text
stringlengths 211
22.9k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
371
| file_path
stringlengths 138
138
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.93
1
| token_count
int64 54
4.1k
| score
float64 1.5
1.84
| int_score
int64 2
2
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
This fall, students at Trinity Academy have a wide variety of after-school enrichment programs to choose from to further their academic and extracurricular talents.
A running club is being offered to help students prepare for the 2nd Annual 5K Reindeer Run/Walk, scheduled for Dec. 1. An accomplished marathoner will bring her expertise to teach the course, which will include the basics of running a 5K, as well as proper stretching technique, warm-up drills, relays and other running games.
In addition, students may enjoy Bricks4kids, which will teach principles and methods of engineering, architecture and physics using Legos™.
Trinity is also happy to offer fencing, a new class for students in grades 3-8 taught by the Lilov Fencing Academy. The program will introduce students to the classical sport of fencing through the use of fencing related strategy games, practice bouting, drills and competitions.
Finally, to help eighth graders prepare for the Cooperative Admission Examination Program (COOP), which is mandatory for all students seeking enrollment in a Catholic high school, an enrichment course will provide a thorough review of test taking strategies and techniques, sample questions and basic math overview.
These enrichment classes will enable Trinity students to explore new activities, and challenge both their bodies and minds.
About Trinity Academy
Trinity Academy is a highly-regarded pre-k–grade 8 Catholic grammar school. The school's primary mission is to provide students with a challenging academic
environment in the Catholic tradition. Trinity Academy offers small class sizes, a full-day Kindergarten program, and a nurturing environment that allows every child to thrive. Students achieve honors, scholarships and acceptances to prestigious high schools, and consistently score above the national average on the annual standardized Terra Nova tests. Trinity Academy is currently accepting applications. For more information about Trinity Academy, please visit ww.trinityk8.com, or call (973) 226-3386, ext. 10. | <urn:uuid:abb7e0fb-1604-4aff-a534-76fd7146e007> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://montclair.patch.com/blog_posts/trinity-academy-students-enjoying-great-variety-of-enrichment-programs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942336 | 407 | 1.734375 | 2 |
According to the New York Times, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state’s congressional delegation want the federal government to pay for $33 billion in storm damage from Hurricane Sandy plus another $9 billion for preventative measures:
A common trope of hawkish foreign policy writers is that America took a "holiday from history" by starting too few wars and trimming military spending in the 1990s. The unsubtle suggestion is that this holiday caused 9/11. But a better analogy would be that America, for decades, has taken a holiday from arithmetic, spending money like Jill Kelley at a JSOC mixer.
House freshman Allen West (R-FL) – a tea party and Fox News favorite – finally conceded defeat to his Democratic opponent on Tuesday. According to a Politico article, “The congressman’s unexpected loss left his advisers, donors and legion of tea party fans searching for answers.”
According to the Hill, policymakers are “scrambling” to do something about the U.S. Postal Service in the current lame-duck session of Congress. The USPS’s recently announced $15.9 billion loss for 2012 apparently inspired policymakers to act.
The demise of Hostess and Twinkies is not a national emergency, but it is certainly sad when a major business goes under and thousands of people lose their jobs.
The fiscal cliff is looming and Washington is scrambling to reach a deal to avoid a Thelma and Louise ending in January. To start, policymakers need to identify spending cuts, and they could begin with Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) just-released report on wasteful and duplicative spending in the Pentagon. The report identifies savings totaling at least $67.9 billion over the next decade in the Department of Defense.
Today is a federal holiday in observance of Veterans Day and we should all pause a moment to reflect on the sacrifices our veterans have made. But today is also an opportunity to reflect on the current state of civil-military relations. In today’s New York Times, Tom Ricks addresses this and notes:
President Obama has won reelection, and his administration has asked state officials to decide by Friday, November 16, whether their state will create one of Obamacare's health-insurance "exchanges." States also have to decide whether to implement the law's massive expansion of Medicaid. The correct answer to both questions remains a resounding no.
The NY Times reports on how well peanut growing has gone this year:
Supporters of limited government have little to cheer about today (and Romney winning wouldn’t have changed that in my opinion), so I’m going to point out a small glimmer of hope. In Pennsylvania’s 79th district, voters elected a local finance professor and radio host named John McGinnis to the state House of Representatives. A lot of Republicans talk a good game about liberty and smaller government – “Dr. John” eats it for breakfast. | <urn:uuid:169c3136-0dc2-44a1-8736-1016c2aa290b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/blog?field_themes_tid=All&field_departments_target_id=All&page=12&%24Domain=jiksnluplhbhb | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954557 | 612 | 1.625 | 2 |
This time of year, we pontificators always try to wrap up the year that was with a cutesy theme. I'll keep mine simple: 2010 was a year of wake up calls.
We began the year fascinated by the concept of the advanced persistent threat. Operation Aurora successfully infiltrated Google Inc., Adobe Systems Inc. and about 20 other organizations.
Aurora, like most APT-style attacks, used a combination of zero-day exploits and known unpatched software flaws to penetrate traditional defenses and maintain long-term access to sensitive data and mission-critical systems to monitor internal communications, steal trade secrets and ultimately seek to damage a business beyond repair.
APT was certainly overhyped this year -- not every attack qualifies as an APT -- but it's no coincidence that we're wrapping up the year with what appears to be another APT event, the recent Gawker Media attack. As it turns out, the Gnosis attack group had access to Gawker's systems for weeks or perhaps months before Gawker's IT staff realized something was wrong and its business leaders decided to do something about it.
As the Gawker attack proves, more businesses are being targeted by advanced persistent threats, and it isn't just industry titans like Google. Nearly every organization has enemies, and a Gawker-style combination of information security ignorance and arrogance, as we've seen, can result in disaster.
The APT helps make clear that the traditional paradigm for information security needs updating. As our information security threats expert Nick Lewis wrote, enterprises must assume they have a gaping hole somewhere in their network that only attackers can see, and they should be prepared to defend it by restricting user privilege levels, carefully considering which Web browser it uses, revisiting outbound traffic monitoring procedures, and even thinking about PCI-style network segmentation. And, if an attack should happen, be prepared to conduct detailed DNS log analysis or have experts on call to do it for you.
Similarly, we can't ignore this new generation of virulent malware, including Trojans like Zeus and Stuxnet. Zeus has been around the block a few times, but with new and increasingly dangerous Zeus variants popping up all the time, it can't be ignored. Stuxnet emerged in July of this year, initially targeting Siemens SCADA system software and successfully infecting 100,000 systems, according to Symantec Corp., by spinning together a combination of zero-day attacks. It has been so successful that it may become a blueprint for malware writers going forward.
Why are we in the midst of what may be a malware renaissance? Some like to blame software makers. After all, or so it goes, such malware wouldn't be so effective (and profitable) if software makers put greater emphasis on secure software development best practices.
The reality is that software will always be flawed. Perhaps no commercial software vendor has invested more in secure software development than Microsoft, and yet it has released more software patches in 2010 than ever before, and attackers continue to find and exploit new zero-days with no end in sight. If a vendor as diligent regarding security as Microsoft can't plug all the holes in its software, no one can.
Enterprises, in turn, must assume their applications are vulnerable and always will be. To borrow from SANS Internet Storm Center Director Marcus Sachs, not only do companies need to practice defense-in-depth security and maintain multiple security layers, but they should also consider a variety of new and different technologies and tactics for those layers, including vulnerability management, in-house penetration testing, host-based intrusion detection and segregation of duties and machines, to name a few.
To be clear, these themes aren't exactly breaking new ground, but attackers are doing just that with the above-mentioned methods and many others that are equally malicious. As 2010 comes to a close, perhaps the overarching wake up call for all of us should be that new breeds of attacks that blow past today's traditional defenses have become commonplace. Instead of heeding their own wake up calls, Google, Adobe and Gawker all hit the snooze button, and they paid the price. In 2011, other enterprises will make the same mistake. Don't let yours be one of them.
About the author:
Eric B. Parizo is senior site editor of TechTarget's Security Media Group. His rants can also be heard on SearchSecurity.com's Security Squad podcast. | <urn:uuid:d5451eda-bbb1-44f0-9860-8e34b5390669> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/1525229/Information-security-2011-Next-gen-threats-demand-layered-defense | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956492 | 899 | 1.523438 | 2 |
|About Teledyne Controls' Users Conference
Users Conference Background
Teledyne's Users Conference was started in 1989 as a small gathering of customers using our data acquisition and management products. Over the years it has developed into a significant industry event, enjoying up to approximately 200 participants, representing over 100 companies worldwide from the aviation community.
As participation has grown, the focus has shifted from a product-intensive format to one with more of an emphasis on solutions for global aviation operation. While there are still sessions designed to keep customers updated on Teledyne's various product families, our aim is to serve as an information sharing forum on current affairs affecting the airlines and the aviation industry in general.
Purpose of the Users Conference
Teledyne's Users Conference serves several key purposes:
- It allows representatives from the Airlines, OEMs, regulatory agencies, and associated companies to meet, interact, and share information about what is affecting them and their constituents
- It gives Teledyne Controls an opportunity to meet with its customers, and to learn how Teledyne can better assist the airline community
- It gives the various aviation segments an opportunity to learn more about issues facing airlines today, and in the future | <urn:uuid:1f307f16-6088-41f4-8bed-7ab3c8892154> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teledyne-controls.com/company/about_users_conference.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948459 | 244 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Angelus Calls Government Decision to not make Drug Education Compulsory as 'Outrageous'
LONDON, March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
The announcement today by the Department of Education that PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education) will be non-statutory and drugs education will be optional has described as "outrageous" by Maryon Stewart of the legal highs drugs charity, Angelus.
The decision means schools may decide to not teach any education in schools at all at a time when there are huge numbers of new drugs and legal highs easily accessible by young people. Currently 60 percent of schools teach students about the dangers of drugs for one hour or less per year.
A recent Com/Res poll of 4,000 parents showed only 33 per cent of respondents believed that schools provide adequate education to children and young people around drugs and alcohol.
Last year, a new drug was discovered on average every six days (European Drug Monitoring Centre figures). The untested drug products can be bought very easily from hundreds of High Street headshops and online. Hospitalisations from legal highs have increased by 358 percent.
The founder of Angelus, Maryon Stewart , said: "There has never been a more urgent need for drug education. To give no direction to schools on this vital subject is an outrageous decision. We need clear, consistent advice to young people that a legal drug does not mean it is a safe drug. The use of illegal drugs may be going down but the use of legal ones has gone through the roof.
"Our Government chooses to sit on its hands while other Governments in Wales, Ireland and Scotland are taking action. A whole generation of young people are sleep walking into potential disaster and may well lose their wellbeing and mental health for life if the Government continues not to intervene.
"Angelus has set a standard that there should be at least three hours of lessons about the harms from drugs and alcohol per year for every school. Education is often the only thing preventing more children becoming hospitalised or killed by legal highs."
Notes to editors:
1) Maryon Stewart lost her daughter to GBL and established the Angelus Foundation. It is the only drugs charity dedicated to combating legal highs and club drugs and launched a national campaign in October including the website http://www.whynotfindout.org. There is also a site for familieshttp://www.angelusfoundation.com.
2) In March 2013, Com/Res polled over 4,000 people in the UK on drug and alcohol issues. The survey found that:
- 84 per cent of respondents with school-aged children (5-15yrs) believe that drugs and alcohol are a serious problem.
- Only 33 per cent of respondents believed that schools provide adequate education to children and young people around drugs and alcohol.
- Only 33 per cent of respondents believe the government is doing enough to tackle underage drinking and illegal drug use.
3) In 2012 Scotland's largest health board in Glasgow reported a 358% rise in the number of young people needing emergency treatment after taking legal highs. It many cases, patients only survived after "urgent specialist treatment".
4. A Government written statement issued on 21 March confirmed, "it is for schools to tailor their local PSHE programme to reflect the needs of their pupil."
SOURCE Angelus Foundation
More by this Source
Home Secretary is Ignoring Advice Over Legal Highs Including her Experts
May 16, 2013, 15:52 ET
Headshop Owner's E-petition, Legitimising Legal Highs, is Sponsored by the Home Office
May 07, 2013, 16:25 ET
Browse our custom packages or build your own to meet your unique communications needs.
Learn about PR Newswire services
Request more information about PR Newswire products and services or call us at (888) 776-0942. | <urn:uuid:0d7d932e-340c-4af0-99b6-a4c4f30b39ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/angelus-calls-government-decision-to-not-make-drug-education-compulsory-as-outrageous-199435511.html | 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 | 0.949359 | 799 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Shows & Panels
- Accelerate and Streamline for Better Customer Service
- Ask the CIO
- The Big Data Dilemma
- Carrying On with Continuity of Operations
- Client Virtualization Solutions
- Data Protection in a Virtual World
- Expert Voices
- Federal Executive Forum
- Federal IT Challenge
- Federal Tech Talk
- Feds in the Cloud
- Health IT: A Policy Change Agent
- Improving Healthcare Outcomes through IT Policy
- IT Innovation in the New Era of Government
- Making Dollars And Sense Out of Data Center Consolidation
- Navigating the Private Cloud
- One Step to the Cloud, Two Steps Toward Innovation
- Path to FDCCI Compliance
- Take Command of Your Mobility Initiative
Shows & Panels
IG says Justice misreported some terrorism stats
Thursday - 9/6/2012, 12:17pm EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) - A review of terrorism statistics from the Justice Department shows officials have given Congress slightly incorrect information.
That is the conclusion of an inspector general report released Thursday.
It says Justice reported in 2009 that 512 people were charged with terrorism or terrorism-related crimes for six years after the September 11, 2001, attacks. But the audit showed 544 people were actually charged during that time period. Justice also reported that 319 people were convicted or pleaded guilty to terrorism or related crimes during that time. The audit showed 324.
The inspector general says nothing was significantly overstated or understated, but Justice needs to do a better job.
A Justice spokesman says the department is committed to making sure investigations and casework related to terrorism are reported accurately.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) | <urn:uuid:05372cf5-d81e-4d5e-b523-e5a97fd6ec76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.federalnewsradio.com/85/3024850/IG-says-Justice-misreported-some-terrorism-stats | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938723 | 365 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The Open Source movement has dramatically changed the software landscape. Many companies, from large enterprises to small businesses now use Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) to provide office productivity, data processing and management information systems support to their daily business activities. Small businesses (SMEs) in particular, now have access to many sophisticated ICT solutions that were previously too costly to acquire.
However many SMEs continue to be challenged by the lack of awareness, appropriate training and cost-effective professional support services which limit their ability to effectively implement and take advanatage of these available technologies. In response to these challenges and the opportunities arising from the increased availability and acceptance of open source software, the Mona School of Business has established the Center of Excellence for IT-enabled Business Innovation, to address technical, managerial, and business approaches to the increased adoption and utilization of these significant ICT resources in the local business community... Read More>> | <urn:uuid:0a9be48e-06f1-4ad4-8f12-4c309d65e54e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://[email protected]/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954724 | 187 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Fifth Avenue is partnering with charity: water again this year to bring clean water to
people in need.
Almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water. That’s one in eight of us. charity: water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of the money raised goes to direct project costs, funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need.
Help Saks Fifth Avenue build wells.
100% of all donations directly fund sustainable clean water projects in developing nations.
From founder, Scott Harrison.
We were humbled last year by the effort of Saks Fifth Avenue employees, customers and vendors that resulted in more than $500,000 raised – enough clean water to transform the lives of over 30,000 people.
The heart, passion and generosity by all who participated was incredible.
This year, while we in the developing world are challenged by our economy, those we seek to serve need our help even more. We’ll do our part and make sure 100% of your gifts reach them. | <urn:uuid:ac73149c-9402-489c-9561-666d93ed857a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.charitywater.org/saks/?video=video6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946596 | 232 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Prisoners Sue Beer Companies, Blaming Crimes on Alcoholism
A new lawsuit takes aim at beer and wine companies for not warning consumers that they could become alcoholics.
Frivolous lawsuit? Or new trend that will let consumers collect millions from liquor companies?
The lawsuit seeks $1 billion from Miller Brewing, Anheuser-Busch, Coors and other major beer and wine makers for not adding warning labels on their bottles to tell people that alcohol is habit forming and addictive.
But here’s the kicker: the lawsuit was brought by five inmates in Idaho who claim that not only was the booze to blame for their alcoholism, but also for their criminal activity.
Keith Brown, who is serving a 15-year sentence for shooting a man to death, Jeremy Brown, who is doing a 20 to 30 years for shooting and injuring a man, and three other prisoners whose crimes range from manslaughter to grand theft, say in their legal complaint that “if they had not been addicted to the products sold by the defendants that they would have lead normal lives as productive members of society.”
While that claim is a stretch, the lawsuit’s main argument that alcohol should be sold with a warning label may have merit, according to Mark Gottlieb, a lawyer and executive director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern Law School.
The complaint may also be a lesson on why you need a lawyer. The inmates filed the complaint on their own without an attorney, but in the hands of the right lawyer, this type of lawsuit could have legs.
“The complaint did not look particularly well-crafted or especially well-researched, but there may be something there,” said Gottlieb.
As in the early days when tobacco lawsuit were first launched, the idea of holding a maker of alcohol liable for a perfectly legal product seems far-fetched. But after decades of pursuing legal remedies, smokers have successfully sued for millions – sometimes billions – of dollars from cigarette manufacturers.
Like tobacco, the biggest challenge would be the argument that alcohol’s ill-effects are “common knowledge.” After all, everyone knows that alcohol gets you drunk and makes you do stupid things.
On the other hand, alcohol users could argue that while getting intoxicated is common knowledge, becoming addicted is not. If cases like this take root, it will probably take years – even decades – before they catch on.
“It will be a long road to success. Tobacco litigation took over 45 years before a plaintiff got paid in one of these actions,” Gottlieb said.
Or More Like a Fat, Juicy Burger?
The prisoners could also have taken a page from lawsuits filed against the fast food industry, which looked to consumer protection statutes. Those lawsuits argued that fast food companies like McDonalds, Burger King, and others engaged in deceptive marketing by advertising their food as nutritious or as 100% natural when in fact it contained unhealthy amounts of salt, fat and cholesterol and contained additives.
Rather than arguing that alcohol brewers made a dangerous product that lead to alcoholism and a life of crime, a drinker who suffers health effects from alcohol’s toxicity may have a stronger argument.
“There’s a medical connection between chronic alcohol abuse and personal injury such as cirrhosis of the liver,” said Gottlieb.
The Oglala Sioux tribe of South Dakota sued Anheuser Busch, Coors and Pabst alleging that the brewers and distributors sold alcohol near the reservation, where it is banned, profiting from chronic alcoholism and causing rampant health consequences.
In October, a judge ruled that the federal court did not have jurisdiction, saying it belonged in state court.
“There is, in fact, little question that alcohol sold [near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation] contributes significantly to tragic conditions on the reservation,” U.S. District Judge John M. Gerrard wrote. “And it may well be that the defendants could, or should, do more to try to improve those conditions for members of the tribe.”
So even if the prisoners’ lawsuit gets thrown out, it’s probably not the last word on the issue.
“Even if these are ne’er do well prisoners looking for some way to make some money from alcohol beverage manufacturers, it raises some important legal questions about the addictive nature of these products and liability that have been neglected,” Gottlieb said. | <urn:uuid:68092f41-7602-4f84-9e39-a2771a011841> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.lawyers.com/2013/01/prisoners-sue-beer-companies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963461 | 925 | 1.742188 | 2 |
We purchased a cart of 30 iPads for high school students. Our IT guy was able to disable the cameras and some settings so that students can't change the setup. HOWEVER, one student was able to add his/her passcode which kept us out. We aren't able to lock that down. After a call to Apple, they say it can't be done unless we use 3rd party software for blocking--which they didn't know of any. Anyone come across this or have any suggestions? Thanks! They are working well other than this one…See More
"Hi Pam! We just purchased 30 Kindles for an AP English IV class. We are distributing next week. I'll let you know how they hold up. Many private schools in our area are doing 1:1 laptops and putting their textbooks on…"
"I'm on a snow day too. So far, I have not been able to implement a program at my school. My district, as most in IL, are owed thousands from the state, so they are "pinching" pennies. I am exploring grant…"
"Hi Jeremy! I am about to purchase 30 Kindles for an AP English IV Class as a pilot program. It really just came up with discussion with principal and he said I could get one. Then, it moved to, lets get them for a class. …"
I'm on a snow day too. So far, I have not been able to implement a program at my school. My district, as most in IL, are owed thousands from the state, so they are "pinching" pennies. I am exploring grant opportunities and hope to have something in place next school year. It is great to have time to catch up and research. A lot of people have a lot to offer here on the ning. There are AUP (acceptable use policy) and check out forms under the resources tab at the top of the ning. We will look forward to hearing how about how your program goes. Keep us posted.
Click the QR code on your smartphone to grab Sonnet 65 by the Bard himself! An experiment with how to distribute learning resources to students' mobile devices.
Download the QR code, print it, and post it somewhere for students to access. Or post it on your blog or other school website. Get the i-nigma code reader in the App Store or the Android market. It is the reader we prefer. Courtesy of The Learning Mag. | <urn:uuid:e8702d12-9774-4c3a-8be8-bc61234f3722> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edukindle.ning.com/profile/Cheryl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973977 | 506 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Sulfate Debate
the past year or so, there has been a lot of talk about sulfates in shampoo. These sulfates are what makes the shampoo lather, but it can be irritating to some people and some consumers think that it’s bad for your hair. So, what’s the truth? If you use a lot of hair tools and process your hair (i.e. colour it, heat style it a lot or relax it) there’s a good chance that sulfates will make your hair dry or irritate and already sensitive scalp. However, if your hair is natural and you don’t fuss with it too much, you’ll be able to tolerate sulfates without any problems. | <urn:uuid:9cc819a3-1a74-4a08-8f22-cdd68066dd4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.onlynature.co.uk/ONBLOG/2012/07/the-sulfate-debate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937895 | 152 | 1.539063 | 2 |
1. Welcome to "Med City"
There are a lot of reasons it's tough to beat a UMR education. But for health sciences students, our proximity to the Mayo Clinic says it all. We're within walking distance of some of the most respected medical facilities in the nation--and the world for that matter. And that means access to competitive internships and hands-on career opportunities, as well as the chance to mingle off campus with highly skilled medical professionals.
2. You Belong in the Spotlight
UMR attracts students who seek small classes and big opportunities. Here you will gain close personal attention and a variety of perspectives from peers and faculty without losing your sense of direction. The Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences program provides a launching pad to a bright future in the health sciences.
The Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences program integrates the diverse areas of the health sciences across the natural sciences, social sciences, mathematics, arts, and humanities. The unique approach to teaching lends relevance to topics, making them applicable to both everyday and professional life. Authentic data, multiple sources of information, and engaging discussions compel students to explore the boundaries of their world.
3. Leadership for a Lifetime
Our UMR faculty set the bar high. All faculty members are committed to developing an integrated curriculum, working closely with colleagues in other fields, and employing the most effective teaching methods possible.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, health care will generate 3.2 million new jobs--more than any other industry--by 2018. Want a piece of that action? Start with the Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences program at UMR. As a BSHS student, you'll gain real-life experience to jumpstart the career of your dreams and get the opportunity to continue learning and growing as a health sciences professional long after graduation.
Recent, unprecedented growth in aging populations and a boom in technological advancements, has fueled a great need for qualified health care professionals. That need will continue to increase for years to come. In addition to enjoying job security, today's health sciences professional can:
BSHS students have the unique opportunity to personalize their education with a capstone experience relevant to their health sciences career interests in their fourth year. Opportunities include:
The innovative and challenging curriculum of the Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences degree will provide a strong background in necessary health sciences disciplines. Integration across the natural sciences, social sciences, mathematics, and arts and humanities makes this program unique. Examples from diverse areas of the health sciences make the materials relevant. Authentic data, multiple sources of information, and engaging discussions among students and faculty transform complex concepts and bring them to life.
Today’s challenging professional environments demand skills beyond basic subject knowledge. Throughout the program there is emphasis on leadership, communication, teamwork, problem solving and personal development that will offer you an opportunity to build a broad range of understanding for personal growth and professional development.
Faculty get to know each student individually and work closely with students to deepen their knowledge and skills. Dedicated faculty engage students in projects relevant to careers in health sciences. The BSHS faculty is dedicated to student success, advancement of educational research, and the application of those insights in the classroom to help students succeed.
The health sciences major is administered by the UMR Center for Learning Innovation.
|Meet UMR on the Road|
|Request More Information|
|Contact the UMR Admissions Office| | <urn:uuid:8caa02a1-d164-4cba-a31f-42e1428c6900> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.r.umn.edu/academics-research/programs/undergraduate/bshs/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934965 | 701 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Crane continues to dangle over Manhattan
updated 3:48 PM EDT, Tue October 30, 2012
- Police have cordoned off the area around the base of the One57 building on West 57th street
- The arm is swaying atop the building, which remains under construction
- As gusts of up to 60 mph barreled through New York, the crane was damaged Monday
New York (CNN) -- Affixed to a high-rise apartment building in one of midtown Manhattan's more coveted locations, the arm of a construction crane damaged by Superstorm Sandy continued to dangle perilously 90 stories above New York City.
Police have cordoned off the area around the base of the One57 building on West 57th street, as New Yorkers recover from a rare convergence of weather systems that killed at least 15 people across the state.
Superstorm aftermath from every angle
Broken crane suspended over NYC
The arm can be seen slowly swaying atop the building, which remains under construction.
Photos: New York recovers from Sandy
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the surrounding area, including the posh Le Parker Meridien hotel, has since been evacuated.
"We're sorry for the inconvenience, but better be safe than sorry," the mayor said during a news conference.
As gusts of up to 60 mph barreled through New York, the crane was damaged Monday afternoon atop a building that is planned to be among the tallest residential structures in Manhattan, offering views that potentially range from Central Park to the city's Financial District.
"The hurricane storm winds have pushed the crane boom over the cab section of the high-rise crane at One 57th Street," said Mary Costello, senior vice president for Lend Lease, the property group managing the site.
Meanwhile, New Yorkers continued to peer skyward toward the unusual and potentially dangerous scene.
How you can help
CNN's Eden Pontz contributed to this report
Part of complete coverage on
updated 8:17 AM EST, Mon November 5, 2012
A mother learns that her newborn is part of a hospital evacuation. Facebook posts from a member of the HMS Bounty turn ominous. A man worries about the wind and rain, but another force of nature hits home.
updated 2:53 PM EST, Thu November 29, 2012
Tourists become volunteer rescue workers. The connected provide power outlets and Wi-Fi. Performers lift spirits. Photographers preserve images. Doctors work overtime to keep hospitals running and patients alive.
Get to know the victims of Superstorm Sandy through our interactive feature.
updated 10:42 AM EST, Fri November 30, 2012
It has been in operation only since October 30, but the Facebook page for "Giving back to those affected by Sandy" has a longer timeline than most Facebook members.
updated 3:07 PM EST, Sun November 25, 2012
It's important to remember that even as the effect of Superstorm Sandy recedes from the news, there are still devastated areas that are without electricity, heat or hot water.
updated 11:46 AM EST, Sat November 24, 2012
The rapper 50 Cent brought a little holiday cheer and Thanksgiving food to New Yorkers hit hard by Superstorm Sandy.
updated 12:10 PM EST, Wed November 21, 2012
Our AmeriCares "Operation Muck-Out" team immediately got to work, ripping out the interior walls and removing the insulation until only wooden beams were standing.
updated 12:19 PM EST, Tue November 20, 2012
Ashley Murray became the first female president of Liberty Industrial Gases and Welding Supplies Inc. in Brooklyn. But now the family history Murray was charged with preserving is at risk of ending after Superstorm Sandy.
Truckloads of donations from across the country, carrying everything from bottled water to diapers, are arriving at places of worship.
updated 12:16 PM EST, Tue November 20, 2012
The adage says "a picture is worth a thousand words," but when Leeann Lewandowski happened upon a photograph of her late mother on Facebook after her home was destroyed in Superstorm Sandy, she was speechless.
updated 12:52 PM EDT, Fri November 2, 2012
Roots ripped out of the ground as a large oak tree fell toward Olga Raymond's front door. With it came a power line.
iReporters share their photos, videos and stories of living in the path of the superstorm. | <urn:uuid:e3f21b6c-f116-4bcb-9562-202a86d43b02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://us.cnn.com/2012/10/30/us/new-york-storm-crane/index.html?iid=article_sidebar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951515 | 912 | 1.5625 | 2 |
At our Mountain View headquarters, we have some fields that we need to mow occasionally to clear weeds and brush to reduce fire hazard. This spring we decided to take a low-carbon approach: Instead of using noisy mowers that run on gasoline and pollute the air, we’ve rented some goats from California Grazing to do the job for us (we’re not “kidding”). A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time. The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie. It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers.
Google Use Goats Instead of Lawm Mowers | <urn:uuid:83d05e94-8995-4730-a8f5-9718bd5b2022> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tamanroyal.com/google-use-goats-instead-of-lawn-mowers/ | 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 | 0.95558 | 166 | 1.609375 | 2 |
President Barack Obama and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, right, are met by, from left: Detroit Mayor Dave Bing; Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.; Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, after stepping off Air Force One upon his arrival at Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Detroit today. / Charles Dharapak/Associated Press
U.S. President Barack Obama visited Detroit Diesel’s Redford engine plant to talk about the company’s $120 million investment, but he made clear he opposes the right-to-work legislation Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican legislators are expected to finalize Tuesday in Lansing.
“What we shouldn’t be doing is taking away your rights to bargain for better labor agreements,” Obama said, about halfway through his speech. “These so called right-to-work laws, they don’t have anything to do with economics, they have to do with politics.”
Obama’s comments came as the legislature is poised to make Michigan the 24th right-to-work state. On Thursday, Gov. Rick Snyder has said he would sign the legislation.
Right-to-work legislation makes it illegal to require financial support of a union as a condition of employment, but workers who opt not to pay dues would receive all the wages and benefits a union would bargain for in a contract.
Snyder has said the legislation will make Michigan more competitive when it tries to recruit business to the state, but critics point out that it will cripple unions’ ability to fund their political policy objectives.
Obama also praised the workers at Detroit Diesel and parent company Daimler for investing $120 million more in the plant.
Detroit Diesel employs about 2,300 and makes engines, rear axles and 12-speed transmissions for heavy-duty trucks.
“That is great for the plant, it is great for this community, but it is also great for American manufacturing,” Obama said.
Obama said Daimler’s investment is another example of a company making a bet on American manufacturing.
The President said the economy is recovering, in part due to the administration’s willingness to rescue the automotive industry.
“It was just a few years ago that the auto industry was on the verge of collapse,” Obama said. “And all of you, the men and women who built these companies with your own hands would have been hung out to dry.”
In 2009, the Obama administration provided about $80 billion in loans to General Motors, Chrysler and their financial subsidiaries. He also appointed a team to oversee the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler. Both have emerged from bankruptcy and are earning profits.
In May 2011, Chrysler repaid $9.3 billion the U.S. and Canadian governments six years earlier than required. That sum does not include the $1.3 billion provided by the Bush administration to the automaker before it filed for bankruptcy.
The Treasury Department still owns 32% of the new GM's common stock, but GM has repaid more than $23 billion in loans or through the sale of shares.
“We bet on American ingenuity, and three-and-a-half years later, that bet is paying off,” Obama said.
Obama, who met Sunday for the first time in nearly a month with House Speaker John Boehner, said Congress should pass a package of measures that protects the middle class and American workers.
Obama wants to raise tax rates on higher income earners while keeping them at current levels for households making less than $250,000 a year.
“I believe we are at our best when everybody who works hard has a chance to get ahead,” Obama said. “That’s the idea that’s in the heart of the economic plant I have talked about all year long on the campaign trail.”
Contact Brent Snavely: 313-222-6512 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:5f18f152-1a62-4956-8282-d614f3d2c789> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freep.com/article/20121210/NEWS06/121210046/Live-video-President-Obama-speaking-Redford-engine-plant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964232 | 837 | 1.539063 | 2 |
It’s a great win for your efforts over the last months—everyone who wrote letters, signed petitions, and turned out for the Solar Road Show as we rolled down the east coast from Unity College towing one of the Carter panels. You never know what will happen when you ask for change!
Just in time to give the Global Work Party on 10/10/10 a White House-sized boost, the Obama administration announced this morning that they are going to put solar panels on the First Family’s living quarters, returning to a tradition begun by president Jimmy Carter and abandoned by Ronald Reagan.
It’s a great win for your efforts over the last months–everyone who wrote letters, signed petitions, and turned out for the Solar Road Show as we rolled down the east coast from Unity College towing one of the Carter panels. We were disappointed that day that the White House wasn’t prepared to go solar, but very happy that they took our suggestion to look into the matter seriously.
Solar panels on one house, even this house, won’t save the climate, of course. But they’re a powerful symbol to the whole nation about where the future lies. And the president will wake up every morning and make his toast by the power of the sun (do presidents make toast?), which will be a constant reminder to be pushing the Congress for the kind of comprehensive reform we need. And remember, President Obama’s not alone: tomorrow, Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed and a crew from Sungevity will be putting solar panels on their official residence. It’s a trend!
The first account of the day’s news, from Associated Press reporter Dina Cappiello, noted the efforts of 350.org to make this happen. In particular, I’d like to salute Jean Altomare, Amanda Nelson, and Jamie Nemecek, the three young women from Unity College who made the trip and who made an impression on the White House. They remind all of us why we’ll be working hard this weekend–and why, when the day is done, we’ll be putting down the hammer or the shovel and picking up the cellphone to call our leaders. You never know what will happen when you ask for change.
It’s been just over a week since Bill and our intrepid group of Unity College students left Maine to try and bring solar back to the White House. Those of you who have been following the story already know the unsatisfactory ending: despite the signatures of more than 40,000 people and multiple offers from solar companies like Sungevity to install new panels for free, the White House refused to accept Jimmy Carter’s original panel or commit to putting a new array on the roof.
But as the saying goes, sometimes the best part of a trip is the journey, not the destination. And while our time at the White House may have been a downer, this video from Clean Skies TV shows just how much fun the road trip down to Washington was for our team and people we met along the way:
For full disclosure, we want to point out that Clean Skies TV is run by an organization largely funded by the natural gas industry. We don’t detect any bias in this piece — no mention of gas here — and are appreciative of the coverage. And we’ll let the reporter get away with the downer of ending since he definitely had the best line of any report on the panel we’ve seen so far, “You could cook a hot dog with this thing!”
For the last three days, I’ve been sitting at my kitchen table in California cranking out press releases, calling reporters, and generally playing “pit crew” for Bill and our Put Solar On It road trip. It’s been a great ride: tens of thousands of people have shown their support for putting solar back on the White House, the crew had great stops in Boston, New York, and D.C., and we managed to secure a meeting with the Administration to discuss putting solar back on the roof.
As we expected (but secretly hoped wouldn’t be the case), the White House didn’t commit to … well, anything. We tossed them a big, fat soft ball to hit out of the park and they just watched it float on by.
That’s too bad. But it’s also a great reminder of who the real leaders are. As Joe put it, if the President can’t climb up on the roof and hammer in some solar panels, clearly we need to push him up.
That’s exactly what we’re going to do on 10/10/10. There are actions all around the world where people are putting up solar panels and finding other ways to get to work on climate solutions. In the Maldives, President Nasheed will be on his roof top putting in a set of panels donated by our friends at Sungevity. In Zimbabwe, students will trek out to a rural hospital to install a solar panel there. In thousands upon thousands of communities, we’ll be showing our so-called leaders what leadership really looks like.
As for now, the Carter panel will stay in D.C., a symbol of a road not taken, yesterday and today. The fantastic Unity College crew will head back up to Maine and start classes for the semester. And Bill McKibben will head home for a few days of rest, before hitting the road again to promote 10/10/10.
And all of us? Well, personally, I’m going to go grab another cup of coffee, and then get back to work. After all, there are still a lot of rooftops — in Washington and around the world — that could use some solar.
350.org founder Bill McKibben and a team of students are walking into the White House right now to tell them to put solar on it on 10/10/10. Check out Bill’s oped in the Washington Post that lays out the case — and celebrates the work we’re all preparing for this October.
A few of us have spent the past week carefully transporting a relic of American history down the East Coast, trying to return it to the White House, where it belongs.
It’s not a painting spirited from the Lincoln Bedroom or an antique sideboard stolen from the Roosevelt Room by some long-ago servant. No, this relic comes from the somewhat more prosaic Carter roof. It’s a solar panel, one of a large array installed on top of the White House in June 1979.
When he dedicated the panels, President Jimmy Carter made a prophecy that, like many oracles, came true in unexpected fashion — in fact, nothing better illustrates both why the world is heating and why the American economy is falling behind its competitors.
“In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy,” he said. “A generation from now this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.”
– By 2000, the panels were long gone from the White House, taken down during the Reagan administration. But they were indeed still producing hot water, on the cafeteria roof of Unity College in central Maine.
– Some have indeed become museum pieces — one is at the Carter Library and another was donated this year by Unity to Huang Ming, the entrepreneur whose Himin Solar has become the world’s preeminent supplier of solar hot water. It is in the gallery at his enormous Sun-Moon Mansion complex, a few hours south of Beijing.
– The technology has indeed become part of a great and exciting adventure. Just not for the American people. Instead, by Huang’s estimate, 250 million Chinese shower with hot water from rooftop panels. There are entire cities where essentially every building heats its water with the sun. Which explains why China leads the world in installed renewable capacity.
Meanwhile, in America, the solar industry essentially vanished after Reagan stopped supporting it with federal dollars. Less than 1 percent of Americans heat their water with the sun, a number not expected to rise very quickly now that the Senate has punted on even the modest climate legislation passed by the House.
To counter this situation, we’re carrying the panel back to the White House and asking President Obama to put it back on the roof, alongside a full array of new photovoltaic and hot-water panels. Obama has drawn much of the blame for the failure of the climate legislation, which he didn’t push aggressively; this is a chance to make at least symbolic amends. Thus far, however, we have not gotten a firm response from the administration, even though other world leaders have pledged to join a¬†Global Work Party on Oct. 10 (10-10-10). Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldive Islands, for instance, will be on the roof of his official residence bolting down panels donated by the American company Sungevity.
Clearly, a solar panel on the White House roof won’t solve climate change — and we’d rather have strong presidential leadership on energy transformation. But given the political scene, this may be as good as we’ll get for the moment.
The Bush administration, in fact, created an opening — it brought solar energy back to the White House, with some photovoltaic panels on a maintenance shed and a small water heating system for the “presidential spa and cabana.” But the Bush officials purposely did it without fanfare, and fanfare is exactly what we need. Those panels belong on the roof, where every visitor can see them.
A memo in the Carter Library, written by domestic policy adviser Stuart Eizenstat in May 1978, lays out the case with prescient power: “It would provide a symbol of commitment that is understandable to all Americans, and would enable you to recapture the initiative in the solar energy area. . . . The White House experience will show, to the great number of interested but skeptical Americans, that solar energy is clean, practical, and worth the long-term investment.” He’s still right — when Michelle Obama planted a garden on the White House lawn, it helped boost seed sales 30 percent in the next year.
We wasted three decades when, across America, we could have been using the sun’s power instead of coal to heat our water. We wasted our technological lead in the most important industry of the future and handed it to countries like China. As scientists tell us with increasing fervor, we’re laying waste to the planet’s climate. Now is the moment to go back to the future.
Bill McKibben, founder of the global warming campaign 350.org, is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College in Vermont and the author of “Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.”
We just got the news that Bill and the road trip team will be going to meet with White House staff tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM! They’ll be going over the Eisenhower Executive Office Building which is part of the White House complex (you can see it on a map here) to send a clear message to the Administration: it’s time to put solar on your roof and start leading the clean energy revolution.
The big question is: what will the White House say tomorrow? Will they take the chance to accept our panel and commit to put solar back on the roof? Will President Obama join President Nasheed of the Maldives in committing to hammer in some solar panels on 10/10/10 as part of the Global Work Party?
Either way, it’s clear that the real leadership will remain with us: the people. We’ve been pretty proud of our little band of solar road trippers this week who’ve made this journey down the East Coast. But it’s been just as heartening to see all of the emails, comments, and calls of support from across the country and around the world. Since we began the trip, dozens of new 10/10/10 work parties have been signed all across the globe.
Tomorrow’s meeting is possible only because of your support. Let’s keep up on the momentum. With your help we can put solar not just on it … but on everything.
Another successful day on our road trip to re-power the White House. We wrapped our drive from Boston down to New York with an event at the spectacularly cool solar education and arts facility, Solar One. Many thanks to our hosts and to everyone who turned out to sign the Carter solar panel.
The panel and our team will be in DC tomorrow. It’s been a nail biter how the trip will end: Bill and our pit crew at 350.org have been back and forth with the White House for the last two days negotiating about a meeting and a potential delivery. We’ll keep you all updated as we get more info.
For now, it’s a good night’s sleep. We’ll be up bright and early tomorrow morning to appear on Democracy Now! Even the panel is going to be on the show, after all, it’s the real star of this trip.
Time to take it home where it belongs: the White House.
Check out this update from Bill McKibben that just went to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Momentum is building by the hour to put solar back on the White House.
Well, I’m getting to work a few weeks ahead of 10-10-10, and wanted to send along the story to get you fired up for the big day.
I’m trying to type this as the biodiesel van I’m sitting in bumps down the highway in rural Maine. We left tiny Unity College yesterday morning, bound for the White House with stops in Boston and New York — and we’re carrying a piece of history with us.
It’s one of the solar panels that President Jimmy Carter installed on the roof of the White House in 1979, 31 long years ago. Here’s what Carter said that day: “A generation from now this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.”
Sadly, the panels were taken down a few years later in the Reagan administration. Not because they stopped working — but because we stopped thinking carefully about the future. The folks at Unity College salvaged them from a government warehouse and put them on the roof of the cafeteria, where they still work fine.
But now they’ve agreed to donate one back to the White House, in the hope that it will spur Obama to pick up where Carter left off.
Our great hope, of course, is that on 10-10-10 President Obama will be up there on the roof, helping to put the panels in place. Our friends at the solar company Sungevity have even offered to donate¬†a massive, brand new solar arrayfor free. (Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, has already taken them up on the offer — he’ll be up on his roof on 10-10-10 hammering in a new set of panels).
But so far, there’s no definitive answer from the White House. They say they’re “interested,” but that it’s “complicated.”
Here’s how you can tip the balance: in the next 24 hours, we’re going to get back on the phone with the White House and work to convince them to commit to taking action on 10-10-10. It would greatly strengthen our hand to say that hundreds of people have registered new work parties since we last called.
Can you help by registering an event in your community or forwarding this email to friends encouraging them to Get to Work on 10/10/10?
We had a great set of events in Boston for the Put Solar On It road trip and Bill McKibben and the team are now on their way down the East Coast to NYC. We’re looking forward to building on our momentum in the Big Apple: tonight there will be a fun event at Solar One, an solar-powered green arts and education space in Manhattan.
Bill’s going to be on Democracy Now! tomorrow morning with the panel, so make sure to tune in. More stories are coming out by the hour about the trip and we’re making headway with setting up some exciting events in DC when the team arrives tomorrow afternoon.
All in all, the trip is succeeding: with every mile our team travels and every signature we collect (both here on the website and on the panel), the more likely it’s becoming that we’ll get a good commitment out of the White House. Either way, the message is being heard loud and clear: it’s time to put solar on it!
Climb up on your house (safely) and hold up a sign that says "Put Solar on it!" (or hold the sign above your bicycle, desk, or even your cat.) Email your photos as attachments to [email protected] and we'll add them to the photo petition!
Spread the Solar…
Click here to put the solar road trip on the top of your Facebook profile, and here to put it on top of your Twitter feed.
Organize for a Solar & Clean Energy Revolution
Join us on 10/10/10, when thousands of communities will join together to show the world what solutions to the climate crisis look like -- and call on our leaders to unleash them. Learn more & sign-up here: www.350.org/1010
Featured Partner: Sungevity
Our partners at Sungevity have offered to donate a solar array to the White House--you can learn more about their work and check out an interactive tour of the proposed White House solar panels here. | <urn:uuid:f4073fbf-6296-4efa-a661-d22254ec7ee6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://putsolaron.it/road-trip/ | 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 | 0.943872 | 3,829 | 1.789063 | 2 |
CLEVELAND - Cleveland will join some two dozen cities in the country to have a velodrome when the steeply-banked cycling track opens in August.
The Cleveland Velodrome , in the city's Slavic Village neighborhood, attracted 400 cyclists for a preview Friday evening. The riders were part of the monthly Cleveland Critical Mass ride.
Viewers of this year's Olympic games in London will see velodrome-style competition.
"In Europe and in other parts of the world there are hundreds and hundreds of tracks," said Matt Litzler, vice president of Fast Track Cycling.
Off Broadway Avenue, the $300,000 track is phase one of what the builders hope will one day become an indoor venue that will be an economic catalyst for the area. Working toward that goal, they want to include the neighborhood as soon as the facility opens.
Children under 18 with a signed waiver from a parent will be permitted to ride for free.
"It's about bringing something else for children to do here in the city of Cleveland," he said.
A special bike is used on the track, one with no brakes and only one gear. A minimum speed of 17 mph keeps the cyclist on the banked tracked.
Multiple cyclists can ride at the same time. At the preview, Litzler said they had a seven-year-old and a 70-year- old ride the track.
He also added that being on a bike-only track keeps the cyclist clear of roads and road hazards. "It's a very safe way to ride, it's a very exciting way to ride."
Although in our city's modern era a velodrome is virtually an unknown structure, Cleveland’s Public Auditorium hosted many velodrome bike races during the 1920s and 1930s.
Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Bike boxes, an ad campaign, off to work and a chance to win are among items in Cleveland cycling news as Summer begins.
Twenty-five local World War II veterans boarded a Cleveland Hopkins flight to our nation's capitol early Wednesday morning. | <urn:uuid:901d739e-e1ec-42da-9ca8-bea1fca9ca73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/cleveland_metro/banking-on-clevelands-velodrome | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955245 | 449 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Friendly to the earth and warm to the touch, cork floors are a sensible solution for both their sustainability and comfort. Their popularity is growing at an exponential rate as people learn of their amazing benefits and designer styling. We have an excellent selection of these floors in a wide variety of colors, patterns and styles at the lowest prices you’ll find. Our volume buying power, factory direct relationships and low overhead allow us to offer the biggest discounts on cork flooring. And because iFLOOR has the largest warehouse inventory of these floors, shipping is always fast.
Learn about iFLOOR Cork
If you’re considering installing a cork floor anywhere in your home, you’re on the right track. This intriguing alternative is becoming more popular with each passing day.
Cork flooring is essentially made from mostly materials leftover from the manufacturing of other cork products like bulletin boards and wine corks. The original source material is harvested from the bark of a cork tree, leaving the tree itself intact and available for future harvests. Even the HDF core that serves as the foundation for the cork wear layer is also largely made from recycled materials, giving you a truly green floor.
Beyond its benefits as a sustainable and renewable resource, cork has an impressive list of benefits as flooring. Its naturally porous construction traps air creating a barrier of valuable insulation that actually prevents heating and cooling loss. It’s also why cork flooring is warmer to the touch than other hard surface floors.
A common complaint among consumers (especially those with high or vaulted ceilings) is the sound of the floor. The nature of cork deadens sound, producing an acoustical barrier and a quieter step. Homes prone to echoing or that allow sound to travel easily from room to room will benefit from having a cork floor installed.
Cork is also naturally hypoallergenic and resistant to mold and mildew. For families with sensitivity to allergies, cork is an excellent choice. It doesn’t harbor the dust and allergens like carpet would, and is considerably easier to maintain. It might not be as durable as hardwood, bamboo, or laminate flooring, but cork flooring can be very durable. Like hardwood and bamboo, the cork surface is coated with multiple coats of polyurethane with aluminum oxide. This helps protect the floor from scratches caused by children, pets, and all the things that give our floors a difficult time. Few things in our homes take the beating our floors do, but the right cork flooring is up to the challenge.
iFLOOR has an amazing selection of these floors in a wide spectrum of styles and colors. Each has been tested by us and has to meet our exacting standards before we offer it to you. Quality is always an important factor, but equally important to us is the reputation of the company manufacturing it. We need to know their commitment to the environment matches ours and their own standards are as high. To us, nothing takes priority over the safety of our planet and nothing ever will.
When you purchase a cork floor from iFLOOR, you’re getting something more than flooring. You’re getting peace of mind. | <urn:uuid:aaa90c99-6dbf-437a-a31e-ca14f2c606d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ifloor.com/cork/filter/cork_collection/1637,belgiumblocked,earthessentials,modestycollection | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954877 | 671 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Embrace the season of giving
Christmas is a time of giving, and there are few places in the world where it is easier to give than in North America. Despite a host of challenges, some big and some infinitesimally small, most people here are blessed with enough to eat, a place to live, and access to services that do not exist in many other parts of the world.
Surrey, Delta and White Rock are no exception, although there are definitely needy people among us.
At this time of year (and indeed all year), it is very worthwhile to give to those in need and to organizations which do their best to ensure that everyone is taken care of. To name just a few of those organizations, there are the Surrey Food Bank, Surrey Christmas Bureau, Deltassist, Peace Arch Community Services, and The Salvation Army. There are many, many others.
We have it pretty good in this corner of the world as Christmas 2012 approaches. But it wasn’t all that long ago when many Surrey residents were not very well off.
The time I refer to was the 1930s, what many people who grew up in that era call the “Hungry ’30s.” My father grew up then in South Surrey, and he and his contemporaries still remember it very well.
One Surrey resident who also remembers is retired fire chief Al Cleaver. He spent the early years of his life in East Vancouver before his family came out to Newton, to a five-acre property at 72 Avenue and 124 Street. They moved here about 1937.
He recalled a wonderful Christmas story of the 1930s for me last week that I would like to share with readers.
His family didn’t have much money. However, they did dearly want to have a turkey to cook for Christmas dinner. But coming up with the cash was almost impossible. So every member of the family poked throughout the house to find any spare pennies, nickels and dimes. They did find a few of them – but not too many. Al was then sent down to Piggly Wiggly, a well-known grocery firm, which eventually became Safeway, to see if he could get a turkey.
He put his collection of coins on the counter and asked if it was enough to buy a turkey for Christmas dinner. The butcher looked at him, long and hard, and then went into a cooler.
He emerged with a scrawny little turkey – but it was still the real thing. Al proudly took it home. He told me, “Never did any turkey I’ve eaten taste as good as that one.”
After his family moved to Surrey, they were able to grow a good portion of their food. There was always lots of fruit, and most people raised their own animals for meat, eggs and milk. Most people grew big gardens and it was easy to catch fish in the rivers.
Cash continued to be a problem for many Surrey families throughout the 1930s. Work was scarce, and many were on relief, assistance for families with no income. Many single men lived in relief camps, including one in South Surrey, and were paid a small sum for manual labour. That’s how the King George Highway project was started.
There was no Employment Insurance, no pensions, and no health insurance. Surrey’s lone doctor, F.D. Sinclair, treated many patients without any hope of payment.
But people were very grateful for small things – like scrawny turkeys. It’s a good thing to think about during the season of giving. | <urn:uuid:e3ac6e14-6afd-4a0e-aa98-17aa662a0c43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.surreyleader.com/opinion/184183041.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990986 | 745 | 1.65625 | 2 |
MUNICH -- Do you like horse racing? We observers of the technology sector love it, only our horses are Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Whos in the lead? Whos getting more market share? Who has the best features? And in this winner and loser journalism of ours, innovations like the ones Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg introduced at his annual F8 keynote get quickly relegated to one or the other category.
Some see Facebooks new functions as giving it an even wider lead against Google Plus. Others see the Zuckerberg portal as past its peak already and on the way down. Some predict that within a few years, Google Plus could actually push past the social network juggernaut.
But concentrating the conversation on the competition between these two giants misses the salient point: this latest Facebook overhaul has given us a clearer view than ever before of Mr. Zuckerbergs vision of the future.
With its "Like" button, Facebook is part of the network behind the Internet -- but the portals new orientation would mean that Facebook users no longer need the rest of the Net.
You want to listen to music, watch a movie? That will be possible on the new Facebook. Whats more, you can share the activity with your friends. The news? Users will be able to catch up on that too, without leaving Facebook.
Add to that a Timeline individual, chronologically meticulous digital biographies -- and the transformation of things we do in real life into Facebook apps. By way of example, Zuckerberg gave a Nike application that records your jogging route via smart phone GPS and recreates it in map form.
Lets leave privacy issues out of it, and assume the best case scenario, which is that every single Facebook user understands what registering that kind of information on Facebook servers means (while hoping, of course, that the data-managing giant will soon be forced to become more transparent with regard to the ways it uses the information). Lets also leave moral issues out of it. The fact of the matter is that Facebook and Google are quite simply out to market information that will make the value of their companies go up.
The world as Facebook interface
Lets look at the consequences that a Facebook or Google world would have for the Internet. One web developer I know put it like this: "I sure wouldnt want to be in the position of only having Google or Facebook APIs to program." (APIs are the programming interfaces via which developers can create software for Internet services.)
The more powerful the great monocultures get, the greater their pull. That is more than clear on the social web: there is hardly a company, artist, or user who isnt on Facebook, and there are very few platforms that dont use the Facebook Like button.
You could just chalk up to chutzpah Zuckerbergs plans to create a Facebook universe that nobody ever has to leave, because everythings already in it, including what happens in real life.
But the truth of the matter is that the move is meant to increase the market power of his company. What hes saying is: If all users were only to use Facebook, then all and any sectors that make money from the Internet have to be a part of it too. And not only with fan pages and Like buttons, but with Facebook clones of their own websites -- with Facebook dictating the terms.
Common sense, meanwhile, dictates that such overweening plans are doomed to failure. Do I really need a complete online chronicle of my life on Facebook servers? Do I really want my jogging routes to be recorded and made available to others? Is absolutely everything that we do "social," as Mark Zuckerberg seems to imagine? All we really wanted to do was stay in touch with friends, have some fun exchanges and maybe upload a few pix.
Facebook is after two things. One, it wants a complete picture of our digital user behavior. Two, the company is counting on us recording our daily activities on various Facebook apps so they are available via the platform. Theyre betting on a fundamental change of user behavior just as Google once bet on search as the anchor of web navigation.
If Facebook is right, it will become difficult for people to opt out of Facebook or leave their digital Facebook identity behind. An open, decentralized web would lose much of its importance, and users would have fewer options. The same thing holds true if Google Plus wins: Lets face it, our searches, and often contacts, e-mails, agenda, and documents, are already stocked in the search giants servers.
Still, the beautiful truth is that We, the users of the Internet, have the choice. On the one hand theres the convenient route that of the identity monopolists that could do permanent harm to our digital eco-system. The other route isnt as comfortable: thats the one that involves parceling our data out to various services or even managing it ourselves from our own server at home.
If we hope the Internet will stay as open and varied as it has been until now, we should opt for the less convenient route.
Read the original article in German
Photo - paz.ca | <urn:uuid:321135af-efc7-43ac-af17-d452aa8f49ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldcrunch.com/tech-science/why-facebook-must-die-for-internet-freedom-to-flourish/c4s3825/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952651 | 1,047 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Apple will unveil its next-generation iPhone at an event on Tuesday, October 4, according to a report on AllThingsD, a Wall Street Journal blog network.
Police here have opened an investigation into the search of a man's home by Apple employees, an official said Wednesday.
CNN's Dan Simon reports on Apple's efforts to track down a suspected prototype for the iPhone 5.
Police officials said they helped Apple investigators, who searched a man's home here recently.
Here's a theory: Maybe there's some sort of connection between drinking and losing things?
A hacking group said it has retaliated for the arrests of its members by attacking the websites of more than 70 U.S. law enforcement institutions and releasing 10 gigabytes of information.
A report claiming Internet Explorer users scored lower on IQ tests than users of other Web browsers turns out to have been an elaborate hoax.
Electronics are a bargain hunter's heaven (even after the Japanese earthquakes, tech firms absorbed higher costs without raising prices). You can always count on manufacturers to improve their products every nine to 12 months -- and prices to decline as each model nears the end of its life cycle. To make room for all this new stuff, retailers rid their shelves of older gadgets before they become obsolete.
Ah, the what-do-I-do-about-this frustration of science.
One of our Twitter followers put it best:
CNN's John Sutter and Lisa Respers France duke it out over whether to shop online or hit the mall this holiday season.
More cell phones have more features and capabilities than ever -- but often the tradeoff is shorter battery life. This is especially true of smartphones. I know many, many users of all kinds of smartphones, and it's rare that they get a full day of use out of a full charge.
Dell Inspiron Duo, the hybrid tablet that flips open to become a netbook, is due for a launch next week, CNET has learned from sources familiar with the matter.
Google TV has the network television industry's attention.
Google has no plans to resume using its Street View cars to collect information about the location of Wi-Fi networks, a practice that led to a flurry of privacy probes after the company said it unintentionally captured fragments of unencrypted data.
Many of Facebook's most popular apps are sharing personally identifiable information of their users with dozens of advertising and Internet-tracking companies, in violation of the social-networking giant's own rules, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Last week I offered some eco-friendly cell phone tips for people looking to save energy when they communicate.
Facebook denied a story published this weekend that says the company is "building a mobile phone," but CNET has confirmed that the social-networking giant has reached out to hardware manufacturers and carriers seeking input on a potential Facebook-branded phone.
The long-rumored geolocation "check-in" feature at Facebook is slated to debut within weeks, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNET.
Cryptography expert Bruce Schneier used to write his passwords down on a slip of paper and keep it in his wallet. Today, he uses a free Windows password-storage tool called Password Safe that he designed five years ago and released into the open-source community.
A new feature within Twitter's Facebook app that lets users find who among their friends has a Twitter account has been put on ice by Facebook.
Whether they're waiting in line Thursday for a new iPhone 4 or grabbing other recent smartphone offerings such as the Droid Incredible or Microsoft's Kin, plenty of folks will be saying goodbye to their old phones in coming days.
One of the clear winners to emerge from Steve Jobs' formal unveiling of the iPhone 4 on Monday was the game development community. With major new features like a gyroscope, a better screen, a better antenna and a better camera, developers have a slew of new tools to use in making their games.
Something that has begun to drive me batty in the past few years are the buttons on modern day gadgets.
Apple pressed local police to investigate the loss of a next-generation iPhone a day after Gizmodo published photographs, telling investigators that the prototype was so valuable, a price could not be placed on it, according to court documents made public Friday.
Earning badges and climbing a ladder of "levels" used to be the respective domains of Boy Scouts and devoted video gamers. No more: It's officially the hottest craze in social-media marketing to make your customers think they're playing a game.
San Mateo County prosecutors are defending the search of a Gizmodo.com editor's home and seizure of his computers that are part of a criminal investigation into an iPhone prototype lost by an Apple employee.
A 10-minute YouTube video called "The Yippity Yo Cooking Show" falls somewhere to the left of "Saturday Night Live" at its most surreal: The host, "Zaylee Jean," alternates between extreme seriousness and manic outbursts, with diction so slurred that it's subtitled (in the cartoonish Comic Sans font).
A Hollywood production company films little kids reenacting "Scarface" as if they were performing in a school play.
When it comes to 3D television, I don't see it. Literally. The technology that's supposed to convince me that a 3D image exists when I look at a 2D screen doesn't work for me.
Software giant Microsoft apologized Wednesday for the apparent bad judgment that led to the head of a black model being swapped for that of a white model in an online advertisement.
At a hacker conference no one is safe.
Large Internet companies spend millions on consultants and technology trying to get their sites to rank among the highest results on Google. Everyone else has to rely on the poor man's search-engine optimization: the link exchange.
Shia LaBeouf and Michael Cera are both being sought to play CEO Mark Zuckerberg
When it comes to downloading software from the Internet, I'm always getting conflicting advice from my geeky friends. Knowing my technological ignorance, some tell me that I should never download anything from the Web (recommending only boxed software from the store). Others say some software's okay to download -- but I should be aware of the dangers. How am I supposed to know where to begin identifying the difference? I'm lost!
A 15-year-old has created a free-music service by harnessing YouTube's vast library of music videos.
If your business has an online presence, picking a Web host is one of the most critical decisions you'll make. The host manages the servers on which your site will run and literally has control of your company's connection to its customers.
As 130,000 techies converge on Las Vegas this week for the 42nd annual International Consumer Electronics Show, they're encountering an industry that's anxious about marketing high-tech gadgets in a tightwad economy.
Editors' note: This review is part of CNET's Holiday 2008 Retail Laptop Roundup, covering specific new configurations of popular laptops that can be found in retail stores.
At CNET when we review one size DTV in the same series we often don't review another, but we're making an exception in the case of the LG 60PG60.
Its shape and feature set will be familiar to anyone who's seen other Pavilion dv6000 series laptops, but the Special Edition HP Pavilion dv6985se stands out for two reasons.
Sonos has been around since 2005, when the small company introduced its first multiroom digital music system to glowing reviews (including a CNET.com Editors' Choice Award).
Halsey Minor is amped up. Maybe it's the Red Bull on the rocks he's been downing for two hours in the living room of his Virginia farmhouse this summer night. Regardless, after playing cat and mouse with this reporter for weeks, the co-founder of CNET, who netted $200 million selling his stake in the Internet's first journalism venture of consequence, is running through a rapid-fire update on his life.
Question: How can I attract more customers to my retail boutique without spending a lot of money? - Tony Gim, Naples, Fla.
Most budget-friendly midsize laptops feature 15.4-inch screens that, while good for watching movies, can be a burden to schlep around campus.
The Canon PowerShot SD750 is one of the most popular cameras on CNET, so how do you top it? Well, with a couple of the standard enhancements, for one.
With its bold $1.8 billion purchase of CNET, CBS is making a play for ad dollars that are shifting to the Internet. But the company may be paying too much for a network of Web sites that won't address the conglomerate's main problem: an over-reliance on advertising dollars as a source of revenue.
Stock futures were higher Thursday as better-than-expected results from retailer J.C. Penney and video rental chain Blockbuster offset a weak reading on the U.S. job market.
It's no exaggeration to say that a large chunk of my early winter was wasted trying to buy a wide-screen TV. After finishing my basement with the explicit goal of turning an empty concrete space into a Wii-playing, movie-watching, comfy-couch-laden rec room, I knew that the TV had to be really big and really flat, with good but not top-of-the-line picture and features. Easy enough.
Sometimes less is more, and that seems to be the approach Pharos is taking with its Pharos Drive GPS 250. The entry-level in-car GPS offers simplicity and ease of use with a minimalist design and interface, and all the basic navigation features are there, with the bonus of text-to-speech functionality.
At CNET, we take HDTV power consumption seriously, which helps explain our excitement when Philips announced its Eco TV. The 42-inch, 1080p resolution, flat-panel LCD, model 42PFL5603D (due in March, $1,399 MSRP), is packed with power-saving features.
In its first appearance, CounterSpy was the only antispyware product that correctly identified every piece of spyware in our current active-detection test. It did very well in active scanning, on-demand detection, and complete spyware removal. We also like its overall look and feel.
Investors appeared ready Tuesday to shrug off the recent wave of credit worries and oil once again near record highs, as stocks were poised to open higher.
The $90 Targus Corporate Traveler means serious business. The ballistic-nylon, briefcase-style case looks ready to survive the bumps and knocks of even the most aggressive travel schedule, which isn't to say that the bag is all utility with no style.
The Linksys WRT350N with Storage Link router is the next step up from the company's WRT300N router. Based on Draft 2.0 of the 802.11n spec, it's a standard four-port Gigabit Ethernet router that also serves up a USB port for sharing the contents of a USB hard drive or flash drive across the network.
Several reporters and their family members have sued Hewlett-Packard Co. and some of its officers, their lawyer said in a statement, alleging the technology giant violated their privacy in a hunt for the source of boardroom leaks.
The latest search at Google had nothing to do with the Internet or lucrative ads. It had to do with a three-foot python that was loose in its New York offices.
PCTools Spyware Doctor is one of the last independent antispyware apps on the market, and, until this recent release, was one of the better choices.
If laptop heat is a major problem for you, it may be time to move beyond simple passive laptop desks into the realm of powered devices.
U.S. stocks were set to open slightly higher Tuesday, just before the start of a two-day meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers in Washington.
Two more CEOs hit by the scandal over stock options stepped down Wednesday, highlighting the risk to companies - and investors - stung by the backdating bullet.
Stocks pared early losses but remained in the red near midday Wednesday after disappointing profit numbers unnerved investors at the start of the third-quarter earnings season.
Investors have grown wary of the Internet colossuses.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Round and round the Internet merger wheel goes. Where it stops, nobody knows.
Google Inc. has blacklisted all CNET reporters for a year, after the popular technology news website published personal information of one of Google's founders in a story about growing privacy concerns for the Internet search engine, according to a CNET statement.
The audio and video search engine unit of America Online has signed deals with a number of content providers, including CNN, according to a published report.
Microsoft is developing a new version of Windows for companies that want to better secure their older machines, allowing them to upgrade without buying new ones, according to an industry source.
Investors could get a lift Friday from a reported agreement between Time Warner and Comcast to buy Adelphia Communications as well as a continued decline in oil prices.
Most entrepreneurs can't bear to part with their companies. But the folks behind Webshots can't seem to stop selling theirs. Andrew Laakmann, 35, Nicholas Wilder, 32, and Narendra Rocherolle, 36, c...
In late 2000, CNET Networks CEO Shelby Bonnie was running a business few would have envied: an online media empire that relied on the dying banner ad for nearly all of its revenue. It would be easy...
It's amazing what buying a home does to you. There's the status change from renter to homeowner. I admit, I find it somewhat laughable, since the bank owns most of it, but let's not fight over a few pennies.
In the go-go '90s venture capitalists were compared, favorably, to the junk-bond merchants of the '80s. Now, saddled with startups worth no more than a bottle of Advil, and with fewer opportunities...
Dice.com No, this isn't the home page for the shock comic Andrew "Dice" Clay or a place to shoot craps. Dice is merely a place to post your tech-related job openings--it, in turn, advertises them o...
I hate traveling with a laptop. Even the lightest models are bulky and heavy, especially when you add batteries, power cords and an external Zip drive (which I like to bring along to back up my fil...
Services alone do not make a small business portal. These sites have always tried to keep you abreast of news that might affect your business and offer advice on how to run it. With so many sites s...
Call it a December storm. The FORTUNE e-50 lost another 12.2% in the three weeks ended Jan. 3, even with Greenspan's surprise rate cut on the last day of the cycle. WebMD stopped its 11-month slide...
Calling the past few months a sobering experience for investors in technology stocks is a massive understatement. A head-splitting hangover is more apt. Anyone with stock in companies such as Price...
FORTUNE writers and editors talked to some leading technology-industry players about the recent downturn in the market: Does this signal a long-term decline? we asked. Will the industry rebound? Ar...
Take a deep breath. Things don't seem to be getting any worse on Wall Street, at least not right now. Better-than-expected third-quarter earnings brought the carnage to a stop, and the FORTUNE e-50...
Some people have house envy. Some, fast-car envy. Me? I have tech envy. Teeny-tiny cell phones. Indigo iMacs. That new digital Elph. But I've learned that price is only the first hurdle to cross. F...
Remember when fashionistas deemed Manolo Blahniks the must-have, cool item for stylish women? Those sleek five-inch spiked heels sure made your legs look goooood, didn't they? But just try teeterin...
Dwayne Walker is CEO of ShopNow.com. He started his career as a techie writing software at Hughes Aircraft and then spent seven years at Microsoft. He has run the online marketplace since 1996.
Advertising is an industry that thrives on superlatives, but to put it bluntly, Madison Avenue has never seen a boom as explosive, spectacular, and sudden as the Great Dot-Com Ad Boom of 1999! Ads ...
I was interviewing Halsey Minor, but he was asking me a question: "What do you think CNET needs?" CNET is the Internet company Minor founded in 1992 and still runs as CEO. Answering his question wa...
Kim Miller is vice president for Internet strategies for macys.com, the online shop of the well-known department store. Established in 1996, macys.com offers more than 250,000 products on its site....
Most of the time I spent visiting with Halsey Minor was perfectly amicable. As the young CEO of CNET showed me around the bright-yellow work spaces of his San Francisco Internet company, we chatted...
By most standards SportsLine USA is a new-media success story. It's the second most popular sports site on the Internet, behind ESPN. It benefits from a valuable alliance with CBS Sports. Its ad re...
Ever since Tandy introduced the first laptop in 1983--the TRS-80 model 100, with no hard drive and only a 24K sliver of RAM, barely enough for a large text file or small photo today--the portable P...
Given that tech stocks were hammered in August 31's stock selloff, you might expect people in Silicon Valley to be a little bummed out. But that, as I discovered when I went hunting for sob stories...
If you weren't spending most of the past year reading computer trade rags, you may have missed the point at which Silicon Valley redefined your everyday Web "search engine" as a "portal." Sounds me...
When December quarterly earnings from companies like Yahoo, Excite, and CNET are released in the next few weeks, don't be surprised if it looks as if the Internet's prayers for stronger advertising...
For starters, let's grant that the commercial promise of the Internet remains great. Neil Weintraut, a former Hambrecht & Quist analyst now turned venture capitalist, may well be right when he says...
SAN FRANCISCO Founded 1992 Revenues: $5.2 million employees: 151 Private www.cnet.com
In the first three years of putting together this act, we identified Avid Technologies, Cisco Systems, and Netscape as cool companies. We also gave the nod to Thinking Machines, a maker of supercom...
Loading weather data ... | <urn:uuid:57ae2153-8e50-4133-81f1-379c9e2bfbbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/cnet_networks_inc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958188 | 3,957 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Published in Physician Law Weekly, May 3rd, 2006
Since the introduction of colbolt chorome as a revolutionary new material for coronary stents, it has demonstrated excellent characteristics including higher mechanical strength and radiopacity than stainless steel. Other advantages include a new stent design engineered to provide more flexibility, and a new delivery system PTS (progressive transition system), which is designed to...
Want to see the full article?
Welcome to NewsRx!
Learn more about a six-week, no-risk free trial of Physician Law Weekly | <urn:uuid:311702ae-9f95-4c09-95bd-3f053ee4879e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsrx.com/newsletters/Physician-Law-Weekly/2006-05-03/0502200633369PLW.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946737 | 114 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Richard Graves and son Evan slide down one of the carpet slides at the Burke Nursery Pumpkin Playground last year.
Photo by Victoria Ross.
When Fred Dickinson, general manager of the Burke Nursery and Garden Center, started the pumpkin festival with his wife Cassandra 17 years ago, he said he had no idea it would grow to be such a large event.
In fact, the nursery didn’t start to sell carving pumpkins until the last two weeks of October.
“People didn’t buy all the Halloween pumpkins they do now. When we started this, we had our pumpkins and our pumpkin forts,” Dickinson said. “We were giving hay rides in the field, just playing around, and our customers were very responsive to that, so we decided to turn it into a real old-fashioned fall festival. Kids have a ball.”
The event, spread out over four acres, now features more than 1,500 pumpkins, several pumpkin forts, hayrides, a 90-foot burlap sack slide, two smaller slides, pumpkins crawls, a merry-go-round, farm animals, face-painting and a giant sand pile, where children can dig for coins and other treasures.
There is also a food tent with hamburgers, hot dogs, apple cider, popcorn and other goodies.
A popular feature is the festival’s produce tent, where visitors can purchase homemade jams, jellies and pick out fall harvest fruits and vegetables.
Pumpkin Playground Details
Burke Nursery and Garden Centre hosts its 18th annual Fall Festival and Pumpkin Playground from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31 at 9401 Burke Road.
*Festival Hours: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.
*Cost of admission on weekdays is $9 per person; weekend price is $12 per person. (Columbus Day will have the same activities as weekends, and the admission price will be $12.) Children under the age of two are admitted free. Each paid admission receives a small patch pumpkin and unlimited hay rides (wheel chair accessible). For more information, go to www.pumpkinplayground.com or call 703- 323-1188. | <urn:uuid:6d4f2842-cec1-48bd-b198-290e1f1b311a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2012/sep/28/burkes-pumpkin-playground/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951762 | 499 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Internet and telephone service on campus has been restored.
Lynn's Preparatory School of Music, Flight Academy are growing
Published Oct. 12, 2009
Lynn University typically targets undergraduate, college-age students, but recently has been focusing on the local community with programs targeted to younger and older demographics through Lynn University’s Preparatory School of Music and a Flight Academy housed in the Burton D. Morgan School of Aeronautics.
The Preparatory School of Music, a program within Lynn’s Conservatory of Music, hosts weekly private lessons on orchestral instruments as well as piano, classical guitar, popular/jazz guitar and voice to students of all ages and levels, some of whom have received international recognition with appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show and the Ellen DeGeneres Show. The Flight Academy, a new initiative by Lynn’s School of Aeronautics, is bringing in members of the local community for $59 discovery flights and private pilot, instrument rating and commercial multi-rating licenses.
“The Flight Academy is primarily targeting the adult community,” said Jeff Johnson, dean of Lynn’s School of Aeronautics. With 25 students currently enrolled, Lynn has seen a boom in the number of adult students enrolling in flight training courses since the program was launched this summer. “Flying can be a great hobby for those who are close to retirement or already retired,” said Johnson. However, the older community is not the program’s only target market. Students in high school can earn college credit while working toward their flying license and ratings.
Since Lynn’s Preparatory School of Music was developed in 1999, the program has grown to over 150 students each year. Just four years ago, in 2005, the program enrolled only 20-24 students. It’s no wonder why Lynn’s Preparatory School of Music continues to grow. According to Luisa Fuentes, director of the Preparatory School, it’s the prestigious faculty at Lynn’s Conservatory of Music – many of whom teach preparatory students – that distinguishes Lynn. And Lynn’s faculty is what brings students from Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties. “We have become a tri-county Preparatory School of Music,” said Fuentes, “but the Boca Raton community is still our main beneficiary.”
Additionally, students in Lynn’s Preparatory School of Music are invited to attend Conservatory concerts, both orchestral and instrumental, performed by distinguished guest artists, Lynn’s prestigious faculty and talented students in Lynn’s Conservatory of Music. “All music students need to be exposed to excellence in performance,” said Fuentes, “and the Preparatory School gives students that opportunity.”
Lynn’s Preparatory School of Music has more than one success story to boast about including: Michael Province, a 13-year-old violin student of Carol Cole, who appeared on Oprah’s “World's Smartest and Most Talented Kids” show and on BBC’s “The World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies.” Another star pupil is Brianna Kahane, a 7-year-old violin student of Carol Cole who appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Preparatory School alumnus and current student in Lynn’s Conservatory of Music, Michael Anderson, a 19-year-old pianist and composition student who studies under Roberta Rust and composer, Thomas McKinley, has already recorded several piano composition CDs. | <urn:uuid:64990ba1-b051-4018-86e0-3a479812d0de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lynn.edu/about-lynn/news-and-events/news/lynns-preparatory-school-of-music-flight-academy-are-growing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960149 | 751 | 1.554688 | 2 |
SANTIAGO, Chile — SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - A Chilean congressional commission on Wednesday found two mine owners responsible for the accident that trapped 33 men a half-mile underground for 69 days last year.
The commission's report, which is expected to be approved by the lower house on Thursday, said members unanimously found Alejandro Bohn and Marcelo Kemeny responsible for the collapse that trapped the men deep inside the San Jose mine, whose veins of copper and gold had been pursued for more than 100 years in poorly reinforced tunnels under the Atacama desert in northern Chile.
Deputy Alejandro Garcia Huidobro said the commission also determined that Chile's mine safety agency was administratively responsible for failing to fully enforce its safety rules.
The report is expected to help lawyers for the miners pursue lawsuits against the owners.
Bohn and Kemeny denied being negligent or otherwise responsible for the collapse, in which a 700,000-ton granite monolith, the very center of the remote hilltop, crashed down, shutting off any hope of escape without a Herculean rescue effort.
Both executives also face charges in an earlier accident in which a falling slab of rock sliced off a miner's leg.
The remarkable rescue effort, involving more than 300 people who supported the drilling and kept the miners safe and well-fed below, was paid for by the Chilean government, which has estimated that the company must repay $20 million. The mining company is under bankruptcy protection and its assets have been sold off to help resolve debts and pay severance to the miners. | <urn:uuid:dd52808b-154c-4538-b4f1-85b0838f29c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/mar/02/chiles-congress-blame-mine-owners-for-accident/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963198 | 324 | 1.78125 | 2 |
UT Southwestern Medical Center has signed a letter of intent to operate a 100,000-square-foot proton therapy center to treat cancer near its Medical District campus in Dallas.
The $225 million center is being built and funded by San Diego-based Advanced Particle Therapy (APT). The company hopes to break ground on a 4.5-acre site in early 2013. The three-story building, which will have five treatment rooms, will take about three years to build and equip.
The company has built centers and has similar agreements in San Diego with Scripps Health and Scripps Medical Group; in Baltimore with the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and in Atlanta with Emory University Healthcare. The facility will have four treatment vaults and laboratory space for researchers.
“This is an exciting development in our ability to offer patients in the region access to the best possible treatment options and provide a leadership role in how best to study and apply this technology,” said Bruce Meyer, M.D., executive vice president for health system affairs.
UT Southwestern’s participation in the project is subject to the approval of the UT System Board of Regents.
The proton center would be the second in Texas. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s facility in Houston is one of nine U.S. centers. There is also a facility in Oklahoma City. Eight more are under development, according to the National Association for Proton Therapy. The centers are funded by investors, and the universities do not share the profits.
Jeff Bordok, APT president and chief executive officer, said his company had been talking with UT Southwestern about the center for about six years, before inking what he termed “a long-term management contract.”
Bordok said APT conducted extensive market research and determined there was a “substantial need” for a center in Dallas. He cited the city’s central U.S. location, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, an ample supply of hotels near the center’s site, and UT Southwestern’s reputation. Its Simmons Cancer Center offers 13 cancer-care programs, and is the only North Texas medical center with a National Cancer Institute designation for innovative research and patient care.
The device, which has a weight equivalent to a loaded 737 jet, delivers radiation in a manner that proponents say has fewer side effects and less collateral damage to healthy tissue than radiation or surgery in certain patients.
The therapy is considered ideal for tumors in vulnerable parts of the body, such as eyes, the brain, the neck and spine. Children are especially vulnerable to radiation’s side effects.
Hak Choy, M.D., chairman of the medical school’s radiation oncology department, said in a statement, “The precision of the proton beam allows for unprecedented focus and intensity in especially hard-to-reach places that tend to characterize head and neck cancers—and in pediatric cancers, where access can be anatomically tighter.”
However, the therapy has been expanded to more common cancers, such as prostate and breast cancer. The treatment has been controversial because of its expense. According to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, proton beam therapy for the average 60-year-old man would cost $63,511, compared with $36,808 for traditional radiation treatment. No study has yet shown proton beam therapy to be superior to radiation for treating prostate cancer.
Bordok said the dearth of proton beam centers and the fact that patients want proton therapy—rather than participation in randomized-controlled trials—contribute to the lack of research. He said APT’s current centers are collaborating on developing treatment protocols and conducting research on the therapy.
An Archives of Internal Medicine study this spring found that prostate cancer patients are more likely to receive proton beam therapy if they lived near a facility. Most Medicare regional contractors and major insurance carriers currently pay for proton beam therapy treatment.
Steve Jacob is editor of D Healthcare Daily and author of the new book Health Care in 2020: Where Uncertain Reform, Bad Habits, Too Few Doctors and Skyrocketing Costs Are Taking Us. He can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:efc5949e-ffdb-495d-ae64-f2790b995565> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://healthcare.dmagazine.com/2012/07/27/ut-southwestern-gearing-up-to-operate-225-million-proton-beam-therapy-center/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950415 | 888 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Young Adult Historical
When the opportunity arises for Annie to see Christa's shuttle launch, she takes a road trip with her estranged father and his younger buddy (and potential new love interest -he's just over 20) to Cape Canaveral, FL to see the Challenger take off. What's most unsettling about this book is knowing the history going into it. Annie's adoration of Christa is believable, and it caused me to think of the all the students affected by Christa's death when the shuttle exploded - schools across the nation watched in horror as it happened. At times Annie's story felt a little incongruent with the severity of the event, and I wished it was told from the perspective of one of Christa's students (still fictional) for a more personal connection. The story is really Annie's self-discovery with the Challenger mission serving as a framework historical setting.
I found Taking Off from a rather complex library search on historical fiction from mid-century on related to Texas (specific huh? I'm writing a similar work and wanted to see what's out there). The book has a mix of strengths and weaknesses; Annie is 17 but she felt younger to me. Certainly girls can be shy and lacking self-awareness as an older teen, but it almost felt like she should've been 14 with a lot of years left to grow. Some of the dialogue didn't ring true, like the historical setting was pushed into the narrative a bit too much at times. This is worth checking out if the subject interests you. | <urn:uuid:cab6effd-1068-456a-8973-12133e23549a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://agirlandherdiary.blogspot.com/2012_03_11_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976648 | 311 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The office of Disabilities Services provides services to students with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, and psychological disabilities.
Our office serves as a campus advocate for students with disabilities and ensures that all students have an equal opportunity to access academic programs and other aspects of university life.
Our office is located at 520 E 14th Street and can be contacted at 610-499-1266. Feel free to give us a call! We always welcome information and questions from students, faculty, and staff about the accessibility of Widener's academic programs and facilities.
Any student has the right to request reasonable accommodation of a disability. If you believe that an accommodation is necessary to allow you equal access to a course or academic offering at Widener, you will need to request it through Disabilities Services, which authorizes all accommodations for students on campus.
Examples of typically requested accommodations include:
- time extensions for exams
- specialized testing situations
- note takers
The nature of accommodations varies according to the needs of individual students.
Disabilities Services also offers academic coaching support to undergrads enrolled in one of Widener's standard academic programs. We know that the college transition is not always easy and students may face new challenges and experiences. Therefore, we offer academic coaching to help students with disabilities make the transition to college academics and university life.
Interested students can meet once or twice a week with a learning specialist and can use their coaching sessions to focus on time management, study skills, social and emotional adjustment, and/or academic planning.
Need additional academic support? We also help students connect with the other academic support services, such as tutoring services, that are available to all Widener students. | <urn:uuid:1bbded7a-2f1c-4dba-9055-2a8d72869eb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.widener.edu/responsive/academics/support/disabilities/default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956716 | 342 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Hey guys. My fishie has a tiny bit of fin rot (I don't have a camera) and I'm not really sure how conserned I should be.
I was told by the people at the pet store I can change his bowl every 2-3 weeks, though I've read some people on here saying 2-3 times a week for a tank his size... 2-3 weeks has been working for him for over a year now. But the last time I changed his water I was kind of distracted and only filled it about half as much as I normally do, so I think the concentration of flith built up faster.
I was just thinking "Its probably about time to change his water" when I took a good look at him and noticed the rot. Needless to say I dropped what I was doing to change him. I sterilized the bowl with boiling water, replaced his gravel, tossed out his rotting plant, the whole cleaning shabang.
With that said and done, how concerned should I be? Now that he's nice and clean the rot should stop, right? What should I do if it worsens?
I do have him on "aquarium salts" for freshwater fish. Not sure exactly what they are, the box doesn't say, but they did do a good job of clearing up an ick infection he had when I first brought him home. I assume its just eplsom salts.
Also, how often should I really be changing his water? He's been healthy (until now) on an every two weeks cycle, and he gets really stressed when I do change him so... IDK, you guys are experts.
What size is your tank? 2.5
What temperature is your tank? room temperature (the room is probs 75ish, so his actual water is probs 70ish)
Does your tank have a filter? No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? No
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish? Twice daily
How often do you perform a water change? Every 2 weeks
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? "api aquarium salt" and "splendid betta complete water conditioner"
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Minor fin rot
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Not really.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? This morning
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Cleaned his tank immediatly
Does your fish have any history of being ill? I think he had ick a while ago, I started him on salts and he perked right back up.
How old is your fish (approximately)? At least a year. | <urn:uuid:47c0dda4-9fe7-4f75-8f0b-d1667974fd29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=73170 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984306 | 648 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Google is now showing off the augmented reality glasses project, “Project Glass”
The glasses have some sort of connection by wireless, you can stay online, wired in all day, if you want to chat to people as you go about your business.
I think that’s how they work. I’ve never been much good at science, no heart for it really, particularly after the incident in grade four with Sister Martina.
There’s a video which explains things so much better than I possibly could.
Have a look at the video, “One day…,” shows how Google’s glasses might work. Do you reckon this would work for you?
We can see this bloke doing things he would usually do on his phone – scheduling meetings, taking pictures, checking the weather, getting directions, and placing a video call.
The information simply hovers over the top of his glasses and he’s controlling the interface by voice.
I’m a bit clumsy at the best of times and there’s a distinct possibility that I’ll walk into a pole, but at least I won’t be driving. I’ll be relaxing on the train, looking over into unfamiliar backyards, taking videos through the window with the flick of an eyelash and sending them to my friend, Beryl.
I just hope the train driver won’t be wearing his own Google Glasses | <urn:uuid:b4e14e50-5c29-4e39-8427-75156bade51d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cannygranny.org/2012/04/give-me-google-glasses/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956186 | 303 | 1.789063 | 2 |
With right breed, a dog can be a great workout partner
Choosing the right dog can help motivate people to workout.
I had two standard poodles growing up, and I remember channeling Barbara Woodhouse and calling in a high-pitched British accent, “Walkies!” and then watching my pets come unglued in anticipation.
I love dogs but can no longer own one because my lovely wife is allergic to anything with hair that has more than two legs. Our kids have pet reptiles. Taking the snake out for a slither just isn't the same, and bearded dragons hate leashes more than cats do. Sigh.
If you need motivation to move, it's hard to beat Canis familiaris to get you out the door. But note that a dog isn't an impulse buy like a Bowflex. You can't ignore them or let them become a coat rack. This is one workout partner you mustn't bail on. You've got to be a good human.
Dogs equal duty, and duty can be a powerful motivator for fitness. Puppy dog eyes that say “Want to go outside?” can get you moving.
Choose your match
If you want a new four-legged friend to accompany you on your fitness endeavors, it's important to consider breed and build to make sure you're evenly matched. The dog for the workout warrior isn't the same one as for the casual walker. And some dogs swim well, while others should stay land-based.
“For any breed, you want to start out with an exam to give them a clean bill of health,” says Idaho-based Marty Becker, the veterinarian for VetStreet.com and author of more than 20 books on pet ownership, including one called “Fitness Unleashed” about working out with your dog. You don't want to push your new pal too hard; they need to adapt to training just like humans do.
“You want to get them panting tired,” Becker told me when I asked about how hard to let their pets work. “This will vary based on breed and age. You don't want them panting excessively. If they start falling behind or seeking shade, it's too much.”
And it's not just older dogs you need to be concerned about taking it easy on, but younger as well.
“Wait until the dog is fully matured until you really start pushing the mileage,” said Katrina Mealey, a professor of veterinary medicine at Washington State University. Mealey, who is a Boston-qualifying marathon runner, told me that certain breeds of dogs, once adapted to the distance, can make excellent training partners even for serious runners.
“It doesn't necessarily have to be a big dog,” Mealey told me. “I have a Jack Russell terrier that, when he was younger, I could take running for 8 to 10 miles at a fast pace.”
Remember dog's safety
Mealey and Becker agree that there are simple but significant differences to identify which dogs are better workout warriors than others. | <urn:uuid:19505a8f-bae1-48df-b415-0593aab69aa9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsok.com/article/3732208 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970959 | 649 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Latest VideosMore Videos
Caillou and Leo are playing with their rocket ships in the park. Rosie wants to help them build the space station but she accidentally wrecks it. At home, Caillou and Leo continue their space game and are thrilled when Mr. Hinkle gives them a cardboard box which they transform into a rocket ship. On a winter day, Dad and Caillou go over to Grandpa's with their skates. What was supposed to be a skating outing becomes a shoveling chore because of all the snow that has accumulated in Grandpa's driveway. Soon, Caillou finds a way to turn this into a game and has a lot of fun making snow castles. When Caillou and Rosie stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Grandpa uses pop bottles and a rubber ball to create a bowling alley in the backyard. Grandpa teaches Caillou to bowl, but when he is called inside, it's Caillou's turn to teach as he shows Rosie how to play. Caillou accidentally spills the rest of the milk before Rosie could get her cereal. She is very upset and Caillou suggests they go get some more milk at the corner store. At the street intersection, he shows Mom that he knows when it is time to cross safely. Caillou is excited when Miss Martin takes him and his friends to the park for some special activities. The rules are not easy to grasp, and the kids have a few comical mishaps in the process. Caillou discovers that you don't always have to win to be proud of yourself.
Watch Caillou and more at PBS Kids Video.
Sorry, this episode has no rebroadcasts scheduled at this time. | <urn:uuid:8504ea48-fdab-4caf-9c29-68bf6d389de7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vpt.org/show/10085/442/Caillou | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977547 | 356 | 1.664063 | 2 |
My friend and colleague Mary E. Hunt has an essay at ReligionDispatches.org again. This time it's about the recent and tragic case in Brazil. The mother of a nine year old girl who was pregnant with twins (a pregnancy which would have killed her) was excommunicated for helping her have an abortion. The doctors were excommunicated too. The girl's stepfather has admitted to sexually abusing her.
Dr. Hunt, a Roman Catholic feminist theologian, writes:
........ My sadness in this case comes not only from what has been done in the name of God to people who are living a nightmare, but from what might have been done to help. Sexual abuse, especially incest, is hard to stop. But once perpetrated it need not be made worse by ecclesial sanction.
A proper pastoral response would include: support for the pregnant child as she lives through an abortion; care for the mother who is responsible for the child and the rest of the family; protection for the family from the stepfather whose arrest may trigger backlash behavior; sensitive work with the other daughter who has also been sexually abused; HIV and venereal disease testing for the girls and the mother; economic support for the family; counseling for the family, the community, even the neighbors and parishioners who have been affected by this trauma; prayer and pastoral attention, including reception of the sacraments according to the family’s wishes. They need a spiritual community more than ever. Instead they got excommunication. “Is there anyone among you, who if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?” (Matthew 7:9). Apparently there are several in Rome and Brazil.
..... They claim to know the law of God. But here’s the rub: even if they do, an overwhelming number of Catholics and others of goodwill do not care. We do not believe in the cruel, vindictive, callous God they cite. Many believers put our faith in a loving, merciful divinity whose response to human tragedy is to weep not condemn, to embrace not exile. That is a Catholic view, well-supported by scripture and life experience. The bishops are welcome to their views, but beware of people who think they know more about God’s will and God’s law than the rest of us. They are selling a product we are not buying.
.............Let this case signal the end of any credible claim to authority such bishops might make, and the beginning of a new era when local communities determine their own members.
Read the full text of Mary Hunt's commentary here.
The essay is titled "Excommunicating the Victims." | <urn:uuid:39cad9c7-1f8a-49c4-aaea-ec78350323e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://actsofhope.blogspot.com/2009/03/mary-hunt-on-recent-brazilian.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970143 | 547 | 1.671875 | 2 |
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon
While some states are still wrestling over whether to build their own health exchanges, Colorado is playing hurry-up offense, tackling major policy decisions including the biggest one on the horizon: how to pay for the online health insurance marketplace.
Now a reality across the country as the Affordable Care Act steams toward full implementation, health exchanges are supposed to make it easier for individuals and small business owners to choose and buy health insurance plans. Some people will qualify for government subsidies to help them afford insurance while exchanges will funnel others into public health insurance options including Medicaid, Medicare and CHP for children.
Colorado’s exchange — which will soon have a new name — is slated to open for enrollment in October of next year with coverage that will start on Jan. 1, 2014.
By Jan. 1, 2015, Colorado’s health exchange must be financially self-sustaining.
So far, Colorado has received two federal grants totaling $62 million that are funding the planning, technology design and start-up costs for the exchange. Federal taxes will also fund the first year of operations. Then, Colorado and other states must find ways to pay for the exchanges themselves.
The board creating Colorado’s exchange will tackle financial sustainability in meetings next month. Estimates in other states point toward annual operating costs that could exceed $50 million. Other states are considering user fees, sin taxes or ad sales to pay for exchange operations. A consulting firm is preparing cost projections for Colorado and will report to the board on possible sources of revenue. The challenge of paying for the exchange will be considerable since health insurance costs have already been climbing to unaffordable levels.
Other questions, both big and small, also loom.
What should the exchange be called? How will a network of “navigators” across Colorado be able to meet with people face-to-face to help them figure out which insurance plans to buy? Will they work for the exchange or for existing community-based health entities? What’s the best way to entice as many insurance carriers as possible to take the risk of selling their plans during the first critical year? Who will seek to buy health insurance in the first year? Will extremely sick individuals skew prices if, as anticipated, they are the first to line up for health insurance? And, will Colorado benefit by operating its own exchange?
As of mid-November, 17 others states and Colorado are building their own health exchanges while 16 others will default to a federal exchange. Six states are planning for partnership exchanges and 11 remain undecided. Many states waited anticipating that Gov. Mitt Romney might win the presidency in November and would follow through on vows to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Instead, with President Obama’s victory, many states now find themselves staring down unrelenting deadlines to get moving.
Managers and exchange board members in Colorado say the state will benefit from having its own exchange because a Colorado-managed competitive marketplace should be better tailored to a state that is so geographically and economically diverse.
“We have always been building the exchange to meet the unique needs of Colorado,” said exchange Board Chair Gretchen Hammer, who is also executive director of the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved. “We are much more confident in our ability to serve the diverse needs of Colorado, from people in rural and urban areas to individual consumers and commercial customers. We believe we’re better able to serve them with a Colorado exchange, with navigators trained by us.”
Hammer said Colorado has a relatively robust insurance marketplace with relatively strong competition, which is good for consumers. Board members want every decision they make to help foster vibrant competition and affordability for consumers. The biggest challenge in building the exchange is that there are so many uncertainties about the future.
“The marketplace will be unknown. The rules of the market will change. Consumer and business behavior will change,” Hammer said. “We all feel the tensions of doing our best to make good decisions, but also doing that in a time of uncertainty with an inability to predict how things will turn out.”
For instance, during an exchange meeting on Monday, board members were trying to decide whether to penalize insurance companies that decided to sit out the first year of the exchange by barring them from joining for two more years. Some of the insurance company executives on the board said that while their companies would oppose waiting periods, they personally felt some sort of waiting period was essential to entice as many insurers as possible to sell products on the exchange. Ultimately, the board voted to mandate one-year waiting periods for insurers who opt out of the exchange.
Among the many other decisions the Colorado exchange mangers have made is to create a statewide system of customer service agents who will be known as “navigators.” Initially, the exchange was conceived as a Travelocity-style online site where consumers could peruse different health plans and buy them on the spot. But planners realize that buying health insurance is much more complex than buying a plane ticket. So, they will have web-based help, a call center and in-person navigators who can help consumers pick the right options for them.
The exchange recently hired Adela Flores-Brennan, a well-known Denver health care attorney who used to work at the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. Flores-Brennan is now beginning to design a network of navigators who may or may not be direct employees of the health exchange.
“If you want to sit down face-to-face with someone, there will be a continuity of support to allow that,” said health exchange Executive Director Patty Fontneau.
She said it’s still unclear exactly how the navigator network will function.
“We’re seeing who’s out there already doing this type of work,” Fontneau said. She said Colorado is not unique in planning for a vast system of in-person navigators. Ultimately she suspects all states will opt for in-person help.
“It’s helping someone with what is truly a very complex process. I think navigators are absolutely critical,” Fontneau said.
Another decision on deck is picking a better name than the Colorado Health Benefits Exchange. While not critical in terms of policy heft, a new name could make the exchange more inviting and comprehensible to consumers.
“We just started getting ideas,” Fontneau said. “We will get public input. It’s not something we will do behind closed doors.”
Back when Gov. John Hickenlooper picked the members of the health exchange board, concerns arose that the board had tipped too far toward industry with five of the nine board members having ties to health insurance companies or for-profit health care businesses.
Hammer said that the policy work has been complex but constructive.
“Working with the members of this board has been one of the most rewarding professional experiences I have ever had,” she said. “Whenever there has been a direct conflict (of interest) people have recused themselves from a vote.
“The diversity of our perspectives has been a strength. It has certainly made our conversations long, but Colorado is a diverse state and we needed all kinds of minds coming together.” | <urn:uuid:be93ed18-cdd5-431b-95a8-382822d59af2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthpolicysolutions.org/2012/11/28/colorados-health-exchange-must-pay-for-itself-by-2015/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968715 | 1,510 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Whatever candidate (if any) you’re in favor of, we could bet that you’re probably tired of seeing advertisements and political signs everywhere. [Mark] wrote in with a hack that allows you to actually use these signs for something fun, making a RC airplane!
[Mark] gives a full bill of materials in his article, but the featured component is campaign sign. This isn’t LawyerADay, so we’re not sure of the legality of taking them. After election day at least, it’s doubtful anyone will care. Of course you’ll also need a motor, prop, and RC controls, as well as some dowels to attach the tail section to the main body, so don’t buy the “campaign promise” that this is a free airplane.
CAD diagrams are available of the cutouts, as well as how to cut the signs to form hinges without any other parts. This is quite clever, and a video of the plane in action on a table is available on the site. According to [Mark], no video was rolling on its test flight, but it did fly before some interference grounded the plane. Hopefully he’ll be able to get some footage of it in action soon! | <urn:uuid:be76cda1-7ba4-4bc5-bba3-2397b9d8287d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hackaday.com/2012/10/27/rc-airplane-made-from-political-signs/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=a832ba55c5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963029 | 262 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Sally's prompt this week was monochromatic.
Monochromatic photos evoke strong emotion.
They tell a story so differently then seeing the multi layered colors usually present.
I chose to use a photo I took many years ago in Wales.
To this day it is still one of my favorite black and white photos that I've ever taken.
The place is Tintern Abbey.
It is a place of grandeur, magnificent lore and is hauntingly beautiful.
I remember sitting in the grasses surrounding the Abbey
and being in complete awe of it's size and beauty.
To me there was no other way to capture it's history and grace than through black and white.
Want to see what others have captured this week...
Stop by here to find out! | <urn:uuid:95a87ef8-da4e-4f4c-9543-826e26661ce8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thehairypeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/focus-on-life-week-8-monochromatic.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961175 | 163 | 1.5 | 2 |
When millions of Americans head to the polls on Tuesday, it is certain that many of them will be Tea Party supporters.
The impact of the Tea Party movement has been the big game changer of this election. Also, organizers have been working hard to carry that momentum all the way to Election Day.
The Tea Party Express Tour rolled into cities featuring all-American speeches, patriotic speeches and a word or two for incumbent Washington.
For the last two weeks, ordinary Americans left their day jobs to spread the party message from Reno, Nev., through America's heartland, all the way to the East Coast. The tour made 30 stops in 19 states, preaching against too much government intervention to a congregation of millions of Americans who claimed that for the first time during an election that they were involved in political process.
"Everybody was busy paying their bills and taking care of their families," said Ellen Prescott, a Tea Party member. "It just finally hit them what's going on and they're awake and they're taking care of business."
The Tea Party Express bus driver also got in on the act as he appeared on stage and collected donations.
"Americans basically don't like politics," said Sal Russo, founder of the Tea Party Express. "They kind of let the politicians do their thing and about every 20 years or so they say, 'OK enough is enough,' and they get involved.'"
Americans have heard so much about the enthusiasm gap during these midterm elections -- the fact that conservatives and Republicans are energized to vote. While that is true, these Tea Party Express bus rallies are specifically aimed at translating all of the excitement and enthusiasm into actual votes.
One of the participants who motivates the crowd on the tours is rapper David "Polatik" Saucedo.
Saucedo spent three years in jail, but then found Jesus Christ and his life has never been the same.
"God blessed me with a talent to rap and do hip hop music and see I don't call it 'Hip-Hop,' I call it, 'His-Hop,'" Saucedo said.
Christian author William Owens also proclaimed the good news at these rallies.
"This is not about America," Owens said. "It's about virtue. It's about morals. It's about a standard and if we do what is right before God, America will take of itself."
The Tea Party Express just wants voters to take care of business on Election Day. | <urn:uuid:cfee0408-9c21-494f-8663-8b345a9c832b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2010/November/Tea-Party-Express-Tour-Boosts-Voter-Enthusiasm/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972202 | 502 | 1.546875 | 2 |
“It really bothers me that we’ve been at two wars for 10 years and the direct impact for seeing it in our community isn’t there.”
Karen Citow, owner of a Chicago-area yoga studio, is willing to go to the mat for our troops and their families. The 34-year-old mother of three was looking for a tangible, meaningful way to show her support, so she decided to donate all her profits for the year to the USO of Illinois.
“My husband and I are in complete awe of the bravery and dedication of the men and women who volunteer for our armed forces,” she says.
Citow, a former licensed clinical therapist, believes that yoga makes people kinder to themselves and others, resulting in an outpouring of goodwill and good deeds.
This taut, toned and relentlessly optimistic entrepreneur opened Breathe…A Yoga Oasis in 2010 as an entirely philanthropic venture. She draws no salary, and each year, she picks a different charity to receive any studio profits.
Leslie Wooten, associate director of development for the USO of Illinois, thinks the idea is “totally new and totally awesome.”
“It’s about paying it forward and supporting causes that matter in the world,” says Wooten.
But Citow knows she has skeptics. To date, her business hasn’t actually generated any revenue beyond its operating expenses, so she’s had to come up with other ways to raise money. Once a week she teaches a Dedication Class, with all the revenue—usually more than $100 per week—going directly to her chosen charity.
In 2011, that amounted to nearly $5,000 for a local cancer foundation. In 2010, Citow raised more than $13,000 for UNICEF, with a boost from a successful Halloween, trick-or-treating fundraiser.
She hopes to come up with new fundraising ideas this year, and she believes her business will finally be in the black, allowing her to give even more generously to the USO of Illinois.
Citow chose the USO because of its reputation for supporting active duty troops and military families. She worries that too many Americans have no connection at all to the men and women who defend our freedom.
“I try to make sure that our kids are really aware this is happening, and to be grateful and thankful … that people are sacrificing and serving.”
Citow knows that most other small business owners can’t forgo their salaries or give away their profits. She calls herself fortunate—her husband is a successful surgeon, so she doesn’t have to work. Her studio allows her to use her time and talents to promote the benefits of yoga, while giving back for all her blessings.
“I hate to say I wanted to make the world a better place, but it’s true!” she admits with a laugh, “I’m proud of what I’m doing… and I love yoga and believe that if more people practiced yoga the world could be a healthier and kinder place.” – Malini Wilkes, USO Director of Story Development | <urn:uuid:9248ee93-2530-4f6c-b66a-1aaded7a0fb4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.uso.org/2012/08/31/yoga-for-the-uso/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=671450efa2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963247 | 675 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Students seeking accommodations or services on the basis of a temporary disability must provide documentation verifying a disabling condition by a licensed health care professional who is currently working with the student. The diagnostician must be an impartial individual who is not a family member of the student.
The documentation must include the following additional information:
- The nature and cause of the condition
- The current functional impact of the condition
- The onset and verification of the disabling condition should be no older than 60 days
- The expected duration of the condition
- The prognosis for recovery
- Rationale for any accommodations based on the functional impact of the condition | <urn:uuid:70db876d-3229-4871-8813-7c61cf9ec20c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marymount.edu/studentLife/services/disability/documentation/temp.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935388 | 127 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Comments on Universal Population, Douglas Adams
“It is known that there is an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the universe can be said to be... | <urn:uuid:13418aaf-293e-46dd-ad33-1a10325b792d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freeboprich.tumblr.com/archive/2010/2 | 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 | 0.978616 | 92 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Rachel Croucher | The Lithuania Tribune
Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius announced last month that he was interested in following Australia’s lead on restricting tobacco companies’ ability to promote their brands on cigarette packets.
On 23 August Kubilius announced on Žinių radijas: “I have not seen the design of the Australian packets. Yet, I see no limits for looking for new ways to encourage people to quit this damaging habit. I myself twice gave up smoking and the second try was successful. Therefore, I would not be against something as was suggested and implemented by the Australians.”
On 11 October 2005 a new standard for labelling on tobacco products came into effect in Australia. Among a variety of health warnings, cigarette companies were also forbidden from displaying their company logos on cigarette packaging. It also became mandatory for packets to display graphic images of tobacco-related illnesses such as oral tumours, rotting teeth, bleeding lungs and diseased limbs and eyes on 30 percent of a packet’s front, and 90 percent of its rear.
In more recent developments, however, Australia’s High Court last month rejected a challenge by tobacco companies hoping to use their designs and logos on cigarette packaging again. Additionally, in December of this year all cigarette packets in Australia will comprise of nothing more than health warnings and graphic images on plain olive green packaging.
It remains to be seen whether Kubilius will implement such stringent restrictions as Australia. Nevertheless, his public favouring of such regulations on tobacco advertising in Lithuania are indicative of a significant cultural shift on the issue of smoking among the country’s political elite. | <urn:uuid:5ddd8805-73d0-4dcc-86ab-d04a5ac6c63e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/15734/lithuanian-pm-favours-australian-style-health-warnings-on-cigarette-packets-201215734/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964251 | 339 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Santa Monica Canyon, a tranquil neighborhood embedded into the hills just inland from the Pacific Coast, is blessed with thick woods, gurgling creeks, and cooling ocean breezes. It’s truly one of the great refuges from LA’s urban frenzy. So it makes no sense that many of the million-dollar houses there seem to turn their back on it.
Michael Lehrer’s Canyon Residence doesn’t. Yes, it’s still a 13,000-square-foot mansion—this is no rustic bungalow. But despite its gem-like finishes and ample spaces, you often forget that. In much of the residence, the distinction between inside and outside doesn’t exist. Many of its walls disappear and the scene outside engulfs every room.
The home, clad in pristine white plaster, is organized along two main spines, which are marked by transparent glazed catwalks that provide full site lines down their length. Along those spines the house is arranged as a series of cube-shaped pavilions in the landscape, making their way around four large trees. Lehrer solved a geometric puzzle in their staggered layout, exposing as much surface area as possible. (He calls the spatial rigor “deep order.”) And within that organization, layered clerestories, skylights, bridges, and window walls provide more peeks of light and scenery.
After you walk into the house you come upon the pavilions that are the most open to the landscape—a sloping amalgamation containing modern sculptures, ancient trees, a brook, emerald-green grass, thick brush, and a working produce and flower garden. The living room’s walls disappear completely on two sides, creating an outdoor room; the breakfast room’s walls slide away on alternating sides to allow cross breezes; and the dining room’s walls are made of pivoting glass doors that open up in theatrical fashion to the yard.
The next pavilion is basically the living center. Its centerpiece is the “great room,” a 40-foot-wide space containing both the open kitchen and a family room. It’s where most of the action happens, and you can see into most corners of the house from here, thanks to its large openings, which often start above existing timber and plaster-clad walls.
The final pavilion, clad in translucent glass and focused around an industrial courtyard, is the owner’s sculpture studio. His interest in materials, and stone in particular, extends to the house. He’s picked out onyx and other gem-like stones that adorn, among other things, the bathroom and bedroom furniture and fixtures. The whole place feels like a sculpture.
Also bucking its size and luxury, the house is net zero, thanks to roofs covered with photovoltaic panels, no air-conditioning, hydronic heating, cross ventilation, and little need for lights during the day. While this is a luxurious house, Lehrer calls it his laboratory for ideas. “You have no excuses with an opportunity like this,” he said. | <urn:uuid:df26f852-7bbd-45be-b364-61d8c1fef40e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=6244 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954123 | 655 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Design Your Own Monogrammed Lab Coats
Choosing the most appropriate attire for your work experience is a necessity. Standing out in the crowd can mean the difference between staying stuck in the position you are currently in or being noticed and receiving that hard-earned promotion. When you design your own monogrammed lab coats is just one of the ways you can get the recognition you deserve.
The internet is a wonderful place and technologies are ever increasing. You will discover you have more tools at your fingertips than ever before. Customize garments online today like you could never accomplish before. Sometimes, in as little as three simple steps, you can customize garments online saving you time and money.
When you design your own monogrammed lab coats, you are taking advantage of this new technology. In three easy steps, imagine the wonderful designs you can create for yourself. Imagine the possibilities, and then explore your options.
Monogramming is more popular than ever. Technologies today make monogramming inherently simplistic with amazing accurate and delicious results. However, there has been a great deal of debate on whether to stick with tradition or start your own tradition.
Generally, monogramming includes the tradition three syllables. For a single person, this may include the first, second, and third letter of your name. Generally, traditionalists will place the first letter of the surname in the middle and slightly larger or bolder than the other initials. The first letter of the first name will go on the left and the first letter of the middle name will go on the left. Traditionally, this works, but more and more individuals are choosing to update this tradition to fit their own needs.
More and more people have more than three words in their name. For example, some people will use their maiden name and their married name together and joined with a hyphen. Other people may have more than one middle name. Choosing how to design your own monogrammed lab coats will depend on how you feel more comfortable expressing your own personality.
Amazingly, monogramming has grown quite the debate. Many people have old fashioned beliefs when it comes to monogramming. What works best for you will depend on your sense of tradition as well as your sense of modernism.
When you design your own monogrammed lab coats, you will be able to use what fits best with your thoughts and lifestyle. However, you may be required to add a monogram of the business, facility, or company you are employed by. If you are not entirely sure what is acceptable in your workplace, be sure to ask before deciding what works best for your needs.
When you can design your own monogrammed lab coats in as little as three easy steps, you will want to ensure you cover all your bases. These designs look amazing and work even better. Have the professional look and feel you desire at just a fraction of the cost. Nothing could be simpler or as cost effective at showing the world what you stand for.
The Uniform Connection offers a full line of uniforms. Our uniforms include scrubs, work apparel, school uniforms, corporate apparel, flame resistant work wear, food service, sports clothing, law enforcement and security, outerwear, hospitality service, shoes, work boots. Looking for a custom quote on embroidered apparel, silk screening, or need name tags, custom patches, or need to set up a uniform program, then give us a call at 1-877-786-6311. Want to design your own apparel online, then, please use our free online apparel designer. We can also provide your organization with safety equipment, medical equipment or promotional products. Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including New York NY, Los Angeles CA, Miami FL, Chicago IL, Denver CO, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin, TX. | <urn:uuid:c32ead1a-7a67-456c-862c-2cffc486b29e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.embroidered-uniforms-corporate-apparel.com/design-your-monogrammed-coats-a-1936.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94829 | 792 | 1.796875 | 2 |
This week’s Iron Craft was about flowers. At first I thought I was going to make a fabric flower pin or perhaps some pom-pom flowers but, then I won this messenger bag from Sew Lovely Embroidery. The bag is made to embroider so, I decided to make it my project.
|I like the way the toggles make the leaves on some of the stems.|
I’ve seen a lot of this kind of modern flower on quite a few quilts and really love the way they look. I made mine with a combination of applique and embroidery.
Lollypop Flower Bag How-To
This technique can be done on all sorts of things, not just a bag. With a lighter fabric you will probably need to use a hoop for the embroidery but, the bad was stiff enough that I didn’t.
Double Stick Fusible Web (I like the brand I use because it is slightly sticky before ironing.)
Helpful but not necessary supplies:
Dressmakers Marker or Chalk
1. Use the compass to draw various size circles on one side of the fusible web. Cut our roughly around each circle.
2. Take the paper of the side of the web you did not draw on and stick it to the wrong side of the fabric.
3. Cut the circle out of both the web and the fabric. Remove the other paper baking to reveal the webbing.
4. Place the circles where you want them on the bag webbing-side down. Iron to adhere permanently.
1. I outlined each flower in stem stitch close to, but, not exactly on, the edge in a contrasting color.
2. For some of the flowers, I added a smaller circle in a contrasting fabric for the center. Those smaller circles were also outlined in stem stitch.
3. & 4. For other flowers, I made the centers out of circles of french knots. I found the way to get the nicest circle was to draw one on, do french knots all along the outline and then fill it in. Starting from the middle & working out made it hard to get a circle with a nice edge (see my blue one above).
For the stems, I drew straight lines from the middle of each flower using a ruler and a dressmakers maker. Then embroidered them with stem stitch.
Since this is a bag that is going to get used I knotted the beginning and end of each thread. When I was completely done I put a little fabric glue on each knot to keep it secure.
© 2005 – 2011 Kathy Lewinski & Susan Cornish | <urn:uuid:63171707-dd49-439d-bac2-9ce0cb0258b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.justcraftyenough.com/2011/05/iron-craft-challenge-18-lollypop-flower-bag/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936109 | 550 | 1.5 | 2 |
A couple months ago Rambling Web noted that Porsche was breaking the mold for hybrid cars by developing a true hybrid super car - Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid Blows Up Stereotypes. Yet the major question was whether the 918 Spyder would sell.
Well Tesla Motors, taking a different tact, is showing the an upscale electric car can sell quite well. According to 'Wall Streets Cheat Sheet,' Tesla's Model S is actually outselling BMW and Mercedes the competing cars in its class.
This is great news for the future of electric and hybrid cars. It shows that as the quality of these cars increases that demand will likely increase too. As 'Wall Streets Cheat Sheet' notes the success of the Model S opens the door for a more affordable model in the future.
Tesla’s Model S Is Shaming BMW and Mercedes
While Tesla faced huge criticisms about the Model S being too expensive, which would result in a stagnancy of demand, it appears the concerns were unfounded, and that the demand is leading the segment. Given the company’s limitations as a start-up with a product that has yet to become mainstream, these figures are especially impressive.Tesla Motors
Moreover, the Model S was never meant to be an affordable, mass market car; the company was never aiming to build the next GM Chevy (NYSE:GM) Volt or Nissan Leaf. The Model S was designed from the ground up as a luxury car, meant to compete with the likes of the 7 Series and A8.
The company’s business model suggests that as electric cars become more accepted, and concerns over range anxiety and other problems subside, the high cost of electric car technology will slope downward. And when that happens, Tesla will be ready and waiting with an entry-level, ballpark $30,000 model to market to the masses. | <urn:uuid:7790ef69-48a3-4e86-901e-a1e36e77299f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mccainindependents.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967251 | 377 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Imagine a scene where you are laughing and having fun with the children in your life? Can you picture the joy you will feel when there is no stress or disharmony? Is it possible to have that quality time with your family and children in your circle of influence? You will think more positively after you have read these three easy steps to really enjoy children.
As every working adult (and that is all of us, even if we don’t get a paycheck or have kids) knows, we have busy lives. Time is moving faster and faster and we are all bombarded and overwhelmed with too many tasks and not much time for fun. But, we must make time for the most important work we will ever do and that is to encourage the mind and heart of a child.
More from YourTango: 5 Ways To Nurture With Nature
Kids Need Adults To Be With Them
Those of you who have read my earlier books and articles know how strongly I feel about adult role models for kids. Aunties and Uncles, Teachers and Coaches, Youth Leaders and extended families are so important to raising resilient, confident kids into adults.
Parents spend an average of seventeen hours a week in the company of their kids, but less than two hours a week devoted to interacting with them. Interacting means face to face or shoulder to shoulder time talking, playing or helping with homework. It does not mean texting or phone calls, which is connecting but not building real relationships.
More from YourTango: Being Assertive- Better Than Fight Or Flight (EXPERT)
3 Ways to Build Relationship with Children
You will want to continue reading this important article and discover these easy steps at http://www.AskAuntieArtichoke.com You will be glad you did. | <urn:uuid:5181440a-56ee-4807-be82-5d7d26748e46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yourtango.com/experts/judy-helm-wright-aka-auntie-artichoke/3-easy-steps-enjoy-children-expert | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955892 | 366 | 1.625 | 2 |
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has made it quite clear that he believes Social Security is an unconstitutional “Ponzi scheme.” In his book Fed Up!, Perry writes that Social Security is “by far the best example” of a program “violently tossing aside any respect for our founding principles.” Today, at the Iowa State Fair, Perry responded to a question from Politico’s Ben Smith by saying that he thinks one of the ways to deal with his vehement objections to Social Security is to simply send the program to the states and let them figure out what to do with it:
I’m for having a conversation with the country about how we find some solutions to have programs that are going to be sustainable. And I think having the states doing it is one of the ways. I’m not saying it’s the only way.
Perry has said before that he wants to give states the option of allowing workers to opt out of Social Security. “So the states will let people opt out of Social Security?” asked CNN’s Eliot Spitzer. “They should,” Perry replied. But as ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser has pointed out, making Social Security a state program is simply economically impossible:
A workable plan to allow states to opt out of Social Security would require draconian provisions, such as a mandate that everyone must retire in the same state that they worked and paid taxes in. Otherwise, workers who are too young to receive Social Security benefits would move to an opt-out state to avoid paying Social Security taxes — and then promptly move to a state with Social Security benefits the moment they became eligible. Eventually, the entire system would collapse under the weight of too many Social Security beneficiaries who had not paid into the system.
Of course, having Social Security collapse in spectacular fashion may be just the outcome that Perry has in mind. | <urn:uuid:31cd20b0-5268-434c-aa71-e32f92b7ef6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/15/296096/perry-states-social-securit/?mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968577 | 397 | 1.710938 | 2 |
And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.
Note 3 at Ac 14:27: Jesus administered miraculous cures to some Gentiles during His earthly ministry (the centurion and his servant, Mt 8:5-13 and Lu 7:1-10, and the Syrophenician woman and her daughter, Mt 15:21-28 and Mr 7:24-30), but it was clear that His earthly ministry was to the people of Israel (Mt 15:24). However, after His resurrection and ascension, His followers were to share the Gospel with everyone, Jews and Gentiles (see note 1 at Joh 12:23).
Philip shared the Gospel with the Ethiopian eunuch, who was either a Gentile or a proselyte to Judaism (Ac 8:26-39). Peter's miraculous experience with Cornelius (Ac 10) had been debated by the leaders of the church (Ac 11:1-18), who admitted that the Lord had "granted repentance unto life" (Ac 11:18) to the Gentiles. This caused some disciples, who had been scattered from Jerusalem (Ac 11:19), to share the Gospel with individual Gentiles (Ac 11:20-21), but no one had ever actively sought to evangelize the Gentiles as Paul and Barnabas did.
This was a dramatic new development in the preaching of the Gospel, and it caused such uproar among the Jewish believers that a special council of the Jerusalem church elders was convened (Ac 15:6). Paul and Barnabas (Ac 15:2, 4, and 12), as well as Peter (Ac 15:7-11), gave testimony of how the Lord had granted salvation to the Gentiles through faith alone, without their conversion to Judaism, and the elders gave their blessing to Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles (Ro 11:13 and Ga 1:15-16).
Millions upon millions of Gentiles have professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ over the centuries, and the Gentiles have actually been the ones that the Lord chose to preserve Christianity after the Jews as a whole rejected it. All of this came as a result of Paul's first missionary journey. | <urn:uuid:a336aa88-bbdb-4e62-8c81-a145aefa93e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.awmi.net/bible/act_14_27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974348 | 480 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Digital Media | News
New Video Site Provides Free Presentation Capture and Delivery to Educators
- By Dian Schaffhauser
A professor of educational technology has launched an Arabic and English language network that allows individuals to produce and share video presentations online for free. PresentationTube, created by Alaa Sadik, includes a recording program that lets the user capture a slideshow with video and audio. Sadik is an associate professor of instructional technology at Egypt's South Valley University, currently working at the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University in the Sultanate of Oman. Oman is an Arab state in southwest Asia.
PresentationTube is a non-profit project intended to help local teachers and students produce and share videos online; however, the site isn't limited to users in Oman.
A "lite" version of the system is limited to 15 minutes of recording time and has basic video options. A "pro" version is available in two flavors: A 12-user group edition is $450; a site-wide-license is $950. The Pro version has more video and recording options and includes a "life-time" software license, a year of upgrades, 24/7 technical support, uploading of an unlimited number of video presentations, and unlimited video storage space and delivery.
The network has two components--a desktop presentation recorder and a video sharing network. The recorder, which can be downloaded from the Web site for free, captures presentations without the need to have an Internet connection or third party software while recording. It synchronizes the presenter's audio and video, PowerPoint slides, drawings, handwritten words, and web content. The network lets presenters publish their videos and add scrollable slide thumbnails, comments, and quizzes.
In a statement the company said, "One of [the] most endearing qualities of PresentationTube is its simplicity of use--it would be hard to screw up. And if you are a potential viewer you can easily search the submitted videos for content to use in lectures and see how diverse the selection is. It's easy to see how this network became pretty popular."
Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business for a number of publications. Contact her at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:0513ee02-3894-4825-aac4-b0007093d3cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/10/30/new-video-site-provides-free-presentation-capture-and-delivery-to-educators.aspx?admgarea=News1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932481 | 465 | 1.804688 | 2 |
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 10, 2012--Today two men announced lawsuit filings (docket #112CV218823) against Dr. Michael Dake and Stanford University (Stanford) for performing experimental surgeries on them for purported CCSVI, a controversial theory hypothetically linked to multiple sclerosis (MS), outside of an approved clinical trial.
Plaintiffs Oliver Zahn and Mark Wittwer allege that Dake abandoned fundamental policies for medical research and patient consent when he conducted experimental surgery to insert arterial stents in their veins, according to their complaints. They also allege that Stanford failed to protect patients by allowing Dake’s unapproved experiments to continue outside of a clinical trial, despite the recognized, life-threatening risks associated with Dake’s procedures and a lack of evidence to support any benefit from the treatment, court documents state. As a result, both men now suffer permanent and life-altering injuries.
“Dake performed invasive and life-threatening surgeries – considered by renowned physicians to be completely experimental – outside of a clinical trial, violating accepted ethical standards for human subject research. In the process, he caused permanent harm to trusting patients. It’s unbelievable that this happened, and under Stanford’s respected banner,” said Cynthia McGuinn of Rouda, Feder, Tietjen & McGuinn, co-counsel for the plaintiffs with the firm of Emison Hullverson LLP.
According to court documents: Controversial CCSVI theory Underlying this case is the controversial CCSVI, or chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency, a clinically unproven and hypothetical syndrome theoretically linked to MS. According to the CCSVI theory first proposed in 2007, MS patients may have irregular narrowing of veins in the head and neck. The hypothesis follows that these vein irregularities, or stenoses, do not allow blood to properly drain from the brain, damaging the central nervous system and causing the neurological deficits characterized by MS.
Early proponents of CCSVI began experimenting with angioplasty, or a tiny balloon that is inflated and then removed, to reportedly open veins and improve blood flow in MS patients. Anecdotal outcomes of the procedure have been mixed, and no one has been able to successfully replicate the initial research supporting CCSVI’s existence.
Despite a lack of credible scientific evidence that CCSVI even exists or that treating purported CCSVI offers any benefit, the theoretical condition has spawned significant worldwide interest from MS patients hoping it will yield new solutions for relieving their symptoms.
Numerous experts and organizations, including the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, have urged extreme caution in evaluating the theory of CCSVI and its proposed treatment, calling for randomized clinical trials to test whether CCSVI actually exists, and if so, whether treatment offers benefit.
Dake’s unapproved research Dake took the opposite approach at Stanford, however, and in 2009 became the first physician in the United States to perform surgical stenting procedures for CCSVI, according to court documents. Dake conducted research outside of a clinical trial by inserting stents in 38 patients without obtaining approval from Stanford’s Internal Review Board – a critical step for any clinician who undertakes experimental research.
By not adhering to a clinical trial, Dake bypassed protocols designed to maintain patient safety and critically evaluate the existence of a proposed disorder and the efficacy of an experimental treatment, according to the complaint.
At the time Dake began his research, there was little, if any, medical evidence to support CCSVI, the court documents show. Compounding the lack of basic clinical evidence, Dake’s approach has drawn criticism for using potentially ineffective and harmful diagnostic and treatment procedures, according to the complaint.
For example, instead of using only angioplasty to open veins, Dake chose to surgically insert arterial stents, or metal or plastic tubes designed for use in arteries but not in veins. Stents remain in the body and are more invasive than angioplasty, and present serious risks such as becoming occluded, slipping and migrating to the heart, fracturing, or penetrating through the vein wall and causing massive bleeding. The blood-thinning medication that patients must take to prevent blood clots and stroke following a stenting procedure also can increase the risk of hemorrhage. One of Dake’s patients died from a brain hemorrhage following the placement of stents for CCSVI.
Finally, on December 5, 2009, after repeated requests from MS and neurology experts at other institutions and also from its own physicians, Stanford publicly announced the suspension of Dake’s CCSVI procedures.
For plaintiffs Zahn and Wittwer, Stanford’s order came too late.
Tragic lapses in patient safety for Zahn and Wittwer On November 23, 2009, Zahn agreed to allow Dake to perform a diagnostic venogram to identify vein narrowings. Although Zahn has never been diagnosed with MS, he was experiencing some neurological issues at the time and simply wanted to identify any possible causes. Court documents show that Zahn clearly wanted to discuss exploratory findings after the venogram, before proceeding with any form of treatment.
Zahn repeatedly told Dake that he did not want stents. Nonetheless, during the procedure Dake increased the level of Zahn’s sedation until he was essentially unconscious, and then turned the planned 30-minute diagnostic venogram into a five-hour surgery, placing five stents in Zahn’s jugular and azygos veins.
“The evidence we’ve gathered shows that Dr. Dake conducted unproven, high-risk procedures on his patients to address a hypothetical condition that numerous medical experts either questioned or did not believe existed,” said McGuinn. “Dr. Dake did not advise his patients of the fact that CCSVI was only a theory based on an unproven hypothesis or that there were significant and potentially life-threatening risks associated with the procedure he wanted to perform on them. In Mr. Zahn’s case, Dr. Dake implanted five stents into the neck of a man who did not even have multiple sclerosis and who had expressly asked the doctor not to do so.” Following Dake’s stenting procedure, Zahn was admitted for overnight monitoring after what was supposed to be an outpatient procedure. The following morning, while Zahn remained in the hospital, one of the stents dislodged and traveled directly into the right ventricle of Zahn’s heart. Cardiologists at Stanford had to perform emergency open-heart surgery to save his life, but the damage was done. He continues to experience permanent repercussions from the surgery, and from complications related to the remaining four stents that cannot be removed from his veins without additional harm.
Dake also inserted four stents into Wittwer’s veins in 2009. Wittwer suffers from MS, which has robbed him of the ability to walk and to actively run the aquaculture business he built on the Oregon coast. Believing that CCSVI might represent a “cure” for his disease, Wittwer underwent two separate stenting surgeries. The stents have not improved his symptoms, and one has become completely blocked, or occluded, increasing his long-term health risks. The stents also cause chronic pain, sleeping problems, and lingering fear that others will become blocked or migrate to his heart – potentially fatal complications.
According to the complaint, Dake did not warn plaintiffs Zahn and Wittwer of the serious, life-threatening risks of his experiments. He also failed to tell them that stents are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat CCSVI.
“I trusted Dake’s medical opinion – in no small part because of Stanford’s prestigious reputation – and wound up as a guinea pig for his experiments,” Wittwer said. “Every day, I wake up and try to put a smile on my face despite dealing with the giant hurdles of MS. I certainly didn’t need the added pain, health risks and emotional toll of this mistreatment.” More information about the case is available at www.unauthorized-CCSVI-experiments.com About Rouda Feder Tietjen & McGuinn Rouda Feder Tietjen & McGuinn is a San Francisco-based law firm with a national reputation for helping the injured obtain justice. Founded in 1980, the firm focuses on cases involving catastrophic injury, wrongful death, defective product, explosions, fire and electrical injuries, medical negligence and employment-related matters. For more information see: www.rftmlaw.com About Emison Hullverson LLP Emison Hullverson LLP represents individuals and their families in serious medical negligence, wrongful death and personal injury cases. More information on the firm and its attorneys may be found at www.emisonhullverson.comCONTACT: Firmani + Associates Inc Mark Firmani, 206-443-9357 [email protected] KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HEALTH PROFESSIONAL SERVICES LEGAL GENERAL HEALTH SOURCE: Firmani + Associates Inc Copyright Business Wire 2012 PUB: 10/10/2012 05:14 PM/DISC: 10/10/2012 05:14 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20121010006553/ | <urn:uuid:22ee1915-7110-427d-9ca7-34d958416b68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2012/10/lawsuits-against-stanford-dr-michael-dake-experimental-procedures-filed-san-francisco-firms-rouda-feder-tietjen-mcguinn-and-emison-hullverson-llp?qt-most_popular=0&qt-recent_content=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943733 | 1,985 | 1.554688 | 2 |
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
You are listening, on this public radio station, to the program that gives you a look at the whole of America. And this summer, MORNING EDITION is starting a series about small American towns with economies and identities that depend on the arts. Our first stop is Marfa, Texas.
(SOUNDBITE OF A TRAIN WHISTLE)
INSKEEP: The train that runs through this tiny town perched on the high plains of the Chihuahua Desert used to carry water to cattle ranchers. Ranching once supported Marfa's economy.
Now, as NPR's Neda Ulaby reports, Marfa is primarily a world-class destination for art lovers.
NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: For the glamorous types who attend Art Basel in Miami or Documenta in Germany, or visit Amsterdam for the Rijks Museum and the drugs, Marfa is a similar station of the cross, says Carolina Miranda. She writes about the art world.
CAROLINA MIRANDA: They speak about Marfa with the same kind of reverent tones generally reserved for, like, the pilgrimage of the Virgin of Lourdes.
ULABY: The acclaimed minimalist artist Donald Judd left New York City in the 1970s for this dusty dot of a town. He wanted to escape the art scene he said he despised. He acquired an entire Army base, and before he died in 1994, he filled it with art, including light installations by his friend Dan Flavin and Judd's own signature boxes.
Two old brick artillery sheds house a hundred boxes made of silvery, milled aluminum. They sit in perfect quiet rows. They glow or depending on the light seem almost translucent. Now, all 400 acres of the site are run by the Chinati Foundation.
STERRY BUTCHER: It's a hot one today.
ULABY: Docent Sterry Butcher, warns visitors to be careful as they head towards the scrubby pasture where Judd scattered 15 huge boxes made of concrete, as empty and remote as the landscape.
BUTCHER: It's unlikely that you would see a snake, or a skunk, or a porcupine or some other varmint, but it's always possible.
ULABY: Once, only dedicated Judd fans braved the varmints, the distance, and the heat to see this collection. That's changed.
JEN KITSON: I'm not a huge - I'm not hugely knowledgeable.
ULABY: Jen Kitson came for the art but also maybe because of the hype. Just in the past three years, The New York Times has run almost half a dozen big features about Marfa, one solely on its restaurants, including the inevitable food truck. Driving here, Kitson and her boyfriend saw the fake Prada store that sits on the highway. And then...
KITSON: He turned on the radio and he's like look, NPR that's all you can get, NPR.
(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO BROADCAST)
DAVID BRANCH, HOST:
You're tuned into the Honky-Tonk Happy Hour this and every Thursday evening. I'm your host David Branch and I'm going to play the B-side of this deal.
KITSON: And it was like amazing but then it was also kind of creepy like, oh perfect, our NPR station. And you enter. And then we're like ooh, look at this is this restaurant. And, oh they have vegan food.
ULABY: Vegan food, straw bale houses, funky bars filled with artsy kids clinking Shiner Bock with famous painters and film directors. Their pearl-buttoned shirts and cowboy boots make it feel like a Western-themed outpost of Brooklyn. And for a town of only about 2,000 people, you can amuse yourself endlessly with screenings, readings and, of course, gallery shows.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: No rush. Grab a beer.
ULABY: This opening for sculptor Campbell Boswell is taking place in the studio space he bought with his wife 11 years ago. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: The sculptor's last name is Bosworth.] It's a slightly dilapidated white wooden church a few blocks from Marfa's single stoplight.
CAMPBELL BOSWORTH: You know, as an artist you always see cool buildings and go oh God, that'd make a great studio. Yeah, but you can't afford, you know. Or you go through some small town and you go oh, look at that old building. That'd be a great studio. But then you go yeah, but we'd have to live in that town.
ULABY: People want to live in Marfa. But there's no hospital - that weeds out retirees. And corporal punishment in the public schools deters families with kids. So the artsy population is limited to the wealthy with part-time homes here, temporary residents on fancy fellowships, and the truly hardcore, like Boswell.
BOSWORTH: You just come out here and you feel like I want to make something. I want to do something.
ULABY: This hardcore community is defined by the intensity of its artistic aspirations and exacting standards for art, says poet Tim Johnson.
TIM JOHNSON: It's tough, you know. It's also a highly critical community, so people will let you know if its second or third rate, or whatever.
ULABY: Have people left because they couldn't take the criticism?
JOHNSON: Yeah, I think so.
(SOUNDBITE OF CASHIER)
ULABY: Johnson runs Marfa's bookstore, heavy on art theory and poetry journals, with yoga classes in the morning. He thinks Donald Judd would wince at Marfa's emergence as a chic art's world destination.
JOHNSON: He thought that making an arts-based tourism was necessarily carnivalesque, which was for him, anathema to the experience of art. He knew that people would come see it but he did not want that to be a large part of the economy, because he thought, socially, that would have a negative impact.
ULABY: Judd did have dreams about art helping Marfa's economy, says Rob Weiner. He directs the Chinati Foundation.
ROB WEINER: At one point even bottling the local water, which is terrific water, and he had designed a kind of complex series of bottles that could be turned into bricks once the water was consumed.
ULABY: That never happened, but Weiner is delighted by the flood of the new visitors, 11,000 last year. More twice the attendance eight years ago, he says. But he seemed a little offended when I wondered how his marketing has changed.
WEINER: We've never marketed.
ULABY: You don't have a marketing plan?
WEINER: No? Well, no. No, we don't have a marketing plan.
ULABY: Do you have a marketing director?
ULABY: Unlike other towns that have tried to reinvent themselves as arts destinations, it's happened organically here. No one is even keeping track of how much tourism has increased.
Kaki Aufdengarten-Scott is Marfa's Chamber of Commerce.
KAKI AUFDENGARTEN-SCOTT: Hi, can I get you guys something? Do something for you?
ULABY: Aufdengarten-Scott is helping out a couple of tourists from California. She wasn't lured to Marfa by the cool factor, or Judd's massive concrete blocks. She grew up here.
AUFDENGARTEN-SCOTT: I thought that the blocks there along the highway were like leftover debris from the military base.
ULABY: Aufdengarten-Scott comes from generations of ranchers. Some, she says, have struggled with Marfa's transformation.
AUFDENGARTEN-SCOTT: My parents, they sold their house to a couple of gentlemen from New York City.
ULABY: That was a big deal for Aufdengarten-Scott's dad.
AUFDENGARTEN-SCOTT: Straight-laced guy, cowboy, Republican, Christian. He eats red meat. He likes potatoes. I think it still really trips him out that two men would be sharing his master bedroom.
ULABY: One of the things Aufdengarten-Scott hopes to do at the Chamber of Commerce is reconcile old timers with the transplants they sometimes call Chinazis, after the foundation. She says most of those newcomers are incredibly well-intentioned, but...
AUFDENGARTEN-SCOTT: There's a kind of give and take all the time, but sometimes it feels like there's more taking.
ULABY: Aufdengarten says sure, the arts economy has created jobs - dishwashing or landscaping for native Marfans, mostly low-income and Latino. Higher income gigs with real mobility tend to go to out-of-towners who are not oblivious to the impact they're having. Yet Marfans know the alternative would be worse.
AUFDENGARTEN-SCOTT: If they hadn't come in, this town would have dried up and blown away.
ULABY: Neda Ulaby, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio. | <urn:uuid:b989463b-d09e-425b-b308-41c112053017> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=156980469 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948947 | 2,109 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Welcome, all, to the Weekly Haiku.
This week, we’re looking for the most creative, poetic haiku inspired by two local events that have Seattle buzzing.
Topic 1: Edith Macefield refused a $1 million offer from developers for her Ballard home and has been hailed a hero and a symbol of resistance to what seems like inevitable change as condos replace single-family homes in the old fishing town. Here’s our story, plus a Big Blog post from Ballard’s Viking bar. What this story’s really about: Change. It’s a constant thing, really, and it’s happening everywhere: This is a prosperous, growing city. But as long as there are people who carry fond memories of another era, every bit of “progress” makes us wonder if we can afford to lose what’s gone.
Topic 2: Critical Mass is a monthly event in which cyclists take to the streets, blocking traffic during rush hour to assert their rights to be on the road and celebrate the two-wheeled commute. Drivers are less excited. And like every time we write about the clash between bike and car, city and cyclist, our stories this week have cracked open a debate that will probably never end. Seattle Likes Bikes? Hey, that’s five syllables long! Here’s our blog post, plus a story on Tuesday’s bike protest against the city.
5-7-5- pop haiku structure. Only registered users are eligible. Here are the complete rules.
The contest closes next Thursday morning. The winner wins a free book of his or her choosing — we’ll e-mail you a list of what’s available once you’ve won.
Have fun and good luck! | <urn:uuid:496ae506-da0e-426d-b7b7-6818be1640c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2007/10/04/weekly-haiku-bike-bickering-and-neighborhood-nostalgia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943592 | 373 | 1.53125 | 2 |
For Canadian engineering and construction (E&C) companies, profitability is closely tied to operational and financial effectiveness — not only on individual projects but for the organization as a whole. In an increasingly competitive and challenging marketplace, successful E&C companies will be the ones that integrate cost management and performance improvement into the very culture of their business. These companies are constantly and vigilantly looking for ways to increase efficiencies and productivity at a same or lower level of cost.
From the financial side, a slash-and-burn, 10%-across-the-board cut may provide short-term savings during lean times, but can hamstring an E&C business over the long haul. A better approach is to ensure that cost management impacts more than just your financial department — it needs to reach all the way down to individual construction projects and into your corporate culture. Cost management should be a strategic part of your business, not simply a tactic that you implement in certain situations. It should factor in such aspects as supply chain management, operations optimization, financial reporting, compliance with occupational safety and other regulations, and the leveraging of tax credits such as Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED).
From the performance management side, strong vendor relationships play a key role in the procurement of supplies and people, which in turn impacts operational effectiveness. In a volatile economy, supplier risk management is vital to ensuring that your supply chain remains unbroken and that your organization is operating at its most efficient. Sustainability also plays a big role in the E&C industry, especially on high-profile projects: Making sure your company is leveraging eligible carbon credits, reducing its carbon footprint through increased efficiencies, and purchasing "greener" building materials can go a long way to improving your overall operational effectiveness.
How PwC can help
While many of our competitors focus strictly on the engineering/logistical side of the engineering and construction industry, our E&C practice also offers the sound financial acumen needed to examine the cost consequences of operational improvements.
We can help in the reduction of costs and the minimization of waste to enhance profitability. We can assist you with supply chain and supplier risk issues, procurement and overall company-wide cost reduction. Our Sustainability practice can address the environmental impact of your operations, and our Economic and Credit Crisis Task Force can help you with issues arising specifically out of the current economic downturn.
Contact us today to see how we can help with the financial and operational effectiveness of your E&C organization. | <urn:uuid:6600b277-8615-4511-a7fa-6bf180b5d16c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pwc.com/ca/en/engineering-construction/operational-financial-effectiveness.jhtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945015 | 507 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Gardening-Related Groups Growing Across Central New York
If you have a passion for a particular plant or group of plants, or just enjoy sharing your growing joys and sorrows, there are many groups of like-minded gardeners all across Central New York. Below is just a sampling of these groups with the most recent contact information I have at hand.
If you're aware of a group that's not included here, or have updated contact information for a listed group, click here to send me a note.
First positively identified in Detroit, Michigan in 2002, and now known to have been present in the U.S. since at least the early 1990's, Emerald Ash Borer (at right) was confirmed to have infested about thirty ash trees in Randolph, New York, just off Exit 16 of State Route 17/I-86 this past week. Unfortunately, it's quite likely that this pest is much more widely established in the state than this initial observation can confirm.
Because infestations by this east Asian wood-boring beetle have been confirmed for quite some time in Ohio (2003), Ontario (2004) and Pennsylvania (2007), it's confirmation in New York State while not surprising, is certainly discouraging as there currently are no 100% effective methods for preventing ash trees from becoming infested. According to the NYS DEC Emerald Ash Borer website, this tiny beetle is estimated to have killed more than 70 million ash trees in the U.S. in less than ten years!
According to the Syracuse Urban Forest Master Plan published by the USDA Forest Service in 2001, there are nearly 2,000 ash trees along the more the 400 miles of streets in the city. Add to that the several thousand ash trees in parks and both residential and commercial landscapes in the city, it's likely easily 5,000 trees are at risk as this insect pest continues to spread. Doing some simple math, it's easy to see several tens of thousands of ash trees are at risk just in Onondaga County!
Just a few sources for additional information include:
The center of the gardening universe - Buffalo, of course!
Wednesday 07-14-2010 4:34pm ET
The most humongously (that may not be a real word, but it
should be) spectacular horticulture event EVER in the history of the universe
is only seven days away – the 2010 edition of Garden Walk Buffalo!
Next Saturday and Sunday, July 24th and 25th
from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. both days, you can tour more than 350 (that’s not
a typo) public and private gardens scattered throughout several historic
neighborhoods – bounded roughly from the newly renovated Japanese Garden in
Delaware Park on the north, Main Street to the east, Front Park near the Peace
Bridge to the west, and the test gardens at the Buffalo Erie Basin Marina on
the lakefront to the south.
Oh, you know what – I forgot to mention that the entire two
day soiree is 100% FREE, including the map!
Using the incredible success of this extraordinary event (an
estimated 40,000 to 50,000 visitors attend Garden Walk) as a springboard, a
group of civic organizations have banded together to create the five week-long
National Garden Festival. This first-of-its-kind event features seventeen
weekend garden tours (900 gardens total), private open garden tours for those
that can’t make the weekend tours, seminars, concerts, and a garden makeover of
nineteen front yards on North Parade Avenue in Buffalo! Oh, and if you enjoy reading online garden blogs, dozens of bloggers from throughout North America (including, no doubt, your favorites) survived the mother of all meet-ups, Garden Bloggers Buffa10 last weekend!
Coordinator of the National Garden Festival,author, and Buffalo garden media personality, Sally
Cunningham, joined me on the show to tie all of these
events together in a nice, tidy bow!
And, Thomas Herrera-Mishler, President and Chief Executive Office of the Buffalo Olmsted Park Conservancy introduced us to some of the features of one of the most inspired urban green space master plans ever created in North America, if not the world!
Finally, should you still need a bit of convincing to head on over to Buffalo next weekend, you can watch the Time Warner YNN "Garden Journeys" episodes videographer Tom Walters and I shot at last summer's edition of Garden Walk Buffalo right on your computer by clicking on the following links!
A question I've been getting over and over this how to avoid losing tomatoes to late blight this coming summer?
The good news is that providing there are no overwintering potato tubers in your garden, or in nearby gardens or fields, and you grow your own tomato transplants or buy disease-free tomato transplants from local, independent garden centers, farmers markets or greenhouse growers, there should be no need to worry about late blight this coming growing season.
The late blight that devastated both backyard and commercial plantings of tomatoes throughout the northeast last summer resulted from a "perfect storm" involving the distribution of infected tomato transplants from a large grower in the south through mass distributors in combination with unusually damp, cool summer growing conditions. If last summer had simply been more typically warm and dry, the disease would've been far less widespread.
For more information on late blight in upstate New York vegetable gardens, visit the excellent entry entitled "Avoid the Late Blight Blues" on the Cornell University Department of Horticulture blog that was posted a couple of weeks ago.
Today's brisk wind, overcast skies and scattered showers aren't going to do much to remedy many Central New Yorker's severe case of cabin fever. Fortunately for Beth and I we need just look out our dining room window for a glimpse of spring as our `Jelena' witchhazel, at right, has been in full bloom for a couple of weeks!
Stepping out onto our front porch, we can see Christmas roses (Helleborus niger) and snowdrops blooming along our front walk. And, probably by next weekend we'll have winter hardy cyclamen blooming along our driveway!
The moral of this entry is that you don't need to wait for tulips, daffodils, crocus, magnolias and forsythia for spring color in your Central New York garden!
Heavy Snow's Not Friendly to Trees and Shrubs!
Saturday 02-27-2010 9:50am ET
My left hand and forearm are a bit achy as I put this entry together.
Just like you, I spent several hours yesterday morning removing the foot or so of snow that had fallen late Thursday evening through early Friday morning from our eighty-eight foot long driveway - one shovelful at a time!
Fortunately, other than worrying about being able to get out of our driveway if necessary, I didn't need to worry about damage the heavy snow may have inflicted on plants in our landscape.
However, if you have arborvitae or other shrubs that look like those of our neighbors down the street, above, what are your options for helping them recover?
First, don't try to brush the snow off. Now that it's had a chance to freeze on the branches of many plants, you could end up breaking the snow-encrusted branches. Though it may be painful to look at for the next week or more, patience will most likely be a virtue.
After the snow has melted, your shrubs may look like the one at right? The good news is that with less than a dollar worth of wire, a galvanized washer, a sixteenth inch diameter drill bit, and ten minutes or so of your time, not only can you repair the damage, but you can keep it from happening again in the future, as shown at left!
For more information and step-by-step instructions for helping plants in your landscape and garden that have been damaged by this past week's snow storm, click here.
Seed Catalogs and Garden Shows Means It's Time to Think Spring!
Friday 01-22-2010 10:50pm ET
Now that we're in the midst of our annual mid-winter thaw and many of our mailboxes are stuffed with seed catalogs, it's time to get serious about this coming years plans for our lawns, landscapes and gardens.
To help us with our plans, a couple of weeks ago I chatted with Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott, Associate Professor and Urban Horticulture Extension Specialist at Washington State University in Puyallup, Washington (whew . . . . , how's that for a mouthful), one of the four blogging Garden Professors (the group also includes past "Weeder's Digest" guest Dr. Jeff Gillman of the University of Minnesota, Dr. Bert Cregg of Michigan State University, and Dr. Holly Scoggins at Virginia Tech University).
What's unique about this group's blog is that they are doing the science that allows us all to become better gardeners! And, for all of our benefit, they're doing their best to put their findings (and their interpretation of other scientist's research) into terms we can understand and implement.
What Linda and I focused most specifically on during our conversation is her ongoing online series of Horticultural Myths. Some of the topics she addresses including the benefits (or not) of adding coffee grounds to your plants, the value of compost tea, and whether or not it makes sense to amend garden soils with various kinds of organic matter.
Next I spoke with Lori Bushway, Senior Extension Associate at Cornell University about Cornell's Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners. This is an online database of more than 5,000 varieties of vegetables - from acorn squash to zucchini - and everything in between. So, if those seed catalogs have your head spinning, this might just be the resource for you! Also, you might want to consider attending a series of vegetable and fruit growing "how-to" and technique-sharing programs at the Liverpool Library that are being sponsored by Edible Gardening CNY.
And, finally, it wouldn't be going on spring if we didn't start chatting up CNY Blooms, Central New York's very own flower and garden show, sponsored by the Central New York State Nursery and Landscape Association. According to event co-chair Tim Ballantyne, new this year at Central New York's only exclusively lawn, landscape and garden-focused garden show will be a floral arrangement competition in the lobby of the OnCenter that's guaranteed to dazzle before you even step into spring inside the exhibition hall!
Saturday 10-17-2009 10:45am ET
Now that snow has flown across all of our listening area, you may be wondering if there's still time to prune all of the overgrown shrubs in your landscape - you know, the ones you've past practically every day since the first nice days this past spring!
If it were me, I'd definitely hold off until next year to do any major pruning.
Well, first, hard pruning right now will delay the rate at which your shrubs continuing "hardening off" in preparation for the really bitter weather that's ahead of us. Also, the extra time will give you a chance to consider other options - such as removing all of those overgrown monstrosities you've been cursing for years and replacing them with more attractive plants that won't grow too large with time!
However, if there's nothing I can say to dissuade you from hauling out the pruning shears, let me at least direct you to several pages on my website than may be helpful to review before going to work. The pages include:
A common question on the "Weeder's Digest" is about getting rid of moss that's "crowding out" a lawn.
It's actually impossible for mosses to outcompete/overrun vigorous lawn grasses. They are, however, very good at filling in bare spots where lawn grasses have either died, or are very thin and struggling.
To help answer all of your moss-related questions, a group of students at SUNY - College of Environmental Science & Forestry in Syracuse has prepared the following information.
Why are there mosses in my lawn?
Mosses become established where the grass isn't growing vigorously.
strategies to live in inhospitable parts of the landscape where "vascular" plants can't, from poor soils to rocks to dead logs.
Mosses don’t have roots to pull nutrients from the soil, meeting their needs instead from trace amounts of nutrients found in rainwater. Mosses also thrive in the shade, even deep
shade, while your lawn and many of your beautiful flowers need more
There are also mosses that grow well in full sun, and these may be the culprits you see in
the middle of your lawn?Many of these
mosses can tolerate periods of extended drought, drying out
and rolling up on themselves until the rains return and they
unfold in all their glory.
What if I like mosses and I want to encourage them in my
Mosses can add wonderful shades of green in all hues to your garden, and
even hints of reds and yellows depending on the species.
Their ability to grow on surfaces such as
rocks and dead logs allows you to add more color and texture to your garden
without making it look like you’ve added a bunch of debris.And not all mosses are the same.There are many species, from the
stair-step moss (Hylocomium splendens) to the haircap mosses (Polytrichum
spp.) to elegant mosses like species in the genus Fissidens.
They’ll do best if you give them a place
where they won’t have to compete with your garden plants.Mosses love rocks and dead wood, moisture,
and shade, though some of them will do just fine in the sun, too.The bases of trees are another good place to
encourage mosses, and they won’t harm your trees at all.
So, once you’ve created a home for mosses, how
do you add them to your garden?
If you’ve already found some in your yard, you can transplant patches into the areas where you’d like to see them thrive.Once they've been moved they’ll “re-root” themselves and begin to spread.Don’t worry that they’ll take over the
garden - remember, they simply can’t
compete with larger plants.
You can also encourage mosses from outside your garden
to establish themselves on their own. Essentially, “if you build it, they will come!”
Simply provide suitable areas (outlined above) and keep the soil bare. Moss spores will literally ride the wind
and ultimately find their way to you. Or, you can make a moss "smoothie" and pour it over your future moss garden spots!
Here’s a recipe - into a blender (though maybe not your best Cuisinart) place:
- One six inch chunk of moss torn into bits
- One cup of manure or humus
- Beer, buttermilk or water
- Blend until the consistency of mortar
Apply the smoothie liberally to the spot(s) where you
want to encourage the mosses, and they’ll do the rest.
Pieces of mosses can be obtained from the area around you, as long as
you collect responsibly and don’t over-harvest any one spot.Protected areas like state parks and private properties are off
Since mosses are
desiccation tolerant, you can order them from commercial growers and have them
shipped to you.And remember to look in
your own backyard.Chances are they're
there, too, just waiting to be encouraged to become an attractive addition to your landscape!
Informational links about mosses and moss gardening:
Living With Mosses - A very informational site for all
levels of interest constructed by students at Oregon State University about the
mosses all around us.
What's on Your Mind?
Saturday 04-11-2009 7:56am ET
The bird's are chirping, the days are getting much longer and and warmer, and local garden centers are getting close to bursting at the seams with gorgeous trees, shrubs, perennials, vines, etc., that would all look GREAT in your yard!
Before rushing out to buy a couple of burning bush, rose-of-Sharon, evergreen trees and shrubs, and grass seed, take a couple of minutes to read through several previous posts on this blog.
What you'll discover is that burning bush, rose-of-Sharon, and essentially all evergreen trees and shrubs (including "dwarf" Alberta spruce) grow much, Much, MUCH too large for typical residential landscape settings. You'll also learn that spring is the absolutely WORST time of year to do almost everything in your lawn!
Oh, and don't throw out the Easter lily you bought this past week. I'll explain why next weekend! | <urn:uuid:d35e879f-06bc-41d1-b052-c3b17334facd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wsyr.com/pages/TerryEttinger.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950581 | 3,635 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Disabled woman banned by Jetstar seeks settlement
Lawyers for a disabled woman who is suing Jetstar after she was banned from a flight from Adelaide to Brisbane have agreed to make one last attempt to settle before going to a Federal Court hearing.
Sheila King booked her flight over the internet in August 2008 but was contacted the next day and told she would not be able to fly on that day because there were already two passengers requiring wheelchair assistance booked on the flight.
She was told Jetstar had a policy of only allowing a maximum of two wheelchair-reliant passengers on any flight.
Ms King has taken the low-budget airline to the Federal Court, claiming it discriminated against her by "treating her less favourably than a passenger who did not have a mobility disability that required the use of a wheelchair", a statement of claim tendered to the court says.
"The applicant was treated less favourably because she is accompanied by or possesses a wheelchair ... (and) was refused access to, and the use of, the aircraft which performed (flight) JQ769 on the ground of her disability," it says.
Ms King claims that in denying her the right to fly, Jetstar breached the Disability Discrimination Act.
Ms King has had post-polio syndrome since childhood and has been in a wheelchair since 2008 after a car accident that resulted in three crushed vertebrae and three broken ribs, a statement released by her lawyers and the NSW Disability Discrimination Legal Centre says.
But she is more than capable of looking after herself when she travels, she says.
"Ms King believes the Jetstar policy is arbitrary, because people who use wheelchairs require varying levels of assistance, and in her case the assistance required is minimal," the statement read.
Lawyers for Ms King and Jetstar failed at conciliatory mediation in April last year but, in the Federal Court on Tuesday, Justice Michael Moore asked them to make one last effort to settle out of court before going to a hearing.
"It seems to me to be the sort of case that level and sensible heads might be capable of resolving," Justice Moore said.
"As an informed citizen, if I can bifurcate myself for a moment and speak as a concerned citizen rather than a judge, there have been in the press recently two or three cases concerning (similar claims about) flight services for people with disabilities (that were settled out of court).
"A year has passed (since mediation) ... (the parties) may be more conducive to settlement."
Lawyers for both parties said they were happy to make one last attempt but Nicolas Patrick, acting for Ms King, noted that previous attempts at conciliation had failed.
He was concerned that delaying the hearing further would see the costs blow out even more, he said.
Justice Moore said if this final attempt failed he would hear the matter as soon as possible. | <urn:uuid:c8032915-628c-4c93-965e-344133deb799> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/disabled-woman-banned-by-jetstar-seeks-settlement-20100202-nacs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985758 | 591 | 1.523438 | 2 |
"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."
Friday, 22 January 2010
Heather recently stated that she kept things underneath her hutch. This prompted me to comment:-
"I don't have a hutch... Over here a hutch is a cage that one keeps pets in - especially rabbits. So reading this in UK English rather suggests you have a big ears and sleep in a wood and wire cage but at least the fact that you store things underneath it suggests you are allowed out occasionally! :-) "
Upon checking I also discovered that in UK English was not only a “cage (usually made of wood and wire mesh) for small animals” but was also a hovel: small crude shelter used as a dwelling .
Heather responded by telling me that a ” hutch for "me" - can't say that for all US peoples but for me - is a formal wooden place to keep china, dishes, special glass and such. Mine has glass doors on the top section, a counter space for keeping books and what not's and a lower section with cupboards (where all of my photos be).”
In the UK this would probably be called a dresser but the use of the word hutch for this was confirmed by Wikipedia – “A hutch is a type of furniture that usually consists of a set of shelves or cabinets placed on top of a lower unit with a counter and either drawers or cabinets. Hutches are often seen in the form of desks, dining room or kitchen furniture. Frequently referred to by furniture aficionados as a hutch dresser.”
My daughter Helen commented in November 2008 in her Blog that she was now keeping a notebook of new words that she came across during her reading. "This week I bought a lovely little leather bound book to write new words in as I read them . I've added a few from "1984", but my favourite has to be persiflage (from the French persifler) which means banter." I later discovered that my older daughter, Bryony, also kept a similar notebook.
This inspired me to create a Word blog. This will include both new words, favourite words and the origins of phrases that we commonly use. A definition and some comment, perhaps even a relevant quotation, will acompany the word or phrase.
“I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.” - Winnie the Pooh
I'm a blogger - nowadays that seems to be my main occupation and Rambles from My Chair is my main blog. I’m a retired local government executive - now studying how to survive a neurological disorder that gives me various problems but, hopefully, a whole new outlook on life and an increased sense of humour and perspective. I enjoy all manner of communication apart from the telephone and am constantly e-mailing, texting, writing postcards and letters and commenting on other people's blogs.
Scriptor Senex is Latin for Old Writer and my real name is John but I've almost forgotten that nowadays...
“He’s not so old. He’s just the age that he is, that’s all.” (Gerald Hammond) | <urn:uuid:12602678-469a-4503-b08b-12a47e557797> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cjewords.blogspot.com/2010/01/hutch.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973513 | 702 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Find an Expert
New Faculty Spotlight:
The Environmental Science & Policy Program database searches for environmental expertise among more than 200 faculty participating in ESPP at Michigan State University. Our faculty include some of the most noted experts in the world on issues such as agriculture, environmental toxins, invasive species and land use. If your story involves Michigan or the Great Lakes region, then MSU is the place to look for expertise. MSU also has one of the largest pools of faculty who work in Africa and Latin America of any U.S. university. The database is also screened for those faculty available to be interviewed.
To search by Keywords, type in the term(s) and select either "Any Word" or "All Words". Selecting "Any Word" will give you a comprehensive faculty query where "water" or "quality" will give you profiles in which either the term will be included. Selecting "All words" for "water" and "quality" will result in profiles that contain both terms.
To search by Name, type in the name of the person you are searching for last name followed by a comma and then first name (ex. Smith, John). If you are not sure of how a name is spelled, you may type in the first few characters of the name and the system will perform a wildcard search (ex. sm, j will return smith, john). | <urn:uuid:7bf14500-3c05-4bb1-85bd-dc0b586611f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.espp.msu.edu/expertise/index.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930081 | 284 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The whistleblower website that posted video of a US Army helicopter firing on unarmed civilians and killing two Reuters employees is ready to do it again, its founder says. (A screenshot of the clip appears at right; video available at this link.)
Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange says he has obtained video of a US "massacre" that took place in Afghanistan in 2009.
The British newspaper The Telegraph claimed that the site had a copy of video from the attack in April.
"The clip will show previously classified footage from US warplanes that had been tapped to bomb Taliban positions in Farah province, Afghanistan last year," the paper said. "The Afghan government said at the time that the strikes by F-18 and B1 planes near Garani killed 147 civilians. An independent Afghan inquiry later put the toll at 86."
Former New York Times investigative reporter Philip Shenon reports:
While denying again that WikiLeaks has the State Department cables, Assange acknowledges in the email today that he is in custody of the May 2009 video that shows the airstrike on the Afghan village of Garani, believed to be the most lethal combat strike in Afghanistan—in terms of civilian deaths—since the United States invaded the country in 2001. Assange writes that “we are still working on” preparations for release of the video of “the Garani massacre.”
The State Department and Pentagon did not immediately comment on Assange’s email message.
American officials have acknowledged in the past that they are concerned about the release of the Garani video, fearing that it could undermine public support for the American military campaign in Afghanistan both in that country and in the United States. Pentagon officials were outraged by WikiLeaks’ release of the Baghdad video this spring.
Shenon asserted last week that the Pentagon is "desperately" searching for the founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks, out of concern he is about to publish classified US State Department cables.
Curiously, the piece cites an American diplomat as saying their chief concern is the leak of communications "prepared by diplomats and State Department officials throughout the Middle East, regarding the workings of Arab governments and their leaders."
The concern over US communications about Arab governments seems slightly surprising in lieu of the fact the cables also "contained information related to American diplomatic and intelligence efforts in the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq," which would, in theory, be of greater concern to Pentagon bosses running US war efforts.
Authorities are said to be seeking Wikilieaks founder Julian Assange, who allegedly came into possession of secret US cables after they were leaked by a 22-year-old Army intelligence officer. The Army specialist, Bradley Manning, was recently arrested and is being held in Kuwait.
Manning reportedly told authorities that he'd leaked reams of State Department communiques. | <urn:uuid:8df96eee-0638-4134-a2ce-549aed67852e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_60359.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966947 | 567 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Free Photo Archive of over 26,000 vintage photographs. Find people and the places were they lived. Search for your surnames. Find photos of your ancestors. Make connections with genealogy cousins. Add your family's photos.
Mary E. Stoever Boyer Biever
Mary E. Stoever was born abt 1864. She married John Boyer. They became the parents of one son, Howard F. Boyer, then divorced 22 Jun 1903. She married Amos Biever, 22 Aug 1903.
Submitted by Lori McGuire, great great granddaughter | <urn:uuid:cd2bf3b6-2598-4a7c-a71a-ca90b0ed4609> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www3.familyoldphotos.com/photo/pennsylvania/24482/mary-e-stoever-boyer-biever | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96779 | 115 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The Chieftain State of Gujarat
Where the Republic Ends
When, after the massacre of Muslims in 2002, the electorate in Gujarat voted the butcher of Gandhinagar—the Capital city of Gujarat; but think of the enormous irony of that oxymoron—back to power, they effectively declared their secession from the Republic of India. If the founding principles of the Republic are "secularism" and "democracy," Modi's victorious constituency used the latter to spit at the former.
Just as the Germans had done in 1933—use democracy to install dictatorship.
Always to remember when we speak of Gujaratis that nearly a half of the electorate voted against him as well. Such are the ways in which franchise makes or unmakes, especially in an electoral system where all you need to do is to first pass the post. Much of the time, indeed, in such a dispensation it is the minority that rules the majority! Yet it is all we have for now.
Employing a diabolical double-speak, Modi berated the secularists for feeding off the Muslim "vote-bank" while simultaneously consolidating first a Hindutva constituency and then a regional/Gujarati one.
Effectively, Gujarat has come to be reconstructed as an alterity to the Indian nation-state. Not Kashmir, but Modi-led Gujarat.
Operating as the endorsed Chieftan of a triumphalist tribe, the Modi "government"—for want of another word—has, since that ineffaceable butchery in 2002—sought, every single step of the way to shield the Hindutva satraps (who were knee-deep in blood at the behest of the Chieftan) from the operations of the law, and brazenly to bring back into positions of authority publicly implicated high-ranking police officers, and atleast one judge, name of Mehta, who was spoken of by the ripper- in- chief, Babu Bajrangi, in a sting tape as the judge that Modi brought back to secure the self-confessed ripper from the hangman, after two other judges had honourably refused to do the dirty work of granting him bail. Indeed the same "Justice" Mehta has now been drafted as part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that the Supreme Court of India has assigned to look into the merit of some cases that are asking to be opened and reinvestigated!
As a result, lawyers working for the victims of the massacre have taken the only recourse of opting out of the proceedings in protest against the inclusion of Mehta and challenging his inclusion in the Supreme Court.
Among these worthies who have been recalled not just to life but to brazen authority is the police officer, Mathur, reinstated as the Police Commissioner of Ahmedabad.
And what could be a more ringing declaration of separate nationhood on behalf of the Chieftan state of Gujarat than that this same Mathur should now have instituted a charge of "sedition and treason" against the editor of the local edition of the Times of India (by any reckoning, one of the country's most widely read and puissant corporate English Dailies) for a story it did on him.
It must be understood that the charge of "sedition" may be brought against a citizen of the Republic only by the highest political/constitutional authority of the land, and only for actions provenly prejudicial to the security of the state. In post-independent India, such charge has been brought, as far as we can ascertain, only against some officers in the military for allegedly leaking Intelligence to the "enemy."
Clearly, therefore, Mathur could not have been the sanctioning brain/authority behind such a charge. By no stretch even of the fascist imagination could a police commissioner be deemed the equivalent of the State. The defiance and the daring must belong to the Chiefton whose dirty work he has been brought back to do. Ergo, "sedition" not against India, but against " Modiland." Since Modi alone may say with Louis xiv of old, "I am the State."
True to the ethics and oath of the Fourth Estate, the TOI story drew attention to evidence that this Mathur has had links with the criminal underworld, and thus cannot be deemed eligible for the responsibility bestowed upon him by his obliging Chieftan.
As reported in The Hindu of June 2, '08, the basis of the TOI story on Mathur's antecedents was a statement given by an underworld denizen that the Commissioner was at one time on the "Don's payroll."
Whereas Mathur may well have instituted a case of libel/defamation against the TOI, remarkably the case filed accuses the newspaper editor of "sedition and treason" against the state.
Not even during the dark days of the state of Internal Emergency imposed by the then Indira Gandhi government (1975-76) was, to the best of our knowledge, any member/organ of the Fourth Estate charged with "sedition and treason."
Indeed, two infamous instances that come to mind both pertain to the days of colonial rule.
I refer to the charge of "sedition" brought against Lokmanya Tilak and then Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, in both cases for writing articles calculated to cause "disaffection" against the "legitimate government of the day." A charge which both those honourable men proudly acknowledged.
In Gujarat of our day, however, "sedition" has come to mean any word or act that contradicts the myth of "good governance" cheekily floated by Modi and gladly bought by his constituency, or any attempt to use public institutions to hold the Modi government to account.
Only two years ago, the editor of Surat Samna, Manoj Shinde was charged under section 124 A ("sedition") for commenting on the ineptitude of the authorities in handling the waters of the Ukai dam, which caused flooding in the city of Surat. The charge spelt out was that Shinde had instigated people against a duly elected government! (The Hindu, 30/08/2006).
Animal Farm? 1984? Take your pick.
And to think that Orwell imagined that totalitarian habits of mind existed only in "totalitarian" states. Consider in passing that a Tory Member of Parliament in Britain, name of David Davis, has resigned his membership following the adoption of the new draconian law that will allow the state there to hold in custody anyone for 42 days without trial. The vote may have passed by a majority of just nine, but many in Britain are alarmed that with a plethora of draconian laws in place, including the world's largest data base of citizens's DNA , an I-Card dispensation, and CCTV cameras reaching literally into bedrooms, liberty in that mother of democracies is losing out to the State. David Davis now goes into a bye-election of his choosing to test how Britains feel on these issues. We, on behalf of those who wish the world to be free, also wish him luck.
Alas, no such prospects in Gujarat.
You can be sure that nothing that has been said thus far qualifies as hyperbole. The Gujarat Chiefton has now ventured a bolder leap forward in announcing that his realm, after all, may remain autonomous of the Union and the Constitutional regime of laws that govern its operations.
He has dared the Indian government at the Centre to withhold grants to his state, and be prepared to suffer the loss of tax revenues due to it from Gujarat. Any student of india's pre-Independence history will recognize that such indeed used to be the nature of hostile discourse among the then autonomous Princely States and Subbas and between them and any central authority that might exist for the time being.
As has been rightly pointed out by some political and constitutional spokespersons, if there be any smell of "sedition" in the air, this must be it. So what does anybody do ?
The central government of course can always take recourse to the provisions of article 356 of the Constitution, declare the Modi government in violation of Constitutional governance, and lawfully sack it.
This was something that many well-wishers of the Republic would have gladly endorsed had such a recourse been taken to at the time of the Modi-endorsed Gujarat massacres.
But ofcourse with a friendly NDA regime, led by Modi's own BJP, then in power in Delhi, nothing could have been farther from expectation. Famously, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then prime minister, went the length of recommending that Modi in Gujarat follow Raj Dharam, i.e. the ethics of good rule. It was a good laugh, streaked in many places with the blood of innocents.
Since that time the politics of the country has taken several new twists, but chiefly a lurch to the right in which Modi's BJP and the Congress party are equally complicit.
The Congress particularly has been rendered weak by a string of electoral losses especially to the BJP, as the country's middle sections, in town and country, viewing market ‘reforms' with a gluttonous eye, draw away from the Congress for initiating a string of social programmes directed at the welfare of the minorities, Muslims in particular, and other weaker sections of Indians.
The proverbial idealism of the young— especially those that have any saleable value—directs itself increasingly and rather exclusively to what "packages" the corporates have on offer, or what opportunities are to be exploited in the western world. Those that can play cricket look to the IPL (Indian Premier League in which each side plays just a quick-fire twenty overs each against enormous sums of money paid) as the possible high point of a successful life. Conversely, many young students who fail their examinations or do not do to "expectations" commit suicide, thinking that life can have no success to offer.
Cannily, Modi has during the last assembly elections especially (2007) cast himself as the messiah of "development", never mind that such development leaves the bulk of Gujaratis as out of reckoning as ever. For those that wield social and economic clout, the admixture of lucre and Hindu pride—visible everywhere in the shape of a sock-in-the-eye display of religiosity, is the winning formula, one that seems to promise salvation both here and in the hereafter. All mightily bolstered by the tribe of NRIs abroad (some 40% of the American ones are Gujaratis) who see this fusing of money and mantra as the way to hegemonise all of the Indian middle classes generally.
No time then would seem more inappropriate/inauspicious for the Centre than now to take recourse to dismissing the Modi government.
If Gujarat is to be reintegrated with the Republic there is only but one way to go: the hard way.
Given that the Congress, the main political opposition in Gujarat, has been effectively reduced to impotence as the constituency for secular politics has shrunk, in no small measure owing to the complicity of the Congress itself, and to the extent that the Congress has long forgotten the culture of mass mobilization through effective organization on the ground and sweat in the doing, there is little to be looked for there as of now.
That fact indeed brings into sharp and admirable focus the toils of those in Gujarat who have through these six years sought on the basis of relentless home work and fearless conviction to bring the Modi dispensation to book—civil society groups and a configuration of socially sensitive, journalists, artists and other intellectuals for the most part. Aided, no doubt, by the highest court in the land.
Working through the Supreme Court and the media—some sections of it—their achievements in unraveling the horrendous excesses and transgressions of Modi-rule constitute the high-watermark of the history of human rights struggles of the last decade or so.
Yet, this is only a resource; the antidote to the misuse of democratic franchise and legitimacy by Modi can only lie in mounting a more cognizant polity in and outside Gujarat.
Unless, beginning now, for a whole year or more, an integration and consolidation of media power, social service resources, labour power, and party- political rethinks happen, such as are able to produce a questioning centre-left transformation on the ground on the concrete issues of livelihood and equity, and so long as Modi remains at the helm of the BJP in Gujarat, the secession of the state from the Repubnlic will only deepen.
Gujarat, after all, has come to represent for the RSS the possibility that the more the Congress goes into somnambulant and aristocratic dotage, the more unable it is to distinguish itself from the ideological contours of the BJP, the more reluctant it remains to ally with the Left in launching mobilization against fascist formations without thought to party constituencies, the more Hindutva fascism can forge ahead towards reconstituting India into an erstwhile Nepal—a Hindu Rashtra (Theocratic Hindu State). Recall that it has been in the past the position of the RSS that the best thing to happen to Bharat would be for the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal to take the country into an amalgamated oneness!
For now, the charge of "sedition" leveled against the TOI in Gujarat—and another case under section 153 (A) (B) of the IPC—causing schism among communities-- against the well-known sociologist, Ashish Nandy, for an article he wrote, also in the TOI bemoaning the character of the middle class with respect to Gujarat, an experience that might help this particular intellectual to rethink some of his favourable consideration of Hindu religious identity and distaste for left politics—do provide an opportunity for wide sections of the polity to launch a campaign for the restoration of secularism and fundamental freedoms in Modi's Gujarat.
It is a circumstance that could assist media corporates who have habitually held up Modi as the ideal future Indian hero (for three understated reasons, it might be noted: his friendliness to big business, his rabid hatred of the Left, and his ability to galvanise Hindu-communal politics to ward off both labour consolidation and keep potential "terrorists" in fear and trembling, leaving the local terrorisers under his command to do their work unfettered) to cry off a bit, and suggest to Modi that secession on his behalf is as unacceptable as anywhere else in the country, if not more. Having now added draconian daring to fundamentalist/communalist politics, the media ought to make it known that Modi may not after all be such a darling.
After all, for many of them it is still in fashion to revile the late Indira Gandhi for her "authoritarianism"; who more so, she or Modi? She did not cry "sedition" even when the draconian Emergency regime could have legally allowed her to do so; he it seems can do it in broad daylight and with fearless impunity against those whose job it is to keep democracy and the rule of law in place.
If Modi can haul up something like the TOI with a charge of "sedition", pray who is safe?
Note that in Maharashtra one of the most respected and fair-minded senior journalists, editor of Loksatta, Kumar Ketkar, was attacked in the privacy of his home by fascist hordes who did not like his advice to the local government that, rather than spend hundreds of crores on erecting a statue of Shivaji somewhere in the sea, the moneys could be better spent on relieving misery among the people.
Subsequently, the Editors' Guild of India took up the issue and made out a decent statement.
Yet, why the "sedition" charge leveled against the TOI in Gujarat seems a rather muted item is tough to understand. It is ofcourse possible that unbeknown to this writer some strong things are afoot.
One certainly hopes so; and afoot in many places and conclaves. | <urn:uuid:24ef599c-5af2-49b7-8d91-a76049aaddc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/the-chieftain-state-of-gujarat-by-badri-raina | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964263 | 3,303 | 1.53125 | 2 |
After finishing the finale episode of HBO’s Girls (SPOILER ALERT) last night, I was left wondering about relationships. In the final episode, we see the main character finally getting what she had been chasing throughout the season – an official, labeled relationship with an artist she had been seeing. But as the story usually goes, she finds that it isn’t what she thought it would be. The problem was that she was so in-the-moment with her desires to achieve her goal of a relationship that she didn’t stop to think about the real implications of what having a relationship means.
Sound familiar? It did to me! Be honest, have you ever committed to something without really thinking everything through? There are times in life when everyone does this – whether it’s having one too many cocktails, not studying for an exam, going to sleep late when you have an early meeting, etc. Sometimes we can quickly recover from these things. However, when it comes to relationships, so much of your time becomes invested that it is not so easy to bounce back.
Whether you’re looking through your matches on eHarmony or shuffling past potential suitors in a bar, keep this in mind. Someone’s partying ways might be appealing to you now, but in 5 years when you have different priorities, will this be a deal breaker if his/her priorities haven’t changed? If you feel that you are looking for something long term, try to consider each person you meet as carefully as possible. This type of thinking now may save you from an uncomfortable breakup later.
Fall in love now: Surprising lessons from a cell biologist - When you are in love, every cell in your body feels love, too. Find out how love can affect your heart and health, and discover why you don’t need a partner to fall in love.
“We’re in love, so we’ll work it” out and other dating myths - What can dating couples learn from a celebrity couple’s demise. | <urn:uuid:795fbcd9-c961-4df1-94ee-9773150e421c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eharmony.com/blog/2012/06/19/getting-what-you-thought-you-wanted/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963834 | 430 | 1.632813 | 2 |
NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Broken arm still gives pain
I broke my arm 8 weeks ago,my Dr. now has me out of cast doing rehab excerises.I continue to have pain where my hand hit when I fell and my fingers arent totally straight, and the arm wont totally straighten.What else can I do to get my arm back to normal? Thank you.
You should inform your physician of this residual pain. There may be underlying injuries or pathologies that, perhaps, were not caught and that could be causing the pain. This could also be why the arm is not completely healed or straightening. It is also always desirable to `check in` with your doctor to assess progress and let him/her know of any unexpected or adverse events. If you are performing therapeutic exercises, it may also be a good idea to consult with a physiatrist (a MD who specializes in rehabilitation). These doctors are usually the ones who will coordinate therapies and prescribe therapeutic exercise. There are many fine physiatrists and rehabilitation hospitals throughout the country, including one of the nation`s largest and most comprehensive rehabilitation hospitals here in Cincinnati, Drake Rehabilitation Center.
Stephen J Page, PhD
Director of Research, Associate Professor
University of Cincinnati | <urn:uuid:6f634905-61bd-4252-8554-bac7a9f3b4f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netwellness.org/question.cfm/27316.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945579 | 291 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Dr Eamonn Butler is Director and co-founder of Britain’s leading free-market policy think tank, the Adam Smith Institute, and a leading author and broadcaster on economics and social issues. Westminster insiders look forward each week to his wry online commentary on politics and politicians.
Eamonn is the winner, with his colleague Dr Madsen Pirie, of the 2010 National Free Enterprise Award, for the greatest contribution to furthering the market economy. In 2012 he was awarded an honorary D Litt from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh in recognition of his outstanding contribution over several decades to the advancement of public policy and economics. Eamonn is Vice-President of the Mont Pelerin Society, an international association of distinguished economists and entrepreneurs, founded in 1947 by the Nobel Prize winner F A Hayek.
Eamonn is author of books on a wide range of subjects, from economics through psychology to politics. These include easy-read introductions to the economists Milton Friedman, F A Hayek and Adam Smith, and a short explanation of how markets work, called (modestly) The Best Book on the Market, which he wrote to be “so simple that even politicians can understand it.” | <urn:uuid:ea730ff5-454f-404b-8fc7-fca55f486950> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eamonnbutler.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960152 | 251 | 1.570313 | 2 |
This morning I got an email from a Richmond resident regarding the process by which council is considering the proposal to Ban the Sale of Dogs in Storefronts. This is an excellent query, so here’s a little history and some information on current events.
Richmond’s petition to stop the sale of animals in pet stores was started during a RAPS board meeting, and was based on the need to stop the steady stream of dogs, cats, rabbits, guineas pigs and birds that were purchased at local pet stores and quickly surrendered to the Richmond Animal Shelter. A new balance between incoming animals and re-homed animals had to be established. Hence, the need to stop retail sales of animals. The petition has been circulated by volunteers and by the BC SPCA.
In 2009, Councilmen Ken Johnston brought forth a proposal to Richmond’s council to Ban the Sale of Dogs in Storefronts. That proposal was considered during the March 2 General Purposes Committee meeting. See minutes here.
During that meeting, committee members asked staff to research items further, but as of Sept. 1, this issue has not been put on the General Purpose Committee agenda. We are encouraging council to put this issue on the Oct. 4th General Purposes Committee agenda. | <urn:uuid:82d391dd-bcab-4177-aea2-a9f50de1e6af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sniffingouthome.org/2010/09/28/animal-welfare-history-in-the-making/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97693 | 261 | 1.695313 | 2 |
South Korean rapper Psy may have become a YouTube sensation, but W Chan Kim still remains the most recognised business personality to emerge from Korea. If you have any doubts, try naming the chief executives of either Samsung, Hyundai or LG? In all likelihood, we would have a much bigger show of hands if we asked a random collection of management jocks if they are familiar with the term Blue Ocean. In South Korea, not to mention Japan, collective effort is much prized over individual daredevilry. That is why there is no Richard Branson in Japan and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son is an exception. Therefore, the rise to eminence of Korean born Kim and US born co-author Renee Mauborgne in 2005 was a big surprise. There is another achievement to Kim and Mauborgne’s credit that the Korean rapper will find hard to match. Their bestselling book,
Blue Ocean Strategy, has been translated into 42 languages. Like all good story tellers, the duo is working on a sequel but wouldn’t give away anything at the moment.
How did Blue Ocean Strategy come about? Why did you decide to use the term Red and Blue Ocean?
Mauborgne and I have worked together for the past 30 years. From the beginning, we have shared an intellectual curiosity to understand what it takes to stand apart and create strong profitable growth. In search of an answer, we looked back more than 100 years and across 30 industries. Contrary to common thought, we did not find any permanently excellent companies or permanently excellent industries in our research. What we did find, however, were smart strategic moves. And the strategic move that we found matters centrally is to create blue oceans. Blue oceans allow companies to create strong profitable growth. This led to our book, Blue Ocean Strategy.
|Excellent companies across the world have a “heartbeat” — it is similar across cultures|
We use the terms red and blue oceans to describe the market universe. Red oceans are all the industries in existence today — the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here, companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities and cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody. Therefore, the term “red” oceans.
Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today — the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue Ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored. Like the “blue” ocean, it is vast, deep, powerful, in terms of profitable growth, and infinite.
In the seven years since you wrote the book, have you seen companies take the strategy to heart?
In fact, blue ocean strategic moves have taken place throughout the history of industry evolutions. Our book simply studied samples of such moves, uncovered and decoded the underlying pattern behind those moves. Some of the examples given in the book were historical, others were ex-ante — companies started to work with us to practise blue ocean strategy (BOS) even before the book was published. The strategic move of European Financial Service laid out in the book, for example, was a move made by Thomas Cook but at the time of publication of the book, we could not reveal its name as the period of confidentiality was not yet over.
Of course, with the publication of Blue Ocean Strategy, this approach is systematically laid out to business practitioners, which encourages them to adopt such an approach in their practice. We are now working with the world’s top companies executing BOS. This approach has not only been adopted by companies, but also by public and government organisations to reform and value-innovate public services and national policies. Examples include the Malaysia Blue Ocean Strategy Institute created by the Malaysian government and the Value Innovation Action Tank set up by Singapore ministries.
Can you give a few recent examples that you think are good examples of blue ocean thinking?
Examples are numerous. The original concept of Tata Nano “the people’s car”, is a very powerful blue ocean idea that promises to revolutionise the automobile industry, despite the difficulties Tata Motors has encountered in the implementation of the strategy. Nintendo Wii is another compelling example. Instead of competing head-to-head with other major players in the computer gaming industry, Nintendo looked at alternatives for buyers such as sports and leisure activities. Instead of focusing on existing customers of the gaming industry, who were mostly male teens and take up a small percentage of the entire population, Nintendo shifted its attention to the needs and wants of non-customers, i.e., the adult population, among whom were women and even elderly people. By offering a new game model that was healthy, interactive, socially friendly and family-oriented at an attractive price, Wii became an immediate hit and unlocked huge demand in the game and leisure markets.
How is BOS superior to a random process of innovation? Is it fair to say that all BOS is innovation but not vice versa?
Indeed, innovation in the conventional sense is largely a random occurrence. It depends either on entrepreneurial insight, which can hardly be replicated in a corporation over the long run, or on costly R&D activities, which, while highly organised, do not guarantee commercially applicable results. A related challenge is the high risks associated with innovation. Since random innovation largely follows a trial and error process, financial and strategic risks are high. Consider Motorola Iridium, a technology marvel that turned out to be a flop in the market as it did not provide attractive utility for the mass of buyers and at the same time was unreasonably expensive because of high production costs. Its failure hit the company hard. All these drawbacks call for a systematic approach to innovation. BOS provides such an approach. Its actionable frameworks, tools and processes guide companies to maximise opportunities and minimise risks in pursuing value innovation and creating blue oceans. Conventional innovations are often technology-based sub-system activities of a company. Blue ocean strategy is about value-based innovations, forms the core of a company’s business strategy and aims to achieve differentiation and low cost simultaneously.
Have you come across companies that have enthusiastically imbibed Eliminate and Reduce but have not that readily embraced Raise & Create? While it is not in the spirit of BOS, do publicly listed companies still adopt it because of quarterly earnings pressure?
Cost leaders in the conventional sense usually do that. They compete within industry boundaries without challenging the rules of the game and try to provide “comparable value” at lower cost as competitive strategy stipulates. This means that they either provide a lower offering level on each factor of competition, or eliminate and reduce some factors to keep solely the “essentials”. Doing so will likely improve their market share in the short run but eventually will trap them in intensified price wars and accelerate the commoditisation of the industry.
Publicly listed companies have every reason to adopt BOS to improve their corporate portfolios. Experienced investors make their decisions not based solely on past performances of companies, but on a solid prospect of future growth. If a publicly listed company’s earnings are fine but the business offerings in its portfolio do not offer a growth prospect, it is not likely to be appreciated by the stock market.
How can managements inculcate Blue Ocean thinking in their organisations? Does culture play a big role?
BOS can be learned and practised with proper methodologies, frameworks and tools by any company and is not generated from or greatly influenced by “culture” or “corporate DNA”. In fact, we have perceived more differences between top performing companies and poor performing ones in a single country than between top performing companies in different countries. Excellent companies across the world have much in common — a certain “heartbeat”, a momentum, a way of viewing opportunities — and it is very similar across cultures.
|Value innovation takes places mostly in highly developed markets and mature economies where competition is intense|
To help companies learn this approach, our book outlines the four-step strategy visualisation process any company or organisation can apply to break out of the red ocean. The first step is Visual Awakening. At this stage executives are asked to draw their “As Is” strategy canvas — a visual representation of their company’s strategy vis-à-vis the competition. This brings home the need for change. It serves as a wake-up call for companies to challenge their existing strategies. The next step is what we call the Visual Exploration. Here managers go into the field to explore the Six Paths to new market space creation. Here executives observe the distinct differences of alternative products and services and see which factors should be eliminated, created or changed in the company’s offerings. The penultimate step is the Visual Strategy Fair. Here executives begin to draw their “To Be” Strategy Canvas based on insights from the market exploration observations and test these ideas with customers, non-customers, and lost customers. After refining the “To Be” strategy canvas, the last step is to communicate it in a way that can be easily understood by any employee. This step is called Visual Communication.
Since slowing demand is more of a problem in developed countries, would it be fair to assume that most blue ocean thinking would continue to originate from there?
As breaking away from the pack to achieve growth and profitability is a pressing need for companies immersed in cutthroat competition. Value innovation takes places most frequently in highly developed markets and mature economies where competition is intense. Yet we have observed more and more instances of BOS moves made by companies in emerging economies such as China and India. In the past decade companies in these countries relied mainly on a low cost strategy in pursuing international trade or approaching their domestic market. Over the years competitive pressure has dramatically intensified, with companies fighting price wars in the domestic market and competing head-to-head over razor-thin profits in the international market. BOS offers them an effective way to break away from the competition and achieve profitable growth. And as these companies are no longer content to stay within the walls of their local economies and instead aspire to become global champions with strong brand recognition, we expect to see increasing efforts on their part to value innovate their businesses and head for blue oceans.
You write in the book, “In blue oceans, demand is created than fought over.” But are there any businesses where head-to-head competition is unavoidable? If yes, how can companies deal with it?
We talk about creating blue oceans, rather than finding blue oceans. That’s because blue oceans are markets or industries not in existence today. They are not existent sub-markets in a red ocean industry for companies to enter and occupy. The scope of blue ocean opportunities does not depend on the industry or sector. It depends on how skilful a value innovator is in identifying ways of market reconstruction based on existing market realities. Whenever a blue ocean is created, competition is rendered irrelevant as the rules of the game are redefined. As the market universe represents infinite opportunities for demand creation, as long as companies follow the right methodology for creating blue oceans, it is not possible they will be trapped in head-to-head competition with no way out.
Are there any sectors where it is hard to differentiate between red and blue ocean strategy? Is technology an example of a perpetually blue ocean space?
No. Red and blue ocean strategies are fundamentally different from each other. Red ocean strategists focus on building advantages over the competition, usually by assessing what competitors do and striving to do it better. Here, grabbing a bigger share of a finite market is seen as a zero-sum game in which one company’s gain is achieved at another company’s loss.
Blue ocean strategists recognise that market boundaries exist only in managers’ minds, and they do not let existing market structures limit their thinking. They shift their attention from supply to demand, from a focus on competing to a focus on creating innovative value to unlock new demand. This is achieved via the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low-cost.
There is no chance that these two approaches to strategy can be confused. In the technology sector, if a company does not focus on providing a leap in buyer value and instead tries to outcompete its rivals by providing better technologies, it is still in a red ocean game. In fact, rapid technological development tends to shorten the product life cycle and accelerate the commoditisation of products, making competition in red oceans more intense and bloody.
In the book, you mention Apple as a BOS, but don’t you think the smartphone market is now classic red ocean?
The smartphone market before iPhone was a high-end niche market making up less than 5% of the mobile phone industry, with handset manufacturers competing to provide handsets with more features and better technologies to high income professionals. Apple’s iPhone did not focus on adding more hardware features to make the phone smarter. Instead, it offered users a dramatically simplified and easy-to-use interface, and the “iTunes App Store”, allowing users to customise their phones to match their own interests. iPhone’s value innovation generated a loyal mass following for itself and huge profits for the company. By 2010 Apple had 51% of the profits of the global mobile phone industry with just 22% share of revenues and 4% share of volume.
Meanwhile, iPhone set a new standard for the mobile phone industry with almost everyone now going the Apple way. As a matter of fact, when more and more imitators jump in, the market will get crowded. That’s why BOS never intends to offer a one-time solution to companies. Rather, it calls for companies to monitor their value curves and renew their blue ocean offerings by making new blue ocean strategic moves at the proper time.
Which company has had the most sustainable success after adopting a BOS? You say, “There is no such thing as a permanently great company”. But what steps can a company management take to get as close as possible?
If a company wants to get great and stay that way, it needs to do a number of things. First, it should make its BOS move to create new market space of profitable growth. Our research indicates that a BOS often goes without credible challenges for 10-15 years. Formulating and executing a BOS in the right sequence will by itself build a rather strong barrier to imitation. Companies like Ikea, Southwest Airlines and Swatch have sustained market leadership for many years since the initial strategic moves.
Most importantly, as a BOS requires the alignment of the three strategy propositions — value, profit and people — once it is successfully implemented, it is hard to be copied as many a times an imitator could get one or two propositions right, but not all the three of them. A key way to block new entrants into the blue ocean market as long as possible and to dissuade copying is to heighten these barriers with constant improvement on the value, profit and people propositions of the initial BOS.
Next, the company needs to constantly monitor value curves on the strategy canvas to avoid the trap of competing. When its value curve remains distinctive and divergent from those of the competition, the company should sail as far as possible in its blue ocean by lengthening, widening and deepening the rent stream via geographic expansion, operational improvements and refining the offering. When its value curve begins to converge with those of the competition, it signals that the competition, not the buyer, may have come to occupy the centre of the company’s strategic thought and actions. It is time to value innovate again and reach out for another blue ocean. In this way, the company may hope to stay at the top for a prolonged period of time. | <urn:uuid:f57f9819-db8e-471f-8ef0-2bf6841c976e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://business.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?283874 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957158 | 3,331 | 1.65625 | 2 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzDK7U3n ... r_embeddedhttp://www.awarenesswithmovement.org/index.php
look at the second link under books and download the pdf of Akaliko..... it is very good.
The main thing with this method is...it is mindfulness in action. You can practice with eyes open or shut, so less chance to fall asleep. You can do it amidst much noise and distractions. It is best to do it during a long retreat ...at least ten days but a month would be better, and just do this technique, not swapping around with other styles. Walking can be fast or the slow Mahasi type. LP Teean did not use the 'noting' technique of Mahasi Sayadaw, but that doesn't mean you cannot, if you are a beginner to practicing mindfulness. Remember he had practiced for several years in various styles, so even a practisioner of the Mahasi style can drop the noting once they are familiar with being mindful.
I tell my students that mindfulness must be practiced continually.....little effort= little progress, no effort = no progress. I compare it to trying to put a satellite into orbit. The rocket need a certain energy and constant thrust to reach high enough to break free of gravity. If you launch a hundred or a million rockets which do not have enough constant thrust, every one will fail. You could do retreats all your life for a hundred lives, but without the effort to keep mindful as constant as possible you will fail to achieve escape velocity and reach the goal...(Stream-entry)....after which the hard part is over and you are on a certain trip to the moon.... | <urn:uuid:4c969ba4-0f89-48f6-a62b-044ca624db4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=125732 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934766 | 354 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Viñoly's iconic chimney erased from design
Plans by Rafael Viñoly for the redevelopment of a 38-acre site surrounding historic London landmark, Battersea Power Station, are facing strain following a series of objections, concluding in those received from the London Mayor in the run up to the introduction of a new Views Management Framework.
Real Estate Opportunities Limited launched the plans for Battersea Power Station in June last year, revealing a 300m glass chimney and ‘eco-dome’ which would provide natural ventilation for the structure and add ‘green’ credentials to the project. In December the firm were forced to reduce the height of the chimney by 50m amidst strong objections from community groups and other parties. Now, British publication Building Design reports Wandsworth Council sources have advised that the chimney will now be removed completely from the design following a warning issued by Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, that he was opposed to the plans due to their interference with views to Westminster.
These rumours have been substantiated by a spokesperson at the London Mayor’s office who said: “We will shortly be publishing our proposed changes to the Views Management Framework and Vauxhall/9 Elms Opportunity Area Planning Framework, which will address the permissible heights of buildings in the Battersea area and their impact on the Westminster World Heritage Site,” adding: “The Mayor believes that there is a height limit at Battersea that the tower would have breached.” Rafael Viñoly Architects stated that, “Unfortunately we are not commenting on [the matter] at this time."
The removal of the tower would mean a complete revision of the design and would throw the project’s green credentials in the air.
Viñoly's concept, due to commence construction in 2012, was set to create 20,000 jobs, 3,200 homes and improved transport links, with discussions in place to extend the Northern Line to Battersea. The project is now thrown into turmoil with questions being raised as to whether the project can even continue.
Niki May Young | <urn:uuid:7331fdaf-364a-4e9d-9e3e-4759cd84d619> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=11158&more=t | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959356 | 430 | 1.65625 | 2 |
- adv. without making progress
“Soaring in circles like a monstrous hawk upon the forty-thousand-foot level I let the monoplane guide herself, and with my Mannheim glass I made a careful observation of my surroundings.”
“I spun in circles to see my accordian-pleated skirt flair up to my waist.”
“He refused to respond to any signals from Earth; he just drove around in circles or threw scoopfuls of mud into the air.”
“It whirred, dropped to the ground, and buzzed in circles around her before returning to its branch.”
“Premonstratensian Canons were early grouped in circles (circarias), at the head of which was a "circator" whose office resembled that of the provincial of more recent orders.”
“Wolves and jackals, when frightened, certainly tuck in their tails; and a tamed jackal has been described as careering round his master in circles and figures of eight, like a dog, with his tail between his legs.”
“To this the psycho-analyst replied that he did not feel at all sure that Euclid might not have been inspired to write his Geometry by the sexual ideas which men have, from time immemorial, embodied in circles and triangles and diameters.”
“Maigret could have sworn that Urbain de Chézaud moved in circles where people were interested in Isabelle.”
“Playfully move in circles as you sing my Ring Around the Yogi song.”
“While we were yet gazing after them, they reappeared, and settled quietly on the dove-cot; but as we congratulated ourselves on a return which showed they accepted this as a home, up sprang the three blue pigeons, the noble foreigners, for whom chiefly I had planned the house, and rising in circles high in air, winged their rapid way direct towards Falconhurst.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘in circles’.
Looking for tweets for in circles. | <urn:uuid:a46600d5-5828-4f8c-a130-e0502020bfec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/in%20circles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972805 | 450 | 1.75 | 2 |
By all accounts time is speeding up and space-time is contracting. As we move further into 2012 this phenomenon is almost palpable. Just where do the hours and days go?
Terence McKenna, the late psychedelics-inspired luminary, spoke of an imminent convergence of time-lines that would bring about a ‘singularity’ event: the point where past, present and future become fused into the vibrant chords of the ‘here and now’. Just what might such an event portend?
Time is a human invention, a tool for measuring the changing circadian paths of the planets, the phases of the moon, the passage of night and day. It is a useful device, but can easily become the opposite when relied upon too heavily. Indeed, the division of time into hours, minutes and seconds has mostly been used to delineate the financial value of the working day – a far cry from its cosmic origins.
McKenna’s singularity event describes the condensing of all ‘time’ (past events) into an ever more energised and suspended state of ‘presence’. For example, he speaks of the condensing of the last 64 years into just 12 months. A process that captures and passes through to us the vibratory ‘echo’ of significant historical events that have taken place over the intervening decades.
As these spiralling time lines pass ever closer to each other at ever shorter intervals, ‘time’ appears to speed up and we are moved ever closer to the ‘simultaneity’ event: an hourglass of tightly swirling energy whose vortex we ultimately pass through, emerging out on the ‘other side’.
Now, you don’t pass through a vortex and remain the same person you were when you went in! Such is the dynamic that our vibratory levels resonate at a higher frequency during this passage and at a higher level of consciousness. It is what the Saddhus of India extol their disciples to achieve: the state of “Be Here Now”. Westerners may prefer to call this experience a ‘rights of passage’. Those on this journey will get further support by dint of our planet’s shifting into an alignment with the centre of our Galaxy.
All this, you understand, is what I have gleaned (with added poetic licence) from the writings of others more fully versed in these matters than I. However, I find their discourses trigger an intuitive response which connects me up with thousands of others probably having similar experiences and similar observations. Are those of us who share such vibratory signals somehow emerging as a new power on this planet?
I believe we are. It is notable that our heightened perceptions are running in tandem with parallel ‘scientific’ lines of enquiry, such as the excitement generated among the scientific community by their probable discovery of what has been termed the ‘Higgs Boson’ (the God particle) at the particle collider centre near Zurich; the revealing of the manifestation of ‘intelligence’ within human cellular tissue in advanced biology circles and the first delineations of the invisible forces that bind the universe* in the field of spiritual/quantum enquiry.
What this seems to mean is that we, who go out into the world to confront the forces of destruction that are attempting to take control over our planet, are now being endowed with new powers to fulfil our task. Put another way, we are in an accelerating process of realisation of the potential which has always existed in each one of us to perform what one might term ‘superhuman’ tasks.
And let’s face it, the tasks we need to perform are superhuman if we are to wrest back control over our destinies.
Those who stand behind the top-down control system and manipulate events with their occult and Masonic practices are aware of the energy changes taking place at this time. They are trying to exploit them for their own ends via such events as the recently concluded London Olympic Games — a veritable coven of occult symbolism.
They wish to use such occasions to draw both human and non-human energies towards the realisation of their dark agenda, all the time keeping popular attention on the mundane and surface spectacle of ‘the big show’.
Such techniques ensure that any manifestation of deeper truths will be fogged out by the sheer size and intensity of the gladiatorial spectacle. In the case of the London Olympics, billions have demonstrated that they are only too pleased to show their supplication for the ‘greatest show on earth’. Central also to the ongoing agenda is the attempt to foment a major war in the Middle East and beyond.
However, the Illuminati manipulators cannot themselves pass through the process of metamorphosis that we are experiencing, and this is their Achilles heel.
As we become more conscious and further imbued with higher dimensional awareness, the ambitions of the Illuminati become ever more naked. Their despotic actions being revealed for what they are, highlighted like ink spots on a white canvas. The heightened powers that we experience are the awakening of our own latent potentials. For some this may prove a rather overwhelming experience, especially as it is accompanied by the rapid absorption of a lot of far reaching information which will inevitably contradict previously held assumptions, such as those put about by the world’s mainstream media.
To balance out this high voltage information intake it is increasingly important to become properly ‘anchored’; our feet well and truly on the ground. Here, gardening, carpentry, bread making, food preparation and manual pursuits of all sorts – yes including the washing-up – should be performed on a regular basis as necessary counterparts to the often heady vibrational load that can otherwise overcome us.
This is the time to plot the practical sequence of events that will undermine the Illuminati and ultimately evict them from their pedestals of power. All this energy we are receiving must be turned into practical, pragmatic actions that lead to us wrestling back control of our lives and be used in support of all planetary beings suffering under the cosh of a global dictatorship in the making. Any residual elements of fear associated with taking such steps will be burned off once we come together in various groupings to build ‘The New Resistance’ and take on our oppressors.
As the simultaneity event draws closer, so do we gain clearer and clearer insights into the steps that need to be taken to get this process under way. Already, tens of thousands all over the world are orienting themselves into life situations that will support and be complementary to the new levels of awareness being acquired. I used the term “New Resistance” to describe a situation manifesting itself as ‘non compliance’ with the dictates of an increasingly authoritarian state. ‘Non compliance’ in the face of ever more brazen attempts to make us conform to the demands of a corporate cabal and despotic leadership fully intent upon the annihilation of our civil liberties and fundamental rights.
All good resistance strategies integrate both the components of ‘defence’ and ‘attack’. The defence of our fundamental needs and the attack that will unseat the Illuminati are to go hand in hand in this coming phase of campaign for an emancipated planet. The new energies and consciousness with which we are being endowed are specifically equipping us for this task.
The cosmic timing is impeccable and the Illuminati have no weapons in their arsenal capable of suppressing the rising tide of universal consciousness that is the central ingredient of the deepening year 2012.
Our strategic planning for the battle in which we have no alternative other than to become engaged demands concentration, creativity and courage. It is already in movement, and we must expect stiff resistance from those who deeply fear their coming fall from power. All the symptoms are already at play. The almost daily introduction of new forms of oppression; ever more onerous surveillance techniques; unauthorised arrests; false flag dramas; Internet interferences; weather manipulations; the fomenting of new wars; genetic manipulation of the food chain; mind control; depopulation via designed pandemics; banking heists; political and corporate despotism and much more. All tools in the relentless drive to achieve the long-term objectives of a New World Order and absolute control of all arteries of planetary life plus a vastly reduced world population.
Sinister it most certainly is. But we have allowed this situation to develop over decades through our passive acquiescence to each turn of the screw. And that is no longer possible.
Ultimately, true resistance is born out of the combined elements of a back-against-the-wall finality of the process of retreat, and the timely cosmic alignments that endow humanity with a greater capacity to confront and vanquish its oppressors. That is exactly where we are today. The merging of convergent time lines has brought us to the front line. There can be no turning back. We each have specific roles to play in this drama and these will emerge as we commit ourselves to the cause. There can be no sitting on the fence anymore. The fence itself is collapsing under the dead weight of decades of vacuous human intransigence. Words too. Use them carefully from now on as they carry more and more power. Power to build creative solutions and power to destroy.
All this, as the planet itself undergoes geological shifts and transformations of increasing magnitude. Let us remind ourselves that our Earth is a living being and is bound to show symptoms that reflect the predominant human condition. This is not to rule out cosmic influences; Earth is a place which reflects the inter-meshing of cosmic and human influences. It is the lack of comprehension of this fact that has lead to the dissonant dialogues on global warming and the overly simplistic conclusions of a tunnel vision oriented science. Here we see how only a partial answer can come from a partial comprehension. It’s similar to the diagnosis of a Western medical doctor in comparison with that of an Ayurvedic, Chinese or homeopathic practitioner.
As we close in on the singularity event, we see the connection between multiple elements and therefore become in an ever stronger position to take action in the process of healing our planet.
This is an urgent task indeed and one that undoubtedly requires us to respect this powerful Mahatma Ghandi insight “Civilisation, in the real sense of the term, consists not in the multiplication, but in the deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants.”
Here must we all go, for this is a profound truth that has been echoed down the centuries by the wisest minds. For us in the West, it is by pursuing an agenda of ‘voluntary simplicity’ that we can best offer a healing balm to planet Earth and to the overloaded material complexities of our own lives.
Even as the Polar ice cap melts and the waters rise; the heartlands of the USA burn to dust; wars rip apart Middle Eastern valleys and mountain tops; earthquakes shatter communities and block vital supplies – our response should remain consistent and answer to the deeper underlying causative agents that lie behind all these events.
We must forge ahead with the building of life-supporting ‘Arks’ even as we simultaneously confront the Illuminati bankster gangsters and their corporate accomplices. There is no time to lose. And anyway, time itself is undergoing this profound metamorphosis which is condensing all of history into a whirling vortex of cosmic cleansing and reordering. A reordering so complete that it will ultimately leave us freed of karma and in a place where there is quite literally ‘no time left’.
That’s where we are all headed, so drop off your old skin, and face the rising wind with the spirit of the warrior who kindles a flame in the plexus and compassion in the heart. And be prepared to ride out the storm and to come to the aid of those who need your helping hand.
This journey is unprecedented; the possibilities infinite. It is we who hold the outcome in our hands. No one else.
About the Author
Julian is a British pioneer organic farmer, writer and activist. He is currently president of the ‘International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside’ which is leading the fight against GMO in Poland. He is author of “Changing Course for Life – Local Solutions to Global Problems” www.changingcourseforlife.info
This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.
~~ Help Waking Times to raise the vibration by sharing this article with the buttons below… | <urn:uuid:03679fc0-7b6b-472a-88f8-5981220e54fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wakingtimes.com/2012/08/20/no-time-left-the-dynamics-of-the-new-resistance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946656 | 2,609 | 1.648438 | 2 |
In an interview with Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, Newt Gingrich acknowledged there is no proof to back up claims about President Obama's welfare policy in a controversial Romney ad.
The ad has been widely criticized for inaccurately stating Obama wants to "gut welfare reform" by "dropping work requirements." The narrator tells viewers, "you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check."
Gingrich defended the ad and repeated a line similarly used by Romney in campaign speeches. "This is an administration which has maximized the increase in dependency, maximized the number of people on food stamps, maximized the effort to get people to rely on the government."
The Obama administration has said that waivers will only be granted if states requesting them can make the case that the changes they're proposing would lead to higher employment rates for welfare recipients. The president's re-election campaign has also said that that flexibility, which was first requested by Republican governors in Utah and Nevada, is similar to changes sought by Republican governors – including then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney – back in 2005.
"We have no proof today," Gingrich admitted, but defended the claims on the grounds that "under Obama's ideology, it is absolutely true that he would be comfortable sending a lot of people checks for doing nothing."
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with | <urn:uuid:c4a23639-b10e-457e-b944-6e64f01752d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/08/gingrich-no-proof-of-claims-in-romney-ad/?hpt=ac_t139 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975096 | 333 | 1.585938 | 2 |
When I was 29 years old, I had a spinal stroke. I really thought I was going to die.
Two years later, I’m still here — and I’m working hard to get back to the life I had before. The stroke affected my body the same as if I’d broken my back, and my recovery depends on physical therapy.
The problem is, after my stroke I lost my job and my insurance. The only insurance I could get with a pre-existing condition wouldn’t cover physical therapy, so I had to go on Medicaid and pay out-of-pocket to get it.
I’ve always supported President Obama, but now more than ever. I don’t think people realize what Obamacare means to so many people like me. By 2014, I’ll have more insurance options. People like my aunt, who passed away this year from lung cancer, won’t leave their loved ones with a million dollars in debt because they lost their insurance when they couldn’t work anymore.
Thanks to physical therapy, I’ve gone from wearing a full leg brace to one from the knee down and walking with a cane. Even though I can’t open my right hand, I’m back to playing guitar by teaching myself some tricks.
As a red-white-and-bruised American, it means everything to know I can count on my President to be an advocate for people like me when we get sick. I hope everyone will do whatever they can to help re-elect President Obama. | <urn:uuid:97fe335d-9d30-4f03-9e03-bdf7048314fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.barackobama.com/mi/entry/what-obamacare-means-to-people-like-me | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974197 | 327 | 1.515625 | 2 |
- Video Gallery
The Children of Alabama just as the children all over this country want leaders who can lead and make decisions to better their future. Last week the Al Legislature attempted to vote on HB84, "The Alabama Accountability Act" which authorizes the establishment of innovative schools and school systems in the State. While HB84 and its implication are important to the future of Al's school children, the behavior our elected officials displayed is by no means what parents and teachers want Al school children to consider as appropriate when trying to solve a problem. Let's hope when our legislatures meet to discuss future bills they engage everyone in the process so they can be fully informed before they put it up for a vote.
I'm WAFF 48 General Manager Vanessa Oubre and that's My Take …. What's Yours?
If you'd like to respond to this editorial email [email protected]. Please include your name and the name of your town in your response. | <urn:uuid:c8db9e25-947b-4bf2-b9e9-59007e5be260> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waff.com/story/21573878/mytake- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957219 | 197 | 1.757813 | 2 |
This is the tutorial for the fondant pumpkins I used on my Halloween cake.
I used Wilton gum paste. I knew that these would just end up in the trash, so I didn’t bother with making them edible (I know that gum paste is technically edible, but I could never eat it). Last year I used this Marshmallow Fondant for the pumpkins and although I didn’t eat them, other people said they were good. All that I cared about was that it made nice pumpkins. The fondant is kind of a pain to make, but the results were really nice.
Please excuse the dirty hands below. It’s just powdered sugar. If your fondant seems to wet at any point, you can just add a little powdered sugar. And I don’t actually have great grandma hands. That’s just how they look after an entire day of cake and pumpkin making followed by another two hours of dishes.
Color most your fondant or gum paste however orange you like. Be clever, unlike me, and color it the same color as your orange icing! If you have disposable gloves, you might want to use those, but I didn’t and it was fine. You’ll need some brown and green fondant later, so leave a little uncolored for now. Keep the fondant covered when not using it or it might dry out. Roll a chunk of the orange fondant into a little ball.
Press the pumpkin down a little bit so that it’s not a perfect sphere. Make a small indentation for the stem. I don’t know what that thing is I used. I know it’s for doing stuff to fondant, but I don’t use fondant, so I call it my pumpkin-indentation-maker.
Using the back of a knife, make some lines so that your pumpkin actually looks like a pumpkin.
Don’t worry if it looks uneven. People won’t notice.
Color some of your leftover fondant green and roll it into a thin snake and swirl it around a toothpick.
Very lightly wet the bottom of the vine and put it in the indentation on the top of the pumpkin. Color a little fondant brown and make a small stem that’ll fit in your pumpkins. Then wet the brown stem (again very lightly!) and place on the vine. Make sure it’s in there good! You don’t want them falling out later.
Mine were much too dry and cracked after a while. I didn’t have this issue using the above marshmallow fondant recipe. You should also probably draw cute faces on them, but I have no drawing skills. I used a Wilton Foodwriter, which by the way, I just read should be refrigerated after opening. Mine’s been open for two years… whoops.
These would be great to put on top of pumpkin cupcakes or other Halloween goodies. I hope this helps! | <urn:uuid:66ae74cf-28ec-4358-bb32-250c8e91ce8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.texanerin.com/2011/10/fondant-pumpkin-tutorial.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94383 | 631 | 1.679688 | 2 |
A quality stock takes root in a quality background.
The best way to determine a stock's background is to look at annual earnings and other items associated with the A factor in CAN SLIM.
In "How to Make Money in Stocks," IBD founder and Chairman William J. O'Neil offered these suggestions:
"Look for annual earnings per share that have increased in each of the last three years."
"The annual rate for earnings growth for the companies you pick should be 25%, 50% or even 100% or more."
"The consensus among analysts on what earnings will be for the next year should also be up — the more, the better."
"ROEs of at least 17%. (The really superior growth situations will sport 25% to 50% ROEs.)"
"Cash flow per share that is at least 20% greater than actual earnings per share."
"Growth stocks with steady earnings tend to have a stability figure below 20 or 25. Companies with stability ratings over 30 are more cyclical and a little less dependable in terms of their growth."
Where can an investor find this data?
MarketSmith has all six items listed on its weekly charts. (For investors who prefer seeing the specific EPS numbers, MarketSmith lists the annual EPS numbers for seven years and annual estimates for the next two years.)
Stock Checkup at Investors.com lists four items — "3 Yr EPS Growth Rate," "Consecutive Yrs of Annual EPS Growth," "EPS Est % Chg (Current Year)" and "Annual ROE" — but not cash flow per share or the earnings Stability Factor.
Leaderboard has the Stock Checkup data on its charts.
IBD's newspaper version offers much of the information on the stock charts or accompanying company blurbs. Items offered on the charts include the three-year growth rate and ROE. In the accompanying company listings, the annual EPS estimate percentage change is listed.
If this sounds like too much work, consider making this your first step: Focus on stocks with high EPS Ratings.
As O'Neil notes in "How to Make Money in Stocks": "The EPS Rating measures a company's two most recent quarters of earnings growth against the same quarters the year before and examines its growth rate over the last three years. The results are then compared with those of all other publicly traded companies and rated on a scale from 1 to 99, with 99 being best. An EPS Rating of 99 means a company has outperformed 99% of all other companies in terms of both annual and recent quarterly earnings performance.
"If the stock is newly issued and the company doesn't have a three-year earnings record, look for big earnings increases.. . over the last five or six quarters." | <urn:uuid:0e6c725a-7edf-48f7-be2a-f26ba4698f1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://education.investors.com/investors-corner/644907-quality-stocks-show-big-earnings.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956626 | 566 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Far more than in any other conflict in U.S. history, the Pentagon is relying on private security companies to perform crucial jobs once entrusted to the military – by several estimates, a force of roughly 20,000 on top of an official U.S. military presence of 130,000.
In addition to guarding innumerable reconstruction projects, private companies are being asked to provide security for the chief of the Coalition Provisional Authority, L. Paul Bremer, and other senior officials; to escort supply convoys through hostile territory; and to defend key locations, including 15 regional authority headquarters and even the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad, the center of U.S. power in Iraq.
With every week of insurgency in a war zone with no front, these companies are becoming more deeply enmeshed in combat, in some cases all but obliterating distinctions between professional troops and private commandos.
"I refer to them as our silent partner in this struggle," Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in an interview.
The cost of this partnership is soaring. By some recent government estimates, payments to security companies could claim up to 25 percent of the $18 billion budgeted for reconstruction, a huge and mostly unanticipated expense that could delay or force the cancellation of billions of dollars worth of projects to rebuild schools, water treatment plants, electric lines and oil refineries.
In Washington, defense experts and some leading Democrats are raising alarms over security companies' growing role in Iraq.
"Security in a hostile-fire area is a classic military mission," Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a member of the Armed Services Committee, wrote last week in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed by 12 other Democratic senators. "Delegating this mission to private contractors raises serious questions."
The Bush administration's growing dependence on private security companies is partly by design. Determined to transform the military into a leaner but more lethal fighting force, Rumsfeld has pushed aggressively to outsource tasks not deemed essential to war-making.
But many Pentagon and authority officials now concede that the companies' expanding role is also a result of the administration's misplaced optimism about how Iraqis would greet U.S. reconstruction efforts.
The authority initially estimated that security costs would eat up about 10 percent of the $18 billion in reconstruction money approved by Congress, said Capt. Bruce Cole, a spokesman for the authority.
But after months of sabotage and insurgency, some officials now say a much higher percentage will have to be paid to security companies that unblushingly charge $500 to $1,500 a day for their most skilled operators.
In many ways the accelerating partnership between the military and private security companies has already outrun the planning for it.
There is no central oversight of the companies. There are no uniform rules of engagement or consistent standards for vetting or training new hires.
Only now are authority officials working to draft rules for private security companies.
The rules would require all the companies to register and be vetted by Iraq's Interior Ministry. The rules would also give them the right to detain civilians and reiterate their right to use deadly force in defense of themselves or their clients.
Several security companies have themselves been pressing for the rules, warning that an influx of inexperienced and small companies has contributed to a chaotic atmosphere.
"What you don't need is Dodge City out there any more than you've already got it," said Jerry Hoffman, chief executive of Armor Group, a large security company working in Iraq. "You ought to have policies that are fair and equal and enforceable." | <urn:uuid:d5b7f20e-d562-47a7-8457-ed871abb3747> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040419/news_1n19security.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966946 | 740 | 1.84375 | 2 |
WESTFIELD - Gary Planty, a representative from the Brocton Central School District, had his homework attached with two colored paperclips. One was green, Brocton's color, and the other blue, Westfield's.
"I wasn't sure which paperclip to use," he said, "so I decided to use both."
Planty's quip represented the dilemma the committee members and the larger community faces if it approves a merger - how to keep as many of the good things as possible, save money and forge a new identity.
The district advisory committee looking into the possibility of the centralization of the Brocton and Westfield school districts met recently after the Boards of Education from Brocton and Westfield met jointly.
This was the fifth and final meeting for the committee of 24 - 12 from each district. It was held in the large group instruction room at Westfield. Meetings have alternated between districts. Seven members of Brocton's representatives and 10 of Westfield's attended the last meeting. | <urn:uuid:0c04cd82-a132-4c93-badb-83e7706b007b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.westfieldrepublican.com/page/content.detail/id/519861.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980024 | 213 | 1.71875 | 2 |
"EXCLUSIVE," blares Glenn Beck's news website, The Blaze, this morning as they blow the lid off a shocking story out of Texas:
BLAZE EXCLUSIVE: TX HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS MADE TO RECITE MEXICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM, PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The lede is no less gripping:
Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and Mexican pledge of allegiance as part of a Spanish class assignment, but the school district maintains there was nothing wrong with the lesson.
The story centers around a sophomore in said Spanish class who objected to the lesson and complained to the principal. This same student videotaped the students reciting the pledge and the anthem en español, thus providing the critical evidence that high school students in Texas are actually being taught things.
It's a huge story -- most of the country has been laboring under the false impression that Texas public schools are mere fronts for the dissemination of anti-knowledge, in which students are fed garbage like "intelligent design" and right-wing revisionist history in the name of learning. The Blaze has helped tear away this veil of misinformation by conclusively demonstrating that students in Texas schools are actually learning things of value, like second languages and the cultural heritage of their southern neighbor.
Equally shocking was The Blaze's revelation that the teacher is not only of Mexican descent, but is actually proud of her heritage and uses that pride to inform her teaching of Mexican culture:
When Brenda made clear she would not stand up and recite the pledge, she was given an alternative assignment: an essay on the history of the Mexican revolution.
Meanwhile, other students continued with their presentations, which took place over the course of several days.
When Brinsdon talked to Santos -- a first-year teacher at Achieve -- about her new assignment, the teacher told her she grew up in Mexico.
"She told me that she loved Mexico," Brinsdon said.
Let's all take a moment to thank Glenn Beck and The Blaze for not falling victim to conventional wisdom and actually reporting on the successes of the Texas education system and the pride and dedication of public school teachers working to improve young Americans' understanding of one of our most important allies.
Or, better yet: díganles "gracias." | <urn:uuid:22c512b5-08cd-4f2f-b7b5-884c92fa02d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2011/10/17/the-blaze-uncovers-rampant-learning-in-texas-hi/182980 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956355 | 485 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Reader Poonam points us to this Outlook story about a friend of hers, Nidhi Kaila, and the organisation Nidhi has started, called Esha.
Esha works with blind kids, helping them earn money with innovative little schemes, like the one Poonam wrote in about.
Which is simple. You pay a rupee a card to get your visiting cards Braille-embossed. So, your cards can then be read by people who read Braille. And you help visually-impaired people get a little more financial independence.
Esha can't afford to spend money to publicise this, so we'd like you to help pass the word. You can reach Nidhi and Esha at Esha_braille AT yahoo DOT com. They work out of Delhi[update]Esha was founded in Delhi but now works out of Bombay, and the cards are embossed in Bangalore[/update]. Mail (or leave a comment with an email address) if you'd like the phone number as well. | <urn:uuid:1b118d71-947e-4305-bb73-db740e738f75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zigzackly.blogspot.com/2006/11/braille-enabled-visiting-cards.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956468 | 214 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Meet Bryan Lewis Saunders, an artist who's spent more than 10 years making self-portraits while on a variety of drugs.
Saunders took bath salts in March and drew a picture of himself. Bath salts are synthetic drugs that are causing nationwide panic as newspapers link the easily accessible substance to violent -- and sometimes fatal -- outbursts.
Heinous crimes have indeed been connected to bath salts. Earlier this month, Ronnie Lee Hardesty allegedly took a hammer to a church door and interrupted the congregation while high, and Brandon DeLeon took "Cloud 9" -- one variation of the drug -- before he tried to bite cops.
GALLERY: Saunders' Self-Portraits ON DRUGS
But Saunders, a peaceful man who claims he "doesn't do drugs," chalks all the bath salts attacks up to psychos going psycho. It's not going to turn the user into a face-biter, Saunders says, unless that person is predisposed to face-biting.
"It's a misconception that the drug causes these attacks -- it's crazy," Saunders told HuffPost Weird News. "Now, it's a terrible terrible drug to do. But bath salts in itself isn't evil."
So what does doing bath salts feel like? Saunders said he's only tried any given drug -- except for weed -- one time. But he said bath salts gave him the worst trip of all.
"It made me angry, ornery, just gave me a real vicious angst," he said. "It's like a dark cloud of doom settling on your shoulders. Your brain gets really clogged.
"You just want it to end -- I'd never ever do it again," he added.
Saunders started his "Drugs" self-portrait project in 2001, because of the "accessibility" of drugs back then. It's part of a broader series of self-portraiture, in which he's drawn nearly 9,000 pictures of himself.
As for "Drugs," Saunders says he'll continue to do the portraits as new substances come to him. There are a few he hasn't tried, like heroin and crack.
"I'd love to do a self-portrait on crack," he said. "I've never done it. It seems a shame there's no crack self-portrait. But I'm not gonna go out looking for a crack rock." | <urn:uuid:c28a4d2e-ea5f-4ab6-951b-50d94cca8d30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://main.aol.com/2012/10/23/bryan-saunders-drugs-self-portraits-bath-salts_n_2010070.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976165 | 493 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Knee Immobilizer: Stability And Support For Your Knee
A knee immobilizer is a medical product designed for comfort, and it supports the knee while
providing compression. This product comes in a wide variety of options, and most restricts the knee’s range of
motion, which helps the joint to heal faster in post-op situations. In addition to treating the knee after a
ligament injury, immobilizer knee braces are sometimes used to help with other conditions like arthritis.
Where To Buy Quality Knee Immobilizers?
DonJoy is a company that makes medical supplies like crutches, walkers and a number of different braces,
including back and knee braces. Some of their more complex braces feature traction as well.
Many medical professionals use and recommend this company’s products. They offer a product called the Universal
Tri-Panel Knee Immobilizer. This device envelops the leg from the upper thigh to the ankle, just above the shoe,
and has multiple Velcro (also known as hook and loop) straps that hold it in place. It only comes in one size,
though in varying lengths, because it is adjustable and can fit a number of different sized people. It has aluminum
the fabric to provide the leg with rigid support. You can buy this product for around $50.
They also have a hinged knee brace, which is made out of Drytex material to keep you comfortable and dry. The
DonJoy Drytex Hinged Knee Brace can be yours for around $70. They also have a few knee sleeves, which are generally
made out of elastic. They wrap around the leg and some have foam pads while others provide heat therapy. Some have
openings for the patella, which help to support it. These products range between approximately $20 and $40.
The DonJoy DuraKold Surgical Knee Sleeve is one of the few products that offers cold therapy. It comes with
great accessories like the water-filled ice mats. You can freeze the whole wrap. It is reusable and easy to care
for. Cold therapy is used to treat pain and reduce swelling. You can buy this brace for approximately $65.
Ossur, another company that makes braces, has a product called the Premium Sized Knee
Immobilizer. It features tri-laminate construction with multiple straps as well as medial and
lateral stays for extra support. It comes in different lengths and has an opening for the patella as well as a
patellar strap. You can purchase this product for around $30.
Knee straps are one of the most simple knee products. They are also one of the least expensive and can be
purchased for around $10. They generally strap around the knee under the knee cap to provide pressure and
stabilization for the knee cap. Some versions have straps above and below the knee cap, which provide even more
stabilization, though they are a little more expensive. They are often used by people who have chondromalacia
Whether you have a sprain, inflammation, or ligament injury, a knee immobilizer will help you heal faster and
keep you comfortable. | <urn:uuid:bcd5d7ab-6f71-4ee7-a7e2-46996d5eb866> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shoulderbrace.org/knee-immobilizer-braces-for-support-&-rehabilitation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963076 | 669 | 1.5625 | 2 |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) - - Wedding season is in full swing and lots of new couples are beginning their financial lives together with something other than marital bliss.
Taking on someone else’s bad credit, debt, and differing money attitude can ruffle those newlywed feathers in a hurry. Rebecca Dolgin of thenest.com, a website for newlyweds says it's important to talk, before you make the walk down the aisle. “You're entering a partnership and you want each other to know everything there is to know about that partnership,” said Dolgin.
The first step towards financial bliss is simple. Avoid too much wedding debt. “The average wedding is about $28,000 to $29,000, and that's a big debt to be carrying at the very beginning and, a lot of times, at the very beginning of your careers,” said Dolgin. You should also know your spouse’s spending style.
Put numbers on the table, everything from credit card debt to student loans, no matter how ugly. Decide whether you'll completely marry all accounts, or keep some separate. “Even if you're not combining your accounts, if one of you is spending a lot more than the other one is spending, it will be a problem because it affects the other person,” explained Dolgin.
A good money project for new couples is joint money management. A financial goal to work on together, like saving for a house, a car, or a first anniversary vacation could teach you a great deal about your new spouse.
If you have a consumer problem you’d like us to look into send an e-mail to [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:19d16761-17a4-43c9-82d3-4142663ccf78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whas11.com/community/Consumer-Watch-Tips-for-money-managment-for-new-couples-157276715.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951011 | 363 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Twice during this summer of 100-degree days and extreme drought I’ve left town for a week or longer, and each time I’ve come home to find my succulent wall made of cinderblocks, unwatered during my absence, simply flourishing. I give each plant a gentle hose sprinkling upon my return, and they’re good for another week or two of alone time.
Succulents (in bright shade or morning sun in our hot climate) are truly a gift you give yourself for summer containers. Yes, they may die in a winter cold snap, but for three seasons they give you a gorgeous display, and during our longest season—summer—they thrive with little attention.
Which leaves you more time to enjoy them.
All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. | <urn:uuid:d433e6ac-34cb-4ade-ba02-8c8a12ed4c35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.penick.net/digging/?p=12829 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941931 | 178 | 1.554688 | 2 |
NVIDIA announced their "GeForce Experience" earlier this year, and have now released a beta that will allow the first 10,000 people to register to get their hands on it. After the signups have closed, NVIDIA will monitor the user feedback and take out any of the big bugs.
The GeForce Experience only supports 32 games at the moment, and just the Fermi- and Kepler-based NVIDIA GPUs. More games will be added to the supported list in the coming weeks. If you don't know what the GeForce Experience offers, it will help people who don't optimize their games for their specific hardware. Enthusiasts, like myself and I'm sure many others reading this, will sit there and optimize their graphics settings in their games to get the best performance, or quality.
Everyone is different - some people like a mix of medium/high graphics and a steady 60fps or 120fps minimum (that would be me). There are others who want the maximum eye candy, and will find no problem running at 30fps or lower. NVIDIA's software will help those who don't want to sit there adjusting sliders and settings, with the software eventually being capable of accessing NVIDIA's cloud-based supercomputers that will work out, and then download the best in-game settings for your particular PC.
Not only will the software automatically configure your system, it will be capable of running driver updates automatically, by downloading them in the background and notifying you when they're ready to be installed.
NVIDIA have shown a six-step process that they use to test each game:
- We start with expert game testers that play through key levels of the game (indoors, outdoors, multiplayer etc.) to get a feel for the load and how different settings affect quality and performance.
- The game tester identifies an area for automated testing. This area will be from a demanding portion of the game. We don't always select the absolute worst case since they tend to distort the results.
- As part of the game evaluation, the expert game tester will identify an appropriate FPS target. Fast paced games typically require higher FPS. Slower games lower FPS. We also define and test against a minimum FPS to minimize stuttering. The average framerate target is typically between 40-60 FPS, the minimum 25 FPS.
- The most difficult part of OPS is deciding which settings to turn on and which to leave off in a performance limited setting. This is done by analyzing each setting and assigning them quality and performance weights. The game tester compares how each setting (eg. shader, texture, shadow) and each quality level (eg. low, medium, high) affects image quality and performance. These are stored as weights which are fed to the automation algorithm.
- From here on the testing is automated. The GeForce Experience supercomputer tests the game by turning on settings until the FPS target is reached. This is done in the order of maximum bang for the buck; settings that provide the most visual benefit and least stress on the GPU (eg. texture quality) are turned on first; settings that are performance intensive but visually subtle (eg. 8xAA) are enabled last.
- Finally, the GeForce Experience supercomputer goes through and tests thousands of hardware configurations for the given game. Unique settings are generated for each CPU, GPU, and monitor resolution combination.
Further Reading: Read and find more Software news at our Software news index page. | <urn:uuid:6f2047ba-a3a3-4c13-86b7-80de6ea60d40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://australia.tweaktown.com/news/27167/nvidia_releases_geforce_experience_into_beta/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934821 | 702 | 1.804688 | 2 |
To access the remainder of this piece of premium content, you must be registered with Firehouse. Already have an account? Login
Register in seconds by connecting with your preferred Social Network.
Complete the registration form.
I wrote an article several years ago on “The Power of Empowerment in Leadership” (Firehouse®, October 2008) and I recently received a great email from a chief asking about potential backlash with entitlement attitudes. The chief shared that in some situations, those empowered adopt the mindset that they, not the chiefs, are ultimately in charge. As a result, they begin to resist authority, especially when it comes to disciplinary issues.
Although my columns are directed at leaders of all levels, including informal leaders, many of them address management and leadership issues faced by chiefs. While this month’s column addresses some issues that chiefs must address, it is primarily intended for front-line firefighters, informal leaders and company officers.
To the chiefs: Leadership training at all levels in the organization is needed to instill the concepts of responsibility, accountability and humility and an understanding that these go hand-in-hand with empowerment. Without the reiteration and implementation of those values, empowerment can breed entitlement in some situations and a fight for the reins. Once that happens, management will attempt to pull the reins in and risk a perception of power hoarding.
A strong values-driven culture must be cultivated before an environment of empowerment can flourish. Nearly every fire department has a list of core values. If you don’t have “personal responsibility” as one of your core values, you should. Training and modeling this core value will be a key element to a successful attempt at empowering the people in your department.
True empowerment must include a strong leadership foundation that includes the willingness to train, develop and mentor others in the responsibility that comes with that empowerment. Many leaders are too lazy or too busy to engage in that process. They understand the need for empowerment but do not fully invest in the entire process of creating the balance between empowerment and responsibility.
To firefighters and company officers: It’s important to understand what must accompany the empowerment that you want your chiefs to relinquish. When you are empowered to make decisions and participate in processes that your chiefs are not legally required to let you participate in, you must embrace the responsibility and accountability that comes with that empowerment.
A firefighter in one particular department abused the empowerment he was afforded and needed to be disciplined. The union stepped forward and fought his discipline tooth and nail. The firefighter and the union were subsequently surprised when management pulled back the empowerment.
Another firefighter was caught bad-mouthing management and asked for my advice on his rights. I counseled him to stop focusing on his rights and instead focus on his responsibilities. I advised him to take responsibility and apologize because he was guilty of the bad behavior. He agreed that this was the right thing to do and thanked me for my input.
Three days later, the firefighter came back and said his union representative advised him against apologizing and suggested he keep his mouth shut until he knew the extent of what management knew and what the discipline might end up being. I then advised him not to complain to me about his department’s “bad management” and “leaders who won’t empower others.”
When you demand rights or empowerment without accountability and responsibility, you force management to give you the bare minimum required by law. If they see by your history that you won’t take responsibility when you mess up, management will tighten the command and control style of leadership. I am constantly advising leaders to empower others, but without responsibility, empowerment becomes entitlement.
If you are going to be one of those people who tries to get the union to get you out of discipline when you know darn well it is warranted, you don’t deserve to be empowered. You deserve to have the bare minimum of rights afforded to you by law. n | <urn:uuid:13ded647-a3f0-4e56-aa94-b58bde232154> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.firehouse.com/article/10854027/leadership-lessons-empowerment-requires-responsibility | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970436 | 808 | 1.726563 | 2 |
In between writing hits like "Sugar Magnolia" and "Franklin's Tower," it turns out The Grateful Dead were pretty shrewd businessmen. The Atlantic took a look at the band to find out what managers and freelancers can learn from them.
Photo by Alaskan Dude.
Music professor Fredric Lieberman and sociologist Rebecca G. Adams have studied the Grateful Dead for some time now and say the current trends that create customer and client loyalty mirror the way the Dead did business decades ago. They point out, for example, that The Dead cultivated loyal customers with reward systems long before it was popular to do so, gave away their product wisely by allowing fans to tape shows, and learned the value of referral networking long before MySpace existed.
According to Barnes, the decision [to let fans tape shows] was not entirely selfless: it reflected a shrewd assessment that tape sharing would widen their audience, a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets. The Dead became one of the most profitable bands of all time.
All in all, the Grateful Dead was as much a business as it was a band. The takeaway message is that it's possible to develop a viable business strategy while staying true to your roots and mission. The Dead found ways to keep customers happy using methods that seemed unorthodox at the time, but were still very effective. Don't be afraid to try new things like social networking or new advertising methods to keep your clients and customers happy, too.
Have you stepped outside your comfort zone to try a new approach to getting clients for your freelancing business? Have you come up with new ways to motivate the team you manage at work? Share your thoughts in the comments. | <urn:uuid:a4890ae4-552a-4b5f-8170-33793a6e78ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifehacker.com/5477419/what-managers-and-freelancers-can-learn-from-the-grateful-dead | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978455 | 363 | 1.8125 | 2 |
In most cases, you will not lose your home or car during bankruptcy as long as your equity in the property is fully exempt. Even if your property isn’t fully exempt, you’ll still be able to keep it if you pay its non-exempt value to creditors under your Chapter 13 plan.
Some of your creditors may have a security interest in your home, automobile, or other personal property (called “secured debt”). This means that you gave the creditor a mortgage on your home or put your other property up as collateral for the debt. Bankruptcy cannot make these security interests go away. If you default on that debt, the creditor may be able to repossess your property or foreclose on your home during or after the bankruptcy case.
However, when you file Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you may be able to keep secured property by paying the creditor the value of the property rather than the full amount owed on the debt. Or you can use Chapter 13 to catch up on back payments and get current on the loan.
There are also several ways that you can keep your car or home after you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. You can agree to keep making your payments on the debt until it is paid in full. Or you can pay the creditor the amount that the property you want to keep is worth. In some cases involving fraud or other improper conduct by the creditor, you may be able to challenge the legitimacy of the debt. For example, if you used your household goods as collateral for a loan (other than a loan used to purchase the goods), you can usually keep your property without making any more payments on that debt. | <urn:uuid:302f9875-d212-497b-846c-919c497dbc35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationalbankruptcyforum.com/chapter-7-bankruptcy/what-will-happen-to-my-home-and-car-if-i-file-bankruptcy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967493 | 338 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Michigan congressman Mark Schauer introduces bill that would 'even playing field with China'
Published: Friday, May 14, 2010, 9:23 AM
“My bill is simple,” said Schauer. “Since China is blocking American companies from competing for contracts with its government, we’re going to do the same. It’s time to level the playing field and ensure our taxpayer dollars create jobs here at home, instead of China.”
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 2.4 million American jobs have been lost or displaced as a result of the growing trade deficit with China since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
During that time, Michigan lost 67,800 jobs, including 4,700 in the seventh district alone, due to unfair trade with China, Schauer said.
The bill has the support of at least one Republican congressman and is not in violation of any trade laws, Schauer said. | <urn:uuid:ae5f80db-ae99-4c03-9856-4af62bfc3fe6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mlive.com/jobs/index.ssf/2010/05/michigan_congressman_mark_schauer_introd.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958592 | 195 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Owensboro Goes Back in Time to 1492 This Week [Video]
Ah, if you enjoy sailing and history as much as I do, you’ll enjoy this week in the Big O. There is nothing so exhilarating as taking the helm of a wooden ship and setting sail for Tahiti or other far flung lands.
Here I am aboard the Bounty in 1789. Photography was not very good back then, so it is a little fuzzy.
But, I digress. On to the story at hand.
Wonder what it was like for Christopher Columbus and crew and when they sailed the ocean blue in 1492? Well, you can find out this week when the replica ships, the Nina and the Pinta return to Owensboro’s English Park for an eleven-day stay. The Columbus Foundation commissioned these replicas to be built so that Americans and visiting tourists can enjoy the flash back to a simpler, but very dangerous time.
You’ll be able to walk aboard and spend as much time as you wish on a self-guided tour. It’s $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, and $6 for students 5-16. The ships will be open from 9am-6pm daily. For more information, contact the Convention & Visitors Bureau at 270-926-1100.
The twosome will be here through the city’s celebration of the reopening of Smother’s Park and the River Front August 23-25.
It looks as though the weather will be extraordinary, too. Fun Times.
The Niña – Most Historically Accurate Columbus Replica Ship Ever Built
The Niña is a replica of the ship on which Columbus sailed across the Atlantic on his three voyages of discovery to the new world beginning in 1492. Columbus sailed the tiny ship over 25,000 miles. That ship was last heard of in 1501, but the new Niña has a different mission. It’s a floating museum!
Pinta – The Second Columbus Replica Ship
Pinta was recently built in Brazil to accompany the Nina on all of her travels. She is a larger version of the archetypal caravel and offers larger deck space for walk-aboard tours and has a 40 ft air conditioned main cabin down below with seating.
To see the ships in action you can visit this website. | <urn:uuid:c88e14f1-032e-406b-b625-a270716b002e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wbkr.com/owensboro-goes-back-in-time-to-1492-this-week-video/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942569 | 495 | 1.828125 | 2 |
On Nov. 23, an unseasonably sunny Sunday afternoon, over 400 family members, friends, colleagues and occasional opponents packed UC Berkeley’s International House auditorium. They came to remember and celebrate the life of activist, politician, financial manager and family man, Peter Miguel Camejo, a man whom then-Gov. Ronald Reagan called one of the “10 most dangerous men in California.” Camejo died from a recurrence of lymphoma on Sept. 13, at the age of 68.
It is deliciously ironic that Camejo would have been a UC Berkeley alumnus had he not been expelled for “unauthorized use of a bullhorn” during an anti-war demonstration in the 1960s.
Upon learning that his lymphoma had returned, Camejo asked Claudette Begin to create and host his memorial. Begin and Camejo’s wife, Morella Camejo, began working together. Soon the team grew to include Camejo’s brother, Dan Ratner, Begin’s husband, Alex Chis, longtime friend Carol Reed and Mike Wyman, close friend and veteran Green.
Claudette Begin opened the event, and served as host throughout. Peter Camejo’s family took the stage, then Morella Camejo and brother Antonio Camejo welcomed the crowd and shared their personal memories. Dan Ratner produced a slideshow of Peter Camejo’s life, which played against the stage backdrop. Mementos from political campaigns and copies of his books lined the back wall of the large Spanish-style hall.
Morella Camejo said, “He couldn’t stop coming up with ideas. His mind was restless, forever making plans for the future.”
Antonio Camejo said of his brother, “He firmly believed that we would rally the American people around just causes.”
Peter Camejo was perhaps best known for his runs for president on the Socialist Workers Party, Green Party and independent tickets, and for Governor of California on the Green Party ticket. In the 2003 gubernatorial recall election campaign, Camejo’s incisive remarks during the debates received national attention and brought higher measures of visibility and respectability to progressive thought.
He was a friend of Malcolm X, and he marched in Selma with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a pioneer advocate for immigrant rights and, after 9/11, worked for civil rights and freedom from hate for Muslim citizens.
Camejo wrote books on political activism, American history and socially responsible investing. He founded or co-founded progressive political action groups such as the North Star Network (1983) and IDEA PAC (2005), and he sparked growth in many others, such as the Green Party.
The family also remembered the devoted husband, father and grandfather. Colleagues remembered the financial planner who was obsessed with the stock market game, but left lucrative positions at Merrill Lynch, and then Prudential to create his own firm, Progressive Asset Management, because neither institution would promote socially-responsible investing. Everyone remembered the quick wit of a born comedian scholar.
Among the speakers were such progressive political luminaries as Ralph Nader and his 2008 presidential running mate, former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, Cindy Sheehan, who ran against Rep. Nancy Pelosi in 2008 and plans to do so again in 2010, Donna Warren, Camejo’s running mate in his 2002 and 2004 gubernatorial bids, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond, and Jo Chamberlain, former candidate for State Assembly and Camejo’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign manager. Jason West, former Green mayor of New Paltz, NY and brand-new Bay Area resident as of that day, was a surprise guest.
Ralph Nader said that Camejo “always renewed himself. Some people learn until they’re about 30, and then run on fumes for 30 or 40 years. Peter was always learning.”
Dr. Agha Saeed, of the American Muslim Alliance, and Miguel Araujo, leader of Centro Azteca, praised Camejo’s civil rights advocacy and urged progressives to keep on working.
Kalman Stein, CEO of the environmental charity organization EarthShare, flew in from Washington, D.C. to speak. Visibly moved by previous speakers, Stein observed that “it’s a joy to find out about all the parts of Peter I didn’t know.”
Peter Miguel Camejo was a first-generation American, born to Venezuelan parents in the Borough of Queens in New York City. Venezuelan Consul General Martin Sanchez read a statement from the Venezuelan Ambassador, Bernardo Alvarez Herrera. Sanchez apologized for Herrera’s absence, noting that the Ambassador had recently been expelled from the United States.
In his final months, Camejo focused on writing his autobiography. He had barely enough time to finish it. His editor, Leslie Evans, reported that he is working on the final chapters and that the book, with the working title, “North Star,” has been approved for publication by Haymarket Publishing.
All who attended the memorial came away with the same knowledge of great loss that brought them together. But they also took with them a strengthened determination to continue Peter Miguel Camejo’s work. | <urn:uuid:b594fc9c-8db2-4d56-bb5d-d46330c3830d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-11-26/article/31685?headline=Remembering-a-Dangerous-Man-Peter-Miguel-Camejo-1939-2008--By-Sharon-Peterson- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969272 | 1,090 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Kosovo, that happy valley off in the Balkans that requires the continued presence of NATO forces and vast sums of EU money to keep operating, may find shaking itself loose from Serbia a tad harder, as reported here:
Russia's ambassador to Serbia Alexander Alexeyev said Monday that Russia would use its veto within the United Nations Security Council to block any decision supporting independence for Kosovo.Why?
Alexeyev told B92 radio in Belgrade that any solution on Kosovo's status must be acceptable to both the ethnic Albanian majority of the breakaway Serbian province and the government in Belgrade.
He also criticized UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari for saying that a negotiated compromise between Belgrade and the Kosovo Albanian side was not possible.
The Serbian Government wants to maintain sovereignty over the province, which has been administered by the UN since 1999. The Albanian majority in Kosovo is pushing for full independence from Serbia.There are currently some 16,000 KFOR troops in Kosovo trying to keep the remaining Kosovar Serbs in place and alive.
UPDATE: Another view, somewhat overtaken by events. | <urn:uuid:e3957021-6361-4977-a9dd-014c1d18877f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eaglespeak.us/2006/12/free-kosovo-russia-says-not-so-fast.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956856 | 226 | 1.773438 | 2 |
" The vocal group „Schola Cantorum Riga” was founded in 1995 as a unique ensemble focused on authentic interpretation of ancient music, especially Gregorian chants. It has developed into a group with a varied and wide repertory. One of its main professional goals is to perform music at a high artistic and professional level, which is reflected in great many concerts in Latvia and abroad, as well as in regular recordings.
Nowadays „Schola Cantorum Riga” mainly performs medieval music, but also turns to interpretation of compositions of contemporary Latvian composers.
The singers of the group are professional musicians or music students who all have one thing in common – their passion for ancient music and desire to perform it following the latest trends in the field of authentic interpretation of ancient music. There is a special interest in performing the Gregorian chants and other medieval music. The group performs a Gregorian choral building it on interpretation references of Neumatic Notations, as well as the latest research in the field of semiology. The programs are mostly performed by male singers. For specific projects the membership of the group is enlarged and female singers are invited to join in to perform compositions for a mixed group of singers. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Category: Ensembles/Performers/Associations/Societies / Ensembles/Consorts
Added on: Mar 14, 2008 | Hits: 280 | <urn:uuid:60fe35a6-63aa-4d70-8926-20ad4d35915a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.earlymusicnews.org/index.php?module=weblinks&type=user&func=viewlinkdetails&lid=650 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961573 | 295 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Unemployment ticked up to 7.9 percent despite a better-than-expected job gain of 171,000 last month, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.
The last major economic report before Tuesday's elections showed an economy on the mend and — in a surprise — a clear strengthening trend, with better-than-expected job growth in October and 84,000 more jobs than previously reported in August and September.
Still, President Obama will face voters with the highest unemployment rate of any incumbent since Franklin Roosevelt. The rate rose in October because more people began seeking work and were counted as unemployed. The government counts people without jobs as unemployed only if they're looking for one.
Most sectors of the economy outside manufacturing posted healthy growth, and job gains were particularly strong in the traditional leading sectors in the U.S.: health care, retailing, and business services. Manufacturing has been in a slump due to lower export sales to Europe and Asia and the weakening global economy.
"It's a very favorable report, strong in most areas," said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller, Tabak & Co.
The report showed that the soft spell the economy experienced during the summer has rebounded, with job growth now exceeding this year's average of 153,000 a month. Even employment in construction — the hardest hit occupation in the wake of the housing crisis — posted robust growth of 17,000 jobs during October.
"The U.S. economy has left the summer doldrums behind," said Harm Bandholz, economist at Unicredit Markets. He noted that the better-than-expected growth in jobs in recent months likely is the source of increasing optimism seen in consumer confidence reports, which have soared to four-year highs recently.
The small increase in the unemployment rate to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent had been widely expected as the dramatic drop reported in September from 8.1 percent had looked "too good to be true" to most economists.
Economists said the report was a small plus for Mr. Obama in his extremely tight race with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
"Obviously, these are positive numbers," said Fabian Eliasson, vice president at Mizuho Corporate Bank. "It's favorable for the current administration ahead of the election."
Heidi Shierholz, analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, noted that the department's two surveys of households and businesses were in agreement last month on the strengthening in the economy after several months of divergence. Households reported a robust increase in employment of 410,000 in October — more than twice the increase reported by businesses. That could indicate that more people became self-employed or were working as contractors.
Unemployment has dropped significantly from the 10 percent high seen in October 2009, exactly three years ago, Ms. Shierholz noted, "but it still has a long way to go to get back to full employment."
• This story is based in part on wire service dispatches.
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Things to do, places to go, new spots to enjoy with friends and family from Norfolk to Washington, D.C., to Delaware and all points inbetween.
Wall Street news before (and occasionally after) the opening bell.
Life Happens and the Law either protects you or foils you. Here you will learn how to stay ahead of the game.
Benghazi: The anatomy of a scandal
Vietnam Memorial adds four names
Cinco de Mayo on the Mall | <urn:uuid:fc3b4b05-1507-4cf5-bfc5-12d1d602fc8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/2/unemployment-rate-inches-79-percent-jobs-increased/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969491 | 747 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Yogurt is produced by the fermentation of lactose in milk by the bacteria of yogurt-ferment. Without those bacteria it is not possible to make yogurt. But surprisingly, water buffalo milk and lemon ...
I have been making kefir regularly for a couple years. Lately, however, my family's interest in it has waned and I have been using it less often and so feeding it less often. I want to store some ... | <urn:uuid:38a2db59-9957-45f8-bf68-fde9b5bd2f16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/milk+fermentation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975298 | 91 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Crime Magazine is about true crime: organized crime, celebrity crime, serial killers, corruption, sex crimes, capital punishment, prisons, assassinations, justice issues, crime books, crime films and crime studies.
"Little Nicky" Scarfo took over the Philadelphia Mafia in 1981 following the murders of long-time Philly boss Angelo Bruno and his successor, "Chicken Man" Testa, but it took a war with Harry Riccobene to consolidate his power.
by Allan May
Two decades of tranquility in the Philadelphia Crime Family came to an end on the night of March 21, 1980. Late that evening, as Mafia boss Angelo Bruno and his driver John Stanfa sat in a car outside Bruno’s row house in South Philly chatting and smoking cigarettes, a gunman stepped out of the shadows, leveled a shotgun behind the "Docile Don’s" right ear and pulled the trigger. | <urn:uuid:eddd42a9-b249-4da5-9a58-ab68c0975e99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crimemagazine.com/serving-harry-riccobenescarfo-war?page=11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931744 | 184 | 1.632813 | 2 |
How to increase sunlight in your home
By Sirena Rubinoff, Networx
Your home is your heaven and let's face it, did you ever picture heaven as a place filled with darkness? No, it's full of light and that's how your home could be too! So, if you're tired of waking up in a dim house and don't have the means to install large glass skylights in every room and hallway, check out our seven tips on how to hone in on all that heavenly natural light just waiting outside.
Your home may not be very well equipped to take in natural sunlight right now, but the potential is there and you can start by learning about the directions that light travels. Areas facing South, South East and South West, receive the most natural light throughout the day and year. South is the direction you want any new windows, glass doors, solar panels, etc. to face in order to make the most of your natural light settings. Areas facing the East will receive morning light with sunrise and areas facing the West will receive afternoon and evening light as the sun sets. North-facing windows are something you might want to avoid if you're looking for more light in your home because these areas, including North East and North West, do not receive direct sunlight.
If you're dealing with rooms that do not have southward-facing windows or you can't install new windows, you might consider budgeting for tubular skylights. These are vertical tubes with a dome on top that go through the roof and attic space in order to focus outdoor sunlight into a specific room directly below. These are much more cost effective than traditional skylights because they don't involve major construction for installation and they don't let in ultraviolet rays like traditional skylights, so your furniture and carpets won't fade. Tubular skylights are designed to bring more natural light into single-storey homes or the top floor of a multi-storey home, and not into floors that have rooms above them. However, you can find some tubular skylights that have "elbows" that will allow you to fit them around obstacles.
Create an Inviting Entrance
Most entrance foyers are dark because they typically do not have nearby natural light sources, like windows or skylights. An aesthetically pleasing solution is to add glass to your doorway. You can put glass inside the door itself or add sidelights and overhead light panes, called transoms. The glass will bring natural light into your home's entryway, giving it a feeling of welcoming warmth. And don't worry, you can buy glass that is treated so that passersby cannot see into your house. Obscure glass is glazed in such a way that it will let light into the room while still providing privacy and can be used anywhere form the front door to bathroom or bedroom windows. Tinted glass provides privacy and insulation from the sun through the use of a transparent plastic film or metallic laminate. You might also want to look into frosted glass, stained glass, or thin adhesive films to cover your windows elegantly and privately, while still letting natural light into your home.
Color Me Beautiful
Your interior color scheme also helps to determine how light or bright your room appears. You can change the appearance of your dark rooms simply by painting the walls a lighter color so that they can reflect more of the existing natural light in your home. Bright colors, like whites and pastels, bounce the light around the room, while dark colors absorb the light. Glossy paints are best because they reflect the most light.
Set Your Windows Free!
While you're rethinking your color schemes, you might want to rethink your window curtains and drapes as well. Heavy window curtains can block natural light even when they are pulled away from the window. If you really want to reveal more of your natural light, consider switching out your heavy fabrics for simple, lightweight ones that can reveal the whole window when opened. Cotton or polyester fabrics work well and can be made into sheer or translucent curtains that even allow light into your home while closed. This is a great way to maintain privacy and still take advantage of the daylight outside. Remember, the color of your lightweight curtain will influence the color of the light in your room. You can create a wash of golden light through the installation of gold or yellow curtains, or add a rosy tint to your room with red or burgundy curtains. Have fun using curtain colors to enhance the atmosphere of your home!
Mirror, mirror on the wall...
Don't forget about these shiny beauties when revamping your home's natural lighting situation. Mirrors can reflect sunlight into the shadier areas of any room, from your kitchen to your bedroom and bathroom. Plus, they double as an instrument of elegance and style, while simultaneously adding the illusion of more space!
Get out that mop and get ready to wax because a good floor cleaning will not only look great, but glossy floors will actually add a brighter glow to your home. Polished floors reflect light. Carpets absorb it. So, if you have a lot of carpet in your home, you might want to remove some of it and put down some hard floors. They're easier to clean and help add light to your home.
So, take a walk through your home and see where you can implement some of the less time consuming tips listed here, such as waxing the floors, adding mirrors, and changing your drapes. See how your home feels at that point and then start thinking about how much more light you need and what is the best way to get it, either through replacing old windows with better positioned ones, adding tubular skylights, or changing the color scheme of your home. Have fun with it and good luck!
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:5814eabb-2bd8-4618-aaed-c224187f5241> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.click2houston.com/lifestyle/2abetterhome/windows-doors/How-to-increase-sunlight-in-your-home/-/4698948/16002604/-/view/print/-/m4xlg3z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945911 | 1,211 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Originally Posted by Banker & Tradesman
The Government Center Garage could be replaced with the city?s latest mixed-use project overlooking the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.
A controversial icon of Boston?s urban renewal of the 1960s could face the wrecking ball.
The owners of the Government Center Garage, previously mum on plans for the site?s future, said Monday they want to replace the concrete structure with a mix of hotel, office and retail space as well as condominiums.
Erasing the city?s largest parking lot would reconnect the North End and the Bulfinch Triangle neighborhoods with the downtown, Stephen G. Kasnet, chief executive officer of the Raymond Property Co., the building?s owners, told Banker & Tradesman.
?That building is like the Berlin Wall and we want it demolished to create a destination that fits into the fabric of the city,? Kasnet said.
Last year, Bulfinch Congress Holdings, a subsidiary of the Boston-based developer, paid $132.8 million for the 11-story facility adjacent to the Haymarket MBTA station. It includes 2,310 parking spaces, 275,000 square feet of office space and several retailers.
Kasnet said the timing could be right to demolish the building because the facility?s largest office tenant will end its lease in 2010.
?We have lots of ideas, but nothing is set in concrete,? he said. ?The question is what proportions of office, retail, hotel and residential makes the most sense. But if we cannot reach consensus on what is appropriate for the site, we could live happily with a new tenant in that building and reexamine the idea in 10 years.?
The developer has scheduled a community meeting June 18 for residents to share ideas on how the four-acre site should be redeveloped. The session will be held on the 10th floor of the garage at 6 p.m. | <urn:uuid:928358bd-f746-44b5-b5ab-8597df7e8f9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?t=2280 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949354 | 398 | 1.609375 | 2 |
|The Young Art shows at the 15th ART Innsbruck ‘... o rainbow‘ by the Tyrol-Taiwanese Ina Hsu (13.1.2011)|
||From young people and wild animals |
The Young Art shows at the 15th ART Innsbruck ‘... o rainbow‘ by the Tyrol-Taiwanese Ina Hsu
Since the beginning of the ART Innsbruck the Young Art has been a tight special place in the fair events. So as well for the anniversary in 2011: for the 15th edition of the ART international fair for contemporary art innsbruck, from 3rd - 6th February 2011 in Innsbruck‘s fair hall 4, the Büchsenhausen scholarship holder Ina Hsu will present her large-sized picture stories, which are often telling from an intimate relationship between young people and alleged wild animals. The animals, which were created by Hsu, seem to be nearly mysterious and probably only for particular people viewable companions.
But despite the supposed inner peace and the absolute matter of course, whereby humans and animals meet here, this aspect has at the same time always something highly dynamic, as her pictures appear in a way like a condensate of a richly inner life and therefore release a real flood of pictorial associations. Also the artist herself talks about a huge variety of influences: they range from humanized animal depiction in children‘s television programs of her generation to even mythological ideas from the culture of her ancestors. Because the parents of the in Tyrol born and raised artists originally come from Taiwan. And in the far-eastern cultures the wild animals like tiger, lion or stag are considered to be the symbol indicators of protection.
Once again Ina Hsu docks with the title for the special exhibition at the ART Innsbruck ‘... o rainbow‘ to a dense mythical complex of ideas: in all cultures the rainbow is considered to be a bridge between the worlds. Moreover the represented young people by Ina Hsu - and by the way they are without exception young people, who Ina Hsu paints - and their animal companions seem to be halt in a kind of world in-between, which appears to be peculiar and at the same time also extremely familiar.
On the occasion of the ART Innsbruck´s anniversary edition, Penz wants to reinvite some stars who were present at the very beginning. Especially in our fast moving time it is immensely delectable to pause in order to contemplate own as well as foreign developmental proceedings. „Not only the art market is constantly changing, but also our own art preferences use to alter. Many things disappear, whereas some things persist, and yes - they gain even more importance in our memories throughout the years,“ says Penz. An anniversary fair is therefore an appropriate occasion to examine this inner and outer shift in values.
The 15th ART international fair for contemporary art innsbruck will open its gates on 3rd February 2011. Once again, 70 exhibitors from 10 nations have signed up for this anniversary edition. Programmatically, Penz wants to focus on graphic prints and editions to bring back the spirit of the fair debut 15 years ago. Since the premiere of the Innsbruck art fair was then called ‚editions of Art’. | <urn:uuid:1ff588cf-a2b6-4ccb-8d82-0600c4898777> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://artfacts.net/en/institution/art-innsbruck-7235/news/the-young-art-shows-at-the-15th-art-innsbruck-e-o-rainbowe-by-the-tyrol-taiwanese-ina-hsu-5867.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95629 | 692 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Daily home cleaning is essential in keeping your homes ready for a surprise visit from a guest. A clean house will prevent you from the embarrassment you may get when a friend visits you and sees your house all messed up. Follow these simple tips on how you can maintain the cleanliness of your homes everyday.
Clean your floors using vacuum cleaners. It is the most effective and efficient way of removing all the dust and loose stuffs that clutter your flooring. This has to be a daily regimen by the way especially when you have pets with you. A carpet sweeper and dry mop can also do the job well. However it will be more work for you this way but can also save you the time from plugging and unplugging the vacuum and fixing the wirings.
Next is mopping your floor. There are new and available mops out in the market than your usual rag mop. However, your conventional rag will also do the work and nothing else will get that stubborn dirt out of those nicks and depressions on your tiles. Now, rag mops can be any piece of cloth but be sure it is a lint-free type.
You would want to use a home cleaning product that is natural and safe to use. Natural cleaning like these are very much available online. Also, make sure to read the labels and warning signs on the container. Nothing beats a good scrub with cleaning your floors. You will immediately notice a “shine” factor on your flooring.
Washing your dishes is certainly a “must do” daily activity. You may either do a manual handwashing or you can use the oh-so-useful dishwasher. It is recommended that you fill your dishwasher completely and run it immediately after using your dishes. Big cooking stuffs like your pots and pans do not fit very well in the dishwasher so it is best cleaned by manual hand-washing.
When you consider products for using, Dawn dishwashing liquid is a good for your chose. Since its creation in 1973, Dawn dishwashing liquid has been known for superior grease-fighting power. It’s so effective on dishes, pots and pans, that over the years, consumers have used Dawn on other greasy messes around their homes, from kitchen appliances to oily spots in the garage. Animal rescuers have even discovered that it’s a great way to remove grease from animals in oil spill cleanups. As a result, Dawn has helped conservation organizations save thousands of animals for over 35 years. Today, Dawn products has grown into an international family of products that is dedicated to innovation and that answers consumers’ ever-changing needs.
You would now if you have washed your dishes properly if you hear a squeaky sound when you run your fingers on it. If it feels greasy, then you might want to rewash your dishes. Dry them before putting them on their racks. This is important as moist plates and dishes are more prone to bacteria and other microorganisms, which we do not want! | <urn:uuid:c0b87b9d-9db9-4605-8ebd-e0819ba23fc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allsellbuy.com/blog/tag/dishwashing-liquid/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958834 | 619 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Manzullo introduces bill to increase tax incentives for manufacturers
WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo (R-16) introduced legislation to boost the economy and put Americans back to work by accelerating an existing tax incentive he co-authored that encourages manufacturers to keep jobs in the United States.
The American Jobs Creation Act of 2009 (H.R. 4189) would speed up a domestic manufacturing tax rate reduction to give large and small manufacturers a larger tax break on the goods they produce in the United States.
The tax incentive—which Manzullo helped create in 2004—provides a 6 percent tax rate reduction for manufacturers on the goods and services they produce in the United States. The tax rate reduction is scheduled to increase to 9 percent by 2010, but the bill Manzullo introduced would accelerate the phase-in to 9 percent retroactively to Jan. 1, 2009, allowing manufacturers to reap the higher tax benefits on their income tax returns early next year.
“This legislation gives our manufacturers an extra 3 percent cut in their tax rate immediately that they can use to expand and create jobs in America,” Manzullo said. “This legislation would provide a tremendous boost to our economy and help put Americans back to work. It should be included in any new jobs bill Congress considers in the next few weeks.”
Manzullo, co-chairman and founder of the House Manufacturing Caucus, helped author the domestic manufacturing tax deduction in 2004 during debate over how to replace the Foreign Sales Corporation/Extraterritorial Income (FSC/ETI) program that provided tax incentives to U.S. exporters.
The World Trade Organization had ruled FSC/ETI an illegal subsidy and forced Congress to eliminate it. During debate over how to replace FSC/ETI, Manzullo persuaded his colleagues to spread the deduction to both small and large manufacturers, and limit the eligibility to domestic production to encourage manufacturers to keep jobs in the United States.
The bill Manzullo introduced is part of his American Jobs Agenda, a compilation of years of legislative and administrative actions focused on making American companies more competitive so they can expand and create jobs.
Print This Article | <urn:uuid:448eec9e-6927-4c0e-a405-20f36229ea97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rockrivertimes.com/2009/12/03/manzullo-introduces-bill-to-increase-tax-incentives-for-manufacturers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960411 | 456 | 1.789063 | 2 |
How stress and competition can improve your life
Competition isn't a bad word. That is true in the office -- as well as on the race track. At least it's true for Po Bronson, the co-author of a new book on the topic called "Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing." The important step, Bronson said, is to embrace competition.
"You can learn to actually enjoy the stress and intensity of competition and actually miss it when it's not happening in your life," Bronson said. "And you can actually get competitive advantages by enjoying the stress rather than being freaked out by it."
And one interesting fact, related to Bronson's time as a bond salesman on Wall Street: "All the financial projections made from 1983 through recently -- over three million financial projections, over 20,000 stocks, almost 20,000 analysts -- and female financial analysts are 7.3 percent more accurate than men, on the whole," Bronson said. "And there's a similar science that looks at when women are CFOs, when women are on the audit committee, when women are on boards -- that they keep some of the corporate risk from being taken. And men tend to drive companies to take risks. It could be argued that we need a lot more women on Wall Street to try to help prevent some of these wild swings that we're getting into."
Bronson began working on the book after recovering from surgery. "I was kind of losing my edge, and reading all this research and being soaked up in the minutiae of competing," he said, "gave me the zeal again to tackle big challenges."
He warned, though, that there are points when mastering competition can become dangerous. "Being great at something can sort of backfire because you're overconfident," he said. "Being slightly underconfident wires up the mind to have this sort of critical thinking -- you're looking ahead for strategic things that you can do." | <urn:uuid:3f93beec-3068-40a5-84c2-2779226e07f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/big-book/how-stress-and-competition-can-improve-your-life?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+APM_Marketplace+%28APM%3A+Marketplace%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976778 | 406 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.