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Feds approve East Side garbage transfer station
Despite protests from Upper East Side residents, the federal government gave the greenlight Sunday for the city's new garbage transfer station.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers's permit is the final approval needed for the $240 million project that would create a station at East 91st Street.
In a statement Sunday, Deputy Mayor Cas Halloway said work could begin at the end of the year and the station would open in three years. Once completed, garbage trucks will take fewer trips New Jersey landfills.
Residents who live near the proposed station have complained that the smell and noise of the garbage vehicles would disturb their neighborhood.
Halloway reassured that the facility will be safe and not infringe on their quality of life. | <urn:uuid:8b476a8f-dec2-44e5-b104-ccdd851bfcf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/feds-approve-east-side-garbage-transfer-station-1.3853564 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963259 | 158 | 1.507813 | 2 |
There is an unusual story developing as a result of an ongoing FOI request from Tony Newbery, some excellent detective work by Maurizio Morabito – see discussion at Bishop Hill here. Also see context from Andrew Orlowski here.
Several years ago, the BBC stated in a report:
The BBC has held a high-level seminar with some of the best scientific experts, and has come to the view that the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus [on anthropogenic climate change].
Tony Newbery (see Harmless Sky blog) was curious as to the identity of these “scientific experts”, and filed a Freedom of Information Act request. Rather than simply complying with the request, the BBC refused the request. Tony appealed to the ICO and lost. The ICO agreed that the BBC was a “public authority” but held that the information was held “for journalistic purposes” and exempt:
The Commissioner is satisfied that in view of the fact that the purpose of the seminar was to influence the BBC’s creative output, the details requested about its organisation, contents, terms of reference and the degree to which it impacted upon changes to Editorial Standards by BBC News constitute information held by the BBC to a significant extent for the purposes of art, literature or journalism. Information about the content of the seminar was used to shape editorial policy and inform editorial decisions about the BBC’s coverage and creative output. The details about the arrangements for the seminar are held to facilitate the delivery of the event and to ensure that the appropriate people were in attendance.
Tony appealed to the Information Tribunal. The BBC appeared with six lawyers. BBC official Helen Boaden argued that the meetings had been held under Chatham House rules and that the identity of the participants was therefore secret. Tony was again given short shrift, with the members of the Tribunal being surprisingly partisan, as reported by Orlowski.
Out of left field, Maurizio located the information on the Wayback machine here. Rather than the participants being the “best scientific experts” as claimed, they were almost entirely NGO activists. And rather than the meetings being held under Chatham House rules as Boaden had told the tribunal, seminar co-sponsor IBT had published the names of attendees of the meeting, describing the purpose of the meetings as follows:
The BBC has agreed to hold a series of seminars with IBT, which are being organized jointly with the Cambridge Media and Environment Programme, to
discuss some of these issues.
The document located by Maurizio includes names from other meetings as well. The names are presently being fisked at Bishop Hill and Omnologos.
For the record, I do not share the visceral disdain for the BBC coverage of most commentators at Bishop Hill. I am not exposed to BBC regular programming and my own experience with the BBC (mostly arising from Climategate) has been constructive. I thought that their recent reprise on Climategate was as balanced as one could expect. I also think that their original coverage of Climategate was fair under the circumstances. While Roger Harrabin approached Climategate from a green perspective (something that does not trouble me – indeed, on a personal level, I like most green reporters), in my opinion, he treated his obligations as a reporter as foremost in his Climategate coverage, and, as a result, his coverage of Climategate was balanced. Indeed, I think that one of the reasons that he was particularly troubled by the Climategate conduct and dissatisfied by the “inquiries” may well have been the inconsistency between the Climategate attitudes in private and the public posture of green organizations in the seminars that were the subject of Newbery’s FOI.
Update: Ironically, Harrabin is not listed as an attendee at the Jan 2006 conference on climate change that was the subject of the OI request (though he attended other conferences and was involved in starting the seminar program.) Further update – however, other information indicates that he was at this conference and that the list is in error on this point.
Update: The non-NGO “experts” were Robert May (a population biologist and former Royal Society president), Mike Hulme of East Anglia, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen of the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark (an ice core specialist), Michael Bravo of Cambridge (a specialist in the history of Antarctic exploration and public policy), Joe Smith of the Open University (active in BBC science progamming), Poshendra Satyal Pravat, Open University, who was then doing a PhD in theories of social and environmental justice and Eleni Andreadis of the Harvard Kennedy School (public policy). Virtual no representation from climate science.
Harvard-Kennedy School Class of 2006: One of BBC’s scientific experts at the 2006 meeting was Eleni Andreadis, then studying at the Harvard Kennedy School. She made a short film of interviews with HKS graduates (see here here).
Another member of the Harvard-Kennedy class of 2006 is very much in the news today: Paula Broadwell was also a student at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2006, where she met David Petraeus after a lecture. | <urn:uuid:87645c4f-4f74-458d-a73a-c267159a44b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://climateaudit.org/2012/11/13/bbcs-best-scientific-experts/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=8cb43e0c56 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974128 | 1,078 | 1.890625 | 2 |
It's new help for many as the state recognizes a need to assist out-of-work Kentuckians.
A plan announced by Governor Steve Beshear is underway, providing unemployed residents with money to go to school.
Layoffs, cutbacks and shutdowns are hitting many in our area hard.
But the Kentucky Community and Technical College System wants to give those affected a hand with some tuition help and job training that it hopes will send them back into the workforce.
"At my age I really didn't want to go back to another factory," assured Maurita Barton, a non-traditional student at Bowling Green Technical College.
For 34 years, it's all Maurita Barton has known.
"Factory work was good. It paid good. It had good benefits but, we've lost so much," she said.
Recently laid off from Scottsville's A.O. Smith, it's at Bowling Green Technical College Barton finds herself these days.
"I just wanted to go back and further my education," she said.
Barton is one of many money from KCTCS would help.
It's money helping bring those the economy has put down, back up.
"They have families to support and bills to pay--children to put through school and things like that," explained Jamie Parke, transitions coordinator at Bowling Green Technical College.
Students who qualify would be eligible for help on their tuition, about three free credit hours per term.
And those at Bowling Green Technical College say they're there to help make the transition as seamless as they can.
"A lot of people who lost their jobs are unfamiliar with the college setting and getting back into school after sometimes 10, 20, 30 years in the work force and they find themselves in a whole new position," Parke said.
It's a whole new position Maurita Barton is in, who's counting those precious minutes until she makes her way back into the work force again.
"It's going to be good and it's all going to be well worth it when it's over," Barton said.
Kentucky's unemployment rate in January of this year was at a 22-year high of 8.7%.
For more information about the KCTCS benefits and contacts for getting started at Bowling Green Technical College, click here.
E-mail Jamie Parke here. | <urn:uuid:888ed9c4-717c-481d-8393-389903875843> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbko.com/community/education/headlines/41861492.html?site=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981839 | 484 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The FOSS community is understandably upset with both Red Hat and Ubuntu for their planned ways of implementing UEFI Secure Boot. Indeed, both companies plans are unacceptable for a variety of reasons. Free software isn’t free if it requires permission from an outside source before it can be loaded onto a new or used computer. This is true even if the permission comes from a well-meaning bureaucratic regulatory agency. It’s doubly true if that permission must come from a self-serving monopoly with an anti-FOSS history, like Microsoft.
In early June, Red Hat came under fire from the FOSS press for their way of getting around Secure Boot. Their solution, which will also be used by Fedora, involves joining Microsoft’s developer program in order to obtain a key to be used to load a “shim” bootloader which will then load GRUB. In a post on Red Hat’s web site explaining the move, Tim Burke, Vice President of Linux Engineering, seemed to be dismissing these critics in a terse two sentence paragraph near the end of the post:
“Some conspiracy theorists bristle at the thought of Red Hat and other Linux distributions using a Microsoft initiated key registration scheme. Suffice it to say that Red Hat would not have endorsed this model if we were not comfortable that it is a good-faith initiative.”
Indeed, some critics don’t think Microsoft has any business being involved in any way when a privately owned personal computer boots to Linux or BSD. It also doesn’t seem right that Red Hat should have to throw money Redmond’s way, even if it’s only $99.00. A fraction of a penny per Fedora download still smacks of a Microsoft tax to some.
There are other problems with this solution, not the least of which is its lack of universality. If this plan became the standard, every distro and its brother would have to sign up with Microsoft and throw $99.00 at them to get their own key. Some distros don’t have the resources. Others are anti-Microsoft to their core, which is their right, and will absolutely refuse to have Redmond’s fingerprints on their product.
Ubuntu’s solution is even less acceptable. They plan to have their own key embedded in the firmware and will also use a key obtained from from Microsoft. Because of fears the GPL will force them to make their key public, Ubuntu will also do away with the use of GPL licensed GRUB as a bootloader on Secure Boot enabled devices. Instead, they’ll use Intel’s efilinus, which is covered under a more permissive license. Ubuntu’s Steve Langasek, explains their plans for Secure Boot this way:
“Booting our CDs will rely on a loader image signed by Microsoft’s
WinQual key, for much the same reasons as Fedora: it’s a key that, realistically, more or less every off-the-shelf system is going to have, as it also signs things like option ROMs, and the UEFI specification only allows an image to be signed by a single key. This will then chain to efilinux signed by our own key (so we don’t have to go through the WinQual signing process every time we want to make a minor change there). We hope that we’ll also be able to make the first stage loader detect whether Secure Boot is enabled and otherwise chain to GRUB 2, to ensure that we don’t regress behavior for those with UEFI systems that do not implement Secure Boot or that have it disabled.”
Everything that’s wrong with Red Hat’s proposed implementation also applies to Ubuntu’s plan. In addition, by using their own firmware embedded key, they are lending legitimacy to a process that is at least a bad idea and at worst an attempt by Microsoft to hold on to a monopoly they are in the process of losing. Of particular concern to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is the dropping of GRUB for efilinus:
“Our main concern with the Ubuntu plan is that because they are afraid of falling out of compliance with GPLv3, they plan to drop GRUB 2 on Secure Boot systems, in favor of another bootloader with a different license that lacks GPLv3′s protections for user freedom. Their stated concern is that someone might ship an Ubuntu Certified machine with Restricted Boot (where the user cannot disable it). In order to comply with GPLv3, Ubuntu thinks it would then have to divulge its private key so that users could sign and install modified software on the restricted system.
“This fear is unfounded and based on a misunderstanding of GPLv3. We have not been able to come up with any scenario where Ubuntu would be forced to divulge a private signing key because a third-party computer manufacturer or distributor shipped Ubuntu on a Restricted Boot machine. In such situations, the computer distributor — not Canonical or Ubuntu — would be the one responsible for providing the information necessary for users to run modified versions of the software.
“Furthermore, addressing the threat of Restricted Boot by weakening the license of the bootloader is backwards. With a weaker license, companies will now have a form of advance permission to obstruct the user’s ability to run modified software. Rather than work to make sure this situation does not happen — for example by enforcing the proper Secure Boot implementation they say they “strongly support in [their] own firmware guidelines” — Ubuntu has chosen a path which explicitly allows Restricted Boot.”
In this case, the FSF is spot on the mark. If Microsoft wants to follow Apple’s lead and build their own computers designed to run only Windows, they are free to do so. But as long as they are acting merely as a software vendor, they should not be allowed to change established standards in a way that requires developers of other operating systems to go through Redmond in order for their software to be installable.
Likewise, device owners should be able to load whatever they like on their hard drives, without having to jump through hoops to do so. It’s not a level playing field when Fedora or Ubuntu, but not Debian or Slackware, can be installed on a Samsung tablet that was originally equipped with Windows, because of signing key issues.
The Secure Boot problem will mostly effect ARM devices, such as phones, tablets and netbooks. Early pressure from the Linux community has caused most x86 OEMs to promise to include a way to disable Secure Boot on traditional Wintel machines. However, Microsoft has mandated that no such opt-out will be allowed with ARM.
This would seem to make traditional computers safe, but probably not for long. It’s only a matter of time before the use of power sipping processors like ARM expand beyond the world of hand held devices and start being utilized in desktops and laptops as well.
For Linux distributions to cooperate with Microsoft at this point only sets a precedent that will help solidify Redmond’s policy as a new standard. Tuesday, iTWire’s Sam Varghese pointed out how counter intuitive it is for Red Hat or Ubuntu to cooperate with Microsoft in this way:
“In both methods, advocated by Red Hat and Canonical, one is dependent on Microsoft. A convicted monopolist, the company is famous for making little tweaks to things so that competitors’ products become unusable. But both Red Hat and Canonical seem comfortable with snuggling under the same blanket as Microsoft.”
Instead of cooperating with Microsoft’s bid to put a lock on the operating system market, we should be fighting them. For starters, it would appear there are some antitrust issues that could possibly be pursued. Maybe Google could put some pressure on companies making Android ARM devices to just say no to Secure Boot without an easy-to-use “off” button.
There are plenty of geniuses at Red Hat and Ubuntu. They can think of a better way to deal with this issue. | <urn:uuid:97d2c934-9f67-4c01-affd-0ef6e2ae7ebe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fossforce.com/2012/07/red-hat-ubuntus-uefi-solutions-good-foss/ | 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 | 0.94675 | 1,675 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives
Church and Dogma
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Retreat on the Credo
Faith in the Holy Catholic Church and the Communion of Saints
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
The first eight articles of the Apostles' Creed are an expression of our faith in the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Their work of creation, redemption and sanctification in the world. The ninth article is an act of faith in what God has produced among the family of mankind. We declare, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints." Immediately we see that there are two mysteries that we profess here: the holy Catholic Church and the communion of saints. What do we believe in these two statements? What significance should this faith have in our personal and with emphasis collective lives?
The Holy Catholic Church. There is some value, I think, in noting that we believe in the Church. Now the Church is not only or mainly an object of historical knowledge or reasoned analysis. She is that, but the Church is also and mainly an object of faith. In other words the Church is a revealed mystery. We can know just so much about the Church nationally or naturally or rationally but her inner core or essence remains a revealed mystery. The value of this fact I think it particularly important today. While it may be difficult, to say the least, to understand why certain things have happened and are going on in the Church, like the widespread convulsion in nominally Catholic circles, we must trust on faith that God knows what He is doing and what He is permitting and that in His own way and time He will draw great good even out of the manifest evils that plague today's Church on so many sides.
Notice the simple description of the Church as "holy" and "catholic." Later creeds were to embellish this article, like the Nicene Creed we profess at Mass, when we say we believe in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. The reason why later Councils added to the original Apostles Creed was the rise of heresy. There is only one true Church, not many, as the dissidents since early times and even today have claimed. The whole problem behind the writing and teaching of such men as Hans Kung is very simple: how many Churches are there?
Again, later Councils declared, and we profess, that the Church is apostolic because she traces her ancestry to the twelve men whom Christ first made His apostles. She is apostolic because she has remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles over the centuries. She is apostolic because the powers of the priesthood, notably of offering Mass and forgiving sins, that Christ gave to the apostles have been handed on by the laying on of hands in unending apostolic succession to our own day. I've been able to trace my ordination to Pope Gregory XVI. And the Church is apostolic because like the Church first founded by the Savior she is today finally governed on earth by one man. That is the towering, screeching scandal of Catholicism: the successor of St. Peter, the then prince of the apostles, and his successor now the prince of bishops.
But the two terms used in the Apostles' Creed are part of the original faith of the Church in the first century before one wave of heresy after another swept over the Church, where simply the Church was said to be one and holy.
What do we believe when we believe that the Church is one? The Church is one because her Founder is the one Lord Jesus Christ. Unlike some over learned exegetes today who claim that the Church had two founders - Christ and St. Paul. Just one.
She is one because this same Christ continues to guide her as her one invisible Head. She is one because she is united by the profession of one faith, the observance of one code of morals, and the celebration of one liturgy as found in the Mass and the seven Sacraments. She is one because her members form one body, where each member has his or her own function, from the Vicar of Christ through the episcopacy and priesthood and religious to every last and least member of Christ's Mystical Body.
The Church is finally one because all who are Catholic believe the same doctrine, follow the same ritual and obey the one visible head of the Church on earth - the bishop of Rome. In fact, all those who are baptized, whether they know it or not, admit it or not, like it or not, if they are baptized they are also members of this one Church. There is only one. Although, as the Second Vatican Council made more clear than ever before, the degree of membership of these what we call separated Christians depends on how much of the Church's faith, morals and liturgy they retain and especially how faithfully they and we live up to whatever the Catholic Church professes.
Years before the Ecumenical Movement I had come to respect and cherish Protestants. It all began when my mother, after she lost her husband, my father, had to take in boarders to keep the two of us alive. Our first two boarders who stayed with us at least eight years were Judith and Susan, two staunch Lutherans. By the age of three I had difficulties. I took my mother aside one day: "How is it, "I asked her, "my sisters"- that's what I thought they were -"eat meat on Friday and we don't?" Mother went back to Judith and Susan. "My boy," she said, "is growing up: he's asking embarrassing questions. Would you mind either abstaining from eating meat on Friday or find yourselves somewhere else to board?" To their credit, these two followers of Martin Luther abstained faithfully every Friday and fasted every Lent. No wonder years later they both came to my ordination.
What unifies Christianity is what Catholicism professes to believe. And, as by now we know, it is not only how much you believe, but how faithful you are to what you believe. Faith and faithfulness are not quite the same. We have faith with the mind; we are faithful with our wills.
What do we mean when we believe that the Church is holy? We believe the Church is holy because her Founder was the all-holy Son of God in human form. The essence of holiness is union with God. No one was closer as Man to the divinity than Christ in His human nature being hypostatically united with the divinity. The Church is holy because this same Jesus Christ is still as her invisible Head the active Agent behind all the Church's sanctifying activities. Who is it that stands behind the priest offering Mass? Christ. Who is it that administers the sacraments? It is fundamentally and ultimately the same Christ.
The Church is holy because she has the means of making her members holy through her teaching, through the four hundred thousand and some Masses being offered daily on Catholic altars, through her code of morals. Would anyone have suspected how distinctively Catholic the Church's moral teaching is until say Human Vitae was published by the late Paul VI? The day after the Pope issued the encyclical I got a call from the Bishop who was chairman of the American Bishops' Conference for Doctrine. He said, "You know we are in trouble, don't you?" I said, "Yes." By that time the dissidents at Catholic University in Washington knowing the encyclical was coming out, already published their refutation. So my task was to spend two sleepless nights refuting the Pope's critics to give the Bishops some ammunition. That one man in the whole world would stand up to defend the sanctity of the family against whole nations ranged on the other side, surely this Church who is still teaching this doctrine offers her faithful in every state of life the means and I should add the unique means of holiness. That's why the early writers and commentators on the Church could say, the one who as far as I know first made the statement was St. Cyprian around 200AD, "No one can have God for his Father who does not have the Church for his mother."
A person, therefore, is only as close to God - which is holiness - as he is faithful to the Church and uses the means of sanctification she has received from the Savior.
The Church is again holy because she produces holiness. Witness the by now millions of holy persons whose sanctity was the result of their fidelity to the Church, the myriad martyrs and confessors, heroes and heroines of patience and charity, the men and women religious of the centuries of whom the canonized saints are only a fraction of the holiness in flesh and blood that the Church has given to the world including the holy people who are living today. One of the greatest graces that God can give you is to put holy people into your life.
When we say, as we should, that the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation - the new definition coined by the Second Vatican Council - which means that everyone who reaches heaven owes his eternal destiny to the Church, we should also say that the Church is the universal sacrament of sanctification? Why? Because whoever is holy anywhere in every age of history owes his sanctity to the holy Catholic Church including my Jewish Rabbi companion on the flight three weeks ago from Atlanta to New York. I didn't make a Christian out of him in two and half hours, but I tried. He told me how much Pope John Paul means to the Jewish people. Isn't that good to hear? Here, he says, is a man of God. He invited me to visit his Synagogue; I will.
The Church's teaching therefore produces saints. Her Mass and Sacraments sanctify, her authority makes people holy.
Before we go on to the communion of saints let's make sure that we don't just talk about these things and profess them, no doubt sincerely, when we recite the Creed. If the Church is sanctifying, if the Church can make saints - and nineteen centuries is a very good record - it means we do what the Church tells us to do to become holy. This means therefore that provided we are truly loyal to the Church, know her teaching, follow it, know her precepts, obey them, recognize her legitimate superiors and follow their directives even when the obedience or the following may be hard, we will become holy. Anyone then who turns his back on the Church or decides to walk apart from the Church or even claims to be following a higher spirituality but independent of the Church is walking in darkness.
The Communion of Saints. There is more here to this double profession of faith in the ninth article than may be immediately apparent. Why put together in one act of faith belief in the Church and belief in the communion of saints? The reason is that when we add, as we do, communion of saints, we affirm that the Church on earth continues beyond the earth and is still the Church beyond the limitation of space and time. What is the communion of saints? It is the community of the members of the Church on earth with those in heaven and those in purgatory. All three are united as being one Mystical Body of Christ.
The faithful are in communion with each other by our unifying faith, morals and ritual, and assisting each other with our prayers and good works. Again, the faithful on earth are in communion with the saints in heaven by honoring them as glorified members of the Church, invoking their prayers and aid, and striving to imitate their virtues. That's why the Church canonizes saints, to tell us three things. First, those who are canonized are certainly in heaven; second, those who are canonized should be invoked by the faithful; and third, those who are canonized should be imitated, so we too, might at least become canonizable.
Finally, the faithful on earth are in communion with the souls in purgatory by helping them by our Masses, sacrifices and prayers to alleviate their suffering and obtain their speedy entrance into heaven. And, we should add, the saints in heaven are in communion with one another. Sure! All kinds of celestial conversation now going on. As are the poor souls, they are in communication with one another. And both segments of the Church are assisting us.
The communion of saints therefore is the whole living body of Christ: the Church militant on earth, the Church suffering in purgation, and the Church triumphant in heavenly glory. That's why we shouldn't talk about the next life. Who says the next life, as though it still has to come into existence? The other life, the better life, that invisible world that we have the privilege and the responsibility to be in communion with, that's why there's a communion of saints, the saints who made it and the saints who are making it.
We have so far, given the nature of our subject, necessarily touched on not a few practicalia. You can't believe in the Catholic Church and the communion of saints with even a shred of sincerity without doing something about it.
The social character of Christianity. From the very beginning the Church was socially conscious. Reread the long chapter in the Acts of the Apostles when Peter preached his first sermon. It ended in two ways: it both finished and it had a purpose. As soon as Peter finished the several thousand who heard him asked, "What shall we do?" He told them to repent and be baptized. I'm sure Peter didn't baptize everybody alone; he got help and our Lady looked on. But right after the baptism we are told by Luke "and the baptized formed a community." So much so that a solitary Christian is a contradiction in terms. We must keep this in mind that Christianity, though it has its solitaries who are by the way rare exceptions, is itself not a solitary religion. Christ made sure there were different kinds of people in the Church: the rich and the poor, the learned and the unlearned, the young and the old, the shy and the aggressive, the, quiet and the talkative, the sanguine whom nothing phases and the melancholic who are always worried, men and women, bishops, priests, religious, and the laity. Why?
First, that we might resign ourselves to the pluriformity in the Church. No small wisdom to recognize that not only are people different but God wants them to be different. Why the variety? So that what some lack the others might supply. No doubt sometimes we are tempted to conjure up a make-believe world in which all the young people would be on one planet and the octogenarians on another. Sorry, that's not the divine plan. It further means, and that's why the Lord made sure that the Church has such variety, in order that working together first among ourselves still on earth; that's a big job; then working together with those who have gone before us and are still awaiting their release; and together with the saints on high, they working with us, and we with them, so that as a body we might glorify God as a body and witness to the world the power of grace to change selfish individual human beings into a marvelous symphony of unity to the praise of the undivided Trinity.
Mary, Mother of God, teach us to understand our privilege as members of the Church founded by your Son; help us to live up to His expectations of us; above all obtain from Jesus the grace to submerge ourselves in order to advance the interests of the Mystical Body, of which He is the Head and you are the heart. Mary, Mother of the Church pray for us.
Conference transcription from a retreat
Copyright © 1998 by Inter Mirifica
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“In Jesus’ Name”: The History and Beliefs of Oneness Pentecostals, by David A. Reed. Blandford Forum, England: Deo Publishing, 2008.
David Reed’s book, “In the Name of Jesus,” is possibly the best study on the origins of Oneness Pentecostalism – that segment of the Pentecostal movement that rejects traditional Trinitarian formulas in favor of an emphasis on the name of Jesus. Reed’s own spiritual journey (he was reared in a Oneness Pentecostal church in New Brunswick, Canada, but is now an Anglican minister and educator) provided the impetus for his study of the Oneness movement, which has become his life’s work.
Reed divides his work into three sections – 1) the Pietist and evangelical legacies within Oneness Pentecostalism, 2) the birth of Oneness Pentecostalism, and 3) the theology of Oneness Pentecostalism.
Reed opens with a spotlight on the Pietist emphasis on searching out the truths of Scripture. Pietist leader Philip Jacob Spener (1635-1705) gave priority to moral living over correct doctrine. Pietism tended to focus on spiritual process and growth, asking questions such as “Are you living yet in Jesus?” (pp. 13-14n).
The author traces the spirit of Pietism through the ministries of August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) and Nicholaus Ludwig Zinzendorf (1700-1760) with their emphasis on a heart religion that came about through repentance, conversion, weeping, practical piety and rejoicing. Zinzendorf was Christocentric, giving great value to the suffering and bleeding of Jesus. Reed states that Pietist devotion included an emphasis on the name of Jesus, which should come as no surprise. John Wesley later made his mark on the religious world with a two-fold emphasis on conversion and holiness of life.
Puritan clerics of the seventeenth century believed nearly the same as Pietists in the matter of experiential religion. According to Reed, “Pietism was a stream of spirituality that emphasized the affective and practical aspects of faith…it contributed to the working out of the distinctive doctrine of Oneness Pentecostals” (italics mine) (p. 32).
Reed argues that Oneness Pentecostalism arose from this evangelical Pietist and Puritan heritage. Whereas Pietists narrowed Spirit-baptism to a stream of spirituality that emphasized the affective and practical aspects of faith, Oneness Pentecostals extended this Pietistic hermeneutic to “the name of Jesus.” Oneness Pentecostals claimed that there is power in the Name if you have faith in the Name (and if you are buried by baptism in His Name). Further, it appears that Oneness Pentecostalism is a child of Jewish thought—a radical monotheism stressing one God and one Name. This Oneness belief maturated in the Holiness and early Pentecostal movements.
Wherever one found devotional literature, hymnody, and continued teaching by Pietist descendants, one often encountered the name of Jesus. “The phrase ‘Jesus’ and ‘Jesus Only’ became commonplace among Keswick and Holiness writers” (p. 40), such as Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911).
Reed, in the second part of his book, deals with the birth of Oneness Pentecostalism, stating that it had two birthplaces: Topeka (1901) and Azusa Street (1906). “White Pentecostals, especially those in the Assemblies of God, have pinned their Pentecostal identity on Parham’s doctrine of glossolalia. Black Pentecostals, on the other hand, have identified with the Azusa Street Revival” (p. 81). He contends, however, that it is difficult to substantiate this claim. He further observes, “Oneness doctrine and practice may be more compatible in its core with an Afro-centric worldview than with that of non-Pentecostal white evangelicals” (p. 82).
Reed asserts: “The ‘Jesus Name’ or ‘Oneness’ paradigm is a radical (emphasis mine) soteriology constituted by: a non-trinitarian modalistic view of God, the name of Jesus as the revealed name of God, and the threefold pattern for full salvation set forth in Acts 2:38” (p. 113)—blood, water and Spirit [repentance, baptism in water in the name of Jesus, and the infilling of the Holy Spirit].
“For the uninformed outsider, Oneness Pentecostalism is a conundrum. Like other Pentecostal groups, it should be emphasizing the Spirit,” Reed states. “But it speaks about Jesus and denies the Trinity” (p. 338).
Reed’s book covers such topics as: Finished Work, Secret Rapture (Manchild Doctrine and Bride of Christ), Restoration Movement, New Issue, Re-baptism, Champions of the Trinitarian Cause, Old Testament Names of God and much, much more. It is a work that is based on rare and extensive research. At times, it seems that Reed tries to cover too much ground, but he is so full of information that he has to have an outlet. A pulpit is set up in every reader’s realm, from which Reed dispenses thoughts and opinions.
“The challenge of the future,” Reed concludes, “is hidden in its name and its inheritance: oneness. The earliest appeal to oneness in 1910 was that the Pentecostal movement be united. A decade later that appeal was applied sharply to racial unity. By 1930 it became a descriptor for the movement. Throughout its history, lack of oneness with full Pentecostals and other Christians has become enigmatic: for some a mark of doctrinal purity, for others, a sign of sin” (p. 363).
Reed emphasizes that the Oneness movement needs to receive fair and judicious treatment. However, Oneness Pentecostals may take offense at Reed’s statement that “There is within Scripture potential for developing a theology of the Name” (emphasis mine) (p. 356). He goes on to further point out particular weaknesses in Oneness theology, while fully supporting Trinitarianism.
The first part of the book leads one to believe that Reed fully supports the Oneness Pentecostal belief; however, as I perused his continuing discourse, I experienced opaque visions of Oneness Pentecostals as being inferior, and that they were not the norm.
“In Jesus’ Name” is the result of excellent research; it delves into scores of themes related to Oneness Pentecostalism; its common thread is the Name; and the reader, whether Trinitarian or Oneness, will enhance his knowledge of the Jesus’ Name doctrine.
Reviewed by Patricia P. Pickard, Independent scholar, Bangor, Maine
Softcover, 394 pages. $39.95 retail. Order from: amazon.com | <urn:uuid:43c57218-57ed-40d4-b156-84d9634ea79c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ifphc.wordpress.com/tag/theologians/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943879 | 1,545 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Farmers in the Cornhusker State were hoping and needing a winter recharge of soil moisture. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.
According to the current U.S. Drought Monitor, 100% of the state is suffering from some level of severe drought. Nearly 80% of the state is in exceptional drought, the highest level of drought identified by the Drought Monitor. In fact, Nebraska’s drought conditions are most-severe of any U.S. state. That’s dry.
Greg Kruger, University of Nebraska-Lincoln cropping systems specialist, says the drought is front-and-center in every farmer’s mind this year. But, he doesn’t believe the drought will cause a dramatic decrease in corn acres.
In 2010, Nebraska farmers planted 9.1 million acres of corn, 9.8 million in 2011 and a whopping 10.3 million last year. Kruger believes corn acres will remain stable for 2013. "I think it may go down a little this year because of how dry it is," he says. "Irrigated acres will likely remain the same."
In dryland areas, he says some corn acres may shift to sorghum. "It seems likely that sorghum acres could increase fairly significantly compared to what they have been the last few years," he says. In Nebraska, sorghum acres have increased steadily. From 2010 to 2012, soybean and wheat acres declined, while sorghum gained 10,000 acres.
Kruger expects farmers to begin planting in mid- to late-April this year. If significant rain doesn’t fall during these next few weeks, farmers are predicting bleak outcomes.
A farmer from Scottsbluff, Neb., reported to AgWeb’s Crop Comments that his farmer has not any significant moisture this winter. "We will have dry soil conditions for spring fieldwork."
In northeast Nebraska, a farmer says the area needs nearly 12 inches of precipitation to reach normal levels. "Everyone is taking 85% crop insurance this year, cutting back on fertilizer and planting cheap seed. It is probably going to dry out any way... not looking good."
Read the acreage predictions and considerations for additional states: | <urn:uuid:02c682b8-971e-4cf1-bb36-5249c758f651> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweb.com/farmjournal/farm_journal_corn_college/article/bleak_spring_in_nebraska_as_dire_drought_continues/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953203 | 461 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Read to Write
When I was a college student, my first creative writing teacher told the class that there were two kinds of writers: those who wanted to write and those who wanted to have written. He may not have been the first person to say that, but it’s still one of his many sayings that resonates with me now, 25 years later.
The reason, you see, is because I want to be both—the task, the craft of writing is even more of a thrill for me now than it was then. Maybe that’s because I know a little bit more of what I’m doing now, but also because I have a much deeper well to draw from than I did when I was in my 20s. At the same time, I also enjoy the work I’ve done—finishing it, sharing it, making it part of the conversation and community. That’s a privilege for which I’m very grateful.
But I’d like to take my old teacher’s advice a step further. I like to think that there are writers who want to read and writers who like to be read. Again—strive to be both. You see, the problem I run into sometimes with newer writers is that they put much more energy into writing than they put into reading. (The same goes for listening at poetry readings—it amazes me how often I notice people show up just for the open reading period and don’t pay attention to the main reader.) Writing isn’t the kind of talent that just improves on its own the more you do it, like, say, running. You get better at running simply by running more (I may be wrong about the running thing, since I’m pretty miserable at that.) For writers to grow they need to be gluttonous and aggressive readers—and they need to love doing it. Writers need to dig though the works they love to discover what makes them taste good—unwrapping the poems as they digest them (see, I’m a lot better at the eating metaphors than the running ones). Part of every class session I lead at Musehouse is a reading of great poems, or at least poems I think are great, so I can share some of the passion I have for them, but to also look for the elements that make those poems work, to study their craft and ingredients.
I sometimes run into writers who say they don’t read other poetry because they don’t want to be influenced by others. I have little tolerance for that point of view.
So then, what to read? You’re in luck because in some ways poetry is thriving today. There are more literary journals, both online and off, then ever before, so start there. Literary journals are the fuses that keep our literary communities lit up. Reading groups, workshops, lectures, friendships are all things that grow out of and are supported by literary journals. Locally, we’re lucky enough to have access to several strong publications, and those pubs are also very active in the local community. Supporting those publications is one of the easiest ways you discover new writers.
Anyway—that was a long way of saying—read to write and write to be read–another saying of my old teacher. I should write all those down before I forget them.
—Grant Clauser, www.poetcore.com
Grant Clauser holds an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University where he was the 1993 Richard Devine Fellow. He is a magazine and web editor and has taught writing at area colleges. His poems have appeared in various journals including The Literary Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Heartland Review, and others. He was selected by Robert Bly to be the 2010 Montgomery County Poet Laureate. Through the MCPL program, he started a monthly workshop, the Montco Workshop in Lansdale.
Grant’s next Beginning and Intermediate Poetry Writing at Musehouse begins April 23. Registration information at http://www.musehousecenter.com or call 267-331-9552. | <urn:uuid:5148beb2-574b-4808-bdf2-a5bf0ea40695> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://musehousecenter.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/read-to-write-by-musehouse-instructor-grant-clauser/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975425 | 861 | 1.664063 | 2 |
If you live in Tacoma, polar bears are pretty much “out of sight, out of mind,” Wilson High School junior Zoe Stoy says.
But if you see, say, a 500-pound Mama Bear and her two cubs up close in the Hudson Bay area of Canada, you’ll probably fall in love and make it your mission to help save them, she knows.
Stoy, who attended Polar Bear International’s Polar Bear Leadership Camp in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, earlier this month says she’ll be telling other people about the threatened existence of polar bears – and asking friends and acquaintances to be more environmentally friendly.
She plans to figure out her “carbon footprint” – how much how she lives and what she does is detrimental to the environment. Then, she’ll look for ways to live a “greener” life.
Scientists believe global warming is shrinking the bears’ natural habitat in the world’s Arctic regions.
You can help, she says, by doing simple things like turning down thermostats, recycling, not using foam cups and other such products, and taking other conservation measures.
Scientists estimate there are 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the wild, according to the Polar Bears International Web site
“Polar bears don’t really have a say” in what happens to their icy habitat, where they hunt seals and other creatures, Stoy said. “They can’t talk, and polar bears are kind of an out-of-sight, out-of-mind type of thing” … “If you saw them every day, then you’d know how bad their conditions are. … If you saw a limping dog every day, then you’d want to help it.”
Stoy was the only Washington student to attend the Polar Bear Camp. She represented Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.
During her trip to Churchill, Stoy kept a blog to record her thoughts. You can find it at www.polarbearsinternational.org/student-journals/. Here are some excerpts:
OCT. 3, 9:17 P.M.
Oh my goodness … this has been such an unbelievable shell-shocking time! I got in at 10:15 a.m. on Thursday and everything kind of just ran from there. We had a lot of fun listening to and getting to know everyone that came from many different locations around the world. Through bouts of sleepiness we all got to meet past camp attendees among many others. Then we were off to bed because we had to be up and ready by 5 a.m. to catch our flight up to beautiful Churchill.
We got to Churchill and toured the town, which was fascinating. The people of Churchill have such a different mentality. They aren’t constantly on their cell phones and their form of normal transportation is driving around town at high speeds on quads. They are very friendly.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any polar bears tonight, but they assured us that before we know it we will be seeing them.
OCT. 4, 8:23 P.M.
This is the day we have all been waiting for … THE BEARS!! It was a life-changing experience. I was expecting to see one maybe two bears, but we were luckier than that – we saw THREE bears and what made it even better was that it was a mother bear and her two cubs.
We drove out on the cold tundra for a while and on the way we were lucky to see an Arctic hare. We then moved on and Eva (the ambassador from Denmark) having eyes like an eagle saw the bears in the distance! We all quickly raced to that side of the buggy and tried to take as many pictures as possible even though the bears were about a 1/2 mile out and could only be seen with binoculars. We then started to move forward and ended up following the bears for around 21/2 hours. We did get to move closer to her and her cubs. One of her cubs was especially rambunctious, always trailing behind and not sleeping when its mother and cub mate were.
OCT. 7, 5:53 P.M.
You know how I never cry at like anything? I was BAWLING on Sunday night. (Polar Bear International President) Robert Buchanan gave a speech and it was so powerful, so personal, so moving that right in the middle of it I started crying my eyes out. I was so upset with what people have done to the Earth, the environment, and somehow by accident, the polar bears. It was quite an emotional night. But later on that night we got to see one of the most beautiful northern lights shows it was just completely exhilarating.
So I told you how we saw a family of three? Well, we have seen them out in the tundra buggy every day since I have been here. Unfortunately we only got to see them from about two football fields away, it was still amazing. But the really amazing part was, last night they actually came into camp!
The little cubs came up to the tires and stood on all fours and looked RIGHT into my eyes! It was SOOO amazing. Imagine the feeling and the thrill you would get if you had an animal so rare so threatened so GREAT staring YOU right in the eye.
OCT. 8, 10:14 A.M.
Part of me feels bad that I was so naive about what was happening, but part of me is happy and hopeful. I’m looking forward to how I can change and make it all better. I feel as if I now have the power to do things that I couldn’t do before. Without this experience, these people, and this whole trip, I would not be who I really want to be. I feel as if I am a new person.
Kris Sherman: 253-597-8659 | <urn:uuid:ab78e6ac-ec89-4da9-bc9e-ed7c92a06ef1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenewstribune.com/2008/10/22/515085/polar-bears-fluffy-local-life.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978877 | 1,256 | 2.609375 | 3 |
LJWorld.com weblogs On the Transition to a Sustainable Paradigm
An Experiment: Loving More, Judging Less
The next time you think about rejecting someone, try loving them instead.
You’ll find it is more difficult than you might imagine. If you usually pride yourself on loving many people, you may be caught by the sudden contradiction of your behavior, when you find it hard to love someone when it does not come naturally.
Even after ten years reading books and working on myself, I still catch myself subtly making separating distinctions and judgments that offer me a rationalization to close off my heart. Only in the last year and a half can I say that I have loved others and acted responsibly towards all the people I’ve gotten involved with, even throughout changes in the relationship. Handling a change in the relationship form (what others might sometimes call a “break up”) is probably the most difficult time to maintain ones mindfulness and compassion.
And it is difficult, in this case, because loving this person would not be based on our own selfish desires. You see, loving someone is easy when it also fulfills our own selfish desires. That is not really true love. Loving someone in this way is a form of self-deception. We say, “I love you,” but we only say it because they make us feel good. When we try to love someone we may want to reject, we realize that true love isn’t selfish. It isn’t about us, and how they make us feel. True love is about showing kindness towards another despite how they make us feel – good or bad. If they are fundamentally a good, decent person, we have no excuse not to love them, other than for the want to fulfill our own desires.
Now, maybe you’re not interested in loving people in this way. If that is the case, please stop reading. Go on and drink your beers, party it up like nothing else matters, and keep pursuing your own little needs. This wasn’t meant for people with that kind of attitude. If you are still reading this, it’s because you have a desire to challenge yourself, to become a better person – to love more, to be kinder, to be less judgmental, to be less selfish and more other-oriented.
If you want to grow, evolve – then choose to love the next person you subconsciously or consciously want to judge and reject.
When our view of the other person is not filtered through our own desires, we realize they are just another person like ourselves. Equally deserving respect and kindness, just as we do, so long as we are not a jackass. If we act like a jackass towards our friends, towards our ex-partners, or to people we don’t know, then maybe we don’t deserve much extra consideration. But at its essence, we were all an innocent five-year-old child once, and we all fundamentally deserve respect and kindness on a basic level.
If you cannot do this, then all your words about how “I love lots of people” will ring hollow. It’s easy for our minds to congratulate ourselves with such narratives, when the behavior in actual practice falls short of the hype. The mind can easily create blind spots that hide our own contradictions, if we’re not mindful of what’s going on up there in our heads.
A true measurement of a person’s character can not be derived from how they treat those they like, but how they treat those they have written off. The act of writing someone off, in a way that lacks love and kindness, is proof enough, that that person has a lot of growing up to do. | <urn:uuid:18ebcb22-af1c-4a7c-816c-46accee9f0e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/tribalzendancer/2010/jun/26/an-experiment-loving-more-judging-less/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952467 | 781 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Matter: Physical and Chemical Properties
- 0:06 Matter
- 1:03 Properties of Matter
- 4:14 Mixtures and Pure Substances
- 6:23 Summary
Did You Know…
This lesson is part of a free course that leads to real college credit accepted by 2,900 colleges.
How are substances identified? There are two major ways we can describe a substance: physical properties and chemical properties. Learn about how chemists use properties to classify matter as either a mixture or a pure substance.
Look around you. What do you see? What kinds of things surround you? Maybe a notebook, or your keyboard, a coin in your pocket or even a pet? Think about how you may describe those things. What do they all have in common? You may be able to come up with some similarities; but one key similarity is that they are all matter. Matter is everything around you! Your pencil, a book; even you are matter. One of the most important things chemists do is describe matter. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. Chemists spend their days working with matter: describing it, making measurements and even changing its form.
Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter
Let's take a closer look at a coin in your pocket. It is made from a metal. You can tell it is made from a metal because it is shiny and maybe has a silvery color. Those two descriptions I gave it are called physical properties. A physical property is a characteristic that can be observed or measured without changing the composition. If you toss your coin in a fountain, it will sink. This is because your coin is more dense than the water in the fountain. Density is another example of a physical property. Your coin may be a little wet, but it is still composed of the same material as it was before you tossed it in the fountain. Other examples of physical properties include color, mass, smell, boiling point, volume and temperature.
Now let's talk about your car. Your car is likely made from a metal as well. How can you tell? It probably has a very similar density to the coin in your pocket. What other properties does a car have? If you have ever seen a 'fender bender' then you would know that metals are quite bendable. When they get hit by something, they dent instead of shattering like glass. This property is known as malleability. It is a property that almost all of the metals share and it is a physical property because your car is still composed the same metal after it is dented. It just may look a little different.
But what happens if we fast forward 10 years. Now what does that same car look like? Chances are that it may be starting to form some rust. Unfortunately, the iron that was used to make your car is not the most stable of the metals. When it is exposed to oxygen it transforms into rust. This ability to react to oxygen to form rust is called a chemical property. A chemical property is a characteristic that can only be determined by changing the chemical identity of a substance. What we started with was iron, but when it reacts with the oxygen in the air, it turns into iron oxide, or rust. What are some of the physical properties of rust? Are they anything like the properties of iron? Are they anything like the properties of oxygen? No. Rust has its own set of properties. First, unlike its metallic counterpart, it is brittle. It's also a dull reddish-brown color. So the ability to react with oxygen is a chemical property of iron. Other examples of chemical properties include reactivity with water, reactivity with acid, pH and my personal favorite: flammability, or the ability to burn.
Mixtures and Pure Substances
The reason properties are so important to a chemist is chemists use them to describe matter and the changes it undergoes. They also use properties to put matter into major categories or classifications. For example, if you have a substance that can be physically separated out into other substances, you have a mixture. A mixture is material made up of two or more substances that are physically mixed but not chemically combined. Take ocean water as an example. The major components of ocean water are water and salt. They can be separated by allowing the water to evaporate. This is a physical separation because we started with salt water, and we ended with salt and water vapor (which is still water). Solutions and alloys are examples of mixtures.
If you can't separate it physically, then you have a pure substance. There are only two types of pure substances: elements and compounds. An element is a pure substance made up of only one type of atom. Examples of elements include hydrogen, sodium, neon, gold and copper. Let's go back to our rusty car. We started off with two elements: iron and oxygen. They were pure substances that only contained iron atoms or oxygen atoms. When they reacted over time, they chemically combined and transformed into a completely different substance with different properties.
This new substance is called a compound. A compound is a pure substance that is made up of two or more different elements that are chemically combined. Several common compounds include water (H2O), limestone (CaCO3), salt (NaCl) and carbon dioxide (CO2). It is not easy to separate the elements in a compound because it requires a chemical reaction. For example, if I wanted to separate the oxygen from the hydrogen in water, I would have to do a lot more than just pull them apart. They would have to undergo a chemical reaction to split them.
So let's put this all together. Matter is anything that has mass and volume. It can be described using physical properties, and chemical properties. Physical properties can be determined without changing what it's made of, and chemical properties can only be determined by changing its composition. Matter can be divided into two main types: mixtures and pure substances. Mixtures are made of two or more substances that are physically mixed and can be easily separated without changing what the substance is made of. Pure substances can be further divided into elements and compounds. Elements only consist of one type of atom, and if you chemically combine two different elements you will make a compound.
Chapters in Chemistry 101: General Chemistry
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"I learned in 20 minutes what it took 3 months to learn in class." — Student | <urn:uuid:da4dad29-348c-4f09-811d-8b536137fe82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/matter-physical-and-chemical-properties.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964526 | 1,338 | 3.9375 | 4 |
*Pakistan's financing needs estimated at $6 bln- 9 bln. LAHORE, Pakistan, May 24- Pakistan's new leadership expects first results of its planned steps to shore up its finances and ease a power crisis in two or three months and only then should decide whether and on what terms to seek an IMF bailout, a senior policy adviser said on Friday.» Read More
On Thursday morning, French youth who took the test were asked “Is equality a threat to liberty?”, “Can one be right despite the facts?” or even “Is art any less necessary than science?”
Citigroup’s attempts to sell OneMain Financial, the largest US consumer finance company, have stumbled over concerns among potential bidders about its funding as a standalone business, reports the FT.
The sluggish state of the U.S. economy will once more be the grist for markets, if Greece's short term financing needs are met.
What happens if Greece defaults? Everyone from Japanese savers to US retirees is likely to feel the effects. Learn more.
A Greek default will spur a global restructuring process, says Chris Whalen.
A friend of mine who runs a hedge fund likes to say, “I have seen this movie before, and I know how it ends…badly.” With respect to Greece, ironically, not only can we metaphorically say we’ve seen this movie before, but, in many ways, we have actually seen it - at least a movie of the same genre.
More Greek drama: rapid price changes in a corner of the currency markets suggest banks are worried about an interbank lending freeze, absent a rescue plan for Greece.
When you have a country with a debt-to-GDP ratio that rises above 150%, historically that country defaults. I bring this up because the debt-to-GDP ratio in Greece is somewhere in the neighborhood of 160%.
The executive in charge of restructuring Lehman Brothers sees some "striking" similarities between his company and Greece, he told CNBC Thursday.
Market volatility and uncertainty in the euro zone are limiting the options for the Swiss National Bank (SNB), which held rates at the historic low of 0.25 percent Thursday, Chairman Philipp Hildebrand told CNBC.
Regardless of whether there is another Greek “save”, preventing the actual default that still seems inevitable, the fact remains that adding debt to try and solve a debt crisis is a moronic approach when your interest costs already exceed your tax revenues (as is currently the case in Greece).
Investors continue to worry about the risk of a Greek debt default and some are making comparisons between the Greece and Lehman Brothers collapse. Insight with Bryan Marsal, Lehman Bros. CEO.
Why did the markets get so upset with the possibility of a Greek default? CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Kate Kelly and Steve Liesman weigh in on Europe's concerns.
Lawmakers are currently figuring out how best to rewrite the rules of Wall Street. Insight on how new regulations will impact banks, with Tim Ryan, Securities Industry and Fin. Markets Association (SIFMA) president/CEO.
Markets took a tumble on Thursday on fresh worries about the Greek debt crisis and European policy makers were urged to come up with a credible plan to restructure the country's debt.
The euro is sliding, the safe-haven Swiss franc is rising, and everyone is watching Greece — it's time for your FX Fix.
The dollar will stay at around the $1.40 mark against the euro for some time as both currencies face downward pressure and the euro is resistant to bearish news, Dennis Gartman, hedge fund manager and author of The Gartman Letter, told CNBC Wednesday.
US Treasurys may not be such a good bet for investors as yields have dropped too low and questions remain on whether the Federal Reserve will continue to print money after its current round of quantitative easing ends, analysts told CNBC.
A new bet has been placed on the the Greek debt crisis. It backs a growing view among investors that Athens may be about to suffer a messy default that could spark a run on the country’s banks and a deeper eurozone crisis, the FT reported.
The Greek debt crisis fanned a broad sell off Wednesday and it will no doubt keep markets on edge Thursday. | <urn:uuid:27c72e40-11a3-4835-b2d0-d76d2e0c1dcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/10001058/page/179 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94546 | 906 | 1.6875 | 2 |
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MSF in Sri Lanka, 2001
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Medical and Surgical Care Amid War
MSF's work in Sri Lanka is dominated by aid to victims of the country's civil war, which has taken the lives of over 60,000 people and displaced about a million others over the last fifteen years. Although a relative calming of the fighting has permitted the return of some displaced people to their homes, wounded civilians and combatants continue to flock to medical facilities.
MSF surgical intervention takes place in Point Pedro (on the Jaffna Peninsula), Vavuniya, Mallavi, and Batticaloa. MSF supports hospital surgical units in the four locations, where, in 2000, over 11,000 people underwent surgery. In Batticaloa, the burn unit was refurbished. In Mallavi, support also extends to the hospital's pediatric, gynecology, and obstetrics departments.
Near the town of Madhu, MSF provides aid to displaced people in two camps, with a special focus on antenatal care, and refers people to hospitals in Vavuniya and Mallavi as necessary. Mobile teams in these areas reach villages isolated by the shifting front lines. In Vavuniya, MSF has also helped set up community-based psychosocial services for displaced people and residents. Elsewhere, in Puthukkudiyiruppu, MSF supports the public health system, with special attention to mothers and children.
An MSF project in Murankan, which included hospital care and mobile clinics, finished in December 2000. At this time, an easing of the conflict in this area allowed Sri Lankan personnel to return to the hospital.
On the Jaffna Peninsula, MSF aids some of the area's 150,000 displaced people by monitoring the nutrition situation of the population and carrying out epidemic surveillance. MSF works to inform and coordinate relevant local actors. In addition, two pediatricians offer consultations at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, where MSF also supplies medicines and medical material for the pediatrics department. Emphasis there and in the surrounding district is on care for children and pregnant women.
MSF began work in Sri Lanka in 1986. | <urn:uuid:273529a1-376e-4d2f-8060-aac23bc1971a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/ar/report.cfm?id=1279 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941118 | 473 | 2.296875 | 2 |
In business, much more than in academia, personality tests are used at different stages of progression. Additionally they can be used to identify what sort of career one is suited to. One common version is the Myers-Briggs test, which identifies the individual’s characteristics against 4 pairs of traits, to give 16 possible personality types. Recently, Virginia Hughes blogged about these tests in the context of scientists. Her concluding remark was
In the Myers-Briggs code, you can be either a T (‘Thinking’) or an F (‘Feeling’). When making decisions, Ts prefer to “first look at logic and consistency”. Yup, that sounds like a scientist. Fs, in contrast, “first look at the people and special circumstances”. I’ve never met a scientist who looks at the outliers first.
Most scientists would probably agree with that final sentence, but actually that is a rather extreme version of the T/F split (I’m not sure where her definitions come from). That useful source of information, Wikipedia, gives a rather different emphasis
Thinking and feeling are the decision-making (judging) functions. The thinking and feeling functions are both used to make rational decisions, based on the data received from their information-gathering functions (sensing or intuition). Those who prefer thinking tend to decide things from a more detached standpoint, measuring the decision by what seems reasonable, logical, causal, consistent and matching a given set of rules. Those who prefer feeling tend to come to decisions by associating or empathizing with the situation, looking at it ‘from the inside’ and weighing the situation to achieve, on balance, the greatest harmony, consensus and fit, considering the needs of the people involved.
Put like that, it isn’t so clear to me scientists would be necessarily disbarred from scoring an F rather than a T. I say that with some conviction because carrying out a quick test myself (I used this site; there are plenty out there) I came out as slightly F. I think I can separate out how I look at my data from how I look at people, and the test questions tend to be about social situations rather than what might be found in a test-tube. So I am not surprised to find a ‘feeling’ tendency being recorded. However, I accept that I may be in a minority. That said, I am certainly not going to apologise for being ‘odd’ – we need diversity in science, and that includes people who look at things in different ways in every sense.
I was already thinking about writing a post about some of my recent experiences, which in fact tie neatly in with this analysis. Based on people’s reactions to talks I have given recently, interviews with me which have appeared in print (here and here; interviews in which I hardly recognize the totality of myself as described, I should say, though factually they are correct) and responses to things I have written elsewhere on my blog, I have realised that I am conveying messages about life as a scientist in ways that perhaps scientists don’t always do. For instance, recently I gave a brief talk at the L’Oreal FWIS awards, when I was asked to talk for 10 minutes about personal career highlights and some thoughts and aspirations to encourage others for the future. Afterwards, I was touched by how many people had seemed moved by what I said, frequently using the word ‘inspirational’ – a word which has been tossed in my direction about the interviews and talks too. One woman (and not an early career woman, but a professor) wrote to me after the L’Oreal evening to say
I would like to thank you for speaking and taking the time out for women matters. The night made a huge impact on how I felt, just after yet another major failure. Hearing that other women struggle too gives a strange sense of normality – it is a huge danger to take the ‘I am wrong’ that gets thrown at us so persistently aboard and start sinking.
I am not trying to ‘big myself up’, but that started me thinking. Why, when I have always felt unsure of my own path and believed that others around me knew the rules better than me, sounded more persuasive than me on committees, got more grant income etc, why is it that speaking the truth seems so powerful? And of course, that is the answer. Most of us, most of the time feel constrained and emotional truths are rarely expressed. Scientists are not often given to talking about feelings so much as evidence, theorems and flaws in experimental design, at least in public – exactly the distinction of T/F in the Myers-Brigg analysis. The joke about extrovert physicists looking at other people’s shoes rather than their own is well known, although sometimes varied to refer to extrovert mathematicians, or even used as a way to distinguish physicists from mathematicians. Nevertheless, without going to that extreme of inability to communicate, the conference podium (for instance) is rarely used to express professional anxieties. So it is that the young, and even the not-so-young, may mistakenly believe that those further up the ladder really understand how the world works and always get things right.
I remember that moment of deluded transition, as I progressed from undergraduate to PhD student, that instant when I thought that now I really would understand not only physics but the ‘right’ way of doing things. That rite of passage, of course, amounts to no more than the option of putting letters after one’s name and shaking hands with the vice chancellor (or, in Cambridge, having one’s hand clasped as if in blessing, while Latin is quoted over you). The reality is that scientists are just as human as the rest of the population, just as prone to anxieties and insecurities, but perhaps not always so open to expressing them. It is not simply a woman’s privilege to suffer from a lack of confidence, although some may express it more explicitly or allow it to rule their lives more completely than many men do.
Some months back, when I was in Edinburgh in order to talk to the engineering graduates about my life experiences, I was taken out to dinner the night before by my hosts who talked about what they hoped I would convey. I came back, with a glass or two of wine inside me, and sat down at my laptop and wrote a blogpost about how I had no idea of what was useful to talk about, and perhaps people could indicate whether what I was going to do would go down well. Knowing full well, what one writes in a mild alcoholic haze may be regretted the next morning, I didn’t publish the post till about 24 hours later, having checked it through for accidental indiscretions. Being content that nothing too untoward was in it I pressed ‘submit’, expecting little interest. It has turned out to be one of my most read posts, although it has been read as if written from a position of strength and knowledge, which was interesting and illuminating for me. That was when I realised that you folk out there reading this, are prone to look at me as if I have the answers you may sometimes feel you lack, rather than realise that I have been frequently lost in mazes too but have learnt that sometimes good can come out of what looks like a black situation if you just persevere or find out how to duck and weave.
I am honoured and flattered that by speaking honestly about the trials and tribulations that I, like everyone else however successful, have faced people find my thoughts helpful and, yes, inspirational. So, thank you. Maybe the F in my Myers-Brigg personality test has some use after all, because I am sure it has not always facilitated my career path and interactions. Your collective responses encourage me to continue to speak up, not just for women but for all scientists-as-people-with-flaws-and-fears. Some people may be very good at covering up their concerns. Nevertheless, if you could scratch the surface even of those who have just about every prize and honour to their name, I suspect you might well find that they too have their anxieties and moments (or longer) of self-doubt. It is worth remembering this when fears assault you. | <urn:uuid:e9ef3956-b8bc-4941-a3d9-4bbd999f90c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald/2011/07/21/myers-briggs-tests-and-the-scientist/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977165 | 1,744 | 2.8125 | 3 |
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Loren Steffy: We're still in the dark on blackouts
By Loren Steffy | February 8, 2011
Last week's blackouts, it seems, didn't end with the cold snap. Texans still remain in the dark about the cause of the power outages, and state regulators so far are content to hide behind market rules that shield generators from public scrutiny.
As I wrote last week, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the grid for the state's deregulated market, found itself about 4,000 megawatts short early last Wednesday as bitter cold settled over the state, resulting in the rolling blackouts.
ERCOT has said that some 50 generating units were unexpectedly off line because the extreme cold froze pipes, valves or other equipment.
Winterizing a power plant is, of course, much more complicated than wrapping your pipes at home. But under our deregulated system, "market forces" — the threat of losing millions of dollars - should have been a motivator.
So was this a failure of the market, or something else?
To answer that question, we'd have to know a couple of things, starting with a list of which plants went down because of the weather. That information, though, isn't available. Under Public Utility Commission rules, ERCOT is prohibited from releasing details about generation status for 60 days to protect the competitive integrity of the market, a spokeswoman for the grid operator said.
The PUC has some discretion to bend the rules to ensure reliability, but it's still discussing whether to waive the confidentiality protection in this case, spokesman Terry Hadley said.
Some answers emerge
Calls to two of the state's biggest generators provided some answers. NRG's primary, or "base load," coal-fired units and the South Texas nuclear plant were all running at capacity Thursday morning, company spokesman David Knox said. Some of the company's smaller plants did have some weather-related issues, he said.
Luminant, the Dallas-based generator, was harder hit. Four generating units at two of its base load coal plants went down, but three other coal plants and its nuclear plant remained operational, spokeswoman Ashley Barrie said. Three of the units crippled by cold had been in service less than two years, meaning they had never been through a cold-weather shakedown like they experienced last week.
The market opacity grows, though, as we begin to look at the issue of who did sell power as the crisis unfolded.
Did some profit mightily?
Wholesale prices shot up Thursday morning, to as much as $3,000 a megawatt hour just before the blackouts from $125 or less earlier in the morning, according to ERCOT data. That means at least some companies were supplying power at peak prices, potentially making a huge profit.
A complete list of companies and the prices they received, however, also falls under the PUC's confidentiality rules. For its part, the PUC has asked the state's independent market monitor, who's supposed to oversee market integrity, to investigate the cause of the blackouts and determine if market rules were broken.
That's a concern because the outages and the price spikes raise some troubling questions: For example, what if one or several of the companies that sold at peak prices also owned plants that allegedly froze and faked their outage?
That may be unlikely, but it needs to be examined. This is, after all, Enron's home state, and such a maneuver would be similar to some of the tricks the failed energy trader pulled to game the California electric market a decade ago.
You'll note I said the plants "allegedly" froze. That's because neither ERCOT nor the PUC knows for sure. ERCOT was simply notified by the generators that they were unable to supply power that ERCOT had counted on.
As the temperature begins to creep down again this week, the public deserves clear answers, and its right to those answers overrides the rules designed to protect the profits of generators.
Let's get all the information out in the open. Only when we get a better explanation of what happened can we figure out how to keep the lights on the next time. | <urn:uuid:e806b522-5b98-42a8-8a4a-0eeff41ac697> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chron.com/business/steffy/article/Loren-Steffy-We-re-still-in-the-dark-on-blackouts-1692255.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974612 | 875 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Choices: The Book
A teen girl breaks all the rules and finds herself alone ... when binge drinking, date rape, and pregnancy collide, Kara MacNeillís life spins out of control. Choices is a compelling and bumpy coming-of-age journey that hurtles a young girl into turmoil and confusion. The many sides of reproductive rights come together in Choices, a story voiced with respect, sensitivity, and heart.
Choices: The reader
For teen girls everywhere. Their mothers, grandmothers, aunts…and, their fathers and brothers.
Choices: The message - Your Life … Your Choices!
Choices is a gripping and thought provoking read about a teen girl who slips up and falls hard. When fifteen-year-old Kara learns to think for herself and take responsibility for her choices, she discovers a solid sense of self and her own value along the way. Will she ever be the same? ... No, she'll be stronger.
Choices: The author
Kate Buckley has her MA in Human Development with a concentration on women’s studies. She has facilitated support groups for girls in California and New Mexico and administrated a three-year drug and alcohol abuse prevention program in the public middle schools of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Choices won an Eric Hoffer Award in the Young Adult Category.
||ForeWord Reviews 2009
Book of the Year Awards
CHOICES: Winner — Young Adult Fiction
Choices: Book Review by Nancy L. Brown, Ph.D.
Choices: A Novel is a must read for teachers, parents and teenagers, everywhere. A combination of coming-of-age textbook, conversation starter, bite-your-nails, and gotta finish book, it took me by surprise. Laughter, tears, and some great conversations have filled our home this week as we read Choices.
I have to say that I think this novel and Kate Buckley completely rock! Kate is an author, screenwriter and health teacher and youth advocate who is willing to help teens grapple with the hard tasks associated with growing up and making tough choices in our culture. Her courage in writing this book gives me great hope for the future health of our teens. I encourage wellness and health classes to add this book to their curriculum and can't wait for the movie!
Choices: Book Review by Denise Jennings, Planned Parenthood
I used "Choices" this year with my Girls Groups at two middle schools,
and it is THE best book that I have found, covering topics like
drugs, alcohol, sex, rape and unplanned pregnancy. Not only is it an
excellent teaching tool, it is a great book for at-risk youth. They
identify with the character, not because she comes from a similar
socioeconomic background, but because she is a believable teenage character.
The book gave us the opportunity to talk about risky behavior and how to
avoid it; it also gave us an opportunity to talk about local resources
and places to access help. I highly recommend this book for young
people and for those working with at-risk populations.
Choices: Other Reviews
"Juno meets real life Ö This book is a great read, itís very real and
down-to-earth. Itís written very well and very emotional. I loved it!" Makenna M. age 15 (on Amazon.com)
"While Choices focuses on current and topical issues, it is the heart of this book that makes it so wonderful. Kara's soulful narrative and depictions of friendship and family love draw the reader in and propel the plot, making Choices a commentary on adolescence, religion, and society. The emotions and substance of Choices make it heartfelt and hard to put down. It really stays with you when you’re done." Tatiana Mathews, age 17, Gloucester, MA (reader)
Buy CHOICES on Amazon.com
Buy CHOICES on Barnes & Noble.com
Buy CHOICES at PowellsBooks.com
Buy CHOICES as an E-book | <urn:uuid:f60ade41-57ad-420e-85b1-bf902304743e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.katebuckleybooks.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940044 | 840 | 1.851563 | 2 |
A Georgia Tech VenutreLab company, and current ATDC resident Suniva has announced plans for a 60,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Norcross, just north of Atlanta. Suniva will be building the some of the world's most efficient solar cells. Suniva was founded by Georgia Tech Professor Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi. Visit the VenutreLab blog (see: additional links) for more information on this important development.
Each day, many students cross the Fifth Street Bridge not thinking much of the downtown connector that exhales exhaust below; but a few are working to electrify the cars that pass beneath.
In a competition
hosted by the City of Atlanta and Emory University’s Goizueta Business School,
a team of Georgia Tech students earned first prize and a monetary award for
proposing a system for electric vehicle adoption in Atlanta.
Both the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and
Schneider Electric are currently accepting applications for events being hosted | <urn:uuid:cafcb406-5e2d-42bf-80b4-820cf79c1231> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gatech.edu/greenbuzz/category/keywords/alternative-energy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923633 | 207 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Andy’s going to college! Now Buzz, Woody & the other toys are uncertain about their future. Use the #1 selling Tag™ Reading System to bring this book to life!
• Embark on a reading adventure with Woody, Buzz and friends through more than a dozen story activities. Pull Woody's string or push Buzz's buttons for different fun along the way.
• This Read on Your Own book helps develop essential reading comprehension skills by using more complex sentences and advanced vocabulary words. The Read on Your Own series is part of the Tag Learn to Read System, and is designed to foster children’s confidence in their reading ability so they can apply these skills to other areas of learning. The Tag Learn to Read System library features 80+ interactive books, puzzles, maps and more.
• Children can earn online rewards and parents can connect the Tag Reader to the online LeapFrog® Learning Path to see what their child is playing and learning.
• Tag Reader sold separately.
LeapFrog Editorial Review
LeapFrog’s Tag™ Reading System brings the sights, sounds and adventures of Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 3 alive in a storybook! Boys and girls 4 to 7 will love being a part of the action with Woody and the gang while exploring the dozen skill-building activities throughout.
While Woody and Buzz help their friends escape from Sunnyside Daycare, activities and games help teach kids about finding a solution, making a plan and working together as a team. The fun and learning doesn’t end when the story does because two activities featured at the back of the book to keep the adventure going. A creativity favorite will be “Bonnie’s Playtime,” where kids can build their own adventure by selecting a toy hero, setting, problem and solution and hear it read back to them – there are hundreds of possible combinations! Parents can access printables on LeapFrog® Connect™ like the “Buzz Words” word search and “Code Breaker” word scramble - keeping the Toy Story fun going “To infinity and beyond”!
6.80 x 0.50 x 11.30 inches | <urn:uuid:27a22d83-d75c-4e16-8389-a7db661020e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shop.leapfrog.com/leapfrog/jump/Tag%22-Book%3A-Disney-Pixar-Toy-Story-3-Together-Again/productDetail/Tag%3A-Read-on-Your-Own/TAG21123/cat850011?selectedColor=&selectedSize=&navAction=jump&navCount=0&categoryNav=false | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912357 | 451 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light, embodies the energy of compassion that flows out into the universe. One of the five Dhayani Buddhas, Amitabha presides over a celestial paradise called Sukhavati, or "realm of bliss," which in Buddhism is understood to be a state of consciousness. Depicted in the mudra or gesture of meditation, he holds a begging bowl, a symbol of infinite openness and receptiveness.
Statue is made of bonded stone with hand painted finish. 8 1/2 lbs. 8" w x 5" d x 12" h | <urn:uuid:68ea4d05-0945-4dc4-ace1-7435696d42b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dharmacrafts.com/100xBU/2ST190/12-Hand-Painted-Amitabha-Buddha-Statue.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934602 | 124 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Have photographers become complacent with their only commodity in order to expand their community of followers? Olivier Laurent delves into the Instagram controversy surrounding loss of copyright ownership and asks if the benefits of building an audience are worth the risks in the long run
In the early days, Instagram was liberating for journalists and photographers, says Karim Ben Khelifa. "In most cases, we never really meet our audiences, and with Instagram you can interact directly with your followers. When you think about it, Instagram, more than Facebook, is the perfect tool for photojournalists. Everyone communicates with photographs today. Of course, when we post images on that platform, we're not necessarily telling a story like we usually do - with 15 images, for example. But there's a sort of romanticism, where we seek beautiful or incredible images."
For Tomas Van Houtryve, a VII photographer, Instagram has allowed him to take pictures he'd stop taking altogether. "Sometimes, with digital cameras and huge raw files, I actually hesitate to take a picture because I don't want to deal with downloading it and backing it up on my hard drive and captioning it later," he says. "With Instagram, it has kind of brought that joy back where I can just take a moment - it's worth what it's worth - send it out and move on to something else. Not everything has to be a raw file. If I want something to go out through VII, I know it has to be perfectly colour-corrected, AP-style captioned, and sometimes I feel like: ‘Oh forget about it'." And Instagram has also become a kind of visual notepad, Van Houtryve adds. "If I have an idea, I might try playing around with the iPhone first. And if the idea takes hold, I'll go out and shoot it with a more advanced camera."
But with the fear of Facebook using Instagram's data and content to generate revenues, photographers have been rethinking their approach to the platform. Should they take the risk of losing ownership over some of their images in order to create a community of followers, or should they stop using the service altogether?
"We've become complacent with the only commodity we have as photographers - our copyright - in our near unfettered embrace of sharing our content with for-profit companies such as Instagram," says John Stanmeyer, one of the original founders of the VII Photo agency. "Keep in mind, there is nothing wrong whatsoever in a company making money. I want Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and whatever other brilliant means of digital communication is invented to thrive and survive. And while I respect some of my friends' and colleagues' approach of not publishing their photography on these social media platforms, I still feel strongly that you are missing a weighted potential of communication, especially if your photography is on meaningful issues which humanity collectively should discover and understand."
It's for that potential that photographer Peter DiCampo and writer Austin Merrill moved Everyday Africa, a photography blog about everyday life across the African continent, from Tumblr to Instagram last October. "It has actually been the ideal platform for Everyday Africa, considering the project's goal is to remind a general public that Africa is more than just a place of extremes," says DiCampo. "Instagram recently marked us as one of their Selected Users, which has resulted in thousands of new followers." As of 28 January, Everyday Africa had more than 17,000 Instagram followers and nine regular contributors, including photographers Shannon Jensen, Holly Pickett and Laura El-Tantawy, among others.
Instagram, says DiCampo, "has opened us up to what I'm calling ‘The OMG Crowd' of general Instagram users outside of the circle of photographers - young people who, whether they realise it or not, are exploring the world through an inundating stream of photography. I could not go offline and have the same impact."
And that's precisely what Instagram is good for, argues Ben Khelifa. "I really believe we need to create these communities. It's the future. I believe that people who will understand our work are going to be the same people who will want to subscribe to our work. And these people have the capacity to finance us - we see it, concretely, with Emphas.is," a crowd-funding platform he created with Tina Ahrens to help finance the work of documentary photographers and photojournalists.
However, he adds, photographers have to accept that while Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can help them gather a community of followers, these platforms are not interested in helping their users monetise their audiences. "Instead, you need another platform that will respect photographers' copyright and give them the correct tools to communicate directly with an audience that is ready to invest in their work."
For Ben Khelifa, of course, that platform could be Emphas.is. But he says the debate isn't about what platform photographers should use. Instead, "the debate should be about click-through rates. If you have 100,000 followers with a CRT of 1%, it sounds small, but actually it means that 1000 people are ready to spend money on you. On Emphas.is, the average spent in 2012 was $113. So, with a click-through rate of 1%, that means you'd be getting more than $100,000 a year. This allows you to be independent."
Of course, there aren't that many photojournalists at the moment with 100,000 followers. David Alan Harvey has 16,000, Benjamin Lowy 21,000, David Guttenfelder of Associated Press is followed by 23,000 people, while Michael Christopher Brown and John Stanmeyer both have 26,000. Outside of photojournalism, however, the numbers can be staggering. Koci Hernandez, an expert in iPhoneography, has amassed more than 162,000 followers.
But, says Ben Khelifa, even with "just" 20,000 followers, a photographer such as Lowy can benefit if he has a click-through rate of 1%. "That means that 200 people could potentially spend around $100, if we take Emphas.is' numbers. That means that if he puts together a good proposition, he could get $20,000 for his work."
Van Houtryve hasn't really used his community is that way yet, even though the VII photographer has become an expert in successfully crowd-funding his various projects. "John Stanmeyer, I think, is the master of that right now," he says. "He has managed to build up a huge community and then uses it to the benefit his clients, like Médecins Sans Frontieres. These NGOs just want to show people what they are doing in the field. They don't care if it's on Instagram or in print. When he posts it on his own, 26,000 people see it, but when he posts it on the National Geographic feed, 500,000 people see it. That's a huge potential for NGOs that are trying to raise awareness of a particular situation."
When it comes to copyright issues raised by Instagram's latest controversy, not everyone agree on the way forward. "It is impossible for us, as professionals, to accept these terms," says photographer Ed Kashi. "First of all, it goes against everything we've worked so hard to protect for decades - that we own our work and can control it. But more than that, how can Instagram expect to monetise images of people who are recognisable without model releases? They aren't thinking clearly."
Yet, for others, it might be a risk worth taking, mainly for the sake of building communities of followers. "When we publish images on Instagram, they can be seen by everyone, freely," Ben Khelifa argues. "People can take a screenshot of the images, and on Facebook they can even download them. They can print them. So, we need to wake up to that reality. What's actually happening is that, with the latest technological advances, anyone can take our images. So, the question should be: can we fight these advances and the millions of people who are consuming images in that way? Or should we accept this new form of consumption and instead look at how we can bring them closer to us, how we can interact and benefit from them. We need to put ourselves in their shoes, accept their rules and, down the line, monetise them. We might be the authors of our work, but without an audience, we're nothing."
In fact, photographers should engage directly with that audience, he adds. "When people are engaged, and when they are satisfied with the experience, they become ambassadors who might be willing to spend money on you. But if you don't engage with that audience, if you take their money and don't communicate, these people won't trust you anymore. You need to respect your audience. If you get an assignment from Patrick Witty at Time Magazine, you're not going to ignore him the next time you see him. The same goes with the 250 people who financed your work on a crowd-funding platform. You need to nurture that relationship."
Instagram has, so far, given up on its controversial terms of service, but its founder Kevin Systrom has made it clear that, in the future, it will use its contributors' content for commercial purposes. In a blog post, he wrote: "Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like our advertising business to work."
For photographers, one way around these future commercial plans is to watermark their images, making them unusable in advertising. "You can post a single image, covered in elegant but complex to clone-out watermarks," says Stanmeyer. "Doing so will ensure you bring people to the photographs that you, to the best of your ability, control."
Van Houtryve has already been watermarking his images using the app Marksta, which was developed by John D McHugh, himself a photojournalist. But he's also been testing other photo-sharing platforms such as EyeEm and Flickr. "The thing with EyeEm and Flickr is that you don't get the same kind of numbers you get with Instagram," he tells BJP. "Instagram has a massive community."
One thing is sure, the photographers all agree that we live in an era of constant experiments, and there aren't always clear solutions, says DiCampo. "What works for one photographer or one project may fail for another. Personally, I try to put my head down and plough forward, making work that interests me and that I hope interests others, and not be involved with any practices that devalue my craft in the meantime."
Kashi adds: "The world is not the same as it was just five years ago, let alone 30 years ago when I first entered the profession. We must adapt and make tough decisions as we move forward. That is also why it's critically important to share information and communicate with one another, so we stay stronger and aware."
You can follow the photographers quoted in this article on Instagram: Karim Ben Khelifa, Peter DiCampo, Ed Kashi, John Stanmeyer, Tomas Van Houtryve, Everyday Africa, as well as the author of this article Olivier Laurent and British Journal of Photography.
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Caring for Community at Heart of 2012-13 Public Health Projects
- By Jennifer Nachbur
Though only in their second-year of medical school, students at the University of Vermont College of Medicine are already making an impact on the health of Vermonters through their public health projects. To celebrate the Class of 2015’s accomplishments in this realm, faculty and agency advisors, medical students, faculty and staff participated in the annual Poster Session and Celebration on Wednesday, January 23, 2013, at 4 p.m. in the Hoehl Gallery in the Health Science Research Facility at the UVM College of Medicine.
A total of 16 group projects were on display at the event. “This year’s projects feature several unique models for our community and Vermont to improve health in different populations,” says Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., associate dean for public health and course director for the Public Health Projects.
One of this year’s poster presentations highlighted a project involving the Vermont State Department of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living and titled “Money Follows the Person: Transitioning Nursing Home Residents into the Community.” Based on research showing an association between nursing home admission and decline in several measures of health and well-being, the project focused on the feasibility of developing a housing model that supports the transition of nursing home residents back into the community via a move into an Adult Family Home. Students administered a survey to nursing homes throughout the state in order to evaluate the population’s required level of care and conducted a focus group of current home and service providers from Addison County to determine their experiences with transitioning residents from nursing homes into the community. The final element of the project was the construction of an Adult Family Home model using components of pre-existing models (in other states) to address Vermont’s specific needs. Money Follows the Person – a statewide, federally-funded and Medicaid-linked program that supports the transition of individuals from nursing facilities into their communities with the supports they need – was identified as the financial support mechanism.
Through a collaboration with the United Way of Chittenden County, each spring, first-year UVM medical students meet with Burlington, Vt. area agencies to identify partnerships for public health projects to address a need in the community. The projects are conducted during the fall of the second year of medical school and often, the information gathered through these projects leads to sustainable programs and even legislative action. Several student groups have been accepted to present their project findings at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. | <urn:uuid:abbd56e8-5310-4199-b7e1-e23e77642b9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uvm.edu/medicine/careers/?Page=news&storyID=15155&category=comall | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957727 | 528 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Amazingly, trees cover over 30 percent of the world’s land area. In forests, they’re kings and queens, reigning supreme over all the other plants and animals below. In parks and gardens, and along city streets, trees bring beauty and a. Read More
Kids who are keen on learning about blood will get the full story here, starting with the different types of cells that constitute it and moving through what it does, how it does it, and what happens when it doesn’t go with the flow. Learn More
Cells, for kids, lays out all the basic facts about these microscopic structures out of which our bodies are made, covering everything from their internal “organs” to the way they determine every single human characteristic. Learn More
From powerful pump to the imagined seat of our emotions, the abilities of the human heart, for kids, are broken down here in colorful sections on everything from its many internal structures to how to care for your heart. Learn More
Make way for microbes! For kids who want all the squirmy details about the invisible creatures that make us sick (but mostly keep us alive), this issue delivers; from microbes’ many positive uses to the sometimes-destructive path they’ve made through history, it’s all here. Learn More
Fill ‘er up! With healthy food, that is. The elements of good nutrition, for kids, are featured here, with a focus on which foods provide the best fuel, the role of vitamins, and how the digestive process works. Learn More
Blog results for 'Cells'
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, deciduous trees stand quietly waiting to be dressed in spring clothes. The air is quiet. Perhaps there is snow. It is time to walk among the winter trees and see what secrets their leaves have been hiding all summer long. Read More
It begins about 10,000 years ago, toward the end of the Ice Age. A group of tiny organisms called coral polyps dies. The animals, which had attached themselves to the ocean floor near the shoreline, leave behind their hard, limestone. Read More
Explore the spectacular inner workings of a human cell with this informative infographic. Read More
…And they’re not tigers, sharks, vultures, or any other animal, for that matter. They’re plants! “How can that be?” you’re probably wondering. According to your science book, plants make their own food through photosynthesis. They don’t eat meat or need. Read More
Looking for something specific? | <urn:uuid:f2b6bfb2-90f1-4823-ae59-d1d7f5791e48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kidsdiscover.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Cells | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9408 | 537 | 3.46875 | 3 |
- THE MAGAZINE
S.K. Sundaram, Ph.D., Inamori professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the Inamori School of Engineering at Alfred University, has been chosen to evaluate the glasses that will be used in a “huge particle physics experiment” being undertaken by the Brookhaven (BNL) and Fermi National Accelerator (FNAL) laboratories. Sundaram will evaluate the mechanical properties of glasses that could be critical to the success of the collaborative project being undertaken by the national laboratories.
Two vendors have supplied glasses to the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., proposing the glasses be used to house neutrino detectors inside a device called a photomultiplier tube for what is called the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE). Neutrinos are subatomic particles that are similar in size to electrons, but that have no charge. They travel over long distances close to the speed of light, and are very difficult to detect because they can pass through solid materials without affecting them.
Neutrinos from earth can make it to the moon in about a second, Sundaram said. Researchers are interested in them because they appear to play a more complicated role in the composition of matter than previously thought. Physicists are proposing to send a high-intensity muon (one of the three types) neutrino beam from FNAL in Weston, Ill., through more than 1000 km of earth to detectors at the Homestake Mine in Lead, S.D. The detectors, encased in glass, will be placed in the mineshaft, which will then be flooded with high-purity water. When the neutrinos collide with water molecules, they emit a faint glow (called Chenokov radiation), which is recognized by the detectors, Sundaram said.
“The detectors will be far underground for a long duration, so the glass needs to be able to withstand the pressure of the water filling the mine shaft,” said Matthew Hall, director of the Center for Advanced Ceramic Technology (CACT) at Alfred, which is supporting the project in conjunction with Brookhaven. “Should one of the photon-multiplier tubes implode-as one did during a similar experiment conducted by the Japanese in 2001-it could destroy an entire array of glass tubes.”
For more information, visit http://engineering.alfred.edu. | <urn:uuid:b5dad636-fb70-46cf-95d8-ce0bb38c787c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ceramicindustry.com/articles/alfred-university-researcher-tests-glasses-for-particle-physics-experiment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923837 | 500 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The Hospice of North Idaho (HONI) has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) $50,000 to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule. This is the first settlement involving a breach of unprotected electronic protected health information (ePHI) affecting fewer than 500 individuals.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) began its investigation after HONI reported to HHS that an unencrypted laptop computer containing the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 441 patients had been stolen in June 2010. Laptops containing ePHI are regularly used by the organization as part of their field work. Over the course of the investigation, OCR discovered that HONI had not conducted a risk analysis to safeguard ePHI. Further, HONI did not have in place policies or procedures to address mobile device security as required by the HIPAA Security Rule. Since the June 2010 theft, HONI has taken extensive additional steps to improve their HIPAA Privacy and Security compliance program.
“This action sends a strong message to the health care industry that, regardless of size, covered entities must take action and will be held accountable for safeguarding their patients’ health information.” said OCR Director Leon Rodriguez. “Encryption is an easy method for making lost information unusable, unreadable and undecipherable.”
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Breach Notification Rule requires covered entities to report an impermissible use or disclosure of protected health information, or a “breach,” of 500 individuals or more to the Secretary of HHS and the media within 60 days after the discovery of the breach. Smaller breaches affecting less than 500 individuals must be reported to the Secretary on an annual basis.
A new educational initiative, Mobile Devices: Know the RISKS. Take the STEPS. PROTECT and SECURE Health Information, has been launched by OCR and the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) that offers health care providers and organizations practical tips on ways to protect their patients’ health information when using mobile devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones. For more information, visit www.HealthIT.gov/mobiledevices.
The Resolution Agreement can be found on the OCR website at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/enforcement/examples/honi-agreement.pdf | <urn:uuid:7efeee58-4086-4bd1-bce1-1f9ddcd7421f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.securityinfowatch.com/news/10848602/idaho-hospice-agrees-to-pay-50000-for-hipaa-violations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925755 | 530 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Preaching and Teaching
"I'm going to preach His birth, death and resurrection - I’ll preach it until Jesus comes." Billy Graham.
Central to Crown Jesus Ministries is the preaching and teaching of the Bible. As Evangelists we hold this ministry dear to our hearts – it is our primary calling to preach and teach the Word of God.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Cor 6:16 ‘For if I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me, yes, woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel.’ These words are applicable to us today, the Holy Spirit lays this calling upon our lives. This Gospel is clear – Christ came to save sinners and it is through faith in His grace we are saved. It is therefore only natural to exalt Christ and encourage others to believe in him.
Not only are we called to preach the message of Christ but to preach to all classes of people at every opportunity. We are preachers without a pulpit, willing to go where ever the Spirit will lead us. We count it an honour to preach to those who are already in the faith, but our pursuit is to reach those that are lost with the Good News. The Greek word used for preaching is kerugma, which is best defined as ‘The public declaration of the Gospel to the non-Christian world with the view to converting that world.’ (C.H. Dodd)
We do not preach with arrogance, we are very aware of our imperfections compared to those great preachers of old. We have a mountain to climb... however we trust in Him, we trust in the power of the Holy Spirit, the message of the cross and the fear of the Lord to make up for our failings. With boldness we preach the truth asking Jesus to bring sinners to repentance. And He does!
Simply, we must preach because that is what we are called to do. C.H. Spurgeon once said this of those called to preach, “All earth might forsake him, but he would preach to the mountain-tops. If he has the call of heaven, if he has no congregation, he would preach to the rippling waterfall and let the brooks hear his voice. He could not be silent and with eagle's wings he must fly.”
We have preached in many pulpits and in many denominations throughout Ireland. We are sensitive to our audience and respectful of the work and ministry of others but we do not compromise our message. We preach for a response - throwing out the net and trusting God for a great shoal of fish.
We are people who love to teach the Bible and its disciplines. As we learn from God each day we are enthused to share His message with others. Our teaching comes with the joy of learning and as we build others up we too are built up. The Bible is a double edged sword cutting into our lives as much as into the lives of those who listen. We pray that God will use our words to meet people at their point of need, not relying on our own agenda or a few favourite subjects but rather trusting the Lord to lead us to the right text and message.
If you would like one of the evangelists to minister to your Church or community why not e-mail us.
2Tim 4:2 "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching."
Lord, help us to live out this verse for the Glory and Honour of your name. Amen. | <urn:uuid:76049629-2742-491b-b5bf-fff0b39e3954> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crownjesus.org/what-we-believe/preaching-and-teaching.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967228 | 743 | 1.507813 | 2 |
- Special Sections
- Top Homes
Big Spring City Council this week acted on a measure that might help take a small bite out of the city's bond debt, a move that could save taxpayers between $5,000 and $25,000 a year.
The council met with Lubbock-based First Southwest representative Eric Macha regarding general obligation bonds that were issued in 2002. According to Macha, the bonds — which if left on their current course will be paid off in 2014 — are eligible to be refinanced at a lower interest rate that could save the city thousands of dollars during the next three years.
“How much the city can save depends solely on the interest rates, and no one really knows what they will do,” Macha told the council members. “They reached an all-time low recently. However, based just on a .01 percent change, that can change the amount saved from the $25,000 we're looking at now to something much lower.”
Macha explained to the council the move — which, for reasons of simplicity Mayor Tommy Duncan referred to as refinancing — would not effect the pay off date, a fact many of the council members were very pleased with.
For more information, you may subscribe to the Big Spring Herald or purchase an e-edition. | <urn:uuid:5ab70d2c-c856-464d-bb9e-9409275cd86e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bigspringherald.com/content/city-looks-save-some-cash?quicktabs_2=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969919 | 271 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Star Prairie soldier recoveringWhen Annette Sislo’s phone rang on July 26, she didn’t recognize the phone number but something in her heart told her to answer it.
By: By Jackie Grumish, New Richmond News
When Annette Sislo’s phone rang on July 26, she didn’t recognize the phone number but something in her heart told her to answer it.
On the other end were officials from the U.S. Army. They were calling to tell her Sgt. Josh Sislo, her 22-year-old son, had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, severely injuring his lower body.
“They said he’s been injured but he’s OK,” she said. “I knew it couldn’t have been good news, but they weren’t at my door, so that was a blessing.”
Sislo, a Star Prairie native, was serving his second tour in Afghanistan. He had only been deployed for a month. He was awarded a Purple Heart, the decorating given to those injured or killed in combat, while in Afghanistan.
Annette Sislo said she wasn’t too keen on Josh Sislo joining the Army, but she knew he would join with or without her support.
It didn’t take Sislo long to climb to the rank of sergeant.
“There aren’t too many 22-year-old sergeants out there,” Annette Sislo said.
When he was deployed the second time, Annette Sislo said she knew he was going to Afghanistan, but she wasn’t told he had been deployed to one of the most dangerous places in the country.
“I had no idea he was going to an area so severe. They were right in the middle of it,” she said. “He said it was like an action movie – and he was on the wrong side.”
On July 24, Sislo led his men into the field to help recover the bodies of fallen soldiers.
“They were hit hard and eventually ran out of (ammunition),” Annette said.
At one point Sislo was assisting one of his soldiers when an RPG hit.
“His boys had the tourniquet on him before he even hit the ground,” Annette Sislo said. “They’re that well trained. He probably wouldn’t have survived without it.”
Annette Sislo said getting Josh Sislo out of harm’s way was a challenging task.
“They were shot at all the way to the truck,” she said. “At one point Josh had to get off the gurney to crawl down a ravine before getting back on the gurney.”
After undergoing surgeries in Afghanistan and Germany, Sislo was eventually transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
“We thought they were going to keep him in Germany (where he’s stationed),” Annette Sislo said. “We were packed and ready to go.”
Annette Sislo said she spent about a month in Washington, D.C. before returning to Star Prairie. Josh Sislo’s wife, Kristen Kunze, also a Star Prairie native, is still with him at the hospital.
Annette Sislo said despite the injuries and pain Josh Sislo is experiencing, he indicated the first thing he wants to do when he gets better is go back to Afghanistan to be with his soldiers.
“Those are his boys,” she said. “They’re his family.”
Annette Sislo said she’s thankful for the support she’s received from the Army.
“They’re with you every step of the way,” she said. “They were updating me every two or three hours.”
Since being back in the United States, Josh Sislo has had several visitors, including President Barack Obama, at Walter Reed.
“He’s been visited by the president, senators, comedians, baseball players… but his favorite visits are from the dogs,” Annette Sislo said with a laugh. “He loves animals.”
Walter Reed “employs” several therapy dogs that make daily rounds at the hospital.
It’s unclear how long Josh Sislo will be hospitalized. Two months after the incident, he still has no use of his left leg.
Josh Sislo is a 2008 graduate of New Richmond High School. He is the son of Annette Sislo, of Star Prairie, and Raymond Sislo of Deer Park. He completed basic combat training at Fort Knox, Ky.
To keep up with Josh Sislo, visit Facebook.com and seach “Family, Friends, & Fans For Josh Sislo.“ | <urn:uuid:f252d807-bd8c-4b56-9b14-ed48624f2a73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newrichmond-news.com/event/article/id/37377/group/News/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986525 | 1,073 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Memorandum to the Next President
Posted Nov 1, 2008 9:35 PM CDT
By H. Thomas Wells Jr. and Thomas M. Susman
To: The Next President of the United States
From: H. Thomas Wells Jr., ABA President, and Thomas M. Susman, Director, ABA Governmental Affairs Office
Re: Your First 30 Days in Office
Date: November 2008
Once you take office in January, Mr. President-elect, you will face all manner of challenges related to the rule of law—issues with dramatic impact on the day-to-day lives of all Americans and others who come into contact with the U.S. government.
The American Bar Association—with nearly 408,000 members, the world’s largest professional organization—has made numerous policy proposals for improving the justice system and promoting the rule of law. Those policies also seek to ensure the nation’s security while continuing to protect civil liberties. The association’s policies—which are adopted by the 556-member House of Delegates—include measures we are recommending to help the administration and Congress achieve these objectives.
Many of the goals reflected in the ABA’s policies require legislative action. That means, as the Constitution prescribes, joint efforts by the executive and legislative branches. The president, however, has the power to take executive action on certain urgent matters.
You can start working on some of these pressing matters as part of your transition process and then take executive action right after your inauguration, even as the 111th Congress is organizing. The ABA urges you to act in the following areas where progress can be made, without legislation, in a very short time:
Judicial Selection and Nomination. The federal judicial nomination and confirmation process is a critical constitutional responsibility shared by the president and the Senate. Although the process is political by design, it functions poorly when contentiousness and partisanship rule the day. To restore a sense of common purpose and bipartisanship to the judicial nomination and confirmation process, you should, as president: (1) Pledge to consult in good faith with the home-state senators and with Senate leaders of both parties prior to nominating individuals for lifetime appointments to the federal bench, (2) support establishment of bipartisan commissions to assist in identifying qualified candidates for possible nomination to the courts of appeals, and (3) urge senators in each state to establish bipartisan commissions to identify qualified individuals whom the senators might consider recommending to the president as possible nominees to the district courts. Pre-nomination consultation and bipartisan commissions will benefit all parties while preserving constitutional prerogatives.
Immigration. As a nation of immigrants, the United States has the obligation to ensure that our immigration adjudication and detention systems are effective, fair and humane. To ensure appropriate treatment of individuals in immigration detention, including access to legal representation and basic medical care, you should instruct the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to promulgate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement National Detention Standards—which provide guidance on a range of issues related to detention conditions and detainee treatment—as regulations with the force of law. In addition, to restore fairness to the appellate review process, you should direct the attorney general to take steps to rescind the Board of Immigration Appeals: Procedural Reforms to Improve Case Management, which were instituted in 2002.
The measure greatly diminished the quality of BIA reviews and resulted in a crushing appellate caseload in the federal circuit courts.
Attorney-Client Privilege. The Department of Justice, through a series of memorandums spanning a decade, instructed prosecutors to deny cooperation credit to corporations and other organizations that refused to waive their fundamental attorney-client privilege, work product and employee legal protections during investigations. Many other federal entities—including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development—adopted similar waiver policies that also undermine these bedrock legal rights. Although the Justice Department issued new cooperation standards in August prohibiting prosecutors from seeking waiver of the privilege or employees’ legal rights, policies undermining the attorney-client privilege and other protections remain in place at other federal entities. You should immediately direct all federal entities to adopt binding internal policies that mirror the protections contained in the new Justice Department standards and follow up by endorsing legislation in Congress that makes these reforms permanent and gives them the full force of law that only a statute can achieve.
Interrogation Practices for Detainees. An executive order issued by President Bush on July 20, 2007, authorizes the CIA to operate a program of detention and interrogation that is inconsistent with U.S. obligations under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of Aug. 12, 1949. You should rescind that executive order and ensure that whenever a foreign person is captured, detained, interned or otherwise held within the custody of or under the physical control of the United States, or interrogated in any location by agents of the United States (including private contractors), he or she is treated in accordance with the minimum protections afforded by Common Article 3 and in a manner fully consistent with standards of treatment and interrogation techniques contained in U.S. Army Field Manual 2-22.3, Human Intelligence Collector Operations, issued September 2006.
International Criminal Court. The United States has a long history of promoting justice and the rule of law on an international scale. Yet in 2002, President Bush withdrew the United States’ signature from the 1998 Rome Statute for an International Criminal Court, thereby removing the United States from any involvement with the ICC. You should restore the U.S. signature to the treaty and initiate the appropriate executive branch process that will lead to the treaty’s submission before the Senate for ratification during the 111th Congress. Until the United States ratifies the Rome Statute, you should instruct the secretary of state to ensure that the U.S. government cooperates and assists in ongoing investigations and prosecutions by the ICC, and exercises its right to participate as an observer at meetings of the court’s governing and planning bodies.
Presidential Signing Statements. During his administration, President Bush has issued signing statements in conjunction with certain bills he signed in which he claimed the authority or stated the intention to disregard or decline to enforce all or part of the new laws, or to interpret the laws in a manner inconsistent with the clear intent of Congress. While the use of presidential signing statements is not new, the outgoing administration has used them as a vehicle, often unnoticed, for effectively vetoing or amending the very legislation being signed. This is contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers. You should make clear at the start of your administration that you reject this constitutionally suspect use of signing statements. If you believe that any provision of a bill pending before Congress would be unconstitutional if enacted, you should communicate those concerns to Congress before passage and use your veto power if you conclude that all or part of a bill is unconstitutional.
Mr. President-elect, the ABA is strongly committed to advancing the rule of law through implementation of these initiatives. They are neither partisan nor ideological and are of concern not only to the lawyers of America but to all Americans.
Our membership includes a diverse group of highly experienced lawyers with expertise in each of the areas addressed above. The ABA is prepared to convene, in a very short time frame, nonpartisan working groups of our volunteer experts to assist your transition teams and staff in developing and executing the steps necessary to implement these policies during the first few weeks of your term in office. We urge you to take us up on this offer. | <urn:uuid:7f1e20cc-677f-4264-852f-91b60806815a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/memorandum | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945122 | 1,537 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Now, the ACLU’s New Jersey chapter has gone beyond the courtroom, introducing a smartphone application to allow state residents to secretly record police stops, protect the recordings from being deleted by displeased officers and report the incidents to civil rights groups.
“This app provides an essential tool for police accountability,” said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey.
The arrival of the app, called Police Tape, follows some high-profile cases in which police have clashed with citizens over their recording of officers. It also speaks to the notion that, anywhere, any time — whether it’s by a police department’s security camera or a motorist’s cell phone — everyone can be recorded.
Citizens have been hassled and even arrested after recording police officers in public places, said Alexander Shalom, ACLU New Jersey’s policy counsel. At times, their phones have been taken away and recordings deleted, he said.
It opens to a screen with three buttons: video recording, audio recording and a tutorial on knowing your rights.
The app’s signature feature is its ability to operate in “stealth mode” while recording. When you start video recording, the screen goes black, as if it’s off. When recording audio, the app automatically minimizes and disappears.
The issue of recording police on smartphones has drawn controversy in Newark, where then 16-year-old Khaliah Fitchette recorded two officers aiding a man on a public bus in March 2010. Police removed Fitchette from the bus and handcuffed her after she refused to stop filming, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of the teen by the ACLU and the Seton Hall Center for Social Justice last March. After a three-hour ordeal, Fitchette was released to her mother, the lawsuit says.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? | <urn:uuid:ff5774f6-696f-48ce-930e-557950080dc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blackmediascoop.com/2012/07/06/secret-app-records-cops-without-them-even-knowing-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958837 | 386 | 2 | 2 |
During their heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, transatlantic cruise lines such as the Hamburg America Line and the White Star Line transported tens of millions of passengers between Europe and the United States. By the 1960s, however, their business was being threatened by the rise of a disruptive new enterprise, namely, nonstop transatlantic flights. As it happened, the cruise ship lines had one potential strategy with which to save their business: vacation cruises. Starting in the 1930s, some of these lines had sailed to the Caribbean during the winter, thus using their boats when rough seas made the Atlantic impassable. And in 1964, when a new port was opened in Miami, Fla., the pleasure cruise business began to boom.
But the great cruise lines missed this breakthrough opportunity. They saw their profitability fall while dozens of startups, including Royal Caribbean and Carnival, retrofitted existing ships to offer pleasure cruises and built an entirely new travel and leisure category that continues to grow today.
Managers and entrepreneurs walk past lucrative opportunities all the time, and later kick themselves when someone else exploits the strategy they overlooked. Why does this happen? It’s often because of the natural human tendency known to psychologists as confirmation bias: People tend to notice data that confirms their existing attitudes and beliefs, and ignore or discredit information that challenges them.
Although it is difficult to overcome confirmation bias, it is not impossible. Managers can increase their skill at spotting hidden opportunities by learning to pay attention to the subtle clues all around them. These are often contradictions, incongruities, and anomalies that don’t jibe with most of the prevailing assumptions about what should happen. Here is my own “top 10” field guide to clues for hidden breakthrough opportunities, observed in a wide variety of industries, countries, and markets. If you find yourself noticing one or more of them, a major opportunity for growth could be lurking behind it.
1. This product should already exist (but it doesn’t). As the accessories editor for Mademoiselle magazine in the early 1990s, Kate Brosnahan spotted a gap in the handbag market between functional bags that lacked style and extremely expensive but impractical designer bags from Hermès or Gucci. Brosnahan quit her job, and with her partner Andy Spade, founded Kate Spade LLC, which produced fabric handbags combining functionality and fashion. These attracted the attention of celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Roberts. Many well-known product innovations — including the airplane, the mobile phone, and the tablet computer — began similarly, as products that people felt should already exist.
2. This customer experience doesn’t have to be time-consuming, arduous, expensive, or annoying (but it is). Consumer irritation is a reliable indicator of a potential opportunity, because people will typically pay to make it go away. Reed Hastings, for example, founded Netflix Inc. after receiving a US$40 late fee for a rented videocassette of Apollo 13 that he had misplaced. Charles Schwab created the largest low-cost brokerage house because he was fed up with paying the commissions of conventional stockbrokers. Scott Cook got the idea for Quicken after watching his wife grow frustrated tracking their finances by hand.
3. This resource could be worth something (but it is still priced low). Sometimes an asset is underpriced because only a few people recognize its potential. When a low-cost airline such as easyJet or Ryanair announces its intention to fly to a new airport, real estate investors often leap to buy vacation property nearby. They rightfully expect a jump in real estate values. Similarly, the founders of Infosys Technologies Ltd., India’s pioneering provider of outsourced information technology services, were among the first to recognize that Indian engineers, working for very low salaries, could provide great value to multinational clients. The company earned high profits on the spread between what they charged clients and what they paid local engineers. | <urn:uuid:97a95909-87f8-4f2f-a57c-262f4384212e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.strategy-business.com/article/11304?gko=ce28d | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965022 | 815 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Hecados is the eighth general in Behemoth's 34th Pillar.
Not much is revealed about his past besides his military affiliation.
Hecados, who is created by Ryuhei Tamura, has no inspiration regarding any inspiration used to create him. It's assumed that his name is loosely based on the Greek God, Hades. His Japanese voice actor is Kentaro Ito.
He kidnaps Aoi to force her to make a contract with him; Hecados confronts Oga and Hilda. He lets them discuss their plans to defeat him. Oga fires Zebul blast, but Hecados nullifies it. Then, Hilda cuts Aoi free. However, Hecados did this on purpose, so he can impale Hilda to get rid of her sooner. After Hilda gets impale, Oga decides to fight Hecados to avenge Hilda, yet Hecados overpowers Oga. Before Hecados can finish off Oga, Zenjuro appears and fends off Hecados. Hecados' allies, Graphel and Naga, appear to his aid. He and his friends try to attack Zenjuro only to get blasted by Zenjuro's power. Naga uses his gem to warp their group back to the demon world.
Later when Hilda defeats Yolda and the other wet nurses, Hecados and his friends warp to their location. He strangles Yolda and prepares to execute her, yet Hilda intervenes and blasts him through the roof. Oga arrives to the fight and wants to fight Hecados and his allies by himself. After Oga has finished his super milk time, he defeats Hecados and his allies easily after Oga and Beel combined their powers to create an explosion. (See anime under anime and manga differences).
He has a spear and can uses demonic aura like Hilda. However, Hecados needs a human to unlock his full potential in the human world.
In the manga, Hecados grabs Yolda and tries to execute her, yet Hilda attacks him and sends him crashing up through the roof. However, in the anime, Hecados does not attack Yolda nor does Hilda attack him. Also, in the anime, Hecados gets attack by Aoi who defends Hilda on the top of the tower. Aoi does not appear in the battle for the manga version. | <urn:uuid:4a12e3aa-8b65-48e6-a0af-066e027eafef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.animevice.com/hecados/18-33152/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973344 | 505 | 1.5 | 2 |
The federal government is getting criticized because it has not been able to get the frozen U.S. banking system to start lending money again. Many Americans resent injecting taxpayer dollars into beleaguered banks to get them lending again. After all, commercial bankers were among the villains that caused the global
There is a simple answer: No economy can function without having banks and other sources of capital available to provide credit to both businesses and households on a regular basis. Without well-functioning banks the economy collapses, leading to massive unemployment and declining incomes.
The main reason most banks are not lending is that many have billions of dollars of toxic assets on their books that are not worth what the banks paid for them. The banks can neither sell those assets to use the capital to lend, nor use those assets as reserves in making new loans.
Washington keeps coming up with myriad ways in a desperate attempt to end the crisis, but nothing has worked. The Federal Reserve opted to keep home interest rates low so that Americans would be encouraged to buy homes, but that did not remove any toxic assets.
Another idea was to use billions of taxpayer dollars to buy ownership positions in banks through preferred stock, thereby supplying the banks with some quality capital. But that approach did not remove many toxic assets off banks’ books and failed to restart lending.
Yet another approach was to merge failing banks with successful ones. But that requires paying the successful ones to take the failed banks’ assets over; and it’s expensive. Merrill Lynch was taken over by Bank of America, but it cost the federal government billions.
Why not just let the failed banks declare bankruptcy, wipe out their equity and fire their managers? As popular as that solution might be, it’s a bad idea. The 10 largest banks in the U.S. possess almost two-thirds of all the federally insured assets in U.S. banks and savings and loans. The four biggest banks posses over half of those assets.
The stocks of the big banks are owned primarily by
The final way to remove the toxic assets is for the federal government to buy them. One solution is to require that the banks evaluate all their assets by dividing them into toxic and sound groups. The government would be able to verify the bank assessments, and then buy the toxic assets at a big discount.
The government would guarantee to take all the losses, if upon resale the assets proved to be worth less than what they paid for them. Conversely, if upon resale the assets proved more valuable, the government would share half the profits with the banks concerned.
The toxic assets would be held in a “bad bank” within each financial institution, managed by the bank itself. In order to stimulate more lending, the Federal Reserve for a limited time of one to three years would reduce the existing lending reserve requirements from roughly 10% to 5%.
That would double the lending capacity of the banks from the base of their good assets resulting from the federal government’s purchase of their toxic assets, plus whatever good assets they already had, plus any new capital they could raise. By keeping the toxic assets within many banks rather than in one
If all these changes were to occur, outsiders could invest in buying stock in these banks without fear of having to cope with toxic assets. If the newly approved stimulus package generates more economic activity, then opportunities will arise for banks to make money by lending to firms and households. | <urn:uuid:940a398b-4209-485c-ae26-c112f8d1c141> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nreionline.com/finance/news/fed_restart_lending_0324 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967959 | 700 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Warming Threatens Tanzania's Seaweed Farms
Rising sea temperatures and turbulent weather have damaged the harvests of Zanzibar's seaweed farms and put growers out of work, researchers say.
Women harvest seaweed off the coast of Zanzibar.
Tanzania: Isles to Boost Seaweed Production
Tanzania Daily News, 13 July 2012
THE minister for Livestock and Fisheries Mr Abdullahi Jihadi Hassan has said that his ministry was working closely with the Ministry for Trade, Industry, and Marketing to improve ... read more »
Tanzania Daily News, 10 July 2012
ZANZIBAR lawmakers have raised concern over the use of trees, including Mangrove for pegs in seaweed farming particularly drying and seed tying arguing that it promotes ... read more »
Tanzania Daily News, 29 August 2012
ZANZIBAR is already highly vulnerable to climate variability, and will be amongst most affected by future climate change, while sea level rise received most attention; there are ... read more » | <urn:uuid:458e50ab-20be-4847-983d-a6851afb0041> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00022920.html?aa_source=ri-photo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937492 | 217 | 2.09375 | 2 |
SB 81 – Texas Cottage Food Law (Commercial Home Baking) Passes
The governor has signed SB 81 which includes the Texas Cottage Food Law. That means starting in September 2011 (and with certain limitations), home bakers in Texas can begin to legally sell cakes, cookies, and other non-perishable foods.
More information on this cottage food law bill is available on the sb81 official bill page.
House Sponsor: Representative Lois Kolkhorst
Summary of sections 5 and 6 of the bill, which pertain to Cottage Food Operations.
- Food must be sold from your home, directly to another consumer. No sales at farmer’s markets, wholesale, or resale to restaurants, grocery stores, coffee shops, etc.
- Foods are limited to non-potentially hazardous baked goods, canned jams, jellies, and dry spice mixes.
- Annual gross income from sales of above food items must be $50,000 or less.
- The local health department may not regulate these home cottage food operations, but they must maintain a record of any complaint made. This is a consumer safeguard, so that consumers can call the local health department and check for complaints on their “cake lady” before they purchase, if they wish.
- The food items sold must be labeled with the name and address of the cottage food production operation, and a statement that the food was made in a kitchen that has not been inspected by the health department.
- Food must not be sold through the internet. This simply means that these operations can’t set up a shopping cart and let people purchase blindly. Our cottage food producers may still have a web site to promote their business. The “no internet sales” clause goes back to the fact that we ARE small “cottage” operations, and helps ensure that sales are local and face-to-face, which is in keeping with the spirit of the bill. Again, it does NOT mean that web sites are prohibited.
- Law goes into effect 9/1/2011.
Texas Cake Photo by cakesbyallison
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You must be logged in to post a comment. | <urn:uuid:ae47fe86-c655-4736-b8f7-a7d4722809fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cakecentral.com/b/sb-81-texas-cottage-food-law-commercial-home-baking-passes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940083 | 451 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Wolves Officially Under State Management TodayJanuary 27th, 2012
Last month’s decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove wolves in the western Great Lakes region from the federal endangered species list became official today. Management authority over wolves in Michigan has been officially returned to the Department of Natural Resources, putting the state’s Wolf Management Plan into effect.
After meeting the criteria to delist more than a decade ago, conservation advocates finally won the day. Wolves no longer need federal protection. It it rightfully the state’s responsibility and authority to manage wildlife within its boundaries. According to the Wolf Management Plan, as of today wolves are classified as a “protected species” and allows for flexible management options for the state to control problem wolves. According to the 1996 Proposal G, supported overwhelmingly by voters, science-based management should guide future decisions on reclassifying wolves as a game species (something that can only be done by the legislature).
A 2008 state law MUCC pushed for also goes into effect today which allows livestock and dog owners the ability to protect their private property from wolf depredation—to remove, capture, or, if deemed necessary, use lethal means to destroy a wolf that is “in the act of preying upon” (attempting to kill or injure) the owner’s livestock or dog(s).
Specific guidelines have been provided by the DNR for livestock or dog owners who use lethal means to destroy a wolf:
1. Report the lethal take of a wolf by calling the Report All Poaching (RAP) hotline at 800-292-7800 no later than 12 hours after the lethal take.
2. Retain possession of the wolf until a DNR official is available to take possession. A DNR official will respond to the scene within 12 hours of notification.
3. Do not move or disturb the dead wolf. The only exception to this rule is if a wolf has been killed in the act of preying upon livestock and leaving the wolf in place would impede normal farming practices. In that case the wolf may be moved to a secure location once photographs are taken of the wolf and the area where lethal means were used.
The DNR will continue to investigate and prosecute of any wolf poaching cases. Illegally killing a wolf is punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both, and the cost of prosecution. Suspected poaching violations may be reported 24 hours a day, seven days a week to the DNR’s RAP hotline. | <urn:uuid:c328988e-237a-49a4-8c40-4c45f51c54b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mucc.org/2012/01/wolves-officially-under-state-management-today/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940451 | 530 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Opinion by R.T. Fitch ~ Author/President of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
Wild Equines Get No Holiday from Harassment, Death, Injury and CaptureIt is July 4th, 2011 and I am allowed the brief respite of reflecting upon the past, some forty years ago, when on the 4th of July, 1971 an exuberant, healthy young man was contemplating what the future would hold for himself, his country and the world. Fresh out of High School and fully enlisted in the United States Air Force this novice to the realities of life was only two days away from shipping out to boot camp and the vast mystery of military service in the United States Armed Forces.
I remember that July 4th back in 1971 very well as I was that young man and to this day I feel a warm glow when I recall the amount of pride and hope that I felt towards my country and the people who ran it…in fact, it brought me to tears during the last fireworks display that I would view as a civilian for many years. What honor, what glory what perfection of spirit the United States exuded; I pledged my very life to protect it, the Constitution and the office of the Presidency of the United States. Today, these feelings elude me.
This 4th of July holiday our current administration decided that it would be appropriate to violate federal law by declaring it open season upon our federally protected wild horses and burros. Charged by Congress to protect our national icons the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been waging a war of extinction upon once millions of native wild horses and burros who’s numbers, now, have dwindled down to less than 20,000 left free with over 45,000+ being held in BLM concentration camps where the public is illegally banned from monitoring their public treasurers. For some reason, I do not feel like celebrating the high moral standards of our country as I just don’t see anything right or just in the current administration and it’s long corrupt Department of Interior; it’s all about special interests, favors, agendas and money under the table and the horses are paying the price.
July 1 marked the beginning of the BLM’s open hunting season on wild horses and burros, smack dab in the middle of foaling season and right at the height of the summer heat; death, injury, trauma and destruction loom as the helicopters fire up to harass and tear apart herds that have been existence for centuries. I just can’t bring myself to light a sparkler over that, not now not ever.
I think back to that starry eyed young man and wrestle with what went wrong, how did we lose control of our government and when did it become acceptable to take lies for fact and turn our heads to cruelty and mayhem…when did it become politically correct to lose our hearts and quell our spirits? When did the country die and did anyone notice?
Can’t answer those questions but I can tell you that there is a very, very disappointed and angry veteran who is not going to stand by idly and watch the morals and principles defended by so many fine men and women become trampled upon by bloated and self-serving bureaucrats. It just ain’t going to happen!
We have found that fighting back with polite and accurate facts and figures does not work; attempting to be present at bloody stampedes to witness for the horses doesn’t work when you are held off over a mile away, and eye to eye negotiations have failed. Been there, done that and it’s time to move on.
This new war to save the equines is moving into the courtroom where simple discovery and the uncovering of facts will expose the federal government’s BLM to be the hornet’s nest of corruption and deceit that it really is.
Remember when you thought that the BLM had issued no-fly zones over their deadly helicopter operations so that no one could observe from above? WRONG, a proven lie.
How about the secret, contractor holding pens where the Calico prisoners are being held and dying off remember you were told that the area was off limits to the public as per the contactor? Wrong, public visits are part of the contractor’s contract.
Each day another layer of deceit and corruption is peeled from the onion that is Obama’s BLM, every day we get a little closer to the truth and every day we make just another little baby step closer to stopping the insane and cruel BLM from decimating what is left of our wild horses and burros.
Pick up some ammunition and join us today as it is a great day being that it is the 4th of the July. Declare your independence from the derisiveness of the federal government and join us in the courtroom where we battle to keep the wild horses running free. Come help hold the flag and reclaim our country as this is far bigger than just the wild horses as it goes to the heart of how the current government conducts their deceitful business and it is time to put the whole mess into a tail spin.
Come join the Wild Horse Freedom Federation’s cause and aid in funding viable legal cases against these most very un-American policies. Let’s put the pride back into our step and our government back into the hands of the American public. Let’s make the stand as time is running out.
Click (HERE) and join us in speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves. We can do it and we will.
Make this a 4th to remember.
May the Force of the Horse© be with us and maybe next year, we will have something substantial to celebrate!! | <urn:uuid:70e0c7a7-bce8-4ece-bf18-cc125673eaae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arizona1-aahsbloggingupdates.blogspot.com/2011/07/no-independence-day-for-us-national.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960929 | 1,172 | 1.742188 | 2 |
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Easy Log Cabin Block, Quilt Workshop
Saturday, February 23, 2013 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (EST)
Easy Log Cabin Block
Faith Garrold, teacher
Learn to make a Log Cabin quilt square! Participants need to bring 3 pieces of cotton fabric in colors they love- fat quarters 18”X 22” work well; needle, thread and scissors. We will provide the template and pattern for those who would like to continue and make a larger project. Bring 3 pieces of cotton fabric. At PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, Church Street, Searsport. $30 non-members, $25 members.
Faith Garrold has been quilting by hand for 30 years. She is passionate about hand work and about teaching others the art and pleasure of piecing and quilting by hand the way our great-grandmothers did. Faith has a small studio and has completed over 100 quilts of all sizes as well as other decorative pieces and wearable art clothing.
When & Where
Penobscot Marine Museum
Penobscot Marine Museum has the feel of a 19th Maine village. Our lovely campus of ten buildings is in the charming town of Searsport on Penobscot Bay. Our ship captain’s house is beautifully furnished with antiques from around the world. Another ship captain’s house displays our extensive collection of 19th century marine paintings, scrimshaw, ship models, and China Trade objects. We have three 19th century barns displaying over fifty classic small water craft including lobster boats, dories, and canoes. Two buildings are filled with hands-on maritime activities for kids. Outside on our green you can raise and lower a ship’s mast!
Check our website www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org for exhibit, lectures and workshops through the year. The PMM campus is open from late May through late October, but our Gallery has special exhibits, lectures and workshops throughout the winter and spring, and our Museum Store and Framer remain open Thursday through Saturday. | <urn:uuid:0c015174-6a05-480f-8d96-048b06b79469> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://logcabinblock.eventbrite.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95204 | 455 | 1.617188 | 2 |
By His Own PowerApril 30th, 2009
For a number of reasons, I’m a little more than a month behind in most of my projects right now (actually, I’m a whole year behind in one project). This is why I took a three week break in my podcasts over Easter instead of only one. Seven weeks ago, I heard someone say something theologically incorrect, and it’s taken until now before I address it. I didn’t correct this person at the time because in this situation I had to look up specific biblical passages to back up my correction. It was actually the beginning of the Intercessions in Tuesday’s Morning Prayer that prompted me to finally get busy on this one.
This is the erroneous theological statement that I heard:
“Christ did not rise from the dead of his own accord. God raised him from the dead.”
You may say that only the first sentence of this statement is erroneous, but when both sentences are put together, they imply a thoroughly heretical thought. By itself, the second sentence is correct. God did raise Christ from the dead, and since Christ is God, it could be said that Christ raised Himself from the dead. However, when these two sentences are put together, a distinction is made between Christ and God. By saying that God, and not Christ, raised Christ from the dead, it is implied that Christ is not God. This is heresy.
I am quite sure that the particular person that made this statement does believe that Christ is God, and didn’t realise the implication of this statement. I’m sure that the only intention was to emphasise the role of God the Father in Christ’s resurrection. This is why I said that it was “theologically incorrect” and not actually heretical.
Now onto the statement that prompted me to finally get around to writing this. This is how the Intercessions begin in Morning Prayer for the Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter:
“By his own power Christ raised up the temple of his body when it had been destroyed in death.”
I found the same wording, “by His own power,” in a section from a creed composed by a unknown theologian of the fifth century, which was received by the Council of Toledo XI in 675, and possible approved by Pope Innocent III:
[The Redemption] In this form of assumed human nature we believe according to the truth of the Gospels that He was conceived without sin, born without sin, and died without sin, who alone for us became sin [II Cor. 5:21], that is, a sacrifice for out sin. And yet He endured His passion without detriment to His divinity, for out sins, and condemned to death and to the cross, He accepted the true death of the body; also on the third day, restored by His own power, He arose from the grave.
The most convincing proof that Jesus rose from the dead by His own accord is His own words in John 2:19-22:
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.
Note that He did not say, “God will raise it up,” but, “I will raise it up.”
John 10:17-18 also says the same thing:
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father.”
Here Christ states that he has the power to lay down His life and raise it up again by His own accord. However, He also says that He received this charge from His Father.
Christ did not act alone in the Resurrection, but in the unity of the Trinity. Here are a couple of passages that cite the action of the Father and Holy Spirit in the Resurrection.
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)
… and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord… (Romans 1:4)
Pauline theology tends to emphasise that the Father raised Christ from the dead, whereas Johannine theology tends to emphasise Christ raising Himself from the dead. Both are correct (obviously, they’re in the Bible). Negating either one creates not only unsound theology, it open the door to heresy.
Addendum May 12, 2009
As Easter progresses, the Liturgy of the Hours gives a fuller expression of the Trinitarian source of the Resurrection. The Intercessions in Morning Prayer for the Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter begin with this:
God the Father raised up Christ through the Spirit, and will also raise up our mortal bodies.
The Intercessions in Evening Prayer for the Fifth Week of Easter begin with this:
The Holy Spirit raised the body of Christ to life and made it the source of life. | <urn:uuid:ae7906a7-2dde-4d73-97c7-baa3d55722cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://grigaitis.net/blog/2009/04/by-his-own-power/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97744 | 1,170 | 2.015625 | 2 |
|Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship||Fall 1996|
I. General Conclusions II. Quality and Imprint Conclusions III. Copyright Conclusions IV. Production/Management/Financial Conclusions
I. INTRODUCTION. A. General Introduction B. Introduction to ACRL Current Activities C. Introduction to ACRL Goals and Electronic Publication II. Discussion of Issues A. Overview of Issues B. Quality/Imprint Issues: Discussion C. Copyright Issues: Discussion D. Production/Management/Financial Issues: Discussion III. Conclusions A. General Conclusions B. Quality and Imprint Conclusions C. Copyright Conclusions D. Production/Management/Financial Conclusions IV. Afterword
Phase One: Continuation of efforts to convert appropriate types of materials as quickly as possible. Such materials would include internal documents, reports, standards, etc., and section newsletters. The advantages to converting this type of publication are clear. However, runs of paper editions may need to be maintained for some publications until (a) the electronic version can reach the entire membership of ACRL and other relevant audiences, and (b) a secure archive has been developed.
Phase Two: Continue the study and testing of electronic alternatives for news magazines (C&RL News) and review sources (e.g. CHOICE), and begin study of electronic alternatives for research journals (C&RL, RBML.) An interim report will be presented at the Midwinter Meeting, 1997. Such study and testing should include a detailed financial analysis and a consideration of whether publications should exist in electronic format only; in parallel print and electronic formats, or should remain in print exclusively.
At that time, several of the sections were engaged in a variety of more innovative and collaborative efforts. The Instruction Section was working with CNI to develop a 'virtual collection' of Internet user education and training materials. The Bibliographic Standards Committee of the RBMS was revising rare book thesauri and Examples to Accompany Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books that may be distributed as a part of the LC Cataloger's Desktop project.
For the organization as a whole there has been a lot of activity. Since 1993, College and Research Libraries News has published the C&RL NewsNet, an abridged version in electronic form. In 1995 a website was established to provide information on the National Conference. Standards and guidelines have recently been placed on the ACRL Gopher, now accessible from the ACRL homepage. Twenty-three of twenty-six standards and guidelines are now available and the remaining three will be available before the 1996 annual conference. In addition, ACRL Board actions are regularly made available on the ACRL Gopher.
Other ALA divisions, like ACRL, are poised to move forward with electronic publishing but appear not to have progressed beyond the bulletin board, listserv, Website stage. It also appears that ALA itself as yet has no formal policies on electronic publication.
More specifically, the ACRL Business Plan for Publications already outlines several concrete goals for electronic publications:
The discussion of these issues and some preliminary recommendations form the remainder of this report.
Peer review procedures are in place for our research journals, while the various editorial boards and the Publications Committee provide more general oversight of the Association's publications. Currently, for example, all section newsletters are reviewed by ACRL staff before publication. Oversight by ACRL has guaranteed that publications serve the Association's goals, that they accurately reflect ACRL policy and philosophy, and that they represent a reasonable financial risk for the organization.
The decentralized nature of the Association--with many Sections and Chapters--has made it difficult for the Publications Committee to oversee all the publications of the Association even in the print (that is, print on paper) environment. However, in this environment there are certain production processes that require centralization and thus make central review easier.
In an electronic environment this is no longer the case. We anticipate that the task of review and maintaining quality will become more difficult in the future. While much of the appeal of electronic publishing is in its potential for decentralization--the ability of individuals or units of the Association to produce electronic publications--there are also liabilities. While we may want to put the power of publication in the hands of those working directly in the field, we do not want to lose our reputation for quality.
Despite this decentralization, however, individuals and organizations who are embarking on electronic publications have certain needs. ACRL may be able to provide support by training sections in electronic publishing techniques, by providing templates or style guides for electronic publications, or by providing sites for listservs, homepages and archives of electronic documents. By adopting a helpful posture, we can include ACRL in the process and continue to maintain editorial standards. The challenge will be to encourage electronic publication on the part of sections and chapters, while maintaining the quality of the ACRL imprint.
The role of the Publications Committee and the various editorial boards will need to be redefined. While some electronic publications will fall under the purview of existing editorial boards, others will not. One option would be to consider a separate editorial board to oversee all electronic publications not otherwise covered.
It is also clear that electronic publications will be more complex, dynamic entities. We will have to allow for free-flowing discussion, for individual comments, and for give-and-take between authors and readers. In order to accommodate these new capabilities, we may need to segment some of our publications--to maintain some (or parts of some) as open discussion lists as opposed to others which are "official" publications.
Finally, the quality control challenge includes ensuring that documents remain in their original form, as their authors intended them to be.
Increasingly authors will be asking about the ability to post papers on preprint servers or homepages. They will want to build links to and from their publications and a variety of other sources. How will we handle requests by others to "link" to papers in our publications? What will we consider "republication"? How will we protect the integrity of electronic copies of papers from our publications?
ACRL follows ALA copyright policy. We recommend that ACRL work with ALA to develop a new copyright policy for the transition period to electronic publication that will take into account these new issues.
Other groups have noted this aspect of electronic publishing. The Association of American Publishers and the Council on Library Resources noted in a joint 1995 report: "The immovable object" of publishing costs is subsidizing the 'first copy' of a book or journal--all the costs before the printing press begins to run...This is the hard rock that will not be crushed by distributing information electronically. Although there may be some savings in individual steps of the pre-printing process, (by editing and preparing copy from author disks, for example), and in distribution, the effect on the overall 'first copy' cost will not be large because the process will require many of the same steps and highly trained professional personnel as traditional methods required. Some new methods of manuscript preparation and production may even require more steps and/or personnel."
There are certainly hidden costs in electronic publishing that are often overlooked. One of the most critical is the impact on existing print publication outlets. If we assume a gradual transition, with print and electronic publishing coexisting for some time, and a model in which electronic publications are provided free of charge, at some point financial considerations will become critical. Subscriptions to print will gradually decline, affecting advertising to the point where costs would exceed revenues. ACRL must decide how to support publications--through advertising and paid subscriptions (whether to print or electronic versions) or through membership subsidies.
Clearly there are some publications that can be moved to electronic publishing with less risk than others. Section newsletters and internal documents already incur costs for the Association rather than generating income. They can be distributed more effectively and cost-effectively electronically than in print, and we recommend that ACRL begin the move to electronics with such publications. The research and review journals currently generate income and thus raise much more complex financial issues which will need to be examined in more detail.
Related production issues are raised with a transition to electronics. Is there still a need for copy editing? For design and layout? In what form is the information stored and presented-- SGML, HTML, PDF, Postscript, etc.? What kind of an archive should be maintained--for how long? by whom? Archiving issues appear to be a major stumbling block in making the transition to electronics for formal journals. Authors want to make sure that permanent, stable copies of their works will be maintained and accessible for the future. As a library organization, ACRL should certainly take a leadership role on this issue. Multiple archive sites should be established for information in electronic form, backed up by print or microfilm archives in some cases.
Phase One: Continuation of efforts to convert appropriate types of materials as quickly as possible. Such materials would include internal documents, reports, standards, etc., and section newsletters.
The advantages to converting this type of publication are clear. However, runs of paper editions may need to be maintained for some publications until (a) the electronic version can reach the whole membership of ACRL and other relevant audiences, and (b) a secure archive has been developed.
Phase Two: Continue the study and testing of electronic alternatives for news magazines (C&RL News) and review sources (e.g., Choice), and begin study of electronic alternatives for research journals (C&RL, RBML). An interim report will be presented at the Midwinter Meeting, 1997. Such study and testing should include a detailed financial analysis and a consideration of what publications should exist in electronic format only, in parallel print and electronic formats, or should remain in print exclusively.
Submitted by the ACRL Publications Committee Task Force on Electronic Publication, January 4, 1996.
Discussed at the Publications Committee meeting at Midwinter in San Antonio, January 22, 1996, and subsequently by the Committee via e-mail.
Revised accordingly and then shared with ACRL's Editorial Boards and others within ACRL April 11, 1996.
Revised again, submitted to the Publications Committee, June 1996, and unanimously approved at Annual Conference, July 8, 1996.
ACRL Publications Committee Task Force on Electronic Publication
Ann C. Schaffner, Chair (Brandeis University)
Norma Kobzina (University of California at Berkeley)
Hugh Thompson (ACRL) | <urn:uuid:ecd18352-0b43-471c-93f7-4a03f1001a82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.istl.org/96-fall/kobzina2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934426 | 2,140 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Common ear wax buildup muffles
hearing for many. Yeasts, allergies
wax buildup can be removed
from the ear canal regularly to restore hearing,
relieve tension or pressure in the ear, and sometimes relieve other symptoms
not consciously connected with the ear condition. Removal of excessive wax
allows better hearing, usually immediately.
Some common ear ailments treated naturally with ear candling include:
- Candidia, which can cause a mold/yeast allergy which in turn causes itching inside the ear.
- “Swimmers Ear” is quite often caused by growth of bacteria in the ear along with ear wax, which prevents water from clearing from the ear.
- Ear aches can be caused by mucus blown into the ear from the Eustachian tube. Ear candling will quite often release the pressure and relieve the pain of ear aches.
- The moist, warm, dark conditions in the ear cause fast growth of parasites and other organisms. If excess ear wax blocks the ear, it can cause pressure buildup.
The spiral of the cone causes the smoke to be pulled down into the ear canal. This causes the ear to warm up and loosen the wax and other material. As it heats up, the candle causes a suction effect by creating a vacuum in the ear canal. Air is drawn up from the Eustachian tube into the middle ear then through the porous membrane out into the outer ear. The heat and the vacuum draw out the wax and other materials from the ear canal into the base of the candle. As it burns down, you will hear a lot of cracking and hissing, which is the sound of the wax being removed. The warmth feels soothing and relaxing during the process. Ear oil placed in the ear after candling with cotton to cover will protect from further infections from bacteria, yeasts, and other factors.
Herbal blend: Our ear candles have been treated with a formula created by a Master Herbalist. Ingredients include: sage, chamomile flowers, burdock root, jojoba, rosemary leaves, periwinkle, quassia bark and yucca root. This herbal blend is formulated to calm, soothe and relax. It’s designed to oxygenate and strengthen the brain, fortify the nervous system, clear the eyes and ears, and purify the blood. It has anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antibiotic, and antibacterial properties.
Candle measurements: approximately 12” in length and approximately 5/8 of an inch in
diameter (top of candle) and approximately ¼ of an inch taper at the bottom of the candle.
In ancient times, ear candling was described as “coning” because it involved cone-shaped instruments made from pottery clay. The glazed pottery cones had a double helix carved in side to create a downward spiral energy flow of the smoke and heated air that carried the burning herbs into the ear canal.
This process was used in China, India, Tibet, and Egypt as well as in the Mayan, Aztec, and American Indian cultures. Many cultures considered coning a spiritual practice for clearing the mind and senses. They claimed it cleared the mind and body so you could meditate and open up your sensitivity.
Cleansing cones of candles are an ancient, universal form of therapy used by cultures all around the globe. Some form of wax or some burnable substance was used as the carrier in the cones. In current times, many cultures, such as some tribes of American Indians, are using ear coning with materials ranging from pottery cones to rolled-up newspaper soaked in wax.
In the present time, due to health regulations we use disposable candles. Cones or candles are made from strips of unbleached cotton or linen dipped in paraffin and/or beeswax and herbs. The spiral roll built into the candles during production creates the same effect as the pottery cones. In some cultures, they mix herbs into the wax or place herbs in the cone during the burning process.
In Germany, they teach ear candling as a remedy. In the U.S., this is a relatively new process to the general public. In many cultures, ear candling is the remedy of choice for ear infections, Candidia, fungus growth, ear aches, etc. A few holistic doctors in the U.S. have shifted to ear candling from irrigation practices. | <urn:uuid:f131f195-47ee-41c0-b164-c586b68715d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ahealthcenter.net/ear-candling.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946245 | 916 | 2.75 | 3 |
No doubt you’ve heard the expression that says something about blaming the process not the people when things go wrong in an organization? Unfortunately it rings true, and preventing process failures starts right at the beginning – hiring the right people, with the right skills for the right job. And that too, is where the process focus must begin – as soon as the resource need is identified.
So how does this work? Let’s take an example. You need an Accountant. So you send your HR department the following request: I would like to hire an Accountant, with a degree in Accounting and 4 years of experience.
Check, that’s done!
When HR sends you the pool of candidates, they all meet those “qualifications”. But as you interview what you think are the top three candidates, you are shocked to find out two of them have never used an automated accounting system and one does not know how to use Excel – all requirements of the process to perform the monthly reconciliations this position is responsible for.
Being the astute Manager that you are though, you quickly realize you should have focused on the process to perform the monthly reconciliations, which would result in HR sending you a more qualified candidate pool. (Thank goodness you didn’t make a huge hiring mistake)! So you pull out the process documentation, which defines the monthly reconciliation process from inputs to outputs, (updating it since no one has done so in some time), and prepare the following recruiting request for HR:
I would like to hire an Accountant with a degree in Accounting, and 4 years of experience performing monthly reconciliations or similar analysis. The process to perform the monthly reconciliations includes pulling data from XYZ system on customized reports, transferring the data to Excel spreadsheets using pivot tables, and then analyzing and resolving differences by pulling source transactions from the XYZ system.
Now HR can send you a more qualified pool of candidates, with the same basic degree and experience, but now with knowledge and experience performing montlhy reconciliations using automated systems and report writing tools (maybe even those used by your company) along with Excel skills, analytical and reconciliation experience.
And as a bonus, after you hire that highly qualified candidate, the documentation they need to perform their processes is complete and up to date.
Process Focus = HR Success! | <urn:uuid:204f2fc7-7990-4eb4-96f0-dd9134c4dc82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humanresourcescareer.org/managment-process-focus-enables-effective-human-resource-operations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949416 | 485 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Research Director's Report
22 October 2009
Linear collider detector development
This month's Research Director's Report was written by Hitoshi Yamamoto, co-chair of the Worldwide Study and regional detector contact for Asia.
I have just attended the CLIC09 workshop at CERN and am writing this column in the plane on the way back home. The number of registrants was about 250 from more than 20 countries, of which the attendance to the physics and detector sessions was about 50. The workshop was the third in the series, and attendance by the ILC community has been increasing each time. I acted as a convener of the physics and detector working group. It was not a participation as a regional contact of the ILC research directorate; nonetheless, I would like to share some information with readers of the ILC NewsLine.
The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) Study is a linear collider based on beam-driven radiofrequency (RF) technology where a high-current low-energy beam will power the RF for the main linear particle accelerator (linac). The plan is to start at a centre-of-mass energy of 500 GeV which will be upgraded to 3 TeV. The nominal luminosity goal for the 500-GeV machine is 2.3 1034 cm-1s-1 (about the same as ILC) and that for 3 TeV machine is nearly three times larger at 5.9 1034 cm-1s-1. Since the technologies are quite challenging, there also are more conservative luminosity goals called the 'relaxed' parameter sets that are a few times smaller. Now, CLIC people are busy working on the CDR (Conceptual Design Report) to be produced at the end of 2010. The 'shortest and success-oriented' long-term plan is to write the Technical Design Report (TDR) around 2016 and to have first beam in around 2024. Even though the RF power source for the main linac is very different from that of ILC, there are large areas of common issues between CLIC and ILC where close collaboration can benefit both parties. This is even more the case for the physics and detector activities, and indeed a joint working group is being formed now to foster collaborations between CLIC and ILC in this area.
The design of the CLIC detector can take almost direct advantage of what has been done for ILC. In fact, so far the detector models for CLIC are modified versions of SiD and ILD. These detector models have shown that, with modest modifications, they can provide reasonable performances at CLIC. For instance, the particle-flow algorithm developed for ILC was found to give adequate energy resolution (3-4 percent) for up to 500 GeV of jet energy. These modest modifications, however, are quite important. First, due to higher energies of jets, the hadron calorimeters have to be thicker than that of ILC. In addition, the greater intensity of background due to the low-energy electron-positron pairs forces the beam pipe radius to be larger by about a factor of two. At higher centre-of-mass energies, more and more important physics events will hit the forward and backward regions where background due to hadronic two-photon interaction is much more intense than for the ILC. In order to cope with the high rates of these backgrounds, a time-stamping capability of around 10 nanoseconds is considered necessary. The time stamping is a critical and challenging issue for CLIC, and there was a special panel discussion session in the workshop dedicated to the topic. Currently, for example, there is no technology available for vertexing that satisfies the requirements.
A large fraction of work done on physics and detectors is common to both CLIC and ILC, and ILC detectors are already benefitting from CERN expertise in detector integration and push-pull design. Even for the issues specific to CLIC such as the tight time-stamping requirement and the high rates in forward and backward regions, solutions to them would be useful for ILC detectors. If anybody thinks that all problems for ILC detectors are already solved and is not interested in issues that may seem specific to CLIC, that person may be missing a great opportunity to improve ILC detectors. It is true that there is now a large disparity between CLIC and ILC in the amount of work done in physics and detectors, and also one cannot expect that ILC efforts to be spent on something that does not benefit ILC. However, the small amount of effort spent for CLIC by the ILC physics and detector community could easily be more effective for ILC itself than the same amount of effort spent exclusively for ILC.
-- Hitoshi Yamamoto | <urn:uuid:052e2592-6c40-477a-b8d2-df9d9df2715f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linearcollider.org/ILC/physics-detectors/Research-Director%27s-report/2009/22-October-2009---Linear-collider-detector-development | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961647 | 977 | 1.820313 | 2 |
While doing some research for a short post I’m working on for the Women of USPSA, I came across this blog post on Team Smith & Wesson Junior Shooter Molly Smith’s page. While I don’t know Molly’s exact age, I think 14 or 15 maybe, I’m sitting here reading this post and I’m just fascinated with this young lady. She truly is a remarkable girl. I know you will love her story as much as I did.
One of those things that parents always tell their children is: “Straighten your back!” Whether it’s at school, during prayer, in the car, or when you are going to listen to a public speaker about foreign affairs. On this particular Wednesday, it was the latter. I was sitting at Pepperdine University School of Law in a room a few degrees too cold next to my dad in the front row.
“Straighten your back!” I started slouching to read the pamphlet in front of me as he told me again, “Oxygen to the brain. You have to keep up with her.”
The her my father was referring to was Dr. Condoleezza Rice, and in a matter of minutes she was going to sit in one of four seats in the center of the room and talk to the audience about her take on world events.
A voice came over the speaker that instructed everyone to stand. Out of a door, in the back of the room came a line of people. In the middle of the line was a woman that everyone stared at, Dr. Rice.
She took her seat and the other three people, two men and a woman, were introduced by an older man at a podium. The woman was going to moderate questions written on cards by the audience and the two men were going to continue conversations with Dr. Rice.
Without a further ado, the panel started.
The panel started with current events such as Egypt. Dr. Rice would state her opinion and the panel would continue asking her questions. No matter how difficult the questions may have been, Dr. Rice had an answer nearly immediately. I wondered how anyone could think that fast yet talk so clearly. Occasionally, Dr. Rice would crack a joke, and as the audience chuckled she would pause and smile before continuing when it quieted down.
She brought up interesting points, some that will stay with me forever. One of which was about the treatment of women, and how it shows how safe a country is and the quality of the culture. The countries trying to be progressive will treat the women as well as they treat the men. The idea was new to me and I found it very interesting to notice this; that simply how women are treated can show what a country is like.
Dr. Rice also spoke about America being exceptional. America consists of families that have been coming from all over the world for generations, but falling under the same category of American. We fight for the rights of others, even if we don’t know their names. This really is exceptional. Exceptionalness doesn’t stop there though. Every individual out there can be exceptional. They can be the ones to fight for the rights of others, to use of knowledge composed from all different cultures.
I have never really thought about American Exceptionalism before, but with Dr. Rice describing this and the treatment of women being a touch stone for the quality of a county’s culture, I started to review my life as an American girl. I get to go to a school I love, spend time with people that I choose, and no one tells me that I can’t do something or even worse, that I am only allowed to grow up to be a certain thing. My mom and dad tell me all the time that there are no limitations to what I can become; in some countries the girls and even grown women do not have these chances. I know I am young, but I cannot remember a time when I was told I could not do something because I was a girl.
The NRA, Smith & Wesson, and SHE Clothing believe in women, providing opportunities, education and encouragement making it so women and children can learn about shooting sports and outdoors activities. A focus of the NRA is to teach children and women about safe handling of firearms. Smith & Wesson sponsors women and junior shooters, which would be unheard of in some other countries. (Then again, there is also the possibility of firearm restrictions, where women, children, and maybe even men may not be allowed to own or use firearms.) SHE clothing, makes clothing for female outdoorsmen, showcasing women in adventurous and exciting settings. They all encourage women to experience the outdoors, experience the enjoyment of life.
Toward the end of the lecture another question was asked. Lots of students in that room were wondering what advice she had to give to those who wanted to become involved with international affairs. She told them the practical things, to find something you have a passion about, to learn many languages, especially the difficult ones, to learn about different cultures. Then she told me something that really stuck out. She explained that you cannot plan the next twenty years of your life. You can only plan the next step. This took me a moment to fully understand, and then another moment to see a difference. I could only plan so far in life because things happen every day that change the next moment. I can only plan what comes next, if it’s writing this essay or watching TV, if it’s studying or talking to friends. I can only plan what comes next to make that goal come true. Well, I did sit up straight and I realized what sort of opportunities are here for me as I’m growing up in this exceptional country, America.
After she had finished talking and after a round of applause, she left to go into a room where she would sign books. My dad had his book tucked under his arm as we waited first in line. I was going to meet her! We walked up and she smiled and said hello, signing the book. I was so happy! It only got better though, as I left the room and my dad’s friend handed me another book; my copy. I left it for my dad to pick up and he had given it to his friend who was working security for Dr. Rice.
We got into the car and I opened to the front page. I had written a note for Dr. Condoleezza Rice, telling her about my goal to be the best I can in shooting, about how, like her, I’m going against the normal look for my “profession.” I’m not a bulky adult man. I’m a short teenage girl. Dr. Rice went against stereo types to be an African-American woman in a high place politically. As I sat up straight, I read her note. She told me to keep going for my dream, which encouraged me not only to be the best shooter, but the best daughter, the best friend, the best student, the best person I can be. Because to be the best I can is my dream. | <urn:uuid:26bb1f31-51bc-41bd-ac47-d98895d50c35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sassbrassnbullets.com/2011/03/09/the-future-of-women-shooters-molly-smith/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981755 | 1,490 | 1.515625 | 2 |
United States of America 1908 – 1984
Nude study from life 1938
charcoal on paper
signed and dated l.l. in pencil "Lee Krasner '38".
image 63.0 (h) x 48.4 (w) cm Purchased 1980 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
NGA 1980.3421 © Lee Krasner/ARS. Licensed by Viscopy
- the artist;
- from whom bought, through Pace Gallery, by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, October 1980
- Michelangelo to Matisse: Drawing the Figure
- Art Gallery of New South Wales 20 Nov 1999 – 27 Feb 2000
- Abstract Expressionism: the National Gallery of Australia celebrates the centenaries of Jackson Pollock and Morris Louis
- 14 Jul 2012 – 24 Feb 2013
- Ellen G. Landau, Lee Krasner: A catalogue raisonné, New York: Harry N. Abrams 1995, cat. 65, pp. 45–46, p. 48, illus. b&w
- Terence Maloon and Peter Peter, Michelangelo to Matisse: Drawing the figure, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1999, cat. 221, p.203, illus. b&w
In proposing the acquisition of these two early charcoal drawings in 1980, James Mollison AO, then Director of the National Gallery of Australia, wrote to Lee Krasner expressing his conviction that her drawings ‘… take us back to that critical moment in the history of the New York School—the late 1930s and early 1940s—when its radical aesthetic was first being formulated’. Indeed, Krasner’s early drawings, alongside those of Hans Hofmann and Jackson Pollock, represent the first seeds of what was to become the major American art movement of the twentieth century.
In the early 1930s Krasner regularly visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York to analyse, absorb and emulate the works of the European Modernists: de Chirico, Miró and Henri Matisse were among her favourites. During this period Krasner was also taking life drawing classes, under various instructors and producing studies of the nude in pencil, conté crayon, ink and charcoal. In 1937 Krasner enrolled at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts and, for the first time, became seriously engaged with Cubism.
These charcoal drawings, both titled ‘Nude study from life’, were completed a year apart, in 1938 and 1939, during the morning session life drawing classes directed by Hofmann. By this stage in her study, Krasner had absorbed her lessons in Cubist space and was beginning to resent having to refer to at what was in front of her. The charcoal drawings reveal a deeper, kinaesthetic approach to her drawing project: Krasner is deliberately deforming the figure, recording the perceived tension, weight and motion of the body through several moments in time through her own, now exaggerated, mark-making. Combining sharp, resolute black lines with textured areas of scrubbed white erasures, the surface of the drawings are infused with the vigour of the artist’s rapid gestures. It is precisely such palpable action that exposes Krasner’s determined move beyond Cubism and into a new, unexplored territory of her own individual and expressive style.
In 1976 Krasner re-discovered this group of 1930s charcoal figure studies. Setting aside those that she wished to keep, she harvested the rest, cutting them up and using the pieces as collage material for the 1977 series of paintings Eleven ways to use the words. In discussing this process with writer John Bernard Myers, Krasner stated in 1984, ‘They surprised me [the drawings] … I experienced the need not just to examine these drawings, but a peremptory desire to change them: a command as it were, to make them anew’.. Critically and creatively revisiting and reusing these early works allowed the mature Krasner to assess her development as an artist and to propel her, once again, in a new direction.
James Mollison in correspondence with Lee Krasner, 25 September 1980, NGA file 78: 0059, folio 77a.
Ellen G. Landau, Lee Krasner: A catalogue raisonné, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1995, p. 278.
The National Gallery of Australia holds a painting and five other works of paper by Krasner: a still life from the late 1930s, an oil and gouache collage from 1953, and three lithographs. | <urn:uuid:c18bab8f-642b-40cd-9fe3-3ac517795e9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/ABSTRACTEXPRESS/Default.cfm?IRN=105891&BioArtistIRN=19386&MnuID=SRCH&ViewID=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937623 | 960 | 1.90625 | 2 |
“Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists,” writes Andrew Sullivan. “Ignore them,” he says, “and embrace Him.” His provocative essay appears in The Daily Beast and Newsweek.
Another commentator writes that politicians have reduced the evangelical tradition to a “pathetic caricature,” subordinating a “rich tradition of social justice to a narrow and predictable political agenda.” Michael Gerson writes in his Washington Post column that politicians are giving religion a bad name.
E.J. Dionne, also in the Post, adds his voice of concern: “I want to suggest that what should most bother Christians of all political persuasions is that there are right and wrong ways to apply religion to politics, and much that’s happening now involves the wrong ways. Moreover, popular Christianity often seems to denigrate rather than celebrate intellectual life and critical inquiry.”
The Changing Nature of Faith
On one hand, it’s notable that this discussion about the nature of faith is occurring in public media. Only a few years ago, it would not have happened. It’s also notable that the commentators are not professional theologians but persons of faith writing about faith and culture as they experience it in their daily lives.
Sullivan’s claim is deeply compelling, especially in light of research by the Barna Group and United Methodist Communications that confirms that young adults are turned off by the captivity of the faith to dogmatism and judgmentalism. Faith has been co-opted and collapsed into political and economic ideologies, and this causes people to turn away from the church and even to reject the faith.
And yet, as Sullivan notes, we yearn to understand the mystery of the universe and our place in it. At the root of this yearning is a search for the holy. We are asking why we are here and how we find meaning and purpose. These are faith questions.
Religious Truth Expressed in a Reasoned Way
As I have been writing these past few days, I believe this presents not only a challenge to the mainline denominations but also an opportunity. The mainline groups have long expressed values that are born of faith, in ways that appeal to people of different faiths and no faith. The mainlines have an ability to express religious truths in a reasoned way that translates to the secular culture. They are concerned for the common good.
United Methodists have discovered that providing people with a way to act on their desire to serve others encourages those outside the church to reflect on the meaning of faith and how they might relate to a faith community. Doing this also results in outward bound mission for those in the church and gives them a way to actively express their faith.
When this is done in a strategic way, communicating in a way that interprets the faith and the faith community, it serves the wider culture and energizes local congregations as well. It provides a way for the church to demonstrate active, meaningful faith absent dogma or politics. It’s about service and the common good. It’s about being present in the culture.
Pessimisim vs. Hope
There’s a lot of pessimism afoot today about the church and faith. I even sense in some quarters panic and desperation. It’s true that Christianity in the United States faces a crisis for all the reasons these commentators list and more, but I’m not pessimistic about the future. Not, that is, if the church embraces its place in society to seek the shalom of God and to be the servant people God calls us to be. The message of Easter is a message of resurrection and hope; it is a message of renewal and new life.
As Christians consider the dark day of suffering that is marked by Good Friday, looking toward the hope of Easter morning, I am reminded of Paul’s admonition to the Christians in Philippi:
Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night… (Philippians 2: 14,15) | <urn:uuid:143d3452-920b-4e8f-887a-93cd15f241e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.larryhollon.com/blog/2012/04/06/faith-in-crisis-and-easter-hope/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957732 | 869 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Last Christmas, I was too ill to write my annual Christmas meditation. In fact, for the first time in the then-44-year history of the column, I had to suspend it for some three months.
During my absence, The National Catholic Reporter kindly published online a selection of my previous columns. I resumed writing the column in mid-January of this year and the first column appeared once again in early February.
As I wrote in 2009, the annual column at Christmas always runs the risk of lapsing into boiler-plate rhetoric. What can one say about the mystery of the Incarnation that is truly new year after year?
Christmas is a time when people are supposed to have warmth in their hearts and a generous spirit to match. But even in this richest of countries, many are below the poverty line and many more, having lost their jobs, are experiencing poverty for the first time.
Charles Dickens famously wrote in his A Christmas Carol that it is at Christmas that want is most keenly felt. To be sure, he was writing in the context of a newly industrialized England in the 19th century, but his observation has relevance even in the United States and Canada today.
Yet when then-President George W. Bush launched the war in Iraq, he made no call for sacrifice on everyone's part. In fact, he gave an enormous tax cut to the wealthiest of American citizens. For the rest, he urged us to go shopping.
Older readers will recall the real sacrifices that were endured during the Second World War. There were no cars to buy even if you could afford one; there were ration buttons for such basic products as butter and sugar; there were signs over grocery store entrances, "Oleomargarine sold here." Stickers had to be placed on car windows for the purchase of rationed gasoline; there were paper and tire drives, blackouts, wooden parts on buses and trolley cars to replace the steel needed in the war effort. The draft was in full vigor, and gold stars in a neighbor's window proclaimed the grim news of the death of a son in battle.
That was real sacrifice. Unlike the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, almost every family was touched by the Second World War, rich, middle-class and poor alike.
There were few draft deferments in the Second World War. Former Vice President Dick Cheney couldn't have obtained five deferments, as he did during the Vietnam War, to pursue "more important" matters. Nor could any of the well-off in today's all-volunteer Army.
In the current economic climate, the last thing a committed and financially comfortable Christian can say is, "I'm up, pull up the ladder." Those are our brothers and sisters down there, at the bottom of the ladder.
Especially at Christmas, those of us who are financially comfortable must reach out to those in need in the spirit of real, not phony, sacrifice.
But some do remind us that we need to walk the walk rather than only talk the talk. Christian faith demands the former. It is a faith, as the worldwide Jesuit community proclaimed several years ago, "that does justice."
In a time of economic downturn for many millions, however, such values as these are placed at serious risk.
An earlier column of mine wrote of "family reunions but not for the homeless ... of special feasting, but not for the hungry ... of lavish gift-giving, but not for the poor."
Another column pointed out that the giving of gifts at Christmas affords us all an opportunity to practice what Jesus urged us to do -- but not at Christmastime alone. In fact, Jesus never mentioned Christmas.
But he did say what you do for the least of my people, you do for me. And what you fail to do for them, you fail to do for me (Matthew 25:31-46).
At Christmastime, we profess our allegiance to the Prince of Peace (those of us who are not totally distracted by the secular aspects of the season), but more than one recent pope has reminded us that peace is the work of justice.
"Each Christmas," I wrote in 2009, "we hear familiar biblical readings, are heartened by familiar sanctuary decorations, and sing familiar carols. But we are always at a slightly different stage of our lives each year, and so is our country.
"Christmas itself does not change. It is we who change, and the nation and the world in which we live.
"That is why we have an opportunity to practice Christian discipleship anew -- this year and every year after it."
© 2011 Richard P. McBrien. All rights reserved. Fr. McBrien is the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.
Editor’s note: We can send you an email alert every time Fr. McBrien’s column, "Essays in Theology," is posted to NCRonline.org. Go to this page and follow the directions: Email alert sign-up. If you already receive email alerts from us, click on the "update my profile" button to add "Essays in Theology" to your list. | <urn:uuid:b933049f-da2a-4f0c-ab17-0138f4d39184> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/blogs/essays-theology/real-sacrifice-should-be-remembered-christmas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971295 | 1,066 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Up until the 1800′s, most of the textiles in the United States were made with hemp. 50% of medicine marketed in the last half of the 19th Century was made from cannabis. Even Queen Victoria used the resin abstracts from cannabis to alleviate her menstrual cramps. But the funny thing about industrial hemp was that you couldn’t get high from it.
Now, that petition revealed some interesting documents, showing that the FDA knew in 2003, that in fact, HPV infections, that is the human papillomavirus infection, doesn’t cause cervical cancer. And I’m going to use the FDA’s own documents to show those to you. Here’s a document called, “FDA Approves Expanded Use of HPV Test”. You can find this on the FDA’s own website. This was released in 2003, it’s a press release. And it says quote, “most women who become infected with HPV are able to eradicate the virus and suffer no apparent long term consequences to their health, and that means eradicate it on their own without intervention, without a vaccine.
It’s a very broad patent. It would grant, if it’s accepted worldwide, would grant Monsanto control of a significant percentage of all the pigs in the world. And here’s what’s so critical. The patent isn’t just for the pigs. It’s for the pigs offspring. So mother nature works for Monsanto’s profit. Every time pigs naturally reproduce, that is a violation of the patent that you have to pay Monsanto for.
Surgery and pharmaceutical drugs are presented by the entire medical industry as a solution to health problems, but this isn’t reality. Drugs don’t cure disease, and they can’t make you healthier. Pharmaceutical drugs are far more likely to kill that illegal drugs. You won’t find a big study in some respected journal telling you that nutrition cures cancer… they are only interested in selling you a product by ‘managing’ your disease, not curing it…
Headache specialist Dr. David Buchholz is certain MSG causes migraines for literally millions of people. MSG can directly worsen autism, attention deficit disorder, and hyperactivity. MSG can cause the brain to be miswired especially in the womb and the first few years of life. That damage to brain connections can mess up any aspect of brain function from the control of hormones, to behavior, and intelligence.
To preserve its corn’s diversity, Mexico has banned genetically modified crops. However due to the NAFTA free trade agreement it signed with the United States and Canada, Mexico cannot stop the massive importation of American corn, 40% of which is genetically modified. This industrial corn, as it’s called in Mexico, is highly subsidized by the U.S. government. So on local markets it costs have as much as traditional Mexican corn.
This fish, if let loose through biological pollution in natural waters, will destroy the native fish. It’s very important to understand . One is this biological contamination is very different from chemical contamination. If you have an oil spill, it will dilute over time… This is not chemical pollution. This is living pollution…biological pollution. Once these fish are released into a bay or a river you can’t recall them… In the United States we have yet to have or first law – we don’t have a single law which regulates this kind of biological pollution. It is completely unregulated. Even though its effects will be catastrophic.
Now let’s go a little bit into the history of excitotoxicity and how this all came about. In Japan they used a flavoring substance for their food called kombu or sea tangle. And this is a seaweed when you dry it you can grind it up. put it in your food and it greatly enhances the taste of the food and that’s been used for a thousand years. No one really knew why it enhanced the taste of food, until 1908 when a research chemist by the name of Ikeda, examined kombu and he discovered that the taste enhancing compound was glutamate. You may have heard of monosodium glutamate, or MSG, well that’s the active compound glutamate. ..because it enhances the taste by stimulating certain cells in the brain and the tongue.
These studies further show that these chemicals come from common consumer products, household products, everyday plastic materials in our homes. They are a major source of chemical exposure. From reusable water bottles that leach Bisphenol A into the water that we drink to nil polish that exposes women to phthalate compounds that cause reproductive harm in baby boys… | <urn:uuid:a34eee43-c98c-4935-ac04-64834cec93b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://conspiracyrealitytv.com/moreconspiracies/fda/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947869 | 984 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Message from the President — International Women's Day
Published on March 08 2010
Today is the 99th International Women's Day. It is an occasion to recognize and celebrate the efforts of generations of activists in Canada and around the world, past and present, to improve the lot of women and to promote equality, opportunity and security for all women. It is too easy to be smug and complacent about such issues, if one resides in Canada at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. However, while the gains have been considerable for Canadian women, it is not the case that equality, opportunity, and security has as yet been achieved for all women of our nation. And as regards the rest of the world, there are areas in which the struggle is just beginning.
Today we laud the efforts of generations of activitists in the cause of women's rights, and we pledge to support the cause for which they have worked and continue to work.
Jack N. Lightstone | <urn:uuid:63665b52-740b-4fc2-bb5f-7c66ed44673a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brocku.ca/news/10253 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976528 | 200 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Anyone who says writing a poem is easy isn’t writing poetry. Sometimes, though, one just pops out of a poet’s head after a long struggle with another, longer one. That seems to have been the case with John Keats.
There’s plenty of documentation about how he wrote his longer poems and this new biography by Nicholas Roe gives it to us with both barrels. Keats wrote great letters and his friends recorded their conversations. But Roe has a problem trying to figure out what to say about the shorter poems, the odes and the sonnets.
This is made even more difficult because in the preface he claims, “Nothing in this portrait is fictional. Every detail comes from Keats’ letters or contemporary accounts of him.” And it’s true that the author seems to have access to every piece of evidence there is concerning the life of John Keats. But there are parts of this book that are very speculative.
To compensate for a distressing lack of documentation about how he came to write poems like “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “To Autumn,” “Bright Star,” and “Ode to a Nightingale,” Roe proffers a largely unsubstantiated theory that Keats was under the influence of laudanum (alcohol and opium) when he wrote them, just as Coleridge was when he wrote “Kubla Kahn.”
Roe bases his argument on the “hemlock,” and the “dull opiate” and the “beaker of the warm south” at the beginning of the “Ode to a Nightingale.” He also brings up the fact that Keats trained as an apothecary and had a lot of experience using laudanum. His brother Tom died of tuberculosis and Keats administered laudanum to him then.
Coleridge’s “Kubla Kahn” is clearly a drug-induced fragment. But the drugs that Keats contemplated using in order to “leave the world unseen / And with thee fade away into the forest dim” are, after all, abandoned in his attempt to leave a world “Where but to think is to be full of sorrows.” He will get there without them “On the viewless wings of Poesy” “Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards.”
This biography does reveal many interesting things about Keats. His love of Shakespeare and the theater, his discovery of negative capability, his love of physical exercise (he walked around England and Scotland as much as Wordsworth), his excellent secondary education and his many friendships are all clearly explained.
And it’s good to be shown once again that Keats wasn’t a delicate flower “half in love with easeful death,” that he was a vibrant young man, fond of boxing and cricketeering and falling in love with spirited young women who loved him back. He was not an uneducated butcher’s son introduced to great literature by patronizing, better-educated friends. He came from solid stock that left an inheritance. He went to one of the best, most progressive high schools in England and came out of it still eager to learn and not just to show off his learning like his friends who went to Oxford and Cambridge. (Shakespeare had a similar experience.)
Roe also shows us how Keats became the convenient whipping boy in the squabble between the reactionaries who wanted poetry to continue as it had for centuries and the new writers like his friends, Leigh Hunt, William Hazlitt and Percy Shelley, who wanted to break free from that tradition. Reviewers picked on Keats because his writing offered the clearest examples of a new kind of poetry.
From our distant vantage point it seems like a tempest in a teapot. After all, Keats’ poetry wasn’t that different from the poetry of the Classical era. Especially in his longer poems he often used classical mythology that featured archaic, no-one-really-talks-like-this, “poetical” language.
But his critics zeroed in on certain words and phrases they labeled as “oafish” and “common.” In this they were being snobs – picking on the fact that Keats was from the lower middle class and not well-educated by their standards. They finished the insult by calling him and his friends the “Cockney School” of poets.
They also didn’t like that the myths he chose were often neither Greek nor Roman but Gothic.
And when he did use traditional mythology, he didn’t use it in the traditional way. Roe accurately points out that Keats’ enthusiasm for mythology that the other Romantic poets had given up on as old-fashioned enabled “writers as diverse as Tennyson, Pound, Eliot, Walcott and Heaney” to use mythology in their poetry but in a new way that ignores centuries of uninspired and uninspiring scholarly translations. It’s no accident that Keats’ breakthrough poem was about an exciting, new translation of Homer, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.”
The critics didn’t understand his “negative capability” which they took as “‘driveling idiocy’ fit only for a madhouse.” Keats was carefully developing personae in his poems “who could only feel by imagining what other men and women might feel.” His “driveling idiocy,” his negative capability, came from his understanding that, “A poet has no identity because he is continually assuming other identities such as the sun, moon, seas, other men and women, all creatures that have ‘an unchangeable attribute.’”
Keats described what he meant by negative capability in a letter to a friend. It is “when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” The earnest, heartfelt language of the age – which even in a poet as great as Keats can be off-putting – was in his greatest poems balanced by his instinct to be objective, to obliterate his self and emerge as something new.
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget What thou among the leaves hast never known,
“Ode to a Nightingale,” John Keats
Keats was moving from an outer landscape to an inner one, from the actual Elgin Marbles to an imaginary museum in which he stylizes content and focuses instead on writing about thinking itself. He becomes like blind Homer “breath [ing] its pure serene,” the ruler of his own “wide expanse.”
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.
“A Thing of Beauty,” John Keats
This new focus might have come from his training to be a surgeon’s assistant (a kind of anesthesiologist before there was anesthesia) or from taking opium to relieve the pain of sports injuries and TB.
But it’s more likely it came from some other confluence of forces that we may never identify. If we don’t know after Roe’s exhaustive research, it seems likely we never will.
It’s ironic that Keats was denied the use of laudanum on his deathbed. His friend, the artist Joseph Severn, had agreed to take him to Italy in search of a cure and he brought laudanum with him.
But Severn refused to accept the fact that his friend was dying and gave away the laudanum so he wasn’t tempted by his friend’s agonizing pleas for the “dull opiate.” It would seem that anyone who knew Keats well would know if he used opium.
Denying it to him at such a time seems unnaturally cruel especially since it was the standard treatment of choice.
But if Keats was an opium addict, his having to quit cold turkey on his deathbed was one more reason to have thought, “his name was writ in water.”
John Keats: A New Life
By Nicholas Roe
Yale University Press
472 pages, $32.50
William L. Morris was the co-inventor of The News poetry page and is now living in Florida. | <urn:uuid:be1ffc9a-d965-40bd-9fcd-da9359c8711d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121216/LIFE/121219541/1058 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983472 | 1,803 | 2.765625 | 3 |
All cities have a history. However, relatively few have History in the capital "H" sense of the word, meaning their histories have national as well as local significance. In Philadelphia visitors literally can eat, breathe and sleep history.
A trip to Philadelphia can transform quickly into a tour of our nation's Colonial heritage. The Liberty Bell is all a luster in its new light-filled digs at Liberty Bell Center, Independence Mall, 6th and Chestnut Streets. A short block away is Independence Hall where patriots gathered in 1776 to defy the king of England and where 11 years later, representatives from 12 states shaped the Constitution. Highlights of the guided tour led by National Park Service rangers include George Washington's "rising sun" chair in the Assembly Room, still arranged as it was during the Constitutional Convention; the original inkstand used to sign the Declaration of Independence; and an original draft of the Constitution.
Treat yourself to story time with a walking tour by Ed Mauger of Philadelphia on Foot. A captivating blend of historian and gossip, he'll take you to behind-the-scenes places and tell true tales that involve everything from 18th-century sex to surgery. (The oldest operating room in the world is here, in the first public hospital in America, where the public paid to watch "lunatics and the deserving poor" undergo surgery in the days before anesthesia.)
An author of several books about Philadelphia, Mauger customizes tours. He'll escort you to a ballroom where Washington danced the night away with Revolutionary War friends as well as point out the church steeple that Franklin commissioned so he could experiment with electricity. With Mauger, antsy kids not only tolerate tours of houses with cordoned-off rooms, but also enjoy them.
Revolutionary War buffs will enjoy The Lights of Liberty Show, an hour-long outdoor sound-and-light show on the cobblestone streets of Society Hill, which dramatizes the role of Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War.
For an authentic -- and delicious -- 18th-century dining experience, nothing compares with the City Tavern. Ben Franklin discussed the hot topics of his day with other Founding Fathers in this "Most Genteel Tavern." Chef Walter Staib's West Indies Pepper Pot Soup, Roasted Duckling and Tavern Lobster Pie (to name a few menu selections) are prepared according to historic recipes and served on Colonial-style dishware by a wait staff in period dress.
For dessert, belly on up to the counter for an egg cream or ice cream soda at The Franklin Fountain, an authentic early-20th-century soda shop. | <urn:uuid:edfcc28a-21f9-4ff0-a4be-c2a53b941fd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.travelchannel.com/interests/history/articles/historic-philadelphia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944353 | 535 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Part Time, Temporary, and Seasonal Employees
Employers often hire part-time or temporary workers to help with increased work demands or seasonal industry fluctuations that sometimes occur in certain industries. Most states define part-time employees as those who work less than 35 hours per week, compared to full-time employees who typically work for 40 hours or more.
Part-time employees are typically paid on an hourly basis, and must comply with company rules, policies, and obligations, such as performance goals, safety rules, and company business practices. Even so, part-time employees generally have limited or no company benefits, such as health benefits, vacation and sick time, paid holidays, and unemployment compensation, among others, unless required by state labor laws and/or company policies.
Under federal laws, part-time employees are treated the same as full-time employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) concerning minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and child labor. In addition, part-time employees are covered under OSHA's safety and health policies concerning work-related injuries, illnesses, and occupational fatalities. Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), part-time employees who work 1,000 hours or more during a calendar year may be eligible for retirement benefits.
Temporary employees, often referred to as "temps", are typically hired to cover for absent employees (such as those who are on maternity or disability leave) and temporary vacancies, or to fill gaps in a company's workforce. Temporary employees may be hired directly or through a temporary staffing agency -- in which case the temp is on lease with the staffing company, but not an employee of the client company that uses its services. Temporary agencies typically charge clients 15 to 30% more than the amount of compensation given to the temp employee, though some temp employees may wish to negotiate their hourly rate.
Temporary employees may be hired to perform work in a range of industries, such as clerical, labor, education, information technology and healthcare. Some temporary jobs may lead to permanent employment where appropriate-- in which case the temp agency may charge a fee if the worker is hired permanently. More often, however, companies hire temporary employees for a specific business purpose while avoiding the cost of hiring regular employees.
Temporary employees may work full or part-time, and may work for more than one agency at a time. Although not typically eligible for company benefits, some temporary agencies offer health care and other benefits to their temp employees. In an economic downturn, temporary employees are often the first to go, making it less of an ideal job for job security.
Finally, in some states, companies which hire temporary employees may be subject to federal discrimination and harassment challenges, and other claims. In addition, the circumstances in which temporary employees may claim rights under the Family Medical Leave Act -- which provides the right to take leave while taking care of a child, sick spouse, or elderly parent -- depends on whether the company exercised some control over the selection, hiring, and working conditions of the employee, thereby creating an employee/employer relationship.
Generally, seasonal employees are hired to work on a part-time basis by companies that need extra help during a particular season, typically the Christmas season. For example, large retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Toys R' Us, and Best Buy, hire thousands of seasonal employees each year to account for the increased shopping demands of the season. Seasonal employees may be hired within several industries, such as retail, hospitality, customer service, shipping/handling, and sales, and are entitled to minimum wage and overtime.
Seasonal jobs can offer out-of-work employees the opportunity to earn income to pay down bills, for example, or earn money for holiday gift giving. In addition, since many seasonal jobs can be performed on evenings and weekend, regular employees can earn a second income for a certain period of time as a seasonal employee.
Laws concerning employee treatment, benefits, and policies of part-time, temporary, or seasonal employees are covered by both Federal and state laws. To learn more about employee rights, benefits and policies as they may apply to your specific case, check your state's employment laws. Otherwise, if you have an employment dispute, or believe that your rights have been violated, you should speak with a knowledgeable employment law lawyer in your area. | <urn:uuid:1ed516f3-a609-4a03-bac1-9c69fcae8839> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://employment.findlaw.com/hiring-process/part-time-temporary-and-seasonal-employees.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964858 | 885 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Simple Example: The Bible and Basic Book Knowledge
Gutenberg’s accomplishment was monumental, and all lovers of books and bibles should be grateful for it. But he printed his Bible in 1455, which was just 142 years after the world’s first mass produced book was printed in China by Wang Zhen in 1313. The book was the Nong Shu, the Book of Farming, a complex and “substantial” book (I’m wondering if “substantial” in the Ransom Center’s statement was meant as a weasel word to excise Chinese competition?). It was printed with over 100,000 characters (the copy I own comes in three hefty volumes—sure feels “substantial,” though standards for substantial might be bigger in Texas). It also has dozens of drawings with DaVinci-like mechanisms including, for example, water wheels that crank a piston pumping a bellows attached to a blast furnace producing molten metal (see figure below), drawn and described over a hundred years before Europeans invented the blast furnace. Go read about it at Wikipedia in the article on the inventor, Wang Zhen, or read about it over at the Nauvoo Times. It was an amazing accomplishment. One controversial writer, Gavin Menzies, even argues that copies of the Nong Shu that made it to Europe may have triggered the Italian Renaissance and been the source for some of DaVinci’s inventions (or rather, his well-drawn adaptations and possible improvements of Chinese inventions). See Gavin Menzies, 1434:The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance (New York: HarperCollins, 2008). Interesting theory, but I’m not so sure about it, though I also can’t rule it out. Not with my limited knowledge.
Establishment Science and Fatal Maternity Wards
Science, Ye Scurvy Dog
Pride and Prejudice: Science and the Messy Areas
The Variety of Human Experiences: An Indictment of Religion?
Mormonism: Surprisingly Comfortable with Science
In one of my next posts, I'll describe the ongoing process of discovery and experimentation that many Mormons apply in their pursuit of religious knowledge and their own personal "testimony." It's not just a one-time random feeling, but a process involving the mind and the heart as we seek deeper knowledge and experience that can be obtained from traditional book learning or even from Wikipedia. | <urn:uuid:8a6f2f47-8822-4f3f-a5b2-bba2af1bcb3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2013/02/relying-on-human-knowledge-and.html?showComment=1360160727252 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948364 | 514 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Report says illegal manufacturing of fireworks common in the State
The ugly accident that claimed three lives in an explosion at an illegal firecracker manufacturing unit near Haripad on Sunday was one waiting to happen.
And if a May 2010 report from the Deputy Chief Controller of Explosives on the State-wide status of such units is any indication, the forthcoming festival season may witness several more such mishaps.
The unit at Haripad was the venue for a similar accident six months back, claiming one life, and another accident 10 years back, claiming two lives.
Following the second accident, a social worker from Thrissur, V.K. Venkitachalam, had lodged a complaint with the Chief Minister's Public Grievance Redressal Cell, pointing out that there were several such illegal units in other parts of the State, particularly Thrissur, venue of the Thrissur Pooram.
The complaint resulted in an order from the CMO to the explosives authority to conduct an inquiry and the report submitted in May this year had given more than adequate indication that such accidents could occur anytime, i.e., if stringent action was not initiated.
The report, submitted by Deputy Chief Controller of Explosives C.R. Surendranathan, points out that “illegal manufacturing of display fireworks was very common in the State”. Though guidelines were issued time to time by the authorities, the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) in this case, efforts to ensure adherence to the same have been minimal.
“While the macro-level administration lies to the PESO, the micro level administration lies to the district administration,” the Deputy Chief Controller notes in his report, stressing that the district police have to be geared up to tackle the menace.
The report also cites existing regulations that before the District Magistrate grants licence to such units, it should be ensured that applicants possess basic knowledge of various chemical ingredients to be used at various stages involved in the manufacturing of fireworks and gun powder; that only common fireworks like Chinese crackers, palm leaf crackers, flower pots, mini ‘atom bombs' etc., can be made; that only one item can be manufactured at a time; and most importantly, that no authorised unit can store more than 15 kg of such substance.
However, as Mr. Venkitachalam points out from his study of the units in the State, few of these guidelines are adhered to. Further, the police register cases against those killed in the accidents, and these cases are closed a month or so after the accident. | <urn:uuid:6ecdb1f2-0feb-4e06-9820-06c3581b0f61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/haripad-accident-was-bound-to-happen/article548001.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961073 | 529 | 1.773438 | 2 |
In a recent Wired science article, “Mice show pain on their faces just like humans,” we learn, just as the title implies, that in response to pain, mice grimace. The article points out that this might be no surprise to “pet owners and Cute Overload readers,” implying that if we paid even a modicum of attention to other species we would already be aware that they exhibit recognizable facial expressions in response to pain, but the author wrote this article anyway, as if this is some important scientific breakthrough, without, and this is the crux of this post, questioning the ethics of such experiments.
In order to “discover” that mice have similar facial expressions as humans when they’re experiencing pain, the experimenters inflicted pain upon them. Nowhere in the article does the author explore whether inflicting pain upon a non-consenting, sentient creature is ethical.
For decades, those who support animal experiments have argued that other animals are so similar to us that we can learn so much by experimenting on them. At the same time, they have argued that they are so different from us that we are justified in causing them to suffer and die in experiments that would be immoral if done to humans, consenting or not.
The irony of this particular experiment is that it points out a particular similarity between mice and humans that should, one would think, most undermine the argument that it’s ethical to experiment on them. If they are alike us enough to grimace in pain, making recognizable facial expressions of suffering, aren’t they like us enough to be worthy of protection from such abuse?
The great majority of the time when I read about animal research, the author never questions whether the research is ethical. Even when I was in Divinity School and read a book on pastoral care and counseling for victims of domestic violence, no one but I raised the ethical issue imbedded in the book, which cited Martin Seligman’s “learned helplessness” experiments. In these experiments, he administered severe, painful electric shocks to dogs, who howled out and urinated in response, and after preventing them from escaping “discovered” that the dogs eventually gave up even trying to escape. For this, Seligman became famous, and he is now renowned in the positive psychology movement and a former president of the American Psychological Association. His “learned helplessness” theory is cited again and again as a huge breakthrough, yet clinical observation of (and then aid to) victims of domestic violence or political prisoners would have revealed the same information, without the scientist purposefully causing terrible suffering to unwilling victims.
Whenever you are reading about experiments, in the news, in books, on blogs, please dig below the surface and ask yourself how this information came to be acquired and whether it is ethical. Until we question, we won’t see. Until we see, we won’t act.
Author of The Power and Promise of Humane Education and Most Good, Least Harm
Image courtesy of a_soft_world via Creative Commons.
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Filed under: animal intelligence and emotion, animal protection, critical thinking, Cultural Issues, integrity, speciesism, third side thinking | Tagged: animal experimentation, animal protection, compassion, critical thinking, empathy, ethics, mice, pain, research, suffering, vivisection | 3 Comments » | <urn:uuid:e07669f2-4d87-42e3-8b28-82844df013df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zoeweil.com/category/speciesism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940623 | 724 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Collection Process For Delinquent Taxes
Taxpayers are required to meet certain obligations under Michigan law. You are responsible for filing your tax returns on time with correct payments
and ensuring that your returns are correct no matter who prepares them. Remember, you
are responsible for the information in your return.
The following information will provide an overview of the Collection Process for Delinquent Taxes.
It is important to resolve any outstanding tax you owe as soon as possible. Penalty and interest will be added to your debt and will continue to grow until the amount is paid in full. Penalty charges can
range from 25% to
500% of the tax due, depending on the type of the tax!
|How To Resolve Tax Debts
Prior To Collection
If you do not pay your taxes, you may receive a LETTER OF INQUIRY, NOTICE OF INTENT TO
ASSESS, and/or a BILL FOR TAXES DUE (Final Assessment). This is your opportunity to resolve the debt prior to having the debt referred to
collections, by either paying the amount due, appealing the assessment, or
entering into an installment agreement. Do not wait for the Collection Division to contact you!
You must immediately take action to resolve your debt to avoid collection
Under the authority of
Public Act 122 of 1941
, as amended, the Collection Division is responsible for the collection of all delinquent state tax accounts for the State of Michigan.
The Department may proceed to collect your delinquent tax debt by using several different enforcement methods. The Collection Division can use collection enforcement action for a minimum of 6 years to collect the debt. The 6 year period, known as the statute of limitations, may be extended by certain actions such as a court judgment.
By law, the Department may use a variety of actions to collect your past-due tax, penalty and interest and may take these actions at any time during the course of collection.
The Collection Division will file liens on Real and Personal property to
protect the State's interest as a creditor. Liens will be filed even when a
taxpayer has made payment arrangements and is current with all payments.
Caution! Once a lien is filed, the
taxpayer's credit rating could be harmed and, in most cases, property cannot
be sold or transferred until the past-due tax is paid. A lien filed at a
county Register of Deeds becomes a public record. Credit reporting agencies
may obtain and publish the lien information. A lien filed against an
individual or business that is picked up by a credit reporting agency will
remain part of that credit history for the next seven to ten years.
||Tax Warrants (Seizure of
Business and Personal Property)
The Department has the authority to issue a Tax Warrant to close your business and/or to seize and sell your personal property (such as
business assets, equipment and inventory). The money from the sale of the
business assets will be applied to your tax debt.
Notification is provided to you of the amount owed at least 10 days before
the property is seized. Most seized property cannot be sold by the
Department for at least 10 days (perishable items may be sold within 24 hours).
Seizure related expenses (such as state personnel costs, locksmith service, towing
company assistance, storage
facility, advertising and mailing costs) will be charged to you.
The Department may levy against your wages, salaries, bonuses, commissions,
and other compensation from your employer. A
wage levy requires your employer to deduct a specified amount from your wages to pay the past-due
debt. Notification is provided to you of the amount owed at least 10 days before a wage
levy is sent to your employer. The employer must continue to deduct the specified amount from your net wages until the amount
of the levy is paid.
An additional fee (warrant costs) in the amount of $55 is added to the
delinquent amount due for each
||Financial Institution Levies
The Department may serve a levy against your financial institution (banks,
credit unions, brokerage firms, etc.) which requires your financial
send any funds being held to the Department up to the total past due tax,
penalty and interest amount.
You will be notified of the amount you owe at least 10 days before a levy
is sent to your financial institution. An additional fee (warrant costs) in the amount of $55
is added to the delinquent amount due for each levy served.
||Other types of Levies
The Department may levy against assets held by a third party. Examples of this type of
levy would be a license held in escrow, rental income or insurance proceeds. You will be notified of
the amount you owe at least 10 days before a levy is sent. An additional
fee (warrant costs) in the amount of $55 is added to the delinquent amount
due for each levy served.
||Offset refunds or other monies owed to you
Your (or your spouse's) income tax refund or credits may be offset and applied to your tax debt. In addition, we may offset any other money that you receive from the State of Michigan (such as lottery winnings and payments to vendors for services performed) and apply the amount to your tax debt.
||Hold you personally responsible for business taxes
The Revenue Act provides the Department with the authority to hold
officers, members, managers, and/or partners of a corporation, limited
liability company, limited liability partnership, limited partnership, or a
partnership personally liable for the unpaid taxes and any related penalties
and interest. This process is referred to as
||Liquor License revocation or renewal
If the business holds a liquor license and is past due in filing or paying business taxes,
the Department of Treasury can request that the Michigan Liquor Control Commission
revoke or not renew your liquor license. Taxpayers are prohibited by law
from selling any products containing alcohol without a valid liquor
license. Wholesalers, manufacturers, or brewers cannot legally sell or deliver products to liquor retailers who do not have a valid liquor license.
||Refer your account to a collection agency
The Michigan Department of Treasury contracts with a private collection
agency, the Michigan Accounts Receivable Collection System (MARCS), to help
us collect the delinquent tax, penalty and interest owed to the State of
||Other Collection methods, as necessary
Your account may be referred to the Michigan Department of Attorney General for
additional legal actions.
How to Pay
- Make your check payable to "STATE of MICHIGAN - CD"
Write your assessment number and account number on the check. Your account number is your Social Security or tax identification number.
- Include the payment coupon from the bottom of your billing notice.
- Please allow at least 10 - 14 days for mailing and processing of your payment.
- Please mail your payment to the following address:
Michigan Department of Treasury-CD
P.O. Box 30199
Lansing, MI 48909
Credit card or Debit card payments are not accepted at this time.
Our e-Services site will allow you to make an Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment from your checking or savings account. Please have your financial institution account number and that institutions 9-digit routing number available when you access
To pay by electronic withdrawal from your checking or savings account (EFT), please have your bank account number and the 9 digit routing number for your financial institution available when you call the Collection Division. If you have any questions about these numbers, please contact your bank or financial institution.
After you receive your BILL FOR TAXES DUE (FINAL
ASSESSMENT) the Department of Treasury may consider an Installment Agreement if your situation meets certain criteria.
|What If I Can't Pay All Of
The Debt At This Time?
For Installment Agreements lasting for 24 months or less, you must
complete, sign and return the
(Form 990). The agreement requires a proposed payment amount that will be reviewed for approval by Treasury. All highlighted areas of the form are required and must be filled in completely before your request for an installment agreement will be considered for approval. Failure to complete the required areas will result in a delay of processing and continued collection efforts
If you are interested in an Installment Agreement
for a period longer than 24 months, please call the Collection Division for more information.
The Collection Division will file liens on Real
and Personal property to protect the State's interest as a creditor. Liens will
be filed even when a taxpayer has made payment arrangements and is current with
Caution! Once a lien is filed, the
taxpayer's credit rating could be harmed and, in most cases, property cannot be
sold or transferred until the past-due tax is paid. A lien filed at a county
Register of Deeds becomes a public record. Credit reporting agencies may obtain
and publish the lien information. A lien filed against an individual or business
that is picked up by a credit reporting agency will remain part of that credit
history for the next seven to ten years.
If you have been contacted by the Michigan
Accounts Receivable Collection System (MARCS), please contact them directly for
more information about Installment Agreements.
Important: The Department of Treasury is prohibited by law from compromising or reducing the amount of tax you owe to the State of Michigan.
If you believe you have received a bill for taxes due that you do not owe, send the following information to support your claim:
|What To Do If You Disagree
- A letter explaining why the tax is not due with documents to support the reasons you outline in your letter. Be sure to include your account number (Social
Security or tax identification number) on the letter.
- A copy of the billing notice you received from
the Michigan Department of Treasury.
Mail the above information to the address that appears on the bill.
Information about how to appeal the bill can be found on the back of the billing notice, or in the Taxpayer Rights Handbook.
Power of Attorney
|Other Helpful Information
If you wish to authorize another person or corporation, (tax
preparer, accountant, attorney, family member, etc.,) as your representative in tax or debt matters before the State of Michigan, you must complete and file a
Power of Attorney Authorization (Form
151) with the Collection Division.
Estimate Penalty and
Interest Owed for a Late Payment
Frequently Asked Questions about Delinquent Accounts
Driver Responsibility Fees
Due to heavy call volumes, there may be a delay in answering your call. To assist our customer service representatives in helping you, please have your account number and tax documents with you when you call.
Your account number is your Social Security or tax identification number.
- If you don't understand why you received your bill, please contact the appropriate Tax Division at the number below:
- Income Tax (517) 636-4486
- Sales, Use and Withholding Taxes (517) 636-4730
- Single Business Tax (517) 636-4700
- Michigan Business Tax (517) 636-4657
- Motor Fuel Taxes (517) 636-4600
- To pay your debt or other questions about your delinquent account, call Treasury Collection Division
at (517) 636-5265.
- If you are making a payment by electronic
withdrawal (EFT), please have your bank account number and the 9 digit bank routing
number of your financial institution available. If you have any questions
about these numbers, please contact your bank or financial institution. | <urn:uuid:b6a9898b-60e2-400d-85c0-823773471d7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://[email protected]/taxes/0,1607,7-238-43519_43523---,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910309 | 2,444 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Leapers celebrate their true birthdays every four years, and 2012 is one such exceptional year. “It only happens once every four years, so you’ve got to have some fun with it,” Martin says.
Most leapers celebrate their birthdays on Feb. 28 or March 1 but are always looking to relish their rare birthright. Martin and family used to frequently visit the “Guess Your Age” booth at King’s Island, where she defiantly challenged attendants to guess her age before politely informing them that they were way off. “When we told them our (Leap Year) age, they’d just chuckle. One person even asked to see my ID.”
Despite Leap Year being a bit of an oddity, it’s a normal part of keeping up with the seasons. The normal calendar year is 365.25 days long, so we round off and add one full day every four years.
“While Leap Day itself is a chronological anomaly, after 2,000 years, it’s still the best way to ensure that the seasons come at the same time every year,” says Peter Brouwer, co-founder of the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies.
If we didn’t adjust, the calendar would drift a little every year, eventually sliding into 90-degree weather in October.
Martin loves talking about her peculiar birthday and the stories it has fetched over the years.
Since Feb. 29 only arrives every four years, your chances to be born on Leap Year Day are less than a tenth of a percent. That’s pretty rare as far as birthdays go. But Martin’s real twist of fate is that her son, Chris Martin, was born on Feb. 29, 1988.
“It wasn’t planned at all. When my son was due March 4, I thought briefly that it might be cool, but I didn’t ever think it was going to happen,” Martin says.
The coincidence is astronomical. The probability of a leaper to have a child born on Leap Year is more than one in 2 million, which makes for an unlikely game of leapfrog. To put that in context, it’s far more likely to be born when Haley’s Comet is visible to the naked eye, and twice as likely to be struck by lighting.
And although Feb. 29 is just another day of the year, the abnormal birthdays can throw others for a loop.
“My personal favorite is by a (Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies) member named Kathleen,” Brouwer says. “She went to the emergency room thinking she was having a heart attack.” But when the doctor showed up, the first thing he asked was, “So, when do you celebrate your birthday?”
“We hear this question a lot,” Brouwer says, “but this situation really takes the cake.”
Many mix-ups result from computers failing to recognize Feb. 29 as a valid date. “This extra day has been happening since 45 B.C.,” says Raenell Ochampaugh, co-founder of the Honor Society. “It’s about time we catch ourselves up with technology.”
“You’d think they have the extra date in the D.M.V. computers, but I wasn’t able to use my real birthday on my I.D. until recently,” Martin says.
Ochampaugh says that she’s used to seeing confusion from the deviant date, even as basic as calendars omitting the day itself.
“Calendar companies need to put the words ‘Leap Day’ on the 29th every Leap Year. It’s the day that represents how balanced the calendar is, and yet they miss it every Leap Year,” she says.
So while the extra day remains quite simple in theory, when it comes around it’s quite a different story. Case in point: Although Martin was denied alcohol on Feb. 28 prior to her 21st birthday, her son was happily served a few years ago under the same circumstances. Either the alcohol laws are getting lax, or everyone’s still just a little confused about Leap Year. © | <urn:uuid:344047a3-7451-44bf-bf33-68c496b4d32c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-25006-leap_year_oddities.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967376 | 917 | 2.015625 | 2 |
CHAPTER XV. JOURNEY FROM DELHI TO BOMBAY CONTINUED.
TRAVELLING ON INDIAN CAMELS - MY MEETING WITH THE BURDON FAMILY - THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF WOMEN AMONG THE NATIVE POPULATION IN INDIA - UDJEIN - CAPTAIN HAMILTON - INTRODUCTION AT COURT - MANUFACTURE OF ICE - THE ROCK TEMPLES OF ADJUNTA - A TIGER HUNT - THE ROCK TEMPLES OF ELORA - THE FORTRESS OF DOWLUTABAD.
14TH February. The camels were ordered at 5 o'clock in the morning, but it was not until towards noon that they came, each with a driver. When they saw my portmanteau (twenty-five pounds in weight), they were quite puzzled to know what to do with it. It was useless my explaining to them how the luggage is carried in Egypt, and that I had been accustomed to carry very little with me on my own animal: they were used to a different plan, and would not depart from it.
Travelling on camels is always unpleasant and troublesome. The jolting motion of the animal produces in many people the same ill effects as the rocking of a ship on the sea; but in India it is almost unbearable, on account of the inconvenience of the arrangements. Here each animal has a driver, who sits in front and takes the best place; the traveller has only a little space left for him on the hinder part of the animal.
Dr. Rolland advised me at once to put up with the inconvenience as well as I could. He told me that I should fall in with Captain Burdon in the next day or two, and it would be easy to obtain a more convenient conveyance from him. I followed his advice, allowed my luggage to be carried, and patiently mounted my camel.
We passed through extensive plains, which were most remarkable for some considerable flax plantations, and came to a beautiful lake, near to which lay a very pretty palace. Towards evening, we reached the little village of Moasa, where we stayed for the night.
In those countries which are governed by native princes, there are neither roads nor arrangements for travelling; although in every village and town there are people appointed whose business it is to direct travellers on their way and carry their luggage, for which they are paid a small fee. Those travellers who have a guard from the king or aumil (governor), or a cheprasse with them, do not pay anything for this attendance; others give them a trifle for their services, according as the distance is greater or less.
When I reached Moasa, every one hastened to offer me their services - for I travelled with the king's people, and in this part of the country a European woman is a rarity. They brought me wood, milk, and eggs. My table was always rather frugally furnished: at the best I had rice boiled in milk or some eggs, but generally only rice, with water and salt. A leathern vessel for water, a little saucepan for boiling in, a handful of salt, and some rice and bread, were all that I took with me.
15th February. Late in the evening I reached Nurankura, a small place surrounded by low mountains. I found here some tents belonging to Captain Burdon, a maid, and a servant. Terribly fatigued, I entered one of the tents directly, in order to rest myself. Scarcely had I taken possession of the divan, than the maid came into the tent, and, without any observation, commenced kneading me about with her hands. I would have stopped her, but she explained to me that when a person was fatigued it was very refreshing. For a quarter of an hour she pressed my body from head to foot vigorously, and it certainly produced a good effect - I found myself much relieved and strengthened. This custom of pressing and kneading is very common in India, as well as in all Oriental countries, especially after the bath; and Europeans also willingly allow themselves to be operated upon.
The maid informed me, partly by signs, partly by words, that I had been expected since noon; that a palanquin stood ready for me, and that I could sleep as well in it as in the tent. I was rejoiced at this, and again started on my journey at 11 o'clock at night. The country was indeed, as I knew, infested with tigers, but as several torch-bearers accompanied us, and the tigers are sworn enemies of light, I could composedly continue my uninterrupted sleep. About 3 o'clock in the morning, I was set down again in a tent, which was prepared for my reception, and furnished with every convenience.
16th February. This morning I made the acquaintance of the amiable family of the Burdons. They have seven children, whom they educate chiefly themselves. They live very pleasantly and comfortably, although they are wholly thrown on their own resources for amusement, as there are, with the exception of Dr. Rolland, no Europeans in Kottah. It is only very rarely that they are visited by officers who may be passing through, and I was the first European female Mrs. Burdon had seen for four years.
I passed the most delightful day in this family circle. I was not a little astonished to find here all the conveniences of a well-regulated house; and I must take this opportunity of describing, in few words, the mode of travelling adopted by the English officers and officials in India.
In the first place, they have tents which are so large, that they contain two or three rooms; one which I saw was worth more than 800 rupees (80 pounds). They take with them corresponding furniture, from a footstool to the most elegant divan; in fact, nearly the whole of the house and cooking utensils. They have also a multitude of servants, every one of whom has his particular occupation, which he understands exceedingly well. The travellers, after passing the night in their beds, about 3 o'clock in the morning either lie or sit in easy palanquins, or mount on horseback, and after four or five hours' ride, dismount, and partake of a hot breakfast under tents. They have every household accommodation, carry on their ordinary occupations, take their meals at their usual hours, and are, in fact, entirely at home. | <urn:uuid:9537b8d8-d475-47fc-be8f-46e16236ee38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://explorion.net/womans-journey-round-world/chapter-xv-journey-delhi-bombay-continued?quicktabs_2=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984948 | 1,358 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Los Alamos, New Mexico - Los Alamos nuclear laboratory officials say it could be a few days before they'll know the extent of how experiments at the facility that created the first atomic bomb have been affected by a shutdown caused by a 125-square mile wildfire.
The lab has been shut down since Monday, when all of the city of Los Alamos and some of its surrounding areas,12,000 people in all, was evacuated.
There was no word on when it will reopen, but it was expected to remain idle at least through Friday.
Officials said the Los Alamos National Laboratory has some 10,000 experiments running at the same time that have been put on hold.
Among the work delayed are experiments run on two supercomputers, the Roadrunner and Cielo.
The National Security Administration's three national laboratories--Los Alamos, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore--all share computing time on Cielo, which is among the world's fastest computers.
Also delayed is work on projects ranging from extending the life of 1960s era B61 nuclear bombs to studies on how climate change affects ocean currents.
Fire officials late Wednesday said they're confident that the fire won't spread onto the lab and the town of Los Alamos. | <urn:uuid:fa472732-970d-47ef-b12b-d19b64e73bbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kolotv.com/news/nationalnews/headlines/Effect_of_fire_on_Los_Alamos_lab_124764334.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958065 | 257 | 2.609375 | 3 |
After witnessing the first Washington performance of "Pudd'n-head Wilson" at the Grand last night, all who saw it are forced to the conclusion that if Mark Twain's novel of that name was not quite up to his standard, he at least provided Frank Mayo with the material for a great play. Possibly America's master humorist was unconscious of the fact at the time, and merely started out to write a quaintly amusing sketch of life in old Missouri; but seen in the full blaze of the footlights it is chuck full of dramatic power. This is the fourth character of his creation who has found a place on the stage, and is by far the best. The first was Col. Mulberry Sellers, that quaint caricature of the American speculator, who found his living realization in John T. Raymond. The second was "Tom Sawyer," who, although sadly changed from the original, attained popularity in farce comedy. The third was "The Prince and the Pauper," who was rather overshadowed by "Little Lord Fauntleroy's" fame and did not live long. But "Pudd'n-head Wilson" has found both an adapter and interpreter in Frank Mayo, and will take rank beside "Davy Crockett" in his repertoire.
Primarily it is the story of two children, differing only in the matter of a few drops of negro blood, changed in the cradle so that the born slave grows up to be the master, while the true heir is forced to bear all the labor and humiliation of servitude. In the book Mark Twain treats this with the broad, satiric touch, which has become prominent in his more recent writings; in the play it becomes intensely dramatic, and is furthermore heightened by the fact that the change was made by mistake, and the slave mother, Roxy, although cognizant of it, acquiesces merely to save her son--a maternal and altogether commendable [act].
But blood will tell, and the mock master shows his yellow strain, while the pseudo slave grows a manly fellow, who wins the love of the village belle in spite of his menial condition. Then comes the attempted murder of Judge Driscoll and the fastening of the guilt upon Tom by Wilson, nicknamed "Pudd'nhead," by his system of thumb marks, now an accepted method of identifying criminals. This brings out the leading character, quaint David Wilson, who has all along played the part of a pearl before swine in the appreciation of his neighbors, although the audience values him at his worth from the very first.
Admirable and established actor though he has been considered heretofore, Frank Mayo wins new laurels in this part. The odd, whimsical character just suits his quiet humor, which made Davy Crockett a human rather than a dime-novel hero. The relish with which he delivers many pat apothegms from "Pudd'nhead's" famous diary is irresistible, and throughout he makes the man one of the most lovable characters that has been introduced on the stage for many seasons. Truly the American drama will be advanced by a few more such additions.
Moreover, "Pudd'nhead" is not alone. There are those unconsciously droll types of the back woods town--Sheriff Blake, impersonated by that droll comedian, Newt Chiswell. Judge Robinson, Swan, and Campbell, the "three wise men of Dawson's"; Aunt Betsy, played with skill by Lucille Laverne, and the slaves, of whom Miss Elena Mar[s] was noticeable for dialect and makeup. Contrasted with these are those strange Italian twins, Luigi and Angelo, picturesquely impersonated by Adolph Klauber and George Hallton, who made up as like as two peas and carry their peculiar parts well.
To Arnold Daly as Chambers, Frank Campeau as Tom Driscoll, the changelings, and Miss Eleanor Moretti as Roxy are assigned the leading parts of the piece, which they play effectively. Frank E. Aiken, an old-time actor of merit, is at home in the part of Judge Driscoll, while Emmett C. King carries the part of the young lawyer cleverly. Miss Frances Grahams makes a charming Rowy, which part is considerably elaborated in the play from the novel. "Pudd'nhead Wilson" is staged effectively and makes a most enjoyable evening's entertainment.
Frank Mayo's dramatization of Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson meets with the approval of a fine audience at Allen's Grand Opera House. The presentation is thoroughly pleasing in every respect. Mr. Mayo and excellent support were repeatedly honored. The first productions of the Heart of Maryland comes next. | <urn:uuid:a1ff8ff6-5bf8-4f74-9f6c-1d6296a248b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/wilson/pwplay/mayorev03.html | 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 | 0.978896 | 976 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Backers of a voter initiative that would suspend California’s landmark climate law (AB 32) have delayed the launch of their signature-gathering campaign, raising questions about whether their proposal will qualify for the state ballot in November. The promoters of the ballot measure – Republican Assemblyman Dan Logue, Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA), and taxpayer association director Ted Costa – also face increased media scrutiny of the financial interests of industries that would benefit from a suspension of the climate law, and their underlying premise that greenhouse gas regulations will lead to job losses.
The Logue camp suffered a setback earlier this month when California Attorney General Jerry Brown issued a summary of the ballot proposition as required by state election procedures. Rather than calling it the “California Jobs Initiative” as Logue had submitted, Brown’s office more accurately described it this way:
> “Suspends air pollution control laws requiring major polluters to report and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming until unemployment drops below specified level for full year.”
That’s what Logue would have to get 433,000 California voters to sign this spring in order to qualify for the November ballot. Notwithstanding the efforts of paid signature-gatherers at shopping centers and other public places, some voters – if they read the text – will think twice before joining such a campaign. Logue’s group is reportedly considering a lawsuit to get different wording, or it may try to submit entirely new language with the same intent.
If Logue and his backers qualify their anti-AB32 measure for the ballot, a bigger battle would ensue during election season. Many mainstream businesses have voiced their support for continued implementation of AB 32. There is also a growing body of evidence that California’s strong environmental laws are creating jobs and attracting investment to the state:
* California is the leading state in clean energy businesses (10,209), clean energy jobs (125,390) and clean energy venture capital funding ($6.6 billion for 2006-2008), according to the Pew Charitable Trusts (pdf).
* Next Ten reports that California green jobs increased by 36% from 1995-2008 while total jobs expanded only 13% during the same period (pdf). While the economy slowed between 2007-2008, total employment fell 1%, but green jobs grew by 5%.
* California’s energy efficiency policies during the past 35 years have saved consumers $56 billion while creating 1.5 million jobs, reports the University of California at Berkeley, Center for Energy, Resources, and Economic Sustainability (pdf).
A full debate about AB 32 in California may actually turn into an opportunity to solidify the green economy in the state. With federal climate legislation stalled in Washington, the outcome of this discussion will have national implications. | <urn:uuid:c946e295-6414-4e86-902b-5b48eedef242> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://terrapass.com/politics/opponents-of-californias-climate-law-exposed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946661 | 573 | 2 | 2 |
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Seven-spot ladybird parasitised by a parasitic wasp: could parasites be the key to controlling the Harlequin ladybird? (Image © Remy Ware)
Scientists from five institutions have been working to monitor the spread and impact of the invasive harlequin ladybird since its arrival in Britain in 2004. Using stringent and imaginative experiments, the research team are exploring their prediction that over 1000 species in Britain are at risk from this invasive species, and how it might be controlled.
"Invasive alien species are one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity," says Dr Remy Ware from the University of Cambridge. "Using data from the Harlequin and UK Ladybird Surveys, we have a unique opportunity to study the early establishment, spread and adaptation of an invasive species."
Dr Helen Roy from NERC’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology explains, "Contributions from the public, in the form of a large number of records, have been invaluable for the surveys. Volunteer recorders are critical for our research."
On the exhibition stand, learn how to distinguish harlequins from our native species and see harlequins behaving badly, get up close to them under the microscope, find out how scientists are trying to control the invasion and how you can help by catching the recording bug!
For more information on the Harlequin Ladybird Survey, and UK research on ladybirds, please visit:
See all exhibits from 2009
Watch videos from the 2009 exhibition on YouTube
Full listing of our events and exhibitions.
Watch videos of past events.
Most of our talks are free and open to the public.
We host major conferences for leading scientists.
Explore our annual science exhibition
Contact the events team. | <urn:uuid:c7083b1a-ac0a-4845-87be-3e66cd5055b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://royalsociety.org/summer-science/2009/ladybird-ladybird/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918717 | 363 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Fat, we can’t live with it…we can’t live without it. Fat has gone in an out of diet fads faster than current celebrities. As the research continues, the message gets more and more complex.
Saturated and Trans are the fats that increase your blood cholesterol. Saturated are fats that are solid at room temperature. Trans are fats that are manmade through the hydrogenation process. Trans fats are found in small amounts in nature in meat and are also solid at room temperature. What about butter vs. margarine? It comes down to your health status and your preference. If you eat it rarely and really prefer the taste, butter is best.
Unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature. They are the fats that are good for heart health, skin etc. etc. etc. This is the category where you find the acclaimed omega 3 and 6 fats. Omega 3 and 6 are needed by your body. We don’t make them and therefore need to get them from our diet. The hard part is we commonly don’t get enough omegas 3. Omega 3 fatty acids can help decrease inflammation in your body and help keep you heart healthy.
DHA and EPA
DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid) are omega 3 fatty acids. They are found most commonly in fish and seafood. These two fats can be made from other fatty acids found in plant foods such as flax, walnuts and canola oil.
Much research has been done on omega 3 fats in the last few years. DHA and EPA have become a food industry favorite. These fats have been added to foods like formula and yogurt and are advertised to support brain development and growth. What does this mean for you and your kids?
One of the great things about breastfeeding is you can change the type of fat in your breast milk by what you eat! Breast milk has DHA and other good fats in it, pretty much regardless of you eat. However, you can change the amounts of different fats with your diet. Should you choose DHA fortified formula? Maybe, the research is conflicting. DHA supplemented formula has an impact on premature babies, but the difference hasn’t been as profound in full term babies. Breast milk offers the best complement of fatty acids for your growing baby.
What about older babies?
Fish and good oils should be a part of a healthy kid’s diet. If you aren’t huge fish fans, some of the supplemented products like omega 3 eggs and yogurt might be a good choice. As always I recommend good food first.
If you have any further questions please check with a Registered Dietitian near you or email [email protected]. Please check www.vitaenutritionsaskatoon.com for classes on topics like this, such as Eating for Breastfeeding Success. | <urn:uuid:dd7834b5-2dc0-49c0-9ceb-0424a981e9c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vitaenutritionsaskatoon.com/2012/05/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955055 | 605 | 2.671875 | 3 |
June 24, 2009
PASADENA, Calif. -- For the first time, scientists working on NASA's Cassini mission have detected sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn's outermost ring. Detecting salty ice indicates that Saturn's moon Enceladus, which primarily replenishes the ring with material from discharging jets, could harbor a reservoir of liquid water -- perhaps an ocean -- beneath its surface.
Cassini discovered the water-ice jets in 2005 on Enceladus. These jets expel tiny ice grains and vapor, some of which escape the moon's gravity and form Saturn's outermost ring. Cassini's cosmic dust analyzer has examined the composition of those grains and found salt within them.
"We believe that the salty minerals deep inside Enceladus washed out from rock at the bottom of a liquid layer," said Frank Postberg, Cassini scientist for the cosmic dust analyzer at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. Postberg is lead author of a study that appears in the June 25 issue of the journal Nature.
Scientists on Cassini's cosmic dust detector team conclude that liquid water must be present because it is the only way to dissolve the significant amounts of minerals that would account for the levels of salt detected. The process of sublimation, the mechanism by which vapor is released directly from solid ice in the crust, cannot account for the presence of salt.
"Potential plume sources on Enceladus are an active area of research with evidence continuing to converge on a possible salt water ocean," said Linda Spilker, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Our next opportunity to gather data on Enceladus will come during two flybys in November."
The makeup of the outermost ring grains, determined when thousands of high-speed particle hits were registered by Cassini, provides indirect information about the composition of the plume material and what is inside Enceladus. The outermost ring particles are almost pure water ice, but nearly every time the dust analyzer has checked for the composition, it has found at least some sodium within the particles.
"Our measurements imply that besides table salt, the grains also contain carbonates like soda. Both components are in concentrations that match the predicted composition of an Enceladus ocean," Postberg said. "The carbonates also provide a slightly alkaline pH value. If the liquid source is an ocean, it could provide a suitable environment on Enceladus for the formation of life precursors when coupled with the heat measured near the moon's south pole and the organic compounds found within the plumes."
However, in another study published in Nature, researchers doing ground-based observations did not see sodium, an important salt component. That team notes that the amount of sodium being expelled from Enceladus is actually less than observed around many other planetary bodies. These scientists were looking for sodium in the plume vapor and could not see it in the expelled ice grains. They argue that if the plume vapor does come from ocean water, the evaporation must happen slowly deep underground, rather than as a violent geyser erupting into space.
"Finding salt in the plume gives evidence for liquid water below the surface," said Sascha Kempf, also a Cassini scientist for the cosmic dust analyzer from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics. "The lack of detection of sodium vapor in the plume gives hints about what the water reservoir might look like."
Determining the nature and origin of the plume material is a top priority for Cassini during its extended tour, called the Cassini Equinox Mission.
"The original picture of the plumes as violently erupting Yellowstone-like geysers is changing," said Postberg."They seem more like steady jets of vapor and ice fed by a large water reservoir. However, we cannot decide yet if the water is currently 'trapped' within huge pockets in Enceladus' thick ice crust or still connected to a large ocean in contact with the rocky core."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Cassini cosmic dust analyzer was provided by the German Aerospace Center. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. JPL manages the mission for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
More information about the Cassini mission is available at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini or http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .
DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington | <urn:uuid:2d40b36e-d802-4e2b-9757-48efe42a38ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2009-101 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925488 | 991 | 3.375 | 3 |
A president's Inauguration once killed him?
Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images
William Henry Harrison – the ninth United States President – gave the longest inaugural address. It was 8,445 words, more than two hours in length and given to a crowd standing out in the elements of a bitter, damp and chilly March day.
Jim Bendat, author of "Democracy's Big Day," says 68-year-old Harrison "extended himself too much" that day. After dragging out his long address and attending all three Inaugural balls – a record for the time – the new president caught pneumonia. Harrison, who was then the oldest man to be elected president, spent less than a month in office before succumbing to the cold. | <urn:uuid:e67a1f1e-b793-4cb0-a316-3943687539bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whas11.com/news/national/12-surprising-facts-about-the-Inauguration-187456271.html?gallery=y&c=y&img=0&c=y&c=y&c=y&c=y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970923 | 154 | 2.859375 | 3 |
“Who has ever raised a voice to the voice who condemns and who has condemned yet never been condemned?”
The interrogation policy – details of which are believed to be too sensitive to be publicly released at the government inquiry into the UK’s role in torture and rendition – instructed senior intelligence officers to weigh the importance of the information being sought against the amount of pain they expected a prisoner to suffer. It was operated by the British government for almost a decade.
A copy of the secret policy showed senior intelligence officers and ministers feared the British public could be at greater risk of a terrorist attack if Islamists became aware of its existence.
In the north of Ireland between 1970 and 2000 British military personnel were responsible for killing over 400(1) men, women and children. All of the victims were unarmed, and none posed a threat to the life of the British soldier who carried out the shooting. Among the victims are Catholic priests, elderly women, children, and even teenage girls such as Annette McGavigan age 14, who was shot in the back of the head at close range by a member of the British Army.
The Baha Mousa(5) and Bloody Sunday(6) Inquiries for all of their bias and shortcomings, have certainly underlined the fact that the British Army has for decades operated, and continues to operate with complete contempt for the UN charter of Human Rights(7), and appears to be totally incapable of ensuring that British troops adhere to national and international law. It is this very refusal on the part of the British Army to recognise that it has any legal and moral responsibilities to the civilian population that is at the very core of the problem.
To date, some of the crimes against civilians carried out by members of the British Army include:-
• The planning, collusion, and participation in the murder of Irish, UK, and Iraqi citizens(13)
• The murder / illegal killing of unarmed men women and children (14)
• The assault, torture, and murder of civilian prisoners (15)
• The torture, mutilation and murder of captured “insurgents” (16)
• The supply of weapons, explosives, and intelligence to paramilitary “death squads” (17)
• Perjury, and the destruction / fabrication of evidence in order to protect the guilty (18).
The above crimes did not happen, and continue to happen, simply because of the actions of a few rouge elements in the lower ranks of the British Army (though the handful of actual criminal convictions that have been secured are, of course, limited to corporals and those in the lower ranks) – they happen because within the British Army and MoD there exists a deep rooted culture that refuses to recognise that the British Army should at all times operate within the confines of national and international law.
Under UK law, the British Army has a legal duty to investigate all such crimes, yet out of the hundreds of reported killings there have only been a handful of cases that have led to criminal charges being brought against any British Army personnel.
Despite the findings of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, and an admission from the British Government of the British Army’s illegal killing of 14* innocent civilians who took part in a civil rights protest in Derry, the British Army still refuses to admit any liability for the Springhill or Ballymurphy massacres (20), preferring as it does to continue to explain away the shooting of unarmed men, women, children – and even a Catholic priest who was waving a white handkerchief as he sought to come to the aid of the dying – as nothing more than innocent mistakes. This is despite the fact that British Army snipers devoted two days to shooting anybody unfortunate enough to come within range. The fact is, as with Bloody Sunday, these killings of unarmed civilians were anything but mistakes – they were cold blooded murder. The survivors of Springhill and Ballymurphy know it, and so does the British Army.
For all of the flag waving jingoistic nonsense in the British media, the act of serving in the British Army – or the Armed forces of any nation – does not in itself make military personnel “heroes”. Heroism is based on individual conduct of a higher or noble purpose – sadly, when it comes to the killing of unarmed civilians there are far too many in the British Army who lack even the moral courage to speak out against these injustices, such as Father Peter Madden (21), the padre for the Queens Lancashire Regiment, who witnessed the shocking torture and abuse to Iraqi prisoners and did not have the courage to try to stop it.
The Nuremberg Defence – I was only obeying orders.
I would argue that the very act of enlisting in the British Army (in the full knowledge that a subsequent posting to Iraq or Afghanistan would be almost inevitable) does not exempt the British Army volunteer from the accusation that their very presence as part of an occupying military force is not only immoral, but under international law it is illegal. The US and UK certainly did not obtain UN approval for the 2003 invasion, and in 2004 the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan made the position quite clear when he said “From our point of view and the UN Charter point of view, the war and invasion of Iraq was illegal.” (23)
A Whitewash Too Far
As an example of the typical British Army whitewash when it comes to investigating these crimes, the report by Brigadier Robert Aitken into the torture and death of civilian Iraqi prisoners, after two years of “investigations” produced a 38 page report that concluded that the MoD and the British Army were certainly blameless, and that the injuries and deaths of the Iraqi prisoners were attributed to nobody in particular (25).A “rotten barrel with a few good apples”
Those that claimed that the Aitken report was a typical British Army whitewash were later proved right when the same British Army investigators later admitted in court that they had colluded and coaxed witnesses, fabricated statements, and that one investigator (Captain James Rands, 1st Battalion the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment) had destroyed incriminating photographic evidence by dumping it in the English Channel. As one member of the British Military police was to say about the British Army’s investigative system – “it is not a case of a few rotten apples – it is a case of a rotten barrel with a few good apples”. (26)
In only a handful of cases where the strategy of denial and cover-up has failed has it resulted in the accused facing prosecution in the British Courts – and even if the accused is found guilty the British Army refuses to regard a British Soldier who is convicted of murder or manslaughter as sufficient grounds for dismissal from the British Army. (28) The spectacle of British Army servicemen convicted of murder or manslaughter (such as Guardsman James Fisher, and Ian Wright when General Sir Roger Wheeler, who sat on the original Army Board decided to allow the two guardsmen to remain soldiers despite the murder conviction) continuing to receive their full British Army pay, and being reinstated by their regiment after serving on average just over two years imprisonment not only makes a complete mockery of justice, but simply confirms the mind-set of the British Army when it comes the value it places on the illegal killing of civilians.
This pattern of superficial investigations followed by denial of liability has been the standard British Army response to every atrocity they have been accused of committing – from the mass shooting of civilians at Amritsar in 1919, and the atrocities of the “Black and Tans” (29) in 1920-22, through to the Ballymurphy massacre and Bloody Sunday, to the hundreds of innocent men, women, and children, who were illegally killed by the British Army in the north of Ireland since 1970, and it continues today with the superficial investigations into the killing of hundreds of Iraqi civilians, some of whom were hooded and manacled prisoners who died as a result of torture and beatings while in British Army “custody”.
Had the British Army not been such a recidivist and psychopathic organisation, it would have responded positively to the Bloody Sunday findings by taking the initiative to support an impartial and transparent investigation into such killings. It does not do so because there is a deep rooted culture within the British Army that refuses to acknowledge that it has any legal or moral duty towards civilians – if civilians are shot, tortured to death, or abused it is simply an inevitable consequence of war, regrettable but inevitable. Such an attitude may have been the norm when the British Army was founded but in an age when our society expects, at the very minimum, that the British Army adheres to national and international law – not least the European Convention on Human Rights – the British Army’s attitude is not only socially unacceptable, but it undermines the very values that it claims to uphold, and as with similar behaviour of the psychopathic the British Army seems to not only lack the capacity for regret or remorse, but it appears to also lack the ability to learn from past mistakes.
1. Deaths in the north of Ireland
2. Iraq and Afghan Civilian deaths
3. UK legal claims by victims of British Army
4. Deaths in British Army custody
5. Baha Mousa Inquiry
6. Bloody Sunday Inquiry
7. UN Charter of Human Rights
8. Corporals convicted of murder and re-instated
9. FRU involvement in murder of Patrick Finucane
10. British Army torture of prisoners
11. Shoot to Kill sanctioned by Margaret Thatcher
12. Actions of the FRU
13. The planning, collusion, and participation in the murder of Irish, UK, and Iraqi citizens
14. The murder / illegal killing of unarmed men women and children
15. The assault, torture, and murder of civilian prisoners
16. The torture, mutilation and murder of captured “insurgents”
17. The supply of weapons, explosives, and intelligence to paramilitary “death squads”
18. Perjury, and the destruction / fabrication of evidence in order to protect the guilty
19. Superficial manner of investigating British Army killings
20. Sprinhill and Ballymurphy massacres
21. Father Peter Madden
22. The fabrication of evidence
23. Kofi Annan on legality of Iraq War
24. Purposes of the United Nations
25. The Aitken Report
26. A few good apples
27. Col Dudley Giles retains his job
28. Convicted British Army servicemen re-instated
29. The Black and Tans atrocities in Ireland
In 2005 George Monbiot wrote:
“Three recent books – Britain’s Gulag by Caroline Elkins, Histories of the Hanged by David Anderson and Web of Deceit by Mark Curtis – show how white settlers and British troops suppressed the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya in the 1950s. Thrown off their best land and deprived of political rights, the Kikuyu started to organise – some of them violently – against colonial rule. The British responded by driving up to 320,000 of them into concentration camps.Most of the remainder – over a million – were held in “enclosed villages”. Prisoners were questioned with the help of “slicing off ears, boring holes in eardrums, flogging until death, pouring paraffin over suspects who were then set alight, and burning eardrums with lit cigarettes.”
The soldiers were told they could shoot anyone they liked “provided they were black”. Elkins’s evidence suggests that over 100,000 Kikuyu were either killed by the British or died of disease and starvation in the camps. David Anderson documents the hanging of 1090 suspected rebels: far more than the French executed in Algeria. Thousands more were summarily executed by soldiers, who claimed they had “failed to halt” when challenged.
How many times does a practice have to be publicly outlawed before people stop pretending they didn’t know it was wrong? Suppose someone in a position of authority was being tried for murder. Would any court accept the excuse that he didn’t know it was illegal to kill someone? Yet this is precisely what has happened in the case of the British armed forces using illegal interrogation techniques.The techniques (hooding, stress positions, subjection to noise, sleep deprivation and food and drink deprivation) were banned under the Geneva conventions; by the UK parliament in 1972; again by the UK signing the Convention Against Torture (1987), and yet again when the Human Rights Act became part of UK domestic law (1998). Evidence at the Baha Mousa Inquiry showed the techniques were still being taught to troops in the 1980s and in 2002. Attempts to stop the practice of hooding were countermanded by directives from ‘higher up the chain of command’. In April 2003 hooding and other practices were banned by Lt General Brims, seen to be still in use in July 2003, clearly in use in September 2003 when Baha Mousa died, banned again by Lt Gen Sir John Reith in October 2003, and in May 2004 the order banning hooding was extended to other theatres in which UK forces were operating.
Winston Churchill, speech to the House of Commons in 1935: “In the standard of life they have nothing to spare. The slightest fall from the present standard of life in India means slow starvation, and the actual squeezing out of life, not only of millions but of scores of millions of people, who have come into the world at your invitation and under the shield and protection of British power.”Winston Churchill to Leo Amery, Secretary of State for India (1942): “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.”
“No great portion of the world population was so effectively protected from the horrors and perils of the World War as were the peoples of Hindustan. They were carried through the struggle on the shoulders of our small Island.”
1. 1769-1770 Bengal Famine (10 million dead).2. Other pre-20th Century famines in British India, in particular those in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa (1769-1770), Rajasthan, Oudh and elsewhere in northern India (1782-84), Rajasthan, Bombay, Gujarat and north-western provinces (1812-1815), north-western provinces, Punjab and Rajasthan (1837-1838), Madras, Deccan, Bihar, Bengal and particularly Orissa (1866; 3 million dead), Rajasthan and northern India (1868-1870), and throughout much of India from Hyderabad to Rajasthan and the Punjab (1899-1900; millions dying).3. 25 million Indian cholera deaths in 19 th century India due to British transmission of the disease from Bengal by rail and sea (and by sea around the world).4. 1.5 billion Indian excess deaths in the period 1757-1947 (1.8 billion excess deaths in the British-dominated Native States are included).5. 17 million Indians died in the Spanish influenza pandemic (1918-1923) out of a world total of about 50 million, this
being exacerbated by the return of hundreds of thousands Indian soldiers from WW1 and British Empire commerce.
Following a peaceful march on 6 August 2011 in relation to the police response to the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by Metropolitan Police Service firearms officers on 4 August 2011, a riot began in Tottenham, North London.
In the following days, rioting spread to several London boroughs and districts and eventually to some other areas of England, with the most severe disturbances outside London occurring in Bristol and cities in the Midlands and North West of England. Related localised outbreaks also occurred in many smaller towns and cities in England.
The riots were characterised by rampant looting and arson attacks of unprecedented levels. As a result, British Prime Minister David Cameron returned early from his holiday in Italy and other government and opposition leaders also ended their holidays to attend to the matter. All police leave was cancelled and Parliament was recalled on 11 August to debate the situation.
As of 15 August, about 3,100 people had been arrested, of whom more than 1,000 had been charged. Arrests, charges and court proceedings continue, with courts working extended hours. There were a total 3,443 crimes across London linked to the disorder.
Five people died and at least 16 others were injured as a direct result of related violent acts. An estimated £200 million worth of property damage was incurred, and local economic activity was significantly compromised.
Police action was blamed for the initial riot, and the subsequent police reaction was criticised as being neither appropriate nor sufficiently effective. The media turned it around in a few days and the rioters were condemned… and yet to date, there is no conclusion….
The big question is, do you hold the whole BRITISH GOVERNMENT AS AN “ACTOR” or the individual as an “actor”? And while spending British Tax payers money discussing the Middle East and the rest of the world, the question raised :
“Is the House of Commons when discussing Bahrain in a better position when handling riots and terror, abuse, torture, a war crime record etc or do they justify the Middle East recent events as “peaceful” when one can say the same of Britain’s past and present when looking on the inside from out?”
- Arab Region: A Major Western Political Engineering Project
- Our Allies
- Highly Critical False Information, Yet to be Retracted
- Human Rights, all Wrong
- WHAT REALLY HAPPENED – IN TUNISIA AND EGYPT
- Before you encourage another NATO strike
- Democracy Sounds Good, Doesn’t It?
- Bahrain, the chosen Emirate
- ARABIA: The Fallen Dream…
- I bubble…
- Psychological, Propaganda and Public Relations
- Mass media cover NATO lies
- End of the Myth of Spontaneous Grassroots
- Lucky You | <urn:uuid:912d3af7-34d2-4366-8182-0475fc55ab20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bahrainviews.com/?p=3256 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964489 | 3,766 | 2.40625 | 2 |
The item was too delicious to resist: New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, he of the don’t-worry, be-happy approach to the federal deficit, had been forced to declare personal bankruptcy.The piece would be stronger, of course, if it didn't open with Marcus caricaturing Krugman's views, or even if it were clear that Marcus knew what she was doing. It would have taken even the more credulous of her peers mere seconds, minutes at most, to determine the source of the Krugman satire, or that Krugman had not declared bankruptcy. So what's Marcus's excuse for not knowing the views of an economist who has been anything but a wallflower on these issues?
Except it wasn’t true. The tidbit was satire, from a Web site called the Daily Currant. The Currant’s “tell” was obvious to anyone who took introductory economics: Krugman, it said, had attempted, like a good Keynesian, to “spend his way out of debt,” after “racking up $84,000 in a single month . . . in pursuit of rare Portuguese wines and 19th-century English cloth” — a wink-wink reference to the classic examples of comparative advantage in international trade.
Here's Krugman on debt:
Now, the fact that federal debt isn’t at all like a mortgage on America’s future doesn’t mean that the debt is harmless. Taxes must be levied to pay the interest, and you don’t have to be a right-wing ideologue to concede that taxes impose some cost on the economy, if nothing else by causing a diversion of resources away from productive activities into tax avoidance and evasion. But these costs are a lot less dramatic than the analogy with an overindebted family might suggest....And more recently:
So yes, debt matters. But right now, other things matter more. We need more, not less, government spending to get us out of our unemployment trap. And the wrongheaded, ill-informed obsession with debt is standing in the way.
Bear in mind that the budget doesn’t have to be balanced to put us on a fiscally sustainable path; all we need is a deficit small enough that debt grows more slowly than the economy. To take the classic example, America never did pay off the debt from World War II — in fact, our debt doubled in the 30 years that followed the war. But debt as a percentage of G.D.P. fell by three-quarters over the same period....In simple terms, Krugman is explaining that deficits matter, but that if they're at a sustainable level they're not a threat to the economy, and that the time to worry about balancing the budget is when the economy is booming in part so that you can avoid self-destructive austerity measures and afford sufficient stimulus spending when the economy is faltering. It doesn't seem that hard to understand... unless, as it seems, you're a Beltway pundit or a Republican partisan.
So we do not, repeat do not, face any kind of deficit crisis either now or for years to come.
There are, of course, longer-term fiscal issues: rising health costs and an aging population will put the budget under growing pressure over the course of the 2020s. But I have yet to see any coherent explanation of why these longer-run concerns should determine budget policy right now. And as I said, given the needs of the economy, the deficit is currently too small.
Do you remember who actually took the position that "deficits don't matter"? A guy whose administration used the Clinton surplus as an excuse to slash taxes for the rich, ran up huge deficits during a period of economic recovery, and crashed the economy on its way out of town. Did Marcus ever so much as whisper a word of criticism? If so, I missed it.
But, oh, something seems familiar about Marcus's quip. "Don't-worry, be-happy." Oh, right, the time Marcus humiliated herself by trying to take on Krugman in public. (Do I give her and her peers too much credit by assuming she's been introduced to at least one take-down of that piece? Mark Thoma: "Ruth Marcus Tries to Show Her Beltway Badge of Seriousness"; Brad Delong piles on. Krugman commented primarily to point out that Marcus didn't understand the statement that she had used as the centerpiece of her attack.)
I really think it's time for Marcus to do the tiny bit of work that she recognizes would have saved her colleagues from embarrassment, and take the few seconds to read what Paul Krugman is actually saying about the economy and deficits, even if it's more fun to believe the satire. | <urn:uuid:bf02224a-5c97-43d8-8af8-af6f083efff1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thestoppedclock.blogspot.com/2013/03/ruth-marcus-susceptible-to-self-satire.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968791 | 985 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Photograph by George Steinmetz, National Geographic Stock
From the February/March 2013 issue of National Geographic Traveler
The Cessna Grand Caravan is flying low, 400 to 500 feet, above the wind-sculpted Namibian landscape, and I’m gazing down over a phenomenon called “fairy circles”—spots where vegetation doesn’t grow and the sandy soil lies exposed. Red polka dots in a sea of green or orange, they look like a scene from the movie Holes, or maybe large-scale paintings by aliens in the style of Victor Vasarely, the optical illusion artist. Nobody can explain why the barren patches always make a circle, and no scientist has proven why nothing grows there. Fairy circles remain the perfect name and explanation.
Clipping along at 130 miles an hour, our single-engine ride functions as a moving observation deck, allowing us to digest huge swaths of the sunburned Namib Desert in air-cooled comfort. In addition to the fairy circles, the view shifts from black-streaked mountains to abstract sandstone formations to flat and yellow grass-filled pans. From up here, wandering herds of massive oryx look like swarming ant farms. The highest sand dunes in the world morph from shades of putty to rich ocher. Yet amid all this scenic variety, there is sameness to the picture, a sense of vast nothingness. Namibia is the big empty.
Roughly twice the size of California, Namibia has a population of some 2.3 million. That’s just seven people per square mile, making it one of the planet’s least densely populated nations. Because the country is big and our visit is short, our group of eight has opted to spend time here in the Grand Caravan to get a broader sense of place. Andrea Guerra, our pilot and guide, is as addicted to getting the big picture as anyone, but he also knows that close encounters are essential. He’s chosen each lodge stay and land excursion so that we can see, touch, and marvel at what was too tiny to be impressive from the air. At each stop, the same lesson is reinforced: “There is life in the big empty.” Conditions may be harsh, but the persistent survive and in some cases thrive, from the world’s largest cheetah population to fur seals along the aptly named Skeleton Coast. Flying down a section where dunes dissolve into the Atlantic, we spot the bones of old shipwrecks and abandoned mining camps and gain some understanding of why the Bushmen dubbed this area “the land God made in anger.” However, it’s only when we land and drive to the Cape Cross fur seal colony—and breathe in the pungency of 100,000 marine mammals—that we fully comprehend just how alive the Skeleton Coast is.
Inland one afternoon, two of us drive out from our camp at the Okahirongo Elephant Lodge in search of desert elephants. Logic would suggest something as big as an elephant would be easy to spot in a treeless, wide-open desert landscape. Logic would also suggest we start at the river where there is food and shade. But our logic would be wrong—or at least different from elephant logic—because we see no sign of the oversize herbivores, although we do see giraffes, ostriches, and antelopes. Once at the river, we see evidence that the elephants were there earlier, but now, in the heat of the day, they seem to have headed into the barren beyond. We follow their tracks for two hours, seeing only footprints and dung piles, and can’t help but wonder how something so big could completely disappear, at least without the help of David Copperfield. Finally, 20 miles from the river, we locate five elephants eating a cluster of spiny commiphora trees. They’ve come here to dine on this plant known for its fragrant resin used in incense. I see a potential new perfume ad campaign: “Guaranteed to attract your man. Field-tested on elephants—the bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
Despite Namibia’s sparseness, one member of our group, Joe, has grown increasingly anxious. Every night he looks into the darkness, stares into the unknown, and asks, “Is there a way to lock the doors of the rooms?” A guy from New York City, he’s having trouble adjusting to the big empty. Lodge staffers echo what we’ve seen from the plane, that there are no towns or even villages nearby. But Joe isn’t worried about thieves snatching our valuables during the day; he’s worried about those long, dark nights. The staff tries to reassure him that watchmen patrol the camp, ensuring that wild animals and others don’t come knocking. But the nights are filled with strange noises, and sometimes you can’t take the city out of the boy. So on our fourth night, Joe drags a chest in front of his door and stacks empty cans on the ornate door handle to serve as an alarm. The precautions provide the deep, restful sleep he’s been missing. So deep, in fact, that during the night when his wife gets out of bed and bumps into the chest in the dark, lets out a yell, and sends the cans noisily clanging to the floor, Joe snores through it all.
In this land where the San people—among the first humans—still walk, you won’t find monuments or signs of conquest. The wild animals tread lightly, too, as if they understand this is not a land of extravagance. But in the big empty there is life in abundance, variety, beauty, and mystery. And it’s not all about sacrifice, either: In Namibia it’s possible to seek the exotic, as the elephants do. It’s also a place where you can sleep soundly, with the doors unlocked.
Boyd Matson hosts National Geographic Weekend on the radio.
Shop National Geographic | <urn:uuid:74e7509b-cf50-4396-8a9f-62d260bf3b02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/unbound/namibia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936062 | 1,289 | 2.546875 | 3 |
As you may have heard, Westminster Theological Seminary’s board recently voted to suspend professor Peter Enns over his book Inspiration and Incarnation, in which he uses an incarnational analogy to argue that that there are both human and divine elements to Scripture. The board decided that the book’s thesis fell outside the Westminster Confession of Faith’s position on biblical interpretation. Enn’s suspension comes after a two-year theological debate that has caused a lot of tension and division over at WTS.
You can read the full story on Christianity Today’s Web site.
This story brings back a very weird and disturbing memory for me.
A few years ago, while I was participating in a journalism internship in Asheville, North Carolina, I was invited to lunch by a young family with whom I shared mutual friends. They were nice folks, and after living in an Extended Stay America for two weeks, it was a relief to be in a home for a few hours. Things were going splendidly until after dessert, when the father’s tone grew suddenly serious, as he addressed his young son who was sitting across from him at the table.
“What is the chief end of man?” the father asked gravely.
The son, who was probably six or seven years old responded robotically, “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”
“How does it appear that there is a God?” the father asked.
“The very light of nature in man, and the works of God, declare plainly that there is a God; but his Word and Spirit only do sufficiently and effectually reveal him unto men for their salvation,” replied the little boy, without missing a beat.
At fist I thought the interaction was some kind of joke, but the father explained to me that he and his son followed the routine of reciting the Westminster Catechism after every Sunday dinner.
When the poor kid had finally finished explaining to me that “God’s decrees are the wise, free, and holy acts of the counsel of his will, whereby, from all eternity, he has, for his own glory, unchangeably foreordained whatsoever comes to pass in time, especially concerning angels and men,” he was allowed to leave the table and watch Scooby Doo on TV.
I’ll be honest; it freaked me out.
Since then, I have repeatedly encountered this reverential attitude toward the Westminster Confession of Faith among my more Reformed friends and acquaintances, and it looks like it is this attitude that has led to Enns’ suspension.
To be clear, the WTS board did not condemn Enns for unorthodoxy. (In fact, from what I’ve read, I’d consider his ideas to be quite conservative.) The board suspended Enns because they felt the contents of his book were at odds with the Westminster Confession of Faith.
My question is, do people take the Westminster Confession of Faith to be the divinely inspired Word of God? Is it really necessary for WTS professors to not only confess faith in Jesus Christ, but also commit to this creed?
(This calls to mind the recent controversial remarks by theologian John Piper. Writing on the subject of Arminianism, Piper asks, “But how should we regard these errors in relationship to the teaching office of the church and other institutions?” Answering his own questions, Piper says, “Here’s my rule of thumb: the more responsible a person is to shape the thoughts of others about God, the less Arminianism should be tolerated. Therefore church members should not be excommunicated for this view but elders and pastors and seminary and college teachers should be expected to hold the more fully biblical view of grace.” By “the more fully biblical view of grace,” Piper is referring, of course, to Covenant Theology/Calvinism as described in the Westminster Confession of Faith.)
I supposed I should respect the fact that as a denominational school, WTS has a right to only hire professors committed to that denomination’s unique beliefs. And yet, I really question why anyone would want to attend a school that restricts academic freedom like this. Surely there is room for differing opinions and interpretations!
My concern here is that WTS and other Reformed institutions are elevating Calvin’s theological interpretation of God to the point that it is understood to be a comprehensive explanation of God, the only “right” way of thinking about Him and worshipping Him.
A few more observations/questions:
1) Enns was suspended for believing that Scripture has a human element. Honestly, I didn’t even know that this was a subject up for debate. I thought that most conservative Christians, including Reformed Christians, believed that the Bible was written by human beings and had a human touch. Someone, please let me know if I am missing something here or if I am misrepresenting Enn’s beliefs.
2) Enns uses an incarnation analogy, writing that Scripture is both human and divine, similar to Jesus Christ. WTS seems to think this idea to liberal; I worry that it deifies (perhaps idolizes) Scripture. Since when has the Bible been the fourth member of the Trinity? Is the Bible itself really divine? Again, someone let me know if I have totally misunderstood Enns. I haven’t read his book in its entirety, just excerpts and summaries. | <urn:uuid:b6db6e8e-438c-4268-a871-6fa9bad948ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/article-1207240881 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975423 | 1,166 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Learn more physics!
My son is doing an experiment with popcorn. He soaked some of the kernels in salt water and some in plain water and some he left unsoaked. He found the kernels soaked in salt water to pop faster and left fewer unpopped. Do you know why? Thanks!
- Kathi (age 44)
Homeschool mom, TN
No, we don't know.
It's a little surprising. Here's why.
The amount of water in the kernels should be least for the ones
that weren't soaked and greatest for the ones soaked in pure water, at
least if the salt doesn't get into the kernels and they have time to
reach some equilibrium while they soak. So it would be surprising that
the middle amount of water pops best, but it's not impossible.
Maybe the shell of the kernel does let salt in. If you rinse the
kernels briefly before popping, do the ones soaked in saltwater taste
(published on 10/22/2007)
Follow-up on this answer. | <urn:uuid:63edf1aa-5945-449c-b4a3-a8a870812814> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=627 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935126 | 220 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Sharing photos with friends is a like creating copies to an external place. But sharing and backing up you photos is very different. You share what you want to exchange and let's your friends to visualize the content and you backup what you want to protect to an external place and your friends don't have any ideas about what your files contain.
This is why, at TudZu, we create to differents services.
To receive album photos (or vidéos) from your friends, start TudZu on your computer, open the friend's album you want to receive. then click on "subscribe to the album". As soon as both computers are at the same moment on the internet the download will start. You will received an email to confirm you that the download is completed at the end. The duration of the operation depend of the amount and the volume of files that there is in the album.
When you start the TudZu application you get the folowing message:
"The entry point SSL_CTV_sess_set_get_cb can't be found in the DLL ssleay32.dll"
This problem may occur on certain version of windows. (cf: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837633 ).
To resolve the problem, copy all file from the folder c:\Program Files\Tipi Software\TudZu\lib to the folder c:\Program Files\Tipi Software\TudZu\bin then restart your computer.
If you still have problems please contact the support team at [email protected]
Uploading your photos is very dangerous for your privacy. If you use Picasa to organise your photos and if you want to share them with your friend and family within a secure environement, TudZu can help you.
Click here to view the tutorial.
Note: Picasa is a trademark of Google Inc.
Your backups are made within a group, on the storage space available for you by other members, at the same time you must create storage space in order to allow other members to backup their files. To manage your storage spaces, log into your web account and select the tab Your Machines. There, you allocate space in a specific group in order to help members to backup. To configure your backup, open the graphic user interface installed on your computer and in the tab Backup select the files and folders you want to protect. If no space is available for you in this group the process is suspended until space becomes available.
To share your photo, video and audio files with your friends, you have to:
Invite your relatives in your group using your web account + tab "Your group".
Then create an album using the TudZu application installed on your computer (section sharing + tab My Albums + New album)
and add files you want to share into.
Each member who wants to receive your photos must subscribe to the album. Thus photos are sent automatically as soon as both computers are on line at the same time on the internet.
To share your photos, videos and audio files, with your friends, you must be in the same group.
You can have multiple groups according with your organisation (friends, family ...)
Your friend must click on the link in the email to be a member of your group.
Log into your web account on our web site
Access your group list by clicking on the tab "Your groups"
The group list where you already have subscribed is displayed
Click on invite (at the right of the group's name) to access to the invitation form
Fill out all fields and enter your friend's email address
Click on invite
You friend should receive the invitation within 10 minutes
On your computer, you have the choice between:
- using the shortcut on the desktop
- using the menu <Programs><Tipi software><TudZu><TudZu>
- double clicking on TudZu icon located on the toolbar
Only digital photos, videos and audio files are authorized. However, if you still don't see your files, contact the TudZu's support team at [email protected], it's free.
To access to friends' albums you must be in the same group. You must start TudZu installed on your computer. Log on into your account and choose the section "sharing". Click on the tab Friend's albums and select a user. If you want to receive the content of an album, you must subscribe to it. As soon as the album's content is transfered onto your computer, an e-mail notification will be sent to you. The network transfers are done directly from one machine to another one according to their availability on the internet.
Your data such as photos and videos are very important to you. Backing them up on a CD or DVD even on an external USB disk is not an efficient solution. TudZu provides an automatic service which protects your digital library on a long term basis (automatic detection of newer photos/videos). Your data (photos/videos/audio files) are backed up on group member's machines (off site backup on remote storage nodes) which guarantees the best protection against hardware failure, theft, or natural catastrophe. All backed up data are encrypted to be unreadable by your backup partner.
To use TudZu you must be registered at least within one group. If you haven't been invited into a group, you should create your own and invite friends to join. Use your web account to create a group.
You have created a web account and you do not have received the confirmation email. First, make sure this email has not been treated as "junk". You may also request this confirmation email to be sent again by contacting us at [email protected].
Once you create your web account, you will receive a confirmation email wich will contain a link to activate your account. Click on this link or copy/paste this url in your internet browser.
If you have created a web account, it might be still inactivate (see FAQ) or you may have inserted the wrong password. In this latter case, click on the link "Forgot your password" located on the web login page. If the problem persists, contact the support, it's free.
You have to:
Create a web account using the web site
Install the software on your computer and start TudZu
Create albums with photos and vidéos you want to share (section "sharing" + tab "My albums")
Invite your friends using your web account (My TudZu + Your groups)
Configure your backups using (section "backup" + select files and folders to backup)
Refer to the installation process and the user guide.
Your photos and videos represent invaluable moments and, for sure, the most important data on your computer. Most of the time, sharing these files with friends and family is a challenge: Emails are blocked or rejected, sharing web sites raises issues of privacy management, the volume or size is limited, basic p2p is not secured enough. TudZu, a secured network between friends and family, is the safest and more efficient means to protect and share your data. No more risk losing photos, they are safe on your friend's computers and your photos and videos albums are sent directly and automatically to receivers you've chosen. Moreover, the free version of TudZu meets most people's needs.
YES! TudZu encrypts the data transfer and data stored on remote peer using 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). Computers are identified with SSL (Secured Socket Layer) to be sure that the remote host is really the right one. Only you, can access your backup data with the key you provide during the installation. Your backup partner CANNOT see neither your files, nor their filename or the folder name.
With the TudZu free version you an backup 5 Gb to your friends computer. With the premium version you can backup an illimited volume of data to a USB drive, an another computer or your friends.When your friends subscribe to your group, space is added to help other members to backup. TudZu doesn't fix any rules, anyone can allocate less or more space within a group.to help friend to backup their data.
NO, TudZu only stores the listing of your files in order to locate them for a restore. Your files are sent directly to your backup group members and are never stored on TudZu servers.
To start using TudZu you have to:
create an account from the tudzu web site
be member of a group (a group is created by default by the following configuration)
download and install TudZu on your system (Windows or Linux)
TudZu start automatically after the installation. If it's not the case click on the TudZu icon
proceed with the configuration on your machine
log into your web account, you should see:
your machine appeared in the list of machine
the group list where you subscribed and the member list
TudZu is now properly configured. Look at the FAQ "How do I share my photos and my videos"
If you have forgot your password, go to the Login
page and click on forgotten password
. An email with your password will be sent to the address you provide.
TudZu is a secure private network to share and protect your multimedia documents. Users subscribe into trusted groups to backup and share their multimedia documents | <urn:uuid:05baef19-2e8c-4e21-92b7-2f5fc7a2a3f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tudzu.com/en/TudZu/11.FAQ/2011/05/21/87 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91787 | 1,971 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Fear of driving is a common and troubling problem, but it's a problem you can solve. The first step is to identify the specific nature of your driving fear.
People who experience panic attacks are often afraid of having one at the wheel. They're licensed to drive and generally have a good driving record. They probably drove without any problems, maybe for years, until they started having panic attacks, and then they became afraid.
Their fear isn't really about driving. It's about panic attacks while driving. They worry that they won't drive safely during a panic attack, and that they won't be able to flee the scene as quickly as they want.
They often still do some driving, by limiting where and when they drive. They avoid highways. They stay in the right lane, where it's easier to pull off the road. They avoid bridges, tunnels, and any other road conditions which limit their ability to leave the scene as quickly as they wish, in the event of a panic attack. They avoid left turns, unless there's a traffic signal with a turn arrow, because they fear getting "trapped" in the intersection. They avoid driving at rush hour.
They also use distraction and various safety objects. They may sing, or call people on their cell phones, to distract themselves from the thoughts of a panic attack. They may drink from a water bottle, and feel reassured by this. They may only drive when accompanied by a "safe" person.
People who experience this type of driving fear learned to drive and received their license, but they often didn't get much experience after that, and lack confidence in their driving ability. Unlike the first group, they probably don't experience panic attacks outside the driving situation.
They may worry about accidents, but also worry that they'll drive so poorly that they'll attract negative attention, and worry further that this negative attention will make them even more afraid. With this type of driving phobia, you worry that you'll drive too slowly, or that you won't move quickly enough when the light turns green. You fear that the driver behind you will get impatient and honk his horn.
You also worry that you'll become more anxious when this happens, maybe so much that you stall the car, or make some other mistake. In your mind, this will quickly turn to a terrible scene of hopelessly snarled traffic, the loud din of horns honking, and a large crowd watching you fall apart behind the wheel as paramedics and policemen rush to your vehicle.
You might suppose there would be a third group of people with driving phobia. These would be people who drive so poorly that they have a history of accidents and traffic tickets. However, this is not really a phobia. A phobia is an irrational fear. If you are a reckless or incompetent driver, it's good to avoid driving until you get some retraining.
In my experience, however, the people who have come to me for help with a fear of driving fall into one of the two categories listed above. They don't have an actual history of harmful results from their driving. They just worry about that.
If your fear of driving is mostly about panic attacks, the way to solve this problem is to learn how to better handle panic attacks. If you have panic attacks in situations other than driving, it might help to start with a situation in which your role is more passive - perhaps waiting in a long line, or walking through a crowded mall. You can then work with driving after you've made progress in the more passive role first.
If your fear is more like the performance anxiety described above, you need a similar progressive practice with driving in which you can practice accepting your fearful thoughts and feelings while doing the work of driving. You can use the same techniques as the person with panic attacks, because the underlying fear, of becoming so afraid as to be unable to drive, is similar to the fear of losing control to a panic attack. The main difference in the thoughts with performance anxiety is the extent to which you worry that others are watching, and judging, you.
My Panic Attacks Workbook has a chapter devoted to the fear of driving.
Want to read it? You can download a free copy for your own personal use. | <urn:uuid:c3f66d16-6e51-423d-8137-a11658592421> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anxietycoach.com/fear-of-driving.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984516 | 867 | 2.59375 | 3 |
By Rudyard Fearon
Reviewed by Jorge Antonio Vallejos
We all have a noise in our mind at some point. That thing we are thinking about, contemplating, frustrated over. It buzzes in your ear and on your brain. Rudyard Fearon’s Noise in my Mind is a collection of the thoughts that have the Jamaican poet up at night writing after a lot of thinking. In his minimalist style the talented scribe says a lot with very few words.
Working at a library by day Fearon puts pen to pad at night. He stays at work after his shift ends to read, write, re-write, and better himself at his chosen craft. And you can see it in his short poems made up of five or so lines that leave you thinking for five hours.
In The Better Way Fearon explores a reality that many hope never to witness: suicide on the subway. You always hear rumors about daily jumpers; the codes spoken over the loud speaker get people thinking that every “emergency” at another station means death; and a couple of times a year the cover of the newspaper has a story about someone deciding their end, or worse, the end of another.
“so little is said
of the man who LIFE
ends in a subway.”
Fearon spells life in capitals and points to life ending the person as opposed to the person ending their life. Which is it? Is it both? Can it be both? Is it one or the other? Is Fearon exploring a spiritual idea? Is Fearon slashing the possibility of spirituality taking play in such sad situations?
Fearon ends The Better Way with
“so little is said…
except in an alleyway.”
Alleyways are empty, dark, and hold large trash bins. Those that live in alleyways are society’s discarded and forgotten ones. Forgotten like those who LIFE ends on the subway. If the numbers are as high as people suggest how can you remember all those people? Still, there’s a poet who writes into the night and has such peoples on his mind.
Most people have heard of, and know, the acronym DUI—Driving Under the Influence. Have you heard of driving while Black? Better yet, have you heard of what I like to call WOC—walking while of colour? Certain peoples not of the dominant class get harassed by those who are supposed to serve and protect because of the way they look and dress. Fearon has experienced this and shares one of these instances in Black Bud. Writing in patua, his mother tongue (providing a glossary at the book’s end), Fearon shares what it’s like to walk while of colour:
“ah fraid fe walk pon street,
De way de cops dem a shoot,
Ah feel like black bud pon tree.”
Fearon writes of being surrounded by six cruisers and questioned for no reason. A woman from a window yells that she is watching what the cops are doing. Fearon is let go. Later that night a young Black man is not so lucky.
“me never did realize me luck,
‘Til me read de next day bout de Barnett bwoy dat dem kill…”
Many poets question society. They explore their surroundings. And they speak out against injustice. Fearon is one such poet. It could have been Fearon that the papers wrote about the following day. Knowing this, the poet writes of how fragile life is and how certain powers prey on certain peoples.
Fearon ends Black Bud by giving thanks for not following the instinctual urge to run.
“Fah if me foot did obey me brain dat night…
Me wouldn’t live to tell yu me story!”
There is a certain responsibility that comes with being a poet. More than being disciplined to write, there is the responsibility to share story and write them well and in a way that people understand. Fearon knows to whom much is given much is required. This is why we get to read his story of walking while of colour.
Good writers are good readers. Fearon is a reader who displays his vast knowledge on the page. In the spirit of those who came before him, Fearon’s poem A Curve follows E.E Cummings’ 1a) (a leaf falls on loneliness):
Noise in my Mind has much to share with all readers and lovers of the written word. Fearon uses traditional styles as well as experimenting with language, sound and form. More important, he leaves you thinking. His hard-hitting poems resound in your psyche. His soft lullabies have you re- reading. Whatever he writes leaves some sort of noise in your mind.
Tune in to Black Coffee Poet Wednesday April 13, 2011 for an inclusive interview with Rudyard Fearon. | <urn:uuid:2ce2c2e4-75fc-460c-af45-325b964426d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blackcoffeepoet.com/2011/04/11/noise-in-my-mind/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965891 | 1,015 | 1.59375 | 2 |
21st Century Schools Programme
21st Century Schools Programme is a unique collaboration between the Welsh Government (WG), Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and local government. The collaboration brings together all the necessary elements to make education facilities across Wales fit for the 21st Century.
The programme team, based at the WLGA, maintain and update the website with materials and information that will help and support a range of stakeholders including local authorities, schools, young people, FE institutions, diocesan authorities, professional bodies, contractors, suppliers and the media.
The Programme will focus resources on the right schools in the right places, for early years through to post-16, with funding and expertise jointly provided by WG and local authorities.
The Programme has been operating since March 2009 and was formally launched by the Minister for Children, Education and Lifelong Learning, Leighton Andrews AM, at a conference aimed at key stakeholders in March 2010. | <urn:uuid:6dce3fb8-2c56-4992-8f63-77ad6b3ab95c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://21stcenturyschools.org/aboutus/?lang=en&ts=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950053 | 192 | 2.1875 | 2 |
In the Garden:
Western Mountains and High Plains
Lilies in clay pots can accent places in the garden where other plants won't grow.
Lilies - The Trumpets of the Summer Garden
There are many bulbs that herald in spring to awaken the garden, including daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, and irises. As summer approaches, it's lilies that step onto the garden stage, trumpeting with abundant color, fragrance, and form. The blooms are displayed up above lower companion plants or ground covers.
As a child, I grew lilies as the royal subjects in the flower garden. The fragrant, white blossoms of the regal lilies filled the evening air with a sweet fragrance. While many other garden plants are wilting in the heat of summer, lilies will stand tall and stately. Blooms bask in the Rocky Mountain sunlight as they dangle from sturdy stems as delicately as raindrops. The diversity of sizes, shapes, colors, and types are sure to entice you to try some in your garden.
Some lilies are easier than others, some bloom early, others flower later, and some need full sun while others prefer partial shade. Select the right types to suit your growing conditions. You can choose from Asiatic, Martagon, Candidum, American, Longiflorum, Trumpet and Aurelian hybrids, Oriental and various other hybrids.
Lilies (Lilium spp.) are true bulbs and are a great addition when planted in borders, among other perennials and shrubs, and in large containers. If you've had difficulty growing them in your garden, try large pots that allow you to store them safely for winter.
They are among the oldest garden plants, cultivated some 3,500 years ago. Lilies are native to the temperate zones across the Northern Hemisphere, from the mountains of Japan to California's bogs. Ancient civilizations raised lilies for food, cosmetics, medicine, and ceremonies. Medieval monks grew lilies in their gardens and were a popular symbol of purity and innocence in artworks both religious and secular.
Though they may look fragile, lilies are easy to grow as long as the soil is well drained. They make excellent container plants for the patio or deck. Just avoid locations that are too wet and avoid exposures that radiate extreme summer heat as the blossoms fade more quickly. Most lilies will do best if other low-growing plants are planted around them. This allows the tall blooming stems to push up towards the sunlight and highlight the garden. Dappled shade from trees and shrubs will also serve as a hospitable site for cultivating lilies.
I prefer to grow most of my lilies with annuals in containers since my soil is clay. It allows me to put them on display in areas that lack color and interest. They work nicely around the base of ponderosa pines or under the canopy of the old oak tree. Once you're hooked on growing them, you can easily overspend on lily bulbs alone.
Care to share your gardening thoughts, insights, triumphs, or disappointments with your fellow gardening enthusiasts? Join the lively discussions on our FaceBook page and receive free daily tips! | <urn:uuid:175947a0-4161-40a8-8e7e-0852a41070ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.garden.org/regional/report/arch/inmygarden/3830 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944204 | 667 | 3.03125 | 3 |
With the state legislature back in session and Congress stubbornly refusing to just go away, it seems as good a time as any for another installment of "The Devil's Dictionary" -- and no, Tea Partiers, that term doesn't refer to Nancy Pelosi's personalized copy of Webster's.
The original "Devil's Dictionary," as you may recall, was the brainchild of early 20th century journalist and political satirist Ambrose Bierce, whose sardonic wit was matched only by his acerbic pen.
For example, Bierce defined politics as "a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles" and as "the conduct of public affairs for private advantage." A politician, he said, is "an eel in the fundamental mud upon which the super-structure of organized society is reared. When he wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive."
Periodically, I take the liberty of updating Bierce's classic volume with a few modern definitions of my own, such as the following:
* Budget, n. 1) A list of all expenditures not classified as "off-budget," which is to say about one-third of the total; 2) a device for punishing those not currently in favor with the party in power and rewarding those who are.
* Democracy, n. A system of government by which those who do not understand the issues seek to impose their will on those who do.
* Democrat, n. A member of a political party whose ideology is nearly as impoverished as its constituents.
* Legislative session, n. An annual gathering of all current practitioners of the world's two oldest professions.
* Republic, n. A form of government in which representatives are elected to fleece the public on behalf of those not in a position to do so for themselves.
* Republican, n. A member of a political party dedicated to decreasing the size of government, preferably by eliminating elected officials from other parties. In Georgia, Republicans were until recently known as "Democrats."
* Reform, n. The process of changing a system in order to make it more efficiently corrupt or to remove it further from the realm of logic. (See tax reform, education reform, etc.) Vi. To adopt more effective measures for concealing one's bad habits.
* Sunshine laws, n. Measures developed by states to prevent their own agencies and those of local governments from operating in secret and thereby without the consent of the governed. Sunshine laws are so called because of the attitude certain local governments display toward them, which is that the state government and private citizens alike can place them where the sun doesn't shine.
* Transparency, n. The politician's proverbial glass house, typically inhabited by those most accomplished at throwing stones.
* Victim, n. An individual whom social engineering has not yet succeeded in saving from the consequences of his or her choices.
Rob Jenkins is associate professor of English at Georgia Perimeter College. E-mail him at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:db964a60-cf89-4e9a-8a00-808de9e7a2ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2010/jan/15/jenkins-a-special-legislative-edition-of-the/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97095 | 641 | 1.640625 | 2 |
What to do for trick-or-treaters???
??? It's almost Halloween time and I was wondering if any other vegans pass out candy or treats. Hubby and I don't want to be party poopers, but also don't want to give children gross, horrible things like bone-char processed sugar, dairy, and gelatin. We thought about organic fresh fruit, but it seems like many parents want items that are individually packaged and sealed so homemade baked goods are out. Here are a couple of ideas we've considered...Any suggestions would be wonderful.
1. Packaged individual-sized vegan cookies or crackers
2. Organic Juice boxes
3. Sample sized packages of vegan gummy bear multivitamins (this would probably get our house paint-balled, though)
Love the popcorn idea. Thanks!
This is the candy I bought for trick-or-treaters. It's all vegan, and all "normal:"
1) Fun-size packs of mini-oreos.
3) Fun-sized packs of Swedish Fish.
4) Fun-sized packs of Sour Patch Kids.
5) Fun-sized packs of Skittles (sanz Gelatin--I checked).
6) Mini-Laffy Taffy.
Voila! Happy trick-or-treaters.
Here's a link to VegNews' Official Guide to Vegan Halloween Candy. The guide lists some candies that are different from the candies on the Peta list, and for each candy a website.
We gave out fun-sized boxes of Nerds last year. Cheap for a lot, kids actually like it, and vegan. Not healthy, but hey, it's Halloween.
Don't some nerds have carmine in them? If they changed it, good! I love nerds!
I checked Nerds this Halloween and they had carmine in them.
I think some colors are vegan. You just have to get a box w/ those. Maybe purple?
Sorry for not explaining better - I'm aware that red nerds contain bugs, but these are Halloween-specific "spooky" Nerds that are orange and fruit punch flavors. I can't find a link to the nutrition facts for these specific flavors, but the package says: dextrose, sugar, malic acid, and less than 2% of corn syrup, artificial flavors, carnauba wax, color added yellow 6.
Oooo, thank you for this. Now i'll know not to give away my halloween nerds if i get any.
We just found a huge bag of Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish.
Well, it was fun, seeing the kiddies in their costumes. My cats hang out by the door in the corner of the porch in little baskets with heating pads in them. Usually they will see or hear people coming. But they must have been asleep. When 4 little kids in capes and masks tromped up to the door, my cats freaked out and flew in front of them to get away, They totally flew, at child eye level, they had to get up out of their boxes. The children were all like what the heck?!
After halloween, we had some candy left, and, now I feel guilty, because if a 44 year old man who knows what that does to his teeth, can't resist chewing the hard candy, how can children, who have soft, fragile teeth? The second time I caught him doing it, I put all the candy in a bag and gave it to our twenty-something neighbors.
Next year I'm not going to give any hard candy.
people of vegweb:
trader joe's appears to have mini-dark chocolate bars that are vegan and individually wrapped.
at the whole foods that i went to on saturday they had a halloween section with candy!! i didn't look at all of them, but the ones i did look at were vegan. we're movin' on up!
oh cool. hopefully we'll get something consistent that's sold every year.
I'm giving away halloween pencils this year to Trick or Treaters. I know, it always seems lame on Halloween night when you're getting all sorts of candy, but then the candy is gone and you still have a cool pencil. The fun lasts longer.
For my students at school (I'm a librarian) I got Creature Feature bookmarks with cool scary animals. Although, really, I think only a librarian can get away with giving out bookmarks.
Chic-o-Sticks..... they were always my fave.
teeheehee =) although i may be "too old" for trick or treating AND i anounce with proudness i still get into the spirit and take around my nephews (with my own pillow case for aunties sugary sweets ;)b ) i can understand in where your coming from, but coming from my child-at-heart mind Juice boxes are amazing!! walking around all over the neighborhood, who honestly in all the commoshion thinks to bring a cold water? The kids always want to get out there, and its the one time of the year they can get loads of candy and have tons of fun, dress up and eat junk. I wish they made a healthier cheap candy option but so far id say nope. I'd make sure the juices are cold though not something you leave sitting in the warmth, although appreciated some kids may get annoyed..
also you could hand out little trinkets and toys, like wind up lady bugs, or pumpkin stickers, or make little ghosts out of tissues, sharpies, ribbon, and put in like popcorn. Popcorn here is still a very appropriate, safe, much beloved goodie, and i see tonsa people hand them out
hope i helped :)
According to PETA, these are ALL VEGAN!!! YAY!!!!
Brach's Cinnamon Hard Candy
Brach's Root Beer Barrels
Brach's Star Brites
Chocolove Dark Chocolate bar
Chocolove Cherries and Almonds Dark Chocolate Bar
Chocolove Crystallized Ginger Dark Chocolate Bar
Chocolove Orange Peel Dark Chocolate Bar
Chocolove Raspberry Dark Chocolate bar
Hubba Bubba bubblegum
Jolly Ranchers (lollipops and hard candy)
Mary Janes (regular and peanut butter kisses)
Mike and Ike
Now and Later
Smarties (U.S. Brand)
Sour Patch Kids | <urn:uuid:304df891-6474-44d4-916b-fade73efa057> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vegweb.com/community/dine-n-dish/what-do-trick-or-treaters?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941236 | 1,355 | 1.71875 | 2 |
At a summit in Brussels meant to save the eurozone, EU leaders agreed to sign an intergovernmental treaty establishing a centralized European fiscal compact by mandating the coordination of national budgets. Britain was the only country of the twenty-seven member EU block to reject the new fiscal union, creating an unprecedented schism in the decades-old project of European integration. But economist Iain Begg of the London School of Economics indicates that the UK has only marginalized itself, rather than undermined the larger EU. "The spat with the UK is unfortunate, rather than a serious weakness," he notes. And while the latest comprehensive EU deal may not immediately solve the debt crisis, Begg says, "it reaffirms a strong political commitment to ensure that the euro survives and prospers."
What did the seventeen eurozone states--and at least six non-euro states in the EU--agree to at the December EU Council summit?
It is best seen as the latest stage of a series of initiatives designed to recast economic governance in Europe so as to prevent future problems.
They have agreed to move toward a deal (essentially, this means all excluding the UK, given that three other initial refuseniks seemed to have bowed to the common interest) that will not be an amendment to the current--Lisbon--EU treaty, but a separate deal that will be agreed by the governments. It can be regarded as a sort of intergovernmental pact that will not have the full legal status of a treaty, but nevertheless represents a common commitment to sort out the problems of economic governance that have bedevilled the EU, especially the euro area, over the last two years. The key features include a move toward a more rules-based approach to fiscal discipline, acceleration of the timetable for introduction of the new European Stabilization Mechanism--which will take over from the temporary fund set up to deal with the crisis--and a means of bolstering liquidity support via the IMF.
What is the process of implementing the agreed-upon intergovernmental treaty, and what is the time frame?
The stated objective is to agree to the deal by March 2012. However, in many cases the process will involve consultation--and possibly the formal approval--of national parliaments, something that cannot be taken for granted. It must therefore be regarded as an ambitious timetable.
What is the significance of Britain's decision to opt out of the so-called fiscal union? Will it create a two-tiered European Union?
Given that it looks like being twenty-six to one, it is not so much a two-tiered Europe as a marginalization of the UK. The euro-skeptical tendency in the UK may welcome this and feel that their long-cherished ambition of separating from the EU is now in sight. But more hard-nosed British tendencies will start to fret that the outcome will be to create obstacles to market access inside Europe. It will not be a surprise if the UK tries to spin this to project a more accommodative stance.
How, if at all, does the Franco-German plan address the eurozone sovereign debt crisis; will it stem the tide of contagion?
The mere fact of a political agreement is critical, bearing in mind the charges of vacillation and procrastination leveled against Europe's leaders.
It is best seen as the latest stage of a series of initiatives designed to recast economic governance in Europe so as to prevent future problems. It is less clear that it offers immediate answers to the sovereign debt crisis, except insofar as it reaffirms a strong political commitment to ensure that the euro survives and prospers. In particular, there is still some uncertainty about quite how much latitude the European Central Bank will have to act decisively to counter market pressures on vulnerable member states. But a balanced verdict would be that it is an important step forwards, although it is likely that markets will continue to have reservations while the fine print is scrutinized--and this may result in further short-term volatility. EU leaders will, nevertheless, expect that markets will now "read my lips" and accept that the doomsday scenarios about the future of the euro are not going to occur.
What does the deal mean for the global economy, and for countries like the United States that are considerably exposed to the euro crisis?
Overall, it should be welcomed globally. Again, the mere fact of a political agreement is critical, bearing in mind the charges of vacillation and procrastination leveled against Europe's leaders. The spat with the UK is unfortunate--if predictable--rather than a serious weakness, and will probably not detract much from the probable positive impact on global markets. But markets will also want to be reassured that the details and the implementation match the headlines. The United States and others exposed to the euro crisis ought to take comfort from the deal, but will be watching closely to see that it is delivered as fully as possible. | <urn:uuid:bafdc9c4-e0c8-49ab-ab31-9c1b690927c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cfr.org/eu/political-deal-euro/p26759 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945233 | 998 | 2.34375 | 2 |
A report which criticises 14 European governments for complicity in CIA operations is expected to face a close vote in the European Parliament.
The CIA is believed to have flown at least 1,200 flights
The report says countries including the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, turned a blind eye to CIA flights used to transport terror suspects.
Last year, the European Parliament set up a temporary committee of MEPs to investigate the allegations.
The claims were first published in the Washington Post in November 2005.
Delegations of MEPs travelled to countries including Romania, Poland, the UK, the United States and Germany to investigate claims of European involvement in so-called extraordinary renditions.
The report defines extraordinary renditions as instances where "an individual suspected of involvement in terrorism is illegally abducted, arrested and/or transferred into the custody of US officials and/or transported to another country for interrogation which, in the majority of cases involves incommunicado detention and torture".
The report says the CIA operated "at least" 1,245 flights in European airspace or stopped over at European airports. Some, but not all it says, were used for extraordinary renditions.
The committee heard evidence from government ministers, including the Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, officials such as the EU foreign policy envoy, Javier Solana, and the EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator Gijs de Vries.
One of the most outspoken MEPs on the committee, British Liberal Democrat Baroness Sarah Ludford, says they also examined documents, including flight logs, "and some which, frankly, came to us in brown paper envelopes".
Baroness Ludford said: "We believe there has been either active collusion by several EU governments, or turning a blind eye."
The report is especially critical of Italy, Britain and Germany.
In the case of Britain, it "deplores" the manner in which the UK government co-operated with the temporary committee.
It condemns the extraordinary renditions of one British citizen and three British residents. Two of them, it says, were tortured; two are still held at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.
It is also "outraged" by a legal opinion from a Foreign Office advisor, who said "receiving or possessing" information extracted under torture, in so far as there is no direct participation in torture, does not violate a UN convention.
The report says Italian intelligence officials played an active role in the extraordinary rendition of an Egyptian cleric, Abu Omar.
It also "regrets" that the abduction of Abu Omar "jeopardised (the public prosecutor's) investigation into the terrorist network to which Abu Omar was connected".
Germany is criticised for failing to accept a US offer to release a German resident, Murat Kurnaz, from Guantanamo Bay, even though "all investigations concluded, as early as the end of October 2002, that Murat Kurnaz posed no terrorist threat".
Some of these clauses may be watered down or rejected in the final vote in the parliamentary plenary. The report has been highly controversial.
For the leader of the British Conservative group, Timothy Kirkhope, it is enough to make him think again about the validity of some of the parliament's work.
He said: "What is the European Parliament doing, investigating in this way, when there has already been an investigation?
Mr Omar was allegedly kidnapped on a Milan street
"We do a lot of good things for European citizens, but this, I am afraid, has not shown us up in a very creditable light."
Last year, the human-rights body, the Council of Europe, carried out its own investigation, which concluded that European countries had helped the CIA to spin a "spider's web" of disappearances, secret detentions and illegal flights.
However, it failed to produce anything more than circumstantial evidence.
And Mr Kirkhope, like many of those opposed to the report, say the committee has been driven by an anti-American agenda.
For some MEPs, it has placed them in a difficult position.
The British Labour group in the parliament is now prepared to vote in favour of the report which criticises the Labour government in the UK but only after specific and personal criticisms of the Europe minister, Geoff Hoon, were dropped.
Labour MEP Claude Moraes said: "What we wanted, as Labour MEPs, was not to go into a situation where subjective, party political criticisms were made.
"We can definitely vote for a report which promotes human rights by asking proportionate, balanced questions of every country where allegations have been made, and that of course includes the UK."
Baroness Ludford, though, says the work of the European committee has spurred on other enquiries by national authorities.
In four countries - Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain - prosecutors are now investigating suspected cases of extraordinary rendition.
She said: "It is about making sure we uphold the standards we proclaim.
"I am as dismayed as anyone at the declining reputation of the United States. That is of no benefit to anyone in Europe."
In its conclusions, the report says EU countries which persistently violated human rights should face diplomatic sanctions. That is unlikely to happen, as it would require unanimous assent from all 27 EU member states.
But it is a reminder of how seriously MEPs have taken the allegations, and the consequences those charges could bring. | <urn:uuid:c7c9bdcc-ddb0-408b-8de6-2a88b961d383> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6359875.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967981 | 1,120 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Open-Source Bug Tracking with Bugzilla
Bug Tracking Systems (BTS) have their origin in software development, but they can serve as important and useful tools in every team environment. For this reason the names Issue Tracker or Ticket System have become more appropriate.
BTS may function as a central point of communication for any team. They can increase the productivity and accountability of each employee dramatically by providing a documented work flow and allowing for positive feedback on good performance. They usually reduce downtime and production costs while increasing efficiency and, most importantly, customer satisfaction.
The open-source project Bugzilla, for example, provides an easy to use, easy to maintain and cost effective solution with a rich feature set that easily can compete with its proprietary counterparts. Bugzilla's Web interface allows cross-platform use while the XML and e-mail interfaces enable automatic error reporting. Not only can the automatic error reporting be included in the development of a new product, but it also can be integrated easily into an existing product.
This article provides an overview of how introducing Bugzilla can help your team work together and communicate more efficiently. Bugzilla uses the term bug, so I will stay with this notation throughout the article, but don't forget, it's not only about bugs, You can use Bugzilla for any task you need to track.
Bug trackers aid the whole product life-cycle. In the case of software development environments, this usually consists of software design, implementation and testing. From testing, the work flow takes it course either back to design or on to implementation for bug fixing. In the best of all worlds, at some point an error-free product leaves this cycle and gets shipped to a customer. In all other worlds, the customer is part of the development cycle and submits bugs.
Everyone in the team needs to effectively keep track of upcoming issues. Designers and developers need to be notified about new bugs and reminded of existing ones. Managers need a means to distribute upcoming bugs to the right developer and quickly acquire the status of the project. Integrators and testers need to know which issues already have been resolved and therefore require consideration in the next build and test cycle. Customers want to be able to rapidly report bugs and receive an update of their status, while help desk operators need to be able to respond quickly to such customer demands.
Most companies come to the point where they start to track those issues by way of e-mail or spreadsheet lists—some even use sticky notes. At some point, the number of issues outgrows these approaches and the number of forgotten or unresolved issues demands a better solution. Let's follow one of those teams on their path to introducing Bugzilla as its in-house BTS.
As with every software product, the introduction of a BTS in an existing work flow requires initial thought and planning. The goal is for all participants to accept and use the new system, meaning that its introduction should have only a positive impact on their daily work.
As with most BTS, bugs in Bugzilla concern a component, which belongs to a product. A bug also may have a version and a milestone attached. Before introducing the new system, thought must be put into how its structure fits in to your daily work flow. All possible upcoming issues in your work flow should have a set place, including problems with Bugzilla itself. It often makes sense to include even trivial organizational issues that can have a large impact on development. If having sufficient blank CDs in your office is critical, you may include a shortage as a bug in Bugzilla.
Products are the main category and usually represent actual shipping products or services. You also should have a number of special products that reflect your internal work groups, like System Administration or Office Supplies.
Components are sub-sections of a product. Among others, a software product may have GUI and Database components. Your special product, system administration, may have the components Intranet Web Site, Shared Drive and Printers, to mention a few. Each component has at least one designated user that receives the error reports. Naturally you want to ensure that the workload is distributed evenly.
Versions refer to the version of your product where the bug occurred, while milestones represent target times for a bug to be fixed by. This does not necessarily need to be a date; it can be something like “When boss returns from holiday”.
Free Webinar: Hadoop
How to Build an Optimal Hadoop Cluster to Store and Maintain Unlimited Amounts of Data Using Microservers
Realizing the promise of Apache® Hadoop® requires the effective deployment of compute, memory, storage and networking to achieve optimal results. With its flexibility and multitude of options, it is easy to over or under provision the server infrastructure, resulting in poor performance and high TCO. Join us for an in depth, technical discussion with industry experts from leading Hadoop and server companies who will provide insights into the key considerations for designing and deploying an optimal Hadoop cluster.
Some of key questions to be discussed are:
- What is the “typical” Hadoop cluster and what should be installed on the different machine types?
- Why should you consider the typical workload patterns when making your hardware decisions?
- Are all microservers created equal for Hadoop deployments?
- How do I plan for expansion if I require more compute, memory, storage or networking?
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1 day 7 hours ago | <urn:uuid:d1d2f8b2-09d7-4f1d-8bba-f4a490258bff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7216?quicktabs_1=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915339 | 1,436 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Rigorous rehabilitation after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is necessary for a successful surgical outcome. A large number of clinical trials continue to assess aspects of this rehabilitation process. Prior systematic reviews evaluated fifty-four Level-I and II clinical trials published through 2005.Methods:
Eighty-five articles from 2006 to 2010 were identified utilizing multiple search engines. Twenty-nine Level-I or II studies met inclusion criteria and were evaluated with use of the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) criteria. Topics included in this review are postoperative bracing, accelerated strengthening, home-based rehabilitation, proprioception and neuromuscular training, and six miscellaneous topics investigated in single trials.Results:
Bracing following ACL reconstruction remains neither necessary nor beneficial and adds to the cost of the procedure. Early return to sports needs further research. Home-based rehabilitation can be successful. Although neuromuscular interventions are not likely to be harmful to patients, they are also not likely to yield large improvements in outcomes or help patients return to sports faster. Thus, they should not be performed to the exclusion of strengthening and range-of-motion exercises. Vibration training may lead to faster and more complete proprioceptive recovery but further evidence is needed.Conclusions:
Several new modalities for rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction may be helpful but should not be performed to the exclusion of range-of-motion, strengthening, and functional exercises. Accelerated rehabilitation does not appear to be harmful but further investigation of rehabilitation timing is warranted.Level of Evidence:
Therapeutic Level II. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence. | <urn:uuid:4d4d541f-382b-4bdf-a613-08abe85d7bc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jbjs.org/article.aspx?articleID=1361613&atab=7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919049 | 339 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Many individual investors were tiptoeing back into stocks in the spring. Now, they're running for cover again.
Karen and Roger Potyk, a comfortably retired couple in San Antonio, Tex., had clung to some stock mutual funds despite their anxiety following the financial crisis of 2008. But the renewed market volatility following the "flash crash" of May 6 proved too much to bear.
"We just didn't want to put up with it any more," says Karen Potyk. She and her husband sold the last of their stock holdings on May 20, moving the money to bonds, certificates of deposit and bond-like annuities.
Small investors' faith in stocks, which surged in the 1990s, has collapsed since the technology-stock debacle and the Enron and WorldCom scandals of 2000-2002. The 2007-2009 financial crisis only made things worse. Now, the pullback among ordinary investors means they are a declining force in a market that is increasingly dominated by professionals.
Some were tantalized by equities during the 70% rally that began in March 2009 and ran through April. But mutual-fund data and other clues suggest that that brief infatuation has ended.
In 2002, investors withdrew more money from mutual funds that invest in U.S. stocks than they put in. Then from 2007 through 2009 they withdrew money for three consecutive years. That marked the first three-year period of withdrawals since 1979-1981, according to the Investment Company Institute, a mutual-fund trade group. This year, U.S.-stock funds saw inflows in January, March and April, but net withdrawals resumed in May.
Investors talk of a growing disillusionment with big institutions, including corporations, government, banks and political parties—as well as fears about the nation's heavy debt. Some people's confidence in stocks was seriously shaken by the volatility that returned in May. They worry that the May 6 flash crash, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 700 points in eight minutes before rebounding, is a sign that ordinary people are increasingly at the mercy of anonymous companies that trade with powerful computers.
Individual investors were important market pillars in the 1990s, but their flight from stocks is changing the market dynamic. By adding money to mutual funds, individuals helped push stocks higher in the 1990s and to a lesser extent from 2003 through 2006. Now they are moving money out again on balance, making them a drag on the market.
Ordinary investors are returning to the cautious mentality they developed during the 1970s. That was the last extended period of stock weakness, after which it took many people a decade or more to get comfortable with stocks again.
"I feel like the tail of the dog that is being wagged by institutional investors who are taking a lot of risk, playing a lot of games and just have these computerized orders that affect me a lot," says Simeon Thibeaux, a semi-retired businessman from Alexandria, La.
History suggests that individuals eventually will return to stocks, as they did in the 1980s and, even more strongly, in the 1990s. But rebuilding their confidence could take time, says Brian Reid, chief economist of the Investment Company Institute. Historically, it has taken an extended period of stock success to lure individuals back after long periods of disaffection.
Rebounding after a two-month slump, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 511 points, or 5%, to 10198.03 last week, its biggest weekly gain in almost a year, although it remains down 9% since topping out on April 26.
"We have gone through two of the worst bear markets since the Great Depression, and it has given investors a better sense of the risks and dangers of investing" in stocks, Mr. Reid says, referring to the bear markets of 2000-2002 and 2007-2009.
The gradual dissipation of investor confidence can be seen in mutual-fund investing patterns.
After getting hurt in the 2000 tech-stock crunch, individuals came back to U.S.-stock funds in 2003, as stocks were entering a new bull market, ICI data show. But the buying proved tepid and turned to net selling in the latter part of 2006, even before the bull market ended in 2007. Despite occasional periods of inflows to U.S.-stock funds, the selling trend has continued since then. Individuals removed a net $7 billion from stock funds in the seven days ending May 12 and $13 billion two weeks later, eclipsing the deposits from earlier in the year.
Recent volatility has certainly shaken the Potyks' confidence. Mr. Potyk, a 68-year-old pharmacist, spent 25 years as an army officer and 11 years with Pfizer before retiring. His wife, 63, is a retired real-estate broker.
The Potyks stuck with their stocks through the tech wreck, the Sept. 11 attacks and Enron. They were willing to take risks to get stock-market returns. By 2006, he and his financial adviser say, the Potyks' portfolio was 50% stocks and 50% bonds and other fixed-income investments.
The big blow to their confidence was the 2008 collapse of brokerage-firm Lehman Brothers, in which they lost $75,000 on a Lehman bond. Although it was a bond that hurt them, the Potyks' faith in all potentially risky investments was shattered.
"In the military, you learn that you want people you can respect, trust—who have integrity," Mr. Potyk says. "Over the last five years or so, I find that our financial institutions have no shred of the character I describe."
The last straw was the May market volatility, accompanied by widespread fears about European government debt. On May 20, the Potyks asked their financial adviser to sell the last of their stock mutual funds.
Now that their portfolio consists entirely of fixed-income investments, "I won't make 8% on my money. I will make 4% or 5%, but the money will be there," says Mr. Potyk.
Stocks had developed an almost cult-like following in the 1980s and 1990s, when they were among the best investments available. But in the past decade, big U.S. stocks have had the worst performance of nine major investment classes tracked by investment research firm Morningstar.
The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index has fallen at an annualized rate of 3% a year over the past 10 years, including dividends and controlling for inflation. Long-term Treasury bonds show a gain of 5% a year during that same period, after inflation. Gold is up 10% a year and real-estate investment trusts 8% a year. The S&P 500 index itself, without adjusting for inflation and dividends, is stuck today at a level it first reached 12 years ago, meaning it has gone nowhere in more than a decade, scaring a legion of people in the process.
Reflecting their flight from risk, individual investors appear to be losing faith in an investment strategy called buying on the dips. In times of stock strength, people learn to buy stocks after a decline, when they are cheaper, because the stocks have a tendency to recover. Lately, investors have been reversing that behavior, selling on dips for fear the declines will continue.
The Yale School of Management maintains an index, designed by Professor Robert Shiller, that tracks individuals' willingness to buy on dips, based on a monthly survey of wealthy investors. The index topped out in 2002. While it has moved up and down since then, it has been falling since the start of 2009.
Some investors, haunted by the continuing credit crunch and unemployment fears, are being driven to pull money out of stock funds to make up budget shortfalls.
Also eating away at risk tolerance is demographics: Baby boomers are aging, making them think more about preserving their holdings' value. This is only part of the story, however: The Investment Company Institute data show lower risk tolerance among younger people, too.
In surveys of mutual-fund owners, the ICI found that just 30% said in 2009 that they were willing to take above-average or substantial risk in the stock market, down from 37% in 2008. The number willing to take only below-average risk or no risk at all rose to 20% from 14%.
Mr. Thibeaux of Alexandria, La., sold one-third of his stock mutual funds late in April at the suggestion of an investment adviser, who warned him that stocks were due for a pullback.
The problem was where to put the cash. A money-market fund at his mutual-fund company or a short-term certificate of deposit at his bank would yield almost nothing, he says. He finally decided simply to pay off the mortgage on a second home, on which he was paying 5% interest.
"I think there is no investment strategy now except to buckle up and hope that you don't get hit too hard," Mr. Thibeaux says.
Long-term investors have been showing a distinct change in behavior since 2008. Jay Pestrichelli, who monitors client behavior at online brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, has noted a change in the traditional buy and hold strategy. "People who once made few changes to their accounts have begun trading more frequently," he says. He saw the trend especially clearly on May 6, when there was an uptick of selling.
"A higher percentage of our trading was coming from our longer-term investor base," he says. People who might log into their accounts regularly, but not necessarily trade, were selling heavily that day, he says.
"The next day, those clients were all buying back in," he says, often losing money on a trade where they had sold low and bought higher. "To see that kind of a move in such a short period of time, it certainly can shake their trust."
James Rotenstreich, a businessman in Birmingham, Ala., says the May flash crash damaged his confidence in stocks as a store of wealth.
"I was just dumbfounded. The whole thing could have melted down, and I wouldn't have had much to do with it one way or the other," he says.
Mr. Rotenstreich has received offers for some real estate he owns in the Birmingham area, but so far has been reluctant to sell, he says, in part because he doesn't know what he would do with the money. He notes that corporate bonds and other alternatives also suffered severely in the market decline.
Reflecting on his options, he says that if he sold the real estate, "I really think I would put it in the bond market. So maybe I have lost some faith in the future of the stock market."
Some investment advisers are telling clients that, for long-term investors, this summer will turn out to have been a great time to buy stocks on the cheap. So far, not many clients are listening.
Write to E.S. Browning at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:3fe841d0-1c97-4b50-b38c-2836ff3f37a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704545004575353102793970916.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980833 | 2,273 | 1.6875 | 2 |
I remember Crayola markers. I remember them well - I think I must have sighed in exasperation many-a-time while using them. "That green? Again?" Even for an eight year-old, the colors were meh. But I used them - I used them a lot. Didn't we all?
Since I am no longer a child (by most traditional definitions), and since I needed a nice set of illustration markers to draw the diagrams for my patterns, I opted for a set of grown-up markers. Why did I wait so long? These things are dreamy.
"But wait!" the Montessori teacher in me says. "Your children deserve a nice set of markers, too!" Did you see what Amy's girls do with their Mommy-only-stinky-markers? (Mine aren't stinky by the way ... and they cost way less than Copics.) I think every child who is past the drawing-on-the-wall phase should have nice markers. Giving children quality art materials really says something - not only does it help them produce art with less frustration, it tells them that we value their work.
I can't believe I'm saying this ... but I have to go, I need to get back to work. The pens in the corner over there are whispering my name ... | <urn:uuid:b275346f-9812-4c52-a2ef-4f1d5894d206> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sewliberated.typepad.com/sew_liberated/2009/08/beyond-crayola.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97152 | 275 | 1.617188 | 2 |
To assess the association between early posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms and functional and quality-of-life outcomes among injured youth.
Prospective cohort study.
Combined pediatric-adult level I trauma center.
Randomly sampled adolescent injury survivors aged 12 to 18 years (N = 108) were recruited from surgical inpatient units.
Posttraumatic stress disorder and depressive symptom levels in the days and weeks immediately following injury. We also collected relevant adolescent demographic, injury, and clinical characteristics.
Main Outcome Measure
Multiple domains of adolescent functional impairment were assessed with the 87-item Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ-87) at 2, 5, and 12 months after injury.
The investigation attained greater than 80% adolescent follow-up at each assessment after injury. Mixed-model regression was used to assess the association between baseline levels of PTSD and depressive symptoms and subsequent functional outcomes longitudinally. High baseline PTSD symptom levels were associated with significant impairments in CHQ-87 Role/Social Behavioral, Role/Social Physical, Bodily Pain, General Behavior, Mental Health, and General Health Perceptions subscales. High baseline depressive symptoms were associated with significant impairments in CHQ-87 Physical Function, Role/Social Emotional, Bodily Pain, Mental Health, Self-esteem, and Family Cohesion subscales.
Early PTSD and depressive symptoms are associated with a broad spectrum of adolescent functional impairment during the year after physical injury. Coordinated investigative and policy efforts that refine mental health screening and intervention procedures have the potential to improve the functioning and well-being of injured youth treated in the acute care medical setting. | <urn:uuid:79354dea-34af-4148-843e-082febfe1e64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=379770 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924458 | 332 | 2.015625 | 2 |
The dip of the ZZ branching ratio - and all other branching ratios except for the WW branching ratio - near 170 GeV is caused by the increase of the total width (decay rate) at those masses. And the total width (decay rate) around 170 GeV increases exactly because the Higgs decays to the WW final states start to become possible. Because the total width goes up, the ratio of a (non-WW) partial width and the total width goes down - and this ratio is what we call the branching ratio.
Kostya wrote almost the same thing. But I want to emphasize a subtle point: note that in your graph, the branching ratio to WW is nonzero already from Higgs masses at 80 GeV or so. Similarly, the branching ratio to ZZ is nonzero from 90 GeV. How can a 90 GeV Higgs decay to two Z's, each of which has mass close to 90 GeV? Doesn't it violate energy conservation?
The answer is that the graph shows the decays to off-shell particles, not the final states. A Higgs boson may decay to one virtual and one real Z-boson. The virtual particle continues in its decay. To check this hypothesis, note that all decay channels in the graph are composed out of two particles. The actual final states of the decay will often include (many) more than two particles.
When the Higgs mass exceeds two times the mass of the W-bosons, the total width genuinely goes up because there's suddenly a lot of new "phase space" of the final states. | <urn:uuid:d190fbeb-0fc4-4c7d-af91-3e38598911f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/3773/shape-of-the-higgs-branching-ratio-to-zz?answertab=oldest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92833 | 330 | 2.1875 | 2 |
A concurrent passport is a second valid passport of the same type (i.e. Ordinary, Frequent Traveller and Emergency passport) as the first issued to a person (adult or child) to enable them to travel in circumstances as defined in the Australian Passports Determination 2005, Section 4.1.
Holding one Diplomatic, Official or Ordinary passport for dependants of officials when issued to a person who holds a private passport is not considered a concurrent passport. Holding two such passports however constitutes concurrent passports.
Circumstances for approval:concurrent passport
The Australian Passports Act 2005, Section 17(2), provides that a second concurrent passport may be issued to a person in circumstances specified in the Australian Passports Determination 2005, Section 4.1. Granting of a concurrent passport is to be very tightly controlled and only approved where all other options have been exhausted.
A concurrent passport may only be approved by an Authorised Officer provided that they are satisfied there is no alternative and the travel cannot be deferred for the following categories:
- to avoid significant delays in travel that would otherwise be caused by waiting for a visa to be issued;
- where a country will not accept travel documents showing evidence of travel to certain other countries (refer to ‘ Issuing concurrent passport when countries do not accept passports showing travel to specific countries ’); or
- other exceptional circumstances approved by the delegate.
Validity: concurrent passport
The Australian Passports Determination 2005, Section 5.1 (2) (e) and (f) specify that the maximum validity of a concurrent passport is three years except where the concurrent passport is an Emergency passport in which case the validity must not exceed twelve months, see ‘ Emergency concurrent passports ’.
In all cases Authorised officers are expected only to approve a period of validity appropriate to the demonstrated travel needs of the applicant
Supporting Letter 8/9:concurrent passport
All applicants for a concurrent passport must be provided with Letter 8/9, ‘Application for a concurrent passport’.
The letter sets out the conditions for the issue of a concurrent passport together with its attachment which must be completed by the applicant (Section A) and if the travel is for business purposes, by their employer (Section B).
To avoid significant travel delays
Australian travellers may apply for the issue of a concurrent passport to avoid lengthy delays while obtaining visas for other countries. In such cases the Authorised Officer should be satisfied that the concurrent passport is genuinely required to avoid costly delays and if travel is for business purposes then confirmation of this will need to be provided by their employer. Refer to the attachment of Letter 8/9.
Before approving such applications Authorised Officers should satisfy themselves that the case is compelling in terms of dates of proposed travel and the reasonable time needed to obtain visas and if required, the employer’s letter addresses all points covered in the attachment to Letter 8/9. If so, the validity of the concurrent passport must be restricted to the duration of the proposed travel plus six months. If the travel is for business purposes with no defined end of travel, the maximum validity is not to exceed three years.
In some circumstances it may be appropriate to approve the issue of Frequent Traveller passports, if requested.
Refer to ‘ Supporting Letter 8/9:concurrent passport ’.
Issuing concurrent passport when countries do not accept passports showing travel to specific countries
Some countries will not permit entry on passports which show that the bearer has visited, or intends to visit, certain countries where diplomatic relations do not exist.
Before approving the issue of a concurrent passport in these circumstances, Authorised Officers should be satisfied that other options, such as obtaining a replacement passport at some intermediate point or a loose leaf visa, is not workable.
Refer to ‘ Supporting Letter 8/9:concurrent passport ’.
The validity of the concurrent passport should be limited to the period needed to cover the intended travel plus six months up to a maximum validity of three years.
Diplomatic/Official concurrent passports
The same procedures on concurrent passports as set out in this chapter apply equally to requests from officials and their dependents to hold concurrent diplomatic and official passports.
Refer to ‘ Concurrent Diplomatic & Official passports ’.
Emergency concurrent passports
In limited circumstances, where an applicant can demonstrate that they meet the requirements for concurrent passports as set out in this chapter and there is a demonstrated urgent need to travel, a concurrent Emergency passport may be issued with a maximum validity of twelve months.
Refer to ‘ Validity: concurrent passport ’.
Fees and endorsements:concurrent passport
The Australian Passport Determination 2005, Schedule 4 specifies that the normal application fee must be paid when applying for a concurrent passport (including a priority processing fee where appropriate) regardless of the reduced validity granted to the concurrent passport.
Any additional lost or stolen fee must be paid on each concurrent passport reported lost or stolen.
DOI, COI, CTD, PTD concurrent travel documents
No concurrent Documents of Identity, Certificates of Identity, Convention Travel Documents or Provisional Travel Document should be issued without prior approval from the delegate/a senior officer.
Renewal of concurrent passports
Renewal forms (PC7) are not to be used to renew a concurrent Ordinary or Frequent Traveller passport.
The applicant must submit a PC1, PC4 or PC8 form along with all supporting information to allow the request to be considered. Should the request be refused the application fee will not be refunded.
Multiple concurrent passports
An Authorised Officer must not, under any circumstances, approve the issue of more than two concurrent passports to any person.
These applications must be referred to a delegate.
For the purposes of this section, Ordinary, Frequent Traveller and Emergency passports are all considered to be the same type.
Child concurrent passports
Where an application for a concurrent passport is lodged on behalf of a minor and the application meets the criteria for the issue of a concurrent travel document, full consents must be obtained or Approved Senior Officer (ASO) approval obtained.
This policy applies equally where the parents of the minor hold Diplomatic or Official passports. | <urn:uuid:4669a6b6-1f32-4c9c-a241-c9adbc510802> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/passports/Policy/TravelDocuments/ConcurrentPassports/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904735 | 1,282 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Layers of Information: How to Build Surface Texture Layer by Layer
February 18, 2013
Today, Annie Chrietzberg explains how Lana Wilson uses bisque stamps, textured materials, rolling, and paddling to create layered texture on her work. She also explains her darting technique for...
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A Pottery Paycheck: Expert Insights into Making a Living as a Potter
February 11, 2013
The Working Potters issue is back. In it, eight fulltime potters share their trials, tribulations and triumphs working for a living in this field. Today, we'll present an excerpt...
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Making Clay Prototypes for Mold Making and Slipcasting
February 8, 2013
Andrew Gilliatt makes the prototypes for his fun, imaginative forms using MDF (a wood particle board) and a lathe. Then he slip casts them using various colored slips. But...
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Handbuilding can be thought of as a very basic ceramic technique, but that doesn't mean it can't be used to create very sophisticated forms. Many artists are using handbuilding techniques to...
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Nowadays, ceramic artists are spoiled. It wasn't that long ago that getting the colors and surfaces you wanted took a lifetime of experimentation. But because of developments in modern...
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5 Tips for Making the Most of Ceramic Glaze Testing
January 28, 2013 | <urn:uuid:a2c45e28-e0bd-4de4-a213-c2d4135640fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ceramicartsdaily.org/daily/features-archive/page/5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937602 | 304 | 2.328125 | 2 |
madjay Dec 4th 2012 10:25 GMT I think the key sentence in this article, the one that sums up the problems in it for me, is this one: 'Households and businesses might save relatively less and spend relatively more, which would lead to price increases, as theory suggests. But they might not.' Why is this key issue buried near the end of the article, after paragraphs of supply side irrelevance? The whole argument for nominal GDP targeting and higher inflation expectations is that real interest rates are too high, and we can't drive them low enough because of the zero lower bound. As a result, we have a lack of aggregate demand (for non economists, this means customers - they are the real job creators, and there aren't enough of them to go round). Lowering real interest rates will cause those with excessive saving (hoarders) to spend more, whether or not the inflation is expected. Also the quote seems to get the argument backwards - we want to increase inflation (prices AND wages) to increase demand, we're not trying to increase spending just because we love inflation! | <urn:uuid:95599eed-e03d-46c7-8d1c-cc1fec4b8302> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economist.com/comment/1777734 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966356 | 227 | 2.125 | 2 |
Want to live in a really cool building? The Los Angeles Times reports this morning that the landmark Capitol Records tower in Hollywood is up for sale and the potential buyers are thinking of converting the structure into condos.
Just think about it – you can sleep in the room the Beastie Boys got signed, host dinner parties in the conference suite where Duran Duran first screened their “Hungry Like The Wolf” video, or simply park your car in Frank Sinatra’s old studio.
But why has Capitol’s parent company EMI even put the building that was designed to look like a stack of records for sale?
“EMI has decided that they are in the record business; not the real estate business… (They) can get a lot of money for the property, so that is what they’re going to do,” says a source on the blog, LA Observed.
Six years ago the city of Los Angeles threw down $4 million to help renovate the 1950s building in a bid to keep Capitol around. Now Mayor Villaraigosa and other city officials are trying their best to once again keep Capitol’s 160 employees in Hollywood.
But that’s not your problem. You just want an awesome condo. | <urn:uuid:701c6e8d-34dc-4572-8952-6f6e5744ade9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.sfgate.com/culture/2006/03/16/surreal-estate-capitol-records-tower-for-sale/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948574 | 263 | 1.882813 | 2 |
What Are Gallstones?
Learn about gallstones and how to prevent and treat them
Your gallbladder's primary function is to receive bile that's generated by the liver, concentrate and mix it with mineral salts and enzymes, and then release the bile into the small intestine. For most people diagnosed with a "bad gallbladder," the problem is usually gallstones.
Gallstones typically develop when there’s an excess of cholesterol in the bile. The cholesterol combines to form crystals of cholesterol monohydrate, which then clump together as stones. Gallstones can be quite large, up to an inch in diameter. On their own, they don’t cause any trouble unless one blocks the bile duct that empties into the small intestine.
More Dr. Williams Advice on Gallstones
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The doctor-recommended secret to boundless energy and total body wellness
Extra-strength relief for chronic joint pain | <urn:uuid:b2f4b075-7f39-471e-9b2a-b24f447379a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drdavidwilliams.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/article.detail/ID/d4ed149c-fe16-46f4-97e6-311c2b66521c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901896 | 327 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Today I’ve been playing with Book Creator on my iPad.
The App; designed for iPad, can be accessed on the iTunes store at
“The simple way to create your own beautiful iBooks, right on the iPad.
Read them in iBooks, send them to your friends, or submit them to the iBookstore. Ideal for children’s picture books, photo books, art books, cook books, manuals, textbooks, and the list goes on. ” [From page]
I am one of the iPad Academy’s newest registered trainers (working across West Yorkshire, and East Lancashire) and had attended to get a feel for what is expected of a session. We explored a number of Apps (which I may deal with in a later post), but Book Creator was shown to me by someone else attending the session. I immediately saw the potential for this £2.99 App.
So today, after trying it out a few times – simply to get a feel for the menus etc, I set to, to make a book and to see how versatile the App was. Book Creator allows you to assemble a variety of media and to present these in e-Book (.ePub) format for consumption on the iPad.
First of all Text:
Text is inserted in blocks, in much the same way you might insert text-blocks in older desktop publishing (DTP) software. A sliding bar allows you to control the font size and a drop-down menu allows choice of font. The usual [B], [I] and [U] are available, along with [colour] and the chance to alter the background colour of the text-block. You are unable to edit less than the full text-block.
Inserting images and videos from your iPad library is swift and easy, as is the option to use the iPad camera to record a new image of video clip. Once inserted, the media can be re-shaped and sized with ease.
You have two options for sound: record it there and then (useful for reading back what you’ve typed into the text-blocks, for accessibility purposes) or, apply a soundtrack to either the first page or all pages. Beware that this can be irritating if you do record an audio version of the text-blocks.
I’d hoped it could be fully accessed via any ePub reader, but it only seems to work in iBooks on the iPad. I’ve tried using an ePub reader on my MacBook Pro and it does show the pictures and allow me to read the text – but the video didn’t appear. So provided you can distribute the book efficiently, it should be a good way of consuming own-made books on the iPad.
Try mine if you like:
You will probably need to download the file directly onto your iPad, unless you know how to get an ePub file onto it from your computer (another post, another day perhaps: but for now –
My effort isn’t not much and it is messy, but it shows what can easily be done using this powerful App. Perhaps you could get your learners to CREATE something on their iPads? | <urn:uuid:26635d66-9481-466c-9309-a140af9296a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eduvel.wordpress.com/category/business/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917339 | 657 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases a detailed report on the Employment Situation of Veterans each March. The estimates for the veterans' annual average unemployment in this report are more accurate than other estimates, and are likely the best data available for users to reference in public presentations, grant applications, etc. The BLS reports monthly the employment status of the civilian population 18 years and over by veteran status, period of service and sex, not seasonally adjusted. These estimates are from a small sample and highly volatile from one month to the next.
Employment and unemployment statistics by Veteran status for the state of Illinois are only available annually. These annual averages are produced by the BLS for a special request from the Veteran's Employment and Training Services (VETS) in the Department of Labor. These figures are used by VETS in their State allocations under the Jobs for Veterans Act. The BLS cautions that these data come from a small sample and are subject to a large sampling error.
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Chairman's Staff produces annual unemployment rates for Post-9/11 and Total Veterans' by state. The JEC notes that margins of error may be large due to small sampling size. | <urn:uuid:48381590-166c-4157-81ff-9001b7bcc1ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ides.illinois.gov/page.aspx?item=3656 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933637 | 249 | 1.96875 | 2 |
What is geocaching
Geocaching is a recreational activity using GPS receivers to describe the location of a hidden object using coordinates in latitude and longitude, and then challenging other people to use the coordinates to try and locate the hidden object. The hidden object is called a "geocache", and is almost invariably some type of container which holds a log book at the very least, and usually some trade items. Anyone who finds the cache must sign the log book and then replace the cache as they found it. The person also has the option of trading something they brought with them for a trade item from the cache. All it requires is a GPSr, and an internet connection and computer. Map skills certainly help, but in many urban areas and along many trails, even that is not a requirement.
Over time, many types of caches have emerged. Moving caches, virtual caches, hitchhikers, so-called locationless caches, even event caches, are popular.
Enjoyed by thousands of people around the globe, this activity draws people from all walks of life, and of all ages. If you ask ten different "geocachers" why they enjoy this hobby, you will most likely get ten different but enthusiastic answers. Geocaching is most often praised for bringing people to places they've never been, even "right in their own backyard". Many people also enjoy the thrill of doing things they never thought they would do, like crawl through a storm drain or a cave. You will also hear a lot about how geocaching has finally "gotten me out and exercising again", and the occasional "I've lost XX pounds and quit smoking because of this".
Geocaching really is for everyone, it's a family-friendly activity that can also be enjoyed with friends, family, or alone. Objectionable material is banned in caches, as well as placing caches on private property without permission. All caches are rated for terrain and difficulty so you know before you go on a hunt for one whether it's appropriate for Little Johnny or Grandma Alice. In addition, unless you live in a severely rural area, chances are there is probably one or more within a mile of your home (in the case of the author, there is one within 500 feet and upwards to 20 within a mile, in a small city in upstate New York).
To start geocaching, you need to look up a cache near you: | <urn:uuid:211166ab-6979-4804-8b06-e3ab646a5148> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cacheopedia.com/wiki?title=What_is_geocaching&oldid=3337 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965819 | 493 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The Magic Touch
CAT # OJCCD-143-25
1. On A Misty Night 2:52 2. On A Misty Night (Alternate) 2:52 3. Fontainebleau 4:50 4. Just Plain Talkin' 4:51 5. Just Plain Talkin' (Alternate) 4:51 6. If You Could See Me Now 5:15 7. Our Delight 5:26 8. Our Delight (Alternate) 5:26 9. Dial B For Beauty 4:30 10. Look, Stop And Listen 3:52 11. Bevan's Birthday 3:29 12. You're A Joy 3:30 13. Swift As The Wind 3:21
To those who claimed that early bebop was nothing but a harsh and angry music, emphasizing multi-note trickery and fast tempos, the best answer was always: Tadd Dameron. As composer, pianist, and small-group arranger, he instilled a lasting sense of musical depth and complexity, of melodic beauty and emotion. His influence began in the Forties and survived his death in the late Sixties, but he rarely had a chance to present his own music on records. Riverside gave him a full-scale opportunity in 1962; the result was this memorable album composed, arranged, and conducted by Tadd and performed by an orchestra including such major Dameron enthusiasts as Bill Evans, Philly Joe Jones, Johnny Griffin, and Clark Terry.
with Clark Terry, Jerome Richardson, Johnny Griffin, Bill Evans, George Duvivier, Ron Carter, Philly Joe Jones, and others
Find out more about Tadd Dameron And His Orchestra | <urn:uuid:f15b5663-ea30-4f09-abe1-5c7b3980fba6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.concordmusicgroup.com/albums/The-Magic-Touch/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90262 | 345 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Currently, the book is available on Amazon, iBookstore and Evernote's Trunk.
I write about Evernote as a lesson planning tool, as a cloud storage tool, as a great tool for sharing with students, teachers and parents. I also share how Evernote fits in with BYOD and 1:1 learning environments. Evernote is great at being something to everyone and it is really worth checking out.
If you have questions about Evernote after reading the book, feel free to tweet me or email me and I will be happy to answer them for you.
As an official Evernote Education Ambassador, I really wanted to do something to help more people see how Evernote can make a positive impact in their classroom.
If you are interested in using Evernote on your iPad, you should check out my book on the iBookstore. The Beginner's Guide to Using Evernote on the iPad.
Have a great day everyone! | <urn:uuid:92d3c433-d22f-4f66-b4f3-1562f8fd104c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/2012/12/the-complete-guide-to-evernote-in_7633.html?showComment=1357062229105 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957345 | 203 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S) has developed the "Siship Coges" hybrid power-supply and propulsion system for use on LNG (liquefied natural gas) tankers. Two SGT 500 gas turbines are the heart of the electrical power generation system.
This type of turbine is designed to be operated with gaseous and liquid fuels at the same time, as a result of which the "boil-off" of the LNG can be used as well as heavy-oil and diesel fuels. Two heat-recovery units, a steam turbine, and an optional diesel generator complete the on-board power system. The approximately 50,000 kW of generated electrical energy supplies two electric motors for powering the propeller shafts, the liquid-gas compressors, and pumps in the cargo area; as well as the on-board power supply system. The hybrid system is characterized by its low maintenance and space requirements, and its high availability.
Compared to other cargo ships, LNG tankers have an unusual feature in that the pressure-less gas, which is cooled to -163 °C, evaporates at a typical rate of 0.15 percent per day. This so-called "boil-off" has to be returned to the tanks by means of compressors and pumps.
Siemens is now offering an alternative, whereby the boil-off is also used to generate electrical energy and propel the ship. The main feature of the hybrid solution is its two SGT 500 gas turbines. The turbines are capable of using gaseous and liquid fuels such as heavy oil and marine diesel – simultaneously, and their useful life is around three times longer than other types of turbines. Each turbine has an output of 17,000 kW at 360 rpm. Another 10,000 kW of power is obtained from the waste gases, which are just under 380 °C. This is done by means of two heat-recovery units and one steam turbine. As an option, a diesel generator, which typically provides another 5000 kilowatts, can be integrated in the overall electrical power generation system.
Electrical energy on board is distributed by either 11 kilovolt or 6.6 kilovolt medium-voltage switchgear. In a typical configuration, this set-up supplies two 20,000 kilowatt motors via DC link converters motors, for example, in order to operate the ship's propeller. The redundant design ensures that propulsion power is available even if some subsystems fail. The compressors and pumps in the cargo area and the electrical low-voltage on-board power supply system are linked-up via transformers. | <urn:uuid:86d04834-401a-453b-9384-bbc06b761349> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marinelink.com/news/article/hybrid-propulsion-system-for-lng-tankers/300513.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939007 | 550 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the United States. It is the largest (and only) city but only the fourth-largest community in the county, with a population of 21,233 at the 2010 census. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination, Portsmouth is served by Portsmouth International Airport at Pease, formerly the Strategic Air Command's Pease Air Force Base.
Native Americans of the Abenaki and other Algonquian languages-speaking nations, and their predecessors, inhabited the territory of coastal New Hampshire for thousands of years before European contact.
The first known European to explore and write about the area was Martin Pring in 1603. The Piscataqua River is a tidal estuary with a swift current, but forms a good natural harbor. The west bank of the harbor was settled by English colonists in 1630 and named Strawberry Bank, after the many wild strawberries growing there. Strategically located for trade between upstream industries and mercantile interests abroad, the port prospered. Fishing, lumber and shipbuilding were principal businesses of the region. Enslaved Africans were imported as laborers as early as 1645 and were integral to building the city's prosperity. Portsmouth was part of the Triangle Trade, which made significant profits from slavery.
At the town's incorporation in 1653, it was named Portsmouth in honor of the colony's founder, John Mason. He had been captain of the port of Portsmouth, England, in the county of Hampshire, for which New Hampshire is named. In 1679, Portsmouth became the colonial capital. It also became a refuge for exiles from Puritan Massachusetts.
When Queen Anne's War ended in 1712, the town was selected by Governor Joseph Dudley to host negotiations for the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth, which temporarily ended hostilities between the Abenaki Indians and English settlements of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire.
In the lead-up to the Revolution, in 1774 Paul Revere rode to Portsmouth warning that the British were coming, with war ships to subdue the port. Although the harbor was protected by Fort William and Mary, the rebel government moved the capital inland to Exeter, safe from the Royal Navy. The Navy bombarded Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) on October 18, 1775. African Americans helped defend Portsmouth and New England during the war. In 1779, 19 slaves from Portsmouth wrote a petition to the state legislature and asked that it abolish slavery, in recognition of their war contributions and in keeping with the principles of the Revolution. Their petition was not answered then, but New Hampshire later ended slavery.
Thomas Jefferson's 1807 embargo against trade with Britain withered New England's trade with Canada, and a number of local fortunes were lost. Others were gained by men who acted as privateers during the War of 1812. In 1849, Portsmouth was incorporated as a city.
Once one of the nation's busiest ports and shipbuilding cities, Portsmouth expressed its wealth in fine architecture. It contains significant examples of Colonial, Georgian, and Federal style houses, a selection of which are now museums. Portsmouth's heart contains stately brick Federalist stores and townhouses, built all-of-a-piece after devastating early 19th-century fires. The worst was in 1813 when 244 buildings burned. A fire district was created that required all new buildings within its boundaries to be built of brick with slate roofs; this created the downtown's distinctive appearance. The city was also noted for the production of boldly wood-veneered Federalist furniture, particularly by the master cabinet maker Langley Boardman.
The Industrial Revolution spurred economic growth in New Hampshire mill towns such as Dover, Keene, Laconia, Manchester, Nashua and Rochester, where rivers provided water power for the mills. It shifted growth to the new mill towns. The port of Portsmouth declined, but the city survived through Victorian-era doldrums, a time described in the works of native son Thomas Bailey Aldrich, particularly in his 1869 novel The Story of a Bad Boy.
In the 20th century, the city founded a Historic District Commission, which has worked to protect much of the city's irreplaceable architectural legacy. The compact and walkable downtown on the waterfront draws tourists and artists, who each summer throng the cafes, restaurants and shops around Market Square. In 2008, Portsmouth was named one of the "Dozen Distinctive Destinations" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Portsmouth shipbuilding history has had a long symbiotic relationship with Kittery, Maine, across the Piscataqua River. In 1781-1782, the naval hero John Paul Jones lived in Portsmouth while supervising construction of his ship Ranger, which was built on nearby Badger's Island in Kittery. During that time, he boarded at the Captain Gregory Purcell house, which now bears Jones' name, as it is the only surviving property in the United States associated with him. Built by the master housewright Hopestill Cheswell, an African American, it has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. It now serves as the Portsmouth Historical Society Museum.
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, established in 1800 as the first federal navy yard, is located on Seavey's Island in Kittery. President Theodore Roosevelt arranged for the base to host international negotiations leading to the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the Russo-Japanese War.
Historic House museums | <urn:uuid:628069b9-0c06-4031-93b0-814deb8e69e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Place:Portsmouth,_Rockingham,_New_Hampshire,_United_States | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972409 | 1,121 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Now that I got you all briefed about the Great Game on oil that is
being played there is one more recurrent theme that I'd like to
address. This is the one where Americans think that China is so
dependent on America buying the WalMart trash that all America has to
do is to stop buying Chinese and China will be brought crashing to her
This article from the Economist will belie that comfortable feeling.
Recalculating China's GDP
Clipping the dragon's wings
Dec 19th 2007
| HONG KONG
From The Economist print edition
China's economy is smaller than was thought
AMERICANS may well be delighted by new figures that show China's GDP
is 40%% smaller than previously thought. Has the devious Beijing
government been massaging the numbers, as communist planners are wont
to do? Hardly. China's GDP in yuan terms remains unchanged. What has
happened is that the World Bank has changed the calculations it uses
to make international comparisons of the size of economies.
Converting a poor country's GDP into dollars at market exchange rates
can understate the true size because a dollar buys much more in an
emerging market such as China than it does in America. The IMF and the
World Bank therefore prefer to convert GDPs into dollars using
purchasing-power parities (or PPPs), which take account of price
differences between countries.
Previous estimates of China's PPP were largely guesswork. Now the
World Bank has produced new calculations based on a survey of prices
of over 1,000 goods and services in 146 countries, including China for
the first time. On this basis, China's GDP in 2005 was $5.3 trillion,
compared with $2.2 trillion using market exchange rates and $8.9
trillion using previous PPP estimates. This was still well below
America's $12.4 trillion that year (see chart).
But this does not mean China's economic miracle has been just a
statistical artefact. The revisions do not reduce China's growth
rate-the fastest over 30 years of any large country in history. It
remains the world's largest producer and consumer of steel, the
second-biggest user of energy and even on revised figures the world's
second-largest economy. In 2008 it is almost certain to overtake
Germany as the world's largest exporter, and assuming recent rates of
growth are sustained, within ten years it will overtake America (in
PPP terms) as the world's largest economy.
China itself has always played down the PPP numbers, hoping to portray
itself as a poor country so America will give it more leeway when
arguing about exchange rates and trade. China's policymakers will not
be unhappy with their new, slimline figure. Indians, in contrast, love
to boast that their GDP overtook Japan's in 2006 to become the world's
third-biggest. Unfortunately, this is no longer true: its GDP has also
been slashed by almost 40%%.
With Brazil's GDP also down a bit, the share of emerging economies in
world output (including Asia's newly industrialising economies) has
been cut to 46%% in 2005, compared with over 50%% on the old numbers.
Their economic dominance has merely been postponed.
Finance & Economics
The new (improved) Gilded Age
Dec 19th 2007
From The Economist print edition
The very rich are not that different from you and me; or less
different, perhaps, than they used to be
IN 1904 Willie Vanderbilt hit a thrilling 92.3 mph (147.7 kph) in his
new German motorcar, smashing the land-speed record. His older
brother's sprawling North Carolina manse, Biltmore, could accommodate
up to 500 pounds of meat in its electrical refrigerators. In miserable
contrast, the below-average Gilded Age American had to make do with a
pair of shoes and a melting block of ice. If he could somehow save
enough for an icebox, a day's wage would not have bought a pound of
meat to put in it. Paul Krugman, of Princeton University, has recently
argued* that contemporary America's widening income gap is ushering in
a new age of invidious inequalities. But a peek at the numbers behind
the numbers suggests that Mr Krugman has been misled: far from a new
Gilded Age, America is experiencing a period of unprecedented material
This is not to deny that income inequality is rising: it is. But
measures of income inequality are misleading because an individual's
income is, at best, a rough proxy for his or her real economic
wellbeing. Because we can save, draw down savings, or run up debt, our
income may tell us little about how we're faring. Consumption surveys,
which track what people actually spend, sketch a more lifelike
portrait of the material quality of life. According to one 2006
study**, by Dirk Krueger of the University of Pennsylvania and
Fabrizio Perri of New York University, consumption inequality has
barely budged for several decades, despite a sharp upswing in income
inequality. They can record only that we have spent, but not the
value-the pleasure or health-gained in the spending. A stable trend in
nominal consumption inequality can mask a narrowing of real or
"utility-adjusted" consumption inequality. Indeed, according to
happiness researchers, inequality in self-reported "life satisfaction"
has been shrinking in wealthy market democracies, America included,
suggesting that the quality of lives across the income scale are
becoming more similar, not less.
You can see this levelling at work in markets for transport and
appliances. You no longer need be a Vanderbilt to own a refrigerator
or a car. Refrigerators are now all but universal in America, even
though refrigerator inequality continues to grow. The Sub-Zero PRO 48,
which the manufacturer calls "a monument to food preservation", costs
about $11,000, compared with a paltry $350 for the IKEA Energisk B18
W. The lived difference, however, is rather smaller than that between
having fresh meat and milk and having none. Similarly, more than 70%%
of Americans under the official poverty line own at least one car. And
the distance between driving a used Hyundai Elantra and a new Jaguar
XJ is well nigh undetectable compared with the difference between
motoring and hiking through the muck. The vast spread of prices often
distracts from a narrowing range of experience.
Save money. Live better
This compression is not a thing of the past. To take one recent
example, Jerry Hausman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and Ephraim Leibtag of the United States Department of Agriculture,
show† that Wal-Mart's move into the grocery business has lowered food
prices. Because the poorest spend the largest part of their budget on
food, lower prices have benefited them most. The official statistics
do not capture these gains.
As a rule, when the prices of food, clothing and basic modern
conveniences drop relative to the price of luxury goods, real
consumption inequality drops. But the point is not that in America the
relatively poor suffer no painful indignities, which would be absurd.
It is that, over time, the everyday experience of consumption among
the less fortunate has become in many ways more similar to that of
their wealthier compatriots. A widescreen plasma television is lovely,
but you do not need one to laugh at "Shrek".
This compression is the predictable consequence of innovations in
production and distribution that have improved the quality of goods at
the lower range of prices faster than at the top. New technologies and
knock-off fashions now spread down the price scale too fast to
distinguish the rich from the aspiring for long.
This increasing equality in real consumption mirrors a dramatic
narrowing of other inequalities between rich and poor, such as the
inequalities in height, life expectancy and leisure. William Robert
Fogel, a Nobel prize-winning economic historian, argues†† that nominal
measures of economic well-being often miss such huge changes in the
conditions of life. "In every measure that we have bearing on the
standard of living...the gains of the lower classes have been far
greater than those experienced by the population as a whole," Mr Fogel
Some worrying inequalities, such as the access to a good education,
may indeed be widening, arresting economic mobility for the least
fortunate and exacerbating income-inequality trends. Yet even if you
care about those aspects of income inequality, the idea can send
misleading signals about the underlying trends in real consumption and
the real quality of life. Contrary to Mr Krugman's implications,
today's Gilded Age income gaps do not imply Gilded Age lifestyle gaps.
On the contrary, those intrepid souls who make vast fortunes turning
out ever higher-quality goods at ever lower prices widen the income
gap while reducing the differences that matter most.
*"The Conscience of a Liberal" by Paul Krugman. W.W. Norton, 2007.
**"Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption Inequality? Evidence and
Theory" by Dirk Krueger and Fabrizio Perri. Review of Economic
†"Consumer Benefits from Increased Competition in Shopping Outlets:
Measuring the Effect of Wal-Mart" by Jerry Hausman and Ephraim
Leibtag. Journal of Applied Econometrics, forthcoming.
††"The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100" by Robert
William Fogel. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
A few months ago I had a long series of arguments with Tom Oliver
where Tom's position was China's posession of more than a trillion
dollars in USD debt comes to naught since the US can refuse to cash
them in on demand and there's nothing China can do. My position was
that that's an amazing renunciation of the sancity of sovereign debt.
Anyway the arguments tapered off with me stating that China will not
sell off its USD notes any time soon and see its accumlated earnings
disappear into thin air. But given the falling value of the USD China
and all the other countries that had hitherto parked their money in US
debt would be seeking other forms of investment. The US will no
longer be able to get cheap financing for its public expenditures
(including the war in Iraq.)
PPP: Who would have thunk that events have proved me right so soon.
This is not the time to gloat. What I hope for is that we will see
the disappearance of posts that assumes that the US has the power to
regime change or shoot anybody she doesn't like. Or worse lie to
justify support of US transggressions in foreign lands. | <urn:uuid:82d5848d-06a7-4cf5-ab7e-35bb1f2f4c2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nnseek.com/e/sci.military.naval/india_could_yet_play_the_china_hand_172796545m.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939378 | 2,335 | 1.609375 | 2 |
With 196 independent countries in the world, choosing a travel destination can definitely be difficult. Most people choose their vacation location based on what they see in the media, for example, one may want to go to Hawaii after watching Blue Crush, or they may want to go to Thailand after seeing Hangover 2. Media can deeply influence the perception one has of a country and unfortunately sometimes politics can affect the way media televises certain countries. To show you what I mean, let’s take a little test. Can you guess which country this is? It was the first country ever to establish a declaration of human rights; it is known for inventing hospitals, a taxation system and even insurance! It is currently one of the few countries (in its area) where women have great success in education and make up 49% of the student population in secondary education. This land withholds 15 UNESCO World Heritage cultural sites and contains one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. If you haven’t already guessed it, this country is Iran! People know little about this great land and its ancient culture and traditions and mostly just know that Iran has a lot of oil. So if I were given the opportunity to take my friends to a vacation location of my choice it would be Iran. I want to surprise them with how much this land has to offer and prove to them that sometimes we must see for ourselves to believe. Media has not always portrayed Iran in the best way, and so my friends will be shocked to witness a land like no other!
My friends and I would arrive to the capital of Iran, Tehran on March 17 the official day for the Chahar-Shanbeh Soori (Festival of Fire), which is a celebration of the last Wednesday of the Persian Year(the Persian New Year is on March 21 in conjunction with the first day of spring.) During the Festival of Fire, it is tradition to have Bonfires lit all over the city as the fire represents enlightenment and happiness for the upcoming New Year. It is customary to jump over the small fires, symbolizing the release of badness!
Children go around houses knocking for treats, similar to Halloween, while adult’s distribuate delicious home-made food to neighbors in order to make their wishes for the New Year come true. This holiday is like none other and my friends will be shocked by the celebration and the happiness shared amongst all people.
While we are still in the Tehran which is actually also the birth place of the first Bazaar (market) we would take the time to visit the Grand Bazaar where we would lavish ourselves with the finest spices, makeup, jewellery and clothes.
We would get a lot for our money considering the currency rate is 1.00 US dollar equals 12 250.00 Rial. We would also look at gold stores where the finest and most unique jewelry are sold. Perhaps, if we brought enough money we could even buy ourselves a pair of gold earrings or a bracelet. We would also visit the famous Persian rug stores and gaze at the fascinating designs and murals created on each rug.
Once we have shopped till we dropped, we would take a train to Southern Iran to visit the former capital of Iran, Esfahan.
While we take the four hour long journey from Tehran to Esfahan, my friends would be shocked to experience breath-taking views of the Zagros Mountains which are much different than our own Rocky Mountains.Once we have arrived to one of the most beautiful city in the world and considered Iran’s number one honeymoon destination we would immediately go to the Manar Jonban. This is a unique building that is considered to have ‘magical’ powers. The building consists of two minarets separated by a distance of 10 meters and each are 17 meters high.
They are considered ‘magic’ towers because when one of the minarets starts to shake the other simultaneously begins to shake as well; causing a vibration to be felt amongst the entire structure. The structure was built in the 16thcentury and continues to stand today even with the regular swaying of the structure. My friends and I would go and stand at the top of the towers even though it might be a little scary, the experience is worth it!
Afterwards, perhaps we would go and walk across the Khajou Bridge and let our eyes wander the architecture while eating Persian Ice cream made with Saffron and rosewater.
As our journey in Esfahan comes to an end, we will pack our bags again and take another train or plane ride to my birth place Shiraz! From there we would have to take a bus ride 70 km north to reach one of Iran’s UNESCO Heritage sites called Persepolis or as Persians say it Takht-e Jamshid.
Persepolis is one of the most fascinating sites in Iran because of its amazing architecture. Persepolis was created in 515 B.C and was home to the king of the Persian Empire. The building interests many by its remarkable design and structure considering how old it is. My friends will enjoy walking around the ruins and learning more about this ancient cultural site by tour guide. Some of us will probably enjoy soaking up the sun all the while.
Of course this journey would be nothing without some friends! I would love to take all of the Miss Teen Canada – World finalists on this journey.
Miss Teen Canada-World
Why not share the beauty of Iran with girls from all across Canada who can then share their experience with their friends at home. This trip would be amazing with all my new friends from the pageant. Travelling is a lot more enjoyable when you can share the experience with your friends and being able to reminiscence the experience with your friends when you get back home is great!
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Return on Equity Calculator
Return on equity measures the return on the shareholders investment in the business.
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Return on equity is another common measure of performance. It represents what the owners earned based on their past cumulative investments (initial investment plus what they left in the business). It also has some "historical" issues because the denominator does not necessarily reflect the current value of the business. Return on equity represents the return on existing stockholders investment and not necessarily the return that a new shareholder would receive on the purchase of the business.
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