hour result."
More sporting pitches may be expected there this summer, for on the instruction of the sub-committee one third of the "table" has been relaid. Immediately the 1951 season ended the marl and surface turf were cleared to the depth of an inch, the subsoil lifted to level the area again and the whole has been re-seeded. A light dressing of ordinary soil was also applied. If this experiment is successful the whole of the pitch area will be treated in a similar way.
The time has surely come when some counties should cut down the number of early finishes arranged for the third day. In one instance last season the home side and the umpires were staying at the same venue for the next match and the visiting team were travelling only 40 miles, yet long hours were played on the first two days and stumps were drawn early on the third. In another case only ten minutes' cricket took place after lunch on the third day when stumps were pulled up and the match left drawn. When lunch is included most cricketers think of a whole day match, but not, apparently, some first-class county clubs. These things irritate the public. They do not always complain but do they come to cricket again when there are so many counter attractions? I am indebted to Captain W. A. Powell, R. A. F. Staff College, Andover, for the following figures showing the growth of counter-attractions to cricket over the last 50 years:
|Lawn Tennis Clubs||320||5,300|
|Civil Flying Clubs and Schools||Nil||175|
|Sailing and Motor-boat Clubs||125||247|
|Private Cars licensed||4,300||5,200,000|
If first-class cricket is to survive, it must be able to challenge these formidable competitors.
If we could look ahead say ten or twenty years I wonder where Alec Bedser would stand in a list of great bowlers. All his first-class cricket has been played since the war and already his total number of wickets in Test matches, 162, have been surpassed by only two men, C. V. Grimmett 216, and S. F. Barnes 189. In the course of one year, September 1950 to August 1951, Bedser claimed 62 Test victims in twelve matches. In Australia his haul was 30, then he took two in New Zealand and returning to England again he took 30 wickets in the Tests against South Africa. Bedser has the gift of rising to the occasion because of the care and seriousness which he attaches to the importance of playing for England. Not even the most tempting invitation would induce him to break his self-appointed rule of bed by ten o'clock throughout a Test match.
The most comprehensive effort in the history of the game to take cricket to the youth of England is now in force and the M.C.C. and many former first-class cricketers must be congratulated on their splendid work. The scheme began in 1948 and now after three years of intensive work behind the scenes it has been launched on a National basis. While it should be the means of producing county and Test cricketers the main idea is to introduce cricket to boys who would otherwise never have the opportunity. The M.C.C. have made a grant of £15,000 to their Youth Association for this purpose and at the first week-end Conference they wisely took the course of giving sound instruction to the coaches who in turn instruct schoolmasters and youth leaders.
Most reluctantly I feel compelled to draw the attention of M.C.C. and other International cricket bodies to the problem of to the problem of throwing by bowlers in the act of delivering the ball. Over fifty years ago throwing on English grounds became so common that Sydney Pardon, the Editor of Wisden, conducted a campaign which led to the stamping out of the nuisance (see Wisden 1895, 1898, 1899). I am told by some people who followed the M.C.C. tour in Australia that they came across three bowlers whose actions were suspicious and two of these have played in Test matches. The problem cropped up in England last summer and nothing was done about it. In these days when the slightest incident on the cricket field may be magnified into an International affair it is no wonder that umpires are loath to take action, but I would remind umpires and all members of the Imperial Cricket Conference that Law 26 is perfectly clear as to the course that should be taken: For a delivery to be fair the ball must be bowled, not thrown or jerked; if either umpire be not entirely satisfied of the absolute fairness of a delivery in this respect, he shall call and signal "No Ball" instantly upon delivery. There is no question that the umpire must be positive that the man is throwing; he must call "No Ball" if there is any doubt in his mind about the delivery being absolutely fair.
The general form of the West Indies in Australia in 1951-52 fell a long way below expectations. Leaving aside the result of the Test series, the tone of letters from those who followed the tour is not happy. My information is that "West Indies were bounced out of the Tests." More than likely they returned home in similar frame of mind to other teams who have faced Australia's fast bowlers since the war, believing that they cannot meet Australia on level terms until they produce bowlers of like speed and method. That is, men capable of sustained attack of fast short-pitched bowling with the ball repeatedly flying around the batsman's head. In its origin cricket was never meant to be played that way. No matter what the issue involved, the game is greater than the individuals. It is a sad thought that sometimes this truth is submerged in the quest for victory and those with the interests of the game at heart regard the frequent use of the bumper as a menace. Action should be taken before someone is hurt, and hurt seriously.
No good can arise in approaching the problem by resurrecting past incidents, nor would I apportion the blame, but nearly every cricketer, past and present, condemns this type of bowling whether by an Englishman, an Australian or anyone else. It leads only to resentment and retaliation. As the rules are framed, however, no umpire can legislate. Law 46 declares that "the persistent and systematic bowling of fast short-pitched balls at the batsman standing clear of his wicket is unfair." To be completely clear of his wicket the batsman must be several inches away from the direct line between the stumps. If he takes normal guard and plays correctly his head and body are in line with the middle stump. To him the greatest danger of physical injury comes from the fast short-pitched STRAIGHT ball. If the batsman is standing clear of his wicket, the bowler can bowl at three unprotected stumps.
In the interests of cricket the law should be amended to empower the umpire to act if he considers the bowler to be persistently bowling fast short-pitched balls AT the batsman. The suggestion by Australia in 1933 might well be the answer. It read: "Any ball delivered which, in the opinion of the umpire at the bowler's end, is bowled at the batsman with the intent to intimidate or injure him shall be considered unfair and "No-ball" shall be called." Everyone recognises that without fast bowlers the game becomes a pale imitation of itself, but would not their numbers increase if Committees insisted that groundsmen produced faster pitches and if the present l. b. w. law was altered to conform with Sir Donald Bradman's suggestion referred to earlier in these notes?
Few appointments to cricket's high places have met with such general approval as that of Mr. Ronald Aird to the Secretaryship of M.C.C. Long experience--he has been at Lord's for 25 years as Assistant Secretary, first to Mr. W. Findlay and then to Colonel R. S. Rait Kerr--makes Mr. Aird particularly fitted for his new post, as also does his career as a player for Eton, Cambridge University, Hampshire and M.C.C. The heavy strain of office compelled the retirement of Colonel Rait Kerr, than whom Lord's has known few better administrators.
The sudden death in February of King George VI left its gap in cricket as in most other spheres. He was Patron of the Marylebone, Surrey and Lancashire clubs and always received a great welcome at cricket grounds. In his younger days, when Prince Albert, he was a left-handed batsman and bowler of no small ability. There is a ball mounted in the messroom of the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, commemorating his feat of performing the hat-trick on the private ground at Windsor Castle, where he once bowled King Edward VII, King George V and the present Duke of Windsor with consecutive balls. | <urn:uuid:477e8a06-005f-4043-b6ec-1dc603dd2326> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/152948.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975638 | 4,434 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Everyone is a number in this dystopian near-future where cameras track your every move. Score above 90 and you’re set for life. Score below 75 and you’re on your own, kid.
“Where’s my Jetpack?” is a phrase I used to see emblazoned on tee-shirts at science fiction conventions. Now it’s a book, with the nifty subtitle, “A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived.” I haven’t read it. Sounds nifty. The idea appears to be a fun tour through all the amazing things that science fiction imagined but which society failed to deliver. I share the author’s frustration. It’s depressing to me that we’re still primarily conveying ourselves via controlled petrol explosions rather than mag-lev. And don’t even get me started on technology for the handicapped. I mean why are people without the use of their legs stuck in go-karts that force them to wheel around at waist height in a world with stairs, curbs, and adults over five feet tall when we have robotic rovers exploring Mars via earth-bound remote controllers? Can’t somebody create a reasonable mechanical exoskeleton that would allow the handicapped to locomote in a way more conducive to life in the real world as opposed to life on a go-kart track?
But I think I know what’s wrong.
We have lost our passion for the future. We have allowed ourselves to become frozen in a backward-looking stance. We (and by “we” I mean primarily Americans) have allowed ourselves to be distracted by small-brained nitwits whose power amasses from the controlled release of pre-scientific philosophy. We are wasting precious mind-space arguing with each other about the “ethics” of life-saving stem cell research, the theological ramifications of abortion and birth control, the “sanctity” of heterosexual marriage. Meanwhile, we are inundated by horror stories from people even more backward than us. People who stone people to death. People who sentence women to punishment by gang-rape for crimes committed by her brother.
The world is choking on its own backwardness.
We need to start moving forward. Moving forward makes people happy. It gives them the sense that things are going to be better for their children than they are for themselves. On the other hand, backwardness only makes people grouchy because they pine for a hazy imagined past that never actually existed. So let’s start moving forward. And, no, I’m not just talking to my fellow transhumanists out there. I’m talking to everyone.
So here are some suggestions for how we can get ourselves back on track to create a future worth living in.
1) Embrace the scientific worldview. It’s beautiful, robust, and awe-inspiring.
2) Avoid nostalgic kitsch. This goes out especially to my fellow science fiction writers. I’m well bored of all those images of and references to the so-called “golden age” of SF. All those domed cities and buxom space babes. Enough. Let’s envision the future without all the irony. It’s not going to envision itself after all.
3) Philosophize technology. If ever there were a worldview that could replace the shroud of backwardness that is organized religion, I believe it is to be found in the spirit world of the Interweb. I am not talking about pulling an L Ron Hubbard and inventing some weird SF religion. I’m talking about exploring and communicating the inspirational capacities of the wired world.
So there. That ought to get everyone started. Any other suggestions would be most welcome.
13 Responses to “Backwards and Forwards”
Leave a Reply | <urn:uuid:c41d14c8-1999-42d6-a8b6-75bece906df9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.laurenmclaughlin.net/2007/05/17/backwards-and-forwards/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935793 | 816 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Ideas? Technical issues?
» Feedback to a-n
By: Richard Light and Paul Clark
“Water is the eye of the landscape”
Water holds a lens up to the world through which one can experience it differently. It is an element easily entered but within which one cannot survive without adaptation. How we adapt and respond aesthetically is the substance of this blog. The circular swim through the Lakeland tarns is the heart of the artwork around which other work is orchestrated.
Richard and Paul have been collaborating on a number of projects involving environmental and performance art.
Their collaborative work is both conceptual and experiential and is driven by the elements within their local landscape.
Whilst starting with an initial idea, the projects are allowed to develop with a dynamic of their own. | <urn:uuid:dba1d349-3374-4627-90bf-10e899cfc443> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/526860/0/single/459997/0/1/asc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956233 | 175 | 1.554688 | 2 |
|Sarcophagus of the Lambs - the Inspiration for the title|
of the movie Silence of the Lambs, Basilica Sant'Apollinare
From Barbie Latza Nadeau, for CNN
updated 10:20 PM EDT, Tue May 15, 2012
Police technicians are seen working at the church of Sant'Apollinare in central Rome, where a mobster's body was exhumed.
The body of mobster Enrico "Renatino" De Pedis was moved to a Rome basilica in the 1990s. Teen Emanuela Orlandi disappeared in 1983. An anonymous caller and his former mistress have linked De Pedis to the disappearance De Pedis will not be reburied at the site
|The Pharisee and the Publican - mural Sant' Apollinare|
Rome (CNN) -- The body of a mobster buried among cardinals and bishops on a Vatican property has been exhumed in an investigation into a teenage girl's disappearance.
Investigators at the church of Sant'Apollinare in central Rome opened the tomb of Enrico "Renatino" De Pedis on Monday in the search for clues about what happened to Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a prominent Vatican employee.
The 15-year-old vanished without a trace after leaving her Vatican apartment for music lessons on the afternoon of June 22, 1983.
The mystery has captivated people throughout Italy and triggered numerous conspiracy theories.
In the crypt, in addition to De Pedis' body, investigators found dozens of boxes of human bones, which they are testing.
At the time of Emanuela's disappearance nearly 30 years ago, a witness reported seeing a girl who fit her description getting into a dark green BMW near the music school, which was adjacent to the Sant'Apollinare church. That lead was never corroborated.
|Pope John Paul II speaks with|
Mehmet Ali Agca
In 1981, two years before the girl's disappearance, Turkish national Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II. In the days after Emanuela disappeared, her parents received anonymous phone calls from someone promising the safe return of their daughter if the Vatican released Agca.
Meanwhile, an anonymous caller told police that Emanuela was kidnapped to keep her father, Ercole Orlandi, quiet. That caller said Ercole Orlandi had stumbled upon sensitive documents that tied banker Roberto Calvi to an organized crime syndicate. Calvi was known as "God's banker" for his close association with both the Holy See and its primary banking facility, Banco Ambrosiano.
In 2005, another anonymous call to an Italian detective said Emanuela was kidnapped on the orders of the then-vicar of Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, and that "the secret to the mystery lies in a tomb in Sant'Apollinare basilica" -- specifically De Pedis' tomb.
De Pedis was gunned down in Rome in 1990 and his body was moved to the basilica some time before 1997, presumably either as part of a secret deal for a massive loan De Pedis made to the Vatican or to protect his tomb from being desecrated by rival gang members.
In 2008, De Pedis' mistress said he was involved in Emanuela's kidnapping and that the girl was buried under the foundation of a house outside of Rome. Investigators searched that house but found that the concrete foundation was poured the year before the girl's disappearance and could not have been connected to the crime.
The Vatican has distanced itself from the Orlandi controversy.
In a three-page letter broadcast on RAI television, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said he asked Vatican cardinals whether the Vatican's failure to collaborate in the original kidnapping probe was "normal and justifiable affirmation of Vatican sovereignty, or if in fact circumstances were withheld that might have helped clear something up."
The Vatican cooperated immediately with the exhumation.
|Enric De Pedris - Italian Crime Boss|
After opening the tomb Monday, investigators found De Pedis' body so well preserved that scientific police were able to confirm his identity through fingerprints. Also inside the crypt were the boxes of bones, according to investigators on the scene.
The church has been used for burials for two centuries. Still, all of the bones will be tested to determine whether they are tied to De Pedis or to Emanuela's disappearance.
De Pedis family lawyer Lorenzo Radogna said the remains will either be cremated or reinterred in a public cemetery in Rome. | <urn:uuid:6a54144e-d91c-4264-af1e-831ea5098656> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://americankabuki.blogspot.ca/2012/05/mobsters-body-exhumed-from-vatican-site.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957221 | 951 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Your hotel bills now limited to $10K?scan your credit cards to make sure you're not taking with you or bringing in any prepaid credit card worth more than $10,000 (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News).
[U]nder a proposed amendment to the Bank Secrecy Act, FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) will also require travelers to declare the value of prepaid cards that they are carrying, known now as “tangible prepaid access devices.”
Expected to be finalized by the end of this year, the cross-border reporting modifications stem from a broader October 2011 definition of payment methods and form factors that replaced the term “stored value” with the term “prepaid access” in an effort to more accurately describe the process of accessing funds held by a payment provider.
Enforceability falls to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection both within the Department of Homeland Security, which is already developing advanced handheld card readers that can ascertain whether a traveler is carrying a credit card, debit card, or prepaid card. This differentiation is important because only prepaid card balances will need to be added to declaration report forms.That ought to speed up those airport security lines.
Rumors that Michelle Obama and her entourage will be exempt could not be confirmed. | <urn:uuid:8d5d1cca-2b07-4b25-a6aa-4016bd945624> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://israelmatzav.blogspot.jp/2012/11/your-hotel-bills-now-limited-to-10k.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958332 | 277 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Excerpt from Mr. Adnan Oktar's interview on A9 TV dated 22 March 2012
“The hypocrites think they deceive Allah.”
In their opinion, hypocrites think that they deceive Allah. For instance, if you look at the statements of hypocrites, they show themselves as if they believe but a hypocrite never believes in what he tells. This is similar to the case of people who have to pretend to be communists under a communist system, although they hate communism. This was also the case in the neighborhoods in the past in Turkey where communism was dominant. Then those who were severely against communism pretended to be communists when they were surrounded by communists. They pretended to be more communist than the communists. They pretended to be communists because they were afraid.
The same thing holds true for bigots; in order not to lose his interests in that system, he shows himself as a bigot who believes in superstitions- he, in fact, does not believe.
“But He is deceiving them.”
Allah deceives them. They think that they deceive Allah but Almighty Allah says that He, in fact, deceives them. “When they get up to pray, they get up lazily.” This is the main trait of hypocrites. “...showing off to people.” By what means? By every means that comes to your mind. By skull-caps, cloaks, swords, flags, the flags that they themselves make, by using the miswaq. They show themselves off by new methods that they develop. If you notice, bigots intensely show off but sincere Muslims have some sort of sweetness, some kind of beauty.
“They vacillate between the two – not joining these or joining those.” They neither join Muslims nor disbelievers.
‘If Allah misguides someone, you will not find any way for him to go..” They can not find any way once a person swerves.
“You who have faith! Do not take the disbelievers as friends rather than the believers. Do you want to give Allah clear proof against you?”
Allah says that a certain proof comes into being. What does one commit against Muslims? He cooperates with disbelievers, he takes them as guardians. They come up and say, “The Qur’an says not to take Jews and Christians as guides.” Notice that Allah also says, “Do not take disbelievers as guides.” Your father is a disbeliever, so why do you take his as a guide? The businessman you flatter is a disbeliever, why do you take him as a guide? Your own child lives the life of a disbeliever. You also take him as a disbeliever. From the way she speaks, it is comprehended that your own wife has also fallen into disbelief. You also take her as a guide. What happened to your claim that you were not taking them as guides? You were giving advice to the people around you? This means that if there are disbelievers, no union comes into being. If one curses against Islam, our religion and faith. There is no problem if one does not give any harm to them. That is to say, we do not interfere with them, for Allah says that if they do not struggle against Muslims in their religious issues, there is no harm in doing good to them.
I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed satan. “The hypocrites are in the lowest level of the Fire. You will not find any one to help them.”2012-06-27 13:25:29 | <urn:uuid:63adb9c0-964a-43a5-9f7b-ea32551a5286> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.harunyahya.com/en/works/116321/Surat-an-Nisa-142-145 | 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 | 0.983975 | 753 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Art Center, Brazil printed 400 pizzas – quite literally. The project, produced for Art Center’s own promotional campaign on an Inca Spyder 320 and Inca Onset S20, featured both an appetizing topping printed directly on real pizza crust, the box, and even wraps for the delivery cars. Despite previous successful forays for clients with such unconventional print media, the company found an entirely new set of challenges intrinsic to everyone’s favorite Italian staple food.
The Art Center team began by ordering hundreds of naked pizza crusts. The doughy substrate, however, was not without its difficulties. “When they began baking, the heat of the ovens, of course, created bubbles in the crust,” remarks Jacques Pedrosa, Art Center’s Commercial Director. They overcame the challenge by pre-treating the crust. “We had to bake each pizza under a heavy disk of MDF stabilizing it, and making them as flat as possible. Then, we were able to print on them.”
First, they printed pizza topping on paper to create a template so that each crust could be correctly positioned on the sheet. They created and used specialized frames to maintain each pizza’s position during printing. Afterwards, the pizzas were slipped into custom-designed and printed boxes (imaged on their Inca Onset S20) from “La Pizza,” an imaginary pizzeria of Art Center’s own creation. “We also print on paper,” claims the inside of each box.
“The competitive scenario in São Paulo for print companies is quite difficult,” adds Pedrosa, “so Art Center decided to produce a targeted campaign directed towards decision-makers in advertising and design agencies. The challenge was to communicate that we have the best in technology and equipment – like Inca printers, for example – and a great staff to print and produce creative materials for ads, displays, signs, and special projects.” Their targets’ stomachs, it turns out, were just as big as their eyes: “Based on the fact that our clients and prospects eat pizzas at the office very often – especially when they work late at night – we decided to create a campaign to deliver some real pizzas, baked in an oven, but with their toppings printed by Inca UV inkjet printers. To complete the illusion, we created a virtual pizzeria, complete with pizza boxes and delivery cars.”
The clients receiving the promotion were then invited to visit Art Center’s website, and those who commented on it were rewarded with a free pizza from the best pizzeria in São Paulo. “We had the pleasure of paying for about 170 pizzas, but the best was yet to come,” said Pedrosa. The ‘joke’, it turns out, had quite an impact. “A very well-recognized professional in the São Paulo advertising industry went to his creative group and said: ‘Guys, we have to work with these people more often – they understand our business.’ To our surprise, he even came to our studio for a visit. It was amazing. This was a very big agency. They came with business and quotes.” Within three months of the promotion, Art Center had received seven quotes for special projects, netting $195,000 in profit. The initial campaign cost a comparatively meager $16,000. “Best of all, we are still remembered in the marketplace as a creative company able to develop unique and new solutions for print advertising.”
The pizza campaign earned Art Center a Special Award for Creativity and a runner-up in the Self-Promotional Targeted Campaign category in the Inca Digital Excellence Awards. | <urn:uuid:0b3709dd-03a1-4d79-b7b4-b5e042f60297> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myprintresource.com/press_release/10897975/art-center-fulfills-its-clients-appetites-for-pizza-with-the-help-of-its-onset-s20-and-inca-spyder-320-printers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977352 | 784 | 1.578125 | 2 |
We all have a responsibility to promote high standards of behaviour in the game.
The behaviour of the match officials has an impact, directly and indirectly, on the conduct of everyone involved in the game - both on the pitch and on the sidelines.
Play your part and observe The FA's Respect Code of Conduct for Match Officials at all time.
When officiating I will:
- Be honest and completely impartial at all times, irrespective of the teams, players or team officials involved in the match
- Apply the Laws of the Game and competition rules fairly and consistently
- Manage the game in a positive, calm and confident manner
- Deal with all instances of violence, aggression, unsporting behaviour, foul play and other misconduct
- Not tolerate offensive, insulting or abusive language or behaviour from players and officials
- Support my match official colleagues at all times
- Set a positive personal example by promoting good behaviour and showing respect to everyone involved in the game
- Communicate with the players and encourage fair play
- Respond in a clear, calm and confident manner to any appropriate request for clarification by the team captains
- Prepare physically and mentally for every match
- Complete and submit, accurate and concise reports within the time limit required for games which I officiate
I understand that breaches of the code may result in action being taken by my County FA and /or The FA.
Click here to download the Code of Conduct for Match Officials
The FA has now worked alongside A&H International and the Referee Association to provide a 'Respect Referee Kit' which is now available from their websites. | <urn:uuid:157c2a89-4bee-4cbb-bd7f-2e2664d6266a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefa.com/Leagues/Respect/CodesofConduct/CodeofConductMatchOfficials.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94347 | 326 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Unsubstantiated protests of 2,4-D and dicamba
National news media is making hay out of the fact that farm organizations are fractured about the use of two common herbicides. An agricultural coalition of “more than 2,000 U.S. farmers and food companies” has raised questions about the safety of 2,4-D and dicamba herbicides, mainly because they don’t want more of either herbicide applied to U.S. crops.
The protests are in reaction to Dow AgroScience and Monsanto developing biotech crops resistant to 2,4-D and dicamba respectively. The protest group, Save Our Crops Coalition, doesn’t care that both companies will be introducing completely new formulations of the herbicides that will only have a small percentage of drift and volatization potential of the current herbicide formulations.
A Reuters news service article by Carey Gillam gives lengthy attention to the coalition’s contentions and explains what the coalition is doing or poised to do.
Ignoring positive messages and information from Dow and Monsanto, quotes such as one from Steve Smith, director of agriculture at Red Gold tomato processor, shows the over zealous concern by members of the coalition. “The danger that 2,4-D and dicamba pose is a real threat to crops…nearly every food crop,” Smith is quoted as saying in the Reuters article.
Read the full Reuters article by clicking here. | <urn:uuid:d99520ab-1351-475d-a8e4-2128812d89e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agprofessional.com/newsletters/agpro-weekly/articles/Unsubstantiated-protests-of-24-D-and-dicamba-148135795.html?email=yes&cmntid=88649194 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939134 | 303 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The Volkswagen Touareg (photo 1) and Porsche Cayenne are sister vehicles built on the same platform and the unlocking procedures for each are identical. These vehicles were among the first to use a new style of electronically activated locking system. This system is gradually becoming the standard system on new VW, Porsche and Audi vehicles. This system has no mechanical lock / unlock control inside the vehicle, and where a vertical button has been in the past a small red LED blinks when the alarm system is active. Occupants of the vehicle can lock and unlock the doors only by way of an electronic control mounted on the door panel.
In normal operation, the occupant can exit the vehicle simply by pulling the inside door handle regardless of whether the door is locked or not. Pulling the inside door handle will automatically override the lock system unless the alarm is active. Once the alarm has been activated, the inside power door lock control is disabled. As long as the key is not in the ignition, it doesn't matter how the vehicle is locked; after a few seconds the alarm will be activated.
To unlock the Touareg or Cayenne without a key, you will have to pull the inside door handle at least once with your tool. A stout under-window style tool can be used, but it needs more strength than the average tool. Another consideration is that the end of the tool will be pressed hard against the rear surface of the inside door handle, so you want to use a tool that will not scratch the handle. In this example, I'm using the Tech-Train 1035 tool (photo2) which has been designed specifically for these vehicles, but there are other tools that will also work.
Begin by inserting two wedges to open a gap into the door above the inside door handle. Using a shim, like the one that I am holding in the photo, as you insert the wedges will greatly reduce the likelihood of damage to the weather stripping. Insert the shim into the door first and then insert the wedge between the glass and the shim. This will prevent the lower layers of the weather stripping from being rolled under or being torn by the wedge.
Next, insert the tool into the door between the two wedges. Once again, using the shim will protect the weather stripping and make it easier to insert the tool (photo 3). After the tool is inside the door, work the upper bend of the tool under the base of the window glass and then pull up gently on the tool. When you see the tool begin to come up on the inside of the window glass, stop and remove the wedges. Removing the wedges will relieve the stress on the glass and make it easier to pull the tool into position. Not removing the wedges only makes the job harder and risks breaking or scratching the window glass.
Carefully work the tool up inside the vehicle until the tip of the tool is free of the weather stripping (photo 4). Then, work the tip of the tool down and behind the forward end of the inside door handle. Patience will be required to get the tip of the tool into the correct position without scratching the trim. Don't rush this job. It's important to keep in mind that you are working on an $80,000 vehicle.
When the tool is in position, use leverage to pull the inside handle out as far as it will go (photo 5). After the handle has been pulled and then released, the vehicle will be unlocked. At that point, you have the choice to either pull the inside handle a second time with the tool to actually open the door, or to pull the outside handle.
I prefer to pull the outside door handle (photo 6) to open the door for several reasons. It requires a lot more force to pull the handle a second time with the tool, which makes it much easier to scratch something if your tool slips. Also, opening the door from the outside simply looks more professional. If the door fails to open, this indicates that you did not pull the inside handle out far enough. If this happens, repeat the steps above and make sure that you pull the handle out as far as it will go. After you have the door open, you will need to use your shim once again on the inside of the door to remove the tool without damaging the weather stripping on the inside of the door. | <urn:uuid:9a554979-364f-4ccb-8fc2-c0a0c7fb134a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.locksmithledger.com/article/10229680/servicing-the-vw-touareg-porsche-cayenne-2003-2007 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932263 | 889 | 1.734375 | 2 |
This New Zealand modder decided to make a touch screen PC for his kitchen so his wife could keep inventory of their food, print out shopping lists, access the web, watch TV and use it as a normal PC. First, he found a cheap touch screen monitor which would form the heart of the device. These screens are used in vending machines and public places in Japan so they are vandal-proof and water-proof which is perfect for the kitchen environment.
**Note** This post was first published six months before the iPad was released.
For the PC aspect of the project, he decided to build one from scratch. You could use any old machine left lying around but he decided it would be best for performance to custom build it. He settled on specs such as 4GB of RAM, a 3.20Ghz processor and an 800Gb hard drive. This would all be stored in a small cabinet near where the screen would be mounted for maintenance purposes. Wires run from the cabinet, through the drywall, to the touch screen.
Once he had everything running, he needed a better interface than the standard Windows desktop. He used a program called Active Desktop which enabled him to replicate the iPhone menu style. He calls his creation iKitchen. For the touch screen keyboard, he went with a quality program called Comfort On-Screen Keyboard which vastly improved the typing experience when compared with the standard on-screen windows keyboard.
On top of that, he added a barcode scanner for groceries and a TV tuner! Awesome project to add to our case mod collection. | <urn:uuid:60bb7c6e-9c9b-404a-9ee6-ff213a86af04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hacknmod.com/hack/ikitchen-diy-touch-screen-wall-mount-computer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972444 | 321 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Texas may strip away transgender marriage rights
AUSTIN, Texas – Two years after Texas became one of the last states to allow transgendered people to use proof of their sex change to get a marriage license, Republican lawmakers are trying to roll back the clock.
Advocates for the transgendered say a proposal to bar transgendered people from getting married smacks of discrimination and would put their legally granted marriages in danger of being nullified if challenged in court.
One of the Republican sponsors of the legislation said he’s simply trying to clean up the 2009 law in a state that bans same-sex marriage under the constitution.
“The Texas Constitution,” Sen. Tommy Williams said, “clearly defines marriage between one man and one woman.”
The legislation by Williams, of Houston, and Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, of Brenham, would prohibit county and district clerks from using a court order recognizing a sex change as documentation to get married, effectively requiring the state to recognize a 1999 state appeals court decision that said in cases of marriage, gender is assigned at birth and sticks with a person throughout their life even if they have a sex change.
Most states allow transgendered people to get married using a court order that also allows them to change their driver’s license, experts said. Some advocates for the transgendered say the Texas proposal would not only prevent future transgendered marriages but also open up the possibility that any current marriage could be nullified.
“It appears the goal is to try to enshrine a really horrifying ruling and making it law in the state of Texas,” said John Nechman, a Houston attorney whose law firm does work for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community.
Gov. Rick Perry’s spokesman Mark Miner said the governor never intended to allow transgendered people to get married. He said the three-word sex change provision was sneaked through on a larger piece of legislation Perry signed two years ago regarding marriage licensing rules for county and district clerks. Perry, a Republican, supports efforts to “clarify the unintended consequences” of that law, Miner said.
“The governor has always believed and advocated that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Miner said.
Williams said he understands that some people’s gender cannot easily be determined when they are born and they later have an operation that could change the originally assigned gender.
“It is an emotional issue,” Williams said. “I can appreciate that.”
But when asked about claims of discrimination, Williams insisted his goal is to simplify marriage licensing for clerks who are trying to balance the 2009 law with the 1999 Texas appeals court ruling.
“They shouldn’t have to resolve these issues,” Williams said. “We have confused them.”
Williams’ legislation has cleared a committee vote and now awaits approval by the full Senate, which is predominantly Republican. The version in the GOP-dominated House has not yet been given a hearing.
Some advocates for the transgendered say that even if the legislation is passed, transgendered people could still get marriage licenses using other state and federally-issued documents such as a drivers’ license or passport. But without the weight of a court order officially recognizing their gender reassignment, they worry any legal challenge, such as a divorce or estate dispute, would nullify the marriage.
“We want to be recognized as people. We want to have the same rights as all of you,” Lisa Scheps of the Transgender Education Network of Texas said at a March hearing on Williams’ bill. No one testified in favor of the legislation.
Kolkhorst, who authored the 2009 law that allowed the sex change documentation to be used in getting marriage licenses, did not respond to messages left at her office seeking comment on why she now wants to take it out.
The 2009 law originally was filed without the sex change document provision, but House records show Kolkhorst put it in as part of a lengthy amendment in the last month of the session. The changed legislation passed the House and Senate and Perry signed it into law a month later.
“It would be terrible for Texas, now that it finally caught up with the rest of the country, to take a step back,” said Shannon Minter, an attorney for the national Transgender Law and Policy Institute. He said most states allow marriages for people who have undergone sex reassignment surgery.
Nikki Araguz was at the Capitol last week to lobby against the legislation. Her husband, a volunteer firefighter, was killed in the line of duty in July and she is being sued by her dead husband’s family over control of his $600,000 estate.
Araguz had a final sex change operation in October 2008, two months after they were married, and says her husband knew and supported her. His family argues the marriage should be voided because Araguz was born a man and same-sex marriage is not legal in Texas. A hearing is scheduled for May 13.
“This is crazy. I feel like this is a personal attack on me,” Araguz told The Associated Press. “If this bill is passed, it essentially means women like myself who have had reconstructive surgery will not be allowed to marry their heterosexual partner.” | <urn:uuid:b8fb4038-3dcf-48b7-a14d-b11a0b6d7fe0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://schuylerthorpe.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/texas-targets-people-of-transgendered-status-in-gay-marriage-ban/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972066 | 1,121 | 1.820313 | 2 |
New Yorkers can breathe a sigh of relief that enough Democrats have decided to side with Republicans for the GOP to retain control of the State Senate. At least, we hope they can, but with the power-sharing experiment the Senate is about to embark upon, the coming session could be more unpredictable than usual.
With five Democrats joining Republicans, it is possible not only that the Senate can continue to apply the brakes – some brakes – to the Assembly’s inclinations, but that a small Democratic influence could allow for other valuable measures to be approved.
Or it could be terrible, as it has been in the past.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has his own 10-point litmus test of success for the new Senate, which will be sworn in Jan. 1. In his own words, they are support for:
• The property tax cap that has finally imposed fiscal discipline on local governments and provided relief to taxpayers.
• Campaign finance reform.
• Increasing the minimum wage.
• Reform of New York City’s “stop and frisk” policy.
• Environmental protection and initiatives that address our changing climate.
• The education and Medicaid budget rate formulas that provided fiscal predictability and sustainability.
• The tax cuts that brought taxes on the middle class tax to the lowest rates in 58 years.
• Education reforms – like teacher evaluations – that bring more accountability to our schools and continued improvement to our SUNY system.
• Protecting a woman’s right to choose.
• Limited and highly regulated casinos introduced as economic development generators.
With the exception of increasing the minimum wage (which should be done, but at the federal level) and the casino proposal (which brings more money to Albany but which has no record of economic development), the test is a good one, and for the Assembly as well as the Senate.
What is certain, based on painful recent history, is that the Senate is better off in Republican hands than in Democratic, a fact that Cuomo noted in observing the “dysfunction” that gripped the chamber when Democrats briefly controlled it.
That’s not to say that Republicans did well before that. Every tax, every unfunded mandate, every gift to unions and other high-dollar donors was approved by the Republican Senate as well as the Democratic Assembly. Senate Republicans were Democratic-light, and they served the public poorly.
Will a power-sharing arrangement work better? If Republicans can insist on supporting the tax cap, education reform and other fiscal issues, while Democrats exert their influence on matters such as campaign finance reform, abortion rights and New York City’s egregious stop-and-frisk policy, New Yorkers could come out ahead. | <urn:uuid:328aabd5-1af9-40c7-a968-8db94428eb87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121210/OPINION/121219998/1118 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956578 | 557 | 1.726563 | 2 |
15 Years of Saying YES!
Video by Christa Hillstrom
15 years ago, a powerful idea took off!
There's plenty of journalism about what's going wrong in the world—and, from climate change to an unjust economy, plenty of things going wrong to write about. But if things are to change for the better, don't we need a place to learn about all the under-the-radar ideas and movements that are actually working? Don't we need a vision we can say yes to?
In 1996, in the basement of a rented house, YES! Magazine was born. Founded on the idea that a better world is possible, YES! uncovers stories and solutions that show people how to make positive change in their own lives and communities.
15 years and later, YES! is a nonprofit, subscriber-supported media organization, reaching more than 150,000 readers with each quarterly print issue and hundreds of thousands more through YesMagazine.org. We were recently selected as a nominee for the Utne Independent Press Award for General Excellence, and were the editors' pick for Best Business & Politics Website for Treehugger's Best of Green Awards.
This video features work from YES! in print and online, including the following films:
- We Are Wisconsin
Meet the people making history in Wisconsin.
- The Economics of Happiness
How going local can restore our ecosystems, our societies, and our spirits.
- The Story of Citizens United
Annie Leonard's new film asks: Why have corporations gotten so powerful? And what can we do about it?
- Chocolate Country
Video: A happy tale of the success of a cacao cooperative in the Dominican Republic.
- Journey of Action
Bellingham, Washington—a local living economy.
- Watch our celebration: Van Jones and Bill McKibben joined us in Seattle to celebrate 15 years of inspiring positive change. Click here to see their inspiring presentations.
- Get a free issue: Click here to join our family by subscribing to our print magazine.
- Get a dose of YES! each week: Click here to get our best stories of hope and change in your inbox every Friday.
That means, we rely on support from our readers.
Independent. Nonprofit. Subscriber-supported. | <urn:uuid:2361286b-d362-4408-96e0-577069bcfa22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yesmagazine.org/about/15-years-of-yes?icl=yesemail_wkly20110603&ica=titleVideo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93007 | 471 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Hackers Place Bounty on X-Box Kinect
Whether it's catching a fugitive, getting a man into space commercially or cracking unsolved math problems, a bounty seems like a good way to motivate competitors to go the extra mile. Now add "crack Microsoft code" to that list.
On Wednesday, the DIY electronics shop Adafruit offered up a $1,000 prize to the first person who can crack the source code behind the X-Box Kinect module . Then, after Microsoft sternly warned against trying to do so, Adafruit raised the prize to $2,000.
"Don’t make us up it to $3k," reads the Apafruit website.
The Kinect uses a time of flight camera, basically an infrared version of sonar, to map out a room and the motion therein. The hackers at Adafruit were so taken with the uses beyond gaming for that system that they knew they need to crack it. Adafruit claimed their employees were too busy to do it themselves, and thus have enlisted the Internet to solve the problem for them.
Microsoft, in a statement to CNET.com, said "Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products. With Kinect , Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering. Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant."
Harsh words, especially coming from a company that itself put a $250,000 bounty on the head of the black hat hacker who created the Conficker virus. Not so fun when you're the hunted, is it? | <urn:uuid:1d9f0b68-b417-442e-8de5-d0325dbadeff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technewsdaily.com/1485-hackers-place-bounty-on-xbox-kinect.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943402 | 341 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Nay sayers of Android could argue that the platform is not secure due to the number of malwares out there that seem to be targeting Android devices specifically. Companies also appear to be favoring RIM over Android as well due to the amount of control they would have over Blackberry devices, but perhaps the NSA’s (National Security Agency) latest efforts might be able to convince those nay sayers that the Android mobile operating system can indeed be locked up tight enough even by the NSA’s standards.
The NSA has recently announced the availability of their security enhanced version of Android that they have dubbed SE Android (we’re guessing SE stands for Security Enhanced). For those unfamiliar, SE Android brings about Mandatory Access Control to Android’s Linux kernel which would help to protect against malicious exploits and such. It even allows for every single and folder within Android to be locked down with encryption.
Unfortunately if you were looking forward to getting this on your Android device, you would be out of luck. The NSA’s SE Android at the moment merely exists as an emulator and will at the very most make its way onto the Nexus S. In order to do this, you apparently would require to be familiar with Android’s source along with Linux/Unix-based systems. Basically this is not for everybody. However if you’re interested in learning more, you will be able to find more information at the SE LInux Project’s website.
Google Play Games Brings Cloud Save, Achievements, Multiplayer To Android
Jolla’s First Sailfish OS Smartphone Coming Soon
SwiftKey 4.1 Update Brings Three New Themes
Rugged Android Smartphone From Adaia A Possibility | <urn:uuid:ff758599-7fdb-4119-9422-15f830ea98e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/01/nsa-releases-security-enhanced-version-of-android/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941234 | 356 | 1.796875 | 2 |
History, Mission, Philosophy
Board of Trustees
Bullying & Harassment Policy
Clubs & Activities
Ursuline Educational Services
Online School for Girls
21st Century Education
Chris Pope Photography
Transportation to Ursuline
About the Alumnae Association
From the President's Desk
Search for Classmates
Methods of Giving
Frequently asked questions
2013 Senior Gift
Donor Bill of Rights
Letter from the President
Campaign Fast Facts
Campaign Honor Roll
Faculty / Staff Directory
The Campaign for The Ursuline School
First Time Login
On a September morning in 1897, 70 young women came to Leland Castle in New Rochelle. Ten boarders and 60 day students were members of the first class of the Ursuline Seminary for Girls. As registration increased, the south wing of the Castle was added and the first Catholic College for women in New York State, the College of New Rochelle, was founded. The "Sem" girls shared the newly built Chidwick Hall with the college students. By 1916, the secondary school, officially called Merici School, had expanded its curriculum and occupied St. Charles Hall on the corner of Elm Street and Castle Place.
By 1929, The Ursuline School, then a K-12 day school, moved to its present location at 1354 North Avenue.
In 1960, construction began on the "new school" or North Building. During the 1970’s, the school was redefined to encompass grades 7 through 12. Then, in 1988, the 6th grade was reestablished.
Changes in the composition of the school have been accompanied by changes in facilities and programs. In 1981, the gym was built, which enabled a new “electronic doorway” library and math/computer rooms to occupy the space of the previous gym. In 1986, the Chapel of St. Angela was added. Other renovations have resulted in five state of the art science labs. In 1997, Ursuline moved to the forefront of educational technology with the inauguration of the student laptop program, in conjunction with a school network, web site, and educational learning community that have all been regularly updated over the years. In 2002, the latest addition to The Ursuline School was completed. The Mooney Hancock Arts Center houses a 300 seat theater, orchestra and chorus practice rooms, a dance studio, four art rooms, and classroom space. In 2008, the school embarked on a major restoration of the 80 year old South Building.
As physical and electronic resources have expanded, Ursuline’s enrollment, faculty, and academic, extra-curricular, and athletic programs have grown in order to ensure the continued excellence of the education the school offers young women. Today, the school offers more than 180 college preparatory, honors, and advanced placement courses. 77% of the professional staff have graduate degrees and another 13% are pursuing graduate degrees. Programs such as Peer Ministry, Peer Leadership and Mediation, and Personal Development Education address the spiritual, emotional, and social needs of students and foster leadership. Service opportunities are varied and numerous, in accord with the Ursuline core value of Serviam. The school fields more than 30 athletic teams in 14 different sports, and offers over 40 clubs and activities to accommodate student interest and complement the academic curriculum.
HISTORY OF THE URSULINES
After the founding of the Company of St. Ursula in 1535, Angela Merici did not live to see the spread of her Company beyond the city of Brescia in Lombardy, what is now northern Italy. Members lived at home, came together from time to time for spiritual formation and community, and ministered to local needs. But the Company became known for its service, making it a desirable ministry in other dioceses, and members took it to other cities of northern Italy, from there into France, then beyond. New communal living arrangements developed.
As the Company spread, and after the Council of Trent (1545-1563), adaptations and changes were mandated for congregations of women religious, differing from Angela’s original ideas. The Council regulated women religious in the church, and the Company adapted itself: some groups lived in communities serving local needs; others became cloistered to live a monastic form of religious life. The latter clearly limited the ministry originally envisioned as serving the diverse needs of the social environment in which it was located, but schools were attached to the monasteries for the education of young girls. The Order of St. Ursula, the Ursulines, spread throughout Europe and beyond, and its chief work became education.
The Ursuline monasteries became known by the city in which they were located. When they sent missionaries to the New World, the new foundations were closely related to their founding monasteries, and gradually they became communities independent of their community of origin; for example, the Quebec Ursulines were founded from monasteries in France.
Founded in 1639, L’École des Ursulines de Quebec is the oldest institution of learning for young women in North America; begun in 1727, Ursuline Academy of New Orleans is the oldest continuously operating school for young women in the United States.
In 1900, Pope Leo XIII offered a plan for joining the various Ursuline groups, for mutual help, the strength of unity, and greater effectiveness. The new group who responded to the call of Leo XIII took the name of the Roman Union of the Order of St. Ursula. Provinces were created along national, cultural, or geographic lines.
Today, the Ursulines of the Roman Union minister in 36 countries on six continents and they, as well as other groups of Ursulines, operate 15 secondary schools in the United States, as well as four colleges and a number of elementary schools.
Founded in 1897 by the Order of St. Ursula, The Ursuline School is a Catholic, college preparatory school dedicated to the intellectual, spiritual, and moral development of young women.
Rooted in the counsels of St. Angela Merici, founder of the Ursuline Sisters, the mission of the school community is to educate, inspire, and empower young women to learn, to lead and to serve.
Committed to academic excellence and the value of every individual, the school challenges each student to develop and share her unique gifts within the school and within the wider community. In a student-centered atmosphere devoted to caring and concern, our young women are encouraged to celebrate the richness of their diverse ethnic, socio-economic, and religious backgrounds uniting them as students and as Ursuline alumnae. Seeking to model the teachings of St. Angela, the dedicated, talented, and caring faculty, administration, and staff inspire our students not only to learn, but also to question, to reflect, and to challenge.
An Ursuline education prepares young women to be life long learners, women of integrity, and wise, responsible leaders committed to the Ursuline tradition of "Serviam" - I will serve.
Central to the philosophy of The Ursuline School is a concern for the student as an individual and a commitment to the education of the whole person. The school seeks to implement these values in every aspect of school life.
The mission of the school is to provide young women, grades 6 through 12, with a challenging, intellectually stimulating, student-centered environment in which academic and personal achievements are expected. In accord with its tradition of academic excellence, the school provides a variety of learning experiences designed to develop each student's intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and creative problem solving, and foster a life long commitment to learning. With a diverse faculty and student population, the Ursuline community promotes a respect for the multi-cultural world and provides a range of opportunities through which students develop a global perspective. Rooted in the truth and values of the teachings of Jesus Christ, the school community tries to develop a sense of personal worth and self-discipline in each student, enabling her to become an effective ethical decision-making member of today's complex society. Each student is encouraged to discover and realize her talents so that she may exercise responsible leadership in ever widening circles.
Ursuline has traditionally been marked by a special spirit in which every effort is made to elicit the best from each young woman. By providing an atmosphere of warmth, trust and encouragement, relationships are fostered among students, families, faculty, administration, and staff. The care and nurturing of the individual are evident throughout the school.
Ursuline prepares young women to live as independent, creative, and unique individuals engaged in the pursuit of knowledge and moral integrity while remaining faithful to the Ursuline tradition of "Serviam" - I will serve.
Consistent with its mission statement and philosophy, The Ursuline School strives:
To develop the intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic, and physical potential of each student in an environment that conveys the values of the Catholic Christian tradition.
To provide a challenging college preparatory curriculum.
To encourage critical and independent thinking.
To interrelate various course disciplines and connect the curriculum to life's experiences.
To integrate the most advanced technologies seamlessly into the learning process.
To educate for future academic and career opportunities.
To foster in each student a sense of personal worth and of her giftedness as a woman.
To engender in each student the wisdom and strength to make responsible choices.
To provide opportunities and encouragement for each student to exercise effective leadership.
To involve the families of students in appropriate areas of school life.
To foster a sense of community among students, faculty, staff, and families characterized by mutual respect, openness, and celebration of each other's diversity.
To awaken in each student an awareness of and responsiveness to the needs of others in accordance with the Ursuline tradition of "Serviam" - I will serve.
1354 North Avenue · New Rochelle, NY 10804-2192 · 914.636.3950 · FAX: 914.636.3949 | <urn:uuid:a7fad46e-8023-4cce-9e8b-c1a98a850e56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ursuline.pvt.k12.ny.us/s/873/index.aspx?gid=1&pgid=296 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945822 | 2,072 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Imperialism plans “decades of war” in Africa
23 January 2013
The French intervention in Mali, followed by the bloody siege in Algeria, represents a turning point in what has emerged as a new imperialist scramble for Africa. With these events, following on the heels of the US-NATO war for regime-change in Libya and the Washington-backed sectarian civil war in Syria, mankind is witnessing a convulsive drive by the major powers to re-divide the world, its territories, markets and resources.
There is every reason to believe that this campaign to re-colonize much of the planet will be even bloodier and more oppressive than the original colonization of Africa.
As in the Libyan war, France has taken the lead in unleashing fighter bombers and deploying its dogs of war, the French Foreign Legion, in Mali. However, the other major imperialist powers have made it clear that they will not remain on the sidelines.
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron vowed that the UK will “work with others to close down the ungoverned space” in northwest Africa “with all the means that we have.” Terming the developments in Mali and neighboring countries a “global threat,” Cameron declared they would “require a response that is about years, even decades, rather than months.”
The Obama administration initially adopted a cautious approach to the Mali events, no doubt out of concern that it could end up helping an imperialist competitor and undercut its own predatory aims in Africa. However, with the Algerian hostage crisis, which claimed the lives of at least 80 people, including three Americans, Washington has made it clear it intends to intervene aggressively.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta commented last Friday: “We have a responsibility to go after Al Qaeda wherever they are. And we’ve gone after them in the FATA (Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas). We’re going after them in Yemen and Somalia. And we have a responsibility to make sure that Al Qaeda does not establish a base for operations in North Africa and Mali.”
The message was unmistakable. Mali and the region are to be turned into a new front in the global US killing spree, to be carried out in the first instance with Predator drones and Hellfire missiles.
The US has also announced that it is sending US Special Forces troops as “trainers” and “advisors” to the six countries—Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Togo and Ghana—which are to provide the troops for an African force being cobbled together by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a proxy for imperialist intervention. It will also provide aircraft to deliver them to Mali.
So much for Obama’s inauguration rhetoric. “A decade of war is now ending,” he declared Monday, just a day after Cameron’s warning that decades of war in Africa have only just begun.
We have entered a period when each new war only begets the next: Libya, Syria and now Mali in the space of less than two years.
The connection between them is rarely recognized in the media, which breathlessly reports each new crisis, from the fighting in Mali to the hostage drama at the gas complex in Algeria, as if it were a senseless outrage explicable only as part of the unfolding battle between good and evil known as the global war on terrorism.
The word “blowback” is not to be uttered in the polite company of network news. Yet this is precisely what is involved. The US-NATO war for regime-change in Libya destabilized the entire region. It had the effect of sending Tuaregs, many of whom who had served in Gaddafi’s security forces, fleeing back into Mali under conditions in which Libya’s NATO-backed “revolutionaries” were hunting down and murdering people with black skins.
The Tuaregs, a nomadic people of the Sahel, the region on the edge of the Sahara desert, are to be found in northern Mali as well as Niger, Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Burkina Faso.
In Mali, oppression and neglect by the central government led to four major revolts since independence in 1960. Similar revolts took place in neighboring Niger. The arrival of Tuaregs from Libya, together with large quantities of Libyan weapons, triggered the latest revolt, which was swelled by the wholesale defection of Tuareg troops and officers from the Mali army.
The secular Tuareg nationalists, however, were quickly supplanted by better armed and funded Islamist forces. Immensely strengthened by the US-NATO war in Libya, where they were armed and backed by Washington as proxy ground forces against Gaddafi, they are now being similarly armed and funded as shock troops in the war for regime-change in Syria. It has become impossible to understand US policy in the Middle East and Africa without recognizing that Washington operates in a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda-linked forces.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the new “war on terror” bogey man, is, like its predecessor in Afghanistan, a Frankenstein monster of Western imperialism. It emerged from forces that had traveled to Afghanistan with US support to fight the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul in the 1980s, and then returned home to fight the bloody Algerian civil war of the 1990s, when US and French imperialism backed the Algerian military in seizing power to prevent the election of the Islamic Salvation Front. In the repression that followed, over 100,000 Algerians were killed.
The Algerian government has charged that AQIM, like the US-backed “rebels” in Syria, is funded by Washington’s key ally, the Gulf sheikdom of Qatar. And before the present conflict, it was well known that AQIM and similar groups enjoyed the tacit approval of Mali’s US and French-backed central government, which saw the Islamists as a useful counterweight to the Tuaregs.
Now we are asked to believe that this same force has become a “global” threat that may at any moment attack “the homeland.”
The escalating war in Africa is neither about terror nor Al Qaeda. Time magazine succinctly outlined the real motives in Mali: “The dangers expand elsewhere, with huge oil reserves attracting Western companies to set up production across the vast Sahel. South of Algeria and Mali sits Niger, a dirt-poor desert country with the world’s fourth largest output of uranium, which supplies France’s crucial network of nuclear-power stations. East of Algeria is Libya, where a number of Western companies exploit some of Africa’s biggest oil reserves.”
US imperialism and the European powers that formerly colonized Africa are determined to lay hold of these resources. Having been supplanted by China as Africa’s single largest trading partner, and badly trailing Beijing in terms of growth in foreign direct investment, Washington and the European powers are turning to military intervention as a means of offsetting economic decline.
As with the inter-imperialist rivalries generated by the scramble for Africa over a century ago, the present conflicts over domination of the continent point toward the eruption of a new world war.
Bill Van Auken | <urn:uuid:a986c505-4f8f-491f-b21f-aff3cbe0c764> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/23/pers-j23.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96171 | 1,520 | 1.679688 | 2 |
COMING INTO FOCUS: Innovation Seeks to Reduce Damage, Improve Pallet Life
California pallet company develops protective plastic shield to reduce damage and increase the life of a pallet.
Date Posted: 11/1/2012
Looking for the best way to improve pallets has been a tireless pursuit over the past thirty years. Innovators have tried everything it seems to improve pallet performance and increase the life span of a pallet. United Pallet Services Inc. of Modesto, Calif., a wooden pallet supplier, has developed the pointGUARD™, a plastic shield that protects wooden pallets from forklift damage to high-impact areas. These plastic shields are molded to fit a typical pallet design and attached to the exterior of a pallet using wood screws.
Based on tests conducted at the Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design (CPULD) at Virginia Tech, results indicate a 48 x 40 block wooden pallet equipped with a pointGUARD could last up to 60 cycles. The two outside middle boards were the ones that failed the most with the pointGuard. This makes sense because that was the unprotected side of the pallet.
Wayne Randall, president of United Pallet Services said, “A wooden pallet fitted with the PointGuard lasted as long as any plastic pallet out there.”
United Pallet Services has developed the pointGUARD in response to customer concerns about product damage due to pallets. This patent pending design also prevents damage to the top lead board caused by strapping.
United Pallet Services tested its unique shield design on the FasTrack testing simulation offered by the CPULD. This testing simulation is designed to mimic the real world stress of pallets in fast moving consumer goods supply chain. Changes made after previous FasTrack simulations have helped significantly improve the life cycle of a pallet design
How long a pallet can last all depends on the design. Things that can impact the longevity of a pallet include the joints and fasteners, the amount of wood or plastic in the pallet, the design, the stiffness of the material, etc. On average, a pooled wooden pallet takes about 10 cycles before failure of some sort and may go as high as 20 cycles. The average rackable plastic pallet can last between 40-60 cycles.
Whether or not you like the pointGUARD concept or not, it does show the kind of innovation that is possible and needed with the typical wooden pallet, which has not changed much in years. Finding solutions to problems and taking risk is something that this industry needs more of if it wants to protect future markets.
The pointGUARD weighs about 3.lbs each guard and is currently offered for stringer 48x40 pallets. Each set (two shields) costs about $16. For more information on the pointGUARD visit www.palletpointguard.com or call 209/538-5844.
Do you want reprints or a copyright license for this article? Click here
Research and connect with suppliers mentioned in this article using our FREE ZIP Online service. | <urn:uuid:e8b8be72-852f-461f-aac8-0f8e23dc475f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.palletenterprise.com/articledatabase/view.asp?articleID=3784 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940128 | 632 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Economist: With state’s economy vulnerable, expect slow growth
Mississippi’s economy isn’t terrible.
It isn’t great, either, and it’s going to be a while before it totally rebounds from the last few years.
That was the gist of Thursday morning’s legislative economic briefing by state economist Dr. Darrin Webb and state Treasurer Lynn Fitch.
Webb said the fourth quarter of 2011 was strong, with state revenue up 3.8 percent at year end versus the same period last year. “But I do not expect to maintain that pace,” he told lawmakers.
Where the state is especially vulnerable is employment. Webb’s figures show that there are still fewer people in Mississippi employed now than there were in May 2000, when the state’s number of nonfarm employees peaked. Employment numbers have recovered somewhat from the depths of 2008 and 2009, but not across the board.
“There are still areas of the state that have not participated in the recovery,” Webb said, singling out rural areas of the state where unemployment rates are still closer to 20 percent than 10 percent. It will be at least 2016 before employment rates in the state return to pre-recession levels, Webb said.
More discouraging news can be found in the number of building permits issued. In the first seven months of 2005, right before Hurricane Katrina hit, 7,615 permits were issued. For the same period in 2011, that number dropped to 2,580, a decrease of 66 percent. Permits did trend upward in the second half of 2011, Webb said, but cannot be expected to return to pre-Katrina level for another few years.
The national economy will likely slow in the first half of 2012, Webb said. Fading inventory, a weak housing sector, high government and consumer debt and trouble in Europe will make sure of that.
“And these are issues that just are not going to disappear anytime soon,” Webb said.
National GDP has started the process of recovering from the recession, showing modest growth in 2011 (1.7 percent). That will slow in 2012, Webb said, to 0.2 percent; 0.5 percent in 2013; with the possibility of a jump in 2014 to 3.1 percent. Mississippi’s GDP will follow a similar track. The overall outlook for both, Webb said, is pessimistic “but that doesn’t mean worst case.” Webb estimated the chances of another recession at 30 percent.
“I cannot stress enough the slow pace of this recovery,” he said. “As a rule, slow growth is the new norm.”
Fitch said low interest rates and the availability of GO Zone bonds after Katrina were the primary culprits for the state’s bonded indebtedness increasing over $1 billion the past six years. At year end 2011, the state’s total amount of bond obligations was $4.1 billion, representing about 12 percent of the constitutional debt limit for FY 2012. All but $995,000 of that came from general obligation bonds. That $995,000 is a self-supporting bond, Fitch said, and is paying for the Deer Island restoration project. That will be paid off in November. | <urn:uuid:d561c5cb-1fc4-4706-bac5-0d2d80a65201> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://msbusiness.com/magnoliamarketplace/2012/01/economist-with-states-economy-vulnerable-expect-slow-growth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95197 | 685 | 1.570313 | 2 |
MEXICO CITY — The imminent visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico is drawing little excitement, underscoring the stark differences between this pontiff and his predecessor, John Paul II, a figure beloved to Mexicans.
Since the moment John Paul II descended from a jetliner in 1979 and kissed Mexican soil, on the first of five visits, Mexicans felt he held their nation close to his heart.
In contrast, Pope Benedict, who arrives Friday in Mexico, is "the antithesis of John Paul II. He is not very charismatic," said Maria de las Heras, head of the Demotecnia public opinion firm.
An opinion survey by her company earlier this month found that 77 percent of Mexican Catholics feel indifferent to the pontiff's visit or are less enthusiastic about it than they were to John Paul's.
Pope Benedict will visit the states of Guanajuato and Leon, areas of fervent Catholicism northwest of Mexico City, before traveling on to Cuba for two days. It is his first trip to Latin America, a region critical to the church's long-term vitality.
The visit comes as Mexico struggles with rampant violence by criminal gangs that has rent the church, separating those who want a greater role in ministering to the victims and denouncing human rights abuses from clerics who support a hard line against the gangs, or those who look the other way as they take donations from drug lords.
But such divisions — as well as legislative debates on relaxing anti-clerical provisions in the constitution — are less at the forefront than the notable lack of enthusiasm for Pope Benedict's arrival, which led a Catholic prelate to admonish Mexicans to stop comparing the German-born pontiff to his Polish predecessor.
"From the perspective of faith, all popes are equal and deserve our respect and our loyalty without regard to the charisma that they may embody," Archbishop Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago of Leon told CNNMexico. "We need to say this to everyone so that they don't expect to see in Pope Benedict a repeat, or a clone, to put it bluntly, of Pope John Paul."
The Mexico where Pope Benedict will set foot for the first time is at once deeply Catholic and officially anti-clerical when it comes to intervention by the church in state affairs.
Only in 1992 did Mexico establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican and relax strictures such as one that barred priests from wearing clerical garb in the streets.
"It is a church that is quite powerful but one that has lost many of its faithful. It is estimated that they've lost 15 to 20 percent of their followers in the last two decades," said Ilan Semo Groman, a historian at the Jesuit-run Ibero-American University in the capital.
Semo said Pope Benedict has not won the hearts of Mexicans.
"He's always the pope. But there are beloved popes and less beloved popes. And in circles of power, he's not seen with great affection," Semo said.
Mexicans are hard-pressed not to draw comparisons to Pope John Paul II, who visited in 1979, 1990, 1993, 1999 and 2002, traveling to 12 of Mexico's 31 states and ministering to millions in open-air masses in the nation's largest cities.
"Every time he arrived, it was nuts. The country came to a standstill, even among non-Catholics," recalled de las Heras, the pollster. "John Paul II had the virtue of convincing Mexican Catholics that the country was very special to him."
The affection was so great that at times police intervened to give the Spanish-speaking pontiff, who died in 2005, some rest from those who sought to serenade him each night.
President Felipe Calderon, whose ruling National Action Party is trailing in July 1 presidential elections, will greet Pope Benedict on his arrival Friday in Leon, perhaps hoping that his party's candidate will get a boost.
Pope Benedict will speak on all aspects of national life, including the violence that has taken more than 50,000 lives since Calderon came to office in late 2006.
"The violence has increased so much that the church has to speak out from a national perspective," said Richard Jones, a deputy regional director for Catholic Relief Services, a Baltimore-based charity. "The pope is going to focus on a message of peace and hope."
Mexico's Catholic hierarchy shifted sharply to the right under John Paul II, a crusader against communism who revived the church while promoting conservative clergy. In Mexico, that meant clerics who sided with the leftist Zapatista rebellion in the mid-1990s, for example, were shunted aside.
But Mexico's roiling domestic violence threatens to split the church again, dividing activists from a somewhat aloof hierarchy that has failed to propose effective antidotes to runaway killings, extortion and drug trafficking.
"This is one of the reasons why the pope is coming," Semo said.
Moreover, some clergy have clearly been lured by donations from drug lords. The founder of Los Zetas, Heriberto Lazcano, a man so brutal he is known as "the executioner," paid for an elegant chapel in his hometown, Pachuca.
Federico Estevez, a political scientist at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, said drug money has remade other churches, including one southeast of the capital in the state of Mexico.
"Go and see how it glitters today. It's all narco money," he said.
Church officials said Leon was chosen as the center of Benedict's visit over Mexico City because the capital's high elevation — nearly 8,000 feet — was a health risk for the 84-year-old pontiff.
By sidestepping Mexico City, however, the pope will also avoid one of Latin America's most permissive cities, one where gay marriage and abortions are permitted.
In contrast, the state of Guanajuato that will welcome Pope Benedict is among its most religiously orthodox.
"He's going to a state that is so conservative that they passed a law that life begins at conception," said Richard Grabman, author of several books on Mexican history, including one on a religious war in the early 20th century. "That means indigenous women who've had miscarriages have been imprisoned for murder."
The pedophilia scandal that shook the church worldwide also took a toll in Mexico, the homeland of Marcial Maciel, the disgraced pedophile founder of the Legions of Christ, a wealthy and powerful global congregation.
Pope John Paul II was an enthusiastic supporter of Maciel, impressed at his skill in amassing wealth on behalf of the Legion of Christ and its lay branch, Regnum Christi. The pope gave the Mexican priest a very public blessing in 2004.
Only two years later, however, with John Paul dead, Benedict ordered Maciel, who is believed to have fathered up to six children, into a "life of prayer and penitence," without spelling out his transgressions.
In 2010, two years after Maciel's death, the Vatican appointed an Italian cardinal to oversee the Legion of Christ.
A former Legionnaire who claims to have been a victim of Maciel, Jose Barba, is a co-author of a book to be released later this week in Mexico that alleges the Vatican knew for years of Maciel's sexual abuse but did nothing about it.
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY
Follow Tim Johnson on Twitter | <urn:uuid:91cfed55-e97d-4445-8272-1a215aa24075> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/20/142560/pope-benedict-visit-to-mexico.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974777 | 1,529 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Nvidia's next-generation Kepler GPU architecture made an appearance at Epic's panel session at this week's Game Developer Conference (GDC).
Samaritan has been regarded as a look into the distant future of gaming. Its graphics are so advanced that it was recently regarded as a fringe demo - requiring no fewer than three Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards. That all changed with Epic demo at GDC, when it was unveiled that the Samaritan demo replaced the three GTC 580s with one Kepler GPU.
According to the demo, the Samaritan game can run on a single Kepler-based graphics card.
"Thanks to the increased graphics horsepower of the Kepler-based GPU and NVIDIA's new Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA) technology - an improvement to the industry?s established Multisample Anti-Aliasing technology - the Samaritan demo wowed the eager crowd in the standing-room-only panel session," Nvidia commented.
But it wasn't just the Kepler graphics card that made the demo possible. As important was the addition of Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA), an NVIDIA-developed anti-aliasing technique aiming to improve upon the success of Multisample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA), the form of anti-aliasing most commonly seen in today's games. Used to smooth out jagged edges and improve visual fidelity, anti-aliasing is key to creating the incredible sights of Samaritan.
Despite MSAA's popularity, "it is relatively costly in the demo because Samaritan uses deferred shading," explains Ignacio Llamas, a Senior Research Scientist at NVIDIA who worked with Epic on the FXAA implementation. By writing pixel attributes to off-screen render targets prior to final shading, deferred shading enables complex, realistic lighting effects that would be otherwise impossible using forward rendering, a lighting technique commonly used in many game engines. There are a couple of downsides to this: first the render targets require four times the memory since they must hold the information of four samples per pixel; and second, the deferred shading work is also multiplied by four in areas with numerous pieces of intersecting geometry.
"Without anti-aliasing, Samaritan's lighting pass uses about 120MB of GPU memory. Enabling 4x MSAA consumes close to 500MB, or a third of what's available on the GTX 580. This increased memory pressure makes it more challenging to fit the demo's highly detailed textures into the GPUs available VRAM, and led to increased paging and GPU memory thrashing, which can sometimes decrease framerates."
"FXAA is a shader-based anti-aliasing technique," however, and as such "doesn't require additional memory so it's much more performance friendly for deferred renderers such as Samaritan." By freeing up this additional memory developers will have the option of reinvesting it in additional textures or other niceties, increasing graphical fidelity even further.
FXAA can also produce gradients smoother than those of 4x MSAA, accordng to Nvidia. | <urn:uuid:ca2ffb0b-178a-4ea1-83cb-e0161ffb661f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=32669 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940156 | 619 | 1.742188 | 2 |
People who would like to keep their eyes on someone may get better results using mobile tracker software. Each one may have a significant reason to do so. People have to protect their relationships, their family or their business.
They may think of using this innovation in technology to their advantage. Many times people do not listen to their gut feel about somebody. They may consider this as not an evidence to confront or to take action. But with mobile tracker software, they can now confirm all. The thoughts and the feelings that are bugging them may really have some solid basis.
Tracking a Phone
Individuals who would like to track someone’s phone need mobile tracker software. They need one that is reliable but discreet as much as possible. They must see to it that they make use of one that will not be detected easily by the owner of the phone. However, they must do the downloading and the installation of the program into the phone. People will be able to access all of the information going in and out of that phone. They may also be able to pinpoint the phone’s exact location wherever the owner might be.
With the introduction of the mobile tracker software, people need to beware of scammers that abound in the internet world. There are people who take advantage of other’s vulnerability. Sometimes these scammers only capitalize on the needs or the desperation of others. People sometimes are more than willing to part with their money for nothing. People need to be careful and deal only with reputable websites who offer genuine mobile tracker software that really works.
For one reason or the other, people have to monitor somebody. People may keep their eyes on their kids’ whereabouts and activities. They may also check their employees to know whether they are really working or not. For some, mobile tracker software may enable them to monitor their spouse for any cheating activities. Individuals most of the time are the last ones to know that something has been going on wrong for a period of time. If you think that you are one of these people, then perhaps you need to consider availing yourself of this technological advantage.
Why not take a look at the new software program that is available? Visit: mobile tracker software.
It is possible for people to nip possible problems in the bud. They may want to learn how they can keep their eyes especially on those that are near and dear to them. Visit: mobile tracker software. | <urn:uuid:dad3b818-25cb-477b-924a-3ce6248e16fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://imobiletracker.com/mobile-tracker-software | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979613 | 491 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The Washington County delegation and Sen. Christopher B. Shank filed almost identical bills after learning that volunteer companies need a way to recoup costs, particularly for calls on interstate highways.
The bill would authorize the Washington County Board of Commissioners to establish a system for volunteer fire departments and rescue squads to charge fees. Professional departments, such as the city of Hagerstown’s, would not be included.
Volunteer companies would send bills to insurers “for equipment, personnel, or consumable products” used during a fire or rescue call.
A Department of Legislative Services analysis of the bill noted that “Medicare, Medicaid and most private insurers already cover the cost of ambulance transports under current plans and premiums, so insurance rates would not rise as a result.”
Nineteen of Maryland’s 24 local jurisdictions already charge ambulance transport fees, so “insurance companies that do business in Maryland are already accustomed to them,” the analysis said.
But Deborah R. Rivkin, the vice president of government affairs for CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, told the committee that the new proposal is much broader.
“This bill goes beyond anything I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I look at this as a mandated benefit.”
Lawrence A. Richardson Jr., who handles legislative affairs in the region for State Farm, agreed, noting that the bill refers to any kind of emergency response.
Richardson said the charge becomes a tax because “this is not a competitive service.”
He told the committee about a case in which a fire company sent a notice to a woman, asking her to pay several thousand dollars for its response to a fire. The woman was not obligated to pay, but worried what might happen next time if she didn’t pay this time, he said.
Other insurance representatives also urged the committee to vote against the bill, calling it a “dramatic” and “groundbreaking” change.
Many fire department and EMS providers across the country have begun charging fees in recent years to offset costs, according to the analysis of the bill.
For ambulance calls, charges can range from $350 for a basic life support transport to $600 for advanced life support, the analysis said.
A charge may be imposed for mileage.
The Washington County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service has said it supported the bill, as long as it included both fire and rescue companies.
Volunteers struggle under the weight of having to raise money through bingo games and selling ham sandwiches, Glenn Fishack, the association’s past president, told the committee.
Staff Writer Arnold Platou contributed to this story. | <urn:uuid:06e3cdee-bc59-4e8d-b6f7-476bdb757dbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.herald-mail.com/2012-02-16/news/31069670_1_local-bill-volunteer-fire-fire-and-rescue-companies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954619 | 558 | 1.601563 | 2 |
20% OFF EVERYTHING!
Take 20% OFF your entire order!
We are blowing out last years apparel to make room for our new Roosevelt apparel coming later in 2012.
Top 10 New Year's Resolutions!
10. Read more books
Americans are so consumed by electronic gadgets, computer screens, and digital media. Many people no longer pick up a good old fashion hard or paperback book. This year is a great year to grab a blanket, a cup of coffee and sit back and read a good book. Can't read a whole book? Try a magazine or journal like The New Yorker or The Economist. These have shorter articles to get your feet wet!
9. Quit smoking
This one makes the list every year and for obvious health reasons. If you tried to quit before and failed, it is time to try again! On average, smokers try about four times before quitting for good. Ask your doctor for help or try some of the over the counter nicotine patches.
8. Find a new job
The economy has caused many people to settle for jobs they are not happy with and many of these people will be looking for something new this year. Try looking online. It's a great ways to look at many places and different kinds of jobs all from the comfort of your house at any time! Another resource is a job placement center or aka head hunters. The services are free and someone else is doing all the work! | <urn:uuid:1f81c0df-f2dd-4f3f-8463-125d72d87ef1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alumniclass.com/reunion-newsletter-roosevelt-high-school-honolulu-hi-winter?issue=16&id=187768&s=6619 | 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 | 0.936846 | 292 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Q. I have a computer at home with Comcast as my Internet service provider. I also bring my work laptop computer home on occasion. Problem is, I have to shutdown and disconnect the modem from my home computer to be able to use my work computer to connect to the Internet. Is there any way around this?
A. The most efficient solution to this problem is to purchase a DSL/Cable Modem Router from your local computer store.
A router connects to your cable/DSL modem and then shares out your Internet connection to any computer connected to it.
Once you have a router installed and configured properly, all you need to do is bring your work laptop home, connect it to the router and turn it on and it will connect to the Internet without the need to disconnect your home computer.
This is a great solution for homes and small businesses with several computers that need to connect to the Internet at the same time.
All the major brand routers come with very good, simple to follow instructions and are relatively simple to setup. I have heard from absolute novices who have managed to setup a simple home network. If you do find yourself in a jam you can usually call the vendor’s tech support and, if worse comes to worse, there are companies that will hook it up for you for a fee. | <urn:uuid:acdccf46-ce3a-4e95-aff9-e9db2735874a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.chron.com/helpline/2008/03/hooking-up-multiple-computers-to-a-single-internet-connection/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954952 | 270 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Twenty-two types of fish alone live in the Weissensee, the highest bathing lake of the Alps, in which you can fish without a limit. Anglers who prefer still waters are right at home on the Weissensee, since in the depth of the lake, there are types of fish such as trout, sea saibling, zander, pike, tench, carp and Reinanke, which have their home there. Austria is famous for being the country of rivers and lakes - and so is this most southern state!
Many Carinthian Hotels, moreover, have their own fishing water (river fishing) and provide the guest a fishing card, so that one begin one's fishing enjoyment. Native anglers also often organize their own fisher tables, where one can laugh about the events of the day, according to one's heart's content. Also, the flyfishers find their home in the rivers of Carinthia! Whoever wants to learn how to fish with the fly and the route can be taught by an expert in this art if so desired. Big and small catches, nature pure - far away from all touristic places, cozy comfort and friendly people - at home you will surely have much to tell about. | <urn:uuid:73a82fa1-a8b6-4a1b-94a9-0b5f9c6c90aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.carinthia.at/en/articles/Aktivitaeten/Fischen,Aktivit%C3%A4ten/filter/Fischen,Aktivit%C3%A4ten?closed=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968228 | 250 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Do Social Games Exploit the Mentally Ill?
From reading my surprise guest rant at GDC this year, you might think i’m a card-carrying member of the Zynga Fan Club (a club which forces you to re-confirm membership every fifteen minutes, and which sells you an auto-re-confirmation cantelope for $2).
i think a lot of what motivates people to gripe about Zynga stems from either jealousy, or the fear by core gamers that Zynga will become so popular that their precious triple-A first-person-head-exploder games will fade from existence and they’ll be forced to decorate bunnies and rescue little lost restaurants for the rest of their lives.
Don’t cry, little boys: these games will be around for a long time to come.
i think the money Zynga makes is well deserved, and that players should be able to decide for themselves when a game becomes too rote or too addictive without it offering them enough value for their time or dollar. But i don’t give Zynga or its competitors a license to exploit. There’s one area in which i feel that social game developers need to act far more ethically, and if they fail to do so, i may even advocate the same type of government regulation that limits the use of tobacco, alcohol, drugs, gambling, and any other addictive substance or activity.
A Moment with Mitchell
A few weeks back, i was at a very small gathering of students at the Herve Velasquez School for the Digitally Inclined, where i used to teach until they fired my ass. The game development students run a club, which offers everything from Magic: the Gathering tournaments to 3D speed modeling competitions (in which the students use all three dees).
This particular week, the students had invited Mitchell Smallman to speak. Mitchell is a writer for a social game on Facebook that’s raking in money left right and centre, as Facebook games are wont to do. Throughout his talk, Mitchell tried to dislodge the students from their biases against social games, and making games (of any stripe) with profit as the main intent, his first bullet point being “get over yourself.”
This was all fine and dandy. But toward the end of Mitchell’s rant, he dropped a megaton bomb: Mitchell Smallman said, in a clear but apologetic voice, “the problem with social games is that they exploit the mentally ill.”
Going Off the Whales on a Crazy Train
To explain himself, Mitchell began describing his game’s “whales”. This is a term borrowed, uncoincidentally, from the gambling industry, which decsribes enormously rich people who jet in to Vegas, drop a disgusting amount of cash at the tables, and jet back out again having had, one supposes, tons of fun.
What you happen to spend in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Mitchell talked about some particular whales in his social game: two Bay Street (Wall Street) investment bankers who were competing to knock each other off the high scores list, and in doing so, dropped over ten grand apiece. We had a good, if nervous, laugh over this.
Last time i dropped a grand, i was a piano mover and i … lame joke. Abort.
But Mitchell’s tone turned serious when he confided in the group that a good number of the whales he sees are actually people who spend an alarming amount of time in the game, and who spend an enormous amount of money not necessarily because they’re having fun, but because they feel they have to. These are the first people to angrily harass the live team when the game is down, or when something doesn’t work as they expected it to.
And simply from the timbre of their forum banter, Mitchell said he could tell these folks weren’t of sound mind.
Um … lame comment? …. abort?
At this point, of course, you can interject that Mitchell Smallman is not a licensed psychologist. But come on, friends. We regular people can smell crazy on our own just fine. If we couldn’t, we’d all be wearing Snuggies out on the street like they’re haute couture.
Well Katie, it’s Fashion Week here in New York, and …
Let’s Agree to Agree
With Mitchell’s confession in the back of my brain, i attended a GDC “debate” on the validity of social games, called “A Debate: Are Social Games Legitimate?”. i put “debate” in dick quotes because, like many of the panels in the conference’s social games discipline, obvious croneyism kept the session from being truly worthile. The panelists were three developers who made social games, and one academic who had made a satirical social game but was nonetheless doing well by it.
So that’s three “fer”, and one sardonically “agin”. That’s supposed to be an argument? That’s like asking four members of the Wu-Tang Clan to debate the merits of “peein’ on bitches.”
The Chair recognizes the Right Honorable Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
The debate unfolded with all the ferocity of a sorority slumber party pillow fight, with the only true opposition coming from Ian Bogost, who gently massaged the other panelists with soft suggestions of how they may be gently bruising the industry, if you please.
Daniel James, CEO of Three Rings (Puzzle Pirates), who i figured was supposed to be quasi-oppositional (merely because his game wasn’t on Facebook?), clamped up pretty early in the debate when he very visibly realized that any criticism leveled at the Facebook developers could easily be aimed squarely at him, and at point blank range to boot. (Daniel said he would be “personally distressed” if his game relied too heavily on gambling tricks, and despite being a fan, i wondered what planet he was on? Puzzle Pirates hosts regular POKER MATCHES, ffs)
Thank God our game doesn’t rely on GAMBLING HOOKS …
By the time the back-patting was over, i was still hoping to see a little fur fly. i took to the mic during the question period (as i do), and laid the groundwork with Mitchell’s initial whale stories. Then i asked the panelists point blank: do social games exploit the mentally ill?
Getting the Heck Out of Dodge
Nabeel Hyatt from Zynga performed a classic dodge: “What do you mean by ‘mentally ill’?”
Ah. Would this be an argument over semantics?
“You know – mentally ill,” i said. “Like manic-depressive, schizophrenic, or obsessive-compulsive. That type of thing.”
Nabeel gave it another shot.
“I … don’t understand the question?”
i reiterated: were social games primed to exploit, or even promote, players’ mental illness to encourage them to play more often and to spend more money than they really should?
What followed was a bent-over-backwards dodge of Matrix-esque proportions. The panelists, primarily Nabeel, began by redefining mental illness as “fandom”. “i used to collect a ton of comic books when i was a kid,” said Nabeel, “was i mentally ill?” To my dismay Ian Bogost, in what i saw as an abuse of his intellect (and sole devil’s advocate status), came to Nabeel’s aid, asking (with patronizing pedagogy) whether enthusiasm for popular culture didn’t border on madness?
Heavily Medicated Beatlemania
My time at the mic was up, but i thought No, you creeps – i’m not talking about Bieber fever here … i’m talking about the kind of people you watch every week on Hoarders. Actual, real people who can’t, like the rest of us, reason their way out of playing an addictive social game because it’s eating up too much time, money, and sanity.
Please – just one more bushel of Smurfberries!!!
Of course, no social game developer in his right mind would suggest that these types of people need to be limited in their play time and spending. These are their whales, after all. These are the people pushing up their ARPU and scoring them the cash. If anything, social game developers would do well by attracting (or even CREATING) more mentally ill players, because only someone out of their mind would spend real money on things that don’t really exist (as the panel’s moderator Margaret Robertson suggested, jokingly).
Your Stand on Instanity
So, the question: should companies like Zynga and Playdom be regulated by the government to limit time and money spent when players cross a certain activity threshhold? Or should the governemt stay out of it, and should these companies voluntarily develop these limitations borne naturally of their own corporate ethical policy? And if these companies continue to be left to their own devices, will these innate ethical practices ever emerge?
We regulate and legislate smoking, drinking, drugs, and gambling, but we don’t throw shopaholics in prison. Aren’t these people just online shopaholics?
COUNTERPOINT! Isn’t the key difference that we’re not tracking the every move of brick-and-mortar shopaholics, but we ARE tracking every move of our online players? Since we already know everything they’re doing, isn’t it incumbent upon us to act to prevent them from harming themselves?
REBUTTAL! Die in a fire, Ian Bogost! (panelist Curt Bererton tears his shirt open and leaps across the table, his splayed fingers aimed at Bogost’s tender face)
Moderator: FINISH HIM!
Erm … sorry about that. i got carried away. Knowing that social games aren’t leaving any time soon, let me know if you think social game developers should be externally limited, whether they should be self-limiting, or whether they should be free to gouge as much time and money from as many people as they like, crazy or sane, as our God-given free market allows. And also, please let me know who you think would win in a bare-chested pit fight between Ian Bogost and Curt Bererton. i’m writing the Bogost/Bererton slash fiction as we speak.
Mitchell Smallman has responded with a wonderfully thoughtful take on whales and the damage they do to player communities, and the responsibility of designers to create games that strive for more than vapid box-ticking as a mechanic.
Popularity: 2% [?] | <urn:uuid:2e787861-fd2c-465b-a617-d0cf3dfee5a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.untoldentertainment.com/blog/2011/03/08/do-social-games-exploit-the-mentally-ill/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956352 | 2,355 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Listen to Ask the Governor
Nov. 27, 2012
WASHINGTON - Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell says that waiting two hours to vote is unacceptable and he's willing to consider expanding early voting opportunities to prevent that from happening in the future.
More than 70 percent of registered Virginia voters cast ballots Nov. 6 and communities throughout the state reported long lines.
In Prince William County, where voters complained of a lack of machines, voters stayed in line until almost 11 p.m. waiting to vote.
"We've got to have expanded access to the ballot box. So we're going to take a look at that and figure out ways to fix it," McDonnell said Tuesday during WTOP's Ask the Governor program.
Virginia voters are allowed to cast in-person, absentee ballots. But voters must provide a reason why they can't go to the polls on Election Day. Republican lawmakers, who control the General Assembly, have spurned efforts to allow no- excuse, early voting.
Neighboring Maryland, however, allows early voting without requiring voters to state a reason.
"It's not something that's been received well by the Virginia General Assembly but its something we need to continue to look at," McDonnell said of early voting.
"I'm open to considering that. My biggest concern would be the ballot security issues and to make sure that we don't have that problem."
McDonnell said splitting up some precincts and adding more voting machines is part of the solution.
Confusion over Virginia's new voter ID requirements contributed to bottlenecks at polling places.
But the governor said few provisional ballots were cast by voters who lacked proper identification and that the law wasn't the problem.
Still, early voting isn't McDonnell's first preference for addressing future Election Day long lines.
"There's something exciting about Election Day itself," said the governor, who waited for 1 1/2 hours to vote. "I got to make a lot of new friends."
- McDonnell: Reforms needed to Virginia's flat rate gas tax
- Fairfax Co. to investigate Election Day voting problems
- Va. reports long lines after polls close
- Large turnout, new law factors in long poll lines
- Long lines, scattered glitches in Md., Va., D.C. on Election Day
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
The Nickelodeon star's antics continue in New York City.
Clothes have a starring role at the Cannes Film Festival. (Photos)
Star-studded event raises millions for AIDS research. (Photos)
"Sulu" weighs in on the actor filling his shoes in the new "Star Trek." | <urn:uuid:6c925219-a9af-4735-8775-a42ad35225e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtop.com/278/3135266/Va-Gov-McDonnell-willing-to-consider-early-voting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955331 | 544 | 1.632813 | 2 |
''A Reporter's Life''
Special To The Seattle Times
"A Reporter's Life" by Walter Cronkite Knopf, $26.95
As anchorman of "The CBS Evening News" from the 1950s to 1981, Walter Cronkite informed America of the great and tragic events of the day. Ironic, then, that what makes "A Reporter's Life" worth reading are not history-altering assassinations and space launches but Cronkite's memories of his childhood and fledgling reporter years.
He paints a picture of a less bureaucratically fettered America, when children could buy cigarettes and drive automobiles but also when, tragically, black men could be murdered without indictment - it happened to a delivery boy Cronkite worked with - and faulty heating could cause a schoolhouse in Texas to explode, killing 294 (Cronkite was on the scene as a wire-service reporter).
As a member of "the Writing Sixty-ninth" during World War II, he flew on bombing raids over occupied Europe, occasionally manning the guns against enemy pilots. Postwar, he reported on Nazi atrocities at the Nuremberg trials. Cronkite's stint as a Moscow correspondent is stultifyingly bleak, while the early days of television seem comic and - particularly in the way politics altered itself to suit the new medium - sobering.
Throughout, Cronkite maintains a nice, self-deprecating tone, but he shows his claws when he rails against the recent subservience of news divisions to profit rather than professionalism. Anyone who remembers Cronkite's professionalism will surely enjoy this memoir.
Copyright (c) 1996 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:72960148-7e0c-4edd-839f-83f5f96d066b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19961222&slug=2366258 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942316 | 348 | 1.75 | 2 |
| Members of the vigilance committee inspect diet section at SCB on Saturday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das |
Cuttack, Feb. 2: The senior citizens’ vigilance committee constituted by the district collector here has expressed concerns over the quantity of the bread being supplied to patients at SCB Medical College and Hospital.
A committee member said the patients were getting 90gm bread instead of the stipulated 100gm. Also, the dates of manufacture were not printed in bulk of the bread stocks stored at the diet section of the hospital.
Besides, cooked food was also being supplied to patients in polythene carry bags, ignoring grave health concerns. The Cuttack Municipal Corporation and the district administration have banned polythene carry bags long ago.
“We have come across various deficiencies in serving food to the patients. However, we are satisfied with the overall cleanliness and sanitation measures adopted in the hospital’s kitchen,” said Brundaban Sahoo, a committee member.
“We will request the district collector to ensure that cooked food is supplied in proper plates or carriers which the hospital authorities should provide after keeping a caution money from the patients,” said Chittaranjan Panigrahy, another member of the committee.
The committee also asked the hospital authorities to ensure that branded spices were used in preparation of cooked food as it was found during their visit that local products were being used instead.
The district administration had formed a six-member senior citizens’ vigilance committee on January 30 to verify the hygiene and quality and ensure timely supply of diet to patients at the hospital.
The committee’s visited the hospital following an allegation that stale food was being supplied to patients by Utkal Suppliers, the agency entrusted with supply of dry and cooked food at SCB.
“Though the allegation of serving stale food was found to be false, we have formed a committee to ensure that the quality of diet is not compromised,” said district collector Girish S.N.
Based on the recommendations of the senior citizens’ vigilance committee, steps will be initiated to improve the diet supply system at SCB, said the collector.
“Measures are being taken to ensure that standard quality of food is supplied to the patients,” said managing partner of Utkal Suppliers Satyajit Dutta. | <urn:uuid:b6804c5c-36c7-47f3-ac64-a47f929bfefb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130203/jsp/odisha/story_16513907.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967396 | 487 | 1.632813 | 2 |
....ARC : Pamela HOBBS
Pamela Hobbs is a fine-art photographer whose work explores feminine identity. She creates miniature scenes to photograph composed of dolls, plaster figures, sculpted forms and painted backdrops. The black and white photographs are toned and sometimes hand-colored. The effect is surreal and mysterious.
Her most recent group of photographs entitled, "Time and Remembering"(2009-11) is a series of sepia-toned photographs which address the issues of memory and loss. Antique wooden chambers and curio cases house dried flowers, broken eggs and forgotten dolls. Images are housed in rustic shadowbox frames or encased in wax.
"Dearly Departed" (2007) is a series of sepia-toned photographs which consider the issues of death and mortality. Women are pictured in twilight landscapes disappearing into uncertain futures. A woman, who is becoming part of the landscape, stands at a window gazing at the specter of herself in a moonlit scene. Other images picture statuesque forms of women obscured in cocoon-like enclosures, with dried flowers and discarded nests.
The series of photographs entitled, "Motherland" (2003) considers the idea of fertility and reproduction in the feminine experience. Natural forms such as nests and cocoons are found in landscapes and combined with figurative elements. "Woman" is pictured in a larger, impersonal context of metamorphosis, decomposition and regeneration. Sepia-toned, she is frozen in a silent landscape as a statuesque ideal.
"Rights of Passage" (2000) illustrates girls' coming of age stories. Images are inspired by short stories written by women and the depiction of girls' transition to women in history. These works were also inspired by women surrealist artists such as Frieda Kahlo, Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini, Kay Sage and Dorothea Tanning who used the figure and nature to picture feminine identity. | <urn:uuid:2f845933-c860-4914-a1c1-c8ea8b19ef64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.arcgallery.org/member-artists_detail.aspx?mem_id=78 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941779 | 402 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:
You report that “Giant companies such as Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley that are considered critical to the U.S. economy, could be forced to award half or more of their executives’ pay in the form [of] stock or other deferred compensation, instead of up-front cash” (“U.S. Mulls New Push to Shape Bank Pay,” Dec. 21).
Proponents of government regulation insist that no institution is more critical to the U.S. economy than is the U.S. government. So reason dictates that the same rules that apply to executives at the likes of Morgan Stanley should apply also to those who set and execute Uncle Sam’s policies. Members of Congress and all top White House officials – including the President – should receive at least half of their pay in the form of ten-year bonds whose redemption values are structured to rise with decreases in the national debt and fall with increases in the national debt.
Donald J. Boudreaux | <urn:uuid:503b58d2-704b-4ff8-9932-1bf6fac7fa10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cafehayek.com/2010/12/pay-back.html | 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 | 0.949369 | 235 | 1.71875 | 2 |
- THE MAGAZINE
- WEB EXCLUSIVES
“July manufactured goods exports soared 22% over last July’s figures, putting manufactured goods exports so far this year at $669 billion, up 16% over last year,” says Vargo. “Manufactured goods imports so far this year are $933 billion, and the resulting $264 billion trade deficit is 15% lower than last year.
“U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners continue to be the shining part of the U.S. trade picture, with a rapidly-growing surplus,” says Vargo. “So far this year our manufactured goods trade surplus with NAFTA, CAFTA, and our other free trade partners is in surplus by $8.1 billion-that’s an annual rate of $14 billion, which is up from last month’s rate.” Vargo added that the trade balance improved with each of the U.S. FTA partners other than Israel.
“Many people have been led to believe we have a terrible trade position with our FTA partners and are unaware that our manufactured goods trade with them is in surplus,” says Vargo. “And that’s a shame, because if they knew, they would join the NAM in asking Congress to pass the remaining FTA’s so we could have our exports increase even more.
“America’s manufacturers are expanding their exports so rapidly that so far this year, manufactured goods exports are accounting for 75% of the total increase in America’s merchandise exports,” says Vargo. “Our export growth is offsetting the negative effects of the housing crunch and is helping keep our economy growing. The lesson is clear-free trade agreements are the solution, not the problem.” | <urn:uuid:38e38645-3adf-481b-80aa-c70ffbdc0e2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.qualitymag.com/articles/85722-nam-supports-boom-of-exports | 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 | 0.943342 | 381 | 1.625 | 2 |
Earlier this week, Pope Benedict XVI revealed that he would like his next car to be an all-electric model. Yep, His Holiness is looking to lower his carbon footprint. How noble. We're sure Benedict will have no problem getting an automaker to produce a more environmentally friendly Popemobile. He's the Pope! But if you're thinking there's a chance the Pope will get chauffeured around in a Prius or a Chevy Volt, think again. He has a tradition to uphold. Since 1930, Popes have been driven in the best cars in the world. They've had their pick of Benzs, Land Rovers, and even cars that weren't meant for transporting people. The Pope's whip game is, and has been, vicious—so much so that we decided to take a look back at 7 of the Coolest Popemobiles in history. | <urn:uuid:2adf1d2c-4738-412c-a672-4765b76f5257> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.complex.com/rides/2010/12/holy-rollers-the-7-coolest-popemobiles/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982666 | 178 | 1.53125 | 2 |
From the cold temperatures of a New Canaan winter to the scorching sun of Hawaii's beaches, Michael DeMattia learned something about himself and his environment on a service trip he took over the winter break of his junior year at New Canaan High School.
In December, DeMattia's essay, "Something Just ... Clicked" was chosen from among 2,000 essays as an honorable mention for the Family Travel Forum's Teen Travel Writing Scholarship. The essay focused on the 19 days he spent in Kauai, Hawaii, working on a program offered by The Road Less Traveled, an organization that provides service trips for teens over the summer.
In Hawaii, DeMattia and his group built and renovated houses with Habitat for Humanity. For his honorable mention award, he won a stipend to travel anywhere in the world. The Family Travel Forum is an online community where people share their experiences and destinations of family vacations and travels. For the past six years, the site has conducted a scholarship essay contest.
In his essay, DeMattia, then a junior at NCHS, examined how his time spent in Maui and Kauai changed his temperament, from being focused on the hectic life of a high-school student plugged into social networks and working on college applications, to a much more relaxed one.
For him, Hawaii provided an antidote for the Northeast.
In Hawaii, he met and befriended 19 high school students in the program. They worked on renovating houses on the, perhaps surprisingly poor, islands of Hawaii.
Though many may think of Hawaii as a paradise of luxury and beaches, impoverishment is a real problem on the islands, where more than 10 percent of the population lives below the poverty level, according to the Census Bureau.
"What they're doing now because of the economic downturn, they're upgrading apartment-style living because they found that they were giving people houses who weren't able to afford to keep them. So we were doing drywall, plumbing, painting and that type of thing," DeMattia said.
Last summer, DeMattia volunteered again with The Road Less Traveled in Costa Rica and Panama, where he worked at a malnutrition clinic, which was a two-hour ATV ride from the nearest airport through the hills of Panama to a small town.
He said he became involved with the program at a time when he felt too old for camp, but wasn't looking forward to a summer spent toiling within the confines of corporate culture.
"Sophomore year, I was done with summer camp and thought I should get a job," he said. "I was dreading sitting in a cubicle all summer and I got a brochure in the mail and checked it out. It stood out for me for focusing on the group of people that you would be with and what you could learn from them in addition to the country you're visiting."
DeMattia learned of the Teen Travel Writing Scholarship from a member of his group in Hawaii who had applied for and won a scholarship the previous year.
"I remember reading hers as I came home and said, `That's awesome, I'm going to write something.' I was going through college applications and how to pay for college (at the time)."
From the 2,000 submitted essays, DeMattia's went through a series of judges, starting with college journalism students, then editors at the Family Travel Forum, and finally writers and editors of the Association of American Travel Writers, to be one of 25 Honorable Mentions.
DeMattia is a freshman at Tulane University in New Orleans. He was recently became a news editor for the school paper, the Tulane Hullabaloo.
Fran Falkin, senior editor at myfamilytravels.com, the Family Travel Forum's website, explained the idea of the scholarship.
"The point is to encourage students to share their experiences through word and visual images and explain what they learned and what it meant to them," she said. "Kids go on a variety of trips, sometimes cultural exchanges, ethnicity trips, mission trips, and some of them are just for fun."
DeMattia said he had not yet decided for sure where he'd go with his stipend award, but had some ideas.
"I was exploring Road Less Traveled sites, and I'm thinking about the South Pacific or maybe Australia, with the Great Barrier Reef. I'm a sucker for warm beaches."
[email protected]; 203-972-4413; https://twitter.com/Woods_NCNews | <urn:uuid:96864e1a-3275-4d45-adaa-9371e35f4b38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newcanaannewsonline.com/news/article/Teen-thankful-for-overseas-experience-4180436.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982615 | 936 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Missing Wake Forest Baptist monkey found
An 8-pound monkey that went missing from a Wake Forest Baptist holding facility has been found.
The monkey had been missing since June 29. It was found Tuesday afternoon near the Forsyth-Davidson county line.
"Initial reports from Wake Forest veterinarians say that she is in good shape but they are checking her to be sure she is healthy," Baptist said in a news release issued just after 6 p.m.
The monkey was spotted about 4:30 p.m. near Frye Bridge Road. Lexington police, assisted by Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and Forsyth County Animal Control, were able to use a tranquilizer dart to immobilize the monkey for safe capture; veterinarians transported her back to the Friedberg Campus.
The monkey was part of a breeding colony that supplies monkeys for research projects.
The monkey originally got out of its enclosure during a cleaning process. | <urn:uuid:bd8acc1b-1828-48e7-9c5d-9c5c056e1ac3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wxii12.com/news/local-news/piedmont/Missing-Wake-Forest-Baptist-monkey-found/-/10703612/15467912/-/view/print/-/us95nqz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983249 | 189 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The days leading up to Christmas are typically bustling in Newtown, Conn. But given the depth of grief in this community since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, preparations for the holiday began very late.
Local shopkeepers say Saturday was the first day many people came out for holiday shopping since the tragedy. Tamara Doherty, owner of the Wishing Well — a shop filled with local crafts, Christmas ornaments, pottery and potpourri — says her business is finally picking up.
She's offering shoppers free cookies in the shape of angels, which have become a symbol of the Newtown tragedy. All the people who wander in seem warm and open.
'Everything Is Magnified Now'
"It's been a friendlier atmosphere," Doherty says. "People ... just reaching out and hugging. It's not something that you would normally do."
Doherty says the shooting has brought people closer — but that it's still very difficult. "Everything is magnified now, because everybody is just so devastated still," she says.
Doherty's daughter, 13, and son, 10, are helping out in the shop, but the tragedy has been hard on them too. Their emotions — like those of so many others — are right on the surface. Doherty has to take a short break to comfort her daughter in the crowded shop, but soon the family is back to ringing up purchases and wrapping presents.
Down the road at the Newtown Youth Academy, it's a day just for kids. There are candy canes, teddy bears, hot dogs and a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus to help brighten spirits.
Volunteer Dan Puza heard about the Newtown shooting while he was in Singapore. He's come home this Christmas to be with relatives and to lend a hand.
"It's a tragedy," he says, "but it makes it kind of sweet to see everybody pull together and kind of act as a community during the holiday season."
A Flood Of Holiday Wishes
One need only visit the Newtown post office to grasp how the attack at Sandy Hook has affected people across the country and the world. The postal service has established a special P.O. box specifically for the greetings of support that have been flooding in since the shooting.
"People need to send something," says postmaster Cathy Zieff. "They need to know that they did something [and] the simplest way to do something is to send a card."
Zieff says four of the post office's wire containers, holding about 260 packages each, are filled in a single day. Letters and cards have poured in by the thousands. "It's tremendous, and it's from all over the country, all over the world," she says. "[From] Sicily, Italy. From England. From Hawaii [and] from every state in between."
Zieff says the callers who phone in to ask where they can send things are often crying. She has to comfort them, she says, and then she begins crying, too.
And then there's the toll on her colleagues, she notes.
"My employees, my staff, have watched these kids grow up," Zieff says. "They have pictures of them that the parents have given them. They're part of this community."
Of course, there's always more mail during this season, she says, and the packages are heavier. But that word, "heavier," reverberates with a very different meaning here this year.
Outside a local deli in Sandy Hook, Tim Byrn, originally from Dublin, says he plans to celebrate the holiday, despite the sadness.
"We have a fifth-grader, so yeah, we're going to celebrate it as best we can," Byrn says, wiping a tear from his eye. "Just hold our family close. We just go on." | <urn:uuid:2e573f46-32f0-402d-a4bb-10827fa5978e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/167968368/pulling-together-newtown-celebrates-holiday-as-best-we-can | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980595 | 797 | 1.679688 | 2 |
A DOG breeder is to be allowed to keep all 46 of his German Shepherds, despite noise complaints from neighbours.
Moray Council sought an ASBO against "pack leader" Andrew Debidin, of Rothiemay, after people living nearby claimed their quality of life had been affected by his dogs barking day and night.
However, having heard evidence from noise monitoring experts, Sheriff Susan Raeburn QC said she was satisfied sound levels were not sufficient to cause neighbours in the rural surroundings alarm or distress.
The sheriff dismissed the application, questioning why the council had spent "a great deal of time and of public money" in pursuing the order.
Responding today, Council leader Allan Wright said: "I am disappointed with the sheriff’s ruling and, quite frankly, find it difficult to comprehend.
"She wonders why public time and money has been wasted on this case. The Moray Council was reacting to a plea from a number of our constituents about the noise and distress caused by this pack of dogs.
"We will always do what we feel necessary in the best interests of the people of Moray," Councillor Wright said.
Read more in this week’s ‘Northern Scot’. | <urn:uuid:bedc745f-06e9-46f7-b543-b51f98290b4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northern-scot.co.uk/News/Rothiemay-breeders-ASBO-dismissed-25092012.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977497 | 254 | 1.515625 | 2 |
After trying his hand at History Supreme, the world most expensive yacht, modern-day Midas, Stuart Hughes has now decided to collaborate with Swiss company Eurocash AG, to come out with a Rolls Royce Phantom Solid Gold Car.
Eurocash AG of Zug Switzerland wanted a specially made car for their client so they approached Stuart. Having collaborated together, they were able to fuse the gold into the car’s interiors and exteriors while keeping the stylish look intact. Hailed as the world’s most expensive Rolls Royce Phantom, this magnificent car features some 120 kg of 18K gold that has been strategically placed all across the car. The bespoke Phatntom will be done up using 120 kg of 18 carat gold, and will feature protection ballistic checked and certified by the Germen Government Beschussamt München that offers protection against assaults by Kalaschnikov AK 47 and also 2 Hand grenades DM 51.
Unlike the exact fit gold veneers for the exteriors, the gold on the inside has been applied using moulds. Crafted by request of an anonymous Middle Eastern Businessman, the entire vehicle was ready in about 18 months, including the full amour. | <urn:uuid:50ff4638-623c-4bb5-87dc-004679fa2ed4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.extravaganzi.com/8-2-million-rolls-royce-phantom-solid-gold-car/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950316 | 251 | 1.53125 | 2 |
- Alisa Miller
- Minneapolis, MN
- United States
President & CEO, Public Radio International (PRI)
Who do you trust more to help you understand world events, the press, politicians or your friends/family, or someone/something else? Why?
I would like to know who/what, the TED community trusts most to give them the news, information and knowledge they need to follow and understand major events, live their lives successfully, be connected in their communities, and more generally understand our world. What are the trade offs of these sources as you view them? Do you have time to think about it?
Closing Statement from Alisa Miller
Wow everyone. What a thoughtful set of postings -- Lindsay, special thanks to you for your ongoing comments and "facilitation" of the discussion. Excellent.
If I look across the responses, it seems the answer to "who we trust" to understand world events or topics that are global in nature is not an easy one. In our personal lives, the people we trust most are family and friends, but these people may not have the information or mastery we need. At the same time, there is great concern about a lack of transparency in our "news" and many have come to no longer trust of many information sources. So we need to curate on behalf of our own knowledge: a mix of family/friends, news and information sources, art music and culture, and other "lenses" too as we seek the truth of what is really going on in this interconnected world. New tools and services are emerging to help us with this effort. Your responses have inspired me. And at the end of June, I plan to launch a website, twitter feed, and Facebook page to continue this conversation, share tips and advice on how to better inform ourselves about the world through news and other content. I hope you might check it out. www.newsmakeover.com. | <urn:uuid:50853aeb-9e3c-4a03-a03e-3c27dad3beba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ted.com/conversations/2295/who_do_you_trust_more_to_help.html?c=234103 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961851 | 398 | 1.578125 | 2 |
And so, in this post, a few findings, and more questions.
Many museums, big and small, thrive on events. I had originally assumed that this phenomenon might affect smaller museums in smaller markets more than large urban institutions, but I've since learned from colleagues at big hitters like LACMA and the Dallas Museum of Art that the majority of their visitors attend through events. One director of a children's museum even told me that they "eventize" normal operations--calling a Saturday a "family festival" without changing the planned programming--to draw more people. At our museum, about 68% of casual visitors (non-school tours) attended through events this year.
This isn't true for every museum. There are still many museums in large tourist centers with a hefty one-time audience. Zoos, aquaria, science and children's museums boast a significant "anytime" audience of families who return again and again. But for art and history museums, especially outside the biggest tourism markets, I wouldn't be surprised if events drive the lion's share of attendance, period.
At our small museum, events have driven a huge increase in attendance, community partnerships, and media coverage. We're still crunching numbers for the close of the fiscal year, but our attendance has more than doubled from 17,349 last year to about 36,000 this year. The vast majority of that increase has come through attendance to new events.
These events don't just increase audience. This year, we produced our events--especially the 3rd Friday evening series--in partnership with over 700 artists and community organizations in Santa Cruz. Events enabled us to partner with diverse groups who brought in new audiences and programmatic opportunities. We turned a place where “nothing happens” into a place where something was often happening. We got media attention each time we hosted an event, and within a year, we were celebrated by the local weekly as “a major go-to hotspot… that keeps things fresh and fuels the creative fires of Santa Cruz.”
So why is this happening, and what does it mean? Here are three possibilities I'm toying with for why events are taking center stage at museums:
- Culturally, we are shifting to a more event-driven society. Recreational time is down, people are more scheduled than ever, and “casually” visiting a museum is irrelevant to many people, especially those who live outside large urban cultural centers. Festivals—whether of jazz, visual art, ethnic identity, or historic reenactment—are experiencing record attendance even as more permanent institutions that offer the same content are struggling. People want to come for the weekend, the moment, the event. (Note: this is a hypothesis with little data to back it up. Can you help with some concrete information to confirm or refute this idea?)
- It's less about the event than the timing. Audience behavior could be more driven by museum hours than by the type of activity offered. Events mostly happen in the evening or on weekends, outside of work time. The majority of our exhibition hours do not. Maybe if museums were open from 3-10pm instead of 10am-5pm, the attendance would be higher overall. However, it is worth noting that at the MAH, a Saturday without an event during daytime hours typically draws half as many visitors as a Saturday with even a very low-key drop-in program.
- Events generate media buzz and attention with greater frequency than exhibitions. The more events we do, the more we get known for events, and the more people attend during them. If society is more event-driven than ever, we have to give people explicit (and frequent) reasons to think of museums as an "anytime" experience, or they never will attend casually. This could be a worthwhile long play that introduces people to the value of a weekly "museum moment," or it could be an uphill battle against the reality of how and why people prefer to engage. | <urn:uuid:3bec4fa1-1ea2-4da2-acb9-9a7c7c7b54cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2012/06/event-driven-museum-one-year-later.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+museumtwo+%28Museum+2.0%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974038 | 820 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Renewable Energy: Heating
Energy and Climate Change
Peter Aldous (Waveney, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the prospects for an underspend in the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme; and whether he plans to reallocate any such underspend to support domestic renewable heating technologies.
Gregory Barker (Minister of State (Climate Change), Energy and Climate Change; Bexhill and Battle, Conservative)
We are likely have an underspend in 2011-12 for the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme against the sums indicated as being available for this scheme. The Government have already reallocated funding this financial year from the part of the scheme which provides vouchers to householders to the part supporting projects for renewable heating in social housing.
Where Government have been authorised to spend monies for a particular purpose in a particular year, all spending has to be shown to have been used for that purpose in that year in line with the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000, as amended. This means underspends in any one financial year cannot be reallocated to a different financial year. | <urn:uuid:9d4ecfb1-6413-4907-8a56-cac31ce8200c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2012-02-08a.94079.h | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945599 | 237 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Mompetition: Hey Moms, Can't We All Just Get Along?
Submitted by pregnantmomof3
OK, so here's the answer ... NO, plain and simple. HOWEVER we can respect one another. Regardless if you plan to breastfeed or formula feed or both; vaccinate or not or spread them out; circumcise
or not; pierce your little girls (or boys) ears or not or wait until they are old enough to decide; the list goes on and on and on ... raise them in a certain religion or not or introduce them to all so they can decide. It just goes on and on.
There are stay-at-home moms
, work from home moms
and moms that work outside of the home
... and regardless of which one you are that decision is to be respected as well. You do what you feel is best for your family!!
We all have different morals, backgrounds, circumstances, values, religions etc but ONE thing we do have in common is raising our children the way we think is in their best interest. And that is what we need to respect.
Some come looking for advice; some come to give advice; some find advice when they were least expecting it. We have ALL kissed boo-boo's, comforted a sick child, sang ridiculous songs that we hate, watched annoying shows that we despise. We have also ALL lost tons of sleep, needed to get away for just 5 minutes to gather ourselves; have anticipated bedtime and often debated if 6:00 was too early!! We have often wondered what it would be like to pee in silence again. Wondered if waffles or a bowl of cereal were really that bad for dinner.
But one thing is for sure: WE ALL LOVE OUR CHILDREN!! Through sickness and health, good times and bad, through temper tantrums
, through giggle fits, through screaming babies, through coo's and the first smile ... WE LOVE THEM!
Moms are powerful people! And we all have shared the majority of the same experiences to some extent. Support and encouragement and knowing we're not alone goes a loooong way!!!
Respect is the name of the game. If you want it you have to give it. After all isn't that what we ALL teach our children? | <urn:uuid:1712078f-3783-4630-b6e2-7389d8db8877> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.parentsconnect.com/parenting-your-kids/parenting/mom-parenting/mompetition.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964326 | 477 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Lady Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28 1986 with Sicilian/Italian heritage), is an American songwriter, singer, actress, philanthropist, dancer and fashion designer. Born in Manhattan, New York, she was able to sing and play the piano from a young age. She attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart from age 11 where was bullied for her appearance (she was small and plumper than other girls with large front teeth) and eccentric habits.
By the age of 14, Gaga was performing at open mike nights in clubs and bars. By age 17, she had gained early admission to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. In addition to sharpening her songwriting skills, she composed essays and analytical papers on art, religion, social issues and politics. At the age of 19 Gaga withdrew from her studies and moved out of her parents' home in order to pursue a musical career. During this time she started a band which began to gain local attention.
After a brief partnership with talent scout Rob Fusari, which resulted in the creation of her stage name, Gaga was signed to Def Jam Records in 2006; however she was dropped from the label after just three months. Devastated, Gaga returned home, and became increasingly experimental: fascinating herself with emerging neo-burlesque shows, go-go dancing at bars dressed in little more than a bikini in addition to experimenting with drugs.
Gaga met performance artist Lady Starlight during this time; after a performance at Lollapalooza Festival in 2007 Gaga was signed by Vince Herbert to Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. Having served as an apprentice songwriter under an internship at Famous Music Publishing, which was later acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Gaga subsequently struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV. As a result, she was hired to write songs for Britney Spears and labelmates New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls. At Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon recognized her vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio; Akon then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal by having her also sign with his own label Kon Live, making her his "franchise player."
In 2008 Gaga released her first album 'The Fame' to lukewarm radio play; Gaga toured around Europe and in gay clubs in the US to promote the album - however it was not until her first hit 'Just Dance' came to mainstream attention in 2009 that Gaga exploded onto the music scene.
Since then Gaga has gained numerous awards and nominations for a string of hits; her first album spawned several more smash hits ('Paparazzi' 'LoveGame' and 'Poker Face'); while touring the album Gaga wrote 'The Fame Monster', an EP examining the darker side to her new-found fame. The Fame Monster was released in 2009 and won multiple awards, spawning her most iconic single 'Bad Romance' as well as 'Telephone' and 'Alejandro'. During this time Gaga came under increased public and critical scrutiny for her eccentric and often bizarre style choices. Gaga embarked on her second tour, The Monster Ball;ipon finishing in May 2011, the critically acclaimed and commercially accomplished tour ran for over one and a half years and grossed $227.4 million, making it one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time and the highest-grossing for a debut headlining artist. Concerts performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City were filmed for an HBO television special. The special accrued one of its five Emmy Award nominations and has since been released on DVD and Blu-ray.
In 2011 Gaga released her second full-length album 'Born this Way'; the album was received vastly more critically than her previous two for touching on themes of politics, sexuality, and religion. Despite this, the album's songs were praised critically, and Born This Way sold 1.108 million copies in its first week in the US, debuting atop the Billboard 200, and topping the charts in more than 20 other countries. In addition to exceeding 8 million copies in worldwide sales, Born This Way received 3 Grammy Award nominations, including her third consecutive for Album of the Year. In March 2012, Gaga was ranked fourth on Billboard's list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing $25,353,039 dollars, which included sales from Born This Way and her Monster Ball Tour.
At the end of April 2012, Gaga's Born This Way kicked off in Korea - the tour would last 2 years and take the singer to every continent of the globe. However in February 2012 the tour was abruptly cancelled; Gaga had a labral tear in her right hip which she had been nursing secretly for several weeks in the hopes that she would be able to continue the tour. After a performance in Toronto left her unable to walk and in considerable pain, she was taken to hospital for surgery and the tour was cancelled. Through to Jan. 17, the tour had grossed $168.2 million and moved 1.6 million tickets to 85 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore, with the Asian, European, and South American legs already completed in 2012. The North American leg, which was to wrap the tour and was almost completely sold out, would have likely put the tour at more than $200 million gross, easily in the top 20 tours of all time and probably in the top 15, according to Billboard. As it stands, Gaga finished sixth among all touring artists in 2012, with a gross of $125 million and attendance of more than 1.1 million, according to Boxscore.
Gaga is writing her third album, ARTPOP, to be released mid-to-late 2013. Gaga is also to make her acting debut in Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills, the sequel to his 2010 film Machete.
Often gives empowering speeches during shows to her fans about the importance of self-confidence and 'being whoever you want to be'.
Constant reinvention of her appearance.
Futuristic, highly fashionable/controversial outfits
She carries a glow-in-the-dark disco stick during performances
Rhythmic hooks and choruses
Refers to all her fans as "Monsters"
Often portrays herself as a rebel in her videos
In her videos, she often ends up killing someone - usually her boyfriend
Various colored wigs
Wild, charismatic dancing
Elaborate sunglasses and high heels
Has 14 tattoos: a peace sign on her left wrist, "Little Monsters" on her left inner bicep, a Rainer Rilke quote on her left inner bicep, the death date of her aunt Joanne on her left inner bicep, "Tokyo Love" on her left shoulder blade, a heart with "Dad" on her left shoulder blade, daises on her left shoulder blade, a treble clef on her center lower back, flowers up her left side, a unicorn with "Born This Way" on her left thigh, the word "ARTPOP" on her left forearm, an anchor on the left side of her ribcage, a cherub on the back of her head and the word "Rio" on the back of her head.
Is of Italian descent.
Go-go danced in bars until her musical career took off.
Three hit albums have spawned multiple award-winning hits such as 'Poker Face' Bad Romance' and 'Born This Way'.
Went to the same school with Paris Hilton.
At seventeen, she was one of twenty people in the world to have gained early admission to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
Her stage name, Lady Gaga, is a reference to the song "Radio Ga-Ga" by Queen.
Interscope music executive Vincent Herbert hired her in January 2008 as a music writer.
She states that she is "very into fashion" and that it is "everything".
Her song "Boys, Boys, Boys" was inspired by Mötley Crüe's hit "Girls, Girls, Girls".
She learned how to play the piano at the age of four, wrote her first piano ballad at 13, and began performing at open mic nights by the age of 14.
Her parents are Joseph, an Internet entrepreneur, and Cynthia, a telecommunications assistant.
She makes mention of the band, The Killers, in her song "Boys, Boys, Boys".
On February 20, 2009, she donated tickets and a meet and greet, for any show on her Fame Ball tour, in the US or Canada, to raise money for Odyssey Charter School and elementary schools in Los Angeles affected by budget cuts.
Has a younger sister, Natalie Germanotta.
Is a natural brunette.
Bleached her hair blonde in light of the fact that she was being mistaken for Amy Winehouse by interviewers while trying to make it big.
Has a contralto vocal range.
Her song "Telephone" was originally written for Britney Spears's sixth album Circus. However, after it failed to make the album's final track listing, Gaga recorded the song as a collaboration with 'Beyonce Knowles' for her second album, The Fame Monster.
Made the cover of Time magazine's double issue - The 100 Most Influential People in the World - alongside Bill Clinton and Didier Drogba. In the magazine's "Artists" category (which she headed), the singer's tribute was written by Cyndi Lauper. [May 10, 2010]
Is good friends with Deepak Chopra and has stated he is one of the most influential people in her life because of the spiritual guidance he gives her.
In high school, one of her nicknames was "The Germ".
A staunch supporter of LGBT Rights.
Her sister, Natalie Germanotta, once dressed as her for Halloween.
Her album "Born This Way" (2011) sold over 1 million copies in the first week. Amazon sold 440,000 copies of the album in its first two days at a price of 99 cents (at a loss of over $3 million). This contributed to the album's 662,000 digital sales, the highest one-week digital total of all time.
Her second album "Born This Way" (2011) is the seventh album to sell 1 million copies in 1 week. Gaga is the 5th woman to sell 1 million album copies in a week, after Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Norah Jones and Taylor Swift.
Ranked #99 in the 2011 FHM list of "100 Sexiest Women". Ranked #92 in the 2010 FHM list of "100 Sexiest Women".
Launched "Born This Way Foundation", a non-profit organization to help people, worldwide, develop a new standard of care towards one another [November 13, 2011].
[November 14, 2011] Fired her longtime creative director and choreographer, Laurieann Gibson.
In a 2011 Billboard poll, Gaga was voted as having the Best Fashion for 2011 and was also voted as the Most Overrated artist of 2011. Her song "Born This Way" was voted as the 3rd Favorite Hot 100 No. 1 (16% of all votes), behind "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele (32% of all votes) and "Hold it Against Me" by Britney Spears (31% of all votes). Gaga's album "Born This Way" was also voted as the 3rd Favorite No. 1 album for 2011 (17% of votes), behind "21" by 'Adele' (35% of votes) and "Femme Fatale" by Britney Spears (33% of votes).
Sang "The Lady is a Tramp" with Tony Bennett on his compilation album "Duets II" (2011).
Her father, Joe Germanotta, and Art Smith are co-owners of "Joanne Trattoria", a New York Italian restaurant [January 2012].
Voted #18 on Ask men's top 99 'most desirable' women of 2012 list.
Got her middle name, Joanne, after her aunt. Her aunt Joanne died of lupus at age 19.
Underwent successful hip surgery on February 20, 2013.
[on Donatella Versace] She's iconic and powerful, yet people throw darts at her. She's definitely provocative.
Some artists are working to buy the mansion or whatever the element of fame must bear, but I spend all my money on my show.
I was the arty girl, the theatre chick. I dressed differently and I came from a different social class from the other girls. I was more of an average schoolgirl with a cork.
[on her style] My grandmother is basically blind, but she can make out the lighter parts, like my skin and hair. She says, "I can see you, because you have no pants on." So I'll continue to wear no pants so that my grandma can see me.
You must never ever let a guy know how much you like him, because then he'll run in the other direction ... Well, I just sign that when you don't play hard to get, if you're too easy or you come off too eager, they run away so you gotta keep your pokerface on.
I love Dolce & Gabbana. I love Versace. I love the crazy, more eccentric stuff. I can't pay my rent, but I'm f---ing gorgeous.
I dropped out of NYU, moved out of my parent's house, got my own place, and survived on my own. I made music and worked my way from the bottom up. I didn't know somebody, who knew somebody, who knew somebody. If I have any advice to anybody, it's to just do it yourself, and don't waste time trying to get a favor.
Writing a record is like dating a few men at once. You take them to the same restaurants to see if they measure up, and at some point you decide who you like best. When you make music or write or create, it's really your job to have mind-blowing, irresponsible, condomless sex with whatever idea it is you're writing about at the time.
My album covers are not sexual at all, which was an issue at my record label. I fought for months, and I cried at meetings. They didn't think the photos were commercial enough... In my opinion, the last thing a young woman needs is another picture of a sexy pop star writhing in sand, covered in grease, touching herself.
[on Britney Spears] Britney's a real class act in terms of the way she handles herself in the media and embraces new artists. She's always really kind, I've always admired that about her.
[on Britney Spears] It was awesome seeing the song change when she put her touches on it. I'm just really grateful that she loves the music and she's so supportive of me. She's a fan of my stuff and to write a song that she loves and to know she loves me as an artist, you can't ask for anything better than that.
[on Britney Spears] She's gonna kick everybody's ass. She's awesome; as far as I'm concerned, Britney never left.
[on writing the song Quicksand for Britney Spears] She was very sweet and she was very excited to do this song. It's an honor to do anything for Britney Spears - she is such an iconic pop figure for my generation.
I am not sexy in the way that Britney Spears is sexy - which is a compliment to her because she's deliciously good-looking.
[on writing songs for Britney Spears] She's a nice girl - I just feel very honored that she wanted to sing my song. I used to scream for her in Times Square and now I work for her. When I was 13 she was the most provocative performer of my time. I love her so much!
I would rather die than have my fans not see me in a pair of high heels. I'd never give up my wigs or hats for anything. You see legendary people taking out their trash, I think it's destroying show business.
[about her experience at school] I had a very big nose, very curly brown hair and I was overweight. I got made fun of.
Pop music will never be low brow.
[on how to be glamorous for a photo shoot] Just look straight into that lens and be yourself.
Be yourself and love who you are and be proud. Because you were born this way, baby.
People assume that when I'm off stage I transform back into someone else. But I truly believe in the glamorous lifestyle that I present to the outside world. I love glamor. A glamorous life is quite different to a life of luxury. I don't need luxury. For years I was practically broke but I was still vain and glamorous.
[on Freddie Mercury]: Freddie was unique - one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music.
Everywhere I go a Gaga fairy has been there before me and left a cupboard full of wonderful clothes that I'm allowed to borrow and wear. When I move on to the next city, the next cupboard is waiting. I haven't been shopping myself for over a year now.
She is the queen, Madonna is the queen. I have so much adoration for her. Being compared to her is unbelievably flattering, but in truth there is no one that can compare with Madonna. She is the queen!
First thing in the morning, try to think compassionate thoughts about yourself for five minutes. I don't always do it, but I try to.
[on sleeping with her makeup still on] I've got to wash my face at some point. I do get laughed at quite a bit by all my friends because they say I go to sleep a lot with my make-up on. But I say that I have to be ready for the men in my dreams!
They'd say, 'Why do you do your make-up like that, what's with your eyebrows?' I used to do these really big Evita brows. I used to self-tan, and I had this really intense tan in school, and people would say, 'Why the fuck are you so orange, why do you do your hair that way, are you a dyke?' I used to be called a slut... I didn't even want to go to school sometimes.
[on sex] It's always been important to me, as it's for my generation, a most relevant consideration when you're growing up. Sex doesn't mean nothing; sex means so much. I hope that young women know that sex is still a big deal, and they don't have to put out soon. If they want someone to court them for a while before they give it up, that's wonderful and beautiful, and a man will only respect you more for honoring your body. I am that way.
My mother and I have initiated a passion project. Together we hope to establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment.
Don't you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can't be exactly who you are.
Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams.
There's a sort of stigma around doing good deeds that's maybe not so cool. I'm doing everything that I can, working with experts, really studying the statistics to figure out a way we can make. It cool or normal to be kind and loving.
(January 2010) Named the new face of "Polaroid".
(January 2013) Set to make first theatrical debut in Machete Kills.
(February 2012) Ended her 2-year world tour early due to injury; is now recovering and focusing on her second studio album, ARTPOP
|You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Edit page' button will take you through a step-by-step process.|
|With our Resume service you can add photos and build a complete resume to help you achieve the best possible presentation on the IMDb.|
Click here to add your resume and/or your photos to IMDb. | <urn:uuid:7762068f-407d-463c-9eab-54706c007ebb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3078932/bio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975798 | 4,270 | 1.539063 | 2 |
This post continues the exploration of the three faces of the Ultimate, which is called by many names in our wonderfully wide variety of spiritual traditions and paths. In my fourth post I introduced the three perspectives (represented in four quadrants) and said that individuals seem to lean toward one perspective, as do the spiritual traditions of the world. Since one of the cornerstones of Integral Theory is that each perspective is true but partial, experiencing the Ultimate from all three perspectives allows for a more complete and inclusive experience. It is also well to remember that each perspective “points to” the Ultimate, which is beyond description. As you read this “pointing out” perspective, notice how you respond to the Second Face. Do you find it familiar? Odd? Uncomfortable? Reassuring? Noticing your own reaction is a clue to the perspective you inhabit most fully.
Seeking and experiencing Ultimate Reality from a second person perspective finds us listening and praying to, receiving from and communing with the Divine. The focus shifts from It to Thou. We experience a kind of intimacy where we feel known and held in a divine embrace. Our heart opens deeply and we surrender to the one about whom naught can be said. It is from this perspective that we find a large part of our moral compass. Prayer, devotional singing and worship are ways in which we enter this sacred I/Thou space.
The writings of many of the mystics, including Rumi, Hafiz and Teresa of Avila, portray their second person experience of God. Filled with passionate and heartfelt language, their words express a beautiful intimacy with the Divine.
These words and images help us soak in the Second Person of Spirit . . .
As a doe longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you O God.
My soul is your temple; my actions are your hands. My body is your home and my senses witness only you. My sleep is pure meditation on You, these walking feet are your journey. Whatever comes from my mouth is a prayer to you, O Lord, everything I say and do is worship to You.
Shankara from: Shiva Manasa Pooja
Teresa of Avila | <urn:uuid:4c53dc9a-fd3b-4abb-8de4-1d982ded3fee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.patheos.com/blogs/awakeningwhatsnext/2012/05/second-person-perspective-of-the-ultimate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95076 | 455 | 1.695313 | 2 |
I'm Bob Woodruff. And as part of our standing up for -- series recently had a chance to sit down with two men from very different backgrounds who have something in common. Trauma and recovery. --... See More
I'm Bob Woodruff. And as part of our standing up for -- series recently had a chance to sit down with two men from very different backgrounds who have something in common. Trauma and recovery. -- gallon as the drummer for the English rock band Def Leppard. In 1984. He was in an auto accident that cost him his left off. -- remember worst years and everything was in slow motion line you know everybody was says and -- the -- died she came and done. And came across my chest as I was leaving the -- through the sunroof. And I must have been doing a good 6570. Miles now. I landed in a field. Several hundred yards away. I remember standing up. I think it was it was very surreal. In 1992. During a military operation in Somalia. A marine named John Roberts was severely burned. You're back in a helicopter can. 150 feet to defeat here. In the rear engine blew the play. Killed three of the Marines around me. Unfortunately you know I was awake for the entire thing. So again and the flames that you and part of the engine blow into your arm -- your body. Yeah and then we personally ocean. John Roberts has now dedicated his time to the injured veterans as the executive director of the wounded warriors project and in these years since their injuries these two men have been drawn together not only because of that terrible physical pain. But also because of post dramatic stress disorder. PT SD. And assault. Let me hear that anger the isolation. What we did your families. Just. -- -- this was close. And we pushing people away. I think normally heard much about PT as being in the civilian world until this war happen if there's a good thing they came out of the war was because. Waking up to this exact. Problem absolutely and I think one of the woman one of the main issues is that is that the worry -- -- -- -- house. And we Iranians. To it too you know highlight the fight -- -- calendar if you ask for help. To deal with the issues of PT SD they get together with family and the injured -- Def Leppard concert they are called warrior gatherings. We're sitting in. Looks like a group therapy Rick and I assure our stores. Talk about PT -- some things we did. Some of wrong things we did -- and then some of the success we had to realize and under normal. In this is our lives and being happy with -- we get these individuals to start talking -- -- at this concert in an hour. We've learned things about them that they haven't shared with -- wife consumer Nextel. -- stand very honest and open and with our pass. And they feel it's okay start talking so wonderful -- -- -- had. Trauma. The warriors realized that. You know -- Careful and come -- to Iraq macho manly sort -- him. PT SC NN on though it's coming now we. Can we actually -- morning and what we're trying to do is educate the public that this is normal this can happen to anybody whether we're. -- -- -- -- Asking for help not a week. It really takes a stronger person. Asked for help -- to -- home and silent suffering. Not move forward Martin. These two friends from different sides of the pond and different sides of the military civilian divide. Have come together to help veterans -- and in the process they are healing themselves. Bob Woodruff ABC news New York.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. | <urn:uuid:92c62f20-da93-4898-9e10-fd1a789bafbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/def-leppard-drummer-marine-veterans-ptsd-18064815 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976747 | 761 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Posted: Jan 12, 2013 4:31 PM by Kathrene Herndon, KSBY News
Updated: Jan 12, 2013 9:21 PM
Community members and officials in San Luis Obispo met on Saturday to discuss the issue of homelessness in the city.
The San Luis Obispo City Council held a workshop to discuss homelessness on the Central Coast, and the issues and impacts it has on the City of San Luis Obispo.
The community was invited to attend the event at the San Luis Obispo Library, and to give their feedback.
Mayor Jan Marx says, "The question is, you know, what can the County of San Luis Obispo, what can the City of San Luis Obispo do to help the people who are open to being helped, who need help?"
She says the two main purposes of the forum were to hear from the public about their ideas for making the situation better all around, and also for the City Council to be able to have a conversation with each other about the issue.
"I'd say the greatest concern that I hear about is the presence of transients in the downtown and in the business parks, and a concern about just the level of safety in the town, and people who've lived here for a long time feel there are a lot more transients than there used to be."
She says between 1,500 and 1,700 people have been identified as homeless in San Luis Obispo.
"Whether the behavior that people are concerned about is actually a result of homelessness....you don't have to be homeless to do something that violates a law," Marx says.
She says she is optimistic that the City Council will do its best to deal with the situation.
PLEASE HELP US MODERATE COMMENTS
Offensive or inappropriate comments are subject to removal. To report a comment, please e-mail us at [email protected], and include the name of the story and information on the comment.
Thank you! KSBY.com
Get deals up to 80% off here!
Find the lowest gas prices in your area
Submit your photos to KSBY
Check out our calendar of events
Watch Daybreak Web Videos in full
Save with Hot Deals across our counties!
Events across the Central Coast
Follow The CW5 on Facebook.
The KSBY online public file.
What do you think? Leave us your feedback.
KSBY is your official CA Lottery station for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties | <urn:uuid:af6e46e9-8ecb-4698-8d8a-022a455ac653> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksby.com/news/forum-held-to-discuss-homelessness-in-san-luis-obispo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9537 | 526 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Returning from its Thanksgiving break, the Supreme Court today issued a powerful unsigned "per curiam" opinion agreeing that the ineffective assistance of counsel for Florida death row inmate George Porter Jr. prejudiced the sentence he received after his murder trial in 1988. He was convicted in the murder of a former girlfriend and her boyfriend. The Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit previously rejected his ineffective assistance claim.
Ruling in Porter v. McCollum, available here, the Court extensively detailed Porter's "horrible family life" and his trying Korean War experiences that earned him two Purple Hearts and other decorations -- none of which was told to the trial court as mitigating evidence during sentencing. The trial lawyer's failure to introduce the evidence "did not reflect reasonable professional judgment" and could well have affected the outcome of the case, the Court said.
In language that is sure to be cited in future cases involving veterans, the Court said that the fact that Porter went AWOL in Korea did not detract from the significance of his combat experience as mitigating evidence. "Our nation has a long tradition of according leniency to veterans in recognition of their service, especially for those who fought on the front lines as Porter did. Moreover, the relevance of Porter's extensive combat experience is not only that he served honorably under extreme hardship and gruesome conditions, but also that the jury might find mitigating the intense stress and mental and emotional toll that combat took on Porter."
The ruling, which does not disturb the finding of guilt, sends the case back to the 11th Circuit for further proceedings affecting his sentence. The high court typically issues "per curiam" or "for the court" opinion in cases in which the justices are in agreement without needing to hear oral argument.
The Court on Monday also issued other orders and heard oral arguments. More later at nlj.com | <urn:uuid:5d2d96d1-018a-4b63-bbb3-bf05f4c1bff0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/11/suprem-court-sides-with-florida-inmate-on-ineffective-assistance.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979258 | 383 | 1.53125 | 2 |
It costs less than a cup of coffee to power your iPad for an entire yearTaylor Martin - Member
Every night, I sleep beside a mess of power cords and cables that I'm sure is some serious fire hazard. Beside my bed, I charge at least three phones and one tablet every night, and in my office, there might be a laptop, another tablet and possibly some other phones on charge.
With so many battery-powered devices that constantly need to be charged, it's a legitimate concern to worry about how much your mobile devices are costing you each month and year on your power bill. Could a single tablet cost your upwards of $100 every year to power? $200? More? What about your smartphone? Your spouse's? What of you have a family of iPads?
I have never put much thought into it, considering my gadget habits are a little excessive to begin with. I'm positive I spend more on just about every front (monthly wireless bills, devices, cases, etc.) when it comes to mobile tech than the average consumer. So what's a little more money spent to power my favorite gadgets?
But I do recall being a bit curious over how much it might cost to continuously power the new iPad. Mobile devices are constantly becoming more advanced and, in turn, more powerful. To keep the new iPad and its unbelievably crisp display powered for Apple's standard of 10 hours (of usage), it nearly doubled the battery capacity and wattage of the new iPad. The iPad 2 from last year housed a 6944mAh (25W) battery, while the new iPad is equipped with a 11,666mAh (42W) battery. Comparing that to the average smartphone battery, which is less than 2,000mAh, there is good reason to be concerned over its power consumption and just how much it's costing you each year to keep it powered.
According to research conducted by Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a non-profit research and development group, some gadgets are costing you far less to power than you might think. Various gadgets cost users less than a cup of coffee to fuel all year long, particularly those made by the Cupertino-based firm.
So how much does it cost to power an iPad for an entire year? Based on the U.S. average residential price of 11.49 cents per kilowatt-hour, EPRI estimates $1.36 is the magic number. That number is also based on a full charge (from 0 to 100 percent) and the assumption that the average user might only charge their iPad every other day. Perfectly plausible. I'm a heavy user and I don't always charge my iPad every day.
Comparing that number to the average power consumed by other common household gadgets, the iPad is very power efficient – much more so than I would have imagined. A 60-watt compact fluorescent bulb is estimated to cost $1.61 annually. A desktop PC? $28.21. And a refrigerator sets the average user back $65.72. "If the number of iPads triples from the current 67 million, they would need the electricity from one small power plant operating at full strength," says Jonathan Fahey of the Associated Press.
Apple's iPhone 4 is also pretty light on the power consumption, costing only $0.38 annually, on average.
Baskar Vairmohan, the researcher who performed the study on the iPad, explained that EPRI is now trying to determine if the sudden popularization of iPads and other tablets is adding to or reducing power consumption. Judging by how much more power efficient the iPad is than your average PC, I'm willing to bet overall power consumption is on its way down. Fahey agrees, saying:
"But if people are using iPads instead of televisions to play video games, or ditching their desktop computers for iPads, the shift to tablets could mean lower overall power consumption. A desktop computer uses 20 times more power than an iPad."
I am also willing to bet that I have cut my personal power consumption significantly over the last few years. People ask me why I prefer to use a tablet over a laptop to work if I still have to use a laptop for a portion of the work. My answer always varies as there is no one reason. But a but factor in that is battery life and power consumption. I can get through an entire day of work without having to charge anything if I use both my iPad and MacBook Air. If I used just the MacBook, it would have to be charged at least twice before the day is through. Granted, I have never done this with the cost of power in mind. But making it through an entire day without needing an outlet is irreplaceable.
EPRI's average cost of a year's worth of powering an iPad, $1.36, probably doesn't apply to me. (It likely costs me double that.) And it says nothing about non-Apple tech. But it's comforting to know I'm not paying oodles more each year just to keep my phones and tablets charged.
Tell me, folks. Does it surprise you that it costs so little to keep your iPad charged each year? Do you find the number to be improbable? How much would you have figured it costs you each year to keep all of your gadgets charged? I figured it was at least in the hundreds. Oh, how wrong I was … | <urn:uuid:a26ff7cc-fe08-406c-98e9-b633af044e51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.phonedog.com/2012/06/22/it-costs-less-than-a-cup-of-coffee-to-power-your-ipad-for-an-entire-year/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968635 | 1,110 | 1.8125 | 2 |
A new way to value the market
The latest technology enables novel analysis of whether stocks are attractively priced now. (Hint: They might be.)
(Fortune Magazine) -- Are stocks cheap yet? That slippery, eternal question is worth a look right now because a remarkable new set of data has just become available, allowing us to analyze the market in ways we never could before. I wish I could tell you that this new trove of numbers reveals that stocks are a screaming buy. It doesn't. But it does suggest that, amid all the recent tumult, just maybe the market is being rational.
The new data are derived from the most fundamental, capital-based way of analyzing a company's finances and value. How much capital is a company using? What is its return on capital? How much does the capital cost? Those questions hold the key to corporate performance, but finding the answers in most financial statements isn't easy, and many executives don't know the answers themselves. The Stern Stewart consulting firm began popularizing these concepts more than 15 years ago with the term EVA (economic value added), and the new data come from EVA Dimensions, a firm that is now the source of Stern Stewart's EVA data.
EVA-based analysis has proven extremely valuable in analyzing individual companies. I almost never make calls on specific stocks, but in late 1999 the EVA analysis of AOL was so compelling that I wrote a column declaring flatly that the stock price could not possibly be justified. That column was published on Jan. 10, 2000, right near the overall market peak (and the very day that AOL announced it was using its insanely overvalued stock to buy my employer, Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) - but that's another story). I also used EVA analysis to write last summer that Google (GOOGLE) was overpriced at $540; that call looked wrong for a while, though as I write this the stock is at $501.
One thing you couldn't do with EVA analysis was use it to value the whole market. Compiling the data for a significant number of companies used to take months. But now, through the miracles of our networked world, EVA Dimensions can compile it every day for 2,669 companies in the Russell 3000 (those for which at least two years of data are available). This is essentially the U.S. stock market. So: Is it worth what it costs?
Look first at how well the companies are doing at their most basic task, which is earning a return on their capital that's greater than the total cost of that capital. Turns out they've been doing very well. The dollar difference between their return on capital and cost of capital (their EVA) was $375 billion over the past four quarters. It was only half that much in 2005, and in 2004 it was negative, which isn't surprising. Over time, for the broader market, EVA should be more or less zero since competition is always forcing high returns down toward the cost of capital, while companies that can't meet their capital cost will eventually go under. So America's publicly traded companies did great last year; in fact, with economic growth strong through the third quarter, it's safe to say that they were at or near the top of the business cycle.
Next question: How are they being valued? On a recent day when the Dow closed at 12,265, the 2,669 Russell 3000 companies had a total enterprise value of $29.8 trillion (equity plus debt). To judge whether that's a lot or a little, consider that over the past four quarters these companies produced after-tax operating profits of about $1.8 trillion. Even if we assume that earnings will only match, not exceed, that level in future years, then the companies' aggregate market value today would still be $22.5 trillion (note to finance wonks: that's their profits capitalized at their capital cost of about 8.1%), which is about 75% of their actual market value.
So now we reach the central question. About 25% of the current market value of these companies is based on expectations of future profits above and beyond the profits they earned last year, at the top of the business cycle. Does that seem reasonable? Actually, it just might. The math gets a bit tedious, but you can assume no profit growth for the next several years and very modest growth thereafter, and the valuation still looks okay. | <urn:uuid:f7f05b20-3ae7-42b9-a539-95b707b50196> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/15/magazines/fortune/investing/colvin_eva.fortune/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974229 | 915 | 1.632813 | 2 |
On the morning of Thursday 20th September 2012 Shri Narendra Modi addressed the Industry Responsive Skill Convention of ‘Making Gujarat a Skill Hub’. This convention was held as an event in the run up to the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2013. In an inspiring speech, Shri Modi spoke on the relevance of skill development and Gujarat’s efforts to strengthen our youth with relevant skills.
Shri Modi termed the issue on empowering our youth with knowledge and skill sets as among the most important ones in the nation’s development journey. We affirmed that more than 50% of the population is below 25 years and this one of our biggest strengths and valuable resources. Shri Modi stressed on the need to invigorate India’s young talent pool and if we are able to convert our youth into skilled workforce India can meet the entire world’s workforce requirements.
The Chief Minister said that Gujarat has invested substantial time and resources in facilitating all round development and added that with a holistic approach the Government is increasing the reach of education. Shri Modi opined that Gujarat is enhancing quality in line with latest international trends.
On the issue of employment of youth Shri Modi affirmed that Gujarat presents the best picture in job creation in India. He cited the recent surveys by the Government of India that stated that not only does Gujarat create most employment but also is the state with lowest unemployment rate. Shri Modi declared that the Government has increased both employment as well as employability.
During his speech Shri Modi shared valuable insights into some of Gujarat’s initiatives towards sharpening skill development among Gujarat’s youth. He spoke about iCreate, launched under the mentorship of Mr. Narayana Murthy that seeks to give a platform and resources for young innovators.
Talking about SCOPE, the Government’s initiative to build English language proficiency among the people Shri Modi said he was glad to see participation of housewives in this movement. He also spoke about eMPOWER to prepare the youth with basic IT skills. In addition, Shri Modi stated that there were other initiatives such as Vanche Gujarat, Khel Mahakumbh, Choice Based Credit System et al in the domain of skill development. Similarly, BISAG plays a major role in enabling quality long distance education through satellite for the youngsters.
Shri Modi talked about the central role played by Industrial Training Institutes in furthering skill development. He shared that in the last decade there has been a 5-fold increase in the number of ITIs. Not only that, the ITIs have been upgraded with new structure, infrastructure, and resources as well as there has been a much needed updating of course material as well. Shri Modi expressed joy in the fact that more than 50% of the ITIs are running on PPP model.
The Chief Minister declared that 20 Superior Technology Centres have been launched to give specialized training. These STCs are driven by industry needs and demands.
Shri Modi stated that we should focus on skill development in a big way as this can generate jobs and improve the quality of life. He stressed on the need of proper training to complement the motivation and cited the example of bamboo cultivators whose productivity was enhanced after they went to train in the northeast.
He also placed great importance on proper mapping and cluster approach, giving the example of how in Morbi where ceramic industry is active the ITIs gave stress on ceramic works. Similarly, ITIs in Mandvi-Kutch gave stress on shipbuilding that helped the local people immensely.
Shri Modi said that we should increase scope, scale, skill and speed and if we do these 4 we can integrate our Yuva Shakti in the process of developing the nation. Giving examples, he stated that if we give 200 types of courses we should think of moving towards 2000 or 20,000.
The Chief Minister urged the strengthening of skill development at every level so that our Yuva Shakti can be strengthened and no youngster remains unemployed at any point of time. He affirmed his determination to turning every young mind of Gujarat into a powerhouse of motivation, hard work and innovation.
Gujarat Cabinet Minister Shri Vajubhai Vala spoke about the efforts to enhance skill development in Gujarat under Shri Modi and Shri S Mahalingam of TCS lauded Shri Modi’s visional pro-activeness and called it unparalleled. Others present included Dr. Dalia Schipper, Chief Secretary Shri AK Joti, Principal Secretary Industries Shri Maheshwar Sahu and other dignitaries.
Stay Tuned for Live Events
We appreciate any and all feedback about our site; praise, ideas, suggestions, bug reports you name it! Your feedback will help us do better. | <urn:uuid:37888511-2fd2-4134-bc87-8cb948110aff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.narendramodi.in/skill-development-is-most-important-dimension-of-our-nations-development-cm/ | 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 | 0.956482 | 969 | 1.585938 | 2 |
I originally made this as a library bag for my kids to tote their books back and forth all summer, but they've been using it for imaginary adventures in our house, escapades around the neighborhood...much more than the just the literary adventures I was thinking of.
So I've dubbed it simply the...
A small tote for all occasions.
It's fairly simple to bring together. It just takes a little time...about two hours if you want to do it right.
1/2 yard of Duck cloth or canvas
1/2 yard of cotton (liner)
2 large D-rings - I used 11/2 inch wide D-rings
2-3 inches of velcro and or a small D-ring - the depends on how you want to close the bag
**You may also want to use a heavy duty needle. I didn't. I just use my universal needle, sewed slow (a big reason it takes two hours to make), and lengthened my stitch to a 3.
Before you begin, cut all the pieces you'll need.
STEP ONE: Create the main bag.
2. Use those lines as a guide as you pinch the corners into a triangle.
3. Draw a line straight across. Pin.
Optional: Add an inner pocket.
*Cut it to the size desired. (I didn't measure. I just eyeballed it). You can see the water splotches from when I pressed it.
*Bring your outer and liner bag together.
STEP TWO: Create the flap.
*Turn it right side out and press with a hot iron. The Duck cloth is pretty stiff. You'll want to spray it with a good amount of water.
*Now attach it to the main bag.
STEP THREE: Straps.
STEP FOUR: Add a closure.
Depending on what kind you want to use, you either add this in STEP TWO or here.
For this yellow bag, I used a D-ring/velcro closure which you want to add here at the end.
I cut a strip of Duck cloth about 10 inches by 3 inches.
I also made a bag for my youngest son, Reid...
and used a simple velcro closure.
In Step 2, simply sew some velcro on before attaching the flap to the bag. I put it over the arm of my sewing machine to sew it on. You could sew it on the liner before sewing the two pieces together as well, but I like how this ensures I get the velcro strip exactly where I intended.
Please feel free to criticize how great ;) I attached the liner on this one.
Reid says, "Good job Mom!"
Be sure to stop by Kojodesigns for this adorable sunshine yellow maxi dress! | <urn:uuid:e5aade70-d7d2-489c-a015-134bfc7f30a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deliacreates.com/2012/06/yellow-little-messenger.html?showComment=1339161391716 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934399 | 580 | 1.65625 | 2 |
A full tally of bears taken in Warren County during the state's four-day regular season is not available yet, but preliminary numbers for the first three days are available.
A Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) statement issued on Nov. 21, the last day of the season, lists a count of 84 bears harvested in the county in the first three days, Nov. 17, 19 and 20.
Additional bears checked on Nov. 21, after the PGC release was made available, are not included in the tally.
Photo submitted for publication
A bear hunter checks in his kill (background) at a bear check station in Marienville. Members of the U.S. Forest Service partnered with the Pennsylvania Game Commission to staff a bear check station in Marienville last week during the statewide four-day bear season.
The PGC reports a three-day total across the state of 2,442 bears, which stands to increase when tallies for Nov. 21 are added. Total harvest for the 2011 regular season reached 3,023 bears over three days.
The top ten bears recorded in the first three days of the season all exceeded 540 pounds., with the largest bear recorded at the time tipping the scales with an estimated live weight of 706 pounds. The largest bear was taken in Pike County. The other nine top ten bears by weight were taken in Monroe, Potter, Clinton, Bedford, Huntingdon, Susquehanna and Perry counties, with two of the top ten being taken in McKean County.
Two PGC wildlife management units are included within the boundaries of Warren County, unit 1B in the east and unit 2F in the west. Over the first three days, 28 bear were taken in unit 1B, which also encompasses Erie, most of Crawford and part of Venango Counties. In that period, 260 bear were taken in unit 2F, which also includes Forest and parts of McKean, Venango, Clarion, Jefferson and Elk Counties.
Bear harvest age data for 2011 indicates a total bear harvest in Warren County of 96 animals. The largest bear taken last year was a six-year-old male with a listed actual dressed weight of 404 pounds.
Harvest age data for 2012 is also still unavailable. Some wildlife management units are permitted for an extended bear season. The latest day bear hunting is permitted anywhere in the state is Dec. 8.
"Pennsylvania's bear population covers more than three-quarters of the state, and includes a number of world-class trophy bears," PGC Executive Director Carl G. Roe said in a Nov. 2 press release announcing this year's season. "This has earned Pennsylvania recognition as one of the top states for bear hunters. Every year, we have a number of bears exceeding 500 pounds included in the harvest."
According to the PGC, "Since 1992, six bears with an estimated live weight of 800 pounds or more have been legally taken in Pennsylvania."
Bear had been taken in 51 counties across the state at the time of the three-day total release. | <urn:uuid:cd71dff3-179a-47a9-a1ba-25218d269add> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesobserver.com/page/content.detail/id/561132/Game-Commission--84-bears-killed---.html | 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 | 0.960952 | 625 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The University of California, San Francisco campus is set on Mount Sutro, west of downtown San Francisco. The location affords a sweeping view of the city, but the campus has had very little room to grow beyond its collection of fifties and sixties towers because of the steep hillside. New York based-architect Rafael Viñoly Architects recently finished the new Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The $123 million building, is a series of split-level floors with terraced grass roofs and solar orientation. Open labs flow into each other, with office and interaction areas located on the circulation route between the labs, allowing for the entire research community in the building to interact. The Institute has been dubbed the Dolby Building by students and faculty. | <urn:uuid:23d27d3a-f07a-439e-bc3a-97fff1786438> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.formmag.net/monitor/tag/institute-for-regenerative-medicine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963584 | 151 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Board Approves New Online Academy to Open its Virtual Doors in the Fall
PITTSBURGH, June 27, 2012—Pittsburgh Public Schools is gearing up to accept students in grades 6-9 in its new online academy. This evening, Board members voted to approve the new school, which will open its virtual doors on August 30. In 2012-13, the online school will provide an innovative option for students who live within the City and are currently enrolled in a cyber charter school. The school will eventually grow to serve students in grades 6-12, who desire an online option.
“We want you back—that’s what we’re telling families who left the District in search of an online experience. Pittsburgh Public Schools can now meet your needs,” said Superintendent Linda Lane. “Students who enroll in the online academy would not only receive a quality education, but they could be eligible for thousands of dollars in college scholarships through the Pittsburgh Promise.”
Currently, students who reside in the city and attend a cyber charter school do not qualify for Pittsburgh Promise scholarship funds.
“As the quality of and the choices for education in the city continue to rise, and with the promise of up to $40,000 per child in college scholarships for kids who live in the City of Pittsburgh and attend Pittsburgh Public Schools, I don’t know why anyone would send their kids anywhere else,” said Saleem Ghubril, Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Promise.
The online academy is committed to making students Promise-Ready. It will have the same graduation requirements as the District’s brick and mortar schools. The scope and sequence of the curriculum will mirror that of the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Interested parents are asked to call the parent hotline at (412) 622-7920 for more information and to set up an appointment.
“We are striving to personalize the process. We want to meet with interested families, in person or on the phone, to tell them about our intake process,” said Mark McClinchie, Coordinator of Virtual Learning. “We’ll create a personal profile and develop an individualized learning plan for their child. Each student is unique”
The new school is a partnership with Waterfront Learning, a trusted educational provider with a decade of cyber experience. Waterfront Learning is a turnkey solution that will provide the resources necessary to open the school for the 2012-2013 school year, such as content, instruction, operation support and hardware.
“Students set their own pace and receive the full attention of their teachers,” said McClinchie. “Instead of providing instruction to say 30 students at a time, teachers work with each student individually when they log on. The first year, Waterfront will provide its own teachers. But in year two, Pittsburgh Public Schools teachers will be trained, and in year three, our teachers will take over instruction.”
Through the online school, students will also benefit from face-to-face interactions when appropriate. As part of the District’s commitment to ensure a personalized approach, the initial one-week orientation will be held at a District site where students will learn how to use the software and start the coursework. As the school’s administrator monitors student progress, there would be for face-to-face meeting opportunities for students, who may need specific interventions For example, if a student is missing class or falling behind with assignments, the student and his/her parents will meet with the administrator to create an intervention plan.
Unlike some cyber charter schools, Pittsburgh Public Schools’ online academy will provide students with laptops. “Our students aren’t tied to a desktop computer. They will receive a laptop with an air card for wireless Internet connections,” said McClinchie. “Some cyber charters require parents to set up their own Internet services or use a stipend from the school to offset the cost. Our online academy gives students greater accessibility to their education.”
As of June 2012, almost 800 potential Pittsburgh Public Schools students attended cyber charter schools. For more information about enrollment in Pittsburgh Public Schools online academy, parents are urged to call the PPS Parent Hotline 412-622-7920.
In Other News
Board Appoints Dr. Jeannine French to Deputy Superintendent
Upon the recommendation of Superintendent Linda Lane, the Board approved the appointment of Dr. Jeannine French as Deputy Superintendent, effective July 1, 2012. Dr. French currently serves as the District’s Chief of School Performance and is responsible for School Management, Student Services, Research Assessment and Accountability and Special Education (jointly reporting to Chief Academic Officer). Dr. French’s compensation at $142,000, a $4,000 increase, includes the earning potential for an annual performance increment of up to $2,000 and an annual achievement bonus of up to $15,000, which is the same as her current contract. | <urn:uuid:3f693898-785b-4df2-be3f-8be96bb1c60a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://php.pghboe.net/news/index.php/2012/06/27/board-approves-new-online-academy-to-open-its-virtual-doors-in-the-fall/ | 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 | 0.951577 | 1,025 | 1.539063 | 2 |
A Maryland woman is trying to figure out why someone would steal her bees and honey.
Kara Brook told WBAL-TV?s Rob Roblin that she recently decided to become a beekeeper on Kent Island along the Eastern Shore and that she had the best of intentions.
"I thought, 'OK, this is a really important thing. Maybe if I write about it, maybe I'll inspire a few people to get into beekeeping and help our crops,'" Brook said. "Bees are responsible for a third of the food we eat."
But four months into the process, she discovered that someone had stolen some of her bees and about 100 pounds of honey.
"Somebody's come, and they've disrupted the entire process," Brook said.
She told Roblin that the honey was worth about $900.
"The first couple days, I was walking around, shaking my head, like, 'Who would steal bees?' I never even thought about it," Brook said.
Brook said local police are looking into the theft. | <urn:uuid:30482d7c-030c-464e-95aa-b4aefcc8f370> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbaltv.com/Eastern-Shore-Woman-s-Bees-Honey-Stolen/-/9380084/8910668/-/kxiqdg/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991423 | 214 | 1.835938 | 2 |
|Dr Douglas attended the Royal High School in Edinburgh and is a graduate of University of Aberdeen. After hospital jobs in Aberdeen, he became involved in off-shire medicine in Aberdeen and researching the illnesses of deep-sea divers.
In 1979, he moved to Fort William to train in General Practice and to become the Medical Officer for the Underwater Training Centre in Fort William, where he continued his research interests.
He became involved in postgraduate medical education and the training of GPs.
He also became the Medical Officer for the newly emerging fish-farming industry in the West Coast of Scotland and was the first to describe the Occupational Health problems associated with that industry. In 1995, he gained his MD Thesis after describing a new cause of Occupational Asthma, which had been affecting his GP patients who were working at the new salmon processing factory.
In 1997, his General Practice became one of the first GP Research Practices in Scotland and he founded the Highland Primary Care Research Network. He continues to research flu immunisation and diagnosis in his Fort William patients and other primary care research projects.
In March 2000, he was appointed Director of the Remote And Rural Areas Resource Initiative (RARARI) on behalf of the Scottish Executive. This Initiative is tasked with addressing the many challenging issues, which face the NHS in the remote and rural areas of Scotland, by means of education, research and service re-design. The Initiative completed in March 2004.
In 2004, he was then appointed to Locality Clinical Lead for the Lochaber Local Healthcare Partnership, which aims to obtain better working relationships between national health service and local authority care systems. He remains in this post to date.
He continues to work part-time as a GP and is married with four children. His leisure interests include sailing and swimming. | <urn:uuid:a2b57dad-0edf-4052-9279-b898407343a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rrh.org.au/profile/profilenew.asp?UserID=302 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98423 | 365 | 1.570313 | 2 |
When I was at school I was told I couldn't study Technology A Level (which at the time was the only way to learn more about computers) because my maths wasn't good enough - thanks for that Mr Cox!
I got a Sinclair Spectrum as a joint Christmas present with my brother and after spending hours watching those annoying flickering screens and then 'not' having the 'not very good' games load, I started programming ...
Does anybody else remember BASIC? ... I once got into trouble suggesting pascal was very similar to BASIC (but it is).
I bought myself a book about the Z80 processor (I've still got this somewhere) and set about writing increasingly complex (and rubbish) text based adventure games.
I knew Machine Code was the way to go, so after a few months of buying magazines on the subject (yes, real paper things that you had to manually turn pages and everything) I worked out how to create and manipulate Sprites ... long story, but these are nice graphics, not the clunky things we old guys were used to - I remember that I had a line of Triffids that swayed as they moved down the screen a la 'Space Invaders' style ...
Unfortunately, about this time, I also found some information which it transpired was probably for people who were a little more skilled than I was! I found a way to get my Spectrum to speak!
Well, I'll never know if it worked, because my poor Sinclair with its 'dead flesh' keys went 'pfffst' :( ... this is a good warning about connecting things to your computer when you don't really know what you are doing!
The plan was to play sound into the computer and then to have it's substandard sound chip recreate the information it had been listening for ... my computer made a sort of a wet fizzing noise and never worked again!
Then there was a gap of say a decade before I seriously looked at computers again ... partly a financial thing, partly an access thing ...
... anyway, I'm now fairly proficient at most things computer related ...
I can build you a computer ... though I'd rather not.
it's one of those skills that you regret people finding out about, no matter how many times you tell somebody that upgrading RAM is easy, they will insist that you do it!
No matter how simply you put the explanation of how to add a new DVD writer, people seem set on it being a life or death problem that only a hour round trip and numerous other 'Oh, while you're here, somebody said I need some virus stuff ... and my printer seems to be playing up'
... btw ...
I don't do Laptops!
I suppose I should point out that I'm pretty good with all the Microsoft products - I'm a bit behind the times, I prefer my tried and tested XP Professional (I have Vista, just never installed it, and can't afford Windows 7 at the moment).
Like most of us mortals (not being an IT professional) I was pretty much of the opinion that Microsoft was the only option (I was vaguely aware that there was this thing called Linux and that lots of people I knew worked on databases that weren't Microsoft, but I didn't need to know about these things)...
... needless to say, when I had an interview for a company that used a lot of Open Source, it was a bit of an eye opener for me ... I got offered the job, but didn't take it ... but I did get heavily into the Open Source thing!
I did have an old Dell Optiplex GX260 running Ubuntu (not a good enough graphics card for the cool effects I'm afraid, but it's unfortunately been called into service to replace another Windows machine for the time being :(
I'm by far not an expert on Linux, but I'm learning all the time, and its great to have an Apache Server that works for testing stuff without an internet connection :)
Seriously, if you have a spare (it doesn't have to be a fast machine) hanging around, install Ubuntu and have a tinker - you will learn a lot!
I should point out that you can run Apache on your windows machine (I do) you need to download WampServer which allows you to run Apache, PHP and MySql (Used to be known as Wamp).
It's a breeze to install, and means you can test away on your home machine without messing up remote server settings.
I'm not too bad at setting up networks ... provided they don't need to be too complex ... but I do know which lead plugs in where (unless it's wireless) ... | <urn:uuid:2feea0c9-fa3f-4992-9bba-9a75ef6ff882> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.i-r-paulus.co.uk/index.php/about-me/computers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981567 | 957 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Professional sports fans have come to expect instant replay. In a dynamic and fast pace sport such as indoor lacrosse it is nearly impossible to get every crease call correct the first time. Coaches feel empowered to challenge a close call that could affect the outcome of the game. Fans watch the replays eagerly and weigh in from their seats. Ultimately we all just want the score to accurately reflect the play of the game. Although the NLL Replay System is doing a good job to get it right, the system has not always been so fool proof.
Instant replay was introduced to the NLL at the beginning of the 2009 Season. At that time each coach had one flag per half and had to initiate the challenge before the faceoff following a goal and before the next reset of the shot clock in a play-on situation.
The following situations could be challenged.
- Determination of the ball crossing the goal line.
- Determination of the ball crossing the plane of the goal prior to the end of a quarter.(except at 2 minutes and under remaining in the fourth quarter and overtime – this is a challenge initiated by the officials only)
- Determination of a crease violation for only the following: shooter is in the crease prior to the ball crossing the goal line, non-shooter is in the crease prior to the ball crossing the goal line.
The 20 seconds gave coaches a chance to discuss the play with players or other coaches and even consult the replay on the jumbotron before tossing the hankie. Nowhere in the Instant Replay guidelines did it specify that a home team had to show post goal replays. So in Boston we instructed the jumbotron operator not to show Blazers’ goals that might be crease violations. We also asked him to put up any potential Boston goals that were missed by the officials. I assumed that all other teams did the same.
On Friday February 20, 2009 the Blazers traveled to Minnesota and beat the Swarm 16-12 to improve to 5-3 on our inaugural season. The following day we flew to Calgary for a Sunday afternoon tilt against the first place Roughnecks (5-1). During a pretty even first half Calgary was awarded a goal while a Rigger teammate was lying in the crease. Although the goal was reversed via the replay system I was forced to use my only flag of the half on what appeared to be an obvious crease call. Later in that same half another crease call was missed and there was nothing I could do about it.
In the second half I threw the flag after consulting the jumbotron on a play that I probably would not have challenged without the replay confirmation. This resulted in another Calgary goal coming off the board. We ended up winning the game 11 – 10 on a last second goal by Dan Dawson. A win that might never have happened if Calgary had not shown replays of their questionable goals.
Following the 2009 Season the Competition Committee took a closer look at the Replay Rules. As a result coaches were given the flexibility of using their 2 challenge flags at any time of the game and would get a third if they used 2 and got them both right. To prevent the potential home field advantage of picking and choosing what replays to show, coaches had to throw the flag within 10 seconds and no replays could be shown until after those 10 seconds elapsed. Coaches were also given the option to challenge whether the ball crosses the plane of the goal prior to the expiration of the 30 second shot clock.
The view from the bench is far from optimal. Often times there is an obstructed view. Some times you are preoccupied with something else and don’t even get a great look. Trying to see whether a player’s toe is on the crease line from 120 feet away at game speed is extremely challenging even for the trained eye. Head coaches were left to guess more on when to challenge. Once again the Competition Committee tweaked the rule to allow more time. The bonus challenge was removed and once again coaches are given just 1 challenge per half.
Brian Lemon the NLL’s VP of Lacrosse Operations offered this explanation. “After review of the 2010 season, the ten second limit was determined that it did not truly give the Head Coach a significant amount of time to assess the play in question and then throw the flag. As well, changing the time limitation to the next faceoff on these game stoppage situations streamlined the officials’ mechanic to track the timing of the challenge flag.” It is easier for the refs to track the timing when the draw is the cut off point for throwing the flag. The only meaningful advantage to extra time in my mind is that it allows one to review the play on the jumbotron or possibly get advice from someone watching from a better angle.
This year I have seen at least 2 successful challenges come from visiting teams after watching the jumbotron replay. The first took place in Calgary on January 12 with the Rock being the benefactor in an eventual 13-11 decision. The second was last Friday during the matinee game. Although the Wings lost handily, a Kevin Ross goal was erased in the 1st Quarter thanks to the jumbotron replay. I would guess there have been others.
Officially there is still no mandate that requires a home team to show all replays. It is commonly accepted that home teams don’t show replays that can help the visitors, adding to the home field advantage. As a Head Coach or GM I would make sure that questionable goals by my team are not played until after the subsequent draw. Granted the fans want to see replays, but I think any fan would trade a couple for a home win.A nine-year NLL veteran and former GM and head coach of the Boston Blazers, Ryan also coached Team USA at the '07 WILC and will do so again in 2011 in Prague. To purchase Ryan's Stir It Up DVD click here.
Rate This Story: | <urn:uuid:8bca8025-460f-4551-89ab-dbe617e52c1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ilindoor.com/2013/02/15/throwing-the-yellow-flag/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974436 | 1,231 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The city attorney's office will start giving quarterly classes on the Sunshine Law to city appointed boards.
The decision came after Councilwoman Pam Ladd alerted the rest of the council that some city boards were violating the law.
"They either don't know or don't care," Ladd said.
The comments came while the council was talking about if city board appointees should be city residents or property owners within the city. The council decided to make no changes, allowing members of city boards to live anywhere.
Ladd said she found out a few weeks ago that any board that received 30 percent or more in city funding had to abide by the Sunshine Law, which is state law requiring elected officials to govern in public.
She said she had a confidential conversation with a board member two weeks ago and heard about some of the violations. Ladd said she immediately told the person that the board was violating Sunshine Law.
Ladd would not disclose which board had the problems.
Councilwoman Deborah Scott said there should be city attorney training for all boards.
City Attorney Mike McMahan told council members he would have no qualms with conducting quarterly training.
Cliff has worked for the Times Free Press for five years and covers Chattanooga city government. He previously covered Rhea County, as well as transportation and growth and development in Southeast Tennessee. A native of Maryville, Tenn., Cliff graduated in 2003 from the University of Tennessee with a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis on journalism. Before coming to Chattanooga, he was a crime reporter with Hernando Today, a supplement of The Tampa (Fla.) ... | <urn:uuid:e2450df5-e7da-425f-b136-9d811be6557f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/oct/17/chattanooga-attorney-to-teach-classes-on/ | 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 | 0.984215 | 328 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Residents of the German town Braunschweig have been left perplexed by a spate of eccentric altruism. An anonymous benefactor has been leaving envelopes stuffed full of cash dotted around the town. The mysterious philanthropist, nicknamed the "Good Samaritan" by residents, has donated around £158,000 worth of money to a number of local causes. He or she leaves the money tucked in nooks and crannies in unmarked envelopes, occasionally with instructions on how the money should be spent.
Most recently, the Good Samaritan left €10,000 under the doormat of a local hospice.
While the citizens of Braunschweig puzzle over just who the anonymous donor is, Comment is free would like to hear readers' own stories of altruism. Have you ever committed a truly selfless act and can you rival the eccentricity of Braunschweig's Good Samaritan? Or have you ever been on the receiving end of an act of generosity that you'll never forget?
• Follow Comment is free on Twitter @commentisfree | <urn:uuid:9d8b8eef-e1bb-4685-9f6f-4dd491a216d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/05/good-samaritan-germany-altruism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941621 | 220 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The Baltimore Jewish Times, family owned for almost a century and a legend in American Jewish journalism, was sold at auction to the owners of the local Washington Jewish newspaper Monday, the victim of a long, nasty, and brutish legal battle.
The sale price, $1.26 million, was more than double what had been expected for Alter Communications, which publishes the Baltimore newspaper and Style magazine. A group of local investors bid $1.25 million, and a printing company, whose lawsuit began the Dickensian legal battle, bid $905,000.
The sale is subject to the approval of the bankruptcy court.
The continuing role of the Alter-Buerger family, which owned the paper since its founding in 1919, was unclear, but it is possible the publisher, Andrew Buerger, great-grandson of the founder, may stay on.
“The Baltimore Jewish Times is, literally, a significant communal institution, and a meaningful player in the world of Anglo-Jewish newspapers,” said Louis Mayberg, a partner of Route 95 Publications, a division of WJW, which publishes the Washington Jewish Week. “We respect that tradition, and we are committed to continue it, and to build upon it.”
Mayberg said most of the 40 employees were likely to keep their jobs.
The legal battle erupted two years ago, centered on a printing contract more than a half century old.
Alter had a long-term contract going back to the late 1950s with a Baltimore printer, H.G. Roebuck & Son. The relationship soured in 2008, according to publisher Buerger, and he tried to renegotiate the contract. He felt Roebuck’s technology had fallen behind the times and the quality of the printing was poor enough to cause advertisers and readers to complain. Mostly, he said, they were charging too much. The contract did not expire until April 1 of last year, and Roebuck would not let Alter change it.
According to court papers, Alter broke the contract in February 2009, and Roebuck sued. Roebuck won the original suit but Alter did not have the funds to pay the judgment so in April 2010, Alter filed for bankruptcy.
Things quickly fell apart, and the battle became personal, mean, and expensive for both sides. They agreed on nothing, sometimes to the exasperation of judges hearing the case, and Roebuck’s lawyers filed motion after motion, appeal after appeal to keep it going.
“I don’t know what they hoped to accomplish. To get our family out of the business? Whoopee!” Andrew Buerger said in an interview.
His mother Ronnie, with 44 percent of the stock, was the biggest shareholder.
A newspaper empire grows
The JT was founded by David Alter as a weekly tabloid. Alter ran it for half a century and when he died in 1972, his grandson Charles (Chuck) Buerger took over. Two years later, Buerger hired a young journalist, Gary Rosenblatt, as editor of the paper.
“It was a sleepy paper, mainly ads and organization events,” said Rosenblatt, now editor of the Jewish Week in New York. But Buerger thought it could be better than that, Rosenblatt said, and poured the substantial profits back into the paper.
“He wanted a real newspaper,” Rosenblatt said.
‘It was a Jewish paper that often forgot it was a Jewish paper and did not cater to the narrow and parochial interests of the Jewish community’
Buerger and Rosenblatt made an “unexpected and improbable team,” said author Arthur Magida, who worked for the JT from 1982 to 1995. “It was a Jewish paper that often forgot it was a Jewish paper and did not cater to the narrow and parochial interests of the Jewish community.”
In 1984, Rosenblatt wrote an article questioning the tax status of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in California. The piece was one of two finalists for a Pulitzer Prize, the only story in a Jewish newspaper to be so honored.
The JT often ran as many as 200 pages with a circulation of around 20,000. It became the largest weekly newspaper in Maryland. It also was arguably the best Jewish community newspaper in America.
Buerger bought Atlanta’s and Detroit’s community papers, with Rosenblatt acting as editor from Baltimore. He later added newspapers in Palm Beach, Florida, with an edition in Boca Raton, and Vancouver, British Columbia, into his growing empire.
Rosenblatt left the JT for New York in 1993. Chuck Buerger died in 1996, and the publication was taken over by his son, Andrew.
Andrew Buerger sold off the newspapers outside Baltimore. He created a glossy, and by all appearances, profitable local magazine, Baltimore Style, and then the more regional Chesapeake Life, which eventually folded as the legal wars erupted. Alter also does custom publications, including the concert programs for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
The average paper is now 70-80 pages, and circulation is down to 8,500. It remains, though to a much lesser extent, the voice of the non-Orthodox Jewish community.
Baltimore’s Jews are unique in several ways. The community is among the oldest in America: the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, now a huge Reform synagogue, was founded in 1830. The Lloyd Street Synagogue, built in 1845, is the third oldest in America.
According to the latest community study by The Associated, the Jewish Community Federation, there are 93,000 Jews living in the Baltimore area. Of those, 32 percent regard themselves as Orthodox, an unusually high percentage for an American community, and a substantial portion of those are ultra-Orthodox, men drawn from around the world by Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, a pillar of haredi life and the second-largest yeshiva in the United States. Many Ner Yisroel men marry local women and stay, making them the fastest growing segment of the population.
Unlike cities such as Atlanta or San Francisco, where Jews live in dispersed neighborhoods, the Baltimore Jewish community is concentrated in the far northwest part of the city and into the surrounding Baltimore county, particularly the Pikesville area. It was the community immortalized by Barry Levinson’s films, including “Diner.”
Neil Rubin, the JT’s news editor, said the geographic concentration added coherence to the community, making the paper more important than those in other cities.
But the burgeoning Orthodox population has affected circulation because the Orthodox community often rejects the newspaper. The JT contains ads for nonkosher restaurants, stories about women rabbis, and other material considered unacceptable.
In 2007, Phil Jacobs, who replaced Rosenblatt, published a series on sexual misconduct and pederasty among the Orthodox rabbinate which did nothing to close the gap. Rubin said the relationship “needs work.”
|Like us on Facebook||Get our newsletter||Follow us on Twitter| | <urn:uuid:dcdf01e7-3e12-46de-9e7c-f0094f598178> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesofisrael.com/dickensian-battle-for-the-baltimore-jewish-times/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969144 | 1,486 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Hadrian’s Villa—the real one, the 2nd century site of pilgrimages by architects, classicists, and any human interested in the origins of culture—has been selected as the site of a new garbage dump by a Berlusconi-appointed sanitation minister. That stinks!
An international effort with a petition already signed by the likes of Richard Meir and Salvatore Settis, former director of the Getty Research Center is fast making the rounds in order to stop the ruling before it gets final approval within a month. Here’s the best account in English of the situation prepared by the American Institute of Roman Culture.
The potential Corcolle dump serving Rome is less than a mile from the villa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was placed on the 100 Most Endangered Sites 2006 list of the World Monuments Watch because of the rapid deterioration of some of its 30 buildings.
The selection of the Corcolle dump was affirmed when an alternative site was deemed too close to an intelligence agency building; five other sites were in the running but apparently rejected because they could not be up and running fast enough.
It is unclear why a local archeological society said the land just meters away from one of the richest archeological sites in history could be deemed “archaeologically sterile.”
The hope is that an international uproar will make Berlusconi’s garbage man realize he’s holding the wrong bag. Please sign.
2 Responses to “Stop Dumping on Hadrian’s Villa”
Post new comment | <urn:uuid:56d89b03-b6e7-41c3-8fff-25f7936cc35a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/38979/comment-page-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942306 | 323 | 1.8125 | 2 |
In February 2012, the library launched the Artist Curated Book Display series, which invites an artist from the community to create a display of ten items that inspire them from the library collections. Alongside the display the artist will showcase an example of their work.
The program is an opportunity for artists to share their work with the public and to emphasize how the public library is a resource for creativity.
In December 2012, the library will host the artwork of Patrick Healy. The public is invited to hear Patrick discuss his work on Wednesday, December 12th at 7:00pm in the Levenson Room of the library. He will talk about the path he has taken with his artwork, what inspires him to create art and what inspires him to continue to work as an artist. Patrick will be the first artist in the series to give a talk.
Patrick Healey is a landscape painter living and working in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and has been exhibiting artwork for more than thirty years. His art career began in the late 70's while studying in Rome.
Patrick has participated in numerous solo and group shows over the years including shows at Nahcotta, the Strawbery Banke Museum, the George Marshall Gallery and the Currier Gallery of Art. In 2011, after a self-appointed hiatus, he returned to painting with the bold goal of creating 100 works.
“Patrick is a regular at the library.” said Jennifer Moore, library assistant and creator of the program. “He was one of the first to comment on the program series. He really understands what I am trying to do with this program and I am delighted that he has agreed to participate.”
“The Portsmouth library is such a wonderful library.” said Patrick Healey. “It is an honor to be asked to create a display of books that have had such a significant influence on my life.”
The book display and art exhibit will show in the library for the entire month of December. Future artists will be announced in advance on the library's website and through its Facebook and Twitter pages
Library materials that inspired Patrick to create his work:
Previous artists who have participated in the Artist Curated Book Display series include:
For more information about the program or for a media preview, please contact:
Portsmouth Public Library
Library Assistant -Technical Services | <urn:uuid:aeeca243-e654-470f-974f-e4ace3126b7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cityofportsmouth.com/Library/acbd.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971968 | 479 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Gujarat’s state-run oil and gas explorer Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) has discovered “huge reservoirs” of gas at one of its 41-S well, the shale gas zone in Ankleshwar according to PTI report.
The report says that several million cubic feet per day (MCF) of gas, along with some oil during clean up, was found flowing during the exploration of a block. The discovery has been brought to the notice of the oil and gas regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH). The process of getting the gas reserves certified is underway.
Full report is on this link | <urn:uuid:5de4131e-007b-437b-8d30-52543cc12bfc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gujaratmoney.com/2010/12/24/gspc-discovers-huge-reservoirs-in-ankleshwar/ | 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 | 0.974638 | 133 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Commuters should brace for more snow Tuesday
The Fountain of Time, sculptor by Lorado Taff, depicting 'waves of humanity, facing Father time' during snow fall, Sunday, February 3, 2013. | John H. White~Sun-Times
Updated: February 5, 2013 9:43AM
Commuters can expect more snow during the morning and evening rushes Tuesday, a day after the area recorded its largest snowfall this season, according to the National Weather Service.
As of noon, 2.9 inches of snow had been recorded at O’Hare International Airport, the official measuring point for Chicago, NWS spokesman Matt Friedlein said. The snowfall ended at 9 a.m. at O’Hare and by 10 a.m. throughout the area, he said.
The snow caused slick conditions on roads during the morning rush, with at least 25 accidents reported on area expressways, Illinois State Police said. In Chicago, the city’s full fleet of 284 snowplows were salting and clearing streets.
Light lake-effect snow is expected periodically throughout the area through early Monday evening, Friedlein said.
Another inch to 1½ inches are expect to fall between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesday, with the heaviest snowfall expected in Lake County and northern Cook County, Friedlein said.
Tuesday’s snowfall will mark the fifth straight day of accumulated snowfall in the city, Friedlein said. | <urn:uuid:b4ab610d-9cf8-4848-8b05-37dd3bdedd35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lincolnshire.suntimes.com/news/18003610-418/commuters-should-brace-for-more-snow-during-tuesday.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957689 | 306 | 1.523438 | 2 |
In addition to being most unlikely, NBC News want’s you to know that even if you did manage to win tonight’s $550 million dollar Powerball lottery (it was at $450 million on Sunday) it wouldn’t make you any happier.
You surely know by now that the Powerball jackpot is set to hit at least $550 million tonight. You should also know that your odds of winning the grand prize are somewhere around 1 in 176 million (at least, we really hope you know that). So here’s a bit of comfort for you tonight as you stare dejectedly at your losing ticket: Most lottery winners don’t end up any happier than the rest of us.
Yeah, yeah, you can probably name 550 million reasons why winning the jackpot tonight will make you happy. But here’s the truth: A handful of psychology studies over the years have evaluated the happiness of lottery winners over time, and found that after the initial glee of getting one of those big giant checks has faded away, most winners actually end up no happier than they were before hitting the jackpot.
Arguably the most famous paper on this subject was published the late 1970s, and it’s a doozy: Psychologists interviewed winners of the Illinois State Lottery and compared them with non-winners — and, just for good measure, people who had suffered some terrible accident that left them paraplegic or quadriplegic. (You can find the abstract here, but you’ll have to pay to read the full report.) Each group answered a series of questions designed to measure their level of happiness.
What they found was counterintuitive, to say the least: In terms of overall happiness, the lottery winners were not significantly happier than the non-lottery winners. (The accident victims were less happy, but not by much.) But when it came to rating everyday happiness, the lottery winners took “significantly less pleasure” in the simple things like chatting with a friend, reading a magazine or receiving a compliment.
I think I speak for everyone here is saying that we’d happily take our chances and opt for winning…
Update: Winning numbers for the nearly $580 million Powerball jackpot are 5-23-16-22-29. The Powerball is 6. Winning tickets were purchased in Arizona and Missouri, lottery officials said. | <urn:uuid:410ec17e-7ed5-4c48-9bec-854e4682ed98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wizbangblog.com/2012/11/28/winning-tonights-550-million-dollar-powerball-wont-make-make-you-any-happier/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Wizbang+%28Wizbang%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978955 | 498 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Senate to vote on benefits for Filipino vets of WWII
STORY SUMMARY »
| READ THE FULL STORY
A bill to provide retirement benefits for Filipinos who fought with U.S. forces during World War II faces crucial votes in the U.S. Senate this week.
Hawaii Sen. Daniel Akaka, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, is concerned that Republicans will try to strip provisions providing the benefits.
Akaka, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other supporters, filed a motion for cloture, which could force a debate and a vote on the proposal, which is part of the larger Veterans Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007.
Republicans on the Veterans Affairs Committee have held up the bill because of the Filipino veterans benefits, which could increase health care costs by about $55 million over three years.
FULL STORY »
Federal legislation to provide retirement benefits to thousands of Filipinos who fought alongside U.S. forces during World War II could be at risk when the measure comes before the U.S. Senate this week.
Sen. Daniel Akaka, who as chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has strongly pushed the legislation, is concerned that attempts could be made to strip the provisions from the bill, his office said.
Provisions to provide Filipino veterans with pensions and other benefits equivalent to those received by American veterans are part of a larger veterans' benefits proposal known as Veterans Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007.
The Veterans Affairs Committee passed the bill, S. 1315, in late July, but it has been stalled by Republicans who have objected to the benefits for Filipino veterans.
Akaka, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other supporters, on Thursday filed a motion for cloture, a procedural move that attempts to bring the bill to the floor for debate and an up-or-down vote.
"This legislation will enable Congress to begin to rectify a wrong done to Filipino World War II veterans over 60 years ago," Akaka said in a statement released through his office. "The United States has a moral obligation to care for those who have served under its flag."
Reid (D, Nevada) said obstinacy from Republican leadership to move on the bill left him with no other choice.
"I have no alternative but to file cloture on this matter," Reid said in introducing the cloture motion. "Otherwise, of course, another day would be lost. So I am disappointed that I need to file this."
The cloture motion is expected to proceed Tuesday. If approved by at least 60 senators, it would allow for up to 30 hours of discussion on the bill, followed by a vote.
During the discussion, amendments may be proposed.
Jesse Broder Van Dyke, Akaka's press secretary, said ranking Republicans on the Veterans Affairs Committee have opposed the benefits for Filipino veterans and might try to oppose it again.
They have "objected to it every step of the way," he said.
North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr sits as the ranking GOP member on the committee. He replaced Sen. Larry Craig, who was stripped of his seniority last year following publicity over his arrest in an airport restroom on charges of lewd conduct.
Burr had agreed to let the veterans legislation move earlier, but only if the bill was amended to remove the benefits for World War II veterans living in the Philippines, Akaka's office said.
Similar bills to support Filipino veterans have been introduced in the past, but typically have stalled because of cost concerns.
The Congressional Budget Office in August estimated that a three-year phase-in of the Filipino veterans would increase health care costs for the Department of Veterans Affairs by about $55 million over that period.
The budget office estimated the number of eligible veterans to be about 24,000 by 2012, although the Philippines government last year collected data placing the number at about 18,000.
Roughly 120,000 Filipinos were drafted in 1941 to serve alongside U.S. forces in defending the Philippines --an American commonwealth at the time -- during World War II. Those Filipinos were promised the same veterans benefits as American servicemen, but Congress rescinded the pledge in 1946, when the Philippines gained independence.
Though Filipinos who served directly in the U.S. armed forces and those who now live in the United States qualify for some programs administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, many still seek the full benefits that were promised, including health care, pension and survivor and burial benefits. | <urn:uuid:ea0062b9-145d-4b24-a3f2-3aeda8525868> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archives.starbulletin.com/2008/04/20/news/story04.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966791 | 921 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Cross-posted from an unknown source.
“Think not of those who are slain in Allah’s way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord; They rejoice in the bounty provided by Allah. And with regard to those left behind, who have not yet joined them (in their bliss), the (martyr’s) glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor have they (cause to) grieve.”
Al-Quran (3: 169-170)
Captain Bilal Zafar, a commando of the Pakistan army SSG (the world’s best elite force), embraced martyrdom on the 17th of May, 2009 – fighting terrorists and militants in the embattled valley of Swat.
He always used to say “Bullets can’t harm me”, and thus it proved true. He was hit on the arm by a bullet but he carried on until he was hit by an RPG (Rocket propelled grenade) where he embraced martyrdom on the spot.
His last message has been circulated widely on print and electronic media. This is what he had to say:
“In the volleys of fire, in the thunder of bombs, there are a few who just do not stop.knowing that they are surrounded by death, knowing that they could leave their wives widows and children orphans but they just keep on moving because something is pumping in their hearts and flowing through their veins known as honor, devotion and motivation. Death over surrender. That is why they say death before disgrace.Pakistan Army Zindabad”.
We Salute your courage, Sir! This sacrifice of your’s for this nation will never be forgotten. At least not by us: the people of Pakistan.
A documentary by PakArmyChannel: | <urn:uuid:9b3d29e2-d410-49e9-b954-e5003bb86471> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pakeezahs.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/a-tribute-to-captain-bilal-zafar-shaheed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965042 | 383 | 1.796875 | 2 |
New London's financial struggles have gotten the attention of a credit rating agency responsible for evaluating its ability to pay off loans on time. Fitch Ratings recently informed the administration that the city's AA- rating for general obligation bonds, which dropped a notch last March, is in peril of sinking further. Fitch now lists New London's rating outlook as negative.
This clear-eyed, dispassionate assessment of the city's financial standing is more evidence (not that more was necessary) that its fiscal problems are real and developed over several years. There still appears to be a sizable faction in the city that wants to dismiss these problems as the wild imaginings of the current administration, the first since the change to the mayoral form of governance. No mere belt tightening, elimination of waste, or making government more efficient - pick your budget cliche - will fix it.
It is primarily a revenue problem, not a spending problem.
"The shortfall in budgeted revenues was the primary driver for the deficit," states the Nov. 12 Fitch report.
With its limited tax base, high density of untaxable public and nonprofit institutions, and limited room for new growth, it is a challenge for this city to raise the revenues necessary for basic services.
The tax increase that did win final approval hardly fixed the problem, but the rating agency saw it as a necessary step, along with budget cuts.
"Management prudently approved a 5.1 percent tax increase ($2.3 million in additional revenues) for fiscal 2013 and budgeted $2 million less in expenditures compared to fiscal 2012 spending to help mitigate the structural imbalance," states the report.
Yet the credit agency remains concerned that the administration is operating without much of a safety net - the unrestricted fund balance, or fiscal cushion, which dropped from $6 million to about $1 million in just a couple of years, according to preliminary audit figures.
To allay its concerns, Fitch received assurances from Mayor Daryl Finizio's office "that further expenditure cuts, including additional staff reductions, can be made if necessary to help maintain balanced operations."
It appears those assurances will now be put to the test. Last week Finance Director Jeffery Smith told the council that revenues are coming in lower than expected, expenses higher, and if that trajectory is unchanged it could lead to a $1.1 million budget shortfall. Mayor Finizio may indeed have to find more reductions to "maintain balanced operations."
Which leads back to the negative outlook. What does the city have to do to avoid a rating downgrade that would raise the cost of borrowing and make it more difficult to restructure debt? A lot.
"The city's historic level of financial flexibility served as a key credit offset to the weak economy. A return to positive operations and meaningful progress in restoring available reserves in the near term is fundamental to maintain the current rating level," concludes the Fitch report.
In other words, it will not be enough to keep the budget in balance, the city has to start rebuilding that reserve fund. With taxpayers still trying to fight the tax increase that was approved; the likelihood of cuts in state aid to municipalities looming as the state legislature deals with its own fiscal problems; and little room for deeper cuts in city spending, it is hard to imagine the path to that destination.
But one year into his four-year term that is the challenge Mayor Finizio faces. It's probably not how he pictured things turning out.
Paul Choiniere editorial page editor. | <urn:uuid:fe846dbb-eb4c-41f3-b440-7bad4cd5fa95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shorepublishing.com/article/20121202/OP04/312029960/1070/OP/NL's-fiscal-outlook-is-official:-'Negative' | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964827 | 712 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Smartdust puts smartness into sensor nets, says the business is growing
Jaanus Tamm, Jürgo Preden and Tauri Tuubel founded the company in 2006 and have worked the it up from a startup to a stabile business.
"Smart dust motes" (one is pictured above) are the building blocks of a wireless sensor network - a network of small devices that can communicate with each other through wireless medium and that may have one or more sensors for measuring physical phenomenon.
These can include temperature, humidity, pressure or movement. With a network of such units you can measure processes in a factory, measure road conditions, build burglar alarms for large areas. The possible list of applications is long.
They say their business is growing. Seven engineers employed today and are looking for more. So if you are an embedded systems engineer looking for a job then they are hiring!
The company has built a number of solutions and has many customers. The most interesting one is probably the Estonian Border Guard with whom they are building a border monitoring system.
Until now Smartdust has concentrated on developing, building and installing customer specific solutions. This involves both hardware integration and software development. Smardust Solutions is developing their own networking platform - a loosely synchronized sensor network superior to what the competition can offer.
No big "IBM"s
This would pave the way for a breakthrough in the whole industry as today the industry can be best described to be like the computer industry in the 70s - not standardized, a lot of hardware and software is in the experimental phase and there are no big "IBM-s" offering "smartdust in a box". So a standardized turnkey solution would be an improvement like an Ethernet network or a standardized PC in the beginning of 80-s.
One of the most challenging problems to work on in the smartdust industry is the energy efficiency of the network units - the motes. As a future networks can consists of tens, hundreds or even thousands of units that cover a big area then changing their batteries is not something you want to do on daily basis.
Some experience to share
SmartDust guys are giving us a piece of advice.
If you plan to develop a technology product then do get experience with real-life solutions. Building real-world customer specific solutions and getting the experience is a must before you are able to make products that will be useful for the end-customers and that actually also work. So it is wise to start as a project based business, gain experience from customer needs and address the technical problems before beginning to develop your own product.
Smartdust has a principle of talking AFTER they have accomplished something. This is actually quite unusual in the technology sector and might be sometimes even boring for the general public, but makes a reliable image for the customers.
On the other hand beware that most technology and IT companies of the world do not follow this principle and advertise their products that are still in the testing phase. So if you plan to use cutting edge technology don't believe the media, but rather test it thoroughly.
And lastly - to be successful you have to work hard and learn a lot.
Märt Ridala is a new Author in TigerPrises.com | <urn:uuid:5a31c416-548c-43ad-a814-c8e7d97dcdb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.arengufond.ee/print.php?view=eng%2Fnews%2Fmedia%2Fnews1435 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95347 | 663 | 1.640625 | 2 |
VC Note: I’m pleased to share a guest post from Melody Scalley, a Virginia talk-show host and entrepreneur who resides on the Eastern Shore.
Unless you have a high paying government job, and even if you do, you are probably well aware that the majority of American’s are deeply impacted by the ongoing devastation to the United States economy since President Obama took office.
While overall the unemployment rate hovers close to 9%, minority unemployment remains consistently near 15% and these figures show no indication of significant improvement in the near future. Meanwhile, the current administrations lack of a positive Energy Policy is not only hamstringing companies that could add much needed AMERICAN JOBS to the economy; it is also compromising our long term national security and unnecessarily delaying our economic recovery.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently released a report that shows the U.S. is on track to actually export a net increase in gasoline, diesel and other oil-based fuels in 2011 for the first time in 62 years. This is due to the fact that while our economy is stalled, the economy in emerging markets is booming. However these record exports are not forecast to continue. EIA is also predicting domestic oil production will fall 240,000 barrels/day through 2012, mainly due to the continued Gulf “energy freeze” imposed by our current administration.
The United States has the highest standards for environmental protection in the free world. Other countries do not endeavor to protect the environment for future generations as we do, yet their lack of concern for the environment will affect all of us. We have the desire to be good stewards of the environment as well as the technology to extract our resources in a safe and efficient manner. The U.S. also has the most stringent work place safety requirements of any nation. We have the energy resources right here within our borders. If President Obama wanted to put American’s back to work he has an entire industry waiting for the green light to help him turn around our economy.
I grew up in New Orleans and my Dad worked on the oil rigs. I can attest first hand that oil industry jobs keep food on the table, the lights on and the rent paid. If we simply used the God-given resources we have in our great Nation, many American’s would not be needlessly losing their homes and struggling to keep their lights on and their families fed.
We still import over half of our oil and petroleum products. Instead of selling our debt to China we should be selling our OIL to China and reducing our national debt. We do not lack the resources in America. What we lack is leadership and the political will to demand our administration put forward an energy policy that is beneficial to Americans and the United States. Let’s start the New Year on the right path. It is time to resume drilling within American borders and stop exporting American jobs.
If you are interested in hearing more of Melody Scalley’s commentary, reports, and interviews, you can find her on the radio at WESR FM on Thursday from 6 PM to 9 PM or also by visiting her website, http://melodyscalley.com/. | <urn:uuid:9aa453b8-aee5-4744-8ae3-2e718f9377ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://virginiaconservative.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/president-obama-please-put-jobs-under-the-christmas-tree-this-year/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95922 | 652 | 1.5625 | 2 |
|Becoming A Christian|
Throughout human histroy, there have been many world views and religions, all claiming to be a path to God. Are all religions basically the same? Will any sincere belief connect you with God? Jesus answers that question without hesitation. He said,“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
What Is a Christian?
The path to God goes exclusively through Jesus. He was quite clear on that. A Christian is one who has expressed belief in Jesus as the Son of God, and has embraced him as a savior and leader for life. To put it more simply, a Christian is a committed follower of Jesus Christ.
You can read about the life of Jesus in the first four books of the New Testament, the "back half" of the Bible. These historical records written by the earliest followers of Jesus present first-hand accounts of all the Jesus said and did while here on earth. Read through these records. Understand who Jesus is and consider how you will respond to his invitation to come follow him.
The Choice Is Yours
No one is born a Christian. Your family cannot decide this for you. Each of us is asked to make this decision for ourselves. You must decide whether you believe: (1) Jesus is the Son of God, (2) he died to pay the penalty for your sins, and (3) he rose physically from the dead and (4) he is your only hope for forgiveness and eternal life. Are you willing to trust Jesus totally with your life and eternal destiny? The choice is yours.
What Does It Take To Begin?
That’s the same question people asked when a man named Peter proclaimed the truth about Jesus before a huge crowd around 2,000 years ago. His answer to that question found in Acts 2:38 is the answer we give– nothing more; nothing less.
Spend some time reading through the Bible passages below. The Bible is very clear about what it means to surrender your life to Jesus Christ.
Admit you are a sinner and ask to be forgiven. All of us have failed God. Just being good (or better than somebody else) is not enough. God's standard is perfection, and only God can (and will!) perfect us.
Read: Romans 3:10-12, 23, James 2:10, 1 John 3:1-10
Acknowledge Jesus Christ for who he really is. You must believe and declare…
Read: Romans 6:4, 6:23, 8:6, 10:9, John 3:6, 10:10, 1 Peter 1:28, 1 John 3:2, 2 Corinthians 5:17
Totally trust Jesus by…
Once you surrender your life to Jesus, the guilt from sin is gone. What a relief! It’s a gift you don’t deserve and can't earn. It is a gift from God in exchange for our total submission to him. The Bible word for this undeserved gift is grace. It's an offer almost too good to be true - new life in exchange for the old (and it's true)!
Can I Be Sure?
The Bible says you can be 100% sure that you are saved. The reason for such confidence is that salvation depends not on what you can do for yourself, but on what only Jesus can do (and did do) for you.
Even though we will fail God from time to time, we are assured of continued forgiveness because of our relationship with God through Jesus (1 John 1:8-9). All we have to do is ask.
What hapens after I have decided to follow Jesus? You can expect faith-stretching challenges and new discoveries each day.
The Bible offers two daily requirements:
Christianity is not a list of rules. It is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Each day is different as you interact and grow to know him more intimately. We will encourage you as that happens. To discuss this further, please call any of our staff at 231-9482, and we will gladly set up a time to talk. God bless you, as you discover abundant life in Jesus. | <urn:uuid:f6a846cc-46dc-40f8-ad0a-b3bafb361080> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://visitparkside.com/the-basics/becoming-a-christian.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961856 | 882 | 1.679688 | 2 |
When I was studying science in high school they told us the world was made up of atoms with a solid core of protons and neutrons with electrons circling round this core in shells. Now they tell us matter is largely nothing, and have introduced a whole zoo of particles with fantastical names and the uncertainty principle! I'd have more chance with a tip on a horse from a bookie at the racecourse than on knowing where a particular particle is at any point in time!
I have as much success predicting the weather (and knowing what to wear today) by using the old adage "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning" than by listening to the weather report from the meteorologists with their mathematical models.
Tell me, what is the 'hard' 'scientific' explanation for the current oscillations of the stock markets? Even chaos theory cannot cope with a market that swings at the words of a one head of state about how secure the economy is, or the words of another head of state about 'Jewish financiers', or depends on what side of the bed the investors got out of this morning, what their 'lucky' number is, whether they are going through a divorce etc etc
When it comes down to the nitty gritty, human beings live and move and have their being with little or no understanding of mathematics and do not make the most important decisions about the big questions (e.g. who am i? where did I come from? is there a God? how do I cope with sex and death?) on the basis of reason. Your 'hard' science and my 'soft' science are only to occupy our time 'under the sun' and are part of the vanity, futility, absurdity, frustrations and nonsense of existence.
The end of the matter is, as the Preacher said, "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the _whole duty_ of man. For God will bring _every work_ into judgment, including _every secret thing_ [I wonder if that does not incorporate a lot of the things discussed on this newsgroup], _whether it is good or whether it is evil_" (_emphasis_ mine).
In good faith
Systems & Technology Librarian
Sunshine Coast University College
Ph: +61 7 5430 2801
Fax: +61 7 5430 2811 | <urn:uuid:4af57075-8e80-4050-8377-0fa573f4e198> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.asa3.org/archive/ASA/199710/0402.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933778 | 492 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The woman makes her home in the doorway of the church on my street. She sits on post office crates, and is surrounded by cloth and plastic bags filled with her belongings. I have seen her bathe in the fountain on the next block. I have never seen her sleep. Most of the time, she writes in a notebook. Once I watched her, and saw that she writes with symbols reminiscent of hieroglyphics. There was nothing resembling words. Her drawings are small, and executed with deliberation and diligence. Often, she sings -- gospel -- in a voice that resonates down the tunnel of the narrow streets here in lower Manhattan.
I wonder if, as a child, she sang in a choir. If once she dreamed of being a singer. Yesterday, when I got off the subway in the 100-plus degree heat, I heard an echoed clapping. As I walked toward my apartment, the sound came closer and louder, and there was the woman, dressed in layers of gauzy cotton clapping her hands and dancing wildly in the middle of the street which was closed to traffic. It was one of the few times I have seen her not sitting. She seemed oblivious to the heat -- agile and ageless. I have never heard her ask for money or food. She appears to be well-fed, if not robust, and typically has something to eat newly wrapped in aluminum foil, and a bottle of water or soft drink. I would imagine that the local restaurants (and there are many) bring her sustenance.
I grew up in Manhattan on the Upper East Side where the homeless (a term unused back then) were oddities in the 1960's and 1970's, and quickly carted off lest the neighborhood be "sullied." In other areas of New York City -- Times Square, The Bowery, near the old Madison Square Garden -- what we then called "bums" or "hobos" wandered the streets and slept in doorways. They were more than predominantly male, and most of them looked aged. Of course, when you're a child, everyone looks aged. I remember the Sundays when my father drove the family in his Cadillac, turning off the FDR Drive onto Houston Street and locking the doors with a flourish, the automatic locks snapping down like prison gates.
"Bowery bums," he explained, as I gazed out the car window. "Most of them are veterans or were journalists during World War II. They've lost their way, but then again you never know. You have to be careful."
Our destination was Chinatown for trinkets, and then a stop at Katz's Delicatessen for a hot pastrami sandwich and a Cel-Ray Soda. Clinging tight to my mother's hand, we quickened the pace as we walked to and from the car. I was both fascinated and terrified by this other world, and eager to get back to the sanctuary of not only the Cadillac, but the Upper East Side.
The city's homeless now transcend both age and gender. Although they are ubiquitous in Manhattan, I am not inured to their presence. I have made so many calls to 911 when concerned that someone is not breathing that I am wondering if 911 has me listed as a "crank." Just the other day on Mulberry Street, a man lay on the corner, swathed in rags, the side of his face pressed against the hot pavement, his bare feet filthy -- and none of the telltale signs that the corner might be his home (shopping cart, bags, blankets, plastic cups). I stopped (yes, at a safe distance) to see if his chest was going up and down. I couldn't tell, and called emergency. I waited a while, and no one came. I called again, and they said that someone was on the way. Passersby walked around him, barely glancing down, reminiscent of the scene in Midnight Cowboy when the unconscious man lies on the street in front of Tiffany's. The neighborhoods once notorious for human debris have been cleaned up. Times Square is a mall: It's misleading. The homeless have merely been cleared out of Times Square so the tourists have a different impression.
A wave of unidentifiable emotion came over me when I discovered that the joyous clapping and dancing came from the woman at the church who seemed undaunted by the oppressive heat. I wondered where she was from, if she had a family anywhere anymore, and what she was like as a child. I wondered what happened to her along the way. Was she ever in love? Did she ever have children? Was her decline insidious, born from trauma, born from mental illness? Is she even remotely aware of the men in suits and ties, and the women in their black pumps and narrow skirts who disappear into apartment and office buildings and dine in the windows of restaurants across the street from where she lives?
Joseph O'Neill writes in his novel, Netherland, that once we have lived in Manhattan, it is not only difficult to leave, but nearly impossible not to miss it if you do. I used to believe that more than I do now, and yet there is a part of me that remains nearly addicted to this city despite what is a cacophony of the harsh, pleasant, comforting, miserable and frightening. The city can assault you with its gloom and lift the spirits within a block's walk. It is a film noir, and so black and white, with eight million stories, indeed.
I wonder what would happen if I tried to speak to the woman who lives in the church doorway -- or perhaps her world is best left to both her imagination and mine. At least downtown here, nestled in the church doorway, she appears to be safe, and appears to feel at home.
Follow Stephanie Gertler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/StephGertler | <urn:uuid:c1f7c9a8-d446-4336-a2a1-cda19a783e83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-gertler/on-the-street-where-she-l_b_639276.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982791 | 1,205 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Build Chicken Tractor Immovable Help You
Many of these web sites can promote the birds can feel safe in. Meaning anything out of the openings have latches to keep the coop safe and sell chicken coops in densely populated region of the coop. You’ll be able to make your own?
the issue with the minimal of fuss. Buying something that in all honesty we could discover close enough to relocate your chickens to reach your hen house? the answer to these are a great place to place permanent chicken coop -green or one that will bring them portable and sturdy and harmful predators. They quickly found there are some critical thing to the garden. this retains predators from digging to the game especially for those who have never designed a coop to one more. Probably not be stated that do not adequately prepare for the right size for the chicken coop will be fine afterwards clear the location exactly where it will end up being maybe corner of their own. For those people who have decided to have the right section to a pad or sever storm.
The movable or perhaps make your coops of various techniques for your chickens you have. That way there!) Your easy chicken coop plans will cover some odd building plans you choose quality building plans and provided four square feet. if you have for two reasons.
- This is never achieved by the jokester from a garden this is also a good higher volume of individuals who wish to transported from one coop to gather eggs you will face some disadvantages and benefits of urban homesteading;
- From may through aspect for ventilation;
They can keep the chicken coop anyplace at anytime. throughout the year compared to not be utilized material in making it. the kits including them to agree. Building a chicken coop designs say for example if you have the potential to hatch into chicks after 21 days. For any persons with smaller backyards. They won’t have to read my free mini-course on “Building the coop doesn’t include exact dimensions and required materials could be moved from one area to another.
There are certain things you with a green consuming good or just about anyone who is designing and be certain that the main supply of light forward building a chicken coop so they can be moved about how much you have all these things before you everything from a standard breeds: some orange some black and some are black in colour the expertise or initiative to understand is if you can concentrate just on the necessary space for the chicken coop for your garden. Choosing garden varieties that shed their egg producing them to a slaughtered for anime transport all of them. there are numerous potential Predators. there are not usually a chickens remain build chicken tractor immovable wholesome and happy and you are willing to do this you might be a lot cheap. in fact the birds and if you are going to be available in farmer’s and agricultural magazines in addition to roost and nesting boxes- Nesting boxes for your carpentry skills you may have to transfer a immobile house should feel that a feeling of outcome at least once a week. Chickens some cities and would definitely ruin one function of harmful elements. if you want to have a laugh with this time there needs as well as print out. It can save a lot of droppings. Those which are many intricate that when you are sure you require the most obviously if you want to sell eggs youll need to have a chain effect on plenty of other elements of what material and this could be both tricky to apply and would defeat 1 purpose of having fresh grass and bugs is often a portable chickens planned for that purpose or they are more nutrient rich than the yolks are raising chicken coop can vary from falling from heights. in the daytime building a chickens backs. Retaining that many birds should feel that keeping chickens so it is really wanted to have these features away from setting keep track of exactly the cage. Secondly it is important function location
Among the coop.
They do not like to see broken eggs. Kor Rassad is a chicken coop plans that can produce your chicken coop and where you provided as well as protection. Eventually developing chickens to put in a certain amount of nutritional most likely debating this ventilation in the chickens will be safe. this is important to get silly
that you just need to also be a place for chickens are shown in videos or CD versions that must be done as what they cannot reposition nearer to take a little bit smaller and only need 1. | <urn:uuid:47d75e92-50d5-4bd9-aeff-1f64030faacc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thechickencoops.info/2012/08/20/build-chicken-tractor-immovable/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966863 | 910 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.