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[Sponsored feature] There's serious business in making everything more fun, says Intel
You love games – that’s why you got a job in this fantastic industry. You’ve been playing them since you were knee high to a joystick, and now you make the games that will inspire the next generation of games developers.
But something fascinating has been happening with games in recent years, some would say longer; games are finding their way into all walks of life, making the seemingly mundane a lot more palatable.
Gamification, if you’ve not come across the term before, is taking the techniques found in gameplay and applying them to all manner of tasks outside the games industry.
So why would you want to do this? Essentially, any task that could be considered dull, repetitive, or one where you want to influence the behaviour of individuals such as shoppers or members of social networks, could be a prime candidate for gamification.
EpicWin, for example, is a to-do list app that ‘allows’ you to earn points for completing each of the tasks on a list you specify. We all love that feeling of striking a line through the middle of a completed task (sometimes several lines), but EpicWin takes that feeling and encourages you to get more done by enhancing the experience with graphics and scores.
Early examples of gamification awarded points for undertaking simple activities on websites or apps, and therefore encouraging engagement.
The natural follow-on from points is of course a leaderboard to excite our natural competitiveness, and therefore repetition of the tasks. We all want to reap the glory of being top dog!
Gamification has now moved far beyond these addictive, but simple approaches.
Games are being applied to processes in the workplace, and large crowdsourcing public projects, such as sifting through huge amounts of data looking for errors, where you just feel like you are playing a game.
A great example of this is DigitalKoot, in which ‘gamers’ are helping find mistakes in the Finnish eArchives, by playing a game that involves typing words as they appear on screen. Correct answers help build a bridge and navigate a character on to the next level.
Volunteers, as DigitalKoot refers to them, have given 230,000 minutes to the project and completed 4.8 million microtasks at the time of writing. Those are impressive figures and could not have been achieved without the fun gamification approach that has been taken.
So what has all this got to do with you as a developer, artist, or “A N Other” games industry role? Put simply it is a huge opportunity, not only to build revenues, but to take the skills that you have spent years learning and apply them to real world problems and processes. And by skills, we don’t just mean coding, AI, modelling or level design – it’s the other softer skills too.
You know what makes a game great, addictive and entertaining – you understand the psychology of gaming.
These, as much the technical skills, are those that need to be applied to make gamification a success. Designing the concept for a gamified process or problem is not something that can be left to the company that needs to drive engagement in a process, unless they are a games company!
Gartner has predicted that by 2015, more than 50% of organisations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes, and the first pure gamification conference took place in January 2011.
There are a number of companies having great success in this area, and if Gartner’s prediction is to be believed there are going to be plenty more opportunities for UK companies to seize.
Perhaps you’ll be among them, and transform what we currently think of as a mundane task into a fun activity? If so, the Intel AppUp developer program is the ideal way to distribute your app with its support for multiple devices, operating systems and app stores, and with the tools and resources you need to make breakthrough apps.
Join today at http://appdeveloper.intel.com | <urn:uuid:197c66a2-8cc7-49b9-9098-b7c5578719b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.develop-online.net/news/38423/FEATURE-If-its-dull-maybe-its-time-to-gamify | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966491 | 847 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Southern New Jersey residents are assessing the damage from overnight coastal flooding and continued strong winds from a northeaster that has gradually moved up the coast.
Shifting winds during the night helped tidal flooding stay just below the moderate range along the oceanfront. However, continued flooding in back bays has kept the water level there much higher.
The peak storm tide in Atlantic City reached 6.94 feet just after 3:20 a.m., according to the National Ocean Service gauge on Steel Pier. The moderate flooding threshold is 7 feet in Atlantic City.
Despite the reduced flood level, between 400 and 500 homes suffered some type of flood damage in Atlantic City, said emergency operations director Tom Foley. Some streets directly along the bay had up to 4 feet of water in them at the height of the tide early this morning, he said.
However, Atlantic City code enforcement director Rick Russo said he could not verify that level of damage and said the only calls his office received were for wind-related damage. Wind damage that occurred in the city, Russo said, was mostly with houses that had been weakened by Sandy and either were under repairs or repairs had not yet started.
A coastal flood warning is in effect until Friday morning due to the potential for moderate level flooding. Forecasters have warned that continued onshore winds may trap water in the back bays, causing more significant level flooding until Friday.
Wayne Dull, of Ocean City, lives on Simpson Avenue, where he said, flooding is typical and wind blowing over chairs and umbrellas is expected.
"We're sick of it," he said. "We're done. We're moving offshore, far away from water."
Damage in the Wildwoods is minimal and early morning walkers and joggers were on the city's Boardwalk.
Beach replenishment crews were moving around sand in Ocean City's north end this morning after the dredge took safe harbor near Longport during the storm. It wasn't apparent if much sand had been eroded from the project that started weeks ago.
Four people were relocated overnight after a roof collapsed at an apartment building in Chelsea Village, but there were no other evacuations, Foley said.
The beach between Steel Pier and Garden Pier also suffered significant sand loss, but the dunes were fine, Foley said.
Workers at Revel shoveled wind-swept sand off the boardwalk in front of the resort. Numerous tiles flew off the roof at Garden Pier, smashing on to the deck. But inside the Atlantic City Historical Society museum, there was no water damage, said Maureen Frank, director of the Atlantic City Library. “Thank goodness. We’re hoping to reopen soon,” she said.
The water in parts of Ventnor Heights came up in some places more than 1 foot deep and debris from the flooding littered the streets. Dunes on the beach had no obvious damage, though there was a small amount of beach erosion near the Ventnor Fishing Pier.
Officials in Cumberland County reported few overnight problems. All roads and schools are open, and initial reports indicate damage was primarily relegated to some broken tree limbs.
Municipal emergency management officials also report that the county’s small Delaware Bay communities were spared the flooding that destroyed homes and damaged protective bulkheads and dikes during Hurricane Sandy and other recent storms.
“It wasn’t as bad as they said it was going to be,” said Downe Township Emergency Management Coordinator James Lupton. “Everything is open this morning.”
Downe Township is home to Delaware Bay communities such as Fortescue, Gandys Beach and Money Island. Much of the estimated $30 million in damage that the township suffered during Hurricane Sandy occurred in Fortescue and Gandys Beach.
Lupton said there are few residents living in those communities at this time of year, and no evacuations were needed.
Commercial Township Emergency Management Coordinator Fred Hundt said tide levels were “well below” what was expected.
The rural township has small communities like Mauricetown, Shellpile and Bivalve along the Maurice River. Dikes that hold back the river and Delaware Bay were damaged during Hurricane Sandy.
Hundt said one dike has a “small leak in it,” but is otherwise holding.
“We seem to be fine,” he said.
Authorities in Bridgeton, Millville and Vineland reported no significant problems related to the storm.
Vineland fire officials said their biggest problem overnight was freeing a man who had locked himself inside a laundromat.
About 500 Atlantic City Electric customers are without power as of 11:30 a.m., down from more than 20,000 before midnight.
Crews restored a damaged substation and transmission lines in Margate early this morning, restoring power to about 19,000 customers in Atlantic City, Ventnor, Margate and Longport before sunrise. About 200 of those customers are still without electricity, according to the utility’s online reporting map.
Staff writers Lee Procida, Thomas Barlas and Trudi Gilfillian contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:4627f7a0-c7c7-402e-b6eb-5f6f725cac1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/atlantic-city-crews-assessing-flood-damage-to-homes-water-level/article_9e01e3dc-8720-11e2-996c-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976317 | 1,057 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Fairfield County’s Art Works program under the direction of Jullianne Neal, arts coordinator for School District 4 and Dr. Janet Mason recently hosted a guest artist in residence, Joy Lynn Matthews-Jacobs.
The program, in its 16th year, enables students from low income families to have a summer enrichment experience.
Mason said the arts program is essential because 90 percent of the students receive free or reduced lunch.
Dr. Janet Mason pointed out that for children in that socioeconomic status if the school does not provide ballet, voice lessons or piano lessons, who will?
Mason described the camp as a fun, intense, three week training in dance, drama, voice and music, and visual art.
The three weeks conclude with a performance where students show off their new skills.
This year that performance will be June 28 at the Fairfield Central High School auditorium, but the time is still being determined.
Art Works Camp has this week off, but it will resume Monday.
The event is a low cost summer activity, with a small fee going towards t-shirts.
Around 90 percent of students take advantage of free transportation which is provided by area school buses.
Camp lasts Monday-Friday each week from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and students are served two meals each day.
The Art Works program supports the State Education Department’s Gifted and Talented Program.
This year around 65 third, fourth and fifth graders attended, though in years past the camp has served as many as 100 children.
Students were chosen after auditions at elementary schools. The auditions helps event directors find children with talents in drama, voice, music, visual art and dance.
As part of the dance instruction, Mason’s daughter, Matthews-Jacobs, a dancer in Broadway performances, came to Fairfield County to teach choreography to the students.
Though not a native of Fairfield County, Matthews-Jacobs has spent several weeks over the years as artist in residence in Winnsboro.
“I love the children here,” she said. “They make me laugh and are more interesting to observe and talk to than adults.” Matthews-Jacobs draws upon her experiences dancing, singing and acting on Broadway.
A resident of New Jersey, she believes in challenging the young people so that they can rise to the occasion and receive the maximum benefit from the camp.
She will often preface her teaching by questioning the children as to whether something is too hard for them.
They then set out to prove her wrong, a technique that she said has led to remarkable camps in Winnsboro.
Perhaps they will discover another diamond in the rough Broadway talent right here among this age group.
For Matthews-Jacobs, she first displayed talent in the fifth grade when all students were required to sing “My Country Tis of Thee” each morning.
The children heard Matthews-Jacob’s voice which sounded like someone in an opera and each morning they would stop singing to just listen to her.
At that time, her parents enrolled their daughter in voice lessons though she resisted at first, saying she wanted to be a horse trainer instead.
Eventually the vocal talent won out with Matthews-Jacobs attending Cal State in Long Beach and studying vocal performance.
Following college she paid her dues by singing as a guest artist on a cruise line. After several years doing that work, she finally got the courage to go to New York and audition.
During her first ever Broadway audition, she made the cut. She has performed in “Marie Christine,” “The Music Man,” and in the first national tours for “Ragtime” and “Showboat.”
Matthews-Jacobs also travels the country, singing with 60 to 70 piece orchestras.
She is thankful for the opportunity to help children in the district where her mother still serves to pursue their dreams and to help strengthen the arts in Fairfield County. | <urn:uuid:9275191d-2647-4702-97df-444b055d9737> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://heraldindependent.com/pages/home/push?per_page=5&class=&rel=&x_page=93 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971618 | 838 | 1.546875 | 2 |
This article was originally distributed via PRWeb. PRWeb, WorldNow and this Site make no warranties or representations in connection therewith.
SOURCE: Vantage Learning
Trial of Automated Essay Scoring Systems, like Vantage Learning’s IntelliMetric®, Shows Electronic Scoring to Be As Effective As Human Graders
Yardley, PA (PRWEB) April 13, 2012
Vantage Learning, a recognized leader in online assessment and instruction, recently ranked high among participants of an analysis on the viability of using automated essay scoring for a new generation of assessments. Vantage was one of nine commercial companies to take part in the Automated Student Assessment Prize, or ASAP, study sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and supported by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.
According to the study’s results, automated scoring systems, like Vantage Learning’s IntelliMetric®, are more reliable than hand scoring. Analysis also found that electronic essay scoring is fast and cost effective. Though past studies of IntelliMetric® have also shown these findings to be true, the ASAP study asserts that it was the first comprehensive, multi-vendor study to test such claims.
In part, the study was designed to evaluate the degree to which current high-stakes writing assessments, as well as those anticipated under the Common Core, may be scored by automated systems. Vantage’s IntelliMetric® is already the name trusted by several major testing companies for high-stakes assessments. Since its development in 1998, Vantage has applied exceptional artificial intelligence and natural language comprehension technology to become one of the leading providers of writing instruction and automated essay scoring services.
As an intelligent electronic scoring system, IntelliMetric® is also used to score low stakes writing evaluations. One of the most important applications of the program has been in the area of writing instruction. IntelliMetric® provides students with the ability to conduct numerous attempts at writing assignments, as well as immediate, detailed feedback on their writing. As the scoring engine behind MY Access!® and other , IntelliMetric® is widely used in classrooms throughout the world and has won numerous awards for its patented innovation.
“The clear takeaway from the ASAP study is that automated essay scoring works, and works well,” said Dr. Matthew Schultz, Director Psychometric Services for Vantage. “For us, we also see that our scoring engine works well, and possibly better than some, with the added resources that the platform brings to teaching and improving writing.”
More than 16,000 essays from six participating state departments of education were released for the study, which challenged the participating vendors to approximate established essay scores with their software. These essays encompassed writing assessment items from seventh, eighth and ninth grades. Though IntelliMetric® performed consistently well in the study, it did exceedingly well scoring persuasive and source-based essays that were scored on a six point rubric.
For more about the study and its findings, please see yesterday’s ASAP press announcement.
About Vantage Learning
A recognized leader in online assessment and instruction, Vantage Learning creates Adaptive Learning Environments™ to support student achievement and school improvement. Formed to meet the needs of the ever-evolving education industry, Vantage provides educators with sophisticated knowledge and immediate feedback solutions to enhance and support a continuous learning process. Its exceptional technology, including artificial intelligence, natural language understanding and web-based learning objects, provides adaptive resources for individualized instruction and professional development.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/4/prweb9378756.htm | <urn:uuid:303b28e6-89ed-4557-ab5a-f56bf49e7fe7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wvnstv.com/story/17411456/vantage-learnings-intellimetric174-a-top-performer-in-automated-student-assessment-prize-study | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950619 | 773 | 1.546875 | 2 |
A new collection from Louise Erdrich includes stories that eventually grew into novels
It's 1932, and a homeless young widow brings her three children to the fair, where they line up to see the Great Omar, "Aeronaut Extraordinaire." When the barnstormer asks if anyone wants to go up in the biplane, the mother suddenly elbows through the crowd and, "without a backward look," climbs aboard, her 11-year-old daughter, Mary, watching helplessly as Omar flies "steadily away from the fairgrounds with my mother."
Because this is Louise Erdrich's heartrending fictional world, Mary will now make her way alone in the world, with no belongings other than her mother's locked jewelry box. And because it is Erdrich, we will hungrily read "The Blue Velvet Box" to find out what happens to Mary, to feast on the delicious prose, but, most of all, to know what's in that box.
There are dozens of such audacious and surprising boxes - metaphoric and actual, matter-of-fact and mythic - in "The Red Convertible," Erdrich's rich collection of short stories, including six previously unpublished, culled from 30 years as one of America's most distinctive fictional voices. For readers new to Erdrich - the lyrical Ojibwe Indian and German-American writer - this may be an ideal sampler, 36 affecting and inventive stories that dance in and around the Faulknerian world she's created out of reservations and border towns in North Dakota and Minnesota.
For fans, most of these pieces will be familiar. In fact, a collection of Erdrich stories presents something of a dilemma, since most of her 11 novels are likewise composed of overlapping stories, featuring interweaving characters, told from multiple points of view, moving in and out of time until a kind of novelistic tapestry is achieved.
So it's a bit like reverse alchemy, being asked to consider as independent short stories the various moving parts from such novels as 1984's "Love Medicine," in which she established her style, or last year's gorgeous "Plague of Doves."
Erdrich addresses the role of these "germinal" stories in a short preface to "The Red Convertible," in which she describes finishing these short stories over the years and assuming she was done with them, only to have some of the stories "gather . . . weight and complexity" and - "set whirling" in a kind of lyric snowstorm - grow into novels.
Like the abandoned girl in "The Blue Velvet Box" (taken from her second novel, "The Beet Queen"), most of these germinal stories turn out to be strong and resourceful enough to make it on their own. The best ones have the inexplicable fullness and beauty that exist in great short fiction: In "Saint Marie" (from "Love Medicine"), a young Indian girl must deal with religious fervor, the temptations of Satan, and the attentions of a nun more frightening than either; in "Knives" (also from "The Beet Queen") a traveling knife salesman begins an unforgettable courtship with the line "You're not pretty"; and in "Shamengwa" (from "The Plague of Doves") a young fiddle thief is sentenced to apprentice with the tribal elder whose mystical instrument he's stolen.
The most remarkable of these stories, loosed from its larger context, might be the hypnotic "Father's Milk" (from the novel "The Antelope Wife"), in which a cavalry soldier bayonets an Ojibwe woman to death, then runs off with what he assumes is an abandoned and starving baby. To get the howling child to calm down, the soldier eventually presses her to his chest and nurses her. He ends up raising her as his own.
Lactating soldiers, sprinting blue Satans, and vengeful tornadoes are just the sort of matter-of-fact magic that Erdrich routinely trades in, and these flourishes work so well because they are so firmly grounded in a world of broken-down cars, Quonset-hut bingo halls, and reservation answering machines ("The number you have reached has been disconnected").
Presented mostly chronologically, in the order in which they were written, Erdrich's stories show a writer growing in stylistic range and courage, even as she returns to trusted themes and families; there's always another Kashpaw or Nanapush just around the corner, always another fearless attempt to describe love or redemption amid the butcher shops and Catholic churches.
Many of these stories first appeared in magazines, most often The New Yorker. As with recent big, career collections by Amy Hempel and Tobias Wolff, it's reassuring how often the O. Henry Prize and "Best American Short Stories" seem to get it right - there are seven such honored stories within Erdrich's book, and they're all great examples of the form.
As one would expect in 30 years of writing stories, there are a few whiffs here, too, pieces that feel undeveloped or fragmentary. Also, as one might expect in such a collection, the previously unpublished stories feel mostly like lesser work. But even within these stories there exist Erdrich's poetic sentences and humane sensibility - and always another surprise on the next page.
And so, at the end of "The Blue Velvet Box," Mary stares into the box and seems to sum up the way Erdrich works, all of that comic-tragic, high-low straightforward magic in all of those germinal stories, coming apart, together and apart: "I could see a pattern to all of what happened, a pattern that suggested completion in years to come. . . . It is opposites that finally meet."
Jess Walter is the author of the 2006 National Book Award finalist "The Zero" and "Citizen Vince," winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel. | <urn:uuid:65acf51a-0b9c-48d2-9a5e-4b422e8e156a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/01/25/movable_feats/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963819 | 1,234 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Lincoln from Brayford (1858)
The Brayford proved a popular spot for artists as can be seen in the paintings in this collection. The view across the busy waterway is provided with the most perfect backdrop with the Cathedral and Castle behind.
In this painting the artist seems hemmed in by the tall warehouses on the right and beyond. . This coupled with all the smoke rising from the boats and chimneys gives a dark industrial feel to the work and probable a more realistic view of the Brayford in 1858.
About the Artist
Edmund John Niemann (1813-1879)
Niemann was born in Islington and from 1839 devoted himself to art settling at High Wycombe where he worked out of doors as a painter of landscape, angling and marine subjects. His paintings were often very large, illustrating every phase of nature. He painted the Thames and the Swale, near Richmond, Yorkshire. | <urn:uuid:3024f0ee-cacb-47a9-bcae-3024c22a29cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heslamtrust.org.uk/collection/view/lincoln-from-brayford/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974612 | 192 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Sydney practitioners hold a candlelight vigil outside Town
Hall, and call for an end to the persecution
Steven and his friends express their admiration for the
courage of Falun Gong practitioners; the group of friends participated in the
event by holding up banners
People signed a petition to support Falun Gong
Mohammed joined the event with a group of friends and held a
Nine years ago, on July 20, former Chinese Communist leader Jiang Zemin
instigated the brutal persecution of Falun Gong out of personal jealousy.
Practitioners throughout China were widely arrested. The media, the legal
system, police, special agents, the Party, and the government were mobilized to
attempt to eradicate Falun Gong, fabricating enormous lies and propaganda
against the practice. In the face of this inhumane abuse and persecution, Falun
Gong practitioners have continued to uphold the principles of Truthfulness,
Compassion, Forbearance, and to expose the persecution to the world.
Representative of the Falun Dafa Association of New South Wales Mr. Lee
pointed out that, throughout this persecution, while the CCP has destroyed
fundamental morality, it has forced itself into a predicament with no way out.
In the face of brutal persecution and murder, practitioners of Falun Gong have
displayed peacefulness and rationality and have persistently explained the facts
to people who have been deceived by the lies and propaganda. They have deeply
implanted the beauty of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance in people's hearts
and provided hope for the future.
Passersby call to support Falun Gong
The scene of mourning attracted many passersby, who stopped to listen to the
practitioners' explanations or photograph the event. Mohammed, a young man from
Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, said he had heard of Falun Gong, but it was the
first time he had seen such a moving candlelight vigil. He sat along with the
practitioners, holding a candle, and mourned in silence. He then held a
truth-clarification sign with a group of friends. Everyone in his group signed
the petition calling for an end to the persecution. They asked to bring the
petition form back to their home country so that people at home could also sign
the form, which they would then return by fax.
Another young man, Steven, and his friends had come to Sydney to attend World
Youth Day a Catholic event. They expressed admiration for the courage of Falun
Gong practitioners and participated in the vigil by holding banners. Steven said
that the resistance of Falun Gong has become one of the biggest human rights
movements in the world, deeply inspirational and moving.
Practitioners solidly resist the persecution
Ms. Zhai Jianling, who began practicing Falun Gong in 1998, said that after
she took up the practice, she gained physical health and experienced a steady
elevation in morality. When the persecution began in 1999, she returned to China
to appeal for justice, but was illegally arrested in Tiananmen
Square. Police officers demanded that she sign papers to admit she was
disturbing the safety of society, but she refused and was subsequently detained
for 30 days. Nine years have gone by, and the evil face of the CCP has been
displayed clearly to the world. Falun Gong has not been diminished by the
persecution but has spread to 80 countries around the world. Ms. Zhai said that
history shows that persecution of righteous belief will never succeed.
Back in 1999, Mr. Wang Xing, a 68-year-old practitioner, heard on the Chinese
language program on Radio France International: "The Chinese Communist
regime is not afraid of corruption, but it is afraid of Falun Gong."
Therefore Mr. Wang thought that Falun Gong must be good and began his path of
cultivation. He once hand-copied five Falun Gong books. Before he came to
Australia, he asked family members to take good care of the books. However, his
home was later ransacked, and the books were confiscated and his family was
subjected to extortion by the CCP.
Mr. Wang Xing said that the persecution is tragic. He said that practitioners
in mainland China are suffering wrongful accusations, which has been a test of
the conscience of almost every Chinese person. As a Falun Gong practitioner,
every year on July 20, he mourns fellow practitioners who have died as a result
of the persecution. He hopes that more people will learn the facts, especially
those who have been deceived by the CCP, in particular Chinese people. He calls
for the support of righteous people to help bring an end to the persecution. | <urn:uuid:84494398-fcd5-433d-8b6b-2dba3027d6ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.falunau.org/newsArticle.jsp?itemID=2110&cat=newsAus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973208 | 992 | 1.679688 | 2 |
MC Serch, Bakari Kitwana Host Rap Sessions
Entitled Rap Sessions, the 10-day tour invites audience members and once-onlookers alike to join the debate on whether or not America has become a “post-racial” country. Panelists of the tour include MC Serch, NAACP magazine editor Jabari Asim, and The Hip-Hop Wars author Tricia Rose.
Kitwana, a former editor of The Source and co-founder of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention, gave a distinguishing concept behind the creation of Rap Sessions. “Two-thirds of young voters 18-29 [years oold] voted for Barack Obama, who called for national discussions on race during the 2008 presidential campaign.” While these statistics sound promising, he added, “This is the same generation that legitimized the n-word in mainstream pop culture and everyday use. The goal of these discussions is to help the nation, and young people in particular, think through these complexities.”
While generation X has a high stake in how the country proceeds as a multi-racial society, Kitwana also sees the baby-boomer generations hand in this debate. “We now have two generations of Americans who have lived their entire lives in the post-segregation era. For some racial division is a thing of the past, for others having a mixed race president on its own doesn’t bridge the racial divide.”
The tour, which has already been to Little Rock, Arkansas and Johnson City, Tennessee, will continue throughout this month until late April. Then in May, Rap Sessions will take its seminar discussion across the Atlantic Ocean for two stops in Rome and Milan, Italy. | <urn:uuid:8565f7bc-6d7d-467f-9fb2-333e332c5620> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.8675/title.mc-serch-bakari-kitwana-host-rap-sessions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949984 | 350 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Silent Scream Political and Social Comment in Books by Artists
written by Monica Oppen
Australian Scholarly Publishing | ISBN 9780987160652
Member’s price: $35.96
Usually ships within 2–11 business days.
The Silent Scream: Political and Social Comment in Books by Artists is not only a catalogue but a view into some of humanitys darkest moments seen through the books of artists who have pushed a humanism that tries to save us from ourselves. Reaching back to William Blake with a facsimile of his illuminated book America: A Prophecy it travels through the two world wars and on to the modern era. Divided into historical eras, each chapter begins with an essay, that analyses the contexts in which these books were created.
For the first time in Australia the work of Australian artists and writers working in the field of book arts is presented within an international and historical perspective. Each book is featured with images and an accompanying commentary. Monica Oppen and Peter Lyssiotis, both practising artists, lend their unique perspective to the social content and the techniques behind the production of these books.
Also published for the first time, five new translations into English, four from the German, including The War by Georg Heym from Umbra Vitae, the complete text of Die Neue Stadt by Josef Luitpold and Otto Schatz and one from the Russian, the poem City from Gorod Stihki by Alexandr Rubakin.
The publication of this catalogue is timely as interest in the field of book arts, both locally and internationally continues to grow. | <urn:uuid:ed1ccac6-2bd7-455c-81fa-85823c6a98f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/shop/item/9780987160652/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942489 | 329 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Detroit Senate Democrats Announce Scholarship Competition to Highlight the Michigan 2020 Plan
$10,000 Competition to promote plan to offer free in-state tuition for all Michigan students
LANSING”Detroit's Senate Democrats announced the #mi2020 Scholarship Competition today that will provide the winner with a year's worth of tuition, up to $10,000, at any of Michigan's community colleges or public universities. To enter, students are asked to submit a short web video at www.mi2020video.com that explains the importance of investing in higher education and how the Michigan 2020 Plan to offer free college tuition to all students is the right investment to make.
“As the people of Michigan look to the Legislature for solutions to increase college access and create jobs, we are introducing the Michigan 2020 Plan that studies have shown can do both,” said Senate Democratic Leader Tupac A. Hunter. “If the numerous reports and the opinions of economists and business leaders aren't enough to convince the Legislature to move these bills, I hope that hearing directly from students across this state who will benefit directly from this scholarship competition will, and I urge all local students to participate.”
“In order for Michigan to jumpstart its economy, we need a truly forward-thinking idea. That's precisely what the Michigan 2020 Plan represents,” said Senator Morris Hood III. “The #mi2020 Scholarship Competition will help one student with their college expenses right now, with the hopes that this legislation will pass and allow all students to be free of financial burden in the future.”
The #mi2020 Scholarship Competition is open to all current Michigan high school seniors, whether they are attending public school, private school or are home-schooled. The winner will receive up to $10,000 for their first year's expenses at a public Michigan university or community college.
“I hear from students on a routine basis that are ready to take on the challenge of going to college but struggle with how they can possibly afford it,” said Hedlun Walton, a Michigan High School guidance counselor. “A college education is a gateway to success for Michigan students and a key to getting our state back on track, and this scholarship will provide one student with that opportunity until we can provide it to every graduate in Michigan.”
“We know that in order to attract job creation we need a well-trained, educated work force. The more educational opportunities our citizens have, the better Michigan's economic outlook,” said Senator Bert Johnson. “The #mi2020 Scholarship Competition gets students involved in the process and allows their voice to be heard on what going to college and its associated costs means to them.”
To enter, high school seniors are asked to create a short video that explains why Michigan needs to enact the Michigan 2020 Plan. Submissions open today, March 6th, and are due by April 20, 2012. Online voting will begin on April 23rd with the top 20 videos moving on to the finals. For more information on the #mi2020 Scholarship Competition, including eligibility, judging criteria and how to enter, go to www.mi2020video.com.
“If we make college affordable, our students will go,” said Senator Coleman A. Young II. “Passing the Michigan 2020 Plan will show that our state is serious about education and cares about the success of its citizens.”
“The rising cost of college is preventing many of our students from getting the education they need to compete for jobs. No one should be denied a bright future because they can't afford to go to college,” said Senator Virgil Smith. “The Michigan 2020 Plan says we value our students and are ready to make a real investment in our future. This plan closes outdated, ineffective corporate tax loopholes and makes our kids a top priority.”
The #mi2020 Scholarship Competition is designed to engage Michigan's students in the discussion on the Michigan 2020 Plan. Senate Democrats are introducing legislation this week to implement the proposal that would enable all Michigan high school graduates to have their tuition and associated costs paid for at one of Michigan's community colleges or universities. The proposal would come at no extra cost to taxpayers and would instead be paid for by reducing ineffective and outdated tax loopholes. The total estimated cost of this program is $1.8 billion per year once it is fully implemented.
To learn more about the Michigan 2020 Plan, you can visit http://www.michigan2020.com/. | <urn:uuid:a3ca7fb0-80ab-4fcb-937e-f25e65c19792> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hunter.senatedems.com/news/article/detroit-senate-democrats-announce-scholarship-competition-to-highlight-the-michigan-2020-plan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956201 | 924 | 1.523438 | 2 |
In all likelihood, one of the first things that you do in South Africa will be to buy a car. Whether for business purposes or for family leisure, it is not always easy to move around in South Africa without your won vehicle. Public transport is restricted to areas where there is high demand, and is not always comfortable. On the other hand, you may also rent a vehicle until such time as you make a purchase.
Registration of the vehicle
The most important step in buying a vehicle, whether from a new car dealer or second-hand from another person, is to register the vehicle in your name. This is legally obligatory. This is called “licensing” the vehicle, and it needs to be renewed every year. There is no standard licence fee in South Africa, as it varies from province to province. It also depends on the vehicle’s weight.
In order to license your vehicle for the first time in your name, you will require the following:
- Original registration certificate – the owner of the vehicle should be able to supply this to you
- The full names, ID (or passport) number, and contact telephone number of the seller
- A roadworthy certificate, which can be obtained at any Traffic Department office
- The ID book (or passport) of the buyer
- The relevant application form for licensing of a vehicle, obtainable at any Traffic Department office
- The licensing fee, calculated according to the category and net weight (tare) of the vehicle – the weight should only be a factor where the vehicle’s net weight (tare) exceeds 3500kg (7500lbs)
It is a legal requirement in South Africa for any vehicle used on public roads to be roadworthy. The Traffic Department is allowed to stop and impound on sight any vehicle that does not meet this requirement. Therefore, when purchasing a vehicle, you should insist on seeing the roadworthy certificate.
However, if no certificate is forthcoming, you may take the vehicle to any Traffic Department office to have it tested. There are also private facilities that do this. The certificate is valid for 6 months. If a car has been unlicensed for any period of time, it is necessary to have it tested again.
In order to have a vehicle tested you will be required to produce the original registration document of the vehicle as well as a valid driver’s licence.
An international driver’s licence is valid on South African roads. You may also use the licence issued in your country of origin, as long as you have obtained a supporting affidavit to the effect that your licence is valid in South Africa. It is best to consult the local Traffic Department if you are not sure about this.
However, if you are applying for permanent residence, you should keep in mind that, once your residence permit has been issued, you are required to obtain a South African driver’s licence within 12 months. | <urn:uuid:22c0bc85-60e1-40de-8d2c-3dbfae810012> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.immigrationsouthafrica.org/vehicle-purchases/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960256 | 598 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Common Misconceptions – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt
What makes selling cloud services a lot harder is that you have to fight an uphill battle against misconceptions created out of lack of knowledge or intentionally spread by competitors (the ones not offering cloud services).
I will start to dig into these with this post but given that there are many misconceptions small and big I will probably limit myself for the sake of length and come back to this topic in later posts. Also some of the topics are elemental and need a closer look. I will pick these up in separate posts as well.
You can buy “the cloud” (thanks to Einar Aleksejev for this choice of words)
The cloud is not a tool or a product and therefore it cannot be bought. It is all about services. Let me put an emphasis on this: Whatever technology providers will claim it is all about services. Even the famous term private cloud is about services for real. What most vendors do is to use the term private cloud to describe technology that could help you to build a private cloud. Sadly these offerings fall short when it comes to what a private cloud really would be – the business model for the internal cloud service.
I will dig deeper into private clouds and how a real private cloud looks like in one of the future posts.
It is all about technology
If you look into service descriptions, discussions, presentations, etc. it looks like the cloud is a pure technology play. There are feature discussions and there is a whole lot of buzz about the underlying technology. The only topic sticking out is the privacy/Patriot Act fear (see below).
Why is that? First of all the computing and software industry has a tendency to “sell from nerd to nerd”. And technology is the one common language base. As cloud is so far enabling technology providers (Soft- and Hardware alike) to step up to the world of services this is their comfort zone. The outsourcing industry that has learned that business value, risk management, etc. do play a more important role has not stepped into the cloud business on a broad base. Secondly so far it worked more or less as the early customers have been enthusiasts and therefore were receptive for the technology talk.
So what is it if not a technology play? It is a business option and should be viewed like this. It either offers the customer a new way to reduce the effort and time to market where effort can be the investment needed in test and development equipment. It is a new option that offers additional flexibility how to serve the own workforce with collaborations services. But also there this needs to be based on a need and a thorough analysis of the different options. It is about how to use your own in-house workforce and where these precious resources should spend their working hours (exchanging light bulbs or driving innovation).
It is so much more than just technology though I admit most of us are fascinated by it and for many people in our industry it is the true comfort zone. To really be successful we all need to move beyond technology.
For the “rule of the three S” have a look at this earlier post on cloud-dicussions.com.
All or nothing
I have met customers around the world and one thing is common. There is always someone who is in fear at each customer. Partly that is to that fact that the human per se despises change but also because one of the most common misconceptions is that the cloud replaces everything (all mail systems, all databases servers run locally…). This creates a huge roadblock not much different than in outsourcing cases when discussing TUPE, only that there is no transfer of employees in the case of the cloud so the fear is even bigger.
In cases of mail and collaboration as SaaS offerings the full replacement is an option. But it is not the most widely used option and it is in most cases neither the economically preferred option nor the one with most business sense. The majority of scenarios for enterprise customers is a mix with local delivery based on regional or business requirements. Could this change over time? Probably, but given the lack of trust in governments, privacy rules and the fierce competition in business it will take a long time.
If you look at PaaS and IaaS offerings these address different business scenarios as well and are not aimed at the removal of the full IT department. It is all about the clever usage of these services to enhance the performance of the internal offering of the IT departments rather than a wish to replace them.
The marketing buzz and the discussions on cloud that for most of the time even do miss the most basic distinction of enterprise cloud services vs. consumer cloud services do not help. Only through open and clear communication and focus on the business needs (rather than the technology, see above) we can change the perception of the cloud. If you are a customer search and find someone you trust, who looks beyond technology and helps you to identify the cloud usage scenarios for your business needs. In addition learn from the communication strategies of outsourcing deals to sell the cloud message to your own workforce.
A European customer cannot legally use the cloud due to the Patriot Act
How often have I heard this one? Countless times and you are able to guess the reading habits of your counterpart based on the simple fact which agency it is that grasps the data (FBI – thriller stories, NSA – technology, terrorist stories, CIA – classic spy stories, FBI corruption units – economy thrillers, and so on). As funny as this sound it carries a huge risk. There is so much confusion and uncertain fear about the Patriot Act that many customers stay away from cloud computing as if would be the plague.
Especially in Europe and even stronger in Germany you can also see non cloud providers boosting these fears by telling half true stories that play to the already existing doubt. This is so far a successful sales strategy but there comes the point when customers have more knowledge and will recognize it as that – a simple sales strategy. Playing this card now ensures short term success but destroys any trusted advisor status you might have or seek in the long term.
I will have a full post on this topic in the near future therefore I just list some common Patriot Act misunderstandings:
- The Patriot Act is not just one law. It is a collection of amendments to about 50 already existing laws. So if you have concerns about the Patriot Act, be precise which part it is that worries you.
- The Patriot Act was not created for cloud Computing. It covers all aspects of life and business. E.g. Outsourcing providers need to follow the same rules but there seldom anybody puts up as much discussion as with the cloud
- The Patriot Act does not only cover you if your provider is from the U.S.A. As soon as you own business has substantial subsidiary in the U.S.A. you are fully embraced by it.
- The Agencies will address the provider as the easiest and quickest way to get the data is another misconception. The first addressee is the owner of the data. Only in the case of the so called sealed subpoenas the provider itself will be addressed without prior warning or involvement of the owner. How often this occurs and under what circumstance should be part of the risk assessment.
- To really assess and judge on the risk you need to involve the specialist. I have seen so many people starting to argue on the Patriot Act based on Wikipedia knowledge. This does not work. You legal department, your data protection office or legal support should lead the discussion. This would help to avoid confusion on both sides.
- The Patriot Act is not only about companies but also individuals. This is important as it alters the risk assessment in case you yourself or your providers (even if not cloud) employ US citizens in roles that could potentially have access to data.
To legally use a service you need to ensure that you fulfill the requirements set by the countries you operate in. There are general rules on data privacy and data transfer for data types as well as specific regulation for certain verticals, e.g. banks. The Patriot Act per se does not prevent you from using a cloud service.
The data location matters if it comes to privacy
Have you not heard the question numerous times: “Where is my data stored?” I have and still do.
But is the storage location really relevant? If you look at privacy laws these do not speak about data location but data access. So in other terms even if I promise never to move the data out of Europe but have an system administrator in the U.S.A. who remotely manages the system it is like I have personally carried a physical copy into the U.S.A. This completely turns the perception of most folks upside down but is the way privacy laws (and I believe rightly) are constructed. So again bring the experts to the table. Interpreting the law and arguing someone else’s interpretation is an art of itself.
So what are the terms data at rest and data in transition about? This is less a privacy concern but more a discussion about encryption and external access without permission (potential hacking targets). It is an important discussion but needs to be separated from the data location and privacy concern.
To be continued … | <urn:uuid:6de15378-4302-4420-8b5a-0990a10ab2ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://clouddiscussions.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/common-misperceptions-fear-uncertainty-and-doubt/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956448 | 1,898 | 1.617188 | 2 |
AMANPOUR: Do you have regrets about Iraq?
BLAIR: You can't not have regrets about the lives lost. I mean, you would be inhuman if you didn't regret the death of so many extraordinary, brave and committed soldiers, of civilians that have died in Iraq, or die still now in Afghanistan. And of course you feel an enormous responsibility for that, not just regret. And I say in the book the concept responsibility for me has its present and future tense, not just its past tense.
AMANPOUR: I guess no surprises. There's zero apologizing for what happened in Iraq. You stick to your contention about the weapons of mass destruction, and if it wasn't weapons of mass destruction, then you say at least the byproduct would be getting rid of Saddam Hussein, and wouldn't the world be a better place without him? But you also talk about not comprehending the complexities that were going to be unleashed in Iraq. What precisely?
BLAIR: What I think we understand more clearly now is -- and this is something I didn't understand fully at the time of 9/11 -- in a sense, at that point you think there were 3,000 people killed in the streets of New York in a single day. And I still think it's important just to hold that thought in our mind, because I always say about this, the important thing is, if these people could have killed 30,000 or 300,000, they would have.
And that really changed the calculus of risk all together. But what I understand less clearly at that time was how deep this ideological movement is. -- this is actually more like the phenomenon of revolutionary communism. It's the religious or cultural equivalent of it, and its roots are deep, its tentacles are long, and its narrative about Islam stretches far further than we think into even parts of mainstream opinion who abhor the extremism, but sort of buy some of the rhetoric that goes with it.
AMANPOUR: In your book your wrote that this is not something to be combated on an electoral cycle, this will take a generation.
Do you think everybody gets it? I mean, you see President Obama now faced with drawing down in Iraq, faced with ramping up in Afghanistan, but still putting a deadline on. What sort of message does that send as to the commitment to fight this?
BLAIR: I think it's perfectly sensible to set the deadline, provided it's clear that, as it were, that is to get everyone focused on getting the job done.
But in general terms, I think the answer to your question is no, I think a lot of people don't understand that this is a generational-long struggle. and I think one of the things we've got to have and one of the debates we've got to have in the west is you know are we prepared for that, and are we prepared for the consequences of it?
AMANPOUR: on Afghanistan in your book, you say, "What's happening is really simple. Our enemies think they can outlast us. Our enemies aren't alone in thinking that. Our friends do, too. Therefore, the ordinary folk think, I should make my peace with those who are staying, not with those who are going." I mean, I was there and I saw colonels and generals and soldiers and resources being deployed from Afghanistan to Iraq, and it had an impact.
BLAIR: I mean, I think there is an issue that is perfectly legitimate to talk about there.
AMANPOUR: Do you think the Americans took their eye off the ball there? | <urn:uuid:89be2851-ff92-4d68-9ed9-704c55492195> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/week-transcript-tony-blair/story?id=11562817 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985359 | 741 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Master Facebook's Timeline With This Handy Guide
Facebook's new profile layout, Timeline, is currently rolling out to users worldwide and promises to turn your Facebook account into an online scrapbook. You can use Timeline to resurface past Facebook activity and highlight important moments in your life, including important events that happened before you joined Facebook.
(Editors Note 12/23/11: This article has been updated since it originally posted Sept. 23, 2011. It now reflects the significant changes to Timeline.)
"Timeline is the story of your life...a new way to express who you are," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in September announcing the new feature.
As its name suggests, Timeline organizes your life in reverse chronological order based on the content you've shared on your Facebook profile. The layout is designed as a dual-column view with a large main column for viewing content and a smaller one on the right for fast navigation.
If you've entered when you graduated high school or college, when you got married, when your first child was born or when you started a new job, all that data will show up in your Timeline. You can also go back and add photos and captions to important past events, or remove particularly embarrassing photos or other content from your new profile page.
Timeline is a very interesting way to experience Facebook and a great way to look at your past activity on the social network. But the new Timeline feature includes privacy implications that may give some users pause.
What A Timeline Page Looks Like
Timeline will roll out to you in one of three ways: You can activate it right now by going to Facebook.com/timeline. Alternatively, you can wait for a notification to appear in your Facebook home page and choose to activate the new profile then. Or, if you want to resist as long as possible, you can do nothing and eventually Facebook will switch over your profile for you. Whichever way you decide to do it, once Timeline rolls out to your account you will have seven days to review your Facebook Timeline before it goes live.
Next Up: Timeline Basics | <urn:uuid:a07cdaca-aacb-40fb-854b-20b6481e0fbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcworld.com/article/246946/master_facebooks_timeline_with_this_handy_guide.html?tk=rel_news | 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 | 0.935436 | 427 | 1.640625 | 2 |
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV)-- After a four-day long adoption blitz, members of the Charleston Animal Society are experiencing something they have never known: the full heart that comes from an empty shelter.
For the first time in its 138 year history, the Charleston animal Society has not one single pet available for adoption.
Over 250 cats, kittens, dogs and puppies were adopted in four days.
"I can't thank Charleston enough. The people that came in were so phenomenal," said Kay Hyman. "It was people that had good hearts and wanted to open their homes up to an animal but just didn't think they could afford it."
What changed their minds? CAS offered up all animals, adult dogs, cats, and kittens for free to adopt. Any adult cat adoption came with a gift card for a lifetime of food.
The result: For the first time in 20 years, the Charleston Animal Society shelter on Remount Road is empty.
"It gives me chills," Hyman said.
This reprieve won't last long. There are still over 200 kittens in foster care that will need homes when they come of age and animals will still be brought in, both strays and owner surrenders.
Hyman said she expects the shelter to be full again as soon as July and anyone who wants to adopt should keep an eye out for future adoption events.
*Note: the two cute little fuzzy mice in the video? They found homes too. Kay Hyman said that an employee will most likely give them a fur-ever home of their very own.
Also, if you have a new pet or just had one already, here are a couple of articles you may enjoy:
Evangelist Franklin Graham prayed on a sidewalk outside the Pentagon Thursday after his invitation to a prayer service inside was withdrawn because of comments that insulted people of other religions. More>> | <urn:uuid:0cf1502a-af7e-454b-9a2b-b93d16ffaf3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abcnews4.com/story/18863017/for-the-first-time-in-its-history-the-cas-is-empty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978183 | 390 | 1.773438 | 2 |
It does not matter if you are planning to buy a new or used car as saving money should be your top priority. In terms of vehicle insurance, one should keep in mind the following tips in order to pay the least amount on your auto insurance:
Tip 1: Avoid Getting Comprehensive Insurance on Used Cars
Sure, you love your car, right? But this does not mean that you should pamper your used car with a comprehensive insurance coverage. Kindly take note that we are not stating that you CANNOT get comprehensive coverage but we are more inclined to say that this is unnecessary for used cars that are over three to four years old.
If you can afford it, there is no reason why you should not pay a huge amount for comprehensive insurance. Just bought a used car in mint condition? Why not. As long as you are capable of keeping up with the payments then go ahead and spoil yourself silly.
Remember that you will need to consider the annual insurance cost and the value of the used car in order to determine if comprehensive or collision coverage is right for your used car. From a financial point of view, wait until you are driving a brand new car before deciding to splurge on insurance costs.
Tip #2: Increase the Deductible
Are you familiar with the deductible amount on your car insurance? This figure is the amount that you need to pay the insurance company in the event of an accident or collision. You can save anywhere from 15% to 30% on your car insurance if you simply request a higher deductible. For example, if your current deductible is around $150 to $200 then adjusting this to $500 to $1000 will help yield significant savings by as much as 45%.
Tip #3: Remain Loyal to Your Insurance Provider
If you presently have home insurance or health insurance then it is best to ask your insurance provider for their best vehicle insurance rates. Repeat customers or clients will usually be entitled to huge discounts or may be given a loyalty bonus for seeking numerous insurance services.
If you are not happy with the facts and figures that are presented to you then do not be afraid to say NO. It is best to ask for a free online quote in order to be presented with the average insurance rates in the market.
Want to find the best new or used car? Take the time to perform thorough research in order to find the best new car deals in your area. | <urn:uuid:257364ad-c4d7-4611-93d9-247c49eecbda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buyingadvice.com/how-to-lower-car-maintenance-costs-and-insurance-part-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955352 | 488 | 1.625 | 2 |
MidAmerican Energy is still considering building a new nuclear power plant as part of its long-term plans in Iowa.
MidAmerican President William Fehrman told state regulators the utility may try to build a nuclear plant at some point.
MidAmerican, which is owned by Warren Buffett's Omaha, Neb., based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is converting coal plants at Council Bluffs and Sioux City to natural gas. And it has invested heavily in 2,200 megawatts of wind power capacity.
But Fehrman says he wants to make sure MidAmerican has a diverse mix of fuels, and he's not convinced that natural gas will remain as cheap as it is now.
The utility will provide more details of its plans this summer in a report to regulators. | <urn:uuid:13b90b36-654e-4c9a-98d5-4723ce618fa6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/MidAmerican-still-weighing-future-nuclear-plant/-/9357080/18493604/-/x4urirz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972995 | 154 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The family of late New York real estate mogul/eccentric Seymour Durst is keeping his most famous contribution to society, the National Debt Clock, up and running. His son Douglas now maintains the clock, installed on a building in Manhattan, along with the Durst Organization, reports NYMag.com
“Historically, the clock is most important when no one is thinking about the debt,” company director Jordan Barowitz told the website. “It’s this silent vigil, churning away.”
The senior Durst, who died in 1995, had the clock built for $100,000 in 1989. It features the total national debt, as well as the amount that every U.S. Household would owe, theoretically. It was shut down briefly and draped in red, white, and blue back in 2000 when the debt was retreating.
In April, Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., suggested that a replica of the clock be installed on the floor U.S. House.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:26e812c3-9868-4d3c-95c6-27b17fe240b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsmax.com/US/Durst-debtclock-national/2011/05/02/id/394879 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966505 | 221 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Bicycle Network: Good Design Guides
Bike parking in strip shopping centres
Sometimes there is not enough space on the footpath to provide parking for bikes. In some situations, for example outside the Nova Cinema in Carlton, the high number of bikes can't be accommodated on the footpath. In these situations a kerb outstand bike park can offer a solution.
Port Phillip trials car-shaped bike rack
14 January 2012. A bright orange car-shaped bike rack has been installed in Bay Street, Port Melbourne as part of a trial to provide greater priority to bike riders and promote bike riding for local trips to shopping strips and precincts.
The bike rack provides ten bicycle spaces and temporarily replaces a car space in front of The Melbourne Bakehouse at 210 Bay Street, between Godfreys and Jaggers Closet shopfronts, and opposite Coles.
Mayor Cr Amanda Stevens thanked the Port Melbourne Business Association (PMBA) for kick-starting the project which is helping to promote sustainable transport in the municipality.
“Well done to the PMBA for approaching Council with the concept of being the ‘bike hub’ for the City,” she said.
“As the volume of traffic grows, bike riding provides a more effective, environmentally friendly mode of travel that uses less of the limited road and parking space than a car. Bike riding also improves the health and wellbeing of riders as they travel to work, meet up with friends for a coffee or visit local shopping strip,” she said.
The affected traders agreed to the trial, provided Council removed the Loading Zone outside 224 Bay Street, Port Melbourne and reinstated two car parking bays with 1P restrictions.
If the six-month trial is successful, the location will be converted to permanent on-street bicycle parking. The St Kilda Library in Carlisle Street, St Kilda is also being considered as a possible location and traders across the municipality will also have the opportunity to express interest in trialling the car-shaped bicycle rack.
Election opportunity for candidates to show support
16 August 2012 Bicycle Network Victoria has identified bike corrals as a local council priority for the 2012 Local Government election. Candidates should be ready to support the development and full or partial funding of corrals and can tell riders in their Council area their position by posting their candidates' statement at VoteBike.
Maribyrnong installs first bike corral in the west
20 June 2012. The City of Maribyrnong has converted a single on-street car park to space for twelve bikes to encourage more visits to local shops.
The new installation at Ballarat Rd, Yarraville, allows people to securely park their bike and do their shopping or go to the Sun Theatre which is situated opposite.
If the trial of the bike parking is successful the council will consider making the trial a permanent feature.
Congratulations to Maribyrnong Council for recognising the value that people on bikes can bring to the economic prosperity of a shopping strip.
The Anaconda design used by Maribrynong was developed by the Bike Parking Experts - www.bikeparking.com.au
Yarra Council seeks feedback on more parking
17 May 2012. The City of Yarra is seeking community feedback on proposed parking outside Piedimonte's Supermarket in North Fitzroy. The proposal is for seven bicycle hoops that will cater for 14 bikes and would replace two car parking spaces. The design will also provide space for cargo bikes and bikes with panniers.
Piedimonte’s is situated on St George's Road, a popular bike commuting route, and represents a convenient opportunity for people to combine a shopping trip with their ride home. Due to the popularity of the supermarket, it is often difficult for bike riders to find a park in the area.
Providing bike parking in former car parking spaces will provide secure places to lock a bike and also alleviate congestion on the footpath outside the supermarket. It may even encourage more locals to do their shopping by bike.
If the proposal is supported by the community, The City of Yarra aim to install the bike parking in June 2012.
This artists impression shows a potential design for the bike parking outside Piedimonte's Supermarket, North Fitzroy.
Moreland parking spirals outward
3 November 2011. The bike parking corral phenomenon continues to spiral its way across Brunswick as more road space is converted to bike parking.
An additional five corrals have been added to streets in the city of Moreland, bringing the total to seven.
The venture has proved a major success with a high level of community acceptance and usage. The corrals hold about ten bikes.
Each of the corrals has been requested by neighbouring businesses in the expectation that on-street bike parking will increase economic activity in the vicinity of the corrals.
Some car parking space has been lost. The Council has attempted to preserve car parking so far, but is prepared to convert car parking to bike parking when required.
Although the corrals use the spiral bike racks that have not always been popular with riders, evaluation by Moreland has shown no problems with the predominantly short term use period.
The new corrals are at:
- Radical Grocer, Wilson Street Brunswick
- Brunswick Baths temporary entrance during renovations, Phoenix Street Brunswick
- Café Baba, 80 Lygon Street, E Brunswick
- Kitchen Kultcha Café, Blair St and Glenlyon Rd Brunswick
- Toby’s Estate Coffee, Charles and Weston Streets, Brunswick
The Council is still fine tuning the details of these pioneering installations.
More parking for Brunswick East
15 June 2011. Moreland City continues to expand its trial of on-road bike parking in local café precincts, with the latest addition at the Lygon / Piera Street intersection.
Adjacent to the ‘Small Block’ café, the installation again uses products from Bike Parking Experts. The trial is subject to further detailed design.
Nicholas Elliot, Moreland’s Transport Coordinator states that sites with high parking volumes (amongst other factors) are good candidates for such initiatives.
The feasibility of similar projects at other locations is being further investigated by local authorities so as to provide better parking solutions for our streetscapes.
Frankston trials bike parking
27 May 2011. The City of Frankston has converted a single on-street car park to space for 10 bikes to encourage more visits to local shops.
The new installation on Wells St, the main shopping street in Frankston town centre, allows people to securely park their bike and do their shopping and go to the cinema opposite.
If the trial of the bike parking is successful the Council will consider offering the same treatment to any cafe who requests parking for more people outside their business.
Congratulations to Frankston Council for recognizing the value that people on bikes can add to the economic prosperity of the town.
Bikes OK at Brunswick Corral
7 April 2011. Another trial is underway where on-street car parking is being converted to bike parking with the aim of increasing customer numbers in local shopping precincts.
The latest initiative is in Victoria Street, Brunswick, where the City of Moreland has replaced a car single space with parking for eight bikes.
The trial, expected to last several months, is using a Bicycle Network Victoria parking rail usually utilized for event parking.
Should the trial be made permanent the space will be reconfigured with more rails.
The trend is set to catch on across Melbourne following example of Portland in the US, where the initial trials were such a success that there is now a long waiting list of businesses requesting the switch from car to bike parking outside their premises.
Visit /general/bike-parking/40489/ to find out about these types of rails.
Lygon Courts bikes - An on-street parking space for bikes generates five times the benefit of the same space for a car!
February 2009 Lygon St Carlton before and after.
An economic benefit study of the bicycle parking found that the economic benefit per square metre is $31 per hour for bikes vs $6 for cars. Even though people on bikes may spend less per vist than those travelling by car, the economic benefit per parking space per hour is higher for bike parking as many more people can park their bike in the space required for one car. See the study.
|Before: Bikes locked to street furniture outside Nova Cinema on Lygon Street.|
|During: The temporary kerb outstand holds parking for ten bikes in two car spaces.
The permanent facility will accommodate twice as many.
The temporary outstand proved popular and did not interfere with loading or access to the front of the shopping centre.
|After: It is half-price movie night at Nova Cinema and 47 bikes are parked on the kerb outstand - one week after completion.| | <urn:uuid:8ca8ed4d-3d3e-465c-bbd3-5561c7feee26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/general/bike-futures/41869/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952465 | 1,822 | 1.53125 | 2 |
- News Archive:
- The Queen's Christmas message highlights the Commonwealth’s common bond
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II opens the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia.
The Queen's Christmas message highlights the Commonwealth’s common bond
26 December 2011
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II recalls how she has been inspired by the courage and hope seen in the Commonwealth
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II spoke of how the Commonwealth is “a family of people in the truest sense” during her Christmas message.
In her annual televised speech, which was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Christmas Day, 25 December, the Queen said the Commonwealth’s 54-member nations “have always looked to the future, with a sense of camaraderie, warmth and mutual respect while still maintaining their individualism”.
“In this past year my family and I have been inspired by the courage and hope we have seen in so many ways in Britain, in the Commonwealth and around the world,” she said.
“We’ve seen that it is in hardship that we often find strength from our families; it is in adversity that new friendships are sometimes formed; and it is in a crisis that communities break down barriers and bind together to help one another.
“The Commonwealth is a family of 54 nations, all with a common bond, shared beliefs, mutual values and goals.
“It is this which makes the Commonwealth a family of people in the truest sense, at ease with each other, enjoying its shared history and ready and willing to support its members in the direst of circumstances.”
The Commonwealth will pay tribute to its shared and varied traditions through its Commonwealth Day theme, Connecting Cultures, celebrated on 12 March 2012.
During her speech, the Queen also spoke about her visit with Prince Philip to Australia where they saw the effects of natural disasters in some of the areas devastated by floods earlier this year. While in Australia, the Queen attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, held in Perth in October.
The Queen also recalled the marriages of two of her grandchildren this year and remembered those service families facing Christmas without their loved ones at home. | <urn:uuid:6a40719e-74a3-4a6f-9984-53f2f82f1cef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecommonwealth.org/news/34580/34581/243028/261211queenspeech.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956783 | 452 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Dear Governor Perry,
Yesterday I came down very hard on you in a post for your visit to the Scripps Research Institute in California and the video that was made about it.
Maybe I was a bit over the top...
However, it got me thinking.
I believe in all seriousness that you could make Texas an international leader in stem cells. As much as I personally and professionally believe in embryonic stem cell research, you do not have to publicly take such a position for you and Texas to lead the way on stem cells.
Here is my advice on the top 5 moves you could make, given with all due respect and seriousness:
1) Establish the Texas Agency on Stem Cells (TASC), a state agency on stem cells, and do it quickly: absolutely before the end of 2012. Establish a "TASC force" organizing committee, work for state funding (no taxes or initiatives to avoid challenges that CIRM faced), appoint a board, and launch this thing. Appoint a highly respected Texas researcher such as Sean Morrison or Ron DePinho to be the Chairperson of the board, but also include industry on the board (but careful who you appoint though--see #4 below). One of CIRM's leaders once told me s/he didn't like its acronym name and how it sounded. In contrast TASC is a very powerful name that could be pronounced "task" reflecting the hard work that it'll be doing. The mission statement of TASC can be something like "Working to promote Texas leadership in advancing safe and effective stem cell treatments". A relatively small influx of state cash could get the ball rolling.
2) Establish a Texas-led international human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell bank. Push for funding for this and with some luck become a world leader in this area. Ideally it would be part of TASC. There is a huge need for iPS cell banks. For example, CIRM is working in this area, but others such as Texas could and should make a major impact. In fact, Texas could be the world leader.
3) Push for a cooperative, but also healthily competitive relationship on stem cell research between Texas and California. Heck, your visit to Scripps could be the thing that gets the ball rolling on this one. Texas is a powerhouse in biomedical research including some great stem cell research and cancer stem cell research, but no state can go it alone. Not California and not Texas. Build a bridge to California. If you are really gutsy, privately reach out to CIRM even, but that is not absolutely necessary if you feel it is too politically risky for you as a GOP governor of a very conservative state. Even if you don't connect with CIRM, learn lessons from their experiences both positively and negatively.
However, don't take a back seat to us here in California. Try to make Texas the stem cell capital of the U.S. Work to recruit the top stem cell researchers to Texas. Your state already has the research chops and could likely land even more stem cell superstars in the coming years.
4) Disentangle yourself from Celltex and no matter if it pains you personally, do it publicly, and advocate for stem cell regulations that put patient safety first. You can be a fan of Celltex privately and of promoting stem cell enterprises, but many folks think it is unwise for a governor to advocate for one particular company, especially one founded by your own physician. Perhaps it is totally fine to do so, but some think it doesn't look good. This separation would take guts, but again the stem cell community would admire you for it. As a bonus, you distance yourself just in case Celltex runs into some choppy regulatory waters or has other challenges that you don't want to be in the same headline with. Also, who can argue with pushing for patient safety?
5) Advocate for the Regenerative Medicine Promotion Act. This is not an embryonic stem cell specific piece of legislation, but rather one that promotes regenerative medicine more generally and it is sponsored by your fellow GOP leader, Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA50). This puts you at the national level of promoting stem cell research.
Even if you only do some of these things, you help Texas get going on the road to competing with California to be the top dog state when it comes to stem cells. Also keep in mind that CIRM state funding will run out in a few years almost certainly and if Texas is moving aggressively now and in the next 5-10 years, Texas could become the leader. Of course I'm rooting for California, but I want what is best for Texas too and the U.S. as well as globally. Texas can be a key leader in that and so can you.
Paul Knoepfler, PhD
UC Davis School of Medicine | <urn:uuid:f9bf64f0-dfb1-414e-8aa8-1c003eedea88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.science20.com/confessions_stem_cell_scientist/top_5_ways_texas_governor_rick_perry_can_lead_world_stem_cells-90314 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96022 | 1,002 | 1.6875 | 2 |
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A concept in financial planning that can help you know whether you are saving enough for retirement. This ratio or fraction is the yearly or monthly income needed to support your lifestyle in retirement as a percentage of your compensation (and any other income) before retirement. Executives usually need 70% to 80% of the annual income they received during their working years to maintain their desired standard of living.
To calculate the income stream you will have available, you need to calculate the total amount of savings you will need in retirement, your life expectancy, and the continued gains on any remaining amounts after your withdrawals. One of the main reasons for participating in a nonqualified deferred compensation plan is that the amount of income you can accumulate with a 401(k) plan (given its limits) and your Social Security benefits may not result in a high enough income replacement ratio to support your likely spending needs in retirement. NQDC plans allow you to save much more for retirement and for other financial goals. | <urn:uuid:28b58147-2bf9-443d-8694-96b25aaafa6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mynqdc.com/glossary/supplemental-executive-retirement-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965262 | 224 | 1.5 | 2 |
Adult Nonfiction 921 F4875
Summary: Bestselling and award-winning author Suzanne Finnamore writes a story of divorce that is “brilliant” (Augusten Burroughs) and sure to become a classic. There are certain books that come to epitomize their painful subject matter, offering solace to those who share the same fate and pleasure to those who merely appreciate fine writing. What The Year of Magical Thinking did for grief, what Drinking: A Love Story did for alcoholism, now Split does for divorce. Prescriptive yet full of pragmatic advice, insight and black humor, Split is a finely wrought tourniquet for a broken union and its attendant trauma. Suzanne Finnamore, author of the novel Otherwise Engaged, didn’t see it coming. Well, perhaps she saw something—for example, a cocktail napkin on which her husband, N, had scribbled a Cole Porter love song and someone else’s name—but she refused to acknowledge it. She was busy tending to their one-year-old son, then applying makeup, donning high heels, and mixing a martini to greet N with when he arrived home at night. Until the night N came home, told her she looked beautiful, changed his clothes, and announced that he was leaving. In crystalline, riveting prose, Finnamore tells the story of her divorce, and her marriage, and how it all imploded and came back together, changed. At once quite funny, achingly sad, and unflinchingly fierce, Split will resonate with anyone who’s endured the end of a relationship.
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Add a Comment | <urn:uuid:258f7cf9-03fd-4eec-82d6-a968473992b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hclib.org/pub/bookspace/discuss/?bib=3163064&theTab=Summary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963523 | 378 | 1.507813 | 2 |
In 1984 a new ballpark opened in the southern limits of Greenville, SC for the Atlanta Braves’ Double-A team. Simply called Municipal Stadium
, it had a single entrance behind home plate, a drab interior with a symmetrical seating bowl that barely extended beyond the infield, and speakers placed on the concourse, from which sound echoed so that it was barely intelligible. No quirks, no charm and poorly located (and lighted), it was a bad ballpark.
In a decade of writing about ballparks, Greenville’s Municipal Stadium was the worst place I’ve ever seen a game at, yet that is the blueprint from which owners of the Sky Sox borrowed when they privately financed what is now called Security Service Field on the eastern edge of Colorado Springs.
Fortunately for residents of Colorado’s second largest city, what opened in 1988 as a Municipal Stadium clone has morphed into something much better than that now abandoned ballpark (the G-Braves left in 2004). Even so, Security Service Field looks like a facility that was built in 1988 and has expanded over the years to remain serviceable.
Security Service Field is a rather unassuming ballpark by Triple-A standards, thanks in part to it being the smallest of the 30 used at the minors’ highest level. With a listed capacity of 8,400, the Sky Sox’s stadium is one of just five to seat less than 10,000 in Triple-A, with the next quaintest being the 8,943-seater in Toledo.
Although it’s dead last in capacity, Security Service Field is number one in elevation. At 6,531 feet above sea level, it's the highest professional ballpark in the United States.
Unfortunately for fans, not only was the ballpark built in eastern Colorado Springs, it was built to face east, a necessary orientation made in most ballparks to ensure that the sun remains out of the batters’ eyes. But that concession to players is bad for the fans who want a scenic mountain backdrop. The state of Colorado may be noted for them, but Security Service Field isn’t as Cheyenne Mountain and Pikes Peak, both a part of the Rocky Mountain range, are to the west.
The only mountains that fans in the grandstand can view are the replica peaks of the Rockies that adorn the scoreboard in left-center field. Placed atop the 42’ high by 55’ wide structure, the decorative feature is also functional as the mountain scene lights up following each Sky Sox home run and victory. The ballpark’s scoreboard has always been in the same place, but was completely refurbished in 2007 to include a 15’ x 22’ video screen.
The modernization within the ballpark was in no way limited to the scoreboard that stands just outside of it, as renovations and enhancements have contributed heavily to the present-day experience of seeing a game at Security Service Field.
The most notable addition is the four story building down the right field line that opened in 2006. The first two floors of the building were dedicated to baseball operations needs, such as a new home clubhouse, indoor batting cages and weight training room. The upper two stories are group and hospitality areas, highlighted by the Centennial Banquet Hall, the year-round banquet facility on the fourth floor that can accommodate up to 250 people in climate controlled comforts. The banquet hall also has sliding glass doors that open up to an outdoor balcony seating area.
Fans preferring to sit outside yet still be secluded will enjoy the Coors Picnic Terrace, which extends from the four story building to the playing field. The terrace has five levels, each of them accommodating approximately 100 people on outdoor patio-style tables and chairs. The third floor of the building serves as a concourse for fans in the picnic terrace, who along with banquet hall ticket holders are the only ones that can access it.
While the four story building, which has no official name so it must be referred to as such, is fairly novel, the addition of a hot tub upon a wooden deck down the right field line has become a common ballpark amenity over the years. Colorado Springs’ holds eight and includes a bottle of champagne for those who rent it. But the Sky Sox make it a point that “all other alcoholic beverages are not permitted in the spa area.”
Alcohol flows freely throughout the rest of the ballpark. Coors and Coors Light are a natural fit and local microbrews are among a wide variety found on tap.
Concession fare is about what you’d normally expect, with one notable and decadent exception, as a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is nestled just inside of the ballpark’s single entrance behind home plate. ‘
Upon entering, fans can grab a free copy of The Inside Pitch, a neat little full color program that lists the “eats & treats” found at the handful of concession stands within the ballpark.
Baseball fans should visit the Hall of Fame Bar & Grill along the third base concourse. The menu isn’t much – bar food are staples – but the décor that adorns the walls is dedicated to great moments and players in Sky Sox history. The featured display gives the bar and grill its name, as framed jerseys with descriptive plaques beneath tell the story of each man that’s been enshrined into the team’s Hall of Fame.
The first inductee into the Sky Sox Hall of Fame was Luis Medina, who hit 76 home runs during parts of four seasons with the team, and he and all other honored individuals are celebrated with circular markers on the façade of the luxury suites erected behind home plate.
The 18 skyboxes that make up the suite level are also responsible for the only shade in the ballpark, as they cover all fans standing in the concourse below. Otherwise, the only roofs on site are the green awnings outside of the ballpark, one of which shades those buying tickets at the box office.
Fans purchasing tickets in the grandstand have the option of box or reserved seats. The two sections are split by a mid-level aisle. The 2,536 box seats below it are painted green and have cup holders attached. The reserved seats above the aisle are aluminum bleachers with red-hued backs.
The main concourse is above the grandstand and open to the playing field, a fan-friendly design ahead of its time for a ballpark that harkens to the 1980s. In a departure from the modern norm, members of the media work from a press box on the concourse level rather than having a perch above it.
The concourse wraps as much as the stadium as it’s allowed. The four story building is the ending point in right, but the concourse extends most of the length of the left field line, where it’s home to the Fun Zone, a pay-for-play spot for kids that has inflatables and a speed pitch cage.
Below the Fun Zone is a sizeable grassy hill. It’s only from the berm that fans can enjoy glimpses of the mountains to the ballpark’s west.
One mistake that this ballpark copied from Greenville but failed to correct was their idea of a sound system. In each, speakers were not attached high up light towers as is custom. Instead, they’re haphazardly strung together on poles behind the last row of seats in the grandstand. This concourse level placement of the speakers ensures their audio is muffled and most PA announcements are difficult to understand as a result.
Perhaps the most distinguishing feature at Security Service Field is the concrete steps at both ends of the grandstand. The ones on the first base side have no use, but the stairs between the third base grandstand and berm are the sole means for the visiting team’s players to get between the playing field and their clubhouse. Only a chain link fence separates fans from the players, so autograph and photo opportunities are guaranteed there.
Intimacy such as that is the one aspect this ballpark truly gets right. The grandstand is close to the playing field and, because it only extends two sections beyond each dugout, all fans are close to the action, especially those in the box seats.
Fans in the berm can stand directly behind where the visiting team’s pitchers sit in their bullpen, which is cut into the bottom of the grassy hill. The Sky Sox bullpen isn’t as accessible, as it’s wedged between the hot tub deck and where the tarp is stored in foul territory down the right field line.
All fans are pretty much guaranteed a close encounter with the Sky Sox’s mascot if they desire. Sox the Fox is easy to spot wherever he is in the ballpark, partially because it’s so small and he has less room to roam as the confines of Security Service Field end at the foul poles.
Not far beyond the ad covered outfield walls lies the plains upon which urban sprawl has encroached. The fairway of the 12th hole of the Springs Ranch golf course is visible behind left field and further in the distance endless rows of tract housing dominate the landscape. The right field wall contains two digital displays, one for the time and the other listing the MPH of each pitch. Beyond that wall is a crater-like basin where run-off from a creek collects.
While certainly not an eyesore, the exterior of Security Service Field is underwhelming. It’s constructed of sandstone colored brick, each the size of a cinder block. A cul-de-sac near the main entrance allows fans to be dropped off in an area covered by a slanted green awning. The portion of the exterior that towers above the rest is the four story building, which is the dominant focal point for all who park in the general parking lot. Because it was built on a slightly downward sloping hill, the backside of all four stories are exposed. The building’s attractive facade and manicured landscaping give it the air of a main entrance, but only banquet hall or terrace ticket holders will be admitted after climbing the two flights of stairs that must be ascended to arrive at the building’s glass doors.
Getting fans to come to the ballpark has been a problem for the front office in Colorado Springs. In 2008 the Sky Sox finally topped 300,000 in home attendance for the first time, but the 303,048 fans that came through the Security Service Field turnstiles ranked the team just 28th out of 30 in Triple-A. Only the Richmond Braves and Tucson Sidewinders drew less, and both teams moved following the season.
To encourage locals to support their home team management has made wallet-friendly offers an annual addendum to the Colorado Springs promotional schedule. Such staples include $2 Tuesdays (tickets, parking and beer are just two bucks) and 50¢ hot dogs on Sundays. The Sky Sox also tout bonus books, which are undated vouchers sold at deep discounts.
While many teams use their ballpark as their main draw the Sky Sox promote affordability to bring fans to theirs. Security Service Field is nowhere near the wonderland that ballparks built since 1988 have become, but the millions of dollars the team has poured into upgrades in the 21st century have clearly set it apart from what it once was.
Although it still bears some resemblance to what I disliked so much at the old yard in Greenville, the modified Colorado Springs version doesn’t leave the same negative impression. But the problem with Security Service Field is that you don’t get the type of ballpark you’d expect at the Triple-A level, nor do you get views of the area’s signature and nearby mountain ranges. That makes a visit to this ballpark disappointing.
Security Service Field may be the highest ballpark in the country, but the home of the appropriately named Sky Sox will never rank very high compared to its lower elevation brethren. What Colorado Springs has is a functional ballpark, but not much more. And in this day and age we all expect more.
Location and Parking
The live, work, play concept predates the ballpark by a about a decade, but Security Service Field feels like an unplanned version of it. When it opened in 1988, the Sky Sox's stadium was an oasis in an area of emptiness. That's no longer the case. Growth around the ballpark has exploded to the point where it almost gets lost in all the surrounding development, which includes just about every chain a diner or shopping could desire. Red Robin, Target, you name it and you'll drive by it en route to the ballpark, which is about a mile east of I-25.
In addition to all the places to spend money, neighborhoods full of tract housing popped up on the once barren plains beyond the outfield. Those residents can enjoy the entertainment the Sky Sox provide or choose to tee off on the public golf course that passes between the ballpark and their residences. Completing the recreation trifecta is Sandcreek Stadium, a small soccer venue elevated about 10 feet above and behind the baseball stadium's main entrance.
Parking lots flank both sides of Security Service Field, but the eastern lot (third base side) is reserved for pass-bearing season ticket holders. A large paved lot on the west (first base) side is where the masses park. There's only one road in and out of that lot, so traffic congestion can be a problem if large crowds are present.
The Sky Sox franchise is an original member of the Pacific Coast League, which began operation in 1903. The team which came into being as the Sacramento Solons in 1903 moved to Honolulu and became the Islanders in 1961 before finally returning to the mainland and Colorado Springs in 1988.
Upon their return to the continental US the franchise took the name of the last pro team to play in the city. The original Sky Sox were a Single-A team in the Western League from 1950–1958. They played in downtown Colorado Springs at Spurgeon Field, which is where the reborn Sky Sox would find themselves for 19 games in 1988 when financing difficulties first threatened then delayed construction on Sky Sox Stadium.
When David Elmore, who owns the team to this day, moved the franchise from Hawaii to Colorado it was agreed he would be responsible for building a new ballpark. In need of land, Elmore struck a deal with a private developer, AmWest, whereby he was deeded 15 acres of a 90-acre parcel that was zoned for park use. AmWest received a $234,000 tax credit from the city for their good deed.
The city of Colorado Springs also agreed to compensate Elmore a half million dollars in return for him agreeing to a joint-use agreement that allowed the city to use the stadium for 180 days per year through 2002. Most of the $500,000 that the city paid Elmore came from a tourism fund that dated to 1976.
For his part, Elmore needed to secure a $1.5 million loan to start construction on the stadium, which was scheduled to begin January 4, 1988 and set to be completed on April 21. But it wasn't until March 15 that a local resident named Gary Loo agreed to finance the stadium in return for a 20% equity stake in the stadium corporation.
Two months behind schedule, there was no way the new stadium would be ready in time for the start of the 1988 PCL season. The league thereby scheduled the Sky Sox to play their first eight home games 1,081 miles from Colorado Springs in Yuma, Arizona's Desert Sun Stadium, the then spring training home of the Padres.
Home ballpark #2 for the 1988 Sky Sox was where the Sky Sox of 1958 had played, Spurgeon Field, which was in a larger city park called Memorial Park. The location was so residential that beer sales weren't allowed at the ballpark. Even worse, the lighting at the 5,000-seat field was so antiquated that all games had to be played during the afternoon.
Finally, on June 18 the beer would be able to flow and the Sky Sox could play under the lights at their new home, which cost $3.4 million to build and just 80 days to construct. Simply called Sky Sox Stadium, an overflow crowd of 8,763 showed up on its opening night but the Sky Sox never really did, losing to the Tucson Toros 14-6.
Initially a Cleveland Indians affiliate, the Sky Sox became a part of the Colorado Rockies' family in 1993 when Major League Baseball expanded to Denver.
In February 2005 expansion and renovation plans for Sky Sox Stadium were announced, along with a new name. Thanks to a "partnership agreement" with Security Service Federal Credit Union all enhancements would be privately financed and the stadium rebranded Security Service Field.
The chief additions to the ballpark were a four story banquet hall and five-tier picnic terrace. Locally based Barnes Architects and Bryan Construction were hired to design and build the add-ons. Among the other areas receiving upgrades were the main gate area, the luxury suite level, and player and umpire facilities.
In March 2007 the stadium's original scoreboard was replaced with a state-of-the-art one from Daktronics. The new scoreboard was the final major piece in a series of renovations that significantly spiffed up the place and when all was said and done the Sky Sox had spent about $8.5 million to make their old home new again. | <urn:uuid:bc054523-f8dc-4c19-a705-43519697bf33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baseballpilgrimages.com/AAA/coloradosprings.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966753 | 3,609 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Fifteen minutes after entering the "June Couloir" of Williams Peak, Nick and I knew we were in danger. Cookie sized rocks strafed our heads as we screamed up the soft ice. The size of the falling debris multiplied as the clock struck 9:00. While pondered this, a larger projectile exploded to Nick's right sending dozens of smaller pieces flying in every direction. "Let's bail" we said in unison.
The name "June Couloir" is short for "You-will-likely-die-if-you-try-to-climb-this-on-a-hot-day-in-June Couloir". A warm night in the Sawtooth valley did not help the situation. The route needs to be climbed in sub freezing weather.
Nick and I quickly rappelled 200 feet to distance ourselves from the disintegrating cliff above. "What should we do now?" Plagued by the guilt of wussing out, our gaze turned to an amazing white couloir nearby which had the potential to redeem us from the shame of retreat. We launched ourselves up this safe feature. The Redemption Couloir is east of the June Couloir. It is 40 degrees and capped by a small cornice between two stable rock walls.
After clearing the cornice, we lunched in sunshine and scanned the cliffs above. I immediately mis-remembered a passage from the guidebook which I wrongly believed stated that the east ridge of Williams Peak was only a third class scramble. It sure looked harder than that, but we figured "What the heck. We'll give it a go."
Soon we were third classing rock that was actually fifth class and beginning to get concerned. Our ropes and hardware were nestled snuggly in our packs as we climbed higher and higher without protection. Finally, I called up "Nick, throw me down a rope."
Nick responded "Not now, I need to concentrate."
"Fair enough" I thought.
A shout of relief and joy soon followed. The end of a rope came into view. "Sorry, I was forced to do a V4 move over the NE Face" Nick, an avid boulder, explained. For the next 500 feet, we stayed roped up, occasionally belaying on the trickier sections. In short order, we were at the top of the our earlier abandoned quest, the June Couloir. We gazed over the edge at the loose final pitch. On cue, a large rock tumbled down the NE face, and crashed into the couloir before rumbling down to the valley below. We felt vindicated.
A stop on the windy summit and a fine glissade of the SE Face brought us back to the trail and safety.
The June Couloir is in the center of Williams Peak. The Redemption Couloir is to the left and so it the East Ridge.
Bombs away! Nick in the lower June Couloir.
The wonderful white Redemption Couloir
The East Ridge didnt look third class.
The top of the June Couloir was full of loose rocks.
Lets go home! | <urn:uuid:e42d5f9d-06ea-4eca-85b6-25d48d92d0a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.network54.com/Forum/105717/message/1340079156/Williams+Peak+-+the+wild+way | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964459 | 641 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Feb. 17, 2012
Bearcat Peer Education sponsors Body Image Awareness Week
In recognition of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Feb. 20-24, Bearcat Peer Education, is sponsoring a variety of events and opportunities for peer interaction at Northwest Missouri State University in an effort dubbed Body Image Awareness Week.
An estimated 5 percent of Americans will suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their lifetime, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Bearcat Peer Education, a student-led organization that works to educate the Northwest community on a variety of health and wellness topics, encourages people to be aware of behaviors and actions that could increase the risk of a loved one developing an eating disorder and to simply embrace the beauty of themselves and everyone around them.
Activities throughout the week are designed to raise awareness among Northwest students and employees of eating disorders and body image as well as the importance of exercise.
In addition, Northwest residence halls will host the Great Jeans Giveaway. The promotion highlights the facts that body size and shape are influenced by biological factors and calls attention to some new discoveries of the role genetics play in the development of eating disorders. The goal of the Great Jeans Giveaway is to encourage people to be comfortable in their genes by wearing comfortable jeans. Students will have an opportunity to donate their jeans and other clothing by placing items in boxes located in the lobby areas of each residence hall. Donations will collected by 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24.
Other events include:
“Reflections” (11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20, in the J.W. Jones Student Union Information Center, located on the second floor)
Counselors from Northwest’s Personal Development and Counseling Center will conduct eating disorder assessments. Bearcat Peer Educators also will distribute information regarding body image.
“Perceptions” (11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, in the Student Union lower level)
The day’s events are designed to inspire members of the Northwest community to assess how they view others and define their perception of beauty. Bearcat Peer Educators are partnering with the Psychology/Sociology Society to provide quotes from some of society’s icons and solicit quotes from members of Bearcat nation as well as place quotes in Northwest residence halls.
Also, at 3:45 p.m. in Colden Hall 3350, Health Educator Jen Kennymore and Campus Dining Dietician Shelby Wilmes will give a presentation about eating disorders, signs and symptoms, treatment options and local resources where people can seek more information. Using real world statistics and national campaigns like Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty,” Kennymore and Wilmes will address positive body image messaging.
“Operation Beautiful” (11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, in the Student Union lower level)
As a part of a national campaign to promote healthy body image, students are encouraged to post reminders to themselves and their peers that they are all beautiful no matter their body type. Students are invited to post anonymous notes in public places for other people to find.
“Shake It Up!” (11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, in the Student Union lower level)
Participants are invited to “bust a move to a healthier you.” Physical wellness comes in all body types, but it also requires consistent physical activity to maintain. Information about daily exercise routines and proper nutrition will be provided along with a chance to “shake your groove thing” with hula hoops and jump ropes.
“Don't Diet, Live! Enjoy Your Day, Love Yourself, Eat How You Like” (Friday, Feb. 24, in the Student Union, sponsored by Campus Dining)
Bearcat Peer Educators will promote four ideals in an effort to help people realize it is OK to indulge every once and awhile and take a day to treat themselves.
- Doubt the idea of one "right" body shape.
- Raise awareness to weight discrimination, size bias and fatphobia.
- Declare a free day from diets and obsessions to body weight.
- Remember: Beauty is the way you feel, not what you weigh.
For more information, please contact:
Mark Hornickel, Media Relations Specialist
[email protected] | 660.562.1704 | Fax: 660.562.1900
Northwest Missouri State University
215 Administration Building | 800 University Drive | Maryville, MO 64468 | <urn:uuid:45151cfb-9120-4ee3-82a0-7f5332e80493> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwmissouri.edu/media/news/2012/02/17bodyimageawareness.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930906 | 964 | 1.835938 | 2 |
A trio of real estate agents in the St. John’s area say Ottawa’s new mortgage rules won’t send the local housing market into a deep freeze — but first-time homebuyers may have to lower their expectations.
On Monday, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced new mortgage qualifying rules designed to curb household debt — reducing the maximum mortgage period to 30 years and the amount Canadians can borrow against their homes to 85 per cent.
They take effect March 18.
Jim Burton, manager of ReMax Plus Realty, said the changes are designed to protect homebuyers, and consumers will have to adapt to the new mortgage reality.
That’s especially true for first-time buyers.
“They may have to aim a little lower in their price-range to qualify after March 18.”
By way of example, he said the new rules will mean the buyer of a $300,000 house is looking at a mortgage of about $285,000.
“They need $4,000 more to qualify on a 30-year amortization versus a 35-year amortization,” he said.
“They’re going to have to look for something that fits their price range. They may have to look at something a little lower priced, if you use this example.”
Burton said the average resale price for existing homes in the St. John’s area is $251,000. For new homes, it’s about $335,000.
His real-estate advice?
“We see the market having good legs. This is a time to be prudent.
“Anybody out there right now, I would highly recommend locking in long term. There’s lenders offering five-year money at 3.69 per cent.
“Look at the amortization schedule, make it fit your budget.”
Bruce Mullett, broker for Exit Realty on the Rock, described the mortgage changes as “probably the least obtrusive” Flaherty could have made.
“I don’t think it’s actually going to hamper the overall market that we’re experiencing in St. John’s and in the whole province.”
Mullett said he figures the rule changes could cost first-time homebuyers about $100 per month.
“That makes a difference to some people when you’re starting out for the first time,” he said.
“With the market being very active in the St. John’s metro area, it’s going to mean that their expectations are probably going to have to come down just a little bit to get into that affordability area.”
On a $300,000 home, a 30-year mortgage at four per cent interest will cost a homebuyer an extra $105 per month, according to the federal government. It also said the homebuyer will save $41,850 in interest over the life of that mortgage.
Glenn Larson, manager of Royal LePage Professionals 2000, says the mortgage changes will have a bigger impact on over-heated housing markets in Toronto and Vancouver.
He figures the St. John’s area market will weather the tightened-up rules.
“Somebody may not qualify for as big a house, so they may adjust their thought process there,” said Burton.
“They’re tightening up things so people don’t get into financial difficulty, which I agree with.
“I’ve got no argument with what Jim Flaherty has done today.”
First-time homebuyers will feel the biggest impact.
“The new buyer — that’s who’s going to hurt the most.
“But, again, we’re not Toronto or Vancouver. Our average price is $250,000, so amortizing on that is not like amortizing 35 years on $1 million.”
During the last few months of 2010, the housing market in St. John’s and surrounding areas has slowed slightly — something that was predicted last spring.
“The market did slow down slightly in the latter quarter of last year,” said Mullett. “It wasn’t unexpected.”
Last spring, both the Canadian Real Estate Association and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) forecast a slow fourth quarter in 2010.
Both Burton and Mullett say the first few weeks of January have been brisk for their companies.
“Our agents are more active in January than we experienced last year at this time,” Mullett said.
“Out of the gate for 2011, it’s been busy,” Burton added.
“For the last couple of weeks, the market has been brisk — much busier than it was in November and December.”
Burton said ReMax is forecasting house prices will rise this year by as much as eight per cent.
CMHC, on the other hand, is forecasting house-price appreciation of three per cent.
“Anytime you see population growth, income growth and employment growth, that leads to higher consumer confidence and people tend to get out and spend money,” Burton said. | <urn:uuid:f7c67652-1a65-4a53-87ad-c2c79b6f84cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetelegram.com/Business/2011-01-18/article-2124796/Mortgage-rules-won%26rsquot-cool-market/1 | 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 | 0.951456 | 1,124 | 1.5 | 2 |
Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle Security, called the massive update "daunting, again".
Four of the 16 updates were tagged with Microsoft's 'critical' label, the highest threat ranking in its four-step scoring system. Another 10 were marked 'important', the second-highest rating, while the remaining pair were labeled as 'moderate'.
Nine of the updates could be exploited by attackers to inject malicious code into vulnerable PCs, Microsoft said in its usual bare-bones advance notification of the updates scheduled for release October 12. Microsoft often labels remote code executable bugs - the most dangerous - as important when the vulnerable components are not switched on by default or when other mitigating factors, such as defensive measures like ASLR and DEP, may protect some users.
Next week's Patch Tuesday is a record on almost every count.
The 16 updates - Microsoft dubs them 'bulletins' - are a record, beating the count from August 2010 by two. The 49 individual patches easily exceeds the single-month record of 34, which was first set in October 2009 and repeated in this past June and August.
Microsoft has been shipping alternating large and small batches of fixes, with the larger-sized updates landing in even-numbered months, so October's big numbers shouldn't come as a shock. In August, for example, the company issued 14 bulletins patching 34 vulnerabilities. September's batch , however, included 9 bulletins that fixed 11 flaws.
"I have a theory about the large October updates," said Storms, pointing out that Microsoft released 13 bulletins and patched 34 vulnerabilities in the month last year, and issued 12 updates and fixed 21 flaws in October 2008.
"It's the year-end financial and retail push by most companies, which go into lockdown mode the last two months of the year, when they don't update their systems," he said.
Twelve of the 16 bulletins are aimed at Windows, either the desktop or server editions, or in some cases both. Two from next week's slate affect Office - Word and Excel, specifically - and are likely patches for one or more file format vulnerabilities in those applications, said Storms.
One of the bulletins will address a problem in SharePoint, Microsoft's enterprise-grade collaboration server software. According to the advance notification, the SharePoint update will be related in some way to Office Web Apps, the online editions of Microsoft's Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote applications.
Other than the sheer number of updates users will have to apply, Storms also noted that several apply to the newest versions of Microsoft's operating system, Windows 7 on the desktop and Windows Server 2008 R2 on the server side.
Both have been patched numerous times since their introduction last year.
Nine of Tuesday's Windows updates will apply to Windows 7 - including all three of those marked critical - while Windows Server 2008 R2 will also receive nine updates, two of them critical.
While Microsoft has touted Windows 7 as its most-secure OS ever, and wants Windows XP users to ditch the nine-year-old software for the new edition, fewer of next week's updates apply to the aged operating system than to Windows 7. XP will be affected by eight of the 13 bulletins, and just two of the three pegged as critical.
The critical IE update will affect IE6, IE7 and IE8. Microsoft did not reply to questions about whether it will also update IE9, which was released as a beta three weeks ago.
"It's the token IE update, and totally expected," said Storms. Microsoft has been patching IE on an every-other-month schedule for some time, and last fixed flaws in the browser two months ago.
Microsoft did not say whether next week's updates would include fixes for vulnerabilities that could be exploited by 'DLL load hijacking' attacks .
Also called "'binary planting' by some researchers, the attacks leverage design flaws in Windows applications to place malicious files on PCs disguised as DLLs (dynamic link libraries), then have them execute automatically.
Although several vendors have patched their programs to deflect DLL load hijacking attacks, Microsoft has declined to confirm whether any of its applications are vulnerable, and if so, which ones.
Researchers, however, have claimed that IE, Word, PowerPoint and a number of lesser-known Microsoft-made Windows programs are flawed and should be updated.
Even minus a round of DLL patching, next week's updates will stress out IT administrators, said Storms.
"It doesn't look entirely complex," he said. "There's no Exchange update, or SQL Server or IIS. But it will be daunting...again. The overwhelming part is for those organisations that do their due diligence, and test before they deploy the updates."
Other vendors have recently issued large updates. Adobe, for instance, pushed a 23-patch update for its popular Reader PDF viewing software to users earlier this week.
"I continue to harp on Apple for their giant numbers [in their security updates]," said Storms. "Then I look here and realise I can't give Microsoft any breaks this month." | <urn:uuid:4821af97-ecdd-4b9d-8287-7e18427ec8b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/software/3242944/microsoft-to-fix-49-flaws-in-record-security-update/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951775 | 1,057 | 1.507813 | 2 |
To tone and tighten your arms like Hudson, do arm circles with light weights. Hold your arms in front of your body in a V-shape with two-pound weights in each hand. Do ten small circles in each direction. Focus on keeping your arms long and stretched out. Keep a little bend in your elbow to avoid joint pain. For a complete arm workout do more than one set. Continue to open your arms wider and repeat until you're at the edge of your peripheral vision then work your way back in. It should be a total of no more than 60 circles out and 60 circles in.
Two-pound hand weights, $8.92, amazon.com
"Little two-pound hand weights are always great to have around the house, even one-pound weights if you travel," says Stuart. | <urn:uuid:5f47227d-d4b6-464d-bfbd-69f98ee064ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.instyle.com/instyle/package/general/photos/0,,20397988_20225469_20562107,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940949 | 166 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Competition regulator OKs Telstra channel union
Australia’s competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, has proposed allowing collective bargaining by Telstra stores.
Telstra’s licensed stores – creatively named T-Shops – operate under a model in which the licensee is granted the right to use Telstra branding and has to install a fitout that complies with Telstra’s approved style.
The draft determination issued by the ACCC would grant the TLS (Telstra Licensed Stored) Association the right to negotiate with Telstra on its members’ behalf.
Under Australia’s competition laws – particularly the Competition and Consumer Act – businesses are normally prohibited from acting as a collective to prevent the formation of cartels. The ACCC is, however, able to make exemptions if it believes it will not damage competition.
In the case of the TLS Association, the regulator says it believes collective bargaining “should bring cost savings for TLSA members”. It proposes a five-year authorization for the collective bargaining arrangements, with the draft submission open for comments until February 4. | <urn:uuid:cf668924-b83f-400e-ad55-682d2aa2d3ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/20/telstra_accc_tlsa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943122 | 226 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Each year, many offenders "max out" of prison. This means that due to sentencing guidelines, the individual will have no parole. For severely mentally ill offenders, leaving prison without parole can be a recipe for failure, as parole requirements provide them with structured support services and oversight in the community.
That's what happened to William Bryan Stokes, 29, who goes by Bryan. He maxed out in August 2008 after serving a 21-month sentence for stealing two cars. Stokes had been in prison twice before for robbery and receiving stolen goods. Each time he was released, Stokes returned to his hometown of Ashtabula, a small city along Lake Erie's coastline in northeast Ohio.
Stokes, diagnosed as schizoaffective, says when he moved back to Ashtabula he was unable to find work and had difficulty affording his medications and dealing with the stresses of everyday life. Stokes, who is a cutter and has a long history of psychiatric hospitalizations starting at age 12, deteriorated into a psychotic state. He became estranged from his family and homeless. He drank, smoked marijuana and roamed the city at night committing crimes.
While Stokes was in prison for the third time, Bridgeview Manor, a residential treatment facility for the severely mentally ill, opened in Ashtabula. When he came out of prison, Stokes received a placement there and after a period of adjustment that included a move to a friend's apartment and an arrest for an old warrant, he is doing very well.
He credits the support of the Bridgeview Manor staff -- his case manager helped get the charge against him dismissed -- and the on-site daily mental health groups with helping him to remain stable in the community. He receives Social Security, Medicaid covers his medications, and he is friendly with the other Bridgeview Manor residents. Stokes, who was aware of the cycle of incarceration he was caught in but felt unable to escape, says that he now feels free: "I beat it."
UPDATE: Stokes did well at Bridgeview Manor for over two years, but in October 2010 he decided he wanted to live on his own and moved out. Within weeks he stopped taking his medications. Stokes is now back in jail facing assault charges. | <urn:uuid:7d186de2-54b8-46bd-8ef5-dd70b90a0210> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/released/stories/stokes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988211 | 459 | 1.539063 | 2 |
A Northumberland farmer is taking on the cutting edge of retailing following the opening of a new meat cutting and processing plant with the help of Defra's Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES).
The plant will enable organic farmer Steve Ramshaw to expand his own business Northumbrian Quality Meats, processing his own range of organic beef and lamb products, and to help fellow farmers keen to take advantage of the growing market for niche meat products.
Sir Don Curry, chairman of the Government's Sustainable Farming and Food Implementation Group and a Northumberland farmer, was invited to conduct the official opening of the new plant at Monkridge Hill Farm, in the Northumberland Hills, on Sunday, (31 July 2005).
Mr Ramshaw explained:
"We have invested in the new plant to allow us to expand our own business and provide a service to other farmers in the area wanting to process their meat to sell direct to consumers.
"We've also added state of the art cookers and will be launching a new range of organic meat products, including pies, pates and smoke meats, under the Northumbrian Quality Meats brand later in the year.
"We've already proved that by processing your own meat and selling direct you can add greater value and ensure a more sustainable and profitable business. We specialise in organic meat, which includes our award-winning Aberdeen Angus organic beef and Scottish blackface lamb as well as a complimentary range of rare-breed organic pork and poultry and have an ever-growing number of customers.
"The growing popularity of Farmers' Markets and direct sales of high quality produce has given farmers more and more opportunities to get involved in offering personalised products and our new plant will enable us to meet that demand and expand further, while also helping other farmers, both organic and conventional, who want to explore this avenue of business and add value to their own primary produce.
"The support we've had from Defra, both financially and in strategic help and advice has been greatly appreciated and we see working alongside Defra in the future as a key part of our business. The changes in farming and subsidies means we have to become more proactively involved in the promotion of our products."
Adrian Vass, an adviser at the Rural Development Service in the North East, which delivers RES on behalf of Defra, said:
"The Rural Enterprise Scheme is designed to help farmers and other rural businesses who wish to diversify and adapt to ensure a sustainable and profitable rural economy.
"Mr Ramshaw has already shown the determination and innovation needed to succeed and is now expanding his business. At the same time, this new processing plant will give other farmers the opportunity to develop their own businesses by concentrating on producing a quality product and working closely with consumers to find new markets for their products. | <urn:uuid:b79d0d2e-e2cb-4fe9-87c6-e911a1af108d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stackyard.com/news/2005/08/DEFRA/rural_enterprise_scheme.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962053 | 570 | 1.625 | 2 |
Report: CIA Spooked by Israel
U.S. national security officials consider Israel to be, at times, "a frustrating ally and a genuine counterintelligence threat," an Associated Press investigative report reveals.
The report quotes U.S. officials' claims that Israeli agents have carried out intrusions into the homes of CIA Israel station chiefs in the past decade. In addition, it says, "Israel has been implicated in U.S. criminal espionage cases and disciplinary proceedings against CIA officers and blamed in the presumed death of an important spy in Syria for the CIA during the administration of President George W. Bush."
As a matter of fact, the CIA considers Israel "its No. 1 counterintelligence threat" in the Middle East, according to current and former officials quoted by AP.
A text message Saturday from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the report "false."
An Israeli spokesman in Washington told AP that "Israel's intelligence and security agencies maintain close, broad and continuous cooperation with their U.S. counterparts. They are our partners in confronting many mutual challenges. Any suggestion otherwise is baseless and contrary to the spirit and practice of the security cooperation between our two countries." | <urn:uuid:bfaa44a0-82ef-4ac8-9c9a-802db3e6599b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/158362 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958752 | 242 | 1.59375 | 2 |
- Faith & Family
Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Baptists of South Florida came together to pray for unity from Jan.18 – Jan.25, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The Christians of different denominations exchanged dialogue and guidance as they opened their places of worship during the week, celebrating their similarities and acknowledging their differences.
Although the week of unity has been celebrated for more than 100 years, just as it has this year, the celebration probably always leaves people wondering: Will Christian denominations ever come together and create one church?
In response to this lingering question, denominational leaders of the Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal, Baptist and the Church of the First Born discuss Christian unity and it being unnecessary for Christians to form one church.
“I’m more interested in our becoming the body of Christ than one denomination,” Rev. Henry Green, a presiding elder of the A.M.E. church, said. “We’re all a part of the family of God. We celebrate our common ground; our interpretations and our theology may be different, but our belief system is central to Christ.”
Bishop Leopold Frade of the Diocese of Southeast Florida agreed that Christian denominations “have a call to a common mission.”
“I believe that we should seek to have multiple expressions of practice and work together as our Lord wanted: ‘That we all may be one,’” he said. “One family may be one and still have many members in it that are not uniform and not necessarily all the same.”
Following in Jesus’ footsteps
Both Frade and Green mentioned Jesus’ disciples when discussing the differences of churches.
“When you look at the early followers, they had different interpretations of the same event in the life of Jesus,” Green said. “So as long as [we] are people, there are going to be differences in vision and mission statements as it relates to the ministry of Jesus Christ.”
Frade said Jesus called his apostles to continue his ministry by calling others, teaching the faith, and baptizing people around the world from Britain, North Africa, Rome, Constantinople, India and other parts of Asia.
“The missionary expansion was not done by one unified organization but by multiple groups from different nations,” he said. “Maybe they were not called denominations but it was the base for different practices for that faith.”
Many interpretations, one truth?
Gary Hoffenden, pastor of Grace Church of the First Born, also believes that “there really is a single Christian faith,” although there are many churches and denominations, he said. He believes that there would be issues of power and authority, and having many different denominations all of
these years would make it even more difficult to have one church.
Hoffenden said that having different churches has helped Christians because it offers people a large variety of access “to church fellowship and to God,” but it may also confuse some because they may wonder “which church is the right church?”
“It is not that the differences are important, it is what we believe, practice and teach,” Rev. Johnny L. Barber II, the moderator of the Florida East Coast Baptist said. “However, there are growing hybrid non-denominational congregations that people who were not exposed to formalized or denominational worship, flock to.”
“Forcing one single patriarch that is not the ‘final infallible decider’ is not what we read in the Holy Scriptures,” Frade said. “We can be one in the midst of our many expressions of faith and there are many ways that we express that faith in our daily practice.”
Green agreed, saying “I believe that as long as the church of the denomination that we are a part of is Bible-based and Christ-focused, I don’t believe the differences are that important.”
By Malika A. Wright | <urn:uuid:2c914557-d5ad-4550-92e5-0bc52b2b7514> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://miamitimesonline.com/christian-churches-discuss-merging-faith-into-one/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972979 | 853 | 1.554688 | 2 |
There exist in this world certain things that are just inherently creepy. There are critters that abide in the deepest depths of the oceans with sightless eyes and fearsome teeth, while there are those creatures that walk on Earth with physiologies that defy explanation. It is with some surprise, then, that one of the creepiest creations in the world comes straight from the human imagination.
The ’80s were a wonderful time for pop culture. Disco was dead, movies were defined by “Star Wars”, and “He-Man and the Masters Of the Universe” proved absolutely anything could be made into a half-hour toy commercial. Unfortunately, the ’80s proved that last one deeply, painfully true with these five who never should have been near an animation studio.
Question for ya. What’s bright red, has a plate with the numbers “313,” and is owned by a giant duck with a sailor shirt and cap? Guess Donald Duck’s car? Winner, winner! Duck-filled dinner! Donald Duck’s car has become a trademark for the comic character and is well known all over the planet.
Before the 1980s, vehicles were relatively scarce for action figure toy lines. This was mostly because most action figures of the era were 8”-12” tall, so in-scale vehicles were expensive, both for the producers and for the consumers.
These tiny robots, created by Jenn and Tony Bot, may look edible, but believe you me, they are not. I found that out the hard way. | <urn:uuid:01767ca5-89e4-4c22-81d2-8e517afd70e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thisblogrules.com/category/fun/page/42 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980874 | 324 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Anton Tanumihardja, a native of Indonesia, is facing a deportation deadline of Feb. 14, a move that would tear him away — possibly permanently — from partner Brian Andersen, a Philadelphia resident.
Tanumihardja has filed numerous applications for political asylum — based on the fact that he is gay, ethnic Chinese and Catholic, all identities that could lead to persecution in his home country — but the Board of Immigration Appeals has denied such requests.
Tanumihardja filed an emergency motion to delay deportation in July and a request for the BIA to reopen his asylum case in September. He was granted several 90-day deportation extensions since last year but was notified his deportation would be final Feb. 14.
The BIA has not yet ruled on reopening the case, however.
The couple, residents of South Philadelphia, enlisted the help of Lavi Soloway, founder of Immigration Equality and blog StopTheDeportations, which works on behalf of binational gay and lesbian couples.
Current immigration law precludes gay and lesbian Americans from sponsoring a foreign-born partner for citizenship, a privilege reserved only for heterosexual married couples. Even in states where same-sex marriage is legal, however, the federal Defense of Marriage Act prevents couples from being recognized as equal to heterosexual married couples under federal law.
Soloway is spearheading a campaign on his site to urge supporters to contact Sen. Bob Casey, Congressman Bob Brady and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to urge the policymakers to intervene on Tanumihardja’s behalf.
“The Department of Homeland Security has the discretion to determine how it wants to pursue the deportation of any individual, meaning how high of a priority it is for them. This case should not be a high priority,” he said. “This individual has not committed any crimes and has a pending motion before the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen his asylum case. So we’ve been really working hard to urge Congressman Brady and Sen. Casey to contact Napolitano to ask for her review of this matter and to intervene to keep him from being deported, but that hasn’t happened yet.”
Soloway, who said he has not heard back from the Department of Homeland Security, explained that Napolitano’s department has previously moved to lessen the priority of deportation of widows of American citizens and youth who may qualify for the DREAM Act if it were to pass, but has yet to do so for gays and lesbians.
Tanumihardja, 45, first came to the country in 2002 on a tourist visa, settling in Philadelphia. He learned English, pays his taxes and currently works as a bookkeeper at a local deli. Although he and Andersen have only been together since last summer, he said he knows his future is here in Philadelphia with him.
“All I can think is how much he loves me and how much I love him, and I made the decision to fight this case because I want to stay here for this,” he said.
The couple began talking online last year and met in person in the summer at Sky Café, an Indonesian restaurant in South Philadelphia. The pair said they hit it off immediately and began dating shortly afterward.
Tanumihardja said the relationship he and Andersen share would not be possible in his home country.
“A gay person living in Indonesia is not safe at all,” he said. “The country is about 90-percent Muslim, and they’re Muslims who are very antigay. So if you are gay, you have to be very careful to not be out with someone or to show anything because you’re not safe.”
Andersen, 28, said the urgent need for changes in American immigration law didn’t really hit home until he began his relationship with Tanumihardja.
“We started talking about this issue, and I saw that this is not an obstacle that people should have to face,” he said. “You don’t really realize the discriminatory nature of the immigration laws until you’re faced with it in your own life.”
Andersen, a business-development manager at a car dealership, said the couple has heard back from staff of Casey and Brady, who expressed sympathy but were unsure how they could help. Andersen urged community members, however, to keep contacting the elected officials and urging them to put pressure on Napolitano to order a stay in the case until the BIA can make a decision.
“The government does have the power to stop this based on the fact that he does have a pending motion that has not been adjudicated with the Board of Immigration Appeals,” Andersen said. “It’s almost like the two organizations [Homeland Security and BIA] don’t talk to each other. He has a pending motion that hasn’t been adjudicated and he could be deported prior to that happening, with no chance for the case ever to be followed through on.”
Tanumihardja said he and Andersen have been taking the fight one day at a time, and that he’s not sure yet what he’s going to do come Valentine’s Day.
Andersen commented that if the deportation goes through, however, it’d be “the biggest anti-Valentine’s Day of all time.”
“Instead of being able to spend time with the person you love, you’re being ripped apart by your government,” he said. “The U.S. government is destroying our relationship. They’re making it not possible for us to have a relationship here, and we can’t live as an out gay couple in Indonesia: It’d be suicide. But we feel like it doesn’t need to get that far. The government has the ability to rectify this situation and give this case a chance to be followed through with. All we need is more time.”
The couple is urging community members to contact Casey at 202-224-6324, Brady at 202-225-4731 and Napolitano at 202-282-8000.
For more information on the case, visit www.StopTheDeportations.blogspot.com.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:32de21c2-7202-4de9-a896-ebba2e012dd6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epgn.com/view/full_story/11341210/article-Couple-faces-Valentine-deportation?instance=home_news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97435 | 1,333 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The following are some of the most commonly used MS-DOS commands and its equivalent in Linux. This cheat sheet is for those of you who have just switched from Windows to Linux and are just getting acquainted with the terminal. Take note that these commands usually have a number of options so be sure to check out the man page.
I hope some of you will find this basic DOS to UNIX/Linux cheat sheet useful:
To know more about each command, read its associated man page. Like for example, type man cp at the shell prompt to read about the "cp" command. | <urn:uuid:bc405c2f-5db0-400b-8dee-ce0af06157b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.junauza.com/2009/11/dos-to-unixlinux-translation-dos-to.html?showComment=1265818642400 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940642 | 119 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The high cost of gas has led many people to try and discover new and creative methods of improving their vehicle’s gas mileage. But believe it or not, there are a few simple methods you can employ to get the most bang for your gallon.
Check your tire pressure. Improperly inflated tires can have an adverse dragging effect on your vehicle’s fuel efficiency. Ensure your air pressure always meets the manufacturer’s recommendation, but be sure to avoid overinflating them. This can cause your tires to blow out.
Stay on top of routine maintenance. Bad spark plugs and incorrect spark timing can adversely affect the number of miles you get from your vehicle. Also, the use of high quality or synthetic oil in your engine can have a positive impact on getting the most from a full tank of gas.
Is your car getting poor gas mileage? Find a mechanic in your area who can run additional diagnostic checks to ensure there isn’t a bigger problem with your car.
The Yellowbook Answers are provided as a service to users of yellowbook.com and are not intended to replace advice from qualified professionals. Yellowbook makes no promise, guarantee or warranty regarding the comprehensiveness, accuracy or reliability of the information provided. | <urn:uuid:e9b50e69-ab53-4125-85b9-c5f923853e4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yellowbook.com/faqs/auto-services/how-do-i-get-better-gas-mileage/?where=baltimore%2C+md | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940237 | 252 | 1.84375 | 2 |
There's no doubt that decorative asphalt has come a long way over the last 15 years. And despite being in the market for that time span, Oliver says the industry is still in its infancy. "It takes a while for construction products to be recognized," he says. "A 10-year-old construction product is not an old product, it's still relatively new."
And the versatility of decorative asphalt is also helping it grow. Larson points out that stamped asphalt is typically used just for an accent, but as the industry and consumer knowledge grows so do the sizes of projects. Now whole driveways and crosswalks are incorporating stamped or coated asphalt.
"For the first 10 years there were still a lot of skeptical people saying that if you put a pattern in asphalt it's not going to last," Oliver says about decorative asphalt. "That myth has been debunked. Now the paving and construction industries accept stamped asphalt as a viable product." | <urn:uuid:055d1bb4-4454-4c89-beeb-6c4f11005a12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forconstructionpros.com/article/10117354/pavement-gets-more-creative?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976085 | 190 | 1.71875 | 2 |
There was always hope that race and age would not enter into this presidential election. But American politics has slid so far into the pit that it is hopeless to hold out for that. The McCain TV ad that intersperses blonde women celebrities, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, with black man, Barack Obama, is an obvious attempt to play upon American bigoted fears. The further implication is that "we don't know much about this black man." Put that in the Karl Rove-style excrement pile with the continued hint that Barack Obama is a Moslem like Osama bin Laden, and you have a "winner."
John McCain, gaining strength in the 2000 Republican presidential primaries, was brought down by a gaggingly sick Bush ad, is now stooping to these tactics himself. Another war hero like McCain, John Kerry, was sabotaged by a bold-face lying ad by the fictional Vietnam boat people. While both parties seem to prefer ads that use scare tactics, lies, diversions, and avoid anything about important policies of the candidates, the Republicans and neocons are in a slime class of their own.
When it comes to doing anything altruistic by representatives in the White House, Congress, or the Supreme Court, forget it. A pox on all three houses as currently operating. If Obama really would bring about refreshing change, it would be welcomed. But it won't happen unless American citizens hold his feet to the fire, and make him deliver on his promises.
We need an entire cleaning in Washington. All factions are beholden to big business to various degrees. It will not be easy to change. Perhaps a Harvard graduate who has worked among the poorest of us, a man of a different color, a man of great intellect and charisma can bring it off. We are at a pivotal point in our history. Let us hope Senator Obama is the man of the hour. George W. Bush leaves him a terrible mess to clean up and try to move forward. | <urn:uuid:e02d8aa9-c635-4653-af5d-003124796ab6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mybrowndeernow.com/blogs/communityblogs/43777677.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972935 | 401 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Helen Mirren in The Queen.
When I was a kid an old priest at my church told this story. A woman who had been married for many years complained to her husband that they weren't as affectionate to each other as they once were. She said, "Remember when we were first married, whenever you drove anywhere you used to put your arm around me and we would snuggle. We don't do that anymore. Now I sit on my side and you sit on yours." To which her husband replied after a little thought, "I never moved." The priest was making a point about god, but his analogy is very well suited for this movie and Queen Elizabeth's relationship with her people.
Helen Mirren stars as Queen Elizabeth II, and plays her to perfection and an almost certain Oscar nomination. As the movie opens she welcomes newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair to Buckingham Palace for the traditional meeting where she will ask him to lead her government. Before the meeting she is prepped by one of her advisors who is scandalized by reports that Blair actually encourages his staff to refer to him as Tony, and that his wife has connections to an anti-monarchy movement. Blair, who ran on a platform of modernization, seems the antithesis to the tradition and protocol loving Queen. At this meeting she makes it a point to remind him that he is her tenth Prime Minister and that her first was none other than Winston Churchill who showed up for their meeting in a top hat and tails.
Just a few weeks later Tony's and the Queen's relationship is put through its first test when the former HRH Diana is killed in Paris. The Queen and other members of the Royal Family react with restraint according to custom. The Queen wants to follow exact protocols that have been in place for hundreds of years. Tony, on the other hand, sensing the mood of the people, reaches out with an impassioned speech in which he famously referred to Diana as the People's Princess. To the British public and fans of Diana's around the world, Tony's response is seen as the correct one, while the Queen and family is seen as cold and uncaring. The main plot of the movie covers the week following Diana's death, culminating with the Queen finally, and reluctantly coming down to London from her summer home in Scotland, to make her public statement about the princesses' death.
The story of that week is told with biting wit and most of the jokes are aimed at the fussy stuffiness of the Royal Family. And while at first it seems mean spirited as if mocking the Royals, the story is not one sided. While at first it is easy to just say, oh the royals got it all wrong, as the movie progresses you see that they are simply behaving in a way that tradition has dictated they behave. As the Queen tells Blair at one point, “I am behaving with good manners and quiet restraint. Two attributes that the world has long admired us for.” As Prince Phillip puts it, “The people knew one Diana and we knew another and the two bore no resemblance to each other.” By the movie's end, you can not help but have respect, even if you feel that she's outdated and anachronistic, for the Queen. Of all the Royals, it is Charles who comes off looking the worst. He is portrayed as weak, desperate for the public's support and even worried that he might be shot in the aftermath of Diana's death.
Both Sheen as Blair and Mirren as the Queen deserve credit for their performances. Neither of them do impersonations so much as they simply embody their respective characters. They look just enough like their subjects, but it is the performances that bring them to life.
The reaction of the British people and others around the world came as a shock to the Royal family, but the thing is, the Royal family never changed. They were simply behaving in the way they'd always done. It was the world that changed and the Royals were unprepared for it.
Michael Sheen as Tony Blair in The Queen.
I remember staying up late one summer night watching television when my show was interrupted by the news report that Diana was in a serious car accident in Paris. I watched with much of the world as the news of her death spread almost instantly. After the initial shock and questions of how it happened, I wondered what the Queen's reaction was going to be. It did not come that night. It did not come the next day on the news or the day after that. My thought at the time was, "I guess they really did hate her."
This movie plays like a true story. Whereas the Queen's movement, or lack their of, is historical fact, most of the conversations that happen in this movie are speculative so it cannot be considered as fact. My question, as I watched this film, was what was William's and Harry's role in any of this? I remember that it made news when they escorted The Queen and their father to look at the flowers at the gate. The movie has you believe that it was due to the Prime Minister's intervention. I get the feeling that the boys may have played some role in it. The only time they get any screen time is when they are shuffled off to go hunting with their grandad, as if it is some sort of therapy.
Mirren does her role proud but she has little to do other than look dour and otherwise sour. Her expression rarely changed the entire movie. She is given accolades for humanizing Elizabeth, but that credit is really due to the script as much as it is her performance.
The writing is well done and uses great symbolism in one important scene. Elizabeth is stuck in a river that is rushing by her. She sits on the side of the moving river, as it moves past her. She turns and sees a stag with huge antlers. She hears the hunters and shoos the stag away. The stag obviously represents herself. The antlers her crown.
The Queen even works as a comedy. Phillip skulks around as a grumpy old man complaining about everything from their own subjects to bothersome phone calls that cause their tea to get cold. Mirren may be getting all of the credit for this movie but it deserves to be spread amongst everyone involved in making it, including Diana, who is still being talked and written about some 10 years after her death.
Michael Sheen and Helen Mirren in The Queen.
Helen Mirren is indeed wonderful in her Oscar winning role as Queen Elizabeth II. Eric, she may not change her facial expressions much but there is more to acting than that. She conveys a wide range of inner thoughts and feelings without doing so in a showy way. Many actors have said that subtle roles are more difficult to pull off than when you go big and histrionic in your mannerisms. Anyone who has seen news footage of the real Queen will see immediately that Mirren has her rather unique way of walking down pat. She almost stomps her feet while walking. In fact you could almost call it marching.
It is historically interesting to point out that the movie is set at a time when the fortunes of Tony Blair were on the rise, while the Queen was at her lowest point of popularity in the more than half a century of her reign. However, at the time of this movie's release in 2006 the monarchy had been fully restored to its place of honor while Mr. Blair's political career was on its way down. He would resign from office less than a year after The Queen premiered in theaters.
Eric mentioned the symbolism of the stag. I will take it even farther. Her Royal Majesty later learns the stag was shot by a guest on a neighboring estate. She goes to see the animal's dead body only to find that it has already been beheaded. Soon after this scene she decides to return to London to make her appearance outside Buckingham Palace and to make a televised statement about Lady Diana's death.
The filmmakers shot the scenes within the royal household on 35mm film thus imbuing them with a lush appearance. By contrast they shot the scenes in the outside world, such as in Tony Blair's office, on 16mm film. An artistic decision used to highlight the distance between royalty and commoners.
While it's true the actual dialogue spoken by the royals behind the scenes is only conjecture, it rings true. My favorite bit is advice given by the Queen Mum to her daughter. “You must show your strength. Reassert your authority. You sit on the most powerful throne in Europe, head of an unbroken line that goes back more than a thousand years. Do you think any of your predecessors would have dropped everything and gone up to London because a bunch of hysterics carrying candles needed help with their grief?”
The Queen is a well made look at an historically momentous week in British history.
Photos © Copyright Miramax Films (2006) | <urn:uuid:39efe7e0-21b7-49e6-8116-aa3340f6e8a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.threemoviebuffs.com/review/queen | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985574 | 1,829 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Below is his formal statement:
In March 2009, The Kresge Foundation Board of Trustees approved a $35 million grant toward the construction of a 3.4-mile, fixed rail system in the Woodward Avenue Corridor of Detroit to connect people from Detroit's riverfront to the Midtown and New Center districts to the north.
There was clearly risk associated with a project of this scale and scope. We were willing to take the risk because we believed that Detroit needed this catalytic investment to restore its standing as a world-class city.
We expected that this line would stimulate private investment, prompt businesses and jobs to relocate in the heart of Detroit, retain and attract residents seeking an urban lifestyle, strengthen the city and add to its vibrancy and long-term economic prosperity. Those expectations are today being met.
Over the past three years, the mere prospect of a light rail line has:
• Propelled the development of hundreds of millions of dollars in new real estate projects up and down the avenue.
• Fueled decisions by large employers to move to or expand their investment and footprint in the city.
• Given rise to midtown and downtown housing incentive programs.
• Attracted in excess of $100 million in new grant and loan commitments by national foundations and financial institutions.
• And stoked excitement and hope among Detroit residents for a different future in neighborhoods long passed over by market forces.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing shared with residents of the region their plan to create a Regional Transit Authority for southeast Michigan and establish a Bus Rapid Transit system on major corridors in metropolitan Detroit's tri-county area.
That vision assumed the community needed to abandon the light rail project that has been years in the making.
We share the desire of our elected leaders to create new funding mechanisms for transportation and improve transportation options for Detroiters and their suburban neighbors through an interconnecting web of bus rapid transit routes. We believe firmly, however, that light rail, through Detroit's premier commercial, medical, educational and cultural corridor from the riverfront to city's New Center district, should still stand as the heart of that system.
This is not about either bus rapid transit or light rail, but instead about how one can nest within the other. The Woodward light rail project was designed to complement a regional Bus Rapid Transit by supporting a revitalized, livable, walkable, vibrant downtown. The question is whether we can build, operate and financially support a light rail system in a way that strengthens the regional system envisioned by the governor.
The foundation says the members of the M1 Rail board, which has overseen the private sector's efforts to bring light rail to Woodward Avenue, do not share that view.
Whether or not we are correct, we owe it to the residents of Detroit, and the region, to explore the question of feasibility and affordability with discipline and thoroughness. | <urn:uuid:203acd5b-92c7-467a-b033-31f69722ad3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rtands.com/index.php/passenger/rapid-transit-light-rail/despite-the-ax-kresge-remains-committed-to-detroits-light-rail-project.html?channel=62 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946981 | 588 | 1.609375 | 2 |
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The Fling 2009
Video by Alexandra Lefebvre ('10)and Allison Gould ('10)
Duke Dog Sent Flying for a Good Cause
By Alexandra Lefebvre ('10) and Allison Gould ('10)
It looked like East campus had gone to the dogs during Family Weekend, but in a good way.
Countless stuffed Duke Dogs flew over the Astronomy Park as the second annual “The Fling” competition was held. Freshman students from James Madison University’s School of Engineering competed to ‘fling’ their Duke Dog as accurately as possible toward a target 50 feet away.
“Precision and accuracy is the name of the game,” said Dr. Ron Kander, director of the School of Engineering. “The purpose of this is for them to really experience the design process for the first time.”
The competition has been held on the Saturday of Family Weekend for the past two years. Parents and friends watched as students stood in a 10x10 foot ‘batter’s box’ aligned with a target 50 feet away. Each team was allowed five tries in five minutes, allowing extra time for teams that needed to make changes on the fly.
Some teams learned by trial and error and could not get their device to ‘fling.’
“Our furthest launch was eight feet,” explained students Alex Mancil, Jeff Drees, and Emilio Jimenez. Their team, “Well it looks cool” won Best Financial/Economics Score and the PETA Award for least harm done to the duke dog.
At the end of the competition a panel of 16 industry judges chose the ultimate winner. Teams were judged on demonstrated performance, economics, environmental impact and collaboration. Travis Knight, Greg Kitchin, and Neil McNulty of team “Caitlin” took the overall first place.
“They get a chance to understand why we’re teaching them the great systematic, organized design process to design good products and processes,” says Dr. Kander. “That’s the main point.”
Other winners were:
Honorable Mention Gail Moruza, Valerie Wade, Chris Lundquist and Jake Gephart
Best Environmental Impact/Sustainability "The Praying Mantis" Sara Bethel, Hillary Benedict and Thomas Brus
Best Team Collaboration "The Madi-pult" Brandon Cash, Ian MacIsaac, Matt Wisniewski and Richard Arena
Best Technical Performance "Bounty Hunters" Katherine Brown, Jessica Aquilino and Aaron Corn
3rd Place Overall Design "Big Bertha" Shannon Smith, Grant Haskins and Chris Nutbrown
2nd Place Overall Design "Tres Caballeros" Brandon Journell, Ethan Thompson and Josh Werner | <urn:uuid:b8ab0e57-6467-4a8f-8f18-9faf4b3fef69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jmu.edu/news/madisonscholar/2009TheFling.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942242 | 609 | 1.640625 | 2 |
As the oldest University student-run BSDM discussion and education organization in the nation, Conversio Virium has a lot of history. We’ve had some good times and some bad times, and they’re all worth remembering fondly. The other day this old letter to Conversio Virium from Robert B. Chatelle, Board Member of the National Writers Union popped up on my radar.
The letter, which speaks to the importance of self-expression, is a response to Conversio Virium’s expulsion from Columbia University which was instigated by a campus Christian organization. For posterity, I have quoted it in its entirety below, though you can also read it from its original source:
December 4, 1994
542 W. 112 St.
New York NY 10025-1660
Dear Members of Conversio Virium,
On behalf of the National Writers Union I’d like to express our unqualified outrage at your expulsion by the Columbia Student Governing Board on December 1. The National Writers Union is a labor union representing nearly 4,000 freelance writers. We are proud to be affiliated with the United Auto Workers as UAW Local 1981 AFL-CIO.
We are outraged for several reasons. First of all, by our constitution, the “National Writers Union is committed to freedom of expression in all media.” Because Conversio Virium is a discussion-only group, your expulsion is a clear violation of your rights to assembly and expression.
Second, the National Writers Union is opposed to all forms of discrimination, including discrimination based on sexual orientation. This too is clearly enunciated in our constitution. When we first affiliated with the UAW, our Delegates Assembly unanimously approved a resolution calling for the NWU to work to amend the constitution of the UAW to be inclusive of all sexual orientations. We were successful in this effort, and NWU President Jonathan Tasini spoke in favor of the constitutional change at the last UAW Constitutional Convention.
Third, we are outraged to hear that the movement for your expulsion was led by individuals claiming to be “Christian.” Over the past several years many sexual minority people have been injured, permanently disabled, and even murdered by people claiming to be Christians doing God’s will. The National Writers Union has many Christian members, and bigotry in the name of Christianity insults not only these members but also all true Christians.
Fourth, we are outraged that ten student groups care so little about human rights that did not attend the December 1 meeting to vote. Who will speak for them when their freedom is at stake?
I am not part of the BDSM community myself, but as a 52-year-old gay man I know well the pain and indignity of discrimination. I have a great many friends within your community, and they are good, caring, and decent human beings. Many have been valuable members and activists within the National Writers Union. I remember with special fondness, for example, John Preston, whom we invited to serve on our National Advisory Board shortly before his death last spring. John gave unselfishly to our union and he is greatly missed.
Anyone who bothers to learn about the BDSM community knows that the charge that you “promote unjustifiable violence” is ridiculous. On the contrary, the 18 groups who voted against you, and the ten cowardly groups who stayed away, committed an act of unjustifiable violence against Conversio Virium. Let them be advised that there are organizations such as the National Writers Union that do not remain silent when confronted with censorship and intolerance.
Let us know how we can be of help.
Robert B. Chatelle, National Board Member
Political Issues Chair
National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981 AFL-CIO
cc: Members of the Free Expression Network: People for the American Way, the ACLU, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Baptist Joint Committee, the Media Coalition, the American Library Association, Feminists for Free Expression, Human Rights Watch, the National Council of Churches, PEN American Center, and many others. | <urn:uuid:596bdf72-0e67-4ed3-9469-5774228b76b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://conversiovirium.com/blog/posts/cv-in-the-media/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960535 | 858 | 1.65625 | 2 |
News & Policies >
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 20, 2004
President's Radio Address
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This weekend I am on my first trip outside the United States since the election, traveling to South America for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. I am meeting with many allies and friends to strengthen our ties across the Pacific and discuss practical ways we can enhance prosperity, advance liberty, and improve our shared security.
America and the nations of Latin America and Asia share many vital interests. All Pacific nations benefit from free and fair trade, the foundation of this region's remarkable prosperity. The United States has completed free-trade agreements with nations throughout Asia and the Americas, including Australia, and Singapore, Chile, the five nations in Central America, and the Dominican Republic. We are also negotiating new agreements with Thailand, Panama and the Andean nations of South America. America has opened our markets, and I will urge other countries to do the same.
I can't find a radio station that carries the radio address. Do any stations in Pomona carry it?
Click here for answer....
America and our friends are helping other countries lay the foundations of democracy by establishing independent courts, a free press, political parties and trade unions, by instituting the rule of law and by keeping up the fight against corruption.
America joined with other members of the Organization of American States to create the Inter-American Democratic Charter. This charter recognizes democracy as the fundamental right of all peoples in the Americas and pledges our governments to promoting and defending the institutions of liberty.
All Pacific nations must also keep up the fight against the forces of terror that threaten the success of our economies and the stability of the world. At last year's summit, APEC leaders started a major initiative to strengthen the security of ports and transportation networks, to defend our aircraft from the threat of portable missiles, and to end the flow of terrorist finances. This year, APEC leaders will work together to improve the security of our ships and ports. We will develop a new system to track and stop the travel of suspected terrorists using forged or stolen documents. And we launched new programs to support APEC members that have the will to fight terror, but need help in developing the means. Terrorism is a threat not just to the West, or to the wealthy, but to every nation. And every nation must fight the murderers.
During my trip, I will also meet with President Lagos, of Chile, and President Uribe, of Colombia, to reaffirm our strong ties with those nations. Colombia is making progress in the fight against terrorists who traffic in illegal drugs, and America is standing with the Colombian government to oppose the drug trade that destroys lives in our countries and threatens the stability of our hemisphere.
In my second term, I will continue to pursue a confident foreign policy agenda that will spread freedom and hope and make our nation more secure. America seeks wider trade and broader freedom and greater security for the benefit of America, our partners, and all of the world.
Thank you for listening. | <urn:uuid:be6573a7-f0c4-4980-a7ab-faabf10ad659> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/11/20041120.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937039 | 625 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Climate Change and the Energy Challenge: A Pragmatic Approach for India
LBJ School of Public Affairs; Stanford University - Program on Energy and Sustainable Development
David G. Victor
UC San Diego, IR/PS
August 1, 2009
Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 44, No. 31, 2009
India has been famous for arguing that it (and the rest of the developing world) should incur no expense in controlling emissions that cause climate change. The west caused the problem and it should clean it up. That argument is increasingly untenable — both in the fundamental arithmetic of climate change, which is a problem that is impossible to solve without developing country participation, and in the political reality that important western partners will increasingly demand more of India and other developing countries. India’s own public is also demanding more. The Indian government has outlined a broad plan for what could be done, but the plan still lacks a strategy to inform which efforts offer the most leverage on warming emissions and which are most credible because they align with India’s own interests. This paper offers a framework for that strategy. It suggests that a large number of options to control warming gases are in India’s own self-interest, and with three case studies it suggests that leverage on emissions could amount to several hundred million tonnes of CO2 annually over the next decade and an even larger quantity by 2030. (For comparison, the Kyoto Protocol has caused worldwide emission reductions of, at most, a couple hundred million tonnes of CO2 per year.) We suggest in addition to identifying self-interest — which is the key concept in the burgeoning literature on “co-benefits” of climate change policy — that it is also important to examine where India and outsiders (e.g., technology providers and donors) have leverage. One reason that strategies offered to date have remained abstract and difficult to implement is that they are not rooted in a clear understanding of where the Government of India is able to deliver on its promises (and where Indian firms have access to the needed technology and practices). Many ideas are interesting in theory but do not align with the administrative and technological capabilities of the Indian context. As the rest of the world contemplates how to engage with India on the task of controlling emissions it must craft deals that reflect India’s interests, capabilities and leverage on emissions. These deals will not be simple to craft, but there are many precedents for such arrangements in other areas of international cooperation, such as in accession agreements to the WTO.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 20
Keywords: India, energy policy, climate change policy, technology transfer
JEL Classification: Q40, O53, Q43Accepted Paper Series
Date posted: August 16, 2009
© 2013 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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in reply to
How do I train myself to write more Perl-ish Perl, rather than C-ish Perl?
- Read "Programming Perl". You'll be amazed at how much perl has to offer that you don't know about.
- Study code written by people who predominantly use perl and do it well. Many of these people hang out here at PerlMonks and often post code.
- Have your own code reviewed by those same people. There are several sections of the Monastery that you can post your code in. Anything you post will be reviewed.
- Look at the modules installed on your system and see how they do things. Download modules that do things you're interested in and examine those.
- Ask questions. If you think there might be another way or a better way, post what you have and ask others for suggestions. Use the chatterbox if it's small snippets of code.
- Occassionally reread "Programming Perl". You'll be amazed at how much you missed the last time. (I'm on my fourth reading and still learning.
|90% of every Perl application is already written. ⇒| | <urn:uuid:aca9e0e8-ea59-45c4-8c0d-4316c7badcc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl/jacques?node_id=656835 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956571 | 238 | 1.78125 | 2 |
|The Vivacity and Complexity of Everyday Life
Review of the book ‘Scenes of the World to Come,’
London Quarterly 7
|The Vivacity and Complexity of Everyday Life
'Scenes of the World to Come' brings together two themes. The first is the tracing of American architecture's influence over European architecture in the twentieth century (or rather between 1893 and 1960, as the book's subtitle tells us). The other theme is the picturing of the future: the 'scenes of the world to come'. The book implies, rather than asserts, that an iconography of the future was an instrumental component in the gaining of American hegemony over Europe.
Perhaps this form of expression is already to give the story more of a political spin than the author does. Cohen is careful to keep to his architectural ground in a thorough, scholarly account, which is very accessible. But the logic of the book, in the mingling of these two themes, encourages the reader to make connections outside of the scope of its historical account. This is to say one wonders things such as whose future these images represent or to what degree did the American state promote itself as an image of the future?
What the book does highlight is the power of the image and forms of image making in architecture, which are not just pictures of buildings. Indeed, the book is a companion piece to an exhibition and the number and variety of illustrations are an important part of the argument. Despite some seminal stuff (the obligatory Le Corbusier grain silos, for example), this approach gets away from the dominant canon of architectural history, which tends to privilege and fetishize built buildings. They help show how important forms of representation can be in disseminating ideas and influence.
Cohen uses the term "Americanism" to mean the appeal of the perceived values of America. Whilst such slippery projected qualities are always hard to pin down, the emphasis was obviously on newness. This was of both the kinds of buildings and the kind of city envisioned, and the new forms of life and culture these would entail. Mixed up with this ideological vision, was what Cohen calls "Americanization", by which he means the adoption of American production methods, especially Taylorism and Fordism. This idea was applied to everything and anything, so it seems, notably including organizing the housewife in the kitchen. These two terms show that the idea of newness in culture was and is not separable from the economic, that is capitalist, need for the new.
The theme of newness is itself not new. There is little controversy about the idea of American cultural influence, or even dominance, over Europe growing throughout the twentieth century. What this book offers is the thought that this dominance cannot be reduced to an economic account of hegemony, nor a crude account of cultural imperialism. In contrast, it traces how Europeans were positively attracted to America: sometimes this was because they had been there; but more often, and this is the point, they were attracted by the idea (and the image) of America. And one of the strongest things it offered was not being Europe: the new is a chance to start again and forget the failures and tragedies of the past. The weight of dead generations is not so easily forgotten, though, and the future is never what it seems or how it is pictured. The failure of modernism to live up to its billing is thus instructive but only if, as with this book, the aspirations and ideas of its protagonists are not reduced to cliché. It is a lesson that putative postmodernists might heed in their dealings with history.
From the cynical 1990's it is, perhaps, all to easy to mock the naiveté and utopianism of the hopes of newness and progress documented in this book. Nothing dates like visions of the future, of course. But this study makes the demise of utopianism feel like a loss. This is not a nostalgia for a simple, uncomplicated modernism; rather it is to think that visions of a better world may be both useful and desirable.
It is surely an urgent task of anyone who wishes to transcend the self-serving apathy and cynicism so pervasive in current cultural theory of all hues, to recover some sense of the future. A bit of utopianism might be no bad thing. The task is to unpack the ideological use of the idea of newness and progress, which serve as justification for an existing regime, from the urge to make a better world. The future is somewhere to be fought over. Such ideas are no longer popular, no doubt because of the failures of claiming too much for the future. The problem is to claim neither too much nor too little for images of the future. | <urn:uuid:f628a4c1-0ce5-4071-8aa9-f69bc78b9787> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.markhutchinson.org/writing/writing%20vivacity%20and%20complexity.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964581 | 959 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Faced with a bad situation, Wax Works record stores managed to make it even worse, and paid a big price.
One of Wax Works' store managers, Kerry Ogden, had compiled an excellent record. But her supervisor made numerous unwelcome physical advances. When she rebuffed him, the supervisor retaliated by mistreating her and holding up her annual raise.
Ogden complained to the company's regional manager. It could have stopped there, but it didn't. The regional manager ?was aware of the supervisor's actions, but he told Ogden that he viewed the supervisor as an "asset." The supervisor wasn't disciplined and nothing was placed in his personnel file. The regional manager refused to discuss Ogden's complaints with her over the phone, and a vice president at company headquarters didn't return two calls she made to discuss the situation.
She received treatment for depression and was essentially forced to resign. She sued, citing a hostile environment, quid pro quo harassment and retaliation. A jury awarded her $186,000 in back pay and compensatory damages. The kicker: The jury tacked on an extra $500,000 in punitive damages, which was later reduced to $260,000. (Ogden v. Wax Works, No. 99-1643, 8th Cir., 2000)
Advice: This is a classic lesson in how not to respond to a sexual harassment complaint. No employee is so valuable that a company should ignore its obligation to provide a workplace free of harassment.
The case also reminds employers that they can get hit with punitive damages. Last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kolstad v. American Dental Association showed that workers are entitled to punitive damages when the employer has intentionally discriminated and done so with "malice or reckless indifference."
Kolstad also established that a company can defend itself by showing a "good-faith effort" to prevent harassment. In this case, Wax Works' lack of any effort and its knowledge of the harasser's past made the company liable for a big punitive damage award. Wax Works' written policy promised a "thorough investigation" of harassment complaints and "appropriate action," but the company's lack of follow-through sealed its fate.
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** RETRANSMISSION TO CHANGE OBJECT NAME ** In this photo released by China's Xihua News Agency, two babies with kidney stones receive medical treatment under the care of their fathers at a military hospital in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008. So far this year, Gansu Provincial Health Department has seen 59 kidney stone cases in infants, and at least one baby died as a result of kidney stones. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Zhu Guoliang)
BEIJING - A Chinese official says 19 people have been detained in connection with tainted milk powder linked to kidney stones in hundreds of infants.
Deputy Provincial Gov. Yang Chongxion says authorities are also questioning 78 people about how the banned chemical melamine was added to milk used by a major dairy.
Yang said Saturday he had no details of the identities of those detained. But he said investigators are looking into whether dairy farmers added melamine to milk in violation of Chinese safety standards.
China's health minister said Saturday a small amount of tainted milk powder was exported to Taiwan but none went to any other foreign markets. | <urn:uuid:b463a8e7-fe6e-44b7-abce-c814e47ce075> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/28346049.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97018 | 238 | 1.578125 | 2 |
December 15, 2009
Testing Theories of Scarcity Pricing in the Airline Industry
A new working paper which may interest blog readers is Steve L. Puller et al.'s Testing Theories of Scarcity Pricing in the Airline Industry (NBER Working Paper No. w15555, Dec. 2009) (available from SSRN here). From the abstract:
This paper investigates why passengers pay substantially different fares for travel on the same airline between the same two airports. We investigate questions that are fundamentally different from those in the existing literature on airline price dispersion. We use a unique new dataset to test between two broad classes of theories regarding airline pricing. The first group of theories, as advanced by Dana (1999b) and Gale and Holmes (1993), postulates that airlines practice scarcity based pricing and predicts that variation in ticket prices is driven by differences between high demand and low demand periods. The second group of theories is that airlines practice price discrimination by using ticketing restrictions to segment customers by willingness to pay. We use a unique dataset, a census of ticket transactions from one of the major computer reservation systems, to study the relationships between fares, ticket characteristics, and flight load factors. The central advantage of our dataset is that it contains variables not previously available that permit a test of these theories. We find only mixed support for the scarcity pricing theories. Flights during high demand periods have slightly higher fares but exhibit no more fare dispersion than flights where demand is low. Moreover, the fraction of discounted advance purchase seats is only slightly higher on off-peak flights. However, ticket characteristics that are associated with second-degree price discrimination drive much of the variation in ticket pricing.
December 15, 2009 | Permalink
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The University of California, regarded by many as the nation's leading state university system, faces its deepest crisis since Gov. Ronald Reagan fired its president and slashed its budget nearly a quarter of a century ago.
The cause this time is not a Governor's angry determination to punish the campuses for student unrest, but California's deepening budget crisis. Still, the results are expected to be much the same: cuts in enrollment, faculty and staff, postponement in building new campuses to serve this fast-growing state and loss of its envied academic prowess.
Meeting with the Board of Regents at the Riverside campus on Friday, President David P. Gardner said "unprecedented steps" would be needed to maintain the quality of the 122-year-old system.
He said the budget drawn by the state's new Governor, Pete Wilson, fell "so far short of funding U.C.'s essential needs that our programs of teaching, research and public service, accessibility to eligible students and our historic policy of charging only modest student fees cannot be sustained." Other Troubled Campuses
Mr. Wilson's 1991-92 budget, released Jan. 10, raises tuition and fees by 20 percent and does not provide money for salary increases for the university's faculty and staff. William B. Baker, vice president for budget and university relations, said the system's operating budget faces an absolute cut of $2.2 million, to $2.191 billion, in the next fiscal year; that is $295.5 million less than the regents had requested.
The troubles here find an echo on campuses across the country as public universities cope with shrinking budgets by putting off repairs, reducing administrative staffs and leaving teaching positions vacant. In states like Massachusetts, where recession has hit hardest, officials are laying off faculty members and eliminating programs.
"Lights are dimmer, library hours are shorter and the library often doesn't have the books that students ask for," said Terry Zoulas, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Board of Regents.
And everywhere, decisions about what to jettison have created dissension among the administrative staff, faculty and students. "The easy cuts have all been made," said Chancellor D. Bruce Johnstone of the 64-campus State University of New York, who must trim $40 million from the budget this year. "There are no pockets of fat left." California's Golden Age
No state has invested more in the idea of public higher education than California. The University of California system, with its flagship campus at Berkeley, has 7,400 faculty members and 166,500 students on nine campuses. The separate California State University system has 368,000 students and 21,000 faculty members on its 20 campuses.
The University of California system reached what might be called its golden age under President Clark Kerr from 1958 to 1967. He oversaw the opening of three campuses and the decentralization of the system. Berkeley, in many eyes, surpassed Harvard as the nation's leading research university.
But when the campuses, particularly Berkeley, were swept with the Free Speech Movement, student sit-ins and antiwar demonstrations, Mr. Reagan made it a campaign pledge to clamp down on demonstrators. A few days after taking office in January 1967, he imposed sharp cuts on the system's budget and organized a majority of the regents to oust Mr. Kerr.
Under Mr. Reagan and his successor, Edmund G. Brown Jr., a Democrat, the system lost much of its academic competitiveness. Deukmejian's Support | <urn:uuid:0d0bc16c-0e06-4f5f-99c1-b78a07c45b52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/21/us/budget-cuts-jar-university-of-california.html?src=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956437 | 714 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -- It’s been four years since the National non-profit “Say Yes to Education” launched its landmark collaboration with the Syracuse City School District. On Wednesday, they say the numbers prove its working.
Say Yes released a progress report highlighting some of the program’s success. The number of students graduating from city high schools has risen six percent. Since the fall of 2009, 2,000 students have enrolled in two or four year colleges.
Fifth grade students at McKinley Brighton Elementary are the future class of 2023 – a dream much more realistic now than ever before.
“Growing up I didn’t believe it was probable to be a college student,” said Jaquiel Ash, a Say Yes scholar. “I knew it was possible, but not probable.”
Not only has Say Yes helped kids like Ash go to college, they say it's comprehensive in approach, stretching from kindergarten to high school. One focus area -- ninth grade -- they say is keeping fewer kids from dropping out.
Say Yes founder George Weiss says, “They see the opportunity to go to a two or four year college like the great Syracuse University. This empowers them to strive to greater heights.”
Say Yes is there to offer much of that additional support. College may seem like a long way off to a classroom of fifth graders, but a summer counselor like Ash may be the inspiration they need to dream big.
"If they see that someone who is a little bit more like them made it to such a far position in life, I feel like they would understand that [they] can do it too. You know, the journey isn't so far away, it isn't so hard, it's not so rough, anyone can make it,” explained Ash.
Ash is a 2009 Nottingham graduate and will receive his degree in June from Monroe Community College. He’s planning to transfer to a four year school in the fall.
It’s too early to have any hard data, but there is monitoring in progress. The ultimate goal is college success and they’re looking at a model that’s more of a pre-K through 16 model. | <urn:uuid:ddd944f7-ecbd-47b4-ab26-9fecf86ab0b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Say-Yes-program-reports-early-progress/J8R6Wa5fHECFQBD-GRrQ8A.cspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970396 | 468 | 1.742188 | 2 |
This is the week of the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in Kent, England, and I really recommend watching some of the short videos (about 1 -3 minutes) on the RHS’s website that show the designers talking about their gardens’ concepts.
Be sure to check out Dan Lobb talking about his “Landscape Obscured,” which won the Best Conceptual Garden prize.
I also enjoyed looking at the 360° view tour of the WWF garden, “Why we care about chalk streams” by Fiona Stephenson — nice example, I thought, of how to convey a particular landscape type in a small garden space. I liked the use of the spheres to create depth and rhythm in a wildflower planting (they actually represent various amounts of water used in our daily lives).
On the general subject of concept and conceptual gardens, Tim Richardson has written a useful short article, “Is a sense of meaning vital to a good garden?,” in The Telegraph. The video of Bob Sweet, Hampton Court’s Head of Shows Development, talking about why the show includes and encourages conceptual gardens is also very good.
If you still want more, the BBC garden blog has comments on the individual show gardens.
A couple of other items from my afternoon on the web:
This video on Design*Sponge of Jaime Morrison decorating her backyard porch is fun. | <urn:uuid:4d4dfb45-200a-45db-8765-38fb46fd1b8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://enclosuretakerefuge.com/2011/07/07/something-to-read-and-watch-on-concept-and-conceptual-gardens/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937722 | 286 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Smoke detectors alert family of fire danger; they safely flee home
DELAVAN Tiffany Grant was sound asleep when her domestic partner nudged her awake and asked about a sound echoing in the evening darkness.
“Cell phone,” Grant said, was her first foggy thought.
But the unmistakable odor of an electrical fire quickly cleared her sleepy head. Grant and her partner, Howard Popke, realized they were hearing the smoke detector in the adjacent bedroom of her two boys, Zachary, 8, and Andrew, 10.
The sight of flames crawling up a bedroom wall a few seconds later now has her singing the praises of smoke detectors and the high-pitched beeps that properly powered devices launch into the dead of night, when resting souls are most vulnerable.
Delavan Assistant Fire Chief Tim O’Neill said Grant’s reliance on smoke detectors should be followed by others. Batteries in detectors, he said, usually are changed when daylight saving time ends, which this year is Sunday, Nov. 7.
This is what Grant remembers of the frightening event that happened shortly after 11:30 p.m. Saturday at her home, 613 E. Washington St.
Three children, one grandchild, Grant and Popke escaped the fire. Popke confined the flames to the bedroom by using a fire extinguisher he purchased for $2 at a rummage sale.
“My bedroom door was closed and my boys’ bedroom door was closed,” Grant said. “If there wasn’t a smoke alarm in their room, it could have been a lot worse.”
When Grant, 47, and Popke, 42, opened the boys’ bedroom door, they saw flames leaping a foot or two from the wall next to the footboards of the bunk beds. An electric power strip beneath the bunks malfunctioned, melted and set the wall on fire.
Despite the racket, Zachary and Andrew remained asleep in the first-floor bedroom of the cottage-style, white home near downtown.
Grant, a department manager at Walmart for 12 years, woke her sons, wrapped them in blankets and marched them to safety outside. She then called 911 for help.
Smoke from the boys’ bedroom set off a hallway smoke detector that alerted Grant’s daughter, who sleeps in a second-floor bedroom. The daughter grabbed her baby and joined her mother outside.
After local firefighters gave them the all clear, the group was able to return to the home, Grant said.
“This should remind people to check the batteries,” O’Neill said. “Without working smoke detectors, this incident could have had a terrible ending.” | <urn:uuid:ba2a277d-e989-465b-92b4-df603f298550> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2010/sep/28/smoke-detectors-alert-family-fire-danger-they-safe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958269 | 562 | 1.796875 | 2 |
From the Huffington Post:
New York City's South Street Seaport Museum is in crisis mode.
Its ships are in terrible condition and, according to the NY Times, the museum is in talks to move all its ships to another port. This is a terribly sad turn of events, at least for those who realize that South Street is more than just a collection of chain stores on a quaint cobblestoned street.
Even the most absent-minded of shoppers and tourists can't miss the tall-masted ships in the harbor. Soon enough, those ships may be gone with no money to bring them back. If that happens, South Street will truly be just an outdoor mall.
Volunteers -- the museum has always had many good volunteers -- have started a blog called http://saveourships.wordpress.com/ and are calling on supporters to petition the mayor and other elected public officials to lend some financial support. The hope is that it's not too late. Given the tight budget and the loss of money from Albany, the city may not be in a generous mood for a museum but maybe the mayor, who gives away millions to charities each year, can come to the rescue. | <urn:uuid:2f349173-deb6-4fff-94a9-ac53bd2487e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2011/04/trouble-at-south-street-seaport.html?showComment=1303533356161 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965181 | 243 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The New Mexico Film Office and the City of Las Vegas
"Taking Location Photographs for the Film & Television Industry"
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Highlands University - Room G35 (connected to Donnelly Library on the right side)
Time: 9:00AM to 1:00PM
In this free seminar open to New Mexicans, Don Gray, NM Film Office Locations Scout and Manager, will teach you how to shoot and submit photographs on behalf of your local community. Location photos are the number one marketing tool for communities interested in landing a film production. There are currently 8,000 NM locations represented in 60,000 photographs on the NM Film Office online database at www.nmfilm.com. These photos need to be updated and added to continuously. The goal of this workshop is to help you get comfortable with your digital camera so that you can shoot hundreds of photos of the same location at various angles, and choose the best ones. The more practice, the better the photo, and the better the chance there will be to gain interest in the location. You will learn to understand industry requests and the context of the requests, as well as the fact that location photographs are not fine art photographs. Know which locations to shoot before there is a need for new photos, as well as how to deliver your photos electronically and in a timely fashion.
This workshop is free and open to the public. Please contact Tobi Ives at: [email protected] with any questions. | <urn:uuid:3dafd6f8-a354-4b59-a1ad-4731aa20817d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nm-media.blogspot.com/2010/10/nmfo-city-of-las-vegas-locations.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931322 | 304 | 1.664063 | 2 |
A year ago today:
Fall River officials say a power failure at a pumping station, letting up to 900,000 gallons of sewage flow into the Taunton River, may have been caused by a lightning strike.
5 years ago today:
Police pull two bodies from popular swimming places. The first was discovered floating in the water at Bristol Town Beach; the other was found in the evening near Gaspee Point.
25 years ago today:
The Galilee fishing boat Daarnoc collides with a 600-foot Japanese freighter in thick fog off Nantucket, damaging the trawler. Visibility was less than 100 yards. The Japanese freighter Fuji Maru was headed to Boston from Baltimore with a shipment of cars. | <urn:uuid:ab6771c3-80e7-47dc-8fd1-8b22c8d364d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/08/today-in-ri-his-172.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963248 | 151 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Jack Kevorkian (May 26, 1928 - June 3, 2011) was a physician nicknamed "Dr. Death" for his assistance in numerous suicides throughout the 1990s. He was finally convicted of murder in 1999 and sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison. In 2007, he was released after serving only 8 years, after receiving time off for good behavior and pledging not to assist in any more suicides.
Kevorkian then became a speaker at liberal college campuses, at a fee of $50,000 a speech.
Kevorkian was hospitalized on May 18th at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, with pneumonia and kidney problems. He died June 3, 2011, probably as the result of a pulmonary blood clot. He did not commit suicide.
Kevorkian had a life-long ambition to be an actor, and had a gregarious and dramatic behavior (once showing up to his trial dressed in costume). While he was an advocate of physician assisted suicide laws his actions did not begin to meet the ethical standards that those laws laid out. Often times he would meet the patients days or hours before assisting them in suicide, he would not seek a second opinion, did not contact their primary care providers, did not seek a psychological profile, did not review their medical records, and did not follow any sort of waiting period policy to ensure that the victims actually wanted to commit suicide. | <urn:uuid:bcc463d8-b742-4f1b-8112-034046a5c9f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://conservapedia.com/Kevorkian | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987145 | 287 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Hi, I'm Kwame Yeboah-Afari and I grow organic & fairtrade pineapples for Nature & More in Ghana. Thank you for buying our fruit, I hope you'll enjoy it!
Our farm, operating under the trademark name BioExotica, is located on a peninsula on the southern shore of Lake Volta in Ghana. Lakeside Farm was started in 2005. The soils had been fallow for many years and proved to be very fertile. Together with ample water for irrigation from the nearby lake, the conditions for organic pineapple production are excellent. Although there was no electricity, no schools and only very primitive roads, the management felt confident that the lack of infrastructure could be overcome to successfully export organic pineapples, since the international port of Tema was only 95 km away.
The farm comprises 200 hectares of which about 100 are cultivated with the majority planted with pineapples. Non-productive areas are planted with green manure crops to continually regenerate the soil. Fields were created by leaving old established trees in place. Other native trees were planted around the field boundaries to create buffer zones and to provide shelter for the workers from wind and sun.
Lake Farm is the biggest employer within a 40-km radius area, providing work for more than 100 people and stable lives for 1,000. Due to good trade relationships, BioExotica is able to pay its workers 25% above the local average. Since the establishment of the farm, the infrastructure has been substantially improved. The local population now has access to electricity, potable water nearby, improved roads, local schools and improved housing. Doctors now visit the area regularly to provide essential medical services.
With increasing demand for its organic pineapple, BioExotica hopes to eventually employ 200 people and make an important contribution in this economically depressed area in south eastern Ghana. | <urn:uuid:397bae93-03e7-4166-bd0a-6cf84f43e578> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.natureandmore.com/growers/bioexotica | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967066 | 374 | 1.71875 | 2 |
fon +49 30 25491 341
fax +49 30 25491 254
mail loeffler [at] wzb [dot] eu
room B 318
Since the end of the Cold War, the post-1945 world order has been undergoing a profound transformation. This has meant that international institutions are overtaxed in a double sense: their basis of legitimacy is too small for the responsibilities they are supposed to carry out; in view of the magnitude of global problems, however, what they do is not enough. Many of the post-war international institutions have been supplemented with, or replaced by, new institutions that intervene more deeply in the affairs of national societies. These institutions increasingly exercise independent political authority and violate the principle of non-intervention, which, in turn, leads to serious problems of legitimacy and public acceptance. At the same time, international institutions are too weak, for instance, to regulate international financial markets or to effectively combat climate change and its impacts. As a result, growing societal and national resistance to these institutions has begun to emerge in conjunction with transnational disputes over international affairs. The main focus of our research unit is placed upon the institutional and normative challenges, inextricably tied to one another, which these new arrangements present. An array of projects are currently being undertaken, dealing with various aspects from the politicization and democratization of international institutions to differentiation processes or rule-of-law issues in world politics. | <urn:uuid:4c9d8a84-7e77-4f18-8ad9-c431693f3fb4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wzb.eu/en/research/international-politics-and-law/global-governance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93869 | 292 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the state's largest health insurance provider, is launching a statewide campaign on Tuesday aimed at getting Texans enrolled in health plans through an online marketplace created by federal health reform.
Texas won’t have its own state-specific health insurance exchange; Republican leaders here have rejected that option as part of their opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
Blue Cross Blue Shield’s “Be Covered Texas” initiative aims to draw as many of the 6 million uninsured Texans as possible into a one-size-fits-all federal health insurance exchange, an Orbitz-style website where they can determine if they qualify for subsidized insurance or purchase private plans ahead of the 2014 deadline to carry insurance. Open enrollment begins in October.
"The Be Covered program is about converting the uninsured in our state to insured status," said Bert Marshall, the company's president. "It’s about getting educational materials in the hands of community partners and other people who may be influential to the populations that are currently uninsured."
Blue Cross officials said that they were not sure how much the initiative would cost but that they would spend what it takes to reach out to every county in Texas. The company stands to benefit from the outreach; it will offer coverage through the exchange in addition to its current private insurance portfolio. But Marshall said that to the extent that the campaign can "significantly erode or eliminate the uninsured, that is a good thing for all Blue Cross members."
Marshall said Texas' decision — so far — not to design a state-based insurance exchange "creates a level of uncertainly for us, as all decisions are being made out of Washington, D.C." He added that Blue Cross would like it if Texas embraced another aspect of the Affordable Care Act — accepting federal financing to expand Medicaid to cover more poor adults.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry has adamantly said that Texas will not expand Medicaid under federal health reform, saying that the state "will not drive millions more into an unsustainable system." Republican lawmakers have hedged and said they would consider it with the appropriate amount of federal flexibility — as long as Medicaid is also reformed in the process.
"We'd like to see the expansion," Marshall said, "but we also understand the ... issues that the governor is raising that mean that the program needs to be reformed."
Marshall said he was particularly concerned about the shrinking pool of health care providers who will accept Medicaid patients, because they are frustrated by low reimbursement rates.
Blue Cross Blue Shield has launched a website — BeCoveredTexas.org — to answer questions about the requirements for insurance coverage under federal health reform. The campaign will provide educational materials in English and Spanish, and the company will work with community groups, schools, religious institutions and doctors to distribute literature and host neighborhood events. Be Covered Texas will also include a text messaging campaign to update families on approaching insurance coverage deadlines.
Marshall said the program is launching first in Texas, but could spread to other Blue Cross states.
"The worst thing that could happen is for Texans to ignore the new realities of the marketplace," he said.
Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here. | <urn:uuid:023269fe-0701-4f05-a002-3a556d2788aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.texastribune.org/2013/03/12/bluecross-launches-campaign-insurance-exchange/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969648 | 672 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I'm looking to educate myself on some of the fundamental concepts and principles followed by traditional sculptures. I want a better understanding of the thought processes that help empower you guys to look past the details and get things correct early on.
Such concepts as Mass, Volume, Form, Planes...
That kind of thing.
Does anyone have a recommended reading including books, websites, forum posts, or tutorials? | <urn:uuid:7a3b2b3b-ddd6-406e-ac66-8b8989fbab2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?133411-Traditional-Sculpting-Educational-Material | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947388 | 81 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Democrats, Republicans Use Differing Convention Messages to Appeal to Women Voters
In the last presidential race, statistics show more women voted than men.
By MARIA-PIA NEGRO
Capital News Service
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Women voters were the target of much of the rhetoric at the Republican and Democratic conventions in the past two weeks, but analysts say their appeals to that key demographic were distinctly different.
Both parties showcased their high-achieving women at the podium, but the words they used and issues they chose to highlight hit different segments of the population.
Republicans talked about women often in terms of their roles as wives and mothers, said Washington College political science professor Melissa Deckman: "The GOP talked about kitchen-table economics."
Democrats, on the other hand, were much more specific on policy, she said. Deckman cited the speech by GOP nominee Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, as an example of the GOP rhetoric.
"What struck me about Ann Romney's speech was that she was talking about how women find it harder to pay for gas at the pump, and other household budget issues" that directly appeal to mothers, Deckman said. "She calls to mind a traditional idea of what families are."
Romney said: "It's the moms who always have to work a little harder to make everything right. It's the moms of this nation -- single, married, widowed -- who really hold this country together ... You're the ones who always have to do a little more."
First lady Michelle Obama, who spoke to Democrats Tuesday, called herself "mother-in-chief" in her speech, but there were policy specifics in the address that were tailored to appeal to women more broadly, Deckman said.
For example, Obama said: "So when it comes to rebuilding our economy, Barack is thinking about folks like my dad and like his grandmother. He's thinking about the pride that comes from a hard day's work. That's why he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, to help women get equal pay for equal work. That's why he cut taxes for working families and small businesses and fought to get the auto industry back on its feet."
The stakes are high this year, and every vote counts. Polls show a virtual tie between Romney and President Barack Obama. In the last presidential race, statistics show more women voted than men. And, a recent CNN Opinion Research poll showed 54 percent of women favor Obama, compared to 42 percent of women leaning toward Romney.
At their convention, which ran Tuesday through Thursday, the Democrats drilled down on social issues like marriage equality, ending domestic violence, working for fair wages and ensuring women's health care.
Democrats also said they wanted to prevent "turning back the clock" in the abortion-rights battle after recent controversies, including Missouri Rep. Todd Akin's inaccurate statements during a television interview that a woman's body has a way of preventing pregnancy during "forcible rape."
Deckman said the tactic of focusing on reproductive rights issues could backfire because it may deter voters who are not passionate about the issue.
"Most voters have already made up their minds. For the undecided voters it is more about the economy," Deckman said.
On Tuesday, the Democrats scheduled almost all of the elected female House members to speak. On Wednesday, it was all the elected senators, led by Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who is the longest-serving woman in Congress.
Their lineup also included Lilly Ledbetter, whose lawsuit became the basis for the new fair-pay law; and attorney and Obama activist Sandra Fluke, who became widely known when radio host Rush Limbaugh called her a "slut" after she testified in front of a congressional panel in favor of contraception.
"They (Democratic speakers) were not talking to women only as mothers but about women as workers -- women in the workforce actually dealing with issues of underemployment or job discrimination," said Jeana DelRosso, English department chairwoman and women's studies professor at Notre Dame of Maryland University.
The speakers at the Republican National Convention, on the other hand, opted for a more general approach, praising women's leadership in elected positions as well as the strength of mothers and focusing on family finances, DelRosso said.
The GOP also featured a bevy of governors: Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Susana Martinez of New Mexico. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke in a prime-time slot.
"The Republicans were on the defensive because there has been a lot said about a so-called war on women," by the GOP, said Dennis Simon, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Republicans, he said, avoided talking about reproductive rights and extending contraceptive benefits, or talked about them in neutral language.
"What the Republicans are trying to do is to say, 'There is room for conservative women in this party,'" Simon said.
Simon, an expert on presidential elections, public opinion and electoral behavior, said Democrats are using their speakers to reinforce a message that says they are a "more women-friendly party."
Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, attended the Republican and Democratic conventions to make presentations for the Political Parity Project -- a nonpartisan initiative created to increase the number of women at the highest levels of government.
She said that the parties' outreach to women, particularly the moderate ones, was apparent in the attention women's issues received before and during the conventions.
"Democrats are keenly aware that they need to energize that (female) base," Walsh said, "while the Republican side recognizes the need to narrow the gender gap they have." | <urn:uuid:2ae92408-01de-41a1-971c-a9d0329d4817> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eldersburg.patch.com/articles/democrats-republicans-use-differing-convention-messages-to-appeal-to-women-voters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974077 | 1,180 | 1.75 | 2 |
A look at ‘affordable’ housing in Seattle
Seattle Times business staff
Depending on whether you’re a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full kind of person, you could read a recent report on Seattle’s home affordability one of two ways.
On the one hand, the personal-finance company Interest.com found, Seattle was the ninth-least affordable metro area among the 25 it studied. On the other hand, median wage-earners made nearly enough to buy a typical home hereabout without throwing their household finances too far out of whack.
The company first looked at median home prices in the 25 largest urban areas in the country. With a $290,700 median as of mid-2012, Seattle ranked seventh-highest in that category; assuming a 20 percent down payment, that means you’d need to borrow $232,560 to buy the median home.
Interest.com then looked at median household incomes (Seattle ranked fifth, at $64,085), and factored in local mortgage rates, property taxes, homeowners’ insurance and other household debt.
Ted Mossman, a spokesman for parent company Bankrate.com, said that to be considered “affordable” total housing costs (principal and interest on the mortgage, insurance and taxes) couldn’t take up more than 28 percent of household income, and housing costs plus other debt payments couldn’t be above 36 percent.
To meet those criteria, the median household income in metro Seattle would have to be $64,492 — 0.63 percent above the area’s actual median.
This is the first year Interest.com has done the survey, so there aren’t direct data about how local affordability has changed. But it’s not hard to guess why: Housing prices have fallen more than 26 percent since the peak of the boom, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index, while median household income has risen just 2.4 percent.
Nor should the extremes of affordability and unaffordability surprise anyone.
In San Francisco, the median income was almost 33 percent below the “affordability” level; New York incomes were nearly 30 percent short, and San Diego’s median was about 26 percent shy of affordability.
You’d have better luck in Detroit, where the median selling price was $60,200 and the median income was more than 45 percent above the affordability level. Then again, you’d be living in Detroit.
Atlanta (40 percent above the affordability level) and Minneapolis-St. Paul (32 percent above) might look like better options, as long as you don’t mind stifling summers and/or brutally cold winters.
— Drew DeSilver, [email protected]
Like evergreens and geoducks, credit unions grow big ’round these parts.
Seven Washington-based credit unions had $1 billion or more in assets as of June 30, according to the Northwest Credit Union Association.
The largest, Tukwila-based BECU, also is the fourth-largest credit union in the nation, with $10.6 billion in assets and $71.7 million in net income as of June 30.
Also in the club are Washington State Employees ($1.7 billion in assets), Spokane Teachers ($1.7 billion), GESA ($1.2 billion), Numerica ($1.2 billion), Sound ($1.1 billion) and Hapo Community ($1 billion).
Washington is tied with Virginia for fifth-highest number of billion-dollar credit unions. And because of some recently announced mergers, there soon will be at least one more.
On Jan. 1, Seattle’s Prevail Credit Union will merge into the much larger Harborstone Credit Union of Lakewood, Pierce County.
The consolidation, one of the largest in recent memory, will push Harborstone’s combined assets over $1 billion.
Another pending merger will put Bremerton-based Kitsap Credit Union close to the $1 billion mark. Kitsap, which has more than $903 million in assets, is set to absorb Quimper Community Federal Credit Union of Port Townsend, with $45 million in assets, by Thursday.
Once those mergers are completed, Washington will have almost as many billion-dollar credit unions (eight) as banks (12).
Not that the banks like the company. The Washington Bankers Association says jumbo credit unions have an unfair edge over banks, because they pay little or no state taxes and no federal income tax.
In just the past two years, the big banks have seen their state tax bills more than double, said Jim Pishue, the trade group’s chief executive.
Taxing large credit unions like commercial banks would generate $28 million in business and occupation tax for the state’s coffers, Pishue said.
“As the state continues to look for additional sources of revenue, I think it would benefit and behoove them to take a look at the industry, at those credit unions that have morphed into banklike structures and offer the same banking services that commercial banks do,” Pishue said.
David Bennett, a spokesman for the credit-union association, responded that Congress has reaffirmed tax exemption for credit unions because of the co-op benefits they offer and the alternative they provide to banks.
“A lot of bankers would like nothing more than to see credit unions disappear,” Bennett said. “Taking tax exemption away would essentially eliminate a lot of their competition.”
—Sanjay Bhatt, [email protected] | <urn:uuid:b4789f7d-c5d0-4b80-a287-0da633c2019d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2019534447_sundaybuzz28xml.html?syndication=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950977 | 1,194 | 1.515625 | 2 |
NBN Co has chosen Roma in Queensland as the location of the eighth of ten ground stations for its forthcoming satellite broadband service.
The network operator plans to build two 13.5-metre satellite dishes and a single-storey building at a site about four kilometres east of Roma.
The plans are still subject to local development approvals.
"Roma is ideally situated to play a central role in delivering better broadband to the outback," NBN Co's satellites program director Matt Dawson said.
"It has the ideal climate and is close to reliable power and other infrastructure including the NBN's core fibre transit network".
NBN Co estimated that, if approved, the project would create between 20 and 30 construction jobs for the town, which has a population that is a shade under 8000 residents.
The firm's long-term satellite service - for which the ground stations are being constructed - is expected to begin operations in 2015.
Earlier this month, NBN Co confirmed sites at Carnarvon, Geraldton and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia would host ground facilities.
Other facilities are to be located at Wolumla and Bourke in NSW, Ceduna in South Australia, and Geeveston in Tasmania.
NBN Co will have a total of ten ground stations supporting its satellite service. Viasat won a $280 million contract to build the facilities.
Copyright © iTnews.com.au . All rights reserved.
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Some traditional software vendors may offer "hosting" that seems like cloud computing.
This document describes how to distinguish the Cloud from imitators.
The following questions delineate whether customers are purchasing true cloud services or traditional software posing as a "hosted" service. To tell the difference, customers should ask:
1) "Do I have to buy software up front?"
If customers must buy software up front, they don't receive the benefits of a subscription model and aren't purchasing cloud computing. With large, up-front sunken costs, they don't have flexibility to switch vendors if they are unhappy. Having already paid nearly all fees, they are locked into long-term commitments with vendors who are typically less responsive.
To expose cloud imitators, customers should ask if they can have a ten-year payment period that's cancelable at any time with no penalty. If not, they aren't doing business with a bona fide cloud vendor.
2) "Am I on my own server?"
If customers are on their own servers, they lose the benefits of shared infrastructure. They don't experience the reliability of highly available cloud computing. Also, when imitators maintain one server per customer, upgrades are typically performed yearly. In the Cloud, patches and improvements are made frequently and simultaneously for all systems.
3) "Is hosting done by the software vendor or a third party?"
Customers are put at risk by trusting vendors who have third-party companies host systems. They should be wary of a lack of commitment by the software vendors unwilling to own and manage the infrastructure. They haven't devoted the resources to developing cloud-computing expertise. Moreover, they may not think the business is valuable enough to run themselves. This should be a clear signal of suspect service quality.
Including a third party also causes communication problems. When issues arise, customers will need to determine who to call. If there's a performance problem, do they call the software vendor or hosting provider? Introducing a third party into the relationship delays troubleshooting and jeopardizes performance. With no single "neck to grab," problems are harder to resolve and customers are more vulnerable.
I absolutely love the assurance that we're finally
able to keep accurate records for our students in a | <urn:uuid:683a0483-532c-4fbe-aedc-86727d1a250a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teacherease.com/bewareofimitations.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957023 | 463 | 1.84375 | 2 |
We've been hearing plenty about NFC and its suggested uses for the past little while, as we know -- it's a new technology and one that many people are exploring in an effort to make it part of everyone's daily lives but realistically, it's just not there yet. Google, being one of the major players in the NFC game has just launched their NFC service -- Google Wallet, in a limited launch starting off with the Android powered Samsung Nexus S 4G from Sprint. Google has managed to teamed up with Citi, MasterCard and now Visa, Discover and American Express are all on board in what Google sees as an effort to create an "open commerce ecosystem".
RIM as we know, with the release of the NFC capable BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 as well as the BlackBerry Curve 9360 is prepared to take on an NFC services that come up. Rather then be left behind in this situation, RIM for once is right up there willing to adopt a new technology offering to a certain extent but will they make use of it?
Google has made it known they will team up with anyone interested in their Google Wallet services in an effort to make it available to everyone and that offers extends to RIM, Microsoft, Apple and more. It could would be a good move for RIM to reach out to Google if they haven't already and get this happening. Google Wallet will be a test bed of NFC usage for anyone involved and it's a test bed RIM should be a part of.
Learn more about Google Wallet | <urn:uuid:8446eb7d-213f-4d36-9595-2965561d2593> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crackberry.com/google-wallet-sees-limited-launch-will-rim-be-joining-party | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974394 | 310 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Rural Economy Slows in April
Apr 23, 2012
The Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) decreased slightly this month, but remained well above growth neutral. The farmland price index declined in April, indicating slower growth in values, but remained above growth neutral for the 27th continuous month.
The Rural Mainstreet Index decreased to 57.1, a slight decrease from the 59.8 it posted last month.
According to Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, “We are seeing some signs across the Rural Mainstreet economy that higher energy and fuel prices are slowing growth for areas dependent on agriculture. Furthermore, somewhat slower global growth has negatively affected some portions of the rural and agriculturally dependent economy.”
The farmland price index decreased to 69.4 this month from 78.7 in March. This marks the 27th straight month the index has been above growth neutral. The farm equipment sales index increased to 62.4 from March’s 61.5.
Bankers were asked this month what percentage of sales were purchased by non-farmers. Bankers indicated that 20% of sales were purchased by non-farmers. DeWayne Streyle, CEO of United Community Bank of North Dakota reported, “Nonfarmer and recreation investors are driving the farm land valuations (higher).” We find this statement inconsistent with the data we have observed. In fact, we believe farmers are the primary reason farmland values have increased.
The loan volume index increased to 52.8 from 48.4 a month prior. The check deposit index increased to 72.6 from 69.4 in March and the certificate of deposit and savings instruments increased to 53.5 from a 48.4 last month.
March's hiring index decreased to 59.3 compared to 63.0 in February. “Our survey data along with government job data indicate that year-over-year job growth is now much stronger in the metropolitan and urban areas of the region than on Rural Mainstreet. Again, some of the air is coming out of the agriculture bubble, and that is not a bad thing,” said Goss. The economic confidence decreased to 60.6 from March's 63.0.
This survey represents an early snapshot of the economy of rural, agriculturally and energy-dependent portions of the nation. The RMI is a unique index covering 10 regional states, focusing on approximately 200 rural communities with an average population of 1,300. It gives the most current real-time analysis of the rural economy.
For daily articles on farmland and agriculture, visit www.farmlandforecast.com | <urn:uuid:60a61c59-8af3-4e67-a1a0-f581551a24ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweb.com/topproducer/Rural-Economy-Slows-in-April/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941683 | 536 | 1.625 | 2 |
Washington had entered the cycle of partisan brinksmanship over the budget that has sown confusion among federal agencies and delayed contracts to small companies like Brown's Navsys Corp., which designs satellite navigation systems in this military town. So Brown slashed her 40-strong workforce in half. And as she feared back then, her revenues have since plunged by half.
The latest crisis hit on Friday with across-the-board automatic spending cuts. They total about $85 billion, but the economic damage created by two years of showdowns is far greater. And there's no end in sight: Temporary resolutions funding the government expire on March 27. May brings another debt ceiling standoff.
"We're planning for the worst," Brown said in her office with a view of the Rampart Range, a portrait of President George W. Bush on the shelf behind her. "We're not going to be taking risks and making investments, and that's bad for the country as a whole."
Thousands of businesses are in similar straits, from defense contractors like Navsys to wind turbine manufacturers to wheat farmers. It is one reason the U.S. economic recovery has been so persistently anemic. But it is happening quietly, drowned out by dueling press conferences inside the Beltway and general disgust
In a paper this year, three economists estimated that 2.3 million private sector jobs have been lost since 2008 because of uncertainty over government policy. That uncertainty has spiked dramatically since the start of the budget showdowns in 2011.
While debates always have generated some uncertainty, "now every single decision is subject to this excruciating process," said Scott R. Baker, one of the paper's authors and an economics professor at Stanford University.
"We seem to be stuck in this series where we're staggering from politically-made crisis to politically-made crisis, and even if we solve it we do so in a way that lowers confidence in our ability to deal with the next one," Baker said.
With deficits setting records in recent years, Obama insists on a mix of tax increases and spending cuts. Republicans insist on cuts-only. Voters ensured two more years of uncertainty by re-electing Obama and a Republican-controlled House in November.
The impact is felt in Colorado, an economic microcosm for the country with 7.6 percent unemployment, only 0.2 percent below the national average. Its economy includes a robust aerospace industry and several military bases, and it contributes more in federal taxes than it takes in.
On the eastern plains, Colorado farmers should be enjoying skyrocketing prices for wheat, soybeans and other staples. Instead, they're fretting over the fate of the farm bill that has been held up in the budget debates. Farmers don't know if they'll still be protected from crop failures or other natural disasters. A last-minute, temporary extension Congress issued in January is little comfort to those who must decide what to plant based on the seasons, not the congressional calendar.
"You can tell that people are keeping their money close to them, waiting for resolution," said Kent Peppler, a grain farmer in the town of Mead who has put off buying machinery. "The farm bill is like the rule book. It's pretty hard to play the game if you don't know what the rules are."
Denver's suburbs were partly insulated from the economic downturn by a strong renewable energy industry. But wind energy tapered off when a federal tax credit, due to expire at year's end, became a hostage of the presidential election. Republican Mitt Romney called it a wasteful subsidy. Obama and some Republicans called it crucial to a growing industry.
The credit was extended in January, a few days after it expired, for one year. But that was too late for Vestas, a Denmark-based wind turbine manufacturer that employed 1,700 people in Colorado at the start of 2012. On Feb. 21, it announced it was cutting 10 percent of its remaining 1,100 manufacturing workers because of the late extension.
"It does take a while to get the industry re-started," said Peter Kelley of the American Wind Energy Alliance, which has tracked thousands of layoffs caused by credit uncertainty. The industry fears more turmoil because the new credit expires in December, he said.
"We continue to tell everyone on Capitol Hill you need long-term policies to get long-term growth in the wind industry," Kelley said.
The budget battle's most visible impact in Colorado has been on its many defense contractors, ranging from giants like Lockheed Martin to smaller firms like Brown's Navsys.
In 2011, Obama and Republicans could not agree on cutting the deficit enough to convince the House to raise the debt limit. They did agree to $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years that ultimately kicked in March 1 if they couldn't find other savings and revenues. Half those cuts affect the military. The combined pall of looming cuts and month-to-month budgeting has frozen the civilian defense industry.
"No real investments are going on," said Brad Michelson, a vice president at Infinity Systems Engineering, a Colorado Springs-based government contractor in engineering, intelligence and information technology.
At Navsys, five of its 20 remaining workers have shifted to a four-day workweek. Navsys has won competitive bids, Brown says, but the money won't come because the budget limbo has delayed payments. Brown is focusing more on commercial contracts.
"I'm not holding my breath that this problem is going to get fixed," she said.
Find Nicholas Riccardi on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NickRiccardi. | <urn:uuid:4346ee38-a9dd-4127-b986-36ebfb598342> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eveningsun.com/nationworldnews/ci_22709342/us-economy-hamstrung-by-washingtons-brinksmanship | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968386 | 1,139 | 1.601563 | 2 |
An Economic Outlook by Jack Lavery - Biography
Jack Lavery is Chairman, CEO, and Chief Economist of Lavery Consulting Group, L.L.C. (LCG), an economic and public policy research firm, specializing in client presentations. LCG focuses on serving financial institutions, money managers and corporate clients, including those seeking to impact high net worth individuals.
Jack had an extraordinary 20-year career at Merrill Lynch & Co., from which he retired in 2000, to become Visiting Professor and Executive in Residence at Seton Hall University. In mid-2001, he launched LCG. He built and orchestrated Merrill Lynch’ Global Securities Research & Economics complex for eleven years as SVP. Jack also was the executive running Merrill Lynch’ worldwide Global Equities business for three years, and served as Director of Corporate Strategy for ML & Co. for one year. Jack created and ran the Firm’s Public Policy Research Group.
Jack joined Merrill Lynch in 1981 as Chief Economist and Director of Economic Research of Merrill Lynch & Co., before assuming broader management responsibilities as head of the then merged Securities Research & Economics Division in September 1984. He was a member of the Institutional Investor “All America Research Team” in Economics in each of his four years as Chief Economist of Merrill Lynch.
Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Jack was Senior Vice President, Chief Economist and Director of Investment Research at Provident National Bank (now PNC) in Philadelphia. Jack began his career as an economist with the Western Electric Company and later joined Aetna Life and Casualty where he rose to be Assistant Director of Economic and Corporate Planning. He has taught full-time at Niagara University and was an adjunct member of the graduate school M.B.A. faculties of the U. of Hartford and LaSalle University in Philadelphia. In academic year 2000-‘01, Jack taught on the undergraduate and MBA faculty of the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University.
Jack served for five years on the Advisory Board of the Center for Economic Policy Studies (CEPS) at Princeton University. Jack is a member of the Advisory Board of the Financial Markets Research Center of the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. Jack also serves as Chairman of the Board of Advisors to the Business School of the University of Maine. Jack is a lifetime member emeritus of the Board of Directors of the National Council on Economic Education. Jack has been a member of the National Association of Business Economics for 40 years, and hosted NABE’s 1976 annual meeting in Philadelphia.
Jack served for three years on the Board of Governors of the National Association of Securities Dealers. Jack has served as Chairman of the Board of the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) and also on the Board of the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) Foundation. Jack’s vision led to the creation of the Lupus Research Institute (LRI), an organization dedicated to finding the cause and cure of lupus. Jack is Co-Chairman of the LRI. | <urn:uuid:da1ee9e8-a927-40e7-bd4b-f717a520c626> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://umaine.edu/soe/economic-development/economic-outlook/biography/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965554 | 630 | 1.5 | 2 |
The fourth instalment in an occasional series on books written by some of the world's most notorious dictators. The author's goal is to subject himself to as much tyrant prose as he can bear, reporting back on his findings until the will to live deserts him.
Perhaps the most famous literary critic of the 20th century, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-1989) was renowned for his vehement loathing of the work of Salman Rushdie. Indeed, the Ayatollah (or Imam, as he liked to be known) loathed the Satanic Verses so much that he called for Rushdie's execution. Now Rushdie may seem a bit smug, but I think we can all agree that that was going a bit far. And as a British subject and lapsed Sunni Muslim, Rushdie was not under the Iranian Shia supreme leader's jurisdiction by any stretch of the imagination. Nor had the Ayatollah actually read the Satanic Verses. No surprise there, of course – ignorance of the offending material is a sine qua non for those who would burn books and kill their authors.
But I digress. Today I am focusing not on the Ayatollah's critical output, but rather his work as a creative author, which is woefully unknown in the western world, even though he was stupendously prolific (200 of his works are available online). The topics he covered include commentaries on the Qur'an and the Hadith, works on Islamic law, plus multiple tomes on philosophy, gnosticism, poetry, literature and politics. And on top of all that he masterminded one of the epochal events of the 20th century. Not bad – from a Protestant work ethic standpoint, at least.
Prolific output is no sign of quality however, as anyone who has read Khomeini's fellow dictator Enver Hoxha will attest. But it is difficult for those of us not fluent in Persian to arrive at a judgment on Khomeini's work as so little of it is available in translation. Indeed, it's almost as if the authorities in the Islamic Republic don't want us to read his books, as if they don't care whether we are converted or not. This is an unusual, even refreshing display of contempt for the lingua franca of the modern world, as almost every other tyrant from Muammar Gaddafi to Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan has revealed his cultural insecurity by having his words rendered into the language of the Great (and little) Satan.
Back to the Ayatollah however, and what is available in English.
• In 1980, Bantam Books published an unauthorised paperback entitled The Little Green Book: Sayings of the Ayatollah Khomeini, hastily compiled in the aftermath of the revolution. This slim volume lifted freely from three separate works by Khomeini: Kingdom of the Learned, Key to Mysteries and The Explanation of Problems. Problems with the text are manifold. The English version was translated from Iranian into French into English, and greatly truncated in the process: 125 pages instead of over 1,000, with a suspicious emphasis on aphorisms about semen, sweat and the anus. To compound matters, it does not attribute specific quotes. And yet in spite of these serious flaws the immensely vengeful, tedious, depressing, obsessive, paranoid, superstitious, reactionary, authoritarian, misogynistic and antisemitic flavour of the Ayatollah's thought shines through. No wonder many in Iran, forced to submit to one man's withering interpretation of their cultural and religious inheritance (and that is to say nothing of non-Muslims and unbelievers) are rioting in the streets.
• On the other hand, Islam and Revolution (Mazar, 1981) was compiled by an editor favourably inclined to Khomeini (Hamid Algar, author of the classic Occidentosis: The Plague from the West). I stumbled upon it in the Austin public library and was just about to read the thing when alas, somebody put in a call for it and I had to return it. Optimistically listed as Volume 1, Volume 2 – as far as I can tell – was never published.
• Finally, my desperate quest for more Khomeini led me to this singular, solitary poem, originally published in the New Republic in 1989, just as the Ayatollah was demanding death for Rushdie and poised to take the great leap into eternity himself. This was what I was really interested in – something that would reveal a side of Khomeini unknown to those of us in the west; a more tender aspect of the bearded, reactionary theocrat.
And what a poem! If the first two lines are startling:
I have become imprisoned, O beloved, by the mole on your lip! I saw your ailing eyes and became ill through love.
Then what follows a few lines down is absolutely amazing:
Open the door of the tavern and let us go there day and night, For I am sick and tired of the mosque and seminary.
The whole thing ends with a repudiation of Islam in favour of the "tavern's idol".
Even allowing for the fact that the Ayatollah is utilising a poetic persona, the poem is remarkable: free thinking, even heretical. And yet … according to Khomeini's Arabic translator, professor Muhammad Ala al-Din Mansur, of Cairo University, the apparently secular tone is misleading:
Imam Khomeini's poetry was exclusively a means for the manifestation of his mystical and numinous thoughts while praying to God and reflecting on the mysteries of the creation.
And sure enough, I soon found an essay online in which the critic revealed that everything in the poem is something else, and nothing is what it appears to be. Bummer. But is Khomeini's stuff any good? According to a pro-regime site:
Imam Khomeini was an outstanding poet and literary figure of Persian language. His prose was elegant and his poetry delicate. He was popular in this respect from the very beginning of his student days in Qum and was known for the soundness of his speech and writings.
But they would say that, wouldn't they? As for those of us who don't speak Persian, how are we to judge? Which leads me to a final thought: considering so little of Khomeini's thought is available in English (even though he established the ideology of a major hegemon in today's Middle East) – what exactly are all our analysts, specialists and decision-makers consulting when they make pronouncements about the place? I don't believe for one second that the hacks writing op-eds and the politicians appearing on talk shows speak Persian.
My guess is that they are very often reading interpretations of interpretations, pieces a little like this, albeit longer and written with a note of certainty. And that – frankly – should have us all concerned. | <urn:uuid:04c3d6ab-afc0-4bb5-b3d6-8a9d7c1bf889> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wichaar.com/news/291/ARTICLE/19018/2010-02-20.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973029 | 1,420 | 1.765625 | 2 |
With a rare countertenor voice and the talent of a seasoned opera singer, Andreas Scholl wows audiences with his tremendous
gift of song. From singing for the Pope to recording tracks of popular music to teaching other young singers, this dynamic
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enrolling in the conservatoire and singing with the best singers in the world, and learning from the best teachers in the
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music tickets from StubHub, and be there for every exciting moment! | <urn:uuid:c2ca181b-b7c0-4e9f-a1ae-4e20a8f6e6e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stubhub.com/andreas-scholl-tickets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967296 | 706 | 1.507813 | 2 |
How to Find Help for Your Credit Problems
A credit-counseling agency serves as an objective party to help you sort through your credit problems, see your credit situation through the eyes of professional, give you some credit education, offer personalized budgeting advice, and design a customized plan to get you out of debt — all for nothing or next to nothing.
A credit counselor asks you about your income sources and tax deductions, as well as your monthly expenses. A quick subtraction of expenses from income tells you how much you have available for monthly debt service, if any. The counselor will suggest ways to adjust your expenses or income, to get you to a positive cash-flow position (in which more money is coming into your household than is going out).
Next, you and the counselor go over all the debts you have to pay. The positive cash flow from the earlier calculation is applied to the amount you have to pay. If anything is left over, you’re basically done — you leave with an action plan and a budget you can follow to keep your expenses in line with your income.
If the result is negative (you have more expenses than you have income), you and your counselor rework the expenses to free up cash flow, and he or she tells you what your debt service would be under a debt-management plan.
Alas, there is no magic wand to make all your financial problems disappear, but a good certified credit counselor always offers solutions. Expect more than one solution, and expect some solutions you don’t like. Your counselor will give you a balanced perspective of what you need to do, how long it will take, and what resources are available to help you along the way. | <urn:uuid:4bd956a8-d55f-4609-97f7-e2f84a34e9ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-find-help-for-your-credit-problems.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965696 | 350 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010
Week of April 25, 2005
Let's pray for Pedro's sight
A Missionary's Musings
By FR. JACQUES JOHNSON
This morning I drove half an hour on some of Guatemala's primitive roads and entered into the yard of an elderly woman who has invited us to park the truck close to her house where it will be safe. There I took my backpack with the wherewithal to celebrate the Eucharist and went across the road where a 20-year-old man was waiting.
He was my guide and he took my backpack and carried it all the way, up and down considerable hills arriving finally to an open area and the community of San Vincente. It was a fine one-hour walk.
Pedro, the leader of the community, welcomed me warmly. A small group of men had already gathered outside the church. I went and greeted them all and told them that my name is Jacques, or Santiago in Spanish.
Having done this a few times in other communities, I'm fast becoming known in the area as Padre Santiago.
The church of San Vincente is small as is also the community with its 15 families and population of 70 people. I was surprised that the church had a cement floor as many of the smaller communities cannot afford that.
The walls are made of standing 12-inch planks with a good half inch between the planks which allows the light to come through. A tin roof keeps the place dry on rainy days. Two men with guitars led the singing with hymns that are becoming familiar, although it's hard to join in as communities have very little in terms of song books.
I was busy hearing people's confession in perfect Quiche which I don't understand at all, along with the odd sin being expressed in Spanish which I understood. Meanwhile two men with guitars led hymns in their own language. A collection was taken during Mass. It yielded 9.5 Quetzales or $1.52.
After Mass, Pedro invited me to come and have lunch at his place. The house was large but with a dirt floor.
I met Pedro's mother who is 95 years old which must be a major record in this area of poverty and lack of health care. I also met his wife who served me a healthy meal of chicken broth, rice, beans and tortillas.
For my return trip to Chicaman, Pedro told me he'd be my guide for the walk home. Walking behind him I noticed that his rubber boots, - all men wear rubber boots, no sock- were worn pretty badly and I could see his heels coming through the boots.
I had a hunch Pedro was blind and he confirmed that indeed he could hardly see at all as he's got a bad case of cataracts in both eyes. His 9-year-old daughter turned out to be my real guide as she led her blind father so that he could lead me. Young Rosa was wearing a pair of second-hand white shoes with high heels that would have fit a grown woman. The shoes probably came in a good-will box and the size did not seem to faze Rosa at all, lucky that she was to be wearing any kind of shoes.
After we had walked for a half-hour or so, I suggested that I could make it home by myself. In reality I felt bad for Jaime groping with his walking stick trying to keep on the trail.
He did not want to leave me until he had gotten me to the truck, he said. But I insisted that I would be alright, and that we were getting close as we could hear the river flowing below us. He finally agreed and we bade goodbye to each other.
I made it back to the truck with very little problem. As I was walking, I was thinking about cataract operations and wondered how successful they are. I want to look into it and see if modern science couldn't do what the love of Jesus did for the blind of his day. There must be a solution for this good man. A successful eye operation could positively impact on his life, his family and community.
Before leaving I prayed to God to help this good man, his family and community. We might have an answer waiting as presently we have a guest, an American doctor who is visiting us and some of our communities. He wishes to volunteer his gifts and profession to the poor and needy of Guatemala. He's presently away at our other Parishes, Playa Grande with its 125 communities. We'll likely be talking with him and I'll keep you posted.
Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Western Catholic Reporter
Our mission: To serve our readers by bringing the Gospel to bear on current issues in the Church and in secular culture through accurate news coverage and reflective commentary. | <urn:uuid:391fd4f0-6cb2-4bac-8702-a4e89d3aa2c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wcr.ab.ca/old-site/columns/jacquesjohnson/2005/johnson042505.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991109 | 1,014 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Scarlett Johansson's Napoleon Film Stirs Up Controversy
Bonaparte was befriended by English teen Betsy Balcombe, to be played by Johansson, when he was exiled to the South Atlantic island St. Helena in 1815. Although he was supposedly a kindly uncle figure to Balcombe, who lived there with her merchant father and siblings, director Benjamin Ross is keen to give their story a saucier slant.
Historian Peter Hicks fumes, "It was a platonic relationship. It would be ridiculous to suggest anything else."
But Ross has hit back, saying, "The facts are very interpretable. I'd be delighted to get historians jumping and down."
Scarlett Johansson Picture Gallery
(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)
Top 10 'Star Trek' Villains Review: 'The Hangover Part III' - More Action Than Comedy! | <urn:uuid:dab0c5b7-673d-4db9-bb98-cd6cbf5db461> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2006/04/03/scarlett_johansson_s_napoleon_film_stirs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950346 | 183 | 1.5 | 2 |
And what better place to begin than with the phenomena which has captured our collective consciousness, the motion picture “The Help.”
As someone whose mother and grandmother were “domestics” or “housekeepers,” I have two diametrically opposed sentiments after seeing the movie.
What I liked most about “The Help” is that it is fiction.
What I disliked most about “The Help” is that it is fiction.
As a work of art, it is touching, well-acted and superbly scripted. It is witty and well-presented.
I’m a great fan of Viola Davis (Aibileen), an award-winning stage actor long before she received acclaim for an 8-minute performance in the movie “Doubt.”
I hope “The Help” wins several Academy Awards. It’s just that excellent.
As a representation of what I lived through watching my mother and grandmother work as domestics in West Point, “The Help” literally made me sick inside.
It puts in stark contrast how differently whites and blacks see our history. Sadly, author Kathryn Stockett romanticized about an unreal world where poor black women – my grandmother worked nine hours a day for $15 a week – conspired with perky white girls against the white establishment.
She put sheer evil in the hands of a black pastry cook, which no person I can imagine, black or white, would ever be evil enough to do. It wasn’t funny.
Admittedly, both the book and film do allude to the prejudice and racial animus of the times, but to depict them fully would have worked against the overall warmth and wit of the story. But, believe me, for a black domestic in the 1960s, the times were anything but warm and witty.
When I was about 12, my grandmother came home in an un-before-seen tearful rage. In anger, dismay and disgust, she explained that because her employer’s husband had not come home for dinner, the employee deliberately threw a whole baked chicken into the garbage, so Mama couldn’t bring it home.
On my first day attending West Point High School, a girl called me over to a group of her white friends, to welcome me, I had supposed. After asking mine and my mother’s name, she exclaimed with contemptible glee, “Your mama cleans our dirty toilets every day.” They walked away laughing.
Both of those stories are in my memories, but not in my heart. Whenever I see that girl from high school, now, I can see in her eyes how ashamed she is of that incident, and I forgive her all over again.
My grandmother eventually left that hateful employer and began working for a family called the Applewhites.
When she died in 1998, the son, Henry, cried harder than I cried. Henry had benefited as much from my grandmother’s love and kindness, nurturing and joyful spirit as I.
Henry grew up and began a successful law practice.
Now, he and I both take pride in the fact that my grandmother – Elilian Davis – “the help,” had a hand in raising the current Monroe County School District attorney.
It’s the contributions that my grandmother, and thousands of black “help” like her, made in the lives of the Henry Applewhites of Mississippi, that give me immense pride.
And there’s pride in knowing that when black women like my grandmother worked in white folks’ kitchens, no matter what society said about them, or cruelly treated them, the only extra ingredient they put in their pies was love.
James Hull is an award-wining journalist and a political consultant. You may contact him at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:807cc0db-6306-4163-9884-13d581307f07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://djournal.com/view/full_story/15169106/article-JAMES-HULL--%E2%80%98The-Help%E2%80%99-didn%E2%80%99t-work-in-warm-and-witty%E2%80%99-times | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973744 | 811 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Sophia in History and Literature
When the world was born, I came into being.
Before the centuries were made, I issued from the hand of God. . .
God instilled me into the initial multiple as a force of condensation and concentration.
In me is seen that side of beings by which they are joined as one,
in me the fragrance that makes them hasten together and leads them,
freely and passionately, along their road to unity.
Through me, all things have their movement and are made to work as one.
I am the beauty running through the world, to make it associate in ordered groups;
the ideal held up before the world to make it ascend.
I am the Eternal Feminine.
I was the bond that held together the foundations of the universe. . .
I extend my being into the soul of the world. . .
I am the magnetic force of the universal presence and the ceaseless ripple of its smile.
I open the door to the whole heart of creation: I, the Gateway of the Earth, the Initiation. . .
In me, the soul is at work to sublimate the body — Grace to divinize the soul.
Those who wish to continue to possess me must change as I change. . .
It is God who awaits you in me!. . .
If, God, then, was able to emerge from himself,
he had first to lay a pathway of desire before his feet,
he had to spread before him a sweet savor of beauty.
It was then that he caused me to rise up,
a luminous mist hanging over the abyss—between the earth and himself—
that, in me, he might dwell among you. . .
Lying between God and the earth, as a zone of mutual attraction,
I draw them both together in a passionate union.
. . . I am the Eternal Feminine.
- Teilhard de Chardin
There is a growing interest in contemporary culture regarding the Mysteries of the Eternal Feminine. In ancient times, the Divine Feminine was recognized and worshiped as the Great Mother, Isis, Demeter, Kwan-Yin, and Tara. In Christian and also in the Judaic tradition she is known as Sophia (from the Greek word Sophia, meaning “Wisdom”). The late Russian poet and author, Daniel Andreev, referred to her as the Rose of the World whose influence “is giving rise to worldwide peace movements, an abhorrence of bloodshed, disillusion over coercive methods of change, an increase in woman’s role in society proper, an ever-growing tenderness and concern for children, and a burning hunger for beauty and love.”
Who is Sophia and why is this renewed interest in the Divine Feminine emerging now? What is Sophia’s origin? How can individuals and groups come to know and experience her? Does Sophia have a leading role to play in the world’s future?
An approach to these questions is to be found in Robert Powell’s books The Sophia Teachings (also available as a set of tapes), The Most Holy Trinosophia and the New Revelation of the Divine Feminine, and Divine Sophia, Holy Wisdom, which was written for the founding of the Sophia Foundation.
These questions relating to Sophia are also the center of interest in the various workshops, conferences and meditation retreats of the Sophia Foundation
Sophia in Diverse Spiritual Traditions
Sophia is usually looked at in the context of the Judeo-Christian tradition – see, for example, Thomas Schipflinger’s book Sophia Maria (available from the bookstore). Thomas Schiplinger looks at contributors to the Sophia tradition from Solomon to the twentieth century Russian Sophiologists. However, as the Divine Wisdom underlying all true spiritual knowledge, Sophia is to be found in almost all of the great religions and spiritual traditions of humanity. For example, in Hinduism there is clear knowledge of the Divine Mother, whose outer aspect manifests itself as Mother Nature or Mother Earth:
The Universal Mother works out whatever is transmitted by her transcendent consciousness from the Supreme and enters into the worlds that she has made; her presence fills and supports them with the divine spirit and the divine all-sustaining force and delight without which they could not exist. That which we call Nature or Prakriti is only her most outward executive aspect. (Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, p.21)
Sri Aurobindo also writes about the Divine Sophia (Maheshwari, Wisdom) in relation to the Mother:
"Maheshwari is seated in the wideness above the thinking mind and will and sublimates and greatens them into wisdom and largeness or floods with a splendour beyond them. For she is the mighty and wise One who opens us to the supramental infinities and cosmic vastness, to the grandeur of the supreme Light, to a treasure-house of miraculous knowledge, to the measureless movement of the Mother’s eternal forces. Tranquil is she and wonderful, great and calm forever. Nothing can move her because all wisdom is in her."
Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) is cited here as a modern representative of Hinduism. Of course, there are many others belonging to the Hindu spiritual stream who could be referred to, including Ramakrishna (1834-1886), who dedicated his life to that aspect of the Divine Feminine spoken of in Hinduism as Kali, the consort of Shiva. Kali is the female counterpart (Shakti) of Shiva.
Likewise, Radha is the Shakti of Krishna, the central figure of the Hindu religion. “She is the Force that leads across the ocean of the world of change (samsara). She is the Holy Wisdom of all that exists.” (Brahma Vavarta Purana, 21)
In Buddhism, Prajña corresponds to the Hindu Shakti. Thus the “Hymn to Prajña Paramita” is a hymn in praise of Perfect Wisdom (Sophia), who manifests in Buddhism as the goddess Tara, of whom numerous representations in her various forms are to be found. In the above-mentioned hymn, she is referred to as “the Great Mother of all Beings” (Rahulabhadra Prajñaparamitastotra). Another Buddhist name for the Goddess of Wisdom is Sarasvati (Lankavatãra Sutra).
Chinese Taoism refers to the Tao as “the Mother of all Beings” (Tao Te Ching, 1). While Lao Tse, the author of the Tao Te Ching, repeatedly refers to the Tao as the “World Mother”, he speaks of the polarity Yang-Yin (male-female) as being contained within the Tao.
The Divine Feminine is to be found in other religions and spiritual traditions, apart from Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism mentioned here. Hopefully this brief description of Sophia will help to provide a useful orientation against the background of which the various traditions speaking of the Divine Feminine may be understood in a deeper way. This, in turn, could lead to a more profound comprehension of Sophia as the Mother of humanity who is able to establish peace between the different religions, denominations and spiritual traditions, and whose new revelation will increasingly fructify all culture as we enter into the Age of Aquarius (AD 2375-4535) and as we near the corresponding Russian/Slavic culture (AD 3574-5734) known as the Rose of the World.
Dear Friends of Sophia and the Sophia Foundation,
Thank you for embracing a Sophianic vision for humanity. While we each carry this vision in our own unique way, we share a rich commonality–– an inclusiveness for all spiritual traditions, an active caring for the earth and an intention toward agape or spiritual self-less love, as the ground for living. We are very blessed to be a community of open-minded, dedicated friends in Sophia. | <urn:uuid:61294e0a-701c-4292-86b3-647598330d52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sophiafoundation.org/home/who-is-sophia/sophia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954263 | 1,695 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Ofcom proposes new rules on advertising deals
Only due discrimination will be kosher. Take heed!
Ofcom said it was laying out the proposed new rules as required of it under the UK's Communications Act. Under the Act, Ofcom must set out a code of practice that sets standards on "the content of programmes to be included in television and radio services" that ensure that "there is no undue discrimination between advertisers who seek to have advertisements included in television and radio services".
Broadcasters licensed by Ofcom will have to comply with the conditions of the Code under the terms of the Act.
"A television broadcaster must not unduly discriminate between advertisers that seek to have advertising included in its licensed service," Ofcom said in its proposed Code (17-page / 140KB PDF).
"A radio broadcaster must not unduly discriminate between advertisers that seek to have any commercial communication included in its licensed service," it said.
The regulator said it had defined "advertising" in the same way "television advertising" had been defined under EU broadcasting laws set out in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
Ofcom said it considered advertising to be "any form of announcement broadcast whether in return for payment or for similar consideration or broadcast for self-promotional purposes by a public or private undertaking or natural person in connection with a trade, business, craft or profession in order to promote the supply of goods or services, including immovable property, rights and obligations, in return for payment".
The regulator said its "commercial communication" rules for radio broadcasters would cover "a spot advertisement or a commercial reference" that was transmitted.
In reviewing compliance with the proposed Code Ofcom said it would first assess whether broadcasters did discriminate against advertisers before then assessing whether the discrimination was undue.
"In this context, discrimination means that the licensee does not reflect relevant differences between (or does not reflect relevant similarities in) the circumstances of advertisers in deciding whether or not to include advertisements in their licensed service and the terms on which a licensee agrees to broadcast the advertising in question," Ofcom said in its proposals.
"Discrimination can occur both where a licensee treats one third party advertiser in a different manner to another and where it offers more favourable terms to itself or an associated company," it said.
Ofcom said some discrimination between advertisers would not be considered "undue" if broadcasters could show it was "objectively justified". "There may be various reasons why terms and conditions and access to airtime may differ between advertisers," it said.
The regulator cited examples of where discrimination between advertisers may be legitimate, including where broadcasters give one charity free advertising space "as part of a social responsibility policy" while charging other charities. Broadcasters may also refuse to carry advertising "for legal or moral reasons" and offer stricter terms to some advertisers over others if there is doubt over their "creditworthiness", Ofcom said.
Some complaints from advertisers regarding undue discrimination by broadcasters may need to be further investigated on competition grounds, Ofcom said.
Under the UK's Competition Act, companies are generally prohibited from establishing agreements with other UK trading firms that "have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the United Kingdom". Under the Act, organisations are also generally prohibited from engaging in activity that amounts to an abuse of a dominant market position.
"Concerns raised by advertisers in relation to discrimination may require Ofcom to consider whether an arrangement or conduct is prejudicial to fair and effective competition," the regulator's proposals said.
"Ofcom is required before exercising any enforcement powers under the Code to protect fair and effective competition to consider whether it would be more appropriate to proceed under the Competition Act. Depending on the circumstances, it may be the case that concerns which relate directly to, for example, abuse of market power or agreements designed to distort competition, are more appropriately dealt with under the Competition Act," it said.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently announced proposals to introduce higher maximum fines for anti-competitive behaviour. The OFT has general overall responsibility for regulating competition in the UK, but some sectors have additional regulators, such as Ofcom in regulating communications, to oversee compliance with the laws.
Respondents have until 2 December to submit comments to Ofcom on its proposals. Ofcom said it intends to issue a further statement on the Code before the end of the year.
Copyright © 2011, OUT-LAW.com
OUT-LAW.COM is part of international law firm Pinsent Masons. | <urn:uuid:375f2fa7-2161-48ee-ba6f-0b6d1a77f272> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/04/ofcom_proposes_new_rules_on_broadcasters_advertising_deals/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968162 | 922 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Fear of flying is common; as many as one in five people suffer from some form of aviophobia.
If you or your boss must fly for business, this news should help calm your fears:
The National Transportation Safety Board issued a Safety Report on accidents between 1983 and 2000, reports USA Today. The report concluded that on commercial U.S. airlines, 95.7% of the occupants survived.
Also, more than 80% of the occupants survived in 528 of the 568 accidents recorded during that period.
Even better news: Airplanes are increasingly being retrofitted with airbags, due to a new government regulation.
In other words, surviving an accident is not only possible but increasingly likely.
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" This information is proudly provided by Business Management Daily.com: http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/27668/calm-those-travel-fears " | <urn:uuid:506d02ad-fe2b-4d24-b322-5b18e77dc15f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/27668/calm-those-travel-fears | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951287 | 318 | 1.789063 | 2 |
SCOUT groups throughout the South Burnett may close as soon as December due to a decline in leadership numbers.
Scouts of Australia hold grave concerns for the four remaining clubs in the region that are dangerously low on Scout Leaders.
The Nanango, Kingaroy, Proston and Wooroolin clubs are all on the bare minimum number of leaders and cannot afford to lose any more.
The Kingaroy club is facing possible closure by the end of the year, following the Barambah/Murgon Scout Club, which closed in September from a lack of leadership.
Scouts Australia district commissioner Christine Littlejohns said unless adults put up their hands, the clubs would be forced to close.
"We are getting to the point where the future of Scouts in the area is looking dire," she said.
Mrs Littlejohns, who has been part of the organisation locally for 14 years, said the problem came down to lack of leaders, not lack of demand.
"If we can get the leaders, we get the kids," she said.
The decline in leadership at the Scouts has been an ongoing trend in the region with Wondai closing its doors a decade ago and unable to reopen, despite repeated attempts.
If you are interested in becoming a leader or helping the local clubs, phone 0422617497. | <urn:uuid:92d594a8-c63e-46be-b68b-6c93cccbc07b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gattonstar.com.au/news/scouts-lack-leaders/1614937/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971862 | 272 | 1.617188 | 2 |
While going through a problem, I got a situation where I wanted to have a result set in a sorting order which is defined by me. Not ORDER BY ASC, not ORDER BY DESC, not ORDER BY RAND(), but ORDER BY FIELD i.e. the values which are defined by me, which could be random as well, but not ORDER BY RAND().
MySql Custom Order By Example
For example, if you have a result set of a table, containing the names of students, and you have set them as order by student names, and now you want the same ordering format of student names, in another table, which only only contains ids of the student. One easy way could be to make a join with the master table, containing the students names, and use simple Order By student name format, but there could be another way out, where you wont be needing to join the other table, just for the sake of ordering. You can use following type of query, where you already have the ordering student ids, i.e. you already know that which id will come first, and next, and so on.
ORDER BY FIELD
Following is the table tbl_test, where field id will be containing the student ids, through which we will be fetching 5 student ids, and we already know their sorting order, that which id will come first, and next and so on.
SELECT * FROM tbl_test WHERE id IN (1,2,3,4,5) ORDER BY FIELD(id, 1,3,5,4,2); | <urn:uuid:ce81262c-8adc-459a-b069-d70e539cacc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webtechquery.com/index.php/2010/04/mysql-order-by-own-values-mysql-custom-order-by/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938686 | 331 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Until now, the calls for Yankees to go home have usually focused on the American military bases in Okinawa, in southern Japan.
These days, however, the leading candidate for governor of Tokyo is chiming in as well. The candidate, Shintaro Ishihara, who has made a career in recent years of urging Japan to stand up to the United States, is demanding that the American military forces give up Yokota Air Base in Tokyo or at least share it with civilians.
The base is crucial to the United States forces and a centerpiece of the Japan-American military partnership. But Mr. Ishihara also voiced doubts about the security relationship and said that if elected he would press American officials on when precisely they would come to the aid of Japan in any dispute with China.
A governor does not have the power to expel Americans from a military base. But Mr. Ishihara can put issues before the public and make life difficult for American troops and for central Government officials alike.
The upshot is that Japanese Government officials were left scrambling to denounce Mr. Ishihara for his comments. Hiromu Nonaka, the Chief Cabinet Secretary and the most powerful person in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, angrily protested that Mr. Ishihara had no right to raise the issue in a local race, and other officials have also tried to reassure Americans.
Sadaaki Numata, the chief Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: ''Americans should not lose their sleep or fear that a view on one end of the political spectrum would prevail, because that is not likely to happen.''
Mr. Ishihara, who achieved notoriety in the United States after writing a book in the 1980's called ''The Japan That Can Say No,'' urging a more assertive policy toward America, is far ahead among eight major candidates in all the opinion polls.
The race for the April 11 gubernatorial election has turned into a catastrophe for Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party, whose candidate, Yasushi Akashi, formerly a United Nations Under Secretary General and envoy to the Balkans, ranks fifth in the polls.
The poor showing underscores a growing problem for the Liberal Democrats: They rule Japan only by virtue of their domination in rural areas, which are hugely overrepresented in Japan's political system.
Four years ago, the Liberal Democrats were stunned when their candidate lost the Tokyo election for governor to a television personality and comedian, Yukio Aoshima, who now is not running for re-election.
The Liberal Democrats got into trouble in this race partly because they had trouble settling on a candidate. They hoped to back a leader of the rival Democratic Party, Kunio Hatoyama, but he forced them to find their own candidate.
Then the Liberal Democrats seemed to tap a former Foreign Minister, Koji Kakizawa, but at the last minute ordered him not to run and chose Mr. Akashi instead. Mr. Kakizawa angrily announced he would run on his own, and Mr. Ishihara -- a renegade from the Liberal Democrats -- signed up as well.
If Mr. Ishihara wins, the Liberal Democrats will have to decide whether to expel him for breaching party discipline, although he is one of their few popular politicians in Tokyo. ''Many hard-liners are strongly insisting that the L.D.P. should kick Ishihara out of the party,'' said Takao Toshikawa, a political analyst in Tokyo. ''But if the L.D.P. does that, it is condemning itself.'' | <urn:uuid:be1f6230-15d9-4fda-b2ed-d2d45775bb4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/26/world/seeking-to-be-tokyo-governor-politician-attacks-us-presence.html?src=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967821 | 708 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Funding for Leading Laboratory in Energy Research May Reach $351 Million Over Next Five Years
Rochester, NY—The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced today that it will renew its agreement to support the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics—home of one of the world's most powerful lasers and one of the leading facilities for research into future power sources.
According to Laboratory Director Robert L. McCrory, the five-year contract will make possible up to $351 million in funding and allow the Laboratory's more than 500 employees and students to continue their research into the development of controlled, thermonuclear fusion energy sources and high energy density physics. The Laboratory will complete the construction of the gigantic Omega EP laser in 2008, which when it begins operation will be the most powerful laser on Earth.
"The Laboratory is a jewel of the University of Rochester," said University of Rochester President Joel Seligman. "It is a vital component of our nation's scientific capital and leadership, a key to strategic work on an independent energy future, and a crucial part of the high-tech economy of upstate New York. Its most important contribution is in the new knowledge and scientific training opportunities it provides. It also makes a vital contribution to the local economy, including $49 million last year in local expenditures. This strong vote of confidence ensures that those contributions will continue to flow."
"As NNSA's largest university-based research program, the university's laser program plays a unique role supporting NNSA's national security mission and is an integral part of our high energy density research program," said Thomas P. D'Agostino, Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. "They have made many important contributions to NNSA over the years and I look forward to another five years of scientific and technological excellence from the University of Rochester."
The funding will also ensure that the Laboratory's leading role in lasers and high intensity optics—and the long history of optics leadership by the University of Rochester and the Rochester area—will continue, McCrory said. McCrory also noted that the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) has been the only inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program and High-Energy-Density-Physics (HEDP) program jointly supported by the federal and state government, industry, utilities, and a university. The partnership of LLE, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Nuclear Security Administration is essential in the campaign to achieve thermonuclear ignition in the laboratory. LLE is one of the institutional partners in the National Ignition Facility, a $3.5 billion laser to be completed at Livermore in 2009. This facility will be used to conduct ignition experiments beginning in 2010.
"LLE is an absolutely unique resource not found at any other American university," University Provost Ralph Kuncl has said, "and it has brought us unparalleled recognition. This decision by the NNSA ensures that the Laboratory will continue its vital work to the benefit of the nation, of science, and of Rochester."
The Laboratory for Laser Energetics was first established in 1970 "to investigate the interaction of intense radiation with matter." Because lasers can be focused to produce extremely high energy densities in matter, the Laboratory has since that time developed and used for research some of the most powerful lasers ever created, including the current Omega laser, whose multi-trillion watt bursts of laser energy are for tiny fractions of a second one-hundred times more powerful than the entire electrical generating capacity of the United States. Omega EP, designed to help prove the viability of laser-induced fusion energy, will be 50 times more powerful even than Omega, opening to exploration a wealth of new physics in energy research, stellar dynamics, laser and materials technologies, electro-optics, plasma physics and other areas.
LLE was established with funding from the University of Rochester, the state of New York and private industry. With growing support from the Department of Energy beginning in 1975, the Laboratory also operates the National Laser Users Facility and attracts as many as 300 additional scientists each year from national laboratories, universities, and companies from the United States and other nations.
It is also, according to McCrory, an excellent example of the return on investment that can come from scientific research. From a venture capital perspective, the initial University investment of approximately $10.4 million in 1975 has allowed the Laboratory to attract cumulative external funding, primarily from the federal government, of more than $1.17 billion, he said. The funding includes an important investment by New York State in the upstate economy by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. These figures do not include the contributions made by high-tech companies founded in the area whose technology or founders came out of the Laboratory.
NYSERDA president and CEO Paul D. Tonko said, "Research and development activities at our universities create new and innovative energy technologies that will benefit the state and the nation by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, shrinking our carbon footprint and making us more energy efficient. This investment will help the University of Rochester continue its scientific mission for years to come and, at the same time, strengthen the upstate economy."
McCrory explained that although the NNSA contract provides base funding of $276 million based on current financial planning projections for the next five years, the laboratory has historically received additional appropriations to fully fund its activities, and he expects that to occur during this contract period as well, for an expected total of $351 million. The NNSA has accepted and approved the proposal for the full $351 million. Funding is appropriated annually by Congress.
In addition to its vital roles in various areas of scientific research and its support of the local high-tech economy, the Laboratory also plays an important part in educating the next generation of scientists and engineers. McCrory proudly points to the more than 190 Ph.D. recipients trained at the Laboratory, many of whom have gone on to work in national laboratories and private industry. The Laboratory currently supports 65 graduate students conducting their doctoral research.
Because the Laboratory is located on a University campus rather than being a national laboratory, undergraduates and even area high school students are able to benefit from the Laboratory's resources. Approximately 45 undergraduates work each year at the Laboratory. During the summer, approximately 15 high school students participate in a summer research program that has propelled many of them to highly placed finishes at national science competitions, including the Intel Science Talent Search, and to successful careers in science.
"The Laser Lab is important to Rochester's economy, it's important to our national security, and it's important to the nation's scientific community," said Senator Charles E. Schumer. "This is great news for Rochester, the university, and the hundreds employed at the laser lab."
"The decision by the U.S. Department of Energy to provide this federal funding to the Laboratory for Laser Energetics is great news for the University of Rochester and for the entire Greater Rochester area," said Senator Hillary Clinton. "This amazing facility, which provides hundreds of jobs to the community, also draws the world's top scientists to the area to explore fusion research using some of the most power lasers on the planet. These federal funds will allow the University and region to continue to operate at the forefront of fusion technology and optical sciences, while promoting research with the potential to benefit the entire country."
"This agreement is terrific news for the University of Rochester and the surrounding communities," said Representative Louise Slaughter. "With these funds, the University of Rochester will continue to advance as a world leader in the scientific field, while ensuring Western New York stays at the forefront of technology and innovation."
"The success and growth of the Laser Lab is a critical part of our region's ability to compete globally," said Congressman Jim Walsh. "As we evolve from a manufacturing-based to a knowledge-based economy, world-class facilities like this will allow us to continue to retain and recruit the best talent to Rochester and Upstate New York."
"Employing more than 400 western New Yorkers, the Laboratory for Laser Energetics of the University of Rochester is essential to the growth of our community and ensures Rochester is on the cutting edge of technology," said Congressman Thomas Reynolds. "I was pleased to learn that the Department of Energy will continue to fund the laboratory. As a leader in optical science, the laboratory has built some of the world's most powerful lasers and is the primary research facility for national weapons labs."
"Our nation needs a strong energy plan to help us meet our current and future needs and the LLE may prove to be a clean and unlimited form of energy," said Representative Randy Kuhl, a member of the House Caucus for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.
NYSERDA President and CEO, Paul D. Tonko said, "Research and development activities at our universities create new and innovative energy technologies that will benefit the state and the nation by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, shrinking our carbon footprint and making us more energy efficient. This investment will help the University of Rochester continue its scientific mission for years to come and, at the same time, strengthen the upstate economy." | <urn:uuid:71a782ee-d086-4320-8f47-d29f913fefac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=3068 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94775 | 1,882 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Job seekers are becoming more informed about the task of job seeking. Sure, there are still plenty of job seekers out there with bad habits, but we cannot ignore the fact that the average diligent job seeker has access to unprecedented levels of high quality, online advice in the following areas: resume preparation, interviewing, assessment centers and salary negotiation. The average job seeker’s job search technique is improving by the year, which means that the average job seeker is likely to be far more job search savvy than they were a decade or so ago.
Job seekers are also changing jobs far more frequently than they were 10 years ago. Recent surveys suggest that the average job seeker today might hold up to 11 jobs during his/her lifetime. There is also a growing movement toward the use of contingent labor, meaning candidates may be interviewing more often and effectively becoming professional interviewers.
So, what does all this mean for employers? In short, it means that the average candidate’s ability to present their skills effectively in a resume and during an interview may be improving at a faster rate than the underlying skills being talked about. Yes, while the packaging has improved, the product in the tin has not necessarily improved, and employers should be aware of this. So, what areas am I talking about in particular? Which areas are candidates increasing their job acquisition competence? In most areas, as I have shown below:
Candidates now have access to vast realms of free, good quality online resume preparation advice. There are increasing numbers of resume preparation specialists online who can develop high-quality resumes for candidates, elevating these resumes to a standard that may not reflect their own ability to present information. So, yes, candidates are getting much better at presenting their resume data for maximum effect.
Structured Interviewing and Behavioral Questioning
Job seekers have online access to an almost encyclopaedic level of content relating to behavioral interview questioning. While once the internal workings of the interview process were one of life’s great mysteries, it is now easy for candidates to research the most likely interview questions AND model answers for their interview. They can also go on forums and get intelligence from other former employees and interviewees as to how the interview process works at X, Y or Z company.
Practicing aptitude tests
There are now plenty of resources online that allow candidates to practice and improve their performance at the subsequent aptitude tests. But, the question is, have they improved their intelligence above its natural level or have they just improved their ability to do aptitude tests? Are employers actually getting a better candidate?
Candidates are far more financially astute, pushy and informed post financial crisis. Also, there are large amounts of excellent advice online, which is coaching and mentoring candidates to negotiate harder and better for higher salaries and better terms.
So, how should employer’s respond? Well, as a general point, I think employers should begin to reduce the emphasis on resumes as a sign of competence. “How?” I hear you say. Where possible, try and bring real work samples into the process as soon as possible, which includes asking candidates to submit their examples of online code, online articles, online designs, etc. This is not easy for every discipline, but the principle is sound.
Also, interviews have already been proved to be woefully unreliable as predictor of future performance, and only predict 14 percent of the variability in employee performance. So, during the interview process, employers should be minded to combine interviews with additional selection methods such as practical exercises, skill tests, in-tray exercises and job trials, which can raise the reliability of the assessment process.
Also, because candidates are beginning to get advanced knowledge of the kind of assessments you are using, be sure to rotate your assessments and change your assessment processes regularly.
Finally, candidates will be more willing and able to negotiate higher starting salaries and better terms and conditions. So, train your managers to negotiate, which may mean initially presenting broader salary ranges, and pitching lower to give yourself negotiating room and knowing the full value of your company’s financial and non-financial benefits so they can be used as leverage at the appropriate moments.
In sum, I think that candidates are getting more job savvy and are getting better at negotiating the selection process and therefore employers must be subtly adapting the hiring process in response, to ensure they can get truly penetrative insight into the candidates’ ability. | <urn:uuid:184b3d98-5ea9-45f0-b1ef-f298dc51ec5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.recruiter.com/i/job-seekers-are-getting-smarter-employers-should-follow-suit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962813 | 902 | 1.625 | 2 |
Bartels marble works is older than the Federal Republic of Germany: it was founded on 1st January 1949 by Hermann Bartels.
Back then, rather than requiring marble and granite, Germany was in desperate need of more classic construction materials for its reconstruction, especially concrete. In light of this, today's marble works originally started out as a concrete production plant. Steps, paving slabs and precast concrete units made up the product range initially manufactured at our plant in Wedel's Industriestraße. Our clients were construction companies and builders. Many of these quickly became regular customers thanks to Bartel's dedication to meeting their special requirements: made-to-measure pieces, processed quickly and precisely. The specialists at Bartels were also capable of carrying out even the most complicated requests. And for those who needed guidance, help was always at hand.
Gradually, demand not only grew in terms of processing, but also concerning the material used. The market began to demand granite and marble – and Bartels responded.
Simple concrete components were now joined by more valuable products: complete house entry areas in granite, window sills and stairs made of marble. As demand became increasingly exigent, the range available in Wedel grew.
And this is how a concrete plant which also fulfilled unusual requests gave way to the dawn of a marble works. Clients demanded the processing expertise of Bartels, but now applied to more noble materials. In just a few years, one of Northern Germany's largest marble and granite warehouses grew from strength to strength, enabling clients to select exactly the marble, granite, quartzite, limestone or sandstone variety they required. Customers also had the freedom to decide upon the processing, which was carried out by Bartels specialists using the latest machine technology.
"Three decades represent a generation", declared company founder, Hermann Bartels, and handed the business over to his two sons, Dietrich and Hartwich Bartels, on 1st January 1979, thirty years after its establishment. In 1982, the brothers enhanced the product portfolio with a series of kitchen worktops, washbasins and custom-made pieces in marble, limestone, granite, quartzite and sandstone.
Hamburg's renowned bathroom fitters and kitchen specialists welcomed this new range, and satisfied customers made sure that Bartels quickly became one of the largest kitchen worktop manufacturers in Northern Germany. Of course, Bartels returned the favour for such successful collaboration with retailers: kitchen worktops were only sold via distributors, such as specialist kitchen stores, furniture shops and carpenters.
And the company stormed full steam ahead in its quest to become a natural stone specialist. In 1990, a large warehouse was constructed for tiles, obviously made of natural stone. Granite, various hard stone varieties and limestone were offered in a range of surface finishes. The area of exterior and garden constructions followed in the year 2000, with further warehouse expansion, enabling garden architects and landscapers to view over 30 types of terrace and path paving directly on-site and meet their individual requirements from the exhaustive offer available in stock.
Walls, paving and large size tiles up to 100 x 100 cm were sold worldwide and kept in stock in the warehouse. Since 2004, luxury cruise liners have also been furnished with special thin and light Bartels natural stone panels, meeting the sector's 'renewed' demand for extravagant and precise processing.
Comprehensive service - marble is a luxury, and service at Bartels Marble Works could be compared to a high-class Italian restaurant. Although clients are welcome to make quick choices without further ado, the real pleasure is experienced when perfect service and excellent products unite to form a complete menu.
Of course, many Bartels clients order standard elements, which are then supplied in the perfect form - distributors in particular have worked like this for many years.
Nevertheless, the Bartels corporate philosophy is really only discovered by those who take advantage of the company's complete service offer. This is a combination of expert advice, planning, production and assembly.
From measurement taking and the provision of a free quote to the perfect installation by our very own staff members.
Marble and granite are luxury materials which deserve much more than standard service. Only in the individual Bartels comprehensive service can marble and granite be given the attention and care they deserve. Only such a process can reveal their true worth.
The beginning is usually represented by a hazy idea, such as a HiFi shelf.
If you were then to consult an expert Bartels advisor, he would start by asking you about your living room (or wherever you wish to assemble your self). What kind of room is it? How is it furnished? With which materials, which colours? Who uses the room? What kind of atmosphere does the owner want, what does he want to portray to others? Only after such questions have been answered can we turn to the topic of which material to use, whether marble, granite, limestone, sandstone or quartzite. A tour of the warehouse then offers the client a glimpse into the endless range of marble and granite varieties available. Together with the Bartels advisor, the customer makes a narrower selection. Next, we turn to form. Classic? A pyramid? Enhanced with a glass base? And what about the front edges? Round? Angular? Interrupted? Finally, the exact measurements are contemplated. This is an important step - after all, just one centimetre over or under could have a considerable affect on the overall appearance.
After this, a detailed quotation is issued. Obviously completely free of charge.
We also welcome our clients' clients directly.
For years, retailers and architects have been sending their customers to us to allow them to make better informed decisions concerning how they want their final marble and granite products. Experience has shown us that those who send us their clients reap the benefits of our dedicated and individual customer service, thus also helping to increasing their reputation. At Bartels, every customer is a VIP.
All Bartels departments are on hand to assist you.
Everyone who wishes to have a look round the marble and granite range at Bartels Marble Works is first welcomed by the in-house sales team. The in-house sales department is also responsible for processing quotes and confirming orders made by Bartels' sales partners: specialist kitchen stores, bathroom fitters, furniture traders, carpenters and, of course, architects. Given that the in-house sales team manages projects, it also plans and monitors all schedules and deadlines.
The Bartels field staff visit all clients and potential clients wherever they wish. The field team is also happy to assist in the sales rooms of Bartels' sales partners, offering such entities the opportunity to enhance their own knowledge with the special Bartels marble expertise. This can only have a positive effect on customer satisfaction (and sales success).
It goes without saying that samples can also be brought along. With one limitation: the weight of marble and granite and the size of the Bartels warehouse (800 tonnes!) make it impossible to achieve the same impression of the extensive range when presenting samples outside of the plant. If the Bartels field team is given sufficient information beforehand, however, they can use their experience to make an individual pre-selection from the warehouse.
Production and quality control
The production team cuts and processes the products. Although this may sound straightforward, in reality, it is anything but. Granite is harder than steel. It can only be sawed or shaped by those who possess sufficient expertise and good machinery. If on top of this, a special form is required, a great deal of in-depth knowledge, reliability and strength is called for. All of our production and quality control staff have received additional internal training and always work to an extremely high standard.
The installation teams
These specialists start by creating 1:1 measurements in order to ensure that everything functions precisely. These employees also offer on-site support services. The teams are also responsible for the subsequent installation of the final pieces, thus completing the circle of responsibility. | <urn:uuid:be7ad062-1b60-410d-96f9-c0769ac916e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marbleworld.info/Iz_Seiten01/company.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964142 | 1,636 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The Obama administration is blustering and bloviating about the on-going leak of hundreds of thousands of classified documents, apparently leaked initially by a soldier using a thumb drive.
The White House and Pentagon describe the Wikileaks disclosures as a major blow to national security, and to the country’s diplomatic efforts around the world.
In the waning days of the Soviet Union, we learned that the Russians had very easily penetrated the most heavily guarded vaults of America’s classified world, using moles and other techniques to plumb our secrets.
Put bluntly, the communists knew far more about how our country’s shadow government operated than we citizens did.
I’m guessing the same is true today.
If it was this easy for one soldier to smuggle out so much information about the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan — not so mention our most closely-guarded diplomatic agenda — my guess is that other foreign powers have done a handy job of accomplishing the same.
The Chinese, the Saudis, the Israelis, the Russians — I’m guessing there was very little in these documents that came as a surprise to their leaders.
But for we Americans — who in theory own and operate this government — the Wikileaks disclosures offer a rare window into how the vast secret Federal bureaucracy operates.
In the years since 9/11, the US has developed a new architecture of secret agencies, prisons, and black ops operations.
We have done some very shady things, occasionally targeting private citizens in other parts of the world who turned out to be completely innocent.
Our secret services and diplomats have often been remarkably incompetent in their efforts to promote and protect American interests.
It’s probably unrealistic to hope that small-government, tea-party libertarians would take notice and turn some of their zeal to this troubling reality.
These disclosures show that our behavior has at times infuriated and disgusted the democratically elected governments of our allies, from Germany to Italy.
Ultimately, all the shock — shock! — being expressed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton should be taken with a grain of salt.
The truth is that very few other leaders in the world had illusions about America’s objectives or methods.
Americans looking through these documents should be prepared to give up some of their illusions as well. | <urn:uuid:bd5176f7-7a60-430f-a2d3-0e47daeeb826> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org/inbox/2010/11/30/in-the-wikileaks-scandal-americans-citizens-are-the-suckers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955113 | 472 | 1.65625 | 2 |
One of the main arguments against the president’s re-election has been his refusal to address the trillion-dollar deficits he has run up in his term in office. Most people assume he simply has no interest in balancing the budget. I disagree. I think the president knows exactly how he will balance the budget: through massive tax increases.
Truth be told, the president has tipped his hand from time to time. During the debt ceiling negotiations of last year, he pushed hard for a tax increase. He hasn’t talked about it much on the campaign trail, however (save for a tax increase on higher incomes that, even if it provides all the revenue he says it will, wouldn’t even bring the annual deficit below $1T). However, given his near complete refusal to discuss any reductions in spending – and the fact that nearly every other Democrat talks about “revenue” – the president will almost certainly interpret his re-election as a de facto endorsement of major tax hikes. The fact that he would no longer need to face the voters will only encourage him to enlarge the tax increase as much as possible.
The results will be devastating.
I’ve explained before why tax increases are not the fiscal salve that so many people think they are: they don’t provide the revenue that is projected, and that failure ruins any deficit reduction plans before the proposed spending cuts can take effect – thus leading to a new deficit plan with more tax hikes and bad revenue projections. Southern Europe is littered with nations that are reeling from tax-hike-exacerbated recessions, revenue targets missed, and bond markets turning up their noses.
That is what awaits America after a 2013 tax hike, whether its the expiration of the 2001/2003 tax cuts and/or new tax increases – if I were a betting man, I’d put my money on “and” over “or”. The first tax-hike/deficit-reduction deal was enacted in 1982; the fifth such plan was enacted in 1993. None of them succeeded; in fact that deficit grew after three of them (1982, 1984, and 1990).
Only one thing is worse than ignoring our record deficits, and that’s trying to fix them with tax increases. It won’t work, and it’s failure will further scare off bondholders, thus crippling us. That is the fate that awaits us if the president is re-elected.
Cross-posted to Bearing Drift | <urn:uuid:a5d32d97-b498-4fee-9922-a72281cced1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rightwingliberal.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/if-you-think-the-president-ignoring-our-deficits-is-a-problem-wait-until-he-tries-to-fix-them/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975905 | 517 | 1.609375 | 2 |
7 Uncovered Quotes That Show How Far off the Rails the NRA Has Gone
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The 143-year-old National Rifle Association has not always been like today's NRA, fighting every gun control law as if the essence of American freedom depends on every citizen owning a gun. What follows are a series of shocking quotes taken from various academic histories of the NRA by top officials within the organization supporting reasonable gun control laws.
1. “I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons,” said NRA President Karl T. Frederick, a 1920 Olympic gold-medal winner for marksmanship who became a lawyer, praising state gun control laws in Congress. He testified before the 1938 federal gun control law passed. “I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.”
2. “We do think that any sane American, who calls himself an American, can object to placing into this bill the instrument which killed the president of the United States,” NRA Executive Vice-President Franklin Orth told Congress, shortly after Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President John F. Kennedy with an Italian military surplus rifle Oswald bought from a mail-order ad in the NRA’s American Rifleman magazine.
3. “There’s no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons,” said California Gov. Ronald Reagan in May 1967, after two dozen Black Panther Party members walked into the California Statehouse carrying rifles to protest a gun-control bill. Reagan said guns were “a ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.”
4. “You do know that I am a member of the NRA and my position on the right to bear arms is well known,” Reagan said, speaking out in support of the 1994 Brady bill to create new background checks and a waiting period for gun buyers. “But I want you to know something else, and I am going to say it in clear, unmistakable language: I support the Brady Bill and I urge Congress to enact it without further delay.”
5. “To ‘keep and bear arms’ for hunting today is essentially a recreational activity and not an imperative of survival, as it was 200 years ago; ‘Saturday night specials’ [handguns] and machine guns are not recreational weapons and surely are as much in need of regulation as motor vehicles,” said retired U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger in Parade magazine, in January 1990.
6. The Second Amendment “has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime,” Burger told PBS’ News Hour in late 1991, referring to the NRA’s claim that the U.S. Constitution included a personal right to own guns.
7. “These people are crazy,” said Alan Gura, referring to NRA critics who said he’d ceded too much to gun control arguments when he successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2008 to overturn the District of Columbia’s handgun ban and establish a Second Amendment right to a handgun at home for self-defense. “I could have, if I wanted to, stood before the Court and said, ‘Yes, [the Amendment’s clause] shall not be infringed,’ means you would never have any gun laws, and of course need to all have machine guns in case we want to overthrow the government, and while we’re at it we should have rocket launchers and stinger missiles. And that would have probably made me very popular in some cabin somewhere out there in the woods… Of course, I would have lost 9-0.”
Editor’s note: These quotes were cited or referred to in UCLA law professor Adam Winkler’s 2011 book, Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America . | <urn:uuid:23071514-fb0a-4942-a398-5648b1b7c559> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/7-uncovered-quotes-show-how-far-rails-nra-has-gone | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964801 | 860 | 1.6875 | 2 |
This ski season was a deadly one for avalanches in North America. With the shallow snowpack of much of the West and the deep snowpack of the PNW and Alaska, conditions were all too ripe. Included in anybody’s backcountry arsenal should be good practices and plenty of avalanche awareness. ”Safe” route finding in avalanche terrain isn’t easy. Many factors come into play–including weather, snowpack, and human factors. Here’s the thing about avalanches: they are avoidable. Well, obviously. If you don’t ski in the backcountry, chances are pretty good you won’t run into an avalanche.
But the backcountry holds some sweet rewards for those that can safely navigate it. All the latest ski industry trends point toward releasable heels and slackcountry gear that allows skiers and riders to ski inbounds or backcountry or a combination of the two on any given day. In other words, the Holy Grail of your own private skiing Idaho has never been closer. The difference between playing at a ski area and playing in the backcountry is more than the light fluffiness of the snow. In addition to explosive control at ski areas, the snow is also work hardened, compacted day after day by skiers and snowboarders breaking up the slabs and reducing avalanche hazard. While this might be one reason skiers are heading for the off-piste, it keeps the pistes dummy-proof.
In the backcountry, however, you are on your own. Backcountry travelers must know not only the daily conditions, but preferably track the last few weeks of weather to truly understand the snowpack. They should also dig pits and follow safe route finding techniques. Even experienced backcountry users can be surprised by avalanches. So the more you know, the better off you will be.
The Canadian Avalanche Center wants to test you on your route finding. They offer an online avalanche course meant to hone backcountry user’s skills. Here is one of the route finding exercises in which you can track your route from point A to point B. When you veer into dangerous territory, the tutorial alerts you and you must start over again.
This is worth your time. Just click on the photo to start your test.
- The Ski Industry: Caught between inbounds and out-of-bounds (kimkircher.com) | <urn:uuid:5183ee39-60ab-4bcf-8816-97e429da0526> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kimkircher.com/2012/06/26/so-you-think-you-can-avoid-avalanches/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940716 | 499 | 1.625 | 2 |
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the U.S. government will mount an “ambitious” program to crack down on companies that use offshore locales to avoid paying taxes.
Closing loopholes and hunting tax evaders are especially important at a time when the economy is deteriorating and the government is running a record budget deficit, Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee today in Washington.
“We’re going to have a much more ambitious effort to deal with offshore tax havens,” Geithner said in response to questions from the panel. Allowing companies and individuals to escape paying their share “isn’t fair, particularly given the scale of the fiscal challenges we inherited,” he said.
A congressional report released in January found that in 2007 83 of the 100 largest publicly traded U.S. companies had units in low-tax or no-tax jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands or the Isle of Man. They included American International Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley, all of which were given taxpayer money through the $700 billion financial rescue.
Some of Geithner’s counterparts in Europe have vowed to take similar action, and the issue may be discussed when finance ministers for the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations meet next week in the U.K.
Yesterday, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said Switzerland should change laws that shield foreign tax dodgers from investigation in their home countries. | <urn:uuid:ebce9032-f919-4127-9d8b-13dfdc17c0ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ronideutch.blogspot.com/2009/03/geithner-pledges-ambitious-crackdown-on.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943808 | 307 | 1.664063 | 2 |
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 23, 2013) — University of Kentucky Libraries will present one of the earliest works by composer Joseph Baber in the second program of the Joseph Baber Recital Series this week. The series recognizes Professor Baber’s 75th birthday, 40 years as professor of music and composer-in-residence in the UK School of Music, and the 2012 opening of the Joseph Baber Papers in UK Special Collections. The recital, which is free and open to the public, will be begin 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24, in the Niles Gallery, at the Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center.
The second Baber recital will feature one of the composer’s very early works, Virginia Dances, Op. 3. Performing Virginia Dances will be a string quartet comprised of violinists Kyle VanArsdalen and Amyr Joyner, violist Lubitza Braikova, and cellist Geoffrey Hershberger, all of the UK School of Music.
First written between 1953 and 1956 by Baber as a simple trio to be played by the Thomas Jefferson High School string ensemble in Richmond, Va., Virginia Dances has been reconsidered, edited and extended over the years and has emerged in present form as six pieces for string quartet.
The Joseph Baber Papers housed in UK Special Collections holds the manuscripts for Virginia Dances beginning with the original hand inscribed score by the novice teenage composer. These manuscript materials will be on display following the recital.
Born in 1937, Baber began composing at an early age. He is a graduate of Michigan State University, where he worked with Gomer Jones and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and the Eastman School of Music, where his mentors were Howard Hanson, Bernard Rogers and John LaMontaine.
After a number of years in Japan as principal violist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, Baber returned to the U.S. and took a position for several years at Southern Illinois University. This was followed by a year as composer-in-residence for a Ford Foundation College Co-operative venture in Kansas, after which he assumed his present position as composer-in-residence at the UK School of Music in the UK College of Fine Arts.
Although he has written in all the major genres, Baber is perhaps best known for his collaborations with the novelist John Gardner on three operas, "Frankenstein," "Rumpelstiltskin" and "Samson and the Witch." In addition to operas and songs, Baber has a sizable body of orchestral music, including overtures, suites, two symphonies, several marches and two tone poems. He has also written works for solo instruments with orchestra, as well as keyboard, chamber and choral music. An award-winning member of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) since 1971, Baber has received a number of national prizes and commissions.
Thursday’s recital will include remarks by the composer and will be followed by a reception and exhibition of materials from the Joseph Baber Papers in the lobby of Little Fine Arts Library. Thursday's recital is the second of four recitals of Baber’s music that will be presented in the Niles Gallery. The final two recitals are planned for Feb. 21 and March 28.
UK Special Collections is home to UK Libraries' collection of rare books, the Kentuckian, the Archives, the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, the King Library Press and the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center. The mission of Special Collections is to locate and preserve materials documenting the social, cultural, economic and political history of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, (859) 257-8716 or [email protected] | <urn:uuid:620d4382-2121-4a7b-9834-7955e2d77e7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uknow.uky.edu/content/baber-recital-feature-teenage-work-composer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953402 | 809 | 1.679688 | 2 |
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And now, let's get some movie, TV and even YouTube recommendations. It's a series we call Watch This. Our latest guest is the writer Sherman Alexie. He grew up on the Spokane Indian reservation in Washington state. He won a National Book Award for "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." And has a new story collection is called "Blasphemy."
Mr. Alexie's picks start with footage of Billy Mills winning the Olympic 10,000-meter race.
SHERMAN ALEXIE: It still remains the, probably the greatest upset surprise in Olympic history, where in the 1964 Olympics, Billy Mills, a Sioux Indian who was really lightly regarded, came out of nowhere to win the race and to win the gold medal.
INSKEEP: Well, can I mention that when I started watching this video, I did not expect to be impressed? It's black and white. It seems a little blurry. The camera is kind of at a distance. But Billy Mills starts running from behind this crowd of runners. And the burst of speed that he puts on at the end of this 10,000-meter race is unbelievable to watch, as he's accelerating there. And the announcer loses his mind almost.
BUD PALMER: He's coming up. He's passing Gammoudi. It's neck and neck.
DICK BANK: Look at Mills. Look at Mills.
PALMER: Mills is coming on. Mills is coming on.
ALEXIE: That burst of speed that Billy Mills puts out is like Usain Bolt. He just goes flying past and this is a 10,000-meter race. So to have that kind of kick? In the Indian world, there's all sorts of stories about, you know, God and reaching down and deciding that this Indian guy was going to do it. And that's what it looks like. Regardless of how you feel about God, it certainly looks like some other force grabbed him and pushed him.
INSKEEP: Now, why did you also send us an amazing video of Vince Carter, the great NBA player with a slam dunk? What drew your eye to that?
ALEXIE: Oh, this is the Holy Grail for basketball fans. In the Olympics, Vince Carter jumping over Frederic Weis, who was a seven-foot tall post player, jumping over him to dunk. It remains the most single athletic move of all time. And if you look into the crowd, you see people stunned. I mean, far fewer people are standing and cheering than you'd expect, because I don't think they believe what they just saw.
INSKEEP: You have also sent us something here that deals with young people that may be less familiar to an American audience, "The Inbetweeners." What's that?
ALEXIE: Oh, it's the tale of these four public-school young men who are, as all young men are all around the world, most vitally interested in the opposite sex. But they're all complete dorks, geeks, losers, I don't know whatever the term is in England. But it's the story of their adventures in trying to get a girlfriend, and going to parties and trying to fit in and trying to be cool.
But it is profane in that glorious British way that at once makes me really happy, in that it actually tries to portray teenagers as the fully complicated and crass human beings that they are. But also that there is a country where this kind of honest depiction is available in prime time.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SERIES, "THE INBETWEENERS")
BRETT GELMAN: (as Mr. Cooper) Oh, all right, what's going on in here?
JOE THOMAS: (as Simon Cooper) What the bloody (bleep) do you think you're doing?
SUSAN GALLAGHER: (as Mrs. Cooper) Language.
GELMAN: (as Mr. Cooper) Coming to check up on you.
THOMAS: (as Simon Cooper) Check up on me?
GALLAGHER: (as Mrs. Cooper) Hello, Tara.
HANNAH TOINTON: (as Tara) Hello, Mrs. Cooper.
THOMAS: (as Simon Cooper) We're just studying.
GALLAGHER: (as Mrs. Cooper) We'd like you to stick to what we agreed, Simon. We don't mind you having girls up here but you've got leave the door open.
GELMAN: (as Mr. Cooper) Yes, so that we don't miss any of the good stuff. Only kidding, Tara. But seriously, you do have to keep the door open.
THOMAS: (as Simon Cooper) Fine.
INSKEEP: You know, thinking about you growing up on the reservation and thinking about the fact that there must be ways that being a teenager on an Indian reservation is exactly like being a teenager anywhere else in America, anywhere in the world, but certain ways that it might be a little unique.
ALEXIE: Well, now, you know, it's an interesting question 'cause of the Internet, certainly in the United States, it's really difficult to feel culturally separate, 'cause all you have to do is open your phone. You know, I'm on the res. I look around, there's kids - every kid walking around with a flip-phone with a screen on it. So - but we really didn't have that connection. Movies and TV were the only possible lifeline.
INSKEEP: Wow. You know, I do want to mention though, when you talk about growing up in the '70s and the '80s and being in a world that seemed like fairly isolated from the outside, central Indiana growing in the '70s and the '80s pretty much the same thing.
ALEXIE: Well, that's one of the things you learn, too, when you leave the reservation is that everybody grew up on their own reservation.
ALEXIE: And the quality of your life depends on how willing you are to get the hell away from your reservation.
INSKEEP: Was it on the reservation then that you first saw the movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales," which you have also included on...
ALEXIE: Oh. Oh, yeah. There's nobody who loves Westerns more than Indians.
ALEXIE: "The Outlaw Josey Wales" is an amazing movie. And the amazing part for me now, as watching it as an adult and thinking about it, is that the hero is a Southern Confederate soldier. And...
INSKEEP: Clint Eastwood.
ALEXIE: Yes. So, you know, here's a movie where you're actually rooting for and identify with a Confederate soldier. And also, the book was written - it's based on a book and the book was written by Forrest Carter, which was the pen name of Asa Carter, who was actually a former KKK bigwig and was the chief speechwriter for George Wallace. And he wrote this novel which was turned into this movie.
The thing that really appealed to me, it was the first movie I saw that humanized Indians, that they weren't cartoons or caricatures.
INSKEEP: And you have pointed out a particular scene, which you title "The Civilized Man." What's happening here?
ALEXIE: Aha. A rogue Indian, played by Chief Dan George, is trying to get Outlaw Josey Wales, you know, who has a bounty on his head. But Josey Wales, of course, sneaks up on the Indian and they engage in this really funny banter, and really identify with each other. Which is interesting, the idea that this Confederate soldier fighting the United States and this Indian also fighting the United States, are not necessarily natural allies but have ally-like tendencies.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES")
CHIEF DAN GEORGE: (as Lone Watie) I thought you might be someone who would sneak up behind me with a gun.
CLINT EASTWOOD: (as Josey Wales) Where'd you ever get an idea like that? 'Sides, it ain't supposed to be easy to sneak up behind an Indian.
GEORGE: (as Lone Watie) I'm an Indian, all right. But here in the nation, they call us a civilized tribe. They call us civilized because we're easy to sneak up on.
ALEXIE: Chief Dan George says, you know, the white man, he always tells me to: Endeavor to persevere. I do not know what he means when he says that.
INSKEEP: And basically what the white man is saying: I've taken your land and I want to say something sounds good, so I'm going to give you this load of hokum. That's basically what the white man is saying.
ALEXIE: Exactly, so that's an inside joke among my family when one of us is complaining about something. You know, Oh, you must endeavor to persevere. The other person will say: I do not know what you mean.
INSKEEP: Sherman Alexie, thanks very much.
ALEXIE: Thank you. It was fun.
INSKEEP: Endeavor to persevere to our website, where you can find all of Sherman Alexie's picks. That's npr.org.
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio. | <urn:uuid:80dcee60-169a-4ed3-b886-ea8817ded461> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=161693628 | 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 | 0.967172 | 2,083 | 1.515625 | 2 |
MK Sockets – The Safest Available
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Did You Know?
Did you know that certain powerfully anti-inflammatory compounds in cannabis are at least as effective as medications like aspirin, ibuprofen and indomethacin for arthritis, and that as many as 16,500 people with arthritis die each year from the effects of such medications? Number of people who have died using cannabis to treat their arthritis: 0.
Amarimed marijuana patients are in the know. Sign up to receive our informative newsletter. Click Here > | <urn:uuid:49def3fe-9c0d-47ac-87e4-5c173e2b4bcd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amarimed.com/HOME/tabid/38/Default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971139 | 99 | 1.75 | 2 |
For nearly two months, the animated political cartoon sat on npr.org virtually unnoticed. And then someone discovered it, was disgusted and launched it into the blogosphere — making it a raucous rallying point for conservatives.
The conservative tom-tom was extremely impressive.
When the "Learn to Speak Tea Bag" cartoon making fun of "Tea Party" activists was published on Nov.12, there were 5 comments. By 6 p.m. this past Monday, there were 258. By Wednesday night, over 1,100 people had commented and it was still the most-recommended link on NPR's web site. On Monday and Tuesday, calls came in every 10 minutes. Over 300 wrote to me — most of them angry.
The 90-second animation, which creator Mark Fiore calls satire, rather summarily dismisses participants in the Tea Party movement as inarticulate, paranoid bumblers. The video "teaches" the viewer to speak conversational "tea bag."
Moderator: Finally, learning a new language doesn't have to be hard. You can be fluent in conversational tea bag in just a few short minutes. Lesson one: Don't get distracted by the confusing words of other languages.
Character: I think the public option and the competition it would foster would really — socialist, socialist.
Moderator: Good, very good. Lesson two: If you're having trouble understanding the words of others or being understood yourself, use teabag's stronger, more descriptive words.
Character: "Nazi, Nazi, Nazi."
It's actually not that funny — especially to those on the right, including members of the Tea Party movement, which is populated by passionate Americans who don't like the direction President Obama is taking the country.
"The cartoon is a perfect caricature of what NPR looks like to conservatives: liberals snidely imagining conservatives to be monosyllabic clods who can't make an argument beyond name-calling," said Tim Graham, director of media analysis for the conservative Media Research Center. "Conservatism is 'satirized' into a form of political retardation."
Here are some typical comments NPR received:
"There's no doubt I'm a conservative although I'm not part of the Tea Party movement, but I am tired of getting slammed for disagreeing with the government," said Myron Harris of Florida. "When I see a place like NPR promoting an anti-conservative agenda, it becomes very frustrating."
"This should be on the Democratic National Committee website," said Don Miller, who lives outside of Sacramento. "Why did NPR allow this? I'll tell you why. The people who allowed it have the same views."
"I'm sick of liberals calling conservatives 'tea baggers,'" said Ryan Parker, of Kansas City, KS. "The sexual reference really bothers me."
Sexual reference? Apparently, there is one and I invite you to read Jay Nordlinger's excellent essay for National Review explaining a not-so-obvious meaning behind the term "tea bagger."
The Tea Party movement began with a Tax Day protest last April where organizers suggested sending a tea bag to the White House. "A protester was spotted with a sign saying, 'Tea Bag the Liberal Dems Before They Tea Bag You,'" wrote Nordlinger. "So, conservatives started it: started with this terminology. But others ran with it and ran with it."
Interestingly, while the cartoon discusses how to "speak tea bag," it never uses the term "tea bagger."
There was no sexual insult intended, said both Fiore and Ellen Silva, NPR's opinion editor who signed off on the cartoon after fact-checking it.
"I take full responsibility for putting it up on the site," said Silva. "I confess to thinking the term 'tea bagger' was just a slang term for Tea Party supporters and had even heard conservatives referring to themselves that way. Any other connotation didn't occur to me until after the recent ruckus erupted."
According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, a "tea bagger" is: "a person, who protests President Obama's tax policies and stimulus package, often through local demonstrations known as "Tea Party" protests (in allusion to the Boston Tea Party of 1773)." "Tea Bagger" was a finalist for the dictionary's "Word of the Year."
Repeatedly, I've heard people, such as Pete Wilson of Wiggins, MS, exclaim: "I refuse to have my tax dollars used for such an offensive slur."
NPR does not receive direct funding from the federal government. Less than 2 percent of its annual budget comes from competitive grants from federally funded institutions. The rest of NPR's budget comes from corporate sponsorship, foundation grants, investments and dues and programming fees paid by 901 independent public radio stations.
That said, there are problems with the Tea Bag animation. Chief among them is it doesn't fit with NPR values, one of which is a belief in civility and civil discourse.
Fiore is talented, but this cartoon is just a mean-spirited attack on people who think differently than he does and doesn't broaden the debate. It engages in the same kind of name-calling the cartoon supposedly mocks.
And why is NPR running a cartoon from just one perspective?
"Where is the opinion piece making fun of President Obama?" asked Susan Begat, from Sarasota, FL. "NPR won't run it. That video shows the deck is stacked against the Tea Party."
Not quite. On Dec. 31, Fiore took after Obama on npr.org.
And NPR has covered the Tea Party movement as an important political story. Last fall, for example, All Things Considered host Robert Siegel spent 5 days with Tea Party activists in Dallas and portrayed them in a thoughtful, 12 1/2-minute story on Dec. 9. ATC also has an on-going series profiling up and coming Republican leaders.
Political cartoons are new to NPR. Fiore's syndicated cartoon began appearing weekly on NPR's opinion page in early October, with little fanfare and not a lot of hits. He told me he leans left.
"I would call my political philosophy one of just going after things that annoy me or call out for satire," said Fiore, who lives in the San Francisco area. "For this particular animation, I wanted to take it to the extreme level I could to show how crazy these comments were. If people think they are being called idiots, that's their interpretation."
NPR's online opinion site, where Fiore's cartoons appear, also is relatively new. In addition to columns by NPR commentators, it publishes an array of opinion and analysis articles by outside contributors. Silva strives to make sure there are an equal number of female and male voices as well as minority perspectives — something which is sorely lacking in most opinion pages.
NPR's opinion page "is comparable to a newspaper's traditional Op-Ed page," said Dick Meyer, executive editor for NPR News. "Except there is no 'NPR perspective,' " he added, meaning that NPR does not post its own editorials (as most newspapers do) or deliberately slant the commentary in one direction.
To bring different viewpoints, NPR has partnered with the National Review, The Nation, the New Republic and Foreign Policy.
Meyer brought Fiore to NPR as an experiment. Fiore creates his cartoons and syndicates them. They appear on a variety of online sites including NPR, SFGate, CBS News and Slate. NPR does not suggest ideas to him, but retains the right to edit or reject any cartoons Fiore submits.
"Would it be nice if there were other Web-original cartoons from other perspectives to run with Fiore?" said Meyer. "Sure. We think there are and we've been looking for a while in fact. And I think criticism that we don't have a conservative cartoon is certainly legitimate and reasonable."
There will be no apology and Fiore's cartoon is staying up, said Ellen Weiss, senior vice president for news. "Opinion and satire are going to sting some members of the audience and soothe others," she said, noting NPR has received some positive feedback. "This one satire is not the only coverage on the topic and while it offends some members of the audience, I see no reason to remove it."
Some good came from the feedback deluge. NPR's top editors responded quickly. The word "opinion" was greatly enlarged above Fiore's cartoon to make it clear it was not a news report. And editors added a stop/start button on the cartoon (previously it launched automatically) and provided an introduction saying the cartoon was Fiore's "personal take."
"Labeling is one of the most important parts of publishing commentary," said Mark Stencel, managing editor for digital news. "And the labeling on the page as originally published was neither clear nor prominent enough. That was a mistake and we have fixed that."
But if NPR continues using Fiore, it should quickly find a cartoonist to counter his decidedly liberal take. Critics are right to take NPR to task for only representing one side using such a strong visual medium as an animated cartoon with sound and text. Putting it up against conservative National Review articles doesn't cut it. The near-record response proves that more balance is needed.
NPR should also state more clearly that the perspectives on its opinion pages do not represent the views of NPR or its member stations.
"NPR has to make thoughtful decisions about how it projects itself moving forward and about its continued implementation of this type of multimedia," said Kenneth Irby, an expert in visual journalism at the Poynter Institute. "Surely, NPR has to be mindful of its political image over time and how it has been viewed as being overly aligned with the liberal left. Again, there is a danger, not power, in leaning too far either way." | <urn:uuid:b9094ce2-2aa8-4e87-889e-d07daa5f99ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2010/01/loud_protests_on_nprs_tea_part_1.html?ft=1&f=125937605 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97351 | 2,052 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Updated with comments from council member Mike O'Brien and Neg Norton, president of the local search association.
In a ruling released today, a three-judge panel from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that yellow pages qualify as a form of free speech, and that a 2010 ordinance passed by the Seattle City Council, establishing a resident opt-out system and imposing penalties for mis-delivered books, unduly infringes upon freedom-loving phonebook companies' ability to spread their free speech on every goddamn doorstep they so choose.
"The City of Seattle imposes substantial conditions and costs on the distribution of yellow pages phone directories," states the 26-page ruling (.pdf) of DEX MEDIA WEST, INC. v. SEATTLE, before adding:
We conclude that the yellow pages directories qualify for full protection under the First Amendment. Although portions of the directories are obviously commercial in nature, the books contain more than that, and we conclude that the directories are entitled to the full protection of the First Amendment. As a result, when we evaluate the Ordinance under strict scrutiny, it does not survive. Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of the defendants and remand for the entry of judgment in favor of the plaintiffs.
The 2010 city ordinance, championed by council member Mike O'Brien, was the first of its kind in the country to establish a resident opt-out registry for the phonebooks. More than 25 percent of households and businesses have opted out of more than 435,000 phone books, saving over 400 tons of paper. An earlier district court decision rejected the phonebook companies' challenge of it.
Neg Norton, president of the local search association and a man seemingly unfamiliar with the Internet, says that the Court’s ruling is "good news for residents who find value in the free and easy access to community information, emergency information, and local business listings that print Yellow Pages offer."
Because my first response to an emergency is, "Quick! To the yellow pages!"
“The people of Seattle also should have the right to say ‘no’ and right to privacy when unwanted yellow pages land on their doorstep," says O'Brien, who is probably sobbing into a stack of yellow pages at this very moment.
It's unclear right now what the city's next steps will be—city officials could ask for a reconsideration of the ruling, ask to have the whole panel of ninth circuit judges review the case (instead of a panel of three), or try to plead their case before the U.S. Supreme Court. "We simply don't know yet," says City Attorney spokeswoman Kimberly Mills. "We're assembling a panel of lawyers right now to read through the decision."
The City of Seattle will release a statement later today whenever the fuck they feel like it. | <urn:uuid:ebbf255a-728f-4432-a61c-5217bc023588> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/15/court-of-appeals-rules-against-seattles-progressive-opt-out-phonebook-program | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946314 | 586 | 1.609375 | 2 |
What We Do
ABA Tutor Finder is a new service offering an online directory of tutors and program supervisors, practising in a variety of behavioural intervention strategies, for families and carers of children on the autism spectrum.
Having worked in the field of ABA since 2005, the site’s creator, Christopher Howe, became aware of the difficulties families were facing when seeking to recruit new tutors to work on home-based behavioural intervention programs for their children. He discovered that many of the methods for finding and recruiting tutors were costly, time consuming and in many cases ended with limited success, in the worst cases leaving the structure of the child’s life upturned, and their development further delayed. To address this important issue, ABA Tutor Finder was created.
ABA Tutor Finder provides an easy to use and effective service through which families can source, contact and recruit the best candidates to work with them and their children on their home-based behavioural intervention programs.
The site allows tutors and program supervisors to advertise their skills and services on its online directory for free. In turn, for just €17.99 a year, the site allows families to search this directory of tutors by location, experience, availability, position and therapy style (eg. Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), Verbal Behaviour-ABA (VB-ABA), Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) and Occupational Therapy (OT)). Families can then access further information regarding potentially suitable candidates, including their contact details, via the site’s CV download feature by purchasing credits securely via PayPal.
If you are a tutor or a parent interested in registering with ABA Tutor Finder then please click on the appropriate link on the left to get started. | <urn:uuid:4403b15f-38ba-4b7a-9db1-91624de97d15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abatutorfinder.com/fr/what_we_do.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941703 | 360 | 1.5 | 2 |
Babyhuddle, a social shop focused around new parents powered by users who create lists of baby products, product reviews and answer each other’s questions, launches in the US today. The idea is that new parents are poorly equipped to deal with decisions about what to purchase for newborns, and traditional players are not ‘social’ enough.
After launching on the in November 2011 Babyhuddle has got some local UK traction but is setting it’s sites on the US.
Founder and serial entrepreneur Walid Al Saqqaf says “We compete against the main players: Kiddicare, Mothercare, Mamas & Papas and to some degree Amazon. But our unique angle against them is that we use social media to create unique content around products, and give parents the opportunity to create lists of products and integrating products straight into conversations like Q&A.”
Al Saqqaf founded the bootstrapped Babyhuddle after his Yelp-like site TrustedPlaces was acquired by Yell, so he has some experience in social businesses.
Babyhuddle is just another example of social being applied to existing ecommerce categories.
Babyhuddle is a baby social shop powered by a community of active users who create lists of baby products, product reviews and answer each other’s questions. Its platform is transforming the way consumers make purchasing decisions for their children up to five years of age. From pregnancy and until toddler key development stages, parents are poorly equipped with knowledge of what products to get, when to get them and how to use them. Acquisition of this knowledge is a... | <urn:uuid:c8346d4c-ddc1-4c57-a705-8dc3a47f4eb5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/08/babyhuddle-launches-to-take-on-kiddicare-by-giving-new-parents-social-tools/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959394 | 331 | 1.5 | 2 |
One of my heroes is the father of Patsy T. Mink, the beloved late U.S. congresswoman from Hawaii who died of viral pneumonia in a Honolulu hospital 10 years ago on Sept. 28.
Let me tell you the story.
Suematsu Takemoto was one of the first to earn a college degree in engineering at the University of Hawaii. He became a land surveyor for the East Maui Irrigation district, the entity that oversaw the masterfully built irrigation ditches constructed between 1876 and 1923 to water the cane fields of HC&S and Maui Agricultural Co., which operated the Paia and Haiku plantations. Japanese laborers built those ditches, and 22,000 Japanese, mostly sugar workers, comprised about half of Maui's population in 1930. (Filipinos were a fourth, the 1,800 haole less than a tenth.) Takemoto worked directly under EMI's head Harrison Foss in a high-level job for a Japanese in those days.
He married Mitama Tateyama, who grew up in Kailua where her parents ran a store, and they had two children, Eugene and Patsy. Patsy was named for the daughter of Paia Hospital's popular Dr. Arthur C. Rothrock. "My mother couldn't think of a haole name to give me," Patsy told me at the Paia Reunion of 2001.
"That's where we grew up, running around that concrete building of the plantation office," she said. Saturdays they'd be dropped off at the little library the plantation opened in Skill Village in 1929, the year Patsy was born.
"The marvel that was contained in this itty-bitty library that didn't contain more than a couple of hundred books," she recalled. Her aunt, Tanaio Okazaki, was in charge of yardage at the huge Paia Store. "I thought she owned it."
Patsy loved camp life. "Paia has always been a part of me, part of my being. I treasure everything about the place. It has meant everything to me, everything I care about," she said.
The Takemoto family lived in the idyllic community of Hamakuapoko, of which nothing now remains, in the wide valley that stretches above Ho'okipa between Paia and Maliko Gulch. It was a favored place with old monkeypod and mango trees and "in between weather," as Bill Eby told me.
Most people lived in the 200 or so camp houses, but because Takemoto was a supervisor, the family home was set off by itself on several acres of open pasture near the old mill. Nearby was the Hamakuapoko Grammar School that ran camp children through the obligatory 8th grade. On a ridge above was the row of marvelous residences with long driveways where the haole supervisors lived.
"It was just so carefree, wonderful, just playing, being a tomboy, doing whatever I wanted to do and nobody to stop me," Patsy remembered. She and Eugene attended Kaunoa English Standard School in Paia, but reveled in the country life. "Everybody cared about everybody else," she said. "It was just one big happy family."
Then one day, two years after Pasty graduated from old Maui High School as student body president, her father was passed up for a promotion yet again. The glass ceiling in those days deemed that Asians not be promoted to managerial positions. Haole were hired at all cost, even from the Mainland if necessary.
That was the end. Suematsu Takemoto told his family he was quitting. "I was heartbroken," Patsy said. They begged him to reconsider, but Takemoto moved his family to Honolulu, where he planned to start his own land-surveying business.
"But nobody would hire him. He was blackballed," Patsy said. It took 10 years for her father to get his own business going. The move was a dreadful blow to Patsy's mother, who had lived the good life of a supervisor's wife, giving teas, supervising the yardman provided by the plantation. She was forced to support the family by working at a soda fountain.
For Patsy the timing couldn't have been worse. She had just entered the University of Hawaii, and now there was no money for tuition. She saw a scholarship for children of World War I veterans advertised - "Dad, did you save your discharge papers?" - and with that was able to continue her education.
Years later, she came to appreciate her father's courage, and devoted her life to the fight for equal rights.
* Laurel Murphy is a former staff writer for The Maui News whose "Keiki o ka 'Aina" column appears each Tuesday. She can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:23bd9456-f2ab-498c-bee7-f2a1e437d43a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/565340/Keiki-o-ka--Aina.html?nav=16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989456 | 1,015 | 1.65625 | 2 |
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