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I had a total knee replacement 2 to 3 tears ago on my right knee. After surgery and for over a week that leg looked like the after math of a severe meeting with a baseball bat. I have never seen that before. I have had over 12 operations ending in 1999 with a total knee on the Left knee and never did it look like that. During recovery of the Right Knee things went very well and very quickly, compared to how long it took on my left knee. In fact range of motion that returned to the right knee was greater and faster then for my left knee. All seemed to be going very good but over the last year things have been getting worse. 1. range of motion is decreasing not only in the knee but up at the hip as well. I can not cross my leg without helping it and then just barely and it hurts like hell from the knee to the hip with the hip hurting the most. 2. The longer I stand or am on my feet the more my leg swells from the toes to the knee. Primarily on the right leg but also some on the left. No I do not have diabeatis. As for exercise I have to walk everywere I go as I do not have transportation and have been walking for close on to three years.
Naturally I am having all the other assorted pains to go along with this to include back pain which from time to time becomes so bad as to keep me awake at nights. What is really surprising at times is pain in the right knee joint, and I mean right in the middle where the bone has been removed and the artifical joint now resides, when that starts it is really sharp and painful.
What is causing all of this? Is it possible that after the operation not enough blood vessels on the return circuit were able to reheal so there is a delay in that circulation that causes the swelling and in turn the other problems? If so how can I correct this? Walking/exercise only seems to be making it worse, and I doubt that staying off my feet well do any good, so I am at a loss. What do you think? You can email me at [email protected] thsnk you. | <urn:uuid:219faee6-e11a-48e9-bb5a-2a05667d488b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.abcnews.go.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?action=forward&tsn=1&nav=emailPrint&webtag=ABCHealth&tid=2038&ptpw=y | 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 | 0.975182 | 478 | 1.5625 | 2 |
ROYAL OAK — A 30-foot glass sculpture glows at night in a median of Woodward Avenue, shedding light on the city’s cruising history with 16 images harkening back to the days of chrome-laden cars and drive-in restaurants.
About 70 people attended an illumination ceremony Wednesday evening in a median near 13 Mile Road, where the $150,000 piece of public art designed by Kyle Evans of Royal Oak was installed.
With the push of a remote control button, the solar-powered lights were turned on and drivers could see Evans’ sketches done in gray tones to look like pencil drawings.
The Woodward Avenue Action Association (WA3) secured a $120,000 grant from the National Scenic Byways and came up with $30,000 of private donations to pay for the fourth tribute. The others are in Ferndale, Pontiac and Highland Park.
Three more Woodward tribute sculptures could follow soon with Berkley under consideration and Detroit a must, said Heather Carmona, WA3 executive director.
“This has really taken off and we’ve got grant funding to do three or four more,” Carmona said. “The hard part is raising the $30,000 match.”
In Royal Oak, the final donations came from Leo’s Coney Island, which contributed $4,000, and The Michael Chetcuti Foundation, which chipped in $2,000.
Evans, a 31-year-old exterior designer of Jeeps, said he made sure not to badge any brands or companies with his ode to Royal Oak’s cruising heritage. Carmona said he succeeded.
“This is the first time we have done a mosaic of original images and it’s very conceptual in a way,” she said. “It doesn’t scream ’50s and sock hops. There’s the fin of a car, part of a roadway and piston, the Totem Pole and Ted’s Drive-In.”
Woodward was recognized as a National Scenic Byway status in 2002 for its 250 historic sites, 150 annual events and 55 attractions between the Detroit River and Pontiac. The tribute towers are being installed to link the 27-mile corridor, act as landmarks, and help brand Woodward as a tourist destination. Continued...
A similar illumination ceremony took place last week in Highland Park, where the Woodward tribute honors the city’s ties to the Ford Motor Co. and its $5 workday and assembly line to build Model Ts.
“The tributes tell the story of what makes Woodward one of a kind,” Carmona said.
Other backers of the Royal Oak tribute include Beaumont Health System, Northwood Credit Union, Northwood Dream Cruise Committee, Northwood Merchants Association and the Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce.
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Stephen Frye has covered the police beat and courts for The Oakland Press and now serves as online editor for www.theoaklandpress.com.
Informs on and discusses current matters of legal interest to readers of The Oakland Press and to consumers of legal services in the community.
Caren Gittleman likes talking cats. She'll discuss everything about them. Share your stories and ask her questions about your favorite feline.
Roger Beukema shares news from Lansing that impacts sportsmen (this means ladies as well) and talks about things he finds when he goes overseas to visit his children, and adding your comments into the mix.
Join Jonathan Schechter as he shares thoughts on our natural world in Oakland County and beyond. | <urn:uuid:e19158cd-ff62-4dc9-b6b2-b4e4e18b7085> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/2012/10/03/news/local_news/doc506ce82ced596118912233.txt?viewmode=fullstory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930629 | 1,008 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Now here’s one of those tanigble victories for the Occupy movement. In Atlanta, protesters saved the house of an Iraq war veteran from foreclosure.
Activists began occupying Brigitte Walker’s home on Dec. 6. By the end of that first week, JPMorgan Chase, which owns her mortgage, began discussing with the activists and Walker the possibility of a loan modification. Chase’s modification offer became official Monday morning. The offer will result, Walker tells The Huffington Post, in hundreds per month in savings.
Before Occupy Atlanta set up its tents on her lawn, Chase had set an eviction date for Jan. 3. Now, Walker, who lives with her girlfriend and her two children, will get to stay in her Riverdale, Ga. home.
“I strongly believe Occupy Atlanta accelerated the process and helped save my home,” Walker says. “If it had not been for them standing up, I probably wouldn’t be having this happy ending.”
This model worked before the Occupy movement, and now it has a much larger pool of activists from which to draw. Obviously we’re not going to solve the foreclosure crisis by having 30 people sit on the lawn of every house facing foreclosure in America. But it’s a fact that the attention generated by these high-profile actions has consistently led to results. That means it ought to be attempted more often. The servicers will foreclose, evict and repossess unless the stories are told. And homeowners will have these vacant properties in their neighborhood, pushing down their property values. One thing that strikes me is that nobody supports these foreclosure defense actions, or resettling families into vacant homes, more than the neighbors. They want a community around them. They don’t want blight in their neighborhoods.
In a way, NACA fulfills this responsibility. They put the individuals in front of the servicers so they cannot bloodlessly make decisions without looking in their eyes. All the Occupy Our Homes movement is doing is forcing attention on the larger issue. Chase will be happy to resolve those and maintain its public image while putting those unseen borrowers into foreclosure. The proper reaction to that is to highlight these issues more. There are thousands of potential stories just like Brigitte Walker’s, and thousands of potential activists ready to act on the situations. It’s time to get to work. | <urn:uuid:0d233931-38ec-4458-a24d-14c01ae99ad6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/12/20/occupy-atlanta-saves-womans-home-from-foreclosure/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967742 | 492 | 1.703125 | 2 |
MAY 5, 1960
MACOMB, Ill.—I have just received a reprint of an editorial published in a Jersey City, N.J., newspaper about a year ago. It points to a situation that I think has not been given sufficient consideration by the public and that is the fact that in great areas of our country the information available to most people often comes through a newspaper that is one of a chain under one management. Thus, large areas of our country have no possibility of hearing two sides of a question. The editorial policy, which projects the thinking of the owners, will often follow one particular line, and this is slowly extending itself to radio stations in the area where the newspapers have influence and to magazines which they control.
The last paragraph of this editorial reads: "Mussolini and Hitler got control of people through first subsidizing the free press. Fascism or Hitlerism or some new `ism' born of the same craving for dictatorial power could someday capture the minds of the people and set up a dictatorship easier than most people think."
The editorial also points out that "when a newspaper trust gets a monopoly of public opinion in a wide area, it is not likely that its representative in Congress who wants to be re-elected will dare lead a fight for the people to limit these chains. That is probably the greatest threat to our freedom implicit in these newspaper chains.
"Where there is no opposition press, they can thwart the reelection of any Congressman who would dare to make an issue to the sinister and insidious threat to American freedom that these giant trusts represent."
This is a situation dealing with the right of the people to know both sides of a question and to be free in their thinking. This perhaps is more serious than we have really thought and perhaps we should be having a good look at thought control through all mass media in this country.
Before I forget I want to tell you that I had the good fortune last Saturday evening to hear Leonard Bernstein conduct in a program of "Music for the Ballet." The Tchaikovsky "Nutcracker Suite" and the Copland "Western Ballet Dancing" I had heard quite recently and seen danced at New York City Center. But I had not heard Beethoven's "The Creatures of Prometheus" nor Debussy's "Games".
I enjoyed the evening, though it was not as fine a concert as some of those we have had the pleasure of attending during the winter.
From year to year I look forward to my subscription nights and one of the reasons I am delighted that Carnegie Hall will be preserved is that I hope the New York Philharmonic will continue giving concerts there. Of course, it may move to the new Lincoln Center, but I would hope it would stay in its old surroundings where people have enjoyed hearing it for so long. | <urn:uuid:93c1f856-929a-4e8f-ab3b-366b8070ec86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1960&_f=md004737 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977736 | 572 | 1.765625 | 2 |
willieH: Hello! me brathiz & sistiz
We've spoken of this before, but let's try it again on this new version of Tentmaker!
The "term" ETERNITY
... is one that cannot be truly beheld by finite beings... for we have not the ability to percieve entities that have NO BEGINNING or
ENDING... so the terms which are found translated ETERNAL or EVERLASTING... are thereby set outside of the human comprehension range... and therefore are a useless terminology to teach...
It is something like trying to teach differentiation of colors to a blind man... which is not possible, because the man does not possess the TOOL necessary, which is the ability to SEE... Because we stand within a realm based upon beginnings and endings, we cannot behold or understand something or anything that has neither of these limitations...
This does not mean the existence of an EVERLASTING state, is INVALID by any means... but terms which we use to define OUR realm of Time, in which ALL THINGS have beginnings and endings
, ...cannot (validly) be applied to that which does NOT have these two main characteristics... such as ETERNITY
OWLAM (Hebrew) and AION/AIONIOS (greek) have been so translated (as EVERLASTING)... I suggest this translation to be invalid... AION/AIONIOS and OLAM both deal with amounts of TIME... and their use in translation sometimes suggests a beginning without an end
... rather than WITHOUT Beginning OR End
... big difference...
OWLAM appears in many OT verses such as 1 Chro 16:17 / 2 Sam 23:5 / Lev 24:8 / Lev 16:34
... and it is immediatly apparent that these instances of the use of Owlam, had both a beginning, and also found an end...
AIONIOS has the same type of properties, which disqualify it from being considered truly ETERNAL... As is noted in its application to the FIRE found in Jude 7
(the fire of Sodom & Gomorrah is no longer burning (ended), and the burning actually, had a beginning as well) this observation shows that the noted scenario was NOT founded in perpetuity (without beginning or end)
Let's use the teaching of HELL for example... If HELL is truly
"Everlasting"... then it has ALWAYS BEEN
, ...and ALWAYS WILL BE
Not as church theologians suggest OWLAM / AIONIOS to mean ETERNAL, and teach HELL
to be UNENDING period, "tacked on"
to the end of THIS LIFE... TIME
is an invalid measuring tool for that which has no BEGINNING or ENDING... simply because TIME
its increments has both BEGINNINGS and ENDINGS...
If an entity such as YHVH
God, Always ...IS
... as He states in His Word (which He IS of course!)... then TIME
cannot measure His existance... for by definition, HE is INFINITE in ALL "directions" ...and FINITES such as ourselves, are rendered incapable of beholding, or comprehending that existence... "WHERE" and "WHEN"
... a commodity that is to come to an END! In which ALL EVIL is done, and in which ALL things deteriorate, and degenerate, and DIE... ETERNITY
... THANK GOD, through JESUS CHRIST
our Lord, ...that He shall draw ALL to Himself and the ETERNAL LIFE and place in which He IS
Time shall end, for JESUS
said so:John 6:44 ...No man CAN come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me, draw him and I will raise him on the ...LAST DAY...
...He that rejecteth Me, and recieveth not My Words, hath one that judgeth him, the same shall judge him in the ...LAST DAY...
...And sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created Heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, the there should be TIME NO LONGER...
If there shall be a LAST DAY
(and there shall!)... then the FOUNDATIONAL element of which all TIME
consists (days) in ceasing... will bring the end of days
, ...and the end of TIME
...is the opposer of ETERNITY
... It is the "where and when"
...and through those changes it is "where"
...and through that corruption, it is "when"
in which ALL things DIE... ...ETERNITY...
...is "where and when"
things CHANGE NOT...
...and that they do not change is the "when"
they do NOT CORRUPT,
...and through that incorruption, ...is "where"
Any thoughts on Eternity | <urn:uuid:76f5e8b0-b945-49f8-8b3f-d3b6cca4ac9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tentmaker.org/forum/word-studies/e-sword-add-ons-and-tips/?prev_next=prev | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936853 | 1,054 | 1.765625 | 2 |
John Nelson’s infographic, “Five Years of Traffic Fatalities,” comprises charts and maps made with little more than Excel spreadsheets.
Making sense of our data-saturated world requires a combination of technical and design skill. Nicholas Felton, also known as Feltron, is among the most talented creators of information graphics and data visualizations working today. His Annual Reports — the most recent of which is a visualization of his father’s life — will change the way you think about your personal data. In this episode, I talked to Felton about what to look for in creating infographics that help communicate data rather than hinder it. | <urn:uuid:7082ceca-cf6d-4371-ae5c-76c9beee6880> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.fastcompany.com/tagged/Data-Visualization | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958008 | 135 | 1.570313 | 2 |
This article's title is admittedly a bit alarmist. Some landowning groups in Bern
, a Swiss canton, have actually proposed banning mountain-biking on singletrack trails. This would restricting riding to fire roads and a few designated singletrack trails. The law (the Forest Act
) has yet to been changed. The process is standard for the Swiss democratic system. The next step is solicit public comments and then for the various interested parties to table a solution or compromise. Key wording in the proposed law (Article 22) proposes to make it an offense to cycle away from roads on paths that are less than 1.2m wide.
Other noteable elements include fining repeat offenders who are abusive to police 20,000CHF (1CHF is approx 1.07 USD at todays rates). The normal fine will be more in the region of 250CHF; still a pretty hefty penalty for a day's ride.
This law is not a foregone conclusion. It is opposed by foresters, by law enforcement who wonder how they can enforce it, and by tourism operators who see it as giving Bern a black eye. It is also opposed by the grassroots bike advocacy organization trailnet.ch
who has put together very well-developed rebuttals to the proposals. According to Samuel Hubschmid of Trailnet.ch - "It's about a very crowded little country with thousands of outdoor-enthusiasts trying to use and protect the natural resources in leisure sports."
Lenzerheide can keep its alp restaurants. In Bern they would have to replace all the restaurants with police stations to enforce closures against criminal singletrack bikers
Keep in mind that all Swiss cantons have considerable latitude to make their own laws (a canton is like a US state or Canadian province). Only one canton, Bern, has chosen to propose such regressive laws. Of course, Bern has all the proper authority to criminalize singletrack biking and make it illegal but they have asked for public comments and this is the time to give it. Bear in mind that Bern has many tourist attractions where biking is specifically advertised (eg the Jungfrau
) so this proposed policy is inconsistent to say the least!
This trail is in Davos where it's legal to ride. 20,000 CHF fine if I rode this trail multiple times in Bern.
Why are we at Pinkbike writing about this? We just took considerable time and effort to put a six part story about Riding in Switzerland
on our front pages. We just told the world how friendly and welcoming Switzerland is to tourists and to bikes (and by the way we totally believe this is true). And now this? Why would biking tourists go to Bern when, with this, you are basically telling bikers that we are criminals and not welcome. Why is it that our tourism dollars are good in Graubünden (where it is enshrined in cantonal law that bikers and hikers can share trails) and not welcome in Bern? Bernese Oberland lawmakers and regulators say that bikers and hikers cannot share trails peacefully but respectfully, we cannot agree. What makes Bernese Oberland trails and trail users so different than in Canada, or Engadin, or Lenzerheide, or Südtirol that we cannot all share and get along?
This is in Zermatt where its legal to ride your bike on trails. Empty your wallet if you ride this trail in Bern and watch out for police
If you reside in Bern or Switzerland and ride a bike you probably already know of this. If you want to ride or have ridden in Switzerland and don't know where to ride please politely
use the Comments page here to let lawmakers at Bern know your feelings on the matter.
The consultation process runs till March 2, 2012. You can also directly mail or email comments to Department of Economic Affairs of the Canton of Bern Law Department Münsterplatz 3 3011 Bern
[email protected]. You can also email comments to [email protected]; they are the advocacy group who will collect comments and present them to Bern lawmakersCoverage from other news sources
- Resistance against Bern Single-trail ban taking shape
- Ride Magazine
- The Canton of Bern wants to ban singletrack for bikers
- Ride Magazine
- Resistance to bike ban grows
- Der Bund
- Mountain bikers oppose ban
- 20 Minute
This is Lenzerheide where you would not get fined for riding singletrack. These criminals would not be so happy if they were caught riding this trail in Bern | <urn:uuid:8b130eb9-d52d-4c0d-8316-f1a8a3f3d421> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Swiss-canton-of-Bern-proposes-banning-mountain-biking-2012.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955068 | 952 | 1.734375 | 2 |
J.W. Long Law Library
The J.W. Long Law Library contains a comprehensive law collection tailored to the law school curriculum. Its many databases and more than 300,000 print volumes and microform volume equivalents include state and federal primary law sources, as well as the leading treatises, periodicals and other secondary sources that are vital to a full understanding of American law. The Law Library also has special collections in public international law, tax law and labor law and is a Selective Federal Government Documents Depository.
The J.W. Long Law Library, which anchors the north end of the Collins Legal Center, is designed to facilitate student use, convenience and comfort. A three-story glass facade transmits natural light to carrels, tables and lounge seating in an atmosphere conducive to studying. A main floor reading lounge offers students a large selection of popular magazines and newspapers for their enjoyment. Two quiet reading lounges provide comfortable seating for study, rest or reflection. Small conference and video rooms offer additional study options. Conference rooms may be reserved for periods of two hours per group. Study carrels are found throughout the three floors of the Law Library. Students can opt to share an assigned study carrel during the academic year.
Professional reference librarians are available to assist law students with all aspects of manual and electronic legal research, including use of the Internet, Lexis, Westlaw and other research applications on the law school network.
The Law Library maintains an honor system that places a special trust in its students to respect its collection and facilities. Consistent with a sense of community that is based upon professional courtesy and responsibility, law and law/management joint degree students have 24-hour access to the Law Library and all its resources. Other conveniences include free telephones for local and 800 number calling, fax machine use, email and Internet accounts and rules permitting non-alcoholic beverages in spill-proof containers. Headphones and tape players may be signed out at the circulation desk. Sample examinations authorized for publication by faculty members as study aids are available online. (A student username and password is required for access.)
The online library catalog includes print, audio, electronic and video entries for the J.W. Long and Mark O. Hatfield libraries, as well as the Oregon State Library and the State of Oregon Law Library (Oregon Supreme Court). Other online library catalogs, including Summit, the academic union catalog for the Northwest, may be searched from our catalog. Students may access our library webpage, the online catalog, and other databases from any campus computer and from any remote location with access to the internet. | <urn:uuid:7805c731-8a6c-4528-8e13-896db925ea77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.willamette.edu/wucl/longlib/library_info/categories/about.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943589 | 532 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Today, a delegation representing civil rights and labor leaders — which includes our very own Patty Kupfer — will be in attendence at the Mercedes-Benz annual shareholders’ meeting in Berlin, Germany, to protest Daimler AG’s silence on HB 56, Alabama’s worst-in-the-nation anti-immigrant law. Others in the delegation include Fred Redmond, International Vice President for the United Steelworkers and member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, Renata Soto, National Council of LaRaza board member and Executive Director of Conexión Américas.
The Mercedes-Benz parent company is one of the largest employers in Alabama and is a founding signatory of the U.N. Global Compact, which calls on corporations to ensure “they are not complicit in human rights abuses” where they do business. As part of the campaign, SEIU and its affiliate, the Southern Regional Joint Board of Workers United, submitted a complaint to the International Labor Organization (ILO) of the United Nations that reads:
This complaint documents the current and anticipated cost to trade unions of: 1) general denials of equal protection and access to justice to undocumented immigrants; 2) the climate of fear produced by this law, which extends its impact beyond undocumented immigrant workers to workers who are from racial minority groups – including many who are legal residents and citizens; and 3) provisions that have a direct and demonstrable impact on trade union activities such as new organizing, representation of existing members, and enforcement of individual and collective contractual agreements on behalf of workers.
We believe that the U.S. government’s inability to act promptly and decisively to put in place a national policy related to immigration – attentive to international guarantees related to individual workers’ rights as well as to the rights of trade unions with immigrant members – has given the space to individual states to enact laws that are in flagrant violation of international norms. The fact that the violations in this case are the work of an individual State, does not insulate the U.S. from responsibility. Furthermore, the efforts of the executive branch of the U.S. government to challenge the law are simply insufficient to protect these workers and our trade union now, or into the future, without a deeper commitment to federal legislative reform.
“The fact that the violations in this case are the work of an individual State, does not insulate the U.S. from responsibility,” said SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry and International Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina, in a letter that accompanied the complaint to the ILO. “Furthermore, the efforts of the executive branch of the U.S. government to challenge the law are simply insufficient to protect these workers and our trade union now, or into the future, without a deeper commitment to federal legislative reform.”
The delegation is scheduled to hold a press call today at 1 pm ET to outline the results of the meeting and to announce next steps. Just last month, Eliseo Medina (SEIU) and Wade Henderson (The Leadership Conference) flew to Seoul, South Korea and attended Hyundai’s shareholders’ meeting to deliver a similar message. Next stop on the campaign will be Japan in June, when car company Honda holds its shareholders’ meeting.
All three auto-manufacturers have operations in Alabama. All three have yet to speak out against this anti-immigrant/anti-foreigner legislation. | <urn:uuid:5afbabbc-9ad3-45a8-b3bf-8d03c97b372e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/labor_groups_submit_complaint_to_uns_international_labor_organization-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948313 | 707 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Soloman Lowi, one of the pioneers of the home improvement warehouse format, died on May 1. He was one day short of 90 years old.
Lowi founded Builders Discount in 1954 in Chatsworth, Calif., and over the next few years experimented with the format until 1970, when he opened a 180,000-sq.-ft. retail warehouse. Ultimately he owned three Los Angeles County locations that were one of the first large-format home centers to cater to urban customers with a low-price, no-frills approach. Among contractors, Builders Discount was known as a cash-and-carry operation. All sales were final.
Lowi sold his company in 1986 to Levi Kushnir, Israel’s largest home improvement retailer. Heavy competition from Home Depot and the now defunct HomeBase in Los Angeles County pushed Builders Discount into bankruptcy in 1992. The store in North Hollywood is now a Lowe’s.
Pat Farrah, Home Depot’s head merchant when the company was founded, met Lowi when the Atlanta chain started opening units in California. “He was a scrappy merchant that provided great bargains for the remodeler and handymen,” Farrah told HCN. “I remember his toughness and commitment to the customer. He was an inspiration to us all.”
Lowi spent his later years enjoying his wife, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, according to his son Irwin Lowi. People wishing to share remembrances can email them to [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:c9f1d9dd-821c-4cc6-b2e4-b8c9983f3aa3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://homechannelnews.com/article/obit-soloman-lowi-big-box-pioneer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972395 | 323 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Setting Up a Home Office
This article intends to serve as a guide in creating an office for individuals who are starting a home-based enterprise. It is also handy for freelance professionals who are more likely to work on field projects than stay in an office.
The first thing to do would be to establish a permanent space within your house. This area would then be designated as the office. Ideally, it should be in a separate room to give the user privacy and comfort.
When a place has been marked and allocated, the next step would be to decide on the office arrangement. Ideally, the best layout is the one with a U-shaped arrangement. That way, you will have three convenient surfaces that can keep everything you need within easy reach. However, you can go for the L-shaped option if you do not have enough space. Note that a parallel set-up can provide two full-sized areas if they are placed opposite each other. Still, if the latter cannot be accommodated by the room's dimensions, choose to have the V-shape version. This consists of a small work area and two other surfaces angled to the left and right.
Next, purchase the necessary electronic equipment such as a telephone with a built-in answering machine and hold button, a complete computer system, and a separate fax machine. Also, stock your work area at home with standard office supplies. Make sure to arrange them in order of necessity. That way, you can avoid the build-up of clutter and keep your office organised. | <urn:uuid:5271921f-3879-4882-8650-ab7218dfe230> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenewnigeria.com/job-post/setting-up-a-home-office.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96288 | 309 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The non sequitur I’m objecting to here is a small one. Unfortunately it’s representative; Patry’s reasoning is slipshod throughout the book, and more than once he tells the reader what to think instead of taking the trouble to convince him. Nor are these the only signs that the book may have been hurriedly—or just poorly—written. Patry often repeats himself. Though he seems to wish to address a broad audience, he uses legal terms of art such as “de minimis” and “worldwide exhaustion” without explaining them, and the later chapters sprint faster and faster through vagaries of international copyright law that are more and more complex. His priorities seem unsorted; he devotes a whole chapter to discrediting a 1995 article that consists only of notes in outline form and that by his own admission seems to have been little read. Nonetheless, if only because of Patry’s connection to Google, the ideas in his book will be taken seriously.This article is mostly a review of the book rather than an argument with Patry's point(s) of view. Read the whole thing in The Nation.
* * *
Patry believes that copyright laws have failed, and for evidence of the failure he begins by pointing to conflicts. Creators of copyrighted work have tussled with the distributors to whom they sell it. Record labels, for example, have been found guilty of withholding payments to musicians, and Patry recounts that in his capacity as a writer, he was recently forced against his will to sign away valuable rights in negotiations with a powerful online publisher. Creators have also been quarreling with their audiences, especially about pricing and access. Patry cites a recent dispute over Amazon’s Kindle: Amazon enabled the device to read books aloud in a mechanized voice, and the Authors Guild protested that the function would cut into sales of audio books. Amazon backed down—a matter for regret, in Patry’s opinion.
UK Education Secretary Michael Gove argues that schools should teach children about kings, queens and wars. He's offering a quack remedy to a misdiagnosed complaint (New Statesman):
How about teaching narrative rather than analysis, then? It is wrong, David Starkey has asserted, that history in the schools has modelled itself on university research. What we need, he declares, is to give children "a sense of change and development over time . . . The skills-based teaching of history is a catastrophe." But what sells in the bookshops or what succeeds on TV is not necessarily what should be taught in schools. Teaching is a profession with its own skills and techniques, different from those needed to present a television programme (as Starkey's performance on the reality TV show Jamie's Dream School dramatically indicated). Physics, biology and every other subject in schools is taught along lines that reflect research in the universities. One wouldn't expect physics teachers to ignore Stephen Hawking's ideas about black holes, or biology teachers to keep quiet about the discovery of DNA. So what makes history so different? Chemistry devotes a large amount of time to transmitting skills to students; why shouldn't history?
The narrative that the critics want shoved down pupils' throats in schools - as they sit in rows silently learning lists of kings and queens - is essentially what's been called the "Whig theory of history"; that is, telling a story of British history over a long period of time, stressing the development of parliamentary democracy in a narrative that culminates in a present viewed in self-congratulatory terms.
This theory was exploded by professional historians more than half a century ago, under the influence of the classic tract The Whig Interpretation of History by the conservative historian Herbert Butterfield. Yet it still has strong support in the media. The Daily Telegraph and the right-wing think tank Civitas even campaigned to get H E Marshall's patriotic textbook Our Island Story put on the National Curriculum. Dating from the Edwardian era, this book, with its stories of how the British brought freedom and justice to the Maoris of New Zealand and many other lucky peoples across the world, has rightly been described as "imperialist propaganda masquerading as history". In what other academic subject would people seriously advocate a return to a state of knowledge as it was a hundred years ago?Steering Girls to Science and Technology (MediaShift):
One thing research consistently shows is the impact that one-on-one relationships and role models can have in influencing kids. And that's one of the defined goals of the Techbridge program. To that end, Ebony and her peers get to work once a week with Esosa Ozigbo, who comes from a similar background as many of the girls in the program -- single-parent home, struggling financially, parents who never graduated from high school. But Ozigbo, a Stanford graduate with a science degree, is living proof that there's a way out -- and it might just be in a field like science or math. "I definitely know that growing up, it would have been great to have someone like that come in and talk to me," Ozigbo said.
Ozigbo leads Techbridge field trips, taking girls to companies like Google and Yahoo for site visits so they see for themselves the possibility of a life that's different than what they've lived so far. "I took some girls to San Francisco -- they had never been on the other side of the bay," she said. "It's just about seeing what's out there and seeing if it's in your grasp and saying, 'This is what I have to do, this is what I can do.' I think that makes the world of a difference."From the Twitter this week:
Serving police officer among four men arrested in London and Essex as part of Operation Elveden http://bbc.in/wjqphP
Casio has unveiled smartphone prototypes able to exchange data using light. Some have labelled this system Li-Fi http://econ.st/ww1QF8
Amazon's Hit Man - With Bow Tie http://buswk.co/A6sfea
Locked in the Ivory Tower: Why JSTOR Imprisons Academic Research http://dlvr.it/17Fk3m | <urn:uuid:2dfa187e-399b-42d4-986a-dd922b0a5176> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://personanondata.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96898 | 1,299 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Margaret Edsons 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning W;T (also known as Wit) is a luminous play. When its done right, the stunning story has the power to change lives. On the surface it doesnt sound appealing, but the tale about a prickly middle-aged English professor who becomes very ill with ovarian cancer will haunt anyone with a heart. And heres the real kicker its very, very funny. Vivian Bearing (Pamela Vogel), the cranky lady at the center of the story, has the sort of dry wit that can wither a student who walks in late to a lecture. But her amazing mind also renders the dense language of poets like John Donne into magic and light. Edsons script follows Bearings painful cancer treatment and shows us all how to make meaning out of the most difficult moments. Learn how to live like youre dying at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, and 7 p.m. Thursdays. Through April 13. Texas Repertory Theatre, 14243 Stuebner Airline. For information, call 281-583-7573 or visit www.texreptheatre.org. $30.
Thursdays, 7 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Starts: March 27. Continues through April 13, 2008 | <urn:uuid:a5f25ac9-45e4-421a-853d-07af18819519> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-03-27/calendar/w-t/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943169 | 286 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Field Trip Publishing is an experimental editioning project directed by printmakers Kelly John Clark and Eric Dobbins. As recipients of a 2012 Rocket Grant from the Charlotte Street Foundation, Field Trip’s ambition is to work with Kansas City area artists to expand their practices beyond their own mediums and expose this new work through multiple exhibitions. As their website states: “Field Trip Publishing manufactures, in limited, an edition of collaboratively produced art objects.”
Field Trip’s approach is refreshing in that it typifies an underlying desire for a high standard of cultural production that is unique to the area. For what Kansas City lacks in a vast, cosmopolitan market of contemporary art institutions and galleries that instigate new work, it makes up in local, communal enterprise. These apartment galleries, basement venues, print shops, collectives, and intimately sized artist initiatives are the dark matter that holds the scene together. They give the city its mass, keeping its inhabitants physically involved and accountable for their successes.
I recently sat down with Eric and Kelly in a community garden in the Kansas City Crossroads District to discuss their beginnings as printmakers and their vision for Field Trip Publishing.
Lindsay Deifik: How did you enter the world of printmaking? What personally attracts you to working with printmaking and the multiple?
Eric Dobbins: I was going to school for illustration at Kansas University (KU). I enrolled in intaglio— Kelly was there, teaching.
Kelly John Clark: That was lithography, I was a grad student TA—
ED: Essentially, I took a little bit of everything. I just sort of fumbled around the printmaking department, and as I was fumbling I was realizing the potential of making multiples. My work itself… it fit in nicely with that end result of being able to share and …
ED: Yeah. I draw relatively quickly and simply, so I was able to turn out so much more work. My work is narrative based and rooted in illustration, sort of cartoon stylings. I just love the aesthetic, that sort of flat surface.
LD: Both of you were also co-founders of Wonder Fair, an establishment that sells fine art prints and printed ephemera with a concurrent exhibition space in Lawrence, KS. Can you talk about this project?
KJC: Eric founded Wonder Fair. I started, was it a year in? Two years in?
ED: It was about ¾ of the way through the first year.
KJC: We knew some of the same people, and I brought a drawing down that I thought he would think was cool—with a caterpillar on it. I needed something to do on Saturdays and he said you can work here on Saturdays and I did. After a while Eric said, “maybe you should have a show here.” So I said OK. As a part of the show Eric had suggested that we make merchandise that felt like the show, because the show was going to be drawings that were going to be big and expensive. He said, “well, why don’t we make stuff that is a little bit cheaper but feels like the work, that maybe people can afford.” So we made a bookmark and a pencil case and printed on the pencil case. The pencil case had a number of items inside of it that were related to drawing. It felt like the items on the wall. All of the work was very kind of sweet. I had done a little bit of work like that before, but not a lot. But it was the idea. I had studied printmaking and I had gotten my masters in printmaking, but it was making prints that were so accessible—and frankly I hadn’t done that before. That I really liked.
LD: So you were out of Graduate School at this point. It seems as if you are talking about re-encountering your own control over what kinds of prints you were able to make.
KJC: Printmakers tend to pay a lot of lip service to their work being accessible, but they don’t take that next step, which is: No, you can’t sell your prints for that much money, even though you want to. And you have to really, really focus on the audience in a way that you may not be comfortable doing—that you certainly are not comfortable doing in graduate schools. So there were conversations there that I had not had before, that would be against what the culture was at graduate school. I started teaching printmaking immediately after finishing graduate school, and the kids had this different approach to printmaking than I had been taught. I thought it was really cool, and it had more in common with Eric’s approach to printmaking. Right after I stopped teaching, that’s when I started hanging out at Wonder Fair.
ED: You needed me to reconnect you with your true passion.
KJC: Well, I needed Eric there to inject some fun into my work, some enjoyment and joy. A sense of joy in actually sharing work with other people, as opposed to having the idea that I could share this work with other people. But in really going out and like saying this is for everyone, there’s a lot of joy.
LD: What motivated you to pass Wonder Fair along to others and begin Field Trip Publishing?
ED: I did it for two years and the final year was with Kelly and two other gentlemen. The four of us just sort of signed on for a year and that year came and went, and we all were ready for new things. I think we got what we needed out of it–it was a fantastic experience, but time for other things. And we had some great folks interested. I think that I personally gained so much from it and thought it was such a positive element in the culture that I wanted to do that again. And the Rocket Grant was something that I wanted to apply for in some fashion. I knew that Kelly would be a good man to have on board because we really gelled quite nicely when it came to producing the handmade goods through his exhibition. It was sort of a break out experience for me, collaborating with the artists that were showing. It was sort of always the vision that I had for the space—to kind of merchandise the work that we were exhibiting. So I had this little idea on a plane ride home to Kansas and landed and gave you a call.
KJC: Yeah, I remember that. I was actually working on a Rocket Grant of my own. Wonder Fair was ending and I had enjoyed certain things about it. One of the things was connecting with people. I was looking toward my own future and I was writing a Rocket Grant that would just support me in the drawing that I do, and I was a little bit sad about—really I’m just going to go back to drawing?
LD: Back to the hermetic life of the artist in their studio…
KJC: Yeah, and so Eric brought up this idea and I said absolutely, let’s do that.
LD: Your website documents studio visits with the artists you have chosen to work with. When you’re doing these how do you begin envisioning the work translating into print? How does the conversation start?
ED: It started in ten different ways. With some artists we have an idea of what we would like to do going into it, and others they have an idea of what they want to do.
KJC: Some, we have no idea.
LD: What parameters do you use while choosing artists to work with? Are they people you know, those whose work you personally connect to, or artists whose work you can see easily translating into the world of print and the multiple?
ED: Definitely not really that. I don’t think there was any interest in it translating. Because that was part of the excitement— it was the challenge of finding this new thing from what they are already doing.
KJC: Right. At the time we had gotten the grant, I had seen a video of this Japanese machine for printing on glassware, and it spins the glass and has a nozzle [that prints on to it]. What you have is an object that you can figure out how to put a print onto. I was thinking: we will do this publishing thing, but we won’t make prints; we are not going to make paper prints. So all of the artists that we’ve chosen, we chose because we saw their work and thought, yeah, I like that work!
LD: Can you talk about any specific studio visits, secret collaborations that you are really excited about?
KJC: We had nice long conversations with Matt [Sculptor Matt Jacobs] about… not even what the work was about, but what he was just really attracted to—shapes and colors. And for me, the idea was that there should be something about desire involved, cheap desire. So we ended up thinking that it would be related to his [sculptural appropriation of] Tic-Tacs, something edible. He liked the idea of a candy, and I like the idea of the conceit of making sculptures that looked like his sculptures but are not his sculptures. And that it would just be fun to make candy, something cheap and silly.
ED: But, I think Matt’s whole approach to us was a little reserved. He wasn’t as quick to just jump on board, and that was different.
KJC: I don’t think I had ever met Matt Jacobs before. So it was getting to know him, getting to know his work, which I knew a little bit. You walk this really delicate line because if you say we’re going to make something else with your work, it could be insulting.
LD: Especially because of your interest in merchandising?
KJC: It’s kind of a dirty word or a pejorative term to say we are going to merchandise your work. So with Matt—because I didn’t know him—it wasn’t like I was necessarily coming from a safe space. He didn’t know that we were good guys, that we thought about stuff like that. We were there in our jump suits invading the house!
ED: And here’s a little bonus tidbit, Matt Jacobs’s multiple will have a free prize inside! Do you want any more tidbits on projects?
LD: I would love more tidbits on projects.
KJC: We are making one traditional print. I think it will be a 22 x 28, 7-color lithograph. It will be a four-color separation, a layer of neon pink, a layer of metallic silver, and then a layer of strategic gloss.
ED: Other elements that we are working with that are attached to different projects will be a silver reflective tube that will be used as sort of a viewing mechanism for one of our multiples.
LD: Like a kaleidoscope?
ED: You’re not looking through it! We are going to be using a CNC router to custom cut a few wooden pieces for a different projects. Another project involves the re-branding and re-packaging of various affordable purchases around the town.
KJC: There will be one that will be made entirely of leather. That one will be seasonally appropriate. That one will be very gorgeous. Oh! Possibly an incense holder.
ED: Possibly a package that consists of a number of different elements, one of which would be a custom incense burner plus a couple of things. An illustrated booklet that consists of some writings by one of our collaborative artists. With a bonus DVD.
LD: That’s a great survey. Where will we be able to see the fruits of your creative labors?
ED: We are going to be doing a showcase– actually, four. The lineup has been divided into two phases. The first phase will be rolled out before the Christmas holiday, and the second phase will be summer of next year. Two showcases per phase, one in Kansas City and one in Lawrence. Coming soon phase 1…which will consist of Matt Jacobs, Jaimie Warren, Erin Zona, Aaron Storck, and Lee Piechocki.
LD: Finally, How does your work with Field Trip affect your personal studio practice? Does it?
KJC: It’s part of it. I draw at home. I teach at the Kansas City Art Institute. I think a necessary part of an artist’s role is to help make their community better. I think that that’s hopefully what Field Trip will do. One of the ideas behind Field Trip is that we would help artists make things they had never done before. That sense of excitement is really important to spread outwards. But yeah, we both have studio practices on the side. This is like an adjunct.
ED: For me it’s a part of my overall creative practice. There’s a bit of performance involved in public events. We did an event at the Final Speakeasy called Dance Test…So that party side of things and organizing events is something I enjoy doing. [Field Trip] has been taking up a lot of my free time, so I have been making sure that the work we’re doing is true to what I want to be doing. So I would say that it is completely part of my creative practice. I also have started developing an illustration portfolio that is called All are Cool Here.
KJC: You know Matt Jacobs said something really cool to both you and I during a meeting…
“You guys take fun seriously.”
Lindsay Deifik is a printmaker and artist living in Kansas City, MO, where she is also a co-director and resident of the Front/Space project space. She has been an artist in residence at the Philadelphia Art Hotel and has recently been awarded a Charlotte Street Foundation Urban Culture Project studio. She holds a BFA in Printmaking and Drawing from Washington University in Saint Louis. | <urn:uuid:4001eba8-df1b-4206-95fd-48d6cf90f176> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://temporaryartreview.com/an-interview-with-kelly-clark-and-eric-dobbins-of-field-trip-publishing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984453 | 2,925 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Karbi Anglong’s Ronthean Festival promoting a unique Assamese lifestyleBy ANI
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
KARBI ANGLONG - The decline of militancy in Assam’s Karbi Anglong District has given a boost to the region in terms of socio-cultural development.
Recently, the district played host to the Eighth Rongthean Festival, where members of twelve different tribes like the Karbi, Kuki; Vheipes, Assamese, Nagas and Dimasa took part.
The three-day festival showcased the socio-cultural panorama of the region and also symbolized unity. he Rongthean Klimsomer Club organized it with the support of state and central departments and with the help of private sponsorships.
The main objective of the Rongthean Festival is to promote and preserve the culture of the region, which has been slowly taken away by modernization. We also want to promote our age-old traditions and skills to the younger generation,” said Chiratin, the president of the Klimsomer Club.
To preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the district, a small market was set up at the festival venue, which showcased traditional Karbi attires, artificial jewellery, decorative items made from wood and Karbi cuisine.
Participants also took part in several competitions in various age groups.
A marathon was also organized to promote sports and sports persons of the area.
The fun filled affair also provided a platform for promoting Karbi fashion. Models in traditional attires walked the ramp and young artists sang and danced to folk tunes at a cultural night during the event.
“Karbi Anglong is a backward area. We organized this festival to develop the region and promote the youth of the region. We have included sports, cultural and educational events in the festival to promote the development of the youth,” said Maria, a resident of Rongthean Village
The main attraction of the festival was the second Karbi Anglong Beat Contest, which attracted ten top rock bands of the country.
The contest was organized under the aegis of Eastern Beats Music Society that promotes music in the region.
Dementia, a popular rock band from Nagaland bagged the first prize.
“People of Rongthean village at this time of the year can come together and enhance the feeling of bonhomie and brotherhood that can go a long way in promoting the social and communal harmony,” Ayushman Dutta, Secretary, Eastern Beats Music Society.
The region was once affected by militancy, but now peaceful and the new dawn of hope is clearly visible. (ANI) | <urn:uuid:d4c205ea-043a-4ff6-a2d9-3a1c4c04bfc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://breakingnews.gaeatimes.com/2010/12/07/karbi-anglongs-ronthean-festival-promoting-a-unique-assamese-lifestyle-63693/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954479 | 560 | 1.75 | 2 |
June 25, 2004
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE MEMORIAL MARCH:
ADVOCACY COUNCIL INVITES CITIZENS TO MARCH SILENTLY
Charlotte, NC - On Tuesday, June 29, 2004, some Mecklenburg County residents will march in memory of a man who lost his life due to domestic violence. The march will take place from 5:15 p.m. until 6 p.m. on the square at Trade and Tryon Streets in Charlotte. Participants are encouraged to wear black.
This will be the first march this year memorializing a domestic violence homicide victim in Mecklenburg County. Police found Rodney Dylan Council, 33, in his home on Wednesday evening when they responded to a call from Mr. Council’s cousins. He had been missing about 10 days. They found he had been shot to death and covered by a blanket. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have arrested and charged his intimate partner, Tarra Darnel Mixon, 32, with murder.
This is the 11th domestic violence homicide of the year in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCCADV). There were 68 murders in the state last year with seven of those taking place in Mecklenburg County. The NCCADV also reports that only one of the 68 murders last year was a man killed by his ex-girlfriend. According to a 2002-2003 report from the N.C. Council for Women, 5,579 men and 39,316 women have received assistance from various North Carolina domestic violence services.
The memorial march is organized by the Domestic Violence Advocacy Council, which includes representatives from Mecklenburg County Women’s Commission, Department of Social Services, Sheriff’s Office, Shelter for Battered Women, Women First, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department-Domestic Violence Unit, Victim Assistance and others.
The Domestic Violence Advocacy Council will continue to organize these marches every Tuesday following a domestic violence-related murder in Mecklenburg County. They will take place at the same time and location.
Free parking for the march is available at the Hal Marshall County Services Center at 700 North Tryon Street or the 7th Street Station parking garage. A free trolley runs the length of Tryon Street every seven minutes.
For more information on the effects of domestic violence in our community, call the Mecklenburg County Women’s Commission at (704) 336-3210 or the Shelter for Battered Women 24-hour hotline at (704) 332-2513.
# # #
Media contact: Michael Sexton (O) 704-432-1568 (M) 980-721-8604 or | <urn:uuid:a95652c1-2811-48b9-b7e1-49d8f4565dd5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://charmeck.org/mecklenburg/county/MediaRoom/NewsArchives/2004Stories/Pages/040628march.aspx | 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 | 0.940613 | 573 | 1.585938 | 2 |
A federal judge in Virginia has declared portions of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional in a decision in the case brought by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
Michael B. Keegan, President of People For the American Way, said:
“Tea Party activists like Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli have tried to twist the Constitution into a document that protects corporations and the powerful while neglecting the individual. The fight against the Affordable Care Act is one of the most prominent and troubling examples of this trend. While federal courts have rejected constitutional arguments against the ACA on two other occasions, Cuccinelli’s victory in the courtroom of a Bush-appointed judge will provide ammunition to those who are determined to see reform fail.
“As the Senate remains gridlocked on judicial nominations, let this be a reminder of their importance. George W. Bush succeeded in packing the federal judiciary with far-right judges prepared to dramatically limit the role of the federal government in ensuring equality to all people. Bush’s agenda for the courts had profound consequences, and must be not be perpetuated by inaction.” | <urn:uuid:7fbd12be-18a0-4787-b5c1-8c2e8b7e7bf5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pfaw.org/press-releases/2010/12/anti-health-care-lawsuit-succeeds-virginia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935767 | 223 | 1.773438 | 2 |
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Laughter was a serious matter at a clown convention in the Mexican capital, where hundreds of the performers gathered this week to discover some of the secrets of making people laugh.
The most important lesson at the four-day event was the difference between being a simple joker and a top-notch merry-maker.
Master clown Tomas Morales, who organized the 17th annual Feria de la Risa, or Laughter Fair, said what he calls "simple" clowns taunt their audiences searching for flaws, turning the spotlight away from themselves and onto their viewers.
What he describes as "prepared" clowns keep the focus on themselves, entertaining the audience without resorting to the ridicule of others.
Morales, who has been performing for 19 of his 60 years, plays a "grotesque" clown called Llantom and changes his color scheme daily. His fright wig always matches his suit, sometimes blue, other days electric orange, or perhaps yellow.
Demonstrating the kind of humor employed by more sophisticated clowns, Llantom delighted a young boy who held a stuffed toy monkey as he walked across a theater lobby. Llantom introduced himself to the child and told him how much he liked his dog, referring to the plush fake monkey.
Llantom says some of the more sophisticated clowns employ props, such as white-faced, rose-color costumed Paulynn, who carried a white fake dog called Chuleta. Another clown had a fake pet rat in his pocket.
Those attending the clown fair paid $50 to attend workshops teaching skills ranging from how to twist balloons into sculptures to the intricacies of clown makeup and costumes.
But the biggest attractions were afternoon performance competitions at local theaters, with clowns filling red plush seats to draw inspiration as they watched each other's skits. Participating in a theater on a well-lit stage is a real luxury for clowns who have spent the previous year working private parties or in the streets.
Several clowns posed for portraits taken with a digital tablet. Among them were an 83-year-old woman who plays a white-faced clown called Tikitiki, a group of seven teenage boys with cat-like faces known as the Amigatos, and a traditional-style French medieval court jester. A few party-crashers made up to look like famous personalities such as Charlie Chaplin or Albert Einstein made cameo appearances.
Visiting the convention on my time off as a photo editor for The Associated Press, I discovered that quality portraits can be made using a digital tablet as long as there is plenty of light.
I quickly learned that keeping a rock-steady hand is key to prevent blurring. And the tablet's wide screen means you can't be inconspicuous, so I had to work with people gathering behind me to look over my shoulder.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Seth MacFarlane makes his decision on hosting next year's Oscars.
This fox plays like a cat when he gets his paws on a golf ball. (Video)
Cuomo to Kardashian: You might be breaking the law.
J.K. Rowling scribbled notes and drawings in a first-edition copy. | <urn:uuid:1904dc2d-9838-4291-86e5-52d7ec791bc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtop.com/541/3093959/Clowns-learn-laugh-secrets-at-Mexico-gathering | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96855 | 681 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Combat in 4e D&D allows players to take three actions on their turn: standard, move and minor. Different combinations of these actions are possible, but using these three actions are the basis for a round of combat.
Since the release of 4e many people have complained that combat is far too slow. The amount of options available and interupt powers just slow things down too much.
In a recent article Gamefiend from At-Will noted that “the speed of 4e is not a bug, rather it’s a feature.” I commend the full article to your attention (The Speed of Choice: the Real Reason your 4e Fights are so Damn Slow) as Gamefiend has hit on some very interesting points. Of course the speed of combat isn’t the true complaint that many have with 4e D&D. If this were the case the countless articles on speeding up combat that exist would be all that any gaming group would require.
However, the speed of combat isn’t the true issue with 4e D&D. Rather it is the cause of the issue which is a lack of time remaining to develop key role-playing opportunities. This is perhaps most prevalent in organized play where players only have four hours to finish an adventure, but it is also an issue for those playing with their home groups. If it takes approximately 10 encounters to gain a level and the average four hour session only has two or three combat encounters the pace of levelling and the game is very slow. If there is no room for role-playing in between combat encounters, D&D becomes more of a roll-playing game.
This is where the 4th action comes into play.
What is the 4th action?
The 4th action is a tool that can be used to add more role-playing opportunities into your game. During combat, a players turn consists of three actions. This fourth action is the player’s opportunity to do more than name the power they use and the actions they take. It is the opportunity for the player to get into their character and embellish their actions. After all what is more exciting jumping over difficult terrain or doing a back flip over difficult terrain while firing your bow?
The 4th action is not meant to take a great deal of time during the players turn, it is simply an extra action that allows the player to immerse themselves into their character. The theory being if the character becomes more immersed in their character during combat, then they’ll be more emmersed out of combat as well which should lead to enhanced role-playing situations.
Introducing the 4th action is one thing, having players make use of it is another. In order to accomplish this I suggest offering a reward. Players who successfully engage in the 4th action during combat are awarded an action point after every encounter. This means a player can to spend an action point in every encounter which increases the drama and sense of adventure experienced. Recently Ameron wrote an article about Putting More “Action” in Action Points. The article touches on how action points can make combat more dramatic through alternate uses of action points. If more action points are available, then every combat becomes an opportunity for greater drama and role-playing.
Yesterday RPG Musings added to the discussion of slow combat in 4e with a great article on Speeding up D&D 4E. In the article AlioTheFool writes “the key is to be able to show people how character progression can be made through role-playing, rather than just dungeon-delving, and put a system in place to do so.” I would argue that character progression only occurs through role-playing.
Combat and other encounters provide experience which is the mechanic that allows characters to gain levels. This allows for new powers and new monsters to be faced, but the character as a person doesn’t grow. That progression only occurs when a player actively role-plays their character. By using a tool like the 4th Action, DMs are asking players to role-play in a non-traditional way. Typically combat and role-playing are two separate yet vital parts of D&D. By merging the two together the traditional boundary is broken down with the hope of enhancing the role-playing experience for everyone involved.
Fair warning should be provided to DMs who are looking to increase the amount of role-playing at their table. Some players just aren’t interested. I can recall with clarity a situation years ago where Ameron introduced a role-playing element to a group of players who were more interested in rolling dice. One players response was very blunt, “We’ve been doing just fine without this role-playing crap until now. I don’t know why you needed to introduce it!” The player promptly had his character exit the role-playing situation awaiting the next combat opportunity. For the curious we were playing AD&D 2e.
In the recent Save My Game column of Dungeon, Stephen Radney-MacFarland discusses how to challenge players beyond combat and skill challenges. Essentially to create interesting and dynamic role-playing opportunities that characters are required to interact with. While this point might sound obvious I think many DMs miss this point or rely on their players to take the initiative when it comes to role-playing.
Unfortunately, many players choose to ignore or disregard role-playing situations as it distracts from combat which is where experience is earned. If this is the case for your group and you want to encourage more role-playing consider having your players level after fewer combats, but with more role-playing situations replacing those encounters.
Consider the situation in our article Screw Morals, Just Keep the Game Moving. To summarize the article the party sacrificed a great role-playing situation as the hour was late and there was a desire to finish combat. Had we instead focused on the role-playing aspects of the encounter the entire situation would have been more intense and threatening. We wouldn’t have finished that night, but the entire encounter would have been far more meaningful.
Many complain that 4e D&D runs too much like a MMO and that you can’t role-playing in 4e. Such arguments are nonsense and are made by those who haven’t attempted to role-play or who can’t get beyond the new mechanics for combat that 4e introduced. If you want to role-play you will, it’s as simple as that.
If as a DM you truly want to encourage role-playing you will eliminate experience. Characters will level when the story demands or makes sense that they advance. The story requires that the players interact with it, that your players role-play and immerse themselves in their characters. The 4th Action and using action points creatively are just tools that can be used to encourage your players to role-play. If your players buy in, suddenly combat isn’t too long, instead its tactical and creative. The moments in between combat are filled with players making decisions that make sense for their characters, not for what starts the next combat encounter quickest.
At Dungeon’s Master we have several posts in our archives that can assist with the goal of increased role-playing. Whether that is by encouraging role-playing or speeding up combat. I comend the following to your attention:
- Running the Combat Part of Combat Blisteringly Fast
- Speeding Up Your Game
- More Tips For Speeding Up Your Game
- An Accidental Solution to the Slow Combat Problem
- Speed Up Your Game: Know When to Call the Fight
- Character Motivation
- Playing Characters With Low Ability Scores
- Addressing Your Weaknesses
What steps have you taken to increase the role-playing at your table? Has your continued experience with 4e allowed combat to run quicker allowing for more time to role-play? As a DM do you encourage role-playing inside of combat? | <urn:uuid:5b1d160b-eee3-42bd-922c-41cf20dc2c94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dungeonsmaster.com/2011/02/the-4th-action/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964046 | 1,641 | 1.6875 | 2 |
EDMONTON - Premier Alison Redford on Thursday announced the creation of a new council that will work to prevent homelessness in Alberta.
The Alberta Interagency Council on Homelessness will replace the Alberta Secretariat for Action on Homelessness and will focus on creating community-based strategies that eliminate homelessness.
“We all wish that it were simpler, because many of us … have looked homelessness in the face, and we’ve seen the effects of substance abuse, family breakdown, mental illness, and the vicious circle that that creates — the broken lives it creates, and the broken hearts that it creates,” Redford told more than 50 front-line social service agencies at Government House in Edmonton.
“We will collect … $6 billion less in revenue next year, and that means that we do have some tough choices to make. But we will not leave the most vulnerable people to their own devices, that’s not what our government is about.
“We will do everything possible to thoughtfully navigate this situation to ensure that the choices we’re making don’t end up costing more in the long run. We’ve seen that happen before, and this is not a government, or a caucus, or a cabinet that wants to see that happen again.”
The 33-member council will be co-chaired by Red Deer-North MLA Mary Anne Jablonski and former Edmonton YMCA president Franco Savoia.
Human Services Minister Dave Hancock called the move a “substantive change” to a more grassroots, bottom-up approach.
“Where we’re going with social policy is to understand that communities have to own their problems, and be part of the solution,” Hancock said.
While there is no new money for the council, Hancock said the government remains committ ed to funding housing and services for homeless Albertans.
“There are a lot of resources that go into this area, from a lot of different places, and the key is to knowing what they are, where they are, and how we’re using them so they’re not overlapping or duplicating or leaving gaps,” Hancock said.
The province says that since 2009 more than 6,600 homeless Albertans have accessed housing supports and more than 1,600 have graduated from housing first programs.
NDP MLA Rachel Notley says the 2008 Plan for Alberta called on government to spend $3.3 billion to end homelessness by 2019, but the governing conservatives have spent just one-third that amount.
“The PCs can create a new advisory body, but there’s simply no way they can end homelessness at current funding levels,” Notley said in a statement. “The PCs are patting themselves on the back, but we still have a long way to go to address the actual causes of homelessness in Alberta.”
She also said the government has cut support for affordable housing and rent supplements.
“Providing support for affordable housing is crucial to keeping Albertans in their homes. … Without proper funding for affordable housing, the commitment to end homelessness will be one more broken promise made on the backs of vulnerable Albertans.”
Wildrose Human Services critic Jeff Wilson said he supports the initiative and encouraged government to open the council to opposition members.
“Quite frankly, I think they got this one right,” Wilson said. “The reality is that money can’t solve every single issue here, so I’m really hoping they achieve a framework that will allow them to maximize community involvement at every level in solving homelessness.”
Liberal MLA David Swann called the move “a good news story” but said the province has failed to show leadership in resolving homelessness.
“It’s really the regions that have led the way, though the province likes to take credit for it,” Swann said, adding that Hancock dissolved the secretariat in the 2012 budget and hasn’t yet appointed the new council.
“They’ve wasted one of the 10 years we have to make this plan to end homelessness work,” Swann said. “They really dropped the ball.” | <urn:uuid:63df3035-fc9c-4eef-b8a8-02a8c9afdd75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edmontonjournal.com/weather/Alberta+announces+council+focused+preventing+homelessness/7932508/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95067 | 879 | 1.625 | 2 |
My mother-in-law sent me this article from the NYTimes on Sunday. It’s an interesting piece on the decline of car ownership among the “younger generation”—basically Gen-Y’ers/Millennials. I think this makes sense and it’s a topic she and I discuss frequently.
Here is my response (as it relates to crowdsourcing two paragraphs down):
It’s scary (and kind of hilarious) to imagine what this means:
The five-year strategic vision that Scratch [a consulting arm of MTV] has developed for Chevrolet, kept quiet until now, stretches beyond marketing to a rethinking of the company’s corporate culture. The strategy is to infuse General Motors with the same insights that made MTV reality shows like “Jersey Shore” and “Teen Mom” breakout hits.
I imagine people fist pumping as they walk down the halls screaming “where are the guidos!?” :p
I hope the car industry goes the direction of the horse-drawn carriage. we need better solutions to transportation than stupid cars. there’s no scale.
GM is kidding itself if they think they’re going to attract young purchasers with stupid lemonade colored cards–and Scratch probably knows it but wants the consulting fees (i.e. “just doing their job”).
The real trend for “the young generation” will be around collective ownership—sharing assets to reduce costs.
Consider: if it costs 60 to 80k to get a decent college education, arguably the bare minimum needed to even start getting into the “middle class income brackets,” and most of this money is procured through student loans, then the “youth of today” will have debt considerably higher than “our parents’ generation,” hence postponing starting family, purchasing homes and cars, etc. outside of home ownership, 20 years ago people would be hard pressed to find 22 year olds carrying debt in the 80k range. That doesn’t even count the people who choose to go to graduate school.
So, yeah, while it’s the right decision to “…abandon the hard sell,” it doesn’t affect the long term trends or take into account the social changes happening due to the internet and an awareness that “collective ownership” is viable and doesn’t have to look like some scary vignette from 1984 or “the evil Soviet Republic.”
On a slightly unrelated note, did everyone checkout Bill Moyers & Company this week? | <urn:uuid:0a4e6b97-905d-48f5-b9dd-0283683acaf5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jamesdipadua.com/car-ownership-unpopular-with-younger-generation-because-car-ownership-is-stupid/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943511 | 550 | 1.664063 | 2 |
- Managing Me
- Big Ideas
- Managing People
When we think about the factors that might give you an advantage in a negotiation, a few obvious things spring to mind, such as nerves of steel, a poker face and an ability to give away something small to get something big.
But by concentrating on these psychological factors, we might be missing the real key to winning a negotiation: selecting the place where a negotiation takes place.
Markus Baer, assistant professor of organisational behaviour at Washington University in St Louis, and Graham Brown, assistant professor on the faculty of management at the University of British Columbia, write in a blog on the Harvard Business Review website that the physical location of a negotiation is hugely important.
Their research (which can be downloaded here) showed that residents of an office space — even a space they had been in for only 20 minutes — were able to claim as much as 160% more value in a distributive negotiation (that is, where one party wins and the other loses) than the person visiting the office.
“And it is not only that residents do better when negotiating on their turf,” Baer and Brown write. “Our study also revealed that entering someone else's office space causes us to do worse.”
The pair argue that the huge advantage of negotiating on your home ground relates to confidence – being in your own space almost automatically makes you more confident.
“As human beings we are fundamentally territorial. Just watch people as they sit down in a restaurant. You may see someone putting their coat over their chair or rearranging their plate and silverware.
“All of these behaviours allow us to make ourselves comfortable where we are. They allow us to feel ‘at home’. At the same time, they signal to others that this is our space and that it should not be infringed upon.”
So if your employee tries to drag you to a meeting room or their office for an important chat, be wary.
On the other hand, be very careful about accepting an offer from your chairman to pop down to their beach house for a strategy talk – you may well find yourself agreeing to something you never would have back in your office.
If you are a CEO or managing director, who does your performance review?
Perhaps it is your chairman, who sits down on an annual basis to chat through the year just gone and the year ahead.
Perhaps you perform an annual 360-degree review process, where members of staff fill out a survey, sometimes anonymously.
Both strategies are valuable, but the fact they are annual creates a problem, according to a McKinsey Quarterly article by Robert Kaplan, who says “many executives find that as they become more senior, they receive less coaching and become more confused about their performance and developmental needs… when these executives ultimately do receive feedback in their year-end reviews (often as part of a 360-degree-feedback program), they are surprised to be confronted with specific criticisms of their leadership style, communication approach and interpersonal skills.”
Kaplan’s solution is to set up a network of “junior coaches” – that is, subordinates – who can offer constructive criticism and advice.
The subordinates don’t know they are actually acting as coaches, but if the senior executive asks the right questions, the subordinates’ answers can be invaluable.
Kaplen’s suggested key questions is this: “What advice would you offer to help me improve my effectiveness? Please give me one or two specific and actionable suggestions. I would appreciate your advice.”
He says the process of getting it answered might be awkward, but the feedback makes it worth it.
Everyone’s met them. You might be waiting in line, trying to deal with a big government department or company or even trying to buy something when you meet that officious but lowly-ranked soul who likes to show you how much power they have by being a stickler for the rules.
“I’m afraid I can’t allow that,” says the security guard/call centre operator/store attendant with a smirk.
Financial Times management columnist Lucy Kellaway has felt the sting of these types and decided to investigate.
She says research to be published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology shows “people who have a little power but don’t have status can behave in nasty ways and get a kick out of demeaning others” while those with more status are more restrained.
The study involved an experiment in which students were told to issue orders to others.
“Those who were assigned low-status roles tended to delight in getting people to do humiliating things – like making them bark like a dog three times – while those in higher status jobs treated them with more respect.”
Kellaway says the researchers suggested the best way “of discouraging tyranny lower down the pecking order is to make sure that the jobs are not dead-ends and that advancement is possible”.
It’s a good theory, but I’d question whether human behaviour can really be changed so easily. | <urn:uuid:cc66db8c-2387-4b7c-9095-65a2d04b0e67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://leadingcompany.smartcompany.com.au/strategy/want-to-win-your-negotiations-stay-in-your-office/20110927131 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96397 | 1,063 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Commercialising Bradgate Park an act of desecration
Peter Tyldesley's recent column in the Leicester Mercury seemed, in part, to be a response to my letter of February 21, in which I questioned the need for the proposed Shakespeare play in the Bradgate Park ruins and the display of outdoor art in the park.
In his piece ("Plenty of room for both activity and tranquillity", First Person, March 5), Mr Tyldesley explains his conviction that Bradgate Park is a place which is capable of providing for the "inhabitants of Leicestershire and visitors thereto" an opportunity to learn about care and appreciation of the environment.
He writes that the Bradgate Park Charitable Trust faces the problems of balancing quiet enjoyment with the provision of visitor facilities, and of passive management with active public engagement.
The phrase "quiet enjoyment" he acknowledges features regularly in discussions about the park (including the letters page of the Mercury) but says that "interestingly" this phrase does not appear in either the original Trust Deed or the Charity Commission scheme which now governs Bradgate Park activities.
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He claims that "Bennion's vision of a public park and recreation ground sounds like something very different".
Nevertheless, the words "quiet enjoyment" emanate from the plaques placed in the park to commemorate Bennion's gift.
One plaque is on a rock alongside the road to the ruins, the other on the eastern side of Old John tower, and they read:
"In grateful remembrance of Charles Bennion of Thurnby in this county who, in the year 1928, with the helpful concurrence of the heirs of the Greys of Leicester, purchased from them this Park of Bradgate and presented it in trust for the City and County of Leicester that for all time it might be preserved in its natural state for the quiet enjoyment of the people of Leicestershire. His true memorial lies around."
The plaques were put in place in the early 1930s, after the death of Bennion in 1929, as a memorial both to him and to his generous gift to the people of Leicestershire.
Edward Haslegrave was agent (estate manager) to the Grey family from 1913 and, after the sale of the estate, continued for over 30 years in charge of the park.
Mr Haslegrave never used a motor vehicle and walked everywhere in the park – it only takes about half an hour to cross the park on foot in any direction.
Involved and well respected in the local community, he continued working until a month before he died in 1961, at the age of 84.
He would have been well acquainted with the Greys and it can be surmised that the wording on the plaques accorded with the wishes of both the Grey and Bennion families, represents their true intentions and met with their full approval.
With recent annual visitor numbers approaching 900,000, it is not an exaggeration to say that these plaques must have been read by hundreds of thousands of people over the years.
Their message could not be clearer. The inscription was surely felt to capture the sentiments of the man and the spirit which he hoped would live on in his gift.
The increased commercialisation of the park continues to concern me and countless others who cherish it.
I understand that the covenants stipulate that there should be no commercial activity within the park boundaries.
Why does the Bradgate Park Charitable Trust flout these? Why do they need more and more income?
I appreciate that a four-wheel drive vehicle is required, but are so many vehicles needed?
The landscape is suffering from the over-activity of herds of rutting Land Rovers.
As to the theatre proposal, I have been told that owls and other birds roost in the ruins.
These birds are active at dusk and into the night.
Will the wildlife in this historically important site for nature conservation be disturbed by such a performance?
Will there be artificial lighting or a sound system?
Charles Bennion presented the park to future generations "in trust" and laid down simple "rules and conditions". Would he feel betrayed?
To gradually dismiss, discount and choose to ignore these covenants is an act of desecration, not an act of trust.
Why not display the covenants at the park? There is nothing to hide and what a fascinating and educational display they would make.
Mr Tyldesley informs us that the park will be launching a visitor survey later this year "so you can tell us if you think we have got the balance right". What is this balance?
Surely as the latest in a long line of temporary guardians of the park, it is his duty to do all that he can to protect and preserve that unspoiled natural space, so close to our crowded city.
This sounds like a big enough challenge in itself and, as Edward Haslegrave would no doubt confirm if he were still around, a lifetime's work for any man.
Dave Rigg, Newtown Linford. | <urn:uuid:ba983a58-01b7-41a6-9047-e520a7fd3d21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Commercialising-Bradgate-Park-act-desecration/story-18410756-detail/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956625 | 1,077 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Today Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced that its investigation into Intel is complete. The original investigation began two years ago after allegations that Intel misused its market dominant position in South Korea to pressure manufacturers to not use processors from its rivals.
“The FTC gained some evidence backing up suspicions that Intel has offered discounts to computer makers in exchange for sealing exclusive deals, and coerced dealers not to buy products from rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices” according FTC official in an interview with Korea Times.
With the investigation now closed, any potential sanctions or fines will be determined by an internal deliberation committee of the Korean FTC. If Intel is sanctioned it will be the second American company to face a penalty imposed by South Korea after Microsoft was fined $35 million USD as a result of bundling software with its Windows operating system.
The panel expects to reach a decision on any sanctions against Intel by October. Chuck Mulloy, Intel spokesperson, told the DailyTech he could not discuss allegations against the company or divulge contents of the statement because the statement of objection submitted by the Korean FTC is still sealed.
Mulloy issued a statement to DailyTech, stating, “We're hopeful that we'll be able to show the commission that the microprocessor market is functioning normally and that this is an extremely competitive market and that our conduct has been pro-competition and beneficial to consumers.”
However, sources close to the investigation told DailyTech that AMD was not listed as a formal complaint party in Korea, but that AMD had filed general complaints against Intel in the past. | <urn:uuid:9fcc5675-2cf0-467e-96d7-aca3ea1049fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=8827&commentid=182753&threshhold=1&red=1616 | 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 | 0.969766 | 323 | 1.679688 | 2 |
French conglomerate Alstom and Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) recently announced a partnership that would establish a gas turbine reconditioning workshop in southern coastal Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province's Phu My Town. This joint venture would help power generating organizations to shorten the time for getting units to back into operation, contributing to the assurance of the nation's energy security, according to Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.
With its prime location in Asia, the workshop would help recondition the latest gas turbine parts. This collaboration would also help bring together the latest technology with local expertise and competitive positioning in a major long-term investment in Viet Nam and Asia.
Alstom and EVN also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) covering other areas of co-operation including the establishment of training programmes for EVN engineers and online monitoring of power plants, reducing fuel consumption and improving plant efficiency. The joint venture and MoU will cover major hydro projects such as Son La and Huoi Quang, and thermal power plants like the Phu My gas-fired facilities. | <urn:uuid:539a11e3-4a35-4e0b-9ff4-1238d406dfe1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.turbomachinerymag.com/blog/content/first-gas-turbine-reconditioning-workshop-vietnam | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95357 | 222 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Federal grant to help Minnesota's homeless veteransby Jessica Mador, Minnesota Public Radio
St. Paul, Minn. — More federal housing help will be available to homeless veterans in Minnesota.
The federal government today announced more than $750,000 in permanent housing and case management grants for homeless veterans across the state.
The assistance — part of which comes in the form of vouchers — is expected to help more than 115 homeless veterans in the state, said officials with the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs.
Ten vouchers will be split between Duluth and Mankato, the first time either city has received the assistance. The remainder will go to Minneapolis, St. Paul and St. Cloud, said Kathleen Vitalis, president of the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans.
"For those that need the case management and supportive services, just that added little piece to help them in their decisions in remaining stable," Vitalis said.
The rental assistance and comprehensive case management is sorely needed to help rural veterans stay off the street, Vitalis said.
"This just isn't, 'I'm going to pay your rent,' this is looking at individuals that truly need this program for the extra stability that a case manager can provide to them, that they really need this to succeed."
Most of the veterans in the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program suffer severe physical or mental disabilities or have chronic substance-abuse problems. The federal government launched the program in 2008 as part of a larger effort to address homelessness among veterans. | <urn:uuid:4617c417-db72-4b47-bfae-95dfd967a00d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/03/27/veterans-assistance-grant?refid=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94566 | 313 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Warner Theatre, Litchfield County Writer's Project 'Writers in Conversation' to feature author Charlotte Rogan, others Oct. 12
TORRINGTON >> New author Charlotte Rogan will have be appearing for two speaking engagements beginning this week at The Warner Theatre in Torrington on Friday at 7 p.m. for the Litchfield County Writer’s Project “Writers in Conversation” book discussion. Rogan will talk with author Dani Shapiro about her book “The Lifeboat” (Little, Brown and Company - $24.99).
On Oct. 24, Rogan will give a second talk and book signing at the Watertown Library Association’s Friends Read Together program at 7 p.m. at Walker Hall in Watertown.
Books are available at the Book Nook for $20, according to an online pamphlet.
“I started writing 25 years ago, in that time I wrote five novels and didn’t spend time trying to get published,” said Rogan, who resides in Westport. “Over the years I had a couple of agents.”
Finding a literary agent for “The Lifeboat” happened by chance, the author said in a recent phone interview. She met a journalist who had a literary agent — Rogan was introduced to the agent and presented her manuscript.
“He said he liked ‘The Lifeboat’ and in the fall of 2010 he sold the book to Little, Brown [and Company],” recalled Rogan. Rogan is a self-taught writer. She took creative writing classes and got better at her craft, she said.
“It wasn’t something I thought about doing,” she said. “I wanted to be an architect. I studied that in school.
Rogan graduated from Princeton University in 1975. At some point, she said, she decided she wanted to write a novel. During her creative writing classes she studied under the late Harold Brodkey, an American author.
“He was [the] person that taught what writing could be,” she said. “He set a standard for me that is a lifelong pursuit.”
“The Lifeboat” takes place in the summer of 1914. The character of Grace Winter elopes with Henry Winter in London, hoping to escape the disapproval of his wealthy family. Continued...
When the ocean liner carrying them home to America has a mysterious explosion, Henry sacrifices his own safety to secure Grace’s seat in a lifeboat, which is later realized to be over capacity. For any to live, some must die, according to the book.
Now on the Atlantic, the weather is deteriorating and supplies are dwindling. The castaways scheme and battle, “caught in a power struggle between a ruthless experienced sailor and an enigmatic matron with surprising powers of persuasion,” according to the book. “Choosing a side will seal her fate, but Grace has made her way in the world by seizing every possible advantage. She recollects the unorthodox way she and Henry met and considers a new life of privilege she thought she’d found. She must now decide will she pay any price to keep it,” according to the book.
“My protagonist not only has to survive the world of nature, but she also has to survive the world of men,” said Rogan.
Inspiration for the book came from one of her attorney husband’s old criminal law texts, where two cases of shipwrecked sailors were put on trial after being rescued, according to Rogan.
The whole lifeboat situation, to her, was a metaphor of the world, because “some of the things the people do on the lifeboat is not admirable.”
“We are in a world of scarce resources, there are the haves and have-nots,” Rogan said. “It was the moral dilemma in a lifeboat situation that really struck me.”
“In writing my story, I tried very hard not to judge my characters and just figure out what it might be like and what you might think about,” she added.
During the 19th century, shipwrecked sailors thought they were protected by the “Custom of the Sea,” a written code of conduct meant to govern any people who found themselves beyond reach of any civil authority.
Some examples of the code of conduct included “women and children first,” “the captain goes down with ship” and the belief that it was perfectly fine to kill people as long as the victims were chosen fairly.
“The courts were looking for a way to outlaw this — if you needed to kill someone to save your own life, the courts wanted to say it was not OK,” said Rogan. Continued...
According to Wikipedia.com, “Custom of the Sea” is a set of rules that were practiced by officers and crew of ships and boats in the open sea, distinguished from maritime law, a distinct and coherent body of law that governs maritime questions and offenses.
Her talk for the Watertown Public Library will center on writing in general, some of the questions she has been asked are usually centered on “why write fiction” or “why write at all.”
“I developed a talk that talks about myself and my book and then answers questions about ‘why write fiction’ and ‘why write at all,’” said Rogan.
The Warner Theatre is located at 68 Main Street in Torrington and Walker Hall is located at 50 DeForest Street in Watertown.
For information on both events visit Ms. Rogan’s Web site at www.charlotterogan.com., The Warner Theatre’s Web site at www.warnertheatre.com and Watertown Library Association’s Web site www.watertownlibrary.org. To learn more about Rogan’s work, visit www.charlotterogan.com.
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Guide to Religious Services
Note: All listings are paid advertisements.
Unity in the Foothills
102 Prospect Street, Torrington, Ct 06790
A Course in Miracles Tuesday evenings 7 p.m.
Transformational Prayer Group Thursday 1:15 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m.
First United Methodist Church
21 Fern Drive, Torrington, CT 06790
Rev. Barbara B. Shaffer, Pastor
Sunday Service at 9:30 a.m.
Sunday School from 10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Pre-K thru Adult
Northfield Bible Church
10 Camp Hill Road, Northfield, CT 06778
Bible Doctrines Class: Sunday at 9:00 a.m.
Sunday Service at 10:00 a.m.
Bible Study: Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
Pot Luck Supper every 4th Friday of the Month at 6:15 p.m.
ASSEMBLIES OF GOD
First Assembly of God
387 New Harwinton Road, Torrington, CT 06790
Sunday School for all ages 9:30 a.m.
Sunday Worship Service at 10:45 a.m.
Family Night Thursday at 7:00 p.m.
Adult Bible Study Prayer Service: Saturday at 9:15 a.m.
Cable 5 Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 3 p.m.
CONGREGATIONAL CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Founders Congregational Church
41 Birge Park Road, Harwinton, CT 06791
Sunday School and Services 10:00 a.m.
Bible Study: Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. and Thursday at 10:00 a.m.
Center Congregational Church
155 Main Street, Torrington, CT 06790
Sunday Services and Church School at 10:00 a.m.
Second Congregational Church of Winsted
Biblical, Traditional, Protestant Worship
800 Main Street, Winsted, CT 06098
Baptist and Congregational
Worship 10:00 a.m.
Sunday School 9:00 a.m.
July - August Worship 9:30 a.m.
Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday - Thursday
8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Friday
Note: All listings are paid advertisements. | <urn:uuid:59b2c687-7ac6-43ce-bbd1-ce411836cf26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://registercitizen.com/articles/2012/10/09/news/doc5073b36b5bc55097517838.txt?viewmode=fullstory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950535 | 2,020 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The Appalling Consequences of the Iraq War are Now Clear
Editors’ note: This is a fuller version of what originally ran on the CounterPunch site on April 21.
In a scarcely reported speech given on the Senate floor on March 19, the day the war was launched against Iraq, Robert Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia and the most eloquent speaker in that chamber, asked "what is happening to this country? When did we become a nation which ignores and berates our friends? When did we decide to risk undermining international order by adopting a radical and doctrinaire approach to using our awesome military might? How can we abandon diplomacy when the turmoil in the world cries out for diplomacy?" No one bothered to answer him, but as the vast American military machine now planted in Iraq begins to stir restlessly in other directions in the name of the American people, their love of freedom, and their deep-seated values, these questions give urgency to the failure, if not the corruption of democracy that we are living through.
Let’s examine first what US Middle East policy has wrought since George W. Bush came to power almost three years ago in an election decided finally by the Supreme Court, not by the popular vote. Even before the atrocities of September 11, Bush’s team had given Ariel Sharon’s government a free hand to colonize the West Bank and Gaza, to kill, detain and expel people at will, to demolish their homes, expropriate their land, imprison them by curfew and hundreds of military blockades, make life for them generally speaking impossible; after 9/11, Sharon simply hitched his wagon to "the war on terrorism" and intensified his unilateral depredations against a defenseless civilian population, now under occupation for 36 years, despite literally tens of UN Security Council Resolutions enjoining Israel to withdraw and otherwise desist from its war crimes and human rights abuses. Bush called Sharon a man of peace last June, and kept the 5 billion dollar subsidy coming without even the vaguest hint that it was at risk because of Israel’s lawless brutality.
On October 7, 2001 Bush launched the invasion of Afghanistan, which opened with concentrated high-altitude bombing (increasingly an "anti-terrorist" military tactic, bearing in its effects and structure a strong resemblance to ordinary, garden variety terrorism) and by December had installed in that devastated country a client regime with no effective power beyond a few streets in Kabul. There has been no significant US effort at reconstruction, and it would seem the country has returned to its former abjection, albeit with a noticeable return of elements of the Taleban, as well as a thriving drug-based economy.
Since the summer of 2002, the Bush administration has conducted an all-front campaign against the despotic government of Iraq and, having unsuccessfully tried to push the Security Council into compliance, began its war along with the United Kingdom against the country. I would say that from about last November on, dissent disappeared from a mainstream media swollen with a surfeit of ex-generals and ex-intelligence agents sprinkled with recent terrorism and security experts drawn from the Washington right-wing think tanks. Anyone who spoke up and actually managed to appear was labeled anti-American by failed academics who mounted websites to list "enemy" scholars who didn’t toe the line. Emails of the few visible public figures who struggled to say something were swamped, their lives threatened, their ideas trashed and mocked by media news readers who had just become the self-appointed, all-too-embedded sentinels of America’s war.
An overwhelming torrent of crude as well as sophisticated material appeared everywhere equating the tyranny of Saddam Hussein not only with evil, but with every known crime: much of this in part was factually correct but it eliminated from mention the extraordinarily important role played by the US and Europe in fostering the man’s rise, fuelling his ruinous wars, and maintaining his power. No less a personage than the egregious Donald Rumsfeld visited Saddam in the early 80′s as a way of assuring him of US approval for his catastrophic war against Iran. The various US corporations who supplied Iraq with nuclear, chemical and biological material for the weapons that we supposedly went to war for were simply erased from the public record.
But all this and more was deliberately obscured by both government and media in manufacturing the case for the further destruction of Iraq which has been taking place for the past month. The demonization of the country and its strutting leader turned it into a simulacrum of a formidable quasi-metaphysical threat whereas and this bears repeating its demoralized and basically useless armed forces were a threat to no one at all. What was formidable about Iraq was its rich culture, its complex society, its long-suffering people: these were all made invisible, the better to smash the country as if it were only a den of thieves and murderers. Either without proof or with fraudulent information Saddam was accused of harboring weapons of mass destruction that were a direct threat to the US 7000 miles away. He was identical with the whole of Iraq, a desert place "out there" (to this day most Americans have no idea where Iraq is, what its history consists of, and what besides Saddam it contains) destined for the exercise of US power unleashed illegally as a way of cowing the entire world in its Captain Ahab like quest for re-shaping reality and imparting democracy to everyone. At home the Patriot and Terrorist Acts have given the government an unseemly grip over civil life. A dispiritingly quiescent population for the most part accepts the bilge, passed off as fact, about imminent security threats, with the result that preventive detention, illegal eavesdropping and a menacing sense of a heavily policed public space have made even the university a cold, hard place to be for anyone who tries to think and speak independently.
The appalling consequences of the US and British intervention in Iraq are only just beginning to unfold, first with the coldly calculated destruction of its modern infrastructure, then with the looting and burning of one of the world’s richest civilizations, and finally the totally cynical American attempt to engage a band of motley "exiles" plus various large corporations in the supposed re-building of the country and the appropriation not only of its oil but also its modern destiny. To the dreadful scenes of looting and burning which in the end are the occupying power’s responsibility, Rumsfeld managed to put himself in a class beyond even Hulagu. "Freedom is untidy," he said on one occasion, and "stuff happens" on another. Remorse or sorrow were nowhere in evidence.
General Jay Garner, handpicked for the job, seems like a person straight out of the TV-serial "Dallas." The Pentagon’s favorite exile, Ahmad Chalabi, for example, has intimated openly that he plans to sign a peace treaty with Israel, hardly an Iraqi idea. Bechtel has already been awarded a huge contract. This too in the name of the American people. The whole business smacks of nothing so much as Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
This is an almost total failure in democracy, ours as Americans, not Iraq’s. 70% of the American people are supposed to be for all this, but nothing is more manipulative and fraudulent than polls of random numbers of Americans who are asked whether they "support our President and troops in time of war." As Senator Byrd said in his speech, "there is a pervasive sense of rush and risk and too many questions unansweredA pall has fallen over the Senate Chamber. We avoid our solemn duty to debate the one topic on the minds of all Americans, even while scores of our sons and daughters faithfully do their duty in Iraq." Who is going to ask questions now that that Middle Western farm boy General Tommy Franks sits triumphantly with his staff around one of Saddam’s tables in a Baghdad palace?
I am convinced that in nearly every way, this was a rigged, and neither a necessary nor a popular war. The deeply reactionary Washington "research" institutions that spawned Wolfowitz, Perle, Abrams, Feith and the rest provide an unhealthy intellectual and moral atmosphere. Policy papers circulate without real peer review, adopted by a government requiring what seems to be rational (even moral) justification for a dubious, basically illicit policy of global domination. Hence, the doctrine of military pre-emption, which was never voted on either by the people of this country or their half-asleep representatives. How can citizens stand up against the blandishments offered the government by companies like Halliburton, Boeing, and Lockheed? And as for planning and charting a strategic course for what in effect is by far the most lavishly endowed military establishment in history, one that is fully capable of dragging us into unending conflicts, that task is left to the various ideologically based pressure groups such as the fundamentalist Christian leaders like Franklin Graham who have been unleashed with their Bibles on destitute Iraqis, the wealthy private foundations, and such lobbies as AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, along with its associated think tanks and research centers.
What seems so monumentally criminal is that good, useful words like "democracy" and "freedom" have been hijacked, pressed into service as a mask for pillage, muscling in on territory, and the settling of scores. The American program for the Arab world is the same as Israel’s. Along with Syria, Iraq theoretically represents the only serious long term military threat to Israel, and therefore it had to be put out of commission for decades. What does it mean to liberate and democratize a country when no one asked you to do it, and when in the process you occupy it militarily and, at the same time, fail miserably to preserve public law and order? The mix of resentment and relief at Saddam’s cowardly disappearance that most Iraqis feel has brought with it little understanding or compassion either from the US or from the other Arab states, who have stood by idly quarreling over minor points of procedure while Baghdad burned. What a travesty of strategic planning when you assume that "natives" will welcome your presence after you’ve bombed and quarantined them for thirteen years. The truly preposterous mindset about American beneficence, and with it that patronizing Puritanism about what is right and wrong, has infiltrated the minutest levels of the media. In a story about a 70 year old Baghdad widow who ran a cultural center from her house wrecked in the US raids and is now beside herself with rage, NY Times reporter Dexter Filkins implicitly chastises her for having had "a comfortable life under Saddam Hussein," and then piously disapproves of her tirade against the Americans, "and this from a graduate of London University."
Adding to the fraudulence of the weapons that weren’t there, the Stalingrads that didn’t occur, the formidable artillery defenses that never happened, I wouldn’t be surprised if Saddam disappeared suddenly because a deal was made in Moscow to let him out with his family and money in return for the country. The war had gone badly for the US in the south, and Bush couldn’t risk more of the same in Baghdad. US National Security adviser Condoleeza Rice appeared in Russia on April 7. Two days later, Baghdad fell on April 9. Draw your own conclusions, but isn’t it possible that as a result of discussions with the Republican Guard mentioned by Rumsfeld, Saddam bought himself out in return for abandoning the whole thing to the Americans and their British allies, who could then proclaim a brilliant victory.
Americans have been cheated, Iraqis have suffered impossibly, and Bush looks like the moral equivalent of a cowboy sheriff who has just led his righteous posse to a victorious showdown against an evil enemy. On matters of the gravest importance to millions of people constitutional principles have been violated and the electorate lied to unconscionably. We are the ones who must have our democracy back. Enough of smoke and mirrors and smooth talking hustlers. | <urn:uuid:255084c6-5fa2-4473-acc7-9e361c9f27d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/04/22/the-appalling-consequences-of-the-iraq-war-are-now-clear/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969803 | 2,492 | 1.5625 | 2 |
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How the Economy is Challenging Home Builders
Posted By beth On June 25, 2007 @ 2:42 PM In Today's Top Story | Comments Disabled
By Dennis Walsh: Home builders continue to face numerous economic challenges that run in stark contrast to the boom times of recent years. Exactly what the impact and how long these challenges will continue is a hotly debated topic in real estate circles. Some of these issues include:
Economists and housing analysts widely agree that current unsold housing inventory still remains at historically high levels. Data reported by the Census Bureau and National Association of Realtors estimates unsold new homes at almost a six-month supply, while the supply of existing resale homes approaches a seven-month supply.
While these numbers are troublesome, according to David Seiders, NAHB Chief Economist, they do not reflect the huge number of pre-sold new homes that have resulted in cancellations. With cancellations also running at historically high levels, estimated to be currently around 25% for the nation’s largest builders, the supply of available homes inventory is actually much larger than many reports reflect.
Further, subprime and other aggressive mortgage programs that fueled the recent housing boom are resulting in a significant increase in foreclosures. This too is expected by many experts to increase the inventory of available homes. It’s estimated that as high as 50% of subprime mortgages that end in foreclosure will result in those homes being owned by lenders REO departments. These homes will also increase the current oversupply.
At the same time these factors are occurring, the mortgage industry is tightening up lending practices, which is expected to have the effect of reducing the number of buyers who can qualify for the purchase of this large inventory.
Some economists maintain that the loss of subprime mortgages would only affect a small portion of builders, particularly those who focus more on entry-level and affordable products. However, as the majority of new home buyers are moving up from lower-priced homes, the ripple effect could be felt in the higher-priced markets as well. Further, some analysts contend that many higher-priced and luxury homes have been purchased with no-doc, interest-only and in some cases, negative amortization instruments. Since most builders do not break out sales on the basis of mortgage types, the percentage of sales financed by more exotic mortgage products is difficult to determine.
Another factor difficult to measure is the impact of the large inventory of investor-owned homes. Many sit empty waiting for a buyer, while many others are being rented in hopes that market conditions will improve to allow a more profitable sales price at a later time.
While debates continue to rage over whether our nation’s economy is experiencing a housing bubble, many realities make it clear that we’re entering a very different business environment. More and more analysts are also agreeing that a return to a healthy market may not happen for a number of years.
One question that begs answering is what exactly would a ?healthy? market look like? From my perspective, a market that operates with some measure of balance between supply and demand would be a step in the right direction. Further, a market where this supply was available at price points within the affordability of the buyers in demand would also offer greater stability for the long run.
With all of this in mind, I think it?s important for us to recognize today’s market as the market we’re living and working in?right now. Rather than waiting for a healthier market to return, those of us who hope to survive and thrive will accept the realities and build a business plan around meeting the needs of those who truly wish to buy and sell.
Unlike many individual resale sellers, builders and developers must stay in the market?they must continue to build and sell homes. More than ever before, they’re considering and pursuing whatever alternatives that will allow them to continue to build and sell successfully.
What’s great is that we can bring excellent solutions that will help them meet their goals. Our assistance in helping builders deliver the ?right? homes at the ?right? pricing in the ?right? locations to meet the needs of real home buyers will bring tremendous value to all involved. As competitive factors heat up, we can deliver sales and marketing solutions to support builders, developers and their communities. We can also assist move-up buyers in the marketing and sale of their existing homes, as well as facilitate financial solutions to meet their needs.
Americans will continue to seek out solutions to meet their housing needs while builders and developers will continue to work to meet these needs. Our Certified New Home Specialists? are trained to deliver the professional guidance and service to help all achieve these goals.
So as today’s housing market presents competitive challenges for us all, these same challenges open up doors of opportunity. My advice: leave it to the soothsayers to do all the ?soothing and saying?, and start knocking on those doors!
Based in Newport Beach, CA, Dennis Walsh & Associates, Inc. is a leading source for training and sales tools for success in both new home sales and resale real estate business. More than 30,000 real estate professionals have participated in their Certified New Home Specialist? and Residential Construction Certified? certification courses.
For more information, visit www.sellnewhomes.com or call 800.428.122.
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Copyright © 2012 RISMedia. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:59d259d5-0bad-43fa-a4f3-6b35206e87db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rismedia.com/2007-06-25/how-the-economy-is-challenging-home-builders/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95627 | 1,204 | 1.640625 | 2 |
September 23, 2007
"The Landlord," til Tuesday, takes us to 1969 Park Slope
Atlantic Yards Report
Um, remember Park Slope in the late 1960s, the time of redlining, trash-strewn empty lots, and battered buildings? I don't, though I've heard tell, so the next best thing is to get to the Film Forum (through Tuesday only), to see Hal Ashby's 1970 movie "The Landlord," an entertaining and jolting portrait of a neighborhood and an era.
The New York Times, in feature headlined Before Gentrification Was Cool, It Was a Movie, describes it as "an experimental, satirical film, from a script by an unknown black screenwriter, about a wealthy young white man who decides to buy a Brooklyn tenement and ease out the black tenants so he can gut it and move in."
Posted by amy at September 23, 2007 9:19 AM | <urn:uuid:96aaeeb1-7082-4525-ab50-6e1cbb6a2ae5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nolandgrab.org/archives/2007/09/the_landlord_ti.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938334 | 190 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has ruled out exempting jewellery from the new personal insolvency laws.
Fianna Fáil had proposed that engagement and wedding rings, which could be of low value but of significant ceremonial significance in people's lives, should not be included when a debtor's assets are assessed.
Speaking to the Oireachtas Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, Mr Shatter said it was a misconceived amendment that he could not accept in any circumstances.
The minister said nobody wants an individual who owns a modest wedding or engagement ring valued at a couple of hundred euro to be put in a position where they may be deprived of that.
However, he said it would not be fair to creditors if people could write off items of significant value.
Mr Shatter said: "One individual's €100 ring that has ceremonial significance might be another individual's €200,000 or €300,000 diamond bazooka that they regard as having a great deal more ceremony than the €100 ring."
Fianna Fáil's Niall Collins put forward the amendment, but he withdrew it on the grounds that there was no specified value or ceiling attached to the item of jewellery.
However, he indicated that this would not be the end of the issue for him and that a revised amendment could be proposed at a later stage in the Bill's passage.
Mr Collins told the minister that he was concerned with ordinary people and not those who could afford jewellery worth six-figure sums. | <urn:uuid:22cb1c52-f176-4622-a39b-94d4864d265f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0913/337488-personal-insolvency-legislation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977888 | 314 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Stony Stevenson writes "Vista is proving far less popular than XP did with new PC buyers during the earlier OS's first year on the market. This conclusion follows from statements by Bill Gates at this week's Consumer Electronics Show. Gates boasted that Microsoft has sold more than 100 million copies of Windows Vista since the OS launched last January. Based on Gates's statement, Windows Vista was aboard just 39% of the PC's that shipped in 2007. And Vista, in terms of units shipped, only outperformed first-year sales of XP by 10%, according to Gates's numbers, while PC shipments have doubled in the years since XP's release." | <urn:uuid:585a1b88-cd57-4187-a2b7-a87789de41ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tech.slashdot.org/story/08/01/08/036204/vista-shipped-on-39-of-pcs-in-2007 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970995 | 130 | 1.507813 | 2 |
JOS, Nigeria — Charred bodies with scorched hands reaching skyward lay in the streets and a mosque with blackened minarets smoldered Wednesday after several days of fighting between Christians and Muslims killed more than 200 people.
Sectarian violence in this central region of Nigeria has left thousands dead over the past decade, and the latest outbreak that began Sunday came despite the government's efforts to quell religious extremism in the West African country.
Jos was mostly calm Wednesday, though many terrified civilians kept indoors while soldiers patrolled the streets. The city is in Nigeria's "middle belt," where dozens of ethnic groups mingle in a band of fertile and hotly contested land separating the Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south.
According to the state police commissioner, skirmishes began after Muslim youths set a Christian church ablaze, but Muslim leaders denied that. Other community leaders said it began with an argument over the rebuilding of a Muslim home in a predominantly Christian neighborhood. The home had been destroyed in November 2008.
After similar bouts of violence in the past, Nigerian authorities have "come up with analysis, but they don't respond properly with concrete measures and policies," said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Tensions seethe, and months or years later you have another outbreak."
More than 13,500 Nigerians have died in sectarian violence in the past decade, Human Rights Watch said. No one has been held accountable, leading to a climate of impunity, Dufka said.
The chief of army staff confirmed accounts that some residents were dragged out of their homes and shot by men dressed in uniforms. He said five of the suspects arrested were dressed in khaki army-style uniforms and claimed to be police officers, though only one of the five men could provide police identification. | <urn:uuid:d102e07d-4d8b-429c-a318-02f29576a363> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tampabay.com/incoming/christian-muslim-fighting-kills-200-in-nigeria/1066989 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973277 | 372 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Monday, May 26, 2008
I finally started reading the graphic novel presentation "update" of sorts to Howard Zinn's 1980 A People's History of the United States, called A People's History of American Empire. I'm about 1/4 in and while I would dispute some of Zinn's interpretations of the Spanish-American War (I think McKinley's reluctance to enter into war was more multifaceted than what Zinn presents in Ch. 2, for example), this is a provocative and nicely-designed popular history of the 110 year-old "American Century."
I am quite sympathetic to Zinn's arguments and have been ever since my undergrad days studying cultural and social histories of Europe and the Atlantic Triangular Trade. Found myself skirting closer and closer to bringing up concerns about hegemony while I was expressing some concern about a perceived "cult of the new" in a forum discussion, before ultimately deciding that it'd be best to discuss such matters here on this blog.
"Hegemony" is such an ugly word. It doesn't contain the harsh hideousness of brute force, as it involves the somewhat active consent and participation of the subordinate with the policies and even Weltanschauungen of the dominant socio-cultural group. It is insidious, following the guns only as a last resort, as it is preferable for its siren-like qualities to be established before the soldiers' footsteps are first heard.
While not often stated directly, worries about hegemony lie behind much of the protests against "globalization" in the ill-named "Third World" or "developing"/"emerging" lands. These protests take many forms. Some have put forth the case that the rise of Islamic jihadism is but the complex interaction between a rapidly-polarizing political elite (often seen as currying favor with the so-called "West"), an impoverished majority denied any real significant share in the new-found wealth, and the pervasive and often threatening "cultural invasion" of ideas and values that run counter to centuries of tradition. Many will argue that it is even more complex than that, but I suspect that perceptions of hegemonic takeover are driving much of the angst in that region (and in many others).
However, this blog is not my preferred place to go into detail about my political beliefs (I think one has sufficient evidence, based on my use of certain words, to have some vague idea at least). But when I was thinking about this, I couldn't help but remember a collection I read last year, edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan, called So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy. In this collection, writers of color address issues of land/scape and self/other perceptions via fantastical or futuristic milieu. One thing that I noticed that I rarely had stopped to consider (after all, hegemony is quite pervasive and persuasive!) is that of "discovery." Why is so little ever really said about the "discovered?" Were these people somehow "lost" before this so-called "discovery?" Is "discovery" a "good" thing? If so, then what is hidden behind the oft-fearful actions in SF stories in which humans are the "discovered" beings (well, in the relatively rare stories where this take places)?
I think the reversing or at least consideration of these questions in stories such as those by Hopkinson, Tobias Buckell, and Nisi Shawl (among many others) is part of the reason why I find their stories to be so appealing to me. I hold no truck with "progress" being equated with "goodness" or "advancement." While "development" is a much more neutral term, even there I hesitate to endorse such a viewpoint. Thoughts of hegemonic influence, however, frighten me on occasion. Perhaps it's because of what I've studied in the past or what I'm now witnessing with certain cultural elements from my homeland spreading out, but I just have such an antipathy towards such things. I suspect that this strong disliking might be a strong influence behind the sorts of fictions I most enjoy these days; stories of self-blinded empires teetering on collapse, individuals struggling to forge a new self-identity in opposition to pre-fab cultural norms, societies creating their own "performances" as a counter to the hegemonic influences.
But it's tough finding this in fantasy (or SF for that matter) fiction. One has to dig just a little bit more, since it likely is tougher to market such fiction that runs opposite of "feel good" stories. But I am certain that I have barely begun to scratch the surface. Perhaps others here can suggest some avenues for exploration? | <urn:uuid:f559c400-ee1f-4a60-b848-c3bde541dd07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ofblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/colonialism-hegemony-and-fantasy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963426 | 978 | 1.703125 | 2 |
So why are we telling you this? Well, this issue of Cheeseball features an interview with Noise Laboratories by the editor herself, Stacey Elizabeth Toon. Also in this issue, she interviews Soul Coughing, Guided by Voices, and Fred Schneider (!). Cheeseball is the source for all the dish for swingers tuning into the NOW! Stacey really is on the edge, "redefining the alternative" as her cover proudly proclaims. Check out a well-written 'zine that covers the lounge music scene and well beyond...and even delves deep into the territory of Noise Laboratories.
In the coming days, we will post the full text of the interview as it appears in Cheeseball. Here's as much as I could manage to type this morning.
Steve: Feedback is all around us. Some philosophers and scientists believe that consciousness itself is nothing but feedback; it's the brain thinking about the brain. Thinking about thinking creates feedback, and that may have been one of the sparks of human consciousness. That is what is so interesting about seeing a smaller example of a feedback system and be able to, when you look at one of these patterns, to see everything from hurricanse to swastikas, and all kinds of things in between. Some mathematicians to this day, even with chaos theory and nonlinear dynamics, say "How can such complex behavior arise from such a simple system?" These systems also have meaning in the physical world. What we have in video feedback is an incredibly simple system that is deterministic in design yet we get incredibly comoplex output from the system, even if there's no human intervention. That's exciting! When everyone thinks of fractals they think of a digital environment, and here is this totally analog environment which I never understood before producing beautiful, self- referential images. Cheeseball: Analog sound has a warmth, too, that is elusive with digital. The voice is analog. Steve: In Information Theory, noise is information. Noise is defined as the unpredictability of a signal. Sometimes the word 'random' is used, but that's not always accurate. Because a signal is unpredictable, it contains a huge volume of information. Cheeseball: In the work you have done, it at least proves that noise is not "disposable matter." It has information that evokes emotion and reaction. Steve: As [Data Integrity Engineer] Matt [LaMantia] likes to say, "Noise is information for which you don't have the decoder." Cheeseball: But when someone in the Lab interacts with your system, then they finally obtain the Green Hornet decoder ring. Steve: Exactly. Toshi: All television is interactive. It's just that people don't realize that when they just sit there and submit to the TV as reality. Mark: Stumbling into no-mind land. Steve: It's not just happening to them, they're submitting to it. Toshi: What we are doing is offering people some tools, and the cool thing about our tools is that we break down a lot of the fears people have about technology and literally, some of the stuff we find in the garbage. Stuff that people throw away can be used to make good things. A lot of what we do is a reaction to the disposable nature of society. Cheeseball: It's like keyboardists rediscovering early Moog synths as an instrument of expression. It's all a process of rediscovery. Steve: Some of our videos are "content-free" in that they do not involve anything that is "real" other than phosphorous on a screen being reproduced by phosphorous on another screen. People see what they want to see, like when they look at puffy clouds. They all see different things...and that is a useful tool, too, because it allows them to recognize their own participation in creating what is on that screen. We are all creating the world that we live in, whether or not we are watching TV. For instance: when we are walking down the street we are creating that world because we notice certain things and don't notice others. Noise Labs breaks the lock grip of "television reality." Imagine an entire cable channel that was nothing but abstract images that didn't attempt to refer to anything, that wasn't trying to teach you something, or to sell you something, or to tell you what was going on somewhere else. It would be what it is for its own sake. Cheeseball: In film there is a genre called Absolute Cinema and it strives for things that can only be defined and displayed through the process of film; moving still images at 24 frames per second. You seem to be creating Absolute Video, or better, Absolute Noise. Mark: That brings you back to Warhol's experiments at the Factory like Empire. Cheeseball: For you, the process seems more important than the product. Toshi: Our feedback is really a performance. It is beyond video in that sense. It is not just about the videotape it ends up on. Cheeseball: The tape is merely like snapshots of a stage play. Toshi: It's interesting for people to see the tapes, but like those snapshots, you have no sense of the experience of watching and participating in it. Steve: Only by people experiencing this live and actually doing it themselves can people grok this. To grok it is to understand it all at once and to understand its implications...it has a physical and emotional resonance for you. It's like if you woke up one morning and you understood Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Cheeseball: So it's like, "Aaaaaah...Bach!" (quoting Radar in M*A*S*H, obligatory television reference). Or better, "Aaaaaah...Noise Labs!"
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Updated 11 October 1996
Steve Hoey, Chief Safety Inspector | <urn:uuid:b587e569-784c-4ddd-88af-f3de69504293> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.noiselabs.com/propaganda.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961282 | 1,234 | 1.546875 | 2 |
On September 26, 2000, about 1900 central daylight time, a Beech 95-55, N9713R, owned by a private individual, impacted with a pole during a forced landing near Gulfport, Mississippi. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time, and no flight plan was filed for the 14 CFR Part 91 training flight. The airplane was substantially damaged. The airline transport-rated/certified flight instructor (CFI) pilot and private-rated dual student pilot reported no injuries. The flight had departed at 1800. Use your browsers 'back' function to return to synopsisReturn to Query Page
The flight had completed an ILS approach to runway 32, and a simulated engine out, but did not touch down. According to the CFI's statement, "...at 2,000 feet we were level and waiting for vectors to intercept the localizer; we completed the before landing checklist and switched back to main tanks. All indications were normal. Upon localizer intercept I pulled the left throttle to idle. My student made the proper adjustments...I then set zero thrust setting for left engine. Upon missed approach, I returned use of the left engine to my student. We were climbing...and [I] told ATC we would like to make a visual approach to a full stop...as we turned onto left downwind for [runway] 36, I again pulled the left throttle to idle...my student reacted correctly...I set zero thrust with the throttle and prop control. About mid field the right engine began to lose power. I turned on both boost pumps and pushed both props and throttles forward. The left engine surged a couple of times but could not produce power. The right engine did not respond. I immediately told my student to turn towards the airport while I evaluated the situation. I switched to aux on the fuel tanks and tried to restart to no avail. I then switched back to mains to no avail. At this time we were about 400 feet agl and realized we would not make the airport. We turned north to land on highway 49...shortly after touchdown the right wing tip hit a light post. We spun around and came to a stop...."
Inspection of the wreckage revealed that there was 22 gallons of fuel found in the left main tank, and 20 gallons of fuel in the right main tank. The fuel selector for the left engine was found selected to main tank. The fuel selector for the right engine was found selected to the main tank.
According to the FAA inspector's statement, "...we verified that there was flight control continuity...continuity of the fuel system in all positions...the boost pumps worked, [and the vents were clear...the following items were noted...the right intake manifold had a hole the size of a quarter...not caused by impact...the stops on the right fuel selector did not perform their intended function...the mixture control was warn and loose on the left engine...plugs on left engine were dark with soot."
Both engines were removed from the airplane and taken to Continental Motor's facilities, Mobile, Alabama, to facility test runs of the engine. Both engines were run under the supervision of the FAA for the NTSB, on October 4-5, 2000.
The FAA report reference the engine runs revealed that, "...both engines ran...[the CFI] had asked the question, 'what would happen if an engine is at idle and the boost pump was turned on?" We confirmed that the left engine's rpm would be significantly reduced with the boost pumps on and the engine at idle...the right engine ran with the hole in the intake manifold throughout the range of the engine. We could not simulate the effect of the pressure differences around the engine during flight since there was not a cowling on the engine. The effect of the hole in the manifold could not be determined conclusively. We could not duplicate the effects, if any, the constant speed propeller might have in flight...I was present for the...examination of the right...and left...engines...I have read the report from Teledyne Continental Motors [TCM]...I concur with the finding that are contained in the report. (See the TCM and FAA inspector's report, attachments to this report).
According to the air traffic control (ATC) transcript of voice recordings, the flight was cleared to land at 1901:27.
At 1901:56, the local control (LC) called the pilot of N9713R, and said, "...you appeared to have lined up with the old closed runway sir that is not runway three six break off to the right." The pilot answered, "...we have an emergency we lost pitch and power...." The flight was then cleared to land on any runway.
At 1902:16, the LC asked, "...are you going to be able to make the airport," and the pilot answered, "negative."
Between 1902:24, and 1902:30, the pilot's microphone was open and the following was transmitted, "...Cheryl your airplane...pull the power back pull the power back...pull the power back...(unintelligible)."
The airplane and engines were released to Mr. Thomas Cook, Insurance Adjuster, representing the owner's insurance company, on October 6, 2000. | <urn:uuid:9b84cf3e-58e3-4a33-a053-abb58168a630> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20001212X22041&ntsbno=MIA00LA272&akey=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973739 | 1,075 | 1.5 | 2 |
I’ve recently been analysing the incoming email traffic data for Demon Internet, a large(ish) UK ISP, for the first four weeks of March 2007. The raw totals show a very interesting picture:
The top four lines are the amount of incoming email that was detected as “spam” by the Cloudmark technology that Demon now uses. The values lie in a range of 5 to 13 million items per day, with the day of the week being irrelevant, and huge swings from day to day. See how 5 million items on Saturday 18th is followed by 13 million items on Monday 20th!
The bottom four lines are the amount of incoming email that was not detected as spam (and it also excludes incoming items with a “null” sender, which will be bounces, almost certainly all “backscatter” from remote sites “bouncing” spam with forged senders). The values here are between about 2 and 4 million items a day, with a clear pattern being followed from week to week, with lower values at the weekends.
There’s an interesting rise in non-spam email on Tuesday 27th, which corresponds to a new type of “pump and dump” spam (mainly in German) which clearly wasn’t immediately spotted as spam. By the next day, things were back to normal.
The figures and patterns are interesting in themselves, but they show how summarising an average spam value (it was in fact 73%) hides a much more complex picture.
The picture is also hiding a deeper truth. There’s no “law of large numbers” operating here. That is to say, the incoming spam is not composed of lots of individual spam gangs, each doing their own thing and thereby generating a fairly steady amount of spam from day to day. Instead, it is clear that very significant volumes of spam is being sent by a very small number of gangs, so that as they switch their destinations around: today it’s
.uk, tomorrow it’s
aol.com and on Tuesday it will be
.de (hmm, perhaps that’s why they hit
.demon addresses? a missing
$ from their regular expression!).
If there’s only a few large gangs operating — and other people are detecting these huge swings of activity as well — then that’s very significant for public policy. One can have sympathy for police officers and regulators faced with the prospect of dealing with hundreds or thousands of spammers; dealing with them all would take many (rather boring and frustrating) lifetimes. But if there are, say, five, big gangs at most — well that’s suddenly looking like a tractable problem.
Spam is costing us [allegedly] billions (and is a growing problem for the developing world), so there’s all sorts of economic and diplomatic reasons for tackling it. So tell your local spam law enforcement officials to have a look at the graph of Demon Internet’s traffic. It tells them that trying to do something about the spammers currently makes a lot of sense — and that by just tracking down a handful of people, they will be capable of making a real difference! | <urn:uuid:371022b1-3c9b-4a16-957d-7623ccf03e1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/04/03/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970689 | 671 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Diapers: Reusable Versus Disposable
Whether to use disposable or cloth diapers is a controversial issue. Disposable diapers have become extremely popular in our country. However, disposable diapers are thrown away after just one use into already overflowing landfills. Let's compare disposable diapers with cloth diapers.
- Rashes. One type of diaper is not better than the other for preventing diaper rash. Diaper rash happens about the same amount with both types of diapers.
- Pins. Disposable diapers don't require diaper pins. But you don't need diaper pins for cloth diapers either if you buy diaper covers with Velcro straps.
- Convenience. Disposable diapers are very convenient. They make it easier to travel. They are also useful at child care centers. Also, super absorbent disposable diapers do not leak.
- Cost. The average cost of disposable diapers is about 20 cents a diaper. Cloth diapers from a diaper service cost about 12 cents a diaper. If you wash your own diapers the cost is about 3 cents a diaper after the initial purchase. A diaper service will save you over $500 per child. Washing your own diapers will save you over $1200 per child.
- Wetness. If you are breast-feeding you may want to know how often your baby wets so you can check if your baby is getting enough breast milk. It is easy to know when a cloth diaper is wet. It is more difficult to know when a disposable diaper is wet.
Which kind of diaper should you use?
You may want to take advantage of both options. You can use cloth diapers when you are home. Use disposable diapers when you are traveling or as a backup if you run out of clean cloth diapers. Use disposable diapers when your child has diarrhea because they prevent leakage of watery stools. Some parents prefer disposable diapers at night because they are leak-proof.
If you decide to use cloth diapers, you may consider using a diaper service. This is especially useful during the first 2 or 3 months, when you are exhausted by new baby care. Diaper services are efficient, provide clean diapers, and pick up dirty diapers once a week.
If you are planning to wash your own diapers, you will need to buy 3 to 6 dozen cloth diapers. You will also need to buy several diaper covers or plastic pants. You will also need a diaper pail for storing dirty diapers until wash time. (No matter which type of diaper you use, you should scrape bowel movements into the toilet.)
Written by B.D. Schmitt, MD, author of "Your Child's Health," Bantam Books.
Published by RelayHealth.
Last modified: 2004-12-09
Last reviewed: 2010-06-02
This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes
available. The information is intended to inform and educate and is not a replacement for medical
evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a health care professional. | <urn:uuid:f1d61f8a-a3a4-4db8-92d7-0891bd9dc318> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.childrensmercy.org/pediatricadvisor/Article.aspx?id=735 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940296 | 622 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Avi Silberstein, the Outreach Librarian for Greater Victoria Regional Library describes their provocative and engaging Freedom to Read Week display.
We thought it would be fun to have a mannequin – blindfolded – at the entrance to the library. So we made a few phone calls and visited a few stores, and after some persistence were able to convince the owner of a local consignment shop to loan us a mannequin.
We picked out a mannequin that was lying on her stomach with her hands near her face, dressed her up in clothes from the consignment store, and propped a book up in her hands. Then we tied on a blindfold. We put her up on a table, and filled an adjacent table with banned/challenged books. We also made sure to put up some signage explaining the display and that the books were there to be borrowed.
The response we received was overwhelmingly positive. Patrons loved it, staff loved it, and more than anything it got people to stop in their tracks and walk up to the display for a closer look. | <urn:uuid:c82cda68-4ee1-4684-aab1-4539cbdb9667> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bclaifc.wordpress.com/tag/library/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983336 | 222 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Oracle Sets Out Two Year Plan for Client-side Java
Given that Oracle is predominantly focused on enterprise software, it has been tempting to assume that the vendor would largely ignore client-side Java. It became clear at JavaOne this year, however, that Oracle is making a renewed push on the desktop, spearheaded by JavaFX. It will also be open-sourcing the entire JavaFX platform via OpenJDK.
JavaFX has been around since 2008, but has gained only limited traction, with many developers complaining that it required them to learn a new language (JavaFX Script) in order to work with the GUI development framework. At last year's JavaOne, Oracle announced that JavaFX 2.0 would deprecate JavaFX Script, replacing it with an entirely Java-based API. JavaFX 2.0 delivers on this, meaning that developers can write JavaFX applications using any JVM language (Java, Clojure, Scala, Groovy etc.) and target any device running a current JVM. The update also introduces several new features, such as an XML-based UI description language (FXML), as well as support for new devices, including Microsoft's Kinect.
To help developers work with FXML, Oracle is developing a graphical editor called JavaFX Scene Builder, which it showed off during the conference. It is a stand-alone tool, but will be integrated with NetBeans. Currently in private beta, a public version is expected early in 2012.
Whilst Oracle will continue to support Swing to some extent, it is clear that Oracle believes JavaFX is a better way of building Java GUI applications, and there was plenty of interest in JavaFX at the various related sessions InfoQ attended during the conference. But however good JavaFX may be as a GUI development system, it's all for nothing if you can't run it on the devices you want to target.
Issues here are particularly acute on the mobile side. Java ME was an early success for Sun and mobile-phone manufacturers alike, but the technology has struggled to keep up in recent years. Research in Motion is replacing its Java-based BlackBerry platform with one based on the QNX real-time OS, Nokia's reliance on Java ME is likely to fade as it moves to Windows Mobile, and even the Java-based Android platform uses a non-standard implementation of Java.
Things may improve. At JavaOne, Oracle announced plans to unify Java ME with the latest version of Java SE. The converged platform will hopefully mean that technologies such as JavaFX will be available on more devices. During a keynote, Oracle's Nandini Ramani, Vice President of Development for Client Java in the Oracle Fusion Middleware group, demonstrated that she could get the same JavaFX game running on both an Android tablet and, to thunderous applause, an iPad. This doesn't mean that Apple has finally relented and decided to allow the JVM on iOS; the demo was a proof of concept that linked a private JVM as a resource inside a launcher app, but it at least showed it was possible. During a conversation afterwards, Ramani confirmed that Oracle hadn't discussed with Apple whether they would allow this technique to be used in practice. She did though also point out that there is a precedent, in that Apple already allows the same technique to be used to circumvent similar restrictions in the OS X app store, and Cyberduck, for example, does so.
Oracle has also put emphasis on getting JavaFX to work on more desk-top operating systems, with GA releases for both OS X and Linux expected next year. When it arrives in 2013, the Java 8 SDK, though not the runtime, will include JavaFX 3 (presumably on all platforms), and Oracle then intends to move towards standardising the technology through the JCP.
Finally, Oracle has a preview release of JDK 7 for Mac OS X available, following Apple's decision to deprecate its own Java implementation in 2010. The GA release for this again is expected in 2012.
Dominique De Vito
On another perspective, Avatar, or mixing HTML with Java, could be the Oracle's response to Adobe AIR. | <urn:uuid:2d2c5e93-922a-4ab2-ae44-82e5a357b97f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoq.com/news/2011/10/oracle-client-java | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953831 | 849 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Billed as an event for all ages, the Harbor Hospital Center will sponsor a Children's Health Fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 21, in theGruehn Auditorium.
Many activities are planned for the day: a karate demonstration, balloon animals and tours of fire trucks and ambulances. Children also are encouraged to bring their teddy bears or dolls to the Teddy Bear Clinic to learn about medical equipment and procedures.
Even with all those children's activities, however, parents won'tbe bored. They can learn about children's health-care issues, from lead poisoning to healthy snacks, from speakers and pamphlets providedat educational booths. McGruff, the crime dog, and ARES, the robot that teaches fire prevention, will put in guest appearances.
A special part of the fair will be a birthday celebration for the hospital's 5-year-old Sick Child Day Care Service. Kids who have spent time inSick Child Day Care are invited to attend the fair and the birthday celebration.
If you'd like more information, call 347-3472.
Thecenter also is continuing its monthly "Wellth of Information" serieswith a lecture on "Understanding Medicare and Medicaid Insurances and the MAC Program." The free community program will begin at 10 a.m. tomorrow in the hospital's Gruehn Auditorium. No reservations are necessary, and refreshments will be served.
For more information, call 347-3472.
All fund-raiser candy orders and cash must be returned to Belle Grove Elementary School on Wednesday.
The Severna Park Kiwanis Club will present "Know to Say No," an anti-drug message,from 9 to 10 a.m. Friday, in the school's multipurpose room. Students in kindergarten through fourth grade will see the program. All parents are invited to attend this valuable presentation.
Class pictures will be taken at Brooklyn Park Elementary School on Wednesday. Tomorrow, students will receive a price list and envelope. Envelopes must be returned at photo-taking time.
Parents are invited to attend the Park Elementary School PTO meeting at 7 p.m. tomorrow, when they will be able to view the projects entered in the Science Fair.
Sixth-grade students are receiving USA Today for nine weeks. The students will learn about a newspaper's format and the different types of news stories. They also will be writing their own news stories.
Do you have a child who will be starting kindergarten in the fall? If so, now is the time to register that child. Kindergarten registration at the local elementary schools will begin April 6 and continue through April 9. The times for each school are as follows:
Belle Grove Elementary School, 4502 Belle Grove Road, 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.; Brooklyn Park Elementary School, 200 14th Ave., 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Park Elementary School, 201 11th Ave., 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Park Elementary also will be taking registration for prekindergarten classes. These classes are limitedto 40 children in the school's attendance area. When registering forprekindergarten or kindergarten, you must bring immunization records, birth certificates and proof of residence (a lease agreement, utility or telephone bills).
Vision and hearing screenings will take place March 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 at Brooklyn Park-Lindale Middle Junior High School. Eighth-graders, new students, parents, student referrals from school health workers, and previous referrals will be screened during those days. Parent volunteers are needed to help with the screenings. If you can donate some time, please call 789-8500.
North County High School will sponsor a blood drive from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow in the auditorium. Adults may donate on a walk-in basis.
Don't forget to order your flowers and fruit from members of the band. The fruit consists of 40-pound cases of oranges, grapefruits or half of each. The assortment of flowers includes lilies, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, geraniums and hanging ferns. If you would like to place an order, call the school at 859-5400.
Band parents will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the band room.
A St. Patrick's Day band dance for North County students is planned from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $4 per person and can be purchased during lunch periods three days before the dance.
The North County Knights Parents Club is accepting nominations for the office of president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary. If you would like to be an active member of this group, call 859-5400.
We want to wish the varsity cheerleaders good luck as they venture to Williamsburg, Va., March 21 and 22 to defend their national championship. They will be competing against the top teams from 10 states. We'll let you know the results. | <urn:uuid:d57fc27d-b1f4-4461-94b7-59c6e5c8c9c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-03-16/news/9213002503_1_park-elementary-belle-grove-elementary-teddy-bear-clinic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949387 | 1,074 | 1.679688 | 2 |
by Micah Wilkins, Echo online writer
In light of recent incidents that have taken place on campus, members of the President’s Advisory Committee (PAC) have been encouraging and facilitating dialogues and discussions surrounding issues of communication on campus.
President Sandy Pfeiffer called on members of the campus community last Friday to “take a break from campus activities” and hold facilitated dialogues about communication and its importance on our campus. In addition, Pfeiffer and PAC met with Student Caucus Tuesday to address conclusions from the discussions, answering any questions that students had.
After the dialogues and talks with students, like senior Max Hunt, Pfeiffer brought to Caucus the idea of an online community forum. This, Pfeiffer said, would help with “rumor control.”
“It would cut down the rumor mill,” Pfeiffer said, as rumors are “a huge waste of time.”
The forum would be moderated and facilitated, with students asking questions and voicing concerns, which would then be heard by someone in a position to answer to those students, ideally the President himself.
Pfeiffer envisions that the forum would be a place for students to post moderated comments, with their name attached to their comments, to uphold accuntability Hunt said. Pfeiffer or other administrators would then act as the “answer man,” responding to questions and concerns once every week or two.
“[The facilitator would] get the answers, pry the facts, as a way of keeping the channels open,” Pfeiffer said. “It would be a civil and constructive way to ask questions and to get information.”
Pfeiffer and senior Max Hunt, who wrote a letter to the community addressing these communication issues and his own opinions about lack of leadership on campus, met last Tuesday to discuss possible ways to improve communication among community members on campus. Both agreed that there is a strong need for a way to air grievances and ask questions in a way that is easily accessible and open to all students.
“Communication between students and the administration is terrible,” Hunt said. “The right channels aren’t being used to voice concerns. People don’t know where to turn to.”
“We don’t have a structured means of communication, so people fill in the gaps.
Thus the incidents from the last couple weeks are a result of not being heard,” Hunt said.
“I think personal attacks are expressions of helplessness or frustration, and feeling like you’re not being heard, or you’re being marginalized,” Hunt said. “A lot of people are upset but there are not a lot of attempts to address [the problems].”
President Pfeiffer did acknowledge that Warren Wilson is different than other colleges because of its smaller size and more connected community, where students should have more influence and more involvement in the decision-making process.
“This place is different by virtue of ownership; students run the place through the work program,” Pfeiffer said. “They feel and deserve to have more say in the decisions that develop here.”
Another issue discussed in the dialogues from last Friday, and that was brought up again at Student Caucus, was the potential for what Pfeiffer referred to as “Civics 101,” where students would attain a better understanding of how decisions are made here, and how they can become more involved in these processes.
Some other ideas explored by PAC and Pfeiffer resulting from the dialogues Friday include bringing back the student conduct board, which has become fragmented recently, more community meetings, more visibility by all administrators, more communication among Residence Life staff, and potentially integrating the dorms.
During their meeting, Pfeiffer and Hunt agreed that a community meeting, which is what Hunt originally called for in his address to the community, would not be a good idea, as it could be in danger of deteriorating into a “shouting match” according to Hunt.
“It isn’t about jumping on the band wagon and responding right away,” Pfeiffer said. “There are concerns that I have to weigh before I get out in front of a couple hundred people and wave a flag.” | <urn:uuid:a7dc2ce1-4368-4cd7-af92-de2f3c2c9f43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://warren-wilson.edu/blogs/echo/2011/05/president-pac-and-concerned-students-point-to-lack-of-communication-to-explain-recent-incidents-and-malicious-attacks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96969 | 922 | 1.578125 | 2 |
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Emma was finally able to regain consciousness in the nurse's office. She discovers that the mid-terms were rescheduled because of her passing out. Emma returns to class to see Matilda Brant making fun of her by saying she passed out on purpose to watch MTV. After school, her teacher talked to her about her passing out and screaming. Emma kept denying that it was anything serious and she goes home. When she got home, she finds out her father had found out she passed out because she "skipped breakfast." Her father fires the maid for not feeding his daughter and Emma tries to persuade her father that it wasn't the maid's fault. Emma is then confronted by her brother Christian and asks why she hasn't told them about the voices, he then tells her that he is going to tell their parents. Emma then displays her psychic abilities by revealing Christian's dirty secrets, he then backs off of her. The next day, Emma was so worried about the mid-term because she hasn't studied. Then all of a sudden she heard voices, they were the answers to the test and then Emma got an A on it. During fencing, Matilda accuses Emma of cheating and then they fenced against each other. Emma realizes that she could hear what Matilda was thinking and beats her easily. Emma is later forced to retake the midterm because of suspected cheating, to her surprise she got a perfect score again. However, Emma admits to her teacher that she left some of them blank on purpose. As it turns out, her father had pulled some strings to get her a perfect score. | <urn:uuid:2e97577f-12c5-422a-b196-6689ac42ce01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.comicvine.com/emma-frost-2-higher-learning-part-2/4000-107660/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.993449 | 331 | 1.539063 | 2 |
These are the resources from the National Scenic Trails Workshop:
News and Events
Around The Community
June 14-17, Richfield, Utah Everyone is invited! Come learn about and explore the most arduous and famous pack mule route in western history. The Old Spanish National Historic Trail crosses the beautiful but dangerous terrain of the American Southwest through six states including Utah.
We just had a chance to speak with First Responders here in Damascus, VA and are happy to report that all but one hiker injured in yesterday's accident during the Annual Trail Days Hiker Parade have been released from the hospital. It was a scary scene here when an elderly gentleman, a former AT thru-hiker, lost control of his vehicle and plowed into dozens of hikers marching in the parade. We were about 200ft away from where the accident occurred and got to witness first hand hikers jump into action during a time of what has been described by many as "one of the scariest things they've ever seen". Dozens of heroes emerged from the crowd yesterday, a former AT Thru-Hiker lunged into the vehicle to remove the keys from the ignition while a group of about thirty hikers marching in the parade lifted the vehicle into the air to free a fellow hiker trapped underneath. Medical helicopters were used to transport the most seriously injured to nearby hospitals. Such an intense scene certainly changed the mood of the festival, but this tight knit community banded together to console those impacted and hundreds gathered to observe a period of silence before Backpacker's Annual Trail Days Giveaway. A tragic and unfortunate event here at Trail Days, however the response and ability of hikers to come together reassures our faith in and enhances our respect for the AT Community. | <urn:uuid:fe9e6a27-a661-437e-8874-1c0064fe7e3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pnts.org/news-and-events/2010-national-scenic-trails-workshop-materials | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971737 | 351 | 1.773438 | 2 |
What do you hate about your parcel carrier? The number one complaint about UPS and FedEx was accessorial charges. (Morgan Stanley Parcel Annual Best Practices 2009 Survey)
Accessorial charges are better known as surcharges, additional charges, ancillary fees, or adjustments. There are more than 90 of these add-on charges! Here is a link to the UPS 2010 Surcharge and Accessorial Price Increases.
The survey also found that in 2009, 11.5% of the overall transportation costs were for accessorial charges. What are these charges? Here are the top ten:
- Fuel Surcharges
- Address corrections
- Residential delivery
- Delivery Area Surcharges
- Rural Area Surcharges
- Dimensional charges
- Saturday delivery
- Declared value (insurance)
- Additional Handling
- Large Package
The big reason why businesses hate these charges is that most of these additional charges are not included in the published price and are added to your bill after you have shipped the package, making it difficult if not impossible to recoup from your customers. If you are processing your packages using technology, you have to correctly maintain your technology and enter all the data fields. As you may recall from my last blog entry, How Are You Losing Money in Shipping?, one of the reasons a client was losing over $100,000 a year in shipping because the person processing the packages was not entering the dimensions of the packages in the carrier’s shipping system.
How can this happen you wonder?
In this particular case, the problem was that my client had outsourced her shipping to a third party logistics company. I called them to find out why they were not entering the dimensions and was told that they didn’t do it because dimensional rating was only for air shipments, not ground. They are wrong! This was a company that bragged about their expertise in shipping packages that had been doing this for 30 years and they did not know that UPS and FedEx charge based on the dimensions of the package for ground shipments as well as air! Here is the link to how to compute a dimensional weight, A Quick & Easy Way to Calculate Dimensional Weight and also here is a link, Parcel Shipping Ain’t Easy, to a very funny video about it. My client was depending on an expert and the expert didn’t know that they didn’t know! | <urn:uuid:d445d7ab-7e30-40d1-be52-71b3f04e6a5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shippingcoach.wordpress.com/tag/ancillary-fees/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975864 | 495 | 1.585938 | 2 |
It makes very little difference. Google is aware that people abuse the system, just as they do with keywords.
Far more important is how often you actually update your content or add new content. New websites are being created at the rate of thousands a day (perhaps tens of thousands). The vast majority of them will be neglected by their owners very quickly so Google won't want to fill it's database up with sites that are unused, or neglected. One of the measures of this is how much new stuff there is on your site between visits, and how much change there has been between visits. Google can see this for itself very quickly, so if you don't create new stuff regularly, why should Google visit regularly?
Whatever you say you do (update daily, update weekly, update monthly, update never) Google knows what you actually do.
Drupal, Joomla! WordPress, Zen Cart and Android Manuals - Free Responsive Zen Cart Templates | <urn:uuid:9e628d94-9ac0-4bbc-82e3-ea180ca01f2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.v7n.com/forums/seo-forum/303937-change-frequency-xml-site-map.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955544 | 194 | 1.804688 | 2 |
California program aims to unmask unlawful electrical contractors
A program was recently created to expose electrical contractors in violation of safety and quality regulations in California. Launched on February 1, the Construction Trades Compliance Program (CTCP) seeks to educate the community about the negative impact of hiring electrical contractors that use uncertified electricians, pay workers with untaxed cash payments, and operate without legally required workers’ compensation insurance.
“The purpose of industry regulations is to ensure that contractors operate businesses that provide safe working environments for their employees and that generate quality work for consumers,” says Brian Peters, the head of CTCP. “The underground and semi-underground contractors who violate quality and safety regulations put employees at physical risk, jeopardize consumer safety, and compromise product quality. They also create an unwinnable economic situation where business owners who do follow industry regulations are at a financial disadvantage when they bid against contractors who illegally cut corners on quality, safety, and training.”
According to a press release from the Western Electrical Contractors Association (WECA), a Rancho Cordova, Calif.-based nonprofit organization serving independent/merit shop electrical contractors, their employees, and the industry suppliers that support them and that recently entered into a strategic partnership with the CTCP, the program will also promote the value of hiring a contractor that employs only qualified, certified electricians and follows all applicable laws.
To encourage compliance, the CTCP will undertake efforts to investigate contractors that are suspected of violating industry safety and quality laws. Any evidence collected by the program will be submitted to the appropriate state agency for further investigation and enforcement.
People who want to report suspected violations are asked to contact the CTCP tip line at (877) 334-1777. Callers may remain anonymous, but they are asked to provide the job site and address, the name of the company or individual, and the suspected violation.
Source: Western Electrical Contractors Association | <urn:uuid:b1e8afb8-69e0-4c11-8c0c-8deeb7d696d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ecmweb.com/print/contractor/california-program-aims-unmask-unlawful-electrical-contractors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947367 | 401 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Wells Fargo (WFC) released earnings for last quarter and full year 2012 last Friday, and while there was a lot to cheer about the bank’s performance, the doubts raised in investors’ minds from the continuing net interest margin compression led the bank’s share price lower over trading that day. In fact, concerns about falling interest margins also showed in a decline for shares of other major banks including Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and Capital One (COF) which are scheduled to report results this week. A reduction in share value despite record income figures for the quarter and year as well as an imminent increase in dividend payout from Wells Fargo speaks volumes about the impact this single factor has on the bank’s earnings over subsequent quarters.
We stick to our $38 price estimate for Wells Fargo’s stock, which is at a premium of less than 10% to current market prices.
Impact Of Low-Interest Environment Shows Through In Earnings Figures
Our analysis of Wells Fargo - illustrated in the chart above - shows that half of the bank’s value comes from three of its business divisions: mortgages, loans and credit cards. And these businesses rely heavily on interest rates as the interest income earned on the outstanding loan portfolio forms a bulk of each of their revenues. So when interest rates fall, there is a marked decline in the contribution of interest income towards the bank’s total revenues. Wells Fargo’s Q3 and Q4 2012 earnings figures evidently show this trend attributable to the low interest rates imposed by the Fed.
The situation is further aggravated by a spurt in the size of Wells Fargo’s deposit base. Core deposits at the bank jumped from $873 billion at the end of 2011 to $946 billion at the end of 2012 (an increase of $73 billion over the year), whereas loans only rose by $30 billion for the period - from $770 billion to $800 billion. As the bank incurs an interest expense on its deposit base, more deposits mean lower net interest margins. The overall result was a reduction in net interest margins from 3.89% for Q4 2012 to 3.56% for Q4 2012.
Investors' concerns about this situation stem from the fact that when deposits grow way faster than loans for banks, it shows that customers are cutting down on expenses and saving up - an indicator of weak economic conditions to come in the near future. This is obviously bad news for banks, as it points to lower interest incomes over subsequent quarters too.
Is The Mortgage Growth Engine Running Out Of Steam?
It sure would appear so. Wells Fargo originated $524 billion in mortgages over 2012 - a third of all mortgages in the country last year. But quarterly figures show that Wells Fargo originated the least number of mortgages in Q4 2012 - $125 billion compared to a peak value of $139 billion in Q3 2012.
And there is a good reason for this decline. Most of the mortgage originations over recent years has been due to a large number of home owners opting to refinance their existing mortgages to benefit from record-low mortgage rates and also from government-led initiatives. But the refinancing channel has nearly dried up over recent months. And while the housing market seems to be on a recovery path, it may take a few quarters for the demand for mortgage loans to catch-up with this in view of a cautious approach by people in general.
- Wells Fargo Reports Record Full Year and Quarterly Net Income, Wells Fargo Press Releases, Jan 11 2013
Disclosure: No positions. | <urn:uuid:c04a3b82-1c2d-4e72-887c-69b806e7ea7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/1111111-wells-fargo-s-interest-margin-concerns-overshadow-record-results?source=feed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950415 | 734 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Chemistry and Biochemistry at Arizona State University is currently embracing a period of unprecedented growth. The department has benefited from a University-wide initiative to upgrade research space, with students and faculty enjoying new facilities in the Biodesign Institute and a new high-field NMR facility in the Interdisciplinary Science Building. This expansion in space has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in the faculty, with new members in areas such as environmental and geochemistry, analytical and sensor chemistry, bioorganic chemistry and biophysics, NMR spectroscopy and chemical education. Perhaps the most important factor enabling this growth, however, is a substantial increase in the number of outstanding graduate students over the last two years.
The Department consistently ranks in the top 30 among Ph.D. granting chemistry departments in terms of chemical research spending, and 7th nationally, behind only Harvard, U.C. Berkeley, Stanford, University of Wisconsin, Princeton and MIT, in papers published in Science and Nature in the last 5 years. ASU has a strong record in interdisciplinary research, recognized by a series of nationally funded centers. One recent example is the NSF training program in Biomolecular Nanotechnology, where students combine the functions of chemistry, biology and electronics. Combined with new programs in environmental chemistry, biosensors and nanotechnology, the research environment at ASU is contemporary, challenging and rewarding.
Graduate students are offered a wide range of research experiences from the traditional areas of chemistry where students usually work with a single faculty member, through highly interdisciplinary and collaborative projects. All students are encouraged to expand their research horizons and are challenged in ways that help them grow into creative and independent researchers.
ASU is located in the city of Tempe, part of the Phoenix metropolitan area, and is the cultural and intellectual center of Central Arizona. The area is a major center for the electronics and aerospace industries and recently has emerged as a new center for biomedical and biotechnology development. The population of the state has grown dramatically in recent years, resulting in a modern and dynamic community. Our graduate students enjoy all of the amenities of this contemporary urban environment, a very reasonable cost of living, and more than 300 days of sunshine annually!
Graduate Programs Overview | <urn:uuid:22499a86-8869-410b-b16b-db0e1c3e8ff8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chemistry.asu.edu/graduate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950731 | 452 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Godfrey, Ill. – While the majority of community colleges across Illinois experienced downward trends in enrollment for Fall 2011, Lewis and Clark Community College saw yet another increase – now in its 32nd consecutive fall and spring semester of growth.
The accomplishment is a fall semester enrollment record, with an official credit headcount of 8,451, or one percent over Fall 2010. Lewis and Clark continues to have the longest continuous growth trend in Illinois.
“The fact that we've had 16 years of fall and spring increases is a result of the quality of Lewis and Clark's academic programs and faculty. Individuals recognize the value of a Lewis and Clark education and appreciate how the college can help achieve their goals,” said Kent Scheffel, vice president of Enrollment Services at L&C.
The number of part-time students increased 7 percent, while full-time enrollment dropped 11 percent, due in part to current economic conditions. As budgets tightened, many students waited until the last minute to enroll, and the demand for financial aid has increased, Scheffel said.
The number of black non-Hispanic students also increased 15 percent, from 566 last fall to 653 in 2011.
Moving forward, Lewis and Clark and the Illinois Community College Board are putting more emphasis than ever on completion, and success rates above headcount.
"We expect enrollment to be strong in the spring semester as well,” Scheffel said. “While some potential students are facing economic challenges in enrolling in classes, many realize that furthering their education will aid them in finding or retaining a job. A degree or certificate has been a key factor in helping many individuals gain employment.”
In addition to 16 years of consecutive enrollment growth, Lewis and Clark also ranks among the top community colleges in Illinois with the highest enrollments based on the population of the college district (headcount per 1,000 residents). There are 29 community colleges in the state that serve metropolitan centers. Lewis and Clark ranks fourth, slightly behind two Chicago area colleges and Parkland in Champaign, which serves a large number of University of Illinois students who are from out of district.
"Our market penetration rate is extremely high, and we need to focus on our products and services to ensure that our students stay with us and that we continue to reach such a large segment of the population,” Lewis and Clark President Dale Chapman said. “We want this growing number of students to complete certificates and degrees, and we plan to continue developing new academic programs to meet their needs."
Chapman also referred to the college’s recent economic impact study, which further illustrates the economic benefits that Lewis and Clark provides the district through its growing number of graduates.
“We are drawing students from within our district, providing them with an affordable, high quality education, and when they graduate they become nurses, dental hygienists, police officers, fire fighters, paralegals, automotive technicians, process operations technicians and numerous other professionals who work and raise their families in our community,” Chapman said. “That is what really multiplies the impact we have economically on our district, and more importantly, why our students’ success is so vital to this region.” | <urn:uuid:3517a5d8-9f0c-469c-b3bb-397361ad63bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://admissions.lc.edu/news/newsDetails.aspx?Channel=/Channels/Site%20Wide%20Content&WorkflowItemID=4bcfb4ce-5240-45d9-ab47-97f13cf6ae00 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96225 | 664 | 1.5 | 2 |
Queer Town: The Unexpected Twists of Gay Marriage
Whenever the accepted norms of society are changed, something unexpected always seems to pop up. With gay marriage in California, this truism of sorts is already starting to play out. According to a report in the Sacramento-based Capitol Weekly, the California Department of Corrections has now given the green light for gay prisoners to wed their same sex partners. The new policy is undoubtedly the kind of thing that few gays and lesbians foresaw when they were celebrating the legalization of same sex marriage back in May.
The corrections department, however, will not allow gay prisoners to marry in the same prison. A gay prisoner may only wed "non-inmates," which may or may not start a flurry of lawsuits. Possibly in anticipation of that, corrections department officials are already citing a longtime rule that bars straight inmates from marrying fellow prisoners, which, as the Capitol Weekly points out, hasn't mattered too much since males and females are housed in separate facilities.
Homosexuality in prisons has always been a quiet reality among inmates--men and women have gay sex, but don't always identify themselves as gay or publicly profess their love for a person of the same sex. So with a new rule that officially validates gay love in California's corrections system, we may see yet another surprise outcome--more and more inmates could feel empowered enough to finally come out of the closet.
This is obviously good, but it won't be surprising that supporters of Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that would ban same sex marriage, will somehow use the corrections department's policy to scare the voting public. That kind of TV ad is probably already in the making.
Contact Patrick Range McDonald at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:5bbaef8f-5ade-4dd7-a15d-a487e37c3789> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2008/08/queer_town_the_unexpected_twis.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962546 | 357 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Posted at 3:45 PM on June 14, 2011
by Paul Huttner
Some much needed rainfall is finally here, but it may be more than some areas actually need.
Let's talk about the weather we're likely to see in the next 48-72 hours.
Dry air prevented a couple of weak waves from producing any significant rain until today, but a stronger "short wave" is plowing into southwest Minnesota and rain is increasing.
The wave will linger through Wednesday, and some of the rain is locally heavy. Flash Flood warnings have been issued fo several counties in the south.
So far NEXRAD doppler storm total rainfall is painting areas of 1" to as much as 3" of rainfall in southwest Minnesota under heavier showers.
Doppler storm total rainfall paints areas of 1" to 3" in southwest Minnesota Tuesday.
Overnight & Wednesday Nowcast:
The core of the system will move through overnight & Wednesday. Expect rain and some embedded thunderstorms with locally heavy downpours.
Overall rainfall totals look to be .50" to 1" in most areas. But there are going to be some pockets of heavier rainfall, and we could see some 1" to 2"+ rainfall totals with this system.
One model, the NAM is painting a 2" to 4" rainfall "bull's eye" near the Twin Cities in the next 84 hours. This may be overdone, but will have to be wtached!
The severe weather threat will likely stay south of Minnesota, but the slow moving rain system and locally heavy downpours will create ripe conditions for flash flooding in some areas.
Thursday through Sunday:
The weather picture is increasingly unclear as we head into the weekend.
Model solutions are divergent, but it appears likely that a few more waves of low pressure will spin off a bigger low in the northern Rockies the next few days. That will mean a few more bouts of showers & some T-Storms, but timing them will be difficult form a forecast standpoint.
Right now it appears some dry windows might be Thursday evening, and maybe Friday night into Saturday. There could be a shot of rain on Friday.
The rest of the weekend is just too dicey right now to make coherent (or reliable) forecasts at this point. Forecast models just don't do well with timing in this type of weather pattern... with numerous small waves spaced less than 24-36 hours apart.
Expect rain tonight and much of Wednesday. Many areas could see as much as .50" to 1"+ by late Wednesday. Heavier rainfall totals (over 2"?) could produce a few flash flood warnings over the next 24 hours, but convective severe weather (damaging winds, & hail or tornadoes) is much less liekly.
The weather lab lawn & garden stands ready for a good soaking! | <urn:uuid:497e2f5f-8132-4635-898d-07377023c7f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/updraft/archive/2011/06/rain_moves_in_1_totals_floodin.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963182 | 591 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Last week I talked about how the second you put yourself out in the tinterweb, you're pretty much branding yourself. I gave a list of pointers on what to do or not (like don't represent yourself with pictures of dead armadillos).
I wanted to expand on this topic because Tahereh asked what I thought of Maureen Johnson's branding manifesto, on which she got 254 comments (as of this writing) all saying "Yes I love you and agree with you." (In fairness, I would have said that too.) To sum up the post, Maureen was passionate that social media for authors is a two-way conversation, and not about one person selling a book to another. And in this, she is absolutely right.
What is brand, again?
Maureen's example in her discussion was a woman at a conference who insisted that we all brand ourselves and sell, sell, sell. The woman is incorrect that this is what a brand is for. I suspect the woman doesn't quite know what a brand is, because she missed the boat on the online interaction that is so crucial to our world now. And also because she emphasized that you need to get out and sell or die. Branding is actually a set of consistent visual cues that define a certain sensibility for a person, company, or product.
If that is too rigid, think of this: a brand is a set of colors, or a logo, or a certain way of writing, or a habit that embodies you or your message. By this definition, branding isn't really related to sell sell sell, although it can be. Or you can use it to represent yourself. Maureen said that a brand is a package of yourself so that consumers know what to buy. This is true, but that limits the definition to purchasing.
Riiigght, so what does branding mean to authors?
It means that when you present yourself professionally and consistently, or in a way that embodies who you are, you're branding yourself. And my whole point in this discussion was that the second you step on the tinterweb and start pressing send on things, you're branding yourself because you're sending out representative material.
And if you're a writer aspiring to be published, you'll probably want to make sure you don't come across as a nut case. If you're already published, you'll probably want to convey what you write through color, fonts, and the style of your posts. (Psssst. That's a brand.) And guess what: your brand also includes how much you make yourself accessible to readers or others reaching out to you.
So let's see some examples.
Maureen's brand, as far as I can tell, is her iconic picture that she uses on Twitter. And a certain way of writing her tweets, including putting us into a jar. And while book covers will change between editions and print runs, her book covers are currently all consistent in the font they use-- a scripty type that fits in with YA. Coolio. I think Allison Winn Scotch's brand is wrapped up a consistent set of colors used throughout her communications: aqua and brown, and has also consistently been clear about wanting to help out aspiring authors through her blog. I think Tawna Fenske, quite apart from her high-quality monkey toes brand, has branded herself as a purveyor of humor by the type of posts she writes on her blog, and the effort she puts into amusing us on a regular basis through those posts. It wasn't a surprise to learn that she writes humorous romance.
What's my brand? Cripes. As far as I have tried, it's the visuals of the red scheme, my red photocopied-esque picture, and my font in my name up there. As far as I have tried with content, it's clear, concise information (I try) with lots of white space and headings. Since I write what I like to think of as humorous women's fiction, I hope my posts are somewhat funny (as in, laughing with me, right?). I'll stop there, because if I say I'm funny, then I fear coming across as someone with a very high opinion of herself. Or else a saddo who thinks herself is funny when no one else does.
Does it work? In the above cases, yes. In my case, um...I haven't got any books to sell yet, so only time will tell. If I ask you if you would buy my book based on what's on this blog, then you would be forced to say yes, and my head would be cleared for lift-off again.
Andddddd....why do we care again?
I did point out in my prior post that having a color scheme or a logo or a catch phrase might not be important for you. And you don't have to have those things. It's okay to have an ambiguous brand. Again, so long as you're consistent, and professional. People get along just fine without full branding guideline manuals. But you should, in my opinion, think about the way you come across to others and behave accordingly. That, to me, is the essence of branding.
I'd like to continue this discussion. What are your thoughts on this? Agree? Disagree? | <urn:uuid:4ffca679-de05-4a2d-bc04-6b85f468b58a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sierragodfrey.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-on-branding.html?showComment=1277180507550 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975386 | 1,096 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The creation of 'bot-nets' has become a prolific weapon in the arsenal of professional spammers and their creation through the distribution of worms and Trojans has become big business for virus writers.
In this case the British teen is believed to have been part of an international gang, based in Canada, Europe and the US. The Randex worm is also thought to be behind a series of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks which crippled ISPs in October 2003.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was handed a six-month suspended sentence at South Cheshire juvenile court, leading one security expert to suggest he escaped lightly because of his age.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said whatever age the perpetrator it's important the authorities don't "turn a blind eye". Cluley cited figures which suggested the DDoS attacks alone cost businesses around $2m.
The conviction follows the arrest in May of another teenage suspect based in Canada. | <urn:uuid:abc80382-89f6-446d-a8c7-1f17cd7d4a79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zdnet.com/uk-teen-sentenced-for-randex-virus-3039181787/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977829 | 207 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Theodore J. Forstmann
|Theodore Joseph Forstmann|
February 13, 1940|
Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.
|Died||November 20, 2011
New York City, New York, U.S.
|Other names||Ted Forstmann
|Alma mater||Yale University
Columbia Law School
|Occupation||Private Equity Investor|
|Known for||Founder of Forstmann Little & Company
Unique subordinated debt fund
Theodore Joseph "Ted" Forstmann (February 13, 1940 – November 20, 2011) was one of the founding partners of Forstmann Little & Company, a private equity firm, and chairman and CEO of IMG, a global sports and media company. A billionaire, Forstmann was a Republican and a philanthropist. He supported school choice and funded scholarship programs for the disadvantaged.
Early life
Forstmann grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, the second of six children. His father, Julius, ran a wool business that went bankrupt in 1958. Julius Forstmann had inherited Forstmann Woolen Co. from his own father, one of the world's richest men. Forstmann was a graduate of Greenwich Country Day School and Phillips Academy. He then played goalie on the ice hockey team at Yale University where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Forstmann later attended Columbia Law School where he earned a juris doctorate, which he financed through gambling proceeds.
Forstmann Little & Company
Under Forstmann's leadership, Forstmann Little & Company made 31 acquisitions and significant investments and returned more than $15 billion of profits to investors. In addition to IMG, some of the firm's investments include Gulfstream Aerospace, Dr. Pepper, The Topps Co., Stanadyne Corp., Community Health Systems, Ziff Davis, Yankee Candle, General Instrument Corporation, and most recently, Citadel Broadcasting and 24 Hour Fitness.
Critic of junk bonds
While playing golf in the late 1980s, Ted Forstmann inadvertently coined the term for which he became best known. His golf partner asked Forstmann what it meant for a company to be taken over by a buyout firm. "It means the barbarians are at the gates," replied Forstmann. The term became part of Wall Street lore and was connected inseparably to the private equity industry that Forstmann pioneered and flourished in. Forstmann was featured prominently in the book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, as he and his company attempted to acquire RJR Nabisco. In the subsequent film adaptation, he was portrayed by actor David Rasche. The book portrayed Forstmann as a critic of KKR's Henry Kravis and his investment methods.
Forstmann's criticism of Kravis (and much of the rest of the financial industry during the 1980s) centered on the issuance of high yield "junk" bonds to finance mergers and acquisitions. (Forstmann referred to junk bonds as "wampum") When the junk bond market later fell into disfavor as a result of scandal, Forstmann's criticism was seen as prescient, as his more conventional investment strategy had been able to maintain nearly the same level of profitability as companies such as KKR and Revlon that built their strategy around high-yield debt.
Credit crisis
Forstmann accurately predicted the worsening of the credit crisis in July 2008, when most pundits believed the crisis had reached its peak. Forstmann argued that the excess of money pumped into the economy after the September 11 attacks in 2001 distorted the decision-making abilities of nearly everyone in finance. With an oversupply of money, bankers and other financiers took on more risk with less return. While this allowed many to make money for a time, eventually this risk accumulated, and the consequences led to the credit crisis.
Civic life
Forstmann dedicated significant personal resources to the cause of education reform. He was a prominent supporter of school choice. In 1998 he and friend John T. Walton established the Children's Scholarship Fund to provide tuition assistance for low-income families wanting to send their children to private school.
Personal life
Although Forstmann never married, he adopted two boys in the 1990s after meeting them at an orphanage in South Africa: Everest and Siya. From 1994–1995, Forstmann was involved with Princess Diana. Between 1999 to 2000, Forstmann was rumored to be dating Tracy Richman and Elizabeth Hurley. In 2008, he dated Allison Giannini, a 38 year old actress who was in Mission Impossible III. Finally, from 2009 until his death, Forstmann was known to be dating Padma Lakshmi, the 42 year old Indian-American host and judge of Top Chef.
During Lakshmi and Forstmann's time together, Lakshmi gave birth to a baby girl, Krishna Thea Lakshmi. At first, Lakshmi was unclear as to the identity of the father. It was later revealed that Adam Dell was the father.
In December 2006, newspaper reports on the inquiry into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales alleged that U.S. intelligence agencies had bugged Forstmann's phone or plane and monitored his relationship with Diana. She and her sons were said to have planned to visit him in summer 1997, but British security reportedly blocked the visit over security concerns related to the bugging.
In May 2011, Forstmann was diagnosed with brain cancer and received treatment at the Mayo Clinic. Forstmann died on November 20, 2011 due to complications from brain cancer. He had a net worth of US$1.6 billion as of 2011.
See also
- Forstmann Little — private equity firm, Ted Forstmann was one of the founders
- IMG — sports agency and management firm In which Forstmann was an investor.
- "Private equity pioneer Ted Forstmann dies at 71". Chicago Tribune. November 20, 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
- Sandomir, Richard (January 12, 2007). "Forstmann Is Leader of the Pack at IMG". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
- Post a Job. "Ted Forstmann, Rang Alarm on Junk-Bond Buyouts, Dies at 71". Businessweek. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
- Ross, Andrew (2011-11-20). "Theodore Forstmann, Private Equity Pioneer, Is Dead at 71". Dealbook.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
- "Theodore Forstmann," The Week 23 November 2011
- Carney, Brian M. (July 5, 2008). "The Credit Crisis Is Going to Get Worse". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
- BusinessWeek: "Ted Forstmann, Who Rang Alarm on Junk-Bond Buyouts, Dies at 71" November 21, 2011
- "Adam Dell fathered Padma Lakshmi's daughter". The Times Of India. 2010-03-19.
- The Daily Caller: "Ted Forstmann, RIP" By Larry Kudlow November 21, 2011
- "Diana was bugged by secret service in US". Thisislondon.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
- Futterman, Matthew (2011-05-04). "IMG's Forstmann Treated for Cancer - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
- Ted Forstmann profile - Forbes Forbes.com. Retrieved April 2011.
- "The Inside Story of Ted Forstmann's Wild Ride at Gulfstream" - 1997 BusinessWeek article on Forstmann's transformation of Gulfstream Aerospace
- "A Latter-Day Warbucks, Helping Children" - 1999 New York Times article on Forstmann's efforts to improve education by giving school choice
- 2005 Forbes 400 entry
- 2008 Forbes 400 entry
- "Goodbye to All That" - 2004 New York Times article on Forstmann's planned retirement in 2006.
- Ted Forstmann's Bio
- Theodore J. Forstmann at Find a Grave
- Machiavelli and Mogul. Vanity Fair, January 2012 | <urn:uuid:00bf6267-a2b1-4611-9f00-07e2e8878983> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_J._Forstmann | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937521 | 1,731 | 1.59375 | 2 |
DJ Pierre is a house music legend. The pioneering Chicago DJ/producer/performer, who these days keeps busy DJ'ing round the globe, producing tracks, and running his recently formed Afro Acid Digital label, will always be known as a member of the 80's group Phuture, and as being one of the creators of acid house.
Acid house is a strain of house music that Pierre concocted on the Roland TB 303. He did this in the studio along with his partners in the trio, keyboardist Herb J and producer and Phuture founding member Spanky. In 1987 they unleashed this new sound on the world with the release of their revolutionary EP Acid Trax, which would have a major influence on house music for years to come.
The Roland TB 303 bass line synthesizer was manufactured by the company from '82 to '84 and was originally intended for guitarists to use as a bass accompaniment. Acid House was created almost accidentally by Phuture on the Roland TB 303, when the group was trying to get that unique "squelch" or "wiggly worm" or "funky worm" sound out of it. This sub-genre was particularly influential in the UK, a country that embraced American house music in all its musical mutations much more so than the scene back in the USA. However, there were always pockets of musical fanatics in the States who embraced the new electronic music, including in San Francisco, where the long gone I-Beam club on Haight Street (not far from where Amoeba SF is now) once hosted a night dedicated solely to playing the acid house sub-genre. Meanwhile, the UK had its big "summer of love" (house music honeymoon) in 1988, and acid was the preferred flavor, with other artists putting their spin on the 303-generated genre and scoring pop hits. | <urn:uuid:51c52503-b4fd-4ad9-b0b9-3df09ae805ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amoeba.com/blog/tags/dj-pierre/page1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977611 | 382 | 1.53125 | 2 |
For over one lakh students across the State who joined engineering courses six months ago, this week which sees them attempt six university papers, is perhaps an occasion to get a feel of how the next couple of years would be.
However, many of them were in for a bit of a shock as the Mathematics I exam that was conducted on Monday came across as quite a difficult paper. “We didn't understand most of the questions. They were very complicated,” says a student of S.S.N. College of Engineering. The 100-mark paper had questions on integration, matrices, differential equations, partial derivates and 3D analytical geometry. “There are five compulsory units in the paper so that we don't omit any section. But the relatively easier ones were the 2 marks questions while the 8 mark ones were very difficult,” says a student of Madras Institute of Technology. Besides mathematics, the students have Chemistry, engineering graphics, Physics, English and computing subjects. The exams began last week.
While the students are hoping the internal examinations which comprise 20 per cent of their evaluation would save them, some say stricter internal modal tests would have at least prepared them for the exam. “We had three internal tests of which only two were compulsory. So most of us were thorough only in two units,” says Bharani Rajan, a student. The lack of trained mathematics faculty is the reason why students in different departments of the same college have mixed opinions about the test.
“Departments including electronics, mechanical and computers get the best mathematics faculty, while the ones in biomedical, chemical or civil where mathematics is not given importance are given inexperienced ones. Most of these people teach us from their own notes and get us to solve only regularly asked questions,” says Rama Viswanath, a chemical engineering student.
Also, the excessive dependence on databases and books issued by Indian authors that are considered simple, are reasons, say professors, why students wanted to see only ‘expected questions' on paper. Many students felt that since the paper was inclined towards application, the CBSE students had a considerable edge. However, not all CBSE students were happy, either. “I focussed more on JEE while in school that had integration questions for just 5 marks, so I omitted the topic. This mathematics paper was all about getting your basics right,” said R. Ashwin of MIT. “We have to gear up to compete with students from tougher systems like the IITs. It is just an initial shock but it will only help students to adjust better,” said C. Thangaraj, vice-chancellor, Anna University of Technology, Chennai. Ahead of the merger of Anna Universities of Technology, the government had asked Anna University, Chennai, to conduct and evaluate the exams for first year students this year. The exams are being conducted now for students in nearly-500 engineering colleges across the State.
But there was no conscious attempt to make the question paper difficult, said Anna University Vice-Chancellor Mannar Jawahar. Necessary moderation will be employed in case the questions were found difficult by the majority, or out of syllabus, he said. “The first year students are facing a process of transition in terms of teaching and learning methods that are different from school. Such testing methods will encourage teachers and students to not go for rote learning and practise problem solving,” he added. | <urn:uuid:c0cc5c74-4c36-4412-9617-788af732c926> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/mathematics-paper-throws-students-off-balance/article2829414.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982062 | 708 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Inc Magazine Selects Early Exits as "Best Books for Business Owners of 2009"
"Written by a seasoned early-stage investor, Early Exits is a must-read for any entrepreneur who has wrestled with the dilemma of taking outside funding. Peters makes the case that marching toward an exit is a good thing, and not nearly as impossible as it may seem. A surprising number of business owners are cashing out after only two-to-five years and for between $5 million and $30 million, he asserts—making this period, for all its turbulence, a golden era for entrepreneurs." Recommended by Bo Burlingham.
The Inc Magazine article is available here.
The list was also discussed on these blogs:
800CEORead Blog's Inc. Magazine’s Best Books for Business Owners
WorkingPoint Blog's Christmas Reading List for Entrepreneurs
Comment From Techvibes Cross-post
Fred Yee said on Mon, January 11, 2010 at 4:11 PM
Well deserved. It's a great book.
Easy read too - should take only 2-3 hours and you'll learn things you'll never learn anywhere else. | <urn:uuid:d69ea1ef-08ed-4319-8ac3-8a3d856d5fc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.angelblog.net/Best_Books_for_Business_Owners_of_2009.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962857 | 238 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Proposed road calls for bridge over N.C. 107 in JacksonWritten by Giles Morris
A new road that would traverse the campus of Southwestern Community College and provide a new link between two of Jackson County’s major roads is in the final planning stages.
The proposed two-lane road is designed to alleviate congestion and improve traffic flow at the intersection of N.C. 107 and N.C. 116 and help transit to and from SCC, according to N.C. Department of Transportation project engineer Steve Williams. The congested intersection is flanked by an Ingles grocery store and a Lowe’s home improvement store.
According to NCDOT projections, daily traffic on N.C. 116 is expected to increase from 10,200 vehicles per day in 2008 to 19,100 vehicles per day by 2035, and traffic on N.C. 107 is expected to increase from 23,300 vehicles per day in 2008 to 51,100 vehicles per day by 2035.
Engineers have developed two options for the new road. Both follow the same route and include plans for a bridge over N.C. 107, but they differ in the style of intersection.
SCC President Cecil Groves said the new road was crucial for the college’s expansion.
“The road is essential to the future development of the college, particularly with regard to our ability to handle traffic patterns and expand the number of students,” Groves said.
Groves said the new road would give SCC an exit out of the back of the campus that would greatly enhance its ability to complete construction projects related to its expansion. It would also make the N.C. 116 entrance safer for faculty, students, and staff.
The 0.7-mile connector road would run along the edge of the SCC campus and connect N.C. 107 at Evans Road to N.C. 116 at Bonnie Lane.
The NCDOT will hold an information session to share designs for the new road from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 20, at the Balsam Center on the SCC campus.
The meeting will provide an informal venue for dialogue about the proposed road’s effect on the community.
According to Williams, the two scenarios mainly affect the intersection with N.C. 107.
The major components of the plan involve the construction of a roundabout on N.C. 116 –– close to the site of the Jackson County Schools bus garage –– that would serve in lieu of a stoplight at the intersection.
The new road would then cross a U.S. Forest Service property, traverse the SCC campus, and eventually intersect with N.C. 107 just over the hill from Smoky Mountain High School — after crossing 107 with an overhead bridge.
In one set of plans, the new road would have a second roundabout that would provide access to N.C. 107, while the other option traffic would access N.C. 107 directly from Evans Rd.
The new road would be built with a sidewalk and bike lane to accommodate pedestrian traffic and cyclists.
In order to move forward with the new road, NCDOT will need to purchase additional right of ways from landowners and undergo the necessary environmental assessments for the road project. | <urn:uuid:d50318f3-0ece-4748-9397-23b8384f2c38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/803-proposed-road-calls-for-bridge-over-nc-107-in-jackson | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954858 | 674 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Don’t adjust the color balance on your monitor, this “cake” really is purple, green and gold. King Cake, named for the three kings who came to bring gifts to Jesus, is traditionally served during Mardi Gras in New Orleans and throughout the South. Not only is it decorated with the colors of the festival, but it also has a hidden trinket in the dough. I’ve used an almond, but in New Orleans bakers often use a ceramic or plastic doll to represent the baby Jesus. The person who gets the slice with the trinket is responsible for making the King Cake the following year.
There are many versions of this sweet bread, depending on the traditions of different families. Our version is made with Brioche dough which has nutmeg, lemon zest and citron added into it. The dough can be Braided and/or formed into a Couronne (crown shape) as I have done here. Some bakers even use a cream cheese and praline filling, but we went with a more traditional filling. Continue reading | <urn:uuid:4b2b6aa4-0cf3-44fb-9696-1d2357838fab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/tag/king-cake | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969405 | 222 | 1.554688 | 2 |
5. Fast Food Tastes Amazing
New studies come out daily pointing out how utterly shitty a quarter pounder is for your health, and everybody acts like we only got smart about fast food like, yesterday. As if evidence against saturated fat, or trans fat, or corn syrup was some kind of revelation.
This is stupid not only because fitness experts like Jack Lalanne have been telling people since the 1950s not to eat anything that’s man-made, but also because it assumes that now that we know all the facts about processed food, we’ll finally be able to get thinner as a country. Fitness in America is like dry land in Waterworld—a myth.
And it’s not because we’re not educated enough about processed food. It’s because processed food tastes freaking AMAZING. It tastes amazing, and its nature’s cruel joke that if something does taste amazing, it’s probably unhealthy for you. It’s also society’s cruel joke on every health expert in existence that no amount of negative fast-food propoganda will ever be able to supersede this
That’s a Wendy’s Baconator Double. No, it’s not just a myth—it’s real. It’s real, and it’s probably within 5 minutes driving distance of you right now. And no, it’s not expensive. You can buy two of them, if you want.
4. Working Out is Boring
Health gurus constantly praise the art of the full body workout as some kind of quasi-religious experience, like producing sweat is enough stimulation by itself to find the meaning of life. This might have been true, say, 100 years ago when reading Moby Dick over a coal lamp was the next best thing to sex. But today’s world is different. Our attention spans have been warped and shrunk to the size of a two-year-old’s. If this wasn’t an obvious problem, elliptical and treadmill manufacturers wouldn’t be selling their products with built-in freaking consoles. And gyms wouldn’t have at least one TV for every three running machines.
Weight loss is a numbers game. The only way you lose weight is by burning more calories than you take in. Simple, right? Right, except doing something like jogging for 30 minutes—the amount of time the Surgeon General recommends you spend daily on exercise— only burns like 300 some calories. 300—that’s not even enough to burn off a 6’ Subway Club. So…
Point 1: The Surgeon General is clearly the government’s version of everybody’s sweet, naïve grandma—they wouldn’t think nearly so high of you if only they knew how you really spent your time. Point 2: You’d have to at least double that recommended 30 minutes to put a serious hurtin’ on your cholesterol level. So, one hour? Ugh.
You have to have serious willpower and energy to divvy up your (assumingly) limited free time in favor of jumping rope over, say, a rousing Mario Kart Wii session, or literally a hundred other things that don’t involve jumping rope. But just add in a little variety! Sports psychologists say. Throw in a rope pull! Intermittent wall climbing stations! Sanskrit Yoga! Working out can be fun, too! No, it can’t. Otherwise it wouldn’t be called WORK-ing out.
3. The Cyborg Apocalypse is Still a Ways Off
And until it does happen and we have to relearn how to be hunters and gatherers and therefore have no need to worry about staying in shape because it goes hand in hand with just surviving, we’re perpetually stuck in a world where around 80 percent of our existence revolves around sitting on our asses. When we’re working, we’re sitting on our asses. When we’re playing, we’re sitting on our asses. We can even workout while sitting on our asses
Sociologists kindly refer to this a ‘sedentary lifestyle’. Our lives are dominated by passive and readily available forms of digital entertainment, making the need to, y’know, move or something to pass the time totally useless. And since we lead the world at importing and inventing new ways to stimulate the mind whilst sitting on the ass, sedentary lifestyles will be the norm until Skynet becomes self-aware. The only way you avoid a sedentary lifestyle in America in the meantime is by volunteering to be a day laborer, or one of those old-timey hobos who’s always carrying a stick with a knapsack tied onto it.
2. We Give Up Easy
Weight loss takes time. Looking awesome with no shirt on takes time. Like, many, many months worth of time, and many, many hours worth of energy. We all sort of know this, but that cold fact doesn’t really translate until you’ve put in a week of honest-to-goodness diet and exercise, look in the mirror after the week’s said and done, and…you still look more or less the same. FAAAACK!
Nobody likes eating rice cakes and tapeworms morning, noon, and night. Nobody. And stretching that shitty morning, noon, and night routine into some kind of odyssey is asking a whole lot when the average American gets impatient when their phone takes longer than five seconds to update their Facebook status.
Realizing this, we’ve gone so far as to invent surgical procedures like stomach stapling and liposuction to circumvent the whole ‘our collective willpower sucks’ issue, and the previously mentioned ‘working out is boring’ problem. But if Carnie Wilson can’t manage to stay thin with the aid of medical technology…
Aaaand we’re back again:
And maybe none of us can. They tried to rebuild her. They had the technology. But it’s unlikely that any of us will take that personally, because…
1. Being Fat is Less of a Big Deal
We all know the statistics. Almost 2/3 of all American adults are overweight or obese. The overweight/obese actually outnumber the non-overweight/obese. But according to this here chart, that’s a fact of life that’s been written on the wall since before NASA even knew how they were gonna fake the moon landing. Years go by, and we get bigger. And besides all of the reasons already listed, there’s more of a willingness to embrace a little extra poundage and accept the idea that being fat is not the end of the world. If fat wasn’t such a huge stigma, GLEE wouldn’t have given us Mercedes, and CBS would’ve passed on Mike & Molly.
If being fat was the be all, end all obliterator of psyches in this day and age, Oprah wouldn’t keep falling back off the wagon, right? And she probably has a whole team of chefs, trainers, and nutritionists on payroll dedicated (and failing) to keeping her thin.
This website contains mature content; you must be at least 18 years old to enter. Please click below to verify your age. By clicking the agree button, you are confirming that you are 18 years of age or older and you agree to view content intended for a mature audience. | <urn:uuid:b4d4c02e-750d-4a3a-8282-7d512dc156d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thesmokingjacket.com/humor/fat-tuesday-5-reasons-to-stay-on-your-ass-and-eat | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937198 | 1,578 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Question: Has the U.S. opened a third front in the war on terror in Yemen?
Gregory Johnsen: Well, this is something that I think is the subject of a great deal of speculation. Certainly, in my view, there's been a militarization of U.S. policy towards Yemen which I think is a grave mistake and will have - I think what it does is essentially it pursues short-term benefits which, unfortunately, will, in my opinion, have exceedingly high long-term costs. The U.S. has sent a number of Special Forces, Joint Special Operations commands, CIA. They all have a very active presence within Yemen. Senator Lieberman talked about this. Senator Lieberman travelled to Yemen in August of 2009 along with Senator McCain and a couple of other individuals. I was in touch with his staff when he was going and so he, I think, is right. That the U.S. does have a very active sort of covert military presence there.
We’ve seen this in recent months prior to the December 25th failed attempt to blow up the Detroit airliner. We saw a series of strikes on December 17th. There were a number of strikes allegedly carried out with U.S. missiles. Unfortunately, I think this was also counterproductive because while the missiles did hit some of their targets, they did kill some Al-Qaeda individuals, they also killed a number of women and children and this is something that was immediately put up on Jihadi. So, you would see these corpses of women and children and they're all captioned and sort of headlined with the “Made in the USA” caption. And this is something that I think goes a long way towards increasing and really extending the appeal that Al-Qaeda has within Yemen.
More recently we’ve seen a number of strikes about a week and a half ago in early January, there was a strike that would have killed Qasim al-Rami, this individual I talked about, who is now the military commander and really third in charge in this Al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula. But he’s an individual that myself as well as, I believe, a number of individuals who are well informed within the U.S. government, considered to be the single most dangerous individual within the organization. He was reported to have been killed. The Yemeni government made a huge deal about this. The Yemeni government claimed that it had carried out the strike, but most informed observers believed that if it did, it was acting on U.S. intelligence or that the U.S. itself actually carried out the strike.
But of course, having learned from what we talked about in November of 2002, sort of the risks of exposing all of this, the Obama administration seems to have learned that hubris in this isn’t always the best policy. However, unfortunately for the U.S. and Yemeni governments, it appeared that Qasim al-Rami as well as the other seven individuals who were targeted in that strike in January of 2010, all escaped. In fact, Al-Qaeda put out a statement that said, “Look, don’t trust the Yemeni government when it puts this stuff out. It’s just propaganda. Wait until you hear stuff from us. That is going to be authenticated, that is going to be put through the proper channels on Jihadi forums, and that’s the stuff that you can trust. These are the statements; these are the videos that you can trust.” And Al-Qaeda has said this over and over over the past several months and really, I think it’s, to be quite frank, it’s a very sad state of affairs when people like myself, outside observers, trust the statements that Al-Qaeda puts out much more than the statements that the Yemeni government puts out.
Question: Will the U.S. ever openly wage war in Yemen?
Gregory Johnsen: Well, I think it would be a catastrophic mistake to put U.S. boots on the ground in Yemen. I think there are a lot of things that the U.S. can do which it hasn’t really done. The U.S. has really seen Yemen through the prism of Al-Qaeda. Essentially, just looked at the country as this counter-terrorism problem that has to be solved and you, I think, ironically that the U.S.’s insistence on seeing the country that way by linking nearly all of its aid to the single issue has actually induced exactly the type of results that the U.S. is hoping to avoid.
So, the U.S. can’t deal with Al-Qaeda in isolation of all of Yemen’s other problems. The country has to be dealt with as a whole. And I think in Yemen there is a great and I believe growing fear that if Al-Qaeda were to go away, U.S. aid and interest in the country would also go away, and this is something that Yemenis point to not only the history of the U.S. over the past ten years, say how high U.S. aid and interest was in 2001, 2002 then see the drop-off in ’04, ’05 and ’06, but also how the U.S. has dealt with countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan during the 1990s.
So, the U.S. is really working, I think, against a great deal of muscle memory here that it has to overcome. There are a number of steps that the U.S. can take. These have to be, I think, coordinated both internationally and regionally and it also, I think, demands a sort of localized and nuanced knowledge that the U.S. doesn’t appear to have when it comes to Yemen, nor, for that matter, do sort of regional countries like Saudi Arabia or some of Yemen’s other neighbors. And I would, in fact, say it would be a mistake if the U.S. were to attempt to run its Yemen policy through Riyadh or through Saudi Arabia.
But, at the same time, it has to bring Saudi Arabia in; it has to bring a number of these other countries in. But, it can do a lot on public diplomacy. It can do a lot on peeling away different individuals who are now joining Al-Qaeda because we know that these individuals really weren't sort of constructed to join Al-Qaeda. That Al-Qaeda is something that’s a mirage. But, these in really the absence of anything else, these people are going after that mirage.
Recorded on January 25, 2010
Interviewed by Austin Allen | <urn:uuid:b71f111c-53e1-469d-9593-7305c7859721> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bigthink.com/videos/is-yemen-our-next-battleground | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982864 | 1,384 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The drug industry may be shifting its attention to specialty drugs, but data shows that detailing pressure and pharmaceutical rep access are still much higher in primary care.
The physicians receiving the most calls are internists and general practitioners, with generalists receiving an average of nearly two sales calls per working day—more than any other specialty—during the 12 months to June 2012, reported Cegedim Strategic Data.
The degree of promotional pressure on the PCP contrasts with a field like oncology, where detailing is less frequent. A typical oncologist saw an average of 180 details during between July 2011 and June 2012—fewer than one sales call per working day.
Consulting firm ZS Associates adds that this will soon change, with reps lucky to meet with an oncologist face-to-face more than four times a year. About 61% of oncologists placed moderate-to-severe restrictions on sales rep calls, according to its Spring 2012 AccessMonitor report. Only 38% of PCPs restrict rep access to the same degree.
“While oncologists still see some value in rep visits, increased patient load and more time spent on reimbursement issues limit the time they have available,” said Ganesh Vedarajan, principal and leader of the oncology and specialty therapeutics practice at ZS Associates. Only 39% of oncologists were “accessible” to sales reps, vs. 65% of all prescribers, the firm noted.
ZS found that this was the first time since it started doing the report six years ago that the number of inaccessible cancer doctors outnumbered accessible ones, making oncology the most restrictive of the 20 most common medical specialties measured.
When they do get a foot in the door, reps get serious time with oncologists. CSD found that 53% of the 2.7 million sales calls to oncologists that the firm tracked from July 2011–June 2012 lasted longer than 10 minutes. Only 6% were for less than five minutes.
ZS Associates said more reps isn't the solution. “Instead of designing their field organization based on, ‘How many sales reps do I need?'” explained Maria Whitman Mumm, associate principal and leader of East Coast marketing in the ZS oncology practice, “pharmacos should ask, ‘What is the physician experiencing, and how can I help improve the experience by bringing the most value?'” | <urn:uuid:7ab24ce1-f4b5-492b-a29e-51b8ea046ed7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mmm-online.com/oncologists-shut-door-on-reps-study/printarticle/260694/ | 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 | 0.963284 | 506 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Copy and paste the HTML you see below to embed this video on your own website. (Thanks!)
In this Video Series:
Books for Asia: Choose a Book. Change a Life.
Part 5 of 6: Mongolia: Choose a Book. Change a Life.
The first-year English students at Khishig-Undur School are motivated and smart, but they lack one thing we often take for granted: books. So Books for Asia delivered what was needed, and helped Mongolia's next generation prepare for the future.
Books for Asia has been changing lives in places like Khishig-Undur for decades.
Now its your turn. Vote for a favorite children's classic, and on March 29, we will deliver the book with the most votes to every student in Kishig-Undur School's fourth grade class. | <urn:uuid:0269f45e-a1e2-4c7f-bd3c-ff369655b774> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asiafoundation.org/media/collection/112/5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935432 | 172 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Chinese company releases Helen Keller sunglasses
Helen Keller, the famous deaf and blind US woman, is typically held as a figure of inspiration in triumphing over adversity. Yet in China, she has become an unlikely style icon.
That's because a Chinese company has just released its own brand of sunglasses named after the historical figure, who is apparently widely known in China as she is part of school curriculum and discussions in classrooms around the country.
The company even has their own motto that is apparently inspired by Keller herself: “You see the world, the world sees you"
Although the sunglasses are apparently a tribute to the life of Helen Keller, you wouldn't think so by watching a recently-released advert for the shades, which features snappers treating a woman wearing her Helen Keller sunglasses as though she is a celebrity.
Chen Wenjing, a spokesperson for the company behind the sunglasses, has stated that they were aware Helen Keller was blind, but went ahead with the brand name as they value was her philanthropist spirit to publicise her sunglasses, rather than any ability to actually see.
So while the decision to name a brand of sunglasses over a famous blind person was apparently intentional, it doesn't make the decision any less baffling. | <urn:uuid:2a5bc7d7-b78b-4654-ac8e-abfcdf18f09f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.joe.ie/style/style-news/chinese-compay-releases-helen-keller-sunglasses-0023773-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986443 | 253 | 1.703125 | 2 |
From: Matt Mahoney ([email protected])
Date: Mon Apr 21 2008 - 15:37:59 MDT
--- Vladimir Nesov <[email protected]> wrote:
> You talk about these utilities (with underspecified meaning) as if
> people actually choose their decisions based on them, as if they hold
> causal powers. But in fact, it's the opposite: utilities are a way to
> roughly model human behavior. At best this formalism can be considered
> as a way to describe an ideal utilitarian AI. People are not
> fitness-maximizers or utility-maximizers, they are a hack of
> adaptation-executing. They learn when to be happy, and when suicidal,
> depending on context (not that it's easy to control such learning).
> You use "U(x)" thingie like "phlogiston" to create an illusion of
> justified argument.
Yes, I know a utility function is just a model. These tests of happiness only
measure how people answer the question "are you happy?" It is like if someone
got in a car accident and was severely injured and says "I was lucky. I could
have been killed". Was he really lucky?
When people say they are happy, they are comparing their situation to some
imagined situation. So what are you really measuring?
But my point is that if you expect AGI to make boundless happiness possible, I
think you will be disappointed. How would you program a brain, or any
intelligent system, to experience accumulated happiness that grows without
bound? I don't think you could do it on humans with drugs, wireheading,
simulation, or neural reprogramming. If you think it is possible for any
intelligent system, then define the system, define happiness, and show me the
-- Matt Mahoney, [email protected]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed May 22 2013 - 04:01:25 MDT | <urn:uuid:018d1b6a-a92d-48ee-940b-9f7b393a3684> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sl4.org/archive/0804/18610.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946566 | 440 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Not long ago, the number of professional aboriginal foresters could be counted on one hand, but not anymore.
Matt Wealick, the chief operations officer of the Ch-ihl-kway-uhk Forestry Company, a branch of the Ts'elxweyeqw Tribe (Chilliwack), which has a number of forestry interests including a tree farm license and forest management agreement, was the province's 13th aboriginal forester.
Terry Teegee became the 26th aboriginal when he became a forester. The elected chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council is also the president of LTN Contracting (a joint venture company owned by Lheidli Tenneh First Nation and Roga Contracting) and was once the forestry co-ordinator for his home Takla First Nation.
Both spoke at the Association of BC Forestry Professionals conference in Prince George on Wednesday. The ABCFP disclosed that there are now more than 100 certified members who self-identify as being aboriginal.
"It is an option for First Nations to manage their own natural resources," said Wealick at the Association of B.C. Forestry Professionals conference Wednesday in Prince George.
"Aboriginal youth is the fastest growing demographic in Canada, so [certified forestry professions are] a great opportunity," said Teegee. "And not just for forestry. A lot of the skills taught for mining or forestry or other natural resources industries are transferable back and forth."
Aboriginal involvement in the natural resource economy is on the swift rise, said Teegee.
Duz Cho Logging of the McLeod Lake Band and Falcon Drilling of Prince George are award-winning Aboriginal business ventures.
Duz Cho Construction is another McLeod Lake Band company doing much of the on-site work preparing the Mount Milligan Mine site.
LTN/Roga supplies about 600,000 cubic metres of timber to Canfor's sawmilling operations in the Prince George area.
The Conifex forest company is partially owned by First Nations interests, and there is a direct partnership agreement between Lakes District First Nations and Hampton Affiliates for their milling operations in the Burns Lake area.
CNC's forestry program is, said officials at the conference, 25 per cent filled with aboriginal students and the
Teegee said he was witness to great acrimony during his formative years, with aboriginal blockades of railroads and roads to prevent logging in traditional territories. There was virtually zero consultation with First Nations at the time, despite there being no treaties with B.C. or Canada to allow for such industry. That problem has not been fully erased, he said, but conditions are slowly improving.
Even when they do improve, the big players still benefit, he said.
"When the provincial government implemented their tenure take-back [clawing back timberlands promised to big forestry corporations and allocating them instead to affected First Nations], they paid cash compensation to those companies, then First Nations managed the resource but where did they have to go to sell the timber? - the same forest companies, who got the wood for a lot cheaper than if they'd have logged it themselves," Teegee said. | <urn:uuid:28d3b06a-d2a7-45cc-9bc4-64024b71a1c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/article/20130221/PRINCEGEORGE0101/302219996/-1/princegeorge/aboriginals-swelling-forestry-pro-ranks | 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 | 0.963475 | 658 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was discharged from a New York hospital Wednesday night days after doctors discovered a blood clot stemming from the concussion she sustained last month.
"Her medical team advised her that she is making good progress on all fronts, and they are confident she will make a full recovery," her spokesman Philippe Reines said. "She's eager to get back to the office."
Clinton, 65, suffered a concussion after falling early this month while she recovered from a stomach virus, her spokesman said. The clot was discovered during a follow-up exam Sunday.
She canceled a Dec. 20 appearance before Congress about a report into the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Some critics suggested she faked her illness to avoid testifying.
The former first lady and senator announced she would step down during President Obama's second term. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. will replace her. | <urn:uuid:22ff2fc6-dd0f-4981-ad67-0a7bc7566802> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bradenton.com/2013/01/02/4374550/clinton-released-from-new-york.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974086 | 198 | 1.507813 | 2 |
When you're choosing a mobile broadband provider, it's essential you check the network coverage in your area. Read our guide to find out how you can check availability online...
Mobile broadband coverage
The strength of your mobile broadband connection will usually depend on three things:
- Which network you're on
- Where you live
- Whether you are on a 3G or 4G connection
With 3G connections, even if you're using a the latest dongle and live within a "turbo charged" area, you still won't normally get the top advertised speed.
This is because distance and "obstacles" - like trees and tall buildings - between you and the nearest mobile mast, as well as the number of users on the local network, have an impact on the actual speeds you get.
To give you a rough idea of what you can expect, each provider lets you check coverage in your postcode area online or in their retail stores.
If you sign up to a mobile broadband deal only to find that your coverage is poor - and your connection weak as a result - providers will usually give you a full money back guarantee, ranging from 14 days to a month.
But it's still best to check your coverage before signing up.
4G connections are still subject to interference, but will still provide significantly faster connections than 3G - in fact, 4G speeds can be comparable to the lower speeds offered by fixed line broadband.
If you are using mobile broadband at home, you can get the most out of your mobile broadband connection by making a few adjustments. Check the speed of your connection from different locations in your house. Try putting your receiver or dongle & device near a window, and testing the speed you get upstairs rather than down, and see what works best. The impact can be significant.
You could also try getting an external 3G aerial.
EE mobile broadband coverage
EE ( www.ee.co.uk ) is a mobile network operator and broadband provider also known as Everything Everywhere. It was formed as a product of the merger of T-Mobile and Orange. EE launched its 4G mobile broadband connection in 2012 - the first provider to offer a 4G mobile service in the UK - providing superfast mobile broadband.
EE's 3G network covers 98% of the country, it's 4G network is considerably smaller but EE plans to expand its superfast mobile broadband network to the whole of the UK.
Three mobile broadband coverage
The 3G network Three (www.Three.co.uk) has more than 97% coverage for calls, texts and mobile internet across the UK. Three was a successful bidder in the 4G spectrum auction - so should also be releasing some 4G products on the market soon.
To make sure Three has sufficient coverage in your area, run a postcode search on the provider's website.
Orange mobile broadband coverage
Orange (www.Orange.co.uk) operates phone masts in practically every corner of Britain, and has more than 17 million customers in the UK.
In July 2010, Orange UK and T-Mobile UK merged to become the country's largest communications company, Everything Everywhere (EE).
Check your mobile broadband availability on the Orange website before signing up.
T-Mobile mobile broadband coverage
Now part of Everything Everywhere (EE), the company formed through a merger with Orange UK, the T-Mobile (www.T-Mobile.co.uk) 3G network covers the vast majority of places in Britain.
For more details and a dedicated postcode tool, visit T-Mobile.co.uk.
Vodafone mobile broadband coverage
Vodafone (www.Vodafone.co.uk) offers one of the fastest and most reliable mobile data services in the UK. Vodafone was a successful bidder in the 4G spectrum auction - so should also be releasing some 4G products on the market soon.
It's the network of choice for many of Britain's emergency service teams. Ambulance, police and fire crews depend on communications, so they need a network they know they can trust.
Visit Vodafone.co.uk/Coverage to check Vodafone's level of coverage in your street.
O2 mobile broadband coverage
Over the last few years, O2 (www.O2.co.uk) has ploughed more than £1billion into building its 3G mobile network. O2 was a successful bidder in the 4G spectrum auction - so should also be releasing some 4G products on the market soon.
In fact, the company claims to invest the equivalent of £1million a day in continually improving its service. To find out what coverage is like in your area, run a postcode search on the O2 website.
Mobile broadband coverage checkers
Available from all major UK networks, mobile broadband coverage checkers give you a decent idea of signal strength and speeds in your postcode.
But remember, the results will usually be for outdoor coverage alone - though some ISPs, like Vodafone and O2 do claim to offer very detailed results that will show you what your coverage is likely to be inside your home.
The coverage you are likely to receive indoors will depend on your distance from the mast, the thickness and density of your property's outer walls and the number of people online in your area.
Use the broadbandchoices price calculator to compare mobile broadband deals for your laptop, iPad or tablet. | <urn:uuid:0c43d3c9-da49-4a68-a1e0-218cc5f2ced8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/guides/mobile-broadband/mobile-broadband-coverage?partnerRef=bch~bcmb | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942452 | 1,129 | 1.523438 | 2 |
If You Have a Tendency to Overgive
There are plenty of selfish people in the world – no doubt. But many good people have the opposite problem: they’re overgivers, perennially sacrificing their needs and missions to others’. That’s a much nobler problem, but still a problem.
Here’s what happens when you overgive to your job; an activist campaign, community group, or business venture; or other people:
1) Of course, you don’t get to live out your own mission. This almost guarantees bitterness, regret and remorse.
2) You’re probably exhausted, and possibly broke. This means your lifestyle is not sustainable – which, in turn, means that all the projects and relationships you contribute importantly to are also not sustainable. (And if your contribution is not important, why are you giving at all?)
3) Dangerously, you attract the wrong people – those seeking to exploit you, evade responsibility or accountability, or both.
4) You compromise your effectiveness and growth. Good time managers devote as much time as possible to their high-value activities: those that, (a) fall within their mission; (b) leverage their strengths; and (c) create real-world impact or change. By focusing, they become ever more accomplished, skilful, powerful and effective – not to mention, happy, peaceful and calm. And by delegating the low-value activities to others for whom they are high-value, they help those others build their own effectiveness and happiness – and, as a bonus, build community.
When you overgive, you subvert that entire process, and lose all those wonderful outcomes.
5) In a worst-case scenario, you don’t give your best effort to anything or anyone, either because you can’t (because you’re depleted or frantically busy), or you won’t (because you feel angry and exploited), or both. In failing to commit to multiple individual tasks or engagements, you are actually failing to commit to entire projects or relationships.
Overgiving, in short, is a potent form of self-sabotage.
Email overload can be regarded as an overgiving problem. Sure, you get too many emails each day, and they take too long to answer. If you’re like many people, however, you’re reluctant to face the problem by: (1) leaving some (or many) emails unanswered, and (2) answering most of the remaining ones tersely. (Many people write multi-paragraph emails when a simple “Sorry – can’t do it.” or “Great!” or “See you at 8!” will do.) This isn’t all your fault! Here are some factors that make email so tricky:
- We get a lot of emails. If you get just twenty a day and spent just three extra minutes on each one, that’s an hour lost each day! When you’re flooded with emails you’ve got to be super-efficient in dealing with them or they’ll bury you.
- Email occupies a weird middle terrain between the formality and permanence of written communication and the informality and impermanence of spoken communication.
- You’re getting many different types of emails thrown at you. That makes it harder to deal with them efficiently en masse via filters, signatures, autoresponders, and other time-savers.
Spending three hours answering emails when you can only budget one hour to the task does qualify as overgiving. This is true even if the emails are worth answering! However, it’s doubly true if the main reason you’re spending all that time is not because doing so supports your mission, but because: (a) it’s conventional to answer one’s emails, and you don’t want to break with convention, or (b) you’re afraid of offending someone.
Here are some solutions to overgiving:
1) Self-analysis. You need to get very clear about what your mission and priorities are, and when and why you’re overgiving. Many overgivers are kind people, but many also have trouble saying no and standing up for their own needs – and many get gratification from being perceived by others as indispensable, a “problem solver,” a “go-to person” or even a “savior.” This is symptomatic of grandiosity, a key component of perfectionism. Grandiose people think they can break the rules: for instance, by not earning enough money to sustain themselves, or working 100 hours a week, or doing everything for everyone and still aceing their schoolwork or writing their novel. They also believe that things that are hard or even impossible for others should be quite easy for them.
Even though most perfectionists have a strong rationalization for their grandiosity – e.g., “I’m well organized.” – grandiosity is fundamentally delusional. Use journaling, and perhaps enlist a coach or therapist to overcome it.
2) Make conscious decisions, based on your mission and the relative importance of your priorities, on how you will invest your time. Do that by creating a weekly time budget (if you sleep 8 hours a night, you’ve got 112 hours a week to work with), while meanwhile working aggressively to jettison non-priorities and low-value activities from your schedule.
3) Practice saying no. If a recovering overgiver tells me that people are starting to complain that she’s not there for them anymore, or not as generous, or not as much fun, I congratulate her – that means she’s doing it right. If saying no is hard, practice on small stuff and work your way up.
4) Practice delegating. As many as possible of your non-high-value activities should be given to someone else to do. Contrary to what many overgivers believe, the list of people you can potentially delegate to is enormous, and includes family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, work associates, and basically anyone you come in contact with. Just take some time to organize and “frame” the request so that’s it as easy as possible to fulfill. And, of course, be sure to reciprocate when you are in a position to contribute some high-value support.
5) For emails, start discarding and answering tersely with much more frequency, as discussed above. If someone expresses surprise or unhappiness at a terse answer explain that the terseness doesn’t reflect your opinion of them or their project, but simply the realities of your time management.
Of course, also do use filters, signatures, autoresponders, and other email time-savers when you can!
Some of these steps may take practice, but trust me – life gets so much easier and more fun when you stop overgiving. Stay with it! | <urn:uuid:93f6a2a0-9070-4ad5-93cc-6f7c8fd54143> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hillaryrettig.com/what-to-do-if/what-to-do-if-you-have-a-tendency-to-overgive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951294 | 1,478 | 1.820313 | 2 |
In this Hobart Paper, the authors – transport economists Oliver Knipping and Richard Wellings – propose the privatisation of the UK road network. In doing so, they examine the traditional objections to privatisation and find them wanting. In a lively discussion, making good use of practical examples, the authors also look at related issues such as road taxation, the planning system, pricing, regulation and the management of congestion.
Whilst the authors admit that there are valid objections to road privatisation – and straightforward privatisation may not suit all types of roads – there are many imaginative schemes outlined that could deal with those objections. The authors also show that the nationalisation of roads has not been a success.
This study is essential reading for policy-makers, academics and students in the field of transport and logistics. | <urn:uuid:7522a1f6-b984-405b-9814-686608734a10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iea.org.uk/publications/research/which-road-ahead-government-or-market | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945074 | 162 | 1.617188 | 2 |
An inflation rate more than twice its target did not stop the Bank of England from announcing more monetary stimulus following its latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting.
From the BoE's news release on Thursday:
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%. The Committee also voted to increase the size of its asset purchase programme, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, by £75 billion to a total of £275 billion.
The BoE justified its latest move by saying that the outlook for economic growth in the United Kingdom has deteriorated. According to the BoE, this made it more likely that inflation -- which was 4.5 percent in August -- will fall and undershoot the 2 percent target in the medium term. It also said that strains in bank funding markets as a result of euro-area sovereign debt concerns may inhibit the availability of credit to consumers and businesses.
The euro-area sovereign debt situation was also obviously a concern for the European Central Bank.
Like the BoE, the ECB announced after its monetary policy meeting on Thursday that it would keep interest rates unchanged. Additionally, it announced the launch of a new covered bond purchase programme which would see it purchase 40 billion euros worth of bonds starting next month. It would also offer banks unlimited 12 and 13-month loans and extend its unlimited funding of banks under its regular refinancing operations at least until July 2012.
In his statement to the press after the monetary policy meeting, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said that economic growth in the euro area is expected to be "very moderate" in the second half of the year, with risks to the outlook on the downside because of ongoing tensions in some segments of the financial markets in the euro area. Inflation, which was 3.0 percent in September, will stay above 2 percent over the coming months but decline thereafter.
I show below a chart of the spread between 10-year government bond yields and central bank rates in the UK and Germany. It is interesting to note that the BoE has launched its latest round of quantitative easing at a time when not only is inflation well above its target but the spread between the 10-year yield and the official bank rate is also quite wide by historical standards.
Still, the spreads have deteriorated sharply since early this year in both the UK and Germany, especially in the latter as a result of two rate hikes by the ECB. A narrowing term spread usually indicates a weakening economic outlook.
An economic report out from Germany on Thursday also provided an indication that the economy is weakening. German factory orders fell 1.4 percent in August after having fallen 2.6 percent in July, showing that the euro area's largest economy is struggling to maintain growth. | <urn:uuid:d7a43634-ec9c-4a5f-acf1-4312dddaec27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://skepticalspeculator.blogspot.com/2011/10/boe-and-ecb-step-up-action-to-shore-up.html | 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 | 0.972988 | 566 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A FORMER Tamworth businesswoman has called on the owners of a vacant Coledale block to clean up their act.
“It’s disgusting and a complete disgrace,” said Pauline Young of the site of the old Tamworth Brickworks in Green St, which has become a dumping ground for rubbish and stolen cars.
Mrs Young said it was a different story in North and East Tamworth with vacant blocks regularly mown and tidied up by their owners.
The site, which borders Green St and Fleming Cr, is littered with broken televisions, beds, old
refrigerators and piles of rubbish.
Coledale resident Dennis Cousins, whose backyard adjoins the site, said he often saw people dumping
rubbish there during the day.
“It’s not like a tip, it is a tip,” said Mr Cousins, who said stolen cars and dead animals were often among the piles of rubbish.
He said he had lived in the area for more than nine years and the problem had been there since the day he moved in.
Mr Cousins said he was concerned that young children who played on the land would be seriously injured, as damaged items and broken glass littered the site and rubbish attracted snakes and vermin.
“Some of the local people here just use it as a dumping ground,” Mr Cousins said.
“They get charged a fee at the Tamworth tip so they just come and dump it here for nothing.”
A spokeswoman for Tamworth Regional Council said that the council had been working with members of the Coledale community for a number of years over the illegal dumping of rubbish on the site.
She said that council has also worked with the various owners of the land to clean up the site successfully, but unfortunately over time the illegal dumping had reoccurred.
In September last year, council adopted a Coledale Illegal Dumping Strategy which was developed in conjunction with NSW Housing.
The strategy is among a range of initiatives which form Tamworth Regional Council’s New Opportunity West Project which will be
implemented in coming months. | <urn:uuid:6a4c8058-1e73-4378-8b31-e006060207bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/139737/clean-up-call-for-coledale-vacant-block/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984073 | 441 | 1.5625 | 2 |
- Special Sections
- Real Estate
The National Weather Service issued a Winter Weather Advisory for Mammoth and the Eastern Sierra, in effect from 4 p.m. Tuesday to 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Forecasters called for up to two feet of fresh snow west of U.S. 395 and six to 10 inches east of the highway.
Snow is to begin Tuesday afternoon, becoming moderate to heavy at times Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon.
As for wind, the weather service predicted wind gusts to 50 mph along Highway 395 and gusts to 90 mph
over the Sierra ridges.
Impacts: travel will remain hazardous with slick roads and reduced visibility due to blowing snow along U.S. Highway 395. Delays and chain restrictions are likely throughout the region.
Lake Tahoe basin.
"Roads will remain slick and hazardous," the weather service said, "with areas of blowing snow and reduced
visibility. Motorists should slow down and use caution." | <urn:uuid:79c68d2b-ffe4-4fb9-9ca7-98ce34c7b57a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mammothtimes.com/content/bullseye-another-storm-making-mayhem-mammoth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939635 | 201 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Expanding wind farm energy in Oregon
Having just finished Tom Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded, I've been especially interested in the growing field of alternative energy technology.
John is a friend of my who lives in Oregon, and decided to take a trip out to a wind farm under construction in Hay Canyon. This is an international effort, including the involvement of parrent companies based in Spain and India.
This is from a press release describing the project:
Iberdrola Renewables (Portland, Oregon), formally known as PPM Energy, has started construction of the $170 million, 100-megawatt (MW) Hay Canyon windfarm near Wasco, Oregon. Iberdrola Renewables is a subsidiary of Iberdrola S.A. (MCE:IBE) (Bilbao, Spain).
Parts for these wind turbines are being supplied by Suzlon Energy, based in India.
John shot a series of videos that I'm posting on YouTube: | <urn:uuid:f11cf683-9a7c-48ff-bd60-2e448f3ff4f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://billkosloskymd.typepad.com/lexicillin_qd/2009/01/expanding-wind-farm-energy-in-oregon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945184 | 209 | 1.625 | 2 |
Marissa Mayer, chief executive at Yahoo, has been getting an earful lately. A memo sent to staff decreed that, come June 1st, all Yahoo employees will have to come into the office to work. (Presumably this does not apply to those who toil in call centres in New Delhi and other off-shore locations since that would be a very long commute.)
Yahoo’s business is struggling, and in desperation to shore up its fortunes, Mayer has reached out to the power of the tribe. Something along the lines of, ‘Employees who eat their yogurt cup snacks together, win together. Yahoo!’
Strange that a high-tech company, one that has enabled people to communicate and work from anywhere, is snapping the chain and tethering workers to the office bullpen just like it’s 1950 all over again. Recent surveys show that workers who telecommute are more productive and have better morale than those who trudge into the office five days a week. Doubly strange is that it’s a woman and a mother who is yanking the chain.
An inflexible workplace hurts women more than men. Women throughout the world work long hours in the home. Though the gap is narrower in some regions than others, unpaid housework and childcare duties fall primarily to a woman, regardless of whether she holds paid work elsewhere. In the rich world, this amounts to 33 hours of housework for women vs. 16 for men. Each child under five adds 20 extra minutes of work to her schedule but only a few minutes to his.
Unless these mundane yet mandatory duties are outsourced—and only the affluent can do this—someone in the family has to do them. And while some of us are nostalgic for halcyon days, when a woman occupied herself solely with domestic work, preparing hot meals and ironing the bedsheets, today’s rising costs of living require a two-earner household regardless of one’s preferences.
In order to juggle a double or triple workload, women have taken part-time work or gravitated to full-time jobs in professions or industry sectors that allow for some autonomy in scheduling. The public sector has been one such refuge because it offers generous maternity and health benefits, as well as reasonable work hours. However, with mounting government debts, public sector jobs are being eliminated and this is having a deleterious effect on women’s full-time employment prospects.
Few employers acknowledge the realities of life because it is not in their best interests to do so. As long as you show up to work, with bells on, what you had to do to get there and stay there until quitting time is of no concern. They pay lip service to work/life balance but those workers who request flextime or work part-time are often given short shrift when it’s time to dole out promotions and pay raises. Yet the corporate ideal of the 1950s-style salaryman who worked at a desk in full-view, 9-to-5, Monday-to-Friday, could only exist because he was being subsidized by a woman doing all the unpaid labour back at home.
Without telecommuting it is very difficult, if not actually impossible, for many women to juggle all of their responsibilities—both paid and unpaid. Working from home may make the workday longer, and this is sub-optimal, but it also allows for time to play with a child, take the dog for a walk, exercise, make a pot of soup, defrost the pork chops, and, yes Ms. Mayer, even wait for the cable guy. | <urn:uuid:7a572cee-5444-4869-b2e8-d2d55664ca6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theloop.ca/opinion/family/article/-/a/1987488/Why-Yahoo-s-new-work-policy-is-discriminatory-to-women | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967936 | 749 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Monday morning quarterbacking is so easy, isn’t it? It doesn’t ever change the game, though – - no matter how very badly you want it to.
Your task this holiday season is to reach out to that person you know – - and we all know one – - the one who needs help…or struggles…or the one who is different, or doesn’t fit in. That person who doesn’t feel good enough. The one who is depressed and feels shame in talking about it. Reach out to that person and talk – and listen. Really listen….and then engage.
That doesn’t mean that it’s all on you to solve their problem – but you just never really know what a difference a willing, honest and open ear can make to someone who is in pain. It’s not for you to judge them and it’s not on you to cure them .. but what if a few moments of your time and a well-intentioned ear helped them get something off their chest … or helped them sort something out, internally … what if that prevented something awful? Or what if it is the impetus for that person to realize that they are not in this life alone and that other people really do care…and really can help.
You call yourself a friend? Then be one. Stop being afraid of behaviors that are different. Stop being ashamed of illness that affects our mental health. Human beings are fragile and mental illness is not a sign of weakness or unworthiness, nor it it a sign that the person afflicted with mental illness is somehow…..less than. Mental illness is a sign that something is wrong – - not unlike symptoms of the common cold, or cancer….something is wrong that needs treatment.
None of us … not a single one of us .. is immune and not one of us deserves a seat on the high horse in life from where we can point fingers of blame and spout solutions without action.
The solution, if it exists, is multi-faceted – but primarily, the solution is organic and it starts with you… with me…reaching out to help …. or reaching out to ask for help, if it is in our capacity to do so.
Mental health is so overwhelming with no easy answers. But it is society’s problem and if you can help, even just a bit, why wouldn’t you try, instead of waiting and hoping that someone, somewhere will legislate it away?
Please just do what you can to try and help someone who has lost their way. As part of the greater community – we owe ourselves that much.
Listening is easy and it is a good first step for those of us who feel helpless in the face of senseless tragedy.
National Institute of Mental Health
Transforming the understanding and treatment of mental illness through research.
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 8104, MSC 9655
Bethesda, MD 20892-9655
A letter should be sent along with the check indicating that the donation is to be used for research and related activities at NIMH. If a contribution is to be made as a memorial, please indicate the name of the deceased as well as a name and address of the individual to whom an acknowledgment can be sent. All donors are acknowledged.
If you are considering a bequest in a will, the will should show the address of the National Institute of Mental Health to avoid confusion about your intentions. Again, the will should indicate that the bequest is to be used to support the research and related activities of NIMH.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to write to the address above or call the NIMH Financial Management Branch at (301) 443-3704. | <urn:uuid:6ed32fe2-ea04-4619-b8db-cb2208d76c79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lisasabin-wilson.com/how-to-save-a-life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95317 | 778 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Egypt's constitution-drafting body still dogged by controversy
Members of Egypt's constituent assembly remain divided on handful of red-button issues, including Article 2 of national charter and future of consultative Shura Council
Ahram Online, Wednesday 4 Jul 2012
A general view of the two chambers of parliament meeting to elect the 100 members of the constituent assembly 12 June (Photo: Reuters)
Conflict continues to dog Egypt's troubled constituent assembly – tasked with drafting a new constitution – as assembly members continue to debate Article 2 of Egypt's constitution and the future of Egypt's Shura Council (the upper, consultative house of parliament).
Article 2 of Egypt's 1971 constitution states that "the principles of Islamic Law" should constitute the "principal source" of legislation in Egypt. The clause as it currently stands has resulted in fierce disagreements among members of Egypt's Constituent Assembly.
Salafist-Islamist forces are demanding the removal of the word "principles" from the article, so as to make Islamic Law the primary source of Egyptian law. They have threatened to withdraw their representatives from the Constituent Assembly if the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) fails to fulfil its promise to change the wording of the article.
Islamists account for more than half of the 100-member constitution-drafting body.
However, Deputy Shura Council Speaker Tarek Sahri told state daily Al-Ahram on Wednesday that there were "no disagreements" over Article 2, insisting that all political forces – including Islamists, liberals, socialists and secularists – agreed on the wording.
"We're working on making Islamic Law – not just the principles – the main source of legislation," Sahri was quoted as saying.
Civil and liberal parties, for their part, insist on keeping the article's wording unchanged to ensure the civil, rather than religious, nature of the Egyptian state.
The same forces are calling for the abrogation of Egypt's consultative Shura Council, which they see as an unnecessary fiscal burden on the state. Islamist political forces, however, disagree, calling for the council's powers to be augmented.
The Shura Council was inaugurated in 1980. One third of its members are appointed directly by the president, while the remaining two thirds are elected by the public.
Another issue on the Constituent Assembly's agenda is the fixed 50 per cent quota of parliamentary seats reserved for farmers and workers, along with the quota for female MPs. "These quotas conflict with the main principles of democracy," said criminal law professor Fawzeya Abdel-Sattar.
Egypt's Constituent Assembly continues to hold meetings despite continued uncertainty as to its future.
Last month, Egypt's High Constitutional Court ruled a parliamentary elections law – which governed last year's legislative polls – as unconstitutional. The following day, the People's Assembly (the lower house of Egypt's parliament) was dissolved by order of the military.
A court ruling on the constitutionality of the Constituent Assembly has been postponed to 4 September. | <urn:uuid:02b76ee7-1f82-4823-9e3f-b2ac54976572> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/46871/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-constitutiondrafting-body-still-dogged-by-c.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959359 | 624 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Most people say the start of paintball was lumberjacks that used a single shot air gun, with a paintball to mark trees for cutting. Next thing you know, lumberjacks are hiding behind the trees shooting at each other, and paintball was born. Back then, paintball guns were single shot markers, and a paintball cost nearly a dollar each! Today, they are only a few cents each, which is good as newer semi-automatic paintball markers can shoot 10 to 20 balls a second or more!
Is Paintball Safe?
Yes, paintball is a very safe sport to play. Being a non-contact sport, it does not have anywhere near the injuries of other sports like football, soccer, and basketball. When playing under supervised conditions with the proper equipment, it is statistically safer than golf or bowling!
And we feel our indoor facility is the
Safest Field Around! Read Why!
But does it hurt?
No. Well, maybe just a little. A paintball is actually made in the same
machine that makes bath oil beads, or Advil caplets - so it's a relatively
soft shell filled with vegetable oil and food coloring. Shot from a
paintball marker at 260 feet per second, when hit, it will sting for
a second - about like getting snapped with a towel, or with a rubber
band. But with the adrenaline, and excitement, you may not even feel
the hit. That why we have refs to help determine if you are "clean"
or "out". And depending where you get hit, it can leave a
little mark which will go away in a day or so, and by simply wearing
the proper clothing, you can minimize or eliminate this.
What Should I wear?
For example, you must
wear an approved mask that will protect your face, and you may also
opt for gloves, a neck protector, or even full armor. This equipment
is available for rent or sale in our on site pro shop. But many just
choose to layer on a heavy sweatshirt or two. Of course, layering on
a heavy sweatshirt to protect yourself is not that much fun on an 100
degree Texas summer day, but in our air conditioned indoor facility,
you can wear any protection you want, summer or winter and be comfortable.
Will the Paint Wash Out?
Actually, paintballs have no paint in them! They are a gelatin
capsule, much like a bath oil bead, or a big round advil caplet
(about the size of a dime) and the stuff on the inside is mainly
a product called PEG. This is a food grad synthetic oil filler
that you find in tooth paste, visine, and even Dr. Pepper. You
may get a few little grease marks, but since we don't allow outside
paint at our field, you don't have to worry about big Pink, Orange
and Yellow stains like on other fields. All our paint is a non-toxic,
non-staining, no-pigment special formulation for our indoor facility.
Isn't paintball teaching violence?
No, I'm sure you will be very impressed with how well behaved paintball
players are - especially when in a nice controlled environment where fun
and exercise are promoted, and any violence is not tolerated. Actually
paintball teaches lots of useful team skills like communication, trust,
healthy competition and organization. It's why paintball outings are very
popular with church groups, and as corporate team building outings from
companies such as Cisco Systems, Home Depot, IBM, and Microsoft.
What age are most paintball players?
You name it! There is no minimum or maximum age to participate - as long as you are strong enough to hold a gun and squeeze a trigger! But you will find pre-teen, teenagers, young adults, and men and women in their 40's, 50's and 60's on the field. You will be amazed how many parents came to watch their son or daughter, then thought it looked like fun, and now you can't get them off the field!
What if I bring my child, but I don't want to play?
No problem at all. You will find we are a very supervised facility, and there is no problem dropping your kids, and coming back later, or feel free to hang out, and watch the fun through the large viewing windows. Or, fill out a waiver, and we'll let you go out behind the nets where you can watch the action close up. Of course, the whole place is WIFI so some parents bring a laptop and get a little work done over our high speed connection. Make yourself at home while your child plays.
Can I come check it out without paying?
Sure! Come on down and see our facility, we're sure you'll be impressed with how much fun Paintball is, and will want to play!
Ok, you've got me talked into this. I've never played before - what can I expect when I show up at your place?
Let me walk you through the process. You show up, and we have a video briefing that will run you through the basics. It will show you how the equipment works, how the game is played, etc. It will also highlight all the important safety aspects of the game. You will watch this DVD - about 10 minutes - then fill out your paperwork, pay for your session (and what ever rental equipment and paint you might need.)
Find a table (not hard to do... there are 20 of them!) to put
your stuff, then if you have your own gun, go to our Chrono Station and set your speed for 260 fps.!
When you feel good, head back into the staging area. We have a
Public Address system that allows us to call the games, which
we do by level of experience. So for example, you might hear,
"Beginning Players, we will be going to the back field in
2 minutes - get ready!", or "Advanced players, last call to the
front field. All advanced players that want to play, please head to the front Field." Then one of the refs will walk you onto the field,
and help divide the group into two teams. Then the ref will make
sure everyone is ready, and then it's game on! Start shooting!
Or if you feel like you're getting a bit better, and you want to try playing with more advanced players, a game will start there in just a few minutes. And after each of those games, the fields will switch from beginner to advanced, so it should never be more than a few minutes that you can get on one or the other fields, and compete with players at your level.
Games will normally be in the 5 against 5, or 8 against 8 type numbers.
We will avoid cramming a ton of people on the field at one time. I've
found - that is just not as much fun! And by having a new game starting
every few minutes, it is not necessary. When you get hit, and a paintball
marks you by making a splat the size of a quarter, you raise your gun
- signifying you are "out", and walk to one of the "dead zones" behind
a net so you will not get shot any more. The game will probably last
3 - 10 minutes until one team is out, and the refs will signal when
the game is over.
At that time, you leave the field, refill your air and paint with our self service air station, and prepare for the next game. Just check the monitors to see when you want to go next. Or kick back, and watch a game or two either through the large viewing windows, or on the monitors displaying web cams throughout the fields.
Feel free to play 5, 10, or 30 or more games throughout the day. All the fun you want is included in the one Price.
Can I bring my own equipment?
Sure! Feel free to use your own marker, goggles, tank, any gear you have as long as it is approved for paintball use. We must make sure they are paintball goggles, and if bringing your own tank, pull back any cover upon check in so we can see the model and hydro date on the tank. Then it will be marked so you can use it the rest of the day.
The only exception to using your own stuff is paint. This is a FPO Field. You can only use paint purchased at our field for use in our facility.
582 E Hwy 121
Lewisville, TX 75057 Note: This is Business 121 in Lewisville. Here's a Map & Directions
Another note! GPS does a bad job of getting here with our address. It might lead you to the other 121, but you can set your GPS to Coordinates: N 33 2.292 W 96 59.238
Serving all of Dallas, TX, Ft. Worth, Carrollton, Plano, Allen, The Colony, Frisco, Grapevine, Highland Park, Little Elm, Euless, Flower Mound, Bedford, Grand Prairie, Highland Village, Farmers Branch, and the rest of the North Texas area. | <urn:uuid:605c4060-12cf-4339-a268-e86b38f5385c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gatsplat.com/aboutpaintball.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954243 | 1,929 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Unified computing makes Alaska smaller, faster, more secure
Alaska’s Enterprise Technology Services team knew that if the division was going to be a true IT services provider for the state, ETS had to become more agile in its delivery of services.
With that realization, ETS started on a journey that led to deploying a platform through which the organization now offers agencies shared services via a private cloud, increasing operational speed and lowering IT costs.
Over the years, ETS had become overwhelmed by the number of IT projects it had to handle, causing major delays in the delivery of technology to support state agencies and services to citizens.
Moreover, infrastructure inefficiencies and the lack of a unified team within the state's data center hampered efforts to get the best value from IT equipment. The situation was further complicated by the 16 departments within the state that had different standards and procedures for deploying IT.
“We were going out and buying silos of hardware and if the project got delayed, the hardware would sit around and we wouldn’t get the return on investment we should get out of it,” said Corey Kos, Alaska’s enterprise architect, hired two years ago to help improve the situation.
Kos knew that ETS, a division in Alaska’s Department of Administration, needed to become faster and more agile to provide consolidated e-mail and other enterprise services to state agencies.
Virtualization would be a start toward consolidating infrastructure, Kos knew from past experience. However, he also thought ETS needed to explore other approaches if it really wanted to become a true IT services provider for the state.
Kos checked research from Gartner about unified or "fabric" computing. Unified computing refers to a high-performance system consisting of loosely coupled storage, networking and parallel processing functions, all linked by high-bandwidth. 10-gigabit Ethernet networks.
A hands-on training session with Cisco partner World Wide Technology led ETS to Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS), designed to eliminate redundant devices and layers of management complexity. UCS integrates x86 blade servers, access and storage networking, virtualization and management. UCS has a single management interface that controls thousands of virtual machines.
Alaska's ETS also deployed FlexPod, a combination of the Cisco UCS system, VMware virtualization and NetApp storage devices that are connected through Cisco Unified Fabric as a way to provide secure delivery of IT services to users.
Kos came from a background of commodity based-hardware and “build your own environments.” He was not a fan of blade technology nor of unified computing. But having a system that would eliminate the costs of duplicating hardware, cables and network and storage switches made business sense.
In the area of operations, Kos was also able to bring together network and infrastructure teams, which normally operated separately. “It was funny we ended up aligning our organization where the technology was driving the industry – the unified data center,” Kos said.
ETS has developed a secure multi-tenant cloud that lets agency clients decide what type of involvement they want with their IT organizations. In the past “it was all or nothing” if they came over to ETS, Kos said.
“What we ended up doing with the new platform is to give them varying levels of control,” he said. ETS can fully manage their environment or carve out an environment that they fully manage and ETS will take care of the hardware. Moreover, ETS can handle every variable in between those scenarios, depending on the user’s case.
In the process, ETS’ security posture has been strengthened. Boundaries can be drawn across agency lines. If you’re going to have a secure, multi-tenant platform, Kos noted, you have to show users that there is secure isolation at every level of the technology stack -- at the compute, network, and storage and policy levels
“Historically, we could give you your own virtual LAN, but you’d share some computer or storage,” he added.
The new platform helps ETS adopt more creative approaches to offering services. For instance, secure tenants are not always agencies, sometimes they can be services. ETS is planning a new voice system based on Cisco Call Manager 8.X, designed to be its own secure multi-tenant, Kos said.
“Now that is a service underneath our own department and division, but we separated it out from even our own resources,” he said.
That is the type of mindset the ETS team now has in planning out its tenancy model, which will help strengthen the division’s security posture. Team members spent substantial engineering time earlier in the project to try to think of every single multi-tenant scenario that they could imagine in their efforts, setting up a more secure and agile environment, he added.
The team started its move to unify its data centers in March 2011 and went live with the new platform six months later in September. Three of the 16 departments are using the private cloud based on the unified data center solutions, but all state employees are using it virtually, Kos said, because Microsoft Exchange 2010 e-mail runs on the platform.
Alaska is also undergoing a six-year replacement of the state’s enterprise resource planning system, which is coming off a mainframe system and will run in the private cloud. And Alaska’s security portfolio is undergoing a complete forklift and is also running on the platform, Kos said.
Alaska has three primary data centers, in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, the state capital, for disaster recovery. The Anchorage and Juneau data centers are fundamentally mirrors of each other and the Cisco UCS and FlexPod are deployed in both. Fairbanks has a smaller data center that switches over to Anchorage in a crisis or outage.
Although Alaska is able to leverage the Cisco Wide Area Network to provide unified service delivery, organizations do not necessarily need a Cisco environment to deploy Cisco UCS and FlexPod, Kos said. The unified system can be architected to work in other network vendors' environments, he noted.
Kos is still trying to work out a model to determine what type of return on investment the state is getting from the unified computing system.
There is a cost-savings by not having to deploy additional network switches and servers, Kos noted. However, he doesn’t think that is where the bulk of the savings occur. He noted soft costs that people are trying to pin down such as electricity and cooling savings in the data center.
Being able to set up physical servers just as rapidly as virtual servers is a big advantage, Kos said, adding that the team rapidly set up a physical server recently integrated with thousands of VLANS in the data center.
“There is not a lot of engineering drama,” and that is where some of the savings occur, he noted.
“We have gotten to a point where I am outpacing my projects,” Kos said. In the past, infrastructure determined how quickly a project could move forward. In the case of a recent huge enterprise services deployment, Kos said, “the project had to catch up with us." | <urn:uuid:8e3fabb8-2108-44de-bef4-0efa03f96dfb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gcn.com/articles/2012/08/06/feature-alaska-unified-computing-mainbar.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964062 | 1,494 | 1.648438 | 2 |
|Syria's crackdown on anti-government protests has been widely criticised [AFP]
Syria has officially dropped its bid for a seat on the United Nations' top human right body, in the wake of an intense campaign against the Syrian regime for its ongoing crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising..
Syrian diplomats told a closed meeting of Asian UN members on Wednesday that it agreed to trade candidacies with Kuwait, which was slated to run for the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in 2013.
Bashar al-Assad's government is facing growing international pressure for violently responding to the anti-regime protests that began in March, with the European Union imposing an arms embargo and sanctions on 13 senior regime figures - though not Assad himself - for violence against protesters.
Bashar Jaafari, Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, denied reports that the move was an yield to intense "political" pressure from Asian and Arab nations to withdraw from the May 20 election.
"It is a sovereign decision based on the Syrian government's will to reschedule the timing of our candidacy, based on reconsidering our priorities," Jaafari said on Wednesday.
Jafari described the swap with Kuwait as "a common understanding between the two governments" to exchange candidacies.
"There is no room for any political approaches in the Asian group," he added.
Syria was chosen in January as one of the four candidates, alongside India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, for seats to be filled by Asia under a convention that stipulates UN bodies be filled by regional blocs.
'Writing on the wall'
Human rights groups and some governments have been campaigning to keep Syria off the council.
Their efforts have intensified since Damascus deployed security forces against pro-democracy protesters calling for an end to Assad's 11-year presidency and the Baath Party's decades-long rule.
A British mission spokesman said Syria's withdrawal "is absolutely the right thing to happen."
"We consider it completely inappropriate for a country conducting such violent repression against peaceful protestors to be seeking membership of the Human Rights Council," said the spokesman.
Human Rights Watch, a global rights monitor, welcomed Syria's withdrawal.
"This election had become a referendum on Syria's violent suppression of protests, and Syria withdrew rather than face a resounding defeat," Peggy Hicks, HRW's global advocacy director, said.
Geneva-based UN Watch hailed the news but voiced concern over Kuwait being its replacement.
Kuwait is "far better than Syria, but another non-democracy nevertheless", the group said on Tuesday, in response to rumors of Syria's drop out.
According to the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, over 750 civilians have been killed and around 9,000 people arrested since the crackdown on protests began.
The Syrian government has barred journalists from entering the country to report on the uprising. Dorothy Parvaz, an Al Jazeera journalist, has not been heard from since she arrived in Damascus on April 29. | <urn:uuid:f86f8b47-f0e1-4078-8af5-34743f44c524> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/05/2011510171246332265.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968642 | 608 | 1.75 | 2 |
- Does my research require IRB review?
- Is there an application deadline?
- What is expedited review and does my research qualify?
- How do I sign up for the Mandatory Ethics Training?
- What will the IRB committee look for when reviewing my research proposal?
- What if I need to revise an approved research protocol?
- What should I do if my research study extends for longer than the one-year IRB approval deadline?
- What is informed consent?
- Is there anything I need to report upon completion of my project?
- How long should I keep my research records upon completion of my project?
*Note that throughout the answers provided below you will frequently encounter references to the acronym CFR, which refers to the Code of Federal Regulations. The CFR is published in the Federal Register, a publication of the Federal Government that codifies the general and permanent rules of executive departments and agencies.
All research that includes human research subjects are subject to IRB review. Research is defined as a systematic investigation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. A human subject is defined as a living individual about whom an investigator obtains data through intervention or interaction, or identifiable private information. For more detailed definitions see 45 CFR ş46.102. In short, if your research does not fit the definition of human subject research, then there is no requirement for IRB review. If your investigation does fit the definition of human subject research then it always requires some level of IRB review. The types of review are exempt , expedited, full, or continuing review. For more information on how to apply for IRB review visit the application page.
The IRB committee accepts applications year round. However, applications must be received at least 14 days prior to the next scheduled IRB meeting to be included in the agenda. Also note that the committee does not normally meet during June and July. View list of upcoming meeting dates.
Expedited review is a procedure for certain kinds of research involving (1) no more than minimal risk (2) minor changes in approved research (3) procedures listed in one or more of the categories outlined in the human subjects guidance 63 FR 60364-60367. "No more than minimal risk" means that "the probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater in and of themselves than those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests." Expedited review does not negate or modify the policies of the college or the HHS regulations (i.e. a full application is still required). Expedited review means that one or more experienced members of the IRB (often the chair) can review the study without it being considered at a convened meeting. When conducting expedited review, the chair may exercise the same authority of a full IRB committee except he/she cannot disapprove the research study. The IRB chair makes the determination of whether an application and protocol qualify for expedited review under 45 C.F.R. ş46.110.
Saint Anselm College offers several online ethics training courses through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI), inlcuding the following two courses that are most relevant to the IRB:
- IRB Protection of Human Subjects (required of all individuals conducting research with human subjects)
- Responsible Conduct of Research (required of all individuals with externally funded research)
For information on how to register for either online course download/view the CITI registration guide (Word/33KB).
The objective for the IRB committee when reviewing your human subject research will be to ensure that it is in compliance with federal standards and that it is consistent with the policy and procedures of Saint Anselm College. To that end, there are few specific questions that reviewers will keep in mind when reviewing your research. These same questions are therefore useful for you to consider while writing your research plan:
- Have the risks to subjects been minimized using procedures that are consistent with sound research design?
- Are the risks reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits?
- Is the selection of subjects equitable?
- Are adequate procedures in place to ensure privacy and confidentiality?
- Is there a plan to monitor the data and safety of the subjects, if necessary?
- Will informed consent be sought and appropriately documented? Do proposed alterations or waivers of informed consent meet the criteria for approval?
- Are safeguards in place to protect vulnerable populations?
The IRB must review and approve all amendments to study protocols before the researchers can implement them. Amendments are reviewed the same way a new study is reviewed, that is, by the convened IRB or by expedited review, depending on how the changes affect the protocol. Minor modifications - those changes that are minimal risk and do not significantly alter the risk/benefits balance or other study elements - may be reviewed under the expedited review process. Major modifications, requiring full IRB review, are those that might increase the risk to participants or otherwise represent a substantive change, such as the inclusion of a vulnerable population, or change in treatment. Investigators seeking to amend their research protocol should provide the committee with a written explanation of the proposed changes, including justification as to why the modification is necessary and reasonable given the overall study design.
Continuation of a research study beyond the approval period (12 month maximum) requires submission of a request for continuance to the IRB. It is the investigator's responsibility to submit a status report (Word/143KB), and if appropriate, a request for continuance (PDF/83KB) in a timely manner. Additional information on continuing review can be found at the DHHS website.
It is federal policy that no investigator may involve a human being as a subject in research unless the investigator has obtained the legally effective informed consent of the subject or the subject's legally authorized representative. See CFR §46.116 for general requirements for informed consent and a list of basic elements that are included in standard informed consent forms, and CFR §46.117 for directions on the documentation of informed consent. Please note that recruitment of subjects is part of the consent process because it begins the disclosure process. All recruitment strategies such as fliers, e-mail messages, newspaper ads, phone calls, and so on must be reviewed by an IRB before they are used.
Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is granted for one year or the completion date of the project. Upon completion of a project investigators must submit a brief summary report of 1-2 paragraphs that includes the following:
- Date of completion
- Short narrative description of research activity
- Number of human subjects that took part in your study
- Description of any reported or adverse effects to human subjects
Investigators are responsible for retaining signed consent documents, IRB correspondences, and research records for at least 3 years after the completion of the research activity. Additional requirements must be met for FDA-regulated studies as specified in 21 CFR Part 312.62 (c) (PDF). | <urn:uuid:f450b1bc-51b3-4e41-aa13-2242a6163504> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anselm.edu/Faculty-and-Staff/Faculty-Resources/Institutional-Review-Board/Frequently-Asked-Questions.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930389 | 1,433 | 1.539063 | 2 |
I remember asking this question to my friends. Now Sharpe answers this in his superb interview with AFA:
Q. Continuing with our CAPM trivia quiz, over the years some of my students have wondered if the C and A are redundant. I told them it wouldn’t have made nearly as nice of a title if we called it the AP-M. We need the C in there. (Laugh) But what inspired you to call it “Capital Asset Pricing”, and did you mean to communicate anything other than just asset pricing?
A. That’s an interesting question. I don’t know the answer. I wasn’t thinking about acronyms. I think I was trying to connote the fact that we are talking about assets in capital markets. Whereas with assets, perhaps I was thinking, you would think of cars and trucks.
Q. So traded assets?
A. Yes Securities, perhaps.
So, that is how we have the name- CAPM, one of the most profound ideas of portfolio theory.
Sharpe has a super sense of humor as well (though Avinash Dixit takes the cake when it comes to humor):
Q. Well, I am glad that you [settled on capital assets]… because the buzz word is, CAP-M. With securities, it would be SAP-M, or something. A. Yes, or SPAM, I’m not sure what it would have been.
This is a superb interview form the great mind. It tells you how the main idea came into being (Markowitz got it from a broker), how difficult it was to get the main ideas in finance across to economists, etc.
Highly recommended reading. | <urn:uuid:7bd2176d-b06e-48fd-a40d-06d9bfa58505> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9787 | 363 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Householders in the villages of western Serbia were the first to invite tourists into their homes as guests. From Šabac and Tršić to the Mionica and Užice areas, from Povlen and Zlatibor to Tara and Šargan, from Zlatar and Ivanjica to Kamena Gora and Jabuka and mountains rich in coniferous forests and streams, many a village household catering to tourists can be found. This region is also home to special ethnic parks such as Sirogojno and Drvengrad.
Houses are built from classic materials, most commonly wood, on stone foundations, and the architecture is interesting and striking. The interior exudes warmth, sometimes from the fireplace, sometimes from its simplicity or from its woollen or ceramic handicrafts. That is why you feel as if someone close to you has invited you into their home for a while so you can freshen up, recharge your batteries and strengthen yourself to take on life.
The famous Drina Regatta, held at the end of July, is a special gathering of over 5,000 people who float down the river on wooden rafts to the sound of brass bands. Every January the village of Mačkat, located halfway between Užice and Zlatibor, holds the Pršutijada – a festival dedicated to smoked-ham products, which have been prepared the same traditional way for centuries.
The mediaeval Mileševa monastery, located near Prijepolje, is known the world over for its fresco of the White Angel and riding a train on the Šargan Eight (Šarganska Osmica), an old, winding narrow gauge railway in Mokra Gora, is not to be missed by tourists. | <urn:uuid:0a4fd5a7-5530-42a5-b326-9cef9f2dd9c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.serbia-visit.com/en/places-to-go/regions/western-serbia.html | 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 | 0.974735 | 371 | 1.742188 | 2 |
MOSCOW, March 1 (UPI) -- France and Russia, despite their differences, want "the preservation of Syria as single democratic state," Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
French President Francois Hollande met with Putin Thursday in Russia, discussing, among other things, the situation in Syria, which is approaching the 2-year mark in its civil war that began as protests against President Bashar Assad.
"Despite current nuances in the positions of Russia and France, we stand for the preservation of Syria as a single democratic state and we have a lot in common in our principles, in assessing this situation," Putin said during a news conference after the meeting.
France favors a Syria without Assad but Russia insists that only the Syrians should decide their destiny.
Putin also warned against "international terrorists" who are exploiting the Syrian conflict, Voice of Russia reported.
"It is unacceptable for radical groups and international terrorists to exploit the Syrian tragedy for their own ends," Putin said.
Both leaders said economic cooperation between the countries has been enhanced with joint ventures and cooperative arrangements that emphasize innovation and high technology.
Putin said Russia backs France's efforts to restore constitutional order in Mali, Voice of Russia said. France has supplied ground and air support to government troops in the fight against Islamic militants, who claimed the northern portion of the former French colony and has pressed south.
"We back the efforts taken by France to restore constitutional and democratic order in the country," Putin said.
|Additional World News Stories|
LOS ANGELES, June 18 (UPI) --Danielle Bradbery was declared the Season 4 winner of the singing competition series "The Voice" in Los Angeles Tuesday night.
REYKJAVIK, Iceland, June 19 (UPI) --Iceland's new prime minister this week cited the country's mackerel fishing dispute with the European Union as a prime example of the value of sovereignty. | <urn:uuid:0d52b1cc-f5f6-40f4-b97f-2904c54d273a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/03/01/France-Russia-discuss-Syria-Mali/UPI-52511362167697/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969325 | 387 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Equity Valuation Class: Approaches to Valuation
I hope everyone who has signed up for the study group received my email yesterday. I discuss some of the logistics of our study group in that email. Please contact me if you didn’t get the message.
We are now on session two of Equity Instruments. The lecture starts off by following the Introduction to Valuation presentation slides. This session start with slide 4 on “Misconceptions about Valuation”.
Bias in equity valuation is the first topic covered. Professor Damodaran lays out two scenarios. First, an investment banker in a friendly merger will be tempted to raise their valuation to justify the price being offered in a merger. They might change the growth rate higher, lower the discount rate, improve margins, increase cash flows, reduce reinvestment, and add an arbitrary control premium. As a user of equity valuations, you need to ask the right questions.
The second scenario is a private business owner asking for a valuation for estate tax purposes. The bias will be to lower the price for appraisal valuations. They apply discounts for liquidity, etc.
Key questions to ask about a valuation:
- Who is doing the valuation?
- What are the potential biases?
Remember: Don’t lie to yourself in your valuations!
Professor Damodaran makes a good point about the main misconception about valuation. That is if I do valuation right, I will get the right answer. However, we just don’t know what the right answer is. If you cannot handle this kind of uncertainty, don’t get into stocks.
Damodaran also notes that the payoff is often best for equities you are most uncomfortable valuing. I don’t agree that we should always try to value the incredibly uncertain situations with some businesses. I remember a Buffett quote, “If I was teaching a course in business school, I’d ask the students to value an Internet company for the final. Anyone who turns in any number for valuation, will fail the class.” I share Buffett’s feelings on valuing highly uncertain businesses. I think Damodaran pushes a techniques a bit too far in their ability to value highly uncertain situations.
I laughed when I heard, “If I make my model bigger, it will get better.” This is another misconception about valuation that Damodaran points out. I think we should be all leary of complex valuation models. Two things result from overly complex models:
- Input fatigue – You end up inputting a random number after input number twelve according to Damodaran. (Hehe.) With more details, your assumptions end up hiding in all the information.
- The model becomes a black box – You have no idea what makes the model work. If you ever read, “The model valued the company at $x,” watch out. This likely means the analyst doesn’t know how it works and/or doesn’t believe in the results of the model. The professor doesn’t ever want to hear us say the Damodaran spreadsheet came up with it.
Don’t try to value cash! Don’t estimate items you can simply measure the value.
Only new concept in valuation in recent time is real option model valuation. The rest, discounted cash flows and relative valuation, have always been around.
Discounted Cash Flow Valuation
I think the professor made a good point in reminding us that every valuation approach assumes markets make mistakes. What are we trying to do with discounted cash flow valuation? We are trying to estimate the intrinsic value or “true” value of an asset.
- We need to assume that markets make mistakes.
- We need to assume you can find the mistakes using your discounted cash flow model.
Here’s the unfair part of investing based on valuation; you can do everything right and go bankrupt. The market can be wrong longer than you can wait. This is why long term investing is so important.
The biggest advantage of discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation is that the valuation is disconnected from the market. If you are valuing businesses like Buffett according to Damodaran, then discounted cash flow valuation is tailor made for you. You are forced to understand how businesses work. However, those advantages are also the disadvantages of DCF valuation. Yikes!
An important point is that the whole market could end up looking overvalued with DCF. We need to remember that investing is like a no strikes called baseball game. We don’t have to invest in stocks when the market is overvalued. I actually try to wait for the fat pitches before I take any big swings at a stock.
Another disadvantage is that it takes a lot more time and resources to do discounted cash flows valuations versus relative valuation. However, I believe the advantages of DCF outweigh the additional costs of time and resources if you truly want to outperform the market.
With relative valuation, you value an asset based on how similar assets are priced. Most valuations are relative valuations. There are three main information needs for relative valuation:
- Set of comperable assets
- Standardized prices – multiples
- Variables to control for differences
With relative valuation, you think on average markets are efficient, but on occassion prices are mispriced and stick out. It assumes mispricing assets are relatively rare.
It is not surprising that relative valuation is used if you as an analyst are judged on your relative performance versus absolute performance. You see this with all the mutual and even hedge fund managers. However, since I work for myself, I am only concerned about absolute performance. I try to avoid using relative valuation.
What if all of the stocks are expensive? With relative valuations, you’ll end up just buying the cheaper of overvalued assets. You can’t expect to make money in these type of situations. You just hope to loose less than the market.
Another danager the professor indicates is that you tend to make implicit assumptions with relative valuations that you might not realize. I didn’t quite follow this point, so I’d be interested to hear your take on what this actually means.
Relative valuation works best when the comparable assets are similar. It is very challenging with stocks, since they are never really that similar to each other.
What approach would work for you?
- Discounted cash flow valuation or
- Relative valuation
List your choice in the comments section now and then we will revisit this question in the last session again to see if your position has changed at all.
Also know as contingent valuation. You can use option price model for stocks when these three following features line up:
- There is an underlying asset which has value.
- The payoff on the option occurs only if the value of the underlying asset is greater than the excercise price.
- There is a fixed life
Examples include a patent held by a biotech company, unexploited reserves held by a natural resource company and Delta Airlines stock. With Delta Airlines stock, there is the hope that something good will happen. 95% of the time, nothing good happens.
Options valuation is the fall back position for convential valuation. Things get flipped around in option valuation. As risk increases, options become more valuable. Weird!
Option valuation can get you into trouble if you are not careful. The inputs are difficult to get for real options.
Discounted Cashflow Valuation
After this introduction to valuation, Professor Damodaran moves to the Discounted Cashflows Valuation presentation. He discusses the equation that drives discounted cash flows valuation.
Cash flows have to be positive in some point in time for DCF. Valuation can be for the whole business or just the equity of the business. Dividend discount model is the most strict cash flows to equity valuation model.
What debt to subtract out to get from the value of the firm to the value of the equity? That’s a great question that I have often had. The debt you use in your cost of capital is a starting point.
The professor uses the example of Merck (MRK). For a discounted cashflows to firm valuation you should really subtract out cost of the contingent liability for the Vioxx litigation. The liability makes equity less valuable.
The weekly challenge is to value the same company twice; once a discounted cashflow to the firm and then to equity? We should be able to value of equity the same with both methods. The professor asks, “What are the asumptions that make the valuations converge?” You should try to figure this out and discuss it in the comments section below.
Full Disclosure: I own shares of Merck. | <urn:uuid:849598a9-b938-4f10-b631-67c48d1852e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fatpitchfinancials.com/560/equity-valuation-class-approaches-to-valuation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935606 | 1,817 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Other than, “I’m John Edwards,” nothing says, "I will never be president of the United States” like “Hey, I just became a citizen of Switzerland.”
All I know about Switzerland is that it is hard to invade, they are partial to small marshmallows, and sometimes when you least expect it, singing families led by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer come strolling over the Alps.
It is neutral. It is a country of good watchmakers. It has a flag that sometimes attracts confused people wanting to donate blood.
And for a strange few weeks, Michele Bachmann was a citizen.
Anyone with half a head for politics or the slightest affinity for American flag lapel pins could tell you that this was not the kind of idea that can be strictly described as “good PR.” At least, not if you like to wander around insisting that America Is The Best and Only Hope of the World.
Become Swiss? Switzerland is one of those terrifying European Union countries that looms as a horrible future whenever any reform is attempted. They even speak French there. Socialistes! Mitt Romney got in trouble about Switzerland — and all he did was let some of his money visit.
Here’s a diagram, for future reference.
If her short-lived stint as a Swiss citizen proved anything, though, it’s that if Switzerland generally tends to be neutral, it doesn’t inspire neutrality in others.
So now, like various armies over the centuries, she’s withdrawing from Switzerland with the conviction that this was probably a bad idea.
But it may be too late.
“It’s a career-ender!” everyone proclaimed. “She’ll never be president now! Her career is full of holes! And tastes good melted on ham!” Well, not quite like that, but you get the general idea. “It’s political bigamy!” “It’s an insult to both countries!”
We are like the husband who insists that his wife is more beautiful than any other woman in the world. “So you’ve been looking at other women for comparison purposes, have you?” America shoots back. The most convincing comparisons are made by those who have never looked.
Aspiring to be a citizen of the world is one thing. Actually doing it — that’s something else. It’s not that we are suspicious of people who are cosmopolitan. People who still order them in restaurants, yes. For the love of Pete, “Sex and the City” was a decade ago!
But it is not exactly that we are xenophobic so much as that we are absolutely certain America is better than anywhere else on earth. As Mel Brooks put it, “We traveled in a big truck through the nation of France on our way to Belgium, and every time we passed through a little town, we'd see these signs - ‘Boulangerie’, ‘Patisserie’, and ‘Rue’ this, and ‘Rue’ that, and rue the day you came here, young man. When we got to our hundred and eightieth French village, I screamed at the top of my lungs, ‘The joke is over! English, PLEASE!’ I couldn’t believe that a whole country couldn’t speak English. One third of a nation, all right, but not a whole country.” As a general rule, the less we travel, the stronger this conviction of America’s absolute superiority to all other places on earth becomes.
We still have the idea that, no matter where in the world we are, if we just speak English to you loudly enough you will understand. We don’t object to foreign countries. But any American who would choose to become a foreigner seems a little fishy in our book. Even Michele Bachmann. | <urn:uuid:e1cb6659-7157-4c05-878d-acef04639eac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/post/michele-bachmanns-swiss-misstep/2012/05/11/gIQAQKtyIU_blog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964847 | 834 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Lessons From General Motors Fall from the TopBy Lawrence Walsh | Posted 2008-01-23 Email Print
Failure to innovate will cost companies more than just revenue. It has the potential of permanently surrendering market share and perception in consumers
The news today is grim on several fronts, as recession fears continue to grip world markets. If plunging markets and an economic slowdown weren’t bad enough, it became official that General Motors is no longer the world’s largest auto manufacturer. While it hasn’t lost the title entirely, its new sales data shows it’s in a dead heat with Toyota. Odds are, as many industry analysts have predicted over the past several years, Toyota will overtake GM and retain the new leadership mantle with ease.
At the same time, Apple’s financial data shows iPod sales slowed. While the company famous for its Mac computers and the iPhone sold more of the personal music players in the last quarter than ever before, the increase in year-over-year sales slow to its lowest point since the gadget was introduced five years ago.
Part of what’s behind the rise—and fall—of these giants is innovation and the failure to keep innovating.
GM built its business on a tried-and-true model of fixed obsolescence. Like most carmakers, GM’s cars and trucks have an average lifespan of about five years (coincidentally, the same time as most car loans). Each year, it releases new models with modified designs, features and performance standards. The idea is to entice people to churn their cars in favor of more stylish vehicles with new, previously unavailable features.
Guess what? We saw the same thing with the iPod. The iPod Apple sold over the holidays is hardly the same as the brick it introduced in 2002. For roughly $200, you could get a new 8 GB iPod Nano with a solid-state hard drive, color screen, video capabilities and a host of new features like games and whiz-bang graphics that were previously unavailable. Sitting alongside the Nano on the store shelf was the “classic” iPod. For just $150 more, you could get 80 GB of memory and video, but it’s also three times the size and has none of the new features.
For the same money as the Nano and $100 less than the iTouch (basically a iPhone sans phone), gadget buyers could get a Microsoft Zune. Larger than a Nano and with a screen even larger than the Classic, Zune outsold iPod for the first time over the holidays. This leap happened because the iPod started pushing market saturation and its competitors finally started offering products that either rival or exceed the iPod’s novelty.
Same thing happened with GM, Ford and Chrysler. They believed consumers would continue to accept multiple brands with lackluster performance and features, and homogenized designs because they owned the market. Their failure to recognize that better quality, performance and features would allow foreign competitors to undermine their market was one of their biggest mistakes.
Despite critics’ praise for the quality and design of GM’s 2008 line, consumers don’t care. The carmakers reputation is so sullied by countless gaffes of the past that it’s difficult to turn around poor perceptions. The primary factor keeping GM in the game is deep discounts and incentives.
Microsoft faced a similar problem in 2001 following a devastating string of malware outbreaks that compromised tens of millions of networks and machines around the world. In response, it launched its Trustworthy Computing Initiative to clean up its source code and improve the security of its products. Six years later, Microsoft’s security has improved—although there are still plenty of problems and vulnerabilities—but it still battles the perception of having poor security.
No one is saying the iPod is dead or dying, but it may have peaked. So it’s no surprise that Apple is pushing into new markets—the iPhone, on-demand video rentals, Apple TV and, surprisingly, personal computers.
GM and other American carmakers are leveraging new technology—voice-activated audio systems, new safety features, alternative fuels—to revive their lines. While some of this is innovative, it’s difficult to predict if it will have an impact on shoring up eroding marketshare.
The lesson for all businesses is that innovation is a continual process and complacency is the enemy of success. Innovation should do more than just create the next neat gadget, but examine demand trends and anticipate market desires to stay ahead of competition and protect eroding bases. If a company reaches the maximum potential of its product innovation, it should look to other industries and products for greener pastures. | <urn:uuid:3db7d54b-cfea-4cf8-9d34-dccb38525a2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/IT-Management/Lessons-From-General-Motors-Fall-from-the-Top/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952282 | 967 | 1.648438 | 2 |
At a Glance
Ridley Scott's sci-fi movie Alien was tight and terrifying, set in a claustrophobic spaceship where death awaited around every corner. In contrast, Aliens, the sequel, eschewed the horror conventions of the first film and shifted the series’ genre to a more sci-fi action/adventure feel.
More than one critic has noticed the similarities between the original Alien film and Half-Life , Valve’s 1998 sci-fi first person shooter about a theoretical physics experiment gone awry in a secret research facility and a lone physicist’s attempts to escape the facility despite an alien invasion and the attempts by the government to cover it up. Half-Life was widely praised at the time and has since gone to influence countless game developers.
Yet, while Half-Life 2 has many familiar trappings from its predecessor (the silent protagonist, the hazardous environment suit, familiar physicists from the Black Mesa Facility, and even the iconic crowbar), the genre has shifted from survival horror to action adventure. Simply, what Aliens was to Alien, Half-Life 2 is to Half-Life. It’s a great game, but the environments and atmosphere shift from the claustrophobic and doomed science facility to a wide-open (but equally doomed) dystopic future now run by the aliens that invaded in the first game. The Combine, an alien force that crossed into our world due to the “resonance cascade” in Half-Life, has taken over the world in Half-Life 2. Dr. Breen, the previously unseen Administrator of Black Mesa, is now the puppet ruler of the world.
Half-Life 2’s grim future resembles something out of The White Mountains trilogy or 1984. Instead of a survivalist, Gordon Freeman is now a freedom fighter and a symbol of hope to humanity—perhaps the only truly “Free Man” left. When you first enter the world of Half-Life 2, you watch as the gas-mask wearing Combine police herd humans like cattle while Dr. Breen prattles on the TV screen about how “our benefactors” are only protecting us from ourselves. And that is why they won’t let humanity breed. Seriously. In this dystopic future, humans can’t breed. Something, clearly, needs to be done.
The entire opening sequence is beautifully written and immediately gives you a sense of the world—after being rescued from detention by your old friend Barney, you are immediately hunted by the Combine, traversing rooftops and stumbling into apartment buildings full of frightened subjugated humans in a desperate attempt to escape. You’re unarmed, scared, and have no idea where you’re going. It’s one of the more intense sequences in gaming you’ll experience.
After blacking out, you’re rescued by Alyx, daughter of one of Gordon’s coworkers at Black Mesa. She becomes a trusted ally (and in the episodes that continue the story) demonstrates one of the best AI’s you’ll ever see. Lethal with a pistol, she is no damsel in distress.
The game then introduces (or reintroduces) you to a variety of scientists and personnel that make up the human resistance against the alien force. Your missions will usually follow a predictable pattern: get to point A or B to rescue or meet up with person X. Occasionally scripted sequences move the plot along or let you do something cool (like gun down an enemy gunship) but the amount time spent traveling and sheer distance can get grating. We appreciate that Valve took the time to give us vehicles like airboats and dune buggies, but shouldn’t we be grabbing a gun and trying to take down the evil alien force inhabiting the world?
Instead of a wrecked science facility and its surrounding badlands, you’ll traverse varied environments including the zombie-invested Ravenholm, Urban City 17, and the coastal Nova Prospekt prison. They’re all incredibly bleak, whether you’re in a haunted Germanic cemetary or taking a dune buggy along the beach, there’s a sense that the earth is a dying world. You also grow increasingly frustrated by the events that take you further and further from what you really want to do: shoot that lecturing jerk Dr. Breen and save the world.
But before you have an opportunity to storm the Citadel, you’ll have to save a bunch of people (sometimes more than once) and raise the morale of your fellow humans. The game is worthy of the epic Half-Life name and is ambitious in its scale and breath. Not only are the environments varied, but the game goes through so many genre shifts and mechanic shakeups that it’s hard to judge the game as a whole, but rather each individual level. The game starts off with you trying to survive, constantly on the run. Later, you’ll use more conventional run and gun tactics to break through zombie-infested areas. You’ll also have several tedious vehicle segments, some puzzle solving, and eventually employ squad-based tactics to lead a team of resistance fighters. You never can say Valve lacks ambition.
Not all of the shifts in genre and formula work. There’s more than one seesaw-based physics puzzle and they usually come in segments you want to run through quickly. Similarly, I spent too much time in mine shafts, dune buggies, or boats. For a creative team as talented as Valve, it’s disappointing that they couldn’t have focused their talents more on level design— having levels that play like different games of varying quality make Half-Life 2 seem bloated and scattershot. Most of what Valve throws at the wall sticks, but the lack of continuity hurts their grand vision.
Take the weapons, for example. To combat the Combine soldiers, head-crab zombies, and aliens you’ll encounter, you have a pretty standard arsenal of weapons with two notable exceptions. In addition to your trademark crowbar, you have pistols, futuristic rifles, grenades, and a rocket launcher at your disposal. You’ll also have access to an anachronistic crossbow that serves a similar function as a sniper rifle. It seems way out of place in the Half-Life universe and is rarely used; at one point you fight enemy soldiers that have actual sniper rifles (that you never get can access to) which leads to the question: why not just give us one of those?
Yet while the crossbow is a creative addition to your arsenal that doesn't work, the gravity gun is an uncoventional weapon that is essential. Obtained fairly early in the game, the gravity gun completely changes how you interact with the environment. A click of your mouse and you can draw an object to you and another click sends it flying across the room. It’s a useful tool for getting hard to reach items, but it also makes anything you pick up a weapon. The Ravenholm level, full of saw blades, becomes a gleeful exercise in eviscerating zombies thanks to the gravity gun. While the crowbar will always be a symbol of the Half-Life series, Half-Life 2 will forever be remembered for its groundbreaking introduction of the gravity gun.
But Valve doesn't do the best job of giving you a sandbox to test your new toy. The gravity gun is initially extremely useful and then gets put on the backburner in areas where there’s nothing to grab. It once again becomes essential in the final stages, but the game’s strange pacing and schizoid level-design makes for an up and down experience. Some levels you want to play again and again and others you never want to ever get back to. As classic as HL2 is, not every level is equally fun to play.
I first played Half-Life 2 when it came out for the PC six years ago. It’s a credit to Valve that Half-Life 2 still looks fantastic on my Core i7 iMac. There are some long load times between maps and the frames per second aren’t as high as I’d like them, but on the whole the playing experience wasn’t too dissimilar from my initial run through years ago. I did notice some slight detail loss with certain animations, especially in the beach levels, but I'm nitpicking here.
Macworld’s buying advice
Depending on your perspective, Half-Life 2 is either the most epic and ambitious title Valve has ever done, or the most bloated and unfocused. But even with its missteps, there’s a reason why Half-Life 2 appears on virtually every “best games of all time” list. It pushes the FPS genre in new and ambitious directions—the gravity gun, the physics engine, the visuals, the story, the AI, are all innovations that would carry other games. But with Valve, they’re just part of a laundry list of things they got right. Half-Life 2 is simply one of those games that can be held up as art, as something that is smarter than Halo or Gears of War while still being engrossing to play and fun to explore. If you have Steam on your Mac, you simply need to experience this colossus of game development.
[Chris Holt is a Macworld associate editor.] | <urn:uuid:96bceea3-8023-453f-bfc6-a6a3ad654881> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macworld.com/article/1149951/halflife2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945304 | 1,948 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Study Objective: To determine the effect of supplemental oxygen on Cheyne-Stokes respiration, nocturnal oxygen saturation (SaO2), and sleep in male patients with severe, stable congestive heart failure.
Design: Randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study.
Setting: Patients referred from outpatient cardiology clinics of two teaching hospitals.
Patients: Sequential sample of nine outpatients with severe, stable congestive heart failure.
Interventions: For each patient, sleep studies (after an adaptation night) from two consecutive randomized nights were compared; one study was done while the patient breathed compressed air and the other while the patient breathed oxygen (O2). Compressed air and oxygen were both administered through nasal cannulae at 2 to 3 L/min.
Measurements and Main Results: Cheyne-Stokes respiration, defined as periodic breathing with apnea or hypopnea, was found in all patients. Low-flow oxygen significantly reduced the duration of Cheyne-Stokes respiration (50.7% ± 12.0% to 24.2% ± 5.4% total sleep time), mainly during stage 1 NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep (21.3% ± 7.1% to 6.7% ± 2.3% total sleep time) with no significant change during stage 2 sleep, slow-wave sleep, or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Although patients had normal SaO2 (96.0% ± 1.7%) while awake, severe sleep hypoxemia was common; breathing oxygen reduced the amount of time that SaO2 was less than 90% from 22.3% ± 8.0% to 2.41% ± 1.93% of total sleep time. Sleep, disrupted to a variable extent in all patients, improved with oxygen therapy: There was an increase in total sleep time from 275.3 min ± 36.6 to 324.6 min ± 23.3; a reduction in the proportion of stage 1 sleep (27.6% ± 5.8% total sleep time to 15.2% ± 2.6% total sleep time); and a reduction in the number of arousals (30.4/h ± 8.0 to 13.8/h ± 1.9). The apnea-hypopnea index was reduced from 30.0 ± 4.7 to 18.9 ± 2.4 with oxygen breathing.
Conclusions: In severe, stable congestive heart failure, nocturnal oxygen therapy reduces Cheyne-Stokes respiration, corrects hypoxemia, and consolidates sleep by reducing arousals caused by the hyperpneic phase of Cheyne-Stokes respiration. Correction of nocturnal hypoxemia and sleep disruption may improve the clinical status of these patients. | <urn:uuid:6a73d1af-8b7a-4ec7-a382-01d18132db3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=703499 | 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 | 0.931612 | 584 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Pause for thought. Nothing I say this day will teach me anything, so if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening. Larry King
A 3.5 day workshop.
The Individual Development Programme is designed to enhance performance by developing personal and business skills. The Programme reviews and evaluates participants against a number of business competencies – these can be your own company values, or generic competencies developed by us.
The Programme is designed to take participants outside of their normal boundaries, challenging them to use and develop their skills. They will have the opportunity to develop and practise skills and also to review the activities as a group.
Integral to the Programme is self analysis – participants determining where they see their strengths, how they see themselves performing in areas such as planning, organising, influencing and teamwork, and how they rate themselves against these competencies.
Participants are set experiential tasks involving a number of disciplines. The tasks are observed by an observation team comprising trainers and coaches. The coaches can be provided by us or your company and there are a number of benefits to providing in-company coaches including:
Participants receive advice on their leadership development from experienced managers in their own company
The coaches themselves gain insight and knowledge from the Programme Participants learn about themselves and their impact on others.
The role of the participant is to focus on their own Programme objectives, learn how to be more effective, take the opportunity to take risks, try new things and to give and receive feedback.
To analyse personal impact and effectiveness | <urn:uuid:420b64c7-9cab-4d52-a232-2e1f67c6a237> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mrtgroup.co.uk/pages/interpersonal-training/personal-development-programme | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967221 | 312 | 1.671875 | 2 |
|Editing:||Please feel free to edit constructively!|
"Our tentacles cross time and space, we all travel to the Great Eye at center, and once there then all shall see true."
Om see things beyond normal mortal eyes. Though lacking mouth and thus "taste", Om are given other senses impossible to explain to those stuck in this frame. Because this unique perspective, Om possess a unique connection and viewpoint, many come off as distant or out of touch mystics. However, this is more an effect of their actual physical place than their moods. As an Om would tell you, Oms vary in range, emotion, and motive as much as humanity.
The Om are most mysterious. Outwardly they seem to be giant octopi, possessing eight tentacles, thick rubbery hide, and a single large eye in the center of their body. Their colors vary like a rainbow, and they move by slowly ambulating on their tentacles (and later, through psionic flight). However, they lack many parts of living beings, including a mouth. In fact, an Om consumes not food, but psionic energies through their eye, and it is processed in ways beyond comprehension. They breath through a series of gill slots in the back of their "head", and this is the only aperture they possess.
By the Oms account, while they are not offended by the octopus comparison, they are puzzled at "the lack of sensory organs to see the Oms rest". To Oms, their physical forms is only a small part of a bigger truth. Also aiding in the idea that Oms are extradimensional creatures comes into play on the subject of reproduction. A rare event, and one poorly described by the non-talkative Om, it is known as children will seem to "bloom" into existence out of thin air 7 months nearby the parents, an activity the Om refer to as their children "finding the surface". On that subject, it's uncertain if Oms possess gender, the Oms aren't telling.
Because the Om seem distant, they tend to be peaceful with all they encounter, good or evil. Their pacifism sometimes gets them in trouble. When it is impossible for them to make peace, or simply be unbothered, they become devious schemers, preferring less open warfare and more slow, complicated downfalls through intricate plots that would give the greatest schemers headaches to think of.
Many Oms come off as neutral, if only because of their passive natures, but in truth an Om can be of any alignment easily.
Om are not of this world, they come from a strange distant sphere hidden in the depths of the astral sea. The world is hard to find... some say it is hidden under a constant psychic storm, others say that the storms move it around at strange times. The only certain thing is that the psychic storms are indeed related to them in some unknown fashion, and may be responsible for their creation.
The Om are not terribly religious, though they have the mindset for it. However, they tend to see gods as part of a larger whole, and do not devote themselves often, devoting themselves more to "the cause of good", "the concept of entropy", and other vague, broad terms.
The Om speak in a telepathic language which when "heard" by other come off as the sensation of colors and strange echoes, called Om. They also speak Common when found on the material plane. Their limited telepathy does not allow them to bypass language barriers, but does bypass a silence field. They can also do extremely limited vocalization by vibrating their gills, producing a buzzing noise, which substitutes vocal components in casting.
The Om have a true Om name which cannot be translated into common, and a common name which is generally given to them by others, if the Om happens to like the sound of it or it possesses special meaning. They tend to vowels, and names which can be "sung" well.
- -2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom: Oms see beyond mortal eyes, yet their bodies are clumsy on land.
- Aberration (Extraplanar, Psionic): Oms hail from the distant Astral Plane and their minds exist even deeper than that.
- Medium: As medium-sized creatures, Om have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Om base land speed is 20 feet: As an Om grows, it gains greater mobility however, see Psionic Flight below.
- Oms gain a +2 on Concentration, and Psicraft (or Spellcraft) checks. They may also use Autohypnosis untrained.
- Oms gain +4 to grapple checks due to their unique forms.
- Mouthless: Oms need to sleep and breathe, but do not eat. Whatever extradimensional biology they possess, it provides for them in psionic essence.
- Naturally Psionic: Oms gain 2 bonus power points at 1st level. This benefit does not grant them the ability to manifest powers unless they gain that ability through another source, such as levels in a psionic class.
- Psionic Flight (Su): An Om is unable to move well in the known world, but as they grow they begin to gain mobility. At 3 HD an Om may hover (poor) at will. At 6 HD this improves to hover (average), at 9 HD it becomes a fly speed of 20 ft. (good). At 12 HD this becomes 30 ft. At 15 HD it becomes 40 ft., and 18 HD 50 ft. before it stops improving. It's hover ability remains once it gains a fly speed, with the same maneuverability as flight.
- Inhuman Form: An Om cannot wear armors meant for a humanoid, and armor specially made for an Om cost twice as much as normal armor. An Om may also possess four ring slots (rings), two pairs of arm slots (bracers) and two pairs of feet slots (boots) but lacks a torso slot (vests), hand slots (gloves), and head slot (hats) as their bodies simply do not allow for it.
- Multiple Limbs: Oms possess eight tentacles. However, not all are able to be used for attacks, as four tentacles are used for mobility (walking on the ground or "swimming" in the air), leaving four to attack with. Which arms are being used for what at a time does not matter, so much as only four tentacles being accessible for function at a time. The tentacles are sticky and strong and may wield weapons as needed.
- Natural Weapons: Four primary tentacles (1d4 plus Strength).
- Limited Telepathy (Su): An Om may speak telepathically to any creature in "earshot" as if it possessed a mouth. The telepathy can bypass a Silence spell but not an Antimagic Field, and is not quiet. Just like regular speaking it is broadcast to anyone with a mind and in range. Spells with vocal components still must be cast as normal, using their gills to simulate speech.
- Automatic Languages: Common, Om. Bonus Languages:
- Favored Class: Psion.
- Level Adjustment: +1
- Automatic Languages: Common, Om.
- Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Celestial, Infernal, Auran, Aquan, Terran, Ignan, Beholder.
- Favored Class: Psion
- Level Adjustment: +Level Adjustment::1
- Effective Character Level: Effective Character Level::2
|Middle Age1||Old2||Venerable3||Maximum Age|
|64 years||128 years||256 years||+3d20 years|
|Gender||Base Height||Height Modifier||Base Weight||Weight Modifier|
|Unknown||4' 6"||+3d6||100 lb.||× (1d6) lb.| | <urn:uuid:0b7420fd-f0a3-47f8-8eaf-bde46fb5328a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Oms_(3.5e_Race)?oldid=66108 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939309 | 1,635 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Section 265: Overseas property business
1055.This section defines “overseas property business”. It is based on section 65A of ICTA.
1056.The definition is identical to that of “UK property business” except that the land from which the income arises is outside the United Kingdom. That is the only difference between a UK and an overseas property business: income from land outside the United Kingdom can arise only in an overseas property business; income from land in the United Kingdom can arise only in a UK property business.
1057.For the purpose of deciding whether there is an overseas property business, overseas land law is interpreted in accordance with section 363.
1058.The priority rules in the trading income Part of this Act (section 4) make it clear that a charge under Part 3 of this Act as United Kingdom property income has priority over a charge under Part 2 as trading income. This reflects the rule in Schedule D Case I (section 18(3) of ICTA). The sort of receipt to which this rule might apply is rent received by a property developer from the temporary letting of land awaiting development. The rent is taxed as property income, even if it could properly be regarded as a trade receipt.
1059.In the case of a foreign trade and foreign property, the rule in section 65A(1)(b) of ICTA is the reverse of that in section 18(3) of ICTA. An overseas property business does not include “income to which section 65(3) of ICTA applies (income immediately derived from carrying on a trade …)”. So the priority rule in section 261 preserves this position. | <urn:uuid:66cfc5dc-4b37-48d9-ba68-eb24a4634b69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/5/notes/division/5/3/3/3?view=plain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948865 | 350 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Reading a new article in the July 2011 Journal of Financial Planning, “A Safer Safe Withdrawal Rate Using Various Return Distributions” by Manoj Athavale and Joseph M. Goebel, has me thinking about low sustainable withdrawal rates.
The popular rule of thumb in the United States is that a 4% initial withdrawal rate from your assets at retirement, with this amount adjusted for inflation in subsequent years, will allow for at least 30 years of withdrawals with a stock allocation in the range of 50 to 75 percent.
Athavale and Goebel suggest that 2.52% is a better approximation for a safe withdrawal rate.
Despite not having happened yet in the United States, such a low sustainable withdrawal rate does resonate as a possibility with me. As I explained in Pfau (2010), the United States enjoyed a remarkable 20th century for asset returns, and things didn’t go nearly as well in other developed countries.
I will now talk about results which I had to cut from the paper because of space constraints. In the years since 1926 and for a 50/50 asset allocation, the 4% rule would have failed retirees in 10 of the 17 developed countries more than 25% of the time. These countries include the Netherlands, Norway, Australia, Ireland, Spain Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, and Japan. Remarkably, the 4% rule would have failed more than 70% of the time in Spain and Italy. A 50/50 allocation would have allowed for a maximum sustainable withdrawal rate of only 0.24% for a Japanese person entering retirement in 1937. Now, the historical situation obviously points to a black swan for those retirees, but the broader message is: the only truly safe withdrawal rate is 0%.
In these terms, it is really just a matter of time before a situation arises in which a cohort of American retirees experience a 2.52% withdrawal rate. As more time passes, the only possible direction that the lowest withdrawal rate experienced can move is downward. It’s possible that the Americans who will experience this have already retired. I'm looking at you, retirees in 2000.
So, in the process of planning for retirement, what kind of withdrawal rate should we plan for?
Honestly, I think there is a better way to think about this whole issue.
Because, first, deciding on your “safe withdrawal rate” means you must develop a “wealth accumulation target” for your retirement date. But as I argue in Pfau (2011b), it is very difficult to know if you are on track for meeting your wealth accumulation target. The idea is based too much on assuming a fixed rate of return for the compounding growth on your wealth. Over short periods of time, returns vary greatly. Individuals who save for retirement over a 30 year period using a fixed savings rate will have all ended up with very different wealth accumulations (in real terms) by their retirement date. What’s more, the amount of wealth they have even 5 years before retirement provides little predictive power about their ultimate outcome. This is related to the “portfolio size effect” that the big changes in your wealth occur just before retirement when your wealth is the largest and changes by the biggest amount for a given percentage return. Michael Kitces also gets at the heart of this problem with his discussion of the logic of compounded returns. With the portfolio size effect, you can’t really predict very well about how much wealth you will end up with even 5 years before retirement, because you can’t predict your returns over those 5 years and those 5 years of returns may have a bigger impact on your total wealth than much of what happened in the first 15 or 20 years of your career, for instance.
If you can’t really predict your wealth accumulation at retirement, this also makes it hard to know how much you will be able to withdraw using your “safe withdrawal rate.”
But in Pfau (2011a), I suggest doing away with wealth accumulation targets and safe withdrawal rates. We can’t control how much wealth we end up with at retirement. We can’t control what the maximum sustainable withdrawal rate we will experience in our retirement will end up being. But we don’t need to control them.
What we can control is how much we save and how we invest! The characteristics of the following analysis can be modified to fit your personal characteristics, but to give an idea of the “save savings rate” concept described in Pfau (2011a), consider someone who earns a constant real salary over a 30 year career who wants to save enough so that her wealth at retirement would have been sufficient to cover 40 years of withdrawals equal to 50% of her salary (Social Security would be added on top of this). She also doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about her investments, but simply uses a 60/40 asset allocation into low-cost index funds (I am assuming zero costs for this example) rebalanced annually. In the worst-case scenario provided thus far by US history (since 1871) such a person would have needed to use an 18.63% savings rate for each of these 30 years to have always had enough wealth to be able to enjoy the sustainable retirement under the terms she wanted. I didn’t say anything about what her wealth accumulation or withdrawal rates are, but whatever the wealth was and whatever the withdrawal rate needed to be, they worked out to be fine.
Now this analysis is vulnerable to the same problem as the safe withdrawal rate. Just like the US retirees in the future may lose in the cosmic lottery of suffering from a new worst-case withdrawal rate, in the future there may also be retirees who will find that they needed to save at a higher rate than their "safe savings rate" to enjoy the retirement they desire.
The savings rate is something you can control now. If you are worried about new worst-case scenarios and not having enough, then you save even more than the “safe savings rate”. But you have to find the proper balance. How painful is it to save more? While it might be ideal to save with a 2.52% withdrawal rate in mind, it may not be practical. You don’t wish to deprive yourself and your family too much now, because the chances are small that you will experience this worst-case scenario. And you also have to think about what will happen if the worst-case scenario did come to pass in retirement. Your wealth might be depleted while you are still alive and you may be left with just Social Security benefits. So think about the sacrifices it takes to save more now, and think about what you want to protect against in the future, evaluate the trade-off and just do the best you can. I think the benchmark you should be working from is not to target wealth needed for a safe withdrawal rate, but to think about whether you want to save more (or less) than your “safe savings rate”.
The more I think about safe withdrawal rates and how low they might be, the less useful the concept comes to be in my mind. There’s not much we can do about it if the fate of our retirement year leads to disaster. Instead, think about how much you can save and how long you want to work. Pfau (2011b) provides more guidelines about whether you are on the path for a sustainable retirement for a wide range of possibilities.
Mike Piper mentions this post in "Should You Own Stocks in Retirement?" | <urn:uuid:0dbfab91-4f95-42cb-9a86-bda336aefe87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wpfau.blogspot.com/2011_07_02_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967531 | 1,556 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Israels Last Days
1Now it came about after these things that Joseph was told, "Behold, your father is sick." So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.
2When it was told to Jacob, "Behold, your son Joseph has come to you," Israel collected his strength and sat up in the bed.
3Then Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me,
4and He said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession.'
5"Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.
6"But your offspring that have been born after them shall be yours; they shall be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritance.
7"Now as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, in the land of Canaan on the journey, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)."
8When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, "Who are these?"
9Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here." So he said, "Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them."
10Now the eyes of Israel were [so] dim from age [that] he could not see. Then Joseph brought them close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
11Israel said to Joseph, "I never expected to see your face, and behold, God has let me see your children as well."
12Then Joseph took them from his knees, and bowed with his face to the ground.
13Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right, and brought them close to him.
14But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, crossing his hands, although Manasseh was the firstborn.
15He blessed Joseph, and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
16The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; And may my name live on in them, And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; And may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."
17When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim's head, it displeased him; and he grasped his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
18Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Place your right hand on his head."
19But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know; he also will become a people and he also will be great. However, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations."
20He blessed them that day, saying, "By you Israel will pronounce blessing, saying, 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh!'" Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
21Then Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers.
22"I give you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow."
<< Genesis 48 >>
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org
Genesis 48 Online Parallel Bible
Genesis 48 Bible Apps | <urn:uuid:cfaf2faa-082b-48c8-8816-b752b63b449d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biblehub.com/nas/genesis/48.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98412 | 932 | 1.773438 | 2 |
I guess River Forest hasn’t had enough teardowns yet because the Trustees are pretty uncomfortable with the idea of a preservation ordinance. The proposed ordinance is the typical weenie milquetoast kind that places like Kenilworth or River Forest propose. While it allows designation of landmarks, it requires owner consent, which sort of defeats the purpose. The owners who would consent are not the ones causing the trouble.
What River Forest leaders fear is the idea of a preservation ordinance, not the reality of one. Reality is much more everyday, like the familiar experiences of thousands of communities that have had such ordinances for decades.
You also hear a lot about private property rights. This is an idea too, with no foothold in reality. It is a Karl Rove issue: sounds good; seems important; has absolutely no impact on your daily life.
The purity of the roperty rights idea is abridged the second you allow electricity, gas, water, sewer, telephone or cable lines onto your property. Any law dude will tell you that property is a bundle of rights: the right to use; to buy or sell; mortgage or subdivide; build or demolish. Preservation ordinances often (but not always –there is no always in reality) restrict the last of these, while zoning ordinances restrict the first and third and the market restricts the second. If people were really concerned about their abstract rights, they would get rid of the zoning ordinances that restrict the height and use of their property.
Zoning has, throughout its history, had a much more dramatic impact on property values than preservation. In 1957 Chicago doubled the allowable density downtown and a few years later New York City was zoned for 16 million people. Talk about government largesse.
The market is even wilder. Wicker Park became a National Register district about 1980 and a Chicago Landmark district about 1990, but could not compete with the tripling of real estate values that happened in undesignated Bucktown – just across the street – in 1987.
Preservationists are fond of pointing out that historic districts improve property values, although some could argue that they simply recognize areas where the value has started to increase due to rehabilitation. A bit of a chicken and egg problem.
The real issue in River Forest is that some people have made a killing flipping property and some other people who think they might don’t want to miss their chance. Same thing is happening in Lincoln Park’s Sheffield, and it is getting very ugly there. I mean UGLY.
But windfall property profits are also more idea than reality. The people who actually make a killing are the real estate hustlers, and the current crop has taken a page out of the 1960s blockbusting book. Back then, you bought two houses on a block for twice their value, sold them to African-Americans and then bought every other house on the block for half its value, and then resold it to African-Americans for twice what they paid. White flight was much more profitable than integration, at least for the hustlers.
Teardown mongers do the same thing, without the racial aspect. Overpay for one or two houses on a block, knock them and build some oversized Playmobil Palazzo and sell it for two million to get all of the neighbors thinking: hey, I could make a killing.
By the time half the block is done the ambiance that the original McMansions borrowed their value from is gone, and so are the hustlers, who have taken the money and run to the next town.
The truth about blockbusting and teardowns is that the neighbors never make the killing, only the hustlers. But the IDEA of making money makes the neighbors – and The River Forest Trustees – think preservation is going to take their money.
Who is getting taken here? Who are the professionals?
It is a shame, because River Forest has some gems, and not just the Prairie School and Frank Lloyd Wright but also local luminaries like the Buurma Brothers. Better go look at them soon, because the hustlers are circling.
Tags: River Forest | <urn:uuid:114d97e3-0d86-40fb-91bf-2e82d4145eac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vincemichael.wordpress.com/2006/07/14/river-forest/ | 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 | 0.967924 | 854 | 1.734375 | 2 |
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Qur’an Burning and Destructive Double Standards
Posted By Bruce Thornton On February 27, 2012 @ 12:55 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 65 Comments
The riots and violence in Afghanistan over some accidentally burned Qur’ans are following a script that by now is all too drearily familiar. As we have seen over the years with the riots over the Mohammed cartoons, Pope Benedict’s comments about violence in Islam, or false rumors of Qur’ans flushed down toilets, violent Muslim overreactions to slights are immediately followed by anxious apologies from American leaders. Rather than defusing the anger, however, such groveling merely encourages more contempt and violence.
So too with the current riots, which have killed 30 people, including 4 U.S. soldiers, two of them in the high-security Interior Ministry. Another seven Sunday were wounded in a grenade attack by demonstrators. This violence, moreover, has been encouraged by mullahs in mosques, teachers in madrassas, and members of parliament. Predictably, the Taliban––with whom our government is eager to talk peace––has encouraged people to “turn their guns on the foreign infidel invaders.” President Obama has responded to this incitement and violence by offering his personal “sincere apologies,” professing his “deep regret,” and vowing to hold those responsible accountable. Defense Secretary Panetta and NATO commander John Allen also apologized.
But no reciprocal apology has been demanded from President Hamid Karzai for the incitement to violence on the part of government and religious leaders, or for the deaths of two of our troops at the hands of an Afghan soldier we trained and armed, and another two inside a government ministry. Newt Gingrich had the best response to this sorry spectacle: “There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama’s attention in a negative way and he is consistently apologizing to people who do not deserve the apology of the President of the United States period,” Gingrich said in Washington D.C. “It is Hamid Karzai who owes the American people an apology, not the other way around. This destructive double standard whereby the United States and its democratic allies refuse to hold accountable leaders who tolerate systematic violence and oppression in their borders must come to an end.”
The administration and the military, of course, rationalize their indulgence of this double standard as motivated by “the safety of American men and women in Afghanistan, of our military and civilian personnel there,” as Obama spokesman Jay Carney put it. But as one demonstrator in Kabul said, “We don’t care about Obama’s apology. We have to protest to be responsible to our god. They are burning our Qur’an. An apology is not enough.” Most Afghans obviously agree, since rioting and killing have intensified despite apologies from our highest government and military officials. Indeed, over the past few decades, no amount of apologies for alleged “insults” to Muslims has stopped Islamists form attacking us. Nor have the good deeds benefitting Muslims, from rescuing Bosnians from genocide to liberating Libyans from Gaddafi, stopped jihadists from wanting to kill Americans for an endless list of reasons. The past decades of such incidents have shown instead that apologies are useless, and merely confirm the impression among Muslims that we are spiritually inferior, and so endorse the perverse logic that accidentally burning a book is worse than murdering our soldiers and citizens. Why else would we publicly flagellate ourselves over such “insults” even as we say nothing about the Muslim murders of Christians in Egypt and Nigeria, or the Muslim laws prescribing capital punishment for converts to Christianity, or the Muslim vandalizing and destruction of 300 churches in Cyprus, or the Muslim slow-motion extermination of Christians in lands that worshipped Christ for 6 centuries before Islam even existed?
As Gingrich pointed out, these double standards are counterproductive and have been proven over and over to make Muslims despise us rather than like us. What we refuse to accept is the intolerant chauvinism inherent in Islam, the belief that Muslims are the “best of nations” and destined to rule the world. Accepting the double standard merely confirms their superiority and our inferiority. After all, to let someone behave according to one set of principles or standards while demanding that you be subjected to others is to validate a claim of superiority that justifies the disproportionate and unjust behavior. It’s acting like a battered wife, who accepts a beat-down from her husband as justified punishment for burning his dinner. This double standard also reflects incoherent thinking, a failure to apply consistently a principle that presumably has universal validity. Hence we celebrate and practice “tolerance” at the same time we enable, ignore, excuse, and rationalize intolerance. In the West’s struggle with Islamic jihad, our doubts about the superiority of Western beliefs have coupled with this breakdown in ethical reasoning. The result is the appeasement of jihadist aggression and the confirmation of the jihadist estimation of the West’s weakness and corruption.
This record of appeasement, then, has encouraged many Muslims to demand from Westerners a hypersensitivity to Islam, all the while that Christians and Jews in Muslim countries are subjected to harassment, assault, vicious insult, and murder. In the West, respect for Muslim holy books and practices is supposed to be granted as a self-evident right beyond argument or debate. Yet Western ideals and principles, such as tolerance for different creeds, are derided, disrespected, and rejected as self-evident evils. Worse yet, we pretend that our appeasement of jihadist violence is an expression of tolerance, the liberal-democratic virtue that simply has little meaning in Islamic theology. Why would any pious Muslim “tolerate” an infidel culture that jeopardizes the eternal souls of Muslims, and that stands in the way of others’ converting to Islam? As the Ayatollah Khomeini said, “Those who study jihad will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world. All the countries conquered by Islam or to be conquered in the future will be marked for everlasting salvation.” Such confidence is reinforced when we acquiesce in a standard whereby burning a Qur’an or insulting Mohammed with a cartoon is worse than killing people.
We know why many of our leaders accept this double standard. They have bought into John Lennon’s juvenile utopia in which there is “nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.” Shorn of their transcendent, non-negotiable foundations, all our beliefs are now contingent and negotiable, easily traded away for security or comfort. At the same time, multiculturalism bestows on the non-Western “other” a finely calibrated sensitivity to his culture and religion, no matter how dysfunctional or oppressive, all the while the West refuses to extend such consideration to its own. Why would it? Haven’t generations of Western intellectuals and artists told the world how corrupt and evil the West is? Haven’t they asserted, as Pascal Bruckner put it, that “every Westerner is presumed guilty until proven innocent”?
Having culturally internalized this self-loathing and lack of conviction, we are vulnerable to those who are filled with passionate intensity about the rightness of their beliefs and the payback due to us for our alleged historical sins such as colonialism or imperialism or globalization. And then we wonder why the jihadist considers us ripe for conquest, and destined to be subjected to the superior values of Islam.
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Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com
URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/bruce-thornton/koran-burning-and-destructive-double-standards/
Copyright © 2009 FrontPage Magazine. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:3e5eee9c-02a2-40a7-8aa2-9b68bba3d9db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://frontpagemag.com/2012/bruce-thornton/koran-burning-and-destructive-double-standards/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940236 | 1,665 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Wetheriggs Pottery, Penrith, Cumberland, had been used from 1855 as a brick and tile works and as a pottery from about 1860. The Schofields were employees there, and they bought the company in 1913. It was run by Harold Thorburn who was a member of the Schofield family.
The earthenware pots produced there were variously marked 'Schofield', 'Wetheriggs', 'Penrith', 'Cumberland' and 'Thorburn'. Any of these might be combined, and the word 'Pottery' included. There is also a suggestion that a monogram 'TH' was sometimes used, although Mr Thorburn denied it.
|Wetheriggs Pottery by Barbara Blenkinship| | <urn:uuid:1d6b02ac-044f-42b7-a454-b9460070ff75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.studiopottery.com/cgi-bin/pp.cgi?item=4336 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985625 | 160 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The American oil industry, working with a coalition of business interests, plans to manufacture rallies in opposition to clean energy reform, an internal document reveals. According to the plan acquired by Greenpeace, the American Petroleum Institute (API) will “coordinate transportation” for oil industry employees to “Energy Citizen” rallies targeting U.S. Senators in 21 states. The document’s author, API president Jack Gerard, discusses how it is “important that our views” supplant “constituents’ views”:
The objective of these rallies is to put a human face on the impacts of unsound energy policy and to aim a loud message at those states’ U.S. Senators to avoid the mistakes embodied in the House climate bill and the Obama Administration’s tax increases on our industry. Senate Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid reportedly has pushed back consideration of climate legislation to late September to allow Senators time to get their constituents’ views during the August recess. It’s important that our views be heard.
API’s membership, which includes ExxonMobil, GE, and Halliburton, will join “allies from a broad range of interests: the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturing, the trucking industry, the agricultural sector, small business, and many others” to create these Astroturf rallies to protect their dirty energy profits at the expense of the planet. | <urn:uuid:305c3c11-51ce-40cb-bae0-56711a8d0b02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/08/13/56084/leak-big-oil-clean-energy/?mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936942 | 294 | 1.6875 | 2 |
In common use perfect and flawless are largely synonymous. That to be perfect is to be flawless and vice versa. But if the two seem generally similar, I’m going to also suggest they are just as much opposites. Because, if it’s true that we are obsessed with our flaws in this age of plastic surgery, plastic retouching, and plastic people, then I think it equally true we are not spending enough time on being the most perfect version of ourselves. In finding the good, seeing it, and believing it. Or, to put it another way, even if perfect has no flaws, it doesn’t follow that something without flaws is perfect.
per·fect [adj., n. pur-fikt; v. per-fekt]
1. conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type: a perfect sphere; a perfect gentleman.
3. exactly fitting the need in a certain situation or for a certain purpose: a perfect actor to play Mr. Micawber; a perfect saw for cutting out keyholes.
1. having no defects or faults, especially none that diminish the value of something: a flawless Ming Dynasty vase.
Note that I’ve cleverly highlighted definitions 1 and 3 for perfect, ignoring definition 4, which, if you were to read it, would say “without flaws,” but all of this is neither here nor there. The real question for the photographer is this. As you sift through time and space, stalking your subject for just that perfect shot, what is it that you’re trying to capture? Are you removing defects? Or are you looking for meaning? Are you looking for pretty? Or are you looking for beautiful? In matters of love, which is the subject of concern for us, we love not for the flawless, but, for warts and all – for the perfect. A perfect match. A perfect manifestation of what we need and desire.
Of course, no activity is so perfect in conception that you can have just one answer or the other. There are pictures whose execution critically hinge on the removal of flaws. But it’s a question of focus. In The End of Vintage, I said that what we really need is not so much this style or that. We need a better definition of love. In more general terms, I think we need better definitions of everything. And that’s the power of photography. In fact, it is the power of every activity we do. Not simply to do something. Not just having a hobby. But a pursuit. Seeking to better understand ourselves, to give more to the world and to let the world give more back to us.
When we focus on the removal of flaws, we do not capture the essence of that which we shoot. We capture the plasticine form of it. For example, we capture make-up being put on without the anticipation or anxiety that makes the action significant. We capture the surface veneer without the soul. Two people looking at a camera, yes, but not truly the two people. In creating the flawless we create something unassailable, because there is nothing wrong with it. But greatness is anything but unassailable. Great images are the opposite. At some level, so raw and powerful as to be provocative. They challenge people, and people challenge them back. They rile and much as they let revel.
Perfect lies in the mind’s eye. It evolves, changes, and grows. It is within us, and it is our direct relationship to how we see the world and what we strive for. To find the perfect is to find the transcendent. Flawless lies in the literal. It is limited by the opaque, impenetrable surface of what exists. Forget about flawless. Forget about everything wrong. Don’t settle for a mediocre subject as a building block from which you can strip out the wrongs. Focus on what’s right. Find something that inspires, beguiles, confronts, amazes, or reveals. Then figure out how to make that idea as potent and packed as possible. Figure out how those things inhere in what lies in front of you. Maybe it won’t be as pristine, maybe it will be more so. Either way, it will engage. It will be pure of heart, and that’s what counts. After all, who said perfect has to be perfect? | <urn:uuid:409f0c0b-e8ee-4129-a8ab-215cdf7c5b85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ground-glass.com/?p=1779 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955706 | 919 | 1.617188 | 2 |
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