text
stringlengths 211
22.9k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
371
| file_path
stringlengths 138
138
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.93
1
| token_count
int64 54
4.1k
| score
float64 1.5
1.84
| int_score
int64 2
2
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
And without Fair Usage Policies (FUP). FUP is a bastardized concept designed to make you squirm and feel miserable. Imagine having 4-8 mbps plans and using it to check the frigging emails and chatting. (The most hated thing about Indian Broadband)
We as a united front (this blog and the associated forum) are fighting on basis of net neutrality also because I very strongly feel that till the time we have an unfettered access and relief from the telecom companies, the future is going to be very bleak.
What the F you can do with superfast speeds? Let me quote few examples taken from here.
As per Google’s released statement, “Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the Web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York,” its statement said. “Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Or collaborating with classmates around the world, while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture.
This is just the tip of iceberg. The potential is huge and immense; this is for one simple reason that we would be stuck in the innovation gap.
For me, as a doctor, translational research matters the most. I strongly feel that continuous innovation and access to technology and knowledge resources would immensely benefit my hapless patients. At the same time, if I am not on the learning curve by pooling in the best practises, my patients would suffer in terms of antiquated knowledge and practises. Hence it is imperative that I get access to a real fast affordable broadband so that I can access the world’s resources and implement them.
At the same time, I feel pissed that telecom companies are the biggest stumbling block for this. Initiatives elsewhere are being planned but the test case here is US. The major reason is that the powers that be realize that there is a huge gap. Secondly, the mainstream press is hugely vocal about it. What we get here is this. Still, in terms of coverage, this is by far, the largest coverage in recent times!!!
Screw them….and be heard! | <urn:uuid:eee90266-7f57-4a4d-8e7f-73303d698fca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://broadbandblog.in/1008-broadband-in-india-why-we-need-faster-speeds | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952079 | 448 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Weekly applications for U.S. unemployment benefits ticked up slightly last week, the latest sign of slow but consistent gains in the job market.
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent over the summer as consumers spent more and state and local governments added to growth for the first time in three years — but the economy is likely slowing in the current quarter.
U.S. builders started construction last month on the most homes and apartments since July 2008, more evidence that the housing recovery is gaining momentum.
A flurry of reports Thursday showed that U.S. consumers are growing more confident and spending more, boosting a still-weak economy just five days before the presidential election.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 35,000 last week, a figure that may have been distorted by seasonal factors. | <urn:uuid:669b2074-9485-43ed-b5a9-c75a45bbfccc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/robert-kavcic/244388/t/stories/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957624 | 174 | 1.59375 | 2 |
'Putin-Mona Lisa' portrait sells for some $300,000© RIA Novosti/Avrora Marina Spirina, Sergey Beznosov
MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti)
An unusal portrait of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin painted by prominent American artist David Datuna has been auctioned off for 220,000 euros (some $300,000) in Moscow, Russia's NTV TV-channel reported on Friday.
The portrait is from the artist's series "Putin Couture" and is called "Putin-Mona Lisa". It is formed by numerous small images of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
The initial price of the lot at the auction, provided by Ukraine's Mironova Gallery at the 15th Art Moscow International Art Fair, was 100,000 euros ($135,000).
One of the Mironova Gallery owners said the portrait "was purchased by a well-known Russian businessman" but he did not reveal his name.
Georgian-born Datuna created the portrait together with his US colleague of Chinese origin, Alex Guofeng Cao. The authors said the painting was inspired by Putin's personality, which they say is as mysterious as the enigmatic smile of Mona Lisa.
Add to blog
You may place this material on your blog by copying the link.
News that Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin would resign in order to run for the mayoral election in September came as quite a shock. Sobyanin’s political potential is fairly dubious, not to mention his approval ratings. He has not finished many of the projects he initiated and the electoral effect from these projects is expected to come a bit later than September 2013. Sobyanin’s opponents were not entirely unprepared for this blitzkrieg. | <urn:uuid:b8d9bf51-cde8-44e0-9cf3-ce167ad42fe8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.rian.ru/art_living/20110930/167282061.html | 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 | 0.973267 | 371 | 1.5 | 2 |
What passes today as a “debate” over privacy lacks agreed-upon terms of reference, rational arguments, or concrete goals.
Nothing can be made, transported, or used without energy, and fossil fuels provide 80 percent of mankind’s energy and 60 percent of its food and clothing.
Barack Obama promised transparency and open government when he campaigned for president in 2008, and he took office aiming to deliver it.
With credit markets in disarray and the United States facing a possible recession, Americans are looking closely at the economic proposals of the presidential candidates.
In the face of high energy prices and concerns about global warming, environmentalists and planners offer high-speed rail as an environmentally friendly alternative to driving and air
Tax-increment financing (TIF) is an increasingly popular way for cities to promote economic development.
In the wake of the recent financial crisis, several commentators have suggested a transaction tax on financial markets.
In the wake of the recent financial crisis, several commentators have suggested a transaction tax on financial markets. Such a tax was recently enacted in France.
The Independent Payment Advisory Board: PPACA's Anti-Constitutional and Authoritarian Super-Legislature
When a member of Congress introduces legislation, the Constitution requires that legislative proposal to secure the approval of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the president (unl
The Social Security Act of 1935 established the federal-state unemployment insurance (UI) system, which pays benefits to workers who are laid off. | <urn:uuid:c4cbdaa4-12d2-477c-91e5-1f99a78c585c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://heartland.org/category/think-tanks-and-organizations/cato-institute?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937294 | 306 | 1.75 | 2 |
SabbaticalHomes.com wants to be a valuable partner to the academic community by providing relevant information to its membership. Toward that end, we are working on articles and developing resources to assist educators with new opportunities.
While the economy seems to have stabilized somewhat, jobs are still a hot-button topic. Academics struggle with finding jobs that are both rewarding and pay a reasonable salary. Advancement may require gaining additional experience teaching on sabbatical for a semester or summer either in the U.S. or abroad. Sometimes, it means taking a full-time position at a new school altogether.
To assist our members with such a search, we have compiled a short list of web sites that offer job searches geared strictly for academics. If you are in need of a change, check these sites out first.
The Chronicle of Higher Education at http://www.chronicle.com is one of the most wide-ranging sites available for college educators. Not only does it provide job search, but also offers a variety of news, articles, commentary, forums and advice. Its' job search is free, however there is a fee to subscribe for weekly delivery electronically or to your mailbox.
Three additional sites are more concentrated on job search. The first of these is http://www.academiccareers.com. The site not only has faculty and teacher assignments for viewing, but also research, postdocturate, adjunct, library and administrative possibilities. The site is worldwide with an emphasis on the U.S., Asia, and Europe. There is no fee to search the job listings but you must register with the site if you wish to submit a resume. There is a fee to post an available job.
For those wanting to stay primarily in the United States, http://www.Teachers-Teachers.com is the site for you. It is free to join and offers a recruitment service for teaching, administrative and related education careers. Job seekers can post an application, create, attach and send cover letters (even to employers outside of Teachers-Teachers.com) and track their job searches.
EducationAmerica.net and EducationCanada.net have listings in North America for both college and K-12. Their Resource Centers are complete with information about state certifications, salaries, resume and cover letter writing, professional development, networking, and job fairs. This site is also free for users. The site also has a partner networks in Australia. It has a link to The International Educator (TIE) which features teaching jobs abroad, primarily teaching English. TIE charges a small yearly fee to be a member.
If any of you have additional resources such as these to share with our SabbaticalHomes.com community, please send them to Editor(at)SabbaticalHomes.com. Also, check our “Resources” link frequently for updates and new information. | <urn:uuid:e6e22c5d-4204-430d-b09b-b9dfd602f588> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sabbaticalhomes.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=204 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953898 | 593 | 1.640625 | 2 |
In another of the many polls about homeworking, Microsoft recently revealed unsurprisingly that more than 90 per cent of workers want to skiddadle out of the 'traditional' office environment and work from home, preferably in an outdoor location. In brief, their research as part of their Mobile Out Of Office initiative (MOOF) suggested that 14 per cent of Brits believed the ideal place to work would be the beach (ha, ha) and 10 per cent said they would prefer to work from their park or garden (which, reading between the lines, obviously means shedworking). But instead of just announcing the results, Microsoft did something rather interesting - they set up a tree office in London's Pimlico Gardens (pictured).
At the MOOF blog Mr Moof wrote: "So, here I am and I have to say, despite the slightly breezy weather and the threat of rain, I’m enjoying the fresh air and the liberation and finding myself curiously motivated to work!"
James McCarthy from Microsoft Windows Mobile said: "The tree-office shows businesses that it is possible for workers to be free from their desks and still be able to work, and employees that their dreams of working outdoors can be realised. In fact, mobile working is all about being liberated, having more control over your day and at last more freedom in your life." Sadly it's not a permanent move and they've now dismantled the treehouse and donated it to a school. But it's certainly a step in the right direction. | <urn:uuid:c1124c8d-330e-4038-b3bd-3fa57755fd3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shedworking.co.uk/2007/06/mobile-microsoft-treehouseworking.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97447 | 308 | 1.71875 | 2 |
While much of our time is devoted to the students who come into our offices for clinical services, CAPS also serves the larger campus community through a variety of outreach activities. Outreach is a broad term to define activities geared toward providing the campus community with information and prevention through workshops, trainings, liasopn relationships, consultations with faculty/staff/parents, and increase awareness about CAPS services and mental health issues.
As psychologists and mental health professionals, we believe that knowledge and awareness are powerful prevention tools. CAPS' workshops and programs are designed to provide students as well as those who work with students with the knowledge and skills to maintain psychological health and wellness. We also offer programs to identify potential difficulties and prevent or intervene early before problems get worse, such as the Mental Health Screenings Days offered in collaboration with other campus departments.
Our professional staff is available to meet with students in the residential halls, campus clubs, athletic teams and other students groups to to provide educational and skill-building workshops on a variety of topics. We are also available to provide training for residence halls such as stress management, communication and listening skills, assertiveness, and time management. Our professional staff and others who work with students. Some common workshop topics include:
If you are interested in having CAPS table an event or facilitate a workshop for your group, please complete and submit the online workshop request form.
We would be happy to work with you to create a workshop/program to meet your particular needs. | <urn:uuid:58927a9c-464c-411a-93cc-8466e1d911df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattleu.edu/caps/services/workshops/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968858 | 302 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Deserve your love and affection
Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha, to say was an intelligent man is an understatement. We so often think about other people and what we need to do to make others love us that we forget that it’s most important for us to love ourselves. We live in a world where we are taught to believe that we are quite worthless unless we do something or another. That is just not true. Rather than yearning for love elsewhere, we should first and foremost look within ourselves. I believe that, just as you cannot help others if you are sick, you cannot love others fully if you do not love yourself.
On another note, I always take the very end of a quote to make my Friday photo/quotes and when I put in my title for this particular quote, it got my thinking. Not only should we love ourselves no matter what, but we should live our lives in a manner that we find deserving of our own love. Would you love yourself if you were someone else? I hope the answer is yes. If not, you always have the power to change that. I hope you have a weekend full of positivity! | <urn:uuid:22662e2e-d99c-4e1a-8160-3ab5f7061474> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fourleafcloverblog.com/?p=1924 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964458 | 242 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Those members of congress are suing President Obama over the Libyan war.
They are urging the federal court to rule that the Libyan invasion violates the U.S. Constitution as well as other federal law.
Professor Turley's blog says:
Today, I have the honor of representing ten members of the United States House of Representatives in challenging the constitutional basis for the Libyan War — and the underlying claims made by President Obama. These members include Democrats and Republicans from across the political spectrum.(Turley Blog). You can retrieve a PDF copy of that complaint by clicking here.
They share a belief that Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution expressly requires the authorization of Congress before a president can commit the nation to war.
The lawsuit will be heard in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
The case was dismissed by the court. | <urn:uuid:fa027395-c02e-45ac-94ec-1d72c59f0040> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2011/06/congress-v-obama-lawsuit-re-libyan-war.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954197 | 170 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 21 that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over-enforced its own laws when it fined the Fox and ABC networks for incidental obscenities uttered during televised awards shows and a brief display of nudity during an episode of a police drama series. But the High Court refused to issue a larger ruling on the constitutionality of the FCC’s broadcast decency measures, meaning that the enforcement agency will be free — for the foreseeable future, at least — to keep broadcasters on a short leash relative to potentially immoral and obscene broadcast content.
The Associated Press reported that while the justices “unanimously threw out fines and other penalties against Fox and ABC television stations that violated the Federal Communications Commission policy regulating curse words and nudity on television airwaves,” they stopped short of a broader constitutional ruling that broadcasters hoped would free them from the FCC’s strictures on indecency over the airwaves. The Court “concluded only that broadcasters could not have known in advance that obscenities uttered during awards show programs on Fox stations and a brief display of nudity on an episode of ABC’s ‘NYPD Blue’ could give rise to penalties,” reported the AP. The FCC had imposed fines totaling nearly $1.24 million against the networks and scores of affiliates.
Networks in the case argued that the FCC decency rules, which apply mainly to over-the-air broadcast channels, have become obsolete with the explosion of Internet, satellite, and mobile technology. The last time the High Court weighed in on the issue of broadcast indecency was in 1978, when it ruled in FCC v. Pacifica that comedian George Carlin’s televised “Filthy Words” monologue crossed the line of decency because it contained “language that describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory activities and organs, at times of the day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience.”
The conservative legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel recalled that following that historic ruling, “the FCC noted that it would distinguish between repetitive and isolated speech” in future enforcement of its rules. In the most recent case, the agency “sanctioned for three incidents,” noted Liberty Counsel: “one involving the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards, both of which contained the “F word”; an episode of NYPD Blue which contained a seven-second segment of a nude buttocks and a side view of a breast; and a segment on ABC during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards, where the ‘F word’ was used.”
Liberty Counsel explained that in its actions against Fox and ABC, “the FCC changed its application of indecency to include even isolated violations. The Supreme Court ruled that the application of this policy change did not give notice to Fox or ABC of what was banned, and therefore the FCC’s application as to these instances was void for vagueness.”
However, because the High Court ruling did not address the larger issue of the constitutionality of the FCC’s policies, the agency will be free, with proper notice of its intent, to apply its decency standards even to isolated incidents.
Paul Smith, a First Amendment attorney who wrote a brief in the case in support of the broadcasters, told AP News that the issue is far from settled. “The Supreme Court decided to punt on the opportunity to issue a broad ruling on the constitutionality of the FCC indecency policy,” said Smith. “The issue will be raised again as broadcasters will continue to try to grapple with the FCC’s vague and inconsistent enforcement regime.”
While pro-family and decency groups had hoped the Supreme Court would uphold the fines against the networks and make a stronger ruling in favor of the FCC’s policies, most nonetheless felt that the Court’s overall decision was favorable for cracking down on broadcast indecency. Tim Winter of the Parents Television Council said the ruling amounted to a defeat for broadcasters in their efforts to overturn the authority of the FCC to enforce strict standards for what broadcast networks may air between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children are most likely to be viewing.
“Once again the Supreme Court has ruled against the networks in their years-long campaign to obliterate broadcast decency standards,” Winter said. He noted that such standards “have existed to protect children since the dawn of the broadcast medium. It is for their sake that there will still be decency rules and the TV networks will be required to abide by them.”
Patrick Trueman, president of Morality in Media, said that while the ruling was not all that his group hoped it would be, the positive takeaway was that “the High Court did not strike down the federal indecency law, 18 USC 1464, nor did it uphold the decision of the U. S. Court of Appeals finding that the FCC enforcement regulations of that law were unconstitutional.”
Trueman emphasized that the real import of the ruling was that “the FCC is free to enforce indecency law,” and thus should launch a vigorous campaign to clean up the airwaves. “Broadcasters do not have a right to turn network television into a cesspool at the expense of children and those who wish to avoid the foul language and pornography that is now so common on cable television,” said Trueman. “The FCC must now enforce our right to decency on the public airwaves.”
Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, agreed, saying that his group expected the FCC to use the ruling as a green light to more aggressively pursue its efforts to keep the airwaves safe for children and families — and for the Supreme Court to offer its continued assistance. “When a similar case goes before the Supreme Court again for fines imposed for any future violations,” Perkins said, “we expect the Court to once again decide that fleeting expletives and brief nudity are not protected under the First Amendment.”
Photos: The Supreme Court building; the cast of NYPD Blue at the beginning of season 11 | <urn:uuid:b909f410-893b-41ec-a98c-6f185e1c5b45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/item/11819-supreme-court-ruling-frees-fcc-to-crack-down-on-tv-network-indecency | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969816 | 1,280 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Genocide Intervention Network-St. Thomas chapter announces new board members
The student advisory board for the Genocide Intervention Network-St. Thomas chapter announces its members for the 2007 calendar year. This board coordinates all local events, raises political awareness about legislative and other public action to take regarding genocide prevention, and raises funds to enhance security for people whose lives are at risk.
The 2007 board also will address the issue of state-level divestment from businesses supporting governments committing genocide. A "speakers’ bureau" has been formed as well, to continue the GI-Net ongoing work in community-based education and awareness about genocide, particularly the current situation in Darfur.
The board members are:
Chairs of key committees
The Genocide Intervention Network is a national organization that envisions a world in which the international community is willing and able to protect civilians from genocide and mass atrocities. GI-Net has more than 600 chapters around the world; members educate their communities, advocate for action by their elected officials, and fundraise directly for civilian protection and human security.
For more information about the national Genocide Intervention Network, visit its Web site. To learn about the St. Thomas chapter, contact Jenny Le, newly elected student president, or Dr. Ellen Kennedy, faculty adviser. | <urn:uuid:162d39a6-20d8-47b8-b9ba-22e319ca4d1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stthomas.edu/news/2006/12/08/genocide-intervention-network-st-thomas-chapter-announces-new-board/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930307 | 258 | 1.796875 | 2 |
|New Grant Continues HHMI Support of Science Education Efforts at Davidson
April 22, 2008
Contact: Bill Giduz
Davidson College has received a $1.5 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to attract more students toward the study of science, and improve their chances for success in the field. The grant facilitates a half-dozen initiatives toward that goal, including a "Math and Science Center," mentoring programs for underrepresented minority students, and research fellowships.
|Prof. Verna Case meets in her office with two senior mentors in the "Strategies" program, Jarrod Blue and Trevan Rankin. Blue will enter graduate studies in ecology at the University of Tennessee next year, while Rankin will attend medical school. The HHMI grant will allow the program to expand to eight mentors annually.|
Davidson is among 48 undergraduate institutions nationwide receiving a total of $60 million from HHMI "to help usher in a new era of science education." 192 institutions applied for funding.
"The undergraduate years are vital to attracting and retaining students who will be the future of science," said HHMI President Thomas R. Cech. "We want students to experience science as the creative, challenging and rewarding endeavor that it is."
The new grant is the fourth that Davidson has received from HHMI since 1988. Verna Case, Dana Professor of Biology at Davidson, said the money has helped Davidson's science programs achieve a level of "full maturity." Earlier grants addressed needs for facilities and equipment, while the latest grant highlights curriculum and programs for attracting and retaining students in science, rather than infrastructure. The new grant will fund a combination of new initiatives and continuation of programs created by earlier HHMI grants.
The primary new initiative in the grant establishes a "Math and Science Center" beginning next school year. It will be modeled on the college's relatively new "Writing Center" and "Speaking Center," where students receive guidance and critique from peer mentors in completing their academic assignments.
Case explained, "Many students arrive at Davidson intending to major in the sciences or follow our premedical track, but are discouraged by the challenge of our gateway courses. A center where help is regularly and easily available will overcome students' reluctance to seek help early and often."
She continued, "We expect that the center will give them the support they need to get through these courses and thereby increase our retention of students. It will be a tremendous benefit for the sciences at Davidson."
The HHMI grant will fund a full-time professional director for the Math and Science Center, and pay for the student mentors who will staff it. It will serve students in biology, physics, chemistry, psychology and mathematics. Collecting support resources for those different disciplines in one place also emphasizes the increasing interdisciplinary nature of science, Case said.
She said the college wants to hire a director who is an outstanding science teacher and scholar of pedagogy, rather than a specialist in one discipline. "We want someone who knows how to help students learn across the whole spectrum of science," she said.
Another new initiative aimed at attracting more students toward careers in science is a Research and Teaching Internship program. It will employ seven interns for a year prior to their enrollment in graduate or professional school. Interns will have the opportunity during that time to strengthen their research skills, gain teaching experience by assisting faculty members, and clarify their career plans.
The HHMI grant encourages institutions to develop ways of specifically increasing the number of underrepresented minority students studying science. Davidson will address that by expanding the existing "Strategies for Success" program that was initiated with the last HHMI grant. The program currently assigns mentors only to first-year minority students, but it will become a four-year program. Eight minority students will be assigned mentors to help them through their first- and second-year science curriculum, then during the junior and senior year they will mentor younger students.
Another new initiative facilitated through the grant is employment of a recent Davidson graduate as a science outreach coordinator. The coordinator will seek out opportunities for faculty and students to make scientific presentations to school, civic and public groups. By taking care of logistics and actively marketing the expertise of faculty and students, the coordinator should be able to increase the number and quality of presentations, and strengthen Davidson's reputation as a resource for science education in the region.
The HHMI grant will also fund several other ongoing programs at Davidson. It funds reduced course loads for professors seeking to revitalize existing courses and develop new courses. It will allow the college to continue to hire eight students each summer as HHMI Research Fellows, and will hire a postdoctoral scientist for two years of research and teaching, following the conclusion of the appointments of current young scientists Karmela Haynes and Fiona Watson. It will continue support of underrepresented minority mentors and students in neuroscience through the nationwide "SOMAS" program that Dickson Professor of Psychology Julio Ramirez directs, and also support continued undergraduate involvement in the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching program directed by Professor of Biology Malcolm Campbell.
With an endowment of $18.7 billion, HHMI is one of the world's largest philanthropies, and the nation's largest private supporter of science education. It has invested more than $1.2 billion in grants to reinvigorate life science education at both research universities and liberal arts colleges, and employs hundreds of leading biomedical scientists working at the forefront of their fields.
Case emphasized that HHMI support has been crucial in development of a strong science program at Davidson. "We are fortunate that HHMI helped us develop the equipment and facilities we need for science education," she said. "We're a mature program now and can start giving back -- building a strong pipeline to generate scientists, and increase awareness of science in general."
She continued, "In addition to our work with science majors, Davidson wants all its graduates to gain a clear understanding of science and its implications in our society. Science is integral to everything we do, so scientific literacy is crucial in helping our alumni be better leaders in the community."
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,700 students. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country.
# # #
Posted By: Bill Giduz | <urn:uuid:bf3d10d1-b7b4-4964-b986-262b6c443606> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x31119.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954279 | 1,305 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Walk the dog
A pooch walk will be held Nov. 27 on the beach in Stone Harbor. Its part of the Stone Harbor Volunteer Fire Company and Animal Alliance of Cape May County's annual fundraiser that includes the Sandy Paws 5K race. Pre-register from 6 to
8 p.m. Nov. 26 at the firehouse, 96th Street and Second Avenue, or download a form at www.stoneharborfire.com
The registration fee for the one-mile pooch walk is $15. Pre-registration fee for the 5K race (people only) is $20 (add $5 on race day.)
Race-day registration will be held from 7:15 to 8:30 a.m. at the firehouse. For more information, e-mail: [email protected].
Birds are very good at hiding problems, and they are often far more ill by the time their symptoms come to light.
This is one of the reasons why people mistakenly think birds are weak.
They hide their symptoms and can be close to death before you realize they're ill.
Regular evaluation by a qualified avian veterinarian is a way to help prevent this.
That means yearly for physical examinations and routine screening tests.
The syrinx or vocal box of an Amazon parrot is located at the point where the trachea splits. In this area, air is guided into the left and right portions of the respiratory tract.
It is also an area where pieces of food or hulls from seeds can lodge.
This not only compromises air flow, but also leads to a secondary bacterial infection.
A small endoscope is placed down the trachea to the syrinx to remove any obstructive material.
Mast cell tumors are the most common form of skin cancer in dogs. They are dangerous, as they can occur anywhere on a dog's body and are hard to recognize in their early stages.
Advice on the subject really needs to come from your vet.
Early detection in these matters is the key here, and veterinary inspection of any lump or imperfection in your dog's skin can make all the difference in the world.
Pet of the week
Sky is a young, female parakeet available from the Cumberland County SPCA and Animal Shelter in Vineland. Call 856-691-1500 | <urn:uuid:47d29249-b0ff-423c-8e02-a246c2ada128> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/life/sunday_life/pets/no-headline-provided-in-file/article_7ece1b86-66d0-56a6-be5b-e0773cc3725f.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949918 | 491 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Wood waste to power Florida homes
Progress Energy Florida has contracted with Atlanta-based Biomass Gas & Electric LLC to purchase electricity produced from gasified wood waste at two identical power plants to be built in Florida. Sites and regulatory permission are pending. Progress Energy Florida spokeswoman Cherie Jacobs said each plant will generate 75 megawatts of electricity-enough to power 46,000 homes-using materials such as tree bark, yard trimmings and paper mill jetsam. Commercial production at both facilities is slated for 2011. | <urn:uuid:df9c2d78-a2ea-4f59-8b4c-7b32193cf53f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/1455/wood-waste-to-power-florida-homes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930625 | 103 | 1.6875 | 2 |
How (Not) to Complain
Serena Williams berates a line judge for a questionable call; Kanye West hijacks Taylor Swift's acceptance speech; Joe Wilson accuses President Obama of lying to a joint session of Congress. The worlds of sports, entertainment, and politics seem to be long on self-promotion and especially short on trust and respect.
In contrast, the commercial marketplace runs on trust. Billions of transactions occur daily in which both parties in the exchange end up satisfied. Almost all sellers - from multinational companies to individuals selling on eBay - are concerned about their reputations and realize that many complaints provide valuable insights into how their products or processes can be improved. Customer satisfaction drives repeat business and recommendations.
But it's a two-way street. In the B2B world, sellers depend on trustworthy customers, just as their customers depend on them. Unhappy customers who mistrust and disrespect well-intentioned sellers raise the cost for all parties - and reduce the chance they'll get what they want. Here are five guidelines for customers for effective complaining.
Frame your argument. At first, don't attack, explain. There may have been an honest mistake or misunderstanding. Don't put the seller's representative on the defensive prematurely.
Propose a resolution. It helps the seller resolve your problem if they understand what they might do to satisfy you. For example, do you want a defective product fixed or do you want your money back?
Show respect. Chances are the seller is honestly trying to help you. Convey trust in the seller and you're more likely get a quick resolution and build an enduring relationship.
Keep your cool. If you don't, a seller's representative may reasonably decide to hang up on you, or at least will be less inclined to help you.
Escalate if necessary. There is only so much that most salespeople are authorized to do. If a seller's front-line representative cannot give you satisfaction, go over the representative's head.
Bloomberg moderates all comments. Comments that are abusive or off-topic will not be posted to the site. Excessively long comments may be moderated as well. Bloomberg cannot facilitate requests to remove comments or explain individual moderation decisions. | <urn:uuid:bdbeb9e4-c688-4fda-8222-3db65019e298> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2009-09-17/how-not-to-complain.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939265 | 453 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Posts tagged ‘U.S. Navy 5th Fleet’
Meet Chief Master-at-Arms Cris Miller of the U.S. Navy. This photo was taken in December at Port Al-Shuaibah, Kuwait. At the time she was conducting anti-terrorism/force protection dives while assigned to the Commander, Task Group 56.1.
Task Group 56.1 divers look for and dispose of underwater mines, unexploded military ordnance and and improvised explosives. They also do salvage-diving and perform other underwater tasks to counter terrorists and protect the ships and personnel. They are attached to the U.S. 5th Fleet, which is responsible for Navy operations in the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Red Sea and the Indian Ocean along the east coast of Africa from Egypt to Kenya. For some more photos of Chief Miller at work, click here.
The Navy master-at-arms rating is responsible for law enforcement, anti-terrorism, force protection and expeditionary warfare duties.
To mark Women’s History Month, the Defense Department has an extensive array of photos, videos and articles about the accomplishments of women in the armed services past and present. To view it, click here. | <urn:uuid:f023115d-64b3-478b-a092-f1f87d8363a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://4gwar.wordpress.com/tag/u-s-navy-5th-fleet/ | 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 | 0.93874 | 249 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Security Council condemns nuclear test by DPR Korea
New York, Feb 13 : The Security Council and top United Nations officials have strongly condemned the nuclear test carried out by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), warning that it constitutes a threat to international peace and security.
Following an emergency closed-door session, the Council said the test is a "grave violation" of relevant resolutions adopted by the 15-member body.
"In line with this commitment and the gravity of this violation, the members of the Security Council will begin work immediately on appropriate measures in a Security Council resolution," Kim Sung-Hwan, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council in February, said in a statement read out to the press.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a statement issued by his spokesperson overnight, called Pyongyang's action "deplorable," and voiced concern at its impact on regional stability.
Ban reiterated his criticism ahead of a pre-planned address to the Council. "I strongly condemn Pyongyang's reckless act, which shows outright disregard for the repeated call of the international community to refrain from further provocative measures. The test is a clear and grave violation of the relevant resolutions of the Security Council."
Underlining that he personally had repeatedly called on the new leadership in Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons, and try to diffuse the situation through political dialogue and confidence-building measures with neighbours and the international community, Ban said that "regrettably, my appeals have fallen on deaf ears."
"It is deplorable that Pyongyang has chosen the path of defiance," he added, urging the Council to act and speak in a unified matter.
According to media reports citing the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the Government of DPRK conducted its third, long-threatened nuclear test earlier Tuesday.
A test would be a violation of sanctions imposed on DPRK by the Council following nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, including a ban on the import of nuclear and missile technology.
The sanctions were further tightened last month in a unanimous decision by the Council after DPRK reportedly launched a long-range Unha-3 rocket from its west coast in December 2012.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Tuesday confirmed that its monitoring stations picked up "evidence of an unusual seismic event" that has "explosion-like characteristics and its location is roughly congruent with the 2006 and 2009 DPRK nuclear tests."
CTBTO Executive Secretary Tibor Toth said in a statement that, if confirmed, the nuclear test would constitute "a clear threat to international peace and security."
Also Tuesday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called the test "regrettable" and "in clear violation of the Security Council."
In a statement, the Agency's Director General, Yukiya Amano, urged DPRK to implement all relevant resolutions from the Security Council and the IAEA Board of Governors, and reiterated the need to resume IAEA nuclear verification activities in the country as soon as a political agreement is reached. | <urn:uuid:7f1f5d31-88b1-4840-977f-5c013ccceb6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newkerala.com/news/newsplus/worldnews-136231.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953915 | 631 | 1.59375 | 2 |
We all love our kids and we want them to be safe. With this in mind, I figure the only reason that people are not securing their kids correctly is that they think they are doing it properly, even when they are not.
When I see a parent with a child who is not travelling safely, I don't know what to say. We may think that we want what's best for our kids, but, you don't want some stranger telling you that you're doing something wrong. Especially when it could insinuate that you don't care about your child(ren).
What to do?
One answer is to guest post here, outlining some basics of car seat safety.
Some of The Basics
- There is no one seat on the market which is "safer" than any other. All seats that are legal for sale in Canada are tested to the same standards. The best seat for you is the one that fits your child, fits your vehicle, and the one that you can use properly every time.
- Carseats expire! All child seats now sold in Canada have an expiry or useful life date, which range by manufacturer. If you cannot find the expiry date on the seat itself, you can refer to the manual or call the manufacturer.
- Always, always read the manual for the vehicle and for the carseat. Read it carefully, and more than once as needed. If you have questions, contact the 1-800 number for the manufacturer, or find their website for further info.
- Please don't buy a used seat. Unless you trust the person with your child's life, don't take a used seat from anyone. If a carseat has been dropped or in a collision it needs to be replaced. Often if you have a used seat you don't truly know the history behind the handling of it. I know that seats can be expensive and that you may buy more than one, but, your child is worth the cost of a new seat. Wait until the one you want goes on sale.
- Remember to register the seat after purchase in case of recalls. Most can now be done online.
- If you are in Canada, the seat must have the CMVSS sticker (the one with the maple leaf) if it is eligible for use in Canada/tested to Canadian standards. You may not use a seat purchased out of country.
- Try not to check a seat with luggage while travelling - you really don't know how rough the handlers are being with it, unfortunately.
- Keeping kids rear-facing for as long as possible (to the weight/height limit of the seat or until their heads reach 1" below the top of the seat frame) is the safest for the child. It doesn't matter that his/her legs may touch the vehicle seat - a broken leg (although highly unlikely) is preferred over a broken neck, and kids are surprisingly comfortable in strange positions.
- What position in the vehicle you choose to install your seat depends on your personal needs as well as the vehicle/carseat fit. Most seats require that you be able to pass your hand between the front vehicle seat and the carseat (ie not having the carseat wedged in against the driver/passenger seat). For this reason it is often not possible to properly install the carseat behind the driver, especially when rear-facing, as there just isn't enough room to do so. If your vehicle has a flip-down armrest of some kind in the back, you are not advised/able to install a rear-facing seat in the middle location either. Most parents opt to install their child seats behind the passenger. This has the added bonus of allowing you to get your child out safely onto the sidewalk rather than into traffic, if you are parking on the street. If your passengers do not have adequate room up front, they may need to ride in back with babe.
Note that Journeys of The Zoo makes no claims to know anything about car seat safety. Please check with a local representative regarding any questions you may have. | <urn:uuid:0a839ea3-f997-4b34-976a-15b316601bfe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.journeysofthezoo.com/2013/01/car-seat-safety-part1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970224 | 833 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Associated PressThe Arctic Challenger, an oil spill containment barge operated by Shell, had a run of bad luck in tests in Puget Sound.
A release of e-mails in response to a Freedom of Information Act request yields more details on a debacle involving the containment dome that Shell aimed to deploy in the event of an oil spill in the Arctic. [KUOW]
Blocked roads and severed communications frustrate rescuers in the southern Philippines after the strongest typhoon so far this year kills at least 283 people. [Associated Press]
Working from a state-run nature preserve, Iran’s “environmental gladiator” tries to raise his arid country’s awareness of air pollution, climate change, desertification and deforestation. [The Los Angeles Times]
Vietnam accuses a Chinese fishing boat of cutting a seismic cable that was attached to a Vietnamese vessel pursuing oil and gas deposits in the South China Sea. [The New York Times]
An earlier version of this post misstated the call letters of the radio station that submitted a Freedom of Information request for e-mails related to sea trials of oil-spill containment equipment. The station is KUOW, not KYOW.
Environmentalists in Hong Kong have been working around the clock to clean up beaches since plastic pellets began washing ashore from a container spill that sent 150 tons of them into the water two weeks ago. The spill occurred during Typhoon Vicente, the worst to strike Hong Kong in more than a decade.
Gary StokesMounds of plastic pellets have been washing up in Hong Kong since a container spill last month.
Sinopec, the Chinese petroleum company that makes the plastic pellets, said Thursday that it would set up a $1.3 million fund to cover the cleanup.
“Our company has been very anxious about the issue,” Lu Dapeng, a Sinopec spokesman, told the Associated Press. The company is also known as the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation.
More than 100 volunteers from Sinopec have taken to the beaches with electric generators and industrial vacuum cleaners. The company has also dispatched five divers to look for pellets in the water, which is beyond the expertise of the locals who began volunteering after discovering the pollution on the beaches on July 25. | <urn:uuid:1de89c8d-a131-4b95-9e0f-8bf568ece50c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/typhoon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953733 | 468 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Hugh Pickens writes "Google encourages advertisers to purchase other companies' trademarks as targeted search terms, and they're expanding the practice into 190 countries. When Audrey Spangenberg typed the name of her small software company into Google and saw the ads of competitors that had paid Google to display their marketing messages whenever someone searched for FirePond, a registered trademark, she was furious. This week, her company filed a class-action suit against Google in federal court, saying that Google had infringed on her company's trademark, and challenged Google's policies on behalf of all trademark owners in the state. Legal experts said it was the first class-action suit against Google over the issue. Google's acceptance of such competitive uses of trademarks has irked many other companies, including the likes of American Airlines and Geico, who have filed suits against Google and settled them. Many brand owners say the practice abuses their brands, confuses customers and increases their cost of doing business. 'I know of several companies spending millions of dollars a year in payments to Google to make sure that their company is the very first sponsored link' on searches for their own names, said Terrence Ross, a partner at Gibson Dunn, who represented American Airlines in its suit against Google. 'It certainly smacks of a protection racket,'" | <urn:uuid:a4bcd56f-156d-4570-9686-23b663581906> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/05/16/1142230/lawsuit-says-googles-sale-of-keywords-is-illegal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976621 | 261 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Even before the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took power, the defeated Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its American allies started running a media campaign in both countries describing the new administration as "anti-capitalist" and "anti-American."
Critics cited an essay by new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in which he criticized "U.S.-led market fundamentalism" and spoke of a world in which the United States struggles to retain its dominance as China strives to become a global power. Mourning the loss of a half-century of LDP rule, these doomsayers accused Hatoyama of wanting to dump free market economics, shift Japan's international economic center of gravity from the West to Asia, and adopt a security stance "equidistant" between the United States and China.
This characterization is as accurate as labeling U.S. President Barack Obama a socialist. Hatoyama is hardly unique in blaming excessive deregulation for the economic crisis. Far from wanting to disengage from the United States, the DPJ has endorsed a bilateral free trade agreement -- something the LDP never dared. And DPJ leaders are not naive advocates of abandoning the United States only to be left to the mercies of an ascendant China. Rather, the DPJ wants a paradigm shift in Japanese foreign policy, one which makes it a more equal partner to the United States and puts greater emphasis on Japan's ties to the rest of Asia, particularly China and South Korea.
Let's call it the New Asianism. This ideology was on full display this weekend at a Beijing summit for leaders from China, South Korea, and Japan. It was only the second time this group of three has met. And the meeting was far more substantive than in the past, covering everything from coordinating on North Korea and economic stimulus policy to taking initial steps toward the formation of an "East Asian Community," modeled on the European Union.
The New Asianism pushes back against, but does not entirely reject, Japan's prioritization of its alliance with the United States. Too often, the DPJ thinks, conservative governments lined up with Washington even when they believed its policies to be misguided. For instance, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dispatched troops to Iraq and refueled U.S. vessels in the Indian Ocean not out of support for U.S. policy, but to ensure the United States' favor in case tensions arose with China or North Korea.
When it comes to a rising China, the DPJ rejects containment, advocated by neoconservatives in both Tokyo and Washington, as doomed to failure. Given the United States and China's increasing economic interdependence and overlapping strategic interests, Washington will never form an anti-Beijing front, DPJ thinkers say. Nor can Tokyo rely solely on the U.S.-Japan security alliance to counter any Chinese bid for regional hegemony. On the contrary, the greater fear in Tokyo is that the United States will abandon Japan by forming a U.S.-China "Group of Two," relegating Japan to second-level status in the region. In the DPJ's view, Japan needs to draw China into broader regional engagement instead.
This paradigm shift -- articulated by Hatoyama and other DPJ heavyweights, in the Japanese press and in interviews with the authors -- has three broad elements.
First, as Hatoyama told Obama in September, the U.S.-Japan alliance will remain "the cornerstone" of Japanese foreign policy. It makes no sense for Tokyo to distance itself from Washington on security or economic grounds, even if a few Japanese wonks entertain such fantasies.
Realistically, Japan and the United States will need each other to counterbalance China, encouraging it to become a responsible world power in terms of trade, the environment, and other issues. Plus, it would be impossible for Japan to cope with a nuclear North Korea without a strong alliance with United States (and China). Some difficult bilateral security issues -- such as the long-standing problem of U.S. military bases on Okinawa -- remain. But DPJ leaders, stronger negotiators than their LDP counterparts, are seeking compromise on this issue and others ahead of Obama's November visit to Japan.
This realism has deep roots. For instance, Hatoyama and other DPJ party leaders supported expanding Japan's security role within the framework of a strong U.S. alliance from the days when they were still members of the LDP. In 1992, they spearheaded Japanese participation in overseas peacekeeping operations. Earlier this decade, they backed a dispatch of Japanese naval forces to the Indian Ocean in response to the September 11 attacks. And this week, an envoy from Tokyo visited Afghanistan and Pakistan, a clear sign that Tokyo will continue to provide assistance on that front (though via economic, not military, aid). | <urn:uuid:7fef8b96-3177-44b8-8bdb-bb706cdeeb7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/13/the_new_asianism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941719 | 974 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Just finished this book and loved it. My wife listened to it twice and told me I had to hear it. It's riveting as well as inspiring. Basically, it's about people helping rescue animals in horrible situations.
For those who can't bear to hear about animals being mistreated, the descriptions are not lengthy or too graphic. You get just enough information to understand what's happening and then it's back to the action. It's the same with any philosophical talk about obligations toward and mistreatment of nonhuman animals. This is kept to a minimum, just enough to understand why the people are doing what they're doing in each situation.
As for Tricia's one-star review below, she clearly didn't listen to the book. For instance, she says the animals are released to the wild to face an even worse life. Homes are lined up for all of the animals saved in this book. She also calls the groups extremist. As for that, you'll have to listen for yourself. Almost all cases described here involved people working in the labs who couldn't take the cruelty anymore and sought out people who could help them help the animals. There's so much kindness and thoughtfulness in the book that the only "extreme" behavior on display is that done by those experimenting on animals. For instance, there are the dogs whose ear drums are shattered and their bodies harmed as they are forced to replicate deep-diving situations. No progress is being made on treating the mild cases of the bends suffered by Navy men and women. No progress for 40 years. Yet the dogs keep being tortured because if they aren't, the lab doesn't get its federal funding renewed.
The production values are dated but very listenable.
I wouldn't have even finished this book if it weren't for Richard Dawkins' recommendation. It's from 1961 and reads like one of those pulp sci-fi novels of that era where the writer thinks up a good gimmick (in this case, a world without light) and then inhabits it with cardboard characters, slight sense of place and regular action that has no tension. Gimmicky, that's the word that comes to mind - with silly uses of language that hammer us over the head - people curse with the word "Radiation!" and whenever one of us might shout "Oh God!", the characters instead say "Oh Light!" There are so many interesting things that could've been done with the mechanics of a world without light but the author doesn't even explain how they get their vitamin D and what the livestock live on. No one ever goes to the bathroom in the entire book -- yet they live in enclosed caves where the stench from open pit latrines would be overwhelming. Even the novel's, last sentence is weak. The concept that so intrigued Dawkins is not fleshed out and could've been better told in a short story. The previous reviewer said he was bored at times but gave it four stars. I was bored most of the time, except at the end when (not a spoiler) there's discussion of how people adjust to encountering light. One star.
I really enjoyed this discussion. It starts with an unnamed person talking about the treatment of American Indians, bringing up how they're the only ethnic group in the world that has to prove ancestry in order to claim to belong to the group. Then there's Churchill's talk plus Q&A. Some of it is moot now but it doesn't really require any knowledge of his travails at the University of Colorado to get what's going on. Basically, he wrote a 20-page essay that contained one phrase that some people objected to -- claiming that some people working at the World Trade Center were part of a Nazi-like machine devoted to exploiting and even killing people in other countries for profit. He goes back to the massacre of Indians by white Europeans near the site of the World Trade Center and how the white Europeans celebrated by using the Indians' heads as soccer balls for a game. And he brings things forward from there. One area where I think Churchill failed was when someone brought up how he wants freedom of speech to say the things he says (which many find offensive) and his protests to keep others from marching in Columbus Day parades from expressing their opinions. He cites the 9th Amendment saying it trumps the 1st Amendment. Couldn't people say the same about his opinions? Regardless, I found the whole thing very thought-provoking from the first word to the last.
Report Inappropriate Content
If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action. | <urn:uuid:736f1113-9607-4caf-8fd1-e6771c509028> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.audible.com/listener/A3B95AHKOJ1FH1/On-the-Run/ref=pd_seeReview?asin=B002V0PT1M&_escaped_fragment_=/followNotice/close | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980847 | 951 | 1.507813 | 2 |
View Full Version : How To Help
16th November 2010, 01:35 PM
Just been reading on another forum about a beautiful sounding sixteen year old Cavalier .So it got me thinking am I doing everything I can to ensure my four reach an age that is there maximum possible ,of course excluding any inherited defects and unforeseen events .
Have any long term owners any tips to help me maximise this ,do you feed them any wonder things or do things out of the normal that you consider beneficial ,am I doing anything wrong .:)
16th November 2010, 03:36 PM
There aren't any magic secrets (most is genes, second is decent care) but you can increase the odds by good health screening and keeping your dogs svelte and with good teeth and gums. Lots of the dogs I know that have lived to old age were fed supermarket foods, no supplements etc. Some I know that have died early were on all sorts of trendy supplements, raw diets, premium foods. I know anIrish cavalier that lived to just shy of 19 -- no special fuss, just supermarket foods. They wouldn't be my choice, as I think them quite mediocre, but neither would I (waste) spend money on the most expensive foods. Our family Pyrenean in the 60s and 70s lived to over 13 -- like reaching 18 for a cavalier -- and had nothing but cheap supermarket foods, table scraps and the occasional raw egg for her coat!
Annual cardiologist screening and if possible, an MRI so if a dog has a syrinx, you can give something like frusemide to inhibit or even stop or reverse development. If you see no symptoms and don't know your dog has a syrinx SM could slowly progress til at a serious level. The low cost screening available in the UK makes a basic MRI very accessible to a pet owner. MOST cavaliers will eventually have MVD and all research indicates well over half will likely end up with SM as well -- so minimise those risks. On hearts -- a cardiologist will pick up issues long before a vet. Some here are good on supplements for dogs as they get older -- that they believe are helpful for heart health. I don't think there's much done to verify many, if any, of these supplements helping in any way but some have anecdotal evidence. Pat for example has dogs that have reached a very good age despite some health issues. :) She will know what studies are out there too, I've no doubt.
What shortens life in cavaliers is MVD, SM and as always, being overweight. Even a few pounds can cut *years* off a dog's life (an average of 4 years in a study on overweight -- but not obese -- labradors. Assume the same with cavaliers. Being overweight as with people increases risk of and lowers onset age for everything from diabetes to heart disease to cancer. Owners DIRECTLY shorten their dogs' lives by letting them get overweight. A dog will not get fat unless given too much food by owners, and not exercised adequately.
PS: A little reminder to all that using a subject heading that tells a little more about what your thread is specifically about would help people both find info from it that they might want or add to it. eg 'how to help our dogs live longer' as 'how to help' could be about anything from fundraising to housetraining... :lol:. Adding in some tags to a thread also helps people find info in future. :) Many of us would look at a subject heading first in deciding whether to read something so putting an informative subject heading really helps (rather than 'advice needed', use 'advice needed on housetraining'; rather than 'why does she do this?, use 'why does my dog bark at night?').
16th November 2010, 07:58 PM
Can I second what Karlin has said about weight. When I first had Aled at 18 months, having lived on a puppy farm all his life, he was a bit podgy and compared with Oliver looked small and puppyish. Since then he's shed about 1kg and the difference is amazing (also due, of course, to his increasing confidence) - he tears around, and is up on his toes, which makes him as tall as Oliver, he's slim, his coat is looking great. Losing that weight has been so good for him - and with a Grade 3 murmur at 3.5 years, it could save his life or at least extend it. Keeping your Cavalier fit is one of the best things you can do for them. Harden your heart, resist those Blenheim eyes, give them lots of fresh vegetables so that they don't feel hungry when you reduce their food - it really pays dividends.
Kate, Oliver and Aled
16th November 2010, 09:14 PM
I agree with the weight thing!! So much less stress on the heart and all the body including joints!!
Plenty of walks to keep fit too!!
Barney has never been fat but toward the higher end of normal, since shedding a kilo and a half I can see the difference!! (If only I could be as dedicated with losing a few pounds myself!!) Popping in the vets to weigh him helps stop it creaping back on too with the added bonus of stress free vets visits and a small treat from Pauline the receptionist! We walk past regularly and Cassie now drags me in to be weighed and get her treat :D
The other thing I would recommend is a younger friend for an older dog, apparently adds years to their life!! Since getting Cassie Barney is like a new dog :)) Much less sleeping and more playing...
16th November 2010, 09:48 PM
Brian from what I read about how you look after your dogs I can see no need for you to ask for help.
I have had Cavaliers die at 6 and some live to 14, none overweight, exercised the same (2 hours walks every day) Until last year all dogs fed on the best quality dry food, (raw now) a couple of biscuits at bed time, lots of love and cuddles and that was it. The one thing they all had in common was MVD and I am afraid there is little you can do about them getting it:(
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.0 Copyright © 2013 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:657cbe7b-d7b5-4fef-b38a-c0a136aa3f25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cavaliertalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-36151.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972616 | 1,329 | 1.585938 | 2 |
A lamp of a different color
I want to introduce you to what I feel is the coolest lighting-based innovation that I’ve ever experienced: the LivingColors Generation 2 LED Lamp by Philips. But first, I have to admit, somewhat painfully, that this particular product became like Ishmael’s white whale to me. No, it didn’t wreck my boat and eat my leg, but I’ve been trying to get my hands on one, even dreaming about it, for more than 10 years. When I finally held the orb in my hand, I was almost giddy with excitement. And even after a decade-long buildup, I was not in the least bit disappointed.
You see I’m a bit of a, lets call it, a visualphile. Anyone who has visited my home office over the years (and to some extent the GCN Lab) knows that it’s a very colorful experience. Using whatever I could find — from track lighting to neon signs to illuminated keyboards to those little strips of light you normally see shining down on the road from souped-up cars — I’ve been able to create a unique visual space (currently decked out in electric blue). But even though I’ve experimented with all types of lighting, I’ve gotten mixed results.
Philips LivingColors Generation 2 LED Lamp
Pros: Gives any space a huge wow factor; brilliant colors; plug and play; generates almost no heat.
Cons: No way to completely set colors with perfect precision.
Ease of Use: A
Light Bulb Finder mobile app wins EPA contest
So I was blown away at the old Comdex Computer Expo back around the year 2000, when I witnessed the first generation of the Philips LivingColors LED bulb. Here was a bright bulb whose color you could change at will using a remote control. Say you wanted your office to be red, and then a week later didn’t really like the color anymore. Just touch a button and presto, you could change it to purple, yellow, green or any other of several thousands of colors.
Of course, I ran right to the front of the booth and begged to review it. But there was a problem: LivingColors was only available in Europe. Through the years I checked in on the bulb from time to time, but it never made it to the United States. Then recently I heard about the second generation of the LivingColors product line, which could shed light twice as brightly as before. And finally, it is available in the United States.
The unit itself looks a little bit like a small fishbowl. It is transparent except for a conical tube running down its middle and a white plastic plate at the top, which is used to capture and diffuse the colored light produced by the base unit. There is a very small flat surface along the bowl that allows users to set the LivingColors in one place and not have it roll around. If positioned correctly, the lit end of the unit faces upward at about a 70 degree angle. It’s designed to throw its light onto a wall or ceiling, allowing it to shine its colors around an entire room. There is also a standard power cord that comes out the back side.
The unit is controlled wirelessly using a remote control. The most prominent feature on the remote is a large color wheel, which makes it very easy to use. Simply press the color you want your room to be, and the bulb instantly changes to match it. Or, if you swirl your finger around the ring and press the On button, the LivingColors unit will cycle through its entire 16 million color palette. That’s a bit too disco for me, but it might be nice for a party or special occasion.
If I had one minor gripe, it’s that even though the bulb is capable of displaying 16 million colors, you won’t be able to get perfect precision with the remote control. For example, I’d like to be able to set the display to a specific hue, say “66FF99,” but instead I have to press the green part of the wheel and try to adjust the hue until I think it’s a perfect match for the setting or my mood.
There are two other button sets on the remote. The first controls color saturation. You will probably set this to maximum saturation to get the most of your colors, but if you want softer colors, you can add in more white, which is how you achieve some very soothing pastels — if that’s what you’re into. You can even turn the colors off altogether and create a very bright diffused white light that is easy to read under.
The last set of buttons controls the brightness. And these new-generation lights can get very bright. If you are stupid enough to stare straight into it under maximum brightness (yes, I made this mistake), you will be seeing spots for a long time, regardless of the color.
The LivingColors unit is essentially a complex, powerful LED bulb, with all the advantages of such lighting. It should last somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 hours of continuous use. It also produces almost no heat whatsoever. You can have it on maximum brightness for a week and directly touch the front plate and barely feel any warmth, which makes it safe for kids and pets as well as heat-sensitive electronics.
At $150 on average, the price is a bit high, and even higher at some stores, but not much lower than that. Still, given that a single globe can light up a moderately sized room and last virtually forever, with very little drain on power and almost no added strain to your environmental cooling systems, the cost seems a bit more reasonable. I showed the LivingColors review unit to several techies and a few federal friends of mine, and everyone absolutely loved it. Some even began calculating how to justify getting a few for their office, and I know everyone who experienced it wanted one for their home.
The Philips LivingColors Generation 2 LED Lamp earns a Reviewer’s Choice designation for combining efficiency, innovation and even a little bit of fun. It’s not just a bright idea. It’s a colorful one.
Philips Electronics, www.philips.com | <urn:uuid:0c216948-c6cb-4e78-bf33-f2688e7a0df1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gcn.com/articles/2011/12/05/review-philips-livingcolor-bulb.aspx?admgarea=TC_EMERGINGTECH | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946315 | 1,315 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Because we are so busy investing, making money and sometimes lose track of reality - I just need to post this. I think what I appreciated the most from this is that "happiness is a choice" !!!
Top five regrets of the dying:
A palliative nurse (somebody caring for the terminally ill) has recorded the top five regrets of the dying in the last 12 weeks of their lives .
There was no mention of more sex or bungee jumps!!
Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care. She recorded their dying epiphanies, the she put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.
"When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently," she says, "common themes surfaced again and again."
Here are the top five regrets of the dying, as witnessed by Ware:
1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
"This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it."
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
"This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence."
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
"Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result."
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
"Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying."
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
"This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. . Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again."
What's your greatest regret so far, and what will you set out to achieve or change before you die? | <urn:uuid:b7be8036-5f23-444f-9c19-cb5e62aa2ac6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tickertalk.co.za/blog.php?user=Antonk&blogentry_id=3501 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991852 | 652 | 1.5 | 2 |
How this photo came about..
I was in South Beach one evening shooting an event with Cash Money Records and I got dropped off outside a nightclub, with my transportation and driver for the evening on the left. This is not my usual transportation; my daily transportation has over 100,000 miles on it and is good on gas.
I was standing outside the club waiting for my clients in three tour buses to pull up. The city bus pulled up with the bicycle on the front. I had to capture the image including the chauffeur and bodyguard. I noticed a story maybe more because my transportation was a little different than the usual way I get to work. I saw a story of transportation and showing three ways to transport someone. It can mean the journey of getting somewhere and not as much the destination. It can mean that the journey is not as important as the destination, it can also mean we are all really not that different as we are all traveling to get somewhere. It’s also interesting to see that the bus driver out of the three drivers is the one who is smiling. If you want to see more street photography you could go to my Flickr street portrait photography page. | <urn:uuid:9747cbc6-317b-4b6a-ac2d-f285e3542c2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://micheleevephotography.com/blog/tag/slim/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983035 | 240 | 1.734375 | 2 |
How To Knock Someone Out With One Punch!
From boxing to street fighting, the uppercut is one of the most powerful strikes for
how to knock someone out with one punch.
Unfortunately, despite its power, the uppercut also has its disadvantages when it comes to fighting.
I’ll explain why and also show you a simple trick you can use to make your uppercut an even more effective self defense technique to knock someone out:
How To Knock Someone Out With One Punch
First, let me explain why the uppercut is such a great self defense technique for how to knock someone out. You see, when an uppercut comes in, it does so from below the attacker’s field of vision so he won’t see your punch coming until it’s too late. This means that your strike has a better chance of reaching its target and less chance of being blocked. That also means a better chance to knock someone out.
When the uppercut hits the opponent under the chin, it slams his head back. Besides jarring the brain, this whiplash effect triggers the nerves in spine as the skull slams back and down into them. This is one of the main reasons why the uppercut has earned such a reputation as a knockout blow.
Another strength of the uppercut is that it takes advantage of the body’s centerline. Your centerline is the area that runs vertically along the body and is difficult to protect. The path of the uppercut comes up and in along the centerline, shooting straight up the body and targeting the chin for a one punch knockout blow.
But there is a problem with the uppercut as well. For one, the chin is a relatively small target. Since in a real self defense scenario, you won’t be wearing boxing gloves, there’s a good chance your punch will miss its target. Even worse, when you do make contact, it’s very easy to fold your wrist over, potentially breaking or straining it.
There is a solution however. Instead of using the traditional knuckle punch for your uppercut, throw the same strike but with the palm of your hand, using the hard area just above your wrist instead of your knuckles. You still have all the benefits of the blind attack up the body’s centerline, and you’ll deliver incredible power, but you’re much less likely to be injured from your punch.
Of course, you may not get a knockout from your uppercut so you must be prepared to follow up with other self defense techniques. Fortunately, using your palm for an uppercut has its advantages there as well. For example, you could choose to follow your strike with a clawing rake down the face. You could also grab the back of the head, turning the blow into a clinch and knee-strike. Even if you miss with your palm heel, you’ll be in the perfect position for these follow-ups, which can be delivered explosively and brutally to defend yourself in a real street fight.
In summary, the palm heel strike under the chin has all of the uppercut’s strengths and none of its liabilities. It gives you more options in a real street fight, both as fail-safes and as follow-ups. An uppercut is a powerful strike, but a palm-heel delivered in the same way is simply a much more effective self defense technique for how to knock someone out with one punch. | <urn:uuid:6fe163ce-1d9e-436b-bd5a-0141774755e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.closequarterscombat.com/blog/how-to-knock-someone-out-with-one-punch/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943176 | 731 | 1.5 | 2 |
If you really want to get the water going again or you can't get a plumber right away, you can try to repair the pipe TEMPORARILY with a patch kit. (If you didn't happen to notice the "temporarily" in all caps in the last sentence, please go back and read it again. A patch is not a permanent pipe repair.) You can buy these at home centers and hardware stores. The quickest type to use includes a rubber patch, to wrap around the pipe, and two plates that screw together to clamp the down on the patch. In a pinch, you can wrap an inner tube or a piece or neoprene around the break and clamp it down with a few house clamps.
Note: You have to drain and thaw the pipe before applying the patch. Do this by opening the faucet or other fixture supplied by the pipe, then carefully thawing all frozen areas of the pipe with a hot water bottle or a hair dryer (again, don't mix water and electricity), working from the fixture end toward the frozen area. It's possible that the pipe burst between the frozen section and the fixture.
Dealing with Water Damage
Whether you do it yourself or call a pro, don't wait to start drying things out. Mold can start to set in within 24 hours. Dealing with a flooded area is a subject too big for this paragraph, but here's the crib sheet version: If you're confident you can get to all of the water and wet surfaces yourself, great; just do it as soon as possible. But if the water damage is extensive and/or seems to have entered areas you can't see, like inside walls and under floors, call your insurance agent. Professional water damage mitigation needs to start right away, and it can be eye wateringly expensive. | <urn:uuid:e7b6fb57-7e48-4dde-ba67-8465e498ba49> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wdsu.com/How-to-protect-foundation-when-pipes-burst/-/9854144/18096744/-/item/1/-/arr7mz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950427 | 375 | 1.742188 | 2 |
With gold holding near the $1,670 level, today the Godfather of newsletter writers, Richard Russell, starts off with a quote from legendary trader Jesse Livermore and goes on to discuss what is happening in gold and stock markets: “A loss never bothers me after I take it.” Jesse Livermore.
Richard Russell continues:
“Wise words from Jesse Livermore except for one thing. Losses to me are experiential lessons. I always look at my losses and then ask, ‘What have I learned?’ If I've learned something valuable, I don't consider it a loss. I take it as a lesson or an insight into my character -- laziness, greed, stupidity, impatience. I've often said that the stock market is a great teacher, that is, if you are humble enough to learn from your mistakes or losses.
I was looking over the quarterly report of Tri-Continental Corp. I think this was the first closed-end fund, founded in the 1920s prior to the '29 crash. I don't know what TY sold for in July 1932, but in 1940 with the Dow at a price of 98 you could have bought TY at around 2.
Buyers at that time merely had to load up on the fund and hold it, and they would be rich today. The fund's assets are now near two billion. I looked up their holdings of Apple; they hold 80,800 shares. That shows you how huge some of these funds are, and the great buying power they possess.
What I want to illustrate is that great fortunes are made at super-bear market lows. But you must have the money at the lows. Which is why gold is so singular and valuable. If you have gold at the bottom of the next bear market, you can exchange it for a collection of great common stocks or funds, and then sit back and relax.
You are then betting on the lasting power of the US. If the US comes back, you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams. But you have to have the guts to hang on to your gold. And you need patience -- the patience of ten men.
And I wonder -- is there a super bear market waiting for us somewhere in the future? The great ride from the end of WWII to today has never been fully corrected. Some day it will be. And impossible bargains in stocks will be lying around -- with very few willing or solvent buyers.
Such is the fascination of the stock market. In this business the ‘impossible’ never seems to be possible. But the impossible definitely is possible in the strange and exotic world of Wall Street. My opinion -- the retail public is buying the earnings while the big money is giving them all the stocks they want. Gold gave a little (recently), but not enough to worry about.
As for gold, I have a long-term position in the yellow metal that I will probably never exit or sell. My thinking is that sooner or later we will be subject to a major correction (bear market) that will wipe out or correct 60 years of inflation and leveraging. When that happens, I want to own the only kind of money that the Fed can't destroy.
When the big deflation and deleveraging arrives, I see the Fed trying to halt it with QE3 and QE4 and QE5. Why do I say that? Because that's the way the Fed thinks, and that's what the Fed does. They did it in 2007 and 2008, and we know that the current Fed head will not tolerate contraction, and has a record to prove it.” | <urn:uuid:d55f8bea-3bf2-4e46-98b2-6bb1d6a42249> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://soundofcannons.blogspot.com/2012/04/richard-russell-hang-on-to-gold-massive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970953 | 750 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Challenge to benefit nonprofits
Published: Friday, March 1, 2013 at 10:06 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, March 1, 2013 at 10:06 a.m.
Area nonprofits will soon be seeking donations through computers and smartphones as part of the 36-hour Giving Challenge, which is in its second year.
Last year's event resulted in $2.4 million raised through 10,700 gifts to benefit the 109 participating nonprofits. The event includes 285 organizations this year.
The challenge starts at 7 a.m. Tuesday and runs through 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The participating nonprofits, all of which have profiles in The Giving Partner — an online tool that facilitates informed philanthropy — also can earn their share of $645,000 in grant incentives and one-to-one matching support for new and increased gifts over last year's Challenge.
The Giving Challenge is presented by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County in partnership with The Patterson Foundation with support from Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Manatee Community Foundation, Charlotte Community Foundation and the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation.
The Herald-Tribune Media Group, ClearChannel Radio and SNN6 have joined the effort to promote the power of giving during this event.
Last year, all of the participating organizations received donations, and about 40 percent of all gifts were $25.
New this year are $5,000 prizes for best partnership with a local business and best overall campaign.
There is no cost, user name or password required to use The Giving Partner. Donations are 100 percent tax-deductible. Anyone who wishes to give during the challenge can make a secure donation by debit card or credit card at www.givingpartnerchallenge.org. The minimum gift is $25.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:de0b871f-bab4-4033-9a3a-d4dfb61dea4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130301/ARTICLE/130309992/1532/NEWS0102?Title=Challenge-to-benefit-nonprofits | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948792 | 402 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Zacharias, Athos (American, b. 1927)
Acrylic on canvas
Height: 36 1/2″
Width: 30 1/2″
Born in Massachusetts in 1927, Zacharias arrived in New York in 1956 and joined the downtown art scene. Through the 60′s he was part of the Tenth Street Cooperative Gallery Movement, showing in collective and one-man shows. He also assisted many notable artist including Willem de Kooning. His long and still-unfolding career has produced an impressive breadth of work that is, as Zacharias describes, “rooted in the spatial traditions of modern, abstract painting.”
He has exhibited in New York, the Hamptons, Amsterdam and Tokyo and his works are held in important collections throughout the US. Zacharias currently lives and works in East Hampton, NY. | <urn:uuid:2cfebeb6-50d2-400a-aca1-216af35adc03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geraldblandinc.com/2012/01/portrait-2002/ | 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 | 0.966609 | 179 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Looks like this event has already ended.
Check out upcoming events by this organizer, or organize your very own event.
Big Data, Small Government
Thursday, March 21, 2013 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM (GMT)
London, United Kingdom
Thursday 21 March 2012
1.00pm - 2.00pm
8 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6EZ
Or What Happens When We Expect Silicon Valley to Do the Job of Politicians
We are swiftly moving into an era where everything around us will be "smart": we'll be wearing smart glasses that know who we are and what it is we are looking at, we'll be driving smart cars that know where we like to go, we'll be using smart search apps on our smartphones that would provide us with data before we have even asked for it.
All these "smart" devices will be recording lots of data about us; they will also be used to make "smart" interventions in our daily lives. "Smart" glasses might make certain menu items disappear when we go to a fast food restaurant or make our portions look larger than they actually are. Now that everything is "smart," the temptation to enroll technology companies in Silicon Valley into solving all of the world's greatest problems will only increase - and many technology companies don't exactly shy away from the challenge. By drawing on several themes from his latest book To Save Everything, Click Here, leading tech sociologist Evgeny Morozov will address the risks and limitations of such "solutionism".
You can watch this event live
You can listen to this event live
When & Where
For more than 200 years, the RSA has provided platforms for leading public thinkers. That tradition lives on in our free events programme.
Browse our distinguished and diverse roll call of past speakers. Missed an event that you were interested in? Don't worry you can listen to the podcast or watch the video.
What can I expect when I attend your events?
Our events typically last between one hour and one hour fifteen minutes, the speaker or speakers will present for the first half of the event before we open the debate up to you in the audience. You are welcome to ask a question or make a comment but please try to be concise and to the point so other members of the audience can get involved in the discussion too.
All of our events are audio and video recorded and are made available on our website to watch and listen to again. Please be aware that by attending our events you may be visible in the audience in photos or in the video of the event, and if you ask any questions these are likely to feature in our podcasts. | <urn:uuid:a3239209-d913-48d7-8026-2cfc3200035c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rsaevgenymorozov2013-es2img002.eventbrite.co.uk/?rank=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954129 | 550 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Research in Motion held a huge press conference today in which they announced a) the company’s new name is just ‘Blackberry’, not Research in Motion, b) a pair of two new great looking smartphones and c) a huge update to the Blackberry touchscreen OS, which also looks really nice. But is it enough? Blackberry is betting the farm on this, and they really don’t have much of a choice.
Not sure how many people here use Android phones and use them to download stuff off the internet. But, I remember when I saw they put Norton out for phones, and thought it was funny at the time until I realized about all the potential mayhem that could be caused by that mini computer in your pocket. And now there’s a trojan for Android that can use your phone to launch DDoS attacks without your knowing, all the while possibly racking up a hell of a bill.
In decades of its existence, Linux desktop usage has never really made it into the mainstream. And now that the desktop OS is slowly becoming a niche product, Ubuntu will be the first major Linux flavor moving to the mobile sphere with an Ubuntu mobile operating system and mobile phone. And god, I hope this works, because the Ubuntu mobile OS looks absolutely gorgeous (starting at @ 7:00 in the video below).
Recently, Hyundai has been testing a system that would allow you to use an NFC-enabled smartphone to unlock your car door, start the car before you get there and other nifty functions. Right now, this is just in a testing phase, so it might be a few years before anything like this is on the showroom floor.
HTC and Verizon have teamed up to launch the HTC Droid DNA, a really thin phone with a five inch 1080p display that’s been impressing the hell out of reviewers.
There are already a few computer peripherals that try and mimic the sensation of sex through the internet, but LovePalz is the first one for smartphones. Just plug it into your phone, choose whether you’re the pitcher or the catcher, fire up video chat and get your sexytime on.
First, we heard about NYC yellow cabs getting a facelift and now New York is planning on replacing its outdated, old fashioned pay phones with high tech smartphones that will be supported on ad revenue. | <urn:uuid:b88484c5-513d-41a2-9e23-b5ab94cae092> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iheartchaos.com/tagged/smartphones | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950548 | 485 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Three people have been killed and more than 600 injuredsupporters and opponents of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak clashed in Cairo, according to the country's health ministry.
However, a doctor at an emergency clinic set up at the scene later estimated the injured to be more than 1,500.
Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei has accused the government of 'scare tactics' after the clashes.
Thousands of the president's supporters surged into Tahrir Square, dismantling barricades set up by demonstrators.
Rival camps are reported to have fought hand to hand, and with sticks and stones.
Opposition activists said that plain clothes policemen had also entered Tahrir Square.
Earlier, an opposition coalition called for the protests in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square to continue.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that any attacks on peaceful demonstrators in Egypt were 'unacceptable'.
'Any attack against the peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable and I strongly condemn it,' Mr Ban told journalists in London after talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Mr Cameron condemned the 'despicable scenes' in the Egyptian capital and said any state sponsorship of the violence would be 'completely unacceptable'.
With Egyptian troops firing warning shots for the first time in a bid to end clashes between supporters of the regime and protestors, Mr Ban urged the Egyptian government to quickly bring in political change.
'It is important at this juncture that it is ensured that an orderly and peaceful transition should take place. I urge all the parties to engage in such dialogue and such process without any further delay,' he said.
Mr Ban said the UN was ready to provide 'any assistance' with pushing through political change.
Crowds gathered in the square this morning for a ninth day of protests, rejecting Mr Mubarak's promise yesterday that he would not stand in elections scheduled for September.
Meanwhile, the European Union has called Mr Mubarak's decision not to stand for re-election a step in the right direction, but said his new cabinet did not constitute a representative government.
In a statement, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton also said the EU was ready to support the Egyptian people in their quest for a better future.
‘The EU is calling for an orderly transition through a broad-based government leading to a genuine process of substantial democratic reform with full respect of the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms,’ she said.
‘Unfortunately, the appointed new cabinet does not constitute such a broad-based representative government.’
On Monday EU foreign ministers stopped short of calling for an immediate election in Egypt.
But they called for an orderly transition to a broad-based government, saying democratic reforms were needed to create the conditions for free and fair elections.
Some Irish citizens leave Egypt
It is understood that tour operators are moving around 180 Irish tourists from the resort of Sharm El Sheikh.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has also said that nine Irish citizens are due to leave Egypt today on special flights organised by the British and Portuguese authorities.
The Irish Embassy in Cairo is in daily contact with around 200 Irish citizens registered as living in Egypt. | <urn:uuid:df4ec65a-a54c-409b-a63e-0da6dc87ab78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0202/297234-egypt/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965013 | 642 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Photo by Edward Berger
Tireless and accomplished Princeton biochemist Charles Gilvarg dies
Posted January 17, 2013; 10:30 a.m.
Princeton University professor emeritus Charles Gilvarg, remembered as a tireless scientist and a demanding but motivational professor, died Jan. 6 in Scottsdale, Ariz., following a stroke. He was 87.
During his 34 years at the University, Gilvarg, who in 1998 was named professor of molecular biology, emeritus, and senior scientist, established himself as a preeminent researcher in the field of cellular metabolism. He published 131 papers — the latest in 2011 — and mentored many undergraduate and graduate students. He also saw Princeton's Program in Biochemical Sciences through its evolution to a department and served as the first chair of the Department of Biochemical Science (which became the Department of Molecular Biology in 1990) from 1970 to 1973.
Longtime friend and colleague Jacques Fresco, the Damon B. Pfeiffer Professor in the Life Sciences at Princeton, said that Gilvarg was a "major figure" in intermediary metabolism, the chemical processes through which cells produce energy, the building blocks of proteins and other essential components. Gilvarg's work related specifically to amino-acid biosynthesis and transport, and was important to a biochemical-research renaissance during the 1960s and '70s.
"He was brilliant, an outstanding researcher," said Fresco, who met Gilvarg in the 1950s when both were postdoctoral researchers in New York City. "He was exceedingly bright, a very fast thinker and he could immediately see the essence of a research area."
Fresco helped lure Gilvarg from the New York University School of Medicine to Princeton in 1964, the year after Gilvarg received the American Chemical Society's Paul Lewis Award for outstanding researchers under 40. At Princeton, Gilvarg and Fresco shared an office suite for decades. Although they focused on different areas of biochemistry, Gilvarg could comfortably discuss and evaluate other disciplines and scientists.
"He was unusually able to assess the capabilities of others. It came in handy as we were expanding the young department and adding new faculty," Fresco said. "He really was considered a very clear lecturer and thinker, and what people will most remember was his exceptionally quick mind and his remarkable ability to assess new information with great clarity and vision."
Gilvarg also was known as a thorough and hard-working researcher who expected just as much from his students.
Elaine Fuchs, who studied under Gilvarg from 1972 until 1977 when she received her Ph.D. in biochemical sciences, said that his expectations shaped her own scientific rigor. Fuchs, the Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at Rockefeller University in New York, studies mammalian skin diseases and her work has been instrumental to the development of modern dermatology.
"At first glance, his high standards seemed unachievable," Fuchs said. "However, as the years in his lab went by, I began to strive harder to meet them. I became increasingly passionate about designing well-controlled experiments to test interesting and important questions.
"I credit much of what success I have achieved in my own scientific career to Charlie's patience and superb teaching skills, and to his love for science," Fuchs said. "He will be dearly remembered by all of us who so greatly benefited from his many talents."
Gilvarg's wife, Frieda, said that her husband enjoyed learning about other scientific fields and that his reputation for thoroughness extended to even casual conversation.
"You had to worry when you asked him a question because he always started from square one," Frieda said, laughing. "He didn't like to give superficial answers, so if you asked him a question you had to have a lot of time. Everything he did was that way."
Charles Gilvarg's scientific career began with a chemistry set he received from a landlady when he was 8 and continued into last year, Frieda said. At the time of his death, Gilvarg was working on a biological indicator of early-stage pancreatic cancer and was awaiting efficacy results from biological samples. He had demonstrated the biomarker's potential in a 2011 paper in the journal Cancer Biomarkers.
"Science was his absolute focus. His life revolved around his work and everything except his family was secondary," Frieda said. "I was resigned to the fact that he would never be totally retired, even though he pretended to be. He was going to keep working until he died, which he did. One of the parts of his death that is hardest for me to take is that he was so close [to seeing the biomarker project through]."
During his career, Gilvarg worked alongside some of the most prominent people in his field, including his doctoral thesis adviser and 1964 Nobel Laureate Konrad Bloch, who once quipped that Gilvarg was the only student whose questions he dreaded, Fresco said. After receiving his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Cooper Union in 1948, Gilvarg worked under Bloch at the University of Chicago before receiving his Ph.D. in 1951. After honing his interest in amino-acid biosynthesis as a postdoctoral researcher with noted microbiologist Bernard Davis, Gilvarg in 1954 joined the faculty of the NYU biochemistry department chaired by 1959 Nobel Laureate Severo Ochoa.
In addition to his wife, Gilvarg is survived by his four children — Karyn, David, Martin and Gail — as well as his eight grandchildren: Amos, Ian, Alexander, Megan, Charles, Thomas, Katherine and Patrick.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Cooper Union Office of Alumni Affairs and Development, Attn: Brooke Bryant, 30 Cooper Square, 8th Floor, New York, N.Y., 10003. A memorial service in Princeton is planned for later this year. | <urn:uuid:6f477001-b92e-49c3-93e6-6cdf731735fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S35/83/85S90/index.xml?section=prospective | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985768 | 1,228 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The returns from the investments made in the options market are relatively high compared to other forms of investment. The option trading market provides the investors with better leverage, as the amount required to invest in them is comparatively low. Over the years the option trading market has helped people to earn quite significant amounts.
With the options the investors are buying the premium, which is needed to trade in specific options. Thus the entire affair translates to having the obligation to sell or a right to buy.
Actually this market allows the owners of the securities to trade in options only in a certain period of time.While buying a “call” the traders assume that the value of the particular stock would be going up in a period of time; buying a “put” suggests that the value of the security might fall. Buying a “call” means that the investor is going “long” while buying a “put” means the trader is going “short”.
The call options enable the investors to purchase real stocks as well as the underlying assets; while possessing the put options means that the owner of the particular security has to sell the underlying properties besides the actual shares.
Provided the holder of a certain option tries to use it, the individual investors would need to purchase the fundamental security at the share price. The options are normally concluded on the third Saturday of each month. After their expiry these options are rendered worthless with the investors losing the authority of trading them at a fixed value. | <urn:uuid:21b09df2-e422-4020-9dec-51386080911b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://finance.mapsofworld.com/option/trading/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952693 | 308 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Not all are believers in the new-and-improved Obama when it comes to foreign policy. "Decades of U.S. policy are nibbled away or jettisoned altogether to reestablish relations with the penal colony that goes by the name of the Republic of Cuba, and yet Fidel doesn't phone or even write--he arrests a State Department contractor who's down there doing humanitarian work and throws him into one of Cuba's notorious prisons, where he languishes still, more than a month later." Read the whole, hilarious thing.
Republican and Democratic governors want a new-and-improved way of dealing with the federal government. They send a letter to Washington, which includes these requests: "Federal reforms should be designed to produce savings for both the federal government and states. . . Deficit reduction should not be accomplished by merely shifting costs to states or imposing unfunded mandates. . . States should be given increased flexibility to create efficiencies and achieve results . . . . Congress should not impose maintenance of effort (MOE) provisions on states as a condition of funding. MOE's curtail state authority to control their own budgets and fiscal systems and over time discourage investment in state-federal programs."
Will there be a new-and-improved George Allen?
The new-and-improved face of the Democratic Party? Keith Olbermann for Senate in Connecticut. Well, you can't say that wouldn't be a change from the centrist, civil, and kind Sen. Joesph Lieberman (I-Conn.). At least Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) would seem sober by comparison.
Not everyone is sold on the new-and-improved crony capitalism. Dan Harris of ABC News asks, "Isn't there some political risk here, though, for the President getting too cozy with the business community, given the fact that there are a lot of people in this country who are still very, very, angry at the CEOs and at Wall Street for helping create this mess in the first place?" Right Turn readers know the answer to that one!
When everyone is on the search for new-and-improved political ideas, sometimes it's best to return to the classics. Pete Wehner on The Neoconservative Persuasion, a collection of essays by the late, and very great, Irving Kristol: "Kristol writes that he has faith in the common people, of which he counted himself one, but just not very much faith in them. Further, he argues, the common man, being wise, only invests modest faith in himself. 'That it is possible to corrupt a citizenry -- or for a citizenry to corrupt itself -- is something the Founders understood but which we seem to have forgotten,' according to Kristol."
Obama's new-and-improved approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been a bust. Michael Weiss explains, "One of the unintended consequences of Obama's Middle East policy was that it forced Mahmoud Abbas into the awkward position of focusing on everything that didn't matter and ignoring everything that did, namely Salam Fayyad's ambitious and exclusively homegrown state-building project, which, entering its second and final year, still represents the best hope for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state. It was said at the time by astute commentators that the head of PLO could not position himself to the right of the American president on settlements."
What new-and-improved profanity has Rahm Emanuel come up with for this one: "Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is vowing to fight an Illinois appeals court ruling that he is ineligible to run for Chicago mayor because he does not meet the residency requirement of the office." Actually, wasn't this all a jumbo excuse to flee the White House?
What would make for a new-and-improved This Week? Dan Abrams replacing Christiane Amanpour. Hey, it would make a heck of a lot of sense.
Posted by: johnmarshall5446 | January 25, 2011 11:03 AM | Report abuse
Posted by: nvjma | January 25, 2011 12:30 PM | Report abuse
Posted by: johnmarshall5446 | January 25, 2011 1:29 PM | Report abuse | <urn:uuid:c5df75c2-e062-4e05-80a5-07a5b157db11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-turn/2011/01/morning_bits_45.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955568 | 876 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Painful hernias more difficult to diagnose in women
Published: Sunday, May 29, 2011 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 11:42 a.m.
Laura Sweet was an active, upbeat 42-year-old saleswoman living in Santa Monica, Calif., when the agony first started — debilitating, flaring pains in her pelvis that lasted for days and recurred periodically. The discomfort resulted in many visits to the emergency room, referrals to various specialists, wrong diagnoses and a daily cocktail of painkillers.
Her once-sunny disposition turned morose, and her vigorous workouts declined to a measly 20 minutes of walking a day. When one doctor's tests revealed no explanation, Sweet said, he told her she had "chronic pelvic pain and I should learn to live with it."
Her sorry tale could be repeated by countless women who, like Sweet, had hidden abdominal hernias, a condition that most doctors — including gynecologists and surgeons — rarely consider or know how to find.
Unlike hernias in men, which are far more common, those that afflict women are usually small and internal and rarely cause an obvious bulge. Symptoms can be suggestive of other problems — ovarian cysts, fibroids, endometriosis or adhesions from a previous operation — but surgically correcting these conditions does not relieve the devastating pain.
"On average, women go through four prior surgeries, and some a lot more than that, before the real cause of their pain is identified," said Dr. Deborah A. Metzger, a gynecologist in Los Altos, Calif., who specializes in chronic pelvic pain.
When a woman lies flat on the examining table, the signs and symptoms of a hernia disappear. And the usual exam, an ultrasound, rarely reveals the real problem. Lacking an accurate diagnosis, doctors often send patients to be drugged up by pain specialists and psychiatrists.
For many women with these occult, or hidden, hernias, it can take years, if ever, to get the right diagnosis and correct the problem. Women account for only 8 percent of the hernias diagnosed, and doctors simply "don't think hernia" when women complain of pelvic pain, Metzger said in an interview.
But after 18 months of torment, Sweet got lucky. A urogynecologist she consulted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles had a hunch that a hernia might be the problem and sent Sweet to a colleague, Dr. Shirin Towfigh, one of the few specialists in women's hernias in the country.
‘Like it never happened'
An MRI revealed not one but two inguinal hernias: small holes in a layer of muscle through which pieces of abdominal fat can protrude, pressing on nerves and causing pain. Towfigh repaired them both in a four-hour laparoscopic operation.
"I was back exercising in a week and jogging 10 days later," Sweet said in an interview. "Now everything is fine, like it never happened."
A hernia is a protrusion of tissue through the wall of a body cavity in which it is normally contained, most often an opening or weakness in the muscular wall of the abdomen.
Towfigh, a general surgeon who trains other doctors in laparoscopic surgery, explained that in men hernias often involve an obvious outward protrusion. In rare instances, such hernias may entrap a piece of the intestine, causing gangrene and even death.
But while women can sometimes develop a similar hernia, they are more likely to have a hidden, internal kind that entraps abdominal fat and compresses nerves, causing intense pain.
Towfigh said that despite frequent misdiagnoses, the symptoms of a hernia in women are really not typical of more common gynecological problems. She recalled that Sweet said she had experienced "burning, pinching pain shot down into her groin, leg and back. It was worse with exercise, prolonged standing, lifting, bending, coughing, laughing, going up and down stairs, straining at stool, and during her menstrual period."
In other words, anything that increases abdominal pressure, sometimes even prolonged sitting, can provoke the pain, which occurs randomly throughout the day, Towfigh said.
"Women with young children can't bend over to pick them up. It affects their marriage because sex hurts too much, and it impairs their ability to work," she said. "The pain can be severe enough to cause a woman to pass out. It can be so extreme that women are given spinal injections and spinal stimulators," as well as multiple pain medications and psychiatric drugs.
When all else fails, some women resort to lying in bed to bring relief.
Towfigh explained that tiny hernias are the worst. "The smaller the hole, the worse the pain," she said. But in examining a woman, even with an MRI, "you don't see the hole — you only see the hole when something goes through it." That may require positioning the patient to provoke the symptoms.
Metzger said that an abdominal exam in the standing position sometimes reveals a subtle bulge. But more often these hernias can be neither seen nor felt, and a correct diagnosis relies mainly on a vaginal examination. The pelvic muscles are often tense and tender, and the patient's pain can be reproduced by pressure on the internal inguinal area, she said.
When a woman's hernia is properly diagnosed and surgically corrected — usually by placing mesh over the hole during a laparoscopic procedure — the pain disappears completely. "It's so easy to fix," Towfigh said. "When the women wake up, they know they're better."
Exercise that helps maintain healthy abdominal muscle tone can protect against hernias, she said, but "once you have the problem, exercise won't correct it, though it may prevent it from getting worse."
Women are also more likely than men to develop umbilical hernias, in the bellybutton, especially if they are overweight, have had multiple pregnancies or endured very long labor when delivering a baby.
The British R & B star Jamelia Niela Davis, who goes by her first name, has said she first noticed that whenever she laughed, she automatically put her hand on her stomach and could feel an odd bulge.
Though she did not have much pain at first, one day she experienced "excruciating pain, as if someone had grabbed hold of my insides and was twisting them."
The surgeon she consulted told her that a piece of fatty abdominal tissue was being caught in the weakened umbilical wall and that without an operation it would only get worse, aggravated by singing and dancing.
Umbilical hernias can also entrap intestines and become life-threatening, and the pain can be intense enough to cause fainting. But umbilical hernias are easier to recognize than internal hernias in women.
"The bellybutton should be perfectly symmetrical," Towfigh said. "If you look carefully, you can see the asymmetry caused by an umbilical hernia, when a little piece of fat pushes out through a small hole."
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:cfa021ac-3128-4acd-b2d4-432e3093a2d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ocala.com/article/20110529/WIRE/110529817?Title=Painful-hernias-more-difficult-to-diagnose-in-women | 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 | 0.962737 | 1,552 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Information contained on this page is provided by companies via press release distributed through PR Newswire, an independent third-party content provider. PR Newswire, WorldNow and this Station make no warranties or representations in connection therewith.
Global Language Experts Meet in Miami to Discuss Trends, Solutions
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Paced by skyrocketing growth in the Hispanic population, the U.S. linguistic profile is rapidly changing and non-English speakers want to be heard-in their own language, the head of the world's leading language industry association said today.
Hans Fenstermacher, CEO of the Globalization and Localization Association, said the United States, like other nations in the world, must grapple with the complexities of business and society in multiple languages and cultures.
"With one out of five U.S. households speaking a language other than English today, anyone who wants to sell a product, win an election, or reach a community can't afford to ignore this country's multilingual diversity," Fenstermacher said.
But many U.S. institutions aren't meeting the needs of linguistic minorities. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people five and older who don't speak English at home has exploded five times faster than the nation's population growth over the past three decades. Spanish speakers account for 62 percent of non-English speakers.
With an estimated 52 million people in the U.S. today, Hispanics claimed more than half of the nation's population growth over the last decade. Worldwide, the U.S. now ranks second only to Mexico in the number of Hispanics, and by 2050, the U.S. total is expected to reach nearly 133 million.
"Spanish is the second-most spoken language in the world today, behind Chinese and ahead of English," Fenstermacher said. "Spanish in the U.S. isn't going to be replaced by English entirely. So to succeed here and abroad, businesses need to be linguistically and culturally intelligent."
GALA will host its 2013 global conference March 17-20 in Miami, marking the first time the language industry association's annual event will be held on U.S. soil. Participants from more than 30 countries will address innovations and best practices in the global language business, with a particular focus on Latin American and Hispanic markets.
The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) is the world's largest localization trade association. As the worldwide voice for the language industry, GALA is a resource for the language business and the organizations it serves. www.gala-global.org.
©2012 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:5a9fee99-a57d-48de-a3d9-4fee50536f9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.klfy.com/story/21289559/surge-in-hispanic-population-fuels-us-linguistic-diversity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934966 | 559 | 1.75 | 2 |
Invite a friend
Kumon Math and Reading Center of Waltham - Open House
By practically any measure, the quality of public K–12 education in the United States is dismal. Of the high school seniors who in 2009 took the biennial National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests, administered by the U.S. Department of Education, fully 74% scored below proficient in mathematics, 62% in reading, and 79% in science. While the U.S. stagnates, other countries are pulling ahead. For instance, in 2009 the latest round of comparative international exams administered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), American 15-year-olds ranked 25th in math, 17th in reading, and 22nd in science among its 34 member nations. Chinese students took the tests for the first time in 2009 and blew everyone away, ranking first in all three subject areas.
Stop by or talk to us on how Kumon Math and Reading center of Waltham can help?
More About Kumon of Waltham
Kumon of Waltham is an after-school enrichment program. It provides students of all ages with math and reading assistance. For a free placement test, call the number provided.
Other events here
- Kumon of Waltham - Open House February 4, 2012 / January 5, 2013 / March 2, 2013 / April 6, 2013 / May 4, 2013 / June 1, 2013 / July 6, 2013 / August 3, 2013 / September 7, 2013 / October 5, 2013 / November 2, 2013 / December 7, 2013, 9:00 am | <urn:uuid:0fd108e6-9408-43ed-86cb-3297b5a54f28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://waltham.patch.com/events/kumon-math-and-reading-center-of-waltham-open-house-c78c3a91 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948683 | 337 | 1.59375 | 2 |
These are some of the views and reports relevant to our readers that caught our attention this week.
A Working Definition of "Open Government"
"I’ve been spending a non-trivial amount of time lately watching and pondering the explosive uptake of the term "open government." This probably isn't too surprising given Global Integrity’s involvement in the nascent Open Government Partnership (OGP). As excited as I've been to witness the growth of OGP, the continued progress of the open data movement, and the emerging norms around citizen participation in government internationally, I've also been worrying that the longer we allow "open government" to mean any and everything to anyone, the risk increases that the term melts into a hollow nothingness of rhetoric.
My most immediate concern, which I've been chronicling of late over on this Tumblr, has been the conflation of "open data" with "open government," an issue well-explored by Harlan Yu and David Robinson in this paper. I've also been publicly concerned about the apparent emphasis put on open data - seemingly at the expense of other open government-related priorities - by the current UK government, which is slated to take over the co-chairmanship of OGP shortly. (An excellent unpacking of those concerns can be found in this letter from leading UK NGOs to the government.)" READ MORE
"Africa plans to launch a fund to harness the financial resources of its citizens based in the Diaspora which will be used for development projects on the continent.
The proposed African Diaspora Development Fund and Remittances will be unveiled at the Global African Diaspora Summit to be hosted by the African Union (AU) Commission in collaboration with the South African government in Johannesburg from 23-25 May." READ MORE
"Over the course of 2011's momentous Arab Spring uprisings, young women in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen used social media and cyberactivism to carve out central roles in the revolutionary struggles under way in their countries, according to a new study commissioned by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
The study, "Unveiling the Revolutionaries: Cyberactivism and Women's Role in the Arab Uprisings," explores the activism of several key figures, including Egypt's Esraa Abdel Fattah, who became widely known as "Facebook girl," as well Libya's Danya Bashir, Bahrain's Zeinab and Maryam al-Khawaja and Tunisia's Lina Ben Mhenni, who became known as the uprising's "Twitterati," dubbed by influential media and pundits as 'must-follows.'" READ MORE
Southeast Europe Struggles with Effective Law Enforcement
"Law enforcement agencies are considered key agents in peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction efforts. For that reason, massive resources from the international community have been channeled to democratizing and professionalizing police institutions in Southeast Europe.
However, although legal reforms of the police force have been fairly successful in the four Southeast European countries covered in the 2011 Global Integrity Report - Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia -, the implementation and enforcement of these laws are found wanting in our latest assessment." READ MORE
Financial Task Force
G8 Action On Asset Recovery For The Arab World
"The G8 have just released an ambitious and comprehensive asset recovery action plan as part of the Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries in Transition.
It is timely and necessary to reinforce the momentum behind stolen asset recovery processes. The first step by G8 countries was to freeze the accounts of the authoritarian leaders Mubarak, Ben Ali and Gaddafi after their fall from power last year, based on the allegation that the assets held had been illicitly acquired from state coffers. However, there has been too little progress made in returning those assets.
In times of meagre state budgets the G8 now seems to now have acknowledged the need for facilitating the process to return these assets, rumoured to be in the tens of billions." READ MORE
Photo credit: Flickr user fdecomite | <urn:uuid:468d1ac9-5c07-4e7c-be10-61fb4629ea53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/comment/reply/5996 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954322 | 830 | 1.617188 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — An agreement to avoid the sharp tax hikes and spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff won’t be reached before the midnight deadline, lawmakers in the Republican controlled House of Representatives said Monday.
House Republicans notified lawmakers that the chamber will vote Monday evening on other bills. They said that will be their only votes of the day. Congress could pass later legislation retroactively blocking the tax hikes and spending cuts.
Earlier President Barack Obama and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said they were near a deal to avoid wide-ranging tax increases and spending cuts — the fiscal cliff — that take effect with the new year.
Both men said they were still bargaining over whether — and how — to avoid $109 billion in cuts to defense and domestic programs that take effect on Wednesday.
Speaking from the White House, Obama expressed regret that his administration and Congress couldn’t produce a “grand bargain” to address the country’s chronic deficit spending, but he said that was impossible “with this Congress, at this time.” Both sides have been unable to make such a sweeping deal since they set the midnight deadline in 2011 as motivation.
“There are still issues left to resolve, but we’re hopeful Congress can get it done,” Obama said. “But it’s not done.”
Officials familiar with Monday’s negotiations said an agreement would address the biggest issue by raising tax rates on family income over $450,000 a year.
But how to handle deep spending cuts remained unsolved.
Some leading Republicans quickly objected to Obama’s comments. “At a time of crisis, on New Year’s Eve … you had the president of the United States go over and have a cheerleading, ridiculing-of-Republicans exercise,” Sen. John McCain said.
But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he and the White House had agreed on preventing tax hikes and that they were very close to an overall deal that would also prevent budget-wide spending cuts.
The hope of the White House and lawmakers was to seal an agreement, enact it and send it to Obama for his signature before taxpayers felt the impact of higher income taxes or federal agencies began issuing furloughs or taking other steps required by spending cuts.
The contours of a deal to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff” emerged Monday, as officials familiar with the negotiations said the agreement would raise tax rates on families making over $450,000 a year to 39.6 percent. The tax on estates worth more than $5 million would increase to 40 percent from 35 percent. Unemployment benefits would continue for one year. Without that extension, 2 million people would lose benefits beginning in early January.
But the officials said the White House and Republicans were at an impasse over what to do about automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to start taking effect Tuesday. Democrats want to put off the cuts for one year and offset them with unspecified revenue.
The officials requested anonymity in order to discuss the internal negotiations.
A Republican official familiar with the plans confirmed the details described to The Associated Press.
Urgent talks continued between the White House and congressional Republicans, with Vice President Joe Biden and McConnell leading.
The deal would achieve about $600 billion in new revenue, the officials said.
Without an agreement approved by Congress by the start of New Year’s Day, more than a half-trillion dollars in tax increases for nearly all Americans will begin to take effect, and $109 billion will be cut from defense and domestic programs.
Though both would be felt gradually, economists warn that if allowed to fully take hold, their combined impact would rekindle a recession.
Republicans, who control the House, have been loath to raise taxes. Democrats, who control the Senate and are in the White House, have been wary of cutting spending. Each side has been scared of looking like it’s giving in to the other.
Meanwhile, the country’s deficit spending — about $1 trillion a year — continues without a deal to address it.
“This whole thing is a national embarrassment,” Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican, told MSNBC earlier Monday.
If there’s no deal, the effects could be harsh. The U.S. would lose up to 3.4 million jobs, the Congressional Budget Office has predicted. And budget cuts of 8 percent or 9 percent would hit most of the federal government.
And if the limit isn’t raised on how much the government can borrow, the government’s officially reaching its $16.4 trillion ceiling on Monday could lead to a first-ever default in February or March that would shake worldwide confidence in the United States.
On top of that, the current Congress is in session only through midday Jan. 3. After that, a newly elected Congress would inherit the problem.
Letting tax rates rise for couples with incomes of $450,000 a year would be a concession for Obama, who campaigned for re-election on a pledge to set the level at $250,000 for couples. It also would mark a significant concession by Republican leaders who pledged to continue the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for all income earners.
The U.S. faces the fiscal cliff because tax rate cuts dating back to Bush’s tenure expire at the end of the year. The pending across-the-board reductions in government spending, which would slice money out of everything from social programs to the military, were put in place last year as an incentive to both parties to find ways to cut spending. That solution grew out of the two parties’ inability in 2011 to agree to a grand bargain that would have taken a big bite out of the deficit.
Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Ben Feller contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:1cc9edc6-7903-4109-a567-8f65b9e3c60b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.azcentral.com/business/news/free/20121231hours-before-us-fiscal-cliff-hints-progress.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968013 | 1,205 | 1.625 | 2 |
Central Hudson continues to prepare for expected high winds associated with Hurricane Sandy on Monday, and reminds customers to prepare and keep safety in mind as the storm approaches.
“The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning for our area, and under these conditions we may experience widespread outages lasting several days or more,” said James P. Laurito, President of Central Hudson. “Customers are urged to prepare, and are reminded to take steps to stay safe during and after the storm.”
“Residents should exercise extreme caution when traveling, as fallen trees and downed lines, together with the potential for flash flooding, may create hazardous driving conditions,” said Laurito. “Assume all fallen lines are live, and stay at least 30 feet away. Wind and rain may also cause leaves to block storm drains, so watch for flooded roads, and especially avoid water near fallen lines as there is always the potential that it may be in contact with electricity.”
Laurito also explained that localized flooding may potentially undermine underground utilities, including natural gas lines. “Be cautious of pipes that may be exposed by fast-moving water, and report any gas odors,” he said.
“In preparation for this and other major storms, all Central Hudson employees are assigned storm-related duties to directly address damage, assist customers or perform support functions,” said Laurito. “We continue to closely monitor weather forecasts and participate in calls with the National Weather Service to gain the latest information,” he said. “We’re also working with regional Mutual Aid organizations to secure assistance in advance, and crews from Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin and Florida are in currently route to our area. We have retained additional tree trimming crews to help clear lines and roads, and we’re seeking additional line and tree crews in anticipation of this storm. We’re also reaching out to members of the Northeast Gas Association for potential assistance in the event flooding may impact our natural gas system,” he said.
If power is lost, customers should call Central Hudson’s PowerLine at (845) 452-2700 or 1-800-527-2714 to report their power condition, and they are encouraged to use the automated reporting system. Customers with access to a computer may also report their power condition via www.CentralHudson.com by using the StormCentral function. Information regarding service restoration estimates, as it becomes available, can be obtained by phone and online, and updates are posted on Facebook and Twitter. A mobile version of the utility’s website, including StormCentral, can be accessed by web-enabled cell phones and mobile devices at http://mobile.CentralHudson.com. Free Central Hudson mobile applications for Android, Apple and Blackberry devices are also available by logging onto www.CentralHudson.com/mobileapp; recent updates to these mobile apps were made earlier this month, and current users should download their update.
For safety’s sake, Laurito also urged customers to:
· Stay at least 30 feet away from downed power lines, and lines which may be entangled and hidden in fallen trees. Assume all downed lines are live;
· Avoid the use of candles for illumination;
· Follow the manufacturer’s safety instructions on the use of emergency generators, and be sure to shut off the main breaker when in use and operate the units outdoors; and
· Never use outdoor gas or charcoal grills indoors, as they pose a fire hazard and over time can give off deadly carbon monoxide gas. Use these appliances only outdoors with proper ventilation. Similarly, operate cars and motor vehicles outdoors only, and never in the garage.
“Our customers should continue to prepare for the possibility of extended power interruptions,” said Laurito. He advised customers to:
· Pay close attention to weather advisories and storm warnings;
· Have a telephone that does not require an electric outlet to operate;
· Charge cell phones, or have a car cell phone charger;
· Keep a flashlight and fresh batteries handy;
· Have a battery-powered radio to keep informed of restoration efforts;
· Stock water and packaged or canned foods that do not require refrigeration or cooking. Be sure to have a non-electric can opener;
· Ensure adequate supplies of prescription medications, cash and other necessities;
· Refuel vehicles and ensure that they are in good working condition;
· Know how to manually open automatic garage doors;
· Have a plan to check on vulnerable neighbors or family members;
· If you do lose power, to reduce the risk of damage to major appliances that would go back on when it is restored, turn off or unplug them. Just leave a light or two on in your home. (And it's always helpful to our repair crews if you leave an outside light on after dark, so they'll know for sure that the power is restored at your place.)
· Familiarize themselves in advance with the features of StormCentral on Central Hudson’s website in preparation of having to report a power outage; and
· Visit the Central Hudson Facebook page and “like” it in order to obtain restoration updates as the storm progresses. | <urn:uuid:8bab4a86-208a-40cc-ac24-742a3a78ea69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hvpress.net/news/125/ARTICLE/11645/2012-10-28.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939807 | 1,086 | 1.71875 | 2 |
By Cameron Chai
Automotive company Tata Toyo has used the lightweight plastic Zytel PLUS Nylon offered by Dupont for its three hot and cold side charge air coolers. Tata Toyo has used this on four vehicles ranging from passenger car, Light Commercial Vehicle and Utility Vehicle.
Charge Air Cooler
The company has used this material in the place of nylon resins in order to provide added safety to turbo diesel systems. The company is also considering replacing metals used in all its other applications with the lightweight plastic.
Charge air coolers increase combustion efficiency by cooling hot air, which is created by the turbocharger before it is passed through the induction system. Turbo systems reduce dependence on fossil fuels and increase fuel economy. Zytel PLUS Nylon was chosen by Tata Toyo due to characteristics such as rigidity in high temperatures, ease of process and an overall better surface appearance.
According to Industry Manager of Dupont for Polymers Automotive-India, Avinash Malshe, both the companies together found ways to decrease the weight of automotive parts by replacing metal with lightweight materials.
Dupont introduced a range of PPA materials and high performance nylon providing resistance to high temperatures, chemicals and pressure in 2011. However, Zytel PLUS Nylon offers more ease of process than these specialty resins and is targeted mainly at automotive engines and underhoods. Last year alone, the company has invested around 22% of its total $1.7 billion budget for R&D for the development of materials and chemistry that reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. | <urn:uuid:4af9eca9-7fb9-440c-8b5d-a2cf1285a507> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=31724 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952105 | 321 | 1.796875 | 2 |
BURLINGTON — Who would have guessed a patch of blackberries could be the source of so much bitterness? For three years, a small wetland separating a new housing development from a cluster of four berry-friendly residential backyards has been the site of a heated bidding war. On Monday, the last shot was fired at a three-and-a-half-hour meeting at City Hall, but neither side feels that it walked away victorious.
The development — Burlington Co-Housing , or “CoHo” — is located on East Avenue between Williston Road and Colchester Avenue. Since 2004, co-housing administrators and several neighbors have bickered over the 15,600-square-foot piece of land. Though CoHo is obligated to sell it, neighbors say the group has not been willing to offer a reasonable price.
On Monday, the neighbors agreed to buy just over a third — 6000 square feet — of the contested parcel for $20,000.
The battle began in 2004, when a landowner named Edith Turner died and distributed a multi-acre estate in her will. Part of the estate was subsequently donated to the University of Vermont’s Centennial Woods conservation area. The rest of it went to the Burlington Community Development Corporation, which would later construct Burlington Co-Housing — a mixed-income, environmentally conscious housing development that’s scheduled to open in the next few weeks.
There was one catch, however. From the beginning, CoHo agreed to sell the 15,600-square-foot piece to homeowners who live on adjacent Bilodeau Parkway.
Jeanne Keller has lived on the street for 23 years. She initially thought acquiring the strip of land sounded like a great idea and touted the deal in a September 2005 Seven Days article entitled, "It Takes a Neighborhood .” “As part of the project deal, abutting neighbors . . . will buy extensions of our back yards into the former Turner fields. In exchange, we promise to never develop on them. Except, of course, to cultivate vegetables, berries and flowers,” Keller noted. A January 2006 city zoning agreement confirmed Burlington Co-Housing’s obligation to sell.
But then negotiations soured. According to Michael Monte, director of Burlington’s Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO), the city’s offer to officiate a joint appraisal process “has not been acceptable to both sides, at different times.” Monte, who has weighed in on the dispute all along, declined to say what he thinks would be a fair price for the contested property.
Fast forward to February 2007. Keller and three other neighbors offered, “in the spirit of maintaining and furthering our cooperative efforts,” to purchase about two-thirds — 9600 square feet — of the initial property for $20,000. Their five-page proposal based price estimates on comparable local property acquisitions, as well as on the value of the conserved land in adjacent Centennial Woods.
CoHo didn’t respond to that offer for eight months. Then, in a two-page letter dated October 7, a co-housing rep offered to sell half the property — 7800 square feet — for $40,000. Though apologizing for a delayed response, the representative called the offer a “gesture of good will,” as opposed to an “obligation.” The “gesture” doubled the price of the land and trimmed off 1800 acres.
CoHo’s October proposal gave Bilodeau residents a 30-day window in which to make a final decision. CoHo representatives “don’t understand that they’re supposed to negotiate something reasonable,” charged Keller last week, standing in her backyard garden.
Co-Housing project developer Don Schramm disagrees. “I can see that from her point of view, this issue is the most important thing in the world,” he said on Friday, sitting at a plastic table in an unfinished CoHo lobby. “But we also have a lot of other, more serious, things on our plates.” Schramm said he bases his figures on ones provided by Michael Monte during early negotiations. Monte said, however, that those estimates were given within a “what if” context and shouldn’t be considered official.
Burlington City Attorney Ken Schatz, who has presided over the property dispute, was away from his office and could not be reached for comment this week. City Councilor Sharon Bushor (I-Ward 1), who has been party to the neighborhood negotiations since 2004, did not return repeated phone and email requests for an interview.
But the finger pointing isn’t confined to the negotiating parties. Schramm also implicated Seven Days. He suggested the newspaper may be paying more attention than it should to Keller’s complaint, pointing out that she is a personal friend of a Seven Days owner and a former contributor to the publication. In recent months, Schramm had visited the Seven Days office several times to pitch a story about the benefits of CoHo life, noting that the development still has units for sale.
“If co-housing’s coverage doesn’t look good, I think [Schramm] needs to look at the way he’s treating us,” suggested Keller. “The way that we’re being treated would look bad in any newspaper.” She added that CoHo and CEDO were brought to the bargaining table this Monday, only after Seven Days turned its attention to the conflict. CoHo may have hoped to avoid unflattering press coverage, Keller posited.
CEDO’s Monte said, however, “This was an issue that was heating up, regardless.”
Schramm, who was absent from the City Hall proceedings Monday, could not be reached after the negotiation was settled. Keller visited the newspaper office just before 5 p.m. that day. “We’ve given up more than half of [our original offer],” she lamented, unfurling a zoning plan on a conference table. “The amount per square foot is . . . just an exorbitant amount of money to pay for land that I wanted to garden on.
“We shook hands [with CoHo reps at the meeting],” she recalls. “But everyone agreed that we were all unhappy.” | <urn:uuid:7417edd3-1415-41ee-8248-f5c8ef45de87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.7dvt.com/print/8759 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971137 | 1,347 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Luke 11:9-10 And I say unto you, Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
All you have to do is ask. But is it really that simple? Why is it that I hesitate to prayer when I’m in a time of need? In the parable that Jesus told in Luke 115-8
Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
This man was in need but it was very late at night. I can see how he would have hesitated to go to his friend for fear of annoying him or for fear that the friend would say no. But Jesus says that if we ask – and it doesn’t matter what time it is – He will give. But… what if I’m not in His will (I John 5:14), what if I’m wavering (James 1:6), what if I’m not abiding in His word (John 15:7)? I still must ask. I believe that if I ask and seek – I will find. It may be that He sets me straight, helps me come in line with His will, helps me abide in His Word – and then answers my prayer. It’s possible that by that time my prayer will have changed and will be in more line with what He has for me – putting my feet on the correct path in order to find the true joy in His presence. But I have to ask. I have to seek and I have to knock.
Is it a proud heart that keeps us from asking of God? Do we think we could actually do something first to get God to give us what we ask for?
Ask and it shall be given without money and without price.
Is it the loss of hope that keeps us from asking anything of God? Do not be foolish in despair. It is foolish and vain to not seek God “who giveth to all men” and “who maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good.”
“There are some men who live and die without the liberal favors of grace, because they wantonly and wickedly refuse them.” Charles Spurgeon
Ask, seek and know. Look to Him and live.
Micah 7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
©Debora P. Gilley
FIGHTING APOLLYON by John Bunyan:
But now, in this Valley of Humiliation, poor CHRISTIAN was hard put to it; for he had gone but a little way, before he espied a foul fiend coming over the field to meet with him; his name was APOLLYON. Then did CHRISTIAN begin to be afraid, and to cast in his mind whether to go back or to stand his ground. But he considered again, that he had no armour for his back, and therefore thought that to turn the back to him might give him greater advantage with ease to pierce him with his darts; therefore he resolved to venture, and stand his ground. For, thought he, had I no more in mine eye than the saving of my life, it would be the best way to stand.
So he went on, and APOLLYON met him. Now the monster was hideous to behold; he was clothed with scales like a fish (and they are his pride); he had wings like a dragon; feet like a bear; and out of his belly came fire and smoke; and his mouth was as the mouth of a lion. When he was come up to CHRISTIAN, he beheld him with a disdainful countenance, and thus began to question with him:
Apollyon. Whence come you, and whither are you bound?
Chr. I am come from the city of Destruction, which is the place of all evil, and am going to the City of Zion.
Apol. By this I perceive thou art one of my subjects; for all that country is mine, and I am the prince and god of it. How is it, then, that thou hast run away from thy king? Were it not that I hope thou mayest do me more service, I would strike thee now at one blow to the ground.
Chr. I was born indeed in your dominions; but your service was hard, and your wages such as a man could not live on, for the wages of sin is death (#Ro 3:23); therefore, when I was come to years, I did as other prudent persons do, look out, if perhaps I might mend myself.
Apol. There is no prince that will thus lightly lose his subjects; neither will I as yet lose thee. But since thou complainest of thy service and wages, be content to go back; what our country will afford I do here promise to give thee.
Chr. But I have let myself to another, even to the king of princes; and how can I with fairness go back with thee?
Apol. Thou hast done in this according to the proverb, “changed a bad for a worse”; but it is ordinary for those that have professed themselves his servants, after awhile to give him the slip, and return again to me: do thou so too, and all shall be well.
Chr. I have given him my faith, and sworn my allegiance to him; how then can I go back from this, and not be hanged as a traitor?
Apol. Thou didst the same to me; and yet I am willing to pass by all, if now thou wilt yet turn again and go back.
Chr. What I promised thee was before I came of age; and besides, I count that the Prince under whose banner now I stand is able to absolve me; yea, and to pardon also what I did as to my compliance with thee. And besides, O thou destroying APOLLYON, to speak truth, I like his service, his wages, his servants, his government, his company and country, better than thine. Therefore leave off to persuade me further: I am his servant, and I will follow him.
Apol. Consider again, when thou art in cold blood, what thou art like to meet with in the way that thou goest. Thou knowest that for the most part his servants come to an ill end, because they are transgressors against me and my ways. How many of them have been put to shameful deaths! and besides, thou countest his service better than mine, whereas he never came yet from the place where he is, to deliver any that served him out of our hands; but as for me, how many times, as all the world very well knows, have I delivered, either by power or fraud, those that have faithfully served me, from him and his, though taken by them–and so I will deliver thee!
Chr. His forbearing at present to deliver them, is on purpose to try their love, whether they will cleave to him to the end; and as for the ill end thou sayest they come to, that is most glorious in their account. For, for present deliverance, they do not much expect it; for they stay for their glory, and then they shall have it, when their Prince comes in his, and the glory of the angels.
Apol. Thou hast already been unfaithful in thy service to him; and how dost thou think to receive wages of him?
Chr. Wherein, O APOLLYON, have I been unfaithful to him?
Apol. Thou didst faint at first setting out, when thou wast almost choked in the Gulf of Despond; thou didst attempt wrong ways to be rid of thy burden, whereas thou shouldst have stayed till thy Prince had taken it off; thou didst sinfully sleep and lose thy choice thing; thou wast also almost persuaded to go back at the sight of the lions; and when thou talkest of thy journey, and of what thou hast heard and seen, thou art inwardly desirous of vain-glory in all that thou sayest or doest.
Chr. All this is true; and much more which thou hast left out: but the Prince whom I serve and honour is merciful and ready to forgive. But besides, these infirmities possessed me in thy country; for there I sucked them in, and I have groaned under them, been sorry for them, and have obtained pardon of my Prince.
Apol. Then APOLLYON broke out into a grievous rage, saying, “I am an enemy to this Prince: I hate his person, his laws, and people: I am come out on purpose to withstand thee.”
Chr. APOLLYON, beware what you do; for I am in the King’s highway, the way of holiness: therefore take heed to yourself!
Apol. Then APOLLYON straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way, and said, “I am void of fear in this matter: prepare thyself to die! for I swear by my infernal den that thou shalt go no farther; here will I spill thy soul.” And with that he threw a flaming dart at his breast; but CHRISTIAN had a shield in his hand, with which he caught it, and so prevented the danger of that. Then did CHRISTIAN draw, for he saw ‘t was time to bestir him; and APOLLYON as fast made at him, throwing darts as thick as hail; by the which, notwithstanding all that CHRISTIAN could do to avoid it, APOLLYON wounded him in his head, his hand, and foot. This made CHRISTIAN give a little back; APOLLYON therefore followed his work furiously, and CHRISTIAN again took courage, and resisted as manfully as he could. This sore combat lasted for above half a day, even till CHRISTIAN was almost quite spent. For you must know that CHRISTIAN, by reason of his wounds, grew weaker and weaker.
Then APOLLYON, espying his opportunity, began to gather up close to CHRISTIAN, and wrestling with him, gave him a dreadful fall: and with that, CHRISTIAN’S sword flew out of his hand. Then said APOLLYON, “I am sure of thee now”; and with that he had almost pressed him to death, so that CHRISTIAN began to despair of life. But as God would have it, while APOLLYON was fetching his last blow, thereby to make a full end of this good man, CHRISTIAN nimbly reached out his hand for his sword, and caught it, saying, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise” (#Mic 7:8); and with that, gave him a deadly thrust, which made him give back, as one that had received his mortal wound. CHRISTIAN perceiving that, made at him again, saying, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us” (#Ro 8:37). And with that, APOLLYON spread forth his dragon’s wings, and sped him away (#Jas 4:7), that CHRISTIAN for a season saw him no more.
In this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I did, what yelling and hideous roaring APOLLYON made all the time of the fight–he spake like a dragon; and, on the other side, what sighs and groans burst from CHRISTIAN’S heart. I never saw him all the while give so much as one pleasant look, till he perceived he had wounded APOLLYON with his two edged sword, then, indeed, he did smile, and look upward; but ’twas the dreadfullest sight that ever I saw!
So when the battle was over, CHRISTIAN said, “I will here give thanks to him that hath delivered me out of the mouth of the lion, to him that did help me against APOLLYON”; and so he did, saying:
“Great Beelzebub, the captain of this fiend,
Designed my ruin; therefore to this end
He sent him harnessed out, and he with rage
That hellish was, did fiercely me engage.
But blessed Michael helped me, and I,
By dint of sword did quickly make him fly:
Therefore to him let me give lasting praise
And thanks, and bless his holy name always!”
Then there came to him a hand, with some of the leaves of the tree of life; the which CHRISTIAN took, and applied to the wounds that he had received in the battle, and was healed immediately. He also sat down in that place to eat bread, and to drink of the bottle that was given him a little before. So being refreshed, he addressed himself to his journey, with his sword drawn in his hand; for he said, “I know not but some other enemy may be at hand.” But he met with no other affront from APOLLYON quite through this valley. | <urn:uuid:fa068868-7b51-48de-a873-dfc88912ad20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sandstreams.com/haven/journal/?cat=12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985663 | 2,966 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The ASMSU Senate consists of twenty one (21) senators elected from their respective Colleges. Seats are apportioned as follows:
|Arts and Architecture||2|
|Letters and Science||4|
Senate leadership consists of the Senate President and the Senate Vice President who are appointed by the Senate from the Senate body in the spring following the installment of the new ASMSU President and Vice President. The ASMSU President and Vice President are elected by the student body, and serve to represent and advise MSU and the Board of Regents on issues that directly affect students of MSU.
The Senate is the student organization responsible for representing the interests of the student body. Student concerns can be brought before the Senate in person or through an elected senator. A request to take a position on an issue or request for action may be presented in the form of a resolution or a bill passed by a majority or 2/3 vote of the senate respectively. Further duties of the Senate include acting as a liaison between ASMSU committees and the Senate and coordinating activities between the two. The Senate is also required to review annual budget requests from ASMSU committees in the spring and develop a balanced budget for the next fiscal year.
The ASMSU Senate meets weekly on Thursday evenings at 6:00 P.M. during the falls and spring semesters. Meetings are held in SUB 235, and are open to the public.
click HERE for this weeks agenda | <urn:uuid:ac70e424-cfe2-49d2-bd47-e04e01be8126> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.montana.edu/asmsu/senate.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95565 | 300 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Jennifer loves dogs, and she loves to help. That’s why volunteering at PAWS just makes sense for this canine mother of two.
Since 2010, Jennifer has volunteered at PAWS as both a Kennel Attendant and a Dog Walker. In the kennels, Jennifer helps make the dogs at PAWS as comfortable as possible during their stay by providing them with clean water, fun new toys, and lots of loving attention. Dog walking shifts are more than just a walk in the park, as Jennifer also teaches the dogs manners and tricks while socializing them to new people and situations.
Volunteers see many animals come in and out of PAWS, and while each one is special, Jennifer has a few dogs in particular that stand out in her mind the most. One of these was Moose, a Pitbull mix who came in with a smaller dog after their owner had passed away.
“The little dog got adopted right away but Moose did not,” says Jennifer. “Moose loved little dogs and would stare at them from the play yard.” But he also had a thing for people. “He was a real lover, sitting in your lap when you came in the kennel, putting his head in your lap. I was so happy when he got adopted.”
Since volunteering at PAWS, Jennifer has a much better understanding of the pet overpopulation issues.
“I knew we had a problem, that lots of animals were in the shelters, but the magnitude of it really hit home after volunteering for PAWS. To think that we are just one shelter, one of thousands across the nation? It’s pretty overwhelming.”
Jennifer continues to fight pet overpopulation by volunteering every week at PAWS, earning her at least one fan on the PAWS staff. Just ask Volunteer Manager Molly Reagan Axt.
“Jennifer is always there in a pinch. She’s a work horse. If you need something to get done, and Jennifer’s around, you know you don’t have to worry about it.”
Thank you Jennifer for donating your time and passion to help save the lives of animals at PAWS! We couldn’t do it without you. | <urn:uuid:e43c892e-7ae9-4a73-a3fa-0795fda4509d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.paws.org/2011/09/volunteer-spotlight-jennifer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978788 | 465 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Senior Lifestyles: Cemetery tours offer glimpse of local history
Published: Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 5:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 11:52 a.m.
Anyone really interested in the mystery and historical value of cemetery tours has two opportunities this month to enjoy them. In East Volusia, the Ormond Beach Historical Society presents its 5th annual cemetery tour from 7 to 8 p.m. Oct. 12-13 at Pilgrim's Rest Cemetery at the corner of Granada Boulevard. and Nova Road. Tickets are $12 for general admission, $10 for members and are available at the MacDonald House, or by calling 386-677-7005.
In West Volusia, The West Volusia Historical Society presents "Gravestone Conversations," the 14th annual Oakdale Cemetery Historic Walking Tour from 7 to 9 p.m. October 27 and 28. The cemetery is located on West Plymouth Avenue in DeLand. Tickets are $10 and are available at the DeLand House or by calling 386-740-6813 or 386-734-4765.
The Bennett family has been caregivers of the Pilgrim's Rest Cemetery since Lucinda and William gave the land to the city for use as a cemetery in the early 1900s. The current caretaker is Nancy Partridge , great-granddaughter of the Bennetts. She and Joyce Benedict, member of the Ormond Beach Historical Society Board co-chair the historical tour of the cemetery.
The cemetery contains 550 graves and "covers more than 2.5 acres" according to Tony Corn, grounds keeper.
"The tombstone of Kansas Bennett records her death date as 1904, the oldest grave in the cemetery," said Partridge. "Of the four or five enactors this year, one will be a young girl representing Kansas.
Eight confederate soldiers are buried beneath the old trees in the cemetery. Some of them will be remembered at this year's event. The Confederate Sons support the efforts of the Friends of the Cemetery and officiate at memorial services held there.
"All the soldiers survived the war, married, had families and lived a full life. One was 11 year-old George Tippens, tall for his age, who carried a gun and fought along with the men," she said. "Another was a hobo who died along the railroad tracks. No one knows how he died or who he was." According to Partridge, the earliest settlement of what is now Ormond Beach is the Timbercreek subdivision. In the midst of the subdivision, its cemetery stands like a sentinel over 19 graves, a memorial to those who lie buried beneath the soil. The Timbercreek Homeowners Association serves as its caretakers.
After a freeze, the settlers moved closer to the Halifax River and moved their church, Pilgrim's Rest Baptist Church to its present location at the northwest corner of North Beach Street and Granada Boulevard.
"The little 160-year-old church still has Sunday services and offers its facilities for meetings of the Boy Scouts of America and meetings of AA," said Partridge.
Because of the limited number of available tickets, interested individuals are advised to make their reservations early. For more information, call 386-667-7005.
"An active cemetery, operated as a non-profit, Pilgrim's Rest has some available lots," said Partridge.
In West Volusia, the historical tours run every 15 minutes starting at the Conrad Center, 137 W. Michigan Ave. in DeLand. Tickets may be purchased at the West Volusia Historical Society open from noon until 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays by calling 386-740-6813 or 386-734-4765, or from the website at delandhouse.com.
Oakdale Cemetery, one of the largest historic cemeteries in Volusia County, contains more than 15,000 graves. Some of the town's founding members are buried there.
In 1882 the cemetery was known as Sylvan Park. The name was changed to Oakdale Cemetery in 1892 and is own by the Oakdale Cemetery Association, a private non-profit corporation.
"The tour is a historical tour, not a ghost tour, and is not recommended for children," said DeSilva.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:77e5be91-7108-45d3-a788-4862ce93ce3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20121004/NEWS/310039997/1068/NEWS0404?Title=Senior-Lifestyles-Cemetery-tours-offer-glimpse-of-local-history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966582 | 926 | 1.65625 | 2 |
For those of you who need to snap eye-level photographs of giraffes: Taiwanese gear manufacturer Fishbone has launched a crazy new tripod that literally reaches new heights of image stabilization. Called the Tree-pod, the tripod is designed for capturing photos or videos from way up off the ground. Dan Chung of DSLR News Shooter writes,
The device, otherwise know as the Zhezhi tripod, can reach 3.3m high, weighs about 13 kg and folds to about 90 cm long. It is aluminium alloy in construction and costs a cool $6000 US. In order to position and level the tripod head you can scale the Tree-pod in a similar way to a telegraph pole. Not sure I would trust it myself, but if heights are your thing then maybe it’s worth it.
3.3m is roughly 10.8 feet. The Tree-pod has attachable rungs that allow you to climb up it as if it were a ladder. Uses for it could include getting closer to the moon if your telephoto lens doesn’t have enough reach, and cleaning your home’s gutters when not doing photography.
Scale New Heights – with the Tree-pod [DSLR News Shooter] | <urn:uuid:6434bbbd-a3a9-41a5-b205-8a5992b17675> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://petapixel.com/tag/fishbone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948743 | 253 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The following is a Gaslight etext....
A message to you about copyright and permissions
Prepared for Gaslight by Diana Patterson
ADDRESSED To READERS
BORN AFTER 1900 A.D.
ALCOTT, AMOS BRONSON (1799-1888). Born at Walcott, Conn. Pedlar, schoolmaster, lecturer, practicing philosopher. Established a communist colony for farming in Harvard township, 1843. Subsequently dean of the Concord school of philosophy. Principal works: Orphic Sayings, Tablets, Ralph Waldo Emerson: His Character and Genius.
ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY (1832-1888). Born in Germantown, Pa. Educated at random. Began literary hackwork in 1855. Health impaired by illness contracted while nursing soldiers at Georgetown in 1862-3. Principal works: Hospital and Campfire Sketches, Moods, Little Women, Little Men, An Old-fashioned Girl, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jo's Boys, Jack and Jill, and Under the Lilacs.
ALDEN, HENRY MILLS (1836-1919). Born at Mount Tabor, Vt. Educated for the ministry. Attracted attention through studies in Hellenic culture, Editorially connected with Harper's Magazine and Harper's Weekly for forty years. His volumes of metaphysic, God in His World and A Study of Death, are similar in theory to ideas of Henri Bergson.
ALDRICH, THOMAS BAILEY (1836-1907). Born at Portsmouth, N.H. His light verse and compressed, graceful tales made him popular in the '70's. He inherited The Atlantic Monthly's editorship from William Dean Howells in 1881 and held it until 1890. His importance was largely that of remarkable personal charm, although he sometimes produced pleasing effects in verse. Principal works: The Story of a Bad Boy, Marjorie Daw, Mercedes and Later Lyrics, Judith of Bethulia.
ALLEN, CHARLES GRANT BLAIRFINDIE (1848-1899). Born at Kingston, Canada. Began to write as an undergraduate at Merton College, Oxford. Taught school in Jamaica and returned to London. He lectured extensively and wrote numbers of brilliant critical essays, uncollected, showing a considerable bent for psychology. Principal works: Physiological Aesthetics, The Color Sense, Philistia, The Woman Who Did, Hilda Wade, The Evolution of the Idea of God, and a translation of The Attis of Catullus.
BIERCE, AMBROSE (1842-?). Born in Meigs County, Ohio. He served with gallantry in the Civil War, and was severely wounded. Even his earliest humorous sketches were grim. He was a journalist and editor in California until 1895, when he came to the East. His work was not unappreciated but, in spite of its genuine distinction, it was unpopular owing to a monotonous insistence on death and fantastic calamity. Bierce vanished in Mexico in 1916 and his end is unknown. Principal works: In the Midst of Life, Black Beetles in Amber, The Devil's Dictionary, The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter.
BURTON, SIR RICHARD (1821-1890). He was largely educated in Europe and acquired an amazing dextrousness in Oriental languages during his early life in India and Africa. His reputation was established by a pilgrimage in disguise to Medina and Mecca in 1852. He translated The Arabian Nights, without expurgation, as well as Il Pentamerone and the poems of Camoens. His other translations, books of travel and essays in geography make up twenty volumes.
CARRYL, GUY WETMORE (1872-1903). Born in New York. His cynical, light verse stamped him as a humorist and in Zut he used the artificial forms of Robert Louis Stevenson, but his last work, The Lieutenant Governor, showed a drift into realism and satire.
COPE, EDWARD DRINKER (1840-1897). Born at Philadelphia of a distinguished Quaker family. His aptitude for natural science appeared when he was a child and at sixteen he was already writing notes, in Quaker dialect, on fossils. He spent his life in zoology and paleontology and in exploring the west for specimens. His scientific writings and discussions are too candidly free of popular values to be read by people without an education in the subject, but his influence was tremendous both in Europe and America. He cooperated with Josiah Willard Gibbs, the American authority on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, in forwarding the Society for the Advancement of Science. His name appears upward of five thousand times in the proceedings of European and English scientific bodies.
DAVIS, REBECCA HARDING (1831-1910). Born at Washington, Pa. She achieved an almost scandalous fame in 1862 by the publication of Life in the Iron Mills and Margaret Howth, both social studies of unusual frankness. Her temperament was realistic and her feminism took the highly practical bent of demanding respectable wages and vocational freedom for women. Her later fiction is of no great interest but her essays on celebrities and localities were amusing and vigorous to the last.
DU CHAILLU, PAUL BELLONI (1835-1903). Born in New Orleans but removed to France as a child. His first accounts of explorations in equatorial Africa were received with open derision as fabulous and for years he was involved in arguments and assertions until subsequent explorers righted him with the public. He became interested in Scandinavia and produced an excellent text on its primitive civilizations. In his later life he resided considerably in New York. He is best represented by The Gorilla Country, Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, and The Viking Age.
FORD, PAUL LEICESTER (1865-1902). Born in Brooklyn. He was privately educated and widely travelled before he became interested in historiography. He edited the writings of Thomas Jefferson, explored Americana of the eighteenth century, wrote sketches of Washington and Franklin which show the tide of American historical writing on the turn from sentimental bombast to research and sanity. His fiction is generally banal, although The Honorable Peter Stirling is amusing as a description of a heavy politician. Mr. Ford busied himself in calling attention to the wretched preservation of documents and records in the United States and established a magazine of bibliography shortly before he was brutally murdered by his brother in 1902.
GEORGE, HENRY (1839-1897). Born at Philadelphia. After a roving boyhood he appeared as a radical journalist in San Francisco. The publication, in 1879, of Progress and Poverty made him famous. His advocacy of the single tax i.e., the reduction of real estate to common property by the imposition of a tax equal to the total rental value of the land, aroused horror and admiration. He was even denounced by the Duke of Argyll. In 1886 he was a contestant for the mayoralty of New York City in a political turmoil accelerated by the priest, Edward McGylnn, who denounced Catholic interference with American affairs. Mr. George was defeated by the combined forces of conservatives and Catholics. He died in 1897 while candidate a second time for the mayoralty of New York.
GODKIN, EDWIN LAWRENCE (1831-1902). Born at Moyne, Ireland. He came to the United States in 1856. In 1881 his review, The Nation, became a weekly issue of The New York Evening Post, Godkin assuming the editorship of both the newspaper and the magazine. His editorials indubitably influenced public thought in the United States and aided in the renovation of the Democratic Party in 1884. For a competent characterization see Some Newspapers and Newspapermen, by Oswald Villard, as Mr. Godkin's official biography is an atrocity.
HUNTINGTON, COLLIS POTTER (1821-1900). Born at Harwinton, Conn. At the age of sixteen he became a clock pedlar and did very well. In 1849 he transferred his abilities to California. In 1860 he, with Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins, conceived the transcontinental railway and in 1869 the Central Pacific was finished, at the expense of a number of people and states. This line was absorbed in the Southern Pacific Railroad, of which Mr. Huntington was the controlling power. His character was constantly attacked, and when the Southern Pacific attempted to excuse itself from the debts of the Central Pacific, the financier became an object of malignant insinuations. But he built a church in his native town to the memory of his mother, donated extensively to Hampton Institute in Virginia, gave $50,000 to Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and expressed his benevolence in countless ways, so that his aid was sought by representatives of the most respected organizations for the promotion of human well-being and of reform.
NORRIS, FRANK (1870-1902). Born at Chicago. He studied in Paris and at Harvard. His first important novel, Vandiver and the Brute, could not be published until after his death. He edited "The Wave" at San Francisco, reported the Cuban campaign and then lived in New York for a short period. His principal works are: McTeague, Blix, The Octopus, and The Pit.
(End of preface.)
To the next chapter
Back to the Mauve Decade menu | <urn:uuid:cdc54ac3-a441-4577-bd24-43724f5bc7dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/MauveToC.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961282 | 1,993 | 1.570313 | 2 |
As a student you might well be living away from home for the first time. You will plan your own routine - and look after your own money. Managing your money is one of the most important things you will learn at University.
You will find that careful financial planning is essential – better still prepare a budget and keep to it. Tuition fees, student loans, your accommodation and living costs rent will all be your responsibility - but don't worry help is on hand!
When you first arrive at Queen's, you will learn a lot about managing your money during Welcome Week. When you pick up your student card it will open up a world of discounts on the High Street and online.
Take comfort from the fact that living costs in Belfast compare very favourably with what you could expect to pay out in many other major UK cities.
If you haven't already got a bank account, you will be tempted by banks and credit cards offering free gifts. Look for an account that offers good interest-free overdraft that you do not need to pay until a year after you graduate.
Don't let money worries put you off or cause you sleepless nights. Getting a degree makes sense and is well worth it - graduates earn more and are more likely to get a job than people without a degree. | <urn:uuid:24e0f2eb-e2d1-479f-982e-741cc93cf146> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.qub.ac.uk/home/StudyatQueens/UndergraduateStudents/MoneyMatters/LivingCosts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971987 | 263 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Psoriasis research, treatment is life's work
|Dr. Alan Menter, a world-renowned expert on psoriasis, examines Mary Lou Jeffs in his Dallas, Texas, office on November 1, 2012. "From a personal standpoint, this is more satisfying than anything else. I love what I do. I adore what I do," Menter said. (David Woo/Dallas Morning News/MCT)|
Dr. Alan Menter has found his passion in a disease that is red and itchy, a disease that gets sufferers kicked out of public swimming pools, a disease that controls wardrobe and intimacy and can lead to a host of other health problems.
Psoriasis affects what may sound like a small segment of the population - 2 percent. That's close to 6.5 million people in the United States alone. Talk to Menter, and you get the feeling that even if the number were a fraction of that, he'd still be traveling around the globe to help make the lives of sufferers easier.
"I could spend 20 or 30 minutes talking to a psoriasis patient," Menter says between seeing patients on an early November morning.
7-Day Subscribers have FREE access to everything on rep-am.com and our E-Edition.
CLICK HERE to register and activate your access,.
You can purchase a single-day subscription for only $0.75 to read this and access all of our content and our E-Edition. CLICK HERE purchase a single day subscription.
Become an electronic subscriber to the Republican-American for only $8 a month. CLICK HERE.
- Talent show spotlights those with special needs
- Integrative medicine: The politics of your brain
- Bubbling up: Diet soda market adding exotic flavors
- Home dialysis giving patients their lives back
- Fake medicine a threat to consumers
- A humble humanitarian
- Woman with early Alzheimer's speaks out on illness
- Detergent packets pose health hazard
- Heart disease a woman's disease, too
- Ratchet up the difficulty of your pushups | <urn:uuid:7a020136-bf4c-48bf-9742-cdacd6cb1465> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2012/12/04/lifestyle/health/687487.txt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940125 | 433 | 1.703125 | 2 |
UMM to Host Speaker on Environmentalism and Freedom Oct. 6
Speaker series funded by grant from Koch Foundation
MACHIAS, Maine – The University of Maine at Machias will host Dr. Robert Nelson as its first Koch Speaker on Environmentalism and Freedom at 4 p.m. on Thursday, October 6. The lecture will take place in the Portside room of Kimball Hall.
Nelson is a professor of environmental policy at the University of Maryland, senior scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and a senior fellow at the Independent Institute. He is also the author of eight books on environmental and economic policy issues, including last year’s The Holy Wars: Economic Religion Versus Environmental Religion in Contemporary America. The book received the 2010 Eric Hoffer Award for independent books.
A nationally recognized authority on land and natural resource management in the United States, Nelson has a particular interest in management of federally owned lands. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Financial Times, Washington Times, and other national newspapers and magazines.
From 1975 to 1993, Nelson worked in the Office of Policy Analysis of the U.S. Department of the Interior. He has served as the senior economist of the Commission on Fair Market Value Policy for Federal Coal Leasing, senior research manager of the President’s Commission on Privatization, and economist for the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs. He has also performed research and instruction as a visiting scholar at several prominent institutions around the globe.
Nelson holds a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.
The lecture at UMM is made possible by a grant from the Charles G. Koch Foundation to address issues relating to environmentalism and freedom.
For more information about the event, contact Jon Reisman, associate professor of economics and public policy, at (207) 255-1242 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:748fa635-ba93-4bf4-a3e9-52fefb713ec7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://machias.edu/umm-to-host-speaker-on-environmentalism-and-freedom-oct-6.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939726 | 397 | 1.585938 | 2 |
By Ben Moger-Williams
A young girl’s seizure, a man’s bloodied leg through a glass table, and a woman’s broken shinbone piercing through her skin were all recent Williston emergencies.
The three Williston residents involved in these incidents spoke at the public hearing on the town budget last week. They said that their emergencies would have been better handled if the town had its own ambulance service, one of the items that could come before voters in March.
Williston Fire Chief Ken Morton hopes voters this year will authorize the purchase of two ambulances and the hiring of six more full time firefighter/emergency medical technicians to staff an ambulance service for the town. The town has commissioned a study on the cost and feasibility of the ambulance service. Morton said the study will be complete Jan. 22. The Selectboard will then decide whether to put funding for the ambulance service and staff in the town budget, or have residents vote on it as a separate ballot item at town meeting.
Currently Williston uses St. Michael’s Rescue for ambulance service. Morton said having a town ambulance service could cut the response time from an average of 11-14 minutes to within 3-4 minutes. The increased demand for ambulance services in Williston has made the need for a town ambulance service a matter of some urgency, according to Morton.
The residents who showed up to speak echoed Morton’s sentiment.
“My sense is that we as a community have an opportunity to upgrade what is already a fine service,” said Katherine Stamper, a resident since 1992. Stamper said she once had to call 911 for her daughter’s friend who had a seizure. She said that while the first responder service was excellent, the ambulance response time could have been better.
Fourteen-year Williston resident Danny Bulger agreed. Bulger said a month ago his wife fell in his driveway and suffered a compound fracture in her leg, with the bone breaking the skin. He called 911, he said, but had to wait too long for an ambulance to arrive.
“Seeing your wife lying in the driveway out in the cold, with a compound fracture for half an hour is very frustrating,” Bulger said.
Ted Marcy, a physician at Fletcher Allen Health Care, said he had to call an ambulance after he accidentally put his foot through a glass table.
“In certain situations first responders have limited abilities to act on things,” Marcy said. “I would encourage the Selectboard to put this proposal to a vote.”
At the hearing, Morton also read a letter from Joseph Haddock, medical director of the Thomas Chittenden Health Center in Williston.
“The physicians of the Thomas Chittenden Health Center strongly support the development of a Williston ambulance service,” the letter read. “Whether patients are at home, work, shopping, or at our facility, the response time would be much better than the present situation where they are dependent on local first response crews or rescue squads from neighboring towns.”
If approved, the cost of the additional six full-time firefighter/EMTs needed to staff the ambulance would be covered for the first five years by a $621,000 federal grant the department won in November. The ambulances (a new one and a used one for backup) would likely cost about $250,000, which could be bonded by the town.
The Selectboard will meet again Jan. 11, at 7 p.m., to discuss the budget. | <urn:uuid:1335f0f2-e410-4d72-b344-76bd7c8bca75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.willistonobserver.com/residents-show-support-for-local-ambulance-service/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968304 | 738 | 1.625 | 2 |
Rank and organization: Captain, Company F, 97th Pennsylvania Infantry.
Place and date: At Secessionville, S.C., 16 June 1862. Entered service
Birth: West Chester, Pa.
Date of issue: 23 April 1896.
While retiring with his men before a heavy fire of can1ster shot at short
range, returned in the face of the enemy's fire and rescued an exhausted
private of his company who but for this timely action would have lost his
life by drowning in the morass through which the troops were retiring.
This data was extracted from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, U.S. Senate, Medal of Honor Recipients: 1863-1973 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1973) | <urn:uuid:f485a87f-1e6c-49f8-a377-50d9c753c6e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://distantcousin.com/military/medalofhonor/civilwar/08/087.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957285 | 156 | 1.648438 | 2 |
tagged w/ Stupid Law
A 6-year-old elementary school student has been suspended for forming a gun with his hands, pointing it at a student and saying ‘pow’. Administrators called the action a ‘serious incident'.
The 6-year-old boy was given a one-day suspension from Roscoe Nix Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. for his pretend gunshot, which attorney Robin Ficker said was unnecessarily harsh.
The boy’s family received a letter from Assistant Principal Renee Garraway in which the gesture was described as “a serious incident”, the Washington Examiner reported.
“[He] threatened to shoot a student. He was spoken to earlier today about a similar incident,” the letter said. The family does not know what this ‘similar incident’ is and claims they have never been informed of any previous problems regarding their child.
“It just shows the overreaction,” Ficker said.
“They could have called the mother in. They didn’t do that. They just said, ‘You’re suspended.’ Five years from now, when someone in Montgomery County looks at his permanent record, they’re going to see that he threatened to shoot another student,” the attorney added.
The ruling can be appealed within 10 days of the incident and there is a conference planned to discuss the matter on Jan. 2 – the day students return to school.
The gun gesture occurred one week after 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. – 20 of which were children. The massacre was the second-deadliest school shooting in US history and shook up the nation during the holiday season. Across the US, parents and students became fearful of gun violence and mourned the loss of so many young children.
Making a gun gesture shortly after the Sandy Hook shooting may seem insensitive, but the 6-year-old may not have understood the implications of his seemingly harmless action.
“He doesn’t understand,” Ficker told NBC4. “The law says he is not old enough to form intent.”
Dana Tofig, spokesman for Montgomery County Schools, told NBC that she could not comment on individual cases.
“Generally, in an incident involving the behavior of our younger students, we will make sure that the student and his family are well-informed of any behavior that needs to change and understand the consequences if the behavior does not change,” she said.
Another spokesperson for the school district told the Examiner that parents are informed of incidents in which students’ learning environments are affected or in which other students feel unsafe. The elementary school did not indicate any feelings of endangerment felt by the other student.http://rt.com/usa/news/six-year-old-suspended-school-pretend-236/
A 6-year-old... more
For some lawmakers, Cathy Cruz Marrero's now-infamous fall into a fountain while texting couldn't have come at a better time.
In California, State Sen. Joe Simitian has reintroduced a bill that would fine cyclists $20 for texting. In Oregon, State Rep. Michael Schaufler wants to fine cyclists $90 for wearing headphones or earbuds. In Virginia, lawmakers are considering whether to broaden such a ban to include any handheld communication device.
And in New York, a bill before the legislature's transportation committee would ban the use of electronic devices while crossing streets.
This is the second time State Sen. Carl Kruger has introduced this legislation to stem what he calls "tuning in and tuning out." As if to prove his point, a 21-year-old man listening to an iPod Nano in a crosswalk on Madison Avenue in New York last December was killed when a Mack truck backed into him and dragged him 30 feet. Presumably, the man did not hear the beeping of the truck in reverse.
The whirlwind of legislation comes at a time when pedestrian fatalities were up for the first time in four years in the first half of 2010, according to a report just released by the Governors Highway Safety Association, which also reports that pedestrian fatalities account for about 12 percent of overall traffic deaths in the United States. Meanwhile, researchers in Washington and in Illinois have been exploring the nature of distraction while walking using cell phones.
Sen. Kruger's bill calls for a ban in streets of cities with populations of a million or more people. But the Governors Highway Safety Association reports that in the three biggest states with the biggest cities (New York, California, and Texas), pedestrian fatalities actually fell. Arizona (up 21), Florida (up 36), Oklahoma (up 16), Oregon (up 18), and North Carolina (up 17) saw the largest jumps in pedestrian fatalities over the previous year.
While restricting the use of distracting devices in cars and on bicycles has become more commonplace across the States, legislation targeting pedestrians and joggers crosses a new line. (In Arkansas, a proposal to ban pedestrians from wearing headphones over both ears was met with such outrage that a legislator withdrew it altogether this week.)
Setting aside the obvious debate over whether a person should retain the basic right to walk or jog distracted, the next questions include whether this kind of ban will work to save lives, and if so, at what cost?
If the bill in New York passes, these questions will be answered in due time. Until then, expect to see a range of legal questions about the finer details of the ban, including what, exactly, constitutes a street, and a crossing of the street, and which electronic devices, if any, may be excused from said ban.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20029623-247.html#ixzz1CBJiDG4zFor some lawmakers, Cathy Cruz Marrero's now-infamous fall into a fountain while... more
NYC Department of Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty runs a tight trash heap, and his team of dedicated sanitation artisans are truly New York's strongest. But has he gone too far in his zeal to enforce the city's numerous sanitation rules [pdf]? One elderly Inwood resident named Delia Gluckin certainly thinks so; she claims a Department of Sanitation agent recently wrote her a ticket for throwing out her newspaper... in a public trash bin.
In an exclusive report, the Post says that Gluckin, 80, is fighting a $100 ticket for putting "improper refuse" in a city litter basket. She claims she was en route to the subway when she dropped her newspaper in the trash can outside her apartment, a transgressive act that caught the eye of a dedicated Sanitation agent. "She acted as if I had a committed a crime," Gluckin tells the tabloid. "I said, 'Look, lady, I'm a senior citizen... I'll just take it back.' I even said to her, 'Am I your first customer of the day? I really felt intimidated... I have a feeling she just wanted to make her quota." So cynical for a kindly old grandmother!
Gluckin is on a fixed income and has vowed to fight the ticket. A Sanitation Department spokesperson admits, "Being fined for tossing a newspaper into a basket is odd." But also: "Too many apartment dwellers use the corner litter basket as their personal household dumping site." Let's let Gluckin's rubbish rap serve as a cautionary tale about the risks of getting mixed up with print media.
http://gothamist.com/2010/12/08/100_ticket_for_throwing_out_newspap.phpNYC Department of Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty runs a tight trash heap, and... more
Citing cases dating back as far as 1928, a judge has ruled that a young girl accused of running down an elderly woman while racing a bicycle with training wheels on a Manhattan sidewalk two years ago can be sued for negligence.
The ruling by the judge, Justice Paul Wooten of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, did not find that the girl was liable, but merely permitted a lawsuit brought against her, another boy and their parents to move forward.
The suit that Justice Wooten allowed to proceed claims that in April 2009, Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, who were both 4, were racing their bicycles, under the supervision of their mothers, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn, on the sidewalk of a building on East 52nd Street. At some point in the race, they struck an 87-year-old woman named Claire Menagh, who was walking in front of the building and, according to the complaint, was “seriously and severely injured,” suffering a hip fracture that required surgery. She died three weeks later.
Her estate sued the children and their mothers, claiming they had acted negligently during the accident. In a response, Juliet’s lawyer, James P. Tyrie, argued that the girl was not “engaged in an adult activity” at the time of the accident — “She was riding her bicycle with training wheels under the supervision of her mother” — and was too young to be held liable for negligence.
In legal papers, Mr. Tyrie added, “Courts have held that an infant under the age of 4 is conclusively presumed to be incapable of negligence.” (Rachel and Jacob Kohn did not seek to dismiss the case against them.)
But Justice Wooten declined to stretch that rule to children over 4. On Oct. 1, he rejected a motion to dismiss the case because of Juliet’s age, noting that she was three months shy of turning 5 when Ms. Menagh was struck, and thus old enough to be sued.
Mr. Tyrie “correctly notes that infants under the age of 4 are conclusively presumed incapable of negligence,” Justice Wooten wrote in his decision, referring to the 1928 case. “Juliet Breitman, however, was over the age of 4 at the time of the subject incident. For infants above the age of 4, there is no bright-line rule.”
The New York Law Journal reported the decision on Thursday.
Mr. Tyrie had also argued that Juliet should not be held liable because her mother was present; Justice Wooten disagreed.
“A parent’s presence alone does not give a reasonable child carte blanche to engage in risky behavior such as running across a street,” the judge wrote. He added that any “reasonably prudent child,” who presumably has been told to look both ways before crossing a street, should know that dashing out without looking is dangerous, with or without a parent there. The crucial factor is whether the parent encourages the risky behavior; if so, the child should not be held accountable.
In Ms. Menagh’s case, however, there was nothing to indicate that Juliet’s mother “had any active role in the alleged incident, only that the mother was ‘supervising,’ a term that is too vague to hold meaning here,” he wrote. He concluded that there was no evidence of Juliet’s “lack of intelligence or maturity” or anything to “indicate that another child of similar age and capacity under the circumstances could not have reasonably appreciated the danger of riding a bicycle into an elderly woman.”
Mr. Tyrie, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn did not respond to messages seeking comment.
http://l1.yimg.com/a/i/ww/news/2010/10/29/training.jpgCiting cases dating back as far as 1928, a judge has ruled that a young girl accused... more
2 years ago | <urn:uuid:7925c312-c14f-4eb6-8767-b5e3f932af0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://current.com/tags/89954818_stupid-law/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969753 | 2,482 | 1.835938 | 2 |
All of us would like to have a hair which is thick and black. In case of women, they go to the extent of being obsessed with their hair, spending hundreds of dollars to keep them healthy and safe. Some are ready to sit for hours at a parlor or salon so as to get beautiful hair. But having healthy hair that makes heads turn is not something that is possible with all of us. This is because not all of us have the same scalp conditions. One of the most common hair issues that we all go through is oily hair and scalp conditions. They can make your hair look damp, sticky and dull. Oily hair also need excessive conditioning and gives the person an appearance of having flat hair. The best way to get rid of excess oil in the hair is to stick to natural methods.
Natural remedies for your hair
Try these natural remedies and within a time frame you would be astonished with its results. It is easy to get rid of the excess oil in your hair. The scalp of the oily hairs would be filled with sebum. This gland is secreted when your scalp’s oil glands are over producing sebum. It is important to note that sebum is what we believe to be oil. This is the main reason why your hair just looks greasy and even smelly if you miss shampooing even one day. The use of a natural shampoo would effectively leave your hair shining! Apart from that the easy homemade remedies also prove to be beneficial. Firstly combine 3 table spoons of rosemary and dried pepper mint with 500 ml of water. Heat it in a pot and after 15 minutes removes it from heat and strains all the herbs. Pour out the remaining liquid in a plastic bottle. This mixture can be applied after shampooing and it acts as an excellent conditioner. The next method would be conditioning your hair with water diluted with beer/vinegar. This should be done after shampooing. It has been also proven that lemon drops mixed with egg yolks prove to control the oily secretion and work as excellent conditioners. Try these natural remedies and note the visible difference in few days! | <urn:uuid:629cd925-6703-4e1a-89d8-f654f872378c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medexpressrx.com/blog/get-the-oil-off-your-hair.aspx | 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 | 0.973381 | 430 | 1.53125 | 2 |
BOGOTA, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Thursday urged the country's central bank to prevent the strengthening of the national currency against the U.S. dollar so as not to dampen exports.
If the Colombian peso becomes stronger, a negative impact on many sectors will happen, and it will affect growth and also the income, said Santos at a public event.
"In a certain way, we are suffering from our own success, but we have to be creative. In these circumstances, we can't abide by orthodoxy," said Santos.
According to Santos, the bank will continue to follow the government's instructions to buy dollars in the local market to avoid peso's strengthening.
Recently, Colombian Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas said that from October 2012 to March 2013, the bank purchased some 500 million dollars a month to stabilize the peso-dollar exchange rate. | <urn:uuid:fa11f8ae-601f-4537-8ae9-ad57b0d7a1b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-03/15/c_132235927.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944941 | 186 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Put your body text and images here.
Stephen Niezgoda, PhD, 2009
Materials Science and Engineering
Stephen is a member of the Mechanics of Microstructures Group (MMG), led by Professor Surya Kalidindi (MSE). The MMG approach considers micro-scale structure in the development of new materials for particular applications. Stephen’s mathematical analysis of microstructure will take much of the guesswork out of material design. Stephen’s practical experience as an aircraft mechanic taught him how to analyze and solve problems and inspired him to learn more. Now, as a PhD student, he is able to address the “why” questions. Stephen has published two papers in peer-reviewed journals, and has more in production. He is involved with several volunteer activities, including tutoring and mentoring undergraduate students, and designing and running a hands-on demonstration for the ASM Materials Camp. He plans to graduate in 2009 with his doctorate in MSE. Stephen has been funded by the NSF IGERT program for the past two years. | <urn:uuid:1a89288c-30d7-452f-b948-a128dd8dd518> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drexel.edu/fellowships/studentprofiles/profiles/StephenNiezgoda/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965219 | 222 | 1.617188 | 2 |
January 9, 2013
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Tests done at Superstorm Sandy cleanup sites show that the level of contaminants does not exceed federal workplace exposure limits.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration released initial results from tests of dozens of cleanup sites in New York and New Jersey. The agency tested for employee exposure to contaminants.
While some of the sites showed the presence of contaminants including asbestos, carbon monoxide and lead, none were above OSHA's permissible exposure limits.
The sites will continue to be monitored. The agency warned that the results aren't an "all clear" to employers. OSHA didn't test sites that were previously known to be contaminated.
The agency says that at sites with known chemical spills, it's up to the employer to report exposure and assess the situation before employees return to work.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:80e6587b-c3e3-4d87-893d-dd84b7df7081> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHWOOO/333/25491/1470870.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950328 | 196 | 1.6875 | 2 |
For this recipe, the root vegetables - parsnips and sweet potatoes - are sweated instead of braised. That way they retain their natural flavor without caramelization. When sweating, be careful not to salt too early -- this will just draw the flavor out. Root vegetables are great for soups because they lend a natural creaminess, cutting down on the amount of cream you need to add. And for an ultra-fine finish, you can always pass your final product through a sieve to ensure enhanced smoothness.
Until recently, Stephanie was the chef/owner of Scylla in Chicago. She is now enjoying traveling, both domestically and abroad, while planning her next exciting venture. Stephanie's biggest lure in cooking is seafood because the same fish can be cooked so many different ways - grilled, poached, cured, pan roasted - and this brings out different attributes, flavors and textures. Stephanie says in her cooking, contrasting and complementary elements are essential, but balance is non-negotiable. She has always been very driven and a bit of a risk-taker. "Once I set my mind to something, I follow through. It always has to be 110%." | <urn:uuid:f80c992a-bf75-4026-b316-672f439d0daf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://topchefuniversityapp.com/lesson.php?id=74 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950677 | 238 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Lifestyle: Now We're Talking Turkey
I’ve hunted wild ducks, grouse, pheasants and other game birds with varying levels of enthusiasm for 40 years. But I had never seen anything like this: two resplendent four-foot-tall adult male wild turkeys, all bronze and black and iridescent, galloping on stilt-like legs across a cattle pasture the size of two football fields. And on this sparkling spring afternoon, they were racing right toward me!
I was dressed head to toe in camouflage clothing designed for the occasion, sitting on a camouflaged stool, cradling a camouflaged 12-gauge Italian-made shotgun, peering out a narrow slit in a camouflaged nylon blind that my guide and I had set up in the rustling palmetto trees an hour earlier.
My mouth was as parched as cotton balls. My heart pounded. My sweaty hands shook as I gripped the gun.
“Shhhh,” whispered Jeff Budz, forefinger to his lips, covered by a mesh facemask, his other hand lightly on my shoulder. Budz is an expert’s expert: He has bagged more wild turkey grand slams (see sidebar) than any hunter in the history of the sport. A mere 20 yards in front of us, six juvenile male turkeys or “jakes” were nonchalantly pecking at and prancing around a bedraggled mounted tom turkey, tail fanned, and two sleeker dusky mounted hens. Jeff had skillfully lured in the young males by scratching discreetly on his cedar box call, making the soft cluck-cluck-cluck sounds of pre-mating hens.
In a flash, the scene outside our cozy cave-tent was mayhem. The two mature toms, feathers flared, scarlet and blue-white heads leading the testosterone charge, dangerous spurred claws slashing, were jumping on everything that moved–and the “stuffer” decoys that didn’t. Gobble-gobble-gobble. All was whirring, colliding, flailing, ferocious motion. Instantly the air filled with giant birds.
How could I think about killing such gorgeous creatures? Easily. First, I relish the taste of wild game, properly and reverentially prepared. Second, there are plenty of birds running wild–so many that they have become a nuisance. As recently as the 1930s, the species was nearly wiped out, with an estimated 30,000 birds holding on in isolated pockets of habitat. But today, more than seven million wild birds thrive from coast to coast. Every state except Alaska (too far north) has a carefully managed hunting season. And hunters were instrumental in funding the hugely successful restoration.
I looked down the barrel, saw red, and squeezed the trigger. KABOOM! I had bagged my first wild turkey.
For more information, read the full article at www.bjtonline.com. | <urn:uuid:39f93f5b-b833-4051-a992-be0f7f8817cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2012-01-25/lifestyle-now-were-talking-turkey?qt-most_popular=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966027 | 630 | 1.585938 | 2 |
SECRETARY BAKER: Thank you very much, Bill, for those generous words, and thank you as well for your superb, extremely superb service to our country. And I know that Secretary Clinton would join me in that comment.
I also want to thank Pat Kennedy. Pat Kennedy was here way back in the dark ages when I was here. (Laughter.) He’s been here ever since. He’s done a remarkable job for this Department, and particularly for his country. And Elizabeth Bagley; and let me tell you something. Without Elizabeth Bagley, there would be no Diplomacy Center. She’s been absolutely critical and instrumental to its creation and to its future. And I want to say a word, too, to all of you out there who are supporting this center. Thank you for what you’re doing. Without you, there would be no Diplomacy Center.
Since the days of our founding, we have been very blessed here in this country by the practice of adroit diplomacy. It was successful diplomacy, after all, that allowed us to strike the Treaty of Paris, the picture of which is over there on the other side of this hall. It was diplomacy that made possible the Louisiana Purchase. It was diplomacy that formulated and implemented the Marshall Plan. It was diplomacy that made sure – practiced under all presidents from Truman to George H.W. Bush – that made sure that the Cold War ended with a whimper and not a bang. Throughout our history, our nation has been strengthened and protected through strong, diplomatic alliances and agreements.
Diplomats such as Ben Franklin, John Jay, Dean Acheson have all played roles that are every bit as important to our nation’s security and well-being as the roles played by generals such as Winfield Scott and John Pershing and Norman Schwarzkopf. So I think it is very fitting that this Diplomacy Center is being built, because it will tell, as both Elizabeth and Bill Burns said, the amazing stories of the brave men and women who have served on the front lines of American diplomacy. Although too often overlooked, their tales of heroism really are inspiring.
But this center is going to do something else as well, something equally important. It’s going to explain why diplomacy matters to every single citizen. Diplomats negotiate everything from peace treaties to international trade pacts to agreements that keep our air clean. As a former American ambassador once said, “Foreign policy can raise or lower the cost of your home mortgage, it can give you a job, or it can take that job away. Foreign policy can affect the air you breathe. Foreign policy can determine the future of American security, and it can determine the fate of American ideals.”
The lessons that this center will teach are particularly important for all Americans to know and to understand. America’s might cannot be properly exercised without the support of citizens who appreciate our nation’s role in the world and its relationship with other countries, because that’s simply how our democracy works.
One lesson that this center will hopefully teach, I hope, is that it is important to talk to your adversaries. You don’t make peace, after all, with your friends. You make peace with your enemies. The diplomat’s role in establishing effective lines of communication with hostile nations is a critical component of our safety just as it was, frankly, during the entire 46 years of the Cold War when we maintained an embassy in Moscow.
Of course, diplomacy is best practiced with a mailed fist. All you diplomats out there know that. It’s nice to have the 101st Airborne in your pocket when you’re negotiating. (Laughter.) And so we have to always maintain a strong military. But America’s security and foreign policy interests are best advanced when we use all of the tools at our disposal, and of course diplomacy is one of the most important and most effective.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, I personally look forward to the grand opening of this U.S. Diplomacy Center. It’s going to remind us of the great diplomats in our past, and it’s going to remind us of the importance of diplomacy to our future.
And now, it is an extreme pleasure for the 61st Secretary of State of the United States to introduce the very able 67th Secretary of State, who in a few days will join the small club of six former Secretaries of State. And let me say in introducing her: Thank you, Madam Secretary, for your service to the nation. And by the way, welcome to the club. (Laughter, applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: That’s so great. Oh, thank you all very much. Thank you. Well, Jim, I’m honored to be a member of that club with you, and I’m so grateful to you for your years of service to our country and especially today for your generous support of the U.S. Diplomacy Center. It is a real joy to have you and Susan and your family here with us.
And I want to thank everyone who is here this afternoon on a snowy day in Washington, because you have really made a commitment to do exactly what Jim Baker just said, to help us tell the story. Donors, staff, partners from across the government, the Foreign Affairs Museum Council, I thank you all.
It is exciting to see this project being launched, and there are many people who have really made a contribution. I thought that Secretary Baker’s comments need to be recorded and included somewhere in the Diplomacy Center. That was an excellent quick summary of exactly why we are here today. (Applause.) And I do think that it’s important to remind ourselves as we do this work that although we do occasionally get some notice – I’m thinking of the film, Argo, actually – (laughter). In fact, I’ve been told we have a few of the diplomats who lived through that harrowing experience in Iran and endured the entire hostage crisis with us today.
But most of the time, the work that is done is not going to end up in a movie. It’s under the radar, so to speak. And as Pat Kennedy rightly said, many people still don’t fully understand what we do here at the State Department and at more than 275 posts around the world. Many Americans, especially children growing up, know about our military and what a great force for peace and stability it is. And the role that diplomats play in so much of what built our country, starting with Benjamin Franklin, since we are, of course, in the Ben Franklin room, is maybe taught in school, but it’s not as fully understood as we want it to be.
So that’s why this center is so important today. Now, the center and my commitment to it really began when I first learned about it, because I guess I missed that 1999 announcement and wasn’t aware of all the work that was being done to try to bring the center to fruition. And when I learned about it, I thought, “This needs to be a focus for all of us,” and got a briefing, as I often do, from Pat Kennedy, who has a great overview of what has been and is happening here at State, and learned more about the mission.
And then I asked Ambassador Elizabeth Bagley to once again take on a special project. She’d been the person driving our participation in building a pavilion at the Shanghai Expo after I made my first trip to Asia in February of ’09. And I was sitting at the bilat with all the Chinese delegation, which was a very large one, and one of the first things the Foreign Minister said, “Well, it is such a shame that the United States will not be represented at the Shanghai Expo.” And I’m sitting there, flipping through my notes, “the Shanghai what?” (Laughter.) Nobody had told me about the Shanghai Expo.
I said, “Well, yes, Minister, that is a challenge.” I’m sitting there thinking, “What is this about,” right? (Laughter.) He goes, “Yes, America will be the only country not represented.” So I got back to Washington, and I said, “What is the Shanghai Expo, and why are we not there?” And of course the reason is our government doesn’t support American participation. It has to be one of those public-private partnerships that this Diplomacy Center is. So I asked Ambassador Bagley to take on that responsibility, and we were pretty far behind all of the rest of the world, but we got it done. We had a great presentation there and were not left out.
I think that when we look at what the Foreign Service, what our diplomats and our development experts do around the world, we need to connect it to what happens here at home. People need to understand how an economic officer in Cambodia is helping to create jobs not only there, but in the United States; how helping women farmers in Africa sell more of their crop at markets makes the region the more stable and prosperous and gives us the opportunity to really expand our bilateral and regional relationships.
How we work to help others understand our commitment really does matter to the American people and people around the world. During the past four years, I have been very fortunate in being assisted by a great team of people. As I have focused on diplomacy and development alongside defense as pillars of our foreign policy and the strategic investments that we need to make, I know that every day nearly 70,000 people are getting up and going to work to do just that.
Now, what started as an idea and a handful of objects in a single file cabinet drawer back in 1997 has grown into what will be, as you can see, a beautiful pavilion and exhibition halls housing more than 6,000 artifacts, including items that date back to our earliest days as a nation. In fact – I know Mr. Franklin would approve – one of the original printings of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce that he helped negotiate with France in 1778 will have a permanent home in this collection, one of the first treaties we signed as a fledgling nation that helped America win our independence.
But this center is not just about the past. It captures the living work of American diplomacy and all the creative ways that our diplomats carry out their missions. Visitors to this center will get to experience for themselves what it’s like to be part of a diplomatic simulation, stepping into the shoes of a diplomat in Darfur, for example, trying to defuse a crisis. They can take a practice run at a mock Foreign Service exam. They can even poke around an exhibit called, “Inside the Secretary’s Day.” And, fair warning, it’s not all that glamorous, but it’ll give you an idea of what Jim and I and our other colleagues have done, and to learn for themselves how challenging, valuable, and rewarding diplomacy can be.
Now, we are fortunate to have leaders in this department who exemplify that every day. Deputy Secretary Tom Nides has championed our economic statecraft initiative, along with many other tasks as our Deputy Secretary for Resources and Management. And he also was instrumental in helping us reach this point. And Tom, I’m very appreciative to you. And Bill Burns, who really is our exemplar of what an American diplomat can and should be, has been an indispensable partner to me from the moment that I walked in the door. And I am very grateful to him for his expertise, his experience, and his wry, good humor at what often happens in the world we try to understand.
And so many others who I look out and see in this audience, diplomats of today and yesterday and, I hope, of tomorrow. I think it’s important for you to see this center as a mutual project that we want you to be involved in not just today, but going forward. It’s been one of the great honors of my life to lead the men and women of the State Department and USAID to understand even more than I did before what they do for us and oftentimes how unsung their contributions have been.
I said when I was before the Congress the other day that we’ve actually seen a spike in people wanting to take the exam for potential membership in Foreign Service. We’ve seen young people exhibit a great curiosity about what is happening in the Foreign Service. We will be launching next week a new education program that will go hand in hand with this center to try to explain not only to Americans, first and foremost, but to people around the world, why diplomacy is at the center of who we are as a nation.
So this is a project whose time has come and one we must see through. Like Jim Baker, I look forward to returning for the grand opening, the ribbon cutting. I hope it’s pretty soon and not too far off because we have a great story to tell. And we need to get about telling it. Thank you very much. (Applause.) | <urn:uuid:68620bb3-7115-44d5-afc2-242c786e4e8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2013/01/203325.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974037 | 2,755 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Tariq Ali's writing and public commentary on global affairs, particularly the international left, over the past four decades has made him an influential figure worldwide.
Born in Pakistan in 1943 and raised as an atheist, Tariq Ali's ancestral line includes politicians and intellectuals from former British India. His interest in government affairs was cultivated in his family home, and as a university student at Oxford he began organising political demonstrations against the Vietnam War.
As a successful debater and orator against policies supporting military dictatorships, his public profile began to grow, attracting the attention of figures such as Malcom X and John Lennon. He has written over two dozen books on world history and politics, seven novels, and scripts for performing arts, and is the editor of the New Left Review.
This episode of One on One can be seen from Saturday, June 18, at the following times GMT: Saturday: 0430; Sunday: 0830, 1930; Monday: 1430. | <urn:uuid:2f8ae7c9-498f-4de7-a5e6-a8c73fdcb1e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/oneonone/2011/06/2011616123754207144.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976184 | 196 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The most pressing question for the world today is which atomic state will be the second nation in history to use nuclear weapons. Will it be Iran in its much-publicized threat to “wipe Israel off the map” in a “single storm”? Will it be Israel in a preemptive strike using nuclear-tipped bunker-busters? Will it be a suicidal North Korea launching ballistic missiles at South Korea, Japan, Hawaii, or Washington State? The most likely nuclear prospect is that Iran, whether directly or by proxy, will assume that tainted honor, and that Israel will necessarily retaliate, becoming the third nation on the active nuclear roster.
Perhaps an equally pressing question is why the world’s major chanceries should have allowed the situation in the Middle East to deteriorate to such a degree that a nuclear exchange between Iran and Israel has become a distinct possibility. The three largest members of the European Union, France, Germany, and Britain, have been engaged in negotiations with Iran since October 2003 without having made the slightest dent in Iran’s determination to acquire an operational nuclear arsenal — one, let us recall, that it has promised to use.
Sanctions have been feeble and ineffective. Timelines for resolution have been constantly moved forward while Iran marches inexorably toward nuclear capability. Russia and China are demonstrably abetting the Iranian project and the United States, especially under Barack Obama, in its timid and indeed pusillanimous response to the issue, behaves almost as a silent partner.
Aside from the Russians and the Chinese, who are practicing a particularly short-sighted version of realpolitik and whose intransigence is to be expected, the Americans intermittently and the Europeans consistently have implemented a policy toward the Middle East that appears entirely counterproductive, one that almost seems intended not to resolve but to exacerbate the state of affairs in the region. What they have put on the table is the road map to war.
The folly of bankrolling the Palestinians to the tune of billions of dollars to no beneficial effect, thereby contributing chiefly to offshore accounts, arms buildups, and a condition of professional mendicancy, appears not to have dawned on the ostensibly benighted donors. The international backing for UNRWA, whose real mandate is to perpetuate the manufactured refugee problem and to provide logistical and moral support to Hamas, continues apace. The ignorant or disingenuous attempt to portray the Palestinian and Islamic carnival of terror as motivated by despair, frustration, or exploitation only ensures that it will persist. The diktats leveled at Israel to compromise its security without reciprocity, to cede territory and shrink its borders to a state of indefensibility, to surrender its capital city, and to refrain from answering unprovoked attacks upon its civilian population, argue another agenda apart from the declared intention to establish conditions for a “lasting peace.” For it is patently undeniable that no Israeli concession has ever resulted in anything but escalating hostilities and mounting depredations. This is a fact that only the dead — or the brain-dead — are unable to perceive.
As for the ongoing “negotiations” and “dialogue” with Iran, these have led absolutely nowhere since day one and can no longer be taken seriously. Six years of utter futility would have had some impact on the Western mind — by which I mean primarily, though not only, the European mind — were it not bent to some other purpose. The Western reluctance to punish or incommode the Iranian mullahcracy for the violence it unleashed upon unarmed citizens protesting the 2009 rigged elections also speaks volumes. It seems reasonable to infer that Iran as it is presently constituted may serve a clandestine function.
Chirac, Schroeder, Robinson, Solana, Kouchner, Pillay, Ban, Carter, the Clintons, Zapatero, Stoltenberg, Calmy-Rey, Brown, Miliband, Blair, and now Obama, along with their ministerial colleagues and like-minded, highly placed officials, commissioners, civil servants, diplomats, and friends, cannot be casually described as congenital imbeciles. These are people with university degrees, with reasonably good IQs, with considerable experience in international relations, with a dexterous ability to manipulate language, and with an enviable shrewdness in managing their own fiscal and electoral interests. Yet in their economic and political policies, their diplomatic comportment, and their reading of the geopolitical text, they give every indication of being retarded from the egg.
There are only two ways of making sense of such apparent myopia and stupefaction. We can chalk up such self-defeating behavior to the perennial human disposition to pretend that a crisis we do not know how to handle isn’t really that critical and will somehow filigree for the best. This tendency has been aggravated of late, to quote Peter Sloterdijk in Terror from the Air, as “modernity’s campaign against the self-evident.” Or, no less saliently, we deduce that nobody can be that stupid and posit an ulterior design that comes to fruition through deception and misdirection.
In other words, our political Illuminati may cherish a shadowy blueprint of which the rest of us are obligingly ignorant. Daniel Pipes makes a similar point in his 1997 book Conspiracy, where he refers to the “double doctrine” of the Illuminati, namely, “that the rank and file learn of anodyne goals, while the supérieurs inconnus know the organization’s true, and quite different, inner secrets.” We happen to know who our supérieurs are but we may not know their goals. And it is at least tenable that those of us who are suspicious of the professed aims of our political masters may not be suffering from galloping paranoia.
I am now beginning to suspect that this second alternative may well be the agenda furtively in play. If the Palestinians, the Syrians, and Hezbollah fail to do the job of reducing Israel to inconsequence, Iran remains the default option. I am coming to believe that the actual strategy at work in the official European and Western mind may be to encourage by every covert means, including endlessly protracted and fruitless negotiations, a nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran, thus getting rid of the perpetual nuisance which is Israel, appeasing the Arab world, and moving in to rebuild a devastated Iran for eventual, unencumbered oil and trade. The loss in immediate economic advantage would be offset in spades by future economic gains.
This scenario would explain why Israel has been repeatedly warned against initiating a preemptive attack on the Iranian nuclear sites, why an Iraq overflight by the IAF has been turned down, and why the Israeli request for the sophisticated military assets and hardware it would need to facilitate the mission has not been granted. This in the teeth of the manifest insanity of the mullahcracy, its theological conviction in the imminent return of the Hidden Imam who brings a universal conflagration with him, its development of long-range solid-fuel missiles, and its threat to visit nuclear holocaust upon the Jewish state. Our only hope is that the Israelis will nevertheless find a way to neutralize Iran’s nuclear factories and, once again, do not only themselves but the world a favor, as in 1981 when they bombed Saddam’s Osirak reactor and in 2007 when they demolished Syria’s al-Kibar nuclear installation. But their hands are being tied by the Western powers for whom Iran looks like it has become the discretionary accomplice, the recourse of choice.
It is no secret that a nuclear attack upon tiny Israel would either annihilate it totally or at the very least render it a non-factor on the world stage for any foreseeable future. But as Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of the orgulous Iranian Expediency Discernment Council, has stated, Iran is sufficiently large and populous to survive the harm inflicted by an Israeli second strike and the Islamic world could well absorb the damage. Moreover, from the Western perspective, a nuclear convulsion in the Middle East would remain localized and the cost in world panic and plummeting markets, as I have suggested, would be gradually amortized by the removal of Israel and by a severely weakened Iran, thereby killing a gadfly and crippling a pterodactyl with one stony policy. I, for one, do not think a nuclear firestorm could be so easily contained. But for our political elites, scheming and devising in camera, it would be a calculated risk presumably worth pursuing, clearing the decks for a “new world order.”
Unlikely? Nightmaring in Technicolor? Think again. On the face of it, these are not stupid people and it is almost inconceivable that European and Western heads of state, government officials, plenipotentiaries, and diplomats could be so blindly unaware that this is the destination toward which their policies, decisions, and enactments are inevitably leading. Such a terminus should be glaringly obvious to even the most frivolous and inattentive of observers and certainly to anyone who has studied the tactics, statements, religious culture, and actions of the Iranian regime.
Historian of religion Emmanuel Sivan warns of precisely this danger in Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics, a discussion of Shi’a belief and thought. In what is known as Twelver Shi’ite theology, God’s kingdom is to be brought upon earth by the Twelfth or Hidden Imam (or Mahdi), and “one should help precipitate its descent” (emphasis mine). The mullahs’ intention may well be to provoke the Mahdi’s arrival by kindling an act of apocalyptic violence, and Ayatollah Rafsanjani, as mentioned above, has no compunction against starting the nuclear ball rolling — even if his plan is only limited to Israel. Why is it so difficult to connect the dots that literally speckle both the Shi’a scripture and the geopolitical map? Unless, of course, I am wrong and our political authorities are indeed stupid people, abusing by their irresponsibility and obtuseness the positions to which they have been elected or appointed.
Our leaders, naturally, would vehemently object to this allegation of complicity in disaster, discounting it as merely unwarranted hyperbole, conspiracy mongering, blatant cynicism, or outright defamation. The reply to their indignation can be found in Matthew 7:20: “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
Both explanations for current policy that I have put forward may appear implausible; notwithstanding, one of them must be right. In any case, should the event come to pass, we will all pay, whether for our leaders’ stupidity or for their canniness. Perhaps we are the stupid ones. After all, we put them there. | <urn:uuid:0393f8f7-981b-4a70-b2e8-b2100bd4174c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pjmedia.com/blog/are-western-leaders-stupid-or-malicious-in-letting-iran-go-nuclear/?singlepage=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954202 | 2,252 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Practical Aid for the Persecuted Church
The main ministry of Barnabas Aid is to send financial support to projects which help Christians where they suffer discrimination, oppression and persecution as a consequence of their faith. The projects aim to strengthen Christian individuals, churches and their communities by providing material and spiritual support in response to needs identified by local Christian leaders.
We seek to encourage and facilitate prayer by providing prayer information, prayer requests and resources in many different forms and formats.
This ministry makes known the plight of the persecuted Church, particularly in the Muslim world, by a wide variety of means, in order to educate Christians and others about the current situation and needs as well as the background and causal factors.
When requested by Christians in the contexts concerned, we engage in speaking on their behalf. This can be by public petitions and letter-writing campaigns or discreet contacts behind the scenes. | <urn:uuid:77d51f9f-5d60-47b6-8d1b-2d7a1674ed67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://barnabasfund.org/US/Our-work/What-we-do/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954133 | 178 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The Lafayette Players had a branch in Philadelphia, and Edna went there in 1921 to perform in Madame X. Although Cora was dead set against it, Edna took Lena. There, the child made her "acting" debut. One scene depicted a little girl lying in her sickbed. Lena played the part impeccably. In her 1950 memoir, she recalled wandering around backstage, in and out of dressing rooms, awestruck by the theater and fantasizing about stardom. The most dazzling sight of all was her mother, whose beauty and talent overwhelmed her. "I was certain that she must be the most wonderful actress in the world," said Horne. Cora's warnings about Edna fell aside; Lena dreamed of doing exactly as her mother had done.
For a while, Edna's career seemed to thrive. "I can understand why she believed she was on the threshold of a brilliant future," observed Lena.
The girl was home in Brooklyn in the autumn of 1922 when Edna trekked for the Lyceum Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut. She'd been cast in the ninety-three-member, all-black company of a musical revue, Dumb Luck. Its name bespoke the producer's wishful thinking. He'd taken that huge company to Connecticut with hardly any budget, praying the reviews would attract investors who would pay for a move to Broadway. Dumb Luck lasted two nights. "The show was lousy, so they closed it," said blues singer Alberta Hunter, one of its stars. The cast was left stranded. Headliner Ethel Waters had been in that bind before, and wangled a sale of the costumes in order to pay for everyone's ride home. The incident would become all too familiar to Edna as her short career wore on.
By now Lena was enrolled in the brand-new Ethical Culture School in Brooklyn. No one had to force her to do her reading; at home she spent hours in her bedroom, the covers pulled up to her chin as she turned the pages of storybooks. She'd taught herself to read before kindergarten; now she devoured children's tales—especially ones about orphans, with whom she empathized.
Apparently her grandmother had called a strict halt to any further visits between the child and her wayward mother. In 1923, Edna had to resort to subterfuge to see her daughter. One day she showed up at a neighbor's house on Chauncey Street and asked the woman to fetch Lena. The two had a tearful reunion, but Edna warned her not to tell her grandmother. Soon thereafter, a relative spirited Lena away to Edna's apartment in Harlem. The little girl found her mother sick in bed, and spouting a dire warning—her father was plotting to kidnap her, and they had better leave town fast.
Edna was lying, of course; Teddy Horne had moved to Seattle with his new wife and had no desire to abscond with the child he'd run away from. But Edna was feeling vengeful—not only toward the husband who'd deserted her but toward Cora for daring to withhold Lena from her.
Her days with the Lafayette Theatre were through. Soon Edna stood on a train platform, holding a suitcase in one hand and leading her daughter by the other. They boarded a segregated train for Miami. There, Edna hoped, she could act in tent shows—Negro vaudeville that played the outskirts of southern towns for a few days at a time. The actors faced "hellish" odds, as Bill Reed wrote in his book Hot from Harlem. Police gladly arrested them if they were out on the street at night—the very time they worked. "Unscrupulous management and inadequate food and lodging were a commonplace of black show-business life. That these performers managed to shoulder the burden of racism...and still get the job of entertainment done was a miracle."
We Hear You! | <urn:uuid:54384edb-50c5-40c1-b0b7-8652f1348920> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Stormy-Weather-by-James-Gavin-Excerpt/7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989394 | 805 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Drunken driving is a serious problem, and the state must treat it as such.
Last week, state officials issued regulations to keep persistent drunken drivers from getting their licenses back. Under the new rules, the Department of Motor Vehicles will review the lifetime records of drivers seeking reinstatement after a revocation and deny licenses to any drivers who have five or more alcohol- or drug-related driving convictions. The DMV also will deny relicensing for anyone with three or more such convictions and at least one serious driving offense within the last 25 years, such as causing a fatal crash, officials said.
The consequences of drinking and driving can be deadly. According to the DMV, one-third of the fatalities in the state involved impaired or intoxicated drivers and pedestrians. More than 300 people are killed and more than 6,000 injured annually on New York highways as a result of alcohol-related crashes.
We support the new regulations, but we question whether they're strict enough. Why wait until a person has five or more alcohol- or drug-related driving convictions? How many chances are we willing to give intoxicated drivers before they kill someone?
Pulling the license of first-time offenders would be unreasonable, but allowing motorists who have three or four convictions to continue driving fails to send a strong message.
Sober drivers have a right to the road. Repeat drunken drivers don't. | <urn:uuid:491e5173-9651-43a1-bc6c-b6e83237bd61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.leaderherald.com/page/content.detail/id/550500/Take-DWI-seriously.html?nav=5005 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965011 | 277 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The federal government bailed out Citigroup for the third time a few weeks ago, and bailouts 4, 5 and 6 could be just around the corner. At this point, the US government has already put more public money into Citigroup then it is worth. Yet American taxpayers now own only about 36% of the company’s common stock.
There’s another blatantly bogus aspect of the latest deal the US government has made with Citi: apparently under pressure from the US Treasury, the firm has promised to reconstitute its board of directors so that a majority of its members are “independent.” But Citi execs are picking the new members, not the government.
Citi execs says they’re having a hard time finding people to serve – even though board members are paid $75,000 per year (plus stock).
What that tells you is that the Citi fat cats are looking for other fat cats. And these days most fat cats are fat enough that they can afford not to serve on companies whose stock is trading at $1 a share.
Boards aren’t really independent if they’re made up of wealthy corporate types who do business the Wall Street Way. The government’s “independent majority” requirement is a kabuki dance designed to placate the American public without upsetting Citi or its shareholders.
Here’s a better idea: why not put regular Americans on the board? Say, a few folks from Main Street, maybe a couple of small business people. Maybe they could be chosen by lottery. I’m betting there’s a lot of citizens in this country who’d serve for a fraction of the pay the board members get right now.
“Nationalized” or not, Americans own Citigroup, and to restore public confidence in the firm – and what it is doing with our money – it ought to be supervised by people who bring to it good old fashioned American values. | <urn:uuid:3322d6ce-3791-4bed-b1ce-76ad3c49befd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.honestanswers.org/wordpress/?p=22 | 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 | 0.962757 | 411 | 1.625 | 2 |
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (AP) - A suburban Denver school district has come up with a clever way to increase police presence around its elementary schools - providing wireless access in its parking lots for officers to do their paperwork.
The Douglas County school district welcomed sheriff's deputies and officers to take advantage of the service before the Sandy Hook shooting. After the attack, law enforcement leaders began directing officers to make it part of their daily routine.
Officers are permanently assigned to the district's middle and high schools, but Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen said Thursday that it wasn't practical to have officers assigned to its more than 50 elementary schools.
The district is also working on a way to assign armed school marshals to some schools each day, an approach mirrored after the federal air marshal program.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) | <urn:uuid:0f0bd451-926c-4e05-a910-fa9fe7b9e173> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.9news.com/news/article/313992/222/Police-do-paperwork-outside-Douglas-County-schools | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96823 | 171 | 1.820313 | 2 |
By Renewable Energy Focus staff
Under the initial order, AMSC will deliver the wind turbine electrical control systems in 2011, and Dongfang plans to start volume shipments of the wind turbines, which were designed and jointly developed with AMSC, in 2012.
Ren Jiafu, Vice General Manager at Dongfang Turbine, says: “We look forward to utilising these electrical control systems from AMSC to manufacture our first 3 MW and 5 MW wind turbines while also exploring options to upgrade the 5 MW to 5.5 MW, and plan to begin making volume shipments in 2012.”
Greg Yurek, Found and CEO of AMSC, adds: “A powerhouse in China’s growing wind power market, DTC has partnered with AMSC to introduce its next-generation wind turbines. Having been designed for use both on land and sea, DTC’s 3 MW wind turbine has broad applicability while its 5 MW turbine is particularly well suited for the global offshore wind market.” | <urn:uuid:988434eb-ed43-492e-bceb-a406e7bd8992> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/16334/dongfang-orders-amsc-electrical-control-systems-for-its-wind-turbines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950145 | 211 | 1.546875 | 2 |
If there is one thing I know, it’s that food bloggers love to write about making their own Larabars. It makes sense, really. Larabar ingredients are incredibly simple (usually just dates and nuts) and you can save a bundle by making your own. My mom (who is not a food-blogger but who is a foodie) even sent me a few lovingly wrapped bars in a care package once. I’ve seen recipes for homemade versions cropping up all over the place in the last year, but I have to say that until recently I didn’t really see the point. Why drag out the food processor and make a mess in the kitchen when I could just eat a handful of nuts with a couple dates and call it a day?
I think that logic still has some merit, but during my last busy week of class and clinicals before spring break, I didn’t want a handful of dried fruit and nuts. I wanted a bar. And I realized that I was wasting a good deal of money by buying one at the coffee shop every day. So I hauled out the food processor and set to work.
I couldn’t have asked for these to turn out better. As I was pulling out ingredients for the basic bars, I kept noticing things in my pantry that begged to be included. Raw cacao powder and dark chocolate chips, goji berries, and hemp protein all found their way in with the walnuts, almonds, and dates. I realized that with the added ingredients, I had made a true superfood bar. Oh, and they were delicious.
A quick note about my method: I used walnuts and almonds that had been soaked 8-12 hours and then dehydrated. The reason I did this is because nuts contain compounds called phytates which can block absorption of important vitamins and minerals. Soaking the nuts helps to neutralize the compounds and dehydrating them brings them back their original crunchy state. If you don’t have the time or a dehydrator to do this, I think regular raw nuts would also work as long as you consume them in moderation. Here is a helpful link for more information on how and why to soak nuts and seeds.
So now I’m a homemade Larabar convert and I’ll probably be making another batch during spring break to get me going once classes begin again. My other spring break plans are to have some fun with my sister who is coming for a visit on Wednesday and to spend more time in the kitchen than my finals weeks allowed.
makes 5 bars
- 1 cup almonds (soaked and dehydrated, if possible)
- 1/2 cup walnuts (soaked and dehydrated, if possible)
- 3/4 cup dates, pitted
- 1/3 cup goji berries
- 1/4 cup hemp protein powder
- 2 Tbsp cacao powder
- 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 Tbsp water (for consistency, may need more or less)
Place all ingredients except water and chocolate chips into the food processor. Pulse for about a minute, scraping down sides if needed, until mixture resembles a course sand.
Add chocolate chips and pulse a few times to mix in. Add about a Tbsp water and pulse until dough is sticky enough to form into bars. Add a little extra water, if needed.
Wrap in plastic or tin foil and store in the refrigerator. | <urn:uuid:71236c56-3522-4208-bfe1-59760f668734> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dishesanddishes.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/superfood-larabars/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962704 | 714 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The author is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The U.S. politician-businessman that Congress put in charge of determining the reasons for the 2008 financial crisis has a sobering message for us: “It’s going to happen again.”
Phil Angelides, the real estate developer and former California state treasurer who chaired the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, said on Friday that “all across the marketplace the warning signs were there” of a coming disaster but the mechanisms and political will to stop it were not.
He and I both spoke at a University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School symposium on the financial crisis and the commission set up to examine it.
Angelides warned of a recurring economic nightmare unless Congress and the next president start paying attention to the facts and stop listening to the people who caused, profited from or failed to detect the crisis.
While Wall Street and laissez faire Republicans have attacked the commission’s final report — all 22 footnoted chapters of it — Angelides boasted that not one fact had been proven wrong. | <urn:uuid:4107198a-d1c9-40b9-82d0-6c9146589d61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-johnston/tag/freddie/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953858 | 234 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I was surprised to learn today that our winning Olympians have to pay off the federal government. According to Americans for Tax Reform Gold medal winners will owe $8,986 in taxes for each medal, Silver winners will pay $5,385 and for each Bronze medal our athletes will pay $3,502.
Of course, we know they didn’t earn these medals on their own. They had help. They couldn’t have done it without the government. I just couldn’t help wondering why our leaders have kept mum about all this.
It must have been hard for President Obama to have kept up with running the country, while picking up Kyla Ross and Gabby Douglas at 3 in the morning every day to be sure they got to the gym to work out before going to school.
And how about Joe Biden? I know the VP has a lot of time on his hands, but Biden must have spent so much of it in the pool, working with Michael Phelps, helping him become the most decorated Olympian ever. That’s dedication!
And I’m sure Kimberly Rhodes could never have gotten that gold if it weren’t for Nancy Pelosi working with her on her skeet shooting skills day after day, month after month.
How selfless of these and other fine public servants to keep quiet about all the hours, all the hard work, and let these athletes soak up all the glory for themselves.
The very least the freeloaders can do is pay up. | <urn:uuid:66b3399e-fee9-42ca-a163-c93cc11e5784> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=10371&cp=all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979323 | 310 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Mediator, moderator and scholar
Part of our 'Six to Remember' series: Celso Perez brought civility and respectful discussion to a traditionally controversial issue
ByCelso J. Perez
Hometown: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Major: Biochemistry and theology
Notable Activities: Presidential Scholars Program; GLBTQ Leadership Council (GLC) president (2007-08), co-president (2008-09); Advanced Research Study Grant project “Bioethics, Public Health, and Catholic Theological Ethics: To support participation in the European Academy of Bioethics conference in Germany”; research intern for the United Nations Joint Program on AIDS
Post-Graduation Plans: Finish master’s degree in theology; Teach for America program in Houston; apply to law school
Overview: As head of the GLC, Perez drew praise from many quarters of the University for his efforts in fostering civil, respectful discussion on gender and sexuality issues — often a flashpoint of controversy in scholarly and religious circles.
What led to your getting involved in the GLC?
After freshman year, I worked in Haley House and Rosie’s Place as part of the Presidential Scholars “First Summer” program. It started me thinking of service as not just some romantic notion — that you go into the inner city to do good — but as being an engaged member of a community. I also participated in the Halftime retreat, during which you address three questions: “What am I good at? What brings me joy? What does the world need me to do?”
From my experience in the Catholic Church, and what I had witnessed at BC, it seemed to me the conversation here on gender and sexuality was polarized — very much an “us-versus-them” situation. In fact, it wasn’t a conversation. There was no kind of dialogue. I felt that getting involved in GLC fit that wider definition of service I’d thought of; and it would be a way of answering those three questions.
When you became president of the GLC, did you feel there were certain expectations for how you were going to do the job – that you would be adversarial or confrontational?
Was there expectation that there would be conflict? Some. My first thought, though, was that I was in this position of leadership thanks to the work of my predecessors, who had brought gender and sexuality issues to the University’s attention. But I just saw that it was time for something different.
The idea of sitting down with an administrator face to face was difficult at first. Building a rapport takes time. And as a society, we’re still dealing with what terms like “gay” or “straight” mean; there’s an anthropology around their use but it’s a relatively recent phenomenon.
Who are some of your favorite teachers and mentors?
Founders Professor of Theology James Keenan, SJ, and Assoc. Prof. John McDargh in the Theology Department, and the advising dean in the Student Programs Office I’ve worked with most closely has been Mark Miceli.
How do you think BC made a difference in your life?
Working in the GLC was definitely a growing experience, and I’m really grateful for it, and for the conversations I’ve had with Fr. Leahy and other administrators. Most of all, BC has shown me the importance of asking the question “How do I integrate my interests?” and made me realize that I — unlike so many other people in the world — have the privilege of asking that question.
Check out our next senior profile: http://www.bc.edu/publications/chronicle/TopstoriesNewFeatures/features/Kubala050709.html | <urn:uuid:2beab122-0ae5-40fa-b378-7d2c06798895> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bc.edu/publications/chronicle/TopstoriesNewFeatures/features/Perez.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966483 | 793 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Spherical Panoramas allow the viewer to look in any direction, as if one were standing in the center of a sphere. The Spherical Panorama does away with the photographer's single framed point of view. You are free to explore every angle and to inspect any detail of the image by zooming in and around the total sphere.
You can also view these images within Google Earth or at 360Cities see the links at the bottom of this page.
You will require a viewer to see the images, if you don't have one installed already (there are several available free) then the system will offer you a link. If you prefer to manually control the viewer selection then please make your choice below. | <urn:uuid:8c8d7ea9-c79c-462d-872c-3e972604a46f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sphericalvisions.com/default.php?Folkstone | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949698 | 144 | 1.5 | 2 |
You are here:
Chief of Staff, GAVI Alliance
A woman and her child waits alongside many other parents for their children to receive the pneumococcal vaccine for the first time in Ethiopia. Source: Daniel Thornton/GAVI/2011.
Thank you President of the Southern Nation, Nationalities and People Region, and Minister Tedros, Ministers, Officials, esteemed international guests, doctors, health workers, fathers, mothers, grandfathers – I was talking to a grandfather yesterday who was excited that his five month old granddaughter would receive this new vaccine, he is here today – and grandmothers.
I am proud to represent the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, or GAVI. We are here today to launch our most powerful vaccine – the pneumococcal vaccine. And we are launching in the biggest country so far – this beautiful country of Ethiopia.
I represent a small secretariat based in Geneva. But a big Alliance. I am pleased that there are so many other representatives of that Alliance here today.
The most important members of our Alliance are the countries. I visited Ethiopia once before, twenty years ago, as a young diplomat. The country has made a lot of progress. A few weeks ago I met Minister Tedros in New York at an event hosted by Raj Shah of USAID and Andrew Mitchell of DFID to celebrate examples of successful progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals. GAVI and Ethiopia were both presented as examples of that success.
A decade ago in this country two hundred children for every 1000 died before their fifth birthday. That rate has fallen by more than half now, and as Minister Tedros said earlier, there has been dramatic recent progress. That is because Ethiopia has been building its health system. As Minister Tedros was saying - a few years ago, 300 trainee doctors entered medical school, this year 3000 will enter school. Yesterday I met some health extension workers who were committed to introducing this new vaccine. Ethiopia has successfully spread the benefits of immunisation. That includes pentavalent vaccine, which protects against five diseases, including a form of pneumonia, which is funded by GAVI. It also includes measles, and polio vaccine, which has helped to keep Ethiopia free of polio.
But as the figure I have quoted indicates, and as we will be discussing during this annual review meeting, there is a lot more to do. 100,000 children die each year from pneumonia in Ethiopia. Pneumococcal disease accounts for more than half of those deaths, as well as causing meningitis and sepsis. With the vaccine that we are launching today we can protect children against these terrible diseases.
And what we are doing here today in Ethiopia is part of a global story. Every twenty seconds a child dies of pneumonia somewhere in the world. Pneumonia is the biggest killer of children before their fifth birthday. Building upon what Ethiopia is doing here today, we are planning to introduce this vaccine in forty countries up to 2015, which can save 700,000 children’s lives every year.
Now, this small secretariat in Geneva can’t do this on its own. We need a big Alliance. And I am pleased that today we have a representative from UNICEF, which buys the vaccine and supports its introduction in countries. And WHO which provides scientific expertise and advice here in countries. These partners have been working with the government to strengthen treatment of pneumonia, which needs to go hand in hand with the introduction of the vaccine. Civil society organisations are represented here today who work in communities that could not otherwise be reached. And the vaccine companies, without which there would be no vaccines.
GAVI is a funding mechanism; without funds it has no purpose. So I am not going to forget GAVI’s generous donors. The pneumococcal vaccine has been funded under a special mechanism called the Advance Market Commitment. Italy, the UK, Canada, Russia, Norway and the Gates Foundation have provided $1.5bn so that vaccines companies have the confidence to invest in large scale production for developing countries. In London in June the Big Alliance met – with PMs David Cameron and Jens Stoltenberg and also with Bill Gates, who together with our other donors raised an additional $4.3bn. We are grateful to all of them and all of GAVI’s donors, all of them part of the big Alliance. Their generosity has meant that Ethiopia is receiving the vaccine very soon after children in rich countries receive it.
The scale of the numbers I have mentioned today are hard to imagine. More than 50,000 children dying each year here in this country – deaths which can be prevented by this new vaccine. But the mothers, and fathers, and grandparents here today know what these figures mean.
My children benefited from the vaccines they needed. I think children everywhere should get the vaccines they need. Together in this Big Alliance, starting today in this hospital this great work has begun to save children’s lives.
© GAVI Alliance 2013
modal window here | <urn:uuid:3deb9e40-d3f6-4ec4-b841-a009008cc0f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gavialliance.org/library/news/gavi-blogs/daniel-thornton/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969172 | 1,032 | 1.804688 | 2 |
A joint British-French military team of advisers is to be sent to Benghazi in a move that is likely to lead to accusations of mission creep.
Separately, Nato has said its missiles have targeted Gaddafi's communications network. The moves came after rebels warned that the besieged town of Misrata would fall within days.
The UK-French team will advise the rebels on intelligence-gathering, logistics, and communications. In an indication of the serious nature of the move, the team will be run by a joint force headquarters, the Guardian has learned.
Officials stress that the team consists of advisers, rather than trainers, and that the move does not involve arming the rebels. There are no plans for the team to go to Misrata, the officials added.
William Hague, the foreign secretary, said in a statement that the team "will enable the UK to build on the work already being undertaken to support and advise the NTC [National Transitional Council] on how to better protect civilians".
He added: "In particular they will advise the NTC on how to improve their military organisational structures, communications and logistics, including how best to distribute humanitarian aid and deliver medical assistance."
Hague said the British section of the team will consist of "experienced British military officers". UK special forces would not be involved, officials said.
David Davies, the former Conservative frontbencher, has repeated his calls for parliament to be reconvened to discuss changes to the mission in Libya. "A lot of people will see this as mission creep, some of us as an inevitable outcome," he said.
Senior Liberal Democrat Sir Menzies Campbell, his party's former foreign affairs spokesman, warned against becoming bogged down in Libya, similar to the US in Vietnam. He said: "Sending advisers for a limited purpose is probably within the terms of Resolution 1973, but it must not be seen as a first instalment of further military deployment. Vietnam began with an American president sending military advisers. We must proceed with caution."
Hague said the deployment was "fully within the terms of UNSCR 1973 both in respect of civilian protection and its provision expressly ruling out a foreign occupation force on Libyan soil".
Meanwhile, British, French, and Danish aircraft have extended Nato's targets in Libya to include small satellite communications systems and telephone exchanges, officials said. The strikes, which took place over the past two days, were described as representing a clear "shift" in targeting policy, they said.
The British submarine HMS Triumph, returning to the Mediterranean after restocking with Tomahawk missiles, is understood to have fired a number of cruise missiles at Libyan communications targets over the past two days.
Oana Lungescu, Nato's chief spokesperson, told a briefing at the alliance's Brussels headquarters that the coalition had flown more than 2,800 sorties, 1,000 a week, of which half were strike sorties.
Brigadier General Mark van Uhm, Nato's chief of allied operations, described the situation on the ground in Libya as "fluid and changing constantly". Ammunition bunkers, radars, rocket launchers, and tanks, as well as communications structure had been destroyed, "but nothing indicated he had any intention of disengaging his forces".
Van Uhm said over the past 36 hours, Nato air strikes had aimed at degrading Gaddafi's "capacity to command and control, facilities and communicate with his forces". The strikes "will continue until [there is] a clear signal civilians are no longer under threat", he added.
The general said Nato strikes last night hit mobile rocket launchers and armoured vehicles advancing near Misrata. He added: "But there is a limit [to] what can be achieved with air power to stop fighting in a city."
General Lord Dannatt, former head of the British army, described the move to send military adviser to Benghazi as "an entirely logical further step to achieve legitimate aims". He added: "Some will always say 'mission creep', but [Britain should] interpret the UN mandate broadly to avoid mission collapse". | <urn:uuid:a6fb76a7-f3aa-45c5-b4fe-12a0459d0292> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/19/libya-fears-mission-creep-benghazi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9692 | 833 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Dec 04 2012
The lawyer for accused WikiLeaks collaborator Bradley Manning suggested Monday that President Barack Obama’s position on protecting government whistleblowers is hypocritical.
Obama put his signature on a new law designed to stiffen protections for whistleblowers on Nov. 27. “As President Obama was signing this bill into law, Brad and I were in a courtroom,” Manning’s defense attorney, David E. Coombs, said Monday at the All Souls Church Unitarian in Washington, D.C., in his first public appearance since taking the case more than two years ago. “How can you reconcile the two? I don’t know the answer to that question.”
Manning, 24, is the Army private who allegedly gave WikiLeaks thousands of classified diplomatic cables about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, along with videos of two deadly airstrikes that killed non-combatants. When revealed by the controversial whistleblower website WikiLeaks, the documents sent diplomatic shockwaves that reverberated across the world.
Read the full story here. | <urn:uuid:e28aae12-a451-448f-9458-7ee5fa6115ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uprisingradio.org/home/2012/12/04/huff-post-bradley-manning-lawyer-charges-obama-with-hypocrisy-over-whistleblower-protection/ | 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 | 0.955741 | 208 | 1.617188 | 2 |
arborweb's culture blog
On November 8, 9, 10, and 11 at the Power Center, University of Michigan's Opera Theatre presented a smart, witty, and engaging production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Director Robert Swedberg moves the action of the opera from 16th century Spain to late 18th century New Orleans, a period when the city was under Spanish rule. By placing it in a setting where class distinctions were so prominent, belief in the supernatural was so prevalent, and the festival of Mardi Gras (or carnevale) offered such natural opportunities for disguises and costume changes, Swedberg delivers a persuasively fresh perspective on the opera's story line and deftly underscores it themes.
In the original setting, the jilted Donna Elvira pursues Don Giovanni from one Spanish town to another; by making her pregnant, the director gives her a compelling reason for following him all the way across the Atlantic. Another effective detail is the introduction of a voodoo element. Donna Elvira engages a Mamba Priestess to put a curse on her betrayer, which leads inexorably to his dreadful fate at the end of the opera.
The opera's four performances were double cast, with one cast singing Thursday and Saturday, and another on Friday and Sunday. I attended the Sunday matinee performance. Christopher James Lee led a smoothly elegant performance that captured the comic, ironic, passionate, and sinister elements of the score, and the University Symphony Orchestra played with refinement and infectious energy.
The singers in University Opera Theatre productions are consistently strong but there were several standouts among the soloists. Soprano Olivia Betzen gave an exceptionally mature performance as Donna Anna, with a voice that is pure, penetrating and soaring. She is a thoroughly convincing actress; her dignified bearing immediately established Donna Anna's aristocratic status, and she made the character's emotional vulnerability touching and personal. Baritone Juan Hector Periera was a charming and personable but devious Don Giovanni, a character fully aware of his charismatic power, and shamelessly willing to exploit it. Periera's voice is large, warm, and colorful, and he used it with impressive dramatic insight, and in "Fin ch'han dal vino," with great agility. (Incidentally, due to the illness of his counterpart in the opera's other cast, Periera was called in to cover for him midway through Saturday's performance, so he performed the role two and a half times in three days.) Baritone Benjamin Sieverding brought a natural gift for comedy to the role of Leporello. His directness and honesty made him an ideal foil to the title character and he sang with easy assurance and a full, rich sound. The verbal sparring between servant and master had terrific synergy.
As Don Ottavio, tenor Nicholas Nestorak's passionate and seamless delivery of "Il mio tesoro" was one of the highlights of the performance. While soprano Imani Mchunu's voice is not large, it is pure and focused, and her winning Zerlina conveyed just the right combination of coquettishness and confusion. Baritone Paul G.L. Grosvenor was an appropriately befuddled Masetto. As Donna Elvira, soprano Katherine Sanford sang with a lovely, clear tone, and bass Ronald Perkins, Jr. gave the Commendatore stentorian authority
Perkins' singing was especially powerful in the final scene. It begins with Don Giovanni dallying lasciviously with two young women--who later emerge from the gates of Hell revealed as succubi, demons who drag him to his death. There's a satisfying poetic justice in having women, on whom Don Giovanni has preyed all his life, act as the agents who deliver him to his punishment.
posted by John Hilton at 3:59 p.m. | 0 comments
These are dark times for America indeed. Not just because of all the polarization and disunity we see all around us, blue and red, conservative and liberal--not just because we can't seem to talk to each other or work across the divide anymore. But these are dangerous times because it's not safe to even answer the phone. There is always a robot on the other end, exhorting us in a DEEP SCARY MALE BARITONE DARTH VADAR VOICE that our economy will shut down and the world will end if we don't support or defeat his candidate or proposition. (Who is that voice actor, by the way, and in his real life, does he use his voice to try to get out of paying parking tickets, or bargain down the price of cars?)
Here is my solution; it's simple; it's cheap; it's within reach of all of us. After the election--or before--find someone in your neighborhood who has an election sign out front for the candidate you oppose. And introduce yourself to that neighbor, and take her a plate of cookies, like back in the old days, when people tried to make friends with their neighbors. And if you're invited for tea, the revolution--the real tea party--has begun. Maybe our elected officials have been lead to believe that they are being paid not to talk to people of the opposing party. Let's show them how it's done, and then write them and let them know it's possible, among neighbors of good faith.
posted by John Hilton at 12:45 p.m. | 1 comment | <urn:uuid:cde77427-5d7e-4f50-950d-65c7fc757505> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arborweb.com/blogs/movieblog/2012_11_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971906 | 1,129 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Tolliver is West Virginia School Counselor of the Year
Warm Springs Intermediate School guidance counselor Matthew Tolliver was named West Virginia School Counselor of the Year at a February 24 West Virginia School Counselor Association conference.
Tolliver is in his fourth year as intermediate school counselor. He began the school’s “Getting Outside of the Box” program which encouraged students from different backgrounds to flourish through special activities and a field trip to the nation’s capital.
In the program, kids learned social skills, etiquette, public speaking, drug abuse prevention, anti-bullying tips and other tools and resources for everyday life. Tolliver hoped to get the funding to do the program again next school year.
Last year Tolliver and 15 students worked with John Jay Bonstingl of Bonstingl Leadership Development’s in a two-day intensive “Leaders for the Future” program. Children learned skills to become effective leaders and created several projects to benefit the school.
Tolliver has also been active in county bullying prevention efforts, focusing on teaching
empathy, compassion and kindness and getting students to stand up for others.
He also offers individual and group counseling, classroom guidance and workshops and staff development.
Tolliver had his head shaved at school when students raised over $2,000 for Haiti earthquake victims. He has steered the Pennies for Patients collection for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation. Tolliver also works with the Holiday Helpers program every Christmas.
Tolliver is currently working with the high school mentoring program. Around 10-12 Berkeley Springs High School students go to the intermediate school and read to students and then take them to the gym to
shoot basketball and hang out.
They just received a grant for library books to be used for the mentoring sessions. Berkeley Springs High School English teacher Heather Lorigan applied for the grant, he said.
The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) model provides the framework for
school counseling programs.
His programs represent the guidelines and expectations of that model, Tolliver said.
Tolliver received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from West Virginia Wesleyan College. He came to Morgan County after finishing his master’s degree in counseling at West Virginia University. He is from
outside of Buckhannon in Upshur County.
Tolliver was very honored and excited to receive the state award.
“It’s rewarding to feel my efforts are being noticed,” he said.
School staff was also proud of Tolliver receiving the award.
“We are honored that Mr. Tolliver was chosen as state Counselor of the Year for the State of West Virginia. He is a valuable team member at Warm Springs Intermediate. He is dedicated to our school and has started many positive and proactive programs. He is a vital part of our school’s success,” Warm Springs Intermediate School Principal Joyce Ott said. | <urn:uuid:cf1a0a54-51f3-46cd-b57b-c41d5c4eb04d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://morganmessenger.com/news/content/story-9211 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962681 | 613 | 1.53125 | 2 |
This article is about the founder of J.C. Bamford Ltd. For the company article, see JCB
|Joseph Cyril Bamford|
Joseph Cyril Bamford
21 June 1916|
1 March 2001|
Joe Bamford was born into a Roman Catholic family from Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, which owned Bamfords Ltd, an agricultural engineering business. His great grandfather Henry Bamford was born in Yoxall, and had built up his own ironmongers business, which by 1881 it employed 50 men, 10 boys and 3 women. Bamfords International Farm Machinery became one of the country's major agricultural equipment suppliers, famous for its balers, rakes, hay turners, hay Wufflers, Mangold cutters, and Stationary engines, which were exported all over the world. The company eventually ceased trading in 1986. (JCB did try to buy the firm in the 1980s, but were unsuccessful, but now occupy its former factory site in Uttoxeter).
After attending Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, Joe Bamford joined the Alfred Herbert company in Coventry, then the UK's largest machine- tool manufacturer, and rose to represent the firm in Ghana. He returned home in 1938 to join the family firm, but in 1941 was called up by the Royal Air Force to serve in World War II. Working in supply and logistics, he returned to the African Gold Coast region, to run a staging post for United States Air Force planes being ferried to the Middle East.
On return home in 1944, he initially worked for English Electric developing electric welding equipment in Stafford. A short return stint with the family firm proved too stifling, and his Uncle Henry released him saying he thought Joe had "little future ahead of him." After selling Brylcreem for a short while, in October 1945 Joe rented a 10 ft (3 m) by 15 ft lock-up garage for 30 shillings (= £1.50) a week, and made a farm trailer from scrap steel and war surplus Jeep axles, using a prototype electric welder bought for £2-10s (= £2.50). He opened for business on the day his first son, Anthony, was born, and sold the trailer for £45 and a car, which he also repaired and sold for another £45.
Having no interest in taking over rival businesses, his philosophy of: "Focus on what you do best, be innovative, and re-invest in product development and the latest manufacturing technologies;" resulted in a series of market leading innovations:
- 1948 - introduced the first hydraulic tipping trailer in Europe
- 1950 - moved to an old cheese factory in Rocester where the workforce totalled six
- 1951 - began painting his machinery yellow
- 1953 - brought out his breakthrough product, the backhoe loader
- 1957 - brought out the "hydra-digga", incorporating the excavator and the major loader as a single all-purpose tool, which was useful for both the agricultural as well as the construction industry, which JCB then grew with.
With exports starting to the United States, profits escalated from 1960 onwards. JCB has won seven Queen's Awards for Exports as its sales spread to more than 130 countries around the world, while Joe himself was awarded a CBE for Services to Export in 1969. In 1993 became the first and currently only British citizen to be honoured in the American Construction Equipment Hall of Fame.
What made Joe different from many engineers, was that he was also a marketeer. Bamford personally demanded to know daily from his staff how many "JCB Yellow" vehicles were off the road awaiting spares. Bamford created an image that JCB's were there to work, and if an owner-operator’s machine was down, then Joe Bamford wanted to know about it - which gained him 95% of the owner-operator market in the UK.
Joe placed a 12v socket into the cab of his vehicles for a Kettle, and delivered the first 100 personally, arriving in his Rolls Royce with number plate JCB1. One of the first Learjet's in Europe was purchased to fly in non-UK customers (the fleet has since got larger), who were met by another European first, a stretched Cadillac with the same number of seats as the jet. Joe also conceived the "dancing diggers," whose 1999 display in Las Vegas stopped the gamblers.
A non-smoking teetotaller, who was so careful with his money that he claimed his wife still made their own curtains, Joe worked from 09:00 until 23:00 every day. He saw his role in life similarly to that of his religious predecessors, the Cadbury and Lever families. He built Rocester along the lines of Bourneville and Port Sunlight into an effective marketing home for the company, and an efficient production centre and a virtual "home" for his employees. He saw no need to recognise Unions. The Rocester works were surrounded by 10,000 acres (40 km²
) of landscaped grounds in which his company's employees could shoot, fish, swim, and sail.
Joe Bamford paid more than average wages, which rose regularly, and annual bonuses based on reports of individual worth - in 1967 Joe stood on a farm cart and handed out personal cheques totalling pounds £250,000. This extraordinary focus in return gave unprecedented levels of workforce flexibility, with the average JCB employee through the strike-dominated 1970s and early 1980s being seven times more productive than the average British manufacturing worker.
In 1975 Joe and his wife Marjorie (nee Griffin - married 1941) handed over the business to their two sons, and retired to Switzerland as a tax exile. He continued to design both boats and diesel engines, as well as his own garden. Joe was awarded the honorary degree of a Doctor of Technology from both Loughborough University in 1989; and Keele University in 2000.
Joe Bamford died in a London clinic on 1 March, 2001. At his death, JCB was the largest privately-owned engineering company in Britain, employing 4,500 people and manufacturing 30,000 machines a year in 12 factories on three continents. It had revenues of £850m in 1999, earned from 140 countries.
His portrait by Lucinda Douglas-Menzies sits in the National Portrait Gallery.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Ritchie, Berry Obituary: Joseph Bamford Independent Newspaper - March 7, 2001
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Phillips, Dave Engineer who gave his name to a machine on every building site - the JCB digger Guardian - March 5, 2001
- ↑ The Marketing Leaders - Marketing Leadership: the outsider looking in
- ↑ Aviation Photos: JCB
- ↑ Bamford steps down as JCB managing director | Diesel Progress North American Edition | Find Articles at BNET.com
- ↑ Honorary Graduates and University Medallists since 1966 Loughborough University - retrieved 19th August, 2007
- ↑ KEELE UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES HONORARY DEGREES Keele University - retrieved 19th August, 2007
- ↑ Joseph Cyril Bamford (1916-2001), Founder and chairman of JCB Inc., creator of construction and excavation equipment
|This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at J. C. Bamford (person). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons by Attribution License and/or GNU Free Documentation License. Please check page history for when the original article was copied to Wikia| | <urn:uuid:f12ab996-cb03-4e46-ba60-f6a7848f5609> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tractors.wikia.com/wiki/Joseph_Cyril_Bamford | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976578 | 1,616 | 1.65625 | 2 |
When it comes to inspiring a generation, you do not necessarily need a £9.3 billion (Dh53bn) war chest, as well as a willing public. But it probably helps.
Bethlem Desaleyn will not have quite such ready resources to hand when she become the UAE's first female track Olympian as she takes to the start line of today's 1,500 metres heats. All she really has are her running spikes and a flag of convenience.
Desaleyn has a stated aim of inspiring female Emiratis to take up running. It is a noble sentiment, given that she has prospered entirely independently of the athletics system in the UAE.
She was born and brought up in Ethiopia, trains there to get the benefits of running at altitude, and her infrequent trips to the UAE are usually fleeting.
In the week before the Olympics started, she did not want to spend any more than a day in Dubai, because of the effect the summer heat might have had on her training schedule.
It is fair to say Desaleyn would not be where she is today - she is competing as an outright qualifier, having attained the B standard time earlier this year - had she grown up in the UAE.
The infrastructure for track and field is poor. Among females, it has been more or less non-existent. However, there are signs that the winds of change are starting to whistle through the sport.
According to Ahmed Al Kamali, the former Al Wasl marathon runner who is the president of the UAE Athletics Federation, the building blocks are now in place to promote athletics among female Emiratis.
"We are trying to build a team and it is a long process," said Al Kamali, who has been the president of the governing body since June 2008.
"The coaches are ladies, the team manager is a lady long jumper. Everything is lady, lady, lady."
One notable sign of progress arrived in April, when Svetla Dimitrova, a former Bulgarian heptathlete who appeared at four Olympics between 1988 and 2000, arrived to head up the new coaching programme for junior female athletes.
The 42 year old has a team of 20 promising girls, all aged between 14 and 16, under her charge on a daily basis in Dubai. The plan is a long one.
"Hopefully we can raise the standard ahead of the next Olympics in four years' time in Rio de Janeiro," said Dimitrova, who finished fifth in the heptathlon at the 1992 Games in Barcelona.
"Since I arrived I have seen there is plenty of talent - but it needs to be nurtured. There needs to be more training, every day, step by step. Maybe if that happens there can be a gradual improvement."
One of the girls benefiting from Dimitrova's guidance is Alia Naser, a 15-year-old long jump and high jump specialist.
The Al Sufouh School girl was born in Dubai to an Emirati father and an English mother. She believes the Olympic Games, and the athletics events in particular, mean more to the expatriate community in the UAE than Emiratis, but feels development programmes like the one she is in are already starting to help aspiring athletes like her.
"We see each other every day now in the mornings and the evenings," she said.
"I never thought seriously about it until I joined the UAE federation team.
"Now it is really nice because we look forward to competitions. I don't think it is as big [within the Arabic community] as the English-speaking one, but as an athletics team we have been really looking forward to the Olympics."
According to Larry Barthlow, the mentor and former coach of the UAE national team's two Ethiopia-born distance runners, Desaleyn and Alia Saeed Mohammed, much still needs to be done to develop the sport.
The former marathon runner, who serves in an advisory capacity to the governing body for athletics, insists the moves being taken to mobilise females and schoolchildren in athletics are long overdue.
"Athletics must be in the schools as a post-school programme, with leagues and meets set up among all the schools," said Barthlow, who also advocates more competition between Emirati clubs and expatriate athletes.
Al Kamali, who will seek reelection as the president of the federation later this summer, says the benefits of the development programme for female athletes which have been introduced are already starting to bear fruit.
"We have brought the girls together," Al Kamali said. "They are happy to be with each other discussing athletics, and we are giving them the programmes for all the Olympic events, so they can build and aspire to them.
"Some of them are very good, we have a 14-year-old girl who is already doing five metres 20 centimetres in the long jump. That is very good.
"We have a girl who throws the hammer. Normally you don't see that in this part of the world. Our girls are enjoying it and feel they can do something now."
Sheikha Maitha bint Mohammed Al Maktoum
Taekwondo, Beijing 2008
Carried the flag at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics before making her debut appearance in the taekwondo competition. Her influence has been felt beyond the confines of her sport. The embryonic UAE weightlifting team borrowed space in her gyms as they put the building blocks in place for their London 2012 qualification.
Sheikha Latifa bint Ahmed Al Maktoum
Equestrian, Beijing 2008
The second female member of the Olympic squad that travelled to China four years ago was the showjumping Royal from Dubai. Two years later she enjoyed a highly successful Asian Games, during which she and her younger brother Sheikh Rashid claimed a silver for the UAE in the showjumping team event.
Weightlifting, London 2012
The 17 year old became the first Emirati weightlifting Olympian last week, when she competed in the 75kg category. She was selected as the one UAE representative in the competition, after the female national team won a place at the Games via their performance in the Asian Championships.
Follow us @SprtNationalUAE | <urn:uuid:12524e6f-40d9-456b-b79f-37e334e3ad3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenational.ae/sport/other-sport/athletic-talent-needs-to-be-nurtured-among-uae-women | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978742 | 1,290 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The skills to fill an engineering job are simple: sound technical skills; demonstrated experience in the profession; registration or a certification. These are all measurable and definable (or at least documented) skills that a firm can easily assess and verify and serve as objective measures of performance. Although these skills are important to a hiring official’s decision-making, these aren’t the only elements that are important. In fact, these elements are only the price of admission for consideration.
When looking to hire an engineer in the past, I’ve started with the basics – education, registration, documented experience – but quickly moved to the more subjective skills sets that define each of us as individuals. It’s these skills, more than the objective technical skills, which illuminate if someone will truly excel in a particular position. The skills that define someone’s potential to excel in a job include:
Willingness to Learn. Are you interested in learning new skills, processes and procedures? If so, how do you show this in your resume, or the list of projects you’ve worked or led? Most likely any position you’re hired into will require you to learn continuously.
Communication Skills. I’ve hired engineers solely on the basis of their technical prowess and lived to regret it. I didn’t look to their ability to listen, write, and speak. Communications skills are one of the most powerful skills to embody. If you can listen, write, and speak effectively, you’ll catapult past everyone.
Leadership Potential. How has your leadership responsibility increased over your career? Have you led in any capacity – work teams, project teams, professional organizations? Most firms want individuals with the capacity to take charge of project teams and guide them towards a shared end goal. At a minimum, they want their members to be strong self-leaders who chose initiative over passive involvement.
Emotional Intelligence. How well do you read others, network, and interact in the world around you? If you can up your EI-quotient, you’ll excel in any position you take simply because you’ll be able to assemble the team to deliver success on every project.
Commitment. Do you do what you’ll say you’ll do? Do you take action in accomplishing the professional items you need to stay relevant and current? Can you show this in the projects you’ve worked or programs in which you’ve participated?
Integrity. Integrity to most means, “trust”. It certainly does, but it encompasses more than this. It also means “truth”. Being true to you and to others. Hiring-on with a firm simply because the position pays well – or it’s a job – isn’t being true to you and to others. You’re filling the square. You may be able to mask this for a period of time, but eventually it will become evident and you won’t be excelling.
Creativity. A most elusive skill yet one that every person has in abundance. This doesn’t necessarily mean your skills at playing the piano, dance or watercolors. Creativity shows up in your designs, your ability to piece together networks and relationships, your knack for identifying the best leads for additional business, your skills at reducing overhead and maximizing billings. You don’t need to be Monet to be creative, you simply need to do you what you do best.
What do all of these skills have in common? They aren’t taught in a class and they are different for each of us. Unlike our engineering educations that cover the same theories and fundamentals, these skills are developed, shaped, and integrated into each of us differently. Each requires time, experience, and application and don’t rely directly on learning something from a book. Develop these skills, however, and you will excel in any job.
“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.” Larry Bird
Christian Knutson, P.E., PMP is a leader, civil engineer, and author. He’s an accomplished professional specializing in A/E/C work internationally and author of The Engineer Leader, a recognized blog on leadership and life success for engineers and professionals. | <urn:uuid:fa3a8bd6-c1c2-4ad5-a958-24fd220125a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.engineering.com/Jobs/JobArticles/ArticleID/4715/Skills-You-Need-to-Excel-in-Any-Job.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957834 | 917 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Are you heading out of town for a weekend getaway this Labor Day weekend? Or maybe you will be staying close to home and heading to the beach or a friend’s house for a barbecue. Whatever your plans are, the California Highway Patrol has a few traffic safety tips for you to keep in mind while you are out on the roadways.
- Expect travel delays. Extra drivers and ongoing construction will inevitably mean extended travel times. Please plan extra time to arrive at your destination and exercise patience.
- Do not leave valuables in your parked vehicle. Lock your doors and take your keys with you. Vehicle theft and burglaries increase as the weather becomes more pleasant. Beachgoers will often leave valuables in their car along with their keys, and thieves know this.
- Kaitlyn’s Law prohibits anyone who is responsible for a child from leaving any child under the age of 6 in a vehicle unless supervised by another person 12 years old or older. Please keep the heat in mind: Even though the breeze makes our weather seem very pleasant, the temperature inside a vehicle can rapidly rise far above the temperature outside.
- Do not park illegally. Residents and business owners regularly call to report illegally parked vehicles. CHP responds to ticket and/or tow the vehicle, if necessary.
- Obey all laws and stay focused on the road. Distracted drivers are extremely dangerous to the many drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists who will be out enjoying the weather and festivities.
- Designate a sober driver. Remember, any substance which alters your mood or mental state can impair you to drive. Marijuana, prescription drugs, and illicit drugs all impair drivers and cause collisions.
- Wear your seatbelt! It is your best defense against impaired, reckless, and distracted drivers.
- Help us keep the road safe by reporting suspected impaired drivers. Impaired drivers kill many innocent Californians each year. Dial 911 from your cell phone and be prepared to provide the dispatcher with the location, direction, and detailed description of a dangerous driver. We will do everything we can to respond. The collision you prevent could be your own. | <urn:uuid:60b5d9e8-e6bf-49af-8973-46bf230a6216> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://glendora.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/chp-offers-tips-for-labor-day-drivers-cf63826f | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941148 | 435 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Iran leader in Bush 'Satan' claim
BBC | October 16 2006
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly delivered a scathing attack on US President George W Bush, saying he is inspired by Satan.
Speaking to a group of supporters, Mr Ahmadinejad said he himself had inspirational links to God, Iranian media reports.
He was talking to supporters at a mosque in the capital Tehran.
The reports come as Iran is facing the prospect of UN sanctions over its nuclear programme.
The president has been making light of the risk of any confrontation with the outside world.
According to the Iranian media, Mr Ahmadinejad said he had inspirational links to God, and went on to say that if you were a true believer, God would show you miracles.
Then the Iranian president said Mr Bush was similar to him.
According to Mr Ahmadinejad, the US president also receives inspiration - but it is from Satan.
He repeated: "Satan inspires Mr Bush."
Mr Ahmadinejad also reiterated that Iran would not suspend its nuclear programme, "even for one hour", and said there would be no retreat, "even one millimetre back".
He dismissed talk about possible war breaking out over the nuclear issue as nonsense, saying some people were making an unnecessary fuss about US naval ships reportedly sailing towards the region.
Infowars.com is Copyright 2006 Alex Jones | Fair Use Notice | <urn:uuid:4ba19cd4-389b-414c-bbf2-ea07de50ed48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infowars.com/articles/ww3/iran_leader_in_bush_satan_claim.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977532 | 288 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The states are powerful enough to stand up to the federal government when it violates citizens’ rights. Learn how we can better leverage the power of states.
What does poisoning a goldfish to get revenge on a cheating spouse have to do with the President’s power to make treaties? The constitutionally correct answer is: Nothing at all. Unfortunately, that’s not how the Obama Administration sees it. The Administration is claiming power to get into a domestic dispute under the authority of a chemical weapons treaty. And it is aggressively advancing the proposition that Congress’s power is essentially unlimited when based on the treaty power.
Contact: Lucy Caldwell
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FIXING FEDERAL DEBT IS UP TO THE STATES
Compact for America is exactly what Founders intended to check Washington
Webmaster's note: Nick Dranias will present on Compact for America, Saturday April 26, in Orlando, Florida. For more information about that event, click here.
Even in his sunset years, Ronald Reagan understood too well that Congress will never tie its own hands when it comes to debt spending. Lamenting the repeated failure of Congress to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment, Reagan wrote on May 23, 1994:
We can’t depend on Congress to discipline itself . . . we must rely on the states to force Congress to act on our amendment. Fortunately, our Nation’s Founders gave us the means to amend the Constitution through action of state legislatures . . . . That is the only strategy that will work.
There are many reasons for Arizona to reject the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, but one reason which has not gotten the attention it deserves is the increasing possibility that the provider tax being proposed to fund the expansion may be reduced or phased out, leaving Arizona with a bill we cannot afford.
A recent article in Time magazine by Steven Brill documents the enormously high prices we pay in this country for health care, including the markups and significant profits of “nonprofit” hospitals. For example, M.D. Anderson marked up an anti-cancer drug some 400 percent. Stamford Hospital billed an individual $8,000 for a test that Medicare would have reimbursed at $600. Blood tests are often marked up by more than 1,000 percent over verifiable costs. Brill’s article is 28 pages long and includes dozens of examples.
On August 12, 2010 the Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit against President Obama's federal health care law. The lawsuit employs two unique arguments not used in any other case against national health care, in combination with the best arguments used in those cases. | <urn:uuid:4e44f6d6-09ff-49a6-bad8-8a5037fa026b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://secure.goldwaterinstitute.org/state-powers-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930541 | 533 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Fetus cemetery part of crusade against termination
Vietnam activists offer dignified end for aborted childrenVisitors pray at a cemetery for aborted fetuses in Ben Coc subparish on December 28
- ucanews.com reporter, Hanoi
- January 11, 2013
In a 15-square-meter hut just over 10 miles north of Hanoi, Anna Nguyen Thi Nhiem takes aborted fetuses out of a refrigerator and wraps them in white cloth and plastic bags, all the while saying prayers.
She then places about 20 fetuses – between a few weeks and two months – into urns and buries them in freshly dug graves at Ben Coc subparish cemetery.
“I bury 50 such urns in a grave before I have it built,” she says while wiping the sweat from her face.
Seven volunteers including her husband and children collect aborted fetuses from eight clinics around Hanoi.
They are all Christians and mostly Catholics – pro-life activists – who are against terminating pregnancies and believe that the resulting aborted fetuses deserve a proper Christian burial.
“Aborted fetuses are saints and worthy of being interred properly,” says Nhiem, a mother of four.
In the past, she had to secretly bury fetuses in her garden or on the banks of a nearby river for fear of the local authorities and people living in the area.
But since mid-2007, she has been able to bury fetuses in a new 300-square-meter cemetery attached to the church, two-thirds of which Nhiem herself donated from the family’s extensive rice fields.
They are thinking of donating a further 300 square-meters to the cause.
“Now the cemetery is nearly filled with tombs,” she says.
Her team has buried more than 58,000 aborted fetuses in the new cemetery, adds Nhiem.
On average, she receives 20 aborted fetuses every day and as many as 70 on weekend days or public holidays.
Benefactors in the area made donations for the all-important refrigerators and they cover the expense of burying the aborted fetuses.
Part of Nhiem's crusade includes efforts to encourage local women – a dozen so far – to keep their unborn babies for adoption and she looks after abandoned babies.
Many of the abortions are made by young women who work at a nearby industrial estate with about 70 percent conceived from premarital sex, says Nhiem.
Sex-determined abortions are also an enduring problem while others feel they must abort to keep their jobs.
According to government estimates, Vietnam records between 1.4 million and two million abortions every year.
Ho Chi Minh City has the highest rates of termination with 66 abortions carried out for every 100 births, according to official figures.
However, Redemptorist Father Joseph Le Quang Uy, a pro-life activist, estimates that abortions may have overtaken births and terminations are closer to three million per year.
He has been burying fetuses, like Nhiem, for eight years as part of a pro-life group which also offers the chance for would-be parents to name their terminated children and “confess their sins.”
One factor impacting abortions is Vietnam’s two-child policy which has been in force for most of the past half century or so and has intermittently included fines for those who have three or more children. State officials who violate this rule are sometimes dismissed.
Mary Tran Thi Mai who lives near Nhiem has five children.
“Without Nhiem’s encouragement, I would have had two children and [a series of] abortions,” she says. “She encouraged me not to end my third pregnancy and I decided to give birth. Now I am very happy to have five children.” | <urn:uuid:de461ad3-ee1b-4934-a042-497fe6321f68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ucanews.com/news/fetus-cemetery-part-of-crusade-against-termination/67089 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965928 | 808 | 1.609375 | 2 |
To the outside world, Prince Albert of Monaco has been many things: a playboy trailed by models, an heir lavished with attention, an Olympic sportsman and more latterly a serious sovereign concerned with world affairs and the environment.
On the streets of Monaco the view is more simple. He is one of them and someone they have followed closely from birth, watching him develop from a sweet blue-eyed boy into a man.
In the world's second smallest independent state, he and his sisters Caroline and Stephanie were known simply as ' the little ones'.
As one long-time resident put it in her motherly way: "The prince is not getting married. Rather we are marrying off our prince."
How proud then they must have been to see the 53-year-old head of the Grimaldi house arrive for his second wedding ceremony looking authoritative in the smart white summer uniform of the Palace Guards - the Carabiniers, founded in 1817 to protect the royal family.
His sleeves were embroidered with oak and olive leaves and the front fastened with monogrammed golden buttons.
His chest was was emblazoned with medals representing the Order of Saint Charles, the Order of Grimaldi and France's Legion of Honour.
Greeted by His Grace Bernard Barsi, Archbishop of Monaco, with a warm smile and handshake, the prince paused before making his way to the marble altar at the foot of the impressive 17th century double staircase.
Along the way he smiled and winked at friends and family gathered to share in the special occasion.
Albert arrived at the altar shortly before Charlene, breaking with a long-standing tradition that has seen the brides of sovereign princes await their grooms.
The focus of the beautifully arranged ceremony was a marble altar specially assembled for the occasion, in front of which were placed two ornate seats for the newlyweds.
And with the Archbishop officiating, he prepared to pledge himself to the woman his fellow citizens hope will help secure the succession. | <urn:uuid:d9266ea2-823e-46e5-a702-e96b3ceeffd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://royalweddings.hellomagazine.com/prince-albert-monaco-charlene-wittstock/20110702732/prince-albert-arrival-religious-ceremony-monaco-royal-wedding%20/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975801 | 411 | 1.671875 | 2 |
I received a few simple pieces of advice that helped me to get started which I want to pass along. While I was pregnant, I read The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. This is the "bible" of breastfeeding published by La Leche League. It has countless tips and tricks along with troubleshooting and advice to address the whole range of a new mom's concerns. Immediately after BabyE was born, my dear midwife helped us to get started with breastfeeding. Even though he didn't latch at that time, after he woke up from a nice long nap, he suckled for a whole hour the first time! Here are the tips that gave us a firm foundation for a positive breastfeeding experience:
#1 Be Supportive. The baby's mouth will instinctively open wide to nurse. Many babies can scoot to find mama's breast just minutes after a natural birth, though their necks aren't always strong enough to get and maintain a good deep latch. When they open wide, they may need you to help them support their heads as they move toward the breast. If it weren't for my midwife demonstrating to me how to do this, I never would have been confident enough to firmly guide Baby's head. Don't worry though, it won't hurt them, but it will help to get a good latch that doesn't cause you pain. It was wonderful that even DH could help with this part of breastfeeding when I felt like I needed three hands. The cross-cradle hold is also helps.
|BabyE asleep after a feed.|
#2 Make a "Big Fat Sandwich" and a fishy face. Baby needs to get a big bite of breast tissue in his mouth for a good latch. You may need to flatten out the breast like a sandwich to help him do this, especially in the early days when breasts can be very full. He shouldn't be sucking only on the nipple. This was something that never occurred to me before reading it. The whole areola should be in his mouth to allow him access to all the milk available. If at the end of the feeding he is relaxed and begins hanging on the nipple only, refer to tip #3. The baby should make a fishy face with mouth wide open and lips turned out. Looking for this helped me make sure that Baby had a good latch. When he latched correctly, I could really feel it. "It'll curl your toes," as my midwife told me.
#3 If the latch isn't right, detach the baby and start again. When BabyE was brand new, I was so relieved, happy, and proud when he latched at all. The idea of purposefully detaching him seemed crazy to me. Wouldn't it be better just to let him be? Even though it was difficult, I'm thankful for my midwife's advice to never put up with a bad latch. I believe, making sure that baby has a good latch is the reason I didn't have problems with breastfeeding pain or raw cracked nipples.
I hope you'll find these tips helpful. These are what worked for me. If you're having trouble, be sure to contact a La Leche League leader or a lactation consultant and get help. You can do it! | <urn:uuid:2d8ed570-4909-4483-a3d7-80a6071208b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.growingslower.com/2011/12/3-tips-for-positive-breastfeeding.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985881 | 665 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Love robotics? Fill out the form below to stay
abreast of the latest news, research, and business
analysis in key areas of the fast-changing
All Stories Tagged "Personal Robots"
05/26/09 Panasonic Corp. demonstrated an autonomous floor-cleaner robot last month at the Tokyo Fiber Senseware exhibition in Italy, which highlights innovative uses of artificial fibers. Panasonic’s Fukitorimushi, which translates as ‘wipe-up bug” is made of polyester fibers each of which is less than 1/7500th the width of a human hair, according to a report in Slash Gear. The autonomous unit “sees” using a blue-white light that can identify the difference between a spot of clean floor and dirt. When it spots dirt it flashes a red light and inchworms itself over to scrub out the spot by circling and rubbing with…
05/18/09 In the middle of a hard recession, most companies are hard-pressed to make optimistic reports of this year’s sales, let alone next year’s. Gecko Systems International Corp., however, has announced an “optimistic” projection of sales of its eldercare personal robots that reaches out five full years. Much of the projection is based on a meta-analysis the company ran to establish what it believes will be the growth rate of the market overall. It then estimated its market share in each of the next five years The company believes that the market for “cost-effective, utilitarian, multitasking eldercare personal robots” will be… | <urn:uuid:b2be3301-1e64-483a-8037-47b6c7f532a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.roboticstrends.com/topics/tag/personal_robots | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93216 | 328 | 1.515625 | 2 |
There might be little of environmental merit in Formula One racing. But when Honda pulled out of the race last year, where did its engineers go? To hybrid development, apparently.
The company’s new chief executive Takanobu Ito, who started last week, was all about hybrids in his first public appearance today. “I think everyone is going to go the way of hybrids,” he said, adding that Honda would speed up the development of a new hybrid system with two electric motors for medium to large vehicles.
Virtually all engineers that had been part of Honda’s Formula One team
are now working on hybrid development, he said.
Car companies do, after all, tend to justify their Formula One investments by saying it is useful to mainstream vehicle development.
Honda is upping the ante against its larger rival Toyota, which trail-blazed much of the mass market for hybrids with its Prius. Honda has sold more of its low-cost hybrid model, the Insight, than expected since it went on sale in February.
New Honda CEO wants to accelerate hybrids (Reuters, 13/07/09) | <urn:uuid:fcce0b72-13ff-4af4-bea9-ed61ab9d544a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2009/07/13/from-formula-one-to-hybrids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978028 | 236 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Binge drinking. Excessive homework. The BCS system. What do these three have in common? All can leave you with one nasty headache. Luckily, this flowchart will tackle that last item, the Bowl Championship Series, as well as illustrate why it’s so dang hard for Boise State to make it to a BCS bowl game. Let’s dive in:
How the BCS works:
A product of the previous bowl selectors, the Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance, the BCS was created in 1998, championed by former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer. Despite the previous two selection groups, the BCS technically allows any school from any of the major or mid major conferences to be in contention for one of its four bowls (Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose) as well as its championship game. Not so fast though, as the conference, ranking and television red tape play a big role in the “who’s in, who’s out” game.
For the BCS rankings themselves, there are three major components to it: a coaches’ poll that is conducted by USA Today, a poll done by Harris Interactive, and a group of six computers ranking the teams. From wins and losses as well as strength of schedule and conference play, the BCS ranks the top 25 teams in the nation. The No. 1 and No. 2 overall team in the BCS standings at the end of the college season rightfully play in the national title game. But for the other bowls, it becomes a bit murky. Here is the breakdown of the BCS bowl system.
National Championship game:
This year: No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Alabama
Jan. 7 6:30 p.m. MT on ESPN
The first BCS National Championship game was played in 1998 and resulted from the “Bowl Alliance” system between the Big Ten Conference, the Pac 10 Conference and the Rose Bowl. The Bowl Alliance, in an extended format, became the Bowl Championship Series, or BCS. The only confusing thing about the national title game is that it rotates between the four bowls and their respective location. For instance, this year the game will be played at the Orange Bowl location in Miami, Fla.
Notre Dame took the top spot overall for going undefeated (the only team aside from the bowl-ineligable Ohio State Buckeyes) and it’s strength of schedule, defeating four ranked BCS teams throughout the season. Alabama took the No. 2 spot for similar reasons as the Fighting Irish: its brutal SEC schedule in which the Crimson Tide defeated four ranked opponents but lost to Texas A&M on an upset.
This year: No. 6 Stanford vs. Wisconsin
Jan. 1 3 p.m. MT on ESPN
The Rose Bowl, typically played on Jan. 1st, carries the nickname “The Granddaddy of Them All” because it is the oldest BCS bowl game. First played in 1902, it has been the most widely-attended bowl game since 1945. For this bowl, the winners of the Pac-12 and Big 10 conferences head to Pasadena, Calif. for one of the more historic bowls in college football history.
The Stanford Cardinal, ranked No. 6 overall, found their way into this year’s Rose Bowl as Pac- 12 conference winners, defeating UCLA in the Pac-12 title game 27-24 on Nov. 30. For the unranked Wisconsin Badgers, beating the Nebraska Cornhuskers 70-31 on Dec. 1 in the Big 10 title game was the key to their trip back to Pasadena for a third consecutive year.
No. 15 Northern Illinois vs. No. 12 Florida State
Jan. 1 6:30 p.m. MT on ESPN
Tied with the Sugar Bowl for the second-oldest bowl game in the BCS, the Orange Bowl has been played annually for more than 75 years. Before the National Championship became a stand-alone game, the Orange Bowl hosted the top two BCS teams several times. Initially having a conference connection with the Big East, the Orange Bowl now takes the winner of the ACC and at-large team, a team which the bowl selects within the top 16 of the BCS standings
Florida State took home the ACC crown by taking down Georgia Tech 21-15 in their title game on Dec. 1. For Northern Illinois, it’s a bit of a different story. As members of the MAC, the conference is considered a “non-AQ” and must finish in the Top 16 and ahead of a major conference winner to qualify for a BCS spot. The Huskies did just that, finishing at No. 15 in the final BCS rankings and ahead of Big 10 conference winner Wisconsin.
No. 3 Florida vs. No. 21 Louisville
Jan. 2 6:30 p.m. MT on ESPN
The Sugar Bowl, tied with the Orange Bowl, is the second-oldest BCS game. It was first played in 1926, when New Orleans held a community celebration centered around a football game. The festival idea was scrapped, but the football game stayed to be renamed the Sugar Bowl. The bowl itself has a conference tie-in with the SEC and an at-large pick.
With Alabama heading to the national title game, the bowl selected No. 3 as its SEC representative. While the Big East does not have any conference tie-ins, it does qualify as an at-large pick. This year’s Big East winner was Louisville, defeating Rutgers 20-17 on Nov. 29 for the conference title.
No. 4 Oregon vs. No. 5 Kansas State
Jan. 3 6:30 p.m. MT on ESPN
The Fiesta Bowl began with the Western Athletic Conference’s frustration in attempting to obtain bowl invitations for its teams (sound familiar?). First played in 1971, the Fiesta Bowl quickly began attracting high-profile teams from larger conferences. In 1978, it dropped its tie-in with the WAC. Now, the bowl takes the winner of the Big 12 conference and an at-large pick.
Kansas State took home the Big 12 title with its 42-24 win over Texas to head to Phoenix, Ariz. for the bowl. The bowl then selected Oregon as its at-large team to square off against the Wildcats, the Ducks fourth straight BCS bowl appearance.
Boise State has had quite a rep with the Fiesta Bowl in recent years. In 2007, the Broncos finished the season undefeated at 13-0 and defeated Big 12 conference winner Oklahoma 43-42 in overtime in one of the more remarkable and uncanny Fiesta Bowls. In 2010, the Broncos made history as they squared off against TCU for the first BCS bowl game featuring two non-AQ teams, two who were both undefeated at the time. Boise State took home its second Fiesta Bowl title with a 17-10 over the Horned Frogs. | <urn:uuid:03b7fc84-0fc0-49a6-b8ef-ba393862314f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arbiteronline.com/2012/12/10/bcs-blues-why-boise-state-gets-left-out/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973911 | 1,429 | 1.648438 | 2 |
By Michael Specter
Hardcover, 304 pages
List Price: $27.95
The most blatant forms of denialism are rarely malevolent; they combine decency, a fear of change, and the misguided desire to do good — for our health, our families, and the world. That is why so many physicians dismiss the idea that a patient's race can, and often should, be used as a tool for better diagnoses and treatment. Similar motivations — in other words, wishful thinking — have helped drive the growing national obsession with organic food. We want our food to taste good, but also to be safe and healthy. That's natural. Food is more than a meal, it's about history, culture, and a common set of rituals. We put food in the mouths of our children; it is the glue that unites families and communities. And because we don't see our food until we eat it, any fear attached to it takes on greater resonance.
The corrosive implications of this obsession barely register in America or Europe, where calories are cheap and food is plentiful. But in Africa, where arable land is scarce, science offers the only hope of providing a solution to the growing problem of hunger. To suggest that organic vegetables, which cost far more than conventional produce, can feed billions of people in parts of the world without roads or proper irrigation may be a fantasy based on the finest intentions. But it is a cruel fantasy nonetheless.
Denialist arguments are often bolstered by accurate information taken wildly out of context, wielded selectively, and supported by fake experts who often don't seem fake at all. If vast factory farms inject hormones and antibiotics into animals, which is often true and always deplorable, then all industrial farming destroys the earth and all organic food helps sustain it. If a pricey drug like Nexium, the blockbuster "purple pill" sold so successfully to treat acid reflux disease, offers few additional benefits to justify its staggering cost, then all pharmaceutical companies always gouge their customers and "natural" alternatives — largely unregulated and rarely tested with rigor — offer the only acceptable solution.
We no longer trust authorities, in part because we used to trust them too much. Fortunately, they are easily replaced with experts of our own. All it takes is an Internet connection. Anyone can seem impressive with a good Web site and some decent graphics. Type the word "vaccination" into Google and one of the first of the fifteen million or so listings that pops up, after the Centers for Disease Control, is the National Vaccine Information Center, an organization that, based on its name, certainly sounds like a federal agency. Actually, it's just the opposite: the NVIC is the most powerful anti-vaccine organization in America, and its relationship with the U.S. government consists almost entirely of opposing federal efforts aimed at vaccinating children.
Fifty years ago, we venerated technology. At least until we placed our feet on lunar soil, our culture was largely one of uncritical reverence for the glories that science would soon deliver. The dominant image of popular American culture was progress. TV shows like Star Trek and The Jetsons were based on a kind of utopian view of the scientific future. Even the Flintstones were described as a "modern" Stone Age family. We were entering an era without disease or hunger. If we ran out of water we would siphon salt from the seas and make more; if nature was broken we could fix it. If not, we could always move to another planet.
That vision no longer seems quite so enchanting. No doubt our expectations were unreasonable — for science and for ourselves. We also began to recognize the unintended consequences of our undeniable success. About a month before Neil Armstrong made his large step on the moon, the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River erupted in flames near Cleveland, creating an indelible image of industry at war with nature. A few years later, in 1976, Karen Ann Quinlan was removed from life support, igniting the first horrific battle of the modern era over how we live and die. The end of the decade was marked by the ghastly accident at Three Mile Island, which showed more clearly than ever that the effects of the Industrial Revolution were not all benign. The thalidomide disaster, mad cow disease, even the dramatic and sustained lies of Big Tobacco have all contributed to the sense that if the promise of science wasn't a lie, it wasn't exactly the truth either.
Today the image of a madman whipping up a batch of smallpox, or manufacturing an effective version of bird flu in his kitchen, while not exactly as easy as baking a cake, is no longer so far-fetched. Indeed, if there is anything more frightening than the threat of global nuclear war, it is the certainty that humans not only stand on the verge of producing new life forms but may soon be able to tinker with them as if they were vintage convertibles or bonsai trees.
Our technical and scientific capabilities have brought the world to a turning point, one in which accomplishments clash with expectations. The result often manifests itself as a kind of cultural schizophrenia. We expect miracles, but have little faith in those capable of producing them. Famine remains a serious blight on humanity, yet the leaders of more than one African nation, urged on by rich Europeans who have never missed a meal, have decided it would be better to let their citizens starve than to import genetically modified grains that could feed them.
Food is a compelling example of how fear has trumped science, but it is not the only evidence that we are waging a war against progress, rather than, as Peter Melchett would have it, against nature. The issues may be complex but the choices are not: we are either going to embrace new technologies, along with their limitations and threats, or slink into an era of magical thinking. Humanity has nearly suffocated the globe with carbon dioxide, yet nuclear power plants that produce no such emissions are so mired in objections and obstruction that, despite renewed interest on every continent, it is unlikely another will be built in the United States. Such is the opposition to any research involving experiments with animals that in scores of the best universities in the world, laboratories are anonymous, unmarked, and surrounded by platoons of security guards.
Excerpted from Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, by Michael Specter. Reprinted by arrangement with The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc. Copyright (c) November 2009. | <urn:uuid:aac74dce-c5ac-4415-9efb-acfdab6f1446> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120139776&ps=cprs | 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 | 0.964553 | 1,348 | 1.578125 | 2 |
McKeesport nonprofit 'institute' to fit job seekers with firms that need them
Share with others:
Western Pennsylvania's job market can work against some employers.
"There definitely is a labor shortage," said Dawn Fuchs, CEO of Carnegie-based Weavertown Environmental Group.
The shortage pertains to workers for a company such as Weavertown, which helps to resolve environmental issues for the natural gas industry, among other work.
To help fill positions, the company has partnered with a social service agency that provides career opportunities for at-risk youth.
Auberle, a McKeesport nonprofit serving 2,300 children and families in eight counties, has launched an initiative, The Employment Institute, to match organizations and job seekers.
Partner companies provide training for existing positions, with an eye toward filling them with qualified candidates. At Weavertown, participants receive hands-on instruction in such specialized tasks as hazardous waste operations and emergency response.
"It's not just classroom settings," Ms. Fuchs explained. "They actually go in a simulated field environment and work in a suit."
Her company provides instruction and equipment for the training, which leads to the certification necessary for employment in the field.
"This is practical training in emergency management," Ms. Fuchs said. "If someone wants to pursue that as a career, this gives us an opportunity to hire them."
Another Auberle employment partner is Massaro Properties, an O'Hara commercial real estate company.
"When they approached us about the opportunity, it made sense," said David Massaro, director of real estate services. "It's a strong organization and kids were available to fill positions we needed."
Starting last summer, participants have been providing maintenance at several Massaro real estate properties.
"It's working very well for us," Mr. Massaro said.
The training received by participants also extends to "soft skill" development, considerations that apply to functioning properly in the work environment.
"We drive home the point about work ethic: You're on time; you're part of a team," said John Lydon, CEO of Auberle. "If you want to have a job and make money, this is what's happening."
The Employment Institute provides assistance in developing resumes, applying for positions and preparing for interviews, along with explaining the requirements once an applicant lands a job.
Mr. Lydon said a major obstacle to companies' ability to hire is the number of candidates who fail drug testing. Auberle also provides addiction services as part of its 16 program areas.
"We're putting young people in a position to go out and keep a job," Mr. Lydon said. "It's win-win for everybody; ... when it works, everybody succeeds."
First Published January 17, 2013 5:48 am | <urn:uuid:021300e6-e858-44c0-b8b2-1f467f293a47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-south/mckeesport-nonprofit-institute-to-fit-job-seekers-with-firms-that-need-them-670796/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964304 | 589 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Read the rest of the interview.
Questions created among the Spanish Integral Community
Interview Transcribed by Raquel Torrent,
President of Honor of the Spanish Integral Association
Raquel: How do you feel Ken? Talk to us about your health.
Ken: Well, you know I have a chronic fatigue syndrome. It’s an immune disease where cells lose the capacity to generate protein. It’s so debilitating. At this time we just can’t do anything. Doctors don’t know much about it. Their patients are misdiagnosed and they suffer horribly. It is despairing. We are just assuming that the seizures come because of bad diagnosis. Apparently, it attacks the limbic system, which is the place that seizures originate. So we’re just going with that. We don’t know if the seizures will come back. It truly could be lethal. The first two times I was in a coma for two days and when I came out doctors said they’ve never seen someone come so close to dying and then recuperate like I did. If I had started getting a series of seizures in my sleep they could just kill me, because it wouldn’t be noticed until the morning.
After the first series of seizures, they put me on Dylanton. It’s a drug for seizures. It’s been around forever. It doesn’t have any side effects. People even take it for longevity, so I got on it after the first series, but then I had a second series. They checked my blood level for the presence of the drug and it was extremely low, nowhere near anything that would be therapeutic; so I wasn’t absorbing it well. I had various blood tests and they finally adjusted the amount to take until we got it up to a therapeutic range. We’re assuming that that’s what’s protecting me. It’s very strange, this chronic fatigue immune deficiency syndrome. I don’t get colds I don’t get flus, so just this one illness. That’s why seizures were surprising and really quite an ordeal.
Raquel: Are you afraid that they might come back?
Ken: What I care about is the long term side effects that appear afterwards. It feels like I’m having a flare-up of chronic fatigue and it is just constant. That concerns me more than anything, because it doesn’t seem to be getting any better and that’s very annoying. I’m accustomed to work many hours and now I just can’t. The good news is that I haven’t had seizures for a long time, but I just sort of feel that I won’t. It just doesn’t feel intuitively that I will.
Raquel: Do you know Ortega y Gasset’s theory of Perspectivism and, if so (due to the fact that he shared with Gebser in Madrid’s cultural circles in the Second Republic,) do you think it has something to do with Gebser’s Aperspectivism, which you have finally adopted in your Integral model?
Ken: Well yes, I think there are some similarities with that. His perspectivism, looking at it from an integral perspective, is a structure that comes after the rational perspectivism. With rational perspectivism you can take perspective for the first time, but you’re also stuck in a particular perspective. While if you are in the integral perspective you are wide open to other different perspectives, because integral means that you hold it together. That clearly had an influence on me to some degree. I was one of the first to read Gebser in English and talk about him, so when I wrote Up from Eden I explicitly used his material. I introduced a lot of people to Gebser. He was great; he was just brilliant. I would have liked to see him live longer into his 60’s and 70’s because he would have had a lot to say. That’s why when I first found his stuff it was just obvious for me: I just knew he was basically right. And now it turns out that there are some things he gets right and some things not so right, but nevertheless he’s a pioneer.
His highest level is, of course, really just one of four or so higher levels. He does tend to sort or mix turquoise integral together with green. He doesn’t really get levels and lines and he doesn’t get states at all. But what he was doing at the time was really important in order to understand altitude, the existence of levels of worldviews. Something like that hadn’t been really done yet. He tried to make structures encompass everything that was happening, so all the different levels are put together and so he would treat art, religion and mathematics all as one. So you’re at magic. Everything is magic. If you’re mythic, everything is mythic and that is just not it. But getting those major altitudes was really good stuff for the time being.
Raquel: Shadow work–why is it not another element, the 6th?
Ken: It is essentially just a dysfunction of two of the other five. It’s just what goes wrong in developmental levels when something is dissociated or split off. It is not a separate inherent entity itself but what happens when something goes wrong.
Raquel: Does tetrameshing imply causal processes? If so, could an underlying structure be described in order to establish a causal order among quadrants? For example, is it similar (although more complex) to when classical Marxists defend the Lower-Right quadrant (base) while determining and restricting Lower-Left (superstructure)?
Ken: Not really. The reason is that these four are hooked together in what I call tetrameshing. The four quadrants are four different perspectives on tetrameshing. If you have just a single structure that is looked at through a single perspective it is either a first or a second or a third person perspective, but this is all three of those–first, second and third perspectives of the quadrants. There is not a single structure that you can describe, because it is not a single perspective; it’s four perspectives. All emerge at the same time.
It looks like a causal event is happening, because there are four dimensions of the same thing. If something happens in the lower right it is going to appear also in the lower left and in the upper right and the upper left. But you can also start describing the event in the upper right and then say that is going to have effects in all the other quadrants at the same time. What can happen is that sometimes one of the quadrants is more noticeable or stands out the most, but there is still something going on in all four quadrants simultaneously. You can focus on one of them and attract something that is happening in the lower right, but something is happening simultaneously in the lower left and also in the other two quadrants. It’s just a single event that you can look at from these different perspectives.
Raquel: Will you release an updated compilation of lines, types, of all quadrants (à la Hargens in “An Overview of Integral Theory,” Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, March 2009)? And if, as Hargens said, “each line within a quadrant has correlates in the other quadrants” (10.) shouldn’t they then be defined as “meta-lines of development” or would that include all correlated lines of all the different quadrants?
Ken: No, that can be found in volume II of the Kosmos Trilogy, the volume after Sex, Ecology and Spirituality, from which I put several excerpt up on line: excerpts A, B, C. It is not yet published as a book. As I told you in the last Spanish Integral Conference, I am preparing five books that are almost finished. They are about 90% done.
Regarding the “meta lines of development,” yeah, you certainly can call them that. There are mental lines and levels of the mental lines. There you have correlates in all the other quadrants. For example, if we have the mental lines of moral development in the upper left, then in the upper right there are certain brain states that are going on and in the lower left this is occurring in a particular group of individuals. Yet, in the lower right what is occurring is being expressed in a determined manner in those groups. So, yes it does have correlates all the way around.
Raquel: How can we interpret Jung's collective unconscious and archetypes from an integral point of view? Is there something like a pre-structure of collective energy that is universal and timeless?
Ken: Jung’s archetypes are not the archetypes that the perennial philosophy talks about, like Plato or Plotinus. An archetype is the first form in manifestation. In Plato, for example, it is described as a geometric form, triangles, squares and circles, and so on. In Buddhism there is the Vasanas, which is some form of collective memory. For Jung, though, when he was looking at these mythic forms they seemed to him to be some sort of primary forms.
Just because in the developmental sequence we find archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, etc., where mythic is one of the most noticeable levels, when we go back and we look at the primitive tribes and so on, what we see are mythic forms with their mythic roles, there were God’s and Goddesses. But those aren’t really archetypes in the perennial sense. Those are simply roles that you have available at the magic and mythic levels of development. So they’re more like prototypes in Jung, just roles coming into existence in fulcrum 3 and fulcrum 4. Therefore, some of them are magic, some of them are mythic, but they are just magic and mythic forms that come into being. Their capacity to be those forms is universal, but what it changes is their surface structures. They vary. They look different from culture to culture, but there is nothing particularly spiritual about them. They confuse the fact that it was collective with it being transpersonal when is not. Collectively we all inherit ten toes. If I experience my toes, I’m not necessarily having a mystical experience; so it’s not necessarily transpersonal.
Surely that was a pioneering way to look at it. They were operating under the assumption that there is a surface consciousness that was rational, egoic and conventional. When you do that kind of stuff, freely associating those kinds of things, then you get down to what Freud called a primary process. That was just anything that was not rational, not egoic, so his primary process was magical/mythical thinking. Freud made the assumption that such was the first form of thinking. Jung agreed with that, with the exception that he didn’t want to interpret it as just being infantile. What started their big falling out was that argument when Freud said, “Never give up the libido theory!” Jung asked, “Why?” Freud said, “Because it protects us against the black mud of the tide of occultism.” Then Jung said, “Well, that’s all I was in reality interested in.”
Jung wrote a book named Symbols of Transformation, which was a complete break with Freud’s view of the libido. He wanted to see these symbols as the source of the mystical, contemplative and transpersonal awareness and it just is not. They are just the earliest forms of conventional thinking, but they’ve happened a long time ago. They’re not available to us as surface forms except when we’re ages 4, 5 or 6; then it comes out every day. Not all consciousness has form. As a matter of fact, a lot of states are unconscious or formless states, states of unmanifested cessation. States of consciousness are neither pre nor trans because they can be experienced as pre or trans. It is what we call para consciousness because it is to the side of consciousness. Even if you are in a formless state and you start to experience form it doesn’t have to be just in the Jungian mythic form type. It can be states of luminosity or geometrical forms or any number of forms. You can have collective experiences at any level that is not necessarily transpersonal.
Raquel: In which way do you think that would affect your vision of life if you were to have a a brief immersion in the Brazilian favelas, the Bolivian highlands, the Mayan communities, the paisants of Guatemala or the big trash cemeteries of Mexico City?
Ken: Those situations are essentially mythic in structure so there is nothing necessarily transpersonal about those forms. Therefore, living in any of those situations I would say that there is nothing spiritual per se. You have to look and see what states of consciousness they are, also, and that’s very hard to trap to figure out. Most of them have had shamanic forms of religion and that is a subtle state of experience, little evidence of causal (emptiness) and very little evidence of non-dual (suchness). So, these subtle realms, overworlds and underworlds, were the shamanic realities basically in what they’ve lived in–and those are fine. It is just that they’re not terribly advanced. They’re only advanced in comparison to gross states. Those were the essential structures of most of the early civilizations which were mythic in form and subtle in their states.
The poverty situations that are lived in those places have an unshakeable effect on people, whether they go there or to some places like Calcutta where the suffering is also suffocating because it’s so intense. In Calcutta you would have parents blind their children because blind beggars make more money and that is because they think that’s the only way they can assure them some future. It’s just hard to imagine the type of suffering that goes on there. So compassion is something you want to maintain while looking at them.
When talking of Buddha there is the Absolute Bodhichitta and the Relative Bodhichitta. Bodhichitta means essentially the enlightened mind. The Absolute Bodhichitta is emptiness and the relative Bodhichitta is compassion. So emptiness is the ultimate ground and then compassion is the actual activity or manifestation. That is why to manifest compassion is the only reality of consciousness–because the world is full of that suffering. To the Absolute all this is an illusion anyway, but it also wants individuals to wake up so it has compassion in that sense. But everything is a dream anyway and if you want to have a dream of having 5000 people starving, there are two ways you can get rid of the suffering. One is that in the dream you start feeding them all and the second way is to wake up. Tonglen, the compassionate exchange, is something that I am aware of because I do a lot of it, but surely sometimes I am more compassionate than others. But, of course, if you are connected directly with suffering–like living in those places or seeing it because you go there–you feel it more directly. That’s why Westerners really don’t know how good they have it.
Raquel: How can we understand the meaning of deterioration from an Integral perspective (looking at it from a spiritual consciousness)?Ken: Things evolve or tend to evolve in a process of transcend and include. When they transcend and include they become larger and larger and more complex entities. The interesting thing to notice is that when any holon deteriorates it goes right back down in the same order. | <urn:uuid:106b37dc-dffa-4dc8-92e8-601e0d14a608> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://integral-options.blogspot.com/2010/06/raquel-torrent-q-session-with-ken.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966975 | 3,339 | 1.523438 | 2 |
A mysterious jewel holds the key to a life-changing secret in this breathtaking tale of love and art, betrayal and redemption.
When she decides to auction her remarkable jewelry collection, Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi Ballet, believes she has finally drawn a curtain on her past. Instead, the former ballerina finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed the course of her life half a century ago.
Nina has kept her secrets for half a lifetime. But two people will not let the past rest: Drew Brooks, an inquisitive young associate at a Boston auction hosue, and Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian who believes that a unique set of jewels may hold the key to his own ambiguous past. Together these unlikely partners begin to unravel a mystery surrounding a love letter, a poem, and a necklace of unknown provenance, setting in motion a series of revelations that will have life-altering consequences for them all.
Kalotay's Russian Winter has it all: intrigue, lost love, echoes from the past, mystery, absorbing characters, great plot, and compelling historical context. This is a hard one to put down, and the ending is as satisfying as it surprising.
Kalotay's writing is brilliant, utilizing present tense in the historical sections to provide a fairy-tale-type atmosphere and to bring the reader immediately into Nina's world. Ballet metaphors - particularly Swan Lake - suffuse the novel, texturizing it with depth and complexity. Nina is a sympathetic character, though it is difficult to like her at first. The reason for her coldness is not immediately clear, but by the conclusion it is amply apparent why someone of her experiences would function as she does.
The historical context is compelling and artistically drawn. Life under Stalin was no picnic, and Kalotay does a commendable job of translating the terror and fear that most Russians lived with every day. The descriptions of life at the Bolshoi are also fascinating.
Russian Winter is a fabulous read, one that is perfect for the cold weather and slower days of winter. | <urn:uuid:c93eec2d-c7e8-4df4-8f4c-3970701071b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redroomlibrary.com/2010/11/daphne-kalotays-russian-winter.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952603 | 448 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Many already want to line up for license to sell marijuanaon November 9, 2012 @ 1:16 pm (Updated: 1:43 pm - 11/9/12 )
marijuana in Washington.
Passage of Initiative 502 has prompted lots of phone calls and e-mails to the state agency that will set the rules for its implementation. But, Mikhael Carpenter with the State Liquor Control Board says it's too soon to get in line for a license.
"There's no proverbial line, so to speak," said Carpenter. "We are taking e-mail addresses and phone numbers and those people will start to receive mailings."
The state will not start issuing licenses any time soon. "Initiative 502, while it gave us these responsibilities, it also allows us up to one year to craft all of these rules and regulations," Carpenter said.
While the state agency works to set the rules for distribution and sales in Washington, the federal government still considers marijuana possession illegal and that conflict remains unresolved.
Bonneville Media encourages site users to express their opinions by posting comments. Our goal is to maintain a civil dialogue in which readers feel comfortable. At times, the comments can descend to personal attacks. Please do not engage in such behavior. We encourage your thoughtful comments which: have a positive and constructive tone, are on topic, are respectful toward others and their opinions. Bonneville reserves the right to remove comments which do not conform to these criteria. | <urn:uuid:b9b3299e-bf86-4f46-819f-d8e9d1e3c647> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mynorthwest.com/11/2124789/Many-already-want-to-line-up-for-license-to-sell-marijuana | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947038 | 300 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Tags: asphyxiation, bag, choking, danger, hazard, plastic, plastic bag, suffocation
A good friend of mine knows someone at work who lost their Corgi. The neighbor kid left a bag in their yard after she finished off some cheese crackers and the dog found it. They found the dog too late.
Thank you so much for this reminder. You just can't say it often enough. And I just hate for someone else to lose a corgi or any beloved pet because of something easily preventable.
This can happen to ANY dog, cat or animal, not just corgis. Be careful with all bags. Even if you don't have your furbaby yet, something in your trash could get into the environment.
It was about 10 years ago one of our beloved Corgi's went out back to do his duty and found a light weight plastic bag, it was like a dry cleaning bag that must have blown into our back yard, the bag had some cookie crumbs at the very bottom of the bag, and like a curious Corgi he managed to get his head into the bag, after about 10 minutes there was an eerie silence, this is the hard part…I went out back to see what he was up to and there he was lying motionless…My heart stopped beating and I just fell apart...It only took a few moments for him to suffocate. Probably the saddest day of my life….Please take heed to this warning. I have another Corgi and every day I am on the alert of plastic bags or any trash that could cause any harm to my best friend…..Ina & Scootie"
I posted a note about this on my FB page, hoping to reach other people to prevent this from happening to their dogs, as well.
We have lost too many of our corgi kids to food bags. This reminder cannot be said enough. The couple of seconds extra it takes to cut/tear a hole in bags is nothing compared to the pain of losing your corgi will tear in your heart.
To all those who have lost their furbabies to food bags, their passing will remind others and continue to make changes to prevent this from happening again. It's a painful lesson that I know my husband and I have taken to heart. My heart breaks for all of you and I've shed many tears each time this tragic story is posted. Know that their stories have made an impact on our lives and we have made changes. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Please, everyone, read and remember all this important information John is posting. It saves lives.
Such a tragedy. I know your hearts are torn in pieces. I'd never get over that had it been me. I'm fortunate in that Bubba is afraid of bags! He too loves Doritos and we were sitting on the couch one evening snacking on them and he was snuggled righ against my righ hip. I accidentally dropped the bag in the floor and he nearly cleared the coffee table in fron of us getting away from the monstrous red bag. Unfortunately, others have no fears.
They're just like kids and you have to treat them accordingly. whether they're six months or six years. My condolences to you on this tragic loss and if your post saves just one life as a result of someone's attention being drawn to this, it was worth your time to post it. May your hearts heal and mend quickly and only enjoy the photos anad precious memories.
Thank you for this reminder.
John this has made such an impression on my husband he scolds me and goes through the rant each time he finds a bag in our trash , which is in a pull out draw .. He says Carly knows how to get it open if she pushes it hard enough and then she can jump up and grab the stuff top , which may be a bag... Im pretty good at cutting them but sometimes i get in a hurry ..
We cant HURRY, when i read about another tragedy i didnt tell him or id be hearing the lecture again .. but believe me im taking heed ...
Yes, thank you. I really had no idea about this until I joined this site and I'm so glad I did. So very tragic to have this happen to any dog.
Sign Upor Sign In
Or sign in with:
Rural King Recalls Deer Corn Because of Possible Health Risk
T.A.L.K. Before You Treat
All Creatures Great and Small: Properly Medicate Them All
Allergy Alert (milk) - Kameda brand Rice Crackers
Health Hazard (Salmonella) - in shell hazelnuts
© 2013 Created by Sam Tsang.
Report a boo boo |
Terms of Service
Please check your browser settings or contact your system administrator. | <urn:uuid:6ca6aa62-e872-4951-b853-4705a56d9b6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mycorgi.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-save-your-dog-s-life | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966415 | 998 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.