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Create your future. Shape your world.
The mission of Earlham College, an independent, residential college, is to provide the highest quality undergraduate education in the liberal arts, including the sciences, shaped by the distinctive perspectives of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
A basic faith of Friends is that all truth is God's truth; thus Earlham emphasizes: pursuit of truth, wherever that pursuit leads; lack of coercion, letting the evidence lead that search; respect for the consciences of others; openness to new truth and therefore the willingness to search; veracity, rigorous integrity in dealing with the facts; application of what is known to improving our world.
To provide education of the highest quality with these emphases, Earlham's mission requires selection of an outstanding and caring faculty committed to creating an open, cooperative, learning environment. The College provides for the continuous support and development of this faculty.
The teaching-learning process at Earlham is shaped by a view of education as a process of awakening the "teacher within," so that our students will become lifelong learners. Students at Earlham are encouraged to be active, involved learners.
The College provides extensive opportunities for students and faculty to interact with each other as persons, to learn from each other in a cooperative community, an important aspect of which is collaborative student/faculty research.
At Earlham College this education is carried on with a concern for the world in which we live and for improving human society. The College strives to educate morally sensitive leaders for future generations.
Therefore Earlham stresses global education, peaceful resolution of conflict, equality of persons, and high moral standards of personal conduct. | <urn:uuid:40838f99-a148-4d1b-bcb1-43c3e489f780> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.earlham.edu/about/mission-beliefs/mission-statement/ | 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 | 0.956656 | 337 | 1.734375 | 2 |
BusinessWeek's Ben Elgin takes a look at social search, focusing on Yahoo, in his article: Yahoo's Social Circle.
These deals are key building blocks in one of Yahoo's biggest bets. By cultivating online communities -- and encouraging people to tap into the collective knowledge of these groups -- Yahoo is hoping to change the way people find information online.
Let's also not forget the introduction of homegrown services like Yahoo 360 (beta), MyWeb, and Yahoo Answers.
He goes on to say:
Social search aims to shift power from Web publishers, who create these links, to everyday Internet users by examining their bookmarks or giving them tools to express their opinions.
The article also focuses on those who are skeptics to the whole social search "thing." They include that, at least to this point, "most Internet users haven't even heard of Flickr or del.icio.us, let alone spent time sharing photos online or posting bookmarks of their favorite sites." He also correctly (IMHO) that it takes effort and time (something many people don't have enough off) to make social search work well for both the individual and group as a whole.
Vivisimo/Clusty CEO, Raul Valdes-Perez is quoted saying that the wisdom of crowds might not trump what "raw" computing power can offer.
The article has more on Google's feelings about social search that Elgin characterizes as "tepid." He also includes as mention of Eurekster (kudos Ben on remembering a pioneer) and includes a comment from Charlene Li who says that, "social search is not one of these things that will take off overnight. It will take a lot of time to build."
So, the question is how long, if ever, to make these services mainstream and if, the smaller ones, can keep going if and until social search becomes something mom and grandma are doing.
Personally, I see a combination of the raw computing power that Valdes-Perez describes coupled to some degree with professionals, yes humans, to help make the most efficient use of this power. Remember, what some call metadata, tagging, etc. has been done by librarians for years and is really cataloging. Granted, it's not at the scale that the open web poses.
However, the skill sets info pros (aka librarians and other info scientists )have and are trained to have could prove to be very useful both with large general-purpose engines as well as the booming search vertical marketplace. Perhaps this is new and growing role for information professionals and a reason why library and information science graduate programs have never been more crowded.
Early Bird Rates have been extended!
June 12-14, 2013: Join industry experts at SES Toronto for a crash course in the latest strategies in Online Marketing and Advertising.
Save $300 when you register by Thursday, May 23. | <urn:uuid:9efe2f10-0381-43e9-bdf6-66984888d7f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2059808/BusinessWeek-on-Yahoo-and-Social-Search | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955676 | 597 | 1.734375 | 2 |
(CNN) -- The mother of a woman who gave birth on Monday to octuplets said her daughter already has six children at home and was undergoing fertility treatment.
Dr. Karen Maples is part of the large team of doctors and nurses that helped deliver the octuplets.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday that Angela Suleman said her daughter had the embryos implanted last year, resulting in the eight births.
"They all happened to take," Suleman told the Times. "I looked at those babies. They are so tiny and so beautiful."
The woman declined to have the number of embryos reduced when she discovered she was carrying multiples, the Times reported. The six older siblings range from ages 7 to 2, according to the newspaper.
Suleman said she was concerned about her daughter's homecoming because her husband, a contract worker, is due to return to Iraq.
In the meantime, the mother, who remains unidentified, appealed for privacy while she recovers from giving birth, medical officials said Thursday.
In her written statement delivered by Dr. Karen Maples of the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center in California, the woman who delivered eight babies in five minutes said she would soon make public the details of her "miraculous experience."
"We understand that you are all curious about the arrival of the octuplets, and we appreciate your respect for our family's privacy," she said.
"The babies continue to grow strong every day and make good progress. My family and I are ecstatic about all of their arrivals."
"Needless to say, the eighth was a surprise to us all, but a blessing as well," she added.
The six boys and two girls -- ranging in weight from 1 pound, 8 ounces to 3 pounds, 4 ounces -- are doing well following their Caesarean-section delivery at the Bellflower hospital, doctors said. They were born nine weeks premature.
Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatalist, said all but one of the octuplets are now breathing on their own. That baby might be taken off breathing equipment Friday.
Caring for eight premature babies is a challenge. Duties are being shared by a large team of hospital nurses and doctors for the time being. Two nurses have been assigned to each child, and all the babies are receiving fluids, proteins and vitamins intravenously, Gupta said.
"We feed them. ... We change diapers. ... When they cry, we console them," Gupta said. "When the mom comes and touches the babies, you can definitely see their expression on their faces and body. They are very happy."
The babies, who are being referred to by letters of the alphabet, will remain in the hospital for at least seven more weeks.
Baby H made headlines for its surprise appearance during the delivery, which took months of preparation by a team of doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists. Watch a report on babies' progress »
The mother will not be able to hold her babies for another week, Gupta said. They are still fragile, developing intestines, he said.
Doctors initially thought the mother was pregnant with seven fetuses. She was hospitalized seven weeks ago and ordered to bed rest.
During the seven weeks, a team of 46 physicians, nurses and other staff members prepared for the births. When they started the delivery Monday, they were in for a surprise.
"After the seventh baby was born, we were taking a sigh of relief," Maples said.
"It was a surprise of our life when we in fact discovered there was an eighth baby," she said. "We never had an assignment for baby H nurse or baby H doctor. We just had to go on the fly and figure out what to do."
"Baby G nurse stepped up. We handed off the baby to baby G nurse. She then delivered that last baby to the neonatologist of the baby F."
"It was all wonderful because of the teamwork and the training we did before," Maples said.
|Most Viewed||Most Emailed||Top Searches| | <urn:uuid:d6a06b0b-dc75-47cb-bd1c-adbae31ce0fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/30/mother.octuplets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98471 | 841 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Some people think that copying their important files onto an external hard drive or USB is enough precaution for backing up their computer. But the reality is, there is a much safer way to prevent data loss, and it's called Online Backup. While there are some benefits to adding your files to a USB drive, the perks of online backup extend far beyond them, essentially allowing you to scratch the USB drag and drop session off your to-do list. Online backup offers loss prevention, ease, security and accessibility — not to mention, any files you make changes to will be automatically updated online.
Here are 7 reasons why online backup trumps the external drive:
1. USBs are small and can be easily lost or stolen. And what if your 5 year old nephew accidentally spills Orange juice on the hard drive sitting on your desk? Online backup can neither be lost, nor spilled on.
2. With online backup, you don't need any extra hardware, just an Internet connection. With a couple of clicks, your entire computer will be backed up and all of your files will be securely stored on the Internet.
3. Online backup works silently in the background, incrementally checking your computer for new files to back up and store online. After the initial backup, you'll hardly have to lift a finger and your files will be backing up every day, or even every hour.
4. Accessibility. On vacation and need access to files on your home computer? You can instantly download files anytime, anywhere with an Internet connection by logging into your online backup account, even on your smartphone.
5. If you make changes to a file that's already backed up on your USB or external hard drive, you will have to re-copy and paste it again. With online backup, changes will automatically show up in your account.
6. Online backup is the ultimate re-do button. You can view multiple versions of updated files. There will be no more worrying about entire 7 page essays suddenly evaporating.
7. Some services, especially those featured in our cloud storage reviews, allow you to sync files across all of your computers and the web. That way, any changes you make to a file or folder will instantly show up on another computer, on the web and on your phone.
Now that you're ready to sign up for online backup, check out our reviews of the top services so you can find the right provider for your needs and budget. If you're interested in online backup that offers multiple computer file syncing, be sure to check out our cloud storage reviews as well.
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Disclosure: NextAdvisor.com is a consumer information site that offers free, independent reviews and ratings of online services. We receive advertising revenue from most of the services we review. Our editors thoroughly research and whenever possible test each service we review and offer their honest opinions about each one. We are independently owned and operated and all opinions expressed on this site are our own. | <urn:uuid:a8f20dcb-70bb-4ebc-91ae-4ab33ddd4be8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nextadvisor.com/blog/2012/06/21/backing-up-your-computer-with-an-external-drive-is-it-enough/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931529 | 604 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Long before Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) paid $11 billion for what turned out to be its disastrous purchase of Autonomy, a handful of industry experts were raising red flags about the British software company's accounting practices and claims of continuous growth.
HP said this month that it only recently discovered what it characterized as fraud and other problems that made it realize it spent billions of dollars too much on the deal. But a vocal group of critics -- albeit a minority at the time -- were sounding alarms about the company as far back as 2007.
In a 2009 report, for instance, one analyst termed some of its financial statements "wrong and misleading." The following year, another said its "earnings momentum appears to be negative." And after HP announced its plan to buy the company in August 2011, a third analyst predicted the acquisition would "destroy" HP's stock value.
With sales of their computer gear faltering, HP's leaders had desperately hoped to transform the company with Autonomy's products. But the transaction has turned into one of the most embarrassing debacles in the storied Palo Alto corporation's history. And many critics contend HP never should have done the deal given what some experts had long been saying about the software company.
"Our concern was the organic
HP now admits it erred in paying what it did, claiming it was duped about the British company's sales. But while acknowledging in a statement to this newspaper that it had been aware of apprehensions expressed about Autonomy, it said it had "relied on the audited financial statements and the representations of Autonomy's management and its auditors."
In an interview with CNBC two weeks ago, Meg Whitman, who had been on HP's board when the deal was announced in August 2011 and became CEO in September, a month before the Autonomy purchase was finalized, said "I regret that I voted for this deal but we are where we are."
Whitman added that "after we announced the acquisition there were a number of blogs that came to the fore about potential issues at Autonomy." But she said "the former management team ran
HP has asked U.S. and British regulators to conduct a "civil and criminal investigation" of the transaction, but Autonomy's former CEO Mike Lynch has denied his company misrepresented its finances.
Founded in 1996, the software company was little known in the United States, but favored by many European investors because of its record of rapid growth and its reputation for cutting-edge technology. With its sophisticated search engine for analyzing commercial data, Autonomy made an attractive purchase for Léo Apotheker, who was hired to be HP's CEO in November 2010 at a crucial time for the computer giant -- after a previous CEO had been forced out and as new technology trends were threatening to undercut HP's business.
Profit margins in HP's computer hardware business were shrinking in the face of low-cost competitors and changing consumer habits. Meanwhile, big competitors like IBM and Oracle (ORCL) were far ahead in the race to sell sophisticated commercial software that could help corporate customers sort through mountains of business data. Apotheker hoped that buying Autonomy would jump-start HP's move into the software business, which carried the promise of higher profit margins and rapidly growing demand.
Nonetheless, some industry experts had been issuing caveats about Autonomy for years.
In August 2009, Paul Morland of London brokerage Peel Hunt issued the warning about Autonomy's statements being "wrong and misleading." He followed that with other reports that Autonomy's "track record over the last few years has been exaggerated," and that it "needs to make an acquisition every twelve to eighteen months in order to sustain its apparent high rate of growth."
Some critics questioned the value of Autonomy's main product, a search engine called IDOL.
"There was some brilliant technology there," said Alan Pelz-Sharpe, a software industry expert at 451 Research. But he said it was expensive and so cumbersome that some early customers struggled to make it work.
Another skeptic was James Chanos of the hedge fund Kynikos Associates, one of the world's best known "short sellers," who make money betting that companies' shares will fall. In a speech explaining why he bet against Autonomy in 2010 -- months before HP bought the company -- he said "the accounting was absolutely dreadful, a disaster."
Autonomy didn't take kindly to such sniping. Pelz-Sharpe said it stopped talking to him. Other analysts dubious of the firm said it threatened them with lawsuits or punished them in other ways.
One of them was Daud Khan, who wrote a critical report on Autonomy for J.P. Morgan in September 2010. In an interview last week, Khan said he had become convinced "the wheels were starting to come off the business in late 2010."
Criticism continued through 2011 -- right up to HP's announcement in August that it planned to buy Autonomy. Deutsche Bank analyst Marc Geall in March 2011 wrote of Autonomy's sales that "things are looking bad."
HP's announcement on Aug. 18, 2011, that it was buying the company stunned some analysts. While applauding the goal of expanding HP's software offerings, they said the $11 billion price was too steep.
"We believe HP overpaid by $2 (billion) to $3 billion," groused Brian Alexander of the Raymond James investment firm. Calling it "a rich, ill-timed acquisition," Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore predicted the deal would "destroy" the value of HP's stock.
Two weeks before HP's board gave final approval to the transaction on Oct. 3, Larry Ellison, CEO of Redwood City software giant Oracle, said he turned down a chance to buy Autonomy after determining its $6 billion market value "was absurdly high." Even some top HP executives were concerned about the price. Among them, an HP representative confirmed, was its Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak, who urged the board not to do the deal.
It didn't take long for the purchase to turn problematic.
On May 23, Whitman, who replaced Apotheker, reported that "Autonomy had a very disappointing license revenue quarter, with a significant decline year-over-year, resulting in a shortfall to our expectations."
Then, on Nov. 20, HP stunningly announced it had written down $8.8 billion for Autonomy, with more than $5 billion for "accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures" related to Autonomy's business.
It said it only discovered the problems after an Autonomy official came forward with the allegations. But a shareholder lawsuit filed after the disclosure accuses HP's board and top executives of having "consciously disregarded numerous red flags" about Autonomy.
John Hempton, an Australian money manager who has closely followed HP's Autonomy acquisition, said the fiasco offers two painful lessons. For one thing, he said, companies venturing into unfamiliar product lines through an acquisition need to be wary of "getting suckered." And they better heed the warnings of analysts covering the company being bought, he said, because those analysts "probably know a few things."
Contact Steve Johnson at [email protected] or 408-920-5043. Follow him at Twitter.com/steveatmercnews | <urn:uuid:f1dd8801-3a33-452e-a535-49cb7fe00a83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/business/ci_22102226/hewlett-packard-hp-11-billion-autonomy-fiasco-was-preceded-ref-flags | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977509 | 1,509 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Gear up your car for the next monsoon
During monsoons there is water all around. As a car owner, a few important practices will help you exercise special care of your car during monsoons.
Crystal clear windshield is essential for a safe journey. While you set out for a drive on a rainy day, ensure that the wipers are working properly. If the wiper is faulty or not functioning properly the visibility of the windshield during rains will be seriously affected. Wiper blades are very important components that you must care for. Always go for good quality wiper blades and keep changing them at regular intervals since damaged wiper blades might leave scratches on the windshield. A mild cleaning solution or shampoo is advisable for letting run on the windshield than plain water.
After a drive on a rainy day, it is natural to find mud and slush splashed all around the car exteriors. Clean your car using some good cleaning solutions. This will help you remove the mud stains without letting any scratch on the surface during the cleaning process. Covering your car with dry and waterproff car covers and keeping the car in a warm area are a good way of safeguarding the car exteriors during monsoons.
The seats and upholstery might get damp and emit an unpleasant smell. Dry or wet clothes won’t be good to clean the upholstery. It is good to use the upholstery cleaner to do this since it will not only clean them properly, but also leave a fragrant smell. Rubber mats will prove good for an easy maintenance than fabric ones as they won’t get soaked to emit a bad smell.
Check your car tyres and keep them under good condition before monsoon. Always have a spare tyre and carry puncture repair kit to manage emergencies. During monsoons, you need to attend the electrical components with special care. Keep some extra fuses with you to meet emergencies. Regularly grease the battery terminals and have some spare bulbs. | <urn:uuid:72230359-f710-4463-a989-ca49ec050831> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.2indya.com/2012/08/21/gear-up-your-car-for-the-next-monsoon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949083 | 407 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Advocacy Action—Starting a Patient Advocacy Organization
Use your voice to bring about change
Bladder cancer is the sixth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the U.S. and the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer among men. Yet despite its prevalence, there has been no public awareness campaign dedicated to educating people about the risks or symptoms of bladder cancer. In addition, there has been relatively little government or private funding for research into a cure.
My husband was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2000, and in May 2005, we decided it was time to give a voice to the fight against bladder cancer and to the hundreds of thousands of survivors of this disease. We founded the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network—BCAN, pronounced “beacon”—and just celebrated our first anniversary.
If you’re dedicated to raising awareness about a disease, a patient advocacy organization is the most effective means of changing the status quo. Launching a new patient advocacy organization, however, can seem like a daunting task. But with commitment and focus, you can achieve a great deal in a short time. Here are some points that we found useful in our first year.
1. Determine the need. If there is an existing organization devoted to your cause, it’s not necessary to re-create the wheel—consider combining your resources to make an even stronger voice. Decide on a mission that is realistic and reachable.
2. Enlist the support of others. No one person can take on the challenge alone. Talk with doctors, nurses and other survivors to help assess the needs and priorities of your group. Solicit specialists to join a scientific advisory board; it helps give a new organization instant credibility.
3. Focus on priorities. A new organization can go in a hundred different ways, so you need to determine what’s most important to you at the beginning. For BCAN, it was coming up with a name (one that had a good acronym and an available web address), creating a logo with our “look,” and getting our application for nonprofit status granted as soon as possible.
4. Launch your website quickly. The most effective way to get the word out about your organization and its mission is to get on the web. Consider low-cost ways to launch—we found a competent and reasonably priced web developer through www.elance.com. Keep your website simple and easy to use, and don’t try to be everything to everyone at the beginning.
5. Network to get your name out. Meet with members of other cancer advocacy organizations who can provide you with guidance and the benefit of their experiences. Meet with representatives of relevant government agencies to advise them of your mission.
6. Consider fundraising options. This is an ongoing challenge. To get started, think about registering your group with Network for Good (www.networkforgood.org) to enable online donations from friends, family members and the survivor community. Look for corporate partners and foundations that may work with you to increase funding. It is also important to develop a fundraising vehicle such as a gala, walk or run.
—Diane Zipursky Quale
Diane Zipursky Quale is the president and co-founder of the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network.
For More Information about the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network: | <urn:uuid:d8d3e8d3-c594-4bf3-8133-c6ae4e878f25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crmagazine.org/Archive/Fall2006/Pages/AdvocacyAction-StartingaPatientAdvocacyOrganization.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955635 | 685 | 1.609375 | 2 |
One of our clients asked us how we handle latency, and not just a few ms across racks but 2 and even 3 digit ms latency that indicates geographically separate locations across continents, not just a country. Not only that, the “pipes” involved are 10Gbps and we had to fill them. We have the theories and made models of how it would work. We perhaps might not be able to fill a 10Gbps fully with one stream, we could fill it with multiple streams but we had to validate this conclusion.
The question now becomes, how do we test this. We’ve done our research and there are only a few commercial solutions available like the Netropy 10G2 which is a 4 port, 2 lane hardware latency simulator for $30,000 new. Not only is that outside my budget, it is still limited to simulating 2 10Gbps pipes while we need at least 3 lanes (6 ports) and possibility to expand to more as necessary. We decided it was cheaper in terms of total cost to put the research into creating our own Latency Simulator.
Awhile back I wrote about ‘Doing battle with a Dell R620 and Ubuntu‘ where I touched on the fact that booting from USB thumb-drive was a painful problem. In short, the same USB thumb-drive that would work in the R610 would not work in the R620.
It comes down BIOS support for USB and how it is handled. On the R610 there are 3 options: ‘auto-detect’, ‘floppy emulation’ and ‘hard drive’. Auto was hit-or-miss, floppy would not work but ‘hard drive’ worked every time. On the R620 there are no options so I can only suppose that it supports ‘floppy emulation’ upon detection of a USB thumb-drive.
Dell System E-Support Tool (DSET) is an informative tool used by Dell’s support engineers to help diagnose problems for their clients. It is almost a requirement now and Dell usually refuses to continue support without a DSET report.
The problem is that DSET is only supported on Redhat and SuSE Linux and there isn’t any information on how to get it running in Ubuntu. I’ve assembled a rough guide on how to get DSET up and running on Ubuntu 10.04 and 12.04 and it is tested against a Dell R610 and R620.
We recently got sent a Dell R620 to evaluate and while its technical specification is amazing there are a few things that need to be handled first.
As far as Ubuntu and the Dell R620 go, Precise (12.04) is the only way to go here. Every release before Precise has issues with this hardware in one way or another. This is new hardware of after all.
For our “use case” we downgraded the PERC H710P controller to a H310 controller so we can have direct access to the drives via pass-through. The H310 allows TRIM support for SSDs and SMART data via smartctl to be used without any problems. If you are interested in SMART information and PERC H700 series RAID controller, I posted about possible workarounds at Dell’s customer support site.
The idea is simple, two subnets (separate networks) and then route packets from one to the other. The environment, however, is not symmetric. We wanted to contact a node on the other subnet and we could see the packets travelling over the switch to the router back through another switch to the node, but the node itself refused to reply.
Each node has two NICs and each NIC is connected to a separate network. If you try to connect or ping one node from another, Linux is smart enough to go directly over the NIC with the right network. If a NIC should ever fail, the failover is that the packets are then routed up one network to the router then over to the other network. | <urn:uuid:7d942c73-5944-439d-90d4-14d763580586> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mindwerks.net/category/hardware/servers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957256 | 837 | 1.742188 | 2 |
St Michael's Church, Helston
1:58pm Tuesday 30th October 2012 in Helston
Parish communion celebrated Bible Sunday, with hymns and readings highlighting the importance of scripture and those who interpret and teach it.
In his sermon, Canon David Miller spoke of the truly amazing life of Henry Martyn, an Anglican saint who was born and raised in Truro and who died 200 years ago on 16th October, 1812. Following a distinguished university career, Henry Martyn was appointed chaplain of the East India Company, which enabled him to undertake missionary work in India. As a formidable, often self-taught, linguist, he translated the prayer book and certain scriptures into local languages and through his policy of co-operation between Christian denominations, as well as other faiths, succeeded in touching many lives. He saw holiness, rather than argument, as the means of converting souls to Christ. He accomplished so much in six short years before his untimely death at the age of 31.
The Rev Dorothy Noakes presided at communion, assisted by Betty Booker, lay reader, with Janet Jones reading the lesson.
Junior church enjoyed delving into the mysteries and marvels of creation via the Book of Genesis. | <urn:uuid:0c31f269-b77d-4024-922f-ad660ba2049e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/helstonandporthleven/helstontownandcountry/10015342.St_Michael_s_Church__Helston/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974966 | 253 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Fenway Park in Boston is continuing its annual summer concert series this year with two classic artists. On Friday, Bruce Springsteen announced that he is heading to Fenway on August 14 as part of his Wrecking Ball Tour. Roger Waters, currently on his The Wall Live Tour, also has a scheduled a concert at the park on July 1.
Springsteen's announcement brings things full circle, as he was the first artist scheduled to play a show at the park when it began hosting concerts on September 6, 2003, but he wasn't actually the first to appear at the park. Here's a quick look at the highlights:
1999 - Limp Bizkit
That's right, Limp Bizkit was actually the first band to perform at the park, albeit without permission. On Sunday, June 13, 1999, the band climbed atop the roof of the Fenway parking garage and proceeded to play a 5-song set before the unauthorized concert was discovered by police. By the time authorities got to the park, 1,500 fans had flocked to see the band play, creating a traffic jam. | <urn:uuid:549e0bec-443f-4f8d-9cc6-9ebb16470039> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ticketnetwork.com/blog/?tag=/roger+waters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978226 | 226 | 1.5 | 2 |
Once you have the right type of cat, food for your mature cat establish an appropriate amount for each meal and how often they should be served. Fashion your cat's eating habits around nutritional guides and the recommendations of your vet to find out which feeding model is best for your cat.
Keep track of your cat's physical condition and weight. With an older cat, it's important to observe health changes with your cat more closely. When addressing a mature adult cat's needs, remember these four steps: | <urn:uuid:e219e724-65d5-434f-9f51-ee3919bf37ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ivhsspca.org/index.php/animal-care/cats/mature-cat/basic-care | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950275 | 100 | 1.84375 | 2 |
US stocks fell, driving the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its first weekly drop in six, on concern rising borrowing costs may slow a rebound in the economy and corporate profits.
McDonald's Corp had the biggest decline on the Dow after the largest restaurant chain said earnings will fall for a sixth quarter. Verizon Communications Inc slid as Moody's Investors Service said the largest local-telephone company should reduce short-term debt, which would increase interest payments.
"The spike we've had in bond yields has undermined people's optimism about the relative attractiveness of stocks," said Bruce Simon, who oversees US$18 billion as chief investment officer at Glenmede Trust Co in Philadelphia.
The Dow fell 52.17, or 0.5 percent, to 10,427.67. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 4.89, or 0.4 percent, to 1,148.70, led by Intel Corp and Microsoft Corp. The NASDAQ Composite Index lost 17.44, or 0.9 percent, to 1,851.39.
For the week, the Dow lost 1.7 percent, trimming its year-to-date gain to 4.1 percent. Its last losing week ended Feb. 8.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.5 percent this week, leaving it little changed this year. The NASDAQ fell 0.9 percent, extending its loss for the year to 5.1 percent.
US Treasuries have fallen four weeks in a row, driving up companies' borrowing costs. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note closed near its highest in nine months on expectations the Federal Reserve will raise rates in May or June as the economy expands.
Four stocks fell for every three that rose on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Stock Market. Some 1.2 billion shares traded on the Big Board, 7.8 percent below the three-month daily average.
McDonald's fell US$1.05 to US$27.65. The chain said profit will be less than expected, hurt by a decline in the Euro and fears of ``mad-cow'' disease in Japan.
Verizon slid US$1.42 to US$45.61. The company had about US$12.8 billion of commercial paper at the end of last year and US$8.5 billion of cash or unused bank credit, or two-thirds coverage of its short-term debt, said Moody's analyst Dennis Saputo.
"A prudent financial policy would be to either reduce commercial paper borrowings or increase alternate" ways of raising money, Saputo said in an interview.
Standard & Poor's changed its view of Verizon to "negative," meaning its credit ratings will more likely be cut than raised.
Benjamin Pace, who helps manage US$24 billion at Deutsche Bank Private Banking, said he is avoiding all telecommunications stocks, including local phone companies such as Verizon.
"We are concerned the same kind of competition that reared its head in the long-distance market a few years ago is going to affect" the providers of local service, Pace said.
Moody's has pressured companies including General Electric Co to lower short-term borrowing and boost credit lines after phone company Qwest Communications International Inc lost access to the short-term market because of accounting concerns.
GE gained US$0.42 to US$37.87 after two days of declines on concern it has failed to show how it generates its profit growth.
Qwest, which has fallen as investors scrutinize its accounting for sales of fiber-optic capacity, lost US$0.19 to US$8.50.
Hewlett-Packard Co lost US$0.35 to US$18.15. The company's revenue and earnings from services are "well below plan" for the fiscal second quarter and the planned US$20 billion purchase of Compaq Computer Corp has affected productivity, Dow Jones reported, citing an internal company memo. | <urn:uuid:37caaa40-5964-4926-9488-49a3c2e20181> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2002/03/24/0000129015 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951922 | 814 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Many people are dubious of the behavioural changes attributed to tax cuts, particularly cuts to taxes which primarily benefit wealthier individuals. This reaction is perhaps at its most pronounced when it is claimed that higher taxes on investment bankers will result in a mass exodus from the City of London to Frankfurt, New York or Geneva.
How much do high earners really respond to increases in tax rates by moving abroad? A new paper by Henrik Kleven and Camille Landais of the LSE and Emmanuel Saez of UC Berkeley attempt to answer this question by looking at perhaps the only class of individuals who can claim to be both richer and more widely despised than investment bankers: professional footballers.
They look at two tax reforms in Denmark and Spain. Both introduced preferential tax treatment for foreign workers with the intention of attracting high-skilled immigration (ironically the Danish tax cut was intended to attract top quality scientists). A knock-on effect was that foreign footballers would pay a substantially lower rate of tax compared to their domestic counterparts.
Focussing on the higher profile case of Spain, the effect was that, in 2004, the rate of income tax paid by foreign footballers fell from 43% to 24%. The authors find dramatic effects. The proportion of foreign footballers in the Spanish first division grew much faster than in other, similar countries whose tax systems were unchanged.
Interestingly, the authors find that there was also an affect on the quality of foreign players in the Spanish league. Because football club’s demand for players is limited (only eleven can be on the pitch at any one time!) the effect of the tax reform was that Spanish clubs could afford to replace lower quality Spanish and foreign players with high quality foreigners: the quality of players in the league, as measured by the proportion who had played international football, also increased dramatically in comparison to other countries.
The authors also find suggestive evidence that tax reforms can affect clubs’ performance in European competition. Prior to the 1995 Bosman ruling by the European Court of Justice which removed numerous regulations on football clubs (in particular one that limited the number of non-domestic players to three per team) there was no correlation between a country’s top rate of tax and its clubs’ performance in European competition. After the ruling there is a strong negative correlation: clubs from low tax economies perform better in the UEFA Cup and Champions League.
So, the claim that high-earners move abroad in large numbers in response to tax increases, seems to have some truth behind it. While footballers are obviously a special case (they are highly geographically mobile and work for firms that have very rigid demand for employees) so that the effects in the paper probably represent an upper bound on the size of the effect in other industries, there are still natural implications for how the government should tax industries, like private equity and hedge funds, which pay huge salaries to a multinational work force that can move between countries relatively easily.
The paper also has some implications for how upcoming tax reforms in France might have unintended consequences for the football industry. President Hollande intends to introduce a new 75% rate of tax on earnings above 1m Euros. Initially there were rumours that footballers and other athletes would be exempt, but this no longer appears to be the case. However, there are now suggestions that the tax will be watered down by allowing married couples to pool their income so that they will pay the new rate only once their joint incomes exceed 2m Euros.
If this is true we can expect two responses:
- French teams will perform less well in the Champions’ League
- Footballers playing in France will get married in record numbers | <urn:uuid:9667a159-6850-43f4-a406-c22b01b57c1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cps.org.uk/blog/q/date/2012/09/11/want-to-marry-a-footballer-consider-moving-to-france/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980041 | 738 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Quoting VAR's Mommy:" how do you do labs online? IE biology, chemistry, etc... i go to a university. i learned WAY more in the class room setting than i learn online."
different schools do it different ways. I did vitual lab in chemistry, where I watched videos of the actual labs being done and answered the questions. A friend did her bio lab at home... they even mailed her a cat to disect.
I would agree though.. that long term goal should be taken into consideration.
I had a lab for chem, but not biology. I plan to go for my masters, and fully expect them to make me take a bio lab. I'm ok with that. The last 5 years though, I've had a great job as an RN, so even if I have to retake a class.. well worth it. | <urn:uuid:ced13d70-d477-453f-96f9-7fadf166d558> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forum.baby-gaga.com/about2352117.html | 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 | 0.980657 | 176 | 1.53125 | 2 |
I gotta “Love Jones”….
In 1997 Theodore Withcer directed one of the best Black films of all time “Love Jones” And while I was just a high school sophomore, a mere 15 or 16 years of age at the time. This movie quickly became one of my favorites and I can quote most of it to this day.
Although I can’t quite say I understood everything that was going on in the movie, at the time, I can say that I knew I wanted a love like Nina’s and Darius’, a love that even though it was a little troubled at times, it was a love that endured through time and distance. They were smart, they were good looking, and they were passionate.
Every time I watch it, yes still to this day, I gain a new and fresh perspective on love. I still get chills. As I got older I understood more and more of it. When I taught Psychology 100 at my university as a graduate student I used this movie when we discussed the Psychology of Love because of the evolution of the main character’s relationship.
You may ask yourself can love really be psycholo-gized? Well, let me school you a bit…..
The triangular theory of Love coined by psychologist Robert Sternberg proposes that love consists of three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Different combinations of these three components result in different types of love. For example, a combination of intimacy and commitment results in compassionate love while a combination of passion and intimacy leads to passionate love. According to Sternberg, relationships built on two or more elements are more enduring than those based upon a single component. Sternberg uses the term consummate love to describe a combination of intimacy, passion, and commitment. While this type of love is the strongest and most enduring, Sternberg also suggests that it is rare.
According to psychologist Elaine Hatfield and her colleagues, there are two basic types of love: compassionate love and passionate love. Compassionate love is characterized by mutual respect, attachment, affection and trust. It develops out of feelings of mutual understanding and shared respect for one another. Passionate love is characterized by intense emotions, sexual attraction, anxiety and affection. When these intense emotions are reciprocated, people feel happy. Unreciprocated love leads to feelings of despair. Hatfield suggests that passionate love is temporary, usually lasting between 6 and 30 months. Ideally, passionate love then leads to compassionate love, which is far more enduring. While most people desire relationships that combine the security and stability of compassionate with the intensity of passionate love, Hatfield believes that this is rare.
Although these were some of my favorite love theories to study I just don’t know that loves fits into a box like that. However, I think theory has its place. It’s interesting if nothing else. If you know Nina and Darius from “Love Jones” then you know theirs was a romance that started off with passion but later developed into what Sternberg called ‘consummate love’.
However, if you want to go the route of the Bible’s theory you know exactly what love is by reading I Corinthians; its patient, kind, not boastful, etc. The Bible addresses what love is specifically but what about soul mates and passion and all that good stuff. Well, it appears when it comes to that the Bible only addresses passion and commitment in terms of marriage.
We could take a lesson from “Love Jones”.
In his ever increasing woes with Nina Mosley, Darius seeks the advice of his friends. Savon, who is married simply states: “Marriage is what you make it.” after Darius asks him if he thinks he married his soul mate. However, Darius still doesn’t seem to get it. In another scene a while later, Darius says “you only get one, maybe two great loves” to which Ed replies “Love is what you make and with whom you make it”.
What do you think? Do you get one soul mate, one great love? Or is love what you make it and with whom you make it?
If love is patient, kind, and all those things can you make it with anyone or is there only one? | <urn:uuid:f8dd1077-722a-43af-b7cf-d7402b1b48e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blackhairmedia.com/girl-talk/i-gotta-love-jones/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971888 | 886 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Gov. Bob McDonnell's task force focusing on school safety in Virginia releases initial recommendations.
Tuesday, February 5
By Blake Belden, Capital News Service Gov. Bob McDonnell is urging state legislators to approve recommendations from his School and Campus Safety Task Force that would increase sentences for illegally buying guns, require mandatory lockdown drills at schools and establish more comprehensive suicide prevention programs, among other suggestions. McDonnell sent the General Assembly a letter outlining initial recommendations from the panel, which the governor established in the wake of December’s school shootings in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children. In the letter, McDonnell highlighted those recommendations he wants legislators to give the "most priority": 10 of them involve public safety (including …
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Educators don't support arming teachers or principals, but would welcome more trained, armed School Resource Officers "if money was no issue."
A group of educators from one of Fairfax County's largest teachers' unions says it doesn't want guns in schools, according to a survey released Thursday morning by the union, which goes on to say security personnel "can help address a portion of the issue (of school security), but they cannot fix the entire problem." The results come after nearly 500 members of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers responded to a survey on school safety and security — in an effort to make teachers' voices a larger part of state and nationwide conversations about gun control and schools, according to the federation's president, Steve Greenburg "The issue of guns being brought to schools and the issue of making our schools more secure is a complex effort…
Monday, January 14, 2013
Group charged with evaluating school safety says it'll focus on experts and fact, not emotion.
Monday, January 14
By Whitney Spicer, Capital News Service Members of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s School and Campus Safety Task Force vowed Monday their recommendations on keeping Virginia’s schools safe would be based on fact and not emotion. The task force – charged with evaluating the safety of schools and campuses throughout the state – was assembled by McDonnell in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting last month in Newtown, Conn. “I thought in the wake of that terrible tragedy, it would be prudent to get all of our leading experts from all disciplines together to gather around a table or two, and talk about what can we do better,” McDonnell said. After a gunman shot and killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary, some …
Friday, January 11, 2013
Members tasked with reviewing, making recommendations about safety in Virginia schools.
A state task force designed to review school safety procedures and make recommendations for any improvements at Virginia's schools -- created in the wake of the December shootings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn -- is set to begin next week, after Gov. Bob McDonnell named 45 people to the group Wednesday. Shortly after the shootings, which left 26 students and educators dead, Gov. Bob McDonnell issued Executive Order 56 establishing a multidisciplinary task force to review school and campus safety. In addition to several state legislators, law enforcement officials and mental health and safety experts, the task force also includes k through 12 and university-level educators and administrators, two students and the father of a …
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
In light of Sandy Hook shootings and ahead of Virginia General Assembly kickoff this week, union turns to members to get opinion on guns in schools and what safe schools should look like.
In the weeks since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., politicians and advocacy groups have issued recommendations for how schools can try to prevent the tragedy — which killed 26 students and school employees — from happening again. A voice so far largely absent from those discussions in Fairfax and Northern Virginia: teachers. One of Fairfax County's largest teachers unions is hoping to change that, launching Tuesday a security and schools survey asking its 4,265 members about the use of guns in schools, where the system could use extra security personnel, how safe schools are now and how to make them safer, among other topics. "What I see more and more of is politicians posturing up and taking positions …
Monday, December 17, 2012
In wake of Newtown shooting, Gov. Bob McDonnell wants to look at all resources to keep campuses from kindergarten through college safe.
In the wake of Friday's school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has announced a state plan to review school safety in Virginia at all levels. McDonnell said Monday he plans to identify statewide and locality, school division, college and university resource needs to "ensure that we are doing everything humanly possible to keep our children, young people and educators safe while they are in the classroom." "Just as public safety is the bedrock responsibility of government, the safety of our young people must continue to be the top priority in our schools and our campuses," McDonnell said in a satement. In Fairfax County, there are regular safety and lockdown drills, and there was increased … | <urn:uuid:de56c01a-6472-43a7-b246-fbdc3afa46cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mclean.patch.com/topics/School+Safety | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966845 | 1,028 | 1.585938 | 2 |
I guess it is too much to ask to have some money saved up to fall back on if you do lose your job, rather than relying solely on unemployment compensation. Unemployment is not there to pay for all your bills should you lose your job, it is meant to assist.
But instead everyone has to have that brand new car, flat screen tv's, iphone's etc....rather than putting a few bucks aside. Instead we rely on the government to bail us out whenever the going gets tough. Its sad really. There is no more personal responsibility in our society anymore. Everything is always someone elses fault and then when something goes wrong we depend on someone else to bail us out.
More information about formatting options | <urn:uuid:b71cdf03-f270-43a3-990a-66b6602fd3ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wwaytv3.com/comment/reply/44027/200478 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956026 | 146 | 1.523438 | 2 |
|Kidzfest to combine summer fun and learning
Published: July 17, 2012.
Activities for children of all ages will be featured at the Lewis University Mini-Campus during Kidzfest 2012, a free family festival for children to play, explore, imagine and create. Kidzfest will be held from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 4 in downtown Joliet.
Lewis University will participate along with other organizations including the Joliet Public Library, Joliet Park District, Chicagoland Speedway, Joliet Area Historical Museum, Rialto Square Theatre, Brookfield Zoo, Haunted Trails, Will County Land Use, Gallery 7, St. Joseph Academy, Joliet Slammers, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and more.
Each child can receive a certificate as he/she enters the Lewis University Kidzfest Mini-Campus across from the Rialto Square Theatre. The children earn marks on the certificate for each activity that they attend. Those who earn four marks on the certificate will earn an “aviator wings pin.”
Entertaining and educational experiences at Lewis exhibits include opportunities to:
Brother James Gaffney, FSC, President of Lewis University, stated: “Kidzfest demonstrates the Lewis University mission to promote life-long learning by encouraging children to take advantage of various learning opportunities, to ask questions, to set goals, and to interest them in different fields. Moreover, the educational activities offered at Kidzfest are fun for the youngsters.”
Lewis University is a Catholic university offering distinctive undergraduate and graduate programs to nearly 6,500 traditional and adult students. Lewis offers multiple campus locations, online degree programs, and a variety of formats that provide accessibility and convenience to a growing student population. Sponsored by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, Lewis prepares intellectually engaged, ethically grounded, globally connected, and socially responsible graduates. The ninth largest private not-for-profit university in Illinois, Lewis has been nationally recognized by The Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report. | <urn:uuid:0709f3ce-6ea3-416e-8701-33f3e9fffb3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lewisu.edu/news/Newsarticle.htm?PArticleID=8954 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930148 | 424 | 1.554688 | 2 |
January 16, 2013
In a world ruled by capitalism only the rich have rights. Everyone else exists solely to serve them, to enhance their wealth. Those of no profitable use should receive nothing. For sharing their wealth would only lead to the wealthy’s own impoverishment, making them equals of the common people, which was unthinkable.
November 3, 2011
Six thousand six hundred California prisoners participated in a three-week-long hunger strike in July, seeking relief from unjust and inhumane conditions. In the face of California Department of Corrections (CDC) officials failing to honor settlement negotiations, the hunger strike resumed on Sept. 26, with nearly 12,000 prisoners participating in 13 of that state’s prisons. | <urn:uuid:4c74d081-4071-48bf-870a-fe2bc27a534c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sfbayview.com/tag/new-afrikan-black-panther-party/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961469 | 146 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Good stories serve a purpose. While the objective of some stories is met immediately, the lesson of other stories can be years in the making. Such is the case with this story about my grandmother, Alice. Come with me as we visit my grandparents’ farm near Muncy, Pennsylvania.
A nip in the September air caused Alice to reflect that her four children had grown out of their winter coats, leggings and boots at the end of the previous winter. If the truth be known, the children outgrew the coats just as they fell apart from years of use by previous owners. Alice opened a canning jar that she kept hidden in a kitchen cupboard and counted the bills and coins it contained. There wasn’t enough to purchase winter clothing for one child let alone four.
With the Great Depression in full force, Alice and her husband Ed were having a difficult time making ends meet. As she so often did when adversity confronted her, Alice lowered her head in silent prayer. If there was anything good coming from such troublesome times, it was that Alice was learning to depend on the Lord to meet her family’s needs.
That afternoon as she hung laundry on the clothesline in the backyard, Alice turned her head and looked across the cornfield to the woods where several hickory trees grew at its edge. Their golden leaves made them easy to spot. She felt a strong urge to walk over to them and when she saw that the trees and ground were covered with an abundance of hickory nuts, an idea came to her. After filling her apron to overflowing with the nuts, she hurried home.
Each day, Alice and the children returned to the hickory trees and gathered the nuts. At night, they sat at the kitchen table by the light of an oil lamp and picked the nuts out of their shells. After weighing the nuts on a scale, each pound was poured into a small paper bag. It occurred to Alice that had she not followed the strong urging to walk over to the trees, she would never have thought of harvesting the nuts.
That Saturday, Ed loaded his wife, the bags of hickory nuts and a small wagon into the car and they drove into town. Ed drove to a residential area and after he unloaded the wagon, he and Alice filled it with the bags of nuts. Ed left as he had errands to do in town and Alice had a mission.
She pulled the wagon behind her as she went door to door seeking customers. It was now November and not only did she know that women were starting their Thanksgiving and Christmas baking, she also knew that hickory nuts were scarce due to the Depression, as were many things. In no time at all, Alice sold all of the bags for 25 cents each and even had several orders for more nuts.
For days, Alice and the children repeated the chores of gathering the hickory nuts, shelling, weighing and bagging them, and every Saturday, Alice walked through town and sold the nuts. When nature provided no more nuts, Alice counted her earnings. The harvest not only provided enough money to buy new coats, leggings and boots for all four of her children but much-needed winter coats and boots for Ed and her as well.
Because Alice faithfully turned to the Lord in the midst of her troubles, God always provided a way for Alice. He didn’t necessarily answer her prayers exactly the way she hoped or thought He would, but He answered in ways that were better than she could have imagined.
For as long as I can remember, my own mother relied on her faith and childhood memories to get her through the difficulties that visit a person’s life. And she loved to share these precious recollections with my siblings and me. Over 80 years later, when my own family and I found ourselves in the midst of severe misfortune, it was my mother’s stories about her parents’ faith and persevering spirit during hardships that provided examples for my husband and me.
When Christmas came and my husband and I had no money to buy presents for our own children or food for our usual feast, I thought of Grandma Alice and Grandpa Ed and I knew what I needed to do. I gathered our children close to me and explained that we already had the best presents – our love for each other and our faith that God would see us through our troubles. And just as He had done for my grandparents and parents, God faithfully provided for us.
What gifts are you giving your family? Are they tangible presents that are here today and gone tomorrow? Or will you pass on your faith which will last for generations?
“I will be glad and rejoice in Your love, because You saw my suffering; You knew my troubles.” Psalm 31:7.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY
Cynthia Howerter © 2011Read More
While I watch the wind blow the last of the colored leaves to the ground, my thoughts follow the dirt lane to the old farmhouse where my maternal grandparents raised their children during the Great Depression. It is a house I visited many times while I listened to my mother’s childhood stories. I toured it once recently when the present owner invited me inside.
Although my mother and father moved hundreds of miles away after their marriage, my mother’s thoughts frequently traveled to her childhood home. She loved nothing better than to scoop up my siblings and me and take us with her as she recalled her childhood on a farm near Muncy, Pennsylvania – stories I treasured and passed on to my own little ones.
Mother spoke of a life filled with an abundance of indoor and outdoor chores and of nearby relatives who frequently stopped by on Sunday afternoons for visits. On stifling summer days, the adults visited in the shade of the large front porch while the children took turns cranking the handle of an ice cream freezer on the grass under a shade tree.
When the harsh winter wind rattled the shuttered windows and forced snow to swirl across the bare fields, it was the kitchen that was the center of Mother’s family’s life, mostly because it was the only room in the house that was heated. Family and guests gathered there, the single-paned windows steamed from the conversations.
The old farmhouse, which originally belonged to Mother’s grandparents, had no electricity, indoor plumbing or central heat. Bathtubs, toilets and even a kitchen sink were non-existent. Things weren’t any better outside. There was no tractor or modern farm equipment. Keeping the farm going depended on horses and one’s own strength and determination. Parents and children worked hard from early morning to evening, but my mother’s stories were never ones of complaining.
The day before Thanksgiving, Grandma Alice killed and dressed turkeys for customers from town who gave their orders in advance. Once the poultry orders were filled, Alice killed the turkey she would cook for her own family. Grandpa Ed finished the outdoor chores, then got out his hunting clothes and sharpened his knife and cleaned his gun. The days immediately after Thanksgiving were hunting days and Ed needed to hunt game to help supplement his family’s food supply.
The Great Depression was in full force and money was scarce for my mother’s family. Mother often said that while she and her siblings were growing up, they never realized how primitively they lived on the farm. But a person can’t miss what they don’t know, she would explain.
Something inside my heart was soothed when Mother spoke of the contentment that was felt at the end of each day as the family gathered at the dinner table and her father thanked the Lord for His generous provisions. Grandpa Ed and Grandma Alice made it clear to their children that, but for the Lord’s benevolence, their harvests would be small and their needs large.
My grandparents have long since gone to be with the Lord, and their farm has changed hands several times since they sold it. But my mother’s stories taught me that when a family realizes that they are dependant upon the Lord to provide for all of their needs - as well as their blessings - every day is Thanksgiving Day.
May your Thanksgiving Day be joyous, may you be surrounded by your loved ones, and may you give thanks and praise to the One who provides for your every need.
“When you have all you want to eat, then praise the Lord your God for giving you a good land.” Deuteronomy 8:10.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY
Cynthia Howerter © 2011Read More | <urn:uuid:36b688b3-2479-426b-ad40-491e8ad0a93b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cynthiahowerter.com/tag/muncy-pennsylvania/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983561 | 1,783 | 1.742188 | 2 |
New York City Tax Lien Lawyer
A "lien" may be simply defined as a legal claim or hold upon real or personal property, making it collateral against money or services owed to another person or entity. A lien may keep a person from selling or transferring that property. When a person fails to pay income tax or other taxes or owes delinquent taxes on real property or other property, the proper taxing authority may place a lien on the taxpayer's property. The IRS or other taxing authorities may also resort to
wage garnishment and
bank levies to seek the money they are owed.
Stopping Tax Liens by the IRS
Tax liens may be imposed for a failure to pay property taxes, and the IRS or state tax authority may impose tax liens to collect unpaid income taxes. A tax lien may affect your credit score, and failing to address the matter can have serious consequences. It is therefore highly recommended that you talk to a tax attorney at our New York City law firm to see what we can do to help you work out a payment plan or installment agreement, offer in compromise or a tax settlement to handle your tax debt once and for all.
There are also ways that we can work to prevent a tax lien in the first place or contest a lien that has already been imposed if this was made in error or was based upon misinformation. As with most tax-related matters, it is best to take a proactive approach. Your tax lien lawyer at our offices, along with our other professionals, can conduct a complete analysis of your financial and tax situation to determine the best approach.
Tax Lien Attorney for Manhattan, Brooklyn and all of NYC
Find out more about what we can do to help you in the face of a tax lien in the Brooklyn or Manhattan area. We help taxpayers throughout New York City and are ready to put our experience to work for you.
New York City tax lien attorney
at Melnik Law Group, PLLC today. | <urn:uuid:861aaef9-839f-4220-8b61-b366b14dfba2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newyorkirstaxattorney.com/Tax-Law/Tax-Liens.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943935 | 408 | 1.59375 | 2 |
North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue became the first governor to veto her state’s budget today when she said no to the $20 billion proposal. Here’s her veto statement pulled directly from her website:
Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the legislature’s budget proposal after concluding the bill would set North Carolina backwards and cause generational damage to the state’s workforce and education system.
Here is Gov. Perdue’s veto message.
Delivered Sunday, June 12, 2011, from the Capitol Building, Raleigh
For generations, we North Carolina have distinguished ourselves from other southern states as a place of opportunity, and a place that understands the value of investing in our people.
Education has been our hallmark – the one area that set us apart from our neighbors and propelled our economic success.
From the high chair to the rocking chair, every North Carolinian has been given the opportunity for a quality education — from early childhood, K-12, community colleges and through our colleges and universities. This is the commitment we have made to our people because, quite simply, it’s what we believe in.
We have lived our values – until now.
Now, for the first time, we have a legislature that is turning its back on our schools, our children, our longstanding investments in education and our future economic prospects.
Under this budget:
• We will overlook many of our most at-risk pre-school children by slashing Smart Start and More at Four, leaving these kids behind before they’ve even started Kindergarten;
• Classrooms will be underfunded in K-12, forcing local school districts to lay off thousands of teachers and teaching assistants who will then be added to the unemployment rolls; and
• In our community colleges and universities, programs will be shut down, tuition may be raised, career training and college degrees will be further out of reach, there will be fewer class offerings and students will take longer to graduate.
This budget will result in generational damage. It tears at the very fibers that make North Carolina strong – not only our schools, but also our communities, our environment, our public safety system and our ability to care for those who need us most.
• Our most vulnerable and sick will see medical and mental health services cut or eliminated;
• Families will have fewer resources as they care for their elderly, their disabled or their mentally ill;
• The natural environmental treasures that we cherish and that draw so many visitors to North Carolina will be at risk of permanent damage or destruction;
• Historical sites that attract tourists and stimulate economic activity by commemorating our rich cultural heritage will be closed;
• Our ability to prepare for and recover from disasters such as tornados and hurricanes may be hampered; and
• These cuts would be devastating when we have a more than active hurricane season predicted.
• Fewer law enforcement officers will patrol our streets and supervise convicted felons, while victims will be forced to wait longer for justice.
In the days since the General Assembly’s budget reached my desk, I’ve traveled the state listening to parents and grandparents, teachers and superintendents, business people, community leaders and law enforcement officials. I saw worry in their eyes;
I heard frustration in their voices. These are people who, like me, are proud to call North Carolina home because of what we believe in as a people; because of our legacy of smart choices and planning for the future. They spoke to me not as Democrats or Republicans, Tea Partiers or Independents. They came to me as North Carolinians, and they asked me to stand up for what is right for our children and grandchildren, for what moves North Carolina forward, not backward.
They know that much of damage that this budget seeks to do is simply unnecessary. By extending less than a penny of the sales tax, North Carolina can avoid severe cuts to our schools and other crucial programs.
These cuts were made by the legislature in this budget by choice. They chose to risk our children’s futures — for less than a penny.
For weeks I have cautioned legislative leaders of the damage this budget will cause. Yes, these difficult economic times demand that we tighten our belt, make cuts and face up to hard choices.
The budget I submitted to the General Assembly in February did just that — but it also invested in our future. We cannot move North Carolina forward without both balance and reason. This budget provides neither.
As I’ve reviewed the General Assembly’s plan for how North Carolina should run the next two years, I’ve found is ideologically driven budget that rips at our classrooms and campuses, our environment and quality of life, our services for the needy and ill, and the safety of our streets and communities. What message does that send to the people and businesses who are considering a move to North Carolina? The state’s budget is more than just a roadmap for how state agencies operate. It is a reflection of the state’s values, of what we believe in.
I will not put my name on a plan that so blatantly ignores the values of North Carolina’s people. I cannot support a budget that sends the message that North Carolina is moving backwards, when we have always been a state that led the nation.
The General Assembly may be satisfied with a state in reverse, but I am not. Therefore, I veto this bill. | <urn:uuid:d8d27d72-de30-41eb-a196-2e7af86fc7ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://byrdsightings.tumblr.com/tagged/politics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955583 | 1,117 | 1.664063 | 2 |
I love the simple elegance of 1 John and the Gospel of John. I don't really
*care* if contemporary writers would have judged this to be "good Greek", I
read it out loud and let John's pregnant phrases sink in.
hmmmmm. . . . May I jump into this conversation, at midstream, and
ask what hopefully will be a simple question?
I understand from conversing with my classics buddy at Yale that
Greek as simple as the Greek of John's gospel would still have been
difficult to read by the 'average' person linving, for example, in Ephesus.
This leads me to aks a question that I have been pondering over long and
hard: What do we *know* about the literacy rate in the Greco-Roman world to
be able to say who could or could not read Greek?
PS: when replying, please reply back to me directly since I only
receive the digest form of B-Greek and ioudaios. | <urn:uuid:9435f5f0-666a-445b-8cc2-389f35b44654> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/archives/96-11/0162.html | 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 | 0.949866 | 214 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The Illinois Commerce Commission is neither ‘for’ nor ‘against’ the Taylorville Energy Center – officially. But good luck finding anything project developer Tenaska can boast about in the agency’s 45-page report on the “clean” coal facility’s costs. Lawmakers are expected to use the report in their decision, perhaps as early as this fall, on whether to authorize the project to go ahead.
The ICC report says the cost is high, plans are evolving and the 2008 law that propelled the $3.5 billion coal-to-gas project this far is unclear and anti-competitive. [See “The dirty business of ‘clean’ coal,” by Rachel Wells, Aug. 19.]
Yes, the cost is high, and, yes, the plans have changed, Tenaska agrees. That’s the trade-off for a project that would help revitalize Illinois’ coal industry and emit less carbon than conventional coal power plants. For a more complete picture, the company points to the full analysis performed by the ICC’s consultant. “The ICC consultant’s report validates Tenaska’s technical approach, capital cost, rate impact projections and assessment of environmental performance,” the company said in a press release following release of the ICC report.
Instead of sticking to simple cost analysis, the ICC looked at public policy issues already considered by the General Assembly when in 2008 it enacted the underlying law – the Clean Coal Portfolio Standard Law. That law laid the framework for requiring electric suppliers to purchase the Taylorville Energy Center’s power at above market prices for a period of 30 years. “Many issues raised by the ICC are at odds with policy choices made by the General Assembly, with the support of Attorney General [Lisa] Madigan, in passing the … Clean Coal Law,” Tenaska says.
Tenaska says the high price of its proposed plant is the trade-off for reducing carbon emissions. And the company admits that plans continue to change – its sequestration options might now include tapping into a federally funded CO2 pipeline associated with Meredosia’s FutureGen project. But that would only mean further cost savings, Tenaska consultant Dave Lundy says. Following the ICC’s release of its report, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin stepped in to express adamant support for the Taylorville Energy Center, referring to a potential link with FutureGen.
The ICC report analyzes the law’s 2 percent rate increase cap only on residential and small business consumers. Without a similar cap for large businesses and manufacturers, the 30-year purchase agreements at above market prices “could stifle the competitive market and create significant adverse economic impacts,” the ICC report states. The report suggests that the clean coal law is in conflict with past policy decisions aimed at increasing competition. Tenaska contends that large business customers currently have significantly lower rates than residential customers, a fact that won’t change much even if the project hits the ceiling of its projected costs.
“A lot of these issues were discussed, deliberated and debated at great length for many months,” Tenaska consultant Dave Lundy says. “The ICC wasn’t a part of that process, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t considered.”
The ICC also asks the General Assembly to clarify “clean coal.” As used in the 2008 law, the term means a plant that uses “primarily” coal to produce energy. The Taylorville Energy Center at times would rely on natural gas rather than coal. The ICC wants the legislature to be more exact in describing the percentage of each type of fuel a “clean coal” plant must use.
Tenaska says the law is already clear. “‘Primary’ means ‘primary.’ It means ‘mostly,’” Lundy says, adding that three-fifths of the project’s fuel would be Illinois coal. He says the ICC has “raised ambiguity where none exists.”
David Kolata, executive director of consumer advocacy group Citizens Utility Board, says the ICC’s report is “fairly critical” of both the project and the 2008 law CUB helped shape. “I think they focus on issues other than residential and small businesses, which is our concern,” he says, adding that he feels the law is “a reasonable approach” that satisfies his concerns.
Contact Rachel Wells at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:a75bb246-9e2f-4735-a743-1cc921bb0e21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-7739-report-criticizes-lscleanrs-coal-plant.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952553 | 957 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Recently, the Archdiocese of Washington had a “Seminarian Family Day” in which current seminarians and their families gathered to celebrate Mass and enjoy a picnic. The purpose of the day was to recognize the importance of the family in a young man’s decision to pursue the call to the priesthood. Our diocesan paper reported on the event, and something struck me about the families of the three seminarians they profiled:
Doug Powell, the father of seminarian Jonathan Powell, said he is proud of his son’s decision to explore a vocation to the priesthood…
He and his wife, Tam, the parents of 12 children, have tried to foster vocations in their home by being open about faith, committing to family prayer and homeschooling their children, he said…
Kimberly Schnitker, the mother of seminarian Max Schnitker and a parishioner of St. John Vianney Parish in Prince Frederick, said her family fosters vocations by attending daily Mass, praying the rosary, homeschooling their children and maintaining friendships with priests who are an “inspiration to them.”
Michael Berard, a parishioner of St. Hugh Parish in Greenbelt whose son, Jack Berard, is a seminarian at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, said he and his wife, Pat, fostered vocations in their home by striving to be living examples for their 10 children.
Did you notice what I highlighted? One seminarian family has 12 kids and homeschools, another homeschools, and the third has 10 children. What is common about these three families? They are counter-cultural.
In today’s society, there is probably nothing more counter-cultural than a religious vocation. Choosing to be celibate, obedient and poor is the trifecta of counter-cultural choices in the over-sexed, rebellious and materialistic culture of death in which we live. Those who are immersed in our culture are going to have an extremely hard time hearing the call to the religious life, which is why parents need to live in counter-cultural ways. Do your kids watch the same TV shows, wear the same clothes, go to the same schools, have the same number of siblings and entertain themselves the same way as every other child? Not every Catholic family is going to homeschool or have a large number of children, but every Catholic family is called to counter the culture of death in which we live in some way. Along with giving their children a more solid path to holiness, parents may very well be helping to solve the vocations crisis in our country as well. | <urn:uuid:95669a2e-4af7-4f7c-b6d5-bb064b368e71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ericsammons.com/blog/2010/08/02/being-counter-cultural-begets-religious-vocations/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975191 | 559 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Average February for Canadian home sales
According to statistics released a few days ago by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national resale housing activity in February 2011 ran close to the five-year average for the month, continuing a theme that has characterized the past four months.
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) national sales activity via the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) Systems of Canadian real estate Boards came in 5.9 per cent below levels reported last February. This marks the smallest year-over-year decline in nine months, and the fourth consecutive month in which sales activity was on par with the five-year average for that month.
Seasonally adjusted home sales activity edged down 1.6 per cent in February 2011 compared to the previous month on a national basis. Sales activity eased in almost two-thirds of all local markets from the previous month, offsetting monthly increases in activity among other markets including Vancouver and Calgary.
Nationally, new listings in February edged up 1.5 per cent from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis, which builds on the 4.3 per cent monthly increase in January. The rise in new listings is consistent with CREA’s expectation that many sellers, who shied away from listing their home last summer when the national housing market softened, would list their home in early 2011, having by now observed improved demand and stable prices.
With both sales activity and new supply little changed in February, the housing market remained firmly in balanced territory. The national sales-to-new listings ratio, a measure of market balance, stood at 53.5 per cent in February. This is little changed from the previous four months.
“Most local housing markets in Canada are well balanced, but there are still a number of buyers’ and sellers’ markets,” said Georges Pahud, CREA’s President. “Housing market trends often evolve and diverge from national trends due to local factors, so buyers and sellers should consult their local REALTOR® to understand how the housing market is shaping up where they live.”
The number of months of inventory represents the number of months it takes to sell current inventory at the current rate of sales activity, and is another measure of the balance between housing supply and demand. The seasonally adjusted number of months of inventory stood at 5.7 months at the end of February on a national basis. This is little changed from the 5.5 months reported in January, when it reached the lowest level since last April.
The national average price for homes sold in February 2011 rose 8.8 per cent year-over-year to $365,192. “The average price has been skewed higher nationally and in British Columbia recently by a record number of multi-million dollar sales in a couple of areas in Greater Vancouver,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist.
“When you take Vancouver out of the equation, the year-over-year increase in the national average price drops to 3.4 per cent,” added Klump. “While that’s still stronger than in the past six months or so, national average price gains may recede after tighter mortgage regulations take effect in March.”
CREA cautions that average price information can be useful in establishing trends over time, but does not indicate actual prices in centres comprised of widely divergent neighborhoods or account for price differential between geographic areas. Statistical information contained in this report includes all housing types.
MLS® is a co-operative marketing system used only by Canada’s real estate Boards to ensure maximum exposure of properties listed for sale.
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is one of Canada’s largest single-industry trade associations, representing more than 100,000 REALTORS® working through more than 100 real estate Boards and Associations.
From the Canadian Real Estate Association | <urn:uuid:ad0e269b-f49f-4325-b782-18d0cde522be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.mystudiomontreal.com/2011/07/21/average-february-for-canadian-home-sales/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952058 | 811 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Welcoming a new child can be one of the most exciting moments in your life. It can also be the most stressful if you're not prepared.
"Right now, I don't feel prepared, but everything always falls into place when it's time," said Cassie Handt, who is expecting her second child in September 2007.
After you find out that you're pregnant, it seems there is so much for you to do before the baby arrives. You may want to read books on pregnancy, birthing and parenting, prepare a space for the new baby and begin to baby-proof your home.
Take your time
"The most important thing you can do is realize that you've got nine whole months to get up to speed on everything pertaining to parenting," said Katina Z. Jones, author of "The Everything Get Ready For Baby Book, 2nd Edition," to be released in fall 2007."Besides the things you learn on your own or in prenatal class, you'll have lots of support in the form of solicited -- and unsolicited -- advice," she said.
"I read books during my first pregnancy – 'What to Expect When Your Expecting' -- and a lot of magazines," said Handt.
"For advice, I always turn to dear old mom, she always knows everything," she said.
Jones said that preparation includes savoring the calm.
"Outside of the regular doctor's appointments and general preparations for baby's impending birth, the most important thing you can both do before baby arrives is relax and enjoy some special time together," said Jones. "After all, once the baby is here, time alone will be a luxury."
What gear do you need?
Figuring out what you need can be absolutely mind-boggling. From kitchen tools -- bottle washers, nipple cleaners and more -- to baby's bedroom and household safety supplies, the list can seem never-ending. | <urn:uuid:a2f994ed-e2e5-4a65-be6b-2539e8b40d69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wesh.com/news/entertainment/family/Baby-s-coming-what-do-you-need/-/11787810/71472/-/ww4qi3/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96645 | 394 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Honda announces global recall for air-bag problems
Published: Friday, December 2, 2011 at 7:38 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 2, 2011 at 7:38 a.m.
TOKYO — Honda Motor Co. is recalling 304,000 vehicles globally for air-bags that may inflate with too much pressure in a crash, send metal and plastic pieces flying and cause injuries or deaths.
Honda said there have been 20 accidents so far related to this problem, including two deaths in the U.S. in 2009.
The Japanese automaker announced the recall today, which affects the Accord, Civic, Odyssey, Pilot, CR-V and other models, manufactured in 2001 and 2002.
The recall spans 273,000 vehicles in the U.S., some 27,000 in Canada, nearly 2,000 vehicles in Japan and another 2,000 in other countries. It affected 359 vehicles in Europe — 200 in Germany, 158 in Israel and one in Great Britain, according to Honda.
The latest recall is an expansion of recalls for the same problem in 2008, and again carried out in 2009, as well as last year. The recall now covers about 2 million vehicles worldwide, according to Tokyo-based Honda.
Honda spokesman Hajime Kaneko said the cause for the latest recall was the use of incorrect material in the chemical used to deploy air bags.
The initial cause of the recall was excessive moisture in the inflator propellant, which is part of what inflates the air bag.
But that problem was found later to affect more vehicles than initially estimated, as incidents didn't stop, and the recall was expanded to account for the possibility that the problem was caused by a defective stamping machine used during production, he said.
Honda is extremely sorry about the recalls but believes the problem has now been taken care of, with no more recalls linked to this problem expected, he said.
Also included in the latest recall are 912 air-bag service parts sold for installation in vehicles for collision repair and other reasons, Honda said.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:a3ff2198-0705-4b44-a4e6-7b7a9f21b25f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20111202/WIRE/111209931?Title=Honda-announces-global-recall-for-air-bag-problems- | 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 | 0.963589 | 464 | 1.742188 | 2 |
This is a series of lectures for MATH2111 "Higher Several Variable Calculus" and "Vector Calculus", which is a 2nd-year mathematics subject taught at UNSW, Sydney. This playlist provides a shapshot of some lectures presented in Session 1, 2009. These lectures focus on presenting vector calculus in an applied and engineering context, while maintaining mathematical rigour. Thus, this playlist may be useful to students of mathematics, but also to those of engineering, physics and the applied sciences. There is an emphasis on examples and also on proofs. | <urn:uuid:ecb2357a-10c0-4f49-a801-b5a3e7f7251a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.academicearth.org/courses/vector-calculus/page:2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94077 | 113 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Newark Mayor Cory Booker is running for the Senate in 2014. / Mel Evans, AP
Newark Mayor Cory Booker has set up a campaign committee to run for the Senate, which will allow him to begin raising money for the 2014 race.
The Democrat filed his paperwork for the Cory Booker for Senate committee with the Federal Election Commission, which received it on Tuesday. Judith Zamore, who was treasurer of Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown's 2006 campaign, is listed as the Booker committee treasurer.
Booker said last month he would explore a New Jersey Senate race, even though incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg has not yet announced his political plans. In an interview with CNN this week, Booker said it is his intention to run and noted that Lautenberg, who turns 89 this month, has "been there a long time" and needs to make a decision.
Booker is known nationally because of his prolific social media use, especially on Twitter, and for running into a burning house to save a neighbor.
A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll shows Booker leading Lautenberg by 20 percentage points in a hypothetical primary matchup.
In the past day on Twitter, Booker has highlighted support from gay-rights groups following the revelation that he wrote a column while a Stanford University student in the early 1990s about his struggles with homophobia. Booker, now a vocal supporter of gay rights, wrote that he had "hated gays" and once felt "disgust and latent hostility" toward homosexuals.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Cory Booker forms Senate campaign committee | <urn:uuid:f2cd07b4-ec86-48aa-90e0-19007de5db7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenvilleonline.com/usatoday/article/1826831 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969633 | 323 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The title of this book is misleading, though humorous. Distracted on the one hand by messages from `everywhere', and especially from Lord Mountbatten's headquarters, and plagued on the other: 1)by the need to deal with the surrendered Japanese (who were charged to guard the still full prisoner camps from those Indonesians bent on revenge against the Dutch); 2)by the imperious demands of the Dutch; and 3)by the disunited but potentially dangerous Indonesians, Admiral Patterson, on the Cumberland, anchored in the harbor at Batavia, sent this message to Lord Mountbatten: "We can continue to rock the baby to sleep only if you people outside the house would not make so much noise." Van der Post "promised the Admiral that night, that if [he] lived, [he] would one day write a story about all that had happened and was happening to [them] in Indonesia, and call it The Admiral's Baby"(74). A bit unfortunate, as the title has nothing to do with the contents of this book, which is an account of how the British dealt with the enormously complex task that had been thrust upon them in postwar Indonesia. [Incidentally, van der Post had the highest regard for both Admiral Patterson (he dedicated the book to Patterson and to General Philip Christison) and for Lord Mountbatten, for whose powers of intuition he had the greatest admiration.] The occasion for the writing of this book, near the end of his long life, was van der Post's coming across in his papers a copy of the extensive report that he had written for the Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs on the history of this British period in Indonesia. It is an important document in its own right, is printed in full here, and is amplfied by much of the rest of the book. Both book and document contain scathing attacks on those Dutch who believed that they could simply move in, if necessary by force, and reestablish themselves as colonial masters, as though the war had not changed things forever. Van der Post occasionally attacks puffed up British officers as well, though he tries, and his psychological insight is great, to understand them. On the whole, however, he worked with men and women whom he found admirable and he had a penetrating ability to judge character. Although the book is a bit disjointed, on a deep level it has a certain unity. Van der Post deeply respected what he saw as an underlying Buddhism in Indonesia, and was overwhelmed by the sacred Buddhist monument, the Borobudur. He ends his book with a religious reflection of his own, that we are put here "to fulfil to the utmost what one was born to be...."(321). | <urn:uuid:9f39032d-0f6a-4ce5-9a8d-3ae22638e89a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Admirals-Baby-Laurens-Post/dp/0688151043 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981988 | 551 | 1.726563 | 2 |
I’ve recently had the pleasure of looking though the Slightly Odd United States of America Wacky Fact Book. This is the perfect summer book as it contains so many fascinating facts. It divides the country up by location and devotes a page to each state. It shows the state and then highlights famous people, key events and locations from that state.
I was really happy to discover some facts about some of my favorite brands which have been featured on Laughing Lindsay! For instance:
* Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream was started in an abandoned gas station in Burlington, Vermont.
* The Hershey Company is located in Pennsylvania where half of the company’s stock is owned by a boys school orphanage.
* The Jolly Green Giant’s birthplace is in Le Sueur, Minnesota. 3M Scotch is located in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. Yay for Minnesota as it’s also where the Pillsbury Dough Boy and Betty Crocker were created! Anyone up for a trip to Minnesota?
* Let’s not forget Area 51 in New Mexico!
Doesn’t all of that sound interesting?
There’s also several fun activity pages in the book. Pages include state abbreviations, state nick-names, famous faces, word scrambles, word searches and more! There’s a little something for every child in this book. I think it would provide a good amount of entertainment for someone on a trip. Plus, the parent could help the child with the activities, creating a good bonding experience.
This is a great book for those in 4th through 7th grades (according to Scholastic). There are so many wonderful facts and fun to be had in it. I spent several minutes just scanning through it and reading the interesting facts. So much fun!
Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book. No compensation was received. The opinions expressed are my own. | <urn:uuid:ee853a65-be63-4134-8107-5a4047810877> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://laughinglindsay.com/2011/07/slightly-odd-usa-fact-book-review/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977244 | 402 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Sent via e-mail to Senators Specter and Casey, as well as Congressman Altmire, all of Pennsylvania…
Senators and Congressman,
I write in regards to a bill with the short title “Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act of 2009″. This bill was introduced with virtually the same text into the House by Mr. Smith of Texas as H.R. 1076 and into the Senate by Mr. Cornyn as S. 436.
While the overall goal of the bill — a reduction in the use of the Internet to facilitate the trafficking of child pornography — is noble, I am concerned that a key section of the bill is overbroad and unenforceable.
The section to which I am referring is Sec. 5, the “RETENTION OF RECORDS BY ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION SERVICE PROVIDERS.” I include the text of the section here for reference:
Section 2703 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: “(h) Retention of Certain Records and Information- A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user.”
My interpretation leads me to understand that this section would require any person operating an electronic communication or remote computing service to retain at least two years of logs of temporarily-assigned network addresses.
If interpreted as broadly as possible, this law could require every person who owns an Internet router — a very common, inexpensive, often wireless-capable networking device — to retain these logs for two years. These devices have a very limited storage capacity and generally do not have logging facilities enabled by default.
This law would essentially obsolete every home and small business router, as Americans would be compelled by federal law to buy a certainly more expensive router capable of storing an great amount of log files. This device would also have to be capable of backing up these logs to one or more external devices in order to ensure that the owner is protected from device failures. The price of these new routers would be much higher than the current market price of a router and this legislation would open the possibility of lawsuits against router makers when a router fails to log or retain the logs.
While this procedure is standard rigmarole for computer- and technology-savvy Americans, including information technology professionals, it is a difficult and potentially costly one for those who are not so inclined.
A single power outage or accidental or natural disaster could put someone in a position where they have violated federal law, as they acted as an electronic communication and remote computing service provider and did not retain records as federal law requires.
This is, of course, assuming that the federal agents responsible for enforcing this legislation do in fact police it. Instead, this new data retention requirement will go largely unnoticed, unacknowledged, and unenforced. It will become a law used to convict the ignorant, the careless, and the negligent instead convicting those actually responsible for exploiting children.
I can assume that one or more of you has a wireless router in your home. This law would apply to you, as well. You would need to ensure that your wireless router logs all addresses which it assigns, and you would need to ensure that your logs are retained for at least two years. If for some reason something happened and those logs were lost, you would be guilty of violating federal law.
Moreover, the identifying information contained within these logs is easily fabricated and even easier to masquerade. Two of the three major operating systems can masquerade the most commonly used unique network hardware identifier — a MAC address — with a simple command. A trivial program does the trick for the third. Such a simple fact would easily dismiss a MAC address as evidence in a court test of this entire law, not just the section against which I am campaigning.
I understand that these bills have probably been referred to committees for further exploration. I urge you to exercise extreme caution if this bill comes up for vote alone or as a part of a larger piece of legislation. I urge you to see Section 5 stricken in its entirety on the grounds that it is unenforceable and overbroad.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. If you wish to discuss these or other technology-related bills, my phone is always handy and I’m always willing to share my knowledge.
CC: Senator Casey, Senator Specter, Congressman Altmire | <urn:uuid:c86c0452-733a-4018-a252-8baf9185c86d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cad.cx/blog/tag/senate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957739 | 944 | 1.507813 | 2 |
As massacres go on: Egypt warns Libya
Amid the ongoing reports about the massacres that Gaddafi regime have been carrying out against the Libyan people, an Egyptian official said that Cairo has officially informed Tripoli that it would intervene militarily in Libya to protect its citizens there. Egyptians in Libya have complained that their lives were in danger. They also called to save their lives,
An Arabic newspaper quoted an Egyptian source, who did not reveal his identity, that Egypt considered the statements made by the Libyan leader's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, in which he accused Egyptian expatriates in Libya as part of the revolt there, as an explicit incitement against them.
In the meantime, news reports said that Libya has allowed two Egyptian military aircraft to land in Tripoli in order to evacuate Egyptian workers.
Meanwhile, another Egyptian source said that "the army sent additional units to ensure the security of its northern border with Libya." This came also to allow in the border crossing of Salloum the smooth passage of Egyptian nationals who flee from Libya. He added that currently there are about 10,000 Egyptians who are waiting near the border point. | <urn:uuid:eb2e3447-bda4-4241-afd8-6a1d6fd39a55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albawaba.com/main-headlines/massacres-go-egypt-warns-libya?quicktabs_accordion=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98118 | 228 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Clubs & Sports
The lessons students learn from being on the stage or on the court can be as important as what they learn during school. St. Anne's offers a wide range of activities to help develop body, mind, and spirit, preschool through grade eight. Extra-curricular activities vary by interest among the student body. This year we offer boys and girls basketball, cheerleading, cross-country, choir, and drama. Students also may participate in Student Council, Art Club, Technology Student Association, and Boy Scouts. In middle school students have the opportunity to become members of the Junior Beta Club.
In addition, there are multiple faculty led afterschool clubs and activities. This year, students participated in Guitar Club, Yearbook, Culinary Classes, Poetry Club, Scrumptious Story Time, Ceramics Club, Repect Life Club, and the Anit-Bullying Committee. Next year, we are adding Mandarin Chinese for both students and their parents. Many of the clubs participated in local competitions, events, and service related projects.
These clubs are a great opportunity to spend time with old friends and make new ones!!
To see the 2012/2013 basketball schedule, please click here. | <urn:uuid:f24a38b5-cfbd-4bff-a43c-abb6da48f066> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stanneschoolbristol.org/academics-programs/clubs-sports/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963646 | 247 | 1.796875 | 2 |
For those who know nothing of World War I or it's heroes, this game is named after Max Chatsworth, one of Britain's Flying Aces. Chatsworth's fame began in battle, when he was out on a reconnaissance mission, and his squadron was decimated by enemy planes. The pilot survived, and in the process shot down seven enemy fighters. He shot down thirteen more the next month. For these actions, Germany offered their Blue Max medal to anyone who could shoot Chatsworth down—and Chatsworth got a new nickname—Blue Max.
As Blue Max, you go out on sorties—flying missions—attacking assigned targets. Targets include bridges, buildings, enemy planes, tanks, bridges, anti-aircraft batteries, vehicles and ships. You progress to new missions as you take out your targets.
You must drop bombs to take out the ground targets, and this action also represents a key danger for you. Unlike the modern bombers that drop bombs on targets far below, early aircraft engaged in semi-suicidal bombing runs. The pilots started at high altitude, then tipped the planes nose downward towards their ground-based target, and pulled up before they hit the ground. In the middle of the dive and pull up process, they released the bomb. There were problems of coordination, found in the game as well—if you time it wrong, or start too low, you will crash.
This game has aroused some controversy too, which supposedly caused it to be banned in Germany. In the course of your missions, you end up bombing houses.
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On August 31, 1985, Blue Max
was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. More information about what this means can be found in the game group
- Computer Gaming World
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #142 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list | <urn:uuid:d36faeb3-ac12-4435-b1a5-636b195510c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/blue-max | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96092 | 418 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The degree is important - it will satisfy the legal requirements and get you a visa and work permit. It is also pretty much required by most of the better employers. The main kind of TESOL certification by the schools that insist on it (most do), is a minimum of 120 hours on a face-to-face course with at least 6 hours of observed teaching.
Some online courses that involve at least 120 hours of study will be accepted, but without the practical element many employers will expect previous teaching experience of some kind, and proof of it.
I my opinion, I don't think there can be adequate training in a course that lasts only a weekend. Such a course is possibly useful as a 'taster', and may be helpful for anyone still undecided as to whether they should embark on a TESOL career or not. One weekend is not even enough time to read through a door-stopper training manual by jeremy Harmer or Penny Ur. | <urn:uuid:325bb697-a76e-4c01-b678-5c468e8d99c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=8897 | 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 | 0.972123 | 198 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Could you foster?
On any one day there are more than 62,000 children living with foster families across the UK. The Fostering Network estimates that a further 9,000 foster carers are needed this year alone to provide the supportive, stable and caring home for these vulnerable children.
If you’re new to fostering, find out more of what fostering is and what foster carers do to see whether fostering is for you. Fostering is not easy, you need to have the energy, patience and dedication to care. But it gives you the opportunity to make a huge difference to children’s lives.
If you’re ready to make an enquiry, you can use our handy tool to find a fostering service in your area.
As a foster child myself I would not be where I am today without the people that were kind enough to help and care for me when others were unable. Please please consider fostering a child.
Samantha Morton, Oscar nominated actor | <urn:uuid:87157564-e27d-4f3f-9f74-79d0a0f904bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fostering.net/could-you-foster | 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 | 0.952507 | 204 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Spring Lake Park again earns top award for financial reporting
The Spring Lake Park School District has once again received the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting from ASBO, the Association of School Business Officials - International.
The award follows a review of financial accounting practices as well as financial reporting procedures used by school districts in their Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports. According to ASBO, the Spring Lake Park School District is "deserving of enhanced credibility in the community for the financial management of their school system."
ASBO's Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting (COE) Program is considered the gold standard for demonstrate superior accounting practices and reporting procedures to the communities that school districts serve.
Spring Lake Park has now received the award, typically earned by less than 20 of Minnesota's over 300 school districts, for the past six years, most recently for its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2011. | <urn:uuid:a3ab904f-0ade-4662-ad02-860ec7bc05f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.springlakeparkschools.org/news/201209/spring-lake-park-again-earns-top-award-financial-reporting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968935 | 181 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Lowell Corporation (Worcester, MA) has expended its capacity for designing custom motion control components, and can now provide customized solutions for a variety of applications: paper and metal processing machinery, conveyors, chain binders, and more. If a customer requires a non-standard motion control device, Lowell can typically fill the need by modifying an existing product in its line, by altering the shape or size of the drive, adding or removing teeth on a gear, or changing the configuration of a handle.
September 16, 2009 WASHINGTON (AP) — Targeting more federal money to support the auto industry, the House on Wednesday approved an expansion of U.S. government-led research into making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient. The House plan would allow the Energy Department to spend up to $200 million more each year on research and development for advanced-technology vehicles and auto parts.
September 17, 2009 The world’s dependence on finite, nonrenewable petroleum is at the heart of many of the environmental and energy challenges we face today. Additionally, transportation fuel use is a major contributor to global warming: more than 30 percent of the CO2 emissions in the United States come from the burning of petroleum fuel for transportation.
Via TirexiHD . Do you get home from work just wishing you could spend more time in a forklift? Now there's a way. Forklift Simulator 2009 allows users to take control of their own forklift after an extensive training session, allowing them to move around the plant floor and move the targeted pallets onto eagerly waiting semis.
Via DigInfo News . These robots from Squse, a Japaese robotics company, are built using air-injected actuators that mimick the motion and sensitivity of a human hand, namely through a swift, delicate touch unheard of in robotics. The actuators, even when filled, release pressure only according to the form of an object, which allows the robot to pick up soft objects such as sushi and strawberries without destroying them.
Hungry FDA Official Orders Massive Pot Pie Recall Via The Onion . The Onion, America's most trusted fake news source, offers breaking news: The FDA is issuing a massive recall of all pot pies, which should be sent "piping hot" to the FDA headquarters in Maryland. Don't forget the forks and napkins, which will be aptly used in the inspection process.
This video provides step-by-step directions on how to balance a small fan using the Balmac Model 216-D Analyzer/Balancer. Useful for those new to the practice, or who have recently purchased a Balmac product, the video walks viewers through finding aplitude, using a strobe to read the fan's phase, placing weights to vary balance, and calculating vectors.
How often does this happen at your facility? You know, when flowers and zombies start coming down your conveyors? Well, in the hyper-colored world of Lego, it happens all too often. This riveting film chronicles the plight of a plant worker as he attempts to sort out the mysteries of his conveyor belt under the supervision of a unique manager.
September 16, 2009 WASHINGTON (AP) — Targeting more funding for the auto industry, the House is considering an expansion into government-led research of fuel-efficient vehicle technology and making research dollars more available to auto parts suppliers. The House was expected to vote Wednesday on a bill that could allow the Energy Department to spend up to $550 million a year to conduct advanced technology vehicle and component part research and development.
September 16, 2009 FRANKFURT (AP) — Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said Wednesday that the new auto alliance can reach a production of 5.5 million to 6 million cars a year on its own once the economy and car markets stabilze. "We will arrive alone at 6 million units. Between us and Chrysler, we will get there," Marchionne said on the sidelines of the Frankfurt Auto Show.
September 16, 2009 SHANGHAI (AP) -- Three people have died and an additional 17 required medical treatment after they were exposed to bags of a toxic chemical illegally dumped by a factory in eastern China, the local government said Wednesday. Four of the people sickened were children who played near the chemical, 2,4-dinitrophenol -- a poison used in scientific research and in manufacturing various chemicals, explosives and pesticides, according to a statement by the government in Dongyang, a city 250 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of Shanghai.
September 16, 2009 BEIJING (AP) — If China's economy continues to expand rapidly and rely heavily on coal and other fossil fuels until the middle of the century, its power demands could exceed what the entire planet can withstand, according to a study by government think tanks released Wednesday.
September 16, 2009 WASHINGTON (AP) — The deficit in the broadest measure of foreign trade shrank in the spring to the lowest level in relation to the total economy in 18 years, another dramatic sign of how much the recession had reduced America's appetite for foreign goods. The Commerce Department said Wednesday the deficit in the current account dropped to $98.
September 16, 2009 WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA's weakened return-to-the-moon program got a lift Tuesday on Capitol Hill. The head of a special expert panel conceded to Congress that the moon program could work if given enough money. That would mean another $3 billion a year for the program proposed by President George W.
September 15, 2009 PITTSBURGH (AP) — President Barack Obama told the AFL-CIO Tuesday his administration has "stopped our economic free fall" and is determined to seal a recovery while revitalizing America's middle class. Shoring up a key part of his political base, Obama told the labor federation's convention that the administration is a fierce supporter of workers' rights and defender of unions. | <urn:uuid:fa106440-d847-4c95-8e6b-9512875f9217> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.impomag.com/all-content/all?page=924&items_per_page=15&%3Bamp%3Bamp%3Bamp%3Bpage=632&%3Bamp%3Bamp%3Bamp%3Bqt-recent_content=0&%3Bamp%3Bamp%3Bitems_per_page=15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937818 | 1,211 | 1.632813 | 2 |
(This is my Christmas Eve meditation from this year’s Christmas Eve service at our church.)
It has been a strange couple of weeks. Just over a week ago, there was the horrible shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 27 people, including 20 children, were killed. This last Friday was anticipated by some to be the end of the world, based on a particular interpretation and understanding of the Mayan calendar. People were buying bomb shelters, survival supplies, and some even stockpiling weapons. That same day, much closer to home, several Alberta school received what appeared to be threats of violence. Some of them were false alarms, but in Ponoka the school was locked down and a young man in possession of firearms was arrested in relation to this even–perhaps in imitation of Newtown, perhaps in anticipation of an apocalypse, perhaps for entirely different reasons.
It was a week or so of hatred, grief, and fear, and of nervous watching.
One question asked by many people this week was “Where was God?” It is a fair question and we are not the first to ask it. It is an ancient question. Biblical Israel used to ask essentially the same thing. “How long, O Lord?” is a question peppered throughout the Psalms and the prophets. “How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?”
* * *
We live between two Advents, two “comings” of Jesus. The last several weeks and especially tonight and tomorrow, we mostly look back at the first Advent, but–let’s not forget–we also look forward to the second Advent. The first coming and the second coming. Both those Advents mark the end of the world as we know it. This time of year we actually do anticipate an apocalypse, but not, perhaps, as popularly depicted or understood.
The first Coming–the one that was promised long ago, was announced to a young girl, began in her womb, and was revealed in a manger, an animal’s feeding trough–this first coming was the coming of Love, with a capital “L”, into the world. Not a sentimental love, not love as some kind of nice, but abstract idea, but a living, self-giving Love, which took on flesh, became human, became a baby, helpless and weak. And the world was changed. It was the end of the world as it was known.
Why did Love come down? “For God so loved the world,” it says in the Bible. Love came down because the world was and is messed up and God loves this messed up world–not because it’s messed up, not because it may have potential–but because God is love and so loves the world in spite of what it is. And God knew that no effort of our own would be able to clean up the mess, no sentimental love or goodwill, no sweet notion of making the world a better place. Only Love with capital “L”, only love in its greatest, holiest, and most powerful sense, only a love in its purest most uncompromising form–only a love that gave itself fully for others–could make things right. Humans all ultimately turn away from this kind of true love, so Love had to come to us. That Love became human–became the baby named Jesus.
We’ve heard a lot about “apocalypse” lately, in books, in movies, in this news. This first coming of Jesus was an apocalypse. See, the word “apocalypse” does not mean “a time of zombies and nuclear bombs” as popular use suggests. The word means, simply and literally, “reveal” or “revelation”. Biblically, apocalypse is about revealing reality and God–telling us about the way the world is and the way it will be and the God who’s in charge of it all. God revealed himself in Jesus–this weak, helpless baby, who in the name of love would give himself for us. God’s love was revealed in this first Advent, in Jesus’ first Coming.
It was an Apocalypse of Love.
It was the beginning of the end. The world would be transformed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who turned this world of revenge, injustice, and pride upside-down with God’s world of mercy, justice, forgiveness, and love. Mary saw this, as we heard in her song, read a few minutes ago: the hungry filled, the oppressors overthrown.
The birth of Jesus is the answer to the question of God’s whereabouts. He’s right here, at work in the world. And the birth of Jesus is also the answer to that similar question that Israel had been asking for generations: “How long, O Lord?” The answer, in the fullness of time, was both “Now” and “Not yet.”
We still, in weeks like this one particularly, cry out, “How long, O Lord?”
And so we anticipate the second Advent, the Second Coming of Jesus. That will once again mark the end of the world as we know it. Not the end of God’s good creation, but the end of “the world” as we know it–the world of hatred, fear, violence, grief, death. This, too, will be an Apocalypse of Love.
It’s interesting that The End of the World, the “End Times”, the Apocalypse (whatever you want to call it) has become a thing of fear. We see this every time someone predicts the end of the world, whether it’s the Mayans or some obscure Christian sect: people buying shelters, stockpiling food and weapons; images of fire, zombies, death. Popular depictions of the end are terrifying–nightmare-inducing, even. Yes, there are beasts and boils in the book of Revelation, and facing Almighty God could put a different kind of fear in a person, but that book is meant to be encouraging, not terrifying, precisely because Jesus has come and is coming. It’s supposed to be good news.
Why? Because it tells us that in the end evil doesn’t have its way, but that Good prevails; that the God of Love will have his way and set the world right.
The post-apocalyptic world won’t be a barren, smoky desert of bedraggled wanderers, who daily live in fear of violence and death. It will be a lush, healing garden, where fear and grieving and death will have no place, because they will have been done away with.
Near the end of the book of Revelation, God says, “Look, I am making everything new!” And that work began with the baby in the manger, the Christ-child, the first of many brothers and sisters. God becomes human, born a baby–new, clean, innocent, trusting, loving–so that we can once again become children: reborn new, clean, innocent, trusting, loving.
There’s an apocalypse we can look forward to!
We live between two Advents. We remember and celebrate the first Advent; we watch and wait for the second. In the meantime, God is at work in the world, and in and through us. When Jesus left the first time, he promised not only that he would return, but that his Spirit would come and live in us, that in this way he would remain with us. And so he did, and so he does, and while we wait, with the Spirit’s help we can each be a little apocalypse of God’s self-giving love.
“Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” | <urn:uuid:d694fa3f-d9f1-410e-a062-f099f3c25043> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vandersluys.ca/?cat=7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97309 | 1,651 | 1.789063 | 2 |
“One year ago, my announcement that Encyclopædia Britannica would cease producing bound volumes sent ripples through the media world. Despite the vast migration of information from ink and paper to bits and screens, it seemed remarkable that a set of books published for almost a quarter of a millennium would go out of print. But in our Chicago offices this wasn’t an occasion to mourn. In fact, our employees held a party the day of the announcement, celebrating the fact that Britannica was still a growing and viable company. They ate the print set—in the form of a cake that pictured the 32-volume, 129-pound encyclopedia. They displayed 244 silver balloons—one for each year the encyclopedia had been in print. They toasted the departure of an old friend with champagne and the dawning of a new era with determination.”
JORGE CAUZ Harvard Business Review (March, 2013)
This column has been forced to document many a company that has fallen victim to disruption. On this page in the past two years we have seen an unprecedented array of giant firms being humbled by rapid changes in technology, coupled with ever-evolving customer preference. BlackBerry, Sony, Nokia, HMV, Panasonic and many other iconic names are part of the pantheon of the formerly dominant.
It is a pleasure, therefore, to find an example of a company that’s not only faced disruption, but survived it. And indeed, looks set to thrive again.
I refer to the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica, going strong for 244 years as the most famous name in reference books. Last year, Britannica announced it was finally withdrawing the famous 32-volume leather-bound printed encyclopaedia. At the time, I wrote on this page that the transition was both necessary and inevitable.
Today, Britannica reports that it is growing on a number of fronts: revenues, margins, staff numbers, content and reach. Not bad for a company that saw the sales of its core product collapse from 100,000 in the US to just 3,000…
What can we learn from Britannica on how to deal with disruption? Let me offer four lessons for you to mull over.
First, anticipate, don’t deny. Britannica has been engaged in watchful anticipation since the 1990s. It saw the need to remove its obsolete sales method (door-to-door visits); it saw the threat posed by CD-ROMs that Microsoft’s Encarta brought into play; and it observed the astonishing success of Wikipedia, a crowdsourced model widely derided when it launched. Britannica was not asleep; it was watching.
Second, focus on your core strengths. Britannica was under assault from several fronts, most of them offering a free product. But that did not mean Britannica was finished. It saw clearly that the need for a high-quality, editorially strong, fact-checked product was not going anywhere. And it invested even more, not less, in this strength.
Third, Britannica did not simply try to match its new competitors or introduce me-too clones to fight them. It stopped and rethought its model from scratch: becoming not merely a vendor of reference books, but a multi-dimensional hub of digital learning.
Lastly, as shown in the excerpt above written by its president, Jorge Cauz, Britannica celebrated the change. It did not mourn or wail for times past; it embraced a bold new future, and made its staff feel the positivity that comes with breaking from the old and moving to the new.
I’m clapping, and wish Britannica well. In fact, reading Mr Cauz’s inspiring piece in HBR sent me looking for the company’s iPad app. There, I immediately paid Sh. 300 for monthly access to all Britannica’s resources; and I also discovered excellent multimedia apps for children, and bought those too.
Will Britannica make it in the digital age? Only time will tell. Meanwhile it’s taught us all valuable lessons about strategic change. | <urn:uuid:32dbaf19-0c4a-491d-9370-d1730970ec6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunwords.com/2013/02/25/heres-how-you-deal-with-disruption-embrace-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95909 | 845 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Founder's Day Booths
Each Region tent had a booth set up with the Region Chief and officers present to answer questions and sign autographs.
At a Founder's Day booth, lodges have the chance to display pictures, patches, maps and other things relating to their lodge. Here, a lodge displays pictures from their lodge and hand out Post-It note pads. Many lodges handed out free gifts and fabulous prizes. To learn more about the gifts handed out, click here.
Founder's Day also gives participants a chance to have some fun in presenting their lodge's best traits. These Arrowmen to the right have pride displaying their cheese head foam hats. The Arrowmen on the left use a Bugs Bunny theme in their booth.
There were several non-lodge booths. These booths promoted various activities and opportunities, such as the Northern Tier program at Sommers Canoe Base.
Another very special event that was taking place during Founder's Day involved the United States Post Office. The Post Office was present to help commemorate a special 1998 NOAC Envelope Series, with a special NOAC cancellation.
Probably one of the most popular activities that always takes place on Founder's Day is the silk-screening of participants t-shirts. Arrowmen lined up to have the Founder's Day logo silkscreen in either white or red on everything from t-shirts to bed sheets.
Copyright © 1997,1998 Order of the Arrow, Boy Scouts of America. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:87112c8d-a2b5-428c-85b7-4bb287c15ebb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oa-bsa.org/n98live/wed/booths.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960419 | 305 | 1.703125 | 2 |
I generally do not participate in many of the common genealogy blogging prompts. However, I recently discovered that several other bloggers had started the new “A Friend of Friends” theme. This theme provides information on former African American slaves, as reported in the records of slave holders.
Last year, the website A Friend of Friends debuted with exactly this goal. I was an active contributor to this site, providing transcriptions of several records related to slaves:
- “Prince George’s County [Maryland] Commissioner of Slave Statistics, 1867” [Includes information on over 6,000 former slaves.]
- “AFoF Alert: Slaves Named in Wills of John (of Thomas), John Sr., John Jr. BADEN & Henry CARROLL, Prince George’s/St. Mary’s Co., MD 1775-1839” [Transcriptions of four southern Maryland wills naming slaves.]
Unfortunately, due to health problems in the family of the administrator, this website has not been updated since 19 April 2010. I am thrilled to discover that other bloggers have picked up this torch and continued the “Friend of Friends” tradition.
As my first contribution, I would like to offer a transcription of the will and codicil of James Aldridge, of Prince George’s County, Maryland, dated 12 April 1833 and 16 April 1833, respectively:
I James Aldridge of Prince George county, in the state of Maryland, being in good health of body, and of sound and disposing mind, and Memory; but at the same time, aware of the uncertainty of Life, and the certainty of Death; and desirous of making all needful preparations for its approach whenever it shall please my Heavenly Father to call me out of this Life, Do therefore make, declare, and publish this my last will and testament, in the Manner, and form following, that is to say,
First, with an humble reliance upon the Mercy of God through my blessed Redeemer I resign my soul to his disposal whenever it shall be his will to take me hence, and also my frail body to the Earth to be interred decently at the discretion and under the Direction of my Executor herein after named.
Item. It is my will, and desire that the plantation whereon I now live, part of “Tuckers Cultivation, and all my real Estate, shall be sold by my Executor immediately after my Decease, or as soon as may be done with convenience, and the monies and proceeds [...] arising from the sales thereof shall be equally divided amongst the children of my deceased brother Jacob Aldridge, and my deceased sister Elizabeth Jones: and my sister Eleanor Belt if living at the time of my Death; if not, her children shall receive what was intended for her, and here to prevent any mistake, or misunderstanding in the Construction of this Clause of my will, I declare it to be my will, and intention that one third of the monies, and proceeds of my plantation aforesaid and of real Estate herein directed to be sold by my Exe cutor; shall be given to the Children of my deceased brother Jacob Aldridge; on third to the children of my deceased sister Elizabeth Jones; and the remaining third to my sister Eleanor Belt if she survive me; if not, then to her children; to be divided equally amongst them, share and share alike
Item. It is my will, and desire that all my personal Estate except my Slaves, shall also be sold by my Executor, and after all my just debts, and funeral expences shall have been paid, the proceeds, and monies arising from the sale of my personal estate directed to be sold, shall likewise be divided amongst the Children of my deceased brother Jacob Aldridge, and the children of my deceased sister Elizabeth Jones, and my sister Eleanor Belt if living at the time of my Death – if not, then her share to be equally divided amongst her children, and this clause of my will, is to be understood, and administered and executed in the manner provided for, and directed for the division of the proceeds of the Real Estate – that is to say, it my will and intention that one third of the monies, and proceeds of the Sales of the personal Estate shall be given to the children of my deceased brother Jacob Aldridge one third to the Children of my deceased sister Elizabeth Jones; and one third to my sister Eleanor Belt, if she survive me – if not, then to her children; to be equally divided amongst them, share, and share alike.
Item. It is my will and desire, and I do, by this my last Will and testament emancipate and set free all my Slaves in as full and ample a manner as I legally may; and my Executor is hereby required to discharge all of the said slaves immediately after my decease. And finally, I appoint my brother Andrew Aldridge and Dr. Henry Culver the Executors of this my last will testament. In witness in hereof I have hereunto set my Hand and affixed my seal the twelvth day of April in the year of our Lord 1833.
James Aldridg [seal]
Signed and sealed in presence of
J. C. Herbert
April 16th 1833
when I had my will rote I for got some things that I wish to put in the will that is I wish to left marien bels childre fifty dollar a peace nex is to lef an old woman lyd five dollars a year as long as she lived in money or cloas next is to left all my wuoman over fifteen years twenty dollars a peace to be paid to them buy my exequter or adminasrater when they are dis starege this I wish to be to be put in the will when recorded givein under my hand and [it is my wish it cant be left out]
James Aldridge [seal]
[SOURCE: Prince George’s County, Maryland, Estate Papers, James Aldridge file, original will & codicil (1833); MSA C2119-1-7, MdHR 50,822; Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland. Transcribed by Michael Hait on 24 March 2009. Emphasis added.]
The estate file that holds the above original will and codicil contains several additional records that detail the administration of the estate. Several of these records specifically relate to the slaves named (and unnamed) in the will and codicil. Rather than transcribing all of them, the information has been abstracted here:
1834 Jun 5. Letter from A. Aldridge to Dr. H. Culver: “Dear Sir, I recd, your letter of 2 Inst. with a copy of my Brother James will. I see he has named me as one of his executors & you the other. It will be out of my power to act therefore I relinquish my Right to you & hope you will take out letters of administration, as I am sure the heirs will be pleased. I have made the enquiry respecting the slaves they are free. There is not law preventing a person from setting his slaves free. The Sheriff of the county may if he chooses send them out of the state, but it never has been done as yet & perhaps never will. The negros perhaps will be compelled to get permission every 6 months from one of the Judges of the County Court to remain in state & even that will not be attended to or looked after by any one. You may depend on this as being correct. Very Respectfully, Your &c., A. Aldridge”
1834 Aug 12. Receipt. To Thomas F. Bowie, for “my opinion on relation to the codicil to the last will & Testament of said Aldridge.”
1836 Apr 27. First additional account of Henry Culver executor of James Aldridge late of sd county decd. Cash recd for interest on debts collected. Payments & disbursements to Lidy Gibson for annuity for one year, ditto for 1835 & part of 1836, to Hagar Crutches, Sarah Hepburn, Rebecca Herbert, & Julia Ford, in full for specific legacy to them; to P. Chew, Regr of Wills. Recorded PC 2:189.
1835 Aug 8. Receipt. To Lidia Gibson [her mark], for pension or annual allowance “left me by said James Aldridge my late master for the past year”. Witn. C. H. Brashears.
1836 Feb 15. Receipt. To Liddy Gibson [her mark], for annuity bequeathed. Test. Joseph I. Jones.
1835 May 13. Receipt. To Hagar Crutches [her mark], Sarah Hepburn [her mark], Rebecca Herbert [her mark], Julia Ford [her mark], “for a legacy bequeathed each of us by the said James Aldridge (our late Master)”. Witn. Joseph I. Jones.
1836 Sep 13. Final account of Henry Culver, Executor of James Aldridge late of said county deceased. Interest recd. of Francis King, Thos. Merson, Elizabeth Snowden, Jos. I. Jones, John Merson, Homara Donaldson, R. B. Mulliken, Mark Duvall, Wm. Jones. Cash recd. of Thos. McAbee & James Owens, Elijah Donaldson. Interest “on this accountants note, due the deceased from 13th day of February 1834 to 13 Sep 1835.” Payments & disbursements to Sheriff for fees, Philemon Chew, retained by accountant to pay annuity to negro, John B Brooke Esq. Distribution: To Mary Ellen Beall, daughter of Maria Beall, legacy. To Richard Beall, son of Maria Beall, legacy. To children of Jacob Aldridge, one-third part, vizt. Ann J. Aldridge, Caroline Aldridge, Washington Aldridge, Martha J. Aldridge, Christy Trunnel. To children of Elizabeth Jones, one-third part, vizt. William Jones, Matilda Mitchell, Samuel A. Jones, Pamela A. Culver. To Eleanor Belt, wife of Richard W. Belt, one-third part. Test. P. Chew Regr. [[obliterated:] repeats above, but states “Christa Trunnel wife of Wm. Trunnel”] Recorded PC 2:213-214.
James Aldridge’s estate inventory does not identify any slaves. After all, James manumitted them all with his will. They would therefore not be appraised as part of his estate after their manumission. Neither does James’s will identify any slaves (other than “old woman lyd”) by name.
This file is a perfect illustration of why researchers must review all documents relevant to the slave owners, not just the will and inventory/appraisement. The receipts held within this file and the account of the administration of the estate both identify at least five women formerly owned as a slave by James Aldridge: Lidia/Liddy Gibson, Hagar Crutches, Sarah Hepburn, Rebecca Herbert, and Julia Ford. These five women’s lives might have completely disappeared were it not for the papers of this estate.
For other “A Friend of Friends Friday” posts, visit the GeneaBloggers shared Google Reader list.
If you would like to cite this post: Michael Hait, “A Friend of Friends Friday: James Aldridge of Prince George’s County, Maryland,” Planting the Seeds: Genealogy as a Profession blog, posted 23 Jul 2011 (http://michaelhait.wordpress.com : accessed [access date]). | <urn:uuid:fc8d3ff4-81fd-4081-8d89-491afd72cd82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://michaelhait.wordpress.com/2011/07/23/afof-james-aldridge/?like=1&_wpnonce=6484ab78b3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936718 | 2,477 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Three years ago, Jenn Zanni went to see her doctor about back pain. She figured she had thrown her back out exercising, and hoped she would be back in the gym in no time. When the doctor found an ovarian cyst, she still wasn’t worried. It was treatable. The doctor said they would keep an eye on it.
Within three weeks of the discovery, though, Zanni’s back pain became unbearable. The cyst had grown, and she needed surgery. What the doctors found, she wasn’t expecting.
The cyst was caused by endometriosis, a gynecological disease in which cells from the lining of the uterus grow outside the uterine cavity. Zanni’s endometriosis was classified as Stage III of four possible severity levels.
Zanni turned to her mother and asked the same question that all women who suffer from endometriosis face, “Can I have children?”
The answer is complicated. Zanni was 32 and single at the time, and her doctors told her she would have only two or three more years to get pregnant naturally. She felt hopeless and angry.
“I completely had a meltdown. My whole life I’ve wanted children,” she said. “It was so much pressure. I didn’t think it was fair.”
Now 35, Zanni came to realize that lamenting her situation wouldn’t help.
Instead, she’s helping others.
She started the Endometriosis Foundation of Rhode Island, a 501(c)3 support and resource center that connects women with the disease and raises awareness and funding for research and treatment. Next Tuesday, Jan. 22, the Foundation will host an event at the corporate headquarters of Alex and Ani in Chapel View in Cranston from 6 to 8 p.m. Fifteen percent of sales that evening will be donated to the Foundation, and more than 100 people are expected to attend.
“One day I said, ‘This has to be my purpose,’” said Zanni, who serves as the Foundation’s president. “I decided I wanted to start this Foundation to help myself talk about it and have others feel comfortable to speak about it as well.”
Awareness and research, she says, is key. More than 5.5 million women in the United States are affected by endometriosis, and it is often a source of infertility for women. Still, there are few resources out there for women with the disease, and none locally, and awareness is limited.
“I think a lot of people just don’t know anything about it. There’s nothing out there around here, and nobody knows why this happens,” she said.
There is no cure for endometriosis, and surgery that removes the cysts and uterine cells does not stop the disease from coming back. Eating healthy can help with pain, but treatment is essentially non-existent.
With infertility closely linked to endometriosis, Zanni knows how isolating the disease can be. After her diagnosis, she closed herself off, choosing not to talk about the disease.
“I felt, for a while, ‘Why me?’ Because I’ve been single, my worry is, when I do meet someone, I have to tell them that I have this. They could say, ‘See you later.’ That’s a fear for me,” she said.
Even turning to the people she loves proved challenging.
“I feel bad for my parents. I know how badly my parents want grandchildren and it really breaks my heart that they don’t have them yet,” she said, through tears. “Those are my two biggest struggles.”
But isolating herself only made matters worse.
“Keeping things bottled up doesn’t get you anywhere. The more I talked about [it], the better I felt,” she said.
Since starting the Foundation, Zanni and her Board of Directors, including mom Linda Zanni, have created a website and a Facebook page. The Board also includes Treasurer Daniela Gatti, Secretary Lisa Meglio and Melinda Witt Psilopoulos, close friends of Zanni’s. Zanni is a native of Johnston and a graduate of Johnston High School who now lives in Lincoln. By day, she works for CVS Caremark, but her nights and weekends are now filled with work for the Foundation.
Through social media in particular, Zanni has connected with dozens of women who face the same challenges, and who have gained solace in finding a support network of other women.
“I want people to feel like they have somewhere to go to talk about it,” she said.
Early on, the influx of emails and messages was overwhelming.
“I sat up crying, reading peoples emails, hearing what they’ve gone through,” she said, adding that social media has been an important resource in finding people affected by the disease. “It’s such a great tool, and I believe that’s what it’s really meant to be used for.”
Last week alone, the Foundation’s Facebook page picked up nearly 40 new likes. The page serves as a meeting ground for endometriosis sufferers, and also a tool for the Foundation to promote upcoming events. After Tuesday’s event, the Foundation has put together a team for the Irish 5K road race (www.irish5k.com) in Pawtucket on March 2 at 11:15 a.m.
Funds raised will support the Foundation, and also medical centers dedicated to research and treatment of the disease. Zanni anticipates that the Boston Center for Endometriosis will be the beneficiary of some of these funds, as it is the only medical center in the area dedicated to finding a cure. Zanni hopes that increased awareness and research will lead to early detection, saving women from the pain she went through.
By the time her endometriosis was detected, removing her ovary was too dangerous. Doctors feared that Zanni would bleed out, so now she continues to deal with intense back pain and cramps as a result of the disease.
“I have a constant reminder that I have endometriosis,” she said.
Ultimately, she hopes her Foundation can be part of finding a cure. For now, she is just glad to have a purpose and to be able to support others at a time she knows can be devastating. The experience has brought her joy, and brought joy to others.
“It’s such a great feeling to be able to help other people,” she said. “I feel like I’m not alone.”
For more information on the Endometriosis Foundation of Rhode Island, visit endofoundationofri.com or search for them on Facebook. The Charmed by Charity event at Alex and Ani in Chapel View is open to the public. | <urn:uuid:8ca9c231-afb2-4719-8d36-80c4e163c47e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnstonsunrise.net/stories/Diagnosis-motivates-Zanni-to-take-action,78438 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977177 | 1,493 | 1.601563 | 2 |
A Catholic-run school in the southern Philippines has caused controversy by banning Muslim students from wearing the hijab headscarf.
Mehol Sadain, who heads the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, said Sunday he had written to Pilar College in the mixed Muslim-Christian port city of Zamboanga to demand it reverse its policy.
While the school was right to claim it could exercise academic freedom, Sadain said it should do so with “justice and fair play”.
“Pilar College should realize that while educational institutions can formulate their own policies, the same should not run counter to existing laws and state policies,” Sadain said.
The complaint has reached the local city council, which asked the school to reply to the allegations.
The school is believed to be the first in the Philippines to enforce an outright ban on wearing the hijab.
Sadain noted that an education department policy states that Muslim girls should be allowed to wear their head coverings in school and be exempted from non-Muslim religious rites.
But the school, run by the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary, said in its letter to the council that it could not “deviate” from its Catholic leanings.
It said students from other religions were welcome to enroll but must strictly follow its non-hijab policy.
“Rules and regulations are explained to them, particularly the non-wearing of the hijab or veil,” the school said.
“This is part of academic freedom in connection with which the school has the right to choose whom to teach,” it said.
It was not clear what percentage of students were Muslim but it is fairly common that children from different denominations or religions mix at school in the mainly Catholic but largely tolerant Philippines.
Education department officials in Manila were not available for comment Sunday.
More than 80 percent of the Philippines’ nearly 100 million population are Catholic, while Muslims form a large minority in the south of the country. | <urn:uuid:1ae07f3e-c92a-4acf-938f-4bb9689f6f3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/05/230471.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974451 | 412 | 1.84375 | 2 |
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Monday accused the West of effectively trying to use blackmail to secure a new U.N. Security Council resolution that could allow for the use of force in Syria.
The Security Council is debating a new resolution on Syria as international envoy Kofi Annan’s plan for halting the fighting appears dead and the violence in Syria escalates. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was meeting Annan later Monday, with his country facing intense criticism that it is standing in the way of an end to the conflict.
Russia has adamantly opposed international military intervention in Syria. Such a step has been all but ruled out publicly by Western nations, but the text for a Western-backed resolution circulated by Britain that calls for sanctions would leave the possibility open for military enforcement under the U.N. Charter’s Chapter 7. Russia has submitted a rival text.
The debate comes as a mandate for a U.N. observer force expires on July 20, and Lavrov insisted that the West was using the deadline as a bargaining chip.
“To our great regret, there are elements of blackmail,” Lavrov said at a news conference. “We are being told that if you do not agree to passing the resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, then we shall refuse to extend the mandate of the monitoring mission.”
“We consider it to be an absolutely counterproductive and dangerous approach, since it is unacceptable to use monitors as bargaining chips,” he said.
The British draft threatens non-military sanctions against President Bashar Assad’s government if it doesn’t withdraw troops and heavy weapons from population centers within 10 days.
Throughout the 16-month Syrian crisis, in which activists say some 17,000 people have been killed in fighting between Assad’s forces and opposition groupings, Russia has adamantly opposed international military intervention, fearing a repeat of the type of international action that helped drive Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi out of power.
Russia says it does not overtly support Assad, Russia’s longtime ally, and by strongly backing Annan’s plan. It maintains any change of power in Syria must be achieved through negotiation, but the Syrian opposition has repeatedly said no negotiations with the Assad regime are possible unless he first leaves power.
Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s position on Monday, saying it was unrealistic to try to persuade Assad to resign.
“He won’t leave, not because we are defending him, but simply because a very significant part of the population in Syria stands behind him,” he said.
Comments by Annan last week indicated he favors the British resolution draft and it was unclear if he would have any significant leverage to exert on Russia during his two-day trip to Moscow, which also includes a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Lavrov said he would not characterize the situation as a stalemate, but expressed dismay with the continuing fighting.
“What is happening in Syria is horrible,” he said.
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The bolts are graded in diameter for a more difficult exercise. Five slotted bolts and 3½" Stubby Screwdriver. Designed by a Montessori teacher to aid the development of eye-hand coordination and teach a practical skill. The board has separate compartments to hold the driver and the bolts, after the child has removed them. The bolts screw into a long-lasting metal sleeve that prevents stripping. Boards measure 10½" x 4" x 1¼" high. Driver may vary. Ages 3 and up. | <urn:uuid:4b56320d-0324-4868-8fc4-2760de56e026> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.montessoriservices.com/asperkids-collection/asperkids-practical-life/graded-bolt-board | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960704 | 106 | 1.71875 | 2 |
More than two decades ago, a newborn sick with fever was snatched from a New York City hospital, her frantic mother returning to the emergency room to find an empty crib. On Wednesday, police said the baby — now a woman who reached out to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children because she suspected that the people raising her were not her real family — has been found.
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"I never gave up looking for her," she told the New York Post.
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On Jan. 4, a woman known as Nejdra Nance, who was raised in Bridgeport, Conn., and now lives in Atlanta, contacted Joy White, sending along baby photos that looked nearly identical to shots of Carlina posted on a missing children's website. Nance told White she thought she might be her daughter.
Nance had long suspected that the people raising her were not her real family. After she found a photo of a familiar-looking girl on the website of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, she got in touch with the organization, which in turn contacted Joy White on Jan. 4.Video: Kidnapped girl, family ‘picking up’ from where they left off (on this page)
"She said she just had a feeling; she felt different from the people raising her," said Nance's maternal grandmother, Elizabeth White, 71. "She searched, and then she found Joy."
In a report that aired Thursday on TODAY, Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, told NBC News: "I think it's important that people recognize this girl is the hero. She's the one whose intelligence and tenacity resulted in her own recovery, reuniting her with her family."Video: Son finds birth mom at work (on this page)
After Nance got in touch with her, Joy White contacted the New York Police Department to see if it could help investigate whether Nance was really her missing daughter, Carlina White.
"It sounded legitimate and credible, so I had Missing Persons reach out to her," said Detective Martin Brown, who fielded the call. DNA tests performed on Joy White, her ex-husband, Carl Tyson, and 23-year-old Nance matched, police said: Nejdra Nance was Carlina White.
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"This is somebody who knew something was wrong in her life and took the initiative," Allen told Ann Curry live on TODAY Thursday. "She said, 'Things aren't the way they should be,' and so she reached out. All we did was follow the information that she gave us."
As part of their investigation, police are talking to retired detectives who handled the case years ago. Because she was so young when she was kidnapped, it's impossible for Nance to know if she has lived with the same family the entire time.Video: How cops learned they were dad, son (on this page)
Nance was on her way back to New York from Atlanta on Wednesday, said Elizabeth White, and Joy White was en route to the airport to meet her. But they already reunited once recently, when Nance came to New York with her 5-year-old daughter, Samani.
"It was wonderful, she didn't even seem like a stranger, she just fit right in," Elizabeth White said. "We all went up there, we had dinner together, her aunts were there. She brought her beautiful daughter. It was magic."
Elizabeth White said she didn't ask Nance too many questions about how she grew up or how she knew she was not a member of the family with whom she lived. She didn't want to push Nance too much.
"That will all come," Elizabeth White said of the history. "What's important now is our baby girl is home. She's home."Story: Abducted girl’s aunt: Kidnapper ‘destroyed my family’
"It's a message of hope," Allen told Ann Curry Thursday. "It's a message that many more of these children are recoverable. Today Carlina White becomes a symbol that the search goes on for lots of others of America's missing children."
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:b322c0b3-e8c2-468f-abbc-2b94c83ce99c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.today.com/id/41163230/ns/today-today_people/t/kidnapped-girl-finds-her-own-mom-after-years/ | 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 | 0.980994 | 1,193 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Perhaps the debt ceiling should be renamed the "national debt target," for it seems Washington is always trying to reach it. One could say it's their only reliable, time-tested achievement. And without fail, upon reaching their national debt target, they promptly extend it further in order to discover how quickly it can once again be attained!
While I have little doubt that the ceiling will be raised, my readers have been curious as to the implications for gold in each of the debt and "default" scenarios possible after August 2nd. This month, I'll outline how each outcome could affect the price of gold and silver.
BEARISH GOLD CASE #1
DEBT CEILING NOT RAISED - ENOUGH CUTS MADE TO AVERT DEFAULT
My readers know that this scenario is actually what the US government should do. The debt ceiling should not be increased and massive cuts must be made. We know this outcome is extremely unlikely - it would require not only a resolute steadfastness to sound money, but also a 180-degree change of philosophical beliefs by the majority of Congress (and the American public) overnight.
Yet in our fantasy world, if this did occur, it would be bearish for gold. It would mean the US government was shrinking, that debts were being paid, that the entire US economy was becoming more solvent and viable. Gold would be less important to own, as the risk of both currency crises and sovereign debt crises would be lower.
BEARISH GOLD CASE #2
DEBT CEILING RAISED - FEDERAL BUDGET BALANCED
If the debt ceiling is raised in order to avert imminent default, but the spare time is used to truly bring the federal budget into balance, the US economy might still be saved. But when I say "balanced," I mean it. This would mean not only eliminating the entire $1.5 trillion deficit, but also leaving enough of a surplus to cover all outstanding debt and unfunded liabilities. For perspective, Senator Rand Paul's proposal to but $500 billion a year, widely considered more radical than landing a man on Mars, would only address 1/3 of the annual deficit - it would take cuts many times that for the US to return to solvency.
But let's be optimistic: if the budget could be balanced, then the fact that the debt ceiling was being increased yet again would not be so awful. Since the US government's fiscal policies would be completely reversed, we could expect to start seeing a strengthening of the dollar (so long as Bernanke stopped the printing presses too) and a weakening of gold and silver.
However, this is just as much of a pipe dream as the first scenario. No government in history has dug itself out of the hole we now face without defaulting. If Congress even tried to enact a plan like this, people would be rioting in the streets over their lost entitlements. And we'd suddenly have millions of unemployed soldiers. Not exactly a recipe for peace and prosperity.
BULLISH GOLD CASE #1
DEBT CEILING NOT RAISED - US DEFAULTS ON TREASURY DEBT
This is the scenario that President Obama and Secretary Geithner are threatening. They claim that if the debt ceiling is not raised, they will have to immediately begin defaulting on Treasury interest payments. This is rather unlikely, as interest payments make up only 10% of spending, but let's say they stop paying anyway.
If they do this, market interest rates for US debt would skyrocket, meaning the only buyer left at rates the Treasury could afford would be the Fed. In other words, if they default on August 2nd, QE3 will start on August 3rd. Of course, a default would be absolutely devastating to the dollar and a boon for gold and silver. Global confidence in the invincibility of the United States would be shattered, and the underlying problem of excessive spending would still remain to be addressed.
Another interesting scenario would be if Congress didn't raise the debt ceiling and the Treasury just kept borrowing anyway. It's not like the Executive Branch follows laws scrupulously nowadays. What if they just ignored it? Someone could challenge the act in federal courts, but the odds are often in the President's favor. In this case, gold and silver might experience less of an initial spike, but their long-term prospects would be elevated as the world recognized that we were one step closer to becoming a banana republic.
BULLISH GOLD CASE #2
DEBT CEILING RAISED - SYMBOLIC CUTS IN SPENDING
This scenario is by far the most likely outcome of the debt talks in Washington; they will raise the debt ceiling and make spending cuts which sound substantial, but which only mange to slow the accumulation of new debt.
The plans on the table suggest cutting a couple trillion in cumulative spending over the next decade. In other words, they propose cuts that only reduce deficits by about 10-20%; they do nothing to reduce actual debt levels. So if these talks are successful, then instead of a $1.5 trillion deficit each year, perhaps we only suffer a $1.2 trillion deficit. Meanwhile, the debt continues growing. This is "success" in Washington.
Clearly, this is bullish for precious metals. It means more of the same - more spending, more debt, and necessarily more money-printing.
THE EMPIRE HAS NO CEILING
Over the past 50 years, the US debt ceiling has been raised over 70 times. In other words, there is no ceiling at all - it is as fictitious as the idea that central planning works, or that the US has anything resembling a "free market."
So, I guess it stands to reason that regardless of the debt ceiling increase, it is likely that the US will be downgraded by one or more ratings agencies. The effect will be massive because the world's largest pension, mutual, and sovereign wealth funds typically mandate investment only in AAA-rated securities. A downgrade of US debt means those funds must immediately sell off their primary reserve asset. The effect of this cannot be overstated, and gold would be the first and best refuge for an onslaught of orphaned capital.
Despite gold once again hitting new highs, I can only recommend my readers continue to keep a healthy portion of their portfolio in precious metals. Given the sad realities of the US fiscal and monetary situation, it's prudent to assume that nothing will be solved by August 2nd. | <urn:uuid:19de4167-cd86-465c-a556-df40609aad9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/283373-debt-ceiling-scenarios-how-each-outcome-could-affect-the-price-of-gold-silver | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962933 | 1,336 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Dave observed that this gull had only one mirror in its wing tips. It was undeniable. My Collins Bird Guide says it has smaller mirrors than the other possible source of confusion, the herring gull, but this bird seemed determined to proclaim its difference. In addition its mantle was a darker shade of grey, but not so dark as to compete with lesser black-backs, and the legs were... well, they weren't pinky. Not obviously yellow either but we were certainly looking at a yellow-legged gull.
I've tried for rarities at Bittell in the past and failed to connect with any. I told Dave this on the drizzly trudge to the upper reservoir and he said, “Thanks. We're not aiming to see a yellow-legged gull, are we?”
“No, we're not. We're going for something else entirely.”
The gull perched obligingly on the buoy where previous birders had reported it and my duck was broken. That was one more to the Worcestershire bird list and another to follow immediately when we got on to the little egrets, also mentioned by those birders. These took me up to 141, just four behind my best English county, Hampshire, but still 37 adrift of Angus. They all pale against my 219 in Santa Clara, California but, hey, everything’s bigger in America.
In a brief respite from the rains, we had earlier dipped on the pom skua reported through Bartley reservoir. It was useful to find out where the place was, though, for future, wintery reference. | <urn:uuid:140a8e96-79df-4d5d-ab0e-b953cbc92c98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pokerbird.blogspot.com/2009/07/yellow-legged-gull-bittell.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983873 | 334 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Thomas Schmid and Prabal Dutta
CSE Post Doctoral Researcher Thomas Schmid and Assistant Professor Prabal Dutta, and along with two collaborators from UCLA, have won the
Best Paper Award at the 6th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Embedded Networked Sensors (HotEmNets 2010), which took place June 28 - 29, 2010, in
The paper, entitled "Disentangling Wireless Sensing from Mesh Networking," shows how the resource demands of today's wireless mesh networking stacks hinder the progress of low-cost, low-power wireless sensor nodes. Wireless sensor networks, or sensornets, force design compromises and unnecessary cost and complexity: optimizing wireless sensors means reducing costs, increasing lifetimes, and locating sensors close to the action, but adding mesh networking functions like IP routing and forwarding increases RAM and ROM requirements and demands substantial idle listening to forward others' traffic, all of which adds cost and increases power draw.
The authors argue that an architectural separation between sensor and router, similar to what ZigBee and traditional IP networks advocate, would allow each node class to be better optimized to the task, matched to technology trends, and aligned with deployment patterns. Although trivial to implement on current platforms, for example by turning off router advertisements in an IPv6/6LoWPAN stack, reaping the full benefits of this approach requires evolving platform designs and revisiting the link and network layers of the stack. The authors examine the resulting implications on the system architecture.
Dr. Schmid's research interests involve the hardware/software boundary and its impact on energy consumption, including software radios, large scale sensing system architectures, and networking, with a focus on wireless embedded systems. His work and collaboration has won several awards including a DAC Student Design Competition and three best paper awards at SenSys, WUWNet, and IPSN respectively. He is currently funded by a Fellowship for Prospective Researchers from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Prof. Dutta's research interests straddle the hardware/software interface and include
systems, networking, and architecture. Recent focus areas include energy management,
wireless networking, and embedded systems. He is also interested in emerging mobile
sensing, building-scale sensing, and healthcare applications that cut across all of
these areas. He teaches classes in the Design of Microprocessor Based Systems and in Wireless Sensor Networks, and serves on a number of program committees and editorial boards.
Posted: July 7, 2010 | <urn:uuid:2470de9b-a09f-4593-9a6b-a8fb9302f3f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eecs.umich.edu/eecs/about/articles/2010/ACM_HotEmNets_Best_Paper.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933106 | 505 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Audie MurphySoldier / Actor / World War II Figure
Born: 20 June 1924
Died: 28 May 1971 (airplane crash)
Birthplace: Kingston, Texas
Best known as:
The most-decorated American soldier of World War II
Audie Murphy won the Congressional Medal of Honor and was the most decorated American Army soldier of World War II. The orphaned son of Texas sharecroppers, Audie Murphy enlisted in the Army on his birthday in 1942, landed at Casablanca in February of 1943, and spent the next two years fighting his way across North Africa, Italy, France and Germany. He won two dozen military medals for valor, including the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in a French forest on 26 January 1945, when he climbed aboard a burning tank destroyer and used its 50-caliber machine gun to kill dozens of attacking Germans. Famously baby-faced, Audie Murphy was promoted from private to lieutenant during the war, yet was not yet 21 when the war ended. Invited to visit Hollywood in 1945 by James Cagney, Murphy stayed and parlayed his wartime fame into an up-and-down career as a movie actor, songwriter, and businessman. He published his war memoirs, To Hell And Back, in 1949 and played himself in the 1955 movie of the same name. He appeared in more than 40 movies, many of them westernes like Ride Clear of Diablo (1954) and No Name on the Bullet (1959). He was killed along with five other people in a private plane crash in Virginia in 1971.
June 20th is officially Audie Murphy Day in Texas... Audie Murphy originally tried to join the Marines but was turned down for being too short... Audie Murphy enlisted with a birth certificate which stated he was born in 1924, making him 18 in 1942. However, some scholars now say that he was born in 1925, and used a falsified birth certificate to enter the Army at age 17. William Russo's 2001 biography A Thinker's Damn and Daniel Champagne's 2008 book Dogface Soldiers are two which promote the 1925 date... In 1950, Audie Murphy played both Billy the Kid (in the movie The Kid from Texas) and Jesse James (in Kansas Raiders).
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More on Audie Murphy from Infoplease:
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:001b6047-a6da-445c-925d-6f468790a85d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/audiemurphy.html | 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 | 0.973919 | 507 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Usually when you browse the internet you get your information and you’re on your way. Sometimes a website isn’t properly constructed and prevents you from getting your information easily, this causes you to become annoyed. Rarely you find something that is so awesome you just have to admire it and the thoughts that have gone into it. Today I found one of those things.
There are a lot of difficult aspects of starting and running a site. You have to consider how to drive traffic, how to rank on search engines, how to convert traffic to paying customers of participating users, and today I saw an ingenious example of how to engage users and encourage participation.
The image on the right is taken from a news post on the NBC Dallas site, it shows the general reader feedback and allows readers to submit their own feedback. The unique aspect is of course how they group the feedback. It’s not a generic 1 to 10 rating, it’s not a “let your voice be heard” sentence, it’s a colourful, graphic and quantified display. I cannot stress enough how awesome this is executed. What they manage to do is immediately quantify the response to an article which encourage users to add their voice. | <urn:uuid:1813d492-0c54-4cda-95ba-fe8fd094bdda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.martinfjordvald.com/category/site-management/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942471 | 252 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Join Gloria Lemay, celebrated traditional birth attendant and childbirth educator, in a series of 12 online programs for professionals and students who wish to expand their knowledge and skills, and delve into issues that arise repeatedly in clinical practice. This series is also valuable for parents who want to be fully informed about their choices in pregnancy and birth.
Each session is 90 minutes in length.
Cost: $7.50 per presentation.
Gloria’s twelve online workshops cover the following topics:
Nutrition for Two. Women want to feed themselves and their babies in utero well, and they often make lifestyle changes in pregnancy that they would not have the discipline to make if they were not pregnant. This presentation focuses on how to help women achieve excellent nutrition through fun, inspiring and effective coaching.
The Well Woman Check Up. What is the experienced care provider looking for when she’s doing those urine strips, palpating the uterus and taking blood pressure/pulse? This presentation dissects the prenatal checkup and explores the rationale behind each routine test.
Prenatal Diagnostic Tests. As the number of possible prenatal tests continues to climb, care providers must be able to discern which ones will lead to productive action and which ones will only worry and detract from the woman’s pregnancy experience. This presentation enables participants to better advocate for their clients by articulating which prenatal diagnostic tests are reasonable, and which tests can cause more harm than good.
Medical Terminology. The keys to the obstetric kingdom lie in the language. Learning medical prefixes, suffixes and root words will give you the tools to interpret the language. You’ll be able to use extra long, impressive words like “neurofibromatosis” in no time, and have fun doing it!
Induction of Birth. If only one change happened in North America – the end of 41 week inductions – the cesarean rate would immediately drop. This workshop will explore the history, the misinformation campaign, and the tools needed to end the routine practice of labor inductions.
Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension. Most prenatal care is designed to identify the small number of pregnant women who will develop Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension. This condition can be prevented and treated. In this workshop, we will discuss how the diagnosis is made, how to identify the symptoms in the early stages, and which clients are at risk.
Gestational Diabetes. Because gestational diabetes can be deadly, it is critical that care providers understand it, and know which women are at risk. This workshop will provide valuable insight and information about how to screen for and help prevent this condition.
Herpes Simplex II. One in five North American adults has Herpes Simplex II. After attending this workshop, care providers will know how to care for women with this condition, assuring that every woman they care for is healthy and lesion-free on the day of birth.
Water Birth & Lotus Birth. The most exciting ideas in obstetrics come from the women themselves. Water Birth and Lotus Birth are grass roots innovations that have endured for decades. When your clients have questions about these practices, you’ll be ready with answers that address the safety and beauty of these birth innovations.
Vaginal Birth after Cesarean (VBAC). The VBAC client will have emotions and fears about giving birth that are justifiably heightened. She and her partner will require more time and patience than your other clients. This workshop will focus on advanced planning techniques for changing psychological patterns in the mother and father, and tips for avoiding pitfalls and safely supporting families through this most satisfying and empowering of childbirth experiences.
Pediatric Exam of the Newborn. Knowing what the midwife or pediatrician is looking for in the examination of a newborn will enhance your ability to assist with the care of the baby after the immediate post partum period. In this workshop, you will learn to distinguish between normal parental concerns, (e.g., “Is it normal for the baby to turn bright red?”) and signs that the baby should be seen in a hospital emergency ward (e.g., “The baby isn’t feeding and seems lethargic”).
Business Promotion and Professionalism. Prosperity and business responsibility are matters of integrity. Let’s marry your spiritual calling with the practical reality of paying bills and building a business. This workshop is a realistic and practical guide to the entrepreneurial side of caring for others. Although the focus will be on the birth business, this ideas raised in this session will be applicable to all care providers. | <urn:uuid:b17d3bb3-e347-42a6-890a-0ecbc86c33f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://consciouswoman.org/category/seminars/by-topic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937854 | 949 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Olympic gold medallist and Durham graduate, Sophie Hosking, has returned to the University to help inspire student rowers. Sophie, who won gold with her rowing partner Kat Copeland in the London Olympics, returned to Durham, where she studied Chemistry and Physics, five years after she swapped the River Wear for Eton Dorney.
Sophie shared tips with pupils from local schools as well as university students. She was joined by some of her fellow Durham graduates and international rowers, including bronze medallist, Stephen Rowbotham; London 2012 finalist, Louisa Reeve and GB rower and Rio Olympics hopeful, Emily Taylor.
In Sophie’s honour, the University’s indoor powered rowing tank – which is one of only three in the country and part of the London 2012 sporting legacy – has been named The Sophie Hosking Rowing Tank. At the unveiling, she said :"I'd just like to say it's an incredible honour to have this rowing tank named after me. "I think it's going to be fantastic for Durham rowing going forwards and will produce more Olympians and hopefully produce more Olympic champions in the future."
Sophie’s gold medal is not the first in her family. Sophie’s dad, David Hosking, also rowed for Durham University as a student and went onto win gold at the Rowing World Championships in 1980. Sophie Hosking said: “My time at Durham University helped form the athlete that I am now. The rowing programme at Durham in my time was professional and successful and it was a motivating place to train for three years.“ Choosing to study and row at Durham will always be a fundamental part of me wining Gold at the Olympics.''
The University has seen a surge in new female students taking up rowing with girls making up two-thirds of members of its Learn to Row programme out of 500 in total, which is the highest figure ever for girls taking up the sport at Durham. Around 50 local school children are also signed up to the Learn to Row programme with new courses for staff and adults from the local community starting later this year. Callum Plant, 15, attends Belmont Community School in Durham, has been taking part in the Learn to Row programme. He said: “We are so lucky to have the facilities here and to be given the opportunity to use them is amazing.“ I have had lots of help and support from the students and staff. They have really taken care of me and shown me how to train and keep my body safe. They encourage me to aim higher and help me to achieve that. It's a great place and I love it.”
Aidan Rushford, 13, also attends Belmont Community School. He added: “Team Durham, through the sculling camp and ergo technique programme last year, really helped boost my confidence both in the sport of rowing and as a person. Particularly at sculling camp in the summer, I was nervous at the beginning of the week about going on the rough water of the Tyne, but by the end of the week felt like I had overcome another hurdle.“ The core strength programme with the strength and conditioning coaches has also helped me immensely and with the whole of the University behind me I have been afforded opportunities I would have never have had before.”
Durham University has a global reputation for nurturing world-class sporting talent across numerous sports with Durham ranked in the top 3 sporting universities in Britain. Durham University Boat Club has been the British University champions since 2004, retaining its title for nine consecutive years with coaching led by Wade Hall-Craggs, who competed in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.Durham’s rowers have won over 100 international vests since 2004, including those won by Stephen Rowbotham and Emily Taylor who had never rowed until they started their degree at Durham University.
In the summer, second year student Lily van den Broecke came away with gold as a rowing cox at the Paralympics. Stephen Rowbotham, who won bronze at the Beijing 2008 Olympics and was a finalist at London 2012, said: "Having watched Steve Redgrave get his fifth gold medal from the comfort of my own living room, I decided to take up rowing at Durham. Three and a half years later I found myself in the GB Rowing team and having narrowly missed out on a spot at the 2004 Athens Olympics, my dreams came true in 2008 at Beijing when I got my own medal."
Around 12 Durham graduates, who have gone onto compete at Olympic level, will be presented with commemorative oars which will be displayed in the rowing facility. The rowing tank was supported by a £500k grant from Sport England’s Iconic Facilities fund to form part of the London 2012 sporting legacy for the University and the North of England. The tank, used to teach the art of sculling and crew skills, is designed to simulate the movement and feel of a boat through water. The speed flow of the water can be adjusted electronically to give any speeds up to three metres per second. | <urn:uuid:49e6317e-d94a-4c01-941a-698129ddd27f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northnews.co.uk/article/550 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978187 | 1,059 | 1.53125 | 2 |
April 16, 2007: Seung-Hui Cho, 23, kills 32 people and himself on Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va.
April 26, 2002: Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, who had been expelled from school in Erfurt, Germany, kills 13 teachers, two former classmates and policeman, before committing suicide.
April 20, 1999: Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves in the school's library.
April 28, 1996: Martin Bryant, 29, bursts into cafeteria in seaside resort of Port Arthur in Tasmania, Australia, shooting 20 people to death. Driving away, he kills 15 others. He was captured and imprisoned.
March 13, 1996: Thomas Hamilton, 43, kills 16 kindergarten children and their teacher in elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and then kills himself.
Oct. 16, 1991: A deadly shooting rampage took place in Killeen, Texas, as George Hennard opened fire at a Luby's Cafeteria, killing 23 people before taking his own life. 20 others were wounded in the attack.
June 18, 1990: James Edward Pough shoots people at random in a General Motors Acceptance Corp. office in Jacksonville, Fla., killing 10 and wounding four, before killing himself.
Dec. 6, 1989: Marc Lepine, 25, bursts into Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique college, shooting at women he encounters, killing nine and then himself.
Aug. 19, 1987: Michael Ryan, 27, kills 16 people in small market town of Hungerford, England, and then shoots himself dead after being cornered by police.
July 12, 1976: Edward Charles Allaway, a custodian in the library of California State University, Fullerton, fatally shot seven fellow employees and wounded two others. | <urn:uuid:b4c85bd4-ad8c-4259-b538-fe52124e1f13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.4029tv.com/School-shooting-among-worst-mass-shootings/-/8898190/17780206/-/item/1/-/6jurm4/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956878 | 397 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Animal Stories - People Talking About Meyer's Parrot
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Animal-World Information about:
The Meyer's Parrot, or Brown Parrot, is a small parrot that is very attractive and entertaining!
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I adopted a 13-year old Meyers parrot after my green-cheeked conure died. Wally Meyers is not the sweetest bird I have ever had, but he is definitely the most interesting. Because of being shoved into a room with little people interaction, it took me over 6 months to get him not to bite and to allow me to touch him anywhere. He still gets a bit fiestly if he is higher than I am, but we work with that. He will allow me to lay him on his back on my lap while I stroke his head. I recently moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a five-bedroom house, so he travels with me everywhere and no longer screams for attention. I still have to find the 'perfect' spot for his cage, but he is patient and loves to be loved.
I was adopted by my Meyers in Sept 2004. I named him Guy, although I don't know if he is a she. I have to say that he never fails to amaze me. He talks a lot- although I was told he wouldn't have much of a vocabulary. He also mimicks the microwave and a squeaky door, but he talks a lot, especially in the morning. I catch him practicing his words until he gets it right. He says 'kisses' and makes the smack noise. He says 'hi Guy' and 'hi birdie birdie' (he'll change the length of the word birdie) totally cute. He also says 'step up'. He whistles the cat call, and can do the first verse of the Andy Griffith theme song. Guy will perk up whenever I'm talking to someone else and start making noises like he's in on the conversation... kinda like R2D2 (the best way to explain it.) Guy does bite, sometimes just a little warning grab, but he's been known to draw blood. He isn't overly fond of cuddling, but he'll tolerate it if he knows it is close to bed time. He does love to be petted on his head and neck, not usually under his wings or his lower back, but we're working on that. I have let his wings grow out and he loves making laps around the room. He also loves to take a shower with me, and will play in his water dish when I do the dishes. He will step up on strangers, but isn't overly friendly until he knows you. He loves wood toys and especially the pinyata ones he can shred. He enjoys cut up fruit and veggies, and especially raisins and peanuts in the shell. I'd recommend a meyers to any first time parrot owner.
I got my Meyer's, Bermel, from a breeder who let me visit him while he/she was still a baby. I took him home and handled and socialized him and now he is the perfect little parrot. I have never experienced such a bond with an animal before. He cuddles and really enoys being petted and getting 'neck massages'. I take him to the Pet Store I used to work at to let him 'pick' his toys and treats and say hello to the other people at the store. He is not afraid of strangers and was very polite when he met my boyfriend who had never handled a bird in his life. He loves all people but he HATES my Cockatiel and Budgie for some reason, maybe because he considers himself a person. I recommend this parrot to anyone starting out with companion parrots :>
I have a Meyers Parrot. He likes to snuggle.
I purchased my Meyer's Parrot shortly after my divorce as a little companion. He (I decided) was born Feb 04 and I purchased him in Jun 04. Since I decided he was a he I named him Harley. Harley is pretty friendly with everyone. My new wife came into my life in August 04, Harley adjusted to her pretty easily. He can bite pretty hard when he doesn't get his way, as he matures he seems to bite less. He isn't afraid of strangers and will readily get on anyone's finger. He loves to get on your shoulder and doesn't like to leave. He's a character and fun to watch and play with. We have let his wings grow and he can fly although he has trouble with landings, he would rather walk over to you and climb on your shoulder. I like that he wont get to big and he doesn't squawk like bigger parrots. He hasn't talked yet but sometimes he will whisle. All in all a really cool companion and a great first bird.
We, my significant other and myself, are owned by a gorgeous lady in the form and shape of a Meyer's Parrot. Since I don't have her hatch date, I can only go by when we adopted each other, which was in June '05. At that time she had just been weaned, and she was just the most beautiful, in every way, baby M.parrot I had ever seen. She had a perfect physique, the works! My only thing is I didn't want a girl, because the possibility of becoming "egg-bound" in the future.
She is nicknamed "Chicklet." But officially her name is Cricket. What a wonderful companion, entertainer,cuddler and general grrrreat feather-person to share our lives with!!! There aren't any negatives I can speak of in her life with me,but my significant other does have a few complaints with biting.
Her favorite things are #1 to stay out of her cage, #2 play independently on her back/doing acrobatic's (somersault's, etc.)
She eats practically EVERYTHING set before her and is a JOY to share life with. She is what I get up in the morning for.
I have several parrots, including a 4 y/o Meyer's. Picasso a.k.a "Peeps" is definately a momma's boy. He is a fairly quiet bird that says a few phrases in a deep grovely voice. He says "Hey baby", "What a good boy" and "Hello". He also makes various household beeps, noises and gives kisses. Peeps is very very affectionate with me. He likes to wedge himself under my jaw and puff himself up and take a nap. He loves to have his head and cheeks scratched. The only thing bad that I can say is that Peeps HATES my husband. I think he views him as a rival and he will launch himself at my husband and attack him. He has given several nasty bites. So, he has to be monitored when my husband is in the same room and sometimes has to have a "time out" in his cage (the bird, not my husband...haha). He gets along fairly well with the other birds, though and I wouldn't trade him.
My family adopted a Meyers april 2003. On day one, Spike chose my husband. He stuck his hand in the cage Spike got on and it was love. I put my hand out later the same day and Spike bit through my thumbnail. I clean his cage and make sure his water is clean several times daily. I also get up a 6AM and cut up vegetables for our bird. I usually have a variety of fruit and veg. apple, plum, pear, banana, yams, zuchini, yellow crookneck squash, cucumber, broccoli, alfalfa sprouts, mushroom, tomato, greenpepper, you get the idea. Spike just threw it over the side for 2 weeks. Now he waits impatiently for me to get out of his way so he can see what he has. I split his produce into 3 bowls. So he hops from bowl to bowl. Spike came to us with a large vocabulary. He used to live at a pet shop. Then a man rescued him and had him for 15 years . Even with 2 bad bites and repeated attempts to kill me. I love our Meyers. I really try now to think like a parrot and not irritate him. I like to think I'm smarter than he is but I'm the one in the kitchen cutting up all the vegetables.
I've owned a meyers parrot for almost 2 weeks, I couldn't of picked a better bird! The only problem I've found is that there is little information on this specific bird, I've found them to be every bit of what the internet has said about them to be true. I honestly couldn't imagine my life without her now.
Morgan is a three year old Meyers with tremendous coloring. She is friendly with all who belong in the household and those who visit. She gets along well with our four dogs and mimics the whistle to call them into the house, as well as the "meow" for the two cats. She does not speak, but can mimic about ten distinct household sounds. The introduction of Morgan to the household was a learning experience for the dogs and cats, who were very curious and had to be educated that the bird was not for their amusement. She is now carefully guarded by the dogs who sleep by her cage. Her roomy cage is housed in the heart of the living room so that she can enjoy the daily routine of all. She doesn't "scream" but whistles and chirps contentedly, especially at nature programs when birds are calling. Her favorite daily routine falls on the cool FLorida days where she sits on the porch and calls out to the wild birds while swinging on her rope toy. | <urn:uuid:7a9b07c8-e112-42fc-a379-003b65a8aa11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pet-talk.animal-world.com/Birds/Parrot+Species/Meyer's+Parrot&pagenum=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983895 | 2,120 | 1.59375 | 2 |
In a very simple explaination, Domain Name Propagation means Domain Name Updating Process.
You need to wait from 5 minutes upto 72 hours for any changes made to the domain name, such as :
- new domain name registration
- change of details
- domain transfer
- change DNS info and so on.
It all depends on how often the ISP (Internet Service Provider) update their DNS Records.
ISP is the company you are using to connect to the Internet from home or office.
In Malaysia, we now have two ISP companies :
- Telekom Malaysia (Local ISP)
- i-Skill Dynamic Sdn Bhd (International ISP)
Domain Name Propagation is the process of your registrar (or the website you used to register your domain name) handle the changes made in your domain name to their DNS servers, ISPs acquire DNS Records from the DNS servers, and other ISPs (ISP from other company or other countries) also need to update their DNS Records.
Some ISP update their DNS Records more often than others (better service) and receive changes faster. As a result of this, often you will not be able to get to your website by its' domain name but a friend can (because your friend is using a better ISP service). Just wait until the changes propagate (update) to your ISP.
All other Broadband service providers such as Digi, Maxis, Celcom, etc are not ISP.
WiMax such as P1, Redtone are also not ISP. | <urn:uuid:008952cf-e513-4f6c-94b6-b1f4e439d9ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kkboss.com/tag/malaysia-domain-dns-propagation-checker/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93528 | 316 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Intel futurist Brian David Johnson helped officially launch ASTC’s 2012 Annual Conference earlier today, as the keynote speaker at the Opening General Session held in the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Johnson, who made a point of explaining to the crowd that as a futurist he does not predict the future, is a self-proclaimed “geek” and a fan of science centers. So much so, in fact, that he disclosed he and his wife were married in the planetarium at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.
Johnson explained that one of the main objectives of his job is to determine what it will feel like to be a human 10-20 years from now. He took umbrage with the vision of the future put forth in so many movies and books—the vision of a person in a stark, sterile room with the sleekest of electronic devices surrounding them. As he put it, “If we’re going to envision the future, we need to envision a future for people, one that is comfortable.”
“We are all fire hydrants of data,” Johnson said. “We spew data—financial data, social networking data—all over the place. Yet data only has meaning when it comes back and touches the lives of humans. Humans make data and all technology meaningful.”
In his presentation, Waking the Algorithm, Johnson explained that algorithms are imbued with humanity and are, essentially, a story.
He urged the audience not to be passive about the future. “Don’t sit back and let the future happen to you,” he explained. “The future will be awesome because we’re going to build it; why would we build a future that is negative?”
Johnson emphasized the power of science centers and museums in building the future. “You will build the future in the minds of people who come to your science centers,” he said. “You put the visions of science and technology in people’s minds and let them touch it.”
We can change the future, he explained, by changing the story people tell themselves about the future they will live in. We need to focus on making the lives of people better.
“You have an incredible opportunity to shape the future through the work you do,” Johnson concluded. A worthy message to kick off four days of learning, sharing, connecting, and being inspired. | <urn:uuid:bfca3787-d334-46e0-8786-92c99296b108> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.astc.org/blog/2012/10/13/intel-futurist-brian-david-johnson-kicks-off-astc-2012-opening/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96524 | 513 | 1.5625 | 2 |
US Judicial Conference asking for creation of 67 federal judgeships Brett Murphy at 7:05 AM ET
[JURIST] The Judicial Conference of the United States [US Courts backgrounder] decided Tuesday that it will ask Congress for 67 new judge positions [recommendations; press release], including 15 new circuit court positions and 52 new district court judgeships, throughout the country in order to help ease the crowded court system. No new circuit court judges have been added to the bench since 1990 despite a 55 percent increase in the filings of appeals. The district courts have seen a 29 percent increase since 1990, but have only been granted an additional 29 judges during that time period to help deal with the load. The Conference also voted to approve a test-run on making audio recordings of court sessions available online.
The last time the Conference met in September, the policy-making body approved measures [JURIST report] requiring judges to disclose their sponsors when traveling to attend seminars, and to investigate financial conflicts of interest more closely. As the policy-arm of the judiciary, the Judicial Conference conducts research on the federal court system and reports its findings with suggestions to Congress. AP has more.
Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible, ad-free format. | <urn:uuid:d79cb6ba-329b-4678-bcaa-834d25a31a81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jurist.org/paperchase/2007/03/us-judicial-conference-asking-for.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953953 | 314 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Charlie Hutchinson from MSSA with some thoughts on the menhaden management situation along the East Coast with his Critique of the new ASMFC Proposed Menhaden Fishery Plan.
At the last meeting of the Menhaden Management Board, the commissioners directed a Plan Development Team be assembled whose mission would be to create a draft addendum to the present plan. The new plan would be based on the agreed upon goal of increasing the menhaden breeding stock to the equivalent of 15% of an unfished stock from its present level of +/- 8%. The team is composed of members who are diversified geographically as well as professionally. Their proposed plan consists of two segments, the technical (fishery biology) side and a section on social/economic issues.
The technical side of the document is extensive and detailed. Based on the concept of a 15% maximum spawning potential as a threshold measure, the plan lays out the use of a target to which the fishery is to be managed. The threshold becomes a mandatory action point to reduce harvest to obtain the target level of landings if they ever exceeded the threshold limit. For this method to be successful, the target must be more conservative (smaller catch) than the threshold by a statistically significant amount. The team proposed a range of targets, from 20% to 40%. The breadth of the range recognizes the degree of uncertainty encountered in the inputs to the computer model which calculates effects. One of the major factors is estimating the change in natural mortality resulting from more forage available to predators. Given the fact that predators are currently considered under fed at present stock levels, the wide range is not unexpected. The Board will have to determine the extent of conservatism they wish to employ. The draft document outlines a host of tools the Board would have available to effect the reduction in harvest that would be required to achieve the goal. The Plan Development Team seems to favor a hard cap as the best method of control. They also note the need for improved monitoring/reporting to make any of the available methods work, primarily in the bait segment of the landings. So, on the technical side the work seems to be complete and realistic.
When it comes to the social/economic issues which might result from more stringent regulation, the work seems to be much less rigorous than the technical side. The first controversial point has to do with the predictions of effects on the reduction industry without a corresponding evaluation of the impact on the bait industry and its customers. Cited as reasons for the lack of consideration of the bait industry is a lack of data. The “data” is available, although some skepticism exists with respect to accuracy and completeness. Simply put, no effort was made to do the work it might require.
The second point of controversy has to do with the description of effects on the reduction industry. The document cites the predominate negative effect on jobs would be borne by “ the least skilled ,least educated, marginally employed and poorest sections of the affected communities.” Such an analysis doesn’t seem reasonable in an economic sense. First, if volume of business decreases one normally decreases the acquisition of raw materials to balance demand. In this business that would be accomplished by reducing the number of vessels utilized to supply the factory. Affected would be the crews on the vessels who are skilled and their wage scale is much higher than the wage scale in the factory .In addition there is not much known about the degree of automation employed in the factory. It may be that a reduction in throughput does not necessarily translate to a similar reduction in the labor force. So in essence, reductions could be made in that segment of the work force that is directly variable with volume and at the same time the average labor cost is decreased by reductions in the most costly element. All in all the social /economic portion of this document seems to portray an emotional response rather than an accurate picture of probable effects. Given the fact that decisions will be made on both technical and economic outputs, the economic aspects of this document should be treated with considerable skepticism. | <urn:uuid:2322704c-6fc7-4682-b307-1579b033e0c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://savemenhaden.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/critique-of-the-proposed-new-asmfc-fishery-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958297 | 822 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Amir Taheri, a noted expert on Iranian affairs, has written a superb article for Commentary magazine regarding the possibilities of regime change in Iran. He is skeptical toward those who have called for engagement with the regime.
Historically, when diplomatic efforts are extended to dictatorial regimes such efforts have led to concessions that are pocketed, are considered as signs of weakness, and lead to further extremism on the part of these regimes. Moderates that might oppose these regimes from within are demoralized and weakened, since they feel they have no strong allies outside the nation to help them.
Taheri points out the long history of American and Western efforts to diplomatically engage the Iranian regime and how these have been manipulated and ultimately rejected by the Iranians. He then lays out why the regime is now seen as illegitimate:
* The coalition of forces that brought down the Shah can no longer be relied upon and now have either been driven into exile or have become active opponents of the regime;
*The "elections" and "referenda" that provide a patina democracy are now perceived as being rigged—embittering the populace;
* Iranians at one time believed that the regime was dedicated to "social justice" and would bring about the end of poverty. This has been an empty promise. As Taheri notes,
[T]oday, more than 40 percent of Iran's 70 million people live below the poverty line, compared with 27 percent before the Khomeinists seized power. In 1977, Iran's GDP per head per annum was the same as Spain's. Today, Spain's GDP is four times higher than Iran's in real dollar terms. As the gap between rich and poor has widened to an unprecedented degree, the corruption of the ruling mullahs, and their ostentatious way of life, have made a mockery of slogans like 'Islamic solidarity.'
He then points out some dynamics within Iran that may offer hope for those wishing for regime change:
* Signs are emerging of major splits within the regime. Former Khomeinists have distanced themselves from the regime;
* Alternative sources of moral authority are emerging (including religious leaders in Iraq who tend to resist religious involvement in running of governments);
* Iranian leaders outside the ruling clique abhor the regime. These include intellectuals, trade union leaders, clerics, feminists, and students;
* In the last two years, the value of the Iranian currency has plummeted, unemployment has soared, inflation is skyrocketing, businesses are failing, and ethnic unrest is roiling the nation. He concludes that the time is right since "
He concludes that the time is right since:
A more robust and coordinated American posture on the economic, diplomatic, political, and moral fronts would create forceful pressure on the current leadership and inspire new courage in its opponents. There is no denying that the mechanics of regime change are a delicate and often highly chancy matter, and that the historical record offers examples of failure as well as of success. But there is also no denying that the game is worth the candle. Accelerating the collapse and replacement of this aberrant tyranny, a curse to the Iranian people and to the world, will strike a blow against anti—Western and anti—democratic forces all over the globe, safeguard America's strategic interests in the Middle East and beyond, and add another radiant page to the almanac of American support for the cause of freedom.
The entire essay is well—worth reading.
Ed Lasky 11 3 06 | <urn:uuid:7e655ef0-3e7e-414c-9ff8-b3ebc575fbca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2006/11/amir_taheri_on_regimechange_in.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96776 | 713 | 1.789063 | 2 |
I find the fascination with the ‘collapse of power’ thesis as annoying, as the fantasy about new rising powers. Fluctuations in power on the world stage come and go, and rarely have anything to do with genuine collapses.
What they do have to do with, is people’s unrealistic beliefs being shattered.
This childish habit has been with us since the post war anti-colonialists tried to prove that the British Empire collapsed through lack of power (as all empires must they think). Crap.
First, the artificial economic high that Britian enjoyed in the post Napoleonic war was never going to last long term. Less than 5% of the world’s population cannot have half the world’s economic power for anything but a brief period. Eventually things start to balance out.
(I heard one idiot economics 'commentator' recently talking about the collapse of Apple’s market share in i-phones. Hello.. if you invent the first one and no one else sells anything similar becasue it is not very good, you can have 100% market share. If they start welling millions and are good enough that everyone tries to copy them, you will not have 100% market share - just billions in profits. This is not a collapse by Apple. It is everyone else adapting to Apple’s techniques and moving forward. It is how human progress happens. Live with it.)
The same goes for the ‘collapse’ of American power. Post World War Two the United States had a similar domination of the world economy that Britain had 130 years earlier. But times have moved on, and communication of ideas is faster. It took only half as long for the US to fall back to a more realistic percentage of wealth for population. This is not a collapse, it is a correction. Deal with it.
Still the academic loons who make money from predicting doom and despair don’t seem to understand natural correction.
The fantasy of China as the next great superpower for instance. China usually (over 2 or 3 thousand years) controls 20-25% of the world’s population. It’s economy could potentially be 20-25% of the world’s economy. China could be powerful almost to the extent of the British Empire after the Napoleonic war, or the United States after World War Two.
It could be, but it won’t be.
China is, as it has always been, an unstable conglomeration of people’s who simply do not coalesce very well. It is an empire, not a state. More importantly it is not an empire like the Roman’s who adopted talented outsiders, or the British, who trained indigenous groups to run their own affairs. It is an Empire that has always been about controlling those dangerous people who won’t toe the line inside its borders, and living in fear of those outside its borders.
The dominant cultures and tribes in China spend as much time stamping on the fringe groups as they do developing anything useful. As a result the hierarchy of the Chinese nobility is as corrupt and self serving as any feudal aristocracy in decline at its most venal. (In fact I think I might be insulting post-feudal oligarchs with such an invidious comparison. Even the French aristocracy of the 1780’s made some efforts to look after those ontheir estates… they just hadn’t got the hang of all these new cities yet…)
China has always been ruled by the aristocracy of those who count, and has always treated the vast majority of its population as peasants and lackeys. Economically and socially, China would have to change quite enormously to evolve into a stable and productive power. It won’t.
It suprises me that people make such a big thing about the economic growth of China since the artificial brakes of Communist idealogy were removed. If something has been repressed as hard and long as the Chinese economy was repressed, then it will automatically make great leaps forward once the brakes are loosened. But the fantasy that this will inevitably lead to economic dominance is as ridiculous as it was for the Asian Tigers, or the Japanes miracle, or whatever other guide you want to use.
We have a parallel in the last century of a choatic but rumbunctious free market democracy versus a centrally controlled state system. So many theorists over decades spent vast effort trying to convince themselves that the Soviet Union was inevitably going to triumph over the US. (See Kennedy’s “Rise and Fall of the Great Power’s’ for a sample.) The same idiots seem intent on ignoring Indian growth in economics and power altogether. They shouldn’t.
Yet a vast number of bad theoreticians continue to act as if their home grown fantasies are revelations from God. China must be inevitably going to dominate, because we have learned nothing from the Asian Tigers or Japan, and we haven’t bothered to look at India at all. We just continue believing the propaganda of the command economies, and try to ignore the evidence of the Soviet Union and all other command economies. Really.
The reasons US power will not ‘collapse’, are:
First and foremost, their demographics are better than anyone else’s. Europe, China, large parts of Asia, and almost the entire Muslim world, is going through demographic retraction that will soon be astonishing. The US is not.
Second, the knowledge industry. The old Soviet empire was lagely driven under by misplaced arrogance and secrecy. The arrogance was in such simple things as avoiding English as a scientific common ground (Soviet science was done in German! The problem there being that a language that makes up new words to explain things will never match a language that uses commonly understood Latin roots for descriptive words.) The secrecy was state restriciton of information that led to a ‘right to know’ culture of permission before using a photocopier. Again, science was put back to the pre-printing press days.
Chinese firewalls, and repression of freedon of information, may have ony a few % slowing effect on their development, but it will be enough to prevent them being a serious knowledge society (no matter how good their hackers are... more shades of Cold War scares). The US economy is still open.
Third, oppenness. Immigrants want to go to the US to study and research and work and invest. China has pretty significant barriers to all those things. (See what’s happening to Japanese trade as a result of the argument over a few rocks in the South China Sea.)
US influence may collapse.
Because of US internal politics…
To be precise, the US population has traditionally been isolationist, and their willingness to play ‘world policeman’ for a few decades after World War Two is a significant aberation from their normal practices. US public opinioin these days is all about ‘bringing troops home’, not ‘making the world safe for democracy'. (Which is apparently – in Mali - being left to the French!!!)
I would suggest that the withdrawal of Britain from the role of international policeman after the Great War had far more to do with voters at home being sick of paying for it and wanting peace treaties, than with any major problems with the British economy. (I will post on that another time.)
Frankly the British taxpayer wanted out, and after being forced to carry 6 further years of conflict in World War Two, abandoned their international obligations with indecent haste. Three centuries of colonial development and defence and trade obligations were thrown over within a couple of decades. (The taxpayer having previously undercut the defence budgets so badly in the interwar period that this was considered both logical and ‘inevitable’.)
The danger is not US collapse, the danger is US voter disinterest, apathy, and revulsion, with having to carry the can for the international policing role.
Frankly if you read the abuse over ‘imperial aggression’ the Americans have been receiving from the EU (particularly France until the last few months), it sounds remarkably like the abuse Americna politicians were giving the Britsh for doing exactly the same job a century ago. Eventually, people who only get abused for trying to help tend to want to say 'f... it, you have a go...".
The British took 100 years after Napoleon to lose their economic dominance, but were still ready to play policeman up until WW1 (achieving minor things like safe international trade, virtual elimination of piracy, and the end of slavery worldwide, etc., in the process). Between the wars the British taxpayer was rebellious, and by the 1950’s, delighted to let the Yanks have a go at a task that never gets you anything but abuse.
The American’s are still economically (per head), reasonably dominant, but it only took about 30 years for the glow to go off for their policing efforts (Vietnam anyone?), and the US taxpayer has been pretty down on it for much of that time.
I heard a visiting US admiral speak at ANU when I was at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre in the early 1990’s. He commented that in the 1970’s the US could intimidate India by parking a carrier battle group off the coast, but that by the 1990’s the Indians were pretty contemptuous. When pressed on whether the USN could still achieve intimidationo, he said “possibly, but the US taxpayer would never go for it”.
This was interesting because the first Gulf War, while fought largely with US troops, was not financed by the US. They passed the hat, and got money from client states like Saudi Arabia and Germany. The post 9.11 response of the US voter was a bit more into willingness to spend.. for a while.. but not to the level that would make the US an effective world’s policeman. (See Libya, Mali, Syria, etc.)
It is also notable that the Pax Americana has seen a rebirth of piracy, unsafe trade routes, and possibly even interntional slavery. (US is certainly not the only state to blame here, but the trend is worrying.)
So while I do not fear a ‘collapse’ of US power, I do fear a vacuum caused by internal politics…
But that too is another post. | <urn:uuid:d50f602e-4965-40a6-b263-7416f811ae1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rethinkinghistory.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-collapse-of-america-rise-of-china.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96508 | 2,148 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Vassily Sinaisky conducted the BBC Philharmonic in an exciting programme of ultra-Romantic works – rare Parry, early Scriabin and magic Tchaikovsky.
The first work was Symphonic Fantasia in B minor by Hubert Parry (the man who wrote Jerusalem). Composed in 1912 the work is straight jacketed by dignity and good taste. Unaware of its own confines, the piece goes through the motions of symphonic thinking- pleasant and academic, never exposing any individual personality and sounding like a fog of butter. There’s plenty of tasteful refinement, tunes and atmosphere, but nothing can free it from the clutches of medioctrity. A ‘warm up’ piece for the orchestra if ever there was one.
Scriabin’s Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, written fifteen years before the Parry piece shows a young Scriabin still trying to free himself from the conservative music of his day, not through harmony or form, but by sheer sensuality. In the first movement the orchestra and piano act out a duet of parallel consciousness rather than one of opposing factions, and Scriabin holds nothing back- gives you every idea at once instead of trying to tease and develop.
Pianist Nelson Goerner was fantastic. He gave everything, exaggerating the dynamic markings perfectly, and with a crisp, clean tone that was fizzing glitter and crackling fire, fully alive to Scriabin’s frustrations and dreams. The second movement is a beautifully tranquil scene like sleeping lovers’ legs, stirring and entwining.
An idiot sitting in front of me with an iPhone was filming, taking photos and even checking his Facebook throughout the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor, ‘Pathtique’. For that reason most of the first movement totally passed me by. Murderous feelings towards him were totally in keeping with the music of the second part of the first movement, played roughly – with each melodic thread threatening to drown out the other. Gustav Mahler described Tchaikovsky’s music as being too Italian to be symphonic, and this makes sense in the second movement- it’s pure Ballet. The pizzicato and syncopation really danced in this performance.
After the Indiana Jonesey third movement Sinaisky brought Tchaikovsky’s deepest feelings out into the open. All reckless honesty and exposed pain, the final movement was a tragedy and a triumph. Composed years before the other two works on the programme, this symphony is a document of the physicality of emotion, as essential an artistic experience as Doctor Zhivago or Lady Chatterly’s Lover. | <urn:uuid:be8bdcde-3ef3-4c9a-8b5e-6608fa5ad8da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.musicomh.com/classical/reviews-classical/prom-9-bbc-philharmonicsinaisky-royal-albert-hall-london | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948631 | 571 | 1.5 | 2 |
What is the real motive of some of the so-called human rights and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that consistently propagate a negative image about Africa and about African people? Do they really care about Africa? Or are there other more profound sinister motives by these groups that only highlight and disseminate often inaccurate and harmful information about the emerging economies in Africa today, especially in key nations such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)?
I am in the DRC once again on a mission of initiating a local “Sustainable Job Creation Program” related to the mining sector of the DRC’s economy. The World Bank just announced that economy in the DRC today is growing in “an unprecedented rate of 7%” annually from 2011 to 2012. It was a special pleasure over the past several days to be on the ground in the Katanga Province of the DRC that is the leading mining province in largest land mass African nation. The size of the Katanga Province alone is larger than the nation of France.
All Americans should know more about the truth of the current positive economic and human development progress in Africa today after centuries of colonialism, imperialism, neocolonialism, and unjust exploitation of the people of Africa. I know some of us do not like to use these terms today because of the false notion that the world community has progressed sufficiently to the point that we should stop talking about the wrongs of the past and focus more about the opportunities of the future. Believe me, I understand that perspective; but what I am saying is that precisely we must learn from the past while not permitting a repeat of past injustices to occur in Africa, in America or anywhere else in the world.
So much of what is “wrong” today is the deliberate misrepresentation in the established media about the factual progress that is being made in DRC and in other African nations. This is the sole reason why I choose to speak out now. I will not be silent or complicit to the misdeeds of well-intentioned or ill-intentioned people who do not live in Africa, do not know Africa, and who do not care about Africa, but yet who are so bold to raise money internationally for the specific undermining purpose of attacking the legitimate aspirations and self-determination of African people across the continent of Africa.
Please understand, I am not challenging anyone’s right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. I am excising those inalienable rights, but I am also confronting the increasing tendency of some journalists and African-issue fundraisers who consistently get their facts wrong about the DRC in particular and about Africa in general.
For example, the BBC recently erroneously reported that Glencore Mining was using child labor in the DRC and contributing to environmental dangers. The problem is the Panorama film group featured in the BBC story had all of their facts wrong and the story was not true, but the BBC had already broadcast the negative story about the DRC and Glencore throughout the world. I personally had a meeting with Glencore Mining officials here in the DRC and they confirmed that no one from Panorama met with the Glencore officials at the site in question to get their allegations fact-checked.
But this was just one example of what I am pulling the sheets off to demand more accuracy and fairness when it comes to doing feature news stories about Africa that only serve to further destabilize Africa, rather than help Africans to empower themselves. I am glad that CNN did do a positive story about the development of the Georges Malaika Foundation (GMF) in the DRC in Lubumbashi in the Katanga Province that focused on the excellent work of Noella Musunka and the GMF in building and maintaining a school for girls in Lubumbashi and an adjacent community development center. I saw how they were making their own bricks and building schools and giving back to the community in ways that will have a long term sustainable impact on the future progress of the people who live and work in that community.
African still has a long way to go in terms of future development. Like other emerging economies, the DRC should be encouraged not falsely criticized. I met with the young Governor of the Katanga Province, H.E. Moise Katumbi Chapwe, on several occasions while here in Lubumbashi. The governor’s brilliance and commitment to serve the economic and social interests of the people of the Congo reminded of the style, intelligence, integrity and substance of young President Barack Obama in the United States.
I was very pleased to see and witnessed the growing economy of the Katanga Province and the overall improvement of the quality of life in that part of Africa. Let’s work harder to support sustainable development in the DRC and in all of Africa, as well as in our own communities in the United States. Solidarity necessitates unity in action, word and deed.
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr is President of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN), National Director of Occupy the Dream (OTD), and serves as Senior Strategic Advisor of the Diamond Empowerment Fund (DEF). | <urn:uuid:a4da3350-c575-4135-89f0-2505fbb0ff9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://globalgrind.com/news/truth-about-democratic-republic-congo | 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 | 0.954477 | 1,056 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Jewish Punk and Tikkun Olam
In Abram Shalom Himelstein and Jamie Schweser's book Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing, the character of Elliot sums up what it means to be both Jewish and punk:
There's this part of Judaism that goes like this: God created the world imperfect, with flaws, and then created humans to straighten out the problems. It's called Tikkun Olam, which means 'Fixing the World.' There are a lot of things about my religion that have been difficult to understand and follow, but the idea that this world is messed up seems pretty true, and I accept that it's all of our of [sic] jobs to make the world better.I always liked that idea. The notion of "tikkun olam" makes me feel like my Jewish and activist/vegan/quasipunk identities are one in the same, and Elliot's quote reinforces that. But of course, there's an element of punk that doesn't seem so responsible. Steven Beeber talked about this in his new book The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk (note: this quote is taken out of context):
[T]he punk Jews no longer wanted to work toward the betterment of the world in the most earnest of ways. They wanted to enjoy that world and show their comfort in it. They wanted to make a joke, even a bad, unsophisticated one.There are two sides to every coin, but something about that quote troubled me. It's not that I disagreed with Beeber's assessment, it's just that I didn't want to accept that side of things. I recently asked Beeber a few questions for an article I'm working on, and I appreciate his reconciliation of two seemingly opposite ideas:
First, you have to consider that the punks were trying to heal themselves as much as the world, and since one can only help others overcome difficulties once one has done so to some extent oneself, indirectly the punks were still engaged in tikkun olam. (You might even say that they were engaged in tikkun olam on a very specific level – for the post-Holocaust Jewish world they inhabited). Second, bear in mind that in the quote you cite I say that they no longer wanted to work toward the betterment of the world in “the most earnest of ways.” Though I don’t say as much directly here, I think I do make plain elsewhere that they were still engaged in good works to a great extent, they just were engaged in them with a sense of humor and fun. Think of Abbie Hoffman throwing dollar bills on the floor of the stock exchange – or of Emma Goldman saying, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” Think too of how the personal is political and how I discuss, in the chapter on Nazi imagery, that the use of such in punk was as much to transcend the negative associations attached to those symbols as it was to shock. In other words, the punks were trying to heal the evil that had been done to them and the world as a whole. There’s a reason I discussed Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” and the punks’ own take on what I call “concentration camp.” Just as there’s a reason that Joey Ramone ultimately became directly involved in leftist causes (such as his protest song against Reagan, “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” originally titled “My Brain’s Hanging Upside Down”). Tikkun Olam was there in punk from the beginning. It was just couched in more humor and irony.Want to learn more about Jewish punk? Check out my articles in New Voices and the Forward. Also, I highly recommend The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's (nonfiction) and Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing (fiction). We might have a Sacha Baron Cohen movie about the subject soon too! | <urn:uuid:1020fe67-409f-4dbc-8547-eadccb76aa0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://heebnvegan.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980115 | 847 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Heavy rain and a fire at London's Paddington station cause cancellations and congestion warnings on one of the busiest days for travel in the run-up to Christmas.
Floods and signal failures combined to hold up millions of travellers on what is expected to be one of the busiest days for Christmas travel.
The day got off to a bad start for the 123,000 passengers expected to pass through Heathrow, after the Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect trains from London Paddington were delayed because of signalling problems.
A fire in the equipment room at Acton station in west London led to many services being cancelled to and from Paddington station - the main gateway to the west of England and Wales. Almost half of Network Rail services were cancelled on Friday morning.
The AA had attended 108 breakdowns by Friday afternoon, and said it was braced for a weekend of weather-related disruption.
Flooding affected a number of other rail services, which were also delayed when animals got on to the line near Micklefield in Yorkshire.
Go to the National Rail Enquiries live updates webpage for the latest information on train disruptions.
The Environment Agency provides regular updates here about flooding, and expected flooding across the country.
And if you are planning a car journey, check out the AA website and its route planner.
Buses had to replace trains due to flooding on a number of lines, while on the London Underground the whole of the Jubilee Line was closed at the start of services due to a signalling system problem. Other tube travellers had to contend with severe delays on the Bakerloo line due to the problems at Paddington station.
Friday is expected to be the busiest day on the roads as well. But those setting off early faced a number of flooded routes, with the Isle of Wight and Brockenhurst in the New Forest, Hampshire, particularly badly affected.
The AA predicts Friday and Saturday will be the busiest days for motorists and is warning drivers against using flooded roads after attending more than 320 breakdowns on Thursday when vehicles were stuck in flood water.
"With so much rain expected, driving conditions could be pretty challenging at times with surface spray and standing water. Keep your speed down and leave at least a three-second gap between you and the vehicle in front," said Darron Burness, AA's head of special operations.
Numerous roads were flooded on Friday, including in Reading, Bedford, Nottingham, Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire and Egginton in Derbyshire. The AA advised drivers to stay away from flood water due to the risk of wrecking car engines or getting stuck.
On the railways, flooding near Ellesmere Port on Merseyside meant buses had to replace trains between Ellesmere Port and Hooton. Buses also had to be laid on between Bridge of Orchy and Crainlarich in central Scotland due to a landslip.
No trains were able to run between Crewe and Chester in Cheshire due to flooding, while floods were the cause of the bus replacement that had to operate between Uttoxeter and Stoke-on-Trent.
The flooding also led to disruptions to services in the Derby and Nottingham areas as well as hold-ups between Chester and Wrexham General in north Wales.
An estimated four million people are expected to travel abroad over the Christmas period. Heathrow was handling 123,000 passengers on Friday, with a further 114,000 departures on Sunday and 88,000 on Christmas Eve.
British Airways was also expecting its busiest day of the holiday period on Friday, with 111,000 travellers getting away for the Christmas break.
VisitEngland said that over the festive period as many as 12 million Britons intend to take at least one trip in the UK involving an overnight stay. These trips are likely to generate around £2.1bn for the economy.
20 December 2012
29 November 2012
26 November 2012
25 November 2012 | <urn:uuid:aa848c56-d45c-4ec8-8903-41afa164f5e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.channel4.com/news/bad-weather-threatens-christmas-getaway | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971864 | 819 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Bits & Pieces?
How often do you rush to get something done, only to find out a day later that you have to fix it? It wasn’t correct or complete because you were in a hurry.
Take some time to look at the situation. Had you spent an extra 15 minutes on the project, it may have been a different story. The time you spend up front is usually much less than what it takes to fix it later.
On his website, slowdownFAST, David B. Bohl describes how to slow down, in life, at work, anywhere you feel rushed. Slowing down, he says, increases creativity and productivity, and who couldn’t use more of those? Take a closer look at your work, think about it more, connect with the wholeness of the project. Take your mind off the clock and focus on turning out a great piece of work.
I’m not saying you should spend all day slowing down—a little goes a long way. You’ll be surprised how much more you see when you look at printouts for 15 minutes instead of five. And you’ll feel better physically, too. Its the equivalent of taking a deep breath to calm your nerves.
Next time you’re on a tight deadline and rushing to get things done, try slowing it down. You may find that it makes a better end product with more thought, more creativity, and no mistakes. You’ll probably also find your sanity intact, since you don’t have to redo the project or handle it yet another time. And you’ll have more time on your hands to spend on slowing down your next project.
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August 18, 2010
Commissioner Peck wrapped up the GovEnergy conference on Aug. 18 with a message on how GSA is driving sustainability in its building portfolio by reducing energy consumption, water consumption, and carbon emissions; and lowering operating costs. This includes how GSA is serving as a green proving ground for innovative energy technologies.
GSA stayed true to its core initiatives by becoming one of the many partners for the three-day conference that unfolded at the Dallas Conference Center, a green venue. The conference earned the Leonardo Academy's Cleaner and Greener platinum certification level for calculating and offsetting its greenhouse gas emissions and implementing sustainable practices. These included using biodegradable supplies, keeping venues within walking distance, and saving resources by conserving hotel cleaning services.
View photos from the event>>
Download above video: mp4 (3.66MB) | mp3 (2.06MB)
Index of GSA Videos > | <urn:uuid:1a823fda-78d7-456d-bd2e-8aebc35a2685> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://[email protected]/portal/content/168077 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93068 | 190 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Step-on Tour Guide Jobs
While the sightseeing guide is situated in a single city or works across multiple cities, the step-on tour guide is in a similar situation, but more restricted. Like the sightseeing guide the step-on guide is an expert in his or her field. They are meant to "show off" their knowledge of a specific item or area in a city or town.
This is why the step-on guide, like the sightseeing guide, is ideal for those who do not want to leave their home town, but who are still passionate about meeting new people and showcasing their city's famous attractions. Most of the time, a step-on guide works for himself or herself on a freelance basis, but it is not uncommon to see a step-on guide work as a part of a tour company. This could be due to the fact that you have unique, detailed knowledge about a certain place that no one else does which is why you are chosen to lead that section of the tour, or it could be due to the fact that there is a part of the tour that the tour company wants to highlight, where they require an additional guide to retain very specific and thorough information about.
Step-on guides can also work for a specific attraction, for example a museum. Step-on guides can work for museums, national parks, and other large attractions where they study and research information pertaining to that specific place and will meet with various tour groups throughout the day to show them around. At the end of the tour, you will take them back to their coach where their sightseeing guide will once again take over the tour and they will continue on their journey.
Did You Know? A step-on tour guide will sometimes have to wear a specific uniform or costume to tie in with the tour they are leading, for example, the Sedona Tours in Northern Arizona has step-on tour guides dress in traditional cowboy/cowgirl outfits.
There is not a lot of planning or preparation as a step-on tour guide as far as the entire tour is concerned. While you may work for yourself, you do have to follow the instructions of the sightseeing tour guide or land tour guide, who follows the itinerary set out by the tour manager. The step-on guide is a sort of relief for the full time tour guide, and steps onto the tour bus when it enters into the guide area. This allows the permanent guide to rest, while the step-on guide takes over narration of that specific area.
While you are following a set plan you have to make sure that you have a planned itinerary of your own for your part of the tour. Say you are a step-on guide for a national park. You will have to plan where the tour goes and what is seen by the passengers while you are in charge of the tour. Step-on tour guides can take a tour on foot, up mountains or even on river cruises, so you will have to plan all aspects of the tour you will be taking, including food, water and whatever supplies are needed.
Your main responsibility is to provide more in depth information about a part of the tour that you are in charge of. You have to ensure that you know and can explain in a lot more detail than the sightseeing guide leading the tour about the area in question. You must provide the visitors with some very precise, detailed information that they would not have otherwise known, so plenty of research and study is required.
To be a good step on tour guide you need to be well versed in the area you will be working in. You will need to know what people want to see and how they may want to experience it, or what the best way to experience the area is, whether it is in a hot air balloon, a train, by foot, on bicycles or in motor vehicle. Let us take a look at an example of a tour of Old Montreal as set out by a Canadian Tour Company:
"Walking Tour of Old Montreal - Let our Step On guide unlock the door to the city's history with a walk through its most historic neighborhood: Old Montreal."
In this tour, the step-on guide provides an in depth historical account of the development of Old Montreal from its origins as a trading post, taking guests through the old narrow streets, where they get to marvel at the architecture through the ages from the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. One of the exciting sights on this tour is the Notre-Dame Cathedral at the Place d'Armes, which is Montreal's oldest church dating back to 1829, and set alongside the Sulpician Seminary which was built between 1684 and 1687, and is the oldest building in Old Montreal. Guests are also told stories of the various old buildings and what they once were. The tour continues down the winding lanes to the Old Port where there are parks, museums, and various forms of entertainment for everyone. Other sights during this step-on tour are the Place Jacques-Cartier, the Seamen's Chapel, the Bonsecours Market, Chateau Ramezay, and the classic City Hall where Charles De Gaulle made his famous "vivre le Quebec libre" speech.
As you can see from the above example, this will form a part of a larger tour, and is very specific in nature to the historic Old Montreal neighborhood. A tour like this requires an expert in the field to take over and lead the group, which is where you, as the step-on guide, would come in.
Salary & Benefits
As an entry level step-on guide, you will earn $8 to $15 an hour. If you are going to go into this field as a freelancer, you may be able to set you rate a bit higher, but this is something you will have to gauge depending on your area, the expertise you offer and the sights you are providing tours to.
If you are able to offer your expertise on more than one sight, and meet different tour groups in different locations, there is the possibility for you to earn between $20 and $25 an hour. Again, as a freelancer, you may be able to get a bit more depending on the situation. On a tour you will not need to pay for your drinks or food, and your transport is free too. You will also get free or discounted tours if you work for a tour company.
- As a step-on guide you get to concentrate on only one or a few sight instead of the entire tour.
- You earn up to $25 working for a company with the potential of earning more as a freelancer.
- You are based in one area, and sometimes work for one particular sight, such as a museum. | <urn:uuid:bd917e70-39eb-48ed-a1db-1a3b7e137cf2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jobmonkey.com/landtours/html/step_on_guide.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961539 | 1,389 | 1.765625 | 2 |
DRS. OZ AND ROIZEN — Q & A
Nutrition post-heart attack
Published: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 at 4:57 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 at 4:57 p.m.
Q: My husband recently had a heart attack, followed by bypass surgery. Before he was released from the hospital, I asked the cardiologist about my husband's diet. The doctor said he could have anything he wants — in moderation. I don't want him eating steak and ice-cream sundaes! But now how will I convince him he shouldn't?
— Ellen B., Reno, Nev.
A: Dr. Oz is a cardiac surgeon and would never release a patient without making sure he or she knew the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise (bedroom included). But since you didn't get any nutrition counseling, we suggest you ask for a referral to a cardiac rehabilitation center where you both can go to learn about healthy eating and safe exercise. Dr. Oz has one on premises at New York Presbyterian, and Dr. Mike has one at the Cleveland Clinic.
Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for us to hear about cardiologists who rely on medications to do the job of protecting their patients from another heart attack. But we hope nutrition education soon becomes a requirement for board certification in cardiology — none is required now. Here's why that's important (get your husband to read this!):
A recent study of more than 30,000 people (average age 66) who had suffered a heart attack or stroke or had Type 2 diabetes and were thought to be getting the best medicine possible found that those who ate a heart-healthy diet cut their risk of cardiovascular death by 35 percent, the risk of another heart attack by 14 percent, and the risk of congestive heart failure by 28 percent. They ate lots of fish, vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes and not much saturated fat, dietary cholesterol or sodium. Lifestyle changes including diet and exercise, when added to surgery and meds, really do have good results. Join him in the adventure, and you both should be able to enjoy the coming years with vim and vigor.
Mehmet Oz, M.D., is host of "The Dr. Oz Show," and Mike Roizen, M.D., is chief medical officer at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. For more information, go to www.RealAge.com.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:2167a72a-f68c-4063-bee0-9c7a4858616c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gainesville.com/article/20130109/COLUMNISTS/130109599/-1/opinion?Title=Nutrition-post-heart-attack | 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 | 0.972397 | 527 | 1.820313 | 2 |
First, a family grieves and asks, “Why?” Then a community meeting is called to find a way of stopping the violence. Later, another act of violence claims another life.
“Have a meeting inviting the community and have in the panel parents who already passed through that pain,” she said. “Our youth are dying and we have to stop this.”
Lugardo-Hemple is one of those parents.
In 1992, her son was on his way home from work when he was killed in a car-jacking in Puerto Rico at age 26. His body was discovered three days later and identified by Lugardo-Hemple’s name tattooed on his leg.
Twenty years on, Lugardo-Hemple is still dealing with the same senseless violence.
After a shooting late last month near Lawrence Street, Lugardo-Hemple said she was speaking with Mayor Albert Kelly to formulate the city’s response.
She floated the idea of a parent-laden panel and said Monday that it’s not known yet whether this panel will travel and speak in the community or if they will lead a community meeting. The whole idea still needs to be weighed by the rest of city council and Police Chief Mark Ott, Lugardo-Hemple said.
Following three shootings and two resulting fatalities in mid-2011, community meetings were held and focused on providing positive outlets for youth.
Now, it’s the parents who will drive the point home.
“We will touch different people, I know we will” Lugardo-Hemple said when asked how this is any different from past meetings. She noted a recent meeting to discuss violence that was hosted by local law enforcement and the county prosecutor’s office.
“A lot of parents were asking for help,” she said.
Just last week, Community Action Teams — consisting of police, code officials and clergy — hit the streets and went into three city neighborhoods.
Lugardo-Hemple said her plan, if adopted, will be rolled into ongoing efforts.
“You’re scared. You close the windows. You close the doors. You don’t want to get involved. What’s happening in our town, we all have to get involved,” she said. | <urn:uuid:a0d82e13-8b59-4ca6-a233-6cadb7da28cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nj.com/cumberland/index.ssf/2012/10/post_62.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968406 | 492 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Seven things you're not doing on the Internet (but should be)
From the Print Edition:
Greg Raymer, Sept/Oct 2004
No doubt you've mastered the basics of life in the Internet age—e-mailing, banking online, Googling favorite actresses, and so on. But many of the most useful online opportunities don't reveal themselves through casual browsing—you have to stumble on them accidentally, delve into the thorny underbrush of computer magazines, or pick the brains of tech-crazed guys like me. Here, then, are the leads you need to get more from your Internet experience—all completely legal, some free, others inexpensive and none demanding fluency in geekspeak.
Back Up Your Files Online
Electronic hiccups have harried computer users from the beginning, and most of us have learned to back up files as a means of damage control. While backup media, from floppy disks to recordable CDs to today's inexpensive, portable, external hard drives, have gotten better and easier to use, they are no help if some catastrophic event—a robbery, a fire, a meteor strike, whatever—wipes out your office computer and the backup drive. As a matter of reasonable paranoia, I want backup copies of mission-critical files—including my address book, financial records, a novel-in-progress—stored somewhere else. Now I can accomplish this important task, conveniently and for free, by periodically saving copies online. Having backup copies of important documents available on the Web has an important side benefit: those files are available for downloading anywhere you have an Internet connection. What happens if you're traveling to a crucial meeting with a vital PowerPoint presentation on your laptop, and the laptop "walks away" in transit? A borrowed computer, a quick download of your backup copy, and the meeting can proceed without a hitch.
Yahoo! offers free accounts that include a host of valuable features, including an e-mail address (very useful for responding to online offers without giving up your regular e-mail information to potential spammers) and a Yahoo! Briefcase, with 30 megabytes of online storage at no charge. How big is 30 megabytes? Well, the entire text of A Tale of Two Cities fits in less than one megabyte. As for backing up large photo and video files, see below.
Yahoo! Briefcase briefcase.yahoo.com
Control Your Computer From Anywhere
A few months back I traveled to Tokyo on a business trip. One evening I picked up my accumulated phone messages and learned that one of my editors needed a revision to a story I'd submitted two weeks earlier. A revision based on research stored on my desktop computer, 12 time zones away.
In the old days, this would have required a marriage-threatening long-distance maneuver in which I send my noncomputer-using wife to my office and try guiding her by phone through the process of finding the required file and e-mailing it to me. This time out, though, I had everything I needed to solve the problem on hand: a laptop computer, a high-speed Internet connection in my hotel room, and a subscription to the GoToMyPC service. A few well-placed mouse clicks and two passwords later, the screen of my home computer appeared as if by magic on my laptop. What's more, I had complete control over the home system, just as if I were sitting in my office and moving the mouse myself. This, my friends, is powerful tech mojo.
There are other ways you can remote-control your computer over the Internet, but GoToMyPC has three features that make it indispensable. It works right through the Web browser of any Internet-connected computer running Microsoft Windows. It's very easy to use. And it's secure—the firewall software I use to keep hackers out of my system stays up while GoToMyPC lets me through. For a single user and a single PC, the service costs $20 a month or $179.40 a year, and corporate plans are also available.
Get an Earful
You like the idea of accessing music online, but you don't relish having the FBI burst in on you as if you were a felonious teenage girl just because you shared files, nor do you like getting popped for 99 cents every time you want to hear a tune. Then consider another online music concept, one that flopped when introduced but offers intriguing listening alternatives today.
I'm talking about online music subscription services. While each service varies somewhat in the specifics, the underlying idea remains the same. For a set monthly fee you can listen to an extensive array of songs right over the Internet. You don't download them to your machine—they're piped to your computer (a process known as streaming) when you ask for them. Listening to as many tunes as you like while exploring new artists and discovering new songs is a compelling proposition in an era when broadcast radio plays a tiny group of artists over and over ad nauseam.
You must be logged in to post a comment. | <urn:uuid:30000a61-bc89-4646-8daa-7522bcd4e7dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cigaraficionado.com/webfeatures/show/id/8490 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941739 | 1,043 | 1.648438 | 2 |
We should fight poverty; 10 percent of Colorado???s families still live below the federal poverty line. But at least twice as many of our families and children live in the economic noman???s- land between the federal poverty line and actual selfsufficiency. We must ensure hard work pays and that necessities like housing, child care and health care are affordable. And we should make sure that low-income families can also begin to save and build assets.
Colorado should raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to at least $6.85 an hour, and we should adjust the minimum wage to inflation every year thereafter. This will increase the incomes of the lowest-paid workers by $1.70 an hour, or $3,500 per year, and help them keep up with the rising costs of necessities such as food, health care, gas and housing. | <urn:uuid:96644d5e-943e-4f49-98c5-e1cf4e9dfa49> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bellpolicy.org/taxonomy/term/478?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954882 | 175 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Following record-setting quarters throughout the year, final 2010 figures show taxable sales and purchases skyrocketed throughout North Dakota's oil country.
Leading the charge was the city of Williston, which despite having only the ninth-largest population in the state posted the third-highest taxable sales and purchases figures, which totaled $1.34 billion.
Compared to 2009 figures, that represents growth of more than 97 percent but still leaves Williston around $900 million behind the state's largest city, Fargo, and about $45 million behind Bismarck.
Williston's strong economy is buoyed by its de facto status as "oilfield headquarters" for the northwest portion of the state.
The city is home to well over 350 oilfield service companies that make their living buying and selling to petroleum exploration, production and transportation companies.
And with more than 175 drilling rigs active as of Thursday coupled with petroleum prices at more than $90 per barrel, there seems to be no lull in business looming ahead for that portion of the city's economy.
Meanwhile, Minot also posted strong gains, with taxable sales and purchases reaching $1.07 billion, an 18.2 percent increase that can be at least partially attributed to an influx of population and business from the city's position on the eastern edge of the oil patch.
Elsewhere and in the lands in-between, Plaza saw a jump of almost 285 percent, while Tioga received a 125 percent boost.
Crosby, Killdeer, Mohall, New Town, Parshall, Plaza, Ray, Stanley, Tioga and Watford City all posted sizeable increases, among others.
In the southwest portion of the state, oil also bolstered the coffers of cities such as Belfield, Bowman and Dickinson.
Ward County overall saw a similar, 18-percent increase, with taxable sales reaching $1.12 billion, which like the city of Minot ranked fourth in the state. Williams County, which includes Williston as well as Tioga, notched a total of $1.61 billion, second in North Dakota only to Cass County's $2.53 billion.
For purposes of the studies, taxable sales are defined as gross sales minus nontaxable sales, which make up the figure businesses must remit sales tax on. Taxable purchases are taxable goods purchased by the businesses for their own use on which they did not pay sales tax to their suppliers.
Statewide, wholesale trade increased by more than $956 million, a 39.6 percent boost.
"A strong wholesale trade sector suggests that there was steady consumer demand on inventories and our suppliers continued to move products," said Cory Fong, state tax commissioner, in a press release. "This sector indicates growth in two important industries - agriculture and oil production."
Retail trade, the largest sector in terms of dollars, grew by 8.1 percent, or five times the rate of inflation.
"Retail trade is the sector often looked to as a measurement of the consumer's pocketbook," said Fong. "The growth in retail trade confirms that North Dakota consumer confidence remained strong throughout last year." | <urn:uuid:9d8cb3b1-5a35-4ac0-a352-1cd2f6091101> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/554787/Taxable-sales-skyrocket---Oilfield-headquarters--third-in-state-for-2010.html?nav=5002 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96854 | 640 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The computer-enhanced visuals of Japanese anime director Rintaro's Metropolis are many things -- hypnotic, detailed, colorful. But, while watching them, I couldn't help feeling that I had seen this kind of scenery in the past. This is because I have. It's one of the weaknesses of Japanese animation, this borrowing of styles that have come before.
I've seen such detailed mechanical wonders when I, along with the majority of Americans, was introduced to anime through the '80's TV series "Robotech." Subsequent exposure to anime revealed a singular style that is steadily improved upon, but seldom deviated from. Most recently, I've seen Metropolis's futuristic buildings, massive machinery, and underground blend of darkness and forgotten technological waste in the cinema sequences of the Japanese "Final Fantasy" video games. I used to stare in awe at the distant sight of a bizarre city, our perspective zooming in closer to minute sections of it, animated in such incredible detail, rendered with painstaking care, as I played "FF VII" or "FF VIII." Now I see it in Metropolis and the similarity of the rendering is eerie. Were it primarily hand-drawn it could have elicited a different feeling from me, but it is largely computer-drawn and so I could not help but feel that I was watching a video game.
Perhaps I am being unfair. After all, the depiction of Metropolis, a city inspired by the one in the classic Fritz Lang silent film of the same name, is breathtaking, with its achitecturally complex skyscrapers and its cluttered zones below. But even as its visual style shines bright enough to be able to rise past its similarities to other anime-influenced worlds, its theme does not. It borrows elements from the original Metropolis, Blade Runner, and numerous anime before it, but doesn't take any of them in its own original direction.
Familiar scenarios saturate the story -- it takes place in the future, features a technologically advanced city, includes robots who act more human than the humans, and ends in a cataclysmic climax. The lessons learned here have been learned before -- the arrogance of man will bring about his downfall, the ambition of man will cause his destruction by his own creations, the cruelty of the elite can never quash the will of the oppressed, etc. etc. It's a melting pot of old sci-fi ideas from which not one of them can take control and drive the audience to uncharted territory. For something as splendid-looking as this particular film, the viewer expects something special but instead gets rehash.
The movie deserves points for incorporating a slightly different-than-usual style for its characters, who are drawn pudgy and exaggerated. It also uses a surreal Western jazz score to prick up one's ears. But because it otherwise looks like a video game and acts like used sci-fi anime, Metropolis is sadly lacking and feels like a waste of potential.
©Jeffrey Chen, May 7, 2002
(Released by TriStar Pictures and rated "PG-13" by MPAA.) | <urn:uuid:155cba80-a521-40b7-86e3-eabc9943693f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reeltalkreviews.com/browse/viewitem.asp?type=review&id=3948 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956699 | 635 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Lyndonville, Vermont: Jodi Wheeler
Jodi Wheeler is a lot of things to a lot of different people. To new mothers struggling to make ends meet, she secures them clothes and toys for their infants. To a family facing winter, she finds good cold-weather jackets. To kids getting out of school for the weekend who may not have enough to eat at home, she provides backpacks stuffed with food to keep them nourished.
But in her hometown of Lyndonville, Vermont, Wheeler just likes to think of herself as a catalyst, someone who’s helping others find a channel for their desire to combat the poverty that laces through the northern part of the state. “There are so many people who want to help and do good stuff but don’t know how to do it,” she says. “They just want to do something.”
Wheeler can relate. Her husband, Rick, owns a local sporting-goods store, and in 2004 she noticed that he was giving away equipment to students so they’d be able to play school sports: a quarterback who didn’t have cleats … a baseball player who needed a new glove. Wheeler sent word to parents in the area that if they had unused sports equipment they wanted to donate, she’d clean it, sort it, and give the stuff out discreetly.
Wheeler found herself taking in requests for things other than sports equipment. Parents came calling for clothes; some needed food. Others needed different kinds of items–pots and pans, for example–just to make a fresh start in life. Wheeler tried to help them all, formalizing her work around an entity she called H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Everyday). Within 18 months she’d run out of room in the basement of her husband’s store. She found a new place, but then moved again when that became too small.
H.O.P.E. now makes its home in a renovated storefront in downtown Lyndonville. Like its founder, it serves a lot of different kinds of needs. It’s a thrift store; it’s a food pantry; it’s an appliance shop. The downstairs level caters to new moms, while a small closet houses prom dresses and tuxedos for high-school students. Wheeler’s office is really a holding pen for things like Christmas packages or Easter baskets that she plans to send out. There’s talk of creating a backyard garden that will supply the food pantry with a steady stream of fresh vegetables throughout the summer. “My board allows me only one idea a month,” Wheeler says with a laugh.
Equally important, though, is that this isn’t just a Jodi Wheeler-led operation. More than 50 people contribute in some way, from the local man who fixes the appliances to the retired woman who cleans and restores the donated dolls. H.O.P.E. is just what Wheeler imagined it would be: people helping people in any way they can. “It’s about the community,” she explains. “It’s about taking a little step forward and saying you’re going to do this, and then everybody helps you. Tiny things can make such a huge difference.”
For more information: hopevermont.com | <urn:uuid:0cebd14b-a244-403c-ac76-675332caf6db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yankeemagazine.com/article/test/angels-among-us/angel-jodi-wheeler | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963645 | 709 | 1.65625 | 2 |
I read in a newspaper recently (one of the English Freebies - possibly Olive Press or Euro Weekly) that the govt is
planning to DISALLOW supermarkets to sell their own brand food. I.e Stopping the lower pricing?
I am no economist and don’t understand what all this is about.
Surely if the point is to create growth (in any sense of the word), high turn over of cheaper goods, which benefits the end
user/enables them to survive is the way to go?
I have no knowledge of economics so please excuse my ignorance.
I can’t remember the exact wording of the article/the whole topic, only that they wanted to stop the sale of lower priced (own brand)
Does this mean they want us to pay for more expensive branded/imported food?
Back to my original Q .. If we are suffering already, how are we supposed to survive on higher priced food. | <urn:uuid:b6255c8f-aabd-4514-9a5e-5fea9661ded5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/forum/viewthread/12564/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940795 | 198 | 1.664063 | 2 |
|HOME | NEWS | ELECTIONS '98 | POLLING BOOTH | ELECTIONS '96 | RAJASTHAN|
The fight in this constituency has always been between the Congress and versions of the Janata Party. The first time the BLD won from here was in 1977, and the defeated Congressman was Birbal Ram. He won from here in 1980 and 1984, and lost to Bega Ram of the JD in 1989, who had incidentally defeated him in 1977 as well. In 1991 Birbal Ram wrested back the seat, but the runner-up from this constituency for the first time was the BJP. In 1996, the BJP changed its candidate to Nihal Chand, who defeated Birbal Ram by 66,000 votes.
INFOTECH | TRAVEL | LIFE/STYLE | FREEDOM | FEEDBACK | <urn:uuid:8bf6cd6d-99b9-454c-81a8-1fe2dc5bf005> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rediff.com/news/1998/feb/raj01.htm | 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 | 0.985099 | 174 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I started making these snack trays a year ago when I wanted to get my picky eaters to eat healthy food. I put these filled muffin trays out when we have a play date over and by the end of the play date, the tray is pretty much finished. I like the idea of everyone grazing on healthy food when they are hungry. While trying to figure out where I got the original idea I stumbled upon nannytomom.com who has a good list of items to include. On this 100% organic snack tray we included: apples, strawberries, pineapple, organic just peas, frozen corn and baby carrots.
Some of our other favorite things to include are: cherries, olives, sunflower seeds, bananas, grapes, cucumber, snow peas, almonds, cashews, pistachios, and pumpkin seeds. You can also make one muffin section for dip and the rest for vegetables if you want to do a veggie tray. I think it really doesn't matter what you put in the tray as long as it is full of whole foods. Studies show that people can live on many different diets as long as they are primarily whole food diets. It is when you start eating processed foods that you have to worry about the amount of fat, protein and carbohydrates.
I am thinking of trying a breakfast snack tray with oranges, berries, french toast sticks, cereal, macadamia nuts and bacon and seeing if everyone is more excited about breakfast.
WHAT TO FEED YOUR KIDS: Organic fruits and vegetables and raw nuts and seeds in muffin pans make great snack trays. | <urn:uuid:6ec667b8-858b-4a4d-9e26-e6580cab19ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whattofeedyourkids.blogspot.com/2008/05/snack-tray.html?showComment=1212162780000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962978 | 328 | 1.820313 | 2 |
At home, early fall is the season of harvesting and curing. The air smells of it, especially on this rainy day. We are experimenting with things that age this fall, in an old-timey way. Of course all things age. Many things age in beneficial ways.
We’re making wine! We planted ten elderberry bushes last year, and already this year they produced enough berries to make two gallons of wine. The elderberries prompted me to look around, and it turns out you can make wine out of just about anything. My old cherry trees made bushels of sour cherries this year, so we picked some and started 2 gallons of wine. Next spring we’ll try dandelion wine, and next summer, black raspberry wine. These things grow with no work required! We just pick and ferment them.
We’re making cider! Since my apple trees are not producing fruit yet, we buy the juice from an orchard down the road. Cider’s good for my impatience, and I’m not just talking about the effects of drinking it. It takes three days to turn it from juice to bottled, bubbly hard cider (using sugar-gobbling champagne yeast), with an alcohol content close to that of beer. Easy and tasty!
We’re harvesting black walnuts! Our house is surrounded by large black walnut trees, and every year we pick up the nuts they drop and throw them in the bushes. This year we’re throwing them in the driveway instead. After the cars run over them a few times, their soft green hulls come off and we pick out the nuts. Then we wash them, put them on racks to age for a few weeks (walnut meat gets better with some age), and whack them with a hammer to pick out the meat. A little more drying in the oven and they’re good to keep in the refrigerator or pantry. I like their buttery flavor better than the english walnuts bought at the store, and they’ll be awesome in pesto.
It also turns out that walnut hulls contain a powerful, indelible black dye, which used to be used making ink and clothing. Next time I’ll wear rubber gloves.
This is winter squash season. We picked a wheelbarrow full of butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash. It ages on drying racks. This helps the rinds to harden and the squash to keep longer. I also think it makes the squash sweeter as the sugars mature. We’ll be eating it through December; no refrigeration needed.
Eggs! Our dozen chickens are laying about six dozen eggs per week. It cost me some money to build their coop initially, but now their feed costs are recouped by the eggs we sell. And our kids love them; they have named each of them (Barbie, Pony, Auntie Em, Peach, Professor, Calm, Unicorn, Fluffy Butt) and treat them as pets.
These things cost very little but our time, and each is meaningful in connecting my family with seasonal rhythms and with what nature provides. We aim, every year, to multiply these connections. | <urn:uuid:804e5676-e350-41ed-b83a-d97113136f74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://peterlarson.org/fall-doings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960241 | 669 | 1.585938 | 2 |
By Ian Thompson
The City of Encinitas recently stated that it was a violation of the municipal code to have a picture of a political figure on any banner hung on city property. This decision was prompted by the Artists Colony’s desire to honor the late mayor of Encinitas, Maggie Houlihan, a strong supporter of the arts, by printing her image on the reverse side of every banner featured in their “Arts Alive” event.These banners are currently hanging from lamp posts throughout the city. The language in the code that is being used by the city to validate their position reads as follows:
“Said banners are for civic and non-profit city-wide recognized special events.”
The Arts Alive event complies with the civic, non-profit and city-wide recognized special events language.
It is a masterful interpretation of this item by the city to conjure up the requirement that the exclusion of images of political figures is also contained herein.
This means that should a civic group wish to honor the likes of George Washington, Martin Luther King, or Cesar Chavez by displaying their images on banners on city property their request for a permit will be summarily denied.
As a result of this determination, the ACLU has now entered the picture and has sent the City of Encinitas a “letter of concern” quoting a number of legal precedents relating to the first amendment and stating that:
“Standing alone, section 30.60.110(D) says only that “banners are for civic and nonprofit City-wide recognized special events.” That definition does not rule out using a deceased political figure’s likeness to advertise a special event.”
In a letter demanding that the city remove the masking from the banners, the Coast Law Group states:
“The City’s reliance on unwritten standards afforded through the unfettered discretion found in the City’s municipal code cannot provide justification for the City’s viewpoint discrimination.”
It is commonly known that the council majority under the leadership of current Mayor Jerome Stocks has, for years, been at odds with Ms. Houlihan’s platform of quality of life, controlled growth, and respectful stewardship of the environment.
Mr. Stock’s was recently quoted in the press as saying, “This is not me versus anybody. The banners were simply against the city’s municipal code.”
This attempt to suppress Ms. Houlihan’s legacy, even in death, should be an embarrassment to every resident of Encinitas. It should be of additional concern that the city believes that it alone will be the sole arbiter of who the residents of Encinitas can honor as their heroes and citizens of merit if the tributes are to be hung from public property.
While the “masked”Arts Alive banners hang in the City of Encinitas through April we are all witnessing a violation of our collective first amendment right to free speech and therefore of the constitution of the United States.
It is time the Encinitas City Council did the right thing and facilitates the uncovering of Ms. Houlihan’s image so that the banners can be shown in full and without the oppression of unconstitutional, city enforced, censorship.
Ian Thompson is an Encinitas resident | <urn:uuid:1293e03c-399c-404b-a401-ad73bef32198> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecoastnews.com/2012/03/arts-alive-censorship-attracts-the-attention-of-the-aclu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940716 | 701 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A term used by anyone in general as a farwell. Same as good bye or cya. It expresses that you don't want the other person to get introuble with the law or anyone else. It has no homosexual connotation what-so-ever.
Yo ill see you at the party tonight, Be Safe son
A farewell greeting often used in the Queer community. While it can be taken in many ways, it serves as a reminder that being Queer is inherently dangerous, with risks of Queer-bashing, STD's, drug use, etc.
Later, dude. Be safe! | <urn:uuid:4bcc40b3-c8ec-4a99-93d8-099ee76846eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Be%20Safe&defid=1514601 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956366 | 126 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Groveling to Power
Groveling to Power
Since being in Washington on September 11, 2001, Prime Minister John Howard has inextricably tied much of Australia's foreign policy to George W. Bush's America. Commentators have spent millions of column inches explaining the reasons behind Howard's kow-towing to the US administration. Most, I believe, have missed the point, while failing to comprehend the ways in which many so-called liberal democracies since 9/11 have transformed their societies into places of greater conformity, with a lessening in importance of human rights and the rule of law and a crushing of dissent. We need to start asking what kind of country Australia is becoming in the name of conservatism as it's surely time to examine the ways in which the War on Terror is increasing our vulnerability to the forces of extremism, both in terms of physical and mental harm.
It seems a lifetime ago that Le Monde editorialised shortly after 9/11 that 'we are all Americans now'. These sentiments were echoed throughout the (primarily) Western world, and those Third World countries hoping to receive financial/military assistance or an IMF aid package. Let us not be under any illusions that a country such as the Philippines will be offering moral support for the US if it didn't want something in return. (Indeed, American troops began arriving in the south of the country soon after, helping 'liquidate' Muslim extremists based there, many of whom are linked to al-Qaeda.) Australia, however, is in an entirely different situation, and an altogether more transparent one.
John Howard was elected in 1996 on a platform of fiscal and social conservatism. The previous years of Prime Minister Paul Keating saw large sections of the Australian populace feeling disaffected by his supposed radical agenda. There was little progressive about it in hindsight, but rather a longing by the left that someone in power was talking about their pet issues: reconciliation and engagement with Asia as two examples. Keating was the kind of leader who convinced himself that he was the one to lead Australia into the 21st century, away from years of seeing America as the umbrella under which we had to reside. He was, arguably, fairly unsuccessful in his vision. Perhaps if he had been given more time by the voting public he would have shown himself adept at negotiating the culturally and politically sensitive issues of the 2000 Olympic Games, the anniversary of Federation in 2001, 9/11 and the 'War on Terror'. John Howard ruined his chances, and almost immediately after his election in 1996 (a victory borne from a rejection of 13 years of Labor government rather than an endorsement of Liberal Party philosophy), the mood of the country began shifting radically.
These changes have been extensively documented, and it is not my intention to rehash others' finer analysis. Rather, Australia in 2003 is a country with closer links to America than ever before. Many on the left feeling uncomfortable with this by definition, a violent reaction to an empire long known for overthrowing democratically elected governments. I do not wish to engage in a debate about the veritable merits of military ties to the US, suffice to say that any rational debate must include a realisation that links will continue to exist indefinitely no matter who is in power. However, Howard's gung-ho adventures in Afghanistan and more recently in Iraq, points to an ideology deeply rooted in insecurity, and one fundamentally happy with being painted as the region's 'Deputy Sheriff'. It is unwise to assume that Howard has any problem with either of these descriptions.
Now that we are so closely aligned and actively supporting this 'War on Terror', it is reasonable to question its effectiveness in making the world, and especially Australia, safer from terrorist attack. A recent book by French philosopher Bernard Henri Levy on the life and death of Wall Street Journal writer Danny Pearl ('Who Killed Daniel Pearl?'), suggests that the actions of America and her allies since 9/11 have hindered, not helped, the fight against Islamic terrorism. His research uncovers the (perhaps predictable) fact that Pakistan is the current centre of world terrorism, and the recent support offered to the once renegade nation by America and Australia, amongst others, offers no incentive for President Musaraf to seriously crack down on militant groups. Levy concludes with a warning: The ousting of Saddam Hussein has "solved only 1% of the [terrorist] problem". He claims a nuclear attack against a Western city is only a matter of time if strong action is not taken immediately. The claims of Bush and Howard before the Iraq war attempted to convince an already fearful public that the threat of world terrorism would lessen with the deposing of Saddam. How has this been achieved? Where is the evidence linking Saddam to al-Qaeda? Most worryingly, recent reports in US Newsweek confirm that Taliban forces are regrouping throughout Afghanistan, working together with the surviving members of the al-Qaeda network. So much for the claims that 'we' care about 'them'. Singer Michael Franti summed it up: 'you can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb the world to peace.'
John Pilger recently returned from a tour of Afghanistan and Iraq and his message is despairing. Writing in The Guardian on 20 September, Pilger said:
"In May last year, the Guardian published the result of an investigation by Jonathan Steele. He concluded that, in addition to up to 8,000 Afghans killed by American bombs, as many as 20,000 more may have died as an indirect consequence of Bush's invasion, including those who fled their homes and were denied emergency relief in the middle of a drought. Of all the great humanitarian crises of recent years, no country has been helped less than Afghanistan. Bosnia, with a quarter of the population, received $356 per person; Afghanistan gets $42 per person. Only 3% of all international aid spent in Afghanistan has been for reconstruction; the US-led military "coalition" accounts for 84%, the rest is emergency aid. Last March, Karzai flew to Washington to beg for more money. He was promised extra money from private US investors. Of this, $35m will finance a proposed five-star hotel. As Bush said, "The Afghan people will know the generosity of America and its allies."
As citizens of a so-called democracy, we are entitled to ask some provocative questions. What did 'we' really achieve in Afghanistan and Iraq? Our mass media have a short memory, to say the least, and no major Australian news organisation has any permanent staff based in Afghanistan. It's a shocking fact that underlines the belief that if we are not to trust our government's version of events, where can we receive our information? I would argue that the still relatively high support for the Howard Government could partly be explained by the lack of real coverage of events in recent theatres of action, such as the Middle East and Central Asia. How many people really know the real reason for invading Iraq? How many people really know the current situation in Afghanistan? How many people are aware of the role of US troops in Central Asia? How many people would still support either or both wars if they knew, as reported by Pilger last weekend, the following:
"In a series of extraordinary reports, the latest published in July, Human Rights Watch has documented atrocities "committed by gunmen and warlords who were propelled into power by the United States and its coalition partners after the Taliban fell in 2001" and who have "essentially hijacked the country". The report describes army and police troops controlled by the warlords kidnapping villagers with impunity and holding them for ransom in unofficial prisons; the widespread rape of women, girls and boys; routine extortion, robbery and arbitrary murder. Girls' schools are burned down. "Because the soldiers are targeting women and girls," the report says, "many are staying indoors, making it impossible for them to attend school [or] go to work."
This is the real face of the 'War on Terror'. All the arrests of suspected al-Qaeda members is but one important step in winning hearts and minds of communities across the Muslim world. What, therefore, is driving John Howard's position? In my mind, commentators have been looking for too complicated a reason. Howard is a pragmatist, if nothing else, and since 9/11 a worldview has developed which he thinks has forced Australia to make a strong stand in favour of US unilateralism. The saddest irony is that despite the upcoming arrival of Bush to personally thank Howard for his support, Australia is no closer in striking the Howard favoured Free Trade Deal with the US (unquestionably a short-sighted idea anyway) and is no closer to gaining access to al-Qaeda suspects held by America who may be able to assist Australian Police in thwarting future terrorist attacks. So what have we gained? And what does John Howard know that we do not? What Bush-lite sweeteners have been offered to the Australian Government?
One of the most disturbing aspects of the 'War on Terror' is the US-led concentration camp at Guantanemo Bay. The justification for the camp's continued existence makes a mockery of our democratic principles. Australia is far from immune in these criticisms. Australian citizens David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib have been incarcerated in Cuba, incommunicado, for around 18 months. Their legal status is in limbo, while the US Government makes noises about trying the two for unspecified crimes. How are these men, along with hundreds of others, allowed to simply disappear? Why isn't the Australian Government making appeals for their release? Terry Hicks, father of David, said in late September that he hoped John Howard would raise the issue of his son when Bush arrives in Australia next month, however, "We're hoping it will be raised, but I doubt he [Howard] is even strong enough". The situation is perverse in the extreme. America, a country that thinks of itself as arbiter of justice and freedom, holds suspected terrorists indefinitely, in Cuba of all places, with no legal rights. It seems likely that the Australian Government simply doesn't think the general public cares about the men's fate.
It is quite clear that a number of governments throughout the world have made significant arrests against al-Qaeda and Jemmah Islamiah. The capacities of these terrorists groups to strike new targets may well be diminished, for the time being. However, there seems little attempt to seriously examine the root causes of terrorism, such as poverty, the Westernisation of sacred sites in the Middle East and the stealing (by Western multinationals) of natural resources from the Third World for the First World. It's all too hard and long-winded, thinks the Australian Government, we can create much more mileage (and good TV vision) if we arrest some key militants and pronounce that we're winning the War on Terror. If only this were true. A more dangerous world is being created in name of this War. The Shadow Treasurer, Mark Latham, make a speech to Parliament before Gulf War II. It's a tragedy that this kind of honesty is not expressed in the public demain more often:
"President Bush's foreign looks more like American imperialism than a well-thought through and resourced strategy to eliminate terrorists. Bush himself is the most incompetent and dangerous president in living memory. It is a bit rich for him to be preaching democratic values when he himself failed to win a democratic majority in the 2000 presidential election. His war with Iraq is more about revenging his father's mistakes. From time to time strong leadership comes from saying no to another country. The Prime Minister puffs himself up and talks about strength. The real strength and purpose of national leadership every now and then comes from saying no to another country. Mr Howard and his Government are just yes-men to the United States. There they are, a conga line of suckholes on the conservative side of Australian politics. The backbench sucks up to the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister sucks up to George W. That is how it works for the little Tories, and they have the hide to call themselves Australians." | <urn:uuid:9b14bd8e-e632-4d28-9e68-26028cd1b0d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/groveling-to-power-by-antony-loewenstein | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968969 | 2,458 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Set deep in the jungle of Belize on the Guatemalan border lies the ancient ruins of the great Mayan city of Caracol. While Central America is dotted with ancient Mayan cities, Caracol is a little known site that is still under excavation. Even though it covers an area larger than the Belizean capital city and is the largest archaeological site in Belize it isn't yet full of tourists. The day I spent on site there were less than 10 tourists in total. I’m sure this is due in part to its location and the adventurous drive it takes to reach the site but also because it’s one of the more recent Mayan ruin discoveries.
The ruins were rediscovered in the 1930’s by a local logger as the area surrounding the site is covered by a mountain pine forest. It wasn't truly till the 1980’s that extensive archaeological work really began and the importance of the Caracol site was understood. Many are familiar with the ancient ruins of Tikal in Guatemala. Its temples sticking out of the jungle canopy have made numerous movies, including Indiana Jones and the latest series of Star Wars films. As it turns out, the great city of Tikal was actually defeated in battle by the residents at Caracol which is recorded on one of the many altars on the sight.
Visiting Caracol is like walking into a scene from Indiana Jones with the first ruins revealing itself from the jungle canopy after traversing the same ancient stone steps the Mayans did thousands of years ago.
Then as you reach the top of the stairs a shaded temple appears through the jungle vines and foliage. The impact of the small temple emerging from the jungle will definitely leave you in awe of the people that came before you.
The complex is comprised of numerous temples and ball courts along with evidence of an ancient reservoir for water reserves. I should mention that there isn't a natural water source near the site that used to support more than 100,000 inhabitants….amazing.
The temples are amazingly grand, with Caana still holding its place as one of the tallest structures in Belize to this day.
A long climb that gets a bit scary halfway up. Unlike many other sites there are no rails or ropes to support you as you ascend. Being not too keen on heights, it will make your stomach churn more than a little bit.
Once you arrive at what looks like the top when standing at the bottom, you learn that you're only a third of the way up.
Many rooms surround the middle of the temple with what looks to be small beds inside each.
The next plaza was designed geometrically. Each pyramid was constructed to not only align with each other but to align with the change of the seasons according to the sky. The Mayans were very advanced in predicting seasons and charting calendars.
Atop one of the tallest pyramids you can also see original wood beams above the doorway that have been present for thousands of years.
As you can see, Caracol is an amazing site and one that I wish I'd spent more time at. Would you want to visit? How does Caracol compare to other Mayan sites you've visited?
For more information you can also check out the Caracol.org Archaeological Project that details the history of the city as well as the ongoing progress of digs at the site.blog comments powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:72f1bcf1-5002-4983-99e0-24dcb234f8b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://flipflopsabroad.com/Travel-Blog/amazing-mayan-ruins-caracol-belize | 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 | 0.971931 | 700 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The legal battle between
On Nov. 11, the same day that Forbes reported that IBM
SCO won’t say what it hopes to accomplish with the subpoenas. A SCO spokesman says he doesn’t even know which subpoenas, if any, have been served. Torvalds says he got his Wednesday evening. Stallman says he hasn’t received one yet.
In addition to Torvalds and Stallman, SCO told the U.S. District Court in Utah it would issue subpoenas to
SCO’s move comes as part of the lawsuit it filed last March, claiming IBM put derivative code from Unix System V, an operating system for which SCO holds copyrights, into Linux, the free operating system kernel developed collaboratively by programmers around the world. SCO is seeking $3 billion in damages from IBM and hopes to collect license fees from companies that use Linux.
Denying SCO’s charges, IBM has filed counterclaims and launched an aggressive attack on SCO, a company based in Lindon, Utah, that had 2002 sales of $64 million.
Oddly enough, on Nov. 11, SCO Executive Vice President
So why didn’t Sontag mention that, uh, SCO itself was about to target Torvalds and Stallman with subpoenas? SCO’s spokesman says Sontag and
But the “Who’s on first?” act is tough to swallow since it turns out SCO notified IBM of its plans to seek discovery from these parties more than a month ago, on Oct. 5. And SCO told the court about its plans at 4:34 P.M. on Nov. 11, only hours after Sontag spoke to Forbes.
“I have to think that SCO’s management knew they were going to subpoena the biggest names in the free software and open-source movement. Torvalds and Stallman? Come on, they knew,” says
Ferguson says it’s no surprise that SCO wants to talk to Torvalds. He’s the Finnish programmer who created the Linux operating system kernel 12 years ago and who oversees the process by which new features are added to Linux. Torvalds received a subpoena during dinner Wednesday night and says now he’ll need to hire a lawyer. “Do you know any good lawyers in this area?” he asked via e-mail. “Just kidding.”
Stallman is another obvious candidate for SCO’s legal hit men. Not only did he write much of the code that makes up the GNU/Linux operating system, but in 1989 he created the GNU General Public License under which Linux and many other free software programs are distributed. SCO has challenged the validity of the GPL.
Stallman says the Boston-based Free Software Foundation, which he founded in 1985, has nothing to do with SCO’s lawsuit. “SCO is suing IBM for violating a contract. We don’t even know what the contract said. In terms of the resolution of that lawsuit, the Free Software Foundation is entirely uninvolved,” he says.
Stallman’s GNU/Linux operating system is not the target of SCO’s suit. Linux, the program SCO is targeting, is not an operating system, but only the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system, which could run using a different kernel.
“I am concerned about long-term entrenched confusions such as referring to a version of our GNU OS as ‘Linux’ and thinking that our work on free software was motivated by the ideas associated with ‘open source.’ These confusions lead users away from the basic issue: their freedom. By comparison, the events involving SCO are transitory and almost trivial,” Stallman says.
A spokesman for OSDL in Beaverton, Ore., said the organization received a subpoena on Wednesday. OSDL, which employs Torvalds, is a nerve center for Linux development, where programmers are developing new versions of Linux aimed at high-end computers.
As of late Wednesday, Novell, in Provo, Utah, had not been served with a subpoena, but a spokesman said the company would not be surprised to get one. Novell once owned the copyrights to Unix System V and last week announced an agreement to acquire
Transmeta and Digeo spokespeople said they didn’t know if their companies have received subpoenas or why SCO would target them. What’s the point of hassling people who make chips and set-top boxes? Don’t ask SCO’s top execs. They don’t know anything about this stuff, remember? | <urn:uuid:d6c2a5c7-c7d2-4d94-b099-a5eeb6ebd8e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/2003/11/13/cz_dl_1113sco.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962412 | 1,010 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Today: Apple (AAPL) follows Facebook and Twitter in announcing an attack on its employees' computers, while another corporate Twitter account is taken over. Also: Google (GOOG) stock surpasses $800 for the first time, Wall Street gains after long weekend.
Apple admits to largest successful attack in history as hacks spread
The word of the day in Silicon Valley was "security," as tech's biggest name joined some of its most visible neighbors in announcing that employees' computers had been compromised.
Apple admitted in a statement Tuesday that a vulnerability in Oracle's (ORCL) Java software allowed malicious software to invade employees' computers after they visited an infected website. The attack mirrored Facebook's announcement Friday,
"Apple has identified malware which infected a limited number of Mac systems through a vulnerability in the Java plug-in for browsers. The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software developers ... We identified a small number of systems within Apple that were infected and isolated them from our network. There is no evidence that any data left Apple," the statement said.
Apple's involvement is highly significant because Macs have had fewer problems with malware in the past than machines running Microsoft's Windows operating system, with
"This is the first really big attack on Macs," an anonymous source who originally verified the attack to Reuters said. "Apple has more on its hands than the attack on itself."
A more visible hack occurred Tuesday on Twitter, where Jeep's corporate account was hacked and tweets were sent out claiming that the Chrysler-owned car company was purchased by Cadillac, along with more immature and vulgar tweets. The Jeep account was taken over just two days after a similar situation with Burger King's account, which was hacked on Sunday and sent out a series of obscene tweets.
"We have no idea who did it," Ed Garsten, head of Chrysler's digital media department, told Reuters. "I understand Twitter was especially prepared to deal with today's situation because they just went through the process with Burger King."
While the takeover of Twitter accounts is a smaller problem than malware attacks on corporate computers -- which can lead to hackers obtaining information on customers, such as the 250,000 user names and passwords accessed in the malware account on the Twitter -- the two incidents continue a pattern of cybersecurity issues that led to a mention in President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech last week.
The stakes reached even higher Tuesday morning, when a report from computer security firm Mandiant said that attacks on more than 100 U.S. companies in the past few years were the work of a unit within the Chinese military.
"It is time to acknowledge the threat is originating in China, and we wanted to do our part to arm and prepare security professionals to combat that threat effectively," the report said.
Chinese officials denied the report, but the country was already believed to be the epicenter of much of the cyber espionage in the world, with Google Chairman Eric Schmidt even calling the country the "most sophisticated and prolific" cyberthief threatening foreign companies in a new book.
The most recent attacks on Apple, Facebook and Twitter appear to be based in Eastern Europe, however, showing that fighting off online attacks cannot focus on one country or entity.
Apple stock dropped 17 cents Tuesday to close at $459.99, as the company received some bad news on a lawsuit from activist investor David Einhorn. Facebook gained 2.2 percent in the first trading since the company announced its hacking attack after trading ended Friday.
Google shares hit yet more all-time highs, but is severe dip on horizon?
Google's stock price cracked the $800 level for the first time Tuesday, as the Mountain View company's shares continued to set record highs even as Apple shares continued to sit more than 30 percent lower than their peak price.
"All that Apple money had to go somewhere," BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis told the Associated Press.
Standard & Poor's Capital IQ analyst Scott Kessler more seriously said that investors looking to get out of Apple due to the belief that it had reached the apex of its popularity were likely funneling money into Google, which makes the largest mobile competitor to Apple's iOS mobile operating system, Android.
"If you are looking at Apple's peers in its space and see who seems to be really doing well right now, it makes a lot of sense to invest in Google now," Kessler told AP.
There is a good chance Google shares could fall, however, and they could even be cut in half. The company announced last year that it planned to split its stock, which would double the number of shares but halve the price; shareholders sued Google, claiming that the move would give co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page too much control of the search giant, and the plan is on hold until that lawsuit is settled.
Gillis also pointed out that Google stock has historically ranged about 10 percent from peak price to trough in the first quarter of the calendar year, so it could descend rapidly from here.
With the possibility of a split ahead, Google market capitalization is more important right now, and the company has become the third most valuable company in the United States by that measure, only trailing Apple and Exxon. Individual shares of Google closed with a gain of 1.8 percent at $806.85 Tuesday.
Solar companies and Tesla rise on a strong day for Wall Street
Google wasn't the only stock to enjoy a strong trading session following Monday's vacation for traders, as all three major U.S. stock indexes increased on the day and the SV150 index of Silicon Valley's largest tech companies outperformed them all with a gain of 0.8 percent.
Solar stocks continued last week's shocking rise Tuesday, with San Jose-based SunPower (SPWRA) increasing 16.9 percent to $13.39 to reach yet more 52-week highs. Larger rival First Solar gained 6 percent, and San Mateo solar installer SolarCity rose 4.2 percent to $18.51, the highest closing price in the company's short history on the public market.
SolarCity Chairman Elon Musk's other Silicon Valley company, electric car company Tesla, gained 6.1 percent Tuesday after a group of fans recreated the now-legendary Model S road trip by New York Times reviewer John Broder and the public editor of the Times officially responded to CEO Musk's negative comments on the review. The Palo Alto company is scheduled to release earnings after trading ends Wednesday, which should give an indication of whether manufacturing of the Model S has caught up with expectations. For full coverage of Tesla's earnings, go to www.sv.com Wednesday afternoon.
Silicon Valley tech stocks
Up: SunPower, Tesla, SolarCity, Advanced Micro Devices, Netflix (NFLX), Electronic Arts (ERTS), Ruckus, Cisco (CSCO), Facebook, Workday, Juniper, Google, Oracle, Gilead, Zynga, Yahoo (YHOO), Applied Materials, Adobe
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Up 21.56, or 0.68 percent, to 3,213.59
The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Up 53.91, or 0.39 percent, to 14,035.67
And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Up 11.15, or 0.73 percent, to 1,530.94
Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak. | <urn:uuid:373b01ca-4984-468e-93a1-61cfeb311bf9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.contracostatimes.com/business/ci_22623182/biz-break-hacks-continue-apple-jeeps-twitter-account | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962695 | 1,584 | 1.71875 | 2 |
> Sounds like he's getting a comission from ISDN sales.
No, I am not in any way affiliated with the phone companies.
> While it is possible to spoof any scheme, CID is actually pretty good.
> If you don't build the decoder properly (i.e., get lazy), it may not
> work, but that doesn't count.
Allow me to prface the following with: I have little experience with
the CID as delivered to analog phone lines between ring1 and ring2.
I do have experience with CID as delivered to ISDN lines.
CID can be delivered by the local phone company in different formats.
On an ISDN line, this info is transmitted as a trailer to the Q931
call setup packet after the codeshift as an ASCII string to be routed
to the LCD display.
For example, South Central Bell delivers an ASCII string in the format
"FROM 615-482-1234". A call from the exact same line delivered by
TDS one mile away is delivered as "D: 615 482-1234". Both telcos
are using the same ATT #5ess and the same switch software. Note that one
telco uses the word FROM and separates the NPA and NNX with a hyphen
while the other telco prefixes the number with "D:" (for data call)
and separates the NPA and NNX with a space. To a human observing
the LCD display, this minor difference can easily go un-noticed. To
code a program to parse the different CID possibilities would be, to say
the least, a pain. To further complicate matters, as telco's change
their OS's, I have noticed other changes in the delivery format, i.e.
sometimes the date and time precede the CID string. Furthermore,
there are feature options available to allow a caller to change
the CID information delivered to the called party.
On the other hand, the calling party billing number (CPBN) (if the
feature is activated on the called line) info is delivered in a
separate and distinct field within the Q931 setup packet. The
CPBN data is a string of pure digits and if optioned properly
by the called line's telco, only indicates the exact line that
originated the call.
> Let's see, these bits are tagged in some fashion that, after this
> "special device" pulls them out, they cannot be sent to an LCD? Those
> are some weird bits.
It's not a matter of tagging, its a matter of what the CPE is (usually
firmware) coded to display. I am not aware of any CPE sets that allow
the user to reconfigure the LCD feature to switch from the DISPLAY
bits that come down the line to the CPBN bits.
> If the phone company guys are this clueless, why do you believe them
> at all.
While I might tend not to argue with you that most of the telco folks
the public is forced to interact with ARE clueless, the switch engineers
that code the OS's that I have had the opportunity to work with,
do have a pretty good "clue" as to what's going on.
> I wouldn't believe this guy unless he outlines a specific method.
If your comment "this guy" refers to me, I really don't care what you
believe. I believe what I have personaly observed from the displays
of packet analyzers I have connected to the lines and the successful
coding I have done to interact with the Q931 packets. | <urn:uuid:fbed60d4-92e5-4c37-9e3f-f01b2cfd20ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greatcircle.com/lists/firewalls/mhonarc/firewalls.199410/msg00353.html | 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 | 0.933256 | 777 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Housing a permanent collection, Reflecting Canberra, and a variety of local, national and international exhibitions, CMAG provides a refreshing insight to the integration of social history and the visual arts.
5 July – 21 September 2008
A selection of photographs from the CMAG Collection in conjunction with
Vivid: National Photography Festival.
21 June – September 21 2008
This is a major survey exhibition of Jan Brown’s sculpture and works on paper, revealing her importance in Canberra’s cultural history as an artist, teacher and mentor. The exhibition will comprise around 100 works, selected from the artist’s substantial 2008 gift to CMAG and spanning her 50-year career. Brown is a highly regarded Canberra artist who has taught several generations of students at the ANU School of Art, in particular life-drawing and sculpture. She was a beloved teacher who was regarded as honest and rigorous but also kind to students. Her own practice has been a quietly focussed and very moving body of work concentrating on sculptures – and prints – of birds and, occasionally, other animals. Brown’s sculpture of a mother kangaroo and joey by Nerang Pool in Commonwealth Park is very familiar and much loved by children and adults alike.
Find out more
31 May - 14 September 2008
Rae Harvey has a passion for beautiful attire. To create her distinctive style,
Rae re-examines past fashion trends and finds inspiration in vintage fabrics.
She designs and makes many of her own clothes. Rae’s Lucite (acrylic)
handbag collection began with a gift from her daughter in 2004.
Since then Rae has acquired over fifty handbags, mostly purchased on e-bay.
An exhibition of historical objects from the CMAG Social History Collection that define the important people, places and events in our regions past. Acknowledging these objects original purpose. this exhibition explores our need to keep things as evidence of experience.
21 June until 19October
An exhibition of work by Canberra artist David Warren exploring contemporary issues through the fascinating medium of holograms. In conjunction with Vivid: National Photography Festival.
15 October – 1 February 2009
CMAG’s 10th anniversary celebrations continue with this exhibition that examines social life in Canberra through the stories of four cinemas,
Capitol Theatre, Civic Theatre, Center Cinema and Electric Shadows.
7 October – 26 January 2009
Open Collection Gallery
This exhibition of dolls houses and miniatures continues CMAG’s Cabinets of Curiosities series showing private collections in Canberra. It includes fully furnished Lundby Houses from 1957, 1965 and 2007, a Smart car
and Vespa Scooter.
31 October – 25 January 2009
This exhibition samples this extraordinary collection of Canberra memorabilia acquired by CMAG in March 2008.
Gallery 4, Gallery 5, Gallery 3 Showcase
The Canberra Museum and Gallery celebrates it 10th birthday in 2008 with a series of exhibitions featuring works of art and social history objects from the permanent collection highlighting Canberra’s diverse artistic practice and unique history.
11 October – 15 February 2009
Copyright © 2001-2008. ACT Museums and Galleries | <urn:uuid:f3a779a0-6097-4182-aaa3-b7ea535a8b0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.museumsandgalleries.act.gov.au/cmag/PastExhibitionsJul-Dec.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943666 | 646 | 1.585938 | 2 |
File photo of South Korea's No 2. shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries' shipbuilding yard in Geoje
South Korea's economy has recorded its lowest growth rate for three years in 2012 on weak external demand and domestic consumption concerns.
Full-year Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2012 stood at 2 percent, the lowest since 2009 and growth rate remained little changed at 1.5 percent year-on-year, Bank of Korea (BoK) said in a statement.
However, growth slightly picked up in the fourth quarter as the GDP rose 0.4 percent from the previous quarter.
The figures failed to meet analysts' expectations of 0.5 percent quarterly rise and the central bank's expectations of about 3 percent annual growth. But it did indicate acceleration after the 0.1 percent GDP rise in the September quarter.
South Korea is one of the major casualties of the global slowdown as over 50 percent of its GDP is dependent on exports. The European debt crisis and the slowdown in China, which is Seoul's biggest export market has hurt the country's economy. Shipments have dropped 1.2 percent in the fourth quarter over the previous three months.
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The uncertainties in the key shipment markets have prompted manufacturing firms to maintain tight control over the capital spending. Infrastructure investment was down 2.8 percent in the September to December period from the previous quarter.
Private consumption picked up moderately, by 0.8 percent over the previous three months.
But BoK expects growth to improve to 2.8 percent in 2013 especially as the newly elected President Park Geun-hye promises spending plans to create jobs.
"It remains to be seen if the economy has hit bottom. But the fog over the domestic economy seems to be being lifted," said Kim Young-bae, director-general of the BOK's economic statistics department, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"Growth is likely to improve in the first half (of the year), helped by increased fiscal spending by the incoming government." The new government takes office by the end of February.
Analysts too are optimistic that South Korean economy could improve in 2013. Paul Gruenwald, economist at ANZ points out that the recent economic rebound in China and United States could aid South Korean economy this year.
The central bank has retained its interest rates steady for three straight months, considering the improved conditions. But analysts speculate that it could resort to rate reductions as early as the coming month.
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This article is copyrighted by IBTimes.co.uk, the business news leader | <urn:uuid:67bfb083-aeb9-4a5e-86b6-af567fc81da7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/427324/20130124/south-korea-gdp-exports-park-geun-hye.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952002 | 552 | 1.671875 | 2 |
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Career Prep: Too Old, or Too Arrogant?
Job search takes practice – just like studying for the SAT. That’s why we came up with daily Career Prep questions to help you “study” for your job search!
Here’s today’s question:
Gwen is 55. She lost her job 11 months ago. She is convinced that in spite of looking good for her age, she is being discriminated against. She’s been on four interviews. All of them were with managers who were younger than her. “These kids took one look at me and I knew they didn’t plan on hiring me,” she said. “It was clear they were threatened by my experience.”
Image Credit: Shutterstock | <urn:uuid:49f0bf55-2c39-48e3-9559-a3bdcf349980> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.careerealism.com/career-prep-old-arrogant/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964885 | 239 | 1.757813 | 2 |
mr_sifter writes "PC gamers love to obsess over whether PC gaming is dying, but bit-tech thinks it's time to look at the other side and examine if console gaming is really as secure as publishers would have us believe. All three console manufacturers suffered from the recession — this year, Sony announced its first net loss in 14 years; a stunning ¥989.9bn, which includes record losses of ¥58.5bn in its gaming sector. Microsoft also announced its first loss since it went public in 1986 in the second quarter of this financial year, with a $31 million US loss coming straight from the Entertainment and Devices division, which is responsible for the Xbox 360. Not even Nintendo has escaped the financial plague either, with sales of the Wii dropping by 67 percent in the US, 60 percent in Japan and 47 percent in the rest of the world. In addition to reduced profitability, casual games and the rise of the iPhone further suggest the current model is not invulnerable." | <urn:uuid:7964c2df-1132-4340-a598-32af3a7c42c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/12/14/2010234/is-console-gaming-dying?sdsrc=prevbtmprev | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971566 | 199 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Courtesy: HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
Srinagar, May 30, 2012
The temple of Ragnya Devi in Tulmulla village, 24 km from Srinagar, was agog with celebration on the occasion of the annual festival of Kheer Bhawani on Tuesday.
After the Amarnath yatra, this is the biggest Hindu festival to be celebrated in the Valley and attracts Kashmiri Pandits from all over the country.
Since the migration of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in the post militancy years beginning 1989 the temple of Kheer Bhawani has been taken care of by local Muslims.
On Tuesday too, Pandits were seen embracing Kashmiri Muslims, who ushered them into their homes and served them milk in earthen pots — a traditional practice at this festival. A large number of stalls selling flowers and other puja items had been set up by Muslim vendors.
Muhammad Shafi Baht, 52, a local Muslim, said, “The scene at the Mela has remained unchanged despite political upheavals. Muslims in Tulmulla have always eagerly waited for the festival to be of some help to the Pandit brethren.”
Ever since security conditions in the Valley improved in 2007 the temple has seen a revival of prayers.
Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah also paid obeisance at the shrine and interacted with devotees.
Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal, Showkat Ahmad Mir said, “Around 25,000 devotees visited the temple this year. Though tents had been set up, it was possible to accommodate everyone only because Muslims opened their homes to the Pandits.”
Separatist leader and Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammed Yasin Malik also visited the shrine. “J&K is our motherland and you (Pandits) are an integral part of us. Our culture, values and our society is incomplete without you,” he told the gathering. | <urn:uuid:90b2a54f-6f37-40cd-9294-881760a295f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gfchindia.com/harmony-news/.html?czno=hvltskmib | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956875 | 408 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Environment Agency Wales investigates Crymlyn Burrows incinerator permit breaches
Environment Agency Wales have launched an investigation after a waste incinerator breached strict emission limits set out in its environmental permit.
The incinerator will not start operating again until the Crymlyn Burrows Materials Recovery and Energy Centre can demonstrate it is in compliance with its permit.
Test results from the centre indicated that the site has exceeded the permitted limit for dioxin emissions on two occasionss.
The operators accepted a formal caution from the agency last year following emission breaches from the site in 2010. The agency said a stricter monitoring regime is in place following those incidents.
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Huw Brunt from Public Health Wales said a number of breaches of the dioxin emission limit have been reported at the centre in recent years.
“Raised levels of dioxin emissions over a short time period are unlikely to pose an appreciable health risk to the local population," he said.
“However, a number of breaches of the dioxin emission limit have been reported at this site over the past couple of years.
“This recurring problem raises associated public health concerns and we would like to see this situation resolved as soon as possible.”
Dioxins are produced by fires, including bonfires and car exhausts, which can have an impact on people's health if they enter the food chain.
Steve Brown, area Manager for Environment Agency Wales said: "Environmental permits are there to make sure that local people and the environment are protected from the impact of sites like these.
"They have strict conditions and emission controls which we will enforce. The operator is complying fully with our investigation.
"We will make sure they do all that they can to rectify this problem as a matter of urgency and we will consider taking further action if it is appropriate."
A spokesman said the operator is co-operating fully with the agency and has stopped all operations until the cause of the breaches can be established.
The agency said the centre has already started cleaning work on a section of the plant as this could be the cause of the breach. | <urn:uuid:b80a30ef-b8ec-4984-a355-5718c2dd8967> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Environment-Agency-Wales-investigates-Crymlyn/story-17495441-detail/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948419 | 564 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Sabarigiri School at Anchal
features a residential central school and a higher secondary school. The residential central school follows the Central Board of Secondary Education pattern from kindergarten to the +2 level. In the higher secondary school, English is the medium of teaching and it follows the Kerala Government syllabus from standard I to XII. The school also encourages co-curricular activities. College level science and computer laboratories, library, medical attention, school auditorium and school buses are available. Separate hostel is available for boys and girls. The school also has a health club and gymnasium.
Punalur Railway Station is 13 km to the north-east of Anchal, and Trivandrum International Airport is 58 km from Anchal. | <urn:uuid:f23a04ac-097b-4213-8b95-a7aeb61a40cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.india9.com/i9show/Sabarigiri-School-46884.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95222 | 152 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Christianity was born of rejection so I am never amazed at the American’s ability to put forth Christianity as a societal ill. It does amaze me sometimes how people unknowingly accept and preach biblical principals as something other than biblical. I’ve been told that we don’t need religion, our nation works fine without being religious, and that we just need a common set of life respecting rules. I usually then point out the 10 commandments and sometimes note that our legal system is based on Judeo/Christian law. I’ve recently run across a couple of more instances that I felt were of note.
In a recent comment on the Herald’s Join the Conversation regarding the Virginia Tech massacre I suggested that increased presence of religion on school campuses could provide hope and social inclusion for students thereby reducing these types of incidents. This was met with the usual religion is the problem comments, but there were also a bunch of comments that mentioned how early social acceptance might have helped. However those comments didn’t address that Christianity has a long history of acceptance and that a church is a social group.
The second thing that came up may not actually be a case of rejecting Christian values, but it is certainly not claiming Christianity as a source. My wife and I recently began attending a small group whose subject is effective parenting. It is a study with Chip Ingram put out by Walk Thru the Bible Ministries. It is obviously Christian and relies on scripture for it’s parenting model. After the first session on Friday night we walked away with a few of biblical principles:
- Clearly focus on what you want for your child
…Bring them up with Christian teaching in Christian discipline.
Ephesians 6:4 (Phillips)
- Don’t over correct your children
Fathers, don’t over correct you children or make it difficult for them to obey the commandment.
Ephesians 6:4 (Phillips)
- Principle of Modeling or Practice what you Preach
And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. (Luke 6:39-40)
Yesterday, I drove to Seattle before the crack of dawn. I was listening to a few radio stations that we don’t get this side of Mt. Vernon when I ran into All in the Mind, a show from ABC Radio National. It was Natasha Mitchell interviewing Jerome Kagan a world renowned author and Harvard psychologist about how to bring up your children. They discussed theories by several psychology big guns such as Lock, Bowlby and Skinner. They looked at temperament, brain chemistry, reactivity, attachment and several other topics. This was interesting because I’ve taken a few psych classes in college, we are foster parents, we are in the parenting small group, but mostly because we have kids. Near the end of the interview and after all the psychology geek speak Professor Kagan offered a few simple points he felt would garner success in raising children and allow parents to throw away their parenting books.
- Try to be predictable with your baby
- don’t be harsh in your treatment,
- be a good role model, that is, display in your own behavior, the values that you would like your child to have.
It was a bit difficult to believe what I had just heard, but the radio station was coming in clear and I had Q-tipped sometime in the last few days. This world renowned author and psychologist had just cited biblical principles as the way to raise your child. The latest modern psychology had just brushed up against Christianity. Christ’s teaching predate even the earliest modern psychologists by some 1700 years, would this make Him the true father of modern psychology?Tags: Christianity, Religion, scripture | <urn:uuid:cb09e677-ac6f-4e6c-91c1-3fc2c5eefb91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wallywonderswhy.com/?p=479 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971099 | 800 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Riders from around the world take on two challenges: raising the money needed to fund research for better treatments and a cure for diabetes, and reaching a personal training goal to prepare for a destination cycling experience. The JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes offers:
The journey begins by traveling to one of our destination Ride locations. Meet up with fellow riders and begin a fun-filled weekend including safety seminars, planned excursions, and team building celebrations. It all leads up to the big event ... Ride Day.
his is a huge topic so I am just going to give you the very basic rules of thumb that I use to determine how much and what to drink and eat while on a training ride. Read More
Search for a rider to support
Thirteen-year-old Ethan was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) at the age of four. He spent four days in Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT, getting his blood sugar level under control while his parents learned how to care for him...
July 25 - 28, 2013
The Burlington, VT Ride offers "classic New England" cycling on some of the most scenic roads that the state has to offer. The JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes course travels through historic villages, featuring covered bridges and flowing rivers. Take in spectacular views while cycling through the pristine Champlain Valley. | <urn:uuid:eb0e2850-6872-4bcd-a455-7657292a440f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.jdrf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ride_homepage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955562 | 278 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Many files on this page are in PDF format. See how to access PDF files.
Patients' rights to cross-border health care to become UK law by 2013
At the European Parliament on 19 January 2011, MEPs voted to adopt EU legislation setting out patients' rights to cross-border health care. The Council of the European Union approved the legislation on 28 February 2011, and the new EU Directive on Cross-Border Health care will take effect in the UK from October 2013. Take a look at the RCN's comments on patients' rights to cross-border health care (PDF 54KB). For further information, go to cross-border care.
The mutual recognition of professional qualifications across Europe
The European Commission has proposed some legislative amendments to the Professional Qualifications Directive, which affect nurses' right to work across Europe. Changes include methods of language testing, international alerts on fitness to practise and updating the minimum education requirements for nurses. Read more.
European Working Time Directive
To protect workers’ health and safety, minimum rules are needed on working time in all EU member states. The RCN has always taken an active interest in the issue of working time and how long hours and shift work affect the health and safety of our members and the patients they care for.
The RCN recently responded to a consultation on reviewing the Working Time Directive (second phase). Read the RCN response to the second phase consultation of the social partners at European level (29.4 KB).
At the end of 2011 trade union and employers' representatives at EU level agreed to open discussions on revising the directive. The RCN will be feeding into these discussions through its European alliance EPSU. In August 2012 it was agreed by the Commission that the time period for the discussions would be extended until December 2012 as discussions were felt to be "making progress". Read more.
Public health: alcohol-related harm
The RCN was recently one of 68 organisations which supported the European Alcohol Policy Alliance's call for European policymakers to launch a comprehensive alcohol policy strategy in the European Union for 2013-2020. Read the letter and see which other organisations signed up (PDF 1.1MB).
In 2008 the RCN contributed to a WHO global strategy on reducing alcohol-related harm. Read more.
More recently in February 2012, the RCN produced a short, country-specific policy briefing: Alcohol: policies to reduce alcohol-related harm in England (PDF 188 KB).
Research - Horizon 2020
The European research agenda is divided into framework programmes. The current framework programme is called FP7 and runs until 2013. Its aim is to make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, with greater employment and more social cohesion.
The eigth framework programme, Horizon 2020, is due to run from 2014 - 2020. Nearly 32 billion Euros will be invested in 'societal challenges', which are divided into six categories, one of which is 'health, demographic change and wellbeing'.
For further information on the next EU funding programme, visit the Horizon 2020 website.
For further information on RCN research activity, visit the Research and Development pages on the RCN website. | <urn:uuid:30e7aa9d-e25e-4431-9a7e-fa309ab61137> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rcn.org.uk/nursing/international | 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 | 0.936967 | 644 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Village, Faroe Islands
Photograph by Ken Bower
The village of Gásadalur with the island of Mykines in the background. Until a tunnel was built in 2004, the 16 residents living in Gásadalur had to take a strenuous hike or horseback ride over the steep 1,300-foot (400-meter) mountain in order to make it to the other villages. It was a rare sunny day in the Faroe Islands and I had to wait until the clouds rolled in to provide some softer light. I decided to go with a long exposure (1 minute and 10 seconds) to illustrate the force of the wind and a serene sea among the isolated islands.
(This photo and caption were submitted to the 2012 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest.) | <urn:uuid:52cff3f2-54e3-462a-ba5f-9bc57d844477> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/wallpaper/photography/photos/best-pod-june-2012/faroe-islands-village/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961529 | 161 | 1.664063 | 2 |
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