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Tuesday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a decision upholding Ohio's restrictions on the abortion pill widely known as RU-486.
In 2004, Ohio passed a law criminalizing the distribution of mifepristone, also known as RU-486, unless the distribution followed certain protocols and gestational time limits identified by the FDA when mifepristone was first approved in 2000. The law criminalizes the use of mifepristone after the seventh week of a pregnancy, reports Cincinatti.com.
Mifepristone, in combination with misoprostol, was the only form of medical abortion offered by Planned Parenthood in Ohio when the bill was passed, so Planned Parenthood's Ohio regional clinics sued to challenge the constitutionality of the act on several grounds.
Although a preliminary injunction is in place to cover the Act's failure to make an exception for circumstances involving the health and life of the mother, the Act has otherwise been in force since February 2011.
The issue on appeal was whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants on three of the four constitutional claims Planned Parenthood brought to facially challenge the limitations on the abortion pill.
Following the resolution of certain certified questions by the Ohio Supreme Court, the district court held that:
- The Act was no longer unconstitutionally vague,
- The Act did not violate a woman's right to bodily integrity under the Fourteenth Amendment, and
- The Act did not impose an undue burden on a woman's Fourteenth Amendment right to choose abortion.
(The fourth claim, whether the Act unduly burdens a woman's right to health and life under the Fourteenth Amendment, is being held for trial and was not at issue on this appeal.)
The Sixth Circuit unanimously affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment on Planned Parenthood's vagueness and bodily-integrity claims. The court affirmed the undue burden finding in a 2-1 vote.
Considering the number of states that have attempted to limit access to the abortion pill, and the number of courts that have heard lawsuits challenging these limitations, we wonder how long it will be before the Supreme Court considers an RU-486 case.
- Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio v. Mike DeWine (Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
- S.D. Informed Consent Warning Can Include Increased Suicide Risks (FindLaw's Eighth Circuit Blog)
- Fifth Circuit Denies Texas Sonogram Law En Banc Rehearing (FindLaw's Fifth Circuit Blog) | <urn:uuid:e0cc04f6-e08d-4f76-b544-5aac1e2870d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.findlaw.com/sixth_circuit/2012/10/sixth-circuit-upholds-ohios-ru-486-limits.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943423 | 517 | 1.507813 | 2 |
With the end of the semester in sight, students of Ohio State were confronted by one last lesson. The event was advertised to students by promising a “strategy for ridding society” of believers in the free-market. During the conference attendees hinted at, alluded to and in some cases explicitly laid out the need for political violence.
The program explicitly stated the goal of the hosts, the International Socialist Organization. The ISO’s self-proclaimed agenda to the students of Ohio State: “To achieve socialism, the most militant workers must be organized.”
The “Midwest Marxist Conference” was the final stop on a tour of pro-Marxist sessions held by the ISO. Ohio State’s participation was coordinated by Professor Pranav Jani of English and Comparative Studies along with Haley Swenson of Women’s Studies.
Professor Jani, who was clad in all black beside a red armband, frequently turned the discussion to race relations. “The ISO is the leading organization on anti-Zionism,” he proclaimed during one session. The professor had been preparing for the conference for weeks in advance. On the event’s facebook page, he wrote encouraging statements to students who had reservations about attending a socialist conference.
Although 159 attendees were listed on the facebook page, approximately 120 people showed up. Nametags included guests’ city or school, and outsiders appeared to outnumber Ohio State students two-to-one.
The event was also advertised through Democratic Underground, a site dedicated to bringing together supporters of the Democratic Party.
Among the speakers Jani invited to address students was Tom Alter, who writes for The Militant, an online socialist publication. Alter has been writing for The Militant since at least the mid-1990s. His articles advocate for the construction of a “propaganda axis” that would be used to persuade not just college students, but high schoolers as well, to join the International Socialist cause.
Alter’s session was titled “How to Build Stronger Branches.” He was introduced by fellow ISO member Shaun Harkin. Harkin is a “community organizer” based in Chicago. A video found on youtube shows Harkin attacking an individual for attempting to film him at a public event in a public park. He grabs the camera from a woman and throws it to the ground as she pleads for him to stop.
Despite assurances of future equality among all, the socialist suggested that students could assume leadership roles if they joined his cause.
Alter told the students, “I can’t go out there on my own and fight,” pointing to a scar on his face he allegedly got fighting fascists. From the second row, Alter’s scar was not clearly visible. “We need to take advantage of the situation,” he said of discontent youth, “and be armed.”
The Ohio State Code of Student Conduct prohibits “Taking or threatening action that endangers the safety, physical or mental health, or life of any person, or creates a reasonable fear of such action.”
When a Question and Answer portion was opened to the crowd, several other contributed ideas to Alter’s talk.
Aaron from the Detroit branch of the ISO admitted, “the biggest barrier for us is that none of us are students,” which made recruitment of students more time consuming.
Swenson responded, “every branch struggles with this… Capitalism makes us busy. Right? Like if we just had tons of time, this would be way easier. ” She suggested that Aaron create “a sense of urgency” among potential future socialists.
The issue of race was brought up repeatedly. Many members voiced discontent over the fact that white men were the majority of the ISO. Gary, a white male member from Cleveland, suggested that the ISO could appeal to African Americans if “we send members to liquor stores and barber shops.”
Jani later added to the racial discussion, “it doesn’t make sense to be a black nationalist.”
Dissatisfied that the allotted time had run out for the session, the group agreed to extend it half an hour.
Pranav expressed conflicted views about the coercive nature of socialism. “What the fuck kind of revolution says working class people can lead their own lives but also says we’re right about everything?” he asked the crowd.
As the session neared a close, the structured discussion broke down. Several speakers and participants voiced general frustration.
“We need to be reflective of the working class. We are not right now,” said Jani, who holds a Ph.D from Brown University.
Tithi Bhattacharya, a professor of “Oriental Studies” at Purdue said, “we went to the Purdue anti-racism conference and what we argued was shit.”
Harkin conceded, “I went to ISO meetings for months and I didn’t understand anything they were saying.”
During “Race and Class” with Bill Mullen, one participant stated, “I’m not comfortable approaching comrades of color.”
One session was led by “Marilena Dirusso,” which is presumably a pseudonym, as a google search turns up only a twitter account.
Professor Jani lists “resources” on his official Ohio State webpage, such as Counter Punch, which advocate for international socialism. During his stated office hours, Jani could not be reached either at his office or by phone for further comment.
The ISO made a total of eleven stop, pressing students from Harvard to Portland State to get involved in the militant elimination of capitalism.
Correction: Marilena Dirusso is a member of the Chicago Teachers’ Union | <urn:uuid:ca9541d4-6587-4ce6-a17b-678ae9bbfaa9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://osurubicon.com/2012/12/08/militant-socialists-advocate-to-university-students/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97154 | 1,226 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The most powerful feature of my free model airplane power system calculator is the EZ Optimizer. Here’s how to use it.
Review Online Tutorials
What I’m about to say won’t make much sense until you have gone through the online interactive calculator tutorials. I wrote them based on the questions the early calculator users asked me. Since I wrote the tutorials, I get very few questions on how to use the calculator. They do a really good job of explaining how to use it, from the basics to more advanced uses.
Just a Pretty Face
The regular optimizer came first. It is very flexible and extremely powerful. The EZ (“easy”) Optimizer is just a pretty face on top of the regular optimizer. It makes running the optimizer a lot easier, but keep in mind that it is entirely optional. In practice, I normally run the EZ Optimizer once to get a general feel for what the power system solution looks like. Then I iteratively edit the filters and run the regular optimizer until I get the result that I’m looking for.
Filters are Your Friends
Each tab in the calculator is called an editor. The first one is for airplane components. The next to last tab is for the scale editor. Each editor has a filter for filtering or limiting the components displayed. The filters also limit the components that the optimizer will consider when looking for the best power system. The best power system is the one that provides the longest endurance and meets all of the imposed constraints. The filters start out turned off.
EZ Optimizer Sets the Filters
The EZ Optimizer creates filters for you based on the choices that you make on its dialog box. It also sets the knobs on the airplane editor to match your selections on its dialog box. Then it runs the regular optimizer.
It may not sound like much when I describe it like that, but it’s a great convenience. On each editor, it creates at a minimum a filter to omit from the results the components that are considered incomplete. This is always a good idea.
The EZ Optimizer will also compute a reasonable cruise speed for the model. This is based on the flying weight, wing type, and wing area. We tend to fly our model airplanes faster than we need to, so feel free to increase the recommendation shown in the dialog.
If the filters are too restrictive, then the optimizer won’t be able to find a combination of power system components that satisfy them all. This is what’s called an over-constrained problem. I get an email once in a while from somebody that ran the optimizer and it “did nothing”. This is what happened.
The solution is to ease up on the constraints. Remove some filters or at least broaden the list of components that they include.
The optimization algorithm is extremely fast. I only have to wait for it to finish if I haven’t filtered out any components. Then the optimizer has to try every single component combination, which can take a couple of minutes.
It is prudent to create filters first that eliminate components that you know cannot possibly be a part of the best power system. Once I do that, the optimizer always finishes in a second or two. That is when the true power of the calculator comes into play. With near instant “what if” scenarios, I can try out all sorts of power system component combinations very quickly.
Secret to Speed
Despite the pretty face on the calculator, it uses some really advanced programming techniques under the covers. The optimizer is programmed as a constraint satisfaction problem with intelligent heuristics that dramatically speed up the search. The power system equation solver uses a neural network at its core. I kid you not.
Squeezing More Performance Out
It can sometimes be really tricky to improve the overall power system efficiency. For example, sometimes improving the efficiency of the motor decreases the efficiency of the propeller. The good news here is that it gets easier with practice. Remember that the larger the propeller and the higher the motor input voltage, the higher the overall system efficiency will be.
One Optimization Goal at a Time
The optimizer will only optimize for one scenario at a time. What if you want to optimize for shortest take off distance and most efficient cruise at the same time? Well, you cannot, at least not directly.
Here’s one possible solution. Most airplanes spend far more time cruising around than they do taking off. Optimize for the cruise first, and then tweak the components until you get an acceptable take off distance.
Like I said, the optimization algorithm always tries to maximize the endurance of the model. It is really good at doing that. Left to its own devices, it tends to come up with very long values like 30 minute flight times or even longer. Ten to fifteen minutes is plenty for most of our flying needs. Examine carefully the power system it came up with, and edit the filters to shape the results of the next optimizer run so that it better matches your flying goals. | <urn:uuid:ab495a08-0c65-454c-b20c-5b93d1741c7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rcadvisor.com/calculator-ez-optimizer-intro | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932463 | 1,057 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Justice David H. Souter’s plans to retire at the end of the term in June gives President Obama his first appointment to the Supreme Court. Most Americans say they have confidence in Mr. Obama’s ability to nominate quality justices to the Court, according to the latest CBS News Poll, but the survey also shows extreme partisan variations.
Fifty-five percent of those surveyed trust that Mr. Obama will nominate a good justice to fill Justice Souter’s seat, and 35 percent are uneasy about who he might select.
Eight in 10 Democrats are confident that Mr. Obama will choose good justices, but two-thirds of Republicans are anxious about whom he would choose to fill the vacancy.
Independents are more closely divided: 49 percent have confidence in the President, and 38 percent are uneasy.
Justice Souter’s return to New Hampshire provides the first opportunity for a Democratic president to nominate a Supreme Court justice since 1994, when President Bill Clinton nominated Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
In other Supreme Court news on Wednesday, Mr. Obama met with Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle. In his online column, Jeff Zeleny, one of The Times’s White House correspondents, examines the secret deliberations of the selection process that are taking place inside the White House.
The latest CBS poll also indicates that overall, 63 percent approve of how Mr. Obama has been handling his responsibilities in the Oval Office, although 54 percent of Republicans disapprove. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said the country was going in the right direction, and 48 percent said it was heading off in the wrong track.
This is the first poll conducted by The New York Times or CBS News with the percent responding “wrong track” under 50 percent since December 2003, when Saddam Hussein was captured.
Although the public’s mood is positive about the president and improved about the direction of the country, the poll highlights a widespread gloomy view of the economy: more than 8 in 10 said it is in bad shape.
About 40 percent believe the recession will last at least another year, and another 4 in 10 said it will continue for two years or more.
At the same time, Americans are becoming more optimistic about the direction of the economy. Thirty-two percent of those polled described the economy as improving; in February, only 5 percent said the economy was getting better.
CBS News surveyed 1, 874 adults by telephone May 6 to 12. The margin of sampling error for the nationwide poll is plus or minus 2 percentage points. Complete results are available at the CBS News Web site. | <urn:uuid:bde3a8d7-a523-4607-a03b-21b4e5ba284a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/cbs-poll-reveals-partisan-split-on-obamas-supreme-court-selection/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954887 | 533 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Kapi'olani Park in Honolulu. Right across from the world-famous Waikiki Beach - a place where tourists, beachcombers and heliophiles throng. Who would've thunk that there will be birds in a park with such proximity to a tourist spot? And yet, birds thrive in this cosmopolitan atmosphere. Plenty of them even. So plenty and so used to the presence of human beings that there ought to be sign that says, "Please don't step on the birds!"
This was the second time we visited Kapi'olani Park in about a year's span. Although we stayed only two days this time (as compared to six days last year) we were still able to see the birds we hoped to see. And even added a couple of lifers to boot!
As soon as we have checked in at the nearby Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel, we proceeded right away to our favorite birding place in Oahu. Almost immediately, we saw a flock of Java Sparrows feeding on the grass.
Pretty soon we were observing the regular avian inhabitants of the park, many of them quite oblivious of the people strolling on the lawn-like grounds. Some of these birds, like the Common Myna and the Zebra Dove were so used to humans that they are almost stepped on by the park visitors, flying off only when they are inches away from one's foot.
The morning of the following day, Cynthia and I were both so happy to see the lovely, angelic White Terns flying over the park and then perching on the nearby trees.
We were about to return to our hotel when I saw a flash of green alight on a branch not too far from us. Followed by another flash of green! Looking up I almost squealed in delight as I discovered that those flashes of green turned out to be a lovey-dovey pair of Rose-ringed Parakeets! A lifer for us!
That afternoon we joined a nature tour that took us to the various beaches along the leeward side of the island of Oahu. As our fellow passengers in the tour van were awe-stricken by the seawater spouting up through a hole in the rocks, my wife and I were going ga-ga over the Red-footed Booby gliding just a few feet above the raging sea below. Our second lifer!
Our nature tour also took us to a marshland where a Hawaiian Mallard and some Hawaiian Stilts were lazily lounging in the afternoon sun.
Then off we went to a Haeio (a tribal sacred place composed of layered stones). While our guide was explaining the history of ancient Hawaiian tribes I was busy trying to get a good photo of a White-rumped Shama which was hopping from branch to branch in the shaded part of a grove.
Our last stop was at Pali Point where we tried, really, really tried not to get blown off by the strong gusts of wind howling from the steep valley below. While the wild chickens were smart enough to hide behind the bushes.
It was a short stay in Hawaii but we had fun and were able to get some good shots of the "local" avifauna (many of which were introduced to Oahu many, many years ago). Strolling through a lovely park with colorful birds practically at our feet was an experience that we would never forget. To which we say Mahalo, and Aloha.
The Biggest Week in American Birding 2013
7 hours ago | <urn:uuid:f75a0a52-b459-4720-a008-23ef82b63016> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ornithographer.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html | 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 | 0.980256 | 732 | 1.65625 | 2 |
|No Harassment to Civilians in North – President Tells UN Secretary General|
|Friday, 06 February 2009 16:32|
President Mahinda Rajapaksa today told the UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon that the current military operations to defeat terrorism in Sri Lanka would be carried out without harassment to the civilian population in the north. This assurance was given when the UN Secretary General, who was in New Delhi, had a telephone conversation with President Rajapaksa, at President’s House in Kandy earlier this evening, on the situation in Sri Lanka.President Rajapaksa was responding to inquiries by Mr. Ban ki-moon about the progress of operations against the LTTE’s terrorism, and the situation regarding the civilians in the affected areas in the north of Sri Lanka.
The UN Secretary General was also told that the Sri Lankan Security Forces were compelled to carry out a humanitarian operation against a brutal terrorist organization, as the Government considered the freeing of the Tamil people from the suffering they were undergoing under the forces of terror as its responsibility.
In the telephone conversation that lasted more than 15 minutes, President Rajapaksa brought to the attention of Secretary General Ban ki-moon that the LTTE had paid no heed to the recent call made by the Tokyo Co-Chairs for them to seek modalities for ending hostilities, including the laying down of arms and renunciation of violence.
05 February 2009 | <urn:uuid:3e8dcd45-8ae8-4865-a5da-72fb86151dba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slmission.com/news/89-ministry-news/256-no-harassment-to-civilians-in-north--president-tells-un-secretary-general-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967109 | 293 | 1.539063 | 2 |
More cellphones can now lead us precisely to our destination, thanks to cheap chips that talk to navigation satellites. So will we dump all the navigation gear that is a hot-selling item this holiday season? Not soon, analysts agree.
There's no beating the bigger screens on stand-alone GPS, says Caroline Chow, a market analyst at Canalys. The bigger screens on what the industry calls "personal navigation devices" make directions easier to follow and easier to access than on a cell's small display. And navigation is simpler on PNDs because that's their primary purpose. The benefits outweigh the costs, especially with today's prices crashing below $100 for starter PND models. "I'm amazed at how low they're selling these things," she says.
Device makers like Garmin, TomTom, and Mio have done a great job at making a complicated function—navigation—simple to use, says Richard Robinson, a market analyst at iSuppli. "PNDs currently enjoy very high user-satisfaction ratings," he wrote in a recent report. The device makers need to guard that advantage over cellphones and not add too many extra functions, such as viewing digital pics and videos.
Cell companies also collect a monthly fee for navigation and sometimes charge for airtime, Robinson wrote. Those fees confuse and discourage consumers, who like the simplicity of the one-time charge for a dedicated navigation device. In short, while GPS-enabled phones pose a threat, all signs point to a growing market for PNDs. | <urn:uuid:f0ccb025-9eeb-48ba-b154-c0ad2ef4dd36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/daves-download/2007/12/12/cellphones-wont-soon-replace-todays-gps-devices | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936273 | 312 | 1.609375 | 2 |
James Oliver Curwood
Michigan-born James Oliver Curwood, author of thirty-three books, was one of the world's most popular adventure writers, often ranked in a class with Jack London and Zane Grey. Curwood's realm was the North and Northwest; his assets, a remarkable imagination and insight into animals, a love of nature, and a born storytelling gift. He was a seasoned hunter and tracker himself when he faced the open jaws of a grizzly who chose not to kill him. The encounter transformed him and became the inspiration for his novel The Bear, which was the basis for Jean-Jacques Annaud's film success. | <urn:uuid:bca7e923-7651-4cc4-92bf-b75e16a3264f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://harpercollins.com/authors/39252/James_Oliver_Curwood/index.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986754 | 130 | 1.625 | 2 |
Oxford Baroque is a vocal and instrumental ensemble dedicated to the performance of music from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. Whereas most groups performing similar programmes tend to bring together players and singers late on in the rehearsal process, Oxford Baroque is committed to forming a tight artistic bond between the core singers and players from the start, allowing them to construct a strong sense of gesture, central to the rhetoric required to best perform baroque music.
They are directed by Jeremy Summerly, conductor, musicologist, broadcaster, and recording producer. He is the founder-director of the Oxford Camerata and the Royal Academy Consort, and a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music.
For more see www.oxfordbaroque.com or follow them on Facebook or Twitter. | <urn:uuid:2b166d75-d47c-450d-9dcd-d650d63215b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://religiouslives.wordpress.com/124-2/oratorio/ | 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 | 0.932698 | 159 | 1.789063 | 2 |
John Curley's sugar-free trick-or-treatingon October 31, 2012 @ 9:52 am (Updated: 10:47 am - 10/31/12 )
It was tough enough on normal days with John's wife often making their own sugar-free food and snacks like kale pops in place of sugary Popsicles. Halloween brought a special challenge.
"Once you adopt that, you can't on Halloween just suddenly let your guard down."
He couldn't deprive his kids of the joy of trick-or-treating, so he came up with a uniquely Curley idea: He bought eight bags of baby carrots and enlisted the help of his dumbfounded neighbors.
"I would run ahead to the houses and I would say 'Hi we're going to be coming up. We're the Curley's. We live down the street in the blue house. When our kids show up can you please give them baby carrots?'"
Curley says most of his neighbors were good sports and played along, even though he could see their discomfort as his kids arrived to trick-or-treat.
"The poor person at the door would be like 'Um, oh, and here's something for you,' and drop the baby carrots in the bag."
It was hard work keeping up the ruse. At some point the carrots would run out. John says he would reach into the bag pretending to inventory the haul and surreptitiously take a few out, then run ahead to the next houses. Finally, his daughter had enough.
"Charlie's like 'Dad, I think Halloween's over.' I said why? And she said 'well, you seem really tired and I think we have enough carrots,'" he laughs.
Yet somehow, no matter how many houses they went to, the kids never caught on. John says they never figured out they had more than eight bags of carrots.
Still, he says at the end of the night his wife had some serious second thoughts. "Oh, I deeply regret this," John says she sighed. So this year things are different. Sugar is okay. "Big houses, big bars," John says.
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The candy Bill Gates would hand out for Halloween
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:bc0192ee-d421-4eea-86f7-85657c01a11b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mynorthwest.com/832/2058456/John-Curleys-sugarfree-trickortreating | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985876 | 554 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Cyborg was a 1972 novel written by futurist and aviations expert Martin Caidin. It detailed the crash of US Air Force test pilot, Steve Austin, and his subsequent implantation with bionics. It served as the specific story basis for The Six Million Dollar Man telemovie and the general inspiration for The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman television series. It also launched a series of novels by Caidin featuring the character (which generally followed a separate continuity from the TV series).
As a matter of law, it establishes Caidin as the creator of Steve Austin, Oscar Goldman and Rudy Wells. This fact is a major part of the reason that these characters do not appear in Bionic Woman (2007). Even though Jaime Sommers did not originate in any of Caidin's work, each episode of the original The Bionic Woman series carries a credit acknowledging that the spin-off series, like its parent program, was based upon Cyborg (the characters of Goldman and Wells, introduced in this book, did make regular appearances in the new series, and Steve Austin played a recurring role). The 2007 version of Bionic Woman is considered sufficiently distanced from the original source material that neither Caidin and his novel, nor Kenneth Johnson, the nominal creator of Sommers, receive screen credit.
Bionics of the novel and the seriesEdit
- Austin's bionics are powered by flywheel power sources, and a series of pulleys and gears derive their mechanical energy from these flywheels.
- The arm is depicted as being somewhat less sophisticated in its abilities than seen in the show, with Caidin frequently referring to it as a battering ram or bludgeon. Perhaps by choice or perhaps due to this lower level of sophistication, blows from the bionic arm against human opponents are usually described as being fatal, whereas Austin appears to be able to exercise a greater level of control in the TV series and is usually able to deliver non-fatal blows with his arm.
- Austin's left arm is bionic in the novel, but in the show it's his right arm.
- Austin's bionic eye cannot see in the novel. It is merely a photographic camera, activated by a switch near the eye socket under some false skin, and a portion of the eye must be removed in order to obtain the film inside. In Caidin's later novel, Cyborg IV, it is mentioned that the eye has been upgraded to do "range-finding" and infrared: but Austin still can't see with it.
- Austin cannot jump the great heights and lengths as seen in the series.
- Austin cannot run as fast as he does in the series.
- Austin's bionics in the novel have some additional capabilities, not seen in the show. A finger on his bionic hand is capable of firing projectiles (specifically poison darts). Storage compartments in the legs allow him to carry concealed items, such as an oxygen tank and breathing mask. A radio transceiver can be equipped in one leg, and his partially metallic rib cage can be used as an antenna. A good portion of Austin's skull has also been replaced with metal. Although not utilized in the TV series, many of these extra features, especially the poison dart gun and metal skull replacement, are featured in several of the novels adapting Six Million Dollar Man episodes, especially those by Mike Jahn, to the extent that Jahn's novelization of The Secret of Bigfoot changes the TV story's ending substantially by having Steve be unaffected by the aliens' memory wipe, due to his artificial skull. The Charlton Comics Six Million Dollar Man magazine included several stories that incorporated some of these extra features, too, such as the radio transciever in Austin's leg.
- "Bionics" are never referred to in the singular, for etymological reasons Caidin makes clear in this novel. Correctly, "bionics" is singular and plural, making it the proper word on which to base an adjectival form. On the series, and in common speech generally, "bionic" has come to be used as an adjective, whereas "bionics" is a noun.
Cover Art GalleryEdit
- Both the 1972 and the 1974 Warner Paperback Library editions, refers to Austin as "Lt. Col." Austin on the back cover blurb; in the novel itself and the series, he was a full colonel.
- The cover art of the 1974 edition, published to tie-in with the new TV series, includes a likeness of Lee Majors and implies that Austin's right eye is bionic.
- In 1978, noted fantasy artist Boris Vallejo illustrated the 1978 reprint of the book by Berkeley; Vallejo, however, based his illustration on the television version of Austin; as a result, Austin's right arm is shown as bionic, contradicting the novel. | <urn:uuid:549f9573-b177-4e14-a48e-b5f8c1f8004f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bionic.wikia.com/wiki/Cyborg | 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 | 0.97252 | 1,000 | 1.75 | 2 |
LEAPAGATELE KESI, for himself and on behalf
of the LEAPAGATELE family, Plaintiff
LAUPEPA MALAUULU, LAUOI MALAUULU, and
ISUMU LEAPAGA TELE, Defendants
High Court of American Samoa
Land and Titles Division
LT No. 52-90
May 14, 1991
The matai alone has "pule" (authority) over family lands, and an individual family member simply cannot help himself to family lands in derogation of that authority.
Good-faith improvers may he entitled to equitable relief for the value of improvements made to the land, hut those occupying communal lands in direct opposition to the matai's wishes and in violation of a stipulated preliminary injunction are not entitled to such relief.
Before KRUSE, Chief Justice, TAUANU'U, Chief Associate Judge, AFUOLA, Associate Judge.
Counsel: For Plantiff, Gata E. Gurr
For Defendants, Charles v. Ala'ilima
Plaintiff is the senior matai of the Leapagatele family of Nu'uuli. He has held his family's title since 1958. Defendants Laupepa and Lauoi Malauulu are plaintiffs grand nephews and also members of the Leapagatele family. Towards the end of August 1990, plaintiff discovered that the defendants had begun the foundation of a house on a certain area of family land, known as "Lepine,” without his being consulted. His repeated demands to cease construction were not only met with threats of violence but with his nephew Laupepa's assertion of [19ASR2d110] "pule" over the land. The house is now completed, notwithstanding a stipulated preliminary injunction.
The defendants have never been on family lands before, but it seems that their defiant stance stems, at least in part, from the collaboration of their uncle Isumu Leapagatele, who is also plaintiff’s older brother. The building permit for the house in question was signed by uncle Isumu, who apparently seems to be in the habit of inviting different people onto family lands without the matai's knowledge. See Leapagatele v. Nyel, 17 A.S.R.2d 201 (1990).
Plaintiff petitions eviction, and he seeks an injunction not only to enjoin the defendants Laupepa and Lauoi Malauulu from continuing occupation of the portion of land involved, but also to enjoin Isumu Leapagatele from further signing building permits and other documents involving family lands.
Plaintiff testified that the area affected by defendants' house was assigned many years ago to a woman named Leao;(1) that this assignee has faithfully rendered him traditional service (tautua) just as she had served the previous titleholder, his father; and that, in fact, he had already signed a building permit for Leao so that she could go about restoring her hurricane-damaged home. Plaintiff further testified that neither the defendants nor their mother (who moved to the United States many years ago) render tautua; however, plaintiff also added that he would have been willing to assign to the defendants another area of available, family land had they only asked.
On the foregoing facts, plaintiff matai and family are clearly entitled to the relief sought. The authorities are replete; the matai alone has pule over family lands, and an individual family member simply [19ASR2d111] cannot help himself to family lands in derogation of that pule. The petition for eviction is granted.
Additionally, the defendants Laupepa and Lauoi Malauulu can hardly be said to be good-faith improvers, whereby they may be entitled to equitable relief for the value of improvements made to the land. See Tulisua v. Olo, 8 A.S.R.2d 169 (1988). They may, however, either remove the house or abandon it in favor of the Leapagatele family. That is not to say that the parties cannot, therefore, negotiate a sale agreement of the house, since its removal would most probably be wasteful. On the other hand, if such an agreement cannot be achieved, then the defendants Laupepe and Lauoi Malauulu shall remove their property from Lepine within 60 days; otherwise, the house shall become a part of the Leapagatele family's property.
The petition for injunctive relief is also granted. Accordingly, Laupepa and Lauoi Malauluulu are enjoined from using or occupying any portions of family lands "Lepine,” unless permission from the senior matai, Leapagatele Kesi, is first had and obtained.
Further, the defendant Isumu Leapagatele is enjoined from signing any building permits or documents purporting to involve family lands "Lepine."
It is so ordered.
1. Whether or not this lady is a member of the Leapagatele family is far from clear. We found the matai's responses to be equivocal and even somewhat evasive. On the other hand, there was no testimony to the contrary. The defendants did not bother to show up for trial, although their counsel did appear. As their failure to appear was inexplicable, counsel's motion for a continuance was denied, and trial proceeded as scheduled. | <urn:uuid:73d6c4d9-cdc8-4da3-8642-ab7d395659a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asbar.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1182:leapagatele-v-malauulu&catid=68&Itemid=254 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96747 | 1,125 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Whenever I think of attachments, and whenever I think “this isn’t doing me any good”, I notice that there’s always some kind of guilt or anxiety that follows on from my recognition of these attachments. Especially when I’ve made the effort to give something up and failed, there has followed a feeling along the lines of, “I’m no good.”
We all know within Buddhism there is the idea that suffering exists due to our desires and attachments and so there may be an extra effort to rid oneself of attachment because we practice this religion or this philosophy that holds desire and attachment as the root of all our problems.
Nevertheless, our attachments exist and have done for an incredible amount of time. Humans are creatures of habit, we struggle to control our minds and we are at the whim of our desires; in short, whoever designed human nature sure has one hell of a sense of humour!
What I’ve come to realise (though it’s perhaps not exclusive to me), is that trying to get rid of attachments doesn’t work. That’s to say that simply to “decide” that you’re not going to be attached anymore to food or alcohol or drugs or sex or gambling and so on isn’t an effective solution to ridding oneself of attachments.
Thankfully, I don’t have an “addictive” personality: I can take or leave most things without feeling too bothered if I don’t have a particular thing (though of course, there are exceptions). However, I have known people who have had strong attachments or addictions and have repeated the cycle of deciding to give up > giving up > becoming re-attached > feeling like a loser because they failed in their attempt(s).
In a number of cases, even if a “cold turkey” approach has worked, the attachment left behind is simply replaced by another attachment. For example, I have one friend who stopped smoking and became addicted to working out at the gym. Some might say it’s a lesser evil, but attachment/addiction is a state of mind – overdoing anything is problematic…even drinking too much water will kill you.
In thinking about attachment, and from my own experiences, I’ve come to the conclusion that attachments are best shed through a gradual process. I think Rasputin said the only way to beat desire is to firstly accept it.
When we decide we’re going to give something up and after a while we come back to it, in my opinion it is best to skip dwelling on the “I’m a loser” guilt-trip that we put ourselves through. Guilt, like worrying, is pretty useless. Instead, I think a conscious awareness of our negative habits is the best way in working towards ridding ourselves of attachments. Certainly, if one is unaware of a particular behaviour, it is impossible to do anything about it: how can you stop a problem if you can’t see it?
I’ve heard it said that when we do something habitual, something that’s negative, it’s wise to acknowledge the action, to consciously recognise it. In this way I suppose, our mind becomes increasingly aware of a frequent negative action and registers the damage it causes us or others, and therefore with time, the particular negative action (the attachment) lessens and eventually disappears.
In the Lojong, we’re advised to love our attachments, aversions and indifference. What I get from this advice is that, in “loving” our attachments, we come to understand them more and can engage and deal with them more effectively. In a way, it’s like dealing with people: if you really dislike someone and refuse to engage with them, you can never understand them and as a result, you fail to address the issues/problem related to that particular person as you see it.
If we can spend time contemplating our attachments and not try to push them away or suppress them, we have a much better chance of working towards dealing with them effectively. However, if all we do is punish ourselves because we have our attachments, we really don’t do ourselves any favours at all, because punishment never works when it comes to tackling deep-seated problems.
Rather, if we can watch our attachments and simply recognise any negative action when it arises and contemplate the motivation and the consequences born from that action with a calm and non-judgmental mind, we can start to loosen the grip of our attachments through time by applying logic and reason, instead of trying to freak out, force and panic our way to getting rid of our attachments – that has about as much affect as spitting on a fire to put it out.
Through a calm and non-judging approach, we simply come to see that our attachments really bring us no benefit. Sure, they might bring us short-term happiness and joy, but as we all know, it’s never long-lasting. And if we can remember that it’s OK to make mistakes and to slip up sometimes (without this becoming an excuse-mantra), we can come to allow ourselves the time we need to truly work on ourselves and transform our minds.
By realising that a lifetime of attachment isn’t going to go away within a month’s worth of practice, we can be kinder and bring benefit to ourselves by wholeheartedly accepting who we are, warts and all, and by presenting compassion not only to those around us, but also to ourselves as well. | <urn:uuid:dcf31a90-be95-48d8-808e-3630fe65f010> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tsemtulku.com/forum/index.php?topic=1500.msg13999 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964151 | 1,167 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Obama's jobs council shutting down Thursday
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will let his jobs council expire this week without renewing its charter, winding down one source of input from the business community even as unemployment remains stubbornly high.
When Obama in January 2011 formed his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, unemployment was hovering above 9 percent. Two years later, more than 12 million people in the U.S. are out of work. The unemployment rate has fallen to 7.8 percent, but both parties agree that's still too high.
A provision in Obama's executive order establishing the council says it sunsets on Thursday. A White House official said the president does not plan to extend it.
If you have any technical difficulties, either with your username and password or with the payment options, please contact us by e-mail at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:fd87efae-356a-4ed0-bcc6-b53ba77620aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.daily-chronicle.com/2013/01/31/obamas-jobs-council-shutting-down-thursday/a3a8lw3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962882 | 176 | 1.546875 | 2 |
These Treasury data track the flows of financial instruments into and out of the United States. Instruments tracked include Treasury securities, agency securities, corporate bonds, and corporate equities.
TIC data have been issued for the past 30 years, but only recently, due to an enormous rise in foreign participation in our markets, have they grabbed the attention of the international financial markets. Although methodologically limited, TIC offers a measure of foreign demand for our debt and assets. Bonds and the dollar are most sensitive to the data, therefore bond and foreign exchange markets are more likely to react to this report than the equity market. Strong inflows (demand for U.S. securities) are needed to keep downward pressure on interest rates. Strong inflows also underpin the value of the dollar since foreigners must purchase dollars in order to buy our securities. A strong dollar helps to maintain stability in all U.S. financial markets. Since foreign ownership of U.S. equities is comparatively small, the equity market is less concerned about this report.
U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Data are for two months prior to release month. Data for June are released in August.
Quotes delayed at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Interactive Data.
Terms & Conditions. Powered and implemented by Interactive Data Managed Solutions.
Fundamental Data Provided by Morningstar, Inc.
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC. | <urn:uuid:9e296a09-6378-4a19-9996-ce1d8a12b287> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cxa.gtm.idmanagedsolutions.com/finra/MarketData/ecocalendar.aspx?eventId=8BD3F2AF-1663-410E-A1E7-56D75B9B7B1D&miniCalFocus=11/14/2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942098 | 302 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Latest VideosMore Videos
Caillou's Valentines - It's Valentine's Day and Daddy surprises Mommy with a bouquet of roses at breakfast. Caillou is intrigued by the cupid on his card from Mommy. At playschool the children make valentines for all their friends. Caillou imagines he's cupid when he is delivering his cards to the appropriate mailboxes, but is upset to find he's lost his special card for his best friend Leo. Luckily, with Miss Martin's help he makes a new one and Leo really likes it! Hello Spring! - Caillou is very sad when his snowman melts away in the warm spring sunshine. He doesn't want winter to end. He helps Daddy clean up the yard and learns about composting. And during a walk in the park he is reminded of all the good things about spring - the birds returning, the warm weather, the fun things he can do outside. By the time they return home and Caillou finds the first crocuses of spring, he has decided that he's glad spring is here. Caillou's April Fool - Daddy plays an April Fool's trick on Mommy, setting all the clocks ahead one hour. They explain all about April Fool's Day to Caillou, who is determined to join in the fun. The hard part however, is thinking of a good trick to play. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, Caillou plays a couple of good tricks on Mommy and on Daddy too. April Fool!
Watch Caillou and more at PBS Kids Video.
CommentsShare your thoughts, questions, and comments on Caillou here.
Sorry, this episode has no rebroadcasts scheduled at this time. | <urn:uuid:19b6368a-464b-4e12-b037-009b17874c74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vpt.org/show/10085/319 | 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 | 0.972453 | 356 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Are the public safety patrol officers on campus "real" police officers?
Yes. Public safety patrol officers receive their police powers from the New York State Criminal Procedure Law. They are also deputized through the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office. Officers are trained to the same standards as their colleagues in municipal police departments throughout New York State. They are armed to keep the campus safe. This is for your protection.
Are guns allowed on campus?
The possession or use of firearms, ammunition, fireworks, or other dangerous weapons (including knives and paintball guns) on College-owned property is strictly forbidden and is cause for disciplinary action. Ithaca College adheres to all New York State laws regarding firearms and other weapons.
Firearms, ammunition, paintball guns, or other dangerous weapons must be stored at the Office of Public Safety. Permission for the release of such items must be secured in advance.
Are traffic laws enforceable on campus?
Yes, most of the same standards that apply to public roads are also applicable to the campus. All drivers must:
- maintain a valid license
- keep vehicle registration and insurance current
- wear a seatbelt
- not use a cell phone while driving unless using a hands-free kit
- and never, ever drive after drinking! | <urn:uuid:15a5dda3-ea51-4a11-bdec-c5e4467fe37f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ithaca.edu/sacl/safety/patrol/patrolfaqs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945291 | 265 | 1.625 | 2 |
FAA Engages the Public on its Strategic Plan
Finding New Ways to Engage
Since 2002, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Strategic Plan has been the product of extensive collaboration among leaders, industry stakeholders, the flying public, and employees. Each year, these constituencies have been solicited for their input, and each year their collaboration has helped make the plan better than it otherwise would have been. However, there has never been a way for all of these constituencies to join together in an online conversation in a single space. Typically, the plan would have been sent in hardcopy to industry representatives, posted on the FAA intranet and displayed on the FAA Web page with a “suggestion box” or email address to submit comments. In 2011, FAA was seeking a new way to engage in this dialogue.
The DOT Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) set out to help FAA select an appropriate tool to meet their needs, ultimately deciding on the previously approved IdeaScale. The OCIO worked with FAA’s Strategic Planning Division to establish the requirements and determine whether comments would be monitored (reviewed for acceptability and compliance with the IdeaScale Terms of Participation) or moderated (engaged in a two-way conversation between DOT and the commenter). FAA chose the moderating option, and OCIO trained Strategic Planners from around the FAA in moderating tools techniques.
In just two short weeks, the site went from concept to live and ready for use. In just the first four days, the site received 50 ideas and 51 comments on those ideas. Over the 4-week course of the dialogue, we reached over 200 ideas, more than 300 comments, 1200+ votes – from almost 500 users. The dialogue ended on March 28, 2011 and the final plan will be released in May 2011.
For more information about DOT’s Open Government Initiative please contact the DOT Open Government team at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:25dbcaea-fa71-4f06-8ea6-eb59a2795a4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dot.gov/mission/open/faa-engages-public-its-strategic-plan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95028 | 396 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The ever-popular VoIP package, Skype
, has received an update recently to its Mac edition. The company has released a security update
to address a flaw in their software package that could result in remote system compromise, which affects all versions prior to 220.127.116.11:
The security bug stems from a format string error in the Skype URI handler. The flaw creates a potential means for hackers to create a maliciously constructed Skype URL which, if followed, might allow them to inject hostile code onto vulnerable systems.
Security company Secunia has the bug duly noted
, and anyone using Skype should download the update. This comes just a few days after Apple releases a host of updates
for OS X. It's been a busy week for Mac users. | <urn:uuid:6b792d13-90a6-4bfa-acc9-b5a45e8b22c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techspot.com/news/23098-skype-releases-security-update-to-mac-version.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930595 | 156 | 1.5 | 2 |
What were they? Ask any kid: Silly Bandz.
The latest kid craze -- what Luers calls the "Silly Bandwagon" -- took awhile to reach the Portland area after sweeping other regions of the country. But now kids from elementaries to high schools are snapping them up to wear and trade. They come in every color and return to their original shape -- everything from Hello Kitty to princesses and dragons -- when taken off.
Parents like that they're cheap -- about $4 for 24. And Luers, 41, said the trading has some benefits for kids: "They develop this whole bartering economy, and it's got some pretty complicated rules, which is really cool."
But as with the Pokémon fad of a decade ago, some schools have had enough. The New York Times reported in April that schools from New York to Texas had banned the bracelets for causing a distraction. Locally, at least one school has banned them, while others have warned kids not to trade them at school or play with them in class.
"We find arguments often arise around toys. The new craze of Silly Bands is causing just these sorts of problems," Sarah Lewins, principal at Southwest Portland's Markham Elementary, wrote in a school newsletter Oct. 21. She told kids to keep the bands on their wrists or risk losing them.
The same rule applies at Tualatin Elementary. It didn't help one student, though, who showed up at the school health center complaining that he'd lost feeling in his arm. The school nurse found he was wearing 40 or so of the bands, Principal Johanna Cena said.
The International School a private school near downtown Portland, banned the bands schoolwide for consistency.
"All of a sudden, I heard about Silly Bandz from parents," Principal Alfonso Orsini said. "Then I talked to teachers, and they had already told kids, 'Don't bring them in; it's a distraction from learning.' A few weeks ago they told them to uniformly stop bringing them to school."
Silly Bandz arrived in stores last year and became popular with boys and girls -- and adults -- and inspired copycats such as Crazy Bands, Fun Bandz and Rubba Bandz. Amanda Simard, manager of Finnegan's Toys in downtown Portland, said demand is showing no sign of slowing.
"We first got them over the summer," Simard said. "We had a lot of people asking for them, so they went very quickly, and they have since then gone quickly." Most who want them are 6- to 12-year-olds, she said, but older kids and adults are buying and wearing them, too.
One recent afternoon at Tigard Public Library, 16-year-old Katie Gentry rolled her eyes when asked about the fad.
"I think it's ridiculous," she said. "My friend color coordinates them to her outfits. One of my friends wore a whole arm of them to homecoming."
Minutes later, a cluster of high-schoolers arrived to work on an English project with Gentry. Tomi Patterson, a junior at Tigard High School, wore two Silly Bandz.
"I like looking for rare ones like giraffes and taking them off my friends and figuring out what they are," Patterson said.
As for them being a distraction, Luers, the Southeast Portland mom, thinks they're harmless -- and transitory.
"There's always going to be something," she said. "It's just Silly Bandz right now."
-- Candice Ruud | <urn:uuid:4ce9cbd6-7285-4168-a0fe-a95121100c6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/11/silly_bandz_all_the_rage_for_a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982383 | 745 | 1.5625 | 2 |
David Cameron finally delivered his long-anticipated speech on the EU, promising that he would put the UK’s membership up to a referendum, provided he wins the next election. The promise of a referendum delighted the euroskeptics in his coalition, though Cameron himself vowed to fight for staying in the EU so long as the upcoming negotiations with European leaders work out to his liking:
“I know there will be those who say the vision I have outlined will be impossible to achieve. That there is no way our partners will cooperate. That the British people have set themselves on a path to inevitable exit. And that if we aren’t comfortable being in the E.U. after 40 years, we never will be. But I refuse to take such a defeatist attitude — either for Britain or for Europe.”
“And when the referendum comes,” he said, “I will campaign for it with all my heart and soul.”
Cameron is playing a game of hardball with European leaders. During Prime Minister’s Questions, the BBC is reporting, Ed Miliband accused Cameron of “running scared” from the resurgent UK Independence Party. This is undoubtedly true on some level, but Cameron wisely intends to use this to his advantage, implicitly threatening that, if negotiations with the EU break down, European leaders will have to deal with a far more unreasonable bunch of characters after the next election.
Will his gambit work? It’s hard to say, as there are many countervailing forces in play. It would be a big blow to the spirit of the European project if the UK abandoned ship, and northern countries such as Germany and the Netherlands are none too keen on seeing it come to pass. But, as we noted yesterday, the French seem to think that Charles de Gaulle did the right thing when he vetoed Britain’s first application for membership in the EU, and Paris looks increasingly eager to show Britain the door.
The underlying reality here is that the euro crisis has fundamentally changed the nature of the European Union in ways that nobody really yet understands — partly because the crisis has not yet been resolved. There is not nearly enough public support in Britain for any government to seriously entertain the prospect of joining the euro-zone and committing to the much tighter organization that both the Germans and the French in their different ways want that zone to become. Britain must either carve out a new kind of relationship within the EU but outside the euro or it must choose between leaving the EU and embracing the euro and everything that entails.
It’s not an easy choice for Britain or for its partners, but Cameron has honestly recognized the reality that exists and is doing his best to find an approach that allows an appropriate form of British participation in the European process. This may not work, but he is right to try, and the United States should make clear to our friends and partners in Europe, especially in Paris, that we would like very much for them to lend him a friendly hand. | <urn:uuid:813558f7-a2ff-48ee-9a84-7e9c58e0ddce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/01/23/camerons-threats-may-keep-uk-in-eu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969335 | 616 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Glazer, Gary J. | Purdue University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections
Name: Glazer, Gary J.
Fuller Form: Glazer, Gary Jay
Historical Note: Gary Jay Glazer moved from Cincinnati, Ohio to attend Purdue University in 1964. He graduated in 1967 with a degree in Industrial Management. Glazer was active in many student organizations including the Hillel Foundation in 1965, the Tomahawk pledge class of 1966 and the Reamer Club in 1967. Glazer lived in Owen residence hall from 1964 to 1967. Glazer was active in the Hussar Club which is run by Owen residence hall. Hussar Club members are in charge of hall funds and decide how to allocate the funds. Glazer received awards from his role in the Hussar Club including the Hussar Scholar Trophy (1964-1965) and The Headliner Outstanding Hussar Award (1966-1967). Glazer attended the Rose bowl football game in 1967 when Purdue beat the University of Southern California. He was active in Purdue traditions such as wearing the Purdue residence hall pot or beanie and the senior cords.
Debris yearbooks, 1964-1967
Purdue Staff and students telephone directory, 1966-1967
Note Author: Shauna Borger | <urn:uuid:3441e386-664d-47ec-b235-a826932c235b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www4.lib.purdue.edu/archon/index.php?p=creators/creator&id=756 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949906 | 253 | 1.53125 | 2 |
I once heard youth ministry colourfully described as a ‘bandaid on a bleeding artery’. While those committed to the evangelisation and support of youth might resist such a diagnosis it nevertheless points to the fact that outreach to young people cannot be thought of apart from the health of the adult Church.
It strikes me that if the adult Church is haemorrhaging – because of poor preaching and liturgy, a thin sense of belonging or a lack of support for instance – then there is little prospect that young members will be sustained in their faith as they mature. Young people graduate from the parochial youth group or youth movement much faster than we think. This leads us to consider what we are offering young people in our communities over the long term, for the flourishing and growth of their faith. All you need do is look at your adult Church for a sense of what’s coming.
There are other good reasons why nurturing the faith of adult Catholics is critical, even essential, to meaningful youth ministry in our parishes.
Adult Catholics witness to younger Catholics what a mature faith looks like. If we want to raise the standard of discipleship in the Church then adults who are prayerful, steeped in Scripture, theologically literate, articulate and committed to justice must become the new norm. Only then will the faith of young people naturally aspire to more than intergenerational conformism.
Naturally, we want young people in our communities for their vibrancy and energy as well as the tangible hope they bring for a Church we hold precious. However, we need to acknowledge that young people will not be attracted to parishes or communities that show no energy or dynamism in themselves.
Given the above, there is an argument for a renewed emphasis on adult catechesis in the local community, in addition to the traditional role of children’s and youth ministry in parish life. In my experience there is too little focus on adult formation in our parishes (apart from what is assumed to be taking place when homilies are preached or in the sign value of the sacraments).
In a well researched book on faith formation, Jane Regan argues that the strongest rationale for a focus on adult catechesis, as a necessary complementary to a focus on youth, is the mission of evangelisation:
It is the link between evangelisation and catechesis that provides the clearest mandate and the most convincing rationale for focusing on adults. Adults need to be continually formed in their faith so that they are able to fulfil their responsibilities in the mission of the church (Regan, Toward an Adult Church, p.24)
Of course, the responsibilities of adults include the evangelisation of youth. Without their catechesis, the formation of adults in faith, they are not likely to connect what takes place in liturgy with mission, the connection between faith practices and their life remains obscure, and so the connection between discipleship and evangelisation will be lost. In short, adult disciples need catechesis to be evangelisers, which includes being effective witnesses to the young people in their parish community and everyday lives.
So if you are involved in youth ministry, adults need to become an integral part of the overall vision of your parish if your ministry is not to be merely a temporary ‘moment’ in a longer story of unrealised potential.
If we want youth ministry to make a lasting difference we cannot afford to take our eyes off the adult members of our community which they will one day become. | <urn:uuid:f2c737f6-4360-4e67-8bb1-2ef3b74d3aed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://timeofthechurch.com/2013/01/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957277 | 723 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Money Insider: Changing banks is not like switching energy providers
I was surprised to learn that there is a lack of choice and competition in the retail banking sector, according to the latest findings of the Treasury Committee.
It sounds as if it is banging the same old drum we have become accustomed to over the last decade with no new startling revelations or anything that would really be considered as news. The crux of the issue appears to be that it is difficult for consumers to work out how much their banking services cost them and that the process of transferring their current account is a cumbersome and risky process.
If you keep your current account in the black then it's quite simple, there are no bank charges to worry about, and yes I agree that in reality the banks are making money by paying you little or no interest on your current account credit balance. But by the same token you are not being charged for online banking, the convenience of payment mechanisms, including direct debits, standing orders and debit cards, plus access to a vast network of ATMs.
If you apply for an agreed overdraft limit on your account you will receive written confirmation of the charges that will become payable, the problem of comparison is far more of an issue when it comes to unauthorised borrowing charges, but why should that be the factor that leads you to choose where to bank? After all, surely nobody sets out with the intention of deliberately exceeding their overdraft limit.
There is no shortage of competition in the current account market with a number of high-profile providers even offering financial incentives to switch. As for the process being "cumbersome and risky", is this really the reason that people don't move their current account on a frequent basis? Or is it more down to media scare stories or perhaps that they don't see their current account as something they wish to move from provider to provider at a drop of a hat.
Switching your energy, telephone or broadband provider may be the norm to save a few pounds but switching current accounts in the same way or frequency just isn't going to happen.
Most banks have dedicated switching teams in place and will guarantee that you will not incur any charges due to the transfer process. However, the thought of moving your direct debits and standing orders, a new debit card and Pin and new internet banking to get used to are more likely to be the barrier rather than a lack of competition and choice in the market.
I'm not sure what the Treasury Committee expects a new entrant to do differently; they too will still be strangled by consumer credit regulation that automatically doubles the word count of any customer literature.
It's easier to be different when you're a new player with a handful of branches and a few thousand customers, but when you build a larger, more complex customer base over a number of years, the initial gimmicks that set you apart from the "big boring banks" will be cast aside in search of a better profit margin and a need to satisfy the City in fear that your share price will suffer.
If there's no competition out there at the moment, I would like to know what you call it, providers have been falling over themselves in the last 12 to 18 months, offering loyalty incentives to their current account customers, realising at long last that looking after existing customers is equally as important as recruiting new ones.
AA leads the way as new ISAs launched
Just a few days into the new tax year, it's no surprise to see much of the marketing is still focused on the ISA market.
Some of the more notable accounts to hit the shelves this week include the re-launch of the table-topping instant access ISA from AA at 3.35% AER, although it doesn't permit the transfer in of previous ISA balances.
Looking at fixed-rate, tax-free savings, Birmingham Midshires is paying 5% AER for a five-year fix and includes a useful monthly interest option as well as allowing you to transfer in.
If five years is perhaps too long to consider, maybe the best-buy three-year fix from Leeds Building Society at 4.16% AER will appeal, again it is for new ISA money only, but it does offer the flexibility of penalty free access to 25% of your capital.
If you're an existing saver with Nationwide Building Society, you'll have the option to open a three-year fixed-rate loyalty ISA at 4.2% AER, 0.35% higher than the non-customer equivalent. Although again there is a maximum balance restriction of £5,340 (the 2011/12 cash limit)
Andrew Hagger is a money analyst at Moneynet.co.uk
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Day In a Page
A five-bedroom bungalow in Hoveton with riverside garden and mooring dock, £550,000
A refurbished one-bedroom flat with south-facing reception and high ceilings. £579,950
A four-bedroom Grade II-listed house in Nazeing with large gardens. £550,000
A modern four-bedroom house in a converted stable within walking distance to Peckham Rye. £695,000
Three-bedroom house in a quiet residential area within close distance to Battersea Park. £450,000
A three-bedroom cottage within commuting distance of London, Norwich and Cambridge. £250,000
A two-bedroom cottage with a sun room and gardens in South Chard. £350,000.
A three-bedroom semi-detached house with original features including fireplaces and wooden flooring. £399,950
A modern two-bedroom flat split across two floors and close to several public transport links. £595,000
A one-bedroom flat with an open-plan reception/kitchen and private balcony. £315,000.
A bright two-bedroom garden flat between South Acton and Chiswick Park. £499,950.
A listed four-bedroom farmhouse with stables, set in four acres. £500,000.
A three-storey family home with four bedrooms and an extended kitchen/diner. £995,000.
A three-bedroom Hamstone cottage in the rolling Somerset countryside. £430,000.
A luxury one-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a converted Victorian house. £425,000.
Three-bedroom semi-detached house with private parking and a rear garden. £249,995. | <urn:uuid:20b18e7b-6b21-4445-b644-8514e549530b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/money-insider-changing-banks-is-not-like-switching-energy-providers-2265498.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952218 | 1,593 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Sure, most of us are much more likely to send an email or text message than we are to write or print a letter, put it in an envelope and send it off. But for those old-school folks who like to keep the Post Office busy, there is now a way to lick and seal envelopes without that horribly gluey taste.
Flavorlopes are reportedly the world’s first patented envelopes with flavored glue. It is kind of baffling to think that no one has ever done this before since nasty-tasting envelopes are a well-established problem.
The company currently produces five flavors: grape, apple, orange, cherry and strawberry. The family behind the company wants to bring back the almost-lost art of letter writing, and they’re doing their part by making the process of sealing envelopes much more pleasant than it has ever been. | <urn:uuid:cc5e90ed-0884-4d79-96a7-b7c1f36880c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gajitz.com/in-good-taste-flavored-envelopes-for-pleasanter-letters/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96866 | 181 | 1.75 | 2 |
The Department of Architecture educates students in an active culture of service, scholarship and invention. Uniquely situated at the crossroads of Chinese heritage and global influence, the Department takes the approach that design is best explored from a sophisticated understanding of both. Through a multidisciplinary curriculum emphasizing technology, history and culture students gain broad expertise in the management of the environmental, social, and aesthetic challenges of contemporary architectural design. Through opportunities for international exchange, study travel, and community workshops, the Department of Architecture prepares graduates for participation in an international community of design experts at the highest level.
Design education in the Department of Architecture is based on the studio model of instruction, with students organized in small groups working directly with staff tutors on guided research and design projects over the length of a full term. At the undergraduate level, an emphasis is placed on training in drawing and physical model-making as well as in mastery of the software used in the architectural profession. Students learn the process of design from conception, to representation, to presentation of a coherent idea. At both the undergraduate and graduate level, the studio is the testing ground for training in history and technology that students receive in the classroom, with increasingly more sophisticated solutions being sought.
Research programs at the graduate and postgraduate level offer students a unique opportunity to study the conditions of the contemporary city in the dense and active region of south China. Programs in architecture conservation, sustainable cities, rural construction, housing and architectural fabrication form a base for our research agenda. The Department offers specialized program of study through its Architecture Conservation Program. These programs provide resources for students with an interest in focused work in two aspects of the discipline which are of growing importance in East Asia.
The Department offers students a variety of opportunities for international study and travel. Study tours take undergraduate design studios to foundational sites of East Asian architecture and urbanism. Every undergraduate student in the Department spends one term at the Faculty of Architecture’s Shanghai Study Center, learning in the context of one of China’s most dynamic cities. The Department hosts undergraduate academic exchange programs with leading institutions in North America and Europe, while joint graduate level studio programs with universities abroad offer opportunities for students to engage their peers from around the world.
Staff at the Department of Architecture include both scholars and practicing professionals, and the Department is dedicated to community involvement through design. Through the Faculty of Architecture’s Community Design Workshop, students have opportunities to participate in design projects in China ranging from school construction to the design and repair of rural bridges. | <urn:uuid:e27a6c40-be61-48bb-ae08-5020a0c24772> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fac.arch.hku.hk/arch/introduction/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942608 | 506 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Alvin S. Felzenberg Author, "The Leaders We Deserved" :
In turning to Elizabeth Warren to set up and oversee the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, Obama may brought yet another headache upon his administration. His problem will flow less from his choice of Warren, as in his holding her unaccountable, both to Congress and to the American people. At a time when voters increasingly feel they have no control over forces, many of them flowing from Washington, that impact upon their lives, Obama named yet another "czar" to make policy behind closed doors.
What would have been so bad about sending Warren up to Capitol Hill, where she already works, to answer in public questions about her vision for the new agency and returning in the course of tenure to explain her actions? If Congress balked at confirming her - or even bringing her nomination to the floor - Obama might have had an issue to take to voters this fall. That, of course, presumed that voters agreed with where he and Warren wanted to take this agency. Instead, he has given his critics but another issue to use against him: administrative arrogance. | <urn:uuid:789f21b1-9fea-4c79-82cf-d0ae741e30bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Alvin_S__Felzenberg_8022A261-DDD3-47D7-A9E9-0AF539EE8E9D.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980148 | 226 | 1.65625 | 2 |
ASIA NEWS NETWORK
WE KNOW ASIA BETTER
Obama welcome to see reason
Publication Date : 19-11-2012
US President Barack Obama is on a four-day visit from November 17 to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, where he will also attend the 7th East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh.
Some reports in the international media say the fact that Obama has chosen to visit Southeast Asia on his first foreign tour after being re-elected president shows that he wants to expedite the United States' strategic eastward shift and "upgrade" its China policy. Some observers even believe Obama's visit to Myanmar, the first by a US president in decades, is the "last trick" up the White House's sleeve to contain China.
These views are biased and exaggerate the negative vibes in Sino-US relations. There is no need to read too much into the timing of Obama's visit to Southeast Asia. By taking the trip, the US president wants to determine what his administration can do in the region and how. He also wants to know firsthand the attitude of East Asian countries toward the US, their relations with China and what they expect from Sino-US relations.
The US' strategic eastward shift is the result of the changing global power balance and reflects Washington's reluctance to be relegated to second place.
The US' eastward shift has many purposes. The first is to contain China. Using China's rise and the "China threat" theory, the US wants to convince China's neighbours that the Asia-Pacific needs Washington's presence and protection in order to "unite" them to strike a "strategic rebalance" against China in the region.
The second is to consolidate the US-Japan alliance and tighten its grip over Japan and other allies.
The third is to avoid being "marginalised" in the fast developing free trade areas of the Asia-Pacific region and to maintain its importance in the region's economic integration.
And the fourth is to stimulate the regional arms race so that the American military-industrial complex could reap the benefits.
Some experts argue that the US seems to have won the first round of its strategic eastward shift, for China has been "isolated". Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The US may have gained the upper hand for the time being - for example it has tightened its control over Japan and other allies, and its arms dealers are making big bucks. But in the competition for economic dominance, the US has not made much gain. Washington has abandoned its drive to achieve the "Bogor Goals" of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's trade and investment liberalisation. Instead, it is trying to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership with a higher degree of liberalisation than that recommended by the World Trade Organisation. Until now, the new ambition remains a distant dream.
As far as containing China is concerned, there is much hue and cry without much success for the US. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal said that none of the countries neighbouring China is willing to join with Washington to confront Beijing. In fact, the spectre of an "Asian NATO" has been hovering around China without causing any real concern. The reason: China's neighbours are reluctant to take sides between Washington and Beijing for they want to develop relations with both.
It is true that maritime territorial disputes with some countries - such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan - have stirred trouble for China recently. But Vietnam is dependent on China economically and worried that the US will use the opportunity to engineer a "colour revolution" in the country. Anti-American sentiments run high in the Philippines, too, and Manila is worried Washington will use the dispute to its own advantage.
Japan is clearly the best partner of the US in the Asia-Pacific. But it cannot ignore the positive aspects of Sino-Japanese relations. Besides, it is also worried that the US will "manipulate" it to ultimately improve relations with China. The US, on its part, does not have complete faith in Japan and will by no means allow it to change its subordinate status in bilateral relations.
The US often says China and Russia, and even India, are "at a crossroads". In fact, it is the US that is now "at a crossroads". Its global power is declining but it is reluctant to accept the fact. At the international level, it has no option but to see its influence shrink. In Sino-US relations, it has no option but to cooperate.
Obama is widely regarded as an intelligent leader. So if he learns firsthand how Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia view the US and Sino-US relations during his visit to the three countries, he might rethink some of Washington's policies.
China's rise is inevitable. It adheres to the road of peaceful development, and is committed to building harmonious relations, never seeking hegemony but standing for equal partnership and win-win cooperation. This is the core of Beijing's grand strategy and also the "magic weapon" to deal with the US' strategic eastward shift.
China does not feel uncomfortable about the US' presence in the Asia-Pacific; it merely hopes the US would make more active and positive contributions to the region.
Why is the US desperate to create conditions for Japanese right-wing forces to create trouble? It will not do any good to either the US or Japan.
In early 2011, Chinese and US leaders said no to the Cold War mentality and reached an important agreement on the direction bilateral relations should develop, and pledged to work together to build a Sino-US cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit. China has been making great efforts in this direction and hopefully Obama is also doing the same.
The author is executive director of the Strategy Research Centre of China International Studies Research Fund. | <urn:uuid:738ab6ba-3c37-4e23-902f-98031a61327c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asianewsnet.net/Obama-welcome-to-see-reason-39051.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957388 | 1,191 | 1.78125 | 2 |
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The sparse property of the signal to be processed is very important and directly affects the efficiency of compressive sensing. A signal pre-processing method suitable for compressive sensing is given, which is helpful to effective sensing and accurate reconstruction. Under the condition that the sparse characteristic of the signal is unknown, a frequency modulation pattern is introduced to pre-process the signal to increase the sparse proportion of the signal. Then we choose a difference matrix as the reconstruction matrix, the signal could be reconstructed accurately in the process of sparse reconstruction. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed pre-processing method for compressive sensing is very effective and efficient.
Date of Conference: 24-28 Oct. 2010 | <urn:uuid:ce06e6a2-d177-4c6a-a031-d0807e4afe56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&tp=&arnumber=5656687&contentType=Conference+Publications&sortType%3Dasc_p_Sequence%26filter%3DAND(p_IS_Number%3A5654687) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932741 | 145 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Huh? Some of you may be asking what exactly this means, and I'll explain. James Cameron stopped by the Ubisoft E3 presentation today to talk about the upcoming debut of the Avatar video game. The game has been in development alongside of the movie for two and half years and is just now being unveiled. So, before we get a trailer, poster, or even a photo, our very first look at the world of Avatar comes in the form of a video game. The first screenshots from the game have been released by Ubisoft and can be seen below. Just be weary, this isn't exactly what the movie will look like, but it's the best we can show you from it for now.
Cameron said that the movie takes place in the 22nd century, on a large Earth-like moon called Pandora, with rain forests, 1000-feet tall trees, and many different types of creatures. The new story in the game will parallel the story in the movie, meaning you can play the game without worry of spoiling any of the movie.
I'm a bit disappointed that our very first introduction to world in Avatar is through a video game. Not that I have anything against video games, I just think it would've been much more appropriate to see all this in a trailer first. Weta, who is working on the movie, provided Ubisoft with all of the assets, models, and animations in order to create perfect recreations for the game. Cameron says that the game will have its own creatures and weapons, some of which were designed by Ubisoft, and some of which were created specifically for the game. Just sit back and imagine all of that action above taking place on the big screen. | <urn:uuid:76d782e7-1e00-4ab9-8d11-b5fbd10a0acf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.movie-moron.com/forum/index.php?topic=2101.msg9294 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980337 | 344 | 1.8125 | 2 |
… in my opinion.
His column today is a national treasure.
Do you ever wonder how the environment – the global ecosystem – will cope with the continuing growth in the world population plus the rapid economic development of China, India and various other ”emerging economies”? I do. And it’s not a comforting thought.
But now that reputable and highly orthodox outfit the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has attempted to think it through systematically. In its report Environmental Outlook to 2050, it projects existing socio-economic trends for 40 years, assuming no new policies to counter environmental problems.
It’s not possible to know what the future holds, of course, and such modelling – economic or scientific – is a highly imperfect way of making predictions. Even so, some idea is better than no idea. It’s possible the organisation’s projections are unduly pessimistic, but it’s just as likely they understate the problem because they don’t adequately capture the way various problems could interact and compound…
Alarmist? I don’t think so: just sober evaluation of facts and trends that only the perverse, deluded, or ultra-committed to some half-baked ideological (usually “libertarian”) position could object to, along with maybe a gaggle of has-been or media hungry scientists, most often in some tangentially relevant discipline — the so-called “skeptics” . See the somewhat related Media Watch item from last Monday to discover yet again where these turkeys come from and how and why they do what they do.
The occasion for Ross Gittins’s column is OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050: The Consequences of Inaction.
Humanity has witnessed unprecedented growth and prosperity in the past decades, with the size of the world economy more than tripling and population increasing by over 3 billion people since 1970. This growth, however, has been accompanied by environmental pollution and natural resource depletion. The current growth model and the mismanagement of natural assets could ultimately undermine human development.
The OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050 asks “What will the next four decades bring?” Based on joint modelling by the OECD and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), it looks forward to the year 2050 to find out what demographic and economic trends might mean for the environment if the world does not adopt more ambitious green policies. It also looks at what policies could change that picture for the better.
This Outlook focuses on four areas: climate change, biodiversity, freshwater and health impacts of pollution. These four key environmental challenges were identified by the previous Environmental Outlook to 2030 (OECD, 2008) as “Red Light” issues requiring urgent attention. Based on model projections, this edition of the Environmental Outlook paints a possible picture of what the environment might look like in 2050. It focuses on four areas which were identified by the previous edition of the Outlook as needing urgent attention: climate change, biodiversity, water, and health and environment.
You will find plenty more about climate change on this blog – look at the tabs above or check out the side bar, so I am not going to start beating my head against the brick wall yet again, and I advise any commenters to bear in mind that whatever they say I almost certainly will already have been down whatever blind alley or into whatever swamp you care to invite me into.
So don’t bother. I respect your right to your views, even if the views are not worth a sane person’s attention for any longer than a nanosecond!
Go instead, readers, to some sound information, such as Understanding Climate (NOAA). Contemplate last month on a global scale, not just what passed your window on your patch of the planet.
See also the State of the Climate report for February 2012.
In a very civilised Q&A last week Malcolm Turnbull showed that he is among the sane, as I always knew anyway.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Can I make one quick point? Look, there’s no doubt the climate has changed a lot and particularly over the period of 19 and a half thousand years. You know we’ve had ice ages in that period so but that’s really not the point, okay? So we are – this is – we are actually making a difference to the climate, which humans have never done before. That’s a very significant thing. Second, there are so many more of us now than there used to be. You know, this is not like, you know, 100,000 years ago when there was only a handful of humans and they could go to higher ground or wander off somewhere else. If we get a one, two, three metre rise in sea levels, there are hundreds of millions of people at risk and this is the thing that we forget is that, yes, we are more technically sophisticated but because of the size of the global population we are so much more vulnerable.
CLEMENTINE FORD: And also…
TONY JONES: I’m just going to go – we’ve just got a gentleman with his hand up there. We’ll just go quickly to his question or comment and then we’ll move on.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, look, if we do all go under, if the whole country goes under water, will there be a new Noah? Who will he be and who’s he going to save?
TONY JONES: Okay, I’m going to take that as a comment. A satirical comment. Time to move on. Our next question comes from Kate Aubusson… | <urn:uuid:5a03019a-7d16-468c-a5c3-4c328723db08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://neil2decade.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942878 | 1,178 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Common Questions Asked by Homeowners about Insurance
If a fire, flood, earthquake, or some other natural disaster were to destroy or damage your home, would you have the right insurance coverage to rebuild your house?
This brochure, based on the questions consumers most frequently ask, explains what is covered in a standard homeowners policy and what is not. Where gaps in coverage exist, it tells you how to fill them.
To simplify explanations, we assume that you have a policy known as Homeowners-3 (HO-3), the most common homeowners policy in the United States. Find out what type of homeowners policy you have. If you have a different policy, you should review your options in question #17.
QUESTION # 1: AM I COVERED FOR DIRECT LOSSES DUE TO FIRE, LIGHTNING, TORNADOES, WIND STORMS, HAIL, EXPLOSIONS, SMOKE, VANDALISM AND THEFT?
Answer: Yes. The HO-3 provides broad coverage for these and other disasters or “perils,” as they are called in the policy, including all those listed in the question. You should check the dollar limits of insurance in your policy and make sure you are comfortable with the amount of insurance you have for specific items. Also, if you live near the Atlantic or Gulf coasts there may be some restrictions on your coverage for wind damage. Ask your agent about windstorm/hurricane deductibles. In areas prone to hailstorms, you may have a specific hail damage deductible.
QUESTION # 2: ARE MY JEWELRY AND OTHER VALUABLES COVERED?
Answer: The standard policy provides only from $1,000 to $2,000 for theft of jewelry. If your jewelry is worth a lot more, you should purchase higher limits. You may wish to add a floater to your policy to cover specific pieces of jewelry and other expensive possessions such as paintings, electronic equipment, stamp collections or silverware, for example. The floater will provide both higher limits and protect you from additional risks, not covered in your normal policy.
QUESTION # 3: IF MY HOUSE IS TOTALLY DESTROYED IN A FIRE AND I HAVE $150,000 WORTH OF INSURANCE TO COVER THE STRUCTURE, WILL THIS BE ENOUGH TO REBUILD MY HOME?
Answer: If the cost of rebuilding your home is equal to or less than $150,000 you would have enough coverage. The HO-3 policy pays for structural damage on a replacement cost basis. If the cost of replacing your home is, say, $120,000, then that is all the insurance you need. On the other hand if the cost of rebuilding your home is $180,000, then you will be short $30,000.
If you live in an area that is frequently hit by major storms, ask you insurance company about an extended or guaranteed replacement cost policy. This will provide a certain amount over the policy limit to rebuild your home so that if building costs go up unexpectedly, due to high demand for contractors and materials, you will have extra funds to cover the bill.
If you choose not to rebuild your home, you will receive the replacement cost of your home, less depreciation. This is called actual cash value. You should make sure that the amount of insurance you have will cover the cost of rebuilding your house. You can find out what this cost is by talking to your real estate agent or builders in your area.
Do not use the price of your house as the basis for the amount of insurance you purchase. The market price of your house includes the value of the land on which the house is situated. In almost all cases, the land will still be there after a disaster, so you do not need to insure it. You only need to insure the structure.
QUESTION # 4: AM I COVERED FOR FLOOD DAMAGE?
Answer: No. So, if you live in a flood-prone area it may be wise to purchase flood insurance. Flood insurance is provided by the federal government, under a program run by the Federal Insurance Administration. In some parts of the country, homes can be damaged or destroyed by mudslides. This risk is also covered under flood policies. Contact your agent or company representative to get this insurance or call the Federal Emergency Management Agency at 1-800-427-4661 or visit its Web site atwww.fema.gov.
QUESTION # 5: A PIPE BURSTS AND WATER FLOWS ALL OVER MY FLOORS. AM I COVERED?
Answer: Yes. The HO-3 covers you for accidental discharge of water from a plumbing system. You should check your plumbing and heating systems once a year. While you are covered for damage, who needs the mess and hassle?
QUESTION # 6: WHAT IF WATER SEEPS INTO MY BASEMENT FROM THE GROUND, AM I COVERED?
Answer: No. Water seepage is excluded under the HO-3. And if the water seepage is not due to a flood you will not be covered under a flood policy. Seepage is viewed as a maintenance issue and is not covered by insurance. You should see a contractor about waterproofing your basement.
QUESTION # 7: AM I COVERED FOR EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE?
Answer: No. Earthquake coverage is sold as additional coverage to the homeowners policy. To find out whether you should buy this insurance, talk to your agent or company representative. The cost of this coverage can vary significantly from one area to another, depending on the likelihood of a major earthquake.
QUESTION # 8: A NEIGHBOR SLIPS ON MY SIDEWALK OR FALLS DOWN MY PORCH STEPS AND THREATENS TO TAKE ME TO COURT FOR DAMAGES. DOES MY POLICY PROTECT ME?
Answer: Yes. The policy will pay for damages, if a fall or other accident on your property is the result of your negligence. It will also pay for the legal costs of defending you against a claim. Also, the medical payments part of your homeowners policy will cover medical expenses, if a neighbor or guest is injured on your property. You should check to see how much liability protection you have. The standard amount is $100,000. If you feel you need more, consider purchasing higher limits.
QUESTION # 9: A TREE FALLS AND DAMAGES MY ROOF DURING A STORM. AM I COVERED?
Answer: Yes. You are covered for the damage to your roof. You are also covered for the removal of the tree, generally up to a $500 limit. You should cut down dead or dying trees close to your house and prune branches that are near your house. It's true that your insurance covers damage, but falling trees and branches can also injure your family.
QUESTION # 10: DURING A STORM, A TREE FALLS BUT DOES NO DAMAGE TO MY PROPERTY. AM I COVERED FOR THE COST OF REMOVING THE TREE?
Answer: Your trees and shrubs are covered for losses due to risks like vandalism, theft and fire, but not wind damage. However, if a fallen tree blocks access to your home you may be covered for its removal. Decide if you need extra insurance for the trees, plants and shrubs on your property. You may be able to purchase extra insurance, which will not only cover the cost of removing fallen trees, but will also cover the cost of replacing trees, and other plants.
QUESTION # 11: IF A STORM CAUSES A POWER OUTAGE AND ALL THE FOOD IN MY REFRIGERATOR OR FREEZER IS SPOILED AND MUST BE THROWN OUT, CAN I MAKE A CLAIM?
Answer: The general answer is no. However, there are a number of exceptions. In some states, food spoilage is covered under the homeowners policy. In addition, if the power loss is due to a break in a power line on or close to your property, you may be covered. You should check with your agent to find out whether you are covered for food spoilage in your state. If not, you can add food spoilage coverage to your policy for an additional premium.
QUESTION # 12: I HAVE CHILDREN AWAY AT COLLEGE. ARE THEY COVERED BY MY HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE?
Answer: If they’re full-time college students and part of your household, your insurance generally provides some coverage in a dorm, typically 10 percent of the contents limit. If they live off campus, some companies may not provide this limited coverage if the apartment is rented in the student’s name.
QUESTION # 13: MY GOLF CLUBS ARE STOLEN FROM THE TRUNK OF MY CAR. DOES MY HOMEOWNERS POLICY COVER THE LOSS?
Answer: Yes. The HO-3 covers your personal property while it is anywhere in the world. However, if your golf clubs are old, you will only get their current value, which may not be enough to purchase a new set. Consider buying a replacement cost endorsement for your personal property. This way you will get what it costs to replace the golf clubs, less the applicable deductible.
QUESTION # 14: I HAVE A SMALL POWER BOAT. IF IT IS STOLEN, AM I COVERED? WHAT IF THERE IS A BOATING ACCIDENT AND I GET SUED? AM I COVERED FOR THAT?
Answer: Whether or not you are covered for either theft or liability depends on the size of the boat, the horsepower of the engine and your insurance company. Coverage for small boats under homeowners policies varies significantly. Ask your insurance representative whether you need a Boatowners policy.
QUESTION # 15: MY HOUSE IS CLOSE TO THE OCEAN. I’VE HEARD THAT IF IT IS DESTROYED BY THE WIND, THE TOWN'S NEW BUILDING CODE REQUIRES ME TO REBUILD THE HOUSE ON STILTS. THIS WILL ADD $30,000 TO THE COST OF REBUILDING MY HOUSE. AM I COVERED FOR THIS EXTRA COST?
Answer: No. The HO-3 excludes costs caused by ordinances or laws that regulate the construction of buildings. You can purchase an Ordinance or Law endorsement. This will cover the extra costs involved in meeting new building codes.
QUESTION # 16: AM I COVERED FOR “ACTS OF GOD”?
Answer: Sometimes. The term “Acts of God” is not specifically mentioned in homeowners insurance policies. It usually refers to natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes, as opposed to man-made acts, like theft and auto accidents. Some natural disasters, such as damage from windstorms, hail, lightning and volcanic eruptions, are covered under homeowners insurance. Damage from floods and earthquakes is not.
QUESTION # 17: WHAT SHOULD I DO IF MY POLICY PROVIDES LESS COVERAGE THAN THE HO-3?
Answer: Review your coverage with your agent. Some older policies provide less coverage than the HO-3. They may not provide coverage for water damage, theft, or liability. They may also provide coverage for the house on an actual cash value basis, rather than a replacement cost basis.
Actual Cash Value means replacement cost less depreciation. For example, if your roof is destroyed in a storm, the insurance will only pay for the cost of a new roof less the amount of depreciation of the old roof. If your roof was in great shape, this deduction will not be large. However, if the roof was old and worn out, the deduction for depreciation may be significant. You should try to get an HO-3.
For more information, contact your agent or company representative. You can also visit: Insurance Information Institute
This brochure was reviewed by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, USDA. For additional assistance with homeownership questions, contact your County Extension office listed under County Government in your local telephone directory. | <urn:uuid:caa2d69f-4443-4695-9508-ff6f98b18ca0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eliteky.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930916 | 2,524 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Alum, Fans Knock Pebble Out of the Park
You’ve heard of smartphones and Smart Houses—it was only a matter of time before some outfit invented a smart watch.
Pebble Technology is the company, and its lead engineer is 2009 Case Western Reserve computer science graduate Andrew Witte. The official name is the Pebble E-Paper Watch, and the device interfaces with both the iPhone and Android operating systems. That means it plays music, alerts you to incoming calls and emails and much more.
The concept enjoyed a promising start with Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley company that invests and incubates digital start-ups. Among the company’s investors is Case Western Reserve 1998 alumnus and Gmail creator Paul Buchheit.
After failing to attract a critical mass of funding, though, Pebble turned to Kickstarter, an online platform where individuals can post ideas and solicit support. They hoped to raise $100,000; they ended up with more than $10 million.
“We’re still trying to learn exactly what made it so popular,” Witte laughs. “In all seriousness, though, we are the first smart watch that works with the iPhone out of the box.”
Cyclists can access the GPS to display distance and speed; runners can use the music app to play, pause or skip songs from their phone, all through their wristwatch. In addition, third-party software developers can write apps that run on Pebble—making potential functionalities limitless.
The team expects to ship its 85,000 pre-ordered Pebbles by this fall. | <urn:uuid:ef4a035f-8dae-43d0-a602-f15bcfc79eb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://case.edu/magazine/fallwinter2012/byte/pebble.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945022 | 329 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Why can't parent volunteers travel in school bus?
While many schools are citing an obscure RTO rule to say parent volunteers in school buses in not a feasible option, RTO authorities deny the existence of any such law. However, they add that essentially a school bus is for children and adults beyond a certain number are not welcome. So where does that leave parents who want to ensure their children are not targets of pedophiles and perverts while traveling in the school bus?
Do the Regional Transport Authority rules really forbid parents of pre-school children from travelling in school buses by rotation to ensure the safety of their little ones? Or are schools simply unwilling to risk exposing themselves by letting parents board school buses and see how children are transported to and from school?
Less than three weeks after a three-year-old girl of a prestigious Juhu school was molested inside her own school bus by the bus cleaner, parents across the city say they still do not have a clear answer to their main demand: that they be allowed to take turns and travel in the buses to make sure no one dares to molest the children.
Several schools have shot down the proposal citing an RTO rule while others have asked parents to pay up additional bus fees if they want to travel in the bus.
Parents of Podar Jumbo Kids, for instance, received a circular issued by the school last week, informing them of several commendable steps the school was taking in this regard, but shooting down the suggestion about one parent volunteer per school bus.
The minutes of the bus committee meeting of January 30, 2013 at Podar Jumbo Kids, notes: “As per RTO rules, parents or any adult will not be allowed to board the registered school bus. If found on board, a fine will be charged, and hence parent volunteers in the bus is not a feasible solution. But if such volunteers are appointed by the school, the RTO could allow one of them to travel in a bus as a special case only for surprise/random checks from time to time.”
The statement follows a meeting between school authorities, RTO representatives and parents at Podar.
What the RTO said
But when Sunday MiD DAY contacted the Regional Transport Office (RTO), senior officials denied the existence of such a rule. Speaking to SMD, the Deputy RTO said, “The act is silent on whether parents should be allowed to travel in a school bus. In effect there is nothing that expressly prevents parents from travelling in a school bus with their kids. But on the other hand the law does mention that the school bus is exclusively meant for students apart from the bus conductor, lady attendant and bus driver.”
This ambiguity in the law, feel parents, is what many schools are using, to keep them from forming voluntary groups and travel in the bus.
When contacted, Swati Popat Vats, President of Podar Education Network and Director, Podar Jumbo Kids said, “This point was raised by parents. But when many of them (parents) wanted to travel in the school bus, we said it was not possible. The RTO permit is given to a school bus for ferrying children and more than a certain number of adults are not allowed. However, we are happy if parents form a volunteer group. We can empower them to conduct surprise checks.”
She added that she would re-check with the RTO about the rules. “Safety of our children will always remain our top priority,” she said.
Of course Podar is not the only school where such confusion reigns. Many others are still contemplating whether parents should be allowed in the school bus.
A senior staff member from Jamnabai Narsee School, pleading anonymity, said, “Our PTA (Parent Teacher Association) and the management are in talks on this issue. We already have lady marshals in all our buses after the recent incidents shook all of us.”
M P Sharma, director, GD Somani School at Cuffe Parade, said, “Parents have not made any such suggestions so far. But in any case such a step is simply not feasible. We cannot allow a parent to travel in a school bus.”
Raj Aloni, principal of Ramsheth Thakur Public School, (CBSE), Kharghar, said, “We already have at least one female teacher travelling in all school buses along with a lady attendant.”
Prashant Chavan, parent of a three-year-old who goes to a suburban school, said, “I think all schools should allow the PTA to appoint a few volunteers who would keep check on all bus routes by rotation.”
With schools now making parents sign forms that mention they are putting their children in school buses knowing that the buses are run by private contractors and the school has only limited responsibility, parents say they are clueless as to how to protect their children. | <urn:uuid:f921a924-2a36-4af2-bc37-67b33f64b548> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mid-day.com/news/2013/feb/100213-rto-parent-volunteers-school-bus.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976931 | 1,025 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The proverb "No man is a prophet in his own land" perfectly fits the Fiat 500L small minivan, which has its North American debut today at the Los Angeles auto show.
The 500L is built in Serbia in a factory that once produced Yugo cars. Only 1 percent of the production will be sold in the Balkan country. The rest will go to other parts of Europe and to global markets including the United States.
I don't know of any other vehicle where 99 percent of its production is exported.
That number is unlikely to change. In Serbia, only members of the small middle class will be able to afford the 500L's starting price of 13,550 euros. Fiat sells an old-generation Punto subcompact starting at 5,600 euros in Serbia but attracts only a couple of hundred customers a month because the local market collapsed from an almost 50,000 unit peak in 2007 to little more than 20,000 units expected this year.
The 500L production plant in Kragujevac, 130km from the capital Belgrade, is totally different than the factory that once built low-quality Yugo cars, thanks to a 1 billion investment that has improved the plant in the same way that Fiat transformed its Pomigliano, Italy, plant for the new Panda and Chrysler's factory in Belvidere, Illinois, for the Dodge Dart.
Fiat plans to build about 28,000 units of the 500L this year and 140,000 next year, of which 40,000 will be exported to the United States. Production of the European version began in July and the U.S. variant will follow in February.
But like the prophet shunned in his own country, the 500L will be a lonely sight on Serbia's roads, except on the trucks and trains that transport the vehicle to the sea for export. | <urn:uuid:c0f21501-d772-4406-91d2-bdd9624cd484> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autonews.com/article/20121128/BLOG06/311289838&template=printart | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951078 | 379 | 1.5625 | 2 |
After a relatively mild winter, spring has sprung it seems. We’re in that slippery sloshy season where abundant rains hopefully bring bountiful mushrooms and plentiful prey for wildlife. The warmth has already brought out the frogs, turtles and snakes, some of which I got to see on a recent trip to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. I got to see one of those curious legless lizards, the Western Slender Glass Lizard which I assumed was a small fast snake at first, and a large common snapper just beneath the shallow water of the Great Marsh at Indiana Dunes. This snapper was large enough to push some floating logs out of its way, which was how I saw it in the first place.
Today’s painting is of the turtle variety. At Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, part of Gateway National Recreation Area in Queens, NY, I got to assist Dr. Russ Burke, professor at Hofstra University, with his turtle research in the West Pond one day with Biological Science Technician and turtle researcher Kayleigh Erazmus. There were two turtles caught in one hoop trap: a huge 30-year old common snapper turtle and a small diamondback terrapin. Imagine the bewilderment of being confined in such a small space with each other. But they were retrieved quickly, separated (with some struggle) and duly measured, weighed and tagged. The Eastern Box Turtle is also another turtle that lives at the wildlife refuge. Seldom seen, it is quite a treat to encounter one. Their ornate yellow pattern stands out against the scrubby vegetation of the upland areas where it tends to live. Still, these three turtles, as well as other kinds, exist on the protected land of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, an oasis in the metropolis that is New York City.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged common snapper, diamondback terrapin, eastern box turtle, Gateway National Recreation Area, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, spring | Leave a Comment »
On top of loving wildlife, mushrooms, nature, being outside, illustration, art and wooly mammoths, I LOVE music. I love playing it (in my rather limited ways), listening to it and learning about it. And one of the things I love most is WFMU radio. If you’ve never tuned in, you’ve got to give it a shot. Listen on the radio (91.1 fm in New York, at 90.1 fm in the Hudson Valley, USA) or listen to it online from around the world at www.wfmu.org.
Lemme tell you something. I’ve lived in 4 major cities in the last 4 years spanning 2 countries, across one ocean, including 2 islands and places cross- and mid-continent. It’s thrilling yet exhausting, each time finding a new place to live, new job, new friends, new communities, new geography, and new flora and fauna. Besides my husband to make each new home feel like home, there’s also WFMU. “A radio station makes you feel that way?! Really, are you serious??” you might say. From wherever I am, I tune in and it’s like plugging into a live pulsing heart of music love. And yet it’s not familiarity and nostalgia that makes me feel this way. Sometimes the music is jarring, irritating and absurd, and most of the time it’s unfamiliar to me. But I hear and learn amazing things on WFMU, I love the DJs and it has made me laugh so hard I’ve cried. And that’s what’s so GREAT about it.
There are other wonderful things about WFMU too, besides the music. But that is for another post. In the meantime, WFMU needs our support. Pledge to the marathon and keep independent listener-supported freeform radio ALIVE. Thank you for your support!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged freeform radio, independent radio, WFMU, WFMU marathon | Leave a Comment »
For the New Yorker’s annual Eustace Tilley bookbag design contest, I dressed up a silkscreen of a garter snake I did a few months ago with items around the apartment: fleece, corduroy and paper scraps, buttons, a key ring, a necklace, and cellophane from an envelope. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Have you ever tried to make a suit and top hat for a snake? It’s a silly endeavor, I tell ya. But here it is, Eussssssssstace Tilley!
Contest ends January 18, 2012 so get yours in quick!
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
I’ve long wanted to make a wooly mammoth costume. I had the chance this past Halloween. It was a blast and it’s not just for Halloween, y’know. Keep your eyes peeled for a wooly mammoth loping across your horizon. You never know where I’ll turn up.
I dance too. Click the images to view. Dance along. Wooly mammoth jazzercize!
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
A place to put my GIFs. You don’t mind do you? Click the box below to see it. You may then hafta click the box again to see it. Making GIFs is my new hobby.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment » | <urn:uuid:7074a5c9-a06a-4270-bd3a-5b4cf4d00b79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://letsdeliquesce.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932076 | 1,164 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Clashes between Copts and Muslims usually are sparked by disputes over rumors of conversion, Muslim-Christian love affairs and the construction of churches. Violence between Egypt's Christians and Muslims has risen in the past two years in the wake of the country's uprising that ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak, but also weakened security across the nation.
Officials said 11 policemen were wounded in the clashes in the town of Kom Ombo, which is near Aswan High Dam, about 980 kilometers (608 miles) south of Cairo. Coptic Christian activist Ibrahim Louis said 12 Christians also were wounded, including one man who was in serious condition.
The fighting erupted late Thursday night when hundreds of Muslim residents tried to get inside the church. Police used tear gas to keep the crowd from storming the church as some of the residents burnt tires along a major highway and cut off traffic. The clashes erupted again Friday afternoon when dozens of residents again threw firebombs and rocks at police. In anticipation of renewed clashes, police had set up checkpoints and increased their presence around the church.
Tensions rose after a 36 year-old Muslim woman, who has been missing for five days, was allegedly seen outside
Egypt's Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the country's 85 million people, have long complained of discrimination by the state. They are the largest Christian community in the Middle East. | <urn:uuid:0033da25-6dc9-4725-a67d-9134b1a8adb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.times-standard.com/nationandworldnews/ci_22695681/christian-muslim-tension-flares-southern-egypt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975434 | 279 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Viewing post #11108 by valleylynn
|Carol, thank you. What types of orchids do well with this method?
Pictures would be great for me. Please let me know when you get the tutorial up and running, I will definitely be there. I have mostly phalaenopsis and then two that I don't know what they are. I need all the help I can get.
« Return to the thread "How do I grow an orchid on a piece of wood?"
« Return to EpiphyticGrowing forum
« Return to the Epiphytes cubit homepage | <urn:uuid:e23904a7-c8e5-4c45-a221-a63590515f9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cubits.org/Epis/thread/view_post/11108/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937628 | 127 | 1.65625 | 2 |
How it Works
When people are sick, they must make critical decisions about when and where they should receive healthcare. Unfortunately, most people lack the medical knowledge needed to make these decisions safely.
FreeMD.com is powered by a computer program that performs symptom triage. The goal of symptom triage is to decide when, and where, you should seek care when you have symptoms. Symptom triage does not replace a physician evaluation or make a diagnosis.
The FreeMD symptom triage program is 100% written, and maintained, by board-certified emergency medicine physicians at DSHI Systems. Over the past 12 years, healthcare professionals in the U.S. government and major managed care organizations have used the program extensively, proving its effectiveness. FreeMD.com improves medical outcomes by helping consumers determine the most appropriate time and place to receive care from a healthcare professional.
With so many options for care today, it's becoming more important for you to know where you should get care when you develop symptoms. Choices include:
- Emergency Room
- Urgent Care Center
- Physician Office
- Physician eVisit (via the web, e-mail, or phone)
- Dentist Office
- Nurse Retail Clinic
Your choice on where to get care is important because not all of these locations are equipped to treat all health problems. If you make the wrong choice, you risk delaying your diagnosis and treatment. A wrong choice could also lead you to over-pay for the same care you could have received in a less expensive setting. FreeMD.com was created to safely direct you to the right location: where you get the care you need, without paying more than you need to.
FreeMD.com performs a medical interview, just like a real doctor. During the interview, you answer questions about your symptoms and past medical history. FreeMD is designed to be fast (average encounter time is less than 2 minutes), so you get help fast! At the end of the process, FreeMD.com generates a report that provides the following information:
- What might be causing your symptoms?
- When should you see a doctor?
- Where should you seek care?
- What kind of doctor should you see?
- What should you do to care for yourself? | <urn:uuid:ad54e1c1-a533-4b5d-b003-eb0538fc70f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freemd.com/urinary-incontinence/visit-virtual-doctor.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955626 | 470 | 1.734375 | 2 |
One of the best and most trusted methods of earning money online is to set up an email newsletter and charge a subscription fee for it. Of course, before you can actually get people to pay for your newsletter, you need to make sure that it is really good and that it is worth paying for. There are a lot of things that go into the creation of a successful and profitable newsletter. It's easy to get confused and frustrated, particularly when you are brand new to this sort of work. Here are some tips to help you figure out what's what.
Figure out ahead of time if you are going to be selling advertising for your newsletter. Selling ad space within your newsletter can be a great way to increase the income that you are going to be earning with your newsletter. If you think selling ads is a good idea, decide what kind of ads you want to sell. The easiest kinds of ads to run in an email newsletter are text based ads. If you have an HTML newsletter, though, you can use graphics as well (which fetch more money). You might even consider taking on paid reviews and sponsored content. Do a little bit of homework to figure out what kind of advertising will work best for you and for your readers.
Offer a hard copy of your newsletter for an additional fee. There are third party services that will allow you to offer this service. It is definitely worth your interest to use one of them. When you are first getting started and just have a few people who want you to send the newsletter to them through the mail, it's easy to do everything yourself. As you work and increase your subscriber base, though, you won't be able to do all of the work by yourself. You are going to need help. To save you time and effort, choose a service that will manage both your online newsletter as well as the mailing of hard copies to those who want them. And don't forget to increase the subscription price to cover the cost of postage!
Subscribe to a lot of newsletters. The best way to figure out what you want to do with your own online newsletter is to read the newsletters sent out by other people. You can see what you like about their newsletters and what you don't like. Then, apply these evaluations to the work you are doing on the newsletter that you are creating. It's just like with everything else: learn by studying those who are already successful.
Creating your own successful newsletter takes time and effort. In the end, though, it is absolutely worth it. If your newsletter becomes successful enough, you could use it to build a full time income for yourself! The tips and hints we have shared with you here should help you start to build the foundation for a very successful newsletter publishing career. | <urn:uuid:de923fc0-95c9-438d-80e8-e93646a0ec57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://expertscolumn.com/content/creating-your-own-successful-online-newsletter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975088 | 556 | 1.820313 | 2 |
A handful of individuals ran a scheme of "fraudulent lending and embezzlement" to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars of ordinary people's savings out of Kabul Bank, a key Afghan lender that ran into trouble in 2010, an independent report says.
The report, released Wednesday, catalogs the alleged wrongdoing at the bank and the apparent failure of authorities to tackle the problems before they reached a crisis point or effectively respond to and investigate the financial catastrophe that unfolded.
The scandal that engulfed Kabul Bank has severely damaged the reputation of the Western approach to banking that it embodied in Afghanistan, one of the least developed countries in the world. And its cost will be born by an Afghan government that still relies on funding from the United States and other countries.
The bank was meant to provide a transparent way for Afghan government employees -- soldiers, teachers and police officers -- to receive and retain their salaries without the age-old fear of corrupt superiors confiscating the money.
Instead, the crisis at the bank, which went into receivership last year, "led to a loss of confidence in an already fragile financial system," according to the report by the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee.
The committee, made up of three Afghan citizens and three overseas members, states that it is "wholly independent from the Afghanistan government and the international community." It is led by Drago Kos, a Slovenian who has headed a number of international anti-corruption organizations.
Although the sums of money involved are small compared with the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the war in Afghanistan by the United States and its allies, Kos on Wednesday underlined the significance of the bank to the small, underdeveloped Afghan economy.
"At the time the crisis happened, Kabul Bank had 44% of the assets of this country," he said at a news conference presenting the committee's report in Kabul. "More than 1 million people had deposited their money in this bank."
The alleged fraud -- which has been linked to people with ties to the government of President Hamid Karzai, including one of his brothers -- led to Kabul Bank being deprived of more than $850 million, mainly from customer deposits, according to the report.
"Most of this money," the report says, "has been redirected for the benefit of a few individuals who perpetrated and participated in a fraud with reckless disregard for the country and the people of Afghanistan."
Many of those who have been accused of participating and even profiting from the bank's difficulties have denied any wrongdoing. The committee report, which says it "cannot make criminal findings or assign liability," doesn't name people specifically, but identities can be deduced from it.
A spokesman for the Afghan president wasn't immediately available for comment on the report Wednesday.
His brother who has been linked to the bank's problems, Mahmood Karzai, said he repaid the $4.2 million he borrowed from the bank with interest.
"When they say I am a beneficiary of this money, is there something else?" he said by telephone. "I do not understand the accusation. This Kabul Bank issue is completely political. Management was full of improprieties and fraud."
He said he had alerted the government to problems at the bank.
The report details the complex system through which it says the individuals -- "controlling shareholders, key supervisors and managers" of Kabul Bank -- drew the cash out of the lender.
Methods cited include loan accounts for proxy borrowers, forged documents, fake business stamps and cash ferried on the planes of an airline owned by shareholders related to the bank.
"Repayment of loans was rare," the report said, "and most often new loans were created to provide the appearance of repayment."
As a result, more than 92% of the bank's loan book, or $861 million, ended up being for the benefit of 19 related individuals and businesses that ultimately benefited just 12 individuals, the report said. That left the remaining $74 million for "legitimate customers."
The bank was operating in a "regulatory vacuum," the reports authors said, with the Afghan central bank lacking manpower and expertise in fraud detection.
Even when warning signs were detected in Kabul Bank's activities, "several efforts to take enforcement action against the bank were met with interference and were not implemented," the report said.
The problems at the bank became public in 2010. The removal of the chairman and chief executive in August prompted panic, including a run on the bank and unrest in the streets.
"Kabul Bank had become a national crisis and the Afghan economy was brought to the brink of collapse," the report says.
The government was forced to guarantee all deposits. That, combined with the closure of the bank during an Islamic holiday, averted a wider catastrophe. The bank was put into conservatorship, and shareholder rights were suspended.
Kos said Wednesday that rescuing the bank will cost Afghanistan and its people 5% to 6% of gross domestic product. | <urn:uuid:124413d9-75b3-4dda-824d-2dc38256353e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Report-Bank-fraud-hits-ordinary-Afghans/-/1637132/17574318/-/ptkbls/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97717 | 1,018 | 1.804688 | 2 |
In this file photo taken Oct. 7, 2010, central Illinois farmer Bob Hogan climbs back into his combine while harvesting soybeans in Pawnee, Ill.
Since the U.S. economy began a weak recovery in June 2009, most economists and government policymakers have maintained that inflation is well-contained.
John Rohlfs, president of Connecticut Plastics, isn't so sure.
Business at his Wallingford, Conn.-based company is booming. The company recently hired new workers and bought new equipment to keep up with growing orders for custom-made plastic parts used in everything from oil rigs to medical equipment.
But while his orders are rising, so is the cost of raw materials. Increased demand and higher oil prices have driven plastics prices higher across the board. For the most part, Rolffs has been holding the line on passing along those higher costs to his customers.
“We are for the time being,” he said, “But I don’t think it’ll last. There’s just a lag factor.”
After an extended period of tame inflation, relentless increases in commodity costs are beginning to filter through the inflation pipeline, and they could be headed to a store near you.
On Thursday, the Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent in January. Most of the gains were due to higher food and energy price, but the so-called “core” index excluding those items rose by 0.2 percent. That was the largest gain since October 2009.
The report followed data released Wednesday that showed, following months of rising prices for oil, cotton, corn, wheat and other commodities, that wholesale prices last month rose at the fastest pace in more than two years.
"U.S. inflation isn't home-made; it's being driven by rising world commodity prices, in turn driven by rapid growth in emerging markets,” said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight. “But we're now seeing that some U.S. producers feel that their markets are strong enough that they can pass on some of these costs to the final purchaser."
Since the end of the worst recession in at least a quarter-century, businesses have used a variety of tactics to avoid raising product prices, even as higher material costs have eaten into profit margins. As commodity costs continue to rise, something has to give.
“We have a certain margin that we want to make for each order,” said Rohlfs. “If we didn’t make it, next time the customer calls and wants to reorder, we try to make an adjustment. For instance, in the case of Teflon we're going to be passing part of our higher cost along. We’ve already talked to some of our customers that are big users of it. They don’t like it, of course.”
Teflon is DuPont'd brand name for the fluoropolymer polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). A spokeswoman for DuPont said the company has had to raise its PTFE prices because of rising costs for a number of raw materials, including fluorspar, a mineral in strong demand for a variety of industrial applications.
As the global economy surges ahead, production of such commodities hasn’t kept pace with demand. With supplies tight, materials producers are getting top dollar.
Consider the plight of California-based Kelly-Moore, which makes and sells paint through a network of some 160 retail outlets in 13 mostly Western states. Higher oil prices have driven up the price of the acrylic base used to make paint, along with the mineral titanium dioxide, the key ingredient in pigment.
With supplies tight and only four major titanium oxide producers worldwide, paint makers aren’t a very good bargaining position, according to Todd Wirdzek, Kelly-Moore’s vice president of product development.
“If you push back too hard on your supplier, they’re more than happy to take it somewhere else because they’ve got somebody else that needs it,” he said. “There's less and less power in our hands.”
Titanium dioxide producers have announced price increases almost monthly since the recession ended, squeezing the paint company's profit margins. Kelly-Moore and its competitors have had to pass their rising costs along to customers
“Those increases have been coming more frequently,” said Wirdzek. “In the past we might do one a year or two a year. But now from the big national companies were seeing almost monthly increases.”
Tame labor costs
The profit squeeze brought by higher commodity prices has been tempered somewhat by tame labor costs, which have barely budged since the recession ended. The average employee cost per hour, according to the Labor Department, has risen by less than 1 percent since the recession began in December 2007.
Labor costs are generally expected to remain flat while unemployment remains high; as long as there is a surplus of workers for available jobs, workers will have a tough time getting raises. That’s a big reason that many economists and policymakers at the Federal Reserve see relatively little risk of higher inflation taking hold.
“It's too early to panic about inflation based on one month's figures,” said Gault. “The question is whether we are seeing a limited pass-through of commodity price hikes or the beginnings of an inflationary spiral. Wages will be the thing to watch — there won't be an inflationary spiral unless wage inflation picks up."
The Fed’s relatively benign inflation outlook, until recently, appeared to have been confirmed by the so-called “core” price index that excludes volatile food and energy prices, which have been soaring. Central bankers typically watch the core reading more closely on the theory that volatile food and energy prices don’t best represent long-term inflation trends.
As companies begin passing along higher costs, the risk is that commodity inflation becomes embedded in all prices, boosting the core inflation rate.
"The Fed's contention has been that, although inflation has been seen overseas, it's not yet impacted the U.S.," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at BNY Mellon in New York.
"More to the point, the Fed is not going to be concerned until it spills over into the core reading," he said. "What we see from (this week's data) is that it has indeed spilled into the core and could force the Fed to rethink its outlook for the remainder of the year."
Persistent core inflation has another spillover effect on the expectations of companies and consumers that further price rises are inevitable. The Fed’s current policy relies heavily on the belief that inflation expectations are low.
But with no sign of a let-up in raw material prices, inflation expectations may be changing.
“Price increases generally send people shopping, and we’re no exception,” said Rohlfs. “We may shop around a little bit a see if we can buy materials from someone else a little cheaper. You may find someone temporarily selling it lower. But the increase will be coming.” | <urn:uuid:3628d9f8-7dfa-4f72-bf64-c9651605f954> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/business/Growing_economy_brings_higher_prices-116403294.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967105 | 1,497 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Governments should take the agency’s warning seriously
The seasonal rainfall prediction by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency that heavier rains should be expected in 12 of the 36 states of the federation this year is scary. In recent years, heavy rains in parts of the country have left behind deaths, sorrow, tears and devastation. Many have had their homes and means of livelihood destroyed. Last year, floods sacked whole villages and left hundreds dead in about 27 states, leading to empanelling of a presidential committee to combat the after-effects.
Early warning that NIMET’s prediction should not be dismissed came with the first rains in Ibadan and Owo in the South West. On February 18, an all-night rain in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, made the people panicky and called the attention of the state and local governments to the immediate task at hand. The storm that accompanied the downpour fell only a little short of that which trailed the 2012 ceaseless downpour.
The sad tales have now become familiar to the people of the ancient city. In the Second Republic, the angry flood and storms that accompanied a similar heavy rain pushed River Ogunpa beyond its shores and washed away homes and took whole families. Both the federal and state governments immediately promised to re-channel the river and save the people a repeat occurrence. Successive governments failed to keep the promise. Thus, in 2010, 2011 and 2012, it was the lot of the people to be left at the mercy of natural elements whenever heavy rains caused floods to sweep through Ibadan city.
Indeed, the 2011 flood was an eye-opener that things could go worse. The University of Ibadan was jolted as property worth more than 10 billion Naira were said to have been destroyed or swept away. In 2012, the community around The Polytechnic, Ibadan, and Apete village where majority of the students of the institution reside had an experience they may not forget in many years. The village linking the ever-expanding Apete to Ibadan main city was washed away. Economic activities in many parts of the city were disrupted for days.
The Governor Ajimobi administration’s methodical efforts wll hopefully, when mature, ease the burdens.
In Owo, a major town in Ondo State, the first rain of the year on January 26 left many with sad tales to tell. About 200 homes were reported to have been badly damaged with occupants turned to refugees. Landmark institutions like Imade College, the General Hospital and stadium also succumbed to the fury of the flood.
While both the Oyo and Ondo states’ governments have swung into action to check any recurrence, it is obvious that token attention may be inadequate to combat the perennial menace. It is an indication that agencies of government saddled with the task of ensuring that houses conform to standards, rules and laws have failed in their responsibilities over the years. Moreover, climate change is real and all governments in the world have realised that it could no longer be business as usual. Town planning rules are laid down for the benefit of the people and those who fail to conform to standards must not be allowed to endanger the lives of others.
The NIMET prediction that there could be a repeat of the flood disaster of recent years in 12 states in the North West, North Central and South West is therefore a call to duty. While the governments at all levels should take the blame for the devastation and must take the lead in arresting the trend, corporate institutions, research institutes, foundations and wealthy individuals do not have to wait for disaster before they team up to prevent further tragedies arising from heavy rains.
In years past, rains were regarded as soothing and harbingers of good harvest. Today, because of the gross irresponsibility of man, what nature provided to guarantee food security has compounded the insecurity of Nigerians. | <urn:uuid:f230e663-9c4d-419c-b3d4-4a4e49f2fb8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenationonlineng.net/new/editorial/nimets-alert/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968987 | 802 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Brenda Combs’ life is drastically different now compared to what it was like years ago. She went from being homeless with a drug addiction to earning college and master’s degrees. Combs then went on to create and run a foundation that helps the homeless.
Combs grew up in a middle-class family in Northern Arizona. She started hanging out with a bad crowd and eventually dropped out of high school. That’s when her life changed for the worse: she started doing drugs and became homeless. While living on the streets she was beaten, shot and raped.
Her rock bottom came when someone stole her shoes. It was walking barefoot under the Arizona sun that helped her decide to turn her life around.
Combs went into rehab to overcome her drug addiction and eventually moved into a halfway house. From there, Combs furiously pursued a mission to undo her past transgressions. She graduated from college and earned a master’s degree, and was also granted a full scholarship for a Ph.D. in education from Grand Canyon University. She simultaneously held down three jobs while raising her son, including teaching at a school near her childhood neighborhood.
While improving her life, Combs never forgot her time as a homeless woman. After using her own funds to distribute hygiene packs and cards with information on social services to the homeless, Combs founded Finding My Shoes, a non-profit aimed at helping those in need.
Brenda Combs is making history as … a living example of someone who turned her life around and is using her experience to help others. Through Finding My Shoes, Combs and her husband have opened two sober living residential homes to help those struggling with addiction. Her work has been nationally recognized on NBC’s The Today Show and on CNN. First lady Laura Bush also personally congratulated Combs for earning her master’s degree.
What’s next for Brenda?
Combs continues to run her foundation and gives motivational talks all over the country as Grand Canyon University’s Ambassador of Inspiration and Achievement.
A little-known fact about homelessness …
“Homeless people often face insurmountable barriers to obtaining health care, including addictive disorder treatment services and recovery supports,” according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.
For more information about Finding My Shoes, THE”>click here GRIO’S Q & A TIME WITH BRENDA COMBS
Q: What’s next for you in this chapter of your life?
A: I want to share my dissertation research on overcoming homelessness with society on a global scale. Our strategy is to eradicate homelessness in the U.S. first. America sets the stage for the rest of the world, and conquering this issue domestically will encourage the world’s audience to take notice. On that journey, I would like to expand the Finding My Shoes foundation and Making Things Better Sober Living residences to assist individuals and families who are in need.
Q: What’s a fact about you that many people don’t know?
A: My days of living on the streets and sleeping outside in darkness have left an impression in many ways. For one thing, I am driven to succeed because I never want to be homeless again. I’m scared of going back to the streets, so I work all of the time to ensure that my family and I are never in that situation again. And one thing still lingers from my homeless days — I am slightly afraid of the dark.
Q: What’s your favorite quote?
A: “Make the right choice and do the right thing, even when no one is watching.”
Q: Where do you get your inspiration from?
A: My son, Mycole, is the love of my life. He sees the good in everything and everybody. He always wants to help and provide for others. He inspires me to want to give more, do more and be more. I am also motivated by the homeless communities. I feel that it is my duty to make their lives better, and as long as people are homeless, I need to do more to ensure that homelessness ends in America.
Q: Who are/were your mentors?
A: My parents are my mentors. They taught me to love others, trust in God, believe in myself, and to always treat others with love and respect. I am a firm believer in following the golden rule and never expecting anything in return from others.
Q: What advice would you give to anyone who wants to achieve their dreams?
A: I encourage people to begin by first looking at themselves in the mirror and seeing who they are. Start by telling themselves that they are intelligent and capable of achieving greatness. They have to actually say the words:
“I believe in myself and my ability to do my best. I am intelligent and I am capable of achieving greatness. I can learn, I will learn, I must learn. Today I will think, I will listen and I will reason. Today I will make the best choices, and my life will be a reflection of those choices. Today I will read, I will write, and I will learn to work with love, and value others. I won’t give up when to give up would be easier, because I am too smart to waste today and life is too precious to do it any other way. So for today, I will make the right choice and do the right thing, even when no one is watching.” | <urn:uuid:f6439eb0-056b-42c0-b8f2-de4e840f67b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thegrio.com/2012/01/01/2012-brenda-combs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967169 | 1,138 | 1.78125 | 2 |
In between July 20th and July 23rd, 2006, another annual Colours of Ostrava music festival took place. This cultural event is attended by thousands of people every year and Falun Gong practitioners have used this opportunity before to inform the festival‘s visitors about cruel crimes against humanity carried out by the Chinese Communist Party in its own country. People were also provided detailed information about the persecution of Falun Gong, which has lasted for seven years, and also about the cases of organ harvesting from unwilling practitioners who are held in Chinese prisons (organs being later sold for transplants.)
Many words of support for Falun Gong were uttered by the people:
"It is a good thing you people are doing. Good luck!", "I believe the persecution will soon be over, these terrible things must come to an end.", "Human life is most precious, everyone should be aware of it and no one should treat people the way Chinese Communist Party treats their own folks.“, "You must be joking?! This is happening now? Where can I put my signature?"
Several children came by to ask for leaflets and petitions so that they could distribute them to their friends and relatives and tell people about the persecution. In this beautiful way they supported our activities.
To remember this event people were given colourful bookmarks with Chinese signs of Zhen, Shan and Ren (Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance).
We would like to thank everyone who came to support us with their words of encouragement and their signatures.
You are welcome to print and circulate all articles published on Clearharmony and their content, but please quote the source. | <urn:uuid:ff9e0564-1738-4df3-ad23-a39bac85c7c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.clearharmony.net/articles/Czech_Republic_Falun_Gong_Practitioners_Introduce_Falun_Dafa_at_the_amp39Colours_of_Ostravaamp39_Music_Festival-a34761.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979977 | 334 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for holding today’s hearing. Given the Helsinki Commission’s long-standing work on Balkan issues, going back to the years of conflict and ethnic cleansing in the 1990s, it is essential that we have this public forum to focus on the region at this critical time.
As I look back at my own, recent experiences in the region, I often think of the playful Romani children I encountered in Kosovo, who were living in very poor and unhealthy camps for displaced persons in the north. I also think of the elderly voter being assisted at the polling station by her grandson in Albania, a woman who had seen a lot happen I her country over the decades. Because I was in Albania observing elections, I was not in Sarajevo last year, but I did hear the reports of other members of this Commission regarding their lunch with university students who no longer wished to be limited by an ethnic label when they, as individuals, are defined by so much more.
As we discuss U.S. policy toward the region with the State Department today, I believe we must be mindful of the fact that our primary goal should be to give the people of the region a better life and to give their children a brighter future. It is, of course, ultimately the responsibility of their elected leaders to take the actions necessary to make these things happen, but we can and should play a role in making sure that citizens have the means to hold their politicians accountable, including not only good electoral practices but also a free media and active civil society. I think our democracy-building assistance – through OSCE field missions or through the efforts of the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and others – has helped tremendously in this regard. I also believe that increased travel which EU visa liberalization will make possible can also make the average citizen more aware of what opportunities and benefits they can have if they do make their politicians more accountable to them.
In addition to these efforts of direct benefit to the people, there are some broader goals we should be highlighting.
First, we must make renewed conflict in the Balkans an inconceivable possibility, not only with as robust an international presence as is necessary but also by taking on anybody who foments ethnic tensions or threatens to change borders unilaterally.
Second, we must confirm that the future of the region is clearly in Europe. The doors of both NATO and the EU should be clearly open to them; the only questions should be their actual preparedness and their own choice as a sovereign state.
Third, we must combat the organized crime and official corruption which pervades the Western Balkans and saps the economies of the region of their ability to become more competitive and attractive to investment. They also work in tandem to make trafficking in persons, a subject of great concern to this Commission over the years, a continuing problem.
Finally, we must make sure that we and our European partners understand that our policies to affect lives in the Balkans, and this is not a place to experiment, to coordinate for the sake of coordination, or to play other diplomatic games. I do not want active U.S. engagement to legitimize the European Union’s approach to the Balkans if it does not also make the EU approach more substantive and more constructive in the process.
I look forward to hearing the comments of Deputy Assistant Secretary Tom Countryman, whom I believe has interacted with the Helsinki Commission previously I his career and whom we hold in high regard as a result of that interaction. | <urn:uuid:a9ba00e6-c025-430f-a33d-f0a1b1a37f22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewWitness&ContentRecord_id=1287&ContentType=D&ContentRecordType=D&ParentType=H&CFID=1074948&CFTOKEN=71209457 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973235 | 715 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Operational Changes Took Effect on May 1
The Lighthouse Visitor Center is now only open Fridays through Mondays. The Kenneth C. Patrick Visitor Center will be closed through late December 2013. More »
2013 Harbor Seal Pupping Season Closures
From March 1 through June 30, the park implements closures of certain Tomales Bay beaches and Drakes Estero to water-based recreation to protect harbor seals during the pupping season. Please avoid disturbing seals to ensure a successful pupping season. More »
Boat Rescue at Point Reyes National Seashore on August 3, 2003
Contact: John A. Dell’Osso, 415-464-5135
On August 3, 2003 at 8:00 am, a fisherman reported a boat in distress that had run aground on Driftwood Beach in the wilderness area of Point Reyes National Seashore. National Park Rangers responded and found five individuals and their boat had made it ashore in a rugged section of Tomales Point. The outer coast of Tomales Bay is considered extremely dangerous because of heavy surf, rip tides and extremely cold water.
The boat operator Linh Dang reported that his boat experienced mechanical difficulties while he was fishing near the shoreline in his 19-foot power boat. After receiving assistance from park rangers, four of the individuals were able to hike out to McClures Beach. One individual unable to make the steep climb out from the beach area was evacuated via a Coast Guard helicopter. Rangers had been standing by to perform a technical rock rescue evacuation if necessary.
The salvage company, Parker Dive, was able to refloat the vessel at high tide and tow the boat to Drakes Bay where it was removed by the owner.
Did You Know?
Elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris)are the largest pinniped with males reaching a maximum of about 5,000 lbs. Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) are much smaller with both males and females reaching a maximum weight of around 250 lbs. More... | <urn:uuid:526466eb-f95b-41a9-8738-8f6ee58746d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nps.gov/pore/parknews/newsreleases_20030804_boatrescue.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953329 | 415 | 1.539063 | 2 |
God creates every child with unique gifts and abilities. One of the joys our church partners have is identifying and nurturing the talent in the children we work with.
Eleven-year-old Marclif is a talented singer from Wori Village in Manado, North Sulawesi. Even at an early age, he was able to sing. His love of music started from listening to his mother’s lullaby every night before he went to bed.
Singing is in the soul of this boy, who is commonly called Nyopon. It seems that he cannot go through one day without music and singing. Nyopon never attended any music course; he learned by himself. Growing up in a Christian family, Nyopon has been taught to show his gratitude to God by singing praises in Sunday services.
Born into a fisherman’s family, Nyopon knows the struggles that his family faces to meet their basic daily needs. His father received a boat, net and machine from the social department, all of which have helped him to catch fish, but these provisions do not guarantee that Nyopon’s father is always able to fulfill his family’s needs. Sometimes in bad weather, he cannot catch any fish and has to stay home.
Nyopon always wants to participate in his village’s annual singing contest – he has won every time since he first entered in 2006 – but his father does not always have money to pay the registration fee.
Knowing Nyopon’s dream to become a singer, Mustika, one of the staff members at his child development center, offered him the opportunity to enter the “Idola Cilik” contest. Idola Cilik is a national children’s singing contest inspired by “American Idol.”
Nyopon participated in a few stages of the contest along with thousands of children around North Sulawesi in July 2009. In October 2009, he was chosen as one of the two best contestants to represent North Sulawesi in the national contest. Nyopon went to Jakarta for the national audition and competed with 13 other children from other areas of Indonesia. He was supported by the Regent of North Minahasa, which provided tickets to Jakarta for Nyopon and his mother.
The judges and audience were impressed with how Nyopon performed his songs. He even became one of the favorite contestants, as seen through the votes received from the studio audience and the TV audience. Nyopon was one of six children who received the highest number of votes.
You can also view Nyopon’s Idola Cilik performance on YouTube.
March 13, 2010, was Nyopon’s last day in the competition. Although he only remained in the competition for several weeks, Nyopon didn’t feel sad.
“Even though I just went until the big six, I was really happy I got the opportunity to be in the contest. I can learn new things when I join in the contest. Before I usually sang in front of the people that I know; now I had to sing in front of the audience that I didn’t know. It challenged me to improve what I have learned at the center. [It] built my self-confidence.”
Nyopon attends the child development center on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and goes to a music studio if there is no activity at the center.
“I learn more about music at the center. I have the opportunity to improve my talent. I don’t have to become famous to be a better person. All I need to do now is learn. I already feel grateful to have a chance to give my best.
“It is a special blessing for me to have this chance and my sponsors in my life. I know they are proud of me. I know they always pray for me.”
In addition to pursuing his love of singing, Nyopon has another dream for his life. “I want to see my sponsors’ faces. I want to know the people who always support me all this time.” His father agrees.
“I am really blessed that my son could be a part of the child development center. I can see the difference after these two years. He became very responsible and is developing his talent. I want to thank his sponsors because of their love to our son. I hope we can meet the family one day and show our gratefulness to them.” | <urn:uuid:b606fb64-90c0-4e01-8d16-d281cc0a2614> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.compassion.com/nyopon-idola-cilik/quote-comment-18934/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986395 | 938 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Beer and cheese are natural complements to each other. The flavors of beer and cheese – earthy, musty, rich, toasty – go together in a way that, in many cases, other beverages and cheese just can’t match. As with any pairing, of course, it is very important to be sure that one flavor doesn’t overpower the other.
“Nothing tastes better with cheese than beer” proclaims Garrett Oliver, author of The Brewmaster’s Table, an influential book about how to make beer-food relationships work. According to National Public Radio: “Oliver’s beer and cheese pairings have been honed by numerous competitions, in which he faces off with wine experts to see who can pick the best beverage to go with a variety of cheeses.” Read more at NPR.
French cheese is usually paired with wine but there are many excellent beer and cheese pairings to explore! So where do you start if you want to serve up steins of beer with slivers of cheese? Start with some common sense. A beer that is lighter in body and flavor (such as pilsner or wheat beer) would go well with a mild, mellow cheese; and conversely, a dark, rich ale would hold its own alongside a heavier, more pungent cheese. But a strong beer paired with an intense cheese also can overwhelm the palate. So choose your cheese carefully. For even more Beer and Cheese Pairing advices check out: | <urn:uuid:dee82c00-4800-44ce-837c-4aa20b59631f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://iledefrancecheese.com/blog/?tag=pairing-tips-and-advices | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960565 | 310 | 1.539063 | 2 |
In 2002, LA banned any new billboards from going up in the city. Since then, an estimated four thousand have been put up by advertising companies who have ignored the law, which obviously the city’s billboard inspectors—”a tiny, and some say incredibly inept, group”—have never bothered to enforce.
These things aren’t cheap or makeshift, either.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, a furtive crew of workers for L.A. Outdoor Advertising poured a cement foundation next to the Harbor Freeway and anchored a huge metal structure into the wet cement. A few days and roughly $100,000 later, the crew had erected L.A.’s latest illegal billboard atop an equally illegal 10-ton superstructure that can be removed only with a wrecker.
for its crime, L.A. Outdoor was “cited” and “ordered” to take down the illegal billboard “immediately.” Five months later, that billboard still looms large. City Hall has caved to outdoor advertisers for so many years that L.A. Outdoor is touting the illegal billboard in a photo array on its Web site — a bleak reminder that billboards run amuck here, and their owners enjoy impunity.
City officials don’t even have a list of all billboard owners, and seem incapable of creating one because that would require demanding information from the advertising companies, which they seem unwilling to do:
Clear Channel Outdoor, CBS Outdoor, Vista and others use the legal system as a delaying tactic, filing lawsuit upon lawsuit. City officials so badly fear the wrath of the billboard companies that they resisted giving L.A. Weekly basic, public facts about existing legal and illegal billboards. Plenty of U.S. cities have required the firms to hand over their inventory lists — a necessary step before activists, neighbors and inspectors can ID and dispute illegal billboards. Houston forced its billboard companies to hand over a list. So did Philadelphia and San Francisco. Florida”s Department of Transportation obtained its list — in 1972.
But in Los Angeles, the newspaper had to hire a First Amendment attorney to obtain simple information from quaking workers at the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, a taxpayer-funded agency that deals almost exclusively in public data. For months, department spokesman Robert Steinbach refused to talk, behaving as if he were protecting the national security.
“Billboards Gone Wild: 4,000 Illegal Billboards Choke L.A.’s Neighborhoods” [LA Weekly] (Thanks to Elliott!) | <urn:uuid:bb3ae82b-70aa-4f72-93e0-fde2457ad686> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://consumerist.com/2008/04/30/la-has-4000-illegal-billboards-but-city-looks-on-helplessly/ | 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 | 0.945092 | 523 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Our puppy wellness program is designed to offer your new puppy all the benefits of veterinary services available to him / or her from 6 weeks of age to 16 weeks of age. Included in this service is a series of examinations and vaccinations including rabies, distemper, parvovirus, etc. In addition, your puppy will be tested for worms and be treated for the most common intestinal worm of puppies Ė roundworms. Roundworms can cause gastrointestinal signs such as vomiting and / or diarrhea. There are other parasites that can cause similar symptoms and can even cause your puppy to become anemic (low red blood cells). Performing a fecal test will allow us to treat your puppy accordingly. Although some worms are visible to the naked eye, most worm burdens are diagnosed by examining the stool of your puppy microscopically. | <urn:uuid:560ae7ae-162c-478e-af5e-7df9511eafb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oakhurstvetcenter.com/index.php?view=pageView&pageid=12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957268 | 166 | 1.65625 | 2 |
I spent this past weekend in Houston, reveling in some of the city's more artistic sites. I meandered around The Menil Collection and its surrounding campus, taking in its fantastic contemporary art collection and enjoying the beautiful grounds. I took a restful stroll through the beautifully manicured Bayou Bend, reveling in the lushness and serenity there. But if I had to pick one place in Houston that was my favorite, it would certainly be The Beer Can House.
The artist and homeowner, John Milkovisch, began work on the grounds in 1968, but it became his full-time work in 1976 when he retired from his career as an upholsterer at the Southern Pacific Railroad. He began by slowly paving and tiling the front and back yards of the house (he hated mowing the grass), incorporating his massive glass marble collection as a decorative element.
But marbles weren't the only item John stashed away. He despised waste, and had been saving empty beer cans for about 17 years. Not knowing just quite what he would do with them, he slowly figured it out, one step at a time. He began deconstructing the cans, experimenting with tiling patterns and stringing together the caps and bottoms to make a decorative garland.
Not only did John, his wife Mary and their children have the most unique house on the block, this new aluminum siding and beer can garland seriously cut back on the energy consumption of the home. The garland not only provides window shade from the Texas heat, but it sings a beautiful and unexpected song as the breeze blows past. Though John and Mary are no longer with us, I could almost hear their laughter and warmth asking me to have a seat, stay a while and have another beer.
More Info: The Beer Can House
(Images: Smith Schwartz) | <urn:uuid:34038eac-8ddf-4ba5-a734-4963883e3906> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/houstons-beer-can-house-well-designed-travel-170332?img_idx=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980029 | 379 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Nestled between the Wasatch Mountains on the east and the Great Salt Lake on the west, at an elevation of 4,330 feet, lies Salt Lake City. Utah's capital and major population center is small as far as American cities go, with a population of just over 180,000. But travelers come from around the world to visit magnificent Temple Square, world headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), and to hear the inspired voices of the unequaled Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Although Salt Lake City may be best known for its religious affiliations, and has an undeserved reputation as a stodgy, uptight town where you can't get a drink, the city is growing in popularity as a base for outdoor enthusiasts. Exhilarating recreational possibilities are only about an hour's drive from the city. With some of the country's best ski and snowboard resorts; miles of terrific mountain trails for hiking, biking, and horseback riding; and the intriguing Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake City is beginning to shed its image as "that boring Mormon town with the choir."
Incidentally, one of the first things visitors notice upon arrival is how sensibly organized and pleasantly wide the streets are. Early church leader Brigham Young laid out the city streets in a grid pattern, with the Temple at the center, and decreed that the streets should be 132 feet wide so that a team of four oxen and a wagon could make a U-turn. A more tantalizing tale has it that the streets were made wide enough for polygamist Young and all his wives to walk comfortably down the street arm-in-arm, with no one forced into the gutter.
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Triad -- At the beginning of spring, we can't wait to get outside and do... anything! After being cooped up all winter, the thought of being out in the yard is heavenly.
Now, it's August. The promise of new flowers and veggies has turned to reality. Then there's also the weeding, mowing, spraying for bugs... to go along with them.
If you find you're having to drag yourself out to water, pull weeds... do those day to day garden chores, here's a new incentive.
You can burn a decent amount of calories out in the yard. Here are a few numbers from Yardcare.com: This is the amount of calories an average person (155 pounds) would burn doing the chore for 1 hour.
- Watering plants: 106
- Lawn mowing: 387
- Riding mower: 176
- Raking leaves: 288
- Digging 598
- Picking veggies 306
- Pulling weeds 317
- chopping wood 774
For a list of more calorie burning chores, check out the full list on Yardcare.com. | <urn:uuid:97e5b29c-0b98-4ab3-9ba8-be6b2840ec04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digtriad.com/gardening/article/239702/380/New-Reason-To-Garden | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932775 | 231 | 1.65625 | 2 |
As the annual MultiCore Expo opens this week, the first few steps taken towards improving the techniques for programming and measuring multicore processors begin to show their early fruits. More and more efforts are invested into multicore API, and the number of companies interested in the matter rises as well. Although the API was defined through the collaboration of several companies like Intel, Texas Instruments, Freescale or Impera, none of them announced the usage of the interface yet.
The MultiCore Expo (April 1-3) is focused on finding answers and solutions for the issues that the multicore implementations has brought with it. Some of the participants will present
their achievements in the multicore API, including Multicore Association, Polycore Software and Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium.
The Multicore Association started the research on defining a standard for embedded virtualization, after completing its work on a standard application programming interface for communications. Polycore Software developed a working version of the new multicore communications API and will try to demonstrate it in one of its tools. The Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium developed a new multicore processor benchmark and will show the results for running it on a variety of processors with 2 to 16 cores, yet the names of chips will not be revealed, but to the vendors.
The linking and synchronizing different kinds of cores in a processor is what API aims to provide. "The demo itself may not be very sexy, but it's fully functional and we're starting to get some traction," said Markus Levy, president of the Multicore Association. The setting of a standard for hypervisors that will control the way embedded processors virtualizes hardware resources is another goal for the Association. The group will first focus on issues as on-chip communications and debugging, in its way to defining what areas are fully developed for standards in the area. "There are more companies interested in the hypervisor issues than I expected," said Levy. "The processor guys are really into and the whole effort that was kicked off by Nokia Siemens Networks," he added.
One of the demos presented by EEMBC will show the results of running the same workload over two different dual-core processors and the way these results vary. Also, the way some workloads will not scale or scale linearly when run on the same multicore chip will be shown in other demos. "This is some of the most interesting benchmark data I have seen because very complex," said Levy who is also president of EEMBC. "You are dealing with systems-level issues such as OS scheduling techniques, context switching and varying peripheral sets," he said.
"The point right now is that to understand multicore performance you have to look at a lot of different things," Levy also said. According to him, "The HPC system developers, although long involved in multiprocessing designs, are challenged by new programming and debug complexities associated with practically unlimited scalability of cores. Embedded system developers are challenged by similar issues, but are also faced with very fundamental decisions such as determining when is the right time to convert their legacy applications to multicore."
As currently there is a set of benchmarks in use for the multicore chips, "Everybody is still struggling to determine what the right benchmarks are," said Jack Browne, vice president of marketing at MIPS Technologies. Dhrystone Mips on set-top boxes and Specmarks or Java user interface metrics are just some examples of them. Yet, the real-world applications-based benchmarks are more useful than synthetic ones, but system makers do not enjoy the idea of releasing their applications code for open testing.
In order to get feedback, EEMBC has released the benchmarks to one user. Through this, the terms of licensing its benchmarks will be decided in a meeting in mid-April. According to Levy, the new metrics seem to particularly interest system makers.
"Some of the telecoms OEMs are really struggling because they are finding in the shift from using two single-core chips to one multicore chip performance is going down. That's because they now have to share resources like caches," he said. | <urn:uuid:339cc521-baa8-491a-87ed-abb588282eac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.softpedia.com/news/Benchmarking-the-Multicore-CPUs-Multicore-API-82226.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958821 | 838 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Open your eyes. Wake up.
Today, on the 98th day of Obama’s presidency, the 9/11 Truthers need your attention. While the dreaded Main Stream Media would have you believe Air Force One’s passage over the Hudson was some type of faux photo-op, you must free your mind in order to debunk the following myth:
An Air Force One lookalike, the backup plane for the one regularly used by the president, flew low over parts of New York and New Jersey on Monday morning, accompanied by two F-16 fighters, so Air Force photographers could take pictures high above the New York harbor.
But the exercise — conducted without any notification to the public — caused momentary panic in some quarters and led to the evacuation of several buildings in Lower Manhattan and Jersey City. By the afternoon, the situation had turned into a political fuse box, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg saying that he was “furious” that he had not been told in advance about the flyover and the White House facing questions about it. In unusually harsh language, the mayor criticized the Defense Department for conducting the exercise and the Federal Aviation Administration for being secretive about it.
Did The New York Times mention “secretive?” No, no, no, no, no, no. There’s nothing secretive about this. Anymore! It’s a mass government conspiracy that was thrwarted and exposed because of brave souls on the internet. Truthers. Like me. | <urn:uuid:fe584823-eeab-4d4e-b2bd-15e6a690bbc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cubicpolitics.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/911-truthers-proven-true/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960149 | 312 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Instead, President Obama gave over $26 billion to the UAW—more money than the U.S spent on foreign aid last year and 50% more than NASA's budget. None of that money kept factories running. Instead it sustained the above-average compensation of members of an influential union, sparing them from most of the sacrifices typically made in bankruptcy. Such spending does not serve the common good. President Obama did not bail out the auto industry. He bailed out the United Auto Workers.
keyboard shortcuts: V vote up article J next comment K previous comment | <urn:uuid:d6e5efae-e681-4d3c-abce-3d6477f5b881> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://my-my-my.newsvine.com/_news/2012/06/14/12221085-obamas-united-auto-workers-bailout | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941297 | 113 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Nobody better tell the NYT editorial board about the Waffle House Index
posted at 3:21 pm on October 31, 2012 by Mary Katharine Ham
As flood waters were pouring into every low point in New York City Monday night, the New York Times took the opportunity to knock Mitt Romney for remarks he made during the Republican primary about federal disaster assistance in an editorial entitled, “A Big Storm Requires Big Government.” In doing so, the Grey Lady followed in the footsteps of Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo. From the editorial:
Most Americans have never heard of the National Response Coordination Center, but they’re lucky it exists on days of lethal winds and flood tides. The center is the war room of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where officials gather to decide where rescuers should go, where drinking water should be shipped, and how to assist hospitals that have to evacuate.
Disaster coordination is one of the most vital functions of “big government,” which is why Mitt Romney wants to eliminate it. At a Republican primary debate last year, Mr. Romney was asked whether emergency management was a function that should be returned to the states. He not only agreed, he went further.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.” Mr. Romney not only believes that states acting independently can handle the response to a vast East Coast storm better than Washington, but that profit-making companies can do an even better job. He said it was “immoral” for the federal government to do all these things if it means increasing the debt.
Here’s the whole exchange, which Jordan Weissman of The Atlantic headlines, “No, Mitt Romney doesn’t really want to kill off FEMA.” Instead, it’s a nonspecific pep talk for local control, when possible, paired with a warning about the dangers of spending future generations into oblivion.
The NYT editorial is opportunistic and lazy. It asserts Romney’s notion is “absurd” without actually explaining why. It asserts that Republicans “don’t like the idea of free aid for poor people, or they think people should pay for their bad decisions.” Yes, that’s why Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians famously steer clear of Red Cross donations, volunteering at church drives for victims, and picking up debris for neighbors. You never see any of that because we “don’t like the idea of free aid for poor people” in the wake of a natural disaster. This is what they think of half the country. The editorial also calls sequestration cuts “Republican-instigated,” a claim which Politifact declared “Mostly False.”
The logical conclusion of the editorial, read with more charity than they afforded Romney, is that FEMA and federal disaster relief run perfectly well and that no one should propose changes to their structures unless that change is to give them more money. The NYT scoffed at the idea that “profit-making companies can do an even better job” and discounted the contributions of state and local governments entirely. As too many do with government functions, they assume spending more money means FEMA is doing more good. Of course, more money could just mean more poison trailers and more fraud, but we’ll all feel good that the agency is spending more money, I suppose.
Perhaps the New York Times editorial writers should read their own newspaper, as it updated us on the lingering weaknesses of FEMA Monday—a GAO report found inconsistencies in how it trains and hires disaster assistance employees— and offered this nugget about FEMA director Craig Fugate’s plans:
Since [Katrina] it has tried to strengthen its ability to respond to a major disaster, both by rebuilding its own supply management system and personnel, and by fostering stronger ties to outside parties, including the Defense Department and even the owners of big box retail stores, which Mr. Fugate said might be turned to as a backup for emergency supplies.
This is the same Fugate, praised for leading FEMA competently through Midwestern tornadoes and hurricanes alike, who coined the term “Waffle House Index”* to describe the metric FEMA now uses to determine where its resources are needed most. Here’s how it works. The Waffle House chain has a huge number of stores located in the Southeast and Midwest in areas that frequently see devastating storms. As such, it has created an enviable corporate culture so attuned to disaster recovery that Fugate knows, “If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That’s really bad. That’s where you go to work.”
The Wall Street Journal did a great story on Waffle House’s disaster prep in 2011, which just made me an even bigger fan of Waffle House and the free market:
Waffle House Inc. has 1,600 restaurants stretching from the mid-Atlantic to Florida and across the Gulf Coast, leaving it particularly vulnerable to hurricanes. Other businesses, of course, strive to reopen as quickly as possible after disasters. But the Waffle House, which spends almost nothing on advertising, has built a marketing strategy around the goodwill gained from being open when customers are most desperate…
The company fully embraced its post-disaster business strategy after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Seven of its restaurants were destroyed and 100 more shut down, but those that reopened quickly were swamped with customers.
The company decided to beef up its crisis-management processes. Senior executives developed a manual for opening after a disaster, bulked up on portable generators, bought a mobile command center and gave employees key fobs with emergency contacts.
The restaurant chain has a guide for serving limited menus if there is “gas but no electricity, or a generator but no ice,” which allows the company to keep the supply chain fine-tuned and perishables headed where they’re used, not wasted. It becomes, literally, a port in a storm for many displaced families. Waffle House executives say the endeavor is likely not a profit-making venture, but for a company that doesn’t advertise, its value in community goodwill is priceless.
This private company—the kind the NYT editorial board thinks it’s an “absurd” notion to give a bigger part in FEMA response— is already working so fast and so well in disaster response that it is a guidepost for the necessarily slower and clumsier federal government. It is already doing a better, faster job than the federal government, which is why Fugate can use it as a gauge. And, they’re not the only ones. Profit-making entities like Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, and Home Depot have all managed to create admirable disaster preparation plans, which Fugate himself has deemed worthy of including as part of the federal government’s disaster plan. They do it because it’s good for the community, but they are also able to do it because of the efficiencies of the market, the practice they’ve gained by competing with other chains, all the vital information embedded in price signals, the incentive to get the community back on its shopping feet, and intimate local knowledge of the areas they serve— all things the federal government lacks. And, yes, they do it because there’s plenty of brand loyalty in it for any company that can provide a hot meal or plywood in an emergency. It’s amazing, not absurd.
To its credit, the NYT is hosting a debate where others are engaging the ideas the editorial board refused to.
A superstorm requires supersmart government. But making wise decisions from a distance is hard. Economists call this the problem of local knowledge. The information needed for making rational plans is distributed among many actors, and it is extremely difficult for a far-off, centralized authority to access it. The devil really is in the details. (This is why the price system, which aggregates all that dispersed insight, is more economically efficient than a command-and-control system.)
So emergency and disaster response should be, as much as possible, pushed down to the state and local level. A national effort should be reserved for truly catastrophic events. Indeed this preference for “local first, national second” can be found in the legislation authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The number of federal emergencies has soared, stretching capabilities. Increasingly state and private resources are overlooked.
But just the opposite has been happening in recent decades. There were, according to a Heritage Foundation analysis, 28 FEMA declarations a year during the Reagan administration, 44 during Bush I, 90 during Clinton, 130 during Bush II, and 153 so far during Obama’s term. The result is federal emergency response effort stretched thin in its capabilities to deal with major disasters.
He also notes the heroic performance of Wal-Mart after Hurricane Katrina, from which the federal government could have taken plenty of lessons (and it sounds like Fugate has):
Wal-Mart arrived in the New Orleans area long before FEMA and had the supplies that the community needed.
Phillip Capitano, mayor of the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, reported that, “the only lifeline in Kenner was the Wal-Mart stores.
In addition to what they sold as a result of quickly re-opening their stores, Wal-Mart also provided a large amount of free merchandise, including prescription drugs, to those in the worst-hit areas of the Gulf Coast.
The folks on the NYT editorial board are so ideologically blinded that they’re now knocking private donations to disasters, in general, as a way to bash Mitt Romney, but maybe they’ll listen to the president himself, who noted the federal government’s limitations during his remarks on Sandy, given at the Red Cross, mind you:
“My message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need, we will be there, and we will cut through red tape,” Mr. Obama said. “We are not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules.”
A reasonable and reasonably intelligent person might conclude that if the federal government’s first act must be to remove the barriers its regulations place on disaster recovery, then it should perhaps focus on getting out of the way first while allowing more flexible, local entities to get to work on the ground. This already happens, to a great extent, because it must. Charities like Red Cross and Samaritan’s Purse come in first, partnering with local churches, businesses, and government, later backed up with resources and employees from the federal government.
Disaster recovery requires nimble decision-making, flexibility, and money. The federal government has only one of those, and arguably none of them if you check out the debt. It is harmful to argue, as the NYT does, for a bigger and ever-less flexible system, ruled entirely by leaders in Washington and to poison the idea of states and private companies taking on larger roles. A federal budget line should not be the measure of success in disaster recovery (and if it is, maybe the paper should take that up with President Obama). If Waffle House spent millions yet served only 16 meals in stormstruck areas, we would never praise its efforts. Perhaps comparable standards are in order for the federal government.
Romney’s comments allow for any number of combinations in the Tetris game of private-public partnerships shown to actually help victims quickly. The NYT editorial attempts to make politically toxic any discussion of innovation in a field where lives and livelihoods depend on it. Which one is extreme?
We often hear from the president and his allies that “we’re all in this together.” America agrees, but to paint the federal government alone as the one true path to helping our neighbors ignores reality, eschews innovation, and ultimately hurts those we’re trying to help.
*The Waffle House Index is, of course, less useful in this particular storm because of its lack of franchises in the Northeast, but it is being used as a gauge in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Breaking on Hot Air | <urn:uuid:da56d667-bd3a-4e6f-ac72-90221e5dd358> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/31/nobody-better-tell-the-nyt-editorial-board-about-the-waffle-house-index/comment-page-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958766 | 2,569 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The 15-year-old joined other girls at Edgbaston High School for Girls in Birmingham for her first day back at school on Tuesday, said Edelman, the public relations agency handling her media relations.
Malala was airlifted to Britain for treatment after Taliban gunman shot her on Oct. 9, while on her way home from school in northwestern Pakistan. The militant group said it targeted her because she promoted "Western thinking" and criticized the group's behavior when it took over the scenic Swat Valley where she lived.
The shooting sparked outrage in Pakistan and many other countries, and her story has captured global attention for the struggle for women's rights in her homeland.
Malala was released in February from the hospital that was treating her for her injuries. Doctors said she was recovering well after receiving skull reconstruction and cochlear implant surgeries.
In a statement, Malala said she was excited to return to school and that she wanted "all girls in the world to have this basic opportunity."
"I miss my classmates from Pakistan very much, but I am looking forward to meeting my teachers and making new friends here in Birmingham," she added.
The teenager is expected to remain in the U.K. for some time as her father, Ziauddin, has secured a post with the Pakistani | <urn:uuid:461f85f5-7339-400c-b0fc-67d6dd888bdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_22824218/pakistani-girl-shot-by-taliban-returns-school | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986589 | 265 | 1.734375 | 2 |
We’ve all heard about the exploits of Secret Agent James Bond, but few of us know much about Miss Moneypenny. She is secretary to M, who is Bond’s boss and head of the British Secret Service. Well, if the news media is reporting this story accurately, I believe that Miss Moneypenny and her girlfriends who work at the CIA attended nursing school on their off hours from work.
According UPI Asia Online, the CIA faked a vaccination program near Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout before the raid that killed him hoping to get his family’s DNA. They wanted to get evidence that bin Laden’s family lived where the CIA believed the al-Qaida leader was hiding out.
At one point, a nurse managed to gain entry into bin Laden’s compound to administer the vaccines, and possibly record conversations, or leave behind a surveillance device.
I don’t know about you, but I didn’t learn about surveillance devices in nursing school. I think James taught Miss Moneypenny more than just how to make a darn good martini . | <urn:uuid:5734c7ba-19f9-4e82-80db-43be296d159b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nurseratchedsplace.com/2011/07/miss-moneypenny-rn/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966985 | 229 | 1.507813 | 2 |
"Don't want this one to end"
Those who know me wouldn't dream I could love a book about two brothers murdering for money in the California Gold Rush of 1851.
But one of the brothers has a sensitive side and is regretting his line of work, and vaguely pondering alternatives, while the other takes humorous pot shots at him for this. The dialogue is so poetic and sparkling, their adventures gripping, horrifying and poignant.
The narrator does a fantastic job with the different character's voices, and the whole thing has me wondering how I can finagle some time in my car alone for a good long listen, while realising the downside of that would be that the story would be over too quickly.
"A Whole New Pymian World to Explore"
I downloaded this because I'd been meaning to read Barbara Pym for years, and wanted something frothy after a heavy bout of Dickens.
It ticked all my boxes. I love a sense of place, and especially when the place is London. A sense of time, especially the era around the world wars, and this is set in the fifties, when rationing was still in force. Everything's a bit grim, as people struggle to get their lives back on track. It also ticked the 'narrator with a sly wit' box, and the 'not too oppressively long' box.
Digging around on the internet, I discovered that Barbara Pym had six published novels, but when she sent a manuscript to her publisher in 1963 it was rejected as being 'out of step with the times'. This led her to despair until 1977, when she was nominated as the most underrated writer of the 20th century by both Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil. A novel was then accepted which was nominated for the Booker Prize that year, and more works followed to critical acclaim, some published posthumously, as she died in 1980.
Her work is popular and timeless, and some consider this her best book. Mostly about the everyday lives of very ordinary people, the wit and comic observations sparkle, and her turn of phrase often had me smiling, and occasionally laughing out loud.
I loved this book, and feel I have discovered an author whose works I will read again and again. Some have called Pym 'a modern day Jane Austen' and I think that's about right. I'm not surprised to learn that there exists a Barbara Pym Society of North America - I can quite see how her Englishness would be speak to literary anglophiles. Sadly, there are only three of Pym's novels on the Audible list, so I may have to buy paper copies of the rest.
Finally, the lady who reads this (Jonathan Keeble reads the intro) has fantastic diction - I didn't have to go back and re-listen once, which is a first.
I haven't finished this yet - 2 hours to go and I don't want it to end. Some of the lines in it are priceless, which is not to deny it's terribly sad in parts.
The period details add a wonderful touch, and some of the minor characters - I know them! The reading is terrific, the different voices are well defined without being garish. Anna Bentinck is gifted.
I'm chortling away or crying on the stairmaster at the gym - I've become a regular, and all because of this book. A friend's book club panned it because they felt it was a cynical attempt to cop a movie deal - but if it becomes a film, I'll be first in the queue.
"How can I top this?"
The Little Stranger was my first Audible download. It was so absorbing that it only took me a week to finish. Any excuse and I drove for miles, hoping to get stuck in traffic so I could get in half and hour here and there - luckily the North Circular always obliged. This ticked all the boxes for me (strong plot, sense of place, great characterisation). It's an old-fashioned ghost story, set in a still class-ridden post-war world of upstairs and downstairs. The family doctor is of sceptical mind to all the strange things that happen in the house, so is perfect as the narrator. The setting, Hundreds Hall, which is the star of the show, is described so beautifully I could see it in my mind's eye, both in happier times and in its declining years. Mr Vance does a wonderful job of reading the book, the voices are pitch perfect, the quavering mother, the drawling toff son, the fourteen year old serving girl. It was all such a treat I just don't know how I'm going to replicate the experience with another book.
Report Inappropriate Content
If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action. | <urn:uuid:5e560ffe-08b1-427f-ac51-60fcb0b3ee5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.audible.co.uk/review-by-author?customerID=A2IDEXEPGO90VP&asin=B005T4HX3E | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978199 | 1,020 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Introduction. (Focus on Eleanor Dark)
Ferrier, Carole, Hecate
Eleanor Dark (1901-85) was born a hundred years ago on 24 August, and this special focus commemorates that anniversary. It comprises two pieces of Dark's unpublished writing including a section from one of her last novels; a commentary upon Dark's figuring of the urban space of Sydney; an account of Dark's engagement with medical discourses in her earlier fiction; a discussion of Dark's experiences of surveillance by the state; and a paper re-viewing the sexual politics of some prominent men of the time involved in sexual reform campaigns including Dark's father, Dowell O'Reilly.
Dark told her friend Jean Devanny that from a young age she 'took a literary career for granted.' (l) She spent her early life with her father, a poet and Labor MLA, and her mother, also called Eleanor, who was a talented pianist but submerged in an 'angel in the house' role and who died in 1914. Dowell in 1917 married his cousin, Molly, a portrait painter-after an improbable epistolary courtship of her in England in 1916, that included such enticements as: 'Immutable law has set aside woman for childbirth and man for thought-birth,' and 'I have never yet known a "happy couple".' (2) Molly did not do much more painting after she came to Australia. Christina Stead has been read as writing out an overpowering influence of her father in The Man Who Loved Children (1946), and Dark's biographers Barbara Brooks and Judith Clark suggest that, somewhat similarly, 'when Eleanor started to write it was as if she was in dialogue with her father' and that even after his death in 1923, she was still 'negotiating with …
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Introduction. (Focus on Eleanor Dark). Contributors: Ferrier, Carole - Author. Journal title: Hecate. Volume: 27. Issue: 1 Publication date: May 2001. Page number: 7+. © 1999 Hecate Press. COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means. | <urn:uuid:d954e077-fadb-4897-91ad-6c1709d4ecdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.questia.com/read/1G1-83262461/introduction-focus-on-eleanor-dark | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967871 | 491 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Maori rights lawyer Annette Sykes has suggested Prime Minister John Key should either get a law degree or stay quiet about Maori water rights issues.
Ms Sykes is among the lawyers acting for claimant hapu at the Waitangi Tribunal hearing on whether state asset sales should be put on hold until Maori water rights are resolved.
This morning, the Crown lawyers were asked by the Tribunal to clarify a 2004 High Court case in which it was claimed the Crown had ownership of water.
Crown lawyer Paul Radich said the Crown's position was that nobody - including the Crown - owned water, and it was possible that the comments referred to were the view of a party in that case rather than the Crown's.
However, speaking to media later, Ms Sykes said the Attorney General's submissions in that Aoraki case clearly referred to Crown ownership rights, which went directly against Prime Minister John Key's continued claims that nobody owned water.
"Perhaps he needs to go and get a law degree, which has been one of my concerns about him since he started talking about this. He really does not understand the complexity of the overlay of rights relating to resources like water."
She said the issue of whether it was believed the Crown did have ownership of water in 2004 was now the "$6 million question."
"That's what the Tribunal has now asked for - what was the Attorney General's position in that case? The Prime Minister really needs to refrain, leave it to the lawyers to answer these questions which aren't easy, and graciously negotiate, statesman to statesman, with Maori that perhaps understand the law of this country better than he does."
Ms Sykes also said Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia should put aside the 'baubles' of her office and remember she is Maori by walking out of the Maori Party's agreement with National over water rights.
As Mana Party president, Ms Sykes said Mrs Turia in particular should have a strong stance on the issue because it was her own Whanganui iwi which was among the first to fight for rights over fresh water. Ms Sykes said if Mrs Turia did not act she was effectively abandoning the fight of her own people.
"I beg Tariana, who I've got the hugest respect for, to sit back and reflect and in the spirit of Che Guevera who obviously influenced her last week, position herself for freedom and the rights of our people rather than to take money as a Prime Minister's friend at the table."
She said both Mrs Turia and Pita Sharples would have to give up a sizable portion of their salaries if they gave up their ministerial posts.
"It's time for them to do that, it's time to forget about money and promote the mana of our people. That's one of the problems - when you're given the baubles of the Crown to sit at a table and you're going to have those baubles taken away it does sometimes impact on moral appropriateness and I'm asking them to put that to one side and think like Maori, act like the rangatira [chiefs/ leaders] they are and stand up for our people."
The co-leaders are due to meet Mr Key this week to discuss his comments that the Government could ignore the Waitangi Tribunal - a statement that has been interpreted as dismissive of the tribunal.
Possible lift in power prices
Meanwhile, an energy industry consultant says putting a levy on water to recognise Maori water rights would result in less use of hydro and geothermal energy generation and push up power prices.
Lee Wilson, a director of energy consulting company Concept Consulting, was giving evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal hearing earlier today.
Mr Wilson told the Tribunal that water was critical for 60 per cent of electricity and 75 per cent of electricity generators were completely dependent on water and would be unable to produce power without it. He said anything that made hydro and geothermal electricity more expensive could push the energy sector to move away from it in favour of cheaper options.
"If a levy or royalties were applied in order to recognise Maori interests it could do two things - it could change the mix of power stations used to generate electricity on a day to day basis and it could change the mix of future investment in power stations by making hydro and geothermal less attractive. Both could have the effect of increasing prices.''
Mr Wilson said hydro power stations needed resource consents to get water permits, which carried a range of conditions such as minimum and maximum river flow rates and lake levels. Those permits were subject to review and the conditions could be changed. Any change to the permit could reduce the value of the power station.
"Future uncertainties are a fact of life but despite the uncertainties investment in hydro and geothermal power stations have proceeded.''
He said it was likely power companies would fight any changes to their conditions which adversely impacted on them.By Claire Trevett @CTrevettNZH Email Claire | <urn:uuid:58cb3335-8b67-451d-a96b-49dd2613a207> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10819954 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98262 | 1,026 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The simplest thing most folks could do to improve their photography (travel or otherwise) is use a tripod. Motion blur is a huge problem for most people, and a tripod holds the camera still, so that you don’t get blurred images from your hands shaking. In addition to the stability offered by a tripod, the other reason that photos tend to improve with their use is that you’re forced to slow down. With the camera mounted, you’ll take more time to properly compose your images.
Cheap compact cameras have small lenses that can’t gather much light. This means that the shutter has to stay open longer to grab the image. The longer the shutter is open, the more opportunity there is for your shaking hands to blur the image. You can get by pretty easily in broad daylight, but when the sun starts to set, you’re in trouble. Tripod to the rescue!
For many years I carried an Ultrapod. It’s small, lightweight, and highly versatile. It will sit on a relatively flat surface, or can even be strapped to a pole, fence post, etc.
99% of the time I used it just like you see here, and I did occasionally strap it to something. For me, the only deficiency at all was the fact that I couldn’t turn the camera vertical. When I would try, the weight of the camera would tip the tripod over. I could get by in those cases by using my hand to hold down the leg opposite the camera, keeping it from tipping, but this is less than ideal. Here’s a link to the Ultrapod at B&H Photo.
Then one day I was on a road trip with some friends (hey Ed & Stu!!!), and saw Stu using this great tripod by Giottos! The Ball Pod is cool for several reasons.
- It folds almost flat, with just the screw head poking up. This means it’s small enough to fit into the front pocket on the Lowepro case I carry my G9 in.
- It’s short. It’s only 4.5″ when folded.
- The legs extend!!!!! The 5-section telescoping legs go from about 3″ to almost 7″.
- The longer legs mean I can rotate the camera into portrait orientation without tipping.
- The individually adjustable leg lenghs mean it handles uneven surfaces better.
Here’s a link to the Giottos tripod at B&H Photo.
Regardless of which tripod you choose, you should also consider using a timer. Most cameras have a self timer built into them, with options of something like 2 seconds and 10 seconds. The 2 second delay works well to let the camera stop moving after you press the shutter release, and the 10 second delay gives you enough time to run get into the photo yourself. | <urn:uuid:f95a6b3a-817e-4acf-a371-e7ce81c66a7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://packingacanon.info/category/travel-tips/ | 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 | 0.947769 | 598 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Sure, smartphones can be annoying – especially when you’re trying to capture the attention of someone who is distracted by one. But emasculating?
That’s how Google co-founder Sergey Brin describes them.
Speaking at a Technology, Education and Design (TED) conference in Los Angeles, Brin criticized how people spend their time hunched over their smartphones, according to The Telegraph. “Is this the way you’re meant to interact with people?” he said. “It’s kind of emasculating. Is this what you’re meant to do with your body?”
As the website TechRadar notes, these words seem harsh, considering that smartphones are the reason sales of Google’s Android operating system dominate. But then, Brin made his remarks while trying to push Google’s new gadget, Google Glass. Skeptics have been leery of the “smart” electronic spectacles since Google first announced the project in 2012. After all, the idea of wearing a computer on your face rates somewhere between Segway scooters and Bluetooth headsets on the nerd-o-meter. (Honestly, does this look scream “masculine” to you?)
Whether the market decides the futuristic glasses are more macho than smartphones remains to be seen. But debates about the apparent manliness of gadgets aside, Brin does make a good point about how smartphones can be used as a social shield for the shy and the awkward.
“I have a nervous tic,” he said, according to The Telegraph. “The cellphone is a nervous habit – if I smoked, I’d probably smoke instead, it’d look cooler. But I whip this out and look as if I have something important to do. It really opened my eyes to how much of my life I spent secluding myself away in e-mail.”
Indeed, Google Glass would likely be less isolating than a pocket-sized hand-held gadget. It’s not as though you can hide at a party or business meeting when you’ve got Star Trek-like specs on your face. But then, maybe you’d want to. | <urn:uuid:50448921-7193-4700-996c-6a0c198ae849> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/are-smartphones-emasculating/article9146743/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93911 | 465 | 1.679688 | 2 |
DARE TO ASK: Chinese food a favorite with blacks?
By PHILLIP MILANO, The Times-Union
It seems that in America, black people are crazy about Chinese food. What are
the cultural reasons behind this?
Tom I., white, 34, Paris
What do you base this weird assumption on?
Sharon, black, Michigan
It's for the same reason Chinese people in America love McDonald's: it is
quick, inexpensive and tasty.
Michele, 38, white, Jacksonville
Chinese food is just good as hell!
Nyla, 17, black, New Jersey
Chinese food tastes good to lots of folks. I see many Hispanics whenever I go
to a Chinese restaurant.
E.D., 48, black, Missouri
I never ate rice without sugar until I moved up North. My first taste of
fried rice hooked me for life. It was bought at the corner rice house, where
most African- Americans buy and prefer.
Vivian, 56, black, Houston
We do spend money on good food - that's why we encourage the Greeks, the
Japanese and others to bring their cuisines to the ghetto ... they'll get rich!
We would love to have other foods in our community, but for the time being, we
are fighting just to get grocery stores.
Diane, black, Charlotte, N.C.
Tom is on the right track. Once we found a strange, brown folded cookie wafer
lying on the ground. We cracked it open, and inside, oddly enough, was a thin
strip of paper with a message on it: "Trust your intuition. The universe is
guiding your life. And remember, don't tell white people how off the chain this
Chinese food is."
Truth is, of course, that eating preferences vary just as much among
African-Americans as any other group, says Eric J. Bailey, professor of medical
anthropology at East Carolina University and author of Food Choice and Obesity
in Black America.
That said, as major cities developed in the United States, various ethnic
groups did find themselves in proximity to one another, among them Chinese and
black people. That led to mixing and matching of cuisines, Bailey said. And
consider Chinese food's similarity to soul food: basic food products that are
altered with extra sauces to be made sweet or spicy.
"Soul food was developed that way, too. By adding sauces to stuff that was
bland, it began a pattern of modifying food. Slaves had to find a way to use the
remnants left behind by their owners. You try to make whatever is available
usable and tasteful for the palate. You experiment ... when you're given scraps,
you're going to try to make it nice for everyone."
And like soul food, Chinese food, with its fresh ingredients like vegetables
and some meat sauteed in for good measure, can and should be changed to make it
better for the body.
"We can still adhere to the pattern, but we can use sodium substitutes or
find other ways to affect things like the amount of cholesterol," he said. "We
can maintain the feel, but make it healthier."
Phillip Milano, author of I Can't Believe You Asked That! (Perigee),
moderates cross-cultural dialogue at Y? The National Forum on People's
Differences. Visit www.yforum.com to submit questions and answers. | <urn:uuid:7467ed74-6c3f-493c-b96a-a8ddd123dddf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yforum.com/column.aspx/darechineseblack.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942844 | 733 | 1.757813 | 2 |
That hole in your roof may feel like it's put a hole in your wallet, too.
If you're one of many Floridians waiting for an insurance check, you know that contractors won't start repairs until they get cash. But you usually can't get full reimbursement from your insurer until the work is done.
Some insurers will give you part of the settlement quickly, but even then, homeowners face a difficult fact: The check is often made out to you and your mortgage company. The mortgage company decides when to release the money to the homeowner.
That may not be when you want it. "My mortgage company will not inform me how they are going to get the money back to me -- whether it's right away or installments or what," said Susan Segaul, a Fort Lauderdale homeowner who has major damage to her roof, carpet and landscaping. "They could be holding onto the money until all the repairs are done."
This practice is perfectly legal. But state financial regulators recognized, after the 2004 storm season, that it could hamper the process of getting homeowners back on their feet. The state has asked for federal legislation to govern the insurance reimbursement process. However, no law is in the works yet.
In the meantime, plenty of Floridians are looking for money. Congress helped in December by extending a package of tax breaks designed for Hurricane Katrina's victims to those who suffered damages from Wilma or Rita. President Bush signed the bill Wednesday.
Here's how you can use that new law to raise cash and a few other ideas to find it:
Under the new tax law, you can take up to $100,000 out of your retirement plan without owing the 10 percent early-withdrawal penalty, so long as you suffered damages from hurricanes Wilma, Katrina or Rita and your primary residence is in Florida or one of the other disaster states. Otherwise, anyone younger than age 591/2 would have to pay the penalty plus ordinary income tax on the amount taken out.
There's a way to avoid that income tax, too. The new law says that if you can put the money back into your retirement account within three years, you'll owe no tax on that income.
If you can't put the money back in, the new law still gives you a break. You can stretch out the reporting of that extra income over three years, to avoid a single, big tax bill on the distribution.
But if you want to preserve your retirement savings, you have to be a very disciplined person about paying yourself back. For that reason, "This is not high on my list of advice," says Bill Unger, a certified financial planner with Omni Financial Services in Boca Raton. "There are a number of resources you could try first."
The new law allows you to take a distribution from these plans, too. The usual 10 percent penalty will not apply and the money can be taken as income over three years. The rules are the same as those for IRAs for repayment within three years to avoid income tax.
Hurricane distributions are not subject to the rule that requires plans to withhold 20 percent of the distribution for federal income tax.
Or you can borrow against your 401(k) instead and pay it back in installments.
"It's generally low fees, you pay the interest to yourself and not to an institution, so it's a win, win, win," said Austin Frye at Frye Financial in Aventura. "But you have to pay it back."
The new tax law says you can borrow up to $100,000 or 100 percent of your balance for a hurricane distribution. Otherwise, the limit is $50,000 or 50 percent.
The positive: It's a loan from yourself.
The negative: You originally put in the money with pretax dollars, therefore reducing your taxable income. You don't get that same break when you put the money back in, because you have to use your regular income, which is taxable. And, while the money's not in the plan, you miss out on investment gains that you would have earned.
HOME EQUITY LOAN OR LINE OF CREDIT
If you have an existing home equity loan, you can always use that to finance deposits with contractors. The interest you pay may be tax-deductible on debt up to $100,000.
But there are some things to consider about these loans that the lenders aren't quick to point out. One is that home equity interest rates tend to be variable and rates have been rising.
If you do take a large sum out, financial planner Leslie Corcoran of Family First Financial Planning in Stuart suggests you ask your lender if you can fix the rate on this one draw. The remaining line of credit will still be variable, but at least your cost on this loan will not increase.
The positive: A home equity loan is easy to use if you have it arranged already.
The negative: Of course, you're increasing your debt and you have to pay it back to the lender plus interest. And, if you didn't have the loan available before the storm, it's going to be difficult, if not impossible, to get one if your home sustained major damage.
LIFE INSURANCE LOANS | <urn:uuid:10404587-7dab-40c3-8935-0cdab53eaf6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2005-12-22/business/0512210853_1_income-tax-new-law-tax-law | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967042 | 1,078 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Get a Hot Body
Hot Workout Tips
Sure, their workouts are effective. But these trainers have developed a loyal celebrity following because they're good at motivating their clients. Here, some of their top workout advice.Do More in Less Time
"Shorten the time you rest between exercises by alternating upper- and lower-body moves. You'll burn more calories while still giving your muscles time to recover."
-- Joe Dowdell
"If you have time to eat, drink, or watch TV, you have time to fit in a workout. Even a few minutes a day can make a difference and motivate you to do more."
-- Teddy Bass
"Think of the area you are working and 'breathe' into the muscle, pausing a beat at peak contraction. You'll reduce momentum and get more out of the exercise."
-- Christel Smith
"Music is my all-time favorite motivator. The right songs can make you want to work harder and go longer. Try to put together a playlist that will boost your mood, but don't pick songs that all have a fast beat or those that don't have any lyrics at all -- after a while, even that can become monotonous."
-- Jeanette Jenkins
"Competition can be a great motivator. Sign up for a 5K or 10K race or even a triathlon or long bike ride, then get yourself on a training plan. You'll feel a great sense of accomplishment by training for and then completing your goals."
-- Rich and Helene Guzman
"Visualization can be an incredibly powerful tool. Before you begin to exercise, take a couple of minutes to sit quietly, eyes closed, and imagine what you will be doing in your workout. Athletes often do this kind of 'blind rehearsal' before a game or competition to motivate themselves to perform at their best."
-- Ashley Borden
"If you're dragging midway through your workout, it's probably because you didn't adequately prepare your body. Make sure that you're not only getting enough sleep but that you're also adequately hydrated, and that you're eating right both before and after your routine. All of those things come together to help you perform your best."
-- Gunnar Peterson
"Your body isn't going to change overnight. If you expect too much, too soon, you'll likely get discouraged and quit altogether. Progress from easiest to hardest, gradually changing the amount of weight you lift, reps you do, or distance you go so your body can adapt to the demands and become stronger without risking injury."
-- Mike Alexander
"Try to eat at least two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables a day, following the colors of the rainbow. Choose from tomatoes (red), tangerines (orange), peppers (green, red, or yellow), carrots (orange), blueberries (blue), eggplants (purple), and zucchini (yellow or green). These foods are rich in vitamins and antioxidants to keep you healthy."
-- Larry Krug, nutritionist and trainer
For more details, workout tips, fitness and nutrition advice and innovative exercises, check out The A-List Workout by Alyssa Shaffer (McGraw-Hill, 2007).
Originally published in FITNESS magazine, February 2007.
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SAVE EVEN MORE! Say "Yes" to Fitness® Magazine today and get a second year for HALF PRICE – 2 full years (20 issues) for just $15. You also get our new Fitness Band and Total Body Express Band Workout ABSOLUTELY FREE! (U.S. orders only) | <urn:uuid:f106533d-0e3b-4f0a-b9a8-00d1a561aa1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/lose-weight/total-body/get-a-hot-body/?page=9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944726 | 756 | 1.765625 | 2 |
With the new year upon us, and many new startups being formed, one question that is on many new entrepreneurs’ minds is “how do you know when a startup will be successful?” Making the leap to even start a company is so difficult for many people, partly because of all the unknowns, and partly because the chance of failure is so high. The allure of entrepreneurship is powerful with the idea of a meritocracy and the ability to control your own destiny.
For me, there wasn’t a particular aha moment when I knew my startup was going to be successful (I’ve started two companies that meet my definition of a successful business), but in hindsight there were some strong indicators, of which here are a few:
- Revenue and sales got significantly ahead of our hiring pace
- The customer acquisition process started to appear repeatable
- I could go on vacation for two weeks, not worry at all about the business, and come back with things being even better than when I left
- We had sufficient levels of depth and maturity in each department whereby the department managers could take vacation and everything was fine
- Each department was truly operating at a high level and doing great things (we were firing on all cylinders)
- Customer compliments were outnumbering customer complaints 10-1
Success appears in so many different forms that it’s hard at times to appreciate the milestones. Knowing a startup will be successful doesn’t happen quickly, but over time it becomes readily apparent.
What else? What are some other ways you know when a startup will be successful? | <urn:uuid:c764392f-a00d-4d92-ab08-7e6bbf42ef87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://davidcummings.org/2013/01/01/how-do-you-know-when-a-startup-will-be-successful/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976954 | 329 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Frisco Enterprise > News
Frisco ISD to host Black History Month events
Black History Month is a time to reflect on the past, but Frisco ISD is also hoping to build a foundation for the future with events it will host later this month.
Frisco ISD will host two Black History Month events in the coming weeks -- a guest speaker-led event on Feb. 22 and a networking social on Feb. 24 -- that it hopes will help residents interact with each other and the school district more.
The first event, which will be hosted in coordination with the Greater Frisco Chapter of Jack and Jill, is entitled "From Bondage to Freedom" and will reflect on the contributions of black Americans throughout the country's history.
Melissa Johnson, coordinator of the Greater Frisco Chapter of Jack and Jill, said the event will focus on the past, present and future of black Americans.
"For the past, children will be taking part in a living museum, where they'll represent famous African-Americans who are deceased," she said. "Other children will represent famous African-Americans who are alive today for the present. Finally, we'll have a student-run marketplace representing the future. Students all across the district will be able to promote their businesses."
Johnson, who serves as a co-chair of the event, mentioned babysitting and scarf knitting as examples of what kind of businesses students may want to promote.
Also at the event, Shon Gables, a news anchor for WFAA, will serve as a guest speaker while Dede McGuire of K104 FM will serve as mistress of ceremony. Live entertainment ranging from music to dancing to poetry reading will also be available. The event will be held 6:30-9:30 p.m. at Frisco Wakeland High School and is free to the public.
Larry Lewis, Frisco ISD's coordinator of student achievement and involvement, said the events will focus on black history but are inclusive of people from all backgrounds.
"We're going to have all kinds of cultures and races participating at the events," he said. "We have a great speaker for Friday night, and it just goes from there. It's going to be great -- we're excited about it."
The Feb. 24 event, which will last from 4-6 p.m. at the Frisco ISD administration building, is a networking social for Frisco ISD parents, staff and other community members. Refreshments will be served, and parents are welcome to bring their children, though it will be a more adult-oriented event.
Lewis said the event was created to help the community come together to support education and involvement.
"There were so many parents in Frisco who didn't know each other, and there wasn't an event where they could come and meet other parents," he said. "That's what we're going to do -- that's what this event is all about. It's for the Frisco community to come out and meet each other and different people throughout the school district."
For more information regarding the "From Bondage to Freedom" event, click here. That event will be held 6:30-9:30 p.m. Feb. 22 at Frisco Wakeland High School, 10700 Legacy Drive.
The Black History Month networking social will be held 4-6 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Frisco ISD administration building (in the administration training rooms), 5515 Ohio Drive.
Copyright © 2013 - Star Local News | <urn:uuid:61a5b64b-d956-4f34-b43b-f6b95a3bf500> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lakeshoretimes.com/articles/2013/02/24/frisco_enterprise/news/418.prt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96415 | 728 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Economy Grew 2.8 Percent in Fourth Quarter
NEW YORK - The Commerce Department reported gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a 2.8 percent pace in the last three months of 2011, slightly less than expected but an increase over the prior quarter.
Economists expected a growth rate of about 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter, in part because of strong holiday shopping and car sales.
Real GDP, the output of goods and services produced in the U.S., increased at a revised annual rate of 1.8 percent in the third quarter. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the disappointing figure ahead of the holiday shopping season on Dec. 22. Total economic activity produced in the U.S. is valued at about $14 trillion a year and consumption comprises two-thirds of total GDP.
Bill Stone, chief investment strategist for PNC Asset Management Group, had expected a "decent pace" of economic growth in the fourth quarter.
Stone said the contribution from consumption, which accelerated from third quarter growth, was encouraging. Though, again, it was below analysts' expectations. The deceleration in real final sales, or GDP less inventories, is an indicator that European economic woes are acting as a headwind for the U.S. economy, he said.
"The net result is that the results were lower than consensus and our expectations, so it will likely weigh on the markets today," Stone said.
The economy is expected to be a big issue in the presidential election in November, so the quarterly GDP reports will be watched closely. President Obama has argued that he inherited an economy in shambles and has been working to restore growth, while his Republican rivals have attempted to hang the country's economic woes on the president and the Democrats.
Political wrangling, the effects of the euro zone crisis, and fall-out from Japan's natural disasters contributed to a "generally awful" summer and early fall, said Leo Abruzzese, economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Abruzzese said the country is unlikely to see another quarter "this good" any time soon because the last three months of last year were a "bounce-back period." The coming quarters are likely to settle into a more normal pace of 2 percent GDP growth.
"The recession in Europe and the slowdown in China and most other emerging markets will dent U.S. exports, which had been very strong," he said. "And there's still the risk that the euro zone will implode, which would drive the US back into a recession."
But he said the economy bounced back toward the end of the year.
Frank Fantozzi, president of Planned Financial Services, projects GDP to be around 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent for 2012.
The national unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, the lowest since February 2009. And U.S. retailers had a robust holiday season as consumers responded to deep discounts from Black Friday through the post-Christmas season.
Retail sales in December rose to $400.6 billion, an increase of 0.1 percent from November an 6.5 percent from December 2010, the Census Bureau reported earlier this month. December's retail sales were boosted in part by strong car sales in December.
U.S. sales of cars and light trucks rose 8.7 percent to over 1.2 million last month from December of 2010, according to Ward's Automotive Group. For the year, car sales rose 10.2 percent to over 12.7 million, Bloomberg reported.
Earnings season showed strength in the tech sector, with Apple Inc. reporting record earnings in its first quarter which ended Dec. 31. The financial sector took a beating in some areas, with the largest investment banks reporting lower bonuses for their employees. JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in the country, and Morgan Stanley reported lower earnings.
Instability in the U.S. economy is expected to continue.
The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said it "expects economic growth over coming quarters to be modest and consequently anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline only gradually."
On Wednesday, the committee announced it is keeping the target range for the federal funds rate at zero to 1/4 percent, which has remained at a record low since the financial crisis began in 2008. The committee said economic conditions "are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014."
What's On KCRG | <urn:uuid:dab9f512-b508-40f5-b18f-d10e7b807272> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcrg.com/news/business/Economy-Grew-28-Percent-in-Q4-Fourth-Quarter-138195449.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966116 | 923 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Manohar Lal Sharma, who is representing three of the five men accused of told the BBC that he would be filing representation letters for the three accused men challenging the way the police handled evidence in the case. “I believe the accused should get a fair trial and I have come forward to represent them,” he stated.
This news comes a day after the court ruled that the preliminary hearings for the case will be heard privately. Magistrate Namrita Aggarwal declared “It has become completely impossible to proceed” after a hearing on the case was delayed for two hours when police were unable to restore order in a court room filled with over 100 lawyers and reporters. As a result she determined that neither the media, public, nor lawyers who are not directly related to the case will be allowed in the court room.
Meanwhile, international outrage over the incident as well as several domestic rape cases has sparked protestsin the neighboring country of Nepal. “The media attention to protests in Delhi has raised awareness on issues of violence against women in Nepal,” said Manju Gurung, a member of an organization that advocates for female migrant workers, Pourakhi. Demonstrators as part of the Occupy Baluwatar movement have been protesting outside the prime minister’s residence and other official buildings. Occupy Baluwatar has been raising awareness for a rape case that gathered national attention in Nepal at the same time as the case in New Delhi became public.
Media Resources: BBC 1/8/2013; Businessweek 1/8/2013; CNN 1/8/2013; Feminist Newswire 1/2/2013
Human face painted with flag of Nepal from Shutterstock | <urn:uuid:64006baf-8c8a-4212-9f69-d70585d44c06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2013/01/08/protests-spread-as-alleged-attackers-plead-not-guilty-to-violent-rape/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966971 | 346 | 1.820313 | 2 |
FIA race director Charlie Whiting today issued a question and answer briefing to F1 journalists with a couple of clarifications of new rules for 2009.
One concerns the eight engines the drivers may use during a season and when penalties may apply and the other regards the safety car.
The engine rule is the one I wrote about here a few weeks ago after the Ferrari launch. Here’s what Charlie had to say on the subject:
“It’s eight engines for the whole year. A driver will only incur a penalty if he uses a ninth engine. So the teams can use the engines as they like. There’s no three consecutive race rule because there doesn’t seem to be a need for it any longer. The engines will not have to do three complete events now.
In the past, as you know, the two-race engine was used only on Saturdays and Sundays. Now, for 17 races, the eight engines will have to do the three days of each grand prix. What the teams will do is to have a Friday engine that’ll probably do the first four races or something of that nature. They’ll then take the engine out and use another one for Saturday and Sunday. All we’ve got to do, – it’ll be extra work – is to make sure that these engines remain sealed and are untouched.”
This is pretty straight forward and logical. I think that engines will become less of a talking point as a result. Although bear in mind two things; first the engines were not designed to do three races, they are being adapted to do so and that may mean some blow ups early on, particularly in testing. A few years ago an engine would be something like 20hp down after two races, but now they are much better at maintaining their performance, so the disadvantage, even after 1500kms will not be significant.
Also Renault has been allowed to bring its engine up to parity with the rest of the field. Charlie would not go into details about how that was achieved, but said it involved one major change.
Charlie also clarified the new situation with safety cars. The rule we’ve existed with the last couple of years, where a car could be caught out having to pit for fuel when the pit lane was closed following the deployment of the safety car, has been dropped. Quite right too, It made no sense for a driver to be penalised because someone else hit the wall. Here’s what Charlie said,
“The rule introduced in 2007 was a bad one, and we’ve gone back to the 2006 regulations. The only difference is we intend to implement a minimum time back to the pits. When we deploy the safety car, the message will go to all the cars, which will then have a “safety car” mode on their ECUs. As soon as that message gets to the car, it’ll know where it is on the circuit, and it’ll calculate a minimum time for the driver to get back to the pits. The driver will have to respect this and the information will be displayed on his dashboard.
If you remember, the reason we closed the pit entry was to remove the incentive for the driver to come back to his pit quickly. That’s gone now, as you won’t be able to reach the pits any quicker than your dashboard display allows you to.”
That’s easier for everyone to understand than before. The show will be improved. | <urn:uuid:d87afa7f-5239-4bc3-b2d1-46a4fa7b1930> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allenonf1.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/insight-into-two-important-new-rules/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976009 | 727 | 1.585938 | 2 |
by Stephen Lacey.
Cross-posted from Climate Progress.
Former Massachusetts governor and presidential front-runner Mitt Romney— once a candidate who stood up to coal and supported clean energy—is now calling green jobs fake.
In an op-ed in the Orange County Register published Monday, Romney regurgitates GOP talking points on loan
guarantees to Solyndra and Fisker Automotive, two stories that have
turned leading conservative politicians and media pundits into a pack
of scandalmongers—even while many of those politicians supported the same government investments for companies in their own districts.
Romney has officially joined the herd, calling green jobs “illusory.”
First, the good news: President Barack Obama has finally
created some “green jobs.” Now for the bad news: They are not in the
United States, but in Finland.
The creation of environmentally friendly jobs has been at the top
of Barack Obama’s policy agenda since coming into office. With the
first of his now many jobs plans, the president set out to fulfill his
campaign promise of spending $ 150 billion to create 10 million green
jobs. Alas, things didn’t quite work out as planned.
… So far, approximately 100 workers are employed by Fisker in
Wilmington, Del., while an additional 500 are actually assembling the
cars in Finland.
… Even these few jobs may be illusory: Studies of Europe’s green job
experiments have found that each new green job destroys several other
jobs elsewhere in the economy.
There are numerous gaping holes in Romney’s piece. But here’s the biggest one: There are now 64,000 green jobs in his home state of Massachusetts alone, according to a report released earlier this month [PDF] by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC). Hard to call that “illusory.”
Due to making green jobs a “clear economic development priority,
supported by the passage of various legislative and policy initiatives,”
on the state and federal level, MassCEC reports that the
state’s green jobs workforce grew by 6.7 percent from July 2010 to July
2011—smashing the average 1 percent growth of other industries in
Massachusetts. Employers surveyed expect to see upwards of 15 percent growth in the next year alone. From the report:
Not only is it is clear that clean energy is one of our
Commonwealth’s marquee industries, but this report affirms that this
sector has played a key role in helping the Commonwealth fare the
recession better than many other states.
The Massachusetts experience reflects growth in the clean energy
sector broadly, which saw 8.3 percent growth nationally between 2009 and 2010.
According to the Brookings Institution, the sector is creating jobs
with median wages that are more than $ 7,700 above jobs in the broader economy.
Apparently, Romney didn’t get the memo.
And that Fisker Automotive story he refers to? That’s actually a
rehashed story from 2009, too. For anyone not up on the latest
“scandal,” ABC claims it has conducted an “investigation” showing that a
loan guarantee for plug-in electric vehicle manufacturer Fisker
Automotive is creating jobs in Finland, rather than the U.S.
In fact, when Fisker first closed the loan guarantee in 2009,
officials publicly explained that the company would be doing final
assembly of its first model in Finland while it ramped up a factory in
Delaware. According to Fisker, none of the DOE funds have been used to
support jobs in Finland—all the money has been used for building new
facilities in the U.S. to develop its next EV model. The company only
began hiring workers for U.S. operations in June.
Unsurprisingly, Fox News and other outlets are running with the story and inaccurately claiming that the company is using federal money to
create jobs in Finland. And now the Romney campaign is spreading the
It appears that Romney’s version of the “facts” are the only illusory item in his op-ed.
Top 6 high-paying environmental jobs
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by Michael Levi.
Cross-posted from Council on Foreign Relations.
The centerpiece of Rick Perry’s economic plan, released this morning, is a pledge to create 1.2 million energy jobs. Mitt Romney has already promised to create nearly 1.5 million energy jobs. Why do we keep hearing numbers in this ballpark? And are they plausible?
A quick preview since this is a long post: I see about 620,000 jobs max, of which about 180,000 are actually in the energy sector. The real world numbers are almost certainly quite a bit lower.
Now back to the analysis.
The figures appear to come largely from a study prepared by the consultants Wood Mackenzie and published last month by the American Petroleum Institute (API). (Perry explicitly footnotes it in his plan.) That study found that “U.S. policies which encourage the development of new and existing resourses could, by 2030… support an additional 1.4 million jobs”. About 1.2 million of those are based on expansion of U.S. production by 6.0 million barrels per day of oil and 22.4 billion cubic feet of gas per day by 2030, along with approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. (The rest come from future U.S.-Canada pipelines). The study projects interim impacts of 700,000 new jobs by 2015 and 1.1 million by 2020.
WoodMac assumes five policy changes in order to generate this expansion, all of which are echoed in Perry’s and Romney’s plans:
Open the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, parts of the Rocky Mountains, the Atlantic and Pacific Outer Continental Shelves, the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, and Alaska offshore to drilling. There is certainly a sharp contrast here with the Obama administration. Whether a new president could make all of these things happen is another question – in many cases, the nearby states would be strongly opposed.
Gulf of Mexico permitting is returned to its previous pace. It isn’t clear, though, that this is actually a new policy – given the resources by Congress and a bit of time, the Obama administration might well do the same.
Lifting of the drilling moratorium in New York State. Neither Perry nor Romney, of course, has any power over this, so it’s inappropriate to include it in estimates of federal policy.
Forgo federal regulation of shale gas and tight oil development, including, in particular, tighter regulation of fracturing and water disposal. The assumption here is that federal rules would be stricter than state ones; WoodMac assumes that they would add 30 cents per thousand cubic feet to the cost of producing gas. It’s not clear that that’s true – states like clean water too.
Approve the Keystone XL pipeline and other future U.S.-Canada pipelines. This may or may not be a policy shift from the Obama administration – we’ll have to wait and see what happens with Keystone XL first.
There are, in essence, two problems here: the estimates assume that the Obama administration will be harsh toward oil and gas, and that a new president could roll over the states and Congress to be much more permissive. To the extent that those beliefs aren’t true, the jobs estimates will be too high.
[UPDATE: I've tweaked the next two paragraphs to reflect a more careful state-by-state and policy-by-policy analysis of the numbers in WoodMac's appendix than I had in the initial post, and adjusted the bottom line numbers accordingly. The basic contours remain the same.]
Let’s put some numbers on this. Many of the projected jobs come from opening up new areas to production. As I noted above, though, many of the barriers to doing that may be at the state level and in Congress. How much might accounting for that blunt the jobs projections? Let’s assume that California blocks development, and that half of the Atlantic development (ex-Florida) is held up by states. I’m not sure how to handle Florida itself, which has a ban on drilling in state waters (there’s also a statutory bar on Eastern Gulf of Mexico development); let’s say, I think very generously, that half of the projected drilling materializes. Let’s also say that the assumptions about future Obama administration slowdowns on Gulf of Mexico permitting are probably overstated, but still assume that a new president would speed things up somewhat, as a result increasing production from Texas and Louisiana by half as much as WoodMac estimates. All in, we’ve cut the jobs projections by about 330,000. (Alternatively, if you want, you can think of this as loosely as letting production go ahead in much of California but having Florida drilling — the statutory bars to Eastern Gulf of Mexico development that make opening that up really hard – remaining out of bounds.)
Now lets look at the onshore numbers. About 40,000 jobs come from New York State, but as I noted earlier, that’s not a matter of federal policy, so scratch them all. WoodMac reports that onshore regulatory barriers cost another 300,000 jobs. I observed above, though, that the study probably exaggerates the likely stringency of Obama administration regulation relative to state policy, so it’s fair to slice this in half (actually, it’s generous not to set them closer to zero). So far, then, we’ve cut 520,000 of the projected jobs.
The final 270,000 projected jobs, or about 20 percent, come from new U.S.-Canada pipelines. This number is grossly overstated. According to WoodMac, “these jobs are primarily a result of U.S. services and the production of capital and intermediate goods exported to Canada for the development of the oil sands”. But blocking U.S.-Canada pipelines isn’t going to stop Canadian production from growing: it would slow things down, but ultimately, other export routes would likely materialize so long as oil prices were high enough. Those U.S. jobs wouldn’t disappear. To be generous, though, let’s say that delays and uncertainty associated with building other pipelines would kill 20 percent of the U.S. jobs, and that there’s a 25 percent chance that the Obama administration will kill all pipelines; credit 14,000 jobs to a new pro-pipeline policy, 256,000 fewer than WoodMac projects.
Let’s take stock. We started with 1.4 million new jobs; we’ve identified about 780,000 of those that either will exist regardless of what a new president does, or whose fate depends strongly on states’ decisions. That leaves us with a more realistic estimate of about 620,000 jobs.
But we’re not done yet. WoodMac estimates that for every direct job that the oil and gas industry generates, 2.5 jobs are created elsewhere, either in suppliers or in the broader economy as oil and gas workers spend the money they make. That 620,000 job estimate, then, corresponds to 180,000 jobs in the oil and gas industry itself. Some of those would come at the expense of jobs elsewhere in the economy — indeed, in the longer term, many of them would. The same thing goes for the induced and indirect ones.
The other caveat to the WoodMac estimates is that they assume high and steadily rising oil and gas prices. Oil prices start at $ 80 per barrel in 2012 and rise to $ 160 (in constant dollars) by 2030. WoodMac assumes that adding 6 million barrels per day of extra U.S. production won’t blunt that increase, but I don’t buy that – we’re talking about a lot of oil. In reality, if production were to start increasing the way WoodMac claims it can, the price impact would likely deter some of the other development it projects. Of course, lower prices would also help the rest of the economy, but that isn’t part of the WoodMac projections or of Romney’s and Perry’s jobs claims.
Natural gas prices, meanwhile, start at $ 6 per thousand cubic feet in 2012 in the WoodMac model (for what it’s worth, spot prices are barely half that today), and rise to $ 12 by 2030; once again, policy changes don’t affect that. That’s a pretty high price projection, particularly for a scenario where you’re expecting a huge boost in natural gas supplies. Alas, as with the oil case, lower prices mean that many of the projected energy sector jobs won’t materialized.
Which brings us to the bottom line. The numbers that Perry and Romney are offering for job creation in the energy sector are unrealistic. They assume that they will be reversing deeply anti-industry Obama policies that don’t actually exist (which is not to say that the Obama policies have no flaws), ignore real constraints at the state level, and don’t properly account for market dynamics. Six hundred thousand is a pretty hard upper limit for the number of jobs that a new policy might create by 2030, of which fewer than two hundred thousand might actually be in oil and gas. Taking into account market dynamics would lower those numbers further, quite likely much further; more generous assumptions about Obama administration energy policy would too. That’s still nothing to sneeze at – but it’s not 1.2 million jobs either.
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Read more on Clean Energy Authority | <urn:uuid:79ee2a00-9c02-43d1-94ec-09ec8f334bee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goinggreenforu.info/tag/jobs/ | 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 | 0.944012 | 3,184 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Quotes from the El Anatsui Logan Lecture
El Anatsui, world-renowned contemporary artist and the man behind the recent retrospective El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa at the DAM, gives off a quiet presence. When I first met him in the gallery, he smiled, said hello, and that was about it. So I wasn’t sure what to expect from his Logan Lecture on September 5. I—and I think the entire audience—soon was blown away by his storytelling and enraptured in the thought and meaning behind each artwork. Below are a few key quotes (and some context) that I jotted down from the evening.
El Anatsui does not tell museums or curators how to install his artworks. This is pretty rare as most artworks come with detailed instructions on how they should look. Here is what he had to say.
“Art is a reflection on life. Life isn’t something we can cut and fix. It’s always in a state of flux.”
But Lisa Binder, exhibition curator and curator of contemporary art at the Museum for African Art had a different story.
“As a curator that sounds amazing but it is actually terrifying to have no direction on how to install,” she said. “You’re simultaneously grateful to El and ungrateful.”
Using Local Materials
Throughout his 40-year career, El always has used materials that are readily available. For example, he gets the liquor bottle caps for his recent woven metal sculptures from a local distillery in Nigeria.
“Media which come with history, meaning, with something mean something to me. Not just oil paint from a tube. I can’t relate to that well. I would rather go for something people have used. Then there is a link between me and the other people who have touched that piece.”
Bottle Top Weavings
El shot to international fame after he draped an entire building in a woven-metal wall sculpture. These recent works are made from thousands of liquor bottle tops.
“All lids are from used bottles,” explained El. “Each represents a bottle of liquor consumed.”
Lisa pointed out that El often uses humble items that as a single item, are quite small, but when you put them all together, they become monumental.
“As individual pieces, they are not linked,” explained El. “But when linked together they become powerful.”
For his most recent artworks, El doesn’t create sketches; he simply sits back and thinks about the pattern.
“Drawings make you a slave to them. You forget that the instruction actually came from you.”
Notorious for his dislike of titling his works, El commented on this tradition.
“I don’t know if a title is meaning.”
“I write short poems for titles sometimes. Sometimes they flow forth and sometimes they don’t come at all.”
A High Five for the DAM Team
At the end of the night, El commented on his artwork Peak Project, which uses dozens of sheets of Peak brand milk lids.
“They installed it with double and triple volume. It was a brilliant way of installing.”
Bravo, DAM team!
Image credit: El Anatsui speaks near his artwork Stressed World at the El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa media preview at the DAM on September 6. | <urn:uuid:7e293a85-2546-478e-8475-74b770a6ef19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denverartmuseum.org/article/staff-blogs/quotes-el-anatsui-logan-lecture | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969535 | 749 | 1.820313 | 2 |
May 17, 1956
This Article Appeared In The Times
But Was Not Actually Titled Calís Column
†Transcribed By Patt Stubbs
†† ††We have recently come into possession of some additional Donoho information. This has come to us from Elder R.D. Brooks, of Carthage, whose distant relative, Sally Brooks married Charles Donoho in Bedford County, Virginia on August 3, 1784. The marriage is recorded in the records of that county which have been preserved. Sallie Brooks was the daughter of Robert Brooks. Charles Donoho and Sallie Brooks Donoho, his wife, moved to Goose Creek, not many miles south of Lafayette, and bought land from Major Thomas Donoho, this being part of a 4,000 acre tract granted to the older Donoho by the State of North Carolina. Major Donoho was born in Bedford County, Virginia, but later moved to Caswell County, North Carolina.
†† ††Charles Donoho and Sally Brooks Donoho were the parents of Albert Gallatin Donoho. They lived in the present Hartsville. Albert Gallatin Donoho was born in 1798.
††††† As yet we do not know what relation this branch of the family was to Billy Donoho, whose descendants we gave a short time ago. We would be glad to have any light that any of our readers may throw on the connection between these two branches of the family. We may add that Major Donoho was born in 1750. | <urn:uuid:40395b97-0b0a-4520-a9e3-26aeee274927> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnsmith/ccarticles/may17-A-1956.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977967 | 311 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The responsibility for retrieving the money lies mainly with the state attorney general. Gov. Corbett, twice the state's top prosecutor, brought by far the most corruption cases in recent years. His successor, Attorney General Linda Kelly, has since 2011 pursued the cases Corbett left behind.
A review by The Inquirer, based on court and legislative documents and interviews with prosecutors, defense lawyers, and officials in Harrisburg, shows how taxpayers have not been reimbursed despite the law's mandate. And even if the law had been aggressively applied, the review shows, loopholes mean millions of dollars would still have been left unrecoverable.
Among The Inquirer's findings:
The legislature has imposed no limit on hourly rates or caps on total spending per official. For example, taxpayers paid $134,000 to hire defense attorneys for just one state representative. In contrast, Philadelphia caps the legal defense for indigent murder defendants facing the death penalty at $17,500.
Top officials in the state House acknowledge that records do not provide a full accounting of their legal spending - and that the chamber has never put its legal-coverage policy into writing.
The state Senate does not fully disclose who has benefited from its spending. Though the Senate does reveal sums paid to individual law firms, it is fighting in court to withhold the names of politicians who have received the legal help.
The 1996 law, officially known as Liability for Reimbursement of Costs for Outside Counsel, is at best a flawed instrument, some prosecutors and critics say.
For example, it does not apply to money spent defending legislators facing investigations by the state Ethics Commission - even when the officials are found to have violated ethics rules.
In response to questions from The Inquirer on the application of the law, spokesmen for Corbett and Kelly said on Friday the statute did not apply to any of their cases.
Corbett's spokesman, Kevin Harley, said prosecutors had checked with defense lawyers who had represented legislators and aides. Harley said the prosecutors had been assured that taxpayer money had been spent only on such matters as protecting legislative privacy issues and responding to subpoenas - not in criminal defense.
Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for Kelly, echoed those arguments. He said the money spent on defense attorneys had not been used "improperly." He would not elaborate.
Frederiksen did not rule out invoking the law in the future. He said, for instance, that his office was "monitoring" the federal corruption prosecution of former State Sen. Robert J. Mellow, the Lackawanna County Democrat awaiting sentencing. In federal cases, the law says the attorney general should seek reimbursement of legal fees by filing suit in state court.
Stephen Miskin, a spokesman for the GOP members in the House, agreed with the attorney general analysis. Though paid lawyers were provided to elected officials and aides, the work was not "criminal defense," he said.
But Brett Marcy, a spokesman for the House Democrats, said his party's caucus found the explanations from Corbett and Kelly puzzling and unpersuasive.
He said the taxpayer-paid defense lawyers had indeed provided direct representation to their clients - the elected officials and aides.
"It sounds like the A.G.'s office is trying to parse out specific language to explain why they haven't asked for compensation," he said.
It is not uncommon for governments to cover elected officials' and staffers' legal bills. In Harrisburg, the legislature pays for attorneys in matters involving their official jobs, but not purely private issues, such as a drunken-driving arrest. The legislature covers legal bills only during the investigatory phase of a case. Any payments stop once an official is criminally charged, and they must pay for their defense at trial themselves.
What is uncommon is the especially heavy legal spending in the capital.
Of the $15 million paid in the last five years, the state House spent more than $10 million hiring defense lawyers to address the sweeping investigations begun by Corbett and known as Bonusgate and Computergate. The Senate spent an additional $4 million on lawyers in response to federal indictments of four state senators.
These totals are estimates. Citing attorney-client privilege, the chief clerk of the Senate provided The Inquirer only with totals paid to law firms and did not reveal the names of clients or the amount spent for each.
House public information officers said invoices were "not structured in a way that would provide the reader with the ability to discern what charges specifically related to what client of the firm."
In other words, their records also do not break down how much taxpayer money was spent on individual officials.
They do, however, permit some calculations. For example, Mellow recently faced a federal criminal investigation and a state Ethics Commission probe. He was convicted of corruption in the federal case and cited for ethical wrongdoing by the ethics panel.
At least two law firms represented him in those cases, according to interviews and legal records. Senate records show the firms were paid $1.4 million while those investigations were under way.
House records also show the public spent $357,000 on lawyers for State House Speaker John M. Perzel (R., Phila.) and several aides while they were under investigation. Perzel is now serving a prison sentence.
In one specific disclosure, the House records reveal taxpayers paid $134,000 to hire a lawyer to represent former State Rep. Brett Feese, a top Republican convicted last year.
Law born in scandal
The reimbursement law was born of scandal. In 1995, Ernie Preate, the Republican attorney general, suddenly resigned and pleaded guilty to federal charges of taking secret cash campaign donations from operators of illegal video-poker machines.
Then it was revealed the state had paid more than $400,000 for defense lawyers while the FBI was closing in on Preate.
State Rep. Bill Lloyd, a Democrat from rural Somerset County, was upset. He wrote the reimbursement law. The law covers all elected officials and others subject to provisions of the state ethics acts.
"My argument was that if the politician was convicted, taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook for legal expenses," Lloyd, who left the legislature in 1998, said recently. "I just didn't think it was right."
No one disagreed. The Senate approved the bill, 49-0, and the House reapproved it, 201-0.
Preate argued that the money was spent to protect the Attorney General's Office, not himself personally. That argument was punctured by the man appointed to fill out Preate's term: Corbett.
In Preate's case, Corbett aggressively examined the legal fees. He hired a former federal prosecutor and deputized him to look into work done by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, the Philadelphia firm hired when the FBI was pursuing Preate.
The inquiry found the lawyers hired ostensibly to look after the interests of the Attorney General's Office really served politicians targeted in a probe. The inquiry established that Morgan, Lewis had charged taxpayers to help defend a lower-ranking suspect who was being squeezed as the FBI built its case against Preate.
As Corbett said at the time, "Incredibly, the taxpayers of Pennsylvania paid for a portion of the suspect's legal defense."
Using public money, the firm also hired a private investigator to dig up background on the two federal prosecutors directing the Preate probe.
Though Morgan, Lewis denied any wrongdoing, it agreed to repay the state $304,000.
Law finally invoked
The 1996 law was finally invoked this year by Stephen A. Zappala Jr. the Democratic district attorney in Allegheny County.
Zappala won an order from a county judge that required former Republican State Sen. Jane C. Orie to pay the state the $110,000 used to cover legal bills incurred in the months before her indictment in 2010. The judgment was part of Orie's sentence after she was convicted of using her state employees for campaigning and forging documents in a cover-up.
Zappala, in a recent interview, said he could not explain why other prosecutors had not used the law.
"My read of the statute was that it's a mandatory responsibility that a prosecutor has," he said. "If you don't try to recover taxpayer monies that should be recovered, you've been victimized again."
In court, Orie's defense lawyer, William C. Costopoulos, unsuccessfully challenged Zappala's use of the law. The payback push was "unprecedented legally and factually," he argued.
"This is the first known attempt to use the reimbursement provisions," he said. "In none of the cases of the convicted public officials in the Bonusgate or Computergate investigations was such reimbursement sought, let alone granted," he said.
Judge Jeffrey A. Manning was unmoved.
"Whether or not this request by the Commonwealth has any precedent is immaterial," he wrote. "The statute clearly and unequivocally requires the court to order a public official convicted of a criminal offense to reimburse the Commonwealth for any funds incurred to defend the official."
He ordered Orie to start paying as soon as she completes her prison term.
All legal costs
When Lloyd introduced the reimbursement statute, it mandated that the corrupt official had to pay all legal costs - including money paid to represent the institution or other employees caught up in a probe.
Lloyd said that was fair.
"The money wouldn't have been spent but for the original conduct of the state official," he said.
The House agreed and passed the law as drafted. But the provision making convicted officials liable for all costs was stripped out in 1996 by the Senate's Rules Committee. Records detailing the vote could not be located, but the panel was chaired at the time by F. Joseph Loeper (R., Delaware), then Senate majority leader.
Four years later, Loeper pleaded guilty to corruption charges. Among the other members on the Rules Committee were State Sen. Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.) and Mellow, both later convicted of corruption charges, and former Sen. Raphael Musto, who is awaiting trial on federal charges of taking kickbacks.
On the House floor in 1996, Lloyd predicted the change meant taxpayers would still be "saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs."
In Orie's criminal case, that was proved true.
During the trial, lawyers for the Senate Republican fully detailed the spending prompted by the investigation. In all, they said, $1.2 million in taxpayer money was used to cover legal bills.
But of that, they said, only $110,000 was spent to assist Orie directly.
The other $1.1 million, the GOP's lawyers said in a filing, was spent representing the Senate.
As examples, the lawyers said they fought to block the seizure of "legislatively privileged material," reviewed thousands of documents sought by the investigators, and advised 20 aides who were witnesses in the probe.
They also stressed they got back "Caucus property (not Sen. Orie personal property) unlawfully seized by the Commonwealth from the Senate's Pittsburgh North Hills office."
Judge Manning ultimately agreed with the Senate position but was bemused. "Just explain to me for a minute your position here," he asked from the bench in June. "Wouldn't you rather have the money back than not have the money back? . . . It is taxpayer dollars. It is all taxpayer dollars."
Zappala said he rejected the notion that the Senate lawyers pursued an agenda apart from Orie's. "I think that's nonsense," he said.
But Drew Crompton, a top Republican aide in the Senate and a lawyer, disputed that. He noted that many aides ended up as prosecution witnesses against Orie.
No full accounting
Though the full scope of spending in connection with Orie was laid out at her trial through subpoenas, the Senate will not provide an accounting for all officials whose bills have been paid.
The Senate, supported by House lawmakers in a friend-of-the-court filing, argued that disclosure might unfairly smear officials merely caught up in criminal investigations, perhaps as witnesses.
For two years, the Senate has been fighting a lawsuit by the Associated Press requesting a full detailing of spending. In a friend-of-the-court brief last month, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association said the information should be released to provide "public accountability for public funds."
Commonwealth Court ordered the full information made public last year. The Senate has appealed.
The Philadelphia law firm Conrad O'Brien is handling the case. The Senate will not say how much it has paid the firm.
Contact Craig R. McCoy at 215-854-4821 or [email protected].
Inquirer staff writer Angela Couloumbis contributed to this article. | <urn:uuid:b6b2c559-bdef-4f5b-a6a7-65ece9585ee4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.philly.com/2012-10-01/news/34178692_1_taxpayer-money-top-prosecutor-defense-lawyers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975391 | 2,656 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Good things come to those who wait.
Even if the late Bernard Caffrey, a Springfield firefighter who died in the line of duty 53 years ago, had to wait until Wednesday for a long overdue honor.
Firefighter Caffrey was assigned to the old Oakland Street station in Forest Park.
His service to the citizens of Springfield had been overlooked for decades.
Wednesday thanks to some good detective work by his granddaughter Lea, B.J. Caffrey’s name is now etched in historical stone.
“Long time coming, long time coming,” said Lea Caffrey-Fiega. “Blessed, blessed.”
It was a solemn, and at the same time joyful day for members of Bernard Caffrey’s extended family, and for his fellow Springfield firefighters.
After exhaustive research and legwork, his granddaughter was successful in getting her grandfathers name on the Springfield Firefighters Memorial.
“Finding out that the Station 3 was closing and going to visit it the day before it closed,” said Lea. “To telling the story to the fire fighters that were there. Then to have them listen to the story and get so emotional about it. And to have them crawl up to the rafters and pull the records out, and pull the year that my grandfather died.”
And the story is right there in the record books. On August 23, 1953, Bernard Caffrey signed into work at the Oakland Street fire station at 7:55am. After working a fire that day, Caffrey was signed out at 5:25pm in severe pain and taken to the hospital. Fourteen days later on September 6th, the District Fire Chief notified his fellow firefighters that B. J. Caffrey had died.
He was officially signed out for the final time the following day, September 7, 1953.
“Somehow this event got bypassed over the years,” said Springfield Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant. “Even when the memorial was created until his granddaughter came and gave us the information that this is what happened. We followed up on it, we were able to put this ceremony together and get his name engraved on the memorial.
“The most amazing thing for me,” said Lea. “Is that a fire station that was closing took care of one of their own one more time before they, really closed the door.”
All totaled there are now 21 names of Springfield Firefighters that have died in the line of duty. The first name is Captain Sidney Bowers, dated January 6, 1906.
And the last name on the monument … Bernard Caffrey, September 6, 1953 | <urn:uuid:fb7dddca-3fc0-4b7e-ac63-eab06bc4c4bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.masslive.com/mywideworld/index.ssf/2012/03/five_decades_after_losing_his_life_in_the_line_of_duty_springfield_firefighter_bernard_caffrey_final.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983234 | 564 | 1.710938 | 2 |
FIRST IMPORTANT GAME.
Columbia Today at 3 P. M.--Yesterday's Practice Shows Improvement.
The football team will play Columbia on Soldiers Field at 3 o'clock this afternoon. This game is important not only because it is the first hard game of the season, but also because it is the first Harvard-Columbia game since 1891. Up to last year Columbia has had no football team since 1891, and last year no game with Columbia was scheduled. Columbia had a very successful team last year, defeating Yale 6 to 0 and making good scores in all the other games. This year the team has not developed very quickly, but there are strong men in the team such as Slocovitch, Morley and Weeks. The only real indication of its strength can be gathered from the tie game with Williams, in which Columbia out classed her opponents but was unable to score. The other games played this year resulted in defeating Rutgers 11-0, and Wesleyan 12-0.
The Harvard team as made up today is a strong one. Sawin, Daly and Lee will play again and Graydon will play left tackle instead of full-back as before. Ristine will be the only substitute, playing at right end for Hallowell, whose ankle still keeps him out of the game.
Coach Sanford has not yet decided upon the Columbia line-up. The Harvard line-up will be as follows: r.e., Ristine; r.t., J. Lawrence; r.g., Barnard; c., Sargent; l.g., Lee; l.t., Graydon; l.e., Campbell; q.b., Daly; r.h.b., Kendall; l.h.b., Sawin; f.b., Ellis.
The practice yesterday was a decided improvement over that of Thursday. In spite of the fact that a new combination of substitute backs was tried the first eleven not only scored but kept the ball entirely in the second team's territory. This was due almost entirely to the steady and strong playing of the men in the line, who seemed to have profitted greatly by the hard coaching on Thursday. The guards and tackles easily broke up the second eleven's line for the backs and in the defence concentrated their efforts at the point of attack to great advantage. The second team tried about twelve plays against the line but failed to gain any ground. The first eleven gained almost at will through the line, but fumbling and poor interference marred the end running. On account of the Columbia game today, only one fifteen minute period was played. The most encouraging work of the day, beside that of the first team's line, was in the punting and drop-kicking. In the preliminary practice Kernan and Stillman made an average of fifty yards on their punts, and Ellis, who a week ago made no better than twenty-five yards, made an average of forty yesterday. In the game he punted sixty yards twice. Sawin and Kendall did no actual playing but spent the time kicking goals.
In the practice Jaynes and W. R. Lawrence took the places of Sawin and Kendall, and in the middle of the game Stillman took Ellis's place. These backs did very well considering that they played together for the first time. Jaynes did some effective line bucking and was the only successful end runner. He made three fairly long runs around left end with very little interference. Ellis played fullback for a few minutes and did much better work than on Thursday. He struck the line hard, fought his way through and kept his feet well. His punts were much longer and straighter than usual and he did some good interfering. The improvement in Barnard's and Lee's playing was the most noticeable part of the practice. They both broke through their opponents constantly and played well together on the defense. Graydon had B. G. Waters '95 for an opponent and made a good showing against him, as the backs were enabled to make several good gains through that position. Farley, Ristine and Campbell were still slow in getting down under punts, the second team succeeding in running several back. The best individual work of the day was done by Baldwin of the second eleven. He made several excellent tackles, ran the punts back successfully, and played his position well. | <urn:uuid:a32d04f6-cfe0-4213-9aac-2d78f37e9e32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1900/10/13/first-important-game-pthe-football-team/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985123 | 887 | 1.742188 | 2 |
When Gloria's heart began to thump irregularly, she immediately sought
the advice of her physician and learned that palpitations are often
related to tension. Recognizing that she was overworked, Gloria decided
to ask her intuition to guide her to a healthy lifestyle.
Surprisingly, her intuition did not start with her heart, but with her primary relationship. A week of daydream images about a vacation with Tom, her husband, culminated when she saw an ad for a Mexican condo rental. Tom was thrilled and, within a few weeks, they were off to their first real vacation in more than a decade.
When they returned, Gloria's rational mind kept telling her to resume her usual pace. But her intuition signaled no with a sick feeling in the stomach whenever she contemplated working more. After four months of listening to her intuition by selecting her work opportunities carefully and investing in her marriage, Gloria's palpitations were greatly reduced.
Gloria's body, mind, and spirit are healing, finding peace with a new work rhythm, and thrilled to be exploring her marriage anew. Gloria's body knew what she needed. All she had to do was pay attention.
It is important to realize that intuition, like all human experience, is not outside of your body. Intuition lives in the body and likely has roots in your biology. Below are some examples.
These biological discoveries suggest that intuitive impressions have biological roots. Your body is knowledgeable.
you become aware of and sensitive to your body's intuitive knowledge,
you will be more aware of changing conditions in your body and better
able to monitor your health challenges, guide your healthcare, and
nurture your wellbeing.
Consider these examples, which represent the spectrum of intuitive experiences-from increasing wellbeing to saving lives.
a high tech executive, has to work 14-hour days during project
deadlines. She was feeling very tired during one of these periods, but
dismissed it, considering her exhaustion normal for the circumstances.
But one Friday afternoon, as she was driving home excited to see her
daughter who had just arrived from London, her intuition urged her to
check herself into the Emergency Room. "You are too tired." She argued with her intuition for a few minutes, but found her body driving towards the hospital.
Tests were run that night that showed Anne was bleeding internally due to a malignant tumor in her colon. Surgery was completed within the week and they found that the tumor was still well-contained. Anne is doing fine 3 years later.
Lesson: Listen when your intuition nags you about a health issue. Check its information out with healthcare providers.
of a strange persistent rash on her breast for several weeks, Betsy
turned to Google for some answers. Within a few hours, she diagnosed
herself with inflammatory breast cancer and later learned that she was
at 3.5 stage out of 4. Her prognosis was grim, but her intuition
suggested a combination of conventional and complementary therapies.
To create her healing team, Betsy researched providers, then asked her inner self if this person would be a good fit. Eventually, her team included five physicians with diverse expertise, massage therapists, jyorei healing, Native American and Tibetan spiritual and medicine people, and a wide variety of prayer circles. Her physicians lead her through the traditional mastectomy, chemo therapies, and radiation, as well as advised a course of vitamins, supplements, and guided imagery tapes.
Throughout, Betsy listened to her intuitive body and took charge of the course of her care. If her body told her no more chemo or radiation this week, she stood her ground. She remains closely attuned to her body's mental, emotional, and spiritual energy.
Lesson: Do your research and tap into your intuition when choosing providers and therapies. Attune to your body's wisdom and take charge when necessary to serve your healing and wellbeing.
John had a history of cold sores which would suddenly make him ill for days. As his sensitivity and willingness to listen to his body's subtle chemical and intuitive messages grew, John learned to adjust his schedule and reduce stress before a cold sore could take over his life. In addition to noting stress, John's intuition helped him identify what thoughts, attitudes, or actions increased the risk of getting a cold sore.
Lesson: The skill of listening and being sensitive to your body's clues (intuitive and otherwise) can help you respond earlier to health challenges and may help you handle, reduce, or prevent their development.
loves active outdoor vacations, such as canoeing and camping. When she
began to have dream images of lying in a deck chair on a cruise, she
thought they didn't fit. "I am not the cruise type," she told herself.
But when her intuition continued to urge the cruise, she began to
wonder what it meant.
Pondering the possibilities, Jane realized that she needed a vacation where she could completely relax and not take care of anyone. Jane let go of her preconceived ideas about how like this might come about. Later, when she and her husband took a canoe trip without children for the first time in years, Jane recognized the deep relaxation and restoration of her dream as she floated along on the water with no deadlines or people to take care of. Her intuition had been working on many levels at once, serving not only the wellbeing of Jane, but also that of her husband, and their marriage, and indirectly their children.
Lesson: When your intuition continues to call to you, give up preconceived ideas of the specifics and surrender to the meaning behind its advice. Intuition will take care of the details.
Below are three practices you can begin immediately to tune into and enhance your body's intuition.
While most people aren't listening to their body, their body is listening to them!
Your body hears everything you say and think about it. So, think for a moment--what do you say about it? Do you criticize or even hate your body? How often do you thank, appreciate, and love your body?
Most people have things about their body that they don't like and they often focus on these aspects. But realize that your body is working on your behalf every second. It allows you to do activities you enjoy, to appreciate beauty and love, and to engage in millions of interactions. Minute-by-minute your cells are communicating; digesting and producing available energy; and cleaning and transforming your being. Your body is one of life's greatest achievements and worthy of great appreciation.
Remember also that intuition operates best in a caring atmosphere. Intuition travels on love. This is why people's greatest intuitions are about things they love. If you wish to use your intuition to improve your health and wellbeing, begin by expressing appreciation and love for your body everyday.
We listen to the people we love; we keep our minds on the things that we love.
Learning to listen to your body's clues is central to applying intuitive wisdom to health and healing. Listening and attending require you to do three things:
arises in multiple ways, but most of us have been trained out of
hearing its voice. In fact, a 2003 study of school children found that
intuitive skills dropped as children proceeded through elementary school.
Your intuitive body is a like a musical instrument. Just as it is hard to get music out of an untuned instrument, it is difficult to access intuition when your body is out of whack. Here are some clues for nurturing and growing your sensitivity.
When trying to enhance your sensitivity to intuition, it may help you to appl y some of the ideas of modern physics. The string theory suggests that the core building blocks of the universe and your body are miniscule vibrating strings. Think of your intuitive body as a vibrating, information-rich field that is in constant communication with the world around and within you.
Albert Einstein, a fan of intuition, stated: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
Intuition can contribute to your health and wellbeing in many ways, from potentially dramatically saving your life to guiding you to a more balanced lifestyle. If you learn to love and listen to your body, intuition serves your mind, body, and spirit.
Begley, Sharon (2001). Religion and the Brain . Newsweek. May 7. pg 50 at
Hallman, Christian. (2003). Measuring Children's Intuition in a School Setting. Private Research, Sept 1999 - June 2003.
Kaku, Michio, and Thompson, Jennifer. ( 2005). Beyond Einstein: The Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe. Anchor Books, New York.
Kobasa, S., Maddi, S. and Puccetti, M. (1982). Personality and Exercise as Buffers in the Stress-Illness Relationship. Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 5, 391-404.
McCraty, Rollin. (2004). Coincidence or Intuition. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. February & April 2004.
Rodale, Ardath. (2006). Love and Healing. Prevention Magazine, February, Vol 58, No 2, pg 216.
Thie, John F. and Thie, M.. (2005). Touch for Health: The Complete Edition: A Practical Guide to Natural Health With Acupressure Touch. DeVorss & Company. Camarillo, CA.
Winerman, Lea. (2005). 'Thin-Slices' of life . Monitor on Psychology. March, Vol. 36, No 3.
Emery, Marcia. (1999). The Intuitive Healer: Accessing Your Inner Physician. St. Martin's Press. New York, NY.
Gendling, Eugene T. (1981). Focusing. Bantam. New York, NY.
LeShan, Lawrence. (1974). How To Meditate, A Guide to Self-Discovery. Little, Brown and Company. New York, NY.
Myss, Caroline. (1996). Anatomy of the Spirit. Harmony Books/ Crown Publishers, Inc. New York, NY.
Palmer, Wendy. (1994). The Intuitive Body: Akikido as a Clairsentient Practice. North Atlantic Books. Berkeley, CA.
© 2006 Life Science Foundation, used with permission. | <urn:uuid:e85af757-5488-4938-abb9-61dfe856f65d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/print/703?quicktabs_2=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959373 | 2,165 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Samsung recently starting updating its aging-but-not-dead flagship phone from yesteryear (OK, technically it was the year before that, but yesteryesteryear isn't a thing) to Jelly Bean. And when Samsung updates things, you know what that means, right? Source code. Because a new version of Android brings with it a new kernel. And Android modders want new source to go along with that new kernel. So Samsung delivered, as always.
This go around, it's uploaded the kernel source for the Galaxy S II i9100, as well as Bell Canada's variant, the i9100M BMC. So, if you maintain a ROM, want to tweak some code, or some other third thing – you can hit the appropriate link below to grab the download. | <urn:uuid:783450e7-7ca2-4751-893b-4a3c5ea868ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.androidpolice.com/tags/gsii/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937914 | 163 | 1.570313 | 2 |
- Year Created: 2011
- Submitted to ArtBase: Friday Mar 25th, 2011
- Original Url: http://adamzuckercompleteworks.blogspot.com/
- Adam Zucker, primary creator
Take full advantage of the ArtBase by Becoming a Member
A living artist is always creating art. It is what drives me to appreciate life both physically and metaphysically. My art has been a constant exploration for a means to express myself the moment I have an idea or an impulse, I feel driven to create. Whether the artwork is meant to be exhibited, published in a zine or online, installed in the public, preformed, or to just sit in the studio where it might just remain; it is always important for me to see what I have done and continue to do for my artistic development.
I am not here to please the critics or have some academic write about my art...I'm not opposed to it, people can chose to analyze my artwork however they'd like but I'd prefer my art to talk for itself. Because it is a culmination of my experiences and encounters my art has been changing constantly.
I am never content with sticking to a similar style, medium, and concept. Ideas change as does my day to day experience so if I get inspired to do something one day I might be inspired to do something completely different the next day.
Because I don't feel like I should be viewed in any academic context I am taking the opportunity to create (and play with) a virtual catalog raisonne of my work. I will start posting on a consistent basis my entire artistic output (including sketches and studies as I uncover them) from the beginning of my "career" to the present work I am making and all future work that I will do. I will provide commentary when necessary but the art will speak for itself at large.
Thank you for taking the journey with me...This will be interesting especially in the beginning where I uncover all the artwork that I have long neglected or parted with. | <urn:uuid:18d2a541-37d8-45eb-883d-95931a60a4fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rhizome.org/portfolios/artwork/52458/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956616 | 417 | 1.515625 | 2 |
I use circular saws every day and have never felt that cordless models had the power and runtime necessary for framing. A few years back, though, I bought a 36-volt cordless saw and found it to be a reasonable replacement for a corded saw in certain applications.
For this article we tested four higher-voltage saws – 36-volt models from Bosch, DeWalt, and Hilti, and a 28-volt model from Milwaukee. We used them while framing and siding a house and for building a deck. Later, we performed a test to see how many cuts each saw could make per charge.
WHY HIGHER VOLTAGE?
My experience with 18-volt saws has been that they are fine for cutting trim and the occasional stud or joist, but beyond that, they simply don't have the power I need. Just about anything I could cut with an 18-volt saw, I could cut faster with a higher-voltage tool.
The saws we tested are best for tasks that don't require a lot of repetitive cutting. We keep a corded saw at the cut station where we cut studs and window packages, and use a cordless saw for pickup framing and intermittent tasks like cutting and notching plates, installing drywall backing, cutting blocking in place, and building tub platforms and soffits. Cordless saws come in very handy on the roof; we regularly use them to trim rafter tails and cut roof sheathing. As long as you bring a charger and spare battery, you should be able to do this kind of work without having to wait for a battery to charge.
POWER AND RUNTIME
Designing a cordless saw that will work for framing is a balancing act – the tool needs to have a lot of power, but it also needs to have reasonable runtime and weight. In the years since these saws first came out, many have undergone battery upgrades – Bosch went from nicad to lithium ion (LI) and Milwaukee went from V-28 to M-28 LI batteries.
To gauge the relative runtime of these saws, I counted the number of cuts each could make through a 1-3/4-inch by 14-inch LVL on a single charge. To make things even, I equipped each saw with a new Freud Diablo blade.
All four saws powered right through the LVLs. Of the 36-volt models, the Hilti came in first, with an amazing 85 cuts, followed by the Bosch with 57.5 and the DeWalt with 39.5. As expected, the 28-volt Milwaukee couldn't match the runtime of the 36-volt tools, but at 35.5 cuts it was close to the DeWalt.
It's worth remembering that these were cuts through 14-inch LVL material, which is thicker and harder than framing lumber. If we had been cutting 2x12s, we no doubt would have gotten many more cuts per charge.
In this part of the country, we use worm-drive saws, so they're my standard of comparison. The saws in this review are sidewinders, but the Bosch, DeWalt, and Milwaukee models are configured like wormdrives in that their blades are on the left. The Hilti's blade is on the right. All the saws feel somewhat tail-heavy because of the battery in back. It's different from what I'm used to, but I can live with it if it means being able to work without a cord. The difference should be less noticeable to tradespeople who normally use sidewinders.
The Bosch and Milwaukee take 6-1/2-inch blades, and the DeWalt and Hilti take 7-1/4-inch blades. Bigger blades usually mean greater cutting capacity, but that's not true of every saw. The Hilti can cut through 2-by stock at a 50-degree bevel, and so can the Bosch – even though it has a smaller blade. The DeWalt and the Milwaukee can cut through 2-by stock at 45 degrees but not at 50 degrees.
None of these saws appear to be as rugged as corded models – the most obvious weaknesses being the plastic blade guards on the Bosch and DeWalt. The Hilti and Milwaukee have conventional metal guards. The baseplates on these saws don't feel as stiff as the baseplates on the better corded models. | <urn:uuid:6c5b505e-3218-40f7-b59c-9bb1548eb5e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.toolsofthetrade.net/table-saws/tools-up-close--big-cordless-circular-saws.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96734 | 928 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Object: Disassemble and Reassemble the Puzzle
Difficulty: Level 7 - Challenging
Types: Hanayama Metal Puzzles, Akio Yamamoto
Dimensions: 2 in x 2 2/3 in x 1 2/3 in / 5 cm x 6.7 cm x 4.3 cm
Note: Our level rating system is different than Hanayama's. Hanayama's goes from 1-6 and ours goes from 5-10.
In the summer of 1997, I saw two mackerels that had somehow managed to get into the sardine tank at the aquarium. Watching these two fish unable to blend in with the shoal of sardines made me wonder if they were on a journey of self-discovery.
What sort of adventure will they have?
Imagining this led to the conception of six cast puzzles based on oceanographic subjects.
A pair of gobies living in a coral reef. Separate them from the coral, and then put them back together again.
- Yamamoto 2008 -
Average Customer Rating
Disclaimer: These reviews are written by our customers. Puzzle
Master makes every attempt to keep these posts informative and relevant. If
you find a post objectionable or inappropriate, please let us know by sending
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On Saturday December 20th George wrote,
Probably the hardest of the marine series, because there seem to be a lot of possibilities for taking this one apart.
On Friday December 5th DerrickR wrote,
Good looking puzzle. Very smooth operation. I agree with the 7 rating. Great addition to my collection.
* Exchange rates shown are estimates only, and are based on current rates provided by the
Bank of Canada.
The rates charged to you by PayPal or your Credit Card company may vary slightly from
those shown above. | <urn:uuid:d72c12c1-5524-4861-b066-098008b61e8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.puzzlemaster.ca/browse/novelty/livecube/1413-cast-reef | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936346 | 385 | 1.625 | 2 |
Mobile Enterprise Solutions Take Off Due to Necessary Connectivity Between Mobile and Traditional Devices
From connections to server infrastructure to total cost of ownership, the article "Apps Mania 3: Managing Change in Enterprise Applications" sums up how to efficiently manage applications after they are in place.
An agile mindset is necessary for the successful implementation and deployment of apps. The article reminds anyone in the field of the following guidelines:
On-going change is a massive consideration in the management of applications. As well as mobile device lifecycles, your business needs will inevitably change with time and with the demands of your customers. As a result, careful consideration must be given to the impact of change. Mobile applications should be designed to cope with every changing demand of your customers and of the market. Dynamic flexibility which caters for change is a must for the enterprise applications of fieldworkers.
The most important idea to remember is that mobile apps should not have to be contained to one platform. It is important with increasingly liberal policies regarding devices to ensure apps are compatible with any number of operating systems and devices. The consistency and connectivity between traditional and mobile devices will become something to watch develop as we see mobile enterprise solutions take off.
Megan Feil, March 15, 2012 | <urn:uuid:fd6c45f3-0d62-490b-8799-48870d340e30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apprapids.com/home/?currentPage=103 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94558 | 253 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Originally Posted by Rodgers01
If anyone else needs a reminder of who's already on the currency, list
If Jackson were to go, the first replacement I can think of who's not already honored is John Adams.
Maybe also promote FDR from the dime to the $20.
FDR's on the dime because he helped found the March of Dimes (to help eradicate childhood polio). I think when he'll be on the dime for a while.
I say put Teddy Roosevelt on the 20. First president of the 20th century, put him on the 20 dollar bill. | <urn:uuid:348db4ab-ed72-4518-90ac-5d7504098a00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15651290&postcount=36 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970185 | 119 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The Center of Excellence (COE) is the home of “The Learning Center” and the Office of Academic Support.
The Learning Center is a facility where students have academic assistance and resources available to them.
Academic Assistance Programs include:
The primary goal of the COE is to assist students in achieving academic success by providing academic support and assistance. The major function of the COE is to develop and coordinate comprehensive, educational and academic support matched to the specific needs of students.
Preparation for Medical Board Exams is key and critical to the academic success and progression of students. Academic counseling and resources in preparation for Step 1 and Step 2 USMLE Exams is available. The Executive Director for the COE collaborates with the Office of Student Affairs and the Counseling and Support Services to provide an onsite KUMC Board Preparation Program.
By providing appropriate intervention at various levels, we are committed to helping each student become well-prepared, culturally competent physicians. | <urn:uuid:55d80973-7d5c-4e0a-a5ed-4b3b62455afb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/office-of-cultural-enhancement-and-diversity/recruitment-and-retention-/center-of-excellence-for-diversity-and-elimination-of-health-disparities.html?site=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944923 | 203 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Christian Cowboy Plots to Bring Christ into Kids' Social Studies Class
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When the Texas State Board of Education issued a list of proposed "experts" to sit on a social studies curriculum panel, one name immediately leaped out to defenders of church-state separation: David Barton.
The panel is supposed to consist of academics and others with specialized knowledge to assist the board in drafting new social studies standards for public schools across the state. The selection of Barton, a Religious Right propagandist who for years has pushed a fundamentalist "Christian nation" view of American history, is a sure sign that trouble lurks ahead.
At the offices of the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), a group that monitors the Religious Right, staff members were alarmed.
"We believe there’s nothing wrong with teaching about the significance of religion in history and society today," said TFN President Kathy Miller. "The problem comes when Barton and others try to use public schools to promote their own personal religious beliefs over those of all others."
TFN, Americans United and other advocates of church-state separation are quite familiar with Barton and his antics. He’s been attacking that constitutional principle for years, as well as arguing that a proper "biblical worldview" means that fundamentalist Christianity must reign supreme over all areas of life – including government. Most recently, Barton has been hobnobbing with Newt Gingrich, as the former House speaker strives to re-make himself as a Religious Right champion.
From his base in Aledo, a town of about 2,000 just west of Fort Worth, Barton runs an outfit called WallBuilders that issues a steady stream of books, videos, DVDs, pamphlets and other materials designed to "prove" that the United States was founded to be a Christian nation. Barton argues that American law should be based on the Bible (or, more accurately, his fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible) and says church-state separation was never intended by our Founders.
The name of Barton’s outfit is somewhat ironic, since WallBuilders exists to tear down the wall of separation between church and state. But Barton was thinking of another wall when he chose that moniker. It comes from Nehemiah 2:17, an Old Testament passage in which the Prophet Nehemiah calls for rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem.
Perhaps somewhat egotistically, Barton apparently likens himself to a biblical prophet who has been ordained by God to rebuild the religious foundations of the nation.
Barton aims to do that by rediscovering an allegedly lost or suppressed Christian history of America. It’s an odd task for him, because although he poses as a historian, Barton isn’t one.
His official bio on the WallBuilders Web site says nothing about Barton’s educational background, probably for good reason: It’s not relevant to what he’s doing. Barton earned a bachelor’s degree in "Christian Education" from Oral Roberts University in 1976 and later taught math and science at a fundamentalist Christian school founded by his father, pastor of Aledo Christian Center.
Despite his thin academic credentials, Barton has managed to become a celebrity in the world of the Religious Right based on his research allegedly "proving" America’s Christian character. He has appeared on programs alongside TV preacher Pat Robertson and fundamentalist radio honcho James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. Barton gives hundreds of lectures every year, rallying fundamentalist shock troops to oppose secular government and church-state separation.
All the while, Barton, a tall man who frequently sports boots, a rodeo shirt and a cowboy hat, presides over an interlocking network of for-profit and non-profit groups that have produced a tidy sum for himself and made him a star in the world of the Religious Right. In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.
TFN’s Miller said Barton’s rise comes in part because he tells fundamentalists what they want to hear – the nation was founded by them and for them.
"In some ways, it’s a product of the anti-intellectualism that’s become so prominent not just with the Religious Right, but in the conservative movement generally," Miller said. "Barton’s pseudo-intellectual nonsense serves to validate the personal beliefs and emotions of people who have been exposed for decades to far-right rhetoric denouncing those with high levels of education as somehow ‘promoting a liberal agenda.’"
In 1998, a conservative member of the California Academic Standards Commission appointed Barton to an advisory position, asking the Texan to critique proposed social studies/history standards. From that perch, Barton attacked the portion of the standards that discussed the development of religious freedom, trying to remove every reference to separation of church and state.
He almost pulled it off. Commission members, unfamiliar with Barton’s agenda, seemed open to adopting his suggestions. They changed course only after intervention by Americans United’s Sacramento Chapter, AU’s national office and others.
The battle in Texas may be tougher. The State Board of Education is stacked with a vocal cohort of far-right, fundamentalist activists. Fresh from a bruising battle over what to teach about evolution in science class, the board now has social studies and history right in its crosshairs.
The outcome of the battle may reverberate around the country.
"Texas is the second largest purchaser of school textbooks in the country," Miller told Church & State. "So to avoid spending money on multiple editions, publishers often write their textbooks to meet Texas curriculum standards and then sell those textbooks in other states."
Barton is also busy trying to slip his perspective into public schools in other ways. He is active in the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, a North Carolina group that works to persuade public schools to adopt a fundamentalist-oriented Bible curriculum under the guise of teaching "about" religion. Barton serves on the organization’s advisory board, alongside several other Religious Right figures.
But Barton hasn’t stopped with phony history. He’s increasingly branching out, working to draft churches into right-wing political machines and brazenly asserting that government must be infused with "biblical" principles. Along the way, Barton has made common cause with some extreme elements of the Religious Right.
Barton’s ongoing crusade to recruit clergy into partisan politics is often under the radar. In 2004, the Republican National Committee sent him to evangelical churches around the country in what was described as a "get-out-the-vote" effort.
Critics said the events were aimed at getting out the vote for Republicans only. The confabs were closed to the media, but one attendee in Oregon told the Portland Oregonian, "The whole structure of the event is meant to support the Republican Party and meant to cast negative views on the Democrats."
During the Portland event, Barton attacked the Democrats over issues such as reproductive choice and same-sex marriage.
As vice chairman of the Texas GOP from 1998-2006, Barton spearheaded an effort to add a plank to the party’s platform attacking church-state separation as a "myth."
In 2007, Barton stepped even more boldly into partisan politics. WallBuilders Presentations, the non-profit arm of his empire, produced voter guides that clearly favored Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas. (In January of 2008, Americans United asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the matter.)
Barton’s non-profit has an interesting board: It has six members, and three of them are Barton, his wife and his mother. This close family control may explain why the million-dollar-a-year operation is not listed with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an evangelical oversight group that insists on accountability for non-profits.
A fourth member of Wallbuilders’ board is Stephen McDowell, co-founder of the Providence Foundation. (Barton, in turn, serves on the Providence Foundation’s board.)
The Providence Foundation, based in Charlottesville, Va., poses as a benign group dedicated to promoting a "biblical worldview." In fact, the organization seems to be aligned with Christian Reconstructionism, an ultra-fundamentalist theology that seeks to scrap democracy and impose a harsh Old Testament regime on modern-day America.
In 2003, McDowell penned an article giving the "biblical" perspective on slavery. The essay was based heavily on the writings of R.J. Rushdoony, the late Christian Reconstructionist theologian who espoused some forms of slavery as well as executing people for adultery, homosexuality, witchcraft, worshipping false gods and a variety of other offenses.
McDowell’s article, posted on WallBuilders’ site, says the American form of slavery was wrong, but notes, "In light of the Scriptures we cannot say that slavery, in a broad and general sense, is sin."
Barton’s dalliance with Christian Reconstructionism seems to be leading him to adopt increasingly hard-line views. In 2002, he spoke at a "Worldview Weekend" conference in Pearland, Texas, telling attendees that the Bible can answer any social or political question and indicating that government policies should be based on it.
Barton said the Bible addresses taxation (including the estate tax), zoning, the minimum wage and the 40-hour work week. He urged attendees to adopt a "biblical worldview [even when] you’re getting ready for your carpool or doing yard work."
Over the years, Barton’s views have evolved, morphing from a "Christian nation" outlook to a more alarming strategy that seeks to link fundamentalist church pastors and members with far-right politicians in a crusade to impose "biblical" morality on America through political action. In his 2002 Texas speech, for example, Barton said since judges interpret the law, it is imperative that they be "God fearing" – code language for fundamentalist.
Barton’s goals are far reaching – but they spring from modest beginnings. He first landed on Americans United’s radar screen in 1993, when AU members began calling the organization to ask about a Barton video that was making the rounds on public-access channels. The tape, "America’s Godly Heritage," summarized Barton’s arguments as outlined in his self-published 1989 book The Myth of Separation.
AU obtained a copy of the tape and dissected it in the April 1993 Church & State. (See "Sects, Lies and Videotape: David Barton’s Distorted History" and "David Barton’s Bad History: When A Myth Is As Good As A Mile.")
Barton’s book and video were so outrageous and filled with errors and astounding leaps of logic that AU believed he would be easy to dismiss.
For example, Barton claimed that Thomas Jefferson, in his famous letter to the Danbury (Conn.) Baptists that endorses the concept of a church-state wall, went on to assert that he supported only a "one directional" church-state wall and favored "Christian principles" in government.
Barton also asserted that the Supreme Court never ruled on church-state separation until 1947 and insisted that the role of religion in public schools had never been challenged in the courts prior to 1962.
None of this is true -- and Barton was later forced to correct the record in several instances. But, remarkably, Barton’s litany of bad history and sloppy errors never slowed down his juggernaut one bit. In fact, his fame just continued to grow.
Barton’s popularity escalated despite some serious missteps. In 1991, Barton spoke to two groups tied to white supremacists. He later claimed he was not aware of the organizations’ radical ties. The revelation seemed to do him no significant damage.
Throughout the 1990s, Barton was a fixture at Religious Right gatherings. He hobnobbed with the Christian Coalition, then the most powerful Religious Right group in the nation, and surfaced at other Religious Right meetings as well. He was even embraced by prominent politicians, such as Gingrich, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
The Barton-Gingrich alliance has grown closer recently, as Gingrich apparently sees Religious Right legions as his vehicle back into national politics. Last month, both men appeared (alongside Mike Huckabee) at a pastors conference in Norfolk sponsored by the Virginia Renewal Project. Virginia is one of two states with a gubernatorial election this year, and it’s likely the event was designed to mobilize conservative clergy in advance of the polling.
Barton is feted by Gingrich and other political leaders even though his research is slipshod -- and sometimes just plain outrageous. Barton’s first book, America: To Pray Or Not To Pray, is a good example.
In the self-published tome, Barton claims to have "proven" that the Supreme Court’s 1962 decision outlawing state-sponsored prayer in public schools has had a deleterious effect on the country. The book consists mainly of a series of charts, showing that since the ruling, social problems such as divorce, venereal disease and out-of-wedlock births have increased.
Barton has apparently never taken a basic course in statistics, or he would know that correlation is not causation. In other words, the fact that two things occur in sequence does not automatically mean that one caused the other.
Barton followed that book with The Myth of Separation, which he subsequently updated and re-titled Original Intent. In its original incarnation, The Myth of Separation was riddled with errors and quotes that turned out to be unsubstantiated.
Perhaps realizing he had a credibility problem, Barton in 1996 issued a list of 12 quotations from the Founders and others that he labeled "questionable." Nine of the quotations had appeared in The Myth of Separation, but Barton now advised his followers to stop using them.
One of the bogus quotations, a statement by James Madison lauding the Ten Commandments as the basis for the U.S. government, has proved impossible to kill. Even though Barton disowned it 13 years ago, the orphaned quote still wanders through cyberspace, often gracing fundamentalist Web sites and appearing in letters to the editor.
Even after ditching the phony quotes, Barton continued to misconstrue the facts. On May 2, 1996, he appeared on a radio broadcast with Focus on the Family’s Dobson and opined that Thomas Jefferson favored using "Christian principles with government" -- a sentiment that appears nowhere in the private or public statements of Jefferson.
But perhaps Barton’s most common sin is that he engages in rampant errors of omission. In fact, he revels in it, cherry-picking history and wrenching quotes and stories out of context to buttress his set-in-stone beliefs.
Barton’s slapdash research and willingness to play fast and loose with the facts has sparked criticism in academic circles.
In a 2005 New York Times column, Mark Lilla, a well-respected scholar who has taught at the University of Chicago and Columbia University, scored the "schlock history written by religious propagandists like David Barton, the author of the bizarre pastiche The Myth of Separation, who use selective quotations out of context to suggest that the framers were inspired believers who thought they were founding a Christian nation."
Many of Barton’s critics come from the Christian tradition. Richard T. Hughes, professor of religion at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., takes issue with Barton and other "Christian nation" advocates in his recently published book Christian America and the Kingdom of God.
"Regardless of the claims Christians have made for over two hundred years that the Founders sought to create a Christian nation, the Constitution stands as the supreme rebuttal to that contention," Hughes writes. "Indeed, the Constitution stands as written. It makes no mention of God, it prohibits the creation of a religious establishment, and it outlaws any religious test for public office.
"No matter how orthodox and devout certain Founders may have been in their personal religious beliefs," Hughes continues, "they refused to translate those beliefs into even the mildest constitutional requirement that the nation embrace the Christian faith."
In an interview with Church & State, Hughes said Barton has misread the views of the Founders.
"When these ‘Christian America’ guys say the Founders were Christian, they’re absolutely right –; many of them were Christians," Hughes said. "When they point to the respect for Christianity that the Founders had, they’re right…. But virtually none of the Founders wanted to impose Christianity by the state. I read some of this stuff these people put out, and I just scratch my head. They must be kidding."
In his book, Hughes argues that "Christian nation" advocates also misinterpret the Bible. The New Testament, he said, does refer to a "Kingdom of God." But that kingdom, Hughes argues, is not temporal. Rather, it is an expression of faith among a community of believers that lifts up the poor and the oppressed.
"What they’re basically doing is what Europeans in the Middle Ages did -- the Holy Roman Empire, the Christian empire, Christian England, Christian Germany," Hughes remarked. "People have made that argument for centuries, but to make that argument, you really have to ignore an absolutely central theme in the biblical text that talks about what is the Kingdom of God. It’s just the absolute opposite of the Christian nation."
Other critics have pointed out that Barton is frequently intolerant of other religions. He publicly criticized U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a Muslim, for taking his oath of office on a Koran, accusing him of "flaunting [sic] American traditions and cultural values."
When a Hindu priest was invited to give the opening invocation before Congress in June of 2007, Barton carped that "the prayer will be completely outside the American paradigm, flying in the face of the American motto ‘One Nation Under God.’"
What lies ahead for Barton?
Amazingly, it looks like Barton is branching out into other fields – areas where, like history, he has no legitimate credentials. On June 7, 2007, Barton testified before the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, criticizing global warming and posing as an expert on how evangelicals view that issue.
But bad history remains Barton’s bread and butter. His efforts to influence Texas’ social studies standards will be a big test of his political clout -- and many on the state school board remain in his thrall.
Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn said the answer to Barton’s half-baked history and theocratic worldview is better education and activism. Lynn, an ordained Christian minister, criticized the "Christian nation" view of history and blasted Religious Right efforts to merge religion and government in his 2006 book Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom.
"The First Amendment is clear on this matter: The government of the United States is secular, and all faiths are welcome," Lynn said. "Barton seems to think we should be ashamed of that fact. He’s wrong. We should be proud of it." | <urn:uuid:6b45c58d-ca72-4d2e-92f2-da66befc2f31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alternet.org/story/141867/christian_cowboy_plots_to_bring_christ_into_kids'_social_studies_class?paging=off&qt-best_of_the_week=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961412 | 4,009 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Director-General’s visit to Quebec
On 7 March, during her visit to Quebec, the Director-General met with the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister of State for La Francophonie of Canada, Steven Blaney.
Throughout her mission, the Director-General was accompanied by Ambassador J.P. Blackburn, Permanent representative of Canada to UNESCO and Michele Stanton-Jean, Representative of the Quebec government in the Permanent Delegation of Canada to UNESCO.
Minister Blaney reaffirmed Canada's strong support to UNESCO and its priorities, underlining its work in the field of education and for protecting and promoting cultural diversity. The Minister expressed the Government's appreciation of the Director-General's efforts to reform the Organization, and to strengthen its impact and delivery. HE Mr Blaney underlined the importance of UNESCO's work to promote gender equality, and noted also the Canadian Government's new special envoy to support religious freedom across the world.
The Director-General thanked the Minister for the depth of Canada's engagement with taking forward UNESCO's mission and objectives. She highlighted the importance of cultural dialogue and the need to protect cultural diversity in the context of respect for universal human rights. She discussed also the need to strengthen the protection of freedom of expression across the world -- namely by enhancing the safety of journalists, especially women media workers. Irina Bokova underlined also the need to step up work to protect humanity's shared heritage wherever it is threatened and UNESCO's role in safeguarding the cultural heritage of Mali.
On 7 March 2013, the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, met with the Premier of Quebec, Pauline Marois.
The Premier welcomed the Director-General to the city of Quebec and thanked her for the efforts to advance UNESCO's mandate despite difficult financial circumstances. She underlined the rising importance of UNESCO's work in promoting cooperation in education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. The Premier highlighted the need for greater training and vocational education, notably for Africa, for which she is developing a consolidated policy.
The importance of promoting cultural diversity was underlined firmly in the course of the discussion, where the Director-General presented UNESCO's work in Mali. Irina Bokova also praised the actions of Michaelle Jean, as UNESCO Special Envoy for Haiti. The Director-General thanked the Premier for her engagement and Quebec's commitment to taking forward the priorities of UNESCO.
On the same day, the Director-General visited Université Laval, the first and most prestigious institution in North America to offer higher education in French.
She met with the Rector, Denis Brière, and gave a lecture on campus before receiving a Doctor Honoris Causa from the University, in the presence of the Rector, the Secretary General of the University, Monique Richer, and before an auditorium packed with professors and students.
“By awarding this Honorary Doctorate to Madam Bokova, the University recognizes her outstanding action for quality education for all,” said the Rector of the University. “Her deep commitment to promote the creation of networks for scientific cooperation as a means to accelerate the sharing of ideas and culture as a tool for reconciliation between nations deserves the highest of honors”.
“Quebec has proven its foresight in investing at a very early stage in knowledge and science to ensure its development. Université Laval was created as early as 1663 and the Francophone Association for Knowledge (ACFAS) in 1923 -- we need the same visionary spirit today and we must invest in the sciences to meet the challenges of peace and sustainable development,” said the Director-General.
The Director-General highlighted the importance of UNESCO’s role to help develop human potential through education, the sciences, cultures and access to information. She underlined the need more than ever to build knowledge societies, a project UNESCO has championed since the first World Summit on the Information Society 10 years ago.
“Knowledge societies give individuals the means to acquire information to improve their livelihoods and to make their own choices,” said the Director-General.
“Building knowledge societies is a social challenge that requires investing not only in infrastructures but also in human capital”.
Knowledge societies build on the principles of freedom of expression, universal access to information, the sciences, and respect for cultural diversity and quality education for all. | <urn:uuid:5ff08312-dee9-447a-86eb-829e66f72357> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/about-us/who-we-are/director-general/singleview-dg/news/director_generals_visit_to_quebec/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937652 | 896 | 1.5 | 2 |
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 29, 2010; A07
BAGHDAD -- The leader of the bloc that received the most votes in last month's elections called Wednesday for the creation of an internationally backed caretaker authority to prevent what he said were unlawful attempts by Iraq's government to overturn the results.
The move escalated a standoff between the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, which won the most seats in the March 7 parliamentary elections, and an alliance led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which came in a close second. Former prime minister Ayad Allawi, the leader of Iraqiya, also proposed extending the mandate of the outgoing parliament until a new one is in place, "for the purpose of monitoring the executive branch."
Adding to the political tension, Human Rights Watch released a report late Tuesday saying that members of a military unit under the command of Maliki, a Shiite, systemically tortured and sexually abused hundreds of Sunni Arab prisoners.
"The horror we found suggests torture was a norm in [al-Muthanna]," Joe Stork, the group's Middle East director, said in a statement, referring to a secret detention facility at a military airport in Baghdad. "The government needs to prosecute all of those responsible for this systemic brutality."
In recent days, U.S. officials have expressed concern about the post-election wrangling, which has prevented Iraq's electoral commission from certifying the results and has indefinitely delayed formation of a new government.
Standing in the way are a manual recount of votes cast in Baghdad and efforts by a commission run by Shiite politicians to disqualify winning candidates for alleged ties to Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party. At the same time, the U.S. military intends to withdraw about half of its forces by the end of August, leaving 50,000 troops.
Allawi said Wednesday that the Justice and Accountability Commission is carrying out "malicious disqualifications."
Sunnis, who won meager representation in the 2005 parliamentary elections, voted in droves this year, contributing to Iraqiya's narrow lead. Maliki's slate won two fewer seats but could conceivably come out on top. That would almost certainly spark widespread anger in Sunni communities, where many view Maliki as sectarian and increasingly authoritarian.
Maliki and other Shiite leaders have called the recent challenges to the election results lawful processes that must run their course. Allawi said Wednesday's statement would be Iraqiya's final appeal for fairness. He warned that the party would henceforth "revert to the Iraqi people to implement their will."
The Human Rights Watch report, which draws from interviews with 42 former prisoners at the al-Muthanna facility, has sparked anger in the northern province of Nineveh, one of the most volatile in Iraq.
Nineveh's governor, Atheel al-Nujaifi, said provincial officials met this week with hundreds of relatives of the inmates who spent time at al-Muthanna.
"We listened to their stories, and they made everyone cry," said Nujaifi, a Sunni Arab.
The report said guards beat, shocked and sexually assaulted the inmates in an effort to elicit confessions. Guards raped inmates, sodomized them with various objects, and forced some to perform sexual acts on guards and with fellow detainees, the report said.
Maliki's government said it is investigating the abuse claims, but it has played down the allegations, saying they are politically motivated.
Special correspondent Jinan Hussein contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:8c431598-4851-43e7-88d7-865096697132> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/28/AR2010042801216_pf.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968671 | 721 | 1.53125 | 2 |
May 14, 2007
Bill Passed to Help Stop Identity Theft
From PCWorld.com: The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee recently unanimously approved a pair of bills that aim to bolster consumers' protection against misuse of their social security numbers and computer-borne spyware.
The two bills, known officially as the Social Security Protection Act of 2007 (HR 948) and the Securely Protect Yourself From Cyber-Trespass, or Spy Act (HR 964), respectively, are now headed to a House-wide vote in the coming weeks.
"Identity theft is a scourge on the American consumer; it exacts a heavy financial toll on individuals and on businesses," Congressman John D. Dingell, a Michigan Democrat and Chairman Committee on Energy and Commerce, said in a statement on the bills, both of which he helped sponsor. "These two bipartisan bills strike a blow against this problem in a fair and balanced manner."
The Social Security Protection Act of 2007 -- first proposed by Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat -- makes it illegal to purchase or sell social security numbers in a manner that violates Federal Trade Commission (FTC) anti-fraud regulations.
Among the recent amendments made to the bill before its approval were a number of exemptions to the rules to help law enforcement, national security, public health or safety, and credit verification organizations utilize the numbers for purposes of identification. The bill would also preempt similar state laws if passed, and provide for enforcement of the rules by individual state attorneys general.
Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]
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Unfortunately those bills are aimed at such a small segment of the entire identity theft epidemic, they are more for show than anything else. Of course anything is better than nothing, but casting a net with holes that you could drive a car through will not have much impact.
This will stop identity theft about as much as the spam laws worked.
It is up to the individual to take the necessary steps to protect their personal information and not wait until the government rides in like the calvalry and saves them.
Posted by: Michael Durnack | May 14, 2007 11:12:14 PM | <urn:uuid:c090261c-c4b5-4d3c-bded-a22d88255185> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2007/05/bill_passed_to_.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94392 | 471 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Japanese elementary school children enjoyed a dynamic performance by a troupe of 'unwanted dogs' on Wednesday (March 13) when the Wow Wow Dog Circus came through town with the aim of educating youngsters on the responsibilities of pet ownership.
Jumping rope, balancing on balls and crossing narrow balance beams the furry friends brought smiles and laughter to the students of the local public school located in Tachikawa city on the outskirts of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area.
Beginning with a short ten minute speech about dog shelters and statistics on the numbers of canines abandoned each year in Japan, organizers provided the young attendants with both education and entertainment.
Impressed by what he learned one 6th grader said he didn't approve of people who abandoned their pets.
"I really felt those people that abandon their dogs and don't take responsibility for them, that's not a good thing," 12-year-old Tokutaro Takahashi said.
His classmate, Keito Aoki who also had a chance to jump rope on stage with man's best friend agreed.
"For me it is unforgivable! From the moment you buy one, until it dies, that is our obligation," Aoki said.
The Wow Wow Dog Circus aims to educate young people about the responsibilities of pet ownership and encourage them both as children and later as adults to adopt animals from shelters in preference to buying them from pet shops.
"To understand the value of life, while they are still kids, to let them know what the situation in Japan is in the hope that they will pass on what they learned to others. That is the main focus of the program," said dog trainer Kayo Takeda.
In contrast to some other nations the concept of 'doggie adoption' or animal rescue is still relatively unknown in Japan. Most pet owners purchase animals from local pet shops or kennels.
"Compared to a country like Germany the number (of adoptions) is way too low, more and more we need to use the system (for adopting abandoned dogs). The sales at pets shops are very high (in Japan), but overseas the thinking to adopt a dog is much more prevalent. I'd like to hope that Japan will move forward in that direction," Takeda told Reuters.
In Japan 100,000 dogs are abandoned and destroyed every year. | <urn:uuid:79d09f01-35d8-4527-96c4-0928b2c969bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/Japan-Traveling-Dog-Circus-Educates-Kids-198400481.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973315 | 476 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Magic Counter (まほうカウンター, Mahō Kauntā?), also known as Return Magic (魔法返し, Mahō-gaeshi?), is a recurring ability in Final Fantasy series. It allows the user to strike back when hit with spells, either physically or with the same spell, depending on the game.
- See also: Counter (Ability).
Magic Counter is a Support Materia with a chance of countering with the linked Magic or Summon Materia. The probability increases with the Materia's level starting at 30% and reaches 100% on level four. Magic Counter can be found in the Northern Cave and is a prize in chocobo racing S Class.
In Final Fantasy VII the counter-effect can be stacked up to eight times on a single character, meaning that if the same character equips multiple counter-effect Materia they will counter attack multiple times (however, Final Attack and Sneak Attack Materia also occupy this space). It is possible to counter back four times in a single counter if the linked Materia is also linked with Quadra Magic, and if the linked Materia is also linked with All, it is possible to hit all enemies in a counter attack.
When linked to regular Magic Materia, the ability used as a counter attack will be the highest level ability in the current level of the linked Materia. Linking to Summon Materia will simply counter with the normal summon attack. When linked to Master Magic or Master Summon, any of the possible spells/summons will be picked at random.
If the Magic Materia is linked with a support ability that naturally targets party members, the spell will be used on the character who has the Magic Counter equipped, or the player's group, if the ability is area-of-effect.
Return Magic is a support ability for Vivi and Amarant. When hit by a magic spell, Vivi/Amarant counters by casting the same spell. Return Magic uses no MP and the caster does not need to know the spell. Return Magic is learned from Coronet or Brigandine, and requires 9 Magic Stones to equip. Vivi needs 90 AP in order to master the ability, while Amarant requires 170 AP. Below is a list of spells that works with Return Magic.
|List of Spells:
Oddly, Magic Counter also appears on an armor: a Buckler, that can be bought from Rin's Traveling Hovercraft on the party's first visit to the Calm Lands. Since Buckler is the name for an accessory when no abilities are equipped, it can be assumed that Magic Counter was never designed to appear on an armor.
Magic Counter is a Berserker ability. It costs 300 AP to learn, and like its predecessor, it involves a physical counter to a magic attack.
Magick Counter, also known as Counter Magic in the original version, is a reaction ability learned by the Black Mage class for 800 JP. When an offensive magick is cast upon a unit with this ability, the unit will instantly counter with the same magick with same effect area regardless of casting range, given that the unit's condition allows them to do so, i.e. has enough MP, and not affected by ailments which prevent user from casting magick. The user needs not to know the particular spell to be countered, which means the Bio spells, Unholy Darkness, Meltdown, Tornado and Quake, normally unattainable by player, can be countered (used) with this skill too.
Magick that is self-cast, reflected (either being the one reflecting or attacked by the reflected), cast by Arithmeticks or weapon (except guns) will not trigger this ability. The magick of random tier shot by any of the three magickal guns can be countered and retained the same tier and effect area as if normally casting the Black Magick. Which means when Blizzaga is shot by the Glacial Gun, the ability user will counter the offender by Blizzaga with two grids of effect radius.
Although the Time Magick Quick has a positive effect, it can be cast back by this ability as well, allowing player to form an action cycle between two allies by casting Quick back and forth to surpass the enemies' speed.
Return Magic is a reaction ability learned by Black Mages and Bishops. It can be learned from the Black Robe for 300 AP. Spells are countered with the same spell. The caster does not need to know the spell. Some spells cannot be returned (such as Blue Magic).
Magick Counter is learned by Black Mages and Bishops as well as the new gria class, Geomancer. It is learned from the Samite Coat for 400 AP. Once again it counters magic with the same spell, assuming the user has MP to cast the spell with. | <urn:uuid:2be16cc9-42ae-4f96-854f-7c4a08e090dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Magick_Counter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933448 | 998 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Barak Unveils Peace Initiative
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday unveiled his plan for a peace accord with the Palestinian Authority.
The move comes as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu prepares to address the United States Congress and President Barak Obama.
"On the eve of this Independence Day, Israel is the strongest country within a radius of 1,500 km from Jerusalem," Barak told attendees at a reception for combat soldiers at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv.
"This position of power and self-confidence requires that it form a brave and expansive plan to block this political tsunami coming towards us ahead of September," Barak added, referring to the Palestinian Authority's plan to seek a unilateral declaration of statehood when the United Nations General Assembly convenes this fall.
Barak said Israel was prepared to "make difficult decisions" so long as its security and relations with the US remain intact.
Barak's plan, in his own words, includes,
- "A permanent border set according to security and demographic concerns in a manner in which settlement blocs and neighborhoods in Jerusalem remain under Israeli sovereignty, and land exchanges that will leave in the hands of the Palestinians territory similar to that which was their land before '67,
- "Security arrangements which include permanent (military) presence along the Jordan River and guarantee that the demilitarized Palestinian state does not become another Gaza or Lebanon,
- "Settlement of refugees in the Palestinian state,
- "Agreed-upon arrangements in the holy area of Jerusalem,
- "And most importantly, an end to the conflict and the mutual demands, in addition to recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, and the Palestinian state as the nation state of the Arab Palestinians."
Both Fatah and Hamas, recently reconciled, have refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Hamas also refuses to accept the Quartet's three conditions for recognizing a PA state if Hamas is included: formally recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce terrorism, and uphold all agreements with Israel signed by prior PA governments.
On Monday Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal called for continued armed resistance and said recognition of Israel could only be addressed after a PA state was created.
Also on Wednesday, Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Az-Zahar said any peace accord with Israel would only serve as a prelude to war. "If the Palestinian state does not encompass all of Israel the next generation will liberate the land," Az-Zahar told the Maan news agency.
Some observers on the left suggest Barak's timing is intended to foreshadow Netanyahu's speech and provide insight into what the Prime Minister plans to say in Washington.
Mark Regev, Prime Minister Netanyahu's spokesman, told INN attempts to link Barak's plan to the Prime Minister's upcoming speech was "pure speculation."
"Our focus right now is the speech before Congress," Regev told INN. "The Prime Minister will speak for himself in the Knesset next week."
Netanyahu has been uncharacteristically silent on what he intends to say in his address to Congress. He has, however, said there will be no talks with a PA that includes Hamas. | <urn:uuid:3decfc3c-f79a-4bbe-a88a-559ff70a5d28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/144084 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963972 | 655 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The 2013 Election Compass Israel is online
Election Compass conducts panel survey on the new Egyptian constitution
In the aftermath of the so-called ‘Arab spring’ revolution, Egyptians had the opportunity to vote on a new constitution. The proposed constitution seemed to divide Egyptian society deeply. Especially people that fear the rise of Islamism are very skeptical about the constitution, claiming that the constituent assembly had an overrepresentation of Islamists.
Professor Mazen Hassan of Cairo University led the research team that fielded the survey in the weeks leading up to the referendum. Obviously, public opinion polling was scarce during the authoritarian regime of Mubarak, thus not much is known about the opinions of Egyptian citizens.
We asked Egyptians to give their opinion on a large number of articles from the proposed constitution. This survey led to unique and interesting information, with over 550 people responding to our request of answering a long list of questions. Because these people had already filled out the Election Compass during the election, we could combine their opinions on a wider range of political issues facing the country, link their opinions to voting behavior and personal characteristics as age, gender and religiosity.
A preliminary report was made after one week and showed large differences of opinion between different sections of society. We differentiated between devout Islamists, moderates which had supported both secular and Islamist parties or candidates, revolutionaries, which had participated in the uprising and non-reformers, who had voted for the parties and candidates associated with the old regime. This analysis revealed the strangulating friction that is stifling Egyptian society.
Clearly this is a constitution that Islamists strongly approve of. They agreed with most of the proposed constitutional articles, also with many of the controversial clauses that are widely seen as an ‘Islamisation’ of Egyptian society. The three other voter groups displayed deep concerns about the large role of the Islam in the new constitution − which is given a significantly more prominence than in the previous constitution.
Our report generated substantial media attention from Egyptian newspapers and news websites. With this report, we will provide a very thorough analysis of varying opinion structures of different groups in Egyptian society. We hope that our analysis elucidates one of the most difficult political disputes of our time and sparks a public debate about different outlooks on the future of Egypt.
Dutch Parliamentery elections 2012
Election Compass Venezuelan Presidential elections
Election Compass Mexican Presidential elections
Election Compass is available in an ever-increasing number of countries and languages. In collaboration with Mexican social scientists and Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW), Election Compass developed an online Voting Advice Application (VAA) for the Mexican Presidential elections of July 1st. Election Compass, currently being active in over thirty countries worldwide, works together with RNW and a great number of local media partners to inform Mexican voters about the differences between the presidential candidates. By answering thirty clear-cut propositions, Mexican voters can immediately see which candidate comes closest to their own political preferences. Election Compass Mexico will be available in both English and Spanish and will be launched in early June.
Election Compass French Presidential elections
Will Nicolas Sarkozy get a second term in office or will the socialist Francois Hollande become the new president of France? Can Marine Le Pen make it to the second round, just like her father some years ago? Election Compass helps French voters decide whom to vote for in the French Presidential elections of April 22nd. Together with a team of distinguished scholars from the Parisian university SciencePo/CEVIPOF thirty straightforward statements have been developed that cover the most important issues in contemporary French politics. After answering to these policy propositions, French voters can compare their responses to the manifestos of all presidential candidates. All issue-positions of the contesting candidates can be closely examined by each user, thus helping them to make a well-informed decision on election day. The Election Compass for the French Presidential elections will be launched at the end of March.
Election Compass Egyptian Presidential Elections
At the end of 2011, Kieskompas launched - in collaboration with Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) and two Egyptian universities - an online application for the historical Egyptian parliamentary elections. For the first time in history, Egyptian citizens had access to an online Voting Advice Application (VAA). Kieskompas and RNW are continuing their successful cooperation in Egypt by developing a second Election Compass for the Presidential elections, which will take place on May 23rd. A second round will be held on June 16th if none of the candidates is able to win a majority of the vote. Election Compass will make the differences between the competing candidates crystal-clear, allowing Egyptian voters to find out which of the candidates is closest to their own political preferences. A large team of distinguished Egyptian scientists has developed a selection of straightforward statements on salient issues that are currently debated in Egypt. This Election Compass for the Egyptian Presidential elections will be available in both English and Arabic and will be launched in the last week of April.
Election Compass for the parliamentary elections in Egypt is now online
In cooperation with Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW), Al Jazeera and a host of Egyptian media partners, Election Compass Egypt was launched on Monday November 15.
After answering 30 statements covering the most relevant issues during the upcoming Egyptian parliamentary elections - which start on November 28th- users are placed among the most important political parties that make up the new political landscape of Egypt.
Election Compass Egypt allows users to compare their own views with the positions of the parties and is completely transparent: the positions of parties on the issues are justified with a text section of their party program or from their party website. All users have full access to this information.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide brings Election Compass worldwide
Elections Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia 2011
RadioNetherlands Worldwide and Free University Amsterdam have come together to introduce innovative Election Compass websites for elections in new democracies all over the world. This means that, for the first time, voters in these elections will be able to use these sites compare their political opinions to those of the parties and candidates.
The organisations are currently jointly developing Arabic and English Election Compass sites for upcoming elections in Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia. Over the next months several 2012 Election Compasses will be developed and released for election campaigns other (Northern) African countries. As well as providing voters with access to transparent, high quality information on political competition, the input of site users will also generate fresh insights into the political opinions of Moroccan, Egyptian and Tunisian voters.
In countries where one can speak of ‘Twitter and Facebook revolutions’, online technologies have clearly contributed to the recent movements towards democracy in the region, and the Election Compass sites are a novel form of online political technology. Many voters, and especially younger voters, have already become accustomed to engaging in politics via the internet.
Due to the limited dispersion of internet connectivity in the Arabic countries and Africa, the Election Compass will not be solely available as a website, but also as a ‘lite’ version for mobile phones. For those voters who are unable to use either the internet or a mobile phone a special Election Compass will be developed for publishing in newspapers.
Editor in chief Rik Rensen of Radio Netherlands Worldwide explains: “The cooperation fits in perfectly with our activities focused on freedom of speech. Imagine whole generations in countries like Tunisia and Egypt growing up under dictatorial governments. For them freedom of political choice is a new and mostly complicating concept. It is an important task of Radio Netherlands Worldwide to give people, especially in those countries, reliable information on their political situation, in their own language. And by these means help them to make their own decisions.”
Election Compass a non-partisan web application that aims to engage voters in elections by informing them which political party is closest to their own political preferences. Election Compass is an easy-to-use tool that asks voters their opinion on relevant political and social issues and them compares these individual preferences to the position of all relevant parties in these issues. It informs voters about which parties that are running in the election and where these parties stand on the important issues. Voters can thus make a better-informed party choice and this will boost turnout at elections.
Visitors fill out an online survey with around 30 relevant political issues. Our academic team – composed of distinguished native country experts on electoral politics – have positioned these parties on the issues based on their formal party documentation and campaign material. This is done by an academically sound and totally transparent method. Users can see the source that backs up each position recorded for the parties on the issues. These justifications for party placement may represent extracts from official election manifestos, party websites, policy documents of parties and statements made by the party during the election campaign. The inclusion of these justifications allows voters to not only see where the different party stands on the issues, but is also shows the argumentation that parties use to defend their stance.
Election Compass does not give you a one-sided voting advice, but positions each user in the political landscape. It simply shows which parties are close to your views and which parties least represents your political profile. In this manner, it does not lead you to a single ‘forced’ party choice, but it gives the user a nuanced portrayal of your distance from all parties in the political spectrum. Users can analyse their position in various ways, so that they can decide for themselves which party they find the most appropriate. Voters can also indicate which issues are important to them and which are less relevant for their party choice. By simply selecting issues, users of Election Compass can recalculate their position in the landscape on only those issues they find most important to them.
The Election Compass is an academic project, unaffiliated with any party, candidate or government. The tool is designed in such a way as to allow complete impartiality and total transparency. Information is gathered by an academic team, who are all experts in election studies with specialized knowledge of the country being surveyed. Our research team wades through speeches, manifestos, policy statements and interview transcripts to provide each voter with a clear and concise perspective on where the parties stand. Each position is authorised by the parties themselves and the text underpinning the positioning can be seen by each user by simply clicking on each of the party logos in the political landscape. | <urn:uuid:fcadbff9-4292-4d05-af83-e67af897b9da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kieskompas.nl/faq/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958612 | 2,080 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Iran will give "positive consideration" to a renewed prospect of one-on-one talks with the United States on its nuclear program, its foreign minister said Sunday.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said a new round of talks between Iran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members, plus Germany, would be held February 25 in Kazakhstan. Salehi spoke on the last day of the 49th Munich Security Conference, a day after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration remains willing to hold direct talks with the Islamic Republic.
"That offer stands, but it must be real and tangible, and there has to be an agenda that they're prepared to speak to," Biden said. "We are not just prepared to do it for the exercise."
The United States and Iran haven't had diplomatic relations since 1980. But U.S. and Iranian diplomats had occasional talks in Baghdad during the eight-year American war in Iraq, and U.S. President Barack Obama held out the prospect of talks with Iran when he came into office in 2009.
Salehi noted Sunday that both Biden and the new secretary of state, John Kerry, have mentioned the possibility of talks with Iran in recent days, and "We take these statements with positive consideration."
Salehi said Iran has "no red line" for bilateral talks and is ready for negotiations over its nuclear program. But he added, "We have to make sure this time -- and this I think is very fair of us -- to make sure the other side this time comes with an authentic intention, with a fair and real intention, to resolve the issue." "
Iran has defied international demands that it halt its production of enriched uranium, which it insists is to be used for civilian nuclear power and research reactors. But the United States and Israel have accused Iran of seeking the capability to produce nuclear weapons, and the International Atomic Energy Agency says it can no longer verify that Iran's nuclear program is strictly peaceful.
Iran's refusal to shut down its uranium enrichment plants has led to tougher and tougher economic sanctions that have crippled its economy. An oil embargo and banking restrictions have crashed the Iranian currency, the rial. New U.S. sanctions imposed in January targeted a handful of companies and individuals that Washington says are providing materials and technology to Tehran's nuclear program.
Biden said Saturday that U.S. policy "is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," and said the clerical leadership in Tehran "need not sentence their people to economic deprivation and international isolation."
"There is still time, there is still space for diplomacy -- backed by pressure -- to succeed," he said. "The ball is in the government of Iran's court, and it's well past time for Tehran to adopt a serious, good-faith approach to negotiations with the P-5 plus 1." | <urn:uuid:9a4b79ae-6a93-414d-b710-e4cc45ce9a5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ketv.com/news/national/Iran-says-it-will-resume-nuclear-talks/-/9674576/18390086/-/y2mg0g/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974458 | 581 | 1.585938 | 2 |
View Full Version : Distributor vs. Master Distributor
07-06-2005, 02:33 PM
What is the difference between a Distributor and as Master Distributor?
07-06-2005, 10:38 PM
I could be wrong...but a distributor is when you are able to sell a brand in a specified area, doesnt have to be exclusive. Master Distributor is when you have the rights to the brand over a given area. Maybe a state, maybe the country. But you buy from the supplier, and any distributor that wants the brand buys from you.
07-08-2005, 10:44 AM
i think it also means you have direct control over the entire area, but if it's not in your financial interest, you can 'rent' territories inside of your footprint to others. we give away some brands here at work because it's not worth it driving 40 miles to drop off five cases of heineken once a month in the boonies. | <urn:uuid:cb883be6-db37-48c0-8c31-8b0167b3ee27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bevnet.com/bevboard/archive/index.php?t-30235.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948097 | 203 | 1.632813 | 2 |
It was a simple whim that saved my life: I had finished reporting in Barbados quicker than anticipated and so I changed my flight to Havana, getting on an earlier plane. Two days later, a terrorist blew up the Cuba-bound flight I had been booked on.
All 73 people aboard perished.
I would have been the 74th.
On Monday, the man believed to have masterminded this horrific attack in 1976, Luis Posada Carriles, will go on trial in El Paso, Texas. But perhaps because he spent most of his adult life working for the Central Intelligence Agency, he is not being tried for that crime.
Nor is he being judged for his apparent role as mastermind of a string of bombings in Havana, including one at a hotel that killed an Italian tourist. He is only being charged with violating immigration law and obstructing justice.
In an age when terror and terrorism are said to be the greatest global threats to civilization, this case perfectly illustrates how elastic the definition of those terms has become. Any violent act against the United States or the West is decried as terrorism, while some true terrorists are either lionized or, at worst, subject to prosecution for relatively trivial offenses.
“He worked for the CIA at a time when elder Bush was CIA director and had a special interest in Latin American issues,” said Blake Fleetwood, a journalist who has covered the case for years and once conducted a taped interview in which Posada Carriles freely admitted to terrorist crimes. “He knows so many secrets about the workings of the U.S. government that the government has been very slow to prosecute him. They're kind of hoping he'll die before this goes any further.”
All 73 people aboard perished. I would have been the 74th.
“Obviously someone is protecting him,” Fleetwood said. “We trained him. He's our boy. I think he's still a hero to some people [at CIA headquarters] in Langley. He did what we asked him to do, and we don't leave our fallen soldiers on the battlefield. We protect them, and there's a tremendous sense of loyalty to him. He did what we trained him to do.”
Any outcome of this trial will be an outrage. A verdict of not guilty will be another in a long string of victories for the proud assassin. He would even be able to claim victory if the jury finds him guilty, because it will mean that, at age 82, he has once again escaped direct responsibility for his crimes. He is a poster child for the hypocrisy of today's anti-terror campaign.
Posada Carriles was born in Cuba, and like many of his generation, fled the Castro regime, resolving to do all he could to destroy it. Unlike most of his compatriots, however, he chose the route of armed violence.
He was among the dreamers who organized the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and after its failure he began a long career in the service of the U.S. government. He was trained in sabotage and commando tactics at Fort Benning, and then joined the Florida-based CIA team charged with deposing or assassinating Fidel Castro.
After differences with the agency, reportedly over his association with drug traffickers, he relocated to Venezuela, where he quickly became chief of operations for the state intelligence agency.
It was there that he allegedly organized the bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455, which departed from Caracas, stopped in Barbados—where I was supposed to board—and then continued on to its doom. He was arrested and imprisoned in Venezuela, but mysteriously escaped. In the 1980s, he turned up back on the CIA payroll, working at an airport in El Salvador supervising clandestine arms shipments to the Nicaraguan Contras. His boss was another legendary CIA man, Félix Rodríguez, who directed the capture and execution of Che Guevara in Bolivia.
Later, Posada Carriles served for a time as a security adviser to the murderous government of Guatemala; allegedly involved in dozens of bombings in Central America as well as attacks on hotels in Cuba. In 2000, he was arrested in Panama with a cache of explosives he had hoped to use to kill Castro, who was visiting Panama. He was tried, convicted, and imprisoned, but in 2004 President Mireya Moscoso, a close ally of the U.S., pardoned him in her last days in office. Panama's supreme court later declared the pardon null, and ordered that the officials who had spirited Posada Carriles out of the country be charged with abuse of authority.
The aging terrorist sought to live out his remaining years in the U.S., but many of his protectors are no longer powerful, and prosecutors began closing in on him. The FBI turned out to have shredded most of its files on the case, but his apparently illegal entry into the U.S. came back to haunt him. A congressional subcommittee and a grand jury in New Jersey tied him to various crimes.
In 2005 he was indicted by a grand jury in Texas for illegally entering the U.S., but the charge was later dismissed. Another judge rejected an attempt to extradite him to Venezuela, where Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro has called him "the bin Laden of the Americas." The judge said there was a danger he might be tortured there. That rationale seems ironic in light of the reported American practice of sending prisoners—without trial or conviction—to Poland or Lithuania or Thailand or Egypt or Romania for the express purpose of being tortured.
Although Posada Carriles has long relied on powerful American friends, the Department of Justice recently described him as "an admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks." The Department of Homeland Security has reportedly placed him on its no-fly list, a comforting step considering that he is probably the world's most famous plane bomber. Yet no one can say what will happen to him if he is convicted of the charges against him in Texas, which include an allegation that he obstructed an investigation of “international terrorism” and that he committed perjury by hiding his involvement in the Havana bombings when entering the U.S.
Posada Carriles is wanted on murder charges in both Cuba and Venezuela, but the U.S. is unlikely to deport him to either of those countries. Half a dozen other countries, informally approached by the U.S., have said they would refuse to accept him. He would fall into a category of his own: a terrorist no longer fully welcome in the country that sponsored him for years, but not welcome anywhere else either—except in Miami, where some militant anti-Castro activists consider him a hero.
In an interview with The New York Times several years ago, Posada Carriles was asked about the Italian tourist who was killed in one of his bombing attacks in Havana. He said it was “a freak accident, but I sleep like a baby.” Probably he would have said the same about me, had I not changed my ticket for the Cubana 455 flight.
Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent. His new book is Reset: Iran, Turkey and America's Future. | <urn:uuid:763348d1-b882-4f5d-903d-c00eedd9aa0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/01/11/luis-posada-carriles-trial-of-the-terrorist-who-almost-killed-me.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985023 | 1,472 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Sunday, April 01, 2007
"Coleridge sought out the Brocken spectre of the Harz mountains, but failed to observe it, and had to be content with the sight of a phosphorescent boar." If you love sentences like that as much as I do, hurry and buy yourself a copy of PHANTASMAGORIA by Marina Warner. That phosphorescent boar puts me in mind of the phosphorescent owls in my new book of short stories... owls I borrowed from the work of Charles Fort, whose description of said owls provides my epigraph. I am pleased to note that Mr. Fort rates an entry in Ms. Warner's index. Okay, I won't keep you in suspense, the Brocken spectre was a giant with a halo, and here's a brief scientific explanation of what it really was. | <urn:uuid:507d1546-9793-4feb-91c4-c05a52979f99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jackpendarvis.blogspot.com/2007/04/phosphorescent-creatures.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955539 | 174 | 1.65625 | 2 |
|Enewsletter • April 19, 2006|
Notes from Vegan Outreach
Well over 600,000 booklets have now been distributed through the Adopt a College Program, and it continues to grow; e.g., college students personally handed a veg booklet:
Overall for 2006, Vegan Outreach has sent out over 320,000 booklets already -- on track for a million this year!
At right, Lana Smithson of VegTampaBay leaflets at the University of South Florida; photo by Michelle LaFleur.
Jon Camp writes the following about his latest tour:
Products of the Week
Lauren Porsch offers: "I'd like to nominate a new vegan product from Morningstar Farms -- the chick'n and steak style Meal Starters."
Laura Brown has discovered: "Clif bars! I tried these for the first time recently. I was skeptical because bars usually leave a lot to be desired. Not this time -- vegan and delicious!"
Notes from All Over
excerpt: "'Survey results suggest that in youths ranging from 6 to 17 years old, about 2 percent are bona fide vegetarians, avoiding all red meat, fish and poultry. This is admittedly a pretty low number and doesn't suggest the beginnings of a groundswell of support for a plant-based diet. However, another finding is quite encouraging, and that is 20 percent of teenagers report that vegetarianism is not only acceptable, it's 'in.' This suggests that while they may not have adopted the vegetarian lifestyle, they are not opposed to it and would not be likely to condemn those who do not eat meat."
Notes from Our Members
I am sure you get e-mails
like this all the time, but today
I was walking back from class (at
UC Irvine) and I received one of
your animal cruelty pamphlets. After
reading it, I stopped eating meat.
I will graduate to vegan in time.
At UC San Diego today,
I handed out 2,150
booklets. One female student sort
of automatically uttered those words,
"No thanks, I like meat."
Then she caught herself and appeared
extremely embarrassed. This wasn't
an attempt to be obnoxious, as it
often is. It was more like free
association, as if this is what
she was truly thinking. We go to
these campuses armed to the teeth
for a debate, but there can be no
debate. Because the other side has
absolutely nothing to offer except
that they like meat and they're
in the habit of eating it. We are
such interesting creatures, selfish
to near comical proportions, yet
capable of true compassion. This
is why this seemingly untouchable
mega-apparatus we are fighting must
eventually collapse like a tower
of cards. And it becomes our job
to put selfishness to sleep and
I handed out 256 EIYLM
brochures yesterday at the University
of Colorado, Boulder. The EIYLM
is particularly effective in
that its title is disarming to would-be
naysayers. One guy put up his hand
to wave away the leaflet I was offering
saying "No thanks, I like meat."
I said, "But the title is 'Even
If You Like Meat.'" He came
back and decided to take one after
all. Another guy passed by and pulled
an egg carton out of his back pack
and shook his head as if to say
he didn't want a brochure. I told
him I used to eat eggs too, so he
came back and got an EIYLM
from me. One woman gave me a thumbs
up and thanked me for handing out
leaflets. I also enjoyed hearing
many comments of "I'm already
veg" and "I'm already
vegan" -- it gives me hope...
Vegan Outreach makes me hopeful
I want to tell you
about something I saw this week
when I leafleted. First I gave a
leaflet to an older, white woman
-- someone my mom's age. Then I
gave a leaflet to a younger black
man. Neither of them were really
folks I thought would take too much
interest in the literature. Traffic
was slow, so I had a chance to watch
them as they stood shoulder to shoulder
at the light waiting to cross the
street. Both were reading the booklet,
then one would lean over and say
something to the other, who would
point at a picture and make a shocked
face. Soon, the light changed and
they crossed together, still shoulder
to shoulder, and walked down the
whole sidewalk together, still reading
the booklets and pointing to pictures
within them. They walked
slower than everyone else. Then
they stopped in front of an entrance
to a building where they talked
for sometime, booklets still open.
Finally, they shook hands and parted.
These two individuals --
of different age and background
-- shared a few moments of their
day looking at the booklets -- both
in shock and horror at how today's
farmed animals are treated.
I am a freshman
in high school, and have been a
vegetarian for 2 years now. I'm
slowly getting used to a vegan lifestyle.
I had to do a report in my writing
class, and I chose factory farming.
I had a bunch of your Why Vegan?
pamphlets, so I decided to pass
them out to my class. They were
all taken aback by it all, and a
few people showed their families.
The response has been great! My
one friend told me that he showed
his cousin and now his cousin is
a vegetarian! I also gave one to
my aunt's friend because he used
to always bug me about why I was
veg. I showed him the pamphlet,
and now he goes out of his way to
buy cage-free eggs.
On a flight today,
the gentleman across the aisle struck
up a conversation. After he asked
what I did, he pointed to his high-school
daughter and said she had just gone
vegetarian. I gave her a Try
Vegetarian and a GCFE,
which she, her sister, and mom read
the rest of the flight. | <urn:uuid:a62c0b4f-d72b-469e-9ab4-b133f5cd8185> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.veganoutreach.org/enewsletter/20060419.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968503 | 1,348 | 1.742188 | 2 |
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