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How do I cope with ADD?
I have ADD, and my doctor won't give me the adderol that has helped me so much in the past.
I have a hard time keeping up in a conversation with another person, which is causing me to have social anxiety.
I lose interest in everything because of the amount of work it takes to pay attention. This is causing me to become slightly depressed.
I'm very forgetful. I immediately forget things that I've just heard. I forget to do things all the time.
I have a hard time watching television without missing parts of a program because I zone out. Luckily, I have direct T.V., so I can rewind parts of a show that I missed due to zoning out; but I would like to know of techniques that would help me pay better attention instead of rewinding all the time.
ADD is causing me too many problems that I don't know how to handle, and my doctor doesn't know of any techniques that can help me other than making lists of things to do. I need some advice. | <urn:uuid:5dfe8e8f-b355-4d9c-914e-df581a62ae86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthboards.com/boards/add-adhd/901253-how-do-i-cope-add.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982505 | 223 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I, later known as Zork I, is an interactive fiction computer game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Anderson and published by Infocom in 1980. It was the first game in the popular Zork trilogy and was released for a wide range of computer systems, followed by Zork II and Zork III. Selling more than 400,000 copies, it is Infocom's first game.
The game takes place in the Zork calendar year 948 GUE (although the passage of time is not notable in gameplay). The player steps into the deliberately vague role of an "adventurer". The game begins near a White House in a small, self-contained area. Although the player is given little instruction, the house provides an obvious point of interest.
When the player enters the house, it yields a number of intriguing objects: an ancient brass lantern, an empty trophy case, an intricately engraved sword, etc. Beneath the rug a trap door leads down into a dark dungeon. But what initially appears to be a dungeon is actually one of several entrances to a vast subterranean land--the Great Underground Empire. The player soon encounters dangerous creatures, including deadly grues, an axe-wielding troll, a giant cyclops and a nimble-fingered thief.
The ultimate goal of Zork I is to collect the Nineteen Treasures of Zork and install them in the trophy case. Finding the treasures requires solving a variety of puzzles such as the navigation of two brutal mazes and some intricate manipulations at Flood Control Dam #3.
Placing all of the treasures into the trophy case scores the player 350 points and grants the rank of "Master Adventurer." An ancient map with further instructions then magically appears in the trophy case. These instructions provide access to a stone barrow. The entrance to the barrow is the end of Zork I and the beginning of Zork II. | <urn:uuid:ba0ad2fc-e066-490d-8f50-53a3c4ed06f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldhistoryproject.org/perspectives/0f9fbe5b9a77391ef35049182a6aaeb5 | 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 | 0.932796 | 403 | 1.804688 | 2 |
In this eagerly anticipated memoir, former Vice President Dick Cheney delivers an unyielding portrait of American politics over nearly forty years and shares personal reflections on his role as one of the most steadfast and influential statesmen in the history of our country.
The public perception of Dick Cheney has long been something of a contradiction. He has been viewed as one of the most powerful vice presidents—secretive, even mysterious, and at the same time opinionated and unflinchingly outspoken. He has been both praised and attacked by his peers, the press, and the public. Through it all, courting only the ideals that define him, he has remained true to himself, his principles, his family, and his country. Now in an enlightening and provocative memoir, a stately page-turner with flashes of surprising humor and remarkable candor, Dick Cheney takes readers through his experiences as family man, policymaker, businessman, and politician during years that shaped our collective history.
Born into a family of New Deal Democrats in Lincoln, Nebraska, Cheney was the son of a father at war and a high-spirited and resilient mother. He came of age in Casper, Wyoming, playing baseball and football and, as senior class president, courting homecoming queen Lynne Vincent, whom he later married. This all-American story took an abrupt turn when he flunked out of Yale University, signed on to build power line in the West, and started living as hard as he worked. Cheney tells the story of how he got himself back on track and began an extraordinary ascent to the heights of American public life, where he would remain for nearly four decades:
* He was the youngest White House Chief of Staff, working for President Gerald Ford—the first of four chief executives he would come to know well.
* He became Congressman from Wyoming and was soon a member of the congressional leadership working closely with President Ronald Reagan.
* He became secretary of defense in the George H. W. Bush administration, overseeing America’s military during Operation Desert Storm and in the historic transition at the end of the Cold War.
* He was CEO of Halliburton, a Fortune 500 company with projects and personnel around the globe.
* He became the first vice president of the United States to serve out his term of office in the twenty-first century. Working with George W. Bush from the beginning of the global war on terror, he was—and remains—an outspoken defender of taking every step necessary to defend the nation.
Eyewitness to history at the highest levels, Cheney brings to life scenes from past and present. He describes driving through the White House gates on August 9, 1974, just hours after Richard Nixon resigned, to begin work on the Ford transition; and he portrays a time of national crisis a quarter century later when, on September 11, 2001, he was in the White House bunker and conveyed orders to shoot down a hijacked airliner if it would not divert.
With its unique perspective on a remarkable span of American history, In My Time will enlighten. As an intimate and personal chronicle, it will surprise, move, and inspire. Dick Cheney’s is an enduring political vision to be reckoned with and admired for its honesty, its wisdom, and its resonance. In My Time is truly the last word about an incredible political era, by a man who lived it and helped define it—with courage and without compromise. | <urn:uuid:ea8c3de8-d544-4b2b-b553-42bc87c70847> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://books.google.com/books?id=OEyfnCb_MbEC | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97783 | 698 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Watching the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee river pageant, made me think of how much Nana would have enjoyed it. She loved everything royal, and while she was not always a regular reader of the Australian Women’s Weekly like Grandma Riddiford was, you could always count on her buying issues with the British royal family on the cover. Not to mention the special publications for events such as the marriage of Charles and Diana and the birth of their sons.
It also reminded me of an article I found at Trove of another Harman descendent and her link to the Australian Women’s Weekly and how she found royalty inspiring.
Nina Harman was born in 1895 at Barnawartha, Victoria, daughter of Walter Graham Harman and Ann Gray, and grandaughter of George Hall Harman and Rebecca Graham. In 1921, Nina married engineer, Jonathan Welsh. During the 1940s and 50s the couple were living at Wattle Vale, near Nagambie.
Nina took up tapestry around 1952 when Jonathan became ill as she found it “soothing”. They later moved to Ivanhoe, Victoria and Jonathan passed away in 1961. Her carpet, pictured in the “Weekly” on July 6, 1966, helped her overcome the loneliness brought about by the death of her husband.
What amazes me is that the carpet cost $1200 in materials and was insured for $5000. How much would that be today?
Queen Mary’s own tapestry carpet inspired Nina. The Queen completed the carpet in 1950 at which time she donated it to the British Government to sell and retain the funds. Queen Mary worked tirelessly on the carpet despite pain from sciatica.
The Queen passed away in 1953. The following article which appeared in the Woman’s Weekly on April 8, 1950 may have helped inspire Nina.
Nina passed away in 1985 aged 90. I wonder how many more tapestries she completed over the 20 years after her “Weekly” appearance? | <urn:uuid:3af384cf-e706-433e-ae06-8e01d70b6770> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mywdfamilies.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/ninas-royal-inspiration/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=20ee2ea151 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981623 | 421 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Have We Overdone Deregulation and Privatization?
Let's hear it for deregulation, at least its long-term effects. It's well worth the short-term disruptions and consumer confusion. That's the near-unanimous judgement of those of you responding to my recent piece on the subject.
Among the benefits cited for both industrial and individual consumers were that deregulation: (1) unleashes the power of a self-correcting free market (Jeff Struck), giving customers services at prices they are willing to pay and quality levels that they are willing to pay for (at least in the airline industry, according to David McLean), (2) encourages selective increases in capacity, new approaches to managing consumption, and increased merger and acquisition activity, with attendant realization of synergies and lower costs (Jill Feblowitz), and (3) has delivered on its promise of lower prices, at least in cases such as electric service in Australia and England (Joseph Ramsey).
Several respondents pointed out, however, that the benefits of deregulation are less obvious to consumers than its failures. The latter include short-term dislocations of demand-and-supply patterns and the confusion consumers experience in dealing with deregulation's effects. The highly publicized shortcomings of questionable efforts to deregulate are not encouraging—witness the case of the California electric power industry. It's not clear whether attempting to educate consumers about what to expect will improve or kill deregulation efforts, creating a kind of catch-22 situation for supporters.
Antidotes were offered to offset the negative perceptions that have arisen from some efforts to deregulate industry. First, consultant Rebecca Lula suggested that a more balanced approach to deregulation at various levels in the channel of distribution would help. In the California power industry, for example, she questioned the deregulation of wholesale markets first.
Second, in response to consumer confusion, an anonymous respondent suggested that government could play a role in insuring that consumers have access to unbiased comparative price information. That way, everyone might learn how to get the most for themselves out of complex pricing schemes.
The general consensus is that deregulation can have widespread benefits, albeit complex ones that are sometimes slow in coming and not equitably distributed, which may help explain the implementation strategies adopted to date. What we are experiencing in California and elsewhere may be a massive "on-the-job training" exercise that will lead to better-informed efforts to implement deregulation in the future. What do you think?
During the Jimmy Carter administration, Congress enacted legislation that had become known as "the Federal Express bill." It was designed to test the idea of deregulation by allowing air freight carriers to fly planes of any size on any routes, without federal price controls.
The bill accommodated the persistent lobbying activities of one Fred Smith, the young CEO of Federal Express, who had been required under previous regulation to use small, inefficient aircraft to transport freight or else submit to stringent government regulation. It was regarded by Congress as an experiment carried out in a small, obscure industry which, if unsuccessful, would have little economic impact.
Little did Congress realize that true believers in deregulation, like Alfred Kahn, a Cornell economics professor whom Carter had appointed as chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, would champion the extension of the idea to the entire airline industry, and then into areas such as brokerage fees and other professional services.
In recent years, the deregulation movement has spread to industries with which consumers interact daily, such as electric power and telephone service, whose dependability and equitable pricing were generally left to government and not thought much about.
There seems to be an increasing feeling among consumers that much of this ended with the deregulation and privatization of these industries. According to neocritics of deregulation, for example, we are confronted with a melange of telephone and electric service "deals" with a confusing array of prices. We are confronted with the possibility that those doing their homework are receiving better service and lower prices than we are, that equitable pricing may no longer exist. We can't even make sense of the bills we receive for such services. We are forced to think about something that we used to take for granted.
A recent study by the research firm Yankelovich Partners suggests that, while consumers generally want more control over their lives and purchasing decisions, there are some things (electric power and telephone service among them) that they just don't want to have to study or worry about. Life is already complex enough.
Willis Emmons of the Georgetown University faculty and author of a new book, The Evolving Bargain (HBS Press), has spent several years studying the implications for managers of deregulation and privatization. He maintains that the impact on consumers is complex. Sometimes consumers are winners and sometimes losers. And sometimes they're both, as in the case of lower prices for air travel of inferior quality "on many dimensions."
In spite of the facts, can we expect mischievous consumer-driven backlash for any idea that rewards those who take initiative? Is deregulated service really inferior? If so, by what measures? Have we such short memories that we have forgotten what it was like before deregulation? Or have we gone too far, requiring consumers to spend far too much time trying to figure out the system, let alone obtaining services that best meet their needs? | <urn:uuid:ce4336c8-824c-4c0f-a7ac-35a73471c208> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/1919.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968093 | 1,078 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Even in hard economic times, a headline announcing that police pay is about to be cut by £4,000 comes as a bit of a stunner. All the more so when the wielder of the axe is an unapologetic Conservative home secretary and the decision is met with more sorrow than anger by the Police Federation. Truly, it seems, we live in a new era.
It is hard not to feel that Tuesday's decision by Theresa May on police pay, expected though it was, marks the crossing of a notable watershed. It is important for police officers – that much is obvious. But it also important because it draws the line under a bankrupt 35-year deception of the public over police pay and police numbers for which both major parties bear a share of responsibility.
The absence of a full-on political storm over Mrs May's acceptance of the pay recommendations of the police arbitration tribunal (PAT) can be largely explained by the fact that the headline is not the whole story. It is not serving officers but prospective recruits who face the largest cut in income. Not all recruits will lose out by £4,000 either – only those with no police experience. Those with some experience will start at a higher entrance level, while opportunities to move quickly up the revised pay scale will mean that many officers will benefit in the not too long run from the restructuring that is emerging from Tom Winsor's two reports of 2011 and 2012. The relatively muted response may also reflect a change in federation leadership. The fact that the federation has often argued in the past that the home office should accept PAT rulings, which is what Mrs May has now done, also plays to the home secretary's advantage.
Underlying all this is a recognition across the service and, to a lesser extent, within politics, that the old system had run out of road. Ever since the late 1970s, politicians have been telling the public that the answer to Britain's crime and disorder problems is to recruit more officers and to pay them more. Taking their cue from Margaret Thatcher, the parties vied with one another to do just that. Naturally, the police made no complaint. But these claims were not based on fact, and the policing system became headcount and pay-heavy as well as inefficient.
The coalition deserves considerable credit for tackling this mismatch, and for its willingness to confront the old culture. The Winsor reports are important documents in the history of policing, and the implementation of their recommendations is at the core of a necessary reform strategy. Though Labour warned of dangers on Tuesday, the party's refusal to condemn Mrs May is a quiet admission that she is working on the right lines and is reforming the police in ways that even her opponents suspect – rightly – are necessary. | <urn:uuid:77761cb9-e9b2-43c9-981b-26af57261842> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/15/police-pay-may-beat | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975724 | 553 | 1.523438 | 2 |
PIERRE — Visitors to the state Capitol might see some fresh faces hurrying about in light blue and yellow button-up shirts during the legislative season.
Elected officials in Pierre get some help from high school seniors from their home districts. The legislative program appoints students to serve in Pierre for one or two weeks during the lawmaking season.
Dylan Kirchmeier, a senior at Webster Area High School, is getting a head-start on his political science education.
He said he is interested in politics and wants to study the topic in college.
"This is a good beginning experience," he said.
The program is open only to high school seniors. Applicants have to be in good academic standing and submit two references.
They have to fill out a basic application and get approval from a parent or guardian and their high school principal or superintendent. Students must also have their local representative or senator agree to sponsor them.
Dylan's sponsor is Sen. Jason Frerichs, D-Wilmot, the Senate Democratic leader. The page's sponsor determines which chamber a student works in.
Dylan, 17, is a Senate page and a dons a yellow shirt.
The president pro tem of the Senate and speaker of the house select the pages for their respective chambers.
Tomi Lynn Jones, 17, has a family that's very active in South Dakota politics. The Britton-Hecla High School senior was sponsored by her cousin, Rep. Susan Wismer, D-Britton.
"I don't plan on studying it in college, but maybe someday I'll get involved with politics," she said. "I'm really enjoying it here."
Blue shirts signify House pages.
Tommy Nealon, a senior at Watertown High School, is another House page. He said his time as a page has helped him form a better idea of the career path he wants to take.
"I really wanted a better understanding of what goes on in the legislature," said Tommy, 17.
It's good preparation for college, where he plans to study history and political science. His sponsor is Rep. Roger Solum, R-Watertown.
Having other students from Watertown serve as pages helped get him introduced to the program, he said.
"They told me it was a blast," he said. "It's been a good learning experience."
Dylan, Tommy and Tomi have all just finished their first week of duties. While in Pierre, they must either arrange for their own housing with friends or relatives or they are set up with a host family by the Legislative Research Council.
Pages have to learn a lot in a short amount of time, since four groups serve the legislature during the season. They have to learn to sort mail, answer the phones and learn the intricacies of how committees and floor sessions work, among other things.
Pages begin their day with an assignment to the post office, phones or by helping in committee meetings.
Dylan said he remembers that he passed out papers to the wrong people at his first committee meeting. Instead of distributing the documents to committee members, he accidentally began handing them out to those observing the meeting.
He laughs it off now.
Tomi learned some jargon after the first couple days.
"I didn't know that deferring a bill to the 41st day meant that it was being killed," she said.
The legislative session is 38 days this year, meaning that the 41st legislative day is nonexistent.
In the afternoon, floor sessions take place and pages go to their respective chambers and run any errands members might require.
That includes running messages and fetching coffee.
Dylan said his favorite part of the job is being able to sit in on sessions and watch bills come through and get passed or denied.
He said he pays attention to bills on hot topics, such as gun control, and some that are more unique.
"One that came through (Wednesday) was about hunting coyotes with spotlights," he said. "That was interesting."
The three students will wrap up their time in Pierre next week. Another group of students from across the state will arrive in Pierre for a two-week term on Feb. 18. | <urn:uuid:4df14b94-69c2-4fea-a67c-83d0a8061023> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aberdeennews.com/news/aan-aberdeenarea-students-turning-a-new-page-in-pierre-20130208,0,4591539,full.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980027 | 869 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The ballot also included a sharply contested voter initiative generally requiring parents to be notified before their teen receives an abortion. Miller came out strongly for Ballot Measure 2.
"He told voters over and over again: Flip your ballot over, vote 'yes on 2.' Before you vote for me, vote 'yes on 2.' Ballot Measure 2 is much more important than this Senate race," said Bernadette Wilson, campaign manager for Alaskans for Parental Rights, the "yes on 2" group.
Colleen Carroll Campbell on the efforts of pro-choicers in Missouri to argue against scientific facts included in ultrasound legislation in Missouri.
The complaint hinges on these words in the law: "The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being."
Sounds pretty straightforward right? Wrong, says Paula Gianino, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. As she told the Post-Dispatch recently, "Those are not sentiments that all the world's religions, or all the people in the state, believe in."
Actually, those are not sentiments at all. They are statements of fact. They can be verified by most any embryology textbook, including those written decades ago, when abortion-rights activists still were claiming that "no one knows when life begins." As the 1975 edition of Medical Embryology put it, "The development of a human being begins with fertilization, a process by which two highly specialized cells, the spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female, unite to give rise to a new organism, the zygote.
A student in Taiwan has won a a "best of the best" prize in the communication category of the 2010 red dot design award for her 3D animated film
The 4-minute film depicts the human gestation process through a video game setting. The main character, a combat aircraft named "Eros," is transformed from a baby who keeps moving inside its mother's womb as it struggles against various obstacles that could block its birth.
Lee said her inspiration came from her elder sister's first pregnancy and the experience of her own mother, who once considered an abortion.
Do not, I repeat, do not read this column by Bonnie Erbe on stem cell research. The ridiculousness and stupidity of every paragraph will have you questioning our entire education system. This woman not only somehow graduated from high school, she graduated from college, got a master's in journalism from Columbia and her J.D. from Georgetown University cum laude. How is that possible? This column doesn't meet the standards of a high school newspaper. Here's just a taste:
I find most social policy positions taken by not just Christian but all religious extremists to be fairly nonsensical. After, "Thou shalt not Kill," (or steal or lie, etc.) I'm not a fan. Why bother forming a movement to oppose gay marriage, for example? What a waste of time and energy. The same for abortion. Those who oppose abortions are nowhere required to have them.That's like saying it's nonsensical for there to be laws against stealing because we're not required to steal. | <urn:uuid:c4ab6369-03d1-4197-afb6-34282e526a6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jivinjehoshaphat.blogspot.com/2010/08/life-links-82610.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961672 | 657 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I'm very versatile when it comes to music in general, I love all styles of music, I especailly love the Blues, Gospel, Country and Bluegrass because all of these music styles would contribute in the beginnings of Rock n' Roll. If it wouldn't have been for Blues music and the British artists that idolized them, there would never have been a British Invasion in 1964.
It is true, the Blues sound (In the beginning) is neither hard, fast, energetic and/or soft, beautiful and melodic. However, the British changed all of that in the 1960's. Had it not been for the British bands in the 1960's, the Blues music would have died. Despite the pain in many Blues songs, the British artists added life to them by making the music hard, fast, energetic and/or soft, beautiful and melodic. THE YARDBIRDS, THE ROLLING STONES, THE KINKS, THE BEATLES, FLEETWOOD MAC (The Peter Green Years), CREAM and LED ZEPPELIN are perfect examples just to name a few. The Black artists from America would explore the Blues sound further by mixing the Blues sound with Gospel music and come up with Soul music in the 1960's which I love very much.
Music is something that can't be forced upon ourselves, either we like it or we don't. Take care. | <urn:uuid:07220a40-aaa6-4f94-a82f-9fca2f9ad8f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/index.php?topic=12312.msg282707 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95508 | 289 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Noughty boys on trading floor led us into debt-laden fantasy
It started with a bust and it ended with an even bigger bust. In between was sandwiched an unsustainable boom. Banks have been humbled. Economists have been found wanting. Geopolitical power began to shift from west to east. That was the noughties that was.
It seems barely five minutes ago that policymakers were fretting about the possible - and, as it turned out, entirely illusory - effects of the millennium bug. Policy was loosened to prevent any deleterious effects from a computer meltdown; the result was to pump even more air into the dotcom bubble.
Britain, hard as it now is to believe, managed to avoid the recession which followed the realisation that most of the overhyped internet companies were duds. When that crisis broke, the Government was able to behave in a classic Keynesian way - boosting growth through higher investment and lower taxes.
This time around, Britain's over-reliance on financial services as a source of growth and tax revenues means the deterioration in the public finances has been more marked in Britain than elsewhere, and from a worse starting point..
But the crisis of the past 2½ years has also exposed vulnerabilities across the entire global economy. During the fat years in the middle of the decade, clear warning signs of trouble ahead were ignored.
Ultimately, the global imbalances did matter. The build-up of personal debt did matter. The willingness of banks and other financial institutions to take ever bigger risks in search of high returns did matter.
The economics profession thought otherwise. It built sophisticated models showing that markets could not be wrong.
Despite the fact that Wall Street and London seemed to be dominated by young men with too much money and too little sense, the chance of a catastrophic blow-out was viewed as alarmist nonsense.
When the meltdown occurred, there was a sense of disbelief. The fact was, however, that trouble had been festering for 15 years and intensified during the noughties.
After the collapse of communism, industrial production migrated to Asia, and China in particular.
Britain and the US saw a hollowing out of manufacturing and a concomitant growth in the relative importance of financial sectors.
Producers in Asia (and parts of Europe) ran trade surpluses while the Anglo-Saxon economies ran trade deficits. Surplus countries bought assets in debtor countries; the money churning through New York and London kept the US dollar and pound strong, made imports cheaper and allowed policymakers to keep interest rates low. Consumers found their incomes went further and they could borrow cheaply. They spent like it was going out of fashion.
Yet there was a dirty little secret about this supposed perpetual money-making machine. It required debt - and lots of it. The real story of the noughties is how borrowing was used to plaster over the deep structural problems of modern global capitalism. We have almost reached the end of that road, but not quite.
Dhaval Joshi, an economist, describes it well when he says that this has been the decade of three borrowing booms from which three big lessons should be learnt.
The first is that debt-driven growth is eventually unsustainable. To generate growth from borrowing, you have to borrow more, year in, year out. The second is that borrowing binges lead to asset booms, which investors seek to rationalise using arguments such as ''a new paradigm'' or ''a wall of money''.
The final lesson is that the point of maximum danger in any borrowing boom is when borrowing starts to slow, not when it stops. ''However much you borrow and spend this year,'' Joshi says, ''if it is less than last year, it means your spending will go into recession.''
This is an important point given the state of the global economy. Policymakers hope a renewed appetite for debt by companies and households will let governments cut borrowing without causing a second leg to the recession. This looks like a flawed strategy.
It would be rebuilding the global economy on the same jerry-built foundations that caused the crisis in the first place. It also flies in the face of reality: there is little evidence that the private sector has any great desire to load up with more debt.
Instead, governments may have to face up to a stark choice. They can carry on borrowing more, accepting that public sector deficits will spiral, or they can respond to market pressure and start borrowing less.
The latter seems the likeliest, but it would all but guarantee a double-dip recession in 2010.
Guardian News & Media | <urn:uuid:e0d45822-3c76-4bf6-ba98-5763365e08ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smh.com.au/business/noughty-boys-on-trading-floor-led-us-into-debtladen-fantasy-20091222-lbs4.html | 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 | 0.969302 | 947 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Deleware Bay Oil Spill Update
The Unified Command continues to oversee the recovery and clean-up operations of oil spilled in the upper Delaware Bay last Tuesday.
Over the weekend, shoreline crews and assessment teams worked to clean up Delaware shorelines affected in Port Mahon, Pickering Beach and Kelly Island as well as Gandy's Beach in New Jersey. State and local officials also worked to identify additional areas impacted by the spill. Shoreline assessment crews today are focusing on areas from Kitts Hummock, DE south to Beach Plumb Island looking for any oil that may have come ashore.
Clean-up crews are actively working along the Delaware shoreline at Slaughter Beach, Kitts Hummock and Big Stone.
Reports of birds, one Sanderling and four Gulls, were reported to be affected by the spill over the weekend. The total number of birds affected by the spill is 19. Tri-State Bird Rescue is working with observation crews to identify if any more wildlife has been impacted.
Preventive boom on New Jersey's rivers will be removed with the exception of the Fortescue and Maurice Rivers. The boom at Fortescue and Maurice will be staged but crews are ready to rapidly re-deploy the boom if necessary. New Jersey's oyster beds remain closed as a precautionary measure.
Preventive boom remains in Delaware from the Leipsic River to the Mispillion River. Additional boom is staged for rapid deployment at the Roosevelt Inlet.
The cause of the spill is under investigation. | <urn:uuid:29fa8067-c48a-48aa-86b8-533db2829e5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marinelink.com/news/article/deleware-bay-oil-spill-update/308201.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948668 | 316 | 1.710938 | 2 |
As you know, I’m a big advocate for taking care of yourself, through eating right and exercising. But I think even I am guilty of sometimes neglecting to get enough calcium in my diet. Aren’t we all? While kids tend to get the calcium they need to grow through milk – us adults oftentimes forget to eat calcium rich foods!
An easy way to get the calcium that you need each day is to take a supplement. I told you about a great one in a previous post called Adora. Adora is delicious chocolate supplement that is all-natural, vegetarian, and gluten-free. The supplement is thirty calories, but it tastes like a treat, and I try to eat two of them each day (it is important to not eat too much calcium as not only is it not good in large quantities, but it can also cause constipation). Osteoporosis runs in my family, both on my mom’s side and dad’s side, so I am super conscious about taking my calcium each day. With each Adora you get fifty percent of your needed calcium, plus Vitamins K and D. You can buy Adora online on Amazon, or you can find them at GNC, Whole Foods, or Walgreens.
If you don't want to take supplements, you can also try to integrate more calcium into your every day diet. Of course most dairy foods are calcium rich, including cheese and yogurt. Spinach is also an excellent source of calcium with one cup yielding 291 mg. Almonds are calcium rich, as are black eyed peas and some other beans. Oranges have some calcium in them. Collards are also rich in calcium.
A great way to get your calcium each day through your diet, is to try to intergrate one calcium rich food into each meal. For instance, milk and cereal for breakfast, a piece of cheese with lunch or for a snack, and a spinach salad at dinner. | <urn:uuid:e73dc9a8-21a1-4217-9b6a-eba896160233> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yummydietfood.com/2011/02/importance-of-calcium-in-your-diet.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959133 | 404 | 1.773438 | 2 |
PHOTOS: Islamic Heritage Festival
Saturday, America's Islamic Heritage Museum, which located in Anacostia, hosted an Islamic Heritage Festival. The festival featured music, food and crafted goods available for sale.
Two years ago, the America's Islamic Heritage Museum took over this building previously used by the Clara Muhammad School on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue. Amir Muhammad, the museum's president, said they kept the signage up in honor of the school, which is now defunct. | <urn:uuid:ab9a6a4d-2180-47a2-991a-4e63cedc71ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wjla.com/pictures/2012/10/photos-islamic-heritage-festival/26622-1851.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951475 | 97 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Below is Peggy story before she got placed on the stemequine. Peggy was our second choice for the study for all the reasons cited below. Her development, her chronic infections in her hind leg and sinuses.
Peggy's story is very much like Huey's in that we weren't sure what could be done for her rehabilatation. She had one set back after another and beginning to be very depressed and lethargic.
Peggy is back to vibrant health. She has completely recovered from her chronic infections both cleared up in the first 2 months of the study. Like with Huey Khan she has had a re-blossoming effect throughout her whole body. Her coat is bright and shiny. Her eyes are clear and alert. She is not depressed anymore and can be found galloping threw the fields several times a day with her friends Gracie and Jetta. She has not had an accident in weeks now and it seems like she is ready to go into a more serious training schedule with her cart. Peggy continues on with the study for another couple of weeks. She may have had enough as she is not struggling with her balance or immune deficiencies anymore.
We are certain that StemEquine has made a dramatic difference in her quality of life. We are very excited for her future which is sure to be legendary!
Peggy has grown up to be quite the young lady! During her first year at Blue Star, she grew up A LOT.
When she arrived in April 2009, at the age of 8 1/2 months, she was the size of a four-month-old foal. Peggy quickly found her health, playing with the Thoroughbreds, Crip and Westbrook, and with the Herdmaster, Cupcake. With the help of Sally's pool noodles, Peg began being trained to wear a harness and be driven. She grew enormously in the fall of 2009, so much so that she grew almost a full hand in November of that year. Growing up is hard to do, and it's even harder when you have spinal cord damage from a pulled off tail.
Peggy gets rescued by the Bondsville Fire Department.
On New Year's Day, 2010, Peggy was unable to rise from a nap at breakfast time. Efforts to help her to her feet failed, as she already weighed at least 800 lbs and she couldn't seem to get her hind end to find its balance. Time and again, she couldn't get up. The vet was called out - not our usual vet, because it was a holiday, but a very knowledgeable vet from a few towns over. The vet concluded that Peggy's spinal cord and nervous system had been damaged when her tail was pulled off, and with her new-found growth, her nervous system hadn't been able to keep up. He advised that if she could not stand, she would have to be put down. Sally wasn't about to let that happen! Sally rushed to Tractor Supply in Belchertown and persuaded the manager to open especially for Peggy so Sally could buy supplies. The Bondsville Fire Department was called out and the volunteer firefighters managed to lift Peggy up and secure her in a sling with haybales supporting her in an upright position against the wall. After being watched round the clock by Pam, Justin, and Angie for a couple of days, Peggy was able to stand on her own, and the danger passed. (As a result, Peggy is the mascot of the Bondsville Fire Department, whose dedication saved her life, and also won her the Valentine's Day card contest in 2010!)
Peggy has continued to have some ups and downs as she has grown and developed over the past couple of years at Blue Star. She had a tumble when she was playing too hard with her friends on Easter Sunday, 2010, and required several weeks and chiropractor visits and massages to heal. More recently, she has been battling an infection in her hind leg from a cut from a pasture accident.
Still, despite all her "bad luck," Peggy is a joy to be around! She has a zest for life, is happy and is VERY smart. She loves her trainer, Sally, and will come running for her when Sally arrives on the farm. Peggy has been trained to harness, and has progressed to pulling Sally and even a passenger in her custom built cart around the farm. Working in harness really helps with Peggy's physical therapy - the shafts encourage her to move in a straight line, and in harness she can really develop her trot and her strength. Against the odds, Peggy is growing up to be just as big as her parents - she is now almost 16.2 hh in the hindquarters and is over 16hh at the withers (her sire is 16.1hh and her dam is 16hh), and she continues to grow and develop (horses' skeletal systems continue to grow and mature until age 5 or more).
Peggy is no longer the baby on the farm. Peggy doesn't take guff from any of the Herd except for Uncle Jesse (who now lives elsewhere) and Uncle Bud - although Peggy is beginning to hang out with some of the mares more, now that she has matured.
Peggy is one of the equine ambassadors at Blue Star Equiculture. She participated in a living nativity in Ludlow at Christimas 2010 and 2011, and really enjoyed it and was not bothered by the crowds of people. She also represented Blue Star Equiculture in June 2011 at the kick off event of the Belchertown Library's "Reed to Feed Horses in Need" summer reading program to benefit the farm.
Although we do not know what the road ahead holds in store for Peggy as she continues to grow and mature into a fine filly with a talent for driving, we love her determination and spirit. She truly is our "Tailless Wonder"!
This is Donnybrook's Peg O' My Heart (aka "Peggy"), when she arrived at Blue Star Equiculture on April 9, 2009. She is an
Irish Sporthorse filly.
Peggy comes from exceptional Irish Sporthorse bloodlines. She was homebred by Timothy Doyle of Donnybrook Farms in Woodbury, Connecticut. Tim owns an Irish Sporthorse stallion, Donnybrook's Ellis Island, and two Irish Sporthorse mares, Donnybrook's Molly Maguire (Peggy's mom) and Donnybrook's Irish Lullaby.
Tim loves his horses and was devastated when Peggy was born on July 22, 2008 with a severe and potentially deadly salmonella infection. She was nothing but "skin and bones" from day one, and her entry into the world was marred by IVs, antibiotics and being unable to stand. Tim and his vet were able to get Peggy up and nursing, and much money and several months of care, Peggy was out of the woods from the salmonella. She still was underweight and, due to needing more nutrition, she was weaned from Molly early. (Peggy, to this day, still has an IV scar in her neck from her long months of ICU.)
No sooner had Peggy gotten back on her feet again, so to speak, when bad luck struck again. The very first time Peggy was turned out after beating back the salmonella, Tim went out to bring her in, only to discover Peggy's tail "in pieces" all over the paddock. At first, it seemed Peggy had gotten caught on something, but when the vet came to try and save her tail, examination revealed what appeared to be bite marks on her hocks. It seems Peggy was attacked by a coyote or dog, who chewed her tail off. Despite the best efforts of all involved, Peggy's tail was unable to be saved.
Peggy now has no tail save a few hairs at her dock. She was bred to be like her siblings who excel in jumping and eventing. Without her tail, she will be unable to balance when she jumps, and may have difficulty performing dressage moves, if she is even able to ever be ridden at all.
Tim has other horses to feed, and despite being very attached to Peggy (he practically hand-raised her), he could not afford to keep her. Unfortunately, because of her "handicap," finding a home for her was difficult. He tried to place her with several other rescues but was turned away. He was at the point of considering euthanasia when he learned of Blue Star Equiculture, which had just opened in Palmer.
On Thursday, April 9th, Peggy arrived at Burgundy Brook Farm in Palmer, MA, a beautiful baby girl, despite her handicap and setbacks. She still needed physical therapy to overcome some of the lasting effects of the salmonella, and was on weight-builder to rebuild her muscle mass.
Peggy has her bonafide draft horse credentials: Both her grandsires are Irish Draught Horses. (Her granddams are thoroughbreds.)
Peggy is now being trained weekly by Sally Sorel, who has 30 years of experience training driving horses. | <urn:uuid:ec518e8a-23c7-4eb4-8b99-bcd55a44e69a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.equiculture.org/peggy-on-stemequine.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988151 | 1,877 | 1.671875 | 2 |
By TERRY KOVEL
10:19 AM CDT, October 13, 2010
Kovels’ Antiques and Collecting
Rookwood Pottery was started by a group of women and grew into a large company that made art pottery as well as commercial products and architectural lines.
It operated in Cincinnati from 1880 to 1967. The economic troubles of the 1930s led to changes at the pottery, and it discontinued artist-decorated pieces in 1937. Rookwood was sold in 1941. When production started again in 1943, the company's output included parts for water conduits to be used at U.S. Army camps. Near the end of World War II, the production of artist-decorated pottery resumed and continued until 1949. Years later, all of the company's old molds, formulas and trademarks were sold. Collectors today pay very high prices for the best of Rookwood's "artist" pieces. Most of these are marked with the name of the company and the initials or logo of the decorator. Jens Jensen (1898-1978) moved from Denmark to the United States in 1927. By the following year, he was a decorator at Rookwood Pottery. He worked there from 1928 to 1948 and later opened his own pottery. His work has become popular and expensive, perhaps because it is in a modernist style. He painted nudes, animals and flowers in a blurry, multicolored glaze. The style is not at all like other Rookwood pieces made in the 1930s.
Q: I bought four Windsor chairs at an antique sale 40 years ago. The label on the bottom of each chair says "Quaint Furniture of Character, Stickley Bros. Co., Grand Rapids." What can you tell me about the chairs?
A: Five Stickley brothers made furniture: Gustav, Albert, Charles, John George and Leopold. Gustav is the most famous, and his furniture brings the highest prices. Albert and John George established Stickley Brothers Co. in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 1891. Its "Quaint" brand name was introduced in 1902. The company linked "Quaint" with various furniture lines, including "Quaint American," which dated from the 1920s and featured Windsor and ladder-back chairs like yours. Your chairs can be dated even more precisely because Stickley Brothers used the phrase "Furniture of Character" on its labels for only a few years, from about 1926 to 1928. The value of your set depends on the condition of the chairs, but a set of four in excellent shape could bring $500-$700.
Q: I own a doll that looks a lot like Barbie. My mother gave her to me in the 1960s. The doll is marked "Mitzi, Ideal Toy Corp., MCMLX." I wouldn't sell her, but I would like to know more.
A: Your doll was Ideal's substitute for Mattel's Barbie doll. The Christmas toy to get in 1960 was the Barbie doll, introduced by Mattel in 1959. Stores could not order enough stock to fill orders. So Montgomery Ward asked Ideal Toy Co. to make a substitute that resembled Barbie. The dolls were sold in December 1960 and marked with the maker's name and the Roman numerals for the year. The box that held the doll had a sticker that explained that the doll was similar to Barbie. It sold for $1.27. Mitzi was sold again in 1961, then was discontinued.
A Canadian company, Reliable Toy Co., made a slightly different version of Mitzi and used a different mark. Many dresses and outfits were available that fit Mitzi. Unfortunately, those who received Mitzi instead of Barbie now own a doll that does not sell for as much money as the original Barbie. A well-illustrated book about Mitzi is currently in print and gives more history.
Q: What is "freehand" glass? I have a vase made by Imperial that a friend said is in the freehand line.
A: "Freehand" or "off-hand" glass was made by glass artists without the use of a mold. That means pieces may be similar, but no two are exactly alike. Imperial Glass Co. of Bellaire, Ohio, began making this type of glass in 1923. The company president had encouraged some glass artists to move to Ohio and make the glass. They designed and made vases, candlesticks and more. Some had contrasting glass strands on the outside of the piece. Some were hand-cut after being formed. Most were made in particular patterns that featured dragged loops, spider webs or leaves and vines. The glassware was expensive because of the handwork, so Imperial created a less-expensive line made by blowing glass into a mold. It was called Lead Lustre. Even the Lead Lustre line was discontinued in 1929.
Q: We own an old meat saw designed to be used in a butcher shop. A stamped mark on the frame says, "Empire Saw Co., Albany, N.Y." There's also a patent date, May 28, 1901, and a serial number, 6892. The saw's handle is wood and the frame steel. Can you give me any information?
A: Empire Saw Co. was in business in Albany during at least the first decade of the 20th century. The patent noted in the saw's mark is No. 675333. It was granted to Arthur L. Joslyn of Albany for his invention of a method of easily replacing worn blades in a butcher's saw. He must have at some time signed an agreement with Empire Saw Co. to manufacture his saw. Butcher's saws the age of yours usually sell for $25 to $50.
Tip: Watch out for a "married" piece of furniture: a top and bottom section that did not start out together.
Terry Kovel answers as many questions as possible through the column. By sending a letter with a question, you give full permission for use in the column or any other Kovel forum. Names and addresses will not be published. We cannot guarantee the return of any photograph, but if a stamped envelope is included, we will try. The volume of mail precludes personal answers or appraisals. Write to Kovel, Farm Forum, King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., 15th Floor, New York, NY 10019.
Copyright © 2013, Aberdeen News | <urn:uuid:bce70ddd-ede7-4857-becc-3693b7271372> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aberdeennews.com/farmforum/life/antiques/aan-ff-rockwoodpottery,0,3492403,print.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97589 | 1,334 | 1.570313 | 2 |
anya posted an update 3 months, 1 week ago
Solid Advice For Making Use Of Video In Social Media Marketing
If you’ve been looking for a way to take your business to a higher level, social networking could be what you would like. It really is a approach to interact with your prospects and clients inside a technologically savvy world yet still maintain the ease and simplicity of use that you would like.
Give a link to your Facebook page or even a ’like’ button by using a Facebook feed on your blog or website. It is simple to find HTML codes of these within the settings of your own Facebook profile. This will likely give your targeted traffic to ’like’ your page and subscribe to your posts without having to look you on Facebook.
Hashtags are a great tool. Use them to promote your conferences, special attractions, products, and brands. Hashtags not just let you market these items, but they may also enable you to hear what other people are saying about yourself. This is often a great way to both market your business and get feedback from your audience.
Develop quality content targeted for social networking. In case you are just haphazardly flinging words, advertising or a variety of mundane snippets on your customers, you then are squandering your time and losing their business. Be as concerned about your social content offerings when you are to the content in your business site.
Do not forget to discuss content too. Social network sites is not merely about posting your updates. You should most likely not comment on everything that looks too personal, since you wish to keep your relationship with your friends as professional as possible. If you find a post relevant to your industry, offer your input.
Link your social media marketing blog to email. In certain circles, this could be considered old hat, but there is still plenty of market being tapped via email. You can simply add a ’subscribe via email’ link to your page that will allow fans to have on the mailing list.
If you are considering using a social media consultant, make sure they are successful making connections on their social media marketing sites. If the company you chose is not going to make connections with others and get others that attempt to connect with them, it is very unlikely they are able to help you in doing this.
If you operate a blog or post regular updates to your site, share your updates on sites for example Twitter and facebook immediately. People may not look at your site constantly, but if they visit your links show up with their feed, they’ll still click them and browse over your site content.
When thinking about a firm blog, don’t forget to invite inside a guest blogger from time to time. A guest blogger could add new interest to the site and really grab the conversation. They can help you re-engage a crowd should your blog has slowed or stalled, and they might attract a whole new customer or two too.
This information has shown you a lot of methods that you could commence to move your business forward using social media advertising. Social networking may be the newest way that people are staying linked with each other. Companies are quickly jumping aboard too. You should be among those businesses.
For More Info On Buy Twitter Followers go to http://www.prfastmarketing.com today! Also check out http://www.prfastmarketing.com/real-twitter-followers.html for additional info on Buy Youtube Video Views as well. | <urn:uuid:cc8bc92e-62e3-45d4-80f6-1c6c854ac49f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://textinglol.com/members/elenaharvey/activity/76432 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9511 | 713 | 1.5 | 2 |
Q Thanks for your dedication to what might seem like a boring assignment but you provide a very important service. Too bad more people aren't reading -- I try to read all of them -- because it seems to me drivers are getting worse everyday. Cellphone use is probably the worst thing to mix with driving. I even see law enforcement doing it. Texting while driving, that's insane. I've seen people texting on the freeway doing speeds varying from too slow to too fast all unsafe.
Do you have any figures on cellphone/driving infractions? Clearly if law enforcement wants to, they could be writing tons..
Michael Bombardieri via email
A This assignment is never boring Michael and I wish more people read Street Smarts, too! Now about your concern: Distracted driving, particular that cause by illegal cellphone use, is "a huge" problem, local law enforcement officials said. And they do write their fair share of tickets to drivers who are violating the hands-free law.
Here's a snapshot of tickets written locally from the California Highway Patrol:
2010: 2,518 no hands-free device, 4 under 18 with any communication device, and 40 texting citations
2011: 2,858 no hands-free device, 9 under 18 with any communication device, and 116 texting citations
2012 (year to date): 2,892 no hands-free device, 13 under 18 any device, and 168
"As you can see, each category is increasing," said officer Sarah Jackson, CHP spokeswoman.
Being that officers see the damage done by distracted drivers every day, law enforcement takes texting/talking and driving quite seriously, she said, "as evidenced by the numbers above. We are also doing as much education on this topic as possible."
As for police officers using their cellphones while behind the wheel, there is an exemption for that in California Vehicle Code section 21055, "along with several other sections," said Sgt. Matt Eller, traffic sergeant for the Capitola Police Department.
"We do use our cellphone in the course of business," he said. "Even though we are exempt, the caveat is we must drive our vehicles 'safely.'"
Part of using cellphones for business includes protecting the privacy of crash victims and "tactical coordination amongst officers," said Jackson.
Members of the "media and private citizens monitor our patrol radio communications, she explained. "What we say and hear on our patrol radios is often either personal information or confidential tactical coordination amongst officers. I once investigated a tragic collision which took the life of a teenage boy. Because I did not have cell or mobile computer reception in the area, his identifying information had to be communicated via patrol radio. This creates a terrible situation when you consider parental notifications."
Learn more about distracted driving from the California Office of Traffic Safety at www.ots.ca.gov/docs/Distracted_Driving_Facts.doc.
Street Smarts appears Mondays and Thursdays. New topics are posted weekdays on the blog, at www.santacruzlive.com/blogs/streetsmarts. Follow it also on Twitter and Facebook. Submit questions to those aforementioned social media sites or to [email protected]. Make sure to include your name, city of residence and a phone number where you can be reached. | <urn:uuid:afe79994-4dfc-409d-996d-c5c46d79a719> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_22057532 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951878 | 691 | 1.742188 | 2 |
We just returned from a fantastic weekend at Camp Cooper up in the Coast Range.
Friday night Camp Cooper greeted us with a light rain, but not enough to dampen the spirits of the Troop 664. Saturday morning the rain turned to down pours, and still the Scouts of 664 drove on. Sunday morning we awoke to a fine dusting of fresh snow, a thing of beauty.
It was a fantastic weekend for those that made good choices. those that took chances had a little different experience, while those that stuck to fundamental Scout skills had a pleasant weekend.
There is a huge difference between making sound choices and taking chances.
This weekend was a great example of that principle.
Scouts knew that it was raining, when it rains you get wet…. UNLESS… you make a choice not to. You can choose to put your rain gear on… you can choose to put your boots inside your tent… you can choose to keep your gear under a cover… you can choose to zip your tent door and set it up with the door away from the wind.
You can take a chance that the rain drops will miss you. You can take a chance that your boots will stay dry as you hear the pitter patter of the rain on your tent. You can take a chance that your gear will stay dry sitting outside, and you can take the chance that the wind will not blow any water into your tent getting your sleeping bag wet.
Scout skills. As a scout develops and advances to First class he should be developing sound skills. First Aid, Cooking, Knot tying, and Camp craft. He should begin to become a good (seasoned) camper. The implication here is that he has developed skills that he can put to use in the outdoors, another way of saying he has learned enough to make sound choices.
Seasoned camper know that the experience of camping is better when done right. Just because you are in the heart of the wilderness, you do not have to suffer and be miserable.
Skills like developing a priority of work in camp. Getting the tents set up first, then the cooking area, and constantly improving your campsite. Developing in camp routines, like keeping all your gear in the backpack until you need an item. Packing your backpack so as to have easy access to the stuff you need. Putting your sleeping back in its stuff sack when not in use, creating a campsite that meets the needs of the task and the comfort of the patrol.
By the time a Scout is First class he should know these things and demonstrate them on a consistant basis. This is Scouting. All of this teaches the Scout to make sound decisions and choices that not only effect him, but others. It teaches and reinforces responsibility. It develops an attitude of caring for himself and his gear and working and living in a small group.
It is a good idea to develop these skills early before bad habits settle in. Breaking a bad habit may never happen in the life span of a Scouts stay in Scouting.
Of note: It is important that the Adults in the group develop and demonstrate the same skill sets. It is not ok for the Adult leaders to teach one thing and do another.
Making the Choice to be a Good camper is a heck of a lot better than leaving your camping experience to chance. The right Scout Skills, practiced with consistency will help you in that endeavor. | <urn:uuid:2c2d78f0-7894-440e-8114-c5eca08e37c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thescoutmasterminute.net/2007/11/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956936 | 698 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Despite Boomer evidence to the contrary, some people, mostly marketing specialists, still contend that after youth, people become stuck. They cling to the familiar. They don’t change toothpastes or cereal. They avoid anything new. But that is so last century, back before the likes of Facebook, iPhones, Twitter and …let me add, Zumba.
Earlier this year came the report that women age 55 and over make up the fastest growing user population on Facebook which made people like me want to give a high-five for being so “in.” Or did our joining mean Facebook was fading? Oh no. Boomers on board. Trend over. But, Facebook still thrives, as a homey blend of young people and aging groupies, kind of like a Bruce Springsteen audience.
It took me a while to sign up. Posting about your everyday life and aimless thoughts seemed so self-absorbed. But who was I kidding. I’m a columnist and a blogger. I’m already self-absorbed. Okay, but I am holding the line at Tweeting although I just read that Twitter, too, is being taken over by grown-ups.
For me joining Facebook was like going to a high school reunion, hooking up with old friends and getting to see what they look like after all these years. I’ve reconnected now with friends from high school and college days but my big score is finding a grade school friend from Hamden, Conn. who remembers stories about my family and the name of my first dog. She and I have now moved off Facebook into regular email so we can have more privacy. And we’ve even advanced to talking on the telephone.
Facebook is also a way of staying connected to popular culture. Not everyone thinks that is vital. Leave these new devices to the young, they say. But even if you don’t invest time and money in the latest trend or social networking gadget, don’t you want to be aware of them? At least enough to get the references in New Yorker cartoons.
One thing we’ve happily proven in all this is that technology is our world too. You don’t have to have a young brain or know how to type with your thumbs to play. If you can figure out how to reserve a library book online, you can Facebook.
And if you ever did Jazzercise you can Zumba. I know that’s a leap but trying out new moves is another way of keeping up.
We don’t want to be rhythmically challenged anymore than we want to be technically locked out.
Just as with Facebook, I came late to Zumba, the workout craze that combines Latin and African dance steps with good old aerobic moves. But I like the idea of mambo in the morning and the music alone makes you sweat. All body types and ages are welcome, at least at my gym, although there are definite differences in skill level.
The enthusiastic bodies in the front row are so sleek and agile they could be dancing on a table top in Rio with roses in their teeth. The rest of us are happy just to know our shimmy still works. | <urn:uuid:6cc9e4bf-8000-4df7-9fb9-324eac6151d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.juicytomatoes.com/tag/zumba/ | 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 | 0.962862 | 667 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Yesterday, Monday, May 10 the Seattle City Council approved ten new city landmarks, including three sites in Lower Queen Anne acknowledged for diverse architecture, art and historical significance.
Representing a number of neighborhoods, these ten landmarks exemplify the diversity and the rich cultural and architectural heritage of our City.
The nominations and designations for each landmark was approved by the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, which is staffed by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.
(Photo courtesy of Neil B. Waller via his Flickr page).
All three of the Queen Anne landmarks are located on the Seattle Center campus–the Seattle Center House, the Kobe Bell and the Horiuchi Mural, which is currently up for a Partners in Preservation restoration grant, one of 25 historic places in the Puget Sound area competing for community votes that will determine who will receive the funds. (Voting is open through May 12. More information here).
The other Seattle sites bumped up to landmark status include the the MGM Building in Belltown, the former First United Methodist Church in Downtown, the Sorrento Hotel in First Hill, the former Sixth Church of Christ in West Seattle, the Egan House in Capitol Hill, the Coca Cola Bottling Plant in First Hill, and Fire Station #13 in Beacon Hill. | <urn:uuid:12d144d5-db5d-4531-9fd3-dc6bc94232e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.queenanneview.com/tag/seattle-center-house/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947361 | 262 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Common Types of Scams
This is not intended to be complete list of scam types. Scam types are as numerous as are "con men".
The Internet Crime Complaint Center is the number 1 resource for reporting criminal activity related to Internet Crime. It is joint effort between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) which also forwards complaints to the appropriate local law enforcement agency having jurisdiction. | <urn:uuid:24ab41ac-3d29-4155-8ae6-8fd9edbc5aa3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weatherfordpd.org/WPDweb.nsf/LinksView/DDE09B749C7DF6F286257141004D68CB?Opendocument | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945168 | 85 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Ada Jane Rohu
TOST, JANE CATHARINE (c.1817-1889), and ROHU, ADA JANE (1848-1928), taxidermists and shopkeepers, were mother and daughter. Jane and her brother (Edwin) Henry (1812-1878) were born probably in London, children of John Herbert Ward, bird breeder, and his wife Catherine, and both took up taxidermy. On 1 April 1839 at St Anne's Church, Westminster, Jane married Charles Gottleibe Tost, a Prussian-born pianoforte maker. They were to have six children. In the 1840s and 1850s Jane was employed at the British Museum, preparing specimens under John Gould's direction, and may have also worked in Belgium.
Charles and Jane Tost and their children sailed from Liverpool in the Indian Queen and on 22 January 1856 reached Tasmania, where Jane took up a position stuffing and mounting specimens for the Royal Society of Tasmania at the Hobart Town Museum. They moved to Sydney in 1860, Jane offering her services as a ...Read more at the source website | <urn:uuid:2d4114f3-2577-4d8a-9705-10d1ee8d33ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://about.nsw.gov.au/collections/doc/ada-jane-rohu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985506 | 236 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Design for couture is integral. It cannot stand alone. It must work in proportion with the figure and personality of the wearer. The structure and form of the dress must succeed in creating a sense of balance. It is with this design philosophy that Oj Hofer works together with his clients.
While studying Fine Arts at UP Diliman, he also took courses in Clothing Technology in the same school. The original career plan was advertising, fully intending to work for a Manila agency after spending a brief post-graduation vacation. While in Cebu, he opened a shop with his cousin Ann. What was meant to be temporary turned out to be a full career spanning 20 years in the business.
He won a scholarship from the Philippine Trade Training Center, learning the many aspects of couture trade from teachers brought in by the government from the world's leading design centers. Oj related that his professors from the Chambre Syndicale in Paris and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York taught him his most valuable lessons. Heute couture took on a different face, a serious and deliberate one.
His creative process begins with a sketch like most fashion designers. What happens next is what distinguishes him from the others. While many are instinctive about their work, Oj follows a discipline. He finds a structure that will suit the proportions of the wearer, constructs his own patterns, and cuts initially on muslin. His first fitting is in muslin, perfecting the form in draft, using classic haute couture techniques. He carefully studies the grain of the final fabric so that it falls the way he wants and expects. Nothing is left to chance or guessing. The route from design to execution is planned and like his design, his process is structured.
His dresses can be seen as austere, devoid of flourish and embellishment. He describes it as an impression of economy of lines. This simplicity and purity allows his skill in construction to come through, to make it visible through the starkness of his design. It is difficult for most to appreciate this quiet sophistication considering that many Filipino women go for strong visual drama. But there are women that do, women whose sense of style is decidedly subdued and elegant.
There are two disciplines that Oj Hofer is known for: tailoring and draping. Both go back to structure, the essence of all his designs. It is a profound statement of style. | <urn:uuid:63e1cf04-195c-47d5-acba-68adadc7a3d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ojhofer.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977597 | 491 | 1.640625 | 2 |
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Chapter II.—Proofs from the plain testimony of Moses, and of the other prophets, whose words are the words of Christ, that there is but one God, the founder of the world, whom Our Lord preached, and whom He called His Father.
1. Moses, therefore, making a recapitulation of the whole law, which he had received from the Creator (Demiurge), thus speaks in Deuteronomy: “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.”38083808 Deut. xxxii. 1. Again, David saying that his help came from the Lord, asserts: “My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”38093809 Ps. cxxiv. 8. And Esaias confesses that words were uttered by God, who made heaven and earth, and governs them. He says: “Hear, O heavens; and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken.”38103810 Isa. i. 2. And again: “Thus saith the Lord God, who made the heaven, and stretched it out; who established the earth, and the things in it; and who giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them who walk therein.”38113811 Isa. xlii. 5.
2. Again, our Lord Jesus Christ confesses this same Being as His Father, where He says: “I 464 confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.”38123812 Matt. xi. 25; Luke x. 21. What Father will those men have us to understand [by these words], those who are most perverse sophists of Pandora? Whether shall it be Bythus, whom they have fabled of themselves; or their Mother; or the Only-begotten? Or shall it be he whom the Marcionites or the others have invented as god (whom I indeed have amply demonstrated to be no god at all); or shall it be (what is really the case) the Maker of heaven and earth, whom also the prophets proclaimed,—whom Christ, too, confesses as His Father,— whom also the law announces, saying: “Hear, O Israel; The Lord thy God is one God?”38133813 Deut. vi. 4.
3. But since the writings (literæ) of Moses are the words of Christ, He does Himself declare to the Jews, as John has recorded in the Gospel: “If ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, neither will ye believe My words.”38143814 John v. 46, 47. He thus indicates in the clearest manner that the writings of Moses are His words. If, then, [this be the case with regard] to Moses, so also, beyond a doubt, the words of the other prophets are His [words], as I have pointed out. And again, the Lord Himself exhibits Abraham as having said to the rich man, with reference to all those who were still alive: “If they do not obey Moses and the prophets, neither, if any one were to rise from the dead and go to them, will they believe him.”38153815 Luke xvi. 31.
4. Now, He has not merely related to us a story respecting a poor man and a rich one; but He has taught us, in the first place, that no one should lead a luxurious life, nor, living in worldly pleasures and perpetual feastings, should be the slave of his lusts, and forget God. “For there was,” He says, “a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and delighted himself with splendid feasts.”38163816 Luke xvi. 19.
5. Of such persons, too, the Spirit has spoken by Esaias: “They drink wine with [the accompaniment of] harps, and tablets, and psalteries, and flutes; but they regard not the works of God, neither do they consider the work of His hands.”38173817 Isa. v. 12. Lest, therefore, we should incur the same punishment as these men, the Lord reveals [to us] their end; showing at the same time, that if they obeyed Moses and the prophets, they would believe in Him whom these had preached, the Son of God, who rose from the dead, and bestows life upon us; and He shows that all are from one essence, that is, Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets, and also the Lord Himself, who rose from the dead, in whom many believe who are of the circumcision, who do also hear Moses and the prophets announcing the coming of the Son of God. But those who scoff [at the truth] assert that these men were from another essence, and they do not know the first-begotten from the dead; understanding Christ as a distinct being, who continued as if He were impassible, and Jesus, who suffered, as being altogether separate [from Him].
6. For they do not receive from the Father the knowledge of the Son; neither do they learn who the Father is from the Son, who teaches clearly and without parables Him who truly is God. He says: “Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.”38183818 Matt. v. 34. For these words are evidently spoken with reference to the Creator, as also Esaias says: “Heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool.”38193819 Isa. lxvi. 1. And besides this Being there is no other God; otherwise He would not be termed by the Lord either “God” or “the great King;” for a Being who can be so described admits neither of any other being compared with nor set above Him. For he who has any superior over him, and is under the power of another, this being never can be called either “God” or “the great King.”
7. But neither will these men be able to maintain that such words were uttered in an ironical manner, since it is proved to them by the words themselves that they were in earnest. For He who uttered them was Truth, and did truly vindicate His own house, by driving out of it the changers of money, who were buying and selling, saying unto them: “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”38203820 Matt. xxi. 13. And what reason had He for thus doing and saying, and vindicating His house, if He did preach another God? But [He did so], that He might point out the transgressors of His Father’s law; for neither did He bring any accusation against the house, nor did He blame the law, which He had come to fulfil; but He reproved those who were putting His house to an improper use, and those who were transgressing the law. And therefore the scribes and Pharisees, too, who from the times of the law had begun to despise God, did not receive His Word, that is, they did not believe on Christ. Of these Esaias says: “Thy princes are rebellious, companions of thieves, loving gifts, following after rewards, not judging the fatherless, and negligent of the cause of the widows.”38213821 Isa. i. 23. And Jeremiah, in like manner: 465 “They,” he says, “who rule my people did not know me; they are senseless and imprudent children; they are wise to do evil, but to do well they have no knowledge.”38223822 Jer. iv. 22.
8. But as many as feared God, and were anxious about His law, these ran to Christ, and were all saved. For He said to His disciples: “Go ye to the sheep of the house of Israel,38233823 Matt. x. 6. which have perished.” And many more Samaritans, it is said, when the Lord had tarried among them, two days, “believed because of His words, and said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we ourselves have heard [Him], and know that this man is truly the Saviour of the world.”38243824 John iv. 41. And Paul likewise declares, “And so all Israel shall be saved;”38253825 Rom. xi. 26. but he has also said, that the law was our pedagogue [to bring us] to Christ Jesus.38263826 Gal. iii. 24. Let them not therefore ascribe to the law the unbelief of certain [among them]. For the law never hindered them from believing in the Son of God; nay, but it even exhorted them38273827 Num. xxi. 8. so to do, saying38283828 This passage is quoted by Augustine, in his treatise on original sin, written to oppose Pelagius (lib. i. c. ii.), about 400 A.D. that men can be saved in no other way from the old wound of the serpent than by believing in Him who, in the likeness of sinful flesh, is lifted up from the earth upon the tree of martyrdom, and draws all things to Himself,38293829 John xii. 32, John iii. 14. and vivifies the dead.
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Music fans might not want to miss a minute of this weekend's Monterey Jazz Festival, the 55th edition of the annual celebration of all that jazz and a few other genres at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. Fortunately, Stanford University's Archive of Recorded Sound is making sure that no one has to, at least as far as posterity is concerned.
The archive's Monterey Jazz Festival Collection includes audio and/or video recordings of nearly 9,000 performances from the first staging in 1958 to 2011 — about 1,000 hours of content — with another three days' worth headed there soon. While geared toward research, the archive offers public online access to 35 of its treasures and rarities, including:
— historic performances by a wide range of artists, from a recording of Billie Holiday singing "God Bless the Child" just a few months before her death in 1958, to appearances by Thelonious Monk. Jean-Luc Ponty, Tito Puente and the Pointer Sisters;
— educational programs with the likes of Berkeley native Joshua Redman and Patricia Rushen;
— oral histories and interviews with giants such as Dizzy Gillespie and the Bay Area's own Dave Brubeck;
— "third stream" (classical and jazz fusion) music by Max Roach and other innovators;
— commissioned works — a festival feature since 1959 — by Don Byron and Maria Schneider, among others;
— and highlights from the popular Blues in the Afternoon tradition, another festival fixture from early on, including performances by John Lee Hooker and Jon Hendricks.
"In the early years, there are a few gaps, some years for which we don't have all the recordings, but all the recordings from 1984 on are complete," said Jerry McBride, head of Stanford's Music Library and the archive. "In some of the early years, they only had recordings from the main stage, and other venues were not recorded. But in recent years, it's pretty much all of the recordings are all there."
The festival, which also provided the photos for the retrospective gallery with this article, has found the archived recordings to be a valuable source for festival anniversary and artist-themed album releases over the years. But before the collection came to the Stanford archive in 1984, "some of the tapes were actually stored under the stage at the Monterey Fairgrounds and had suffered a little bit of damage," McBride noted.
Thanks to grants from the National Park Service's Save America's Treasures program, the Grammy Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, not to mention the work of operations manager Aurora Perez and other assistants, the vintage recordings have all been digitized, McBride said, adding, "Now we receive everything in in digital form to begin with."
As for the original materials, they're "in remote storage with state-of-the-art library preservation, including temperature and humidity control," McBride said. "They won't last forever, but then nothing ever does. We hope to hang onto them as long as possible."
Jeanne Cooper is the former Chronicle Travel Editor and author of SFGate's Hawaii Insider, a daily blog about Hawaii travel and island culture. | <urn:uuid:a2e09190-a430-42be-ad80-f787a0388e9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfgate.com/travel/centralcoasting/article/55-years-of-the-Monterey-Jazz-Festival-3875051.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96299 | 651 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Unfortunately, sometimes life forces us to make decisions that are difficult and uncomfortable. I recently moved on from my previous school and started a new opportunity in February. It was tough to make the decision to leave my students and parents I had known and established such close relationships with for almost two years.
It was a situation that had been tormenting me for some time, but I was determined to make it work and exhaust all measures before walking away. There were lots of sleepless nights, tears, prayers, questioning of my career choices and exhausting the listening ears of many family members and friends. I finally made my choice to leave.
I don’t want to make it seem as I though I am expecting any one school building or district to be perfect because I know that is not the case. I think everyone early in his or her career would want to be in a place where he or she feels nurtured, supported professionally and most of all in an environment that shares your personal and professional values and ethics.
CEC provides us with that very foundation in the CEC Ethical Principles and Practice Standards for Special Education Professionals. I admit that not being able to meet some of those very principles bothered me and being somewhere where they were not fully valued made it very hard to attain them. In my former situation, trying to work according to those ethical principles became very isolating and challenging.
The hardest part, besides feeling as though I had failed when making the decision to walk away, was leaving my students behind. Just as I was about to call it quits for the school year, a phone call came in for the new opportunity. I love teaching and couldn’t deny my calling or the opportunity to continue to grow professionally.
It’s no easier to start over by walking into a mid-year position. I still have to build new relationships and learn a new system, but I am open to the process and look forward to new beginnings in my mid-year change.
I would like to hear from any of you Reality 101 readers who ever found themselves making a tough decision similar to mine and how you came out on top. Like always I leave you with a good quote to remember: “Just keep believing. This is an opportunity where great things can happen and let’s be great right now.” – Tim Tebow | <urn:uuid:618fef0e-7910-422a-86bf-64e5d3a32386> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cecreality101.org/2013/03/charmelle-a-mid-year-change-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987641 | 479 | 1.671875 | 2 |
A convergence of remodeling projects in Borrego Springs’ town core is bringing new life to what many say has been a neglected business district.
“We’re succeeding in turning the downtown into a friendlier and better-looking place that is more attractive and appealing,” said Gwenn Marie, a board member of the Borrego Village Association, the development arm of the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce.
Borrego’s most notable current project is the refurbishment of the building on southwest Christmas Circle where it meets Palm Canyon Drive. Formerly occupied by the Borrego Valley Foods Market, the 8,000-square-foot structure has been vacant for about seven years. A $400,000 donation from residents Jim and Anne Wermers last year allowed the Borrego Art Institute to buy it. Local architect Richard Orne volunteered to redesign the building, which will provide offices and a gallery for the institute, as well as a restaurant and two retail spaces.
“This was a horribly mistreated building that had become an eyesore in town,” Orne said.
For preservationists, the building’s demise was particularly painful because it was designed in the 1950s by William Kesling, a prolific midcentury modern architect who also created the Borrego Desert Club. The recent discovery of Kesling’s original drawings for the building gave the project new direction, Orne said.
“Originally we were going to do a historical renovation but the building has been modified and changed so many times, there was no way to know what was built,” he said. “Now we have his original vision.”
Those concepts include replacing the previous doorway locations and using steel rather than aluminum for the storefront. Kesling’s characteristic floating roof will remain intact, as will the concrete block detailing. A new patio with umbrella tables and art exhibits will be added. Funding for the project, expected to cost $900,000, has been through private donations. Orne said $600,000 has been raised so far.
Other Borrego Springs business district upgrades include:
• The Anza Borrego Desert Natural History Association bought the 6,400-square-foot building last year that it has occupied at 652 Palm Canyon Drive since 1999. The association’s executive director, Betsy Knaak, said the organization has raised $120,000 toward a $180,000 goal, which will pay off a second loan used to buy the property, as well as $80,000 in improvements. The improvements include new electrical and plumbing, exterior siding, roof repairs and installation of a new restroom. The acquisition also provides ABDNHA with 1.3 acres to be used for outdoor programs and social events.
• In March, Palm Canyon Equities purchased two 1,250-square-foot structures at 642 Palm Canyon Drive. Realty company Coldwell Banker is leasing the street-front building, which was originally designed as a real estate office when it was built in the ’50s, said Kathy King, co-owner of the Coldwell Banker branch. Improvements include painting, electrical and plumbing upgrades, and a plan to restore the wood exterior. The rear building will be converted to leasable office space.
• On April 20, SDG&E brought its vegetation management team to Borrego, where they joined community members to plant about 30 native palms and 20 other desert-friendly trees along the north side of Palm Canyon Drive. Roadrunner Tree Farm and Torres Desert Nursery donated most of the trees; an additional $17,000 was raised to pay for other plants and irrigation. The effort, part of the Borrego Village Association’s Palm Canyon Vitalization Plan, mirrors a 2011 planting on the road’s south side.
• The village association is installing memorial concrete benches along Palm Canyon Drive. Six of the $1,000 benches were put in last fall, and six more are expected this summer.
Christy Scannell is a freelance writer from San Diego. | <urn:uuid:c5f9c1f4-afe0-486f-b5a5-ec283f0eb07a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/may/19/tp-improvements-under-way-for-center-of-borrego/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965632 | 845 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The City Colleges is planning to markedly increase the size of a special tax district in Englewood that will help pay for tearing down the old Kennedy-King College.
The tax increment finance district, or TIF, would divert millions of dollars in property taxes to help pay for projects to reduce blight – such as redeveloping the old Kennedy-King site.
The TIF has not been formed yet, but the proposed expansion means the City Colleges is shelling out nearly $190,000 more than it already has to craft the proposal. And it has one alderman concerned about the lack of transparency in the process.
Initially, City Colleges officials wanted the TIF to cover the area around the old campus, located at Marquette and Wentworth.
But at a recent meeting, the district said its consultant suggested expanding the district to cover a 96-block area stretching more than a mile south of the old Kennedy-King. That would make the TIF district twice the size of Washington Park.
“The building is scheduled to be leveled and we will have vacant land that the city believes will be advantageous for development, both residential and commercial,” Diane Minor, a vice chancellor, said at a meeting last week.
Minor could not be reached to answer additional questions about why the TIF is growing. Molly Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Community Development, says she is not familiar with the project. Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (D-6), whose ward includes much of the new TIF, did not return a call seeking comment.
The planned expansion has Ald. Scott Waguespack (D-32), an advocate of TIF reform, concerned.
“You would think that they would have considered (making it bigger) right off the bat,” Waguespack says. “That suddenly there is another expansion in this direction, when you start expanding that way, it just kind of shows that you don’t have a solid plan in the first place.”
In October, the City Colleges approved spending $103,000 to have a consultant draw up plans for the new TIF district – at that time, just the area around the old campus.
Last week, the district approved spending an extra $188,000, or nearly triple the money in total, so that Johnson Research could pursue a TIF covering a larger area.
A document signed by Chancellor Wayne Watson indicates that Johnson Research met with city officials and local officials over the size of the TIF.
That “resulted in the City’s recommendation to expand the initial TIF District boundaries from just the campus footprint to include additional property,” the document says.
But Waguespack says those discussions should include community members, and that every property owner in the area should have been invited.
“I don’t think they should expand it without talking to or inviting every single person there,” Waguespack says.
Much of the added cost for the old Kennedy-King TIF comes from having to review the nearly 3,300 properties in the TIF area, send mailings to all of those property owners and survey the area. Public hearings will happen later, once the TIF’s boundaries are established.
So far, the district has not said how much money it expects to raise from the TIF.
Demolishing the old Kennedy-King is budgeted at $10 million and the TIF funds would cover that, district officials have said.
Expanding the TIF district would help pay for construction projects at other City Colleges campuses, district documents say.
“What we’ve seen quite a bit is these expansions are not really make public until the last moment or until the deal is already done,” Waguespack says.
Daily News Staff Writer Peter Sachs covers higher education. He can be reached at 773.362.5002, ext. 18, or peter [at] chitowndailynews [dot] org. | <urn:uuid:02ff5ce4-6e22-4559-8cf7-99493f7c8e07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chitowndailynews.org/2009/07/23/City-Colleges-expanding-Englewood-TIF-30306.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958215 | 833 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Time to Enter the 21st Century (9/3/08)
It's hard to understand New Albany Mayor Doug England's veto of a city anti-smoking ordinance.
Here's an invitation to Mr. England -- and the New Albany City Council members who have meekly agreed not to try to override his veto: Please do your city a favor and join the rest of us here in the 21st century where the air is cleaner, people breathe easier and smoking is becoming more and more socially unacceptable.
After admitting smoking is harmful to smokers and non-smokers alike, England justified his veto by saying "part of our local economy and certain local groups thrive on the consumption of tobacco products." But we're talking about the medical well-being of an entire community vs. the economic concerns of a relative minority.
England says he'd have supported a compromise measure that would exempt certain kinds of businesses and organizations based on a variety of qualifications. But that's the failed path Louisville originally tried to take. And you saw how well that worked.
My guess is his decision had nothing to do with logic. It came as a result of a lack of courage, and that's where you come in. I suggest you call the mayor and your city council members and give them the courage to ban smoking. Give them permission to do the right thing.
I'm Bill Lamb, and that's my...Point of View. | <urn:uuid:3765c80c-0a92-44f3-82f2-730e55c05985> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wdrb.com/story/8945884/time-to-enter-the-21st-century-9308 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971782 | 288 | 1.539063 | 2 |
MLB.com's Jennifer Langlosch interviews Hal Smith, the Man Who Would Have Been the Hero of the 1960 World Series.
Smith entered Game 7 in the 8th inning for the Pirates as a replacement for starting catcher Smokey Burgess, who had been pinch run for. The Yankees led 7-4 coming into the inning, but the Pirates had rallied to make it 7-6 on a RBI single from Dick Groat and another from Roberto Clemente.
With Groat on third and Clemente on first, Smith hit a Jim Coates offering over the fence in left field to give the Pirates a 9-7 lead heading to the ninth.
"I missed a fastball," Smith recalled, referring to the second pitch in the at-bat. "I took a hard swing."
He'd get another try at the fastball two pitches later.
"I remember very well that when I hit it that it would be a home run," Smith said. "It wasn't until I rounded second base and saw the people standing up on the dugout and going crazy that I realized that this was something special. That's when it sunk in how big this was."
But the Yankees rallied to tie the game in the top of the ninth. And then came Mazeroski.
The story from MLB.com doesn't even include a picture of Smith. It has the iconic photo of Mazeroski heading to home instead.
So, to remedy that, here is Hal Smith.
When I first did this piece, I actually ran a picture of another Hal Smith. There were two in the majors, both catchers, around the same time. | <urn:uuid:ac6c3e45-b570-4f91-9034-d6cd327b7908> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://griddle.baseballtoaster.com/archives/1029136.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972361 | 339 | 1.601563 | 2 |
(CNN) -- Former CIA Director David Petraeus is expected to tell House and Senate committees Friday that soon after the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, it suspected Ansar al Sharia was responsible. But just what is Ansar al Sharia, and why wasn't it identified as a prime suspect two months ago?
There is no easy answer.
Ansar al Sharia is more a label than an organization, one that's been adopted by conservative Salafist groups across the Arab world. The name means, simply, "Partisans of Islamic Law."
In Benghazi, Ansar al Sharia was one of many groups that filled the vacuum of authority following the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi. Its members guarded the Al Jala hospital in Tripoli, where a number of the war's wounded were treated. For a while, the group provided security at the airport, according to Noman Benotman, a senior fellow at the Quilliam Foundation in London who has closely followed the evolution of the Libyan brigades.
Ansar al Sharia took over a security building in Tripoli following Gadhafi's ouster and came up with a logo -- a pair of AK-47s, a clenched first and an open Koran.
The group's central belief is that all authority is derived from the Prophet Mohammed, that democracy is un-Islamic and that other branches of Islam, such as the Sufi, are heretical. Ansar al Sharia and members of another brigade, dubbed the Libyan Shield, have been accused of destroying Sufi shrines near Benghazi days before the attack on the consulate.
The description on the Twitter feed of Ansar al Sharia of Benghazi proclaims: "The goals of Ansar al-Sharia brigade is to implement the laws of Allah on the land, and reject the human implemented laws and earthly made constitutions. There will be nothing ruling in this country other than the laws of Allah."
As with many of the brigades that roam Libya, Ansar al Sharia in Benghazi appears to have a fluid membership in the low-hundreds but some identifiable leaders, who have denied the group had any part in the consulate attack.
In Benghazi, the membership includes Mohammed al-Zahawi and Sheikh Nasser al-Tarshani, its religious authority. Neither has been detained. Al-Zahawi -- who fought to overthrow Gadhafi -- has given a number of interviews since the September 11 attack on the consulate.
In a BBC interview a week after attack, al-Zahawi denied Ansar al Sharia had any role in the attack, but said the group would not give up its weapons.
"We are in a battle with the liberals, the secularists and the remnants of Gadhafi," he told the BBC.
Al-Tarshani told The Irish Times the attack was wrong.
"The killing of the ambassador was not intentional — he died as a result of suffocation," he told Mary Fitzgerald in a telephone interview.
He also said that just because the assailants carried the black flag often associated with Salafist groups, it did not mean Ansar al Sharia was responsible. A CNN analysis of photographs of a large Islamist parade in Benghazi in June -- and similar shows of strength elsewhere -- indicates the flag is widely used by Libyan Islamist militia.
Another prominent Ansar al Sharia figure is former Guantanamo Bay detainee Sufian bin Qumu. But his "patch" is east of Benghazi, near the town of Derna. In the wake of the September 11 consulate attack, the 53-year old bin Qumu is thought by analysts to have left the area for a hide-out in the nearby coastal mountain range.
Al-Tarshani told The Irish Times that the Benghazi group had nothing to do with him.
Benotman, himself a former Libyan jihadist, thinks that blaming Ansar al Sharia for the attack oversimplifies the situation. He told CNN in September that its loose structure made it easy for any group with a terror agenda to infiltrate it because of a shared ideology.
One such group, Benotman said, was the Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades, named for the blind Egyptian Sheikh imprisoned in the United States for his role in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. The group claimed responsibility for a crude IED attack on the Benghazi consulate in June.
There does not appear to be organizational links between Ansar al Sharia and al Qaeda, but there is solidarity. Al-Zahawi praised al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri in his BBC interview, and said al Qaeda's statements "help galvanize the Muslim nation, maintain its dignity and pride."
Benotman said most people in Benghazi have little time for the Islamist brigades, as evidenced by the crowd of thousands who attacked Ansar al Sharia's headquarters in the days following the consulate attack. But he says their animosity was less ideological than borne of frustration.
"They felt the attack on consulate was a threat to their well-being. For many of the protestors, it's an opportunity to help the government make serious decisions to boost security in Benghazi," he said.
U.S. unsure of Ansar role
The narrative from U.S. officials -- on the record and off -- about who was responsible for the consulate attack in Benghazi has been, at best, confusing.
In part, that's because of the blurred lines and overlapping memberships of the different militia. On the day of the attack, a U.S. diplomatic cable sent from Benghazi described a meeting of several brigade commanders with U.S. officials two days earlier.
According to the cable, during the meeting Libyan Shield commander Ben Hamed and another Islamist militia leader "discussed the very fluid relationships and blurry lines they say define membership in the Benghazi based Brigades under the February 17, Libya Shield, and SSC [Supreme Security Committee, a Libyan government created fighting outfit] umbrellas."
Hamed and the other militia leader described themselves as members of multiple brigades, the cable said.
Then there are the conflicting reports from U.S. officials.
On September 18th, a U.S. official told CNN that Ansar al Sharia had not been positively identified as responsible for the attack, "which is more likely to turn out to be a bunch of various elements and basically (al Qaeda) militants."
Another senior official told CNN: "Ansar al Sharia is only one of the elements they are looking at. The notion that the intelligence community has zeroed in on either Ansar al Sharia -- its leader Sufian bin Qumu in particular -- is completely untrue."
At the same time, Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told a congressional panel: "We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda's affiliates -- in particular, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb."
The possibility that al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was somehow involved in the attack was recently revived by U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command.
"It appears to me very likely that some of the terrorists who participated in the attack in Benghazi have at least some linkages to AQIM," Ham told reporters in Paris this week.
At other times U.S. officials have suggested that Libyan jihadists who fought with al Qaeda in Iraq played a role along with Egyptian militants.
Little is known about who Libyan authorities detained in the wake of the consulate attack, and whether they are still detained.
A Tunisian, meanwhile, has been detained in connection with the attack, though nothing is known publicly about his links to Ansar al Sharia. Ani Ali al Harzi was arrested in Turkey and is now being held in Tunis.
What can be said with some confidence is that the Salafist trend has been revitalized across the Arab world as dictatorships have crumbled. A number of Ansar al Sharia groups have emerged not only in Libya but in Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco.
"The Muslims today are not like they were before," al-Tarshani told the BBC. "They cannot stand any action that would insult our Prophet or other symbols." | <urn:uuid:08aa7ecc-4b8e-4164-b9af-bfaf1286ec48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/16/politics/benghazi-ansar-al-sharia/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970898 | 1,700 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Bluefield State College, Concord University, and RESA I Collaborate During Writing Training Program
CreatedMonday, August 29 2011
Created byJim Nelson/Media Relations - (304) 327-4103 [email protected]
|Bluefield State College students and faculty representatives participated in a recent "Working on Writing (WOW) Factors" training program at Concord University. The BSC participants (left-to-right) included students Amanda Blevins and Laura Goforth, Bluefield State College faculty members Dr. Tammy Ferguson and Dr. Betsy Steenken, and BSC student Lisa Campbell. The program was underwritten by a $75,000 grant from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.|
(Bluefield)—Bluefield State College, Concord University and Regional Educational Service Area I (RESA I) worked together to sharpen their "WOW Factor." Through a $75,000 grant from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC), the three educational entities participated in a "Working on Writing (WOW) Factors" training program at Concord University earlier this month.
"The research-based grant was designed to provide educators with the tools, lessons, and extension activities to link assessment and instruction to the process of writing," Keith Butcher, RESA I Executive Director, explained. The weeklong program involved teacher education students and educators from BSC and Concord, as well as RESA I personnel.
BSC Associate Professor of English Dr. Tamara Ferguson worked with Concord faculty members Dr. Kathy Hawks, Dr. William Williams, and Dr. Rick Druggish to design and deliver the workshop, and Dr. David Haus (Dean/BSC School of Arts & Sciences) taught participants about the options and fundamentals of "Blackboard" instructional technology. BSC students Lisa Campbell, Amanda Blevins, and Laura Goforth, all majoring in education, joined several Concord education majors during the workshop, as well.
"We are extremely grateful for the assistance of Dr. Mark Stotler, Assistant Director of Academic Affairs/HEPC and the Policy Commission for their support," Butcher continued. "This workshop prepares southern West Virginia teachers in grades 3, 4, and 5 in the essential bridge that links assessment and instruction to the process of writing."
The grant provided an opportunity for professional development for public school teachers and teacher education students from both participating institutions. It also underwrote the teaching materials, training, and stipends for participants to attend training developed by Dr. Ferguson and the Concord faculty, followed up by school visits later in the academic year. Finally, the grant provides for training by the West Virginia Department of Education for "West Virginia Writes," a statewide professional development initiative in writing for RESAs, administrators, and teachers in the areas of process writing, writing assessment, content-area writing, on-demand writing, and technology and writing in the 21st century.
"I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project because I learned so much from the collaboration," Dr. Ferguson added. "The experience enables me to start the fall semester highly motivated and equipped with new methods and ideas. | <urn:uuid:0488b9e6-323b-45ca-8e4c-74789f480621> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bluefieldstate.edu/about/news/item/1828-bluefield-state-college-concord-university-and-resa-i-collaborate-during-writing-training-program | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948181 | 639 | 1.5 | 2 |
David Fink, owner of Heidel Hollow Farm, described the farm’s energy savings from the 896 panel solar array funded by USDA Rural Development to USDA officials and others gathered at his farm.
The sun shone brightly on the 896 panel solar array at Heidel Hollow Farm in Germansville, Penn., as USDA Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary Cheryl L. Cook, other USDA officials and guests celebrated the farm’s successful renewable energy project and the announcement of a new USDA Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Report. Heidel Hollow Farm, a family-owned, 1,600 acre hay farm, was awarded two USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grants in 2010. The grants were used toward a solar energy project that provides approximately 252,800 KW of electricity used in the hay compressing operation of the farm and an energy efficiency project that replaced one diesel engine with five electric motors, saving over 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year. The compactor increases the density of baled hay by 2 1/2 times for more efficient shipping to overseas customers. Read more »
Rural development officials from Hatay Province, Turkey were in the United States recently to learn about USDA Rural Development programs at the national level and in Nebraska. Hatay Governor Mehmet Celalettio Lekesiz, Hatay Rural Development Agency Director Savas Ozgursoy and four agency staff were on the delegation tour.
Turkey will soon be joining the European Union and Hatay is one of the 20 Turkish provinces chosen for the first phase of EU assistance to support the establishment of a rural development agency. Hatay is in southeast Turkey, bordering Syria and on the Mediterranean Sea. The first settlement goes back to 40,000 to 9,000 BC when the main city of Antioch was founded by one of Alexander the Great’s generals. Read more »
“Small towns and rural communities need assistance from USDA Rural Development, now more than ever.” That was the consensus of attendees participating in a breakout session at the National Association of Towns and Townships (NATaT) annual meeting in Washington in early September. During and after the session Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Cheryl Cook heard accounts of how local Rural Development staff have made a difference in the economic health of rural communities in states including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Many described the positive impact of investments made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act over the last two years, but expressed concern for the future. Water systems, broadband access, and fire and rescue capabilities were frequently cited as critical foundational investments every community needs. But many said finding private partners willing to lend on affordable terms is a challenge for smaller communities that have a limited tax base. Read more »
Thomas Williams, Pennsylvania Rural Development State Director, talks about the USDA Rural Energy for America Program with Roxanne Molnar, funding recipient (center) and Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Cheryl Cook. REAP funding enabled Molnar Farms to install computer-controlled radiant heaters to reduce energy costs. Cook and Williams toured the farm earlier this month.
USDA Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary Cheryl Cook and Thomas Williams, Rural Development Pennsylvania State Director recently conducted a Small Business Council meeting at the Lebanon Valley Chamber of Commerce, followed by a visit to Molnar Farms, a local Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) recipient. Roxanne Molnar explained to the USDA officials how $20,000 in REAP funds was used to install computer-controlled radiant heaters and ceiling vents to modernize a 40,000 chicken house to keep the chickens healthy in the extreme heat and cold. Read more »
Farm owners Kurt and Frank Dill speaking to Buddy Hance at a Maryland Earth Day event that was held to highlight the completion of the improvements made to the Worton wastewater system.
A few scattered showers didn’t dampen spirits at a Maryland Earth Day event to highlight the completion of the improved Worton Wastewater Treatment Plant, Tuesday April 19. Read more »
Recently, I joined USDA, Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary Cheryl Cook, employees of The Progress Fund, and several of their loan recipients for a funding announcement under Rural Development’s Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP). RMAP was authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill and the program is already helping many small rural businesses. Under the program, funds are provided to an intermediary who “re-lends” to entrepreneurs. Deputy Under Secretary Cook announced that The Progress Fund, in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, has been awarded a loan and a grant through the program. The Progress Fund has made more than 97 microloans in rural areas. It is expected the assistance provided by this funding will help create or save over 22 jobs. Following the announcement, we all enjoyed products from Emerald Valley Artisans, including a test sample of the new Hills Tavern Blue cheese. Read more » | <urn:uuid:91880afc-0634-408f-a0c1-7b011a2cf5d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.usda.gov/tag/cheryl-cook/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939904 | 1,012 | 1.828125 | 2 |
It’s a story you may have heard before: A drunk guy gets in a cab. His driver has dark skin, a beard and a turban. The passenger calls the driver racial names and beats him so viciously, the driver lands in the hospital and the passenger goes to jail.
Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif (left) and Walli Mujahidh aim machine guns purchased from a police informant in 2011. Mujahidh is scheduled for sentencing on April 8.
Credit John Ryan
Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif's wife, Binta Moussa-Davis, and his attorney, Jennifer Wellman, on the federal courthouse steps after he was sentenced to 18 years for plotting to attack a military processing center.
As part of the agreement with the Department of Justice to implement reforms in the Seattle Police Department, Mayor Mike McGinn proposed the creation of a Community Police Commission. The 13-member commission, selected by the mayor and City Council, is supposed to ensure that the police are acting lawfully and safely.
The commission still has to be confirmed by the City Council, but Ross Reynolds sits down with commission co-chair and deputy director of the Defender Association, Lisa Daugaard, to discuss what the commission can and hopes to accomplish.
We talk with Merrick Bobb, Seattle's new federally appointed independent police monitor. He began working in the field of police accountability 20 years ago, following the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. In Seattle, he'll help implement an overhaul of the SPD’s use-of-force procedures and establish guidelines for citizen contacts and stops. | <urn:uuid:f8c85ed7-5cfa-4c2d-bc53-8cd0176721e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kuow.org/term/department-justice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95154 | 330 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Of course it can cause stiff fingers. Or sore wrists, arms, shoulders, backs, hips, necks. The causes are bad posture, too much guitar weight, or over-stressing muscles and joints from overuse.
Getting the action lowered can help. If you use heavy gauge strings consider switching to some that are lighter. Some players like heavy strings for the sound, but pressing and bending strings with high action, or heavy gauge can over stress the joints and ligaments too.
Go talk to a good guitar tech, or a luthier, and see if the neck is a good fit for your hand. Everybody's hand size is different, both in the palm and fingers, which is why they make guitar necks in different radiuses and widths. Having to reach around a neck that is too wide for your hand, or across a fingerboard that is too wide for your fingers will cause RSI, leading to stiffness.
Also, though we never like to think it can happen, arthritis can set in as we age, so it might be good to talk to your doctor. They'll probably recommend ice after you play/practice to help reduce swelling, but it's better to find out for sure.
And, yes, an electric can supply lighter action/string tension, but you have to watch out for the body weight. I played a '78 Les Paul Custom for years, and it got too heavy for me, causing neck and shoulder pain. Another player in town has one also, and says it hurts his neck, shoulder and hips. So, you could jump from the frying pan into the fire if you get something too heavy. | <urn:uuid:0ea547f8-bb67-4703-8595-368e9343e40c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/2580/can-guitar-playing-cause-stiff-fingers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973011 | 336 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Julius Genachowski to Announce Resignation as FCC Head (Report)
The Democrat appointed in 2009 would be the second commissioner this week to reveal plans to step down.
Julius Genachowski will step down as head of the FCC, the agency that regulates cable, broadcast and telephone companies, and will announce his departure as early as Friday, according to reports from Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.
The resignation of Chairman Genachowski, a Democrat appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009, would mark the second FCC commissioner this week to say he would leave the agency, as Robert McDowell, a Republican first appointed in 2006, said Wednesday he was quitting.
Replacements for both commissioners would need to be appointed by Obama and approved by the Senate. Obama could elevate one of the remaining three members to replace Genachowski as chairman, or one of his new appointees could assume the role.
Genachowski's reign as chairman marked a contrast with previous FCC panels, as he focused on technologies and regulations designed to promote access to broadband while de-emphasizing broadcast indecency and the loosening of media-ownership rules, which were priorities when Republicans ruled the FCC under President George W. Bush.
The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Primary Source Info
||... uiuens in Dei seruitio Inhripis ...
|Date from Source
||Before the great plague (when Eadwald 4 died).
*Wilfrid 2 ordered the mother (Anonymous 131) to give Eadwald 4 back to him at the age of seven but she fled from her land and Eadwald 4 was subsequently found by Hocca 2, who forceably removed him and handed him to Wilfrid 2.
*Eadwald 4 stayed at Ripon untikl he died at the time of the great death ('in mortalitate magna diem obiit')
Persons associated with this Factoid:
Locations associated with this Factoid: | <urn:uuid:10d91eaa-ca4c-401a-9273-b70f93168d2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pase.ac.uk/jsp/FactoidDisplay/OccupationDisplay.jsp?factoidKey=5698 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933905 | 152 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Designed by Gonzalez Goodale Architects of Pasadena, the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools are on a 24-acre campus that sits on the former site of the famed Ambassador Hotel. It is home to six new pilot schools, delivering innovative K-12 education in a modern, integrated campus environment.
The campus includes a new public park, master planned by Gonzalez Goodale, that will bring much-needed green space to one of Los Angeles’ most dense urban neighborhoods.
According to firm president Armando L. Gonzalez, FAIA, the goal of Gonzalez Goodale was to integrate the school into the community.
We hope that this project will serve as an inspiration not only to the students and teachers that work and learn here, but also as a model of what is possible in terms of creating an institution that will enrich the entire neighborhood.
Gonzalez Goodale designed separate access to many facilities including the library, a theater, two gymnasiums, soccer fields and a 25-meter swimming pool to encourage public use after hours.
The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools is unabashedly dedicated to connecting its students with a more communal life, and connecting members of the community to each other… This is a milestone not only for us, but for Los Angeles as well. We’re proud to take part in upholding Robert F. Kennedy’s legacy.
David L. Goodale, AIA, design principal at Gonzalez Goodale Architects
+ Architect’s statement by Gonzalez Goodale Architects
The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools houses 4,200 students in an integrated K-12 of six pilot schools, on a 24-acre site. This site, in the Mid-Wilshire District, was formerly the Myron-Hunt designed Ambassador Hotel, where RFK was assassinated in 1968, following his victory speech in the California Primary.
The project marks a distinct shift in typology: California public schools have primarily been ‘one-off’ designs devoid of urban context. This campus aggressively embraces both urban history and urban fabric. By responding to the grids and axes of the surrounding city – and of the hotel that was once seated in it – the school provides cinematic viewpoints, both outside-in and inside-out, that reward the school’s inhabitants with a sense of urban connection and continuity.
The principal challenge of this project was to synthesize the aspirations of a vast range of stakeholders while still forging a work that retains coherence and integrity. The establishment of broad initial principles and values among the client-planning team – related to urbanism, joint use, urgency of school seats, and the pedagogical combination of both campus integration and campus decentralization – provided a framework around which project leadership could cohere and make sound decisions in the face of single-interest advocacies.
A second – physical – challenge was to overcome the divorce of the site’s original grading from the city street system, and to literally – re-ground the site’s perimeter. Bringing the southerly portion of the site (the K-5 Pilot Schools) down 30’ to the level of 8th Street required a substantial investment in re-grading. Through design, the resultant grade differences within the site became opportunities through which to introduce barrier-less and subtle separations between pilot schools– specifically a series of grand terraces descending from the main quad to the K-5 play area and its multi-purpose performance proscenium.
Similarly, bringing the westerly K-12 schools down to 7th Street, allowed both a reintegration with street life and a deferential stepping down of massing from the site’s high, center-point.
A third challenge, in collaboration with LAUSD’s project managers, was to move the District towards new models of sustainable architecture, including: super high-density site utilization; indoor-outdoor program and spaces; under-floor and displacement ventilation for more healthy air delivery; a central mechanical plant; single-ply high albedo roofing; triple-glazing at exposed street conditions; and rapidly renewable/cork, rubber, and linoleum flooring.
The RFK Community Schools marks the most comprehensive public art program in LAUSD’s history, with installation fully integrated into the history, purpose, and architecture of the site.
+ Project credits / data
Project: The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools
Architect: Gonzalez Goodale Architects | http://www.gonzalezgoodale.com
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Program: Education | School
Photography: © Magnus Stark
+ About Gonzalez Goodale Architects
Gonzalez Goodale Architects was established in 1979 to assist institutions in transforming their environments to reflect each organization’s community and goals. As a firm focused on designing for public, institutional and corporate clients, Gonzalez Goodale Architects is committed to an open and interactive design process. The work is inspired by local references that make a given place subtly different: historic, poetic, narrative, topographical, ethnic or spiritual.
Projects include: University of La Verne Campus Center; Monrovia Library; El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach; LAUSD Glassell Park Early Education Center and Housing; and El Monte Union High School District: Rosemead and Arroyo new classroom buildings and library expansions, and new administrative headquarters. | <urn:uuid:36e82a80-a8a4-4a75-8ad9-45b24f5c2f6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plusmood.com/2010/11/the-robert-f-kennedy-community-schools-gonzalez-goodale-architects/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93655 | 1,103 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Mediterranean house plans echo the relaxed lifestyle of the region and draw on multiple design elements to create an elegant look and feel.
Mediterranean style refers less to a specific origin than to a general aesthetic. This indigenous American architectural style draws upon floor plan and design elements found in Italian villas, Spanish Revival and Mission Revival homes to recreate the feeling of a home by the Mediterranean Sea. A trademark stucco exterior and tile roof houses a gorgeous open layout inside. Mediterranean floor plans are designed for entertaining, with formal dining rooms and soaring great rooms framed by columns and arches, plenty of rooms for guests, and integrated outdoor living areas such as courtyards, terraces, and lanais. Mediterranean home plans echo the relaxed, outdoor lifestyle of the region that gives them their name. | <urn:uuid:1f258546-8a6a-4e48-ab6c-64868f3f2729> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eplans.com/house-plans/epl/styles/mediterranean-house-plans.html | 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 | 0.930789 | 159 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Running with lights and siren, the ambulance started a left turn into the hospital emergency entrance before its driver slammed on the brakes to avoid an oncoming car.
The other driver, on a cellphone, didn't see anything. Grand Rapids police did.
Sgts. Allen Noles and Greg Edgcombe, with lights and siren of their own, followed the driver three or four blocks from Saint Mary's Health Care before she finally pulled over.
“She said there was no ambulance,” Noles said. “She was adamant. She denied there was even an ambulance on the road.”
Noles and Edgcombe, both crash investigators, said the case illustrates distractions that cellphones cause – and growing potential danger with phones seemingly in the hands of everyone.
In the past decade, at least 1,100 crashes involving cellphones occurred throughout Kent, Ottawa and Allegan counties, according to an analysis by MLive Media Group. More than 5,400 others involved some other form of distracted driving.
Most are in Kent, about two out of three. Ottawa accounts for about 25 percent, with Allegan just under 10 percent.
Police reports detail one rear-end crash after another, distracted drivers plowing their vehicles into cars in front of them. In many cases, injuries are slight. Others could have easily turned deadly.
A crash on a two-lane highway in Allegan County showed how quickly accidents can happen, and how quickly two families could have been devastated on a road traveled by many from Holland to Allegan.
Stopped, waiting to turn left from M-40 onto 140th Avenue, a Hamilton woman saw headlights of a fast-approaching vehicle in her rearview mirror. She barely had time to tell her brother, “We're going to get hit!”
The impact pushed her car into the oncoming lane, where a Holland woman – her three children in the backseat – couldn't avoid the head-on crash. The mother was airlifted from the scene; her children left in an ambulance.
The Hamilton woman, 22, and her 17-year-old brother, avoided serious injury in the June 28, 2010, crash. Both suffered whiplash; he had a minor concussion.
“We were surprised we didn't get hurt (worse), getting hit from behind at 50 mph. That (oncoming driver) didn't have a chance to brake either,” the Hamilton woman said.
She knows the at-fault motorist, and asked that her name be withheld. The Holland woman and her family remain “traumatized” and did not want to be interviewed, attorney Ross Plont said.
An accident reconstruction expert said the crash could have turned deadly.
“I think the only reason (no one was killed) is because it was a head-on collision, which cars are expressly designed to handle fairly well,” Allegan County sheriff's Sgt. Chris Kuhn said.
In December, National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt called distracted driving “the new DUI. It's becoming epidemic."
Distracted drivers drive like drunks, too, said state police Lt. Chris McIntire, in charge of the Rockford post. They weave and drift, often subtly.
“Typically, your first thought is, 'Am I following a drunk?'” McIntire said, only to find out they were on the phone or texting. He encourages troopers to cite such drivers for careless driving.
“Absolutely, it's getting worse,” added McIntire, who always thought it incredible people would read books and newspapers while driving. Now they're talking and texting, searching the Internet, or reading books on Kindle. “Because of the technology we have … it's grown by leaps and bounds,” he said.
Many drivers put phones down when a patrol car is nearby. When they're off-duty, police see them as the public does.
“Just this morning we had a call from a citizen, a 911 call, on someone's erratic driving. Putting on makeup, at high speed,” Kent County Undersheriff Jon Hess said.
Farmington Hills attorney Mark Bernstein represents a Kent County woman whose family was injured by a driver distracted by his cellphone. Bernstein said too many people tolerate the potential danger, much as they did drunken driving before its true scope became known.
“It's going to take cultural change, changes in personal responsibility, to resolve this,” he said.
--Email JohnAgar at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:cbaa7381-1946-4ec0-92c2-465c4d25e8d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/02/cellphone_crashes_exceed_1100.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978833 | 960 | 1.78125 | 2 |
UPDATE: Portland water safe to drink; water district ends boil order
PORTLAND — Tap water is safe to drink on the Portland peninsula, the Portland Water District announced Thursday morning.
The water district lifted a boil order for the peninsula at 8:45 a.m., after tests found no contamination.
A water main break Wednesday on Somerset Street prompted the district to issue the boil order for a major portion of the city, east of Interstate 295.
The break also forced the School Department to cancel classes at East End Elementary School and Reiche Community School, on the peninsula. All other Portland public schools remained in session, although Portland High School students were released at noon.
Sections of Elm Street and Somerset Street were also closed to traffic.
The boil order went into effect at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday as the Water District collected samples and pumped knee-deep water out of the streets to repair the water main.
The water district expected to complete repairs by midnight, Wednesday. | <urn:uuid:80419bbe-2f3d-49c7-89bd-87390b3caccb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theforecaster.net/node/145981 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962693 | 203 | 1.6875 | 2 |
We ask this question seriously; check this out, from Voxy.co.nz:
Charles Chauvel MP, is a list Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. He is the shadow Attorney General and Spokesperson for Justice. He is also the co-chair of the Rainbow Labour Committee within the Labour caucus. The purpose of this Committee is to promote the agenda of the homosexual lobby group within the Labour Party and .Parliament. He has also been chairman of the AIDS Foundation.In a letter to the secretary of Right to Life dated 6th August, on the same sex marriage Bill of his colleague Louisa Wall MP, he wrote;"Please provide me with a copy of the Right to Life New Zealand Inc"s articles of incorporation so I can satisfy myself of its mandate to comment on this issue."Mr Chauvel"s letter was in reply to a letter from Right to Life presenting our Society"s case for protecting marriage as being exclusively between one woman and one man. A similar letter had been sent by Right to Life to every other Member of Parliament.Right to Life is appalled and disappointed that a Member of Parliament should see fit to challenge the right of any organisation to make comment on a Private Member"s Bill soon to be debated in Parliament. The Bill seeks to redefine marriage to include a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman.Mr Chauvel"s letter is an attempt to silence Right to Life. It is a threat to the freedom of speech, which is a hallowed tradition in a democratic nation and is guaranteed by the New Zealand Bill of Rights, 1990. Section 14 states, Freedom of Speech, "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and opinion of any kind in any form."It is alarming that this threat to a fundamental human right should be made by a person who is the Labour Party"s choice for Attorney General, should the Labour Party be elected to govern this nation. Right to Life will not be deterred from its defence of the institution of marriage and will vigorously oppose attempts to redefine marriage as to include two men or two women. Right to Life reserves its right as an incorporated society to correctly interpret its aims and objects to include the defence of marriage, an institution in which children are conceived and nurtured for the enrichment and continuance of society. This is an important life issue.Right to Life respects the right of the homosexual lobby group to be heard in its promotion of same sex marriage. Right to Life and those who defend marriage and oppose it being redefined ask only that our right to free speech be respected.
Whether one agrees with them or not, Right to Life's views on the issue of same-sex marriage are as valid as those of Charles Chauvel. So why is Chauvel seeking to suppress them?
Right to Life asks the same questions; read on:
Mr Chauvel"s letter raises several important questions:Does Mr Chauvel"s threat to Right to Life"s right to comment on a Bill soon to be debated in Parliament, have the support of the Leader of the Opposition and the Labour caucus?Is it the objective of the Rainbow Labour Committee to stifle free speech and opposition to the same sex marriage Bill of Louisa Wall?
Given the events of the last week, we reckon that we can safely say that Mr Chauvel's letter would not have the support of the entire Labour caucus; surely Su'a William Sio and Damien O'Connor would oppose it! But it would be interesting to find out whether Chauvel had briefed his leader, and just what David Shearer's response was if advised.
And the second question posed by Right to Life is along the lines of a comment we made when we blogged about Louisa Wall's Bill a few weeks ago. Those who support the Bill run the risk of alienating those who are undecided by virtue of their heavy-handed advocacy.
We believe that Charles Chauvel has committed a major blunder here. He would have been better to have either shut up, of if he felt that he had to comment, issued a media release disagreeing with Right to Life's opinion. But by demanding that Right to Life prove whether or not it is qualified to comment, he has been exposed as a bully, and worse, as a bigot. There is little difference in what he is suggesting from what Maggie Barry was vilified for just a few short weeks ago.
Disclaimer: We are not, nor have we ever been members or supporters of Right to Life, or of any other anti-abortion or pro-life organisation. | <urn:uuid:5326e9bd-7391-4e17-b15f-865b35992997> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-charles-chauvel-bigot.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96906 | 938 | 1.5 | 2 |
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
As an editor, I’ve noticed several recurring bad habits you heathens would do well to disabuse yourselves of immediately. Almost without exception, these bad habits instantiate themselves as a series of stock phrases and constructions that reflect a lack of focus, a lack of fully developed argument, or the kind of intellectual laziness that sets in as you slog through your first draft. These things happen, That’s ok. Editing helps you save yourselves from these offenses before your thoughts hit the world and everyone knows your dirty secrets. but you can edit yourself, and you should.
John Brown is a new author. His epic fantasy series begins with Servant of a Dark God. Visit him at JohnDBrown.com.
“Really scary books succeed because we come to know and care about the characters. I like to say, “It’s the PEOPLE, stupid” — NOT the monsters!” - Stephen King
Donald Miller I used to play golf but I wasn’t very good. I rented a DVD, though, that taught me a better way to swing, and after watching it a few times and spending an hour or so practicing, I knocked ten strokes off my game. I can’t believe how much time I wasted when a simple DVD saved me years of frustration. I’d say something similar is true in my writing career. | <urn:uuid:88c3c00e-da5b-4d6d-9292-2486c12c033f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pearltrees.com/per1970/tools/id2975279 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94337 | 293 | 1.679688 | 2 |
ATHENS, Ala. — A colonel in the U.S. Army said he believes President Obama’s re-election may have spurred vandals to topple and smash more than 70 gravesites at a predominantly black cemetery.
“We are not going to let this deter us,” said Col. James Walker, who stopped by the cemetery in Limestone County recently to plant flags at two burial plots honoring his cousins who fought in World War II. More than 200 people are buried in marked and unmarked graves in the private cemetery that is affiliated with Little Ezekiel Church.
Among them is the headstone of one of the Montford Point Marines, who was one of more than 19,000 black men who trained at segregated Montford Point, N.C., between 1942-49. Those marines collectively received the Congressional Gold Medal in June, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the U.S. Congress. Officials said the damage occurred between Nov. 5 and 7. Election Day was Nov. 6.
Details for this story were provided by The News Courier, Athens, Ala. | <urn:uuid:7d78eb76-5793-42c2-90b4-f1a6f90f7326> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pellachronicle.com/cnhi/x974388480/Man-believes-Obama-win-spurred-cemetery-vandalism/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977268 | 220 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Davis proposes a new role for inspectors general
Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, offered an amendment that would empower inspectors general to expose redundant programs and report to Congress with legislative proposals on how to end the programs.
Davis said unnecessary programs are a result of Congress bad habit of haphazardly establishing new programs to achieve short-term solutions whenever a problem arises.
For example, Davis said, there are 70 programs in 13 federal agencies that provide substance-abuse prevention services for young people. He went on to list more duplicative programs scattered throughout the government from wastewater treatment to job training.
We have the IGs, he said. Lets utilize that expertise for suggestions [about] how we can reduce waste, fraud and abuse in government.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the committees chairman, said he disagreed with Davis amendment. Waxman said IGs primary role is to find waste, fraud and abuse. IGs should not be reorganizing agencies, he said.
The House passed Davis amendment to add the IG provision to the Improving Government Accountability Act. It did so without Waxmans support.
Matthew Weigelt is a former FCW senior writer who covered acquisition and procurement. | <urn:uuid:f7b5caa8-cde7-478c-8454-5300b4d748ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fcw.com/articles/2007/10/05/davis-proposes-a-new-role-for-inspectors-general.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939582 | 258 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The Jabalpur Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, on July 28, ordered the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) to not allow any movement of toxic waste from Bhopal's Union Carbide site to the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) incineration facility at Butibori near Nagpur. The movement has been stayed till the next hearing which is scheduled for August 11. The court also directed the pollution control boards of both the states to inspect the defunct plant site in Bhopal.
The court was addressing an intervention appeal filed by the Maharashtra government against the MP High Court's order of July 12 that allowed the incineration of toxic waste of the Union Carbide plant in Nagpur. The appeal was filed by the Maharashtra government.
Maharashtra government claimed that Madhya Pradesh had not sought a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from them. In the intervention appeal the Maharashtra government added that since there was a facility in Pithampur, near Indore, to treat such waste, the waste should be disposed off within the state itself. | <urn:uuid:01d47049-430c-4f93-9a32-6d4ffb888b36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cseindia.org/content/stay-movement-bhopal-waste-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968233 | 224 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Back in the day St. Louis used to be known as the gateway to the West. At least it was to the pioneers and Thomas Jefferson (from whom we received the Louisiana Territory and the westward land that came with it.)
It's also 630 feet (7,560) inches tall. For the visualists out there, the space needle could fit underneath it.
Made of steel and concrete the arch weighs 17,246 tons.
I think all of these facts are well and good, but let's be real here. The main attraction to the arch is that it's just so cool! It's one of those attractions that allows you to pretend that you're somehow on the Planet of Naboo, or some other space planet. By the way, I've totally been to the Planet of Naboo. (¡gracias senior Spanish trip!)
We never got tired of seeing the arch towering above the St. Louis skyline. It must be how out-of-towners feel when they visit Seattle for the first time and stare up at the space needle.
We stayed with Andrew in his apartment all except for the last two nights when we stayed downtown. Our room had a crazy view of the arch, we definitely lucked out on that one.
|This picture cracks me up! After Conor snapped that jump photo of me I tried to return the photo and snap a "woohoo I'm under the arch" photo of him. I think you can see how well that turned out.|
Btw, this was an arch that Conor and I built at the St. Louis Science Center. There was lots of head-balancing-the-blocks-whilst-one-leg-balances-body-whilst-one-arm-reaches-for-other-block-whilst-other-arm-holds-the-stacked-blocks.
All in all our verdict is: the arch rocks and you should probably go take as many pictures under/near it as you can.
St. Louis: The Eats
St. Louis: The Adventures | <urn:uuid:bab4a3fe-cea1-4038-9feb-13c8ce74dbeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://emilyandconor.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966392 | 431 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes Staff
I cover sports business with rare dip in education & local economies
Business schools have come under fire in recent years for the financial crisis, while the implosion of firms like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns robbed graduates of traditional employment landing spots. A business degree at a leading school like Stanford costs $275,000 in tuition and forgone salary on average, but it still pays off.
Why? B-School is still one of the best ways to jump start your career and hiring has picked up after two lackluster years with 57% already having a job offer three months before graduation compared to 40% in 2010 according to a survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council which administers the GMAT exam.
Our ranking of M.B.A. programs focuses on the return on investment that graduates receive attending business school. Harvard Business School nabbed the top spot this year for the first time since 2003 (former No. 1 Stanford dropped to second). Graduates in Harvard’s Class of 2006 saw their median salaries soar from $79,000 before school to $230,000 in 2010, which was the highest among U.S. schools.
Harvard launched the world’s first M.B.A. program in 1908 with 80 students and 15 faculty. The class that will graduate in 2012 has 903 students in it. Competition to attend HBS is fierce as 9,524 people applied for a spot in the ’12 Class, but only 11% were accepted (see “M.B.A. Admission Advice”).
Former Enron head Jeffrey Skilling (HBS Class of ’79) brought the school unwanted attention when the energy giant collapsed and he was sentenced to 24 years in jail. Yet, one of Harvard’s greatest draws is its alumni network. The school has 70,000 alumni in more than 150 countries.
Alumni include billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and hedge fund titan John Paulson. America’s boardrooms are littered with HBS grads like JPMorgan Chase head Jamie Dimon and James McNerney of Boeing. There is even a former President (George W. Bush) and one who hopes to be (Mitt Romney). | <urn:uuid:54ae7490-b511-413d-8b36-a9de13e87d0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/08/03/the-best-business-schools/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960209 | 459 | 1.648438 | 2 |
From September 8, 2010 to October 28, the National Art Museum of China
is to launch a large-sized exhibition named Road of Futurism, to exhibit the quintessence of the Italian futurism with 250 pieces of excellent works. This is the first global art movement at the beginning of 20th century, and its idea has influenced all art creation fields profoundly and lastingly, such as visual arts, literature, film, music, theater, fashion, cooking, practical art, advertising design, and photography.
The special exhibition, jointly organized by the National Art Museum of China, City of Alexandria, and the Beijing Cultural Office of Italy, is to exhibit painting masterpieces, and other works like declaration, posters, books, photography, design and furniture of futurism representatives, such as Balla Giacomo and Carrà Carlo, on all sides at the National Art Museum of China for the first time.
The exhibited works lasted for a hundred years, to illustrate how contemporary artists elaborate the experiences and strategies of the futurism in the current environment after the "Futurist Manifesto" was issued in 1909.
City of Alexandria organized a similar exhibition last year, exhibiting the futurism collections of the city art museum.
This is a part of the exchange plan between the National Art Museum of China and City of Alexandria. In the coming China Culture Year in Italy, as an exchange exhibition, the National Art Museum of China is to hold a Shadow Play exhibition in City of Alexandria in 2010, to exhibit treasures of Shadow Arts collected by the National Art Museum of China. | <urn:uuid:f6939594-1c9c-405c-93cf-d89d41940a2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=40596&int_modo=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953937 | 324 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, at 100th Street and Fifth Avenue, sits on the green line. Step left when you head out the door and you are on your way down Museum Mile, past some of the ritziest addresses in New York City. It is the Manhattan of Manolo Blahniks and millionaire extravagance. Step right and in moments you are in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city, East Harlem. It is the Manhattan of chronic health problems, littered streets and persistent poverty. It is one of those geographic divides that are so singularly striking in New York; people separated by only a few blocks live worlds apart. For new students at the medical school, educated at the best colleges and often from well-to-do families, it is no surprise that they typically step left and head toward the Manhattan they already know. | <urn:uuid:9079cb86-639a-4234-8701-a686c461f4c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/the-mount-sinai-school-of-medicine-at-100th-street-and-fifth-avenue-sits-on-the-green-line-step-le-by-marc-santora | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947155 | 172 | 1.617188 | 2 |
January 20, 2011
Reynolds Price, author and long-time Duke English professor, dies
DURHAM, N.C. -- Reynolds Price, the celebrated writer of fiction, poetry, memoirs, essays and plays who turned a three-year teaching appointment into more than 50 years on the faculty at Duke University, died Thursday afternoon. He was 77.
Price, the James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke, his alma mater, had a major heart attack early Sunday.
"With a poet's deep appreciation for language, Reynolds Price taught generations of students to understand and love literature," said Duke President Richard H. Brodhead. "Reynolds was a part of the soul of Duke; he loved this university and always wanted to make it better. We can scarcely imagine Duke without Reynolds Price."
A native of Macon, N.C., Price graduated summa cum laude from Duke in 1955, where he studied creative writing under influential professor William Blackburn, whose other Duke students included noted authors William Styron '47 and Anne Tyler '61.
Price was a Rhodes Scholar and studied in Oxford, England, with W.H. Auden and Lord David Cecil. He returned to the United States and took a teaching job at Duke in 1958. The letter offering Price that job warned that the position was a three-year appointment -- with no chance of being extended.
"That seemed a little discouraging, but I thought, 'Well, three years is three years,'" Price recalled in a 2008 interview. During those three years he wrote his first novel and was asked to stay on. He remained a Duke faculty member for the next 53 years.
In 1962, his novel "A Long and Happy Life" received the William Faulkner Award for a notable first novel. Price published numerous books after that, including the novel "Kate Vaiden," which received the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1986.
In his early days as a published writer, Price took offense at reviewers labeling him as the heir to Faulkner. "The search for influences in a novelist's work is doomed to trivial results," Price wrote in a 1966 piece for The New York Times. "A serious novelist's work is his effort to make from the chaos of all life, his life, strong though all-but-futile weapons, as beautiful, entire, true but finally helpless as the shield of Achilles itself."
Price became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received the John Tyler Caldwell Award for the Humanities from the North Carolina Humanities Council. In 1987, Price received the University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Service at Duke, the university's highest honor, and the Distinguished Alumni Award. A professorship in creative writing honoring Price was established at Duke in 2008.
He had a commanding presence in the classroom, using his deep, rich voice to convey the beauty of the English language. For many years, Price taught courses on creative writing and the work of 17th-century English poet John Milton, as well as a course on the gospels in which students wrote their own version of a gospel story. Price's Halloween reading of ghost stories and poems became a tradition on campus that lasted more than a decade. Price said he experienced two main rewards as a professor: reading and teaching great writing by other people, and getting to know his students, who included Tyler, writer Josephine Humphreys and actress Annabeth Gish.
In a fiery Founders' Day speech in 1992, Price took aim at what he deemed a lack of intellectualism at Duke, describing students as enthusiastic about partying but marred by a "prevailing cloud of indifference, of frequent hostility, to a thoughtful life," reported Duke Magazine. Some university officials cited that speech as an impetus for a greater emphasis on recruiting more intellectual students to Duke, according to the magazine article.
Price, who considered himself an "outlaw" Christian, wove his faith into his writings. His 2007 book "Letter to a Godchild," for example, was a christening gift to his godson, intended as a brief guide for the child's spiritual future. He also published two biblical translations: "A Palpable God" (1978) and "The Three Gospels" (1996).
Price became confined to a wheelchair in 1984 when a cancerous tumor affecting his spinal cord left him paralyzed from the waist down. A 2006 article in The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., noted that Price had pondered and accepted the truths articulated in the Book of Job: that God's ways are often beyond understanding or finding out.
"The fact that my legs were subsequently paralyzed by 25 X-ray treatments ... was a mere complexity in the ongoing narrative which God intended me to make of my life," he said. Price's account of cancer survival is captured in his 2003 book, "A Whole New Life: An Illness and a Healing."
Price's third volume of memoir, "Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming Back," was published in the spring of 2009. The book explores six crucial years in Price's life, from leaving home in 1955 to attend Oxford University to his return to North Carolina and the start of his career as a university teacher.
According to Price's wishes, there will be no public funeral.
"A Long and Happy Life: A Celebration for Reynolds Price" will take place at 2 p.m., May 19, in Duke Chapel. A reception will follow in von der Heyden Pavilion in the Perkins Library. The event is free and open to the public. | <urn:uuid:d4a43521-4241-4568-b13e-a6b0bbf6b5ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://today.duke.edu/showcase/reynoldsprice/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982861 | 1,142 | 1.570313 | 2 |
BYOD: To Bring or Not to Bring
Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, is a trend that seems to be catching on lately in the workplace. At the very least, there’s been considerable discussion about it in the IT Asset Management (ITAM) community. Why? One good reason has to do with the environment.
But what are the arguments against it? I can count at least three.
Cost Implications of BYOD
Like pushing down on one side of the balloon, only to have the other side swell, the costs may be reduced in one area of the lifecycle support processes, but they will surely be increased in others. To compute the full costs, you must look at subsequent support and management costs as well as initial acquisition costs. BYOD will no doubt drive higher help desk call volumes and handle times. Then there’s the increased risk for loss of productivity caused by downtime when a personally owned device requires break-fix support. Read my colleague Dave Duhl's blog addressing BYOD IT support issues.
Security Implications of BYOD
The increased asset management costs required to monitor security threats that BYOD introduces just to offset the lack of control and ownership is a serious factor in the equation. Read Jeff Kramer's blog addressing BYOD security issues.
Bottom Line Implications of BYOD
Ultimately, of course, all of this impacts the bottom line profitability of the company. Which in turn drives shareholder dissatisfaction. I don't know about you, but if at the end of the day if something is not cost-effective--either passing along that cost to me the customer or assuming a loss in profitability to support--I am neither a happy customer nor a happy shareholder.
Individuals do not want their personal belongings restricted or limits put on their usage. And businesses do not want the additional risk and costs required to manage and support all these personal devices. Nor do customers and shareholders want to suffer the consequences.
The environment will benefit when individuals and businesses alike practice sustainable technology lifecycle management and IT asset disposition practices. Read Carol Baroudi's blog addressing the sustainability issues of BYOD.
The real answer:
- Reduce--you don't always need the latest and greatest
- Reuse--extend the life, through resale or donation), and when the useful life is over…
- Recycle responsibly--to its components for use in manufacturing, thus reducing the impact from the need to mine raw materials and the social and environmental impact of recycling e-waste. If you are not familiar the devastation, watch this video
Truth be told, there are varying Shades of Green IT. How would or is BYOD impacting your environmental policy? Post your comments. | <urn:uuid:2458da58-82d6-438f-b9a0-666c5cf443f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.redemtech.com/2011/09/byod-to-bring-or-not-to-bring.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938223 | 554 | 1.710938 | 2 |
DOHA — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has questioned the accepted narrative of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, saying it was still not clear who was behind them.
"Something happened in New York and still nobody knows who the main perpetrators of that act were," Ahmadinejad told diplomats and newspaper editors late on Sunday while on a brief visit to Qatar.
"No independent people were allowed to try and identify the perpetrators," he charged.
"They say terrorists were hidden in Afganistan and NATO mobilised all its resources and attacked Afghanistan," he said.
"They say that in the Twin Towers, 2,000 people were killed. In Afganistan, so far more 110,000 have been killed."
Ahmadinejad has on several occasions questioned the accepted version of the 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda militants, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
In March, he referred to the attacks as "a big lie," Iranian state media reported.
Iran is locked in a standoff with Western governments over its nuclear programme.
The UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on June 9 over Iran's failure to heed repeated ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process which can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or, in higly extended form, the fissile core of an atomic bomb.
The European Union, Japan and the United States have all imposed additional sanctions of their own, over and above the UN ones.
Western governments suspect Iran's nuclear programme is cover for a weapons drive, something Tehran strongly denies.
Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » | <urn:uuid:c65012c0-3f71-44ac-80fb-8eb3050817db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hy-pxToacTtIzyr1DLy8fNjlAaxg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971176 | 336 | 1.648438 | 2 |
A new way to inform residents about how social care services are performing has been published by West Sussex County Council.
The Local Account showcases the service’s work over the past year, demonstrating achievements, priorities and challenges and explains how the budget was spent.
Customers and carers played a key role in the development and design of the document.
The Local Account rates the services against other English councils and highlights many successful areas of work, including the Specialist Day Services, which supports people with complex and longer-term needs, and the ‘Safe Place’ scheme, which works closely with town centre shops and businesses to help people with learning disabilities feel confident when out alone.
It also shows that from 2011-12, the County Council supported more than 11,600 adults to live in the county with services provided or commissioned by Adults’ Services.
A commitment to enabling people to live as independently and safely as possible and play an active part in their communities is high on the County Council’s agenda as is as is increasing customer choice and control. As a demonstration nearly 20 per cent of adults with learning disabilities in the county are in paid employment compared with a national average of only seven per cent.
It also makes it clear that the County Council is committed to further development of the health and wellbeing programme to ensure that everyone can access information and advice on keeping healthy and well.
Peter Catchpole, West Sussex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Adults’ Services, said: “This is a vitally important document that demonstrates how well we are performing to the public and our customers.
“We have had many challenges and will continue to do so in this difficult economic climate, but we compare very favourably against other councils as you can see in this important document.”
To find out more about the report visit the West Sussex County Council website. | <urn:uuid:c0ec1404-5618-47b1-89fb-1626f0d43574> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/local/rate-the-county-council-s-year-in-adult-s-services-1-4609100 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970739 | 385 | 1.617188 | 2 |
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How I Became a Canner!
Posted by: Ellen Hayes, December 18, 2012 4:06 pm
Since our move to the country a little over a year ago, we have been fortunate enough to have lots of land, which meant that we could have an even bigger garden than we had in our plot at the Community Garden in Great Neck. This turned out to be a very good thing, because I find myself becoming more and more allergic to the preservatives and additives food companies seem to be using these days.
So I turned to my new garden with a fresh eye. We planted this year and had so many cucumbers, tomatoes (24 plants!), butternut squash, zucchini, green beans, lima beans — the list goes on and on.
I had not planned for such a bountiful harvest. Fortunately, the house’s previous owner had left behind a book on canning, and it opened up a whole new world for me.
Canning is a wonderful world within itself. Not only can you can fresh fruits and vegetables for the winter, you can also can whole meals, meats, beans, and casseroles for those nights you just don’t feel like cooking. And they stay preserved without the use of chemicals. The possibilities are endless.
Queens Library offers dozens of books on home canning. A great, widely celebrated place to start would be the Ball Corporation’s Complete Book of Home Preserving. They’re the company that manufactures the jars you’ll probably be using. The book offers 400 recipes for beginners and experienced home canners. They also offer classes around the United States, and an online forum to hear of folks’ successes and failures.
I started my new adventure with the cucumbers. It wasn’t hard to follow the recipe for the pickling spice — the challenge was getting a flavor that we liked! I tried a variety of batches until I found the right combination. My friends and neighbors were very happy to inherit our experimental batches! You might try some of the recipes from this well-regarded book to get you started.
Next I moved onto the problem of 24 tomato plants, all ripening almost at the same time. That was quite the task. Tomatoes can’t just be thrown into brine and given a water bath. They have to be boiled for a few seconds so that the skins peel off, and you have to remove the seeds. Once you have finished this labor-intensive stage, you purée your tomatoes and make gravy or sauce as you would normally. The real secret is letting this sauce cook down for 4 to 6 hours to reduce the water content. Once it’s cool enough to handle, you fill your jars, and put into your canner or pressure canner for 30 minutes or so.
I canned over 80 pounds of tomatoes this fall, and it was worth every minute of my time, from planting the seeds in the ground, to nurturing and watering the garden, to the wonderful harvest! Now I have plenty of tomato sauce for quick meals after a hard day at work.
If pickling really captivates you, you might also want to check out this free cooking demonstration from kimchi wizard and cookbook author Lauryn Chun at the Flushing Library on January 7 from 6:30 to 7:45.
Curious for more? Here’s one of my favorite canning recipes:
Ellen Hayes’ Split Pea Soup (This is a large batch, so you can cut the recipe if you need to)
4 large carrots, chopped
1/2 stalk celery, chopped
4 cans chicken broth
10 cups water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 tbsp onion powder or 1 cup onion diced
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 lbs of rinsed, dried green peas
1 bay leaf
1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot, bring to boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer covered till peas, carrots and celery are all tender (about 2 hours). You may have to add more liquid.
3. You can purée the mixture if you wish. I didn’t.
4. Pour into hot quart jars and seal. Process 90 minutes at PSI suited to your altitude. Yields 7 Quarts. | <urn:uuid:30755e81-45b8-483a-b159-30c9962e810c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.queenslibrary.org/blog/how-i-became-a-canner | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936663 | 1,010 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Village mayor bans: Slurping, burping, parping
65 rules on politeness
A VILLAGE mayor has brought in 65 rules to combat rude behaviour — from slurping soup to breaking wind in public.
Julian Atienza Garcia told locals to cover their mouths when coughing or yawning, say please and thank you, not to speak while eating and not to burp.
His “courtesy charter” also urges them to wash hands before meals, to avoid touching their genitals or adjusting their underwear and to stop picking noses.
Children in La Toba, 70 miles north-east of Spain’s capital Madrid, have been told to “spend time chatting with their grandparents”. The guidelines — approved by the local council and issued in an official newsletter — have led to calls for the mayor’s resignation.
And one critic posted an online rant saying the next move would be to “insert microchips in everyone’s brain to control them”.
But Mr Garcia, of Spain’s United Left party, insisted the charter is needed.
He said: “It is a compendium of basic rules of politeness that are being lost and should not be forgotten.”
Those who break the rules cannot be punished. But villagers fined for vandalism or similar offences can avoid coughing up if they sit an exam on the new civic regulations. | <urn:uuid:4f045a4d-c655-4808-84c1-09afab9e8c5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4241759/Village-mayor-bans-slurping-burping-and-parping-with-65-rules.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946154 | 293 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Multicultural talent onstage
UNICEF Club raising funds for TAP Project
Amador Valley United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Club is hosting its first ever multicultural talent show Friday, March 8. The fundraiser, called "Hand in Hand," will be held from 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. in the Pleasanton Middle School multipurpose room. Tickets are $10 at the door.
"The money raised from 'Hand in Hand' will benefit the (UNICEF) TAP Project, which raises funds for clean drinking water for children all around the world," said club publicist Namratha Soma, a senior. "We hope to not only raise money for this during the fundraiser but also to spread awareness about UNICEF's goals to the Pleasanton community."
Four thousand children die daily due to unsanitary drinking conditions, according to Soma, and the TAP Project has been collecting donations from restaurants in order to reduce this number. However, this particular fundraiser has never been successful for the Amador UNICEF Club, so its leaders decided to create a new event to benefit the cause.
The evening will include performances by the Children's Choir, the PMS Bhangra and Latino Clubs, and the Amador Bollywood Club. Even professional organizations such as the Chinyakare Ensemble, which is a Zimbabwean dance group, and Melissa Cruz Flamenco have offered to perform for free.
"Working with these groups has been such an honor," Soma said.
She emphasized the value of the Children's Choir.
"The children all attend Pleasanton elementary schools and participated in this event completely voluntarily. They've been attending weekly rehearsals ever since January and are so excited to perform and spread the UNICEF message."
Soma anticipates a successful evening, which will contribute to UNICEF's worldwide goal of eliminating preventable children's deaths.
"Thanks to the efforts of UNICEF, the numbers are reducing," Soma said. "It is Amador UNICEF's goal, with the community's help, to bring this number down to zero." | <urn:uuid:b0c5e7e4-54f5-4cb1-b628-62fdf8a0c7c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pleasantonweekly.com/story.php?story_id=10259 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963248 | 443 | 1.53125 | 2 |
May 05, 2013 · By Daryl Hulce · 2 Comments
May 3, 2013
Dear Nursing Student,
The Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation
(CKSF) has a new program called Tuition Back Scholarship specifically for
undergraduate nursing students.
Each semester the Tuition Back
Scholarships program gives nursing students several opportunities to earn their
"tuition back" by taking online quizzes. Each quiz is based on a
specific course and is designed to help students review and prepare for exams.
Back Scholarships are free to all undergraduate nursing students in the United
scholarship of up to $1,000 per course will be awarded to the winner if his or
her college or university is participating in the Tuition Back Scholarships
program. If the winner is attending a school not yet participating in this
program, he or she will receive a scholarship of $100. Make sure you ask your
college advisor if your school is participating in the CKSF Tuition Back
sure to update your CKSF profile to include your college or university and college graduation date. Complete details for each
scholarship can be found on the CKSF website.
Go to www.cksf.org
and click on "Tuition Back Scholarships."
*Students and parents should ask their college
advisor or financial aid administrator if their school is participating in the
Tuition Back Scholarship program.
Thank you and good luck in your college endeavors.
Daryl Hulce, President
Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation.
April 18, 2013 · By Daryl Hulce ·
In February 2013 CKSF launched a Marine Biology Scholarship based on the sharks found in Guy Harvey's artwork. Following the awarding of the winner and meeting Guy Harvey at the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation office in Davie, the CKSF staff took a field trip the NSU Oceanographic Center in Dania, Florida.
The trip started with a stop at the Quarterdeck on Dania Peer and then the ride through John Lloyd State Park to the center. Our tour of the NSU center included seeing each floor of an amazing facility. Each floor has a very unique style and amazing view. Out one side is the Atlantic Ocean and the other side is Port Everglades.
Any high school or college student considering studying marine biology should seriously consider Nova Southeastern University. The undergraduate program is on the main campus in Davie, FL (about nine miles west of the ocean) and the graduate program is in Dania, Florida. It's an amazing place doing great work to better understand the oceans and marine life.
April 09, 2013 · By Daryl Hulce ·
Hollywood, FL - Jenny Poon became the first winner of the Aikido of South Florida Scholarship offered by the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation. The scholarship competition sponsored by sensei Stephany Yap, required participants in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties to learn the details of Aikido, one of the specialized martial arts, and take a series of online quizzes. The program resulted in a college scholarship for the high scoring male and female participants and personal lesson at the Aikido of South Florida dojo in Hollywood, Florida.
Jenny Poon, a student at the School for Advanced Studies, visited the dojo with her family where she received personalized instruction in self defense. Jenny was awarded with a certificate and scholarhsip check which may be used at the college or university of her choice. The day ended with a celebration dinner and new friendships being forged.
March 28, 2013 · By Daryl Hulce ·
They must be doing something right at the Carroll Community College nursing program. As of March 29th J.Lippy is leading the CKSF National Nursing Tuition Back Scholarship. So far J. Lippy is demonstrating a greater knowledge of anatomy than the other 614 students competing for this scholarship.
History suggests the lead will change several times before the nursing scholarship is actually awarded. There are still two physiology quizzes left in this scholarship competition and often times students will study hard to come out on top in the second and third rounds.
The Tuition Back Scholarship program allows students to earn scholarship money for simply studying and taking an online quiz. Quizzes are developed on the core courses found in any nursing school curriculum. Any nursing student in the United States may register with the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation and take the quiz. There are no essays, just simple online quizzes. The winner is determined by time and accuracy.
It's not too late. Nursing students can still register with CKSF and get into the contest at www.cksf.org.
March 26, 2013 · By Daryl Hulce ·
Every day is a new adventure at the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation. As if being a part of Nova Southeastern University wasn't reward enough, outside our window (CKSF office in the background) is a pair of burrowing owls.
Even with a great deal of traffic and commotion in the parking lot, these two birds seem calm and secure. They make me want to create a wildlife scholarship using the National Audobon Society as the source of information.
March 25, 2013 · By Daryl Hulce ·
Imagine yourself at an elementary school at 3:15 on a
Thursday afternoon and the students have just been released. What is the last
thing any sane person would try and do?
The list is long and varied but the correct answer is herd the students
into the library and try and get them all to do math.
And yet, look closely at this picture, these kids are so engaged
trying to calculate basic math problems that at times they were literally
crawling over the tables to see the quiz questions on the laptop.
It actually happens when we implement Pizza Math at a
school. Pizza Math is simply an online
quiz in which all the quiz questions are simple math based on pizza. Kids get 500 points for each correct answer
and lose 1 point for each second it takes to calculate the answer. The person with
the most points at the end of the quiz wins a free pizza.
So when it comes to Pizza Math, nothing is quite as it
sounds. Kids will do try very hard to do
math after school and pizza becomes the carrot (it's all very metaphorical).
Making the Pizza Math a little easier to implement was
teaming up with a Kiwanis club in south Florida that sponsors a K-kids. It made for a great activity during a
regularly scheduled K-Kids meeting. And if you really have things together, you
can have a pizza shop donate or discount the pizza. For this Pizza Math day, Pizza Loft in Davie,
Florida helped us with the pizza. The
Kiwanis president then became a patron of the restaurant and everyone came out
ahead. Kids did math and had pizza and
the big hearted pizza shop ended up with new customers.
March 25, 2013 · By Daryl Hulce ·
Scholarships are hard to come by after high school and teacher scholarships should be listed as one of the endangered species in this country. To help right this academic wrong, the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation has added education to the list of Tuition Back Scholarships. This means that education majors can now compete for scholarship money for simply reading their text books.
The first Education Tuition Back Scholarship is based on the course, Human Development. This is a course found at almost every college that prepares teachers for the classroom. The scholarship consists of several quizzes that correspond with midterms and finals. So the first quiz should include the same content as would be seen on a midterm exam. Even if a student doesn’t win the scholarship they will be preparing for the exam at the same time they are competing for scholarship money.
All Common Knowledge Scholarships utilize the same method in determining the winners. Students log in during a specific window of time (days) that the quiz is available. They receive 500 points for each correct answer and lose one (1) point for each second it takes to complete each question. The person with the most points at the end of the contest is the scholarship winner and receives all or part of their tuition back for the course.
It is a fun and effective way to prepare for exams and earn scholarship money.
For complete information visit www.cksf.org
March 21, 2013 · By Daryl Hulce ·
they have a receptionist by the door. Maybe they will seat me in a waiting area
until they are ready to interview me. Maybe I should have worn a pair of dress
pants. The endless maybes raced in my mind as I approached the Common Knowledge
Scholarship Foundation front door. But as their
impossible-to-see-through-from-the-outside door swung open, I learned with
relief that my imagination had been far too colorful. Student employees in
cubicles replaced the receptionist, and perhaps the small table with a bowl of
mints in the middle could have served as the waiting area. As for the dress
code, dress pants would have been a little too much.
As Daryl and Lauren
interviewed me, I focused on minimizing my stutter and the ridiculous shake in
my hands. I rambled on about my experiences and hoped that something about my
boring life would impress them. Then suddenly, Lauren asked, "How would you
rate your level of creativity on a scale of 1 to 10? And give an example where
you applied your creativity." I will never forget this question because the
office went dead silent for a minute as I racked my brain for a response. I
finally settled for a 5 and gave an example I wasn't too proud of. Thankfully,
they still welcomed me and later introduced me to a world of opportunities for
my creativity to grow.
I began the internship expecting to conquer the "Not Listed" schools and
eventually become the "Not Listed" czar. But several hundred schools later,
Daryl offered me the chance to run a blog/newsletter, News Ninja, which reaches
an audience of thousands of students. Though all this is exciting, the best
part about this internship is the people I work with. At CKSF, we are a family
who brings out the best of each other and livens up the atmosphere of the
office. Here, my strengths are recognized and my work is praised. There is
always an opportunity for me to grow and to learn useful skills. And because
dress pants aren't required, I almost feel like the office is my second home.
But as Daryl always says, "You can't live here!"
March 18, 2013 · By Daryl Hulce ·
Half way through the first round of the CKSF Nursing Scholarship there are only 317 nursing students competing for the scholarship money. This makes the chances of winning this scholarship exceptional.
As with all CKSF scholarships, there are no essays required for the nursing scholarship. There are three 15 question quizzes based on a standard nursing anatomy and physiology course. Each students' score is a combination of time and accuracy while taking the quizzes and the person with the highest score at the end wins. Even if a participant doesn't score the highest, the nursing scholarship is a good review for the course.
Tuition Back Scholarships are the next generation of paying for college. If the winner of the CKSF Nursing Scholarship is from one of the Tuition Back Schools, the student will receive their tuition back for their anatomy and physiology course (up to $1,000).
There are several ways to become a Tuition Back school.
- A fee of $100 can be paid by your school or a sponsor (maybe an alum of your school or the student government)
- Your school can be invited by the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation
- A limited number of school earn entrance by having faculty submit applicable quiz questions for the scholarship topics
For additional information on participating in the CKSF Tuition Back Nursing Scholarship visit: http://content.cksf.org/page.cfm/scholarships/nursing-scholarship2
March 14, 2013 · By Kitying Shin ·
Today, the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation (CKSF) ventured to the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation office in Davie, Florida to award the first place winner of the Marine Biology Scholarship, Patience Hall. Along with a $250 scholarship, Patience had the opportunity to meet Guy Harvey and receive an original piece of his artwork as well as an autographed Guy Harvey book.
The Marine Biology Scholarship was designed to reward students for simply learning about marine animals. Patience, and other participants, prepared for the scholarship by studying the Marine Biology Challenge Database at namethatfish.net.
The scholarship, in the form of an online quiz, invited all high school and college students in Florida to participate between February 17-23, 2013. Other top scorers also won Guy Harvey autographed prizes. | <urn:uuid:d5c22f93-2e37-4965-90fc-802a46a2b619> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.cksf.org/page.cfm/press-release/default.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951657 | 2,690 | 1.75 | 2 |
10 Artists, 10 Decades, 100 Years of Glass
An exhibition of new artworks inspired by glass, the material itself, its language and history in the period 1913 – 2013, enfolding those aspects into new expressions and new ideas. Exhibiting artists are: Andrew Lavery, Ruth Oliphant, Alexandra Chambers, Simon Maberley, Brenden Scott French, Trish Roan, Tom Rowney, Lee Mathers, Richard Whiteley, and Blanche Tilden.
Exhibition Opening: Wednesday, 3 April at 6pm
Gallery Floor Talk: Saturday, 13 April at 10.30am
Join some of the Ten Squared artists in the gallery to hear them discuss the work in this exhibition.
Under My Skin by Kirstie Rea
23 January to 21 March
Kirstie Rea is a local artist with a significant international reputation. She participated in her first art class in 1962 at the Old Bus Depot Market site and is now acclaimed across many continents as an artist, teacher and innovator. This exhibition will express her interest and ideas on the generation of creative energy. It will show a range of works from objects to installation.
Rea has had solo exhibitions in Australia, the USA, New Zealand and Hong Kong, and her work is now included in international collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the National Gallery of Australia; and the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung Foundation in Munich, Germany.
Rea has taught at Pilchuck Glass School, USA; the Corning Studio, USA; Pittsburgh Glass Centre, USA; North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland; and Vetroricerca School in Bolzano, Italy and is a prime example of a strong and creative artist playing a leadership role in her chosen field – closely aligning this exhibition with the Centenary’s February theme of Women and their Role in the Nation.
Glass Weave 2
Jenni Kemarre Martiniello
28 February to 3 March
100 Days of Glass, Selling Yarns 3: weaving the nation’s story. A special four day exhibition of local Indigenous artist Jenni Kemarre Martiniello’s glass work will be held from 28 February to 3 March. This exhibition forms part of the conference, Selling Yarns 3: Weaving the Nation’s Story in 2013 and is accompanied by an artist’s talk and demonstration.
Please join us on Saturday, 2 March for a conversation with the artist in the Engine Room at 10.30am and a fascinating hot glass demonstration by Martiniello and her team in the Hot Shop 12.30pm – 4pm.
100 days of Glass is supported by the Centenary of Canberra, an initiative of the ACT Government with support from the Australian Government.
Occidental by Kevin Gordon and David Hay
19 September to 8 November
Occidental is an exhibition by two Western Australian artists, David Hay and Kevin Gordon, who are both influenced by landscape and patterns from the natural world. This will be a stunning exhibition of blown and carved glass and a delight for Canberra Glassworks audience.
Based in Perth Western Australia, David Hay and Kevin Gordon have worked together supporting each other’s practice through a range of processes including hot glass, carving processes and photography for well over a decade. David originally trained as an engineer before shifting his focus to an arts practice in the mid-nineties. He currently works as the Studio Manager and artist in residence at Hyaline Studio, Edith Cowan University. His practice includes commission work, sculpture, production work and exhibitions. His work is in major collections including the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
Kevin Gordon comes from a glass dynasty, growing up in a family of artists working with glass. He has developed astute glass working skills and his work has been recognized for its innovation in Australia and internationally. In 2008 he was awarded the prestigious Tom Malone Prize from the Art Gallery of Western Australia. He regularly exhibits internationally including in: Holland, the UK, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Sweden and North America.
Occidental (from the West) will show the sophisticated technical skills of these two artists and they reveal their respective interpretations of the natural world. With strength of line and form and a profound attention to detail, these new glass works capture something of the rhythm of life.
In the Smokestack Gallery
Home Sky by Chris Boha
26 September to 8 November
As someone who is currently going though the process of immigrating to Australia and who has also just had their first child, I have been thinking a lot about the idea of home in relation to environment, location and nationality. With this in mind, something struck me while out on a walk observing passing clouds. It occurred to me that even though everything else around me stands in such stark contrast to everything I have, for the majority of my life, associated with the notion of “home” ie. building materials and design of buildings and homes, colours and types of plants, native animals, cultural practices and vernacular, etc., white clouds passing on blue sky looks the same. Of course there are times of the day where the quality and colour of the light differ from location to location, but white clouds passing on a blue sky look the same standing in Australia as they do in Canada. The sky is a globally unifying feature that does not discriminate against an individual’s location, nationality or cultural background.
As well as being a universal feature of any global location the sky also represents a medium of movement and travel; air currents continually traveling from one location of the globe to another, at times sucked into ventilation systems and lungs and just as quickly exhaled out of the nostrils of humans and building alike only to rejoin the ceaseless flow.
We see the sky as far overhead, when in fact the “sky” extends to the soil we walk on. At first the cloudscape mobiles appear as slowly shifting windows to the sky and reference personal emplacement to a fixed location, but their sped-up footage and ethereal nature viewed through the glass of the tv screens encourage a sense of other worldliness, their movement speaks of the passage of time and place while remaining timeless.
Pop Up Exhibitions
12 – 23 September
In the Engine Room
In celebration of the visit of Lino Tagliapietra to the Canberra Glassworks we showcase the work of Klaus Moje, Annette Blair and Mel Douglas whose works have all been influenced by the Maestro.
Each day that Lino and his team worked in the Hotshop they produced artworks. Over the course of a week a whole body of work was created, most of which will be shipped back to America where Lino will have it ground and carved before it goes on exhibition. Some of these works may still be viewed in the Engine Room. Hurry in to view the Maestro’s works before they are packed up!
In the Foyer
From Friday 15 September the Foyer exhibition will change to showcase the work of Nadège Desgenétez, Clare Belfrage, Kirstie Rea and Jeremy Lepisto, all of whom have also been influenced by Lino Tagliapietra and represent some of the best glass artists in Australia today.
Ranamok Glass Prize 2012
Winner of this year’s Ranamok Glass Prize 2012 is Denise Pepper with her entry, Punto in Aria (Stitches in Air).
“My contemporary connotation of the ‘cape collar’ retains its historical elegance and homage as an heirloom. I have crafted pâte de verre lace in which glass frit captures the decoration and detail found in the intricate weave. The effect is delicate and complex.” Denise Pepper.
Mr Andrew Plummer, who along with Maureen Cahill of the Glass Artists’ Gallery, founded the Prize in 1995, said:
“The standard of this year’s works was exceptionally high and the judging panel would like to congratulate Denise Pepper for creating such outstanding work.
With the calibre of entries being so high, this year’s finalist exhibition comprises of 31 pieces. Narrowing the finalists down any further was impossible and we believe that each piece fully deserves its place in the exhibition. With a strong contingent of new and promising talent and the more established glass artists pushing themselves into different areas, it is clear that glass art is continuing its growth in Australia and New Zealand.
Such a remarkable work – unified with stillness and gravity that gives presence to the human spirit. This is the first time that the Ranamok Prize has been awarded to West Australian artist.”
The Ranamok Glass Prize is an annual acquisitive award for glass artists who are resident in Australia and New Zealand. The Prize was founded in 1994 by Andy Plummer and Maureen Cahill as a way to promote glass as an art form to the public.
The work presented for consideration for the Ranamok Glass Prize is expected to be a major effort in the artist’s personal body of work. This work should be innovative, displaying excellence and imagination in quality of idea and execution in contemporary practice.
This is Ranamok’s eighteenth year encouraging creativity, skill and innovation in contemporary glass, with Australian/New Zealand glass artists competing for a $15,000 prize. The 2012 Recipient will join previous winners in the Ranamok Winners Collection (1995–2011).
Click here to view the finalists. http://www.ranamok.com/final2012.htm
Matthew Day Perez
27 June to 5 August
Matthew Day Perez received his BFA from Illinois State University and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He works primarily with glass, printed matter, digital media, and installation. Most recently he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to undertake research at the Australian National University. This is a solo exhibition of both finished work and an informative presentation of the stages of glass making.
Curated by Clare Belfrage
9 May to 21 June
Eat! is a group exhibition which takes as its starting point the humble domestic vessel. Nineteen artists were invited to respond to the theme of Eat! and presented objects and small arrangements or installations which explore the presentation of food and the cultural and artistic significance of the rituals around eating. This is a sequel to Drink! an exhibition that was presented at Canberra Glassworks in 2011.
The exhibition was highly accessible to the general public, with so much variety there was something for everyone to enjoy. With a great blend of emerging to established artists from all around the country including Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales with a strong local contingent. The exhibiting artists are: Annette Blair, Mel George, Bleorge,(the collaboration between Blair and George), Ruth Oliphant, Lyndy Delian, Bernadette Foster, Jacqueline Gropp, Jessica Casha, Bridget Thomas, Scott Chaseling, Peter Nilsson, Emma Borland, Ede Horton, Mark Douglass, Wendy Fairclough, Christine Cholewa, Nicole Ayliffe, Suzanne Peck, Ben Edols and Denise Pepper.
Eat! was part of the Canberra Glassworks’ fifth birthday festivities. This large group exhibition celebrates glass as an artistic medium and the ingenuity of artists who work with it. The selection of artists showed a diversity of interpretation of the theme, as well as a broad range of processes and aesthetics. On show were: exquisitely blown, cane bowls for holding food by Ben Edols, intricately engraved glass with the narrative of a seabird catching a fish by Peter Nilsson (a master engraver originally from Sweden), Christine Chloewa’s wall pieces depicting her favourite foods and “Scrabbled Eggs” by Bleorge, a delightful collection of egg cups each sporting a scrabble letter. Lyndy Delian explored her indigenous heritage with a bush tucker wall piece and Jessica Casha was influenced by Dr Zeuss with Green Eggs and Ham. Some of the pieces on show were created by artists here at the Canberra Glassworks during artist residencies. Eat! was an exhibition that explored utilitarian and sculptural expression. Contemplative, intriguing and humorous, it connected with a broad audience in many ways.
Open Work – 21 March to 3 May
Giles Bettison and Jenni Kemarre Martiniello
On Wednesday 21 March 2012, Canberra Glassworks was pleased to open an exhibition titled Open Work featuring the prodigious talent of two of Australia’s most awarded artists, Giles Bettison and Jenni Kemarre Martiniello.
Both artists are inspired and influenced by traditional textiles practices and forms with Giles Bettison referencing the lace making traditions of Venice and Jenni Kemarre Martiniello the indigenous Australian traditional forms of the fish and eel traps.
Giles Bettison, a graduate of the Australian National University School of Art in Canberra has become one of Australia’s most dominant and recognized glass artists in recent times and is known for both his artistic and technical innovation, applying the ancient Venetian glassworking techniques to coloured sheet glass, producing a textile like effect for which he has been highly awarded and lauded internationally.
Jenni Kemarre Martiniello is a prolific artist and writer whose forays into the medium of glass have been more recent but no less successful. Also a graduate of the Australian National University School of Art, Martiniello was introduced to glass as a medium for her artwork during a group residency at the Canberra Glassworks in 2008. IndigiGlass08: Postcards from the Referendum was created to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Aboriginal Referendum and involved 4 artists who had been working together as part of the Indigenous Textile Artists Group (ITAG). Canberra Glassworks and associated artists taught them new techniques for their art with highly successful results. Martiniello was a finalist in the 2011 Ranamok Glass Prize with her Eel Traps and her works are now in some significant public and private collections.
Open Work was a beautiful and highly evocative exhibition showcasing 2 highly respected fine artists working in glass.
Transference – 21 March to 3 May
Transference continues the artist’s ongoing interest in the phenomena of glass in the urban environment and examines its’ reflective qualities as a perceptual experience. Melinda observes, records, and explores urban spaces through their reflections. These observations are captured digitally and then transferred onto layered sheet glass panels that allow the viewer the perceptual experience that, though ubiquitous in the everyday urban environment, is often overlooked. Through the materiality of glass, the artwork invites the viewer to experience oneself reflected within the constructed environment that is the window of a building, a revolving door, or glass clad facade of a skyscraper. The pieces created are often deconstructed and dislocated but echo a closer familiarity of a space that everyone has encountered at some point in time.
Transition – A Captured Moment – Masahiro Asaka
18 January to 15 March
Recent Thomas Foundation Artist in Residence at Canberra Glassworks and winner of the 2011 Ranamok Prize, Masahiro Asaka exhibits his new series of works. Masahiro is inspired by nature and the tensions people create with the natural environment. He uses the raw qualities of glass to express fragility, strength, illumination and power as a metaphor for man’s relationship with the natural world. His striking work highlights the transparency and the beauty of glass and exposes the notions of energy and gravity which are the fundamental elements for glass to be formed and the effects of which are so essential to his art.
Connect – Nadège Desgenétez
26 October to 12 January
Themes of memory, identity and belonging underpin the work of Nadège Desgenétez.
How do we interact? How do we touch, hold and feel, how do we belong? Desgenétez investigates these questions using glass, and with her rigorous technical approach she highlights her reverence for the history of the medium.She explores the sculptural nature of glass using her own life as inspiration, and her sculptures stem from autobiographical references. In her most recent work, Desgenétez examines ideas of connection, and specifically considers notions of relationship to place and feelings of ‘belonging’.
Klaus Moje – A Continuum
28 September to 20 October
Klaus Moje AO is 75 years young and celebrating 60 years of artistic practice. As a Canberra legend, a national Living Treasure and a world leader in his field, his brilliant work continues to embody the essential connection between artist and craftsman and has inspired generations of artists. Canberra Glassworks was proud to present his only solo exhibition in 2011. | <urn:uuid:2db27298-4e03-482e-b0b6-1dbf6f62025e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canberraglassworks.com/exhibitions/past/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956798 | 3,456 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Regulators reject request to delay North Jersey gas pipeline
Federal regulators on Friday rejected a request by environmentalists to postpone a 7.6-mile gas pipeline expansion that would cut through forests in North Jersey and under the Monksville Reservoir.
The environmental groups said they now plan to file papers with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit seeking to halt the project.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had approved the pipeline project last May, but the Sierra Club, the New Jersey Highlands Coalition and others asked the agency to reconsider. The groups argued that the regulator had not made a thorough review of how the project might mar the environment.
The agency rejected the request Friday, saying that in its environmental review, it “took a hard look at the environmental impacts and concluded that the proposed action would not have a significant impact on the human environment.”
The environmentalists then turned to the court, asking that it halt the project and decide whether federal regulators failed to properly weigh the possible environmental consequences of the project.
“We’re arguing that FERC did not do a proper environmental analysis. They’re being a cheerleader for the industry they’re supposed to regulate,” said Jeff Tittel, head of the Sierra Club’s New Jersey chapter.
The Sierra Club had requested a rehearing in part because they submitted to the commission four new studies and reports, including a review of the possible effects of the project on groundwater resources. The commission, in rejecting the rehearing request, said it has a longstanding policy not to accept additional evidence in the rehearing process without a compelling reason -- because new evidence would disrupt the administrative process and keep the commission from “resolving issues with finality.”
“Sierra Club does not explain or justify why the additional studies should be admitted after the close of the record,” FERC said in its ruling Friday.
Tittel said the project threatens drinking water supplies, since it runs through the Wanaque River watershed, which replenishes the Wanaque Reservoir, part of a system that provides drinking water to several million North Jersey residents. The project also requires tunneling under the Monskville Reservoir, a backup to the Wanaque.
The environmental groups are also concerned that the project would disrupt endangered plant species and mar the views at several historical sites in the area. | <urn:uuid:5ef2477e-2b54-40b9-9db2-a74b44865bd6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/Regulators_reject_request_to_delay_North_Jersey_gas_pipeline.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949324 | 494 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Athenians chat outside a bank Dec. 18, 2012. / Petros Giannakouris, AP
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Standard & Poor's ratings agency has raised Greece's credit grade 6 notches to B-, yanking the debt-heavy country out of default but still keeping its devalued bonds in the junk zone.
The agency said Tuesday that the upgrade reflected its view that the other 16 European Union countries using the euro are determined to keep Greece inside the currency union.
It gave Greece a stable outlook, meaning it will not consider ratings changes in coming months.
S&P downgraded Greece to the bottom of its ratings scale after the country announced a debt buyback financed by its European partners. The purchase was successfully completed last week, and will reduce the country's debt by some â?¬20 billion ($26.4 billion).
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read the original story: Standard & Poor's hikes Greece's credit rating | <urn:uuid:ed082cab-a2da-4a01-b1a4-4edb2c2b71bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pressconnects.com/usatoday/article/1777711 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937997 | 219 | 1.5 | 2 |
The Sun (Lowell)
The November 5, 2008 front page
of The Sun
|Founded||August 10, 1878, as Lowell Weekly Sun|
47,897 Sunday (2011)
The Sun is a daily newspaper based in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States, serving towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the Greater Lowell area and beyond. As of 2011 its average daily circulation was about 42,900 copies. The paper, often called The Lowell Sun to distinguish it from other famous newspapers, has been owned since 1997 by MediaNews Group of Colorado.
The newspaper's headquarters are in the first floor of the American Textile History Museum building in downtown Lowell. Before March 18, 2007, the newspaper occupied a succession of offices on Kearney Square, about half a mile away. One of the old news buildings, locally called "the Sunscraper," is a landmark high-rise topped with a huge neon "Sun" sign. The paper's most recent former home is across the street.
The paper's editorials have, for decades, espoused a moderately conservative bent in a city and state where Democratic voters overwhelm Republicans. In the 1970s, editor and firebrand Clement Costello, who was known for walking around in a cape, wrote that the U.S. should annex Mexico and was credited with helping to ruin John Kerry's chances of winning the 5th Congressional District seat in 1972. In 2004, the newspaper again made waves when it endorsed President George W. Bush for re-election instead of the hometown senator.
The Sun is known beyond its circulation area as the home base of columnist Paul Sullivan, who until 2007 hosted a nighttime talk show on WBZ AM radio in Boston. Before the newspaper moved, he would regularly tout scoops from "Lowell's great newspaper at 15 Kearney Square."
Another alumni is Tom Squitieri, who won the Overseas Press Club Madeleine Dane Ross Award for his reporting on divided Cambodian refugee families living in Lowell and Thailand. The Lowell Sun is the smallest independent newspaper to have won an OPC award.
Print shop owners and brothers John and Daniel Harrington founded the paper as a weekly in 1878. In its earliest years, The Sun provided the growing Irish Catholic population a voice in a mill city that was run by wealthy Protestant factory owners. Over the years, the paper outlasted its competitors to become the only major newspaper in Lowell, converting to a daily in 1892 and buying out its last competitor daily, the Courier-Citizen, in 1941; and starting a Lowell Sunday Sun in 1949 and buying out its only Sunday competition, the Lowell Sunday Telegram, in 1952.
The paper remained in the hands of John Harrington's descendants -- Thomas F. Costello, his sons John H. and Clement C. Costello, and grandson John H. Costello Jr. -- until it was purchased August 1, 1997, by MediaNews Group. The newspaper's circulation at the time was 52,234, daily, and 55,804, Sunday.
When he purchased the paper, MediaNews CEO William Dean Singleton noted that The Sun had "played a leading role in the development and growth of the Greater Lowell region", including downtown Lowell's rebirth and the establishment of minor-league baseball and hockey teams in the city.
Following MediaNews' purchase (through The Sun) of Nashoba Publications weeklies covering several towns between Lowell and Fitchburg, the company in 2002 consolidated printing for The Sun, Nashoba and the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise at a new US$7 million press plant in Devens, Massachusetts. The move was said to have a beneficial effect on traffic in downtown Fitchburg and Lowell.
The Sun prices are: 75 cents daily, $2.00 Sunday.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Lowell Sun|
- "eCirc for US Newspapers: FAS-FAX Report". Audit Bureau of Circulations. 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- Lafleur, Michael. "Sun Rising on a New Era". The Sun, Lowell, Mass., March 18, 2007.
- Lewis, Diane E. "Singleton Buys Lowell Sun from Costellos; Paper Had Been Under Family Ownership 119 Years." The Boston Globe, July 9, 1997.
- Vaznis, James. "Media Company Merging Print Sites; $7M Plan Includes Move to Devens." The Boston Globe, August 1, 2002. | <urn:uuid:f35f8389-7fb8-427d-8016-39f6d312461b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_Sun | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944006 | 922 | 1.734375 | 2 |
They Might Be Giants' twelfth album, The Else,opens with one of their strongest songs of the past decade. "I'm Impressed" is catchy and fun and embraces an equal mix of electronics and guitars. And then there are twelve other songs.[more:]
Twenty-five years has earned "the two Johns" (Flansburgh and Linnell) a cult fan base, but if you're not part of it, there really isn't anything incredible about The Else. Many of the songs sound like imitations of the band's classics -- the rather good closer, "The Mesopotamians," which tells the story of an unknown band out on tour, is soured once you remember the classic "We're the Replacements."
Other tracks seem to misstep as well. "Take out the Trash" is an Elvis Costello by way of Factory Showroom rocker that could have benefited from the Dust Brothers, who produced the album, insisting on another vocal take. "Bird of the Bee of the Moth" has an excellent melody, but the playful round-style verses would have fit better on the band's upcoming third children's album. And speaking of lyrics, the once scholarly imagery found within They Might Be Giants songs have now been reduced to "Upside Down Frown"?
Flansburgh and Linnell seem to have perfected the art of writing commercial jingles. That fact is made clear within each of these tracks. And most of these songs are only pleasant for thirty seconds or so. Flansburgh has said "we wanted to be sure this was an album that was our best effort from beginning to end." They Might Be Giants have delivered something Else entirely.
Label: http://www.rounder.com/Audio: http://www.myspace.com/theymightbegiants | <urn:uuid:d7209a1d-85ce-4bc4-9ce2-398b808d1c53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prefixmag.com/reviews/they-might-be-giants/the-else/16071/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964411 | 375 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Originally Posted by BevelDevil
If a young kid wants to hit like the pros, he should probably follow the steps the pros took to develop their swing, rather that immediately try to mimic the end product. Learn algebra before calculus.
That's very true. That's why I see value in all the traditional and conventional teachings. It's much easier to add things on and fine tune from there. | <urn:uuid:72edc6ae-f0ce-4233-b4fa-029232b0cfb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showpost.php?p=7146764&postcount=345 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976675 | 82 | 1.679688 | 2 |
for He is the One Who will be worshipped foreverand praised for eternity.
...َُِْا َُهَو ...
and He is the All-Wise, means, in all that He says anddoes, legislates and decrees.
the All-Aware.from Whom nothing at all is hidden or concealed.Malik narrated that Az-Zuhri said,He is All-Aware of His creation, All-Wise in Hiscommands.Allah says:
َُِی َﻡ ََُْی َِْﻡ ُجَُْی َﻡَو ِضْرَْا ِ ...
He knows that which goes into the earth and that whichcomes forth from it,meaning, He knows the number of raindrops thatsink into the depths of the earth, and the seedsthat have been sown, and the things that arehidden in it, and He knows what comes forth fromthat, how many they are, how they grow andwhat they look like.
...ءَا َِﻡ ُلَِی َﻡَو ...
and that which descends from the heaven,means, of raindrops and provision,
...ِ ُجَُْی َﻡَو َ ...
and that which ascends to it.and what ascends into it, i.e., righteous deedsand other things.
...ُرَُْا ُِا َُهَو
And He is the Most Merciful, the Oft-Forgiving. | <urn:uuid:7b2178d4-0c89-444c-b9e7-2564d8addc85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scribd.com/doc/27917113/15/Allah-has-no-partner-in-anything-whatsoever | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937254 | 373 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Americans who feel that they have put on pounds over the Thanksgiving weekend will be relieved to learn that it's easier than ever to get a healthy meal in airports in the US.
For more than a decade, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has reviewed the food served at 18 of the country's busiest airports. In its 12th review, the PCRM has found that even if some airports have lost points from year to year, the overall trend is upwards, with more nutritious meals offered to passengers.
A group of dietitians reviewed menus, evaluating each airport with a score determined by dividing the number of restaurants offering at least one healthy option by the total number of restaurants. A meal is considered healthy if it has ingredients low in fat, high in fiber and cholesterol-free.
Only restaurants serving main dishes were evaluated, leaving aside snack kiosks and small coffee shops.
The overall winner this year is Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, with a 92% score as a healthy menu is offered in 56 of its 61 restaurants. Among the healthy options, passengers can buy falafel sandwiches as well as seaweed salad and vegetable rolls.
Chicago O'Hare International Airport featured as the most improved, jumping from 13th position in 2010 to fifth place. Earlier this year the airport announced the opening of a farmers' market which offers fresh locally grown food and other healthy snacks to passengers and airport employees.
With 58% of its restaurants offering a healthy meal, the busiest airport in the world, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, comes in last this year. Despite its upscale airport sushi restaurant (One Flew South), most of the food at Hartsfield-Jackson consists of southern classics such as fried chicken, fried catfish and macaroni and cheese.
1. Newark Liberty International Airport
This story was posted on Wed, November 28, 2012
More HeadlinesHotel prices in New Orleans skyrocketing ahead of Super Bowl
Are Canadians vacation deprived?
Helium shortage grounds Mickey at Tokyo Disneyland
Low shoreline on Great Lakes unearthing ancient collectables
Peru opens up Incan oracle sanctuary to tourists | <urn:uuid:a406254d-eeb8-428b-87b7-fd211b23452e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canoe.ca/Travel/News/2012/11/26/20386776-relaxnews.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955589 | 441 | 1.710938 | 2 |
If you went clubbing in New York City in the 1980s and '90s, chances are good you had Peter Gatien to thank for it. Canadian-born Gatien had run several successful nightspots in Ontario before venturing into the United States and opening clubs in Florida and Georgia. In the early '80s, Gatien settled in New York and turned a former Episcopal church into Limelight, which in time became one of the city's hottest dance clubs and the nexus of New York's Club Kid scene. Gatien capitalized on his success by opening three other popular New York nightclubs, Tunnel, Palladium, and Club USA. But no party lasts forever, and in the mid-'90s, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani launched a campaign to clean up New York, Gatien became a target due to suspected drug use and dealing in his clubs and a murder that was linked to Limelight regulars. In time, Gatien was forced to leave the United States, and rebuilt his empire north of the border. Filmmaker Billy Corben, who explored America's wild ride of the 1970s and '80s in the films Cocaine Cowboys and Square Grouper, profiles Gatien and charts the rise and fall of an era in New York nightlife in the documentary Limelight; the film received its world premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.
by Mark Deming synopsis | <urn:uuid:d1966f89-f4af-4541-803b-238b55aec717> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allmovie.com/movie/limelight-v536022 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971032 | 287 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Vermont to Institute DUI Courts
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin announced Monday the state will set up DUI courts to reduce the number of repeat drunk drivers. The courts will operate much like the three drug courts in the state, according to the Associated Press.
The goal of the DUI courts will be to treat offenders’ addiction to alcohol through close judicial monitoring of their treatment. Governor Shumlin said he expected the courts to save lives and money. “It’s imperative that we keep drunk drivers off Vermont’s roads, but locking them in jail cells isn’t always the best way to deal with these complex cases,” he stated in a news release.
Judges would monitor treatment of people with a second or third DUI offense, and could impose rewards and sanctions. After serving a mandatory sentence, a person could work out a deal with the judge to return to court regularly to report on their progress, as part of their probation. Those who violated the terms of their agreement would be incarcerated.
Twenty-three of the 77 fatal crashes in Vermont last year were alcohol related, according to the AP. The National Association of Drug Court Professionals found that nationwide, for every $1.00 invested in drug courts, taxpayers save as much as $3.36 in avoided criminal justice costs alone. | <urn:uuid:0bc48995-d2ae-4fb1-bdd5-28763679c2c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drugfree.org/uncategorized/vermont-to-institute-dui-courts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972702 | 272 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Dr. Tony Fields (left) and Dr. Roger Bland are proud new members of the Order of Canada.
(Edmonton) Two members of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry are proud new members of the Order of Canada, one of the highest honours of the land, recognizing a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.
Roger Bland, professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry, and Anthony (Tony) Fields, professor emeritus in the Department of Oncology, both said they were completely caught off-guard when recently notified by the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General of Canada that they were being appointed to the order.
The office receives about 700 to 800 nominations every year. “The Order recognizes people in all sectors of Canadian society. Their contributions are varied, yet they have all enriched the lives of others and made a difference to this country,” says its website.
“To be recognized by your own country for the work you’ve been doing—it was quite overwhelming,” said Fields.
Bland echoed the comment: “I never expected anything like this. It’s really quite thrilling.”
Roger Bland: Improving lives of people with mental illness
Bland is being honoured by the Order of Canada “for his contributions to improving the lives of people with mental illness, as a professor, administrator and researcher.”
He received his medical training in England before completing a psychiatry residency at the University of Alberta from 1967 to 1971. He joined the faculty as a full-time professor in 1975, and served as chair of the Department of Psychiatry from 1990 to 2000. At the same time, Bland held positions as a regional clinical director and in the government as director of community mental health services, then later as director of mental health and assistant deputy minister.
Bland was involved with the Alberta Mental Health Board in helping to create a mental-health plan for Alberta. He says being involved in changing the delivery of mental-health services, to make it more community-based, stands out as a highlight of his career. “We went from a mental-health system of two hospitals and six child-guidance clinics to having psychiatric units in all general hospitals and 70 community mental-health clinics.”
Along with his research on suicidal behaviour, he says another highlight was his 1988 academic work on the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders in Edmonton. Known as the “Edmonton study,” it is still considered an important Canadian study because it documented the amount and type of mental illness in a community—information that wasn’t available to service providers before that time.
Tony Fields: Commitment to cancer control
Fields, an alumnus of the U of A medical school, has been appointed to the order “for his contributions to cancer treatment, diagnosis and research in Alberta as a professor and administrator.”
He joined the faculty in 1980. As an oncologist specializing in cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, he has been involved in clinical trials at the national level that have looked for the best treatments.
His main overall focus since the late 1980s has been on “cancer control”: the constellation of activities aimed at reducing the burden of cancer on populations and individuals, including everything from prevention to screening and early detection, diagnosis, treatment and care, through to end-of-life care.
From 1999 to 2005, Fields was centrally involved in planning, developing and implementing the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control. This led to the federal government establishing and funding the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer to continue the implementation of the strategy.
Fields says he is most proud of his work to establish the 11 community cancer centres in the province—bringing specialized cancer care to smaller communities throughout Alberta, from High River in the south to Fort McMurray in the north. He also was the instigator and initial leader of an ongoing project to make radiation treatment available at the existing cancer centres in Lethbridge, Red Deer and Grande Prairie.
In the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Fields says he most proud of working with former dean Douglas Wilson to create the Department of Oncology in 1993, a move up from interdepartmental division status. Fields was division director from 1988 to 1993, then acting chair of the department until 1996.
In addition to their outside contributions, both men juggled multiple roles as all academic physicians at the U of A do—caring for their patients, teaching, conducting research and carrying out administrative duties. Bland and Fields have received numerous other awards during their distinguished careers, and although retired from their full-time positions in the faculty, each continues to work in his field in some form. | <urn:uuid:0c49889a-b496-4c31-aca3-867419706352> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.ualberta.ca/newsarticles/2012/07/twoualbertaemeritinamedtoorderofcanada | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974548 | 969 | 1.507813 | 2 |
A teacher had said today that she thinks Kim Kardashian sums up every thing that’s wrong with Modern Society!
The reality TV star is part of a culture that glorifies women’s physical appearances over their character, claims Dr Helen Wright, head of a private girls’ boarding school.
In a speech tomorrow, Dr Wright will show Miss Kardashian posing in her underwear on the cover of men’s magazine Zoo.
The headline, from an edition last month, praises Miss Kardashian as ‘the hottest woman in the world’.
‘It is not too strong a statement, I venture to suggest, to say that almost everything that is wrong with Western society today can be summed up in that one symbolic photo of Miss Kim Kardashian on the front of Zoo magazine,’ Dr Wright will say.
‘The descent of Western civilisation can practically be read into every curve, of which, you will note, there are in-deed many.
‘Officially the hottest woman in the world? Really? Is this what we want our young people to aim for? Is this what success should mean to them?’ Miss Kardashian – who was photographed in Paris yesterday wearing rather more than usual – first became famous when a sex tape of her appeared online in 2007.
Her late father, Robert Kardashian, was a defence lawyer for OJ Simpson in his 1995 murder trial.
Dr Wright, head of St Mary’s School, Calne, Wiltshire, will say that Miss Kardashian is famous for her reality TV series, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, ‘for hanging out with the rich and famous, for a sex tape, a 72-day marriage and a rather ample backside’.
What is she telling our young people about life? As a society, we have clearly attached a value to her,’ she will say.
‘There may be some messages about hard work buried in there somewhere – I expect she has to slave in the gym to keep that posterior in shape – but these are very hidden messages, buried under the other messages surrounded by glitz and sparkle.
‘Messages about physical appearance being more important than character or substance, for instance, or messages about financial rewards coming with meanness, scandal and boundary-less living.’
Dr Wright will present her warning to the Institute of Development Professionals in Education, whose members help raise funds for schools.
‘The pupils in our schools really are soaking up a diet of empty celebrity and superficiality,’ she will say. ‘They are under a huge amount of pressure, buffeted by these images and messages.’
Dr Wright, the former president of the Girls’ School Association, will also warn that premature sexualisation and the objectification of women is rife on TV, the internet and magazines.
‘I have spoken out a lot over the past two years about the increasing dangers of the premature sexualisation of young people, and the objectification of women which accompanies this. And this is what our young people see around them all the time: online, in magazines, on TV.’
Really we do not agree with that as the parents let their children watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians so we have to say we think its down to the parents weather they watch it or not! | <urn:uuid:26b7209c-004b-488e-afba-a0e99c9f7d16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lukewilliamsgossip.wordpress.com/tag/wright/ | 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 | 0.959097 | 689 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Close your eyes. Humor me for just a bit. You will be able to do this to someone else. Now, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. I want you to imagine a place, of your own choosing. A place you like to go to. It is relaxing, calm and serene. Take another deep breathe. What do you hear? Are there birds chirping in the trees? Is there a soft breeze? On the wind, can you smell a fragrance? Is it cedar, salt, sandy coconut, mint, watercress or lavender? Feel yourself in the moment, fully relaxed. How is the temperature, what are you wearing? A heavy grey flannel and dungarees or your favorite bar t-shirt and shorts. Inhale once more, relax and open your eyes. Where did you go? What is it that gives us peace? Was it near water? Open water, a lake, the bay or lagoon or big open seas? Running water, gushing rapids over house size boulders, or a seamingly endless cool stream down a mountainside?
This is an exercise I learned from a teacher at the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Science, Paul Wiemerslage Jr., who happens to assist me with the Salmon in the Classroom students I visit monthly to help connect to the natural resources we have at our back door. It was of no surprise to me that nearly all of the students envision a place on the water to escape and to relax. Whether it was on the beach or on a boat or wading in a stream, most were on the water. One student claimed Cedar Point was his oasis, to each their own. We are very fortunate in Michigan to have a body of water within a few short miles of any locale in the state. We are within a bike ride of serenity: a beach, a lake, a river or stream is less than five miles. But not all of these places of tranquility are as peaceful as they once may have been.
Rivers have traditionally been used and abused over the past century for their power and ability to transport raw materials from inland territories to the lakeshore for export. The neglect and abuse was not limited to industrial uses. Many cities leashed rivers for the inherent power they contained. They were also used as dumping grounds because the remnants of bygone eras seemed to simply wash away downstream and disappear. Other incidental neglect occurs in our vast need for farming our great state, watering the acres of corn and potatoes did not come without a price. Grazing farm animals also taxed these great arteries of the state, eroding banks and depleting suitable spawning grounds while simultaneously saturating the ecosystem with excrement overloading it with phosphates and nitrates while depleting vital levels of dissolved oxygen for sensitive macroinvertebrates.
These are just a few of the connecting threads for a healthy riparian ecosystem. Thousands of Trout Unlimited volunteers work to restore these often overlooked habitats and return them to a place in time when they were at or near ecological equilibrium. A lot of interested parties ask me what exactly does Trout Unlimited do? If you are not a fly fishing club, a trout fishing club, or a fly tying group, then exactly what are you? Basic premise is quite simple, take care of the rivers and the trout will take care of themselves. Trout Unlimited has a four pillar approach to making this happen, and they all magically interconnect: Restore, Reconnect, Protect and Sustain. We seem to be losing our last wild places at an alarming rate. These need to be protected at all costs less our future generations will not have a serene lakeshore or riverside to escape to. Repairing rivers can be easily accomplished with the right partners and multiple watershed organizations by removing fish passage barriers and outdated road crossing that may impede trout and salmon from reaching spawning habitat. Restoring rivers that have been neglected by over-development, agricultural over use, industrial pollution and erosion. Every river has its own fingerprint, each has a specific need and a unique set of obstacles to achieve proper fish populations. Sustain utilizes the passing on of this passion to the next generation, keeping rivers that have been repaired to maintain a healthy status quota. One may be surprised to know that there are projects sponsored and monitored by TU members from some of the largest well known rivers like the Au Sable River and the Manistee River to lesser known, sometimes un-named tributaries that trickle underneath many country roads. Even the smallest little country creek provides a rearing sanctuary for young trout and salmon and should not be over looked.
Watching a river or stream slowly gain habitat and better trout populations through the efforts of a few like minded organizations and individuals is what Trout Unlimited is all about. I hope to look back when I am in my senior years and know that I was a part of a greater cause that helped a river or two. | <urn:uuid:37be4df3-226b-4aed-8bd0-2ab74d3d0b68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://truenorthtrout.com/2012/12/restoring-hope/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960209 | 1,012 | 1.75 | 2 |
Developing an app has become a much more approachable undertaking, which in turn makes things a lot more complicated. Thousands of apps are launched and streamed through the App Store and Google Play every day — how do you stand out?
For starters, it's important to do your research. Know the common mistakes mobile developers and designers make during the process. Gather the tools you need and use them effectively to give your app the best shot at becoming the next Instapaper or Draw Something. There's even an app to help you build an app.
We've gathered seven useful resources for you to utilize before, during and after you've developed a mobile app. What other services do you find useful? Let us know in the comments.
More Small Business Resources From OPEN Forum:
Image courtesy of Flickr, William Hook | <urn:uuid:ea78b799-c1ff-4223-9a69-0883386f5610> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mashable.com/2012/05/07/tools-mobile-app-development/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mashable%2Fdev-design+%28Mashable+%C2%BB+Development+and+Design%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953495 | 166 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Desirable Trait #4 – Resiliency of Rituals (or, Birthdays and Unbirthdays revisited)
I was fortunate enough to catch up with a number of old friends this weekend. The kind of friends that even if you don’t talk for a week (or months or years), you can easily pick up where you left off. This weekend also confirmed any shred of denial that we are fully enmeshed in “midlife” – as we swapped stories of the glory days and our own children, and laughed at the changes time brought to our bodies, minds, and our outlook. While we’ve all written many chapters of our lives and shared much of it with each other, we also shared a desire to reconnect and seek advice from trusted friends. But this weekend, what struck me about all of these conversations is the often subtle, but very important, role traditions and rituals play in the life of both children and adults. One of those rituals was the reason for my weekend travel – the 3rd birthday of my god son – but it was the more common interactions that shed light on the true meaning of family.
For most children, birthdays rank up there with Christmas/Hanukkah and Halloween. Particularly for young children, who are decided and developmentally egocentric, it’s the ultimate celebration of “me.” The ways in which each family honors and celebrates that child often shape the child and signifies the family’s priorities, as do many of the daily activities of unbirthdays. There is usually discussion and planning, excitement and wonder of the possibility of gifts, and a circling up of family and a few (or more) close friends. All of these demonstrate to a child that they are valued and loved by their family – and what could be more important than that whether you are 3 or 13 or 33? And there is fun, whether it’s the particular kind of fun the birthday child enjoys often or a novel kind of fun reserved for this special day. A favorite toy or two given as a gift is just the icing on the cake! But what is arguably more significant to a child’s developing sense of self and his place in the family and world, are the rituals and routine of those 364 unbirthday days.
Each day adults hold the awesome power to choose words and conduct themselves in ways that can affirm and empower children to be positive, caring, curious and responsible — now and in the future. The choices we make for our children and those choices we allow them to make reveal our confidence in ourselves and in their potential. Do we choose to offer books and toys which allow for imaginative play or do we choose to let them watch a screen because it quickly gratifies them and makes it easier on us? Do we model for them how to care for themselves and their things in developmentally appropriate ways that let them learn to solve problems or do we do it for them, leaving them to feel dependent on us? Do we choose words that provide positive feedback for attempts at these tasks (“I see you are really trying to put all those crayons back carefully”) or do we offer our own judgement (“good job”) ? More importantly, do we look them in the eye and tell them what we value in them and love about them, even after a day in which they were riding on that very last nerve? Do we build predictable routines into daily life that provide a sense of solidarity and fun within a family? Things such as special meals, prayer or conversation around the table, crazy songs or antics that bring levity and laughter, weekly events, seasonal or annual traditions all lay the foundation for the strong feeling of family that stays with us for a life time. In fact it is often the memory of these traditions that sustains individual family members in trying times. Stephen Covey calls this process “making deposits in the emotional bank account our our children.” You need to build up the reserves so that when life throws them a curve ball, they’ve got the resource to handle it. And if you are an adult who is worried or stressed yourself, you might find these traditions help re-calibrate you, too, as you’re engaged in one of the most challenging, important and rewarding jobs of your life and find assurance in these traditions.
It’s often those rituals of daily life which shape us and allow us to grow into healthy adults – with or without therapy and/or bad habits. Knowing that family will be there on good days and bad and an awareness of what is important in life are all rooted in tradition and daily interactions. Many of us grew up with pretty unremarkable childhoods – no wars, no abject poverty, no hobnobbing with celebs or royalty, no major illness or globe-trotting travel. We got what we needed and much of what we wanted (that’s a topic for a later blog…) and now as adults and parents, we recognized how truly remarkable that is. As I listened to my really strong, caring and productive friends talk, what I heard was their appreciation for the unyielding love and structure they felt in their own childhood and the desire to provide that for their own kids in these challenging times. All families have their dark days or their sordid chapters, but what stabilizes young and old and provides the breeding ground for resiliency, is what good parents throughout the world know. By maintaining a sense of belonging and significance to family, establishing and upholding boundaries which frame predictable structure and routine, and providing unconditional love you are providing the basic necessities of life. Alongside, or concurrent with traditional basic needs for food, shelter and clothing, these are the touchstone for young children and families on which everything else is built.
The economy may be precious, your village may be susceptible to attack, your health may be compromised, your mood unpredictable. Traditions and rituals balance those unpredictable and often undesired elements we all face in life, and even when life is good, they provide reminders of all that we have to be grateful for in our lives. We often cannot control what happens to us, but we can control our reactions and our outlook, and what a gift that is to share with our children. If you can start the day among the smiles of the folks you love, and keep your eye on your priorities and goals, and then go to sleep among those same smiles knowing that you’ve done your best all day, then that is cause for celebration whether it’s your birthday or unbirthday.
Recommended Reading on Rituals and Traditions (titles are currently available at Amazon through the link on the right or your local library or book store)
The Joy of Family Rituals: Recipes for Everyday Living by Barbara Biziou
You perform rituals with your family every day. Thursday night, you order pizza; Sunday morning, you make French toast. Before bedtime you read to your child. During the holiday season, you ask your children to donate some of their toys to the homeless. But while most of us participate in rituals regularly, many of us fail to recognize the significance of the ritual. In The Joy of Family Rituals, Barbara Biziou demonstrates how these moments can enrich our families if we take the time to reflect on how they are beneficial to our lives. Rituals provide the foundation that today’s families need to feel secure and grounded. Making these simple rites part of your family will foster communication, nurture children’s self-esteem, and help maintain a sacred and spiritual connection among family members.
Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel
Frustrated with a therapeutic practice that “shifted too frequently to be an anchor” for parents struggling with issues like overindulgence and over scheduling, clinical psychologist Mogel turned to her religious heritage for ways to help her clients and her own family “find grace and security” in an increasingly complex world. “In the time-tested lessons of Judaism, I discovered insights and practical tools that spoke directly to these issues,” writes Mogel, who left her psychology practice in order “to help parents look at their children’s anxieties and desires using a different lens.” Digging into the rich traditions of the Torah, the Talmud and other Jewish teachings, Mogel builds a parenting blueprint that draws on core spiritual values relevant to families of all faiths. With warmth and humor, she offers strategies for encouraging respect and gratitude in children, and cautions against overprotection.
Shelter of Each Other by Mary Phiper
In even the most dysfunctional families, she discerns threads of connectedness that have led to empowerment of her clients as they became more capable of handling their own lives. Pipher recommends an empathetic approach to families’ efforts to survive in a difficult era, one that parallels the homesteading years of her grandparents earlier in this century. She offers plain and practical talk for beleaguered parents and the families they are trying to protect.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey
“What is ‘effectiveness’ in a family?” asks author Steven R. Covey. He promptly answers with four words: “a beautiful family culture.” Covey reinterprets each of his now famous “habits” to apply to parenting and family-life issues. Covey suggests writing a family mission statement, implementing special family times and “one-on-ones,” holding regular family meetings, and making the commitment to move from “me” to “we” as techniques to improve family effectiveness. Covey is a brilliant storyteller. By weaving the voices and anecdotes of his wife and children with his own inspirational and informative stories, exercises, and parables, he has created a book with something for all parents interested in enhancing the strength and beauty of their own families. | <urn:uuid:9071efeb-1797-4f57-8c6c-85cd38c7fa96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wonderofchildren.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/desirable-trait-4-resiliency-of-rituals-or-birthdays-and-unbirthdays-revisited/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960384 | 2,058 | 1.601563 | 2 |
CERRITOS - Electric and hybrid car owners would have an opportunity to plug in their vehicles at city charging stations by early October if the City Council approves a pilot program.
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the plan at Thursday's meeting.
The program includes installing two charging stations on the top level of the Cerritos Civic Center parking structure. The stations would be owned by ECOtality and leased to the city.
Users would pay about $1.50 an hour, and a vehicle would be charged in four to eight hours. Half of the revenue would go to ECOtality and the other half would go to the city, according to a staff report.
The only out-of-pocket cost to the city would be $5,000 for an electrician to install a conduit from the nearest power source, the staff report said.
City Manager Art Gallucci, Public Works Director Hal Arbogast, Assistant City Engineer Kanna Vancheswaran and Assistant Civil Engineer Fredy Bonilla are recommending approval of the program.
If the plan is approved, the charging stations would be operational by early October, said Cerritos spokeswoman Annie Hylton.
Cerritos Nissan and Penske Chevrolet at the Cerritos Auto Square have charging stations, but only for customers.
The city has three options once the pilot program ends in December 2013: continue the partnership with ECOtality and split the parking fee revenue; take ownership and maintenance responsibility of
Sex offender ban
Also on the agenda, the City Council is scheduled to vote on the second reading of an ordinance banning registered sex offenders from city parks and other facilities.
The ordinance was approved at the Aug. 9 meeting. If it is approved Thursday, it will go into effect in 30 days.
Gary Berg, the city's director of community and safety services, told the council Aug. 9 that passing the ordinance isn't going to prevent crime.
Nevertheless, the council passed the ordinance 4-1. Council members Jim Edwards, Bruce W. Barrows, Carol K. Chen and Mark E. Pulido voted in favor of the ordinance.
Councilman Joseph Cho was the dissenting vote.
The proposed ordinance would ban registered sex offenders from all city parks as well as the Civic Center, the library, the Center for the Performing Arts and the Senior Center.
Registered sex offenders have the option of asking permission from either the L.A. County Sheriff's Department or the city's director of community and safety services to enter any of these facilities, according to the proposed ordinance.
The four council members said they supported banning registered sex offenders from all public places as a means of protecting the public.
Berg said enforcement of the proposed ordinance is problematic.
In reality, deputies with the Sheriff's Department don't know the faces of all registered sex offenders and would have to wait for someone to report an incident to them before they could investigate, Berg said.
"These unenforceable laws don't make children safe," Cho said. "They are designed to make politicians look tough on crime and to make people feel good."
The council began discussing the idea last October after Orange and Los Angeles county cities passed similar measures.
Want to go?
What: Cerritos City Council meeting
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: Council Chambers,
18125 Bloomfield Ave.
Information: 562-916-1248, www.cerritos.us. Also, watch live broadcast of the meeting at the City website or the City's cable channel, TV3. | <urn:uuid:ea69c1a4-bf36-491a-875f-1f76ab1be64d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.presstelegram.com/movies/ci_21368977/cerritos-eyes-pilot-car-plug-program?source=pkg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954514 | 735 | 1.570313 | 2 |
While IDEs are the predominant tools for coding and debugging in Java and .NET languages, many developers in other languages don't like the heaviness of a full IDE and prefer to work in an editor. Editors today are far more feature laden than their forebears, but still retain the familiar agility and quick response of earlier products. They exist in the space below IDEs and above simple text editors. Many of the leading products in this market segment are open source: notably, emacs and JEdit at the high-end, and vim and Notepad++ in the sleeker end of the range. There are, of course, many other products to choose from.
In this review, I examine two paid alternatives. They're part of a small group of products that compete successfully with open-source offerings, generally based on unique features that appeal enough to their core audiences to warrant payment. One product, SlickEdit, has been around since the early 1990s; the other, Sublime Text 2, is a more-recent arrival that, of late, has been riding a wave of popularity.
The first thing that strikes you with any editor is the visual presentation. In this regard, Sublime Text takes a more minimalist approach than SlickEdit. In the main editing mode, only the side pane listing the file system, the file menu, and tabbed windows for editing files is in view. If that's too cluttered, distraction-free mode gets rid of the UI entirely, showing only the file you're editing.
SlickEdit, on the other hand, is full of toolbars and tool windows that can be opened and closed. The toolbars can be docked on any side of the screen or undocked and left floating. Tool windows can also be undocked and left floating. The UI is very customizable almost to a fault.
Figure 1: The SlickEdit development environment.
Sublime has visual features that seem to go against the minimalist approach: The right side of the editing window contains a preview of the file you're editing with tiny text. The intent, I believe, of this preview (called a "minimap") is to show the overall shape of the file and provide an idea of where you are in the file. My experience is that it's really cool eye candy, but has little functional benefit. However, this effect is far enough out of the way to not be distracting and cool enough to leave on.
Figure 2: The Sublime Text screen. Note the minimap of the file along the right edge. The lightly highlighted box roughly a quarter of the way down from the top of the minimap indicates the location of the code in the main portion of the editing pane. | <urn:uuid:4c695be6-8083-4be4-bcf9-a1535802d8fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drdobbs.com/tools/review-of-two-editors-sublime-text-2-and/240009033?cid=SBX_ddj_related_mostpopular_default_jvm&itc=SBX_ddj_related_mostpopular_default_jvm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944951 | 556 | 1.773438 | 2 |
2003-02-09 Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence [violence.de]
Kulturer där synen på sex är öppen slåss mindre
2003-02-09 15:19 erik
They were supposed to go after what they called a Viet Cong whore. They went into her village and instead of capturing her, they raped her -- every man raped her. As a matter of fact, one man said to me later that it was the first time he had ever made love to a woman with his boots on. The man who led the platoon, or the squad, was actually a private. The squad leader was a sergeant but he was a useless person and he let the private take over his squad. Later he said he took no part in the raid. It was against his morals. So instead of telling his squad not to do it, because they wouldn't listen to him anyway, the sergeant went into another side of the village and just sat and stared bleakly at the ground, feeling sorry for himself. But at any rate, they raped the girl, and then, the last man to make love to her, shot her in the head.
What is it in the American psyche that permits the use of the word 'love' to describe rape? And where the act of love is completed with a bullet in the head! | <urn:uuid:68b8c366-f38f-4904-8506-ea21119538ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.codemode.org/viewcomment.php?linkid=3352 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98772 | 284 | 1.726563 | 2 |
FCC Proposal Could Allow Further Corporate Control of Media
In a move that could squelch the voices of an independent press, the Federal Communications Commission officially released a proposal today that would ease media ownership caps and allow companies to own newspapers, radio and television stations in the same area. The FCC is scheduled to vote June 2 on the proposal that would further allow large corporations to control the media and thwart independent voices such as Ms. magazine. "There will be absolutely no chance for women or people of color to own media outlets without the approval of five or six giants," Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, an organization opposing the FCC's proposal, told Ms.
Two FCC commissioners, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, have opposed the proposal. While they asked FCC Chair Michael Powell, who has led efforts to ease government regulation of the media, to conduct public hearings around the nation on the issue, he refused. Despite Powell's refusal, the two Democratic commissioners conducted unofficial hearings during the past few months to alert the public to the proposed changes.
"We were really unhappy with the media coverage of the war and the anti-war movement, especially television coverage that seemed like cheerleading for the war effort and didn't reflect reality," Andrea Buffa, board member of Media Alliance, an organization that helped put together a hearing in San Francisco, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "(US Secretary of State) Colin Powell was spearheading the war and his son Michael Powell at the FCC is calling for rule changes that could change many regulations that govern corporate media."
The specifics of the proposal include a change in the media ownership cap to allow a single company to own TV stations that reach 45 percent of households in the US. The proposal also would rewrite two existing "cross-ownership" rules that would lift current restrictions that keep companies from owning a newspaper and a radio or TV station in the same market or radio and TV stations in the same market. "We're going to have a handful of people providing the news for the entire country," US Rep. Lynn Woosley (D-CA) told the Chronicle. "We will be losing the diversity of intellect and ideas and opinions. We'll be cutting off minority opinions and dissent, and it's not what our founding fathers intended."
TAKE ACTION Protect Media Diversity and Press Freedom
Media Resources: Ms. Magazine 1/8/03; SF Chronicle 5/12/03; New York Times 5/13/03; Associated Press 5/12/03 | <urn:uuid:416e77b6-db89-4ac2-9012-6df505b99945> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=7783 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967059 | 513 | 1.625 | 2 |
Latest update: 01/04/2010
- Burqa - France - French politics - immigration - Islam - Islamic veil
Burqa in France: how far can the ban go?
The full-face veil, referred to in France as the burqa, is once again taking centre stage there. The country's top legal body, the Council of State, has issued an advisory opinion to the government, stating that a complete ban of the burqa has no solid legal basis and could face a challenge in the courts. Some conservative lawmakers are nevertheless determined to ignore this advice and push for a total ban. So where does this leave the government?
Presented by Marc Perelman.
Produced by Aurélien Aeberhard and Antonio Oliveira e Silva. | <urn:uuid:f81830f0-9a18-4f6c-afe3-96df3ab6d2a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.france24.com/en/node/5025131/mailtofriend | 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 | 0.93126 | 157 | 1.695313 | 2 |
- Posted: 5:46 AM, May 24, 2012
Under State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe's bill, the state Department of Health would be "directed to prioritize authorized family planning funding to health care entities that can best provide comprehensive health care to women."
For its part, Planned Parenthood's defense is the same as it has been accross the country, with the organization claiming it provides a lot of other services besides abortions. But looking at the numbers it did provide is interesting. According to a statement, Planned Parenthood performs 32,000 abortions a year, but half of them happen in Pennsylvania. Why so high? And are these numbers accurate?
If so, Pennsylvania has a different problem than taxpayer funded abortion. | <urn:uuid:450ff1fc-ef78-4de1-8cf0-5a52973fde17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nypost.com/f/print/blogs/capitol/defunding_planned_parenthood_in_ANUOenCYCP29bVPzwQKiqI | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963461 | 147 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Posted by Paul NicholasSenior Director, Trustworthy Computing, Microsoft
Last week, Scott Charney testified at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. The hearing was about the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, which is Congress’s first comprehensive legislation aimed at improving cybersecurity across the United States. His full testimony is available here.
This legislation is an important milestone in the U.S. Congress’ sustained engagement on the topic of cybersecurity and an advancement in the national discussion on how to better secure the information infrastructure of the United States. These legislative proposals provide a risk-based framework intended to improve the security of government and certain critical infrastructure systems and establish an appropriate baseline to address current threats.
Scott’s testimony began with a brief discussion of the transformative effect of the Internet, as well as the challenges facing policymakers.
Posted by Fred HumphriesVice President, U.S. Government Affairs, Microsoft
Consumer trust is vital to the growth of a vibrant Internet, and respect for privacy – putting people first – is essential to earning and maintaining that trust. Today’s release by the White House of their framework signifies an important milestone in the evolution of privacy interests of Americans and individuals around the world.
The Administration’s policy promotes an environment of transparency and meaningful privacy choices. Further, we are hopeful that the policy’s establishment of a robust stakeholder dialogue will lead to more specific solutions and help overcome challenges faster. We support the Administration in this effort.
Microsoft views today’s announcement as essential to a comprehensive approach to privacy that includes federal privacy legislation, technology tools for consumers, effective self-regulation, and all stakeholders working together on initiatives to improve privacy practices.
Posted by Dave HeinerVice President & Deputy General Counsel, Corporate Standards & Antitrust Group, Microsoft
Earlier today, Microsoft filed a formal competition law complaint with the European Commission (EC) against Motorola Mobility and Google. We have taken this step because Motorola is attempting to block sales of Windows PCs, our Xbox game console and other products. Their offense? These products enable people to view videos on the Web and to connect wirelessly to the Internet using industry standards.
You probably take for granted that you can view videos on your smartphone, tablet, PC, or DVD/Blu-ray player and connect to the Internet without being tied to a cable. That works because the industry came together years ago to define common technical standards that every firm can use to build compatible products for video and Wi-Fi. Motorola and all the other firms that contributed to these standards also made a promise to one another: that if they had any patents essential to the standards, they would make their patents available on fair and reasonable terms, and would not use them to block competitors from shipping their products.
Motorola has broken its promise. Motorola is on a path to use standard essential patents to kill video on the Web, and Google as its new owner doesn’t seem to be willing to change course.
Posted by Brendon LynchChief Privacy Officer, Microsoft
Accountability has been a globally recognized principle of privacy and data protection for more than three decades. But in the past few years, an important effort has been under way to clearly delineate what accountability—and the related concept of responsibility—means for organizations that collect, store and process information.
To help advance this critical conversation, today we are publishing an accountability-based analysis of Microsoft’s privacy program. We are releasing the paper to coincide with meetings at the European Parliament in Brussels this week of The Accountability Project co-hosted by the Centre for Information Policy Leadership and the European Data Protection Supervisor as part of a global Accountability Project.
Posted by Lauren WoodmanGeneral Manager, Partners in Learning, Worldwide Public Sector, Microsoft
Today is UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day, and as we celebrate language diversity, we have a chance to reflect on the role Microsoft plays in the preservation of language and culture.
Our goal for more than 30 years has been to bring technology into the hands of more citizens around the world. However, with 7 billion people in the world speaking countless various languages, bringing technology to all their homes is a challenge, but one that Microsoft’s Local Language Program is working hard to surmount.
The Local Language Program focuses on developing and tailoring Microsoft products to grant minority language speakers similar access to technology as someone speaking a mainstream language. Consider Spain, a country with more than 47 million citizens and five languages. Seventy-four percent of the population speaks Castilian Spanish, but 26 percent speak Valencian, Basque, Catalan or Galician. In a modern world ripe with technology, these precious languages – symbols of culture and heritage – could be lost forever. | <urn:uuid:2a694838-e7dc-4cd7-b286-105039f2283e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2012/02.aspx?PostSortBy=MostRecent&PageIndex=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933955 | 967 | 1.625 | 2 |
via Coach Dawn Writes:
I’m sure all of us have coaches that we look up to, those folks who were invaluable to us (whether they knew it or not) as we were coming up in the field. Cecile Reynaud was that person for me and when I saw a post of hers about coaching philosophy over on the Women in Coaching site, I thought you’d enjoy reading it as well. Here it is:
When I first started coaching at the NCAA Division I level I was 22 years old as the head coach. I had to dive into the profession with little time to develop my philosophy and coaching values. Fortunately I played for a strong female coach and was able to use her as a role model and sounding board in my early years. Keep in mind I was just about the same age as my athletes.
Starting a coaching career again I would make sure I had my philosophy well thought out and written down on paper. This is such a key for a coach to be successful. It is the basis for all of your decisions. Players and parents need to know your expectations and values which will allow them to make an informed decision to play for you. I always presented my coaching philosophy during a home visit. So, here it is:
TO PLAY HERE:
- Commit to work hard. Develop good habits in practice. Don’t settle for being average.
- Commit to becoming a smart player. Understand the game. Think quickly on your feet. Make good decisions.
- Put the team before yourself. Give to other people. Understand that you and your teammates need each other.
- Have a winning attitude. Believe in yourself. Play with confidence. Avoid dwelling on mistakes. Be a positive influence. | <urn:uuid:509e543b-45fe-4f8d-8b3e-9752eaf469fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weplay.com/blog/the-nuts-and-bolts-of-coaching-philosophy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985405 | 356 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Much has been talked about concerning the disconnect that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has with the average income earner in this country. His gaffes are now legendary and have become grist for late night comedy and for political left wing websites and blogs who aim to cast him as the wealthy elitist he is; not fit to represent the 99% whose incomes average just under $50,000 a year.
Some who support Romney and his accumulation of great wealth claim that this does not disenfranchise him from most Americans or protest that this charge is an exaggeration. The aspirations to have such great wealth may be a common denominator amongst most free market minded people but the reality is much more in tune with the facts that reveal only a small percentage of Americans will ever acquire such great wealth.
To drive this point home, a recently published article in Bloomberg has demonstrated how people like Romney with their greater wealth actually live in a world that many others may dream of but few live in – the world of the wealthiest 1%. If ever these people at anytime in their life ever experienced the struggles most people face, especially in such tough economic times as these, they have surely removed them from their consciousness. Their understanding of the world we live in is molded by what they read in Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, the financial sections of major newspapers at the NY Times and The Washington Post and even Bloomberg’s that reported a despairing situation for many Wall Street income earners.
The fact too that some of these people have to side step a homeless person sleeping in front of the entrance to their Wall Street office is more a nuisance to them than a reminder that few of their fellow citizens really do lead the lives they do. But now some who have lived luxurious lifestyles may be getting that sense of desperation that their lower-earning brethren deal with each day as job security and wages seem to slip away for many, if only temporarily.
Facing a slump in revenue from investment banking and trading, Wall Street firms have trimmed 2011 discretionary pay. At Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Barclays Capital, the cuts were at least 25 percent. Morgan Stanley (MS) capped cash bonuses at $125,000, and Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) increased the percentage of deferred pay.
Wall Street’s cash bonus pool fell by 14 percent last year to $19.7 billion, the lowest since 2008, according to projections by New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
“It’s a disaster,” said Ilana Weinstein, chief executive officer of New York-based search firm IDW Group LLC. “The entire construct of compensation has changed.” SOURCE
Do you feel the pain for people like those at Morgan Stanley who can rely on getting no more than $125,000 for their bonuses? No, neither can I. $125,000 is two and half times the average income for most Americans.
Most people can only dream of Wall Street’s shrinking paychecks. Median household income in 2010 was $49,445, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, lower than the previous year and less than 1 percent of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s $7 million restricted-stock bonus for 2011. The percentage of Americans living in poverty climbed to 15.1 percent, the highest in almost two decades.
The sacrifices some of these well-healed people are faced with will bring you to tears. Not for what they will be doing without but for the simple reason that they haven’t got a clue that such wants and desires they’ve become accustomed to don’t even begin to exist in the world of families that strive to feed their children two nutritious meals each day, keep the utilities on so they won’t freeze in the winter and swelter in the summer and who have little to no hope that college for their kids and a comfortable retirement lies in their futures.
Some examples, described in Max Abelson’s story in Bloomberg, of how these wealthy people view their futures are like that of Andrew Schiff, director of marketing for broker-dealer Euro Pacific Capital Inc who makes a salary of $350,000 before bonuses but is now fretting that he will not be able to cover the bills to pay for “his family’s private-school tuition, a Kent, Connecticut summer rental and the upgrade they would like from their 1,200-square- foot Brooklyn duplex.”
“I feel stuck,” Schiff said. “The New York that I wanted to have is still just beyond my reach.” He seems unaware that this comment mocks the millions of people who live in ghettoes and low-rent districts, not only in New York but across the country, having expressed a similar desire to pull themselves above their utter poverty. The Schiffs of this world might blame those very poor for their own plight but as he and others of his ilk are discovering, things beyond their control effect a family’s income and the ability to fight it often bares little fruit.
And who can’t feel the pain of “Wall Street headhunter Daniel Arbeeny who averages about $500,000 in good years, when his ‘income has gone down tremendously.’ On a recent Sunday, he drove to Fairway Market in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn to buy discounted salmon for $5.99 a pound.” How degrading it must be to mingle with the “small people” who eat this more inferior grade of salmon.
But these examples are but a condition that we all face when the lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to slowly begins to fade away. The family of four who were making $50,000 a year will have to change their diets and plans for an evening at the movies or dinner out now that dad has lost his job and their sole source of income will come from mom’s paycheck as a day care worker in a local facility for the aging. But even her job is in jeopardy as the state threatens to reduce funding for this refuge of last resort for elder people who live strictly off of their meager social security checks.
What really leaps up off the page of Abelson’s article, for me at least, is the comment made by Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy, when he says that “People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress. Could you imagine what it’s like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?”
Let those comments sink in for a minute and after the shock and anger subsides, allow the laughter and pity to take over. Dlugash’s comments point out the very factor why most of us feel that Romney’s wealth and those like him alienate them from everyday working Americans.
The wealthy one-percent feel helpless when they can’t afford to send their kids to expensive prep schools, purchase a new Mercedes-Benz or take their annual European Cruise. The rest who struggle at or below the poverty level understand that they may not be able to provide adequate health care for their kids, put gas in the ten year old vehicle that is in bad need of repair and update the clothing hand-me-downs that many siblings share with each other. But somehow, in the minds of very wealthy people, this stress is incomparable to that which would deprive Buffy and Tad from an education that is as much centered on social status as it is growth opportunities for them and their parents.
The appalling arrogance of Dlugash’s comment displays the growing division in real life terms between the have and have-nots in this country. To suggest as some have that those who support the ideas of the Occupy Wall Street people are guilty of creating unfounded class warfare is to totally miss what people like Romney, Schiff, Arbeeny and Dlugash are really all about. The comfort level they have achieved and endured for years has buffered them from most of those within the lower 99%.
To put in perspective the difference between income and wealth, consider that to be in the top 1 percent of income earners, a household needs an adjusted gross income of at least $380,000, or 11 times the median household adjusted gross income of $33,000. But to be in the top 1 percent of wealthy Americans, a household needs a net worth of almost $14 million—225 times that of the median family net worth of just $62,000 in 2009. And the richest 1 percent of Americans owns an even greater share of wealth than of income. SOURCE
They have developed a mindset that doesn’t fully grasp that their good fortune has likely been the result of the advantages that are absent in the lives of most Americans – growing up as children of wealthy parents. Charles Murray with the American Enterprise Institute points this out in his Op-ed piece in the NY Times.
“The haves in our society are increasingly cocooned in a system that makes it easy for their children to continue to be haves. Recognizing that, and acting to diminish the artificial advantages of the new upper class — especially if that class takes the lead in advocating these reforms — could be an important affirmation of American ideals.”
For those who have scratched and clawed their way to the top without the aid of a wealthy legacy it appears they too have closed themselves off to a world where opportunities are few and far between and to the strongest go the spoils.
The prospects of fulfilling that American Dream have slowly disappeared over the last few decades and as more and more wealth is accumulated in fewer and fewer hands the future becomes bleak for those children whose middle-income family upbringing offered hope for them. The fact that some of those who have reached the heights of material ownership and are now seeing that they too may soon become victims of an economic system going south seems indicative that we are indeed heading for a crisis that easily reflects a class warfare.
The attitude of these wealthy Wall Street financiers reported in Abelson’s Bloomberg piece displays for all who are paying attention that there is a different construct by which they lead their lives versus the rest of the country. The writing is on the wall for those who can read it. Clearly those like the Schiffs, Arbeenys and Dlugashes have yet to see that our futures our inexorably tied together. Their hope unfortunately lies in a leadership guided by a Mitt Romney who has never known what it’s like to be in real want and need.
Until we try to establish a system that works purposefully to insure a rising tide lifts all boats, the growing income disparity will continue and power will be concentrated in the hands of a few. These few power brokers increasingly lay outside the control measures of a democracy that is becoming more and more suited by design for their needs than “we the people” it was originally intended. | <urn:uuid:6bb941a8-6f28-4c3b-8ecb-117f5f06087f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://woodgatesview.com/tag/income-disparity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971913 | 2,286 | 1.570313 | 2 |
English Comments Off
I read an interesting article the other day by Evan Wiener on why Apple dropped Google from Maps in iOS 6. Wiener suggested that Google was withholding features, like voice-guided navigation, as a negotiation tactic to get Apple to agree with deeper Google integration, and Apple finally said enough’s enough.
The well-connected John Gruber confirms that he’s heard a similar story from numerous sources — more specifically, that Google was wanting to collect user data for serving up targeted ads, and Apple said no. And wouldn’t you know it, it seems Google’s trying to do the same thing in its new Maps app…(…)
Read the rest of Google Maps app could violate European data protection law
“Google Maps app could violate European data protection law” is an article by iDownloadBlog.com.
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Powered by WPeMatico | <urn:uuid:0e330d56-c736-4145-84e7-c8ddcaa186fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ifhone5.com/google-maps-app-could-violate-european-data-protection-law/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945416 | 200 | 1.507813 | 2 |
By Amy Ma
Designing a 162-room hotel is a challenge for any architect.
Trying to do it at 3,600 meters (nearly 12,000 feet) above sea level and adhering to the cultural concerns of Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet? That’s raising the stakes.
For two and a half years, Jean-Michel Gathy, principle designer of Denniston International Architects & Planners Ltd., based in Kuala Lumpur, struggled with the obstacles of creating the eight-acre St. Regis Lhasa Resort.
“Because it was so cold during the winters, we had to stop building for three months of the year,” says the architect, whose other projects include the Aman at Summer Palace and the One & Only Reethi-Rah resort in the Maldives.
The St. Regis Lhasa Resort soft-opened in November. Mr. Gathy tells us why Tibet may be one of the most demanding places to create a luxury property.
Painting it red: When choosing your color palette, beware of using ox-blood red, a shade reserved for temples and religious buildings.
“It’s a beautifully dramatic color,” says Mr. Gathy. “I have one wall in the front courtyard that’s painted in this color, but in order to get around [the culture surrounding the use of it], we had to cover it up with a lattice on top.”
Buddha on high: The placement of Buddha statues must be done with respect, says Mr. Gathy. As a rule of thumb, statues should be placed higher than pedestrian eye level, so people look up at them.
“There are very sensitive cultural issues that you have to understand when designing something in Tibet,” he says. “Everything is scrutinized.”
Avoiding stairs: With altitude sickness being a serious concern for travelers to Tibet, why is it that Mr. Gathy raised the first floor of the hotel by more than 10 meters? “We wanted it to be level with the Potala, the main temple at Lhasa. That way guests can get the perfect view,” he says. What’s more, all the public areas — except for the small Tibetan restaurant in the resort – are located on the same floor so guests need not go up and down stairs. Oxygen tanks are also available throughout the premises.
Making do with materials: Certain materials are not readily available in Tibet, says Mr. Gathy. “I wanted to use timber for the windows, but only aluminum was available. As a designer, you have to realize you can’t have everything.”
Finding talent: It takes a lot of construction know-how to build a property like the St. Regis, says Mr. Gathy. “The way things are finished off and milled and joined together – that’s all methodology local labor is not familiar with.” Many of the components were prefabricated in eastern China and then transported to Tibet for simple installation.
Creating the mood: You may think of Tibet as peaceful and meditative landscape, but the site of the hotel was in fact the former city hall compound. “It is by an open road and so there is a lot of traffic and noise,” says Mr. Gathy. He resolved the problem by building a four-meter-high wall around the complex and a manmade oasis — a large lake, or reflective pool, surrounded by lush and mature trees. | <urn:uuid:250f0163-9f5c-4cb2-8541-891c1a654ea0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/05/18/up-in-the-air-in-tibet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949585 | 746 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office will hold two community hearings this week regarding the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plant sites on Chicago’s South Side. Midwest Generation is scheduled to close the plants in September. Community excitement that the aging plants are shutting down has partly given way to fears that the city and Midwest Generation will never clean up or “remediate” the sites.
“Nobody wants to deal with the remediation process,” claims Rafeal Hurtado, an organizer at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), a group that advocated shutting down the Crawford plant.
Remediation is the process for which a former industrial site is removed of its polluting materials. The Fisk plant in the Pilsen neighborhood has been in operation for 109 years and the Crawford facility, located in the Little Village neighborhood, has been around for 89 years. Air pollution from the plants has been linked to premature deaths and heart attacks.
Henry Henderson, executive director of the Natural Resource Defense Council’s Midwest office, says that a “full blown remedial investigative study” is needed of Fisk and Crawford, where investigators do a chemical analyses to determine the extent of lingering pollution. Henderson pointed to concerns like coal ash and asbestos still being at the sites.
Henderson says it is in the city’s best interest to move remediation forward so the two sites are not reduced to “a fence and a mean dog.”
But Midwest Generation might not have any clean-up obligations.
Emanuel and the company, which is a subsidiary of California-based Edison International, have not made the terms of its February agreement to shutter the plants public. Messages to Midwest Generation and Emanuel’s office were not returned.
Jerry Mead-Lucero, an organizer at the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO), says “none of the community members have ever seen the actual agreement that was signed with the city.”
This is despite the fact that Mead-Lucero and representatives from LVEJO and Pilsen Alliance are part of a mayor-appointed task force to determine the site’s future.
Mead-Lucero suspects that, besides closing the plants, “Legally, there is not a whole more that we can hold [Midwest Generation] too.”
The community hearings will take place in Pilsen Tuesday night and Little Village Thursday evening. In addition to clean-up issues, community members and task force officials will offer possibilities of what might become of the sites. Idea’s discussed at community forums organized by PERRO and LVEJO ranged from a park to a vocational school.
According to the city, the task force is expected to issue a report prior to the September closings. | <urn:uuid:e43b8b32-5dc9-46b5-af55-59140b2e6192> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.progressillinois.com/quick-hits/content/2012/06/24/clean-plan-coal-sites-unclear | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94826 | 581 | 1.828125 | 2 |
So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.
When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.
Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them.
For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah.
Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me. | <urn:uuid:d5f60c66-3792-4787-b912-e840ec51fdbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biblestudytools.com/nehemiah/passage.aspx?q=nehemiah+6:15-19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.994143 | 163 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Kurdish leaders said they, too, were working to reduce tensions in the wake of the killings.
"Here the people of of Kurdistan, by claiming ownership of these three revolutionary women, are showing that they will not fall prey to provocation," said Sebahat Tuncel, a member of Turkey's parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party.
"We showed our attitude beyond any doubt, that we are for peace, for freedom, and for a democratic and peaceful resolution of the Kurdish issue."
In recent days, the Turkish military bombed suspected PKK camps in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq. On Wednesday, a Turkish police officer was killed in "an armed attack on a police car," according to the office of the governor of the southeastern province of Mardin.
"They say peace on the one hand, but then they bomb Qandil. In short, we have no trust left in the prime minister," said a middle-aged Kurdish man attending Thursday's funeral demonstration. The man asked not to be identified for security reasons.
"The peace process has already been stalled. It didn't even begin."
The atmosphere in Diyarbakir was subdued Thursday, with nearly every shop shuttered, in a citywide shutdown coinciding with the funeral demonstration.
Kurdish politicians from the BDP told CNN they would accompany the bodies of the three murdered women to their hometowns of Maras, Tunceli, and Adana for burial later this week. | <urn:uuid:5f30823e-5e2a-40cd-9b80-8a2751e80bbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcra.com/news/national/In-Turkey-mourners-protest-killings-of-Kurds/-/11797450/18162724/-/item/1/-/9r6ccn/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97634 | 308 | 1.65625 | 2 |
By admin on 04/27/2011 05:08 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
College Life Planning to Release CAP- Get and Independent College Advisor for your Student!
San Diego, CA – April 27, 2011 College planning has become a multi-million dollar industry because of statistics like this one “Nearly 40% of college freshmen do not graduate even after six years of college.*” This number is so disturbingly high because so many incoming freshmen don’t plan properly for college. Don’t let your student end up as another statistic.
A college education today is a necessity for any young adult. “By comparison, a typical college graduate would expect to earn... almost twice as much as an individual with only a high school education” (California State University Long Beach Economic Impact Report 2005). Yet many students do not graduate from college to realize that increased job opportunity and earning potential.
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1464 Essex St #4
San Diego, CA
Ph: (619) 823-5974 | <urn:uuid:a55e3abf-25eb-4d80-b8b6-0d3b1a0a5ff6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.collegelifeplanning.com/pages/blog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936524 | 465 | 1.632813 | 2 |
On New Year's Eve, several friends joined me for an unusual celebration of the year's end. After dark, we strapped on snowshoes and made our way up the side of a mountain near Donner Summit in California. Using mountain bike lights and the abundant moonlight, we found our way to a splendid view of Donner Lake and the surrounding Sierra.
Of course, being a GPS geek, I tracked our trek with my new Christmas gift: a Garmin 60CSx device. I wanted to view our route in Google Earth. The resulting track ended up being much more informative than I anticipated. As we climbed, we tried to find the famous train tunnel that cuts into this mountain side. Alas, due to visibility and some navigation confusion, we never ended up finding the tunnel.
Upon our return home, I downloaded the track into Google Earth. I immediately saw the train tunnel and using the measuring tool, I determined that we were only ~350' from the tunnel! It was hidden just behind an incline that kept it out of sight.
As an outdoor enthusiast, I absolutely love how Google Earth can help me scope out terrain that I explore on bike, foot or snowshoe. | <urn:uuid:c509dbcb-0151-4dfc-9f6e-d69eb6c2ebd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://googleearthuser.blogspot.com/2007/01/tracking-snowshoe-tracks.html?showComment=1168486800000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953622 | 243 | 1.828125 | 2 |
In its long-awaited final decision on how to draw new congressional districts, the Legislature's Redistricting Committee on Tuesday served up a "pizza slice" plan which would slice Salt Lake County into three pieces and combine them with large rural areas.
That has Democrats and reform groups howling that the map is designed to dilute Democratic votes in their one stronghold of Salt Lake County, and improve chances that Republicans can win all four of the state's congressional seats next year.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, was dissatisfied enough at what appears to be a tougher district for him that he said "a race by me for governor or the Senate is still on the table" instead of seeking House re-election. Other districts would appear to be safe for incumbent Reps. Jason Chaffetz and Rob Bishop, both R-Utah, and a new district would appear ideal for a run for Congress by state Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, who has already said he is running.
Meanwhile, Republicans who hold a 15-4 majority on the committee say the map was not drawn to improve their party's chances, but to ensure that all of Utah's members of Congress would focus on both urban and rural issues and take a statewide focus with them to Washington that is important for a small state.
Gerrymandering? • Utah Democratic Party Chairman Jim Dabakis told the committee the boundaries were gerrymandered for GOP benefit, and said it would help continue a trend of fewer Utahns casting ballots because they believe their votes do not count in districts where the outcome is certain.
"When you draw the lines in such a blatant political way, it deflates the energy of democracy," he said.
When House Speaker Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, asked Dabakis to define "gerrymandering," he replied, "It's what you guys have done."
Democrats and reform groups had sought a "doughnut hole" plan that would create one district in Salt Lake County, and create up to three urban districts on the Wasatch Front surrounded by a large rural district. They contended that would keep "communities of interest" together.
Lockhart said the new map which she drew by altering a pizza-slice plan submitted by Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, co-chairman of the committee is actually "sort of a hybrid plan."
It would keep Salt Lake City whole, as sought by Democrats and others, but combine it with GOP-dominated areas. Lockhart said it would create another district out of the growing western portions of Salt Lake and Utah counties in areas "that had enough babies and people move in to give us the fourth [congressional] seat. … So this puts them all together."
However, Maryann Martindale, executive director of Alliance for a Better UTAH, said, "It's a pizza-slice plan," and not a hybrid. "It still splits Salt Lake County three different ways and divides communities of interest there."
She said the new 4th District in western Salt Lake and Utah counties appears "to be drawn for Carl Wimmer," by giving him conservative, west-side areas in both counties.
Lockhart said she did not draw that for Wimmer. She said the only request that she took into account was that "Jason Chaffetz asked that he live in the district he represents. I figured that was a reasonable request." Chaffetz lives in Alpine, currently just outside of the district he has represented for two terms. Federal law requires that a member of Congress live in the state they help represent, but not necessarily the district where they live.
Chaffetz's new district would include most of the larger cities in Utah County and combine them with mostly conservative areas in the Uinta Basin, which should make it relatively safe for him.
'Take another look' • While the map would keep Democratic Salt Lake City whole for the first time in two decades, it does not appear to do any favors for Matheson and Democrats who live there. It would combine and outnumber them with GOP rural areas stretching to St. George and San Juan County, plus conservative Bountiful and Woods Cross in Davis County.
Matheson would lose from his current district Democratic east-side areas in Salt Lake County and Carbon County. Matheson issued a statement urging the full Legislature to "take another look at the map and do what is in the best interest of the state of Utah."
Sumsion insists the new map creates competitive seats, and said he actually preferred versions that gave the GOP even better chances. He said Matheson's new district and the new 4th District combining western Salt Lake and Utah counties "can both be won by the Democrats if they run a good candidate. And if Republicans run a poor one, they can lose those districts."
Dabakis, however, said the GOP appears to have worked hard to draw lines that benefit it. He wondered aloud to the committee how that map had appeared only last week, and suggested that it may have been pushed by the National Republican Committee to local lawmakers to help ensure GOP wins.
Sumsion scoffed at that. He said he and other Republicans drew it locally as a compromise among many ideas, and that is why it appeared only recently.
Mary Bishop, chairwoman of the Salt Lake County Democratic Party, said Republicans again are placing Salt Lake City with faraway places like St. George. "It pleases neither St. George nor Salt Lake. We are not a community of interest, so why do we keep doing this?"
The Redistricting Committee plans to meet again on Thursday at 10 a.m. to discuss any feedback it receives from the public about its final maps, and allow some quick alterations then.
The full Legislature is scheduled to meet in a special session beginning on Monday to debate and adopt final plans for Congress, the Legislature and the state school board. Reform groups are planning a rally that day in the Capitol Rotunda to protest the current proposals.
The new map is available on the committee's website, redistrictutah.com, under the title of "Congress: Sumsion 06 Modified A." | <urn:uuid:545103b2-835b-48f4-868b-5c1c78ba1c3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.sltrib.com/printfriendly.php?id=52646273&itype=cmsid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97344 | 1,274 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The whole purpose of the JNF Mission my family is doing is to learn about the history of Israel in regards to the Six Day War and the reunification of Jerusalem, hence the mission is appropriately titled "The Road to Jerusalem". Many of you may not know this, but Jerusalem was not a part of the Israeli State until 1967, after heavy fighting, and major successes on the part of Israel. From 1948 until 1967, Jerusalem was controlled by Jordan, but after 1967, the control was returned to Israel, and Jerusalem was united with the rest of Israel.
We started our day off early, and our "real" breakfast was actually at an Air Force Base in the north. These are pictures from the hotel refreshments that were placed out for us before boarding the busses.
I will briefly mention that we spent some of the morning, including breakfast, visiting an Air Force Base in the northern part of Israel. Much like US bases, you can't take pictures, although Israel is a bit stricter than the US. I couldn't even take pictures of the breakfast served to us on base. Once on the base we were shown some of the air craft, which was neat for me as a US military spouse. In fact, there was really little difference between their base and ours. I felt right at home with the fighter jets taking off. I know it was an exciting demo for many because they have never seen this before. We learned a little about what it takes to become a pilot in the Israeli Air Force. It is not an easy task. In case you don't know, all Israeli citizens serve in the military when they turn 18. I am sure there are some exceptions, but I am not an expert on this topic. Others living in Israel can join too, as well as Jews from other countries. I have known Americans that have served, as well as some of the people we met last year that were from other places, like Russia.
After the base, we made our way to Jerusalem. Our first stop was Mt. Scopus.
Currently on Mt. Scopus is Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University. Here is one of the signs from the college campus.
One of the things that makes Mt. Scopus so unique and a part of Israeli history is that it was the only part of Jerusalem that remained part of Israel. This means just this speck inside Jerusalem was Israeli. No one could live here because they were surrounded by Jordan (Jerusalem under Jordanian rule). The UN came every two weeks to escort the Israeli police (military) in to trade off with those that had been their for the 2 weeks prior. The buildings remained empty for 19 years. Yes, I said 19 years. Can you believe for 19 years this area was guarded but empty. Over that time they smuggled in weapons, and when the time came, they fought and reclaimed Jerusalem as their own. This is now a busy place once again. While up here we listened to the story of the Mt. Scopus from someone that actually fought here. Remember, this was not that long ago. Until 1967, Jerusalem was part of Jordan and Mt. Scopus was desolate.
Next up was a visit to Ammunition Hill, which is another very important site in the history of Israel as this is where a very important battle of the Six Day took place. Of course this was an Israeli victory, and this win allowed for us to have the Israel that we have today. Without this battle, it is likely that Jerusalem would still belong to Jordan, and the Israeli State would not be the way we know it today.
Before touring the battle grounds we were served a delicious lunch. Again, this was a kosher meat meal, so at least the salads were dairy free (good for my sister who is a lactose intolerant vegetarian).
Here is what I ended up with. All of it was really good.
Here is my sisters plate.
I always feel funny snapping all these food pictures at these buffet style meals, but I think by now people are starting to get used to it. We have nearly 120 people on our trip, so there are probably still a few I have not met and have no idea why I am snapping pictures of food like it is a tourist spot. As a result, I can't take a picture of everything because I am respectful of the fact that people need to eat, and we can't spend all day focused on the food.
After lunch we headed out to look around the battle ground site and listen to the story of the events told by someone that was there fighting that day in 1967. It is very moving to hear the story told by people that lived it. There is so much emotion in their words, and they acted so honorably so that we as Jews can enjoy the Israel that we all know and love today.
Here is the Israeli flag flying high.
Here I am with my sister. We were trying not to get too sun burned, but unfortunately SPF 100 was no match for the Israel sun in May.
Right after the speaker we were served some fruit and chocolate lava cake.
Then we all moved into the amphitheater for a dedication ceremony. Some of the members of out trip had donated and dedicated a plaque to this wall at Ammunition Hill. This wall honors all Jews that have served in the military of their own countries, so this means even in the United States. It is a great tribute to all Jewish soldiers that have fought for the freedom of their home country over the years. Did you know that Jews even served in the armies of the North and the South in the Civil War? It's true, and they continue to serve in militaries all over the world, not just fighting for Israel, but fighting for freedom all over the world.
I have not had the honor of meeting this gentleman, but from what I gather he is a very honored and respected war hero in Israel. He was honored on this day with a plaque on the wall and here he is giving his speech. It is nice to know that people like him exist in order to make the world a better place, especially Israel where the threat of danger to the land and a safe place for Jews is always hanging in the balance.
After the ceremony we were able to head to our hotel, The David Citadel. I will say that for a 5 star hotel, there were a few glitches in getting settled. Here is a picture of our room, although this turned out to be a handicapped room and we needed to relocate.
The rooms are really nice, but I went to log into the internet, after paying a considerable fee for the week (the benefit is that it worked for all our devices so we only needed to pay once for all 4 of us), and discovered that it would not work in my room. After a long day and really needing to catch up on work, this was the last thing I wanted to deal with. I was told it was because I have a Mac Book. In the end I was given a USB modem, but it still wouldn't work in my room. I was able to use it in the lobby, but there was a very loud party going on, and this made it difficult to concentrate to get my work done. But that's another story...and the end of it is that the next morning, it miraculously decided to start working in the room, so crisis averted!
After calming down from the internet debacle, we headed to Ben Yehudah Street for dinner.
I ate at this place last year, but it seemed to be a popular spot, so we got some falafel from there for dinner.
Look at all the yummy fillings you can get for your sandwich.
I ordered mine on the flat bread, like I did last year. It was so huge that I couldn't even finish it.
Dessert was at my favorite frozen yogurt place.
Here they mix vanilla yogurt with any fruits or similar toppings. It gets pushed through a machine and blended together.
I got an assortment of berries mixed with chocolate. Yum!
Afterwards, knowing I had work to do, we went to the Coffee Bean. At this location they offer a great looking menu with all kinds of foods and 24 hour breakfast. I wish we had one in Japan!
Then I got some much needed sleep in a very comfortable bed.
Up next, more Jerusalem.
QUESTIONS: Did you ever hear of the Six Day War? Have you ever been to Jerusalem? Do you like falafel? | <urn:uuid:dae0edf9-2def-43e9-912e-f263bbc34b52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nutrfoodtrvl.blogspot.com/2012/05/day-6-road-to-jerusalem.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987545 | 1,745 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Over the past two weeks I’ve heard the word “contrarian” more times than I can count. Suddenly, to become a successful investor in any segment (angel, venture capital, public markets, debt markets) you have to be contrarian. The assertion that a “contrarian strategy” always wins seems to be in the air.
When I ask people what they mean by “contrarian”, I’m amazed at how often they define it as either as “actively investing” or “sitting on the sidelines.” Specifically, “there are too many people investing at this point – I’m going to take a contrarian approach and sit on the sidelines for a while.”
To me, contrarian means doing the opposite of everyone else. If everyone is buying, you are selling. If everyone is selling, you are buying. Our friends at Webster even give us an example:
“As an investor, he’s a contrarian, preferring to buy stocks when most people are selling.”
Now, to be fair, you can make the case that “not buying” when everyone else is buying is contrarian. But I have never thought about it that way. And, as the word contrarian enters the mainstream vernacular around entrepreneur / angel / VC land, I think it’s important to ponder what it really means, especially if the majority suddenly adopt a “contrarian strategy” which, by definition, ceases to be contrarian.
Do you remember the amazingly hilarious “We’re All Individuals” segment from Monty Python’s Life of Brian? | <urn:uuid:b8b87af3-653b-4ae9-8144-4747e73d4082> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/tag/cliches | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947112 | 357 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Sick of telling time the old way? Spice up your time-telling time with the open-source, hackable and Arduino-based DOTKLOK. Basically, you can get a bunch of different ways to tell time. Different customizable animations will make you proud to show off your hard work the next time someone asks for the time. Speaking of time, it passes in a unique way with numbers and abstract/geometric patterns. It also has classic video games like Pong, Tetris and Pacman, that pretty much makes it sweet in our book.
DOTKLOK only uses 2 watts of power and if the electricity goes out, there’s a backup battery that will keep the time. It comes as a kit with hardware plans, schematics, source code and instructions so you can make whatever adjustments you want. LED colors come in red or green.
The only down side is the price (starts at $150). But if you gotta have one, you can buy them here.
Hands off videos | <urn:uuid:e26d175e-24c5-4bc1-80cd-eff30d64823a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/23/dotklok-is-a-hackable-open-source-arduino-clock-also-neat-looking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937241 | 213 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Andy Warhol is one of the most accesible artist of the twentieth century. So, why another Warhol book? He died 25 years ago and created and exhibited his thirtytwo Campbell’s soup cans fifty years ago. And we are still talking about his life, his work, and his wig. The eighty interviews in this book with illustrious artists, designers, and others, each of whom was influenced by Andy Warhol just begin to explain why.
“The criteria for selecting my interviewees were that the person had to have been influenced, affected, or touched by the life and/or work of Andy Warhol. They also had to have had a compelling story that referenced or involved a specific piece of Warhol art, book, film, creative collaboration or an actual meeting/conversation with Warhol,” explains the author Catherine Johnson.
Just some of the luminaries interviewed and featured in Thank You Andy Warhol (Glitterati, ISBN 9780985169602, $50) include Frances Grill, Ivan Karp, Billy Name, Brigid Berlin, Jeffrey Deitch, Danny Fields, Ken Heyman, Bibbe Hansen, George Lois, Gretchen Berg, Vincent Fremont, Bob Colacello, Sylvia Miles, Peter Beard, Christopher Makos, Liza Minnelli, Patrick McDonald, Richard Prince, Kenny Scharf, Vik Muniz, Simon Doonan, Ryan McGinness, Eric Shiner, Kara Walker, and Jamie Warhola.
Their collective descriptions are compelling and paint an incredible picture of both Andy Warhol and the notable interviewees themselves. Each person discusses the profound influence of Andy Warhol on lives and/or work, or both. In addition, each person interviewed cites a piece of Warhol artwork that is personally significant to him or her, whether it be an artwork, book, film, creative collaboration, meeting, or conversation with Warhol, as an addition to the description of how he affected work and lives. Amazingly, only two people referenced the same piece of Warhol art. ❚ | <urn:uuid:c7cd3c8c-c7ae-4239-b85c-ea31874201bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.getaddictedto.com/thank-you-andy-warhol/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934662 | 422 | 1.789063 | 2 |
This is not actually true. If the warrant in your example was obtained based on a deliberate deception it would be invalid and the evidence from the search would not come in. If what you suggest was the case, there would be basically no point to the exclusionary rule since the police could freely lie in affidavits and have the warrants (or at least the evidence obtained from their execution) upheld.
The good faith exception is easy to apply if you consider the purpose of the exclusionary rule. The exclusionary rule exists to deter unlawful police conduct.
Consider the situation where the police request a warrant in good faith, and it is issued by a detached and neutral magistrate. On appeal, the affidavit is found to lack probable cause. Should the evidence be suppressed? The Supreme Court says no, because the police acted in complete good faith. There was no misconduct involved and applying the exclusionary rule in situations like this would not further its purpose since there is no unlawful conduct to deter. This is the proper application of the good faith exception.
By contrast, excluding evidence obtained by lying in an affidavit for a warrant would have a very pronounced effect on reducing unlawful behavior by the police. Thus, no good faith exception for your dishonest detective. (Actually, he may be looking at a perjury prosecution.)
Law school ruined Law and Order for me. My wife can't stand me explaining why everything on the show is wrong. Also she hates it when I yell "Objection!!" at the screen every few minutes during the second half of the show. | <urn:uuid:5b92bab0-352f-45c4-b061-dfe515ad63e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://slashdot.org/~greggem/tags/dreamhost | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973607 | 310 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Together with a team, we recently completed the process analysis and redesign for a specific process area for large bank.
I wanted to share some of the experiences and a key lesson.
We took the following approach:
1. Understand current process (including visual model) , through workshops and document review
2. Deepen understanding, by finding process statistics
3. Design future state process, by using elements of Lean and common sense
Step 1 - requirements. Step 2. Activities. Step 3. Responsibilities. Step 4. KPI's
4. Analyse automation possibilities, and define use cases, non functionals and preliminary IT architecture (iterative)
5. Develop business case and different scenario's
We delivered the following, in a way a fairly complete business architecture
- A proces diagram (with annotations) current state
- A proces requirements document future state
- A proces design (logical level) future state, annotated, different levels of abstraction and use of swimlanes
- An organizational design (with FTE calculations)
- A use cases document and non-functionals document (together: software requirements)
- A preliminary IT architecture
- A cost/benefit analysis spreadsheet with different scenario's for implementation (including options such as BPO and offshoring the development of the proposed IT solutions).
All deliverables have cross-traceability (for instance a proces step links to a certain requirement, links to a certain use case and feature of the proposed IT solution). Handy for consistency checking..
Nice was the active application of Lean thoughts. For instance:
- An active focus on the customer requirements: what would a customer require in terms of proces, product and service? And what steps does a client need to take to go from need to solution- and are we able to help with these steps or simplify/reduce?
- A split of the basis flow (main proces, which can include detection of exceptions) and exception handling processen, to make sure that the main factory process continues.
- A clear split in plan-do-check-act cycle activities.
- Just In Time approach, with zero - to close to zero work-in-progress inventories
- The use of takt-time as a basis for "flow design" and calculation of effort.
Key Lesson - split requirements and design
When I was still on the techie-side of things, we had a rule "the sooner you start coding, the longer it's going to take", promoting the importance of clear requirements and a thought-through architecture. Well, I think the same is true with Future State business process modelling. In the beginning we brainstormed and modelled a bit on future state, only to realize that, together with our client, we needed to take a step back.
What we did, was the division of process abstractions in:
- A set of requirements
- A logical model (with no implementation decisions yet)
- A physical model (with implementation decisions, scenario's, such as BPO and IT)
This greatly improved and focused our effort. We were able to facilitate our client through process requirement sessions, where questions were asked such as:
- What are the goals?
- What should have been done, to consider a process instance to be done totally?
- What should be the result of the process execution? In what dimensions measured?
- What should be CSF's and KPI's?
- What stakeholders are involved? Why? In what responsibility/accountability and added value?
- What requirements will the main stakeholder, the CUSTOMER, have? (VOC).
The key strength was, that the customer started to see that certain requirements where not compatible and needed prioritization (sure, you want low cost, high quality, agility, speed, compliance all at the same time, but that's nirvana. What's most important?)
And that the procesmodelling effort for the future state was a simple exercise, using the requirements as a basis. The modelling refined some of the requirements (feedback learning), for which we used traceability and version control.
Note: in the logical procesmodel we identified different processes - from workfloor to management.
After the logical procesmodelling was done, the next step was to explore implementation choices in the steps of the process. Can we automate X, can we outsource Y? It lead to a number of scenario's and a proposed physical process design.
Although it sounds a bit top-down, through iterations we made sure that requirements, logical design and physical design were synced and improved where needed. The result - a happy client, with a sound plan for his business. Next step: getting it decided and live!
Monday, May 28, 2007
Together with a team, we recently completed the process analysis and redesign for a specific process area for large bank.
Posted by Roeland Loggen at 14:17
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
A common reason that I hear from companies, for embarking on the BPM journey is process visibility. The so needed knowledge about what's happening in the company, to be able to assess status, progress and strategic alignment.
In my opinion, visibility starts with events, and to begin with: the external events: situations where you as a company are contacted by an external stakeholder (customer, supplier), which triggers a series of activities.
A good start (which any secretary can tell you) is to have some type of incoming event recording system. Why?
1. To help customers trust you - it is so strong if you can tell the customer - "sure, we have received your order, change, complaint, at date XYZ". Events are integral information in your customer relations history.
2. As part of your record management system (compliance, auditing)
3. As major input for your KPI's & management information (how many order-requests have we received?)
4. As input for your inline simulation engine
The last option is a fairy new feature in BPM engines. It saves you enormous time if you don't have to dig up all kinds of events information, to be able to run simulations.
Inline simulation helps you to see what results would have been, based on your past actual history, if you change certain business rules or processes....
The good news is that you already probably have many event capturing systems. Unfortunately, the events are not seens as separate entities, but are translated and deeply burried in your ERP's, CRM's, Web logs, batch-audit & signal files, Document management systems, not to forget masses of emails and paper documents.
It would be good to see a new module in your enterprise architecture: your event capturing and recording system. Let's call it the Event-Friend :-)
A system that recognizes events, stores them and dispatches them based on business rules to people, BPM suites, ERP systems, SOA orchestration stacks, etc.
And in the future maybe even more intelligent - able to relate events (which one belong to another) and see patterns, trouble (new account opening, and directly a cancel?) or fraude...
An essential element in your future Event Driven Architecture.
Posted by Roeland Loggen at 11:37
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Today I was "babysitting", taking care of a 2.5 year girl. Wonderful. Outside, sunny, and running around together with this gorgeous bundle of joy, energy and learning. It's a wonder to see small children learn. I must say, evolution has given children the right tools to grow up:
- Great Curiousness
- Joy and Courage
- The will to repeat again and again and again, (and getting better all the time as a result)
It made me realize an important thing about abilities in a company. There is quite some talk about "Business process management maturity" models. As a sidenote: did you ever meet a CEO that stayed awake at night, worrying how to get higher in the maturity model? Right...
Anyway, children grow up and learn. And they have the right skills for this learning.
But if we want to help grow a company, and get better processes, where would you start?
I have seen many checklists to hunt down the right process. The biggest bang for you buck, the most visibility, the best etc. Frontoffice! No, backoffice! Uhm, supporting processes first. No, the most fat slow cost-intensive. Probably, they are all right a bit.
But maybe more important than which process to pick, is the question how to proceed. Think of any activity in your company that delivers change. So, not the base processes (sell, procure, invoice, etc), but processes that change these base processes. Not much companies realize they have many of these types of processes as well. Some of them:
- New product development
- New IT systems
- Responding to changes in legislation
- Updating your brand and communications
- Management wanting a new way of reporting
Now think about your strength in these types of processes.
As a small example, I worked for a company selling insurance products. They were ok doing that. But developing new ones or changes? A nightmare. No visible process, more a large group of people spending most time influencing and disagreeing. Efficient? Right.
I don't think that in general, companies are strong in their change oriented processes.
Now, compare that to the little girl, and her great learning ability....
Maybe when we are starting change or improvement projects, we should spent more time growing our change/learn ability. See this as one of the strategic goals in your project. Maybe even assess it first, and become aware of common pittfalls in your company.
Your change ability is:
1. a CSF for any running project or change process
2. A competitive advantage in general (confirmed in research on High Performance Organisations)
So, if you want to grow process maturity, grow your maturity in your change abilities first (or too!)
Posted by Roeland Loggen at 17:47
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Ok, deep sigh, I had a "MOT" with a big company in the Netherlands. My telco provider, to be precise. (For MOT: see http://apply-mag.com/mag/farming_moments_truth/)
And it made me, sadly, realize, that BPM is SO necessary.
- I moved to live together with my girlfriend
- Both of us have broadband ADSL connections, at the same provider
- For some strange reason, KPN/Hetnet have a "year subscription"rule, e.g. if not cancelled at last month, you are forced to stay another year (something that in my recollection only weird bookshops still try to do).... even if you have been subscribing for many years, as a happy paying customer....
Since I moved to a house which already had a ADSL connection, I called my provider to see if I could cancel my own. Two subscriptions on the same address would not work anyway.
What follows (and I will not go in all details) were the usual 15 calls, press 1 for, no we can't do this, sure we can, endless music and a growing frustration.
Some of the experiences made me realize that outside-in thinking, MOT's and event driven companies are a FAR future in many cases.
1. Sure, a call center is nice, but make sure that you have identified your common EVENTS
2. Make sure that for each event a protocol or process exists. It should not be too hard to think outside in, and collect most possible events that can occur with your customers. And decide how to deal with them....consistently.
3. Decide who you will assign the process coordinator role. And make sure it is NOT your customer. In this last MOT, I had call center agents, requesting me to call back in 2 days, because then a certain change would have been processed. Me.... with the typical re-explain story all over again, including the earlier discussions no,,,yes,,,but,,,,
4. Consider to assign "a problem owner". Someone that simply says "Sure, I understand your event, I understand our steps to fulfill your needs and comply with our standards, and I WILL TAKE CARE OF IT". My name is XXX, and you can always call me at ..... I will call you as soon as.... Make sure that your customer does not need to understand the internal working of your company, to get his or her problem solved.
5. Train your staff to record decisions and status. Ah, I see you have called us before. Sure, the status is now xxxxx, and no, you don't have to explain again or go into discussion again. Nice for your customer, even nicer for your internal coordination mechanismes.
6. Don't make your customer feel that when signing up to a service, all lights are on green, and when in a later stage all lights are on red. A sure thing to get them really distrustfull.
7. Treat a loyal customer good.
Amazing that when you talk to these companies, which I often do, they have fancy process management tools, BAM, SOA, etc. But the key thing they forget.... the people that buy their services...
Process maturity is not about technology, it is about understanding that every MOT (moment of truth) is created by many small actions by various people in your company. BPM can be used as an intervention to get these actions aligned. It asks for a culture of customer orientation, getting the job done,.... simply maturity.
Maturity. So... Grow up! (or be gone when your competitors understand this better....)
Posted by Roeland Loggen at 00:04
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
A short post...:
"culture eats process for lunch every day."
What a great way to understand in a split-second that all your BPM efforts, often IT driven, will face an important hurdle, that will make you realize that process-analysis and design should be driven by people and culture first, and then IT....
Posted by Roeland Loggen at 13:58 | <urn:uuid:2b1d98f5-124b-4011-8213-0b6de0756fc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://process-transformation.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954512 | 2,988 | 1.570313 | 2 |
While preparing this post today on the Fear of the Lord- I remembered a quote from C.S. Lewis about Aslan- (who represents Jesus Christ).
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver.”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia
As can happen when reading God’s Word- I found that today certain passages stood out to me.
I felt conviction about my lack of fear of the Lord. I ended up reading 1 Corinthians and part of 2 Corinthians and then Psalm 19 and Proverbs 19.
Proverbs 19:23-The fear of the LORD leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.
In first and second Corinthians, Paul addresses problems in the church and encourages them, reminding them of all they have received in Christ.
In chapter 5 he uses strong language when addressing sinning among Christians.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
I came to chapter 15 and came up short at the power behind Paul’s words.
33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.
Do we fear God enough to speak boldly into the life of a brother or sister in Christ who has unrepentant sin?
Are we willing to be uncomfortable and lovingly address how their sin could be a stumbling block to others?
Then 2 Cor. 5:9-10 stuck out to me:
9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
And then I read Psalm 19 and verses 7-14 stood out to me:
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is pure,
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
I think many times we focus so much on God’s love and compassion and mercy and forgiveness- that we forget that we serve a righteous God, a just God.
Sometimes when I read about this aspect of God- it makes me squirm in my seat a little. Because I am aware of the sin in my own life- and it is easier sometimes to sweep it under the rug than deal with it.
I think many times in church it is easier for us to make excuses for not addressing sins in our brothers and sisters in Christ too- thinking that we should leave it to God to convict them- but what if God wants to use us to bring about repentance?
Does thinking about the judgment of God make you uncomfortable? Having all of your sins laid open for all to see and hear about?
Verses like 2 Cor. 5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
I remember my thoughts about other people, the things that I do in secret- some of the evil that lurks in my heart- things I am ashamed of and anxious to keep hidden- but God knows.
I cannot hide from Him. He sees all the secret parts of me- there is no thought that I have had nor thing that I have done that He does not know fully.
Do I ponder the grief that I cause my Lord and Savior when I willfully sin? Do I love my family in Christ enough to be willing to be used by God to bring others to repentance?
I pray that as you ponder the fear of the Lord you will pray for courage to confess those areas of your life that need to be surrendered, and pray that you will have discernment as you seek to lovingly urge others to repentance in Christ as we strive to be more like Him. | <urn:uuid:bd2732a4-fc97-4594-83b7-b74b836d8a5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myheartsmission.com/tag/are-we-living-as-though-we-fear-god/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955585 | 1,205 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Cancel Student Loans to Save — and Receive an Interest-Free 120-Day Loan
Student loan debt is all over the news. There are concerns that student loans might be the next "bubble" and finger pointing by Congress, universities, and of course, students. There's a lot of blame to go around, but at the end of the day, you are the one who has to repay the debt. So, what's an easy way to have less debt?
Return money you don't need. In federal loan lingo, it's called "canceling" your loan. (See also: Student Loans: How to Make Post-College Decisions)
Buried deep in the Federal Loan documents, there's a provision that tells you, "before your loan money is disbursed, you may cancel all or part of your loan at any time by notifying your school."
But here's the better deal — "Within 120 days of the date your school disbursed your loan money (by crediting the loan money to your account at the school, by paying it directly to you, or both), you may return all or part of your loan to us."
So Why Would You Want to Return Part of Your Loan?
You want to return (aka cancel) your student loan because then you don't have to pay interest — even back interest that accrued since you took out the loan. Here's the official language:
You do not have to pay interest or the loan fee on the part of your loan that you return within 120 days of the date that part of your loan is disbursed. If you received an up-front interest rebate on your loan, the rebate does not apply to the part of your loan that you return. Your loan will be adjusted to eliminate any interest, loan fee, and rebate amount that applies to the amount of the loan that you return.
Any unsubsidized federal student loan starts accruing interest immediately, so the sooner you can pay back the money the better. And with Grad PLUS loan interest rates at 7.9% and origination fees of 4.0%, every $100 you return is saving you nearly $12 today (and more as the interest compounds). So when you get all interest accrued and fees paid returned to you, you've now got a 120-day interest-free loan.
Why You Would Need to Cancel Part of Your Loan
Now, I would never advocate taking out an interest-free loan for 120 days just for the sake of taking it. Instead, there are two really good reasons to cancel your loan.
1. You Took Out Too Much Money
One of the issues with student loans is that it's hard to figure out how large of a loan you need and easy to take out too much money. At the beginning of the school year when you make your loan elections, you might think you need $5,000 of spending money during the second semester, but by the time the loan gets dispersed in January, you realize you only need $3,000. Instead of blowing the extra $2,000 on clothes or rounds of drinks for your friends, do the responsible thing and cancel this money you don't need.
2. You Get Extra Money or Are Working During School
Many students (especially graduate students) work while going to school. So take part of your earnings for the first few months of each semester and use it return part of your loan money. Or perhaps you got lucky and receive an inheritance or some unexpected birthday cash. Instead of spending it all, cancel your loans and get your interest and fees back.
How to Cancel Your Loan
I've canceled multiple students loans because of earning more by working or taking out too much money in the first place. (One semester, my tuition dropped due to course load adjustments, so I was able to return a large part of a loan.) I've used the following two methods to cancel my loans.
1. Contact Your School's Financial Services Office
The easiest way to cancel your loan is to contact your school's financial services office and ask them to cancel all or part of your loan. If the money has only been disbursed to your student account (and not all the way to your personal checking account), the school can easily take the money back and return it to the government.
2. Contact the Direct Loan Servicing Center
If the loan has already been disbursed to your personal account from your school's student account, you'll most likely need to contact the Federal Direct Loan Servicing Center. My experience has been that they will tell you to send in the money to a payment address or "make a payment" online; then you'll have to follow up and tell them that they money was for a cancellation. I recommend calling them at 1-800-848-0979 and not emailing through myedaccount.com. Always use the term "cancellation" or "cancel." (I have had several experiences with email where the email reply has been that they made the adjustment, but the interest in my account still showed, resulting in me having to follow up multiple times. Calling has always resulted in the cancellation showing the first time.)
This student loan hack only works for federal loans and makes the most sense to use for unsubsidized loans where interest is accruing from day one. But it's a great way to lessen your debt burden after you finish school.
Have you ever canceled a loan within the 120-day period? What hacks have you used to lighten your student loan debt?
Best of Wise Bread | <urn:uuid:a89c12b6-141e-4229-8558-e3e85df88c12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wisebread.com/cancel-student-loans-to-save-and-receive-an-interest-free-120-day-loan?wbref=readmore-4 | 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 | 0.974543 | 1,151 | 1.679688 | 2 |
BOISE -- A Boise couple can't believe the response they've received on a Facebook page dedicated to their 3-year-old daughter, Mirabel.
The page is called "A Walk A Day for Mirabel," and the goal is to encourage Mirabel to start walking on her own.
Mirabel was diagnosed with Down Syndrome just minutes after being born.
"It was hard at first, she was in the NICU for two weeks, I didn't get to hold her right away," said Mirabel's mom, Emily Nielson."We had so much support and love from our friends and family we knew it was going to be okay."
Mirabel has been a blessing ever since. And on January 1st, Nielsen decided to do something special to encourage her to walk. "I thought let's do a walk a day for mirabel, put our energy out there," she said.
She started a Facebook page, and invited people to join.
"I thought maybe 10 or 20 friends would jump on board, yeah, let's get out, let's walk, get on the treadmill, let's run and it just blossomed from there," said Nielson.
Already, nearly 600 people have signed up to take part.
"We have people everywhere from New Zealand, to Germany to Thailand, Canada, New York City, Arizona all posting pictures and video," said Nielson.
They are people from all over the world, who want to be a part of Mirabel's journey.
It's been a few weeks now, and Mirabel is making progress. She's up and moving with the help of a walker toy. "Just even a week ago, she wouldn't have stood up to her walker toy and pushed it on her own," said Nielson. "She's just taken off in the last couple of weeks."
Mirabel's parents think the energy of hundreds of people pulling for her, is encouraging her to learn to walk on her own.
"It will be nice to tell her someday that almost six hundred people moved their bodies for her."
It's a testament to the power of social media -- and the determination and heart of this little girl.
"All of these people, all for Mirabel. They've been keeping her in mind and it's just been overwhelming," said Nielson.
If you have a Facebook account, you can join A Walk A Day for Mirabel by clicking here. | <urn:uuid:78138aee-65df-4e60-a734-21cc8c815294> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwcn.com/news/idaho?fId=188626511&fPath=/home&fDomain=10227 | 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 | 0.987107 | 503 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Richard M. Skinner
Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science, Rollins College :
Rick Perry right now has a pretty obvious path to the White House. He's now the co-frontrunner for the Republican nomination and fits the political attitudes and cultural mores of GOP primary voters better than does Mitt Romney.
He's not an ideal general election candidate, but he has an appealing story to tell in the record of job creation in Texas, and the economy may make Obama highly vulnerable against any Republican opponent. As the decade-long governor of Texas, Perry has pretty conventional qualifications for national office, unlike, say, Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin.
Perry may not need to be perfect to win; in 1980, one could argue that Howard Baker or George H. W. Bush might have performed better against Jimmy Carter than did Ronald Reagan - but Reagan still won. I could imagine a scenario where a generic Republican would beat Obama 52 percent to 46 percent, but where Perry would only win by 50 percent to 48 percent. That's still a victory.
That said, Perry is still new to American voters. He has numerous vulnerabilities, particularly in a general election. He genuinely is a very conservative Republican, well to the right of most American voters. He has spoken ill of both Social Security and Medicare. He espouses a strident form of evangelical Christianity, with little concern for how that might viewed by those outside his faith tradition. No one has accused him of being overly cerebral and he can seem like a cartoon of a gun-slinging Texan. And, as we've seen, he has a tendency to shoot his mouth off.
Perry's statements are a double-edged sword in the Republican nomination contests, but would be clear liabilities in a general election. Many Republicans - especially the very conservative voters who will dominate the Iowa caucuses and many Southern primaries - applaud almost anything derogatory said about President Obama, But some Republican donors in the business community seem alarmed by Perry's behavior - prompting another round of speculation about candidacies by Paul Ryan or Chris Christie. (They may well decide to instead "double down" on Mitt Romney). Republican officeholders have to feel jittery about sharing a ticket with a "loose cannon."
Should Perry continue this behavior into the general election, it would bode ill for his chances at the White House. Making personal attacks on a still-liked president at a time of economic crisis doesn't seem like a wise use of precious campaigning time.
Independent voters are clearly dissatisfied with the nation's direction, but they are unlikely to see Perry's statements as a sign of fitness for the White House. Americans have elected gaffe-prone presidents before . But Bill Clinton usually lashed out over personal matters removed from the substance of governing, while Ronald Reagan's clueless-grandfather slip-ups rarely had the violent overtones of Perry's attack on Ben Bernanke. (One that did - Reagan's "five minutes" open-mike gaffe about bombing Russia - became a distraction during an otherwise triumphant march to reelection).
Obama may well be running for reelection in a climate so unfavorable that his only path to victory will lie in discrediting his opponent. He'll have plenty of opportunities to do this if, as a Republican nominee, Perry continues with the "cowboy talk." But if Perry recognizes that what plays in Nacogdoches doesn't always fly in Nashua, his Republican road could lead him to 1600 Pennsylvania. | <urn:uuid:6c57845f-25ab-4602-b10b-2d643ad38644> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.politico.com/arena/archive/will-rick-perry-self-destruct.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968483 | 704 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits