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|Advertiser January 25 1901|
|(Abridged version of published article)|
|The late Trooper GW Bolding|
On Sunday afternoon last, an In Memoriam Service, to unveil the tablet erected to perpetuate the memory of the late Trooper G. W. Bolding, was held in the Mechanics Institute. The day was fine, and, as expected, there was a very large attendance. Visitors from all the surrounding districts were present in large numbers, and although seating accommodation was provided for about 450, every available seat was occupied and many were forced to stand throughout the service, whilst a number who arrived late were compelled to remain outside, and watch the proceedings through the windows.
A military parade was held, and the soldiers occupied seats upon the platform during the service, and there were present Lieut. Horne; Sgt. Bell; Corpl. Kirwin; Privates J. Bolding; J. Nadenbousche; H. Cooke; A. Macmillan; Colley; Lawdhorn and other returned soldiers. The Rev. Smith McBain (Chaplain of the Victorian Bushmen’s Contingent) conducted the service. The ceremony of unveiling the tablet was performed by Lieutenant J. Hall, V.R., and in doing so he said, “ Reverend Sir, Ladies and Gentlemen, little did I think when a few months ago it was my melancholy duty to unveil a tablet in this hall which has been erected to the memory of the late Private Rose, that we should have been called together so soon to erect another memorial in honour of one who has grown up in this district, and who endeared himself, I may say, to every inhabitant of the community; but the unexpected has happened, and we all sincerely mourn the loss of an affectionate son, and a good citizen, and as true and valiant a soldier as has ever fallen in defence of the grand old Empire we love so dearly. His deeds of daring and valour are written in blood on the veldts of South Africa.”
Upon the tablet unveiled were the words - “Erected by his friends and admirers, of Morwell, Hazelwood and Yinnar, to the memory of Trooper George Bolding, who died at Pretoria, S.A., in the service of his Queen and Empire, October 24, 1900. Aged 25 years.”
At the conclusion of Lieut. Hall’s remarks the “Dead March” was played by Private Edgar (organ) and Bugler Bailey (Cornet) - the whole congregation standing in silence.
In a few well-chosen words, Mr Malcolm McDonald, on behalf of the people of Morwell, Hazelwood, and Yinnar, presented Mr and Mrs Bolding with a handsome illuminated address of sympathy. The service concluded with the singing of Kipling’s Recessional Hymn.
Everything connected with the service passed off without the slightest hitch, and the energetic secretary, Mr Hoyle, and committee, deserve very great praise for the excellent manner in which they arranged and carried out every detail.
Footnote: Tragically, the Memorial Tablets for Privates Rose and Bolding were lost when fire destroyed the Mechanics’ Institute hall on Thursday, 10th January 1935. | <urn:uuid:6b6cfec6-379a-4e96-a5da-4fabdbb5d206> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.morwellhistoricalsociety.org.au/bolding.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978704 | 682 | 1.578125 | 2 |
My friend Kapil Komireddi urges attention to those rebels' sectarian agenda:
As Saudi Arabian arms and money bolster the opposition, the 80,000 Christians who’ve been “cleansed” from their homes in Hamidiya and Bustan al-Diwan in Homs Province in March by the Free Syrian Army have gradually given up the prospect of ever returning home.
The rebels’ conduct has prompted at least some Sunnis who had supported the rebels and once-wavering Syrians to pledge renewed loyalty to Assad. Many who once regarded the regime as a kleptocracy now view it as the best guarantor of Syria’s endangered pluralism.
A Sunni shopkeeper in the impoverished suburb of Set Zaynab, which was partly destroyed in the clashes last week, no longer supports the rebellion. “I wanted Assad to go because he is corrupt,” he said. “But what happened here, what they did, it scared me. It made me angry. I cannot support the murder of my neighbors in the name of change. You cannot bring democracy by killing innocent people or by burning the shrines of Shiites. Syrians don’t do that. This is the work of the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia,” he added, referring to the ultra conservative Sunni sect.
Repeated attempts by Free Syrian Army fighters to destroy a shrine to Sayyida Zeinab, the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad revered by Shiites, have not yet caused the area’s Sunni minority to flee — many Shiites here have refused to blame their Sunni neighbors for the rebels’ crimes.
Over the past week, more than a dozen Syrians — chiefly Alawi and Christian, but also a handful of Sunnis — affirmed to me their determination to pick up arms to defend Assad. | <urn:uuid:2ecb5269-ee36-42b1-b18e-8b519547365c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/03/syrian-rebels.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957458 | 376 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Reverend Sun Myung Moon, 'messiah' who befriended presidents, dies
A self-proclaimed messiah who befriended North Korean leaders and US presidents as his Unification Church became a worldwide religious movement has died.
The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, 92, died in hospital near his home in Gapyeong, north-east of Seoul, last night after being hospitalised with pneumonia.
Moon, who was jailed for spying and tax evasion, founded his religious movement in Seoul in 1954, after surviving the Korean War, and preached conservative, family-oriented values while advocating a multicultural religious world.
The church gained infamy in the 1970s and 1980s for holding mass weddings of thousands of followers, known as Moonies, and was accused of duping followers out of money and brainwashing children. Despite this, its popularity grew so much that its business empire included the Washington Times newspaper, hotels in the US and North Korea, a ski resort and a professional soccer team in South Korea, and a seafood distribution business.
Born in what is today North Korea, Moon said he was 16 when Jesus called on him to complete his unfinished work.
The mass "blessing ceremonies" started in the 1960s and grew in scale over the next two decades, with a 1982 wedding at Madison Square Garden in New York – the first outside South Korea – drawing thousands of participants.
In 2009 Moon married 45,000 people in simultaneous ceremonies worldwide.
In his autobiography the same year he said: "People should marry across national and cultural boundaries with people from countries they consider to be their enemies so that the world of peace can come that much more quickly."
Moon was jailed in North Korea in the late 1940s for allegedly spying for South Korea – a charge he disputed, but he rebuilt his relationship with North Korea in 1991 when he met the country's founder, Kim Il Sung.
He said of Kim: "The two of us were able to communicate well about our shared hobbies of hunting and fishing. At one point, we each felt we had so much to say to the other that we just started talking like old friends meeting after a long separation."
He claimed that Kim told his son, Kim Jong Il: "After I die, if there are things to discuss pertaining to North-South relations, you must always seek the advice of President Moon."
Moon also cultivated relationships with conservative American leaders, including former Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
He blamed his growing influence on America culture as the reason for his 13 months at a US federal prison in 1984-85 for tax evasion, and as he grew older he handed day-to-day control of his religious and business empire – ranging from hospitals and universities to a ballet troupe – to his children.
The church claims millions of members worldwide, although church defectors and other critics say the figure is no more than 100,000.
Moon is survived by his second wife and 10 children.
In pictures: Saturn images from Cassini probe as it prepares to turn lens towards Earth
Serena Williams apologises after comment that rape victim 'shouldn't have put herself in that position'
FBI finds possible human remains at former home of late gangster James Burke - the man who inspired Goodfellas
'Theres something quite unpleasant going on': Nigel Farage confronted for second time on visit to Scotland
World news in pictures
- 1 Bankers could face jail after report urges the Government to introduce new criminal offence for reckless management
- 2 Breaking the Silence: In the reality of occupation, there are no Palestinian civilians – only potential terrorists
- 3 Richard Nieuwenhuizen death: Six teenagers and 50-year-old father convicted of manslaughter in shocking case of referee killed over a game of football
- 4 Exclusive: Newcastle's star talent-spotter on brink as Joe Kinnear sparks walkout
- 5 Vast methane 'plumes' seen in Arctic ocean as sea ice retreats
£500 - £600 per day: Orgtel: FX Options Front Office Java / C# Developer - Ba...
£600 - £700 per day: Orgtel: Project Manager - Front Office - Regulatory IT C...
£33000 - £35000 Per Annum: The Green Recruitment Company: The Green Recruitmen...
£21000 - £22000 per annum: Randstad Education Chelmsford: NQTs required now fo... | <urn:uuid:f3b90bb2-ba9f-483b-8022-19bcb78905b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/reverend-sun-myung-moon-messiah-who-befriended--presidents-dies-8101593.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96307 | 910 | 1.53125 | 2 |
A VERY small Beatrix Potter drawing has sold for nearly £50,000 at an auction in America.
The three-and-three-quarter inches by six inches ink and watercolour had been expected to sell for up to 37,500 at the Sotheby's auction, in New York, but reached £47,438
The miniature, called 'Guinea pigs going to their garden...' was among 193 original illustrations sold by wealthy American couple, Kendra and Allan Daniel. The painting depicts four guinea pigs following a fifth along a path carrying garden tools.
A spokesman for Sotheby's said: "Early in 1893, when she was in her twenties, Beatrix Potter borrowed a number of guinea pigs from her friend, Miss Paget. One, named Mr Chopps, proved to be no problem but another, named Queen Elizabeth, apparently 'took to eating blotting paper, pasteboard, string and other curious substances and expired during the night. A pair of gardening illustrations date from this time: four guinea pigs following a blue-coated guinea pig and four guinea pigs working under the guidance of the blue-coated guinea pig.
"These were later redrawn in 1922 and used in Potter's book Cecil Parsley's Nursery Rhymes."
A SNOW leopard which featured in a movie starring Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman is the latest addition to a South Lakeland zoo.
Young male Pavan, one of two leopards who played the part of Stelamaria in The Golden Compass, will be housed in a walk-through enclosure at Lakeland Wildlife Oasis at Hale, near Milnthorpe.
Staff have created a homely feel for their new feline friend with the enclosure designed to look like a Himalayan village with plenty of rocks for him to climb and snooze on.
An acrylic tunnel running through the enclosure will allow visitors to see Pavan in his own habitat in what is thought to be the UK’s first walk-through big cat exhibit.
Assistant manager of Lakeland Wildlife Oasis, Caroline Howard, said: “We’re really excited about Pavan’s arrival - he’s a real celebrity cat! His new home is amazing. You can walk right through his territory while he ranges around you - even above your head!”
Pavan has arrived from UK charity the Cat Survival Trust which helps conserve endangered cats.
Once he has settled in his new environment, zoo staff hope to form a breeding pair by adding a female snow leopard to Pavan’s enclosure.It is not known how many snow leopards are left in the wild but they are now classed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Lakeland Wildlife Oasis is joining the captive breeding programme which is run by the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums. | <urn:uuid:6c8e6138-9074-4dae-b5e6-1aac78cd77e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rothaymanor.co.uk/Rothay-Manor-Blog.aspx?tagname=York&groupid=5&tagid=171 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966578 | 600 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Glenn Beck opened his Fox News program today saying: "Welcome to a special edition of 'The Glenn Beck Program.' The story of America is really one of self-reliance and optimism, and profound faith. Not only in the context of religious freedom, but also in the unprecedented faith in the ability of human beings to control their own destiny."
Sound familiar? That's because it's from Beck's mini "documentary" film, The Revolutionary Holocaust: Life Free or Die." Today, Beck replayed his half-baked attempt to tie the atrocities of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara to modern progressivism. We thought this would be a good opportunity to remind Beck's audience that back in January, when the special first appeared, numerous historians disputed Beck's claims in the film, calling it a "complete lie" representing an "alternative universe."
In a January Politico article headlined "History according to Glenn Beck," reporter Michael Calderone asked history professors what they thought of Beck's documentary on "the atrocities of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara - 'the true unseen history of Marxism, progressivism and communism' as Beck described it."
In the article, Clemson professor Steven Marks called Beck's assertions "a complete lie":
Clemson University professor Steven Marks, author of "How Russia Shaped the Modern World," said that while Beck doesn't explicitly tie the left-wing totalitarian regimes of the past to contemporary liberals, that's what "he's hinting at here."
"No one in their right mind is going to defend Stalin or Mao or Che Guevara," Marks said. "The implication is that this is what's going to happen if Democrats get their way. This is just a complete lie."
Boston College professor Alan Wolfe said Beck "lives in a complete alternative universe":
Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Life at Boston College, said that the film not only isn't accurate, but that Beck "lives in a complete alternative universe."
As an example, he said, Beck mentions how the Nazis supported programs like universal health care as evidence that their ideology may have more to do with the left than the totalitarian right.
Nazi Germany was "not evil because of their economic program," said Wolfe, which he noted included a few programs designed to promote public health.
"It was evil," he said, " because it aimed at the extermination of European Jewry."
The article also quotes Georgetown history University Professor Michael Kazin, who referred to the piece as "propaganda" and that to reach his conclusions, Beck ignored some key facts, such as the "the first anti-Communists were democratic socialists and anarchists like Emma Goldman" or that "socialists in Europe after 1945 were allies of the U.S.against the USSR." | <urn:uuid:9e5baba4-8343-45ac-adf6-7e63692c7fa7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mediamatters.org/blog/2010/03/29/fox-replays-becks-alternative-universe-doc-revo/162429 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962075 | 599 | 1.507813 | 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.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Estrogen link to Fibroidenoma?
I am a 26 year old female. I have found a lump 40 days ago. It was very small. I have bothered it by trying to see what it is. Over the past 40 days it has grown to 4-5 cms in diameter. It feels smooth and hard. I have been to a breast clinic and the doctor told me it may be related to fibrous and glandular tissue. It has grown appoximately 2-3 cms since I seen him 16 days ago. I went for a physical approximately a month ago and I was told that my estrogen levels were low. My family doctor does not want to progress investigating why my estrogen levels are low until we find out what this lump is. I have a scheduled ultrasound in 18 days to see what this mass is. The breast doctor assured me that I should not worry. I am wondering if there is a link between my low estrogen levels and this new lump? I have been trying to have a baby for a year now and I am unable to get pregnant. What are some reasons why my estrogen level be low?
There is likely no link between low estrogen levels and a breast mass, but definitely please followup with the ultrasound evaluation that is planned for the breast mass.
Paula Silverman, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University | <urn:uuid:0032557d-dceb-41f5-8717-38fd909e0007> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netwellness.org/question.cfm/78894.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968287 | 325 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Two United States national guardsmen at the site of the world trade center.
Today is September 11, the day the towers fell in New York. This morning, I cleared off the main display stand and put up various books on 9/11/2001. We have lots of books about actual accounts of September 11 because our library is in New York. Books about firefighters, policemen, and rescue workers who sacrificed a huge amount to clean this city up and make it safe again. Please take a moment to ponder on what happened. It can possibly happen again. Pray that this does not happen again. Vigilance is the price of freedom.
I remember being at the court house in Staten Island waiting to be picked up for jury duty. We were watching the television when it cut off and showed the planes hitting the twin towers. The buses stopped running and I ended up walking for three miles to get home. I believe it happened as it was. No conspiracy theories, no hidden agendas. It was terrorists attacking a symbol of American dreams and aspirations all over the world.
I could stand next to the train station on Staten Island and see the pillar of smoke that was the World Trade Center. It was a long grey line against the sky. I stood and watched it for an hour. Then I went inside and laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling number for the next three hours.
I took the ferry past the the Statue of Liberty which has since reopened. For a long time the statue was closed. The closure was a deeply sad affair. To close down liberty is immensely symbolic. I had a hard time believing it. It made me very angry.
I remember landing on the Staten Island ferry near the financial district. My lungs burned, my eyes teared, and my skin itched. It was hard to be there. I feel remorse for many of the people who rushed to the center which was necessary. Many will be disabled from the fumes for the rest of their lives. You could see the black shadows on some the buildings where the soot stained the sides of the building.
We had someone who worked at our library who lost a friend in the tower. I am lucky, unlike many others that I did not have a family member working or visiting in the towers. I remember her coming in slightly dazed from shock. She eventually left. Her life seemed to be in tatters.
That was what I remember about 9/11/2001. Remember. | <urn:uuid:8cc4007f-c292-43ef-9622-6af36ebf7c6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bookcalendar.blogspot.com/2008/09/september-11.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979441 | 502 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Whenever I speak about database maintenance, I always recommend that DBAs backup up their production database transaction logs at least once an hour. As is with most things DBA-related, there is no exact answer that will meet every SQL Server environment’s needs. The interval between transaction log backups depend on many factors, including, but not limited, to how much data the organization is willing to loose, how active the database is, and so on.
When I set up database maintenance plans myself, I generally backup at 15 minute intervals, although sometimes I deviate from this, depending on a variety of different factors.
In my most recent poll, I asked DBAs how often they backup their transaction logs, and the results are shown at the left.
It is interesting to see the various choices made by the various DBAs who completed the poll. Based on my recommendation of backing up transaction logs at least once an hour, (if you add up the results), nearly 77% follow this recommendation, which I think is great.
A few other DBAs choose different transaction log periods. Just over 2% of the DBAs said they never back up their transaction log. I hope this is because their databases use the Simple Recovery Model, and not because they don’t know what they are doing.
A surprising 6% or so said that they don’t even know what a transaction log backup is. Hopefully, after seeing this post, they will do some research and find out why transaction log backups are so important. | <urn:uuid:b080e261-41d1-4f26-964f-6ce8f92d120d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/aloha_dba/2010/11/16/how-often-do-you-backup-your-transaction-logs_3F00_/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951986 | 311 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Can Derek Jeter aim his hits?By
If ballplayers could aim their hits with any consistency, perhaps we’d have seen a few more .400 hitters in baseball history. But, as we’ve learned through years of studying the game, it’s not that easy. Hitters have little reaction time between when the pitcher releases the ball and when the ball crosses the plate. During that time a batter must decide where the ball will cross the plate, the velocity of the pitch, the break of the pitch, and then finally of whether he will swing. And then it’s a matter of hitting a sphere with a cylinder. But you know all this, and you know it makes it difficult for a batter to aim his hit to a particular portion of the field.
A hitter can help his case, of course, by generally going with the pitch. Some hitters seem to do this better than others, and over the past 14 years we’ve had the pleasure of watching Derek Jeter slap outside pitches to right field. When pitchers try to work Jeter inside, he can turn around and pull a ball down the left field line, just to keep them honest. In fact, before 2009 he hit more ground balls and line drives down the left field line than the right.
Today at FanGraphs, Dave Allen examines Jeter’s hit tendencies, specifically ground balls and line drives — the batted ball types that generate the most hits. He uses the following field slices to describe where Jeter hits his ground balls and line drives. The number represents the percentage of all GB and LD hit to that field slice, and the shading represents slugging percentage on those hits, the lighter the lower.
Allen makes a few notations about the difference in 2009:
The worst places to hit a grounder are straight at the second basemen or shortstop, those are the grayest slices and in 2009 Jeter cut down the the percentage of his hits to those two slices by 4% (2B) and 2% (SS). He had more hits right up the middle (25% versus 21%), which are singles and doubles more often than outs.
Again, the improvement comes in Jeter’s bread and butter areas, up the middle and to right field. While Allen noted his up the middle increase, Jeter also increased the percentage of GB and LD he hit between the first and second baseman. This probably played a large part in Jeter’s high BABIP, .369.
Allen follows the above block quote with the following: “I don’t think this is a shift in true talent: I don’t think Jeter is any better at ‘aiming’ his grounders.” I’m not as sure. There isn’t a real way to prove this, so for now all we can do is guess. Jeter did, however, display a more discerning eye in 2009 than he had in the two previous years, increasing his pitches seen per plate appearance. Does a keen batting eye allow a player to better aim his hits?
To the average Yankees fan, with the heavy bias that comes with watching a single team so frequently, Jeter does seem better at aiming his hits than other hitters. In 2009 he seemed exceptional, often jumping on the first pitch of the game and depositing it in the shallow outfield. No, he can’t hit a baseball anywhere at will. But it does appear he embodies the Wee Willie Keeler mantra of “hit it where they ain’t.” | <urn:uuid:f4c1b3b2-d7ca-481a-9799-b314d5c0100b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://riveraveblues.com/2010/01/can-derek-jeter-aim-his-hits-22642/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970492 | 741 | 1.828125 | 2 |
USAToday asks some pertinent questions about the fuzzy line separating government and corporations in the military-industrial complex:
In a marketplace awash in consulting firms that help defense companies sell to the Pentagon, the Durango Group has a unique advantage.
The Colorado-based firm has become a base of operations for retired officers who also are handsomely paid by the military for their advice. No other defense consulting firm employs more “senior mentors” than Durango. Of the 59 former officers who work for Durango, 15 also serve as mentors, a USA TODAY investigation found.
As Durango associates, the retired officers are paid to help private companies win and administer Pentagon contracts. As mentors, the retirees are paid by the military to help run war games, which also gives them access to classified strategies and weapons systems. Durango cites these mentoring assignments on its website as signs of its associates’ unique connections.
Along with their work for Durango and the military, these retired officers, mostly from the Air Force, are paid advisers, consultants and corporate directors on the boards of at least 20 companies, according to public records. Three of them work for private equity firms to help them identify, buy and then run defense contractors.
Durango’s ability to mix mentoring and consulting work illustrates how closely the private interests of some mentors overlap with their military advisory jobs. The firms’ mentors move seamlessly between roles as paid advisers to the services and paid consultants to defense companies in the same subject areas, USA TODAY found.
As a result, Durango and the mentors it employs draw income from multiple sources. Both get paid by the military for advice and by defense contractors who want consulting help. The firm also benefits from having its mentors serve as corporate directors or advisers for other companies.
That kind of overlap is not illegal. But some analysts say it should be…
[continues at USAToday] | <urn:uuid:f483be3a-ed67-494a-bd2c-89f26d151da4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://disinfo.com/2009/12/is-durango-group-evidence-of-an-evil-military-industrial-complex/ | 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 | 0.971178 | 391 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Apple’s ongoing patent war with Motorola Mobility may well be over after a German court ruled Motorola can not enforce the standard-essential patent injunction against Apple whilst the two carry out their appeals.
Sitting at the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court, judgement was passed stating that Motorola had no right to withhold these patents against the Cupertino firm.
While this may not capture the headlines which are sure to come Apple’s way with the March launch of the iPad 3, the news about what has happened in Karlsruhe could be more significant for all concerned.
The matter revolves around the patent for FRAND (Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discrimatory) for all similar tablet and smart phone devices. Apple have used their intelligence and requested the chance to licence technology as part of the FRAND agreement.
Therefore the German court’s decision effectively means that Motorola can not reject the request without breaking anti-trust laws.
It could mean that Android devices cost a great deal more in future as the tablet will have to have royalties and other licensing fees built in to its overall recommended retail price.
Serious consequences could be felt from this ruling, especially as Google has not yet completed their deal to buy out Motorola for $12.5 million, partially based on the belief that the court case would turn in Motorola’s (and therefore Google’s favour) against Apple and to a lesser extent Microsoft.
Some analysts have even suggested that Google drops the purchase and pays out the break out fee which is rumoured to be in the region of $2.5 million, however it is thought that Google would not be prepared to do that. | <urn:uuid:e0aad8b6-d6c3-48d8-8124-e105c7a1c621> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itrentals.com/news/apple-could-have-won-patent-war-against-motorola-5323 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962511 | 342 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Is there a date on the postmark? Just curious....
All I can make out is JUL 20
It looks like July 20, and then something and a 3. This air mail stamp was used in the 50s, and the post card is circa 1950s or earlier, so it could be 53, or 63.
It couldn't be 1953– the collection of Architecture & Archaeology stamps were made between 1954 and '75. Actually I'm guessing it's from 1960, since the two digits right after the month in the stamp denote the year so it's DDMMMYY and then another two digits which are a mystery to me, maybe the time?I'm not a stamp aficionado, I just had some time on my hands and was interested because I live in Mexico City (but I've never been to a bull fight!)
Very interesting cursive style. At first glance, it seems like it might be based on a familiar method, but there's some rather unique features, like lots of curls at the beginning of letters (which isn't part of any cursive method I personally studied). Reminds me that I'll have to study handwriting analysis a little more sometime.
Post a Comment | <urn:uuid:8ae4c5fa-0c58-431f-89af-07cc9737f599> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com/2012/06/death-in-afternoon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977372 | 247 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Growing up in the dusty suburb of Glen Norah where she pursued her secondary education, she looked just like any other ordinary girl who wanted good grades so that she will be assured of a good job. But to her, that alone was not enough.
That was the time when she started toying with the idea of venturing into modelling.
It dawned on her that she could become one of Zimbabwe's best models and fashionistas who would rival or let alone surpass levels reached by the likes of United States supermodel Naomi Campbell.
Now, several years later, her name has become synonymous with a number of modelling pageants in Zimbabwe.
She is also credited for grooming a good number of fine models that have made it to prestigious modelling showcases in Zimbabwe and across the globe.
Her name is Mercy Mushaninga, a former model who rose to become the executive director of a unique pageant, Miss Curvy.
The beauty pageant is increasingly becoming popular because it promotes models that are sidelined because of their big size instead of the trim look that most modelling scouts are always after.
"I decided to come up with the concept of Missy Curvy because I realised that there were many good models who were being turned down by some agencies because of their bodies which were deemed as either too big or too small for the required shape and size.
She said they were sidelined despite the fact that they needed their chance and that they could still make it if something was created for them.
"This is what gave birth to Miss Curvy as the name suggests.
"It celebrates women with curvaceous bodies because being curvy is also another attribute of beauty, apart from a beautiful face and a slim body," Mercy said.
She said having a curvaceous body is typically African, and such women should celebrate themselves and express pride in their appearances.
"Modelling is in a person and how they look like, their poise, how well they are groomed, walk, sit and dress is not just about facial beauty.
"Everyone wants to look like a model and I believe giving curvaceous models their rightful place is the new trend.
"I also challenged fashion designers not to limit their creativity on designing materials only for trim models, even curvy women can look good. But sadly, few designers are designing for African women who look like this," she explained.
So passionate is Mercy taking the Miss Curvy pageant to another level that she now harbours a dream of coming up with the Miss Curvy World.
"Five years from now, I will be hosting the Miss Curvy World to promote such women. One just has to take a look at some of our prominent women like Vice President Joice Mujuru and the First Lady Mai Grace Mugabe in order to appreciate the beauty inherent in such women," she said.
Listening to her talk, one cannot wonder why she is the person behind the success stories of a number of young Zimbabwean models.
They include Malaika Mushandu, Miss Teen Zimbabwe 2012, Soraya Vallabah and former 2011 Miss Southern Africa Evelyn Gondo who represented the country in Zambia the same year.
She groomed these talented models on skills required on the ramp, including etiquette, and her efforts have not been in vain.
Youthful models have written their own success stories at numerous prestigious modelling showcases in and outside the Zimbabwean borders.
"I was groomed by Paxina Kalulu of the former popular agency Silhouettes who made it to Face of Africa in the 90s.
"I learnt one thing in life that nothing takes place in isolation. You have to seek for knowledge from those who have been there before you and one should keep on learning new things everyday since the world is one big college whose doors are open to everyone," she urged.
Together with Paxina, Mercy --who was Miss Harare in 1992 -- were instrumental in promoting the Miss Chibhanguza modelling contest aimed at promoting models at the hotel.
That development gave birth to Zim Gossip, in 2001.
"It was not an easy road, but I soldiered on until it began to take shape in 2007 before it spawned the Modelling Extravaganza pageant in 2009.
"The aim of this pageant was to promote young girls because I felt that there were some young girls in the modelling industry who have been abused either because of their looks or because of their desire to rise to their top."
"That is why I always speak firmly against rumours that suggest that I am involved in the racket of abusing these girls by linking them with rich men."
"Let me gladly and proudly announce that I am a mother of thousands of 'kids', girls who always come to me asking for direction.
"They come to me asking for guidance, counselling and some of them even ask for things like heels (shoes) and clothes.
"But I always remind them to stay focused and never allow themselves to be swept off their feet," said the single mother of two, 14-year-old girl Lesley and a son, Eugene (7).
Born on December 31, 1975 in a family of 10 -- Mercy described her father who is a sub-chief under Chief Mangwende in Murewa, as her role model.
"My dad is principled. He stands firm and resolute in whatever he believes in," she said.
She is also a proud owner of an Internet café called Gossip Link situated at Speciss as well as a project she calls Models Against Hunger in a bid to promote the modelling lifestyle.
"The curvy model said she looks up to Mary J Blige for the way she manages to keep her looks young, while she purely adores designs by Alice Knuth, the designer who dresses local music diva Chiwoniso Maraire," the Catholic concluded with a smile. | <urn:uuid:ef4e8d3d-15e1-4708-a561-be097b320c30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/201211100032.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981631 | 1,203 | 1.679688 | 2 |
"If Walls Could Talk" is a song by Céline Dion, which was intended as the final single from her album All the Way… A Decade of Song album. The song was first recorded by Stevie Vann on her self titled album Stevie Vann in 1995.
First, in January 2000 there were rumors that "If Walls Could Talk" will be Céline Dion's next single in the United Kingdom. But two months later, Sony Music UK released "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" instead. In April 2000, the cover of the single and the tracklist became available. "If Walls Could Talk" was supposed to be released on May 5 2000 in Mexico, but it was cancelled. They preferred to release "I Want You to Need Me." Again, in October Sony decided to release the single in Europe, Australia, Japan, and Central America in December 2000. But the release was cancelled for the third time. The promotion of All the Way... A Decade of Song has ended.
"If Walls Could Talk" music video, directed by Liz Friedlander in 2000, was released on the 2001 All the Way… A Decade of Song & Video DVD compilation.
In 2002, Robert John "Mutt" Lange wrote and produced another track for Céline Dion - "Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)."
Australian cancelled CD maxi single | <urn:uuid:75f18717-6a33-4d62-8de9-17bbd65fd3c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reference.com/browse/If+Music+Could+Talk | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979284 | 285 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Alex Yatskov has coded a piece of software that lets you create manga books for the kindle from scanlations (translations of manga into non-Japanese languages). Its quite a neat piece of software that lets you -
- Convert/Quantize images to grayscale to get a richer contrast.
- Downscale images to fit the Kindle’s screen better.
- Rotate the image to better suit the Kindle’s 800 by 600 aspect ratio.
- And other cool things.
I think this is a big step in expanding the functionality of the Kindle. And it’s the biggest step I’ve seen since Igor’s kindle hacks that gave us google maps, the browser, and other things like the picture viewer (which Mangle leverages).
There are a few reasons this piece of software, Mangle, is really interesting (even if, like me, you aren’t sure whether manga is even safe to talk about) -
- My first thought would be extending the software to be used for comics. Since my Kindle is still in Seattle I can’t test it yet. However, perhaps someone will and leave a comment.
- My second thought would be extending the Kindle to hold photo albums and as photo storage. Yes, I know it’s black and white – however it has a large screen, and works perfectly well for storing and looking through images. And Mangle does a good job of taking your images and converting them into Kindle friendly images – and stringing them together into ‘books’/photo-albums.
- Potential Commercial Implications – From Wikipedia‘s manga article, I found out that there is a $4.4 billion dollar manga market in Japan, and a $200 million dollar manga market in the US -
In Japan, manga are widely read by people of all ages, and include a broad range of subjects … Since the 1950s, manga have steadily become a major part of the Japanese publishing industry, representing a 481 billion yen market in Japan in 2006 (approximately $4.4 billion dollars). Manga have also become increasingly popular worldwide. In 2006, the United States manga market was $175–200 million. Manga are typically printed in black-and-white.
- The fact that most manga comes in Black and White is good – since we may not see color eReaders for another 3 years.
- The fact that even without access to Kindle as a platform people are already coding software to extend Kindle functionality.
So major props to Alex for coding Mangle – do give it a spin.
Edit: I’m not promoting piracy. Most manga companies are okay with scanlations since they are not going to release those manga outside of Japan anyways. | <urn:uuid:91b97df0-470b-4bbb-9cd2-91db50f48562> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ireaderreview.com/2008/12/16/manga-on-the-kindle-mangle-software-by-alex-yatskov/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944556 | 572 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Do I really have a choice?
At fifteen, life had taught me undeniably that surrender in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice. – Maya Angelou
The HQ and I were having one of our enlightening discussions about choices. We like to practice for when we are retired in Boca . I am standing at a crossroad in my life, diligently working in the direction of my soul calling, while Divine timing has me returning to an old familiar place. Do I have a choice not to go? Sure, but making that decision would cause a domino effect of future decisions (no longer choices) that lack integrity and honesty. While the idea is tempting, I am no longer that girl. So, I am trying to stop resisting and surrender, recognizing that always my best choice is to trust in the Divine Plan. Believing as Maya Angelou said that this surrender is honorable.
In the past, I never contemplated the full ramifications of my choices. If it felt good, I did it, simple as that. Now I know that all my actions have consequences, and not just for me, but for the people who love me. I honor their love for me by continuing to do the next right thing.
Do you recognize that your choices have consequences? Can you acknowledge that one poor choice may lead to the domino effect of bad or no choices? Do you still have times when you know the choices you are making are going to lead to a train wreck, and yet, cannot stop yourself? Here are a few action steps we can take to ensure that our choices are in alignment with our core values.
- If the choice seems questionable, play the tape all the way through. Sure, those $500 Jimmy Choo shoes look great, but if you struggle to meet your monthly bills, make the conscious decision to do the next right thing.
- Take a moment to think about all the people this decision will affect. Will this one choice lead to the domino effect discussed above? Will the end result bring happiness and joy, or will it hurt or harm anyone, including you? Make the obvious choice.
- If you made a poor choice, and we all do, simply own it. Apologize for it, do what you have to do to make it right, and then forgive yourself. Don’t let the choice own you. We all have errors in judgment. Once it’s over let it go.
What do you do when you find yourself at a crossroad? What steps do you take to ensure your choices honor you and those who love you? Considering where I am in my life, your advice is more than appreciated.
Síochána & Paidreacha (peace & prayers), | <urn:uuid:4ccd7d6b-5c4c-450c-bfb1-ef7249f0fa52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lipstick-chat.com/2012/11/16/do-i-really-have-a-choice/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967968 | 566 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Five Ways to Unlock the Business Value of Social MediaBy Samuel Greengard | Posted 2011-03-28 Email Print
So your organization has a social media presence. Welcome to 2009. Now what are you going to do?
1. Identify your goals and objectives. It’s critical to understand what you are trying to accomplish and how social media can help you achieve results. This defines everything from the strategy to the software and systems an organization will use to drive results, says Accenture consultant Kelly Dempski.
2. Think quality, not quantity. Too many companies get caught up in the numbers game. “The idea is to have fans or followers who are committed and active,” notes Dempski.
3. Build attractive, compelling pages and tools that provide value. Make a page or service eye-catching and offer value so that you will build a relationship. “Social media is a two-way street,” says Barry Libert, author of the book Social Nation.
4. Think of social media as a new market research tool. Companies such as Starbucks and Dell Computer have reaped the benefits of social media through Web pages that foster discussions about ideas, products and more. Other companies, ranging from Amazon to Adagio Teas, solicit customer reviews and ratings of products.
5. Tap into analytics. Put data about customer behavior and preferences to use. Use polls to conduct market research or mine feeds and tweets for patterns. In addition, understand who is visiting your social networking pages and what they want from your company. These “listening” tools can provide remarkable insights that lead to new products, services, marketing and customer service strategies. | <urn:uuid:3bfc0ad2-1283-4b51-bb8b-dc752c294697> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Intelligence/Five-Ways-to-Unlock-the-Business-Value-of-Social-Media-671973/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934034 | 346 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Some Frequently Asked Questions about
Counselling and Psychotherapy
What is the difference between Counselling and Psychotherapy?
Counselling is generally regarded as an approach that focuses on the immediate or pressing problem and is usually shorter term. This is frequently for a period of 6 to 12 weeks though in some cases it can be longer.
Whilst psychotherapy also helps with the kinds of difficulties brought to counselling more often it is the treatment of choice for deep seated issues that may have built up over a much longer period of time, even stemming from childhood.
Broadly though, the approach used in psychotherapy is similar to that used in counselling. The main difference is that psychotherapists tend to undertake a longer and more in-depth training than counsellors and have greater experience of working with more chronic or difficult problems. The process of psychotherapy takes place over a much longer period of time and because of this leads to a deeper more established relationship between client and therapist. Most significantly it is through the safety of this longer term relationship that more profound and deep seated issues can be explored and worked through.
What are the benefits of counselling and psychotherapy?
While the researched benefits of counselling and psychotherapy are well documented the actual changes vary from person to person as every process is completely individual. However, clients often report changes such as a significant improvement in their initial concerns, an enhanced insight into their situation, improved self-worth, or more specifically:
* Increased confidence and self-esteem
* Greater sense of self worth
* More intimate and satisfying relationships
* Feeling more empowered
* More success in a chosen career
* Improved physical health
* Feeling calmer and more relaxed
* Greater personal awareness and understanding
* Having greater choice
* Feeling more alive / having more energy
* Better communication skills
Can I speak to someone before I make an appointment?
You are very welcome to call and speak to Sam Lawson our Practice Manager before you make your first appointment. If she is unavailable when you call please leave an answer message giving your name, telephone number and convenient times when she can call you back.
How do I make an appointment?
To make an appointment for an initial consultation you can contact us by telephone on 01905 20707 or email us on [email protected] .
What will happen if I cancel or miss a session?
If you are unable to attend your appointment please let us know as soon as possible. The required notice for cancellation is 48 hours. Where there is less notice of cancellation or if you do not attend your appointment you will be charged the full fee. You will be given as much advance notice as possible in terms of holidays or needing to cancel your appointment for any other reason.
Is it a sign of weakness or strength to go for therapy?
Some people come to believe in life that being unable to solve a problem or sort out a personal difficulty on their own or having uncomfortable feelings like vulnerability and fear are signs of being dependent or weak. However, most therapists believe that human beings are at their most healthy functioning when they have a full range of feelings and expression. Whilst it is important to be resilient and independent too much independence can be isolating, make personal relationships extremely difficult and often prohibit the natural process of benefiting from the wisdom, experience and support of other people. For the person that fears appearing weak, it is both an act of considerable strength and courage to acknowledge difficulty and ask for help, a process through which they can in fact become stronger and even more able to take care of themselves.
A more desirable position is one of interdependence, neither being too independent nor too dependent. This is when a person can provide themselves with much of what they need independently, whilst also having the openness and flexibility to seek and receive help and support when they need it. In certain instances this has become the key goal of the therapeutic process.
What happens in the first session?
If you have never been to counselling or therapy before you may feel nervous and apprehensive. This is quite normal and people often find it a relief to say how they are feeling at the beginning of the session. You do not need to prepare in any particular way before you attend your session and once you arrive, anything you need to know will be explained to you.
The first session is an ideal opportunity to ask any questions you may have and for you to see whether you feel comfortable talking about your concerns. To begin with you will be asked for some background information and then invited to talk about what brings you to counselling or therapy. Some people have a clear sense of why they have come and what they want whilst others might only know that they are in distress without knowing why. Both positions are fine, they simply describe a different starting point.
Towards the end of the session there will be the opportunity to discuss how the session has gone and whether further work would be useful or necessary.
How long does each session last?
Whilst the initial consultation can last for up to an hour or more the standard counselling or psychotherapy session lasts for 50 minutes
How often do I need to come?
Attendance for both psychotherapy and counselling is generally on a weekly basis and is usually one 50 minute session once a week. However, there may be instances when it is important and in fact beneficial to come more often.
Can I bring a partner, friend or family member to my session?
Individual counselling and psychotherapy is on a one-to-one basis. However, if you wish to bring someone with you to your first session this is fine and they will be able to wait for you in the waiting room.
Will what I say remain confidential?
Confidentiality is an essential aspect of counselling and psychotherapy. It contributes greatly to the client’s sense of safety and is one of the things that make the therapeutic relationship different from any other. Counselling and psychotherapy encourages clients to be as open and honest about themselves as possible and inevitably involves clients discussing personal experiences and sensitive information with their therapist. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the client can trust that what they are disclosing about themselves will remain confidential.
C. H. Counselling & Psychotherapy holds all records securely and will ensure the utmost confidentiality in the treatment of any information held about its clients, in line with the BACP Ethical Framework for good practice.
All information will be kept confidential unless the client and therapist agree together to discuss something with a third party. The only reasons for breaking confidentiality would be if the therapist considered that your life was at risk, if another person’s life was at risk or if the therapist was liable to civil or criminal court proceedings if the information was not disclosed. If at all possible this would be discussed with you at length beforehand.
How will I know that I am seeing a properly qualified and accredited psychotherapist?
If you are unsure about a therapist’s qualifications it is always a good idea to ask. They should be able to give you the details of their qualifications, where they trained, which governing body they are registered with and their registration or accreditation number.
What is a psychiatrist?
A psychiatrist is first of all a qualified medical doctor that has then gone on to complete further training in the diagnosis and medical treatment of mental illness; in addition some are trained psychotherapists. Categories of mental illness include: mood disorders such as depression and manic depression (bipolar), psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, developmental and personality disorders.
Being a medical model of help, the psychiatric approach is generally to treat and alleviate the symptoms of the illness by the use of medication. Psychiatrists and psychotherapists often work in collaboration to offer the best possible support programme for their patients.
What if I have a mental health diagnosis?
If you have a diagnosed mental health condition and think you would like psychotherapeutic support in addition to the support you are receiving from your GP or psychiatrist you are very welcome to come for an assessment session. This will be an opportunity to discuss your needs and whether psychotherapy may be useful to you. It is often very helpful to clients when psychotherapists and psychiatrists/mental health teams work together to provide a linked-up package of care.
When attending psychotherapy clients with a mental health diagnosis will sometimes be asked to give permission for communication between their psychotherapist and primary health carers should it be necessary and appropriate.
What are the limits of counselling and psychotherapy and are there any conditions that need more than psychotherapeutic support alone?
There are certain conditions that may require a more specialised form of intervention than psychotherapy or counselling on its own. People suffering with severe mental health difficulties such as clinical depression, debilitating anxieties, manic depression, schizophrenia, severe eating disorders, personality disorders, together with those people who are actively suicidal or have a severe substance abuse problem, will often require specialised medical treatment in addition. In the most severe cases this might be in the form of a day-care programme or perhaps in a residential setting such as a hospital or a therapeutic community. | <urn:uuid:6e495c94-6a7c-4a0d-ad8b-2f8d66ac31c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worcestertherapygroup.co.uk/FAQ's.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959789 | 1,866 | 1.617188 | 2 |
In our house as I was growing up, January 1 was marked by three major events: the Rose Parade, removal of the Christmas tree, and its replacement by a small statue of double-faced Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings. It was a time, my father informed us with a solemnity quite far removed from the festivities of the season, for assessing the year that had just passed, and then looking to the opportunities that lay ahead. Each of us had to relate an experience and a goal, and since we knew from prior years that we could not escape to savor the joys of the holiday until we had come up with something worthy of paternal approval, all of us spent some portion of New Year’s Eve preparing for the moment. It was, upon reflection, not such a bad idea, so maybe it’s time to put Janus back up on the mantle and do my duty.
Dealing With Bunker-Busters
What we’ve found out this year is that even as we struggle to keep our heads above water while waiting for the economy to sort itself out, we’re face-to-face with a host of challenges that are not about to wait for us to get our feet on dry land. Heading the list are spin-offs of climate change—the United Nations global warming negotiations at the Copenhagen conference and the possible emergence of a National Ambient Air Quality Standard for carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act—and the emergence of a new global political/economic structure in which the US finds itself increasing on the outside. So what do we do about these cataclysmic challenges?
Batten down the hatches still tighter, make sure our houses are in order, voice our feelings on matters of state, and keep on the lookout for new and better solutions.
MSW Management hosted a colloquy on the subject of transformation technologies 10 years ago this month, and at last we’re actually seeing movement in the arena. What is important is the fact that, ready or not, politically correct or not, economically viable or not, the doors to the conversion of the unrecyclable fraction of the wastestream are beginning to open. The pacing item in this is—and will continue to be—concern over energy both in terms of fuels and efficient systems for their use, but following in close formation is the emerging recognition that traditional recycling will not carry us to the diversion goals many jurisdictions have set for themselves, much less those that RCRA had in mind at the outset. Already we have seen landfill gas playing an increasing role in a variety of internal-combustion, turbine, and microturbine applications, but as more conversion systems come online, these applications will move farther up the food chain … almost certainly to the MRF/transfer station level where organic wastes heretofore headed for landfills can be converted and used to power facility systems or perhaps even local microgrids.
So, could 2010 be the year in which MSW is managed as much for its material value as for its affront to the sensitivities of those who are offended by the presence of waste? You bet, if for no other reason than that the public has given firm notice that it is more interested in addressing the pressing concerns of the economy and energy than achieving artificial diversion goals. But it’s possible that the strongest driving force might be the reduction in transfer emissions—perhaps 20 to 30 percent—this might achieve. | <urn:uuid:9b3b0e6b-9fb5-45ea-af77-0a83443fa7f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forestermedia.net/MSW/Blogs/3c558f14-ad9f-408a-8827-661b037ddcc2.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961349 | 710 | 1.625 | 2 |
Who's to blame for break-ins?
What has happened to our town?
Why are there so many thefts and car break-ins in our town the last few weeks? Who are these people and what are we going to do about it?
I had only heard about the thefts second-hand until June 23, when a friend had his pickup broken into in broad daylight. The police were called and they are investigating.
We have to start to watch out for each other and put an end to this. Who is doing this? Kids? Gangs? Outsiders? Who? Why haven't we heard about this in the news?
I have lived in Morris most of my life and in the past I have never felt the need to lock my truck or my house at night. Now, when we go to the store downtown, we have to lock our vehicle for fear of losing something.
I refuse to accept this crime spree without taking action. I will take whatever actions are needed to protect my home and my neighborhood.
It is time for friends to start helping each other. I dare you to come into my neighborhood!
Bikes, cars can co-exist
It's summertime and the living is easy. And more and more people are finding ways to leave their cars behind and get from Point A to Point B on foot or by bike. That's great! But it also means it is a good time to review some "rules of the road."
First, cars and bicycles are vehicles and, as such, are subject to the same rules of the road. So, bicyclists should always ride on the right side of the road, with regular traffic.
Bicyclists are not pedestrians, nor should they be treated as such, So, while exceptionally courteous Morris drivers are being thoughtful to stop and let a cyclist cross the road when we do not have the right-of-way, this is really not a good idea. Cyclists should obey stop signs, yield signs and other rules. We are not pedestrians and should not come to expect that cars will yield to us. Young cyclists need to see that cars and trucks are expecting them to follow the rules of the road and stop at stop signs! But motorists, please, do stop to allow pedestrians to cross, especially on Atlantic Avenue. It is really appreciated!
Finally, it would go without saying that bicyclists -- especially adults -- should be wearing helmets at all times. Why "especially adults"? Why would any kid think they should wear a helmet when they see all kinds of adults ignoring this advice? Talk about a double standard.
Here's to more walkers and bicyclists, and to safe, healthy co-existence with motorized vehicles. | <urn:uuid:2db649a0-5613-4a1a-89dc-fe14eb8c748f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.morrissuntribune.com/content/letters-editor-242?qt-latest_trending_article_page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983222 | 557 | 1.539063 | 2 |
World's richest man turns to art with Mexico museum
So if some of you don't know, Carlos Slim officially opened a new museum in Mexico City about a month ago [Reuters article here]. It is towering, gleaming and expensive[ Dezeen has some amazing shots, here, reproduced below]. Some have called the design architecturally immature. Some have also pointed out that it fits awkwardly into its locale. This is exacerbated by the overall landscape of its environs, which for all its cultural diversity is largely block after block of fairly standard 1990's office buildings. It's really hard to judge the exterior design of this museum and I think its precisely because of how unique it is. You almost get a feel of looking at a hammerhead shark starting back at you when you see the pictures. The flat top and protruding roof curvature will, undoubtedly, turn some off but, the hexagon aluminum panels do creatively reflect sunlight and illuminate the night sky of the local neighborhood [which the enterprising Slim has bought up with plans to create an entertainment and cultural destination]. Plus the roof allows natural sunlight to pore into the top floor gallery and the overall size of the building does give it a certain magnanimity that is enviable, yet its unorthodox look overshadows what could be a first class museum. But if the exterior design is a bit hard to swallow, the pictures of the interior really are captivating. The slopes and curves of the main visitors gallery and exhibition halls, marked with an all white-minimalist design, really gives the place an incredible look and feel. The museum was designed by architect Fernando Romero, who is kin to Mr. Slim himself. Time will tell how the museum will be seen, but at the moment I think that its uniqueness and interior design should be lauded, even if some will find the exterior design a bit strange or uninspired. | <urn:uuid:847e3efd-381c-42c7-8f84-ec9f6de8d30f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://designislifert.blogspot.com/2011/06/museo-soumaya.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958849 | 380 | 1.648438 | 2 |
In New Zealand, it is October 31st already. So it is Halloween. Except that in the Southern Hemisphere, we're heading into summer, not winter.
Dusk arrives after 8:30pm, especially on a perfect sunny day like today, and it isn't even slightly spooky until well after most little goblins should be tucked up into their beds.
This year, our only trick-or-treaters were my own children and one invited guest. As an expatriate from the USA with fond memories of ghosts of Halloweens past, I made them change into different costumes from the dress-up box and knock on the door again for their meagre handsful of treats. I had fun, and they got candy - fair trade.
But no other door-knockers. In fact, Halloween goes in and out of fashion here, and it's hotly debated. Clearly it's the wrong season, and it feels like it. Apparently on talkback radio, the grumpers were grumping "It's American" or "it's so commercial!"
As American as...
It's Celtic, OK? The Halloween traditions date back from before America existed. Ancient Britons, Scotland, Old English era...
I'm totally anti-commercial - you may have noticed. But this argument gets trotted out at Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Christmas: you name a holiday and yes, it has been commercialised by those people who hope you will buy more stuff.
Someone please explain to me why this means we should stop celebrating? Who has too much fun in their lives? You can celebrate and have fun without spending much at all - at any holiday you choose...Dressing up can be just plain fun, if you like it. Having cute kids in costumes arriving in droves on your doorstep can be charming when it doesn't happen every day.
And I wish had a jellybean (coconut Jelly Belly please) for every time I've heard "But we tell our children never to take sweets from strangers so why do we send them around to strangers' houses on Halloween?" Let me see - for the same reason that we don't slap sweets out of their hands when they catch one thrown from a parade? Because it's different than having some random shuffler in a long coat offer a sweet and a ride to their house?
Good old non-commercial British celebrations only please!
For those anti-American traditionalists who would like to protect New Zealanders from having to shell out $10 for some Pascal family packs to soothe rampant hordes of greedy children, never fear! A few days later, you will be celebrating Guy Fawkes Day, the great British tradition in remembrance of the man who...failed to blow up Parliament.
The main salute to Guy Fawkes (apart from burning him in effigy) is in the language of fireworks - that $10 doesn't go very far at the local "made in China" fireworks stands...
Keep the cats and the children indoors. Brush up on your first aid and volunteer at your local Fire Department. And have a happy holiday!
And now for something really scary...
We put DD down to bed with no nappy or pullup or anything tonight. That's scary! | <urn:uuid:f0c3ae62-a30f-437c-a65a-e191dbe872e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minimalistmum.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960133 | 670 | 1.515625 | 2 |
My 14-year-old daughter suddenly is refusing to come to synagogue with the rest of the family. She had a beautiful Bat Mitzvah last year and has always been a great Hebrew school student. Should I make her attend services with us or let her have this rebellion?
Having recently completed her Bat Mitzvah studies and celebration, it actually makes a lot of sense to me that your daughter may need a break from the rigors of Jewish institutional life. Beautiful or not, she’s probably relieved that this rite of passage is over. It’s also likely that many of your daughter’s friends are dropping out of the synagogue scene after, perhaps, one too many DJ dance parties in the social hall and speeches about fountain pens.
You just celebrated your daughter becoming a Jewish adult, and it’s possible that choosing to take a break from the way your family does Judaism may be one way that she is exercising this newfound adulthood. As difficult as it is for you, her taking this break (and your support, however tacit) may provide her with the opportunity to explore her own identity and beliefs and form a vision of her Judaism independent of the one with which she grew up. Allowing her that space now may actually increase the likelihood that she’ll find her way back to Judaism on her own, whereas forcing her to conform to your standards may drive her away from Judaism in the future.
If your daughter has recently exhibited any other alarming behaviors, such as falling grades at school, trouble with friends or lack of interest in activities she previously loved, then there might be something else going on. In that case, I encourage you to talk to her school guidance counselor to see what’s happening when you’re not around, and perhaps also to your rabbi for suggestions. But if everything else is fine, try to ride this out and, as you say, “let her have this rebellion.”
If letting her sit out of the family’s synagogue attendance entirely is too much for you (especially if it’s leading to tension with her younger siblings), see if you can work out parameters on which you can all agree. Perhaps you decide she needs to attend services once a month, or Friday nights but not Saturdays, or for holidays but not Shabbat, or when there’s a special occasion being celebrated by a member of your community. Even better, ask what seems reasonable to her. The best way to show her the value of her Jewish education and Bat Mitzvah celebration is to demonstrate that you trust her and take her seriously as someone capable of making responsible decisions. Then remember that she’s also a 14-year-old, and what she decides today could just as easily turn around tomorrow! | <urn:uuid:ac4da7b3-993d-4b68-819a-0bad9e942619> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishexponent.com/print/1172 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98095 | 570 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Ann Bernstein of South Africa’s Centre for Development and Enterprise gave a talk about her new book — The Case for Business in Developing Countries — at the Cato Institute yesterday, and I was her discussant. I like the book a lot. It gives a view from the developing world of the centrality of private enterprise in economic growth and social progress. It makes some well-targeted and intelligently nuanced criticisms of rich-country anti-business NGOs and the corporate social responsibility movement. Multinational corporations, she says, should stop apologising for capitalism and be more forthright about the benefits. Elaborating on Milton Friedman’s famous remark that the social responsibility of business is to make profits, she says:
I think the first responsibility of companies is to earn profits and be successful decent companies, and that modern business, just by doing business, has an enormous positive impact in direct and indirect ways that companies should get a lot better at communicating. I’m not saying that the business of business is only business. Especially in developing countries, life is more complicated…”
That is from a Cato podcast of an interview with the author. Have a listen. | <urn:uuid:d28d1e45-2514-443f-886f-532efa8df9de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.ft.com/crookblog/2010/09/anne-bernstein-on-business-and-development/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960027 | 239 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Washington is so technically adept, so eminently watchable, that this isn't obvious right away. His portrayal of Lucas has a superficial sheen of charisma, of command. But it slowly becomes obvious that Washington has decided he won't glamorize Lucas, or glorify a career that led to the destruction of so many lives in his own community. And that, in turn, drains the life out of the picture.
What "American Gangster" lacks is the ruthless crime lord its title promises, and that's because Washington evidently has chosen to emphasize Lucas' buccaneering business instincts. He kills rivals without apparent remorse, and erupts in sudden, violent rages, but even those spasms feel contained, efficient.
Frank Lucas should project dread, but there is little of the menace here that Washington brought to Alonzo Harris, the rogue cop in "Training Day" for which he won an Oscar. That film was directed by Antoine Fuqua, as this one was going to be until Fuqua terrified the studio with a $100 million budget. He was replaced by Ridley Scott, who ended up making the movie for $100 million.
The movie opens with a scene that feels as if it has been tacked on to demonstrate Lucas' ruthlessness, both to us and to his mentor, drug kingpin Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (played by an uncredited Clarence Williams III). Bumpy then takes his protege to a Harlem discount appliance store, where he seems to be delivering a metaphor-rich aria about the loss of Mom and Pop heroin dealers when he sits down and dies.
Lucas wants to take over Bumpy's business, but he needs a gimmick, and gets it when he hears a news report about how the Vietnam War is turning American soldiers into dope fiends. He immediately heads for Thailand, where he plunges deep into the jungle and buys a large shipment of heroin. The general who sells it to him, accustomed to dealing with the Mafia, asks Lucas how he plans to smuggle the drugs into the States.
Even though this part of the story is well known (in part from being used in the marketing of the movie), the scheme Lucas devises is withheld so it can be revealed later, in a scene that turns out to be more deflating than climactic.
In the great Warner Bros. gangster pictures of the 1930s, the police were rarely more than foils for the bootleggers who ran New York. But we are nowadays a nation obsessed with law enforcement. Presented with a story about one of the most ingenious, and operatically violent, criminals of the '70s, "American Gangster" reflexively turns into a movie at least half of which is about the cop who goes after him.
That investigation is led by Richie Roberts, a detective played by Russell Crowe, a star almost as big as Washington, which means the movie is obliged to bounce back and forth between Lucas and Roberts, while one establishes himself as the new Superfly, and the other as the incorruptible new Serpico.
This would be a difficult narrative feat under any circumstances. But Crowe's half has so many complicating subplots - Roberts is studying to be a lawyer, he angers his fellow cops when he finds a bag containing nearly a million dollars in the trunk of a car and refuses to steal it, and he's battling his soon-to-be-ex-wife (Carla Gugino) for custody of their son - that the movie feels like a series of disconnected scenes - color-coded in ebony and ivory.
Into this scrum marches a crew of dirty cops from the Special Investigations Unit, led by the movie's one authentic-looking gangster, Detective Trupo (Josh Brolin). Not content to just shake the dealers down, Trupo has been stealing the notorious "French Connection" drugs out of the police property room and wholesaling his own dope.
Trupo is the only character who moves freely through the two movies that make up "Gangster," and it's his greed that finally knits them together. But the movie has been going on for an hour and a half before Roberts even finds out who Lucas is, and it's two hours before Washington and Crowe are finally on screen together. There is a charged moment when they do finally meet, but by the time their one long scene together rolls around, the movie feels as if it's winding down.
Until then, Scott keeps cutting back and forth, frantically trying to give the two leads equal weight. But his heart isn't in it; you can feel the movie tilting toward Washington's character, even if it never tilts quite far enough. Washington's performance should have made that a practical necessity, but it doesn't.
No one would suggest an actor of Washington's stature should conform to any gangster prototype, least of all the florid modernism of Al Pacino's Tony Montana in the 1983 remake of "Scarface." But if Washington doesn't want to play someone as tawdry as a gangster, he should let someone have the part who will.
Rated R (violence, pervasive drug content, profanity, nudity, sexuality)
Cast Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin, Lymari Nadal
Running time 2 hours, 38 minutes
Contact Bruce Newman at [email protected] or (408) 920-5004. | <urn:uuid:3b8e8ad6-bd03-4a8d-a7c3-bd49ce2d1cbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mercurynews.com/brucenewman/ci_7343111 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9686 | 1,136 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Flickr Peep Show
Mobile phone or internet social networks by means of visual communication linked through mob tags and or keywords... what?!
The second Mediamatic exhibition on the ground floor of the Post CS building is about flickr.com, the photo sharing website developed by Ludicorp. Until the 18th of June.
Besides simply being a free server for digital photos, flickr has been able to create social networks of amateurs and professionals linked through photographs. The connections could be photographic locations, tags, techniques or composition, but are always warm, fuzzy and friendly.
The shop window style of the previous Mediamatic exhibition was replaced by keyhole viewing; the windows were blocked except for certain gaps into which a visitor can peer to see the Mediamatic flickr installation.
Users could interact with the installation by text messaging tags (keywords) to the server, after which the photographs on flickr tagged with those specific keywords started showing up on the screens of the the installation.
During the opening of the exhibition on May 1st, Martin Butler's performance Ritter, Dene, Voss was to be seen. | <urn:uuid:ddbd2856-0dc6-408b-bbb2-3fdf43960d96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mediamatic.net/5617/en/flickr-peep-show | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940453 | 231 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Hurricane Sandy: Latest Track and What to Expect
Worst part of storm for New England is expected to be from 9 a.m. through midnight Monday.
As of 5 a.m., the National Weather Service Hurricane Center has Sandy is about 385 miles south, southeast of New York City. The storm is traveling at approximately 15 mph toward the north. It is expected to turn northwest today, then turn toward the west-northwest tonight. The center of Sandy will move over the coast of the mid-atlantic states in the evening hours.
According to reports, Sandy is a hybrid storm, meaning it is a huge Nor’easter with a hurricane in the middle. The storm is currently measuring 900 miles wide, making it the second largest storm on record.
Hurricane force winds are expected along portions of the coast between Chincoteague Virginia and Chatham, Massachusetts. This includes the coasts of Rhode Island.
Tropical-storm-force winds are expected north of Chatham to the Merrimack area of Massachusetts.
The storm is also expected to bring widespread flooding throughout the region.
The worst part of the storm for New England is expected to be from 9 a.m. through midnight Monday. According to WHDH meteorologist Pete Bouchard, wind gusts area already topping 40 mph along the coast and they will continue to get worse.
The storm is expected to last through Tuesday in terms of wind and rain, easing up on Wednesday. Showers and breezes will persist for Halloween, but they will be lighter all around according to Bouchard.
This is a serious storm. Amtrak canceled service up and down it s NorthEast corridor for today. New York had mandatory evacuations of low lying areas of the city and subway service has been shut down since last night. In Boston Governor Patrick issued a state of emergency and urged residents throughout the Bay State to stay off the roads and asked communities to close schools. All state office buildings are closed today. | <urn:uuid:ee1e13f9-84d0-4192-973c-84d224e37fe9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://northandover.patch.com/articles/hurricane-sandy-latest-track-and-what-to-expect-32b15f55?logout=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965766 | 406 | 1.632813 | 2 |
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New England News
Wed February 20, 2013
Newtown school chief sees extended stay in Monroe
Newtown's schools superintendent says Sandy Hook Elementary School probably cannot find another home by the start of the next school year as suitable as the school now used in Monroe.
The previously vacant Chalk Hill Middle School in Monroe has been used since last December's shooting rampage that killed 20 children and six educators. It was renamed Sandy Hook Elementary to provide continuity for students, parents and staff. Superintendent Janet Robinson said Tuesday that Monroe could not be better hosts.
A decision has not been made about whether Sandy Hook students will return to Chalk Hill for the 2013-14 school year.
The Connecticut Post reports that Newtown has spent at least $90,000 renovating Chalk Hill.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:25f5c5f0-57e9-43cd-9b7e-2523781db2e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wamc.org/post/newtown-school-chief-sees-extended-stay-monroe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931509 | 262 | 1.5 | 2 |
Flying Start is the global charity partnership between British Airways and Comic Relief UK – a partnership whose aim is to raise money to help children living incredibly tough lives in the UK and around the world.
Every child deserves hope and the chance of a bright future, which is what Flying Start is all about. Every spare bit of change raised through the programme will go to children’s projects in the cities where we fly.
How the money is spent
All donations made to Flying Start will go directly to help transform children's lives. This money will help to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children living in the UK and in some of the poorest countries across the world.
We want to help create lasting change by giving children and their families the chance to start supporting themselves. We want to make sure that children have a chance to enjoy their childhood, whether that's by giving them a break from caring for sick family members, supporting their education or helping children living on city streets to break free from poverty. | <urn:uuid:737fd590-b339-4f91-8c0f-76de20d0dc74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ba-flyingstart.com/news/we-ran-gatwick-runway | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957786 | 203 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Soekarno-Hatta Airport Expansion to Start in July
The ground breaking ceremony that will mark the beginning of an ambitious expansion project at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang has been scheduled for July, according to an executive with State airport operator Angkasa Pura II.
The operator’s President Director Tri Suriadjie Sunoko said the first phase of expansion will include: Adding on to the third terminal, an access road, a cargo terminal and an integrated building linking the three terminals.
With the expansion, the airport’s capacity will increase to 62 million passengers per year. The airport currently handles 40 million passengers annually — although when it was opened in the early 1980s, Soekarno-Hatta was only designed to handle 22 million passengers per year.
Suriadjie said Angkasa Pura III will also establish a project coordinator which will include deputy ministers from the ministries of transportation and state enterprises to monitor the implementation of the master schedule. The project coordinator will also be responsible for accelerating land purchases for the construction of a third runway, as well as a fourth terminal, he added.
The meeting, Suriadjie said, also agreed on the need to accelerate the establishment of the Institute for Indonesian Aviation Navigation Services, which will take the form of a state owned company that will oversee air traffic services in Indonesia.
Angkasa Pura II financial director Laurensius Manurung said that a total of Rp 11.75 trillion ($1.3 billion) was needed to raise the airport’s passenger handling capacity to the desired 62 million-a-year target.
The company, he said, is allocating at least Rp 1.4 trillion for this year. | <urn:uuid:eef9060c-ea79-4c48-b732-b3e6982487e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/archive/soekarno-hatta-airport-expansion-to-start-in-july/519588/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940778 | 362 | 1.5 | 2 |
When was the last time you talked to yourself? I have asked this question to hundreds of audience in my workshops and coaching sessions. Sometimes, there is a bewildered look at the person’s face. I repeat the question, with proper emphasis- ‘When was the last time when you TALKED to YOURSELF?’. This time after a two minute silence, during which I slowly and chewingly repeat my question, the meaning sinks into the person. 90% of the time, I get a response ‘I can’t Say’.
How is it possible that when our mind is jammed with countless thoughts through the day (and sometimes in our sleep as well), we feel that we do not get time for a one-on-one session with ourselves? The reason is simple- We do not get the ‘stillness’ of mind. If our self-conscience is an ocean, thoughts are like surface winds & tornadoes, which make huge waves and perfect storms. Most of the day is spent in navigating these rough waters. If we are able to sooth these disturbances, we will be able to dive deep into this ocean to feel the undercurrents and extract invaluable nuggets at the bottom. So before you talk to yourself, get into the state of ‘stillness’ of mind.
How to get the ‘Stillness’ of mind?’ – You will not get it in one day. The best way I can suggest is to do simple meditation. You can sit in a simple & relaxed posture and just ‘watch’ (and not control) your breath. Over few days you will see that you will slowly move into a zone of stillness where its your self-conscience and your breath which are only tangible elements. Its more of a discipline as it is downright simple and there is truly no ‘technique’. If you do not ‘intellectualize’ meditation, you can learn it fast. Do share your experience in comments and I will share some more thoughts tomorrow on how to achieve stillness of mind. | <urn:uuid:11c56131-5909-45c7-99bd-92084320c05c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.executionmih.com/rajangupta/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958552 | 436 | 1.585938 | 2 |
A place in water, Neermahal, which’s 53 km away from Agartala looks like a fantasy castle floating on water or Rudrasagar. Govt., of India has recently declared Rudrasagar the 13th National Lake. The palace of Neermahal covering an area of 3 sq. km was the summer resort of Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur who built this palace with British architects. Fishing and boating in soothing breeze in Rudrasagar are pleasant experience. It is also an offshoot enjoyment watching the flyaway view of a heavy flock of migratory birds when the sun starts setting over Neermahal. It is also unique to experience the joy of sound controlled fountain there. Tripura Government is all set to open a floating restaurant on Rudrasagar.
Map Of Neermahal, Tripura : | <urn:uuid:6c8d0068-035d-4ad4-b21d-c74accfb5413> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://overindia.com/tripura/neermahal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932963 | 181 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Students tested for TB on Queensland University of Technology campus after classmate diagnosed
- From: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
- July 01, 2012
MORE than 500 students from one of Queensland's top universities are being tested for tuberculosis amid fears of an outbreak on campus.
The students from the Queensland University of Technology are being tested by the health department after a classmate was diagnosed with the disease.
Last week students at the university's Gardens Point campus were sent a letter asking them to undergo a chest X-ray and a Mantoux injection test to screen for the disease.
Queensland Health Communicable Diseases Branch senior director Dr Christine Selvey said 515 close contacts of the infected student were tested for the disease, but the risk of transmission was "extremely low".
She said only one student had been diagnosed with TB and the testing was standard procedure.
"It's important to note that there is no TB outbreak at QUT, and no risk to public health," Dr Selvey said.
QUT university registrar Shard Lorenzo said the university had supplied Queensland Health with the contact details of several staff and students enrolled in the affected student's subjects.
"The university understands that the risk to students, even following contact with the case, is minimal," she said.
Urban development student Nathan Awyzio, 18, said he found out about the testing via Facebook before receiving the official letter from the university late last week.
"The letter just stated I'd potentially come into contact with someone with TB and I should be tested," he said.
"I'd actually never heard of it until mum explained to me what it was."
He said that, although the letter had made him "uneasy", he was not worried as the chance of contracting TB was low.
In a similar event in 2008 160 staff and students at the same university campus underwent TB testing after an Australian student tested positive for the disease.
Cases of TB have been rising steadily across the country over the past five years. Experts say increased international travel has led to a resurgence of the disease.
So far this year there have been 497 confirmed TB cases in Australia, 85 of which were in Queensland.
Dr Selvey said Australia had one of the lowest rates of TB in the world, and Queensland's diagnosis rate was lower than the national average. | <urn:uuid:4d764397-96a1-496d-bafe-41789d65f714> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/students-tested-for-tb-on-campus/story-e6frfkp9-1226413231605 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980661 | 476 | 1.796875 | 2 |
By Rosemary Carstens
As far back as the Middle Ages, men have practiced the art of alchemy—a mixture of chemistry, philosophy, and mysticism. Their mission was to find a magical means for transmuting common substances into gold. They were unsuccessful, but the concept of transforming common materials into extraordinary new objects remains relevant in modern times. Case in point: the contemporary alchemy of sculptor Dan Ostermiller, who transforms bronze into wondrous representations of nature’s most amazing creatures. Perhaps there is a bit of magic involved, but his art is a shining example of the results of long years of observation and fine-tuning his craftsmanship.
Ostermiller’s dedication to observation, especially, earns him high praise. “As a person, Dan is wonderfully thoughtful and observant. He has great humor and a bright intellect that continues to push him to discover and learn,” says Ann Brown of Nedra Matteucci Galleries in Santa Fe. “I believe his calm, quiet nature allows him to access his subjects at a level beyond a purely aesthetic rendering of the animal world. He has spent countless hours developing an understanding and expertise that offers us rare insight and sensitivity, ably conveyed in his art, challenging us both artistically and emotionally.”
Ostermiller was exposed to the artistic handling of the animal form almost from his birth in Cheyenne, WY. His father, Roy Ostermiller, was a world-renowned taxidermist and an avid sportsman who often spent months hunting in remote locations. He wielded considerable influence on his son and taught Dan about animals literally from the inside out. From the time the boy was old enough to sweep the floor, Roy had him in the shop, drawing his attention to all the minute details that comprise a well-preserved, well-displayed trophy animal. His father took Dan everywhere with him; Dan shot his first antelope by the time he was seven and was hunting elephant in Africa in his twenties. The Ostermiller table frequently featured fish and game. But sometimes, the artist says, “I longed for a regular steak!”
Although he’s had no formal art education other than the critical, well-honed technical skills he learned from his father, Ostermiller has been interested in art for as long as he can remember. The work of other men who built an art career upon a foundation of taxidermy also played a role in shaping his future. Such names as Carl Akley, James L. Clark, and Louis Paul Jonas roll off Ostermiller’s tongue with admiration, as does that of illustrious Italian animal sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti. He also credits such contemporaries as Herb Mignery, Jane DeDecker, George Lundeen, Glenna Goodacre, and Fritz White with helping to advance his work.
The deeper Ostermiller becomes involved in his art, the more important it is to him to be in the animals’ habitats, to see and understand how they move and behave. He studies details such as the hesitant pause before placing a paw or a hoof on the ground, the cocked head or swiveled ear, the massive bunched muscles of a lion’s haunches as he readies himself to attack, even the motions of domestic animals at leisure. Speaking of his time in the field, he says, “I like being in the ‘circle of life’ out there. Keen observation is so important, to see how the light affects the animals in midday, or at night. There’s something incredible about being in ‘their’ world. It gets pretty humbling—more so the more you experience.”
In addition to his in-depth knowledge of American wildlife, the artist has been visiting Africa almost every other year since that first trip with his father in 1978. Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, and many other countries have been the sites of some amazing adventures. On one trip with his daughter, Lauren, they were watching a herd of elephants at a watering hole.
Two young bulls were mock fighting with one another and became so engaged in the tussle that they didn’t notice the herd moving on, leaving them behind. “The terror they felt when they realized they were alone was obvious,” says Ostermiller. “That event stuck in my mind for a long time. Sometimes an idea embeds itself like that and then, often much later, becomes a concrete concept for a piece I have to do.” He recently completed a 42-inch-long piece comprising 17 elephants, based on that incident.
Size, complexity, and detail never slow Ostermiller down when it comes to choosing subject matter. The artist tackles everything from larger-than-life-size public art to the exquisite 2-inch miniatures he creates each year during the holiday season. His largest piece to date, SCOTTISH ANGUS COW AND CALF, is installed outside the Denver Art Museum and consists of two gigantic elements.
The cow is 13 feet tall and the calf, 10 feet. In 2009, it was voted Denver’s best public sculpture. As with all of the sculptor’s works, these figures are noteworthy for their remarkable realism combined with individual personality. Constructing a bronze sculpture of this size is a time-consuming and literally monumental task. It proceeded from sketches to small-scale models (called maquettes) of each figure, which were then separated into pieces. Each piece was recreated on a larger scale and used for casting the hefty bronze panels that would eventually be fitted together in the finished work.
Ostermiller’s cow-and-calf pair are just one of his well-loved public art installations. The Stark Museum in Orange, TX, recently installed OBLIVIOUS at the building’s entrance. Managing Director Sarah Boehme found herself especially attracted to this piece, she says, “because of the artistry of the composition. The sculpture portrays a bear sleeping at the top of a tree trunk.
The trunk is angled diagonally, and the large mass of the bear exists dramatically cantilevered into space, yet it is masterfully balanced.” The bear’s rounded mass on its sharply angled base contrasts elegantly against the white cube of the museum building and is a favorite with visitors and passersby alike.
Ostermiller’s sculptures differ from the usual depictions of animals, as can be seen in such pieces as GRACE, Ostermiller’s metaphorical depiction of a giraffe, and in the muscular, craggy bulk of MONARCH OF YELLOWSTONE. There is an energetic immediacy and gestural quality to each piece that draws viewers closer. As Ann Brown suggests, “It is nearly impossible to visually absorb one of Dan’s creations without considering the character, the energy, and the movement he’s captured. Dan’s technical abilities are so acute and finely tuned, reflecting his confidence in translating the animal form. He is able to expand beyond the art form to the imaginative—every animal implies a narrative, whether reflecting the wilds of Africa, the human experience relating to our domestic animal friends, or simply nature expressing its creative magnificence.”
Ostermiller carries out nearly every step of his process in a two-acre compound in the heart of Loveland, CO, where numerous buildings dot the grounds. At the entrance is the office and conference room, where the number-one sculpture in each of his sold-out editions is displayed. Paintings, drawings, and illustrations from his extensive personal art collection line the walls, along with an exhibition of his and his father’s rifles. This is the kingdom of Niles the cat.
A second building holds the artist’s main work space and his library of some 4,000 volumes on art, animals, and travel. Ostermiller designed the surrounding landscape and created all of the water features; there are about 25 sculptures placed throughout the gardens. Two Bearded Collies, Inja and Jordie, roam the grounds, keeping an eye on things. During warmer months, pots of herbs, tomato plants, and annuals appear as well as a rose garden, bulbs for springtime color, and many flowering shrubs. The surrounding walls are covered with ivy, providing privacy and, the artist says, “a feeling of paradise.”
Rounding out the property’s structures is the “yellow studio,” so named for its yellow walls, which houses the artist’s collection of pre-Columbian and Native American pottery and where he does his conceptual work. It is here that Ostermiller pursues another passion: cooking. If he hadn’t become an artist, he says, “I’d have been a chef.” He’s not kidding—he’s a serious practitioner of the culinary arts and has studied in four different Italian cooking schools, most notably with Marcella Hazan in Venice and Giuliano Bugialli in Florence. Many a pleasurable hour has been spent at his Viking stove in the yellow studio, cooking for guests. Paradise indeed!
Professional and public recognition of Ostermiller’s art has expanded exponentially since his first show in 1980. His sculpture has won numerous awards and honors and has been included in exhibitions and one-person shows around the country. A member of the National Sculpture Society for many years and its president from 2003 to 2005, he soon begins a second term in office.
To view Ostermiller’s fine work is to reconnect with nature, to tighten our understanding of our relationship with all living creatures. Owning an Ostermiller sculpture punctuates our lives with a daily reminder of that connection. As Ann Brown sums it up, “Dan Ostermiller is one of those lucky individuals who have a passion that they realize, celebrate, and nurture with dedication throughout their lives. In doing so, he has been vital to the recognition of contemporary animal sculpture in American art.”
Nedra Matteucci Galleries, Santa Fe, NM; Claggett/Rey Gallery, Vail, CO.
Prix de West, Oklahoma City, OK, June 10- September 5.
Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale, Cody, WY, September 2011.
Featured in March 2011. | <urn:uuid:81b2f76a-398f-44b9-a982-fdd8b526059a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.southwestart.com/featured/dan-ostermiller-circle-of-life | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972994 | 2,192 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Does God care about Autism?
Kelly Langston knows firsthand the struggles and victories associated with autism--from the time she heard her son's diagnosis and was given little more than a handshake and a brochure to the time she watched her son sing every word in his school musical. Through her experiences--the good and the bad--she discovered a beautiful blessing: God does care about autism. Better yet, he has a unique and marvelous purpose for children with autism--a purpose no less than that of any other child.
More than an "I've been there too" story, "Autism's Hidden Blessings" highlights God's blueprint for living a life full of joy and potential despite autism. Inside, you'll discover:
-the inheritance of promises God has for you and your exceptional child
-why autism will never limit God from revealing himself to your child
-what to do when you are angry at God and how to move past it
-why love is the greatest therapy of all
-scriptural encouragement to help your family soar above the autism battle
Autism doesn't define your child and doesn't limit his or her potential. If you're weary from the everyday battle against autism, join Kelly Langston on a journey to discover and apply the plan God has for your entire family. It's time to reclaim your joy, laughter, and most of all, hope. "Kelly Langston offers a lifeline of faith to every parent who has ever wanted to drop down on the floor and throw a tantrum with a distraught autistic child. There is hope. There is help. There is a light at the end of the dark tunnel you are in right now. With compassion and wisdom, Kelly leads the reader through her family's journey to help Alec. I highly recommend this book to every parent dealing with the confusing maze and emotions of autism."--Glynnis Whitwer, editor of P31 Woman and author of "work@home" and "When Your Child is Hurting" | <urn:uuid:faf2f42e-c1f5-4af2-83b5-5721580d4cf9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=779580 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961167 | 405 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Alopecia universalis following two sequential traffic accidents: possible association with increased Th1 and Th17 cells and decreased Th2 cells.
ABSTRACT A 37-year-old Japanese man presented with alopecia after being involved in a traffic accident. An immunohistochemical study of the biopsy specimen demonstrated that CD8+ T cells infiltrated into hair follicles with satellite cell necrosis of keratinocytes. Four weeks after his initial visit, he again had another traffic accident. Despite the treatment with oral prednisolone and a topical steroid, the alopecia became universalis. Treatment with systemic and topical steroids was continued, and 12 weeks later, white vellus hairs grew over the whole scalp. Intracytoplasmic study revealed that there was a positive correlation between the severity of the alopecia and the increase of interferon-gamma producing Th1 cells or interleukin (IL)-17 producing Th17 cells, whereas the number of IL-4 expressing Th2 cells was inversely proportional to the extent of alopecia. The autoimmune hair loss might occur via the activation of T helper 1 (Th1) and Th17 cells. | <urn:uuid:d0bd6334-7915-4014-918a-661d97973b5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.researchgate.net/publication/221761495_Alopecia_universalis_following_two_sequential_traffic_accidents_possible_association_with_increased_Th1_and_Th17_cells_and_decreased_Th2_cells | 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 | 0.941893 | 247 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Sarabande is a sharp-edged contemporary fantasy about a young woman who leaves her look-alike world of Pyrrha within the Montana mountains and undertakes a 1,650-mile journey to request a reluctant avatar's help in banishing a ghost.
Three years ago, Sarabande killed her sister Dryad in self-defense. Their knife fight on the banks of the River of Sky in the mountains along the Backbone of the World occurs near the end of The Sun Singer. While Sarabande is a sequel to The Sun Singer, it's structured to be read as a standalone, 80,000-word novel.
Life as a ghost has not improved Dryad's fiery, crafty personality. She torments Sarabande without remorse or respite. At her wit's end, Sarabande leaves her mountain home and travels from the novel's primary Glacier National Park, Montana setting to a town in central Illinois to find Robert Adams, the Sun Singer, and ask for his help.
En route, Sarabanbe is attacked by a man who does what men do in a creekbed alongside a lonely road on a night when there's no moon in the sky. She will never be the same again.
Sarabande's journey is synchronized with the phases of the moon, especially those evenings when the light withers, the dark stirs, and when the power of women and the Goddess can be most profound.
Robert, who has turned his back on magic and intends to turn his back on Sarabande as well, grudgingly agrees to return to the mountains only after the evil avatar Dohver attacks them in a serene city park.
A shaman Sarabande has never met, and must learn to trust, will help her. She also receives comfort and support from her old friend, Gem, a sorceress named Siobhan, a black horse named Sikimi, and an unexpected animal helper who appears when she is dying. Yet she alone can go deep within herself and discover how to prevail against Dohver, Dryad and the soldiers of King Justine.
As the old myths tell us, darkness is not only a realm of chaos and terror, but potentially a realm of growth and transformation. The choice is Sarabande's to make...if she can. | <urn:uuid:d9bbd2f4-7106-4069-b451-2e81a94ea60b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.malcolmrcampbell.com/sarabande.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955249 | 474 | 1.523438 | 2 |
New Year's resolutions can include community goals
Every new year people the world over pause to reflect on the past year and to setup goals and resolutions for the year ahead. Typically, it seems, most people pick resolutions that are very personal such as getting in shape or losing weight. However, I find it can be just as rewarding to set more broad scoped goals that benefit your family or community. Create Huntington would like to encourage you to set one new year's resolution that will help your community.
These community resolutions don't have to be big or complicated. In fact, just like any life changing decision, I would encourage you to start small and slowly work your way up to bigger endeavours. Build upon a small resolution this year and, after a few years, who knows maybe you'll have transformed your community in a widely perceptible manner.
So what are some good community resolutions? Well, I can't really tell you what is good for you but here are some resolutions to help get your creative juices flowing.
ADOPT YOUR BLOCK. Honestly, this is a pretty small but incredibly rewarding step. Adopting your block means that you are committing to keeping your block litter free. If a whole block seems like too much then consider just adopting your street between the two nearest cross streets. Or even just your side of the street. You could spend a few minutes each day (or even just once a week) picking up trash and other debris that appears on our street, in your street-gutters, or on your lawns. You'll quickly notice how great your street looks when it is litter free and you'll feel great for having polished your section of the neighborhood.
JOIN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION. This is a once a month commitment. Go to your neighborhood association meetings. Meet some of your neighbors and find out what they are doing to help improve your neighborhood. Bring a positive "let's fix it" attitude to your meetings -- odds are good others in the group already share your frustrations so try to keep the meetings positively focused on fixing. Don't let the meeting devolve into a gripe session. While you're at the meetings you might even hear about some fun neighborhood events you can participate in or even volunteer at.
GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS. If you don't know who lives in each of the houses that you are immediate neighbors with then go introduce yourself. If you already know the folks in those two houses branch out and introduce yourself to a couple of other neighbors. Neighbors who know each other care more about each other. This means you'll naturally look out for each other and your property. Simply getting to know your neighbors can help reduce property crime (it isn't a panacea but every small bit helps).
ATTEND A CHAT-N-CHEW. These informal meetings happen every Thursday evening from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the lobby of the Frederick building downtown. It's open to everyone in the community regardless of your political ideology, religious preference, income level, or age. The only restriction is that you don't get to gripe. The meetings are focused on positive solutions to problems in the area and on cool or interesting positive developments/projects/ideas that are being enacted in the area. If you have an interesting idea we'd love to hear it. If you don't we still love to have you come by and share your insights into the ideas others are working on.
Please, consider making a new years community resolution. It will improve your life and the lives of everyone around you.
Bill Rawlinson is a lifelong nomad who has settled down and claimed Huntington as his home. | <urn:uuid:13a79c47-f478-422b-ae83-a1cdb7fd6a47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.herald-dispatch.com/features/x455055335/New-Years-resolutions-can-include-community-goals | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974078 | 756 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Why does Minneota need a referendum?
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
As chairman of the school board and member of the finance committee, I would like to share some information with you regarding the operating tax levy referendum.
Approximately 10 years ago, the State of Minnesota changed the tax structure in which schools were funded.
Prior to that change, local property taxes were a major source of revenue. With a robust economy, the idea to reduce property taxes seemed attractive.
The model that was put in place would use revenue from income tax and sales tax to help fund schools and other government operations.
This model relies on a variable revenue source to fund our schools which have a fixed or constant cost. A changing economy can cause some surprises, which is what we are presently witnessing.
You local school board has put a question on this fall’s election ballot regarding an operating levy increase.
The tax levy would be assessed on your house, garage and one acre of land.
The need for an operating levy increase has been discussed for at least four years.
There has been and will be information on the taxes that would apply to your property values.
As the finance committee and the superintendent work on long-term budget plans, many things need to be considered. Below are some examples:
1. School enrollment: Our funding is based on student population. Open enrollment has greatly helped in keeping our enrollment somewhat stable.
We are, however, in decline regarding student population.
2. State’s funding delays: Even though your school shows a general fund balance, the state holds back at least $750,000.00 until the State can pay it back.
A strong fund-balance helps us cash flow without borrowing and paying high interest costs.
The school cannot operate without working capital. In the 1980’s, the State had budget problems. It took fifteen years for schools to receive the final payments.
3. Expenditures: Expenditures such as building maintenance, technology and energy are essential costs that do not decrease.
Hopefully, this simple overview has given you something to think about regarding the referendum.
You will be receiving further information regarding the referendum in the form of news items, meetings and web-site information.
Be confident in the fact that your superintendent, Mr. Dan Deitte, knows and understands school finance.
Our school is an excellent school. It truly is the envy of many area administrators. Let’s help keep it that way.
District No. 414 School Board Chairperson | <urn:uuid:2249e6d1-371f-4fef-b6a1-0bc065e1ca01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.minneotamascot.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2230%3Awhy-does-minneota-need-a-referendum&catid=904%3Ameals-for-seniors&Itemid=38 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968344 | 519 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Washington (CNN) -- By wading into the issue of an Islamic center and mosque near ground zero, President Barack Obama provided Republicans with an emotion-ridden attack vehicle while diverting attention from campaign themes of fellow Democrats.
A senior Republican strategist told CNN that GOP candidates are being encouraged to talk about the issue as much as possible.
In Florida, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott launched a statewide television ad Monday criticizing Obama for backing the right of Muslims to build an Islamic center and mosque two blocks from where the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks killed more than 2,700 people.
"Barack Obama says building a mosque at ground zero is about tolerance," Scott says in the ad, looking directly into the camera. "He's wrong. It's about truth."
The "truth," Scott claims, is this: "Muslim fanatics murdered thousands of innocent Americans on 9/11, just yards from the proposed mosque."
"The fight against terrorism isn't over," Scott concludes. "Mr. President, ground zero is the wrong place for a mosque."
Meanwhile, a House Democratic leadership aide said the issue was dominating the political conversation when Democrats need to stress campaign themes such as economic recovery and saving social security.
"We understand why the president would want to talk about this issue, but the timing couldn't have been any worse," the House Democratic leadership aide told CNN.
Despite the concerns of Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada on Monday came out against building the Islamic center and mosque.
"The First Amendment protects freedom of religion. Sen. Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else," said a statement issued by Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley.
Reid is involved in a tough re-election campaign against conservative Republican Sharron Angle. The statement on the ground zero issue also called for Republicans to back a Democratic bill that would provide health care aid and compensation for firefighters, police officers and other first responders to the 9/11 attacks.
For its part, the White House sought to tamp down the discussion Monday. Speaking to reporters, White House spokesman Bill Burton sidestepped a question on Republican strategy and tried to declare the debate over.
"The president didn't do this because of the politics," Burton said, adding: "I think that it's a debate that was had and we've weighed in."
On Sunday, the topic dominated morning talk shows, with Republicans calling Obama insensitive for supporting the right of Muslims to build the Islamic center so close to ground zero.
Some predicted political repercussions for Democrats in November's congressional election, even though they agreed with Obama that freedom of religion is a vital part of American democracy.
"The Muslims have, as everyone else does, the right to practice their religion and they have the right to construct a mosque at ground zero if they wish," Rep. Peter King, R-New York, said on CNN's "State of the Union" program. "What I'm saying, though, is they should listen to public opinion, they should listen to the deep wounds and anguish this is causing to so many good people."
Republican strategist Ed Rollins, a senior political contributor to CNN, summed up the GOP perspective.
"Intellectually, the president may be right, but this is an emotional issue, and people who lost kids, brothers, sisters, fathers, what have you, do not want that mosque in New York, and it's going to be a big, big issue for Democrats across this country," Rollins said on the CBS program "Face the Nation."
On the same program, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine challenged the Republican logic.
"You know, we see an awful lot of Republicans going out and saying we've got to respect the Constitution, and that means we have to respect it," Kaine said. "We can't tarnish people's First Amendment rights."
Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania said on the CBS program that the Islamic center issue shouldn't have political resonance.
"I can't imagine that any American -- given the challenges facing this country -- is going to vote based on what he said about the mosque," Rendell said of the November election. "The mosque is an unfortunate situation, but we do have a right to practice our religion freely wherever we choose. Rights are not subject to the popular vote or majority vote."
In his speech at a White House dinner Friday marking the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Obama said Muslims "have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country."
"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," the president added.
The next day, Obama told CNN Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry that he was "not commenting on the wisdom" of the project, just the broader principle that the government should treat "everyone equal, regardless" of religion.
His comments were considered by some to backtrack from what he said at the dinner, prompting a White House spokesman to further clarify the president's remarks later Saturday.
Both the topic and Obama'sneed to clarify his initial remarks evoked criticism from Republicans.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told "FOX News Sunday" that Obama's stance demonstrated how "Washington, the White House, the administration, the president himself seems to be disconnected from the mainstream of America."
"This is sort of the dichotomy that people sense, that they're being lectured to -- not listened to -- and I think that's the reason why a lot of people are very upset with Washington," Cornyn said.
On the CNN program, King said Obama's lack of clarity further muddied the issue.
"If the president was going to get into this, he should have been much more clear, much more precise, and you can't be changing your position from day to day on an issue which does go to our Constitution, and it also goes to extreme sensitivity," King said.
Democrats responded that critics fail to distinguish between the al Qaeda terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks and the Islam religion, which includes peaceful adherents all over the world, including the United States.
"It is only insensitive if you regard Islam as the culprit as opposed to al Qaeda as the culprit," Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, said on the CNN program. "We were not attacked by all Muslims. .... There were Muslims killed there. There were Muslims who ran in as first responders to help."
The issue was one of personal rights, not political popularity, Nadler said, adding: "We do not put the Bill of Rights, we do not put the religious freedom to a vote."
The House Democratic leadership aide lamented that the topic was getting so much attention.
"We were supposed to be talking about Social Security in this coming week," the aide said, referring to Democratic criticism of Republican calls to privatize the government-run pension program. "This is a really good issue for us. And instead, we're talking about the mosque."
Obama's remarks Friday drew praise from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who announced his support for the Islamic center last week. Bloomberg compared Obama's speech to a letter former President George Washington wrote more than two centuries ago in support of a Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island.
In the speech, Obama called the 9/11 attacks "a deeply traumatic event for our country."
"The pain and suffering experienced by those who lost loved ones is unimaginable," Obama continued. "So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground."
The Islamic center's leaders say they plan to build the $100 million, 13-story facility called Cordoba House two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks. The developer, Sharif el-Gamal, describes the project as an "Islamic community center" that would include a 500-seat performing arts center, a lecture hall, a swimming pool, a gym, a culinary school, a restaurant and a prayer space for Muslims.
Nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose the plan, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll released Wednesday.
CNN's Mark Preston contributed to this story | <urn:uuid:1ad3f382-4283-47d2-95d1-63adbae4b60d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/16/obama.islamic.center.politics/index.html?hpt=C2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973254 | 1,694 | 1.5 | 2 |
High Efficiency Class A Audio Power Amplifier (Class A+ Amplifier)
This power amplifier consists of a class A and class B amplifier stages. The class A stage is powered by a low voltage floating power supply, which is driven by the class B stage in accordance with the output voltage to prevent the class A stage from saturation. The overall power dissipation is reduced to a quarter of that of an ordinary class A amplifier.
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This paper costs $20 for non-members, $5 for AES members and is free for E-Library subscribers. | <urn:uuid:a503eb85-3e87-4bd7-9dda-c8fa5b1d8b81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=2972 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938825 | 164 | 1.507813 | 2 |
(1) The following information must be included in a labor market survey that is submitted to the department as documentation in support of a vocational recommendation. This information must be presented in the form of a summary report and accompanied by the results of the individual employer contacts:
(a) The specific job title surveyed and its DOT code. If the DOT code is not an accurate reflection/description of the job, then list the specific job surveyed, the occupational code and the source from which the occupational code was obtained;
(b) The name of the surveyor;
(c) A summary of all contacts and the dates of contact;
(d) A summary of whether or not the industrially injured or ill worker has the physical and mental/cognitive capacities to perform the job, based upon information from the attending physician or from a preponderance of medical information;
(e) A summary of whether the labor market matches the industrially injured or ill worker's work pattern;
(f) A summary of whether the labor market is considered positive or negative, as follows:
(i) If the labor market survey is conducted during an ability to work assessment, a labor market is considered positive if it shows that there are sufficient job opportunities in the worker's relevant labor market to enable the injured worker to become employable.
(ii) If the labor market is conducted during a plan development, a labor market is considered positive if it shows that jobs suitable for the injured worker for the proposed job goal exist in sufficient numbers to reasonably conclude that the worker will be employable at plan completion.
(g) Additional information may be presented in the summary, but only as a supplement to the labor market survey. Additional information may include, but is not limited to, published statistical data regarding occupations and projected job openings.
(2) The following information must be obtained from the individual employer contacts and submitted to the department with the summary report. If the information is not available, the VRC should document attempts made to obtain the information and why it was not available.
(a) The specific job title surveyed;
(b) All specific employer contacts, including their firm names, phone numbers, contact name and job title;
(c) Physical and mental/cognitive demands of the job in relation to the industrially injured or ill worker's physical and mental/cognitive capacities;
(d) Minimum hiring requirements and the skills and training commonly and currently necessary to be gainfully employed in the job;
(e) Work patterns;
(f) Number of positions per job title;
(h) Date of last hire;
(i) Number of current openings; and
(j) An indication of whether each contact was considered positive or negative. The provider must include specific documentation to support why a contact was positive or negative for the recommended occupation or proposed vocational goal.
[Statutory Authority: RCW 51.04.020, 51.04.030, 51.32.095, 51.36.100, 51.36.110. 03-11-009, § 296-19A-140, filed 5/12/03, effective 2/1/04; 00-18-078, § 296-19A-140, filed 9/1/00, effective 6/1/01.] | <urn:uuid:f2dcd67b-e81e-41b5-8dc2-7a5579533738> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=296-19A-140 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935128 | 685 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Romney Seen Pulled 2 Ways Over Economy
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
Published: August 28, 2012
WASHINGTON -- When Mitt Romney declared during his unsuccessful campaign for the Senate in 1994 that the federal minimum wage should rise with inflation, a break with Republican doctrine, both Democrats and Republicans accused him of pandering to Massachusetts voters.
Mr. Romney has now maintained that position for almost two decades, qualifying his stand as he sought the Republican presidential nomination but never relinquishing the view that inflation adjustments would be good for workers, good for employers and good for the broader economy.
As he prepares to accept his party's nomination this week, his steady support for an idea vigorously opposed by conservatives and business groups underscores the complexity of predicting how he might manage the national economy.
During the current campaign, Mr. Romney has embraced the conservative view that government can best help the economy by getting smaller, and he has selected as his running mate Representative Paul D. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who is a standard-bearer for fiscal conservatism. But a review of the positions that Mr. Romney has taken on economic issues during his two decades in politics reveals a recurring tension between his political commitments and his private sector experience at Bain Capital, which he often cited earlier in his political career in advocating a larger government role in the economy.
Mr. Romney has propounded the benefits of expanding and enforcing regulations, including the minimum wage and environmental laws. He has argued that government spending, including public investments in private companies, can stimulate the economy and create jobs. And he has advocated tax penalties to shape public behavior, as in his successful campaign to penalize Massachusetts residents who do not obtain health insurance.
In recent years he has modified or abandoned some of these positions as he courted Republican support. But the minimum wage is an example of an issue on which he has held constant.
And some people who have known him in both of his careers say that he still sees government through the pragmatic eyes of a businessman.
''I think his basic philosophy is, whether you're running a for-profit business, a nonprofit or a government agency, at the end of the day one should evaluate how one is doing, and continually evaluate success, and the right criteria is the level of customer satisfaction,'' said Thomas G. Stemberg, the founder of Staples and a friend and adviser to Mr. Romney since the mid-1980s.
The looming showdown over the federal budget would provide one of the first tests of how Mr. Romney would balance these influences as president. He has said during the campaign that the deficit should be reduced solely through spending cuts, and that less spending would stimulate growth. Mr. Ryan is a leading proponent of both views. But in Massachusetts, Mr. Romney worked with the Democratic-controlled legislature to close budget deficits through a combination of spending cuts and increased revenues from higher fees for public services and the elimination of some corporate tax deductions.
A Lost Investment
In 1985, Mr. Romney and his colleagues at Bain Capital made one of their first investments in Sanborn Industries, a Massachusetts company that made recycling systems for industrial coolants. The Environmental Protection Agency had just proposed a rule encouraging such recycling. But the agency delayed enactment, potential customers waited and Bain lost its money.
The lesson that Mr. Romney took, which he described 25 years later in his book ''No Apologies,'' was that the regulation was a good idea but that the government should have moved more quickly. ''The regulations ultimately led to better machining industry practices,'' he wrote, ''but because they weren't enforced for almost a decade, we lost our investment.''
His support for minimum wage increases reflected the same principle, that government enforcement of minimum standards is economically valuable -- ''I wish more Republicans and Democrats alike understood that important truth,'' he wrote -- and that businesses benefit when that enforcement is predictable.
When he endorsed inflation indexing during his 2002 campaign for governor, he said it would let businesses plan better than they could with intermittent minimum wage increases at the whim of politicians. ''I do not believe that indexing the minimum wage will cost us jobs,'' he said. ''I believe it will help us to retain jobs.''
He said that again in 2008, during his first presidential campaign, and in January while campaigning in New Hampshire.
But under fire from conservatives, he modified his position, saying that automatic increases in the minimum wage should be suspended in some circumstances, like periods of high unemployment.
Mr. Romney has also stopped talking about the benefits of regulation, focusing instead on its costs. His campaign platform includes proposals to curtail rule making, like capping the total cost of regulation at the current level, without adjusting for inflation. | <urn:uuid:ea4a43b2-06cd-4db5-b43b-b75ff863562c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802EED7123DF93BA1575BC0A9649D8B63&ref=binyaminappelbaum | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978087 | 954 | 1.554688 | 2 |
European Outdoor Conservation Association
The outdoor sector also wants to give something back to the environment. It has therefore created the EOCA - the European Outdoor Conservation Association. And the association has been amazingly successful.
The EOCA is a not-for-profit organisation based in the Swiss town of Zug. It was created by the European outdoor industry in 2006 with the aim of using membership fees to support projects all over the world intended to preserve and protect nature.
Mammut was one of the first companies to join the EOCA, which now has more than 60 members. Since it was set up five years ago, the association has already supported 36 projects and collected an unbelievable 860,000 euros. | <urn:uuid:4b434136-3622-4aa5-a7e4-99804a426305> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mammut.ch/de/cr_communities_eoca.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967498 | 145 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The most important competency for a leader, and yet the skill that people are least effective at, said speaker and author Joseph Folkman, is the ability to inspire and motivate others.
To help illustrate this quality, Folkman enlisted the assistance of Matt Foley, who he found in a van down by the river. In an explosive surprise appearance, Foley told the audience, “you’re not going to amount to jack squat!”
Kidding aside, Folkman talked about the uninspiring leader, something most in the audience were familiar with. He talked about what he calls “fatal flaws” of these leaders. We all have lists of things we can improve upon, but fatal flaws are the deal breakers.
Among these fatal flaws is lack of clear direction and purpose. When hiking, most people will look at their feet, and miss the beautiful vista on the horizon. Leaders need to reinforce their vision, rather than focus on the to-do list—the right now.
To hear more of this engaging session, order session 632 audio recording at the CD sales booth (Level 3, in front of the Service Center) or check out his book, The Inspiring Leader. | <urn:uuid:0122ef98-e96e-4cf9-a73c-5fcc6e84d70e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://safety2011live.tumblr.com/post/6541093670/session-632-the-uninspiring-leader | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951914 | 249 | 1.796875 | 2 |
As the cataclysms draw near, those who have taken the ZetaTalk message about the coming pole shift seriously will make their plans. For many, when these plans
fall short of their expectations for a standard of living, or comfort, or security - the gap is filled in with their rescue expectations. Perhaps they live in an urban setting
where they have never had to scrape for food or bother to think about anything more than going shopping. Perhaps they have a high tech standard of living and
cant imagine being without what technology provides in communication and entertainment and labor saving devices. Perhaps they are indolent and want someone
else to provide the missing pieces, to provide security and comfort and by all means a good meal at least once a day!
As concern that the ZetaTalk message might be true, to distress when the predictions seem to be occurring in the time frame predicted, to anxiety that their personal plans will not meet their expectations, rescue expectations, a form of denial, rise up. What are these expectations, and how likely is rescue going into or during the pole shift, or shortly after in the Aftertime?
- The Lift
- Having read that those who are categorized as future residents of the Earth, those firmly in the Service-to-Other, have been offered a lift during the pole shift if they desire to live through the shift, many assume this rescue has been offered, or will be offered to them. And by the way, can they be dropped back onto a safe place, into a good-hearted community waiting with open arms for them. Surely they are Service-to-Other. They are always polite and never try to offend, dont rob banks or enjoy sadistic games, so surely this means they are of the Service-to-Other orientation! As we have with great detail explained, this cannot be superficially determined by the actions a human may take to avoid trouble with society or the police, or the posturing a human may assume, or any title they may place upon themselves! Simply stated, if one is looking to the Lift for salvation, they are not of the Service-to-Other orientation - so dont count on this as a rescue.
- Government Operations
- In countries where social services exist, those desperate for a rescue will begin to assume that the government will act, perhaps at the last minute but in time to rescue them. Announcements will be made to peacefully evacuate cities and coastlines, tents will be erected, and the populace resettled after it is all over with the worst of it the beans and rice endlessly served for supper. The military, politicians, and those holding stakes in the cities and coastlines being deserted will put selfish interests aside and become humanitarians, in the end. For those clinging to this hope for rescue, we would only point out that the governments today do not act in this manner, but leave many starving children and injustices in their wake, daily. Stressful times will not create heroes, it will create slamming doors. Simply stated, if any are looking to the governments to rescue them, and move close to government operations in the hopes this will occur, they will not only be disappointed, they will become slaves or worse at the hands of those determined to remain in control during the Aftertime.
- Space Brothers
- A theme of many discussions on the role aliens are playing, during visitations, is rescue. They are benign space brothers, here to rescue mankind from destruction from atomic bombs, pollution of the environment, or whatever. Surely, in the face of something as devastating as a pole shift caused by a passing planet, steps could be taken! Divert the course of this planet! Carry mankind away in space ships to temporary safety! For those entertaining such an appeal, we would point out that most of mankind is starving, today, and disease and hardship abound. Rescue is not occurring today, for the simple reason that life on Earth is a learning experience for growing souls, as we have explained, and the passage of the 12th Planet is considered a natural occurrence not unlike hurricanes or tornadoes or disease. Simply stated, humans are to rise to the occasion, and help each other, during these times. Outside of the help given as a result of a truly Service-to-Other call to help another, no help will be given. In these cases, another, not the self, is assisted.
- Right Neighbors
- Since our descriptions of the Transformation include humans and hybrids living near each other, such that the human communities can benefit from alien high technology - those desperate for rescue assume they can move in with the right group, and shortly after the distress of the pole shift find themselves better off than ever! It is a characteristic of the Service-to-Other orientation that no steps would be taken that would harm others, grossly, so that seeking out the right community that would make oneself comfortable while deserting those who are currently neighbors would not be a Service-to-Other goal. Simply stated, those who are shopping around for the right community, hoping to migrate into a high-tech/alien-assisted life, will in fact doom any community they attach themselves to rather than find themselves so assisted. Communities that advertise themselves as Service-to-Other are invariably not that, and would be adoptees loudly proclaiming they are Service-to-Other while they are trying to insert themselves into communities are likewise suspect.
So what is an anxious human to do? Since the soul lives on, while the human body dies, the spiritual aspects of survival and life during troubling times is more important than any physical comfort. Look to those around you, for the sense of peace and acceptance they may have in place of desperation and panic. Look to those you are responsible for, to see how you can make their transition - to the Aftertime or their next incarnation - done with a sense of teamwork and caring. Look to a simple existence, with a minimum of comforts, during any transition, rather than demanding a high tech existence or special attention. These attitudes, and this caring orientation, will ensure you more than any actions you might otherwise take, in arriving at a place where personal comforts and security will once again be an everyday assumption. Put aside desperation and casting about for rescue, and think of how you can help others. This is your ticket to better times! | <urn:uuid:8d9ff401-e402-4a78-85ff-e46c7d933d19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zetatalk4.com/transfor/t101.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962157 | 1,295 | 1.5 | 2 |
The slaughter of the innocents
Barbarity repeatedly produces chilling reminders of man’s inhumanity to man. But for a manifestation of utter brutality run amok, a mass-murder shooting spree at an elementary school is about as harrowing as it gets.
Friday’s stunning news of that horrific act at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., delivered an awful jolt that thundered across and beyond America.
According to the authorities, a lone, 20-year-old gunman killed 26 people at the school. Twenty of the fatalities were children. Then that killer killed himself.
The police also said that he killed his mother — a Sandy Brook kindergarten teacher — at her home before launching his attack at the school.
By now, the grotesque spectacle of twisted monsters in human form using dreadfully efficient firearms to inflict wholesale carnage has become all too familiar. For instance, on Tuesday, another shooter reprised that sickening scenario at a mall in Portland, Ore.
Three people died in that incident. Again, one of them was the killer, who turned one of his weapons on himself.
In the staggering wake of Friday’s outrage, President Barack Obama aptly expressed our nation’s “overwhelming grief.”
Wiping away tears, the president deplored the “heinous crime,” adding: “The majority of those who died today were children — beautiful, little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.”
However, the more than two dozen lives lost weren’t the only casualties. Such mind-numbing, senseless violence inflicts widespread shock and despair.
Yet this appalling assault on that quintessential symbol of innocence — children — must prompt renewed debate about how to minimize the risk of such savagery.
And regardless of what laws we pass and/or enforce, there’s no minimizing this ugly, enduring truth:
Just as our species has an inspiring capacity for good, it has an insidious capacity for evil. | <urn:uuid:d10576aa-bd6d-403c-9ac0-d94923327fa7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20121215/PC1002/121219563/1021/the-slaughter-of-the-innocents | 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 | 0.969493 | 460 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Lord of the Rings meme » one/eight characters - Frodo Baggins
“How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand… there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold.”
lotr meme → six quotes [2/6]
it’s like in the great stories, mr. frodo. the ones that really mattered. full of darkness and danger, they were. and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. because how could the end be happy? how could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? but in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. even darkness must pass. a new day will come. and when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. those were the stories that stayed with you. that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. but I think, mr. frodo, i do understand. i know now. folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. they kept going. because they were holding on to something. | <urn:uuid:90c3d810-93c6-44b4-9ad0-7ff14ae338b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://luthienanwamane.tumblr.com/tagged/frodo-baggins | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980722 | 269 | 1.828125 | 2 |
From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:
Three mysteries emerge from an episode back when Spokane was known as Spokane Falls, one of them concerns a ghost, another is geographic, and the last is bibliographic. No, I’m not talking about a spirit scouring the online catalog– that is called BOOlean searching (heh-heh, get it?). This series of questions emerge from the following article in the Spokane Falls Review, March 21, 1885:
Spokane Falls Enjoys the Luxury of a Haunted House.
“Among the other many attractions in and about Spokane Falls, there has recently been added that of a haunted house, wherein the cheerful disembodied spirit holds high carnival, and the spectral inhabitants of the silent and bewitching midnight meet together to join in ghostly orgies, talk politics and frighten the timid denizens of this mundane sphere out of their seven senses. Belated pedestrians, with a tendency to scare easily, shun the side of street upon which is located the trysting place of the jovial spooks, while the more courageous have marched up to the premises, but, if not really frightened, have had no hesitancy in moving off at a speed above that of ordinary promenading when having their ears saluted with uncanny sounds.”
“The building that has been taken without the formality of lease, by these airy nocturnal roysters, is the old Phoenix beer hall that was the scene of a sad chapter in the city’s history; that of the unprovoked murder of a young man last summer, and which has been unoccupied for several months. We have heard vague rumors of the presence of a ghost, but have, so far, been unable to see anyone who will admit of having seen anything of a supernatural agency. Although the belief is so strong that the unexplainable exists that it is not every one you meet who will volunteer to take his blankets and camp in the room overnight.”
“It is said that on a certain occasion, recently, a man passing had his attention attracted by a strange noise that seemed to proceed from the room, and, going carefully up the alley, he peered into a window. He didn’t remain rooted to the spot. His legs refused to allow his body to remain in the neighborhood and he don’t remember just how he soon did get to bed, but it was only a small fraction of time after taking one gaze, when he had his head buried under the blankets.”
“He touches the subject tenderly and has kept much more rational hours ever since. What he saw could not have grown out of the character of the fluid he had been drinking, as he had religiously stuck to water that evening. To a limited few, he claims that when he reached the window he saw the shadowy outlines of a man that shone out with a phosphorous light. The shadowy tenant was walking with his back to the window and was giving vent to a noise sounding as though he was in a good deal of pain or was growling over the chilliness of the night. When the apparition turned about and headed for the window, one glance was sufficient for the individual. Considering that the specter would consider it an indelicate intrusion, the witness adjourned without apology. He calculates that, with ordinary luck, he will be able to outlive the sensation he experienced in fifty or one hundred years.”
“Making all due allowance for a vivid imagination and a bristly fright, there is still left a margin for the belief that the visitor from the other world is not a party that the average man would choose for a boon companion.”
“Since then, and perhaps before (although we have no data for going behind the returns) attention has been attracted to the spot by divers unpleasant sounds, as if a whole colony of the defunct were occasionally congregated for a jubilee. No thorough investigation has, so far, been made, as the initiated have perhaps felt a slight delicacy in forcing their presence in company where they were not invited. We suppose that in time, when the thing becomes shorn of the glamour of freshness, some one will want to deprive the public of the benefit of such an important tributary to the popularity of the Falls, and try to clear up the mystery.”
Mystery # 1: What the heck is it? In all my perusing through territorial newspapers, this is the most detailed and open account I have found describing public “ghostly” happenings.
Mystery # 2: The exact location of the Phoenix Beer Hall, which was designated as the HQ for these ghosts, is not easy to find. Apparently closed by 1885, it doesn’t show up on directories or Sanborn maps of the era. I’d be curious to know if that location has experienced other “supernatural” events in the 20th-21st centuries. But where was/is it?
Mystery # 3: In an attempt to find an account of the “sad chapter in the city’s history,” it was discovered the incident was the September 27, 1884 shooting of a quiet carpenter named Henry R. Roblin by John “Jack” Connerry, “a notorious rustler.” Apparently Roblin accidentally bumped into Connerry on a Saturday near midnight at the Phoenix Beer Hall, and that alone sparked the shooting. Connerry was captured the next morning but was moved from Spokane Falls city jail to Cheney as he was in very real danger of being lynched by an angry mob. It seems Connerry escaped jail in Cheney a short time later.
But here’s the mystery. In an effort to find a local article about this shooting, every single newspaper run we have in the Spokane area is missing the issue that would have covered this news. It’s like we have a nice complete set– except for this one period. Every one of them! What’s the deal here? I had to go to newspapers in California and Montana to get the details. Was the episode so shameful no one wanted to preserve the newspapers, or instead did they keep it as a souvenir? In any case, it is quite odd.
The Spokane Falls Review is one the historical newspapers digitized by the Washington State Library. The above article, and many other lively stories about Spokane can be viewed online on the WSL website. | <urn:uuid:aa9d9219-80d0-4383-a99a-f953f4a83998> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.sos.wa.gov/library/index.php/category/digital-collections/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978893 | 1,357 | 1.640625 | 2 |
What Leaders Can Learn from How Romney Won the Debate
Almost immediately after the first U.S. presidential debate on Wednesday, practically every major news outlet from Fox News to MSNBC to the Financial Times of London declared Mitt Romney the outright winner over Barack Obama. Having watched it myself, I have to agree. Romney cleaned Obama’s clock.
As I was watching it, I thought of that scene in The Untouchables where Kevin Costner’s Eliot Ness says to Sean Connery’s Malone, “I want to get Capone. I don’t know how to do it.” Malone gets in Ness’s grill and snarls back, “You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way! And that’s how you get Capone.” Romney played the roll of Malone at the debate. He brought the firepower.
Thinking that there might be a leadership lessons blog post in there somewhere, I took a couple of pages of notes during the debate about my impressions. Both men’s performances demonstrated the adage that it’s not so much what you say as how you say it. Even with two pages of notes, I couldn’t tell you a whole lot about the substance of what either candidate said. The impressions that landed were about who was in command and who had a plan. On those fronts, Romney won going away.
While most leaders don’t find themselves in one on one debates in front of an audience very often, there are broader leadership communication lessons that can be drawn from both Romney’s and Obama’s performances.
Herewith, some points on how Romney won the debate and what leaders can learn from how he did it:
Have a game plan: In watching the entire debate, it was clear Romney had a game plan coming in and he executed it for the full 90 minutes. Obama, on the other hand, appeared to be improvising. There were a lot of pre-debate media stories about how many weeks Romney had spent preparing for the first debate. It looked like they were right. He proved that preparation pays.
Remember the rule of first impressions: What percentage of Americans do you figure are paying attention in the 80th minute of a debate? Somewhere between slim and none would be my guess. In a debate as in any other presentation, first impressions are critical. Romney had a very clear idea of the impression he wanted to make from the opening hand shake forward. I’m not even a Romney supporter and found him coming across as smart, articulate, energetic and appropriately passionate. I don’t think any of that was an accident. Romney had a clear picture of the impression he wanted to leave and followed through on it.
Know the points you want to make: Obama got to go first with his opening statement and I thought he had a good line about it’s not where we’ve been but where we’re going. Then Romney opened with a couple of stories about people he’s met on the campaign trail who have asked, “Can you help me?” and then ticked off a five point plan for how he’d help those people by improving the economy. It wasn’t so much what was in the five point plan as the fact that he had a five point plan and delivered it within the two minute time constraint. He came across as more specific and action oriented as a result.
Illustrate those points with stories that connect: Throughout the debate, Romney illustrated his points with short stories about real people living through what he was talking about. Relevant stories get the listener’s attention and Romney played that to the hilt. While Romney was talking about real people struggling with thousands of dollars, Obama, talked about trillions of dollars of revenues and expenditures. Effective communicators use stories and examples that the average person can relate to.
Sum those points up with memorable phrases: There was a lot of pre-debate speculation about whether or not Romney would come in with a collection of zingers like Reagan’s classic, “There you go again.” He didn’t really deploy a lot of zingers but what he did do was repeat and emphasize his major points with short memorable phrases like “my priority is putting people back to work in this country,” “trickle down government,” and “$716 billion in cuts to Medicare.” Leaders have to make it easy for people to remember what they want them to remember. Well crafted turns of phrase repeated regularly help a lot.
Play offense: Romney played offense throughout the debate. He made his points clearly and repeatedly and put Obama in a position of having to respond to what he said. Obama seemed to show up without a plan to take the fight to Romney. It was remarkable that in a debate about domestic economic issues, Obama did not raise the video tape of Romney saying that it wasn’t his job to worry about the 47% of Americans who don’t pay federal taxes. Given the fact that he’s such a basketball aficionado, it’s surprising that Obama didn’t play offense. You have to put points on the board to win the game.
Energy above all: Finally, Romney won the debate with energy. He was amped (at some points almost over amped) throughout the evening. In the split screen shots, you could see that he was almost always directing his remarks straight at Obama. Obama, on the other hand, spent most of his time addressing the moderator. The problem, of course, is that he’s not running against Jim Lehrer, he’s running against Mitt Romney. To communicate effectively, leaders have to show through their body language, their tone of voice and their energy level that they’re engaged. Romney did. Obama not so much.
History shows that incumbent Presidents often have poor performances in their first debates and then come back strong in subsequent performances. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next two debates.
In the meantime, what’s your take on the performances at the first debate? What leadership communications lessons did you see? | <urn:uuid:fa060b77-c3b2-4a2e-8d4a-6f04586ce2cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.govexec.com/excellence/executive-coach/2012/10/what-leaders-can-learn-how-romney-won-debate/58587/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979533 | 1,321 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Orlando Letelier was a former Chilean Cabinet minister and top critic of dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Moffitt was his 26-year-old assistant. Both died when a bomb blew up Letelier's car on Embassy Row Sept. 21, 1976. Letelier was ambassador to Washington under the government of Socialist President Salvador Allende, who was toppled by Pinochet in a 1973 coup.
A Santiago appeals court on Tuesday ordered a probe into Moffitt's assassination, revoking a decision by a judge last year to close the case. Chile convicted two leaders of the country's feared secret police for Letelier's death. They remain in prison for crimes against humanity committed during Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship. | <urn:uuid:d7bad930-6756-4b7d-84f7-ce8c6dd61040> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.times-standard.com/ci_20890568/chile-probe-assassination-moffitt-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972889 | 149 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Why Articles Are Not The Route To High Search Engine Rankings
If you have any interest in getting high search engine rankings for your website (and who doesn't) you've probably been sold the idea that writing and publishing your own articles will do it for you.
Here's why that's not entirely true.
Imagine the following scenario...
You write an article around a keyword or keyphrase you want to rank well for.
You submit that article to all the article submission sites and directories and ezines you can find.
Your article gets published in hundreds of places.
You now have hundreds of links pointing back to your main site...
But your own site never shows up in the top ten results for that particular keyword or keyphrase.
Instead you find that there are lots of other sites carrying your article that rank better than yours.
You've completely missed out on an excellent opportunity to get high rankings for your keyword or keyphrase.
Even worse... you just handed your precious keyword-rich content on a platter to possible competitors who happened to publish your article on their website, and may have lost some of your most targeted visitors and sales to them.
So where did you go wrong?
Your mistake lay in using your precious article - the keyword-rich content you toiled for hours to write - for entirely the wrong purpose.
You failed to use the power of the medium of article publishing to give your site an unbeatable advantage over others.
Here's how to use your articles the right way to boost your search engine rankings.
When you make an article available for reprint, the article, by virtue of it being published on hundreds of other sites, now no longer qualifies as unique content.
In the eyes of search engines, those pages with higher Pagerank (and hence greater importance) than yours will now rank better than you for the keywords your article is optimized for.
Instead of making your article the main course, use it as an appetizer to direct search engines and readers to a UNIQUE, keyword-rich, well-optimized report or white paper on your website, and you'll see dramatically different results.
Think of your articles as simply the conduit that leads search engines to your website.
Publishing your articles all over the web is like leaving scraps for a puppy (a.k.a. the search engines) that follows them all the way back to the kennel (a.k.a. your website) where it can feast on the main course - your UNIQUE content.
Use your main keyword or keyphrase in the anchor text of the article resource box that contains a link pointing back to your unique content.
This will create hundreds of keyword-rich links pointing back to the well-optimized report on your website, and give your pages a powerful edge over other websites.
Often this factor alone is sufficient to take your website to the top of the search results, especially with search engines like Google and MSN.
The guidelines above include few of the steps you need to take to get high rankings for the keywords of your choice.
Copyright 2004 Priya Shah
Priya Shah is author of the search engine optimization ebook, Number One In Your Niche, that shows how to use your articles and content to get long-term, top ten rankings for your website.
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Why Pay For Performance SEO Is Really Too Good To Be True (Provided You're ... - Search Engine Journal
Wildnet Technologies Aims to Raise Customer Loyalty with Offshore SEO Team ... - PR Web (press release)
BrainPulse Reinvents SEO Services to Address Google Penguin / Panda Updates - PR Newswire (press release)
Luxury Real Estate SEO Now Available To Luxury Real Estate Brokers Nationwide - PR Web (press release)
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Supply & Demand - Stop Attacking Good SEO Companies!
As I read the latest news online about what Google has done to many webmasters all over the world, I am left discussed towards some of the comments people are making against SEO Companies.Please don't be quick to blame seo companies.
How To Soar In Your Search Engine Marketing, In The Post Google Era Part 2
'Are Google's Days in the Dominant Position in Search Technology Numbered?'In an aggressive attempt to get SEO under control, perhaps for its new IPO, Google is evolving into a less relevant search engine losing market share to Yahoo! Furthermore, on the horizon is Microsoft's launch into the search business, which will integrate search some how into the Find feature of your operating system (it is the system used to find files in Windows). It other words, with the new Windows you will be able to search files on your computer and also the Internet.
Goofy Mistakes that Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings
One thing is for sure, you don't want to spend hours, perhaps days, months, or years on a website to have some stupid little mistake get your site dropped or never even listed in the search engines. There are a lot of rules that search engines have created to block out what they call spammers, so don't kid yourself by telling yourself you are not an evil spammer.
Beyond the Box with Googles Web API
Google, the most popular, and many say best, search engine, offers searchers many options to help them zero in on just what they're looking for. Although these search modifier features are documented on own site, many searchers, including experienced marketers and technically savvy people, simple don't know these features are available.
List Building vs. Search Engine Optimization
It seems the excitement about search engine optimization fades in and out from time to time. The more people talk about search engine optimization (SEO) the more it seems to be the logical choice for bringing customers to your site.
HTML and Search Engine Optimization - What You Dont Know Can Kill You
When it comes to search engine optimization there is a lot of information available, some accurate, some not. If you really want to know what is going on regarding your website and how to best optimize it for good results with the search engines, you need to do some SEO research.
Attack Smaller Searches To Get The Big Ones!
Searching online can not only be fun, but you sometimes need to be downright inventive.For those of you who have been searching online for years now, you've probably adapted ways & techniques to find what you are looking for quickly.
Creating A Search Engine Copywriting Plan
Search engine copywriting has become an extremely important part of the overall search engine optimization process. However, in addition, search engine copywriting has developed into a misunderstood craft.
Search Engine Marketing: Are You Accidentally Hiding From Potential Customers?
You may be hiding if the search engines can't 'see' all of your site's relevant content.You've invested a great deal of time and effort carefully crafting compelling, helpful website content for prospective customers.
Are Search Engines Worth It Any More?
The "Number One" Question - the question that I (and probably every other Internet marketing expert on the planet) am most frequently asked: "How do I get to be Number One in the search engines for widgets? After all, my company is the world's leading provider of widgets - it's ridiculous that these other nobody companies are coming up in search engines ahead of us . .
Google Website and Web Page Indexing for Dummies
You may have heard how important it is to have your website optimized for search engines, especially Google, which is currently the most popular worldwide. The reason for this is so your website will be ranked high in the search engines and people will see your site first, click on it, and increase your traffic and ultimately your sales.
Site Maps: Let Search Engines Find Your Pages
With 40 million websites in existence, and more than 3 billion web pages indexed by Google at the time of this writing (July 2003), it's no wonder that more and more people are relying on search engines to find their way through the unruly world that the web has become.Nowadays, it is crucial to get your pages indexed by the most important search engines.
Tips On Optomizing Your Website For Search Engines
I wish to give a few little tips, about optimizing. You may find it quite useful, depending on the type of website you have.
History of World / Regional Search Engines and Directories
Computers have become a way of life for people around the world. They are used to research term papers, check weather forecasts, track military progress, exchange ideas (blogs and chat) and to find the cheapest price on items etc.
Search Engine Robots - How They Work, What They Do (Part II)
If your site isn't found in the search engines, it is probably because the robots couldn't deal with it. It could be something as simple as not being able to find the site, or it may be more complicated issues involving the robot's not being able to crawl the site or figure out what your pages are all about.
Onpage Optimization: Essential for Effective Offpage Optimization
Onpage optimization is the process by which various elements on an individual web page are structured so that the web page can be found by the search engines for specific keyword(s) or keyword phrases.Onpage optimization will not guarantee any top rating within a search engine, only offpage optimization can offer that guarantee.
Three Search Engine Ranking Gold Tips
Getting a high ranking in the search engines is something with many variables.It can rely on what industry you're in, the products or services you supply, and the competition you have.
Increase Your Search Engine Ranking
There are methods to increase your search engine rankings which may seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing with this issue.I did once upon a time until I realised its not so bad after all! I am here to tell you - the time has come to face your website! A high search engine ranking as you can manage for your website is essential to get any free visitors rather than burn your wallet on pay per click such as adwords for example.
DMOZ: Rotten To The Core
I knew things were bad at DMOZ. But I guess I didn't realize how bad, until I started eavesdropping on a few forums, and reading the avalanche of e-mails I received on the subject.
Search Engine Optimization that Works in the Long-Term
Search engines are constantly tweaking their ranking algorithms and when that happens some pages lose their top ranking positions. One such event was the infamous Florida Update.
|Home | Site Map| | <urn:uuid:8c81c817-9e1d-4087-9f14-9eaf63b6abe9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.harmonyhollow.net/webmaster-resources/seo/2885.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932061 | 2,243 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Google releases Chrome desktop sharing
Native feature cuts out the middle man
TechLife | 10 Oct 2011 :
Google isn't reinventing the wheel with a new feature it is testing that allows any two computers using its Chrome browser to connect with each other.
But integrating remote desktop functionality into a Google product may be welcome to some users who may not trust third-party vendors that already offer the service.
Called Chrome Remote Desktop, the new feature is in beta testing and lets you connect any two computers that have a Chrome browser, including Windows, Linux, Mac and Chromebooks. The app can access all data on a remote computer and requires the person sharing access to their computer to give a code to the person who will tap into it remotely. That authentication must be done every time access is granted.
The feature comes in handy for people who need technical assistance from IT technicians in far-flung locations. Businesses also use similar services when training employees on new software or systems. Other products on the market that give people access to another computer include TeamViewer, which is free for non-commercial use, and a website called join.me, which also is free.
Google's free app currently lets IT administrators - or anyone - have remote access to users' computers to solve technical issues. In the release notes, Google stated that "Additional use cases such as being able to access your own computer remotely are coming soon."
Google says the goal of the beta release is to demonstrate the core "Chrome Remoting technology" and get feedback from users.
IDG News Service | <urn:uuid:e9c7c667-a8ab-4d03-a804-d7110b299a27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techcentral.ie/17589/google-releases-chrome-desktop-sharing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946675 | 321 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Like a scene out of the movie 'Jaws' a kayaker was chased by a Great White shark just off a beach at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Walter Szulc was enjoying the day paddling a kayak for the first time just off Nauset Beach on Friday when he did a quick shoulder check and what he saw was terrifying. A large great white shark, with its dorsel fin cutting through the water, just two meters away, stalking him. He tells WHDH News, "I looked behind me and that's when I saw the shark which was pretty much right there. I got a pretty good glimpse of it and it was a good size and it had a fin sticking out so I just started to paddle." The shark is estimated to have been about 3-4 meters long.
Beach goers and a nearby surfer spotted the shark first but Szulc didn't see as swimmers ran onto the shore, nor did he hear them yelling "shark, shark, paddle, paddle, paddle." Ironically Szulc says when they got to the beach his daughter didn't want to go into the water because she's afraid of sharks. He says he teased her about it and told her there was nothing to worry about.
Lifeguards immediately closed the beach until Sunday, but are warning people to stay close to shore.
There has been a rash of sightings of sharks around Cape Cod recently, the setting for the 1975 Steven Spielberg movie Jaws. Greg Skomal, a senior biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries tells ABC News that the Great White sharks are drawn to the area because of the booming gray seal population... the shark's favourite meal.
There was another close call Saturday on the west coast at Pleasure Point in Northern California. An ABC News affiliate reports a kayaker who was fishing was suddenly thrown into the water when a 6 meter Great White shark bit the front end of his kayak. Capitola Police officer Chad Keane says the man told him ""he felt this tremendous bump to the back of the kayak, which lifted the back of the kayak actually out of the water. At the same time, he saw the head on the front of the kayak, taking a bite of the kayak. He was subsequently thrown into the water." Based on the size of the bite mark on the kayak and a tooth fragment, Keane believes the shark that attacked was a Great White.
And just last week Digital Journal told you about an 800lb Mako shark that was caught off the coast of Marina Del Rey in Southern California.
All of these incidents may have some beach goers repeating the tag line for Jaws 2 "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..." | <urn:uuid:5926772a-b11c-4bb0-bd5b-c4d5d256a8db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/328188 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98143 | 561 | 1.71875 | 2 |
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has urged Israel to open talks with the Palestinians on the full range of issues blocking the path to peace.
Stuttering negotiations between the two sides on a step-by-step “road map” toward peace have been suspended completely since Israeli forces launched an assault on Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip last December.
Mubarak said they should move straight to the six “final status” issues: borders, the status of Jerusalem, refugees, Israeli settlements in occupied territory, security and use of water.
“What is required now is political will, particularly by the leaders of Israel,” Mubarak said in an interview with the newspaper al-Quwat al-Musallaha (The Armed Forces).
Mubarak said he was in regular contact with Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
He said talks should resume where they left off under the previous Israeli government.
“It is not reasonable or acceptable to start from scratch. I told them that the negotiations should address all six final status issues without exception,” he said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said last month that, for talks to resume, Israel must honor agreements on borders and Jerusalem that he says its previous government made in talks last year.
No clear agreements were ever published before talks were suspended. Netanyahu, a right-winger who took office in March, has made clear he does not wish to repeat any such offers that Olmert may have made.
After talks with U.S. President Barack Obama and Netanyahu, Abbas also repeated a Palestinian insistence that Israel halt settlement building in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.
But Netanyahu has fought off U.S. and Arab pressure to freeze settlements.
Since then, U.S. diplomacy has focused on an immediate and unconditional resumption of negotiations.
Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the first Arab state to do so.
Mubarak said that agreement, which saw Israel withdraw troops and settlers from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, should be seen as a model for future pacts between Israel and the Palestinians and other Arab states.
Mubarak’s comments, cited by the state news agency MENA on Saturday, are the latest in a string of calls for Israel to accept a framework for peace based on U.N. resolutions and a land-for-peace formula contained in the Arab peace initiative.
That initiative, launched by Saudi Arabia in 2002, offers normalization with all Arab states in return for withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 and a just settlement for refugees.
Mubarak said peace was “difficult but not impossible.”
Egypt has played a central role in negotiations to secure the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in return for freedom for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
On Friday, Israel freed 20 female prisoners after receiving evidence that Shalit is alive and well.
Egypt is also trying to broker reconciliation between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions running Gaza and the West Bank respectively, and hopes they will sign a pact this month.
(Writing by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Kevin Liffey) | <urn:uuid:51025c50-121a-4624-8a59-ef3edfe8e6d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://apeaceofconflict.com/collaborative-peace-and-conflict-dictionary/z/media-watch/october-2009/october-3/mubarak-urges-israel-to-start-final-status-talks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957295 | 666 | 1.765625 | 2 |
For Immediate Release: April 23, 2009
Contact: Kerri Axelrod or Jen Fuson
202-965-3500, ext. 369
AAJ: Transportation Agencies Need to Quickly Enact Safety Standards
Safety Board Rules Severity of Crash Due to Delay in Agency Action
Washington, DC—The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently concluded driver fatigue, and the lack of federal safety standards protecting passengers on buses, contributed to the death and severity of the injuries sustained in the 2008 Utah bus rollover which killed nine and injured 43. In response, the American Association for Justice (AAJ) is calling on transportation regulators to review pending pre-Obama administration regulations and open new rulemaking proceedings to enhance commercial transportation safety measures for both trucks and buses.
The NTSB cited the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) slowness in failing to implement new safety standards as a factor contributing to the Utah crash. Pending safety regulations in the transportation industry include on-board electronic recorders to monitor a driver’s hours of operation and prevent fatigue, seatbelts, and stronger roofs and windows; all recommendations NTSB has been calling on the agency to enact for nearly a decade.
“The finding from the NTSB shows how the public is endangered when federal agencies drag their feet,” said AAJ Director of Regulatory Affairs Gerie Voss. “The Obama administration must make updating transportation safety standards a priority.”
Commercial buses are not the only dangers on the nation’s roads. According to NTSB, large commercial trucks also lack similar safety measures to protect drivers and the public. Currently, there are no roof crush standards for commercial motor vehicles, including trucks and buses, and a prevalent safety problem in the trucking industry is companies ignoring driver fatigue.
For example, on March 12 the NTSB sent a letter to the American Trucking Associations (ATA) asking the industry group to raise awareness about the dangers of driver fatigue. The letter was in response to another investigation by NTSB that determined a 2005 fatal trucking accident occurred after the driver fell asleep at the wheel.
“The transportation industry has been aware of these problems for years, if not decades, and they have done nothing about it. Current federal standards are needed to save lives,” said Tennessee attorney Morgan Adams, a leading expert on commercial vehicle safety. “Driver fatigue is a killer and it will continue to kill until the government takes action. There is no question some corporations will overwork employees, and ignore problems, in order to earn another dollar.”
According to a March 2009 study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 3.9 million of the nation’s 14 million commercial vehicle drivers could be affected by sleep apnea, a leading cause of driver fatigue. | <urn:uuid:281726fd-da30-4066-a17c-9c650ea70f67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/8822.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930773 | 585 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Incorporating TCM Customizations into the Operator Interface of the Medalist i3070 ICT
In software releases prior to 7.00, many users have customized the Operator Interface Program, better known as TCM. While it is possible to run in "TCM mode" and still use the TCM program as the operator interface, many users may want to take advantage of the new Operator Interface GUI and its many new features and keep their TCM customizations at the same time. This is easy to do as described below.
When using the new 7.xx Operator Interface, many of the TCM functions are executed when the operator activates the "Load" and "Unload" buttons. See below:
These buttons are associated with two BT-Basic files named “load” and “unload”. These files are located in the directory “C:\Agilent_ICT\lib\sys.Operator”. After making backup copies of the original files, these BT-Basic programs can be modified to perform most of your TCM customizations. In fact, many times parts of your customized TCM code can be cut and pasted directly into the appropriate spots in the new scripts.
So now users can use the old TCM operator interface, or the new i3070 Operator GUI and keep the operator interface customizations that you have become used to. | <urn:uuid:0d43a083-930b-4f39-851b-ea79616b0b7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/editorial.jspx?cc=SG&lc=eng&ckey=1538299&nid=-11143.0.00&id=1538299 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933533 | 287 | 1.515625 | 2 |
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- They're called "leathernecks" or "Devil Dogs," but some of the Marines killed in a desert training accident this week were just a year or so out of high school, their boyish faces not yet weathered by life's hardships.
The seven Marines killed ranged in age from 19 to 26. Some had served overseas; others were training for their first deployment.
At Camp Lejeune, an 170-square-mile base and home to about 50,000 uniformed troops, counselors at the Naval Hospital were gearing up to offer help as the ripples from Monday's tragedy began reaching family and friends, barracks mates and survivors, said Dr. Sawsan Ghurani, director of mental health programs at the hospital.
"It's so unexpected that it's more of a shock than if you'd been mentally prepared" for battlefield casualties, said Ghurani, a psychiatrist and Navy captain. "You hope people don't die in war, but it is a common occurrence and whereas, in training exercises, it's very rare."
The ages of the victims make it even worse, Ghurani said.
"For me, it's especially tragic when they are so young and still have so much left to give in life and to experience in life that it just seems unfair," she said. But, she added, "The nature of the military culture is to be selfless."
Today, Connecticut and the nation mourns the loss of the "few and the proud," including Roger Muchnick, 23, who grew up in Westport, Conn.. Muchnick had already pulled one tour in Afghanistan and was thinking about returning to college after his enlistment was up, said his grandfather, Jerome Muchnick.
Muchnick played on the football and lacrosse teams at Staples High School and went on to play lacrosse at Eastern Connecticut State University, where he studied business. In a biography on the university's website, Muchnick said the one thing he would like to do before he died was "live," and that his most embarrassing moment was getting caught lip-synching in a school talent show.
"He was a fabulous kid. Just fabulous," his grandfather said. "He was at the top of his game when this happened. ... You can't imagine losing a very handsome, 23-year-old grandson who was vital and loving."
Just 19, Pfc. Josh Martino of Dubois, Pa., had already spent nearly half his young life dreaming of becoming one of "the few, the proud." He had joined in July and was hoping to marry his fiancee later this year before being deployed to Afghanistan, his mother said.
"Since he was probably 8 years old he wanted to be a Marine," Karen Perry said Wednesday after meeting with military officials to start planning her son's funeral. "That's all he wanted to do."
Lance Cpl. Josh Taylor
Lance Cpl. Josh Taylor, 21, also seemed to have been born for the Corps. The Marietta, Ohio, native had talked about being a Marine since he was about 5, said his grandfather, Larry Stephens. Josh, too, was planning for a wedding, scheduled for May.
Both young men were among seven members of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force killed late Monday when a mortar shell exploded in its firing tube during an exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada. Eight men were injured, some severely.
A decade after the invasion of Iraq and nearly 12 years since the United States launched the global war on terror, Americans have become wearily accustomed to the sight of flag-draped coffins being solemnly offloaded at Dover Air Force Base. But news of such loss on American soil, far from any foreign battlefield, has the power to shock.
Taylor's grandfather, Larry Stephens, said Taylor was engaged to be married, with a wedding planned for May.
His fiancee's father called him an exceptional person.
Taylor is also survived by three sisters and a brother.
Twenty-six-year-old Aaron Ripperda of Highland, Ill., joined the service after graduating from a St. Louis culinary school and finding the job market flat. His father tried to gently dissuade him.
During a 2010 deployment in Afghanistan, Ripperda's mobile unit was responsible for transporting food to bases in the region, Justin Bergstrom, a fellow Marine, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in an email.
"He did talk about his cooking abilities," Bergstrom wrote. They joked about him being able to keep his fellow Marines fed.
Kent Ripperda said his son was eager to go back to college and "get on with his life."
Aaron Ripperda was a football player while he attended high school in Highland, Ill., near St. Louis. He was respectful and hardworking, according to Highland High School Assistant Principal Karen Gauen, and "definitely had the discipline for the military."
Lance Cpl. William Taylor Wild IV, 21, joined the Marines shortly after graduating in 2010 form Severna Park High School near Annapolis, Md. His mother, Elizabeth Wild, said he was in a weapons platoon that was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in November. He already had been deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Kuwait.
Wild said her son always wanted to go into the military, like his father, who is a command chief in the Air Force Reserve at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Lance Cpl. Fenn, who was from Polk City, Fla., enlisted with the Marine Corps in June 2010. He was promoted to his current rank nine months later. Fenn, who served as a mortarman, received numerous accolades including a Combat Action Ribbon and National Defense Service Medal. He was last deployed in 2011 to Afghanistan.
Lance Cpl. Vanderwork, who was last deployed in 2011 to serve in the war in Afghanistan, was a native of Hickory, N.C. Vanderwork joined the Marines in June 2010 and was promoted to his current rank by August 2011. He received several awards including the National Defense Service Medal. | <urn:uuid:4eb13f12-98f0-4948-8600-4611d04d64a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Marines-killed-were-young-lives-ahead-4372774.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990429 | 1,267 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Step One - Digital sketch
Real simple, no special brushes. The goal is to get the idea across and to see if it plays well with the rest of the pages - I did it with all of the pages, so by the end of this part I have all of my book "ready". Tools: Photoshop and Wacom tablet.
Step Two - Printing blue
I print the sketch with the blue ink. Why? If I ink over it and then scan it. It is easy to remove the blue with Photoshop (using channels - if you want I can make how-to video.) You also can use blue pencil, as I do in the other steps.
Step Three - First try inking and hating it!
I use ink and a nib pen. It is a mess. They all look ugly. I feel like crap and loose all hope. But I like the main guy's, Izzy, face. I don't give up and try again.
Step Four - Seconf time inking and not loving it.
Same ink and the nib. They look little better, but I do not feeling it. I decide to move on and try luck with the main guy Izzy.
Step Five - Getting Izzy
Please kill me. I use blue pencil and inked with... whatever. He is asleep here and his head is ugly. One more time or stop and go to bed? Not today!
Step Six - Getting Izzy the right way.
I did new blue pen. I put switched the nib for a small brush and inked it the classy way. I like everything about him. He has a long face, big arms. He is not perfect, but nothing that some editing in Photoshop can't handle.
Step Seven - Small sketch.
I am back to the family. I couldn't go back so I started from the start again. I made the smallest sketch, 2 by 3 inch and solved lots of compositional problems right there. Why it works? Working small it is like looking at something from far away - all looks clearer. No details are interfering with your judgement.
Step Eight - Small is getting bigger.
I scanned the small sketch and blew it up on my computer monitor. I printed the guy and the screen behind him so I can have my composition right. I made 4 by 4 greed to guide me and started rendering the details. I liked it, but the baby looked awful. Lets try it again? Please no. It is 4 am in the morning. You are not going to bed until you are done, boy!
Step Nine - Pencil magic.
I re-imagined some of the characters and got the baby right this time. Now he is real and cute and bring lots of charm to this unpleasant group of adults.
Step Ten - Scan no blues.
You see how the blue color is gone. The gray residue is removable by Levels in Photoshop (video someday? sure.).
Step Eleven - Lets ink the baby.
I use the nib again and it came out bad. I lost all the organic feel of the faces. I had an idea? Maybe I shouldn't ink it and use it as it is? Well, lets see.
Step Twelve - Pen get a try out.
It looks great. I am done! Lets go to sleep! Lets try to ink it one more time. Now with the brush.
Pre-final step: Inking the winner.
I am going for a small brash and inking the hell out of it. I go slow and easy. And I like it.
Album: 14 images
Making a page for my upcoming comic book - Polaris
Here is the step by step of making the page r/comicbooks embraced so much (love you guys). All on display - errors and all.
By fkcmx · 4 months ago
Advertisement: pro users don't see ads | <urn:uuid:238d862d-1feb-4c10-9e71-6a6fb9d37aee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://imgur.com/a/c5WIK | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956382 | 803 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The pictures taken, were at a legal boarding school madrassa in Rotterdam. Given the accounts of what goes on at other madrassas, code violations are the least of problems facing these children.
NOTE: I don’t view madrassas as having anything to do with ‘child care’.
Living in a mosque in Rotterdam North 12 photos
In the Netherlands there are hundreds of children in mosques. Only on weekends they get to go home. Some of these are Islamic boarding schools, as according to research by NRC today, are poorly maintained, unsafe fire hazards and one is illegal. The government maintains, unlike in other forms of childcare, can in no way monitor how children are being treated in these boarding schools.
In Rotterdam alone, where three boarding school mosques and a fourth under construction are known. One of them, in the south of the city, is an illegal girl boarding school. The mosque let fifty girls live in the attic, illegally, without a sleeping license. In the summer of last year, the situation there was “absolutely unsafe fire hazards” and, given the sleeping children, “even dangerous,” according to a confidential note of the municipality.
In the Iskender Pasa mosque in Rotterdam Noord there is legal boarding. The blue carpeted floor of the dormitory of Iskender Pasa is clean. There are no bags on the floor, not even clothes. Also the walls are empty. In the hall of the stairwell hangs a sign, “Purity is half of faith”, it says. In this room were 28 Turkish adolescent boys aged 12 to 18 years old. During the day they go to a high school, the rest of their time they spend here. | <urn:uuid:09db2053-2abe-48a5-b8d5-3f9c25a0b3d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tundratabloids.com/2012/11/netherlands-children-living-in-mosques-amid-fire-hazards-and-other-code-violations.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961903 | 370 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The Star Wars movies created a glut of spin-off merchandise, including a very popular line of action figures. Kenner toys scored a coup by making their figures much smaller than other dolls--only 3.75 inches tall--which meant that young children could purchase them with their allowance money. The toys turned into a phenomenon, and while they died down after the original trilogy ended, Hasbro (which bought up Kenner) revived them again the in the mid-1990s. They have become quite a prize for collectors and rare models can be worth quite a bit. A general pricing guide may help determine how much you can get for yours.
Star Wars action figures can be divided into three basic eras: the original Kenner line, which ran from 1977 to 1985, the "second wave" line from Hasbro which ran from 1995 to 1999 and the second trilogy line which ran from 1999 to 2009 and on. Pricing varies depending on the individual figure. Generally speaking, the rarer the figure, the more valuable it is. This tends to make the "vintage" Kenner collection more valuable than others, though not always.
Special Edition Figures
Other factors being equal, the most valuable figures were those from the vintage Kenner line produced as promotions. You couldn't get them in the stores; you could only get them by sending proofs of purchase through the mail. There are six among the most notable: the Emperor, the post-redemption Anakin Skywalker, Nein Nunb, Bossk, the droid 4-LOM, and one of the holy grails for collectors, the original Boba Fett with a missile shooting out of his jet pack. An eBay posting for the latter figure in June of 2009 had an asking price of $250.
Some collectors specialize in adding personal touches to given action figures: new sigils on the stormtrooper uniforms, for example, or cybernetic figures with human bodies and one or more droid limbs. Depending upon the skill and authenticity of such figures, they could be extremely valuable... or totally worthless. As of June, 2009, a number of custom figures on eBay are selling for $20 apiece, though the price of custom figures can fluctuate wildly (beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder in this case).
"Star Wars" action figures are graded on a pair of scales to determine their relative worth. Grading depends on the overall quality of the action figure, the existence of certain accessories (such as blasters and lightsabers) and even the box that they came in. The "C" scale is rated from C10 (a perfect figure) to C1 (a mangled piece of junk), with C8 to C10 being collector-worthy figures. The AFA rating uses a percentage scale: AFA 100 (perfect) to AFA 1 (chew toy for your dog), with AFA 70 or higher being collector worthy. Price differences vary more by percentage than amount--a C10 figure may go for $10 while a C8 figure may only be worth $3 or $4--but once the quality drops to C7 or below, it becomes much more difficult to convince anyone to buy them. Rarity and demand for a given figure may play a role too: a coveted C7 figure may go for $25 while a C10 copy of a less desirable figure may only go for $5.
As with any other collector's market, pricing fluctuates depending on the number of figures out there, the rarity of the figure and the overall demand. A number of different pricing books exist, as do sites that can provide accurate prices. The best indicators, however, are those in which active sales are taking place: notably eBay, which does a brisk business in Star Wars collectibles, and science fiction and fantasy conventions, where collectors price them to sell. Check the market, find a reliable buyer and know what your particular figure is worth before you choose to sell. A rare vintage Darth Vader with a telescoping lightsaber has fetched as much as $6,000, while a vintage jawa with a vinyl cape can sell for as much as $2,000. Most Star Wars figures sell for much less than that: $10 to $50, depending on the time, the rarity and the demand.
Mania is the premiere online destination for fans of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and anime entertainment. It is the largest community offering profiles, video, science fiction movies, sci fi TV, art, sci fi comics, photos, cheats, blogs, science fiction books, forums and feedback. Mania offers insider entertainment industry info and original content for science fiction, fantasy, and horror entertainment genres including: video games, comics, gadgets, movies, television, toys, music, books, DVDs and more. | <urn:uuid:09ff768b-7400-48f8-80d8-b6ab1048bdb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mania.com/star-wars-figure-price-guide_article_116396.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948173 | 975 | 1.5 | 2 |
It was in 2008, during their inappropriately celebrated “War on Scientology,” that the hacker collective known as Anonymous first began using the phrase “We are Legion” in their communiques. Not being a Christian myself, it is usually hard for me to get too worked up over this sort of ham-fisted, pop-culture pseudo-Satanism. In most cases it is window dressing designed to distract people from the vapid and lazy “thought” that too many young people think is provocative. With Anonymous however, it’s different. Anonymous, often heralded as heroic defenders of freedom and transparency, have a history of activities that go beyond the realms of subversive or even revolutionary and are quite simply evil.
John Lawson, who lives in Stockton, California with his wife Julia, began receiving threatening phone calls around 2 a.m. Saturday morning. He didn’t know why until THREAT LEVEL explained that a hacking group calling itself the g00ns (goons spelled with zeros, not goons with the letter o) posted his home address, phone number and cell numbers, as well as Julia’s Social Security number, online. The obscene and threatening calls have continued through Tuesday, according to Lawson.
Yet after these and similar incidents, Anonymous is still viewed as a group of freedom-loving folk heroes fighting for justice on the web. Both libertarians and leftists laud Anonymous, no matter the depths to which the hackers sink.
But this speculation on their next attack has caused people to overlook another Anonymous threat issued just days before. In a video called “The Bankers are the Problem,” Anonymous spends a little over eight minutes making the case for violence against bankers and the mass murder of Wall Street workers:
In the video you’ll notice that the speaker disparages the idea of freedom, which should surprise some of Anonymous’ more rabid fans. But what I found most chilling were the frequent allusions to homicidal mob violence being divinely inspired.
What divinity inspires mobs to lynch unarmed people?
Anonymous claims to be fighting for some sort of larger cause. But what is it? Advocating murder will solve what problem? And what will happen if Anonymous follows through on its threat and does give us a day we’ll “never, ever forget” on October 10th?If Anonymous gets rid of those pesky bankers and financial services, what will happen to the thousands of trucks that bring food and water into New York City? What will the allies of Anonymous do if the group manages to collapse our economy? Forage for food in lower Manhattan?
Anonymous helped organize the Wall Street Occupation movement, encouraged hundreds of people who can barely care for themselves now to congregate in New York, and now wants to create a catastrophe there that members hope will cause untold chaos. This is not so much a protest as a plot to murder those people. The aftermath of a successful takedown of the markets by Anonymous will not look like the glorious revolution these protesters are imagining; it will be akin to a zombie apocalypse as panicked city dwellers find the intricate web of services that keep them alive disappearing with the malicious keystrokes of people watching and laughing from hundreds of miles away.
What exactly is the point of trying to cause this sort of chaos while their supposed allies — the people who will be blamed by the public — are there? Anonymous could have launched this attack before or after Occupy Wall Street. But then there would be less possibility of people getting hurt.
Anonymous is Legion, perhaps not in the literal sense, but in a cosmic sense. These individuals coalesced into one entity which has no physical form and exists only to inflict pain on others. No matter how lofty they claim their goals are, the reality is that everything they do is designed to harm others and they are no longer content with “virtual” harm. They are calling for violence, they are planning terror attacks. They are committed to doing evil in its most basic sense. | <urn:uuid:2b0e27ad-9c7d-4162-b05b-436f3a795ade> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.somd.com/politics/234436-anonymous-problem.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962764 | 819 | 1.507813 | 2 |
There has been much discussion around the feminist blogosphere about the resonance of Slutwalks among women of color. Andrea Plaid recently weighed in on the debate at Alternet. Ileana Jimenez of Feminist Teacher interviewed Gabriela Amancaya, one of the organizers of Mexico’s first Slutwalk in the capitol city, adding more vibrancy to the conversation about Slutwalks across nation and race.
Amancaya weighed in on the question of Slutwalks and women of color:
We have to acknowledge our privilege in all cases, as there is no excuse. When we decided to hold a Marcha de las Putas in Mexico City, it was because we knew that machismo exists all over the world but within different contexts. In Mexico, the rates of gender-based violence are alarming, and while the intersections of race, class and ethnicity are different here than in the U.S., and while we recognize that raising our voices against the silence that has surrounded sexual abuse is still a privilege that not all people in our country have, it is important to break the silence around it wherever possible.
Read the full interview at Gender Across Borders. | <urn:uuid:096c4105-f510-4fdd-9045-ec090320298e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://feministing.com/2011/06/29/slutwalk-in-mexico-city-we-have-many-reasons-to-march/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941933 | 244 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The husband and wife sit beside each other but they may as well have been sitting continents apart. They asked to meet with me after a lecture to discuss their 'issues.' You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. They couldn't even look at each other. This couple who had brought children into this world and spent 13 years building a life together could now hardly tolerate breathing the same air.
“He forgot my birthday. Again. He comes home late and barely has anything to say to me or the kids.”
“She sits on her blackberry whenever we go out. I walk through the door and she acts uninterested. She puts me down in front of the children.”
“Let me ask you something,” I say to both of them. “Do you love each other? Do you want to make this work?”
There is silence. A moment passes. The quiet in the room is heavy and still.
“I do,” she finally replies. “I do want to make this work. But what about him? He needs to change.”
I see his jaw tighten. “I want to be married,” he says. “And I want our children to grow up in a home filled with love. But why am I the only one who must change? What about her?”
Is it possible to move on from this painful scene with a marriage still intact? Are both husband and wife destined to be chained to their hurts forever, unable to live together in peace?
This couple has been living through their own personal Egypt. Suffering and deeply disillusioned, how could the two ever exit this mess as one?
Removing the Chametz
Passover is coming. What is this holiday really all about? Why must we clean our homes out of all leaven, better known as chametz, before the Passover holiday begins?
On the eve before the Seder, we conduct a search by candlelight. We scour every nook and cranny, scout high and low, and rummage through drawers and under beds, making sure that we have rid our homes of any morsels of chametz.
After the search is done, we say a prayer:
“Any type of leaven that may still be in my possession, that I have not seen or removed, or that I do not know about, let it be considered nullified and ownerless, like the dust of the earth.”
The next morning all of the remaining leaven in the house is taken outside and burned, including any leaven found on the search the night before. We throw the chametz into the flames and approach Passover chametz-free.
We need to search through the nooks and crannies of our hearts and be totally honest with ourselves.
The holiday carries incredible spiritual energy. It is not only the physical chametz that we must get rid of and burn. If we want to genuinely experience the freedom that Passover brings, we begin by eradicating the negative traits that have weighed us down. Our ‘spiritual chametz’ are the flaws that have damaged our relationships and hindered us from connecting with others and with God. We are charged with searching through the nooks and crannies of our hearts and being totally honest with ourselves:
Am I self centered?
Am I unforgiving?
Am I sarcastic and negative?
Am I easily angered?
Our bodies are homes to our souls. Passover brings us strength and opportunity to clean out and start fresh.
But there is one trait that prevents us from our ‘spiritual soul cleansing.’
Bread vs. Matzah
Bread, which rises, represents the individual whose arrogance has gotten the better of him. This is the person who thinks he does no wrong. He is constantly higher and superior. He believes that the fault always lies with the other person.
"My wife is a nag, my husband is impossible, my children are difficult, my boss is insane, and my mother in law drives me crazy." Funny how the fault is never found with ‘me.’
In order to exit our own personal Egypt and come to taste the freedom of Passover, we must liberate ourselves from the character flaws that weigh us down. We can do this by taking in the lesson of the matzah.
When we face our faults honestly and recognize our shortcomings, we can begin the process of ‘soul cleansing.’
Flat and unassuming, matzah teaches us to be humble. Humility is the key to purging ourselves of the spiritual chametz that has settled within our hearts. When we are able to face our faults honestly and recognize our shortcomings, we can genuinely begin the process of ‘soul cleansing.’
Getting Rid of the Crumbs
“Listen,” I say to the couple. “You both want to make this work. That’s great. But you both want to make this work by telling the other that they are responsible. Marriage takes hard work and dedication, but it must be your work, your dedication. By simply making lists of all your complaints and throwing the onus of change on your spouse, you will have accomplished nothing. It is arrogant to believe that it is only your spouse who is at fault. We need to speak about how each of you can bring love and peace back into this marriage.”
For the first time that night, husband and wife looked at each other and smiled.
"So where do we begin?” she asked.
“Passover gives us the key,” I replied. “Do you know that before Passover begins, we need to empty out our pockets from all the tiny crumbs that may have settled there?
Tonight, we are going to empty out our pockets. You have been carrying around these small hurts, these crumbs that have settled inside of you. Let’s let go and start anew. Then we'll speak about what it is that each one of you can do to build trust and understanding. But first you must forgive and let go. Isn’t that what love is all about?”
This Passover, let’s give ourselves the gift of freedom. Free yourself of all those negative traits that have weighed you down. Approach the day with the humility to listen to those you have loved but hurt. Search every nook and cranny of your heart and rid yourself of the spiritual chametz that has allowed you to disconnect. Empty your pockets of those annoying crumbs. It is time to leave Egypt and enter the Promised Land. | <urn:uuid:a1acf7d4-d79e-41bc-b964-df4b6ba1d740> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aish.com/sp/pg/87644527.html?s=raw | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966447 | 1,400 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Energy market de-regulation
In Ontario the energy market (natural gas, electricity) was de-regulated a few years ago to introduce competition in the energy marketplace. This has created a lot of problems because the energy resellers use door-to-door salespeople to sell the contracts and many of them seem to be crooks.
The biggest danger from door-to-door salespersons of any kind is that if they knock on enough doors they will find people who are vulnerable to making a hasty decision – old people, mothers with a young child or two, someone who is sick. All these groups are people who might normally be able to see through the lies of an energy market reseller but sometimes fall prey and sign a contract that they either don’t want or don’t understand.
Two summers ago I was relaxing on our back deck when someone knocked on our door. It was quite a loud knock and I originally thought it was one of the neighbours who was making some noise. I ignored the noise and kept enjoying the fact that my new little baby was asleep. Then I heard the knock again – this time even louder. Still I didn’t move – until the third set of knocks and I heard my wife who had been sleeping in the front room with our two week old baby, talking to someone at the door. It was only then that I realized someone had been knocking on our door – immediately I was quite annoyed that someone would keep knocking even though we weren’t answering the door.
Since I knew my wife was in even more of a sleep-deprived zombie state than I was, I quickly went into the house and talked to the person at the door. The man seemed normal enough and had his two kids with him – probably around 10 years old. He asked me if I had received my “discount” on my natural gas bill yet? I said no since I had not heard of any sort of discount. He then asked me to go and get an old gas bill and he would make sure I would get the discount. Now at this point, anybody who has any sort of intelligence would probably start to smell a rat – but given the fact that I was extremely tired and overwhelmed by the new baby – didn’t suspect a thing. While the “suspicious” part of my brain was taking a rare nap, the “greed” brain portion was wide awake and prompted me to listen to the guy and go an find an old gas bill. When I couldn’t find one I returned to the door and asked the guy if I could still get the discount without an old bill. I asked him if he could look up the account number at his office since I thought he worked for my natural gas provider. He said it shouldn’t be a problem and asked me to sign a document he had on a clipboard. On top of the clipboard I noticed quite a few gas bills that he had obtained from my neighbours for their “discount”.
I took a look at the paper (I wasn’t completely brain dead) and noticed right away that it was a contract where if I signed I would be agreeing to a fixed rate natural gas delivery for three years. At that point I knew exactly who and what he was and and that he was trying to rip me off. I told him that this was not a discount but a contract for gas delivery. He said no – it’s for a discount on your gas bill and then showed me a table that indicated that his company’s gas charges had been lower (supposedly) then my provider. I even asked him what company he worked for and he wouldn’t say.
Had he not had his two kids with him, I think I would have been quite tempted to literally throw him off my porch since I was quite annoyed by then. I was angry at him for waking up my sleeping family and trying to rip me off. I was also a bit angry at myself for almost letting him get away with it. I did tell him what I thought of him and his lies and told him to get lost.
I learned that even if you are as sharp as a tack (or like to think you are), it’s important to remember that sometimes your guard is down whether you realize it or not and people like door-to-door salespersons can take advantage of that. It’s also a good idea to keep in mind that older friends and relatives might have more of those moments where they let down their guard so you should talk to them about not signing anything at the door. This can also apply to people who are looking for charitable donations at the door. Many of them are professionals who’s job it is to solicit donations so make sure that you be careful with them too.
See another post on this problem.
Want to learn more about RESPs? Buy The Book:
The RESP Book: The Simple Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans
Everything you need to know about RESPs. | <urn:uuid:aa3463cf-7a0b-4f6e-90cc-e4d2876e1243> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moneysmartsblog.com/energy-sales-scams/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992629 | 1,039 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Bush Ultimatum Demands Iraqi Withdrawal By Noon
Threatens All-Out War if Saddam Hussein Does Not Comply
President Bush and the allies yesterday gave Iraq 24 hours to begin a pullout from Kuwait or face a final all-out attack. The Iraqis denounced the "shameful" U.S. ultimatum and aligned themselves instead with a Soviet peace plan.
But Iraq did not clearly reject the possibility of a quick withdrawal.
The Gulf War stood at a cross-roads between a U.S. demand for an immediate, unconditional Iraqi pull-out within eight days, and a Soviet-Iraqi proposal for a three-week pullout, a plan that might relieve Iraq of responsibility for war reparations.
The Iraqis appealed for United Nations intervention to determine war damages in both Kuwait and Iraq.
The U.S.-led coalition's preparations for a major assault on Kuwait went on, in fiery showers of napalm and fuel-air bombs dropped on the Iraqi defense lines in Kuwait.
The Iraqis wielded the fire weapon, too, setting more than 140 oil wells ablaze in Kuwait, U.S. military officials said. Blankets of black smoke spread through the desert skies.
One Marine was killed and five others were wounded yesterday in an artillery duel across the border, the U.S. command reported. Twenty Americans have been killed in action in Operation Desert Storm, 30 are listed as missing and nine as prisoners.
About midnight Thursday, Iraq's foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, flew in to Moscow for an urgent session with President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on a Soviet proposal to end Iraq's 64-month-old occupation of Kuwait. The Soviets emerged from the talks to announce they and the Iraqis agreed on a withdrawal plan.
The Soviet-Iraqi terms included the rescinding of U.N. Security Council resolutions that hold Iraq liable for war damages and Iraqi disavowal of its "annexation" of Kuwait, among other Iraqi concessions.
The plan also stipulated that the anti-Iraq economic embargo be lifted when two-thirds of Iraq's forces were pulled out of Kuwait.
After hurried White House consultations late Thursday, the Bush administration said the Moscow plan was unacceptable, and insisted any Iraqi withdrawal come with no strings attached.
The Soviet plan also was vague on a withdrawal timetable, and U.S. officials had made clear they wanted a limited time frame.
Late yesterday morning, Bush stepped before reporters in the White House Rose Garden to announce a deadline of noon today EST for the beginning of an "immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait."
White House spokesperson Marlin Fitzwater later said the withdrawal must be completed within seven days, and Iraq muct comply with all U.N. provisions.
"The world must make sure that Iraq has, in fact, renounced its claim to Kuwait and accepted all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions," he said.
Among other stipulations for withdrawal listed by the Bush spokesperson: Iraq forces must be removed from Kuwait City and prisoners of war released within the pullout's first two days; Iraq must remove booby traps and mines from Kuwait; it must cease destructive actions against Kuwaiti citizens and property, and release Kuwaiti prisoners.
At noon yesterday, U.S. officials in Washington summoned an Iraqi diplomat and turned over the peace terms, saying Saddam must agree to them before a cease-fire could be called. | <urn:uuid:d908453b-056f-4f52-b8a7-7217a2555bc2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1991/2/23/bush-ultimatum-demands-iraqi-withdrawal-by/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952291 | 704 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Land artists take naturally occurring materials in the wild and rearrange them into works of art. That's what Richard Shilling does, using no glue, string, or any other materials. You can see some prime examples of his ingenuity at the link. Shilling makes excellent use of translucent leaves, flexible stems, and stones to make effective sculptures. The wind often sweeps away his works within minutes of completion, but that's okay with Shilling because it is an affirmation of the transient nature of life.
Link | Artist's Website | <urn:uuid:274d4c75-b72e-4794-afe0-eb551f83a600> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.neatorama.com/2012/01/02/the-land-art-of-richard-shilling/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953237 | 106 | 1.609375 | 2 |
8 April 2010 | EN | 中文
Alex Dehgan has been appointed USAID's science and technology advisor to step up US science diplomacy
The US government's international development agency is stepping up its focus on science and technology with a key appointment intended to enhance the agency's programmes in the Middle East and bolster the Obama administration's push for science diplomacy.
Alex Dehgan was appointed USAID's science and technology advisor last month (11 March). The agency described him in a statement as "the focal point for implementing the Administrator's vision to restore science and technology to its rightful place within USAID".
An agency spokeswoman said that Dehgan will work closely with USAID's senior counselor and director of innovation, Maura O'Neill, and will help shape development strategies, as well as create "novel science-based initiatives".
Dehgan's appointment is widely seen as strengthening the administration's commitment to science diplomacy — the use of scientific programmes, such as efforts to forge international cooperation among scientists and engineers, to achieve broader political objectives.
Dehgan, a conservation biologist and an attorney in international law, has worked for the US State Department in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East. He also has experience working on large-scale conservation projects in the non-governmental sector.
The appointment is "very encouraging", said Caroline Wagner, author of The New Invisible College: Science for Development. "Dehgan has a long background in science diplomacy, he is a bench-trained scientist, and he is young — he has energy and drive."
She said that this appointment adds to a growing list of high-level experts currently promoting US science diplomacy. "There is a lot of interest and experience that's being brought to this issue."
Al Teich, director of science and policy programmes at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), said that the appointment of Dehgan — who has worked as an AAAS fellow, helping to set up an electronic library of scientific journals in Iraq — shows that science diplomacy is "an idea whose time has come".
In addition to furthering the administration's commitment to develop science and technology assistance to Islamic countries, Dehgan's background in conservation is seen as strengthening a relatively new USAID's focus on environmental sciences.
Although Dehgan is taking a newly-created position at the aid agency, the USAID spokeswoman said that USAID is simply reviving a dormant area of interest: "USAID previously had a robust science and technology bureau and science advisor from the late 1970s through the early 1990s".
USAID's focus on science and technology, as well as on the Muslim world, is likely to get a boost from the federal budget for 2011. The Obama administration is asking Congress for a US $45 million increase in USAID funding over 2010, with most of the money to go to resources that "meet U.S. foreign policy objectives and support Presidential initiatives".
Soodursun Jugessur ( Mauritius Research Council | Mauritius )
13 April 2010
Naiyyum Choudhury ( Bangladesh Academy of Sciences | Bangladesh )
15 April 2010
erich ( United States of America )
23 July 2010
All SciDev.Net material is free to reproduce providing that the source and author are appropriately credited. For further details see Creative Commons. | <urn:uuid:f1c0810f-d8b8-4c2b-a5b7-c099b54b114e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/finance/news/usaid-appointment-boosts-science-diplomacy-focus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951979 | 688 | 1.804688 | 2 |
"Teavangelical" is word you're going to be hearing for a while this year. It's a label that was made up to describe something that was well under way even before the "tea party" packaging was invented.
The tea party packaging was invented by conservative leaders outside of official government. (It wasn't a grass roots phenomenon, as teabaggers would have you believe.) The purpose was to keep ultra-right types fired up and in the Republican fold. The confidence of many Republican conservative voters in the GOP's ability to govern America had collapsed in the wake of chronic disasters fostered by the Bush government, Republican Congress, and the conservatives on the Supreme Court.
The new "teavangelical" label refers to a fact: that the tea party has always been shot through with a strong right wing evangelical leadership presence. The Christian Right is interested in occupying every facet of the American right. So even before the tea party began, their representatives were on it, burrowing in.
That's why I heard local evangelical radio broadcasters here in Minnesota encouraging listeners to get aboard free buses for the tea party rally in Washington, years ago. That's why Michele Bachmann was positioned early on as a leader of the tea party movement.
If you listen to the tea party faithful, they'll deny that professional politicians like Bachmann "lead" the movement (Bachmann herself has denied that she's a leader; she was very careful to describe the Tea Party Caucus that she founded in the US Congress as a mere "listening post.")
Part of the movement's appeal to ultra-right types was that it excoriated business-as-usual Republican leadership--but business-as-usual Republican leaders were and are all over it. Some of the most prominent people associated with the tea party were members of the corrupt and ineffectual Republican Congress that the tea party faithful claimed to reject. (Since that's the case: what are we to make of the intelligence of the tea party faithful?)
And ostensibly the tea party was and is a non-sectarian political movement. An NYT review of a book written about the tea party didn't even mention the Christian Right as guiding factor in the movement. (After reading the review, I decided that I didn't need to read the book. I figured if the author didn't stress the role of the Christian Right in driving and sustaining the tea party, the book probably didn't didn't portray the movement accurately.)
What should have tipped the media off, to pervasive influence of the Christian Right in the tea party? Well...there's the fact of Bachmann's early and consistent presence as a tea party leader. A career-long protege of the national Christian right and slavering fan of the discredited Bush administration--*she* was selected to deliver the tea party response to President Obama's State of the Union Address. Bachmann's early and high profile influence in the tea party should have tipped off political journalists to the interest and power that the Christian right had in the movement. But it didn't.
And American political media seemed genuinely surprised when Glenn Beck's speech to ultra right fans in Washington, D.C. contained so many references to God. And Beck's meeting with right wing Christian leaders prior to his speech seemed to take mainstream political media by surprise, too. ("Why is Beck looking to them to green-light his efforts? Is this tea party thing really a conservative Christian thing, when you get right down to it?")
They were puzzled, but they continued to present the tea party and the Christian right to the public "as if" they were in different boxes.
Studies show that conservative Christians comprise at least half, if not more, of the Tea Party. So why have they signed up?
"I really think a lot of the motivation behind these Tea Party crowds is a spiritual component," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., told CBN News. "I think it's very akin to the Great Awakening before the American Revolution."
"People are seeing this massive government growing and they're realizing that it's the government that's hurting us," he said. "And I think they're turning back to, God in effect is our salvation and government is not our salvation."
The passage I just quoted is from an article that appeared on Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network website, four days ago.
It acknowledges a reality that was always there but rarely discussed by mainstream media, political observers and tea party members themselves: the huge presence of devout theocrats in the movement.
A lot of the true believers in the movement were probably surprised when they found out that the (ostensibly secular and independent) tea party movement was being co-opted by theocrats promoting right wing Christianity. That wasn't the way that mainstream and right wing media described the goals of the tea party to them when they joined. The tea party was courting disillusioned Republican libertarian elements. (There were reports of gatherings were Ayn Rand fans found themselves sitting next to right-wing evangelicals.)
It wasn't in the interest of conservative strategists promoting the tea party to tell prospective supporters and television audiences that the Christian right would play a pervasive or even predominant role in the movement's agenda. So they weren't told, and the media didn't point out what Robertson's network just told you, up there in that quote.
But now they can tell you; now they can come out of the closet and tell you the theocratic angle of the movement. I think that the reason they feel safe in disclosing this is: the tea party met with disaster in the GOP presidential nomination contest. Despite their best efforts to put a tea party sympathizer at the top of the ticket, establishment "liberal Republican" Mitt Romney won.
So now the charade (that the tea party is an inclusive and primarily non-sectarian body) is less useful.
They'll continue to welcome wing nut conservatives with fantasies of returning American to imagined nineteeth-century past, regardless of their faith beliefs. (Since the 1970s, the leaders of the Christian right have emphasized the necessity of forming "coalitions" with conservatives who don't necessarily share their faith beliefs.)
But the public embrace of the term "teavangelical" (this month) signals that the Christian right believes the pretense of a non-sectarian agenda is no longer necessary. I guess it isn't, once you acknowledge the sectarian bent of more than fifty per cent of the movement's members. With those kind of numbers and very sophisticated national and local political networks--the Christian right can comfortably dominate the tea party. (That counts for a lot in local elections around the country; in districts and elections where a conservative presence is strong.)
So, we are urged to welcome the label "teavangelical" and the openly theocratic tea party:
"Well, I absolutely am [a Teavangelical] because I believe that we are taxed enough already," Tea Party Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told CBN News.
"Government shouldn't spend more money than what it takes in," she said. "We should follow the Constitution. And I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, so I think that makes me a Teavangelical."
You know: Bachmann's opponents in the Sixth District can make use of her words, there--if they dare to. | <urn:uuid:a61ddea1-f0aa-4af5-809a-e56e66052dc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecontributor.com/michele-bachmann-teavangelical-new-packinging-isnt-really-new | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972808 | 1,515 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Sometimes, I’m fascinated with young-Earth creationist (YEC) positions on certain topics. It kinda falls under the category of “Why are you wasting energy worrying about THIS?” Like with Conservapedia taking the time to complain that black holes are liberal pseudoscience.
The issue du jour has to do with extraterrestrial life. For some reason, YECs just can’t even entertain the idea that there may be other life off this planet that did not originate here.
I think that the root of this is in a literal interpretation (yes, interpretation) of the Bible. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, but stick with me a moment longer. YECs and other biblical literalists like to say that everything in the Bible is 100% True exactly as it was written by their deity. In the Bible, it apparently says that Jesus died for all our sins and they were all the sins of mankind. Well obviously that means that Jesus did not die for aliens’ sins and therefore aliens don’t exist.
Other Bible readers have no problem with ET life, though. They say things like the Bible was written for us and just left out all the stuff about aliens. That believing life isn’t out there is limiting their god because why couldn’t it have created life out there, too?
YECs counter that the Heavens Declare the Glory of God (I think that’s a psalm or something) and that Jesus would have had to go to every planet with intelligent life and died for the sins of that species and the Bible doesn’t say anything about that. Since the Bible is a complete record of all that stuff, then since it’s not in there, it didn’t happen (I swear folks, I’m not making this up). I guess that means that cars aren’t real but wizards are.
As evidence for my hypothesis, I offer a full CMI article on the subject or several quotes:
“The Vatican astronomer’s comments about the possible existence of extraterrestrial life are the inevitable outcomes of allowing man’s word preeminence over God’s Word, instead of using the Bible as our starting point with which to interpret the universe.” from AiG.
Or “As we’ve written before, the Bible does not teach that God did not create life beyond earth; it is silent on that possibility. Yet, reading Scripture holistically, the implication is that earth (and especially humanity) is at the center of the cosmic stage. That view, combined with the lack of evidence for either evolution or extraterrestrial life, leaves us quite doubtful about ET—truly skeptical, unlike many modern scientists who have put their faith in evolution.” from AiG.
“Creation scientists maintain that we will never receive messages or entertain intergalactic visitors from deep space simply because there are no such civilizations out there. “As far as the Scriptures are concerned, they teach unequivocally that the earth is uniquely the abode of man [Psalm 115:16 and Acts 17:20]… It seems grotesque and blasphemous to suggest that the tragedy of Calvary’s cross should be repeated on millions of other planets, for the benefit of other unknown and hypothetical members of God’s creation.”5 Theoretical speculations and imaginative evolution-based predictions aside, all research beyond Earth has shown that when it comes to organic life — we’re it.” from ICR.
Even though I don’t think it’s relevant, I figured I should insert my own opinion on the issue. After all, it’s only fair considering that I’m analyzing someone else’s. I’m an ET life agnostic. I personally think that the hypothesis that ET life exists is not science because it is not falsifiable – we can never prove it doesn’t exist because you can always say, “Well, we just can’t detect it yet.”
Does that mean I don’t think it’s out there? I think it’s possible. I think that the study of extremophiles – lifeforms that exist in seemingly toxic environments like extremely acidic or temperatures above boiling or below freezing – is really interesting. I think the recent studies that have found amino acids on asteroids is really neat.
I also do think that if life arose here, it’s quite likely to have arisen elsewhere. But that’s really as far as I’m willing to go on the issue.
The Topic At-Hand
The reason for this blog post is a Creation Ministries International (CMI) article on the subject that came out December 15 entitled, “Has the Kepler spacecraft found an ‘alien world’?” This was followed up today by the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) article “Another ‘Goldilocks’ Planet Stirs ET Hopes” I’m going to focus more on the CMI article because Peter already talked about the ICR one.
First, I’m actually a bit surprised it took over a week since the press release for CMI and then ICR to come out with their take on the discovery of Kepler-22b, the first Earth-sized (ish) planet that orbits within the habitable zone around its parent star (the distance needed for the temperature range such that H2) can be in a liquid state). It’s a neat discovery and of course all the news stories – perhaps rightly – played up the astrobiology/ET possibilities.
After all, for life to exist as we understand it, we basically need two things — first, a liquid to act as a solvent and medium for metabolic reactions, and second, an energy gradient that metabolic reactions can take advantage of. This may sound different from how you learned it in school (I know it’s different from how I learned it) where you were probably taught that life needed some protection, water, and sunlight. Well, the first isn’t really true (bacteria survived for years on the moon being exposed to the vacuum and radiation of space), the second one doesn’t need to be water but we still think it’s the most likely, and the third one really just means energy where we use sunlight but you could take advantage of favorable chemistry, too, or geothermal heat.
Anyway, my point was that the media spin was somewhat hyped, but I don’t blame them. NASA is a public governmental agency that requires the good will of Congress to remain funded and so whenever it can play up stories that are of interest to the public, it will. And a story like that is so much more interesting than Britney Spears being the first person to get a million friends on Google+ that just came out today.
The third paragraph, though, of the CMI article states: “NASA’s Origins program is dedicated to looking for habitable planets that might harbor life. Their endeavours spawned a new field of research called ‘astrobiology’, which is to specifically search for the evolution of life wherever it might occur in the universe.”
This is wrong. According to NASA, the Origins program began in the 1990s. According to the online etymology dictionary, “astrobiology” was formed in the English language in 1903, well before NASA was founded over half a century later (1958).
The next paragraph of the CMI article is a not subtle hint that life on Earth is complex and CMI thinks that NASA should be studying that to show that only God coulddadoneit.
Then we get to the crux of the issue: Evolution. Apparently, the entire endeavor of astrobiology is to prove evolution is true because as we all know, abiogenesis or even a non-abiogenetic origin of life has anything to do with evolution. (For those of you who could not tell my tone in the written word, that was sarcasm. Origin of life study has NOTHING to do with evolution.)
The sixth paragraph of the CMI article deals with money. The Kepler observatory, which is what made the discovery of this planet, cost $600 million to build and launch. Gosh. That’s a lot of money. For that money, we could fund people to do research on the ground. Ahem … I couldn’t find any solid numbers, but as an example of some that were repeated when I searched (source), the city of Boston Catholic Archdioces alone has around $600 million in assets. That’s just the Catholic church. In one city in the US. Or we have, “The Catholic church, once all her assets have been put together, is the most formidable stockbroker in the world,” according to a church official. Or “The Vatican’s treasure of solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazine to amount to several billion dollars.”
Finally: “The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars.”
In contrast, NASA’s annual budget for FY2011 is $18.724 billion. The science division gets $5.006 billion of that (source). I think if a religious organization wants to study life, it has more means to do so than NASA. So stop complaining.
Do Extrasolar Planets (Exoplanets) Exist
But following the reasoning they use with comets, I guess I’m not surprised that they question the existence of exoplanets. CMI states, “Firstly, we have never witnessed or directly observed (i.e. with our eyes through a telescope) a planet outside of our own solar system. They are presumed to exist through indirect methods of observation.”
Again … wrong. Spend 2 seconds on Google and you come up with headlines like, “Astronomers Capture First Exoplanet Images,” or “First True Exoplanet Images” … you know, vague and hard to understand headlines. From 2008 (this is why I felt it important to point out that CMI’s article was posted on December 15, 2011).
The rest of the CMI article is basically reverting to the standard, “Science has made mistakes before therefore what we say God did he did.” Yes, I may be sounding irreverent, but they’re irreverent towards me (or my field, anyway).
They also have a whole section on, “Should Christians be concerned by this?” Again, I’ll go back to my beginning statement that this is just one of those cases where I can’t figure out why YECs feel the huge need to fight and argue against it. If the Bible contains everything about the universe, then why doesn’t it talk about computers? But it does imply it’s okay to offer up your daughters to an angry mob. Sigh. But Biblical weirdness isn’t quite the subject of this post.
The article as I’m viewing it now has two comments posted. One of them is from Jack of Australia who basically asks about the Fermi Paradox: If aliens exist, then we should’ve found them by now? The author of the CMI article responded and gushed at Jack answering with normal complaints against science.
Paul in the UK is the other commenter who just takes the article a bit further emphasizing that us evil scientists will believe anything so long as God is not a part of it.
I’ve actually submitted a comment because I find the factual mistakes somewhat annoying. and I’m curious to see what they’ll do. I’m hypothesizing that they will ignore it, especially because I’m putting in my full name. In the event they don’t, then I will post about it.
Edited to Add: And here’s the follow-up. | <urn:uuid:2f25bd1c-6cc5-4f42-b079-99d75df76430> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pseudoastro.wordpress.com/category/exoplanets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954092 | 2,602 | 1.710938 | 2 |
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exercise has played a significant role in helping me to combat the effects of fatigue. I therefore decided to write a short article in the hope that someone else may be able to gain some inspiration from my experience
Exercise helped me to cope with chemotherapy
I joined the gym in August 2009. I had previously been a member of gyms but found it very hard to stay focussed and motivated, and would find myself dropping out after a year. I wasn’t sure that this time round would be any different. I work full-time as a nurse, so started by going 3 times a week before or after a shift. Workouts would normally be 45 minutes before I would get bored and head for the door.
Two years on, I have run a half marathon, I’ve got bundles more confidence, and have met some great people through taking part in exercise classes, and using the gym. It’s no longer a chore to get up and exercise, it’s a part of my life.
In August last year I discovered a lump under my arm and 3 weeks later, just after my 30th birthday, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (cancer of the lymph glands). Hodgkins is most common in persons of 20-34yrs of age, and older people, and like myself, most people don’t have any risk factors.
In the weeks that followed I had various hospital tests before starting a six month course of chemotherapy, during which I would not be able to work due to the risk of picking up virus/infections. The Clinical Nurse Specialist Nurse talked me through all the side effects of the treatment which included fatigue and nausea/vomiting. One of the burning questions I had was whether I could continue to exercise. I was relieved to have a positive response from my Haematology consultant, stating that people who exercise tend to experience less side effects of chemotherapy, although fatigue may impair my ability to carry out strenuous exercise.
From this point onwards, I threw myself into exercise in the lead up to chemotherapy. Having been a regular gym user, I had got to know the manager of the gym (Sam) fairly well, and I felt able to confide in Sam about my diagnosis. I felt sure that there would be many ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ once treatment started and I was concerned that like family and friends, Sam may offer ‘take it easy’ warnings, when what I really wanted to hear was encouraging words that would give me some hope of being able to keep some normality in my life.
On the 16th September I had my first chemotherapy session. My treatments were once every two weeks, so I filled my time with socialising with family and friends, and exercise. I gave up circuits and spinning classes once chemo had started, as feared that it would be too hard. I felt very much like I had lost my way at times, but continued to feel fairly well during and after chemo sessions and exercise was my coping mechanism so was as determined as ever to keep it up.
In October, I was asked if I was interested in taking part in a Spinathon at my local leisure centre. Although it was only for a half hour period, my initial thought was that it would be too intense and I would struggle. I was reassured that I could have little or no resistance on the bike if I wanted. And so I signed up. I surprised my self that morning, I was able to maintain a good pace with resistance, and felt able to give Spin classes another go. From then onwards, I did 5-6 exercise classes a week, including spin classes, fitball (core stability classes) and fitness pilates. I informed instructors of my diagnosis for health and safety reasons, and the help and support I received from every one of them has been amazing. There were always days where fatigue kicks in and some exercises were a struggle. I learnt not to have such high expectations of myself, instead, tried to remain positive and realistic about what I was able to achieve. There were always bad days, but I think it’s important to not give up on something you enjoy.
I have now finished chemotherapy, and have signed up for a 10k run in May (2012) for cancer research. I am very lucky to have amazing support from family and friends, and am also very thankful to the fitness team at my local leisure centre, they may never know just how much they have helped me over the last few months. Exercise will always be a part of my life and I hope that later this year I will be able to run a half marathon.
The message I want to share with anyone else who enjoys exercise and has received a diagnosis of cancer, is that anything is possible if you put your mind to it, and seek the right help and advice from experts. I feel exercise played an important role in helping me to fight off colds/virus’, prevent weight gain, and has helped to lift my mood on days when my illness dragged me down. I have therefore researched the effects of exercise when undergoing chemotherapy and written a short article, and hope that someone else may benefit from reading this.
An exploration into the benefits
of exercise in during chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment used to treat many different types of cancer through the use of medicines that destroy cancerous cells. Drugs can also damage healthy cells within the body, and although these cells repair themselves after a period of time, this can result in several side effects such as: Fatigue, nausea and vomiting, anaemia, and a lowered resistance to infections.
Previous research suggests that the most common side effect of chemotherapy is fatigue, a general feeling of tiredness or lack of energy which can cause both physical and emotional exhaustion and the intensity of exhaustion may be dependant on the stage of cancer and illness progression (Watson et al 2004, Velthuis et al 2010). Fatigue is experienced by 70% of people undergoing chemotherapy treatment and can last for several months or years following treatment. In some cases, fatigue can cause difficulties in normal daily activities such as walking, and climbing the stairs. In the past cancer patients were frequently advised bed rest and avoid physical exercise, due to causing increased heart rate and breathlessness. However, this was found to cause muscle wastage and reduced cardio-respiratory fitness (Dimeo et al 2001).
Recent studies suggest that physical exercise during chemotherapy treatment can improve quality of life, and persons with cancer are now encouraged to remain active during treatment although guidance regarding exercise is rarely given. Safety is essential, and persons should begin at low intensity, and progress slowly depending on capabilities (Blaney et al 2010). Some of the benefits of exercise include: a reduction in stress/anxiety and a reduction in fatigue and weight gain. There is also research to suggest that exercise can lessen the risk of some cancers returning, however more evidence is needed (Macmillan Cancer Support 2010). The better an individuals fitness prior to illness, the quicker a person can recover from treatment (BreastCancer.org) and prevent further health problems.
A study conducted by Blaney et al (2010) explores the barriers thought to prevent persons from making exercise part of their daily routine. One of the barriers identified was the lack of guidance and support given by health professionals, and a lack of hospital and community based exercise programmes for patients experiencing fatigue. Exercise programmes could provide an opportunity for cancer patients to meet other cancer patients, and support one another.
Watson et al (2004) reports on a study carried out to investigate the affect of cancer-related fatigue on breast cancer patients in an outpatient department. The participants were split into 2 groups: control group and experimental group. The control group received no instruction regarding exercise, whereas the experimental group were given a low-moderate intensity programme which involved a 12 minute walking test. The study found that subjects in the experimental group experienced less symptoms of fatigue compared to the control group.
Exercise interventions can include resistance training, and aerobic exercise. Resistance training such as leg presses, abdominal crunches, lunges, and chest press is associated with an increased upper and lower body strength by 25-35%, and lean body mass. Aerobic exercise such as cycling and running/walking on a treadmill, have been found to improve anxiety, fatigue and quality of life. However, some patients may experience adverse events from aerobic exercise such as dizziness, weakness or nausea, although most people recover quickly from this (Courneya, KS 2007). Chemotherapy can affect the bone marrow which produces red blood cells, therefore reducing oxygen delivery to cells within the body causing these adverse effects. Therefore, general advice would be not to exercise if feeling unwell, and to stop if you experience dizziness, chest pain or shortness of breath (Macmillan Cancer Support 2010).
To determine your level of fitness and well-being prior to commencing exercise, advice can be sought from a trained professional who can tailor a fitness programme to meet individual needs, such as a Doctor, and fitness instructor/personal trainer. This is important due to the unpredictability of fatigue. It is important to participate in exercises that are not to strenuous, as this could be dangerous to a persons health (Lance Armstrong Foundation:www.livestrong.com/article). The main goal should be to stay as active as possible. Any amount of exercise is thought to be better than none. Swimming and cycling is considered as low intensity exercise, however, there are limitations to certain types of exercises, such as swimming, due to skin sensitivity, and compromised immune system which can cause an increased risk of picking up infections. Co-morbidities should also be taken into consideration before undertaking exercise, such as cardiovascular and cardio-respiratory illness which may contradict participation in exercise, and therefore high intensity exercise should be supervised in a practice setting (Waart, H et al 2010).
Blaney, J; Lowe-strong, A; Rankin, J; Campbell, A; Allen, J & Gracey, J (2010) The Cancer Rehabilitation Journey: Barriers to and Facilitators of Exercise Among Patients With Cancer Related Fatigue. Physical Therapy Vol 90 Number 8 1135-1146.
Breast Cancer Website: www.BreastCancer.org
Courneya, K; Segal, R; Mackey, J; Gelmon, K; Reid, R (2007) Effects of Aerobic and Resistance Exercise in Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Adjuvant Chemotherapy: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Clinical Oncology vol. 25 no. 28 4396-4404
Dimeo, F; Fetscher, S; Lange, W; Mertelsmann, R and Keul, J (1997) Effects of Aerobic Exercise on the Physical Performance and Incidence of Treatment-Related Complications After High-Dose Chemotherapy. Blood journal vol. 90 no. 9 3390-3394.
Lance Armstrong Foundation:www.livestrong.com/article
Macmillan Cancer Support: www.macmillan.org.uk
Velthius, MJ (2010) Physical Activity during Cancer Treatment (PACT) Study: design of a randomised clinical trial. BMC Cancer 10:272
Waart, H; Stuiver, M; Harten, W; Sonke, G and Aaronson, N (2010) Design of the Physical exercise during Adjuvant Chemotherapy Effectiveness Study (PACES):A randomized controlled trial to evaluate effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of physical exercise in improving physical fitness and reducing fatigue. BMC Cancer Vol 10; 673.
Watson, T and Mock, V (2004) Exercise as an intervention for Cancer-Related Fatigue. Physical Therapy Vol 84: 736-743
I would like to gratefully acknowledge Sam Holmes (Gym Manager) for the support and advice given during and after chemotherapy treatment. And Rodney Ballantyne, for his words of encouragement during my treatment, and for his help in writing this article.
If you have any questions about our organisation our Macmillan team would love to hear from you
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or YouTube.
© Macmillan Cancer Support 2010
what are these? | <urn:uuid:073bda09-6a86-4f9b-a9cf-c54cf6ba0609> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://community.macmillan.org.uk/blogs/b/exercise_and_chemotherapy/default.aspx?PostSortBy=MostComments&PageIndex=1&PostSortOrder=Descending | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967669 | 2,546 | 1.632813 | 2 |
As phones and wireless device become faster and more powerful, so increases the demand for networks and infrastructure to support them. The main telecom companies are expanding as best they can, but small privately-backed network companies like LightSquared have found opportunities to grab large amounts of the wireless network market.
Networks up to this point have been consolidated among the main providers, with seemingly insurmountable barriers to entry for new, less established companies. However, with the new 4G networks, infrastructure building is still on-going, leaving the market full of opportunity and potential.
LightSquared is taking advantage of 4G by offering a new choice for super-fast wireless internet--in select areas now, and with 95% coverage by 2015. With $7 billion in start-up cash from Harbinger Capital Partners, and Nokia Siemens to build the network, it looks realistic that they could do it.
Though such a large bankroll is uncommon with most of the ambitious new network providers, it’s LightSquared’s business model that really sets them apart. For starters, they won’t be offering 4G service to consumers.
Instead, LightSquared will be providing bandwidth to companies to offer 4G services to consumers. This allows them to reach a lot more people at once, leading to faster expansion. Offerings from LightSquared include white-label network branding--“Wal-Mart 4G wireless internet”--extra bandwidth to smaller telecoms like T-Mobile, and alternative internet sources for companies with wireless products such as the Nook from Barnes & Noble.
While this business model will not directly compete with the main network providers, it will still shake up the American wireless business structure. But LightSquared seesthis as a good thing, fostering more innovation and progress. | <urn:uuid:d970bab8-3cc5-42fa-aa0b-81ba72d7b2d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accuconference.com/blog/New-4G-Networks-But-Not-For-Consumers.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944391 | 371 | 1.5 | 2 |
by MIA FREEDMAN
What’s the difference between a scented candle and an unwanted pregnancy? There isn’t one! They’re both gifts and should be accepted with smiling gratitude.
When Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was asked earlier this year how he’d feel if his daughter was raped and became pregnant, he insisted he wouldn’t want her to have an abortion and would instead encourage her to see the pregnancy as ‘a gift’.
Last week, Richard Mourdock, the Tea Party-backed Republican Senate candidate in Indiana, declared during a debate that he was against abortion even in the event of rape because after much thought he “came to realize that life is that gift from God. And even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”
This word is often used by people opposed to abortion and at first, it seems like a reasonable one. Babies are a gift, aren’t they? Many new parents use that exact word, especially if they’ve struggled with infertility.
But what about the ones who don’t choose – or want – to be pregnant?
A candle and an unwanted pregnancy do have this in common; neither ‘gifts’ were chosen by the recipient. And that’s where the similarities end. Because lives aren’t plunged into poverty and extreme emotional, mental and physical hardship by a candle that smells like figs. Journalist Caitlin Moran masterfully argues against the idea of unwanted pregnancies being ‘gifts’ in a recent column where she says:
“From the shop floor of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood, here’s what that gift can entail: tearing, bleeding, weeping, exhaustion, hallucination, despair, rage, anaemia, stitches, incontinence, unemployment, depression, infection, loneliness. Death. Women still die in childbirth. Not as many as used to – but notably more die while receiving any other “gifts”, such as scented candles, or minibreaks. Additionally, “gift” sounds hopelessly inadequate to describe your children, whom you inhale like oxygen, swoon over like lovers and would die for in a heartbeat. I have never done this over a foot spa, book token or vase.”
This week I watched Mitt Romney’s wife Anne on The View face questions about her husband’s strong anti-abortion views and what they could mean for women if he were elected President. She tried to demur, saying it was ‘a very tender issue’ and segued quickly towards less emotive ground. “What most women are saying to me when I talk to them is ‘help’,” she countered with faux gravity, “because they’re in terrible financial strife.”
At that point, I had a shouting-at-the-TV moment. “Can’t you see the connection between those two things, Anne? Forcing women to have babies they don’t want and can’t afford to look after pushes them into poverty!”
Naive people believe restricting access to abortion will stop women from having them. Even better, make it illegal! More gifts! Smarter people understand women will always find ways to control their fertility, even if it means risking their lives. The idea of forcing a ‘gift’ onto someone who desperately doesn’t want it is baffling. And cruel.
I’ve always wondered how anti-choice crusaders measure their ‘success’. Is it by an increase in the number of children who are abused or neglected? Perhaps it’s by the number of women who abandon their education or employment? The percentage of mothers forced onto welfare? Or maybe ‘success’ comes in the form of more families pushed below the poverty line. Is that what a gift looks like?
Nobody wants the abortion rate to be high. Not pro-lifers. Not pro-choicers. On that much, we agree. I personally believe in the ‘Safe, affordable & rare’ philosophy. But when it comes to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies, consensus evaporates. Poof. Gone.
The idea that prevention is better than cure is a no-brainer and particularly relevant to reproductive health in Australia where our rate of abortion (19.7 per 1000 women) and teen pregnancy (17.3 per 1000 women) is high compared with other Western countries. One strategy to lower those numbers was making emergency contraception (the morning-after pill or ECP) available over the counter without a prescription. Has it worked? Kind of.
A recently published Australian study of over 600 women aged 16 to 35 found that just under half (48%) knew they could get it over the counter and up to 60% of women didn’t understand how it worked.
What if we went one step further? What if all contraception was free? Fact: free contraception would dramatically lower the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions in Australia.
The Contraceptive Choice Project, conducted by researchers at Washington University proved this beyond doubt. In 2007, they enrolled 9,256 women aged14 to 45 and gave them access to free contraception for two years. The results were dramatic. The annual birth rate among teen girls dropped by more than 80 percent and the abortion rate among women of all ages dropped by around 70 percent.
How bizarre then that the groups and people most vehemently opposed to abortion are the same ones who don’t want to make contraception (or sex education) more widely available. “It seems illogical,” explains Australian ethicist Leslie Cannold, “but it makes perfect sense if your real problem is the idea of women having sex outside of marriage for reasons other than childbearing.” Ka-ching. Now I understand the connection. Hello Catholic Church. “While the majority of religious people in Australia are pro-choice,” add Cannold, “nearly all anti-choicers are religious.”
So here’s a thought, why aren’t we considering the idea of free contraception as a way to reduce abortions? Because that would be a true gift to women, to men and to society.
And then there’s this. In a debate this week Republican candidate Richard Mourdock said that “even when life begins with that horrible situation of rape, that is something God intended to happen.” Sigh. | <urn:uuid:224200ce-58f9-4a13-85d1-8f85a8b85a5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mamamia.com.au/health-wellbeing/considering-free-contraception/comment-page-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96232 | 1,371 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter. The biggest success stories of the so-called Web 2.0 era have at least one thing in common: They're not actually selling you anything. These companies aren't interested in digging into your pockets; their attention is focused on Web metrics like page views and unique visitors, which typically translate into advertising revenue.
It has worked for television and radio, so why can't websites that are totally dependent on advertising succeed? They certainly can, but just as there are relatively few radio and television stations, there are relatively few websites that actually turn a profit on their advertising dollars. "The problem is that in order to make big money from ads, you need millions of people going to your site every day," says Rosalind Resnick of Axxess Business Consulting. Even though BlackBerrys and other devices are making it easier, people have only so much time to browse the Internet. Since competition is so fierce, it will be very difficult for any website to get millions of visitors.
Of course, that difficulty won't stop many Web-savvy entrepreneurs from trying. But they should first realize that while Facebook and MySpace get more press than other entrepreneurial opportunities, following in their footsteps is harder than with other types of start-ups. "The Googles and the Facebooks get so much publicity," says Steve King, research affiliate at the Institute for the Future. "But those businesses are really rare. It just gets so much hype." | <urn:uuid:143d16b0-3361-4996-a009-3aae910f6f48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.usnews.com/money/business-economy/small-business/articles/2008/11/13/overrated-small-business-traffic-driven-websites | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976801 | 300 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Luke Chapter 5
Viewing the Standard King James Version (Pure Cambridge). Click to switch to 1611 King James Version of Luke Chapter 5
17 And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
19 And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
36 And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.
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Matthew Henry's Luke Chapter 5 Bible commentary...
The miraculous draught of fishes, Peter, James, and John called. (1-11) A leper cleansed. (12-16) A paralytic cured. (17-26) Levi called, Christ's answer to the Pharisees. (27-39)1-11 When Christ had done preaching, he told Peter to apply to the business of his calling. Time spent on week days in public exercises of religion, need be but little hinderance in time, and may be great furtherance to us in temper of mind, as to our worldly business. With what cheerfulness may we go about the duties of our calling, when we have been with God, and thus have our worldly employments sanctified to us by the word and prayer! Though they had taken nothing, yet Christ told them to let down their nets again. We must not abruptly quit our callings because we have not the success in them we desire. We are likely to speed well, when we follow the guidance of Christ's word. The draught of fishes was by a miracle. We must all, like Peter, own ourselves to be sinful men, therefore Jesus Christ might justly depart from us. But we must beseech him that he would not depart; for woe unto us if the Saviour depart from sinners! Rather let us entreat him to come and dwell in our hearts by faith, that he may transform and cleanse them. These fishermen forsook all, and followed Jesus, when their calling prospered. When riches increase, and we are tempted to set our hearts upon them, then to quit them for Christ is thankworthy.
12-16 This man is said to be full of leprosy; he had that distemper in a high degree, which represents our natural pollution by sin; we are full of that leprosy; from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is no soundness in us. Strong confidence and deep humility are united in the words of this leper. And if any sinner, from a deep sense of vileness, says, I know the Lord can cleanse, but will he look upon such a one as me? will he apply his own precious blood for my cleansing and healing? Yes, he will. Speak not as doubting, but as humbly referring the matter to Christ. And being saved from the guilt and power of our sins, let us spread abroad Christ's fame, and bring others to hear him and to be healed.
17-26 How many are there in our assemblies, where the gospel is preached, who do not sit under the word, but sit by! It is to them as a tale that is told them, not as a message that is sent to them. Observe the duties taught and recommended to us by the history of the paralytic. In applying to Christ, we must be very pressing and urgent; that is an evidence of faith, and is very pleasing to Christ, and prevailing with him. Give us, Lord, the same kind of faith with respect to thy ability and willingness to heal our souls. Give us to desire the pardon of sin more than any earthly blessing, or life itself. Enable us to believe thy power to forgive sins; then will our souls cheerfully arise and go where thou pleasest.
27-39 It was a wonder of Christ's grace, that he would call a publican to be his disciple and follower. It was a wonder of his grace, that the call was made so effectual. It was a wonder of his grace, that he came to call sinners to repentance, and to assure them of pardon. It was a wonder of his grace, that he so patiently bore the contradiction of sinners against himself and his disciples. It was a wonder of his grace, that he fixed the services of his disciples according to their strength and standing. The Lord trains up his people gradually for the trials allotted them; we should copy his example in dealing with the weak in faith, or the tempted believer.
Peter's Luke Chapter 5 comment on 3/21/2013, 1:03am...
If you look at verse 5, you will see Simon say ďat your word I will doĒ. It would be great if we all said that to the LORD.
Claudelle's Luke Chapter 5 comment on 2/03/2013, 5:09pm...
Pull your boat from where you are, and go out now and launch out into the deep.
Raina Light's Luke Chapter 5 comment on 1/16/2013, 3:40pm...
Thanks. I didn't have to read the bible with my family, I could just read it online. Thanks for putting this online!
Jay's Luke Chapter 5 comment on 1/03/2013, 12:22pm...
on verse 18:
1. God on many occasions chooses not give names of those that perform biblical deeds, but he does know who they are and rewards them for it, as he still does today;
2. Godís purpose on every miracle is to give the glory to his son;
3. We as believers are to be involved in the acts of faith as these men;
4. We are to be involved in the persistence of faith as these men;
5. We are to be involved in the results of faith as these men;
6. As this man benefited from these menís faith so will others benefit from our action of faith (includes being verbal in our faith when needed);
7. This falls under having a testimony in order to be a witness.
On following Jesus, the question I believe we must ask ourselves. Are we going to give our lives to Jesus, follow Jesus wherever he leads; trust and obey Jesus in all things he says in the age we live now, as did Mary Magdalene did in her age?
Camille Nemorin's Luke Chapter 5 comment on 12/10/2012, 1:01pm...
Verse 18 talks about men who brought the paralytic down, what are the names of those men?
Sara Addy's Luke Chapter 5 comment on 3/27/2012, 1:05pm...
Even when we doubt God He still wants to provide for us the unconditional love of God is shown in this chapter, the qualities of Christ that we need to display to the lost around us.
Sara Addy's Luke Chapter 5 comment on 3/27/2012, 12:59pm...
v22I love this verse, Jesus knows our very thoughts and yet He is so humble about it, so concerned, so compassionate to still ask and then He gently leaves them the sweet taste of the gospel Oh to be more like Him.
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WASHINGTON — Thwarted by President Bush in their efforts to expand federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, Democrats are now debating whether to overturn federal restrictions through executive order or by legislation when they assume full control of the government this month.
Both President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders have made repealing Bush administration restrictions announced in 2001 a top priority. But they have yet to determine if Mr. Obama should quickly put his stamp on the issue by way of presidential directive, or if Congress should write a permanent policy into statute.
The debate is not academic. Democrats who oppose abortion say such a legislative fight holds the potential to get the year off to a difficult beginning, even though the outcome is certain given solid majorities in both the House and the Senate for expanded embryonic stem cell research.
“It is a very divisive issue, and it is a tough way to start,” said Senator Ben Nelson, a moderate Democrat from Nebraska. “You don’t want to stumble out of the box.”
In addition, many of the Democratic gains in Congress, particularly in the House, have come in more conservative areas, with strategists estimating that up to 70 Democrats could find themselves in competitive races in 2010. Those potentially vulnerable lawmakers provide another consideration for leaders weighing whether to set an early test vote on what for some is a politically sensitive subject back home.
At the same time, officials note that increasing federal spending on stem cell research is widely popular and has been a signature issue for Congressional Democrats in the last two elections, helping them defeat Republicans opposed to the concept. Many lawmakers would like to see it through to its legislative conclusion.
“I myself would favor legislation, so it is the law,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said this week.
In the end, Ms. Pelosi and representatives of the incoming Obama administration say it is likely that Mr. Obama will move quickly to roll back the Bush policy, with Congress following with a comprehensive initiative that addresses a more far-reaching federal provision limiting the scientific work.
That result would be welcomed by Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado and an author of the stem cell measure twice vetoed by Mr. Bush — once in 2006 when Republicans still controlled Congress and again in 2007 after Democrats took over.
Ms. DeGette said her view was that Mr. Obama should act to hasten any new research rather than see a bill get tied up in the early days of the session. Congress can then draft its own, more detailed version providing money for new research and dealing with ethical issues surrounding the stem cell question.
“I think we can do this in a win-win situation,” she said.
Democrats also say they hope to reduce the divisiveness of the debate by framing the stem cell policy as more of a health care issue with the potential to provide new treatments, and less of a fight that spills over into the abortion arena.
But anti-abortion leaders in Congress say that they are determined to resist changes in the stem cell policy and that their opponents will be held accountable at home, even if the political climate in Washington has shifted.
“Pro-life members in both caucuses will fight strongly to preserve sanctity of life ethics,” said Representative Joe Pitts, Republican of Pennsylvania. “If they force it by legislation, those will be the votes the pro-life community will score to educate the voters as to where members stand on these issues.”
Last year, it seemed that the human embryo dispute was about to become moot. Two groups of researchers, followed shortly by a third, independently reported that they could convert human skin cells into embryonic stem cells, bypassing embryos altogether. And immediately, the field of embryonic stem cell research began to explode. Laboratories that had steered clear of the field because of the sheer difficulty of working within the constraints of the ban on federal financing realized they could simply make their own stem cells from skin cells and study them, with no impediments.
But stem cells from human embryos are still very much needed, researchers say. The federal ban has meant that only a small group of researchers has worked with those cells, but if the ban were lifted, it is likely that more laboratories would get involved and science would move forward faster.
“At this point, adult cell reprogramming is still new enough that it is conceivable that there will be a fly in the ointment,” said Sean J. Morrison, director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at the University of Michigan.
In the meantime, those who have the facilities to work with both types of stem cells are doing so.
Stem cells from human embryos, “are the gold standard,” said Dr. George Q. Daley, a stem cell researcher at Children’s Hospital in Boston and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Before they can be replaced by cells derived from skin cells, researchers have to know, at a detailed molecular level, how similar the two types of stem cells are, and how different.
“There are still so many unknowns,” Dr. Daley said. “I am going to continue to have my lab use both at the same time.”
What is certain, Democrats say, is that they will, at minimum, reverse Mr. Bush’s policy and open the way to more federal aid to such research. | <urn:uuid:b62831e4-f1d7-4586-833e-e06d25575759> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://camradvocacy.org/news_detail.cfm?id=010309A | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964927 | 1,108 | 1.835938 | 2 |
I finally managed to read the first proper Witches novel in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, Wyrd Sisters. This was another Shakespearean-inspired one, with heavy Macbeth undertones. Except, of course, it’s a comedy!
Duke Felmet killed a king to gain the throne of Lancre, and now has a few problems. For one thing, he can’t seem to get the blood off his hands. And for another, there are three witches in the neighborhood. Magrat is a well-meaning witch who thought it would be a good idea to form a coven with Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg. They don’t quite understand her interest in talismans and rituals (because it’s really headology that counts), but they join anyway. The dead king’s baby son falls into their hands and they promptly pack him off with adoptive parents in a traveling theatre company. Meanwhile the dead king is still hanging around as a ghost, there’s a Fool remarkably interested in Magrat, and the land doesn’t like its new ruler.
The witches are in fine form here. This is the first with all three of them, but they’re already fully-defined. Granny wasn’t quite there yet in her earlier book, Equal Rites, but she’s excellent here, with a will of iron–or harder. Nanny is garrulous, irreverent and fun-loving, but don’t ever cross her (or invite her to sing). Magrat, well…she tries so hard. She wants to be a proper witch, with all the ceremony and theatrics, and doesn’t quite seem to realize it’s just not meant to be.
It may be the little touches I like best here. The ghost king is thoroughly annoyed by all the other ghosts floating through his castle–it’s so crowded, and some are just blobs who have really let themselves go. There’s a mystic stone out on a hill that’s so bashful it hides if anyone comes by. There are frequent Macbeth quotes, as well as other Shakespeare references; the theatre company puts on a wide variety of identifiable albeit re-named plays.
And Death of course has a cameo, and he’s wonderful. He’s much better at the role than the actor assigned to be Death in the play, and he’s very disturbed when a living character goes mad and decides to become a ghost (because…that’s just not allowed).
There’s a cartoon miniseries, which naturally is going straight into my Netflix queue. Has anyone seen it? Is it any good?
I think this would be a great place for someone to start the Discworld series. It’s independent of earlier ones, introduces major characters, and is brilliantly funny. It begins the Witches plotline, which spans several books that are more interconnected than most of Discworld. It worked out for me, even though I read them in reverse order…but you might be better off going front-to-back!
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Soon after I finished my review of Thomas Dixon’s book on Science and Religion, Denis Alexander published his very odd “white paper” on Adam and Eve on the Biologos web site. After I commented on that, I decided to visit The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, of which Alexander is the Director. There I came upon the Faraday Papers, of which the one by Alister McGrath I am commenting on now. The paper is called “Has Science Killed God?”, but it is really about the nature of faith, and McGrath clearly thinks it is a slam-dunk demolition of Richard Dawkins. Let’s see.
Alister McGrath keeps telling us that he started out as an atheist and ended up believing in God. I think that he believes that this gives him some street cred, but the truth is that his so-called “atheism” was just a little bit of adolescent “acting out”, and shouldn’t be taken with any seriousness. He had scarcely set foot in Oxford when he began confessing his faith quite wantonly. Clearly, the transition from the troubled streets of Northern Ireland to the dreaming spires of Oxford brought about, not so much a change in belief, but a change in location and environment. It must have seemed easier to believe in the midst of Oxford’s hallowed sanctuaries, than in the troubled homeland from which he came. Yet he never fails to remind us that he was once an atheist just like me.
But with me it was very different. I found it very hard not to believe. In fact, for years I wanted not to believe, and played around the edges of non-belief, but I always came back, unfailingly, to something close to belief. I suppose I never did find out what it was like truly to believe, and sometimes I wonder how people know that they do. For the only thing the believer has to go on are the convictions of others. Sometimes those others will speak about experiences that they think help to give their beliefs content, shape and substance, but like all experiences, they are private and inaccessible — which is why I’ve always wondered why people who do research on religious experience trust that the nuns they have chosen to study with fMRI scans are really studying religious experience. What if it’s only some sort of sublimated sexuality that they’re really studying? Would they be able to tell the difference?
My brother believes — and because of that he’s only remotely fraternal — that he is the reincarnated twin brother of Jesus. He really believes this. He also believes, and says quite confidently, that he can speak to those who have died. It’s quotidian experience for him. “I can do that,” he says without apparent embarrassment or reservation, to the point where we have become completely alienated from each other. His world has very different furniture from mine — and perhaps from most.
As Susan Blackmore says, it’s not immediately obvious what’s real, what is a creation of the imagination, and what is “out there”, nailed down and shared with others (see her Dying to Live, chapter 7). And people whose experience is more labile have more difficulty in accepting that the world has the kinds of limits that, for most of us, it does. This especially applies to people who have had experiences, like Near Death Experiences, that seem more real than real. They will be tempted, at least, to draw the boundaries between the real and the imagined differently to the rest of us.
Now, we come to faith. Dawkins, complains McGrath, has a very strange notion of faith. In The Selfish Gene Dawkins says this:
[Faith] means blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of the evidence.
This, however, says McGrath, “is not what Christians think,” (2) and he offers the following (by W.H. Griffith-Thomas) as typical of a long Christian tradition:
[Faith] affects the whole of man’s nature. It commences with the conviction of the mind based on adequate evidence; it continues in the confidence of the heart or emotions based on conviction, and it is crowned in the consent of the will by means of which the conviction and confidence are expressed in conduct.
Well, McGrath may think that this definition shows Dawkins’ understanding of what ‘faith’ means to the religious person to be wrong, but this is precisely the kind of thing that Dawkins has in mind. In The God Delusion Dawkins tells us that
Faith is an evil precisely because it requires no justification and brooks no argument.
Apparently, McGrath would disagree, because Griffiths-Thomas begins with the claim that faith is based, first, on “conviction of the mind based on adequate evidence.” But since Griffiths-Thomas immediately goes on to refer to “confidence of the heart or emotions based on conviction”, and ends with the idea that the whole is crowned by this conviction being expressed in conduct, it is clear that we are moving onto dangerous ground, because at no point, apparently, after having assessed the evidence and responded with such heartfelt conviction and confident action is there any room for reassessment of the grounds for the beliefs in question.
Notice how McGrath himself can say, without apology or restraint:
After being an atheist for some years, I discovered God when I was eighteen[!]
Aside from the humour of that, does this not set alarm bells ringing? At eighteen Alister McGrath discovered God. After that, apparently, no question arose. God was as real as the Broad or the Bodleian. McGrath immediately assures us that he has “never regarded this [discovery of God] as some kind of infantile regression,” but are we really ressured?
The point here is the completely infantile level at which this discussion is being carried out. He discovered God. How does one do this? Recall Griffiths-Thomas’ claim that faith begins “with the conviction of the mind based on adequate evidence.” This is a large claim that McGrath is making. He is saying that, on his arrival in Oxford, he suddenly found evidence adequate enough to say that he had discovered God. Here he is, on the threshold of his post-secondary education, and before it is scarcely begun, he has already come to the conclusion!
No wonder Dawkins was so concerned about faith! McGrath spends most of the rest of his essay on the idea of memes and mind viruses, and we can readily ignore all that, because the real problem starts right at the beginning. McGrath had no sooner arrived in Oxford than he was assailed by a very powerful mind virus. This is evident. He had had no time to assemble the evidence necessary to satisfy Griffiths-Thomas’ first requirement, but it was already established in his mind! And through a scientific education the virus has so successfully colonised his mind that he ends up writing trivial nonsense like this Faraday Paper # 9.
McGrath errs, by the way. He takes memes and viruses as the same thing. Memes are the fragments of information that are passed from mind to mind. Many are not convinced that memetics has an adequate foundation, and they may be right. Though I will use the language of memes because it is convenient, nothing hangs on this use. The point is that memes and viruses are different. Some memes are only tools for helping us come to reasoned conclusions, and if they fail to lead us to rationally acceptable conclusions they are simply discarded. But some memes, according to Dawkins’ very early trial balloon in The Selfish Gene, where he first floated the idea that ideas may be like genes, are very different. While they can be passed from mind to mind, like all memes, they have hooks in them, whereby they attach themselves to the mind whatever the evidence.
For my purposes, the precise details of the theory of memes is unimportant. The important point is that some ideas have a kind of magnetic force which helps them to survive despite the fact that they are multiply challenged and even, one might fairly think, defeated. The memes of religious faith seem to be in that hallowed company. And perhaps, for all that, Griffiths-Thomas put his finger on the reason why. Religious beliefs are based, so the believer thinks, on good evidence, and then they are taken up into a composite in which the heart and the emotions play their part, transforming them from mere hypotheses — that might be overturned on further evidence — to convictions which issue in conduct, which is, of its very nature, confirming.
Too little attention is paid to the last stage of faith. It is said that in training a child soldier, the most important thing to achieve is to get the child to kill. Once that has happened — once the soldier is “blooded”, as they used to say — the indoctrination is almost complete. The same thing holds for religious faith. Belief is only the first stage. The emotions and the heart must also be engaged. It is one thing to sit in a congegation and think that, perhaps, the preacher has it right; it is quite another thing to make the choice to come up front and be counted with those who have answered the call. That is the crucial stage, when all the questions die away, and belief is just a small part of the faith that simply enfolds the faithful like a blanket. So, McGrath is right. Faith is more than just belief in the teeth of the evidence. It is belief which has achieved the status of being its own evidence. And thus it becomes the trust which Dawkins speaks about in his “definition” of faith, which holds fast, though the heavens fall. | <urn:uuid:7cf2721b-a074-40af-8f53-f795635495a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://choiceindying.com/2011/01/19/what-is-faith/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979046 | 2,055 | 1.757813 | 2 |
"Mole Mode" Logo.
Recently on the Freelance Radio podcast I shared a method I use for focusing my creative energies and getting work done efficiently. I call it "Mole Mode."
Other than the name I've given it my method for time management isn't anything unique as far as I'm concerned.
I call it "Mole Mode" because a mole digs deep and buries himself in his work. He's fully immersed in his task of digging through the dirt
Too Much Noise
As an illustrative designer my process is both analog and digital.
But living a digital lifestyle means you have to be able to reduce the noise cascading upon us daily from various technologies and social media services vying for our attention and distracting us from our creative work.
So when I find myself getting overwhelmed and having my attention pulled in different directions I go into "Mole Mode."
What Does "Mole Mode" mean?
- Shut Down Email
- Turn Off Cell Phone
- Unplug Land Line Phone / Fax
- Shut Down Twitter
- Close Facebook etc.
- Put on Noise Canceling Headphones
- Listen to Music or Audio Book
When I'm in "Mole Mode" it optimizes my productivity and allows me to get into that creative zone that facilitates great ideas. This of course is far more essential when I have tight deadlines too.
In writing this post I came across a time management eBook written by Mark McGuinness. The eBook has a lot of very practical advice and you can't beat the price since it's FREE. Download "Time Management for Creative People" by Mark McGuinness here.
So take 2010 by the gonads and give "Mole Mode" a try. | <urn:uuid:b5a4b5f2-dec0-4f0b-998c-acf5ae5ce253> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://artbackwash.blogspot.com/2010/01/mole-mode.html?showComment=1264039214962 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948938 | 355 | 1.601563 | 2 |
New Paradigms Forum
March 1, 2010
by Christopher Ford
In his speech on nuclear disarmament in Prague's Hradcany Square last spring, President Barack Obama announced what he said was "a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years." Expanding upon this theme, the president declared that
"We will set new standards, expand our cooperation with Russia, pursue new partnerships to lock down these sensitive materials. We must also build on our efforts to break up black markets, detect and intercept materials in transit, and use financial tools to disrupt this dangerous trade. Because this threat will be lasting, we should come together to turn efforts such as the Proliferation Security Initiative and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism into durable international institutions. And we should start by having a Global Summit on Nuclear Security that the United States will host within the next year."
Of the various arms control- and disarmament-related initiatives the President advocated in Prague, this particular priority has perhaps been the one that has elicited the broadest support across the U.S. political spectrum. And well it should. Whether or not one believes that nuclear-armed terrorism is the most significant threat faced by the United States – and opinions differ on that score – it seems unquestionably to be a serious one.
Given the possibility that poorly-secured nuclear materials might end up in the hands of emerging proliferator governments, moreover, a secure-the-materials push is also an essential component of global nonproliferation policy. The U.S. Intelligence Community, for instance, has publicly assessed that Iran "probably has imported at least some weapons-usable fissile material," though so far most likely "not … enough for a nuclear weapon." I recognize that such transfers do not necessarily occur solely by accident: we need to worry about deliberate proliferation in addition to theft or loss. Nevertheless, bloody-minded non-state actors do seek such materials, and the world clearly leaves them lying around at its grave peril. We should applaud President Obama's determination to improve global nuclear materials security.
For the most part, the only actual criticism of this policy of which I am aware has been to question the Administration's seriousness – All nuclear material? Everywhere? By April 5, 2013? Really? – rather than its objective of improving nuclear materials security. This basic aim is quite sound, and our president's speedy success in this endeavor is to be encouraged.
Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins – whom I know from years past as a sharp arms control lawyer, fellow Navy Reserve officer, and very pleasant person, and who is now the U.S. Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs – recently gave a speech in London outlining the Administration's plans for securing nuclear materials. Her speech is worth a look, for it probably provides the best window to date upon current U.S. Government thinking.
In a Washington political environment in which it seems almost impossibly hard for the parties to cooperate across the aisle, the Administration's nuclear materials security policy should be seen as something of a bright light. For while present-day officials seem uncomfortable admitting this, the Obama effort represents a continuation of George W. Bush's policy – and indeed that of Bill Clinton before him. This is, quite properly, a genuinely bipartisan issue. Let's take a closer look.
As evidenced by Amb. Jenkins' remarks, the Obama Administration would like people to see the present effort as a logical evolution building upon Clinton-era policies. She stresses that it grows out of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program originally created in 1992. In order to make Obama's spin on CTR seem novel and interesting – change we can believe in! – Jenkins' comments revolve around the need to update this approach from 1990s-era priorities by expanding it "beyond the Former Soviet Union" (FSU) in order to make it a genuinely global initiative and finally to transcend the narrow "geographically-specific threats that served as the basis for the creation of the CTR program in the 1990s."
The Administration's characteristic eagerness to slight Bush Administration contributions to international security, however, shouldn't be permitted to obscure the real bipartisanship of nuclear materials policy, or the degree to which the globalization of CTR has actually been underway for years. The "geographically-specific" FSU-centric focus of U.S. Government nuclear materials control policies, in fact, was transcended years ago.
Indeed, with the exception of the high-publicity "summit" President Obama plans soon to host on the subject, essentially all of the specific policy initiatives flagged by Amb. Jenkins in her recent remarks on the Obama Administration's nuclear materials policy are efforts that began under previous administrations. She is right that the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction – launched by President Bush and his counterparts at the 2002 G-8 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada – was initially limited to cooperation projects in Russia and the Ukraine to address nonproliferation, disarmament, counterterrorism, and nuclear safety issues. To suggest that the U.S. Government did not subsequently broaden its various materials-control and nuclear terrorism-prevention programs to encompass the world beyond the FSU, however, is quite misleading.
President Bush made this change in emphasis quite clear as early as his second State of the Union address in January 2003. There, he proclaimed that the United States was "strongly supporting" efforts (e.g., by the International Atomic Energy Agency) to "track and control nuclear materials around the world," and announced that his Administration was "working with other governments to secure nuclear materials" not merely "in the former Soviet Union" but in fact also "to strengthen global treaties banning the production and shipment of missile technologies and weapons of mass destruction."
(One should not, of course, assume that work to secure nuclear materials in Russia and other countries of the FSU stopped – or that further work was not still needed. By 2003 alone, U.S. efforts to improve the security of materials worldwide had included securing an additional 35 tons of material in Russia, working out a "breakthrough" in giving U.S. officials access to Russian warhead storage sites, and in removing highly enriched uranium from a Romanian reactor. The United States also helped Uzbekistan secure problematic nuclear materials in 2006, for example.)
This Bush Administration's refocusing from the FSU to the rest of the world produced a number of notable initiatives, which President Obama has himself flagged as high priorities – though, ungenerously, without acknowledging that his predecessor was responsible for creating any of them. As we have seen, in his Prague speech, Obama highlighted the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) as critical tools in this regard. Yet these were Bush initiatives designed precisely to address nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) materials threats on a global basis.
PSI was launched by President Bush in 2003 with the aim of building multinational cooperation in the interdiction of WMD-related transfers. Originally with 11 participants, PSI has subsequently mushroomed, and many interdiction exercises have been carried out around the world. Long a truly "global" effort, PSI currently involves some 80 countries, and the number is "steadily increasing."
GICNT – founded precisely in order to go beyond PSI-style interdiction of trafficking to critical issues of "material protection, detection, law enforcement, emergency response, consequence management, attribution and criminal justice" – was founded by President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2006, but quickly grew to include the other G-8 members (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom) and then many additional countries. By June 2008, 73 countries had become GICNT "partner nations," including all five NPT nuclear weapons states, other states that have declared possession or are suspected of possessing nuclear weapons (India, Israel, and Pakistan), all EU members, and most countries possessing advanced civil nuclear energy. GICNT was designed to enhance security of civilian nuclear facilities, improve nuclear materials accounting and control, improve detection and regulation of nuclear materials, improve nuclear-related consequence management in the event of a nuclear-related terrorist attack. There was nothing FSU-centric about this effort whatsoever, of course: the Bush Administration and its diplomatic partners were engaged in efforts that were emphatically "global" right from the start. President Obama's re-endorsement of GICNT – in a joint statement with President Medvedev in 2009 – is welcome, but certainly wasn't a new U.S. position.
In her list of steps the Obama Administration is using to control nuclear materials, Jenkins also offers the Nuclear Trafficking Response Group (NTRG). She describes it as an example of how the U.S. Government is now placing "particular … emphasis" upon combating nuclear smuggling. NTRG, however, was founded in 1995. Jenkins also discusses the importance of nuclear forensics in anti-smuggling operations, and touts the Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative (NSOI) as an example of how "we are placing an emphasis" on fighting nuclear smuggling. A "Prevention of Nuclear Smuggling Group" (PNSG) was established within the NTRG framework under President Bush in 2007, however, and NSOI itself long predates the Obama Administration. (Kyrgyzstan joined NSOI in 2007, for instance.) Jenkins' "we" should thus be read more broadly than one might think from reading her remarks.
What about the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) programs that Jenkins properly lauds as being "now active on five continents"? (Note the "now.") She's right that it is active on a global basis; but a bit less clear in letting her audience know that it's been doing that for years. True enough, there was a time when EXBS focused upon the FSU. It has long since, however, expanded to address changes in the proliferation threat, and to includes states on potential smuggling routes in Eastern and Central Europe, the Balkans, South and Central Asia, the Caucasus, as well as countries with major transshipment hubs in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. By the summer of 2008, in fact, EXBS had helped more than 40 countries improve their ability to prevent and interdict shipments of dangerous items and controlled technologies.
Amb. Jenkins also spends a couple of paragraphs describing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540, which she quite rightly describes as "a critical vehicle for preventing WMD proliferation." Adopted in April 2004, of course, this resolution was a flagship achievement of the Bush Administration. It established, for the first time, binding obligations, under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, to take and enforce effective measures against the proliferation of WMD, their means of delivery, and related materials.
Jenkins is also proud of what has been done against biological weapons threats by means of policies of "engagement" with Libyan and Iraqi scientists. The United States, she avers, has thus made "considerable progress supporting the Obama Administration's National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats." However much such scientist engagement efforts in Libya and Iraq have contributed to Obama Administration priorities, however, they were begun under the Bush Administration. Ironically, in fact, both of the efforts Jenkins mentions stem from Bush's invasion of Iraq, which Obama himself so famously opposed. (No one besides the murderous bureaucrats of the Saddam regime would presumably today be "engaging" with Iraqi biological weapons scientists if that government had not been forcibly deposed. Libya's "engagement" on weapons of mass destruction issues also stems from the eve of the Iraq invasion in March 2003, at which point Muammar Qaddafi apparently decided it was wiser to negotiate over these issues than risk facing Iraq's fate.)
In an omission that seems somewhat curious for someone whose job is as the U.S. "Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs," Amb. Jenkins did not mention the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), a program begun in May 2004 by the Bush Administration to clean out clean out nuclear material from vulnerable sites worldwide. GTRI's three-pronged effort has revolved around (1) converting nuclear reactors using highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel around the world; (2) removing vulnerable material for properly-secured disposal; and (3) securing materials worldwide against loss or theft. (The first GTRI-managed return of an HEU fuel shipment to the United States occurred in August 2004, and work of this sort has continued since – e.g., with the return of a substantial spent fuel shipment to Russia from Hungary in 2008. )
Apparently wishing to be thought to be undertaking something radically new and different, Obama Administration officials leaked to the press in May 2009 the story that they were engaged in unprecedented talks with Pakistan about helping that troubled country secure its nuclear materials. (To her credit, Jenkins did not mention these ostensibly secret and highly sensitive talks in her remarks in February 2010. She, after all, was then speaking on the record.) Surely this, you might think, was an important new departure? Well, yes and no.
It was known that U.S. officials had for years been giving Pakistan assistance with export control issues and methods to detect nuclear smuggling. According to anonymous Administration sources, however, the "new" talks have gone far beyond this to issues related to nuclear weapons themselves, or at least to weapons-related fissile materials. Reading the accounts more closely, however, one notices that the leaked accounts refer to talks designed to give U.S. officials a "greater" role in security over such materials. That's certainly a good idea, and one must wish the negotiators success. But there seems to have existed some U.S. role in such work for some time – even if it took the politics of Obama-era "change" posturing to lead to such matters being leaked to the press. (One wonders whether officials in Pakistan, where this issue not surprisingly has extraordinary political sensitivity, "believe in" that particular Obama change.)
Most observers might have missed it at the time, but in May 2009 Admiral Michael Mullen – the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, our nation's most senior military officer – observed of Pakistani nuclear weapons security that "We, the United States, have invested very significantly over the last three years to work with them to improve that security. And we're satisfied, very satisfied, with that progress." His comments suggest that the inauguration of such work with Pakistan must have occurred early in President Bush's second term. Understanding this makes any Obama efforts to broaden such cooperation no less worthy, of course, but a little perspective – and a little less "spin" – is surely in order.
I point out all of this not to slight Amb. Jenkins remarks, but to encourage readers to look beyond the surface politics of the "new" White House initiative on nuclear materials controls in order to understand the real continuities of U.S. policy. The point should not be about who begat what. Bush built upon Clinton-era foundations, and Obama will hopefully build upon what the Bush team did. That's what serious policymaking should be like when grave security threats loom on the horizon. Accordingly, I applaud the Obama Administration's stated commitment to nuclear materials controls worldwide, and wish them Godspeed in achieving these goals.
Perhaps as we better appreciate how much U.S. policy has not changed – or rather how each set of initiatives has built constructively and logically upon what came before it in a process of development over the last decade and a half – it will be possible for the U.S. policy community to pull together and engage international partners in making real progress on these issues. The Obama Administration seems to wish to hide the bipartisan consensus that underlies nuclear materials control, but it would be better to admit and embrace this as a model for modern Washington.
Better yet, in fact, the Administration should extend such bipartisan cooperation. If one is seriously concerned about nuclear materials falling into the hands of bad actors, after all, "insecure" material is only part of the problem. We face a situation now in which the use of fissile material in nuclear power generation seems likely to grow significantly and nuclear know-how is becoming ever more widespread. The economic downturn may put something of a brake upon the heady talk of a "nuclear power renaissance" one heard a few years ago, but significant expansion seems to be in the cards nonetheless – with "green" reasons compounding "energy security" arguments for growth. At the same time, Iran and its diplomatic apologists have been spreading the legally spurious but apparently politically compelling Gospel of nuclear technology "rights" far and wide – with the result that ever more countries seem to believe that everyone has a legal "right" to technologies that could be used to produce fissile material usable in nuclear weapons.
The amount of nuclear materials in the world, in other words, is likely to expand hugely in the coming years. It is certainly critical that such material be properly secured against loss or theft, but if we are serious about having a long-term nonproliferation policy, we should also focus more upon controlling and channeling the spread of material and technology – even "secure" materials and technology – in the first place. No sane person wants terrorists to have a nuclear weapons "option." We should also think twice, however, before we countenance the spread of such capabilities to more governments.
Securing nuclear materials worldwide and working to ensure that not so darn much of the most sensitive nuclear material and technology spreads around the world in the first place – "secure" or otherwise: how's that for a bipartisan agenda for progress? Sign me up.
Christopher A. Ford was formerly Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Technology and Global Security at Hudson Institute.
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Descartes once said "I drink therefore I fish". It was later in his life and he would have said anything to stay relevant French masses.
For me - I don't drink beer - therefore I don't fish. I don't have the patience to fish nor the inclination/demons to drink. I also don't have to prove my manhood but duping a large-toothy cartilaginous fish into thinking it's going to get a meal and than yanking it out of the water by it's face.
On June 6th and 7th - insecure people will have the opportunity to fish for sharks during the "Are You Man Enough? Shark Challenge" on Fort Myers Beach. Click on the link and you get an idea of the foolishness involved here.
And keep in mind that Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Beach are the main draw for tourists here in Lee County. Promoting shark fishing off our shores can't be good for tourism, but I'm not so naive to think the sharks are not there. They are. In truth the tournament sends boaters up to Boca Grande where sharks are far more prevalent. Up until the protests (by groups like Shark Safe) started last week, there was no rule against killing the sharks. After public outcry, fisherman will be encouraged to catch and release.
Although I don't fish I'm not anti-sport fishing. I just take exception to the testosterone-fueled marketing campaign that demonizes sharks. I will give them credit for listening to the public and elected officials and I understand marketing is about getting attention but I call into question any one's manhood that feels the need to catch the biggest fish to prove themselves a man.
A few things to consider - there have been 7 confirmed shark attacks in Lee County since 1882!
The global threats humans cause sharks and the diminishing populations of most shark species around the world suggest we should be protecting rather than harming sharks.
For more on Shark Conservation go here - http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/sharks.htm
For moron Shark fishing go here - http://www.areyoumanenoughsharkchallenge.com/ | <urn:uuid:6e2ac469-c22e-4ff7-bb9c-1d220804b0f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://junglepete.blogspot.com/2009/05/are-you-man-enough-attack-shark-edition.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969897 | 453 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Posted: 08 May 2012 04:00 AM PDT
It seems that there is a significant amount of confusion when it comes to purchasing a short sale. There are many misconceptions when it comes to this type of transaction, so below I have provided some information to potential buyers of short sales. If you are looking to purchase a short sale, understand that it is not the same as a normal sale and the approach is very different. There could be several parties involved and issues that are unknown to the buyer and buyer’s agent that can affect the transaction. If you are looking to purchase a short sale here is some helpful information.
1. On average, to get a short sale approval, it can take 60-90 days.
There could be mortgage insurance and an end investor on the loan as well as the servicer, which means it has to go through three different processes. Bank of America could be the servicer on the loan but they do not actually own the loan, so, the short sale has to pass their guidelines, then go to the mortgage insurer if there is one, then to the end investor like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If you are a buyer and can’t wait at least 60-90 days for an approval and then another 30 days to go to closing, then you need to look at other houses. The worst thing you can do is tie up a house that is in a short sale with no intention of being patient while waiting for a short sale approval. Approvals can come sooner than 60 days, but industry standard is at least 60 days to get an approval or denial.
2. There is a general assumption that you can purchase a short sale for 40-50% under its listed price. In a short sale the bank comes out and does a valuation of the property and will expect a slight discount, but will not accept a huge amount under the market value.
Hopefully, if the agent who is handling the sale is experienced, they will have already gotten an approved list price from the bank by the time you are interested in making an offer. The bank will usually be willing to negotiate on that price, but will not, in almost every case, take 40-50% off of that price. To that point, you may be able to get a reasonable deal on a short sale, though it will not be, in most cases, as much of a deal as you may be able to get on an REO (foreclosed property). Also to that point, most short sales will be in better condition than an REO. When you look at the potential repairs a comparable REO needs and the time and expense it can take to do those improvements vs. a short sale being sold at a slight market discount with improvements already made, the investment could even out. There are REO properties that can be picked up for a huge discount, but require massive repairs that a comparable short sale may not require.
3. Short sales are a very difficult process and it takes a qualified person to handle this type of transaction.
With this type of transaction it takes a very experienced agent on the listing side as well as the buying side. Make sure before you move forward on the transaction that the listing agent has ample experience dealing with these types of transactions, or you could be tied up in a contract for months that never goes to settlement. There are several different types of short sale processes and each bank’s process is somewhat different; it takes a professional who has had experience with all of these different types of short sales to help facilitate a successful transaction.
4. In most short sale transactions the properties are sold “as-is” and no repairs will be made.
Although there are some exceptions to this rule, speaking in general, short sales are sold “as-is” and no repairs will be made even if they are found during a home inspection. In most short sale transactions the bank will require both the buyer and the seller to sign an addendum that states the property is being sold “As-is” and no repairs will be made.
These are just a few short pointers for buyers who are looking to purchase a short sale as they are a reality in every market, and if you have the patience you may be able to get the home you are looking for at a discount! | <urn:uuid:5749d86f-e63c-4734-b724-3ffd9317c721> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://northconwayrealestatesearch.com/tag/albany-nh-real-estate/ | 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 | 0.972689 | 883 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Possess you actually experienced sensation a burning up sensation starting within your top abdomen as well as accumulates simply behind your own breastbone which the discomfort and burning up sensation is usually along with a bitter taste on your teeth? In case you possess, then you suffer from an ailment known as heartburn.
Even though many people perform encounter heartburn occasionally, you need to keep in mind that this problem is actually something which you should not take gently, particularly if you possess a persistent case of the problem.
Persistent heartburn is actually whenever you encounter this problem each day or even nearly every time. If it is the situation, then you might want to visit your physician and also have this examined. Leaving behind persistent heartburn without treatment can result in worse problems which will considerably possess a unfavorable impact on your daily life.
Therefore exactly what causes heartburn as well as must you be serious about it?
First of all, heartburn occurs the gastric acid refluxes or even backs in in order to the wind pipe. This could occur due to a number of factors.
The very first reason is the fact that the reduced esophageal muscle or even LES is actually weakened or even relaxed as well as doesn’t perform its work correctly. Essentially, the LES is actually the device that will bring the belly acid indigestion the belly. If this does not work correctly, it is going to permit the gastric acid in the future in touch with the wind pipe, which causes heartburn. This can be a typical regarding GERD or even Gastroesophageal Poisson Illness.
An additional cause through consuming particular foods, for example deep-fried and greasy meals, chocolate, espresso, peppermint, sugar, as well as alcoholic beverages. These food types deteriorate or rest the LES.
Consuming large foods shortly prior to bedtime may also trigger heartburn. Whenever you consume large foods, the creation of gastric acid raises so when you lay down soon after consuming a big dinner to visit mattress, bodies are within the ideal position with regard to the gastric acid in order to reflux or even are exposed to the wind pipe.
Hiatal laxitud is a reason for heartburn. This problem is because of the weakening associated with the cells that facilitates the digestive system. This problem happens whenever a portion of the top stomach moves up via the tumulte and in order to the upper body. Based on the dimension and place associated with the laxitud, this could trigger heartburn as well as heart problems.
Cigarette smoking may also trigger heartburn. The reason being the pure nicotine inside pipes and smokes deteriorate the LES. As well as, because you might know, in case the LES is actually vulnerable, it might functionality properly and can allow the gastric acid circulation into the wind pipe, that will eventually trigger heartburn.
Tension is a recognized reason for heartburn. It is often discovered that tension can improve the acidity production within the belly and decreases the draining associated with the belly, leading to heartburn.
They are the causes associated with heartburn. Moderate cases associated with heartburn tend to be more of the annoyance rather than problem. However in case you possess a serious case associated with heartburn, you might want to have it examined and handled with a physician instantly. The reason being persistent cases associated with heartburn may cause serious problems. It may trigger scarring associated with the wind pipe, which make hard with regard to you in order to swallow as well as actually fluids. Leaving behind it without treatment may also result in an ailment known as Barrett’s wind pipe. This problem is actually where tissues much like the liner associated with the belly begin to create within the reduced wind pipe. This problem may improve your likelihood of building cancer associated with the wind pipe, that is very difficult to identify and incredibly challenging deal with.
They are the causes associated with heartburn. Because you can easily see, heartburn ought to be taken heed of particularly if possess a persistent case or even whenever you encounter it each day. Obtain heartburn handled as well as you can be certain which you can carry on living an ordinary living.
Not found what you want ? | <urn:uuid:355fea1b-0698-4726-beca-ab4f37f86dd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heartburnsymptoms24.com/the-causes-of-heartburn-and-the-reason-why-you-going-to-take-this-significantly/ | 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 | 0.96035 | 869 | 1.757813 | 2 |
“Could the banality and sameness of what developers in Houston are constructing be in part to changed lending standards by the banks?
Back in the 1970′s Gerald Hines developed very innovative office buildings for the day, employing famous architects for the design. Pennzoil Place is no cookie cutter “international style” box, that’s for sure. But back then, we didn’t have interstate banking either. For those of you born post 1985, that means ALL of our banks were headquartered in Texas. I’d assume Hines went to see Ben Love at Texas Commerce Bank, or the guys at Allied Bank, and they worked out the loans. Today, those loan officers are in New York or Charlotte, and don’t want to risk their bank’s money on something avant garde.
Also, developers today rarely keep their portfolios together more than a few years. They ‘flip’ their completed properties to REITs so that they have the capital to build something else. When you need to turn your property over quickly, it’s best to have something the buyers understand, and that didn’t cost so much per square foot that you can’t make a profit selling it in 18 months. A REIT just wants to purchase something with what they feel will be a certain stream of income over a 10 year time horizon. They are oblivious to the fact that it’s not a thrilling design.” [ShadyHeightster, commenting on The Muse Moving in Next to the Post Office in Castle Court] | <urn:uuid:d9b6f364-df1b-49d1-b76d-7606ecef2653> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://swamplot.com/comment-of-the-day-a-different-kind-of-money/2012-09-27/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962346 | 328 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Trey Thoelcke and Michael B. Sauter, 24/7 Wall St.
Apple (AAPL) has the most successful retail stores by a wide margin.
According to RetailSails, a retail and consumer goods consulting firm, the tech giant's 372 worldwide locations sold goods at a rate of more than $6,000 per square foot of floor space in the past 12 months. The average store of the next most successful company in the United States, Tiffany & Co. (TIF), sold less than half that per square foot.
In low-end department stores and supermarkets, sales per square foot were in many cases less than $100. Hancock Fabrics, a fabric retailer, brought in just $72 per square foot. Meanwhile, retailers with the most profitable stores brought in more than $1,000 per square foot. These are mostly high-end brands, selling much more expensive products. Based on the RetailSails report, 24/7 Wall St. identified the nine most successful retail stores in America.
In the case of most department stores and discount stores like Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), Kmart and Family Dollar Stores (FDO), most items cost less than $100, and most stores are very large. The average retail space in some of the least successful stores by sales per square foot is at least 10,000 square feet. This prevents total profits per square foot from exceeding several hundred dollars, even among the most popular stores.
For the nine most profitable corporate stores, the opposite is true. They sell luxury goods, in apparel, accessories, electronics or jewelry. Their products are often quite expensive, while the stores are generally relatively small. Much of the merchandise companies such as Apple, Tiffany and Coach (COH) sell costs in the hundreds of dollars or more. At the same time, the average store floor space is less than 5,000 square feet. While total sales of the average Kmart store is roughly double what Lululemon Athletica (LULU) stores do, the average floor space of a Lululemon is only 1/34th that of a Kmart store.
Because most of the most profitable stores sell luxury items, they tend to be more selective in the markets they enter. Several of these companies have fewer than 100 stores nationwide. Birks & Mayors (BMJ) has only 57. Even stores that average small retail space, such as RadioShack (RSH), turn low profit per square foot because they have hundreds of low-profit stores in low-income communities. RadioShack has 4,423 stores.
In many ways, Apple, the most successful store in terms of profit per square feet, is different from each of the other eight companies on this list. Companies like Tiffany, Coach and Select Comfort (SCSS) rely primarily on their brick-and-mortar stores. Apple makes the vast majority of its sales and profits online, with its physical stores serving as hubs to improve branding and showcase new products.
Apple's business model of regularly releasing new buzz products, such as the latest iPhone, draws large crowds of customers looking to buy these items as soon as they hit the shelves.
Relying on RetailSails' 2012 Chain Store Productivity Guide, 24/7 Wall St. identified the nine companies with the highest sales per square foot, based on the past 12 months of sales. RetailSails also provided average store size, average annual sales per store, one-year sales growth and the number of stores.
These are America's most profitable stores:
9. Birks & Mayors
> Sales per sq. ft.: $1,082
> Sales per store: $4.61 million
> No. of stores: 57
> 1-yr. sales growth: 5.2%
> Revenue: $302.3 million
Birks & Mayors is a designer, manufacturer and retailer of jewelry, timepieces, silverware and gifts in the United States and Canada. It operates 32 stores under the Birks brand in Canada, 24 stores under the Mayors brand across Florida and Georgia, among a few others. Although it has fewer stores than any of the nine most successful stores, it still manages to have sales of $4.6 million per store. However, its revenue growth in the past year has been only about 5%, and shares are trading near a 52-week low.
8. Vera Bradley
> Sales per sq. ft.: $1,186
> Sales per store: $2.39 million
> No. of stores: 70
> 1-yr. sales growth: 79.2%
> Revenue: $460.8 million
In the first half of fiscal 2013, Vera Bradley Inc. (NASDAQ: VRA) opened 12 full-price stores and two outlet stores. This maker and retailer of "stylish and functional" accessories for women says it plans to open between 14 and 20 stores in each of the next five fiscal years, greatly adding to the 70 stores it had as of the end of July. Vera Bradley had the highest one-year sales growth, at 79.2%, in the RetailSails report. Net income last year was $57.9 million. The company's share price is down more than 15% since beginning of this calendar year.
7. True Religion
> Sales per sq. ft.: $1,227
> Sales per store: $2.35 million
> No. of stores: 116
> 1-yr. sales growth: 21.0%
> Revenue/net income: $419.8 million
Since its founding in 2002, True Religion Apparel (NASDAQ: TRLG) has grown into a $640 million global company with distribution in 50 countries. In addition to its 116 U.S. stores as of the end of July, the company also sells its denim jeans and other casual and sportswear and accessories through other major retailers and department stores such as Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN). Last year's revenue of $419 million was less than most other retailers on this list. For investors, it has been something of a roller coaster ride, with the share price up more than 58% in 2011, but down about 25% so far this year.
6. Select Comfort
> Sales per sq. ft.: $1,314
> Sales per store: $2.00 million
> No. of stores: 381
> 1-yr. sales growth: 32.6%
> Revenue: $743.2 million
Select Comfort had, as of June 30, 381 company-operated Sleep Number stores across the United States, selling adjustable-firmness beds and other sleep-related accessory products. That is after both opening 22 stores and closing 22 stores in the first half of 2012. But the company said it expects a net increase in store count to between 400 and 410 by the end of the fiscal year. The company's revenue jumped 32.6%, the 10th highest in the report. The share price more than doubled in 2011, and year-to-date, the stock price rose another 18%.
5. Michael Kors
> Sales per sq. ft.: $1,431
> Sales per store: $3.24 million
> No. of stores: 253
> 1-yr. sales growth: 77.9%
>Revenue: not available
Luxury lifestyle products retailer Michael Kors Holdings (NYSE: KORS) saw the second largest revenue growth, at 77.9%, among the more than 200 companies reviewed by RetailSails. The company's share price rose more than 110% since the initial public offering in mid-December last year. The company believes there is long-term potential to grow its store base to 400 in North America and 100 each in Europe and Japan. The company said in its just-released second-quarter fiscal 2013 report that, including licensed locations, there were 349 Michael Kors stores worldwide at the end of September.
> Sales per sq. ft.: $1,871
> Sales per store: $5.19 million
> No. of stores: 833
> 1-yr. sales growth: 15.9%
>Revenue: $4.8 billion
Best known for its high-end leather handbags, Coach had 833 stores worldwide as of the end of July, more than any of the nine most successful retailers on this list. Its $4.76 billion revenue last year was higher than all the other retailers on the list except for Tiffany and Apple. Coach's primary markets are the United States and Japan, which account for about 80% of all stores. It had a respectable 15.9% one-year sales growth last year, but so far in 2012, Coach's share price has declined more than 11%.
3. Lululemon Athletica
> Sales per sq. ft.: $1,936
> Sales per store: $5.49 million
> No. of stores: 189
> 1-yr. sales growth: 38.6%
>Revenue: $1.0 billion
Founded in 1998, Lululemon is a yoga and sporting apparel company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Not only are its sales per square foot higher than all other retailers on this list except two, but its sales per store are higher than most apparel stores as well, even though it has substantially less store space than other companies. Still, Lululemon's one-year sales growth was the eighth highest on the RetailSails list, and its share price is up nearly 50% year-to-date. The company said it expects to open 30 stores in the United States by the end of the fiscal year.
2. Tiffany & Co.
> Sales per sq. ft.: $3,017
> Sales per store: $13.02 million
> No. of stores: 260
> 1-yr. sales growth: 9.6%
> Revenue: $3.6 billion
Diamonds are small and pricey, so it should come as no surprise that this luxury jeweler can be found near the top a list featuring sales per square feet. In fact, Tiffany's sales per square foot are about 35% higher than that of Lululemon, the next highest on the list. Tiffany opened its first store in 1837. As of the end of July it had 260 stores. In the second half of the year, the company said it expects to open nine stores in North and South America, five stores in the Asia-Pacific region and one store in Europe. The share price is down about 7% year-to-date.
> Sales per sq. ft.: $6,050
> Sales per store: $51.14 million
> No. of stores: 372
> 1-yr. sales growth: 28.9%
> Revenue: $156.5 billion
Apple is a relative newcomer on the retail scene, with its first store opening in 2001. Yet, Apple's $6,050 per square foot is more than double that of Tiffany's, the next highest on the list. Apple also has the ninth highest sales per store among companies measured by RetailSails, at more than $51 million, and the 13th highest one-year sales growth, at 28.9%. Apple benefits from constant new product introductions and upgrades of existing ones, as well the fact that so much of its revenue comes from non-store sales. This business model has made Apple the world's largest public company, with a market capitalization of more than $510 billion, which is more than Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) combined. In the first nine months of fiscal 2012, Apple opened 15 stores, including four in the United States, four in Spain and two in France.
24/7 Wall St. is a website offering financial news and opinion.
24/7 Wall St. | <urn:uuid:e231838d-3189-46a0-8e01-e4c2066dd5a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/348085/28/The-9-most-successful-retail-stores-in-the-USA- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949093 | 2,490 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Get that “Awwww” reflex ready, folks, and meet ZOO Miami’s quartet of baby warthogs.
These lovely little ladies will be making their society debut Memorial Day weekend, but they have no need of fancy finery with mugs like this, warts and all.
As ZooBorns explained:
Warthogs are a type of African wild pig that is distinguished by large upward curving tusks and what appear to be large “warts” growing out of the sides of their heads. These warts are actually cartilaginous tissue that is more pronounced in the males. They are common throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa, can grow to be close to 250 pounds and live up to 15 years.
Eat your heart out, Pumbaa.
Full story at ZooBorns.
Baby animals.Author on Google+ | <urn:uuid:f61581fb-ce5b-4f4c-89f0-a0261b6a01eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://holykaw.alltop.com/nothing-quite-as-cute-as-a-bunch-of-baby-wart | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944541 | 184 | 1.617188 | 2 |
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Japan looks to future with earnest crown prince
TOKYO (Reuters) - Over the past few weeks, Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito has been in the public eye as rarely before, whether tipping a wine glass in toasts at a state banquet or conferring imperial decorations as he stands in for Emperor Akihito, who has been in hospital.
Naruhito's prominence while his 77-year-old father recovers from what court officials say is a mild case of pneumonia has given Japan a fresh look at the scholarly, unassuming man who likes animals and watching sumo wrestling with his 9-year-old daughter, Aiko.
Whereas Emperor Akihito had a relatively clear role to play when he ascended the Chrysanthemum throne, trying to heal the wounds of a war waged across Asia in the name of his father, Emperor Hirohito, Naruhito, 51, may find it harder to forge a path of his own.
And Naruhito may also have to carve out a role largely on his own. His 47-year-old wife, Crown Princess Masako, has suffered from depression brought on by the stress of palace life and unfulfilled demands she bear a male heir, and her public appearances have been sporadic for nearly eight years.
Emperor Akihito took the throne in January 1989 when he was 55, after a similar period of filling in for his father.
Royal watchers said Naruhito would bring to the job an unusual range of experience for a Japanese royal, including studying at Oxford University for a period, which he once said were some of the best years of his life.
"He's very serious," said Miiko Kodama, a professor at Musashi University in Tokyo.
"He's done a lot of studying, written some scholarly reports, and when he makes up his mind about what kind of emperor he wants to be, he'll slowly and steadily work to achieve it. The issue is his wife."
Some of Naruhito's interests may appear innocuous or plain dull -- he has studied medieval transport and espouses environmental causes -- and, like the rest of his family, he has generally shunned the slightest hint of controversy.
But some royal watchers say that within the limits, he has actually broken new ground for the imperial family by publicly calling for more men to be hands-on fathers, and by taking up a global cause such as clean water.
In addition, he married Masako, a Harvard- and Oxford-educated diplomat, overcoming the opposition of palace officials, and Masako's doubts, by promising to "protect her with all his might" from the strains of life in a monarchy traditionalists say originated more than 2,000 years ago.
After she faded under the denial of her hopes to use her diplomatic experience, he shocked the nation with unusually blunt remarks in her defense, earning a rebuke from his younger brother and some sorrowful remarks from the emperor.
Some years ago, tabloid magazines even speculated that he might abdicate, or that the two might divorce.
"Part of what's going on here is that there are people in Japan who clearly do not like Naruhito, in no small part because they don't like Masako," said Kenneth Ruoff, director of the Center for Japanese Studies at Portland State University and author of a book on Emperor Hirohito.
"FAMILY OF ACTION"
Such conservatives favor Naruhito's younger brother, Prince Akishino, and his family, partly because his wife Kiko, who has never had a career and fulfills all her public duties, better fits notions of traditional womanhood. In addition, they have a son, Hisahito, who is third in line for the throne.
"But the fact of the matter is that Naruhito will be the next emperor, unless he himself decides that he doesn't want to do it. I suspect that's highly unlikely," Ruoff said.
The success of Emperor Akihito's move to make the family "middle class" means there may be little for his son to do other than continue in that mold.
"Under Emperor Hirohito, at first, the imperial family was prayed to. Now they're a family of action -- they go out to disaster areas and comfort people, things like that," said Midori Watanabe, an imperial family commentator.
"The crown prince will talk it over with Masako and find something they can do for the people. I imagine they're thinking of this even now."
Some clues may be found in the role taken by the family after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami killed about 20,000 people.
The emperor went on television in an unprecedented address to the people, calling on them to work together to overcome the "difficult times." All the royals, including Masako, have visited the disaster area more than once.
Should Naruhito ascend the throne in the near future, he may oversee recovery from the crisis, said Kodama. Support for environmental conservation may also be a priority.
Simply being there in a time of change could also be enough.
"They serve in some intangible but still significant sense as a unifying force," said Ruoff.
"So in one sense, when he came on television during the earthquake, that was the quintessential sense of him playing that sort of unifying role."
(Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Robert Birsel)
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1671 - Ebenezer FIELD born. Ebenezer was the son of Zechariah FIELD and Sarah WEBB.
1701 - Hannah BROWN born. Hannah was the daughter of William BROWN and Catherine WILLIAMS.
1703 - Bethiah CLARKE married Thomas HISCOX in Westerly, Rhode Island. Bethiah was the daughter of Joseph CLARKE and Bethiah HUBBARD.
1763 - John FESSENDEN married Abigail HOWE. John was the son of William FESSENDEN and Martha BROWN.
1771 - Elinor MAXSON married William BLIVEN. Elinor was the daughter of John MAXSON and Thankful RANDALL.
1788 - Charity JACKSON born. Charity was the daughter of John JACKSON and Phebe BEALS.
1792 - Enoch PIERCE married Molly SNOW. Enoch was the son of Enoch PIERCE and Mary MASON.
1815 - Gideon MAXSON born in Green Brier Run, Virginia. Gideon was the son of Zebulon MAXSON and Mary DAVIS.
1817 - Mandley PIERCE born. Mandley was the son of Samuel PIERCE and Persis BARROWS.
1827 - Susan YOUNG born in Sandusky County, Ohio. Susan was the daughter of Charles YOUNG and Nancy SCOTHORN.
1832 - Beulah HUNT married John MACY. Beulah was the daughter of Isom HUNT and Margaret BUNDY.
1832 - Sutton MAXSON married Lavina LIPPINCOTT in Clark County, Ohio. Sutton was the son of Jesse MAXSON and Sarah SUTTON.
1849 - Rachel BISHOP died in Burlington County, New Jersey. Rachel was the daughter of Robert HAINES and Rachel VENICOMB.
1855 - James OLIPHANT died. James was the son of John OLIPHANT and Hannah AMOS.
1858 - Thomas Jefferson BUCHER born in Madison Township, Jay County, Indiana. Thomas was the son of John B. BUCHER and Catherine WEHRLY.
1875 - Merrick C. HALEY born in Claridon Township, Marion County, Ohio. Merrick was the son of William HALEY and Jane Elizabeth OWEN.
1889 - Mose Thompson TOLLETT born. Mose was the son of Major C. TOLLETT and Amanda SWAFFORD.
1890 - Edith Alene MAXON born in Mt. Morris, Greene County, Pennsylvania. Edith was the daughter of John Winfield MAXON and Pleasant Jane BAREMORE.
1900 - Clara Elnora HALEY born in Jay County, Indiana. Clara was the daughter of Eli Weldon HALEY and Cora Belle METZNER.
1904 - Mary Irene KING born. Mary was the daughter of David Victor KING and Rosie Myrtle ETCHISON.
1943 - John Marlin SWAFFORD died in Rayville, Missouri. John was the son of James SWAFFORD and Rebecca Ann BALLARD. | <urn:uuid:561a5500-14b8-4ba4-afc7-1805b4ff2a40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tjlgenes.blogspot.com/2012/10/on-this-day-october-31.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933989 | 664 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Ipad Toting Doctors Spur Venture Funding in Medical Apps
Venture capitalists seeking to profit from innovations in health care are turning to startups that make smartphone and tablet applications for doctors and hospitals.
Two years ago, patients would be surprised to see their doctors pulling out an Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone to check their blood sugar, or cardiogram results. Now they’re finding such practices commonplace as investment in the kinds of companies that make health information apps rose 78 percent in 2011 to $766 million. Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) has started a $100 million fund, Insight Venture Partners is putting $40 million into a startup and Oprah Winfrey is dipping in as well, with her company investing in a website that helps doctors and patients interact.
“We’re at a sea change,” said David Jahns, managing partner of Galen Partners LP, a Stamford, Connecticut-based private equity firm that invested in a company called Sharecare.
Demand for apps that let doctors and nurses see test results quickly and monitor vital signs remotely, combined with a push from government and insurers to collect better data to contain rising medical costs, is propelling investor interest in an array of health information technology, Jahns said.
“We really have to improve our costs,” he said. “The best thing that our country can do is invest in technology that gets better outcomes with fewer procedures.”
Timothy Kreth, a cardiologist at TriStar Summit Medical Center in Hermitage, Tennessee, uses an application from AirStrip Technologies that lets him view emergency room patients’ electrocardiograms on his iPhone.
“It’s more convenient for the patient,” Kreth said in a telephone interview. “I can look at it and determine some of the subtle nuances the emergency room doctor maybe could not. It gives us the opportunity to make diagnoses quicker.”
Kreth and the five other cardiologists have used the AirStrip technology for about six weeks at his hospital, which is part of HCA Holdings Inc. (HCA) Previously, emergency room doctors faxed cardiologists the EKGs, Kreth said.
AirStrip, based in San Antonio, Texas, was the first investment from the $100 million Qualcomm Life Fund that formed in December. Qualcomm Life doesn’t disclose how much it invests, though typically puts down $2 million to $5 million, Jack Young, who manages the fund, said by telephone.
Richard Wells, a managing director at Insight Venture, defines the burgeoning market as software as a service -- scheduling technology for doctors, patient-monitoring data for hospitals and online wellness tools for corporate health plans.
“In a way it’s like outsourcing,” Wells said in a phone interview. “You don’t need IT guys, it’s all done for you.”
Qualcomm had invested in health previously through its $500 million Qualcomm Ventures that funds a broader range of tech startups. Now the San Diego-based wireless communications- equipment company markets a cloud-computing platform that can connect medical devices and applications over the Internet, a specialty Young said will be mutually beneficial when Airstrip moves into home care for patients discharged from the hospital.
“We’ll continue to see this caliber of investing,” he said. “The ecosystem is slowly but surely taking off.”
Investment in health information technology has doubled since 2006, and rose 78 percent in 2011 from 2010, according to the National Venture Capital Association. Funding totaled $184 million in 27 deals in the first quarter of this year, according to Mercom Capital Group, an Austin, Texas-based consultant to health-care companies.
Industry venture investments of $2 million or more per deal are up about 30 percent this year, with most startups getting an average of $11.8 million, said Halle Tecco, chief executive officer of Rock Health, a seed accelerator for health technology startups.
As information technology reaps the benefits, investment in traditional medical-devices makers, though still magnitudes larger than medical app investments, has stalled to $2.8 billion in 2011, from $2.9 billion in 2006. Devices, unlike most information technology, are subject to a regulatory review where companies must show that a product is reasonably safe and effective before sales can begin.
The timing of the Food and Drug Administration reviews has become too unpredictable for some early investors, Thomas Gunderson, senior analyst at Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray & Co., said in a telephone interview.
“If they’re supposed to make investments and they think it’s going to take six years to get the returns on their investments, that’s one thing,” he said. “If it’s seven, eight or 12 years, that’s unpredictable and they’re backing away.”
The FDA is considering stricter standards for medical apps that directly diagnose or treat conditions. The agency released draft guidelines in July that said some mobile apps pose a potential risk and may have to meet medical-device quality standards before being sold for use with smartphones and tablets.
For now, insurers are still embracing the proliferation of new technology that helps hospitals and doctors keep better records or operate their practices in a less costly way.
The shift is being aided by government efforts to arm doctors with more data and coordinate care to reduce health costs, said Jahns.
The U.S. economic stimulus package in 2009 set incentives for health-care providers to adopt electronic records, and President Barack Obama’s 2010 health-care system overhaul pushed providers further to cut costs and improve services.
“Anyone who can save money goes to the front of the line” for investment, Gunderson said.
Galen Partners led a $14 million investment in WebMD founder Jeff Arnold’s newest project, Atlanta-based Sharecare. The company began in 2010 in partnership with Dr. Mehmet Oz of Oprah Winfrey fame -- Winfrey’s Harpo Studios is also a backer.
Sharecare has built searchable drug, supplement and wellness databases and provides online tools for doctors to connect with potential patients. On the consumer side, the company’s website provides thousands of answers to health questions by experts from hospitals, care provider associations and companies such as Pfizer Inc. (PFE), the world’s largest drugmaker, and pharmacy chain Walgreen Co. (WAG)
The website’s landing page includes a bar where users can enter any health question they conjure with some clickable prompts such as “Can I burn extra calories eating celery?”
“For us, we want to get to scale and become the front door to online health,” Arnold said in a telephone interview. “Basically, to health care the way Facebook is to the way people make lifestyle choices.”
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH), the largest U.S. health insurer by membership, had its employees use Sharecare for a 12-week “Move It & Lose It Challenge,” Tyler Mason, a spokesman for the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company, said in an e-mail.
Arnold wants to open Sharecare up to other entrepreneurs to give patients access to electronic medical records, allow people to schedule doctor appointments and provide a home for data from apps that are operating like traditional devices, such as blood sugar management systems.
Wells of Insight Venture said desire for digitization to control health costs will continue to spark venture capital interest. Insight in March invested $40 million in Kinnser Software, which gives home-health providers access to patient records and the ability to enter data digitally on the site or using an app on a tablet.
“This keeps going for a while,” Wells said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Edney in Washington at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at [email protected]
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The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-profit organization that provides key support to photographers and writers working on long-term investigative journalism projects, made its first foray into digital book publishing late last week with the release of “In Search of Home,” an iBook about statelessness, featuring the photography of Greg Constantine and essays by Stephanie Hanes.
The interactive, 49-page book, grew out Hanes and Constantine’s long-term reporting project on “stateless” people, who are denied the basic rights of citizenship in the countries in which they live, often for religious and ethnic reasons. The iBook focuses on three populations who have no nationality: the Rohingya from Burma, the Nubians of Kenya, and people of Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic. It features four slideshows of Constantine’s images, an audio slideshow that provides an overview on the problems faced by people who live in legal limbo without national identity, as well as other features, like an interactive map and timeline.
“In Search of Home” is the first in a series of iBooks that will be produced by the Pulitzer Center. The project, according to a post by Jon Sawyer, director of the Pulitzer Center, on the organization’s blog, “is part of a broader Pulitzer Center initiative, seeking out new platforms and partners to extend the work of journalists we support and to make use of the extraordinary presentation of multimedia material now possible on tablets and other mobile devices.”
Proceeds from “In Search of Home,” which is being sold for $4.99 in the iTunes store and can be viewed using the iBook 2 app for iPad and iPhone, will go to Constantine and Hanes, minus the 30 percent Apple charges to carry the book on iTunes.
“We hope to make these books the capstone for the best of our projects, giving readers an immersive, narratively rich way of engaging the issues they cover,” Sawyer said. “We believe these presentations will appeal to all audiences, and especially to the university and secondary-school students that have become a major focus of the Pulitzer Center’s work.”
Related: Q&A: Getting Funding from The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Picturing Non-Profit Journalism
Picture Story: An Emmy-Winning AIDS Documentary in Poetry and Pictures
Field Studies: Exploring the Complexities of War-Torn Congo | <urn:uuid:be75347b-acd1-491e-86f8-7373a8393c90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pdnpulse.com/tag/greg-constantine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93489 | 508 | 1.585938 | 2 |
If it seems like there’s nothing innovative about marketing today, maybe it’s because the concept itself has outlived its usefulness.
What is marketing, after all? One might say it is products and the communications that support them. Not much that’s innovative about that, despite the endless supply of new entries and media vehicles to carry their messages.
One thing that never changes about marketing is that it is generally done to consumers. That sounds harsh, I know, but I don’t mean it to be. I’m not saying that marketing is inflicted on people. I’m simply making a supposition about prepositions.
Bear with me, please: If the goal is to serve consumer needs, shouldn’t we put relatively more energy into doing things for them rather than to them? Honestly, how much of marketing today truly passes that test? If the answer is, “not enough,” then doesn’t “marketing innovation” start to sound like an oxymoron?
This is more than a question of semantics; it goes to the heart of how we view the future. The words we use, and the freight they carry, matter. Better words are hard to come by, but I do have a personal favorite. That word is experience.
I like it because an experience is created for, not done to, someone. This may not be an inherently new idea, but the simple shift in perspective it suggests could introduce a whole new world of innovation.
The Hub will explore that world via our first annual Brand Experience Symposium — live, on stage, in New York City, at the Helen Mills Theater on September 10-11, 2013. Save the dates; more to come. | <urn:uuid:91e16d94-5fc7-4187-8a24-e4bb66c9b096> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hubmagazine.com/html/2013/hub_52/jan_feb/237230113/pivot-point_innovation/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947379 | 363 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Feb 27, 2011 6:56:35 AM
A guide to the eateries of Indonesia
To eat and drink in Indonesia is a never-ending adventure. Hungry or not you’ll be tempted by strange foods, waylaid by exotic aromas and entranced by new flavours. And then there are the people, all 200 million of them, delighted to see you venturing beyond the world of bread and milk. “You can eat spicy food”, they’ll say surprised. “You like durian”, they’ll say amazed. “You’re ordering another avocado juice”, they’ll say perplexed. As it is everywhere, food here is a conversation starter. Dining out on Indonesian streets is a social affair and you’ll share bench space with families, soldiers, students and solicitors all bound in the hunt for good food.
Bakul (Streetside Traders)
Let’s start with the basics. There may be no place to sit, no kitchen in sight, yet a full meal appears in front of you like an epiphany. This scenario is played out every day across Indonesia as the nation’s cooks take to the streets looking for stomachs to fill. In early morning Central Java you’ll see old women in sarongs selling regional dishes like pecel (peanut sauce with spinach and beansprouts) to office workers and becak drivers. Once beckoned she’ll spread out her bundled goods on a bamboo tray and put together a meal from her collection of small bags and baskets. Her food is cheap – she doesn’t pay rent or wages – and is most often a taste of the region.
Pikulan (Stick Sellers)
Now here’s where the stereotypes really come to life. You know the classic image of someone carrying goods in two bundles connected by a stick over their shoulders? Well, that’s a pikulan and in Indonesia they’re used to carry food to sell. The pikulan can be an impressive contraption with a gas stove and wok on one side and ready-to-fry ingredients on the other. Some sell bakso (meatball soup), with stock on the boil at one end, ingredients and bowls at the other.
Kaki-Lima (Roving Vendors)
Kaki-lima are an essential part of the Indonesian culinary landscape; roving vendors; their carts usually consist of a work bench, a portable stove and a glass display cabinet for ingredients and for advertising their speciality dish or drink. Kaki-lima means ‘five legs’, for the three wheels on the cart and the two legs on the vendor. You’ll find any and every type of dish, drink and snack sold from a kaki-lima, but two favourites are sate and bakso. Some kaki-lima have a permanent location that they set up at every day until their stocks are depleted. Others roam the streets, tempting the hungry from their homes or places of work.
Warung (Food Stalls)
Although restaurants call themselves warung (similar to restaurants in the west calling themselves ‘the home-bake pantry cottage’), we define a warung as any eatery that offers a place to eat and shelter, but is disassembled after closure. As a result some of the best food will not be there when you want it, nevertheless a warung usually has a set time when it’s open for business. The classic warung consists of a long table sheltered by a tarpaulin roof and a screen hung to separate the diners from the streetside cacophony. Written on the screen is what is sold within – often no more than one or two dishes, so a warung will become famous for a specific dish. Although there’ll be a warung around at anytime of the day, they really come to life at night when more are set up along streets and in vacant lots to cater to the post-work hungry. Indonesia’s warung sell everything from regional dishes like Yogyakarta’s gudeg (jackfruit curry) to national favourites such as pecel lele (fried catfish).
One exception to the warung impermanency rule is the warteg (short for warung Tegal), which is a simple yet permanent restaurant that sells a wide range of dishes at cheap prices. Tegal is a town in Java and, although the owner will probably be from there, the food available isn’t necessarily specific to the region. The warteg eateries are a good bet for vegetarians because meatless dishes, especially ones that are tofu or tempe based, are in abundance.
Lesehan refers more to seating arrangements than food. If you’re eating while sitting on a grass mat then you’re eating at a lesehan. The most famous place for lesehan are in Yogyakarta, where they are set up along Jalan Malioboro to cater to evening crowds (some open all day). Some restaurants have lesehan-style areas set up with low tables and mats for you to sloth on after stuffing your face.
Rumah Makan (Restaurants)
Sometimes the only difference between street stall and restaurant is that one closes for business by locking the door and the other folds up the roof. The most common restaurant meal, often called nasi campur or nasi rames (both meaning ‘mixed rice’), is the one you make with plain rice and a selection of other dishes. Where there’s food set out for all to see, you can be certain you’ll be choosing a selection yourself. This also gives you the chance to peruse the selection before committing yourself. The fact that the food is sitting out may send your hygiene warning system haywire, but this is how much restaurant and home-cooked Indonesian food is prepared, to be eaten that day at room temperature.
For truly authentic flavours, try to find restaurants that serve dishes from the region you are in. This will be easy in Padang, as Padang restaurants are everywhere, but you may only get a chance to try Banjar food in Banjarmasin. Nevertheless in bigger towns there’ll be a smattering of eateries serving food from other areas, so you won’t have to go to Manado to try North Sulawesi cuisine.
Rumah Makan Padang (Padang Restaurants)
There’s at least one Padang restaurant, serving West Sumatran cuisine in every town in Indonesia. For a first-timer, a meal at a Padang restaurant can be a confusing affair. Firstly, all that food left in the window can’t be good for hygiene, and some of the dishes look like they were cooked with a blowtorch. Indeed Padang cuisine isn’t very photogenic, but it’s cooked to withstand a refrigerator-less environment. In fact some dishes, such as rendang (beef or buffalo coconut curry) are said to improve with age. The next stumbling block for the Padang virgin will be the fact that there isn’t a menu in sight. In a Padang restaurant they cut out the task of going through the ordering process – take a seat at any table and before you can say ‘I’ll have a side order of hokey-pokey ice cream’ one of the fellas will have scurried over and piled up your table with a selection of umpteen small dishes and rice. No need to shout ‘Waiter! I can’t eat this much!’ as here at a Padang restaurant you pay for what you eat. If you don’t touch the ikan bakar (grilled fish) you won’t pay for it, it’ll go back into the window display. Even if you taste the sauce that the gulai ayam (chicken in coconut curry) is served in and decide that it’s too spicy, it won’t be on the bill.
Although you’ll find many Chinese-influenced dishes in other restaurants, there are plenty of restaurants that serve specifically Chinese cuisine. Here you’ll no doubt get a decent nasi goreng, but you’ll also get a multitude of stirfries, steamed dishes, seafood, pork, cap cai (mixed vegetables), dishes in saus tiram (oyster sauce), asam manis (sweet & sour dishes) and noodles by the wok-load. Some Chinese restaurants are simple affairs offering clean, fresh noodle soups such as mie pangsit (wonton noodle soup). As with Chinese restaurants anywhere, the menu can be as long as the Palembang telephone directory.
More guides to eateries in other countries here. | <urn:uuid:1e57bde2-b9f7-4b25-a69a-48ca85a8e5d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lonelyplanet.com/indonesia/travel-tips-and-articles/76521 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934866 | 1,878 | 1.664063 | 2 |
A tracking poll report, published on Thursday, revealed that the U.S. public support for the new healthcare bill, introduced by Obama’s administration, is increasing.
The people are finally putting their guards down, regarding the new healthcare programme. The percentage of the opposition for the bill has always been in a majority among the U.S. public. However, for the first time since the presentation of this bill in March, the opposition rate went down from 41% to 35%. The Kaiser Family Foundation had published a poll a month ago, reporting that 14% of the U.S. public has no opinion regarding whether to pass the bill or to reject it.
Republicans are still in the same resisting position regarding the new healthcare bill, whereas 73% of the Democratic majority, who passed the bill in the House and Senate, expressed their support for the bill.
Another survey was published showing that during the month of June, 45% of the U.S. seniors voted in favour of Obama’s health care bill. The majority of the seniors, who oppose the bill, reported some misperceptions regarding the bill, according to the National Council on Aging.
The main obstacle for Obama’s administration now would be assuring both parties, those who think this bill will not change the system and those who think the bill will indeed change the system, yet for the worst, this change would actually pay off. These people need guarantees that they are putting their trust in the right hands. | <urn:uuid:b5db7aa9-71d9-42e3-b9b7-49bd2b20fd88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://topnews.co.uk/210025-obama-s-healthcare-bill-gaining-some-support-finally | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969873 | 305 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The Comprehensive Planning Process (CPP) is a model and process for institutional planning at Weber State. It is derived from the processes employed prior to 2012, but adapted to comply with the NWCCU 2011 accreditation standards.
Each component of the model illustrated in this graphic is explained in this section of the planning website, including its relationship to the NWCCU Standards. Click here for a printable PDF version of the planning process.
Weber State planning is composed of coordinated planning documents, processes, time cycles, and responsible bodies. The central guiding documents are mission, values, vision, and clearly defined university objectives with associated achievement measures.Achievement of university objectives is assessed on an ongoing basis and is combined annually with external conditions affecting the university to update university strategies.
The Weber State University PLAN is a dynamic document, reflecting a process that examines all aspects of the university on a continuous five-year cycle…about 20% of programs and services are reviewed by the divisions each year. Division Vice Presidents oversee these program and service reviews, which are forward-looking, opportunity-oriented, and take place in the context of clear university and division objectives, meaningful assessment of intended outcomes, outside reference information, and ideally including the perspective of outside reviewers.The program and service reviews are the foundation of Weber State planning and often result in plans for change initiatives intended to strengthen or improve. Importantly, program and service reviews consider the relationship of the function to university and division objectives and strategies.
Division planning is at the heart of Weber’s planning process, guiding the program and service reviews in the context of broader university objectives and strategies. Division Vice Presidents update their division plans annually, integrating program and service reviews with current conditions, university objectives, strategies and available funds. Division plans form the core of the WSU PLAN and include any large-scope change initiatives that need to be coordinated with the rest of the university.
The Administrative Services and Information Technologies Divisions have specific planning responsibilities for emergency preparedness and for the financial, physical, and technological infrastructure of the university, which are part of their division plans.
The University President is responsible for the overall planning process, which is reviewed for effectiveness by the University Planning Council and President’s Council on a seven year cycle along with assessments of mission fulfillment, adaptive ability, and capacity. | <urn:uuid:4a53e7d2-f6c7-4ae3-a197-a7f635ecf1a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weber.edu/universityplanning/Planning_process.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937459 | 473 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Welcome, and thank you for visiting Quest Teen Leadership online!
Quest is a unique program that offers teens an opportunity for personal growth and self discovery. It is offered in a format that is engaging and fun for the teen. At the end of the training the majority of the participants make comments such as,
"this was the best weekend of my life"
"every teen should have this experience"
"I've gained a new awareness of the world and how I see myself"
"I don't want to leave…when is the next one…can I come back and staff?"
As a parent, we would give our children the world. We know that attending college is important.
We extend ourselves to provide extracurricular activities such as sports, music, dance and we offer
spiritual growth through our churches. In the past there has not been a format for teaching our
youth about emotional intelligence;
- how to listen
- be empathetic
- create meaningful relationships
- have conflicts shift into win/win situations
These are skills that can be learned and only a few taught during Quest Teen Leadership. | <urn:uuid:dfdcb463-ea75-46c6-b919-23e03b6ab7d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theqway.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959391 | 233 | 1.75 | 2 |
CHARLESTON — In a letter penned Wednesday, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin urged Congress to include West Virginia in an end-of-year disaster relief package.
With the Mountain State experiencing four natural disasters this year, Tomblin said he wanted to ensure lawmakers include assistance to help families and communities across West Virginia recover.
“2012 has been a rough year for many West Virginia families. We’ve experienced four large storms, and we have families who are still struggling to recover,” Tomblin said. “I want to assure folks, I’m doing everything I can to make sure the federal government provides us with the assistance needed to rebuild our communities and our state.”
In March, tornadoes, strong winds and torrential rains severely damaged a number of communities. Shortly after that, three counties experienced severe flooding. In July, a derecho affected much of the state, leaving many without power for days. Last month, the state experienced blizzard-like conditions, high winds and rainfall as a result of Hurricane Sandy.
Mingo County was severely affected by the natural disasters. The June Derecho, for example, left some areas in the dark without power for more than a week in triple digit heat.
Tomblin was joined by U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, (both D-W.Va.) in requesting more assistance for families in West Virginia.
At a hearing before Rahall’s Committee Wednesday morning to examine FEMA’s response to Hurricane Sandy, Rahall said that he understood the “tremendous burden FEMA officials are under during such widespread disasters like Sandy,” and was aware that they had been there for West Virginians “time and time again.”
“But our citizens need and deserve timely answers, especially when such disaster assistance is so critically needed,” Rahall said.
Last week, at Rahall’s urging, a Federal disaster declaration was issued for 18 counties in West Virginia, including seven counties in the southern part of the state. A decision on whether Individual Assistance will be made available is still being considered by FEMA.
“Clearly, Sandy is yet another reminder that updates to FEMA guidelines are very much needed in order to ensure more timely and responsive disaster assistance,” Rahall said. “More than a month after the storm, West Virginian families are still waiting for a decision on whether Individual Assistance will be made available to help them repair broken roofs, fix affected businesses, and recoup lost wages.
In response to the June Derecho, the House of Representatives passed legislation at Rahall’s request that encourages greater flexibility and more objective criteria in the guidelines that FEMA uses to assess disaster assistance requests, including losses that result from extended power outages.
Under the legislation, FEMA would have one year to review, update, and revise through rulemaking the factors the Agency considers when measuring the severity, magnitude, and impact of a disaster.
“West Virginians across our state were dealt a double-blow from mother nature in less than six months time,” Rahall said. “Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc on southern West Virginia following the devastating June Derecho.
After both disasters, power outages were long lasting and widespread; property was destroyed, and lives were seriously disrupted, and even lost. I will keep fighting to expedite Federal assistance and ensure our State’s residents and businesses have every Federal resource available to aid in our recovery.”
In testimony submitted to the Senate Subcommittee on Homeland Security Wednesday, Manchin asked for additional assistance from FEMA to help West Virginians recover from Superstorm Sandy.
“As we all know, Superstorm Sandy caused severe damage in many states on the eastern seaboard. This storm uniquely affected West Virginia with not only heavy winds and rains, but also snow accumulation of 50 inches in the mountains of Northern and Western parts of West Virginia,” Manchin said. “Emergency responders and our National Guard were pushed to the limit by power outages that affected nearly a million of our residents, by the need to vigorously monitor water levels of many affected rivers, and by having to quickly establish emergency shelters all across the state.
“But this is only part of the story of Superstorm Sandy and West Virginia. Our responders also were overwhelmed by dozens of roads that required debris removal, the need for reconnaissance flights to identify downed power lines and substations damaged by fallen trees, and by the urgent requirement to reach individuals across the state who were isolated and in need of such basics as food, water, medicines and shelter.
“Moving forward, FEMA has told us that debris removal remains the biggest issue for our recovery. This storm has left more debris in its wake than any other storm on record, totaling nearly one million cubic yards. Needless to say, with that kind of impact the work to recover is ongoing.” | <urn:uuid:48021a8d-dcf4-49cc-a5e6-2dec06131746> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.williamsondailynews.com/view/full_story/21035584/article-Officials-seek-more-disaster-assistance-for-W-Va- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964964 | 1,026 | 1.523438 | 2 |
I was a heavily involved TA for such a graduate course in 2006 at UC Berkeley.
We started with a little bit of point-set topology introducing the category of compactly generated spaces. Then we moved into homotopy theory proper. We covered CW-complexes and all the fundamental groups, Van-Kampen's Theorem, etc. From this you can prove some nice classical theorems, like the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, the Brauwer Fixed Point Theorem, the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem, and that $R^n \neq R^m$ for $n \neq m$. I felt like this part of the course went fairly well and is sufficiently geometric to be suitable for a first level graduate course (you can draw lots of pictures!).
At this point you can take the course in a couple different directions which all seem to have their own disadvantages and problems. The main problem is lack of time. A very natural direction is to discuss obstruction theory, since it is based off of the same ideas and constructions covered so far. However this is not really possible since the students haven't seen homology or cohomology at this point!
Instead, for a bit we discussed the long exact sequences you get from fibrations and cofibrations. You could then try to lead into the definition of cohomology as homotopy classes of maps into a $K(A,n)$. But this definition is fairly abstract and doesn't show one of the main feature of homology/cohomology: It is extremely computable. Still, I could imagine a course trying to develop homology and cohomology from this point of view and leading into CW homology and the Eilenberg-Steenrod axioms.
Another direction you can go is into the theory of fiber bundles (this is what we tried). The part on covering space theory works fairly well and you have all the tools at your disposal. However when you want to do general fiber bundle theory it can be difficult. A natural goal is the construction of classifying spaces and Brown's representability theorem.
The problem is that the homotopy invariance of fiber bundles is non-trivial to prove. You should expect to have to spend fair amount of time on this. It is really more suited for a second course on algebraic topology.
The main problem with all of these approaches is that it is difficult to cover the homotopy theory section and still have enough time to cover homology/cohomology properly. You know this has to be the case since it is hard to do the reverse: cover homology and cohomology, and still have enough time to cover homotopy theory properly.
What this means is that you'll be in the slightly distasteful situation of having bunch of students who have taken a first course on algebraic topology, but don't really know about homology or cohomology. This is fine if you know that these students will be taking a second semester of algebraic topology. Then any gaps can be fixed. However, in my experience this is not a realistic expectation. As you well know, you will typically have some students who end up not being interested in algebraic topology and go into analysis or algebraic geometry or some such. Or you might have some students who are second or third year students in other math fields and are taking your course to learn more about homology and cohomology. They would be done a particular disservice by a course focusing on "homotopy first". | <urn:uuid:bd3b4174-7066-4aac-8460-945ea79f80e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mathoverflow.net/questions/18847/homotopy-first-courses-in-algebraic-topology/18849 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965737 | 739 | 1.726563 | 2 |
John Lynch has a post up about Richard Dawkins’ lack of theological sophistication in The God Delusion. John is basically reiterating the point that Dawkins did not truly engage theological arguments for theism on a very high or sophisticated level. In fact, John levels the implicit charge that Dawkins’ engagement of theology mirrors the level of good faith that Creationists render toward evolutionary science. Though I am a Neville Chamberlain atheist I am ambivalent about the theological tack. I’ve told Chris that I think that making a stand on theology isn’t the best strategic choice, and though it is tactically sound (i.e., Dawkins is almost proudly ignorant and dismissive of theology in his work) I believe it will lead to long term problems. The short of it is that I believe that the coherency of theology is implicitly presuppositionalist. By this, I mean that Christian theology is coherent and persuasive when one presupposes a Christian set of axioms. I believe theology can assuage and aid in belief, but in the vast majority of cases I doubt it is necessary or sufficient. One could say that science is also presuppositionalist, one must assume a coherency and rationality about the world around us, and generally reject excessive solipsism.
But, there is a difference: science is testable via the world around us, and, it leads to engineering. No matter its manifold flaws, it works. In contrast, theology must remain at remove from the world. Some arguments (e.g., the teleological argument) are informed by the world around us, but fundamentally they operate via a chain of propositions derived from axioms and observations in a rather abstract domain. Mathematics is similar, but I hold that its formalism renders it objectively transparent. In contrast theology’s verbal logic is more opaque and must be mediated by social consensus. The truths of theology are arrived via consensus as opposed to an independent cognitive process.1 The historical record suggests that theology explores a sample space of ideas etched out by contingencies which are derived from human sociology. By an large theology is what cognitive anthropologist Scott Atran would term a “quasi-propositional” system. It has the general form of logic, but its overall direction is dictated by extra-analytical parameters (theologians may get to God in different ways, but in the end, they know that God exists and that the concept is sensible).
Though Dawkins is rather flip and does open himself up to the critique that he does not give due reverence to the sciences of God, I think he is correct to gloss over this domain because of its presuppositionalist nature. Nevertheless, I think that the criticism has more force than it would have because Dawkins approaches the God question as a scientific hypothesis, and so throws the ball into the court of the science whose fundamental subject is God, that is, theology. This to me illustrates the major problem with the The God Delusion, it seems to hold contradictory assumptions about the nature of religion. On the one hand, Dawkins’ defenders are correct, and Dawkins himself alludes to, the fact that theology and religion have little to do with one another, that the genuine animation behind the theistic sensibility is not analysis of the God Hypothesis (theology), but the nature of human psychology. In other words, theism is not a faulty rationality, but a character which emergences from orthogonal cognitive capacities (e.g., theory of mind, social intelligence, agency detection, intuitive physics). And unlike rationality these capacities are unconscious and encapsulated from introspection. Yet as Dawkins moves on in his argument he begins to write as if belief in God is a fundamentally rational proposition derived from particular axioms about the world around us held reflectively within our minds. He then engages in various verbal refutations of these rationalistic arguments (i.e., showing that an axiom is faulty, or than an inference or proposition is incorrect or implausible). So on the one hand he dismisses theology, but on the other hand he needs it as a punching bag against which to throw his arguments. After all, without theodicy the arguments against God’s existence because of evil have less zing.
Why this bait & switch? Well, how exactly can you argue against religion when it is a natural and emergent property of modal psychology? If theism and religion emerge from banal mental and social processes then verbal arguments will have little impact upon them on the mass level. Intellectuals may reject God for intellectual reasons, but most of humanity is either too dull or too uninterested to be moved by refutations of the Ontological Argument (in part, because they don’t know what ontology is in the first place). And yet we do know that theism and religiosity varies between societies. Is that because of differences in psychology? I doubt it. Is it because Sweden was exposed to a great deal more Bertrand Russell and David Hume than the United States? I doubt it. Rather, since theism and religion emerge from unconscious reflexive mental processes shaped by an array of inputs and constrained cognitive biases it seems likely that the inputs, the environment, have shifted so that the intersection of mind and the world without have shifted the modal and median values. Perhaps, for example, social democracy mitigates against a vitality of religion because it renders much of civil society irrelevant. A number of individuals whose religious and theistic yearnings would express in churches and other social meeting houses might be more irreligious simply because the beam upon which their faith might have stood does not exist. In the end, just as religion is banal and convential, so its taming will have to be done via banal and convential means. Dawkins and Sam Harris are entertaining, but they are in the end less important than social processes and the Zeitgeist. In the end I am saying that he ways of the heart have little to do with the cogitations of the mind, and speaking to the latter when the object of interest is truly in the domain of the former will only result in futility.
Addendum: Theists will often point to the complexity of the world around us, the beauty of a tree, as evidence of God’s agency in the universe. Now, one may take from this the lesson that decomposing and rendering the generation of complexity, the tree, the sense of beauty elicited in our minds, through the tools of natural science will demystify the universe and so render superfluous theism. I think this is problematic because the tree illustrates the intuition of agency. Even if you generate a plausible natural (non-agent) explanation for the emergence of the tree, that does not remove the basal intuition which the tree illustrates! In other words, the contention by individuals such as Richard Dawkins that natural explanations of the world around us (he means natural selection) render God irrelevant is problematic because the world around us simply illustrates the powerful tendency to perceive, intuit, agency. That intuition does not simply evaporate even when one’s reflective mind acknowledges that such agency does not exist. Consider the case of a scientific materialist who walks through a cemetery: many stone cold materialists may still “feel” “creepy,” as if the miasma of specters haunt the environs of the decomposing bodies of the dead. On a rational level one may dismiss such instincts as unfounded, but the instincts exist and persist. I suspect many of us who are “easily” atheists have dampened agency detection biases. Or, our supreme faith in rational decomposition and analysis is greater than our agency detection intuition.2 Nevertheless, the point is that refuting illustrations of the underlying tendency does not remove that tendency.
1 – One may assert the same about natural science, that it is a social enterprise laced with subjectivity and bias. Science is a culture with its own norms and consensus arrived Truths. But, the difference is that across the dark night of scientific fabulation the scythe of reality occasionally sweeps across the sample space of ideas and leaves behind those who pass its test of fidelity to the world out there.
2 – This would imply that those who have greater skills at analysis and decomposition of ideas into abstractions would be more likely to have faith in this than their own intuitions about the world. In other words, the more intelligent will be more persuaded by atheism because of analysis because they are comfortable with analysis as a tool to understand and conceptualize the world. | <urn:uuid:3bde2774-e6c9-450d-b00d-9b1a6508e6c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2006/12/28/dawkins-theological-sophistica/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94886 | 1,751 | 1.523438 | 2 |
NEW YORK — When the German film director Christian Petzold was young, his parents rarely shared stories about growing up in communist-era East Germany, which they fled in 1959, shortly before his birth. Memories of their pasts, it seemed, were locked far away.
“I don’t know anything about their youth — when they smoked their first cigarette, how they fell in love, what songs they listened to — because, after they escaped, it became like a traumatic memory. So they cut it out of their heads,” says Petzold, after a New York Film Festival screening of his new feature, “Barbara,” set in 1980 East Germany. “Me and my two brothers were always a little bit irritated by that. But after the wall came down, they started telling us stories about their past. At that moment, I knew that they had lost their youth.”
Indeed, for a country that existed for 41 years, stories about East Germany, says Petzold, seem to have receded into the shrouded mists of history — somewhat ironic considering the oppressive surveillance state it was.
Having made four previous films set in post-Berlin Wall-era East Germany, Petzold became increasingly fascinated with exploring the culture and everyday life of a fading East German past and the wounded psyche of its people.
“The German Democratic Republic has vanished now. It’s treated like a place in ancient stories about a country far, far away,” says Petzold, 52, between puffs on a cigarette sitting on a terrace outside Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. “And when a country is far, far away, I think then cinema has to come and tell those stories.”
Petzold tasked himself with telling one of those stories. “Barbara,” which opens in the Boston area on Friday, centers on a young doctor (played by Nina Hoss) who rankles the authorities when she applies for an exit visa from the German Democratic Republic. As punishment, Barbara is banished from a prestigious hospital post in East Berlin to a gloomy pediatric facility in a small northern hamlet. There, she’s spied on and harassed by the menacing local Stasi officers, who chronicle her every move. Broken, guarded, and suspicious of potential informants, Barbara methodically bides her time and plots an escape from the country, aided by her West German lover, Jörg, with whom she rendezvous for clandestine trysts.
Despite the wall she’s built up around her, Barbara remains compassionately dedicated to her patients, connecting in particular with a rebellious teenage runaway and the case of a suicidal young man. Most dangerously, she finds herself drawn increasingly to the hospital’s head doctor, Andre (Ronald Zehrfeld), who reaches out to her in friendship as a kindred spirit. But Barbara is suspicious of his true intentions and wary of betrayal. She keeps her distance, fearful that he may be a Stasi informant. Yet the attraction between them continues to grow, and her loyalty to her patients tests her resolve to flee.
Consumed by paranoia, Barbara has adapted the techniques of her Stasi oppressors.
“The dialogue between them is like an interrogation,” Petzold says. “Throughout the whole movie, all the lines from her are spoken as questions. The couple is infected by the oppressive state. So in their infected state, how can they find words of love and trust? The relationship is for me like an adventure. As they talk to each other, they scan each others’ faces and make a new language of love out of this scanning, out of this mistrust.”
As part of his preparation process, Petzold typically screens films for his cast and crew that might provide connection points and touchstones for their characters. To capture the elusive dynamic between the couple, Petzold had the actors watch the 1944 Howard Hawks film “To Have and Have Not,” in which Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall play wartime lovers suspiciously trying to suss each other out as they dodge the secret police. A flirtatious guessing game unfolds as they’re forced to read between the lines and look for hidden meanings.
Petzold also had the cast watch William Friedkin’s “The French Connection,” Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “The Merchant of Four Seasons,” Roberto Rossellini’s “Stromboli,” and several films by Claude Chabrol. The 1971 thriller “Klute,” directed by Alan Pakula, was referenced for a sensual dinner scene between Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland’s characters when it becomes clear that they’ve fallen for each other.
“Barbara is torn. She is very intrigued by the way Andre manages to live in this repressive state — the way he cooks and grows herbs in his garden and studies art,” says Hoss, a beguiling blonde who’s collaborated with Petzold on five features, including lead roles in “Yella” and “Jerichow.” “Andre creates this kind of oasis for himself in a place where Barbara thought no one could live in and be happy.”
For Hoss, the challenge in playing such a stoic and withdrawn character was keeping Barbara’s emotions internalized while letting just enough information filter through on her face. But the actress was concerned that the performance would be too understated.
“The big task was portraying Barbara through a lot of thinking and emotional stuff going on inside, which has to show through my eyes or physically through the way that she behaves. But you don’t want people to think, ‘Well, she’s closed up, so what’s the big deal with her? I understand her right away.’ So I had to let some emotions show through that veneer, to reveal something more of her inner life, of her longings, of her passions.”
While Petzold is known for the sometimes icy detachment of his films, Hoss praises the director for the unflinching way he looks at the world.
“I always see something very hopeful in his movies,” she says. “He’s very honest in the observation of people. He doesn’t hide anything. He’s very precise and even cold in some ways. But underneath, there is always a fire burning.”
Whereas Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s 2007 Oscar-winning film “The Lives of Others” was a pulse-racing suspense thriller that illuminated the absurd psychology of the brutal East German surveillance state, “Barbara” is a quiet meditation on the nature of freedom and responsibility that raises some thorny questions.
“What is freedom for us or for anyone? And what kind of freedom are we talking about?” Hoss wonders. “Is it also a kind of freedom to make decisions to sacrifice certain things? Are you really happy in just fulfilling your dreams no matter what? Or will you be a more fulfilled person if you also act with honor and a sense of responsibility?”
Says Petzold, “When you are living in a ruined country, with ruined dreams in your head, how can you live on? You have to find something fresh, a new idea. But how? I think this is the story of the movie.” | <urn:uuid:f9f63660-1f4c-45d9-8251-2bcaf7274dc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2012/12/15/director-petzold-tells-story-barbara-that-close-his-heart/kNv6LaXLQsJuK8J7T1spOO/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973899 | 1,579 | 1.6875 | 2 |
In honor of the 1,000 Episode of Monday Night Raw tonight, I thought it would be the perfect time to bring back and old stable of The Nerdy Teacher.
Growing up, I used to watch the WWE (WWWF back in the day) frequently. I would watch on Saturdays and then make my own wrestling magazine filled with highlights to share with my friends who were not allowed to watch for a quarter a view. A teacher busted me and took my mags away. Stifling an aspiring writer. My Dad scored tickets to Wrestlemania when it was at the Pontiac Silverdome and I watched Hogan slam Andre the Giant. It is one of my earliest memories. Anyway, wrestling has been a part of my life in different ways and I thought I would share its impact on my view of education.
Every teacher needs to be part of a tag team!
I loved tag team wrestling. The tag teams always had cool gimmicks and great names. The Bushwakers come to mind as do the Bolsheviks. They worked together to obtain the coveted Tag Team Championship belts. The teams worked hard and had each other's backs no matter what the circumstances. If you can't count on your tag team partner, who can you count on?
Teaching needs to be more of a tag team sport. We are up against some very big numbers every single day, it seems silly to go at it solo. Every class can be like a Royal Rumble. There is tremendous value in having a tag team partner at your side. Being a lone wolf might get you some places, but a tag team partner will allow you to accomplish things not possible on your own. Teachers need to break out of the independent model of instruction and look to others for support and guidance. The best tag teams would eventually reach out to rookies and mentor them in the ways if the ring. Teachers need to treat teaming up and mentoring in schools same way. Granted, the rookie usually betrays the team and slams them within a steal chair in a shocking turn if events, but I do not foresee that happening in the classroom.
You have to think outside of the box, or ring, to be successful.
There are many great wrestlers who are proficient at what they do in the ring. They have tremendous technical skills that make the formidable foes. However, there are those that see the value in taking their opponent outside of the ring to get the job done. They see all of the wonderful tools outside of the ring as valuable in accomplishing their goal. Whether it be the stairs to the ring or the Spanish Language Announcers table, everything is fair game to win the match. This innovation has allowed WWE to continue to grow and be successful.
There are many great teachers that can do the traditional stand and lecture model of teaching and be effective. There are others that need to try things differently to get the most out of their students. While some might look oddly at this behavior, it can be very effective in reaching students who need a different approach to teaching. By looking at the world around us, we can see the many great tools out there. Some of my favorite teachers were the ones that chose to be different and told me it was ok to be different. Without innovators, any business will fold in time. Education is no different. The WWE has been innovative for years and the best teachers are innovators as well.
You have to put on a show.
There have been wonderfully sound wrestlers with tremendous wrestling skills, but they never lasted very long because they could not work the crowd. If they could not rock the mic, they never made the cut. Wrestling is a very important part of the job, but so is the show. The Rock was a fun guy to watch because he always told you what he was cookin'. Stone Cold Steve Austin and Degeneration X were fun to watch in the ring, but more entertaining on the mics. There is something all teachers can take away from this.
I have know some of the most knowledgable teachers in the world, but they are terrible instructors. There needs to be a flair in your teaching and I think it comes from the passion teachers need to have for their craft. Every class is another show where we try to engage our audience in the story we are trying to tell. All of our favorite teachers were masters at keeping our attention no matter the topic. Wrestlers have the same ability. Do we really care about the weird storyline? No, but they seem it with a passion that is entrancing. I haven't watched wrestling on a regular basis in over 10 years, but I have been sucked in on multiple occasions while some guy was ranting and raving about his current adversary. Passion is infectious and teachers need to show that in the classroom.
The best characters evolve over time.
In wrestling, the wrestlers had to be willing to change their character if they wanted to stick around. Playing the same tune for too long will not entertain the crowd. Good guys will become bad guys and some will take on a completely different persona all together. As a young kid, it was a bit confusing. As I got older, I understood the value of evolving as time went on. Watching Hogan become bad guy was crazy! Mankind to Cactus Jack to Dude Love was so much fun! Change is important to keep things fresh. This is true for all people, but especially to teachers.
If I was the same teacher from 10 years ago, I would not have a job. It is that simple. I have chosen to evolve and grow as an educator. I'm adding new tools to my chest and I'm striving to put on a better show in my class each an every year. The teachers I look up to most are the ones that have shown me the value of change and adaptation. I find value in re-inventing myself because it means that I will be bringing something better to my students. | <urn:uuid:6cb27ee4-b361-4e9b-88eb-5a97d9cf7166> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/2012/07/everything-i-learned-about-education-i.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980097 | 1,208 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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