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Dean Eric Furda of Admissions gives advice to students and parents about finding the best choice.
Shaun Harper of the Graduate School of Education shares his perspective on gender roles/stereotypes and education.
Robert Ghrist of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Arts and Sciences is featured for teaching an online calculus class.
If you’re one of the people who takes the University of Pennsylvania online course “’Pay Attention!!’ ADHD Through the Lifespan,” you will learn that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder isn’t just kid stuff.
Even though between 5 and 8 percent of school-aged children in the United States are diagnosed with ADHD, it is estimated that 4 percent of adults also suffer from some form of attention deficit disorder -- and that number is increasing.
Edward Rock of the Law School comments on receiving credits for free online courses.
The Penn’s course Calculus: Single Variable, taught by Robert Ghrist of the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been recommended for credit by the American Council on Education.
PHILADELPHIA — A massive open online course, or MOOC, taught by a University of Pennsylvania calculus professor has been recommended for credit by the American Council on Education.
“Well-rounded” just doesn’t seem to cover it. Nor does “always busy.”
Andrew Dierkes, 19, is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, but, he’s no ordinary undergraduate.
PHILADELPHIA — After more than 30 years on the job, Susan Davidson has some perspective on her discipline.
Note for TV and radio: The University of Pennsylvania has an on-campus satellite uplink facility with live-shot capability and an ISDN line.
Gun policy and violence prevention | <urn:uuid:e1765499-3c11-4994-b88d-5c4a4c0bb194> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/taxonomy/term/320?page=6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941281 | 387 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Masters Series: Tony Palladino Masters Series: Tony Palladino
Posters, sculptures, paintings, and logos on display. October 4 to October 27, 1999 Leading conceptual artist-designer Tony Palladino is the 13th recipient of the School of Visual Arts coveted Masters Series Award. A first-generation Italian-American, Palladino was born in East Harlem. His fascination with the stark visual realities of New York City eventually motivated him to feature them in his early work. Simply using jagged fragmented type, Palladino created the cover art for the Simon & Schuster book, "Psycho," which was later used on the poster for the film of the same name. Further testament to his design prowess: one evening at dinner, slitting and bending a common drinking straw, he conceived the design of a lamp that eventually became part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art.
Currently a consultant to advertising agencies and corporations, he believes in the design principle that less is more. Palladino has created well-known logos including Conrail and the celebrated Trattoria restaurant in the Met Life building. As a poster designer, his work ranges from the Cotton Bowl to Mobil Masterpiece Theater and from Lenny Bruce on Broadway to the Metropolitan Opera. Some of his best posters are those for the School of Visual Arts, where he has taught Illustration, Design and Conceptual Creativity for over 40 years. In the fine arts realm, Palladino has painted a series of nudes, landscapes in Tuscany, and has fashioned discarded hubcaps into hats. "He created Pop art before Pop was born, but his images were imbued with thought. Deep thought..." states advertising legend George Lois. "Tony is obviously an original. There’s nobody even remotely like him."
Palladino’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Directors Club, Lichtfield Library, and the NYU Gallery. It is part of the permanent collections of the San Marino Museum of Modern Art in Italy and the Thessaloniki Design Museum in Greece, as well as in a long list of corporate and private collections.
Monday, October 4, 1999 - Wednesday, October 27, 1999 | <urn:uuid:d51a81a5-148a-4694-bd56-a21bb089254f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sva.edu/events/archive/the-masters-series-tony-palladino | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972181 | 457 | 1.53125 | 2 |
SequiTimer is a timer – an application, which will remind you of the end of a chosen time interval. SequiTimer is not an ordinary timer, it allows you to define many intervals in a sequence. Therefore we call it the multi-interval timer. Each interval can have different length and after it’s ending it will stop and wait for manual follow-up, or it will continue to the next interval automatically. You can attach a name and a description to each interval in the list to know its purpose and what you have to do during the interval countdown. You can save your interval list and use it anytime later. Of course, you can save as many interval lists as you want. The end of the interval and also the end of the whole interval list is notified by a sound signal, which you can choose from the sounds available in your Android device.
The timer SequiTimer is perfectly universal Android application. Is good as a kitchen timer, by sport training and body building, for zen meditation, in a workroom, by hobby, helps by tea preparation, for testing for time and many more different activities. Examples of its use you find here Use of Android timer SequiTimer . | <urn:uuid:727d7d65-003a-46ec-b424-cbb5df24c1d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sequitimer.com/index.php?category=102&article=91&lang=fr | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941291 | 246 | 1.5625 | 2 |
As more details of the Instagram deal come out, it has become clear that Mark Zuckerberg pulled off a big billion dollar app deal while he still could, before the Facebook founder has to answer to the shareholders and board members of a public company. Because of the financial responsibilities that come with going public, the social network's CEO was always reluctant to file for an IPO, fearing his company would lose the "hacker" spirit he worked so hard to preserve in order to please shareholders. Even when forced to take his company public, Zuckerberg structured the company so that he would maintain as much power as possible, giving himself 57 percent control of the company's voting rights. Yet even with all that power, doing the kind of three-day covert dealings that went down between Zuckerberg and Instagram honcho Kevin Systrom, which we learn about in detail from The Wall Street Journal's Shayndi Raice, Spencer E. Ante and Emily Glazer today, isn't the type of thing a CEO of a big public company can do without consulting the board or lawyers or anyone. But, Facebook hasn't quite gone public yet and it looks like Zuckerberg took this limbo time, before hitting the stock market as a publicly traded company, for a last hurrah, full of hacker spirit.
Even before Facebook announced its IPO, the company had two divergent cultures: the hacker way and the Sheryl Sandberg-led corporate minded side, which we learned about via an inside look at the social network from Fortune. "This is a company that operates as two symbiotic halves," wrote the magazine's Miguel Miguel Helft and Jessi Hempel. "One, Zuckerberg’s world, is a meritocratic, coder-led organization that develops the Facebook site; the other, which is charged with making money out of it, is subordinate," they continue. As Facebook moves from small start-up, to giant public company, the Zuckerberg ethos, which he calls the "hacker way," has to answer to the Sandberg-led side. Or it at least has to consult with the money-making schemers when buying up the competition. "These sorts of fast decisions, commonplace among scrappy, private start-ups, get trickier in the more structured world of multibillion-dollar public corporations where Facebook will soon operate," write Raice, Ante and Glazer.
But Facebook isn't yet operating in that more structured world and Zuckerberg took advantage with this Instagram deal, leaving the financially driven side out of it. Sandberg knew about the deal, a source told Raice, Ante and Glazer, but she wasn't involved. This one Zuck did alone, taking just three days for solo negotiations with Systrom. "Companies generally prefer to bring in ranks of lawyers and bankers to scrutinize a deal before proceeding, a process that can eat up days or weeks," explain Raice, Ante and Glazer. This was a three day process, with Zuckerberg "negotiating mostly on his own," bringing Systrom down from $2 billion to the final $1 billion price tag. The board, including Marc Andreessen, the second to invest in Facebook ever, didn't know about any of it until after the two had already struck the deal. "Facebook's board did vote on the deal, according to people familiar with the matter, though it was largely symbolic," write Raice, Ante and Glazer. Zuckerberg went rogue, something he won't have as much freedom to do come IPO day.
In a way, the way the deal went down and its motivations is very "hacker way" of Zuck.This hacker way means keeping Facebook a place where product innovation, not profit margins, rules. "A place where engineers stay up all night to mock up new features ... a place where managers will scrap the site’s most sacred elements, like the traditional profile page, if there’s a potential for something better," write Helft and Hempel. Not a place that answers to shareholder whims. Buying Instagram in three days without talking to anyone falls under the hacker way, rather than the Sandberg way. Fear of falling behind on innovation, not money (exactly), drove the sale, we learn from The Journal. "Mr. Zuckerberg was particularly concerned when he saw millions of people signing up for the Android app, people familiar with the matter said," they write. "One concern: Facebook was falling behind in mobile as younger start-ups were innovating more quickly." We know photo sharing is one of the most popular aspects of Facebook and we also know that Facebook is weak in the mobile space -- two things Instagram rules at, concerns only vaguely mentioned in the S1 filing. "Growth in use of Facebook through our mobile products, where we do not currently display ads, as a substitute for use on personal computers may negatively affect our revenue and financial results;" reads the "risk factor" section followed by: "Facebook user growth and engagement on mobile devices depend upon effective operation with mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control." It didn't mention buying up the competition. No, this acquisition was driven by that hacker hunger for constant innovation.
In about two months, Zuckerberg will leave start-up land, completing the transition to big-boy tech company, as it goes public. Then, Zuckerberg won't have the freedom to pull clandestine billion dollar deals like this, losing at least one aspect of his company's hacker spirit. "Ever since he hatched the social network in his Harvard dorm room in 2004, Zuckerberg has fought to preserve the so-called hacker ethos that is at the root of how Facebook really operates," write Helft and Hempel. Can he keep fighting? Or will he end up like the Yahoos and Googles of the tech world
, compromising founding beliefs to make money?
Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments
or send an email to the author at
rgreenfield at theatlantic dot com.
You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. | <urn:uuid:96e68660-9f16-4695-8e6e-a0e27187fbb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/04/instagram-was-mark-zuckerbergs-last-hurrah-facebooks-hacker-king/51267/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968738 | 1,234 | 1.585938 | 2 |
New York Times
February 4, 2013
Every morning on her way to work, Kathy Fee holds her breath as she drives past the squat brick building that houses Dominion Psychiatric Associates.
It was there that her son, Richard, visited a doctor and received prescriptions for Adderall, an amphetamine-based medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It was in the parking lot that she insisted to Richard that he did not have A.D.H.D., not as a child and not now as a 24-year-old college graduate, and that he was getting dangerously addicted to the medication. It was inside the building that her husband, Rick, implored Richard’s doctor to stop prescribing him Adderall, warning, “You’re going to kill him.”
It was where, after becoming violently delusional and spending a week in a psychiatric hospital in 2011, Richard met with his doctor and received prescriptions for 90 more days of Adderall. He hanged himself in his bedroom closet two weeks after they expired.
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The United States government will never have another balanced budget again. Yes, you read that correctly. U.S. government finances have now reached a critical "tipping point" and things are going to spin wildly out of control from this time forward. Why? Spending on entitlement programs and interest on the national debt are now accelerating at exponential rates. Some time around 2020 they will eat up every single dollar of federal revenue that is brought in before a penny is spent on anything else. Of course the solution to all of this would be to radically cut entitlement programs, but no U.S. politician in his or her right mind would do that. After all, do you think elderly people (who vote in droves by the way) would vote for you after you just cut their Social Security checks in half? That is not the way the world works. You see, democracies always get into trouble once the people realize that they can vote for the candidates that promise them the largest gifts out of the public treasury. That is where the United States is at now. Over 100 million Americans now receive direct payments from the United States government. For millions of Americans, the American Dream now means getting a government check and kicking back and enjoying life. We have become a nation that is chock full of people that can't take care of themselves and that are totally dependent on the monolithic nanny state that the U.S. government has created.
Now, the truth is that helping the poor and those who cannot help themselves is always a good thing.
Nobody is denying that.
But are there really 100 million Americans that cannot take care of themselves?
Of course not.
The welfare state has gotten wildly out of control and now we are drowning in an ocean of red ink because of it.
In fact, unless the underlying laws for the entitlement programs are rewritten and unless benefits are cut to the bone, it will be mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to balance the federal budget from this time forward.
You are skeptical of that claim?
The following are 14 reasons why the U.S. government will never have a balanced budget ever again....
#1) Right now, interest on the U.S. national debt and spending on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 percent of GDP. By 2080, they are projected to eat up approximately 50 percent of GDP.
#2) Approximately 57 percent of Barack Obama's 3.8 trillion dollar budget for 2011 consists of direct payments to individual Americans or is money that is spent on their behalf.
#3) Nearly 51 million Americans received $672 billion in Social Security benefits in 2009. That number is projected to grow substantially in years ahead as waves of Baby Boomers begin to retire.
#4) According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2010 the Social Security system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes. That was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.
#5) Back in 1950 each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers. Today, each retiree's Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers. By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.
#6) The U.S. government "borrowed" 2.5 trillion dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund, and now it turns out that the Social Security system is going to start needing that money. So where will the U.S. government get an extra 2.5 trillion dollars?
#7) Over 40 million Americans are now on food stamps and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is projecting that more than 43 million Americans will be on food stamps by the end of 2011.
#8) Entitlement programs are not subject to budget freezes or budget cuts - unless Congress changes the underlying laws.
#9) The lobbies for those receiving entitlement payments are extremely powerful. That is why so few politicians will ever even mention the possibility of cutting Social Security payments. Old people vote in high numbers, and cutting their benefits would really piss them off.
#10) Interest on the U.S. national debt now makes up 7% of the budget and it is climbing rapidly. This is an expense that must be paid or else U.S. government finances collapse.
#11) According to the Tax Foundation’s Microsimulation Model, to erase the U.S. budget deficit for 2010, the U.S. Congress would have to multiply the tax rate for every American by 2.4. That would mean that the 10 percent tax rate would become 24 percent, the 15 percent tax rate would become 36 percent, and the 35 percent tax rate would have to be 85 percent. Keep in mind that this is before unemployment taxes, Social Security taxes and state taxes are paid. Do you think any American would ever put up with a federal income tax rate of 85 percent?
#12) According to an official U.S. government report, rapidly growing interest costs on the U.S. national debt together with spending on major entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare will absorb approximately 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019. That is before one penny is spent on anything else. As the U.S. government graph below reveals, the financial picture only gets more bleak in the years beyond that....
#13) The present value of projected scheduled benefits exceeds earmarked revenues for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare by about 46 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. So that means that the U.S government is going to have to find an extra 46 trillion dollars from somewhere to pay all those benefits.
#14) The vast majority of the American people have become soft and don't know how to take care of themselves any longer. We now have millions upon millions of people who are totally dependent on the U.S. government for survival. As the government takes care of more and more people the red ink will increasingly get worse. At what point will it cause U.S. government finances to totally collapse?
Needless to say, the U.S. government is facing a financial crisis that is absolutely unprecedented in U.S. history. There is no way out of this mess that does not involve a massive amount of economic pain.
As of June 1st, the U.S. National Debt was $13,050,826,460,886.97. But as you can see from the data above, things are about to get a lot worse.
We are heading into a financial black hole that will literally rip apart this nation if something is not done right now to fix things. But the folks down in Washington D.C. don't seem the least bit interested in fixing things. In fact, about the only thing they seem determined to do is to spend even more money and get us into even more debt.
The course we are on now can only end badly. Hopefully our representatives in Washington D.C. will wake up while there is still time. If not, the tsunami of red ink that is headed our way will devastate all of our lives. | <urn:uuid:51714d32-1c0e-4d4c-a5a2-fd9b6b28ea25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freedompub.org/profiles/blogs/14-reasons-why-the-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969621 | 1,472 | 1.625 | 2 |
Much like discussing funeral arrangements while you're still young and healthy, the topic of closing your business isn't something many entrepreneurs want to contemplate.
But the numbers aren't in the favor of small-business owners, the U.S. Small Business Administration reported that an estimated 552,600 new companies opened for business in 2009, while 660,900 businesses closed up shop. Things look even worse if you're in the food service sector where the National Restaurant Association says 30 percent of new restaurants fail in the first year, with another 30 percent failing within the next two years.
There's just no skirting the issue that for whatever reasons, sometimes companies must close up shop. It could be a lack of funding, bad business decisions, an economic crisis -- or a combination of all of these.
Adding to financial woes, many doomed businesses fail to properly terminate their corporation or LLC, leading to a raft of unexpected charges associated with the dissolution of the company. There's a right way and a wrong way to close up a business, according to Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation.com. Here are her suggestions on properly closing a business:
1. File your final tax return.
When closing a business, you must file an annual tax return for the last year in business – even if you were in business for only a portion of that year. All corporation and LLC tax return documents, including Schedule K-1s, have a denotation that this is the “final tax return.” Check that box, and then contact the IRS to close your employer identification number (EIN) account.
2. File your final employment tax return.
Tax related matters also include filing a final employment tax return if you have (or had) employees. And don't forget to make the final federal tax deposits for your employment tax return as well.
3. Deal with dissolution documents.
Unless you formally dissolve your business, the government will have it listed as an ongoing entity, accruing taxes and fees. Filing dissolution papers is especially important if you have partners or other owners in the business, as it prevents future confusion about ownership and liability.
4. Take stock of what you have and sell it.
Inventory and sell any assets that the business may have remaining, and be sure to report all business assets using IRS Form 8594 (the Asset Acquisition Statement). You might be able to recover some of your business losses by selling your inventory and equipment.
5. Cancel licenses, permits and insurance policies.
If you have city, town, county, state, or federal licenses for your business, contact the issuing authorities to cancel them. Also, be sure to contact your insurance broker to cancel business liability and workman's compensation insurance, and notify your employee-based health care provider about the closure. | <urn:uuid:a081c37b-5621-447c-ac67-2d64aa46fe05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/properly-close-business-214300877.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952806 | 575 | 1.625 | 2 |
CountrySwedish.com Welcomes You!
History Of Swedish Gustavian Style
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the Swedish Aristocracy adopted design aspects from a variety of European courts - mainly Italy, France and England. The fusion of Swedish taste and styles imported by King Gustav III during his reign (from 1775-1792), resulted in the Gustavian style, a look which continues to exert its influence, a style so unmistakably Swedish.
The Country Swedish Collection
The Country Swedish Collection includes Furniture, Wallpaper, Fabrics and Rugs. All of the products available through Country Swedish are designed and made in Scandinavia by craftsmen who continue to preserve the tradition of Gustavian Swedish furniture making and design. Our fine reproductions are designed and developed with careful attention to scale, proportion and ornamental details, yet made to suit the American style of comfortable living. Our designs can be very elegant and sophisticated or more casual and informal, depending upon the colors, fabrics and accents you select. Our designs are equally adaptable to furnishing a country house or an elegant city home.
Each piece in our collection is unique and individually made from the highest quality raw materials, using techniques and skills practiced by only a few. The furniture is made from traditional woods such as beech, birch and pine. The finishes and accents play a very important part in the end product. The extraordinary skill that is required to apply and properly burnish the color or stain remains a valued handcraft in the Swedish tradition.
Custom Handcrafted Furniture
With caring detail placed in crafting an order before the craftsmen begin the meticulous process of handcrafting any piece in the Country Swedish collection, as the attention to detail begins with understanding the designer and the client. Country Swedish insists on utilizing the highest quality raw materials, using techniques and skills practiced by only a few, and going the extra distance it takes to ensure that our clients obtain timeless furniture. As the craftsmanship required for each piece remains true to the original and made in authentic materials, please be sure to afford the Country Swedish staff patience as they assemble all of the neccessary details to provide the very finest in end product results. | <urn:uuid:3804a937-de4b-4ef4-9811-f955e2d5438e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.countryswedish.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939791 | 445 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Mad Cows, Mayan Calendars and Insider Trading
Apr 24, 2012
For a long time, I’ve been arguing that another case of BSE in the U.S. herd would be a non-event. Now that USDA has confirmed a case of—importantly—atypical BSE in a cow from a California dairy (of course, he interjected snidely), we’ll find out.
I hold that the public has wised up and realizes they don’t need to worry as much about this historic disease as they do the Mayan calendar. Neither, if you’re logical, is anything to worry about.
Apparently, the traders don’t agree, since they trampled each other in their haste to drop the board the limit earlier today after somebody tipped them -- them, not us -- off. I just heard Wolf Blitzer on CNN talking about how "scary" it is, despite a pair of petty soothing reports from reporters. And, of course, he quotes R-CALF as being "very concerned" and no doubt ready to blame it on Canada or Mexico.
I’m taking the Ag Secretary at his word when he says this will not impact our trade. If it doesn’t, the Blitzers and R-CALF scaremongers will settle down soon and the traders who spent today selling the rumor will soon be buying the facts.
On a very serious note, having been stuck off in Texas while the board crashed, I’d like to see a thorough investigation of how the news got leaked to the trading floor. Somebody made a killing today because he had a tip from somebody who should have kept his mouth shut. That is a serious problem for those of us who don’t have the insider trading tips. | <urn:uuid:48df5ed1-f234-4ebc-88ba-1ecc75e39e37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweb.com/legacyproject/blog/Out_to_Pasture_149/mad_cows,_mayan_calendars_and_insider_trading/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963506 | 377 | 1.609375 | 2 |
(Recasts with protests, adds analyst comment, background)
By Matthias Williams
NEW DELHI, Feb 9 (Reuters) - India hanged a Kashmiri militant on Saturday for an attack on the country's parliament in 2001, sparking clashes in Kashmir between hundreds of protesters and police who wielded batons and fired teargas to disperse the crowds.
President Pranab Mukherjee rejected a mercy petition from Mohammad Afzal Guru and he was hanged at 8 a.m. (0230 GMT) in Tihar jail in the capital, New Delhi. Security forces anticipating unrest had imposed a curfew in parts of insurgency-torn Kashmir and ordered people off the streets.
India blamed the 2001 attack on the parliament of the world's largest democracy on militants backed by Pakistan, targeting the prime minister, interior minister and legislators in one of the country's worst ever militant attacks.
Pakistan denied any involvement and condemned the attack but tension rose sharply and brought the nuclear-armed rivals dangerously close to their fourth war. Nearly a million soldiers were mobilised on both sides of the border and fears of war only dissipated months later, in June 2002.
The hanging was ordered less than three months after India executed the lone surviving gunman of a 2008 attack in the city of Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.
Saturday's execution could help the ruling Congress party deflect opposition criticism of being soft on militancy, as it gears up for a series of state elections this year and a general election due by 2014, while grappling with an economic slowdown.
"Congress has decided to be more proactive in view of the elections, not only in terms of economic policy but also matters like the hanging of Afzal Guru," said political analyst Amulya Ganguli.
"The Congress has now deprived the BJP of a propaganda plank," he said, referring to the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Government officials dismissed suggestions that electoral politics played a role in the decision to execute Guru.
In major towns of Indian Kashmir, where security forces have battled a Muslim separatist insurgency for decades, barricades were erected and hundreds of police and paramilitary force members were deployed.
"The hanging of Afzal Guru is a declaration of war by India," said Hilal Ahmad War, leader of a separatist faction.
Authorities shut down internet services and blocked social networking sites to try to stop unrest from spreading. The chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, Omar Abdullah, made a televised appeal for calm.
Scuffles also broke out in New Delhi between Hindu activists and demonstrators who gathered at a city-centre protest site to condemn the hanging, a Reuters witness said.
Five militants stormed the heavily guarded parliament complex in New Delhi on Dec. 13, 2001, armed with grenades, guns and explosives, but security forces killed them before they could enter the main chamber. Ten other people, most of them security officers, were killed in the clash.
Guru, an Indian national, was convicted for helping organise arms for the attackers and a place for them to stay. He had denied any involvement in the conspiracy.
India said the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group was responsible. The group fights Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
The hanging last year of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistani militant involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, after a long lull in executions, prompted speculation that India would move quickly to execute Guru.
But unlike Kasab's execution, which sparked celebrations in the streets, Guru's case was seen as more divisive.
Some Kashmiri leaders warned that hanging Afzal would fuel the revolt in India's part of the Himalayan region in which tens of thousands of people have been killed since 1989.
Curfews were imposed in Srinagar, the region's summer capital in the Kashmir valley, and major towns including Baramulla, Guru's home town.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, both of which claim the region in full and rule it in part. They have fought two of their three wars over the region.
India has long accused Muslim Pakistan of arming and funding militants to fight Indian forces in Kashmir. Pakistan says it only provides moral support to the fellow-Muslim people of Kashmir, who Pakistan says, face heavy-handed Indian rule.
The dispute, a legacy of the division of the sub-continent at the end of British rule, is the main factor souring relations between the neighbours. (Additional reporting by Fayaz Bukhari, Mansi Thapliyal, Ashok Pahalwan, Arnika Thakur and Satarupa Bhattacharjya; Editing by Ross Colvin and Robert Birsel) | <urn:uuid:17cffd18-5081-4997-a09e-1833d2998c88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.trust.org/item/?map=protests-erupt-as-india-executes-militant-for-parliament-attack | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961752 | 965 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Franz Beckenbauer, a shining symbol of German football, and a winner of the highest football prizes as a player and coach, is the latest great to have the honour of receiving the UEFA President's Award. 'Der Kaiser' collected the 2012 prize from Michel Platini in Munich on Wednesday.
A skilful and purposeful midfield player in his younger days, Beckenbauer was behind a tactical innovation in the game when he converted to a libero, sweeping up behind the defence. It was in this role that he captained Germany to two major titles – the UEFA European Championship in 1972, and the FIFA World Cup on home soil in 1974.
"Franz Beckenbauer has made a memorable contribution to football as a player, coach and administrator," said UEFA President Michel Platini. "His versatility and skill, allied to his qualities as a leader, marked his distinguished playing career, in which he won a host of honours at club and national team level – and he can lay claim to having invented the role of libero as a tactical innovation.
"He was equally successful when he moved into coaching, taking his country to the FIFA World Cup title. Franz Beckenbauer is a landmark figure in football who can be proud of his many achievements. It gives me great pleasure to honour him with the UEFA President's Award for 2012."
Beckenbauer was born in Munich on 11 September 1945. The son of a postal official, he made his debut for FC Bayern München as an 18-year-old, and went on to play 396 Bundesliga matches for the club, scoring 44 goals and inspiring them to some of their greatest triumphs – the 1967 European Cup Winners' Cup, four Bundesliga titles and three successive European Champion Clubs' Cups, in 1974, 1975 and 1976.
He played 103 times for West Germany, scoring 14 goals – including four in the 1966 World Cup finals as his side finished runners-up. His elegant prowess as a player was recognised with European Footballer of the Year awards in 1972 and 1976.
In 1977, Beckenbauer moved to New York Cosmos, winning the United States championship three times. A return to Germany saw him celebrating another Bundesliga title with Hamburger SV in 1982 before he went back to the Cosmos, ending an outstanding playing career in 1983.
In 1984, Beckenbauer accepted the offer to become coach of West Germany, and his footballing successes continued. In 1986, his team were runners-up at the World Cup in Mexico, and four years later they triumphed in the same competition, remaining unbeaten as they claimed the trophy in Italy.
Honours also came as a club coach with Bayern: he lifted a Bundesliga title in 1994 and the UEFA Cup two years later. In 1994, he also became club president – a position he held for 15 years before becoming honorary president – and helped guide the Bavarian side to further national and international glories, including the UEFA Champions League in 2001. Beckenbauer led the German bid committee for the 2006 World Cup, before heading the organising committee for the final tournament.
He has also served on the FIFA Executive Committee, and his UEFA duties have included the chairmanship of the Football Committee (2007–11), and deputy chairmanship of the Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee (2009–11) and of the Development and Technical Assistance Committee (2007–09). Beckenbauer was awarded the UEFA Order of Merit in diamond in 2002.
Beckenbauer joins a select group of football luminaries who have won the UEFA President's Award in recent years: Alfredo Di Stéfano (2007), Sir Bobby Charlton (2008), Eusébio (2009), Raymond Kopa (2010) and Gianni Rivera (2011).
©UEFA.com 1998-2013. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:bc1bb2eb-a7f9-458e-b074-327461c91262> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uefa.com/uefa/aboutuefa/organisation/president/news/newsid=1925232.html?rss=1925232+Beckenbauer+receives+UEFA+President's+Award | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970221 | 787 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The web is full of portfolios for graphic designers, web designers, photographers, artists, illustrators and other creative professionals. When building a new online portfolio, there are many factors to consider and decisions to make to set yourself apart and properly showcase your work.
In order to create the content for your site, you must know your goals. Some important questions to ask are:
- Who is your target audience?
- Are you looking to build a freelance business or land a design job?
- Do you want to get work in a specific field, such as music, or find a specific type of work, such as book cover design?
The answers to these questions will help determine the work you choose to present and the style of your written content, or the “voice” of the site.
Creating an outline of your content will let you focus on what to include on your site without being distracted by design. You can also start to think about the names for the different sections, though of course they can change later in the process. Common sections include:
- Portfolio: This is the showcase of your work, and is discussed more in later steps.
- About: This can be a bio and/or company overview.
- Contact: Be sure to make it easy for people to find your contact info.
- The Process: Talk about your design process, goals and how you deal with clients.
- Case Studies: In a case study section, you can focus on a few clients or projects and discuss the design process. This is effective for showcasing branding jobs or clients for whom you have done several related projects.
- Clients: A list of clients, often divided by industry or job type.
- Press: Show publications you have appeared in and any awards or honors.
- Resume: Depending on the goal of the site, including a standard format resume can be helpful to prospective employers or clients.
These are just a few examples of common sections. Developing new ideas, and presenting these sections in a unique way, is one of the challenges of designing a portfolio website.
Before selecting work to present, it often needs to be broken into categories. If you are presenting a small selection of work, one section may be enough. However, if you are presenting different types of work, aimed at different audiences, there are several ways to divide it for a better user experience:
- Type of Media: A common breakdown is separating your work by major categories such as print, web and illustration.
- Type of Work: Depending on your focus, present your work in categories such as book design, packaging, posters, business cards, brochures, etc.
- Industry: Show your work by industry, such as music, non-profit, entertainment, law, etc. This is effective if you focus on a few industries.
You can also offer your users multiple ways to browse your work, combining the methods above.
The work you choose to present in your portfolio is a key decision. Once you have determined how to present and categorize your design, choose the best pieces to include. “Less is more” can certainly come into play here, as potential employers and clients may be looking at many portfolios and not spending much time on each. Each work should be something you are proud of, whether it is a school project or a commercial piece. Even if you don’t have a lot to include at the start, you can expand your portfolio at any time.
Once you have selected your favorite work, it is important to present it well. For some pieces, displaying the final design as exported from your graphics software will do. For others, it may look best if you photograph it. Package design and book design are examples of work that will be more impressive if the user can see the actual finished product. Try shooting the products yourself, but consider hiring a professional photographer (or friend) if budget allows, as the quality of the pictures is as important as the work itself. If you know a photographer, consider exchanging some design help for photography.
They style of your written content will reflect your personality as much as your design. Decide what type of image you are going for, and write content to match. Again, consider hiring a professional writer to create, or at least edit, your content. Content includes project descriptions, bios, company background, and even how you word your contact page.
It’s time to actually start on the design process. Start with wireframes, which are simple line drawings of your site that set up where elements will appear on the page. Creating these first allows you to focus on layout without being distracted by color, type and other elements.
Using your final wireframes, create several designs. Treat this process as you would any project…tweak your designs until they are exactly what you want (in this case, you are your own client). Remember to consider unique methods for presenting your selected work.
Once you have finalized a design, it’s time to build a working website. If you are a graphic designer, but not a web designer, this may mean hiring a professional. Again, if budget is a concern, consider working with others that have different skill sets and exchange services. When the site is ready, you will need a domain name (website address) and hosting to get it online. | <urn:uuid:1d08ce43-647a-48dd-95d3-155858d64741> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/buildingaportfolio/ss/web_portfolio_all.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956386 | 1,101 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Mayor gives nod to college
Lubbock Mayor David Miller will recognize the allied health programs at South Plains Community College at the Reese Technology Center with a proclamation at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 4.
A Cancer Awareness Day also will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 4 at the Reese Technology Center.
For more information, call 894-9611.
Cupping: remedy for aches?
WASHINGTON POST - They aren't bubbles on a Shanghai patient's back; they're cups, and the traditional Chinese practice in which they are used is called cupping. Adherents say it helps release toxins and restores blocked energy in the body by increasing blood flow. The alternative treatment is often used to relieve muscle aches and spasms.
To begin treatment, a practitioner quickly heats bell-shaped cups with a flame, causing air within the cup to expand. The cups are then placed, open side down, on the back, says Gary Kaplan, osteopath and medical director at Kaplan Clinic in Arlington, Va. As the cup cools, air inside the cups contracts and its pressure drops, creating a vacuum. The suction pulls skin inside the cup, while causing blood vessels to expand and muscles to relax.
The cups are generally left in place for up to 15 minutes. Treatment is not supposed to hurt but may cause bruising.
No "good controlled trials" show the treatment is effective, Kaplan says.
Minimal health care pains
BUSHUJU, Democratic Republic of Congo - Mawazo Dogale lost her 9-month-old son, Jean-Claude, to malaria in April. He had been an energetic baby, she said, until he grew feverish. The doctor said she waited too long to take him seven miles to the hospital in Lemera, a town down the mountain from Bushuju.
Dogale, 25, said she hoped peace would improve her life. "But now there are problems of health and hunger," she said at the hospital. Next to her lay her 6-month-old daughter, sick with malaria.
Lemera's hospital charges $4 for an uncomplicated birth. To make sure the family pays, mother and baby are held under virtual house arrest. Despite that, the hospital is poorly equipped after being looted in the war, and it brings in so little money that its two doctors barely make a living.
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal ©2013. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:f212b900-92c5-4a61-856e-4e7ac3afc52d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lubbockonline.com/stories/092707/lif_092707026.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956846 | 508 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The city of Flint is awash in sewer lawsuits. With every heavy rainfall, it seems, the list of litigants hits another high-water mark.
Recently, 100 more frustrated people filed suit over sewer backups.
So far, says one attorney representing many of those who have sued, the city faces about 340 court cases.
That's the problem.
The solution: Fix the sewers.
Yes, yes, yes, we know -- there isn't enough money in Flint to fix the issue of rainwater leaking into and flooding the city's sanitary sewers.
But if ever there were a time to start digging up a solution, it's now.
Flint has applied to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for a revolving-fund loan that will help pay for the work.
What that will involve is anyone's guess.
But fixing the sewer-backup problem isn't insurmountable.
It very well could involve relining particularly busted-up parts of the sewer system in place. It might also involve an extensive, door-to-door examination to find any hookups of storm or gutter drains on private property that flow into sanitary sewers.
If home or businesses are responsible for redirecting drains to storm sewers, money may be available for them through DEQ programs.
For the kind of money the city may need, the state revolving loan fund has received an infusion of federal stimulus dollars. Flint has applied for a low-interest sewer-work loan from that fund.
But here's a hitch: Federal economic stimulus money is earmarked for "shovel-ready" projects that are engineered, the designs drafted and ready for work.
An exception should be made for Flint if the city can't quite get a shovel into the ground yet this year.
That's because, for way too many years, its sewers have backed up into houses, resulting in the present tide of lawsuits for cleanup of the mess and the damage that the raw sewage has caused.
For just as long, city leaders chose to fight lawsuits -- in vain.
The lawyers involved claim they were willing to settle the first wave of lawsuits for $2 million years ago. The city's refusal to settle bought it a jury award for the plaintiffs of $10 million, with interest during the court appeals now accruing at $1,500 a day.
In June, 26 of the original 183 lawsuits were settled for $687,000, largely because the people really needed the money in these tough times.
The new administration of Mayor Dayne Walling has said city attorneys intend to wade into other sewer lawsuits and resolve them "fairly and quickly."
We hope they do, and that there is something left of the city's $30 million sewer fund when they finish.
Yet, it's always going to rain again, and with a heavy downpour, recent history has taught us to expect even more lawsuits over basement flooding.
The only way to make this nightmare go away for the taxpayers of this city is to fix these sewers once and for all.
For the majority of Flint sewer rate payers, these lawsuits have been an enormous waste of money.
It's a drain on the sewer fund that can only get worse.
Patch that problem now, while there's still federal stimulus money floating around that can help out.
From rampant crime in some parts to a disappearing population, Flint faces problems that are far more difficult to solve than a bunch of leaky pipes.
But few of them are as disgusting and smelly.
Fix the sewers, and watch the tide of new lawsuits recede. | <urn:uuid:cc4ead45-4ad8-47a4-b06d-05aec3079b7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mlive.com/opinion/flint/index.ssf/2009/08/fix_flints_leaky_sewers_and_wa.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9689 | 748 | 1.796875 | 2 |
You might think, with the protracted squabbling over who gets to build how much hospital at which location, that nobody ever actually builds one. Think again - or have a look at the region's newest hospital. You'll find it just north of the Cape Fear River from Lillington, near the junction of U.S. 401 and U.S. 421.
Nobody's saying that the $56 million Central Harnett Hospital, which opened Jan. 18, simply sprang up. There's a decade's worth of struggle and strain that doesn't need repeating here. But once Harnett Health System secured the hospital's financing through another of its artful deals with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, construction followed by only a month. And, less than two years later, there it stands: 120,000 square feet of health care space (built for vertical expansion to twice that), 50 inpatient beds, an emergency department, three operating rooms and imaging and lab facilities.
It isn't just for show. By the end of the first week those 50 beds were filling fast, several operations had been performed and hundreds of patients had cycled through the emergency department.
"The numbers," CEO Ken Bryan said, "demonstrate the need for access to local health care in our area." That they do. Central Harnett is expected to draw patients not only from within Harnett, but also from Cumberland, Johnston, Lee and Wake counties. And once Cape Fear Valley Health System has built its hospital at Health Pavilion North, a part of our region too long underserved will be well supplied with high-quality care. | <urn:uuid:826fd44c-349c-4a2c-8f99-2c6ebf5519a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fayobserver.com/articles/2013/01/29/1233479?sac=fo.community/harnett | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975323 | 333 | 1.523438 | 2 |
ABSTRACT: Three emerging trends have occurred recently in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). First, over the last several decades there has been a marked increase in the diagnosis of RCC, with a corresponding decrease in the typical tumor size, resulting in an increased interest in less invasive approaches to primary tumor treatment. Second, while conventional radiotherapy plays a limited palliative role due to the relative radio-resistance of RCC, advances in immobilization and image guidance have led several investigators to consider stereotactic radiotherapy techniques (SRT) to overcome this resistance, with impressive results in the metastatic setting. In addition, preliminary use of SRT to treat the primary RCC tumor is underway. Thirdly, although RCC is resistant to conventional chemotherapy agents, exciting recent advances have emerged in the treatment of clear cell RCC, with the development of targeted agents in addition to immunotherapy-based treatments. In the current critical review we discuss these emerging trends in localized and systemic treatment as well as possible interesting combinations of the two modalities. Finally, we discuss the role of the new systemic agents in non–clear cell RCC.
In the United States, kidney cancer is the third most common genitourinary tumor and the seventh most common cancer. The incidence of renal cell Carcinoma (RCC) has been increasing at a rate of 2% to 4% per year since 1975. There has been a decrease in the size of tumors at diagnosis, which is likely due to increased use of abdominal imaging and higher incidental detection rates of asymptomatic tumors. More than 80% of cancers of the kidney are adenocarcinoma, and another 10% are derived from the renal pelvis, a urothelial cancer related to bladder cancer and treated with bladder cancer regimens.
This discussion will focus on the nonurothelial carcinomas.
Standard Therapeutic Modalities in the Management of RCC Primary Tumors
Standard treatment for nonmetastatic RCC is complete resection of the tumor by either a radical or partial nephrectomy, which can be done as an open procedure or laparoscopically.[4-6] The relative merits of the various surgical approaches to management of RCC are beyond the scope of this review but are well summarized by Touijer et al. Two randomized trials have shown that, in the context of receiving systemic interferon alfa or interferon alfa-2b(Drug information on interferon alfa-2b), even many patients with metastatic disease should undergo nephrectomy, with reported survival benefits of 10 and 3 months in trials by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), respectively.[8,9] Whether this benefit still applies in the context of current systemic therapies is uncertain.
Less invasive ablative modalities
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA), cryoablation (CA), and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) have been used as treatment options that are less invasive than radical or partial nephrectomy. RFA and CA are accomplished by introducing needle(s) or probe(s) into the tumor and delivering the ablative treatment. These procedures can be performed percutaneously, using image guidance to place the needles/probes, or they can be performed intraoperatively, usually via laparoscopic surgery.[6,10] They usually are performed with the patient under conscious sedation or anesthesia, take about 2 to 3 hours, and often require an overnight stay in the hospital.
Gervais et al conducted a careful assessment of tumor response in a series of 100 RCC patients, with a mean follow-up of 2.3 years (range, 3.5 to 6 years). They reported achieving a tumor ablation rate of 90%. The most common complications were hemorrhage, occurring in 5% of patients, and ureteral stricture or injury, occurring in 3%; one-third of patients required a hospital admission of at least one night following the procedure. The same group of investigators reported on post-radiofrequency ablation syndrome, which consists of a low-grade fever and flu-like symptoms, and which has been shown to occur in approximately 30% of patients.
Park et al reported on a prospective study of RFA in patients with RCC. A total of 94 tumors were treated in 78 patients. At a median follow-up of 25 months, the authors reported an initial RFA success rate of 98% and a recurrence-free rate of 97%. The rate of minor complications was 10% and that of major complications was 3%.Percutaneous cryoablation of renal masses has been reported by Atwell et al in a retrospective series of 115 patients. Seventy-nine percent of these masses were biopsy-proven RCC or other malignancy; the other lesions were presumed malignant based on imaging. The authors reported a 100% local control rate in patients undergoing follow-up of 3 months or longer. However, local control was not defined in this paper. Six percent of patients experienced grade 3 toxicity, the most common being bleeding/hematoma, and 12% of patients required a hospitalization of two or more nights. Although the results of RFA and cryotherapy are encouraging, the follow-up in most series is short, most of the studies are retrospective, and the procedures are still invasive. The only truly noninvasive modality is HIFU; however, this technique lacks a substantial evidence base, having been investigated mostly in small series of patients. Results of these modalities are summarized in Table 1.
Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) in Metastatic and Primary RCC
Deschavanne and Fertil reviewed the radiosensitivity of 694 cell lines in vitro. In their study, the cells were exposed to irradiation at doses up to 12 Gy and their response showed that RCC cells were the most radiation-resistant cells. The clinical results of standard fractionated radiotherapy (RT) for RCC mimic this in vitro work with relatively poor results. For example, results of several studies of whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) for brain metastases from RCC have been poor, showing a median survival after WBRT of only 2 to 4.4 months.[15-18] A poor outcome is seen even in patients with a good recursive partitioning analysis class who receive higher radiation doses.[17,18]
Compared with reported results of standard fractionated RT, the techniques of SRS and SBRT have demonstrated good responses in an experimental animal model and in clinical studies of patients with RCC. A prospective trial was conducted by Hoshi et al involving 42 patients with brain metastases from RCC who underwent Gamma Knife (Elekta, Stockholm, Sweden) radiosurgery (GKS). Twenty of the 42 cases had multiple brain metastases. Neurological symptoms, seen in 40 patients, were rapidly improved in 80% of these patients after GKS. MRI evaluation after GKS in 32 patients showed the disappearance of brain tumor in 28%. The median survival time was 12.5 months, with an overall local control (LC) rate of 80%. Several retrospective studies have shown similar findings (Table 2).
Similar improved results with SBRT compared to conventional treatment are also seen for other metastatic sites. DiBiase et al reported results of palliative RT using standard fractionation in 114 patients and showed a 50% pain relief rate. On the other hand, others have shown significantly better response rates and excellent LC rates with SBRT. In a prospective study of 30 patients with 82 lesions (metastatic and inoperable primary RCC) who underwent SBRT at doses of 8 Gy × 4, 10 Gy × 4, 15 Gy × 2, or 15 Gy × 3, after a median follow-up of 52 months, local progression was seen in only 2% of patients. Results of standard and SBRT treatment of extracranial sites are summarized in Table 3.
With these encouraging results in the metastatic setting, treatment of the primary renal tumor with SBRT is beginning. The only prospective therapeutic trial has recently been reported by Kaplan et al. This prospective phase I dose-escalation study of SRS for primary RCC used CyberKnife (Accuray, Sunnyvale, California) and gold fiducials for image guidance in medically inoperable patients. The dose-level range (21, 28, 32, or 39 Gy) was delivered in three fractions. Tumors up to 5 cm in diameter were included. The investigators reported minimal toxicity; only two patients with chronic renal failure had worsening of their renal function during follow-up. Only one patient treated at a dose of 21 Gy developed local progression. These results, along with results of other retrospective series, are summarized in Table 4. SBRT should continue to be studied prospectively and may play an important role in management of RCC in the future.
Immunotherapy with interferon alfa and interleukin-2 has been used for treatment of metastatic clear cell RCC (mRCC) for more than 20 years and is currently the only treatment for this disease that has the potential for a durable complete response (CR).[24-28]
Both interferon alfa and interleukin-2 are components of innate and adaptive immune responses, and function to alter biologic pathways. Interferon alfa modulates a number of proteins, and is noted for its activation of dendritic cells. It also has antiproliferative effects on hematopoietic cells and potentially direct effects on tumor cells. Interleukin-2 was previously named T-cell growth factor, and its major initial effect is expansion and activation of populations of tumor-directed killer cells, along with a cascade of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Clinically it is administered in supra-physiologic doses in an attempt to activate killer cells and overwhelm the tumor-induced immunosuppressive component of the immune system (regulatory T cells and immunosuppressive cytokines). The utilization of these treatments has been limited by the complexity and intensity of treatment, requiring specialized centers to administer this therapy. Nevertheless, with an outcome that includes decades-long response, interleukin-2 remains in the armamentarium for mRCC.
Recent reports of new immunotherapeutic agents have aroused interest once again in immunotherapy for cancer. One such agent, ipilimumab (Yervoy), is an anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody reported to have activity in mRCC. This agent removes the “brake” from immune activation, leading to an anti-tumor response and auto-immune adverse events.[31,32] The degree and durability of its anti-tumor activity in RCC is still undergoing evaluation. In addition, the PD-1/PD-L (programmed death–1/programmed death–1 ligand) pathway is being investigated because it is directed toward reversing the immunosuppression that tumors are able to induce. This pathway regulates T-cell activation as a mechanism for down-regulation of cytotoxic lymphocytes in the tumor environment, allowing tumor evasion of host immunity.
Radiation and immunotherapy
There has been long-standing interest among radiation biologists in the potential for radiation to induce immune responses. Studies have demonstrated induction of inflammatory cytokines (such as tumor necrosis factor, interleukin-1, and type I interferon[32-34]) and alteration in expression of major histocompatibility (MHC) antigens from exposure to radiation, and thus potential for activation of cellular immunity.[35,36] Clinical studies are needed to assess the role of a combination of immune modulators and RT in patients with cancers such as RCC, in which the immune system plays an important antitumor role. | <urn:uuid:21d6c4fe-a083-4af3-ae12-e3291753eed3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancernetwork.com/rcc/content/article/10165/2077051?cid=intraarticle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947428 | 2,490 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Finding the business value in Big Data is a big problem
- 12 September, 2012 21:33
PHOENIX -- For all the promise of big data, the fundamental challenge with collecting massive volumes of data from different sources is finding new business uses for it, according to several IT managers at Computerworld's BI & Analytics Perspectives event held here this week.
Technology vendors and industry analysts tout the enormous business benefits that enterprises can gain from mashing up traditional structured data with unstructured data from the cloud, mobile devices, social media channels and other sources. But business executives have little idea of how to take advantage of big data or how to articulate their requirements to IT, according to several executives at the show.
Business leaders often "don't know what they don't know," said one frustrated IT manager, and therefore they are incapable of explaining to IT shops what to do with all this data that's being accumulated.
Over the past couple of years, private investors and venture capital firms have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into startups developing new technologies for collecting, storing, organizing and analyzing petabyte-scale volumes of structured and unstructured data.
The tools have made it easier than ever for companies to pull in data from web logs, clickstreams, social media, video and audio files, machine sensors and micro-blogging sites such as Twitter.
The real challenge is not the technology, but finding business value out of all the data that can be collected, said Reid Nuttall, CIO of OGE Energy, an Oklahoma City-based energy company.
OGE owns nine power plants and delivers power to more than 758,000 customers in a 30,000-square-mile area. The company recently installed smart meters across its customer base that provide meter readings in two-hour increments, compared to the once-a-month readings it received previously.
Nuttall is optimistic that the large volume of data generated by the smart meters can help OGE analyze and influence customer behavior and reduce peak demand over the next few years. He is looking for people within his organization who will start extracting this kind of business value from the data.
"We have lots of data, and we are figuring out what to do with it," he said.
Nuttall set up an information "factory" and a business analyst competency center inside the organization to help spur creative uses of the data at OGE's disposal. OGE is investing in business intelligence tools and new data visualization and presentation capabilities to get analysts to think about and use new data, in different ways.
"Big data is forcing IT and business intelligence [teams] together" to find ways of exploring new data together, he said.
Payroll processor ADP is taking the same approach. The company has set up an Innovation Lab to manage how it stores, processes and analyzes extremely large data sets.
The idea is to create an environment where subject matter experts from different industries and backgrounds can work together to tackle big data analytics, Roberto Masiero, vice president of ADP's Innovation Labs, said in a keynote address.
In a sense what is happening is reminiscent of the situation when enterprises first started using online analytical processing tools, said William Herridge, managing director of emerging solutions at the Tribune Company.
"When we made the transition to OLAP (online analytical processing), it was hard to get business users to get over their [existing] mindset," of using tabular data, he said. "They didn't have any idea of the value of OLAP till you started showing them," he said. IT organizations face the same challenge with big data, he said.
"We see the value in this, but getting users to understand that value and seeing it is there," is a huge challenge, especially when dealing with concepts such as unstructured data, he said. "Until business users can see some benefits, they are not going to sign on to big data projects," Herridge said.
The hardest part of using big data is trying to get business leaders and executives to sit down and define what they want out of the huge amount of unstructured and semi-structured data that is available to enterprises, said Vivek Ratna, a partner with Digital Learning Solutions in Irving, Texas.
"The fault is ours because IT has not articulated as well as we should have what value business can derive," from big data, Ratna said. Many IT organizations are still not collecting or using unstructured data because they are unsure of the business value and not because of technology reasons, he said.
"Unless we can define what value can be derived [from big data] or the business leaders can tell us what value they want to get out of it, we are just playing in the dark," he said.
The sentiments are consistent with those expressed by respondents in a recent survey by market research firm TheInfoPro. The survey of 255 IT professionals showed that a majority of companies had no big data plans because they didn't have a specific business case for one.
Jaikumar Vijayan covers data security and privacy issues, financial services security and e-voting for Computerworld. Follow Jaikumar on Twitter at @jaivijayan or subscribe to Jaikumar's RSS feed. His e-mail address is [email protected].
Read more about big data in Computerworld's Big Data Topic Center.
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Bitcoin finding its feet at first Silicon Valley conference
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Australia lags Mongolia in Internet speeds
Salesforce.com to buy Clipboard, shutting down service
Investor tips on how to propel a startup | <urn:uuid:724e7735-5819-4447-9683-550e2717fc89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techworld.com.au/article/436276/finding_business_value_big_data_big_problem/?fp=16&fpid=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939782 | 1,296 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Hundreds of CedarBridge Academy students walked along Frog Lane and other areas surrounding the school as they participated in their team building walk. Along the three mile route, they were met by CedarBridge Academy teachers, who read and distributed inspirational quote.
Students participated in the third, biannual Student Empowerment Day that focused on Study Skills. Rickai Outerbridge an S4 CBA student said, “It was well organized. I like how we learned the study tips.”
Students were separated by year level and donned year level tee shirts. The day was divided into four workshops with the primary focus on Study Skills and Test taking strategies. According to S4 Student Swaynisha Berkley, “I like the test taking tips that I got in one of the workshops, they will be useful for when I take my exams.”
Also built into the day were workshops on Team Building and Time Management. The team building workshop comprised of a walk. Students were expected to stay with their advisor and advisory groups. The advisory that returned to the gym as a whole group first, were given a prize. Gina Monroe, a Mathematics teacher said, “ We had fun because our advisory came first in the Team Building Walk.”
Workshops on Study Skills were designed to be interactive, involving scavenger hunts around the building of study skill clues and another group used drama to demonstrate study skills. The time management workshop was interactive providing students with an opportunity to view a film on time management with a discussion with advisors and whole group sharing.
HSBC talked with the S4 students about interviewing skills, and their two year graduate training programme. Chantel Swan an S4student said, “The interviewing skills demonstration by HSBC was very relevant. The day was useful.”
- Cedarbridge Musicians to Perform in Florida
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- CedarBridge Academy’s Graffiti Control Program | <urn:uuid:27f3dd9e-1cc8-4594-b11b-66c5d1f4fd05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bernews.com/2011/05/cedarbridge-student-empowerment-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972057 | 435 | 1.789063 | 2 |
What Are We Expecting?
'BE careful what you expect, my mother would often say, "because you just might get it. It's probably an old saying, but my mother made it sound like it was hers.Over the years, though, I've begun to realize that this admonition hints at greater truth about reality. It hints at how important it is to expect good. Nobody wants awful things to happen, but they do happen just the same, it seems. And we pretty much accept their inevitability. We may even begin to expect that there will always be something to spoil or cut off good in our lives. But right where evil seems inevitable, trust in God combined with willingness to listen for His direction can provide us a way out. And as we learn to turn to God in prayer in our daily lives, we begin to see more clearly why it's natural to expect good. Prayer turns us away from evil toward good. Understanding what is true--thus God-created--eliminates our vulnerability to what is untrue. When we really know what is true, it is impossible to be deceived by a lie. We can turn from the falsehood that evil is inevitable and begin persistently to look for God's goodness in our lives. What happens when we do this? We begin to find good more and more. Whether we're dealing with our home, our family, our work, we need a spiritual vision of the good that is attainable. How does listening in prayer for God's direction help us? By counteracting the fear and resignation that would blind us to the fact that the law of God, good, is always operating in our lives. God, who is divine Love, is always loving His children. And divine Love has a very practical impact on the human condition. Because God's goodness is a law, we can count on it. We can expect good to be real and permanent in our lives. Praying--having the courage to listen to God, and then trusting our prayer and acting on it--is very important in helping us see more of the good God is always giving man. In her book No and Yes, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: "Prayer begets an awakened desire to be and do good. It makes new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power. It shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are; and most of all, it shows us what Go d is. God shows us, as we listen in prayer, that He already loves us and is always caring for us. What a reassuring fact! But we can't just keep going over this fact in thought, feeling that our responsibility ends with repeating these comforting words. We must strive to understand the divine law of good. Then we must prove what we understand of it through consistently expecting good. Then we are beginning to live as Christ Jesus taught. Jesus daily trusted God to meet every need. His life was filled with examples of how trusting God, divine Love, enabled him to do great works of good. So certain was he of God's goodness that he confidently thanked God for healing before those around him had seen the effect of his prayer. He said, John's Gospel records, "Father, I thank thee that thou has heard me. And then he restored his friend Lazarus to life. We can see how great an example the life of Jesus still is for us today. And we can begin right now to expect God's goodness as we learn to understand and prove how God answers prayer. We may start with what seems like little healings, but each one forwards our trust in and understanding of God's law. As we see the practical evidence of God's goodness grow in our lives, we come to expect His goodness more and more.Skip to next paragraph
Subscribe Today to the Monitor | <urn:uuid:28f58414-455f-49f0-9d64-d68a46ea1441> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csmonitor.com/1991/0723/23171.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974674 | 788 | 1.765625 | 2 |
§ LORD NEWTON had given Notice that he would ask His Majesty's Government whether the Ministry of Information have taken any steps to draw special attention to the statement by the Foreign Secretary on November 5 that "We, on our side, have repeatedly rejected all suggestions from the enemy for an agreement with us at the expense of France." The noble Lord said: "My Lords, this question is one of a belated nature, but that is not my fault. The speech referred to was delivered on the 5th of this month, and we are now at the 20th. As soon as I got an opportunity, I put it upon the Paper, but I was requested by my noble friend who represents the Ministry of Information to put it off because, he said, he would give me a much more satisfactory reply to-day. I await with 734 interest his reply, but I have very little expectation that it will be satisfactory from my point of view. When two Governments are at war and when one Government makes peace approaches to the other, it is always treated as a matter of profound secrecy. Everything is wrapped in mystery. But upon this occasion there has been no mystery at all. My noble friend Lord Halifax made a definite statement that he had been constantly approached by the enemy to come to terms with them at the expense of the French, and that he had consistently refused to do so.
§ That struck me at the time as one of the most important statements that had been made for a long time. I did not call attention to it then because I was not perfectly certain of the words used by the noble Viscount, but the more I think of it, the more important it seems to be, and the extraordinary thing is that nobody seems to have paid any attention to it. I looked at the newspapers next day. There was, I think, a reference in only one of the big London newspapers to what I consider this most important statement. I have never seen any comment on it in the other place or anywhere; in fact I have been unable to find anyone who took any interest in the statement at all, with the exception of my noble friend Lord Selborne, who is not present here this afternoon. When a statement of this kind is made relating to peace overtures, there is as a rule great mystery and concealment, and the usual practice of Governments is to refuse to admit that anything has taken place at all. But in this case there has been no concealment whatever. The Foreign Secretary has stated openly to the whole world what has occurred, and that is an incident which seems to me of enormous importance.735
§ It appears to have aroused no interest whatever here, yet one would have thought that nobody, however obtuse, would have failed to recognise the importance of the statement. Here, not for months but now for over a year, we have been exposed to the vilification of those champions of truth and virtue, Hitler and Mussolini, and a third might be added to them, M. Laval. They have consistently accused us of fomenting the war and betraying our Allies. Here is a statement of Lord Halifax which gives the lie completely to anything of the kind. Not only does it do that, but it places us in a most creditable position that the nation could desire, because it has shown that, in spite of the worst kind of provocation, we adhere to our promises and stand by them. This is a fact which I should have thought ought to have been made known all over the world, which ought to have gone forth at any rate all over the Empire and to America and every European country and especially France; yet I do not gather that anything whatever has been done.
§ The opportunity has been completely neglected. Whose fault is it? I have no hesitation myself in attributing the fault to the Ministry of Information. What do that Ministry stand for, and what is expected of them? In time of war the functions of the Ministry of Information are, first of all, to give the country correct and unprejudiced information about the operations that take place; secondly, to expose the malignant lies which have been frequently told about this country by our enemies; and thirdly, to make the best of every occasion on which by good luck or by our own skill we have achieved a success. That seems to be prefectly obvious and ought to be understood by everybody, but we have done exactly the reverse. One would have thought from the persistent silence which has been kept with regard to our action that we had done something of which we should be ashamed. I repeat that this was a heaven-sent occasion which we ought to have made the most of, and really we have made no use whatever of it.
§ If I am asked who is responsible for this complete lapse I say the Ministry of Information. I am not one of those people who have repeatedly accused the 736 Ministry of Information of incapacity, but I must say that this last incident seems to me to show quite plainly that there is something wrong about that Ministry. At the present moment the Ministry's composition is very much like an organisation which existed in the last war. It so happens that I was for a short time before I was transferred to other duties, in a position in the Foreign Office department. We in the Foreign Office, as far as I remember, took no account of other people. The department went its own way and the result was overlapping and general want of efficiency. It was not until the last year of the war that a Ministry was formed, and then I suppose things were better managed. It seems to me that there is not sufficient coherence between the different branches. I presume that the responsibility with regard to this particular business is the responsibility of the Foreign Office section of the Ministry of Information. If that is so, and if owing to the Foreign Office action I have mentioned all this has been suppressed, then, although I do not like criticising a department of which I was once a member, I can only say that the people who man that department have a very strange conception of their duties and perhaps it would be well if a change were made.
§ Anyhow, the fact remains that an immense opportunity has been lost. We had the opportunity of showing the whole world what our attitude is and showing the world that we keep to our engagements. It could not have failed to have had the highest moral effect in all civilised countries. I repeat that this is a magnificent occasion which has been deliberately wasted. I do not know whether there is time to do anything now—I shall probably be told it is too late—but I urged that something should be done and gave my reasons for it in time. I urge this course because I feel perfectly certain that if the position is cleared up the effect will be very deleterious as far as our enemies are concerned. It will probably result in great embarrassment to them, and not only to them but to the Vichy Government as well.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF PENSIONS (LORD TRYON)
My Lords, I should like to begin by thanking the noble Lord for providing the opportunity 737 for an important statement on this subject. I would only differ from him in saying that instead of having said he would get a better answer if he waited (because the subsequent answer had not then been drafted), what was said was that in view of the very great importance of the point he made I was very grateful to him for deferring the question so as to enable us in concert with the Foreign Office to go into the question and give an adequate reply. Let me say that the noble Lord acknowledges that so far as the Government are concerned they did make a perfectly satisfactory statement on this question, and it is not the fault of the Government if some parts of the speech were not fully reported in the Press. I am not criticising anybody. I think this reply will cover the very important point which he raises and I hope that publicity will be given to it so that my noble friend will have achieved his object in raising the question in your Lordships' House.
Suggestions have repeatedly been made that if Great Britain were prepared to leave Germany a free hand in Europe, Germany would have no further quarrel with Great Britain or the British Empire. The implication, so far as France is concerned, is very plain, and such a temporary bargain at the expense of France could obviously never be accepted by His Majesty's Government. They have repeatedly proclaimed that their aim is the deliverance and restoration of France to her former greatness and independence. Before the French collapse, one of the basic themes of British propaganda was to maintain a united front with France and thus defeat the German efforts to drive a wedge between the two countries. Since the armistice between France and Germany constant emphasis has been laid by the Ministry of Information on the theme that the integrity of metropolitan France and the French Empire can only be assured by the victory of Great Britain in the war with Germany. The Foreign Secretary's statement does not contain anything that was not well known before, but it provides useful illustration of the main theme which the Ministry of Information wished to convey. It has already received wide circulation, and there would not appear to be need for special measures to secure further pub- 738 licity for it beyond the statement I have just made.
§ LORD RANKEILLOUR
My Lords, I do not know whether my noble friend below me will feel satisfied with this answer, but I confess that I personally do not. Why cannot further information be given as to when these overtures were made and how they were immediately answered? In fact, why cannot our case be documented in some way? I feel sympathy with my noble friend Lord Tryon in having to answer for a Department over which he has no control at all, but surely something more can be done. Surely some White Paper can be published as to these overtures and the like. Then again, if such a statement can be amplified and put on the wireless, not only for France but for all the world, I do not think it is too late. I do suggest that he should do his best to see that the two Departments concerned take active and immediate steps to carry out the purpose that my noble friend has in mind.
§ LORD TRYON
My Lords, I shall, of course, convey the suggestion of my noble friend, in view of its importance, to the Ministry of Information. | <urn:uuid:8de48321-4581-4f95-8541-d15fdde2e2d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1940/nov/20/enemy-overtures | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985982 | 2,132 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Community of More Than 35 Doctors Grow as MedHelp Focuses on Answering More
Consumer Health Questions Online
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- MedHelp, the leading online health community connecting people to medical experts, information and shared experiences, today announced Stanford University School of Medicine surgeons Denise L. Johnson, M.D. and Stephen Ryu, M.D. have joined their premier roster of more than 35 doctors and over 14 of America's leading medical institutions on MedHelp.org. In addition, MedHelp has also added respiratory and asthma/allergy forums with medical experts from National Jewish Medical and Research Center to its steadily growing list of more than 100 medical forums.
MedHelp's active online health community of more than 4 million people each month consistently maintains their position among the top ten most- visited Web sites in the U.S. in the health and medical information industry (Hitwise, June 2007). The health forums range in topic from allergies, cancer, child behavior, depression, diabetes, heart disease, infertility, nutrition, sexually transmitted diseases, urology and many more.
"We're focused on expanding our active expert community to provide the best medical resources for our users to take control of and learn more about their health. With the addition of top Stanford Surgeons to our MedHelp roster, we continue to provide a home base for those who seek health information and advice outside of the doctor's office," said MedHelp CEO John de Souza.
MedHelp's extensive roster of top-tier affiliated medical professionals continues to grow with the addition of two high-profile surgeons from Stanford University:
-- Denise L. Johnson, M.D., Associate Professor of Surgery; Advising Dean;
and Director of the Melanoma Program at the Stanford University School
of Medicine. Dr. Johnson is also a member of the California Breast
Cancer Advisory Board
Copyright©2007 PR Newswire.
All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:a842b06e-f598-481c-950d-e8f5461725ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/MedHelp-to-Add-Top-Stanford-Surgeons-and-Specialized-Forums-to-Online-Health-Community-536-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933799 | 402 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Syrian fighters clashed with Kurdish militia in the northern city of Aleppo, leaving 30 dead and around 200 captured, a watchdog said on Saturday, sparking fears of a new front in an already fractured country.
The fighting between armed fighters and members of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), erupted on Friday in the majority Kurdish neighborhood of Ashrafiyeh, it said.
“There were 30 people -- Arabs and Kurds -- killed in the fighting, including 22 combatants from both sides,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement, adding that Ashrafiyeh was still under PYD militia control.
Some 200 people were captured, all but 20 of them by the fighters, the Observatory said.
Residents said some 200 fighters had moved in to the area on Thursday, announcing they had come to spend the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Adha, starting the next day, in the neighborhood.
Before they moved in, the Kurdish area of Aleppo had been relatively free of the violence that has plagued the city since fighting between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and armed fighters broke out there on July 20.
Some 15 percent of Syria’s population of 23 million are Kurds. The minority has largely remained neutral during the country’s civil war, which has sown divisions among its patchwork of ethnic and religious groups.
Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Observatory, said if Kurdish militias were to join the fighting, the results could be devastating.
“There are 100,000 Kurds in Aleppo province ready to fight if need be,” he said. “If Arab-Kurdish fighting really kicks off, then you can forget about the revolt and Assad stays.”
Friday’s fighting was the fiercest clash between Kurds and fighters since the March 2011 start of Syria’s conflict.
Strategically important, Ashrafiyeh sits in Aleppo’s heights and on a route between the city’s north and centre.
Over the summer, the army withdrew from majority Kurdish areas, including Ashrafiyeh and several towns on the Turkish border, leaving Kurds with some degree of autonomy.
Rebel fighters are only allowed to enter these areas unarmed and in civilian clothing.
A PYD statement published after the fighting blamed both Assad’s regime and the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) for violence against Kurds.
“We have chosen to remain neutral, and we will not take sides in a war that will only bring suffering and destruction to our country,” the statement said.
For two days before Friday’s clash, the army shelled Ashrafiyeh, the PYD said. On Friday, the FSA stormed a road that cuts through Ashrafiyeh and the nearby Sheikh Maksud district, it added.
“They started to shoot at crowds gathered at the (militia) checkpoints,” it said. “They were protesting, calling on the armed groups to leave residential areas.”
A rebel group described Friday’s violence as the result of a misunderstanding and blamed it on Assad's regime.
“Our Kurdish brothers are comrades in our nation,” the Free Syrians Brigade said in a statement. “The problem... was the result of a misunderstanding that was created by a regime plot.”
Massud Akko, a prominent Kurdish activist and journalist from Syria, said he feared Assad would use Friday’s violence to stir up conflict between the anti-Assad and Kurdish militia.
“While I am opposed to the Free Syrian Army’s entry into safe areas, Assad’s regime is looking for ways to create conflict among Syrians,” he said.
The conflict, which has pitted the regime against rebel fighters since a revolt against Assad morphed into an armed insurgency, has left at least 35,000 people dead, according to the Observatory.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by the West, took up arms in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey in 1984. | <urn:uuid:3c735dc4-1812-4673-8a66-ddbc89cb51be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/10/28/246260.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968844 | 857 | 1.601563 | 2 |
It's time for another installment of "Where have the control/capslock adjustments migrated to?" This time it's for the latest Debian release, "Squeeze".
Ever since they stopped making keyboards with the control key to the left of the A, I've remapped my CapsLock key to be another Control key. I never need CapsLock, but I use Control constantly all day while editing text. Some people prefer to swap Control and CapsLock.
But the right way to do that changes periodically. For the last few years, since Ubuntu Intrepid, you could set XKbOptions for Control and Capslock in /etc/default/console-setup. But that no longer works in Squeeze.
It turns out Squeeze introduced a new file, /etc/default/keyboard, so any keyboard options previously had in console-setup need to move to keyboard. For me, that's these lines:
XKBMODEL="pc104" XKBLAYOUT="us" XKBVARIANT="" XKBOPTIONS="ctrl:nocaps,compose:menu,terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"though I suspect only the last line matters.
This wasn't well covered on the web. There aren't many howtos covering Squeeze yet, but I found the hint I needed in a terse Debian IRCbot factoid: Factoid capslock says
For console-setup, append ",ctrl:nocaps" to the value of XKBOPTIONS within /etc/default/console-setup (/etc/default/keyboard on Squeeze).
That factoid assumes you already have XKBOPTIONS set; as shipped, it's empty, so skip that initial comma.
I was going to conclude with a link to the documentation on XKBOPTIONS, or XKbOptions as it was capitalized in xorg.conf ... but there doesn't seem to be any. It's not in any of the Xorg man pages like xorg.conf(5) where I expected to find it; nor can I find anything on the web beyond howtos like this one from people who have figured out a few specific options. Anyone know?
[ 11:54 Mar 20, 2011 More linux/install | permalink to this entry | comments ] | <urn:uuid:2b176f49-5f03-4644-9fcf-6bd2e5212fdd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shallowsky.com/blog/linux/install/ctrl-key-debian-squeeze.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931579 | 491 | 1.734375 | 2 |
IBM has created a free semantic email search engine aimed at users of the company's Lotus Notes software and Microsoft Outlook.
The engine, called IBM OmniFind Personal Email Search (IOPES), allows users to search their mail based on concepts, such as dates and phone numbers, according to IBM. It also allows searchers to define their own concepts.
Once the software is installed, it indexes and analyses the user's email store. Searches are conducted through a browser interface that delivers results through a stripped-down, Google-like interface.
Users can enter simple keyword-based queries or ones using basic natural language constructions. For example, to find emails from a friend named Mark Smith, you could simply enter 'from Mark Smith'.
But to find only the emails Smith sent in a certain month, a query might be constructed as 'Mark from January 2007'. You could find his phone number by typing 'Smith's phone number'.
The results don't show a list of email headers or display the messages in full. Instead, the software extracts the passage it believes contains the right answer, and highlights what it deems to be the specific information requested, such as a phone number.
Users can also search for attachments, with search results providing direct links to the documents in question.
Email is a good target for developing a semantic search engine because users frequently repeat certain phrasings and words and repeatedly exchange the same type of information. "There is a fairly large number of things that are so email specific," said Shivakumar Vaithyanathan, the project's technical lead.
Researchers in a number of IBM labs worked on the project for the past year and a half, according to Vaithyanathan. The product has been quietly available on the company's alphaWorks site for a couple of months, but only now is IBM attempting to drive widespread adoption, according to a spokeswoman.
"To be able to solve all these problems in some meaningful way, we want some feedback," Vaithyanathan said.
IBM also released the tool internally to its employees and said it has received mostly positive responses. | <urn:uuid:7ed8023d-fe9a-4bee-9a5a-36b55b7c2fac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/software/11669/ibm-targets-outlook-with-smart-email-search/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946408 | 430 | 1.820313 | 2 |
During Dick Dauch’s illustrious career in the automotive industry, he launched Volkswagen’s U.S. manufacturing operation in 1976; played a key role in Chrysler’s revival in the early 1980s; and led an investment group that purchased five former GM plants in 1994, forming American Axle & Manufacturing.
Richard E. Dauch, Co-founder and executive chairman of the board, AAM
If Dick Dauch had stopped working at 50, he would have had a legendary career. By then, the Ohio farm boy had played football at Purdue, gone to work as an engineer at General Motors Co. (IW 500/4) and become the youngest (30) plant manager in the Chevrolet division.
In 1976, Dauch left GM to launch Volkswagen's (IW 1000/10) U.S. manufacturing operation. When VW's board decided to pull back on U.S. expansion, Dauch soon linked up with Lee Iacocca to help save Chrysler. Dauch spearheaded the changes in production, included rolling model changes and applied statistical process control, that improved quality and made the launch of the first minivan in 1983 a huge success. Dauch hoped to succeed Iacocca as Chrysler's CEO. When he was passed over, he retired and wrote his first book, "Passion for Manufacturing."
But Dauch was only 50 and he still wanted to run a company. In 1994, he led an investment group that purchased five former GM plants employing 7,500 associates. American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. (IW 500/310) was born.
Dauch began a relentless drive to upgrade the rundown facilities, instill a more productive culture and invest in new machinery and lean manufacturing processes. He also spent millions to buy up crime-ridden properties in Detroit surrounding his factories and turn the waste-littered land into a manicured campus.
AAM was an immediate success, but more challenges awaited Dauch. In 2008, believing the company could not survive with its present labor costs, he took on the UAW in a bitter strike. Then Dauch led AAM through a painful downsizing and reorganization necessitated by the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler. At one point within five days of bankruptcy, AAM survived and today is again a profitable global manufacturer.
For a full list of the Manufacturing Hall of Fame inductees, click here. | <urn:uuid:a6b1be54-5536-4f9a-92e5-27836956d96a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.industryweek.com/richard-e-dauch | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974226 | 502 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Peace in Every Step
by VASANA CHINVARAKORN, Bangkok Post, August 31, 2008
The late Maha Ghosananda of Cambodia proved the healing power of wisdom and compassion
Bangkok, Thailand -- There was some inexpressibly cool and unhurried sense of peacefulness that exuded from the man. The year was 1997, November 5 to be exact. I was attending an inter-faith conference at a small town about an hour's drive from Phnom Penh.
<< "Peace is possible" - Maha Ghosananda's life (1929 - 2007) is a testament to the wisdom of loving-kindness.
He was there among the crowds who came to give their blessing to the opening of the auspicious event. I felt something special about this frail but ever-smiling monk although I couldn't tell why. "Oh, that is Venerable Maha Ghosananda; he is very famous in Cambodia," whispered Buddhist scholar Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, urging me to interview him.
So I did. But as obliging as Maha Ghosananda was with a then green-horn journalist like me, I found it extremely difficult to write an article on him. He talked very little about his personal life, which Acharn Chatsumarn (who was later ordained as Bhikkhuni Dhammananda) said was so fascinating.
Throughout the brief conversation I had with him, Maha Ghosananda would make extensive references to "dharma" - the importance of keeping oneself aware of the rising and ebbing away of mental phenomena, pleasant or not, how to constantly cultivate loving-kindness toward every sentient being, and last but not least, how not to cling to anything. I accept the truth of the adages, but they were, well, (given my ignorance at the time) hard to put in a newspaper.
His name, and that mysteriously cool aura, has however been an enigma for me. Every now and then I would come across some mention about or by him. He has been called the "Gandhi of Cambodia", the "Buddha of the Battlefields", and in the words of the late Dith Pran (whose life inspired the film The Killing Fields), the "dreamkeeper" of his homeland.
In the 1990s, King Sihanouk conferred on him the special title of "Leader of Religion and Peace", and later "International Patriarch". He received numerous awards for his peace activism, including being nominated a few times for the Nobel Prize. His dharmayietra (literally "Pilgrimage of Truth") movement, which he initiated in 1992 with friends from different denominations, has since been carried on in his homeland, and later adopted elsewhere, including in Thailand (albeit totally different from the one recently staged during the dispute over the Preah Vihear world heritage site).
In the late '70s, he helped set up hut temples at the refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian borders, and later to rebuild temples and provide education to hundreds of monks and nuns in Cambodia (it was estimated that of about 65,000 monastics, only 3,000 survived the Khmer Rouge era). He also founded over 30 home-based temples in North America, Europe and Australia for the Cambodian migrant communities there.
The more I learned about Maha Ghosananda's biography and the tortuous history of Cambodia, the more I appreciate and marvel at his ability to remain unperturbed, so refreshingly serene in the midst of raging fires.
I would have the same question once raised by Benedictine monk James Wiseman: "Looking at the Venerable Ghosananda, one has the impression that not only his smile, but his whole body is radiant. It seems as if his skin has been washed so clean that it shines. One can only wonder what this man has seen, what he has experienced of the terrible killing fields in his home country (considering that all the members of Maha Ghosananda's family died under the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot).
"One thing however is obvious: Whatever his experience has been, it has brought forth extraordinary growth in the spiritual life."
Of his early years, there is sketchy, rather scattered information. His date of birth varies - it was some time in the 1920s - depending on the source. It was reckoned, though, that Maha Ghosananda's potential may have been recognised not long after his ordination, for he came under the tutelage of Venerable Chuon Nath, later appointed to be the Supreme Patriarch and a key leader of the reformist movement in Cambodian Buddhism in the early 20th century.
While his health allowed, Maha Ghosananda would take part in the annual Dharmayietra through the rugged terrains of Cambodia >>
In 1951, he left for a study at Nalanda University in India (where he would be eventually granted a PhD which he jokingly translated as "Person Has Dukkha" - suffering). Importantly, while in India, Maha Ghosananda had an opportunity to learn about the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence with Nichidatsu Fujii, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and the founder of Nipponsan Myohoji, a Japanese Buddhist order dedicated to world peace.
After his time in India, Maha Ghosananda reportedly travelled extensively to different temples throughout Asia, returned to Cambodia briefly before a long spell of residence in Thailand (the exact number of years is not known). It was said he studied Vipassana (insight) meditation with Ajahn Dhammadaro in Nakhon Si Thammarat, but an obituary written by his long-time friend Sulak Sivaraksa last year also mentioned reformist monk Buddhadasa as another mentor of Maha Ghosananda.
It was at this very juncture in Thailand where all the years of dharma practice came to fruition. At a forest monastery in the South, Maha Ghosananda heard news about the series of tragedies that beset his homeland: The American bombing raids, which dropped over 2.7 million tonnes of bombs and killed an estimated 600,000 Cambodians, the successive changes of regimes and ensuing bloodshed, the brutal genocide of the Khmer Rouge ...
A biography written by American monk Venerable Santidhammo described the tenacious struggle the Cambodian monk had to go through:
"He learned that his parents and all his brothers and sisters had been murdered. He was told, over time, of the death of many of his fellow monks and nuns. And of course, he said, he wept for so many losses. He wept for his country. He wept, he said, every day and could not stop weeping. But his teacher urged him to stop. Don't weep, he was told, Be mindful.
"Having mindfulness, his teacher said, is like knowing when to open and when to close your windows and doors. Mindfulness tells us when is the appropriate time to do things - you can't stop the fighting. Instead, fight your impulses toward sorrow and anger. Be mindful. Prepare for the day when you can truly be useful to your country. Stop weeping, and be mindful!"
We will never know how and for how long before the inner battle came to an end. By 1978, Maha Ghosananda embarked on a mission to bring peace to his fellow Cambodians. In an introduction to his only book, titled Step by Step - Meditations on Wisdom and Compassion, editors Jane Sharada Mahoney and Philip Edmonds related the monk's visit to a refugee camp in Sakeo. Amid the bleak and dilapidated atmosphere, Maha Ghosananda's presence was like a glowing candle that rekindled the spiritual warmth long suppressed by the protracted wars.
"In that moment," Mahoney and Edmonds write, "great suffering and great love merged. Centuries of Buddhist devotion rushed into the consciousness of the refugees. Waves of survivors fell to their knees and prostrated, wailing loudly, their cries reverberating throughout the camp. Many say that the Dharma, which had slept gently in their hearts as the Bodhi tree burned, was reawakened that day."
<< Maha Ghosananda during a peace march to raise awareness on the danger of landmines.
Maha Ghosananda himself would later stress the duty of socially-engaged Buddhists: "We must find the courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to the Buddha, Christ, or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettoes and the battlefields will then become our temples."
There is no discrimination either between ideologies or on the basis of past conflicts. Maha Ghosananda's temple huts catered to all refugees alike, including former Khmer Rouge soldiers. "We have great compassion for them because they do not know the truth," he later told film producer Alan Channer. "They suffer so much; they burn themselves. They want peace; they want happiness and Buddhism gives them peace and happiness.
"I do not question that loving one's oppressors - Cambodians loving the Khmer Rouge - may be the most difficult attitude to achieve. But it is a law of the universe that retaliation, hatred, and revenge only continue the cycle and never stop it. Reconciliation does not mean that we surrender rights and conditions, but rather that we use love in our negotiations. It means that we see ourselves in the opponent - for what is the opponent but a being in ignorance, and we ourselves are also ignorant of many things. Therefore, only loving-kindness and right mindfulness can free us."
It is a message that he would repeat the rest of his life. During the top-level talks between different Cambodian warring factions in France, Switzerland, and Indonesia, Maha Ghosananda led his contingency of monks, "the fifth army of peace", to open daily sessions with prayer and meditation; they implored the leaders to recall their Buddha nature, and reminded everyone of the power of non-violence. Sulak recalled the monk had personally asked him to seek holy water from the Supreme Patriarch at Wat Bowon Niwet in Bangkok to sprinkle on the Cambodian representatives - an initiative that was unanimously welcomed by all parties.
In her article on the dharmayietra movement in Cambodia, Kathryn Poethig wrote: "For Maha Ghosananda, the essence of Buddhist dharma is the practice of peacemaking. It requires skilful means, the ability to listen with compassion to the perspective of the one who has done you and others harm, and being mindful and selfless in negotiating a peaceful resolution to conflict."
Ingenuity and patience are certainly key. Maha Ghosananda often talked about how "wisdom and compassion must walk together. Having one without the other is like walking on one foot; you will fall. Balancing the two, you will walk very well, step by step."
In 1992, as the refugee camps were preparing to close with the planned repatriation of some 350,000 Cambodians, Maha Ghosananda and his friends from various faith groups launched the first dharmayietra. Over a hundred Cambodian refugees, escorted by international walkers including monks from Thailand, Sri Lanka and Japan, did the arduous 450km trek from the Thai borders back into their homeland. Every day, the returning Cambodians found their long-lost family members. By the time the band reached Phnom Penh, their number had swollen to more than a thousand.
The first few walks have been wrought with great difficulty. For the inaugural walk, most of the senior monks invited declined to join; it took a while to get permission from the Thai, Cambodian, and UN officials for the refugees to cross the borders. The subsequent ones fared no better; landmines and exchanges of gunshots and grenades between the Khmer Rouge and government troops were still the norm. During the third walk, in 1994, a skirmish caused by a misunderstanding ended with a monk and a nun killed, a few participants injured, and some taken hostage (though they were later released).
But the peace walkers did not waiver. For Maha Ghosananda, the dharmayietra was not a political demonstration - they discouraged any effort by public figures to co-opt the event - or a new innovation into Cambodian Buddhism. It was simply following the example of the Buddha, he cited, who long ago had walked right onto the battlefield in an effort to end a war and bring reconciliation to two hostile factions of his own clan.
The suffering of Cambodia has been deep.
From this suffering comes Great Compassion.
Great Compassion makes a Peaceful Heart.
A Peaceful Heart makes a Peaceful Person.
A Peaceful Person makes a Peaceful Family.
A Peaceful Family makes a Peaceful Community.
A Peaceful Community makes a Peaceful Nation.
And a Peaceful Nation makes a Peaceful World.
May all beings live in Happiness and Peace.
In Venerable Santidhammo's biography, moving accounts of those who participated in the walks reveal the beauty of humanity, if given a chance to grow. The dharmayietra heralded the end of the war, reunited families, inspired new vision. A number called the experience Dhamma Teak Tong, or "Dhamma Contact". For at that very moment, all the boundaries melt; any notions of "us" versus "them" are tossed away.
One local woman said: "We Khmer haven't seen peace for so long. We've never known it. Now seeing the monks and all these people walking makes me think they've come to teach us to love one another, to unite. When I see them I feel speechless. Maybe we will have true peace after all."
Due to his fragile health, by 2000, Maha Ghosananda could no longer attend the dharmayietra walks, which have since been done on more localised scales, with the themes ranging from environmental to human rights, Aids, and youth issues. According to Peter Gyallay-Pap, founder and executive director of the Khmer-Buddhist Educational Assistance Project (KEAP), the spirit of the monk has been carried on by his followers who seek "change in terms of actively following the middle path, not in social or political confrontation".
But will true transformation ever come? To Cambodia and the rest of the world? On the last page of his book Step by Step, Maha Ghosananda expressed his faith in the practice of mindfulness as "the only way to peace".
"Slowly, slowly, step by step," he urges. "Each step is a meditation. Each step is a prayer."
On March 12, 2007, Maha Ghosananda passed away at a temple in Lowell, Massachusetts, one of the many sanctuaries he had built for his fellow Cambodians around the world. | <urn:uuid:cc4a44d9-a3ce-407e-a039-6fa419a72c38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=9,7053,0,0,1,0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971488 | 3,160 | 1.6875 | 2 |
AADL-GT: Videogame tournaments from the Ann Arbor District Library
Kids Read Comics Event
It's the annual Kids Read Comics event at the Downtown AADL on Sat., June 22, 9 AM - 6 PM, and Sun., June 23, 12 - 6 PM. This weekend event includes more than forty cartoonist visitors, hands-on workshops with artists and more! Plus, codes will be offered for the Summer Game! Grade 4 to adult
Find out the history of the city around you with this collection of over 130 local history articles published in the Ann Arbor Observer. The articles (many written by renowned local historian and author Grace Shackman) describe everything in Ann Arbor, from its churches to its shops to its gardens. Articles are illustrated by a large collection of photographs from Ann Arbor's early days to its present days. | <urn:uuid:5425f1d3-fb3d-4dd8-ad5b-36c13528e8bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aadl.org/node/275 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952351 | 171 | 1.625 | 2 |
A man of many hues, who could disagree, yet remain friends
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His father was a journalist, a leading social reformer, dramatist, historian and also a cartoonist. He was one of the prominent leaders in the movement for the linguistic state of Maharashtra.
Nobody thought that his son would emerge as a political leader. A person who would later made his mark as a fiery speaker did not appear on a public platform until the formation of the state of Maharashtra. His cartoon weekly, Marmik, caught people's attention. But in the initial period, it was not political.
My first meeting with him had a strange background. Though I knew that Maharashtrians were suffering from some disadvantages, I held that it was an economic problem. But Thackeray made it a political one, and launched an organization, the Shiv Sena.
In 1969, the Shiv Sena was very volatile, culminating in a violent uprising. Dadar was in the eye of the storm along with some other areas. For about three days or more, people could not get milk or grocery. Shops were looted and civic life was at a standstill.
I was then editor of Maharashtra Times. I wrote a front page editorial calling for the military.
D V Gokhale was our news editor. As both Balasaheb and Gokhale had been in the Free Press Group, they were close friends. He said that both of us were to see Thackeray.
We went to see Thackeray, who was staying in an apartment near Shivaji Park. Thackeray's first few words were reassuring. He agreed with us that the agitation needed to be withdrawn.
The three of us prepared a draft and informally approached the government. The response was positive. Life in the city started coming back to normal.
Politically, we differed all the time and criticized each other. Nevertheless, an informal understanding developed between us that in spite of political differences, in personal meetings (which were few) no politics would be discussed. We talked about Mumbai in the old days, theatre and old movies and gardens.
I was not the only one with whom he kept personal relations despite political differences. Sharad Pawar and Thackeray were politically poles apart but had personal relations for a long time.
Because of his love for literature, music, painting, movies and theatre, he had a large friends circle whose political or social views he did not mind.
Some of our meetings were memorable, as coming into his element, he would mimic several individuals and narrate interesting anecdotes. This used to merrily go along with drinks and Chinese dishes.
One day, a call came from Thackeray, who inquired about Tamhane, our assistant editor, who had passed away. I told him that Tamhane used to be cautious about his health, taking care to consume soda regularly to keep his gas problem in check. Thackeray could not refrain. He said that Tamhane should not have taken soda without a strong drink.
I then asked him how it was that in spite of being non-vegetarian, several Kayasthas were very thin? Thackeray remarked that it was precisely because of this that several Kayastha girls preferred Brahmin boys. I was taken by surprise. I told him it was also the other way round.
Mrs Thackeray died suddenly. After a few days, I went to see him and took my colleague Asbe with me. Thackeray told us that during the days of the Ganesh festival, his wife went to several houses; and because of the strain, she collapsed. For a while, he became an atheist.
Then, changing the subject, he said that a few weeks ago he had presided over a function where a new book was released. He added that it was plagiarised, but he did not know that. He showed the pages that had been lifted from elsewhere.
In 1996, Thackeray called me at my residence and asked whether it was true that I was retiring soon. I said yes. He said that we would still be seeing each other, as I would be in Mumbai.
All those years when wrongly criticizing me, he used to say that I had an apartment in Churchgate, given by the late chief minister V P Naik. Now I pointed out that the apartment was owned by the Jains. Thackeray immediately said that I should have corrected him earlier. He also said that he would talk to the Jains and ask them to postpone my retirement and transfer the apartment in my name. I thanked him and told him that I was going to retire and my wife and I would be moving to the US to live with our daughters.
That was Thackeray sans politics.
(Govind Talwalkar is a veteran journalist.)
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- Chhattisgarh 'encounter' leaves 8 villagers dead, no Maoist link yet | <urn:uuid:5df6e63f-1e15-4ba0-8863-7d8bb7f0e3de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-man-of-many-hues-who-could-disagree-yet-remain-friends/1033457/0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991395 | 1,183 | 1.8125 | 2 |
“Here is a test to find out if you mission on Earth is finished: if you are alive, it isn’t.” -Richard Bach
On February 11, 2012, one-time singing sensation Whitney Houston died of a rumored (although as of yet unconfirmed) drug over dose.
According to CBS News:
“Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.
Houston’s publicist, Kristen Foster, said Saturday that the singer had died, but the cause and the location of her death were unknown.
But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.
“The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy,” Houston told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.
It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.”
So in this article, I’d rather talk what lead up to this tragedy, and how we can learn from it in order to avoid future tragedies and enjoy or fully enjoy our own lives.
So what drives a person with fame and fortune down a path of depression, drug use, and ultimately death?
I have to say up front, I never met Whitney Houston, so I am only speculating. But I have the privilege of knowing many celebrities and witnessed various stages of self-destructive behavior, so I can share with you what I’ve learned.
Stephen Covey has said that “you don’t want to climb the ladder of success, only to find that it is leaning against the wrong wall” and I couldn’t agree more.
The challenge arises when some people, first pursue goals that aren’t their own. They give into pressure from parents, family, friends, etc. to chase a dream that isn’t actually theirs in the first place; and when it arrives it brings no joy since it wasn’t theirs to begin with.
Another mistake, to quote T.S. Elliot: “The last temptation is the greatest treason, to do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
Often times we pursue goals to try and fill some void in our lives; as if attaining celebrity or achievements of any sort will ‘prove our worth’ and make people love us. But nothing could be farther from the truth; quite often success and celebrity bring a lot of false friends, and even real friends looking for a hand out; and all this pressure can eat you alive if you aren’t ready for it.
So how can we learn from this great tragedy, and apply these lessons to our own lives?
In the video below, I give many pointers on how to have a happy and successful life. But if I had to pick the most important point, it would be realize that your happiness hinges on one thing and one thing only: you.
You are not valuable because of what you do, you are valuable because of who you are. Realize that you are already good enough, and deserve all the love and good things this world has to offer.
A trick I’ve mentioned many times in the past, is to look in the mirror and say to yourself (out loud, or in your head), “you’re great, and I love you”.
If you find that hard to do or you’ve heard me say it before and haven’t even tried it yet, then that shows you just how harsh you’ve been with yourself up until now. We all come into the world needing love, and we never out grow it; so start giving it to yourself and you’ll find you need less and less external approval.
Once you have improved your relationship with yourself, then you can start looking at figuring out what you want and your mission in life. But realize, as I’ve also stated many times, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. It doesn’t really matter what career your parents think is right for you, or whether or not your goals make sense to your spouse. YOU have to figure out what’s right for *you * and get after it!
Because while I can also tell you it’s better to try and fail then not try at all, it is just as bad to try and succeed, and still be miserable.
Just ask Whitney Houston.
What do you think ? Feel free to comment down below!
You are great, and I love you!
And if you love me back, click ‘share’ up at the top!
B. Dave Walters
Writer, Life Coach, and Talk Radio Host
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Love One Another – A group for the coolest Spiritual people on the Internet! | <urn:uuid:74081d64-7576-4927-a054-47dea3e65aaa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://features.beliefnet.com/areasontosmile/2012/02/r-i-p-whitney-houston-or-the-meaning-of-life.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963487 | 1,173 | 1.632813 | 2 |
In a way you are correct, the only way you will fully understand linux is by playing with it. If that means borking your entire system and reloading it a hundred times, so be it. Nobody is telling you don't experiment, because there is probably nobody here on the forum that hasn't borked a linux box before while doing experimentation. You learn to accept it; at least this a binary based distro and not source like Gentoo so re-install is quick and painless.
My way as well as joker5bb's way are both valid ways of achieving the end result of getting the absolute most out of the hardware that we purchased. Which way you choose to go (or for that matter, maybe experimenting and finding another route that works for you) is entirely up to you. You just have to realize that if you aren't that familiar with linux, you will have to pick up some books or search the net for answers because this isn't a linux 101 forum. That's what they have ubuntuforum for.
Technically, this thread and the other thread really have really nothing to do with BackTrack per se (other than wireless know-how) and I'm glad the mod's haven't just shut it down. Good luck with all of the info you have received and don't get discouraged. It's the only way you will fully grasp linux!
after following your route and reach the 20 dBm level, i will try joker's way to reach 30 dBM. last note from me on this subject is : thanks for all the info and advice while
expressing that i have max. respect for you guys. | <urn:uuid:6c1f5930-6e9c-44b1-bc4f-3f2dbe8e87e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forums/showthread.php?t=35961&page=2&p=187292&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973461 | 340 | 1.515625 | 2 |
‘Fire accidents killed 230 in 2012’
THE Rivers State Government said on Thursday that no fewer than 230 persons lost their lives in 222 fire incidents in the state in 2012.
The government also said 73 persons suffered different degrees of injuries from last year’s fire outbreaks within the state.
A senior principal officer in the State Fire Service, Mr. Golden Elenga, who made this remark during a stakeholders’ workshop on fire emergency in Port Harcourt, recalled that the petrol tanker fire in Okogbe, Ahoada West Local Government Area, claimed about 200 lives.
Elenga added that the state recorded loss of lives in other fire incidents, even as he blamed most of the fire outbreaks on electrical faults.
He explained that within the year under review, the state fire service received 304 emergency calls while 82 of such calls were discovered to be false.
He said, “In January, 2012, 60 fire calls were received, 17 were false calls while the actual number of fire incidents was 43. In February, the same year, we received 29 calls, 11 were false while 18 calls were real.’’
Earlier, the South-South Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency, organisers of the workshop, Mr. Emenike Umesi, stated that the event was aimed at examining fire management operations in 2012.
Umesi pointed out that the workshop was also necessary in order to proffer solutions for better synergy and more efficient operation in 2013.
He noted that fire incidents and other forms of disasters could have serious implications for national development and socio-economic well-being of the people.
“There is no doubt that repeated exposure to disasters leads to chronic poverty and makes the people even more vulnerable,” he said. | <urn:uuid:12f239c4-d3d0-4268-b544-10ad967132a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ghanamma.com/2013/01/fire-accidents-killed-230-in-2012/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973287 | 365 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The Russian Pipeline Decision
Michael C. Ruppert
© Copyright 2004, From The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. All Rights Reserved. This story may NOT be posted on any Internet web site without express written permission. Contact [email protected]. May be circulated, distributed or transmitted for non-profit purposes only.
January 5, 2005 08:50:55 PST (FTW) A recent announcement that the Russian pipeline will serve Japan is, in my opinion, quite possibly a chimera:
Russia approves Pacific oil pipeline
MOSCOW (Aljazeera) -- The Russian government has given its final approval for a major oil pipeline to the Pacific, dropping the idea of a route to China.
The government said state oil pipeline monopoly Transneft will build an 80-million-tons-a-year (1.6 million barrels per day) pipeline from Taishet in East Siberia to the Perevoznaya Bay in the Pacific Primorsk region. The deal will enable Russian oil exports to Japan and the U.S.
China getting a piece of Yukos (Yugansknefetgaz) does not equate to
getting the oil to China. So what good does it do China to own oil in
Siberia that it can't transport to or burn in Shanghai? Rail transportation has already been underway for sometime now and China is getting no prize there. The rail system is running so fast now that the already marginal infrastructure is breaking down. At most Russia can increase the rail transport a few hundred thousand barrels per day. Big deal. There's only one real line and this is being touted as a blessing for China when, in fact, most of this oil is already in China's current consumption.
So who would pay for an additional rail line? Why the Chinese of course. That could be used for troops later on if necessary.
Remember that Russia has already admitted its second peak and inevitable decline is not far off.
I have been following these pipeline negotiations closely for more than
two years. Khodorkovsky was China's biggest friend on this issue. So was George Soros. But Putin is an inevitable enemy of the US, especially with Ukraine all heated up. That too is far from over.
China can sell its Russian oil on the markets or withhold it from
certain customers. China and Japan now both have an equity stake in
Russia's survival. Good for Russia. Putin's stringing this out until the
last possible second. My gut says he'll turn and side with China on his
terms, factoring Soros, Kissinger et al (i.e. dollars) out of the
picture. China is the 800 pound gorilla and Japan is an anemic elephant hopelessly wedded (welded) to the dollar. The one benefit Russia gains with the Japanese decision is its ability to sell all over the Pacific rim to multiple customers instead of one. But if all these economies collapse (which is inevitable anyway) what's the point? Then you would have China and its long memory on your eastern frontier.
No. There's something else moving under the carpet here. That was hinted at by Japan's reluctance to celebrate until Putin hit them with his investment demands.
This is far from over and China is far from out of the game. I would not put it past Putin to use it to buy time with the US (Japan is our buddy) while laying the seeds for a collapse of talks and construction down the road; say when the pipeline is built to the geographic point where it must either turn south or continue east. That's maybe 2-3 years away and in the meantime Putin's options remain open. Wouldn't it be nice to have Japan pay for that segment of the pipeline? China would love that.
This is the end game of games. There are no rules.
This function has been disabled. | <urn:uuid:9a343df6-ea54-42b3-bb4d-7dd41ea430d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/010505_russian_pipeline.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952372 | 801 | 1.679688 | 2 |
By Gregory Rheeder, EAA 1003189
As I reached down to pick up my helmet, the phrase, “preflight, preflight,” rang over and over in my head. It was a warm summer day, and the conditions were just right for a quick flight around the rolling country side of mid-Michigan’s Napoleon Airport (3NP).
I had just finished laying out my chute. If I hurried, I’d be able to get a couple of hours in the seat of my Powrachute PC2000. I remembered yelling to my friend Todd to be aware of the slight crosswind as he did his final chute preparation. He just smiled and said thanks.
At the hangar we share with six other pilots, I’ve become somewhat of a self-appointed safety advocate, reminding others to be sure to use their printed preflight instructions. I really don’t know where these particular instructions came from or who wrote them down for us. I know that over the years they’ve been subject to change, usually because of something that someone notices or when we have an issue with an area not addressed in the original writing. Like the year one of our pilots in training had a rear wheel bearing slip over its retaining nut – this led to his tire nearly falling off in flight. What a white-knuckle landing that was. Lucky for him the wheel stayed put under the weight of the plane while touching down.
My list now includes a closer inspection of the wheels and their related fasteners.
Among the best selling points I found for powered parachutes (PPCs) are the safety factors involved with PPC flight. Most accidents and incidents I researched involved pilot error, not engine loss on takeoff or structural failure in flight. That meant that if I was the best pilot I could be and took care to do proper preflight, the plane would take care of itself, so to speak.
I’ve also discovered not everything might be on a preflight checklist. That takes us back to the beginning of that evening’s flight. First, I was in a bit of a hurry to get in the air. Second, I was picking up my helmet because it blew off my head on throttle-up; I didn’t properly buckle it while the engine was warming up. I don’t know how, but it managed to miss the blades of my prop. I now include a helmet-strap check in my rolling preflight. | <urn:uuid:bc1e9cba-a263-4840-995e-868d59a7bebd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eaa.org/lightplaneworld/articles/1005_preflight.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972643 | 516 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Nothing can be truer than fairy wisdom. It is as true as sunbeams. ~Douglas Jerrold
Those of you who know me will also know that I believe in fairies. In fact, you’ll know that I count a fairy as one of my dearest friends.
I found myself in an odd position on the weekend. I’m writing a novel with fairies as some of the main characters. And someone I hold in esteem told me that writing about fairies was not only unimaginative, but that children were no longer interested in such things.
Hmmm, I thought to myself. I know I’m not a child but I’m interested in fairies. And many of my friends and clients are too. In fact, whenever I write about fairies I get flooded with enquiries about them, and how people might get to know one or attract one into their garden.
As this learned person talked to me, I felt myself becoming sadder and sadder. Not only because they were so disparaging of fairies and all things magical (which is of course, the world I live in, although they did not know that), but because I believe fairies deserve to be known, and appreciated, and dare I say it, loved…
Not that fairies care. They shall go on happily, regardless of us. But we, we are the poorer for not knowing of them and the work they do in the natural world.
And if there is no room for magic in our lives, and for the ability to believe in things we cannot understand, if there is no room for wonder, well then, what is the point of life? | <urn:uuid:e4a063a9-b103-41e0-9911-cee17e26a223> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cauldronsandcupcakes.com/2012/05/28/in-defence-of-fairies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981212 | 349 | 1.648438 | 2 |
On Monday, October 18, Northwestern University Archives acquired a beautiful and one-of-a kind item: a silver cup. The cup was originally awarded to Frank Crandon (Thomas Philip Franklin Crandon, 1834-1919), who was an important figure in the early history of Northwestern, upon his retirement as secretary of the University Board of Trustees in 1909. Crandon's great-grandson Bill Nichols and Nichols' granddaughter (Crandon's great-great-great-granddaughter) Margaret Nichols visited campus to formally present the trophy to the University Archives.
"We believe that Northwestern University is the logical home for the cup, and have considerable pleasure from making the gift," Bill Nichols said. "The experience has been rewarding."
Crandon's work as secretary of the NU Board of Trustees placed him in close and frequent contact with faculty and administrators and made him a confidant of other noteworthy trustees and benefactors, including William and Charles Deering. He was noted for his outstanding handwriting (University Archives hold the original hand-written minutes of the Board some of which were handwritten by Crandon).
At just under 10 inches, the sterling silver cup has three handles and is adorned with grape leaves. The cup is inscribed with a dedication to Frank Crandon: "Presented to Mr. and Mrs. Frank P. Crandon, by the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University, with their affectionate congratulations, and in appreciation of the valuable services rendered by Mr. Crandon for many years as the Secretary and Auditor of the Board. October 3, 1909"
Pictured: University Archivist Kevin Leonard receiving Crandon's cup from Bill Nichols and Margaret Nichols. | <urn:uuid:0fd1f768-73e6-427e-b3d1-cd5797f9c845> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.library.northwestern.edu/highlight/2010/october/university-archives-receives-silver-cup | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97667 | 341 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Officials at Penn State published an open letter this week about an incident that has brought the university under scrutiny once more.
Members of the university's Chi Omega sorority chapter celebrated Halloween at a Mexican-themed party. They wore sombreros and ponchos and pasted fake mustaches on their faces. They held signs that said: "Will mow lawn for weed + beer." Another sign said: "I don't cut grass. I smoke it."
Then they took a photo and posted it online. Outrage spread over the insensitive nature of the photo. Some said it perpetrated stereotypes and were culturally insensitive. Latino students on the Penn State campus demanded a direct apology from Chi Omega, which issued a statement of regret to the college newspaper.
The university president, the president of the board of trustees and other officials expressed their own feelings of deep disappointment.
"How any constituent groups or individuals in the university could behave with such insensitivity or unawareness is a question we must both ask and answer," they said in a letter Thursday.
"Our university is a place of learning and discovery, and there certainly are lessons to be relearned, or even discovered for the first time, from these incidents," the letter said. "The simplest of those lessons is that costumes that include blackface, or that parody or imitate a person or groups of people, are always offensive to someone. They convey either a lack of awareness about the human condition and human sensitivities or, worse yet, disdain for the thoughts, feelings, histories and experiences of others. They suggest a failure to empathize or even a failure to think. They make all of us small."
The incident comes in the wake of this year's conviction of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky for sexually abusing 10 boys over a period of 15 years. He was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison. The scandal led to the dismissal of legendary head coach Joe Paterno, who died only weeks later, and severe NCAA penalties against the school's storied football program.
Reaction to the Chi Omega story, however, has not all been of dismay or outrage.
Some CNN.com readers commented that the picture was just plain old college fun. "Anyone who is offended by this needs to take a pill," said one reader.
Two people who identified themselves as Latino wrote on CNN's Facebook page: | <urn:uuid:371e9a7e-9436-4c8f-8365-1d22b4b273ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wpbf.com/news/nationalnews/Penn-State-reacts-to-photo-controversy/-/8788944/17700060/-/3l581qz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975387 | 487 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Held hostage by banks
Tim Price Jul 27, 2012
For the last two weeks here in the UK, TV stations have been running a documentary series called Bank of Dave, in which down-to-earth businessman Dave Fishwick attempts to establish his own bank.
The premise sounds plausible: offer depositors 5% interest (as opposed to zero), and lend to credible small businesses that are otherwise ignored by the majors.
But as the irrepressible Dave soon discovers, getting a new banking licence in the UK isn't easy.
Bank of Dave has obviously been, albeit inadvertently, deliciously well-timed, arriving on television and computer screens accompanied by increasingly shrill coverage of interest rate rigging in the Libor manipulation scandal.
Granted, news of the world's biggest banks colluding to manipulate interest rates to their own benefit has spark a major debate about banking. But what's frustrating about the banking debate is how narrowly focused most contributors are.
Critics of the commercial banks loudly vent their outrage at the covert manipulation of interest rates, for example. But almost nobody thinks to question the overt manipulation of interest rates on the part of central banks.
It is generally accepted that central banks should be allowed to set interest rates. In the US, the base rate is effectively zero.
In the UK, it’s now being held at 0.50%, explicitly to help the banking sector at the expense of all non-bank members of the population who are unable to earn an economic return on their savings.
One might ask why we take this official rate manipulation for granted. One would also ask why the economically critical business of saving is being so offhandedly crushed in the name of banking expedience...
Why, for example, do we need a central bank at all?
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A typical if feeble answer is that we need a lender of last resort. To which the next question is... Why? Why do we need a government-appointed entity to support banks that get in over their heads?
A typical answer to that one is that if our banks start failing, our society starts going down the toilet. (It already has, but never mind.)
So now we have the worst of all possible worlds. Our banks are already failing, in the sense of no longer functioning according to the principles of offering an economic rate to depositors and offering economic funding to borrowers.
Plus, now we have ended up with a handful of quasi-nationalised banking group zombies that appear to be being run for the sole purpose of being granted dollops of money that they are free to hoard whenever the central bank deems it appropriate to depreciate our currencies some more.
If our banks were free to fail, a) we would have no need of a central bank, and b) we would have no need for banking guarantees.
Banking deposit agreements would simply come with a giant ‘caveat emptor’ on them, and depositors might be able to start earning a positive real interest rate on their savings again.
Abolishing central banks and their core functions would have the happy and non-trivial side effect of reintroducing something akin to sound money into the world economy, rather than living with permanent inflation and having the entire economy held hostage by banking interests.
• Tim Price is the author of the True Value newsletter.
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Our free daily email, Money Morning, is an informative and enjoyable analysis of what's going on in the markets. Written by our Editor, John Stepek, and guest contributors.
Sign up FREE to Money Morning here. | <urn:uuid:f9df8b08-bda4-41b5-b5f3-45a811c93f95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/economics/uk/bill-bonner-held-hostage-by-banks-59927 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954161 | 961 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Loren Leman wrote a good letter about government and faith-based inititatives. I agreed with his assessment that social welfare programs have been largely unsuccessful, and that faith initiatives often show quality success. It's been my experience that people with problems with alcohol, sex abuse, violence and who've been in the prison system often turn to some form of spiritual guidance. Whether it's Christianity, Islamic, Budhistic or Native American spiritual values, they come out a stronger, healthier person. It's often the only thing that makes a change.
Meanwhile, endless amounts of money are focused on outdated social correctional and preventitive measures. Some anti-drug campaigns in schools work. Most don't. Why? It's my opinion that many of the social programs in schools are run by the grant cycle, which often involves fudging of numbers and unsubstantiated claims. To get a grant in the social program world, you have to make claims larger than your actual scope. Any positive trend, such as increase in test scores, graduation rates, or decrease in drop-out rates, are attributed to the success of any social organization.
This also leads, dangerously, to hiding numbers that don't show positive trends. Some research shows DARE, the popular anti-drug program from the '90s, actuallyshowed an adverse effect. More kids did drugs after going through the program. That could've been caused by anything, a natural trend, rebel psychology, or that DARE just wasn't effective. But the facts get hidden.
It is not the function of government to proprogandize any belief system. If only it wasn't in the way so much. With an open mind, government programs and faith-based intitiatives can co-exist. We have to spend six hours a day in schools and nine hours a day at work, with Sundays neatly fit in the schedule for reflection. Wouldn't it be nice to have a small part of the day allowed for reverence?
Ishmael C. Hope
Juneau Empire ©2013. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:7660df50-cb5f-4f88-a582-784a434b6872> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://juneauempire.com/stories/092903/let_letter1.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966503 | 422 | 1.835938 | 2 |
PERRY-- A Facebook page has uploaded more than 600 photos, most of them of Perry High School girls.
The page, under the name Kole William, features photos taken from Facebook pages belonging to the girls. The most recent post was made on Friday, when the page came to the attention of students, parents, and police.
"We want to identify and locate this individual,"says Perry Police Chief Michael Shank. "We want to question him. We want to know why he did what he did. Is he a risk to our kids' safety?"
Shank has taken more than 100 calls from anxious parents and residents of the village, and has assigned two detectives full-time to finding the real identity of Kole William, and what his intentions may be in displaying the pictures of the Perry High School girls.
"It is probably not illegal," the chief told WKYC, "but it's suspicious enough that we have to find out what his motives are. Today, you always have to been concerned."
Shank, who has increased security at the Perry schools and at extra-curricular activites, says the person behind the page may be the same one who actually confronted a recent Perry graduate at her new place of work a few years ago.
"He came there with a gift and told her he was the person that had been trying to contact her through Facebook," Shank said.
The chief also said a person who may be the same man was recently seen videotaping former Perry cheerleaders at the local college they now attend.
"Understandably, there's some uneasiness and some anxiety," Perry Local Schools Superintendent Dr. Jack Thompson said, of the mood of students at the high school.
"But they know we're here to support them," he added, "and our safety forces are doing a great job."
Thompson said the Perry curriculum emphasizes the responsible and safe use of social media.
"We hope our students are making the right decisions," he said. The district recently added the services of a national firm to advise them in the area of social media.
One of the teachers involved in instructing Perry students in that area is Coleen Moskowitz, who also has daughters in the district.
"It is kind of creepy," she admitted, and was concerned when one of her daughters' photos appeared on the Facebook page.
"I try to teach the students in my class and my own daughters how important it is to keep your privacy settings turned on, because you never know who's out there accessing your information," Moskowitz explained. | <urn:uuid:173f6806-afa8-4836-934f-39be590f04c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkyc.com/(S(5gc40445twtwgj453gk2liai))/news/education/article/278343/35/Lake-County-Facebook-page-creeping-out-Perry-students | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983482 | 530 | 1.648438 | 2 |
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Thu December 23, 2010
Enbridge revises estimated amount of oil that spilled from ruptured pipeline
This week the energy company involved in an oil spill that reached the Kalamazoo River is revising the amount of total oil that leaked from a ruptured pipeline near Marshall. Enbridge Energy submitted the update to US Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration this week.
Lorraine Grymala manages community affairs at Enbridge Energy. She says the company estimates 20,082 barrels spilled from the pipeline – that’s up about 3%. “I would expect that that would be a firm number,” Grymala said, “The number that you could expect to see change is the amount of oil recovered and that’s simply because we’re not done yet with the cleanup activities.”
So far, Enbridge reports its recovered 18,245 barrels, that’s 90%of the oil that leaked. They estimate 8,033 barrels of oil have reached Talmadge Creek.
“Initially we wouldn’t have known how much we recovered because that’s the part of the activity that takes a long time. So the more important part of the number was what’s been recovered, what’s been put back into our system to date.”
Clean-up efforts are slower because of the weather. But Grymala says they are working to clean up some of the wetlands. She says it’s easier to get heavy clean-up equipment into the swampy areas this time of year and it’s less damaging to the environment.
Kalamazoo River Oil Spill | <urn:uuid:285d068e-571a-41a2-b788-9cc55cc92810> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.michiganradio.org/post/enbridge-revises-estimated-amount-oil-spilled-ruptured-pipeline | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954026 | 426 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Friday, May 10 2013 5:45 PM EDT2013-05-10 21:45:06 GMT
The battle of generic verses brand name goes on! Today, we're testing tuna to find out which can has the best value. There's a lot of competition in world of canned tuna. I found three name brands - BumbleMore >>
The battle of generic verses brand name goes on! Today, we're testing tuna to find out which can has the best value.More >>
Friday, May 3 2013 5:27 PM EDT2013-05-03 21:27:16 GMT
NBC12 is on your side, helping you score the best deals on groceries. Last week, it was peaches. This week - green beans. I bought six different brands of green beans. Del Monte and Green Giant are nameMore >>
NBC12 is on your side, helping you score the best deals on groceries. Last week, it was peaches. This week - green beans.More >>
Thursday, May 2 2013 5:39 PM EDT2013-05-02 21:39:15 GMT
Summer heat could hit any day, so now's the time to figure out how you can cut costs on your power bill. Here is a list of the top five things in your house that are sucking dollars out of your wallet. 1.More >>
Summer heat could hit any day, so now's the time to figure out how you can cut costs on your power bill. Here is a list of the top five things in your house that are sucking dollars out of your wallet.More >>
Friday, April 26 2013 5:20 PM EDT2013-04-26 21:20:06 GMT
NBC12 goes the distance to find the real difference between name brand and generic products. Every time you're in the grocery store, you have to choose: buy the name brand and pay more or save with theMore >>
Every time you're in the grocery store, you have to choose: buy the name brand and pay more or save with the generic.More >>
Thursday, April 18 2013 5:52 PM EDT2013-04-18 21:52:41 GMT
Kevin Cutlip grows anything he wants to eat. Last month he showed you how to grow a seed in dryer lint. A month later, they have sprouted. He showed us the replanted celery base: "It's actually startingMore >>
Last month NBC12's Diva of Discounts dug up how to start a cheap garden indoors. Now it's time for outdoor planting. She's back with more tricks of the trade that will hardly cost you a thing.More >>
In this tough economy people are keeping their vehicles longer making car maintenance more important than ever.
With that in mind AAA is promoting "Car Karma" with free 40 point checks at area repair shops.
More older vehicles on the road means more breakdowns and AAA has seen it first hand.
"Our call volume has actually gone up for simple things such as dead batteries. So, we're hoping if your good to your car you're car is going to be good to you thus the car karma," said Windy VanCuren with AAA Mid-Atlantic.
One way to be good to your car is to get it checked out by a professional before the harsh winter season arrives.
"Checking your tires and everything under the hood," said Keith Carpenter, manager of Fletcher's Towing.
Carpenter says the problem he sees the most is bad batteries.
"If the battery terminals aren't clean they will cause loss of power with the corrosion that will build up around your battery terminals. If they're not tight you will have a loose connection which will cause it not to start," he said.
Another big offender is your car's belts. A broken belt can do big damage to your car's engine and the repairs it can cause will hit your purse even worse.
"$50 or $60 bucks to change a belt compared to an alternator or water pump or one of the other components to go out and it could range from $100 to $500," he said.
Low or leaking fluids in your car can be dangerous, leaving you stranded on the side of the road or worse.
"If you don't have enough brake fluid it'll cause you loss of braking power and can cause an accident," he said.
Winter driving conditions make good tire maintenance essential too.
"Tread depth is very important especially in rainy or wet conditions you'll lose traction, hydroplane and skid off the road," he said.
"Your car is what keeps you between the pavement and what protects you while you're driving. You don't want to be stranded on the side of the road, that puts you in unnecessary danger."
AAA's 40 point inspections are free and available to everyone who owns a car, not just members.
You can get your car checked Thursday from 4:00 to 6:30pm at the Brook Road Wawa.
You can't make it then you can check AAA's website or call 1-866-636-2377 to find a participating repair shop near you.
(c) 2009. WWBT, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:ec56d02f-2b8d-4e88-b644-42d042c3adb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbc12.com/story/11364741/keeping-your-older-car-running-smooth | 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 | 0.953865 | 1,091 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Hello, I have been working with students privately and through the public schools since 1999. I have very high scores for reading comprehension. When asked to take tests for my teaching credential, I found this to be true. I can teach practical and easy ways to get the most out of your reading, help learn vocabulary, help with spelling, and all the different essays a student might be required to write in school or work.
I am a published author, and I do occasionally get invited to universities to speak on writing, and to read my own. My love of reading and writing started early, but I have kept up with my own practice and can share all my tips with any of my students. I work on brain storming, using visual diagrams, work on close reading and what is known as distant reading. Whatever technique works best, or feels best for the student is how we begin. Learning should be fun, if not a bit challenging, and I like to keep both feelings going for optimal results. We can work on Grammar too, but what I like to do is first get the idea of where the student's level of work is now. After we ave decided exactly which troubles the student has, we begin from that point. I have 2 degrees in English, so I am well equipped to teach any level, from elementary to college.
Most importantly, I want my students to reach the point where there is no more struggling or anxiety over reading and writing. When we reach that point,then the best work can be accomplished. I will teach all the different kinds and styles of essay writing, I will give tips on how to get the most out of reading, and then the student can begin practicing these styles until they are mastered. My students will then know how to write cogent essays, business and school applications, letters, and any other form of writing!
back to top | <urn:uuid:25d231e2-4011-460a-8a0a-73b33e3bd059> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wyzant.com/Tutors/CA/Mill-Valley/7848609/?g=3MG | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967983 | 382 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The following piece appears in this week's Forward.
Read it there HERE.
The earth-shattering shock of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary continue to reverberate throughout communities and homes all over America. And now, nearly a week later, rallies, vigils and proposed legislation offer opportunities for us to find a way forward. In the midst of these expressions of activism, however, there are still the lingering questions of how we grapple with the inexplicable death of children, those sweet innocent ones we mourn over and over again.
The first time I encountered the death of a small child was when I was called upon to help a family bury a premature baby. The death was an abstraction until the casket was removed from the hearse, at which point it became obvious that the abyss separating life from justice was real. We built a bridge over that dark space with words of comfort, with shared grief, with a scaffolded, silent presence. “We are here. You will not collapse. Promise.”
The first time I encountered the death of a child was in high school, when a classmate committed suicide. He shot himself with his father’s gun, in bed, late one night. He was Catholic, so was made up quite well for the wake. The day after the funeral, our sophomore biology teacher made some remark in class about a science experiment. Three students ran from the class in tears. The teacher should have been fired for his stupidity and insensitivity. But we were all too stressed out to organize an effort to censure him.
The first time I encountered the death of a child was one summer night decades ago. 1970. There's Mom at the kitchen window. Water running in the sink; crickets outside in the yard; apples ripening, hanging low on the trees, ready. Her back is to us and she's crying. "Thinking of my dad," she'd say. And the pastoral landscape of youth was ripped thoroughly through, its horizons twisted into the junk metal of a violent and permanent alteration: the ghost of a man, an illness, and a gun. Mom was six in 1939 when her father was murdered by a deranged man, looking to get his job back. One part of her died that day and she carried that death with her for the span of her entire life. Hers was the trauma never healed.
The first time. And the first time. Again and again. When a child dies our only response is to treat that death as though we are encountering the phenomenon of a child dying for the first time. Because to enure ourselves to the radical injustice of a child’s untimely is to deny an essential law of life itself: that life is to be lived; that the intended progression, the evolutionary genius of design is from conception to birth to growth and maturation and then, to death. A disruption in that cycle requires our full attention, our presence, our heart’s impossible pain.
My friend Mish Zion recently shared a great text from the Talmud: Rabbi Hama son of Rabbi Hanina taught, ‘What is meant by the passage You shall walk after the Lord thy God?’ Is it possible for a human being to ‘walk after’ the Divine Presence? Rather, what it means is, ‘Follow the actions of the Holy Blessed One, just as God comforted the grieving, so too do you comfort the grieving.’
The most God-like action we can take in the face of death--most certainly in the presence of one who has lost a child--is to comfort with words, comfort with our presence, build a bridge over the hole in the ground that lies before them.
For some in grief, there is the deepest desire to hear words of ease, to be held close, to be told that their angels have gone to heaven. For others in grief, there is anger and a call to justice. Hayim Nahman Bialik, calling not for revenge but for justice, wrote after the 1903 Kishinev massacre, “No such revenge--revenge for the blood of a little child has yet been devised by Satan. Let the blood pierce through the abyss! Let the blood seep down into the depths of darkness, and eat away there, in the dark, and breach all the rotting foundations of the earth.”
For 73 years after her father was murdered, Mom felt that the foundations of the earth, the system of justice under which we lived, was compromised by laws that favored the rights of gun owners over the innocent lives lost of those who fell victim to a bullets’ searing, piercing blast to the abyss.
Words of comfort and angels didn’t work for her. Laws did. Laws against guns.
The undeniable inexplicability of a child dying -- and the possible array of responses to that by the grieving survivors, brings to mind a teaching by Eliezer Berkovitz in “Faith After the Holocaust.” He said that some survivors found meaning in their faith, trusting that the full range of evil they had experienced was part of a Divine plan for themselves and the innocent souls lost. And yet for others, nothing could be more true than God’s absence. To deny God in the face of such evil is the prerogative of one who has so fully suffered. Neither position--full faith nor its total absence--is for us to judge.
We are to listen, be present, and comfort.
Shimon ben Gamaliel said, “All my days have I grown up among the Sages and I have found nothing better for man than silence.” | <urn:uuid:fe9e052d-4db8-4ebe-8863-1cee64d3babd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.andybachman.com/2012/12/comfort-justice-silence.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971532 | 1,162 | 1.710938 | 2 |
After Sept. 11, there was an external enemy, "evildoers" against whom to summon fear and fervor. Now, instead, the flood has brought to the surface the deepest national questions of race, class and inequality. On Aug. 30, the day after the hurricane hit, the Census Bureau released figures showing that the poor had increased by 1.1 million since 2003, to 12.7 percent of the population, the fourth annual increase, with blacks and Hispanics the poorest, and the South remaining the poorest region. Since Bush has been in office, poverty has grown by almost 9 percent. (Under President Clinton, poverty fell by 25 percent.) As these issues began to receive serious attention for the first time in years, Bush reiterated that it was inappropriate to "play the blame game."
Meanwhile, his aides sought to blame New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. On Sept. 3, the Washington Post, citing an anonymous "senior administration official," reported that Blanco "still had not declared a state of emergency." Newsweek published a similar report. Within hours, however, the Post published a correction; the report was false. In fact, Blanco had declared an emergency on Aug. 26 and sent President Bush a letter on Aug. 27 requesting that the federal government declare an emergency and provide aid; and, in fact, Bush did make such a declaration, thereby accepting responsibility. Nonetheless, these facts have not stymied White House aides from their drumbeat that state and local officials -- but curiously, not the Republican governors of Mississippi and Alabama -- are ultimately to blame.
Salon has had some really good coverage of the flood porn aspect of other peoples' misfortunes. Earlier this week they pointed out how Geraldo Rivera made some poor elderly woman walk from the heliport to the Superdome twice just so he could get another take for the newscast. Now we have a look at all of the self congratulating in the current Administration, who thinks that they've done everything right once they started. | <urn:uuid:233942ba-73f6-49e0-8bcd-a93cae91abbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.memestreams.net/users/dolemite/blogid5938964/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970235 | 419 | 1.742188 | 2 |
While normally not on the sight-seeing itinerary of those who do not know someone already living there, Shawnee could prove to be an interesting day trip.
In recent days, Shawnee has become increasingly known for its numerous Native American casinos.
Practically the only method of getting in or out of Shawnee is on the highway. Taxi cabs can be hired by calling a taxi service to have them pick you up, although doing so from another city could prove expensive.
There is a Enterprise rent a car in Shawnee and Shawnee Airport, so car rentals must be made before hand. Many times this is done at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.
Most traffic enters and exits Shawnee via Interstate Highway I-40, although State Highway 3 and US Highway 177 pass through Shawnee as well.
Greyhound buses make daily stops in front of the American Colony motel on the far north side of Shawnee.
From there you will have to either call a taxi or arrange another form of pickup.
Originally established as a railroad hub, Shawnee still has many infrequently used rail tracks. While logistically difficult as well as illegal, it could be feasible to stow aboard a freight car inbound to Shawnee. Not recommended.
Chartered flights can be acquired to fly you in to Shawnee airport, most likely originating from Oklahoma City or Tulsa. There are no commercial flight charter services based in Shawnee, so arrangements for your eventual pickup would have to be made as well.
While towns in Oklahoma are quite spread out, some have been known to hitchhike especially along I-40. Not preferred.
If you are a tourist, getting around in Shawnee means either calling a taxi cab service to pick you up or using a rental car.
Shawnee is very, very spread out and if you will quickly abandon any thoughts of walking if you ever want to get where you're going.
Historical Places of Interest
Many old buildings from Shawnee's early years still remain, although most have changed facade and/or fallen into disrepair.
Notable Downtown Shawnee Buildings:
18 hole course, Pro Store, and Club House dining available. 2501 Augusta, Shawnee, OK, (405) 273-4076 , Golf Shop (405) 273-2764, Greens Keeper (405) 273-0784, Office- 2300 East Highland (405) 273-1763
18 hole course; usually considered to Shawnee's budget golfing: "Golfing for the price of a gordita", Miniature Golf located nearby. 1901 South Gordon Cooper Drive, (405) 275-4471
Driving range and batting cages also available. Shawnee Lodge 657, (405) 275-1060
Since Shawnee's many public parks are used infrequently by locals, a quiet and serene environment can usually be expected.
(Exceptions noted below)
Shawnee's Twin Lakes
Shawnee's Twin Lakes offer enjoyable avocation and adventure to anyone who likes to experience the outdoors and water related leisure.
One lake is reserved for fishing and angling.
Its counterpart lake is for those who wish to swim or take part in non fishing related activities such as water skiing, jet skiing, or drinking. (Consuming alcohol while fishing can be dangerous to yourself and those around you; it is strongly discouraged.)
(Note: Due to pervasive droughts and low water levels, Shawnee Twin Lakes are often closed during the summer)
In recent years, Shawnee has been surrounded by gaming establishments who advertise to be "just like Vegas". For smokers, these establishments offer the convenience of having their own smoke shops, which are not subject to local tobacco tax statutes.
Since the passage of the 2005 passage of a Tribal Gaming Amendment, Native American casinos can now offer card games along with their slot machine mainstays.
As a classic example of middle sized town Americana, Shawnee boasts a variety of shopping opportunities, both budget and luxury oriented.
Books & Magazines
Like most towns of any size in Oklahoma, Shawnee is inundated with most of the fast food restaurants you can think of and also has many all-you-can-eat buffets (mostly Chinese food).
Most places to eat are located either on the northern edge of town along interstate highway I-40, sprinkled along Harrison and Kickapoo Street, or downtown on the south side of Shawnee.
You cannot go very far in Shawnee without running into a Sonic Drive-In of which there are 5, Braum's hamburgers and ice-cream (3), McDonald's (3), Arby's roast beef (2), Pizza Hut (2), or a Taco Bell (2).
Shawnee is home to the first "Sonic Drive-In" and also what has been labeled as "Sonic number 3000". This label is up for debate however, as some state that it was not the 3000th Sonic drive-in to be erected.
Other fast food chains set up around town include Quizno's, Wendy's, KFC, and Taco Bueno. Higher-end chains include Cracker Barrel, Red Lobster, and Chili's.
If you're wanting something more special, authentic Italian cooking with menus that go way beyond pizza and spaghetti can be found at Frateli's, just south of OBU on Kickapoo. Also on south US 177 you'll find Jay's Classic Steakhouse. Perhaps the best Mexican menu in town is at Abuelita's, found at the corner of Harrison and Independence.
Shawnee also has many pizza kitchens, although many of these are carry-out/delivery only.
Don't forget to try "Vans" a local BBQ favorite, located on Highland Street
Also on the menu is Robb's Smokehouse, the 2nd most popular BBQ place in town, located at 2321 N. Kickapoo, across from OBU.
Shawnee's surrounding area can offer almost as much to see as the city itself, if one knows where to look: | <urn:uuid:8dce02ea-0e67-4d04-b3f3-7335505f6346> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wikitravel.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=Shawnee&oldid=840799 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95638 | 1,255 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Taking to the streets, Fashion Tribes China is an exploration of the fashions and street styles of China's youth.
Focusing on five key styles, the Alternatives aren't afraid to stand out in the crowd and express their individual style. Iconic's wear bright colours, wacky accessories and like to mix designer gear with vintage, second-hand and handmade pieces. Hip Hop's take their inspiration from music and dress in baggy clothes, sportswear and accessorize with chains and medallions.
The Fashionistas dress in the latest trends and spare no expense to be seen in the latest designer outfits. In contract, the Casuals, choose comfort and practibility over fashion and opt for the jeans and t-shirts look, but express their style with interesting accessories. A mix of text and a lot of photography, it's interesting to see how Western fashion has taken to the streets of China, making this an inspiring read for any fashion lover.
Pick up a copy of the book from Anova now. | <urn:uuid:92fec6da-47ef-4892-b92b-005b89f28074> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/books/fashion-tribes-china | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944738 | 210 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The federations that have assumed a growing role in the Combined Federal Campaign need to do a better job of disclosing the fees they charge charities, a new report contends.
To recover their overhead costs, federations — nonprofit organizations that perform a variety of services on behalf of CFC charities — often deduct those fees from donors’ pledges before they get to the intended charities.
Although many federations “make a good-faith effort” to explain how fees are calculated, “it can be difficult to compare one price-tag with another,” according to the report, which will be released Tuesday by the Workplace Giving Alliance, a Massachusetts-based organization that includes a dozen national and local CFC federations. The alliance provided an advance copy to Federal Times.
There are dozens of national federations that provide charities administrative and marketing services and help navigate the paperwork needed to join the campaign.
But the federations differ widely in how — and whether — they disclose information on the fees they charge charities for those services. One federation posted no information on its website, while others did so in different formats.
Many set the fees as a percentage of CFC pledges made to a given charity, often between 4 percent and 8 percent. A federation’s percentage cut could be higher if a federation charges a flat minimum fee.
Those federation fees are in addition to the fees charities pay to local CFC campaigns, which amount to 10 percent on average.
“We have suggested to [Office of Personnel Management] that it move more aggressively to require federations to make clear what they will charge their charity members,” the report says.
OPM intends to propose a vast overhaul of the CFC. A draft of those reforms, obtained by Federal Times, calls for holding the CFC campaign a month later in the year, streamlining the CFC’s organization, and switching to only electronic pledges, among other things. The draft reforms also call for more transparency in the fees that federations charge their charities.
Specifically, OPM’s draft proposal could force federations to bill charities directly for their fees. Currently, federations are given the pledges by feds made to their charities and the federations remove their cut before handing those pledges on to the charities themselves. The current process creates confusion and uncertainty for both charities and feds over how much is pledged to any given charity and how much of that money goes to overhead costs.
The report by the Workplace Giving Alliance endorses that approach. “We believe this change will drive federations toward a much more complete disclosure of the amounts they are withholding from their members since federations will simply have to issue bills,” the report says. | <urn:uuid:88b642e3-3dcc-44ed-a27e-9a266872103b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20130121/PERSONNEL01/301210004/Report-calls-more-transparency-CFC-fees | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953083 | 555 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Gunshots a common sound in dead toddler's neighborhoodby Brandt Williams, Minnesota Public Radio
Minneapolis — Minneapolis police officials say they haven't arrested anyone yet in connection with the death of 3-year-old Terrell Mayes Jr. Mayes was killed Monday evening when a stray bullet passed through the exterior of Mayes' house and hit the boy in the head.
A child killed in his home by a stray bullet is rare, but the prevalence of gunfire in Mayes' north Minneapolis neighborhood and others is not.
The Minneapolis Police Department posts "shots fired" maps on its website each week. The most recent map shows a cluster of red dots in the vicinity of the home where Terrell Mayes was shot.
Each plain red dot indicates a 911 call to report shots fired. A blue star indicates that a person was hit by a bullet. A red dot with a black spot in the middle indicates a "Shotspotter" activation.
On the night after Christmas, Shotspotter -- the gunshot detection system -- alerted police dispatchers that shots were fired near the Mayes home on Colfax Avenue North.
The bullet hit Mayes while he was seeking safety in a closet in his home, along with his older siblings, according to his mother.
Gunfire is so common in their neighborhood that Marsha Mayes taught her four children to hide in a second-floor closet whenever they heard gunshots.
Mayes said that Terrell was on his way upstairs to the safety of that closet when he was struck by the bullet.
Week after week, the "shots fired" red dots keep clumping in pretty much the same areas on the police department's map -- in north and south Minneapolis. Over the last eight weeks, there's been an average of more than 50 shots fired calls per week. On average, 11 of those calls came from the Shotspotter system.
Michelle Lewis lives in the Willard Homewood neighborhood in north Minneapolis, about two miles southwest from where Terrell Mayes was shot. Lewis says she used to hear more gunshots near her block before a nearby convenience store was shut down. She says the store was a magnet for drug dealers.
Lewis says one night a few years ago, shots rang out on the block and bullets struck the wall just above her bed.
"I have sort of an attic bedroom so it's sort of an angle. And it came in about a foot or 18 inches above my head where I was lying," she said.
Lt. Jeff Rugel is the commander of the Minneapolis Police Department's strategic information center. He also helped get the Shotspotter system up and running about four years ago.
Rugel says before they started using the system, police dispatchers had to direct officers based on information from callers who weren't exactly sure where the gunfire had come from.
"The real advantage of Shotspotter is it doesn't just hear them, it pinpoints -- often a very, very accurate location on a map," said Rugel. "So instead of saying, 'check this massive area,' you can literally say to them, 'go to this address and look in the northwest corner of the backyard.'"
Shotspotter is not used throughout Minneapolis. Its sensors have been placed in sections of the city that are traditional hotspots for gun violence. Rugel says there was a slight decline in shots fired calls right after the system went online.
"I think people got the idea that we were able to pinpoint the shots, and we could respond pretty quickly and pretty accurately where things were going on, and so they moved to other places," he said.
Michelle Lewis of north Minneapolis says the Shotspotter system is useful for many of the reasons cited by Lt. Rugel. But Shotspotter hasn't stopped the shots from ringing out. Lewis says she'd like to see more attention paid to the number of shots fired, instead of just the number of homicides in the city.
"I think the more important number in terms of tracking whether there has been an improvement in safety or not is the number of shots fired," she said. "Because from my point of view, every shot fired is a potential homicide."
Terrell Mayes was the city's 36th homicide victim in 2011, and its youngest. Minneapolis police officials say they are turning up the heat on the investigation into his death.
However, they say they don't have any suspects in custody. Meanwhile, a vigil will be held in the young boy's honor this weekend. | <urn:uuid:9053b094-c69e-4604-b562-807d280468f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/12/28/mpls-shooting-folo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979283 | 929 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Author and philanthropist John Wood, who left an executive career at Microsoft to promote literacy and education, will speak Tuesday evening, Feb. 12, at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts.
Wood at 7 p.m. will present the lecture "Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy."
The program is free and open to the public and is sponsored by several university programs and the Fairfield Public Library.
In 1999, the then-35-year-old Wood left his career as a Microsoft marketing executive to found Room to Read, which the library said is one of the fastest-growing charities founded in the 20th century.
The nonprofit group has opened more than 1,500 schools and 14,600 libraries and distributed more than 12 million books for an estimated six million children in 10 countries across Asia and Africa, the library said in a news release. It has also provided educational scholarships for more than 19,000 girls.
Based in San Francisco, the organization has regional offices around the world and a goal of promoting education, gender equality and literacy worldwide.
His latest book, "Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy," (Viking, 2012) details the building of Room To Read. It dovetails with his first book, "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World." | <urn:uuid:7d7a9d72-f185-4d68-8971-d38e4074853f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fairfieldcitizenonline.com/news/article/Philanthropist-Wood-to-speak-at-Quick-Center-4260478.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964786 | 282 | 1.609375 | 2 |
In Memoriam: William Sinton
William Sinton, a member of the IfA faculty from its beginnings until his retirement in 1990, died March 16 at his home in Flagstaff, Arizona, after a ten-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). He played a key role in the early development of Mauna Kea Observatories and was a pioneer in the field of infrared planetary astronomy. Sinton led one of the first ground-based systematic observing programs of Io's volcanoes, and he helped to found the International Jupiter Watch in 1987. Photo by Jim Harwood taken in 1970 at the UH 88-inch telescope. | <urn:uuid:23677e67-63ca-44d5-ada0-b9e5e6376c37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.ifa.hawaii.edu/newsletters/article.cfm?a=192&n=18 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974629 | 135 | 1.796875 | 2 |
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|Home > Life in Japan > Features|
Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011
THE ZEIT GIST
Four years after 'Nova shock,' eikaiwa is down but not out
By PATRICK BUDMAR
Ask any ordinary person what significance Oct. 26 holds and you might find them struggling for an answer, but for many involved in Japan's beleaguered English teaching industry, it was the day the nation's premier operator fell into administration and took much of the rest of the industry with it.
This year, Nova marked its fourth anniversary of operation following restructuring, and while Louis Carlet, executive president of Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union (Tozen), admits it has been a long time since the collapse, he feels that the English conversation school (eikaiwa) industry as a whole "continues to convulse."
Carlet is no stranger to the Nova saga, having been a spectator to it from the start of the chain's public troubles in early 2007 and the eventual bankruptcy to Nova's restructuring by Nagoya-based holding company G.Communication in the following years.
Although the media at the time asked Carlet for his thoughts on a seemingly daily basis, he admits it was difficult to get a historical perspective on what impact Nova's collapse would have on the industry.
"One thing I did say during several press conferences was that the business model of profits over people does not work in the long run," he says.
Once the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry became involved in investigating Nova's business in 2007, the eikaiwa chain seemingly went from a fully operating business to bankruptcy within months.
Shawn Thir owns and operates LetsJapan.org, a website that acts as a community for English instructors in Japan, so he has seen his fair share of ups and downs in the industry, though the implosion of Nova four years ago still caught him by surprise.
"Nova was the largest English conversation school, and I certainly had no idea that it would collapse so quickly," Thir recalls.
The root of Nova's financial problems in 2007 could be traced to the long lesson contracts the company sold to students. When word got out that Nova could not pay wages, students rushed to undo their contracts, and very few students were prepared to purchase new contracts under such circumstances.
Thir admits that if someone had been closely following the company, the signs of things to come were all there to see, such as a shady refund policy, lawsuits, unsustainably rapid expansion, and not enough teachers.
"With the flood of students demanding their money back, it became clear that Nova operated on a 'bicycle business model,' " Thir says. "Everything is fine as long as you keep pedaling and taking in money, but once you stop you quickly fall over."
During the course of Nova's downward spiral, the atmosphere at branches took a slightly unusual turn as Nova management, or more specifically then President Nozomu Sahashi, tried to allay instructors' concerns about delayed payments through bizarrely worded faxes, which instead seemed to have the opposite effect.
Thinking back to those faxes, often referred to as "Jesus memos" for the spiritual metaphors and starry-eyed rhetoric Sahashi utilized, Carlet describes them as "creepy" and says they gave employees the feeling Sahashi "was losing it," which only further lowered the confidence of everyone involved.
Thir also found the faxes to be "laughable and not worth the fax paper they were printed on," adding that vague promises do not mean anything when someone has bills to pay.
Nova finally collapsed under the weight of its debt on Oct. 26, 2007, though while many knew it was coming, Carlet admits he was surprised to hear that the Nova board had conducted a coup d'etat by holding an emergency meeting without Sahashi in order to fire him and immediately apply for court protection from creditors.
Immediately after, the National General Workers Union (NGWU) found itself thrust into the difficult position of providing support and advice to Nova's entire foreign workforce, in addition to dealing with a surge in membership in the hundreds.
The labor group managed to organize the instructors into rallies and visits to the Labor Standards Office, as well as holding seminars to explain the complicated system behind the government's guarantee that 80 percent of unpaid wages would be repaid in the event of bankruptcy and how to apply for unemployment benefits.
"We did a public relations campaign to make sure everyone in Japan knew how bad it was for unpaid teachers, some of whom had trouble getting food," explains Carlet, who was then deputy secretary general of NGWU's Tokyo Nambu branch.
The NGWU attempted to assist instructors in this predicament with a highly publicized "Lesson for Food" program, where private students would compensate an instructor for an impromptu language lesson with a meal instead of the normal tuition fee.
While the union's intentions behind the initiative were noble, Carlet admits in hindsight that it had the "unintended consequence of lowering the private lesson market rate."
By the end of 2007, Nova had found a sponsor in G.Communication, which made one of several unusual business moves by attempting to revive the business while retaining the tarnished Nova name.
"I must admit that I was surprised at that decision, because I didn't think the Nova brand had any value anymore given the scale of the collapse," Thir says. "I'm still amazed that G.communication still uses the Nova brand."
In spite of the odds, Nova has restructured and continues operation to this day, although Carlet attributes this feat to "nothing but momentum."
Thir, on the other hand, feels that Nova has succeeded in that "they got small," as the chain is now a fraction of the size it was in its heyday.
"In taking over Nova, and then later Geos, G.communication essentially bought itself a captive student audience and then went about shutting down a lot of schools," Thir says.
One senior instructor in western Japan, who chose to remain anonymous for this story, has worked continuously with Nova since years before its restructuring, and witnessed the scaling down of Nova firsthand.
"The old Nova had a hierarchy of supervisors who conducted training and evaluations, called titled instructors, and gave day-to-day feedback on teaching performance," he explains. "They did not always do the job very well, but as G.education hired so few people, there hardly ever seem to be any lesson observations anymore."
The instructor describes the current Nova management as "extremely poor," and while it was not especially good at the old Nova, he feels that the people running the branches now are "much worse."
"There needs to be a proper system for training and supervising teachers, and while the various companies running Nova want the teachers to get more involved in sales, they have no good ideas about what they want the teachers to do," he says.
Nova was invited to respond to teachers' concerns, but the company declined to comment.
Another senior instructor in eastern Japan, who has also been with Nova since before the bankruptcy and declined to be identified, admits that the new Nova is significantly more cost-conscious than under the previous regime, which he feels might be "holding the business back."
He says the day-to-day work has changed very little, with the books and teaching methodology remaining the same, though an intranet-based record keeping system introduced in 2009 has replaced the old paper file system and modernized that aspect of the business.
"There's also much more interaction with the Japanese management now compared with old Nova, which can be good or bad depending on the personalities involved," he says.
The instructor adds that he has seen the level of professionalism and the quality of teaching improve in the last few years, with the bankruptcy having weeded out a lot of backpackers and short-termers whose teaching skills were of questionable quality.
"A lot of instructors with old Nova were fresh out of university and here for a year of fun and frolics before going back to their home countries to start a 'proper' career," he says. "Most of these scurried off after the bankruptcy, so the majority of those remaining are those with a longer-term investment in the country such as family or property."
While Nova has managed to pull off the massive feat of restructuring, it is clear that the eikaiwa industry has suffered significant contraction following the collapse, with competing language chain Geos going bankrupt in the middle of 2010.
"The economy is bad and young people's employment is so unstable that most people have little extra time or money to spend learning a foreign language," Carlet explains.
Thir also feels that the "overt thievery" of Nova and Geos has put a lot of people off eikaiwa, and the nature of the job itself has changed as well.
"It used to be that you worked full-time for ¥250,000 a month and that was enough to make decent living on," he says. "Now, there's much more part-time work and the pay is not good to begin with."
Looking to the future, Carlet does not foresee things improving drastically for the eikaiwa industry as a whole, but sees some opportunity for smaller operations.
"To recover, the eikaiwa industry would have to overhaul its business model and take language learning seriously as an educational exercise, treat teachers as long-time careerists and, ultimately, charge more," he says.
Thir still expects there to be a strong demand to learn English in Japan and that eikaiwa will at least continue operating on some form of plateau, though with Japan's economy being moribund for decades, he feels it is difficult to say whether eikaiwa has bottomed out or not.
"Rather than improve eikaiwa, I've always wondered if teaching English could be done better in the public schools," he says. "English has been introduced in elementary schools, and I wonder that if it was taught well, the demand for eikaiwa would fall."
Send comments on this issue and story ideas to [email protected] | <urn:uuid:61876b4f-837d-49d6-9b75-441de70ff136> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://info.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20111220zg.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980525 | 2,184 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Yesterday I read the account of a rape victim. He wrote very eloquently about being raped by a woman. I have not been able to stop thinking about him since I read his story. You see as a woman when I think about rape I think about it as something that men do to women. I have written post after post detailing the horrible violence that men commit against women. It is something that pains me more than I can possible express in words.
When I read what happened to James Landrith one of the things that really made me pause is the realization of the way that I have gendered the victim in my mind. Before reading his account yesterday, I never once thought to write about male victims of sexual violence. In my mind they (read: males) were the evil enemy, and not the ally for which I should weep tears of compassion, and solidarity with. I have experienced true shame since realizing this truth about myself. I am 100% against rape, and yet I created a group of victims as invisible, and thus marginalized, and ignored their experiences. Thank you for sharing James, you have opened my eyes in many ways.
One of the greatest fallacies with my reasoning was the thought that because a man had to get an erection to penetrate a woman, he must of have enjoyed it on some level. I am so ashamed to admit to this as I have often fought against this same sort of stereotype when it comes to womens physiological reactions towards rape. Getting an erection, or ejaculating during a rape is not an indication of pleasure, it is an involuntary physiological reaction. To those that think as I once did the following statistics will be eye opening.
- About 3% of American men – a total of 2.78 million men – have experienced a rape at some point in their lifetime (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2006).
- In 2003, one in every ten rape victims was male. While there are no reliable annual surveys of sexual assaults on children, the Justice Department has estimated that one of six victims are under age 12 (National Crime Victimization Study, 2003).
- 71% of male victims were first raped before their 18th birthday; 16.6% were 18-24 years old, and 12.3% were 25 or older (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2006).
- Males are the least likely to report a sexual assault, though it is estimated that they make up 10% of all victims (RAINN, 2006).
- 22% of male inmates have been raped at least once during their incarceration; roughly 420,000 prisoners each year (Human Rights Watch, 2001).
In feminist circles much time is dedicated to issues that stop women from reporting rapes. The Curvature is an excellent example of a blog that daily posts about rape, and its effects. When I think of the hardships that women face getting rape to be treated seriously by the authorities, I cannot help but wonder how much harder is it for men, who have very few support networks in place? How much harder is it for men, if they can be publicly ridiculed when they share their accounts?
Men who are raped by other men fear being labelled homosexual even though rape is a crime about power and not about sex. "People will tend to fault the male victim instead of the rapist. Stephen Donaldson, president of Stop Prisoner Rape (a national education and advocacy group), says that the suppression of knowledge of male rape is so powerful and pervasive that criminals such as burglars and robbers sometimes rape their male victims as a sideline solely to prevent them from going to the police." It makes one wonder how many are suffering in shame and silence, afraid to talk about their experiences? This is something we need to start addressing and creating support networks for. No matter the gender, rape is a violation of the worst kind. Rape crisis counsellors estimate that while only one in 50 raped women report the crime to the police, the rates of under-reporting among men are even higher (Brochman, 1991).
We think of men as always strong and therefore there is this understanding that they should be able to protect themselves in all situations. Women hold take back the night rallies, but do we stop to think that darkness may be just as dangerous to men? A predator, is a predator and if they seek to assault an individual, gender may not play a role on who is victimized. Men are taught to hold in their emotions and not express their pain. How many suffer because they feel it is the "manly" thing to do. How many ignore their pain because we have taught them as children that males don't cry when they are hurt, they simply move on to the next task?
The research that I have done is very preliminary but it has been enough to open my eyes. As an advocate to stop sexual violence I will no longer perceive victims the same way. I will have to begin to think of the gendered language I use to talk about rape because making an entire group of victims invisible by privileging the female experience is wrong. If we can accept that rape has little to do with sex, then we should also accept the idea that it may have little to do with gender as well.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30333
Phone: (404) 639-3311
Public inquiries: (404) 639-3534
Toll-free: (800) 232-4636
TTY: (888) 232-6348
American Social Health Association
P.O. Box 13827
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Main Phone: (919) 361-8400
STI Resource Center
Hotline: (800) 227-8922
Portland Men's Resource Center
12 Southeast 14th
Portland, OR 97214
Phone: (503) 235 – 3433
Men Stopping Rape
P.O. Box 2361
Madison, WI 53701
Phone: (608) 257 – 4444
Centers for Disease Control
National Prevention Information Network
Distributes a variety of educational materials to the public. Provides expert referrals.
P.O. Box 6003
Rockville, MD 20849
Toll-free: (800) 458 - 5231
National Sexual Violence Resource Center
123 North Enola Drive
Enola, PA 17025
National Center for Victims of Crime
2000 M Street NW, Suite 480
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 467-8700
Our helpline is staffed Monday through Friday 8:30am to 8:30pm EST:
Toll-free Helpline: 1-800-FYI-CALL (1-800-394-2255)
Fax: (202) 467-8701
National Crime Victims Research & Treatment Center
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Medical University of South Carolina
165 Cannon Street, P.O. Box 250852
Charleston, SC 29425
Clinic phone: (843) 792-8209
Administrative phone: (843) 792 – 2945
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force
1325 Massacusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 393-5177
Fax: (202) 393-2241
Your state Attorney General, county/city prosecutor, or county/city law enforcement: | <urn:uuid:ef3ca591-3c4b-4d2f-8dd4-c0a083f72858> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.womanist-musings.com/2008/07/male-rape.html?showComment=1216493700000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951163 | 1,535 | 1.515625 | 2 |
ERGNAD (ERCNACTA) (Saint) Virgin (January 8) (5th century) This holy woman, born in the present county Antrim, is said to have received the veil from Saint Patrick. She led a life of great penance, and her closing years were marked by many miracles.
- Monks of Ramsgate. “Ergnad”. , 1921. Saints.SQPN.com. 30 December 2012. Web. 18 June 2013. <> | <urn:uuid:2e02c27c-cc8f-4bcb-b65d-1bcccd86cb66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saints.sqpn.com/book-of-saints-ergnad/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980344 | 103 | 1.804688 | 2 |
It has been like watching the coverage of the Beijing Olympics on a split screen. So much of the western media comment in the front section and on the opinion pages has been taken up by the ‘nattering nabobs of negativism,’ in the timeless words of Richard Nixon’s Vice-President Spiro Agnew (and written by the timeless wordsmith, William Safire). The coverage in the sports pages, not to mention live on TV, has been of an entirely different event celebrating the joys of human endeavour in a tough but friendly competition, with individual tales of heroism mingling with spectacular evidence of China’s organisational skills and sporting supremacy. The games were also mercifully light on controversies and doping scandals. The sporting competition was the story, not a backdrop.
There have been tales that fit the dominant Christian narrative of human fallibility, sin and redemption on an epic scale. Eric Lamaze was born in Quebec to an unknown father and a mother who suffered from drug addiction and spent time in jail. Raised by his grandmother, he was familiar with marijuana and LSD by the time he was 11 and dropped out of school after Grade 8. At 13, he was introduced to horses at a farm and discovered a natural affinity and talent for all things equestrian. Twice banned from Olympic competition because of drug use, including cocaine, he faced the wrath of the Canadian equestrian establishment, which tends to be from the right side of the tracks, which would have been happy to see the last of someone from the other side of the tracks. Fortunately for him, and for the adage that everyone deserves a second, sometimes even a third, chance in life, his arbitrator, Professor Ed Ratushny, was a follower of Shakespeare’s Portia in believing that justice must be tempered with mercy. And so, at age 40, this Montreal street kid found himself a member of the Canadian equestrian team in Beijing. His flawless, error free rounds helped Canada win the team silver in a dramatic jump off with the U.S. team and helped him capture the individual gold medal. For me, one of the lasting images of this year’s Olympics will be the medal ceremony with the Canadian Maple Leaf flag fluttering proudly to the strains of the national anthem while Mr. Lamaze fought back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.
The Canadian team also provided one of the best stories of persistence and perseverance. At age 61, Ian Millar was competing in his ninth Olympics. He had never won a medal in his previous eight appearances. This time round, he was captain of the Canadian team that captured silver in the jump off with the Americans.
There were individual performances that took the breath away: Russia’s Yelena Isinbaeva winning magnificent and graceful pole vault for the gold, Australia’s Matthew Mitcham’s stunning last dive under pressure from the 10-metre tower, with three perfect tens, to snatch the gold away from the Chinese leader up to that point, and scores of others. In the end, the record books will mark this as the games where Michael Phelps stamped his supremacy with an all-time Olympics haul of eight gold medals in one year that bettered, by one, Mark Spitz’s record from the Munich games back in 1972. Already a swimming legend when he arrived, he delivered on the promise of the best still to come. Boy, did he ever.
And yet, unbelievably, his heroics may well be overshadowed by the exploits and antics of the brash, utterly unpredictable yet thoroughly joyous Usain Bolt. In his first appearance at an Olympics, ‘My name is Bolt, Lightning Bolt’ captured three gold medals with world record shattering times in each event in which he competed, made a world class field of competitors look pedestrian as he left them well behind in his wake, stirred the world’s imagination and emotions with his unabashed celebrations of dances, jigs and poses alike, and connected with the 91,000 audience in the lovely Bird’s Nest arena in a way that the security blanket bubble-wrapped antiseptic Phelps never did. He turned out to be the embodiment of the outer limits of human skill, the personification of unbounded joy and infectious enthusiasm, and the very best of what the Olympics spirit is supposedly all about. His defeated rivals revelled in his triumphs, recognising the converts to their event that he was attracting and sharing his glory vicariously. Not to mention the cheer he brought to his home country whose athletes had previously captured gold in the sport’s glamour event but only in the colours of Britain and Canada.
Incredibly, this proved too much for the Olympics boss. Jacques Rogge delivered a public rebuke to Bolt for his showboating antics, saying they were unseemly and disrespectful to Bolt’s competitors (none of whom complained). Rogge’s comments were so out of line and out of tune with the spirit of the arena and the games that even the sports journalists who reported his comments took him to task for them. It brought to mind Winston Churchill’s famous put down of a rival who had all the virtues Churchill disliked and none of the vices he admired. If the International Olympics Committee has any spirit, it will gently and privately remind its chief of the Olympics spirit.
Yet in the end Rogge’s gaffe will pale in comparison to the sustained assault on China that was launched by so much of the western media. I defer to no one in my criticism of China when warranted and justified. China is no more immune from faults and failings, both serious and minor, than any other country. But this was its year and its fortnight. The organisation was flawless, the spectacle grand, the facilities were superb, and records tumbled in the pool and on the tracks reflecting the world-beating quality of the facilities. Why begrudge the Chinese their moment in the sun? That their athletes captured more than 50 gold medals (and exactly 100 in total) is testament to their investment in youth and sporting excellence. It’s hard to believe that India’s celebrated solitary gold was its first individual gold medal ever in 108 years of modern Olympics history. The Olympics have traditionally been more an opportunity for our officials to tour abroad in taxpayer-funded luxury than for our athletes to compete on a level-playing field. The same Canadian newspapers that have bemoaned the paucity of medals for Canada (three gold and 18 in total) sometimes, unconscious of the irony, criticised the Chinese system for mass producing world leading athletes.
Role of western media
The western media need to be careful for another reason. Asians today are better educated, better read and better informed than ever before. They read, watch and follow the western media which dominate the international media. But, unlike the average western reader, Asians also read their own media where they often get an entirely different picture of the same events and happenings. As a result, they can spot double standards and hypocrisy in real time, and it is the global credibility of much of the western media, and not the reputation of the targets of their ire and attacks, that suffers. In this sense, the western media must accept their fair share of the blame for the declining soft power assets of the West in global affairs.
The Government of China takes rightful pride — as do the people of China and, as far as we can gauge, the overwhelming majority of overseas Chinese — at a games well run and ceremonially concluded. Tomorrow is another day, and might be another matter as we return to the post-Olympics reality of a quarrelsome world and shine the international spotlight on China’s errors and wrongs. Today belongs to China and the athletes who brought glory to themselves and their nations and joy to the rest of us mere mortals.
(Ramesh Thakur is distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo.)
6 months ago | <urn:uuid:159239d4-6173-4a4f-b700-4e3d5495c40a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spoonfeedin.blogspot.com/2008/08/sport-showcasing-china-at-its-best.html | 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 | 0.973511 | 1,650 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Judge William A. McCain 100th birthday celebration
The public is invited to a 100th Birthday Celebration of Judge McClain’s life at 11 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, at Allen Temple A.M.E. Church, 7080 Reading Road in Cincinnati. Civil rights leader Reverend Otis Moss, formerly of Cincinnati and now of Cleveland, will be the guest minister.
Judge McClain was born on Jan. 11, 1913, in Sanford, North Carolina. He attended Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934. In 1937, he received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School.
He has been a member of the Bar of Ohio for more than 70 years. In 1951, after being denied membership twice, Judge McClain became the first Black member of the Cincinnati Bar Association. He later became the City Solicitor of Cincinnati, from 1963 to 1972, making him the first Black attorney to serve as City Solicitor of any major city in the country.
During his years as an attorney, he was a member of the law firm of Keating, Muething & Klekamp from 1972 to 1973. He was the first Black judge of the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, and he also served on the Hamilton County Municipal Court as Civil Trial Referee for the same Court.
From 1980 to 2003, he was Of Counsel with the law firm of Manley Burke. Judge McClain served as the Director of Legal Services for the Village of Lincoln Heights from 1980 to 1987, and 1994 to 2003.
On May 4, 1997, he was awarded the highly coveted Ellis Island Medal of Honor. The award was created in 1986 to honor the many ancestral groups who through struggle, sacrifice, and success helped build our great nation. The Mallory Center for Community Development bestowed upon him its History Maker Award on Feb. 24, 2001. In 2003, the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce recognized him as "A Great Living Cincinnatian." The crowning moment of his life came on Oct. 23, 2004, when Wittenberg University dedicated "The William A. McClain Culture House" in honor of his life and career as the only Black graduate in the Class of 1934.
Judge McClain is a member of numerous organizations, including, but not limited to, the Black Lawyers Association of Cincinnati (BLAC), the Cincinnati Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association, the National Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. He is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the American Judicature Society, the Cincinnati Bar Foundation, and the Lawyers Club of Cincinnati.
He became the first Black member of the Lawyers Club in 1947, after a heated debate over his admission. On Sept. 22, 1994, he was recognized for this and other accomplishments at a joint meeting of the Lawyers Club of Cincinnati and BLAC.
Judge McClain and his late wife since 1944, Roberta (White) McClain, have had a scholarship in his name, donated by the law firm of Keating, Muething & Klekamp. This scholarship will be awarded to a Black law student attending any accredited law school who has demonstrated leadership potential and a dedication to the Cincinnati community, and has expressed a financial need. The Cincinnati Bar Foundation and BLAC fund this scholarship jointly. | <urn:uuid:cec63500-4db3-4644-93d2-4b00ea20e0d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecincinnatiherald.com/news/2013-01-12/Front_Page/Judge_William_A_McCain_100th_birthday_celebration.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975289 | 686 | 1.8125 | 2 |
This is my solution to the “Kill the Dragon!” puzzle. Improvements, in both the bounds and formality of the argument, are definitely possible.
Tag Archives: kill the dragon
Kill the Dragon!
A hapless lost dragon has accidentally landed in a nearby lake. You, the kingdom’s sworn dragon-slayer, have set out on this foggy night to kill it. You are armed with your trusty trebuchet, which can catapult a fiery projectile to any location on the lake. When the projectile hits the water, it will explode in a lethal circle of Greek fire, killing everything within a radius of metres from the point of impact. Especially dragons.
The fire, however is short-lived, and is extinguished instantaneously. This means the dragon, who swims slowly at a constant speed of metres per minute, can safely doggy-paddle into a previously scorched area. You can launch one missile per minute.
It’s so foggy, that you can’t tell whether you’ve killed the dragon, which is too tired to leave the lake, and you can’t be bothered to fetch a boat to check. If the lake is a circle of radius metres, is it possible to aim your volleys strategically to be sure that you will eventually kill the dragon, no matter how it moves?
For which radius is it possible, and for which is it impossible? What about other shapes of lakes? | <urn:uuid:50167383-800a-4d2b-9263-7ade28617623> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://outofthenormmaths.wordpress.com/tag/kill-the-dragon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937666 | 306 | 1.5 | 2 |
A typically quiet mid-summer day, without even an onshore wind to bring seabirds, although some common and sandwich terns were visible on the west hoyle bank. A female Peregrine flew over carrying lunch to eat on the beach.
Two Little Egrets were present around the main island all morning and 11 Swifts arrived in from the northwest just before noon. A late (or early?) Northern Wheatear was glimpsed briefly on the west side of Middle before disappearing down the cliff, not to be relocated. | <urn:uuid:18f86ea9-b419-49bb-a1f6-5b4b02086ad0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hilbrebirdobs.blogspot.co.uk/2008_06_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972476 | 109 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Muslim World Elections
|Back to Analysis|
|Walid Phares||June 15th 2009|
Cutting Edge Terrorism Analyst
According to the latest polls, the so-called "March 14" coalition, which was formed in the wake of the Cedars Revolution and the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, has obtained a majority in the Lebanese Parliament, defeating the Hezbollah political and financial machine. This victory, in a very challenging local, regional and international context, is a benchmark with multiple lessons to learn. The following is a first evaluation of the results, although they will most likely be challenged by Hezbollah and their allies.
Under Threat Since 2005
Even though it was seen by the international community as the last straw, the assassination of Rafiq Hariri and his companions wasn’t the final tragedy Lebanon had to experience in 2005. The March 14 majority in parliament and the country’s executive branch were targeted for assassination, intimidation and destabilization by the Syrian-Iranian "axis." As of July of that year, politicians, journalists, MPs and simple citizens were murdered, wounded and kidnapped by the terror networks operating inside the country even after the withdrawal of Assad’s troops. Deputies Jebran Tueni, Walid Eido, Antoine Ghanem, and Pierre Gemayel--who was also a minister in the cabinet--were killed by car bombs and hit teams.
In the fall of 2006, Hezbollah and its allies staged urban unrest, followed in May 2008 with an armed invasion of West Beirut which killed dozens of citizens and burned media establishments.
The May coup crumbled the will of the Marh 14 Coalition and forced them to accept drastic concessions in a conference organized by a new Iranian ally, the Emir of Qatar. This June parliamentary election was the last window of opportunity for the Lebanese resistance (against Hezbollah, Syria and Iran) to score a democratic victory, allowing them to gain time, as the regional and international environment had been turning gradually against democracy forces in the region since 2007.
In September 2004, the United States and France led an international consensus that led to the issuing of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, asking Syria to withdraw and Hezbollah to disarm. Strengthened by international backing, Lebanon’s democracy movement took the streets and showed its determination to struggle for freedom, emulating Eastern Europe and South Africa more than a decade earlier. As long as Washington and Paris stood firmly with UN resolutions and with the democratically elected government, Hezbollah's violence didn’t reduce Lebanon's determination. However, as of the fall of 2006, with the publication of the Baker-Hamilton report and its adoption by a new leadership in Congress, the Bush administration scaled back its support of the Cedars Revolution in order to enhance chances for "a deal with Iran and Syria." The change in American policy emboldened Hezbollah and Syria and more terror was unleashed against the democracy forces, epitomized by the May 8, 2008 attack. When the Obama administration consolidated the idea of "engaging" Tehran and Damascus, the latter’s allies in Lebanon prepped themselves for a full takeover in Lebanon this June. In short, the Cedars Revolution was believed by many to have been eliminated from these elections.
In a new regional and international environment where the Lebanese public felt abandoned by the West, the Iranian-backed militia was deploying a titanic apparatus. First, the organization has been receiving between $300 million to one billion a year from Iran’s oil revenues. Such amount invested in a small country like Lebanon defies all norms of democratic processes and creates a near-robotic bloc of Shia who support Hezbollah. Since Iranian funding was also backing political factions among Christians, Sunnis and Druze, the unbalance in the political debate was significant. Second, Hezbollah’s security and paramilitary forces practically control the south, the Bekaa, and south Beirut, and that is more than half of the country. Add to it a very efficient propaganda network with TV, radio stations, newspapers and a web of relationship with Western media correspondents, journalists and bloggers. Technically, such a giant can't be beaten.
But, contrary to most prognostications--including those coming out of American and European media and think tanks--Lebanese voters mounted a resistance to the Hezbollah goliath and, against all odds, defied most projections. While it was a given that Shia areas in the south and the Bekaa would fall to Hezbollah’s candidates, most analysts predicted a win to the March 14's Christian and Sunni allies in Saida, Mount Lebanon and some districts in the Maronite hinterland. The predictions gave March 14 around 45 seats, with the rest of the 128 going to Hezbollah’s coalition. But a surge of voters, particularly in Christian and Sunni districts, created significant upsets for the militia’s candidates. The most important wins were scored in Zahle, the Bekaa’s largest Christian town; in Kura, a northern Christian district traditionally in the pro-Syrian camp; and in Saida, where anti-Syrian Sunnis defeated pro-Syrian Sunnis. The anti-Hezbollah vote was victorious in Batrun and Besharre in the north and clinched two of the seven seats in the Matn central district. This vote took out General Michel Aoun’s "fortress" in the Bekaa and deprived his bloc of half a dozen legislators. Aoun’s alliance with Hezbollah cost him among Christians but his movement nevertheless won in three important districts: Jbail, Kesrawan and Metn.
A New Map
The new political map, at this stage of the results, gives the March 14 Movement (anti-Syrian and opposed to Hezbollah’s weapons) 71 seats, which enables it to impose a Prime Minister of its choice and remain in control of ministries such as defense and interior. More symbolically, three anti-Syrian wins are chilling: Nadim Gemayel--son of slain President Bashir Gemayel, Nadia Tueni--daughter of assassinated MP Jebran Tueni, and Sami Gemayel--brother of the murdered MP and Minister Pierre Gemayel were all elected with high margins. What a lesson to the terrorists.
Message to Washington and the West
The Cedars Revolution’s electoral victory surprised those Chanceries in the West who were preparing for dialogue with a Hezbollah controlled government in Lebanon. In his Cairo speech, the U.S. President spoke of recognizing "elected governments if they are peaceful." Some saw in it an insurance policy in the case of a Jihadist electoral success in Lebanon. But now that the incumbent majority in Beirut received 68 seats plus 3 other "independent" seats, the United States will have to craft a new strategy for the little Levantine country. Washington will have to decide if opening to Hezbollah is a good option, or if backing March 14 all the way is a better strategy. The Obama administration must learn the lessons of its predecessor: If you announce a policy, you’ve got to be prepared to follow through.
In addition, Lebanon’s democratic victory against Hezbollah, although modest and still very precarious, should send a strong message to the theorists of foreign policy in the Obama administration and the European Union: yes, people East of the Mediterranean see democracy as we see it in the West, when freedom is available and when we don’t sell them out in deals with authoritarians. The majority of Lebanese have told the West that the region’s civil societies crave the same international values, not Khomeinist or Jihadi views of the world.
March 14 to the Test
But in the end, real decisions regarding the future of Lebanon won’t be produced in the White House, in the Palace of the Élysée, or in Manhattan’s U.N. building. It is up to the March 14 politicians to take the lead and form a government as mandated by their voters. The public gave them a mandate in June of 2005 to fulfill the goals of the Cedars Revolution. Instead they brought Hezbollah to the cabinet, reneged on the disarming of militias, failed to seize the opportunity provided by the U.N. Security Council, didn’t use their majority vote to elect a president early on, and simply wasted too much time while Hezbollah was wreaking havoc in the country. Incredibly, and despite terror, the voters renewed the mandate for another four years. March 14 leaders must use that time intelligently and swiftly and learn from past mistakes. Hezbollah today is five times stronger than half a decade ago, as determined to take them down as before, and the United States is on a different course than "spreading democracy." The winners of these elections must fulfill the will of their citizens and succeed in convincing the public abroad of their ability to confront the threat.
Cutting Edge Terrorism Analyst Walid Phares is the author of The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad. He is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a visiting scholar at the European Foundation for Democracy. | <urn:uuid:d786222c-2cbb-45e8-98b2-20706862855e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=11384&pageid=13&pagename=Analysis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960986 | 1,871 | 1.679688 | 2 |
I agree with all the above answers, no device is required to stretch the strings. I use a couple of fingers to hold the string I'm stretching; for the thinnest strings I'll use a clean cloth as well, to spread the pressure of the string on my fingers.
Grip the string around the 12th to 15th fret and pull the string perpendicular away from the neck and body. If the guitar is laying on its back, you'll be pulling up; if in playing position, pull away from your body. I use the hand I'm not pulling with to make sure the string I'm stretching doesn't leave its slot in the nut. Also, remember to wipe the string clean after you're done stretching it.
I mostly play electric guitars, and I will stretch new strings extensively when installing them. I usually stretch metal acoustic guitar strings with less force on each stretch, but more passes of stretching and retuning. This is because I worry about putting extra tension perpendicular to the guitar top on acoustic guitars.
On electric guitars with tremolo systems, stretching one string will pull the bridge and lower the tension (and pitch) of all the other strings. I'm usually able to hold larger trem units (Floyd Rose and related designs) in place with my elbow while stretching the string, but not strat-style trem bridges. One can also block the bridge, or use some other method to hold it stationary while stretching one or more strings.
In any case, after stretching one string to the point where it stops losing pitch to the stretch, check the tuning of the rest of the strings. Even on a fixed bridge electric, they might have gone slightly out of tune. Tune them all up, and move on to the next string to be stretched.
After I get all my new strings stretched, I'll tend to play for several minutes, trying to bend notes on all the strings. Usually by this point they won't need any further stretching, but sometimes it can take several iterations to get a new string to settle in. Just keep stretching and playing until you're satisfied with how the new strings are holding their tune. | <urn:uuid:3ba393f8-1b63-494d-bebc-c30b371998cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/1821/how-do-i-properly-stretch-my-newly-strung-strings/1822 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944057 | 434 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The healing of our planet is a relational and spirit-centered process which requires humans to return home to our appropriate place within the earth community, not as the apex of creation, clothed in human privilege and entitlement – which places us outside the web of life – but as intrinsic to the integrity of the whole. The invitation which frames this book is twofold: one, to release the human-centered biblical justifications of dominion and rule for the sake of a natural web morality which insists on the sacramental nature of all life; and two, to create a holy space between church people and not-church people, who together will be able to develop sacred ritual to celebrate and honor the living system of which we are an integral part. It’s not the science that’s lacking. We have all the information we need to assess the damage we have done and continue to do to this planet. We seem not to understand that the desecration we do to the biotic community, we do to ourselves.
Terry Tempest Williams writes, “The open space of democracy provides justice for all living things – plants, animals, rocks, and rivers – as well as human beings.”
How simple is that!
What this justice requires is the release of human privilege and entitlement. What this justice requires is that humans come home to our proper place within and vital to the earth community. Justice then can emerge as our moral compass has opportunity to be re-forged from the core.
We don’t get to that place by altruism or even by the determination of will. We get there by engaging in the things that change our hearts and minds. This is the stuff of the right brain: art, music, poetry, movement, sacrament, ritual, and, ultimately, a living evolving pattern that is the ground of liturgy.
If we don’t get there, it will be the catastrophic result of the failure of our collective imagination.
This book began with what I thought would be a simple article or essay which now exists as Chapter Two, To Have Dominion Over Them: Our Human-Centered Universe. I wasn’t thinking about a book. I was trying to discover why it is that churches – so utterly convinced of their call and commitment to environmental stewardship – are, in fact, not making a dent in the restoration of the land, waters, and air – and all the human and non-human life forms that inhabit the planet. As I am still a priest in the church, the exploration required only that I look into my own philosophy and behavior.
That first article led to another question: what is it about churches that makes their message so uninspiring for those outside the church? The next question: what if people of churches and people not of churches could suspend the attitudes, doctrines and practices that keep us apart, in order to step into the space between, where we – together and across the lines that tend to divide – can focus our attention, not on our differences, but on our common commitment to the healing of our planet? It was the right question for this book, apparently, because however we define ourselves, the space between is available and accessible to us all. All that’s required is that we release the things that divide us for the sake of that which we hold in common – the earth community, of which we are an intrinsic part. | <urn:uuid:7599c2ad-643d-484c-9954-2370c2db6bae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://restoringthewaters.com/books/the-space-between-church-and-not-church/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957769 | 694 | 1.820313 | 2 |
New five-year plan to be implemented in Libya
Sources in Libya recently revealed that the government has commenced preparations for a five-year plan, to be launched in 2001 through 2005, according to Al-Ittihad daily. The main goal of this five-year plan is to develop the nation’s economy and to attract foreign investments.
So far, $35 billion funds have been allocated to this plan, which are to be provided by the national budget. The Libyan sources added that the new plan would consist of projects in various fields including harbor construction, road and airport expansion, and investment in education. ― (MENA Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com) | <urn:uuid:768c5717-f9c3-48f9-8a0c-c46b75064624> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albawaba.com/business/new-five-year-plan-be-implemented-libya | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966067 | 145 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released the “Trustworthy Cyberspace: Strategic Plan for Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Program” document earlier this month. The R&D plan is aimed at laying out a road map for the digital communications network in the US.
The R&D plan is a part of the “near-term action plan” of the Cybersecurity Policy Review. Its goal is to “enhance and focus our cybersecurity research and development efforts” with co-ordinated priorities and objectives.
The plan involves 4 strategic thrusts:
- Inducing change
- Developing scientific foundations
- Maximizing research impact
- Accelerating transition to practice
We’ve discussed before about whether or not the national cybersecurity plan has received the attention it needed. This new R&D plan is based on 7 years of examination of cybersecurity issues in both private and public sectors. While admirable to attempt to foster continuous research into cybersecurity, to stay on top of changes, it’s as yet unclear how much will be executed and enforced.
If you read the full program, there are some great details on how the government plans to implement each thrust and I think some of the areas of research will be fantastic. Crossing my fingers that the government is able to close the gap between research and operations as they hope to do. | <urn:uuid:e60237ef-3a11-497b-b040-381aba70cea6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.absolute.com/blog/white-house-reveals-cybersecurity-rd-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94596 | 284 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Adhesives Research Inc.
On This Page
EPA Project Manager
Mr. Paul Gotthold
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Region III
1650 Arch Street
Mail code: 3LC30
Philadelphia, PA 19103-2029
Phone: (215) 814-3410
- Adhesives Research Inc. has completed the environmental cleanup at their Glen Rock, Pennsylvania facility. The following paragraphs describe the releases that occurred at the Adhesives Research Inc. facility, as well as the corrective measures taken by the facility to remediate the releases.
- On December 14, 1987, a fire in the northeast corner of the facility's main manufacturing building occurred when a spark ignited during the transfer of vinyl ethyl ether from a mixing tank to a 55 gallon drum. The release of chemicals to the environment occurred when water used to fight the fire flooded the immediate area of the fire. Approximately 32,000 gallons of this contaminated water was collected and transported off-site by trucks. An additional 90,000 gallons of water were treated by an on-site carbon treatment system. A soil gas analysis survey indicated that the soils in the area had not been substantially impacted by the spill, therefore soil excavation was not required. On-site groundwater wells were tested repeatedly during a two year period following the fire incident. All of these sampling results revealed that the groundwater under the facility had not been impacted by the spill.
- In 1990, two leaky underground farm use fuel tanks located on the facility property were removed. Approximately 16.47 tons of contaminated soil was excavated and disposed of off-site. Groundwater continued to be sampled at three locations near the tank removal area, and the results were sent to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) for review. No detectable amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons were found in any of the groundwater samples.
- In 1992, seven underground storage tanks were removed from the facility. Leakage of fuel oil to the surrounding soils had occurred at two of these tanks. Approximately 40 tons of contaminated soil were excavated under PADEP oversight. Subsequent groundwater sampling at the facility found no detectable amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons in any of the groundwater samples.
- After performing a facility inspection, and an evaluation of past remediation practices, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believes that no further corrective action is necessary at the Adhesives Research Inc. facility. On October 22, 1999, EPA completed the 45 day public comment period for the Adhesives Research Inc. facility, during which time no comments were received on EPA's proposal that no further corrective action is necessary at this time. Therefore, EPA has adopted the proposed decision as the final decision.
- The Adhesives Research Inc. facility consists of approximately 12.5 acres located on Route 216 in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, and is located in a largely agricultural area. Operations at this facility began in 1974, and continue today. Adhesives Research Inc. manufactures pressure sensitive adhesives and applies adhesive to a variety of media, including foams, plastic sheets, paper, and some metals. This process generates non-chlorinated solvents such as methyl ethyl ketone, toluene, xylene, heptane, and hexane as hazardous wastes. This waste is stored at the facility for less than ninety days before being shipped off-site for disposal.The threat of contamination to the environment at the Adhesives Research Inc. facility has been controlled, and the contaminants of concern have been cleaned up within acceptable levels.
- EPA released a "Statement of Basis" for the Adhesives Research Inc. facility on September 14, 1999. The public was invited to comment on the proposal that no further corrective action be required at the Adhesives Research Inc. facility during a public comment period which lasted forty-five calendar days from the date that this matter was publicly noticed in a local newspaper (September 14, 1999 to October 22, 1999). On October 22, 1999, EPA completed the public comment period, during which time EPA did not receive any comments on its proposal that no further corrective action is necessary at this time. Therefore, EPA has adopted the proposed decision as the final decision.
- The threat of contamination to the environment at the Adhesives Research Inc. facility has been controlled, and the contaminants of concern have been cleaned up within acceptable levels.
- Some of the site’s key documents of interest are accessible below:
- Environmental Indicator Determination - Human Exposures [PDF, 7 pages, 25 KB, About PDF]
- Environmental Indicator Determination - Groundwater Migration [PDF, 8 pages, 45 KB, About PDF]
- Documents and reports regarding this facility also can be reviewed in person at these locations:
U.S. EPA Region III
Land & Chemicals Division
1650 Arch Street-11th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Call for an appointment.
- Submit a FOIA Request
Get instructions on how to submit a FOIA request. Additional fee for requests over 100 pages.
Click on a thumbnail to enlarge the photo)
- The facility is under continued use.
- The EPA is dedicated to providing you with timely and accurate information about our work at this site. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact EPA Project Manager: Mr. Paul Gotthold (215) 814-3410. | <urn:uuid:986756a8-d9aa-4ce0-bdc6-ac59ddc6d209> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/ca/pa/webpages/pad003010345.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960235 | 1,107 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Allegations in Iran against Nestlé, the international food company, of having affiliations with Israel may have been spread by rivals of the company, a conservative Iranian news portal has reported.A while back I coined the term "misoziony" to describe the utterly irrational hatred of all things Zionist, and Iran is Exhibit A.
The report titled “Iran’s Nestlé in Rivals’ Trap” appeared on Tabnak, which is affiliated with an influential conservative politician, Mohsen Rezaiee, secretary of the Expediency Council and a former chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards.
The report by Tabnak said the allegations against Nestlé were made and spread by rival companies and importers of infant food.The General Inspection Organisation has cleared the company of charges of Zionism for the time being. In Iran, any person or organization charged with Zionist affiliations or sympathies is considered a possible threat to national security.
The report also found a Nestlé factory in Qazvin, 200km west of Tehran, had to halt its operations after demonstrators demanded its closing following the military offensive in Gaza, but begun operating again after intervention from the state inspection organisation.
And demonstrations against western companies with alleged affiliations to Israel, such as Nestlé, Benetton and Coca-Cola, are frequent in Iran whenever anti-Israeli feelings run high. A Benetton shop in an affluent northern Tehran neighbourhood was set on fire by radicals in the early days of the offensive in Gaza. Other Benetton outlets had to close for a few days until the situation cooled down; they are now all operating normally.
A few well-placed rumors can affect the Iranian economy, thanks to the gullibility of its people and the unreal hatred they have towards "Zionism."
So in order to stop Iran's march to create nuclear weapons, I think it is time to publicize all of the Zionists (really, Jews, but close enough) who worked on The Manhattan Project, and whose innovations must be strictly haram for the misozionistic mullahs:
Richard P. Feynman
John von Neumann
Isidor I. Rabi
Emilio G. Segrè
Victor F. Weisskopf
It appears to me that the atom bomb is really a Zionist invention, and Iran would be hypocritical to want to use that technology, rather than developing its own Islamically pure alternative. | <urn:uuid:72d8a678-1123-4eac-b99c-6b57d64b173e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/02/iranian-companies-call-rivals-zionist.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941724 | 501 | 1.5 | 2 |
When Eddie Kantar first learned bridge as a youngster in Minneapolis, he had no notion of turning that new-found knowledge into a job.
Today, the Californian is one of the best-known bridge writers in the world. He has more than 20 bridge books in print and is a regular contributor to the Bridge Bulletin, The Bridge World, Bridge Today and many foreign publications.
Although he doesn’t play as often as he used to, the two-time former world champion is still highly regarded as a player and is a regular at major tournaments. He is also known as a great ambassador for bridge. Matthew Granovetter, in a letter to the editor published in the Bridge Bulletin in 1992, said, “Eddie may genuinely be the nicest guy in bridge.”
Kantar learned bridge at 11. By the age of 17, he was teaching the game to his friends. Kantar was so enthusiastic about bridge that he often took his bridge books to school with him, hiding them behind his textbooks.
At the University of Minnesota, where Kantar studied foreign languages – he is still conversant in Spanish and French – he taught bridge to earn spending money. When he played, he sought out tough games and honed his skills.
Somewhere between the first bridge book he read and the first one he wrote (in 1965), Kantar developed his literary signature – the ability to inject humor into just about everything he writes or talks about.
Relating his experiences as a bridge teacher in Germany during a stint in the U.S. Army, Kantar recalled that he taught in German. “Even though the people spoke only German, by the end of the class they were begging me to teach in English.”
This kind of self-deprecating humor has made Kantar popular with readers around the world. Never afraid to laugh at himself, Kantar personalizes all his writing, transforming the dullest of lessons into lively, interesting reading.
“I never thought of myself as a bridge writer,” Kantar says, “ but now I don’t think I could write about anything else.”
He gained stature as a player by winning 13 North American championships and two world titles – the Bermuda Bowl in 1977 and 1979. He was second in the 1975 Bermuda Bowl, the championship which erupted in controversy when two members of the winning Italian team were caught giving foot signals. On one crucial deal, Kantar held the ♣K 10 and heard the opponents bid to 7♣. With declarer to his right, Kantar envisioned a huge swing. When dummy hit with the ♣A Q, he recalls, “it was as close to shock as I’ve ever been.
There was speculation that the contract might have been defeated had Kantar played the ♣K – feigning a singleton – when declarer first played trumps. “I never thought about playing the king.” Kantar recalls. “I wasn’t thinking about anything.”
Kantar is a Grand Master in World Bridge Federation rankings and an ACBL Grand Life Master. His North American titles include wins in the Spingold Knockout Teams (three times), the Reisinger B-A-M Teams (four), the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams (two) and the Grand National Teams (two).
Kantar today is best known as a writer – his favorite games to play are tennis and racquetball – and many of his books are considered classics. In a survey of bridge writers and players, Kantar’s Complete Defensive Play was listed in the top 10 of all-time favorite bridge books. | <urn:uuid:a8a5151f-6d23-4937-96d1-9fa250fdb0ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.acbl.org/about/hall-of-fame/biography.php?id=35 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986902 | 763 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The Grade Forgiveness Policy
Under the GFP, undergraduate students seeking baccalaureate degrees may improve their grade point average (GPA) by repeating a course taken previously. The repeated course:
- must be the same course as taken previously
- must be completed at Old Dominion University
- may be repeated only ONCE with grade forgiveness applied.
The Grade Forgiveness Policy (GFP) became effective for the Fall 1997 semester. Courses repeated prior to the Fall 1997 semester are not eligible for grade forgiveness. Complete information on this policy is available in the University Catalog.
Application of Grade Forgiveness
It is not necessary to apply for grade forgiveness. The Registrar automatically applies the GFP to all eligible course repeats at the end of each semester, including the Summer session, after all grades are posted. Grade forgiveness will not be processed after a student graduates.
Conditions Applying to Grade Forgiveness (updated 4/2/2009)
- Effective with the Fall 2009 semester, students may use grade forgiveness for up to five courses during enrollment at the University.
- Grade forgiveness is only applied to a course if you received a grade of C-, D+, D, D-, F, or WF the first time you took the course.
- Under the GFP, only the second grade earned, whether higher or lower than the original grade, will be calculated in the GPA for the purposes of continuance, graduation, etc. Any repeats of a course after grade forgiveness has been applied will be averaged with other course work.
- Student transcripts will continue to list all courses taken and the grades received. Courses for which grade forgiveness has been applied are indicated by a "/" following the grade letter.
- An enhanced GPA using the GFP determines eligibility for continuance and graduation, but does not determine eligibility for graduation with honors or Dean's List. Academic suspensions will not be removed from student transcripts, and Dean's List status will not be added after use of the GFP. GPA calculation for Latin honors (at graduation) reflects the student's complete academic record, including courses that have been forgiven. If the student's overall GPA is sufficient, graduation with honors will be posted to the student's record. For more information on Latin honors, see Graduation Procedures.
- Students may elect to use both the GFP and the Adjusted Resident Credit (ARC) policy. However, students cannot use the GFP for individual courses for which they have already used the ARC policy. | <urn:uuid:29fce938-1a15-4ba2-91b2-0ab84d9650da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ww2.odu.edu/ao/registrar/grades/forgiveness/index.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935506 | 510 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Visual artsIn a word
|More Visual arts Stories|
Wall posts (10/6/2010)
Kristine Diven and District 7 (9/15/2010)
Soup's on (9/15/2010)
|More from Kelli B. Kavanaugh|
Cash flow (12/31/2008)
Game not over (7/9/2008)
Winter's here — surf's up! (1/23/2008)
For its inaugural Eminent Artist Award, Kresge Arts in Detroit chose Charles McGee. The selection shouldn't be met with much criticism — after all, McGee is a much-loved, well-regarded local artist whose prodigious output has left a deep imprint on his adopted hometown. Born in South Carolina, McGee moved to Detroit at 10 and has spent most of his life here. He studied at the Society of Arts and Crafts (now the College for Creative Studies) and founded the Charles McGee School of Art in 1969, where he taught children and adults for five years. In 1979, he was involved in founding the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID).
Over the years, he and his work have popped up in public spaces (i.e., the Broadway People Mover Station), institutions (DIA, Charles H. Wright African American Museum) and academia (he taught at Eastern Michigan University for 18 years). At 84, McGee is still creating in multiple mediums and remains inspired by the life he has created for himself and the external one he observes and interprets. Here's an excerpt of a conversation we had at his Rosedale Park kitchen table.
METRO TIMES: Your work changed when you went to Barcelona for a year in 1968. Do you think you needed to leave Detroit to grow?
CHARLES MCGEE: Yes. It opened my eyes to new vistas. There was a difference between what was then in Detroit and what was happening there that I didn't have access to here. I was trying to see something new. I experienced something vital to my intents — it wasn't all that revolutionary, but it solidified my thoughts about the human endeavor. What I was into here wasn't all that bad — it just wasn't that broadly available here, while I was here.
MT: But of course, you came back. How does living and working in Detroit impact your art?
MCGEE: My art is informed primarily by nature. Timbuktu ... Africa ... Asia ... it doesn't matter. It's universal, unescapable. I get it every minute of my life from the system of opposites that defines nature's order. I don't have to go far — look out the door: grass is different, trees are different, people are different.
This system of opposites that defines nature's order, I think it's magnificent. It's male-female, tall-short, white-black. This order is not just my work: when you determine what is good and bad, you determine on that basis. How a person takes those elements and defines them is their signature, it's how they are composed. Nature is everything, you just have to fish for it.
MT: What are some of the positive aspects about being an artist here?
MCGEE: Being here geographically is a big plus in the economics of dealing with everyday necessities. Like, earlier on I had to make a decision to give it all up to try to pursue a career as an artist. But to keep yourself from having to cut off your ear, you have to take on menial work. We all have to live within our perimeters and I couldn't stand being hungry and half-clothed. I want to get up and let art define what my day is about.
It's the cost of living. My studio [near Marygrove College], when I got it, I paid $12,000 for 4,000 square feet of space.
MT: What about the isolation?
MCGEE: Isolation, for me, is essential to who I am. Those who need a lot of activity, those are the ones who go to New York. I find New York overwhelming with offerings. Like in nature, lots of infusions of activity need lots of quiet. That's why we sleep — it's so logical. I'm never confused too much. A simplistic kind of order guides me through my day.
MT: Do you think a program like Kresge's Arts in Detroit fellowship program is something that can really help the strength of the local scene? In what ways?
MCGEE: Stuff like the Kresge Foundation may stop some artists from migrating, from leaving town all the time, leaving Detroit. It's a big shot in the arm for cultural endeavors. This will help people to have an incentive to stay here and work.
What's impressing me is that they ask nothing of you except for what you bring to the table as far as what you do. That's extremely unusual and it's a really important thing. It's the best thing since women were invented.
MT: I remember seeing your exhibition at the DIA.
MCGEE: That was the highlight of my life — my art life, I should say — up until now, this award. Not just for myself, but for those around me. I was not able to take art studies [as a child]. I was born on a farm and when I came here when I was 10, I couldn't even sign my signature, just an X. At various moments in my life, I've had high points. Like getting to a fork in the road and having to make a decision, choose the right direction. The move to Barcelona was great. It opened my eyes. It wasn't that it was so different, but it made me focus on what devoting myself full time to work on art meant.
After McGee returned from his year abroad, he was offered his position at EMU. His next major exhibition will be held there in 2009. | <urn:uuid:da27a535-80ba-443a-a453-d95afbbb8829> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.metrotimes.com/culture/story.asp?id=13575 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979032 | 1,247 | 1.554688 | 2 |
On Monday the Senate voted to begin debate on the measure 79-19, which would allow the U.S. to impose tariffs on goods exported by countries found to be devaluing their currency.
President Barack Obama has yet to weigh in on the bill — which moved forward in the Senate with broad bipartisan support — though privately sources say the administration opposed it. Chinese government officials have threatened a trade war if the bill is passed and the tariffs are implemented.
“I’m concerned about the Chinese currency situation. There’s been an awful lot of work done over the last seven or eight years to try to bring its valuation up,” Boehner told reporters. “But I think it’s pretty dangerous to be moving legislation through the United States Congress forcing someone to deal with the value of their currency. This is well beyond, I think, what the Congress ought to be doing. While I have concerns about how the Chinese have dealt with their currency, I’m not sure this is the way to fix it.”
Boehner coming out against the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011 saves Obama from having to oppose it himself — against the will of many in his party. | <urn:uuid:5c1217ab-2771-4223-a16f-48c316805630> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-bails-obama-out-on-chinese-currency-bill-2011-10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97611 | 248 | 1.75 | 2 |
An Electronic Journal for the Exchange of Information on Current Research, Publications and Productions concerning
Oscar Wilde and His Worlds
This home page is a brief preface to THE OSCHOLARS. The drop down menus provide quick links to all the features on the site. Earlier issues, including ones transferred from our previous website can be found by clicking Archives in the upper menu.
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We draw your attention particularly to the Special Issues; to the Bibliographies and Scenographies (regularly updated); and to our Library of articles republished from print journals and out of print books.
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THE OSCHOLARS was made possible initially by the Jim O'Beirne Memorial Bursary at The Centre for Irish Studies, Department of English, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2001/2 and 2002/3. Volume III Nos 1-7 were greatly assisted by facilities provided by The Liberty Hall Centre for the Performing Arts, Dublin. Volume III No 8 was greatly assisted by on-line facilities provided by Lake Farm Llamas Ltd., Devonshire. Volume III Nos 9 and 10 were greatly assisted by on-line facilities provided by Dr (now Professor) David Margolies. From October 2003 circumstances made suspension of publication necessary. In January 2006 the task was undertaken of re-transcribing all issues for publication at www.irishdiaspora.net (courtesy of Mr Patrick O’Sullivan). This was completed in October 2006 and new editions were issued on that site in October 2006, December 2006 and January 2007. Changes in the way that the server was managed brought forward the need to re-establish THE OSCHOLARS and its off-shoots on its own site, and with the very substantial help of Mr Steven Halliwell of The Rivendale Press, work began on the creation of www.oscholars.com in February 2007. Without the generosity of Mr O’Sullivan, it is probable that THE OSCHOLARS would never have been revived; without that of Mr Halliwell, that it would never have been able to develop into a fully functional website. | <urn:uuid:ba86adb2-b9a2-40cd-8646-21c533ee88d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oscholars.com/TO/oscholarshp.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961992 | 527 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
It's that time of year again! If you're anything like me you've been planning for your new school year. Homeschool Giveaways is giving away Essentials in Writing curriculum, with your choice of three grade levels. FIVE winners will be chosen! Up to nine entries are possible. The winner will be chosen on August 10, 2012! :)
Click HERE for details!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Please excuse the "wtf" in the picture. The speaker doesn't use any profanity, and it really is a good video. :)
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
The Pilgrims formed a partnership in a joint-stock company with a group of London merchants, including Thomas Weston, an ironmonger, and John Peirce, a cloth maker. The company, John Peirce and Associates, received in 1620 a grant from the Virginia Company for a particular plantation in Virginia territory. In this alliance, each adult settler was granted a share in the joint-stock company, and each investment of ten pounds also received a share. At the end of seven years, the accumulated earnings were to be divided among the shareholders. Until that division, as in the original Virginia settlement, the company decreed a communistic system of production, with each settler contributing his all to the common store and each drawing his needs from it — again, a system of from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
For the full article, click the link below:
The Fall of Communism in Massachusetts
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Make-Ahead-Meals for Busy Moms is giving away a Gooseberry Patch cookbook and calendar! Hurry, because this contest ends soon!
Giveaway: Gooseberry Patch 101 Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches and 2012 Calendar
Saturday, January 14, 2012
I know I've recently posted a video of Tom Woods discussing the same subject, Robert Murphy has a different style and throws in some explanations of things that the Tom Woods video does not mention. This is probably high school level and up, whereas I believe the Tom Woods video can be viewed by middle schoolers without too much confusion. The focus is on economics rather than history.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Excerpt: For Wall Street Occupiers or other decriers of the “social injustice” of college tuition, here’s a curveball bound to scramble your worldview: a totally free college education regardless of your academic performance or background. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) will announce on Monday that they intend to launch an online learning initiative called M.I.T.x,which will offer the online teaching of M.I.T. courses free of charge to anyone in the world.
The program will not allow students to earn an M.I.T. degree. Instead, those who are able to exhibit a mastery of the subjects taught on the platform will receive an official certificate of completion. The certificate will obviously not carry the weight of a traditional M.I.T. diploma, but it will provide an incentive to finish the online material. According to the New York Times, in order to prevent confusion, the certificate will be a credential bearing the distinct name of a new not-for-profit body that will be created within M.I.T.
The new online platform will look to build upon the decade-long success of the university’s original free online platform, OpenCourseWare (OCW), which has been used by over 100 million students and contains course material for roughly 2,100 classes. The new M.I.T.x online program will not compete with OCW in the number of courses that it offers. However, the program will offer students a greater interactive experience.
Click HERE for the full article.
Chess in the homeschool curriculum raises math, science skills by 15% - Phoenix Homeschooling | Examiner.com
Want to raise your kids' math and science skills by up to 15%? Go to the following link and see how a simple (or, not so simple) game of chess can help!
Click HERE to learn more!
These drawings are very beautiful, and it was interesting learning a little about Trouvelot! Maybe this could be a jumping off place for a deeper study of some of his work as an astronomer as well as his art.
Excerpt: If you think NASA's artistic renderings of the deep beyond are cool, you will love these space drawings from French astronomer and artist Etienne Leopold Trouvelot.
Read the full article by clicking HERE.
Excerpt: On Saturday, the Ron Paul campaign issued a statement announcing the naming of several new members of the “Homeschoolers for Ron Paul” coalition. The formation of the group was originally announced in August and since then has been very successful in motivating homeschool advocates to rally to Dr. Paul’s campaign for the White House.
As the statement released on ronpaul2012.com stated:
Today, interest in Ron Paul by this population segment has spilled over to many other states and the national campaign. The campaign’s expanded use of the homeschool and other coalitions is proving itself a useful tool in helping to make Barack Obama a one-term president.
The campaign went on to publish a impressive list of influential homeschooling proponents who were joining the advisory board of the the “Homeschoolers for Ron Paul” coalition.
Read the rest of the article here:
Influential Homeschoolers Coalesce Behind Ron Paul | <urn:uuid:25b8879f-6304-46c3-bf47-6e3d55aa68ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://miazshomeschoolminutes.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956544 | 1,202 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Lewis Carroll's "The Pig-Tale"
Uprose that Pig, and rushed, full whack,
Against the ruined Pump:
Rolled over like an empty sack,
And settled down upon his back,
While all his bones at once went 'Crack!'
It was a fatal jump.
The Frog winds up in a dismal mood, of course, because he would never get his fee.
Lubin's illustrations are quite charming, with the animals in formal Victorian-era costumes. The story of the pig is interspersed with verses about little birds, also nicely illustrated, if perhaps a bit too surreal and fantastic for some. I couldn't find any examples of Lubin's work on "The Pig-Tale," so y'all get an image of Lewis Carroll instead. Sorry. | <urn:uuid:91968f48-daf0-4f6d-bc9d-cfca5ff3aa6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pigofknowledge.blogspot.com/2007/10/lewis-carrolls-pig-tale.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972896 | 170 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) readily admits that it faces a near double-digit deficit in support among Hakka as it heads into the presidential election in January, but it is confident that the second-largest ethnic group in Taiwan will not be a roadblock to victory.
“It will take a long time to win their hearts, but we’re narrowing the gap,” said Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青), a campaign spokesman for DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) presidential campaign.
Hakka are the second-largest ethnic group in Taiwan behind Hoklo. The DPP estimates that Hakka and their descendents could represent as many as a quarter of Taiwan’s population of about 23 million.
A 2008 nationwide survey on the distribution of Hakka conducted by the Council of Hakka Affairs (CHA), found that Hakka in northern Taiwan mainly live in Taoyuan County, Miaoli County and Hsinchu, while in the south they mostly reside in Liudui (六堆) in Greater Kaohsiung and Pingtung County (屏東).
The nationwide Hakka population is about 4.27 million.
The DPP prides itself on its establishment of the council and Hakka Television while in office from 2000 until 2008.
The Pingtung-born Tsai also proudly tells her supporters she is Hakka. However, history shows that the DPP has often struggled to gain Hakka support during elections — especially in northern Taiwan. A recent DPP survey shows that it trails by close to 10 percent among Hakka voters in that region.
The voting behavior of Hakka living in the north differs from those in the south, DPP Department of Ethnic Affairs director Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮) says.
“Most Hakka in the north favor the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT],” he said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking re-election, garnered 63.2 percent of votes in Taoyuan, Miaoli and Hsinchu in the 2008 presidential election. In this region, Ma defeated his DPP rival by 449,843 votes, or about 20 percent of his final winning margin of 2.21 million votes.
The DPP feels it did reasonably well with Hakka voters in the 2004 presidential election, when former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) received 42.5 percent of the vote in the region.
The lukewarm support by Hakka for the DPP could be attributed to historical relations between Hakka and Hoklo, Hsu said, as the DPP has always been considered a Hoklo-dominated party.
Hakka and Hoklo fought for land, water and other resources for hundreds of years, and the bad feeling has continued, she said.
“At the same time, Hakka bear no ill feelings toward the KMT, which ‘only’ brought the entire state apparatus and the Republic of China political system from China to Taiwan, and seem to co-exist well with Hakka, without conflicts of interests,” Hsu said.
Taiwan Thinktank’s Chang Kuo-cheng (張國城), himself of Hakka descent, agreed with the point on historical ethnic conflicts, but said the DPP “hasn’t made as much effort with Hakka communities at the grassroots level as the KMT.”
The DPP should include more Hakka academics, artists, historians and politicians on its staff to show its recognition of the role of Hakka in party affairs, Chang said.
That was not the case with the DPP’s nomination of its legislators-at-large last month, he said, adding that none of the final candidates is of Hakka descent.
“Judging from past numbers, I would say that if the DPP manages to cut the deficit to 10 percent, it would be seen as an achievement,” Chang said. | <urn:uuid:a9014b79-f19b-431d-9210-dd989ec9560b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/08/15/2003510794 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964437 | 880 | 1.71875 | 2 |
What does this word look like it might be? Some kind of foam, perhaps? An archaic typesetting of scream without the c? (Of course, those tall s’s weren’t f’s; they lacked the crossbars. But they do look like them to our eyes.) A full ream of paper? A disorderly frame? Or perhaps a misspelling of Frean, as in Peek Frean, that brand of cookies founded in 1857 in Bermondsey, London, by Messrs. Peek and Frean and, as it happens, operating a bakery in East York (now Toronto) since 1949 on Bermondsey Road (near where my mother-in-law lives)? Or maybe a kind of fudge cream – either cookie or ice cream?
Well, sorry to be a crashing bore, but no. Actually, why apologize for being a crashing bore? A crashing boar doesn’t apologize. In fact, a boar, as it crashes through the woods, especially if it has a good head of steam, is likely to fream.
That’s right. Horses neigh, cattle low, wolves howl, boars fream. Or, as James Puckly put it in 1711, “an hart bellows, a buck groyns, a roe bells, a goat rats, a boar freams, a hare tapps, a fox barks, a badger shrieks, an otter whines, a wolf howls, &c.” What is meant is the roaring or growling noise boars make when raging. I guess you could imitate it with fream – if you said it as loudly as possible while inhaling. It’s uncertain, though, where this word comes from – it’s not necessarily imitative; it could come from Latin fremere “roar” or from old Saxon hríeman “cry out”.
Not that there’s likely to be a lot of research done on it. It’s not much used anymore. Urban Dictionary has a definition for fream as 1950s slang for someone who doesn’t fit in, for what that’s worth (which is variable with Urban Dictionary), but that was the 1950s. And we don’t meet boars too often.
We do meet bores and similar misfits, though. And when one goes on a tear about some pet peeve, you can always sigh, “Free me from your freaming.” | <urn:uuid:715d6bfd-cda6-40bf-ab00-93e5519b47b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sesquiotic.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/fream/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959524 | 538 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Yesterday, created by Spanish indie Studio Pendulo, the team behind the Runaway trilogy and The Next Big Thing is an original and dark thriller that although its shorter than someone would expect it repays the gamer with its solid puzzles and nice visuals.
Pendulo was created by Rafael Latiegui, Ramón Hernaez και Felipe Gomez Pinilla and their first game was Igor: Target Uiokahonia in 1994 followed by Hollywood Monsters in 1997. The studio made its breakthrough in 2001 with the exceptional Runaway: A Road Adventure which with zero promotion became a must for adventure gamers mostly because of its beautiful old school graphics, smart story and clever humor. Runaway gave us two sequels, Runaway 2: the dream of the turtle and Runaway 3: A Twist Of Fate. With a successful trilogy on their cannon, Pendulo kept a low profile and they begun work on The Next Big Thing, released last year, an adventure game with humor and characters that excels those found on Runaway. With Yesterday, released last month, the indie studio wanted to take a more serious approach to gaming.
Yesterday is the way that we express our anger against all those who have led us to this economic and moral crisis. People live and die in the street because of bad economic decisions while we are all so comfortable living among lies that it takes either a fool or a hero to unveil it. It was also a personal decision. We have proven that we were good at making comedy but, could we repeat the trick in an adult thriller? One year later we can say: we have done it. In fact, the idea behind Yesterday dawned on us some 3 years ago, when we were developing Runaway: A Twist of Fate, but we needed time to understand how a thriller works, what we could bring to it, and how we needed to change the way we make games, said Josué Monchan writer of Pendulo Studios.
Yesterday is a very interesting step from Pendulo Studios, which shows that the developer is willing and able to move from its comfort zone and expand into games that deal with more mature and darker subject matters.
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You must be logged in to post a comment. | <urn:uuid:8b256fa1-21bd-41b8-850a-bcd7e39b26fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gameconnect.net/content/588/yesterday-review/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965928 | 454 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Jellyfish Theatre 2010 Marlborough Playground, Union Street, Southwark, London (UK) A temporary theatre made of junk for the Oikos Theatre Festival and the London Festival of Architecture 2010 in cooperation with The Red Room Theatre Company and The Architecture Foundation Koebberling & Kaltwasser have worked alongside volunteers to create The Jellyfish Theatre, London’s first fully-functioning theatre made entirely from recycled and reclaimed materials. Focussing on energy-efficiency, co-operation and human-scale construction, The Jellyfish Theatre was showcased as part of the London Festival of Architecture in July and will open to the public at the end of August. A temporary structure, The Jellyfish Theatre will be made of materials from all sources: junked theatre sets, reclaimed timber from building sites, Covent Garden market pallets, old kitchen units that the public bring along.
What the Press has said about the theatre:
“Imagine Noah’s ark sitting in a school playground in London and you get some idea of what Britain’s first recycled theatre looks like. One end resembles a ship’s stern, the other a prow made of discarded doors and chairs. I can’t improve on what the Guardian’s Jonathan Glancey called The Jellyfish Theatre: junkitecture. And I can only echo his praise for the capacity of the Berlin architects, Kobberling and Kaltwasser, to make imaginative use of everyday materials, including timber pallets. The building, which will be dismantled in early October, is a disposable triumph.” Michael Billington in The Guardian video about the jellyfish theatre in the guardian
“It looks fantastic – rather graceful in its idiosyncratic way. It sits in a school playground not far from London Bridge like a resting spaceship from a particularly right-on planet. It is a low structure, clad in a jaunty patchwork of wooden panels, extended fore and aft by pallets and planks that give it the rough shape of a boat (a junk, perhaps) and festooned with decorated water bottles.” Sarah Hemming in The Financial Times | <urn:uuid:7cf61ac3-e2dd-4d77-b5b4-50a9d9df729f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.koebberlingkaltwasser.de/jellyfish.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934181 | 442 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Gov. Rick Snyder is moving toward establishing a partnership between Michigan and the federal government to provide an online market where people without health insurance can shop for private coverage.
Under President Barack Obama's health care plan, each state must decide whether to operate its own program, let the federal government do it for them or form a partnership.
Snyder has said he prefers a state-based system. The state Senate has approved that idea. But the House has delayed action because its Republican majority opposes the Obama approach to health care.
In a statement Friday, Snyder's office said he has applied for a grant that would be a first step toward creating the partnership. A spokeswoman said he's continuing talks with legislators about a possible state market program. | <urn:uuid:73260b17-6239-4ec1-bc78-e1b885931631> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wndu.com/news/michigan/headlines/Snyder-moves-toward-partnership-on-health-care-179711821.html?site=full | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968338 | 148 | 1.640625 | 2 |
O’Brien County Teaming Up With Other Counties To Provide Mental Health Services
Date posted - October 2, 2012
O’Brien County Auditor Barb Rohwer explains what’s going on.
(She says the legislature, in their last session decided to require the counties to come together in regions and possibly co-mingle their funds for mental health.)
Rohwer tells us her opinion on why the legislature did this.
(She says she thinks their intent was that no matter where you are in Iowa, everyone should have the same provided services.)
She says, it’s about the money.
(She says if they pool their money, hopefully, if one county is struggling, perhaps the others are not, and it will keep the cash flow going a little better. The legislature capped the amount counties are able to levy. It’s supposed to level the playing field.)
The resolution passed by the O’Brien County Board Of Supervisors states that it is the County’s intent to pursue joining with the counties of Buena Vista, Calhoun, Cherokee, Dickinson, Emmet, Ida, Lyon, Osceola, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Sac, Sioux, and Woodbury for a Mental Health and Disability Services Region for delivery of mental health and disability services.
She says if you have any questions about how mental health services are changing at the county level, you can contact her office or that of O’Brien County Mental Health Central Point Coordinator Janelle Schuknecht.
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Back to:O’Brien County Teaming Up With Other Counties To Provide Mental Health Services | <urn:uuid:85e6e664-737f-4091-b5df-91c6e25e3af3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kiwaradio.com/local-news/obrien-county-teaming-up-with-other-counties-to-provide-mental-health-services/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942568 | 511 | 1.757813 | 2 |
More than 80 people are dead after twin blasts at a university campus in Syria's largest city.
A U.K.-based Syrian opposition group told Al Jazeera that 83 people were killed and more than 150 were wounded in the explosions near the university's dorm in Allepo.
The government and opposition blamed each other for the blasts. According to The Associated Press, rebels blamed the Assad regime for carrying out airstrikes; state-run media said the rebels fired rockets at the campus.
"Aleppo's university is in the city's northwest, a sector controlled by government forces, making it unclear why government jets would target it, as opposition activists claim," the AP reported.
But the news agency added: "The scale of destruction in videos shot at the site, however, suggested more powerful explosives had been used than the rockets the rebels are known to possess."
The Syrian regime prevents most foreign media from operating inside the country, making independent verification of attacks and casualties difficult.
As NPR's Kelly McEvers and Rima Marrouch reported Monday on Morning Edition, rebels control nearly 60 percent of Aleppo, some six months after they tried to storm the city; the government controls the rest.
Tuesday's blast ends a mostly uneasy calm in Aleppo. As Kelly and Rima reported, "Although there's not much fighting here anymore, government soldiers sometimes try to pick off rebel fighters or civilians who cross from one side to another."
Here's more from their story:
"Right now this cold front line is a lot like the fight for Syria: Both sides think they can win, but neither side is winning, so neither side is going to back down.
"In recent months, rebels have realized that fighting for inches along these front lines is no way to win a war. So while a small number of fighters hold the front, the rest have turned their attention to government air bases that ring the city.
"Rebels believe if they can cut off the government's ability to resupply its troops, Aleppo will fall."
The U.N. says more than 60,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war that began in 2011 with protests calling for political reforms. | <urn:uuid:09a20dd6-e1dd-490d-841a-013858934d9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/169447498/more-than-80-killed-in-blasts-at-syrian-university | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966509 | 444 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Live TV still rules, ok?
The latest figures on tv viewing from the industry marketing body, Thinkbox, show that the average tv viewer in the UK watches 4 hours and 4 minutes of tv a day.
Mark galloway of the International Broadcasting Trust - which is now a fully-fledged charity - reminded members this week that the figure means it's the third year running that viewing has topped the four- hour mark:
"Despite the proliferation of catch up and mobile, most television is watched live by people sitting in front of an actual television: the current figure is 90%, a drop of less than 1 per cent compared with a year ago."
blog comments powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:c89aa325-2375-4045-bad3-f94dc4a287d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oneworld.org/2013/03/04/live-tv-still-rules-ok | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950157 | 139 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Put that chocolate down, hold the wine and roses, and take yourself back to the dark side of Valentine's Day. You remember, that day your sophomore year in high school that began with the discovery of a new 18-megawatt zit and ended in tragedy when [insert teen proto-love interest here] said they wouldn't go out with you if you were the last person on the planet. I know, this harsh remembrance is not exactly sanctioned by the good folks at Hallmark or FTD, but do it anyway. Do it for the whooping cranes. With barely 200 living in the wild …
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Erik Ness writes about science and the environment from Madison,
Wis. Among the publications he's written for are Discover,
Preservation, Backpacker, Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, MAMM,
Wisconsin Trails, Milwaukee Magazine, and The Progressive. | <urn:uuid:028328ee-cc90-41f7-814e-cc5b081961c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://grist.org/author/erik-ness/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943262 | 190 | 1.601563 | 2 |
THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO
By Junot Díaz
Riverhead, 340 pages, $24.95
We’ve waited a long time for a novel from Junot Díaz. The Dominican-American author blasted the publishing world in 1996 with Drown, a book of short stories mainly about the macho scrambling of Dominican immigrants in industrial New Jersey. Fresh and gritty, it heralded a confident, new urban voice in literature, and scooped up plenty of awards and attention. So, how does The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao fare beneath the crushing weight of expectation? “Negro please,” as Mr. Diaz would write, it was worth the wait.
We’re retreading some of the same Dominican-diaspora territory here—Santo Domingo; Paterson; Nuevo York—but with fleshier, richer characters. The story spans three generations of a family with grand origins and a tragic fate. The grandparents are Dominican aristocrats with lovely daughters and a rambling villa in La Vega. But decades, bad politics and misfortune generate Oscar, a rotund, Elvish-speaking, comic-book-loving ghetto nerd in Jersey. Oscar, with his “enormous Section 8 glasses,” is the kind of boy who says, “I have a plethora of new Japanimation for your viewing pleasure.” In college he asks his roommate if it’s true “that no Dominican male has ever died a virgin.” The family, once so proud, has suffered a great fall.
So what happened? Well, a series of murders, suicides, beatings, humiliations and broken hearts, among other things. The family may have been cursed with a “fukú,” which struck anyone stupid enough to mess with Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican Republic’s brutal dictator from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. Trujillo’s almost supernatural brand of sadism, which saw him feeding enemies to sharks or drowning them in boiling oil, is worthy of paranoid lore. But, as Yunior, our smack-talking, yarn-spinning narrator for most of the book, says, “Shit, what Latino family doesn’t think it’s cursed?”
This is a hard-luck tale, to be sure. Darkness seems to be an essential ingredient in any Latin American novel, given the continent’s politics of tyranny and sputtering revolution. But the breezy, ballsy informality of the narration keeps the action light and kinetic, as if Yunior, our slightly mysterious guide, is entertaining friends over beers. He delivers the story in a Spanglish vernacular, but it helps to be fluent in comic book and Tolkien, too, so that you have your bearings when he tosses off lines such as “our boy wasn’t no ringwraith, but he wasn’t no orc either.” Well, I suppose we know what Mr. Díaz was reading when he was in middle school in Jersey.
Despite the street talk, Mr. Díaz still paints some beautiful sentences, particularly when he’s describing people. There’s Ana, one of Oscar’s many crushes, who laughs “as though she owned the air around her.” Or Oscar’s sister Lola, once “a long slender-necked ibis of a girl” with “big innocent teeth.” Oscar’s mother, Beli, a woman of tragic beauty, becomes a “hardnosed no-nonsense femme-matador” with skin “the darkness before the black, the plum of the day’s last light.”
Not many writers can litter and lift a story of a family’s dissolution with humor and beauty. Junot Díaz has written the novel we’ve been hoping to get from him. If we’re lucky, we won’t have to wait so long for the next one.
Emily Bobrow is an editor at economist.com.
Follow Emily Bobrow via RSS. | <urn:uuid:e129f7d9-488b-42e6-b30b-51b27a5097d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://observer.com/2007/09/a-decade-after-idrowni-is-junot-dazs-first-novel-worth-the-wait/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931682 | 884 | 1.671875 | 2 |
If you're going shopping for a new car we have good news for you. You can now get a car loan even if your credit rating isn't perfect.
Car lending has finally returned to more-or-less normal after a few years in which auto lending went from crazy-easy to crazy-hard. Before the financial crisis, it seemed that anyone could get a car loan regardless of their credit history or income.
"They were pretty much lending to anyone with a pulse," said Jesse Toprak, an industry analyst with Truecar.com.
Then, once the crisis hit, it was just the opposite. It was hard to get a car loan even with stellar credit and impossible to get one without it.
Now, people with good credit can once again borrow money to buy a new car. Even those who've slipped up a little can get money to buy a car, providing they're willing to pay a higher interest rate.
"I don't think you need to have the 800-plus FICO score that was probably necessary in 2009," said Alec Gutierrez, an industry analyst with Kelley Blue Book.
Low interest rates on all types of loans are obviously part of the reason auto loans are easier and cheaper to get, said Gutierrez, but the tight market for used cars helps, too.
Used cars are in short supply these days, so good used cars are worth a lot. That means even if things come out badly and the financing company has to repossess your car and sell it as a used car, they'll at least get good money for it.
So sub-prime loans, those "risky" loans made to people with relatively low credit scores who are most likely to default and have their rides repossessed, are now possible.
"The subprime market has come back to life, where it was non-existent a few years ago," said Dave Wescott, president of Westcott Automotive, Burlington, NC and vice-chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association. | <urn:uuid:10641654-6248-4166-b6de-7ad86729ab84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wpbf.com/news/money/Landing-a-car-loan-is-getting-easier/-/8788684/12493808/-/3173slz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985332 | 413 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Front Page Titles (by Subject) TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. - The Writings of George Washington, vol. VI (1777-1778)
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TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. VI (1777-1778)
The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. VI (1777-1778).
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TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Neshaminy Camp, 21 August, 1777.
From the time which has elapsed since General Howe departed from the Capes of Delaware, there is the strongest reason to conclude, that He is gone either far to the Eastward or Southward, and with a design to execute some determin’d plan. The danger of the sea, the injury his Troops & horses must sustain from being so long confin’d, the loss of time so late in the campaign, will scarcely admit a supposition that he is merely making a feint, and still intends to return either to the Delaware or the North River without performing some enterprise first in another quarter. The probability is in favor of a Southern expedition, because he has been seen, since his departure from the Capes, off Sinepuxent, steering a Southern course; and because, had his destination been to the eastward, his arrival there, from the general state of the Winds, must have announced it before this, or his fleet wo’ld have been discovered by some of the cruisers on that coast.
If he is gone to the Southward, he must be gone far that way; for, had the Chesapeake Bay been his object, he would have been there long since, and the fact well established. Beyond that, there is no place short of Charlestown of sufficient importance to engage his attention. The extensive commerce, the vast accumulation of military and other stores in that Town and its dependencies, with the eclat it would give his arms if he should unfortunately take it, afford him stronger inducements to direct his operations there, than he could possibly have elsewhere. Matters being thus circumstanced, an important question arises; how this army is to be employed. If his intentions are such as I have supposed them, it appears to me that an attempt to follow him would not only be fruitless, but would be attended with the most ruinous consequences. The distance is so immense, that Genl Howe might accomplish every purpose he had in view, before we could possibly arrive to oppose him; and so long a march through an unhealthy climate at this season would debilitate and waste a principal part of our force. Added to this, after we had made a considerable progress, he might easily reëmbark his Troops and turn his arms against Philadelphia or elsewhere, as he should think proper, without our being in a condition to give the least aid.
As these, and many other reasons, which will readily occur to Congress, will show the impracticability of our counteracting Genl Howe with any good effect in that Quarter, we have no other alternative left than to remain here Idle & inactive, on the remote probability of his returning this way, or to proceed towards Hudson’s River, with a view of opposing Genl Burgoyne, or making an attempt on York Island, as the situation of affairs shall point out. A successful stroke with respect to either wo’d be attended with the most signal advantages, and would be the best compensation we could make for any losses we may sustain to the southward. Besides these considerations, if, after all our conjectures and reasoning upon the subject, Genl Howe should be gone to the eastward to coöperate with Mr. Burgoyne, the army will be, by the movement proposed, so far on its way, to prevent, I hope, the success of his enterprise.
The above reasons led me to call a Council of Genl officers this morning, to take the Subject of removing the Troops from hence into consideration; and I am happy to inform Congress, they were in sentiments with me upon the occasion, as they will perceive by a copy of the proceedings then had, which I do myself the honor of laying before them. Nevertheless, as it is a movement which may involve the most important consequences, I have thought proper to submit it to Congress for their deliberation & decision. If it is deemed expedient, we have perhaps not a moment to lose in carrying it into execution; and, under this persuasion, I have sent Colol Hamilton, one of my aids, who will have the honor of delivering this, to bring me the result of their opinion.1 As the northern department has been all along considered separate, & in some measure distinct, and there are special Resolves vesting the command in particular persons,—in case it should hereafter appear eligible to unite the Two Armies, it may perhaps be necessary that Congress should place the matter upon such a footing as to remove all Scruples or difficulties about the command, that could possibly arise on my arrival there. This I request, from a disposition to Harmony, & from my knowing the ill & fatal consequences that have often arisen from such controversies, and not from the most distant apprehension, that one would take place upon such an event. The thing however is possible; and to guard against it can do no injury. I have the honor to be, &c.
P. S. That I may not appear inconsistent, to advise and to act before I obtain an opinion, I beg leave to mention, that I shall move the army to the Delaware to-morrow morning, to change their Ground at any rate, as their present encampment begins to be disagreeable, and would injure their Health in a short time. Our forage also begins to grow scarce here.1
[1 ]In the council of war it was decided, as the unanimous opinion of the board of officers: first, that the enemy’s fleet had most probably sailed for Charleston; secondly, that it was not expedient for the army to march southward, as it could not possibly arrive at Charleston in time to afford any succor; thirdly, that the army should move immediately towards the North River. The Marquis de Lafayette took part for the first time in the council of war convened on this occasion, and attended with the rank of major-general. Congress approved this decision, on the same day that the above letter was written; but intelligence arrived the next morning, that the British fleet had been seen far up the Chesapeake Bay, and was communicated to General Washington by President Hancock, in a letter dated August 22d, at half-past one o’clock in the afternoon, as follows: “This moment an express arrived from Maryland with an account of near two hundred sail of General Howe’s fleet being at anchor in the Chesapeake Bay. In consequence of this advice, Congress have ordered the immediate removal of the stores and prisoners from Lancaster and York in this State to places of greater safety.” This intelligence of course immediately changed the plan of operations.
[1 ]“By the enclosed, which has this moment come to hand, you will perceive that the Enemy’s Fleet have at length fairly entered the Chesapeake Bay, Swan Point being at least two hundred miles up. I desire you will immediately forward this account to Govr Trumbull, to be by him sent on the eastward. As there is not now the least danger of General Howe’s going to New England, I hope the whole Force of that Country will turn out, and, by following the great stroke struck by Genl Stark near Bennington, entirely crush Genl Burgoyne, who by his letter to Colonel Baum seems to be in want of almost every thing. I hope you will draw in such a Force of Militia as will effectually secure your post against any attempt from New York. I shall be obliged to draw Genl Sullivan with his division down to me; for, by Genl Howe’s coming so far up Chesapeake, he must mean to reach Philadelphia by that rout, tho’ to be sure it is a very strange one.”—Washington to Major-General Putnam, 22 August, 1777. | <urn:uuid:7ca7679e-da22-4925-a5e9-05d9aade8700> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2404&chapter=227307&layout=html&Itemid=27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971904 | 1,853 | 1.625 | 2 |
A worker cleans the floor at a showroom in the headquarters of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in this file picture taken August 2, 2010. China's homegrown car makers such as Chery, Geely and Great Wall grew spectacularly in 2009 and 2010 but began struggling in 2011 following the government's decision to scrap vehicle purchase incentives that favoured their small cars. (Photo : Reuters)
Foreign companies doing business inChina must navigate a business culture in which bribery is rife, finding ways to remove obstacles to expanding in the world's second-largest economy without running afoul of local or home-country laws.
Especially in areas such as dealing with local officials in charge of permits, it is still common for bribes, whether cash or illegal gifts, to be expected in return for providing the necessary approvals, industry and legal experts say.
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For U.S. companies in particular, that means they need to take pains not to run afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act FCPA.L, which bars U.S. firms and others from paying bribes to officials of foreign governments.
"Any industry that you see that is heavily regulated typically is high-risk," said Meg Utterback, a partner at the law firm King and Wood Mallesons in Shanghai who frequently deals with corporate investigations.
Utterback named health care, construction and energy as examples of industries that fall into that category in China.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice have stepped up scrutiny into potential violations of the FCPA, especially in countries like China, where state-owned companies are a big force in the economy.
In the latest move, reported by Reuters last week, the SEC has started investigating major U.S. movie studios and their dealings in China, sending letters of inquiry to at least five studios in the past two months including News Corp's 20th Century Fox (NWSA.O), Disney (DIS.N) and DreamWorks Animation (DWA.O).
The inquiry involves potential inappropriate payments and how the companies dealt with certain government officials in China, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The film industry in China is heavily regulated, with the government limiting the number of foreign films shown in theatres each year. It eased those controls in February during a U.S. visit by China's leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping.
Many of the issues faced by foreign companies in China are similar to those behind allegations of widespread bribery in Mexico by Wal-Mart Stores (WMT.N), the world's largest retailer, as reported by the New York Times last week.
Wal-Mart has disclosed an internal investigation into the allegations and said it was cooperating with federal authorities.
"You see the same issues here in terms of getting permits and constant pressure in the market from local competitors," said Beatrice Schaffrath, a Beijing-based anti-corruption and compliance lawyer.
In one example, cosmetics company Avon Products Inc (AVP.N) in 2008 disclosed that it had opened an internal inquiry into whether its China business, the first foreign company to win a direct-selling license in 2006, had violated the FCPA, and the SEC is now investigating Avon's China activities.
WHO IS AN OFFICIAL?
One specific issue in China is that with so many companies and institutions owned by or linked to the state, there are many people who could be considered government officials under the FCPA who would not be in other countries.
Even doctors at state-run hospitals or employees of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) can be deemed government officials for the purposes of the FCPA, legal experts say.
"It's very tough, because there are so many quasi-governmental institutions, SOEs and government officials involved in the process of doing business," Utterback said.
Beyond bribery cases that might gain attention from U.S. authorities, companies also face an uphill battle in preventing commercial bribery, although it is banned by local laws.
Such practices are widespread in areas such as procurement, with people in charge of spending decisions in local companies or government agencies often expecting kickbacks, industry participants say. Some say the problems are worse in less-developed areas of China.
Foreign business people complain in private that uneven enforcement of such rules by local officials puts them at a disadvantage because local companies are often subject to less scrutiny and can do whatever it takes to win contracts.
Faced with such a business culture, there is also the risk of foreign companies' employees themselves seeking illicit personal gains.
Last week, a former Morgan Stanley (MS.N) executive in China pleaded guilty to conspiring to evade internal controls required by the FCPA and settled related charges with securities regulators, including a permanent bar from the industry.
Garth Peterson, who was a managing director in Morgan Stanley's real estate investment and fund advisory business, secretly arranged to have millions of dollars paid to himself and a Chinese official and disguised the payments as finder's fees charged to Morgan Stanley, U.S. regulators said.
Morgan Stanley cooperated in the government's investigation and was not charged in the case.
There is some reason for optimism that Chinese authorities could take a harder line in cleaning up the rampant corruption, which would eventually make doing business in China less of a minefield of potential problems.
The fall of Bo Xilai, once a rising political star now at the centre of China's biggest political scandal in decades, has cast a spotlight on the relationships between politicians and business that lubricate much of China's economy.
"I think you're going to see a growing trend of increasing attention to the issues by Chinese officials," said Utterback.
"Clearly there are a lot of forces coming to bear that will probably level the playing field a bit, at least for now." | <urn:uuid:976fcc58-63fe-4ae7-b72a-1ff488ce755f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.latinospost.com/articles/612/20120430/businesses-china-minefield-bribery-risks.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966158 | 1,208 | 1.554688 | 2 |
I AM a regular Stockton beach fisher and have been for 15 years, and I have seen the population of pipis rapidly decline to the present level. There are now virtually no pipis of useable size (‘‘Plea to give pipi population time for full recovery’’ Herald 25/5).
The ban on taking pipis from the beach has already made a difference. While beach worming recently, I saw hundreds of juvenile pipis visible in the wash as the waves receded. I did not however see any full-grown pipis. John Clarke, quoted in the report, is absolutely correct in suggesting that the ban on harvesting pipis be extended. To now allow commercial harvesting would see the few mature pipis gone. I understand that professional fishermen need to make a living – but to wipe out the pipis now means no future at all for professionals and amateurs alike.
The vicious circle is that if there are no pipis on the beach, the fish that rely on pipis as their principal food will go elsewhere. This is not rocket science. Commonsense, please.
Rob Irvin, Anna Bay | <urn:uuid:3998ee20-3be9-4866-a0f2-d7bbfac99db6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theherald.com.au/story/116526/if-pipis-go-the-fish-go/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958277 | 236 | 1.78125 | 2 |
I recently spoke with a small business owner in Ahwatukee who called with some questions about Internet marketing. He was spending over $1,000 a month on magazine and yellow page ads, but heard that Internet marketing was more affordable and could be more effective than other types of advertising. Like many small businesses today, his operating budgets are tight and marketing expenses are often the first to be cut.
When a new client comes to me and is considering Internet marketing for the first time, I usually ask if the business has some kind of method in place to track the effectiveness of current marketing expenditures. How does your business track the source of inbound leads? Many companies don’t have even basic leads tracking systems in place, such as asking new callers how they heard about the company and recording their responses. Owners often don’t know:
- How prospects find them.
- How to track results to determine which marketing programs are working effectively.
- How much money they’re spending on ineffective marketing programs.
The owner followed my suggestion and began asking all new customers “how did you hear about us” when they contacted his company. He trained his staff to ask the same question when answering any new inbound call and had everyone record the answers. He was shocked to learn that over a 30-day period, not a single new inbound lead came from those magazine or yellow page ads. The end result? We learned that he was wasting a lot of money on advertising that did not work.
If your traditional marketing programs aren’t producing a reasonable return on investment (ROI), consider redirecting those dollars to a more effective method, such as Internet marketing.
Be Where Your Audience Is Looking
Consider the stats: 78% of U.S. adults use the Internet and 78% of those search for information about a product or service they’re considering buying (Pew Internet and American Life Project Tracking surveys). Given the sheer numbers of potential buyers online, business owners can no longer ignore the power of the Internet for marketing.
People today access information any time they want it via Internet marketing (websites, social media sites, blogs). People increasingly control how, when and where they receive information. They are also finding more ways to ignore unsolicited information coming via traditional marketing (TV, radio, print ads, direct mail). Consider this:
- Television ads are often avoided through the use of TV capture devices such as TiVo
- Radio ads are often avoided through the use of Pandora and/or advertisement free satellite radio stations
- Many magazine and newspaper companies have gone out of business – the same information that was once printed can now be obtained for less cost online
The internet has made it possible for people to obtain the information they need at the exact moment they want to find it. That driving force can lead to overwhelming success for your business. Web marketing allows your business to display advertisements only when an interested person is searching for your products or services, or is reading information that is relevant to your business. With Internet marketing, your marketing is delivered with laser-like focus to a highly targeted crowd of interested buyers.
In order to increase ROI through effective Internet marketing, you need to know:
- Who your target audience is.
- What they may be thinking about when they need your product or service.
- Who your competition is and what is their message.
- Which of the many Internet marketing technologies are best suited to produce results for your business.
The answers to these questions build the base upon which an Internet marketing campaign is created. An experienced internet marketing firm can help you achieve success by:
- Developing effective branding for your products and services.
- Creating clear and concise marketing messages.
- Clearly communicating value to your potential clients.
- Evaluating your marketing budget to employ the technologies that are most effective within that range to accomplish your goals.
Your campaign may be comprised of a mixture of various technologies, including websites, social media, SEO, online promotions, content, blogs, email marketing, and PR. They can all blend together seamlessly as part of a well-defined strategy. However, once you create your ideal online marketing platform, the work isn’t finished. These digital tools allow you to go further than ever before with your marketing, and give you the resources to constantly analyze online marketing effectiveness to make changes as needed that will help you maintain a competitive edge.
Measuring Internet Marketing Results
So, how will you know if your internet marketing campaign is providing you the results your business needs to succeed? How can you know what changes need to be made and when to make them? Have you seen an increase in:
- Website traffic?
- Visibility/brand image?
- Sales revenue?
- Number of subscribers?
The ability to track every aspect of your marketing campaign is one of the most powerful results of marketing on the internet. Virtually every statistic can be measured and, more importantly, adjusted in real time to increase results in specific areas. A well-planned Internet marketing campaign will start off with advanced configurations, and grow and shift over time as the needs of your business also change. Online marketing is flexible, allowing you to modify, in real-time, factors such as ad scheduling, ad copy, your budget, geographic targeting and more.
The ability to modify your campaign in real-time, monitor it, and improve it will allow your business to create awareness, build trust, and develop more leads than ever before, resulting in increased sales and repeat business.
If you could increase visibility, leads and sales while decreasing marketing costs, how long would you wait to start? Investing in a marketing campaign designed by Internet marketing experts like seenBest Web Design in Phoenix, Arizona, will cost no more than a few traditional ads, but can produce greater long-term results. Contact seenBest Web Design today at (602) 456-0150 to schedule a free consultation and find out just how successful an effective Internet marketing campaign can be. | <urn:uuid:e5e4c967-5fa7-4b61-9b76-b4f40df25e2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seenbest-web-design.com/techclub/tag/person/ | 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 | 0.953011 | 1,235 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Be it home washing, chimney cleaning or gutter and down spout cleaning; pressure washing assistance take care of all probable exteriors in your home that need cleaning and maintenance.
Driveway and walkway cleaning- Many people neglect the walkways and driveways when they choose to have pressure washing for their house. They forget that these are the initial things that their visitors see when they pay them a visit. Daily cleaning does not cater for the dust and other exterior intrusions that are embedded into the openings of the bricks or concrete of your driveways or walkways. Experts have the right tools and the skills to go that low and wash your walkways and driveways perfectly. So, do not wait for your walkways and driveways to develop scruffy stains or spots to have them cleaned.
Deck and patio washing- the coarse texture of the stones, gravels, and concrete of the patios enables lots of debris and dirt to be trapped in it. Pressure washing is required to wash these deeply rooted dust particles. Frequent deck pressure leaning is also necessary to prevent its vinyl or wood from stains, cracks, fungi and mold. If not properly maintained, your deck and patio would gradually come to be a comfortable home for spiders and other pests. Plan for pressure cleaning services for your decks, pool decks, and patios afore they are full of insect holes and spider webs.
Other pressure cleaning services- Main home outsides (other than patio, deck, sidewalks, walkways, and driveways,) for which you can have pressure washing services involve your chimney, roof, fences, porch, and garage. Pressure washing washes the rust spots from a metallic chimney and prevents it from further damages. If you have a block chimney, pressure washing is necessary to protect it from mold, dirt, insects, and fungi. Pressure washing is the easiest method to remove the oil spots and grease marks that hamper the appearance of your garage. The porch and fences of your home must also be pressure cleaned periodically to maintain them in better shape.
Commercial pressure wash- shabby workplace buildings are as closed entries for the customers. It implies that if the outsides of your workplace are not clean, you may wind up loosing customers. Commercial pressure cleaning companies provide washing services for all sorts of offices, eating joints, malls, and other industrial dwellings.
What all pressure cleaning professionals wash- Pressure washing professionals mainly concentrate on your office's outsides. They are professionals in washing the sidewalks and workplace parks. | <urn:uuid:392a19d4-67ab-4b89-ae13-2d6e2e1076b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.torontopaintingcompany.com/pressure-washing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952604 | 510 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Spruce up your appearance with this stunning piece of jewellery! Versatile, youthful and contemporary, these terms define this neck accessory just so correctly! With beads, this necklace is well-designed and an apt accessory to glamorize your outfit.
Art: Dokra: The beauty of any dokra artefact is that every dokra artifact is unique in the world, no two dokras are the same. The reason for this is dokra is completely handcrafted and therefore, the shapes are not perfect, and the symmetries are not mirror images produced like in computer graphics. Dokra artifacts are made from brass and are unique in itself as each piece is made from a new mould which is lost in the process.
Dokra is the art of metal crafts amongst some indigenous tribes of eastern India including West Bengal and Orissa. Dokra structure of metal casting is said to be oldest form of metal casting and is precisely known as 'cire perdue' or lost wax procedure. A duplicate of the product is made with wax on a clay center with all its improved particulars of designs and decorations. It is then heated where the wax melts leaving the metal structure of the design.
Region: Orissa, which is renown for its rich culture and heritage, is located on the east coast of the bay of Bengal in India. Also one of the richest states in tradition and art, it is the centre of Jain, Buddhist and Hindu religion. Orissa is equally well known for its grand temples and celebrated Odissi dance. | <urn:uuid:55a78f04-5b3e-4c36-bf2b-b4399b4409c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.craftsvilla.com/black-and-gold-bead-necklace-anwesha-tribal-arts-crafts.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965747 | 319 | 1.757813 | 2 |
HP Support Forums
Join in the conversation.
04-21-2012 10:54 AM
Hi, i'm an happy possessor of this awesome notebook, but I have one question: when i'm playing videogames the temperature is around 70, even 80°, talking about CPU (i5 2450m) and Motherboard. Is this normale and safe, your should I need to worry and buy a fan basement or something? Thx,
Solved! Go to Solution.
04-22-2012 08:42 PM - edited 04-22-2012 08:44 PM
Those temps are normal when gaming, but no HP laptop was ever designed for it. A gaming laptop with 2 or 3 fans would have been better.
Running any HP laptop at those temps will shorten the life of the mother board so anything you can do to keep it cool will be beneficial.
A good cooling mat will help, even lowing the ambient temperature in the room will lower it a few degrees.
Try not to game on it for more then an hour and not more the 2 hours at a time.
Keep the cooling fins clean, don't let them get clogged with dust bunnies. Get your self a can of compressed air and blow it out every couple of months.
Ounce dust accumulates in there and the fins become clogged, the compressed is less affective, prevention is key.
And of course don't use you machine in bed with it placed on the blankets, get your self a TV tray and use your cooling mat.
04-23-2012 02:52 PM
Yes, well, I use my laptop only on a tv tray, and i'm never gonna use on bed. So i'll buy a cleaning spray and a cooling mat. Could you suggest me the most reliable brands, and more important how many bucks I need to pay for a decent quality? Thank you again
04-23-2012 03:06 PM
The compressed air can be bought at any computer repair store or chain computer store. Here in Canada we have one called "Staples" or "Future Shop"
I don't use a cooling mat, but if you Google cooling mat review, there will be lots to choose from.
Some fancier ones will be made out of aluminum and are more then likely better quality.
Here is one from Targus that has three fans, a bunch of smaller fans are better then one big one.
One more thing, make sure that the mat you buy pushes the air up into the bottom of the laptop.
04-23-2012 04:26 PM
What do you mean by up into the bottom? Cause i've always wandered how these fans work; the main fan is on the rear left of the laptop so it doesn't have so much troubles in working, but the other two are one on the back center of the laptop and another at the right of the battery, in the back as well. I posted a photo to explain that. Now that I look at these photos well,it seems there are more fans... I don't understand how the cooling mat work if the laptop is on a table.
04-23-2012 07:14 PM - edited 04-23-2012 07:15 PM
Here are some reviews from Newegg, some good some bad.
This one from Targus has tall feet that allow the mat to sit high up from the table.
This allows the air to be drawn from the sides and the bottom of the mat to be forced into the laptop from the bottom.
Laptop fans suck air from the bottom and vent it out the sides. You don't want to buy a mat where it sucks the air away from the laptop fan, this would be a self defeating purpose.
We have to wait for one of the mods to approve your photo, but I am pretty sure that there is only one fan in your machine and the rest of them vents are just that, vent holes.
I could be wrong though, but ounce I see your photo I'll know for sure.
Here is my own screen shot.
The red arrow is the intake of the fan. Yellow is the exhaust and the white ones are vent holes, but there are no fans where the white arrows are.
04-24-2012 02:00 AM
Yes, yes I think you're right, yesterday night i didn't seen the laptop well, but in fact I you look a little closer you can see a fan only where you've put the red arrow. And like you said the exhaust is the yellow arrow, this explain why I feel heat on the rear of the laptop. Ok, I think i'm gonna buy the Targus you showed me. And I think i've found it on Amazon.co.uk (i'm from London). The image's little, but it seems the mat from Newegg. What do you think?
04-24-2012 07:37 AM
Truth is, I can't find (in UK) the Targus you've suggested, the only one i've found is the simple Chill Mat, not the HD3 Gaming. If I would like this mat I have to buy and send it for me here in London, and I will pay too much. I've seen another device, the Cooler Master Notepal U2. First of all, the brand is famous for reliability and the no.1 when we talk about cooling and similar stuff. It's a simple stand, but with it they give you two 80mm fans, and, more important, you can move and place these fans wherever you want on the stand. Furthermore, the price is really low, 20£. There's just one thing that I don't understand: we talked about the fact that it's important that the air must be drawn from the sides and the bottom, and forced into the laptop from the bottom. My question is: the 80mm fans of this Notepal U2 do this process? Thank you again for your help.
04-24-2012 11:51 PM
I like the fact that you can move the fans around and it's less expensive. I would also think that if one of the fans failed you could simply buy a replacement.
I would go with this one, but keep in mind it is at a permanent angle, so if this is a problem, then this is not for you.
Here is the Google search i did for it. Try and find how much noise in generates.
04-25-2012 12:55 AM
Yep in fact the movable fans are really interesting, in the matter of the angle it's fine for me, cause now I was using a simple book to obtain a similar result, Well thank you for all the suggestions and informations, today i'm gonna buy this stand and I'll tell you if it's worth buying it. Best regards, | <urn:uuid:c050e004-ccfa-480f-b31a-0baabfcbb5f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-e-g-Windows-8/HP-Pavilion-G6-1356-el-CPU-and-Motherboard-Temperatures/m-p/1440173 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949992 | 1,420 | 1.835938 | 2 |
President Obama has just begun his second term, and a couple of questions that plagued his first term remain unanswered. Is he a socialist? Is he a fascist? Is there a difference?
This was the theme of a recent article in American Spectator where the author asked whether ObamaCare was more socialist or fascist.
In that article David Catron recounts that in a National Public Radio (NPR) interview, the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, was asked whether his opinion of the president’s health care legislation had changed since he wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments.”
Mackey’s answer, as reported by Catron, reveals that the grocery story giant has gained a bit of insight into the distinction between those two forms of government since penning the Wall Street Journal piece.
“Technically speaking, it’s more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it — and that’s what’s happening with our health care programs and these reforms,” Mackey told NPR.
Although Mackey relented and repented of having spoken ill of President Obama after enduring a full-on flogging by the state-run media (aka the mainstream media), his description of the Obama administration’s policies is apt.
In his brief but brilliant article, Catron recounts one of the stops on Mackey’s forgiveness tour where he told Norah O’Donnell of CBS, “That word [fascism] has an association with dictatorships in the 20th century, like Germany and Spain and Italy.” Catron then pointed out a few other associations:
Click here to read the entire article.
Photo of President Barack Obama: AP Images | <urn:uuid:bc1679a0-5478-44d5-ae3b-5cfdc5e30837> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jbs.org/constitution/is-president-obama-more-socialist-or-fascist | 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 | 0.97257 | 401 | 1.75 | 2 |
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Trade Traded Money, better known by quite a few investors as iShares, the brand owned by Barclays Global Investors ('BGI') have been all around in the Uk since April 2000, with the launch of the iFTSE100 on the London Stock Exchange. From a gradual begin, by the conclude of 2005 (the latest figures available), some 125 billion was held in assets underneath conduite. Commonly, when you glance for your reveal cost info, you may uncover them grouped in the added MARK area, where you'll now find some forty five various ETFs on provide. Even though they have been about for someday, let's just remind ourselves how ETFs function. They are outlined on the stock trade, providing the versatility and trade capability of a share, such as the reality that the price is continually quoted, but that 1 reveal can give instant coverage to an complete Index, offering you the diversification positive aspects of a fund. ETFs are also a versatile way of achieving value-productive current market coverage. Because the finances are registered in Eire, there is no stamp duty to be paid out on purchases. Administration expenditures are taken from dividends that are accrued by the fund, and any surplus income is then distributed to shareholders as opposed to unit trusts, there are no original service fees to pay on the original acquire. The price tag of the fund is constantly near to the 'Net Asset Value' (NAV) of the underlying investments and will normally have restricted spreads, as opposed to some device trusts and some investment trusts. Also ETFs will disclose their holdings daily, whereas classic cash generally disclose their holdings 2 times a calendar year. What can I spend in? ETFs supply a wide array of options for investment with varying levels of danger as at mid-December there have been 45 diverse markets/indices to spend in, ranging from company bonds to the Taiwanese current market. Starting up at the lower conclusion of the risk spectrum there are various company bond ETFs, as very well as some Gilt-based investments. Moving on to the medium danger degree, you can opt for from international finances to types that are far more precise to specific locations, these as the US or Asia. There is also the selection of investing in specific indices 'index trackers' are obtainable for the UK's FTSE100 and 250 Indexes, the US S&P five hundred, or Europe's Euro initial a hundred & 80, spanning the best European businesses. For these seeking a higher amount penny stocks of risk, there are also ETFs which will give you publicity to emerging markets, these kinds of as Turkey, Korea, Taiwan and Eastern Europe. ETFs don't supply the identical wide assortment as device trusts, but for investing in the nations around the world and sectors they do cover, their charging composition and trade capacity make up for this. As such, they present a very good, lower price tag, simply-traded route into the market, with the flexibility to transfer up the chance ladder as your expertise and richesse grows. Lastly, if you have an appetite for an even spicier technique, the London Stock Trade also enables you to invest in commodities, through ETCs (Exchange Traded Commodities). Even though like ETFs they are traded in the identical way as shares, and are qualified to be held in a PEP or ISA, they do function in a absolutely diverse way. Whereas ETFs truly get the underlying investments, And so on administrators will not get and keep tons of wheat and copper, stack-up barrels of oil, or herd livestock into pens. Relatively, they get possibilities on these commodities. As a end result, ETCs are classed as far more 'complex' investments by the FSA and you will need to complete a unique 'risk notice' confirming you understand the added challenges of investing in them. So get a refreshing glance at ETFs - you might just discover they give you a lot more than you imagined! Cash consider your choose of the greatest Unit Trusts and Open Ended Expense Firms (OEICs) are investments that let you pool your funds with plenty of other 'retail' traders. This funds is invested on your behalf by a extensive variety of expert fund managers, investing in, for illustration, Federal government gilts and bonds, business residence and equities. Investing in finances presents you accessibility to a very-diversified assortment of investments at a sensible value. You will also have simple access to asset lessons and worldwide markets that would otherwise be challenging and costly to make investments in and reward from the Fund Manager's contacts, understanding, encounter and expertise. Resources come in quite a few designs and dimensions from 'trackers' to professional or 'themed' money. An index-monitoring fund (typically referred to as a 'passively managed fund') aims to match or 'track' the efficiency of a offered marketplace index, such as the FTSE All Reveal or the FTSE one hundred. They do this employing personal computer applications to function out how a lot of each optionstrading1982.com particular person business they will need to purchase and market to mimic the overall performance of the Index as a total. But not all 'tracker funds' match the Index they are monitoring that effectively - so be confident to verify their record. An 'actively managed fund' on the other hand employs researchers to analyze and interact with firms in which they method to commit, and to keep abreast of the potential customers for organizations in which they currently spend. They'll review their overall performance to a 'benchmark' index linked to the investment aims of their fund, with the expectation that the more function they put into monitoring down the 'best' investments will literally shell out dividends by way of increased expansion than that of their benchmark. Selecting your funds When you decide your finances, be guaranteed to rate them in opposition to other resources that fish in the very same waters. Do not assume a 'value' fund and a 'growth' fund to have related monitor information. Only by evaluating funds with their genuine friends will you make a great decision. Whilst earlier performance need to not be noticed as an indication of long run functionality, earlier performance does make a difference when comparing like with like. Chasing winners even so, is as unsafe as day-trading. Not surprisingly, all 5 of the leading-accomplishing resources at the finish of 1999 ended up know-how sector resources. Sector resources have a area in several a portfolio, but for the majority of traders they belong at its edges, not at its coronary heart. An specific fund will give you a wider unfold of underlying investments by investing across a quantity of finances you might be better ready to sleek out the ups and downs of the industry overall. But that is not going to function if it turns out that your cash hold virtually the exact same investments. So have a search at every single fund report to see their top rated holdings and make sure you've got received a excellent pass on overall. Particular person Firm shares When it will come to the specific shares aspect of the investment model, the lowest threat entry point has constantly been recognised as companies in the FTSE 100. On the other hand, you should constantly bear in thoughts that the Index evolves around a interval of time, shifting its over-all make-up. Think about, for example, that about the final 6 a long time technological innovation shares have fallen out of the Index, whilst mining firms, on the back of booming commodity charges, pennystocks2232.com have drastically elevated their presence. Yet, since of the volatility and cyclical nature of the sector, particular person mining teams are unable to be classed as minimal chance. Other 'big names' have gone from the Index due to consider-around exercise - organizations like P&O, Abbey Countrywide & BAA - all of which have to be changed. Right now, some eighty% of the make-up of the overall value of the FTSE100 happens from just five sectors - Banking, Mining, Oil & Gasoline, Pharmaceuticals, and Telecoms (mounted and cell). So, if you happen to be wanting to the Footsie to type the bedrock of your investment in personal shares, in which need to you commence? Companies concerned in necessary, day-to-day merchandise and solutions, this kind of as the h2o and electrical power utilities and wide-dependent stores often give a strong backbone to any reveal portfolio. You could argue, on the other hand, that the classic 'defensive' nature of utilities has not too long ago been undermined by the number of get-overs inside of the sector. The reveal charges of the remaining businesses have climbed to all-time highs, potentially raising the degree of risk. There is with no doubt an appetite for the assured cash move that utilities give, and it truly is fair to say that a expanding quantity of analysts concur it's challenging to justify the current costs. Regardless of this, get your timing appropriate, purchasing at the proper selling price, and these sectors really should however supply a powerful base on which to build your individual holdings. To lengthen your scope, although still remaining inside of a decreased chance profile, your subsequent ports of phone ought to be into the financial institutions, pharmaceuticals, tobacco and drinks sectors. Move on up to the intermediate, 'medium risk' level, and you've got an increasing choice, which includes the remaining FTSE100 companies, dominated by the mining sector. The bulk of shares in the FTSE250 would also suit into this 'medium risk' class. Still somewhat big companies, it is these shares that have viewed some of the largest gains more than the very last 3 decades, helping push the 250 Index to document ranges in 2006. A single apparent variation in between the FTSE250 in contrast to the FTSE100, is that corporations here typically have a lot less global publicity. When it comes to the consideration of possibility, you can play this one particular of two ways some argue that obtaining the majority of earnings coming from the Uk provides for much less chance, although other individuals ( penny stocks including us) favour obtaining fingers in as numerous regions as attainable. Finally, at the larger conclude of the risk scale you uncover smaller sized corporations and Aim quoted shares. These are likely to be more unstable and much less liquid than their greater cousins, factors that usually lead to wider bid/provide spreads. The Aim market has noticed substantial development above the previous 10 decades, partly due to the fact corporations will not have to comply with the identical stringent necessities of the main industry. Usually, private investors don't get a appear-in as component of the flotation, obtaining to wait until eventually the shares start out buying and selling, so do decide your time and use stop-reduction limits - that early flush of accomplishment just isn't generally carried via. One particular of the fastest increasing sub-sectors in Aim is tiny mining and exploration groups, quite a few of which are based overseas but have picked out to checklist in the Uk. Mainly because their prospects involve a major volume of 'hope' price, such companies will signify the extremely highest amount of chance. Equally labeled as greater-threat, though as a result of various aspects, are shares in overseas firms. Home names like Volvo, Coca Cola and Johnson & Johnson are large names and big businesses. The extra danger they deliver for investors happens from the actuality that the majority of their earnings are from abroad. So you encounter the additional threat of alterations in exchange costs. Above modern months, for instance, the drop in the US$ would have had a large impression on the sterling value of dividends from US shares And when the companies you spend in are scaled-down types, it's often more challenging to locate reliable research and examination, tougher to monitor and examine efficiency, and tougher to observe the news that influences the reveal selling price. Accurate, most big Uk names also trade globally, but as 'home market' companies they are well-researched, much commented on and often attribute in the United kingdom company finance pages. That is not to say you shouldn't venture outdoors these shores - far from it - but you need to have to do so with your eyes open. That is why we see abroad shares as being more acceptable for investors asthey transfer up the encounter ladder and as soon as they have constructed a well balanced portfolio. And it can be also why, in normal, we might advise investing in marketplace trackers and finances prior to shifting into person abroad shares. | <urn:uuid:6690b088-1a49-46b4-8582-b7ae611fff51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mag.ma/FionaFowlerDyzJ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96062 | 2,564 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The Society has been collecting oral histories for many years, and is only beginning to make them available to the public. Here we provide a small selection of histories on a number of topics, collected from long-time area residents.
William Redlich, 1920s-1940s
ill Redlich shares his experiences growing up in the West Ridge neighborhood during the 1920s, and shares some of his experiences as an aircraft engineer during World War II.
Use the controls below to listen to Mr. Redlich's interview, or click on the icon to download the transcript.
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Show Your Support—Donate Today!
Your donation helps support the development of programs that bring the history of the Rodgers Park and West Ridge neighborhoods to life!
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About the Society
The Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society collects, preserves and shares the story of the diverse community of Chicago’s far north side. Established in 1975 by local residents who believed their part of Chicago was a place with much to celebrate, the Society today serves the community through its publications, architectural tours, and various educational and outreach efforts. | <urn:uuid:51619995-a43d-4084-ac58-4f964366adba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rpwrhs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=41&Itemid=50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946519 | 288 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Dakar Applied Research and Training Program
Youth are a vibrant and growing force in West Africa. As they develop new and creative solutions to the challenges facing their countries and their communities, they need practical skills to build and sustain organizations. The Dakar American Applied Research and Training (DAART) will draw on the considerable wealth of academic and practical knowledge accumulated by US and West African scholars and activists to reinforce the capacity of youth leadership, community activism, and entrepreneurship. Created with the financial support of the US Embassy in Dakar, DAART is a project of the West African Research Center and Association.
DAART Closing Ceremony
Closing ceremony for the DAART fellows’ Training Session(WARC, June 1 – July 31, 2012)
In his speech, His Excellency Ambassador Lewis Lukens said that he was impressed by the creativity and enthusiasm of youth in West Africa as illustrated by the DAART
fellows and their projects. Now that the training is complete, fellows will begin the implementation of their projects in their respective countries. The ambassador pledged his continuing support to those youths as per the recommendations of the Obama Administration. We expect that these expressions of support will be echoed tomorrow when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gives her Dakar speech in the grand amphitheater of University
Although the project’s initial title was “West Africa Youth Entrepreneurship and Civic Awareness,” it has, over time, assumed the name of the center which will soon be operating from WARC as a result of the US State department funding: The Dakar American Applied Research Training Center (DAART).
Prior to the Ambassador’s statement, the academic coordinator of the DAART project, Professor Eugenie Rokhaya Aw and the project and WARC director, Dr. Ousmane Sene, took the floor to praise the DAART initiative and to emphasize the signaled commitment of the 11 fellows from Togo, Niger, Guinea-Conakry, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Cape Verde and Burkina Faso.
The ceremony was extensively covered by the local print and electronic media.
DAART Opening Ceremony
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Thursday was the formal inauguration ceremony for the DAART program, which brings together eleven young leaders from throughout the region for two months of capacity building training and workshops. Selected from some one hundred applicants, these young leaders are engaged in the realization of a range of projects aimed at improving their communities. During their two-month training program, they will have hands-on workshops on developing and using social media for change; financial management; proposal writing and development; technology tools; gender analysis; and evaluation theories and techniques. Having begun their work together the week of June 4th, the group has already developed a sense of community based on their common, if varied, interests and objectives. The eleven DAART fellows hail from Senegal (5), Togo (1), Cape Verde (1), Burkina Faso (1), Niger (2), and Guinea (1).
After welcoming remarks from Professor Mbye Cham, president of the WARA board of directors, the WARA and WARC Directors congratulated the participants on being selected as DAART Fellows and on their exceptional engagement and commitment to a building a better world. It is, noted Jennifer Yanco, the director of WARA, most appropriate that WARC and WARA have the opportunity to make some of their accumulated knowledge and know-how available to the leaders of tomorrow through the DAART Program. Kristin Stewart, representing the US Embassy in Dakar, which has provided generous funding for this program, spoke of the close relationship of confidence that exists between WARA and WARC and the US Embassy and noted the excitement existing around this innovative program. Offering words of welcome on behalf of the DAART Steering Committee was Samira Keita, one of four young leaders who selected the eleven participants from among 100 applicants and laid out the outlines of the program.
After the introductory remarks, each of the DAART fellows presented her or his project and shared some of the high points of working together as a group. Given the range of projects represented by the eleven fellows, this was an intriguing presentation that convinced all of us once again that the DAART program is a much-needed support for social change.
Following the presentations, the group retired to the out-of-doors where architect Annie Jouga presented the plans for the extension that will expand the available space at WARC to accommodate the growing demand and that will also house an ‘American Corner’ once the embassy moves to its new facilities.
After professors Cham and Sene, aided by the masonry of Dr. Yanco, laid the cornerstone for the extension, guests and fellows took advantage of a lunch reception to exchange experiences.
The DART Project kicks off at WARC
On March 16 & 17, the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal hosted the first meeting of the Steering Committee for the Dakar Applied Research Training Program (DART). DART is a project funded through a grant from the US Embassy. The project will provide support to the efforts of exceptional young leaders in the region.
At this meeting the committee reviewed some 100 applications from which they selected 11 participants for the two-month training program that will take place this summer at WARC. Selected participants come from a range of countries in West Africa, including Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger, Cape Verde, Togo, and Cote d’Ivoire, and include groups working in the arts, environment, agriculture, women’s issues, and the rights of marginalized groups. The training will focus on strengthening new technology skills, preparing grant proposals, project management, civic engagement, financial management, marketing, communications, and English language skills. Over the course of the training, each of the 11 participants will prepare a business proposal for his or her organization, and all will be eligible to receive funding to implement the proposal following the training.
The DART project training will take place at WARC in June and July. The project, which also includes an extension of the main WARC building to house the project, as well as improvements in its library, is made possible thanks to a grant from the United States Embassy in Senegal.
DART Selected Candidates
|1||Ahmadou Sall||Federation Nationale des Albinos au Senegal (Albinos)
This organization seeks to address issues of albinos in Senegal on many fronts. They teach albinos about skin cancer, to take care of their skin using specific products, with the help local and international dermatologists they organize spaces for albinos to feel accepted because they are often shunned in society for being different. They also support albinos who live in the street because the sun is dangerous for them. They teach communities to accept them and understand their conditions.
|2||Mohamed Sylla||Groupe Image et Vie
Groupe Image et Vie seeks to promote Senegalese and African culture both traditional and contemporary, locally and abroad. They promote pride in Senegalese culture through visual arts (painting, photography, dance, theater, and cinema) and music. They promote the work of local up-and-coming artists, teach contemporary artists to use modern technology to promote themselves and improve their work, and teach local youth in their communities about African art history.
|3||Gérémy Kaly Bianquinch||l’Association Nationale des Elèves et Etudiants Bassari (ANEEB)
ANEFB is comprised of students who are organizing around the difficulties of being a student of Bassari origin in Dakar and in Senegal today. By organizing, they are giving themselves political weight and making their issues known. They are working together to create a community and providing support for each other. This organization is simultaneously promoting Bassari culture and preserving it.
|4||Abibatou Banda Fall||Amigos de Doñana
Amigos de Donana borrows its organizational structure and mission from the a group of the same name in Spain, which organized an environmental mission to preserve and study issues in Senegal. The community, especially the students in the area who participated in the mission, decided to continue the work. They seek to do scientific research on environmental issues in the region of Saint Louis and to educate the community–both young and old–about the preserving nature. So far, they have been organizing around the effects of deforestation and the many uses of cow dung. They seek resources to grow their mission to include more environmentally related community issues and to learn new methods of disseminating their message.
|5||Touwendida Zongo||Journal Mutations
Mutations was created by a group of students at the suggestion of a journalism professor. They were reading journals from their perspective; the journals they were reading did not have a critical analysis of youth culture nor did the news examine how national issues were really affecting the youth. They pooled their efforts and resources to create this journal that makes the voices of young people heard and that examines the issues that plague youth culture in Burkina Faso.
|6||Fatima Camara||Cadre de Concentration des filles/femmes des partis politiques de Guinee
This organization’s mission is to include women and girls in conversation about politics in Guinea. They organize discussions and political debate for women to familiarize themselves with the system of politics so that they may be better qualified to run and organize politically. This organization focuses its attention on female politicians in West Africa. They hope that by supporting female politicians, they can keep them honest, have their voices heard, and begin to even out the playing field between male and female politicians.
|7||Zakari Hassane||Association Potentiel Terre
Potential Terre is an organization to that seeks to use fertile land in Niger for creating a base for agricultural revival. They have done their research,and with a background in agronomy, the members of this organization are prepared to rehydrate potentially fertile land, to employ youth to work and learn about the potential of the land , and to create a local food economy that is sustainable. This work will benefit Niger in many ways, and they hope to fight against youth unemployment, reduce youth related violence, and create a future of adults who are conscious of the potential of the land.
|8||Neves Selma||Renaissance Africaine- Association des Femmes de l’Afrique de l’Ouest
Cellule Cap Vert (RAAMAO)
Renaissance Africaine – Association des Femmes d’Afrique d’Ouest is a feminist organization whose purpose is to create a space for women to advance in society. Their goals are to gather their members around their interests and values to promote economic, social, and cultural development in Cape Verde for women. They aim to mobilize women of this generation to solve their own problems, fighting for better education, and against poverty, discrimination and violence against women in all its forms. They support the women of Cape Verde in reaching reach positions of responsibility and growth. They have already begun to establish and develop cooperative relations and exchanges with similar organizations, national and foreign.
|9||Paylo Da-Do Yram||Sève-Togo
La Seve- Togo is an organization formed out of the need to support students in the Lome, Togo community where there are high levels of school dropout rates. This organization seeks to provide financial support for students who would otherwise have to leave school. They organize academic camps to keep students from regressing during the summer vacation. In their program they also teach social awareness, the rights of individuals especially those of women, and the importance of community involvement.
|10||Adidjangnimou Evariste Aohoui||Programme Assainissement –Recyclage Ordures (PARO)
PARO is an organization that works in the environmental field, more specifically in recycling. They teach about pollution and recycling. They employ youth to clean up their communities and to recycle; in turn the youth develop a sense of investment in the community and take ownership of the work by keeping their neighborhoods clean. They believe that this is only the beginning, that this investment will manifests itself in mobilizing youth around other issues in their neighborhoods. They hope to grow their organization to disseminate their message more effectively, to allow their community to have environmentally safe products, and to teach community awareness.
|11||Abdoul Rachid Mamadou Kollo||Association des Jeunes COFRAIR
COFRAIR is a youth organization comprised of musicians and artists who are attempting to create a positive and progressive hip hop culture in West Africa. Their objective is to create music that teaches young people about the issues that plague Niger such as HIV / AIDS, illiteracy, delinquency , pollution, racism, and sexism. They have partnered with other organizations to teach West African rappers about these issues and they have organized a rap festival where all of the rappers write , record, and perform songs that have to do with these issues. COFRAIR hopes that rather than singing the useless lyrics of American rappers, that they will proudly rap the progressive lyrics of West African rappers and that they will use the knowledge wisely. | <urn:uuid:154bc181-3d7d-40c1-b07d-869079e02aa3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bu.edu/wara/prog/dart2012/ | 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 | 0.952933 | 2,769 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Allow me to respectfully disagree with the other answers currently given. It's quite possible to do this, and I think it's a really interesting challenge.
The first thing to remember is that bad guys don't think they're bad. In the usual plot structure, where the POV follows the good protagonists, it's hard to present this fact, but your story is in the POV of the evil necromancer. So you have the opportunity to show us the inside of the evil mind, which can be really compelling. In order to make the reader believe this, try to hit the following points:
- What is the necromancer's goal? Ideally, he should have a goal which the modern, non-evil reader can relate to, even if we recoil at his methods. Is he trying to prevent something even more disastrous? Is he trying to be reunited with a lost lover or family member? For comparison, in the last several books of the Wheel of Time Rand came very close to being an outright evil villain, but the reader sticks with him because we know that he's literally responsible for saving creation.
- How did the necromancer get to this place? Can the reader identify with and sympathize with the path that brought him to this place? Avoid cliche here, as it's really easy to fall back on "he was abused as a child" or something similar that's been done innumerable times.
- What is the necromancer's personality? What if, in person, he's a really nice guy? Maybe he has a great sense of humor or an interesting hobby. Think of Spike in the early seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who was in theory as nasty as vampires can get, but engendered the viewer's sympathy by being fun-loving and irreverent.
The examples I mentioned above (Rand and Spike) all involve characters who are eventually redeemed, but you don't have to structure your story that way. You can let your necromancer just slide continually deeper into evil, and let the reader experience the conflict of seeing a character that they like and understand become more and more irredeemable.
Edit: probably the best example I can think of from recent media is actually Tony Soprano from The Sopranos, who is very clearly a bad man who gets worse over the course of the series, but who is nonetheless the protagonist. You might consider examining the way that Tony's character is presented and built for examples of how to do this effectively. | <urn:uuid:aceb36bd-ffdb-4c71-8af4-a23845cb3cd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/5597/sympathetic-portrayal-of-an-evil-protagonist-with-good-motivations?answertab=active | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976728 | 502 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Country’s animation sector needs to grow: President
Posted on Dec 03, 2011 at 10:35pm IST
It is necessary to create opportunities for skilled professionals of the Indian animation industry within the country. The sector is otherwise largely dependent on outsourcing projects from the US and Europe, said President Pratibha Patil here on Friday.
Patil was speaking after the inauguration of DSK Supinfocom, a city-based animation school founded by the DSK group and French institute Supinfocom. The campus of the institute is spread over 20 acres with facilities like workstations, designing labs, auditorium and hostels for the students.
She said, "The global animation and gaming industry grew at 12% per annum between 2005 and 2009. It was estimated to be a $115-billion industry two years ago and is expected to grow at a rate of 10% per cent till 2013 to become a $170-billion industry. Animation companies in India largely draw their revenue from outsourced projects like films and video games, while there is also a growing scope for industrial designing."
Meanwhile, the DSK group has made a short film to spread awareness on female foeticide. Speaking about the film, she said, "It is disturbing and a matter of great concern that female foeticide exists even in the 21st century. The recently released figures of the 2011 census highlight the seriousness of the problem. The all-India gender ratio for children between the ages of 0 and 6 stands at 914 girls per 1,000 boys - the lowest since independence."
"Maharashtra is not doing too well on this front," she said, adding: "The census ratio of the state stands at 883 girls for 1,000 boys, lower than the national ratio. It was 925:1000 in the 2001 census, which underlines the level of deterioration. Corporate groups like DSK should take the initiative and spread awareness about the issue."
Patil also mentioned the recent incident in the Satara district where girls named 'Nakusa' (unwanted) were given new names in an attempt to change the mindset of the society towards the girl child. "Such corrective actions must continue and should be supported," she said.
First and only blockbuster Animation film to hit in Indian Cinema "Hanuman" | <urn:uuid:a4820157-83e9-4ff5-9e1b-7e79c4c1255b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.animation-boss.com/Animationr_needs_to_grow_031211.html | 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 | 0.958047 | 474 | 1.625 | 2 |
These directions are for planning purposes only. Road construction, traffic, or other events may cause conditions to differ from the map results. These directions are subject to YPGs Terms and Conditions.
MONTESSORI ACADEMY offers unique alternative. Parents searching for a unique alternative in child care and education for their children may find what they're looking for at the Montessori Academy, located at 870 Scotland Avenue. The school serves over 200 children from ages 12 months to Grade 4. This purpose-built facility has an on-site indoor swimming pool, child friendly playground and a music room. The teaching method allows children to develop at their own pace, assisted by the guidance of trained Montessori teachers. Whether an activity's purpose is developing pencil grip, recognizing geometric shapes, learning sounds and numbers, reading phonetically, or developing eye- hand coordination, the Method promotes enjoyment of the learning process. The Preschool has been established since 1980 and the Elementary since 1990. | <urn:uuid:51b53857-f571-493a-8fca-77e924a3cb41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yellowpages.ca/bus/Manitoba/Winnipeg/Montessori-Academy/3311906.html?what=Specialized%20Schools&where=Pilot%20Mound%20MB&cli=1,1&le=10f57421d5c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955213 | 198 | 1.640625 | 2 |
It’s FAFSA time! Now that you should have received all of your tax documents in the mail…it is time to think about your future. If you have even remotely considered going back to or starting college between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014. The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is available online. It is FREE to fill out and should be the starting point in determining if you can get assistance to start or go back to college. You must fill out a FAFSA to be considered for student loans or grants.
One of the main things you need to fill out the FAFSA is to have completed filing your taxes for 2012 and have the paperwork handy. What I do when I file my taxes is immediately fill out the FAFSA while my tax return is already on the screen. I make it a part of my tax filing, Federal, then state and then finally FAFSA. Until my FAFSA is completed I do not feel that my taxes are completed.
Remember the FAFSA form is FREE to fill out (if a site asks you to pay LOG OUT ASAP). It WILL require your social security number; however, it is safe and secure. You can also fill out the FAFSA in a PDF form and then mail it in or request a paper FAFSA by calling them at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) or 319-337-5665. If you are hearing impaired, you can contact the TTY line at 1-800-730-8913.
There is also no obligation to attend college if you fill out the FAFSA. It will tell you what you may be eligible for and your chosen school(s) will get a student aid report. You can then meet with a school’s financial aid office and see what you qualify for. There are many programs out there that can help you pay for college so if you have considered it…fill out the FAFSA and meet with a school….who knows you may be surprised!
Disclaimer: I took my own advice and in January 2009 I started college at Oklahoma City Community College and I graduated in December with an Associates Degree in Psychology. I am now attending the University of Central Oklahoma to obtain a Bachelor’s in Psychology—at this time I only have 48 hours left until I have that Degree! Trust me it is possible!! | <urn:uuid:4c3a477e-29ee-4d31-a1e3-d48c29f72936> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.consumerqueen.com/frugal-tips/fafsa-time | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956591 | 505 | 1.570313 | 2 |
When is it time to take Pop's keys?
Q: My dad is in his mid-80s and only drives a couple of times a week, but I think it might be time to ask him for the keys. What's the best way to handle this? — Dave R., Miami
A: Well, your state did something to help you, passing a law that requires everyone over 80 who renews his or her driver's license to pass an eye exam. And many states now require senior drivers to show up in person for license renewals; Illinois and New Hampshire require older drivers to take a road test.
But who do you think is more likely to get into a car accident — an 18-year-old heading to the corner store or a 65-year-old driving to the mall? Hint: The Jonas Brothers are a-blaring.
Kids are 33 percent more dangerous drivers than seniors. That's because older folks make accommodations for aging eyes and ears by not driving at night or in bad weather and by making three rights to avoid one left (Dr. Mike does that now) and not ignoring stoplights anymore (Dr. Oz).
But if you think it's time to ask Dad for the keys permanently, there's good news: Most seniors know when it's time to stop driving. So you may be surprised when you have the "turn in your keys" talk with your dad.
Make sure you have alternative ways for him to feel (and stay) independent: Local services can provide rides when he needs them, but set up a list of friends and family he can call when he wants to go to the store, the bank or a ballgame.
And remember, the guy who taught you to drive may need time to adjust to this change in his life, so give him the understanding he needs, just like he gave you.
Q: I've heard that kids who spend too much time on Facebook have a hard time developing social skills and get depressed. I've also heard that it can lead to diabetes and heart attacks. How can I protect my 12-year-old? — Etrielle M., New Orleans
A: A lot of our feedback from you, our readers, comes through Facebook, and we find it a very useful tool. Social media is meant to be a useful tool. It lets you ask us questions, stay in contact with old friends and relatives and build real, 3-D (not virtual) social networks — groups of friends who get together for walks, bike rides or book clubs.
But people can get swamped by social media and spend too many hours a day on the computer (or TV). Just two hours a day sitting in front of either one ups your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 20 percent and heart disease by 15 percent.
But the unique problem with Facebook is that you think you are interacting socially with others when you are not. This can lead to what psychiatrists call desensitization, a kind of dulling of your ability to interact with people right in front of you. Add that to regular ol' teenage alienation, and you have a formula for unhappiness.
The good news is that you've asked the question at just the right age for your child. While about 46 percent of online 12-year-olds go to social-networking sites, that number jumps to 62 percent at age 14. This is your window of opportunity to establish guidelines (and rules).
Help your child stay active by planning family outdoor activities on a regular basis; encourage him or her to sign up for sports and social groups at school; and limit computer time to homework plus no more than 30 minutes of Facebook or other social sites a day.
But our best advice is what Aunt Tillie used to say to her bookworm nephew (wonder who that was): "Honey, you really need to get out more." Real social interaction and real physical activity make your RealAge younger and set your child — and your whole family — up for healthier habits for life.
Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of "The Dr. Oz Show," and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. Submit your health questions at doctoroz.com. | <urn:uuid:09226bc9-e8ee-444a-8862-38610d947eb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/time-115992-keys-pop.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964633 | 875 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly is a roadmap to navigating the world of online marketing. Author David Meerman Scott provides tips and techniques on how to market your product, your idea, or your services using the power of social media, blogs, news releases, online video, and viral marketing to reach your target market directly. And reading this book could help you outline an online marketing campaign for your business. Perhaps, you are doing quite well at creating compelling content for your website, but could learn from the section on using press releases to get your business found.
Unless you are a well rounded online marketer you’ll quite likely learn some important tips from this book. However, if you are looking for step-by-step detail on how to use video to market your business online than this is not the book for you as it doesn’t go into great detail about how to implement each phase of that campaign. It does however, help new marketers understand basic tools such as RSS feeds and YouTube videos.
It starts out coming “How to Web Has Change the Rules of Marketing and PR.” That section provides valuable insight for those who do not fully understand how marketing online differs from offline marketing, and how trying to use the old marketing methods can really hurt your business online.
The next section talks about how to use “Web-Based Communications to Reach Buyers Directly.” It covers using social media to reach your target audience, the benefit of blogs, the benefits of using audio and video to drive action, how to use press releases, the importance of creating a content-rich web site, and how some marketing campaigns spread throughout the interent.
Section three is designed to help you develop an action plan. It covers:
- Building your marketing and PR plan.
- Using thought leadership to develop your organization into a trusted Resource.
- How to write for your specific audience.
- How internet content influences the buying process and how to help that process along.
- The importance of using social networking sites as part of your overall marketing campaign.
- How to reach your buyers through blogging.
- How to use video and podcasting as part of your overall marketing campaign.
- How to use news releases. The benefits of having an online media room and best practices in creating one.
- How reaching the media has changed. Use that information to create a new media relations plan.
- Search engine marketing and why it is important.
- And tips on how to make it all happen.
Each of the topics above are covered in one chapter. But let’s face it, entire books have been written about each one of those topics. So this isn’t a step-by-step how to guide, but it is a good overview of how to make it all work for you and your business.
I have been marketing online for years, and I learned some new tips that I will use to market online. I give this book a four star rating and overall recommend this book to anyone who needs to develop an online marketing campaign for their their services, their products, or their ideas.
The New Rules of Marketing and PR is available at Amazon.
- Genre: Marketing
- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Wiley (June 4, 2007)
- ISBN-10: 0470113456
- ISBN-13: 978-047011345
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Posted on Posted on January 10, 2011 under the following category: Book Reviews
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Don't have a website? That's okay. The website field is optional. You may leave it blank or use your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social network URL for your website link. | <urn:uuid:6e11744d-9592-4a81-9fe1-b3fe7c2f1363> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wealthwisdomandsuccess.com/success-books/the-new-rules-of-marketing-pr-by-david-meerman-scott-book-review/2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930184 | 847 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Gertrudes Jose Machatine is Director of Planning and Co-operation in the Ministry of health in Mozambique.
Dr Gertrudes Machatine, is Director of Planning and Cooperation at the Ministry of Health in Mozambique. She is responsible for organizing the planning process in order to ensure coherency among Mission, Vision, and General Objectives. In the area of cooperation, she co-ordinates the cooperation process with multilateral and bilateral partners and she is also responsible for negotiating loans with different financial institutions.
In her previous position she was Director of Administration and Management in the Ministry of Health. She was responsible for management of funds, supply of equipment and other medical materials, excluding drugs.
She is a qualified medical doctor with a Masters in International Health from Copenhagen University. Since 2000, Dr Machatine has been Assistant Lecturer at Eduardo Mondlane University and a Public Health Specialist since 2010. | <urn:uuid:53b33335-6b9d-4706-9f2e-8c8dc7987a0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Internal/231369/231383/234109/gertrudes_jose_machatine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962944 | 190 | 1.5 | 2 |
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