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ANGLETON—This Thanksgiving will be even more special for dozens of families.
More than 150 kids will actually have a family to sit around the dinner table with and give thanks.
This is all a part of National Adoption Awareness Month, and National Adoption Day is this Saturday.
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Throughout this week, several counties in our area are celebrating by holding simultaneous adoptions.
Thursday, eight children in Brazoria County were given a new lease on life.
The Brazoria County Courthouse was full of eager parents, whose families would soon be expanding.
"Because of the minority community, those are usually the last to be adopted so we wanted to help out in any way we could," said Tammy Foster.
It was double the amount of joy for Foster and her husband Jeff Alexander, who adopted 5-year old Chris and 6-year old Amari.
"They were looking for love. We were looking for love. It just matched," Foster said. "We just knew they were the ones,"
The Herreras, who already have one daughter, always wanted a larger family but couldn't do it on their own. That's when they turned to Child Protective Services, who statewide have helped more than 5,800 kids waiting in foster care to be adopted.
After a brief swearing in, little Kinlea Rayne was officially a Herrera.
"It's exciting. Now we have one more to share and experience it with," Daniel Herrera said.
Before these new families headed out, they were showered with gifts -- many of them donated -- including one very special stuffed animal.
The Guardians of the Children, who work to prevent child abuse, say the toy is loaded with love.
"If at any given time they're scared or they need a heart or a hug, they can hug these little animals and know that we are there with them, holding them close to our chest and close to our heart," Guardians of the Children member Tin Man said.
These budding families could not wait to get started on the next chapter in their lives.
"I look forward to typical things - Christmases and birthdays; not so looking [forward] to dating and prom and stuff, and boyfriends. By that time, though, I'll have my mind right," Alexander said.
These families certainly have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
Friday, 61 adoptions are scheduled in Harris County.
For more information on how you can become an adoptive parent, go to www.dfps.state.tx.us/Child_Protection/Adoption/. | <urn:uuid:b70a2dd7-470e-4dad-ae5d-3d6be3c67a2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcall.com/news/local/kiah-adoption-day-story,0,6072199.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977864 | 558 | 1.523438 | 2 |
For those of you who don’t know, I’m a diehard University of Michigan fan. I grew up 30 minutes from the University of Michigan and still have football season tickets to this day despite living in Cleveland, OH. One of the greatest speeches I’ve ever heard came from Bo Schembechler in 1983. Bo was the head football coach at Michigan from 1969-1989 compiling a record of 194-48-5. In 21 years at Michigan, his teams won or shared 13 Big Ten Conference titles. With him, it was never about individual accomplishments. It was always about teamwork.
Here is a transcript of Bo Schembechler’s “The Team” Speech:
“We want the Big Ten championship and we’re gonna win it as a Team. They can throw out all those great backs, and great quarterbacks, and great defensive players, throughout the country and in this conference, but there’s gonna be one Team that’s gonna play solely as a Team. No man is more important than The Team. No coach is more important than The Team. The Team, The Team, The Team, and if we think that way, all of us, everything that you do, you take into consideration what effect does it have on my Team? Because you can go into professional football, you can go anywhere you want to play after you leave here. You will never play for a Team again. You’ll play for a contract. You’ll play for this. You’ll play for that. You’ll play for everything except the team, and think what a great thing it is to be a part of something that is, The Team. We’re gonna win it. We’re gonna win the championship again because we’re gonna play as team, better than anybody else in this conference, we’re gonna play together as a team. We’re gonna believe in each other, we’re not gonna criticize each other, we’re not gonna talk about each other, we’re gonna encourage each other. And when we play as a team, when the old season is over, you and I know, it’s gonna be Michigan again, Michigan.”
For the full effect, here is a link to the video of Bo’s “The Team” Speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjv2iDxiGBI
I believe this video still stands true today whether or not you are in a team sport. Look at some of the key statements that Bo made:
• “No man is more important than the Team”
• “No coach is more important than the Team”
• “We’re gonna believe in each other, we’re not gonna criticize each other, we’re not gonna talk about each other, we’re gonna encourage each other”
I’m a member of the Business Development Department in my professional life. We are a team of about 25 people who actively try to assist our members with growing their businesses. I consider my boss to be the coach and his employees as the players. He listens to his team, works with us and takes responsibility if something goes wrong. If we succeed and accomplish our goal, he is the first to tell people that it wasn’t him, but his team that deserves the credit. My boss treats all of us as equals. He doesn’t criticize or talk bad about us. If one of us is feeling down, he knows how to motivate and encourage us.
I encourage you to take a minute and think about Bo’s speech one more time. How do you treat your co-workers/teammates? If you start treating everyone as equals, maybe you’ll start seeing the same level of success that Bo Schembechler did. | <urn:uuid:6ce5a5af-5fc9-4f0b-99c7-38e0be2063a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.proformablog.com/no-coach-is-more-important-than-the-team/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955349 | 827 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Herbal medicine is a great supplement to any sports training program. It is simple to take a few extra pills each day, and the results can be amazing.
One of the first uses is for pain and bruising. There is a long tradition in martial arts for using herbs. If you walk into a martial arts studio (and many locker rooms), one of the first things you'll notice is the smell of sweat combined with camphor and menthol from all the lineaments, pads and sprays used externally to combat pain and bruising. These work a lot like BenGay -- but have the addition of an important herb that strongly moves blood and reduces inflammation and pain: San Qi or Tian Qi. Formulas based on San Qi are sometimes called 'Hit Formulas.' For external use, they come in the form of herbal pads, sprays, and lineaments, and they are effective for most traumatic injuries -- including those that are self-inflicted from heavy training. I use these a lot in my office. Here's a picture of the San Qi plant and that's the raw medicinal form of the herb above.
You can also use this herb in pill form and it is a great find for anyone who is training really hard. Taken daily, it can prevent or reduce feelings of muscle soreness and pain, and speed recovery time: meaning, you can train harder and suffer less afterward, with less off time between training sessions. Of course, the internal formulas are better known for their use after serious injury for speeding healing. Besides their preventative use in sports, I recommend these formulas for patients who have been in car accidents, who are recovering from surgery or other kinds of physical injuries such as sprains and strains. In fact, San Qi is known for helping almost any traumatic injury. | <urn:uuid:53093621-8c39-4b28-8cd2-eca3d81e587c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthy.net/scr/column.aspx?ColumnId=53&Id=1180 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964861 | 361 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Although he was born in Puerto Rico, Tito Nieves grew up in New York City. His original roots and the Big Apple's vibrant Salsa music scene inspired him to pursue a career as a singer in this field. The following playlist, offers some of the best songs ever recorded by Tito Nieves. They include memorable hits from the time he was a lead singer for the legendary Salsa band Conjunto Clasico as well as popular tracks from his successful solo career.
10. "De Mi Enamorate"
Originally written by the prolific Mexican singer and songwriter Juan Gabriel, one of the living legends of Latin music, "De Mi Enamorate" became a hit ballad with the voice of Mexican singer Daniela Romo. That said, Tito Nieves' Salsa version enjoyed lots of popularity as well. One of the best romantic Salsa songs ever produced by The Pavarotti of Salsa.
9. "Fabricando Fantasias"
Tito Nieves' 2004 album borrowed its title from this popular track. "Fabricando Fantasias" is another romantic song with nice lyrics and strong brass sessions. This song encompasses the sound that Tito Nieves has forged as a mature artist.
Before moving into a solo career, Tito Nieves was a lead singer for the Salsa band Conjunto Clasico Los Rodriguez. During the time he was with Conjunto Clasico, Tito Nieves recorded some of his best tracks. Those who are into the so-called Salsa dura style (hard Salsa) embrace the stuff that Tito Nieves produced with Conjunto Clasico much more than the romantic production that has marked his solo career.
7. "La Salsa Vive"
"La Salsa Vive" is the spiciest track from Tito Nieves' 2002 album Muy Agradecido. Besides the wonderful rhythm it provides, its lyrics depict a world where Salsa is alive thanks to the contributions of all the legendary artists that are mentioned throughout this track. It is a nice song that speaks up against the idea that Salsa music is dead today.
6. "El Piraguero"
This track is another classic tune from the repertoire that Tito Nieves produced alongside Conjunto Clasico. "El Piraguero" offers a fantastic sound where you can hear the different elements that defined the music of Conjunto Clasico such as the nasal chorus and strong brass sessions, which create a very nice contrast with Tito Nieves' voice. An enduring track for any Latin party.
5. "Cuando Se Quiere Se Quiere"
One of the most elegant tracks produced by Conjunto Clasico, "Cuando Se Quiere Se Quiere" features an amazing Tito Nieves acting as a full sonero in this track. Those who have defined Tito Nieves by his romantic Salsa style should revisit tracks like this one to fully appreciate the dimension of this charismatic singer.
4. "El Amor Mas Bonito"
"El Amor Mas Bonito" is by far one of the most popular songs ever recorded by Tito Nieves. This is one of those songs that gives you a good balance between romantic and hard Salsa. This single offers great arrangements. The brass sessions combine in a clever way trombones and trumpets. A wonderful tune to hit the dance floor.
3. "Señora Ley"
Out of everything Tito Nieves recorded with Conjunto Clasico, "Señora Ley" is probably the most popular track TiTo Nieves released with the legendary Salsa band. A fantastic songs featuring the best sound of Conjunto Clasico, this track offers amazing percussion and trumpets.
2. "I Like It Like That"
With this tune, Tito Nieves revisited in a very successful way the original Latin Boogaloo song produced by Pete Rodriguez. Although I would never change the original track for this modern version of the song, Tito Nieves came up with a nice experiment that provided him with lots of popularity when he released this track. The song, which is very techno, became a hit in night clubs.
Another of the most successful songs ever released by Tito Nieves, "Sonambulo" is a track that allowed him to consolidate his unique style within the Salsa realm. This tune belongs to what I consider Tito Nieves' 'perfect trilogy," which besides this song also includes the singles "El Amor Mas Bonito" and "De Mi Enamorate." Offering a good balance between romantic and hard Salsa, "Sonambulo" is a wonderful song from beginning to end. | <urn:uuid:15f10601-52a9-4dbb-b001-dbb14365e23a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latinmusic.about.com/od/salsa_timba_playlists_toppicks/a/Tito-Nieves-Best-Songs.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956831 | 979 | 1.53125 | 2 |
As is usually the case, we often learn a great deal more from our investing mistakes as we do from our successes. This was my experience for a small cap toy company Jakks Pacific (JAKK). I’ve put together some bullet points as to why purchase was made and went wrong. If one invests for a long enough period, one will certainly make mistakes. The key is building on lessons learned from those mistakes and containing the damage.
As value investors we are constantly on guard for the infamous value trap. It follows that it’s incredibly important to understand why an investment is cheap. Many of the standard value metrics such as price to book need to be analyzed and cross referenced with multiple inputs. For example, JAKK would most likely pop up on many value screens as being cheap on the surface. However, upon breaking down the components of the company’s net worth, it is clear that 50% of shareholders equity consisted of goodwill and other intangibles – a potential red flag. While it may seem that many of these points are obvious and simple, it is amazing how easily they can fall into our blind spots.
JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (JAKK) is a multi-line, multi-brand toy company that designs, produces and markets toys and related products, writing instruments and related products, pet toys, treats and related products and other consumer products. The Company focuses its business on acquiring or licensing trademarks and brand names with long product histories (evergreen brands). JAKKS products are toys and accessories that include traditional toys; craft, activity and writing products and pet products. The Company sells its products to toy and retail chain stores, department stores, office supply stores, drug and grocery store chains, club stores, toy specialty stores and wholesalers.
Revenue – 10 year revenue grew at annualized rate of 17%
EBIT – 10 year EBIT grew at annualized rate of 12.5%
Book Value – 10 year book value grew at annualized rate of 9%
- Deep value with strong balance sheet.
- Positive cash flow with minimal capital expenditures
- Profitable licensing model
- EBIT and book value failing to keep pace with revenue growth.
- Balance sheet heavy on intangibles.
- No economic wealth created – low returns on capital.
- Multiple pending legal issues.
- Hefty insider option issuance and selling.
- Formulate an investment thesis beyond pure valuation.
- Cheap does not equal value.
- Cheap does not equal safe.
- Focus on tangible net worth.
- Ongoing legal battles only benefit attorneys.
It is always possible that I may suffer from impatience and the investment may work out over time. Could JAKK still be a winner? Absolutely – it’s cheaper now than when I first invested, but if a potential investment doesn’t fit to your own process, it shouldn’t qualify for use of your capital. A simple way to avoid these pitfalls is to create a checklist specific to your own process with each potential investment decision. | <urn:uuid:d475834a-e9fd-4a73-9f17-967a9c2a50b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gurufocus.com/news/84664/lesson-learned-jakks-pacific-jakk | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932066 | 633 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Born: June 15, 1958 Primary Instrument: Sax, baritone
A gifted British baritone player, composer, flutist, and big-band leader, Gail Thompson’s music is comparable to that of Quincy Jones or Abdullah Ibrahim. Along with her hard bop jazz sound, she stirs in a soulful touch of African spirit and rhythm. Near the end of the ’80s, Thompson traveled by truck through Africa to reach Kenya. The experience clearly left its mark on her compositions. Thompson has performed with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers making her the only female Messenger ever, the Charlie Watts Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra; she has worked for Mick Jagger’s music company as director and she worked with Courtney Pine to help found the Jazz Warriors. When problems with her facial muscles forced her to give up the baritone she founded MUSICWORKS, a center for musicians that has grown from her front room to a 3 storey converted warehouse, 20 staff and 3000 students she also gives musical workshops all over the world. In 1996, Thompson released her debut album, Jazz Africa, under the ENJA Records label. Impressive tracks like “Long Time in Togo,” “Kamara River,” and “Stressless” are accomplished with help from artists Claude Deppa, Tom Harris, Harry Beckett, Lucky Ranku, and others. In 2003 she formed Noir Femmes an all black women’s touring big band featuring some of Britain’s best black women musicians. | <urn:uuid:71b736b0-a609-4b74-a029-ca52e3cbd338> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/musician.php?id=10787 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950192 | 320 | 1.5 | 2 |
First thing you have to realise is this: Airlines offer frequent flyer programs because they are massively profitable. And since they’re profitable, the average consumer is losing out. But a rare few travellers do actually benefit from them.
So I’m going to tell you exactly how to get cheap flights using airline program points.
Unintended Payment for Airline Points/Miles
Reward flights are rarely free. You pay in some way, but the trick is to pay as little as possible. So I’ll first discuss the unintended ways in which most people pay for their “free” flights.
- Credit Card Surcharges – If you have to pay a surcharge to use a credit card (to earn points), then you are paying for those points. A 1% surcharge may not sound a lot, but it means you’re paying 1% of the purchase price of the item for the points you’re receiving.
- Credit Card Fees and Interest - If you incur fees and/or interest as a result of using a credit card that you wouldn’t otherwise use, then it counts as a cost of the flight (if you ever end up redeeming one).
- Fuel Surcharges and Taxes – No matter how the airlines word it, a fuel surcharge is a cost of flying. Fuel surcharges can exceed $1000 for RTW trips, but some airlines don’t charge them on reward flights (this is a big deal).
- Unplanned Spending – This is the primary way airlines and credit card companies benefit from reward programs: by enticing you to spend when you otherwise wouldn’t. If you use points to justify a purchase, then you’re incurring an additional charge for your flight. Simple.
As you can see, the airlines and credit card companies don’t make it easy. You have to become somewhat religious about frequent flyer points if you intend on one day receiving a cheap flight. But you can skew the system in your favour beyond avoiding unintended costs.
Intended Payment for Airline Points/Miles
The key is to accept that your “free” flight will actually cost something if you want to take the flight in this lifetime. It then becomes a trade-off: the more you’re willing to pay, the quicker you’ll receive the subsidised flight.
So, it’s okay to pay for points, as long as you understand the mathematics and don’t overpay. Let’s look at an example:
I want to fly to Timbuktu later this year. The flight normally costs $2000, but I’d like to pay less by using points. Fees and taxes are $200, so I can save up to $1800 by using points. After researching flights, I find I need 100,000 points for this trip. That means I can pay an absolute maximum of $0.018 per point.
So, ($2000 – $200) / 100,000 points = $0.018 < that’s my maximum spend per point
Credit card surcharges are okay if they fall below your maximum spend per point. For example, let’s say my usual retailers charge a 1% surcharge for Amex. That means I’m paying $0.01 per point, or, $1000 for 100,000 points. If I go along with this strategy, I’ll be paying $1000 + $200 (taxes) for a $2000 flight. (In Part 2, I’ll explain why this isn’t always a good deal.)
Earning Lots of Points Very Quickly
The most effortless way to earn points is to accrue points without changing the way you live (with credit cards or otherwise). But that can take forever. So I explained (above) that you can pay for your points to hasten the process, as long as you don’t overpay. But that can take a long time too. So here are a few ways to further fast track your point accrual.
- Choose the Right Program - If the American Airlines requires 100,000 miles to fly to Timbuktu, but Qantas only requires 70,000, then Qantas may be better. But you also have to check earning rates. If you can earn 2 AA miles per dollar spent, but only 1 Qantas point per dollar spent, then the AA program is better.
- Find the Right Credit Card - In many countries, American Express (Amex) offers the highest number of points per dollar spent. But many retailers don’t accept AMEX, and when they do, they charge up to a 3.25% surcharge. Do the research before committing to a card.
- Reconfigure Expenses - I found I could pay for all sorts of things on Amex, for example, my electricity bill. Keep an eye on the surcharges, calculate the cost/benefit, and then reconfigure your bills to earn the most points. You may be able to use your card for business/work expenses to earn points and reimburse yourself.
- Use Sign-up Bonuses - The easiest way to get lots of points quickly is to sign up for new credit cards that offer large sign-up bonuses. You can do this over and over again, albeit with minor credit rating degradation. If you’re disciplined about it, you could earn a RTW flight each year. But beware of sign-up fees that accompany these deals.
- Watch Out for Loopholes - There are forums dedicated to Travel Hacking and frequent flyer points accrual. Many of these forums report on amazing deals or loopholes that lead to massive earning potential. I won’t go into too much detail here, but spend some time on these forums (Flyer Talk and Frequent Flyer ). People have accrued millions of points in just weeks by acting quickly.
- Plan Flights Accordingly – Of course you can earn points/miles from flying. But it pays to research your program, understand how points accrue and structure your flight to accrue the most points. This requires some flexibility, but it can make a big difference.
In Part 2 I’ll talk about the best way to use points. This is very important because it sets a value for your points, which in turn sets the maximum price you can pay. Too many people overvalue their points and pay more than the retail sticker price for flights. Stay tuned. | <urn:uuid:aa09e506-30a5-4d53-9dae-1bc8a981e733> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://globetrooper.com/notes/cheap-flights-frequent-flyer-p1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932297 | 1,356 | 1.5 | 2 |
The city’s lack of faith in the BPD was recorded even before residents had to endure a gut-wrenching parade of innocent men released from prison, where they had been wrongly sent by Boston police. Not one of these cases has been adequately explained. Not one officer has been disciplined for their actions in these cases.
It may be that none deserves to be. But city residents would have more confidence that all hands are clean were they provided with evidence that “every tool” has indeed been used to uncover wrongdoing.
At the height of public concern about Boston’s recent wrongful-conviction plague — just after the Cowans exoneration in 2004 — Reilly and the state’s district attorneys announced a “Justice Initiative” to examine the problem. Boston’s district attorney Daniel Conley and current attorney general Martha Coakley led the effort. They promised a report in 90 days; what they eventually released, two-and-a-half years later, could have been assembled in the bat of an eye.
In its introduction, the state’s top prosecutors wrote that “What was at stake was not only the integrity of individual prosecutions, but also the confidence of the public in the integrity of the system itself.”
Yet their conclusions, supposedly based on thorough reviews of all relevant cases, found no systemic issues, called wrongful convictions a problem of the distant past, held nobody accountable, and proposed no serious reforms.
If police conduct in the Cowans case had no other implications, Cowans’s story would already be the stuff of a Greek tragedy: an innocent man arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned; then exonerated, freed, and made a rich man by compensation for the wrong done to him; finally, in his new home, brutally killed by someone apparently seeking the money for which Cowans had so dearly paid.
But Cowans’s plight is about much more. It is about a city whose residents, surrounded by shootings, choose not to cooperate with police against those tormenting them; a city in which jurors acquit criminals despite the testimony of veteran officers; a city in which gang members shoot with impunity in broad daylight. It is about a city in which good, hard-working, honest cops can’t do their jobs because of the stain left by the bad ones.
Policing the police on behalf of Boston citizens will take effort and openness from the top — a fitting memorial to the memory of Stephan Cowans, who in life was no angel but who wrongfully suffered six-and-a-half years of unjust imprisonment for a shooting he did not commit. It’s time for the US Attorney to act. | <urn:uuid:6e23a797-8eda-49b2-8f78-aaeaa909c73b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/55902-righting-a-staggering-wrong/?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977247 | 557 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Bombardier Transportation launched a worldwide Web-based contest — "YouRail - Visions of Modern Transportation" — for the creation of innovative interior designs for future trains.
"While input from rail operators, our direct customers, is still crucial, this contest enables us to engage passengers directly to better understand their needs and propose innovative solutions," says Martin Ertl, chief innovation officer for Bombardier Transportation. "Within a few days we have received 1.000 entries. More than 780 Web users are already active members of the YouRail community and are taking part in what is called open innovation. This demonstrates the potential this kind of end-user involvement also has in our business."
Participants in the competition are invited to submit their proposals for different categories over the Web, and Bombardier executives and external experts will select the winning design, awarding prizes worth $15,000 for the best entries.
The successful designs will be presented by Bombardier in September 2010 at the InnoTrans in Berlin.
The contest is open to everybody interested in innovative interior train design. Participants can submit freely created designs for three types of travel: leisure, business and commuter. In a second category, a 3D configuration tool can be used to design seat covers to create inviting interiors. | <urn:uuid:03dd190e-d2da-4cfc-b7d8-5113c9f4d107> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metro-magazine.com/news/story/2009/11/bombardier-holding-contest-for-future-interior-designs.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942359 | 259 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Tour of Duty. Photographs by Matthew Sleeth. Text by Paul James. Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2004. 112 pp. Small quarto. First printing. Signed on title page. Stiff photo-illustrated wrappers. 96 color reproductions. |
Matthew Sleeth's book of photographs, TOUR OF DUTY constitutes a significant and sustained visual investigation into the international presence in East Timor immediately following the Independence ballot. It must primarily be viewed in the context of the plethora of images which have been published and broadcast over the period of Australia's participation and which indeed have contributed to our national understanding of this involvement. What we mostly saw in our press and on TV, was either the genuinely abject plight of the East Timorese on the one hand and on the other, the heroic InterFET peacekeepers coming in to save the day. Media presentation and publicity of the Australian presence was carefully orchestrated and milked for every patriotic possibility. Sleeth uses the visual vocabulary of traditional documentary photography and disturbs and undermines it with techniques and angles borrowed from cinema. His vivid colours and jaunty angles humorously yet incisively track the Australian army and the accompanying media and entertainment caravan in Timor to form an impression quite unlike the one we have received from our mainstream press. A far more complex view emerges, formed of multiple layers of meaning. The East Timorese people are not featured as victims as they often are in traditional photojournalism, nor are they bit players in their own redemptive drama. Instead we are given a challenging body of work which focuses rather on the construction and staging of history. The photographs are accompanied by a five-part essay by political commentator Paul James, which discusses Australia's national identity through the prism of past and present military engagements. | <urn:uuid:e2371115-c4b2-40cc-9d30-06383e46ca57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.photoeye.com/auctions/Citation.cfm?id=7125 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954464 | 362 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Taped Phone Call Results In Another Gingrich Violation
WASHINGTON (CNN, Jan. 17) -- The House ethics committee report on Newt Gingrich's ethics violations contains a section on the now-infamous taped cell phone conversation, finding that Gingrich broke his agreement with the panel.
In the conversation, which was picked up by a Florida couple using a police scanner, Gingrich and other top Republicans discussed a strategy for responding to an announcement that hadn't even been made yet -- the ethics committee's announcement that Gingrich had admitted to ethics violations and to providing false and misleading information to the committee.
The report released today says the investigating subcommittee and Special Counsel James Cole believe Gingrich's involvement in developing a strategy for a public response violated his agreement with the committee to remain silent on the matter. The report says the subcommittee met to consider what action to take in response to Gingrich's violation, and decided not to nullify its deal with Gingrich to settle the ethics matter.
"While there was serious concern about whether Mr. Gingrich had complied with the agreement, the subcommittee was of the opinion that the best interests of the House still lay in resolving the matter without a disciplinary hearing..." the report says.
"However, Mr. Gingrich's counsel was informed that the subcommittee believed a violation of the agreement had occurred and retained the right to withdraw from the agreement with appropriate notice to Gingrich. To date no such notice has been given."
Copyright © 1997 AllPolitics All Rights Reserved.
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Page 3 of 3
The pros far outweigh the cons, according to Michael Wheeler, executive vice president of the NTT Communications Global IP Network at NTT America in Redmond, Wash. “V6 has a number of inherent benefits, especially if you look at the prospect of every networked device in the world having its own unique identifier, which provides a much higher level of security than what V4 does today. Encapsulation creating a doorway is certainly a concern that needs to be addressed, but I think we can deal with that.”
Wheeler urges partners to “skill-up” on IPv6. The expertise will become more valuable as time goes on, and Wheeler believes it will be instrumental in preventing distributed denial of service attacks.
“DDOS attacks have gotten more sophisticated and the volume has grown over time,” he said. “If v6 were the default protocol, we’d be in a better condition to deal with those threats.”
Overall, the general consensus is that channel partners need to take a comprehensive look at their customers’ security measures. Be sure that the security devices support IPv6 and that the proper features and security policies are enabled.
<< Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | <urn:uuid:fb3e016f-a0e8-4bb5-8ac3-aa24c3b1d3b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crn.com/news/security/240001581/world-ipv6-launch-day-security-vulnerability-or-channel-opportunity.htm?pgno=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962296 | 257 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Was he lying in 1991 when he told a literary agent he was born in Kenya, or now when he says he was born in Hawaii? In 1991, he didn't need to be a "natural born citizen" and it was to his advantage to be identified as being born in Kenya. Now the story has to flip so that he is eligible to be POTUS. So the truth about Obama is malleable, and is molded to fit the situation. Makes you wonder about his application to Columbia and Harvard. Did he enroll as a foreign student because it suited him at the time? We'll never know because the most transparent administration in history has sealed his college records. Yes, his promise to be transparent was just another lie.
What this whole story shows is not that he was born in Kenya (although I have never totally dismissed that possibility), but it does show that he's a lying fraud and devoid of character.
"A man with a gun is a citizen. A man without a gun is a subject."
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."Gerald Ford in a Presidential address to a joint session of Congress (12 August 1974)
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.”Gen. George S. Patton Jr. | <urn:uuid:8cfd1531-fafb-4509-9b94-2fc286cda41c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.budoseek.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?29716-So-when-was-he-lying&p=339682&mode=threaded | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991755 | 285 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The hot, hazy days of summer are really starting to drag me down at work. I'm finding it harder to get things done and stay motivated, when all I really feel like doing is leaving work early and relaxing at the pool. Is there any cure for the summertime slump?
Lazy in the Heat
You're definitely not alone. Thanks to the warmer weather, workplace productivity tumbles about 20% in the summer, according to a recent survey of 600 workers by Captivate Network. More of us feel distracted, take longer to complete projects, go on longer lunch breaks, and even have a drop in work attendance. While this is a natural phenomenon, though, you can still get your work done despite the heat waves. Here are a few ideas to get over the slump:
Set the Thermostat at the Optimal Temperature for Working
If the temperature inside your office is too high or too low, your productivity can suffer. This infographic from Grasshopper, citing research from the Helsinki University of Technology and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, states the optimal office temperature is between 70 and 72 degrees (Fahrenheit). For every degree over 77 degrees, productivity drops 2%, and below 68 degrees, error rates increase dramatically. So if you have control over the thermostat or can sway your office manager, get your office environment to that "just right" temperature range. (10% of employees also waste time arguing over the office temperature, so if everyone could just agree on the 70 to 72 degrees setting, we could also save time.)
Switch Up Your Routine or Where You Work
If work is starting to feel a little stale, you may be able to get a kick-start simply by changing your routine or environment. Try getting outside more during the workday (e.g., by holding meetings outside or taking a walk for your breaks) or working at a coffeeshop for some renewed creativity. In the Captivate Network study mentioned above, telecommuting helped workers increase their productivity in the summer, so now's a great time to convince your boss to let you work from home.
If you tend to do the same things at work in a set order, consider either switching up the order or injecting a new task or activity. The summer is a great time to learn new things and challenge yourself.
Try a New Productivity Method
We have a lot of productivity techniques and tools at our disposal. You may be able to fix your procrastination problem by using Seinfeld's productivity secret or get more done with the Pomodoro Technique, where you work in bursts of 25 minutes.
Work Your Best Hours
Knowing that this is a really hard time to stay productive, focus on your most important work tasks and carefully block out your time so you're working when your mind is freshest and most focused.
Don't beat yourself up too much if you're not working as your ideal productive self. Some days you'll be very productive, and perhaps other not. Just try to get your most important things done, and remember to take breaks to recharge.
Enjoy the summer!
Photo by Barry Barnes
Have a question or suggestion for Ask Lifehacker? Send it to [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:dc08c5f2-5595-4dc3-be25-1239bf68b8c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifehacker.com/5923606/how-can-i-get-over-the-summer-productivity-slump | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930074 | 665 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The flag of the National Rifle Association (NRA) flying in front of the institution's headquarters in Fairfax, Va. / Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images
The National Rifle Association, speaking with a singular voice, may well be winning the gun control debate, says Larry Levy, CEO of Appinions, a market-influence research company. Only New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's message of "violence control" has anywhere close to the traction of the NRA.
"Really it's the opinions of the NRA that are drowning everyone else out," Levy says. "The NRA really has their act together. It's like military precision. And it amplifies their voice."
SENATE HEARING: Giffords speaks out on reducing gun violence
Other Republican voices, he says, are not really having an influence in the debate.
Appinions mines millions of social media feeds, online news stories and blogs, and other public records continuously. Using an algorithm, the group measures whose ideas are being retweeted on Twitter, linked to, repeated or otherwise acted on over the past two months, to determine whose opinions are the most influential in the e-universe.
On the gun control side, having several different groups may actually be diluting influence, Levy says. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Americans for Responsible Solutions (led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly) and Mayors Against Illegal Guns (led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg) and other groups all influence the debate, but without a uniform message, they may be losing ground to the very energized gun rights advocates.
"They are all speaking of different elements and different things. It's not having the same impact," Levy says. Momentum began shifting away from gun control advocates, right around the time of President Obama's executive decisions, he said.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Does NRA's single voice have most influence in gun debate? | <urn:uuid:b2c807d3-27ad-45bc-8962-1de55cc2559c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newarkadvocate.com/usatoday/article/1877147 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946094 | 411 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Most children today are paid allowances and that in itself may not be bad, but let’s stop and think for a moment.
What exactly are we teaching them about money by simply paying them an allowance?
You are bringing up a child who will be a future husband or wife, a missionary or a volunteer worker in a foreign land, a states person. They could be someone of great influence, even a president.
A future entrepreneur?
This young man or women may one day own their own business, or they may simply end up work for someone else or in Corporate America dedicating their lives to building a giant for someone else. | <urn:uuid:31c1dae7-2ec2-47f9-8b98-e27fa3a17689> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://successfulrelationshipsblog.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957411 | 131 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Not the end of the world in 2012, but the end of another year and how you can take steps to make sure your finances are in order over the next few weeks.
Whether it’s getting ready for tax season, buying a new home, or the ramifications of the fiscal cliff, it’s always good to pause and review.
Best Quick Money Tips
Year-End Financial Tasks — This infographic from Liz Weston will help you to make sure you meet any looming financial deadlines you might have at the end of the year.
Fiscal Cliff Investments and Tax Planning — The Oblivious Investor answers readers’ questions about the looming Fiscal Cliff, as well as advising on a few end-of-the-year tax moves you might want to consider.
The Two Best Weeks to Make an Offer on a House –Hint: That window closes today. However, it also includes good advice for those who are closing on a house before the end of the year.
How to Actually Look Forward to Filing Your Taxes — Yes, you read that title correctly. Carrie offers some tips that could possibly help you to feel better about the upcoming tax season.
Should You Buy an Annuity-What Age Makes Sense? — This post from Jeff Rose gives a primer on annuities and also discusses whether or not they’re a good investment idea for people who are younger, say in their 20s and 30s.
More Quick Money Tips
Savings Bonds No Longer an Easy Gift — Did you know you couldn’t buy savings bonds at the bank anymore? Now the only way to purchase them is online, and while buying things online is usually simple, in this case it isn’t.
Cutting Investment Losses and Lovie Smith — What does the Head Coach of the Chicago Bears have to do with your investment portfolio?
The Human Cost of Cheap Clothing — An interesting NY Times debate that features 8 different people from various sides discussing where the responsibility lies in improving worker safety overseas.
Marriott Finally Reveals the Secrets to Hotel Room Prices — Can you haggle at the front desk for a better hotel room price? As well as other questions you might’ve wondered.
One in Three U.S. Consumers Would Consider a WalMart Mortgage — Would you get a home loan from WalMart if it were available to you? What about PayPal? This study reveals much about consumers sentiments toward banks.
Image credit arminho-paper | <urn:uuid:86e6ece2-40f2-4c9c-81fc-29e7b925d803> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ptmoney.com/end-of-the-year/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95125 | 508 | 1.65625 | 2 |
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44. Chapter Forty-four
FURTHER CONTINUATION OF THE ENTERPRISE OF MR JONAS AND HIS FRIEND
It was a special quality, among the many admirable qualities possessed by Mr Pecksniff, that the more he was found out, the more hypocrisy he practised. Let him be discomfited in one quarter, and he refreshed and recompensed himself by carrying the war into another. If his workings and windings were detected by A, so much the greater reason was there for practicing without loss of time on B, if it were only to keep his hand in. He had never been such a saintly and improving spectacle to all about him, as after his detection by Thomas Pinch. He had scarcely ever been at once so tender in his humanity, and so dignified and exalted in his virtue, as when young Martin's scorn was fresh and hot upon him.
Having this large stock of superfluous sentiment and morality on hand which must positively be cleared off at any sacrifice, Mr Pecksniff no sooner heard his son-in-law announced, than he regarded him as a kind of wholesale or general order, to be immediately executed. Descending, therefore, swiftly to the parlour, and clasping the young man in his arms, he exclaimed, with looks and gestures that denoted the perturbation of his spirit:
'Jonas. My child--she is well! There is nothing the matter?'
'What, you're at it again, are you?' replied his son-in-law. 'Even with me? Get away with you, will you?'
'Tell me she is well then,' said Mr Pecksniff. 'Tell me she is well my boy!'
'She's well enough,' retorted Jonas, disengaging himself. 'There's nothing the matter with HER.'
'There is nothing the matter with her!' cried Mr Pecksniff, sitting down in the nearest chair, and rubbing up his hair. 'Fie upon my weakness! I cannot help it, Jonas. Thank you. I am better now. How is my other child; my eldest; my Cherrywerrychigo?' said Mr Pecksniff, inventing a playful little name for her, in the restored lightness of his heart.
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The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon rules may not allow a lot of square footage, but the Team Alberta entry packs a whole lot of living—and working and playing—area into that limited space. The Team Alberta house includes a vaulted-ceiling living room and kitchen area, a stone-clad core area for the bathroom and mechanical systems, a bedroom and home office space, a rooftop deck, a keyway dividing the bedroom/home office from the more public areas of the house, and even a yoga space.
Team Alberta includes students from four schools: SAIT Polytechnic (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), Mount Royal College, the Alberta College of Art + Design, and the University of Calgary. Team members point proudly—and gladly—to the effort being 100% student led, with faculty being very hands-off.
They also say that the Solar Decathlon experience has been their life for the past year or so, and most expect to make energy-efficient building part of their careers. Team member Matt Beck says the tangible house is a "great real-world change from studio classes where you put your project on a poster board and then, once the class is over, it's gone."
The Team Alberta house is designed in the rustic image of Western Canada on the outside, with "post and beam timber frame" construction, and high-tech on the inside, with nearly all systems—heating, cooling, lighting, and even entertainment—operated by a programmable logic controller. Team member Mike Gestwick says the system, which is designed to be flexible and responsive, "allows us incredible control."
The home is separated by a keyway into public and private areas and seems to work an amazing amount of space for various activities into each.
The central control is the most notable technology of the Team Alberta house, but other systems include: | <urn:uuid:512e98c0-fc04-49f0-9b3c-3f297927facc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.solardecathlon.gov/past/2009/team_alberta.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960923 | 383 | 1.625 | 2 |
Colorado communities canceling July 4 fireworks
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Nearly two dozen Colorado communities are canceling their July 4th fireworks displays because of high fire danger, including two regions that are still fighting wildfires.
Boulder officials announced Wednesday that the annual Ralphie's Independence Day Blast fireworks show at the University of Colorado's Folsom Field has been cancelled as crews fight the Flagstaff Fire just west of the city. Colorado Springs is also fighting a major wildfire and city officials said they can't spare any resources to protect commercial fireworks.
Several communities, including Estes Park, where 22 homes were destroyed earlier this week, are postponing their displays, while others are holding celebrations with dances and music without the fireworks.
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In a far-ranging discussion Tuesday night of the city's part in UWM's Innovation Campus, and in the related fate of the historic Eschweiler buildings, Wauwatosa's Common Council finally got the word on what's really driving this bus.
That word is: Parking.
As with so many urban development plans, the mundane problem of providing enough parking emerged on the County Grounds projects.
But here, the matter is so complex that whether the Eschweilers are saved or demolished in a redevelopment plan, or even whether any redevelopment of their grounds can proceed at all, is tightly tied to how parking is handled on the rest of the UWM Real Estate Foundation's property.
At the same time, providing public financing for private developers to have enough parking is considered potentially critical to getting those developers to build here in the first place – and Wauwatosa's ability to do so could also be dependant on whether and how the Eschweiler property is developed.
The Committee of the Whole – a meeting of the full Common Council without the mayor presiding, and taking no official action – was called to hear an update on the status of Tax Incremental Financing District No. 6, which was created to fund infrastructure for Innovation Campus.
Also part of the agenda was a presentation on the findings of a consultant's study of the feasibility of restoring the Eschweiler buiidings as part of an apartment development.
A tale of two TIFs
Creating both great opportunities and extraordinary complications is the fact of overlapping TIFs. All of Innovation Campus including the Eschweiler Campus is encompassed in TIF No. 6. But only the Eschweiler Campus itself is also part of TIF No. 2, created two decades ago to support the development of the Research Park.
Aldermen learned first, to their delight, that in combination with the newly taxable value of the land Innovation Campus sits on, plus that of UWM's first building, known as the Innovation Accelerator, the addition of UWM's first private development, ABB, alone would be sufficient to pay back the city's entire investment over the life of TIF No. 6.
However, that is somewhat simplified math. While ABB has an agreement with the UWM Real Estate Foundation to build three stories, 95,000 square feet, on Innovation Campus, at an easily calculated value, no plans have been approved by Wauwatosa.
The negotiations – again, mainly over parking – will be key to whether ABB actually builds here, and in what way, shape and form.
City Finance Director John Ruggini and City Administrator Jim Archambo laid it out in stark terms. Companies looking to move or expand have choices. There are good reasons that they might want to be in the middle of the mix, near the urban core, near the transportation hub, near the Medical Center and the Research Park.
But cost is always a concern, too, and a reason to look at other options.
If you don't build it, they won't come...?
"Green field" business parks in the exurbs, Archambo said, can offer more land for less, allowing a company to develop a new site surrounded by ample surface parking at a few dollars per square foot, a few hundred dollars per stall.
Wauwatosa, even as it opens up new developments like Innovation Campus, is land-poor, constricted. All of the seven projected private, and therefore taxable, buildings in UWM's plan, must fit on just over 32 acres.
Ruggini offered the sobering equation: You can fit 108 parking stalls per acre. The planned 475,000 square feet of development on Innovation Campus would require 1,663 parking stalls. If accommodated with all surface lots, parking alone would eat up nearly half of the developable land within Innovation Campus, almost 16 acres.
Developers, then, will want, will demand, structure parking, which is much more expensive – $18,000 per stall. And as an incentive to build, they will want the city to help pay for it, or possibly to pay for all of it, because of the enormous additional cost compared to surface lots elsewhere.
So, even though the simplified math showing only ABB's added value appears to support the TIF, it really might not depending on what sort of deal can be struck to pay for parking structures or under-building parking (even more expensive at $22,000 per stall).
You can pay a lot, or a lot more, for Eschweilers
The surplus funds generated by TIF No. 2, which is currently scheduled to be retired in 2015, are expected to help pay for $12.5 million in basic infrastructure costs for both Innovation Campus and any development of the Eschweiler tract.
The city-owned roads and utilities needed to give access to the developments and supply them with power and water are essentially split into north and south segments, with much of the north end of Discovery Parkway plus an access road and utilities to the Eschweiler Campus potentially to be paid from fund No. 2.
But Mandel Group, the developer chosen by UWM Real Estate to build apartments in and around the Eschweiler buildings, has determined that it could not after all afford to refurbish the historic buildings without a $6.5 million infusion of city money.
Alternatively, Mandel says, it could tear down all but one of the buildings and develop its project – but it would still have a $2.5 million financing gap to fill. Barry Mandel has made it clear that the city would have to fill that gap if he is to proceed.
Opportunity has its cost
The conundrum for city policy-makers is this: If Wauwatosa wants to save all the Eschweiler buildings by directing $6.5 million in TIF money their way, or even by earmarking $2.5 million to save just one building, it does so at a cost that risks its ability to fund structure parking for any new developments in Innovation Campus.
But offering no funding whatsoever to Mandel's project means he might just back out all together. That would leave the Eschweilers standing, but with no other tax-generating plan in place to redevelop them and their campus property, would lock out much of the TIF No. 2 funding for infrastructure – and would leave UWM Real Estate $4 million shorter in its payments to Milwaukee County for the land.
Ruggini repeatedly referred to the "opportunity costs" the city faces in deciding how to allocate TIF dollars: If we spend this here to do this, that's money we can't spend there to do that. Opportunity do one thing comes at the price of not being able to do something else.
A TIF, with a life of up to 27 years, can be fragile. Ruggini likes them robust. He wants to see projections of a TIF being 125 percent funded over its life. Much less and he worries about the unforeseen of 27 years of uncertainty.
There are scenarios in which Wauwatosa could easily afford to pay for preservation and restoration of the Eschweiler buildings and still make a profit on both TIFs. There are scenarios, too, dependant on the difference between providing one parking stall per 1,000 square feet per customer, or two, or none, that could sink TIF No. 6 with debt if any significant money were allocated elsewhere – such as, to any assistance to Mandel.
Old Eschweilers have a grip on the future
If anyone wants it crystallized, perhaps it comes down to this: If enough businesses want to be in Innovation Campus so badly that they will pay through the nose to be there, including paying for all their own enclosed parking, Wauwatosa could preserve the Eschweiler buildings, restore them, cover them with gold leaf and still make a profit.
If enough businesses hold Wauwatosa's feet to the fire over parking and insist that they need substantial public assistance to provide that parking if they are to ever to come to Innovation Campus – and if they win that hand – then there is little hope of any TIF money going toward the Eschweilers.
And yet that could spell curtains for the whole project if the only interested developer for the Eschweilers backs out.
Somehow, a group of loved but dilapidated and hard-to-use 100-year-old buildings still holds the upper hand – but not for reasons anyone expected. | <urn:uuid:c263c080-ff7d-414b-8a0c-df86a58b6d5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wauwatosa.patch.com/articles/council-hears-status-update-on-uwm-campus-eschweiler-report | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962093 | 1,774 | 1.65625 | 2 |
In addition, competition will be fierce as these banks target the same ‘core’ depositors, clients and markets. Savers should benefit from increased interest rates, but the inevitable quid pro quo will be higher borrowing rates (a trend that is already starting), creating further conflicts and potentially damaging trust.
There is no doubt that remuneration policy in many banks has been a significant hindrance in restoring that trust. However, although there are good stories to tell about how remuneration has been better linked to ongoing performance, too few banks in the survey show a comprehensive approach in providing information that delivers that story.
By failing to clearly set out how much of current year remuneration is deferred, the conditions under which it will not be paid, clawbacks and performance metrics, we believe that some banks have missed an opportunity to proactively explain themselves before the inevitable media onslaught.
The short and medium-term future looks extremely difficult. For instance, these banks report reduced levels of impairment charges but other risks in bank loan books (for example, direct and indirect Eurozone exposures in certain countries) could quickly emerge and push those charges up again. Banks, therefore, should ensure that they have the right resources, processes and systems to weather what appears to be a never-ending storm of issues.
The real winners will be those that strike an appropriate balance between sometimes inconsistent and often conflicting internal priorities and survive the storm of challenges from the global economy. | <urn:uuid:cf48a112-7709-4eb5-8be1-d1d72c729d91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/focus-on-transparency/Pages/share-holder-returns-customer-trust.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960133 | 295 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The story of the Prodigal Son, from Luke 15, is one of those stories that you’ve probably heard so often that it goes in one ear and out the other.
It’s a story that’s easily taken for granted, filed away in the folder: “I’ve got that one figured out.”
Read it too quickly and you’ll miss its beauty and depth. Check this out:
There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need….But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. (Luke 15:11-14; 17-20)
When the Prodigal son returned home, his father didn’t greet him with a new set of rules and regulations and expectations and guilt.
Because grace doesn’t heap burdens. It releases them. Grace doesn’t tighten restrictions. It frees prodigals to receive joy. Instead of chaining, it loosens bonds. In fact, “grace” says you were in bondage before, and that now it’s time to be free.
Even when you’ve squandered your life. Even when you’ve destroyed relationships. Even when you’ve walked away from those who love you. Even when you’ve done that thing again…and again. Even when you’ve held on to bitterness. Even when you’ve acted the fool. Even when you’ve spit in the face of those who love you the most.
When what you deserve is to be cut off from the family, left out in the cold, and shut out from all blessings. When what you think is coming your way includes condemnation and shame. When your stupidity has landed you in a heaping pile of your own mess, your Father smiles and says,
“You were dead, but now you’re alive. You were lost, but now you’re found. You. Are. My. Son.”
And there it is. God rewrites your story, changes the ending, and gives you a new name.
It’s easy to find ourselves broken by life, by the choices of others, and by our own poor decisions, stuck in a hole we dug ourselves into. No matter how deep you’ve gone, how far you’ve strayed, or how many broken lives you’ve left in your path of destruction, it’s not too late.
Turn back now, and your eyes will meet a Savior running towards you with arms open and full of Joy.
* photo credit: Creative Commons user Kiss the Lava | <urn:uuid:8ad91d58-3dc6-4bfd-9a6b-720174c17940> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.benreed.net/index.php/tag/the-prodigal-son/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976803 | 759 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Top treks of the world
Featuring 300 color photographs, full-page images, magnificent two-page spreads, and 29 color maps, Top Treks of the World uses wonderful mountain and wilderness photography to present 30 of the best hikes in the world. While the images inspire, the text and maps allow readers to follow each route. There are details on the local culture, flora and fauna, and facilities and camping along the route. The book features paths through Asia (including Tibet and Nepal), North and South America (from the Appalachian Trail to Patagonia), Europe (from the Alps to Corsica), Australia, and Africa (from Morocco to Namibia). Compiled by experts with firsthand knowledge of each route, it captures beautiful and spiritually charged places through photography and the words of the adventurers who have explored them. | <urn:uuid:632e3f69-de06-4cf2-9798-274567c2f227> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cecil.ebranch.info/great-reads/book-details/2103/comments/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931057 | 166 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Mark Winne is the author of Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin’ Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture.
Highland Hills is one of those down-and-nearly-out communities that’s allowed a glimpse of prosperity but never gets to taste it. The Dallas skyline looms large and shining across the hazy north Texas horizon and is linked to this poverty-plagued neighborhood by a seven-mile ribbon of light-rail steel. Ledbetter Avenue crosses the train line passing by vacant buildings, vast stretches of empty parking lots, and a dizzying array of “For Sale,” “For Lease” and “For Jesus” signs. Named for the renowned guitar picker Lead Belly who did time in these parts – both in and out of prison – the Avenue speaks little in the way of promise, but wails the blues of poverty loud and clear.
Like cockroaches in a post-nuclear winter, the neighborhood’s only commercial survivors appear to be pawn shops, Dollar stores, and fast-food joints. One supermarket, a Minyard whose cinder-blocked and windowless façade is about as inviting as the entrance to Stalag 13, is the only retail food source in the several surrounding miles of food desert. But a lifeline from an unlikely source has been tossed Highland Hills’s way by a group of innovative academics. Paul Quinn College, a historically black college that sits just off Interstate 45 at the neighborhood’s eastern edge, is committed to lifting its neighboring community’s physical and economic health with a combination of food, farming, and servant leadership.
There’s no little irony in this partnership. To drive by the Paul Quinn campus is to, well, keep on driving. There are no signature ivy-clad buildings or tree-shaded quads to invite college-shopping families for a leisurely tour. In fact, the first roadside buildings you see are in various states of demolition, reflecting, in part, the plunge in student enrollment from 600 to 100 (it’s now climbed back to 200) and the school’s loss of accreditation (it’s been able recently to earn back probationary status). At first glance anyway, and like the adjoining neighborhood it wants to help, Paul Quinn appears to be hanging on to life by no more than a pea tendril.
But first glances are deceiving, and pea tendrils are stronger than they look. And when your back's to the wall and nobody, even your own government, will help you, you fight like hell, you do the unexpected, and you take risks.
In Paul Quinn’s case, not only did the college take risks, it committed a grievous sin, at least by Texas standards – they terminated their football program and turned their field into an organic farm. Yes, in the shadow of the Super Bowl, with the specter of Tom Landry looking down, and the holy glare of Friday night lights forever dimmed, Paul Quinn ripped up its sacred turf where football cleats once tread, and planted – goalpost to goalpost – peas, lettuce, carrots, strawberries, and more, lots more.
While the roar from the football stands may have subsided, it doesn’t mean that the field has fallen silent. When Andrea Bithell, the farm manager, announced to student and staff volunteers that the kohlrabi had gone in last week, everyone cheered. Showing a group of farm visitors where the corn would be planted later this spring evoked a round of applause from several students who proclaimed their love of its sweet kernels. Indeed the competitive spirit and enthusiasm so much a part of college athletics is hardly lacking at “Food for Good Farm,” the name chosen to denote it’s larger mission of education, community service, and healthy food for all. Sounding more like a coach than a farmer, Andrea uses words like hustle to describe her student crew’s hectic effort to plant and seed the two-acre field. When the volunteers complained about working in the cold and the rain, they were reminded that football games are played in all kinds of weather. Even the plants are forced to compete in a set of 12 trial beds located in the field’s south end zone. Here students will test different growing methods and evaluate their potential financial rate of return.
Elizabeth Wattley, Paul Quinn’s Director of Service Learning, proclaimed with pride that the farm’s tomatoes were better than anything she’d ever bought in a grocery store (she confessed that until her introduction to the farm during its first spring in 2010 she had been afraid of dirt). One student, biology major Symphonie Dawson, giggled when she described the farm’s mascot emblazoned on their t-shirts. “It’s the ‘Fighting Okra,’ an image of the vegetable wearing boxing gloves. We chose it because last year’s okra crop seemed to go on forever.” The “Rah-rah, Go Team, Go!” energy previously reserved for football games has been channeled into the end-zone to end-zone planting of 1,500 strawberry plants, 6,600 onions, a new asparagus bed, and dozens of varieties of vegetables. “The farm is the light of the college,” is the assertive way Elizabeth put it.
For a school that was on the ropes, Paul Quinn has gained a reprieve by discovering the multiple benefits of farming while also turning its attention outward to the community. One prominent need that the farm is already addressing is healthy living and eating, no small concern on today’s college campuses, especially one that is surrounded by a food desert. “Before their work on the farm, students wouldn’t eat carrots unless they were smothered in Ranch dressing,” noted Andrea. But by getting their hands in the dirt – a task that usually took two or three visits to the farm to get past the “yuck” declaration – students started eating carrots right out of the ground, dirt and all. “They actually taste,” said Elizabeth, pausing for a moment to find the right adjective, “carrot-tee.”
By engaging students enrolled in the school’s biology and social entrepreneurship courses, the farm gives scores of people in their late teens and early twenties a chance to get hands-on laboratory experience at the same time they get their hands in the dirt. Even the students who don’t care to venture into the world of bugs and compost get a taste of the farm’s output. Paul Quinn’s cafeteria now offers a monthly feature designed to showcase the farm’s harvest and introduce students to food that is healthy, tasty, and oh-so local. But Jasmine Wynn, a freshman legal study major, may have summed up the farm’s health benefits best. “I’m a city girl from Dallas, and for me the farm was something new. I liked being out there. I also started getting serious about my diet last year and decided that organic food is better for you. It’s just part of a healthier lifestyle, and I want to stick around for a long time.”
The lack of farming experience or a farm background has not been a deterrent to anyone’s participation, including Paul Quinn’s President Michael J. Sorrell. With public policy and law degrees from Duke University, his stellar resume indicates he has represented American Airlines and Morgan Stanley, served on numerous prestigious commissions including an assignment at the White House, and was selected in 2009 as one of the 10 Best Historically Black College and University presidents. Notably lacking from Dr. Sorrell’s career synopsis, however, are any agricultural credentials, and ironically, his business achievements include representing top-flight athletes like Utah Jazz All-Star Deron Williams. So why did he eliminate the football program and then have the audacity to convert the field to a farm?
A big part of the answer no doubt lies in his personal commitment to the concept of servant leadership, which, like the farm, he brought to Paul Quinn. With such simple but difficult to live by ideas like putting others before self, leaving the world a better place than you found it, and maintaining a spiritual faithfulness, Dr. Sorrell not only preaches what he practices (he personally teaches a freshman course in servant leadership), he practices what he preaches. And the farm is at the center of that practice.
Isaiah 58: 9-12 gets prominent mention on the College’s website which also touts the school’s Christian underpinnings. The scripture admonishes us (some would say “teaches us”) “to pour yourself out for the hungry…then shall your light rise in the darkness…and you shall be like a watered garden.” Holding aside the self-interest in doing good (and why not?), The Food for Good Farm has its heart and mind set on serving the hardscrabble community that surrounds it. Though a share of the harvest goes to the school’s cafeteria, 10 percent goes to a local food pantry, a sizeable share is also sold on a weekly basis to the community from the field’s former hot dog stand, and just to preserve some historical symmetry, the Dallas Cowboys buy a small share of the farm’s organic veggies, which, if sustained over time, will no doubt catapult “America’s Team” into a Super Bowl.
The school’s initial attempt to solve the community’s food access problem was to offer free land to any supermarket that wanted to build a store there. But there were no takers in a marketplace where nearly 40 percent of the residents lived in poverty. So like in days of old when the nearest general store was 100 miles away, and your only choice was to shoot or grow your dinner, Paul Quinn took to farming. The “adaptive re-use” of the football area has been impressive under Andrea’s and Elizabeth’s leadership. Not only are the hash stripes gone but so are the top four inches of sod and dirt that were replaced by dump truck loads of pure organic matter. Reflecting the program’s absolute commitment to organic farming, there was simply too much distrust of the chemical residues from years of maintaining a perfectly green gridiron. The goalposts remain as do the blocking sled, scoreboard and the entire set of bleachers running the length of both sides of the field. But the former press box is about to be turned into a chicken coop and Elizabeth retains some hope that the bleachers can be retrofitted as a greenhouse. Acres of adjoining and nearly vacant land are already being eyed for farm expansion, especially if a recently applied for federal grant comes through. On the day this reporter visited, a local apiarist was scouting out locations for nearly a dozen beehives. And according to Symphonie, the campus’s coolest guy, a very sharp dresser from Brooklyn, NY, wants to join the “bee program.”
None of this extraordinary progress has come cheaply. Elizabeth estimates that well over $100,000 in capital expenditures have been required to accomplish this conversion, and the on-going operating costs –Andrea is on the payroll half-time as is a variety of students who receive some compensation, especially during the summer season – are only marginally offset by farm sales. An upcoming April fundraiser featuring urban farming rock star Will Allen will hopefully swell the coffers sufficiently to enable the farm to buy its own tractor (it now pays for contract equipment services).
But the rapid development of the farm and the rising fortunes of Paul Quinn College have come with a price – small or large depending on your perspective. The Good Food Farm is the result of a fifty/fifty partnership between the college and PepsiCo’s Food for Good Initiative. The college makes it clear that this is an equal partnership and that PepsiCo has not placed any strings on their giving. While Elizabeth acknowledges some inherent contradictions – yes, Pepsi and other soda manufacturers have contributed more than their fair share of calories to America’s obesity crisis – she feels their support has been entirely above board. Other than cleaning up its tarnished image, one cannot detect either covert or overt sinister motives in PepsiCo’s support. Yet, with 11 teaspoons of sugar in each 12 ounce can of Pepsi-Cola and their ferocious attempt over the years to hook children with their iconic brand, one can’t help but confront the ethical contradictions: where does the greater good lie, and when does one begin to slide down the slippery slope? Though the Bible offers little in the way of guidance when dealing with the PR strategies of modern corporations (obesity, for instance, having not appeared on the world stage for another 2000 years), the college might choose to at least make the topic grist for future classroom discussions.
In the meantime, it’s hard to argue with the outcome of the Paul Quinn/PepsiCo partnership. Texas has one less football field and one more organic farm, clearly a net gain for humanity. Students from the captain of the basketball team to entering freshman are eating better, getting over their aversion to bugs, and getting their hands in the dirt (Symphonie noted that her nails look much healthier now that she regularly jams them into the soil). And the Highland Hills neighborhood is enjoying the health and aesthetic benefits of living adjacent to Dallas’s closest farm.
Under Dr. Sorrell’s able leadership Paul Quinn is rising from the ashes, or should we say compost pile. Elizabeth and Andrea are guiding the growth of what would be considered an ambitious venture at a major university let alone a college as small as Paul Quinn. And the Fighting Okra, well, they just might be on their way to a national championship. | <urn:uuid:863d6ca4-660e-4ce7-8dfe-43613cc98fbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/food_and_drink/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960642 | 2,902 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Following is one of several stories written by members of the Mary Queen of Angels Regional Catholic School Writers’ Club. Members of the club were asked to write a brief essay about why they enjoy Mary Queen of Angels School, or their fondest MQA memory. For more information about the school, located at 170 Rosewood Terrace in Cheektowaga, please visit www.mqangels.com.
By Jamie Z., Grade 8
Here at MQA we do a lot of fun activities. We have a ton of sports to participate in, such as basketball, softball, baseball, soccer, track and bowling. We also have clubs here like Mural Club, Writers’ Club and Garden Club.
The teachers at MQA are always there to talk to. I love Mrs. Bagwell’s turtle, Coco! | <urn:uuid:1c5ab830-0315-4a3b-a60b-45e95bc96e54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkbw.com/younews/122587269.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976322 | 176 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Gospel of Matthew 8
When Jesus had come down from the hill, great crowds followed him. 2 And he saw a leper who came up, and bowed to the ground before him, and said: “Master, if only you are willing, you are able to make me clean.” 3 Stretching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying as he did so: “I am willing; become clean.” Instantly he was made clean from his leprosy; 4 And then Jesus said to him: “Be careful not to say a word to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift directed by Moses, as evidence of your cure.”
5 After Jesus had entered Capernaum, a captain in the Roman army came up to him, entreating his help. 6 “Sir,” he said, “my servant is lying ill at my house with a stroke of paralysis, and is suffering terribly.” 7 “I will come and cure him,” answered Jesus. 8 “Sir,” the captain went on, “I am unworthy to receive you under my roof; but only speak, and my manservant will be cured. 9 For I myself am a man under the orders of others, with soldiers under me; and, if I say to one of them ‘Go,’ he goes, and to another ‘Come,’ he comes, and to my slave ‘Do this,’ he does it.”
10 Jesus was surprised to hear this, and said to those who were following him: “Never, I tell you, in any Israelite have I met with such faith as this! 11 Yes, and many will come in from East and West and take their places beside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; 12 While the heirs to the kingdom will be ‘banished into the darkness’ outside; there, there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” 13 Then Jesus said to the captain: “Go now, and it shall be according to your faith.” And the man was cured that very hour.
14 When Jesus went into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother–in–law prostrated with fever. 15 On his taking her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and began to wait upon him. 16 In the evening the people brought to Jesus many who were possessed by demons; and he drove out the spirits with a word, And cured all who were ill, 17 In fulfillment of these words of the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our infirmities on himself, and bore the burden of our diseases.’
18 Seeing a crowd round him, Jesus gave orders to go across. 19 And a teacher of the law came up to him, and said: “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 “Foxes have holes,” answered Jesus, “and wild birds their roosting–places, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 “Master,” said another, who was a disciple, “let me first go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus answered: “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”
23 Then he got into the boat, followed by his disciples. 24 Suddenly so great a storm came upon the sea that the waves broke right over the boat. But Jesus was asleep; 25 And the disciples came and roused him. “Master,” they cried, “save us; we are lost!” 26 “Why are you so timid?” he said. “O ye of little faith!” Then Jesus rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and a great calm followed. 27 The men were amazed, and exclaimed: “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!”
28 And on getting to the other side—the country of the Gadarenes—Jesus met two men who were possessed by demons, coming out of the tombs. They were so violent that no one was able to pass that way. 29 Suddenly they shrieked out: “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before our time?”
30 A long way off, there was a drove of many pigs, feeding; 31 And the foul spirits began begging Jesus: “If you drive us out, send us into the drove of pigs.” 32 “Go,” he said. The spirits came out, and entered the pigs; and the whole drove rushed down the steep slope into the sea, and died in the water. 33 At this the men who tended them ran away and went to the town, carrying the news of all that had occurred, and of what had happened to the possessed men. 34 At the news the whole town went out to meet Jesus, and, when they saw him, they entreated him to go away from their neighborhood.
To read Chapter 8 of the Gospel of Matthew, please go to: Sheep Among Wolves
Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour Book now: The Lord’s Prayer.
Browse the entire Gospel of Matthew here: Gospel of Matthew | <urn:uuid:7787a30b-f443-4062-8fc3-5fee90395a25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://livinghour.org/blog/tag/dead-bury-their-dead/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985939 | 1,171 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Little Tutu posts:
American Ballet Theatre- June 15, 2005 Metropolitan Opera House
Sylvia: Beauty in Simplicity
The curtain rises on a pastoral scene as nymphs and woodland creatures dance before the shrine of Eros, God of Love. Triumphant and Amazonian enters Sylvia, one of Diana’s huntress nymphs sworn to chastity, and her attendants, victorious from their hunt. Out of Greek mythology comes a simple story of love- a boy loves a girl, the girl is captured by evil men, the girl is then restored to the boy, and love conquers all.
Choreographed in 1952, Sylvia was Sir Frederick Ashton’s second full-length work and the Royal Ballets most ambitious venture to date, conceived as a vehicle for Margot Fonteyn and homage to the great three act ballets of Petipa. Yet because of Ashton’s reluctance toward recording his works for posterity, Sylvia was lost from the Royal Ballet’s repertory in the late 50’s.
Sylvia, in this day and age, is not particularly virtoustic- an arena for the gods of dance at ABT to display their otherworldly feats. (Although the almost optical illusion of Dany Tidwell’s enormous jumps as Eros needs no special arena for its display.) Sylvia is a chance for these great dancers to display their artistry and subtle mastery of emotion. Having virtually no mime, the passion, love, rage, and defiance in this ballet are all shown through dance movement. Sylvia hearkens back to a time in ballet where gymnastic achievements- half dozen pirouettes, greater than 180 degree split leaps, a tornado of rapidly devouring turns- were not commonplace as they are today. Sylvia possesses moments of quick and intricate footwork, delightful and surprising interplays with the magnificent Delibes score, and trademarks of Ashton’s style: plasticity and grace of the upper body, neatness of footwork, and confidence in simple movements executed with supreme elegance. In the bravura of modern dancers achievements style can easily be lost to tricks. Not only is the revival of Sylvia important achivally as a way of preserving history, but also as a reminder of the staggering beauty in simplicity.
For the ballerina, Sylvia offers a challenge as dramatic as it is technical. Sylvia, in the beginning, must portray strength and power. That hardness then softens to feminine vulnerability, lovesickness, distress, and seductiveness. The ballerina is onstage for most of Act I, all of Act II, and most of Act III. The choreography- stunning and graceful- is made for a woman’s body.
On June 15, Michele Wiles danced with the arrogance and infallibility of a righteous servant of the Goddess. Her dancing was exuberant and fearless, at times appropriately haughty and overbearing, and at others coy and infatuated. Her endless balances and strength- no matter the speed or trajectory of her movement her legs were always right underneath her and rock solid- can be said of almost any other world-class ballerina of her status. However, above and beyond that, Wiles was alive and engaging in her role bringing the personality of Sylvia to life. That is what sets dancers of such high caliber apart. Marcelo Gomes as her lover Aminta was powerfully masculine in his physicality and movement, yet at the same time graceful and soft on top of it. He is a warmly gracious dancer and a commanding performer.
While Sylvia had a very mixed reception in its day, audiences complaining that the story was too obscure and outdated to be interesting, it was wildly successful and loved on its American tour. I do not think the story more obscure than Swan Lake, for example, or particularly difficult to follow. What topic is more timeless than love, what subject more rewarding than loves endurance? Sylvia is worth seeing for it’s glimpse at the once lost work of a master, for the excitement of its dancing, for the display of the ballerina’s power and elegance, and for a refreshing and resonant reminder of how beautiful simplicity can be. | <urn:uuid:ad00e08f-d77d-42b2-87b8-65858e2878b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ballet-dance.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=163981 | 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 | 0.952149 | 868 | 1.84375 | 2 |
WASHINGTON – Key Republicans, ranging from the House majority leader to Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, signaled some willingness Monday to move away from a decades-old pledge signed by nearly all federal GOP candidates that they would not raise taxes in any way, shape or form.
With the nation approaching a “fiscal cliff” on Dec. 31, when taxes will rise dramatically and spending will be slashed unless a divided Congress reaches a compromise, GOP lawmakers appeared to be moving, however slightly and in varying degrees, toward President Obama’s insistence that the wealthy pay more in taxes.
For example, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, of Virginia, told MSNBC: “When I go to the constituents that have re-elected me, it is not about that pledge. It really is about trying to solve problems.”
Cantor refused to go further and specifically say he was willing to break the pledge pushed for decades by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, but other Republicans did.
Reed, a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee who is seen as a bridge between GOP leadership and lawmakers elected with tea-party backing, told reporters on a conference call: “I would say the pledge is not a barrier to a deal.”
That deal would have to ensure that any new revenue would not go to cover an increase in spending and would have to include an additional $1 trillion in deficit reduction, said Reed, who complained that Democrats have not yet agreed to those two points.
The shift in Republican rhetoric on taxes came as the White House released a dire report indicating the economic impact if the nation tumbles over the fiscal cliff:
• The average family would suddenly pay $2,200 more in taxes next year, and growth in consumer spending could fall by 1.7 percentage points, the White House said.
• Meanwhile, economic growth, which has run at about 2 percent annually since the Great Recession, would most likely fall by 1.4 percentage points in 2013.
• The report also echoed concerns from multiple economists, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, that the fiscal cliff’s automatic tax increases and spending cuts, which would take about $500 billion out of the economy in one year alone, could push the nation back into recession.
Facing such dire prospects, and with only about a month left to strike a deal with Democrats to avert the fiscal cliff, some Republicans are going much farther than Cantor and Reed in vowing to break the pledge they signed.
“The only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Sunday on “This Week” on ABC. “And Republicans should put revenue on the table.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said on CBS: “I’m not obligated on the pledge. I made Tennesseans aware – I was just elected – [that] the only thing I’m honoring is the oath I take when I serve, when I’m sworn in this January.”
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., also agreed to break the pledge, as did Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., who told NBC: “A pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that Congress … The world has changed, and the economic situation is different.”
The pledge supposedly binds lawmakers to “oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses” and “oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.”
In contrast to the pledge, Reed said, “what we’ve said in the last few weeks is that we will consider revenue on the wealthier segment of American society, and we are open to that, and we’ll continue to take that position.”
While Obama has insisted on higher tax rates for upper-income wage earners, Reed and others in the GOP ranks have resisted such a move, instead showing a willingness to raise revenues by limiting deductions.
Meanwhile, billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett, whose company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., owns The Buffalo News and who is The News’ chairman, agreed that the rich should pay more. In an opinion piece in the New York Times, he called for repealing the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for people earning over $500,000 a year and setting a minimum tax rate of 30 percent on taxable income between $1 million and $10 million, and 35 percent on higher amounts.
“A plain and simple rule like that will block the efforts of lobbyists, lawyers and contribution-hungry legislators to keep the ultrarich paying rates well below those incurred by people with income just a tiny fraction of ours,” Buffett said. “Only a minimum tax on very high incomes will prevent the stated tax rate from being eviscerated by these warriors for the wealthy.”
Norquist was nonplussed by all the sudden talk – even among Republicans – of raising revenues. Noting that some Republicans expressed willingness to break the pledge during debt-ceiling negotiations in 2011, only to hold fast to it in the end, Norquist said the same thing was likely this time.
“We’ve got some people discussing impure thoughts on national television,” Norquist said.
But Cantor indicated that the newly evolving Republican stance on taxes is a recognition of reality, a recognition of what will happen if Congress does not find a way to steer the nation back from the fiscal cliff.
“If we don’t do anything, come Jan. 1, 2013, there’s a lot of people paying a lot more” in taxes, Cantor said.
News wire services contributed to this report. email: [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:d3d6ce88-fd35-497b-bfd1-afb473220bcd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121126/CITYANDREGION/121129427/1032 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961284 | 1,236 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The sensor on the flash must be able to "see" the triggering flash, but it does not have to be direct light. The 430EX and 580EX both are sensitive enough that bounced flash works equally as well. You simply need to orient the flash sensor so that it can see 'out' from the umbrella, even if that means a convenient wall or other reflector. You will find that you can even put a flash in an adjoining room, as long as there is some ability for your triggering flash to be 'seen' by the slave unit.
For example, this image shows two 430EX flashes, used outdoors. One, being held by the biologic flash stand, has the sensor covered by the biologic flash stand attachment point (hand). The other 430EX is behind the umbrella itself, but can 'see' the triggering flash thru the umbrella and via the reflector. Note that the 430EX sensors are pointing to the side. Also, this is triggered via an ST-E2. | <urn:uuid:46bab1b1-8195-494a-965a-f71d53b153e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/26269/remote-controlled-flash-and-umbrella-softbox/26270 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942468 | 204 | 1.71875 | 2 |
(Dover, De.) “Earlier today, I presented our budget request for FY 2010 before the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). During this hearing, I provided information about the programs that have been funded through the Department of Education budget and the outcomes that have been a result of these investments over the years. It is important that we all understand that the progress we have made has not happened by accident.
Investments to support policy and legislative initiatives aimed at improving Delaware’s public education system have resulted in significant improvements in education outcomes over the last ten years. Our educators are better prepared today to meet the challenges of standards based reform and the expectations of strong accountability. Our students are performing better on state and national assessments, and Delaware is a national leader in reducing the achievement gap among subgroups. Our infrastructure is sound and our schools are safe and well maintained.
Without strong professional development programs our educators at all levels will not be able to learn new strategies and programs. Without support for extra time and other related support our students will miss out on opportunities to improve their skills so that they can meet the expectations of the 21st Century. Without programs to address social and behavioral issues in schools, too many students will not have the skills they need to be productive students and eventually productive workers.
Given the current economic situation, it is not appropriate for me to request additional dollars for the Department of Education budget. My request today is that those who will have the final say on the State’s budget will be thoughtful and mindful of the importance of building on the strong foundation that has been put in place. Decisions to cut back or to eliminate funding even for the short term too often have long term consequences.
One specific issue needs to be considered. The Appoquinimink School District has experienced increased enrollment over the past several years. This year is no exception with an additional increase of 500 students. The district must seek a referendum to build an additional elementary school, and the State of Delaware must do all it can to support the citizens and the children to make that school a reality.”
Delaware Department of Education
401 Federal Street, Suite #2
Dover, Delaware 19901
Phone: (302) 735-4035
Fax: (302) 739-4654
Other Press Releases | <urn:uuid:2131b2f5-8602-4124-8718-9ad3d48abf0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doe.k12.de.us/news/2008/1126b.shtml | 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 | 0.956669 | 473 | 1.523438 | 2 |
In response to:
On Linguistics from the May 14, 1964 issue
To the Editors:
Will you please report a few errata in my Linguistics review in the issue of May 14?
On page 15, for the benefit of the uninstructed your editor wisely but inaccurately defined “phonemes” for me. A phoneme is what is analyzed as the smallest discrimination that could make a difference to being understood. Thus, a Spanish d would still be taken for d, so it is not a separate phoneme from d; but thin is different from sin, so a strong lisp is phonemically pathological. Also, a rising intonation is taken for a question rather than an assertion, so it is a separate phoneme. The gist of my review is that an accurate analysis—of phonemes, syntax, or anything else—is of the concrete whole that is being analyzed; since language finally exists in particular practical speeches, we cannot finally rely on mere averages, or matching pairs over short stretches with unconcerned listeners, or on fiat of what in a speech is linguistic and what is para-linguistic. Linguistic analysis is literary analysis.
On page 18, your copy-reader dropped a “not” in my sentence about Zellig Harris, which should read: “Is it not a bit of a hoax not to accumulate in parallel the vast treasury of ‘paralinguistic’ speech which also somehow communicates?”
Finally, on page 2, at the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee) I am in the Department of Urban Affairs, not English. | <urn:uuid:0e1323c6-9022-43c9-a6ab-3142f76e61f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1964/may/28/lingustics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946109 | 337 | 1.742188 | 2 |
|26-08-2005, 03:23 PM||#1 (permalink)|
Join Date: Jul 2002
Cricket & Life
A great speech not only about cricket
but about life in general.
Unfortunately the speaker's life has been 'stilled' by Tamil Terorrrist's recently.
SL FM's speech to SL Cricketers in the UK a couple of years ago
Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Kadirgamar's after dinner speech in the UK,
at which Sri Lankan Cricketers were present.
Captain Atapattu and members of the Sri Lankan team Members of the Sri
Lankan community Friends of Sri Lanka Ladies and Gentlemen
Some historians say, I think uncharitably, that cricket is really a
diabolical political strategy, disguised as a game, in fact a
substitute for war, invented by the ingenious British to confuse the
natives by encouraging them to fight each other instead of their
imperial rulers. The
world is divided into two camps - those who revel in the intricacies of
cricket and those who are totally baffled by it, who cannot figure out
a group of energetic young men should spend days, often in the hot sun
or bitter cold, chasing a round object across an open field, hitting it
from time to time with a stick - all to the rapturous applause of
millions, of ecstatic spectators across the world. The game has
mystical language of its own that further bewilders those who are
already befuddled by its complexities.
In the course of my travels I have a hard time explaining to the
non-cricketing world - in America, China, Europe and Russia - that a
is not an Indian sweetmeat; that a square cut is not a choice selection
prime beef; that a cover drive is not a secluded part of the garden;
bouncer is not a muscular janitor at a night club, that a yorker is not
some exotic cocktail mixed in Yorkshire; that a leg-break is not a
manoeuvre designed to cripple your opponent's limbs below the waist.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me see whether politics and cricket have
in common. Both are games. Politicians and cricketers are superficially
similar, and yet very different. Both groups are wooed by the cruel
who embrace them today and reject them tomorrow. Cricketers work hard;
politicians only pretend to do so. Cricketers are disciplined;
discipline is a word unknown to most politicians in any language.
Cricketers risk their own limbs in the heat of honourable play,
politicians encourage others to risk their limbs in pursuit of
fruitless causes while they
secure in the safety of their pavilions. Cricketers deserve the rewards
they get; the people get the politicians they deserve. Cricketers
retire young; politicians go on for ever. Cricketers unite the country;
politicians divide it. Cricketers accept the umpire's verdict even if
disagree with it; politicians who disagree with an umpire usually get
him transferred. Cricketers stick to their team through victory and
defeat, politicians in a losing team cross over and join the winning team.
cricketers are the better breed.
It is said that the task of a foreign minister is to lie effusively for
country abroad. That may be true, but it is certainly true that he has
to fight for his country and defend it at all times. Our cricketers may
that in the run-up to the 1995 World Cup Australia refused to play a
in Colombo, citing security reasons. Shane Warne said he wouldn't come
to Colombo because he couldn't do any shopping there. The press asked
comment. I said "shopping is for sissies".
There was a storm of protest in Australia. A TV interviewer asked me
whether I had ever played cricket. I said I had played before he was
without helmets and thigh guards, on matting wickets that were full of
holes and stones, and I had my share of broken bones to show of it. My
friend the Australian foreign minister was drawn into the fray. He
phoned me. We decided to cool things down. A combined India/Pakistan
team came to Colombo at very short notice to play an exhibition match
in place of the Australian match. It was a magnificent
gesture of South Asian solidarity. Against strong security advice I
to the field to greet and thank our friends from India and Pakistan.
When the whole episode was over I sent a bouquet of flowers to my
Australian counterpart. Flowers are also for sissies.
I remember vividly the incident that occurred in Australia when Murali
called for throwing and Arjuna led his team to the boundary, in
protest, but cleverly refrained from crossing it. I was watching TV in
past captain I asked myself what I would have done in Arjuna's place.
mind I had no hesitation in supporting his decision. A few minutes
later the phone rang. The President of the Board called to ask for
Arjuna was right because a captain must, on the field, stand up for his
and protect them, but the consequences must not be allowed to go too
far; good lawyers must be engaged and a reasonable compromise must be
That was done.
During that tour I paid an official visit to Australia. My friend the
Australian foreign minister in the course of a dinner speech invited me
go with him the next day to Adelaide, his home town, to watch the final
day's play. I knew what the result was going to be. In my reply I said
at the end of the match I did not want to be the one to tell him that
Australia had "won by a Hair,'. Accordingly, I went back home, as
to maintain the good relations that we have with Australia.
Foreign ministers sometimes find themselves in very difficult situations.
Take pity on the Foreign Minister of Uganda President Idi Amin had told
that he wanted to change the name of Uganda to Idi. The minister was
told to canvas world opinion and return in two weeks. He did not do so.
He was summoned to come. He was now in danger. He was asked to explain. He
"Mr. President, I have been informed that there is a country called
Its citizens are called Cypriots, If we change the name of our country
to Idi our citizens would be called... Idiots". Reason prevailed.
A shark was asked why diplomats were his preferred food. He replied
their brains being small are a tasty morsel, their spines being supple
I can chew on them at leisure - and they come delightfully marinated in
Ladies and Gentlemen, as I approach the close of this brief address I
to speak directly to our Sri Lankan team. Today we lost a match. But
you lost to the rain and M/s Duckworth and Lewis. You did not lose to
Only a few weeks ago you had a resounding victory against South Africa.
will win again tomorrow. What is important is to keep up your
confidence and spirits.
All of us, your fellow countrymen, and countrywomen, have been
enormously impressed in recent times by the commitment, discipline,
athleticism and determination that you have displayed in the field. The
people are with you. We all know that you by hard. All of you, each and
every one of you, are constantly busy honing your skills. We can see
that you are
a high standard of physical fitness. When the people see this it gives
not only immense pleasure but the moral uplift that Sri Lankans are
of rising to the challenge of sustained performance.
Every team loses. It takes two to play a game. One has to lose. It is
the manner in which you play the game which gives the promise of
success to come. It is a great pleasure to see how youngsters are being
drafted into the national team. Our team is united; it reflects all the
races and religions of our country. Cricket, like all international
sport today, is highly competitive; and so it must be, and so it must
remain. It must always be regarded as a very high honour to represent
one's country at any sport. All of you are role models for our youth.
They will be looking to see how you take defeat. To exult in victory is
easy, to remain well balanced in defeat is a mark of maturity. Do not
allow yourselves to be disturbed by the armchair critics who will no
doubt engage in a display of theoretical learning on how the game was
played. Many of these critics have never put bat to ball. It
them feel good to indulge in the past time of amateur criticism. They
do not know what it is to face fast bowling in fading light; to engage
in a run race against daunting odds; to find the stamina and sheer
physical endurance to spend concentrated hours in the field of play.
They know nothing of the psychological pressure that modern sportsmen
Therefore, my advice to you is - ignore them. Go your way with
customary discipline and methodical preparation for the next game, the
different parts of the world under different conditions.
For me it has been a great pleasure and an honour to be here with you
tonight. When I was invited to be the Chief Guest at this occasion on
my way to New York for the General Assembly of the United Nations, I
accepted with eager anticipation of meeting our cricketers and relaxing
for a moment. Nobody told me that I had to make a speech, until last
night. It came home to me then that there is no such thing as a free
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|The Twenty20 Cup in England||PY||Cricket Chat||126||22-07-2003 03:26 PM| | <urn:uuid:4e30253b-346d-4dc4-ace2-7da558cf0f98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/off-topic/14828-cricket-life.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96213 | 2,263 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Happy woman’s day to you all. I am not a feminist though, but I feel blessed to be born as a girl. On women’s day we are celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women, praising the womanhood. Here we are praising the girl power but somewhere we can hear a girl's pleading to god saying “aagle janam mohe bitiya na kijo”, as she does not want to get killed again without even opening her eyes in this world. A girl, who can become our next president or prime minister, can win medals for India in Olympics, can bring the bookers award to our country, and can change many lives in a better way is not getting the chance to see this beautiful world just because of being a girl.
Yes I am talking about girl’s fetal death in India. Finding out the sex of the child by sonography is illegal in our country, still people do this. Now also there are families who celebrate on a boy's birth and mourn on a girl's birth. They feel having a daughter is a burden. Social stigmas like dowry, illiteracy, sexism etc adds to the acceptance of this.
Today in each and every field girls are performing equal to the guys, sometimes much better than them. As a mother, sister, friend, lover, wife, daughter she makes each day of our life special. Have you ever thought why god gave the power of giving birth to new life only to women? When god himself made her so special, why everyone is not ready to accept it? In India where woman is worshiped as Devi, fetal death of girl child is a real disgrace of humanity.
Today there are 927 female/1000 males in India, and the number is decreasing day by day. These are not just numbers, but the sign of bigger problems coming our way. On the celebration of womanhood, I request all women to save the woman clan. And all the men please stand up against fetal death of girl child. We all need to work together for strengthening the Indian woman, So that no girl ever says “aagle janam mohe bitiya na kijo”.
May Photo A Day : Day 20 : Light
34 minutes ago | <urn:uuid:0b3fb7e1-1ea4-43a9-a1c1-f5008701a977> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.swetatiwary.com/2010/03/bitiya.html?showComment=1268047867318 | 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 | 0.957521 | 467 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I'm new to samba myself, and it's been fairly good to me, so I'm not sure if I'll really be able to help you much.
I think the obvious thing would be to try and type in the username and password for the linux box and see if it works.when I try to access it, it asks for a username/pass. *If I click cancel I can see the shares I created on the linux box, but cannot access them.
Well, you can use smbclient to access the windows shares in a sort of ftp-style way (it's console only), or you can mount the smb shares natively with smbmount and smbunmount. This will let you access the shares the same way you normally would access any other directory on your local computerFrom the Linux box, I really dont know how to even try to access the Win2k box. *How do I do that by the way??? | <urn:uuid:c4c09c9f-460f-4cc0-90eb-83f105d3ccad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/forums/showthread.php/2895-Samba-Win2k-Mandrake-8-1?p=18450&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947925 | 198 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Thursday 07 June 2012
Swill feeding pigs is as old as time itself
Many of Beijing’s restaurants are ignoring government guidelines on the disposal of food scraps and instead mixing it with other rubbish and selling it to private people as pig feed.
This is according to a research carried out by a non-government environmental protection organisation, Green Beagle.
"The food waste produced by the capital's restaurants is supposed to be sent to the food waste treatment factory at Gao'antun in the north-eastern part of Beijing or Nangong in the south to transform it into organic fertilizer," said Chen Liwen, who headed the research.
"However, the current situation is far from satisfactory."
Chen said restaurants in Beijing produce at least 600 tonnes of kitchen waste daily, but the two food waste treatment factories in the capital only receive about 100 tonnes.
The research began in February and surveyed 60 restaurants in the city's Chaoyang district.
The violators are not limited to small restaurants deemed poor in quality, Chen said.
She said even some of the established, well-known restaurants habitually break the rules.
Chen said it is easy enough to mix kitchen waste with the relatively large supply of household garbage in the city without getting caught.
"Since the restaurant will not be punished no matter what ... few restaurants are strictly abiding by the guideline," Chen said.
Though some government staff do check how some restaurants work from time to time, the monitoring is still too poor, Chen noted.
Source: Argentine Beef Packers S.A.
Back to News Headlines | <urn:uuid:4598e8a6-05f1-405b-b011-6baabaa85115> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.farmingnewsdaily.co.uk/news/070612/swill_feeding_pigs_is_as_old_as_time_itself_.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963302 | 328 | 1.765625 | 2 |
"ACADEMIA WITHOUT WALLS"
"The next Paradigm does not deny materialism. It simply says consciousness came first."
Proving that One Person Can Make a Difference
Charles Tart has spent 50 years studying every aspect of consciousness. Whatever it is, he's been there, done that, bought the T shirt. Yo Charlie, why didn't you leave anything for the rest of us to do? Click here to check out his website and blog.
My blogs on Angela:
Part One Click Here: The Veggie that survived
Part 2 Click Here: Consciousness heals the brain
Part 3 Click Here Our brains are connected to the Universe
Part 4 Click here for her wisdom to share
Angela was in coma for seven years. She is a Researcher/Investigator/Motivational writer for Spiritual Scientific Research Foundation. Click Here for my song to her
"Most importantly, I'd have to say not to buy into the false belief that many neuroscientists seem to carry that somehow we actually know what the brain is doing." - Bradley Voytek
One of the most important up and coming Neuroscientists is Bradley Voytek, a Post Doc PhD at the University of California at Berkley (or Bizarrekly as we called it when I was across the Bay at UCSF) Here is a link to his blog (click here)
If Dr. Voytek was a baseball player, we would say he was a 5 tool player! In the world of academics, he has:
1. Intelligence 2. Thinks outside the box! 3. Thinks IN THE BOX! (an often overlooked and extremely important Academic tool) 4. Has a reverence for the literature 5. Strong work ethic/gets the job done
Read his blog. Where else can you find insightful articles, grounded in the literature, on whether or not we need a brain, and the heterosexual brain's approach to prostitution!
This is the spiritual reality. Don't wait until you die to learn your lessons of love - Dr. Morse | <urn:uuid:299e67c3-20d9-4782-8c31-7be4499da646> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spiritualscientific.com/remarkable_people | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952029 | 419 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Software Productivity Consortium: An example of an improvement community
Werner Schaer. 1.*
- unedited transcript -
I want to give you an introduction to an organization that was founded fifteen years ago. I will point out the differences of what you have heard so far, and what we are trying to do. First of all, what we one of the oldest consortium. What we heard before is that you need to worry about decaying links, sustaining growth, and reinventing yourself to stay relevant and current. That has really been the history of the consortium. The idea was essentially born out of the need to make significant improvements on software productivity out of the mid-eighties.
It was initially funded by large aerospace companies. They each initially put in three million dollars for three years in order to get this effort funded. We wanted to do is find what the tools, methods, frameworks, and processes that are out there to somehow deduce the practice. How you reduce the practice is take a twelve or twelve hundred page Ph.D. thesis, and enable it in such a way that a professional at their desk can actually use it. That is what we have been doing, and we have evolved significantly. I would like to share with you what the dynamics are as to why it's working and why we are evolving.
First of all, we find being that the government and privately funded is an important aspect of continued growth and stimulation between the two communities. Exclusive funding has some limitations in today's interaction between government and private. If you are talking about community of learning then, the transaction model that is typically inherent in a consulting activity model, doesn't lend itself because typical transactions are by definition going to end. A large part of the value of sharing resources is also the exchange of best practices or the exchange of anything that will seem to relate to improving performance. In the early 80's there were strategic decisions being made by companies and they were strategically funded. In today's environment, unless this strategic decision can be made in terms of business results, it has been increasingly difficult to get private and commercial organizations support that. We have put emphasis on measuring what we are doing and how we work with the organizations.
Finally, the non-profit model as you will see by the community that we are interacting with, in order to have the largest group of interacting communities, we need to make sure that there are not obstacles in there that would to prevent the interaction from happening. For instance if you are a commercial organization and you are trying to get the government to interact with you very openly, and there are all of these hurdles there and obstacles over there.
Just briefly who our members are..... There are still a lot of aerospace companies. You basically find five industries primarily represented. Aerospace industries, financial institutions, IT Companies, some electronic companies, and telecommunications. Basic members is an invention that came about five years ago because initially, the idea was that we would have large corporations because they have large purses to fund this effort.
Increasingly we realized that unless we could tap into smaller organizations, start up organizations eventually, and be able to insert those ideas into the consortium activities, we would deny ourselves from an important source of knowledge and knowledge exchange. Basic members are those companies who typically operate at less than a hundred million dollars a year. Therefore, they don't contribute that much in terms of money into the organization or to the technical program.
The full members direct the activities of the consortium in both the technical and business forms. There is a board of directors. Each of the full members has a board member. Each of the full members has also a technical advisory board member who directs the activities of the consortium. The co-opting of the user community in to the consortium is an important aspect of having a continuation. Service members are those companies who are currently trying us out. They are staying here, and want to feel their way into the consortium and if they feel it is beneficial to them they will continue.
In addition to commercial organizations, we have government organizations, academic affiliations, and non-profit industry affiliations. As these organizations are working with us, each party needs to find the benefit in collaboration with the community. They have found, as we have found, that there is an advantage and incentive to communicate and work with each other. One of the things when you deal with commercial organizations that will continue to help you grow is to understand what these commercial organizations are driven by. Look at a simplistic abstract of what the business priorities are of the organization that we are working with. At least as they relate and are impacted by IT and software in general, you can see that they generally fall into five or six categories.
The reason that is important to us is that if you focus on a given activity with in the consortium, it is important that the members who are a part of consortium really get a benefit out of it. They will not get benefit out of it if their priorities are not being met. That is why it is important for us to understand that. In addition to that, in order for it to be a vibrant community, where everyone felt that they were giving and taking to the right kind of proportion, we felt that the companies that should be members should meet certain criteria.
Mainly that software is critical to the company's success. If it is not on the radar screen, they are probably not going to be a very active member. They need to have a demonstrated commitment to improving systems/software processes and technology. The other thing we found that there are companies who feel that they already know everything there is to know. There are other companies that are ready and willing and interested to learn. Those that you have a dialogue with that already know everything is very difficult to make any progress with and it is quite frankly a waste of time. In order to be in the mainstream of the activities that are going on in any consortium, they need to have representations of recognized leaders in the industry. It is important to us that there is that representation.
In order to conduct our business technically, we do a lot of tracking. We do a lot of research as to what is going on. Most importantly, we get input from the academia, from government, and from business and then we get the input and direction from the actual members. What we as a consortium staff do is really the technology industrialization. To take whatever promising technologies are coming and we industrialize them and package them. Make them ready so individuals can use them. We are currently dealing with a community of about a hundred thousand professionals that are represented in each of these corporations. We are probably interacting with about ten percent of them on an ongoing basis. In order to do this we have learned lessons as far as transfer technology with in the consortium. They come in the form of tools, methods and consulting services.
One shoe or size does not fit all.
We thought we were very clever in doing interactive CDs in order to spread around. Only to find out that there are companies that want to have the flexibility of videoconferences, other companies who want lunch seminars and workshops. The other companies want to have videotapes. They are doing exercises in the evening. There are various ways about how information is being transmitted today. The feedback that is coming back from the consortium, as far as needs, it is both the result of the experiences with products and the services. As well as their own sense of what is important to them in order to continue the cycle. These cycles are anywhere from six to eighteen months depending on what product we are talking about.
If there is on thing that we have learned a lot of lessons about are how to do that and how not to do that. If the organization doesn't feel they are getting the benefit from it eventually they are going to go away. The organization is going to atrophy. To be able to leverage the knowledge and information out in the community is one of the most important aspects of an ongoing consortium. The innovative tools that are available today obviously, we are all interested in and experimenting with, but it is also a difficult process that we will reach to whole community.
Depending on what kind of project you run, in our case running a consortium means that we have to maintain a relationship and understanding with literally all levels of management, of our commercial members and public members. We heard before that a school board member or a supervisor doesn't necessarily appreciate or think the same way as a professional down in the trenches. The communication with all levels of management is an important aspect of conducting a consortium. In addition, we do have account directors who's mission it is to actively work with individual members to make sure that there is a human interaction going on not just an electronic communication going on so that they take advantage of these means.
Finally, if you stand back and look at why the number of all these members that are participating with us, you can typically categorize them into five reasons. Some of them participate with us because it is technical leverage. They do not want to staff this type of capability, they can't afford to staff it with in the company, and the rate of return is in other words is much bigger than if they would conduct those types of activities themselves. Participating with us and getting the benefits of the technologies many companies derive competitive advantages from this. Government contracting for instance this technology makes the difference of run off of two or three million dollar programs in terms of productivity that results from being asserted there. There are marketing advantages that are important to some members. Like a trademark, being certified is a in certain circles a competitive advantage. That is one of the reasons why some of our members participate as actively as they do.
In any community that interacts and is vibrant, people not only talk about tics on a child's head, they talk about how they are going to solve a business problem, and who they are going to partner with there is a lot of business communication going on. As a result, they are marketing referrals and teaming arrangements being made in any community. This is no exception. That has proven to be very important.
The best practice in benchmarking is one of the things we struggled with the most, initially, because the really important information is not voluntarily or easily shared amongst companies. If "Block E. Martin" is achieved a fifty percent productivity improvement, as the result of certain test automation technology, they are not anxious to share that with "Bowing" We struggled with that.
I am happy to report that the climate has changed dramatically over the last five years. Companies are now much more willing and interested to share benchmarking and best practices information that is fairly detailed, partly because they making significant progress steps every year. So that if I share with you what progress I make this last year, it is not going to be easy to figure out what type of progress I am going to make next year. It is not easily extendable and many of the companies are making significant steps forward in anything that they do.
To give you a whiff as a closing comment. One of the most exciting and new technologies that our members are inserting into their organizations is based on modeling technologies and frameworks that are combined with automation tools. The measured effects and impacts in the area of productivity have now reached several factors.
Before we were talking twenty to thirty percent a year. So this is where most of our advanced members are putting their energies now.
Again, there is a lot more to talk about. It is a working consortium but we have to learn a lot of things to make it work you go though the fifteen-year history, you see the ups and downs and I am happy to say that some of these lessons are paining out. We are now growing in terms of membership, about thirty to thirty-five percent a year. The important thing is to understand how to transition a publicly funded project into an ongoing improvement community that carries forward beyond the initial funding. That is the challenge that we have to overcome. Thank you.
Above space serves to put hyperlinked targets at the top of the window | <urn:uuid:151eb778-437e-4bd7-84fd-ae8d7c2f1016> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dougengelbart.org/colloquium/session_06/session_06_schaer-.html | 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 | 0.980275 | 2,459 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Results tagged ‘ First Tied Game ’
In 1883, Philadelphia, along with New York, would rejoin the eight-teams National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or the National League, after the 1876 editions of both clubs, in the league’s first season of existence, were both expelled by the league for their refusal to participate in a late season western cities road trip. The new Philadelphia team, nicknamed the Quakers, would be brought into existance by former professional ballplayer and sporting goods manufacturer Al Reach, and his partner, attorney John Rogers, after the two men had successfully won the franchise rights of the now defunct Worcester (Massachusetts) Brown Stockings (also known as the Ruby Legs), which has gone bankrupt in 1882. Reach would become the team’s first president. The team’s first manager would be Bob Ferguson, who was, like Reach, a former professional ballplayer, as well as the former manager of the Troy (New York) Trojans, another disbanded team, whose franchise right would be bought by the New York Gothams (later the New York/San Francisco Giants). The Quakers would play their home games out of Recreation Park, which was located in North Philadelphia between 23rd and 25th Streets and Ridge and Columbia (now Cecil B. Moore) Avenues.
The Phillies’ opponents for its inaugural season, along with fellow newcomer, the New York Gothams, would be, by geographical order: Boston Beaneaters (1876 member); Providence (Rhode Island) Grays (1878 member); Buffalo (New York) Bisons (1879 member); Cleveland Blues (1879 member); Detroit Wolverines (1881 member) and Chicago White Stockings (1876 member). Of the other six teams, only Boston (now in Atlanta) and Chicago, along with the new teams from Philadelphia and New York (now in San Francisco), would still be playing in the National League.
The Quakers’ first game, which was also their first home game, would be played on May 1, 1883 against the Providence Grays. The game would end up as a 4-3 lost to the Grays. The Phillies would then play two more games with the Grays, followed by a three game series at home with the Beaneaters, all loses, including two games in which the opposition would score twenty or more runs against the Quakers, a 24-6 thumping by the Grays on May 3 and a 20-8 defeat by the Beaneaters on May 7, ending the team’s first home stand winless. After losing two straight games on the road to the White Stockings in Chicago, the Quakers would finally get the first victory in Phillies’ history, a 12-1 victory on May 14 against the White Stockings, thus ending the first losing streak in Phillies’ history at eight games. After winning their second victory over the Wolverines in Detroit, for the club’s first winning streak, the Quakers would lose the next two games in the series, quickly followed by a two-game split with the Blues in Cleveland before they would lose their three games series against the Bisons in Buffalo, including the first game in which the Phillies would be unable to score a single run, losing 4-0 on May 25, before winning the last game in the series on May 28, 3-2, thus ending its first road trip at 4-7. But before their next home stand, the Quakers’ manager, Ferguson, with a record of 4-13, would be fired by the owners, thus becoming the first Phillies manager to be let go. He would be quickly replaced by Blondie Purcell, a player on the Quakers’, thus becoming the team’s first player-manager. Sadly, the change in managers would not improve the team’s fortunes, as they would begin their next home stand, on May 30, losing the team’s first doubleheader, dropping both games to the White Stockings by the lopsided scores of 15-8 and 22-4. The team would then end their first month of existance by losing their third game in a row to the White Stockings by the score of 4-3, with a record for the month of 4-16.
June would begin just as badly for the Quakers as it would finish its first four game series by losing to the White Stockings 10-1. During the rest of the home stand, three more four games series with the Wolverines, Blues, and Bisons, the team would go 4-8, which would include the first game in which the Quakers would score 20 or more runs, a 20-4 drubbings of the Wolverines on June 6, which was also the team’s first home victory, as well as the team’s first shut out victory, a 2-0 win against the Bisons on June 14, ending the home stand at 4-12. The team would then go back on the road for two two-games series with the Beaneaters and the Grays and a single game series with the Gothams. The Quakers’ bad fortune would continue as they would lose the first six games of that road trip, including a 29-4 shlacking by the Beaneaters on June 20, before finally gaining another road victory, the team’s first shut out defeat of an opponent on the road, as they would defeat the Grays 4-0 on June 26, before losing the last two games of the road trip. The team would then come home to face the Gothams, losing the game 8-6, thus ending the month of June with a losing record of 5-18 and an overall record of 9-34, last in the league. Also in June, on the ninth, the NL would allow the Quakers to slash its ticket prices down to .25 cents, so that it would be able to compete with the more popular Philadelphia Athletics baseball club of the rival American Association, as the team’s home attendence would increase because of the decrease in ticket price.
In July, things doesn’t get any better for the ballclub, as the Quakers would lose two more games to the Gothams, the first one at Recreation Park, then the other in New York, before they begin a short four games home stand with the Grays and the Beaneaters. After winning a forfeit with the Grays (the actual score was 9-11 Grays) as the Grays had to leave town so that they could play a game with the Gothams in New York on that same day, the Quakers would get swept once again by the Beaneaters, including a game that they would play after the forfeited game with the Grays (both played on July 4). (The forefited game would also be the first series that the Phillies would win in the club’s history.) The Quakers would then spend the rest of the month on another ‘western’ road trip, which would include a five games series (their first) with the Blues, and three straight four games series against the Bisons, the White Stockings and the Wolverines. By the time they finally limp back home on August 4 to face the Gothams, the road trip would be a complete disaster, as they would only win three games of the seventeen games road trip, thus ending the month of July with a 3-17 record, while their overall season record would now be at 12-51, still in last place.
Back home, the Phillies would lose to the Gothams, before heading to New York to lose the next game. After coming back home to gain a victory over their fellow newcomer, they would go back to New York, where they would be swept in two games there. They would then be swept in two straight three games series by both the Beaneaters and the Grays, the two teams who were at this point fighting for the National League pennant. Among these loses would be a 28-0 drubbing at the hands of the Grays on August 21, the most lopsided shut out in the game’s history. The Quakers would then end the month playing three more games with the Gothams (one of which was played at Recreation Park) and two home games with the Grays, losing all five, thus ending the month of August with a 2-17 record and an overall record of 14-68.
The Quakers would spend the rest of the season playing at home, playing seventeen games with the Beaneaters (1), the Grays (1), the Gothams (2), the Blues (3), the Bisons (3), the Wolverines (4) and the White Stockings (3). The Quakers would go 3-13-1 in those games, which would include their third two-games winning streak, as they would win single games with the Grays, winning their second series, and the Gothams, get no-hit on September 13 by Hugh Daly of the Blues, losing 1-0, and be tied for the first time in the team’s history on September 22 with the Wolverines, as the two teams would play that day to a 6-6 tie. The Quakers would end its first season in the National League in last place with a 17-81-1 record, 23 games behind seventh place Detroit and 46 games behind the league’s champion, the Boston Beaneaters.
Against the rest of the league, the team would only have losing records in 1883: Beaneaters (0-14); Grays (3-11); Gothams (2-12); Bisons (5-9); Blues (2-12); Wolverines (3-11-1) and White Stockings (2-12), with its worst record being against the Beaneaters and its best being against the Bisons. They would be 3-7 in shut outs, 2-12 in 1-run games and 4-42 in blowouts.
In a 99 games season, the team would go to the plate a total of 3576 times (6th) while getting only 859 hits (7th) for a team batting average of .240 (8th), a team on-base percentage of .269 (8th) and a team slugging percentage of .320 (8th). The Quakers would score 437 runs (8th) on 299 RBIs. The team would get 181 2Bs (6th), 48 3Bs (6th) and 3 HRs (8th), while also receiving 141 walks (4th) as they struck out 355 (5th) times. Pitching wise, the Quakers had a Team ERA of 5.34 (8th), and in 99 games played, they had 91 complete games (2nd) with 8 other games finished by another pitcher, only 3 (8th) of which would be shut outs. In 864 innings pitched (5th), the team’s pitchers would give up 1267 hits (8th), allow 887 runs (8th) to score of which 513 were earned, give up 20 HRs (6th) and walk 125 batters (5th) and strike out only 253 (8th).
Individually, the team batting leader was Purcell with a .268 batting average, while Jack Manning would lead the team in slugging percentage with .364 and in on-base percentage with .300. Purcell would also lead the team with 425 at-bats, 70 runs scored, 114 hits and 88 singles, while Manning would also lead the team in total at-bats with about 470, 153 total bases, 31 doubles, and 37 RBIs. Other team batting leaders were: Sid Farrar in games played (99); John Coleman and Farrar in triples (8 each); Purcell, Bil McClellan and Emil Gross in home runs (1 each); Bill Harbridge in walks (24) and Coleman in strikeouts (39). In pitching, Coleman would also be the team leader in ERA (4.87), wins (12), loses (48), games pitched (65), innings pitched (538.3), strikeouts (159), games started (61), complete games (59), and shut outs (3).
After the season, Purcell would be replaced as the team’s manager with Harry Wright, another former professional ballplayer, and former manager of the second place Grays, and before that, the manager of the Beaneaters, leading that franchise to NL pennants in 1877 and 1878. It was hoped by both Reach and Rogers that he would turn the team’s fortune around.
Sources: Wikipedia, Baseball Almanac.com and Baseball-Reference.com | <urn:uuid:a88d7374-2c16-4532-893e-fa00f22a6f5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://philliesredpinstripes.mlblogs.com/tag/first-tied-game/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97995 | 2,660 | 1.828125 | 2 |
I recently watched Japanese TV news and saw footage from Vietnam and Burma. I then realized to my surprise in all my 13 years living in Taiwan that I never saw footage from Southeast Asia broadcast on the local news.
Taiwan is really like an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand, with no interest in other nations or ethnicities except its own. This solipsism carries through from the public to the private domain; I don’t know if this stems from arrogance or ignorance though.
Taiwan has tons of TV channels with around-the-clock news broadcasts which mainly focus on Taiwan. Occasionally there will be mention of the US, Europe, China and Japan, but rarely mention about the Philippines or Thailand.
This solipsism or lack of curiosity for its regional neighbors can be seen in the Taipei Biennial 2008 that opens this weekend. Out of the 47 participating artists 70 percent are western, mainly European, while less than 20 percent are Asian from China, Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan. | <urn:uuid:c4f9cf23-6285-4a67-b586-1341c308be1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://everythingisdangerous.blogspot.com/2008/09/west-is-best-says-taipei-biennial-2008.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955125 | 205 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Want to win big? Call in a tiger team
More companies are claiming they use tiger teams, but what does that mean?
The expression “We’ve put a tiger team on it” has become increasingly popular in the government information technology market. The term is thrown around casually, but what does it mean?
To get us up-to-speed, we asked a panel of experts: James Ballard, senior vice president of global services at 21st Century Systems and former president of Perot Systems Government Services; Dan Arnold and Joe Lehman of Harris Corp.; and Cari Dorman, director of business development at Computer Sciences Corp.
First a little history: The term started in the military. Ballard, a Navy man, and Lehman, a retired Marine, both used the term 20 years ago when they were in the service, but it had nothing to do with IT in those days.
“When the Navy needed some quick turnaround work or repairs, they would assemble a tiger team,” Ballard said. “The connotation was that it was a self-contained team that included all the skill sets and resources needed to do the work — journeymen, planners, engineers, fabricators, etc.”
“A tiger team was a small hand-picked, particularly skilled and capable group of ‘tigers,’ often chosen and chartered by a commanding officer, to plan for and/or achieve a very specific mission,” Lehman said.
The idea of a small, focused group is why the term and concept have caught on in the IT market.
The stimulus package and the hunt for shovel-ready projects has helped popularize the term for industry, Ballard said. “A variety of planning, logistics and execution skill sets are required to accomplish tasks in multiple sites or across multiple agencies,” he said.
So who are your tigers?
Team members are usually subject-matter experts and are relatively senior. They also can be called “firefighters" because they get out fast when called on to solve a problem, Dorman said.
“A corporate sponsor is needed because you will need resources, especially budget and personnel,” Arnold said.
Members are drawn from senior business development, operations, finance and administration, and legal staffs. Depending on the project, there also might be senior engineers, security experts, research analysts, and communications and marketing personnel.
“The list [of tigers] can go on and on,” Dorman said. | <urn:uuid:2b1fe9f3-10c7-470e-b81c-62531aaaf4a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2009/08/10/upfront-tiger-teams.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970878 | 522 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Originally Posted by Extremo
What the hell does foot size have to do with board width? You're determining heel and toe drag. That's dependent on the outside profile of the boot, which can vary by up to a full size depending on the model. Then you'll have to figure in sidecut radius and stance width along that radius. You're dealing in terms of millimeters here. So choosing a waist width is really just a general rule, and by my experience 25.2 is too narrow, generally, for a 10.5 boot, unless you're riding boiler plate.
Mostly wrong - read wired's excellent explanation (e.g., here
Foot size is the primary determinant for proper board width, as it determines to what extent the rider can have proper edge control. Standing on the board with naked feet in the usual riding positions, the toes/heel should just be at the edge of the board or have slight overhang.
Size/dimensions of the boot will indeed determine toe and heel overhang/drag, but that is strictly a secondary concern.
You are correct that sidecut radius and stance width are important, as they affect width at the inserts - which I had already pointed out is the key dimension, rather than waist width.
But your generalization is not correct in my experience - 25.2cm WW should be enough for almost all 10.5 size boots almost regardless of sidecut. For instance, the GNU Billy Goat 159 has an even narrower waist and nose/tail than the board described by the OP and it still works just fine with 10.5 size boots. | <urn:uuid:576ea2b1-8e82-4e90-a16a-16ad64716c2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.snowboardingforum.com/548112-post10.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941867 | 331 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Masters of the Universe
2009, Warner Home Video
Original Release: 1987, Cannon Films
Feature-Length Commentary by Director Gary Goddard
Do you remember walking through the movie theater in 1987 and seeing this…
I do! YES! A live-action version of Masters of the Universe! But wait… That’s gotta be He-Man but why does he look like he belongs in a Mad Max movie? Why is he holding an assault rifle ?! Why is the gun more prominent than the Power Sword ?!
Yes, I remember seeing that poster and instantly feeling a mix of joy and doom. I was extremely happy that a live-action He-Man movie was coming but just by the teaser poster alone I already was not liking how they were going to be portraying the world of Eternia. Oh yeah… Eternia. Didn’t really feature as much in the movie as we He-Man fans would’ve wanted, did it?
That is probably my one biggest gripe about the movie — how can you have the very first Masters of the Universe movie and then not set the entire film on Eternia? Granted, the movie is a goofy cheesy ’80s movie no matter what but taking the majority of the film to Earth in the year of 1987 extremely dates the film and isn’t what people wanted to see. Maybe something like that could’ve been done for a sequel but for the initial MOTU film? Nah. Keep it on Eternia.
Given that Cannon Films was usually very budget conscious, my theory is that they built the bare minimum set pieces that they could for Eternia (basically Gwildor’s hut and Skeletor’s throne room) and then filmed on location in Los Angeles because it was cheaper to do that than having to build even more set pieces. So that’s why we ended up with the story of He-Man & Co. ending up on Earth. To be fair though, I think this movie was probably had one of Cannon’s biggest budgets. Wikipedia states $22 million but in the director commentary Gary Goddard states they had a $17 million budget at a time when most movies had $6-8 million budgets.
As you can see from of the artwork, they were really going for a Star Wars vibe right down to getting Drew Struzan to do the artwork. Great artwork though and it does a great job of making the movie look amazing. Even Skeletor’s soldiers (something he didn’t have in the cartoon) look like Storm Troopers except their armor is black and their helmets appear to be that of Imperial Gunners.
Anyway, Eternia issues aside, it would’ve been nice to also see a bit more character depth. I guess the writers & producers just assumed anyone coming to see this movie already knew the backstory so we get thrown right into the middle of the action. That’s commendable on some levels because I know many fans of geek culture groan over “origin” movies but it still would have been really nice to see a live-action transformation of Prince Adam to He-Man. There is no mention of Prince Adam at all in this movie.
Even the Power Sword receives very little recognition in the film. He-Man seems to prefer using laser blasters. He holds it up one time towards the end of the film to yell “I HAVE THE POWER” but it’s too little too late and the moment is glossed over. The He-Man/Skeletor sword fight is pretty brief and lame compared to what Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader had done. In the movie’s defense, director Gary Goddard does that that due to time restrictions the final battle was not staged the way he wanted it and some portions of the throne room set went unused.
Another weird quirk is the absence of the typical MOTU villains. Sure, we have Skeletor, Evil-Lyn and Beastman but what about Tri-Klops, Merman or Trap-Jaw? The movie introduces some new villains: Blade (who almost seems like a stand-in for Tri-Klops), Saurod (a reptilian creature that reminds me of the Goombas from the Super Mario movie) and Karg (who reminds me of the late Ronnie James Dio). None of those three characters were ever on the TV show, which was canceled by this time anyway, but Blade & Saurod were given action figures.
On the Heroic Warriors side, I think they did pretty well: He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Teela and a captive Sorceress. They could’ve expanded upon that if there was a sequel and added Mekaneck, Stratos, Man-E-Faces, Ram Man, Buzz-Off and/or Orko. Speaking of Orko, even as a kid, I always assumed Gwildor was meant to be his replacement in the movie. Upon listening to Goddard’s commentary, he confirms that by saying it would’ve been too financially & technically difficult to put Orko in the movie. So, they replaced a magician that always screws up and is played for humor with an inventor that always screws up and is played for humor.
Ultimately, the film was not a critical or financial success. Released in August 1987 (and I remember seeing it in Fort Walton Beach, Florida on opening weekend while visiting my grandparents), it made only $17 million total. Had it been released a year or two earlier (remember, the show had been canceled in 1985 and the toy line had been losing steam as well since it had no show to help promote it) and had it stayed more faithful to the fantasy-based cartoon/toy line rather than going in a sci-fi direction (that was inspired by Jack Kirby’s “Fourth World” comics from DC Comics) it probably would’ve done better.
Even though the movie kinda broke even or maybe even lost a few million for Cannon, a sequel was written and planned. Unfortunately, Cannon ran into financial troubles in 1989 and could no longer afford the MOTU license. The sequel’s script would later go on to be re-worked into Cyborg starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and when that movie was played on television it was sometimes retitled Masters of the Universe 2: Cyborg.
I think Masters of the Universe is a fun cheesy ’80s fantasy/adventure. It almost seems forgotten but I think it’s a real cult classic. Dolph Lundgren was a great voice (visually at least) for He-Man and Courtney Cox is cute as a button in her first movie role and plays her part well.
With plans for a new MOTU on the way, I’m sure a small spotlight will get thrown back on this movie in the next few years. I think the movie has been released on DVD twice. Once in 2001 through Warner Home Video but it was in a snap case. I made sure to order the 2009 edition because it features the standard DVD keep case which I prefer over the snap case that Warner Bros. well hell-bent on using for a number of years. Both editions have the same special features. My particular copy was made for distribution in U.S. & Canada so that’s why you see the film’s title in French on the cover.
I’m truly surprised they even bothered giving the movie a director’s commentary. You’d think something like would would’ve been made bare bones and then thrown into the $5 bin at Walmart. I usually never listen to commentaries but for this movie, I felt like trying it and enjoyed it.
Either DVD edition can be found for $6-8 and it’s well worth picking up for all He-Man fans. Sure, it’s not the MOTU we wanted to see but it’s a lot better than New Adventures of He-Man that’s for sure! | <urn:uuid:f72dc98d-beb6-4e71-81f8-7c7ba6488bdc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://metalmisfit.wordpress.com/tag/sci-fi/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971939 | 1,669 | 1.546875 | 2 |
In Amnesty’s case, the primary target of the hacking appeared to be the group’s Livewire blog, which offers first-person perspectives and commentary from Amnesty researchers and fieldworkers.
According to Amnesty officials, social-media users began posting false items accusing the Syrian rebels of committing massacres that had been linked to government forces.
One fake blog post claimed rebel groups were responsible for a massacre in the town of Houla in May that killed 108 people, including 49 children. Amnesty’s actual position, shared by Western governments, is that Syrian government forces and militias were responsible for the killings.
The blog post concluded: “It is clear the Al Qaeda affiliated rebels are not going to stop their crimes. And with no accountability and a steady supply of weapons, why should they given they have come this far under NATO protection?
“Russia must immediately use its influence to end this violence and support the UN Security Council to end NATO’s reign of terror upon Syria and refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. Amnesty supporters have not forgotten the people of Syria and will continue to demand accountability for these horrific crimes against humanity.”
The post, headlined “Amnesty Calls on UN to stop the US, Qatar and Turkey funding and arming Syria Rebels,” also portrayed the group as condemning NATO and the governments of Turkey and Qatar for supplying rebel forces in Syria. The blog post included some accurate information, including that Amnesty had just produced a report based on firsthand fieldwork in the country.
Amnesty struggled through Monday evening to delete the posts from its site. According to a spokesman for the group, entries removed by technical-staff members would rapidly reappear on the site over the course of several hours.
A spokesman from Amnesty International in London said the system on which the blog ran did not contain sensitive data on activists or others. By Tuesday morning, the blog was back to its usual appearance.
“Amnesty International has been very blunt in the reporting that we’ve done and the eyewitness accounts that we’ve collected in Syria,” said Sanjeev Bery, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa. “It’s entirely possible that, given that we’ve been so forthright in criticizing the Syrian government for its crimes against humanity, that could conceivably make us the target of some kind of campaign.”
Bery said Amnesty’s position on the civil war in Syria has been clear.
“We are deeply concerned both about the continuing crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Syrian government through its forces as well as concerned by war crimes that have been committed both by the Syrian government armed forces and by some opposition forces,” he said.
Pro-Syrian-government Web sites and Twitter users continued to cite and promulgate the false information after it was taken down, claiming the post had originated from individuals within Amnesty “who no longer can handle the lies and outright propaganda of media outlets.”
There is no way to establish whether the Twitter accounts, which were mostly anonymous, were linked to the cyberattack, but pro-Syrian hackers have targeted the social network’s users before.
Reuters’s blog network was targeted on three occasions, with inserted stories portraying the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in positive ways. Some entries said the rebels were retreating, and one post on Aug. 17 falsely claimed that Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister was dead.
The attack on the news service is believed to have taken advantage of vulnerabilities in blogging software. Reuters blogs remained off-line more than 10 days after the most recent attack.
Several Reuters Twitter accounts were also compromised, and spoof accounts using the Reuters branding were also created. One, @ReutersME, posted messages suggesting rebel forces in Aleppo were on the brink of defeat, including: “Syrian army source anonymously states that Aleppo battle is like ‘shooting fish in a barrel’, says victory is near,” and “FSA source reveals that 2200 of their fighters were killed in Aleppo, demanding extra support from the ‘free world’.”
No one has claimed responsibility for either attack. The best-known pro-Assad hacking group calls itself the Syrian Electronic Army. | <urn:uuid:d4685a5e-b712-4362-9060-6dd4d6ccbfe5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/amnesty-international-web-site-hacked/2012/08/28/9628e83a-f121-11e1-a612-3cfc842a6d89_story.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads | 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 | 0.974503 | 886 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Politics and Government
Taxes debated in 24th Congressional district race
The debate over extending the Bush-era tax cuts is very much an issue in the race for the 24th Congressional district. Democrat Dan Maffei is criticizing incumbent Ann Marie Buerkle's support for keeping the tax cuts in place for everyone.
Buerkle voted with the Republican majority in the House of Representatives last week, passing a bill to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for everyone for a year, saying a tax increase in a weak economy would hurt business. The Democrats on Capitol Hill want the tax cuts extended to everyone but the most wealthy Americans to help bring down the deficit.
Maffei stands with Democrats, although he says he's willing to make changes in the final income level, in order to keep small businesses from being affected.
The Obama administration and other Democrats supports eliminating the tax cuts for dual-income earners making over 250-thousand dollars. The Democrat-dominated Senate passed a bill that would do just that last week.
"If I had my way, I'd have it all the way up to a million. That way, one is absolutely sure we're not hitting small businesses, middle class people anywhere," said Maffei. "So in fact, I've already gone to the level of compromising. I've said, okay, maybe you have a point about a few businesses, so let's not have tax cuts on income under a million dollars."
Maffei made his comments standing in front of a house on Allen Street, in a neighborhood near Syracuse University. He contended those making over a million don't need the money.
"Billionaires are not in need, but your typical middle class family, somebody who lives on this street, my friends who live in this house, they're the ones who need the tax cut, and they need to make sure it's going to be there, so they can do their budgets," said Maffei. "Because they do have to budget, unlike billionaires who can afford to go back to the Clinton-era [tax] levels, which is all we are talking about."
Maffei says Buerkle and her fellow Republicans are holding middle class families hostage, by not compromising on the issue of tax cuts for the very wealthy. Buerkle says businesses and individuals need some certainty about what their taxes will be. The tax cuts expire at the end of the year.
Former Congressman Maffei is running against Buerkle and Green Party Candidate Ursula Rozum in the November election.
Politics and Government | <urn:uuid:ef50d0f4-ecd8-44d4-9b98-b45c94d303b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wrvo.org/post/taxes-debated-24th-congressional-district-race | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975387 | 525 | 1.5625 | 2 |
‘i share the road’ sticker packages – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
Just over a year ago, we officially launched our ‘i share the road’ sticker campaign. The idea first hatched when a friend of mine expressed his interest in showing his support for bicyclists by placing a sticker on his car. I thought it was a great idea and we worked together to select a sticker design and a message to promote.
After some discussions, we ended up choosing the following simple wording to promote the campaign: “Be a part of the ‘i share the road’ campaign to voice your support for sharing the road between people in cars and people on bicycles”. This phrase is printed on the back of each of the 25,000+ stickers that have been printed so far.
The message is not meant to be political or divisive. It is a simple message that attempts to promote civility on our streets.
Last October, after the campaign was launched, I wrote this:
“With all the negativity and animosity already on our streets, the intention of these stickers is to bring drivers and cyclists together by allowing drivers and cyclists to share the same message of mutual sharing. After all, many cyclists are occasional drivers, and many drivers are occasional cyclists.”
Too many advocacy campaigns take an ‘us versus them’ approach. But whether you ride a bicycle or drive a car, we all use the same streets and having a divisive attitude is beneficial to neither drivers nor bicyclists.
We have now sent out more than 16,000 stickers around the world, and thanks to the generous donations we have received, we have donated thousands of these stickers to help spread the campaign.
In fact, just today I donated $200 worth of stickers to the AutoShare car sharing service here in Toronto. My goal is to have the entire AutoShare fleet of cars outfitted with our sticker to further promote the message around the city.
I am always happy to hear about the stickers being spotted by friends, family and acquaintances, but recently there was a ‘sticker spotting’ by a friend that, to me, truly illustrates the success of this campaign’s ability to reach across the entire spectrum.
Our sticker was spotted on a car in Toronto with a US Army veteran license plate from New Mexico:
Photo courtesy of @tonariman / The Urban Country
Sharing our streets is not a matter of left vs. right, nor is riding a bicycle. Bicycling is just a fun/quick way to get around a city, regardless of one’s political views.
Great cities that promote civility between all road users, and ones that build great infrastructure for both cars and bicycles, are enjoyed by people across the political and social spectrum. Civility on our streets benefits all of us, and that is what this campaign hopes to achieve.
I want to send a special thank you to all of you who have supported this campaign in the last year, and to all of you who will be supporting the campaign in future years.
By the numbers:
- Total stickers mailed out: 16,337
- Number of envelopes mailed out: 566
- Number of countries participating: 17
- Stickers sent within Canada: 9,650
- Stickers sent to United States: 4,629
- Stickers sent to Australia: 1,234
- Stickers sent to United Kingdom: 682
- See our financials here | <urn:uuid:78888171-44db-4625-a072-bf3b732c5757> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theurbancountry.com/2012/11/i-share-road-campaign-one-year-later.html | 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 | 0.960858 | 716 | 1.523438 | 2 |
"As the prospect of a secure financial future and a comfortable retirement becomes increasingly remote for many, and experts are concluding that conventional investing and financial planning strategies aren't working, Pamela Yellen reveals and extraordinary, little-known but time-tested method for growing wealth safely and predictably, even when the stock and real estate markets and other investments tumble."
The seven rules of buying a second home -- What a second home really costs -- Crunching the numbers : how much second home can you afford? -- Raising the cash you'll need up front -- How experts can save you time and money -- Narrowing your search : what and where to buy -- Picking the right house -- Fixer-uppers : finding the gems and avoiding the junk -- Buying straight from the seller : FSBOs -- How family and friends can help (and why they'll even want to) -- Finding your way through the mortgage maze -- You don't have to go it alone : buying with others -- Being a landlord : what you need to know -- Tax-saving strategies.
Includes accompanying CD-ROM: Windows 98; 2000; Me; XP; Macintosh
"...shows that the key to enjoying an active and satisfying retirement is dependent on much more than just having adequate financial resources. It means paying attention to all aspects of life, including leisure activities, creative pursuits, physical and mental well-being, and solid social support. With its friendly format, lively cartoons, and captivating quotations, Zelinski's guide offers inspirational advice on how to follow your dreams instead of someone else's, how to put your retirement in proper perspective, and how to enjoy life after work."
"Living Agelessly is for anyone who rejects the idea that aging is a dreaded event that must be halted. It provides the latest information on maintaining the best health possible, and offers practical advice on creating a secure and enjoyable retirement-rich with wonderful relationships, interesting travel, and rewarding experiences."
"Do you constantly feel anxious about money? Have unopened credit card statements piled up on your countertop? Are you forever losing receipts for items you meant to return? In an economic downturn taking charge of your financial well-being is more crucial than ever. One Year to an Organized Financial Life is a unique week-by-week plan to make saving money simple, automatic, and stress-free. For decades, professional organizer Regina Leeds and financial advisor Russell Wild have helped thousands of clients get their lives in order. Using Leeds's 'Zen organizing' approach, which addresses the underlying causes of chaos and replaces them with routines, they now show readers the steps to improving finances within a manageable timeframe."
"...empowers you to chart your financial course for the decades to come, guiding you through the basics of creating a budget for retirement, investing accrued assets, taking advantage of governmental and nongovernmental benefits and planning for your family's future. You'll get trusted, practical information on reexamining investment strategies and rebalancing a portfolio, long-term care options, pension plans and social security, health care, Medicare, and prescription drug costs, and so much more. Advice on how to invest, spend, and protect your wealth Guidance on wills and trusts."
"Expert advice for changing how you think about money in order to rebuild and protect your retirement assets. Investors who suffered tremendous losses in the market meltdown of 2008 want to know how to protect themselves from being so vulnerable in the future. In Reclaim Your Nest Egg: Take Control of Your Financial Future , Ken Kamen shows investors how they gave up control of their finances and how they can get it back again. Kamen explains: How to recognize the psychological pitfalls, the distracting "noise" from the media and the internet, and the bad financial advice that derailed your planning. How to develop a set of investment principles that can serve as your personal Commandments and keep you on course. How to adopt an investment approach that maximizes the potential for growth while reducing risk, and how to implement it without being confused or overwhelmed."
"...Looking ahead to retirement? Depending on your circumstances and your age, you may no longer have any margin for error. And your emotions and irrational behavior could be perpetuating a dangerous cycle of overspending and rising debt that may shatter whatever vision of retirement you still have. Welcome to the world of Retirementology. Retirementology bridges retirement planning with investor psychology and the market Meltdown of 2008 to produce an entirely new way of thinking about how we spend, how we save, how we borrow, and how we invest. Financial mistakes are deeply rooted in human nature, but you may be able to overcome them--if you understand the breakthrough principles of behavioral economics and apply them in your own retirement planning.
"Dr. Gregory Salsbury identifies some of the classic cognitive biases and behavioral mistakes most of us keep making when it comes to retirement planning. For example: Why will people drive 45 minutes to use a $2.00 coupon? Why won’t people sell a poor performing stock just because they inherited it from grandma? Why do people spend differently with a credit card than they do with cash? Why do people believe that they paid no income taxes because they received a refund? You’ll learn why the financial meltdown has amplified the impact of these all-too-human cognitive mistakes and discover ideas for addressing them. The bottom line for your bottom line is that retirement can no longer be ignored, viewed as a single event, relegated to a 'zone,' or romanticized. Instead, you must understand how every spending and financial decision you make from here on can impact the way you will spend your golden years."
"...gives you specific, step-by-step plans you can use to save your retirement. Forget 'one-size-fits-all' solutions that don’t fit your life. Here are personal plans focused on your unique situation–whether you’re 5, 10, 15, or 20-plus years away from retirement or are scheduled to retire now. (There’s even a detailed plan for people who’ve already retired and want to make sure their money lasts!) No matter what the market meltdown did to your portfolio or how little you’ve saved, you can save your retirement–-if you start now."
What is this thing called retirement, and what does it have to do with me? -- Why am I suddenly thinking about something new? -- Can I afford to make a change? -- What do I get out of work? -- Suppose I don't want to (or can't) stop working? -- How can I scale back on work and find some balance? -- I've always wanted to-- -- How can I give back and enjoy it? -- Can I stay connected with friends and make new ones? -- Why is my partner driving me crazy? -- Conclusion: How do I get the most out of this new stage of life | <urn:uuid:3c8272ae-64bf-48e5-9404-0d483825eaca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.librarypoint.org/booklist/4461 | 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 | 0.938475 | 1,410 | 1.703125 | 2 |
At Beijing four years ago, half of Team GB's medallists were privately educated. Now, with such an intense focus on the British team in London, it hasn't escaped peoples' notice that many of our proud, brave Olympic medallists are also well spoken and very probably privately educated.
The situation is described by Lord Moynahan, the Chairman of the British Olympic Association no less, as 'wholly unacceptable'. If only 7% of our children receive a private education, only 7% of our medallists should be privately educated.
After Lawrence Clarke had produced the run of his life to finish fourth in the 110m hurdles, the BBC's commentators declared him the poshest of Team GB's athletes, and reminded us which school he had attended. I don't know where Christine Ohuruogu went to school, so why does it matter whether Lawrence Clarke went to Eton, or Millfield, or Repton, or Radley?
But to everyone from the Prime Minister to Denise Lewis it seems it does matter.
And I think our independent schools deserve a huge amount of praise for turning out young people ready to lead the world in their chosen field, before collecting their Olympic medal with grace and humility. Without the privately educated and their prowess in the middle-class, sitting-down sports of rowing, sailing and equestrianism, Team GB would lack a significant part of its golden sheen.
Of course that won't come as a surprise to the schools in question. In the days of the British Empire and the First World War, the public schools' aim was to produce gentlemen ready to take on the world on the battlefield. Now they turn out young men and women ready to compete in the boardroom, on the trading floor or, in this case, on the sports field.
Quality teaching, coaching and facilities help, of course, but the abiding memory from my time at school was the spirit of competition that pervaded every aspect of school life. Not in a 'win at all costs' kind of way, but the kind that encouraged you to practice hard, hone your skills and work hard for your team. There were competitions for everything, from sport to academics, and everyone wanted to win everything for their team, their house, and particularly for their school.
And these days the schools aren't just full of the sons of gentlemen, destined to occupy these lofty positions before they were even born. Expanding their horizons, doing a real service to the community, and set against this spirit of inter-school competition, independent schools are home to a huge number of athletes and academics, who are able to hone their skills in an environment which helps them to excel, regardless of their parents' ability to pay.
Tom Daley, the diver, is a perfect example of the benefits this can bring. Offered a scholarship by local independent school Plymouth College, Tom's diving career has gone from strength to strength, but he has also been able to gain eight A*s at GCSE and four As in his A Levels. No state school system could possibly hope to provide the flexibility, resources and dedication required to hone an elite athlete as well as offering them a top quality education.
Far from being 'wholly unacceptable', this is why independent schools exist, and we should be thankful for it. Of course there are many other factors at play, including universities (Loughborough graduates dominate Team GB) and the ability of each individual athlete to push themselves to the limit in training and competition, but by honing the talents, skills and competitive instincts of children from across the social spectrum, independent schools are setting their pupils off on the right path, and doing their nation a real service in the process.
Follow Dale Bilson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dalebilson | <urn:uuid:9a1a5e4a-b311-4910-a62b-d77e124b9e89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dale-bilson/independent-schools-gold-_b_1763631.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981818 | 776 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Below is the promised Part 2 of the list of free resources. If you need to “freshen” up your existing training or are looking for potentially new ideas for security awareness, some of these links may be helpful. If you have any more you would like to share, we would love to hear about them.
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-16/800-16.pdf - NIST - Information Security Requirements
http://www.iwar.org.uk/comsec/resources/sa-tools/ - Information Warfare Site Resources
When you get it wrong, the signs are painfully clear, but the reasons may not always be obvious. Making that all-important connection with your learners does not happen by accident. When you are putting together a security awareness training solution you need to make it not only interesting but RELEVANT.
If the learner already has knowledge on security topics/issues, why do they then need additional training on the areas they already understand? The mistake often made is that content is...
Terranova provides comprehensive training and communication solutions that positively change behaviors. Terranova's products are the foundation for creating tailored programs in information security, sustainable development, privacy as well as other compliances, which are driven by internal policies and regulatory/compliance requirements.
Terranova offers you the best awareness tools for your business. | <urn:uuid:90e38d3e-1524-477c-88e0-48e83aa038e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tnawareness.com/blog/archive/201006 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946238 | 291 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Creu Prydain Decach
27 June 2011
The Commission will tomorrow argue that the Government’s guidance, which sets out the approach that British intelligence officers should take in seeking information from people held by authorities overseas, is not consistent with either domestic or international law.
21 June 2011
The Equality and Human Rights Commission today issues its Annual Report and Accounts for 2009/10.
20 June 2011
Older people’s basic human rights are being overlooked in the provision of care at home, according to emerging findings released today by the Commission.
20 June 2011
A review of research evidence commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission indicates there are different perceptions about the legal protections for religion or belief and about the level of discrimination towards different religions or beliefs.
17 June 2011
In response to Mr Philip Davies comment that disabled people could be paid less than the minimum wage, a spokesperson for the Equality and Human Rights Commission has commented.
16 June 2011
The Commission today issues its full response to the government’s consultation on the Commission's powers and duties.
09 June 2011
The Court of Protection's ruling in the case of the London Borough of Hillingdon v Steven and Mark Neary represents a significant victory for the human rights of disabled people and their carers.
02 June 2011
The Commission today announced the appointment of Mark Hammond as chief executive. He joins the Commission after an extensive career in local and central government. | <urn:uuid:5566baa4-8c50-4d59-8f8b-28eae178d6c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://equalityhumanrights.com/hafan/canolfan-cyfryngau/2011/june/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955222 | 295 | 1.757813 | 2 |
LIFE APPLICATION TRUTH-SET APART FOR GOD
JOHN SHIRK – from Exodus 29, verses 44 and 45.
The LORD said, “So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God.”
To be consecrated is to be set apart by the LORD for a special service. In this case, the process of consecration involved sacrifices of a bull and two rams, and the shedding of their blood.
This has relevance for us, not in the sense that we need to sacrifice animals in order to serve God, but that we are consecrated to the LORD through the cross. That is where Jesus died for our sins. His blood has the power to purify us and prepare us for service.
Second Corinthians 5:15 tells us that Jesus died for all, “that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.” By God’s grace, we are set apart for a particular purpose to bring glory to His name in our acts of service.
Consecration is a vital sign of a changed life in the Year of Transformation. | <urn:uuid:ac289d32-581b-46c8-8890-1994780e9ad9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wjtl.com/pages/life-application-truth-set-apart-for-god/ | 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 | 0.971027 | 265 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Friday, January 18, 2013 1:07 PM
Unfortunately, the GOP proposal doesn't address one of the big problems of that state's tax system: it is very dependent on the economic health of the state. We saw this after the '07 collapse, when revenue from income and sales taxes declined enormously, just at a time when needs for revenue were increasing. As a result, we had to borrow billions from the Feds to pay unemployment benefits.
Further, tying revenue to the economic health of the state is something of a one-way ratchet in the size of government: when tax revenues increase, politicians love to spend the extra money expanding the size of government. When they decrease, though, programs are rarely cut altogether; instead, they are just temporarily cut back.
The better option is a tax system where revenue increases with the number of people in the state and with inflation, but doesn't allow the one-way ratchet. For that, you need... a property tax. Since property is reappraised only occasionally, it does not suffer the same ups-and-downs as either an income or sales tax. | <urn:uuid:573cbc49-bf44-4e44-966d-ae9b85824979> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.talkingaboutpolitics.com/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ArticleView/mid/364/articleId/3526/Tax-Gamble.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969908 | 228 | 1.765625 | 2 |
It's true that the newly launched Google Drive competes with plenty of other services for sharing files across all your devices. But there's something very different in this particular situation than in a lot of online services.
Namely this: why not use them all?
With social networking, few people have the patience to keep a lively feed of activity at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and any number of other sites. We gravitate toward the one where our contacts are active.
And with e-mail, it's inconvenient to have multiple addresses on multiple services, generally speaking.
But with online storage, there's nothing holding you back from putting your photos at Microsoft SkyDrive, your Word documents for work collaboration at Dropbox, and your videos at Google Drive. As long as the services can reach all the devices you need, you can add them together to get lots of storage while sticking in the free tier.
Google Drive is free up to 5GB, Dropbox to 2GB, and SkyDrive up to 7GB (though those who signed up before Monday can lock in the earlier free level of 25GB). That's at least 10GB right there, and there are other cloud storage services out there, too.
It can be inconvenient to spread storage over multiple services. And doing so might confuse coworkers, family members, or others with whom you might be sharing files. But mostly, I see no reason to put all your eggs in one basket until you've filled the baskets you have.
I imagine plenty of others -- already paying hundreds of dollars a month for mobile phone data plans, cable TV, Netflix, and such subscriptions -- will reach the same conclusion. And that means that that cloud storage pricing will be under pressure.
How many people bumping into Dropbox's 2GB limit will decide to just add another service into the mix rather than step up to its cheapest tier, $10 a month for 50GB? If someone has added 5GB for free at Google Drive, why not then add extra capacity there for $2.49 a month for 25GB as a next step?
The way around this is to add extra services that are useful to people. That could be anything from better data protection against hackers to integration with Facebook, Yahoo Mail, or Google Docs.
It's a good thing for the cloud storage companies that the cost per gigabyte of storage keeps dropping every year. | <urn:uuid:0ca2a128-dd49-4107-8a9b-bd9e6da70e17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57420136-93/google-drive-skydrive-dropbox-heck-use-em-all/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93907 | 490 | 1.625 | 2 |
Document - Pakistan: Open letter: Pakistan must resolve the crisis of enforced disappearances
AI Index: ASA 33/012/2012
Ref: TG ASA 33/2012.009
Rajaz Pervez Ashraf
Prime Minister House
30 August 2012
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT
Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW, United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)20 7413 5500 F: +44 (0)20 7956 1157
E: [email protected] W: www.amnesty.org
Dear Prime Minister
OPEN LETTER: PAKISTAN MUST RESOLVE THE CRISIS OF ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES
On the occasion of 30 August, International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Amnesty International urges the Pakistan government to demonstrate the political will to resolve Pakistan’s crisis of enforced disappearances once and for all.
The fate of thousands taken by state officials or those acting on their behalf, held out of sight and without charge, denied access to lawyers and loved ones, remains unknown to this day.
Pakistan’s armed forces, including their intelligence services and paramilitary forces officially under the authority of the executive, are the primary organ of the state accused of committing enforced disappearances. Pakistan’s Constitution lists a range of fundamental human rights protections, which together with Pakistan’s binding international human rights obligations prohibit the state or its agents from committing such violations. In practice, however, the armed forces act with very limited judicial or executive oversight. There must be major legal and policy reforms to regulate arrests, detentions and investigations by the armed forces and its institutions and by civil law enforcement authorities that stand accused of involvement in these violations. There must also be effective oversight of all civil and military institutions by the executive and judicial system. Without these changes, there will be no end to Pakistan’s crisis of enforced disappearances.
The Government of Pakistan has made little progress in determining the fate of thousands of “missing persons” despite its repeated promises since being elected into office in March 2008. At the time, the government signalled that it would break from the practice of secret detention that was common under the military rule of former President Pervez Musharraf. Alarmingly, enforced disappearances have not only persisted across every province and territory of Pakistan under this government’s watch, but even gathered pace in Balochistan and Sindh provinces. Suspected insurgents, political activists, journalists, lawyers and others across Pakistan continue to be subjected to enforced disappearance.
The promulgation of the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulations (AACPR) in June 2011 has further undermined the protection of human rights in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. These regulations give sweeping, retrospective powers to the security forces to arbitrarily detain individuals and allow for the imposition of the death penalty for a number of vaguely and broadly defined offences with virtually no independent oversight.
In practice, detainees have almost no access to effective judicial remedies. They are rarely, if ever, granted access to their families or a lawyer and frequently remain unaware of the charges, if any, against them or the grounds for their detention. Rules on evidence contained in the AACPR, which deem the testimony of Pakistan armed forces personnel to be conclusive, violate the presumption of innocence and an individual’s right to a fair trial. As such, the AACPR are not compliant with Pakistan’s binding obligations under international human rights law and do not reflect the human rights safeguards contained in the Constitution.
We recognize the security challenges faced by Pakistan as a result of the ongoing insurgencies in the Tribal Areas and Balochistan, and the strain that these conflicts have placed on the criminal justice system. However, the continuing exclusion of FATA from the jurisdiction of the high courts to rule on the regular law and constitutional protections, and the failure to enforce these and binding international human rights law protections in Balochistan and other parts of the country is unacceptable. In addition, as with the case, for example, of the ‘Adiala 11’, the practice of transferring detainees from areas where the high courts have jurisdiction to enforce the constitutional protections, to FATA where they do not, appears to be an attempt by the intelligence agencies and other security forces to exploit this legal lacuna and avoid accountability for human rights violations such as enforced disappearances.
A golden opportunity to address the human rights black hole that is FATA was lost when the government finally announced its much-anticipated package of reforms last year. The reform package did not address the fact that FATA remains beyond the jurisdiction of the high courts and Pakistan’s federal and provincial parliaments, nor did it repeal or adequately reform the harsh, colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulation which allows the authorities to mete out collective punishments to entire communities and contains other provisions that are contrary to international law.
Enforced disappearances, abductions and extra-judicial executions continue with impunity at an alarming rate in Balochistan. Reportedly, hundreds of Baloch activists, teachers, journalists and lawyers have been abducted or killed in the last two years alone. The bullet-ridden bodies of individuals, who have been forcibly disappeared or abducted and many bearing apparent marks of torture, are found across the province almost every day.
In many cases, victims’ families blame these incidents on Pakistan’s security forces, especially the Frontier Corps and intelligence services. The security forces deny the charges and claim that the deaths are a result of tribal differences between Baloch militant groups. However, in many of the cases Amnesty International has documented, the victims were last seen alive being led away by uniformed Frontier Corps soldiers, often accompanied by men in plain clothes, in front of multiple witnesses at military checkposts and in cities and towns. Regardless of determining blame for these and other killings in Balochistan, the fact they continue unabated represents one of the greatest failures of the Pakistan state to protect the right to life.
Amnesty International welcomed the establishment of the Commission of Enquiry on Enforced Disappearances in March 2010. However, to Amnesty International’s knowledge, there has been no attempt by the Commission to systematically interview traced individuals to determine any patterns of enforced disappearance; to facilitate assistance to them or their families; provide protection to witnesses who have testified before it; or to investigate named organisations such as the intelligence agencies or other security forces or individuals accused of enforced disappearances.
Pakistan’s high courts have taken several positive steps to investigate the role of the armed forces, intelligence services and other law enforcement authorities in the disappearances crisis. But the courts too have failed to bring any named individuals to trial, even in those instances where strong prima facie evidence has been submitted by lawyers acting on behalf of the families of missing persons. As far as Amnesty International is aware, no member of state security forces and intelligence services has been prosecuted for alleged involvement in enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture or killing except in the case of Sarfaraz Shah. In that case, the state acted only after widespread media coverage following the release of a video of members of the paramilitary Rangers shooting dead Sarfaraz Shah in Karachi in June last year.
Amnesty International is keenly aware of the security threats facing the people of Pakistan and recognises the right and duty of the authorities to prevent crimes, including acts of terrorism. However, it is the fundamental right of every suspect to be charged and tried fairly in a court of law. By holding people in secret detention the government of Pakistan violates the rights of those detained. Those held in such circumstances must be immediately granted access to their family, lawyers, and the courts to rule on the lawfulness of their detention. All individuals, whether officials of the state or not, should be investigated for their alleged role in enforced disappearances or other crimes recognised under international law. Where sufficient admissible evidence exists they must be promptly and fairly tried and, if found guilty, punished, without recourse to the death penalty.
Amnesty International urges the Government of Pakistan to:
end the practice of secret and arbitrary detentions, including by ensuring that the rights of all detainees to contact with the outside world – including lawyers, family and courts – are fully guaranteed by Pakistani law and respected in policy and practice by the armed forces and civil authorities;
immediately release anyone who has been subject to enforced disappearance or otherwise held in secret detention, or, provided sufficient admissible evidence exists, charge any affected individual with a lawful offence consistent with, and following proceedings which comply with, international standards;
if charged, ensure that the deprivation of liberty of the individual is only resorted to in exceptional circumstances and after careful consideration has been effectively given to all possible alternatives to detention;
if charged, ensure that all proceedings comply with international fair trial standards, without recourse to the death penalty;
ensure the Commission of Enquiry on Enforced Disappearances has the power and resources to investigate and publicly establish the fate and whereabouts of all individuals who have been subjected to enforced disappearance;
provide redress to the victims and survivors of enforced disappearance, including family members, and protect relatives and witnesses against the threat or other risk of reprisals or intimidation;
ensure all individuals suspected of being responsible for enforced disappearances are identified and prosecuted in fair trials in civilian courts, regardless of their rank or office;
accede to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, make the Declarations under Articles 31 and 32 of the Convention concerning the competence of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances to consider individual and inter-state complaints, and fully implement all provisions of the Convention in law, policy and practice;
accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which, among other things, makes enforced disappearance a crime against humanity;
repeal or reform the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulations 2011 and the Frontier Crimes Regulation 1901 to ensure they conform with international human rights law and standards; and
extend the jurisdiction of the high courts to FATA so that fundamental rights protections of the Pakistan Constitution, interpreted in a way that is consistent with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including safeguards for arrest and detention under Articles 9 and 10 and fair trial under 10A, can be enforced there; and ensure Constitutional and ICCPR protections are enforced across the entire country.
Secretary General, Amnesty International | <urn:uuid:d306795c-cd76-4346-994b-42aaf76223aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA33/012/2012/en/5c95e10e-40e6-4b30-a38b-0f42eb44234b/asa330122012en.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940132 | 2,158 | 1.78125 | 2 |
LIST: New Laws in Effect in 2013
Several new laws will take effect on Jan. 1, 2013, in Minnesota:
Business Solicitation Restrictions Clarified
Licensed health care providers won’t be allowed to use third parties to solicit business from people who have been in automobile accidents unless they clearly provide their names and the clinics where they work. This information has to be disclosed to consumers, and violating the law could result in a revoked license. The law would impact companies that use unethical business practices, such as promising money to those injured or using actors posing as law enforcement to gain customers.
Young Parents Trying to Finish School Could Benefit from Day Care Change
There will be an extension to the number of absent days that child care providers can be reimbursed when kids of young mothers who are still in school miss day care. Right now under the child care assistance programs there is a limit of 10 absent days per fiscal year that child care providers can be reimbursed. The new law lets kids in families who meet certain criteria go over the limit if approved by the program and county. If a child attends the child care program for part of a day, payment to the provider must be for the full amount of care for that day.
Portable Electronic Device Insurance Available as Standalone Product
A new law clarifies how insurance is regulated on portable electronic devices. This insurance covers the loss or damage to portable devices such as mobile phones, laptops, and iPads and is typically sold at the place of purchase. The former law exempts the person at the counter from being an independent insurance agent but requires vendors to provide training and keep a list of all locations that sell the insurance. The law was updated because so many places now sell devices. The new law says insurance has to be offered and sold separately, not as part of a package deal. It allows sales training to be done electronically, requires a disclosure that the premium will be refunded on a ratable basis to the customer if they cancel the insurance, and allows coverage notices to be sent by mail or electronically.
School Buses to be Equipped with Crossing Arm
All school buses used in Minnesota that are manufactured after Jan. 1, 2013, will need to have a crossing control arm on the front right bumper that automatically comes out when the bus is stopped and the flashing red lights are in use. | <urn:uuid:233f544d-5725-4708-9a19-17334300700c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kstp.com/article/stories/S2870712.shtml?cat=12115 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946237 | 477 | 1.75 | 2 |
POSITION & HOLD
Back to the future—a reassessment
Forecasts change constantly as conditions evolve.
As unemployment lines shrink, business aviation should take off—but the next boom may be 5 years or more into the future.
And in the stock market, the Standard & Poors index has recovered more than 500 points since its Mar 2009 low, and the modest 6-week dip after the Greek debt crisis broke is clearly past. By mid-June, the market had already made up more than 1/3 of its recent loss. The one weak point in the economy is job growth.
There isn’t much. The US needs well above 100,000 new jobs each month just to absorb new workers coming into the labor force—and it is not creating them. Unemployment fell from 9.9% in April to 9.7% in May, but nearly half the unemployed had been out of work for 6 months or more and some 17% of workers either have part-time jobs and want work full-time or have given up the job search altogether.
Payrolls expanded by 431,000 in May, but only 20,000 of those new jobs represented long-term private employment. The rest were temporary workers hired by the government for the 2010 census. All this sends mixed signals for corporate aviation. We still see little prospect of a 2nd major dip in the global economy, and we further believe that the economies of the world’s major trading nations will continue to grow strongly.
This includes the US. And the chances of another decline so sharp that some companies actually cut their flight hours are slim to nonexistent. Yet there will be no economic boom of the kind that could easily follow a burst of new hiring.
So plan for more flying as companies scramble to win or keep every possible customer, and probably to a wider variety of destinations as the growth of global trade continues to knit world economies ever closer together. This view fits well with the prediction from TechCast, a forecasting operation run by William Halal, a professor at George Washington University.
TechCast operates by scanning background trends and then polling 100 experts worldwide to determine their implications. “Our data suggest the next economic boom is likely to start about 2015 as green technologies and global e-commerce take off. Developing nations that are already booming (China, India, Brazil etc) may continue to grow robustly in the meantime, but the developed world (US, EU, Japan etc) is likely to slog through the Great Recession with uncertainty until the next upcycle begins about 2015.”
Murray Smith, this magazine’s publisher, sums it up. “We all know what keeps airplanes flying,” he says. “It isn’t aerodynamics. It’s money. Even in a down economy, corporate aviation more than earns its own way.
In a world of global partnerships, flying executives where they need to go, when they need to get there, on corporate aircraft remains the most productive way to make sales and manage outlying divisions. It takes extraordinarily bad times to reduce corporate flight hours, and they’re not likely to return soon.
“In the economy we see ahead, flight hours will continue to grow. So will the demand for corporate pilots and aircraft. Flight departments will have to operate as leanly and efficiently as they can, thanks to the lessons in austerity the recent recession taught their corporate owners. But they’ll be flying high for as long as people in distant locations need to meet in person.”
Everything old is new again, at least when it comes to DARPA’s readiness to tackle the really exciting challenges that lie just beyond technology’s cutting edge. And that’s a good thing. Dugan is moving DARPA away from its recent focus on delivering widgets to the field and back to its traditional role as the military answer to Geppetto’s workshop.
Some military toys with civilian applications are already in the works. There are unmanned airships the size of 15-story buildings that will be as suitable for carrying civilian cargo as they are for toting military surveillance radar. Powered exoskeletons that one day could help ground personnel shift cargo or lift engines and other heavy aircraft components.
Adjustable rotor systems that almost surely will soon allow civilian helicopters to go faster, further, with less noise, while sipping less fuel. Synthetic fuel equivalent to JP8 that should eventually cut the dependence of civilian and military fleets alike on foreign oil. And, of course, the Transformer, DARPA’s future aerial jeep, destined to spin off generations of flying cars for tomorrow’s long-distance travelers.
Air and space
Contact lens with electronic circuits is a prototype of tomorrow’s personal HUD worn on the eye—future technology that will transform avionics.
Until 1958, NASA had nothing to do with putting human beings into orbit. Half a century later, this will soon be true again. Not that NASA is reverting to its days as the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics.
But when the Endeavor flies the space shuttle’s 134th mission, now scheduled for mid-November, the agency will officially leave the transportation business to private industry and the space agencies of Russia and other former competitors. Instead, it will focus on more distant research missions.
Exactly what missions they will be has yet to be determined. The Constellation program, which planned to return to the Moon by 2020, will not be among them. It is officially dead. All this, of course, is old news. The Obama administration announced the death of US manned spaceflight as we’ve known it last January.
And although many have protested the decision, particularly senators and congressmen with major spaceflight centers in their districts, there is no sign that the administration will back down. There is nothing to suggest that this change will return aviation to its former prominence in NASA’s programs.
The budget announced in January gives NASA an extra $6 billion over its former budget—pending Congressional approval—but exactly what that money will be used for was not spelled out. And yet, one proposal included in the budget directs the agency to “increase research activities into green aviation and [NextGen] capabilities.”
These are worthwhile steps forward. Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA Langley Research Center, commented recently, ”Civilian aeronautics is in a mess. The ATC system is antiquated and incapable of being ‘fixed’ sufficiently to enable [advances] such as UAS/UAVs in controlled airspace and the potential $1 trillion-per-year worldwide market in PAVE [personal air vehicles.] The airlines are not making much profit, and the emerging teletravel revolution is reducing business travel—the source of whatever profits they can hope for.
The climate folks are zeroing in on aircraft emissions of all flavors—CO2, NOx and water.” Unmanned aircraft such as the Predator are a pressing priority at FAA. “There is a tremendous pressure and need to fly unmanned aircraft in (civilian) airspace,” Hank Krakowski, head of air traffic operations at FAA, said in a recent meeting with European aviation officials.
“We are having constant conversations and discussions, particularly with the Dept of Defense and the Dept of Homeland Security, to figure out how we can do this safely with all these different sizes of vehicles.” FAA has been trying to develop a program to integrate UAVs into civilian airspace since 2006.
Last year, it promised defense officials that it would come up with a plan in 2010. As things stand, US airspace may not truly be ready for the coming of drone aircraft until the GPS-based NextGen ATC is ready for use around 2025. One cautionary note about NextGen merits attention. | <urn:uuid:170ee658-2377-4c2e-9222-fd14d545c417> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.propilotmag.com/archives/2010/Aug%2010/A1_back-future_p2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955786 | 1,631 | 1.6875 | 2 |
hardingfv32 wrote:1) "No I meant the movement is independent of the suspension, and the suspension is in place to allow the movement which occurs besides track surface, the movement the chassis experiences because you are throwing it around corners."
How does the car's chassis movement improve cornering force? Weight transfer?
In a F1 car almost all of the weight transfer comes from the formula: weight transfer = weight x cg height / wheel track x g. Where do you plug in the chassis movement into the formula?
2) "Anyhow, the proposition is that a higher CoG (including rake) could generate more grip in the corners."
Weight transfer in the corners ALWAYS means reduced cornering force. Per the formula, a higher CG means more weight transfer.
Assuming track-surface grip is equal for everyne (same tarmeac and same tires - where rubber meets the road if you will) and that the moment you break out would be when the forces of weight tranfer are larger then the grip available that would lead to equal maximum weight transfer for everyone.
That would mean that the weight (car-weight + Downforce at speed x), CoG and wheelbase + wheel-track are determining figures. Things I would think that are missing is the radius of the CoG compared to the radius of the turn (ie centrally located weight vs more rearward).
With their, presumably, most efficient EBD, the RB7 would have more rear-ward biassed DF in turns compared to it's competitors given much betetr traction during mid-corner and corner exit where they can have more throttle opening in mid-corner and get earlier on full-throttle towards apex.
I think they need the FFW to counterbalance their rear DF at the back during the straights to avoid the nose being lifted to high killing their front-grip but also killing their diffuser efficiency. | <urn:uuid:b53a5fc5-cb10-4a30-bfcb-728ad9d1b68a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=262218 | 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 | 0.958114 | 395 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Step away from the usual look of continuous line quilting designs into the natural world of a Danish artist with these extraordinary patterns. Drawing from such venues as the barn yard, a pond, the ocean, a forest, and a field of flowers, Lone brings flora and fauna to unusual life. Her birds and beasts can populate individual blocks or stretch along borders. They can be enlarged or reduced to create pantographs or the most intricate fill patterns. Each design was created for continuous machine quilting, but hand quilters will find these shapes beautifully adaptable.
Quilting Designs from Nature - 01/12/2012
Reviewer: Barbara Wehr from USA
These designs are very cleaver and useful. They are easy to follow and work well for beginner or advanced quilter....this author is exceptionally artistic and talented!
Quilting Designs from Nature - 01/12/2012
Reviewer: Terese Rives from USA
For all of you who love animals and are quilters, this book is a real gem - a must have. As far as I can tell, there isn't anything else on the market like it and I am delighted with it. The designs in "Quilting Designs from Nature" are different from those in other offerings in many ways:
1- The animals are generally more realistic rather than whimsical or caricature and will appeal to everyone - young and old alike.
2- The designs are truly continuous so that there is no confusion about which direction to stitch. Plus, backtracking over previously stitched lines is kept to a minimum.
3- The amount of detail in each design is appropriate including clever ways to portray eyes and other essential qualities to make the animal come to life.
4- There is a good variety and selection of plants and animals -- especially birds and dogs.
5- The designs are easily adaptable and scalable for use in many projects and in many ways - pantographs, borders, blocks, etc.
I just completed stitching most of the designs into a quilt using a longarm with a laser light attached to the front of the machine. Even though I am a beginning longarm quilter and didn't practice beforehand, the stitched out animals look great (even with bobbles here and there). The only complaint I have is that there are no cats in the book. Since I am an 'over-the-top' cat person, I would have liked cats in place of those dragons and dinosaurs. So, I will anxiously wait for another quilting book by Lone Minkkinen and hope it has lots of cats!
Out of the hundreds of quilt related books that I have purchased over the years, "Quilting Designs from Nature" is among my favorites and I plan to use these wonderful designs again and again in all types of quilts. I am quite pleased with this book and would definitely buy it again.
Over 100 continuous line qulting design patterns! - 12/21/2011
Reviewer: James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief from Oregon, WI, USA
“Quilting Designs from Nature” packs in over 100 continuous line quilting design patterns, arranges them by theme, and provides templates that can be enlarged or reduced to create designs. These have been created for continuous machine quilting but hand quilters will find them adaptable and fun, with 'start and stop' arrows offering fine and easy instructions beginners will appreciate.--James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, The Midwest Book Review, The Needlecraft Shelf, The Bookwatch, December 2011
Easily adapts to hand quilting. - 11/03/2011
Reviewer: International Association of Professional Quilters from Laytonsville, MD, USA
If you are looking for nature-inspired quilting designs that are not just florals, you will find this a terrific resource. Lone Minkkinen, a graphic designer and quiltmaker living in Michigan, drew many of the designs in this book while on holiday in her native Denmark. It includes more than 100 continuous line quilting design patterns. The designs are shown by group: the barn yard, the pond, the ocean, the forest, the dogs, the birds, the flowers, equestrian and dinosaurs, dragons and more. Some of my favorites were the frog on the lily pad, the lizard and the beetle. While Lone designed the patterns for continuous machine quilting, you can easily adapt them for hand quilting.
Quilting Designs from Nature - 10/19/2011
Reviewer: Daniel Lai, Dexter Patch from USA
The book includes patterns, tips and stories and caters to crafters of all abilities — from the seasoned professional to the beginning quilter. "If you are looking for nature-inspired quilting designs that are not just florals, you will find this a terrific resource," the International Society of Professional Quilters said in a press release.
See all 6 member reviews | <urn:uuid:f2bab5c0-101f-4863-9c2f-291f8201e4d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanquilter.com/retail_shops/item_detail.php?id=8524 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952305 | 1,038 | 1.578125 | 2 |
IMF Executive Board Concludes 2009 Article IV Consultation with the Solomon IslandsPublic Information Notice (PIN) No. 09/126
November 4, 2009
Public Information Notices (PINs) form part of the IMF's efforts to promote transparency of the IMF's views and analysis of economic developments and policies. With the consent of the country (or countries) concerned, PINs are issued after Executive Board discussions of Article IV consultations with member countries, of its surveillance of developments at the regional level, of post-program monitoring, and of ex post assessments of member countries with longer-term program engagements. PINs are also issued after Executive Board discussions of general policy matters, unless otherwise decided by the Executive Board in a particular case. The staff report (use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this pdf file) for the 2009 Article IV Consultation with Solomon Islands is also available.
On October 16, 2009, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with the Solomon Islands.1
Economic conditions in the Solomon Islands have weakened in 2009, given the effects of the global recession and a logging sector decline. Real GDP growth is projected at 0.4 percent this year, compared to 6.9 percent in 2008. On the positive side, inflation pressures have eased substantially, mainly owing to lower fuel and food prices. An expected drop in timber exports has been more than offset by the lower cost of commodity imports, leading to a projected narrowing in the external current account deficit to 11 percent of GDP in 2009, from around 19 percent in 2008.
In light of the slowdown, the fiscal position will likely weaken in 2009, with possible financing constraints. The overall fiscal balance is expected to slip into a deficit of around 0.4 percent of GDP this year, as compared to a surplus of 1.5 percent of GDP in the previous year. Affecting this are lower timber-related tax receipts and weak spending controls, despite measures taken by the government to conserve cash. As a result, its cash position is expected to remain under strain in 2009 and possibly the next few years, absent further fiscal adjustment and new external assistance.
At the same time, liquidity conditions have tightened, with external inflows and deposit growth slowing significantly. Private sector credit is projected to rise by only 6 percent this year, compared to 26½ percent in 2008. The exchange rate vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar has been allowed to weaken modestly since mid-2008, but in real effective terms it has increased substantially, possibly adding to external pressures.
In the near to medium term, growth is expected to remain below the levels observed in recent years. Although recovery of the global economy and new foreign direct investment, especially in mining and telecommunication sectors, could provide a lift to the economy in 2010, declining logging and ancillary activity will likely act as a drag to income and employment, fiscal revenue, and export receipts over the medium term. In the event, both the fiscal position and current account could come under more strain, with the possibility of large and unsustainable macroeconomic imbalances.
In order to place the economy on a more stable path and lay down the conditions for higher sustained growth, policy measures should be adopted to strengthen the fiscal position, reduce external vulnerabilities, and improve the overall investment climate. On the fiscal front, more efforts are needed to broaden the revenue base and contain recurrent spending, especially in view of the current cash and borrowing constraints, which may persist for some time. In this light, the 2010 budget should be geared toward a modest surplus.
Regarding monetary policy, the current accommodative stance appears appropriate. However, greater exchange rate flexibility may be needed, in view of tight liquidity conditions and to protect foreign reserves. Over the longer term, additional monetary control will need to come through development of new policy instruments and a strengthening of the liquidity management framework.
The banking system appears well positioned against the current slowdown, but given rapid credit expansion in earlier years and signs of rising liquidity and credit risks, tight enforcement by the Central Bank of Solomon Islands of new prudential rules will be important to ensuring sound financial performance and proper risk management control by banks.
Creating conditions for higher growth in nonlogging sectors is essential to improving the fiscal and external position, providing new employment opportunities, and reducing vulnerability to shocks. In addition to maintaining a stable macroeconomic environment, further structural reforms aimed at lowering operating costs and ensuring better access to land are also needed.
Executive Board Assessment
Executive Directors noted that the Solomon Islands faces a more challenging environment than in the recent past. The impact of the global recession and lower logging output could dampen short-term growth prospects, undermine the fiscal position, and increase external vulnerability given projected reserve losses. Against this background, Directors encouraged the authorities to continue to gear macroeconomic policies toward maintaining stability, while pressing ahead with essential structural reforms aimed at strengthening public administration, improving the business climate, and diversifying the production base.
Directors advised the authorities to address the increasingly unsustainable fiscal situation, given possible permanent losses in logging-related revenues, relatively large expenditure outlays, and government financing constraints. They highlighted the need to tighten fiscal policy to conserve cash and avoid external pressures in the near-term through greater spending discipline, especially in nonessential recurrent areas and the government wage bill, which could also avoid squeezing out domestically financed development spending. Directors welcomed the authorities’ intention to adopt an internationally accepted tax regime for the emerging mining sector, with the help of Fund technical assistance.
Directors agreed that medium-term fiscal sustainability hinges on steady implementation of structural fiscal reforms aimed at strengthening revenue administration and reducing tax and customs exemptions, as well as improving cash management, budget integration, and accounting and auditing functions. They underlined the importance of additional external budget support to safeguard essential social spending and help secure more lasting fiscal adjustment. In view of the continued moderate risk of debt distress, Directors commended the efforts to implement a sound debt management strategy.
Directors noted that the current accommodative monetary stance is broadly appropriate, given the moderation of inflation. They encouraged the authorities to improve the liquidity management framework to strengthen the central bank’s effectiveness, including through the development of short-term debt instruments and new standing facilities, which would also help to promote interbank activity. Directors welcomed the authorities’ intention to use the recent SDR allocation to boost reserves, given external pressures.
Directors noted the staff’s assessment that the exchange rate appears to be substantially overvalued, which could undermine medium-term external sustainability. In this context, Directors generally considered that greater exchange rate flexibility could help improve overall competitiveness and facilitate external adjustment, while noting that this should be accompanied by efforts to improve transportation infrastructure, reduce operating and borrowing costs, and streamline business regulations.
Directors welcomed the timely steps taken to strengthen banking supervision, while highlighting that credit and liquidity risks necessitate close monitoring. They encouraged banks to bring risk management controls in line with parent bank operations. Closer monitoring of the National Provident Fund would also be useful, given the recent impact of adverse global conditions on operating income. | <urn:uuid:0d21e8cc-ae9c-4d8b-98ac-40cb1fc0fb5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pn/2009/pn09126.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938836 | 1,446 | 1.578125 | 2 |
MASSENA - The wrath of Old Man Winter will be felt in Northern New York starting Thursday night, according to the National Weather Service in Burlington, Vt.
Meteorologist Kimberly McMahon said the region could expect from 10 to 16 inches of fresh snow by the time the storm is over on Saturday.
Some areas such as the Adirondacks could see up to 18 inches of snow, she said.
Its going to start late Thursday into Thursday night, and were going to get some periods of heavy snowfall on Friday. Things wont really taper off until Saturday morning, she said.
Ms. McMahon said two storms will actually combine into one to provide the significant snowfall to the area.
A northern storm will head eastward and southeastward over the southern Great Lakes, bringing snow into the St. Lawrence Valley early Thursday night, she said.
That storm will interact with another low pressure thats going to basically be moving up the Carolina coast and will combine into one storm, Ms. McMahon said.
Once they combine, she said, they will strengthen greatly, bringing a projected accumulation of more than a foot of snow to the area.
Its looks so far like its going to be fluffy, less dense snow. There will be lots of it, but not heavy snow, she said.
The National Weather Service in Burlington has already issued a Winter Storm Watch that is in effect from Thursday evening through Saturday morning for all of Northern New York, as well as central and northern Vermont.
They say that snow will develop over Northern New York Thursday evening, overspreading the rest of the area by midnight Friday.
They expect moderate to heavy snow will fall at a maximum of 1 to 2 inches per hour, mainly Friday afternoon and evening. Winds will be from the east at 10 to 15 miles an hour with gusts up to 20 miles per hour, and temperatures will be from around 2 degrees below zero to 12 degrees.
Area roadways will be hazardous, especially during the morning and evening commutes on Friday, they advise, noting that visibility will be less than a mile at times in heavier snow.
A Winter Storm Watch means there is a potential for significant snow, sleet or ice accumulations that may impact travel.
And before the snow, more cold. Temperatures are expected to drop to 11 below zero tonight and will struggle to reach double digits on Thursday. | <urn:uuid:2046c6d4-3255-46e8-85a3-a14c7de230cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ogd.com/article/20130206/DCO01/702069718/1045 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95273 | 486 | 1.539063 | 2 |
I would like to include a recipe based on a conditional branch in another recipe. This is currently planned to be during the execution of a Ruby .each iterator.
The opscode wiki says the following about include_recipe, "...subsequent calls to
include_recipe for the same recipe will have no effect."
I am assuming that this means one may not use
include_recipe for the same recipe multiple times during a run. However, does this apply if it's being called during execution of an iterator?
UPDATE for Clarification:
So, just to clarify. recipe_1 is the main recipe. In recipe_1, I iterate through apps on the node and I want to include recipe_2 if Application_2 is on the node or recipe_3 if App_3 is on the node. If I have both Apps on the node, I want to make sure that the first iteration that includes recipe_2 is not still included in recipe_1 when the next iteration starts to run for App_3. Again, I'm wary of the documentation that states: The included recipe's resources will be inserted in order, at the point where include_recipe was called. | <urn:uuid:49f306b0-4d2c-47dd-9ed0-7f59872a1703> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://serverfault.com/questions/469807/using-chef-can-i-use-include-recipe-in-an-if-statement-and-count-on-it-working | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973019 | 246 | 1.625 | 2 |
The world of NASCAR as we know it was changed when Toyota entered the ranks of racing in 2007 with the Toyota Camry. This got the blood boiling for many fans who took it as a personal affront that a foreign car manufacturer was allowed to race with their beloved Fords, Dodges, and Chevys. The most common argument made was that NASCAR rules state that vehicles competing on the racing circuit must be based on American vehicles. I think we can clear this little misunderstanding up right away.
The Toyota Camry, the nameplate on the 2007 race car, is manufactured in Georgetown, Kentucky. This same Camry has been the best-selling car in the United Stated for years and Toyota employs some 152,000 American workers. It is obvious that Toyota can now be considered as much an American manufacturer as GM and Ford, who still build a significant number of their vehicles in Mexico and Canada.
Plus, Toyota developed their race cars for NASCAR in North Carolina. These facts make Toyota more than qualified to race according to the NASCAR rulebook. And race they have. [keep reading]
A few weekends ago Hooniverse published an article breaking down 2012 car sales. Inside the post which you can read here, there are some really interesting fun facts about the cars the were sold. The article is long, perhaps a little too long for a weekday read, so here’s the most interesting bits you can digest in just a minute or two.
- Ford Crown Vic: 546 sold in December 2012, last built in September 2011
- Ford Ranger: 118 sold in December 2012, last built in December 2011
- Lincoln Town Car: 1,001 sold in 2012, last built in August 2011 [keep reading]
I assume anyone reading this post has been to at least one car show. There are just as many categories of car shows as there are types of cars. I’ve been to a lot of different ones but the nostalgic feeling and genuineness found at the local car shows can’t be found anywhere else. And the knowledge you gain from talking to the folks who actually owned and worked on these cars is different from the MPG and HP ratings you find on a sheet at the large international shows. But before I get all sentimental over these local events, I’d like to take some time to explain how these opinions were formed.
About 10 years ago, I went to my first car show with my uncle and his family. This wasn’t a run of the mill local car meet; this was the New York International Auto Show…one of the largest automotive enthusiast events in the world. With hundreds, maybe thousands of cars at display, there was something for everyone to see. From insanely priced and powerful exotics such as the Ferrari Enzo and Porsche Carrera GT to the grocery getters we’re more likely to drive in our lifetimes, all were parked and glistening on what would be the equivalent of a red carpet for cars. [keep reading]
Last weekend, GM’s marketing head honcho, Joel Ewanick, resigned. Business Insider covered it, the Detroit News covered it and a whole bunch of other websites covered the story too. People had a love-hate relationship with the man. He’s the automotive world’s frenemy. Think of Ewanick like coffee. It’s bad for your teeth and probably your health, but it’s just the kick in the pants most people need to get their day started.
Ewanick fired advertising agencies, started a war with Facebook and said Super Bowl commercials were a waste of money. Ewanick also changed company culture, developed an advertising strategy to save GM billions, helped turn around a failing brand, took risks with their media spends and demanded creative ideas. So what does Ewanick’s exit mean for Mojo Motors, car shoppers and dealerships? Let’s take a look. keep reading…
The Costin Amigo, pictured below, was a rare sports car built in the 1970′s. We asked our Facebook fans if they thought it was hot or not and the consensus was pretty split. One thing is for certain..it’s the weekend.
There’s a little town in Ravenna, Ohio that replicates the “Cobra Killer” at the Mongoose Motorsports garage. What’s the “Cobra Killer,” you ask? Time to get yourself ready for an history lesson. Back in the early 1960′s, the Shelby Cobra was one of the premier sports cars in racing. Chevrolet couldn’t let the Cobra go unmatched so they created the Corvette Grand Sport.
Feather-light at 1,900 pounds, the Grand Sport proved to be faster and more apt at taking corners than the Cobra. Unfortunately, only five Grand Sports were built after GM cancelled the program which meant the ultra rare American sports car had to compete in the prototype class against Porsche and Maserati. Almost 50 years later, the only kind of Grand Sport you’re bound to see is a Mongoose Motorsports replica in both coupe and roadster variations. Keep reading for the specs and more pictures.
The king of popularity is the Subaru Impreza which retains its crown as the most searched vehicle on Mojo Motors in the month of November. Winners last month also include the Toyota Tacoma which jumps from fifth place to second place and the number six Ford F-150 making its premier in the top 10. Jeep made some moves too, boasting two vehicles in the top 10. The Wrangler comes in third place and the Grand Cherokee in seventh. For the second straight month, Toyota is the most searched brand on Mojo Motors and for the first time, Volvo and GMC have made it into top 10, kicking out poor-performing losers like BMW and Audi. For a more comprehensive breakdown, keep reading below. | <urn:uuid:47127754-445e-43f9-a945-4d0c52e3243b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mojomotors.com/blog/tag/ford/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967054 | 1,217 | 1.554688 | 2 |
One of the most curious products of Mailer's perpetually surprising career, this gracefully written short novel chronicles the life of Jesus, as told by Himself long after his crucifixion and assumption into heaven. Making continual references to the four traditional gospels (whose authors are gently chided for their inaccuracies and exaggerations), Mailer's Jesus offers a generally plainspoken and sometimes plodding account of his youth and apprenticeship in Nazareth, his acceptance of the burden with which the voice of God charges him, his ministry and miracles, encounters with the Pharisees and conviction for blasphemy, and his death at Golgotha. There's real tension, and little glints of inventive power, in such episodes as Jesus's temptation by a suave Satan, and his exorcism of the giant Legion and destruction of the Gadarene swine. But many other passages (most flagrantly, the Sermon on the Mount) amount to no more than flat paraphrase. Occasional flashes of Mailer's pugnacious intellectual gamesmanship surge through in his characterization of a Jesus who devoutly recalls and recites the wisdom of the Old Testament (in one arresting sequence, his rescue of the woman taken in adultery is followed by his memory of the most sensual verses in the "Song of Solomon"), and in random vivid metaphor ("I could feel the love of God. . . like an animal of heavenly beauty. Its eyes glowed in my heart"). Yet the text is marred by anachronistic lapses in tone, and one waits in vain for fuller development of the God-vs.-Devil dialectic that elsewhere dominates Mailer's fiction (though it must be said that this novel's God explains Himself rather more than the biblical one ever did). Only Judas Iscariot and Pontius Pilate emerge as even perfunctorily characterized individuals; everyone and everything else is subordinated to the narrator's exploration of his mission and his nature. It's lucid, competent, to all appearances sincere--and thoroughly unexceptional. | <urn:uuid:7e71e01b-c709-46c9-8036-ddb469d61f65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/norman-mailer/the-gospel-according-to-the-son/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962437 | 420 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Archive for 'Naturally beautiful destinations' Category
Time to get in one last ski run before spring arrives. Instead of trekking all the way to Europe, we looked in our very own backyard for the greenest (and the whitest!) ski slopes around. Though we’ve never been, we hear the newest addition to Lake Tahoe, 968 Park, is positively pure.
In addition to its its [...]
Have your very own private eco-adventure this Valentine’s Day at Tabacon in Costa Rica. Located in the dramatic shadow of the Arenal Volcano and surrounded by 700 acres of pristine rain forest and lush greenery, this romantic five-star hideaway boasts 12 natural hot springs, mangrove jungles and wild monkeys. Getting there is not that difficult when you [...]
It’s not February yet, but it’s never too soon to plan a romantic Valentine’s Day. If you are eco-lovers like us, the Galapagos Islands are the place to go. The Galapagos constitute a group of volcanic islands off the coast of Ecuador with rare species and unspoiled beaches. Fly thru Quito to Baltra Island and [...]
Adventure Philantrhopy in Peru
You may know Peru for its pure silver (we have gorgeous pure silver earrings handmade by Artisans of Peru), but there is so much to Peru unexplored. There is also so much to do there. Why not combine the two with ”adventure philanthropy”, otherwise known as adventure travel combined with organized volunteer work, and [...]
This fall, the 218-year-old Woodstock Inn & Resort introduced an eco-friendly LEED-certified spa to capture the beauty and charm of New England. Located in rural Vermont, the spa encourages guests to connect with nature through its variety of organic products and unique nature-inspired seasonal treatments performed in ten rooms. Natural light pours in through its dramatically high ceilings and [...]
For a real awakening, serious travelers to Ecuador seek to go beyond viewing the beautiful wildlife and instead come face-to-face with the soul of its rain forest, its indigenous tribes. Start your trip with a visit to Quito, Ecuador’s capital, Quito and stay at La Casa Sol in the touristy neighborhood of Mariscal Scure, known [...]
It is worth a mention because it added a little difficulty to our traveling in and out of Bogota. In order to eliminate congestion, there is a law in place that says if your license plate has an even last number you can not drive your car on Monday Wednesday and Friday; the alternating remaining [...]
This past weekend Tribal Societe were guests at a lovely little shop on Candle Street called Nalu to sell some hand crafted goodies. Nantucket charm and a warm summer afternoon made for a perfect backdrop for an afternoon of shopping and greeting fellow would be eternal Nantucket Islanders islanders. Most favorite choice was nantucket blanc necklace.
If I had to write a short list of what one is able to see and do in Ecuador it would start something like this. Downtown city center, unbelievable churches, amazing street vendors, and many many Ecuadorian Indians proudly displaying their traditional dress. Of course, to be tried… sopa de locro, a potato and cheese [...]
Designers ‘going green’ should think…buttons, buttons, buttons. It is a fact that plastic destroys rainforests and its production harms animals. Tribal Societe is encouraging designers of the world to embody something entirely green. It is as simple as buttons, literally! Tagua is vegetable ivory that exists naturally in the Amazons. It can be molded into [...] | <urn:uuid:04cd61c1-76db-413f-b420-3c9bbc5482b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tribalsociete.com/blog/?cat=32 | 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 | 0.939425 | 763 | 1.5 | 2 |
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
LONGMONT -- Residents with a no-solicitation feature on their phones might be
blocking more than just unwanted telemarketers.
They might also be stopping emergency notifications from the city of
The Times-Call discovered that the no-solicitation feature can prevent a
message about an emergency from reaching someone on the other end.
"From testing, it appears that if you have this service, you probably will
not get these messages," said Ken Nichols, supervisor of Longmont's emergency
Nicholas said city dispatchers were not aware of the problem until the
Times-Call brought it to their attention.
The no solicitation service -- a feature that CenturyLink customers pay for
that screens calls daily between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. -- plays an automated message
to callers that instructs solicitors to hang up and all other people to either
press 1 or stay on the
Ken Nichols, supervisor of
the Longmont Police Department's Emergency Communication Center, demonstrates
the emergency notification system in his office on Thursday. ( Greg Lindstrom
line to connect.
The problem stems from that feature's interaction with Everbridge Alert, the
service Longmont dispatchers use to send emergency notifications to affected
landlines and any cell phone or email addresses residents have opted in. If a
person is not reached, the system detects a machine and leaves a voice message.
On phones with a no-solicitation feature, Everbridge interprets that initial
automated message as reaching a machine and then begins to deliver its
notification at that time. By the time someone on the other end picks up the
phone, the message either has been delivered and the system has hung up, or the
person picks up in the middle of the message. Either way, the message doesn't
get through to voicemail.
There's no way to know how many customers might be affected, because
CenturyLink does not release numbers for specific call features for competitive
information, according to company spokesman Mark Mulzen. He said there have been
no other reports of the no-solicitation feature interfering with emergency
Nicole Rowe, the vice president for Everbridge's product marketing, also said
this is the first she's heard of the problem.
Rowe encouraged customers with this issue to opt in a cell phone to make sure
they receive the emergency message, wherever they might be.
"No one way of communication is guaranteed. ... That best way, the most
efficient way to reach someone is to use multiple paths to reach them," she
Residents with the no-solicitation feature also can add the city's number to
a privileged caller list, which allows calls from certain numbers to bypass the
To receive a notification from the city of Longmont, Nichols suggests adding
the two numbers that emergency notification may come from: 303-651-8501 and
As of May, 20,707 numbers, including landlines and cell phones, in Boulder
County have opted into the system.
Identifying the problem
The issue was brought to light after the city sent out an emergency
notification on June 2, the first time the Everbridge system was used this year.
On that evening, an armed 36-year-old man barricaded himself inside his home
on the 600 block of Silver Star Court in Longmont.
Officers, including the police department's SWAT team, were unable to coax
the man out of his home, and the man shot and killed himself shortly after 10
p.m., according to police.
At 8:40 p.m., dispatchers sent an emergency message to 574 contacts --
landlines, cell phones, emails -- near the home, telling residents to remain
inside their homes until they heard further instructions. The calls went to
residents in an area bordered by Highland Drive, Pace Street, East Fifth Avenue
and Alpine Street.
A call canceling the emergency was sent at 11:33 p.m. to 488 contacts. The
difference of 86 stemmed from a dispatcher failing to record the initial list of
contacted households, Nichols said.
An anonymous reader wrote a letter to the Times-Call's Johnnie St. Vrain
column about the June 2 notification. The reader outlined this scenario: His
phone rang at 8:40 p.m. and the caller ID showed that it was the city of
Longmont. The reader picked up after the second ring, but it was a hang up.
At 11:30 p.m., the resident received a call from the same number, this time
with recorded information saying that an emergency in the area was over and it
was safe to go outside.
"I was rather upset, not only at the late night call (I thought someone must
have died!) but at the fact that I had been unaware of a possible threat to my
family's safety so we could take appropriate precautions," the letter stated.
The second notification came through because the no-solicitation feature is
active only from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
But the first call, which occurred when the feature was active, likely was
delivered after the no-solicitation message kicked on.
With help from Nichols, the Times-Call conducted a test of the system by
sending a series of four test notifications to a phone with a no-solicitation
feature at about 4 p.m. Monday.
All four times, the message did not come through and no voice message was
However, on the city's end, the system indicated that all of the messages
were successfully delivered to a machine, which is the alert dispatchers get
when a notification is left on voicemail.
Technically, the notification did go to a machine. It just wasn't the right
"What you got is two blind computers butting heads," Nichols said. | <urn:uuid:32e26388-2c1d-407c-9554-63514b3a1de0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.firefighterclosecalls.com/news/fullstory/newsid/166151 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952502 | 1,244 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Tuesday, September 18, 2001 - 12:30 p.m. EDT
Rumsfeld: Good afternoon.
I just have a short couple of things I wanted to say, and then I'd be happy to respond to questions.
As we have said, and I don't think it can be repeated enough, this is a very new type of conflict, or battle or campaign or war or effort, for the United States. We are moving in a -- as a result, we're moving in a measured manner. As we gather information, we're preparing appropriate courses of action. And as I've suggested, they run across the political and economic and financial, military, intelligence spectrum.
It's not a matter of a single event. We're talking about a very broadly based campaign to go after the terrorist problem where it exists, and it exists in countries across the globe. As I've indicated, this one network, al Qaeda, that's receiving so much discussion and publicity, may have activities in 50 to 60 countries, including the United States.
Therefore, it will not be quick and it will not be easy. Our adversaries are not one or two terrorist leaders, or even a single terrorist organization or network. It's a broad network of individuals and organizations that are determined to terrorize and, in so doing, to deny us the very essence of what we are: free people.
The people who committed these acts are clearly determined to try to force the United States of America and our values to withdraw from the world or to respond by curtailing our freedoms. If we do that, the terrorists will have won, and we have no intention of doing so.
We have a choice, either to change the way we live, which is unacceptable, or to change the way that they live, and we have -- we chose the latter. We intend to put them on the defensive, to disrupt terrorist networks and remove their sanctuaries and their support systems. This requires a distinctly different approach from any war that we have fought before.
In the past, we were used to dealing with armies and navies and air forces and ships and guns and tanks and planes. This adversary is different. It does not have any of those things. It does not have high-value targets that we can go after. But those countries that support them and give sanctuary do have such targets. The terrorists do not function in a vacuum.
They don't live in Antarctica. They work, they train and they plan in countries. They're benefiting from the support of governments. They're benefiting from the support of non-governmental organizations that are either actively supporting them with money, intelligence and weapons or allowing them to function on their territory and tolerating if not encouraging their activities. In either case, it has to stop.
We'll have to deal with the networks. One of the ways to do that is to drain the swamp they live in. And that means dealing not only with the terrorists, but those who harbor terrorists. This will take a long, sustained effort. It will require the support of the American people as well as our friends and allies around the world.
And I must say that the support of the American people has been overwhelming. Indeed, the support across the globe has been overwhelming. It's notable that hundreds and hundreds of citizens from more than 30 or 40 or 50 countries died in those attacks. So the world has a stake in this as well. And the world grieves.
I know that all Americans, and certainly the men and women in uniform are up to this challenge. The terrorists who did this in my view will be seen to have made a mistake. They thought they could frighten Americans into retreat and inaction, and they will find that Americans have no intention of withdrawing from the world in fear.
I'll be happy to respond to questions. Charlie.
Q: Mr. Secretary, due probably in no small part to your admonition about releasing classified information, nobody in this building is saying anything about movements of troops -- (light laughter) -- or planes or anything. Do you --
Rumsfeld: Good! (Laughter.) God bless them. (Laughter.)
Q: Do you plan beyond the 35,500 that you identified for call-up, mostly for homeland defense, do you plan for or think there will be a need to call up forces for offensive operations in this war, as you say, on terror?
Rumsfeld: The best defense against terrorists is an offense. You simply cannot batten down the hatches and try to cope with every conceivable thing any terrorist could imagine to do. I mean, they're already done some unimaginable things. The only answer is to take the effort to them where they are.
With respect to reservists, the president's authorization that I recommended is one, as I recall, that is up to 50,000 Reserve-Guard combined. [ Executive order ] And we have at the moment no plans beyond the 35. And it is purely going to be a decision as to how long we have to do various things and what specialties seem to be the most in short supply. And that task is going forward. Dr. David Chu is working with the services, and they are proceeding to analyze that.
Q: Just one brief question. I realize you won't discuss operations and all, but there's been much talk about Afghanistan and, at the same time, just how extremely difficult it would be to do anything that would work in Afghanistan.
Rumsfeld: That's true.
Q: How do you root them out of Afghanistan? How do you find them? How do you strike them?
Rumsfeld: I think that one has to find ways to alter behavior. And as I've indicated, that runs across the spectrum. You're quite right; Afghanistan is a very poor country. It is a country that has had -- several countries have exhausted themselves pounding that country and fighting. And as I think I've mentioned, it has a gross domestic product per capita of something like $700, $800, $900 per person a year. So it is -- there are not great things of value that are easy to deal with. And what we'll have to do is exactly what I said -- use the full spectrum of our capabilities.
Q: Mr. Secretary, you said that the United States would not be intimidated, would not be frightened by what has happened. Yet the building in which you work has become an armed camp. Your own top generals were unable to get here for hours this morning; there were traffic jams created that would be potential targets for terrorists well outside of the Pentagon. It looks like they have succeeded, that they're winning.
Rumsfeld: Well, in a sense, you're right. Any time Americans alter their behavior because of a clear and visible threat to their lives, those that did the threatening have achieved some portion of their goal. What we've got to do is to find ways to see that those traffic jams are eliminated -- and I'm sure we will, in a day or two -- and to attempt to get back to as normal a situation -- but as the president indicated, with a heightened awareness and vigilance, because it would be naive to think that there are no potential threats. There are.
Q: Mr. Secretary, this morning --
Rumsfeld: And the inconvenience is something that I think, for the most part, people are willing to undergo, given the fact that it has required a significant change. If you look at the number of firefighters and the Red Cross and the Salvation Army and every conceivable organization out there, police -- trying to get the bodies out of this building, it's not a surprise that some of the roadways are blocked and that they're using the parking lot there for taking the materials from the building and sifting through them and trying to find bodies and trying to find classified material. And it is a very difficult whole set of problems that the people are trying to manage here, in a way that inconveniences people to the least possible way.
Q: But your own generals are not trusted to park their cars near the building because they supposedly fear that your generals' cars would have bombs in them?
Rumsfeld: To the extent that there is a heightened alert, it tends to be because there is intelligence that suggests that's a prudent thing to do. It takes a lot of dogs to check under cars. And even though a car may belong to a perfectly responsible individual, it is not necessarily physically in their custody 24 hours a day. And they may not be aware of something that could have been done to the vehicle. Now, if that's the case, and the dogs are busy doing other things, which they are, it seems to me not unreasonable. And I would cast it slightly differently. I would say that what we've got here is a distinctly different circumstance in the Pentagon, and the people are dealing with it, in my view, in a very professional way, and I think that for the most part the people inconvenienced are as well.
Q: Before I ask my question, I want to follow up on Jack's. Are you saying that there is credible intelligence that the Pentagon is still a target of terrorist attack?
Rumsfeld: No. What I'm saying is that, as the president indicated, it's important to get back to work, and it's important to get about your business. But as we know, Washington National's not open. Why? Well, because it is so close to so many very high-value targets that it would not be a wise thing to do until we manage that. People are being inconvenienced at airports with their baggage. The baggage checks are considerably more careful -- much more careful than in the past. It's all of those things that are quite understandable, it seems to me.
Q: To follow up on something you said earlier, you said that terrorist -- states that support these terrorists do have armies, do have navies.
Q: Right, some do. The State Department has -- I forget what the list is -- six or seven identified terrorist states. Are you this morning declaring war on these nations that harbor terrorists?
Rumsfeld: No. What I'm saying is that the United States of America has been savagely attacked by terrorists. Those terrorists live and work and function and are fostered and financed and encouraged, if not just tolerated, by a series of countries on this globe. And we are saying that we think that is striking directly at the way of life of the American people, and that we intend to find ways to alter that behavior.
Q: And you said this morning also that we have to drain the swamp. To do that, you sometimes have to get muddy. Is the United States prepared to suspend or ignore some legal requirements, burden of proof, to go after people who have long been identified as suspect terrorists, but the U.S. hasn't been able to get at, because they just don't have the kind of conclusive evidence to take to court?
Rumsfeld: The president has indicated that he intends to take this attack to the terrorists. And he intends to find ways to persuade the countries that are harboring terrorists to stop doing that. I think of it in the sense of self-defense, and there is nothing that inhibits the United States of America from defending itself. And that is what we intend to do.
Q: Could I follow that up?
Q: Would you mind, sir, if I deferred, and let him follow it up?
Q: I just wanted to -- do you think that --
Rumsfeld: I was just going from left to right.
Q: Try the middle.
In the cases where those regimes that are supporting terrorism ignore your entreaties to stop, is it going to be U.S. policy to try to change those regimes?
Rumsfeld: Each would be an individual case, one would think.
Q: Do you have evidence of state support for this attack?
Rumsfeld: I think I'll leave that to the Department of Justice -- they and the FBI and the intelligence gathering agencies -- I mean, I know a lot, and what I have said, as clearly as I know how, is that states are supporting these people.
And how -- what constitutes evidence and who wants to present it at what time I'll leave to the people in that business. I'm in a different business.
Q: Sir, if I could have a preliminary question, that was the longest pregnant pause I think I've every witnesses. What --
Rumsfeld: Sometimes I go longer. (Laughter.)
Rumsfeld: I'm old-fashioned. I like to engage my brain before my mouth. (Laughter.)
Q: But quite frankly, I mean, can you sort of elaborate on the pregnant pause? I mean --
Rumsfeld: Well, sure. It's a sensitive matter. And the United States is careful about what it does. And we are a democracy. And we do have a free press. And we do have a Congress. And we do have rules. And we do consider ourself a nation of laws. And that's a good thing. We're also not stupid. And we're not going simply allow things to happen to us that strike at all of those things that I just described. And the proper way to think of it is that a country has every right in the world to defend itself. And that is what we intend to do.
Q: So now I wonder if I could ask the question I wanted to ask, which was about your comment about curtailing freedoms. Already, you know, there are some people who are wondering whether the more severe restrictions you're putting on access to the press, both here, but more importantly --
Rumsfeld: No, I've not put any restrictions on access to the press. All I've suggested is that the people who handle government classified information not violate federal criminal law and put American lives at risk by doing it.
Q: But there's talk about -- but there's talk about withdrawing access, for instance, to combat operations, that type of thing, and direct coverage, et cetera.
Rumsfeld: There's talk about everything in the world in this town. I have not even addressed that subject.
Q: So this is not a matter that has been decided?
Rumsfeld: It has clearly not been decided. I have -- I have made no decisions with respect to the press. All I have done is to suggest to the Honorable Torie Clarke, assistant secretary of Defense for public affairs, that she wrap her head around that subject. And unless there are emanations from that head, which I doubt -- (laughter)
Q: Mr. Secretary --
Q: Sir, in terms of self-defense measures, can you talk to us conclusively about whether the 1976 ban on assassinations in any way inhibits the Department of Defense from targeting individual terrorist leaders?
Rumsfeld: There is no question but that that ban does have effect. It restricts certain things that government can and cannot do.
Q: Mr. Secretary?
Q: Mr. Secretary?
Clarke: We gotta make this the last question -- (inaudible) -- last question. We need to get you --
Rumsfeld: Okay. I've got to -- I've got a meeting. I'll take the three right here.
Q: Mr. Secretary, American planes dropped two targets in southern Iraq today, and I was wondering if you could elaborate, if you've seen any change in the behavior of Iraqi forces since the attacks last week, or --
Rumsfeld: The action by coalition forces in Iraq were part of a very normal pattern that has been under way throughout the time I've been in the Department and before.
To the extent that the Iraqi government continues to fire at coalition aircraft and to move air defense capabilities in those areas where we operate, in the no-fly zones, we intend to keep taking action against those capabilities -- radars, communications systems, SAM sites, AAA, and the like -- and that's what took place.
Q: Sir, could you explain your comments this morning on CBS [ transcript ] when you said you didn't want to provide evidence to the Taliban of Osama bin Laden's involvement in this, if there is any? General Zinni in October told the Senate Armed Services Committee that's exactly the route he would recommend that people go -- in presenting this evidence so that the world can see their guilt. Could you explain what your concern would be in providing -- is it that they'd alert individuals, and --
Rumsfeld: It is a dilemma. What happens is the United States of America and our friends around the world gather information to provide for their national security. There are pieces of intelligence information that come in that we do in fact expose to foreign countries from time to time. We do it to make a persuasive case. Sometimes we have to do it in a court of law. We do it, for example, also with respect to counterproliferation efforts, where we're trying to get countries to stop their people from spreading weapons of mass destruction across the globe.
You have to be very careful in doing it, because if you do it, you are running the risk that you will compromise a source of information or a method of gathering information. And to the extent you compromise a source or a method of gathering information, you have damaged yourself, because we have found that when we do that, frequently when we do that -- not always when we do that, but frequently when we do it, within a relatively short period of time, that source of information dries up, and they find other methods of communicating or other methods of providing information or dealing with each other, or that method becomes less useful over a period of time.
Now, you have to balance your national security interest in getting someone to stop a specific act against your national security interest in being able to continue to gather information and know what's taking place. So it is not a simple matter.
And those are calculations that ultimately get made. And it's a balance -- what are you getting for what you're giving up? And how satisfied are you? It's not dissimilar from the problem when you -- a spy is captured and people, instead of prosecuting them vigorously, end up making an arrangement with them to try to find out what they compromised, so that you can save people's lives. And yet you, on the other hand, don't punish the individual to the extent that they merit it.
Q: Given your very strong statements here about self-defense for America, do you agree with what the president said yesterday -- bin Laden should be brought to justice, dead or alive? Do you much care either way?
Rumsfeld: Of course I agree with what the president said. (Laughter.) That question guaranteed the answer.
No, he's right. I mean, the people need -- people and organizations and countries that do things that are this damaging -- not just to our country but to the world -- do need to be held accountable. And there are a variety of ways of holding people accountable.
Thank you very much, folks.
Q: Thank you. | <urn:uuid:c5c05c77-3c44-448a-bc0d-8b8fc13893c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1893 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976058 | 3,978 | 1.539063 | 2 |
But let’s send more money, and TVs, and yet more money!
''Castro is only interested in the money that comes from emigres. That they come to Cuba and spend lots of money. That they bring more dollars each time. But he wants them at arms length. Forget about business in strategic sectors. It's better to keep milking them by taxing their trips and the packages they send to the island. The Castro brothers have no desire to treat emigres fairly.
''When the exile community learns how to use its economic might as a weapon, it will force the government to change its antiquated discourse and anachronistic laws. In the meantime, he only needs them to keep filling the piggy bank.''
Engagement doesn't work. Dialog doesn't work. It didn't with Hitler or Stalin, it won't with castro. | <urn:uuid:bd97cbea-c71d-4fe0-9154-f1c6cda25ab4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://babalublog.com/2012/09/02/but-lets-send-more-money-and-tvs-and-yet-more-money/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975492 | 181 | 1.65625 | 2 |
British PM postpones EU speech over Algeria crisis
(LONDON) - Prime Minister David Cameron has postponed a major EU speech planned for Friday because of the Algerian hostage crisis and warned Britain should brace itself for "the possibility of bad news ahead".
Cameron was due to travel to the Netherlands to deliver a long-awaited speech on Britain's relationship with the European Union, but his office said he would now be staying in London to deal with the Algerian crisis.
In a sombre televised statement, Cameron indicated that several Britons could have been killed in the Algerian army offensive to free hostages from Islamist kidnappers at the BP-operated In Amenas gas plant.
"We face a very bad situation at this BP gas compound in Algeria. A number of British citizens have been taken hostage," the prime minister said.
"Already we know of one who has died. The Algerian armed forces have now attacked this compound.
"It is a very dangerous, very uncertain, a very fluid situation and I think we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility of bad news ahead."
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said "he fully understands" the postponement.
"We wish him luck and understand that this is now a priority," Rutte's spokesman told AFP.
Britain's Foreign Office later said that Foreign Secretary William Hague was to return early from Australia in order to deal with the crisis.
Hague will leave on Friday, as soon as he has completed defence and security talks with the Australian government, the ministry confirmed.
Cameron has chaired two meetings of the government's emergency committee, Cobra, and said officials were in touch with families as they sought to "build the fullest possible picture of the information and intelligence that we have".
Speaking shortly afterwards, junior foreign minister Alistair Burt also issued a warning of more bad news to come.
"Although details have yet to become final, I'm afraid we should be under no illusion that there will be some bad and distressing news to follow from this terrorist attack," Burt told the BBC.
He said that ministers had been in touch with their international partners, officials had been liaising with BP, and Britain was "pressing" the Algerian authorities to have access to Britons caught up in the attack.
A British man was killed when Islamist gunmen stormed the gas plant on Wednesday and several Britons are believed to be hostages along with dozens of other foreigners.
Pressure had been building for months over Cameron's European speech, billed as one of the most important by a British leader in a generation.
He was expected to set out plans to renegotiate Britain's conditions of membership of the EU and then allow voters to decide on the new terms in a referendum after elections in 2015.
A new date and venue would be announced "in due course", a Downing Street spokesman told AFP.
Text and Picture Copyright 2013 AFP. All other Copyright 2013 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable. | <urn:uuid:8b6973ba-5620-44d9-8919-852c79a9bcf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/algeria-mali.lud | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973361 | 644 | 1.507813 | 2 |
There have been scores of adaptations of Charlotte Bronte's most famous novel over the years – six since 1970 alone. Why does this novel continue to prickle and resonate with filmmakers so much? For one thing, it speaks to a very specific and telling period of time in European gender politics; for another, it's wide open enough to beg for many different treatments. For his effort, director Cary Fukunaga has seen fit to bring out the mysterious horror behind the heavy closed drapes of the English castles in which his protagonists dwell. The result is a kind of J-horror "Masterpiece Theater," Merchant/Ivory meets "A Tale of Two Sisters."
As the film begins, Jane (Mia Wasikowska) has just fled the stately mansion of Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender), where she was the governess of his young ward (Romy Settbon Moore) and, supposedly, the love of his life. Through their peculiar courtship, the stern, unforgiving Rochester has also been harboring a dark secret from his young fiancé, one that precludes them from legally marrying each other. Distraught, Jane flees the area, finding solace with a young reverend (Jamie Bell) and his sisters, who get her a job as a schoolmistress. But the damning allure of the love Rochester promised her proves too much for her to bear.
First and foremost, Fukunaga, a former DP, has made a gorgeous film, capturing the essence of the bleak, harsh beauty of the north England Derbyshire countryside, and the ways in which Jane is at once of the place and completely alienated from it. He lights his scenes with a variety of flickering flames, from candles to roaring fireplaces, but the shadows lurk and creep in every frame. At night, as Jane tries to sleep, Rochester's castle moans and twists with sound, almost as if it were a ship, swaying on a perilous Atlantic crossing. As Jane, Wasikowska is equal parts fierce, vulnerable and intense, railing against the constraints of her gender without ever relinquishing her own self-regard; as such, she's a good pairing with Fassbender, who wrings out the bitter and cruel-minded qualities of Rochester, even as they are revealed to be a thinly-veiled deception for the anguished soul that lies beneath.
All this the film gets right, where it flutters is in its pace. As a two-hour film, screenwriter Moira Buffini strains to capture the essential plot points while giving the piece enough space to breathe properly. The film is far better when it shrugs off the heavy narrative and just plays ominous, with storm clouds closing in, mysterious screeches and the ever-present rustling of the wind pushing through a dark, misty wood. | <urn:uuid:0521f820-194f-4f49-bad4-0ab2ea94d8be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcsandiego.com/blogs/popcornbiz/Review-Jane-Eyre-117810954.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967347 | 582 | 1.570313 | 2 |
They've lost their homes, their businesses and many are still stranded, but residents in the battered Northeast are overcoming the aftereffects of Superstorm Sandy with a gritty resolve.
"It's sort of like the transit strike a few years ago," said Elizabeth Gorman, 40, a Queens resident, who walked across the Queensboro Bridge on Wednesday.
Gorman was part of a steady stream of commuters forced to walk or bike into Manhattan after Sandy roared ashore barely two days ago, wiping out roads, bridges and mass transit systems across the region.
Commuters, homeowners and businesses struggled with the loss of power and waterlogged or burned homes.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a "transportation emergency" Wednesday night, saying New York City subways, buses and commuter rails would be free of charge Thursday and Friday as a way to encourage people to use mass transit. Gridlock on Wednesday was "dangerous," he said.
But not all of the city's transit was operating. Fourteen of the city's 23 subway lines are opening Thursday, with buses helping to cover the unserved areas, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joe Lhota said.
But there will be no subway service to lower Manhattan, which is still dealing with flooding and power outages, he said. And bus service, which resumed Thursday, was stopped below 23rd Street because the area is still dark and too dangerous, Lhota said.
The three major New York-area airports will all be open Thursday, albeit with limited service, authorities said. John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty reopened Wednesday with limited service, and LaGuardia -- where floodwaters covered runways and taxiways -- will reopen Thursday.
Many people across the region are still in need of basic supplies. President Barack Obama visited a shelter Wednesday in the hard-hit town of Brigantine, New Jersey, where he said he met a woman with an 8-month-old who has run out of diapers and formula.
"Those are the kinds of basic supplies and help that we can provide," he said. | <urn:uuid:5c32a5bd-0ab3-408d-98a9-6130fc302255> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kitv.com/news/national/-A-loss-for-everybody-Sandy-clean-up-starts/-/8905418/17205346/-/cffenu/-/index.html?absolute=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961594 | 423 | 1.804688 | 2 |
David Goodman, a backcountry skiing enthusiast and author of a guide to backcountry ski trails, urged lawmakers not to create a penalty for requiring a rescue because it could damage the state's growing brand for such skiing. / Nancy Remsen/Free Press
MONTPELIER — State Police rescue units have participated in 15 backcountry searches for 50 lost skiers this winter, with 48 of the skiers getting lost after they ventured off the designated trails at the Killington and Pico ski resorts.
This epidemic of skiers in need of rescue prompted Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, to propose a deterrent — the possibility of a criminal charge and a fine of up to $500.
“This comes out of frustration,” Mullin told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee where his proposal was sent for review.
Committee members acknowledged the problem, but Chairman Richard Sears, D-Bennington, noted, “The real issue is how do we prevent people from doing stupid stuff?”
Backcountry skiing enthusiasts told the committee they worried about the effect on tourism if the state made it a crime to ski out of bounds and lose one’s way.
Twenty percent of skiing and snowboarding takes place outside the boundaries of ski areas, Adam Howard of Cambridge, editor of Backcountry Magazine, told the committee. “My chief concern is seeing anything that says ‘Vermont bans backcountry skiing.’”
“I certainly don’t want to interfere with the ski business,” Sears said. “It is a huge money engine for the state.”
Law enforcement officials said they worried the threat of a criminal charge and fine would discourage people from calling for help until it was dark and their situation had become dire — making rescue risky for those lost and those searching.
“We do want to encourage people, when they get in trouble, to call,” Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn told the committee.
“You feel a crime would discourage that?” Sears asked.
“Yes,” Flynn replied.
“You feel the bill is unnecessary?” Sears continued.
“We do,” Flynn said. He noted that law enforcement had teamed up with Killington to increase skier education and promote safety with public service announcements. There has only been one incident since the educational campaign began, he said.
Vermont already has a law that allows ski areas, rescue units, towns or the state to bring a civil action to recoup expenses connected with rescuing people who stray outside the boundaries and designated trails of ski areas, Erik Fitzpatrick, the committee’s legal counsel, reminded members.
No one could say if any civil actions had been pursued, but Parker Riehle, president of the Vermont Ski Areas Association, said several ski areas send bills to skiers who had to be rescued by ski patrollers — with mixed results.
Riehle said the skiers who get lost are a tough demographic to reach with a message of caution. They are 18-25-year-olds, single males from out of state, he said, noting “There hasn’t been a single Vermont skier lost this year at Killington.”
The ski association didn’t support Mullin’s idea of criminalizing off-trail skiing, Riehle said. “This is definitely not the answer,” but he added that ski areas members were open to other ideas to curb the risky behavior. Riehle offered an explanation for the concentration of rescues at the Killington/Pico ski areas. The topography there makes it easy for out-of-bounds skiers to end up miles from roads. By contrast, Riehle said, “Stratton has a lot of lost skiers every year, but they know where they go.” As a result, police are rarely called to help there.
David Goodman of Waterbury, author of “Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast,” cautioned lawmakers against enacting a remedy that would have serious consequences to the state’s brand as a destination for backcountry skiing.
He held up a Feb. 17 page in The New York Times travel section that had promoted backcountry skiing on trails carved out of the woods 80 years ago by the Civilian Conservation Corps in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
He reminded lawmakers that it wasn’t illegal to duck ropes or ski by boundary markers. He explained that many traditional backcountry trails are accessed from ski areas and he showed the committee videos of several of these trails on his computer.
“There isn’t an easy answer to this problem,” Goodman said, but he urged a “measured, sensible response.”
“Where do we want to go from here?” Sears asked his committee after they had listened to 90 minutes of testimony.
Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, suggested holding off on any action this session to see the impact of the public education effort.
Sears suggested the Legislature could ask law enforcement for a report next year — to keep the issue alive. “If people behave,” he said, “we won’t bring it up.”
No one on the committee seemed eager to pursue a remedy this year.
Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, closed the discussion by saying, “If we start criminalizing what we think is dumb, we will have an endless avalanche.” | <urn:uuid:9955b70e-186a-46c8-8e42-1a3cc7e09bb4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/viewart/20130226/NEWS03/302260011/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961853 | 1,163 | 1.765625 | 2 |
An award-winning Holstein cow named Rainbow visited West New York’s Public School No. 3 on Oct. 25 as part of the town’s ongoing efforts to encourage healthy eating in its public schools. Rainbow and her caretaker, dairy farmer Phyllis Semanchik from Great Meadows, N.J., spent time with fourth and fifth grade students. LaChell Miller, a dietician and nutritionist, talked about the benefits of a calcium rich diet.
Students, faculty, and staff listened to Semanchik talk about life on a dairy farm and explain the process by which Rainbow produces up to 12 gallons of milk per day, which is then pasteurized and sold throughout New Jersey. Students chuckled when Semanchik revealed that Rainbow, who weighs 1,700 pounds, produces about 80 pounds of waste each day.
“Does she have black skin with white spots, or white skin with black spots?” asked one student, to which Simanchick explained that under Rainbow’s black and white coat of fur, her skin was actually a golden brown color.
After the presentation, fifth grader Alex Zheng said, “I learned that it only takes five minutes to milk a cow, and that when they’re nervous they drool a lot.”
“We’re infusing nutrition and health into the curriculum, but doing it in a very natural way.” -Sal Valenza
“What we’ve been focusing on is what we call a ‘cultural wellness.’ We want to make sure that students know that they need to eat right, they need to take care of their bodies and minds, and that they need to make healthy choices outside of school as well,” said Valenza. “Nutrition education is a big part of this.”
Rainbow and Semanchik’s visit was only the latest program coordinated by Valenza and Gray that could be described as slightly outside the box. Since 2011, the pair has lured other visitors to speak with students about nutrition, including former Pres. Bill Clinton, TV chef Rachael Ray, and former New York Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer.
In conjunction with Nu Way Concessionaires, the Kearny-based food service company under contract with the school district, Gray has formulated balanced breakfast and lunch menus with items such as vegetable chili in a whole wheat bread bowl, triple berry French toast, and BBQ beef tips with vegetable fried rice. Fresh fruits, vegetables, and milk accompany nearly every meal students are served.
The menu, however, only makes up for half of the strategy, said Gray.
“It’s about more than just telling [students] that what they’re eating is healthy. When we add a new item to the menu we talk to them about it and tell them why it’s an important contribution to their diet,” she said.
Gray, known to the students as Chef Kim, spends time in classes in order to explain to students the different nutrients they gain from each item on the menu.
“She helps explain stuff about healthy food and how to make it,” said Alex.
Valenza, meanwhile, focuses on ways that the food services curriculum can tie into student’s standard classes. Nearly all of West New York’s public schools now have working gardens, where biology classes have conducted soil tests and butterfly observations. If the district secures a grant it has applied for, the paths around the gardens will be covered in geometric mats designed by math students learning about Fibonacci sequences.
“We’re infusing nutrition and health into the curriculum, but doing it in a very natural way,” Valenza said. “I think it’s important that [students] don’t see that there’s a divide between what they’re doing in their normal classes and what they’re doing with us. We want it to be a natural transition so that they see all of these things happening as one.”
Gray credits the program’s success to West New York’s school board, who she says fully support her sometimes unusual requests.
“I went down there and said ‘Hey, I want to bring a cow to one of the schools.’ They didn’t flinch. Other people might think I’m crazy, but they’re always cool with it,” she said.
Superintendent of Schools John Fauta was on hand for Rainbow’s arrival at the school, and said that West New York’s food services could serve as an example throughout New Jersey.
“Sal and Kim go above and beyond in what they do for this school district,” he said. “We’ve seen an increase in student’s test scores and a decrease in visits to the nurse. A nutritious diet is very important for a student.”
Valenza said he thought New Jersey school districts have greatly improved their food services in recent years.
“New Jersey has recently had a spike in their breakfast participation,” he said, “and has been working with the federal regulations to make sure the kids are getting more fresh fruits and vegetables through partnerships with the Department of Agriculture and various advocacy groups.”
West New York’s school district began adopting nutrition-based initiatives six years ago when it formed a partnership with the Alliance for Healthier Generations, ensuring that it could focus on nutrition, physical fitness, and food education simultaneously.
“I think that that’s where we are somewhat differentiated, we’ve had a bit of a head start,” he said.
Unsurprisingly, students enjoy Gray’s meals and understand the importance of her message as well.
“I like that there’s milk in school,” said Alex. “I drink it every day.”
Dean DeChiaro may be reached at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:78535135-20d0-4373-b5f8-1254ae110f0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hudsonreporter.com/pages/full_stories_ent/push?article-Moooving+toward+healthier+schools-Dairy+cow+visits+students+as+part+of+cultural+wellness+program-%20&id=20870288 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970305 | 1,266 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Details emerge for D.C. streetcars, set to begin in 2012
Sunday, October 24, 2010; 8:19 PM
After more than 14 years of planning, false starts and questions over the feasibility of embarking on a $1.5 billion plan to bring back streetcars to the District, the first trolleys will run in the spring of 2012, officials said last week.
The question now is how to pay for the system.
The District Department of Transportation released detailed plans for how the streetcar system's first two lines will be operated - and how the projects could be paid for. The H Street NE and Anacostia tracks are the first steps in what could become a 37-mile citywide network, one of the largest transportation projects ever undertaken in the District and one envisioned to aid cross-town commuters and provide jobs and development to once-blighted wards.
According to the revised streetcar plan, two miles of streetcars will run along H Street NE, from First Street NE to Benning Road NE and Oklahoma Avenue NE, connecting Union Station to the growing H Street corridor with seven stops.
Long-term plans call for streetcars to run over a reconstructed H Street Bridge. The smaller Anacostia line will run less than a mile, from the Navy Annex to Barry Farm and finally to the Anacostia Metrorail station.
Preliminary estimates put the streetcar lines' opening in late March or early April of 2012.
Streetcars ran on Washington streets for a century, until 1962, when Congress ordered them replaced by buses. Hundreds of electric streetcars were sold or junked, and most of the track was uprooted and scrapped, save for a small stretch of rail embedded in cobblestone along P and O streets NW in Georgetown.
Still, eager developers and city officials have long cited streetcars as a way to advance the renaissance of the city's urban center.
The two fully extended lines will cost about $194 million to build and about $8 million a year to operate, officials said. Fares will be set at $1, the same as the Circulator bus and cheaper than Metrobus. Those transferring to a streetcar with a SmarTrip card can ride for free; the vehicles are not expected to be equipped to collect cash fares.
Three streetcars, assembled in the Czech Republic, have been delivered and are being stored at Metro's Greenbelt rail yard.
Streetcar service will be scheduled to run seven days a week, every 10 to 15 minutes, from 6 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Fridays, 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Saturdays and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.
Opening Day ridership will probably be scarce; about 6,350 passengers on both lines a day in the first year are projected, with the Anacostia line having especially "low ridership potential." But by 2030, D.C. officials project ridership to nearly triple, to about 23,450 passengers per day. | <urn:uuid:0227bce0-fe6b-4bca-80a9-0b101f7a4e1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/24/AR2010102402637.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950397 | 640 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Some Christians are deeply concerned about the "verichip" being the mark of the beast we read about in the book of Revelation. Is it really the mark of the beast and should Christians not be implanted with it?
The way one answers this question depends a great deal on how one views the Revelation as a whole. I understand it to be a prophecy of the entire church age from the time of Christ's saving work to his return in glory, described in symbolic terms and with a great deal of recapitulation (or repetition) of themes and events. The major focus of Revelation is the church and her members, rather than the political and social worlds in which we live. Two helpful commentaries which are written from this point of view are Dennis Johnson's Triumph of the Lamb and William Hendricksen's More than Conquerors.
Accordingly, when I read Revelation 13 and 14, I believe the first and second beasts are false religious systems organized to deceive people into counterfeit versions of Christianity. When Revelation 13:16–17 are compared with 14:1, we see that Christians bear the "mark of the Lamb." The implication is that one cannot bear both the Lamb's and the beast's marks at the same time. In Revelation 14:9–11, bearing the beast's mark and worshiping the beast are joined together. Thus, people do not get the beast's mark by accident or unwittingly, but by choosing to worship the beast.
Therefore, I do not believe a Christian can accidentally get the mark of the beast through some sort of medical procedure or tattoo. Furthermore, I believe "the mark of the beast" is a symbolic term for those who have joined a religious system other than biblical Christianity. For these reasons, I do not believe the "verichip" (which I've read about a little on the internet since receiving your question) is the mark of the beast or that Christians should avoid being implanted with it on that account. There may be very good reasons why a Christian would choose not to be implanted with one of these, and those reasons may well be informed by his Christian and biblical view of the world and the human body. However, concerns stemming from Revelation 13–14 should not be among those reasons.
"Questions and Answers" is a weekly feature of the OPC website. At least one new question is posted each week, so there should always be something new here for you to read. (For those who would like to look at previous questions and answers, they will continue to be available as well.)
The questions come from individuals like yourself. If you have questions about biblical and theological matters, you are invited to send them by e-mail by using the "Pose a Question" link on the OPC home page or by clicking here.
The purpose of the OPC website's "Questions and Answers" is to respond to biblical and theological questions. Matters of church discipline, disputes, or debates go beyond the scope of our work. We recommend that you present your concerns in these areas to the appropriate judicatory. In most cases this will be to a local pastor, elder, or session. We do not want the website to replace personal involvement in, or commitment to, the local, visible church.
While we will respond to every serious questioner, we are not bound to give a substantive answer to every question, should we deem the question to be beyond the scope of our purpose or our own ability to answer.
You will receive an answer by email. Please be patient as many of our respondents are busy pastors. The response to your question may take up to two weeks. Some of the questions submitted will be chosen to be posted here, along with the corresponding answers.
The answers come from individual ministers in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church expressing their own convictions and do not necessarily represent an "official" position of the Church, especially in areas where the Standards of the Church (the Scriptures and the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms) are silent.
Note that the "Questions and Answers" posted on the site have been editedall personal references are removed, Scripture references may be added, and sometimes portions are expandedto make the questions and answers more useful to a larger audience. | <urn:uuid:f41321c6-e43c-4c16-b771-a4c0e83e4d1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opc.org/qa.html?question_id=521&pfriendly=Y&ret=L3FhLmh0bWw%2FcXVlc3Rpb25faWQ9NTIx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958111 | 858 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Patriarch Kirill, who has made no secret of his strong support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, received a state welcome from Poland's Guard of Honor on arriving in Warsaw at the invitation of the country's Catholic leaders. Noting that it was the first visit by the head of Russia's church to the largely Catholic country, he vowed that religion should help both nations overcome difficult issues between them.
Poles and Russians have a long and often painful history and tensions still frequently flare up. Before heading for prayers at Warsaw's Orthodox Cathedral, Kirill said he believes his visit will offer both churches a chance to "give thought to our past, present day and future."
The Orthodox leader and the head of Poland's Roman Catholic Church are to sign a joint message Friday asking both nations for mutual forgiveness, but the expected verdict in the Pussy Riot case was likely to draw some attention from the event. Some 800 people had joined a Facebook page promoting a rally in Warsaw in support of the members of the band.
The patriarch's reputation at home has been tarnished by several scandals,
The women maintain they were making a political statement about the cozy relationship between Putin and the Orthodox church. Opponents say Kirill has sold out to the Russian leader, even praising his two presidential terms as "God's miracle." He has described the punk performance as "devilish mockery" and part of a broader assault by "enemy forces" on the church, and ignored calls for mercy.
During the four-day visit, Kirill is to meet with Poland's church leaders and lawmakers and visit sites sacred to the nation's 600,000 Orthodox Church followers. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the visit is a "very important step on the path to reconciliation."
Elderly Poles still talk bitterly about Moscow's "stab in the back," the attack from the East by the Soviet Red Army on Sept. 17, 1939, which further carved up the country just over two weeks after the German troops invaded Poland from the West, starting World War II.
They point to the murders of over 20,000 of their officers by Soviet secret police in 1940 in the Katyn forest and other sites and more than four decades of communist rule after the war. More recently, conspiracy theories continue to smolder more than two years after Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others were killed in a plane crash in Russia, feelings fueled by a sense that the Russians were not fully cooperative in investigating the crash.
Relations between the Orthodox church and Poland's Catholic church have also been tense.
The Orthodox Church prevented Polish-born Pope John Paul II from making a hoped-for trip to Russia. Among issues causing tensions in recent years are Orthodox accusations that the Vatican has sought converts in traditionally Orthodox areas, particularly in eastern Europe. Rome has denied those charges. | <urn:uuid:157aee54-e11d-4145-8903-1ef88eb968c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.times-standard.com/ci_21326308/russias-orthodox-head-pays-1st-visit-poland | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979571 | 573 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Wall Street Journal
In spending, debt and progressivity of taxes, the U.S. is as much a social-welfare state as Spain
By ARTHUR C. BROOKS
I'm often asked if I think America is trending toward becoming a European-style social democracy. My answer is: "No, because we already are a European-style social democracy." From the progressivity of our tax code, to the percentage of GDP devoted to government, to the extent of the regulatory burden on business, most of Europe's got nothing on us.
In 1938—the year my organization, the American Enterprise Institute, was founded—total government spending at all levels was about 15% of GDP. By 2010 it was 36%. The political right can crow all it wants about how America is a "conservative country," unlike, say, Spain—a country governed by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party for most of the past 30 years. But at 36%, U.S. government spending relative to GDP is very close to Spain's. And our debt-to-GDP ratio is 103%; Spain's is 68%.
At first blush, these facts seem astounding. After all, Spanish political attitudes differ dramatically from our own. How can we be slouching down the same debt-potholed, social-democratic road as Spain? There are three explanations, all of which point to a worrying future for America.
First, the American left is every bit as focused on growing government and equalizing incomes as the Spanish left. Despite arguments from liberals that tax increases on "millionaires and billionaires" are necessary for fiscal prudence, they are little more than a way to meet the single-minded objective of greater income equality.
President Obama's proposal to eliminate the Bush-era tax cuts for households making over $250,000 a year would, on a static basis, reduce the deficit by only 5% annually. That still leaves 95% of the deficit to be paid by the middle class.
Similarly, the so-called Buffett Rule, which would apply a minimum income tax rate of 30% on individuals making more than $1 million a year, is supposed to help bring our budget into line but would raise annually about $4 billion—about as much as Americans spend on Halloween and Easter candy.
The second force leading us down the social-democratic road is cronyism. America possesses a full-time bipartisan political apparatus dedicated to government growth and special deals for favored individuals and sectors. For example, the farm bill that just passed the Senate contains around $100 billion in subsidies, mostly for large, corporate farms that do nothing to improve nutrition or food security. Or witness the recently reauthorized Export-Import Bank, which doles out about $20 billion annually in corporate welfare.
Third, and most importantly, while a majority of Americans are neither leftists nor corporate cronies, they aren't paying much attention to the political system. We often hear that more than 85% of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing. But, according to the 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, only 25% of American adults can correctly name both of their U.S. senators, and 51% can name neither. If I don't know who my senator is, I am unlikely to know much about his bridge to nowhere.
In a way, separation from politics is a charming part of the American DNA. There is a story (probably apocryphal) that when Thomas Jefferson was asked to describe a typical American, he thought for a moment and said, "A man who moves west the first day he hears the sound of his neighbor's ax."
We're not literally moving west any more, but in the Tocquevillian tradition our lives are directed less by Washington politics and more by everyday jobs, church socials and soccer practices. As the leader of a think tank dedicated to public policy, I would love it if Americans were as obsessed with policy as I am. But let's be realistic: Most people don't have the time or inclination to contemplate the potential damage each government-spending predation—each tiny political sellout of our values—could cause.
Still, according to a recent Gallup survey, 81% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the nation is being governed. Since Gallup started asking that question in the early 1970s, dissatisfaction has never been higher.
And Rasmussen polls find that consistently two-thirds to three-quarters of Americans say our country is on the "wrong track." They may not know exactly why, but most Americans believe their government is changing our nation for the worse.
What is the answer? We caught a glimpse of it in 2010, when a movement of ethical populism—the tea party—mobilized millions of Americans to read the United States Constitution and demand politics that reflect the majority's values. And while woefully misguided in its diagnoses and policy solutions, the Occupy Wall Street movement was at least right to protest the malignant cronyism in our economy. That energy must re-emerge in 2012 and become a permanent part of our political landscape.
In 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked what sort of government our new nation would have. His famous answer was, "A Republic, if you can keep it." When he said this he was envisioning a monarchist alternative, not today's noxious brew of leftism, cronyism and general inattention to public policy. But Franklin's maxim is still valid today.
Mr. Brooks is president of the American Enterprise Institute and the author of "The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise" (Basic Books, 2012).
A version of this article appeared July 9, 2012, on page A15 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: America Already Is Europe. | <urn:uuid:50928b68-3bee-4a0d-98fe-1d8dc70af7cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gop.gov/press-release/12/07/09/wsj-op-ed-america-already | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96387 | 1,191 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Jacob Zuma, South Africa's current President, is going to honor Nelson Mandela with a statue.
We previously mentioned that Mandela is currently in the hospital with a pneumonia like lung infection.
These type of infections are never minor, especially in the elderly, but people do often overcome them.
"We will be able to yet again pay tribute to a man who became a symbol of both our struggle for freedom and the free and democratic South Africa. As we meet, [Mandela] is recuperating from a lung infection at a Pretoria hospital. We wish him a speedy recovery and assure him yet again of the love and support of many in the country and abroad."
We also wish him nothing but health and a quick recovery!
You gotta stay around to see your statue!!
Feel better, Nelson!!
[Image via Danny Clifford/Hottwire.net/WENN.] | <urn:uuid:389b0d01-375f-4571-acdb-1e37fdbf498c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://perezhilton.com/fitperez/2012-12-13-nelson-mandela-is-to-be-honored-with-a-statue-but-still-in-hospital-sick?comments | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954672 | 182 | 1.5 | 2 |
The “Occupy Wall Street” protestors have put their platform online with an apparent list of demands. One of those demands — an immediate ban on all private campaign contributions to political candidates — shows a woeful ignorance and virtual contempt for basic rights protected by the Bill of Rights.
They also call for:
The immediate reversal, even if it requires a Constitutional Amendment, of the outrageous and anti-democratic holding in the “Citizens United” case by the Supreme Court, which equates the payment of money by corporations, wealthy individuals, and unions to politicians with free speech. We, the People, demand that institutional bribery and corruption not be deemed protected speech.
Subject to the above ban on all private money and gifts in politics, to enact additional campaign finance reform requiring free air time and public campaign finances to all candidates who obtain sufficient petition signatures and/or votes to participate in the primaries and/or electoral process, to shorten the campaign season and to allow voting on weekends and holidays.
The OWS protestors don’t seem to understand (or don’t care) that the First Amendment provides that Congress shall make no law “abridging the freedom of speech” or “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” That includes the ability to not only speak out on political issues and the merits of candidates for public office, but to spend money on persuading others about the merits of those candidates or helping them get elected through campaign contributions.
Americans have the right to associate with others who share their beliefs. Freedom of speech is not limited to just individuals, but also to the many other forms in which American associate, from unions to corporations to organizations such as the NAACP, the Sierra Club, or the National Rifle Association.
These demands are more than just pernicious proposals by protestors who want to destroy the economic and personal freedom that has helped make us a great nation. They are unconstitutional attempts to limit the ability of Americans to associate with others or to petition and otherwise lobby the government on many important public policy issues. The OWS protesters are themselves benefiting from the right to associate and speak that they now seek to deny to others. | <urn:uuid:7b18d991-6abf-40f8-9da1-e2361df6f1c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-occupy-wall-streeters-destroying-the-first-amendment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953019 | 455 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Mwanza — A RECENT decision by the Tanzania Cotton Board to reject the idea to abandon contract farming in the cotton growing areas is seen as a positive move to further improve cotton production in the Lake Zone areas.
In a recent meeting, that was attended by representatives' from cotton growing areas, local authorities and regional and District commissioners, the TCB chairperson Dr Festus Limbu said the the idea to abandon the contract farming was unrealistic and counter-productive. "There are only a few group of people who are championing such an agenda, but in reality many farmers, government and other key players, find contract farming useful," he said.
The idea to abandon such kind of farming was in recent weeks presented by some representatives from the Tanzania Cotton Association (TCA) and Tanzania cotton growers Association (TACOGA) was rickety. Dr Limbu stressed that it is not true that the cotton growers are against the contract farming; instead it is only few people who are intending such kind of improbable idea.
"The government and cotton growers themselves have established contract farming very constructive and it cannot be abandoned at the moment," says the TCB chairperson. Detractors claimed that contract farming was experiencing hurdles that they described as insurmountable. This notion, however, was overtly dismissed by Dr Limbu, who clearly stated that the contract farming is simply facing challenges that the government in collaboration with other partners have already started to address.
The TCB Managing Director Marco Mutunga also expressed concern, saying some of the private companies that had entered into a contract with cotton farmers to supply seeds and other agricultural implements had contributed to some of the grievances experienced by the farmer because sometimes such companies did not honour their promises to the farmer with the result that lead to confusion, anxiety, dissatisfaction to the affected population.
Mr Mutunga clarified why contract farming during workshop that contract farming yield increases through input support and extension services and improved cotton quality where also increased transparency at buying posts. He says that through contract farming mostly contracting farming empowering growers to manage their own affairs and enable service delivery simplified as growers get organized and increased level of mechanization.
Most participants, including the RCs and DCs reiterated the need for additional reinforcement of the contract farming, and also come out with practical solutions to addressing prevailing hurdles. Mwanza Regional Commissioner, Engineer Evarist Ndikilo expressed the need for all cotton stakeholders to play a decisive role to support contract farming and also guarantee the cotton farmers are benefiting from contract farming and not otherwise.
Simiyu Regional commissioner Pascal Mabiti says the contract farming has benefited many cotton growers in Simiyu Region. He was therefore surprised to hear that some people thought of abandoning it. Such an idea was unrealistic and would not at all benefit the farmers. Paschal Mabiti, from whose region 60 per cent of the country's cotton is produced, said that cotton stakeholders want a more progressive sector.
"We, however, argued that it was also prudent to send more funds to local research institutions so that farmers can get more improved seed varieties. "We want the sector to grow. And we also want trials of the Red American type of cotton so that even the southern parts of the country can start growing cotton. We also expect that there should be connection between researchers and farmers," he noted.
Mr Mabiti gave an example of new initiatives which were initially opposed, but have now increased production in the sector. He gave the example of how contract farming has boosted cotton production in the region from 99,770 tonnes last year to 116,000 tonnes this year.
However, he added that a 'scientific touch' would increase the fortunes. He said the average production per acre has increased from 250kg per acre to 450 kg per acre, though there are farmers, who have surpassed a 1000kg per acre. The DC appealed the cotton Board to select few of representatives who will prepare the best system of cotton seed and farm implements distribution in the flow of Tanzania cotton Development fund (CDTF) down to the grassroots level.
Members of the cotton consultative workshop passed some resolutions aimed at improving the cotton sub sector. They put more emphasis on the need to further boost cotton production in respective areas. They say the cotton buying should be in the system of buying cotton via cooperative societies only. " It is also important for all of us to learn from a good approach that is being used in Igunga district as it has been useful to both parties, and there are very few complaints there." | <urn:uuid:fd540f6a-249b-4293-9d2b-e133b13db685> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/201211160252.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97567 | 916 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Evangelism is not only misunderstood, it is often unpracticed. Many Christians want to share the gospel with others, but because those Christians don't grasp the fundamentals of witnessing, they feel intimidated and incapable of sharing the truth of the gospel.
Yet those believers fail to recognize that God has already established who and how we are to evangelize. In The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Dr. Mark Dever seeks to answer the four basic questions about evangelism that many Christians ask: Who should we evangelize? How should we evangelize? What is evangelism? Why should we evangelize? In his answers Dever draws on New Testament truths and helps believers apply those truths in practical ways. As readers understand the fundamentals of evangelism, they will begin to develop a culture of evangelism in their lives and their local churches. | <urn:uuid:12206b9a-d138-483d-bb63-74b7a94637bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timelesschristianbooks.com/thegospelandpersonalevangelism.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949383 | 169 | 1.75 | 2 |
Nerving himself to the ordeal, and pulling down his hat to obscure his features, Jack crossed the lawn and started mounting the wide flight of stone steps flanked by crouching stone lions. He reached the marble tiles of the walk above and then, despite his anxiety to gain the left wing and the tower where his father was confined, he involuntarily paused.
The scene before him was one of the strangest to be found on the North American continent—this marble courtyard, with its overhanging balcony around the sides and rear and its splashing fountain and pool in the center, the whole illuminated by the soft glow of electric lights cunningly concealed along the edges of the balcony like footlights on the lip of a stage.
But it was not this alone which held Jack’s gaze riveted and caused a smothered cry of surprise to burst from his lips. Involuntarily he stepped from the shelter of a pillar behind which he had been standing.
For approaching along the balcony of the left wing, Jack saw the loved figure of his father engrossed in conversation with a small, dark man of patrician bearing.
It was instinct rather than conscious thought which checked the cry on his lips. Instinct told him a shout would mean betrayal, and the shattering of his desperate plan.
Yet careless of who might see, he stood there looking up at the distant figure until it was lost to view, cut off by the outjutting roof above him. That one sight, however, lifted a vast load from the boy’s mind. His father, at least, was not mistreated. Evidently the man with him was the Don. And as evidently his father was treated more as guest than prisoner.
At sound of a footstep on the marble tiles behind him, Jack returned with a start to a realization of his surroundings and the perils of his position. Assuming a carelessness which he was far from feeling, he refrained from turning about but instead started walking for that left wing ahead in the tower of which he knew his father to be lodged.
But the step behind him was accelerated, and he was hailed by name as Morales. Jack halted. Here was the first ordeal to be passed. Well, he was prepared for it. According to his plan, he had bound his face in a handkerchief and intended to pretend having the toothache. The swathings partly hid his features, and the pulled-down hat further obscured them.
“I’m busy. Don’t delay me,” he growled in Spanish, imitating Morales’ voice.
The newcomer approached. It was Muller.
THE NIGHT ATTACK
When Jack’s figure had become merged in the shadows of the grove, big Bob, standing beside the airplane, reached a decision.
“Not a soul in sight here,” he muttered to himself, once more letting his gaze rove over his surroundings. “Jack thought it would be best for me to stay here, but nobody’s going to monkey with the plane. I’m going to follow him—till he reaches the house, anyhow. He may need my help.” | <urn:uuid:6c8a5fd8-62cc-4a1a-a57a-da2ec87ccb75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/14278/71.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98913 | 661 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Americans make natural conservatives, which is why Romney's doing better than the British think he should
Barack Obama has got his post-convention poll bounce, giving him a fresh 4 point lead. But I still think Romney can win in November. Whenever I tell that to a British audience, they react with horror and surprise. Often all they get to see of American politics is the televised highlights of Obama’s best speeches, accompanied by footage of a Republican demanding the return of witch burning. In the British imagination, the 2012 fight is between a charismatic centrist and a wackadoodle Right-winger with more money than sense. Given how plain the choice is, Obama simply has to win.
And yet, Obama still has a fight on his hands. Part of the reason is the grim economic news that doesn't always make it across the Atlantic. Unemployment is high, incomes are stagnating and many live in fear of house foreclosure. But Obama faces a bigger existential problem. The USA does not have Britain’s social democratic consensus: 41 percent call themselves conservative, 36 percent moderate and only 21 percent liberal (and liberal shouldn’t be confused with socialist). The Republican Party enjoys a natural advantage in US politics, which is why the Democrats only won the White House twice from 1980 until 2008 .
Character is fate, and these are some of the things that make Americans more conservative than the British.
1. America is huge. It’s often claimed that the entire population of the world could fit in Texas, with enough room to fit a swimming pool in every backyard. If Americans seem more insular than Europeans, it’s because they inhabit such a beautiful and diverse continent: sunshine in Florida, ski in Colorado, fall in New England. Having so much space means they don’t share the British obsession with conservation of the natural habitat. Nor do they accept the notion of limits. Austerity is an alien idea in a land where natural wealth seems limitless and every man has a birthright to exploit it. Jimmy Carter style pessimism is a no-no.
2. Americans believe in God. According to Gallup, 92 percent of Americans trust in the Almighty and roughly 43 percent regularly attend a place of worship. On the origins of the species, 46 percent believe God created Adam and Eve and 32 percent think we evolved with God’s guidance. The influence of religion probably accounts for conservative attitudes towards abortion and homosexuality. Although the sincerity of Obama's personal faith can't be doubted, his social liberalism and the Democratic Party's obsessive secularism have coloured public perceptions. Incredibly, only 34 percent of the country identify the President as a Christian.
3. Americans like money. In the UK it’s considered gauche to want stuff. When we look at Mitt Romney on his jet ski we think, “How vulgar,” or “He should donate his jet ski to the poor.” When an American sees Romney having fun on the lake, they think, “Man, I’d love a jet ski.” For evidence, consider our very different attitudes towards inheritence/estate taxes. In the UK we regard them as a just way of redistributing money. In the US, a clear majority see them as legal theft. Even though few Americans make enough money to end up paying the estate tax, many hope that someday they will. Not only do Americans lack our jealously of other people’s jet skis, but they live in optimism that they will eventually own their own pair. It’s called the American Dream, and it's why the Left's message on taxes has never been wildly popular.
4. Americans dislike all monopolies of power and love to break them up. Like the British, Americans resent the growing influence of private sector interests like lobbyists, corporations and banks. But they distrust federal government and trades-unions almost as much. They loathe impersonal forces that undermine the freedom of the individual, even when those forces could be regarded as benign. One reason why there has been public opposition to Obamacare (a far less radical proposition than the NHS) is that it compels people to buy health insurance. Frankly, all Americans should own health insurance – and they know it. But try to force them to purchase it against their will and you’ve got another Tea Party on your hands.
5. Americans are suspicious of big government. Americans love Social Security and programmes that provide direct material benefits. But they doubt the abilities of the federal government to deliver services better than the beloved private sector. That stems from both a historical cult of self-reliance and a pattern of failure on the part of the state. In the UK, teachers are lionised and state schools treated as hallowed ground; private school attendance is usually associated with snobbery. In the US, state schools are so bad that only 29 percent of Americans approve of their performance. An estimated 1.5 million kids are home schooled, a classic example of the American DIY attitude towards social welfare. Ergo, any administration policy that promises to expand the state will face resistance.
The result of all this is that Americans and the British see Obama v Romney in very different ways. In terms of substance, Barack Obama’s presidency has been conventional. But his invocation of class war and his relentless cultural liberalism – both perfectly common in UK politics – make him a radical and polarising figure in Middle America. By contrast, Mitt Romney might seem too rich or too religious to an outsider, but for many Americans his success and faith legitimise him as a presidential candidate. Romney’s true weaknesses are the church he belongs to (which many probably harbour a prejudice towards) and his total absence of the common touch. Mitt Romney looks like he goes to bed in a jacket and tie.
For British journalists patiently making the case that Romney can win, writing about the election is more than just an exercise in psephology. It’s an opportunity to study and illustrate the profound differences between American British cultures. There is always a temptation to project – to presume that the Americans are basically like us and so will vote like us. But the differences are far bigger than the similarities. Some Brits look at those differences, including religiosity and self-reliance, and they recoil in horror. Others find them beguiling and even refreshing. After all, they are the qualities that turned a rebellious colony into the most powerful nation on Earth.
Kermit Gosnell found guilty in abortion trial: a victory for human rights that will shame many
May 13th, 2013 21:19
I'm off for three weeks. I shall leave you all in the capable hands of Mr Nigel Farage
May 5th, 2013 12:00
Ed Miliband needs to fear Ukip, too: Right-wing populism is in the ascendant
May 3rd, 2013 14:00
Ukip is a very British revolution
May 3rd, 2013 9:54
After Gosnell, the mainstream media is finally talking about the realities of late-term abortion
May 2nd, 2013 14:21 | <urn:uuid:46757271-b90f-445c-a7f9-e67be38b0c7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100179986/americans-make-natural-conservatives-which-is-why-romneys-doing-better-than-the-british-think-he-should/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959759 | 1,459 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Newbie Assistance..Foreign Exchange Investing is the business of getting and advertising currencies. Dollars is purchased so that it can be marketed again later on with revenue. Trading will come in pairs so, you can opt for to use your US Bucks to invest in Euros now and later promote these Euros when the costs are favorable for gain.For instance, if you purchase 1 Euro or EUR at USD one.5 now and the value of the EUR raises to USD one.six after a thirty day period, then you can choose to market the one EUR you acquired earlier at USD one.five for a USD .one gain.That example in alone would not search way too encouraging, but as soon as you carry out the very same transaction working with a greater total like USD one,500, the ensuing earnings is USD a hundred. Raise the expense to USD fifteen,000 and you get a profit of USD 1,000.In the olden days of fx, only the central financial institution, massive corporations, fiscal establishments, and authorities had the opportunities to commit. These days any person who has computer system at home that can hook up to the World wide web can invest in currency trading.As lengthy as that person has a crystal clear understanding of the fundamentals of doing the enterprise, he really should properly be on his way to reaching larger heights in his foreign exchange buying and selling occupation.There are so numerous who have shifted their awareness to currency trading and even though some have succeeded, a lot have failed. It have to be since of the notion that international trade is a gamble and a speedy way to generate cash. Reality is, it could be the least difficult way to shed your income due to the fact it is not a recreation of possibility but a game of intellect and diligence.
MY RECIPE BOX
Member hasn't created any cookbooks yet. | <urn:uuid:bf7e68d0-e70e-4fec-924d-6479c7af282d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bakespace.com/members/profile/XanthaFuentes1982/625386/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957589 | 372 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Dark Money 501c Groups
As we have repeatedly documented, corporations are using tax-exempt “social welfare” groups – known under the tax code as 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) organizations – as conduits to secretly influence our political system without any accountability.
Under current law, engaging in political activity cannot be the primary purpose of these groups, which is generally assumed to involve spending less than 50 percent of their budgets.
These organizations should still be permitted to engage in lobbying, education, and grassroots activity, but it’s high time to draw a clear line between political and policy-related activities. If organizations or their funders want to participate in political activity, they should do so out in the open through bona fide political entities that are required to disclose their donors and expenditures. | <urn:uuid:d0a06fac-7596-4308-9d64-588725c50f11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/pages/dark-money-501c-groups | 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 | 0.959188 | 167 | 1.804688 | 2 |
C P U C
Published by the California Public Utilities Commission
The purpose of this newsletter is to provide local residents and businesses with information on construction of the Carson to Norwalk Pipeline Project. In addition, information on the California Public Utilities Commissions (CPUC) environmental review and approval process for the project is provided. On October, 8, 1998, the CPUC as State Lead Agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) approved the application of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (formerly called Santa Fe Pacific Pipeline Partners, L.P.) for the construction of the Carson to Norwalk Project after completing and certifying the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for this project. The approval was based on a requirement that Kinder Morgans pipeline operating company, SFPP, L.P. (SFPP), comply with a significant number of impact reduction measures as conditions of project approval.
The project consists of the construction and operation of a 14-mile petroleum products pipeline from Carson to Norwalk (see map on insert) and modification of station facilities in Carson, Norwalk, City of Industry, and Colton.CPUC ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW AND PROJECT APPROVAL
The CPUCs project review process required the preparation and certification of an EIR in compliance with CEQA. The EIR assessed the environmental impacts associated with the construction of the Carson to Norwalk Pipeline Project and recommended specific ways to avoid or minimize these impacts. These are called "mitigation measures." CEQA defines a comprehensive EIR process which requires significant involvement from the public and responsible agencies. The CPUC adhered to the CEQA requirements for preparation of the project EIR and also complied with more stringent requirements under its own Rules of Practice and Procedures.
The CPUC prepared a comprehensive EIR that analyzed six alternative route segments, after a detailed screening process of numerous alternatives proposed by the public and local jurisdictions. In accordance with CEQA, the "No Project Alternative" was also analyzed. The EIR included extensive review of 12 environmental issue areas, including review of the project design to ensure compliance with Federal and State safety standards and regulations.
The EIR identifies 96 measures adopted by the CPUC as conditions of project approval, in addition to the 90 measures proposed by SFPP to reduce environmental impacts and improve pipeline safety. These measures must be implemented by SFPP and will be monitored by the CPUC prior to and during construction of the pipeline and station modifications.
The CPUCs environmental review also included a comprehensive public involvement program that allowed members of the public and local agencies to provide input on the EIR. Several public meetings were held, notices were placed in local newspapers, and information was mailed to residents along the proposed and alternative pipeline routes.WHAT IS THE REQUIRED MITIGATION MONITORING PROGRAM? The CPUC selected Aspen Environmental Group (Aspen) to prepare the EIR and implement the Mitigation Monitoring, Compliance, and Reporting Program (MMCRP) for construction of the pipeline. The purpose of the monitoring program is to ensure that SFPP complies with the mitigation measures that were adopted by the CPUC as part of project approval. Aspen will work closely with all responsible and cooperating agencies during construction of the pipeline and station modifications. Aspen developed the MMCRP Implementation Plan that lists all of the EIR mitigation measures, Applicant-proposed measures, responsible and cooperating agencies, and detailed monitoring criteria to be used by Aspens field monitors. The Implementation Plan also includes a list of permits issued by local jurisdictions. The Implementation Plan can be reviewed on our MMCRP Web Site, at the CPUC Public Advisors Office in Los Angeles, or at the libraries listed on the last page of this newsletter.
One component of the Implementation Plan requires that a CPUC monitor be present during all construction activities to ensure that SFPP fully complies with all mitigation measures. The construction activities are illustrated on the insert page of this newsletter. Examples of the mitigation requirements that the CPUC will be monitoring are:
- P Traffic control measures that minimize disruption and prevent blocked access to any residence or business
- P Local noise ordinances which limit hours of construction
- P Pipeline safety features (e.g., valve installation) in accordance with Federal and State requirements.
In order for the CPUC to allow construction of the SFPP Carson to Norwalk Pipeline to start, SFPP was required to prepare several planning documents and technical studies. These documents were submitted to the CPUC and other agencies for review and approval. Following are some of the major plans completed prior to the start of construction:
In addition, before the start of construction SFPP must notify all residents and business owners along the pipeline route of construction dates in their areas. Finally, SFPP must secure local agency approvals (e.g., franchise permits) before the start of construction within each jurisdiction. Local agencies also review and approve detailed traffic control plans that define how traffic will flow around street construction.
Construction of the pipeline started on November 16, 1998 in the City of Long Beach on DeForest Avenue and South Street. Construction in Long Beach (a total of about 4 miles) will continue through January. In mid-January, a second construction spread will start work in Los Angeles County (Rancho Dominguez area), and in late January, when Long Beach construction is finished, construction will start in the City of Bellflower. The project Web Site will include schedule information updated each week. Construction of the entire 14-mile pipeline is expected to be completed by July 1, 1999.
Included in this newsletter is an insert page illustrating the major construction activities that happen during pipeline construction. All of these construction activities are monitored continuously by the CPUC environmental monitor.
PSurveying and Marking: The location of other buried utilities is marked on the pavement.
PPotholing: Small holes are made in the roadway to identify locations of other buried utilities.
PPavement Breaking: The road above the trench is broken and paving material taken to disposal sites.
PTrenching: A trench is excavated using a backhoe. Soil from the trench is loaded into dump trucks and taken to disposal sites.
PPlating: The open trench is covered by steel plates when active construction is not underway.
PPipe Stringing: Coated pipe is delivered to the ROW on trucks and is positioned next to the trench.
PPipe Bending: The pipe is bent to fit the turns and elevation variations of the trench bottom.
PWelding: The lengths of pipe are then welded together.
PX-Ray Inspection: Every weld on the pipe is then x-rayed. If a flaw in a weld is visible on the x-ray, the weld is inspected and necessary repairs are made.
PWeld Coating and Testing: The pipe welds are then buffed clean and a heat-installed shrink sleeve is applied. The entire pipe coating is then tested to detect any punctures in the coating and sleeve. Any nicks or punctures are repaired.
PLowering In: Slurry or rock-free soil is placed in the bottom of the trench to act as padding for the pipe. A length of welded pipe is put in slings attached to sidebooms and then lowered into the trench.
P Tie-in Welding: Welders then weld the lengths of pipe together in an excavated work area in the trench. These welds are also x-rayed.
PBackfilling: Once the pipe in the trench has been padded with rock-free soil, the trench is filled with a sand and one-sack slurry.
PTemporary and Permanent Repaving: The roadway is repaved according to the requirements of the local jurisdiction.
Traffic Control: During pipeline construction, SFPP will use flaggers, signs, and barricades for traffic control. The goal of traffic control is to reduce accidents, to minimize the potential for injury to construction workers and the public, and to expedite the flow of motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians through a work zone. Prior to the start of construction, SFPP must prepare a detailed Traffic Control Plan for the review and approval of each local jurisdiction. City and County inspectors, as well as the CPUCs Environmental Monitors, make sure that SFPP is using appropriate traffic control methods.
The CPUC's Implementation Plan requires daily, weekly, and monthly reports to document daily construction activities and SFPP's compliance with the required mitigation measures. These reports are filed with the CPUC and other interested agencies, and are available on the Internet Web Site.
SFPP Project Hotline
(800) 682-3483The toll-free number above is answered by a SFPP representative, as required by the CPUCs mitigation measures. This number can be used during construction hours for questions or complaints regarding the construction of the pipeline. All public complaints are reported to the CPUC.
LIBRARIES WITH PROJECT INFORMATIONLibraries located near construction locations have been established as information centers where you can review project-related documents such as the 1998 EIR, the CPUCs project approval and EIR certification decision, and the MMCRP Implementation Plan. These libraries also have access to the Internet, where the public can use computers to access the Web Site that shows construction progress. The addresses of libraries along the pipeline route are listed below. Libraries in the immediate vicinity of the pipeline route are identified by number on the project route map (on insert page). Project information can also be accessed at the CPUCs Public Advisors Office in Los Angeles, telephone number: (213) 897-3544. | <urn:uuid:dc2dedbe-a21e-40d3-b510-b9733594f332> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/Environment/info/aspen/santafe/SFPP-MMCRP/newsletter/newsltr4.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932785 | 1,993 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Susan Adams, Forbes Staff
I cover careers, jobs and every aspect of leadership.
If you are looking for a job, or think that there is the remotest possibility that you may someday want to change jobs, you must read my colleague George Anders’ just-published Forbes cover story about LinkedIn. George spells out how the eight-year-old professional networking site is rapidly eclipsing other tools used by recruiters and company hiring managers.
George’s focus is explaining how LinkedIn has become enormously profitable over the last few years, by selling its premium product to human resources clients. For job seekers and anyone interested in building a career, the message is clear: Increasingly, people who are making decisions about whom to hire are using LinkedIn as their preferred tool.
George spells out how this works, especially for professionals who are one step up from low-paying, low-skill jobs like cashiers and truck drivers, and one step down from the CEO level, which still involves face-to-face meetings and personal, rather than digital networking. That means the vast array of jobs that pay between $50,000 and $250,000 a year.
Search firms are expensive, charging as much as $20,000 per job filled. Online ads don’t produce results either, because qualified people who are already employed don’t look at ads; they need to be approached and persuaded.
With LinkedIn, explains George, hiring managers can target a search for specific qualifications and experience. The company’s $8,200 per year Recruiter product gives users the capacity to tailor searches of all the site’s 161 million members, and find just the candidates they are seeking. George offers the example of Adobe Systems, where a hiring manager using the Recruiter tool searches for potential hires who hold a particular job, have a certain number of years of experience, and are located in specific geographic areas. The search also reveals whether those candidates know people at Adobe already, which can help start a conversation.
Another example in George’s piece: a Bloomfield Hills, Mich., mobile phone retailer, Wireless Vision, was looking for an accounting manager who could be entrepreneurial. The hiring manager honed her search to find accountants who had worked at similar companies and whose profiles included words like “launched,” “created,” and “built.” Wireless Vision found a great candidate in Virginia who had put together billing systems for Avis on his own.
George’s story underlines what I’ve said numerous times: Fill out your full LinkedIn profile, including recommendations and links to your recent work. I’ll include links to previous stories I’ve written about using LinkedIn effectively, but here is a primer, boiled down:
1. Write a brief but specific summary of your career that is 100-300 words long. Include telling details and quantifiable achievements. Use keywords and phrases from job descriptions that would interest you. LinkedIn itself can help you do this. Use the “Skills & Expertise” link under “more” on the grey bar at the top of the page, and enter a job title. This will lead you to a list of “related skills.”
2. Do fill in the “education” and “experience” fields. Many people only include their current job. That is a mistake. Think of your LinkedIn page as an online, search able version of your résumé. For each of your jobs, include a crisp, detailed description of what you did. Quantify achievements where possible.
3. Do include recommendations. Recruiters read these. Get a minimum of five, and try to make them cover the range of your career. If you are in sales, include one from a customer, a colleague and a boss.
4. Flesh out your contacts. When inviting someone to connect, always send a personal note. When trying to decide whether to accept a connection, ask yourself whether you know the person in a professional or personal context, and would you want to connect with the person on professional matters, face to face. Would you be willing to ask that person for an introduction, and would you be willing to make one for them, if they asked?
George points out that nowadays, virtually no one stays in the same job for their entire career. Being on LinkedIn means you are opening yourself up to possibilities. By all means, just do it.
Stories I’ve written about using LinkedIn: | <urn:uuid:690086c6-d399-4204-9b58-10b9b54c3db9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2012/06/27/forbes-cover-story-spells-out-why-you-must-be-on-linked-in/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956848 | 936 | 1.523438 | 2 |
A memorial mass for Uganda's first Prime Minister and former Chief Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka is to be held today in remembrance for his contribution towards constitutionalism in the country.
The function, organised by the Democratic Party (DP) is to be presided over by Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala at Christ the King Church in Kampala today at 1.30pm.
Addressing journalists at the party headquarters in Kampala yesterday, DP spokesperson Jude Mbabali said the event is part of the activities to be held before the search for his remains begins. The party wants to give Kiwanuka a decent burial.
"We have started this initiative to remember Kiwanuka as a hero. We need to know where he was buried so that he is accorded a decent burial," he said.
The party has also hired a team of investigators and pathologists to find the remains of Kiwanuka. He said DP regards Kiwanuka as the greatest man in the history of Uganda because of his values of honesty, justice and advancing the common good of the nation.
Kiwanuka died on September 22, 1972 allegedly on orders of the former president of Uganda, Idi Amin, shortly after serving as the Chief Justice under him (Amin).
Mbabali said they had contacted the family of Kiwanuka and confirmed that they had accepted to take part in the mass. He said they suspect his remains are in Nakasongola near the army barracks or in Luzira Prison near the Murchison Bay.
"According to our investigations, Kiwanuka was buried in the same grave with former Governor of Bank of Uganda, Joseph Mubiru Mubiru," he said.
Kiwanuka was born on May 8, 1922 in Kisaabwa village in present-day Bukomansimbi district.
Who is Benedicto Kiwanuka?
• Attended a matriculation Law course in Lesotho (1950-1952) and later did a bar course at the University College of London (1952-1956).
• Practiced law privately from 1956 to 1959 and was appointed DP President General in 1958.
• Served as Chief Minister in March 1961 after DP won the majority seats in Parliament.
• Prime Minister in 1962 in the New National Assembly.
• Chief Justice during Amin's regime and died on September 22, 1972. | <urn:uuid:9de441bd-fb81-4015-a84d-65e97c446594> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/201212060091.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984378 | 486 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Situationism in the News
Posted by The Situationist Staff on January 2, 2010
Below, we’ve posted titles and a brief quotation from some of the Situationist news over the last several weeks.
* * *
From BBC News: “What’s my brain’s motivation?”
“For an actor, the performance conditions weren’t exactly ideal: flat on her back in a large machine, under strict instructions to lie as still as possible, speaking in short bursts interspersed with the shrill sound of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. […] Professor Sophie Scott of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London wanted to know what happens physically in an actor’s head when they pretend to be someone else. Rivals on the dating scene could make one feel closer to God, according to new research that suggests one’s religiousness may be more closely related to mating strategies than previously known.” Read more . . .
“[…] It’s not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It’s as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger. The fact that an increasing number of medications are unable to beat sugar pills has thrown the industry into crisis. The stakes could hardly be higher. In today’s economy, the fate of a long-established company can hang on the outcome of a handful of tests.” Read more . . . | <urn:uuid:92f6e715-822d-461b-a14d-4418abb5f916> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/situationism-in-the-news-7/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936289 | 300 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), Omidyar Network, and Google.org announced a new $17 million Small to Medium Enterprise Investment Company for India to create job opportunities and spur greater economic participation for a large segment of the population. This joint company will provide capital to small and medium businesses in underserved markets.
"With this investment, we will meet the huge demand to serve smaller businesses in India that have little access to finance. Long ignored by commercial capital markets, small and medium businesses are an attractive investment opportunity as well as an engine for economic growth for India." said Neal DeLaurentis, Vice President of Soros Economic Development Fund.
Many small to medium Indian businesses lack formal funding options because of a market gap between the micro loans offered by microfinance institutions and the larger investments of commercial banks and private equity funders. Most of the existing Small to Medium Enterprise funds makes investments in the $3-$5 million range, leaving out a significant portion of this market. The Investment Company will target this "missing middle" with equity investments between $500,000 and $3.5 million.
"We have seen what micro loans can do at the individual level and are excited about bringing that same opportunity to small and medium businesses. A new generation of entrepreneurs and their families will benefit economically and socially, and as their enterprises grow, these benefits can be shared with employees and their families, as well as the community at large," said Jim Bunch, Director of Investments at Omidyar Network.
"While small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in rich countries represent half of GDP, they account for a much lower portion in developing economies like India, partly because SMEs don't have access to the same type of financing. Our goal is to increase the flow of capital to SMEs in India. This is an important step in helping to attract commercial capital and reduce dependency on philanthropy or soft capital to fund this industry." said Sonal Shah of Google.org. | <urn:uuid:9bb9daaf-a24f-4668-a340-f86a69874605> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nextbillion.net/newspost.aspx?newsid=1801 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953024 | 407 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Q: I'm hearing a lot about "short sales." I'm thinking about trying to find a good residential real estate investment but I don't know enough about these sales. I also wonder about the implications for the real estate agent. Do they know when a listing is a short sale? Is their commission reduced?
A: Short sales are defined as "a transaction where title transfers but the sale price is insufficient to pay the total of all liens and costs of sale. The seller does not bring sufficient liquid assets to the closing to cure all deficiencies." In more than a few market areas short sales may represent more than 25 percent of the listing inventory.
The National Association of Realtors Board of Directors has a policy regarding the disclosure of short sale listings in a multiple listing service database. These MLS rules enable agents to alert one another to potential short sales and put the on notice about the sharing of any reduction in gross listing commission required by a lender. MLSs have the authority to decide whether or not their participants have to disclose reasonably-known short sales.
All MLSs must provide their members with the means to disclose that a given listing is a short sale. MLSs, at their discretion, may require that such disclosure be made. Why?
Taking the short sale deal from beginning to closing can be difficult. They are frequently frustrating and time-consuming. Some have little prospect of closing and it is not uncommon for a property to go to foreclosure while a short sale application is being processed.
As a result, many competent and experienced agents just don't want to become involved with the process of making an offer on a short sale. Others, while willing to take on the task, at least want to be given notice upfront. They want to be able to counsel their buyers. They need not only to be able to advise them of the process, but also of the fact that a sale price accepted by the seller might not ultimately be approved by the lender.
Not everyone agrees that short sale situations should be disclosed through the MLS. Some sellers may feel that the fact that they are "upside down" is a private matter that they would prefer to keep confidential. They might be fine with telling someone who has actually made an offer; but it might not be something that they want to be widely known. The NAR rule would seem to favor the informed interests of potential buyers over the possible privacy desires of unfortunate sellers.
If you do become involved in a short sale, it would be wise to seek the advice of a real estate attorney who is familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of making an offer on a short sale.
Attorney Sylvia Heldreth is a Certified Specialist in Real Estate Law. Her office is located at 1215 Miramar St. in Cape Coral.
This article is not intended as specific legal advice to anyone and is based upon facts that change from time to time. Individuals should seek legal counsel before acting upon any matter involving the law. | <urn:uuid:44a33ad5-30ff-4668-9e10-a59511bb3a09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cape-coral-daily-breeze.com/page/content.detail/id/523653/Realtor-implications-with-short-sales.html?nav=5005 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97186 | 598 | 1.757813 | 2 |
years ago this April, Jill Robinson first walked onto a bear bile farm. On that day in April 1993, Jill could have walked away, but she chose to act and do what she could. Today, you also have a choice. If everyone reading this donated just US$20, it would pay for the care of over 150 bears at our China sanctuary for a full year. Please help us celebrate 20 years of progress. Donate US$20 today (or whatever you can afford).
On Tuesday, 22 March we received an email from our Vietnam Director Tuan, letting us know that two small cubs they had been called to rescue in the central highlands of Vietnam were fairing well on day two of a three-day trip back to the Tam Dao rescue centre. The cubs were confiscated in Kon Tum province, located approximately 30km into the triangular border area of Vietnam, Lao, and Cambodia. Border guards acting on a tip off rescued them from the manager of a company contracted to plant rubber trees in Vietnam, who claimed he had found the cubs under a tree and taken them back to his on-site home. He is being charged with unauthorized keeping of endangered wildlife.
The authorities acted quickly and Dr Ha Cong Tuan from the Directorate of Forestry contacted Animals Asia, concerned because the cubs were so young and weak. They weighed only about 2 – 3kg and the border guards and local Forestry Protection Department (FPD) were not confident about looking after them.
Tuan and vet Kirsty left for Kon Tum, approximately 1,200km from Tam Dao, on Saturday afternoon and reached the border crossing in Sa Thay District on Sunday morning after their flight and an additional two and a half hour drive from Kon Tum town.
The border guards, together with local FPD officials, brought the cubs to the crossing as Tuan and Kirsty were not allowed into the border area. The cubs, one male and one female, weigh approximately 2.5kg each. The female cub, now nicknamed "Milo" was much more alert and a bit bigger than the male, called "Sean", but because of their size they both had to be hand-fed by Kirsty.
After the transfer it was back to Kon Tum FPD headquarters to finalise the hand-over, and meet up with the team driver and Dr The, our External Affairs Officer, to prepare for the trip back to the rescue centre.
The long journey back began late Sunday afternoon, with the team hoping to get back on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Tuan commented: “Overall it was our fastest rescue ever. With the intervention of Dr Tuan and very good cooperation from Kon Tum FPD and border guards we were able to rescue the cubs only six days after confiscation whereas it usually takes around two to three weeks to get through the paperwork. At present the cubs are doing well but fingers crossed that we will get them back safely.”
Meantime, back at the rescue centre, the bear team was working flat out to prepare for the cubs, readying their den and building a complete A-frame climbing structure together with swing – a fantastic, mini-replica of the big bear structures in the outdoor enclosures.
Happily the return journey was uneventful and the team and cubs arrived safely back on Wednesday 23 March.
Vet Kirsty sent a quick update on Milo and Sean shortly after arrival: “Both cubs are small and thin, but in relatively good health. It was a long, three-day road trip back to Tam Dao and these tiny, adorable cubs have coped with the stress of new people, the long car journey and their new home very well. They are slowly getting over their sugar addiction (they were fed condensed milk and honey by the people who confiscated them) and learning to drink puppy replacement formula. Neither of them are drinking 100% properly yet, but they are getting the hang of it.”
In between feeds Milo and Sean have lots of energy for playing - with each other and on the amazing furniture that the bear workers have made them. They also sleep a lot, curled up together. The team is monitoring them closely and trying to keep them as relaxed, happy and well-fed as possible, and so far so good.
Sean is shyer than his sister, and tends to sit back and think about things, and is more independent and deliberate in his play. He was very scared and angry at first, but did not take long at all to put his trust in Kirsty and his other new carers back at the rescue centre.
Today, they are essentially doing well. Neither is drinking as much as they should yet, so Kirsty is still cautious about giving them the all-clear, but they are both very bright and alert and play a lot in between feeding and sleeping.
Said Kirsty, “They are steadily gaining weight which is great - yesterday they both weighed in at 3.1kg. Their little characters are beginning to really show through – Miss Milo has been a bit of a madam from the start – definitely likes things to go her way, and doesn't give her little brother much peace. Sean is calmer and steadier, and patiently puts up with Milo terrorising him – and it is great to see him growing in confidence all the time.”
Sean and Milo love their first taste of browse – fresh forest leaves and grasses.
Spring is here and with it comes what we call in Vietnam “cub season” – when mothers are viciously killed and their cubs torn from their secure homes; when smugglers stuff cubs only weeks old into makeshift holds and attempt to transport them to bear farms and across the borders into Lao and China.
This is the time of year when unscrupulous farmers are willing to stock their farms with cubs who had only a very short time to enjoy life as they should, before being thrown into the dismal abyss of the bile farming industry. | <urn:uuid:44af192d-0376-45eb-8993-c78c6344a7ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?UID=1LIGUN0NP01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985781 | 1,243 | 1.734375 | 2 |
MASSENA - Alcoa officials are expected to reach a decision by the end of this month that could have a significant impact on the companys future in the area.
Alcoa spokeswoman Laurie Marr said company officials will make a decision by March 31 on whether to proceed with the modernization of its Massena operations. That project is estimated to cost $600 million and is a requirement for the aluminum manufacturer to continue receiving low-cost hydropower from the New York Power Authority.
Ms. Marr declined to provide further comment on when the decision will be announced.
An agreement between Alcoa and NYPA allows the company to receive 239 megawatts of additional power for restarting its Massena East plant. In exchange, a complete modernization plan will have to be submitted to the companys executive board for approval by March 31. If approved, construction will begin by June.
The March 31 deadline is associated with a board of directors meeting scheduled for that month, Ms. Marr said in October.
NYPA officials said if Alcoa fails to reach a decision by March 31, or fails to begin construction by June 31, then the agency would review Alcoas contract that guarantees the company low-cost hydropower.
Many say modernization is critical to Alcoas future in Massena, pointing out low-cost hydropower is one of the most significant advantages to manufacturing in the region.
Supervisor Joseph D. Gray said low-cost hydropower is obviously the most important factor in Alcoa continuing its operations in Massena. For this reason he says many in the community are eager to hear the companys decision on modernization.
This project is vitally important to Massenas future, and I hope the decision is a positive one, Mr. Gray said. We dont like to think about it, but a negative decision would just be horrible for the community.
Mayor James F. Hidy pointed out Alcoa has long been a staple for industry and employment in Massena, having operated in the region since 1902, according to the companys website.
Alcoa has long been the benchmark for industry in the north country and Massena. Its been here for over a hundred years, and in that time its fed thousands of families and were hoping itll stay and feed thousands more, Mr. Hidy said.
One factor that may affect Alcoas decision to modernize is the scope of the Grasse River remediation project, which will be chosen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The proposed remediation project comes with an estimated price tag of $245 million, a cost that would be entirely footed by Alcoa.
Other proposed options for cleanup range from a three-year, $114 million option to an 18-year, $1.3 billion option, EPA Remedial Project Manager Young S. Chang said.
Local government and economic development officials had previously expressed concern that if the cleanup proves too costly, Alcoa may choose not to move ahead on the proposed modernization. At a public hearing on remediation last November, many Massena residents expressed support for the proposed cleanup, saying a more costly cleanup option might affect Alcoas plans to modernize, and thus, might threaten the companys future in the region.
Any solution that does not result in a modernized Alcoa (plant) is no solution - not for us, Michael Almasian, executive director of the Business Development Corporation for a Greater Massena, said at the hearing.
Ms. Chang said the federal agency is still in the process of reviewing public comment and has yet to make a decision. She said the EPA has no deadline for its decision.
EPA officials previously estimated a decision on remediation would be reached one to three months after the close of public comment Nov. 29.
Ms. Chang said the EPA has been consulting with the states Department of Environmental Conservation, Department of Health and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, which has expressed support for a more thorough, and costly remediation plan.
At a public hearing held on the Mohawk reservation last November, a number of Akwesasne residents voiced support for a cleanup option that would include dredging the entire Grasse River. That plan that would require more than $1 billion and 18 years to complete.
The EPA is obligated to make those responsible pay for the best remedy, said Alma Ransom, a former St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council chief. Theres no guarantee the capping will stay in place. We need more dredging and a thorough cleaning.
Alcoa officials have stated the company is willing to commit to the EPAs proposal, but maintains that a cheaper, capping-only remedy would be just as effective.
Alcoa is prepared to move ahead with the EPAs proposed remedy even though its not necessarily what we would have chosen, said Kevin L. McKnight, director of environmental health, safety and sustainability for Alcoa. We respect the near-shore dredging but we think capping is effective near the shore.
Ms. Marr declined to comment on whether increased remediation costs may affect the companys decision to modernize.
Alcoa employees have mixed feelings about the link between the river cleanup proposal and the modernization project, according to United Steelworkers Local 450-A President David W. LaClair Jr. Some are hesitant at the potential cleanup cost, while others are excited that the modernization deadline is approaching and that the EPA is proceeding with the cleanup proposal.
Company officials told workers in a visit in 2011 that Alcoa officials would need to know the river cleanup costs before it could modernize, Mr. LaClair said previously. | <urn:uuid:53cfee81-6631-412e-925f-a8cc1aaffe45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20130306/DCO01/703069926/1036 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957752 | 1,173 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Cicero Dobson is a third generation farmer in Duplin County. He grew up in a large farming family and helped his parents raise hogs, beef cattle, tobacco, and row crops. “When I was old enough, I told my father I wanted to try a public job,” says Cicero. His first off-farm job was for a nearby textile manufacturer, where he worked as a frame operator. He ended up staying there for the next 40 years.
“But farming never left my blood, especially working with animals,” notes Cicero. Throughout his life, Cicero raised hogs, selling them to large meat packers in the area. Today, Cicero is retired and lives and works the land where he grew up. He manages close to 70 acres, and recently added outdoor hogs to his operation as a way to diversify his income. Cicero is a member of the NC Natural Hog Growers Association.
Cicero purchases farmer’s hybrid feeder pigs (small pigs weighing about 50 pounds) from a farmer nearby who specializes in feeder pig production. He raises them until they are ready for market in dry lots and wooded areas that are planted to rye and millet in rotation with his hogs. He grows his own feed and sometimes provides the hogs with fruit and vegetable scraps, including watermelons, sweetpotatoes and cucumbers, from nearby warehouses and packing plants. “I like to see them have a little variety in their diet,” says Cicero. He hopes to expand his operation in the near future.
Cicero lives with his wife Mattie who runs an in-home day care. | <urn:uuid:f40fdabb-2406-4a6a-8a26-74a92e3a117f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.farmhandfoods.com/farmers.php?Pork%7C2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986674 | 347 | 1.65625 | 2 |
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department officials said no incidents were reported from the rally at Arrow Route and Grove Avenue on the Rancho Cucamonga/Upland city line.
Organizers said about 100 people attended the Fernando Pedraza memorial community celebration.
Pedraza, 57, died at the corner on May 5, 2007, after two cars collided, with one slamming into him while he was protesting an anti-illegal immigration rally.
Wearing a red shirt that said, "Rancho Cucamonga Day Labor," 19-year-old Ignacio Perez said he remembered Pedraza.
"He would come here and sit and talk to you and tell you to don't fight and don't drink - very good things," Perez said.
Perez, whose family lives in Mexico, said he had been a day laborer for four years and was in the United States illegally.
He said the corner needed a restroom, one of the many issues speakers brought up Tuesday.
Eddie Gonzalez, an organizer from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said the celebration was "very pacifist. We're not trying to bring any negative attention to us. We're not responding to comments."
Gonzalez said the celebration was meant to "give a human face on their presence. They're here to work, not here to litter or to do any crimes."
The day laborers, Gonzalez said, "are not doing anything wrong."
Pitzer College professor Jose Calderon spoke to the audience in English and Spanish.
"Cinco de Mayo means the spirit of people to overcome oppression. It's no accident the Minutemen decided to protest on Cinco de Mayo," Calderon told them.
A Pedraza day laborers coalition meeting will take place at 7 p.m. May 13 at Mt. Carmel Church, 10079 8th St., Rancho Cucamonga. | <urn:uuid:cbba692f-caa1-4b60-9093-539b6f156f5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sbsun.com/business/ci_12301633 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976734 | 398 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Since the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was authorized, the U.S. Treasury Department has initiated a number of efforts under the program, disbursing $385 billion for loans and equity investments, according to testimony by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
As of June 30, 2010, Treasury had received almost $25 billion in dividend and interest payments and warrant repurchases, as well as more than $198 billion in repayments.
Among the programs no longer making commitments are the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) and Targeted Investment Program (TIP), while the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and new small business lending initiatives are expected to continue for some time.
Although Treasury has received significant repayments of the funding it provided to financial institutions, some investments and loans could still result in substantial losses to the government. GAO has been monitoring TARP programs since their inception, including the financial condition of those institutions that received significant assistance.
In particular, Chrysler and General Motors have shown some indications of progress toward returning to profitability, such as doing better than they and Treasury had initially projected in terms of revenues, operating earnings, and cash flow.
However, the extent to which the federal government will fully recoup its investment in the auto industry is uncertain, and the companies face several challenges in the coming years, including returning to and sustaining strong growth and profitability.
Bank capital programs authorized under TARP were established to help stabilize the financial system and ensure the flow of credit to businesses and consumers. Treasury is no longer disbursing funds through these programs because according to Treasury, they have largely achieved their goals of both stabilizing the financial system and individual institutions.
Some of the anticipated effects of TARP on credit markets and the economy had materialized and that some securitization markets had experienced a tentative recovery. Indicators we have been monitoring suggest that credit markets have been able to sustain their recovery despite the winding down of key programs initiated by the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and others.
For example, the cost of credit and perceptions of risk (as measured by premiums over Treasury securities) have fallen in interbank, mortgage, and corporate debt markets. Further, the volume of credit, as measured by new mortgage loans and asset-backed securities (ABS), has improved since the first TARP program.
Unfortunately, by any measure foreclosure and delinquency statistics for residential housing remain well above their historical averages despite programs such as HAMP.
A slow recovery does not necessarily mean that TARP is ineffective, because in absence of TARP it is possible that foreclosure and delinquency rates would be higher. Moreover, full recovery will likely take some time given the build up of imbalances in the real estate, fiscal and household sectors over several years.
Because any new TARP activity will be limited to home ownership preservation and small business lending programs, we will also continue to monitor indictors such as foreclosure and delinquencies as potential measures of the programs’ success. | <urn:uuid:7a85ee22-e2a8-4d7e-8409-522e3fa5d386> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.creditunionmagazine.com/articles/print/36559 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975193 | 613 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Heifer Vietnam project participants celebrated the Year of the Snake with a spring sporting event on February 2. Farmers took a break to build teamwork and make new friends by competing in soccer and tug of war.
Thuan Hoa is one of Heifer Vietnam’s targeted project sites most populated with poor farmers. Yet, thanks to the support of Heifer Vietnam, the participating farmers are making progress against the poverty they face. One outstanding participants from this village, Thach Thi Kim Hien, credits the Heifer project for opening a new door.
The Self-Help Group (SHG) of the Binh Hoa hamlet won Heifer International's 2012 Golden Talent Award for Vietnam. The award recognizes the striking endeavors and the achievements of the SHG in the fight against hunger and poverty.
Heifer Vietnam and 51 other international non-governmental organizations received certificates for their remarkable contributions to poverty alleviation and sustainable development this year at a ceremony on December 16, 2012, in Hanoi.
Dang Thi Doan Trang, country director of Heifer Vietnam, and Kare Borseth Ronningen, country director of Norwegian Mission Alliance Vietnam (NMA –V), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on December 12, 2012, in Hochiminh City.
Nguyen Van Dau, a Heifer Vietnam community facilitator, is active, creative and enthusiastic. In trainings, Dau is always a center figure because he is experienced in working with the farmers and he does not hesitate to raise crucial issues related to project activities. This man embodies the spirit of enthusiastic giving.
Backyard chicken production is a popular production model in rural areas. Ko Ko is a remote village in Vietnam where many people are raising backyard chickens; however, diseases and a deficiency in technical knowledge has made success elusive for some farmers. Heifer Vietnam and its provincial project partner conducted a Farmer Field School (FFS) on April 18, 2012, on backyard chicken production to help improve participating farmers’ knowledge of bio-safety production and to help improve their livelihoods.
Ninety-four farmers, one-third of whom are women, attended a Gender Equality training held in August 2012.The farmers from the Improving Farm Households’ Capacity in Long An Province project in Vietnam, as well as non-participants from the community, attended the training aimed to help with basic knowledge about gender equality and awareness so that they might develop new attitudes towards gender-related issues in their daily activities.
Fifteen project leaders participated in a 1 ½-day training to improve their group’s project management capacity, organized by Heifer Vietnam in partnership with the Project Management Board of Tra Vinh province. This Values-based Holistic Community Development training, held August 20 – 24, 2012, is part of the Improving the Disadvantageous Farm Households’ Capacity in Tra Vinh Province Through VBHCD project. | <urn:uuid:9d3e961f-4d12-48ce-93bc-0a79e343f0c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heifer.org/taxonomy/term/46?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941207 | 603 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The student who enters the Dance major at Drexel University is an academically achieving student with a passion for dance. He or she is looking for extensive experiences to improve as a dancer, choreographer, and performer, while being interested in other areas of study offered by an outstanding university. This student wants to study dance —both physically and cognitively— while preparing for gainful employment after graduation.
The Dance major combines rigorous academic coursework with extensive stage and studio dance experiences. We feature an outstanding faculty of noted dancers and choreographers, and the Drexel Dance program is quite different from others in our emphasis on preparing our graduates for a variety of careers in dance and related subjects. We achieve this through Drexel’s outstanding co-op program which has all students working for six months in a job related to dance. We encourage our students to take one of the dozens of minors offered in the University be it business, film, art history or in other subjects that insure that our graduates receive a well-rounded education that best prepares them for successful careers and lives. Our program uniquely offers the option of three distinct tracks to career paths that combine an active engagement with dance with real world occupations that go beyond performance. Those are: dance/movement therapy, dance in education, and physical therapy.
Students focused on dance/movement therapy prepare for jobs as dance/movement therapists—these students earn a BS degree in Dance during their first four years of study. They then have the option to do two additional years of study to earn an MA in Creative Arts in Therapy from the Hahnemann Creative Arts in Therapy program, through the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel, in order to become a registered dance/movement therapist.
The second career focus, dance in education, prepares students for jobs as elementary school teachers (grades kindergarten through 4) who may also serve as school dance specialists. Students choosing this option will earn a BS degree in Dance and may elect to continue for a fifth year of study to earn an MS in the Science of Instruction through the Drexel School of Education. Students who successfully complete the five-year BS/MS option in education will then be recommended to the State for a Pennsylvania Teaching Certificate in the area of Elementary Education for K-4 certification in general education.
The third career focus, physical therapy, prepares students to work as physical therapists in a variety of settings, including hospitals, treatment centers, schools, and private practice. Students interested in the physical therapy option will complete the four-year BS degree in Dance along with a series of recommended electives in the physical sciences. After completion of the BS degree, students may opt to continue their education for an additional three years in the College of Nursing and Health Professions to earn a DPT and become a licensed physical therapist.
Also in Dance | <urn:uuid:b20f2597-6b3a-41fb-aa0e-261aa05b3c01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drexel.edu/westphal/undergraduate/DANC/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961715 | 580 | 1.523438 | 2 |
How to beat back-to-work bluesPUBLISHED: 30 Jan 2013 00:05:24 | UPDATED: 30 Jan 2013 05:56:56PUBLISHED: 30 Jan 2013 PRINT EDITION: 30 Jan 2013
Filled with dread? A lack of motivation? Overwhelmed? You could be suffering from post-holiday tension (PHT).
Organisational psychologist Leanne Faraday-Brash and Human Resources Institute of Australia chief executive Lyn Goodear both say employees often battle a sense of flatness after extended leave.
“Many think, do I have to hang out for another 10 months for a holiday?” says Faraday-Brash, author of Vulture Cultures.
“A lot more are travelling overseas now for holidays, particularly the younger staff in the workforce, so they tend to stockpile their holiday leave and take one big long break. Many employees are now working in an environment of chronic understaffing. This means that by the time they actually get to holidays they’re pretty spent and burnt out . . . With all the stresses of queues, children and airports, people can come back from a holiday needing a holiday.”
The two human resources experts give their top tips on battling PHT:
1. Face the old issues. Employees should tackle issues hanging around from the previous year, Faraday-Brash says.
2. Don’t feel guilty. Do not buy into the insensitivity of other employees who give you grief for taking a holiday, says Faraday-Brash. “Everyone is entitled to take a holiday, you haven’t let anyone or the team down,” she says.
3. Set realistic expectations. Faraday-Brash says managers need to make people feel welcome when they return from holidays and not expect an unrealistic amount of work to be done immediately.
4. Continue the holiday vibe. “Employers can try to maintain a sense of fun and informality as people return to work. Team lunches, maybe a fridge filled with a bottle of everyone’s favourite drinks, so that it becomes a little more holiday-ish and laid back if that is possible,” Faraday-Brash says.
5. Make plans. Whether it’s booking another holiday, looking for a job you’d like better than the current one, or just setting the agenda for the year ahead in your existing role, making plans can boost your energy levels. Goodear says the early part of the year is also an excellent time to schedule training and cross-team development. “January is a good time for employees to reflect and ask themselves, ‘Where do I want to be?’” she says
Workers most likely to suffer PHT. Faraday-Brash says those most likely to feel PHT acutely are in high-pressure, deadline-driven or adrenalin-pumping jobs, such as corporate or legal roles where staff are expected to perform at “120 per cent” all the time.
“Also those who might really feel it are those in routine and repetitive jobs like those working on an assembly line or on night shift. They look at their holidays as a saving grace from a mundane, repetitive job and then there is a huge let-down when they get back to work because there is not a lot of diversity or diversion in their jobs.”
The Australian Financial Review | <urn:uuid:30cc82a9-ac83-4b65-81d0-b839b9896893> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.afr.com/p/national/work_space/how_to_beat_back_to_work_blues_6hbQRJ7YQLdgVGCGsYFTYJ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947001 | 714 | 1.539063 | 2 |
KINGSPORT — The Kingsport Area Transit Service has renamed and re-branded its ADA/Paratransit service to “Dial-A-Ride,” complete with a new logo and marketing effort to help spur interest in the service and to better reflect the broader nature of the program.
KATS operates six fixed bus routes throughout the Model City, Monday through Friday, along with the ADA/Paratransit service, which is an origin-to-destination, next-day transportation service for residents with a disability or health-related condition that prevents them from independently boarding a regular, fixed-route bus.
For the majority of Kingsport citizens, the cost of the service is $2 per one-way trip.
Last week, Kingsport announced the ADA/Paratransit service would be renamed “Dial-A-Ride” and a new marketing effort would be undertaken to help inform the public of this change and what it means to them.
“We believe the re-branding effort better reflects the service we offer, providing excellent curb-to-curb service for any individual with mobility challenges,” said Transit Coordinator Jack Qualls. “KATS hopes this new name and logo will be more recognizable to the community and spark interest for those in need of mobility assistance.”
Two to three years ago, Kingsport re-branded the fixed route service of KATS with a new logo, marketing effort and made all the buses the same style. Chris McCartt, assistant to the city manager, said residents were able to better identify and access the service, and as a result, ridership has hit record levels the past two years.
However, ADA/Paratransit usage has been declining since 2008 with only 12,661 riders in 2012.
“While we were not looking at (the ADA/Paratransit service) much then, we recognized internally we needed to re-brand it as well,” McCartt said.
“We saw that we had the capacity with the existing fleet and had the ability to add additional riders to the service.”
All KATS “Dial-A-Ride” customers must be certified by the city’s transit agency before scheduling a ride, and as McCartt points out, the service is available not only for residents with a permanent medical condition, but people with temporary ones as well.
“In talking with the public and existing riders of the service, the problem we identified is there’s an impression out there that in order to qualify you have to be wheelchair-bound, blind or unable to obtain a driver’s license,” McCartt said.
While all of the above would qualify riders, the “Dial-A-Ride” service is also available to people who have temporary medical conditions, such as those who are rehabilitating a leg or hip injury or being restricted from driving an automobile.
“We will be having conversations with the medical community about this service and helping them better understand what we provide in the hopes of directing folks to utilize the service,” McCartt said.
“A big part of our strategy is we want to make sure folks who have a temporary disability understand the service.”
The re-branding is currently under way; new logos have been placed on the lift-equipped vans and McCartt said commercials are expected to be aired on Channel 16 and other cable networks in the near future.
“Over the course of the next six months to a year, we hope to see the same results of the fixed route system come to fruition for the “Dial-A-Ride” service,” McCartt said.
“Dial-A-Ride” operates Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., excluding major holidays. To qualify for the service, a completed application must be submitted to KATS.
Applications can be picked up from the KATS office at 201 W. Market St., downloaded online at www.kingsporttransit.org, or simply call and request one to be mailed to your address.
For assistance completing the Dial-A-Ride application or to schedule service, call KATS at (423) 224-2613. | <urn:uuid:dc6007df-6daa-4444-aaa4-c5af6980bbed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesnews.net/article/9054581/re-branding-of-kats-service-for-disabled-aims-to-spur-ridership | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957258 | 906 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Uncut and uncensored, the infamous precode Crime Does Not Pay comics are finally collected into a series of archival hardcovers! With brutal, realistic tales focusing on vile criminals, Crime Does Not Pay was one of the most popular comics of the 1940s. The series was a favourite target of Dr. Fredric Wertham and other censors and is partially responsible for the creation of the stifling Comics Code Authority. Now revered and mythic, this collection of the first four hard-to-find Crime Does Not Pay comics features a fine roster of Golden Age creators and a new introduction by Matt Fraction.
Dark Horse, hardback, 272 pages, published March 2012 | <urn:uuid:c114d23a-82dc-488c-902a-0fe6e29ed553> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=67149 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94252 | 140 | 1.601563 | 2 |
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