text
stringlengths 211
22.9k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
371
| file_path
stringlengths 138
138
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.93
1
| token_count
int64 54
4.1k
| score
float64 1.5
1.84
| int_score
int64 2
2
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The City of Toronto is demanding that local industries sign a draconian new form of 2012 Waste Discharge Agreement, to come into force on January 1, 2012. Unfortunately, the proposed agreement could seriously prejudice any organization that signs it. For example, it gives the City the right to determine compliance without taking scientifically valid samples. As a result, some Toronto employers are organizing to ask City staff to reconsider. Readers of this blog are invited to read the draft Agreement for themselves, and to send their comments to Michael Gouthro at the City of Toronto. Contact us if you want a sample comment letter.
Surcharge agreements are a contractual arrangement for the City to sell some local employers a limited service, namely the treatment of specified amounts of biochemical oxygen demand, phenolics (4AAP), total phosphorus and total suspended solids, in wastewater. All four are parameters that the City receives in massive quantities, and which its wastewater treatment plants are designed to handle. None is a human health threat.
The City has been telling industries that the new agreement is “in effect”, and implies that it is necessary to address the 2008 recommendations of the City’s Auditor General. Here, though, are those recommendations. None of them require the type of contract the City now demands:
Report Title: Protecting Water Quality and Preventing Pollution – Assessing the Effectiveness of the City’s Sewer Use By-law
Report Date: October 10, 2008 Recommendation:
001 The General Manager, Toronto Water ensure that when new industries are identified, site visits be conducted as soon as possible in order to determine whether or not provisions of the Sewer Use By-law apply. In addition, any change in circumstance such as the closure of a business should be updated on the database.
002 The General Manager, Toronto Water, review the business location database to ensure that all important information such as potential to pollute, industry identification code and address are recorded for each business location.
003 The General Manager, Toronto Water, require that supervisory staff document their review of inspection reports. Non inspection activities such as telephone calls and meetings should not be reported as inspections.
005 The General Manager, Toronto Water develop annual and quarterly inspection plans that meet the inspection and sampling frequency targets established by management. Further, actual inspection and sampling activities should be compared to targets by supervisory staff.
008 The General Manager, Toronto Water, ensure that officers determine whether a pollution prevention plan was completed and available on site during regular facility inspections.
009 The General Manager, Toronto Water, in consultation with the General Manager, Economic Development, Culture and Tourism, determine whether the on-line application currently being used by the Economic Development, Culture and Tourism Division to communicate various licensing requirements could be used to communicate to business owners the Sewer Use By-law requirements, including the submission of pollution prevention plans.
011 The General Manager, Toronto Water, assign appropriate staff to the review and approval of pollution prevention plans to ensure as a minimum that plans are reviewed for high-risk industries and a sample of plans from low-risk industries.
012 The General Manager, Toronto Water, ensure that timely enforcement action is taken where appropriate, for all identified violations of the Sewer Use By-law. Where enforcement action is not considered appropriate, reasons should be documented and reviewed by supervisory staff. Evidence of supervisory review should be documented.
013 The General Manager, Toronto Water, monitor companies in the compliance program to ensure that they are meeting the terms of their agreement with the City. If a company fails to comply with their agreement, the compliance agreement should be terminated and appropriate and timely enforcement actions taken. Where management decides to amend, or not enforce the terms of an agreement, the reasons should be documented and approved by appropriate senior staff.
015 The General Manager, Toronto Water review all participants in the reduced water rate program to ensure that they met, as at January 1, 2008, and continue to meet, conditions required to receive the reduced water rate. In circumstances where there is non-compliance immediate action be taken including the retroactive billing of previously reduced rates.
016 The General Manager, Toronto Water, ensure that when sampling confirms that excess pollutants are being discharged into the sewer system the subject company be immediately advised that they may enter into a surcharge agreement. Immediate follow up be conducted in circumstances where companies do not respond within established time limits.
017 The General Manager, Toronto Water, evaluate all surcharge agreements particularly those that have been in existence for a significant period of time. This evaluation determine the appropriateness of the estimated values of wastewater discharges to the system. Further, all estimates be reviewed on a periodic basis in order to ensure that they are still appropriate.
018 The General Manager, Toronto Water, develop a fee policy for all surcharge agreements that reflects the cost of sampling and testing and that all companies subject to surcharge agreements be billed on a cost recovery basis.
020 The General Manager, Toronto Water ensure companies subject to sanitary discharge agreements provide, on a timely basis, the information required to calculate any amount payable, and that the City promptly bill and collect any amount due. | <urn:uuid:e38ebb3e-e24c-44cf-840f-e4f4a7301c5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://envirolaw.com/industrial-waste-surcharge-agreements/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933758 | 1,049 | 1.65625 | 2 |
-- Catholic News Agency
Video Shows Cuban Government Harassing Women Dissidents
HAVANA, CUBA, September 27 (CNA) .- Cuban dissident group Women in White has denounced state police for harassing them as they were trying to leave their offices on Sept. 24 to attend Mass in honor of Our Lady of Mercies.
The incident was caught on video by a group member, sent to the local Hablemos Press, and posted on YouTube.
It shows agents attempting to assault the leader of the dissident group, Berta Soler, who was rescued by her companions.
Soler said the women had planned "to walk from the office to the Church of Our Lady of Mercies to attend Mass and pray for political prisoners, as we do each year."
Laura Labrada, daughter of the late foundress of the group, Laura Pollan, told international reporters that last weekend "more than 60 women were detained, deported (to their provinces) and sent to their homes" by Communist state police.
The Women in White is a group of wives and relatives of Cuban political prisoners. They carry out their peaceful protests for the release of their spouses and family members dressed in white.
The video the incident can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKsGaKn3TOc&feature=youtu.be
here to share this news story with a friend. | <urn:uuid:bfd5fc82-decc-4a72-8255-cb672e93cf39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=121608 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963566 | 293 | 1.710938 | 2 |
January 22nd, 2013
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, homeless shelters in Pittsburgh have been working overtime to accommodate those without homes as the temperatures continue to drop in Western PA. The Severe Weather Emergency Center is an organization who help prevent people from freezing by providing food and shelter needed to stay warm. They urge the public to be cautious, not to spend more than half an hour outside without proper clothing.
Read more from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | <urn:uuid:6f741918-fe98-4b15-b82f-60c414f8a962> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthpointpa.com/archives/homeless-move-inside-as-temperatures-drop-in-pa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958421 | 96 | 1.789063 | 2 |
AstraGin™ is the first and only natural food ingredient that has shown in cell, animal, and human studies to significantly improv the absorption of many essential life supporting and health promoting nutrients, such as amino acids, glucose, and vitamins, into human cells. By allowing a greater amount of these nutrients to pass from the blood stream into the cells, AstraGin™ provides for truly improved bioavailability and hence improvement in overall health, fitness, energy, endurance, sense of well being, blood sugar balance, and lean body mass. AstraGin is the perfect food and nutraceutical ingredient to be included in human and pet foods and dietary supplements.
AstraGin™ is a proprietary, all natural plant based formulation derived from highly purified Panax notoginseng and Astragalus membrenaceus using a pharmaceutical grade extraction and processing technology. AstraGin™ increases chemicals in the human body called “transporter” and mRNA”. These chemicals determine how much or less specific nutrients are absorbed into the intestinal cells and thus are available to support and promote our health and well being. | <urn:uuid:18d7c86a-de7c-44d5-b7d8-930665af629b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hawaiimana.com/astragin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931499 | 230 | 1.828125 | 2 |
This is a follow-up article to Opera Copenhagen , please read original article first.
Opera Copenhagen: Theatre planning and stage technical installations
The new Opera building combines classic forms with modern ideas to create a fully functional space for the staging of opera, ballet and other lyric presentations. Described by experienced visitors even before it’s completion as ‘absolutely stunning’ this opera house is set to take its place high in the list of great performing arts buildings in the world.
The horseshoe-shape main auditorium seats 1472 with a normal size of orchestra pit, has three balcony levels and provides an intimate space and good contact with the stage and orchestra from all seats. Great care was taken during the planning of each tier and with the placing of each row and seat to ensure comfort, good acoustics and excellent sightlines.
Particular attention was paid to each of the side seats. There are also 100 standing places.
The planning of the stages reflects the requirements of heavy European opera and ballet played in repertoire. Taking advantage of the space available on the site on Dock Island the Opera is laid out with six stages, all at the same level. These are the main stage with both side stages and a rear stage, and a separate fit-up stage adjacent to the scene dock. The sixth space is a full scenic rehearsal stage.
The stage wagon system uses drive pinions in the floor which rise to engage in racks mounted in the underside of the wagons. The wagons move at floor level in ‘canals’ formed by the lowering of equaliser elevators in their path. A full set of equalisers is provided throughout the stage support areas ensuring all the stage areas can be at the same level and that no scenery or other equipment has to be lifted onto the wagons during fit-ups.
A purpose-built ballet floor is stored under the rear stage and can be driven out onto the four lowered main stage elevators and raised to stage level, thus providing a rapid changeover between opera and dance. A 15 metre diameter revolve is integrated into a further special full-size stage wagon which can be split into two rectangular wagons, further extending the considerable flexibility of the overall stage floor systems. Fully built sets with a height of 11 metres (36’-1”) can be moved on a stage wagon system throughout the six stages.
The main stage elevators are double-deck units but employ an additional refinement. The lower platforms are able to be raised and lowered independently within the elevator structure. This allows good access to traps, effects equipment and actor’s elevators when raised, and the construction of a complete scene within the elevator when they are at the maximum depth of 5 metres (16’-5”). The elevators themselves each travel from 5 metres below stage to 5 metres above, providing extensive opportunities for complex levels and scenic usage in settings for operas produced in house.
The proscenium zone has been conceived as an integral part of the auditorium. In order to allow the staging of smaller operas from the existing repertoire as well as new major works, the opera portal can reduce to a minimum of 12 metres (39’-4”) in width and 7.5 metres (24’-7”) in height. The opera portal carries a full double-level lighting bridge and can open to 16 metres (52’-6”) wide and 11 metres (36’-1”) high. The structural opening to the stage is masked by an architectural proscenium which can be similarly adjusted to reduce the amount of the portal which is visible. The architectural proscenium can provide a maximum opening 17 metres (55’-9”) wide x 12 metres (39’-4”) high. The scene can be masked by a decorative cloth designed by Per Arnoldi, behind which is a house curtain that allows all three motions; flying, drawing and swagging.
The fly tower is 30 metres (98’-5”) to the underside of the grid and has a modern power flying system providing 100 flying bars at 200 mm (8”) centres and 24 point hoists all controlled by a number of portable control stations. The bars each have a capacity of 450 kg (990 lbs) at 1.8 metres/second (5’-11” per sec) or 900 kg (1,980 lbs) at a reduced speed of 900 mm/second (2’-11” per sec). The point hoists can carry 250 kg (550 lbs) at full speed or 500 kg (1100 kg) at half speed. All bars and points can be operated together in groups and in various types of synchronisation.
To minimise the obstruction caused by a cyclorama, this is a rolling type and has been installed with the storage cone downstage of the portal. So as not to eliminate downstage entrances and also to allow quick access onstage when the cyclorama is deployed, the whole installation can be raised about 4½ metres (14’-9”). The cyclorama cloth is deployed and wound back onto the storage cone at this height. Quick direct access to the stage under the raised cyclorama is available for technicians and performers reducing scene change time and minimising the possibility of damage.
While the Opera will be used for opera and ballet performances in repertoire, provision has also been made for other productions and touring shows. An example is the overstage lighting which is hung on frames clamped to selected flying bars. A group of four bars provides a payload of 3.2 tonnes which accommodates the frames, fittings, dimmers and switching. To maximise the efficiency of power distribution, raw power, DMX and Ethernet is fed to each set of frames from proprietary cable windlasses that operate in synchronisation with the group of hoists. The lighting frames, or others for another production, can be hung on alternative bars and the windlasses moved to align with them. Full provision is made on all galleries and auditorium balconies for lighting fittings and a special technical gallery and ceiling gallery provide the main front-of-house positions. Four follow-spots are accommodated in a central enclosed space above the top tier of the auditorium.
The planning also took account of the delivery of scenery, properties, costumes, instruments and equipment. The Opera will be used by the Royal Theatre in conjunction with their existing theatres in Kings Square and much interchange between their stages is envisaged. Scenery and costumes will be made outside and delivered as and when required by the repertoire. Although not yet installed, provision has been made for scenery to be stored off-site on pallets in containers and for these pallets delivered to a mechanised repertory store under the rear stage. This and the Studio Stage on the first floor are served by a large scenery lift which connects the scene dock with rear stage when at stage level.
The Studio Stage provides a very flexible space for around 200 people. These can be accommodated on retractable seating and on both lower and upper levels of moving balcony units that can be moved and repositioned on air bearings. The room can be set up in some 13 different standard formats which allow intimate spaces for chamber opera, dance, recitals, lectures and a range of special works. The technical installations overhead include both bar and chain hoists mounted above a tensioned-wire grid for suspension of scenery, masking and lighting. The grid panels can also be lifted out if required to allow scenery to be raised into the grid space. | <urn:uuid:e0564dbb-3b19-49af-9ac2-670dbbd4ad69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.archinnovations.com/featured-projects/performance-arts/henning-larsen-opera-copenhagen-planning/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949794 | 1,560 | 1.648438 | 2 |
"That's the last resort, but it's something I'd have to rely on just to pay the bills," said Raub, 58. "And once that's gone, I don't know what would happen."
Relocating for work is not a realistic option, he said, because he needs to be close to his ailing mother. Additionally, it would require him to sell his house in a down market, only adding to the financial strain.
Meanwhile, a bad back means certain kinds of physical labor, such as distribution center work, are out of the question.
"I've been applying for anything I can reasonable do," Raub said. "I've had several interviews lately … but at the last moment they fell through."
Long-term unemployment benefits have cost the federal government $434 billion over the past four years, according to a CNNMoney analysis of federal records. But Republicans opposed to EUC reauthorization are concerned about more than money.
According to a report by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank that promotes free enterprise and limited government, unemployment benefits "reduce the pressure to make difficult choices — such as moving or switching industries — to begin a new job," ultimately resulting in a higher unemployment rate.
U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, a four-term Republican from Allentown who has consistently voted in favor of EUC reauthorization, said he is ready for a new approach.
"I don't think it was anyone's intent to continue 99 weeks of unemployment benefits indefinitely," he said.
As director of the Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board, Nancy Dischinat is charged with helping the region's unemployed find work. She said sometimes her clients become frustrated after failing to find openings in their chosen professions or work that pay as well as their old jobs.
Someone "with a master's degree isn't necessarily interested in becoming a welder," she said. "There is a mismatch between what they were doing and what's available."
Yet, she acknowledged, unemployment benefits are supposed to provide short-term help.
"Ninety-nine weeks becomes a lifestyle. So what's the balance? How do we help people?" she said. "Because we don't want them out on the street."
Legislation unveiled Thursday by the House Republican leadership would gradually reduce the duration of federal unemployment insurance to 56 weeks.
"I understand there are people out there struggling," Dent said. "We're really trying to make the program better and more effective for those who are out of work. We want to get them back to work."
On the other side of the aisle are Democrats who say continued long-term assistance for the unemployed makes sense economically and morally.
"Extending unemployment insurance is a win-win for Pennsylvania," Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said in an email. "It will help hard-working Pennsylvanians as they look for work in this tough economy and act as an economic boost to our small businesses who benefit when these dollars flow into the economy."
Technically, the Great Recession ended more than two years ago; economists narrowly define a recession as a decline in economic output. Nonetheless, hiring since then has failed to make up for extensive job losses, let alone accommodate population growth.
The effects of widespread joblessness have rippled throughout the Lehigh Valley. First-time use of area food banks has soared, a survey by Second Harvest Food Bank found. So has eligibility for free lunch at public schools, according to state Department of Education data.
Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg has added the equivalent of 15 extra employees to staff an expanded emergency unit that opened last month partly in response to a spike in emergency room visits. (Joblessness drives up ER use because most health insurance is provided by employers.)
Yet, long-term unemployment benefits have prevented a bad situation from becoming worse, according to the National Employment Law Project. Without such assistance, 3.2 million people, including nearly 1 million children, would have slipped below the poverty line in 2010, the law project, an advocacy group in New York for the unemployed, reported in October.
Most economists agree that unemployment benefits create a powerful short-term stimulus because recipients usually cash and spend government checks immediately to cover basic needs. According to the law project, federal unemployment insurance created or saved 1.1 million jobs annually during peak reliance in 2009.
While an end to long-term unemployment benefits would not be catastrophic for the Lehigh Valley, the impact would be felt throughout the region's economy, Bethlehem economist Kamran Afshar said.
"They're using that money to buy food, pay rent," he said of those collecting unemployment checks. "If that money goes away … it's a very negative thing. There are no two ways about it."
In danger of losing benefits
1.8 million Americans
14,000 Lehigh and Northampton residents
Sources: National Employment Law Project and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry | <urn:uuid:131c5965-88bb-4e9e-aef5-227ce28f1b03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.mcall.com/2011-12-10/news/mc-pa-unemployment-extension-20111210_1_unemployment-benefits-national-employment-law-project-extended-benefits/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974446 | 1,028 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Since I nominated today to be a Get-Back-To-Writing day, naturally it was only a matter of time before old habits returned and I found myself rummaging around the deep dark corners of the Internet through articles, pictures, gifs and Pins related to writing, rather than actually just getting on with the writing itself. To add further insult to injury, I also, for a time, managed to convince myself it was all in the name of “research”.
Ah, brain. How you love to vex me.
While my disciplinary skills have clearly disappeared down the drain, it appears my procrastination skills remain in fine working order. As such, I successfully stumbled across this little gem of a list at Aerogramme Writers’ Studio. Originally tweeted by Emma Coates, Pixar’s Story Artist, these rules were the little kick-up-the-backside I needed to get back to work today.
May they be equally motivational to your own storytelling adventures.
- You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
- You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
- Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
- Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
- Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
- What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
- Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
- Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
- When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
- Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
- Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
- Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
- Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
- Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
- If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
- What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
- No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
- You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
- Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
- Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
- You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
- What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.
Now get back to it! | <urn:uuid:8125837b-267b-4172-b4e1-5dc5f45d183f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://storytellingnomad.wordpress.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944301 | 891 | 1.578125 | 2 |
There simply aren’t enough outstanding new cooks to staff all these ventures. Yes, the cooking schools have all upped their enrollments, and the phenomenon of the celebrity chef has supposedly made cooking glamorous. The Culinary Institute of America, the Harvard of gastronomy, added nearly a thousand students to its California and New York enrollments between 2001 and 2006. Meanwhile, the Institute of Culinary Education and the French Culinary Institute, the main New York–based schools, have added about three or four hundred students combined, according to their estimates. “Labor shortages are always an issue,” Gramercy Tavern’s Michael Anthony tells us, “especially in a kitchen, which has a pretty high attrition rate.” Still, it has gotten much harder to replace the kids who can’t hack it. “I put up with a lot of shit that ten years ago would have had somebody out on the street,” Hearth’s Marco Canora laments. “But you can’t do that anymore. You have to coddle and teach and hope and pray that they come around.” Working in a kitchen has never been easy, and it never will be (or won’t, at least, until we’ve got robots advance prepping soylent green). But it seems the youngsters are getting a taste of that celeb-chef shine. | <urn:uuid:54fc686d-4436-41de-bae6-6ed364755598> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grubstreet.com/2007/03/the_great_chef_crisis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967798 | 293 | 1.554688 | 2 |
For basically the most depressing shit you’ll read all year (and if it ain’t, you are reading some truly depressing shit on a regular basis — maybe mix in some Dave Barry once in awhile, okay, just to keep the noose at bay?), please don’t enjoy this NYT article about the imminent and probably unavoidable starvation of 750,000 Somalis by the end of the year.
The United Nations’ warnings could not be clearer. A drought-induced famine is steadily creeping across Somalia and tens of thousands of people have already died. The Islamist militant group the Shabab is blocking most aid agencies from accessing the areas it controls, and in the next few months three-quarters of a million people could run out of food, United Nations officials say.
Soon, the rains will start pounding down, but before any crops will grow, disease will bloom. Malaria, cholera, typhoid and measles will sweep through immune-suppressed populations, aid agencies say, killing countless malnourished people.
To say this is awful and tragic and inhuman is accurate, but also empty, because how can you really qualify the mass failure of a government, of a country, of a world that allows this to happen?
And yet, there is a frighteningly compelling — frightening because it is compelling — line of reasoning that says that, even if we could deliver instantaneous and comprehensive food aid to this population with no more than the push of a button, it would be remiss of us to do so, because facilitating an unsustainable paradigm of overpopulation will merely ensure a continuation in the cycle of starvation with no termination until the affected population eventually declines to match the resources available to support it. (Sorry. Didn’t mean to get on a rhyming “-ation” kick there in the middle.)
That said, even if I were 100 percent convinced by the argument summarized above (and elucidated in much more detail below), there is no way that I — nor, I imagine, most people — could refrain from pressing said magic button were it in my power to do so, because how can one human possibly allow 750,000 others — 7,500 others, 75 others — to starve to death if it is in his or her power to prevent it? But since the button is only hypothetical, while the tragedy it would temporarily prevent is very real, the question isn’t whether or not my heart would overrule my head (as noted, it would), but whether it should.
Enter Ishamel (specifically, Chapter 8, Part 5), where Daniel Quinn offers the previously described “frighteningly compelling line of reasoning” that it should not. I can’t do any better than to quote the passages in question, so I’ve embedded the appropriate Google Books section (starting with, “Given an expanding food supply”) below. Unfortunately, GB has redacted one of the relevant pages, so I’ve also provided the complete transcript. It’s 1,281 additional words that I’m asking you to read, but the moral struggle they provoke should provide you with plenty of…well, food for thought.
“Given an expanding food supply, any population will expand. This is true of any species, including the human. The Takers have been proving this here for ten thousand years. For ten thousand years they’ve been steadily increasing food production to feed an increased population, and every time they’ve done this, the population has increased still more.”
I sat there for a minute thinking. Then I said, “Mother Culture doesn’t agree.”
“Certainly not. I’m sure she disagrees most strenuously. What does she say?”
“She says it’s within our power to increase food production withoutincreasing our population.”
“To what end? Why increase food production?”
“To feed the millions who’re starving.”
“And as you feed them will you extract a promise that they will not reproduce?”
“Well . . . no, that’s not part of the plan.”
“So what will happen if you feed the starving millions?”
“They’ll reproduce and our population will increase.”
“Without fail. This is an experiment that has been performed in your culture annually for ten thousand years, with completely predictable results. Increasing food production to feed an increased population results in yet another increase in population. Obviously it has to have this result, and to predict any other is simply to indulge in biological and mathematical fantasies.”
“Even so . . .” I thought some more. “Mother Culture says that, if it comes to that, birth control will solve the problem.”
“Yes. If you’re ever so foolish as to get into a conversation on this subject with some of your friends, you’ll find they heave a great sigh of relief when they remember to make this point. `Whew! Off the hook!’ It’s like the alcoholic who swears he’ll give up drink before it ruins his life. Global population control is always something that’s going to happen in the future. It was something that was going to happen in the future when you were three billion in 1960. Now, when you’re five billion, it’s still something that’s going to happen in the future.”
“True. Nevertheless, it could happen.”
“It could indeed—but not as long as you’re enacting this story. As long as you’re enacting this story, you will go on answering famine with increased food production. You’ve seen the ads for sending food to starving peoples around the world?”
“Have you ever seen ads for sending contraceptives?”
“Never. Mother Culture talks out of both sides of her mouth on this issue. When you say to her population explosion she replies global population control, but when you say to her famine she repliesincreased food production. But as it happens, increased food production is an annual event and global population control is an event that never happens at all.”
“Within your culture as a whole, there is in fact no significant thrust toward global population control. The point to see is that there neverwill be such a thrust so long as you’re enacting a story that says the gods made the world for man. For as long as you enact that story, Mother Culture will demand increased food production today—and promise population control tomorrow.”
“Yes, I can see that. But I have a question.”
“I know what Mother Culture says about famine. What do you say?”
“I? I say nothing, except that your species is not exempt from the biological realities that govern all other species.”
“But how does that apply to famine?”
“Famine isn’t unique to humans. All species are subject to it everywhere in the world. When the population of any species outstrips its food resources, that population declines until it’s once again in balance with its resources. Mother Culture says that humans should be exempt from that process, so when she finds a population that has outstripped its resources, she rushes in food from the outside, thus making it a certainty that there will be even more of them to starve in the next generation. Because the population is never allowed to decline to the point at which it can be supported by its own resources, famine becomes a chronic feature of their lives.”
“Yes. A few years ago I read a story in the paper about an ecologist who made the same point at some conference on hunger. Boy, did he get jumped on. He was practically accused of being a murderer.”
“Yes, I can imagine. His colleagues all over the world understand perfectly well what he was saying, but they have the good sense not to confront Mother Culture with it in the midst of her benevolence. If there are forty thousand people in an area that can only support thirty thousand, it’s no kindness to bring in food from the outside to maintain them at forty thousand. That just guarantees that the famine will continue.”
“True. But all the same, it’s hard just to sit by and let them starve.”
“This is precisely how someone speaks who imagines that he is the world’s divinely appointed ruler: `I will not let them starve. I will notlet the drought come. I will not let the river flood.’ It is the gods wholet these things, not you.”
“A valid point,” I said. “Even so I have one more question on this.” Ishmael nodded me on. “We increase food production in the U.S. tremendously every year, but our population growth is relatively slight. On the other hand, population growth is steepest in countries with poor agricultural production. This seems to contradict your correlation of food production with population growth.”
He shook his head in mild disgust. “The phenomenon as it’s observed is this: `Every increase in food production to feed an increased population is answered by another increase in population.’ This says nothing about where these increases occur.”
“I don’t get it.”
“An increase in food production in Nebraska doesn’t necessarily produce a population increase in Nebraska. It may produce a population increase somewhere in India or Africa.”
“I still don’t get it.”
“Every increase in food production is answered by an increase in population somewhere. In other words, someone is consuming Nebraska’s surpluses—and if they weren’t, Nebraska’s farmers would stop producing those surpluses, pronto.”
“True,” I said, and spent a few moments in thought. “Are you suggesting that First World farmers are fueling the Third World population explosion?”
“Ultimately,” he said, “who else is there to fuel it?”
I sat there staring at him.
“You need to take a step back from the problem in order to see it in global perspective. At present there are five and a half billion of you here, and, though millions of you are starving, you’re producing enough food to feed six billion. And because you’re producing enough food for six billion, it’s a biological certainty that in three or four years there will be six billion of you. By that time, however (even though millions of you will still be starving), you’ll be producing enough food for six and a half billion—which means that in another three or four years there will be six and a half billion. But by that time you’ll be producing enough food for seven billion (even though millions of you will still be starving), which again means that in another three or four years there will be seven billion of you. In order to halt this process, you must face the fact that increasing food production doesn’t feed your hungry, it only fuels your population explosion.”
“I see that. But how do we stop increasing food production?”
“You do it the same way you stop destroying the ozone layer, the same way you stop cutting down the rain forests. If the will is there, the method will be found.”
Like I said: provocative.
(Incidentally, I officially recommend the entire book — this just happens to be the passage that caused me the most psychic pain in terms of how it conflicted with my natural inclinations and yet how drawn to it I was all the same.)
[Editor's note: When you navigate to the above link in the Chrome browser, it helpfully informs you that "This Page is an antiquarian - possibly outdated - usergenerated website brought to you by an archive. It was mirrored from Geocities in the end of october 2009. For any questions about this page contact the respective author. To report any mal content send URL to oocities[at]gmail[dot]com. For any questions concerning the archive visit our main page:OoCities.org.” That’s not really relevant to the post, but I thought I’d mention it.]
Update by Ben: I noted this in the comments, but thought I’d put it somewhere of higher prominence: I don’t think there’s any excuse for anyone who wants to seriously take up this line of argumentation to not get a vascectomy or tubectomy — relatively painless and humane medical procedures, especially compared to starving to death, although they should maybe consider that option for themselves too. | <urn:uuid:5e82a292-0ec5-44d8-8c7b-ed510a1959eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brutishandshort.com/tag/africa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953174 | 2,740 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Beirut divisions over Syria emerge in graffiti
Graffiti, from amorous notes to political slogans, is common in Beirut, adding streaks of colour - mainly to the walls of car parks, tunnels and long-abandoned houses in the capital.
There is no law against the spray-painting of walls, and the practice is largely tolerated by local authorities - at least until recently.
Lebanese painter and poet Semaan Khawam was the first offender, spray-painting an image of a faceless soldier with a gun on a wall in the east side of the capital in full view of a police officer.
In early February, Khawam was charged with disrupting public order and is due in court for his second appearance in June.
Last month, the military police detained activists Ali Fakhry and Khodr Salemeh for stencilling an image in support of the Syrian uprising. The offensive picture was of a recycled sign with the words "Syria: The Revolution Continues" written in Arabic.
According to Salemeh, the image was at once a message of support for the Syrian opposition and an encouragement for the opposition to "cleanse itself of the sectarian division within it".For and against
End Quote Fadi Toufiq Lebanese activist
Newspapers in Lebanon only present the view of the political institution that fund them. Graffiti, like blogs, allow citizens who don't subscribe to a particular political party to share their opinions”
The Syrian issue is particularly sensitive in Lebanon, where political coalitions are largely framed by their opposition to or support of the Syrian government. The March 8 group, a loose coalition which includes the pro-Damascus Shia parties Hezbollah and Amal as well as the Christian FPM, currently heads the government.
According to their own account, Fakhry and Salemeh were taken to four different military and security institutions and interrogated.
"Because we hadn't done anything illegal, they made up the excuse that we had tried to evade a military checkpoint to keep us overnight," Salemeh said.
Meanwhile, when news of the pair's detention reached fellow activists, they demonstrated outside the Internal Security Forces building and sent messages on Twitter to several politicians, including Prime Minister Najib Mikati, asking to have the men released.
According to Ayman Mhanna, director of the regional press freedom organization Samir Kassir Eyes (SKEyes), it was thanks to this sustained pressure that the pair was released within 24 hours.'Civic right'
The clamping down on graffiti is a concern for Mhanna, who sees street art as a means for ordinary citizens to express themselves as the law permits.
Writer and activist Fadi Toufiq shares this view. "Newspapers in Lebanon only present the view of the political institution that funds it," he said. "Graffiti, like blogs, allow citizens who don't subscribe to a particular political party to share their opinions."
Together with other activists, Toufiq organised a "Day of Free Expression" earlier this month in which some 200 participants took turns spray-painting slogans and stencilling images on walls in Beirut's Hamra quarter, including the ones which Khawam, Fakhry and Salemeh were detained for.
Although the majority of images were apolitical or criticisms of the government for its failure to provide adequate services, there were political slogans supporting protesters in Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region.
On the divisive issue of Syria, Salemeh said that there was no conflict between artists supporting one side or another.
"One person would write in Arabic, 'Down with Bashar' and another would add a word changing it to mean the opposite," Salemeh said. "There was no conflict because it was not about politics; it was about the right to express oneself."
As for his own pursuits, although Salemeh signed a document saying in front of security officials to the contrary, he said he will continue to express himself through graffiti images. "After all," he said, "it is my civic right." | <urn:uuid:03e4fccd-ff9a-4730-81c9-a8140200d621> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18118752 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976221 | 834 | 1.59375 | 2 |
|This character exists primarily or exclusively within the Sonic the Comic continuity.|
Information in this article may not be canonical to the storyline of the games or any other Sonic continuity.
|Shortfuse the Cybernik|
Shortfuse from Sonic the Comic #85. Art by Roberto Corona and colouring by John M. Burns.
|Also known as||
Shorty the Squirrel
154 cm (5ft 1in)
35 kg (77 lbs)
Silver, Red and Black
Black with red pupils
|Alignment and character traits|
Fighting against Robotnik, Tekno the Canary
Dr. Robotnik, Vermin
|Skills, abilities and powers|
Super strength, super speed, invulnerability, flight, laser blaster
Shortfuse the Cybernik, originally Shorty the Squirrel, is a fictional character created for Egmont Fleetway's Sonic the Comic by Lew Stringer. He is a Badnik character, who manages to regain his own self-awareness and declares his own personal war on Robotnik. His armour is made of Megatal, an indestructible material comparable to the Marvel Universe's adamantium. He first appeared in issue #45 of Sonic the Comic. He has a silver body with red-and-black-striped gauntlets and shoulder pads, and black eyes with red pupils. He has powerful blasters built into his wrists.
Being encased in badnik armour means that Shortfuse is unable to eat food. Instead, he absorbs solar energy through receivers in his shoulder pads. It is implied that his bodily waste is dealt with by a built-in filter system. He can convert his arm into a flashlight.
Originally an idealistic, short tempered young anthropomorphic squirrel, Shorty's life was changed when his friends and neighbors (including his best friend, Hopper) were captured to be turned into Badniks. Shorty attempted to rescue them single-handedly, damaging some equipment in the process, but was captured by Doctor Robotnik. Robotnik decided to use Shorty as the organic battery for Robotnik's prototype new Super-Badnik - the Cybernik, a process that meant Shorty would never be freed from the armour.
However, a combination of the damaged equipment and Shorty's stubborn personality allowed him to resist his Badnik programming. Renaming himself Shortfuse, he decided to use his powers to fight against Robotnik in revenge for trapping him in the suit. From this point on Shortfuse decided to battle alone, declining Sonic's offer to join the Freedom Fighters.
Nevertheless, he did occasionally work alongside the Freedom Fighters, assisting them against foes such as the giant Mekanik and Commander Brutus. He once battled Knuckles over a misunderstanding and, on a separate occasion, was temporarily brainwashed by Robotnik into fighting Sonic, although he managed to recover his wits and continue his one-squirrel war on Robotnik.
During one particular solo endeavor, Shortfuse managed to free Tekno the Canary, a former weapons designer for Robotnik (and creator of Megatal). Tekno redesigned his armour and built a bomb, which they used to blow up one of Robotnik's factories in the Chemical Plant Zone. The two became close friends and allies.
During the time Sonic spent trapped in the Special Zone, Shortfuse joined the Freedom Fighters to provide the muscle and psychological boost that the group needed. However, his short temper and hot-headed attitude frequently put him at odds with the team, particularly Amy Rose, who was then the team leader. In this time he also encountered another Cybernik, a rat named Vermin who had volunteered for the procedure and who was loyal to Robotnik. After Vermin temporarily infected him with a computer virus that shut down his systems, Shortfuse developed an intense rivalry with Vermin, eventually even leaving Johnny Lightfoot in danger in order to fight Vermin. This led to an argument between Shortfuse, who claimed the mission should take priority, and Amy, who said their mission was to save lives. As a consequence, Shortfuse left the Freedom Fighters, insisting on doing things his own way. He later reconciled with them.
When the Black Asteroid exploded, causing an electromagnetic pulse that wiped out all of the computers on Mobius, Shortfuse was flying over the Lava Loch Zone. The pulse knocked his armour's power offline and he fell into the boiling lava, but his life was saved by his backup life-support systems and his indestructible armour. He remained in the lava for months before the power finally returned and he was able to crawl to shore. However, he found that Robotnik had already been defeated in his absence, leaving him without a purpose. He had trouble adjusting to civilian life, his Cybernik state getting him fired from job after job. When the alien Insectra Empire contacted Mobius looking for a champion to help them against their enemies, the Blurrgh, he leapt at the chance to be a hero again.
Unfortunately, the alien war turned out to be a pointless, brutal waste of time and Shortfuse was brainwashed into continuing to help them by means of an alien creature called a Controla-Crawly, and he became a vicious enforcer that they called the Destroyer. When Amy and Tekno were teleported to the Insectra ship, they managed to free him from Insectra control. The ship was subsequently shot down and crashed on the planet of a friendly alien race known as the Kaamdaarn. The Kaamdaarn's positive energy prevented any weapons from functioning on the planet, and as a result the Insectras and the Blurrgh decided to end the war and settle down in peace. Shortfuse also decided to stay, hoping that the Kaamdaarn's energy might be used to free him from his armour. He returned to Mobius at Christmas with a Kaamdaarn named Amber, who gave him a computer program designed by Kaamdaarn psi technology, allowing him to exit his suit for the first time. Unfortunately, on New Year's Eve a "Magnetic Ray" belonging to Party Pooper reactivated Vermin the Cybernik, and he broke free from his maximum security prison cell. In order to finally defeat Vermin, Shortfuse was forced to sacrifice his freedom by giving the program to Vermin and then destroying Vermin's empty Cybernik armour from the inside.
After a few sporadic battles (such as against Agent X and Colonel Granite), Shortfuse went into his final battle against Robotnik and his attempt to drain Mobius's life energy until the planet suffered environmental collapse. Shortfuse commandeered the alien machine Robotnik was using, stopping him from using Mobius' life energy to give himself powers, and used it to reverse all the damage the villain had done. However, the feedback proved to be too much and destroyed his suit, finally freeing him and giving him his chance to be plain old Shorty the Squirrel.
Sonic the Comic OnlineEdit
In the online continuation of Sonic the Comic, Tekno designed a new suit for Shorty that could be activated at will via a special control belt. However, an unknown person was able to mentally control him through this suit and he began to kidnap random citizens from the Metropolis City Zone as part of a trap for Tekno. With her trapped, Shortfuse hacked the Eternity Ring and tried to access an unknown dimension. Tekno was able to deactivate his armour & save him but by accident, the deactivated armour hit the Eternity Ring and caused it to suck the two into a worm-hole. They are currently in the frontier town of Solstice, where Shorty sells carvings covered in gold and platinum.
- Shortfuse is somewhat similar to E-123 Omega, in that they are both robots built by Doctor Robotnik who seek revenge on their creator by waging a personal war against him. However, while Shortfuse seeks vengeance for being trapped in his robotic shell, Omega wants revenge for being locked in storage for so long.
- Shortfuse made a brief cameo in Archie Comics' issue #134 in a group of Robians as Sonic explains about the mass-deroboticization by the Bem.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sonic Holiday Special 1996, "Sonic Vs Shortfuse"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #113, "Spaced Out, Part 3"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #94, "The Monster Wakes, Part 1"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #45, "Enter the Cybernik, Part 1"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #46, "Enter the Cybernik, Part 2"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #47, "Enter the Cybernik, Part 3"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #57 and #58, "The Rampage of Mekanik"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #79 to #82, "Revolution"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #52, "Knuckles versus the Cybernik"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #63, "Cybernik Strikes Back, Part 1"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #64, "Cybernik Strikes Back, Part 2"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #65, "Cybernik Strikes Back, Part 3"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #89, "A New Hope"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #95, "The Monster Wakes, Part 2"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #90, "Secret Weapon, Part 1"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #91, "Secret Weapon, Part 2"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #97, "Boiling Point"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #100, "The Final Victory"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #106, "Out of Work Hero"
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Sonic the Comic #112, "Spaced Out, Part 2"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #111, "Spaced Out, Part 1"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #113, "Spaced Out, Part 3"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #119, "Peace of the Action"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #120, "Breakout, Part 1"
- ↑ Sonic the Comic #121, "Breakout, Part 2"
|Archie/SatAM||Sonic | Doctor Robotnik | Doctor Eggman | Snively | Scourge | Princess Sally | Bunnie | Rotor | Antoine | Miles "Tails" Prower | Amy Rose | Freedom Fighters | Wolf Pack | King Acorn | Ixis Naugus | Knuckles | Julie-Su | Dimitri | Lien-Da | Dr. Finitevus | Dark Legion | The Brotherhood | Mammoth Mogul | Elias Acorn | House of Acorn | Secret Service | Mina | Fiona | Anti-Freedom Fighters | Destructix | A.D.A.M. | Other characters|
|Sonic the Comic||Freedom Fighters | Shortfuse the Cybernik | Captain Plunder | Commander Brutus | Drakon Empire | Emperor Metallix | STC characters|
|Underground||Sonia | Manic | Queen Aleena | Other characters|
|AoStH||Scratch | Grounder | Coconuts | AoStH characters| | <urn:uuid:92f6ac1b-e031-40bc-af35-5d8d51d29a8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Shortfuse_the_Cybernik | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95416 | 2,338 | 1.570313 | 2 |
We at Film Society of Lincoln Center are excited to debut another ongoing series tomorrow night, Art of the Real, dedicated to showcasing innovative and consciousness-raising nonfiction filmmaking. The series opens with Alex Rotaru's Shakespeare High, a moving and energetic new documentary about a Shakespeare competition in Southern California that brings together students from diverse backgrounds and boasts alumni like Kevin Spacey, Sally Field and Richard Dreyfus. Following several competing groups, different in every way except their enthusiasm for the tournament, the film presents a stirring a case for the exigency of arts education in America.
We asked director Alex Rotaru to answer a few questions about himself and his film by means of introduction:
Can you tell us a bit about your background as a filmmaker?
I grew up in Romania, with film and theatre surrounding me day and night. My father is a playwright and producer, my mother is an actress. I, myself, was a working film actor in my teens. After a detour at MIT, where I studied Physics, I went to grad school at USC to study filmmaking formally and it was there I realized that my childhood and adolescence had been the best film school I could ever wish for.
How did you get started and what other projects have you worked on?
Soon after graduating from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, I had the immense fortune to have my two mentors, Mark J. Harris and Jeremy Kagan, advising me on how to go forward. I felt stifled in a script development job and was hankering for production—so Mark recommended me to documentary film legend Mel Stuart (also the director of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!) for a cameraman position. This was "the beginning of a beautiful friendship" that spanned over a dozen collaborations and got me accustomed to documentary filmmaking. It was through Mel that I met worldwide superstar educator Rafe Esquith and co-produced, shot and edited The Hobart Shakespeareans for PBS POV, which ignited a passion for films about the arts and arts education in me. I was ready to direct—and over the next few years I followed up with They Came to Play, Kids with Cameras, and Shakespeare High, and now I'm prepping my first fiction film.
What is your approach to documentary filmmaking? Are there any specific rules you set for yourself?
I had to prep for a TEDx talk I did last year in Bucharest and reflected on this a lot. I'm not an aesthetic-method purist by any stretch, although I could take a strict approach if the material demanded it—since I believe that form must follow content. However, if there is a general rule I instinctively abide by, it's cherchez le personnage. I seek out the characters who best embody the theme; you could call it casting, but it's really more delicate than that, and you've got to get lucky. Once I find the right characters, I try to get out of their way and gently encourage them to be free to be themselves in front of the cameras—usually with humor.
How did you come across the subject for this project?
My love for Shakespeare goes back as far as I can remember; the first book I ever read as a child was a children's retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and my mother performed in Shakespeare plays while she was pregnant with me. In my late teens I saw Ian McKellen and Brian Cox touring in Bucharest with the Royal Shakespeare Company—in Richard III and King Lear. This was the first time I saw (and heard!) Shakespeare in English, and I was hooked. Years later, I filmed Ian McKellen and Michael York for The Hobart Shakespeareans, and with that project the hook went in for life. By the time the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California's Shakespeare Festival came to my attention, it felt only too natural to embark on the Shakespeare High journey, although it did take some time to convince myself that the world needed another "Shakespeare in the classroom" documentary. However, once I saw the kids in action, I knew this was a unique event of very high emotional resonance that had to be shared with the world—especially at a time when arts education is on its last legs in so many parts of this country.
Were there any specific challenges about working with young people (and young actors, at that)?
My only challenge with the young actors was to edit down the performances—and the worst part was eliminating from the film students, groups, and schools. We cast a wide net, covered at least three times more than we needed, and this embarrassment of riches lead to an embarrassment of choices. It was more challenging to work with the legendary actors-alumni/ae of the Festival who came to our aid: Mare Winningham, Richard Dreyfuss, Val Kilmer, and of course Kevin Spacey, who became our Executive Producer and biggest supporter. The main challenge was to manage to get a window in their busy schedule to film them; then there was my own level of emotion and nerves, which naturally spiked when dealing with such genuine stars—but once we started rolling, everything went great.
Can you take us through a bit of the timeline between the film's inception and its completion? Did the project change once you started filming or editing?
In April 2008, I was a judge in the DTASC Shakespeare Festival and the decision was made to embark on the journey, despite not having secured any outside financing yet. We obtained the rights and crewed up, and in January 2009 we started filming schools preparing for the Festival, which is in April, on the Saturday closest to Shakespeare's birthday. We identified the groups we wished to focus on and continued covering them, culminating with the frantic Festival Day, where we had 24 cameras crews shooting. Then came the hard part: fundraising for editing and finishing, wading through the four hundred hours of footage, trying many things until we found the best through-line... We had to stop and restart editing several times, and finally at the end of 2010 we had a cut we were happy with. We won several grants which helped us finish in time to premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, and from there we went on the festival circuit, and now we are releasing theatrically, beginning here in New York at Film Society of Lincoln Center—which is so thrilling! It's been almost four years since inception, and slightly over three years since beginning of principal photography. If I were to change anything about the project, I'd try to shave one year off the editing (which would mean better fundraising, often the main challenge of indie docs!)—but looking back it's amazing how close the finished project came to our original "shot-in-the-dark" pitch. Usually, documentary projects change or take shape differently as you start filming or editing, but this one is remarkably close to what we dreamed it would be, and we have the kids to thank for it... We definitely got lucky!
Alex Rotaru will be in person for a Q&A following Wednesday's 6:30pm screening, along with several of the film's subjects. If you can't make it, don't fret: Shakespeare High starts it theatrical release in the Film Center Amphitheater this Friday! | <urn:uuid:c85ae980-4a75-46ef-803e-22b9963373d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/art-of-the-real-introduction-alex-rotaru-shakespeare-high | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977254 | 1,489 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Despite a flurry of objections from local
preservationists, Lansing Community College is sticking to its plans to
replace three century-old downtown houses at the southwest corner of
North Capitol Avenue and Saginaw Street with a welcome area.
One of the homes, 205 W. Saginaw, was built in 1902 by department store owner F.N. Arbaugh and moved to its present location in 1940. The other two are 617 N. Capitol, built in 1888, and 211 W. Saginaw, built in 1898.
The college offered last week to sell off the homes to the highest bidder willing to move them, but the offer “is an empty gesture and it doesn’t change a thing,” according to Preservation Lansing’s Nathalie Winans, who chairs Lansing’s Historic District Commission.
“It’s the lowest hanging fruit they could possibly have offered,” Winans said. “It works out great for LCC because they don’t have to pay for the demo. You have to pay for moving the houses, buy the land to put them on, restore the foundation, electrical, et cetera.”
Winans said she expects the homes to be demolished.
However, LCC spokeswoman Ellen Jones said the college has received one letter of interest, from a person who wished to remain anonymous. “That person will be contacted by Purchasing to prepare documents to fulfill the RFP [Request for Proposal] criteria,” Jones said.
Jones said a meeting is scheduled at 1 p.m. today' at the LCC Administration Building’s boardroom “for those who are interested in purchasing the houses.”
Minimum bid is a dollar.'
Preservationists have suggested that rather than demolishing or moving the houses, the college restore them, perhaps as part of an academic training program.
“We do that with the Eastside Neighborhood Association and the Ingham County Land Bank with Restoration Works, but that’s not our plan for this parcel of land,” Jones said.
Winans and Brenna Moloney of Preservation Lansing and the Michigan Historic Preservation Network said moving the buildings should be a last resort because it would take them out of their context.'
“I understand that two of these houses were moved already, but they have been there for 50 years,” Moloney said. “Their new location has earned some significance on its own.”
Moloney cited a 1997 study submitted to the city of Lansing, in which all three buildings were found to contribute to a potential historic district.
“Having gone through [the houses], I can see why that determination was made,” Moloney said. “All three of them have really nice features. You would hate to see these materials wasted and their presence in the neighborhood wasted as well.”
Winans dreads the “monumental signage” LCC plans to put up on in place of the houses almost as much as the demolition or removal of the houses themselves.
“If it’s anything like the ‘park-like space’ on the southeast side of campus, it will be like the berm between a K-Mart and a Wal-Mart,” Winans said. “It’s a very suburban use of land and not what we want in the neighborhood.”
Preservation Lansing only launched May 23, with the intention of giving awards to the best preservation projects in the city, but the LCC flare-up has forced the group to decide how far it wants to go in the direction of activism.
A range of options, from a Facebook page to direct action such as a public “funeral” for the houses, will be under discussion at a members-only meeting this week.
Meeting 1 p.m. today at the LCC Administration Building board room for people interested in buying one of the three houses slated for summer demolition by Lansing Community College
Or call the LCC Purchasing Department and get a copy of the Request for Proposal at 483-1785 Monday-Friday between 7:30 and 4 p.m. Proposal due date: July 2 | <urn:uuid:cbec95bf-31ba-41db-94ae-fdb92762dd12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-7490-down-they-go-abbey.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971678 | 886 | 1.570313 | 2 |
How to Fix the Country
We need to vote out a lot of people next fall. Let's start with everybody who voted in favor of Gramm-Leach-Bliley. That would be a double positive, getting rid of career politicians and people too stupid or corrupt to avoid voting for the collapse of the finanical system.
Next, and very simply, we need to understand both the positive and negative roles we as Americans have played in the bringing the world to the place in history we are at. That will take contrition and a broad understanding of how other people's lives are and how they feel about us for what we have done and what they perceive we have done to their nations. In many cases perception is wrong, both here and abroad.
It is difficult for most Americans to understand that much of our standard of living has come on the back of other nations. Be that as it may, we are clearly one of the best societies when it comes to the goodness, industriousness and well meaning of our general population. It is time for the people to take hold of the nation again. To tell our representatives that enough is enough, either represent the people of the nation or step aside.
It is time for us to work hard, produce and rebuild our communities without the delusions of self grandeur that often accompany those efforts. We also need to be empathetic to the fact that hundreds of millions of people on the planet also want to live peaceful and comfortable lives. We can make a lot of money and du good if we follow the old Zig Ziglar line:
"If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want."
Let's make tomorrow the dream worth having and get there by doing good by others, starting with our families, neighbors, countrymen and fellow citizens of the earth.
Sorry to get a little sappy, but somebody needs to go there, we have become too hard. | <urn:uuid:b38016b9-7f51-4b4a-96cd-e081becf2b1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://caps.fool.com/Blogs/how-to-fix-the-country/297831 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969034 | 410 | 1.726563 | 2 |
started last night. Today is Maundy Thursday. For the first
time in close to 20 years I had to check my datebook to find
out when each was happeningsometimes they are close
together, sometimes farther apart.
first time in almost 20 years I will not lead the Maundy Thursday
service. I guess it was always my favorite servicemaybe
because it was all about food. It commemorated the last dinner
that Jesus ate with his closest friends. Theres not
much information in the gospels about what kind of sauce was
on the fish, whether the bread was made from stone-ground
grains or not (though, you know, given the technology, it
probably was) or if it was key lime pie or raspberry pavlova
that rounded out the meal. The point is, fill in the blanks.
pointthough I think a menu is terribly importantwas
that this was a meal designed to be about remembering it.
The Last Supper means its a remembered supper. Its
not tonights supper or a supper next week. Its
all about what happened and would not happen againbut
was still far too significant to simply forget.
respect the Maundy Thursday observance of the final supper
Jesus had with friends and the Passover Seder have much in
The Seder, too, is a meal designed around the theme or remembrance.
The text read and the actions indicated in the text comprise
the Haggadah. And though there are many different versions
of it, all of them pivot on the act of looking backward with
gratitude to God who righted misfortune and brought deliverance
couple of years I participated in a Seder where we followed
a womens Haggadah. We commemorated our foremothers and
our daughters and the kinds of imprisonment that have been
historically characteristic of womens lives. I remember
bringing my daughters with me. We each had to name our mothers,
grandmothers, etc, as far back as we could. On the Grae side
I could name Norma, my mother, and Jennie, her mother, who
had died the month before my mother married.
Page side the only woman I could name was Sophie Wilomena,
my fathers mother. Maybe
because I know nothing about the lives of the women who are
my forebears it is easy not to be too curioustheres
no way to find out anything about them since they were working
class Danes and Germans who came to this country and didnt
own property, didnt hold office. Basically, they didnt
leave a paper trail, which is the only way to knowor
provethat anyone existed. So if I dont know their
names, this is not surprising.
its precisely because there is a paper trail for so
many of the women in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures that
their namelessness incenses me. And when I think of our collectively
remembering the exodus from Egypt in the Passover Seder or
Jesus gathered around the table of the Last Supper in Maundy
Thursday services, I want to saythis is not dayenu:
Its not sufficient to remember only the first-born sons
or the 12 disciples or the fearless warriors or David or Jesus
or Moses or Elijah unless we also rememberand remember
to namethe women who carried them, bore them, shaped
them. And even that is not enough. It is not dayenunot
sufficientto only remember these women as mothers. And
thats because their tragic portrayal in both Hebrew
and Greek scripture is as far more than mothers and far less
largely unnamed. Do we remember their stories? Could we name
these women? Of course not. They slip between the lines of
scripture. Their stories are unsettling, not the kind of thing
to tell the children in their religious education classes.
all, who wants to tell the story of the Levites concubine?
That poor upstart whose father and husband condoned her gang
rape by the men of the town in order to spare her husbands
own hide? Outraged that she has been raped, abused and killed,
her husband dismembers her body and sends it to warlords all
over Israel in order to get the fighting started. And, of
course, he is successful.
to tell the story of Lots wife? Yeah, we all know she
was turned to a pillar of salt because she disobeyed and turned
back to look at the home she was fleeing. By why is her sin
more egregious than that of Lots himself when he offered
to whore out his virgin daughters in order to spare the man-flesh
of his divine visitors?
about Jephthahs daughter, poor girl? Her father, the
insecure but reliably victorious warrior tells God hell
slay the first person he sees on his arrival home if he could
gain yet another victory. Well, he does. And the first person
he sees on his arrival is his daughter, dancing and singing
as she comes out to welcome him home.
might fare better in some of the stories in Greek scripture,
but they still dont earn themselves names. The stories
are great, gripping. In one, a woman with serious fibroid
problems grips Jesus hem and her bleeding stops; he
knows and commends her for her faithfulness.
In a couple
of other stories, women who are members of a long-hated rival
religious sect encounter Jesus. In one instance, Jesus gives
her grief on the number of husbands she has had. In another
he insults the woman who begs him to heal her daughter, though
he does, indeed, act as if she has persuaded him that his
narrow view of who was worthy of being healed was a wrong-headed
another storyand such a poignant storya woman
washes his feet with her tears and dries them with her hair.
This pisses off the disciples mightily. But Jesus says Truly
I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole
world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.
Would that that were true, but it isnt. We have no name
by which we can remember her.
we gather at Passover Seders and Maundy Thursday services
with the express purpose of remembrance. Then we leave these
solemn observances blithely unaware of who we dont know.
Without their names, these women are not even significant
enough to forget. | <urn:uuid:5a9cc157-5444-4e0b-b842-75165b63c442> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://metroland.net/back_issues/vol32_no17/reckonings.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963865 | 1,378 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Posted on February 25, 2009 by Billzilla
Tracy Benton reviews Wolfsbane and Mistletoe
Because, after all, nothing goes with Christmas like werewolves, right?
As a follow-up to Many Bloody Returns (vampires and birthdays), editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner bring us Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (2008), an anthology of stories starring werewolves and set at Chrismastime. (To give them credit, the editors state in the introduction that they rejected the zombies-and-Arbor Day combination.) I was sufficiently intrigued by this concept to read the book, and I was also attracted by the array of authors, which, oddly enough, are mainly mystery writers.
I expect some unevenness with any anthology, and this set of short stories breaks apart about half and half. Harris’s own entry, “Gift Wrap,” is a bit of a let down. While she brings in her main character from the Southern Vampire novels, Sookie Stackhouse, the plot is rather thin and the story feels like a throwaway. With a full roster of werewolves in her books, I was surprised she didn’t take the opportunity to further develop one of her minor characters; but oh well. A more entertaining tale is Donna Andrews’s “Haire of the Beast,” in which an experiment involving an ancient spellbook, some “magic brownies,” and a rancorous ex goes horribly wrong… depending on your point of view. This story is extremely short but still a fun read.
Another of the highlights is Dana Cameron’s “The Night Things Changed.” This story features some very complex world-building, introducing the reader to the Fangborn, vampires and werewolves who fight evil throughout the world. This one really is a mystery, with vampire Claudia and her werewolf brother Gerry (yeah, really) tracking down a psychopathic killer. It was interesting enough that I went looking for her other stories set in this world… but there don’t appear to be any. Kind of a surprise that so much ee-imagining of old monster tropes was done for one short story.
The selections in this anthology I found the weakest were those that actually featured Santa Claus. In “The Werewolf Before Christmas” by Kat Richardson, a poor choice of meals causes a werewolf to end up filling in for Rudolph by pulling Kris Kringle’s sleigh. While this idea had possibilities, the story becomes a tale of personal redemption, and I didn’t particularly care about the character in question. Nancy Pickard’s “You Better Not Pyout” takes quite an opposite tack: Santa is a vampire. So is Rudolph. Mix in some Romanov vampires, some African wild dogs… and the reader is pretty much left in the dust. At least, I was. I gave up on that one.
Patricia Briggs and Alan Gordon both present situations in which a werewolf makes the best possible use of his talents while living beneath the radar in the human world — Briggs gives us David, who runs a team of mercenaries, and Gordon offers us Sam, who trains dogs very, very well indeed. Both of these stories are only barely related to Christmas, but are interesting twists on how weres might exist unnoticed. Carrie Vaughn’s “Il Est Ne” approaches the supernatural existence from a different angle: a werewolf who can barely control his wolfy urges meets another, a woman driven from her pack. They form an alliance to find a monster terrorizing a small town on Christmas Eve, and the framing device of a chance meeting at the local Waffle House works extremely well.
I must admit, however, that the story I most enjoyed in this anthology was one that made me laugh out loud several times: J. A. Konrath’s “SA.” S.A. in this case refers to Shapeshifters Anonymous. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, but suffice to say that this is a meeting of S.A. that is quite unforgettable, and which will certainly cause you to utter the phrase, “a were-WHAT?” By the time the red-suited hordes attack, only the most jaded fantasy reader will be able to keep a straight face.
There are enough enjoyable tales in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe to make it worth a read, particularly if you enjoy supernatural critters mixed in with your mystery or thriller stories. There’s little here that’s actively scary, though a few stories have a good bit of gore involved.
Prepare for a mixed bag, and you won’t be disappointed.
Review by Tracy Benton | <urn:uuid:72af4625-f9e3-481d-a08a-76a23b726940> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.flamesrising.com/wolvesbane-mistletoe-review/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955726 | 994 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Welcome to Yoga with Cheryl Bruedigam CYI – 250
To practice yoga is to dance with the universe~cb
My motto is: If there's not a smile on your face then you haven't been on the mat long enough!
There is nothing quite like practicing yoga, and practicing yoga in New Mexico is refreshing, fulfilling and as enchanting as anything else here. The abundant sunshine, fresh air and magical environment will all serve to enhance your practice even more. If you are a New Mexico resident, enhance your life by adding yoga. If you live elsewhere, be sure to include yoga on your next visit. Either way, my yoga series will prepare you for an enchanting yoga experience.
Yoga is easy. My teachings are from the very beginning in simple terms. If you are clue-less and it all seems too complicated, too flaky or too commercial, you have come to the right place. All you need to practice yoga is you. A mat helps.
People practice yoga for many different reasons. Health, fitness and physical well-being, mental clarity, longevity, inner peace, spiritual growth, relaxation, energy, pain management and many, many more. The benefits of yoga comprise a long list.
Though it originated in the ancient eastern-Indian culture which has a Hindu base, yoga is not a religious practice. Any person of any belief system or none, may practice yoga. Yoga is the union of body, mind and soul with God. It may also be used strictly for physical well-being but in doing so, you may be surprised to find that the spiritual creeps in.
My teachings focus on the physical poses or asanas, though I will also bring in the other branches. These include things like being of service, devotion, study, lifestyle, etc.
There are thousands of yoga poses. We will cover some basics, twenty-ish, so that you may easily begin a consistent, uncomplicated practice that can become a part of your day.
I will have accompanying videos for each pose as we move through the series.
I am also available for consultations, private tutoring, and retreat planning or to assist you in planning your New Mexico vacation to include yoga.
If you have questions or need consultation, please email me
cherylb @ ziamediagroup.com
Lessons and videos are online at yogawithcherylbruedigam.blogspot.com | <urn:uuid:7cc1c9f8-11c8-4f4c-967e-f47edc83c42a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.discovernewmexico.com/directory/yoga-with-cheryl-bruedigam/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945346 | 497 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Sudan: 4 Chinese abducted in Darfur are released
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudan's official news agency says four Chinese workers abducted last week in the North Darfur region have been released.
SUNA says the four men were handed over on Wednesday to the joint U.N. and African African Union mission in Darfur, or UNAMID. They were kidnapped on Saturday.
SUNA has blamed the abduction on a Darfur rebel movement but has not named the group. The government had said it dispatched 18 military vehicles to pursue the abductors.
The Chinese are employees of the China Railway 18th Bureau Group, which is building a road in North Darfur just outside the regional capital, El-Fasher.
China is a major oil buyer from Sudan and invests heavily here.
SUNA says that 11 Sudanese workers who were abducted together with the Chinese remain hostages. | <urn:uuid:12eff0fb-d782-4282-bea6-c6f399866c4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northjersey.com/news/international/187091561_Sudan__4_Chinese_abducted_in_Darfur_are_released.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981787 | 187 | 1.65625 | 2 |
However the flap over CBS and those National Guard "memos" turns out, the past few weeks mark a milestone in U.S. media and politics. Along with the Swift Boat Veterans' ads, the widespread challenge to Dan Rather's reporting - to his credibility - means that the liberal media establishment has ceased to set the U.S. political agenda.
This is potentially a big cultural moment. For decades liberal media elites were able to define current debates by all kicking in the same direction, like the Rockettes. Now and then they can still pull this off, as when they all repeated the same Pentagon-promoted-torture line during the Abu Ghraib uproar. But the last month has widened cracks in that media monopoly that have been developing for some time.
Twenty years ago, those who sought a different point of view had few alternatives beyond The Wall Street Journal's editorial page and small magazines like National Review and The American Spectator. But in 1987 the Reagan Administration abolished the so-called Fairness Doctrine, whose main effect had been to stifle controversy on the airwaves by threatening stations with the obligation to provide equal time. The result was an explosion in political talk radio, led by Rush Limbaugh, who filled an unmet demand for right-leaning commentary.
Then, in 1996, Rupert Murdoch launched Fox News Channel, providing a "fair and balanced" alternative to CNN and the broadcast networks. By 2001 Fox had surpassed its competitors to become the top-rated cable news channel. And in the past few years, the "blogosphere" has allowed a million flowers to bloom. Anyone with a computer can start a Web log and become a pundit, and the smartest and most enterprising have developed loyal followings.
Thanks to these developments, the blue-state media elites no longer control America's political debate. Just in the past year, California voters elected Arnold Schwarzenegger despite election-eve groping charges trumpeted in the Los Angeles Times. A public outcry prompted CBS to cancel a mendacious miniseries about Ronald and Nancy Reagan. And the mainstream media were dragged kicking and screaming into covering the Swift Boat Veterans' accusations against John Kerry. Even in South Dakota, bloggers and the Web have challenged the dominance that Tom Daschle's pals at the Argus Leader have long had on that state's political dialogue.
The current CBS "60 Minutes" imbroglio splendidly illustrates how the old political and media order has eroded. Democrats nominated Mr. Kerry in part because they thought his status as a Vietnam War hero would make him a formidable challenger - an assumption the liberal media echoed.
When that proved a miscalculation, Democrats talked about reviving the story about the President's National Guard service. Mr. Rather, a longtime Bush family antagonist and scourge of the political right, then broadcast the alleged memos from Mr. Bush's former commanding officer, and at least some of the old Rockettes (such as the Boston Globe) kicked in unison. Democrats released their own video on the subject, "Fortunate Son," not too long thereafter.
But then came the challenge to the memos' authenticity from the blogging world, which was quickly picked up by some mainstream media reporters (most aggressively ABC and the Washington Post). Soon enough the big story became not what Mr. Bush did during the war, but was Mr. Rather selling us more bull than a Texas ranch, as the CBS anchor might have put it on one of his newscasts.
Mr. Rather and his CBS bosses are sticking to their story, despite the growing evidence on the other side, leaving unanswered the biggest question of all: Who perpetrated this apparent fraud on CBS and the American voters? As journalists who sometimes go out on a limb ourselves, we'd have thought Mr. Rather's first recourse would not be to get mad but instead to double- and triple-check his sources.
That Mr. Rather isn't disclosing those sources, despite the damage to his reputation, raises the possibility that they are connected to the Democratic Party or the Kerry campaign. If that is true, then Mr. Rather would be revealed not just as a dupe, but also as the willing vehicle for a political dirty trick. In any case, there's no question that CBS is feeling the heat--and that it felt it far more quickly and intensely than it would have 20 years ago.
None of this is to suggest that the liberal media are dead, much less that conservatives now dominate the press corps. The traditional media remain important if diminished; liberals are trying to make inroads into talk radio (Air America) and cable news (Al Gore's prospective network), and there is no shortage of left-wing bloggers.
All of which is to the good. The Rather episode shows that a competitive media marketplace serves the cause of truth, and does so with impressive speed. It also reminds us of the dangers of arrogance and complacency - temptations from which none of us, regardless of ideology, are immune. | <urn:uuid:09ec5005-56c2-4b44-9a72-71e9827add2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=11296 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967812 | 1,010 | 1.671875 | 2 |
“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” ~Carl Jung
“True love comes from the joining of two polar energies to create a third force or consciousness. It is an interchange of energy and passion, not the surrender or domination of either but a voluntary exchange of willpower and respect. We must learn to embrace and befriend all the states of our personality, male and female, light and the dark, to be truly whole. This process allows the natural flow of the cycle of seasons within our own persona. If we fail to welcome all the archetypes into our own house, they become disowned and troublesome, like mental poltergeists gently tapping on the window, seeking to be acknowledged. …
“To truly love, we must be truly whole. We must accept every aspect of our individual personality as well as accepting this same wholeness in another person. The polarity may vary from day to day, moment to moment, but the truly whole person has seen all the fractured elements of their own personality and can deal with them in another. The joy of union is seamless and easy. Love is its own reward.” ~ Mark Ryan and John Matthews (from “The Forest Lovers” card in The Wildwood Tarot.)
“White magic is poetry and black magic is anything that works.” ~Victor Anderson
“He who cannot blast cannot bless.” ~Gwydion Pendderwen
“There will be times when we become alerted to an issue and experience an inner call to respond. Choosing to respond to that call empowers us. Once we take that first step, we start on a journey presenting us with situations that increase our capacity to respond. Strengths such as courage, determination, and creativity are drawn forth from us most when we rise to the challenges that evoke them. When we share our cause with others, allies appear; synergy occurs. And when we act for causes larger than ourselves, the larger community for whom we do this will be acting through us.
“We can experience our call to action in many different ways. Sometimes the uncomfortable discrepancy of realizing that our behavior is out of step with our values motivates us. Our conscience calls, and when we step into integrity, more of who we are heads in the same direction. At other times our call is more of a powerful summoning. We just know, even if we’re not sure how, that we need to be somewhere, do something, or contact a particular person.” ~ Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, “Active Hope,” p. 116
“As we become friendlier toward bedrock reality, that reality itself appears more and more as a true guide, ever presenting opportunities for initiation. Unadorned reality gives us our best instruction on the path.” ~ David Richio, “The Power of Coincidence,” p. 136
“The Ancestor greets you as you walk up the path that leads to the forest. She is a creature of myth, half-animal, half-human, but carries the wand of wisdom and the drum that summons all who can hear to gather and watch the sun rise. The Ancestor is blessed by the land, and by the divine knowledge that flows from the stars. Her coat is of white winter fur and evergreen leaves.
“The gateway formed by the silver birch trees either side of the path marks the beginning of a new commitment and a point from which you cannot turn back. The trees act as a reminder to follow the path and know you are on a journey with a beginning and an end. …
“The Ancestor is linked to the part of our soul that is most ancient and most closely related to the archetypes that represent nature. She is a guardian of the sacred heart of the land and summons you by beating the drum to the heartbeat of the Earth. It is the part of you that unconsciously heard the drum and stirred the first desire to walk the path that is at work here. It is the overpowering strength and patience of nature, it is the awesome and relentless turning of the cycle that brings spring and warmth, an end to hibernation and the reawakening of abundant life.” ~ Mark Ryan and John Matthews, from “The Ancestor” card of The Wildwood Tarot.
“Fairy-tale motifs are not neurotic symptoms, something one is better off understanding rationally so that one can rid oneself of them. Such motifs are experienced as wondrous because the child feels understood and appreciated deep down in his feelings, hopes, and anxieties, without these all having to be dragged up and investigated in the harsh light of a rationality that is still beyond him.” ~ Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ~Carl Jung | <urn:uuid:cc777baf-cf71-4c51-9152-f778c39d94d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/reading-roulette-love-will/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943895 | 1,040 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Every January 1st brings us a new year – a new beginning. The start of a new year is a time when many people set intentions for the year to come – intentions for work and intentions for life. Most of us are great at setting them but aren’t so great at seeing them through.
If after a couple of days, weeks, or months, you forget about your new year’s intentions and fall back into old patterns, then know that you are not alone. Follow-through is definitely the hard part for most of us.
Set Real-Time Intentions. Create intentions using language as if you are already living into your intention in this very moment. I am… instead of I will…
Set Specific Intentions. What exactly are you creating and intending for yourself? Get as specific as you can. Details are good and important.
Set Intention Reminders. Keep your intentions visible and top of mind. Stick them up on Post-It notes, or tape them over your desk. Move them around when you no longer notice them. Play music, read poems, find or create art, wear jewelry or use your calendar regularly to help remind yourself of them and to keep them alive.
Share Your Intentions. Share your intentions with others. Put your intentions out there into the world. Don’t just keep them to yourself. Share them with your partner and 3-5 friends or family members. You can even set up daily, weekly or monthly check-ins with them for more accountability. And, invite others to join you in the process of creating intentions that stick. Then, you can support each other.
Reach big! Don’t settle or sell yourself short. Really go for it. Go to that edge where you start to feel that nervous/excited feeling. (Butterflies often signal that you are at your edge). Stretch and challenge yourself and you will fly. If you can dream it, you can do it.
Setting intentions for your work-life that stick might be new for you or may even feel challenging at first. Give it a try! A year you love living is waiting for you. Don’t let those intentions get away. This year set work-life intentions that stick.
Illustration by Jordan Awan | <urn:uuid:5978de4c-9c60-47fc-9750-68e41fb888d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hermanmiller.com/lifework/tag/new-years-resolutions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955957 | 470 | 1.6875 | 2 |
After the Sun, the three brightest objects in the night sky are the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter. This morning, all three were grouped fairly close together and were visible before sunrise.
On Friday morning, Venus and Jupiter were at conjunction–less than 1 degree apart. This morning, the Moon joined the grouping in a very nice sight.
I’m a little disappointed with the focus of the photo, but you can see the crescent waning Moon rising over the Simi Hills, with Venus just above, and Jupiter above Venus. | <urn:uuid:a350d0a1-9249-4fd7-a7a2-1ec01e17b1f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oakford.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955424 | 110 | 1.84375 | 2 |
I’m trying to find some information on what’s just happened in the halls of Congress. It affects those of us in Minnesota who love the wild North, but I suspect it may affect everyone in America.
In the last few days, the U.S. House passed a bill to expedite a land exchange in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area. This bill (H.R. 5544) was vague, failed to specify which lands might eventually be involved, waived public input, and seemed to be tangled up, bizarrely, with the FISA Reauthorization Act.
I happened upon this weirdness while looking at the Congressional Record for nine eleven.
The day before, a Florida tea party type on the Rules Committee, Rep. Richard Nugent, had introduced a resolution (it passed), ganging these two unrelated items together. As far as I can tell, his House resolution would both expedite the Minnesota land exchange and provide for extension of the FISA Amendment Act, which is expiring, for five more years, without discussion.
The resolution says “specified amendments” shall be considered as adopted. They aren’t actually specified anywhere as far as I can tell.
This resolution also dispenses with the reading of the bills, waives any points of order against consideration of their content and says: “In lieu of the amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of Rules Committee Print 112-30, modified by the amendment printed in part A of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution.”
Rep. Jared Polis is on record opposing these new rules, which he called a “restrictive process that limits debate and discussion.”
Why am I suspicious?
For starters, the land-exchange bill has a specious, misleading name.
It’s called the Minnesota Education Investment and Employment Act. Oh, yes, who’s against investing in education and jobs? Nobody. That’s not what it’s about at all, however. It doesn’t identify what specific Forest Service parcels could be sold by the federal government and acquired by Minnesota. When I checked with the forest service, they said the lands had not actually been identified as yet, but that the lands could be sold for mining, for example.
Nevertheless, this bill passed the House with flying colors.
It’s no secret that there’s pressure to permit sulfide mining in the neighborhood of Minnesota’s precious Boundary Waters. The track record for this type of mining is simply terrible. Acid mine drainage from coal mining is bad enough, but sulfide mining for heavy metals generates sulfuric acid as a byproduct. The process of extraction pollutes waters, kills aquatic life, leaves huge piles of waste rock and may contaminate the land of 10,000 lakes for centuries.
And then there’s a public transit security and local law enforcement support act in the mix (H.R. 3857), too. It requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to sustain “specialized operational teams used by local law enforcement under the Transit Security Grant Program, and for other purposes.” What’s that about?
I urge interested parties to take a look at the Congressional Record for this week. None of it seems transparent, but the intuitive feeling I got was of stuff being rammed through the House quickly, in secret. | <urn:uuid:91d378bf-2429-4818-86da-2d3037058276> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://my.firedoglake.com/virtualnaut/2012/09/13/whats-going-on-in-congress/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949333 | 710 | 1.59375 | 2 |
There are approximately 300 companies that
offer property-casualty insurance in New York State. The reason there
are many is that no single organization is capable of acquiring the
required expertise in all varieties of insurance.
Most insurance companies acquire enough
expertise to offer a few lines of insurance efficiently, but modern day
risk is exceedingly complex and constantly changing. For example, before
9/11, no one thought that widespread death and damages from terrorism
was a risk that needed addressing in the continental United States. In
the aftermath of the attack, government intervention was required to
provide any sort of insurance for this new peril. No one yet knew how to
charge premiums and efficiently spread the risk for the unknown
financial impact of future terrorist attacks.
To effectively address all of today’s
insurance needs, our economy has encouraged a wide variety of insurance
companies to serve the many-faceted aspects of risk in our society. This
is one of the key reasons why Americans have been able to create the
most successful economy in the world.
Dryden Mutual is one of approximately 300
national and domestic organizations that have acquired some expertise in
transferring risks for families and businesses in New York State. Since
there are roughly 3,500 property-casualty insurance companies in the
United States, this means that less than 1 out of 10 American insurance
companies does business in New York. This fact is a reflection on how
complicated the insurance mechanism really is in America.
Although Dryden Mutual offers products that
directly compete with those offered by large national insurance groups,
we also offer coverage for risks that are ignored, avoided or
misunderstood by many of our competitors. The nearly impossible
complexity of modern risk is why a Dryden Mutual still exists in the 21st
century, to better serve the needs of our entire society.
Dryden Mutual is a relatively small “domestic”
company that only focuses on New York State with property and general
liability offerings. However, we still rank in the top 100 of the 300
insurance organizations writing property-casualty business in the state.
This high market ranking for Dryden Mutual would indicate that our
products are well-received and serve many purposes. We have evolved from
an obscure 1860 county insurance mutual into a significant part of the
overall New York State economy! | <urn:uuid:e7ff8504-d800-424a-8d56-681359373003> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://drydenmutual.com/2009%20Makeover/NYS%20Ins%20Market.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960146 | 503 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The 2012 election season has been a legal and emotional rollercoaster in Ohio. First, there was the court battle over early voting. Then, there was debate over how -- or if -- faulty ballots should be counted.
This week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals enjoined a district court's order requiring the state to count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct or polling location, The Associated Press reports.
Ohio requires provisional ballots to be cast in the correct precinct and with a completed voter affirmation. Some Ohio polling places serve voters from several precincts, but the law does not make an exception wrong-precinct and deficient-affirmation ballots caused by poll-worker error. Last month, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said the state couldn't do that, affirming a district court ruling that Ohio can't simply cast off the nonconforming votes.
In that opinion, the appellate court noted that a district court order from August did not require the counting of wrong-place/wrong-precinct ballots, but the court expressed no view on whether the refusal to count such ballots imposed an unconstitutional burden on voters. On October 17, voting rights advocates filed a renewed motion for a preliminary injunction in the district court that would mandate the counting of wrong place/wrong precinct ballots, reiterating a request made in their original motion for a preliminary injunction that was not included in the August order.
The district court granted the renewed motion on October 27 after a hearing. The state unsuccessfully moved for a stay of the preliminary injunction during the hearing, prompting an emergency appeal to the Sixth Circuit.
The Sixth Circuit stayed the district court's wrong place/wrong precinct injunction, noting that Ohio demonstrated a high likelihood of success on their appeal of the October 27 injunction, as well as irreparable harm to Ohio absent a stay, irreparable harm to others if the stay is granted, and the public interest in granting the stay.
Barring further court action, that means that an Ohio voter must vote at the correct poll for his vote to count.
- SEIU, et al. v. Jon Husted, et al. (Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
- Counties Sue on Voting Rights Act (FindLaw's DC Circuit Blog)
- Northeast Ohio Coalition For Homeless v. Jon Husted (Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
- Is 'Vote Satan' Theft a Sign of Hate Crime? (FindLaw's Legally Weird) | <urn:uuid:6f29326f-0b46-47d9-af32-ae22d9a28553> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.findlaw.com/sixth_circuit/2012/11/sixth-circuit-ohio-voters-must-find-the-correct-polling-place.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954433 | 495 | 1.507813 | 2 |
In March, 2008, the Byron Review was published. Paragraph 4.60 on page 94 reads as follows
….. I do not recommend that the UK pursue a policy of blocking non-illegal material at a network level at present. However, this may need to be reviewed if the other measures recommended in this report fail to have an impact on the number and frequency of children coming across harmful or inappropriate content online.
Note the date. More than four years ago. Byron was saying default on was an option if the industry did not pull their fingers out and come up with something that worked to keep age inappropriate material away from kids. The implication was that they should do so within a reasonable timeframe.
Back in 2004 Professor Sonia Livingstone published the results of a survey she had carried out. On UK parents’ “wish list” 85% wanted to see “tougher laws on online pornography” and
Two thirds want improved filtering software, and more than half want more effective means to limit and monitor their children’s usage of the internet.
In the latest EU Kids’ Online survey, to be published in book form the week after next, we learned that 31% of parents of 9-16 year olds “worry a lot” about their child seeing inappropriate content, and at 30% it’s not so very different for the parents of teens.
About three months ago, in April, yet another survey, this time by YouGov, showed that vast numbers of parents continue not to want their children to have ready access to pornography on the internet.
The statistics have been telling the same story for a very long time. It is a story which aligns 100% with common sense and what almost all of us know in our bones.
How many more times do we need to collect and publish numbers like this before the problem is confronted in a decisive way? I am not against anyone doing more research, tracking changes or gathering any more evidence of what parents want and children need. However, if it turns out to be research that is little more than a delaying or a diversionary tactic frankly it has little to commend it.
Jumping through hoops
Parents also don’t want to have to jump through hoops to keep porn at bay. In 2011 in another EU Kids Online study recommendation 17 put it this way
Filtering technologies and parental control software need to be far more usable and transparent and take into accounts the needs of parents in order to improve uptake.
The same survey found that use of filtering was very low: across the EU only 28% of parents said they had implemented it. In the UK it was higher, 54%, but still a long way off what one would expect given how many parents say they think it is a good idea. The researchers attributed this gap to parents finding the software to be
too complicated or ill-suited to their needs
They want simplicity and what could be simpler than default on? It is what the great majority of mobile phone users in the UK have been getting since 2004 and with no obvious ill effects.
If parents think about things a bit more they are clear they are concerned not just about pornography. They don’t want their children to access other age inappropriate stuff as well and if there is one problem with the way the debate on Bailey, Perry et al has gone it is that it has become fixated on the single issue of porn.
I am not saying for a minute that being concerned only or principally about porn is not legitimate. Of course it is. Anxieties about the early sexualization of children are of enormous concern to us all, whether or not we are parents.
If the net result of the discussions on Active Choice, per Bailey, is that we end up “only” with anti-porn filters being more widely used we will have made some sort of progress. No question. The SIP benchmark studies which have been measuring the effectiveness of a range of filtering products have repeatedly found that, while the software still needs to improve (a) it is getting better and (b) they are already quite good at detecting and blocking porn. This is not a pipe dream though nobody should ever argue any solution will ever be perfect. It’s about narrowing the angles, reducing the scope.
Plus ça change
As Tanya Byron’s comments suggest, debates about how best to deliver what parents want and children need have been going on for some time. I would say since Day 1 of the internet – which for these purposes, generously, let’s put at 1995.
ISPs tell us repeatedly that they offer free filtering software that parents do not take up and use, or that no one is jamming their customer care lines demanding filtering software or complaining that what they have doesn’t work very well.
I can think of many reasons why customers do not jump on the phone to their ISP and anyway the fact that people do not complain about something does not mean there isn’t a problem. But that aside is anyone seriously challenging the integrity or accuracy of the constant stream of surveys that keep coming up with remarkably similar results?
Talk Talk’s recent foray into this space has shown that if you actively promote and advertise filtering tools they will be taken up on a larger scale but anyway that, again, is not entirely the point: parents’ techno fear and lack of confidence provide all the explanation we need and underlines, once again, why whatever solution we come up with must be the easiest it could possibly be. There is no doubt what that is: on by default.
And what do we have to say about children in those families where parental engagement is currently zero and will remain so no matter what whistles and bells are attached to unavoidable screens? Just saying “bad luck” won’t do.
Greased lightning switches to Stevie Slowcoach
The internet industry is famed for the speed at which things can change. Not here though. Can do becomes can’t do. It is astonishing how tardy and conservative a business can become when it suits them, when for example they don’t immediately see how to make money out of something or they fear it will lose them money. Suddenly they lapse into techno babble, become dead keen on civil liberties or espouse views about the importance of encouraging parents to become more involved with their children.
I am sure that for many of the individuals involved when they speak that way they mean it sincerely, and there is definitely some substance in each of those points. But you just know this is not the whole story or even necessarily the most important part of it.
The Prime Minister speaks
On 3rd May, as voters across the country were going to the polls to elect local Councillors, the lead story in the Daily Mail was all about the Prime Minister intervening
to insist a default block on porn, deactivated only when users make an active choice to have it switched off is put back on the table
I hadn’t been aware this idea had ever fallen off the table since Claire Perry put it there but it was good to know that is was again in its rightful place anyway. The Daily Mail wrote a leader comment praising Mr Cameron’s action. They were reading between the lines and assuming, as I imagine many other people did, that the PM favoured this stronger position.
The Mail story had put us under starter’s orders, and now we’re off. Last week the Government finally released their consultation paper on how to move forward.
Let the consultation begin
Because of other inescapable commitments I only finally sat down to read the paper in full the other night. And I groaned.
What should have been a discussion about some fairly simple ideas has been converted into a densely written information paper and a questionnaire which, together, add up to 34 pages spread across two Word documents. This combination, in other circumstances, might be imagined to be the beginnings of a PhD not a conversation with parents.
To be fair the larger of the two documents, the 26 page questionnaire, is not meant to be completed by everybody. Sections 2 – 4 run for 10 pages. They are directed “mainly” at “parents, and parenting and children’s charities.” The next eight pages are intended “mainly for businesses”.
By the way there is no way to avoid the Word documents. There is no web-based alternative you could use. To complete the questionnaire you must download it on to your machine, fill it in then upload it back to the Department of Education’s web site having first negotiated the hazards of Captcha.
User friendly? Calculated to make it as easy as possible for the maximum number of people to respond? No. I am going to show uncharacteristic restraint and say no more about this. Misplaced enthusiasm could be the explanation.
I will also refrain from commenting on the fact that the consultation is only 10 weeks long rather than the more usual 12. Let us disregard too the fact that much of the 10 weeks will be occupied by the months of July and August when many will be off with buckets and spades, when many organizations don’t meet at all.
Very important we all respond and encourage others to do so
We must all do our best to engage with the process. Please regard this blog as a clarion call. You can be absolutely certain that internet industry interests, who employ people full time just to deal with the Government, never mind their hired help in the form of lobbyists, will be encouraging and helping lots of their members and associates to pile in.
But I am coming to it with a heavy heart. We have massively complicated what is, in truth, or should have been an exceptionally straight forward business.
I have moments when I think parents would just like this sorted not debated but let’s accept for the moment that there was or is a case for consulting parents and the wider public on how best to deliver what they have repeatedly told us they want. Couldn’t the key questions nonetheless have been crisply stated on the front page of the Government’s questionnaire, along with a clear statement about why they were being asked?
Question 10 on page 12
Not until we reach question 10 of the parents’ section, on page 12 of the questionnaire, are we presented with the options we have been reading about in the newspapers or been seeing or hearing on the TV and radio. Here is question 10
The following questions seek your views on the ways of helping parents keep children safe.
10 a) A system in which some internet content (for example, pornography) is automatically blocked for you by your internet service provider or by the smartphone or other device you use to access the internet and you can later ask them to remove the filters if you want to access the blocked websites.
10 b) A system where you are automatically asked some questions about what you want your children to be able to access on the computer or other device (including pornography, but also including things like 15-rated films, information about drugs, and whether and when you’d like them to be able to access social networking sites). There would be no answers decided for you in advance (no defaults).
10 c) A system that combines (a) and (b), where you are asked all these wider questions in (b), but where for some obviously harmful content (like pornography), some of the answers are ‘ticked’ for you in advance, so that if you don’t change the setting as you are going through the questions, the content is blocked. You would still be able to change the answer if you wanted to.
I think this means (a) is Perry, (b) is Bailey and (c) is new.
It didn’t need to be this way
We could have put a single question in something like the following terms
Do you think that all internet access providers and manufacturers of any device that can connect to the internet should as closely as possible follow the example of most of Britain’s mobile phone companies and, by default, block access to adult content until the user has proved they are over 18 or, in the case of a legal minor, a parent has given them permission to access such material?
It’s a no-brainer.
Or imagine asking these questions
Are you OK with the fact that your children can gain ready and immediate access to hard core pornography and lots of other age inappropriate material on the internet?
Are you OK with how long it seems to be taking to achieve any substantial and lasting change in this space?
Maybe not but that is the sub-text.
I might also have been tempted to slip in an additional question
Given the glittering success of light touch and self regulation in the field of banking, and our recent experiences with BlackBerry devices and Habbo Hotel do you think we should simply leave industry alone and just ask them, in their own time, to send us a note when they’ve done whatever it is they think is best for us or do you think we have spent too long on this already?
The studied, scrupulous neutrality of the language, fair takes your breath away as we say in Yorkshire.
Bringing the internet nearer to life as we know it on Planet Earth
In Britain we have established a body of rules about what children should and shouldn’t get access to, should and should not be able to buy. We have rules about the need to prove one’s age before certain avenues are allowed to be open to minors. For those of us who have passed the threshold of 18 these rules can be irritating at times, but no more than that. They don’t amount to censorship and the rest of us accept them because we understand their intended purpose: to protect children.
These age-related rules were drawn up for good reasons. We know they don’t always work but that does not mean we abandon them or cease trying to get them to work as effectively as possible. Rules describe standards, norms and expectations. They shape people’s behaviour and attitudes. The absence of rules implies a licence or permission. The lengths we go to to try to enforce the rules and the severity of the penalties for breach show the level of seriousness attached to them. Why should the internet be any different? It doesn’t have to be.
The thing about change is you have to want it to happen before you will find ways to make it so. One of the great problems with the internet is that, because of its history, it has become bedevilled by ideological considerations which, in turn, have become overlaid with questions of economics and personal values. Many people think the internet ought to be this way rather than that. This blinds them to contrary opinions from people whose take on the internet is not cluttered by sentimental memories of how it used to be back in the day.
It is only in a room full of pointy heads that you would hear any sort of argument against doing something so obvious as trying to stop kids from reaching pornhub.com. I don’t want to prevent any adult who wants to go there from being able so to do. The children’s charities only ask that it shouldn’t be as easy for kids to do the same.
I think a great many internet businesses know that the current situation is not tenable in the long run but, right now, cash is tight, the medium term position is uncertain so delay and evasion seem like reasonable, even sensible strategies. If these same businesses also believe the Government lacks the resolve or the wherewithal to force the pace, perhaps because they have bigger fish to fry elsewhere, then Robert is your Mum’s brother. A pound spent tomorrow will cost a lot less than a pound spent today and, who knows, the spotlight might move on to another topic anyway, the Daily Mail could decide to get into saving Antarctic penguins. You might never have to do it at all.
Anything is possible
From a technical point of view it is not impossible for ISPs and device manufacturers to provide their service in a way which broadly reflects what the mobile companies have been doing for the past eight years. I have no idea how expensive it would be or how long it would take to implement it but it is not impossible. TalkTalk are very nearly at the perfect point. It would only need one further step for them to be garlanded in unqualified glory in the eyes of the child protection agencies. And there are probably easier and cheaper ways of doing it e.g. all the controls with individual log ins for each family member could be put on the router not up on the network. Far fewer risks all round.
But cost has never been raised as an objection within my hearing. Part of the problem, yet again, is that this whole process is too intimately tied up with the machinations of Government and politics. We need to shift these sorts of debates about detail away from such a heavily political environment. Parliament must set the policy. We live in a democracy and we elect people to look after the public interest. Absolutely. But after the policy framework has been settled we need a trusted third party that can handle complex issues and reach a reasonable view that the country as a whole will accept as sensible.
So here’s another question we could ask
Do you believe Parliament should give Ofcom or some other impartial, trusted body the power to require ISPs and device manufacturers to keep age inappropriate material away from children?
Pretty sure I know what the answer would be. | <urn:uuid:8dc8501c-2bc3-4514-bcc5-3c8eea21ab63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnc1912.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/an-active-what/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965982 | 3,631 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Ana Delgado is a member of the Third Order of Franciscans, the Seglares, a lay group dedicated to tending to the poor and social justice.
On Wednesday she was filled with joy at news that the leader of her Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, will bear the name of the saint to whom she has dedicated her life.
“I think he will continue the tradition of all popes they have always dedicated themselves to help the poor,” Delgado said. “But I think that in his part, by choosing Francis, that he will dedicate himself more to help the poor.”
The Harrisburg resident, like most Americans, learned of the news that Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, had been selected the new head of the Catholic Church.
The 76-year-old pontiff marks a number of firsts for the Catholic Church: He will be the first Pope Francis, the first non-European pope in the modern era and the first South American pope.
For Delgado, who is Puerto Rican and member of the St. Francis of Assisi parish in Harrisburg, the trifecta was worthy of celebration.
“We are so proud that it’s a Latin American pope,” she said. “It took us by surprise. It’s usually an Italian. We are so proud and happy.”
Delgado’s son, Erick Delgado, said Pope Francis seems to mirror his namesake, a 12-century wealthy Italian who converted in faith to follow God and renounced his wealth. He dedicated his life to working with the poor and championed the welfare of animals and the natural world.
“He’s bringing God alive,” Erick Delgado said. “He left everything. He gave up his wealth and it’s amazing how he did that and lived in poverty and worked with the community.”
On Wednesday as the profiles of Bergoglio hit every media outlet, Catholics embraced news that their new pope - like St. Francis - was a humble man who walks to work and cooks his own meals. A conservative, Bergoglio is known for standing up to the Argentinian government with his opposition to gay marriage and contraception.
“It’s a fresh start for church a fresh face. He seems very humble,” said Dominic Giovanniello, an 18-year-old parishioner at St. Joan of Arc in Hershey. “He is stands up for what he believes. I think he’ll be a great soldier and vicar of Christ.”
Delores Euker of Hummelstown said Pope Francis reminded her of another church leader dear to her.
“It reminded me of Bishop (Kevin) Rhoades,” she said. “He was very humble and he was so into the poor at St. Francis, so into the people. I just really think a great choice has been made.”
The former bishop of the Harrisburg Dioces, Rhoades left in 2010 to head the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Bishop Joseph McFadden, like Bergoglio Jesuit, succeeded Rhoades.
Euker said she was elated that the new pope was not European, and that he would be better able to represent the millions of Latin Americans who are Catholic.
“Most Catholics will tell you that the Holy Spirit picks the man who is pope. If He picks him who could not be happy,” she said.
Bergoglio succeeds Pope Benedict XVI, who in February announced he would retire due to poor health. Catholic experts had for weeks speculated that the new pope could possibly break from tradition and come from Latin America, Asia or Africa.
For Rev. Allan Wolfe, pastor at San Juan Bautista, a Lancaster parish established to serve the Hispanic community, Pope Francis’ nationality and chosen name evoke much meaning.
“To go in the direction where you choose a new name - it’s not a rejection of the past. Obviously Saint Francis is interwoven in the second half of the church’s history,” Wolfe said. “But it does indicate recognizing the need of a new way to proclaim the gospel in a more engaging and expressing authenticity of faith. It’s exciting. It’s an affirmation of who they are and their culture....now we have one of our own who will lead the universal church.”
Beyond his humility and service to the poor, Pope Francis may just usher the kind of change and renewal Catholics have been yearning for years amid a clergy sex abuse scandal that has tarnished the church worldwide.
Pope Francis, Wolfe said, will proclaim the gospel more effectively in an increasingly secular world.
“Saint Francis had a powerful experience,” Wolfe said. “He experienced Christ calling him to rebuild his church and Francis took him literally. He thought Christ was talking about rebuilding the building ...only later did he understand He meant rebuild the people of God, the church of Jesus. I think that is key element here of this pope understanding his role proclaiming the gospel boldly and building up church to be more effective of what Christ meant it to be.” | <urn:uuid:4bd422c9-49df-4c68-9ebd-13476adfa4ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/03/pope_francis_reaction.html | 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 | 0.979405 | 1,101 | 1.601563 | 2 |
In March, Gene Jaleski is seeking the same seat on the Longboat Key Town Commission that he resigned from more than two years ago.
He hears the same thing over and over again.
“Everyone asks me why I’m doing this again,” Jaleski said. “It’s simple. To give the voters a choice and create debate within our island to try and get people to understand the issues.”
He’s also quick to point out that he’s the only candidate out of the six running who has ever won an election. He attained the at-large seat in 2009 from incumbent Randall Clair. Jaleski’s opponent, incumbent Phill Younger, was appointed to the seat a year later when Jaleski resigned.
In May 2010, when he resigned, he told the Longboat Observer, “Town government isn’t for me.”
Asked about that comment, Jaleski responds quickly.
“I knew the commission was breaking the law when it was passing the Longboat Key Club project, and I didn’t want to vote on it,” Jaleski said.
Jaleski has made the Key Club project, which never came to fruition, a staple of his campaign.
“The courts ruled approving that project wasn’t just a little wrong, but very, very wrong,” Jaleski said. “It’s a sad chapter in this town’s history, and I warned them not to do it.”
Jaleski says that during his commission term (March 2009 to May 2010) he pitched a license-plate camera recognition system. A license-plate camera recognition system is slated to come to fruition this year through the police department.
He also cites helping the town add a second code-enforcement officer, a position that was later removed during budget discussions.
Jaleski also said he was pushing for pension reform in 2009, when the town’s unfunded liabilities hovered at $18 million.
If elected in March, Jaleski hopes to accomplish a similar agenda he had during his first time as a commissioner.
He wants the town to consider exploring other beach-project alternatives that include a sand bypass system that traps sand and puts it back on the Key. He also believes the groins permitted on the north end of the Key are too expensive and not appropriate for that location.
Jaleski lists the following as his top priorities:
• Getting the commission to look at how other communities do things, including how they manage their beaches;
• Helping move forward the code and Comprehensive Plan change process that needs community input;
• Putting in public Wi-Fi for the entire Key;
• Turning the vacant gas station parcel on the north end of the island into a Visitor/Historical Society Center;
• Eliminating campaign contributions for future commission races.
Born in Larchmont, N.Y., Jaleski attended Brown University and has a master’s degree in technical design from the University of Washington, in Seattle.
After a job with Boeing and a brief stint as a production manager in the entertainment business, in 1975, Jaleski formed his own company designing point-of-sale systems of gaming equipment.
In 1985, he moved permanently to Longboat Key.
“I really love this community, and everything I do is constructive,” Jaleski said. “I just want the town to look at the questions more carefully and consider other options.”
Former occupation: Former owner and head engineer for a large-scale computer integration company involved with the gaming industry
Family: Companion, Elisabeth Phillipson; two daughters; two grandsons; and two granddaughters
Hometown: Larchmont, N.Y.
Hobbies: Spending time with his grandchildren
Interesting fact: Jaleski was a former folk singer and also held the position of production manager for singer Helen Reddy from 1972 to 1975.
Currently 0 Responses
1 Floridafitfest and 5K Treasure Run
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
8 World Oceans Day Family Festival
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Miller shares Longboat lore
David Miller gave the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key a history lesson Thursday, May 16, when he shared his memories of early island life.
Kiwanians get club recognition
The Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key recently received "Distinguished Club" status from Kiwanis International for its efforts during the 2011-12 year.
Hat's off to Dee Pelton, volunteers
Dee Pelton held a luncheon that will be tough to top. | <urn:uuid:ecd98c33-6e0d-4f47-927d-57d65a2a2d60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yourobserver.com/news/longboat-key/Front-Page/0220201325106/Election-Jaleski-is-running-to-give-voters-options?page=9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96228 | 991 | 1.578125 | 2 |
|About the Nash System|
How Do I Get Started?
Codes & Regulations
Director of Admissions
Director of Enrollments
Director of Human Resources
Director of the School
Client Tracking Component
Curriculum for Students about the Canine
Curriculum for Students about the Equine
Curriculum for Students about the Feline
ON-SITE Practical Skills Curriculum
Curriculum for Students about the Canine
Curriculum for Students about the Equine
Curriculum for Students about the Feline
Practical Skills Instructors Curriculum
Practical Skills Sites Component
Programs for Students about Dogs, Cats & Horses
Student Tracking Component
Programs Available to Schools
Manuals & Handbooks
Fees & Payments
|Nash Announces Grooming School Package Available Utilizing the Nash System|
The creation of the Nash Approved Pet Care School Package for new and existing schools, utilizing the Nash System, is an attempt to standardize education and terminology for all students aspiring to become pet care professionals, to increase professionalism in our industry, and to give all schools taking part in the Consortium a highly developed curriculum already in existence, utilizing the Nash systems and methodology, in the hope of thereby creating students with more sophisticated education, ready to go to work at the highest levels and excel in the competitive world of the salon.
The Nash Academy, established in 1979, has been teaching the art of pet grooming for thirty years. The Nash System of preparing students with theory and knowledge has proven highly successful, and has turned out many renowned groomers and stylists who have won some of the most prestigious awards offered by our industry. Vivian and John Nash, along with Tanya Nash and Joey Villani, in their never-ending desire to revolutionize the education of aspiring pet care professionals, have further developed the theory side of bathing, grooming and styling, by incorporating online education, thereby preparing students for their practical application courses. When a Nash Academy student in the " Diploma Program" begins his or her practical application course, this student already has a wealth of theoretical knowledge to apply to his or her hands-on training. Utilizing the Nash System, the student does not have to start from square one when he or she comes in to the salon to begin to learn to bathe, groom and style man's best friend.
This System has been utilized solely by the Nash Academy until now, and Nash continues to hold all rights to its educational material, copyrights and trademarks, but is now planning to offer its System to new and existing schools that seek to prepare the best bathers, groomers and stylists without having to "re-invent the wheel." When these schools contract with Nash, to utilize the Nash System, the entire System will be available, including the innovative online courses which prepare students with the above-mentioned theory and information for their hands-on training. New and existing schools in the Consortium may elect to utilize any or all portions of the Nash System, with the benefits of standardizing pet grooming education, offering cooperative advertising, and reducing costs for every school in the Consortium. Creating and offering online educational courses is an expensive endeavor, but by having multiple schools utilizing the Nash System's courses, the expense of the delivery of the online education becomes more cost effective.
The online courses have been designed to, first, offer a solid foundation to all students seeking to enter into the pet care professions, whether they aspire to bathing, grooming, styling, boarding or day-care, and then to offer more specialized avenues of education depending upon the career path the student wants to pursue. By seeking to standardize the vocabulary and/or terminology of our industry, the Nash System aims to eliminate student confusion and allow fluent communication throughout our industry in terms of trim names, the methodology of grooming, and terminology. In the past, graduates of grooming schools have had difficulty making the transition into the world of the professional salon, because of confusion over such terminology as "feathering" and "furnishings," or a "kennel trim" and a "sporting trim," for example. The Nash System will eliminate all such confusion.
Over the past 30 years, the Nash Academy has developed and refined its system of education, so that it now includes highly detailed curriculum and syllabi, all educational material, online education, practical application education, accurate and sensible grading and attendance tracking policies and all school policies. The schools participating in the Consortium can have the total package of student education at their fingertips.
1. Online Courses for Student Education
Partner with Nash to train the pet care professionals of tomorrow!
Schools will contract with Nash to utilize its highly successful online courses, which the schools will thereafter include in their own curriculum. The schools in the Consortium will enroll students themselves, in their own school, and the students will then attend the online courses conducted by Nash. The creation of an educational exchange by students from all the Consortium schools, who will be "attending" the online classes together, will enhance discussion and learning in the online courses, creating a diversity of opinion and thought previously unheard of in our industry. In this way, one Nash-trained online instructor will teach each class, eliminating the need for each school to find properly trained, knowledgeable instructors to teach the theory portion of the curriculum. The only responsibility of the various schools in the Consortium will be to have the online instructor approved by their respective state departments of education, if applicable. Students will "attend" classes by going to a designated website titled with the Nash logo, and all schools participating in the Consortium will be listed on the home page as using the Nash System. Each school will collect tuition from its students, and pay to Nash a previously agreed-upon fee per student.
The online canine curriculum itself has been carefully designed and honed to provide encyclopedic knowledge about the dog. Totaling nine courses, it is comprised of two series of training. Beginning with the foundation course for all types of pet care, the “Man’s Best Friend” series, students learn the history of the dog, canine anatomy, the variations in the breeds and the purposes of the breeds, as well as how to properly care for the dog, including the basics of canine nutrition, health and first aid, diseases and vaccinations and canine CPR. The “Man’s Best Friend” series of six online courses is followed by the “Professional Series," which is comprised of three online courses that every aspiring pet care professional will find to be an essential component in the foundation of a bathing, grooming and styling career. Students learn the essentials of safety for the pet and pet care professional, sanitation and organization in the salon and an introduction to industry products that make life in the pet-grooming salon easier and more efficient. Proper bathing, drying, brushing, carding, and handstripping techniques are put into words, as are the mechanics behind the art of clippering, thinning and scissoring. Additionally, students learn the concepts of styling, how to organize breeds into trim style categories for proper profiling and the details of balance and symmetry and fault correction.
Nash has also recently added "Understanding and Taking Care of the Cat," a single course offering similar theoretical fundamentals about feline history, care and grooming, to its online roster, as well as two equine-related courses, "Understanding the Horse" and "Taking Care of the Horse," in which horse psychology and behavior, first aid, reproduction, anatomy, grooming, safety, and equine-related professions are explored in depth. These important additions broaden the Nash online offerings, and make new professional options available to Nash students.
2. Practical Skills Onsite Curriculum
The practical skills curriculum for the diploma program for dogs is comprised of 3 courses. The order of the skills taught in each course allows for a smooth transition from the Bathing Basics Course - 80 Clock Hours, to the Grooming Basics Course comprised of 120 Clock Hours to the Styling Basics Course comprised of 160 Clock Hours. The requirements for each course are incorporated into the Student Tracking Component so there is never a question as to when a specific technical skill, salon procedure or trim style should be taught to a student. Progress reports and report cards list the order of the requirements so all instructors follow the same procedures and meet the required time frames for each student.
The majority of the onsite curriculum is learning and practicing the various technical skills and trim styles. To allow practical skills instructors to track the type of trim styles, all pets bathed, groomed and styled by the students are documented daily in the Client Tracking Component and are part of the student record. The types of trim styles and the types of breeds the student has bathed, groomed and styled are also very important information to the student because it confirms to them that they have achieved various phases and levels throughout their training.
The same information, tracking system and reporting system is also available for the diploma program for cats and horses.
Students also receive a practical skills handbook to guide them through their practical skills courses. Step by step procedures and achievement objectives are listed giving students a clear direction at any given time in the course.
3. Online Courses for Employee Education
The Nash Academy has developed online courses for employee training for the various job positions and/or responsibilities required in a school operation. These online courses include:
- Director of School Operations
- Director of Human Resources
- Director of Enrollments and Enrollment Representatives
- Director of Admissions and Admissions Representatives
- Director of Practical Skills Instructors
Online Employee Discussions Forums
In addition, Nash Academy has developed online discussion forums for all administrators and instructors participating in the Nash Consortium. Each forum will be held with ongoing discussion rooms to encourage camaraderie between the schools and provide a support system to enhance confidence in the daily routines of job performance.
The Nash Academy has also developed manuals for every aspect of the Nash System, again to eliminate confusion and create absolute clarity for all participating in its educational endeavors. These manuals are available online and in print format and include:
- Director of School Operations Manual
- Director of Human Resources Manual - Employee Handbook
- Director of Enrollments and Enrollment Representatives Manual
- Director of Admissions and Admissions Representatives Manual
- Director of Practical Skills Instructors & Intern Manual
- Practical Skills Student Guide
- Online Student Guide
4. Computer Tracking Software
The highly developed Nash System software includes Pet Client Tracking, Prospective Student Tracking, and Student Tracking, as well as the Nash Canine Reference and the Nash Groomers Reference, all integrated and utilizing the same technology and terminology, which the Nash Academy has used for its own record keeping and teaching to great success. Since its inception in 1979, the Nash Academy has developed various methods of tracking clients so that there can be no mystery as to which student worked on a specific dog, what kind of work was done, when it was done, and detailed information using Nash terminology on every dog and every trim, allowing the Nash Academy to provide excellent service to every client, which has become the Nash standard, and allowing the school to keep fastidious records on every student's work. The Nash System Client Tracking Program will be available to all schools, so this type of scrupulous, in-depth information can be kept to enhance the schools' and salons' professionalism and ability to offer the level of service that all aspire to. As well, confusion over variations in terminology will be a thing of the past, creating a unity between what is taught in the schools and offered by the salons, and creating as well a smooth transition for students moving on from schools to employment in salons which utilize the Nash system. Working in conjunction with the Client Tracking Program is the Nash Student Tracking Program, which will also be marketed to all schools utilizing the Nash System, and allows the schools to track each and every pet that each and every student grooms. This Program utilizes the same technology and the same terminology that the Client Tracking Program does, as well as that which is utilized by the Nash Groomer's Reference and Canine Reference. This allows you to know exactly what your students have learned and completed, and again creates a unity of terminology which schools and salons need for professionalism and absolutely clear communication at every level. The Nash System's Canine Reference and Groomers Reference, revolutionary databases of all breeds of dogs, all dog care issues, all dog coat types, all dog distinctive features and breed standards, and all of the trims and grooming possibilities called for by the breed standards, are also integrated with the Student Tracking System and the Client Tracking System, utilizing the same terminology, providing schools and salons with a single vocabulary and methodology designed to do away with the confusion which afflicts our industry and frequently creates unhappy groomers and unhappy clients. With schools, salons, students and groomers speaking the same language, with access to the same base of dog knowledge, the professionalism and clarity of communication in our industry will be substantially enhanced. Similarly, the ability to track prospective students allows the schools to more successfully scout and enroll students, making administration and enrollment simple and confusion in that important avenue of our industry a thing of the past.
To cement the relationship between Nash and the schools seeking to utilize the Nash System, an articulation agreement is necessary to enable course credits to be applied to each school's program, and to allow the Nash online courses to serve as a complement to each school's existing training program. Once that is completed, when students enroll in each school's grooming program, each student will then be enrolled in the Nash online courses, and will receive the theoretical foundation that will enable that student to complete the school's hands-on program, already prepared for what will be presented by the completion of either all nine online courses or some portion of the courses. With completion of each school's hands-on practical courses, the student will then receive the respective school's diploma. The graduates will be prepared, fluent in the vocabulary of our industry, knowledgeable in all aspects of dog care and history, and ready for employment as a professional groomer.
We look forward to your participation and opinions as we further develop this revolutionary concept for an International Consortium of Pet Care Schools. Our projected goal is to have the entire system available for deployment by July 1, 2009. We hope you share our enthusiasm for this exciting new way for pet care schools to standardize education and prepare students for hands-on training. As you probably know, we have put our hearts and souls into making the Nash Academy's educational offerings as professional and exciting for students as we have long found our industry to be. Our goal is to help other schools share in that endeavor, and to help all grooming and styling students to achieve the highest heights of knowledgeable expertise using the Nash System.
Vivian and John Nash | <urn:uuid:8fac5569-cc6f-49c1-8865-4345f2ff2758> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nashapproved.com/Operations/Salons/NashSalons.Nsf/vwWeb/nashapprovedpetcareschools | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942645 | 3,042 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Apple purges Wi-Fi stumblers from App Store
The victims of the moment are apps with Wi-Fi stumbling features, such as Wifi-Where, yFy, and Sekai Camera. These are applications that can not only show the location of every nearby Wi-Fi hotspot based on information from an online directory, but also can dynamically add more listings based on what Wi-Fi access points the iPhone detects in the immediate vicinity. There's just one problem; that feature, dubbed “stumbling,” is accomplished through the use of undocumented, private APIs.
Private APIs are software development frameworks tailored for the iPhone system software and nothing else. Apple may completely change, replace, or remove them in a future iPhone OS update. The moment that happens, any third party iPhone app that depends on the private API in question will likely display strange behavior, become crash-prone, or simply fail to work. That's why the iPhone development terms state that third party apps are forbidden from using private APIs. However, a few exceptions and compromises have been made.
You might have heard that Apple has previously pulled apps from the store that rely upon private APIs. Recently, however, the company has taken steps to avoid those drastic measures by contacting developers to request that they remove features dependent on private APIs in their application's next update. In the case of USB syncing, one developer came to an agreement which allowed longtime users to continue using that feature in all future updates, on the condition that they don't uninstall that app from their iPhone.
Though Apple's response this time has been relatively swift and uncompromising, it doesn't affect Wi-Fi hotspot seeking apps that only search from a directory, like Wi-Fi Finder and Spots. 3jacks Software, developers of Wifi-Where, has stated that it hopes that “Apple will allow [Wi-Fi stumbling] functionality in a future SDK.“
Apple did not respond to a request for comment. | <urn:uuid:93d16515-c58c-4a6e-b19d-dd87396782e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macworld.com/article/1146906/wifi_stumblers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949857 | 405 | 1.578125 | 2 |
In 2000, Bonhoeffer and colleagues12
performed the 1st percutaneous replacement of a failed pulmonary valve in a right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery prosthetic conduit. In the 1st clinical transcatheter aortic valve procedure, performed in 2002, Cribier and co-authors14
used the antegrade approach. This approach was chosen because their device required a 24F sheath (outer diameter, 26F), which would have been difficult to advance through the arterial system. However, the antegrade approach has several disadvantages, including the need for a transseptal procedure with the risk of perforation and cardiac tamponade; the need for an atrial septal defect to be created; the risk of advancing the wire through the mitral subvalvular apparatus; and the risk of rupturing the mitral valve during balloon inflation, especially if the wire is between the mitral chordae tendineae.
Ours is the 2nd report of percutaneous valve implantation in the aortic position. However, it is the 1st case to involve retrograde implantation of such a valve, thereby confirming the feasibility of this approach, which follows standard interventional techniques. By implanting the PHV percutaneously, we obtained a successful short-term therapeutic result in an otherwise hopeless situation. The cardiac arrest that occurred during the initial placement of the device in the aortic valve plane may have been related to outflow obstruction with a decreased blood supply to the coronary arteries in a patient with no cardiac reserve. Before valve implantation, the patient's cardiac output was incompatible with life. After device implantation, the patient recovered impressively. When he was in the intensive care unit, receiving inotropic and vasodilator support, his cardiac output increased dramatically, as did the valve area calculated with the Gorlin equation. The PHV functioned satisfactorily at all times, as confirmed by both transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography. Even when the patient was hypotensive, the valve's opening and closing function was adequate.
The waist seen in the PHV after deployment was due to overexpansion of the borders of the stent (both upper and lower). Because there was no gradient across the valve and because intravascular ultrasonography showed good stent apposition to the aorta, no further dilation was attempted.
The cause of the patient's acute collapse after a period of significant improvement is unclear. We ruled out antegrade migration of the valve with coronary ostial obstruction, because this complication causes sudden death if the device occludes the left main coronary artery, or results in significant electrocardiographic changes if it occludes the right coronary ostium or both arteries. Retrograde migration causes severe mitral insufficiency, which was not seen on echo-Doppler studies. During TEE, the valve was seated in the aortic valve plane, both coronary ostia were visible, and no mitral insufficiency was detected. Across the PHV, 2-m/s jets were accompanied by early peaks, indicating a lack of significant obstruction.
Another possible explanation is sepsis, but the patient's temperature and white blood cell count were normal. Daily blood cultures also yielded negative results. At the time of collapse, the patient's pulmonary pressure increased from 60 to 90 mmHg. This clinical event suggests a pulmonary embolism as the most likely diagnosis. The patient's condition was too unstable for confirmatory testing. Thrombolytic agents were contraindicated because of the recent need for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
The optimal anticoagulation regimen for use after PHV implantation still needs to be defined. Currently, it consists of heparin, followed by oral anticoagulant, antiplatelet therapy, or the two in combination.
In the treatment of valvular disease, the percutaneous route is a new approach that can be expected to benefit many patients in the future. At present, this procedure is limited to terminally ill patients who have severe aortic valve stenosis that is not amenable to surgical valve replacement. With time, further device modifications should allow transcatheter treatment of valvular disease to become a widely used technique. | <urn:uuid:1ed73295-3e28-46f3-a779-3ec8c90f1783> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pubmedcentralcanada.ca/pmcc/articles/PMC1336718/?lang=en-ca | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953693 | 894 | 1.789063 | 2 |
WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. – For many of us with pets, a dog or cat is lovingly treated as a member of our family. For some, an animal is seen as a target for maltreatment or physical abuse.
Abusive behavior toward any animal is not only cruel and disturbing – it is illegal. As district attorney and chief law enforcement officer in Westchester County, I would like to share with you the work my office is doing in cases of animal cruelty.
Animal cruelty is defined in New York law as any act of violence or neglect that results in unjustifiable pain and suffering of an animal. This not only includes denying a companion animal or pet the basic necessities such as food, water and shelter, but leaving a companion animal in a vehicle exposed to extreme weather, hot or cold, without protection. New York’s aggravated cruelty to animals law makes it a felony when a person intentionally kills or causes serious physical injury to a companion animal with no justifiable purpose. Engaging in animal fighting, which includes training, breeding, selling, owning or possessing animals for the purpose of fighting, is also a felony under New York law. And our New York State laws against sexual misconduct include the sexual abuse of an animal.
As district attorney, I pay close attention to cases of animal cruelty, not only because the behavior is inherently cruel and repulsive, but because these cases raise important public safety concerns. Research tells us that a person’s mistreatment of an animal is associated with a likelihood of his or her committing further violence or criminal acts against humans. We also know from research that a child who abuses an animal may have either witnessed or experienced violence at home. For these reasons, I consider it extremely important to identify, thoroughly investigate and appropriately prosecute animal cruelty cases that occur here in our county.
On my staff, I have a specially trained assistant district attorney who is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of these cases. This assistant collaborates with local police departments and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Westchester (SPCA) to maximize the effectiveness and impact of the work in this area. Her expertise also extends to police training rooms, where she teaches officers and veterinary personnel throughout the region in identifying, investigating and collecting evidence, including DNA, in animal cruelty and animal fighting cases. This assistant district attorney also speaks to children in local classrooms about animal cruelty and the cases we prosecute in this area, with the ultimate goal of promoting kinder treatment of animals and each other.
Recent cases that have resulted in convictions and jail sentences show the importance of our work. In Rye, a concerned resident set up a concealed security camera in his apartment and recorded the building superintendent unlawfully entering the apartment and sexually abusing the resident’s dog. The superintendent was arrested, prosecuted and convicted of burglary and sexual misconduct against the dog. The defendant was sentenced to 6 ½ years in state prison.
When a Yorktown man intentionally killed his girlfriend’s dog by yanking the dog’s collar so hard that he snapped the dog’s head off its spine, the Yorktown Police and the SPCA investigated. DNA evidence was recovered and linked the defendant to the crime. This man was convicted of aggravated animal cruelty and sentenced to 13 months in the Westchester County Jail.
In another crime, what began as a drug investigation by Yonkers Police resulted in the discovery of a dog fighting ring run by a Yonkers man. Sixteen dogs, some emaciated and some severely injured, were found in a garage behind his home. In the end, three of these dogs had to be euthanized and 13 were taken to shelters. This defendant was prosecuted and convicted on drug and animal fighting charges, and was sentenced to five to nine years in state prison.
Our work in the area of animal cruelty is an important priority for us. If you see an animal being mistreated or you are aware of a case involving animal cruelty, please help by contacting your local police department.
Click here for more information on the work of the District Attorney’s Office. | <urn:uuid:49811562-ae96-43f7-b416-87a562edd4fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newrochelle.dailyvoice.com/opinion/letter-westchester-da-discusses-animal-cruelty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967935 | 835 | 1.773438 | 2 |
When looking for loans online, you might find yourself wondering exactly how secure your information is and how the loan that you can get online would compare to a loan obtained at a physical establishment such as a bank or finance company. Both of these concerns are very legitimate, and are weighed every day by people just like you who are trying to make decisions about loans online.
As with most newer technological advances, the evolution of online lenders gives many people a general sense of unease; a little bit of research into some of the online lenders that are available tends to alleviate many of these ill feelings, though.
If you are considering applying for loans online, take a few moments to learn more about the security and competitive rates of online lending services… it can put your mind at ease, and save you time and worry later on.
Many people are nervous about the thought of sending personal information over the internet when applying for loans online… the growing concerns over identity theft can make anyone wonder about how safe their financial and identifying information is when submitted through an internet website.
Lenders who offer loans online are well aware of these concerns that there potential customers might have, and go to great lengths to make sure that the personal information that you give when applying for loans online is as safe and secure as possible.
Most online lenders utilize state-of-the-art encryption technology and security features designed to foil the attempts of hackers to break into the site to steal information… not to mention the various tech support and customer support workers on duty throughout the day and night. These individuals work hard to make sure that the process of applying for loans online is as safe and simple as possible.
Online lending rates
Because online lenders have lower overhead than banks and finance companies with a physical presence, these lenders are often able to offer their loan services at competitive if not lower interest rates.
The repayment terms of online lenders are often more favourable to the borrower, allowing several options for making payments and variable rates to people of different credit levels.
Because of the nature of their business, these lenders can often offer loans to those with all types of credit, good and bad, using sufficient home equity or other collateral to secure repayment of the loan. Because of this and the security that modern internet technology provides, online lending presents itself as an easy and convenient alternative to traditional lenders and should definitely be considered further so that you might get the best loan for your money.
You may freely reprint this article provided the following author's biography (including the live URL link) remains intact: About the Author
John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the www.directonlineloans.co.uk website. | <urn:uuid:d2c26ffb-265d-4e2c-8555-34b9dac1664e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dailyfreeinfo.com/shopping/shopping_for_loans_online.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95718 | 549 | 1.65625 | 2 |
But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said to them, What reason you in your hearts?
Treasury of Scripture
1 Chronicles 28:9 And you, Solomon my son, know you the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind...
Psalm 139:2 You know my sitting down and my rising up, you understand my thought afar off.
Proverbs 15:26 The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.
Isaiah 66:18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come...
Ezekiel 38:10 Thus said the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into your mind...
Matthew 9:4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Why think you evil in your hearts?
Matthew 12:25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation...
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword...
Revelation 2:23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searches the reins and hearts...
Luke 24:38 And he said to them, Why are you troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Mark 8:17 And when Jesus knew it, he said to them, Why reason you, because you have no bread? perceive you not yet, neither understand?...
Acts 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
ContextJesus Heals a Paralytic
17And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. 18And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. 19And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went on the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the middle before Jesus. 20And when he saw their faith, he said to him, Man, your sins are forgiven you. 21And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? 22But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said to them, What reason you in your hearts? 23Whether is easier, to say, Your sins be forgiven you; or to say, Rise up and walk? 24But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (he said to the sick of the palsy,) I say to you, Arise, and take up your couch, and go into your house. 25And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that where on he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.
Parallel VersesAmerican Standard Version
But Jesus perceiving their reasonings, answered and said unto them, Why reason ye in your hearts?
And when Jesus knew their thoughts, answering, he said to them: What is it you think in your hearts?
Darby Bible Translation
But Jesus, knowing their reasonings, answering said to them, Why reason ye in your hearts?
King James Bible
But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?
Young's Literal Translation
And Jesus having known their reasonings, answering, said unto them, 'What reason ye in your hearts? | <urn:uuid:1a2cffb3-979a-42b8-a927-8203c5987d2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biblebrowser.com/luke/5-22.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977439 | 872 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Holiday Spending: Best Since Before the Recession
Spending in the 50 days before Christmas increased 5.5 percent -- the best sales since before the recession, reports The New York Times. According to the figures collected by MasterCard, that comes out to about $584.3 billion. Not figured into that sum are the numbers from some retailers who do not report their December earnings until January.
This return of consumers to spending has exceeded even the most rosy of economic forecasts. So, why did it happen?
Experts view the surge as happening for several reasons, some of which are interrelated.
Stock market. Some stock prices are at their highest in two years, restoring confidence in the economy for those who weren't so bad off to begin in. This sense of optimism tends to be contagious.
Luxury Market. The market segments who love their luxury goods have returned to bellying up to the counters at Tiffany et al. This behavior at the high end has encouraged those in the middle to spend again.
Pent Up Demand. Frugality seems to be able to endure just so long in America, at some point it appears that we all collectively remember that we live in the land that coined the phrase "shop 'til you drop". It looks like consumers were looking for a reason to spend and there's no better reason than the holidays.
unemployment rate that we've all been living with during this recession has in many ways been factored into the American consciousness as the new normal.as the new normal. The nearly 10 percent
Americans are starting to view unemployment not only as a condition through which some citizens take a temporary detour, but more as a place where a portion of the population remain indefinitely. In several European countries, residents are accustomed to have a class of chronically unemployed citizens.
Jane Genova, coach, book author, and lecturer on careers, specializes in transitions. Her talk on professional shifts at the New York State Bar Association has been published in VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY. Her latest book is OVER-50: HOW WE KEEP WORKING. She blogs on the subject at http://janegenova.com, http://lawandmore.typepad.com, http://careertransitions.typepad.com and http://over-50.typepad.com.more... | <urn:uuid:43fa3b51-3ef2-40f7-bb91-57bfa9f1fdc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2010/12/28/holiday-spending-best-since-before-the-recession/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965053 | 479 | 1.632813 | 2 |
What if you go to jail for unpaid traffic tickets? Is that necessary?
The New Testament is quite clear about Christians being obedient to the civil authorities, which would include paying for traffic tickets if issued. That being said, pointing out the inutility of a particular law does not equate disregard for civil law in general.
Most of us here are from America. We do not have authorities, we have public servants.
This is a side issue however, from revealing confession.
Negative. We have an authority: the law. The "public servants" merely execute that law. We are a nation of laws, not of men.
The statement was referencing humans, not laws. Paul referenced humans not laws. Those executing the laws in America are servants, not authorities. Those creating laws are servants, not authorities. America throws a crux in authoritarian type of laws.
The servant created laws are executed by servants. We are a nation of people, who own our government. This is clearly defined in numerous documents that incepted our country. It really messes with Romans 13.
How this deals with confession is that one would argue that since we are to submit to the "authorities" and their laws we are to turn ourselves in for repentance.
In America, we are free, and we don't have to submit to our servants, we are to submit to God. If the servants don't know something happened, but a person has true repentance for a crime long ago, what right does a priest have to go turn them in to the cops when the canon forbids it?
The church has authority over the priest and his actions in the church. The priest is bound to the canons that they SWORE to uphold during their ordination. Even the OCA states no matter what the priest should not reveal a confession.
I don't see the logic in revealing a confession of something "has been past" that the person came to the priest in complete repentance about, and the priest turns around and states "turn yourself in or I will". | <urn:uuid:0acbc7e8-06cc-4c22-b614-fe15e60cc57b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php?topic=47627.msg829841 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973227 | 419 | 1.523438 | 2 |
NGOs have taken further steps to force the Presidency to publish a report by retired army generals into state-sanctioned violence in Zimbabwe.
NGOs have taken further steps to force the Presidency to publish a report by retired army generals into state-sanctioned violence in Zimbabwe, the South African History Archive (Saha) said on Friday.
They had submitted an internal appeal to President Jacob Zuma’s office in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, disputing his claim that the document does not exist.
The Saha, the South African Litigation Centre and the Southern African Centre for Survivors of Torture last month invoked the Act to get the report—which was commissioned by former president Thabo Mbeki—into the public domain a year after the generals conducted two fact-finding missions in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki asked the team to assess the extent of the army’s involvement in the political crisis in Zimbabwe.
The NGOs said they were convinced that the six generals produced a hard-hitting report that influenced the power-sharing deal Mbeki brokered between Zimbabwe’s political rivals last September.
But Zuma’s office had insisted the generals never reported back to Mbeki in writing.
Frank Chikane, the director general in the presidency under Mbeki, and Trevor Fowler, who currently holds the post, produced affidavits in which they said there was not only no report, but no supporting documentation on the generals’ mission.
The Saha said it was hard to believe that they were not asked to document their findings, as the mission cost the South African taxpayer nearly R650 000, according to the Foreign Ministry.
“To suggest that this amount of money could be spent and the admitted investigation conducted merely for a once-off oral briefing to be made to the president ... beggars belief.”
“Consequently, the NGOs involved submit that the president ‘must be mistaken’ and that ‘the overwhelming probability is that the documents must exist’.”
Saha spokesperson Fritz Schoon said the appeal was handed to Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane last week. Zuma’s office had 30 days to respond to it.
If he were to reject the request, Schoon said, going to court would be the NGOs last resort to obtain the report.
Human rights groups accused President Robert Mugabe of unleashing a systematic campaign of violence on opposition supporters after his Zanu-PF lost control of Parliament to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in elections in March 2008.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed at least 100 of his supporters were killed.—Sapa | <urn:uuid:5e07ad04-63b1-4ac7-934c-bb2ca55ffadf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-06-19-ngos-reject-zumas-stance-on-zim-report | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971022 | 553 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Oklahoma's House Bill 1804 that goes into effect Thursday has already impacted the Kendall-Whittier neighborhood, which has a high Hispanic population.
Trinna Burrows, executive director of Kendall-Whittier Inc. and chairwoman of the Kendall-Whittier Hispanic Alliance, said 60 percent of the neighborhood was Hispanic before HB 1804.
Kendall-Whittier Elementary School's student population was 55.4 percent Hispanic in October 2006, according to Tulsa Public Schools data. Judy Feary, principal at Kendall-Whittier, 2601 E. Fifth Place, said enrollment is usually a little more than 1,000 students.
At the beginning of the 2007-08 school year, 958 students were enrolled, and by Oct. 1, that number had dropped to 925, Feary said.
"Many children told us they would be leaving over intercession (Oct. 29 through Nov. 9)," she said. "I have lost one teacher since the beginning of school. I stand to lose two more because enrollment has dropped."
HB 1804, an immigration reform bill, includes ending public assistance for illegal immigrants, penalizing employers who knowingly hire and people who harbor illegal immigrants, and authorizing law enforcement officers to run additional immigration checks on people they arrest.
Wednesday, a federal court was to consider another constitutional challenge to the house bill.
Reactions to the bill have impacted not only the neighborhood school but also businesses and churches.
Antonio Perez, who owns Las Americas, 2415 E. Admiral Place, said sales are sliding at his Hispanic grocery store.
"We've lost already about 20 percent of our business, maybe more," Perez said. "To a certain point, if we lose half our business, I don't think we can make it."
Perez said some of his customers are moving to Arkansas, Nevada, California or Mexico.
"They were afraid they would be arrested," he said.
The Rev. David Medina, pastor at St. Francis Xavier Parish, 2434 E. Admiral Blvd., said attendance at the church, which has seven Masses in Spanish on Sunday, has decreased by about 10 percent.
"We receive more calls because they don't want to go out," Medina said. "We go to their houses and pray."
Tim O'Keefe, Tulsa Police Department officer and department liaison with the Kendall-Whittier Task Force, said the department's only procedural change will be that officers will run an additional check when someone is arrested.
"We're not going door to door doing checks," O'Keefe said. "We're business as usual."
Burrows said some people are misinformed about the bill.
"There's a lot of unfounded fears, but I think I would be lying if I told people they have nothing to be afraid about," Burrows said.
Feary said students at the school are talking with each other about the possibility of moving.
"There's a lot of uneasiness. Children are stressed; families are stressed," she said. "There's been a lot more referrals for counseling services this year."
Medina said a lack of trust has grown in the neighborhood.
District 4 City Councilor and Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood Association President Maria Barnes said people in the neighborhood are concerned.
"For us to do what we do, we still have to come together as a community, as a neighborhood," Barnes said. "I just hope it gets better, and we don't have people living in fear."
Perez, who owns four grocery stores in the Tulsa area, said a decline in his business started in June.
"We were planning on opening more (stores), but at this point, everything's on hold," he said.
"(Customers) keep asking me what is going to happen. It's very uncertain with this new law."
Funding is also uncertain at Kendall-Whittier Elementary, Feary said.
"In January, if the population falls, we might lose funding from the district," she said. "Funding for next year is determined by this year's population."
Feary said the school could also lose an assistant principal and clerk by the end of the year if enrollment continues to drop.
Burrows said it's a challenge trying to help families affected by the bill.
"There are no easy answers, I know that, trying to care for families in the middle of the storm," she said.
Medina said HB 1804 is creating a negative attitude toward the U.S. among children who are legal citizens but whose parents aren't.
"I see in the kids who live here a sense of fear in their home country," he said. "This law is damaging the vision and love of the next generation of this country."
Feary said the bill most affects children and families.
"We see it as a human problem, not a political problem," she said. | <urn:uuid:7dd4f9ef-be8e-436d-a508-41f70cb07068> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleid=071031_9_ZM1_spanc05642 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985378 | 1,022 | 1.617188 | 2 |
September 28, 1990
To: Vice Presidents, Deans, Directors, Department
From: President Gail Fullerton
Subject: Accommodation For Disabled Students
It is the purpose of this Presidential Directive to assurethat San José State University continues to comply with all Federal and State legislation and California State University policies regarding the provision of services to students with disabilities.
This Presidential Directive has been developed in response to Section 504 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973; State ofCalifornia ACR 201 (1976); ACR 3 (1985); A8746 (1987); and California State University AAES 89-07 "Policy for the Provision of Services to Students with Disabilities."
Since 1972 the University has had a Disabled Student Services Program that provides counseling and support services for students who have physical, emotional, learning and other verified disabilities. To assist the University in making reasonable accommodations, Disabled Student Services provides diagnostic assessment, reader services, specialized test taking arrangements, transcription services, specialized tutoring services, and both note-takers and sign-language interpreters. In addition, Disabled Student Services provides disability related counseling and advising, and access to computers and other technological assistance adapted to disabilities.
In San José State University's provision of services to students with disabilities the guiding principle is that of “reasonable accommodation”: that is, the University is required to make
adjustments to the known physical and mental limitations of otherwise qualified disabled students, unless it can be demonstrated that a particular adjustment or alteration would impose undue hardship on the operation of the program or course curriculum. The intent is to “level the playing field,” not to guarantee the outcome of the student's educational endeavor.
The University views the provision of reasonable accommodation as a cooperative effort, involving faculty, staff, and students.
- It is the responsibility of students with disabilities to do the following:
- Identify themselves and provide verification of their disability to Disabled Student Services.
- Providetesting and evaluation results dated no more than three years prior to the date on which the student requests accommodation for learning disabilities.
- Consult with Disabled Student Services regarding specific accommodation requests.
- Take, in a timely manner, the recommendations of Disabled Student Services for accommodation to the office or faculty member from whom accommodation or support services are requested.
- Abide by departmental, school, and University policies and academic regulations, as all students are expected to do.
- It is the responsibility of Disabled Student Services to do the following:
- Keep confidential records for each disabled student.
- Provide disability-related counseling and advising.
- Provide access, where feasible, to computers and other technological adaptations to disabilities.
- Identify and recommend reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities, including verified learning disabilities.
- It is the responsibility of academic departments to do the following:
- Faculty members are to make reasonable accommodation for students with disabilities, including verified learning disabilities.
- Faculty members should consult with the Director of Disabled Student Services regarding specific recommendations for accommodation for an individual student, particularly if special test-taking procedures or adaptations for testing are involved.
- Faculty members, in consultation with their Department Chair, are to determine whether the recommended accommodation is reasonable, or if it demonstrably would impose undue hardship on the operation of the program or course curriculum.
- The Department Chair is to keep a confidential record of all accommodations recommended by Disabled Student Services and made for students with disabilities.
Students with disabilities who wish to appeal a denial of requested accommodation should first employ informal means to resolve the conflict, by consulting with the academic department or other office involved and with Disabled Student Services. If an informal resolution is not possible, the student may meet with the University Ombudsman to determine the appropriateness of a formal appeal to the Student Grievance Committee or the Academic Fairness Committee. | <urn:uuid:9e8f9b3e-368a-45ab-9297-41346c660b62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sjsu.edu/president/directives/archive/pd9003/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935623 | 779 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Where is Islam
|Top 10 Largest Muslim Populations|
Click here to visit the Pew Research Center’s “Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population.” Suffice it to say that Islam has a global reach, and you would be mistaken to think that the majority of Muslims are Arabs. There are almost 200 million Muslims in Indonesia alone. That is about the same number as live in all the Arab countries combined, and it makes Indonesia the most populous Islamic nation in the world. According to Timothy George’s book, there are more Muslims in China than there are Southern Baptists in the entire world. Islam in the 21st century has adherents on every continent. Islam is the second largest religion in Europe, and it will soon surpass Judaism for that spot in North America. In England, there are more Muslims than Methodists, and more Muslims than Episcopalians and Presbyterians combined in the US. One UN populations study estimates that by 2025 30% of the world’s population will be Muslim. There are about 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today, but only about 6% of the Christian mission force in the world has Muslims as their focus.
Islam is global and local. In North America there are more than 13,000 mosques. The majority of Muslims in the States are immigrants and their descendants, but Muslim communities are growing through conversion as well as immigration. This is especially true in the African-American community, and I’m not talking about conversion to the Nation of Islam, an organization that has been on the decline since the late 60’s.
Muslims live in my neighborhood. Their kids go to school with my kids. We shop at the same stores. Their presence will continue to increase in this country. This is not a reason to despair! This is an opportunity for Christian witness. So what will we do? Rather than reacting with fear, suspicion, or apathy we should be equipped and ready to share our faith with our new neighbors and friends. The British evangelical Ron George writes,
“God was so concerned that Muslims hear the Gospel that He has brought the mission field to the churches.”
How will we respond? | <urn:uuid:cc609b13-4e6e-4f87-a66a-bdb4ca15d45a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freshlyground.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/where-is-islam/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940581 | 455 | 1.789063 | 2 |
NEW YORK (AP) - New York City's novel effort to hasten home repairs after Superstorm Sandy has finished work on more than 20,000 houses and apartments.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that the NYC Rapid Repairs program is expected to complete all its work next week.
It dispatches contractors at government expense. They install boilers, replace electrical panels and do basic work needed to make homes habitable.
The city and the Federal Emergency Management Agency call it an innovative approach. It got about 54,000 people back into their own homes in a city where temporary housing can be scarce and expensive.
Some residents and advocates said the repairs weren't rapid enough, at least in the early going.
At the program's peak, some 2,300 trades people were working on more than 200 homes a day.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:6d3a037a-5eb8-4128-8361-b8009962b0d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/21766425/nyc-post-sandy-home-repair-program-passes-20k-mark | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950152 | 190 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Living Now Magazine - June 2006 by Margot Maurice
This book is a contemporary rendering of the Buddhist classic, The Dhammapada and the foreword by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. These quintessential sayings of the Buddha offer a rich tapestry of spiritual teachings and reflections on the spiritual path. However, more than just a collection of Buddhist sayings, The Dhammapada's message is timeless and crosses all cultural boundaries.
The introduction is erudite and not only explains this classic book but also explains all about The Dhammapada which is one of the thirty one books which comprise the Tipitaka, the original Pali texts which contain the quintessence of the Buddhist teachings.
It explains that the original Pali version was not spoken by the Buddha in its present form. Three months after the Buddha's passing his most devout disciples assembled at the First Convocation to rehearse and record the poetic utterances of the Buddha. These teachings were subsequently arranged and recorded and later became the treatise, named The Dhammapada.
The profundity of each verse is evident and one can experience calmness simply by reading the verses quietly and then meditating. The author, Karma Yonten Senge aka Lawrence R. Ellyard is a Dharma practitioner of the Karma Kagyu Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He is an avid follower of Buddha Dharma and currently lives in Australia. This is his fourth book.
In the foreword the Dalai Lama says, "At my time of life, I have accumulated enough experience to be completely confident that the teachings of the Buddha are both relevant and useful to humanity. If you put them into practice, it is certain that not only you but others', too will benefit..." A delightful reading experience.
Nova Magazine - April 2006 by Jeremy Ball
"Everyday Buddha is a modern rendition of the Budda's classic, the Dhammapada. Attempting to interpret the 423 short verses in a more meaningful way for the English speaking world. It is a rather bold project to seek to tweak the words of the great Wise One so that they infiltrate our Western minds. This task lawrence Ellyard pulls off extremely well. Being a Buddhaphile with more time than this review permits, I would like to compare verses with more literal translations to seek even subtler meanings and come ever closer to the essential truth. However, on first glances this book is excellent.
Whether you already have a copy of the Dhammapada or not, I recommend you get this. If you are new to Buddhism this is a great place to start. The whole feel of the book is lovely, the layout of the verses is clear and the simple illustrations are very beautiful, catching a feel for the original work of the Buddha, Tibetan Buddhism and their expression in the West. His Holiness the Dalai Lama's foreword is particularly beautiful and is accompanied by a partucularly sweet picture of this great teacher, which is worth the purchase price alone. Lawrence's introduction is clear and simple and sets the context for what follows without getting bogged down in information... I congradulate all involved in this project and have put the book on my recommended list. " - Jeremy Ball, April 2006.
The Art of Healing Magazine - October 2006
"I think this is a very important and special book as it's attempt to translate the infamous Buddhist text The Dhammapada enables this age-old wisdom to be easily accessed by 'ordinary' people. The Dhammapada is one of the thirty-one books which comprise the Tipitaka, the original Pali texts which contain sayings of the Buddha (563-483 BC) and which offer a rich tapestry of spiritual teachings and reflections of the spiritual path. Everyday Buddha provides the reader with a constant source of inspiration, reflection and companionship."
Scoop Magazine - December 2006 Summer Issue
"Local writer Lawrence Ellyard has also released his fourth book. Everyday Buddha includes a foreword by the Dalai Lama, and is a modern translation of the classic Buddhist text The Dhammapada. Full of words of wisdom to shake off the stresses of the toughest of days, it's definitely worth a look."
Published by O-Books Publishing. | <urn:uuid:dd6b406e-a1f6-4c62-a4dc-07ede8817994> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.fr/Everyday-Buddha-Contemporary-Rendering-Dhammapada/dp/1905047304 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949782 | 867 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Facebook just disclosed that the number of people logging into its website on personal computers declined “modestly” in the last three months of 2012, compared to the previous quarter. That’s a huge deal because, despite Facebook’s strong efforts to focus on mobile phone usage last year, it still makes much more money from its users on PCs.
It was already known that Facebook was growing more rapidly on phones. But the new disclosure, in its lengthy annual report, is significant because it wasn’t previously clear that the company’s PC user base was shrinking. Now, it’s clear that Facebook hit “peak PC” in the third quarter of last year.
Here’s what Facebook says in its annual report: “During the fourth quarter of 2012, the number of daily active users (DAUs) using personal computers declined modestly compared to the third quarter of 2012, including declines in key markets such as the United States, while mobile DAUs continued to increase.”
The decline in PC usage among Americans is doubly significant because Facebook makes more money selling advertising targeted at that audience than any other. Last year, it made $13.58 in revenue per user in the US and Canada, compared to $5.32 per average user worldwide.
Facebook only began including advertising in its mobile products last year, and by the fourth quarter, mobile advertising had grown to 23% of the company’s advertising revenue. It also saw a large increase in the number of people accessing Facebook exclusively from mobile phones and at least once a month: 157 million people did so in the fourth quarter of 2012. Another 523 million monthly users accessed Facebook on both phones and PCs.
That leaves 376 million monthly users who only used their PCs to log onto Facebook, down 6.7% from 403 million in the previous quarter. (Facebook doesn’t make that figure explicit, but you can do the math from the data it does release. You can see my math here.) Overall, Facebook grew to 1.056 billion monthly users last quarter.
In one sense, Facebook’s ability to transition into “a mobile company,” as CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a conference call yesterday, is encouraging news. And Facebook can’t really do anything to stop the rapid shift of internet users to their mobile phones. But if that shift happens too rapidly, and Facebook isn’t quickly able to figure out a way to make significant revenue from its mobile products, then expect to see that hit the company’s bottom line in the next few quarters.
Or as Facebook explains in the “risk factors” section of its new annual report:
While we began showing ads in users’ mobile News Feeds in early 2012, we have generated only a small portion of our revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products to date. In addition, we do not currently offer our Payments infrastructure to applications on mobile devices. If users increasingly access Facebook mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers, and if we are unable to continue to grow mobile revenues, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our financial performance and ability to grow revenue would be negatively affected.
More from Quartz | <urn:uuid:9d8c3ef6-0171-431b-bccc-78bb2d5b24c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-maxed-among-pc-users-000214444.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955831 | 667 | 1.695313 | 2 |
September 9, 2010
How to negotiate an extra $31,200 in less than 10 minutes
A client of mine e-mailed me last night to tell me that his negotiation strategy that we worked on last week resulted in an extra $15 per hour, equaling over $31,000 a year. How did he do it, you ask? How do you get more than what an employer initially offers?
Many people don't realize that negotiation starts very early in the hiring process when HR first contacts you to ask what your salary requirements are. Your power in negotiation increases as you move through each stage of the hiring process -- its lowest point is when you first approach the employer and it's at the highest when the employer makes you a formal offer.
Before you learn how to negotiate successfully you must understand the three key ingredients in negotiation: Outcome, Mindset and Strategy.
Outcome: Before you start negotiating, decide on what you want the outcome to be. What are your minimums and what are nice-to-haves? Are you interested in more pay, extra vacation time, a sign-on bonus, a specific job title, responsibilities, benefits, education reimbursement, additional severance pay (should you get laid off) or a combination of the above?
It's helpful to consult with people working in and outside the organization to find out which things can be negotiated with the employer. Awareness is the first step to visualizing a successful outcome.
Mindset: If you believe that you don't deserve more than what the employer has offered, or even worse, you think what they're offering is already too generous, you won't be in the right mindset for successful negotiation. Your self-esteem, confidence and beliefs are challenged when you try to ask for what you want. I suggest you examine your weaknesses, fears and limiting beliefs about your self-worth before you attempt any negotiation.
Strategy: So, once you know what you want and have the confidence to ask for it, the way you approach the negotiation will determine whether or not you'll attain your desired outcome.
When creating employee compensation, employers set a salary range for different job titles based on the maturity of the organization (start-up, high-growth, stable, declining), the marketplace and budgets. Depending on how well you interview for the job, employers will generally make an offer on the low- to mid-end of the salary range, meaning in most cases that salary can be negotiated. Other items such as job title, benefits, additional severance -- known as soft dollars -- are easier to negotiate than hard dollars.
As a hiring manager at companies such as Expedia and Microsoft, I remember having the fear that we would lose our ideal candidate if we didn't make a strong competitive offer. In most cases, we would pull strings to make sure we did whatever possible to get the candidate to accept the offer.
When coaching my client, I asked him to make a couple of phone calls to people in his industry to find out the going hourly rate for someone with his expertise. We realized that the employer's offer was in the low range of the market for his experience level and that we had plenty of room for negotiating a better rate. Here are the steps we took to secure an additional $15 per hour for him:
- He told the employer that he would like a day to think about the offer
- He called the employer the next day and told them that he appreciated the opportunity and was excited to move forward, however there was one item he would like to discuss with them first
- He told them, "based on my research and talks with other employers locally, the range for someone with my experience is $XX-$YY (in this case, $20-$40 per hour higher than the original offer).
- He remained silent after he stated the range (I counseled him that there is always silence through this period, and whoever talks first, loses)
- The employer added $10 per hour to the original rate
- My client said the minimum he would be willing to take to move with this project was $15 per hour extra
- The employer accepted
What's important to learn from this is that while the economy has impacted us, employers are still willing to pay to attract the right talent to the organization.
Karen Burns is the author of The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl, a career guide based on her 59 jobs over 40 years in 22 cities.
Lisa Quast is a certified career coach, mentor, business consultant, former corporate executive and author based in the Seattle area.
Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.
Matt Youngquist is the president of Career Horizons, a career counseling firm.
Natalie Singer is a Seattle writer, editor and small-business owner.
Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide."
Paul Anderson helps professionals in transition find their desired employment.
- career profile (160)
- cool jobs (65)
- education and training (60)
- entry level (70)
- etiquette (104)
- events (71)
- featured (394)
- finding your passion (94)
- health care (72)
- interviewing (87)
- job fairs (59)
- management (86)
- market trends (91)
- networking (270)
- resumes (100)
- salary (83)
- social media (90)
- technology (112)
- unemployment (55)
- work/life balance (89) | <urn:uuid:e401e7d3-40b9-4fb7-99e0-0042e31b8e09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.nwjobs.com/careercenterblog/2010/09/how-to-negotiate-an-extra-3120.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969951 | 1,168 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has retracted a week-old statement on its website in support of US natural gas exports, officials with the trade group confirmed on Friday.
Dow Chemical severed ties with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) after that group endorsed exports and had hinted that it could do the same with the ACC.
The statement accurately reflects executive committee policy dating to February 2012, Scott Openshaw, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, said in a statement.
However, the issue and its implications for some of our members have evolved. We therefore plan to further discuss this issue to assure all members views are fully represented and the implications understood.
Dow said it was pleased the ACC removed its endorsement, according to published media reports.
The move underscores rising tension between the US gas industry, which seeks access to global demand and potentially higher prices, and the petrochemical sector, which has benefitted in recent years from relatively cheap and available natural gas feedstock.
Dow Chemical, of course, is seeking limits on gas exports. Dow CEO Andrew Liveris has said unchecked exports will increase domestic prices and threaten investments in the US manufacturing sector.
Dow has accused trade groups such as NAM of siding with member companies that are in the natural-gas industry, rather than adopt a position of neutrality on an issue that splits its membership.
NAM has maintained that sales of natural gas to foreign buyers would create opportunities for US businesses, a position on which the ACC did not disagree, at least initially.
We respect the marketplace and rely on it to determine who the consumers of natural gas will be, ACC chief executive Cal Dooley said a week ago, prior to the retraction.
ExxonMobil, another NAM member company, is proposing to build a natural-gas export terminal in Texas. It has accused Dow and other companies opposed to limitless exports of being protectionist.
A study conducted last month by the US government concluded that exports would benefit the nations economy. There are about 15 proposed export projects awaiting approval from the Obama administration.
Additional reporting by Dow Jones Newswires | <urn:uuid:b80ab84e-1bd2-4931-9a52-3eb0c3816879> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/Article/3146697/Petrochemicals-Naphtha/US-chemical-group-retracts-stated-support-for-natural-gas-exports.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970146 | 434 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The first aim of the Fibromyalgia Support Network is to provide support networks and education for people diagnosed with the condition of Fibromyalgia
Functions such as our High Tea on International Fibromyalgia Awareness Day meet this particular aim. We are supporting each other by being involved with these important events. We can observe how wonderful we are all looking; confirming for us all that it is possible to live a good life despite the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia. This support is also evident through our monthly meetings and online forums, newsletters, coffee mornings, and Facebook group.
The second aim of the Fibromyalgia Support Network is to educate health professionals in the management of symptoms of Fibromyalgia
We are increasing the knowledge base of many health professionals by being the face of Fibromyalgia at our medical consultations, by asking difficult questions and by requiring answers and referrals. As a health professional myself I can tell you that much of my clinical knowledge and wisdom over the years has come from my patients. Many GPs would not yet be aware that the first medication for Fibromyalgia, Milnacipran (Joncia) was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia in November 2011. When the drug becomes available in mid-2012, the publicity around Fibromyalgia will be enormous as the drug company starts its educational campaign. The education of Health Professionals is ongoing. We can all play a part in our accurate descriptions of symptoms of Fibromyalgia during medical consultations.
The next aim of the Fibromyalgia Support Network is to increase community awareness of the implications of a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia
Increasing community awareness is a quiet ever moving invisible force that again comes from us as we talk to our neighbours, friends, family and work colleagues. Anybody really! We need to talk about what Fibromyalgia is; we need to educate our communities that for many of us with this condition, we may not always be at our best, at our most reliable. We have to overcome the stigma of our supposed hypochondria and educate the uneducated in this matter. This is what increases community awareness. I know it is sometimes easier to just be quiet and adjourn to wherever without an explanation. I encourage you all to start talking!
Another aim of the Fibromyalgia Support Network is to continue with the organisational development of the Fibromyalgia Support Network to ensure the provision of updated research information and associated management strategies for Fibromyalgia
We are developing a voice! The membership of the Fibromyalgia Support Network is now over 1,000. In our efforts to increase awareness of Fibromyalgia and maintain support for members, we as a committee have decided to not have membership fees so we can continue with our information distribution to you all. I know that with the cognitive dysfunction that accompanies Fibromyalgia, many of us may forget to send in the renewal membership anyway! Our Patron Associate Professor Geoffrey Littlejohn, Rheumatologist is a wonderful resource re the latest research within the Fibromyalgia area. We will continue to disseminate this information to members.
Developing awareness of a medical condition in any community is a mammoth task. Eleven of our twelve committee members have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. We figured that with 12 committee members, there should be 6 of us standing at any one time to form a quorum for our committee meetings. My thanks go to all of these amazing committee members. They are just so appreciated!
Finally, we need your assistance, your understanding, your patience, your talent and your support as members of the Fibromyalgia Support Network to continue this awareness campaign. Be patient with us, be one with us, support us where and when you can so we can learn from each other as to how to positively manage and live contentedly with Fibromyalgia. Remember we have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia; we are NOT Fibromyalgia!
C Kaye Brand PhD
Founder Fibromyalgia Support Network Inc. | <urn:uuid:70182c5c-6c69-471f-91af-15345f2edf92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fibromyalgiawesternaustralia.com/aboutus.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946252 | 801 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Often there are many parts of the mental health treatment process that you can’t control.
“Providers can let patients down, medications may fail or cause uncomfortable side effects [and] there is enormous stigma around mental illness,” said Kelli Hyland, M.D., a psychiatrist in outpatient private practice in Salt Lake City, Utah.
But you can control your role. For instance, you can accept your symptoms, educate yourself about your illness, build your treatment team and speak “up when you feel small and scared,” she said.
Advocating for your mental health provides significant benefits. “Taking an active role in the healing process brings empowerment, confidence and can build quality of life independent of cure or physical wellness,” she said.
Below, Hyland shared several ways you can become your own best advocate.
1. Work with reputable experts.
Whether you’re looking for a therapist, an entire treatment team or a mental health facility, picking the right practitioner or place takes time and effort, Dr. Hyland said. (But, as she underscored, it’s your health.)
The key is to ask around, do your research, and “interview the providers like you are hiring an employee.” Look for knowledge and expertise, along with fit and rapport, she said.
You might interview several providers before picking the right one. And you might work with someone for several sessions and realize they’re not a good fit. (If that’s the case, keep your records, she said.)
As Hyland said, “Remember you are paying for a service. You do not have to hire someone that you do not like or doesn’t meet your current needs.”
Hyland often helps friends, family members and anyone who calls her find trusted practitioners she’d see herself — whether it’s a primary care physician, therapist, psychiatrist, substance abuse treatment or other specialist.
If you’re already seeing a therapist, ask them to refer you to several providers, she said. For instance, like Hyland, your therapist might be able to recommend a psychiatrist or treatment center.
If your city has a reputable training program, call their department, she said. Or “better yet, ask a trainee who they like working with, would send a family member to or see themselves.” As Hyland added, “they usually work the closest with providers or know the ‘inside scoop’ and aren’t going to give you a political answer.”
Another option is to call your state’s American Psychological Association or American Psychiatric Association, she said. “The executive assistant of the Utah Psychiatric Association has sent some great referrals my way and knows who all the docs are and keeps notes on who does what well.”
2. Be the best expert on you.
While you might not know much about medication or the mental health field, you do know a whole lot about yourself. “You are the most experienced person about you,” Hyland said. She identified several ways you can use your expertise: “Keep a sleep or mood journal, understand and share your narrative, process your emotions, write your story, ask yourself difficult and scary questions, ask for feedback from people you love and trust, follow your intuition.”
3. Face one issue at a time.
Dealing with a mental illness is challenging. (And some days this might seem like an understatement.) You have to traverse a confusing mental health system, stigma and judgment from others – even clinicians – along with intrusive symptoms, such as negative thoughts, intense anxiety and feelings of worthlessness, Hyland said.
This can seem incredibly overwhelming. That’s why it’s important to remind yourself to focus on one step at a time, she said. “Take breaks from the ‘fight’ and find and focus on even just one little thing that brings you any pleasure or brings you into this one moment.”
4. Lower your expectations.
Lower your expectations when it comes to yourself — such as the time and energy you dedicate to your health and wellness – and your treatment — such as your doctor or treatment plan, she said. Many of Hyland’s clients tend to “overdo it,” she said. She works with them to “focus less on outcome and more on small successes or quality of life issues versus cure.”
5. Seek out reputable resources.
“Avoid anything on the Internet that appears to be entertainment, voyeuristic, extremist or conspiracy-based,” Hyland said. Instead, visit trusted websites such as NAMI, which includes valuable patient education handouts and information on advocacy, she said.
Hyland recommends Susan Cain’s Quiet to her introverted clients, who also struggle with avoidance or anxiety problems.
“These are examples of smart books but also very personal stories, which can help patients feel less alone and ‘crazy,’” she said.
She also suggested Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and Al-Anon. “I often refer patients to Al-Anon, even if they are not in relationship with someone with addiction, but simply if they are struggling with enmeshment or over-caregiving in any context,” she said. AA’s Big Book or Big Blue Book is particularly “great for healthy coping skills and support,” she said.
6. Be kind to yourself.
“Please be kind to yourself about this hand you have been dealt,” Hyland said. She cited this quote from Caroline Kettlewell, which she keeps in her office:
If a heart could fail in its pumping, a lung in its breathing, then why not a brain in its thinking, rendering the world forever askew, like a television with bad reception? And couldn’t a brain fail as arbitrarily as any of these other parts, without regard to how fortunate your life might have been?
In addition, celebrate your accomplishments, and “surround yourself with people who are good at self-care and other-care,” Hyland said. Always speak up, and voice any questions or concerns to your providers. “Consider your healthcare treatment plan as dynamic, in flux, growing; a constant ongoing dialogue, a work in progress,” she said.
Woman and doctor photo available from Shutterstock
This post currently has
You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts.
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Nov 2012
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Tartakovsky, M. (2012). 6 Ways to Advocate for Your Mental Health. Psych Central. Retrieved on May 26, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/11/30/6-ways-to-advocate-for-your-mental-health/ | <urn:uuid:23084649-0d80-43da-b97b-b6cfc383dc85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/11/30/6-ways-to-advocate-for-your-mental-health/ | 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 | 0.952794 | 1,471 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Residents in South and West Delhi would get monthly electricity bills from March. Earlier, the billing cycle was every two months. Electricity in these areas is provided by Reliance Group promoted BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL).
“Providing 12 bills in a year instead of 6 bills will make it easier for consumers in South and West Delhi to better manage their monthly expenses and electricity consumption,” said Gopal Saxena, CEO of BRPL.
Consumers will continue to get all the benefits they are presently enjoying. For instance, they will continue to get 15 days before the due date to pay their electricity bills and those eligible, will also continue to get subsidy and slab benefits as before. | <urn:uuid:7cdb432c-79ff-4599-82fa-8ffd09f613ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/states/south-and-west-delhi-residents-to-get-monthly-electricity-bills/article4393606.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972345 | 144 | 1.625 | 2 |
“As we pull up to the Roman Army Training Camp and Gladiator School we can see our instructors waiting for us. On horseback, dressed in full Roman Army uniform, they make an impressive sight! We follow one of the instructors into the school room where he introduces himself as Alessio.
Alessio tells us about the school, explaining that everything we will be using, seeing and touching is, incredibly, an authentic replica of what the real Roman Army would have used! Alessio hands each of us a tunic and belt to wear along with a selection of armour, wooden swords, slingshots, small shields and other bits of weaponry. We throw on our tunic and belt and impatiently rush towards the door. I’m excited to see what’s in store. The aim of the day is to pass certain trials so that we can become a qualified legionary in the Roman Army. I can see the hills in the valley again and the sandy ground of the training ring where we will be trained to become a legionary.
Imagine… me a proper legionary…
I’m last out of the passageway after my comrades. The sun beats down on us as for the final time we walk out onto the training ground. I rearrange my tunic and secure my belt to ensure it doesn’t slip, nothing can go wrong. Today I graduate; today I become a soldier in the Roman Army.
I have been at the camp for three years now. I have worked and trained hard and have perfected my skills in all the trials. Today, I prove once and for all that I am worthy of joining the most powerful army of our time. I am put into a group with Felix, Julius and Augustus. All good fighters.
Our first trial is the gladius. Our heavy wooden training swords are replaced with real metal ones. I summon in my memory all that I have learnt so far, everything that my trainer has told me. How to hold it, how to defend with it and most importantly, how to inflict a fatal, final blow! It is my turn, I have one shot to hit my target. I concentrate hard and thrust forward. I finish off my move as I have been taught; twisting the blade to ensure it is fatal. I am confident I have done enough.
Next it is the bow. My test is to aim further and to be more precise than my comrades first in a standing position, then kneeling, then the most difficult… whilst moving. For each I must hit the target directly and precisely in the centre. I take my shots; all but one hits the very eye of the target. I am relieved to see that I do better than my peers and my hopes are regained.
After lunch it is the assault course, a test of speed and agility where we must dodge various obstacles and race against each other whilst carrying our weapons. It is a hard and long test and when we finally finish it is with a strong sense of relief.
For the final task we must work together as our instructors test our skills in defence. As a group we must recreate the most tactically advanced move of the Roman army, the testudo formation. We heave our scutums up against our bodies and move slowly onward as our trainers test our defence. It goes well, the barrier holds.
And it is over!
We are sent to sit at the sideline while our marks are counted. They call the successful ones up one by one to receive their contract that makes them a legionary in the Roman Army.
My name is called! My heart leaps as I step forward to claim my prize.
I smile at my companions as we walk off the grounds and through the door into the changing block – we are legionaries.
Everyone’s buzzing as we arrive back inside and start undoing our outfits. My belt has gone really tight and it takes me ages to get if off so I’m the last one out and onto the coach. We wave goodbye to Alessio – still in his uniform – as we head back to Rome. I pull out my certificate saying I have qualified from the Roman Army Training Camp and Gladiator School. Well… maybe some day.” | <urn:uuid:7f185a02-9e6f-47a2-be27-97e9c344fa78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://explore.rayburntours.com/290/education-tours/classics-tours/roman-army-training-camp-and-gladiator-school-student-report/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965399 | 867 | 1.59375 | 2 |
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Elementary school overcrowding and countywide flooding, along with a court ruling in a sales tax dispute, were on the agenda when Cleveland and Bradley County leaders held a joint meeting last week.
"The elementary schools are overcrowded," said Dr. Martin Ringstaff, director of Cleveland City Schools, adding that a new elementary school is needed. "Rezoning is not the answer."
Ringstaff estimated a $13 million to $16 million price tag for a new school, based on student capacity of 500 to 700 students.
In light of a failed county wheel tax intended to fund school projects, Cleveland leaders have asked the county for a "Plan B" for funding.
"We don't have a Plan B, but I do have a suggestion for a 'Plan A' for the city," said Louie Alford, chairman of the Bradley County Commission.
Alford recommended the debt service for a new school be repaid from revenues earmarked for education in a 2009 city sales tax increase.
City school officials have said those funds were to be used exclusively on school maintenance projects.
Cleveland leaders also would like the county to request an Army Corps of Engineers flood study as a complement to their own, which is limited to creek basins within the city.
"I think everybody will agree that flooding problems occur both in the city and the county, and the floodwaters don't know geographical boundaries," Cleveland Mayor Tom Rowland said.
No cost estimates could be given for a county study, said Tom Herbert, a representative of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He said Cleveland's flood study cost the city $525,000. The corps' flood mitigation construction projects have a $10 million cap, with federal funding covering two-thirds of the expenses.
Officials cautiously discussed an Oct. 30 appellate court ruling that upheld sales tax revenue-sharing agreements dating back to 1967. In those agreements, Cleveland and Bradley County allocated revenues according to city and student populations and where the money was generated.
The ruling also addressed a dispute over division of sales tax revenues generated by a pair of sales tax initiatives pursued independently by the city and county in 2009.
"[Cleveland] shall be entitled to receive the proceeds of the 2009 tax increase on sales within the city limits from July 1, 2009, and through June 30, 2010," according to the appellate court, expanding a Chancery Court ruling limiting the city's proceeds to the 2009 fiscal year.
The city's proceeds may amount to nearly $1.5 million, according to county officials. | <urn:uuid:5b504a1d-d4ce-4698-9d3f-d8b32c8dad0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://timesfreepress.com/news/2012/nov/04/bradley-cleveland-leaders-meet-tennessee/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973944 | 527 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The Bangarra Dance Theatre, which has been described as "Australia's most sensual performing arts troupe," strives to fuse modern movements with elements of Australia's native culture.
In Awakenings, which will be performed this fall in Washington, the company examines the symbolism of 40,000 years of Aboriginal life - and how those ancient rituals both collide with and inform modern culture.
The troupe was formed in 1989; it gets its name from the word bangarra, which means "to make fire" in the Wiradjuri language of New South Wales.
Bangarra is possibly the only major dance company in the world to create its works in collaboration with a tribal elder, who bears the title of "cultural consultant." The choreographers' and dancers' painstaking attention to authenticity is apparent in every gesture on stage. When the troupe performed at the Kennedy Center in 2004, The Washington Post described an earlier work, Bu sh, as "a stimulating, rich, and textured portrait of spirituality."
"Awakenings" will be performed at 8 p.m. Oct. 16 and 17 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F St. N.W., Washington. Tickets cost $22-$65. Call 800-444-1324 or go to kennedy-center.org. | <urn:uuid:b0b9719d-40af-4929-a858-8ad78c972f83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2008-09-05/news/0808180023_1_bangarra-dance-theatre-aboriginal-life-performing-arts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939864 | 273 | 1.59375 | 2 |
VATICAN CITY — X-rays of Pope Benedict XVI’s right wrist show it is healing well, the Vatican spokesman said today.
A portable X-ray machine was brought from the hospital in Aosta to the compound in Les Combes where the pope has been vacationing since July 13.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said the pope’s personal physician and his assistant, the two orthopedic surgeons who operated on the pope’s wrist after he broke it in a fall July 17, a radiologist and the orthopedic specialist who will care for the pope after he leaves Les Combes July 29 all were present for the exam this morning.
“The check-up began at 11:40 and lasted about a half hour with optimum results,” Father Lombardi said.
Filed under: CNS | <urn:uuid:d3764d9a-d3a4-4af0-8844-b1ba393e256d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/x-rays-show-popes-wrist-is-healing-well/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=756b7883e4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972025 | 174 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Allow me to refer once again to Jim Manzi's article in City Journal:
What Social Science Does—and Doesn’t—Know
Our scientific ignorance of the human condition remains profound
Manzi complains that the social sciences never come up with anything useful and "nonintuitive" compared to physics and other hard sciences. That's because, according to Manzi, social scientists don't use the right methodology: experimentation. (By the way, Manzi's company, Applied Predictive Technologies, will sell you the right methodology. Just dial 1-877-400-2559.)
And, indeed, physicists get a lot of respect, especially since they built the atomic bomb. (Nothing makes people respect you more than the ability to vaporize them en masse.)
In reality, though, the social sciences have uncovered a huge amount of useful knowledge about humanity. The vast field of cognitive testing, for example, which has, for better or worse, greatly altered American life over the last century, is a triumph of the social sciences.
Or consider hydrogen bomb-designer Stanislaw Ulam's challenge to economist Paul Samuelson: Tell me something you econ fellows have come up with that is both true and non-trivial. Samuelson puzzled over that one for years, then finally came up with Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage. But Spearman's g-Factor theory of 1904 is worth comparing to comparative advantage in nontriviality.
What social scientists can't do is the same thing as physicists can't do: the impossible.
Just as social scientists have failed to figure out how to eliminate many social and racial disparities, physicists have failed to make possible many desirable technologies lovingly imagined in the science fiction novels of my youth.
Where's my teleporter? Where's my faster-than-light starship? Where's my anti-gravity device? Where's my time machine?
C'mon, physicists, there must be something wrong with your methodologies! | <urn:uuid:263b1ce2-88f6-4115-86bf-305408638a27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://isteve.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-defense-of-social-sciences.html?showComment=1281423650724 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93005 | 407 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Legally, adoption is defined as the transfer of the parental rights of a child from one set of parents to another. Once an adoption is finalized, the adoptive parents are legally (and otherwise) the parents in every sense of the word. But leaving the definition at that misses the heart behind adoption, particularly for us as Christians.
Let's step back and look at the big picture. Ephesians 1:4-5 says, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will."
As John Piper so eloquently puts it, "adoption … is greater than the universe … Adoption was part of God's plan. It was his idea, his purpose. It was not an afterthought. He didn't discover one day that against his plan and foreknowledge humans had sinned and orphaned themselves in the world, and then come up with the idea of adopting them into his family. No, Paul says, he predestined adoption. He planned it."1
For some reason, adoption can have a negative stigma associated with it, partly due to the horror stories we've all heard. But what we have to remember is that adoption is designed to bring healing to a child that has been abused, neglected, abandoned or unable to be cared for by birth parents. It's because of this that adoption is even an option.
Families considering adoption first need to agree (particularly mom and dad) that it is something your family should consider further. It's also important to evaluate the reasons for considering adoption as well as any expectations. Adoption has to be focused on the needs of the kids rather than the needs and desires of the adults. Take the time to evaluate your motivation in adoption. If it is to "round out your family" because you want a girl or to fill an unmet need to be a parent, your tendency will be to put your needs before the child's needs, which doesn't help anyone.
Once you decide that adoption is the right decision for your family, the next step is to decide which type of adoption you will pursue and to select an appropriate agency. From there, the agency will walk you through the other steps such as paperwork, a home study, background check and training. | <urn:uuid:05cddd2b-65ae-48d1-a0a5-dc66d5b3c01d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/adoptive_families/adopting_children.aspx?p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981713 | 489 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Reading Eagle: Harold Hoch
Oley Valley High School juniors Nickolas McTish, left, and Callista Miller work on string beans Tuesday at the FFA chapter's gardens at the school.
As Katie Beekman finished placing her string bean seeds, the Oley Valley senior and FFA president took a peek across the raised-bed garden.
"I'm going for production and you're going for perfection," she joked, eyeing junior Callista Miller's perfectly spaced planting.
Regardless of how they made it into the ground, the seeds the Oley Valley FFA chapter planted during the past several months through the Food for All program yielded much more than the students ever expected.
The national FFA organization began the Food for All program this year, handing out grants to 140 FFA chapters nationwide to help fight local hunger.
Conrad Weiser also received a grant through the program.
The Oley Valley chapter used its $2,286 grant to build six raised-bed gardens in a grass plot behind the school and to purchase equipment to maintain them.
The FFA students then planted all types of crops, from potatoes and string beans to hot peppers and lemon balm.
About a dozen students visited the garden twice a week throughout the summer to keep up with the harvest and to prepare and preserve the crops.
"The whole goal of it is to have a continuous supply, so throughout the summer they've been replanting some things," FFA adviser Jeremy Deysher said. "We hope to keep it going until frost."
The students' dedication paid off.
Counting 73 pounds of vegetables and herbs picked Tuesday morning, the FFA has donated about 200 pounds of produce to the Oley Valley Food Pantry this summer.
"I wasn't expecting that kind of product out of it, but it was definitely a lot of fun for me because it's something I enjoy doing," said junior Nickolas McTish, project engineer. "It provided a lot of good experience for me and took another big step for the organization."
McTish and Miller, project coordinator, spearheaded the garden, starting with the overall design and tracking the countless hours of work put into it.
Deysher said the garden fills many roles, acting as an educational component for students and the community while feeding those who need it most.
"It's great for our classes, great for the FFA and a great community service project," he said.
Continuing the garden shouldn't be an issue either, Deysher said. The only cost would be for the plants, which is already worked into the FFA budget as part of the curriculum for other classes.
Since the Oley Valley Food Pantry collects only once a month, the students also had to learn preservation techniques, such as canning and blanching.
Miller hopes to expand the project next year and offer a canning and preservation class to the community next summer.
"It's all just positively impacting our community in a bigger way," she said.
Contact Stephanie Weaver: 610-371-5042 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:c911806e-18ad-42b5-83b9-534e785771a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=408859 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963238 | 644 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Diarrhea and hives at night only
I have had episodes of being woke up at night with severe stomach pains, diarrhea and hives for the last few years every month or so. My primary doctor sent me to a Gastroenterologist and I was given a colonoscopy and endoscopy that came back normal. I haven't been able to go back to that doctor because I was diagnosed with Hashimoto Thyroiditis and he wont treat me further until my thyroid is stable. I've brought these symptoms up to my endocrinologist and she seems very intrigued by it all, but has no answers. I've searched the symptoms here on this board and came across a couple of stories that are identical to mine but they never ended with any conclusion. Can anyone here relate??? I'm so desperate to find what causes it. I'm instantly freaked out when I wake up with the stomach cramps and the need to go to the bathroom. The episodes vary in severity. One episode in particular I passed out and when I woke up I was happy I was still alive. | <urn:uuid:323e059b-ef68-4309-98d1-a1c2da33cfe7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthboards.com/boards/allergies/933771-diarrhea-hives-night-only.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986908 | 219 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) students ride a wave on their inflatable boat.
U.S. Navy Photo
If you watched the 2008 Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon on the NBC broadcast, you saw two Navy SEALs parachuting from a helicopter before they went on to successfully complete the race. The two SEALs were SO1 David Goggins and CDR Keith Davids, Commanding Officer SEAL Team ONE.
Make no mistake, the Navy SEALs (Sea, Air, Land) are a special breed, the best of the best. The training necessary to become a SEAL is 2.5 years long. It's not easy. I'll tell you a bit more about that later in the column.
The Navy SEALs were established in January of 1962 as a result of President Kennedy's desire to develop unconventional warfare capability. The original SEAL teams were formed entirely with personnel from Underwater Demolition Teams.
SEALs are charged with conducting counter-guerilla warfare and top-secret operations in water environments. Though comfort in the water is primary to SEAL training—as the name indicates—they also conduct missions from the air and on land, as well. SEAL training, however, is not Ironman training.
Last summer I received a note from Chris Bohnert at the Active Network asking if I'd be interested in reviewing the training plan for a Navy SEAL that was preparing for the Ironman and give some suggestions. I told him I'd be glad to help, if I could.
That connection is how I met Commander Keith Davids.
Keith and I corresponded a few times between July and October, discussing the challenges of training for an Ironman event while holding down a full-time job that includes travel and physical work beyond the normal swimming, cycling and running. While he confronted some of the same issues that every Ironman competitor faces during the training process, several of his challenges were well beyond what mainstream athletes face.
Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs
students swim 100 meters with
bound hands and feet as part of
their first-phase swimming test.
U.S. Navy Photo
Keith did overcome some significant training challenges, including periods of time where he could do no training, and he successfully completed the event. In perfect made-for-television drama, and completely unplanned, David and Keith ended up crossing the finish line together.
Visiting the SEAL Training Grounds
After the race was over, Keith told me if I was ever in San Diego I should stop by the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado to visit the home of SEAL Team ONE. I took him up on that offer this past February because I wanted to have a look at one of the locations where SEALs are trained.
Some experts consider SEAL training the toughest military training in the world. If not the toughest, then it is definitely ranked within the top handful. Only a small percentage of recruits make it though the infamous Hell Week and move forward to becoming a SEAL.
When I was in San Diego, a new class of recruits was marching around the base. I was there on day 10 and I could see the helmets lining the sidewalk, representing men that had already dropped out. In just a few days, roughly 20 recruits, out of a class of over a hundred, called it quits. And this is a couple of weeks before Hell Week. The hard stuff hasn't even started yet.
Several columns could be devoted to SEAL training, but here I will barely scratch the surface. I'll give you some reference links at the end of the column and I will tell you that Hell Week is 5.5 days of constant motion—physical and mental challenges beyond the imagination. All of the challenges are completed on roughly four hours of sleep during the entire 5.5 days. That is no typo.
The men that survive this training are on the frontline duty ensuring that the USA and its allies are protected from those planning to do harm. | <urn:uuid:8cda7040-ebc6-4f46-b4d8-5a13a73df7ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/11_Tips_for_Triathlon_Success_From_a_Navy_SEAL.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976605 | 819 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is Barbara Kingsolver’s chronicle of a year in which she and her family fed themselves almost exclusively from their own garden and from food grown in the local community. The book was published in 2007, just as the locavore movement was really taking hold.
For me, reading this book was a chance to vicariously live the life of a farmer. I’m a city girl by upbringing and have always admired from afar the lifestyle and work ethic of the farmer. A farmer (the old-fashioned kind, anyway) is intrinsically tied to all the cycles of life, possibly more than any other profession or lifestyle: the weather and the seasons, the growth cycles of plants and animals, soil, water and air, and the interdependence of all these systems. I had a glimpse of the intensity of that lifestyle in the week that Cynthia and I spent at Quillisascut Farm in eastern Washington, but the daily commitment and the early hours are beyond my capabilities!
For me, the “miracle” of this book is in the writing. Kingsolver has long been one of my favorite authors, partly because her writing is intelligent, thoughtful and thought-provoking, but above all it is sensual. She has a background in ecology and evolutionary biology that heavily influences her writing but is tempered with a writerly aesthetic so that even her descriptions of the mating habits of turkeys or the life cycle of a seed are beautiful. My favorite parts of the book were the stories about her 8-year-old daughter starting an egg business, the difficulties of getting turkeys to mate, and Kingsolver’s defense of meat-eating.
Besides Kingsolver’s lovely writing, there are short excerpts throughout the book from Kingsolver’s daughter, Camille, and husband, Stephen Hopp. Camille contributes the point of view of a college student and some tasty recipes, and Stephen delivers short, sharp lessons in biodiversity, ecology and food science.
With this book, I think Kingsolver intends to pull our minds and stomachs back from the brink of the industrial food complex and remind us where our food really comes from. Though I’m somewhat preaching to the choir with Cookus fans, this book is a visceral and pleasurable reminder of why we choose to buy (or grow) and eat whole foods. | <urn:uuid:ea31321a-5377-4a7b-b64e-6ff906c50fde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/cookusinterruptus/2009/08/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968293 | 493 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I have always viewed downloading and file-sharing very lightly in the past, although I am beginning to reconsider this stance. Bear with me for a moment please while I play Devil's Advocate with these illustrations of my previous opinions:
Suppose you bought a CD, and your friend wanted to download it onto their computer? Most people would say this is a fairly reasonable request, but is it stealing for them to do so because they have not bought their own copy? What if they just come over to your house and listen to the CD instead of downloading it? They still haven't bought it, but they get to listen to it whenever they want. Is that stealing? Should you tell your friend that they cannot come to listen to music at your house, because it is stealing if they do not own the CD themselves? What is the real difference between them coming over to your house and listening to the music or borrowing it to import it to their computer and listening to it in their own home? I think you would agree there is little difference.
And if this is not wrong, what if you just transferred the purchased files from your computer to theirs and didn't use the CD at all? Did they steal then simply because it is now digitally transferred instead of physical? What if you sent them the files over the internet instead of by direct transfer? Is it stealing now simply because you weren't present physically when you loaned them the files?
What if it wasn't your friend, but some random stranger that you loaned the CD? Is it stealing now just because you don't know them? What if you invite this random stranger into your home to listen to the music? Now is it stealing? What is the difference between loaning this stranger the CD and allowing them to listen to it in your home?
What if instead of meeting them in person, or allowing them to borrow the CD physically, this random stranger downloaded the files from you on the internet? Is it stealing now because you didn't physically loan them the CD, or physically meet them in person?
As far as I can tell, this ^ is the best possible argument for "file-sharing." Copy-rights have legal sway, but when you think about it, you cannot own an idea, a song, etc - even attempting to force people to pay for it individually in order to use it is sabotaged by radios, libraries, people allowing others to listen to music in their homes... and copyright is simply an attempt by the producers to generate more profit and revenue for themselves.
The same could be said for books, and a library. Are all people who check out books at libraries stealing the book? They won't buy the book because they have already read it for free, so it is, for all intensive purposes, the same as if they had downloaded the file of the book online and read it, and then deleted it from their computer when they were done.
Are candid photographs stealing someone's image? Obviously if they have explicitly forbidden their picture to be taken, one should respect their wishes, but if they have not said this, their image is not considered their "property" is it?
I consider these arguments valid, but because I think that the Buddha would encourage obeying "the law of the land" except in cases where it specifically contradict or forbids the Dharma, and that this amounts to "Right Livelihood," living honestly and lawfully. However, if there were not copyright laws in place, I would not consider there to be any grounds for determining this to be an amoral practice since you cannot have ownership over an idea, a song, etc and in reality, I question one's ability to have ownership over things in general. | <urn:uuid:9baa52d6-aa75-4a0f-ba3d-ada06bbb2cbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=236696 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979777 | 751 | 1.617188 | 2 |
I am part of the group that recently bid on the Nineteenth Century Club building (Jan. 25 article, "Auction gavel seals club building's fate"). Your Jan. 28 editorial "Financial reality dooms mansion" did not mention the economic impact. The alternative bid included renovating and leasing the building so that it could "pay for itself" and cover ongoing operating expenses. In a sense, our proposal included sustainability of Memphis history and local small businesses.
We have a verbal commitment from an established restaurant operator to locate a second restaurant on the first floor of the building. We have other tentative commitments to lease space and book meetings and events. We have commitments from a qualified architect (Clark Dixon Architects) to oversee the project. This firm has experience in preserving old buildings and turning them around so that they are sustainable.
My part of our plan was to see that the building was renovated using 100 percent locally owned, women-owned and minority-owned businesses located in the city of Memphis and Shelby County. These contractors included those licensed and insured to do roofing, plumbing, HVAC, concrete, electrical, asphalt, landscaping, janitorial, interior design and other types of services/products. The renovation plan estimated $2.1 million in repairs.
The loss of this building is not only the loss of preservation of Memphis history, but a loss of $2.1 million or more in value for jobs. And the successful renovation of the property would have showcased many small contractors in Memphis and led to more work for them. We need the work and we need the respect in the community — the belief that we can do the job right and on time.
The economic reality is that not enough people are serious about growing small, locally owned, women-owned, minority-owned, veteran-owned businesses that need the boost. And we are willing to sacrifice Memphis history, to boot. | <urn:uuid:086ebf80-f9a5-48db-a503-24726643cbdb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/jan/29/letter-more-history-lost-sale-mansion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964315 | 386 | 1.53125 | 2 |
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Hanna moved through the Bahamas on Thursday and headed toward the Carolina coast with 65 mph winds, the National Hurricane Center said.
Forecasters predicted a slight strengthening of the storm, warning there was a possibility it may be a Category 1 hurricane when it hits the U.S. mainland.
Water fills the streets of Gonaives, Haiti, on Wednesday after heavy rains from Tropical Storm Hanna.
Hanna may make landfall near the North Carolina-South Carolina state line late Friday night or early Saturday morning, the hurricane center said.
Both states, as well as Georgia, have activated their emergency centers ahead of the storm, and North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency.
"It now appears Hanna will be a Category 1 hurricane when it hits the North Carolina coast early Saturday morning," Easley said in a news release. "Since the exact path is uncertain, everyone who lives in the coastal counties needs to be ready."
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford urged the voluntary evacuation of two northeast counties, Horry and Georgetown, as the storm approached.
"The suggestion is for people to look at this storm and make their own decisions," he said.
"Every one of us needs to continue to watch out in the Atlantic because this could be a dress rehearsal for a thing called Ike," he said, referring to Hurricane Ike, a Category 4 storm spinning in the central Atlantic, hundreds of miles from the U.S. coastline.
"Time will tell," Sanford said.
Hanna was about 540 miles south of Wilmington, North Carolina, at 11 p.m. ET Thursday, according to the hurricane center.
A hurricane watch was in effect from north of Edisto Beach, South Carolina, to Currituck Beach Light, including Pamlico Sound. See Hanna's projected path »
The hurricane center's advisory said wind and rain from Hanna would reach the U.S. coast well before the center of the storm and that dangerous riptides were expected to increase along the coast. Watch what Hanna, Ike and Josephine are doing »
Hanna caused massive flooding in Haiti when it pummeled the Caribbean nation earlier this week, killing 137 people, a government official said Thursday.
Rescue workers are trying to get aid to affected victims of the storm, said Abel Nazaire, the assistant coordinator of Risk and Disaster Management.
Another 79 people were killed in Haiti by Hurricane Gustav last week, said Louis Pinchinat, deputy director of Haiti's Civil Protection Directorate.
On Wednesday, Haitian President Rene Preval appealed for international help in the wake of "catastrophic" flooding, Nazaire said.
As Hanna approached the East Coast, Charleston, South Carolina, prepared for the worst. Workers started boarding up buildings Wednesday, and firefighters filled sandbags and distributed them to residents and business owners. Backup generators were being gassed up and positioned at key locations around the city.
"We will continue until we know we're totally out of the woods," Charleston spokeswoman Barbara Vaughn said.
Cathy Haynes, Charleston County's director of emergency operations, said county schools will be closed Friday. "We'd also like to encourage residents that either live in low-lying areas or mobile homes, or if they just feel vulnerable to the situation at hand, to maybe move to safer locations," she said.
Jennifer Moses, a resident of Charleston's Daniel Island, said she was ready for whatever came.
"I filled up the gas can, I have water, I have peanut butter, and I took the rocking chairs off the front porch," she said.
Charleston sits on a peninsula between two rivers and is extremely prone to flooding. Recent downpours from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay left a foot and a half of water on some streets.
But the city hasn't had a mandatory evacuation since Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Traffic then was so congested that it took up to 19 hours to drive inland to Columbia, usually a two-hour trip.
At Parris Island, South Carolina, hundreds of Marines graduated Thursday morning from basic training -- a day earlier than planned because the base didn't want Hanna to cause problems for families coming to the celebration, Master Sgt. Mark Oliva said.
However, Oliva said the base's emergency center was standing down, as the storm's track seemed to put Parris Island out of harm's way.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Ike, still hundreds of miles from the islands of the Caribbean, was a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday. Its winds had dropped slightly, to 135 mph, but the center said Ike was still "extremely dangerous." iReport.com: Bracing for Hanna and Ike
The hurricane center's five-day forecast map shows Ike arriving near the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas on Sunday. The center's advisory said, "It is too early to determine what land areas might eventually be affected by Ike, but interests in the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands should monitor the progress of this system." See the path Ike might follow »
At 11 p.m. Thursday, Ike was about 475 miles north-northeast of the Leeward Islands, moving westward near 14 mph. Watch a view of Ike from space »
Trailing Ike by about 1,600 miles in the eastern Atlantic was Tropical Storm Josephine. Josephine's winds had dropped to 45 mph, and the system was not forecast to make landfall any time soon.
CNN's Larry Shaughnessy and Alanne Orjoux contributed to this report.
|Most Viewed||Most Emailed| | <urn:uuid:882e8acf-963b-459d-9013-3d743f80da21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/09/04/hurricanes.hanna.ike/index.html?iref=newssearch | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965665 | 1,161 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Scotlandville Magnet High Academy of Engineering Seniors ‘Learn on Location’ with Army Corps of Engineers
- December 20, 2012
As a result of a “Learning on Location” (LOL) grant awarded to Scotlandville Magnet High School Academy of Engineering by Public Education Project (Forum 35), senior engineering students traveled to the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans earlier this month to learn about the engineering process used in completion of the Hurricane Storm Damage and Risk Reduction System in conjunction. This site visit also helped students in preparation for an engineering model build. Students were able to examine the Engineering Design and Development process at work from research and development to implementation.
Students networked with engineers as they developed their own designs for the class. They were able to investigate each phase of the design process used to build the largest pump station in the world. The value added for these seniors is not measured in money, but the long lasting educational experience of how this massive project was built from conception of the idea through brainstorming, research and development and the actual design to building, testing and the final product through implementation.
Student Rodrick Brown commented, “When I learned that we were going on a trip to visit the Army Corps of Engineers, I thought we would see some new technology relating to weaponry and defense. I could not have been more wrong. This experience was absolutely amazing! I was able to make the connection between the engineering design processes that we have been implementing since our ninth-grade year to exactly what the Army Corps of Engineers utilized in the construction of the West Closure Complex to limit the risk of flooding as a result of the Katrina event.”
“This was the best field trip that I have ever experienced,” said student Ray Armant. “I was able to see the application of engineering design and development and how it actually aligns with what we have been learning in our engineering class. The process actually became real for me.”
The school’s Academy of Engineering director, Beatrice Arvie, applied for the grant with the understanding that the grant served Learning on Location sites in the Baton Rouge area. When the grant’s focus landed at the top of the list in the committee, she was excited that academy seniors would actually experience the process that they have been utilizing in each of their five engineering courses. “We are extremely grateful to Public Education Project for funding the transportation to provide the experience for the engineering students,” she said. “I am very pleased to know that all of our students realized the value of the field experience and can now understand the engineering design and development process even better.”
Principal Brister in Washington, D.C., to Accept McKinley Middle School’s Second Blue Ribbon Award
On Tuesday, November 13, 2012, Principal Herman Brister (pictured, left) and the school’s Teacher of the Year, Lynn Williamson (right), were in Washington, D.C., accepting McKinley Middle Academic Magnet School’s National Blue Ribbon Award from U.S. Department of Education’s Director of National Blue Ribbon Schools Program Aba Kumi (center). The event, which recognized some 314 schools from across the United States, was held at the Omni Hotel. Click herefor story.
Subscribe to the EBRPSS eNews to receive our bi-weekly eNewsletter. | <urn:uuid:5317976b-e19d-451b-b078-6fac823edf08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.ebrschools.org/explore.cfm/ebrpssnews/smhsarmycorps | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973267 | 695 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Pizza Hut Customers Can Now Order a Firefighter To Go
September 22, 2010
Residents will be able to get a firefighter with their pizza Oct. 6 and 7.
The Somerset Volunteer Fire Department is teaming up with Pizza Hut in Somerset during Fire Prevention Week to check the smoke alarms of people who order pizza on those days.
Pizza Hut owner Erik Bittner said he was happy to help fire department members reach people’s homes for fire prevention education.
“It’s a great way to do community outreach and help out the local fire department,” he said.
Fire department prevention coordinator Dave Sube said members were thinking of new ways to reach community members.
“This is another way to get people to think about smoke alarms,” he said. “We think it will spark some interest in the community.”
According to Bittner, anyone who orders a pizza between 6 and 8 p.m. on Oct. 6 and 7 will be asked if a firefighter can inspect their smoke alarms.
“For everyone who allows a member of the fire department (to visit their home), they will get a coupon for $5 toward their next order from Pizza Hut,” he said.
Sube said the fire department has a limited supply of smoke detectors for homes without alarms. The firefighter will install the detector if time allows.
“A smoke alarm is a very important thing to have in a house,” Sube said.
Most smoke alarms have a test button. Sube said people should have an alarm on every floor, including the basement, and one for every sleeping unit. Batteries should be replaced twice a year and smoke detectors should be replaced every 10 years.
If the event is successful, Sube said the fire department will consider doing it again.
“The more people we reach the more people will know about it,” he said. “If we visit 20 families that is 20 more families we can protect.”
During Fire Prevention Week the fire department will also be conducting school drills and visiting with civic organizations. An open house is planned for Oct. 16. | <urn:uuid:68510fbf-df9e-447c-b292-ab6ace3b761b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://firelink.monster.com/news/articles/15579-pizza-hut-customers-can-now-order-a-firefighter-to-go | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966816 | 449 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Most of the World Wide Web sites on leadership are not interactive, which limits their value. But if you prefer scanning Web sites to receiving scores of e-mail from mailing lists, there are a few sites that are worth a look. Here are three of the best:
LeaderAid: Internet Resources for Leadership
Background: Developed by Bob Willard, an internal consultant on leadership development for IBM professionals. Contents: There are full-text papers such as "Ideas on Teams and Teamwork," a 38-page compilation of excerpts from 40 books on leading teams. If you missed the 1995 Systems Thinking in Action conference, you can download a 6-page summary. Comment: The paper on teams and teamwork makes this site a required stop for anyone who's seriously interested in the subject.
Center for Management Development
Address: http://www.tregistry.com/ttr/ctr mgtdev.htm Background: The Center for Management Development was founded by TQM specialist Martin Jacobs in 1990 to improve management techniques at small to mid-sized companies. Contents: The site features detailed descriptions of courses offered by the center, such as the seminar "Leadership for the '90s." Comment: The site is crammed with ads. But if you need hands-on help improving your skills, it's worth a look.
Covey Leadership Center
Address: http://www2.covey.com/covey/ Background: Leadership guru Stephen Covey has put his ideas on the Web. Contents: Leadership "profiles" offer computerized, anonymous feedback on an individual's "perceived leadership effectiveness" -- using input from coworkers. Comment: There's more here on leading your life than on leading your business. Then again, maybe that's the point: the line between the two is blurring.
Sidebar: Leadership Elite
Two online conferences for the vanguard of the leadership debate. If leading is best learned by doing, then cyber-pioneers like Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz are doing the real learning online. The Johnson-Lenzes, who coined the term "groupware" in 1978, are creating an intimate electronic community conference called "Meaning and Wholeness in the Virtual Workplace." Running over Lotus Notes from March through July, the conference aims to cut through the tangled gabble of many online discussion groups and produce "deeply generative" conversations. Meaning and Wholeness is a private, limited group event, but it might serve as a model for other online leaders. People who are trying to learn over the Internet are often frustrated by this problem: huge mailing lists such as Learning Org have a few contributors and hundreds of "lurkers" who never post messages. Last October, for example, just 9% of the 1,632 Learning Org subscribers contributed messages. Such feeble participation limits the learning of all subscribers. Think about it: a message sent to 2,000 people whom you don't know, most of whom you've never even heard from, will be far less open than one sent to 20 virtual friends. Enter the Johnson-Lenzes. They are limiting the Meaning and Wholeness conference to 50 people. Each participant must spend at least three hours a week contributing to the discussions. Many of these folks are planning to design their own online communities. To keep things edgy, the moderators also invited "technical wizards, creative artists, and storytellers." The conference includes electronic discussions and a hypertext archive of concepts, tools, and resources. People are encouraged to practice what they learn in their workplace and share the results with the community. Since it's a closed group, with no access available to outsiders, the usual fears about confidentiality are unwarranted. An acolyte of the Johnson-Lenzes has started an even smaller network. Sheryl Erickson, formerly a consultant with the Framingham, Massachusetts-based Innovation Associates, has created an electronic community of 25 people called Turning Point. Erickson started the conference after realizing that people who were attempting to put the lessons of Peter Senge's "Fifth Discipline" ( Currency, 1990 ) into practice had a need to share their experiences with others who were doing the same. Turning Point comprises training and development people who are trying to help their companies become learning organizations. The conversation has five "threads" that are borrowed from the meeting councils of indigenous peoples: "stringing the beads" ( spontaneous thoughts ), "inquiry/dialogue," "storytelling," "process" ( suggestions for the stewards ), and "pragmatics" ( problems at work ). Participants must speak at least once a week, if only to identify themselves with a quick "I am here" or "Ho" ( the tribal equivalent of "You have been heard" ). Although she might invite others to participate, Erickson wants to keep the conversation "authentic, familiar, and intimate." Her ground rules: enter the circle "with a spirit of inquiry," listen deeply "with respect and honor," and speak from your "whole being." Our only reply to that is: Ho! | <urn:uuid:bb8d64e1-fb9b-4750-9613-d1469381b806> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fastcompany.com/print/26485 | 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 | 0.961697 | 1,042 | 1.820313 | 2 |
- Minnesota Cities & The League
- Governing & Managing
- Risk Management
- Legislative Action Center
- Training & Conferences
The governor's tax recommendations were recently introduced in the House and Senate. The sales tax changes and exemptions included in the proposed bill language could impact cities.
(Published Feb 19, 2013)
On Monday, the governor’s tax recommendations were introduced in the House and the Senate. The bills, SF 552 and HF 677 were introduced by Senate Tax Committee chair Rod Skoe (DFL-Clearbrook) and House Tax Chair Ann Lenczewski (DFL-Bloomington), respectively.
The legislation includes a new fourth tier income tax bracket, changes in the corporate franchise tax, a sales tax rate reduction and base expansion to services, higher-value clothing, digital goods and Internet commerce, a new LGA formula and a host of miscellaneous tax changes including an increase in cigarette and tobacco taxes. This article will focus on the sales tax provisions in the bill.
Proposed Sales Tax System Changes
Article three of the governor’s tax proposal includes an expansion of the state sales tax base to include a wide array of services, digital goods and Internet commerce. The bill also reduces the overall state sales tax rate from the current 6.875 percent to 5.5 percent. The digital goods changes are intended to treat all forms of electronic content—music, magazines, books and applications—similarly for tax purposes. Currently, applications and magazines are subject to the sales tax but music and books are not. In addition, the bill includes the “affiliate nexus” provisions that have been discussed for several years that would require Internet retailers that do not have a physical presence in Minnesota to collect the Minnesota state and local taxes if they have an affiliate business that has a presence in Minnesota.
Much of the media attention on the governor’s tax plan has focused on the expansion of the sales tax to services. The bill broadly adds nearly all services to the definition of retail sale and includes not only service purchases by individuals but also business-to-business service transactions.
Impact on Cities
Cities would be impacted by the sales tax changes in the bill. For example, the tax liability on purchases of traditional taxable goods such as computers would decrease due to the proposed sales tax rate reduction to 5.5 percent. However, the bill would also subject a wide array of professional services, such as legal, accounting, engineering, computer services, management consulting services, executive search and employment services, advertising and related services, many of which are widely consumed by cities through contracts, to the 5.5 percent sales tax.
Exemptions to Proposed Sales Tax
Although the bill broadly defines services as taxable, the bill also adds a lengthy section of service exemptions to the sales tax. The exemptions, which are enumerated in Article 3 Section 32 of the bill, are detailed and should be carefully reviewed.
The exemptions are categorized within the bill into broad areas related to:
Exemption Impacts on Cities
One example of an exemption that will impact cities is the exemption of labor services for “construction or improvement of real property include[ing] construction work on buildings and engineering projects such as highways, bridges, and utility systems.”
The bill also exempts a category of public services that are provided by government for a fee including such services as “issuing, renewing, and reinstating licenses and permits; inspection and certification of property, goods, and services, operations, and standards; and various other services provided by local, regional, state, and federal government agencies or officials; except services which are specifically enumerated in this chapter as being taxable services, even though provided by a government.”
Several cities have raised concerns about whether government-to-government service arrangements would become taxable under the governor’s plan. Although the League has been verbally told that government-to-government service arrangements would not be taxed, the bill is not entirely clear on this exemption.
More Information To Come
We expect the House and Senate Tax Committees will take up these bills later this week or early next week. The hearings will provide an opportunity to explore the intent and effects of the governor’s plan. League IGR staff will keep you updated through Third Reading and the Cities Bulletin as more information is known.
Questions? Contact Gary N. Carlson at (651) 281-1255 or [email protected]
* By posting you are agreeing to the LMC Comment Policy.
The LMC Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) staff is focused on legislative advocacy for cities. Feel free to contact any IGR member with questions, concerns, or suggestions about legislative issues and League policies.
The League is here to advocate on behalf of cities, but it is important for cities to also tell their stories. | <urn:uuid:6d49fa26-6aba-4cd3-a7bc-8e980c6e3d01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lmnc.org/page/1/salestaxgovbills.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963063 | 998 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Theresa Pierno became acting president of the National Parks Conservation Association in May 2013. Since 2009, she has served as the organization’s executive vice president, providing strategic direction for the organization’s national programs and policy initiatives, as well as communications, membership outreach, and government affairs activities.
Previously, as senior vice president for regional operations, she strengthened NPCA’s regional and field capacity to effectively engage and partner with park advocates, local governments, and organizations nationwide. She also led the organization’s Restoring Healthy Parks campaign--inspiring congressional action to improve national park air quality and wildlife protections, and to address the effects of global warming on national parks.
Theresa joined NPCA in October 2004 having served as a Vice President for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and Maryland Executive Director since 1999. In her role at CBF she managed a staff of 60 with a budget of $5 million and was responsible for implementing policies and advocating for Bay protection and restoration strategies throughout the 64,000 square-mile watershed. Some of her accomplishments include negotiating a permit that significantly reduced the pollution from a large industrial polluter; playing a key role in passing legislation that prohibits dumping of dredged material in the Bay’s open waters; and representing CBF in the media and on several Governor-appointed task forces.
Prior to her start at CBF, Theresa was part of the executive staff at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. As director of Education, Bay Policy, Growth and Resource Conservation, she was responsible for the implementation of the Smart Growth initiatives for the Department. Theresa played a critical role in the passage of Maryland’s Smart Growth and Rural Legacy Initiative and led the Department’s outreach effort for the Rural Legacy Program.
Before joining the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Theresa served as an elected official on the Harford County Council. While on the Council, she was the lead sponsor for several land-use and environmental legislative initiatives. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from the University of Baltimore and is a fellow with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University having graduated from the Senior Executive State and Local Government Program. | <urn:uuid:0491ef42-1805-42af-be73-a84e8f3f8ef4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npca.org/about-us/board-and-staff/bio_pierno.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961447 | 442 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Baby Safety Month
9.15.08: Our best babyproofing tips
We're on our third set of cabinet latches. Charlie "Houdini" Rousmaniere has managed to break the last two sets. And while I personally struggle to open a cabinet locked down by the third set of latches, Charlie easily slips them off, gets what he needs out of the cabinet, then very thoughtfully puts the latch back on the cabinet.
It looks like I'll be shopping for our fourth set of cabinet latches this weekend.
If you're expecting right now, it's a good time to think about getting some latches of your own. This September marks the 25th anniversary of Baby Safety Month, sponsored annually by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA). In honor of Baby Safety Month, here are a few of our best childproofing tips:
For starters, take our baby safety quiz to test your knowledge of common household hazards. Then, scroll over these household areas to see what's most important to childproof. And check out these simple strategies for keeping your baby safe at home.
Childproofing doesn't begin and end at home. Chances are your little one, like some 90 percent of young children, has been—or will be—riding unsafely in your vehicle at some point. Here's what you need to know about keeping your baby safe in the car, from buying the right car seat to installing it properly.
You'll also want to make sure the baby gear you have is safe. Sign up for our free newsletter to get monthly updates on the latest baby gear recalls e-mailed direclty to your inbox.
Finally, see how your city ranks in terms of overall safety, including crime rates, pedestrian fatality rates, and availability of car seat check stations.
No matter how vigilant you are, accidents are bound to happen. Be sure to brush up on your knowledge of infant first aid before you need to use it.
Dana Rousmaniere is FitPregnancy.com's Manging Editor. There have been times when she's fantasized about bubble wrapping her babies. | <urn:uuid:0ed2dbbe-0fc1-4c6a-8f7e-e82b8fafda37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fitpregnancy.com/pregnancy/news/baby-safety-month | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946832 | 442 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Airshow China 2012: CM-400AKG Becomes Pakistan's 'carrier killer'
Airshow China 2012:
Robert Hewson, Zhuhai Section:
Key Points, A Chinese-developed new very-high-speed missile has been fielded by the PAF.
The weapon has been Described as the PAF's 'carrier killer'
Pakistan has fielded a new very-high-speed long-range air-launched missile That senior officers in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Have Described as "an aircraft carrier killer".
The CM-400AKG Mach 4 is a plus-capable air-to-surface weapon Developed in China and now in service with JF-17 aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force. (Robert Hewson) The weapon, Designated CM-400AKG, was designed and Developed in China by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) and was Revealed at Airshow China 2012, held in Zhuhai from November 13 to 19.
The CM-400AKG is now part of the operational weapon set of the PAF's JF-17 Thunder multirole fighter. "This is a mature weapon has been fully tested That. It is not conceptual. It is in service," Air Commodore Khalid Mahmood, PAF JF-17 Deputy Project Director stated. "The CM-400AKG is a very high-speed missile that is very Difficult to intercept. It hits the target at Mach 4 or above and its kinetic impact alone is enough to destroy any high-value target, like an aircraft carrier."
The CM-400AKG Appeared first, briefly, in public at last year's Dubai Airshow, When a placard for the weapon was Placed alongside to PAF JF-17 - and then removed. The weapon itself was not shown. At the time it was Acknowledged PAF personnel to new Chinese-built air-to-surface stand-off missile. However, the initial assumption That It was a derivative of the C-802 anti-ship missile has PROVED to be very wide of the mark.
The CM-400 is 400AKG kg solid-rocket-powered weapon That Can be Fitted with Either a penetrator or blast / fragmentation warhead. It is a fire-and-forget precision-guided weapon That Can be Fitted with several options seeker, Which are Understood to include an active radar seeker and an imaging infrared seeker with target-recognition (TR) capabilities. PAF sources say the missile can be pre-programmed with digital imagery highly needed for attacks against fixed sites in TR mode, but it can be retargeted in flight Also by using the radar seeker option.
The range of the CM-400AKG is Understood to be in the 180-250 km class. It is designed for use against fixed or what Were Described as "slow moving" targets. Data Indicates That CASIC launch after the CM-400AKG climbs to high altitude and Terminates with a high-speed dive on the target. The PAF describe the missile's impact velocity as "hypersonic".
Both CASIC and the PAF note the CM-400AKG That Has Been Developed As A JF-17 weapon. The PAF currently has two squadrons of approximately 36 JF-17s operational. A ten or eleven aircraft Further Have Been Delivered and a third squadron will be Established early next year. | <urn:uuid:de3f9eb1-3872-4336-a025-26e3a7a0167e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewtopic.php?p=1365546 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944522 | 722 | 1.59375 | 2 |
American Cancer Society of Pennsylvania Endorses Cancer Centers' Plan for Allocating Tobacco Settlement Money
PHILADELPHIA (January 29, 1999) -- The American Cancer Society (ACS) Pennsylvania Division, Inc. is endorsing a proposal put forth by this state's National Cancer Institute (NCI) recognized cancer centers, which request that 25 percent of Pennsylvania's tobacco settlement money be directed to cancer research. The Cancer Centers included in the proposal are Fox Chase Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University, The Wistar Institute, Temple University Cancer Center, Penn State Geisinger Cancer Center, and University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.
The settlement, approved by Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge John W. Herron, would send $11.3 billion dollars to Pennsylvania over the next 25 years. The Cancer Centers' proposal was introduced to Governor Tom Ridge in December.
"This is an opportunity unlike any other to make a tremendous difference in our health and well-being, as well as the health of our children and our children's children," said Garry Pincock, CEO of the ACS Pennsylvania Division, Inc. "The American Cancer Society sees this proposal as a huge step forward in the fight against this country's most devastating disease. If the state comes through with the requested funds for the Cancer Centers, we could see a radical change in the way cancer is treated within our lifetime."
"The American Cancer Society of Pennsylvania's choice to endorse the Cancer Centers' plan places a high distinction on this proposal," said Robert C. Young, president of Fox Chase Cancer Center. "They, too, see how the work of researchers at these institutions has already enhanced our understanding of the causes of cancer. With more research funding, that work can result in the development of new and more effective cancer treatments and prevention methods. This is a proposal that can reap huge human rewards."
"Cancer incidence and deaths from this disease will take a continuing and significant toll on the citizens of Pennsylvania," said John Glick, M.D., director of the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center. "The Pennsylvania Department of Health has estimated that, over the next 10 years, more than 700,000 Pennsylvanians will be diagnosed with cancer. More than 300,000 will die unless there are immediate and notable improvements in prevention research and cancer treatment."
"Other states have also recognized the importance of using funds from a tobacco settlement to build on existing cancer research capabilities," said Walter J. Curran, Jr. M.D., clinical director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University.
Settlements in both Texas and Florida, which provided significant support for their cancer centers, proved to minimize administrative costs and maximize their investment in cancer research. Curran added, "These states also recognized the economic importance of strengthening their biomedical research programs. A similar investment in Pennsylvania will help ease the burden of human cancer, both personally and economically, and will help build the Commonwealth's strength in biomedical research."
It is up to the General Assembly to appropriate the money from the tobacco settlement. The first payment to Pennsylvania in the amount of $138 million has already been made to an escrow account. The money will be turned over to the Commonwealth when 80 percent of the states, representing 80 percent of the total allocation, have reached court approval of their settlements and the appeal periods have expired. The state's second payment would be $368 million. After that, Pennsylvania is slated to receive between $398 million and $482 million each year for the next 25 years for a total of $11.3 billion.
The Wistar Institute, established in 1892, was the first independent medical research facility in the country. For more than 100 years, Wistar scientists have been improving world health through their discovery of molecules that help the immune system fight disease, including cancer, the identification of genes responsible for cancer growth, and the development of vaccines. Wistar is a National Cancer Institute (NCI) cancer center.
The Kimmel Cancer Center (KCC) at Thomas Jefferson University is also an NCI cancer center. Designated a Clinical Cancer Center, KCC has approximately 115 members involved in basic and clinical research initiatives. KCC investigators receive more than $55 million in support, including more than 140 grants funded by the National Institutes of Health.
The Penn State Geisinger Cancer Center offers cancer services across forty counties in central Pennsylvania served by the Penn State Geisinger Health System. The Center's mission includes the advancement of oncology knowledge through cancer education, community outreach and clinical care. In addition, the Center has a large basic and clinical research program funded by NCI and other organizations. A cancer center without walls, this organization treats more than 4,000 new cancer cases across four regions in three specialized facilities.
The University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center (UPCC) is one of a select group of cancer centers in the country awarded the prestigious designation of comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. This status reflects Penn's outstanding cancer research, clinical services, education and information services and community outreach. UPCC is comprised of 330 physicians and scientists, all of whom are dedicated to increasing our knowledge about preventing and curing cancer.
Fox Chase Cancer Center is also a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. Fox Chase activities include basic and clinical research; prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer; and community outreach programs. Temple University Cancer Center has an affiliation with Fox Chase.
The University of Pittsburg Cancer Institute (UPCI) is also an NCI designated comprehensive cancer center established in 1985. Since then, the Institute has been committed to developing new and effective approaches to cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care. UPCI is an international leader in translational research, the conversion of laboratory findings into clinical applications. Professionals at UPCI use a wide range of modern technologies and facilities to help each patient receive individualized, comprehensive care. Ongoing studies at UPCI lay the foundation for future diagnostic methods and treatments that often become employed worldwide.
The American Cancer Society is a nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer, saving lives and diminishing suffering from cancer through research, advocacy, education and service.
Fox Chase Cancer Center, part of Temple University Health System, is one of the leading cancer research and treatment centers in the United States. Founded in 1904 in Philadelphia as one of the nation’s first cancer hospitals, Fox Chase also was among the first institutions to receive the National Cancer Institute’s prestigious comprehensive cancer center designation in 1974. Fox Chase researchers have won the highest awards in their fields, including two Nobel Prizes. Fox Chase physicians are routinely recognized in national rankings, and the Center’s nursing program has achieved Magnet status for excellence three consecutive times. Fox Chase conducts a broad array of nationally competitive basic, translational, and clinical research and oversees programs in cancer prevention, detection, survivorship, and community outreach. For more information, call 1-888-FOX-CHASE (1-888-369-2427). | <urn:uuid:32f9fdda-5c95-4f79-98a1-9960c08241a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fccc.edu/information/news/press-releases/1999/1999-01-29-ACSofPAEndorses.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947235 | 1,436 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Yesterday I was fired from my job because of a man who felt offended and intimidated by a strong young lady. I had been a server at Red Lobster for the past 4 years and six months and the gentleman complained because he said i had rudely and aggressively asked him to wait. I know this is only a one side to the story but I felt I did my job and I did the right thing by asking him to wait in order to fix his problem and get a manager. The man didn't have any complains about my service because I didn't give him a reason to complain only about my way of asking him to wait. I felt my strong voice as a women offended him, which I had no intention of.He filed a complain to a manager but it wasn't enough for him for what I had done. He wrote a letter to corporate and asked them to fire me because of my aggressive attitude. My point in this story is the man felt offended because a woman had " aggressively" asked him to wait. Being aggressive is measured in different ways among gender because of the way society has leveled this characteristic for females and males. Females should be passive, delicate, calm and weak. While men are taught to be aggressive, strong, and powerful. My aggressiveness as a female was defined as being rude, impolite, and disrespectful, while a male's aggressiveness would be defined as strong and with much respect. A misunderstanding of communication because of the way Hispanic society measures aggressiveness got me to loose my job. I tried to fight my side of the story but among restaurants the customer is always right. I have no hard feelings because the situation was seen from one perspective but I have learned from this situation. | <urn:uuid:f6fe11d9-eec4-4d90-a7c2-84ccd4bd722b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mylatinitas.com/profiles/blogs/time-for-a-new-job?xg_source=activity | 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 | 0.990359 | 346 | 1.835938 | 2 |
My latest column is up at RH Reality Check, reflecting on this 36th anniversary of the Hyde Amendment, and why our movement’s decision not to go to battle for public funding for abortion is leading us down a slippery slope that could result in a total ban on abortion.
Sunday was the kind of anniversary you wish you didn’t have to celebrate: specifically, the 36th anniversary of the Hyde Amendment, one of the most restrictive reproductive rights laws in recent history. It restricts the use of federal funds for abortion services, meaning that people on publicly-funded insurance programs like Medicaid and Medicare (the low-income and the disabled) have to pay for abortion services out of pocket. The vast majority of the women affected by this ban are low-income, and if you are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, you aren’t likely to be able to shell out anywhere from $300 to $3000 for an abortion procedure.
Efforts to repeal the Hyde amendment are more often than not seen as unrealistic, and advocates work instead to maintain the status quo—low-income women denied access to abortion. Often the argument is that if we try and fight the public funding battle, we might lose ground in overall access to abortion. But I think that the exact opposite is true. If we don’t fight the public funding debate, we’re going to lose altogether.
Even though the real reason to fight these policies is that no one should be restricted access to a medical procedure just because they are poor–sometimes it’s also important to demonstrate how these policies actually put everyone’s access at risk, low-income or not. The reason is because we live in a classist society, and low-income people’s needs are not always represented in the agenda of big movements. So their needs get sold out in an effort to preserve access overall, but what I’m arguing is that overall access is being put at risk because of these concessions.
Read the whole thing here. | <urn:uuid:0c59720f-2e56-49c2-92de-6171cbe68573> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://radicaldoula.com/2012/10/03/why-the-public-funding-debate-could-end-abortion-access-all-together/?like=1&_wpnonce=1168c91a63 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958985 | 413 | 1.820313 | 2 |
All News & Blogs
Date published: 1/31/2013
SANTIAGO, Chile--A magnitude-6.8 earthquake shook offices, toppled supermarket shelves and broke windows on Wednesday in north-central Chile, where people fled some buildings in panic.
A 55-year-old woman in the city of Atacama died of a heart attack, said Mayor Rafael Prohens, who attributed her death to fear during the quake. Authorities said that damage was limited and discounted the possibility of a tsunami.
The U.S. Geological Survey originally reported the quake at magnitude-6.7, but later revised it upward. It struck at 4:15 p.m. and was centered 27 miles north of Vallenar, Chile.
The quake shook the capital of Santiago, causing office buildings to sway, but was felt most powerfully in the north where state television showed images of scattered groceries on supermarket floors and broken windows at several homes in Vallenar, Copiapo and other nearby cities.
Witnesses described people running from buildings into the streets in panic.
Vallenar Mayor Cristian Tapia said telephone lines were jammed and some electricity lines were temporarily down but services were slowly returning.
"The first half hour was really tough. We're still having problems with telecommunications," Tapia told state television. "Two walls collapsed. We're evaluating ruptures at homes to find out if they're still safe to live in."
But Chile's Emergency Office, ONEMI, said no injuries were immediately reported and damage to infrastructure appear minimal.
The oceanographic service discounted the possibility of a tsunami. | <urn:uuid:6d4c3745-7c1e-435f-a95d-76745181ee76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2013/012013/01312013/751757?rss=local | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975554 | 332 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Home remedies can be helpful
By Eileen Cox
February 16, 2003
Dr Walter Chin's recent article on herbal remedies prompts me to speak of some remedies that have been used by friends or family and have not proved to be dangerous.
Incontinence: The white of an egg with a spoonful or two of milk and little sugar taken every morning for seven days in succession has been known to relieve incontinence in children and adults.
Fever: 'Quashie bitters' or 'quassia cup' has been known for 200 years as febrifuge. The Compleat Herbal by Charles Harris tells us:
"Quassia gained prominence about 200 years ago when a Surinam slave, named Quassi, disclosed that his secret and highly successful remedy for malignant fevers was based on the wood of the tree. Since then it has been equally commended in other situations."
Quassia cup, or 'Quashie' cup, is still sold in our markets. Water is soaked in it overnight and is drunk the next day. I have heard of no ill effects.
Spurs: Why wait until the spur on your heel has to be removed by a surgeon? Soak a small section of a face towel in hot water and apply to the affected part. Dry and rub with Iodex or similar ointment. Repeat until the spur disappears.
This can also be done when bunions cause you discomfort.
Arthritis: Recently a carpenter developed arthritis in one knee. Each night he tied the knee with a noni leaf on which a ripe noni fruit had been sieved and a little coconut oil and nutmeg added. In three weeks the pain and swelling disappeared.
Consumers who find difficulty in curing haemorrhoids (piles) should be careful not to sit on hot seats. Bicycle and motor cycle seats, left in the sun for hours, can be excessively hot. So are car seats in our increasingly hot weather. Keep a cover for the cycle seats and a small cushion in the car. It is said that cold seats can also aggravate piles.
A consumer fell and dislocated her elbow. Treatment was received at the public hospital. The elbow, however, was not functioning normally and she was told that she would have to break it again. She refused and resorted to hot water treatment. Each day she repeatedly placed her elbow in water as hot as she could bear it and then rubbed the elbow with belladonna. It was not totally successful but she was able to comb her hair without difficulty.
Speaking of belladonna, do you know that belladonna plaster is sold and can be applied to various parts of the body as a pain reliever? Be careful that there are no hairs growing on the spot where the plaster is applied or you will be undergoing unnecessary pain when removing it.
A Chinese patch is also used as a pain reliever. This works within minutes in some cases but not in all.
For the common cold, my neighbour treated her children with a tea brewed from leaves of the Suriname cherry tree. He also used leaves of the cotton tree to treat thrush in an infant.
Lemon grass is the most widely used herb. It is known as 'fever grass.' As Dr Chin advised, care should be exercised in using these herbal teas. A friend of mine specialized in herbal teas but died at an early age because of liver failure.
Perhaps I can be pardoned for mentioning three manufactured products which have proven useful for common ailments. Whitfield's ointment was used successfully for treatment of a whitlow when other remedies failed. Witch Hazel has relieved swelling caused by a sprain. Mycota is very successful for athlete's foot. | <urn:uuid:f29bf5dc-b25d-44c9-9581-5db5785395ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.landofsixpeoples.com/news301/ns3021615.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976735 | 770 | 1.796875 | 2 |
In this interview with the Stand for Children Executive Director on a New England morning show, both the journalist and the director seem to dance around the causes of rising childhood poverty to get to the SFC mantra of "access to great schools". Both overreach in their attempt to reconcile rising poverty with another poll of public school parents who express satisfaction for their local schools.
Public schools are prone to be used as a scapegoat for poverty in this country when in reality it is caused by broad systemic and market-based inequalities of opportunity in this country.
A representative with the foundation that conducted the poverty studies insisted on the PBS Newshour last night that childhood poverty can be fought with more a robust unemployment insurance system, child tax credits, vigorous pre-natal and childhood health care, and a commitment to education in a broader sense than "access to great schools". I would add to those remedies a more equitable wage system, perhaps a "living wage" for families with children. We should not underestimate the impact of our market system on the shrinking middle and working class as the wealthy continue to sock profits away for themselves rather than paying fairly for labor.
To a certain extent Stand for Children seems to thrive off dissatisfaction with public education and propensities, both conservative and liberal, to blame the institution for a host of ills in American culture. So, I'm not surprised that both the director and the sympathetic journalist were turning cognitive cartwheels trying to deal with the fact that parents are generally satisfied with their local schools.
The organization requires a state of crisis in need of superheroes in order to attract more resources, but the crisis of poverty isn't easily attributable to villainous public schools. We already have a better, more comprehensive explanation for the causes of increased poverty that is also more consistent with findings on attitudes toward schools. | <urn:uuid:3fc2782d-df5f-423f-abb8-1ca9e266c2ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://enclave-nashville.blogspot.com/2011/08/stretch-to-ignore-all-factors-that-keep.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963067 | 366 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Last week's Environmentalists for Obama open house brought together a group of Chicagoans passionate about protecting our natural world. Among the attendees was Keith, a local small business owner who brought his nephew along with him to the event. The pair came to the campaign's state headquarters at 218 S Wabash to learn more about both the President's record and future environmental protection plans.
Keith's work as a contract painter has made him acutely aware of some of the complexities in effectively implementing environmental standards. He believes that that complexity, though, is no excuse for inaction.
In their current form, he explains, some regulations give too much leeway to large corporations and disproportionately place the burden of environmental protection on small businesses. As an example, he says:
"If we wanted to remove a layer of lead paint from a room, a small business like mine has to clear the entire floor and block all the other rooms with plastic sheets. Some larger corporations, meanwhile, just have to spray the particulates with a hose to try to keep the lead chips out of the air. Just doing that, of course, is not as effective."
Keith envisions a future in which the government not only passes equitable regulations but also has the courage and wherewithal to effectively implement them. "President Obama is on track," he says. "I'm very optimistic."
Don’t miss out on the other events like Environmentalists for Obama—find an upcoming event near you!
A version of this was posted July 25 on the Illinois state blog. | <urn:uuid:2e8998c6-b310-459c-b67f-ff251392dbec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.barackobama.com/news/entry/environmentalists-for-obama-keith-green | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976019 | 312 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Spotify vs. the Pirates (Video)
Spotify has a lot of buzz and a bunch of users, but it’s not a mainstream service by any means. So think of today’s D10 interview with CEO Daniel Ek and investor/adviser Sean Parker as a Spotify primer: Walt Mossberg got the two men to explain exactly how the streaming music service works, and why they think it’s going to be a truly big deal.
The big idea: You can listen to the service for free, on your PC, with some limited exceptions. But if you want to take your music with you on an iPhone or Android, you’ll pay for the privilege.
“People pay for portability when it comes to music, and they’ve always done it,” Ek argued.
This model spooked the big music labels for some time, because they worried that Spotify users would stop paying for music. But Spotify says many of its users stopped paying for music a long time ago — they were stealing it. A Spotify customer, they argue, isn’t a lost iTunes buyer or a lost CD buyer — it’s a converted pirate.
But if this model truly does take off, couldn’t Apple, Amazon or Google do the same thing and cause a lot of problems for the upstarts? Sure, Ek says. But he argues that Spotify already benefits from big network effects (thanks in part to a big push from Facebook, another Sean Parker project) and shared playlists that keep the service sticky. “The real value of Spotify is not that we have 18 millions songs,” he said. “The value is we have 700 million playlists and counting.”
That said, people in and outside of Spotify have argued for some time that Apple in particular was not happy to see Spotify’s rise, and today Parker finally talked about that out loud. “There was a sense in which Apple was threatened by what we were doing,” he said.
Here are some of the highlights: | <urn:uuid:16c4f013-c8d5-430d-9793-cef3626b33fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allthingsd.com/20120530/spotify-vs-the-pirates/?refcat=d | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96092 | 431 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Welcome to Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS)
CAPS is open M-F from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Counselors have offices on the 3rd floor of Founders and Leeds 006. Please check with the Secretary when making an appointment, where you will meet with a counselor.
You can reach CAPS by calling 610-896-1290, visiting Room 317 in Founders Hall, or emailing us.
In the event of a psychological crisis or emergency after hours, call any counselor at home or by calling Security at ext. 1111.
How Are We Doing?
Fill out our anonymous survey >
At CAPS the staff try to listen carefully to the concerns students have about their lives. Students speak to us about all manner of things that upset, frighten, confuse, thrill, sadden, or anger them. As counselors, we do not seek to give students specific advice or directions. Instead, in the process of talking and listening with students, we hope, together with the student, to find better understanding of what factors contribute to their concerns.
We have found that with the emergence of greater insight into problems and concerns, students see better what decisions they want to make in regulating their own lives. Students often appreciate the support they feel as they open themselves to talking about or thinking about painful situations with the counselor.
We take the confidentiality of our talks with students quite seriously. Students come to us by their own free and private choice, and so if talking with us is to be made more public in any way, that, too, we leave to the student. We break confidentiality only in situations that to us seem to be life-threatening, and usually, even in these situations, we do everything we can to enlist the student's agreement that we let others know of the troubles she or he is facing.
What are some of the areas of concern students bring to us to talk over?
- Anxiety & Depression
- Cultural Diversity, Alienation
- Drug Use
- Eating Issues
- Decision about a Major & Career
- Family Worries
- Learning Problems/Disabilities
- Intrusive Thoughts
- Rape & Sexual Assault
- Sexual Confusion
- Suicidal Feelings
- Upsets with Friends or Intimates
- Use of Psychotropic Medication
News & Updates
According to the American College Health Association (ACHA) the suicide rate among young adults, ages 15-24, has tripled since the 1950s. Learn about the warning signs of depression and take advantage of these helpful resources. | <urn:uuid:344179ae-cc3f-496d-a6ae-3b8df0b293e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.haverford.edu/counseling/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945371 | 526 | 1.617188 | 2 |
|Uploaded:||May 12, 2010|
|Updated:||May 12, 2010|
I know there is a lot of different ways you can draw a cat. Whether it be realistically, easy, or simply, there is many various ways you can make the sketch of a cat look. I also know there is a lot of novice artists that come to this site, and some of you have a hard time drawing animals. I want to try and submit lessons that everybody can enjoy and learn from, even if you do happen to be someone that is just starting out. One of the first animals to tackle is the cat. Cats and dogs are some of the more popular species to draw, when you are just starting out. The only problem that some people run into, is finding a lesson that is easy, and simple enough to learn from. That is why I made this tutorial that will show you "how to draw a simple cat", step by step. I have a lot of lessons on this site on all kinds of cats, kittens, anime cats, and even some realistic ones too. I tried not to draw this cat looking anime-ish, and to tell you the truth, I think I succeeded. I can't believe how much more people come to Dragoart nowadays. I am so happy that more and more artists are finding their way here because that means who ever is coming to learn how to draw, you are probably doing so right now. I hope this lesson on “how to draw a simple cat", step by step is very helpful to those that need to draw cats better. I will be back with two more tutorials that I think you will all enjoy. Peace out people, and have a happy drawing day! | <urn:uuid:40346da4-ad60-4cc4-b3f9-833c0c73f5ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/4803/1/1/how-to-draw-a-simple-cat.htm | 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 | 0.974261 | 352 | 1.71875 | 2 |
just imagine storing a movie where you stored all the next pixels following the current pixels, by looking back through
time so many steps and actually starting off at a later date.
youd have to get over the problems that only each context of these pixels would be a valid way to make a record back to restore the previous layer of the quad tree.
this would cause it to cause the same pointer combination to come up which would involve possibly any amount of records coming out of that quad tree level, and the movie play back would split into segments, depending on what movie just overwrote the exact same context.
youd have to have some kind of still pixel removal, but that would complicate the pointers to being simple 2x2 pixels of the previous level, theyd have to have extra information to make sure the still pixels still get sent by other combinations, because there would be still pixels in lots of different total contexts.
i guess sending moving pixels up would change the total context, and bring movement from the earlier layers in, but youd have to send every ordered pixel in the combination at once so you could even get past the spacial destruction of the previous level... and then it still wouldnt even touch the contexts of virtually nearly all the other pixels there.
in short, its a complete waste of time, you can get some kind of ambiguity in the smaller levels and get some kind of fuzzy 2d recognition, but the more i read about this insanely over hyped piece of crap, it just lends me to think some people are really fucking stupid and cant understand theory to save their lives... but they seem to be awfully good at putting poor theory into practice and having boasting claims about the results.
every possible concept is a super set of smaller concepts. that is fundamentally a load of bullshit, way over simplified, and if you apply data to pixels in a 2d space, thats what you get. i imagine maybe if you gave it a voxel eye it could use the same technique for 3d recognition, but theres no way it could ever say a 2d object it saw was a 3d object it saw, unless there was a direct programmatic impossible to write combiner, if you got a dot response from the 3d car, and a dot response of the 2d car, there could be some potential amount of possible extra predictions stored to make it a more solid set of digits, but then how the hell would you ever associate them together, they are 2 sets of unknown data that you id'd, and thats how they remain, even if you knew what the exact symantics of the regions were, you could have a direct pattern for the word car, id it, then get the 3d car, id it, then the 2d car, id it, then maybe you could get it to make a group lot of ids out of the 3 senses with dot detection. but thats only because you told it to it. so actually, to teach one of these things is showing it a million million records, then you would have to label them all with words, and if you label the two senses with the same word it gets a concept of the joining of its senses. but then after all that, what the hell is it going to do with this if all it is, is a fuzzy ambiguity algorythm? and labelling every thing because it cant even use basic intelligence to work out if it sees the two things at once its the same.
it could be programmed that way! but thats not intelligence, its nowhere near it. after all symantics are there, there needs to be the common situation in time. then if two things happen at once, then it automatically puts them together in a group that happened at the same time. thats robotic, and would fail completely.
cause you know, sometimes different things happen at the same time, so it couldnt combine its senses at all. and all these are just analyzing the perception sense, that has nothing to do with object oriented like concept building that we do without even trying at all.
it ends up just this recognition database, that has joint senses, after its all completely programmed into it the sense connections, and then it just has this behaviour playback like its immitating what it was copying exactly never deviating once, and without the extra additions to the algorythm to stop multiconnections, which it cant specify diverging, then it would have no choice but to follow the possible looping predictions about its recorded behaviour.
without the divergence protection and convergence protection, then it would be completely retarded and hop on one foot whilst tapping itself on the head, doing two things at once with 2 different parts of its body at the same time.
so running back on playback is very disasterous when it comes to the specification of a subset from a superset.
and if its that sensitive to complete split retardation, then i dont think we run back on playback, and the brain is far more superior than a quad tree recorder.
quad tree recording
No replies to this topic
Posted 26 July 2012 - 06:31 PM
you used to be able to fit a game on a disk, then you used to be able to fit a game on a cd, then you used to be able to fit a game on a dvd, now you can barely fit one on your harddrive.
1 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users | <urn:uuid:68bc42a5-5685-47ce-b72d-39ed23211703> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://devmaster.net/forums/topic/16680-quad-tree-recording/page__pid__86487 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963607 | 1,118 | 1.710938 | 2 |
What Millennials (Generation Y) Want Out of Work
This post, courtesy of Recruiting Blogswap, is written by Alexandra Levit, whose blog is Water Cooler Wisdom.
Ms. Levit, a “Twentysomething Career Expert,” is also the author of several books (two of them apparently still in the works):
- They Don’t Teach Corporate in College
- How’d You Score THAT Gig (Random House 2008)
- Solving the Talent Equation (ASTD Press 2008)
Ms. Levit writes:
Last week, I went on a speaking tour at several corporations in the U.S. and abroad, training twenty-somethings and their managers on what recent college grads need to do in order to succeed in today’s business climate.
As a result of meeting hundreds of twenty-somethings over the course of the last few years and reading all of the research I can get my hands on, I’ve discovered some commonalities with respect to what twenty-somethings want out of work.
I’ve been sharing these with the managers who are desperate to recruit young professionals and keep them happy so that they’ll keep bringing talent, enthusiasm, and fresh ideas to their organizations!
The current generation of twenty-somethings, also known as Generation Y or the Millennials, is entrepreneurial and relishes challenging work and high levels of responsibility. They are driven not so much by money, but by a sense of accomplishment. They thrive on creative expression and want the flexibility to complete tasks in their own way, using their own innovative methods. They’re learning-oriented, and if they’re doing something wrong, they want to know about it now so they can move on.
Research suggests that Millennials want to work for organizations that are civic-minded and socially responsible. This means that the organization makes good products or services, gives back to the community, and is a good steward of the environment. That same company should be inclusive and fair to all, with a culture that prizes diversity.
And of course, Millennials want as many training and growth opportunities as possible, and they’ll take a lower salary if a position allows them to do meaningful work immediately (as opposed to mind-numbing administrative tasks).
When it comes to managers, Millennials want to work for someone who treats them like colleagues rather than subordinates, and someone who guides with a friendly but firm hand. This generation is big on open communication, so they want to give and receive feedback readily. They want their ideas and opinions to be taken seriously, even if they don’t have years of experience under their belts to support them. The Millennials’ ideal manager recognizes and fixes problems, and rewards top-notch performance in real-time.
I’m looking forward to learning even more about how this powerful generation is making their way in the work world.
Alexandra Levit, Twentysomething Career Expert | <urn:uuid:10fe4f3a-529a-49a2-95d4-68a516dfa86d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.employmentblawg.com/what-millenials-want/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960309 | 627 | 1.75 | 2 |
Candi Cushman rejects gay harassment figures; Figures.
For actual LGBT people, the new GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) survey suggesting that nearly 9 out of 10 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students have experienced some degree of harassment doesn't come across as all that shocking. Because first and foremost, most all of us who've walked in forcibly differentiated shoes have some degree of battle scarring, be it slight enough to salve with a head shake and a mocking laugh, or encompassing enough to require a therapist's couch. But also because even with so much change, we still live in a world where basic rights like serving in the military without prejudice are shot down by the United States Senate, or where one's desire to pledge a life commitment to the person he or she loves is, in a time of literal war, spun into the basis for an all-out cultural skirmish. The real question: Why wouldn't young bullies of 2010 interpret that as giving them a pass for their own adolescent/pre-adolescent smear the queer matches?
But leave it to Focus on the Family's resident encourager of school-centric blind-eye adoption, Candi Cushman, to once again neglect the harsh fallout that so obviously comes from anti-LGBT harassment and to instead question the veracity of GLSEN's claim:
"All of the data and the way it was interpreted was done by their own in-house activists," Cushman points out. "The report lists four authors -- all of whom are employed by GLSEN and who have been involved with GLSEN for many years, in many cases as volunteers in GLSEN's local chapters." The analyst describes the group as "hardly what you'd call an objective research team."
"It's a widely recognized problem that surveys that rely on self-selection have the most risk of being unreliable and tainted because people that choose to participate, that self-select to participate, are usually highly motivated for a reason to do that," the education analyst suggests.
Pro-homosexual survey lacks objectivity, reflects advocacy [ONN]
So wait, Candi's strongest argument is that the GLSEN study is wrong because the work was done in-house?! And the participants -- 7,261 students between the ages of 13 and 21 from all 50 states and the District of Columbia -- are to be discredited because of their motivations? What, because skewing poll results has replaced "Glee" as the most popular part of a LGBT teen's week? Oh, you reliable far-right negligence. Blech.
Look, are there other LGBT teens who are lucky enough to not be suffering bullying, who do not seek out community resources, and who therefore fail to be represented in this study? In a word: yes. There are some American schools where being gay has managed to pass the bar of acceptability, and that's a fantastic thing.
But much more common than the above scenario are the thousands of other LGBT teens who've decided to stay in the closet so as to avoid harassment. So really, if we lived in a world where being LGBT wasn't something one had the option of hiding yet all other factors of modern America remained in place, we'd actually suspect that the GLSEN figures would be slightly higher. Although in that kind of theoretical world, the other factors most likely wouldn't remain the same, since the visibility of LGBT people's actual, fully represented numbers would surely help to change the attitudes. Plus also in that kind of world, many of the bullies would probably no longer be bullies, since full disclosure would surely reveal what so many of us (former bullies and former victims) know to be true: That one's own sexuality struggle is often what leads to the aggression in the first place.
The bottom line: Any kind of credible poll, from an informal hand count to a well-financed analysis, is going to show homosexuality and/or gender identity as still being one of the top reasons why a kid would find a target on their backpack. That's simply a (sad) reality. And another (sad) reality is that Candi Cushman spends her days painting anyone's attempt to change this queer-hostile picture as being a part of some sort of "militant" or "radical" "agenda" that Christians must oppose. If this is what she wants to do for her life's work, then we have no power or even right to stop Candi from choosing what she sees to be gainful employment. Though if she does go this route, Candi really should have the fortitude to deal less with polling minutiae and more with the hurting, vulnerable human beings who don't know their Gallups from their Pews from their [insert firm that groups like Focus on the Family use to achieve their desired result]. And also, she really shouldn't bring to mind the concept of objectivity, since her own advocacy work typically ranges from "but this is how I want it to be" to "but this is how I demand it to be!"
comments powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:fc2139db-2dc1-4f52-b36f-a784929004fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2010/10/candi-cushman-rejects-gay-harassment-figures-figures.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974066 | 1,049 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The Canadian Discount Center is up and running and trying to help save people money on their prescription drugs.
Some people are buying their prescription medicines from countries like Canada. By doing that, they can save as much as 60 percent. That's because Canada's government has a cap on drug prices.
The founder of Ozark's Canadian Discount Center, Dr. Russell Page, said most drugs such as those used to treat breast cancer are cheaper in Canada.
For more information, you can log onto www.canadiandiscountdrugs.com or call 1-800-863-2099.
Consumers are also reminded that buying prescription drugs from Canada is a very controversial matter, because of the lack of regulations regarding those sales. | <urn:uuid:5dff6998-0d58-4ea0-93b1-373bb8af4e1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/123996.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962949 | 151 | 1.648438 | 2 |
A seven-step process to moving beyond the sales transaction and into a more sustainable partnership with customers.
Jenna Langley, a sales representative at Mycogen Seeds, is excited to go to work every day.
“My farmers and retailers are the people that I wake up for,” Langley says. “Each morning when I get in my pick-up, I focus on how I can add value to the customers’ operations—and I know when I see my customers, it going to be a lot of fun.”
At the same time, she knows it’s going to be hard work, too. Langley covers 15 counties in northwest Indiana and manages relationships with 50 customers. Her position is similar to many seed salespeople and one that gets increasingly more challenging as farmers become more sophisticated in their buying decisions.
Knowing how to gain a deep understanding of their customers’ operations and identifying their long-term goals will allow seed salespeople to move beyond the transaction and into a more sustainable partnership with their customers, according to Scott Downey, professor of agri-sales and marketing at Purdue University.
To achieve that partnership, Downey suggests working through a seven-step process, which starts with identifying potential customers through prospecting.
Often, in established seed businesses, new salespeople will start working from a list of current and previous clients, but eventually, they need to find new prospects. There are many ways salespeople can build their prospect list. By partnering with the marketing department, they can identify segments of potential customers who align well with the company’s competitive advantages. For example, they might decide to focus on farmers with 5,000 or more acres, progressive farmers or farmers with certain soil types. There may also be farmers who have attended the company’s events, like field days, but have yet to make a purchase. Those are also ideal candidates for a salesperson’s list.
Downey suggests that if a customer has seen positive performance from a company’s seed, salespeople should ask for referrals to other farmers.
“If the salesperson can clearly articulate what makes his company unique, then when he asks for referrals, he’s not just saying, ‘Who else should I peddle my products to?’” Downey explains.
There are many ways salespeople can build their prospect list. By partnering with the marketing department, they can identify segments of potential customers.
It’s important for salespeople to build trust when initiating relationships with prospective buyers. Trust is established through salespeople’s words and actions, such as being honest and doing everything they can to deliver on any promises they make during a sales visit. Even actions like showing up on time are vital when building trust.
“If I show up late or without an appointment, it says to the customer that I care more about my schedule than I do about his,” Downey says.
Being a salesperson doesn’t necessarily mean having all the answers. Sometimes, it means solving problems together with the customer. By working with the customer as a partner, the salesperson can build trust to a greater degree and address some of the challenges the customer encounters.
Langley knows that she won’t always have the answer, but she is willing to find the right resource, such as one of the company’s agronomists, to help find a solution for her customers.
“I try to treat each farm like it was my own,” Langley says. “I want to make sure that I’m not over-promising or under-delivering and that my customers profit in the most positive way that they can.”
Understanding Customer Needs
With a level of trust established, salespeople can begin to ask questions that provide more specific information about the customer’s operation—not just what they want to buy. For example, a salesperson should know how the farm operates on a daily basis, what the farmer believes he needs in order to operate successfully, what resource constraints he’s facing, how the farmer wants to grow his operation, the long-term goals for the farm, etc. This is the information that’s driving the farmer’s purchasing decisions.
Selecting and Presenting Value
Armed with knowledge about the customer’s goals and needs, the salesperson can initiate a conversation about how her company’s products will help the customer achieve some of his goals or meet a vital need.
“It’s all about relating the value a product offers in a way that is meaningful to the customer,” Downey explains. “Rather than saying, ‘This seed will accomplish this because it has this trait,’ the salesperson should relate the value to the customer in a way that connects back to the things she learned when developing her understanding of the customer.”
Dealing with Objections
While working with their customers, salespeople should try to remember that in today’s marketplace, buying seed is a huge decision for farmers. Seed choice dictates the types of chemicals that will be used, and how they’re applied, as well as the equipment that a farmer will own and what their crop rotation will be. Financing and discounting, along with weather and soil variability, impact their decision, too.
Farmers are going to explore competing offers when making such a significant decision, and sometimes, the easiest way to boil it down is to say, “How much does it cost?” Price may not be the primary objection that a customer has, but it’s almost always important.
The salesperson should explain, in dollars and cents, why his seed is the right choice for the farm. The salesperson should refer back to his understanding of the customer’s operation and explain the value of his seed in terms of the customer’s main objective—profit and yield or cost.
“Objections must be approached realistically and with concern,” Downey advises. “My customer knows that I benefit from a sale, so I don’t want to hide that. But I also have to make sure that the decisions I’m recommending will benefit my customer in the ways that are important to him. If I don’t do that effectively, then it undermines trust.”
Closing the sale is about securing the farmer’s agreement and managing his expectations at the same time. It is more than getting the customer to say “yes” or sign a contract. This is the time to discuss when the customer will hear from the salesperson again and when the customer will receive the seed.
Sometimes, a customer may also need to be reminded about the decision that they have made.
“Because of the complexity in today’s market, it’s easy for the customer to remember features of a product the salesperson talked about, but the farmer chose not to buy,” Downey says. “Sometimes, a salesperson needs to ‘unsell,’ or remind the farmer about their conversations and reset the farmer’s expectations.”
“Building relationships with my customers is my favorite part of the job. Helping them reach the highest potential on their acres is the reason that I’m happy to go to work.”·— Jenna Langley
When the paperwork is finished and the expectations are set, it’s time to deliver and follow up. The biggest way to betray trust in a relationship is to not deliver on promises.
“The salesperson should help the grower analyze performance as part of follow-up and assessment for next year—that means coming out to look at the field,” Downey suggests. “It’s a good idea to take pictures of emerging seedlings and during tasseling.”
It’s also critical to revisit the goals the farmer said he wanted to accomplish, and how the salesperson’s value proposition will help him do that. The salesperson should ensure that he has delivered the expectations he initially discussed with the farmer and that those expectations have not changed drastically.
“If a salesperson’s only follow-up comes the next time the customer is ready to make a buying decision, then the salesperson really isn’t a partner in the business,” says Downey. “In that case, you don’t have a partnership. You have an annual transaction.”
Following-up positions the salesperson to sell to the farmer for the next year. That’s when the sales process becomes cyclical, and the salesperson can initiate another conversation about the farmer’s goals. Downey suggests looking at the weather and pest threats that may have affected the original seed-buying decision and bringing them back into the conversation about the selection process the following year in order to ensure an ongoing relationship.
Langley calls on her farmers multiple times throughout the year to strengthen and maintain her partnerships.
“Although each customer writes a check for seed just once a year, I spend time with them throughout the year building partnerships and trust, which is vital to our success,” Langley says. “Building relationships with my customers is my favorite part of the job. Helping them reach the highest potential on their acres is the reason that I’m happy to go to work.”
Megan Sheridan and Kristyn Childres
Editor’s note: Megan Sheridan is the marketing director and Kristyn Childres is the marketing assistant at the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University. | <urn:uuid:7203e5aa-7021-4223-aa0b-a62f0bd47cae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seedworld.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=584%3Aseed-world-wrangling-seed-world-january-2013&catid=107&Itemid=294 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958988 | 2,019 | 1.53125 | 2 |
What happened to Sly?
This was the first time that I read The Taming of the Shrew and I found it to be quite humorous. One of the funniest scenes in the play in my mind was the opening scene with Christopher Sly. I find it curious that there was no conclusion to his story in The Shrew. Although there was a conclusion in the appendix for A Shrew. I enjoyed the fact that when Sly woke up outside the pub he was not upset about not being a lord, he was more excited to go home and tame his own wife.
I also found it interesting that this was such a universal tale - that transcends cultures. With the Irish people having over one hundred variations of this story about taming a difficult wife. It amazes me more than a dozen cultures have similar stories.
One part of the story that I found strange was when Vincentio arrived in Padua and the deception was exposed - I found it hard to believe that Baptista could handle it so well that he had been fooled in to giving his prized daughter away to liar. I guess he just was happy she married someone rich in the end. Obviously he showed some dedication to their love by the lenghts he was willing to go to get it. | <urn:uuid:fac7c7b4-7d2a-4bfe-a79e-f32c13b31576> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.lib.umn.edu/muel0274/bard/2006/10/what_happened_to_sly.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.994776 | 255 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Association of Women’s Business Centers provides support and services to women business owners through local organizations.
Advancing Women is a website that provides career and business strategies. They offer tools and resources for women in business.
Canadian Women’s Business Network offers resources, news, tools and forums to help promote women in business.
Career Intelligence is an online career resource center for women. They offer assessment, transition and management tools. Sign up for their free newsletter of new jobs and articles.
CWAHM offers free articles, resources, work at home job listings and ideas for moms who want to successfully work at home.
Detours & OnRamps an online forum on issues facing mothers in the workplace; work & life balance, returning to work and working moms.
Mom Inventors is a site dedicated to helping women achieve their dreams. This site offers tools and resources for entrepreneur success. Sign up for their free newsletter.
Mompreneurs Online is an online resource for work at home Moms. Visit their blog, read work-at-home articles, or chat in their message boards.
National Association for Female Executives offers information on business ideas, events and news. Read their blog or message boards. Don’t forget to sign up for their free newsletter.
National Association of Women Business Owners launches women entrepreneurs into economic, social, and political areas influence. This site offers articles, partnerships, business resources and news. Membership dues range from $100 annually to $2,500 annually for an Investor’s Club Member (Voting Member).
Negotiating Women, Inc advances women through training and consulting. Read the latest news, listen to their extensive audio files or sign up for some of their services or workshops.
Organization of Women in International Trade propels women in the areas of international trade and business. This organization offers conferences and education in global trade realms.
Single Mom.com is a resource for single moms, offering help, education, tools, resources, blogs and forums.
The Boss Ladies is an online community where you can meet new people, get information about starting a business, find online learning resources and much more.
WITI, which stands for Women in Technology International, was created to help women advance in all areas of technology. They offer career development and events. Membership ranges from $175.00 – $1,200.00 for a lifetime membership. Sign up for their free e-letter.
Woman Owned is a business network for women. They offer business resources, tools and tips on how to get started. Free to join.
Women @ Work Network’s mission is to support women in all stages on their career, whether it’s returning to the workforce or finding that perfect job. Membership is $79.00 a year or $9.95 a month. They do offer a free daily news-link email.
Women Entrepreneur gives the latest up to date news on women in business. Read their blog, participate in a forum or browse through their articles. Sign up for their bi-monthly newsletter.
Women Entrepreneurs Inc is a non-profit organization that wants to promote and enhance business opportunities for women. This site offers resources, tips, news and a weekly newsletter.
Women for Hire is a website that offers career advice and information on how to work from home. Don’t forget to sign up for their free career-advice newsletter.
Women Unlimited is a resource for cultivating women in leadership. They offer news, resources, and events. Sign up for their free newsletter.
Women Work is an online network for women’s employment. They offer resources, conferences and services. Membership ranges from $15.00 – $125.00 per year. Sign up for their newsletter which gives you the latest on economic issues facing women.
Women’s Biz News is a blog for the modern business woman.
Women’s Biz.us is a resource for women in business. Get the latest news and connect with other female professionals.
Women’s E-commerce Association is an organization that helps women to succeed in business, by offering business resources and events. Basic membership is free.
Women’s Media is an online resource for working women. Offers information on advancing your career, self-employment, working mothers… Sign up for their free newsletter.
Women’s Net.net is an informational site that offers business resources and information on grants for women. Sign up for their free newsletter.
Working Mother is an online publication that offers tips and news on balancing family, work, and yourself. This site offers forums, blogs and resources for working moms. | <urn:uuid:bae20063-efe6-4820-983b-30c68dd8c031> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theworkathomewoman.com/womens-resources/ | 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 | 0.941979 | 967 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Summary of Market Assessment of Upcoming Planned Refinery Outages
Market Assessment of Upcoming Planned Refinery Outages, December 2008 – March 2009 reviews planned U.S. refinery outages from December 2008 though March 2009 in order to identify any regions where outages might create enough supply pressure to impact prices significantly.
As required under Section 804 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-140), this report reviews the supply implications of planned refinery outages for December 2008 through March 2009, which covers the winter period when demand for distillate fuels (diesel and heating oil) is high. As a result, emphasis in this report is on distillate rather than gasoline. Refinery outages are the result of planned maintenance and unplanned outages. Maintenance is usually scheduled during the times when demand is lowest - in the first quarter and again in the fall. Unplanned outages, which occur for many reasons including mechanical failures, fires, and flooding, can occur at any time.
Distillate production is mainly affected by outages of a refinery's crude distillation unit, while gasoline production is more strongly correlated with fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit outages. While other refinery units can also impact distillate and gasoline production, they don't have as large an impact as the outages from crude distillation or FCC units, so other units are not covered in this report.
Market conditions going into the winter months are mixed. Crude prices have dropped considerably, bringing both gasoline and distillate prices down as well. Demand for gasoline and distillate fuels has been falling in 2008 compared with 2007, but distillate demand in PADD 1 (East Coast), which is where most U.S. heating oil demand is concentrated, may by driven up by colder weather expected in the first quarter of 2009. In addition, inventories of both gasoline and heating oil are low for this time of year. This is not as critical for gasoline, since demand falls off over the winter, but distillate inventories are used to help meet peak winter heating demand during December through February.
Crude distillation unit outage forecasts for the United States through March 2009 are fairly typical as shown in Table S-1. U.S. total FCC unit outages are also near typical levels. An issue has surfaced in PADD 1, however. This region is expecting a large FCC outage level in February as shown in Table S-2. While FCC units are major gasoline producing units, they also impact distillate production in two ways. First, the FCC unit produces some light cycle oil that contributes to the distillate fuel pool. Second, the crude distillation unit is frequently run at lower rates when the FCC unit is offline because there is no place to store or move the FCC feedstock coming from the crude distillation unit.
Fortunately, PADD 1 has a number of alternative supply options to replace the lost distillate production. Distillate imports into PADD 1 typically vary around 200-250 thousand barrels per day during the winter months, and can surge to 400 or 500 thousand barrels per day in a given month as the need arises. In addition, domestic production capacity outside of PADD 1 is expected to be in excess of demand requirements, as indicated by Figure S-1, which shows potential distillate production relative to production that was needed over the last several years.
In EIA's view, an effort to encourage greater coordination is unlikely to ameliorate the possible impacts of planned FCC outages in PADD 1 this winter. Another alternative, shifting the planned PADD 1 FCC outages to March or April would simply transfer the problem from a loss of distillate to a loss of gasoline. In February, the lost gasoline from the FCC unit is not as critical as it would be in March or April when gasoline production begins to pick up to prepare for summer demand. Perhaps the best preparation to minimize any price impacts of these outages would be for wholesale buyers who normally rely on opportunistic purchasing of supply in addition to their contracts to recognize the potential for fewer opportunistic purchasing opportunities in February, and to arrange for additional contracts. The publication of this report will help to alert this segment of the industry to that situation. | <urn:uuid:70809c1c-1bd2-4f2a-a9ad-f72a369ba765> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/feature_articles/2008/outage2008/outage2008.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961249 | 874 | 1.617188 | 2 |
By Jonathan Spicer
SOMERSET, New Jersey (Reuters) - A top U.S. Federal Reserve official waded into the sticky debate over global currency wars on Friday, warning that such beggar-thy-neighbor monetary policies would only hurt world trade and the economies that were involved.
Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Plosser said central banks in many countries are adopting policies, often under pressure from governments, to control their currencies, calling it an unhealthy phenomenon.
"We do not want to get ourselves in a world where you have currency wars. Beggar-thy-neighbor policies ... would not be healthy," Plosser told a bankers conference here.
"So central banks and governments need to be cautious about allowing us to slip into a regime like that because that would not be healthy for world trade or for the economies" involved, he added.
Easy money policies by major central banks such as the Fed or European Central Bank often strengthen currencies of developing countries, hurting those countries' exporters. That in turn has prompted some governments or central banks to ease their own polices in response.
The comments from Plosser - a long-time critic of the Fed's easy money policies, though largely for domestic reasons - come on a day newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made his biggest push yet to make jobs growth part of the Bank of Japan's mandate.
Under intense pressure from Abe, the BOJ will likely adopt a 2 percent inflation target later this month, double its current goal, and consider easing monetary policy again, most likely by increasing government debt and asset purchases, sources told Reuters this week.
Besides Japan, Switzerland, Brazil and China have all taken steps to push down the value of their currencies in recent years. The Fed, ECB and Bank of England have depressed their interest rates over long periods in the wake of the global recession, and pumped trillions of dollars into their economies.
"Many countries are trying to use monetary policies to control their currencies, to protect their countries from fluctuating currencies," Plosser said.
"I think that's a maybe a short-run strategy but not necessarily a healthy long-run strategy.
His comments echoed those of BoE Governor Mervyn King, who last month warned that the trend of currency wars could grow.
PICKING APART FED POLICIES
Turning to U.S. monetary policies, Plosser outlined other ways the Fed's actions could backfire.
The aggressive policy accommodation may be frustrating Americans' efforts to restore their personal wealth and may actually slow a broader rebound in U.S. consumption, he warned.
"Efforts to drive real rates more negative or promises to keep rates low for a long time may have frustrated households' efforts to rebuild their balance sheets without stimulating aggregate demand or consumption," Plosser, who does not have a vote on Fed policy this year, told the bankers.
Now more than three years after the recession ended, households will nonetheless take time to restore wealth to a comfortable level, Plosser added, "and attempts to increase economic 'stimulus' may not help speed up the process and may actually prolong it."
Last month, the Fed ramped up asset purchases that are meant to spur growth and pledged to keep rates near zero until the unemployment rate drops to 6.5 percent, as long as inflation expectations don't climb above 2.5 percent.
U.S. unemployment was a lofty 7.8 percent last month.
The U.S. economy grew at a decent 3.1 percent annual rate in the third quarter but growth is expected to have slowed in the final months of the year. Last month, Fed policymakers said they expected GDP growth of between 2.3 to 3.0 percent this year, and 3.0 to 3.5 percent in 2014.
U.S. retail sales have been sluggish, rising 0.3 percent in November after a drop of 0.3 percent the month before.
Among a minority of so-called hawks at the central bank, Plosser also largely repeated predictions for a pick-up in U.S. economic growth to about 3 percent this year and in 2014. He also expects unemployment to fall to near 7 percent by the end of 2013, from 7.8 percent last month.
Plosser characterized the pace of U.S. economic growth as "moderate," and predicted that fourth-quarter growth was likely near 2 percent.
Turning to the U.S. fiscal situation, the policymaker said the lingering uncertainty over government spending and taxes is weighing on business hiring. The Fed is probably not helping on this front, either, Plosser said.
"Here, too, in my view, monetary policy accommodation that lowers interest rates is unlikely to stimulate firms to hire and invest until a significant amount of the uncertainty has been resolved," he said.
Facing the so-called fiscal cliff, U.S. lawmakers on January 1 struck a partial deal that avoids the worst of the planned tax rises but put off big decisions on spending cuts for two more months.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Neil Stempleman) | <urn:uuid:c3296cf1-1763-49e4-b2ae-fe11388d1d0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wnflam.com/news/articles/2013/jan/11/feds-plosser-exit-strategy-could-be-hurt-if-bond-yields-spike/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959682 | 1,065 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The latest must-own Blu-ray release from Flicker Alley, distributors of home video dedicated to furthering public interest in cinema heritage, collects two pre-King Kong works of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. Flicker Alley rightly positions The Most Dangerous Game (1932), starring Joel McCrea and Fay Wray, as the centerpiece of this release, which also includes the feature-length documentary Gow, The Headhunter (a.k.a. Cannibal Island, 1931). Cooper and Schoedsack, although not directly responsible for Gow, worked as cameramen on the two-year expedition through the islands of the South Pacific that produced the footage for the film. The completion of this expedition predated their own feature-length jungle documentary, Chang (1927), by some five years. Cooper and Schoedsack would return the jungles once again in 1932 for The Most Dangerous Game, albeit studio jungles in this instance, with Schoedsack as director and Cooper producing.
This double feature demonstrates a clear stylistic progression for Cooper and Schoedsack from their early work on the documentaries of British adventurer Edward A. Salisbury that resulted in Gow to their unparalleled masterpiece, King Kong. This may not constitute an incredibly revelatory assertion since Kong’s live action jungle scenes were famously shot on The Most Dangerous Games’ jungle sets, but there is a distinctive visual thread that begins in the jungles of the South Pacific and culminates in Kong’s Skull Island. A clear connection too presents itself in the filmmaking pair’s depiction of native islanders for which they would later be criticized with regard to the Skull Island Natives in King Kong. However, watching Gow reveals that the pair indeed merely copied/expanded on the activities of the islanders they had encountered in their travels with Salisbury to create something of an islander type for their own use.
Richard Connell’s 1924 short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” has, of course, been realized in visual media countless times since it was first published, but Schoedsack’s The Most Dangerous Game was the first (and perhaps the best). The bulk of the film plays out in the way that most early sounds do, with lengthy, theatrical conversations between characters set in a single location. However, once the proceedings move out into the jungle, the pace picks up considerably as the film builds toward a bloody, action-packed conclusion. The film boasts incredible sets and highly-stylized studio cinematography throughout. An incredibly young and inexperienced Joel McCrea plays the hunted Bob Rainsford to Leslie Banks’ eerie Count Zaroff, while Fay Wray appears as a sloppily shoehorned-in love interest. What really surprised me about the film was how Joel McCrea, who I know best from his work with Preston Sturges, is here almost unrecognizable to me, both performance-wise, due to an obvious lack of experience up to that point, and in appearance, as he only distinctly looks like the McCrea of later year when shot in profile.
In spite of a slightly rough performance from McCrea and the overall theatricality of the early portions of the film, The Most Dangerous Game is an absolute gem of a film, one that’s well worth the price of this double feature alone. Flicker Alley meticulously restored both the picture and sound for this release, and the results are nothing short of spectacular. Although some evidence of the damage sustained by the positive master prints over the last 80 years remains in Flicker Alley’s presentation of the film, the early scenes reveal the incredible extent to which they had enhanced the picture in their restoration, as these scenes appear so crisp and clear that they could easily be mistaken for footage shot today. That said, the optically-printed footage of titles and transitions maintains a considerable amount of debris and damage, but that, of course, is a by-product of the optical printing process, not a fault in the restoration.
As a film, Gow pales in comparison to The Most Dangerous Game, primarily because the film consists of four short, silent documentary pieces arbitrarily cobbled together and accompanied by an often offensive lecture by William Peck, who had been a member of Salisbury’s expedition to the South Pacific. The title of the film gives the impression that it will feature a narrative centered on a singular native islander, not unlike the films of Robert Flaherty. However, due to the aforementioned construction of the film out of other, smaller films, Gow barely achieves any coherence outside of Peck’s consistently arbitrary ramblings which position it as an obviously exploitative piece, one relying on the promise of real-life cannibals to draw in audiences. As such, the film represents a cinematic curiosity with its appeal firmly rooted in the camp value afforded by its exploitative presentation. Peck’s culturally-insensitive diatribe is nothing sort of pure idiocy, as he pokes fun at blacks for their hair, comments on the prevailing laziness of black men, and shockingly refers to one black child as a “pickaninny.” In spite of the narration, the film occasionally presents viewers with an unsullied glimpse into the customs of island civilizations that have been long-since lost to progress. And in this, the film actually does offer more than merely the delight one might find in the film’s ignorantly exploitative narration.
Gow further benefits from Flicker Alley’s inclusion of an alternate audio track, featuring a highly-informative audio essay by Professor of Archaeology, Matthew Spriggs, which serves as both commentary and a much-needed alternative to the often unbearable lecture from Peck. The Most Dangerous Game too includes a feature-length audio essay by Rick Jewel, author of RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan is Born. The disc also includes excerpts from an audio interview with Merian C. Cooper by film historian Kevin Brownlow, which is visually accompanied by a slideshow. And finally, the release includes a booklet featuring a passage quoting Merian C. Cooper on The Most Dangerous Game, as well as an essay by Eric Schaefer, author of “Bold! Daring! Shocking! True”: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959. | <urn:uuid:61f26c65-be91-4160-9f72-6f41e08c309b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.filmmonthly.com/film/the-most-dangerous-game-gow-the-headhunter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952899 | 1,300 | 1.5 | 2 |
There are three ladies that spent numerous years dedicating their time and professional life to West Union Attendance Center, and last fall, Sheila Childers, Jean Mayo, and Reba Willard all retired from a school that has meant so much to each of them for many years.
The New Albany High School Class of 1960 wants to give back to the community in which they were raised. Out of the forty plus members from the senior class, six have passed on and three have not been located. However, the rest have been contacted and have decided to create a fund that will help the needs of New Albany and Union County citizens.
Crystal McBrayer, Community and Occupational Health Coordinator for Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County, has traveled to many schools in the city and county this month educating students about the importance of heart health.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was honored at a memorial service and commemoration ceremony on Saturday afternoon. It was held on the second floor of the Union County Courthouse with approximately seventy people in attendance.
The theme of the service was “Keeping the Dream Alive.” | <urn:uuid:fa3501b4-3b95-408e-ac32-f31df3281234> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newalbanygazette.com/features/todaysfeatures?page=5&mini=calendar-date%2F2013-03 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979642 | 227 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Country of Origin: United States of America
Overall: 3 ft. 9 in. tall x 3 ft. 2 in. wide x 3 ft. 8 in. deep (114.3 x 96.5 x 111.8cm)
Metal (aluminium, copper, and magnesium) and glass
This is an unflown Series I infrared sensor, built by Aerojet ElectroSystems for use in U.S. Air Force Missile Defense Alarm System (MIDAS) satellites. These spacecraft were designed to detect and track the hot exhaust gases of Soviet missiles at launch and thereby provide up to thirty minutes warning of an attack. Series I sensors were built for the first two low-altitude MIDAS test demonstration flights in 1960, but both spacecraft failed to reach proper orbit. MIDAS was cancelled in the late 1960s, and the more advanced Defense Support Program early warning satellites were launched beginning in 1970. This artifact was donated to NASM by Aerojet ElectroSystems in 1992.
Gift of Aerojet Electrosystems Inc. | <urn:uuid:509bb759-94c9-43aa-befb-0a8ed774e5b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19920065000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945496 | 212 | 1.796875 | 2 |
1. Where in Costa Rica is the language school located?
We are located in downtown San José,
perpendicular to Avenida Central (Central Avenue).
Our prime location allows for easy access to public transportation
and is in walking distance to nearby attractions. It is
also an ideal location of departure for trips to any place
in the country.
2. Who are the instructors?
are highly qualified, native-speakers so that you get
the most out of your time spent at Universal de Idiomas.
3. Can someone help us with trips to other places?
We offer the best and most inexpensive
ways to travel throughout Costa Rica. We also recommend
certain places to stay as well as inform you of the major
events going on at that time.
About Spanish Classes
1. Are there different Spanish classes for different
Yes. Our Spanish classes range from
beginner, intermediate, to advanced. In addition to regular
Spanish classes, Universal de Idiomas offers various other
programs such as internships, Medical Spanish, Spanish
for teachers and Business Spanish classes.
2. What if I have never studied Spanish before?
This is no problem. Our beginner class
is perfect for students who have little or no prior Spanish
experience. Our professors will proceed at a comfortable
3. What will happen on my first day at the language
A placement exam and an oral interview
will be given upon arrival so that we may place you in
an appropriate Spanish level. If you are a beginner, we
will simply place you in a beginner's class. The exam
and interview are free of charge to the student.
4. Do I need to bring certain materials to class?
It is advisable to bring a good Spanish-English
dictionary along with a notebook and a writing utensil.
Anything else that you might need is available for purchase
at our office.
About Costa Rica
1. Do I need a visa to come to Costa Rica?
A visa is not needed if you are in Costa
Rica for 90 days or less.
2. Do I need a passport?
Yes, you are required to have a passport to enter Costa
Rica. It is also required that you carry your passport
or a copy of your passport with you at all times.
3. Do I need to pay any fees when I enter or leave
You do not need to pay a fee when you
enter Costa Rica. However, there is a departure tax for
short term visitors. Currently that amount is $27. This
can be paid in cash or credit card at the airport.
4. What is the weather like?
Climate in Costa Rica varies from region to
region. Costa Rica has two seasons. December through April is
known as the dry season, or summer, which includes little rain.
During this season there is more wind and temperatures are more
mild.The wet season, or winter, which runs from May through
November consists of sunshine in the morning along with clouds
and rain in the afternoon and evening. Luckily Costa Rica almost
never gets hurricanes. The last significant hurricane in Costa
Rica was in 1996. Costa Rica's location means that hurricanes
formed in the ocean move right past them to the United States
or Mexico and sometimes even to its neighbor Nicaragua, only
leaving rain as a reminder of its formation.
5. What kind of clothes should I bring?
In San José it is rare to see people
wearing shorts, especially women. In general it is smart to
dress conservatively, although you will see your share of tica
women clad in skin tight pants and belly bearing shirts. It
is good to bring light pants and a few sweaters. Evenings in
San Jose can be cool, so it is wise to bring clothes you can
layer. Rain gear, such as a poncho and umbrella is a must during
the wet season. The weather can change drastically in the afternoons.
6. What other items would you recommend bringing?
If you plan to go to the beach buy some
sun block before going. It is not necessary to bring all your toiletries from
home; unless you use an unknown brand, you will find it
here. Binoculars come in handy. In addition, insect repellant
and anti-itch cream are a must.
7. What is the currency of Costa Rica?
The Costa Rican currency is the Colon.
The exchange rate changes almost daily.
here for Currency Converter
8. How is the transportation? Is public transportation
in Costa Rica expensive?
The public transportation in San José
is easily accessible. You can find bus stops in almost
every street and the bus system can take you about anywhere.
A bus ride in town costs you about 90 – 150 colones
(about 30 cents). Taxis are readily used as well.
9. How safe is Costa Rica?
Overall, Costa Rica is a safe country; however you must
watch out for pick-pocketing and common crimes that occur
in any city. Safety Tips
10. Is it better to bring traveler checks, credit cards
Traveler checks are very good to have
in case of lost or stolen checks. You can get these replaced
easier than cash or credit cards. The most widely used
credit cards in Costa Rica are Visa and Master Card. It
is also fairly easy to find ATM's in larger cities, including
San José. Some ATM's dispense US dollars. All banks
will exchange US dollars and some will exchange Euros.
Be wary of changing money on the street, as you probably
will not get a better deal and are more likely to be cheated
or given fake money.
11. What are
the electrical standards for Costa Rica?
The standards are the same as in the
United States, 110 watts.
12. How much do I tip when eating at restaurants or
taking a taxi?
In Costa Rica the tip is included in
the bill. There is a 10% service charge and 13% tax. It
is not necessary to tip.
- Homestay Information
- History of Spanish
- History of Costa Rica | <urn:uuid:4a203d19-141c-4664-bb17-27115b5e6fe7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.universal-edu.com/faqs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937071 | 1,300 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Perry promises to "get Americans back to work," but his policies -- from backroom drug company giveaways to green energy subsidies -- eerily mirror the unseemly big business-big government collusion that has characterized President Obama's presidency. Judging by his record in Texas, Perrynomics might just be low-tax Obamanomics.
Corporate welfare king Boeing provided a formative experience for Perry. Weeks after Perry took over the governorship in 2001, the jet maker announced it was moving its corporate headquarters out of Seattle and was considering Chicago, Denver and Dallas. Undoubtedly, Texas provided the best business environment: lower taxes, less regulation, better weather, less traffic. But Chicago won because Mayor Richard Daley and Gov. George Ryan offered Boeing $63 million in "incentives," including a $1 million buyout to a tenant who was occupying Boeing's preferred office space.
One problem: Texas' slower legislative process prevented the state from making a counteroffer. Perry was determined to fix this inefficiency so he would never be out-corporate-welfared again.
In his next State of the State address, Perry pushed the Legislature to create the Texas Enterprise Fund, giving the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker the power to hand out multimillion-dollar grants to businesses seeking to relocate to or expand within the state. Two years later, Perry and the Legislature created another subsidy bank, called the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, using taxpayer money to invest in high-tech companies. Perry made government a venture capital fund.
Muckrakers at the Los Angeles Times and the Austin American Statesman have shown a strong correlation between Perry's biggest campaign contributors and the money handled by these funds and Perry's other public-private partnership. Almost half of Perry's "mega-donors," according to the Times, have received profitable favors from the Texas government. Poultry magnate Joe Sanderson, for instance, gave Perry's campaign $165,000 and received $500,000 from the Texas Enterprise Fund to open a facility in Waco, the Times reports.
The Austin paper documents the unsavory case of $80,000 Perry donor David Nance winning a $4.5 million grant from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. A regional board had denied the grant to Nance's Convergen LifeSciences, but Perry intervened and ushered the grant through.
And just as President Obama uses renewable energy as an excuse for steering taxpayer money to big business, Perry also loves green corporate welfare. Perry was a featured speaker at the national wind lobby's 2008 conference, where he touted his 2005 law requiring Texans to purchase wind and solar energy -- all in the name of "job creation" and business growth. If you force people to buy a product, of course the businesses selling that product will grow.
Perry also shares Obama's tendency to enrich drug companies, employing friendly revolving-door lobbyists. Perry's little bit of pharma welfare was his 2007 executive order requiring all sixth-grade girls to be vaccinated for human papillomavirus, which can cause cervical cancer. Drugmaker Merck happened to have exclusive rights to the HPV vaccine, and Merck's top lobbyist in Austin happened to be Perry's former chief of staff, Mike Toomey. Also, Merck's political action committee had cut a $6,000 check to Perry. The state Legislature reversed this executive overreach.
Mandating Merck's vaccine, Gardasil, was an extraordinary step. When governments require school kids to get vaccinated, it's typically against the types of disease that can be spread in the classroom. As conservative columnist Michelle Malkin puts it, "young girls and boys are simply not at an increased risk of contracting HPV in the classroom" the way they could pick up measles.
Perry's actions as governor suggest that for him, "pro-business" means "corporatism." His words are telling, too. While critiquing Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in his book "Fed Up," Perry states that economic recovery came from "World War II, when FDR was finally persuaded to unleash private enterprise." Is he talking about the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, complete with its rationing? Or maybe FDR "unleashed private enterprise" through the War Production Board or the War Manpower Commission?
Or maybe Rick Perry simply conflates private enterprise with private profit.
After four years of bailouts, drug-lobby-crafted health care "reform," corporate handouts in the name of "stimulus" and "green jobs," and cash-for-clunkers boondoggles, does Perry really think what we need is more corporatism?
Timothy P.Carney, The Examiner's senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Monday and Thursday, and his stories and blog posts appear on ExaminerPolitics.com. | <urn:uuid:17b4a69b-eb54-4f6f-8425-6c99f213d309> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonexaminer.com/the-cowboy-corporatist-rides-to-the-rescue/article/117401 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958708 | 1,003 | 1.679688 | 2 |
On a recent Sunday morning, I glanced at my newspaper and had another “cringe” moment. The story on the front page of The New York Times, like the Sholom Rubashkin, Bernie Madoff and Baruch Goldstein stories before it, exposed an underworld of evil with Jews at the center. This time, the papers focused on child abuse in the ultra-Orthodox community and on the alleged failure of Brooklyn’s district attorney to aggressively pursue the perpetrators. But what bothered me most was that the community’s own leaders seemed more intent on punishing the whistleblowers than on protecting the children.
The clinical psychologist in me says child abuse can happen anywhere; no community is immune. To pretend otherwise is psychologically understandable but morally untenable. That it happens is sadly no surprise, even in religious communities. But when I take off the psychologist’s mantle, it’s harder for me to simply see this situation in relative terms.
The impact on the victims is of most concern, but, ironically, not what makes my insides churn. It’s broader questions that trouble me. Where are the real leaders? Where is the courage that should characterize Jewish leadership?
Leaders cover up these kinds of problems to protect a community from shame, but in so doing they actually have become arbiters of shame. They incite the very suspicions that they try to hide, and they lose credibility and trust in other areas as a result of their territoriality. We, as Jews, all look bad as a result.
I don’t want someone else’s moral crime to make me feel bad about myself, but on some level it can’t be helped. If it is true that “kol Yisrael areivim ze ba zeh” — that we are all responsible for the behavior of other Jews — much as we might want to deny the connections and disassociate ourselves from the problem, we cannot. We must bear some responsibility and exert some pressure. We cannot let problems like this go undiscussed just because we are not members of a specific sect or denomination. A Jew is a Jew is a Jew. It’s the peoplehood test at its most sensitive.
And if this is true for those of us on the outside of the ultra-Orthodox community, it is all the more true for members of that community. Their leaders betrayed an elemental Jewish value. They failed to act with responsibility and, as a result, put their own members at risk. Those most vulnerable became even more vulnerable, and even those of us distant from the problem suffer as members of the same religion.
This is a profound failure of leadership. People looking up to their rabbinic leaders for guidance need to see exemplars of bravery and moral clarity. And for those among us who care most about Jewish law, cases like this push the law to its uncomfortable limits. Open up the book of Leviticus, and behaviors like this are condemned with the strongest language of prohibition.
It’s all well and good to maintain traditions of life as they were in 18th-century Eastern Europe, but if the uses of cell phones and antibiotics are regarded as permissible advances, so should be the case with protecting children from abuse. Hiding the evil in our midst was once a way to protect us from non-Jews who might make us suffer more as a result. But today, the evil is often within. The same mechanisms we used then to protect ourselves in village shtetl life are now obstructing healthy, functional community infrastructures now.
Denial, repression and projection are defense mechanisms used to deal with anxiety. Sometimes these mechanisms are successful in managing anxiety generated by inner conflict. But they are never successful in defending against the ultimate reality. In his 2001 corporate best-seller, “Good to Great,” Jim Collins wrote about “facing brutal facts“ and the necessity to do so in order to achieve effective leadership. It’s time for ultra-Orthodox leaders to face some brutal facts about their own authority and start to lead. When they don’t, we all pay the price.
Misha Galperin, a trained clinical psychologist, is president and CEO of the Jewish Agency International Development and author of the forthcoming book “Reimagining Leadership” (Jewish Lights). | <urn:uuid:42067dc9-6593-45b4-b168-49338f466e0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forward.com/articles/156332/failure-of-leadership-on-child-sex-abuse/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957008 | 895 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The short answer to this question is yes.
The shortest Apostle's Fast for those on the Old Calendar is 8 days.
The shortest Apostle's Fast for those on the New Calendar is -5! days.
The Apostles Fast occurs on the Monday after the Sunday of All Saints (this is the Sunday following Pentecost), and continues until the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, which occurs on June 29th according to the church calendar (July 12 civil date).
All Orthodox Christians (except for the unfortunate Church of Finland, which follows the Western Paschalia) follow the Orthodox Paschalia, and therefore have the feasts of Pascha, and all the commemorations which depend of the date of Pascha on the same date in a given year. Since the beginning of the Apostles fast always depends on the date of Pascha in a year, all these Orthodox supposedly start the Apostles fast on the same day, but they end the fast on a different date, depending on whether they follow the church calendar (Julian calendar) or the so called "New" calendar, which is the civil date.
The New Calendarists encounter an inextricable problem during some years. The Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, which they celebrate on June 29th according to the Civil calendar, can sometimes occur BEFORE the Apostles fast actually begins!
A concrete example is the year 2002.
Unfortunately, that is two days **after** the day of Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29 - NC) -- so the Fast **ends** before it begins.
This is TOTAL NONSENSE! Such Alice in Wonderland absurdities are only possible by those who follow the New Calendar!
Father Alexander Lebedev calls the days between the Feast of the Apostles and the time it SHOULD have begun as "minus" fast days. In the year 2001, the New Calendarists will carefully observe -2 fast days before the Apostles Feast. Fr Alexander has asked "What do you eat on a "minus" fast day?" He posits "twice as much?" I wonder, perhaps on those days, one is allowed to eat ONLY meat!
Of course, this distressing example is only one of many which show the utter stupidity of the New Calendar innovation. Some defenders of this calendar trumpet that the calendar is only a tool, and their following the New Calendar matters not a whit. They use a rather strange tool! It causes them to ignore the apostles fast some years.
Thanks to Fr Alexander Lebedev ([email protected], whose typically thorough and witty post to the "Orthodox Christianity" List ([email protected]) on June 13th (new style!) provided the main basis for this essay.
We confidently recommend our web service provider, Orthodox Internet Services: excellent personal customer service, a fast and reliable server, excellent spam filtering, and an easy to use comprehensive control panel. | <urn:uuid:83198a5a-702c-4d3b-b90c-9ce9d2cf8936> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://orthodox.net/articles/apostles-fast-skipping.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93166 | 610 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Holocaust Denial on Trial, Trial Judgment: Electronic Edition, by Charles GrayTable of Contents
|<< Pattern of the judgment o...||<|
Evidence adduced in relation to the issue of justification
4.14Before setting out the arguments and evidence, I will identify the witnesses whose evidence was tendered on each side in relation to the defence of justification.
4.15I start with the evidence for the Defendants. As I have already said, Professor Lipstadt did not give evidence (although a witness statement from her had been served).
4.16The only witness of fact for the Defendants was Ms Rebecca Guttman who is employed by the American Jewish Committee as an executive assistant. Her statement, admitted under the Civil Evidence Act, related to an event arranged by an allegedly right-wing organisation in the US with which Irving is said to have connections.
4.17The main corpus of evidence for the Defendants was provided by academic historians whose evidence was by consent admitted as expert evidence. Written and oral evidence was submitted by the following:
- (i)Professor Richard Evans, who is Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and has written many historical works about Germany. He gave evidence principally about Irving's historiography, his exculpation of Hitler and hiis denial of the Holocaust.
- (ii)Professor Robert Jan van Pelt, who is a Professor of Architecture in the School of Architecture, University of Waterloo in Canada. Professor van Pelt is an acknowledged authority on Auschwitz, about which he has written extensively, and this was the subject of his evidence.
- (iii)Professor Christopher Browning, who is a Professor of History at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington. He gave evidence on the evidence about the implementation of the Final Solution, covering the shooting of Jews and others in the East and the gassing of Jews in death camps (apart from Auschwitz).
- (iv)Dr Peter Longerich, who is Reader in the Department of German at the Royal Holloway College, University of London and a specialist in the Nazi era. He gave evidence of Hitler's role in the persecution of the Jews under the Nazi regime and of the systematic character of the Nazi policy for the extermination of the Jews.
- (v)Professor Hajo Funke, who is Professor of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin. He gave evidence of Irving's alleged association with right-wing and neo-Nazi groups and individuals in Germany.
4.18Not unnaturally (since it is his views and his conduct as an historian which are being attacked by the Defendants) evidence in rebuttal of the case of the Defendants on justification came predominantly from Irving himself. The course which was taken with his evidence was as follows: he submitted a brief witness statement, which did not address the majority of the particulars relied on by the Defendants in support of their plea of justification. He provided some elaboration of his response to that plea in the course of his opening and in the course of answers to my questions. But it was mainly in the course of his answers in cross-examination and his cross-examination of the Defendants' witnesses that the detail of his case emerged.
4.19In support of his denial of the allegation that he broke an agreement in relation to the microfiches in the Moscow archive containing the diaries of Goebbels, Irving called Peter Millar, a freelance journalist, who at the time of the discovery of those diaries in 1992 was acting for The Sunday Times.
4.20Irving summoned to give evidence on his behalf two historians who were unwilling to testify voluntarily. Their evidence was directed primarily to the question of Irving's standing as an historian (in which connection I have already mentioned them) rather than to the plea of justification. The first was Professor Donald Watt, who is an Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics and was described by Irving as "the doyen of diplomatic historians". Professor Watt was invited by Irving to give evidence about the evaluation of wartime documentation and about Irving's reputation and ability as an historian. The other witness summoned by Irving to give evidence on his behalf was Sir John Keegan, the Defence Editor for Telegraph Newspapers whose knighthood as for services to military history. He too dealt with Irving's standing as an historian. Another witness who gave evidence for Irving, in his case voluntarily, was Professor Kevin Macdonald, who is a Professor of Psychology at California State University-Long Beach. He gave evidence on what he termed "Jewish-gentile interactions" from the perspective of evolutionary biology. There was no cross-examination by the Defendants' counsel of any of these witnesses.
4.21In the course of my summary of the evidence and arguments on the issue of justification, I shall need to make frequent reference to the distinguished academic experts whom, I have identified above. I hope that they will understand if, in referring to them, I dispense with their academic titles (as I have done with in the case of Professor Lipstadt). No disrespect is intended: it simply makes for easier reading.
|<< Pattern of the judgment o...||<| | <urn:uuid:d311ab2f-5df3-4ad8-8f92-f5d9ada4c056> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hdot.org/ru/trial/judgement/04.05/view/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978138 | 1,051 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Relief from ear pain is only minutes away!
Ear pain, earaches and nasal and sinus congestion are the bane of millions of people every year during flu season. Since 1988 the Ear Ease has become a staple item in tens of thousands of home medicine cabinets. The Ear Ease has proven to be both safe and effective in providing general relief due to general head congestion.
Natural ear congestion remedies are becoming more popular as the general public becomes aware of some of the problems associated with antibiotics, ear tube surgery and other “medical” solutions. Every year around cold season, thousands of people brace themselves for another winter of head congestion. Sinus, nasal, and ear congestion can, and often are related to one another. And while we’re on the subject, let’s not forget the lungs and the overall respiratory system. It’s not uncommon for an infection to take hold in one area and within a few of days you’ve developed a full blown head and chest infection. This, coupled with serious congestion problems can leave you in a state where everything is blocked up, stuffed up and nothing is moving. The only thing you know for sure is that you are in for a serious bout of discomfort.
For centuries people have been using hot and cold therapy to open up sinuses, blocked ears and other congested areas. What the Neti Pot does for the sinuses an Ear Ease can do for your inner ear congestion, as well as your sinuses. When focused heat is applied to the affected area, the blood flow in that area increases. This serves to reduce the congestion and promote the much needed drainage required to release the pent up pressure.
Once you’ve opened up the blocked passage way, your inner ear will tend to drain naturally. In the majority of cases this should provide a marked reduction in ear pressure and pain. Although any congestion is uncomfortable, inner ear congestion can cause excruciating pain if not properly addressed. If left untreated there is a real possibility that your eardrum will ultimately rupture as a result of the increasing pressure, possibly exasperated by a growing infection. If you are experiencing severe pain, a blocked, swollen or infected Eustachian tube will be at the heart of the problem. The Ear Ease provides a holistic alternative to the common and temporary pain numbing medications typically found on the drugstore shelves.
The Ear Ease is fast, effective and drug free... and it’s safe for children of all ages!
No Chemicals - Non-Invasive
Safe for Infants - Reuseable
By naturally relieving ear congestion in this manner, you don’t have to worry about the side effects of over the counter or prescription medications. Many pregnant women report frequent or constant ear congestion problems. Pregnant mothers can employ a non antibiotic solution to treat their ear congestion malady; a true drug free solution that won’t harm the baby by using the Ear Ease ear ache pain reliever. | <urn:uuid:36e8e0a5-d5e1-489f-9ea0-15637ab893a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.earease.com/congestion.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94214 | 614 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Wind: 5 mph
Corporate America is at it again—claiming the Constitution as its own and demeaning our Bill of Rights all in the name of corporate personhood. Do corporations have the same rights as Americans do? Should corporations have the right to plead the Fifth Amendment or exercise the right of free speech by funding political candidates? The implications are staggering and are mobilizing a nation of concerned citizens, prominent leaders and vocal opponents of the corporate personhood agenda.
The Move to Amend organization, led by David Cobb, is on the forefront of this battle as it rejects the notion that corporations are persons. The goal of Move to Amend is a campaign for a constitutional amendment that would firmly establish that only human beings, not corporations, are entitled to inalienable constitutional rights.
With the help of key players such as Senator Ginny Lyons, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Vermont is poised to become the first state in the union to call for a constitutional amendment. Concerned Valley residents are involved in circulating petitions to bring this important issue to a vote on Town Meeting Day. Communities will be asked to vote on whether or not to urge the Vermont Congressional delegation and the U.S. Congress to propose a U.S. constitutional amendment that clearly defines that corporations cannot be considered persons under the U.S. Constitution. Please join the concerned citizenry of the great state of Vermont in supporting the Move to Amend effort on Town Meeting Day.
A series of educational events are taking place over the next eight weeks to bring attention to the important issue of corporate personhood. All are open to the public.
February 27: Are Corporations People? A panel discussion as citizens respond to Citizens United takes place at 7 p.m. at Saint Michael's College, McCarthy Arts Center.
Panelists include John Bonifaz, co-founder and director, Free Speech For People, Jerry Greenfield, co-founder, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc., Anthony Iarrapino, Esq., citizen activist, Vermont state Senator Virginia “Ginny” Lyons, moderator: Dr. Paul Olsen, Saint Michael's College.
March 1: Film screening of The Corporation at 7 p.m., at the Big Picture Theater, Waitsfield. Introduction by Gaelan Brown.
March 14: Move to Amend with Jerry Greenfield, Senator Ginny Lyons and keynote speaker David Cobb at 7 p.m., Ira at Allen Chapel, University of Vermont, Burlington. Free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
David Cobb, attorney, activist and former presidential candidate, will speak on the key issues of the Move to Amend campaign: an organized nationwide effort to create a 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that addresses two serious legal issues threatening democracy in America: corporate personhood and money being considered free speech.
March 15: Green Mountain Global Forum presents “We the People, Not We the Corporations” with keynote speakers: David Cobb, activist, former Green Party presidential candidate; Vermont Senator Virginia “Ginny” Lyons; Jerry Greenfield, co-founder, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. 7 p.m., Big Picture Theater, with free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Please join Green Mountain Global Forum and our panel of distinguished guests for a compelling evening focused on the topic of corporate personhood, its threat to democracy and the national and statewide effort to support a constitutional amendment that clearly defines that corporations are not people and cannot enjoy rights as such. | <urn:uuid:8763fb47-f5ce-44bd-9f6e-b26acac768da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.valleyreporter.com/index.php/en/news/myview/395-we-the-people-not-we-the-corporations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933673 | 722 | 1.789063 | 2 |
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania state senators who launched a review Wednesday on what the state can do to improve school safety in the wake of December's elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn., will have a complicated task on their hands.
Senators on the education and emergency-preparedness committees were told there is no one-size-fits-all solution for Pennsylvania's 500 school districts, and that administrators often have more pressing day-to-day safety concerns than preparing for the unlikely appearance of a heavily armed and deranged intruder bent on killing dozens of children.
Besides, districts disagree about whether it is wise to arm school security guards, and training school personnel to deal with armed intruders will be expensive and time-consuming.
In any case, some things can't be stopped, even when security procedures are in place and teachers react effectively.
"Up in Newtown, they did everything right," said Education Secretary Ron Tomalis. "But there's evil in this world, and evil once in a while touches our children."
Pocono representatives were among those who testified: Mile Silsby, superintendent of the Wallenpaupack Area School District, and Pike County Sheriff Phil Bueki attended the hearing, chaired by Lebanon County Sen. Mike Folmer, R-48, and Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, who represents part of Monroe County and all of Pike.
"You never think it can happen in your backyard," said Silsby when asked by Chester County Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-19, why it had taken school officials so long to "wake up" to the issue of safety in schools.
"We need to now know it can happen in rural Pennsylvania, urban Pennsylvania, or anywhere," Silsby said.
But the issue of how to best protect students is not a straightforward one, and steps to safety can vary by school district, officials said.
"There is no one size fits all. "» We need to be able to provide flexibility at the local level for school districts to do what they think is best," Tomalis said.
Some of the things that can be improved across the state include: communication between school districts and local law enforcement, and the implementation of regular emergency response drills and standardized emergency training for administrators and teachers, officials said.
School resource officers should not only provide security, but also training for students and staff, Bueki said.
"It's very important that the school resource officer is not just a gun walking down the hallway," he said. "It's imperative that the officer teach anti-bullying and prevention," he said.
The state also needs to provide better training for school resource officers.
"It's kind of sad that I need to send my officers to New Jersey for school resource officer training," Bueki said.
The state and school districts should focus their resources on planning and regular training so emergency responders, teachers and administrators know just what to do in an active shooter situation, said Glenn Cannon, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
"We have signs up in our offices that say, 'Hope is not a plan and failure is not an option.' "» We stress over and over again, the beginning starts with a plan — a living, dynamic document, not something that sits on a shelf," Cannon said.
The state police have been training all their officers in active shooter response since 2006, said State Police Commissioner Col. Frank Noonan. In addition, all offers now carry shotguns or rifles, he said.
"The common thread that goes through this is mental health," Noonan said when asked by Folmer whether there were any warning signs that were overlooked during the nation's most recent school shootings.
The issue is, it is very difficult to determine who is truly at risk. "These people are generally less violent than the rest of the population, but when they do become violent, they are not rational. They really act out," Noonan said.
That's why the timeliness of local law enforcement to responding to such violent attacks is so important.
More and more municipalities are disbanding their local law enforcement and relying on state police.
That's of particular concern to Noonan, because it can take police a while to respond, especially in rural parts of the state. Still, Noonan said he would be "very nervous" about arming school staffers.
"I'd much rather they hire armed guards. You can't go one day a year and have that be adequate training" he said, adding that troopers undergo six months of training before they are given firearms.
In the meantime, a team of troopers have assessed the security of 250 school buildings, and another 240 schools are on a waiting list.
"This is not a simple, easy kind of thing, where we just put armed guards in the schools," Dinniman said. "It's the teachers, students and community. "» It's not just a school problem, it's a community problem."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:7128cbf1-b574-49cf-aa33-c5a0a5a7b61d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130214/NEWS/302140324/-1/SHARPMAG0205 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973747 | 1,035 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Editor's Note: Although this article is aimed at athletes, if you're looking to get into shredded, athletic shape, try some of the exercises Coach DeFranco describes. You can practically feel the fat melting off your body!
Mental and physical toughness, anaerobic conditioning, improved sprinting speed, muscular endurance, "man" strength. What if I told you that all of these characteristics can be trained simultaneously with one form of training? Would you believe me? You better, because it's true! In this article, I'll show you how to do it!
The Strongman Cometh
You've all been there. You're on the couch late at night with your remote control in hand, desperately trying to find something interesting on TV. Your thumb actually starts getting a pump from changing the channel so much. Then you come across some freak of nature flipping over an 800 pound tractor tire!
Whether you're a world-renowned strength coach or a 98 pound accountant, you can't help but become engrossed in this unorthodox, yet oddly interesting, display. Well, strongman training is no longer a spectator sport, and you don't have to be a World's Strongest Man contestant to participate and reap the benefits.
One of the reasons people love watching strongman competitions on TV is that the events aren't "normal." After all, flipping over a car, bending a steel bar over your head, dragging a 600 pound anchor, and carrying oddly-shaped stones aren't everyday occurrences. Yet the "abnormality" of these events is the exact reason why this type of training is tailor-made for mainstream athletes and hardcore fitness buffs, not just strongmen.
This is because the events that unfold on the athletic field usually aren't "normal." They don't usually go according to plan. For example, how many times does a football play happen exactly how it was drawn up on the chalkboard? The answer is almost never! This example holds true for almost every sport and, of course, life in general.
The beauty of strongman training is that there's no one way to perform the exercises. You usually end up improvising to complete the event. In other words, things don't usually go according to plan! The tire doesn't always flip over the same way. The sled doesn't always glide easily over the surface. The farmers walk implements don't remain stationary as you zigzag through your course and the sand in the sandbag moves all over the place when you try to lift it.
The awkwardness of these events builds true, "functional" strength from head to toe. This enables you to strengthen muscles that are nearly impossible to strengthen with traditional weight training.
Now, there are many strongman events to choose from and they all work. The problem with some of them is that they just aren't practical because the implements are very difficult to obtain. Plus, many coaches and athletes seem to get confused with regards to incorporating this type of training into their existing programs. Below I provide you with the events I find to be the most practical, and I'll also explain how to obtain the implements. Then, I'll give you a sample strongman program for athletes.
Strongman Events for Athletes
Empty Keg Toss
The keg toss is a great exercise for improving explosive hip extension and posterior chain strength. After a general warm-up, we usually use the keg toss as our first event. The keg toss acts as a final warm-up exercise and it also excites the nervous system for the more grueling events to follow.
It's very easy to obtain an empty keg. Go to a liquor store, buy a keg, invite some hot chicks over, drink all the beer, wake up in the morning with a hangover, a strange woman sleeping in your bed, and an empty keg! Or you can just go to a liquor store and ask if you can have one of their empties. Most will just look at you funny and give you the keg. Some may charge you a couple of bucks for them. It's that simple.
This is a classic strongman event. I can't think of a single muscle in your body that this exercise doesn't strengthen! I also can't think of an athlete who wouldn't benefit from this exercise.
It's easier to obtain a tire than most people think, and you can't beat the price: they're free! Check your local phone book for the nearest tire company in your area. (Tire companies are pretty common; they're just usually not located in recognizable parts of your town). Call the company and tell them you're willing to take some tires off of their hands. They love for people to come and take used tires away from them. This is because they usually have to pay to get rid of their old tires. In essence, you're doing these people a favor!
The farmers walk is an incredible tool for improving your muscular endurance, anaerobic capacity, grip strength and your upper back, trap and oblique strength. It's also great for building hip, knee and ankle stability. You can carry any awkward object or just use the heaviest pair of dumbbells you can find.
I like to perform the "zigzag" farmers walk. Get six cones and set up one cone every ten yards. Place the first cone at the starting line and off-set each cone to the left or right from the previous cone. This creates a "zigzag" path which requires a high-level of oblique and core strength in general.
This summer we got our implements from Brutestrength.com and we loved them. They were well worth the money.
Backward Sled Drag
Since we do a ton of posterior chain work in the weight room, we chose the backward sled drag as our strongman event. It's a killer! No other exercise crushes your quads like the backward sled drag! Simply face your sled, grab the rope, turn your toes slightly outward and walk backwards using short, quick steps.
I recommend the sleds I purchased from Elitefts, but you can drag anything, though. Hell, you can even wrap a rope around your tractor tire and drag the tire if you like!
The tug-of-war competition turned out to be one of the most competitive (and fun) events of the summer. We'd break our athletes up into teams or we'd perform one-on-one competitions. The competitive nature in everyone really comes out with the tug-of-war. (I even had a fistfight break out with two of my strongest high school kids during one of our competitions!)
We either award the winning team/player with a T-shirt or trophy, or we punish the losing team with extra sled drags! This "punishment" really got guys motivated to win. This event also acts as "vanity" work as your biceps will get one hell of a pump!
Try to get a rope that's thick enough so your hands don't get completely ripped apart. I've seen thick ropes sold in various hardware stores, boating stores, as well as any store where scaffolding equipment is sold.
Now that you know my favorite strongman events, let's put everything together into a structured program. Obviously, there are hundreds of variations that'll work. I'll provide you with a sample program I used this summer with great success.
This workout was usually performed on Friday or Saturday. We performed it late in the week so that it wouldn't take away from our speed and conditioning workouts performed earlier in the week. Strongman training acted as our max-effort lower body strength day. We didn't perform any max-effort lower body training in the weight room during the six weeks that we implemented this training. Dynamic-effort box squats with sub-maximal weights, posterior chain work and abs were performed on Tuesday or Wednesday during this period.
Here's a sample of one of the strongman workouts we used this summer:
A) Overhead Keg Toss: 5 tosses, rest one minute between tosses
B) Tire Flip: 3 sets of 5 flips, rest 3-4 minutes between sets, or 3 sets of 30 seconds, rest 3-4 minutes between sets. (In the timed set variation, the athlete performs as many tire flips as possible in the given timeframe.)
C) "Zigzag" Farmers Walk: Perform 3 sets of 50 yards around cones. Rest 3-4 minutes between sets.
D) Backward Sled Drag: 2 sets of 40-50 yards. Rest one minute between sets. This is a great "finisher!"
E) Tug-of-War: The tug-of-war separates the men from the boys. By the end of this workout, most guys are exhausted. Perform a two-out-of-three or three-out-of-five series to finish your workout. We rest one minute between each "war."
Are You Tough Enough?
Besides all of the above mentioned benefits, there's one overlooked component I feel outweighs the rest: the psychological aspect of strongman training.
Completing a strongman workout gives you a feeling of accomplishment that you just don't get with "regular" training. I witnessed complete transformations in mental toughness and confidence this summer with my high school, college and even my professional athletes.
After a couple of weeks of training in this manner, guys started walking around with chips on their shoulders. There was an "edge" to the athletes who participated in strongman training. It was as if they knew that no one in the world was working harder than they were. The workouts were tough, and by completing them they became tougher, both mentally and physically.
These workouts aren't for everyone. Before you decide to give this type of training a try, ask yourself the following questions:
Am I focused enough?
Am I strong enough?
Am I tough enough?
If you answered yes, then the world of strongman training is waiting on you!
About the Author
Joe DeFranco's training techniques have become a hot topic worldwide. This didn't happen by accident. The training programs Joe develops and the athletes he produces speak for themselves. You can learn more about Joe, his athletes, and his techniques at DeFrancosTraining.com.
Site by Yellow House Design | <urn:uuid:34e42a5d-8c5b-43ad-a478-4be4c7d9ba7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/38-articles/62-strongman-training-for-athletes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964947 | 2,137 | 1.546875 | 2 |
How’s that post title grab you?
I attended a talk by Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI tonight called “The struggle for a more mature discipleship.” I had an experience of deep recognition of how God works in my own life in listening to this man. So, for the next few days/weeks, you are going to have put up with several of my reflections on various things Ron said tonight, and what he will say in another talk tomorrow night. I hope you will join me with your own reflections. (If you are reading this on my Facebook page, I encourage you to leave your comments over on my blog so as to widen the conversation: http://nunsuch.wordpress.com.)
To explain the title of this post, here’s the scriptural context:
USCCB – NAB – John 6:53-68
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.” As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Ron said that behind Peter’s answer was probably an overwhelming desire to cut and run. The idea of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood must have seemed repugnant on both an intellectual and an emotional level. And yet, Peter’s faith that Jesus could be trusted, that he had the words of eternal life, won the day. Ron gave us a quote by C.S. Lewis, who despite his reluctance, converted to Christianity, writing that he had come to know that “the harshness of God is kinder than the softness of man and God’s compulsion is our liberation.”
Think about that…God has a compulsion to liberate us! And there’s no doubt…365 times in the Bible, we are told, “Fear not” or “Don’t be afraid,” etc. We are to be free from fear. A religion that compels its adherents to do or refrain from doing under threat of consequences may produce results in terms of behavior, but does it nurture an alive and mature faith that does the right thing out of love for God and neighbor?
Yes, things were much tidier in those days when faithful Catholics were afraid to miss Mass on Sunday for fear of dying with an unconfessed mortal sin on their souls. And it is true that we do not always carry our freedom well, often forgetting the responsibility that comes with it. Things get very messy as we struggle to come to a more mature way of wearing this freedom that God is compelled pour out on us. The question is how we can love each other through those growing pains of coming to a mature adult faith, with compassion, not judgement.
I don’t know about you, but God’s not finished with me yet. I’m still a “work-in-progress.”
Read Full Post » | <urn:uuid:5da2c21f-66de-4263-9481-56df7ac5b18d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nunsuch.wordpress.com/category/spirituality/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981592 | 972 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.