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I came into possession of two flats (about 6 gallons) of big, sweet, freshly-picked blueberries just a few days ago from a local blueberry farm. Last night, I decided to experiment with my Apple crumble cobbler recipe to adapt it to blueberry use. It worked! I also tried a shortcut in making the crust, which also worked, and have added a mention to the bottom of the prior recipe as well. I must have eaten a pound (1/2 kilogram or so) of this before my stomach informed me that it would be sending some back up soon to make room for more. It makes one 9 by 13 inch pan of dessert.
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) soft butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- Preheat your oven to 375oF
- To make the crust mix the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Cut shortening into the flour mixture until it forms small crumbs. Add two tablespoons of water at a time to the mixture, tossing the mixture lightly in between with a fork. Once all the water has been added, pour the crust mixture into the pan and pat firmly flat.
- Wash the blueberries thoroughly and pour them in the pan. It should be nearly full to the edge. Mix the sugar and flour together and sprinkle the mixture evenly over the berries.
- For the crumbles, mix the flour and sugar well in a bowl, and cut the butter into the mixture until crumbly. Crumble evenly over the top of the dessert. | <urn:uuid:d7df7eb1-03f2-4a9a-a800-e3a86b510372> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://everything2.com/title/Blueberry+crumble+cobbler | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939198 | 323 | 1.5 | 2 |
But the 2 speakers — Roger Clegg and Larry Church — refrained from cranking up the emotions in the big room. There was some clapping and finger-snapping to approve of just about anything pro-affirmative action and some hooting and booing over anything against affirmative action, but the men were in no way drowned out. Clegg and Church got to say what they had to say. During the question period, the various students who got a turn at the mike sounded passionate but not irrational.
I would have liked more discussion of legal doctrine and the precise issues from the case law, but both men chose to concentrate on policy, with the assumption that racial equality and harmony are the desired ultimate goals. What's the best way to get there? It's an old, old question, and the 2 men mainly assembled the usual pro and con arguments, so I doubt if any minds were changed.
As Meade and I walked home, I called the students "admirable" for not getting out of hand and shouting down the speakers, and Meade made fun of my low standard. I said, "It's Wisconsin. Kudos for not rioting."
"Socialism 101/What it is and why we need it": | <urn:uuid:6239d5c1-2aab-4a6f-83dc-2d02c163fea3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/there-was-huge-crowd-for-tonights-big.html?showComment=1315969017762 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972057 | 256 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Cityhood for East Los, but not for Venice
The unincorporated community of East Los Angeles has been trying to become a city nearly as long as Venice has been trying to regain its cityhood.
Now, a new report that was commissioned by cityhood backers has concluded that “East Los” has the financial resources to support itself as a city. The report says that the new city would pay much less for the same level of law enforcement, and more for trash pickup.
Venice, however, has a much higher property valuation that East L.A. This is one of the main sources of revenue for a city.
Cityhood for East Los Angeles is supported by State Senator Gloria Romero, who represents the area.
A Beachhead survey two years ago revealed that no state or city officials representing Venice supported reestablishing its cityhood.
Posted: Thu - November 1, 2007 at 02:01 PM | <urn:uuid:53f0e6fa-4563-4b29-924e-0c7f1bd7f297> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freevenice.org/Sites/iblog/B1692947617/C1254169368/E20071102140127/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983939 | 189 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Open-wheel race-car driver Alex Zanardi was within 13 laps of victory in Lausitz, Germany, in 2001, when he pulled out of a pit stop and fishtailed into 220-mph traffic. The force of a head-on hit to the cockpit's left side literally blew his legs off. When the former CART champ woke from a medically induced coma five days later, the first question he asked his wife wasn't "How am I going to live my life with no legs," Zanardi says, but, "How am I going to do all of the things I have to do with no legs?"
That drive and competitive spirit not only led Zanardi back into a race car just 18 months later but also propelled the 45-year-old Italian to the top of a whole other sport: competitive handcycling. This month, he'll be racing for gold at the Paralympics in London, favored among a field of athletes half his age.
Handcyclists race lightweight, three-wheeled bikes that operate via hand cranks. In Zanardi's competitive category, athletes typically ride trunk-powered cycles with low seat backs, which give the body a forward lean that forces riders to put their core into every crank. The sport requires tremendous strength and the use of smaller muscle groups that aren't meant to endure strain over long distances.
The sport – comprising sprints on tracks as well as longer distances on paved roads – has grown steadily in popularity since its development in the 1980s as a recreational activity and has been a Paralympic event since 2004. Zanardi had never considered trying it, however, until he decided to enter the New York City Marathon in 2007, just three weeks before the race.
Fired up to compete, Zanardi trained with a manic – and misguided – intensity. "I basically did 26 miles every day for 12 days," he says. "I had no idea what I was doing. I was overtraining." Still, he finished fourth in a field of 53, then returned last November and won.
These days, to prep for his event – the 40-mile road race – Zanardi trains as thoughtfully as any other athlete headed to London. Before qualifying meets, he hits the gym five days a week, working his pecs, rotators, lats, biceps, forearms – all the upper-body muscles he needs to turn his cranks. For protein, he relies daily on an Italian staple, Grana Padano, a hard cheese whose origin dates back a thousand years. "I put a little orange jam on it, which is beautiful," says Zanardi, who lives an hour outside Venice with his wife, Daniela, and their 13-year-old son, Niccolò.
His star power in Italy today is bigger than anything he knew as a champion driver, even in F1-obsessed Europe, where he won dozens of races. He has to allow an extra hour for grocery runs "to talk to people and pose for cellphone photos."
While Zanardi's success is remarkable, it hasn't surprised former driving rivals all too familiar with his tenacity. "If Alex caught you, he had a way of committing," says ex-Indy car driver Bryan Herta, whom Zanardi famously outgunned on a risky corkscrew turn in a 1996 race in California. "It was like, 'I'm gonna make this pass, and I'm either gonna get by, or we're gonna have an accident.' He made you decide."
Today, flashes of Zanardi's generous spirit seem to temper his competitive zeal – he recently completed the Venice Marathon, towing an ALS-afflicted friend behind him the whole way. But hopeful opponents would do well to consider Zanardi's words to his team just before his first postaccident turn in a race car – on the same track where he'd crashed: "Listen, guys, I'm not gonna go out there and drive at parade speed. I'm gonna go for it." | <urn:uuid:e204afc3-eca4-46f7-b3c7-1c5d61dd1158> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mensjournal.com/article/print-view/a-racers-new-challenge-20120828 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984625 | 823 | 1.742188 | 2 |
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Ide For Web Development?
Posted 21 April 2010 - 06:23 AM
Personally I enjoy developing in Notepad++ and I use a lot of PHP includes anyways, so it's not a huge problem. But if I decide to move onto developing bigger sites, would you recommend the use of an IDE?
Posted 13 May 2010 - 07:22 AM
But a cheap PHP IDE, which is one of the best I have ever used on Windows for such a cost is the current version of PHP Designer 7, you can read more about it on:
It has all you need for web developing, especially it's good if you're moving from Notepad++ type of programs.. I guess Dreamweaver and a like applications are good when you're moving from such absurd programs like Microsoft Frontpage
For your personal preference, you can configure the look and feel and how PHP Designer 7 works for you best.
Edited by Quatrux, 13 May 2010 - 07:23 AM.
Posted 25 May 2010 - 01:56 PM
Posted 26 May 2010 - 10:35 PM
I use the portable version, because I can have it on my USB flashdisk, so no need to install it, I have it on any computer I am using.
Posted 04 June 2010 - 09:48 AM
I've used PHP Designer 2005 before and I just could not get used to it since the user interface was kinda crappy, that's why I just returned to using Notepad++ .
I'm not sure if Netbeans would be the right choice for PHP development, it's a great IDE, but it's more focussed on Java stuff so I'd consider it more an IDE for JSP than for PHP. You could also use Visual Studio (Express) for PHP development, there's probably a plug-in available, but it's the same story as Netbeans, but more focussed on Microsoft products like ASP.net .
Eclipse is indeed a good IDE, but it's not lightweight, but it's powerfull.
Posted 06 June 2010 - 12:53 PM
If you are designing quite a nice looking website which is feature-rich then I would recommend using DW, however if you are developing quite plain web apps then PHP designer is for you.
Edited by 8ennett, 06 June 2010 - 12:54 PM.
Posted 06 June 2010 - 03:07 PM
+ and ultra edit are good for such tasks. Ultraedit IDE/Editor is paid by the way.
Posted 19 June 2010 - 08:00 PM
I use Visual Studio for ASP.NET web application development. If you are building applications targeting the Microsoft .NET platform/framework, Visual Studio is the only way to go. There are express editions of Visual Studio too, if you would like to have a free integrated development environment as a hobbyist, though you would want to switch to at least the Professional edition to do some serious development.
For Java development, I've used NetBeans, Eclipse, and Borland JBuilder. Borland eventually tossed away the Borland JBuilder IDE in favor of a customized version of Eclipse so you might as well just use Eclipse or NetBeans unless you have a specific requirement that you can't seem to get done with the free IDEs.
PHP development is best done with Eclipse or a commercial IDE such as the NuSphere PHP Ed.
Notepad++ is a pretty good text editor. It does not provide any of the advanced features that integrated development environments have to offer but for a quick job, it's a really good choice as it keeps all of the clutter out of your way.
Posted 20 June 2010 - 04:01 AM
When I first started out in web development (i.e. back in the days where HTML was the only game in town, even before DHTML and CSS had come out), I used to prefer Notepad and other simple text editors. The main reason for this, other than my own feelings of savvy and superiority , was the fact that all the IDEs on the market at the time were totally standards-non-compliant and they infused your website with so much unnecessary and strange code.
Still, I tried almost all IDEs I could find at the time, and even then Dreamweaver (which was then created and owned by Macromedia, not Adobe) struck me as the best of its class. Sure, it cost a good deal of money, but you do get your money's worth - at least, I feel that I did.
Nevertheless, I understand there are numbers of very good open-source IDEs available nowadays. And while I have no immediate need (or time) to try them out, I suppose they're worth checking out for anyone who's just getting their feet wet in the web-development pond :-)
Posted 20 June 2010 - 04:29 AM
Posted 20 June 2010 - 09:28 AM
Posted 20 June 2010 - 11:39 AM
I've noticed that Ultra edit costs sixty dollars for a license and TextMate, which only runs on the Mac OS, costs fifty dollars. While I would pay for an integrated development environment, I wouldn't really want to pay for a text editor because there are free alternatives that get the job done and when I do want to have something with more advanced functionality, I would get an integrated development environment.
Notepad++, by comparison, is a whole lot cheaper. In fact, Notepad++ is free and open-source! The core of Notepad++ is stable and works exactly as advertised, though you may find that some of the plugins are flaky. I don't really use the plugins so that has never bothered me - Notepad++ provides me with a quick-startup editor that provides syntax highlighting and the ability to work with Unicode text. Unicode may not be a priority for some people but I work on a couple of projects that require multi-lingual support.
Adobe Dreamweaver, however, provides an excellent WYSIWYG interface, which is why I would consider buying it if I do extensive work with web markup, but in most cases I would just use Notepad++.
Posted 20 June 2010 - 03:07 PM
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0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users | <urn:uuid:cd4f4097-0609-4820-87e4-83bfddbfaf52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.astahost.com/topic/21541-ide-for-web-development/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956991 | 1,333 | 1.625 | 2 |
I'm nearly sold on AbleNook, a collapsible housing unit that requires neither appreciable time nor skill to assemble, based on its Kickstarter project's opening quote alone. From Albert Einstein: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used to create them." With disaster relief efforts, school and civic portables, and flex office space in mind, AbleNook masterminds Sean Verdecia and Jason Ross created a totable dwelling that is both easily deployed and easily set up and broken down--no tools or construction knowledge necessary. Housing that comes to and goes with you. The AbleNook is like a more efficient and practical version of a trailer, and an exponentially slicker, classier version of a dirt-colored, windowless concave shell. (Haha, suck it, turtles! Humans win again!)
In addition to transforming from flat to livable in a matter of hours, AbleNook advantages include:
- Full thermal insulation.
- Adjustable leg jacks allowing for the dwellings' assembly even on wildly uneven terrain.
- Integrated electrical system--prewired components allow AbleNooks to to plug in anywhere.
- Modules that can be interlocked easily and within hours to accommodate larger space requirements, even after the AbleNook is in use.
- Dedicated mechanical and storage spaces.
- Thermodynamic design according to the classic bungalow typology--meaning the units can be passively cooled in hotter climates.
- Pack and ship flat in 4' wide x 8' long x 6' high cubes to reduce transportation costs and waste, as well as maximize the number of AbleNooks that can be delivered to families in disaster areas.
Best of all, as alluded to above, AbleNooks are not ugly. Designed by an architect with as much taste as knowledge of building technology, I would rank their physical appeal right up there with, say, an Emma Stone or Emma Watson. Yeah, definitely a solid Emma in the looks department. Single module prototype AbleNooks measure 20' long x 13' high. Interior ceiling height is 10'.
While Kickstarter pledges in support of the rapidly deployable modular dwelling do not return cubes housing AbleNooks themselves, backers can show in dollars their support of the creation of AbleNook Prototype 002 which, according to Verdecia, aims to be "an even lighter, stronger, more affordable, quicker to assemble, and straight-up more beautiful version of [the current] AbleNook 001." If the $60,000 funding goal is reached, it will help the team with, for example, efforts to create a new proprietary custom die-mold for use in building lighter, stronger universal structure members, as well as lighter composite paneling for the AbleNook's slide-in wall panels.
At the $25 pledge level, backers receive an AbleNook T-shirt. For $75, an autographed AbleNook design book is added. $250 returns an AbleNook puzzle demonstrating the dwelling's assembly along with the T-shirt, and $1,000 and $2,000 levels come with either a 4' or 5' AbleNook LED hanging light made from the project's first-run parts. The pledge window is open through February 4, 2013. | <urn:uuid:383f00d5-84b9-40a3-a4e2-9dfb2704c76e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dudeiwantthat.com/omg/pads/ablenook-rapidly-deployable-modular-dwelling.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934199 | 678 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A question has been going around on legal blogs -- "Does a Federal Mandate Requiring the Purchase of Health Insurance Exceed Congress' Powers Under the Commerce Clause?"
My answer is: Nowadays (not in the original intent) is there anything the Feds can do that exceeds current interpretations of the commerce clause? In Raich, the Supreme Court decided that a product (marijuana) that was grown in state for personal consumption, like tomatoes in your own garden, and was used legally under state law, can still be regulated under the commerce clause. As Clarence Thomas wrote in dissent:
Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and that has had no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana. If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers
Unfortunately the theory that this personal use in California could somehow affect marijuana pricing in other states (by growing their own, they reduced demand for out of state weed which might affect prices in Arizona -- again similar to an argument that growing your own tomatoes might affect prices in another state) won the day in the Court. With the Supreme Court accempting this "butterfly effect" argument (because truly the demand of one person in a national market is like a butterfly flapping its wings in China and affecting a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico), anything falls under the commerce clause. | <urn:uuid:31b51a50-9708-4a47-9115-7c4103108e7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2009/09/does-anything-exceed-the-commerce-clause-nowadays.html?shared=email&msg=fail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95392 | 309 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Marriage Is for Holiness, Not Just Happiness
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But what do these opportunities look like in everyday life? How exactly can marriage make us more holy? Here are a few small, specific ways God has used marriage to carve virtue into our character.
Prudence. Often translated "wisdom," the word prudence comes from the word providence, which means "to see ahead." I (Halee) can be candid to a fault. I've always had a knack for saying exactly what I think at the very moment I think it—regardless of the impact it has on the hearer. Early in life I'd seen how damaging it was to bury emotions, so in an effort to avoid that mistake, I made the equal and opposite error of expressing myself without a great deal of forethought.
But when we married, I noticed that my honesty was more divisive than it was beneficial to our marriage. I saw the impact my words had upon Paul, and I started to pay attention to how he communicated with me and with others. Paul knew what to say and the right moment to say it. He spoke thoughtfully, ensuring that his words contributed to the well-being of others. The truth didn't always have to be painful.
Because of his daily influence, I've learned how to be more tactful in the way I say things. It was a difficult transition, especially in the beginning. During this period, Paul taught me his "three-day rule." When I was tempted to respond to someone quickly and brashly, I took three days to think it through and pray. Eventually, I didn't need to practice the three-day rule in order to exercise prudence in my daily interactions with Paul and others. I was able to "see ahead" and discern what words would best build up the other person.
Courage. C.S. Lewis called courage "the form of every virtue at the testing point." Courage isn't the absence of fear as much as it is the willingness to move forward despite fear. Throughout our marriage, I (Paul) have seen Halee demonstrate courage over and over. She applied (and was hired) for jobs I thought she needed more experience for. She speaks regularly in front of hundreds of people even though she's terrified of public speaking. The night our daughter was born, I caught her crying for a single minute (when she thought I wasn't looking) as the labor pains intensified. She went on to brave 16 hours of labor to bring our daughter into the world.
I don't like to get out of my comfort zone, but seeing Halee exercise courage over the years gave me the courage to quit my job in the middle of the recession. I'd been working for the company for 14 years, and I'd known God was calling me to leave the company for a long time, but I couldn't imagine leaving after all the years I'd put into the company. I was afraid, wondering how I would be able to provide for my family. But eventually, I did quit and moved into the work that God had called me to.
Page 2 of 4 Next Page... | <urn:uuid:6b89d154-df38-4b19-877a-a64cff6b2f58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/2013/february/marriage-is-for-holiness-not-just-happiness.html?start=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988854 | 647 | 1.804688 | 2 |
If you’ve ever had a colonoscopy, you know that the prep is the worst part. You have to drink a liquid laxative. And the taste… Well. Words fail.
Humorist Dave Barry came pretty close to describing the flavor. He put it this way… “A mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.”
And you have to drink LITERS of it!
But all that is in the past now, according to the Mayo Clinic. Doctors there have developed a new laxative in pill form. Easy. Goodbye goat spit!
Unfortunately, there’s a catch. And it’s a HUGE catch.
So here’s fair warning… Don’t fall for it.
Reading the fine print
As I’ve mentioned before, there are two ways to screen for colon cancer. One is colonoscopy, which uses a camera probe. The other is CT colonography (CTC). Here’s how a Mayo Clinic press release describes this procedure… “A CT scan is used to provide three-dimensional imaging.”
This is also known as “virtual colonoscopy.” It’s touted as more appealing because it’s non-invasive.
Now… Here’s the catch. The new laxative pills can only be used for CTC.
Hmmm. Does that seem odd to you? Did Mayo Clinic researchers really make a laxative that’s precisely ideal for CTC, but not suitable for colonoscopy?
Apparently they did. And the solution to this “mystery” is pretty obvious.
The new laxative was developed by the Mayo Clinic Department of Radiology in Arizona. This is the same team that pioneered CTC. They conducted the first studies. They were also the first to offer it for routine care.
Clearly, the Mayo team would like to see this technology take the lead as the first choice in colon cancer screening.
On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with that. Business is business. New technologies overtake outmoded technologies all the time.
But in fact, there are four BIG things wrong here.
1) CTC may not be as accurate as colonoscopy at spotting smaller polyps. And spotting polyps is kind of the whole reason you’re there in the first place.
2) If doctors find a polyp with colonoscopy, in most cases they remove it during the procedure. But if a CTC scan finds a polyp, the patient has to return for a colonoscopy.
3) CTC is supposedly non-invasive. But before it begins, they pump air into your bowels. As an HSI member once told me, “I thought I was going to blow off the gurney.” She says she felt bloated for days.
4) This one is the deal-breaker… A CTC delivers an enormous single dose of radiation. It’s 400 times stronger than a chest x-ray.
The Mayo press release downplays or completely ignores these significant drawbacks. Meanwhile, the chair of the Radiology Department delivers this sales pitch regarding the new laxative…
“Our hope is that this will make people less anxious and more likely to get screened and will ultimately result in fewer deaths from colorectal cancer.”
Translation: Do it OUR way and lives will be saved.
Well… As long as the massive radiation dose doesn’t cause any cancers. (Fingers crossed!)
Here’s the bottom line. This radiological method is potentially very dangerous. Don’t let your doctor talk you into this procedure with FOUR major drawbacks.
And besides… How long can it be before laxative pills are available for colonoscopy prep? I would guess the know-how is already available. But don’t count on the Mayo radiation department to help out with that.
“Four Pills Replace Liters of Laxative for Colonography at Mayo Clinic” Mayo Clinic press release, 8/23/12, newswise.com | <urn:uuid:a39dee35-4408-4516-aeb7-2bf8ea99888c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hsionline.com/2012/09/27/colon-cancer-screening-easier-catch/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949179 | 872 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The Collection of Museum Posters was founded in 1973, and today holds 7700 posters from museums and galleries that trace the activities of Croatian museums and galleries, as well as those abroad. Posters document exhibitions, lectures, campaigns, the marking of International Museum Day and other museum activities.
The collection also holds posters that present the heritage in various ways, and were published by non-museum institutions (institutes for the preservation of the cultural heritage, tourism boards and so on).
Most of the posters are by anonymous authors, but the Collection also holds numerous works by renowned Croatian artists and designers like I. Picelj, B. Ljubičić, B. Bućan, A. Rašić, N. Dogan, D. Brčić, M. Licul, V. Drajht Kralj, Z. Pliskovac, Z. Tišljar, V. Giuricin, V. Rožman, M. Šutej, D. Fritz, M. Gregl, K. Hraste, Bruketa & Žinić, Digitaldizajn and Graffiti design and others.
An overview of the annual production of posters by museums and galleries in Croatia is published in the catalogue Exhibition of the Publication Activities of Croatian Museums and Galleries, which is organised annually within the framework of the International Book Fair – Interliber – in Zagreb.
A special group consists of posters that the MDC publishes to mark International Museum Day and anti-war posters, i.e., those that were created during the Homeland War in Croatia. Both of these groups are very worthwhile, especially the posters that illustrate the recommended themes for International Museum Day. Domestic and international awards are testaments of their quality, most notable among the awards being the most prestigious reddot award, that was awarded to Boris Ljubičić’s poster in 2000.
T: + 385 (1) 4817 049 | <urn:uuid:94f5cab5-2696-4998-b0e4-ea258787531f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mdc.hr/en/mdc/collections/collection-of-museum-posters/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944988 | 413 | 1.84375 | 2 |
"Understanding the behavior of a nigger is the difference between life and death"
If that nigger is an American citizen then I'm the king of England.
Why is it in English instead of some primitive ape language? Are all official documents in Kenya written in English?
here is another take on its bc
Oboingo has surrounded himself with allies to help KEEP him in office irreguardless. Trying to get him out is going to be a monumental task without president. All his tracks have been covered. BUT something will and has to surface eventually that will prove he was born in Africa. I think many people already knew this before he even began his March of Stupidity to the White House. There are many layers to his deceptions.
I feel it's just typical of the Nigger to GET while the Getting is good. He is doing everything he can right now to improve the Nigger's lot irreguardless of what he says or how he presents his plans, it's all aimed at the Niggers.
This plan has been in the works since he was born. He has been groomed for this.
Calling Niggers Monkeys....
Is an Insult to the Monkeys!
That nigger is in some deep shit now.
"dat ain't mah burf certiphikat! ah beez hawaiyan n sheet."
I can't wait till the pressure goes up ten-fold and he starts really chimping-out in public. Don't forget, when things get tense, niggers always lose it and end up in nigger U.
rope therapist and windchime salesman
licensed in all 57 states
I hope they push it through, I really do. I'll be throwing a party of epic proportions if they can get this nigger out of office!
You might be a king or a street sweeper, but sooner or later you dance with the reaper. -Robert Alton Harris
I lubz mangoz! - Some goofy looking little nigglet | <urn:uuid:d89e518e-6c06-409f-a452-cd06ecdfa905> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chimpout.com/forum/showthread.php?64986-NIgbama-s-Kenyan-burf-certificate!!!!!!!!!!!!! | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974391 | 421 | 1.515625 | 2 |
In my inspection yesterday, besides finding some varroa, I found this unusual formation. I thought it mught be a queen/swarm cell, but it doesn't hang down like I've seen in pictures. Besides, I don't see that the colony is strong enough to swarm, and they certainly aren't overcrowded in there that I can see (I only started the colony from a package a little over seven weeks ago). The queen is fine and has been active, laying plenty of eggs in both boxes. I took a few pictures; the closeup picture is a little out of focus because the camera just doesn't do extreme closeups very well. The thing I'm looking at is the bump on the lower right hand corner of the frame, on the foundation. The second picture is of the full frame showing the bump's location in relation to the full frame. It was in the upper brood box. Can anyone give me an idea of what this is, and what I should do with it? | <urn:uuid:720eabf3-24d5-4203-b47f-a2cbb88e3963> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=895.msg3772 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976974 | 204 | 1.632813 | 2 |
1 definition by Ben, alias Marc
Defines the world of links which are to click on a web page (URL). The accumulated links are called "linkosphere". Term invented by Ben, alias Marc in Berlin (Germany) in 2009 when he wanted to find a name for his extensive personal link list. A similarity to blogosphere seems to be obvious.
Hey, I have to check out my linkosphere today...
This linkosphere is great, thank you for it!
I like my linkophere.
The linkosphere will tell me.
Ask the linkophere.
by Ben, alias Marc Sep 7, 2009 add a video | <urn:uuid:4158aed0-2fbf-440f-af26-ab3330a495fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Ben%2C+alias+Marc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930088 | 133 | 1.59375 | 2 |
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A majority of Icelanders want to withdraw the island’s bid to join the European Union, according to a poll by Capacent Gallup.
The poll showed that 53.5 percent of voters don’t want to proceed with the application, compared with 36.4 percent who want the island to complete the accession process. About 9.9 percent were undecided, according to the poll conducted for Heimssyn, a group opposed to joining the EU, and published in newspaper Morgunbladid.
Capacent Gallup conducted the poll in September and October. The newspaper didn’t say how many voters were polled or provide a margin of error.
Iceland started EU membership talks in July 2010 and may vote on accession late next year, according to Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson. Of a total of 35 negotiating chapters for membership, Iceland has opened 21 and completed 10. The primary challenges facing the negotiations will be in matters relating to agriculture, environment and fisheries, according to EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule.
To contact the reporter on this story: Omar R. Valdimarsson in Reykjavik [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:8aa2d4a2-9078-44bd-950e-a0ee4354d79e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-12/most-icelanders-want-to-drop-eu-membership-bid-poll-shows | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939966 | 286 | 1.578125 | 2 |
After tax victory, Miami River marine sector looking forward
By Shearon Roberts
Marine industry advocates hope the City of Miami will be more inclined to protect marine businesses on the Miami River following voter approval of a state constitutional amendment aimed at keeping rising property assessments from forcing the businesses to shut down.
The advocates say they want the city to reconsider changes to its comprehensive land-use plan that removed specific mention of the Miami River as a working port. City commissioners are to have a final vote on the changes today (11/13).
Known as Amendment 6, the constitutional change that voters approved Nov. 4 distinguishes land use for marine industry purposes from other uses for assessing property taxes.
"I suppose the property appraiser has to adjust its appraisal policies for working waterfronts" now that Amendment 6 has passed, said attorney Andrew Dickman, who has represented marine industry clients in cases against the city.
In Miami-Dade, 466,156 persons voted for the amendment and 202,694 against, says the Florida Department of State, Division of Elections.
Marine businesses along the Miami River say they have seen their property taxes more than double since commercial and residential real estate development began springing up along the river in the past five years. The rising taxes have threatened to put them out of business, they say.
Public support for distinguishing land use assessment for the marine industry still needs to be reflected through policies of the City of Miami, advocates say.
The city commission is to amend the Port of Miami River element of its Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan today. Those amendments would remove the word "port" as a designated use of the river, substituting mixed-use purposes for the land assessment of the river.
The commission began mulling these changes in May after losing three court cases that challenged moves toward residential development on the river. The rulings stated that the city violated its current comprehensive plan.
Marine proponents have said the 2008 amendments to the Port of Miami River element of the plan were an attempt to reflect the city's new goals to pursue more real estate development. City officials have argued that residential development will help prevent further deterioration along the river and can co-exist with the marine sector. That rationale was the basis of the initial approval they gave the comprehensive land-use plan changes several months back.
The marine sector argues, on the other hand, that residential encroachment causes their land values to rise so high they can't afford the taxes. Amendment 6 is seen as a way to reverse the loss of marine businesses on Florida's rivers.
A majority of Miami commissioners endorsed the amendment in a resolution several weeks before the vote. Angel Gonzalez dissented.
The removal of the "Port of Miami River" language from the land-use plan has drawn opposition from the city's Planning Advisory Board, the Miami River Commission, Miami-Dade County, the Regional Planning Council and the state Department of Community Affairs.
"The county already has favorable comprehensive plan policies for the river industry, although the city remains committed to condos anywhere and everywhere on the river," said Mr. Dickman, the marine sector attorney.
The city did make some changes to proposed land-use plan amendments to comply with initial concerns of the Department of Community Affairs. Current wording stipulates that development along the river "shall continue to provide for water-dependent, water-related commercial, industrial, and recreational uses along the river and provide for residential and mixed-use development, while acknowledging the presence of the waterfront industrial district along the river."
After today's commission vote on the plan, the state is to conduct a final review.
The city wants to put another 25 acres on the river toward mixed-purpose use. Since 2002, new residential projects have sprung up, shifting 80 acres from decades of marine use to condos.
Advocates say the statewide vote has set the right tone for a more balanced approach to taxing industries.
"I think people misunderstood, after the bailout of the financial industry… that this wasn't a bailout of big corporation, it's more of a mom-and-pop bailout and it's still about taxing business but according to its use so that is a balanced approach," said Fran Bohnsack, executive director of the Miami River Marine Group.
The Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission put Amendment 6 on the ballot. The state constitution authorizes the 25-member commission to review and assess tax structure, budgetary, revenue and expenditure procedures and government efficiency.
Voters favored the change by the highest percent margin of all the commission's ballot amendments. It passed 70.5%, according to the Florida Department of State's Division of Elections.
"We're happy for the mariners and the boatyards, and they really need this relief," Ms. Bohnsack said. "Now the state Legislature is going to have to develop rules for the implementation of it so that it comes off as it intended."
Advocates are now looking to the city to see how it interprets the new amendment.
Mr. Dickman said the Legislature amended the Growth Management Statutes in 2006 to incorporate policies that protect working waterfronts. "Taken together, the constitutional amendment and the 2006 statute, there is a clear top-down policy in favor of protecting the marine industry," he said. "The missing piece of the puzzle, of course, is getting the city to see the light."
The city commission continues to debate the best land use for the river.
Commissioner Gonzalez has argued that segments of the river are blighted in his District 1, which includes much of the middle and upper river.
He favors development that could fill empty lots, get rid of derelict structures and bring in revenue for the city, along with the marine industry. He and other critics have also argued that local government could lose revenue streams as a result of tax structure changes.
The city pulls in far more tax revenue from residential development than commercial or industrial land use, city officials say. Michael Boudreaux, city director for Strategic Planning, Budgeting, and Performance, puts residential real estate tax revenue above $167 million a year, compared to $65.2 million for industry.
Economic experts, however, say that for every $1 raised in revenue from residential taxes, the city provides $1.15 in public services to these areas. Commercial and industry areas only cost municipalities 28 cents for services from each $1 in tax revenue, according to American Farmland Trust's Cost of Community Service Studies.
Amendment 6 supporters say the marine industry on the Miami River accounts for 6,200 jobs, $682 million in annual economic output and $339 million in annual earnings, according to a 2005 study by the South Florida Water Management District.
The Port of Miami River is the fourth largest port in Florida based on cargo tons shipped, advocates said. The river's 20 terminals were responsible for some $4 million in cargo moved in 2004.
"I see some potential where others see failure and fear," Mr. Dickman said.
"Dead condo developments don't generate revenue even if the land is assessed higher," he said. "The Florida condo economy crashed, and there are some who say it started in Miami. A thriving working waterfront will expand the local economy and help make it less vulnerable to real estate cycles."
City Commission Chairman Joe Sanchez said he values the marine industry on the river. So far, however, he has supported removal of the port protection language from the land-use plan.
"The passage of Amendment 6 and the completion of the Miami River dredging should really prime the pump for marine industries on the Miami River," Mr. Sanchez said.
He did not indicate where the commission will come down today on the amendments to the comprehensive plan that will affect land use taxes of the industry. He said the city will work with the Department of Environmental Resources Management to revise regulations to allow dry stack storage of boats at appropriate sites on the river.
"I am exploring legislation," he said, "that will protect the development rights of riverfront land owners who agree to demolish derelict buildings and maintain clean green space until they redevelop." | <urn:uuid:af8a677b-138b-4697-88dd-0d8f9c6eeb15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://miamitodaynews.com/news/081113/story6.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955895 | 1,653 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The Top 10 Stories of December 13, 2012
Quote of the day.
"Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart." Pope Benedict XVI, with his first tweet as @Pontifex.
(Catholic News Service)
1. Groups say they’ll push ‘right to work’ in other states.
The conservative groups that supported Michigan’s new “right to work” law — winning a stunning victory over unions, even in the heart of American labor — vowed Wednesday to replicate that success elsewhere.
2. No progress in 'fiscal cliff' talks as new poll hits Republicans.
Sharp differences remained on Wednesday between congressional Republicans and the White House in talks to avert the "fiscal cliff" of steep tax hikes and budget cuts, and negotiators warned the showdown could drag on past Christmas.
3. Executives push for ‘fiscal cliff’ deal.
With corporate tax rates and tax breaks up for grabs, chief executives are personally stepping forward to lobby Congress and the White House on taxes, seeking to set priorities while conceding that some taxes will have to go up.
4. Latino groups warn Congress to fix immigration.
The nation’s largest Latino organizations warned Congress on Wednesday that they will keep a report card during the immigration debate next year, with plans to mobilize their voters against lawmakers who do not support a comprehensive immigration bill.
(New York Times)
5. Whites no longer a majority in U.S. by 2043.
White people will no longer make up a majority of Americans by 2043, according to new census projections. That's part of a historic shift that already is reshaping the nation's schools, workforce, and electorate, and is redefining long-held notions of race.
6. Syria uses Scud missiles in new effort to push back rebels.
President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have resorted to firing ballistic missiles at rebel fighters inside Syria, Obama administration officials said Wednesday, escalating a nearly two-year-old civil war as the government struggles to slow the momentum of a gaining insurgency.
(New York Times)
7. Russia acknowledges Assad losing control.
Syria's most powerful ally, Russia, said for the first time Thursday that President Bashar Assad is losing control of his country and the rebels might win the civil war, dramatically shifting the diplomatic landscape at a time of enormous momentum for the opposition.
8. U.S. wants collective effort to rein in North Korea.
Obama administration officials said they intend to put more energy into working with other major powers, especially China, to pressure impoverished North Korea with new sanctions following Pyongyang's defiant launch of a long-range rocket.
(Los Angeles Times)
9. Mandela makes progress.
"Doctors attending to former president Mandela have reported that he has made progress and are satisfied with the way he is responding to treatment," presidency spokesperson, Mac Maharaj said.
(The Africa Report)
10. Young Afghans form new political movement with hopes for the future.
In a country where politics is often seen as a byword for corruption, and which is still dominated by jihadi-era commanders, a small group of influential young Afghans have started a civil and political movement that hopes to transcend old ethnic and sectarian divides. | <urn:uuid:1e37c708-9c06-4937-82ee-f844a9b3a386> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sojo.net/blogs/2012/12/13/top-10-stories-December-13-2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942382 | 695 | 1.5 | 2 |
My son seemed to be born with an interest in language, letters, words, and reading. He started to read when he was just two years old and reading became his favorite activity.
Being a good mom, I bought him beautiful, award-winning picture books, but when I gave them to him, he'd open them up, take one look at the pages, and then throw them on the floor, saying quite emphatically, "No words!" He hated picture books.
If given a choice between a book and a toy, he'd pick the book every time. I'd take him to museums and at the end of the day, we'd visit the gift shop, where he'd find the books. He'd pick out a book, plop himself down, and read, ignoring the toys.
We'd go to Toys R Us and he'd make a bee-line for the book section Once there, he'd pick out several books, sit down at a table and read. If I had let him, he would have sat there reading for hours. We'd leave without him looking at a single toy. He wasn't interested.
At birthday parties, he'd sometimes sit off to the side reading whatever was available. At his own birthday parties, he'd read every birthday card -- before opening the gift. And his favorite gifts were books.
This kid was unlike any other kid I knew. He was just three years old, had not started talking until he was two, and still wasn't talking very much. He was so focused on reading that I worried he might have hyperlexia. He doesn't have it, but I know I'm not the only parent who worried that something was wrong when her gifted child was exhibiting pretty typical gifted behavior.
Was there a time when you thought something was wrong with your child when it was just normal gifted behavior? Share your story! | <urn:uuid:8f7c2eae-6cd1-47c6-af3b-bfd992f27f56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://giftedkids.about.com/b/2009/02/27/obsession-or-hyperlexia.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.995052 | 384 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Technology has become a common currency and there are two distinct sides of the coin: the user and the provider. Users always want more and providers often struggle to cope. In today's economy, there is no room for waste and very little room for dissent. So, the challenge from the get-go is to make sure that all parties are on the same page. This session provides a forum for a lively discussion of the role of technology from both points of view.
Moderator: Jack Mortimer, Government Technology Magazine | <urn:uuid:12006771-4d7a-4a1a-b3eb-a2739da4290f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.govtech.com/events/Illinois-Digital-Government-Summit-2012.html?page=speaker&id=168071026 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946247 | 105 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Two elderly, excited Southern women were sitting together in the front pew of a church listening to a fiery preacher.
When this preacher condemned the sin of stealing, these two ladies cried out at the tops of their lungs, "AMEN, BROTHER!" When the preacher condemned the sin of lust, they yelled again, "PREACH IT, REVEREND!"
And when the preacher condemned the sin of lying, they jumped to their feet and screamed, "RIGHT ON, BROTHER! TELL IT LIKE IT IS... AMEN!"
But when the preacher condemned the sin of gossip, the two got very quiet. One turned to the other and said, "He's quit preaching and now he's meddlin'."
BAD JOKE DISCLAIMER: We recognize that religious humor can be risky. It is our hope that by laughing at ourselves (and others) we can make this subject more approachable. If you find any of these objectionable, we apologize. As with most jokes, the original authors are unknown - but we thank them.
Your Funny Photos
What is this pigeon reading? Click for a closer look and to see more hilarious pictures. | <urn:uuid:67e501f9-f089-4f96-a2f2-3757a440f4ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Joke-of-the-Day/Archive.aspx?d=20101221 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931338 | 238 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Rodrigo Arangua / AFP - Getty Images
People line up to cast their vote at a polling station in Caracas on Oct. 7. Venezuelans went to the polls Sunday in the toughest election President Hugo Chavez has faced in almost 14 years in power after fresh-faced rival Henrique Capriles electrified the opposition.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez arrives to a polling station during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, on Oct. 7.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters
Venezuela's opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles is mobbed by supporters after he voted in the presidential election pitting him against President Hugo Chavez, in Caracas on Oct. 7.
The life of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from his rise as a lieutenant colonel after his failed coup attempt in 1992.
NBC News staff and wire services -- As Venezuelans streamed to the polls, President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he will accept the results of the country's election, whether he wins or loses.
"We'll respect the results, whatever they are," he told reporters after casting his vote in Caracas. He also said voters were turning out in massive numbers in Sunday's election.
The Venezuelan leader is running against opposition leader Henrique Capriles in a vote widely viewed as the toughest electoral challenge of Chavez's nearly 14-year-old presidency. Chavez was greeted at the polling center by American actor Danny Glover and Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu.
The vote is an all-or-nothing contest between two camps that deeply distrust each other and question whether the other side will respect the results of the election. The stakes couldn't be higher.
If Chavez wins, he will have a free hand to dominate Venezuela for six more years on top of the 14 years he has already been in office, letting him push for an even bigger state role in the economy and cement his legacy.
Sharon Steinmann / AP
A man and woman ride a motorcycle decorated with a Venezuelan flag near a polling station during the presidential election in the 23 de Enero neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, on Oct. 7.
Jorge Silva / Reuters
Venezuelan presidential honor guards line up before casting their vote during the presidential elections in Caracas on Oct. 7.
Ramon Espinosa / AP
People wait to vote in the presidential election at a polling station in Caracas, Venezuela, on Oct. 7. President Hugo Chavez is running against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. | <urn:uuid:b73033bd-caa8-4cc0-8320-11025e8a4c7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/07/14278015-fate-of-hugo-chavezs-presidency-lies-in-hands-of-venezuelan-voters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964888 | 523 | 1.65625 | 2 |
It is true, I am a Chuggington Conductor and I wanted to share some traintastic news with you all about the Chuggington Think Safe, Ride Safe, Be Safe traffic safety campaign!
October is International Walk to School Month and Chuggington announced it’s partnership with NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) in September so they have put together this great educational campaign to help you teach your Trainees how to be safe!
I know as a mom of two hyper boys I have had to really focus on teaching them to be safe, it’s a constant reminder for the boys but my daughter took to walking safely at a young age; only 2 years old. I teach the boys to watch traffic signs while I am driving too which means they know what the red, yellow and green traffic lights mean.
Think Safe, Ride Safe, Be Safe aims to educate parents and children about all forms of transportation safety. In support of the Think Safe, Ride Safe, Be Safe campaign, Disney Junior will be airing PSA’s throughout the month of October. In addition you can find more safety tips, sign the traffic safety pledge, play games and more online today.
Disclosure: I am a Chuggington Conductor so I do receive new products and news from Chuggington to share with you all from time to time. All opinions are that of my own. | <urn:uuid:91be9e18-b475-4f5c-a4da-e6d62d241960> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://happilyblended.com/2011/10/chuggington-safe-ride-safe-safe-campaign/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96354 | 293 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Posted on Monday, October 1, 2012
in Emotional, How To, Relational, Social, Spiritual, Values
Last night after my wife Amy finished celebrating her Green Bay Packers victory we started prepping dinner. While making dinner The Simpsons came on.
If you don’t know, most Simpsons episodes begins with an opening sequence of several short clips including Bart Simpson satisfying a consequence by writing a phrase on the classroom chalkboard.
Known as the chalkboard gag, Wikipedia explains, “the chalkboard gag is a running visual joke that occurs during the opening credits of many episodes. In this gag, Bart Simpson is writing a unique phrase on the chalkboard repeatedly; when the school bell rings, he immediately stops writing and runs out of the classroom.” 1
Posted on Tuesday, April 3, 2012
in Emotional, Relational, Social, Spiritual, Values
I’ve been confronted by several people that I respect recently. Whether I want it to or not, confrontation can tear at, or even trample, my self-identity.
One person suggested that I sounded like I thought that I knew more than other people and “if only they knew what I knew then they would be okay.” I hate when I’ve been condescending.
I’ve also been confronted that I seem intimidated around people who are wealthier than me; and they are right.
Posted on Thursday, May 5, 2011
in Emotional, Relational, Social, Values
Overcoming the fear of being exposed is one of the keys to breaking the bondage of the tricks and lies about cutting.
The Fear Of Exposure Perverts Our Thinking
“Psychologist Larry Crabb says that the primary motivation for all of our social behavior is a fear that if others really knew us as we are, they would reject us in disgust. This fear of exposure is rooted in our sense of the ugliness of our fallen natures as they have been perverted and corrupted by sin. Satan delights in inflaming this fear…”
Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2011
in Emotional, Relational, Social, TreeHouse
True intimacy provides significance and security.
Significance is “a purpose for living which will give me a real and lasting impact on my world and a purpose which I am completely adequate to accomplish.”
Security comes from unconditional love, at TreeHouse we call it “love without strings.”. “People need that kind of love. We need, really need, to be loved as we are, loved at our worst. We need to regard ourselves as worthwhile. In order to do so, we must not only be significant but also be secure in the unconditional love of another person.”
True intimacy is far more than physical interaction. Sexuality is not limited to the genitals: it covers a much broader spectrum of caresses, kisses, friendly company and words of affection. It includes a unity of personality, emotions, and our spiritual nature.
Charles Sell suggests that in order for there to be sweet music in our relationship we must keep in mind “if you’re married to a violin, be a bow.” 1
Get to know one another more intimately.
True Intimacy Takes Time
Maintaining an intimate relationship involves renovating and maintaining the romance.
This is a preview of
Keep Your Love Alive – True Intimacy Provides Significance and Security
. Read the full post (434 words, 3 images, estimated 1:44 mins reading time) | <urn:uuid:7c4c9bcc-43c5-4079-b41d-9c491f30befb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mysilentscream.com/tag/security | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947639 | 739 | 1.679688 | 2 |
You are here:
Embassy of Switzerland in Amman
On 11 October 2011 the Schengen member states introduced the Visa Information System (VIS). The VIS will also be used to store the biometric data (10 fingerprints and the facial image) of the visa applicants. The diplomatic representations of the Schengen member states will be gradually connected to the system region by region.
Along with the connection to the VIS on May 10th, 2012 all diplomatic representations of the Schengen member states in Jordan have to capture the biometric data of persons applying for a Schengen visa.
An information leaflet of the European Union relating to the introduction of the VIS and the capture of biometric data can be found on our website.
The Swiss Government, through the Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students (FCS), awards various scholarships to foreign researchers and artists:
- Scholarships for research stays, doctorates and post-doctorates at Swiss universities, Federal Institutes of Technology as well as Universities of Applied Sciences
- Arts scholarships for master studies and research stays at schools of music and fine arts (only for a limited number of countries)
Scholarships for master studies are only awarded to a very restricted number of countries.
No scholarships for bachelor studies are granted.
The application process for a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship for the academic year 2013–2014 is closed. It is thus not possible to apply for 2013–2014 anymore.
The new offer for the academic year 2014–2015 will be published in August 2013 on this page, as well as on the website of the Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students (FCS).
The Embassy issues this warning against fake Swiss Federal Government Scholarships advertised by e-mail. The Swiss Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students (CFBE) never advertises its scholarships by e-mail. The scholarships are directly managed by the Swiss Embassies in the various countries. The Embassy recommends to never answer to these e-mails and above all not to send any money. | <urn:uuid:e57450b9-5eb1-4517-b61d-12c47164ceb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.swissembassy.org.uk/eda/en/home/reps/asia/vjor/embamm.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942029 | 413 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Any drastic change to a lifestyle can prove to be challenging, which makes motivation essential to your success in that endeavor - especially for those who are undertaking these changes alone.
Even if you have partnered up for your detoxification cleanse, finding inspiration will prove to be very important for staying the course. 21 days is a long time, and, especially within the first week, motivation tends to wane.
I have found that having a few tips and nuggets of wisdom has helped me to meet my goals and feel empowered to complete the challenge (yes, cleanses are a challenge, even for the most seasoned cleanser!)
Stay rested. When we skimp on sleep, our bodies resolve to get energy any way they can, which means we will crave quick energy, like chocolate, chips and the like. By logging at least seven and a half hours of sleep a night, we fortify our commitment.
Find ways to stay invigorated. Television and the internet are temptation islands with food commercials dominating almost 65% of the ad space. Get outside, take a walk, and go for more workouts – whatever you do, get moving! There is nothing like a boost of feel-good endorphins to keep us on track.
Find ways to reward yourself in non-food ways. There are ways to be decadent and pamper ourselves without letting anything too decadent pass our lips. Book a massage or a facial and reward your efforts!
The kiss of death for resolve during a cleanse is hunger. By always having smart snacks like nuts, fruits or vegetables, we keep our energy boosted and battle the three o’clock slump at the same time.
Dehydration has a funny way of disguising itself as hunger. When the pangs start to gnaw at you, drink a glass of water and wait twenty minutes before eating, and more often than not, you’ll find you were just thirsty. This also helps forge the habit of understanding whether you are hungry, thirsty or flat out bored.
Adopt clean ways of cooking. To help sustain your healthy living efforts beyond any length of cleanse, familiarize yourself with steaming, cooking en papillote (in parchment paper) and poaching. All of these methods preserve flavor and nutrients, while producing a minimal amount of fat. | <urn:uuid:69e47d02-3da6-4e95-bc9e-0068af09ffaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.877myjuicer.com/blog/the-anatomy-of-a-detox-motivation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940898 | 473 | 1.539063 | 2 |
"As the phone tapping is a sensitive issue violating right to privacy of an individual, the state government would lodge an FIR (first information report) after thorough investigation," an official statement quoting Roy said.
He said the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) and the vigilance department had tapped certain phone numbers unauthorisedly and illegally during the time of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh last week said the investigation into phone tapping was handed over to the vigilance bureau.
He alleged that even his phones had been tapped and rooms bugged when he was in the opposition.
The total number of phones tapped, mainly of Congress leaders, government functionaries and journalists in violation of the Indian Telegraph Act, was over 1,100, said officials.
Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government will register a case in the mass tapping of phones during the previous BJP regime in the state, Chief Secretary S. Roy said here Thursday.
First Published: Thursday, March 07, 2013, 20:26 | <urn:uuid:fa707f8d-caea-4ba6-a9dc-28b0fe6d7dd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zeenews.india.com/news/himachal-pradesh/himachal-to-register-case-in-mass-phone-tapping_833718.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969877 | 217 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Fall has definitely been in the air the last few days.
Seems like part of a grand plan with the day officially making its mark on Sunday as the transitional season from warm to colder.
All in all, it's been a great summer, marked by just the right amount of heat, an abundance of pleasurable sunny days, the absence of any adverse pest population, the phenomenal leaf changing colors that have been evident everywhere, and lots and lots of people happy just to be able to be out and about.
The down side would be minimal, but the two elements that come to mind would be the excessive winds on a number of days as well as the lack of rainfall with the inches down considerably.
Pair the two together in the event of an uncontrolled fire and it makes for one very dangerous situation.
The adjacent column relates to the open burning of leaves and garden waste, definitely not a good idea in the first place coupled with the no rain spell and the fact that it is also against the law to do so anyway.
Individuals should think twice about any uncontrolled fire situation, whether it pertains to charcoal grills or backyard fireplaces.
If I heard it correctly, one of the most recently reported fire calls was the result of charcoal left in a propane grill igniting the reaction.
So until the fall rains decide to blanket the area, it would do everyone well to take heed when it comes to anything involving creating their own smoke and flames by reading up on what is allowed either adjacent or on the city website. | <urn:uuid:d5f9e0fb-3bfa-4aea-98d8-82c3cead83a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.westfargopioneer.com/content/fall-apparent-everywhere | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965455 | 313 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The Purpose of Advertising
Maximum exposure to buyers that are out there looking is critical, every home seller likes to be assured that their listing agent is marketing their property in the most effective way. It has been shown that print advertising is not as effective as it once was, with more buyers going to the internet to begin their home search, your agents top priority should be getting your home exposed out on the world wide web.
In a study from the National Association of Realtors, it was shown that 90% of home buyers are now going to the internet first when looking for a home. This tells us that one thing you need to make sure of is that your real estate professional is placing your listing in as many real estate related sites as they can. With the way technology has evolved in real estate there is no reason for an agent not to have a specific marketing plan regarding the internet. If they don’t you need to find one that does because you are missing the mark on getting your home seen by a large percentage of today's “internet savvy” buyers.
When you first list your home many agents send "announcements" to the other houses in your neighborhood. This is usually done in the form of postcards or a door hanger. These are important because your neighbors might have friends who are looking to buy a house. | <urn:uuid:a3a30544-1bcb-4bfd-be2b-6fa5f0d0c607> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irgrealestate.com/sellers/marketing-to-buyers?page=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977311 | 274 | 1.5 | 2 |
Illuminating Artwork and Illuminating Lives
A campaign that has provided significant endowment support for the Rutgers-Camden Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Gateway Project also represents a dazzling new entrance into the campus.
The Gateway Project transformed a portion of Fourth Street into a green park accentuated by an ambitious installation of public artwork. Designed by acclaimed New Jersey artist Clyde Lynds, the artwork consists of two murals on walls of tempered glass and stainless steel that illuminate internally at night and converge on a striking monolith.
Conceived and driven by the Dean's Leadership Council, a group of dedicated and successful alumni/ae, the Gateway Project has also transformed lives by offering an entrance to achievement as it provided philanthropic support for the students, faculty, staff, and initiatives of the Rutgers-Camden Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
A dedication ceremony, in which more than 150 guests attended, was held on Oct. 11, 2007. | <urn:uuid:7621b64b-3409-4ef2-a69f-0cf3c1c22dde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/gateway/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953557 | 191 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The federal government has introduced a new national identity card, a smart card, as well as a general multi-purpose card that would be a reliable means of confirming the identities of Nigerians
If there is anything that inhibits the business of Olabode Oruku, chief executive officer of an e-business consultancy outfit, it is the fact that Nigerians are excluded from exploiting many business opportunities on the Internet. According to Oruku, Nigerians are excluded not because there is anything particularly wrong with the person, but owing to the fact that the identity of many Nigerians cannot be easily ascertained. “The problem of identity theft has been with us for a long time. This (theft) is the possibility of people to assume multiple identities, particularly with the intention of perpetrating fraud,” he noted. This is the reason the federal government has been trying to introduce an identity card scheme. The last attempt under former president Olusegun Obasanjo was a failure. But that effort culminated in the passing of the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Bill into law in 2007.
With the advent of the NIMC Act 2007, a new national identity management system, NIMS, has evolved, which is expected to help protect Nigerians from identity theft and fraud by providing a simple, reliable and universally acceptable means of confirming their identities at all times. When the scheme is fully operational between now and 2013, it is expected to provide a convenient and simplified process for enrolment into the national identity database for the issuance and use of the National Identification Number, NIN, which is assigned to an individual upon successful enrolment. Enrolment consists of the recording of an individual’s demographic data and capture of the 10 fingerprints, head-to-shoulder facial picture and digital signature, which are all used to crosscheck existing data in the national identity database to confirm that there is no previous entry of the same data.
NIMS differs from the old national identity card in so many ways. In the first place, it is backed by law therefore all its features are well thought-out and comprehensive. Unlike the old national ID card, which has no personal identification number and signature for the card carriers, the new card has a NIN which is unique to the person in the sense that it would remain exclusive to him, and even when he eventually passes away it would not be assigned to another person. Besides, there is also a provision for self-service. Thus, every citizen from the age of 16 years and above and legal resident can pre-enrol online by accessing the enrolment form through the NIMC website, completing it and securing a summary sheet afterwards, which would later be presented to the enrolment officer at the registration centre in his or her locality to complete the process. Alternatively, one can pick up an enrolment form from any of the registration centres or from a mobile registration centre and either complete same personally or request for assistance in that respect from an executive assistant or a support staff.
Chris Onyemenam, director-general, NIMC, the commission which has the mandate to manage the NIMS, said unlike in the past when the project was mainly focused on identity card printing and issuance, the new NIMS will not only allow for an identity authentication but also verification, through the creation of access to a national identity database and the upgrading of the identity card to a smart card to be known as the general multi-purpose card, GMPC, which would support multiple ID application. He also noted that the commission has offices in all the state capitals and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and also all the 774 local government areas, which makes it easier for citizens to register themselves at their convenient time.
The director-general added that some of the benefits of the NIMS included improvement in physical security, allowing a more secure business environment, improving on human rights, deepening of financial services, including financial inclusion, and improving governance and service delivery. Onyemenam said the commission has created a fibre optic connection to all the security agencies.
According to Section 27 of the NIMC Act, 2007, at a date to be announced by the commission, the use of the NIN shall be compulsory for certain transactions, including application for and issuance of international passport, opening of individual and or personal bank accounts, purchase of insurance policies, consumer credit transactions, registration of voters, and payment of taxes.
So far, the ID card project had become a major conduit pipe for draining national resources and the corrupt enrichment of government officials. Even though this appears to be a well thought-out project, Nigerians cannot forget in a hurry their experiences over previous attempts to come up with a national ID card. Indeed, the current project, which is going to cost the country N30.066 billion, is the fourth time the contract would be awarded. The idea was first mooted in 1967, during the civil war, but it was not executed. It was Obasanjo who revived it in 1979. Before he handed over to Shehu Shagari in October 1979, the project had gulped $16 million (about N10 million then). Under Shagari, it was awarded to two American firms, one to source for the funds and the other to execute the project over a period of 18 months. The contract was later terminated in 1981, but later re-awarded to one of the firms at the cost of N56 million. By 1983, the contract sum had been reviewed upwards to N96 million, but there was virtually no single ID card to show for it.
The project was revived in 2003 under the civilian administration of Obasanjo, when a contract was awarded again, in spite of objections from the National Assembly, to a French company, Sagem, for N38 billion. This was under Sunday Afolabi, who was then the internal affairs minister. In December 2003, Afolabi stood trial along with his successor, Mohammed Shata, Hussain Akwanga, former labour minister and others on charges that they had sought bribes worth some $2 million from the French firm in connection with the contract. | <urn:uuid:f39c9d89-7f4d-4dfc-b546-6aa29e298ccf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mailto:%[email protected]/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1287:identifying-the-nigerian&Itemid=120&videoid=_1_xf7UVIX8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973932 | 1,261 | 1.632813 | 2 |
School starts next week, so Christians on Campus has been really active. We’ve had open houses, moved students into their dorms, breakfasts, lunches, and everything in between. This morning we had Sunday fellowship at our campus house and the topic was Mephibosheth. Now, lets be real for a second. How many of you can honestly say that you know who Mephibosheth was? I couldn’t. But after our fellowship this morning, I’ll never forget his story.
Let me give you the verses from 2 Samuel and then I’ll re-speak (or type) what the brothers shared this morning.
2 Sam 4:4 “Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who had crippled feet. He was five years old when the news came of Saul and Jonathan out or Jezreel. And his nurse took him up and fled. And as she hurried to flee, he fell and was made lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.”
9:1 “And David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show kindness to him for Jonathan’s sake?
3b-9 “And Ziba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet. Then the king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, He is just now in the house of Machir the sone of Amiel in Lo-debar. And King David sent men and took him from the house of Machir the son of Amiel, from Lo-debar. And Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he said, Your servant is here. And David said to him, Do not be afraid, for I will surely show kindness to your for the sake of Jonathan your father; and I will restore to you all the land of your father Saul, and you will eat food at my table continually. And he paid him homage and said, What is your servant that you should look upon a dead dog like me? And the king called Ziba, Saul’s attendant, and said to him, All that belongs to Saul and to all his house I give to your master’s son.”
10b-11 “…and Mephibosheth, said to David, shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons.”
13 “And Mehibosheth dwelt in Jerusalme because he ate at the king’s table continually. And he was crippled in both his feet.”
Ok, so Mephibosheth was Jonathan’s son, which means he was Saul’s grandson. Just in case you don’t know the story, Saul was the first king of Israel, but after a while he turned away from Jehovah and eventually lost His blessing. Jehovah then chose David, who was one of Saul’s attendants who played the lyre. Even though both Saul and Jonathan realized that David would be king someday, Saul tried to kill David but Jonathan made a covenant with David that he would always show kindness to his house (there’s a lot more but this is the abridged version). So after Jonathan and Saul were both killed in battle, David became king. This is why Mephibosheth’s nurse ran – she was afraid David would kill everyone in Saul’s house.
But he didn’t.
He invited Jonathan’s only descendent – the grandson of the man who tried to kill him – to eat at his table continually.
The brother who shared this morning pointed out that this story of Mephibosheth actually represents our Christian experience today.
Romans 5:10 says “For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.” Just like Mephibosheth was an enemy of David, so we were enemies of God. But we were brought back to God through another – through Christ, or in the case of Mephibosheth, through Jonathan.
And like Mephibosheth, we are also lame towards God. According to Romans 3:10-11 “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, there is none who seeks God.” But luckily, Romans 2:4 says “…knowing that God’s kindness is leading you to repentance.” If you look back in the verses, King David sent men and took Mephibosheth. He didn’t seek out David, just like we, in our lame condition, can’t seek out God. God sought us and His kindness leads us to repentance.
So what happens after God finds us and leads us to repentance? We eat! For free! All the time! Once Mephibosheth got to David’s house, all he did was eat at the king’s table. Continually.
But the point that really got me was that when Mephibosheth sat down at the table, he didn’t see his crippled feet! When he sat down at the table all he could see was the food on the table. He forgot about his lame condition and just enjoyed! I don’t know about you, but it seems like I’m always bombarded with thoughts from Satan about what a miserable sinner and terrible person I am. He likes to bring up all of my sins and shortcomings and it’s so easy to get depressed and try to hide from God in Lo-Debar, which by the way means “no pasture,” “not having,” or “not having.” But that’s the perfect opportunity to quote Ephesians 2:11-14 and claim my status as a child of God through the blood of Christ. We don’t have to look at our crippled feet! We can just come to the table through our Savior and eat! Why stay in the place of no supply as an enemy of God when you can feast at the king’s table! Don’t stay in Lo-Debar! Come to the feast and forget about your weaknesses! | <urn:uuid:658e0e5f-a766-4fcb-bac5-60d79355bc01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ordinarydaysinthedivinedispensing.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981398 | 1,382 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Clean-up of graffiti murals angers artists Part one of a two-part series
Sofa's been writing graffiti for 17 years. He was arrested for it three times in his younger days, back when he was going "all-city," which means he was tagging all parts of ’Burque.
Mark Sandoval's had a job painting over graffiti for the city since he got out of high school. He’s spent 40 hours a week for 10 years driving a truck full of solvents and paints.
Though they stand on either side of a long-standing battle line, and though it's unlikely they've ever met, Sandoval and Sofa agree on one thing: Graffiti isn't going anywhere.
"They're never going to stop graffiti," says Sofa. "It's always going to be around."
"I don't think there'll ever be an end," says Sandoval. "It's here to stay."
Sofa's work is no longer the kind that should cause a city worker with a job like Sandoval's any trouble. He's 32 now. He paid his dues. He's a homeowner. He has three daughters and a job. He can't afford to get arrested for the sake of his lifelong passion. "I'm too old for that," he says. "I'm a grownup."
Courtesey of Sofa
But he can't imagine stopping. Three years ago, Sofa walked through the doors of Acme Iron and Metal, a yard off Second Street in the North Valley. Vandals scrawled their chicken scratch tags all over the fences, the ditch and the walls along the north side of the building. Sure enough, the owner said he wouldn't mind if Sofa and his buddies took over the 150-yard-long wall to paint intricate, detailed murals instead of quick nasty tags, curse words and handles in marker and black spray paint.
Sofa, an acronym for "Stomping Over F'ing Albuquerque," called his friends, old-time writers from all over the country. They painted large pieces, colorful murals, and cleaned up what they began calling "the park," removing some trash and weeds.
A month or two ago, Bernalillo County painted over the hundreds of hours of work and as many gallons of paint in what had come to be a landmark for anyone with an eye for strong graffiti art.
Jerold Schmider, owner of Acme Iron and Metal, says as far as he's concerned, Sofa still had his permission to paint and patrol that wall. "The problem is there is a lot of tagging and a lot of graffiti going on with people that don't have permission, and it looks pretty bad. People came out to clean it up and got a little overly rambunctious," he says. As soon as the walls were once again a blank slate, ugly tags spread like a virus over the yard once again. "It happened rather quickly," says Schmider. "If there's going to be graffiti, the stuff [Sofa and his friends] do looks much better."
Michael Rodriguez, the county's anti-graffiti coordinator, says he went into Acme and got permission from a manager or owner, he's not sure which, before the crew of volunteers painted over the wall. "It wasn't only artwork," he says. "There was gang graffiti on there. The public was concerned and wanted it removed, and that's my job."
Every couple of weekends or so, Sofa and his brother, who goes by Went, head out to check on the wall, to paint or to cover up the chicken scratch young writers occasionally dare to paint over the otherwise revered art. They say their murals help keep the other kind of graffiti writing away. Rodriguez begs to differ. "It spreads like cancer," he says. "People are really concerned about graffiti spreading to the North Valley. It not only promotes fear, but it also affects the value of homes and businesses."
Graffiti eraser Sandoval works seven days a week. He drives up Candelaria on a Sunday morning, the live-dispatch radio's squawk competing with his hip-hop. Stickers of pretty girls adorn the dashboard. The folder that holds his work orders has graffiti-styled letters on the cover. Every time he stops to paint over or spray solvent on a tag, he makes careful note of the signature, reading hand-styles that might be little more than squiggles to the naked eye. Those records are used when a suspected tagger is arrested.
Though Sofa and Went say the city's gotten cleaner over the years, Sandoval says the scrawl is increasing. "It's climbing every month," he says. Last month, the graffiti squad removed tags from more than 4,000 sites. He follows the path of one tagger through a neighborhood, using brown coverup paint on a homeowner's wall, gray paint on a bench, solvents on the light post in front of Valley High School. He says he's never painted over anything that looked like a mural.
Muralist Rock doesn't know who erased the wall he's been painting murals on behind the Pop ’n' Taco for more than four years. He was sure he had permission and had even checked with the realty company that owns the wall on Central and Edith about six months ago. He sought a safe place to paint "to avoid the hassle of people who don't understand what we're doing," he says. "If we can get permission and just an outlet, it's a positive way to express ourselves. That's all we're looking for." Rock has participated in five legit walls around the city, including the Acme wall. After the sweeps of the last few months, he says, only one remains.
Art DeLaCruz, who works with the Solid Waste Management Department, checked on all the walls the Alibi received calls about. Rock's mural, a tribute to Steve Irwin (the crocodile hunter), was covered top to bottom in gang graffiti, according to DeLaCruz. But Rock says he patrolled that wall to ensure there wasn't any graffiti on it. The department attempted to contact the wall-owners on several occasions, says DeLaCruz, and never received a call back. Because of the gang symbols, says DeLaCruz, the wall was painted over. Leonard Garcia, director of Solid Waste Management, says the department doesn't get into content. "We don't care what it is," he says. "We want to make sure the neighborhoods look nice, so it's not a content issue. It's never been a concern for us."
"It's very discouraging," Rock says. "It makes it pointless. The paint costs a lot of money."
Back at the Second Street park two weeks ago, Sofa rolls paint he purchased himself over the tags that went up over the County's cleanup effort. It's pink. He and his crew are reclaiming their space with letters. A few of the wall’s panels host the placeholder art thrown up on this day. "I'm mad," he says. "I want to put some new stuff here, not only to re-cover this ugly graffiti, to recover our turf, our wall. We ain't going to give it up."
The wall behind the Pop 'n' Taco on Central and Edith before the city painted it over about a month ago.
Murals from the 150-yard-long wall on the north side of Acme Iron and Metal on Second Street. Though the wall's owner had given permission for the writers to put up this work, Bernalillo County painted over them all last month. | <urn:uuid:08614185-038c-4eb0-8c33-d738bdfe2630> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alibi.com/news/19042/White-Wash.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982177 | 1,595 | 1.539063 | 2 |
CNA certification in Alaska can be one of the most rewarding experiences, because it is an excellent way to get your start in a career in healthcare. Alaska is one of the best places to be employed as a nursing assistant in the United States as they pay the best salary for them. To obtain your certification, you should complete a state-approved school course as well as pass the certification exam and the state and federal background checks for criminal records. You can also apply for the certification exam if you have completed your program from another state or in another country and have also performed the required practical hours.
For one to be qualified to take the CNA exam, he should first complete a training program which has been approved by the state. It should have at least 140 hours of training which shall be comprised of 60 hours of classroom teaching and 80 hours of actual practice. The length of your training could range from about 8-13 weeks or about 2-6 months. Those who have been taking nursing fundamentals can also apply if they have completed the basic nursing and clinical practice that is needed. One can also apply if he has finished a school program in other countries. Those who had been trained in medic training programs for the military may also apply.
After completing the state authorized training program, one may then apply for certification by taking an exam. It will contain both a written and a skills demonstration part which one would need to pass. For the exam, an applicant should submit a completed application form to the Alaska Board of Nursing together with the needed verification forms as well as your credentials from the program. You would also need to submit an ID photo, 1 piece of a passport sized photo, the required fees, as well as fingerprint cards which would be needed for your state and federal background check. There will also be required some health and immunization tests in order to determine if you are physically fit to be a nursing assistant. The Board of Nursing will not publish your exam results unless you pass the background check. You will be notified of your exam date about 2 weeks after you submit these requirements.
After you pass the exam and the background check, your name will then be entered on the AK Nurse Aid Registry. You will then be required to renew your license every 2 years on even-numbered years. If you have had your license for more than 1 year you will be required to have 12 hours of continuing education and 160 work-hours as a nursing assistant. If 2 years, then you will be required to have 24 hours of continuing education and 160 hours of paid work as well. For those who have had their license for less than a year, they would not be required to have any of the mentioned required work hours and continuing education.
Click this link to see what CNA classes in Alaska are currently available by city. | <urn:uuid:88693203-dee5-4b09-a2b1-f65fce54a4c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnaedu.com/cna-certification-in-alaska/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978284 | 566 | 1.75 | 2 |
Go back in history and view the beginning of the American Revolution through the eyes of its participants.
Observations on the election from the liberty wing of the party.
Russell Means was an inspiration to all people who yearn to be free.
Some activists who once believed in electoral choice seem to have a very skewed view on the gambling issue.
If they had any shame, after reading the ruling against indefinite military detention in the NDAA, legislators who voted for the bill would resign.
Changes in party rules in Tampa may end the GOP as we know it.
Paul Ryan is like the pair of used socks your senile granny gave you at Christmas...
How can I be a proud American when I can't find any pride or honor in our politicians?
The dictatorship of Our Lady Liberty!
Is freedom in America truly free? And how is it guaranteed? | <urn:uuid:7c5d19e4-819d-4284-80fe-56a7c93ba080> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogcritics.org/tag/liberty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964172 | 179 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Madison Buffalo Jump Will Remain a State Park
(Helena, MT) – Montana State Parks (stateparks.mt.gov) announced today that the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission has approved the Parks Division’s recommendation to sign the lease and pay the annual fee to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to keep Madison Buffalo Jump, near Three Forks, a state park. The Parks Division received overwhelming public comment in favor of this action.
Earlier this week, Montana State Parks received a donation from the Lee and Donna Metcalf Charitable Foundation to pay this year’s annual recreational-use fee of $4,272 and to create a matching grant program for the future.
“We are extremely grateful for this generous donation from the Lee and Donna Metcalf Charitable Foundation, as our resources are stretched,” said Chas Van Genderen, Administrator for Montana State Parks. “Through this public process, we’ve seen how much Montanans support Madison Buffalo Jump and their state parks system overall.”
The Parks Division has been responsible for operation and maintenance of Madison Buffalo Jump State Park since 1967.
With tight resources, the Parks Division sought to forgo management of this state park. But, strong public support for the site to remain a state park, including more than 230 public comments and two public open houses, led to today’s recommendation that the lease agreement be signed and the annual fee paid.
State park officials are seeking a long-term solution to the stewardship of the park.
Montana State Parks will work with interested citizens to form a Madison Buffalo Jump friends group this spring to help provide support and guidance for the matching grant program.
About the Lee and Donna Metcalf Charitable Foundation:
The primary activity of the Trust is to provide funding efforts to assist in land, air and water conservation, historical preservation and education.
Lee Warren Metcalf (1911- 1978) was a lawyer, judge and served in both the US House (1953-1961) and Senate (1961-1978) from Montana. He was the longest permanent acting President pro tem of the Senate.
Donna A. Hoover Metcalf (1913 – 2009) was seen as one of her husband’s greatest assets in his many political campaigns and was a leading wilderness advocate for decades.
Madison Buffalo Jump State Park contains highly, significant cultural resources. It is noted for its impressive views of the Madison Valley and the limestone cliff that was used by native people to stampede bison off of for 2,000 years for use as food, clothing and more.
Visit Montana State Parks (stateparks.mt.gov) and enjoy camping, hiking, fishing, swimming, boating and more and discover some of the greatest natural and cultural treasures on earth. | <urn:uuid:861f7bda-7fac-4a5d-85fb-38e7291e44c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stateparks.mt.gov/news/newsPage.html?article_loc=/shared/parksNews/nr_0052.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949636 | 584 | 1.507813 | 2 |
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Nov 18, 2011
The Navy said it will re-evaluate a proposal to build a live-fire training range at the site of an ancient village on Guam after a lawsuit challenged its plans.
Joseph Ludovici, director of the military's Joint Guam Program Office, which is coordinating the U.S. military's buildup on Guam, said in a court filing Tuesday that additional analysis on the matter "was appropriate."
He said the Navy would begin to prepare a new environmental impact statement on the issue early next year.
The decision comes a year after historic preservation groups and Guamanians sued the Navy, alleging it failed to adequately consider locations that would have less of a harmful impact on the environment and historic sites.
It further alleged the Navy failed to adequately examine the environmental consequences of its actions.
The lawsuit said archaeological studies date the village, Pagat, to A.D. 700, while traditional knowledge indicates the village was inhabited 3,000 years ago. The village has up to 20 sets of carved stone pedestals, called "latte," upon which the indigenous Chamorro people set buildings.
The Navy wants to build the firing range complex on Guam so Marines due to move to the U.S. territory from Okinawa, Japan, will have a place to train.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a party in the lawsuit, welcomed the Navy's decision to reconsider.
"Pagat Village is a rare and extraordinary site, filled with history and culture," the group's president, Stephanie Meeks, said in a statement. She added, "The Navy made the right decision to re-open the public review process and we would like to thank them for reconsidering the location of these firing ranges."
The trust put Pagat on its 2010 list of the most endangered historic places in the U.S. because of the Navy's plans.
At its peak the military buildup on Guam is expected to boost the territory's population by 79,000 people, or 45 percent, from its current 180,000 residents.
Guam is about 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii and 1,500 miles south of Tokyo. | <urn:uuid:6ad337e2-e8fd-400e-b843-dc6d3404cb0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/hawaiinews/20111118_Navy_to_review_plan_for_building_firing_range_over_ancient_village.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966469 | 450 | 1.78125 | 2 |
A Kansas jury last week recommended that the man who raped and killed 19-year-old Jodi Sanderholm two years ago be put to death -- a verdict that could be the state's last death sentence because of the country's dire economic straits.
Kansas Republican state Sen. Carolyn McGinn, who has proposed a bill to overturn the death penalty in the state, is one of a growing number of legislators nationwide who are citing drained resources and severe budget cuts as a reason to ban capital punishment.
"We're looking at any way we can to save money moving forward in the state of Kansas," McGinn told FOXNews.com. "This will save significant money -- money that could be used toward education programs and toward community corrections programs," she said.
Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, Nebraska and New Mexico are among those states actively considering abolishing executions as a way to cut costs. But in other states, including Texas and California, the debate has gained little ground.
The proposal has infuriated many who say the death penalty cannot be decided in dollars and cents.
"You cannot put a price on justice," said Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six. "Our death penalty statute is a useful tool for law enforcement as they bring justice to families devastated by heinous and violent murder."
Another person who strongly opposes abolishing the death penalty is Jodi Sanderholm's mother, Cindy, who told FOXNews.com that she wants her daughter's murderer to die.
"We saw the brutality that he did to our daughter, and he truthfully deserved it. He could have changed his mind in those five hours he tortured her, and he didn't. How can they waive that?"
In the case of murderer Justin Thurber, they almost certainly won't. He will face execution by lethal injection if the judge formally sentences him to die on March 20. But Thurber could turn out to be the last killer to face the ultimate punishment in Kansas. McGinn's measure -- if passed -- will take effect on July 1.
A 1992 estimate in Texas -- which has had more executions than any other state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 -- showed that death row cases cost taxpayers $2.3 million per case, compared to $750,000 for life sentence cases.
McGinn cited a 2003 state audit that reported the median cost for death penalty cases in Kansas was $1.26 million through execution, while non-death penalty cases cost $740,000 through the end of a prisoner's incarceration.
McGinn said legal fees related to death row cases make up a large expense for states, which often have to pay the costs of both the prosecution and defense in capital punishment trials.
"When you add all those costs up and weigh it against that individual being isolated and locked up for the rest of his or her life, it's a much greater cost," said McGinn. She said capital murder trials, on average, cost 16 times more than non-death penalty cases. The appeals cost 21 times more, she said.
But the cost factor is just one reason McGinn opposes the death penalty. She calls it a flawed system that is anything but just. Critics say the death penalty entraps minorities and the poor who often cannot afford competent legal representation.
"Approximately 40 percent of the folks on death row are African-Americans -- and they represent only 12.2 percent of our entire population," McGinn said.
The effort to abolish the death penalty has been met with great resistance, particularly by state attorneys general and victims' rights groups. The Kansas attorney general said the 2003 state study relied on data reported by "interested parties -- not actual costs -- and projections that are acknowledged to be speculative."
"Since the death penalty was reinstated in Kansas, no reliable study has been conducted to compare the actual costs of death penalty cases versus cases with life sentences. The study being used by proponents states very clearly that '[i]t is not a study of whether it is more costly for Kansas to have the death penalty than not to have it,'" Six told FOXNews.com.
But McGinn refuted that charge, saying the report included data from law enforcement officials, the American Bar Association and the state attorney general's office.
Attorney General Six and others opposed to the measure say capital punishment is a useful tool for prosecutors and a deterrent for criminals looking to commit heinous acts.
"It is by exacting the highest penalty for these individuals -- whose brutal, vicious acts have taken a life and whose conduct demonstrate they have forfeited their right to live among us -- that we recognize the value of the life taken," Six wrote on his Web site.
McGinn countered that the death penalty may bring no more closure to families than life sentences without the chance for parole.
"This measure is not to diminish the pain and suffering these families have gone through," McGinn said.
"I don't stand in her shoes," McGinn said of Sanderholm's mother, "but nobody seems to talk about the pain that these families go through because of the countless appeals that these murderers are given because they're on death row." | <urn:uuid:3ffa671e-e3d5-49f4-b30c-529dcfee593e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/24/lawmakers-cite-economic-crisis-effort-ban-death-penalty/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970716 | 1,060 | 1.554688 | 2 |
IKE Update 09/15: Sheltering Team Reports from Austin
This is a report is from IFAW’s Gail A’Brunzo, who heads another sheltering team in the Texas state capital of Austin.
Here in Austin we’ve been working round the clock in a local high school that’s become a shelter for scores of animals evacuated from the hurricane zone. We’re working 12-hour shifts to provide help and security to the many dogs, cats and other animals here. This system is functioning well but shelter workers are extremely tired.
The Hendrickson High School shelter is actually one of five now operating in the Austin area. Because many of the animals’ owners were also evacuated from coastal areas hit by Ike, they are able to come and care for their pets: feeding, cleaning, walking and playing with them to overcome stress and better deal with their losses. The shelters in Austin have cared for about 200 dogs, 60 cats and 55 other animals (birds, guinea pigs, pocket pets, turtles). And as some owners and their animals head for home, the Texas State Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is gradually consolidating shelters.
However, shelters housing evacuees and animals from the coastal city of Galveston will have to stay open longer because of the extensive damage caused by high winds and flooding there. Galveston evacuees tell harrowing stories about rushing to leave their homes as the huge storm bore down; one family described how their trailer was under 15 feet of water as they escaped in their car.
In the shelter, animals and human caregivers share the same space, the former in cages and the latter occasionally taking rests on wooden pallets placed on the ground. One caregiver suddenly awoke from a catnap to what sounded like the snarls of a vicious dog. It turned out this was just snoring from a French bulldog named Slugger, lying not far away. | <urn:uuid:9f3e0928-7190-4901-bfaa-66d7628f3203> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/node/2026 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97255 | 400 | 1.617188 | 2 |
I went for a kayak along to Seary's Creek this morning with a friend. Seary's Creek is one of the creeks that come out of the sand in the Great Sandy National Park. The tide was right but the weather could have been lots better. It wasn't cold but the clouds were hanging around and got heavier as the morning went on. We put the kayaks in at Crab Creek and then paddled along the southern side of the bay and crossed over to the other side close to where the big power lines cross the bay. This photo is looking west along the bay towards Tin Can Bay
We got out of the kayaks as soon as we reached the other side as there is an interesting piece of saltmarsh there. When we stepped out onto the sandbank there were recent dog footprints in the sand. This is a long way from any houses so it might have been a wild dog or more likely a dingo. There were several interesting mangrove trees growing close to the edge of the water. They looked quite normal on the bottom part but the top portion of growth and leaves were quite different. The leaves were much smaller and a slightly different color. I wonder if some pollution in the water might have done this?
Usually there are quite large numbers of Whimbrels in the mangroves where the creek runs into the bay but we didn't see any at all this morning. However, we did see 23 Grey-tailed Tattlers and a couple of Little Egrets which made noises which sounded as if they were objecting to us invading their space.
We kayaked right up to where there is a bridge crossing the creek. Even on a dark and dingy morning like this morning it is a beautiful place.
I enjoyed the trip along the bay - BUT - next time I will do this kayak later in the summer when I have had a chance to get rid of some of the winter stiffness! I measured the distance on Google Earth and it was a round trip of 9 Kms. - a little much for right now. | <urn:uuid:858f49ff-5583-46cf-9323-14b89f842e4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sandystraitsandbeyond.blogspot.com/2010/10/kayaking-on-grey-day.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986873 | 421 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Atheism is based on an aversion to religion, a strong and often aggressive disbelief in the concept of a perfect, ubiquitous being. Atheists say they do not need to disprove God’s existence any more than they need to disprove the Tooth Fairy’s existence, and many assert that it is childish and stupid to think anything else. This is fine, and perhaps even true. Arguments about God will always revert back to the fact that the topic is effectively impossible to debate because it is predicated on belief and not fact. What atheists should look to is not the particulars of the argument on God, but rather that they are seeing it as an argument in the first place. What atheists need is not an education in religion and spirituality, but a lesson in how to view religion as a dynamic force of livelihood rather than as an outdated vehicle for violence and coercion as they so often do.
As David Foster Wallace bluntly proclaimed in 2005 as Kenyon College’s commencement speaker, “everybody worships.” If you don’t worship a God, you worship wealth, success, intellect, or any number of other personal attributes that you may value highly. Wallace was speaking in specific terms, on a personal level. More broadly, atheists worship science. Science, apparently, is superior to religion because it is based on fact and can be backed up with evidence. Even better, science can be literally put to the test with experiments and consistent results. Put up to these standards, religion fails miserably. You can’t analyze God’s results, whatever results we do have definitely aren’t consistent, and atheists scoff at the idea that God be omnipresent because they’ve already proven scientifically that nothing can be.
This is a sound argument. In this realm – the one where everything falls on a spectrum of substantiation – the atheists are right. But they miss the point that they are operating within a scientific mindset where argument reigns king. Religion, save for fundamentalists of every creed, need not necessarily be about arguments over right and wrong and beliefs about the superiority or inferiority of each way of thinking. This is because religion is not so much a way of thinking as it is a way of living.
Or, it can be. Religion, whether you believe in it or not, is useful. I mean this not in a political or sociological sense, but in a personal sense. It has been (scientifically!) proven that religious people are happier than non-religious people. This need not mean that we should all subscribe to the beliefs of a religion – rather, it implies that the religious way of life is worthy of inspection and possibly even good. The actual prescriptions within religious texts as to how one should live are, for the most part, very sound.
What matters more? Argumentation, the ability to prove a point, or how we live? You and I (assuming you are not a dogmatic fundamentalist) both understand that religious myths like those in the Bible are clearly untrue. This is a scientific way to view these stories, and it bears almost no relevance. The myths still serve a purpose. They give us a moral code, showing us how to live. This is incredibly valuable. I’m positive that everyone reading this, even if my readership is composed entirely of fiendish scientific atheists, has read a book, heard a song, or had an experience that contributed to their own personal conception of who they are and how they live today. That’s what life is, and in this way, religion trumps science. One need not believe in God in order to gain something from going to church.
Atheism too often turns religion into something it is not, and makes a fatal error in evaluating people. Because after all, people are not computers, driven by data and persuaded by rationality alone. We need a way of life, and religion has the potential to give it to many of us if only we would let it. | <urn:uuid:c120f965-b8f8-4981-b7cc-8da40b47edda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://apps.carleton.edu/carletonian/?story_id=952376&textonly=1&issue_id=951885 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963508 | 818 | 1.84375 | 2 |
While the public may look at a town with four school districts and see an opportunity for consolidation, decreased state funding and increased state mandates make the idea much less likely.
That was the message Monday night from Rick Timbs, executive director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium, who moderated a forum featuring Cheektowaga’s four school boards in the Cleveland Hill High School auditorium.
Timbs spent much of the forum addressing the capacity crowd of about 150 people on the state’s history of providing financial aid to districts, contending that the lack of promised funding is crippling schools to the point of insolvency.
“I’ve watched Western New York enter a malaise for 40 years, and it’s accelerating now,” Timbs said. “There’s not a single wealthy school district in Western New York. Hard to believe, but it’s true.”
The financial inequality of the state’s funding formula, as well as the diminished value of New York’s mandated Foundation Aid, is forcing districts to consider drastic moves such as consolidation, according to Timbs. Cleveland Hill, for one, received only $8.1 million of its promised $12.8 million in Foundation Aid from the state this year. Similarly, Cheektowaga is short about $6.2 million, Maryvale $2.4 million and Sloan $3.8 million.
“The districts are getting millions less than they were in 2008-09,” Timbs said. “How are you supposed to operate? It’s unsustainable.”
With decreasing revenue, districts are forced to cut staff and programs while using their savings to offset tax increases, but Timbs said schools are running out of all three options. This is not only affecting the quality of education, he said, but the quality of life in the community.
“We could be leaner and meaner,” he said, “but no matter how much [districts] share, they will never be able to make up the losses. The loss is too big.”
Timbs also addressed the topic of consolidation. Consolidating Cheektowaga’s four districts – Cheektowaga Central, Cleveland Hill, Maryvale and Cheektowaga-Sloan – has been discussed among administrators over the last few months. The districts agreed to pursue a state efficiency grant that would examine a potential merger, but Timbs was quick to note that such a move may not save taxpayers money in the long term.
Timbs cited studies showing that although merging districts could combine resources, enhance programs and facilities, stabilize property taxes and attract better teachers, as well as earn fiscal incentives from the state, it also could raise unrealistic expectations for the new district.
In addition, he said, whatever incentives the new district would receive are only short-term, forcing administrators to face tightening budgets once again.
The districts “that are looking at mergers are doing so because they’re poor,” Timbs said. “If you merge two small poor districts, you get one large poor district.”
The issues facing school districts resonated beyond Cheektowaga on Monday. The West Seneca School Board moved its regularly scheduled Monday meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 5:30 so its seven members could head to Cleveland Hill.
It’s not that there are any plans for consolidation in West Seneca, trustees said, but there’s interest in hearing about the issues from a state perspective.
“We’re very interested in what Albany and what various people – the governor – and all have to say” about consolidation, board member Janice E. Dalbo said. “It’s kind of a hot topic in the state. ”
West Seneca is in the midst of a proposed intradistrict reconfiguration that would relocate students from East Elementary School to achieve a transition to a sixth- through eighth-grade middle school. Currently, the district has a middle school of grades 7 and 8.
The issue of reconfiguration, which has roiled parents in the district, was not raised at Monday’s meeting.
The board will host a second parent forum at 7 tonight in West Middle School, 395 Center Road. A vote on the issue is expected at a Feb. 11 meeting of the board.
News Staff Reporter T.J. Pignataro contributed to this report. email: [email protected] | <urn:uuid:ab9595d9-7446-40c2-9080-b31adfd2565b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130129/CITYANDREGION/130129104/1014 | 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 | 0.963118 | 956 | 1.648438 | 2 |
By Bay City News Service
The California Air Resources Board announced Sunday evening that it is easing certain restrictions on gasoline production in response to a directive issued by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Brown ordered the board to allow refineries to switch to a gasoline blend that is normally only used in winter in an effort to lower gas prices.
The order, issued Sunday, directed the board to take whatever steps are necessary to authorize refineries to make an early switch to winter-blend gasoline.
The blend, which isn't normally sold until after Oct. 31, evaporates more quickly than summer blend and is worse for air quality during the smog season, according to state officials.
However, an early transition to it could increase the state's fuel supply by an estimated 8 to 10 percent with a negligible air quality impact, Brown said. Due to its composition, refiners can produce more of the winter blend.
Sunday evening, in response to the governor's order, the California Air Resources Board announced that it will allow the manufacture, importation, distribution and sale of the winter-grade gasoline.
State officials said the recent spike in gas prices, which has seen gas prices above $5 a gallon in some areas, has been fueled in part by recent disruptions in gas production, including at an Exxon refinery in Southern California.
However, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said that even with the disruptions, gas production in the state this week remained nearly as high as a year ago, and that stockpiles remain similar to last year's.
Feinstein sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission on Sunday calling for an investigation into the price hike.
"California's consumers are all too familiar with energy price spikes, which cannot be explained by market fundamentals and which turn out years later to have been the result of malicious and manipulative trading activity," Feinstein said in the letter. | <urn:uuid:193ef80b-daea-46e0-a0c2-b7dd73056adc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://berkeley.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/gov-brown-makes-move-to-bring-down-soaring-gas-prices-60f55a1b | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965229 | 379 | 1.703125 | 2 |
It was easy to miss: small minds, short meeting.We did? I don't recall that meeting of the minds.
While I continue to search for the link......riddle me this, Batman: If it isn't illegal, why do we need a Presidential Finding or an Authorization to do it?Got Link? Good luck with that.
Now, I don't recall the term "regime change" being coined by President Clinton but Bill or Marv might remember when the term was first actually used. This for your edification and enlightenment:If you recall, the term "regime change" was coined by Bill Clinton and was reflected in the Iraq Liberation Act he signed into law in '98. The purpose of the Iraq Liberation Act, you might ask? To foster the overthrow of a foreign government.
"Regime change" is literally the replacement of one regime with another. While it is widely believed that the term was first coined by former US President Bill Clinton, use of the term dates to at least 1925.
Just trying to be helpful...it's my nature, you know.
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anais Nin | <urn:uuid:4707219f-072d-44b7-9866-20540b54740d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.retrievertraining.net/forums/showthread.php?33358-Since-all-the-PC-folks-are-on-this-place&p=367184&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972653 | 242 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Labs technicians have discovered an Android malware
on Google Play which appears to have been designed not to attack its host smart phone but rather any PC that the device connects to.
The security software company said the malware is disguised as a memory-killer utility. Users who download it end up with three malware files.
A PC that connects to the infected phone while in USB emulation mode and with Windows Autorun on, will get hit by a backdoor attack.
Kasperky Labs said the primary purpose of the malware is to record any audio detected by the PC’s microphone. It save this to a file and later uploads that to a server using an encrypted format.
Read the whole story here | <urn:uuid:67e27a22-6337-4ee9-9ad9-ffc3d309751a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/first-android-malware-targeting-pcs-uncovered/146704 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947054 | 144 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Health Care Act (aka “ObamaCare”) last week brought with it some surprises, news coverage gaffes and high emotion in social networks, including some crude – and vulgar – tweets.
As I read the news coverage of and reaction to the bad social-media behavior, I mused on the connections between our personal social media brands, and the reputations of the organizations we represent. Many professionals – myself included – are active on social networks as de facto but not official representatives of the brand. Sure, we can put “My tweets are my own,” in our twitter profiles, but in my mind, if you associate yourself with the organization you work for or represent, in my mind, you bear some extra responsibility. You may not be tweeting under the organizations’ official account but you are contributing to its reputation nonetheless.
The careless tweeters on Thursday did not benefit either their personal brands, or their employers’ causes. The inflammatory tweets inflamed their opposition, supplying an opportunity for them draw additional attention to their point of view. From a strategy standpoint, this tactic was a loser.
So here are my thoughts on guidelines anyone who associates themselves with a brand in social networks should consider adhering to when engaging in conversation online:
Keep it clean. Despite the fact that TV networks now regularly use language formerly considered vulgar in prime time, anyone associated with a brand should steer clear of doing the same in social media. And Defcon-five level vulgarities – i.e. the F-bomb, its derivatives and other phrases of its ilk – should be studiously avoided.
It will come back to you. Be sure you want to see it again. Sure, you can delete a tweet or a status update – but you can’t delete impressions, and if someone else grabs a screenshot of your message, your bad judgment may live on in perpetuity.
Would your boss/CEO/child/parents be horrified? If the message you’re planning to issue would cause people you care about – or people you want to respect you – to recoil if they saw your statement in the New York Times (or on Mashable’s home page), then don’t post it. The same rule applies for petty insults and snarky commentary. Don’t give in to temptation.
Take the high road. You will never go astray if you stick to the high road, and your statements will never come back to haunt you – or your boss. Be a good sport -a gracious winner and a good loser. And never be a jerk.
Do some scenario planning. What are the best- and (more importantly) the worst-case scenarios your message could generate? Do you want to have the conversations your missive could catalyze? Before posting that Tweet, think through the scenarios.
Divide and conquer, or don’t mix work and play. It’s fine to have a space to let your hair down, and many people have “work” and “play” social presences. For me, my fun space is on Facebook. My presence there is decidedly non-professional – I yammer happily about sports, my garden and my pets – and my network is made up of people who I really do know and whom I consider friends. I manage my privacy settings carefully, so people I’m not connected with can only see what I want them to see. That said, I don’t run too far amok on Facebook, but I don’t avoid controversial subjects on that network.
It’s safe to assume that someone is always watching, and that messages you issue will never go away. Hewing to these simple guidelines will help you avoid tarnishing your personal brand – and the organization you represent professionally.
Have I left anything out? If so, leave your additions in the comments. | <urn:uuid:47be8b1c-41c5-4fdd-8b77-ee63dc140a3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.prnewswire.com/2012/07/05/the-fine-line-between-your-professional-brand-and-your-organizations-reputation/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=bcc517a348 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944529 | 812 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Starving the golden goose
Are we in danger of choking off the cash supply to content providers?
Published 16:17, 07 March 12
The new revolution in apps and social media continues at a stunning rate. Nearly every day a colleague tells me of another app or site that is bubbling up and about to hit the big time. Many will not break through, but some will capture the imagination and become the next generation of YouTube and Facebook.
The behaviour of certain apps/sites, however, gives me some cause for concern. As a recent entrant to Pinterest,
I was alarmed to note that the site takes a copy of the pinned image
and serves that from its own servers.
The burden of managing copyright issues seems to sit firmly with the users, most of whom never give such legislation a second thought. There is a method for removing content however, unsurprisingly, it’s not half as simple as pinning new content. Pinterest’s terms and conditions are also interesting, giving it "irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free" permission to "exploit" member content.
The Pinterest site is building its value on other people’s content — which is fine as long as those people have consented. I recently looked at some interesting Infographics pinned on the site, all of which must have taken considerable resources to put together, yet I never once needed to visit the source site, which may have perhaps triggered advertising income vital to enabling them to continue their work. I wonder if they even realise their content is available in this way?
If these tools hit critical mass — and why wouldn’t they? — then the content creator may only see a few hits on their page while the news aggregator services push the content to hundreds of millions. How long could a content creator exist in that environment, starved of advertising revenue, before they decide to step behind a paywall, the kiss of death for much Internet content?
Is this practice not starving the golden goose that provides the content these services rely on? Is it still ethically acceptable to apologise after the fact rather than ask permission beforehand, perpetuating the myth that all Internet content is free? And should new application creators take on responsibility for these issues themselves rather than palming it off onto their users, who have shown a remarkable indifference in the past?
by Andrew Rose | <urn:uuid:8e025da4-aa3e-43cd-8a02-a9d28f1d0627> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/security-and-risk/2012/03/starving-the-golden-goose/index.htm | 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 | 0.956583 | 482 | 1.554688 | 2 |
There is a new computer display related standard floating around the graphics cards and monitors manufacturing industry and its name is Display Port, its mission, to replace the currently used HDMI standard while offering higher output quality and multiple connecting options as well as ease of installation and use.
The new standard is expected to appear in 2008 and users wanting to enjoy the advantages that come with it will have to dig deep into their pockets as they will need some major hardware upgrades including graphics cards, monitor and connectors.
While few of the most important computer monitors manufacturing companies already presented their Display Port implementing and compatible line of products or at least prototypes and concepts, the graphics cards producers, Nvidia and AMD, are keeping a low profile for now, presumably being too busy working on their own card designs and compatible graphics processing units.
At the Intel Developer Forum shows, a team from Nvidia presented a graphics card based on the next generation of video processing units which will soon hit the market, most probably in November. Apart from the fact that this graphics cards integrates the most innovative technologies available to date, it also comes with an implementation of the Display Port standard, so at least Nvidia will have some solutions compatible with the new standard when it is launched. As for Advanced Micro Devices, no word is out yet concerning their Display Port compatible graphics units, but it may be safe to assume that they will soon follow with a similar design, just in time to catch the holiday shopping season.
One thing jumps out when looking at this new Nvidia graphics product (apart from the clumsy cut radiator covering that is, which should make some of its features) and that is the absence of an external power connector so this card may be based on the fabled 65 nanometer built G92 graphics processing unit. | <urn:uuid:74ce5740-d2ce-40ee-a185-1e9469426cc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.softpedia.com/news/Graphics-Cards-Made-by-Nvidia-And-Display-Port-Compatible-66445.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953793 | 352 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Aujourd’hui, nous allons faire un plat traditionel francais
She married her husband in the 60′s when he came to France with the US Navy,
followed him back to the States and made a home for him and their two children.
Sadly, she passed away last year but was a joy to be around the whole time I knew her.
We all miss her and think of her often.
She was tres French and retained a strong accent to the end.
She had been taught all the homekeeping techniques as girls were then and
she taught me many things when I was younger.
How to properly iron, how to make a skirt without a pattern, how to roast a chicken
and how to make this fabulous quiche I’m sharing with you today.
The French philosophy of caring for possessions was strong and when her daughter passed along Tante Jeanne’s bedroom furniture to my daughter last year,
it looked like it had just been delivered from the store.
Jeanne’s mother was a lacemaker and she kept her treasured pieces of lace
wrapped in tissue in a drawer.
She took them out one day years ago when we first moved here to Va and showed them to me.
Being a seamstress and, at the time, being involved in French handsewing
and hand smocking dresses for my girls……I just drooled.
She had that distinctive French handwriting style which we all admire so.
Such neatly formed and equally sized letters.
I’ve scanned in the original recipe for quiche Lorraine that she gave me so many years ago.
The French school system begins handwriting instruction at a very young age.
if they are to succeed at being a part of the society as a whole.
This form of communication unites their people.
Since all are taught the same it is less easy to determine educational level
and social standing simply by viewing someone’s handwriting.
The particular style, which I believe is called la Ronde is rigorously taught in all schools.
Children have notebooks which require different color pens for different lessons.
I read that many French teachers (sadly unlike those here in the US)
will not even accept work for grading if it is poorly written.
In fact most US schools recently discontinued the teaching of cursive writing!
Sadly, in our country these “niceties” are considered unnecessary.
Very little work is handwritten anymore as computers are used for everything.
My grandmother, who left school in the 8th grade, had the most beautiful handwriting.
I can remember her lining off sheets of paper for me to practice on
and she would correct my letters as I sat at her formica table
while she either baked or cooked.
Later, when I took an architectural drawing class my nice printing came in very handy
as it was required on our drawings.
There are so many varieties of potato salad, baked beans, chocolate cake,
sugar cookies, egg salad, etc, etc in this country.
Which one is the RIGHT recipe? The answer is “none”.
It is no different with this recipe.
Cooks vary across a country, no matter which country you are in.
So, this recipe may not be the REAL recipe you have or some chef has written
but I can tell you that Tante Jeanne made this here in the US
just as she grew up making it at home.
So, it’s real to me and it’s delicious and easy!
Start with the pie shell.
They are not very expensive and will result in a nice, flat, evenly cooked quiche.
Fit your crust into the tin. Let the edge hang over and lightly press it into the grooves along the side. Then, just lay your rolling pin across the tin and pressing lightly, roll it across.
You’ll slice the excess crust off neatly and quickly!
Stick that into the fridge…..put it on a flat cookie sheet first….
remember, that bottom is loose!
Slice the bacon crosswise into “lardons”.
Fry until crisp, drain and place in pie shell.
I’m sure you can fry bacon, but don’t rush it. It will fry evenly if you don’t have the heat too high. Stir it with a fork to break up all the little slices and help it cook evenly.
Drain it on some paper towels.
Now, I was born in the midwest (Illinois) and grew up mostly in the south (Florida).
I’ve lived here in Va for 30 + years.
Lots of good cooks all over the place including family and friends.
I save my bacon grease in the fridge. There is NOTHING better for fried potatoes.
Try it….you’ll never go back!
Get your shell out of the fridge, sprinkle the bacon over the bottom
and top it with the grated Gruyere.
The French will pack a quiche up and take it for lunch or a picnic and eat it cold.
When we were first married we often came here to Va to visit Jeanne and family.
She always made a quiche Lorraine for me because she knew I loved it.
It was cold when we arrived in the evening and it tasted every bit as good.
if you use a refrigerated pie crust….NOT a premade crust but the kind in the refrigerated section where the eggs and butter are….you can have this in the oven in 15 minutes.
It makes a great quick dinner .
My Romantic Home
French Country Cottage
Simply Klassic Home | <urn:uuid:46dfe445-3177-4b8e-9269-5f7e553e1295> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.missflibbertigibbet.com/2012/03/french-friday-quiche-lorraine.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962356 | 1,196 | 1.6875 | 2 |
In my house, animals rule.
Quite literally. Our dogs rule the roost; and we’ll never change that.
And so my wife and I were horrified by the following tale of neglect and inhuman cruelty to those who cannot speak for themselves. Read the following and tell me you don’t feel disgusted and a little ashamed to be part of the human race.
A report describing “horrific” animal cruelty at the SPCA of Niagara – the American side – shelter was released today by the SPCA Serving Erie County. “Horrific” barely scratches the surface, though….
Animals that are not adopted within a certain period have to be put down. That is an indisputable reality in animal shelters. But another reality is this: animals deserve to be treated with love and respect, as do all living things. A routine evaluation of the Erie County SPCA uncovered a den of incompetence and cowardice. One that ignores the basic rules of civilized society.
“Animals were given a shot, which I’m sure hurt, and that caused them to throw up…and then they couldn’t move,” said Barbara S. Carr, who conducted the three-week investigation.
“They were injected directly into the heart. This is excruciatingly painful,” she said, fighting back tears as she described the conditions to reporters.
The 115-page report stated there were no standard operating procedures for animal care, sanitation or euthanasia, and that some pets were euthanized in an especially cruel manner.
Especially cruel? Fictional serial killer Dexter Morgan kills his victims in the same manner. I’m not trying to be flippant; it’s true. These creatures were fully aware of their pain. Can you imagine enduring such agony?
“Clearly the governing and management of the shelter needs to be greatly improved,” said Carr, executive director of the SPCA Serving Erie County. “There is blame to go everyplace.” Hell of an understatement, right?
Carr confirmed allegations by staff members that nearly 600 cats and dogs, some of them healthy, had been euthanized since Oct. 1.
She struggled to hold back tears when describing how some were killed with “heart sticks,” an intercardiac injection she said was banned in some states.
Pets are generally euthanized intravenously, Carr said.
Executive Director John A. Faso was not aware of proper euthanization practices, Carr said, and presided over a disorganized operation that created a “chaotic environment. “There is no sense of structure at the NCSPCA,” her report stated. The board is “admittedly dysfunctional,” the report stated, and “should consider a complete restructure.”
Carr said it was difficult to prove whether SPCA officials were incompetent or negligent in their handling of the animals.
“I didn’t feel any evil people when I went in there,” she said, adding that some staff members “want to do the right thing.”
She felt “no evil”? How is that remotely possible? I wish I knew what to say about all of this…
I hate feeling this way. I may write The Book of Terrible, but I want to feel joy at being a part of this wonderful world, not shame and rage. | <urn:uuid:abcded65-25ef-4c00-bff0-a5324aaa4d51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thebookofterrible.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/173-when-we-ask-the-question-who-watches-the-watchmen-far-too-late/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973754 | 722 | 1.757813 | 2 |
"I sometimes come across recipes that call for a #2 can. What does this mean?"
Cans used to more commonly go buy numbered size. Commercial products sometimes still do, but most items you find in the grocery store list volume or weight measures.
A #2 can holds 1 pound 4 ounces, or 2 ½ cups.
A #10 can holds 6 pounds 6 ounces, or 96 fluid ounces, which is 12 cups or 3 quarts. | <urn:uuid:113c4abe-c35e-4787-a574-abee341db1a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/cooking-questions/number-2-can-00420000017563/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935904 | 93 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Repetitive stress injuries, or RSI's, are no joke. If you spend your days doing one motion over and over again, be it swinging a hammer or typing at a keyboard (gulp), you're at risk. The simplest solution? A robotic exoskeleton arm, of course.
In case you missed it the first time around the Equipois x-Ar is: an exoskeleton arm you strap on to help relieve the stress of doing something over and over again. It's really aimed at people doing manual labor, like factory workers, who end up screwing their arms up by doing the same thing repeatedly. But hey, I don't see why I am any less deserving of this thing than someone using a sledgehammer all day.
Now, there's a video to go along with it and it's looking pretty sweet. So, how's about a review unit, eh? | <urn:uuid:80fccc4a-804f-4fc6-a875-ae071a57782e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dvice.com/archives/2011/03/finally-an-exos.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940635 | 184 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Lehigh: A Premier Residential Research University
TRANSFORMING HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF AND THE WORLD
More is expected from the next generation of leaders and scholars than ever before. In a world in which the only constant is change – the leaders of tomorrow need to be agile, inquisitive, and ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work. That’s why their ability to see the bigger picture is key to their success. At Lehigh we offer an academic culture that thrives on creativity, innovation, and interaction. Lehigh students are rewarded with a learning and living environment that challenges the mind and inspires the imagination.
: 1. Lehigh’s burgeoning astrophysics program invites students to explore universal questions; 2. Martindale Scholars stay cool in Iceland
, where they conducted research later published in Perspectives on Business and Economics
; 3. Lehigh’s 144th Commencement Ceremony at Goodman Stadium
FACULTY WHO MAKE PERSONAL CONNECTIONS WITH STUDENTS
Here at Lehigh we value our faculty’s ability and eagerness to share their intellectual pursuits and journey with students – an important part of the educational experience. Lehigh faculty are known world-wide for their cutting-edge research, scholarly pursuits, and productive partnerships. Personal contact between students and faculty members across each of our four colleges provides all of our students with an opportunity to learn in a warm and collaborative atmosphere.
: 1. Physics Professor Ivan Biaggio is a leading international scholar in the development of solar energy; 2. Jennifer Colquhoun '12 (right), conducts research
with assistant professor of microbiology Amy Hitchcock Camp (left), who studies how cells reinvent themselves; 3. Engineering, arts and business students solve corporate puzzles in the nationally recognized Integrated Product Development (IPD
RESEARCH THAT MAKES AN IMPACT
Research is a vital component of the scholarship transpiring on our campus. Lehigh faculty scholars are making significant contributions and advancing knowledge across disciplines and the discoveries they make have lasting and far-reaching impacts on the world around us. Diverse fields of research help tackle challenges of the 21st century, such as addressing urban education, finding new approaches to harnessing energy, understanding the making of social activism, and interpreting the financial markets.
: 1. Faculty and students explore wireless sensor networks that measure a bridge’s response to tremors and earthquakes; 2.Cellular biologist Robert Skibbens studies the replication of chromosomes; 3. Lehigh’s ion-scattering spectrometer
is the world’s most sensitive for identifying surface atoms
MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN SOCIETY AND THE WORLD
Lehigh has long played a groundbreaking role in interdisciplinary research and education. For nearly 150 years, Lehigh has contributed thoughtful solutions to challenges across the globe. Our community of scholars and students are innovators, ambitious in their outlook and creative in their problem solving. They have long been pioneers in their fields, working across disciplines to build a collaborative culture. One of Lehigh’s greatest attributes is its translation of fundamental understanding and discoveries into practical use for the benefit of society – bringing theory to practice.
: 1. Renowned chemical engineer Alice P. Gast
, Lehigh’s 13th president, at a merit scholars reception hosted in her home; 2. Over 70 percent of Lehigh students participate in community service by the time they graduate; 3. Lehigh’s College of Education is working with impoverished students from Paarl, South Africa
A BEAUTIFUL CAMPUS ENVIRONMENT THAT FOSTERS A SENSE OF COMMUNITY
Located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., the campus is nestled in the heart of the Lehigh Valley. Lehigh is comprised of 2,358 acres, making it one of the largest private universities in the country. The Asa Packer Campus, Mountaintop Campus, and Murray H. Goodman Campus are contiguous. In 2012, the university received a Stabler Foundation gift of 755 acres in nearby Upper Saucon Township. More than 4,700 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students call Lehigh’s campus “home.” Our beautiful campus and state-of-the-art facilities are often described as “idyllic” and “the college of one’s dreams.” A family-like atmosphere and strong sense of community are hallmarks of Lehigh; and our engaged community fosters peer and alumni relationship that last a lifetime.
: 1. STEPS
is Lehigh’s $62.1 million award-winning “green” building and a gold status LEED facility; 2. Students lounge on Adirondack Chairs in front of the University Center; 3. Historic Linderman Library, one of America’s most prized academic libraries, opened its doors in 1878
VALUING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
The Lehigh community is devoted to creating a rich educational experience and committed to creating an environment where we all learn, work, and live together, transcending racial, cultural, and other boundaries. Students flourish in an academic environment where they can and do learn from their life experiences as well as from the diverse backgrounds and opinions of those around them.
: 1. Students from around the world don native attire during Lehigh’s much-anticipated International Week, the 3rd largest such celebration in the U.S.; 2. Culture and music spanning five continents hit the stage at Dancefest 2011; 3. Libyan rebels in Benghazi share insights about their revolution and the Arab Spring during a live Skype
event at Lehigh
A PROUD LEGACY AND COMMITTED ALUMNI
Our students go on to accomplish remarkable things, but they never forget their Lehigh experience. Lehigh alumni make themselves available to students for learning experiences, networking, co-op opportunities, and jobs. Lehigh alumni, over 70,000 strong, are involved, engaged, and remain a part of the Lehigh community for the rest of their lives. Not only do they help support our priorities, but they are our worldwide ambassadors, passionate people whose bond to Lehigh never breaks.
: 1. A gift from Lee Iacocca ’45 will allow 150 more Lehigh students to intern overseas every year; 2. An annual Lehigh tradition since 1879, Founder’s Day
celebrates Asa Packer’s legacy and honors the leaders of the Lehigh community; 3. The women’s rugby club ends its season with the annual—and hilarious—Prom Dress Rugby Tournament
PARTNERING WITH THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
Working together to create a clean and safe neighborhood, spark commercial vitality, build educational partnerships, and revitalize neighborhoods is how we partner with the community that borders our campus. Lehigh remains committed to providing an educational and experiential environment for its students, as well as the community. We are an open campus and invite our neighbors to participate in university programs, attend the myriad of free lectures hosted throughout the year, take in an art exhibit or performance, and cheer for the Mountain Hawks at Lehigh athletic events.
: Lehigh students join in the fun during Southside Bethlehem’s annual Spring on 4th! What’s on Third?
chili cook-off; 2. Lehigh’s community garden is a valuable—and nutritional—teaching tool for Southside Bethlehem; 3. Student Athletes with Lehigh’s C.O.A.C.H.
program adopted and purchased presents for 54 families this holiday season. | <urn:uuid:b07a5870-4d53-4736-b1d9-f79780df5df8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www4.lehigh.edu/images.aspx?community1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934478 | 1,583 | 1.828125 | 2 |
and northern New Mexico, USA
by Trading One Form of Death
Avoiding the Problem by Trading One Form of Death for Another
Originally published April 1999
Drug rehabilitation centers, continue to argue that their programs are having great success, and have been for at least 30 years. Question's; If these drug centers have been so successful, then why is it, that we continue to have an ever rapidly and expanding problem with heroin and cocaine in this country? At what [low] percentage level, are those in the rehabilitation business really measuring their successes? Why do we keep on treating the problem and the addicts of hard drugs, instead of reducing or getting rid of the problem? The solution to the problem of hard drugs is simple; reduce or eliminate the supply of hard drugs, and you automatically reduce or eliminate dependency [addiction].
Rehabilitation is designed to reduce, and to hopefully eliminate drug dependency on the part of those addicted to hard drugs. One of the most important factor's in the successful rehabilitation of those addicted to hard drugs, is that the individual being rehabilitated, is in an environment and atmosphere that is free of the influence of hard drugs and crime.
Living in the "Ground Zero" zone of the Mexican Mafia's hard drug territory, makes successful rehabilitation difficult at best. The National average for dollar's spent in the health and maintenance of hard drug addiction, is approximately $7 per person. In the area where we are living, that average is $44 per person, and successful rehabilitation from the effects of hard drugs is extremely hard to accomplish. Most addicts in this high intensity drug trafficking area, are swept back into their hard drug habit within days or weeks of going through the rehabilitation. Hard drugs flow freely and openly here, and more often than not, a hard drug dealer that is busted in this area, will only receive a two to five year prison sentence. So successful rehabilitation in this area, because of the extremely heavy influence of hard drugs, really is difficult at best, and most of the time only a distant and far off wish for those that are addicted to hard drugs. In the area where we live, the sad fact, is that death is about the only way that most addicts will be able to quit.
Is the higher then National average amount of dollars being spent on drug rehabilitation in this area, a warning about the future catastrophic effects of heroin and cocaine on the rest of the Nation? Yes, the warning is very much for real, and it is a very simple warning, either reduce or get rid of the supply of hard drugs and those that sell them, or face a future that will be totally controlled and ruled by them and their poison.
Trading one addiction [heroin/cocaine], and method of personal destruction and death for another addiction [methadone/pharmaceutical], as a method for the treatment of hard drug addiction, does not reduce or stop the dependency for hard drugs, it only treats the symptoms, and prolongs the misery and destruction of those involved. It is an escape from personal and professional responsibility for those treating hard drug addiction, and an escape from personal responsibility and accountability for those addicted to heroin and cocaine. It is generally speaking, a no one win situation for those involved.
Around here the addicts go to rehabilitation for methadone, like children going to the store for candy. Methadone has become the high of choice for many hard drug addicts here, so the methadone GIVEN away at the rehab centers has a negotiable black market value. More often than not, a large percentage of the methadone that has been bought and paid for by the taxpayers of this country, then GIVEN away to addicts at publicly funded rehab centers, finds it's way to the area drug dealers, for distribution and resale by them.
Ever since methadone was introduced into this area by the drug rehabilitation centers, hard drug overdoses have been on the rise! The cause of the rise in overdoses has been a direct result of methadone.
Trading heroin and cocaine for methadone is not fighting the War on Drugs, it's joining the enemy!
The billions of dollars that continue to be poured into the rehabilitation of hard drug users, is not fighting the War on Drugs, it's only treating and putting a band aid on the problem, and feeding the financial coffers of the hard drug rehabilitation industry!
Is this War on Drugs about saving lives or about making those in the rehabilitation industry a living? The large volumes of money that continue to be spent on rehabilitation vs. getting rid of the hard drug supply, would appear to indicate that it's all about money, and not about saving lives and getting rid of hard drugs and the criminals that deal them.
Rehabilitation will start working only when hard drugs and the dealers that distribute them, are taken out of our communities and off of our streets. Saving lives, building a better future for our children, and really rehabilitating addicted individuals, by reducing or removing the hard drug's and their criminal influence from our communities and streets, is what winning the War on Drugs is all about. Doing anything less is cheating ourselves and our posterity, out of the right to a life and future filled with hope, and the Blessings of Liberty and happiness.
Our message to the Mexican Mafia and to
their drug dealers is plain and simple!
We want the drug dealers and their hard drugs out of our community and off of our streets, and we don't want them as neighbors or as any part of our communities. They have worn out their welcome with the people of America! To the rest of the dealers and purveyors of hard drugs in America, you won't have to wait long for your turn, because Drug Busters is coming for you next!
Have more questions, would you like to help the Drug Busters campaign, does your community have a hard drug problem that needs attention? So who ya' gonna call to bust a drug dealer, Email Us Today!
About Drug Busters!
Message to the ONDCP
Getting Drugs Out of Your Communities and Off Your Streets
The Flyer That Started It All
The War on Drugs
Return to F.A.C.T.S. | <urn:uuid:c679b603-732d-45be-8a34-e74773ec8e7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://webspace.webring.com/people/te/ensey_in_2000/drugs005.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957347 | 1,273 | 1.578125 | 2 |
It is a great notion – but is it even possible to do? I’ve tried taking photos of bad flares, and, in that case, pictures are NOT worth a thousand words, because there’s just no way to “show” that kind of pain.
When we try to go about our daily lives – particularly when doing so with a smile on our face – it diminishes our pain (to the public eye) even further.
So, when a condition is (for the most part) “invisible” – how do you “show” people? How do you “explain” it? Even when you try to explain it, you feel as though the other person’s eyes are glazing over in boredom, or that you’re talking to a wall, or, that they’re just hearing “blah blah blah” and still not understanding.
I’ve tried putting it in a poem. I’ve tried writing it in a blog. I’ve tried speaking the words as best I can to convey just how much RA can hurt, how disabling it can be, how it’s MORE than just pain, how it can affect multiple systems of the body, and so on.
But, unless you live it – can you ever really KNOW?
“Arthritis gloves” were introduced a few months ago. They would show testers the “stiffness” and “immobility” aspects of arthritis (and even then, were geared towards showing how it was for folks with osteoarthritis – OA – and not RA.) But, they didn’t show the pain. They didn’t show the “sickness.”
Then again, why would we want to? I always say that I’d never wish this pain upon anyone, but, I wish that just for, oh, I don’t know, 5 or 10 minutes, that people could just “feel” it temporarily, so that I would stop having to try to “explain.”
Actually, though, that’s what I did. I’ve stopped trying to explain or “justify” my pain. It is what it is, and, no, most people won’t ever understand. Most people equate RA to general aches and pains in the joints and that’s it. The more I thought about it, though, they don’t have to understand. They don’t need to get it. It won’t affect my path to wellness. I don’t have to prove myself or my condition to anybody. It’s my journey, not theirs. I know my pain – and many of you know your own pain. There’s really no way to truly “measure” pain, or even to compare it. My arthritis could feel differently to me than yours does to you. It could look and behave differently than yours does. That doesn’t mean that mine is better or worse than yours, just different. Many factors contribute to this – levels of pain tolerance, comorbidities (a.k.a. co-existing conditions), genetics, support, exercise, diet, perception and perspective, environment, etc. And this could even change day-to-day.
So, we can’t really generalize and say that one person is worse off than another, nor can we describe what RA pain feels like, because, in its totality, it is likely slightly different for each person.
One thing will remain the same: it is hard and it hurts.
Another truth? You can get through it and still live a beautiful life — if that’s what you make up your mind to do. That is one generalization that I am willing to speak to.
So, let’s just try to move forward with these goals: realizing the difference between advocating and complaining, and between spreading awareness/educating versus trying to justify or explain away our conditions. Yes, it would be great, lovely, wonderful, and ideal if everyone really understood RA pain. If they truly GOT it, our lives would be just a little bit easier…maybe. But, really, it doesn’t matter if others do understand or they don’t. Let’s just try have them understand the condition as a whole – as best they can – as we move together towards optimal health and an eventual cure.
Other people’s perceptions, misconceptions and thoughts should play no part in your condition and how you handle it, or in your getting healthy, or in your self-worth and value. As hard as that may be, it’s something that we should try to remember as often as we can.
As always, comments welcome! Thank you for reading. | <urn:uuid:2cd35b39-2af6-4c10-9be5-e7014c44fdde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://midatlanticarthritis.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/the-myth-of-explaining-ra-pain/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=27cac980df | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964182 | 1,026 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Fun Uses For Software
May 26, 2008
I just returned from a family vacation where we cruised on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas. The ship had two pool tables that were self-leveling. As the ship rocked, the pool tables' computers updated their positions in real-time to counteract the motion of the ship. I played and observed others, dozens of times, and it was always perfect.
You can see a video of it in action here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oRhfcXxM79U
The sign next to the pool table said it's computer controlled, uses sensors that check the level, and an accelerometer to counteract inertia and momentum (keeping it level isn't enough). It also mentioned that it's based on the same software used on off-shore oil platforms to keep them level in rough seas.
It's interesting to see how even complex real-time software can be used to have fun!
However, I'm sorry to say, it did nothing to improve my game :-( | <urn:uuid:9754a870-c6ce-4639-9b6e-99598c39e5e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/fun-uses-for-software/228701574 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971659 | 219 | 1.664063 | 2 |
An Android app emulator for Windows lets you try out new applications or test drive applications on your PC. You may have tried experimenting with such an application that comes bundled with the software development kit. But there are third-party apps that offer the best simulation experience.
An emulator is used to test an application in a simulated environment to see if it can perform really well in the actual device. Besides testing out an app, it also lets you try out new applications launched on Google Play.
Third-party Android emulators make it possible for you to play the latest games or experiment with a brand new utility app. There are quite a few applications that allow users to run latest software and games effortlessly. Here’s a rundown of some of the best app players:
BlueStacks is one of the top emulators that allow you to try out new mobile apps on your PC. It runs old as well as new apps launched on Google Play. You can try out your own apps, but make sure it has an “.apk” extension. All you have to do is right-click on your apk file and select the app player to test it out.
There was a time when BlueStacks could run only a handful of apps, but new enhancements have now turned it into a complete emulator. You can now run almost any application or game effortlessly. However, you may experience slow frame-rates while playing 3D games. The app player has a nifty search option where you can type in the app name, click on the search result and wait for the app to install completely.
The app player also lets you tweak and manage installed apps. You can change the app size (tablet, large phone or default), uninstall apps or add an onscreen keyboard. There’s also an option to sync your device with this app player for smooth app synchronization between your phone/tablet and PC.
The best part of the application player is its interface. I found it very simple and clutter-free. I could easily find my installed apps via a menu enlisting all applications horizontally. There’s also a vertical sidebar that suggests new apps for us to download. BlueStacks is still in beta mode and is available free, but it may turn into a paid app in the future.
2. Jar of Beans
Jar of Beans is a new user-developed emulator that’s doing the rounds at the moment. Developed by “UnrealManu”, the app player runs all apps and games supported by Android Jelly Bean devices. The best part of this app is that games that require hardware graphics acceleration run smoothly on this emulator.
Jar of Beans is second best to BlueStacks when it comes to emulating apps and games. It can play games on Full-screen and can automatically switch to “tablet mode” for Android tablet-supported games. There are plenty of settings which can help you customize your gameplay and app usage experience. It offers a wide range of configuration options, including different viewing modes, a virtual SD card and keyboard support. In future versions, the emulator will boast multiple resolutions and skins.
Jar of Beans can also double up as an app-testing sandbox. You can easily test your apps without requiring a real device. You can create your apk files and install it to your emulator. It has a special button that lets you to import your apk files stored on your computer. Since it allows custom settings, you can easily tweak options according to your app preferences and can even create a virtual SD card of any size you want. A must-download Android emulator for your PC!
3. AMD AppZone
AppZone is an emulator Android gamers have been waiting for! Powered by BlueStacks, this free app player is exclusively developed for players who would love to play 3D Android games on their PCs. However, users will need an AMD powered-PC to play games on this emulator.
The best part of AMD AppZone is that it can run games in full-screen. The AMD website also has select games that you can install and play on your AMD-powered emulator. Not only games, but also some of the top productivity apps and utilities are listed in the AppZone application page. Like BlueStacks, the app player allows for easy synchronization between apps on your device and computer.
AppZone can be used to try out some of the top Android games. The app player is not suitable for application testing. If you are looking for a complete mobile gaming experience on your laptop, then you should try this out.
YouWave supports apps built for Android 2.3 devices and performs exactly like your phone or tablet. It can rotate the screen, play multiplayer games and has simulated memory card functionality, allowing users to save their game in the same way they would do in an actual device.
This Android app emulator for Windows has an in-built application store that lets you search for a game or software and download it to your PC. However, there are some restrictions (read: flaws) that won’t allow downloading of some apps. The app player can’t play games like Angry Birds, because of the unsupported hardware. Angry Birds have ARM native code and run on devices powered by ARM processors. YouWave does not support this, nor does it support applications that require hardware sensors.
You can try YouWave for 10 days, but be ready to shell out 14 bucks to get the full version. Unlike other free Android emulators for PC, YouWave will provide the full version only if you purchase activation key worth $14.99. While the program is good for trying out simple apps, I would recommend BlueStacks if you want a complete Android emulation experience. | <urn:uuid:ec314220-e9fd-42e9-8e79-2229057bd17a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techepisode.com/best-android-app-emulator-for-windows/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944138 | 1,173 | 1.5625 | 2 |
A Subaru car drives against a white background. As the car continues, it drives by different graphics that represent different environments; cherry blossoms, bamboo and snow. While passing through these scenes, the car adapts to each environment by adopting the colors and images surrounding it.
Then the scenes shift as the car drives through a tunnel, taking the car out of the natural environment into a more urban setting. Now the car has different environments to adapt to; one being a pink and orange metropolis along with a very confident man (possibly a gay man?) in a sweater of matching colors, which the car adapts to effortlessly.
The commercial ends with a black background and another man getting into the car. The tagline is "Be confident in your nature."
The commercial captures the idea of "different natures" through several different sequences such as the shift between white background to a black background, from nature scenes to an urban setting, and possibly even from a gay man to a straight man.
However, the commercial does not label the two men as either gay or straight nor do they show either man in a particularly positive or negative light, and so the commercial has been rated Equal. | <urn:uuid:54e705d2-183e-4024-bd22-9011663d0cbd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.adrespect.org/common/adlibrary/adPrintdetails.cfm?QID=3076&clientID=11064 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956877 | 240 | 1.671875 | 2 |
|Project 1: heart shaped wreath made with wire hanger and old tees|
|Project 2: heart shaped wreath with cardboard and old tees|
I wanted to share two projects with you. Project 1 was easy and kid-friendly. Project 2 was completed by me without kids and needs improvement.
Project 1: Heart shaped wreath made with wire hanger and recycled tees.
First, reshape one wire hanger into the heart shape leaving the hook on top (no need to cut wire, just reshape). I did this part for my daughter and the rest she completed herself. Use scraps of fabric or cut up old tees and tie strips all around the wire. We made our strips about 6" long and 1-1.5" wide. It is easier for a child to tie longer strips so 6" was easy to handle. When finished you can trim and shape up you wreath.
|our Valentines gift is ready for Grandma!|
Project 2: Heart shaped wreath with cardboard and old tees.
First cut a piece of cardboard into a heart shape of desired size. With phillips head screwdriver poke holes in the cardboard about 1" apart (or slightly closer). Cut up old tees into strips (about 1.5x3.5"). Place one strip at a time above hole in the cardboard and push in partially with the srewdriver. Hot glue ribbon or yarn to make a hanger. I don't recommend this project for kids. I'm sure if you knit or crochet you can come up with kid-friendly safe ways to reach the same look. For example, maybe instead of pocking holes in the cardboard, one can use Plastic Perforated Canvas ?
|the tees we used are kids' school tees from last year in red, pink and white| | <urn:uuid:7b34f606-d86b-48e0-8a29-1aada35a04e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://byebyesoccermom.blogspot.com/2013/01/diy-heart-shaped-wreaths-from-fabric.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944458 | 383 | 1.601563 | 2 |
News tagged with family conflict
(HealthDay)—Internet-based psycho-educational programs are beneficial for young patients with type 1 diabetes as they transition into adolescence, according to a study published online April 11 in Diabetes Ca ...
Diabetes Apr 22, 2013 | not rated yet | 0
Young urban black women who are exposed to severe abuse within their families are much more likely to be victims of dating violence, according to a study led by a Michigan State University researcher.
Health Jan 22, 2013 | not rated yet | 0
The Red Cross is preparing to launch a new website to help reunite families ripped apart by conflicts and natural disasters all around the world, it said Monday.
Health Nov 12, 2012 | not rated yet | 0
Nurses and other hospital workers, especially those who work long hours or the night shift, often report trying to juggle the demands of the job and family obligations. A study out today by The George Washington University ...
Health Sep 27, 2012 | not rated yet | 0 |
(Medical Xpress) -- Patients' mental and physical challenges, as well as family conflict, heighten caregivers' stress when they assist their ailing parents, a new University of Michigan study found.
Health Jul 04, 2012 | not rated yet | 0
Bickering spouses may need to clean up their act. New research at the University of Oregon finds that the level of aggression between partners around the time when a child is born impacts how a mom will be parenting three ...
Psychology & Psychiatry Apr 02, 2012 | not rated yet | 0
War, the aftermath of war, and political violence are harmful to children's and teens' mental health and well-being. But few studies have looked at how this happens. A new longitudinal study of neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern ...
Health Feb 08, 2012 | 3 / 5 (1) | 0
(Medical Xpress) -- Even for well-prepared couples, the transition to parenthood can be downright stressful.
Psychology & Psychiatry Jan 09, 2012 | not rated yet | 0
The nature of cell phone communication between a parent and adolescent child can affect the quality of their relationship, and much depends on who initiates the call and the purpose and tone of the conversation, ...
Psychology & Psychiatry Jun 27, 2011 | not rated yet | 0 | <urn:uuid:8c6240bc-00ef-4150-90bc-72befb7f7fac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medicalxpress.com/tags/family+conflict/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949556 | 478 | 1.65625 | 2 |
US wakes in fright as Asian bedfellow goes to hog the blanket
Americans are beginning to question Obama's hard line on China.
SUDDENLY, in the past few weeks, Americans have started to ask themselves where their relations with China are heading. For the first time, voices as serious as Hillary Clinton's are questioning the assumption that Washington will always remain the dominant partner with Beijing. They are starting to debate what kind of relationship they might have instead. Their conclusion will be vital to our future as well as theirs.
Just a few months ago, Americans across the political spectrum simply assumed that the US would remain paramount in Asia indefinitely. Democrats and Republicans - who can agree on almost nothing else - all believed that there was no reason for the US to change its role in Asia to accommodate China. The Chinese simply had to choose whether to accept the US as their leader, or face it as an adversary.
The clearest official statement of this muscular confidence came last November here in Australia, when President Barack Obama addressed Parliament. His message to Beijing - and to the rest of us - was stark. The US will use all instruments in its power to maintain its leadership in Asia against any Chinese challenge, and was already building up its military position for the contest. There was not a hint of negotiation or compromise with Beijing.
These were brave words, but they raised an awkward question. What if China didn't knuckle under, but went quietly on building its power and expanding its influence? In the months since November this question has at last started to be asked.
And now the reality of China's power and ambition is sinking in. The size of its economy and its central role in the global system - and in America's own prosperity. The expansion of its military forces - especially at sea. Its determination to resume its historic role as a great power. All these make China a formidable adversary, indeed.
Several studies in recent weeks have underlined the risks that China will push back against America's reassertion of leadership, leading to escalating rivalry and risk of conflict.
Late last month, Brookings produced a sombre assessment by two noted scholars - one American and one Chinese. The Chinese side of this analysis - from leading policy analyst Wang Jisi - made it clear that China saw itself as the eventual winner of a zero-sum struggle for influence in Asia. Not much sign of backdown there.
The same week the respected Congressional Research Service published an analysis of Obama's Asia policy, highlighting serious risks and costs to a policy that the US administration seemed not to have clearly thought through.
Even more strikingly, the latest issue of Foreign Affairs carries an essay by Henry Kissinger with the telling title, The Future of US-China relations: Conflict is a Choice, Not a Necessity. Kissinger is of course not just the doyen of the US strategic and foreign policy establishment. He is the architect of America's historic opening to China in 1972, which paved the way for the US to get out of Vietnam, and made the US the uncontested leader of Asia, at the same time as setting the stage for China's rise.
He draws a specific analogy with the risks the US faces today and the disaster of 1914, leaving readers in no doubt about the scale of catastrophe into which the US could stumble if it gets China wrong. ''A major war between developed nuclear countries must bring casualties and upheavals impossible to relate to calculable objectives,'' he warns. To avoid that the two countries and their leaders must co-operate to construct a new regional order in which they both play major roles. That will require negotiation and compromise on both sides. ''If not, escalating strategic tension is inevitable.''
Most tellingly of all, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a little noticed but significant speech in Washington last month on the future of US-China relations.
Clinton called for a new ''Nixon to China'' moment - a new negotiation between Washington and Beijing about their roles and relationship in Asia. She said that this would mean ''a very different kind of relationship than the one we had''. It would ''require adjustments in our thinking and our actions, on both sides of the Pacific''.
And here is the heart of the speech: ''We are, together, building a model in which we strike a stable and mutually acceptable balance between co-operation and competition. This is uncharted territory. And we have to get it right, because so much depends on it.
''Interdependence means that one of us cannot succeed unless the other does as well. We need to write a future that looks entirely different from the past.''
The difference between this language and Obama's Canberra speech just six months ago could not be more stark, or more important. And tellingly, Clinton did not mention Obama's speech once in her remarks. In the highly choreographed world of Washington speech-making, that is very significant. Either the administration as a whole is moving away from what Obama said, or Clinton herself is.
And that gives Australia a great opportunity. Until now our leaders have been reluctant to talk seriously to Washington about all this. Now that they have started their own debate, our leaders may pluck up the courage to join in. No one can say its not our business - after all Obama delivered his big China speech in our Parliament.
And no one can doubt we have a view. Of course we'd like the US to remain dominant in Asia, but as China grows that's just not going to be. Instead the US must choose one of three alternatives. It will either have to negotiate an accommodation with China, take it on as a strategic adversary, or turn its back on Asia and leave it to China. It is obvious which would be best for Australia.
Hugh White is professor of strategic studies at ANU and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute. | <urn:uuid:4158088c-0257-46e5-a54e-0a98312921ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/politics/us-wakes-in-fright-as-asian-bedfellow-goes-to-hog-the-blanket-20120416-1x3nx.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967884 | 1,194 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Forbes Has Unveiled the Top 10 Wealthiest People in the World
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Forbes has unveiled the updated list of the world’s richest people, showing us again who’s making money around the globe. We’ve extracted the top ten entries of the incredibly long list of 1153 billionaires of the world, and we are ready to share the news with you.
The 2012 top ten list is not that different from that of 2011, with only three new names marking the difference between the two. Together, the Earth’s billionaires sum up a whopping $4.6 trillion in personal wealth, which is considerably more than the Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) of the 127 poorest countries in the world, and a little higher than India’s GDP.
New in the top ten are Li Ka-Shing, who is the richest person in all of Asia, Stefan Persson of H&M, who last year occupied the 13th position, and Karl Albrecht, who this year made it to the 10th position on the list.
This is the third year of “reign” for Carlos Slim Helu. Half of his entire wealth comes from American Movil shares, which have dropped lately, resulting in a $5 billion reduction in his fortune, as compared to the year 2010. At 72 years of age, the magnate doesn’t want for anything. Even though the Mexican regulators fined one of his brands for monopolistic prices with a mind-boggling sum of $1 billion, Slim’s fortune is too large for such an event to affect him personally. Furthermore, the company is appealing the fine, so the money will probably not even leave his accounts.
One of the mot generous wealthy people in the world, Bill Gates has played a huge role in the eradication of poliomyelitis in India, and he still keeps donating staggering amounts of money to different causes around the world. As he keeps receiving huge amounts of money from Microsoft shares, stocks, bonds, and private equity, Gates continues to pour out his generosity on millions of people. He also invested a couple of billions in small farmers as he wants to help reestablish agricultural traditionalism. Not only does he himself give away generously, but by creating the Giving Pledge, he also encourages other magnates to do the same.
Another generous soul is Warren Buffett, a man who believes that the wealthy should give away more than the average people. He is 81 years old now, and a great example for the rest of the world. According to his “Buffett Rule”, the wealthy should pay at least 30% tax rate, thus contributing more than the less fortunate people. In one year he lost $6 billion, after taking some bad decisions – as he himself has admitted – that led to a 7% decrease in Berkshire stock value.
His ever blooming business – the famous LVMH group and world leader in luxury – has helped the wealthy Frenchman to considerably increase his fortune this year. Even though he lost some cash due to the lower turnover of the Carrefour supermarket chain, Arnault still made a lot of money this past year, especially since LVMH’s profits went up by 22 percent. Aged 63, the magnate owns the superb Indigo Island in the Bahamas, and Cheval Blanc ski chalet in Courchevel. His island is available for rent at $300,000 per week.
Mr. Ortega started out as an employee in his father’s store, and now he is the fifth richest person in the world. Aged 75, he resigned from the position of Inditex Chairman a year ago, but is still earning pots of money through his blooming company. Inditex shares went up by a quarter this year, raising Amancio Ortega’s wealth by a whopping $6.5 billion.
The Spanish magnate owns stakes in a soccer league, a horse-jumping track, the luxurious Epic Residences & Hotel in Miami, and the Torre Picasso skyscraper in Madrid.
The Oracle Corporation has been facing serious difficulties during the past months, due to significant fluctuations that affected its profits. As the company’s sales decreased, Mr. Ellison’s fortune dropped down by $3.5 billion. In an attempt to solve this issue, the Oracle CEO purchased Taleo and RightNow for $1.9 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively. Oracle also recently bought social marketing platform Vitrue and Collective Intelligence.
Eike Batista is the richest man in Brazil, and the owner of OGX Petroleo e Gas gas and oil driller. Two thirds of his immense fortune comes from the 61 percentages that he owns in the aforementioned company. This translates to a whopping $19.8 billion.
Currently living in Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Batista has two children and is divorced. Last year he invested $1.5 billion in what can be described as a very promising opportunity. He used the money to buy a private gold mine in Colombia, Canada, called Ventana Gold. And we all know the price of gold can only go higher with every passing year!
The main shareholder and chairman of H&M, Stefan Persson, also purchased Versace and Marni last year, and had its first stores opened in Croatia, Romania and Singapore. He now owns an impressive 2,500 stores in 43 countries!
The company was founded by Stefan Persson’s father, Erling, back in 1947, and he took over H&M in 1982. He resigned from the position of CEO in 1998, and later promoted his son, Karl-Johan, to the position, in 2009. One interesting move that he made for his company was that he bought 5 million additional shares only to give 4 million of them (worth roughly $150 million) to an employee stimulating program.
The 83 year old Chinese magnate was first named the richest person in Asia back in 2004. This year, however, it is the first time since 2007 that he made it to the top ten list of wealthiest people in the world. His main business is Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL), a company that has 270,000 employees all around the world, covering 53 countries.
Interestingly, one of every seven residences in Hong Kong was built by his company, and approximately 13 percent of all container traffic in the world is dealt with by Hutchison Port Holdings. One of his most recent purchases was Northumbrian Water, the group providing sewage services and supplies drinking water to millions of people. It’s a wonder, really, how he needed so much time to make it on the list.
Karl Albrecht’s story of success began in his mother’s corner grocery store, after World War II. He and his brother Theo began their small venture there, and expanded their business in the years that followed. The huge company – Aldi Sud – is now a successful retail chain, with 4,500 stores around the world, of which 1,200 are spread across the U.S.
Karl and his brother split the brand, with the former taking the rights for UK, US, and Australia, plus the more profitable stores in Southern Germany. In order to keep costs as low as possible, the stores have a strict no-bling policy, and it doesn’t accept credit card payments for the same reason. | <urn:uuid:cf65fb85-6dbd-45ce-a5b3-1833aeb4a8cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://luxedb.com/forbes-has-unveiled-the-top-10-wealthiest-people-in-the-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971928 | 1,544 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The municipality of Heerhugowaard
Recreation site Heerhugowaard, Luna Park, 2007
Living, recreation and nature are closely interlaced in the modern day urban landscape. The integrated character of the former polder area under Heerhugowaard, showing different heights and contrasts, was intensified with minimal measures.
The current plastic-era will still be found long after it has ended when garden chairs are excavated. We made contemporary fossils by pressing discarded plastic garden furniture into concrete blocks. Forty stones were crafted into chairs. The 'stray' chairs are scattered throughout the landscape, after which nature can overgrow them with moss. Whitewashed bins were decorated with everything that is living in the surrounding landscape. The trees are covered with a protective layer of plastic for visitors to park their bicycle against. Together the trees function as a forest of bike racks. | <urn:uuid:1ee08f75-9ab1-4d5e-85eb-7ede2eb8c95d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.studiomakkinkbey.nl/show/concrete/3069_heerhugowaard/3430 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964151 | 182 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Burkett Barton (B. B., Buck) Chamberlain
Youngest son of James Chamberlain (1809-1889) and Sarah Runnels Barton (1824-1905), of Burnet, TX. He married Mary Angeline (Mollie) Kincheloe in Burnet in 1891. B. B. Chamberlain was a school teacher for close to half a century in Burnet, Llano, San Saba, and Haskell counties. He is reported to have sworn on at least one occasion that none of his children would ever become a teacher. (Four of the five ended up doing so.) He and Mollie eventually settled in Rochester, Haskell Co., where they lived the rest of their lives. Children: Bess Mae; Edward Burkett; Charles Kincheloe; Mildred Clara; and James Clark.
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This page is locked. Want to contribute to this page? Contact chambln | <urn:uuid:e3adf1c7-01c8-4224-b2fa-0232581d0cc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fold3.com/page/529579077_burkett_barton_b_b_buck_chamberlain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933514 | 211 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Hyatt earned Goodwill's Employer of the Year award because of its commitment to providing employment opportunities for people with disabilities and other disadvantages. People with disabilities often have trouble getting hands-on job experience, but Hyatt Hotels and Resorts have made it possible for people with special needs to receive vocational training. Through a partnership with Hands On Educational Services, Hyatt locations across the country provide disability-neutral job training, to people like Goodwill program graduate Fred Cowens.
Cowens is Deaf, and has been employed for more than a year as a line cook at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point’s cold prep kitchen. In order to accommodate Cowens’ hearing impairment, the Hyatt makes sure that a sign language interpreter is available for employee meetings. The resort has also provided Cowens with a hand-held word processor, so that he can easily communicate with his co-workers.
Goodwill has named The Home Depot as its Business of the Year because of the support that the home improvement retailer has provided to the organization. For two years, The Home Depot has been a major supporter of Goodwill’s Festival of Trees and Tux and Trees Gala. In total, the company has generously donated 60 brand new pre-lit Christmas trees and over $500 worth of gift certificates to the event. In addition, The Home Depot has also decorated and sponsored a holiday tree each year, helping to raise $1100 at the Tux and Trees Gala. For more information about the Festival of Tree, visit http://www.tuxandtrees.com
In addition, Goodwill has also benefitted from the generosity of The Home Depot's community service volunteer program, “Team Depot." Team Depot members have reached out to Goodwill's charter school, the L.I.F.E. Academy, by sponsoring building workshops for the school's students with developmental disabilities. These workshops have helped L.I.F.E Academy students develop their motor skills by assembling picture frames, birdhouses, memory boxes, and most recently, nine picnic benches. More information about the L.I.F.E. Academy Charter School can be found at http://www.goodwilllifeacademy.org.
The Home Depot and Hyatt Regency Coconut Point received their awards at Goodwill's Annual Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, May 6, at the Three Oaks Banquet and Conference Center in Estero. Two-time World Disabled Waterskiing Champion Ann O'Brine-Satterfield was the keynote speaker at the luncheon.
Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida, Inc. helps people with disabilities and other disadvantages to overcome their barriers to independence, through job placement programs, youth mentoring and education, vehicle assistance, and affordable housing. Goodwill supports these programs through the resale of donated goods at its 23 Retail & Donation Centers in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Glades, and Hendry Counties.
For more information on Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida, visit http://www.goodwillswfl.org
# # #
About Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida: Serving Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Glades, and Hendry Counties, Goodwill operates 24 thrift stores to support its mission of removing barriers to independence. Programs include income-sensitive housing, career placement assistance, the L.I.F.E. Academy Charter School, Four Wheels for Work, and others. | <urn:uuid:683f309a-4824-45a5-abc5-0f3b1c7b43cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prlog.org/10235954-goodwill-honors-local-businesses-at-annual-awards-luncheon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95 | 706 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The Republicans' Best Weapon
It's Obama himself.
Feb 2, 2009, Vol. 14, No. 19 • By FRED BARNES
In 1994, congressional Republicans carried laminated copies of their Contract With America (tax cuts, term limits, etc.) in their pockets. They may now want to laminate President Obama's inaugural address and carry it around.
This is not as silly as it sounds. Republican leaders believe the speech pleased them more than it did House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid. Obama's "new era of responsibility" echoed the "Personal Responsibility Act," the third of the ten planks in the Contract With America. Obama also said that it's not the size of government which matters but whether it works. Newt Gingrich coined that thought years ago. Obama lauded "risk-takers." Democrats want to tax them to death.
For the foreseeable future, attacking Obama will be counterproductive for Republicans. He's both enormously popular and the bearer of moral authority as the first African-American president. So the idea is for Republicans to make Obama an ally by using his words, from the inaugural address and speeches and interviews, against Democrats and their initiatives in Congress.
Obama is for bipartisanship. Pelosi, Reid, and their cohort are heavyhanded partisans with no interest in accommodating Republicans. Obama favors transparency. They don't. Obama says he wants "to spend wisely" and promises that "programs will end" if they don't work. That's hardly the philosophy of congressional Democrats.
Obama's words may be bromides or boilerplate that bear little relationship to his true sentiments or real plans. But so what? Republicans in the House and Senate are a badly outnumbered minority. They have few political weapons at their disposal. Citing Obama's words makes political sense. It's at least worth a try. Republicans have nothing to lose.
It might even get Republicans some attention. For the mainstream media, Obama is the only story in Washington. Most reporters are indifferent to the excesses of one-party, Democratic rule on Capitol Hill. But the argument that Democrats are out of sync with Obama, if repeated often enough, might get some traction.
Republicans are already using it against the $850 billion economic stimulus package drafted by congressional Democrats and tentatively accepted at the White House as Obama's program. Republicans complained they'd been shut out. Indeed they had been, their input ignored. Obama listened to Republican leaders at a bipartisan meeting at the White House last week and scheduled a session this week with House Republican whip Eric Cantor.
Republicans exploited two other weapons at their disposal. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell got a copy of the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the Democratic bill. It wasn't a formal CBO report, wasn't set for public release, and never appeared on the office's website. But McConnell leaked it to the Associated Press, whose story appeared a few hours before Obama was inaugurated. The AP story began, "It will take years before an infrastructure spending program proposed by President-elect Obama will boost the economy, according to congressional economists."
The $274 billion for infrastructure had been billed as the job-creating, economy-stimulating part of the bill. But only 7 percent of the money would be spent in 2009 and less than $4 billion in highway construction funds would hit the economy before September 2010.
Democrats were sufficiently embarrassed to start tinkering with the bill and move more spending into 2009. And Peter Orszag, the new White House budget director, noted that 75 percent of the $850 billion will now be spent this year. But most of that money--$166 billion to bail out state governments, for instance--won't produce jobs or goose the economy.
The other weapon that aided Republicans was the conservative intellectual community, particularly economists. Amity Shlaes's book on the failure of the New Deal to revive the economy, The Forgotten Man, was widely read by Republicans in Washington. So were her compelling articles on that subject in mainstream newspapers.
Free market economists (some of them surprisingly engaging writers) raised doubts about the Democratic stimulus scheme. Greg Mankiw of Harvard tore apart Joe Biden's claim that "every economist, as I've said, from conservative to liberal, acknowledges that direct government spending on a direct program now is the best way to infuse economic growth and create jobs." Mankiw ticked off a list of well-known economists who don't believe that, including Gary Becker, Robert Barro, Robert Lucas, Eugene Fama, and Mankiw himself. "I am sure there are many others as well," he wrote. True. There's Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute, for one. | <urn:uuid:407a6aaf-cb30-4943-bb15-2f64c96f8505> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/056dzjlw.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963595 | 958 | 1.601563 | 2 |
What it’s all about: Five Sentence Fiction is about packing a powerful punch in a tiny fist. Each week I will post a one word inspiration, then anyone wishing to participate will write a five sentence story based on the prompt word. The word does not have to appear in your five sentences, just use it for direction.
###Well hidden by the bushes, he blended in perfectly while he searched for sustenance; survival of the fittest, no matter the means.
At a sound most would miss, he swiveled his head, searching intently. Finally he located it, dinner; a bit on the small side but it would do.
He took off quickly, nothing but a blurry shape would be seen by any who might be watching.
His prey, caught by surprise, seemed mesmerized by the brilliant orange of his eyes, never noticing the lethal beak and claws as it was snatched up and carried away. | <urn:uuid:5d250bc2-9e34-4f53-b84b-9154a588bf86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://donnamcnicol.blogspot.com/2012/06/orange-five-sentence-fiction.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980541 | 192 | 1.578125 | 2 |
James Taranto, at OpinionJournal:
Goodwill IndustriesI couldn't have said it better myself.
Perhaps the most fatuous post-Sept. 11 clich� is the notion that America (or "the Bush administration") has "squandered" the "goodwill" the world felt for America in the wake of the attacks. The idea seems to be that popularity is more important than national security. Probably without meaning to, John Hassell of the Newark Star-Ledger offers a parody of this argument:
In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks nearly two years ago, America became a mailbox, receiving letters of condolence from all corners of the globe. Even Moammar Gadhafi and Mullah Mohammed Omar of the Taliban, no friends of the United States, sent their sympathies.
Today, after U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the launching of an ambitious enterprise to reshape the politics of the Middle East, things are very different. Polls show a deepening resentment of U.S. power worldwide, even among traditional allies. America's mailbox is again full, this time with hate mail.
Does anyone really yearn for the approval of such reprobates as Moammar Gadhafi and Mullah Omar? Anyway, we would rather be alive and hated than dead and popular. If the rest of the world likes Americans only when we're dying, the rest of the world can go to hell. | <urn:uuid:11613cc7-fb70-40cc-8704-abe0edccf29f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christopherdrew.com/2003_09_07_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942934 | 299 | 1.570313 | 2 |
POLITICS FEBRUARY 17, 2011
In the spring of 2010, the Arizona legislature passed one of the harshest immigration measures in years: SB1070, which makes it a crime for immigrants not to carry documentation at all times. The law ignited a national uproar, the Justice Department announced that it plans to sue the state, and Arizona was pilloried in the press for encouraging racial profiling. Now, however, the state legislature is considering several bills that could be even worse.
In recent weeks, conservative state lawmakers have introduced a series of bills that target the most vulnerable sections of the immigrant community: children and the sick. One proposal would require public schools to count undocumented students and report their numbers to the Arizona department of education. It would also require the state department of education to submit an annual report to the governor outlining the “adverse impact” of students who are here illegally. “This legislation is designed to do one thing,” says Democratic State Senator Steve Gallardo. “Scare people [who may be undocumented] from sending their kids to school.” The language in the bill is so broad that it would require the department to calculate the cost of educating legal immigrants (including, for example, refugees and green card holders), as well as undocumented students. If schools don’t collect the data, the bill says, they could lose state funding.
Another measure would end birthright citizenship in Arizona for children without at least one legal parent, in blatant contradiction of the fourteenth amendment. A similar bill seeks to establish two classes of birth certificates: one for children with at least one legal immigrant parent, and another for children of the undocumented. Republicans in the state Senate have also introduced legislation that would require Arizona hospitals to check the immigration status of incoming patients.
It’s unclear whether any of these bills will become law, but they prompt a larger question: How did the Arizona legislature become such a hothouse of extreme legislation? As it happens, SB 1070 and the latest anti-immigration measures all have something else in common besides their draconian nature. They were sponsored and pushed by the same powerful Republican legislator: newly elected state Senate President Russell Pearce.
Pearce, 63, once described himself as the “John Wayne of the legislature,” and he has the biography to back up his claim. He is a descendent of one of the original Arizona Rangers—a Rough Rider–esque band of men who rid the Arizona territory of roving marauders at the turn of the century. In the mid ‘90s, he was chief deputy to Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, who required inmates in local prisons to wear pink underwear and is under investigation by the Justice Department for alleged discrimination against Hispanics. Pearce took credit for Arapio’s infamous “tent city” complex in the Phoenix desert that houses almost 1,500 inmates with minimal shelter from heat and extreme weather. White-haired and heavy-set, Pearce’s right hand is missing a finger—it was shot off by a suspected gang member.
In 2000, Pearce won a seat in the state House, representing a district that the Arizona Republic has described as a “bunker” for the “hard-right.” He has been pushing harsh immigration measures ever since. But in his early political career, he had a hard time translating his proposals—such as a bill requiring Child Protective Services case workers to report illegal immigrants—into law. He was “a back bencher with no discernible skills,” one conservative operative told me. “A junior high school student would have received an F for the things he wrote.” Until relatively recently, says Gallardo, Pearce “could not get any position in the [Senate] leadership” because he was simply too conservative.
That all started to change as immigration increasingly came to dominate Arizona politics. In 2004, Pearce co-authored a ballot initiative that would require identification to vote or apply for public benefits. Opponents worried that the vague boundaries of “public benefit” would have unintended consequences—such as ambulances refusing to pick up Hispanics. Although every member of Arizona’s national congressional delegation opposed the proposition, including John McCain, it passed with 56 percent of the vote.
By the 2006 mid-term elections, immigration had become a national flashpoint. That year, Pearce advocated reinstating “Operation Wetback,” which allowed the INS to deport over a million Mexican nationals starting in 1954. The next year, he wrote a law that suspended the business licenses of employers of illegal immigrants. At the time, it was regarded as the strictest employer sanction legislation ever passed. (The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering its constitutionality). Pearce’s profile in the state was rising. “I will not back off until we solve the problem of this illegal invasion,” he told NPR. “Invaders, that’s what they are. Invaders on the American sovereignty and it can’t be tolerated.” In 2008, he was elected to the state Senate.
Two years later, Pearce co-wrote SB 1070 and became the front-man in the successful effort to push it through the legislature. Despite the national backlash, the law played well to conservative Arizonans. Republican Governor Jan Brewer, then in the midst of a tight primary race, backed the bill and went on to win both the primary and the general election. Glenn Hamer, the president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, told me that Brewer was likely to win but “signing SB 1070 gave her the political equivalent of an iron man suit.” Bruce Merrill, an Arizona pollster, echoed this assessment: “[I]f she hadn’t signed 1070, she wouldn’t have been elected governor.”
As for Pearce, in the run-up to the elections he devoted himself to raising money for conservative candidates facing close battles. Not all of them won, but his efforts almost certainly helped Republican candidates capture three districts in southern Arizona that Democrats had recently dominated. Now, the legislature has become even more conservative than it was when SB1070 passed. Republicans hold 70 percent of the seats in the state Senate, compared to 60 percent before the election; and they made similar gains in the House. When it came time for the Republican senate caucus to elect their president in November, Pearce won by a narrow margin—empowering him to set the legislative agenda and control the channels through which bills reach the floor.
Pearce declined repeated requests to comment for this article. Within the legislature, there are varying opinions over whether the anti-immigration measures he has championed will ever become law. In recent weeks, all of them have stalled in committee. The Republican chair of the legislature’s education panel, for instance, has said that he will refuse to hear the bill that requires the state to count undocumented immigrants. As Senate President, however, Pearce can easily get around this obstacle by reassigning the bill to another committee. At this late stage in the session, the prospects for that are “very slim,” says the bill’s co-sponsor in the House, Republican Rep. John Kavanagh. However, the bill could still be attached as an amendment to another law, and Democrats warn that bills are never dead until the session ends.“When the Senate President is a prime sponsor,” says Minority Leader David Schapira “anything can happen.” No one thought SB 1070 was going to pass, he adds, and look how that turned out.
If the bill does pass, it may prove difficult to defeat in court. According to the ACLU, the education bill violates a 1982 Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, that forbade Texas public schools from charging illegal immigrants for tuition on the logic that doing so would create what the ruling described as a “subclass of illiterates within our boundaries.” Even one of the bill’s cosponsors, Republican Representative John Kavanagh, admitted that although the bill’s ostensible purpose was not to deter immigrant students from enrolling in Arizona schools, it “certainly could” have that effect in practice. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represented the students in Plyler, says it has heard reports that asking undocumented parents for their social security numbers can dissuade them from sending their children to school.
However, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a former Justice Department lawyer who helped draft SB 1070, believes it will be tough for the bill’s opponents to marshal hard data, rather than anecdotal evidence, to convince a court that the law deters enrollment. “The law merely collects information,” says Kobach. Any claims of a chilling effect, he adds, “would be purely based on speculation.”
Whatever happens, Pearce and the newly elected Arizona conservatives are capable of doing real damage to immigrant rights. Last week, Democratic state Senator Krysten Sinema called to alert me to a measure that had passed the Government Reform committee. Among other things, the bill would allow legal residents to be evicted from public housing if they live with undocumented immigrants. Sinema pointed out to the committee that when a similar proposal had been introduced the previous year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had sent a letter stating that the measure would unlawfully pre-empt the federal government’s authority. In a committee meeting when, Sinema distributed the letter to her colleagues. Republican Senator Lori Klein—a Pearce ally who has said she carries a handgun in her purse while on the Senate floor—turned to a fellow Republican and remarked: “We don’t care what the federal government thinks, do we?” Sinema told me that there are now more ideologues in the Senate than ever before: “It’s crazy town.”
Eliza Gray is a reporter-researcher at The New Republic. | <urn:uuid:8670e5ce-06e3-4f3c-bb1a-499c16e16b32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/83639/arizona-immigration-extreme-pearce?page=0,0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973652 | 2,075 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Front Page Titles (by Subject) IV.: Past, Present, and Future - The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan, Vol. 10 (The Reason of Rules: Constitutional Political Economy)
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IV.: Past, Present, and Future - Geoffrey Brennan, The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan, Vol. 10 (The Reason of Rules: Constitutional Political Economy)
The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan, Vol. 10 (The Reason of Rules: Constitutional Political Economy) Foreword by Robert D. Tollison (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1999).
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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.
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Past, Present, and Future
Despite the anticipated continuity of being, the individual knows that the person who will confront the choices in t1 will be different. This future reality must enter into the decision calculus of the present, in t0, as a constraint. Within limits, the person who will exist in t1 can be “constructed” so as to reflect the preference ordering exhibited at t0—but only within limits. Such a construction will, at best, be only partial, and the chooser at t0 will know that the person alive at t1 must exhibit a will and a personality, a set of preferences, that are “all his own.” The new person, emergent only in t1, may find it in his power to destroy or modify seriously any plans that may be carefully reflected in the forward-looking choices made at t0. The person who chooses at t0 operates in a tension that opposes the continuity of his temporal existence as a conscious being to the reckoned potential for temptation by the less reflective other selves that the future may bring forth.
As a continuing conscious being, the individual may be reluctant to impose constraints on his freedom of action. Liberty may be valued even if the person does not know what will be the object of his actions in future periods. At the same time, however, totally unconstrained behavior may be genuinely feared. A preferred life plan is vulnerable to depletion and erosion by patterns of behavior that the “other” persons in future periods may exhibit. From a planning perspective in t0, therefore, the reference individual may seek out ways to make “subversive” actions costly to those “other persons” that may emerge from the same consciousness in future periods and, in extreme cases, may try to prohibit such behavior.
There are two distinct but related ways the individual might attempt to accomplish this purpose. The first involves the selection of a set of moral precepts that can guide both present- and future-period choices. To the extent that a person establishes a coherent and subjectively meaningful morality, and draws on intellectual and emotional resources in the legitimization and justification of this morality in a manner designed to leave quasi-permanent residues, he will succeed in increasing the costs of any future-period departures from the life plan partially described by adherence to the precepts of such morality. An internal personal commitment to live by a set of moral rules will not explicitly bind choices. But such a commitment can ensure that undesired patterns of behavior (as evaluated from the perspective of t0) will give rise to feelings of guilt. Consider the work ethic as an example. If a person imbeds this ethic in his psyche, by either design or unconscious habituation, sloth in future periods will be accompanied by subjectively sensed costs. Loafing will seem sinful; it will cost more to loaf.
The person may seek, however, to go beyond an instrumental selection of current-period Z’s and also beyond the instrumental adoption of a personal moral code. The individual may, over certain ranges of potential choice behavior, attempt to precommit future-period choice by the imposition of binding rules or constraints. That is to say, the person may deliberately reduce the choice options anticipated to be open in t1 and beyond. There may be a conscious reduction in liberty or freedom of action. The purpose will be to close off possibilities for acting in ways that are deemed “inefficient” in carrying forward a preferred life plan.
As an example, consider Crusoe alone on his island (before Friday). He may deliberately choose to sleep on the beach at a location where the morning tide will rudely awaken him. By sleeping in such a place, Crusoe precommits himself to start the next day’s work early. He closes off the option of deciding when to get up because his life plan includes work rather than sloth, and he wants to remove temptation of the latter.
Precommitment has been discussed at some length by Jon Elster in his book Ulysses and the Sirens.4 As the classic example of the title suggests, Ulysses has himself bound to the mast of his ship as it approaches the sirens’ shore. He recognizes his weakness of will; he does not trust his ability to resist temptation, and he knows that if he succumbs, the larger purpose of the voyage will be undermined.
Precommitment has been analyzed by Thomas Schelling5 and others as a “strategy of conflict.” In potential gamelike interactions, precommitment may offer a means of securing strategic advantage. The general orders the bridge to be burned after his army has crossed the river. Such a strategic “reason of rules” is not the object of our attention in this chapter or, indeed, in this book. In the discussion here, only a single person is directly involved. There is no strategic interaction as such, except that between the person who is and the person who might be. As the analysis has suggested, constraints on future-period behavior may emerge from the rational calculus of a person who remains totally isolated from other persons. The individual may precommit himself to choices that are deemed more worthy in a long-range perspective than a pattern of purely situational responses.
The analysis is not, of course, restricted to the choice behavior of an individual in social isolation. Part 2 of this chapter extends the analysis to the behavior of the individual in choice settings that are explicitly collective. But even when choice remains strictly “individualistic,” the choice setting may be social, as exemplified in market relationships. In these situations, the nonstrategic setting remains descriptive so long as the choice of the individual is not predicted to influence the behavior of other persons directly. Persons who act as demanders and/or suppliers of resources, goods, and services in competitive markets may do so without being conscious that they are bargaining over terms of trade or, differently stated, over shares in the gains from trade. In more general terms, the analysis seems applicable to all large-number settings where the reference person remains one among many and where the behavior of others is taken as a part of the environment rather than as an object to be controlled.
Individual Public Choice
[4. ]Jon Elster, Ulysses and the Sirens (Cambridge University Press, 1979).
[5. ]See Thomas Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960). | <urn:uuid:7fff7db7-7f67-44a2-b85c-b10be66544b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1826&chapter=103043&layout=html&Itemid=27 | 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 | 0.935164 | 1,607 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The Prince George Public Library will receive a $34,150 boost Monday for its new SkyLab computer lab and teaching space.
That's when representatives from Telus will be on hand to present the Bob Harkins branch downtown with a cheque for that amount.
The $260,000 project was funded entirely by donations from corporate and community members and Telus was the greatest single corporate donor after pledging $25 for each customer signed up to its Optik cable TV service between June and October of last year.
SkyLab designers took advantage of existing pillars to create a 1,000 square foot mezzanine halfway up to the second-floor ceiling. It's wired with high-speed Internet connections on 23 thin client computer stations, a significant improvement on the slow-speed infrastructure that bogged down users of the 10-terminal computer lab it replaced.
The new setup also eliminates the need for a two-hour time limit on wireless Internet connections. Laptop users can plug into hard-wired Category 6 Ethernet jacks at 26 stations on the mezzanine floor. Padded chairs are equipped with plugins and have swing-out tables for laptops.
As a result, wireless used has leapt early 78 per cent in 2012 compared to pre-SkyLab 2011 statistics.
The event will be held at SkyLab at 2 p.m. | <urn:uuid:431d6268-1961-4a16-9397-3f8702259123> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/article/20130201/PRINCEGEORGE0101/302019978/-1/princegeorge/telus-to-present-donation-to-library | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950977 | 275 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Something I love about photography is that it is so specific to time. What makes an image remarkable to the viewer, is most likely different than the reason the photographer took it. The collector buys a piece because they like it. The photographer makes the image for many different reasons.
A few months ago, we had an artist come talk at the gallery that I work at. She talked about her work, her process, her inspiration, etc. In the midst of the audience was a person who had previously purchased her work. I think when he heard her speak so frankly about her work, which has a strong documentary element, he became a little unsettled about his purchase. Now this is all speculation, based on my observations, but I think he may have liked his piece less.
At the end of the lecture, he asked how she felt about people like himself, who have purchased her work, who aren’t “getting” what she had just communicated about the picture. This opened up the debate about artist’s intentions and reading art. I loved the debate and the struggle this collector was facing. As a person who digests a lot of photographic work, I know that the stories that I create while looking at images are often misrepresentations of the work’s intended purpose. Every viewer has an independent experience with the work. They take their own history, the image in front of them, and implement a story or narrative to connect the two. It’s an unspoken dialogue between the artist and the viewer.
I still prefer to call them mistakes. And I even love to make them. The above image was shot in New Mexico over the new year while I was visiting my family. I’ve always struggled shooting in New Mexico (and when I say “always” I allude to my one previous visit), and this year it was no different. It was shot early one morning… and it is real confusing. And I really enjoy that.
Last year I submitted to the Photo Review’s annual competition, which was juried by Brian Clamp of CLAMPART in New York City. Although I was not selected as a portfolio prize winner, the image below was curated into an online exhibition dealing with the issue of Identity.
Steven Alvarez, Jeffrey, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2010
Call for Submissions:
Flash Forward 2011
The Magenta Foundation is pleased to announce Year Seven of its Emerging Photographers exchange.
- This is an open call for submissions.
- All photographers in Canada, the UK and the US 34 years of age and under may submit.
- All submission requirements and instructions are located here on their website
The Bright Spark Award winner will receive $5,000.
As in the past, all competition Winners and Honourable Mentions will be published in a high quality catalogue. Along with being published, select 2011 Flash Forward Winners will be featured in a touring exhibition.
In January 2011, a significant additional component will be announced to complement the program’s alternate festival years. Stay tuned and sign up for our newsletter.
The submission deadline has been extended to Monday, January 10, 2011.
With the opening of my new blog, I wish to inform you of an exhibition that I have been curated into. The wall space gallery‘s annual juried show, New Directions will be opening on January 3, 2011 in Santa Barbara, California. Juror David Bram of Fraction Magazine selected the above image to be included in this exhibition. Click here to see all the work in Moments of Being. | <urn:uuid:da8e156b-2d2f-483b-b94c-2d4335e401f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stevenalvarezphotography.com/wordpress/?paged=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982519 | 731 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Samuelson Text May Be Displaced By Paperback Series in Ec 1
Paul A. Samuelson's epic of modern economics, Economics: As Introductory Analysis, may be replaced next year as the principal text in Economics 1 after 15 years of continuous use.
A new series of nine paperbacks, entitled Principles of Modern Economics, written largely by Harvard economists and edited by Otto Eckstein, professor of Economics, is being prepared for use in introductory courses. Eight of the books should be ready by next September, according to Eckstein.
The only books in the series now in print, Economic Development, by Richard T. Gill, Master of Leverett House and head of Ec 1, and International Economics by Peter B. Kenen of Columbia University, will be on the Ec 1 reading list this spring.
"A final decision on how the series as a whole will be used will be made by a special reading list committee after more of the books have appeared," Gill said last night. "It is unlikely, however, that Samuelson's text will be abandoned completely."
Ec 1 to Get Best
Gill listed flexibility and expertise as the chief advantage of the new series. Since each book is logically independent of the others, they "should fit in well with our current practice of picking and choosing the best from many books," Gill observed. He felt the series was preferable to a single text in that the books were written by specialists in each field.
Harvard economists contributing to the project include Richard P. Caves on industrial organization, Robert Dorfman on price theory, John T. Dunlop on labor, James S. Dussenberry on money and credit, Eckstein on public finance, and Gill.
Samuelson's text was first published in 1948. Since then it has gone through five editions and over one million copies. A new edition is planned for this spring. | <urn:uuid:7ffc4cd0-acb7-45a1-aed1-8a89541ba1b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1964/1/27/samuelson-text-may-be-displaced-by/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958704 | 386 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Note: Since completion of the house I have also decided to allow guest bloggers to post articles related to remodeling. This continues the education process.
Architect Selection - December 2002 through January 2003
Getting a Permit - January 2003 through November 2004
Construction - November 2004 through September 2006
Post Construction - October 2006 through ???
Asbestos Removal and Greener Alternatives
Used in millions of homes throughout the last quarter of the 20th century, asbestos insulation can become a real dilemma for homeowners due to causing a variety of health problems, including Peritoneal Mesothelioma and Malignant Mesothelioma. These types of cancer take the lives of thousands each year.
Non-regulated asbestos material can be legally performed by homeowners, regular contractors, or licensed asbestos abatement contractors as long as the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) are not violated.
Asbestos removal in public facilities, homes and workplaces must be undertaken by a licensed asbestos abatement contractor. Once the removal is complete, green insulation options should be given serious consideration, such as: Cellulose, Cotton Fiber and Lcynene.
The United States Green Building Council (USGBC), in a study conducted in 2003, estimated a savings of $50-$65 per square foot for well-constructed green buildings in the U.S. (see table below) during that year. The numbers continue to improve as more eco-friendly options become available, and those kinds of figures have finally begun to attract those who thought eco-friendly construction was just a bunch of hogwash.
Cabinets, Plumbing, Electrical, Insulation, Surround Sound, Roof Work, Shower Mopped,.....
• All plumbing and electrical in the master bathroom has to shift to the left by about a foot since we had a designer lay out the cabinets.
• All insulation has been put in.
• I installed in-ceiling speaker brackets for surround sound in the living room.
• Copper flashing is going on the roof.
• The shower has been hot-mopped. We were told to pick out all bathroom tile and balcony and laundry room flooring this week.
• Skylights have been framed.
• The Thermador range and Thermador dishwasher were delivered last week. I found a place in Alabama (Fredrickson's Tire and Appliance) with amazing prices through eBay. They were clearing out a supply of Thermador appliances from a warehouse that closed down. They bought everything up and were liquidating at wholesale prices.
• With the extended garage roof you now hit your head when walking around the corner. So, we dug down about 2 feet around the garage to lower the grade.
Be sure to browse the 2,000 picture Photo Gallery for more step-by-step construction details. | <urn:uuid:4e6a801e-a26f-4f60-b967-ed736c08d38d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://craftsmanremodel.com/rapidblog/blogger.php?categories=Insulation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952251 | 587 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Christine Raber, Ph.D., associate professor, Master of Occupational Therapy program at Shawnee State University, presented at two conferences in Europe, one in Scotland and one in Sweden.
Raber presented research about the Mary Collaborative at the College of Occupational Therapists 37th Annual Conference and Exhibition in Glasgow, Scotland, in June.
In October, at the Third International Institute on the Model of Human Occupation, Stockholm, Sweden, she met with Mary Collaborative co-founders, Dr. Kirsty Forsyth and Dr. Jane Melton, and presented research that examined occupational therapists’ use of the Remotivation Process, an intervention aimed at supporting motivation to engage in daily activities.
Ashley Hupp, Sarah Quinlan and Brian Stephenson, three Master of Occupational Therapy students at Shawnee State, worked with Raber on the research presented in Sweden. The study is part of the Mary Collaborative initiative.
The Mary Collaborative is in collaboration with Queen Margaret University, 2gether NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Lothian, and Shawnee State University.
Joining her in Scotland were Dr. Kirsty Forsyth, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scotland, and Dr. Jane Melton, 2gether NHS Trust, Gloucestershire, England.
The Mary Collaborative is an innovative international collaborative designed to create and support learning communities that will result in improved quality of care for people with dementia and their caregivers.
This collaborative was initiated by a mutual connection with a woman called Mary who has dementia. All of the participants within this collaborative connected with Mary’s story during the first Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) International Institute.
The initiative is driven by a desire to investigate how to better serve the health needs of people like Mary.
“This initiative is driven by a desire to investigate how to better serve the heath needs of people like Mary using MOHO,” Raber said. “The Mary Collaborative’s structure is an academic/practice partnership based on principles of mentorship and
Collaborators represent practitioners, academics, and students across two university settings and three provider organizations offering occupational therapy services to persons with dementia.
“This core group of academics and practitioners will drive forward MOHO research within the area of dementia care and will act as a catalyst to bring together the international community,” she said. “A range of research is being designed and initiated to develop methods of using MOHO to support people with dementia to engage in meaningful daily activities. The study presented in Sweden is one example of the kind of research we are doing to meet the goals of the Mary Collaborative.”
The Mary Collaborative initiative was presented in Scotland, and in Sweden, members of the Collaborative discussed progress and outlined strategies to continue to move the initiative forward. | <urn:uuid:8ced700a-91fa-4c6e-964c-f3b99768847f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://communitycommon.com/pages/home/push?class=&per_page=5&x_page=33&rel= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945815 | 587 | 1.679688 | 2 |
San Antonio Tourism
Fri February 8, 2013
Renovated Alamo Gift Shop Aimed At Increasing Income, Traffic
The Alamo gift shop reopened after a month of renovations to customers looking to scoop up historical keep-sakes of the Texas revolution.
“I grabbed a postcard, made sure it said Alamo on it, slapped it down, and wanted to be that first customer,” said Sue Wigston, who is in town from Ontario, Canada.
“We got caught up in the gift shop instead so now we're going to go back track and learn about the history of the Alamo,” she said.
That is exactly what Texas Deputy Land Commissioner Larry Laine wants people to do.
The reason the gift shop closed for a renovation is to attract more customers and increase revenue, since admission to the shrine is free.
"We feel like the way the traffic, so to speak, as the customers come in, they leave the shrine, they come in. The flow is better. A lot of the merchandise is a lot different,” he said.
But many of the items are the same, like Davy Crockett raccoon-skin caps.
Laine confirmed that the remodel may not have happened if not for a mix-up last year when the Daughters of the Republic of Texas managed the shrine.
Reports indicated that an original copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence was thought to be missing.
"The Attorney General's office was responding to some letters and some inquiries and that's what got it started, an investigation,” he said. “That got wrapped up and it was all wrapped up by the Legislature giving it to us and so we're excited about moving forward."
Laine said the DRT still manages the Alamo's day to day operations.
As Davy Crockett once said, "We have the right as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money."
None of the $250,000-$500,000 remodel used taxpayer dollars. | <urn:uuid:8fe7d9b2-9f65-461a-a6e5-7cee2c7734e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tpr.org/post/renovated-alamo-gift-shop-aimed-increasing-income-traffic?ft=1&f= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967036 | 448 | 1.640625 | 2 |
How A Walmart Bribery Fine Could Spiral Up Over $13 Billion
Following The New York Times report that it had bribed Mexican officials to speed up store openings, Walmart could face substantial fines from the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission.
The big question is: how much will that fine be?
Now remember, the company hasn't been charged with anything yet, so this is is all just theoretical, but...
First estimates from Business Insider put the figure over $5 billion, with the possibility it could hit $13.1 billion.
How We Got There
The DOJ will weigh the actual benefit Walmart received from opening stores earlier than having to wait for a green light from the Mexican government.
That calculation will be based on the number of stores Walmart was able to accelerate and revenue generated from those stores.
Based on Walmart's 10-K filing for the period ended January 31, 2006, the company generated $62.7 billion through its 2,285 international stores — generating an average store revenue of $27.4 million.
Over the period The Times investigates, Walmart opened a net 239 new locations in Mexico.
If each of those locations should have not opened as quickly, then multiplying each new location by that average store revenue rate means Walmart generated an extra $6.558 billion over the 2002-05 period.
Although that is a crude approach to determine Mexico's contribution to Walmart's international results, it represents a first shot at what the division's units mean to the international results. Walmart's Mexican locations accounted for a third of total international store-fronts for fiscal year ended January 31, 2006.
But under the Alternative Fines Act, a fine under the FCPA can be twice as large as the benefit seen to the guilty party. And the fine will ultimately be impacted by the size of the company, prior criminal history, voluntary disclosure, and — the kicker here — if high level executives knew or were involved.
If doubled, Walmart could be on the line for $13.1 billion, a hit to EPS of $2.24.
And the investigation will likely not end there. The DOJ will likely look at all of Walmart's international operations and expand the period it investigates beyond the 2002-2005 period highlighted in The Times piece.
It's also important to note that the benefit in question is not simply net income gained from the operations, but added revenue Walmart received.
UBS analyst Robert Carroll took an interesting approach when calculating the possible hit to Walmart, and also arrived at an eye-popping figure.
Carroll compiled the most recent settlements under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, and found recent fines averaged between one and two percent of total revenue.
In 2011, Walmart tallied total sales of $446.9 billion.
That could mean a fine between $4.47 billion and $8.94 billion. But if Walmart were fined at the highest percentage ever levied, which occurred in 2009 against Halliburton, that fine would reach $14.30 billion.
"We believe an ongoing FCPA investigation will have no impact on Walmart's day to day operations in either Mexico or U.S.," Carroll says. "Given Walmex’s position as a Mexican listed company with no operations in the United States, any potential financial penalties resulting from these accusations would be applied to parent company Walmart Stores, Inc. which fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. DOJ and SEC. Each 1% of Walmart’s total worldwide sales would equate to ~$4.5B or ~$0.77 to full year EPS."
Below, a look at recent settlements.
Get Markets Emails & Alerts | <urn:uuid:9a634994-9db7-424e-bee7-b78aa8ba3a1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessinsider.com/how-walmarts-fine-could-spiral-up-to-144-billion-2012-4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941924 | 751 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Some of the finest movies Hollywood ever churned out were silent, yet the public today rarely has an opportunity to see classics such as "City Lights" or "Intolerance" on the silver screen. But you can see them here, at the Silent Movie Showcase. In fact, many old-time movie actors have dropped by the theatre to watch their own films.
Tragedy struck the Silent Movie Showcase on January 17, 1997, when the owner of the theater, Laurence Austin, was shot and killed during an apparent robbery attempt. Police later arrested his longtime business partner for hiring the gunman to kill Austin, so that he could gain the inheritance.
The Silent Movie Showcase was closed, and in March 1998, the theatre was put up for sale. Many assumed that would be the end of it.
But fortunately, the story had a happy ending.
The theatre was saved by by silent film enthusiast, Charlie Lustman (pictured to the left), who purchased the theatre on impulse (he suspects that the spirit of was John Hampton spurring him on) and re-opened it in November of 1999 as the only silent film cinema in the USA.
The new owners invested almost a million dollars in the theatre, and conducted an extensive renovation. The "new" theatre has a gorgeous art deco neon marquee, new paint, new wooden floors, a new screen, a new projection booth, and a $7,000 digital keyboard donated by Yamaha. They also added a second-floor café and movie art gallery.
This a very small theatre, with only 158 seats, but there is live music (organ or piano) accompanying the movies. Before the main feature begins, you can expect to see silent shorts, cartoons and serials.
The theatre has even attracted celebrities in the audience, to watch the movies, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid.
However, as the years passed, the silent movie showings became less and less frequent, until by 2006, they were only doing shows on holiday weekends. On the other hand, according to the L.A. Times, they were doing a bang-up business renting the building for private parties - weddings, Bar mitzvahs, and release parties that attracted the likes of Alanis Morissette, Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty and David Bowie. The theatre even did a private screening as a date for Johnny Depp and future wife Vanessa. And thos private parties began to push the films out of the picture.
In June 2006, Lustman announced that he was selling the theatre to new owners: two young brothers, Sammy & Dan Harkham (age 26 & 24) and Hadrian Belove. They have turned the small theatre into a revival house, featuring an ecelectic mix of relatively recent movies with sound. However, they do still show silent movies (with live music) once a week. However, unlike Lustman, who tended to stick with the classics (like Charlie Chaplin), the Harkham's hope to show lesser-known silent films. And the private parties? They'll continue to pay the rent.
Phone ahead (323-655-2520) to see what's playing this week.
Getting there: The theatre is located on the west side of Fairfax Avenue, just south of Melrose Avenue. From Farmer's Market, drive north up Fairfax Avenue (about one mile) to Melrose, and the theatre will be on your left (west) side. / From Hollywood & Vine, take Vine Street south (about a mile and a quarter) to Melrose Avenue, and go west on Melrose (two miles) to Fairfax. Turn right (south) on Fairfax, and the theatre will be on your right.
[For more information, you
can access the theatre's official website
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(Click here to read other disclaimers) | <urn:uuid:f108d0dc-e09c-4af4-b099-c483f3038766> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seeing-stars.com/Theatres/SilentMovie.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964811 | 917 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Hector Milla Editor of the "Best Anti Aging Treatments" website -- http://www.BestAntiAgingTreatments.tv -- pointed out;
“…First of all, you need to find a high quality skin cream that has a collagen producing ingredient. Cynergy TK is a collagen stimulating ingredient that is great for your skin. Collagen helps your skin to stay firm and flexible. Without it your skin is prone to wrinkle, discolor, and age faster. As you grow older you lose this natural protein, and so it is smart to use a cream that will once again stimulate its production. You should also find a cream that is high in keratin stimulating ingredients. Keratin is another natural protein that is responsible for moisturizing and protecting your skin. Without it your skin becomes dry and subject to intruders…”
You can also look into eye gels and creams that are made specifically for the skin right around your eyes. Gels are typically for younger people because they have less moisturizer and work to firm and cool the skin. Creams have more moisturizers and are typically for older people who don't have as much keratin.
Next, you should get in the habit of cleaning your face daily and applying both a day and a night cream. When you clean your face with a healthy cream it can help to exfoliate your skin and rid it of dead cells. This is important so that your pores do not clog. Clogged pores will cause acne and wrinkles.
“…These are just a few tips but they are important ones. If you can get into the habit of cleaning your face regularly by applying these special creams, then your skin will rejuvenate and look as good as new in no time…” added H. Milla.
Further information, resources and reviews of the best anti aging treatments that you can get online by visiting: http://www.BestAntiAgingTreatments.tv | <urn:uuid:61740061-b86b-4d5b-a56a-85d89b647142> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prlog.org/10609968-the-most-recommended-anti-aging-skin-treatments.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942466 | 404 | 1.53125 | 2 |
StartX, Stanford University‘s startup accelerator, launched its latest group of startups Thursday. The companies, which presented to top investors, spanned consumer Internet, medical technology, and even eyewear.
The startups have gone through the three month intensive program, which includes educational seminars, mentorship and advising. The nonprofit accelerator does not invest in the companies. The program is open to applications from startups with at least one team member with a Stanford connection. Besides Stanford students, there are also faculty members, grad students and post-docs in the program. StartX also announced Thursday that it is launching an affiliated program focusing on medical and biotech startups called StartX Med.
Here is a list of companies that showed their wares Thursday:
Gauss Surgical: The startup uses software on the iPad to help surgeons and anesthesiologists monitor blood loss during surgery. The service uses photos to help analyze blood loss. The company, which has raised $800,000 in seed financing, has received its first FDA 510(k) clearance and plans to launch its product this fall. While most medical device companies are very capital intensive, Gauss is not because it is a software company.
Crowd Jewel: Jewelry designers submit their designs and crowds rate them on Crowd Jewel’s website. The company, which is raising a $1 million seed round, manufactures those that are most popular, sells them on the site and gives a royalty to the designer. The company has 3,500 beta testers. Competitors include Stella and Dot.
LessThan3: An online music collection website founded by electronic music affiicanados. Users collect music from different artists and keep them in their individual rooms. Then anyone can come to their room and listen to their collection of music, that plays like a personal radio station. People can also “buy” trophies of musical artists, which are virtual goods. Sounds like a combination of Pandora and Turntable.fm.
Vergence Labs: Creator of computer-enabled eyeglasses called Epiphany Eyewear. The company, which has raised money on KickStarter, enables people to record video from the glasses and share the videos via its own web platform. The glasses also can change the glass instantly to make them into sunglasses. The founders believe eyewear is the next big computer interface.
Genapsys: Produces a small device that does DNA sequencing. In the past genomic diagnostics has been very expensive, using large computers, and takes weeks for analysis. But Genapsys has done ten years of research and has made the cost of a DNA analysis $3,o00 instead of $700,000.
Watchup: iPad-based news video reader curates high quality video. The company believes that television will be delivered increasingly via tablets and other devices, not traditional televisions. Founders are preparing the app’s launch in June.
Roominate makes toys aimed at helping girls learn about science, technology and math. The first product, which has already raised $55,000 in Kickstarter funding, is a twist on the conventional dollhouse which gives girls tools for building a dollhouse with electricity, circuits and wiring. The founders are three current or former female Stanford graduate students in business or engineering.
Appfluence: Productivity software that helps product managers prioritize tasks. The service, which has 40,000 paid customers, works across iPads, iPhones, Macs and PCs. | <urn:uuid:fde9c237-3a1a-4511-94e0-0690e083df42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/06/01/dna-to-dollhouses-stanfords-startx-accelerator-launches-new-batch/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96132 | 704 | 1.640625 | 2 |
His real name is Zebu Recchia, and at the age of nineteen, he left his hog-riding, bricklaying father in Denver behind to become a tramp. Though it's hardly your usual 21st-century occupation, it seemed like the timing was just right for Zebu, whose stage name is Eddy Joe Cotton, a moniker he chose arbitrarily when he first hit the road. Cotton, he says, is what the clouds looked like in Wyoming, where he first hitchhiked.
8 p.m. June 30
Bluebird Theater, 3317 East Colfax Avenue
$6, 303-322-2308, www.ticketweb.com
Newly forged, Eddy Joe took to the road like weeds to a garden. Along the way, he met kindred souls like Alabama, a weathered father figure and hobo philosopher who showed him the ropes. And by fortuitous chance, Cotton kept a journal of his travels, which eventually became a book called Hobo: A Young Man's Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America. Cotton signs his book in Denver this week.
"I had a pile of cocktail napkins and a pen I found by side of the road, and a lot of spare time spent waiting on trains or waiting on women or waiting on anything else of a seductive nature," Cotton says. "I kept a suitcase filled with notes written on pieces of cardboard, Yoo-Hoo soda boxes, cigarette cartons, the aforementioned cocktail napkins. I carried that thing around wherever I went. It was the only thing that meant anything to me. When I was in Guatemala, I'd be Xeroxing things and sending them back to the suitcase, which I kept in my father's attic for a while."
Why do people need to know about the hobo subculture? "It's the closest thing America has to gypsy culture," Cotton notes. "And any sort of transient culture or rubber-tire culture or turnpiker culture in America is something to be respected. These people live off what we throw away. They find ways to get their kicks with very little." The "homeless" category into which we tend to lump hobos in modern times, he adds, isn't exactly accurate: "That term stresses that you don't have a home. People should find a term that stresses what we do have. But on the other hand, there are a lot of bums out there." And what's the difference? "I can identify a tramp or hobo just by looking at him -- by the way his bedroll's wrapped up, or the way he or she carries himself," Cotton says. "There's still something very gentlemanly about a hobo."
Cotton's no doubt come a long way. At the end of his big adventure, he camped out in Las Vegas, compiling his ragtag notes and doing research on hobo culture. Now based in the Bay Area, he performs with the Yard Dogs Road Show, a vaudevillian throwback hobos' carnival featuring jug-band music, a pair of dancing girls and such acts as "outlaw Buddha poet and gambler" Rick Rainbow and the Twelve-Toed Man, both from Las Vegas. Cotton will bring the entourage with him to town this week for the book signing, as well as a full-fledged performance at the Bluebird Theater.
The Yard Dogs, he says, embody tramp values in their art. "First you've got to define 'tramp artist': That's someone who uses any resources at hand to create his or her art, despite financial inadequacies. I've tried to create a mobile gallery of this type of artist." And despite difficulties in rounding up a bunch of drifters on a regular basis, Cotton's persistence has resulted in gigs with the late Ken Kesey and his resurrected Merry Pranksters, at the Coachella and Burning Man festivals, and even one in the parking lot behind Denver County Jail.
Perhaps you'll want to answer the call, too. It's not unheard of, after all: "The spirit will always be there," Cotton affirms. "And there still are a hell of a lot of trains to ride."
Find everything you're looking for in your city
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city | <urn:uuid:f53222ce-f880-43f1-a99f-4960c236a108> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.westword.com/2002-06-27/calendar/the-ballad-of-eddy-joe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974639 | 925 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Posted: Monday, 11 June 2012 7:03AM
Les Paul Guitars, Items Fetch $5 Million at Auction
A rare guitar designed and owned by renowned guitarist Les Paul sold for $180,000 as part of a two-day auction of his instruments and personal effects that raised nearly $5 million, Julien's Auctions said on Sunday.
The guitar, a rare 1982 Gibson Les Paul prototype recording model, was among several of the iconic guitarist's instruments that sold in Los Angeles over the weekend.
Other models included a 1951 Fender Nocaster that brought in a whopping $216,000 and a 1940s Epiphone Zephyr, known as "Klunker #3," which fetched $144,000. Research notes, a sign for the Les Paul Iridium Club, and a custom license plate were among other items being sold.
Paul and his wife Mary Ford enjoyed a string of hits in the 1940s and 1950s that included "Mockin' Bird Hill" and the influential "How High the Moon." He was best known in the music community as an inventor of guitars and a pioneer of recording techniques. He died in 2009 at age 94 from complications of pneumonia.
Sometimes called the father of the electric guitar, Paul produced one of the first solid body versions and commissioned the first 8-track tape recorder, revolutionizing the way music was produced and distributed.
The auction's proceeds benefited the Les Paul Foundation, which the guitarist founded to support music education, engineering, innovation and medical research.
Story Copyright 2012, Reuters
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(CNN) -- A group of former service members who left the military because of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy will get the full separation pay they were denied, according to a recent $2.4 million court settlement.
The settlement was announced this week by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the U.S. government on behalf of about 181 troops who were honorably discharged for violating the pre-2011 military ban on service members being openly gay.
"There was absolutely no need to subject these service members to a double dose of discrimination by removing them from the armed forces in the first place, and then denying them this small benefit to ease the transition to civilian life," said Laura Schauer Ives, an ACLU lawyer.
The total payment in the settlement is about $2.4 million or about $14,000 per former service member, according to the ACLU.
The lead plaintiff in the case, according to court documents, was Richard Collins, a former staff sergeant in the Air Force who served for nine years until he was discharged.
Collins was stationed at a New Mexico base before he was seen by a co-worker kissing his boyfriend in their car while stopped at an intersection off-base, the ACLU said.
Collins applauded the decision.
"This means so much to those of us who dedicated ourselves to the military, only to be forced out against our will for being who we are," said Collins. "We gave all we had to our country, and just wanted the same dignity and respect for our service as any other veterans."
The settlement covers service members who fit the criteria and were discharged after November 10, 2004, the ACLU said.
The policy, known as "don't ask, don't tell," had been in place since 1993, and had permitted gays and lesbians to serve in the military, provided they didn't reveal their sexual orientation.
The policy, first enacted during the Clinton administration, was officially repealed on September 20, 2011. | <urn:uuid:d4110698-4107-4f2d-9d21-e133eecd5851> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://us.cnn.com/2013/01/10/justice/new-mexico-dadt-lawsuit/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991472 | 407 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Sweden-based developer Mojang is working on a custom version of its hit Minecraft game for the $25 - $35 Raspberry Pi micro-computer. The new game is called Minecraft: Pi Edition and was officially filed this weekend at Minecon fan event in Paris, France. According to the official FAQ on the Raspberry Pi web site, the game came into being after the company sent "a bunch of boards out to Notch and the guys at Mojang in Stockholm a little while back."
Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight is going to be a little different this year... This year's event will let fans decide which ideas get made into games, with a live stream of the entire process to boot. But the best part is that, when it's all said and done, all of the games made during the vent will be released as a special Humble Bundle.
BerryBots 1.0.0 has been released for Raspberry Pi, Linux, and Mac OS X - with a Windows version "coming soon." Developed by Patrick Cupka (who some of you may remember from the Quake community as the sole proprietor of the popular web site The Void), BerryBots is described as a game designed primarily for the Raspberry Pi that teaches players the basics of programming. The game caters to novice programmers by letting them program a ship that moves around a simple stage, sees gameplay events, and shoots at other ships.
A Kickstarter for a space in Los Angeles where independent developers can get together is being pitched today as the "LA Game Space." The idea of the project - should it get the $250,000 in funding organizers are asking for - is to transform an old warehouse in the Arts District of Los Angeles and turn it into a hot spot for game design and independent titles. They plan on hosting workshops, exhibitions, research labs, public events with guest speakers, and space where indie game makers can set up shop. Think of it as a sort of indie game commune, if you will.
Teasing an upcoming interview with Hotline Miami co-creator Jonatan Söderström, VG247 offers tidbits on the developer's positions on piracy and making games "just for money." Recently made headlines when he offered support to players who had pirated his game over on Pirate's Bay.
First he talks about why he makes games:
Jonatan Soderstrom, one of the co-creators of the popular indie PC game Hotline Miami, apparently noticed a thread over on The Pirate Bay complaining about bugs in his game. So what does he do? He joins in and promises a patch!. Yes, Soderstrom offers support even to people who pirated his game. From the thread (uncovered by PC Gamer):
Last week, Haunts: The Manse Macabre game developer Rick Dakan found that he had run out of money after successfully funding his game via a Kickstarter campaign. Obviously backers of the game were not pleased with this news and media outlets were quick to point out what happens to backers when a project they fund doesn't get completed (the general consensus being that they get screwed).
Speaking at the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam on Wednesday, Eidos Life President Ian Livingstone said that broadband bottlenecks around the world are slowing down the game industry's transition from the physical to the digital world, and urged telecommunications companies to build more broadband infrastructure.
"What we need is super-speed broadband,″ said Livingstone. "You're kind of holding us back in many respects."
While we would be hard pressed to attest to the validity or effectiveness of the ReConstitution 2012 interactive web app, we do find it more than a little amusing - mostly because of the way its creators describe it.
With five days to go, Obsidian Entertainment's Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for its old-school RPG Project Eternity has managed to raise $2,805,528 of its original $1,100,000 goal from 58,780 backers. The company has managed to surpass multiple stretch goals, which in turn has allowed them to add a ton of features and extras to the game that fans will appreciate. In the latest update to the Kickstarter page, Obsidian laid out its plans for the last five days of the campaign.
While the upcoming game developer jam - F*ck This Jam might have the most colorful name ever - organizers are aiming to take developers out of their comfort zones to create games in genres they absolutely loathe.
You may recall that in one of our polls about the Humble Bundle we asked you what kinds of bundles you'd like to see. One of those suggestions was an eBook bundle. Well, someone somewhere at Humble Bundle headquarters must be reading our polls and listening to the Super PAC, because today they announced the Humble eBook Bundle.
Mojang announced via its website that it is now offering prepaid game cards for its hit game Minecraft at various retailers. Now players can buy the cards for $26.95, the same price as downloading Minecraft online. For now the cards are available at Walmart, Target, and Best Buy, and they are only available in the United States. Find out more about them at Minecraft.net.
An 11-year-old girl named Victoria Walker has won a $20,000 award from AT&T for creating an app that discourages users from texting while driving. The contest was part of a promotion to generate awareness for the "It Can Wait" campaign, which reminds mobile phone users that texting while driving (distracted driving) can have deadly consequences.
This Techland report details how a New York City school teacher named Joel Levin has created a version of Minecraft for schools called MinecraftEdu. Levin teaches second-grade computer classes at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York City. He also runs a Minecraft club for high school students and has been incorporating Minecraft into his classes for the past two years.
In an opinion piece on Politico, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA.) and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA.) make the case for open internet policies. They open the opinion piece by noting that both political parties have some language paying homage to the concept of a "free and open Internet" and explain what it all means in terms of what is going on in Washington. You may remember that Congressman Issa was at the forefront of fighting against SOPA when it was in committee.
Raspberry Pi is now being manufactured in the United Kingdom, though in a limited run. Before today most of the tiny computers were made in Chinese factories. The UK-made Raspberry Pi will be assembled at Sony UK Technology's factory in Pencoed, South Wales, according to the BBC. Another silver lining to making them in the UK is that it will create an additional 30 jobs. The Raspberry PI's made in the UK will be distributed by Premier Farnell.
Minecraft developer Mojang has teamed up with the United Nations to create a new initiative called Block By Block.
One of the most interesting games to deal with a horrible social issue (child abuse) is getting a make-over and a re-release. Edmund McMillen's critically acclaimed game The Binding of Isaac is being remade by a new team, with plans for a release on consoles and the PC sometime next year. One of the key features will be local co-op play.
Valve Software offered more details on Steam Greenlight and "big picture mode" last night during an episode of GameTrailersTV. Steam Greenlight, which is set for an August 30 release allows the Steam community to pick and choose which indie game titles can be bought onto Valve's service.
Game developer Snakehead Games wanted us to let our readers know that they are holding a writing contest related to its browser-based, cyberpunk themed game universe, StarCrash. The setting is used in two of its browser-based MMO games: Spybattle 2165 and Star Pirates.
For the last four years, Westwood College's Anaheim Campus has put on the Gathering of Video Game Legends & Student Game-Concept Pitch Competition. This year's event will be held on August 18 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Westwood College Anaheim Campus (next to the Honda Center) in sunny Anaheim, California.
The Kickstarter for the OUYA has ended, with organizers of the crowd funding round raking in a final amount of $8,596,475 from 63,416 backers. Organizers were originally aiming for $900,000.
Mojang has revealed that it is on its way to doubling profits over last year thanks to the Xbox Live version of Minecraft. The company tells it24 that profits have really soared this year and that it is selling over 17,000 copies of the Xbox Live version of the game every day.
Putting aside the arguments for and against emulators for a minute, the developers of the open-sourced PlayStation 2 emulator PCSX2 announced that it has hit a major milestone: version 1.0. The emulator is available for Windows and Linux. There's also a Mac version but it's not at version 1.0 at this point and its performance is reportedly dodgy. The emulator has been in development since 2002.
OUYA has managed to crack the $7 million dollar mark with a little over a day left to go before its crowd funding deadline on Kickstarter ends. As of this writing the $99 console has managed to raise $7,036,309 in funding (it started out with a $950,000 goal) from 52,932 backers. The Kickstarter campaign has 37 more hours to go.
Two French gamers decided that it would be a grand idea to reprogram a Sega Genesis so that every time a player made a mistake or took damage in a game they would get some punishment from shock collars. You can't make this kind of stuff up, folks. Also it goes without saying that you shouldn't try this at home.
The two gamers try everything from Sonic to Golden Axe 3, with amusing results. You'll notice in one of the shots that alcohol might be involved in the production of this little experiment... | <urn:uuid:2f4cb488-6185-4e83-aa6c-df34c2fb1448> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gamepolitics.com/category/topics/innovative-thinking?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964726 | 2,075 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Charts: Euro to Fall to Parity and Below vs Dollar
The euro is set to plummet toward its lowest level since the single currency appeared on traders' screens back in 1999, Mark Sturdy, director at Seven Days Ahead, told CNBC Wednesday.
The long-term chart for the euro suggests it will go "much lower" versus the dollar and could fall toward $0.90, which is near the lows of 2000/2001, Sturdy said.
That level would be close to the lowest level for the euro since the currency began electronic trading in January 1999.
The euro launched at $1.1665 and then jumped to $1.1889 within four trading sessions. After the initial strength, the currency began a long decline toward the low of $0.8230, hit on October 26 2000. The euro is currently higher that its launch value.
"It is the central, most compelling drama in the markets I think," Sturdy said. "We have what I believe to be a top formation that has completed."
There is a "compelling case for the bears," he added.
- Watch the full interview with Mark Sturdy above.
The original euro zone countries tied themselves into the currency in 1999, but the coins and notes didn't hit people's wallets until January 2002 when they became legal tender. Since then the euro has seen years of relative strength versus the dollar until the financial crisis rocked its stability in 2008.
Dennis Gartman, author of "the Gartman Letter," also thinks the euro will decline against the dollar.
The euro "is having a rough month, it's having a rough year… it's probably going to continue to have rough times ahead. Are we going under $1.20? Almost certainly," he told CNBC.
Meanwhile, the pound's outlook isn't as weak as the euro's versus the dollar, but don't expect it to go much higher either, Sturdy said.
The UK currency is "within a trading range which has been around since 1990," he said.
However, the pound could strengthen against the euro , according to Sturdy.
"Sterling looks to me to be able to strengthen against the euro, certainly down to £0.81. There is no substantial support for the euro until you get down to £0.74 against sterling," he said. | <urn:uuid:00af0b36-bc20-4e47-805e-2d2fcdf8db06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/37465870 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978588 | 486 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Modern life and better communication. Dinasaurs like myself remember having experiences in places far away from home without any expectations of communicating with the homebase regularly. The whole year that I spent in Honduras I talked to my mom about 6 times on the phone – but conversations via snail mail were long and frequent funnily enough. Living on an island and Greece and communicating with the family only a few times when the local grocer was open and kind enough to shout my name out if someone called. Going on Interrail and having adventures without anyone at home follow our route or adventures. These are just a few examples of life and travels without the expectation of being constantly available or at least updating regularly back home. I thought about this in the summer when my 20 year old brother spent a month or two backpacking around Europe and my dad worried about not hearing from him for a few days. I think about this often when I get slightly annoyed about not reaching someone because my own expecations have changed – I have grown accustomed to being connected.
It is of course still possible to go out and have an experience far removed from your home, family or friends but the strange thing is that the more we become used to being able to follow our loved ones through modern technology the more fearful we become when we lose that contact, even if only for a short time.
That is food for thought – food that NPR just decided to taste in a recent story called Texting, Skype Alter Peace Corp Experience. Very interesting for all prospective, current and former Peace Corp volunteers – and for that matter anyone who has ever tried to venture out into the world and experience life in another culture. | <urn:uuid:677567b2-c050-4857-a47d-b9e7d60eedf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.miis.edu/communications/tag/texting/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970922 | 333 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Knowledge Base Articles02 May 2013 Food Fraud - this year it’s horsemeat!
EventsHealth & Safety Forum : When an ‘Inspector calls’ - Top ten pointers for a successful visit
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Whether you are a food processor, caterer, distributor, or working in the food industry in warehousing, retail, food service, or hospitality there is a vast array of legal requirements which impact on your food business.
Every food business operator (FBO) can expect to be regularly visited by the local enforcement officers from their district and county council, either to carry out a full audit/ inspection; to investigate a complaint or to receive advice on best practise.
The results of such visits can leave the FBO with a number of dilemmas:
- Is the business compliant?
- What do I have to do nextversus what is a longer term goal?
- Do I have to place allergens labelling on my food labelling/menu?
- Can I appeal against the notice served?
- Can I appeal against my “scores on the doors rating”?
Whether it is an issue of food labelling, food hygiene, food safety or standards we can help. Our specialist lawyers frequently advise as a result of such visits. We can help you achieve a safe commercial solution by demystifying the law.
We have successfully challenged various Food Labelling Regulations and their interpretation by Judicial Review as well as defending businesses in the courts for food hygiene and safety breaches.
We have the skills and knowledge to help you chart the right path. | <urn:uuid:58415e0c-6e78-463c-8c87-5a78be267f04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenwoods.co.uk/legal-services/regulatory/food-safety/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939134 | 356 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Blacula is the name of a fictional character that appeared in two blaxploitation horror films produced for American International Pictures in 1972 and 1973, respectively. The character was portrayed by William Marshall. Both films deal with the character of Mamuwalde, an African prince transformed into a vampire and then imprisoned in a sealed coffin by Count Dracula, only to find himself released in the 1970s. The first film was produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff and Joseph T. Naar, directed by William Crain, and written by Raymond Koenig and Joan Torres. Blacula won the "Best Horror Film" award at the 1972 Saturn Awards. | <urn:uuid:7c023a9b-581b-4a5f-9b9c-c55ddcd7525c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sidereel.com/Blacula | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978909 | 132 | 1.671875 | 2 |
By Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus and Brian Montopoli.
Ninety-two percent of Americans favor background checks for all potential gun buyers, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll.
Universal background checks are one of the proposals that President Obama has called on Congress to pass as part of his proposal to combat gun violence in the wake of the massacre in a Newtown, Conn., elementary school in December.
"If you want to buy a gun -- whether it's from a licensed dealer or a private seller -- you should at least have to show you are not a felon or somebody legally prohibited from buying one," Mr. Obama said Wednesday, adding that "as many as 40 percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check."
Licensed gun dealers already must run background checks, but unlicensed dealers and private sellers, many of whom sell guns at gun shows or over the internet, are not required to do so.
Only seven percent of respondents in the poll, which was conducted before the president's press conference, said they oppose background checks for all potential gun buyers.
Support for universal background checks went across party lines: 89 percent of Republicans and 93 percent of Democrats and independents were in favor, as well as 93 percent of gun households and 85 percent of those living in a household with a member of the National Rifle Association.
Seventy-four percent of Americans, meanwhile, said that more armed security guards would help prevent mass shootings in public places. Thirty-five percent said armed guards would help a lot in places like schools, movie theatres and malls, and another 39 percent said they would help some. One in four said they would not help.
In response to the Newtown tragedy, the NRA has called for all schools to have armed guards.
These findings are part of an initial release from the survey, which was taken from January 11-15. More results from the poll will be released later today.
For detailed results from these poll questions, see next page.
Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls. | <urn:uuid:9b66f47e-3633-486e-9b2c-6c0f90473672> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-34222_162-57564386-10391739/9-in-10-back-universal-gun-background-checks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973202 | 487 | 1.570313 | 2 |
FAA grounds Boeing 787 Dreamliners over battery problemson January 16, 2013 @ 3:19 pm (Updated: 5:43 am - 1/17/13 )
The FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive because of the meltdown of a lithium ion battery and threat of fire on board an All Nippon Airways 787 early Wednesday in Japan that prompted an emergency landing and evacuation.
"Before further flight, operators of U.S.-registered, Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the batteries are safe and in compliance," the FAA said in a statement.
"The FAA will work with the manufacturer and carriers to develop a corrective action plan to allow the U.S. 787 fleet to resume operations as quickly and safely as possible."
The Japanese incident followed a similar one on board another 787 last week at Boston's Logan Airport.
"The root cause of these failures is currently under investigation. These conditions, if not corrected, could result in damage to critical systems and structures, and the potential for fire in the electrical compartment," the FAA said.
United Airlines is currently the only U.S. carrier operating the 787 with six of the new jetliners in service.
Japan's All Nippon Airways and Japan Air Lines both grounded their fleets of 787s earlier Wednesday after the latest incident.
The other airlines currently operating the 787 are Air India, Qatar Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, LAN of Chile and LOT of Poland.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, Boeing wrote:
The safety of passengers and crew members who fly aboard Boeing airplanes is our highest priority.
Boeing is committed to supporting the FAA and finding answers as quickly as possible. The company is working around the clock with its customers and the various regulatory and investigative authorities. We will make available the entire resources of The Boeing Company to assist.
We are confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its overall integrity. We will be taking every necessary step in the coming days to assure our customers and the traveling public of the 787's safety and to return the airplanes to service.
Boeing deeply regrets the impact that recent events have had on the operating schedules of our customers and the inconvenience to them and their passengers."
"This is a very tough blow to the aircraft and Boeing," said former NTSB head and CBS aviation analyst Mark Rosenker. "Through this airworthiness directive they're going to keep these aircraft on the ground until they can prove to the FAA that the batteries are safe and in compliance with certification."
The FAA had already ordered a review of the 787's critical systems last week following a number of incidents.
Kevin Hyatt, President and CEO of the Alexandria, Va. based Flight Safety Foundation, told KIRO Radio while it was a difficult decision for the FAA, it was the right one to guarantee safety.
"Especially when you start to think about smoke or fire on board, that was probably the point then that more focus was going to be put on this area," he said.
Boeing shares fell two percent in after-hours trading to $72.80 after the FAA announcement.
Daredevils post breathtaking pictures atop Seattle landmarks
Escape cold Seattle; go skiing at Crystal Mountain
Director Jeremy Scahill says Obama hasn't been fighting a clean war
Bonneville Media encourages site users to express their opinions by posting comments. Our goal is to maintain a civil dialogue in which readers feel comfortable. At times, the comments can descend to personal attacks. Please do not engage in such behavior. We encourage your thoughtful comments which: have a positive and constructive tone, are on topic, are respectful toward others and their opinions. Bonneville reserves the right to remove comments which do not conform to these criteria. | <urn:uuid:79d64e52-788c-4c4f-bf87-12e8eadbfddc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mynorthwest.com/11/2177234/FAA-grounds-Boeing-787-Dreamliners-over-battery-problems?page=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954603 | 778 | 1.765625 | 2 |
NO FAITH IN BP DRILLING The federal government recently awarded BP its first deepwater drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon accident. After killing 11 men and polluting the Gulf with millions of gallons of crude oil and dispersants, the British oil giant now has the green light to drill a 6,034-foot deep exploratory well off the coast of Louisiana.
Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, praised the approval by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement in a viewpoint that has been circulated to the media. Briggs called the permit an “encouraging step forward in BP’s return to the Gulf.”
He believed BP deserved the permit because BSEE Director Michael Bromwich said when the permit was announced that the oil company had met all of the enhanced safety requirements that we have implemented and applied consistently over the past year.
Why doesn’t this make me feel good about BP’s newest venture in the Gulf? It could be that BP has a history of putting workers’ lives at risk. Prior to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, a 2005 explosion occurred at BP’s Texas City Refinery that killed 15 workers and injured more than 170 others. Or it could be that BP was the company responsible for cleaning up the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, the largest ever in U.S. waters before last year.
Or, my lack of trust could be because federal investigators found BP solely to blame for 21 of 35 contributing causes to the Deepwater Horizon well blowout, and partly to blame for eight more.
The report that was released in September was brutal to BP and its cost-cutting ways. The packing cement’s failure to maintain the integrity of the well was the central cause of the blowout. Because the well was over budget, “BP sought to minimize these losses by reducing the volume of cement it pumped into the well” and a key analysis recommended by a Halliburton engineer was skipped, according to the report.
The oil company said, “From the outset, BP acknowledged its role in the accident and has taken concrete steps to further enhance safety and risk management throughout its global operations, including the implementation of new voluntary standards and practices in the Gulf of Mexico that exceed current regulatory requirements and strengthen the oversight of contractors.”
I don’t believe that BP will be any more careful this time. The culture of the organization, which is evidenced by its poor safety record, is to place profit before people and the environment.
BP’s cost-cutting has cost lives before and I have little faith that it won’t happen again. The company gambles that the pay-outs when an accident occurs are less than the profits from its operations.
And, unfortunately, what we permit we promote. | <urn:uuid:9f4cc807-e654-495f-84de-2a63ec50d865> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inweekly.net/wordpress/?p=7704 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968455 | 583 | 1.820313 | 2 |
A good manager gives direction, while a good leader explains the why behind his/her directions.
As our two uniquely different generations merge in the workplace and we continue to find a way for us to work together, it is important to remember to explain the why when delegating, explaining strategies, and implementing visions. This is necessary for a few reasons:
It leaves no questions unanswered
It cultivates leadership by encouraging those who are following to understand a leader’s thought process behind decisions
It allows for more open questioning of the vision/plan/delegation by detailing the thought process leading up to the decision
It allows others to focus on accomplishing the task instead of being distracted by questioning why the task was assigned
Explaining the why is important when it comes to managing and dealing with internal issues and addressing external forces on a business. Sometimes, explaining the why simply means saying that it’s the right thing to do- successful leaders do have intuition. The most successful managers can even relate the why back to an experience they had for the more visual learners amongst us. Thoughts?
It’s that time of year when I get about 2-3 weekly requests to meet for “coffee” with current students or recent grads who want to get into venture capital. I’ve found myself giving the same advice time and time again (as have others), so I decided to write a quick post with a few words of…
This is a result of my 2012 Resolution. Why not? I’ve written a few blogs in the past, but none of them lived past college. I figured I’ve learned at least a little bit since then, and why not share it?
Professionally, I work in Business Development for an IT Services company specializing in Human Capital. You can usually find me reading about technology, venture capital, social media, clean tech, business intelligence, management, sales/marketing, and the occasional College Humor post. On the side, I’m a passionate fan of music, avid enthusiast of the outdoors (especially wake surfing, mountain biking, and snowboarding), and college football fan. Expect to see a little bit of everything…
Looking forward to a new outlet for analysis, Dustin | <urn:uuid:b929a4c4-2550-49b9-9754-968439ebb724> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://betweenthebusiness.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940599 | 463 | 1.5625 | 2 |
When Jimmy and Linda Yip's 19-year-old son and only child, Nathan, was killed in a car accident, they refused to let their grief immobilize them. Instead, they immediately felt a calling, says Linda, to fulfill Nathan's dreams of helping to educate children. (After being shocked by living conditions he saw during a trip to an orphanage in China, Nathan expressed what his parents now refer to as his "last wish:" starting an organization that provides education to children in need.)
To do so, Jimmy and Linda created the Nathan Yip Foundation in 2001, which helps educate underprivileged youth by buying school supplies, providing buses, and building schools. The volunteer-run foundation has funded several projects in Rwanda, Mexico, Haiti, China, and Denver (its hometown). The group holds several fundraisers each year to support both new and ongoing projects around the world, like the upcoming Chinese New Year event. This year's party celebrates the Year of the Snake, and features three dance performances, including one by a Denver-based popping crew .
Get Involved: Register for the Nathan Yip Foundation’s 2013 Chinese New Year Gala on February 2 at the Denver Marriot Tech Center at 5 p.m. Interested in the foundation's volunteer opportunities? Email [email protected].
—Image courtesy of the Nathan Yip Foundation | <urn:uuid:a29bd15a-3b58-4654-8dd6-d792d4d61df4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.5280.com/print/119149 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966546 | 286 | 1.703125 | 2 |
When a writer puts “finis” at the end of his story, he’s telling you that this is as far as he can go. It’s over, for now at least. Finale has a somewhat grander implication, coming at the end of the performance. The lead singers and chorus join together on the stage for a final, joyous affirmation of what it’s all about. In William Greider’s new book Come Home, America chapters 13 and 14, The Reckoning and The Underground River, are both finis and finale.
It is finis as he sums up our problems and explains the rights we should claim:
First, every American who is able and willing ought to have the right to work a job that pays a livable wage….
The second idea is that everyone who works, whether in the front office on on the asembly line, deserves to ‘own’ their work….
The third idea is that, to lead the way for social values, the economy needs a new, reform-minded business organization….
These ideas combine with a recognition that we must reconsider both America’s role in the world and our own roles as citizens.
Here is the grand vision I suggest Americans can pursue: the right of all citizens to larger lives. Not to get richer than the next guy or necessarily accumulate more and more stuff, but the right to live life more fully and engage more expansively the elemental possibilities of human existence.
I interrupt this message to suggest that the place to begin in in your own affairs. When I was interviewing for the last job I had before retirement, I needed the money but I also wanted more life outside of work. Fortunately, my future boss really needed me. Do you want to work full time or part time, she asked. Do I have a choice? Yes, you can have it either way. I chose three days a week. Of course, when problems and projects arose I tried to accommodate them by temporarily working more, appreciative that they had given me a choice in the first place.
Bill’s finale is a chorale of hope, acknowledging that these changes take time, on the individual or on the national basis.
Each generation inherits the knowledge of the past and discovers new things that it hands on to future generations. Life is not a footrace where people declare victory at the finish line. Life continues on with or without us.
We can do this. We can do it for ourselves, for our children and grandchildren, for the country. I don’t claim to know for sure that we will succeed. I do believe that we will try. | <urn:uuid:960a6524-640a-4a6b-b5ef-f604c800ab28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://silverseason.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/come-home-america-finis-or-finale/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957696 | 551 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The need to remember Black Sunday
by Jim Spehar
Is there any more fitting reminder that May 2 marked the 25th anniversary of “Black Sunday” than recent word that ExxonMobil wants to get back into the oil shale business?
For all of you newcomers to the West — and to those of us who’ve spent 25 years trying to forget it — May 2, 1982, was the day Exxon announced that it was pulling the plug on the largest boom in modern western Colorado history. After a courtesy call in the morning to then-Gov. Dick Lamm, Exxon managers locked the gates to the company’s appropriately named Colony Project, signaling the end for thousands of workers. It also signaled the beginning of a decade or more of struggling recovery for Western Slope communities that had overbuilt in anticipation of Exxon’s boastful predictions.
Lest anyone think that’s all behind us, all you have to do is take a look around today. Mesa County’s unemployment rate is so low that wages for everything from fast-food workers to house cleaners are going up. And just try to find a place to rent or a house that’s affordable. Those of us speeding down I-70 on a regular basis know that the long lines at some exits aren’t caused by workers heading off to the resort towns of Glenwood Springs, Snowmass or Aspen; they’re heading for Parachute, Rulison and Rifle, where the landscape has been transformed into an industrial zone.
I was reminded of the similarities to the last boom last summer when I ran into the rancher and restaurateur Doug King, at Chuck’s Marine Service. We’re both Grand Junction natives, but I was away during the oil shale boom that transformed the area. King lived in the city and experienced what happened first-hand when government subsidies fueled the oil shale boom. “Isn’t it eerie,” Doug said, “how much this feels like last time?”
I knew exactly what he meant. I’d been part of the area’s “Vision 2020” process a few years ago, which included face-to-face interviews with more than a thousand people. Whether they lived here in 1982 or not, they’d learned that the defining moment in Grand Junction’s history was “Black Sunday” and the social and economic havoc that followed. Jobs vanished, banks failed, homes and businesses were foreclosed on. It seemed the end of the world.
Today, the undeniable reality is that all the resources that fuel the current extractive boom — including coal, natural gas, coalbed methane, oil shale and the supporting pipelines, power plants and transmission corridors — are going great guns. The current boom is happening not only because this country needs energy independence and security, but also because of the boosterism of many of us and the hopes of politicians eager to look like problem-solvers. Too many of them (and us) are grasping at conventional straws and giving short shrift to the long-term reality that we can’t drill or mine our way out of this energy-box forever.
The trick will be to heed the lessons we should have learned a quarter-century ago. One lesson is not building a house of cards on the shaky foundation of government subsidies. The second lesson is that we need to set aside some of those taxes, royalties and fees in preparation for a softer landing instead of a sudden and brutal crash.
Despite the pap about not “killing the goose that laid the golden egg,” we need to ensure that the institutions our rural communities depend on have adequate resources to deal with the present and future cumulative impacts of the boom. Whether it’s Exxon or Shell or Chevron, Williams, EnCana or Genesis, none of those companies laid those golden eggs. They’re just cracking them where they found them and expect to profit mightily from selling pretty pricey omelets.
Framed on a wall in my office is one of those infamous red-and-white bumper stickers that surfaced right after Black Sunday. “Please give me another oil shale boom,” its irreverent message proclaims, “and I promise not to p--s it away this time.” But if we’re not smart enough to heed the lessons we had to learn the hard way 25 years ago, maybe a better message is: “Be careful what you dream.”
Jim Spehar lives in Grand Junction, Colorado, where he works for the Sonoran Institute and serves on the city council. | <urn:uuid:6fa0e5e1-ade9-485d-b301-c2d4738389d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hcn.org/issues/346/17017/print_view | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953149 | 960 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The surprising results from a survey in Denmark - which recently experienced widespread Muslim violence - revealed that more people in the Scandinavian country back Israel over the Palestinians in the Gaza war.
According to the poll commissioned by Danish television station TV2 on Tuesday, 29 percent of Danes back Israel's current war against the Gaza terrorist infrastructure. Only 22 percent oppose the offensive and sympathize with the Palestinians.
Thirty-eight percent said they blame both sides for the situation and sympathize with neither.
The picture in the rest of Scandinavia, and indeed most of Europe, has been far different, with most politicians and media and much of the public focusing solely on Israel's heavy use of force and accusing the Jewish state of overreacting to years of terrorist rocket fire.
Over the past three years, Denmark has experienced several large-scale violent Muslim riots after local newspapers repeatedly reprinted political cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed a.
Danish embassies in the Middle East and Asia have also been burned in response to the cartoons. | <urn:uuid:2d697f56-5252-4bcd-8c54-9ba8580458cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/18003/Default.aspx?archive=article_title | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955747 | 203 | 1.625 | 2 |
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton spoke with top Democratic donors at a private meeting on Saturday where, according to Politico, he warned the group to treat gun control differently than other political issues.
“Do not patronize the passionate supporters of your opponents by looking down your nose at them,” Clinton reportedly said. “A lot of these people live in a world very different from the world lived in by the people proposing these things…”
He proceeded to explain how, though polling data is certainly useful for politicians, it doesn’t measure the emotion and enthusiasm associated with an issue. And it’s the passion associated with gun control, Clinton argued, that makes it so delicate.
Clinton dedicated a substantial portion of his 40-minute address before a joint meeting of the Obama National Finance Committee and a group of business leaders to the issue of guns and gun control, saying that it was a test-case for President Barack Obama’s grass-roots movements…
“The way the Obama campaign won Florida, won Ohio, won this election by more than projected was the combination of technology, social media and personal contact,” Clinton said. That’s “the only way that our side will ever be able to even up the votes in the midterms and as these issues come up, really touch people and talk to them about it.” | <urn:uuid:bd560538-5400-4b3f-880a-725fd35c893b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://terry-9.newsvine.com/_news/2013/01/21/16625073-bill-clinton-warns-demsdont-patronize-and-look-down-your-nose-at-gun-culture | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970761 | 284 | 1.578125 | 2 |
"'Texas, as a whole, is one of the few economies that's performing extremely well because of the energy and technology sectors,'" says Andrew Gledhill, an economist at Moody's Economy.com. Plus, he added, military bases in San Antonio have continued to draw a steady steam of personnel and federal employees to the city, spurring widespread job growth.
The state's manufacturing sector has also grown in recent years, and a reputation for affordable housing continues to lure people to the South. When accounting for median household income, a house in Dallas, for example--with a median price of about $150,000--is four times more affordable than a house in Los Angeles, the worst-ranked city on our list.
A house in New York is three times less affordable than in Charlotte, N.C., and four times less than in Denver, two cities where your money goes far and where the median house costs $245,000, according to the National Association of Realtors." | <urn:uuid:dc479697-6331-45a5-a556-eefa120bf5fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.planetizen.com/node/35647 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955236 | 202 | 1.726563 | 2 |
You’ve just finished high school or college and are out on your own for the
first time, or maybe you’re saving up for a down payment on your dream home. If
you are renting an apartment or house, you can protect yourself and your
personal property through renter’s insurance (also called tenant homeowners
insurance). This coverage is relatively inexpensive and will give you peace of
Unlike a homeowner, you do not need to purchase insurance for the structure of
your home—your landlord should take care of that. However, just like a
homeowner, you need to be sure you have liability protection and insurance
coverage for your personal property.
Personal Property Coverage
Tenant insurance will pay to repair or replace your personal property that is
damaged, destroyed, or stolen—whether you are at home or away from home. Your
landlord’s insurance does not offer this protection to you. You can purchase
various levels of insurance for your property. The best way to determine how
much coverage you need is to conduct a home inventory and verify your needs
with your Penn National Insurance agent.
Usually there are specific limits for jewelry, computers and other electronic
equipment, and stolen cash. Your home inventory will indicate whether or not
you need to increase your level of coverage. Increasing your limits will raise
your premiums, but you will have adequate coverage.
Most tenant policies will cover your personal property at actual cash value.
This means that you would be reimbursed for the purchase price of the item less
a sum for depreciation and wear or tear. This amount will generally not be
enough to purchase a brand new replacement. Talk to your agent about changing
your policy to replacement cost coverage, which will reimburse you for the
amount it will actually cost you to replace the item in today’s market.
Like a homeowners policy, a tenant policy provides liability protection if you
are legally responsible for the injury of another person on your property. If
the injury is due to negligence on the part of your landlord, their policy will
be responsible for covering the damages. Be sure to inform your landlord of any
repairs that need to be made to keep your home safe for your family and guests.
Liability coverage will also pay for legal expenses that are incurred in
defending yourself in a related lawsuit.
A tenant policy generally offers $100,000 worth of liability coverage. Since
many renters are on their own for the first time and don’t have many other
assets to protect, this may be an adequate level of coverage. However, if you
have investments or other sizable assets to protect, you may want to increase
the limits of your liability coverage. This will protect you from financial
devastation in case you are sued because of personal injury or property damage
that occurs in your home. Check with your agent to realistically evaluate your
Joint Purchase of a Policy
To decrease expenses, some renters have roommates, and wonder if they can
purchase a joint policy. The answer varies from state to state, and even from
company to company. Ask your agent for recommendations. To be certain of your
coverage, you may want to have each roommate carry their own insurance policy,
to avoid disputes in case of a loss. Also, be sure that the true ownership of
property is clearly defined before a loss occurs. | <urn:uuid:a879342d-9e10-4c60-8acd-161e7ce1b907> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pennnationalinsurance.com/Portal/PersonalInsurance/HomeownersRenter.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941157 | 706 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Mahindra rolled out its above 75 horsepower Tier 4a engine recently for use in its 8560 models coming off the assembly line in November. Company officials say their mCRD engines will be available in a full line of models in 2013.
The mCRD engine features a high-pressure injections system with multiple injection pulses that reduce NOx and particulate matter in the exhaust stream. Downstream from the engine a diesel oxidation catalyst after treatment system -- that needs no regeneration -- is on hand to further clean the exhaust.
In addition, the engine is designed with a high-efficiency positive crankcase ventilation system to capture and clean gasses from the combustion chamber before releasing them into the atmosphere.
The initial offering of mCRD power comes this November with the production of Mahindra's full-size utility cabbed 8560 model in 2WD, 4WD and 4WD-with-shuttle. That engine is rated at 83 hp.
For more information on the mCRD engine and other Mahindra models visit MAHINDRA.
By "clicking" here, you've indicated an interest in the latest in agricultural technology, and we'd like to provide you with even more of What's New in the power-tech industry. To receive our bi-weekly e-newsletter on trends and developments in machinery and ag technology click here POWERIRON to join thousands of readers who receive our updates free of charge every other week.
For Willie Vogt's observations about the growth of technology in our industry, be sure to visit his FARMER IRON column.
In addition, if you have interest in livestock technology be sure to visit www.beefproducer.com for news and views and new products related to beef cattle and the beef industry.
And, there's always something new going on at our world-class show sites:
Farm Progress Show
Husker Harvest Days
New York Farm Show | <urn:uuid:898a7da3-2b05-4003-a0ee-ca1bc1119981> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://farmprogress.com/story-mahindra-meets-tier-4a-high-tech-common-rail-injection-system-0-62999 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935001 | 395 | 1.640625 | 2 |
I will have a new review of Ian Hamilton’s new thriller The Water Rat of Wanchai posted by March 1. Ava Lee, Hamilton’s protagonist, is an interesting addition to the growing list of fictional heroines in contemporary novels.
Archive for: February, 2011
Irish-born author Tom Crothers kindly responded to a series of questions that I posed to him about his recent novel, Sandfires, as well as some broader questions about reading and writing. I trust that you will find his responses as interesting and thoughtful as I have.
JO: Tom, place is key in this novel. Why did you choose a farming community in 1920s P.E.I. as the backdrop for much of your story?
TC: I wrote Sandfires while living in Toronto, but I followed the adage, write from what and where you know. Canada and Ireland both share my psyche and most of my writings reflect that: my formative years until age twenty one were spent in Northern Ireland. I still have family there. In Canada I got my formal education and my career as a teacher. I’ve lived here for fifty plus years. But why did I choose to set Sandfires mainly on PEI? Well, Bessie, my wife of fifty-four years, is an Islander, so you might say my association with PEI goes back that far. We were resident there for about eleven or twelve years during which my children grew to university and high school ages. While there, I taught, directed theatre, and wrote my first book, Out of Thin Air: A Story of CFCY and early radio on Prince Edward Island. I co-authored this with the late Betty Large. Betty was a wonderful lady who took a course I offered in creative writing through the University extension. She invited me to collaborate in the research and writing of the CFCY story which would document her father, the late Colonel Keith Rogers, a pioneer in early radio and founder of CFCY. The book was given a Heritage Foundation Award. I even did a little pig farming on the Island. Therefore, when I wanted to write a Canadian novel I chose to set it mainly on the Island, because I am intimately acquainted with its ferocious winter storms, its idyllic summers and dreamy falls. Many of the Islanders have the same Scots-Irish background as myself, and I am familiar with their history. So, as I said, I wrote out of what I know. Please keep in mind, Sandfires is a work of fiction, not a history, and it is not primarily a story about PEI; but rather a human story that is set mainly on PEI.
JO: Do you think you could have chosen another locale to craft your story? Was it essential to have it centred on New Skye, P.E.I.?
TC: I think the answer to this is partly inherent in the answer to your previous question. Yes I could have chosen another locale, but to use the late Robertson Davies phrase, it would not have been written out of the writer’s consciousness; and therefore, it would not have had the same ring in the voice.
JO: Many writers never write a second novel. Can you talk about some of the challenges in writing a second novel versus writing the first one?
TC: Actually, I wrote Sandfires first, then another novel called Hanky Ball. The last novel I wrote was Bumps. The publisher had the manuscripts of both Sandfires and Bumps. She liked both of them but decided to publish Bumps first. This isn’t exactly answering your question; but no, I didn’t experience the challenge you allude to.
JO: Tom, some might label you as a ‘late bloomer’ in terms of your writing career. Do you see yourself in this way as well?
TC: Yes, but not only in writing but in education and personal development as well and these are systemic to the art of writing – the exploration continues.
JO: When did you begin working on Sandfires? There is something nearing effortlessness in your writing style. Have you had to work hard at your writing or is it something that has come rather easily?
TC: I starting scribbling ideas down in the late nineties, scribbling might be the clue to the writing style. When I was admitted to the University of New Brunswick to study for a BA, I had great difficulty with grammar. I’d get essays returned with things like “great ideas, but you must learn how to write a proper sentence.” In those days there were no writing centers where one could go for help. A professor, the late Lauriat Lane Jr., brought me into his office one day and handed me a programmed textbook on the English sentence. I devoured it, and from then on my troubles with grammar diminished. Also, I became an assiduous journal keeper. I love writing the journals partly because I write them in longhand with my fountain pen, and I like the comforting scratch the nib makes on the paper as I scribble. The writing of journals honed my style. Also, I do a lot of re-writing and restructuring which I enjoy. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Bessie is an excellent line by line editor who is adept at catching an awkward phrase.
JO: What is your inspiration to write Tom? Do you have a specific muse that you can identify for us?
TC: Yes. I love being involved in the creative process. God made the world out of a void; I enjoy creating my worlds and watch them come to life on the blank page. I love the spoken word and I regard all creative writing as essentially a part of the oral tradition. I think a combination of theatre and poetry, do it for me: writing is like a piece of theatre going on in my head. It seems to fit well with the Greek idea of Drama – breathing with, or living with the characters as they travel their fated journey. I enjoy writing dialogue. So in a sense I act like a Director or a character-actor in the creation of my writing. Poetry deepens and polishes language and it can bring a sense of immediacy to language. I have a personal belief that all humanity on our planet is traumatized and is continually adjusting to circumstances that envelop and thrust it forward or hold it back. For example, the people in Sandfires circa 1924 come on the heels of World War One, in which hundreds of thousands were slaughtered, and then on the heels of the pandemic Spanish Influenza of 1918, in which millions perished. Not only did the fictional people of New Skye suffer from these cataclysmic events but so did the rest of humanity. New Skye is akin to a microcosm in this regard, and many of its characters configurations of an ongoing suffering humanity. Human suffering and joy and its subsequent attempt to adjust and aright itself, I suppose, is my muse. I agree with Toynbee who said that to be moved by suffering and pity, is to move closer to God.
JO: Tom, when you are not writing, which authors do you enjoy reading the most and why?
TC: The classical dramatists Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes etc; Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Donne (secular poetry) Milton, Victor Hugo, Thomas Hardy, Dickens, the Russians: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and the Hebrew scriptures – these I dip into. Robertson Davies influenced me from the Jungian perspective, and especially his The Fifth Business and The World of Wonders as well as his collection of essays, One Half of Robertson Davies.
JO: Have you always been a writer? When you were engaged in other jobs or careers, did you always maintain a time to write?
TC: Not a creative writer; but in the sense that Davies believed that a writer is always writing in his head, I guess I’ve always done that, as well as being a keeper of a journal for about 40 plus years.
JO: Can you tell us about some of your writing projects in the immediate future?
TC: My novel Hanky Ball is finished and in manuscripts form. It has been languishing for several years, so I’m doing a final read through and rewrite before attempting publication. Hanky Ball is set both in Ireland and in Canada (Southern Ontario) during the 1990’s. It covers the troubles in Northern Ireland and traces the life of David Ball (Hanky) from his birth there to his death in Canada. I have enough short stories for a book, as well as poetry and play-scripts. A professional theatre company, Mackenzie Ro: The Irish Repertory Theatre Company in Canada, is sponsoring my short play, What If, Mr. Robinson? to be performed by them at the Toronto Summer Festival of New Plays. As Theatre is my first love, I am looking forward to my association with this group. In addition to this, I’m working on a couple of plays. Also, I’m teaching myself to write a screenplay adaptation of Sandfires.
JO: Finally, Tom could you give us a shortlist, say, a handful, of your favourite novels?
TC: Jude the Obscure, A Tale of Two Cities, Les Misérables, Moby Dick, Catch-22, The Fifth Business, and most recently, The White Tiger. Since I’ve started writing seriously, I find myself watching movies more and reading less, and indulging in my favourite hobby, art.
I’m so excited to announce that Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach is the winner of Trent Reads 2011. If you have not read Eden’s book yet, it is an absolute must read. We are very hopeful that we will be able to secure a visit from Eden to both our Peterborough and Oshawa campuses this fall. The five finalists and their books were all wonderful and I will not be surprised to see several of these books nominated again in the coming years. Thanks to everyone for voting and the incoming class of 2011, along with the entire Trent University community, has a great book to read over the summer.
By: Tom Crothers
DreamCatcher Publishing, November 2010, 354 pp, Paperback $19.95 CDN/US
Reviewed by: James Onusko
Toronto’s Tom Crothers has written a superb second novel and its recent successes in being nominated for several prestigious awards are unsurprising. Crothers’s narrative is spellbinding, and his characters are both captivating and believable. His writing style is fresh and clear; not unlike the P.E.I. air that provides life for the book. Ferns are key as symbols in the novel and are a great illustration of Crothers’s abilities to work on multiple levels as a novelist. Crothers may be a Toronto resident, but his obvious admiration for the P.E.I. landscape and its people are palpable from the book’s beginning to end. Irish-born, Tom holds a Master’s degree in Creative writing from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Divinity from the University of Toronto. He has had a diverse working life: actor, labourer, teacher, minister, and author. This background is reflected in the richness and nuance that Crothers brings to both his characters and the novel more generally.
The novel’s central place is the fictional New Skye, P.E.I. and a farming community that is splintered by the murder of a rum-running farmer by a ‘simple’ neighbour, Charlie Ewart. Crothers, like many contemporary writers, has chosen to tell the story from multiple viewpoints and at varying points in time. The town’s minister, Mark Kerr, is central to many of the stories that are woven into the novel, and ultimately he serves as a focal point for the emotions of several of the characters in the book while dealing with personal anguish. The multiple storylines lead us back to secrets about Mark’s father and his indiscretions during the First World War, through to the love triangles that emerge in New Skye in the 1920s. Crothers has broached many of the major themes of exemplary literature: love, family, greed, betrayal, scorn and redemption. When not focusing on Mark, much of the novel revolves around Charlie and the efforts by those that love him to see him acquitted of his murder charge. The book traces several strands of the lives of the characters that hold both a vested and passing interest in Charlie’s trial.
In the following excerpt, Myra Swanson’s store and her skills in spreading community gossip are explored:
Her store smelled of paraffin, malt and bran and was stocked with every conceivable item: needles, buttons, fishhooks, nails, iron files and larger tools such as hammers and saws. Cans of paint and boxes of food lined the walls. Clusters of pots and plans were tied to hooks in the ceiling; and shirts, dungarees and suits swung from the ceiling like hanged men. Every bit of space was used. She moved around with surprising grace and agility, and never knocked anything over with either her ample bosom or backside. A small room upstairs where she measured and fitted women for foundation garments and wedding dresses had a handwritten sign saying, LADIES ONLY.
She bantered shamelessly with the farmers who liked to “cabbage” a bit of extra time chatting in the intimacy of the small store. If a woman was “upstairs,” they passed sly glances to each other and mumbled innuendoes. Each time Myra followed a woman for a “fittin” she threw the men a knowing glance as if in some sexual conspiracy with them.
She knew everything about everybody: personal habits, favourite dishes, scandals, or potential scandals; and if there was something she did not know about a person, she could make it up with surprising accuracy.
Myra had a talent for saying something about someone without ever mentioning names or facts. No one was safe from her, yet everyone wanted to be allied to her. She was fun at parties and when they had “times” at the community hall, she could send them into “fits” with her fund of monologues such as “Bessie’s Boil.”
Crothers has the very real talent of being able to breathe life into a character that could easily become a mere stock character. This is one of the strengths of his writing – that while many of his characters may seem familiar to the reader in some way – there is a richness to them by the end of the novel because of the skills that he applies in crafting them. Most of us know someone very similar to Myra Swanson, but no one exactly like her. She is but one example of this as Crothers has created a slate of characters that are highly convincing. The author’s abilities to capture the relationships and what for many can be a stifling and debilitating atmosphere in rural, farming communities are brilliant. Nothing seems to remain unfound by at least one small-town inhabitant in any time or place is what Crothers seems to be arguing for in the novel.
While it is obvious that I thoroughly enjoyed Sandfires, there are some flaws. There seems to be a move to increasingly shorter chapters by many contemporary authors; Crothers has succumbed to this push by having one chapter comprised of one paragraph. I understand that he was using this as a literary device in that particular instance, but writing of this quality seems somehow diminished by the incessant need to fracture the narrative into such short pieces. Some readers may feel they have accomplished a lot by reading three chapters in less than fifteen minutes, but do not count me as one of those claimants. While not enough to do more than stretch credulity, certain circumstances did seem overly convenient in the lives of characters that the author has created. Some readers may find certain twists to be too contrived, almost to the point of being contrived. I do qualify it with almost as I do not believe it ruins the novel, simply weakens it.
In the final analysis though, none of this should dissuade readers from reading Sandfires. Crothers is an excellent storyteller and the pace of the novel fits well with both the landscape and the time to which the reader is transported. It would have been very easy for Crothers to sentimentalize in a number of places in the novel, but he resists this at all turns. In terms of readership, there is absolutely no reason why readers in their mid-teens who enjoy a challenging read cannot engage with this book and I believe it offers broad appeal to most adult readers. I highly recommend Sandfires and trust that you will enjoy it as much as I have.
*Sandfires was sent to me to read and review by DreamCatcher Publishing. It was not purchased.
In anticipation of Vortex being published this summer, author Robert Charles Wilson has agreed to do an interview with me in the coming months. The Hugo-award winning author has published a number of excellent science fiction novels. Vortex is the final book in a trilogy that includes both Spin and Axis. If you have not read these yet, I encourage you to do so. You can find my reviews of both books from the Trent Arthur here. | <urn:uuid:50bc8289-003f-4e00-aab2-c528283012f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jamesonusko.com/2011/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979193 | 3,637 | 1.507813 | 2 |
(formerly known as Severneftegaz
; not to be confused with Sevmorneftegaz
) is a Russian
oil and gas company, which operates in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
. It produces the natural gas, condensate, and oil in the Samburg and Evo-Yakha license blocks within and adjacent to the Urengoy gas field
. The headquarter of the company is located in Novy Urengoy
, Tyumen Oblast
Severneftegaz was one of the first independent oil and gas companies in Russia. In 11 August 1998
, an American-based Benton Oil and Gas Company acquired 40% equity in Severneftegaz and increased its stake afterward up to 68%. Other shareholders of this time were Gazprom
, Urengoyneftegazgeologiya and Logovaz.
In 2002, in a series of transactions, 100% of Arcticgas shares were acquired by YUKOS. On 4 April 2007, the shares were acquired by EniNeftgaz, a joint subsidiary of Italian companies Eni and Enel, with Gazprom’s option to acquire a 51% stake. | <urn:uuid:1c80168f-4723-4776-b03d-6e3384101558> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reference.com/browse/Arcticgas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959601 | 260 | 1.78125 | 2 |
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