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AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to millions of articles from top publications available through your library.
(From Leicester Mercury)
Byline: IAN BURBIDGE
A family is gearing up for a trip around Europe to remind people that Madeleine McCann is still missing.
Simon and Michelle Garratt, of Coalville, will be handing out leaflets and posters during their journey, which will see them average 200 miles a day and spend four weeks in a camper van.
Starting in France, they are taking their four children, Jake, 10, Niamh, eight, Freya, six, and Eden, three, on the trip.
Simon revealed son Jake was the inspiration behind the idea.
He said: "It's a mammoth task but we want to spread the word in the hope Madeleine is still out there. | <urn:uuid:39ce693a-7b8a-4be3-b453-b949b9bf1f2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-259955918/spreading-word-madeleine.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949594 | 174 | 1.539063 | 2 |
When was the last time you were at a parade this crowded!
I really recommend reading the entire article. Trigger warning for discussion of rape and rape culture - it’s a tough article but very important.
(Thanks to byunbbi for submitting)
I think this quote also really captures what is happening when one is reported so much more than the other in American media:
“24,000 rapes in one year. That’s an epidemic. Brutal gang rape. Police doing nothing to protect or prosecute. Culture of rape. But something like that would never happen here in America, right? India is dirty and dangerous and overcrowded and backwards and misogynistic and this is just a third world problem, right? A really sad problem, but it would never happen here, right?”
It creates another false dichotomy where “we” feel bad for “them” that they have to live in those “conditions.” Definitely both situations are in need of address, but it’s worth examining why media leaps on framing India and its sexual assault issues as if they are a world different from ours- as if “our people” /culture really act better or respect women and victims more (they don’t.)
24,000 in a population of a billion vs 188,000 out of 300 million?
it’s way easier to dehumanize poc culture and portray it as being primitive and backwards than to analyze the structure of misogyny and rape culture in the so called “developed world”.
I’m not really understanding the point in comparing the statistics of rape between America and India. What is the argument here? I think its subtlety saying “hey wait, its more horrendous that its happening to us civilized people.” Yeah, I think that’s the point implied in this little conversation.
The point explicitly stated in this article is that although the Western media - and white feminism - is so quick to denounce India as a barbaric, dangerous place for women and contrast it with us so-called civilized people, when in fact the numbers make it plain to see that the Western world has no right to call itself civilized when it comes to sexual assault either. That is something I got (rightfully) called out for by a Desi blogger just last week.
Great infographic & write-up from Nerd Wallet:
For his first term, President Obama held the record for having the most female Cabinet members out of any U.S. President in history. However, it seems as though his new Cabinet will be less diverse than his first. Unfortunately, he has…
1/11/1885 — Alice Stokes Paul, suffrage leader, international organizer, lawyer, b. Moorestown, NJ. Contributed some of the most outstanding 20th c. political achievements for women’s rights. Founder and leader the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and the National Woman’s Party, the more aggressive groups of the suffrage movement, which succeeded in the passage of the 19th Amendment. Organized the Washington D.C. suffrage parade (1913), and was jailed in England and the US. She waged a hunger strike in prison, where she was hospitalized, force-fed and treated as insane. After woman’s suffrage was achieved she received a law degree (1922), authored and proposed the Equal Rights Amendment, and influenced the charter of the United Nations.
Dear Alice Paul,
Today you were born, and for that we are grateful.
Happy Birthday Alice Paul, suffragists, author of Equal Rights Amendment.
Dear Tumblr, I searched under “women” looking for historical sources, orgs, information sources, etc. and all that came was porn and scantily clad females. Not one professional female, not one that had any more than underwear on. You need to do better if you expect credible businesses, institutions, orgs, and individuals and especially half the population to build on this social media platform. Apparently this site is loaded with pornography, a societal travesty that destroys countless lives.
G20 #Women’s Poll Ranks Best & Worst Countries for #Females — #gender #law #VAWG #fem2
5/23/1875 — #wmnhist #gov Catherine Ann Barnard (Kate Barnard), gov official, welfare leader, reformer, teacher, b. Geneva, NE. One of Oklahoma’s most outstanding female politicians, the first woman to be elected as a state official in Oklahoma and the United States (1907) as the first Oklahoma Commissioner of Charities and Corrections. Prominent national legislative reformer for child labor, prison reform, Indian rights, and improved health care of the mentality ill.
5/23/1846 — #wmnhist #law Belle Aurelia Babb (Arabella Mansfield), lawyer, educator, suffragist, b. Burlington, IA. The first US female lawyer, admitted to the Iowa bar (1869). A dean at DePauw University (1893), member National League of Women Lawyers (1893).
5/23/1842 — #wmnhist Maria Wasiłowska Konopnicka, poet, author, translator, publicist, critic, b. Suwałki, Poland. Pseudonyms Jan Sawa, Marko, Jan Waręż. Significant author and Positivist poet in Polish literature, also authored children’s literature. Suffragist and activist for Polish Independence and women’s right to education. Denounced the Catholic Church’s position on women, marriage, and the lower classes.
5/23/1826 — #wmnhist Frances Auretta Fuller Victor, historian, author, b. Rome, NY. Pseudonyms Dorothy D., Florence Fane. Prominent West Coast/Oregon historian, a principal author of Hubert Howe Bancroft’s multi-volume history of California and the west. Also wrote historical novels, fiction, and about women’s rights.
5/23/1810 — #wmnhist Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli (Margaret Fuller), author, editor, critic, women’s rights advocate, b. Cambridgeport, MA. Wrote ‘Women in the 19th Century’ (1845), a feminist pamphlet which supported women’s emotional and intellectual fulfillment, considered the first major US feminist work. The first woman allowed to use the Harvard College library, the first full-time US female book reviewer in journalism, the first female foreign correspondent for the ‘New York Tribune’ (1846). Literary Genre: American transcendentalism.
05/22/1943 — #wmnhist Betty Williams, social activist, professor, b. Belfast, Ireland. Nobel laureate, est. Community of Peace People and shared Nobel Peace Prize (1976) with Mairead Corrigan. Co-founder of the Nobel Women’s Initiative (2006).
5/22/1936 — #wmnhist #fem2 Jill Sheila Tweedie, journalist, author, broadcaster, feminist, b. Egypt. Wrote on feminist issues concerning socially accepted horrors toward woman (1970s/1980s), such as rape in marriage, the treatment of women during childbirth, bride burning in India, and the circumcision of women. Columnist for ‘The Guardian’(1969-88), Woman Journalist of the Year (1971), one of the Press Gazette’s 40 most influential British journalists (2005). | <urn:uuid:3bbeea2c-2a1f-4353-b5a6-ea8011bfa6e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wikipatia.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93166 | 1,579 | 1.632813 | 2 |
In October and November of 2008, we have seen the equity and bond markets descend into a state of extreme risk aversion. Investors need look no further than the VIX index to see this. VIX is often referred to as the “fear index” because it goes up when investors drive the prices of options upwards in an attempt to buy some protection for their portfolios (pdf). VIX has been closing in the 70 to 80 range for weeks—albeit with periods of lower volatility in between. VIX actually measures the implied volatility of options on the S&P 500 index that are very close to expiration—think near term---30 days or so. While many investors are focusing on the short-term swings, there is a great deal of information available by looking at longer time horizons (i.e. longer dated options). There are also substantial opportunities to manage portfolio risk for the investor willing to pay attention to the levels of implied market risk in options.
After analyzing the broad market conditions, I find that selling covered call options into this market looks attractive—but not selling covered calls on just anything. As investors have become highly risk averse, they have driven the prices of options so high that even some very stable stocks have ended up with options prices that seem excessively high. Investors can sell covered calls on these stocks, thereby realizing a considerable portion of the upside potential and providing a cushion against potential declines in price.
Looking At Volatility
Aside from VIX, we can get considerable insight by looking at the implied volatility in individual stocks relative to the S&P 500. It is also useful to look at longer-dated options—those with expiration dates further into the future. Implied volatility is the volatility that must be assumed in order to get options prices to reconcile with the price of the underlying security and the length of time until an option expires. As of November 24, 2008, the implied volatility for at-the-money options on SPY with expiration in December 2009 is 45%. At-the-money means that the strike price for the options is very close to the price of the underlying (the S&P 500 index).
A useful calculator to retrieve options prices is provided at iVolatility.com. At-the-money options for the S&P 500 (SPY) with Dec 2008 expiration have implied volatility of 68%. In other words, the options market is predicting that the volatility of the S&P 500 will drop dramatically over the next year or so. That said, an annual average volatility of 45% is three times the long-term historical average volatility for the S&P 500. Still, volatility could easily drop to 15% over the next year or so from current levels to yield an annual average of 45%. If volatility on the S&P 500 dropped in a linear trend from 68% to 15% from Dec 2008 to Dec 2009, you would average 45% (See chart below).
click to enlarge
Let’s imagine that we are willing to accept the current market outlook on volatility from the options prices on the S&P 500: implied volatility of 45% for December 2009 options. If volatility is very high and the market is implying a big drop over the next year, there is a very obvious strategy for investors: sell covered call options. I am discussing selling covered calls, but one might sell put options, too. The problem with selling puts is that you will either have to sell covered puts (which means being short the underlying index) or you will have to post margin and be subject to margin calls. I am going to focus on writing covered calls.
If the options market is correct that volatility is going to fall considerably over the next year or so, isn’t this already priced into the options? In other words, you will get less money for selling your call options simply because the market expects this big drop in volatility. The simple answer is that it makes sense to look at the prices of options in terms of the component of future return that can be locked in by selling options. When implied volatility is low, you are selling off the upside potential of your holdings rather cheaply when you sell covered calls. When implied volatility is high, you are selling off the upside potential at a premium price—you get a lot more money (the option premium) in exchange for the potential price appreciation in the stock.
An added source of value is the following. Volatility on the S&P 500 must relate in some way to volatility on individual stocks. I have adjusted the baseline volatility for the S&P 500 in Quantext Portfolio Planner (QPP) to match the options on SPY (45% annualized volatility) and then used QPP to calculate the volatility of a wide range of individual stocks. The results suggest that the market is not consistently pricing volatility on individual stocks, given the implied volatility of the total market. In other words, the options prices suggest that investors have become indiscriminately risk averse, driving up options prices on even very benign sectors.
Let’s look at some examples. The table below shows implied volatility for options on SPY, as well as for a series of stocks, using options prices through November 21 from iVolatility.com. The table also shows QPP’s projected volatilities for these stocks, given an adjustment to QPP so that the projected volatility for the S&P 500 matches the options on SPY expiring in Dec 2009.
This list of stocks is not a random choice. These are stocks for which we have found major disagreement between the options markets and QPP’s estimates of future volatility. In particular, these are stocks for which QPP projects much lower volatility than the options market does. This is important because the implied volatility determines the prices of options. If QPP is correct, an investor selling covered calls on these stocks will receive a higher price for the options than they are really worth. Put another way: QPP suggests that selling covered calls on these individual stocks will provide an attractive risk adjusted return.
The big question, of course, is whether we want to trust QPP’s estimates of the relative risks associated with these stocks. We can motivate the answer quite simply. Look, for example, at Procter & Gamble (PG). The implied volatility for PG suggests that this stock has the same volatility (i.e. risk) as the S&P 500. Does this make sense? First, let’s look at how PG has handled the big bear market in 2008:
Does it make sense to believe that PG is as risky as owning the S&P 500? Certainly the conventional wisdom is that owning more stocks (as in the index) is less risky because you have spread your bets. QPP suggests, however, that PG is substantially less risky than the S&P 500 on a going forward basis. Further, given PG’s underlying business, it would seem that PG is a pretty good bet for getting through economic downturns.
Let’s look at some of the other cases from the table above:
I have found similar narratives for a range of stocks (see the table above), which QPP suggests will be substantially less volatile relative to the broader market than their options prices suggest.
Let’s set aside QPP’s assessment of the over-valuation of the call options and just look at the prices of representative call options on these stocks:
These options prices and prices for the underlying stocks came off of eTrade on November 24. I chose options with strike prices that allow the seller of covered call options to retain some of the upside potential before having the stock called away. From my perspective, these options quotes themselves suggest that the options are substantially over-priced, even without looking at QPP. Let’s look at PG again. We can sell a covered call on PG with a strike of $70 and receive $6.70 in premium. This is an immediate 10.6% return on the net position in PG ($6.70/$63). On top of this, we will receive the dividends (2.5%). January 2010 options expire on the 15th of January in 2010—which is 1.14 years from now. We have thus “monetized” annual return of 11.8% for PG. This return ignores the impact of changes in underlying stock price. If the stock price declines, the total return will be the sum of 11.8% and the decline. If the stock price increases, the total return will be the sum of 11.8% and the price increase up to $70 for PG, at which point there is no additional return (because the option will be exercised). In other words, there is substantial retained upside potential, in addition to a “monetized” return that is substantial for what is considered a conservative stock.
It is encouraging that the options on SPY imply a substantial decrease in volatility between now and the end of 2009. In the interim, however, the extreme volatility we have been seeing has pushed the prices of options so high that selling covered call options against certain holdings appears to provide an unusual level of profit potential. Selling covered calls on the right stocks at the current levels “locks in” or “monetizes” a substantial portion of the future return potential, and the payment received from selling these options will cushion further declines if they should occur.
At the current market levels, the prices of options suggest a future that is very risk averse. The implied volatility for JNJ, for example, is 38% for the Jan 2010 options. Let’s estimate the expected return for JNJ at 8% per year. At the current level of implied volatility, there is a 2.5% chance that JNJ will drop by 68% over the next year. In the last twenty-two years (chosen to include the crash of 1987), the most that JNJ has dropped in a single year is about 24%. Selling the covered calls is partly a bet against volatility—and particularly the level of volatility that we see in this market.
Companies like Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Procter and Gamble (PG), Southern Company (SO) and others in our list are simply not as exposed to the forces that have driven volatility up so dramatically in the broader markets. These stocks tend to be more concentrated in what are called “defensive” sectors like utilities. The large degree of decoupling between the earnings risk of these companies and the broader market leads to QPP’s projections that their volatility levels will not increase in lock step with the S&P 500. This does not mean, however, that all stocks in a given sector will exhibit these qualities. I am using Quantext Portfolio Planner’s volatility projections as the initial screen to identify promising candidates. Even without QPP, there is a common sense element here. I can “monetize” a substantial portion of the potential future returns from a range of stocks, even without considering the potential market over-estimate of future volatility.
I plan to revisit this analysis in the future to see how the strategy has performed. I expect that this approach will out-perform, largely driven by the extremely high implied volatility on a range of conservative asset classes. This opportunity is one that does not come along all that often—only when investors seem gripped by extreme risk aversion. | <urn:uuid:d9d7c3dd-d1c6-4eb3-bd48-2e2e63ba5528> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/107756-profiting-from-risk-aversion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945077 | 2,345 | 1.515625 | 2 |
University's 2D Code Cell Phone Trials to Highlight World Wireless Event
Case Western Reserve University will be the epitome of innovation as its first-ever U.S. trials involving new 2D code cell phone technology highlight an international conference of the wireless telecommunications industry April 1-4 in Las Vegas.
Sponsored by CTIA-The Wireless Association -- an international, nonprofit organization representing service providers, manufacturers, wireless data and Internet companies -- the CTIA Wireless annual trade show is the premier event representing the world's $500 billion wireless industry. Case Western Reserve and 2D codes are expected to be one of the main attractions this year.
The university started using the 2D codes as part of an experience-based learning project in its Master's of Engineering Management program. The codes also are being used as a means for students to track campus shuttle buses, take class quizzes in real-time and make reservations or get event details about social functions.
In addition to already incorporating the innovative technology in educational programs, the university also will be the site of the QVC-sponsored "The Q Code: Make It or Break It" campaign March 31 through April 21. Read more.
The Clinical Research Scholars Program (CRSP) is accepting applications until April 15 for open positions in the master of science degree in clinical research. The primary goal of this program is to develop a new generation of clinical investigators for leadership roles in academia and industry through the combination of formal didactic education and individualized research programs, including mentoring from a member of the CRSP faculty and the student's research project adviser. Read more for a description of the program. For questions, send e-mail to Carol Tolin.
Campus community members who snore at night, feel tired throughout the day or have sleep apnea may qualify for a new research study investigating how the treatment of sleep apnea affects the markers of oxidative stress in blood. Throughout the study, participants will come in for two overnight visits at the Dahms Clinical Research Unit in Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital to have their progress monitored. Eligible participants will be compensated for their time, and will receive a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine to keep following the study. Potential volunteers should meet the following requirements: Be between the ages of 20 and 75; have sleep apnea or a history of snoring; have excessive daytime sleepiness; and must be in otherwise good health. For information, contact Amanda Hayes via e-mail or at (216) 844-6269.
For Faculty and Staff
All faculty and staff in the College of Arts and Sciences are invited to a special all-college meeting of general conversation with President Barbara R. Snyder from 12:30-1:30 p.m., April 11 at Ford Auditorium, Allen Memorial Library.
Online registration for Case Western Reserve University's 2008 Commencement Ceremonies is open through 5 p.m., April 1. This year's commencement activities will take place May 18. Craig Newmark, founder and customer service representative of the Internet classified ad giant craigslist.org and a double alumnus of Case Western Reserve University, will deliver the keynote address.
The Seniors' Salute Reception, hosted by the Upperclass Cohort, begins at 12:30 p.m., April 11 at the Village at 115, House 5. The event allows graduating seniors an opportunity to publicly thank faculty and staff who have served as mentors or impacted a student's college experience. A light lunch will be provided. Business casual attire. RSVP online.
Spectrum will be giving away "Gay? Fine By Me" T-shirts in Nord Hall's atrium during the Community Hour on April 4 as part of Break the Silence Week activities. The shirts will be handed out on a first come, first-served basis. Spectrum will conclude its Break the Silence Week programming with the annual Lavender Ball from 9 p.m. to midnight, April 5 in Hovorka atrium. There will be food and music.
Case Western Reserve is a co-sponsor of the Italian Film Festival USA of Cleveland, a showcase of six recent Italian films screening tonight through April 8 at the university's Strosacker and Schmitt auditoriums. Linda Ehrlich, associate director of the College Scholars program, will introduce Alla luce del sole which recounts the true story of Father Giuseppe Puglisi, who tried to help the poor of his hometown parish in Sicily, at 2 p.m., April 6 in Strosacker Auditorium. All films are in Italian with English subtitles. All films are free and open to the public.
The university is co-sponsoring the Cleveland Clinic's Ideas for Tomorrow speaker series event featuring J. Craig Venter, an unconventional scientist, author and entrepreneur who led the effort to sequence and publish the first human genome in 2001. He was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2007. Venter's free talk will begin at 5 p.m., April 3 at the Bank of America Conference Center located at the InterContinental Hotel. RSVP online. | <urn:uuid:723cd538-5958-447e-b74e-e80b5891d7b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.case.edu/casedaily/2008/03/31/casedaily | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933136 | 1,047 | 1.710938 | 2 |
American Pit Bull Terrier & Glucosamine for dogs Information
Try K9 Joint Strength rich in Glucosamine for Dogs. Dogs and Puppies Love the taste and it's excellent for building a strong and healthy joints
Table of Contents:
Pets do suffer from osteoarthritis. They also suffer from hip dysplasia. 30% of dogs and cats have Osteoarthritis. Some of the signs when glucosamine may be needed for your dog are general lethargy, pain when being petted or touched, difficulty walking, running or going up stairs. Owners know immediately when their pet isn't feeling well since their behavior changes.
If any of these signs are apparent then the pet is experiencing an extreme amount of pain since their threshold for pain is much higher than humans. Only when their pain is overwhelming do we see these symptoms appear. Hip Dysplasia in dogs can be a debilitating condition. With the right dog joint supplements, pain relief is available. Glucosamine and Chondroitin are just two of the ingredients in K9 Joint Strength. K9 Joint Strength uses a unique blend of ingredients and it truly is the Ultimate Joint Supplement For Dogs.
Instead of giving your pet harmful drugs, glucosamine is a natural dietary supplement and will ease your pet's joint pain. It is found in the cartilage and synovial fluid in our joints. It is a normal constitute of your dog's glycosaminoglycans which form part of the ground substance of connective tissue. Studies have shown that once glucosamine is swallowed it is absorbed and distributed to joint tissue and has anti-inflammatory and joint regenerating properties. Within one to two weeks you will notice results from the supplement. The results are amazingly fast.
There are many competing products on the market. In order to determine the best glucosamine product to use for your pet, you will need to consider a few factors. One is the type of glucosamine. Is it sulfate, HCL, or 2KCL. Another factor is the cost. Finally, consider the additional ingredients.
can read the correct dosage of Vitamin E needed right on the side of K9 Joint Strength's Bottle. Return to Top
Hip Dysplasia in Dogs Diagram
American Pit Bull Terrier
Also known as a Pitbull
, Pit, Pit Bull, Staffordshire Fighting dog, Bull Baiter dogs, The Irish name of Old Family Dog, The Yankee Terrier, and the Rebel Terrier.
Pit Bulls are quickly recognized as being a powerful breed with the solid brick like head which stands out between the cheeks with a powerful jaw. Well trained and groomed, Pit Bulls are thick muscled with well sprung chests. Although stocky and bulky, Pit Bulls are considered to be agile. Although the Pit Bull Terrier has a strong desire to please, it is often misunderstood and evoke more response be it fair or unfair. By no means are these dogs anti-human. They do have a natural aggressiveness to other dogs and animals, but not toward humans. The Pit Bull is a good natured and amusing at times, and for sure a very loyal pet. The Pit Bull is also highly protective of his owners and property. Although misunderstood, a properly raised and trained dog will coexist well with children and will have a high tolerance for child's play. Proper training is essential when the Pit Bull is a puppy. The dog must be taught respect and understand it's role. The Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan is a great source of reading for training a Pit Bull Terrier.
To guard and protect your property, many dogs can be considered. The top dogs for protection in no specific order are the Thai Ridgeback, German Shepard, Neapolitan Mastiff, Bullmastiff, Doberman (females are more suited), Rottweiler, Fila Brasileiro, Ca de Bou, American Bulldog, Cane Corso, Tosa Inu, Akita Inu, Giant Schnauzer, Belgian Shepards, American Bulldog, Dogo argentine. The American Pit Bull Terrier does not have natural guard dog instincts, however the mere presence is a deterrent to intruders and burglars. A Pit Bull will generally threaten the intruder by it's mere presence and it's sometimes misunderstood demeanor. The intimidating appearance of the Pit Bull makes it a solid protection dog in particular if trained to attack.
All of the dogs and breeds noted are considered to be excellent choices. The bottom line is the training the dog has had. Temperament and breeding lines are also a major factor in separating superior guard dogs from your run of the mill junkyard dog. Loyalty to the owner is also a major factor. There are differences between a guard dog and a watchdog. A watchdog does just that. He alerts others if an intruder is present. Watch dogs are usually your smaller toy type breeds who yelp more than anything. These dogs are effective as watchdogs as their sole purpose is to alert the owners by barking. In many cases, a watchdog is no match for a guard dog who can be trained to restrain an intruder or become an attack dog. One thing to consider when using a trained attack dog is that in many cases and states, a trained attack dog is considered a weapon and laws regarding attack dogs are strictly enforced. Attack dogs can also be trained to attack upon command. Dogs are naturally wary of strangers. Guard dogs will ultimately perform based on many factors, once of which is the dogs ability to handle stress. As mentioned, there are many quality guard dogs, a Pit Bull is quickly recognizable and commands the respect of any stranger. A trained Pit Bull will both guard and protect your home, in many instances through intimidation alone!
The APBT Ranges in size and can reach weights of over 100 pounds. Originally bred as fighting dogs and the misconception is that these dogs are viscous to this day. The Bull and Terrier types have a history of being groomed as fighters. The fact that the APBT is unmatched in strength and tenacity. Pit Bulls do not receive the credit deserved in history as the Pit Bull was used for herding, security, cart pulling, hunting among other tasks. You can find more information on Pit Bulls by accessing the following clubs and registries:
ACR American Canine Registry
ADBA The American Dog Breeding Association
APBR The American Pit Bull Registry
NAPD The North American PUREBREAD Dog Registry
UKC United Kennel Club
NKC National Kennel Club
Great reference material: Cesar Millan DVS'S, books and his cable network show, The Dog Whisperer. Return to Top
Links and Resources
Link: Hip Dysplasia in Dogs
Home | Order Now | Ingredients | Become a Distributor | About Us | Contact K9 Joint Strength | Supplement Links and Resources | Health Tips and Information | Arthritis in Dogs | Chondroitin for Dogs | Joint Supplement Article | Fish Oil For Dogs | Vitamin E and Omega-3 | Dog Joint Supplement | Dog Joint Pain | Hip Dysplasia | Puppy Training from Cesar Millan | Stop Dog Barking | New Dog Breeds | Stop Puppies from Chewing | Dog Barking / Pups Biting | Arthritis Treatment | Limping / Leg Pain | Health Tips
Return to Top | <urn:uuid:13349ed5-b87e-4817-9d54-bda31b2d38c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.k9jointstrength.com/pitbull_information_hip_dysplasia.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940106 | 1,511 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Free 121 page eBook “focus: A simplicity manifesto in the Age of Distraction “ by Leo Babauta.
Focus is about finding simplicity in this Age of Distraction. It’s about finding the focus you need to create, to work on what’s important, to reflect, to find peace.
This won’t be a long book, a detailed treatise into modern life with an exhaustive system of remedies. It’s meant to be short, simple, concise. We’ll talk about some of the problems we face as we try to live and create in a world of overwhelming distractions. And we’ll look at some simple ways to solve those problems. And yet, at the heart of this simple book lies the key to many of the struggles we face these days, from being productive and achieving our goals,
to getting healthy and fit in the face of fast food and inactivity, to finding simplicity and peace amidst chaos and confusion.
That key is itself simple: focus.
Our ability to focus will allow us to create in ways that perhaps we haven’t in years. It’ll allow us to slow down and find peace of mind. It’ll allow us to simplify and focus on less — on the essential things, the things that matter most.
And in doing so, we’ll learn to focus on smaller things. This will transform our relationship with the world. It’s not that “less is more”, but “less is better”. Focusing on smaller things will make us more effective. It’ll allow us to do less, and in doing so, have more free time for what’s important to us. It’ll force us to choose, and in doing so, stop the excesses that have led to our economic problems, individually and as a society.
Format(s): HTML, PDF (450 KB)
Number of pages: 121 | <urn:uuid:488f6e2c-9cce-4fe0-9cb9-ef37488509a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freeebooksblog.com/free-ebook-focus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935233 | 411 | 1.757813 | 2 |
As always.- first the usual Caveat that it can be hard to diagnose a patient not in the office, and not having gun-in-hand...
I have lost track,over the years, of the production simplying Italian changes to the "Sharps system" in terms of them having eliminateds the floating gas check/breech block face, and the use of the floating tube style chamber "gas check." Or when, they went back.
So, i'll start out with three quick ones, and backwards:
1. Floating Tube Chamber system. Depending on the workmanship or level of QC, the tube can be loose, tight, or frozen in place. I have know guns where it was a bugger to get it out, and I have known lads with the opposite problem of epoxying it into the chamber.
2. Some lads have had their breech block face with the Italian cast-in place version of a non-functional block gas check milled down so an actual breech blockcheck could be installed.
3. Wear and tear of the breech, breech block, AND the floating Sharps gas seal can sometimes be reversed by adding shim stock "plate" between the two. That "snugs" down the fit of the plate to the breech and reduces or nearly eliminates (after all it is a Sharps) escaped gas/flash.
In gleichem Schritt und Tritt, Curt Schmidt
Not a real Civil War reenactor, I only portray one on boards and fora.
I do not portray a Civil War soldier, I merely interpret one. | <urn:uuid:a907e592-9265-4a7b-a4d8-c79f1ec55685> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cwreenactors.com/forum/showthread.php?26446-Fixing-a-Flamethrower-Carbine&p=201293 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934861 | 336 | 1.546875 | 2 |
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
We have seen some odd behavior from God before, but now he's starting to act very strangely. If he thinks it's such a bad idea for the man to eat from the fruit of that particular tree, why put the tree there at all? It's obviously unnecessary -- there is nobody else around who needs to eat that fruit. At the very least he could put a fence around it -- that's what I have to do with my own fruit trees, or the deer will eat them, believe me. If God is omniscient, he knows the future, and he knew perfectly well that the man would end up eating the fruit. So he's just playing a nasty game here. And note that the man does not yet know good from evil; therefore he must not know that it is wrong to disobey God, and he can't be held accountable, and should not be punished, if he does eat the fruit. So this God character is truly warped.
Anyway, God's irrational and careless behavior aside, this is interesting in another way. We had one suggestion that the idea behind God making humans "in his own image" was not a reference to their physical bodies, but to their moral agency. Unlike the other animals, humans resemble God in their ability to make moral choices. However, we see here that God had no such intention. He meant for us not to be moral agents.
Perhaps, after all, that's what it really means when the Bible says we were created in God's image, for as will soon become evident, God is himself utterly amoral. | <urn:uuid:6d947715-8565-4300-b5da-52c012774b25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://platodialogue.blogspot.com/2006/12/genesis-215-17.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987799 | 398 | 1.6875 | 2 |
We began a new, and very busy phase today. Bodhinatha gave a great talk on the Self today… stay tuned for this in the days ahead.
Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami leave for their trip to Guyana, Trinidad and points East on Sun Three.
Sadhu Paksha also begins on Sun 3 and the monastery will be closed to visitors and public tours. The monks change their early morning sadhana routine to “merge with nature” instead of a formal meditation.
Bodhinatha's Latest Upadesha: "Detachment from Experiences; Importance of Daily Vigil" (May 5, 2013)
All experiences are good experiences, necessary to get us here. Awareness of aspects of ourselves that are constantly changing is a liberating perception, breaking our chains to mundane areas, detaching from instinctive and intellectual to go into superconscious. The greatest challenge facing youth today is the lack of relating to the devotional side of Hinduism. Daily practice, daily vigil, moves us forward spiritually. Commentary on Merging with Siva, The Master Course, Lesson 21. Listen Now Click here for all recent talks | <urn:uuid:bc02abab-285f-486f-9143-f2cf0c3fed10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.himalayanacademy.com/blog/taka/2011/07/31/sun-one-begins-new-phase-5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938637 | 241 | 1.554688 | 2 |
By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Libya's prime minister has nominated a new interior minister to fill the first spot vacated in his Cabinet, a consequence of a new law that bars officials who had served under late dictator Moammar Gadhafi from holding public office.
The tragedy of Benghazi, where a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed, seemed a cut-and-dried story in the days after a mob attacked the State Department's mission in eastern Libya. Today, the public knows that those early administration pronouncements were false.
Government is bad for personal freedom. That argument is premised upon the truism that everything government does interferes with freedom because it either prohibits or compels.
President Obama's nominee to be the next ambassador to Libya vowed Tuesday to keep up the hunt for those responsible for the September attacks that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi.
The Ansar al Sharia Brigade, the Islamist terror group linked to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, continues to operate freely in that Libyan city, according to U.S. military officials.
Libya's prime minister met Wednesday with President Obama at the White House and vowed that justice will be served in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi in which four Americans were killed.
U.S. and Libyan authorities investigating the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi are being hamstrung by the Libyan government's lack of control over the eastern part of the country.
Three Republican senators issued a list of unanswered questions about the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, on Monday — the eve of a Senate committee vote on President Obama's nominee for CIA director.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren accused Iran of deceiving the West by opening new talks about its suspected nuclear weapons program, as he addressed a major Jewish conference in Washington on Sunday.
The Obama administration and other Western governments ignored early warnings about small arms and explosives being smuggled out of Libya — weapons that now have fallen into the hands of al Qaeda-linked militants waging war across North Africa.
Three Republican senators are asking President Obama whether he spoke to any Libyan government official during the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, in September.
Still searching for the full truth behind the Sept. 11 Benghazi, Libya, terrorism attacks, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday he will block two key Obama administration appointments until he gets answers.
Security in Benghazi, the eastern Libyan city where four Americans were killed Sept. 11 in a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate, has decayed to the point where Westerners are fleeing, assassinations and kidnappings are rife and residents worry that U.S. drone strikes on jihadist targets are imminent.
While our country spent Sept. 11, 2012, remembering the terrorist attacks that took place 11 years earlier here at home, brave Americans posted at U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, were fighting for their lives against a terrorist assault.
The State Department should have closed the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, long before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack because it knew that local authorities could not protect the facility and that the city was a hotbed of extremism, according to a Senate report released Monday. | <urn:uuid:265e8dfc-29b6-4b60-b3b8-651575d05b8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libyan-government/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957813 | 722 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The Perfect Jelly Doughnut
With Hanukkah starting tonight, it's time to talk jelly doughnuts. The Jewish holiday is all about fried foods since the oil symbolizes the miracle of the Temple oil that burned for eight nights. But unfortunately, jelly doughnuts can get eclipsed by the latke—maybe because they usually suck.
They seem great in theory but are often a tasteless wad of dough filled with stop sign red slime. But the half-Jewish side of me squealed when I found this perfect jelly doughnut at Almondine bakery in Brooklyn.
After the jump, a little spin on the jelly doughnut. Hint: bunnies are involved.
What's your idea of a perfect jelly doughnut? | <urn:uuid:58b8f10a-8dbe-41dd-a919-abbd76268303> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/12/the-perfect-jelly-doughnut-hanukkah-channukah-almondine-bakery-brooklyn-ny.html?ref=thumb | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939649 | 154 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The bailout legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush on Friday has a $17 billion energy tax package. This post will focus on the clean energy credits. Part 2 will focus on the dirty ones.
The biggest winner is certainly solar. As Scott Sklar, former head of the Solar Energy Industries Association and now President of the Stella Group summarizes:
This package extends the 30-percent federal investment tax credit for both residential and commercial solar, small wind, ground-coupled heat pumps installations from 4 – 8 years. This bill also completely eliminates the $2,000 monetary cap for residential solar electric installations. This bill also provides a [new] ITC for water energy applications (tidal, wave, and ocean currents and thermal) and combined heat and power. The federal production tax credit was extened for biomass power, geothermal and wind energy as well.
In particular, the 8-year extension of the ITC for is a crucial step in ensuring the success in this country of one of the most critical climate solutions – solar baseload or concentrated stored thermal electric. Everyone I spoke to in the industry thought this was the single most important thing the federal government could do to provide for stable growth.
Plug in hybrids also got a very big boost that should help jump-start the market:
The credit is a base $2,500 plus $417 for each kWh of battery pack capacity in excess of 4 kWh, to a maximum of $7,500 for light-duty vehicles; $10,000 for vehicles with gross vehicle weights of more than 10,000 but less than 14,000 pounds; $12,500 for vehicles with a GVW of more than 14,000 but less than 26,000 pounds; and $15,000 for any vehicle with a GVW of more than 26,000 pounds.
Phaseout of the credit is to begin after the total number of qualified PHEVs in the US sold after 31 December 2008 is at least 250,000.
Qualifying vehicles must have a battery pack with at least 4 kWh of capacity–a provision that will preclude the inclusion of the first generation of Toyota PHEVs as well, potentially, as other lower all-electric range plug-ins.
You may notice that $417/kwh seems like an awfully non-round number compared to, say, the Gang-of-20 draft bill, which had an identical formula except it used $400/kwh. According to Edmunds Green Car Advisor blog, the Chevy Volt has a 16-kilowatt-hour battery. So the $417 just happens to be just what is needed to give the Volt the full $7500 tax credit. Glad to know somebody writing this bill was looking out for General Motors and can do math!
This is a heck of a kickstart for plug-in hybrids, especially since $1 billion has been set aside for this tax credit. The Electric Drive Transportation Association also reports “The credit is available against the alternative minimum tax,” which is very good news. That means the upscale first buyers of this $45,000 car will actually be able to take advantage of this credit (see here).
Lots of other clean technologies benefited. For instance, “The measure increases the tax credit limitation for fuel cells from $500 to $1,500 per half kilowatt of capacity.” Frankly, $500 was the equivalent of doing nothing, whereas $1,500 may actually make some stationary fuel cells competitive. Geothermal heat pumps and cogeneration systems both get a well-deserved new 10% ITC.
The most complete summary of all the clean (and dirty) provisions that I have found on line so far is at this DailyKos post. Here is a list of the key energy conservation and efficiency provisions:
- authorizes the issuance of qualified energy conservation bonds to finance local government conservation and greenhouse gas reduction projects;
- extends the tax deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings through 2013;
- extends the new energy efficient home tax credit ($1,000 for homes meeting 30 percent efficiency standard, $2,000 for homes meeting 50 percent efficiency standard) through 2009;
- revises the amounts allowable under the tax credit for energy efficient appliances produced after 2007 (i.e., dish washers, clothes washers, and refrigerators) and extends such credit through 2010;
- allows an accelerated recovery period for the depreciation of qualified smart electric meters and smart electric grid systems;
- extends through FY2012 the authority to issue tax-exempt bonds for qualified green building and sustainable design projects.
Some of this is certainly useful, but serious energy efficiency for homes and commercial buildings can be achieved only by aggressive new building codes and appliance standards and by having every state adopt electric utility regulations as good as those in California (see “Energy efficiency, Part 4: How does California do it so consistently and cost-effectively?“)
The bottom line: This is a small but important down payment on jumpstarting the clean tech transition, especially for solar and plug-ins. Part 2 will look at the dirty stuff in the bailout. | <urn:uuid:c30185fc-2b69-4f5c-9bc3-f3926f2b5c9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/10/05/203173/the-bailout-bills-part-1-solar-power-and-plug-in-hybrids-win-big/?mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950264 | 1,054 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The Viet Nam Association of Financial Investors has urged the Government to impose a 10 per cent value added tax (VAT) on gold trading in a move to stop the precious metal being used for economic payments.
HA NOI —
The association said that many countries worldwide taxed the trading of gold bullion and jewellery in order to manage their markets, with Russia even imposing a special consumption tax of 20 per cent on the product.
Such a policy would help countries keep the gold market from manipulation and speculation, the association said, adding that a large amount of money was currently being pumped into gold trading as ‘dead' capital since not being directed to production.
The Ministry of Finance called on relevant ministries to share their views regarding the possible VAT imposition on credit institutions such as gold traders and foreign exchanges.
The State Bank of Viet Nam this week licensed 10 banks and gold trading companies to import a total of four tonnes of gold, expected to arrive in the country today.
The Sai Gon Jewelry Co, the country's largest gold trader, and the Phu Nhuan Jewellery Co were allowed to import 700 and 500 kilos of the mineral, respectively.
This is the third time the central bank has authorised gold trading companies to import gold since last month to help bring down soaring domestic prices.
On the domestic market, the SJC quoted gold at VND46.8/46.95 million per tael (1.2 ounces) yesterday while Bao Tin Minh Chau listed at VND46.8/47.02 million, nearly VND2 million higher than the world price. — VNS | <urn:uuid:3e4e5448-1f7c-4512-8d2a-70084a7540a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.baomoi.com/Info/Investor-group-urges-VAT-on-gold-trading/5/184279.epi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947045 | 331 | 1.757813 | 2 |
By Alan Robertson — Two weeks before the election this year, Sandy Walkington, a Liberal Democrat candidate for St Albans said, “We’re all mongrels. I mean, this country is the most mongrel country in the world. In 200 years we’ll all be coffee-coloured — and I’ve got no problem with that.” It is outrageous and deeply offensive that politicians, the media and left-wing celebrities have promoted the lie that we are somehow all basically from mixed breeding stock in order to legitimise the invasion by hordes of foreigners.
Eddie Izzard said in his TV series Mongrel Britain, “our country has been massively diverse for most of its history — a blend of Angles, Saxons, Romans, Vikings, Celts.” But the history of the British people shows that we have been here for thousands of years and that past invasions have contributed no more than five percent each to our population.
Izzard speaks with excitement about “rich diversity” and “a dynamic and vibrant mix of foreign genes.” Yet there is nothing vibrant or dynamic about losing your job to cheap Eastern European workers or finding that you can’t spot a white face in your high street.
The diversity he speaks of isn’t rich. The UK is poorer as a result of free handouts for immigrants and gifts to third world countries. Our cultural heritage has been savaged as we are forced to accept barbaric religions and the criminal scamming culture that we always knew was present in poor countries.
How dare they smile condescendingly while they attempt to change history and teach us that we owe everything, as Izzard claims, to “waves of invasion, centuries of immigration and floods of foreign ideas.”
The numbers of invaders were in fact few — mostly only in the tens of thousands and, crucially, all of the invaders’ origins were limited to northern Europe. This is supported fully by up-to-date genetic evidence in the book Four Flags: The Indigenous People of Great Britain by Arthur Kemp.
Kemp presents genetic evidence proving that the vast majority of British people have ancestors going back 12,000 years when haplogroups R1b, I and R1a spread northwards. British people with the R1b1 DNA haplotypes have on average a 74 percent homogeneity, with the remainder coming from countries just across the sea.
Historical records offer proof as well: The Romans invaded in AD 43 with an army of 40–45,000 men but only 16,000 legionaries were stationed here afterwards.
Estimates for the population at that time are around 1.5 million; therefore, the effect of this invasion was one to two percent (Eagles Over Britannia: The Roman Army in Britain by Guy de la Bedoyere).
“In the sixth century the Anglo-Saxon element in the population of Britain amounted to no more than fifty to a hundred thousand” (Arthur’s Britain: History and Archaeology AD 367–634 by Leslie Alcock). Therefore, the Anglo-Saxon contribution would be somewhere between three and six percent. DNA evidence shows that the R1a Haplogroup for Anglo-Saxons in England is 4.5 percent, a remarkable correlation (Kemp, ibid).
Between 789–1104 AD, the Vikings were known for their ferocious attacks on villages but only small numbers actually settled. War bands were tiny: “from seven to thirty-five a band and above three dozen an army” (Anglo-Saxon England by Lloyd and Jennifer Laing).
After the Norman Conquest, William, Duke of Normandy, dismissed his mercenaries and nearly all returned to France. “The probability is that the Continental settlement did not involve more than 10,000 people — and perhaps as few as 5,000” (Offshore Islanders: From Roman Occupation to European Entry by Paul Johnson). “England simply acquired a new ruling class,” writes Johnson.
The Flemish and Walloons came from what is now Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and parts of northern France and Germany. About 16,000 were recorded in 1440, which was less than one percent. The population at the time was estimated between two and 2.5 million, and had diminished as a result of the Black Death (Roots of the Future: An Education Pack for Exploring Ethnic Diversity in Britain by Peter White).
The Jews also settled at various periods in history but did not approve of marriage to Gentiles. In 1290, the community of around 5,000 was expelled by Edward I.
They returned slowly and by 1815, there were around 20–30,000. Around 55,000 Jews arrived between 1933 and 1939. Britain’s population was at 40 million in 1940, and therefore the Jewish contribution was at most 0.3 percent.
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was a small trickle of people from all over Europe. In England and Wales, the 1871 census recorded 32,823 Germans, an Italian population of 5,063, again not significant amounts compared to the population of 20 million.
The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) estimates 50,000 Huguenot and 80,000 French Protestants arrived between 1680 and 1720. About 40,000 of these left for America. However, around 1685, the population of Britain was four to 4.5 million, meaning that the contribution was still only about two percent (White, ibid; and Alien Immigrants to England by W Cunningham).
Between 1600 and 1800, people didn’t welcome foreigners with open arms and intermarriage of any sort was infrequent. Even when William of Orange came to England to unseat the unpopular James II, he was accompanied only by approximately 11,000 foot and 4,000 horse soldiers. The effect of his invasion was once again small.
The marriages between kings and queens of Europe and their relative squabbles did not have much of a bearing on the poor, often starving, ordinary people who mostly stayed where they were for thousands of years.
Possibly one of the best examples is Cheddar Gorge Man who is an example of how people have stayed where they were for thousands of years.
The remains of Cheddar Man were excavated in 1903 and have been dated at around 7,150 BC. In 1996, his DNA was profiled and a sample from 20 residents of a nearby village was taken. It produced two exact matches and one match with a single mutation. The close match was a history teacher named Adrian Targett. What this means is incredible — these people are direct descendants of Cheddar Man and still live in the same area, nearly 10,000 years later.
The historical and genetic evidence support the fact that there is indeed a native people of Britain who have a right to this land. We have as much right as the American Indians, Aborigines or Maoris. There were invasions and a small amount of migration but, as has been already stated, these were from people just across the channel.
So why do they wish to convince us that we are all mixed race? The agenda of previous Labour and Conservative governments have only ever been concerned about re-election at any cost.
They know that importing cheap workers will provide short-term prosperity and thus they will secure re-election. By offering free handouts to immigrants they know that when the time comes they can count on the ethnic vote.
The proof is here. They have betrayed their own people.
The erasure of the native British people today has already begun and it is legitimised by whitewashing over our truthful British history with lies. Don’t stand for it.
Recommended reading: Four Flags: The Indigenous People of Britain (DNA, History and the Right to Existence of the Native Inhabitants of the British Isles.)
By Arthur Kemp. Contrary to what the liberal left Tory/Labour/Lib-Dem/UKIP-ECHR allege, the native people of the British Isles are a distinct, identifiable and homogenous indigenous people who have every right to exist and be free from invasion and domination -- like any other indigenous people on earth.
This booklet proves that the vast majority of the British people have ancestors going back to the last mini ice age more than 12,000 years ago.
Table of contents:
1. Introduction (Deals with the denial of indigenous status to the British people)
2. Indigenous People - A Definition (uses UN and other definitions)
3. Haplogroups and the Genetic Identification of Peoples (explains Y-Chromosomes, mtDNA and Autosomal DNA in detail, and how they are used in forensics and history to identify and track peoples to specific areas)
4. The Haplogroups Which Mark the Indigenous People of Britain (explains which haplogroups are indigenous to Britain)
5. A History of the Peopling of Britain (a potted history of the people who have made up Britain through settlement, i.e. Euro base population, Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Normans -- including figures on actual numbers of settlers and their genetic impact as measured by haplogroup)
6. Four Flags, One Nation: The right of the people of the British Isles to existence and freedom from colonisation, domination and dispossession of their lands and culture.
This booklet shows:
* Genetic evidence shows that the vast majority -- nearly 80% -- of all British people have ancestors going back to the end of the last mini ice age 12,000 years ago;
* Genetic evidence showing that the Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking/Danish and Norman conquests had negligible impacts upon the British people (less than 5 percent each);
* Genetic evidence showing that the Irish people have far more in common with the British than both sides of that traditional divide realise.
* The people of the British Isles have been indigenous peoples for far longer than many other nations who are already classified as "indigenous" by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
This booklet also shows how the indigenous people of Britain are fully protected by the United Nations Charter on Indigenous Peoples from "dispossession of their territory" through "mass population transfers" and from "forced integration and assimilation" and "destruction of their identity and culture" (all according to the United Nations.)
Even more importantly, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that all indigenous peoples have the right to define who is part of their nation and who is not. This is the killer booklet to destroy the final left-liberal argument against the right of Britain to be British.
£7.20 Includes postage and packaging. Click here to order online.
I'm Indigenous, Are You? T-Shirt
Full colour map of the British Isles, with each nation's flag prominent and a DNA swirl.
Perfect to wear anywhere where you want to start a conversation about who are the indigenous people of Britain and their right to survival.
Each T-shirt individually printed: please allow 14 to 20 days for delivery.
£12.50 Includes postage and packaging.
Size scales (in inches): S: 34-36 M: 38-40 L: 42-44 XL: 46-48 XXL: 50-52 | <urn:uuid:d2bdf384-d22d-4615-8bd6-e493bd4c20df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bnp.org.uk/news/britain-nation-immigrants | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963047 | 2,361 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Last week Neil McChrystal (happy birthday, Neil!) posted this question on facebook in a private forum us 28 days later folks had set up -
"genuine question : As some of you might have noticed from my 28 Drawings Later escapades I do all sorts of stuff. It sometimes occurs to me that I should possibly pick something and concentrate on getting good at that, especially when I see how so many people here have focused in on a style and made it so good. What do people think? Generalise or specialise?"
It proved to be a very popular question, with a whole range of answers, but the most popular one being that Neil should just keep doing whatever he wishes.
Which is pretty much all we can say about some-one else's progress.
The question got me thinking about how I have become more general in my subject matter recently - cityscapes, roses, fields, portraits, skulls - but much more specialized in my technique. Indeed, working on different subject matter is what has enabled me to hone my methods as these are developed to allow me the most freedom. As each artist develops I feel they discover what is most important to them and their style develops out of this. Working in short bursts with a lot of thinking time is crucial to me, as is the space to really concentrate on the properties of the paint itself - bright/neutral, warm/cool, transparent/opaque, thin/thick etcetera - so I have developed a technique (seen in the early stages in my last post) that allows me to do this. Another advantage is that every stage is complete in itself - so I can add/subtract as desired. All of this is clearly a form of specialisation in oil painting - but done to allow me to generalise - the how becomes second nature, the why and what become the focus of my attention.
But I first picked up oil painting about four years ago. Before that I used charcoal and watercolour. Or pastels. Or acrylics/gouache/graphite/ink/pastels/whatever was lying around. I spent years of attending life drawing classes at least once, more often two or three times a week - in which I changed my style/medium/subject matter frequently - even within the same class. From obsessing over hands to drawing the whole room including the other artists and everything in between. I was specialising in the occasion which allowed me to play with everything else. Without that experimentation I wouldn't have learnt that I like to focus on the darks and lights - and most artists agree that a place for such freedom (such as the sketchbook or the life room) is crucial for producing ongoing work of quality.
Depth requires specialisation but generalisation guides you where to specialise.
One thing that came up in the answers to Neil's question was the need for those making a living as artists to produce identifiable work. Certainly the received wisdom that the more well known you are the easier it is to sell work and that the more your paintings are identifiable as by you the easier it is to become well known. I don't have an answer for that (yet) - maybe another post later? What do you guys think? | <urn:uuid:d9d37f1b-b792-4d06-979c-978925b976c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.glasgowpainter.blogspot.com/2013/03/last-week-neil-mcchrystal-happy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975056 | 662 | 1.5625 | 2 |
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The University of Iowa Department of Urology has a rich heritage and is known worldwide for its educational, research and clinical expertise. The department is actively involved in undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education. The aim of these educational activities is to provide basic knowledge of genitourinary tract anatomy, function and disease, and to offer career preparation in clinical or academic urologic surgery. In order to achieve these aims and to keep abreast of the expansion of urological knowledge, various areas of special interest have been developed by faculty members within the department. These areas include general urology, urologic oncology, pediatric urology, andrology, sexual dysfunction, urolithiasis, urodynamics and reconstructive urology, and laparoscopic and robotic surgery.
The department also actively recruits top candidates to serve one- and two-year fellowships, in both the clinical and research settings. These fellowships not only allow the department to utilize the expertise of those who bring innovative and dedicated skills to the treatment of patients or the pursuit of research goals, but allows the fellows to broaden their knowledge of their chosen field. | <urn:uuid:56bc97cb-e5dc-4007-a9f2-327ff7b64776> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/urology/education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961847 | 235 | 1.554688 | 2 |
TEST Remembering our soldiers on Veterans Day
The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, American warriors past and present were remembered on Veterans Day.
Iraq war veteran and Kimberly resident Andrew Pike was at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Amy Jones, Pikes aunt says, “He is there today, and he participated in a ceremony laying a wreath. And we're going to get the whole story when my brother calls later on today.
The body of 29 year old Army Helicopter Pilot Mathew Heffelfinger of Kimberly ,who was killed in a crash on Sunday in Tikrit, Iraq, is in Dover, Delaware and will be coming home soon.
Kim Kohen, local President of the American Legion Auxiliary says, “He is in Dover right now. And we're waiting tomorrow hopefully that he'll arrive, and the Legion Riders will be meeting him at the airplane on the tarmac here in Twin Falls.”
Here in Twin Falls, veterans and family members met at the City Park. Chaplain Bill Lineberry says that the freedom that we as Americans enjoy, comes at a great price.
Lineberry said as he spoke to the group, “So we give thanks for their courage and sacrifices, sacrifices that in many cases meant paying the ultimate price.” | <urn:uuid:8e6b62fe-578d-48c9-93cc-f0e83df7d145> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kmvt.com/southernidaholife/moms/69873707.html?skipthumb=Y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957403 | 273 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Sometimes, you read a story, that is just so profound that it’s a story that you’ll never forget. This is such a story. A story to remember.
Once there was a man who lost one of his arms in an accident. He became very depressed because he had been an avid golfer. One day, in despair, he decided to commit suicide. He got on an elevator, went to the top of a building and prepared to jump.
As he was standing on the ledge looking down, he saw a man skipping along, whooping and hollering, and kicking up his heels. He looked closer and saw that the man didn’t have ANY arms. He started thinking… what am I doing up here feeling sorry for myself, I still have one good arm to do things with. There goes a man with no arms skipping down the sidewalk. He’s happy and is going on with his life.
He hurried down and caught up with the man with no arms. He told him how glad he was to see him because he had lost one of his arms and felt useless and was going to kill himself. He thanked him again for saving his life and said he knew he could make it with one arm if that guy could go on with no arms at all.
The man with no arms began dancing and whooping and kicking up his heels again. He asked, ‘Why are you so happy anyway?’
He said, “‘I’m NOT happy………My balls itch.”
Skip Caray, 68, didn’t wake up after an afternoon nap.
He would have been 69 on August 12th.
He had been fighting liver problems for some time. | <urn:uuid:09e4eee6-c160-47b1-927a-8906e9888f88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wildcabbage.net/tag/lost-one/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991507 | 362 | 1.53125 | 2 |
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Types Of Natural Family PlanningPosted 02/22/11 • Last updated 02/05/13 • 1854 views • 1 comment
"Natural Family Planning" or NFP, is, in a nutshell, a rejection of artificial contraception in favor of utilizing the natural times of fertility and infertility in a woman’s cycle to plan to achieve or avoid pregnancy. Many of the methods are supported and taught by Catholic organizations because the Catholic Church as an organization opposes artificial contraception. (However the science is the same regardless of your religion!) Different methods are more useful for trying to conceive or trying to avoid pregnancy. Not all methods are reliable enough for avoiding pregnancy. If you wish to use any of these methods to avoid pregnancy, make sure you fully understand how the method works and the effectiveness of your chosen method. None of these methods prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. Here are some of the most commonly used methods:
Breastfeeding: Breastfeeding is the oldest form of Natural Family Planning. Many cultures around the world have traditionally achieved three or more years of birth spacing from breastfeeding alone. However, not all breastfeeding spaces babies in this way. Frequent and unrestricted nursing will in most cases delay the return of fertility. There are many factors involved in how much infertile time a woman experiences after the birth of a child, and modern Western cultures tend not to experience quite as much infertile time as traditional cultures, but if certain practices are used, it can be an effective means of child spacing for a significant period of time even in Western culture.
- Lactation Amenorrhea Method (LAM): This method is the result of a significant body of research on the effectiveness of using breastfeeding alone to space births. It may only be used for 6 months and is approximately 98% effective.
- Ecological Breastfeeding: This method is an attempt to replicate the breastfeeding behaviors of traditional cultures. It is about 99% effective in the first 6 months and 94% effective whenever fertility returns, an average of about 14.5 months after giving birth. Alone, it normally spaces babies about 18-30 months, though individual results may vary.
Calendar-based methods: These were the first method of systematic Natural Family Planning to develop. It involves determining your fertile period based on the first day of your last period. Because of the potential for a lot of variation in a woman’s cycle, this method is considered to be fairly unreliable, but may be an acceptable option for women with extremely regular cycles. This option is not recommended for any couple with a serious reason to avoid pregnancy. With typical use, 25% of couples will be pregnant within the first year of use.
- Knaus-Ogino “Rhythm Method”: This is the traditional rhythm method used mainly by Catholics in the mid-twentieth century. It made some basic assumptions about fertility that were not true for every woman, causing a perfect-use failure rate of 9% per year. For women with irregular cycles, this method required a lot more abstinence than would be required by modern NFP methods. As a result, this method is not used or encouraged any more as it has been largely replaced by more modern and effective methods of NFP. However, modifications of the rules used in this method have brought greater effectiveness to other methods in conjunction with other fertility signs.
- The Standard Days Method (includes CycleBeads): Developed by the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University, this was a newer calendar-based method of NFP developed in 1999. It has about 95% effectiveness but may only be used by women with cycles between 26 and 32 days. There is now a set of postpartum guidelines (PPG) that goes along with this method.
Temperature-only: Temperature is a very effective method of determining the approximate time of ovulation so that it can be used as the most effective method to determine that ovulation actually happened and to define the period of post-ovulation infertility, but it is not effective in predicting that ovulation is coming in order to determine pre-ovulation fertility or infertility in order to acheive or avoid pregnancy. It also requires a woman to take her temperature at the same time every morning, and temperature readings may be affected by factors other than ovulation, sometimes making a temperature pattern difficult to interpret. Charting to avoid with temperature-only methods generally requires abstinence from the time a woman’s period starts until a few days into a temperature rise, leaving very few days available, especially for women with long cycles. So far, the Doering System is the only temperature-only method that effectively defines both ends of the fertile window. In more modern NFP, temperature-only rules have for the most part been absorbed into the sympto-thermal method.
Mucus-only methods: Cervical mucus is the most effective way to predict a coming ovulation and can also be used to determine the end of the fertile phase. It can be used with other signs such as temperature, but many people find that they do not need to use other signs and have an easier time only keeping track of only one symptom. This option would be best for individuals who have easily recognizable mucus signs. Paying attention to mucus, even if done in association with other fertility signs is the most effective method of acheiving pregnancy, and cervical mucus observations have been well-studied in order to determine the health of a woman’s reproductive system.
- The Billings Ovulation Method (BOM): This is the oldest of the mucus-only methods. Dr. John Billings did the original research to develop mucus-only methods. This method is about 94-98% effective for preventing pregnancy.
The Creighton Model (CrMS): This is a newer mucus-only method that uses a very similar set of rules as the Billings Method. It uses colored stickers on a chart to allow for easy understanding of the fertile and infertile times. There is also a large emphasis on determining the exact qualities of the mucus. It is taught only by a certified instructor in individualized lessons in order to maintain very high effectiveness of about 99%. This method is used in NaPro (Natural Procreative) Technology, a method of diagnosing and treating problems associated with a woman’s reproductive system in a way allows a woman’s fertility cycle to function properly on its own. It is highly effective for treating many infertility problems.
- The TwoDay Method (TDM): Developed at Georgetown University as a very easy and effective method of using fertility awareness to avoid pregnancy. With perfect use, it is 96.5% effective. With the use of a back-up method during the fertile period, it is 93.7% effective. With typical use, it is 86.3% effective.
Sympto-Thermal Method (STM): In its most basic form, this method involves checking and charting your basal body temperature each day and cross-checking it with observations of your cervical mucus. However, it may include many other observations such as checking cervix position and characteristics, noting ovulation pain, or any other observations that a woman notices about herself relating to ovulation. Studies indicate perfect use efficacy rates higher than 99%. This method is especially useful for individuals who have irregular cycles and/or weak mucus signs. There are several forms that this method takes:
- NFP International teaches the most encompassing version of the STM. It is the most complicated to learn, but it gives the user the most freedom to make NFP as effective as needed and gives several rules to allow couples to minimize abstinence without losing effectiveness.
- The Couple to Couple League was started by the same people as NFP International but has attempted to develop the method into more simple terms. They cut down the number of rules available for determining the end of the fertile period and added rules that include cervix position. They also added more specific instructions for practicing the STM during the postpartum period and menopause and have classes specifically structured to those times. They also publish Fertility Cycles and Nutrition by Marilyn Shannon, an excellent resource for understanding what may be behind many cycle abnormalities.
Taking Charge of Your Fertility (TCOYF) by Toni Weschler teaches the Fertility Awareness Method, a version of the STM related to Natural Family Planning from a secular perspective. (Note that this method differs from traditional NFP in that it does not discourage the use of barrier methods of contraception. This method attempts to make the STM as easy as possible to learn from a book and to use effectively. See the Fertility Awareness Method wiki for more information.
Garden of Fertility by Katie Singer uses the same methods as in TCOYF but gives fewer details on the intracacies of a woman's cycle. However, it does give more information on fertility during breastfeeding and advises on a diet for healthy fertility.
Fertility Monitoring Technology:
Ovulation Prediction Kits (OPK): These are urine tests that measure the amount of LH in your urine test. LH is present in various quantities throughout your cycle, but there is a surge or LH just before ovulation. A positive OPK (when the test line is darker than the control line or a digital test reads positive) indicates that you will likely ovulate within 12-36 hours from getting a positive test. Women’s bodies are different, though, reducing the accuracy of OPKs. A few women have LH surges that are not strong enough for OPKs to detect them as positive, or some women have LH surges that rise and fall quickly, so if a woman does not test regularly throughout the day, she may miss the surge on the OPK. Some women, especially those whith cycle irregularities may get positive OPKs at times that other symptoms such as CM seem to indicate that they could be getting ready to ovulate, but then ovulation does not actually happen. OPKs cannot confirm that ovulation did actually happen, but they can give women who are trying to conceive or avoid pregnancy a little more information about their cycles. Alone, they are not enough to avoid pregnancy.
Clearblue (Easy) Fertility Monitor (CBFM) / Marquette Method (MM): This is one of the most accurate fertility monitors currently on the market as far as predicting and pinpointing ovulation and is suitable for women whose cycle is normally 21-42 days. It relies on testing urine samples with nonreusable test strips regularly to determine when ovulation is coming. For trying to conceive, the CBFM gives you up to 6 days that you could conceive and 2 days of peak fertility, when conception is likely. For avoiding pregnancy, the CBFM itself does not normally give you enough warning that ovulation is coming in order to reliably avoid pregnancy, but the Marquette Method has been developed to help a couple reliably avoid pregnancy using the information from the CBFM. The MM has also developed protocols for using the CBFM in various special circumstances such as their breastfeeding protocol for using the CBFM to very accurately determine the return of fertility while breastfeeding even before the first postpartum period, though this requires a large number of test strips. The MM also works well when combined with other methods of charting.
Persona (Europe): Very similar to the CBFM, but marketed in Europe for avoiding pregnancy. It is suitable for women with cycles between 23 and 35 days and is 94% accurate in avoiding pregnancy with perfect use.
Lady-Comp/Baby-Comp: This fertility monitor is an alarm clock, a thermometer, and a computer all in one. It uses temperature-only rules to determine your fertile window. The Lady-Comp is designed to avoid pregnancy and can be upgraded with software to try to conceive. The Baby-Comp version is designed for trying to conceive.
Ovacue: This fertility monitor detects changes in electrolytes in your saliva to predict a woman’s impending ovulation. It may give a woman up to 7 days warning before she ovulates. The Ovacue is currently marketed only for trying to conceive, but since 7 days warning before ovulation is enough to prevent pregnancy as well, it could theoretically work to prevent pregnancy as well. Its makers are currently applying to the FDA to allow it to be marketed to avoid pregnancy. It comes with an optional vaginal sensor to help you confirm ovulation. It can be used by women with long or short cycles, and its makers claim that it can be used by women with irregular cycles. The difficulty with using the Ovacue with irregular cycles is that you have to input how long your cycle is going to be so that the monitor knows where in your cycle to look for changes. Since a woman with irregular cycles does not know how long her next cycle will be, this could make the Ovacue difficult or impossible to use for a woman with truly irregular cycles.
Ovulation Microscopes: There are several brands on the market. Most are small, about the size of a lipstik container, and can fit in a purse. They require that a woman apply some of her first morning saliva to the microscope and examine it for “ferning” patterns. While some women find this easy to use and helpful, especially for trying to conceive, others have a more difficult time interpreting the results. Saliva theoretically can give a woman enough warning that ovulation is coming to avoid pregnancy, but the accuracy of using these microscopes to avoid pregnancy have not been evaluated, and most people recommend against trying.
Related Wiki Resources:
Reasons to Choose Natural Family Planning - Why would you want to use charting to plan your family, anyway? Feel free to add your own reasons for charting!
NFP or FAM Methods While Breastfeeding - You have options in the postpartum period while your fertility is returning!
Resources For Learning About Fertility Cycles - Find books to read or websites to visit, find an instructor, post your chart online, and learn about how your diet affects your fertility.
Fertility Awareness Method - A quick-start guide to the Fertility Awareness, a version of the Sympto-Thermal Method taught by Toni Weschler in her book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility.
Common Abbreviations for Charting to Avoid/Fertility Awareness - BBT, EWCM, TCOYF, and more! Learn what all these crazy acronyms mean here.
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The Government Accountability Office minced no words in expressing its alarm about the Army's Future Combat Systems project. Five years and many hundreds of millions of dollars into the project, and there's still no way to say "if or when the information network that is at the heart of the FCS concept can be developed, built, and demonstrated."
Government Inc. has just one word here: Yikes!
My colleague Alec Klein has been showing just why there's such concern. For starters, the project, with Boeing as the main contractor, is expected to cost some $200 billion. Boeing has been having some troubles on government contracts lately, as some of you know.
Sadly, based on the past performance of technology contractors, the actual price tag could end up at $400 billion, maybe more. Who knows?
Here's what Alec wrote in The Washington Post in December. "In the Army's vision, the war of the future is increasingly combat by mouse clicks. It's as networked as the Internet, as mobile as a cellphone, as intuitive as a video game. The Army has a name for this vision: Future Combat Systems, or FCS. The project involves creating a family of 14 weapons, drones, robots, sensors and hybrid-electric combat vehicles connected by a wireless network. It has turned into the most ambitious modernization of the Army since World War II and the most expensive Army weapons program ever, military officials say.
"It's also one of the most controversial. Even as some early versions of these weapons make their way onto the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, members of Congress, government investigators and military observers question whether the Defense Department has set the stage for one of its biggest and costliest failures. At risk, they say, are billions of taxpayer dollars spent on exotic technology that may never come to fruition, leaving the Army little time and few resources to prepare for new threats."
In their report, GAO auditors seemed very gloomy too: "Because the performance of the network and the success of the software effort are not assured, decision makers should allow for the possibility that full success will not be achieved."
What to do with a revolutionary system that will cost gazillions and may not work? How should the government reevaluate? All ideas welcome. Stay tuned.
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Posted by: Michael Lent | March 11, 2008 11:11 AM
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Posted by: David Lee | April 11, 2008 12:33 AM
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The yield on the 10-year Treasury is closing in on 2%, while stocks were mixed on worries the Federal Reserve will begin to unwind its bond purchases sooner rather than later.
Central bank easing continues as Reserve Bank of Australia cuts borrowing costs overnight, following European Central Bank’s move last Thursday
Ben Bernanke defends the low interest rate policies of the US Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe, saying they were helping to boost the global economy.
See original here: Bernanke defends low interest rates
The US Federal Reserve says the economy has strengthened “moderately” but still needs stimulus measures to underpin recovery.
See original here: Fed cautious on US economic recovery
Federal Reserve officials dinged JPMorgan and Goldman for being off on their stress test results. Wells Fargo, however, got a pass.
The Federal Reserve rejected the plans from Ally Financial and regional bank BB&T. And in a bit of a surprise, the Fed conditionally okayed buyback and dividend plans from banking giants JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.
See original here: Fed approves capital plans from 16 of 18 big banks
The Reserve Bank of Australia confirms a press report that it has been targeted by hackers, but says no data has been lost.
The MPC held the base rate and refused to expand QE this month. But a more radical approach to stimulating the economy is still on the cards. Here’s how it might be done
The Bank of England resisted pressure to inject billions of pounds into the economy on Thursday, amid mounting speculation that its remit could be changed to encourage policymakers to focus on growth rather than inflation.
The monetary policy committee (MPC) voted against expanding its £375bn quantitative easing (QE) programme and kept interest rates at their historic four-year low of 0.5%.
The MPC announcement suggests outgoing bank governor Sir Mervyn King has been outvoted two months running for the first time in his 10 years at the helm of the Bank. At the February MPC meeting, King and two others voted to increase QE by £25bn to £400bn.
Speculation that the arrival of Mark Carneyin the summer to replace King will be accompanied by a broader remit for the MPC has gathered pace since the Canadian central bank chief made it clear he favours adopting unorthodox measures to stimulate growth.
The MPC is currently required to keep inflation at 2% over the “medium term”. This phrase has been interpreted as meaning between two and three years. The committee must also pay regard to employment and growth.
The Treasury is currently conducting its annual review of the remit, and it is possible that inflation, which is expected to remain above 2% for the next couple of years, will be de-emphasised in favour of a growth target, in a victory for the “market monetarists” – successors to Milton Friedman who believe that anchoring the market’s expectations of long-term interest rates should be the MPC’s main aim.
For now the committee’s main tool is QE and the decision over whether to increase the money-printing has probably been delayed rather than abandoned completely; many predict an expansion of the programme in the next two or three months.
Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said: “The Bank of England’s decision to hold off from stimulative action was highly likely the result of a tightly split vote and we strongly suspect that the MPC will act in the second quarter and very possibly as soon as April.”
Other commentators were wary of any increase. David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “We believe this would be misguided, as more QE would provide only marginal benefits for the real economy, while heightening risks of financial distortions, bubbles and higher inflation.”
But last month the MPC discussed embracing a broader set of policy tools, seven of which are discussed below:
The Bank of England has “printed” £375bn of extra money since March 2009 and spent all of it on buying government bonds from banks and insurers in the hope they will lend the proceeds to other private sector companies.
The Bank could follow the example of the US Federal Reserve and buy other, more risky, assets, such as home loans. There are commercially traded bundles of mortgages, known as mortgage-backed securities, sitting in bank reserves; the central bank could relieve lenders of these mortgages, allowing them to lend more to ordinary customers. Capital Economics believes that under the current remit QE could rise to £500bn by the end of next year. A growth target, or a target to achieve a set level of GDP, could accelerate that process.
Funding for Lending
The Treasury has backed an £80bn scheme that offers high street banks and building societies access to money at 0.5% as long as they lend it to customers at a discounted rate. Some banks, like Barclays, have lent money, while others have stashed the cash – Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Santander being the largest. Funding for Lending could be expanded and made even cheaper. Non-deposit-taking lenders could be included. But when only a quarter of the £80bn has so far found its way into the system, it still has some way to go before a top-up is needed.
A cut in interest rates
A move from 0.5% to 0.25% would mimic the Federal Reserve. Or a 0% rate would create a clear gap between the UK and continental Europe, where base rates are 0.75%. Base rate tracker mortgages would come down in price. However, the suspicion is that most mortgage products would stay the same and the only beneficiary would be the profit margins of high street lenders.
Negative interest rates
Both Funding for Lending and QE are carrots. A negative interest rate is a big stick. Deputy governor Paul Tucker is tempted to make banks pay to deposit money at the central bank because too many of them are adopting a safety-first policy rather than lending to businesses.
Unfortunately, lots of mortgage products track the 0.5% base rate, so if the base rate became -0.5%, banks would be forced to cut the mortgage rate and lose money. Tucker believes it may be possible to apply the -0.5% to some high street bank reserves and set aside the cash that supports existing mortgage lending. Complex and tricky.
Working capital instruments
Tucker also says that big corporations, which are sitting on piles of unspent profits, could make loans to their suppliers. The loans, which he calls “working capital instruments”, would support investment by small and medium-sized firms and be underwritten in some form by the central bank. Tucker is looking around for money that businesses can access, which is logical, but maybe small businesses would benefit more from big firms simply paying them on time.
Lord Turner, the outgoing chairman of the Financial Services Authority who lost out to Carney in the governor race, has floated the idea of the Bank directly funding the government. The plan would allow chancellor George Osborne to announce multibillion-pound spending on infrastructure projects. Like a helicopter dropping cash from the sky, the central bank would supply the funds rather than the Treasury running up bigger current accounts deficits – an off-balance-sheet exercise that could keep the ratings agencies at bay.
Once there was a thriving commercial bill market, but it died out. It could be revived to provide an avenue for the private sector to access loans. It works like this: two businesses are trading; one owes the other money. The debtor might give the other a bill saying they will pay in three months. This bill can then be traded.
The Federal Reserve said banks are in better shape than in 2008. But another severe recession would still hit the industry hard. Ally Financial was deemed to be in the worst condition.
Read the original: Stress test results: Banks could lose nearly half a trillion dollars | <urn:uuid:a6069cb4-2986-4973-b207-13d92f506e0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pennystockpaycheck.com/news/?tag=reserve | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9657 | 1,651 | 1.507813 | 2 |
By Andrew Liszewski
You can think of this handheld aquarium game from Sega Toys as a sort of Tamagotchi for aspiring marine biologists. Depending on which version you buy, you’ll either be taking care of an Angelfish (blue) or a Dolphin (pink) and as you feed and interact with your pet not only will it grow, but so will their underwater world. (Because I’m sure that 1 inch screen can get pretty cramped at times.) There’s also 3 different mini games you can play with your pet, and not only does it seem like a more educational alternative to a Tamagotchi, but it’s a good way to see if your kids are really prepared to take care of an actual dolphin before you put a real one under the tree this Christmas. You can get it from the Japan Trend Shop for $59. | <urn:uuid:1ce38b35-0e87-4911-87d9-41352db97434> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohgizmo.com/2008/09/30/sega-toys-handheld-aquarium/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936217 | 181 | 1.664063 | 2 |
In Defense of Philosophy
Originally uploaded by antje b.
When I first saw the title of the series advertised in the Tate guide, I was a little surprised. I never thought that philosophy needed defending. I always thought it was an integral part of any developed social system.
However, when Tariq Ali came to speak of the making of the film 'Spinoza: Apostle of Reason' for Channel 4 (which was shown at the beginning of the event), he mentioned that the channel was originally set up to cater for non-mainstream political, cultural and minority audiences. All this changed towards the end of the 90ies, he said, when Channel 4 succumbed to measuring the value of its content by ratings. And thus the 'marketisation' of Channel 4 commenced.
He added that sadly this phenomenon was also visible in education, which these days, to put it bluntly, he said, only served the needs of the market. Philosophy, the 'love of wisdom', doesn't seem to fit in. It's just not profitable. (Unless, of course, you count people like Jim Rohn as philosophers.)
Another intriguing thought that came out in the Q&A was the use of the politics of fear in controlling the masses. Especially the fear of loss and ultimately the fear of death. When ordinary people lose that fear of death for a while, things like Egypt happen.
In summary, I had an interesting evening. I would have liked to have shared it with someone to bounce some thoughts off afterwards but it was a somewhat spontaneous decision to go. As it was, I left with the unsatisfying feeling that I have spent years successfully dulling my mind. In my whole life, I'm afraid, I've never had an original thought. I feel rather clever and proud when I understand what intelligent people talk about but it's not the first time that I think I have nothing to contribute. Looking at the amount of reading I would have to do just to catch up is off-putting in its own right.
I haven't decided what to do about it but I'm teetering on the verge of just letting it be.
My apologies if this post was a little bitty but I just wanted to share my impressions of the event. | <urn:uuid:8cab2389-5237-421f-a54b-b279c3b044bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://f2point4.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982547 | 461 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Life is busy. No one is exempt. Daily we are faced with the juggling of life’s many responsibilities all while trying to find a little time for our passion, genealogy. Researching your family history online can be time consuming. However, there continues to grow a list of new timesaving tools available to the family historian that can not only free up your time but also search for your family while you sleep.
Gone are the days of bookmarking your favourite websites and remembering to check back to see if there is anything new. There are plenty of options available to the family historian in bringing updates, news and information right to your desktop on a daily basis.
RSS Feeds, email subscriptions, newsletters are all great ways to keep on top of the latest information from your favourite websites.
RSS Feeds (Really Simple Syndication) is tops on my list. Find a website that you like and subscribe to an RSS Feed. You can have that websites latest information delivered to your inbox or Google Reader. RSS Feeds are great for websites that offer blogs.
Personally, I keep an igoogle page. Igoogle is great concept from Google that allows you to create your own home page. When you sign in, your home page loads with your favourite website links, gadgets, to do lists all customized with your personal choices. On it I keep feeds of my favourite websites and blogs that I read daily, I also keep my google reader on my igoogle page. All my RSS feeds go to this Google Reader. They are all together on my home page where I can quickly and easily access them on a daily basis. As I find time to do some reading, they are conveniently available.
Other websites that offer less frequent updates in the form of monthly newsletters I have delivered to my inbox. Often I found in bookmarking a site, I would go months without checking on them. Out of sight, out of mind. A newsletter in my inbox makes me visit them on regular basis. Great for sites like Ancestry or Irish History Foundation, any of your favourite databases, online cemeteries etc. where information doesn’t necessarily change daily.
Another way I keep my most essentials sites top of mind is with the favourite’s toolbar. If you don’t have Explorer 8, I suggest you get the free download online. This download will give you a handy toolbar where you can keep a dozen or more links of your top sites readily available at the top of your screen. This is a great place to keep sites that you may visit daily or several times a week. You can arrive to your favourite site in one click, check for news and move on before you’ve had your first sip of morning coffee.
Alerts are fundamental in saving yourself surfing time. In Google Alerts, you can enter some of your most frequent research queries and ask Google to send you an alert when anything new is posted to the internet pertaining to your query. You can have queries sent to your inbox as it happens, daily or weekly basis. You customize alerts to your own particular needs. In terms of your genealogy research, you can use alerts to monitor information posted on a particular relative or surname you are following. As well , if you interested in Irish history or German history and want to know about new websites or articles or information just save a search query in Google Alerts. You make your alert as specific or general as you like. It is all in your control.
Don’t forget alerts to forums. Many sites offer forums where you can follow a thread of a particular surname or geographical area of your ancestors. Ancestry for example has many family forums where you can follow a family surname. I have alerts set up for not only my family surnames but also the specific areas they lived. When someone posts an inquiry to the forums I am quickly alerted, I can scan to see if it pertains to my particular family and decide whether it is worth further investigation.
By combining all of these timesaving techniques, you can easily reduce your searching time and bring the internet and information to you. I look forward to getting up in the morning signing on to my email and igoogle page and finding what the internet has delivered to my desktop with my morning coffee. I can then go on with my day knowing I’m on top of my research and I’m not missing a thing. | <urn:uuid:6d35db3a-64eb-40f4-8de4-472346db1c3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thearmchairgenealogist.com/2010/07/tuesdays-tip-search-while-you-sleep.html?showComment=1278430596522 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934554 | 902 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Class of 1969 Alumni Mentoring Program
The Alumni Mentoring Program (AMP) pilot was approved by the USNAAA Board of Trustees at its 8 December 2011 meeting. While AMP is the 50th Legacy Gift of the Class of 1969, AMP is intended as an offering by all Alumni for all Alumni. Protégé and mentor participants will be from all classes and will be guided by a new multi-class steering committee to be formed in the near future.
AMP Pilot: The AMP Pilot will run for a minimum of one year targeting 600 protégé and 400 mentor participants. Upon successful completion of the AMP Pilot, we expect to implement full AMP for a combined 3,000 mentor and protégé participants in 2014.
How You Can Help: Volunteer by enrolling today for training as a mentor to share your experience, wisdom, and network to help other Alumni or as a protégé to take advantage of a mentor’s knowledge and experience. Lead by helping to inform both your Classmates and other Alumni you know to support the AMP Pilot.
Say Again Your Last: We need 400 mentors and 600 protégés to conduct a meaningful AMP Pilot! All a USNA Alumni has to do is go to the AMP website through www.usna.com and sign up for mentor training or register to be a protégé. We have almost 200 trained mentors and have opened the program for protégé sign-ups. WE NEED MENTOR AND PROTÉGÉ VOLUNTEERS NOW!!
By the numbers: Total USNA Alumni number about 50,000 of which about 10,000 are on active duty. AMP will provide the means for Alumni to help Alumni in an unprecedented way.
Our goal: To revitalize the culture of Alumni helping Alumni. By sharing experience and wisdom and leveraging connections and relationships, we will inspire Alumni to set higher goals, achieve more, and have greater satisfaction, first in military service and then in their selected career for the purposes (1) that more Alumni achieve “the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government” and (2) to improve retention.
About AMP: The Alumni Mentoring Program (AMP) is a system of connecting Alumni for a greater good. The foundation tool of AMP is the proven eMentoring on-line platform which Facebook-like features will be familiar to most and which will adeptly allow Protégés and Mentors to pair-off, conduct ongoing dialogue, and access other mentoring tools offered there. Protégés will obtain objective advice from neutral resources outside of their command structure - from other Alumni who “have been there and done that”. Of course, mentoring pairs may go off-line or meet face-to-face anytime. Protégés and volunteer Mentors may be from any and all USNA classes. At least initially, AMP will focus on providing mentoring (i) to Alumni approaching the end of their initial obligated service and facing the decision to stay in or get out. Mentors will receive standard training and work kits. AMP is an offering by Alumni for Alumni; AMP activities will be private and confidential. | <urn:uuid:49449354-e74c-42b8-84f4-102295108af6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usna.com/page.aspx?pid=288 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937968 | 684 | 1.554688 | 2 |
I tried to avoid writing about Mad Men again this week for Television Tuesday, but dammit, it's everywhere. And this quote in an interview with creator Matt Weiner with fan site Basket of Kisses jumped out at me:
DL: She’s wondering if it’s possible to do a story about race in the early 60s without having it become cliché.I don't think anyone's going to quibble with the argument that Mad Men is a feminist show. Weiner and his writing staff clearly make the role of women and the societal challenges facing them a major focus of the show - it's not accidental, it's a byproduct of a concerted effort to make this show about women and feminism. His language above reflects that fact - he is able to clearly and easily use feminist language such as "othering" and "privilege".
MW: I don’t know... Because the whole thing about, let’s not even call it race, let’s just say racism—it’s the same as sexism or whatever—[is] thinking of people as other. It’s literally about thinking of people as other.
They don’t have the same feelings and thoughts as you do, they don’t have the same desires. It’s the way men are with women about sex, the way Greg was with Joan. Like why would she be that way? She’s a woman! You’re not supposed to want sex. You’re not supposed to be horny. Or want to have power, or have experience, or have thought sex out. So I look at the race issue, it all comes down to knowing individuals. As individuals become more ingrained in each other’s lives. That’s what the great thing is about integration and everything, the generation that’s after me, my kids, it’s not an exaggeration, they don’t know the difference. They do not see it because they are surrounded by people of all different kinds, especially in Los Angeles, and they’re just people....
My favorite line in that whole story line is Paul saying to her, “Can’t it wait? Why can’t it wait?” That’s the understanding of it. And by the way, privileged white people who have good politics have made a huge difference in that world. They were very, very important to the world changing. I wasn’t just trying to ridicule him. They were the people that actually, I was trying to show, why do you go down there? It’s more complicated.
RL: It’s sort of like, the straight women speaking up about AIDS is what helped move that along.
MW: Right, absolutely. And the fact that the people who are activists are often, intolerant or insufferable or egotistical or whatever else it is, or privileged, y’know?
DL: You kind of have to be privileged to be part of a movement because otherwise you can’t take time off of work.
MW: Well, yeah. They talk about this with the Russian Revolution, it wasn’t made out of people growing up in poverty, it was a lot of sons of doctors that made the revolution happen.
However, and very very like feminism, Mad Men also practices silencing and erasing of persons of color. Yes, there are black characters and the occasional Asian character. Yes, they occasionally speak or have conversations among themselves. And I think that Weiner is definitely trying very, very hard to get a cookie and include civil rights in the show.
He's ignoring it completely, but he has almost never made it a focus: the only specific story (rather than individual scene or interaction) centering on race was a C storyline, B at best. The lack of stories about civil rights, about persons of color, about the changes their community was going through, stands in stark contrast to the constant and able sympathy for white women.
I'm going to turn it over to the best feminist analysis I've read thus far of Mad Men, by LaToya Peterson, to explain:
Although Draper has a gift for engaging and seeing through marginalized types—the unwed mother, the Jewish heiress, the closeted gay man—in the case of the black characters, the relationship never goes beyond shallow conversation. Mad Men takes on a number of cultural controversies, yet race is treated with politeness, distance, restraint, and a heavy dose of sentimentality. For a show that takes place in the early ’60s, as race riots are breaking out, this is a glaring omission... The white patriarchy is breaking apart, the rush of the ’60s are upon us. But the black characters are still trapped in a romantic haze of noble, silent suffering...
[M]inorities are shown in glimpses around the edges of narrative. They include the two black women that are ladies’ room attendants, the black sandwich seller, the Chinese family used as a prank on Pete Campbell, Carla, the Draper's black maid, the black delivery men dropping off the copier, the elevator operator Hollis, and the Asian American waitress. For the most part, they pop up and say one or two lines... Black characters remain silent enigmas, and Asian Americans are barely noticed at all.
Here's the thing. Matt Weiner is very deeply sympathetic towards women's rights and feminism and what was going on with women in that period. This is reflected by the makeup of his writing staff - five women out of nine writers.
But something else is reflected by the writing staff: there are NO persons of color.
When you don't have any people directly affected by racism writing the show, how are you supposed to accurately and sensitively communicate the experience?
Matt Weiner is not really concerned with using his privilege to directly address the changing role of persons of color in the area. From the interview:
They are parallel universes. They’re not based on hatred, and it’s not In the Heat of the Night. This is not Birmingham, Alabama, this is New York City, people are living side-by-side, but they are parallel universes. And this is how they intersect...So I look at the race issue, it all comes down to knowing individuals. As individuals become more ingrained in each other’s lives. That’s what the great thing is about integration and everything, the generation that’s after me, my kids, it’s not an exaggeration, they don’t know the difference.But individuals are already there. You've made very sure to have some persons of color in disempowered positions - I'm thinking specifically of Hollis, the elevator operator, here - but you don't do anything with him, except show him or Carla once in a while to show your viewers that you remember that black people exist.
Why can't Hollis have a storyline? Why can't he come up with a great idea by chance, his own "basket of kisses", and be given a chance to show himself to the world? Why can't he be involved with one of the secretaries (or executives) at work? Why wasn't Shelia given significant personality characteristics? Why can't Carla have a close relationship with the Draper kids? Why didn't Paul's co-workers express the racism that they surely would have?
"The worlds just didn't cross!" is a sorry excuse, because they did cross. People had lives. Sal gets to have a crush on Ken and [spoiler] almost fuck a bellboy.[/spoiler] Carol comes out to Joan. Peggy gets ahead - she shouldn't have, but she did, somehow. These things weren't supposed to happen, but they did. Hollis would have had a life, would have had ideas and things to say. But he doesn't, really, on the show. Maybe he's not comfortable talking much around the white folks who work at Sterling-Cooper, but Mad Men puts no effort into finding a situation where he would talk, would act, would be involved in the story.
Race was a big deal in the sixties. Maybe it wasn't talked about a whole whole lot by the people who work at Sterling Cooper, but you know what else wasn't talked about? Date rape. Unhappy housewives. Extramarital affairs and children.
When you've gained a LOT of attention and sympathy for addressing the oppression of class and race privileged women and class and race privileged LBG men and women, it kind of seems odd that you're not discussing the other big upheaval in power structures that was seething by 1960 and just as much on the precipice of explosion as Betty by 1962. When you're making a show that's critical of the power structure, but specifically not very critical of race, that's marginalization, and that's silencing.
He's a white liberal who wants that cookie. From the interview:
And by the way, privileged white people who have good politics have made a huge difference in that world. They were very, very important to the world changing. I wasn’t just trying to ridicule him.I really hope that I'm wrong. Maybe season 3 will mimic season 2 and make race a focus instead of a footnote - or maybe Weiner will put it off until season 4, or 5, or never.
From the piece by Ms. Peterson quoted above:
If the show ignores race again, then it is truly written by cowards. Would it be so difficult to show Carla crying for the little girls killed at the 16th Street Baptist Church? Would we get a different glimpse of this rarefied world if Hollis gets promoted beyond elevator boy? Could the show's writers and producers stomach having one of their characters—Pete Campbell or Roger Sterling—drop a racial epithet with the same ease which with they do misogynistic comments? Or is it, as a friend of mine summarized, that "misogynists are cads and racists are monsters?" | <urn:uuid:a36f1b48-c548-4393-9069-49871b33b672> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deeplyproblematic.com/2009/08/mad-men-cookies-and-marginalization-of.html?showComment=1250633932001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974728 | 2,095 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Adventure. It's in our DNA. We introduced adventure travel to North America in 1972 and never looked back. Now you can choose from over 4,000 small group trips, or have one of our experienced adventure travel specialists build one just for you. No one has the experience, depth of knowledge and range of itineraries of Adventure Center!
There are always lots of questions when you're planning a trip. Here are answers to the questions that we get the most. If you don't find the answer you're looking for, please call or email and we will be happy to answer them for you.
What our travelers have to say
What we hear most about our style of travel is "Why haven't I done this before?"
Responsible travel is rooted in respect, socially & ecologically . Since 1972 we've helped shape the meaning of traveling responsibly by introducing small groups of travellers to local people, wildlife and culture while sustaining the delicate balance that enables these communities and ecosystems to thrive.
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Guess what we do on vacation? That's right, we get out and travel. We're all passionate about new destinations and new experiences. We know adventure because we live it, and that helps us to better prepare you for yours. Let us know how we can put our knowledge and our experience to use for you.
Are you an adventurer, an explorer, or just plain curious? Do you love discovering new cultures and places? If so, we should talk. We're always looking for people who are committed to making adventure come alive for others.
The word "locavore" is tossed around a lot these days, like organic microgreens in a seasonal salad. Restaurants that want to be known for sourcing local, seasonal products go to great lengths to describe the heritage of the poultry, the diets of its pork and cattle, the lineage of its produce, and the origins of the seafood. The television show Portlandia cleverly spoofs this whole notion in the skit "Is It Local?" in which the two main characters visit the farm to make sure the chicken they are planning on eating was raised humanely.
Eating local, sustainable, seasonal food is important and the growing number of farmers markets that run year round make it easier and easier to eat this way without breaking the bank. I'm spoiled in that I live within walking distance of the only year-round farmers market in Queens. But the same as the Portlandia characters take the local aspect of their eating to an extreme, some of the local goods churned out by industrious urban folks are silly with pretension and frightfully expensive. I have seen $14 chocolate bars and $12 jars of pickles. I understand why certain specialty foods are expensive, and oftentimes they are quite delicious, but such costs do not make for a sustainable way to eat, unless money is not an issue for you.
Of course, the locavore movement is a laughable notion to people steeped in the traditions of agrarian societies, as the visually stunning and genuinely interesting collaboration between Adventure Center partner Intrepid Travel and The Perennial Plate reveals. Founded by Daniel Kline and Mirra Fine, The Perennial Plate started as a documentary food series about a year of eating in Minnesota and has expanded its interests into the international arena for its third season, working with Intrepid Travel and its Food Adventures. The resulting films - billed as "adventures in sustainable eating" - not only make you want to hop on a plane for a meal, but they tell some incredible stories about how all over the world long-standing traditions of food persist today, even in light of, or in some cases because of, twenty-first century implications, like in the latest installment about saving seeds in India.
Every episode is worth watching, but for me this season has two highlights so far. The Traveler's Republic of Tofu really gets to the heart of the project's mission through examining the farming practices of a remote Chinese village; for pure viewing bliss, there is nothing not to like about A Day In India. | <urn:uuid:6099f991-24fe-4014-9f08-b57c58687252> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://adventurecenter.com/blog/what-does-locavore-mean-you | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954907 | 838 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The Art Gallery of Ontario is set to re-open in November with a brand new renovation by architect Frank Gehry, a new curatorial strategy and a new logo.
VoCA likes the Warhol-esque new logo. We read it as the white letters sitting on top of a colourful background of (art) history. It seems appropriate.
The logo. Image: artmatters.ca
Not everyone agrees, though. Click HERE to read what Sarah Nicole Prickett had to say on Torontoist.com, and some of the ensuing commentary.
In the interest of fairness, VoCA spoke with AGO logo designer Kevin Sugden, of Bruce Mau Design about the gallery’s new identity:
VoCA: What was the design brief?
KS: It was an enjoyable process, they wanted a community approach that was going to reach to new audiences. Their goal is to connect the public with art.
The boiled down version of the logo came out of a lot of market research, interviews, trying to get at visitor motivation, why people were and weren’t coming to the gallery.
So the mission of the AGO was really at the centre of the brief. They wanted something accessible, that works well, that’s identifiable, has flexibility, that can be used for different audiences and application types.
VoCA: How did you conceive of the logo?
KS: We went into it with an art historical speculations. It needed to somehow emulate art practice within itself. We looked at the identity for the Tate, which everyone agreed was great. We wanted a Tate-like effect, and I think the logo has a bit of an edge, it’s unexpected, but it has a robust timelessness to it. It needed to be classic.
Tate logo. Image: businessweek.com
We experimented with motion, superimposition, pliability and animation sequences, we pulled art references from early stop photography like muybridge..
We wanted to introduce the idea of the kinetic, to create a visual frieze, a stop motion freeze, to capture a point in an experiment.
Eadweard Muybridge: Woman walking downstairs, late 19th century. Image: wikimedia.org
We did really wild experimental stuff. We thought we should have an algorithm, so that it’s an algorithmic program so that the logo appears different every time. This got us really excited, but it scared the steering committee.
So in the end we went for a simple superimposition. The logo is generated by collapsing 5 typefaces on top of each other and designating a colour palatte to each of the points of overlap.
The root typeface is called Knockout. It has super variations between weights, it’s a great family. There are different width values that each have different personalities. There’s been just a little graceful work done.
VoCA: It reads like Pop Art, Andy Warhol, no?
KS: Yes, there’s Pop Art there. When you blow it up big, there are great details. We originally wanted to use only florescent inks, but that was unsustainable (laughs). There’s a pantone designated colour for each.
Andy Warhol’s famous Marilyn. Image: lovecolours.net
The Pop reference is right, because we had to select colours that we not too deep. The palette couldn’t be too deep, so none are very dark or light. Close up, they are tending toward a pastel, bright feel.
I was impressed by how good it looked in the globe and mail, at 72 dpi.
We’ll see how it grows over time, there are figure ground opportunities, wherever you place it, on a layout, it dictates how the layout will work, it obliges a consideration for placement.
The logo commands its own halo. We don’t have much problem about things getting to close to it. It handles itself in tough contexts, but it’s demanding. It’s not an easy logo to use well, so it’s a good thing they‘ve got some talented people in the graphics area of the gallery working with it.
We designed the logo in 2006. BMD is doing the signage inside the gallery too.
VoCA: Does that mean we’ll see enormous Helvetica fonts throughout the galleries?
We wanted to do huge graphic gestures on the outside, but the gallery wanted something more subtle. I think Frank was disappointed…we were going to do something big and expressive. The end wings are meant to be billboards.
BMD’s Massive Change at the AGO, 2005. Image: flickr.com
VoCA: What’s your opinion of the inside?
The inside of the building is amazing. We’ve done a MoMA-like wayfinding system, very quiet, only what’s needed. The spaces are just exquisite, they are a combination of restraint and respect for ideas of clarity of space, with some delirious moments that are perfectly balanced and the circulation throughout the gallery is now incredibly clear.
Walker court is the arrival and departure point on a path through the building.
VoCA: What about the curating?
They have this idea of recreating conditions where art can be understood in its cultural context. In one of the 19th c European galleries, downstairs, for example, the works are close hung in classic salon style and they will mix 19th c. Canadian work with the European work. This seems logical, since these are artists who went to Europe, and were interpreting the Canadian landscape….
Paintings gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario. Image: Walter Bibikow/jupiterimages.com
How do you think the future bodes for the AGO?
The future is there right now already. I’ve been working with the AGO for almost 20 years. They have definitely been through their moments, like when they had the rapid turnover when Glenn Lowry left, and Max Anderson came in, and then left, it was a difficult place at that time.
It’s unbelievable the level of enthusiasm in that place now. It’s incredible. From the top all the way to the securiry guards. There’s a feeling that they are part of something really significant in the city.
Everyone is working as hard as they can. The galleries need to be re-installed in waves, so some are finished and sealed, but they are moving and every few weeks there are new galleries being opened.
The city is coming around to what the institution can be. And the new education centre has a major new donor, so that’s very exciting. There is a new program vision, a new idea about art education and how the gallery can interact with the public school system.
VoCA: Any final comments?
We are damn lucky to have the AGO. It will be one of the great art institutions in North America. | <urn:uuid:031b3b92-099d-4b4a-af89-501175881587> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://viewoncanadianart.com/2008/07/18/the-art-gallery-of-ontario-logo-by-bruce-mau-design/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962135 | 1,466 | 1.601563 | 2 |
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PLEASE NOTE: This competition has now closed.
UGC. User-generated content. It’s all the rage these days. From YouTube to newspapers, videos, photos and words produced by the outlet’s users - rather than its creators – serve an ever-growing number of purposes. Providing breaking news reports from dramatic news events; submitting remarkable photographs, such as these taken by an Australian grandfather as his family sought refuge from the bushfires; or simply entertaining office workers around the world with yet another cute cat doing something cute – user-generated content carries an impact felt only in reporting that comes from the heart of the action (even it that’s just being the observer of some feline behaviour).
Digital media lends itself well to user-generated content. Publication is both quick and easy. So what about digital books?
User-generated content and books have been flirting with each other for longer than may perhaps be immediately obvious. Back in 2006, the US branch of Pearson – the parent company of Penguin – announced We Are Smarter than Me, a collaborative UGC project which was published in 2008. A US not-for-profit, The CK-12 Foundation, does some very useful things with user-shaped digital textbooks that they call Flexbooks. Then there are the related phenomena of both fan-fiction and self-publishing. But the vast majority of books that we want to pick up and read for entertainment, escapism, understanding – books which are published by conventional publishing houses – follow the normal publishing process.
So this is why we’ve launched the Guardian Shorts ‘Protest!’ essay writing contest. We are inviting readers who were involved in protest in 2012 to record their experiences in 5,000 words. We want to know what was being protested about and why – what were the politics and triggers behind it? What form did it take and what was it like? And, importantly, why did you take part?
We’ve left our definition of ‘protest’ as broad as possible – you may have been campaigning for your local library, marching for equality or protesting in the face of government oppression. The protest too can have taken place anywhere in the world. People rallied around all sorts of causes in 2012. We’re interested in the human stories and the reasons for action.
There are lots of writing competitions out there of course. What makes our one different? Well, we want to properly take that idea of user-generated content and integrate it into our publishing programme. The winning entry will be published in the Guardian Shorts series of ebooks. It will have all the same marketing and promotion as any other title, and we will split the revenue 50/50 with the author.
In a way, book publishing has always been about UGC – publishers receive pitches from independent writers, and then work with them. We are simply taking this further and opening up the access for anybody who wants to write within the broad brief. Publishing digitally allows us to work within shorter forms of writing that are more suited to exploring a single issue or giving a personal account of an event.
We’re looking forward to reading the entries. We hope it will bring UGC and book publishing closer together. | <urn:uuid:7e8c9294-f487-47d4-b279-b2dfeaa7b6cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://guardianshorts.co.uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964212 | 711 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Saxophonist Joe Lovano Interviewed at All About Jazz!
Penned as one of the greatest musicians in jazz history," saxophonist Joe Lovano has successfully created a unique voice within the jazz tradition and has contributed significantly to the continuance and development of the idiom.
In just over a quarter of a century he has created an expansive body of work that has covered a broad spectrum of styles. This includes swing, bebop, hard-bop, post-bop, the avant-garde and interpretations of the music of Frank Sinatra and Enrico Caruso. He has explored an array of group settings, including duo with drums, the coveted trio with drums and bass, numerous quartets, a two-drummer quintet, nonets and a full symphony orchestra. Add to this his unique exploration of unconventional woodwinds, including the alto clarinet, wood flute, and the aulochrome (the first polyphonic saxophone invented specifically for him), it becomes readily apparent that his body of work is unique and multidimensional.
Angela Davis, a saxophonist herself, spoke with Lovano recently on a wide range of subjects, including growing up in a particularly musical family, playing with drummer Paul Motian, and the various factors that ultimately contribute to innovation and moving the music forward.
Check out Joe Lovano: Inimitable Streams of Expression , published today at AllAboutJazz.com! Photo Credit Steven Sussman | <urn:uuid:6d5a4eef-be56-44c9-9089-2e8826dbbd50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.allaboutjazz.com/news.php?id=94471 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963843 | 311 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Albertina Kerr operates a total of 15 neighborhood group homes for youth that offer 24-hour support and life skills training for children and teens ages 7 to 18 with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges that require specialized care and treatment. For the kids and teens, our homes create a solid, safe and nurturing environment. Children are comforted knowing they have a place to call home and enjoy the privacy of their own bedroom.The goal is to provide these youth with the skills they need to live as independently as possible when they reach adulthood. The focus of our services is on life skill development, education, behavior management and appropriate socialization. The staff at each group home work as a team with family members, psychiatrists, therapists and behavior support specialists to develop each child’s individual support plan to optimally meet their support needs and honor their goals and preferences.While the youth in all the group homes have many opportunities to interact at special events throughout the year, the most popular activity has become The Kerr Games. Held twice a year, The Games provides a chance for the youth in our services to participate in a day filled with camaraderie and competition, sports, activities and a talent show. Staff and youth work together, and everyone is a winner. | <urn:uuid:e8201584-0e5c-479e-8425-16fc5dd2617f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kerrshops.org/DevelopmentalDisability/YouthGroupHomes.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963412 | 251 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The Kelo case was one of the most reprehensible Supreme Court decisions in recent history. The Court said it was okay for a local government to seize a private home solely to please a big corporation. So it is morbidly satisfying to see that the strategy has backfired for the town. Tim Carney reports for the Washington Examiner:
Susette Kelo’s little, pink house in New London, Conn. — like the houses of all her neighbors — is now a pile of rubble, overgrown with weeds. But Pfizer, the company that called for the demolition in order to build a new research and development plant, announced Monday it is packing up and leaving town in order to cut costs after its merger with fellow drug-giant Wyeth. New London now has a wasteland where a neighborhood once stood, and no jobs or business to show for it. It’s another travesty of central planning. …Kelo, and other residents who didn’t want to move, sued to block the condemnation. They lost, but they fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. There, the four liberal justices joined with moderate Anthony Kennedy to rule in favor of the developers — the takings were perfectly legal. …the takings in New London begin to sound like a great progressive victory: government, triumphing over the exploitive notion of “property rights,” helps the many at the expense of a few. But, New London was really another example of political cronyism and politicians using the might of government in order to benefit well-connected big business at the expense of those poorer and less influential. Consider that the head of the New London Development Corporation was Claire Gaudiani, who was married to David Burnett, the Pfizer executive who wanted “a nice place to operate.” Pfizer vice president George Milne also sat on the development corporation’s board. …Pfizer got its loot – free land, special tax breaks, and government-funded clean-up of the neighborhood (including clearing out the unsightly neighbors) – and the area prepared for economic “rejuvenation,” as Justice Stevens put it. It didn’t work out that way. The Fort Trumbull neighborhood Pfizer had bulldozed today consists only of “weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters,” according to the Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:3e2b9837-dc4b-40be-858b-592f98b23495> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/poetic-justice-for-susette-kelo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968035 | 500 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The molecular diagnostics market continues to be the fastest growing segment of the overall in vitro diagnostics market. However, the molecular tests that drove the highest growth rates less than five years ago—for example, for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) screening—are beginning to stagnate.
To compete in these gradually saturating segments, vendors are forced to further broaden their molecular testing menus while offering competitive costs. The resulting pricing pressures further erode margins on what were once incredibly high-margin tests. In order to make up for the stabilizing infectious disease molecular diagnostic market, vendors are increasingly focusing their attention to the markets for oncology molecular diagnostics.
Global revenues from the sales of oncology molecular diagnostics are growing at more than 20% and currently account for approximately 10% of the roughly $5 billion molecular diagnostics market. While revenues from oncology molecular diagnostics currently make up less than 5% of total cancer testing revenue, this percentage is likely to reach 10% over the next five years. Molecular diagnostics for breast and colorectal cancer are likely to remain the two largest market segments. However, other oncology molecular diagnostics, including those for prostate cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer, and ovarian cancer, represent significant market growth opportunities.
Molecular tests for oncology enable extremely targeted cancer diagnosis as well as early detection through screening programs. Additionally, with highly sensitive and extremely specific protocols, oncology molecular diagnostics support accurate and appropriate therapy selection. Oncology molecular diagnostics have had the greatest impact on the diagnosis and treatment of breast and colorectal cancer, with multiple tests widely incorporated in clinical practice. More importantly, these novel oncology molecular diagnostics have reduced mortality due to cancer.
Oncology molecular diagnostic tests are reimbursed at very high levels—as much as several thousands of dollars—when compared to other in vitro diagnostics. Higher reimbursement is based on value and cost-savings that can be achieved through the provision of laboratory-developed tests (LDTs).
LDTs allow suppliers to skip the lengthy time for U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory review and instead operate as a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-regulated laboratory, performing tests in-house and marketing services to the medical community immediately. Moreover, suppliers can avoid Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding and negotiate with each payer to set prices individually, a long and enduring process to get coverage and market to all potential patients and physicians. Finally, the provision of LDTs allows for suppliers to continually support prognostic clinical trials and collect data for payers to examine.
The greatest driver of the oncology molecular diagnostics market is the growing demand for targeted clinical sequencing panels that necessitate next-generation sequencing technology. While the use of sequencing in clinical applications is at its nascent stage, it is expected to increase as the cost of sequencing further decreases toward the $1,000 genome milestone. The market price per genome for whole genome sequencing is expected to hover around $4,000 for the full year 2012. However, by next year, many of the CLIA-certified diagnostic laboratories that were previously barred from the technology due to its high costs are expected to incorporate next-generation sequencing clinical tests.
With next-generation sequencing, laboratories will be able to perform very sensitive oncology molecular diagnostic testing in an incredibly high-throughput fashion. The rapid evolution of clinical sequencing using next-generation technology will also lead to the very rapid development of many new clinical biomarkers and tests. Although challenges associated with data management and analytics are likely to remain a hurdle, these laboratories recognize that the incorporation of next-generation sequencing is essential to their cancer care protocols.
Next-generation sequencing will ultimately become an essential diagnostic platform among molecular pathologists. Fittingly, technology vendors are aggressively pursuing the market with expectations that as much as half of their next-generation sequencing related revenues will come from clinical applications by 2015. | <urn:uuid:a94387cb-9fca-4453-a8cf-494a74fce912> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genengnews.com/gen-articles/ngs-on-way-to-becoming-critical-dx-platform/4520/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951526 | 835 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Our Lady of Guadalupe Posters
MexGrocer.com takes pride in bringing you beautiful posters of Our Lady of Guadalupe that are digital replicas of the original image on Juan Diego’s cloak that is found at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The posters are the ideal size for any home, church, office or factory, so our Lady of Guadalupe can bless and watch over your family, friends, colleagues and parishioners.
These posters are a reminder of the beautiful miracle that occurred on December 1531 when Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared before an Indian peasant named Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac located northwest of Mexico City. The beautiful lady identified herself as the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God whom is Creator of all things, Lord of heaven and the earth, she requested him to have the bishop build a temple on the site where she appeared. At first the bishop was unconvinced by Juan Diego’s story of the beautiful lady that appeared to him and asked him to bring a sign the next day of what he had told him. Our Lady of Guadalupe gave the bishop the sign he had asked for by sending Juan Diego with beautiful Castilian roses that she had rearranged in his cloak with her Holy hands. When Juan Diego arrived to see the bishop he released the roses and on his cloak was imprinted the miraculous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Juan Diego’s cloak was made from a low quality cactus-cloth that should have deteriorated in 20 years but till this day it stands at the Basilica exactly how Juan Diego presented it to the bishop 500 years ago and with no signs of decay. Juan Diego’s tilma (cloak) is a beautiful reminder of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s message of love and her promise of helping and protecting all of humanity. The Basilica of Guadalupe that stands exactly where she first appeared to Juan Diego is one of the most visited Catholic Churches in the world. An amazing list of cures, miracles and interventions are attributed to the Virgin of Guadalupe who has protected and comforted mankind just as she promised one December 12th 1531 on the Mount of Tepeyac. Today her beautiful apparition to Juan Diego and the miracle of her image on his cloak is celebrated every December 12th with a mass in her honor where parishioners sing the “Mananitas” and dedicate songs to her. | <urn:uuid:c5e8c623-8a20-4adb-ad87-c03ca9845a0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mexgrocer.com/our-lady-of-guadalupe-posters.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974884 | 512 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Words have the potential to shape and change the way we think about the world.
If you could single out one thing that needs to change, what would it be?
All sorts of people constantly decide what we should be talking about. But what is it that we’re not talking about? Real change requires that we step outside the circle drawn by those whose interests are served by the status quo.
There are no limits to the themes that may be explored. Freedom, Politics, Parents, Religion, Sex, Nature, Race, Education, Beauty. Anything at all.
Enter the competition. Tell your story. Start changing the world.
Entry fee: Free
Closing Date: 28 February 2013
Prizes: First prize: £200; Second prize: £100; The best contributions will be exhibited in a public space in London; We will also publish the best work in a serialised format on our website.
Visit the website for details: http://www.libartslondon.co.uk/change/ | <urn:uuid:22e5ab76-ba2e-4c02-93ca-07902aca1a13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://writingcontests.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/stories-for-our-time-writing-comp/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944028 | 211 | 1.8125 | 2 |
No one is sure how a small fluffy dog ended up in a trash heap in Los Angeles, but it was a veterinary procedure provided by the Hope for Paws Animal Rescue
that gave her a new life, People Magazine
In addition to being stray, filthy, flea-infested and most likely starving, the dog, who has since been named Fiona, was blind. However, thanks to Eldad and Audrey Hagar of the animal rescue organization, she is now happy and can see perfectly.
The shelter raised $4,500 for a veterinary ophthalmology procedure that restored vision in both of Fiona's eyes, the news outlet reports.
"She wagged! She was so happy," Eldad Hagar told the publication. "For the first time, she made the connection between hearing our voices and our smells to seeing our faces. It's just like being blindfolded all your life and all of a sudden, you're 10 years old and they take your blindfold off. It's just an incredible thing."
Audrey added that Fiona was eager to look out the window and watch the world.
"She became a very, very happy, excited dog. Her personality changed," she told the news outlet.
Fiona, 11, has since been adopted, according to the Daily Mail. | <urn:uuid:b3679a70-0660-4527-b944-4dcdf121a6d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://animalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/ars/article/Blind-dog-gets-vision-back-after-rescue828 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981957 | 267 | 1.546875 | 2 |
What the Australian supermarket takeover means
Wesfarmers has made a takeover bid for the Coles Group, which includes Australia’s second most successful supermarket chain, after Woolworths. This week the National Association of Retail Grocers in Australia, which represents independent grocery groups such as IGA and Foodworks, released a report showing Coles and Woolworths controlled 79% of the market. By comparison, it found that Britain's top two supermarkets, Sainsbury's and Tesco's, had 48% of the market, and in the U.S., Wal-Mart and Kroger have 20%. NARGA chairman John Cummings told The Age that greater supermarket concentration in Australia will mean higher prices for consumers and lower quantities of local produce.
"We're constantly, as independent business people, getting told by growers, by meat processors, by farmers, by small manufacturers, that they have been screwed to the nth degree [by the major supermarkets] and they can't go any further," he said.
Wesfarmers is a nearly 100-year-old company whose sentimentally pastoral name reflects its origins as provider of services and merchandise to rural Australians. Today, it’s a conglomerate with coal mining and liquefied petroleum gas businesses, insurance services (it’s one of the largest rural insurers), and home-improvement retail stores, and it also supplies chemicals and fertilizers to the mining, industrial, and agricultural industries. The merger would allow Wesfarmers to "expand housebrand products, extend global sourcing and benefit from colocation and store refurbishments,” Citigroup retail analyst Craig Woolford told the Herald Sun in Melbourne. Wesfarmers has tried to assure Coles' shareholders that it will redesign Coles' down-at-heel and dowdy supermarkets and improve the way they’re managed to “drive a customer proposition around value and convenience.”
Value, however, means shareholder value by way of a solid and rising price for the company’s stock, and to achieve this Wesfarmers will likely look to further cut the prices of their already tightly squeezed and increasingly environmentally challenged suppliers. In the bottom line of a financial report, if the supply-chain economics of locally produced produce is unfavorable, if floods in Gippsland drown carrots that were being grown for the shelves of Coles and Woolworths and they have to be ploughed into the ground, what happens next? If alternative sources of Australian carrots are too expensive to deliver the point-of-sale price projected for consumers, to earn the desired profit for shareholders, then will the supermarkets bypass Australian growers entirely and fly carrots in from somewhere else in the world? When Richard Cornish recently wrote a story for The Age in Melbourne about trying to consume only food produced within a 100-mile radius of the city, at Coles he found fruit grown in Victoria but also internationally grown produce. "Stacked on a shelf nearby, however, are bundles of out-of-season asparagus," he wrote. "There's no indication of their country of origin on the shelf or on the front of the label, and it's quite difficult to bend the thick plastic label back to reveal it was grown in Thailand. It is obvious from the silhouette of a 747 on the sticker that the baby corn has been flown in, but the country of origin, again Thailand, is obscured on a bend in the packaging."
In Australia, small farmers compete for space on the supermarket shelves with massive horticultural projects created by agribusiness corporations that are geared up to provide cost benefits to the supermarket chains. In January of last year Matt O’Sullivan wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald about how Coles and Woolworths are changing the face of food production in Australia. Corporations once avoided investing in horticulture, Mike Keogh head of the the independent policy think-tank the Australian Farm Institute told the Herald, but now “they’re seeking greater exposure to the sector because it tends to run counter to broader economic cycles.” The Victorian Costa Group has trademarked the name Blush for variety of vine-ripened truss tomatoes that are reminisicent of what we think of as real tomatoes: juicy, red, firm but yielding. The company has the largest and most sophisticated greenhouse in the country, 5 hectares under one roof, and estimates that it handles over a billion dollars' worth of tomatoes every year. Timbercorp, another agribusiness company, is diversifying from producing lumber to offer investments in the production of olives, almonds, avocados, wine grapes, tomatoes, tropical fruit and citrus. “The agribusiness sector is now recognised as a legitimate asset class, providing substantial taxation deductions,” Timbercorp explains in a press release. “There are a wide variety of investment products that cater for the diversified range of investment requirements by discerning investors. From early cash-flow income styled projects to longer-term wealth-creation products, most investment needs can be met.”
The options for small farmers? Move into organic production, still considered a niche market here, or to grow produce that isn't suited to large-scale industrial production according to Mike Keogh.
The Sydney Morning Herald described Wesfarmers CEO Richard Goyder as the son of a sheep and cattle farmer, and wrote of him aligning the humble single store beginning of Coles and the quaint rural origins of Wesfarmers as a farmers cooperative, both almost a century ago. But the Wesfarmers CEO and Coles Chairman Rick Allert talked over the deal at the five-star Park Hyatt in Sydney, with magnificent views of the Opera House, where standard rooms are $A600 a night, and the hotel’s restaurants serve a seasonal menu of “award-winning Australian cuisine.” On the menu at the Park Hyatt in Sydney is seafood from Petuna Ocean Trout in Tasmania, a company chronicled by Justin North in Becasse: Inspirations and Flavours. Cervena Venison from New Zealand, from animals raised in free-range conditions that are free from antibiotics and growth hormones. (An 8 rib rack weighing about 2.8lbs can be ordered and shipped from Amazon.com for $US48 plus shipping.) Luxury Japanese-style Wagyu beef. And Jannei goats curd made painstakingly in small quantities, with milk from a herd of a 100 goats on a 14-hectare farm near Lithgow in New South Wales.
The stories in the business sections of Australian newspapers chronicling the meetings and dealmaking that led to the Wesfarmers-Coles agreement make clear that those who are dealing with food as an abstract financial entity graze from a different food chain than the people who are dependent on affordable, fresh food being available in supermarkets. The caterers who provide meals for the corporate boardrooms, the restaurants in the five-star hotels where the bankers, lawyers, advisers and executives stay, and the high-priced restaurants they frequent are able to purchase their produce from artisan farmers and luxury food purveyors. The price of such produce reflects what it really costs to produce, and these growers don't need to compromise the sustainable, even biodynamic or organic principles they follow to sell high-volume produce to supermarket chains.
Today, in an interview in The Australian, Wesfarmers CEO Richard Goyder said he never wanted to follow his father into farming. "I thought there were too many elements outside your control that could have an impact on you," he said.
No related posts. | <urn:uuid:4009b057-87c4-453d-a61a-94015f3d6b08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ethicurean.com/2007/07/07/ustralia-supermarkets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958742 | 1,562 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The Phoenix Scholar Program, a residential program at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay designed to promote the academic success of African American eighth-grade boys, is in full swing.
Twelve eighth-graders from Franklin and Washington Green Bay Area Public Schools were nominated by a teacher, social worker, guidance counselor, administrator or a Boys & Girls Club staff member to attend the program, which runs from June 24 to June 29.
There is evidence that African American males in the greater Green Bay area are underachieving academically as compared to other students. This mirrors national statistics. The Phoenix Scholar Program is an attempt to intervene at a local level and is meant to complement pre-existing programs such as the Phuture Phoenix, Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Pre-College, and federally funded TRIO programs.
Phoenix Scholars see and live the college experience and work with African American mentors in both their academic and personal skills. One of the goals of the program is to have the participants envision themselves as scholars who can and will successfully matriculate to college and graduate.
During the Monday through Friday workshops, students have interactive lessons in study skills, creative writing, math, digital media, literacy, visual arts and more. They also learn about culturally centered concepts and hear about a wide variety of careers, experiences and high expectations from mentors such as University personnel and community volunteers (Michael Brown, Officer Solomon Ayres, Quasan Shaw, Harry Sydney, Vince Lowery and Shawn Robertson).
The program has two elements: summer residential camp and yearlong follow-up experiences. During the academic year, participants will continue to receive academic, social and interpersonal support from professionals and volunteers. In addition, the scholars will be encouraged to participate in pre-existing local programs at the Boys & Girls Club, Brown County Parks and Recreation, and prepare to enter a local TRIO-funded precollege program such as Upward Bound.
The Phoenix Scholar Program is a collaborative initiative among Green Bay Area Public Schools, UW-Green Bay, Green Bay Boys & Girls Club and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The program is funded by Wisconsin’s Advanced Placement Incentive Program grant, UW-Green Bay, Shopko Community Charitable Grant program, the Green Bay Packers and the generous donations of African American professionals from the greater Green Bay area.
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Hundreds of thousands of Americans stand to benefit from the latest mortgage-abuse settlement.
Banks have agreed to pay $8.5 billion to settle charges that they wrongfully foreclosed on millions of homeowners in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Abuses included "robo-signing," when banks automatically signed off on foreclosures without properly reviewing documents.
But the agreement will also help eliminate huge potential liabilities for the banks.
Consumer advocates complained that regulators settled for too low a price by letting banks avoid full responsibility for foreclosures that victimized families and fueled an exodus from neighborhoods across the country.
The settlement will benefit homeowners in both Kansas and Missouri. Altogether every state but Oklahoma is part of the deal.
Iris, who asked us not use her last name, said she spent more than five years upgrading her Kansas City area home, including adding landscaping.
"I had nowhere to go," she said. "This is it. I will be a renter for the rest of my life."
The banks, which include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, will pay about $3.3 billion to homeowners to end the review of foreclosures. The banks allegedly routinely signed foreclosure-related documents without a notary public or ensuring all the facts were accurate.
The rest of the money, $5.2 billion, will be used to reduce mortgage bills and forgive outstanding principal on home sales that generated less than borrowers owed on their mortgages.
Missouri will get $195 million in the settlement. Iris thanked Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster for the amount that she will get.
"He's been great. He's been sending letters," she said. "I even got email from him this morning letting me know how the program was going and when to expect payments."
The amount she's getting? A grand total of $840, which won't help her get another home, which she now thinks is too risky of a proposition.
"It's not much considering what the banks did and what they could've done. It's very little, too late," she said. "I am disgusted. I would never own another home. I don't trust them. I am not going to make the investment and have it taken away again."
A total of 3.8 million people are eligible for payments under the deal announced by the Office of Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve. Those payments could range from a few hundred dollars to up to $125,000.
Homeowners who were wrongly denied a loan modification will be entitled to relatively small payments. By contrast, people whose homes were unfairly seized and sold would be eligible for the biggest payments.
Banks and consumer advocates had complained that the loan-by-loan reviews required under the 2011 order were time-consuming and costly and didn't reach many homeowners. Banks were paying large sums to consultants to review the files. Some questioned the independence of those consultants, who often ruled against homeowners.
The deal "represents a significant change in direction" that ensures "consumers are the ones who will benefit, and that they will benefit more quickly and in a more direct manner," Thomas Curry, the comptroller of the currency, said in a statement.
But Charles Wanless, a homeowner in the Florida Panhandle, is among those who question that promise. Wanless, who is fighting foreclosure proceedings with Bank of America, says he doubts the money will benefit many who lost homes.
"Let's say they already foreclosed on me and I lost my home," said Wanless, who runs a pool-cleaning business in Crestview, FL. "What's $1,000 going to do to help me? If they took my house away wrongfully, is that going to get me my house back? I might be able to find one if I'm one of the lucky ones who gets $125,000."
Diane Thompson, a lawyer with the National Consumer Law Center, complained that the deal won't actually compensate homeowners for the actual harm they suffered.
The deal "caps (banks') liability at a total number that's less than they thought they were going to pay going in," she said.
Thompson supports the decision to make direct payments to victimized homeowners. But she said the deal will work only if it includes strong oversight and transparency provisions.
The companies involved in the settlement also include Citigroup, MetLife Bank, PNC Financial Services, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank and Aurora. The 2011 action also included GMAC Mortgage, HSBC Finance Corp. and EMC Mortgage Corp.
The agreements come as U.S. banks are showing renewed signs of financial health, extending their recovery from the 2008 crisis that nearly toppled many of them. They are lending more and earning greater profits than at any time since the Great Recession began in December 2007.
The foreclosure settlement doesn't close the book on the housing crisis, which caused more than 4 million foreclosures. It covers only consumers who were in foreclosure in 2009 and 2010. Some banks didn't agree to the settlement. And resolving millions of claims involving multiple banks and mortgage companies is complicated and time-consuming.
"It's going to take a few more years to get it sorted out," said Bert Ely, an independent banking consultant.
Michael Allen of Petersburg, VA, hopes to benefit from the settlement. He lost his home last month after 2 1/2 years of trying to modify his mortgage. He had fallen behind on his payments after the plant he was working closed.
"I was working with the banks to re-modify (my loan), and I'd get to the final stages and I'd have to start over again. They didn't give me any reason. I'd call them, they'd transfer me from one person to the next ... They just kept giving me the runaround."
Citigroup said in a statement that it was "pleased to have the matter resolved" and thinks the agreement "will provide benefits for homeowners." Citi expects to record a charge of $305 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 to cover its cash payment under the settlement. The bank expects that existing reserves will cover its $500 million share of the non-cash foreclosure aid.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said the agreements were "a significant step" in resolving the bank's remaining legacy mortgage issues while streamlining the company and reducing future expenses.
Amy Bonitatibus, spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase, said the bank had "worked very hard" on the foreclosure review and was "pleased to have it now behind us."
U.S. Bancorp, which owns U.S. Bank, said its part of the settlement includes an $80 million payment to homeowners. That payment will reduce its fourth-quarter earnings by 3 cents per share. It has also committed $128 million in mortgage aid.
Leaders of a House oversight panel have asked regulators for a briefing on the proposed settlement. Regulators had refused to brief Congress before announcing the deal publicly.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the settlement "may allow banks to skirt what they owe and sweep past abuses under the rug without determining the full harm borrowers have suffered."
He complained that regulators failed to answer key questions about how the settlement was reached, who will get the money and what will happen to others who were harmed by these banks but were not included in the settlement.
The settlement is separate from a $25 billion settlement among 49 state attorneys general, federal regulators and five banks: Ally, formerly known as GMAC; Bank of America; Citigroup; JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.
For more information on the Kansas foreclosure settlement, click here.
For more information on the Missouri foreclosure settlement, click here.
Copyright2013 KCTV (Meredith Corp.) and Associated Press All rights reserved.
Tuesday, June 18 2013 8:08 PM EDT2013-06-19 00:08:57 GMT
Independence police say they want to question two men about the theft of the iconic statue outside the National Trails Museum.Police released photos of the two men dragging a large tub. The men seem toMore >
Independence police say they want to question two men about the theft of the iconic statue outside the National Trails Museum.More >
Tuesday, June 18 2013 7:06 PM EDT2013-06-18 23:06:25 GMT
Gary Simpson admitted Tuesday that he so badly abused an infant last year that her skull was fractured.Simpson was a friend and live-in nanny to a Johnson County family. He repeatedly abused the then 2/12-month-oldMore >
Gary Simpson admitted Tuesday that he so badly abused an infant last year that her skull was fractured.More >
Wednesday, June 19 2013 9:55 AM EDT2013-06-19 13:55:47 GMT
Former Kansas City Royals great Willie Wilson had to give up his World Series ring when he declared bankruptcy. Now his family, friends and fans are working to get it back. They're using Twitter andMore >
Former Kansas City Royals great Willie Wilson had to give up his World Series ring when he declared bankruptcy. Now his family, friends and fans are working to get it back.More >
Wednesday, June 19 2013 12:42 PM EDT2013-06-19 16:42:14 GMT
Authorities are looking for a missing elderly couple.Garnett Police Chief Kevin Pekarek said Vernon and Goldie Hunt left their home about 6:30 a.m. Monday for Dwight, IL. Vernon is 92 years old and GoldieMore >
Authorities say a missing elderly Kansas couple has been found safe in Michigan.More >
Tuesday, June 18 2013 5:42 PM EDT2013-06-18 21:42:41 GMT
A man accused of raping a woman last month and then kidnapping her over the weekend is on the run in the Lake of the Ozarks area, authorities said Monday night.More >
Law enforcement agencies in central Missouri are searching for a man wanted in connection with the kidnapping of a woman over the weekend. Brian J. Adkison is also accused of raping that same woman last month. More >
Wednesday, June 19 2013 9:11 AM EDT2013-06-19 13:11:38 GMT
Police are investigating a shooting Wednesday morning.Officers responded to the non life-threatening shooting shortly after 5 a.m. at a home located near East 24th Avenue and Ozark Street. The neighborhoodMore >
Police are investigating a shooting Wednesday morning.More >
Wednesday, June 19 2013 5:45 AM EDT2013-06-19 09:45:09 GMT
A guerrilla gardener is on the loose in the Westport area, trying to beautify blighted areas once sat barren. Guerrilla gardeners grow plants, herbs and vegetables on public pieces of land that are inMore >
A blighted public area is now being called The Magic Garden after a woman decided to transform a neglected spot near the Westport post office.More > | <urn:uuid:21ee7a2d-1782-4865-8f99-b1a1b96d7e8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kctv5.com/story/20587034/foreclosure-settleements-helping-homeowners | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975206 | 2,280 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Biologic Institute's Redesigned Website and Blog Is a Winner
Our friends and co-conspirators at Biologic Institute have done a major website redesign, and it's a winner. Led by director Douglas Axe and senior research scientist Ann Gauger, Biologic's scientists investigate the hypothesis that what looks like design in nature really is that. Some of their names you will recognize from ENV, including Jonathan Wells, Richard Sternberg, Guillermo Gonzalez, and of course Dr. Axe and Dr. Gauger.
They've now re-envisioned the Biologic homepage as a frequently updated group discussion -- one of those "blog" things we keep hearing so much about. It's also a very handsome design.
Axe and Gauger are off to a lively start with posts on Alfred Russel Wallace, all the differences between humans and chimps not seemingly accounted for by the mere 4 percent genetic difference between us and them, and the wrench that the publication of the gorilla genome has thrown into smooth Darwinian accounts of common descent.
We'll hope to
steal cross-post some of their excellent material from time to time, if we can get away without their noticing it obtain their permission.
By the way, that pretty and striking blob-like object above is featured in an item that Doug Axe posted at Biologic. It is luciferase, the evocatively named enzyme that makes fireflies glow and that also points to one test, among others, that Darwinism fails:
Reasoning in reverse from Darwinism, we infer that it must be easy to get these molecular lanterns by accident because many different versions exist in a wide variety of life forms. But they aren't nearly as simple as the image suggests. The outer shape may look like a blob, but a highly refined inner structure is needed for that enzyme to hold together and do its job, and the same is true for the other enzymes that make the various luciferins. Reverse reasoning tries to tease out historical details by assuming that the processes in operation have been correctly identified and understood. There's certainly a place for that in science, but it always has to be checked against forward reasoning, where we test whether we really have identified the right processes. Darwinism seems to have failed this test, but biologists won't see this until they shift out of reverse.Go over there and take a look for yourself. But make sure to come back here quickly afterward. | <urn:uuid:a4ff46ce-3318-47de-b8de-de371ba8dc0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/03/biologic_instit058071.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96825 | 498 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Dancing in the morning
Mesa Elementary students welcome Wake Up Academy
Twist and shout.
Mesa Elementary students can kick up their heels and do a jig every morning, thanks to physical education teacher Beth Domenichini.
Domenichini got the idea for the “Wake Up Academy” two winters ago when it was a frigid 11 degrees below zero outside.
She noticed children waiting outside in the freezing weather, called them inside and brought them to the gymnasium. Domenichini turned on some music, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Today, Mesa Elementary students begin arriving around 7:30 a.m. thanks to an earlier schedule. Some eat breakfast, while others go to the computer lab or library. And some dance.
Domenichini plays songs such as Thriller, Cupid Shuffle, Cotton-Eye Joe or Any Turkey Can Tango.
It’s “massive chaos” in the early morning hours at the school gym, she said. “But it gets them motivated.”
Half of those in the gym are eating breakfast while the other half are dancing. Those eating breakfast get some “free entertainment” while watching their classmates twirl, twist and shout.
Some of the teachers have mentioned that the children seem more awake, said Domenichini, now in her ninth year at Mesa Elementary and 17th in the Montezuma-Cortez School District.
She uses the dancing to incorporate teaching about the body’s mid-lines, i.e. right vs. left, front vs. back, and top vs. bottom.
The students take “grapevine” steps by crossing one foot over another side-to-side. They also move forward and backward. Other steps, such as touching opposite knees to elbows, are done in their regular P.E. class.
“We have a lot of kids who will watch and jump in for a song or two. Kindergarteners are really open to it,” she said. “We’re just there to have fun. If you mess up, it’s not a big deal. Just laugh and smile and keep going.”
Domenichini noted that a sixth-grade student she taught last year, Ayanna Silas, has returned this year to volunteer with Wake Up Academy. She walks with her third-grade brother Alvaro Silas to school, helps with the dancing, and then walks to Cortez Middle School.
“Other sixth-graders are coming too,” Domenichini said. | <urn:uuid:38447c62-12db-4b2b-bd61-b18b14c7b633> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cortezjournal.com/article/20121013/NEWS01/710139925/0/printmyads/Dancing-in-the-morning | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960803 | 555 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A 21-year tradition of east meeting west at Hartnell College continues August 21-28 when 15 students and two faculty members from Miyagi Agricultural College in Japan come to Hartnell to study the agriculture of the Salinas Valley.
"The visit is part of a sister-college relationship between Hartnell and Miyagi," said Cicely McCreight, executive director of the Hartnell College Foundation, sponsor of the visit. "We are most honored to be hosting the Miyagi students again this year," she said.
During the students' visit, Miyagi President Yoshio Ehara also will come to Salinas as part of Hartnell's scholar-in-residence program. He will deliver an address about the importance of agricultural exchanges between Japan and the United States at 1:30 p.m. Friday, August 20, in the Performing Arts Building, room 125. The talk is free and open to the public.
Miyagi's president since 2001, Ehara is considered an expert on plant viruses. He graduated from the Graduate School of Agriculture at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, in 1966 when he later taught agriculture. Ehara also studied in the United States at Washington State University.
During their stay, the Miyagi students will take several field trips to study vegetable crops as well as visit Sakata Seed, Inc., and the Cal Florida Plant Corp. in Salinas. Miyagi instructors Kazuhiro Matsumori, professor of agricultural machinery, and Naoki Konya, professor of agricultural economics, will accompany the students to Hartnell.
The students also will visit several local sites, including the National Steinbeck Center and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The Japanese visitors will be housed with local families, according to program coordinator Joanne Venegas. "Integration into an American family," says Venegas, "is an important part of the students' time spent in Salinas. It also is rewarding for the local families to have students from another culture in their homes."
Over the years, many Hartnell students also have visit the Miyagi campus, located near Sendai, Japan. For example, in 2000, six students and one instructor in Hartnell's Boronda International Program visited Miyagi.
For more information on the Miyagi visit, call Joanne Venegas at (831) 755-6890. | <urn:uuid:1261506d-05fd-43e3-ad37-ece258263f10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hartnell.cc.ca.us/news/press_releases/07_21b_2004.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956284 | 488 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Recently, Microsoft Corporation announced the launch of Health Vault, a new, free service that allows anyone who needs an individual’s health information to view it online. While this is a great idea and is sorely needed to reduce health care costs and reduce errors, it is a long way from meeting the goal of creating a universal health record. This is, in part, due to the enormous technical difficulties involved but, even more important, falls short because of the intricacies and complexities of individuals’ health records and the myriad of related privacy issues involved that are far from resolution. Many issues need to be addressed to assure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect this information from those who should not see it. Microsoft is hoping to assuage most of these concerns by putting the consumer in charge of who sees what–and that’s all well and good.
I signed up for this service by completing the relatively brief registration process. While the site is well designed and shows promise for the future, it has a limited number of “partners” which can, with the client’s permission, share files into it. The client, if they have access to their own files in a computerized format, can upload health information that can then be viewed by others who have permission.
Though this effort is laudable, it is really just another free personal health record site that hopes to generate revenue through advertising. There are many others like it. The concept of partnering with others who may have information about the client shows promise of an added benefit that isn’t currently available, but it is so limited at this point that it is not likely to be of use to very many people. But, if any company is able to garner the resources to make a serious effort at accomplishing this task, Microsoft can. Perhaps this effort will provide a spark that will spawn a more serious effort to accomplish this important goal.
Your comments are welcome… | <urn:uuid:a9b2632f-3060-40b1-a85a-b75a59288559> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://e-patients.net/archives/2007/10/towards-universal-health-records.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 | 0.965095 | 394 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… Paul the Psychic Octopus, last year’s breakout star in the world of psychic animals, who became world famous for correctly predicting the results of World Cup matches before his short life came to a close, is the subject of an upcoming biopic. Mark it up to the public fascination and love for the seewater seer—he’s also had a statue permanently dedicated to his honor at the Olberhausen Zoo in Germany, the site of his famous predictions.
The upcoming film will not only focus on Paul’s life and the mania surrounding his winning streak of predictions, but will also purportedly tackle celebrity culture and the reality of psychic abilities, even among animals.
Time Magazine reports:
An upcoming biopic will tell the story of the clairvoyant cephalopod that gained instant celebrity status by calling outcomes of World Cup soccer matches last summer. Paul, the now-deceased octopus from a Sea Life Centre in Germany, accurately picked the winner of all seven games his country of residence played and predicted Spain as the overall victor of the 2010 World Cup. He did so by choosing between one of two boxes of food, each marked with a team’s flag. Fans went wild as tales of Paul’s skill went viral.
It was, quite literally, a made-for-the-movies phenomenon. The upcoming documentary’s website says the film will explore “celebrity mania at its most outrageous, the science of probabilities and the possibility of higher powers.” The flick’s Facebook page indicates it will be released this fall.
What do you think—would you shell out $11 to see a Paul the Psychic Octopus movie on the big screen? Or wait to throw it into the NetFlix queue? And have we seen the last of the psychic animals phenomenon, or will the new movie just stir up more imitators of Paul’s glory? | <urn:uuid:017867e0-ef00-49a2-8826-4ec9f76d943d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.californiapsychics.com/blog/2011/05/paul-psychic-octopus-gets-his-own-movie.html | 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 | 0.954251 | 416 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The BOSU® Sports Conditioning Series is based on the well-known and innovative sports conditioning techniques developed by Peter Twist of Twist Conditioning, Inc. These linked system techniques, incorporated with the BOSU® Balance Trainer, have helped many college and professional athletes improve their game and they can do the same for you!
Football with Peter Twist ( TRT: approx. 52 minutes)
Football is a very athletic sport that requires many kinds of fitness. These integrated movement skills can help you develop high levels of agility, dynamic flexibility and power and tech your muscles how to react quickly and efficiently to help you play sideline to sideline and execute your assignment.
Section I: Balance and Equilibrium Warm-up
These drills focus on balance, equilibrium and weight distribution to help you develop a deep stance for power and recovery from hits and the transitional balance to run erratic patterns.
Section II: Multi-Directional Movement
Multi-directional movement is important for both offensive and defensive play. This series of drills will help you learn to move skillfully and efficiently in all directions.
Section III: Neuromuscular Activation
These drills can be used for pre-game dynamic warm-up before you come off the bench. They’ll prepare you for the explosive efforts needed in games and workouts.
Section IV: Quickness and Agility
Football players need to be quick off the line and agile to throw, receive and cover other players.
Section V: Athletic Strength, Power and Core
This series of drills focuses on total body power production, core strength, stability and rotary movement skills so you’re able to play more efficiently, power over bigger opponents, fight through tackles and shed blockers.
Section VI: Flexibility
Stretching can help you improve performance, avoid injuries and help your muscles relax and recover after a challenging workout or game. | <urn:uuid:5ef649e0-2c7d-462a-98ac-67449ee94f43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bosu.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=20&product_id=70 | 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 | 0.938125 | 383 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Silver Thomas Hanley's uses light and colour as their main elements in the creation of Sunshine Hospital Radiation Therapy Centre
The Sunshine Hospital Radiation Therapy Centre, designed by Silver Thomas Hanley was completed this year as part of a $146 million (AUD) 2 stage campus redevelopment. The $40.5 million (AUD) centre has capacity for 4 linear accelerators, 2 computed tomography scanners and an orthovoltage machine and now serve public patients from Melbourne's west who previously had to travel long distances to access vital radiotherapy.
Silver Thomas Hanley envision the centre to be a 'beacon' of the hospital campus - metaphorically this is expressed as a rainbow curved wall at the main entry for its symbolic connotation with hope; and physically the prominent wall serves as a signifier to the entry, visible from the approach by car or foot. Building orientation anticipates the masterplan vision - a main hospital street running parallel to the north-eastern face of the centre, links it with the redeveloped hospital campus.
The main health planning principle is the conceptual grouping of treatment zones & staff areas and their strategic placement along axial corridors for clear wayfinding. Spatial configuration is further developed based upon sequential patient processes. Cancer patients are vulnerable so travel distances from waiting to treatment nodes are minimised to manage their anxiety.
The centre is designed to facilitate vertical expansion of 3 levels above and 2 additional bunkers horizontally to provide future comprehensive cancer care. Apart from structural considerations, spatial layout has built-in flexibility with soft space (admin & staff facilities) allowing for future clinical expansion.
The facades of the rectilinear mass are articulated by juxtaposing elements of polished concrete, terracotta wall tiles, zinc cladding and double grey glass - all warm and earthy finishes in a human scale that appears less imposing to visitors. The 6 metres high above ground concrete bunkers are visually broken up into highlight white concrete panels above and terracotta tiles below. The deep cast-in pattern on the panel showcases the stark Australian sunlight is an abstracted sunburst motif, inspired by the name of the suburb/ hospital on which the centre is built.
Particular emphasis is given to creating facades that promote ease of maintenance and recurrent cost benefits. Graffiti and other forms of vandalism is a concern in this area - robust and hardwearing materials like masonry and terracotta tiles skirt the lower surfaces, while highly finished materials such as polished concrete and zinc cladding are placed well above head height.
The entry foyer greets the visitors with an uplifting double volume space with bountiful sunlight streaming in through clerestory windows and a curtain glass wall. These are placed at locations where they open to a private garden restricted to the building, thus avoiding a ‘fishbowl' effect. Outside, the garden is a place to reflect and engage with sculptures and planting, fenced by an inverted curve detailed in similar cladding as the main wall to maintain visual continuation. The interior white curved wall that defines the waiting area bears strong contrast to its external finish of shimmering aluminium colour bands, and through the glazing slots let in streams of defused coloured sunlight to complete the picture of a calm, reassuring and welcoming environment.
Positive distractions are employed through the facility in various forms. Entry maze into each bunker is furnished with coloured fabric panelling that draws one into the treatment area with backlit ceiling panels that mimic skylights with differing nature themes.
Pockets of gowned sub-waits with separate change areas are deliberately kept small and intimate with soft lighting, fabric wall panelling and low ceiling to calm patients. Framed views to private garden from each sub-wait also offer solace to unsettling minds. | <urn:uuid:c07e0aec-264d-447d-b6d0-a59f9cf56696> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=16637§or=healthcare | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935329 | 756 | 1.742188 | 2 |
- Acting of Lead Performers
- Acting of Supporting Cast
- Music Score
- Title Sequence
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Gold Diggers of 1933
- Dashiell B.
A fine, extravagant follow-up to "42nd Street." Most of the cast from the former film join Blondell, MacMohan & William in a typical backstage story of a musical show, this time added with mistaken identity. Berkeley's numbers are more elaborate than in "42nd Street," with memorable numbers like Rogers singing "We're in the Money" in Pig Latin, while also evoking the times of the Great Depression, emphasized by the "Remember my Forgotten Man" number. Well worth seeing for fans of Berkeley. I give it a 4.5/5.
Song in the movie
- Lois Hunter
who was the artist, Black Woman that song the A woman Gotta Have A Man". What is the name of the song and the Lady that song. Next time the movie is shown please play her singing the song in its entirety I have seen the movie several times but I really enjoyed the song and I listen to the lyrics. Is there a CD. Lois
Wish it was available on DVD!
Best of the Busby Berkley musicals! Great cast, great songs, great costumes! They don't make them like that anymore, sadly.
This movie is the perfect showcase of an all-star cast! The colorful depection of the Depression is chilling even when the overall tone of the movie is upbeat. This movie has worked its way into my favorites list!
Gold Diggers of 1933
- Mark Sutch
Just One Scene
- Bruce Reber
I have never seen "Gold Diggers of 1933" all the way through, but I recognize one scene, the famous musical number "We're In The Money". It's also featured in "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) as the film playing in the theater where Bonnie, Clyde and C.W. Moss hide out after pulling a bank robbery and their first killing, and "We're In The Money" is playing on the screen. The song itself was meant to lift people's spirits and provide audiences some escapism in the depths of the Great Depression.
GOLD for any year!
- Mikey Lacy
While it may not be the "show of 1000 miracles" this is timeless entertainment. The cast is supurb, notably the wise-cracking tossed around by Aline MacMahon. She is even better here with this skill than that of Joan Blondell!! That is difficult for me to admit being a devoted lifelong Blondell fan. I began enjoying this movie when I first saw 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde" and while in a movie house we see portions of the "We're in the Money" sequence. I knew I had to someday see this film and finally was able to see it on the big screen in a revival house in the mid 1970s. I have loved it since then and never tire of it. The musical numbers need no comment from me; they live on as mind-blowing flights of fancy. The songs and the music cannot be beat (I love the strident sound of the music from this period in Warner's pictures). One thing I have noticed on each viewing is the gown Joan Blondell wears in the nightclub scene. Fashion lovers do not miss this stunning beaded creation. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can suggest for this film, is when one evening my companion who at 25 is half my age, thouroughly loved the movie praising it with the modern slang of a 25 year old! The next day he was humming and singing "Pettin' in the Park" all day! This is a movie not to miss!
One of Busby Berkeley's Best
Joan Blondell's portrayal of a showgirl with a heart of gold is both charming and convincing. She completely outshines her female costars in this comedic farce of three "gold diggers" who manage to marry rich men. Yet this movie is more than a love story; it is powerful social commentary. Besides the obvious message that the rich have a responsibility to help the economically displaced of the Depression(funding the show, providing jobs for all those cast members), the movie promotes the re-evaluation of previously learned responses to socioeconomic status. The rich brothers and their lawyer learn through the women they come to love that it is a mistake to judge someone by appearance alone, a lesson that extends to the men marching in breadlines. If a showgirl is really a decent woman who works in show business because that's the best (or only) job available, perhaps the homeless bum on the street is worth a second look as well. After all, he may be a decorated war veteran.
The Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
Outstanding classic musical, amazing choreography and a wonderful cast. Imaginative, great songs and musical numbers. Highly entertaining and a joy from start to finish. | <urn:uuid:9fc6a68a-c57a-4c39-9eb3-c0afa7d6c8c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3463/Gold-Diggers-of-1933/user-reviews.html?view=review | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952619 | 1,071 | 1.664063 | 2 |
British architect David Chipperfield presented the new Folkwang Museum
in Essen, once considered the most beautiful in the world and which was reduced to rubble by Allied bombs during World War II.
The new Folkwang Museum in all its splendor will transform Essens museums landscape once it opens the Capital of Culture year 2010. Funded by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, and penned by David Chipperfield Architects, the new design deliberately preserves the autonomy of the old listed building.
The new exhibition areas bathed in natural light continue its architectural tradition. The creativity that has gone into the design of the rest of the building is evident, for example, in the magnificent open stairway that will lead from the Bismarckstrasse into the new entrance foyer, the latter designed as an open inner courtyard with a café and restaurant, complete with a museum bookshop, and shielded by a glass façade looking out onto the street.
The Folkwang Museum owes its excellent international reputation to the outstanding collections of 19th century German and French paintings, Classical Modernism and post-war art. The photographic and graphic collections and the integrated German Poster Museum are also important components. Along with its large-scale public exhibitions, worthy of the international attention they attract, the museum's activities now focus primarily on contemporary art.
David Chipperfield was born in London in 1953. After receiving his Diploma from the Architectural Association in London he worked at the practices of Douglas Stephen, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster and in 1984 established his own practice, David Chipperfield Architects. The practice currently has over 150 staff from 20 countries and offices in London, Berlin, Milan, and a representative office in Shanghai.
In 1999, David Chipperfield was awarded the Tessenow Gold Medal and presented an exhibition with Tessenow Stipendiat and Spanish architect Andrés Jaque at the Hellerau Festspielhaus, Germany. In 2000 David Chipperfield represented Britain at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. In 2003 he was made Honorary Member of the Florence Academy of Art and Design and in 2004 he was awarded a CBE for services to architecture. In 2007, two of Chipperfields buildings (America's Cup Building and the Museum of Modern Literature) made the RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist, with the Museum of Modern Literature winning.
The Neues Museum in Berlin opened to the public in October 2009. David Chipperfield Architects is currently working on the Turner Contemporary in Margate, the James Simon Gallery the New Entrance Building for the Museum Island in Berlin, the extension to the San Michele Cemetery Island in Venice, the expansion of the Saint Louis Art Museum, and many other residential, cultural, commercial and product design projects. | <urn:uuid:a80bca2f-33b5-4d4a-9178-5c1caee5cff0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=34305&int_modo=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949448 | 565 | 1.75 | 2 |
The Saturn Return is a right of passage, a necessary bridge we must cross in the path of life (no matter how tumultuous the journey) that leads, ultimately, to your next stage of life. It is a harsh wake-up call for those who have not done their heavy lifting, so-to-speak. If you’re over 29 years old, you know what I’m talking about. You have experienced it. If you have yet to reach your 29th year – brace yourself – you’re in for a mind-altering, life-changing ride, where your core beliefs and strength of character will be challenged.
Saturn and his archetypes slam down a heavy gavel no matter how accomplished or spiritually advanced you are at age 29. By this stage of life, there are necessary lessons to learn, and if the foundation with which you have lived your life is unbalanced, askew, or false, Saturn will make sure you learn your lessons – the hard way. If you refuse to learn your spiritual lessons at 29 and 30, you do have another chance (albeit one more difficult and heavy with Karma) at age 58 to set things right.
Your natal chart can usually determine how many lessons you have to learn or how difficult the learning will be. You can track how many “hits” you will receive from your Saturn return. For example, a person can have one “hit” of Saturn where transiting Saturn will conjunct natal Saturn only once and be on its way. Make no mistake about it –one hit is difficult enough to contend with. But some unluckier folks have two, three, even four hits of their Saturn return. This happens when Saturn turns retrograde and transiting Saturn passes over natal Saturn repeatedly.
The implications of your Saturn Return do not have to imply such negativity. In fact, you can flip your perspective toward this inevitable time in your life and focus on the positive. Many people who have gone through their returns report that it was a difficult time of major change , but you can choose to perceive it, in the end, as favorable. If something in your life not working for you, at the time of your return, Saturn will help eliminate those aspects that are not advantageous to your spiritual and personal growth. What you need most comes into your life and what you do not need goes out. And while the experience is painful, it is almost always extremely liberating. For example, you might lose a romantic relationship that was not beneficial to your life-path or personal growth, but you might gain a new opportunity in your career that fosters much-needed independence, self-esteem, and self-reliance. New people, friends, and colleagues can come into your life with what seems like whirlwind of activity. You might even decide to move to the ends of the earth. A significant romantic relationship can start during a Saturn Return. A relationship that starts during a return is said to have a karmic or fated quality, and relationships that stand the test of a Saturn Return can last a lifetime.
In his book, Saturn Cycles: Mapping Changes in Your Life, Wendell C. Perry examines the cycles of Saturn and the life-altering events that occurred in the lives of well-known people such as Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, and the Dalai Lama, as Saturn crossed their Midheaven (MC), Imum Coeli (IC), Ascendant, and Descendant, as well as the infamous Saturn Return. He also takes a close look at Saturn oppositions and squares. Also of note within his book is a section containing information on Saturn at work for you and how you can go about interpreting Saturn aspects in your own chart. In the end, the purpose of exploring such cycles of Saturn is a message as loud and clear as it is certain your character and spirit will be put to the utmost test: you will be a better person for having been tested, and you will survive.
Please note that the use of Llewellyn Journal articles
is subject to certain Terms and Conditions | <urn:uuid:9b594872-6878-47c4-b501-1c741eefb8cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/print.php?id=1850 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957472 | 839 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The risk of hyperparathyroidism after the duodenal switch operation is related to the length of the common channel.
A retrospective analysis of patients following the duodenal switch operation from october 2, 2000, through february 1, 2002.
Academic tertiary referral hospital.
One hundred sixty-five consecutive patients underwent the duodenal switch operation, performed for morbid obesity, with common channel lengths of 75 cm (n = 103 [group a]) and 100 cm (n = 62 [group b]).
Main outcome measures
Weight loss and parathyroid hormone, corrected calcium, and 25-hydroxyvitamin d (25-oh d) levels were compared between groups a and b. values were determined preoperatively, early postoperatively (3-6 months), and late postoperatively (9-18 months).
Both groups exhibited a slight reduction in serum calcium concentration, with one quarter decreasing below the normal range. hyperparathyroidism was more common in group a than group b preoperatively (38.9% vs 14.9%), reflecting the higher body mass index of patients in group a. hyperparathyroidism was also more frequent in the early (54.9% vs 30.9%) and late (49.4% vs 20.5%) postoperative periods in group a vs group b. new-onset hyperparathyroidism was also more common in group a than group b (42.0% vs 13.3%). after 1 year, subnormal 25-oh d levels were found in 17.0% of the patients in group a and in 10.0% of the patients in group b. median 25-oh d levels increased in both groups, but tended to be higher in group b.
Patients with shorter common channels had a higher risk of developing hyperparathyroidism. this may be related to limited 25-oh d absorption. | <urn:uuid:75a877ad-6dab-41be-a495-aefcaed157f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=395259 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937916 | 399 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Western History & Genealogy Blog
Weird Photo Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
For this edition of Weird Photo Wednesday we have a photo of a miner, but if you use your imagination you may think you were looking at a beautiful old photograph of Santa reviewing his list and checking it twice. In the spirit of the holidays we wanted to bring this unusual photo to your attention. For more information about this photo click here. As usual, visit the Digital Collections for more interesting and unusual photographs. | <urn:uuid:1f463def-3a13-4f97-b39f-eb55337ba3f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://history.denverlibrary.org/blog/content/weird-photo-wednesday-december-21st-2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95068 | 100 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Mrs. Linnie McHenry Roberts
July 10, 1893 - December 5, 1956
Mrs. Linnie McHenry Roberts was born in Matagorda County, Caney, Texas.
Her parents were the late Hale Foster McHenry and Dinah Wiley McHenry. Her father and mother were pioneer landowners in Bay City, Texas. Mrs. Roberts came from a family of three children. She attended the public schools of Matagorda County, and did her college work at Samuel Houston College, Austin, Texas, and Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, Texas. Later, she completed her college work at Mary Allen College, Crockett, Texas.
Most of her thirty-two teaching years were done at the old Booker T. Washington and Hilliard High School.
She was married to Ikeleys Roberts, noted businessman in Bay City. To this union, three children were born. Two daughters became educators. Her son, Eddie, after graduating from college, chose to help his father in the funeral business.
Mrs. Roberts, as so many who knew her, was a giant of a personality. She was the epitome of an educator, a wife, and a mother. Her humanitarian deeds were not only exhibited with the students she taught, but her giving spirit reached deep within the community in which she lived.
In early days, when students had to buy books, if a student could not purchase his books, she was always there to buy the books that the student needed. Many days, when students didn't have lunch, she had prepared enough lunch to share with those students. She also never went without her sewing kit. If a child needed a garment mended, she would mend his garment. She would never let that child go home with a tear or a button missing.
She always wore a smile, and always had that encouraging word to offer anyone who crossed her path. To those co-educators who started in the teaching profession early, she was their mentor.
Everyone lovingly called her "Miss Linnie." Mrs. Roberts left a legacy to those students whose lives she touched. She left a legacy to her family, children and grandchildren - and today that legacy stands monumental in this community. Today, if she could speak to our young educators, she would say:
"I leave you love, I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for knowledge and education. I leave you respect for the use of power. I leave you faith in God. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow man. I leave you finally, a responsibility to our young people. I leave you these things." | <urn:uuid:cb5bbe13-cbfa-4c59-890a-18b46ee63733> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bcblackcats.net/education/school/schoolhistory.php?sectiondetailid=1338 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991484 | 552 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Yep, who had ever thunk that ... Andreas -------------------- http://www.sundayherald.com/print33628 US: 'Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction' By Neil Mackay 05/04/03: ( Sunday Herald) The Bush administration has admitted that Saddam Hussein probably had no weapons of mass destruction. Senior officials in the Bush administration have admitted that they would be 'amazed' if weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were found in Iraq. According to administration sources, Saddam shut down and destroyed large parts of his WMD programmes before the invasion of Iraq. Ironically, the claims came as US President George Bush yesterday repeatedly justified the war as necessary to remove Iraq's chemical and biological arms which posed a direct threat to America. Bush claimed: 'Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. We will find them.' The comments from within the administration will add further weight to attacks on the Blair government by Labour backbenchers that there is no 'smoking gun' and that the war against Iraq -- which centred on claims that Saddam was a risk to Britain, America and the Middle East because of unconventional weapons -- was unjustified. The senior US official added that America never expected to find a huge arsenal, arguing that the administration was more concerned about the ability of Saddam's scientists -- which he labelled the 'nuclear mujahidin' -- to develop WMDs when the crisis passed. This represents a clearly dramatic shift in the definition of the Bush doctrine's central tenet -- the pre-emptive strike. Previously, according to Washington, a pre-emptive war could be waged against a hostile country with WMDs in order to protect American security. Now, however, according to the US official, pre-emptive action is justified against a nation which simply has the ability to develop unconventional weapons. _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email [email protected] All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk | <urn:uuid:fb5c4dca-840f-4138-a8a0-46ae5cf8d24d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2003/msg02299.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939339 | 533 | 1.5 | 2 |
With the shutdown of state parks, Minnesotans are flocking to Wisconsin state parks to camp and cool off in park waters. Willow River State Park northeast of Hudson is an easy drive from the Twin Cities and rewards the traveler with beaches, campgrounds and waterfalls. Jeff Turner(cq) of Woodbury made his way across Willow River falls. He and his family were planning on spending the day at St Croix Bluffs State Park in Minnesota, but changed their plans due to the state government shutdown crisis.
Marlin Levison, Dml - Star Tribune
With the shutdown of state parks, Minnesotans are flocking to Wisconsin state parks to camp and cool off in park waters. Willow River State Park northeast of Hudson is an easy drive from the Twin Cities and rewards the traveler with beaches, campgrounds and waterfalls. Willow River State Park campground is filled to capacity this holiday weekend largely due to Minnesotans crossing over the border due to the government shutdown.
Marlin Levison, Dml - Star Tribune
Shutdown cost will bring sticker shock
- Article by: BRAD SCHRADE
- Star Tribune
- July 4, 2011 - 3:21 PM
Minnesota stands to lose millions of dollars in revenue and get saddled with millions more in new expenses for every week that the widespread shutdown of state government persists.
In both subtle and stark ways, the shutdown that began Friday will bring new financial pain to the state treasury. Closing many operations will save the state some money, but an array of revenue sources as diverse as the lottery and highway toll lanes have been cut off.
Significant new costs also are emerging, some of which the state will never recover.
"It's not like money stops going out the door because of a shutdown," said John Pollard, a spokesman with Minnesota Management and Budget.
One of the biggest new expenditures: unemployment benefits for roughly 22,000 freshly laid-off state employees. In most cases, those workers are entitled to collect 50 percent of their pay while not working, according to a spokeswoman for AFSCME, the union that represents 18,000 state workers.
Those workers also will continue to receive health insurance at a cost of $4.7 million a week to the state. Altogether, the state could be shelling out $13 million a week to keep all those workers idle, based on the average salary of $38,000 earned by a state union member.
"We still believe a shutdown costs more than it saves," AFSCME spokeswoman Jennifer Munt said.
No one in the state has hard numbers on the total financial impact of the shutdown. Figures likely won't be tallied until the crisis is over and the state reopens for business.
But the costs will be both routine -- maintaining and securing government buildings and computer systems not in use -- and extraordinary.
Not coming in
Consider the state's Revenue Department, where just 53 of 1,504 employees are still on the job. While voluntary tax payments will continue, the audit section has been mothballed. That means the state stands to lose about $52 million in uncollected payments per month.
"Because auditors are not working on new audits, that money is not coming in," Revenue Department spokeswoman Lynn Andrews said. "We do not expect to recoup that."
Another lost revenue stream -- commuters. Normally, motorists pay the state $40,000 to $50,000 a week for MnPass privileges, which allows them to beat the traffic by using express lanes on parts of Interstates 35W and 394.
More significant, perhaps, will be the interruption in highway construction. MnDOT shut down more than 100 road projects.
"There is a cost, but I can't tell you what that will be," MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht said. "It's very disruptive. It's the middle of the construction season."
Gamblers will be another source of lost cash. Minnesota will lose about $2.3 million in profits from weekly lottery sales, according to Dale McDonnell, the lottery's assistant director and general counsel.
Retailers have pulled all their scratch-off tickets and stopped selling weekly draw tickets for various promotions. McDonnell said people with winning tickets will not be able to cash in for a while.
"We are suggesting that if you have a winning ticket, you should sign it with your signature and put it in a safe location, and when we're up and running we'll gladly give you your prize money,'' he said.
Losing park revenue
July 4th is typically a big draw for state parks. At Split Rock Lighthouse on the North Shore, one of the state's most popular tourist attractions, 5,000 people visit on a normal July 4th weekend, according to park manager Lee Radzak. If each of those visitors paid the full $8 adult admission, that would amount to $40,000 in lost revenue.
Altogether, the shutdown could affect as many as 90,000 state park campers and visitors daily, with daily losses to the state approaching an estimated $200,000. For the entire month of July, state parks generated more than $4 million last year, or about a third of total annual receipts.
Another popular destination: the Giants Ridge golf resort in northeastern Minnesota. It expects to lose $80,000 for the first week of a shutdown.
The state's two private horse racing tracks and card casinos, which are regulated by the state, laid off hundreds of workers because they can't operate during the shutdown. Track operators said an extended shutdown during the height of racing season could be devastating.
"Once we're closed a week, our horsemen are going to leave," said Robert Farinella, general manager at Running Aces. "They are going to go somewhere else where they can race."
Farinella said the state receives more than $150,000 a month in fees and payroll taxes from his track.
Wisconsin and other states are expected to capture some of Minnesota's dollars. But some revenues, particularly licensing fees, will be made up after the government reopens, according to state economist Tom Stinson.
"My guess is there will be some catchup after workers are called back, but some [revenues] will be lost permanently," Stinson said.
Staff writers Paul McEnroe and Larry Oakes contributed to this report. Brad Schrade • 612-673-4777
© 2013 Star Tribune | <urn:uuid:ccf98257-9f97-4f05-992a-21e5454ddd44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.startribune.com/printarticle/?id=124920504 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964193 | 1,332 | 1.632813 | 2 |
But Gary Hughes, executive director of the Environmental Protection Information Center, called the liability proposal "a direct giveaway from the Governor's Office to the largest landowner in the state."
Timber companies, environmentalists and Brown officials met for months leading up to Brown's May budget.
On April 21, Brown received three contributions from the timber industry toward his November tax initiative, including $10,000 from Sierra Pacific Industries, $10,000 from Green Diamond Resource Co. and $5,000 from the California Forestry Association. Sierra Pacific Industries also gave $46,800 toward Brown's 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
"There's no tie between the two," said Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford.
The Personal Insurance Federation of California backed legislation in March to reduce liability for tree damage. The insurance group gave Brown's initiative campaign $200,000 on the same day as the forestry groups.
PIFC political director Kelly Calkin said the group's bill, since tabled, was intended to deal with non-wildfire damage, and the group has no interest in the governor's latest plan.
Timber companies must submit harvest plans before cutting trees. For years, activists complained that regulatory agencies such as the Department of Fish and Game have been so poorly funded they cannot adequately judge the impacts tree-cutting will have on endangered species and animal habitat.
Brown's proposal would raise $30 million annually for timber harvest reviews through a 1 percent tax on all lumber sold in California. Republicans, whose votes are needed for taxes, are undecided on the charge. Many have signed no-tax pledges.
The California Retailers Association, which represents Home Depot, is leaning against the plan, said President Bill Dombrowski.
The lumber tax would provide more money for oversight, but also eliminate about $500,000 to $600,000 in fees for timber companies.
"We definitely believe the Department of Fish and Game needs money," said Hughes, "but the timber industry is the only industry as far as I know that would be exempt from paying fees for the permitting process."
Sierra Club California is neutral on the proposal and has concerns, said director Kathryn Phillips. Other environmental groups, such as the Nature Conservancy, are in support.
As much as 70 percent of lumber purchased in California comes from outside the state, according to California Forestry Association President David A. Bischel. The industry believes that a lumber tax would spread costs while raising money for California's timber harvest programs.
He said California timber companies pay multiple times more to file harvest plans than their competitors in the Pacific Northwest. If the state were to push more costs onto the industry, Bischel said it would be harder to compete with companies from beyond California. | <urn:uuid:7ac0cc5f-ed5b-4f4c-a7c1-211cd0dd0a7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/25/2816774_p2/us-attorneys-office-assails-calif.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967013 | 553 | 1.703125 | 2 |
In response to yesterday’s publication of a “Global Report on Discrimination Against Humanists, Atheists and the Non-religious,” the Washington Post‘s Max Fisher posted this map highlighting the seven countries in which you can be executed for being an atheist (Afghanistan, Iran, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan). Also on the map are countries where atheists can be imprisoned for their beliefs or have certain rights taken away (click to enlarge):
The countries in red are, at least in theory, committed to killing people for blasphemy or “thought crimes.” In all seven countries, Islam is the state religion. Six of the countries are run by a dictator, while Pakistan is (kind of) a democracy.
And in all seven countries, there are undoubtedly a large number of atheists pretending to be religious — or discussing their atheism only in the most discreet of ways — so they can live without fear of being captured and executed.
How many Muslims would there really be in the world if the punishment for leaving Islam wasn’t death? | <urn:uuid:10991deb-ca3f-4f94-95bd-a5b0197fd74a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/the-countries-where-they-kill-you-for-being-atheist-all-islamic/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=c49b096ccc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934382 | 224 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Value of Having a Smartphone in Routine Life
All and sundry knows that everything turn to be change with the time because it’s a part of life and of this world as well, if we look around us we can observe there were lots of things that we used, but now these things have lots of developments and progress, or they going to be fade away forever. It’s a part of life changing exists everywhere, in the same way it’s an era of internet and technology and for each day is a new day because these kinds of things always appear with developments and advancements. It’s also a key to make our lives easier than before, in our daily routine life we are using many helpful things that make lots of easiness, that’s just the benefit of technology, and in this regard internet can also prove useful to explore the new advance things.
Here I’d like to say that smartphones are also playing the most important and significant role because it’s like to have PC in the pocket, including me there are many people who like to use a smartphone because in this way they can make their existence more impressive than before, that’s why this department is getting lots of progress these days. If we look towards a smartphone that provides many amazing features and alike whenever company launches the next version of its smartphone it must has more advancement and evolution than before.
Here I’d like to say that Apple and Android are two bright names, Apple is an American electronic company and has iPhone in which iOS (operating system) make it an ideal smartphone. On the other hand Android is an operating system acquired by Google in 2005 and now running in many well-known smartphones, because there are many electronic companies are using it. By this progress of smartphones mobile websites are also being introduced, in this way a website can entertain more visitors, if your website also has mobile version you can increase your visitors day by day. That’s why today I am going to share the value of a smartphone.
Improve the Knowledge
Basic thing that makes one immortal in the eyes of others that is knowledge, if you have a sufficient knowledge about the whole thing you can become a perfect man. In this regard a smartphone provides you many useful facilities to improve your knowledge, a smartphone has an excellent functionality of internet and you can browse about every query that you have in your mind and learn about everything. For this purpose you can get the benefit of YouTube where you can see the many important videos not only this you can also read online book to increase your knowledge.
Spend an inspired Life
There is a desire of every person to spend a life with grace, it’s not hard if you have an attractive personality and there are many elements that you should add in your personality that make you everlasting in the eyes of others. In this regard your phone is also playing lots of an important role to build an impressive personality, and a smartphone also has many wonderful features that also polish others factors of your personality. A smartphone also has ability of a good camera and you can capture your loving moments to have good memories and also make high quality videos and in this way using a smartphone you can spend an inspired life.
Get Other Benefits
There are also many benefits that you might have in your mind and I am going to place here, yes you are right I am talking about apps. There many useful apps available on the Stores for every smartphone and you can also increase the functionality of your smartphone but also get lots of benefits in your daily routine life. Usually you’ll get the apps according to the category like Books, Business, Catalogs, Education, Entertainment, Finance, Food & Drink, Games, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Medical, Music, Navigation, News, Newsstand, Photo & Video, Productivity, Reference, Social Networking, Sports, Travel, Utilities and Weather. These are the well-known categories and you can pick an app according to your need and get the unlimited benefits.
Trend is friend
If we talk about the trends of 2012 there are lots of trends that we see in the whole year usually a smartphone has touch screen and people also like a smartphone due to a better quality touch screen and in 2012 using a touch screen is also a trend because it’s the choice of people. If we look at the well-known smartphones like Samsung Galaxy Series, iPhone, Motorola Smartphones, Google Smartphones and even Nokia smartphones everyone has a good touch screen and people also like to use these devices. And I think that’s why people like to use these devices and now it’s a part of trend.
In this article I just tried to share my personal knowledge about a smartphone, because I am also using a smartphone in my routine life. It’s a costly tendency but you’ll get the peace of mind in real times when you’ll play the Angry Birds. By reading the benefits and value of a smartphone in our daily routine life we can say that there are many positive aspects that a smartphone have because it’s able enough to change the whole practice of your life. | <urn:uuid:02552918-cd04-449f-8d6f-11dc84bb552a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smashingbuzz.com/2012/08/value-of-having-a-smartphone-in-routine-life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957906 | 1,055 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The Personal Democracy Forum
I received some Skypes today from Alan Levy, BlogTalkRadio’s CEO and host of the Alan Levy Show. Alan is enjoying himself in New York City today, where he’s attending the Personal Democracy Forum.
So what is the Personal Democracy Forum? From the website:
Technology and the Internet are changing politics — now more than ever. Over the last five years, Personal Democracy Forum (PdF) has become the seminal gathering place for the growing community of people who understand the effects underway, and want to make sure they stay on top of what’s coming next.
This year PdF will be bigger and better than before–we’re expanding to two full days at a spectacular new venue overlooking Central Park, at Frederick P. Rose Hall, the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
AgendaThe 2008 election has shown that the Internet has become the central battlefield for campaigns, from the presidential race on down. So, on the first day of PdF 2008, we’re going to focus on how technology is changing the electoral process. But we all know that no matter who is elected, big changes are also coming in how government uses technology to serve or connect with the public. That’s why we’re adding a whole second day to the PdF agenda, devoted to how technology is changing governance and civic action.
Sounds like a good idea to me. The Internet has totally changed the way we look at and talk about politics.
The sessions look like they provided a gold mine of information. Check out what was on tap:
- A New Media System or Old Wine in a New Bottle? Speakers – Arianna Huffington and Chuck DeFeo
- When Worlds Collide: Social Media, Mainstream Media and Politics – Speaker -Matthew Hurst
- The Power of Information to Transform Government – Speakers Jonathan Adelstein, Steven Clift, Sheila Cambell
And plenty more…
The Personal Democracy Forum was co-founded by Micah Sifrey a freelance writer, author and Senior Analyst with Public Campaign, a non-profit, non partisan organization based in Washington DC.
Internet for Everyone
While at the PdF, Alan was impressed to learn about Internet for Everyone, an organization a “a national initiative of public interest, civic and industry groups that are working to see that the Internet continues to drive U.S. economic growth and prosperity.”
From the website:
We believe every American must be connected to a fast, affordable, and open Internet to serve as an active citizen in a 21st century democracy and to prosper in today’s economy. High-speed Internet is no longer a luxury; it’s a lifeline for all Americans. Our broad alliance is working together to see that our nation’s leaders adopt a national plan to bring open, high-speed Internet connections into every home, at a price all of us can afford.
How true. How many kids can’t do proper research using the Internet because of a slow dialup connection? How many people miss out on wonderful business or personal opportunities because they can’t afford access? Visit Internet for Everyone for more details and to show your support. You might especially be interested in the Why Internet Matters page which talks about restoring America’s broadband leadership. We approve. | <urn:uuid:c1002215-bd56-47ad-a6b4-d3a411ee31f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.blogtalkradio.com/conferences/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936504 | 697 | 1.601563 | 2 |
10 Oct 2012
If your Facebook page is anything like mine, I’m always seeing motivational pictures with inspiring quotes such as “Make This Day Count,” or “If You Are Tired of Starting Over, Stop Giving Up.”
I love these quotes, and I have a simple one of my own that made a world of difference to the way I looked, the number on the scale, my heart health, and my blood pressure.
My two word motivational phrase is:
Those two simple words helped me in my quest to get healthy. They helped me lose weight and helped me maintain my weight. Here’s some ways that you can use these two words to make a difference in your life.
Get up from your bed and workout. Although you can workout anytime and reap the benefits of a healthier body and a healthier heart, people who workout in the morning tend to be a bit more consistent than those who workout later during the day.
Get up from the couch. A recent study showed that people who sit a lot are more likely to die earlier than people who are less sedentary. Honestly, when I was obese, I did a lot of sitting. In fact, I sat as much as possible, which likely contributed to my weight ballooning to 300 pounds. I’d encourage you to pay attention to how long you are sitting each day. If you have an office job, try to be deliberate spending a few minutes each hour standing up or walking around. If you are home during the day, make yourself get up off the couch and do some active work around the house such as working in the garden, doing some housework, or lifting weights for a few minutes.
Get up from the table. Oh, how I did love sitting at the kitchen table and polishing off all the remaining food after a good meal. I also loved sitting at a restaurant table and adding a fattening dessert after already consuming a good-sized entrée. Instead of continuing to sit at the table eating to my heart’s desire, I now get up, clear the dishes and move forward with my day after the meal is over. If we have company over, I get everyone up and we move to a different location rather than staying at the kitchen table so we can have lively conversation without having delicious food staring us in the face.
Losing weight and staying at a healthy weight involves making good, healthy food choices as well as learning to live a healthy lifestyle. By making the words “get up” part of your vocabulary, you are reminding yourself to get up and make those choices that will enable you to meet your goals.
Did you have to add the words “get up” to your vocabulary as you moved toward getting healthier?
DianeCheck out my latest posts here | <urn:uuid:8edac578-e853-45c9-b4fd-a4fec674ee97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.attunefoods.com/blog/2012/10/two-words-that-can-improve-your-health/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965789 | 578 | 1.6875 | 2 |
According to City of Altus Chief of Operations, Bob Stephenson, the City asked the Lugert Altus Irrigation District that a portion of the City’s water be added to the City Reservoir. This will be approximately 600 acre feet.
Stephenson said, “The reservoir level had gotten so low it would soon be impossible to draw any additional water in the event of another contingency. Additionally the quality had deteriorated significantly due to the effects of evaporation.”
The long process of adding the water began at around 11 a.m. yesterday. “There will be a minimum of 50 acre feet per day put in the reservoir,” Stephenson said, “and potentially, considerably more.” It will probably take eight to twelve days to fill, and will depend on the rate of flow. | <urn:uuid:8d3cb31d-91de-4310-9c47-938201c4d8ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.altustimes.com/view/full_story/20079092/article-Altus-City-Reservoir-being-refilled-by-Lugert-Altus-Irrigation-District | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964553 | 170 | 1.648438 | 2 |
There’s probably no piece of modern music or dance that ignites as much excitement as Einstein on the Beach, Philip Glass’s epic 1975 opera. There are a few explanations as to why. For one thing, Einstein has only been staged a handful of times since it was written. And at nearly five hours long, it’s surrounded by an aura of rarefied intensity. Its story--er, sort-of-story--deals with arguably the most important figure of the 20th century. Then there’s the score, which is mystical, gripping, and lovely.
More than anything, there’s something captivating about such a significant composer dealing with such a significant scientist. Director Robert Wilson sums up Einstein’s presence in one interview, saying, “in a sense, there was no reason to tell a story, because we already knew the story. How this man--who was a pacifist--also contributed to the splitting of the atom.”
Last week, Einstein returned to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which staged the opera in 1984 and 1992. Most of those lucky enough to snag tickets to the two-week stay (full disclosure: I wasn’t one of them) have never seen Einstein live. Or, as The New York Times puts it, the opera is “more known about than known.” In 1976, it premiered in America at the Met, in a one-night-only Sunday performance that left Wilson $150,000 in the hole. At the time, the piece was seen as a piece of “downtown” art, more appropriate for a warehouse than an opera house. In a way, it was the cross-over hit that brought avant-garde theater to Broadway in earnest.
One of the most remarkable things about Einstein is its sets. Over nine months in 1975, Glass and Wilson worked alongside each other, drawing and composing simultaneously. The stages are sparse and architectural, and at certain moments, they seem to lead the music. Massive clock faces descend and ascend, while a smoke-ensconced scaffold supports performers as they scribble invisible proofs on a glowing wall. Einstein’s 20-member cast, dressed in suspenders and work shirts, move to an overwhelming symphony of synthesizers and chanting voices, coalescing around nine 20-minute “knee plays,” or semi-acts. They chant numbers and poetry, scrawl notes in the air, and in one scene, brush their teeth (then stick their tongues out, mimicking that photo).
For as fragmented as the opera sounds on paper, it’s a hypnotizing experience. Though guests are free to come and go as they please (there’s no intermission), many report being glued to their seats for the entire five hours. As to the non-narrative plot? It’s fine if you don’t get it. In fact, at the 1992 revival, Wilson sat next to playwright Arthur Miller, who--not realizing who Wilson was--commented "I don’t get it." But, as Wilson explains, “You don’t have to understand anything. You can go and get lost.”
Einstein on the Beach will head to Berkeley’s Zellerbach hall next month. Tickets, for the fast-acting, are available here. | <urn:uuid:29c887ef-4727-4a34-977e-463ac4b1e932> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670835/playing-now-a-stunning-production-of-a-philip-glass-masterpiece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967683 | 703 | 1.6875 | 2 |
September 11, 2008 :: State Regents Receive Federal Grant to Increase Students in Higher Education
The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education recently received more than $915,000 from the U.S. Department of Education to expand and enhance current initiatives aimed at increasing the number of students who are enrolled and retained and complete degrees in higher education.
The College Access Challenge Grant Program (CACGP) is designed to foster partnerships among federal, state, and local government entities and philanthropic organizations through matching challenge grants aimed at meeting the needs of students and families from underrepresented populations.
“The College Access Challenge Grant Program gives us the opportunity to further assist under-represented students in Oklahoma,” said Chancellor Glen D. Johnson. “These funds will be vital in improving access and affordability, and providing important services that benefit more Oklahoma students around the state, especially those most in need.”
Through the CACGP, the State Regents will award up to 620 scholarships to increase the number of students who are near completion of a college degree and have demonstrated a need for financial aid. Many of these students have had to interrupt or postpone their college education due to financial and family obligations.
The State Regents’ efforts will also aim to increase the college-going rate of high school students through use of OKcollegestart.org, the student information portal. With the CACGP funds, a coordinator will be hired to provide professional development for all middle and high school counselors to use this college planning tool.
In addition, the State Regents will develop a campus tool kit designed to encourage students participating in cooperative alliances to pursue college degrees. Cooperative alliances with technology centers reach students throughout Oklahoma who would not typically consider going to college.
Furthermore, the State Regents will improve the college preparation of students from underrepresented populations by increasing parents’ and high school counselors’ awareness of the Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS) and OKcollegestart.org as tools to prepare for college. Direct mailings to parents and professional development for new counselors and experienced counselors in high poverty school districts will be funded.
Finally, CACGP funds will be used to improve success of students attending college. As part of the national initiative Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, Oklahoma City Community College, Rose State College and Tulsa Community College will be implementing pilot plans developed to improve retention of underrepresented students and close the gap between their success in college and the success of other groups. The funds will be used to hire consultants to address remediation, first-year persistence and financial aid.
The CACGP is a two-year formula grant program that is based on poverty levels and provides grants to states to meet the needs of students and families from underrepresented populations. The grant requires a match with non-federal funds and in-kind contributions. | <urn:uuid:96a85b20-d545-4a85-ad99-d56b80a4081a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.okhighered.org/news-center/college-access-grant2008.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943573 | 585 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A Cecchetti Day to Remember
1 October 2010
Why this year's Cecchetti Day, at The Royal Ballet School, Covent Garden, reinforced the reason why the method is still so valid today.
All Cecchetti Days are enjoyable events, not least because it's the end of the school year and the perfect occasion for teachers and students to meet with colleagues, catch up on events over the past year and enjoy together the interesting and varied programme. However, this day, Sunday 25th July 2010, had a special vibe to it; it seemed to encapsulate the inherent artistry of the Cecchetti method and to reinforce the reason why it is still so valid today.
Starting out with a relaxed and friendly reception, Chairwoman Elisabeth Swan and her team were as usual on hand to see that all went smoothly and to give a warm welcome to all. We were ushered into the light and spacious Linden Sudio where the day's events were to take place.
These commenced in the most delightful fashion. Six young pupils of the Kilburn School of Dance, led by their teacher Amanda Wilkins, charmed everyone with their demonstration of Classical Greek dance. Entitled Developing Expression and Artistry in Dance, Amanda skillfully drew these qualities out of the children in a series of exercises and improvisations. Leading on from a warm-up which stressed body awareness (the use of hands, heads and eyes was particularly sensitive) she followed this up with movements – runs, jumps and leaps – employing a wonderful use of space and dance quality. It was her use of imagery and lovely musicality which enabled the pupils to react in such a spontaneous fashion, each one of them displaying such unforced enjoyment and reinforcing what dance is all about.
A small adjustment to the programme meant that what followed seemed a natural progression i.e. the coaching of students about to complete their training and start out on a dancing career. Another superb teacher was on hand to do just this. Anita Young, on the artistic staff of the Royal Ballet School and Cecchetti doyenne, took three students of the Upper School through a coaching session. Sophie Allnatt danced the Fairy of the Golden Vine and Karla Doorbar, Aurora's variation from the first act of the Sleeping Beauty, while Francesca Hayward,Young British Dancer of the Year, danced a solo out of Kenneth Macmillan's Manon.
The students were all familiar with the work but for them, having just come back from a break and without doing class for several weeks, it was certainlly no small ordeal. Anita’s warm-up enchaînements focused on aspects of the variations. She wanted Sophie to really bend and work her upper back, to use body torsion and very broad ports de bras. Intially Karla, who is a lovely dancer, held back and seemed nervous when tackling the Aurora solo. Anita’s method of 'iron fist in a velvet glove' worked wonders so that the end result was a revelation. As she pointed out, today we are so into athleticism and high extensions that artistry can be totally lost along the way. Francesca has a naturally expressive quality but again it was enhanced by the instructions she was given; to bend more to the floor (how many times have Cecchetti students heard that!), to use both eyes instead of just a passing glance to give real focus and to really make use of her arms in the expressive ports de bras.
We were really fortunate to observe what can be achieved with the combination of a sensitive pianist and a master teacher. The pianist, John Taggart, played not only for this but for the closing demonstration on class work and did it wonderfully.
Michael Clark needed no introduction, but how agreeable it was to hear him in conversation with Richard Glasstone and listen to this unassuming, thoughtful man explain what drew him to return to his Cecchetti roots. I would imagine many of us wondered at the reason behind his former punk image but, as he explained, it was the theatricality which initially drew him to punk ¬– that and a natural period of rebellion! It was after he suddenly left the Royal Ballet School and was choreographing for his own dancers that he knocked on Richard Glasstone's door one day, to ask for help in re-discovering the Cecchetti ports de bras.
To better illustrate Clark's style and it's origins, Richard Glasstone then introduced four short videos. In the first, Clark literally sheds his punk gear to dance a lyrical, pensive solo in which his classical style and line were very evident. The second was much more aggressive in nature (the music he used had cause to shock many critics of the time!) while the third video showed a piece choreographed on Mathew Hawkins and once more demonstrated the control, precision and placing flowing through Clark's work. Asked by Richard what he felt was the importance of the Cecchetti method, to him in particular, Michael Clark's answer was that it was in the line; meaning the seemless flow from one position to the next. That, plus the musicality, use of the torso and huge variety in the work. His two greatest influences had been Cecchetti and the work of Merce Cunningham. These were the very reasons, Richard Glasstone felt, that Cecchetti work is so valid today and into the future – it allows for innovation.
Finally we saw a very recent work set to the music of David Bowie and entitled Jean Genie. Taking simple walking as a base, it incorporated batterie, ports de bras and much else recognisable to all present, but given an ingenious, fluid and totally fresh approach.
It was a great deal to take in in one morning so the brief hour or so spent stretching legs and enjoying the delicious buffet lunch (yes, dancers need to eat and move!) and we took our seats again in the theatre. Opening with the Annual General Meeting presided over by Elisabeth Swan, it gave everyone a chance to pay tribute to two great Cecchetti ladies, Daphne Cooper and Jennifer Morgen who had done so much for the Society and who both passed away this year.
An item of great importance was that about the Cecchetti International Ballet Competition which will be held in July 2011 at The Lowry in Manchester. During the same period, 25th to 30th July, Manchester will be the venue for the Annual Summer courses, Cecchetti Society Day, Gala Evening together with the finals of the competition.
Following on from the meeting were a selection of performances by Cecchetti Award winners from all over the country. With their sense of style, technique and musicality they aptly demonstrated the reasons for which they had been chosen as winners.
Synchronicity and Serenity was a perfect title for the lovely work choreographed by Jenny Hall for the Junior and Senior Cecchetti scholars. Without striving for virtuosity, but utilising interesting floor patterns and a very lyrical and expressive style she brought out the performance qualities of all the young dancers. Finely danced by all – in particular Emily Yong who as Senior Mabel Ryan winner had caught the eye with her dance quality – it was indeed a fitting tribute to Daphne Cooper and Jenny Morgan.
Last but not least on the programme was a demonstration given by the students of Kate Simmons School entitled From Grades to Majors. As Elisabeth Swan said in her introduction, it must be rare today to see the Cecchetti work demonstrated in such detail, showing so clearly the detailed build-up through the preparatory work and leading up to the jewel in the crown, the Cecchetti Diploma. It couldn't have been an easy task assembling it and making it both entertaining and instructive, but with the invaluable help of pianist John Taggart, Gillian Hurst put it together and introduced it with clarity and great insight. She and the students are to be congratulated on a result which demonstrated all the qualities, variety and beauty for which the Cecchetti Method is renowned. A fitting end to wonderful Cecchetti Day 2010.
Photo shows Sophie Allnatt 'Golen Vine' variation: photo by Geoff Wheatley | <urn:uuid:ef1f0cb9-a60e-4759-8022-3e159fd275e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.istd.org/news/news-archive/a-cecchetti-day-to-remember/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972671 | 1,681 | 1.5625 | 2 |
We start work in a community intending to eventually leave it behind. In fact, our exit from a community signifies that it has become self-sustaining and productive — an environment where children can thrive.
In Taiwan, that kind of story has played out in a big way. Twenty-five years after ChildFund began its work there in 1950, our Taiwan operation was declared ready for independence because the young island nation had become prosperous enough for local sponsors to begin supporting the program themselves. ChildFund Taiwan, now one of the dozen member organizations (alongside ChildFund International) of the ChildFund Alliance, celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2010.
There are smaller stories, as well — thousands of them that we hear every day.
There are our alumni, including Dickson, Thiago and Shauntay. Monica, Misozi and Joe.
There are children growing in our programs right now: Meshack, Anista, the students in a ChildFund-supported school in Honduras and the YES club members in south Texas.
There are stories of schools refurbished or added to, water and sanitation access implemented, malaria prevention tactics disseminated.
There are stories of children and youth and their families working together to achieve improvements in their communities beyond what they’d imagined.
This abundant anecdotal evidence of success complements our efforts to measure and report our progress toward our goals for children. ChildFund’s work, in turn, grows and deepens as we more efficiently leverage the generosity of our sponsors. | <urn:uuid:2473469c-8d7e-4640-8e94-f7b656d0c1e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.childfund.org/Results/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962197 | 309 | 1.84375 | 2 |
News: 2011 Press Release
For Release: July 13, 2011
Media Calls Only: 916-492-3566
Department of Insurance Announces Enforcement Action Against Blue Shield For Denying Autism Treatment
The California Department of Insurance (CDI) announced today that it has issued an Order to Show Cause against Blue Shield of California Life and Health Insurance Company for failing to comply with the California Mental Health Parity Act. Enacted in 1999, the law requires private insurance plans to provide equal coverage for selected mental health conditions and physical conditions.
At a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Autism, representatives from CDI explained that Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, a common and proven approach toward improving the lives of children with autism, is required to be covered by insurers under California's mental health parity law. Furthermore, the representatives highlighted independent medical reviews (IMR's), which showed ABA to be necessary therapy.
"Our purpose and goal is to ensure that insurance companies are in full compliance with California's mental health parity law," Adam Cole, General Counsel at CDI, said. "CDI is taking this action to address the barriers faced by families attempting to obtain behavior therapy and increase their access to proven transformative therapies."
CDI has filed an enforcement action to make Blue Shield comply with California's mental health parity law. The Department asserts that Blue Shield violated the law by:
- Denying coverage on the ground that ABA isn't "medically necessary"
- Denying coverage on the ground that ABA is "experimental"
- Denying coverage on the ground it is available only for services performed by a licensed provider and ABA providers are not licensed
- Denying coverage on the ground that ABA is not a "health care service," but instead is a service for "learning disabilities or behavioral problems or social skills training/therapy"
- Not including ABA providers in its network
- Refusing to provide insureds with definitive denials of coverage within 30 days of receiving a claim, thereby preventing insureds from invoking IMR
The action comes after the parents of two autistic children sought the Department's assistance when Blue Shield refused to approve coverage for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy recommended by their children's physicians. ABA therapy is based on behavioral conditioning techniques and reinforcement of positive behaviors to shape behaviors and teach new skills. Blue Shield claims it is experimental. "Decades of research show it to be a successful and well-established treatment for autism and not an experimental or investigational treatment," said Mr. Cole.
After the children were denied coverage for the treatment, the parents sought IMR by CDI, which found that ABA therapy was medically necessary in both cases, but Blue Shield refused to comply with the binding determinations in the IMR decisions. In addition, when CDI sent out a request to all insurers to identify their provider networks, as required by law, Blue Shield refused to submit a provider report and roster.
In response to the company's unwillingness to submit its provider networks and its refusal to initially cover ABA for the individuals who complained, the Department is issuing a cease and desist order.
Please visit the Department of Insurance Web site at www.insurance.ca.gov. Non media inquiries should be directed to the Consumer Hotline at 800.927.HELP. Callers from out of state, please dial 213.897.8921. Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf (TDD), please dial 800.482.4833.
If you are a member of the public wishing information, please visit our Consumer Services. | <urn:uuid:0f67c01d-5bb1-46fd-8b3a-9aebf029ccf0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2011/release096-11.cfm | 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 | 0.955449 | 738 | 1.671875 | 2 |
OK, it sounds like you are asking for a policy, plan, and practices for secure system administration of a data center. I have some suggestions for you:
Start with a policy. Start by thinking out your security policy. Develop a written security policy, and gain approval from management.
Take a look at SANS's resources on security policies. They'll give you some ideas of things that might make sense for you.
Security plan. Develop a security plan. I suggest you start by building up an inventory of the data and systems you store, with some idea of how critical it is to the mission of your business. This will help you, because you should plan to devote the most energy to securing your most mission-critical assets.
Next, you might give a little thought to what are the most important kinds of attacks or threats that should receive the highest priority (either the most likely, given your situation, or the ones that would be most serious). You can brainstorm what threats you are most likely to face (e.g., who will have an incentive to attack you?), and use this to help you develop a plan for securing your organization.
Once you have inventoried your assets and prioritized the top security issues you are likely to face, develop a plan to mitigate the risks and protect your organization from these attacks. Take a look at the SANS list of top 20 security controls; they might form some elements of your plan, or might give you ideas for how you can protect your assets from these threats.
Execute. Next, implement your plan. You don't need to do everything at once; it is fine to pick a piece of your plan, execute on it, and gradually grow your security maturity level.
Security training. It might be helpful to have some training on good security practices for system administrators. I'm not the right person to ask, but others might have some suggestions. I think SANS has a good reputation for professional training in this area.
Resources for additional information. Take a look at Security policy for system administrators on this site.
You might want to take a look at the questions tagged
security on ServerFault. ServerFault is a sister site where many professional system administrators hang out, and they have some good resources on topics related to security oriented for sysadmins.
You should be aware of professional organizations in this area, and consider joining them and making use of their resources. Look at SANS. They have many resources available on their web page.
Also, look into LISA, a Usenix professional association for system administrators. They have excellent conferences, good networking opportunities, and chances to keep up-to-date on the latest technology. Also, they have a booklet series with some information for sysadmins; see, e.g., System Security: A Management Perspective.
What about Microsoft SDL? Microsoft's SDL is fantastic -- but it is really oriented at software development. I don't think it's going to be as useful to system administrators, so it might not be quite the right resource for you. | <urn:uuid:e7767bbc-a655-496c-a7b2-049586361b83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/18245/security-model-for-datacenters/18250 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953538 | 628 | 1.710938 | 2 |
ACLU sues to block searches of electronic devices
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block the U.S. government from conducting searches of electronic devices at U.S. borders.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York against the Homeland Security Department, claims the policy violates the First and Fourth Amendments. The policy allows customs officials to search, detain and copy computers, mobile phones, cameras and other electronic devices of both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens.
The case was filed on behalf of Pascal Abidor, a 26-year-old U.S.-French dual citizen and Islamic studies doctorate student, whose laptop was detained for 11 days and searched after he was taken off an Amtrak train in upstate New York. Other plaintiffs in the case include the defense lawyers association, which is also working as a counsel on the case and whose president-elect had her laptop detained and searched, and the National Press Photographers Association, a member of which had his laptop searched in 2007 without reason, according to the lawsuit.
"Unchecked government fishing expeditions into the constitutionally protected materials on an innocent traveler's laptop or cell phone interfere with the ability of many Americans to do their jobs and do nothing to make us safer," Melissa Goodman, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, said in a statement. "Americans do not surrender their privacy and free speech rights when they travel abroad."
In a blog post, the ACLU said it does not oppose all searches of electronic devices, "but only that border agents should have some suspicion that the search will turn up evidence of wrongdoing before looking through all the private information that people have stored in their devices."
According to records obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act, more than 6,500 people, including nearly 3,000 U.S. citizens, had their electronic devices searched at U.S. borders between Oct. 1, 2008, and June 2, 2010.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. But in an August 2009 news release announcing its revised policy on electronic searches, the department argued that "searches of electronic media, permitted by law and carried out at borders and ports of entry, are vital to detecting information that poses serious harm to the United States, including terrorist plans, or constitutes criminal activity--such as possession of child pornography and trademark or copyright infringement." | <urn:uuid:27d1bb86-e26e-4422-9161-4ef515b921d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.govexec.com/defense/2010/09/aclu-sues-to-block-searches-of-electronic-devices/32289/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967511 | 507 | 1.5 | 2 |
Through The Eyes of Lee Miller
Through the Eyes of Lee Miller: Curated by Carole Callow
Celebrating 30 Years of Fine Archival Printing
Exhibition opens to public from 20th March – 21st April 2012
Gallery open Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 4pm or by Appointment.
Limited edition archive prints are for sale. Please contact Lucy Bell on 01424 434828 – Many are last prints available. Prices start at £900 + VAT. See images below
Photographer Lee Miller (1907-1977) started out as a fashion model in 1920’s New York. By the end of that decade she had apprenticed herself to the surrealist artist and photographer Man Ray, in Paris. Together they re-discovered the photographic technique of solarisation and Miller became part of the surrealist movement; noted for her witty and humorous images.
Among her circle were Paul Eluard, Jean Cocteau and Charlie Chaplin, but by 1932 Miller had left Man Ray and set up her own photographic studio back in New York. However, less than two years later she abandoned her successful practice to marry Egyptian businessman Aziz Eloui Bey. Now supported by her wealthy husband she had no need for professional commissioned work, this period becomes the highlight of her personal photography, which includes A Portrait of Space, this is now regarded by many as some of her most successful surrealist work and is intensely interesting part of Miller’s photographic repertoire, as the images she captures are without restraint in the form of a commissioning brief.
Bored of the stuffy life of an upper-class ex-patriot in Cairo, by 1937 Miller had returned to Paris where she met British Surrealist artist Roland Penrose, but it was the outbreak of the WWII that was to change her life. Working as a freelance photographer for Vogue Magazine, and then in 1943, as a US war correspondent she covered the London blitz, liberation of Paris and the horrors of Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. Miller was the only female war correspondent to cover combat in Europe in WWII.
After returning to Britain, welcomed back as a celebrity, Miller found her war experiences too painful and she soon started to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder. In 1947 she married Penrose and shortly after birth to her only child, Antony. The family settled at Farley Farm House in Chiddingly, East Sussex, in 1949 which then became an artistic Mecca throughout the 50s, 60s and 70’s , welcoming Picasso, Man Ray, Henry Moore, Eileen Agar, Joan Miro, Jean Dubuffet, Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst amongst others through its doors.
While Miller did the occasional photo shoot for Vogue she soon swapped the studio for the kitchen, becoming a successful gourmet cook, only rarely taking out her camera to record family occasions and the visits of their friends. Miller died from cancer in 1977 aged 70. Throughout her life Miller did little self-promotion and that her work is known today is mainly due to the efforts of her son, Antony Penrose, who has been studying, conserving, and promoting his mother’s work since the early 1980s.
A chance find shortly after Lee Millers death in 1977, of a box of negatives in the attic at Farley Farm House led to the unearthing of Miller’s life and work, while a simultaneous series of events brought Carole Callow to the farmhouse, where she became sole printer to the newly discovered archive. Shortly after, more boxes of negatives arrived from Vogue’s offices in London and the archiving began to take shape.
Lee Miller was an outstanding printer and the existing vintage prints enabled Callow and the Penrose family to translate her work as she would have produced it herself, true to her vision.
This exhibition celebrates the 30 years of Carole Callow’s print and archival work. She is perhaps the only person with such an intense and intimate understanding of this aspect of Lee Miller’s work.
With fascinating insight Callow recalls: “For the first two years I spent many hours in Antony’s tiny darkroom bringing Lee’s images back to life. With each new contact print the feeling grew that Lee herself was looking over my work and guiding me, yet at the same time permitting me to discover the essence of Lee herself through her photography.”
“The images before my eyes were of unseen 1930s fashion and portraiture from her days in Paris and New York, pre-war Egypt, Europe and the Balkans, as well as portraits of celebrities and surrealist artists many of whom were Lee’s close friends. Lee’s legacy includes many wartime images, notably the death camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. In order to print these images of horror I had to detach myself emotionally from their content.”
Callow is the only fine photographic printer to have worked on Lee Miller’s photographs since her death. Her choice of work for this exhibition is in two parts. The first is Picasso’s Gaze, which explores Millers’ relationship with Picasso from
Picasso, Hotel Vaste Horizon, Mougins, France 1937.
Picasso’s eyes are always the first things to come up in the developing tray. I wanted to capture his hair and the way it is combed across his skull.”
For the second part of the exhibition Callow has chosen images taken at Farley Farm House of some of its famous guests and Sussex Life.
Paul Eluard and Antony Penrose, Farley Farmhouse Chiddingly, East Sussex 1951
Antony Penrose says: “The present day high appreciation of Lee Miller’s photography owes much to the work of Carole Callow. As a fine printer Carole has consistently interpreted my mother’s work in a way that echoes Lee Miller’s own eye and her own choices. This has been achieved by the extraordinary diligence Carole used in her researches into Lee’s techniques and her style and the meticulous manner in which the prints are made”.
“When she is in the darkroom there is a Zen like atmosphere. She will not be hurried, she will not be interrupted. Nothing is allowed to break the intense concentration that goes into producing faultless gelatine silver prints, sometimes of images that she has over the years helped to make widely known. Carole and I have collaborated for more than 30 years, and it has been so pleasing to see her receive international acknowledgement as a leading fine printer.”
Farley Farm House opens its doors to the public on Sunday April 1st 2012
For more information please contact – Farley Farm [email protected]
01825 872856 www.farleyfarmhouse.co.uk
F22 Magazine issue 05 Article on Lee Miller: http://www.state-media.com/f22/index.html | <urn:uuid:7e7f0123-9227-40f8-bc09-aec50fcc454d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lucy-bell.com/2012/01/lee-miller/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968495 | 1,459 | 1.773438 | 2 |
From Delaware, USA:
My daughter currently uses the Animas Inset. It seems to hurt her less but, it comes off VERY easily, especially in the water, pool, bath, etc. The mini Comforts stay in very well but, conversely,she hates the long, angled insertion needle. Are there certain infusion sets that are more often used by kids? Is there anything other than lidocaine to numb her site area? Is there anything to ensure that the site adheres better?
The two biggest factors we see when parents are having difficulty keeping an infusion set intact is making sure the EMLA or LMX-4 s completely removed before inserting the infusion set and keeping moisturizing soaps away from the infusion set once it is in place. The best way to clean the skin after using EMLA or LMX-4 is with antibacterial Dial liquid soap. Use a washcloth and be sure to rinse well after soaping. It will not take away the numbness. Moisturizing soaps will break down the adhesive in the tape of the infusion set. If you are moving the site every two to three days as instructed, you should really just leave the area alone and avoid soap altogether.
With regard to infusion sets, it depends on how much subcutaneous fat your child has when choosing an infusion set. The two most common sets are the Inset and the Comfort Short. If your child is thin to very thin, you can try inserting the Comfort Short in half to three-quarters of the way.
There are several products on the market to help keep infusion sets in. The two most common are tincture of benzoin and Mastisol. Follow the directions on the product for application and removal as the infusion sets can adhere to the skin so well that they cause damage when pulling them off. Animas has excellent, as well as free, clinical follow-up and s/he will be able to address your questions better simply because s/he has actually met with you face to face.
Original posting 26 Jun 2006
Posted to Insulin Pumps
Last Updated: Tuesday April 06, 2010 15:10:07
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© Children with Diabetes, Inc. 1995-2013. Comments and Feedback. | <urn:uuid:b368ab9e-8250-4cf4-80ce-f24f753e9e80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/dteam/2006-06/d_0d_dzk.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946262 | 525 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Full disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Harper Design to review on my blog.
Some of you may already be familiar with Mitsuki Hoshi's work from her website. According to the Visitor counter, which is about the only thing on her website I can actually read, most of her visitors (over 35,000) are from Japan (not surprisingly), but she also has about 1,400 visitors from the U.S. Her books have been translated from Japanese into several languages, including English, Dutch, and French. Mitsuki Hoshi's work has appeared in pet magazines as well as craft books, and she also teaches amigurumi classes.
Ami Ami Dogs 2 is the follow up to her Ami Ami Dogs: Seriously Cute Crochet, which was published in English by Harper Design in February. My amigurumi book collection is fairly small (Annie Obaachan's Amigurumi Animals: 15 Patterns and Dozens of Techniques for Creating Cute Crochet Creatures, June Gilbank's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Amigurumi, and Amy Gaines's Cute Little Animals (Leisure Arts #4271)), so I was looking forward to seeing the review copy for Ami Ami Dogs 2.
Ami Ami Dogs 2 is a great little book. As the name suggests, it is focused entirely on dog related patterns. There are "full size" (a strange word to use for amigurumi, I know!) versions of 11 different breeds (Bernese Mountain Dog, Boston Terrier, Bull Terrier, Chihuahua, Dalmation, Hokkaido, Jack Russell Terrier, Japanese Shiba, Papillon, Shih Tzu, and Toy Poodle), and patterns for magnets and cell phone accessory projects to make with the same breeds.
The first section of the book is a two-page photo gallery of each pattern, which includes variations of each dog or project in multiple colors and poses. Most of the "full size" dogs would be between 2-1/2 and 4 inches tall (depending on whether they are seated or standing), and the accessories and magnets would measure about 1-1/2 to 2-1/4 inches.
This section is followed by a fourteen page technique guide. The technique guide includes numerous step-by-step color photographs, and demonstrates working in the round, changing colors, proper stuffing, and assembly. This guide would definitely be clear enough for most crocheters new to amigurumi, and might even be enough for some complete beginners who learn well from still images.
The remainder of the book is the pattern section. There are several things I really like about it.
Each pattern is shown through international stitch symbols.
Each pattern includes step-by-step written directions explaining the progression of tasks (e.g., "Crochet each body part. Stuff cotton inside the head, body, and legs. Attach the eyes to the head.").
Patterns include illustrations of variations (e.g., dog sitting, standing, or reclining; various ear poses, etc.).
The stitch symbols are annotated to indicate eye placement and other important assembly guidelines.
There are a few things about the book that could be improved.
There are no pattern abbreviations, so if you are uncomfortable using stitch symbols, this book may be hard for you to follow.
The supplies have not been well adapted for the American market. For example, when a pattern indicates that you need 0.64 ounces of white thread, should you use crochet cotton, sewing thread, embroidery floss, or a light weight yarn? Similarly, I haven't seen mohair thread readily available in the U.S. Obviously, you can adjust the materials but that might turn off some beginners.
Overall, I think Ami Ami Dogs 2 is a really cute amigurumi book. It has a really fun photo gallery that will inspire you to pick up your hook and make a little puppy of your own. If you are an absolute beginner to crochet, you will probably need an adventurous spirit to tackle the patterns. But if you have crocheted for a while, are familiar with stitch symbols, and/or have made amigurumi before, you will be able to make the necessary modifications and get started on a pattern right away.
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Overall, it is a visually stimulating amigurumi book. Even though all of the patterns are of dogs, the skills covered are applicable to any type of amigurumi. | <urn:uuid:a4d43249-9fd3-47f6-b3c5-dd6dbc882116> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.ca/Ami-Dogs-More-Seriously-Crochet/dp/0062067249 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950809 | 950 | 1.523438 | 2 |
By Deanne Loonin
There is so much potential for positive change in the student loan programs these days. This is great news for borrowers and we hope Congress and the White House will continue to push for critical changes to benefit borrowers.
As much as things change, however, some things remain the same for the most financially distressed borrowers. There are good repayment options for many of these borrowers, but unfortunately they often do not get the information they need about their choices or if they do get information, it is often inaccurate or misleading.
The main barrier these borrowers face is that they are forced to deal with collection agencies when trying to resolve problems. It is rarely discussed, but it has become “business as usual” for the federal government, student loan guaranty agencies, and schools to contract with private collection agencies not only to collect, but also to resolve disputes and provide information to borrowers. In both the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program and Direct Lending, private collection agencies are given authority to act on behalf of the loan holder in everything from rehabilitation to providing information about discharges to settling accounts. [Editor's Note: In the FFEL program, the government relies on guaranty agencies to try and prevent delinquent borrowers from going into default and collecting on defaulted loans. Guaranty agencies, however, often hire collection agencies to carry out at least some of these functions. To learn more about guaranty agencies, click here.]
This policy has been a disaster for financially distressed borrowers who are desperate for help. Dispute resolution is, obviously, not the primary mission of loan collection agencies. Debt collectors are not adequately trained to understand and administer the complex borrower rights available under the Higher Education Act, and the government does not provide sufficient oversight of their activities.
There are certainly times when a borrower is uncooperative or has exhausted all options. In those cases, the loan holder may have no choice but to focus on collection efforts. Yet there are many borrowers who want to find a solution, but are stymied because they can’t get past the rude, harassing, and often abusive behavior of a collection agent.
Take, for example, the case of a recent client of mine -- a young man, originally from Honduras, who was struggling to get by. He had dropped out of school after only a year because he had been institutionalized after trying to commit suicide. By the time he came to see me, he had a job earning about $10 per hour, no health insurance, a car that constantly broke down and two small children to care for. He sought my help after receiving a notice of wage garnishment from the guaranty agency in New York. He had tried to find out about his options from the agency’s collection agency, General Revenue Corp (GRC), but was treated so badly that he gave up.
The deadline to request a hearing on his case was only a week away. So I called the guaranty agency to see if we could set up a repayment plan and avoid having to go through the formal hearing process. I was told that I would have to deal with GRC. I called and asked for the person the guarantor had referred me to. After being put on hold for a while and passed around, I eventually was informed that this person hadn't worked at GRC for about a year. I was transferred to a different agency representative who told me that she could only speak directly with the borrower. I said I had a release form signed by my client and I just needed to know how to get the release form to her. After 15 minutes of debate, the representative finally gave me the fax number to send the release but said that it was a very large agency and that it could take a long time for the release form to be entered into the agency’s computer system. Given the looming deadline, I asked that she try to expedite the process. I alerted her that we would have to request a hearing unless we could get an extension. She “responded” by hanging up on me.
I sent the release right away and asked the GRC representative to call me back when she received the letter. She didn’t call me back. I called the collection agency back and asked for my previous contact. The person answering the phone said she would transfer me, but I ended up with someone else. The new person said that she couldn’t and wouldn’t talk to me, only to my client. I explained that I had already been through this with my previous contact and that I had already sent a release form. Amazingly, they hung up on me again!
There is so much wrong with this picture, it’s hard to know where to start. Is it too much to ask that borrowers be treated respectfully? Why couldn’t the guaranty agency deal with me directly? Why isn’t there a process to accept releases from borrower’s attorneys? Why did the guarantor give me a contact name for someone who no longer works at the collection agency?
There is a relatively happy ending to this case. I told contacts at the Department of Education about this situation and they gave me a contact at the guaranty agency. Suddenly, the guarantor started treating me like a queen. We were able to resolve the problem by setting up a repayment plan, the option we had been seeking from the beginning.
This was a good result for my client, but it is frustrating in many ways because we will never get systemic reform if it requires this level of effort from a borrower and his advocates. There are very few of us representing these borrowers and we can only intervene at this level for a handful of borrowers who need help.
The “helpers” can never come from the collection industry. The Department of Education and other loan holders should acknowledge this fact and move on. The Education Department should terminate its contracts with private collection agencies and hire in-house staff to resolve disputes and collect debts. The Treasury Department made a similar move in March 2009 when it announced that the I.R.S. would not be renewing contracts with two private debt collection agencies working with the I.R.S Private Debt Collection program. The I.R.S determined that the work is best done by IRS employees who have more flexibility handling cases. They decided that this was particularly important in a time when so many taxpayers are facing economic hardship.
We understand there is a balance between the need to collect student loans and the need to assist borrowers. At this point, the balance is way off on the collection end. Whether it acknowledges it or not, the government has chosen high pressure collection over a resolution-based system -- to the detriment of financially distressed borrowers. As the White House and Congress look for ways to reform the federal student loan system, this is an area that is in desperate need of attention.
Deanne Loonin is a staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center and the Director of the Center's Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project. She focuses on consumer credit issues generally and more specifically on student loans, credit counseling, and credit discrimination. She is the principal author of numerous publications, including "Too Small to Help: The Plight of Financially Distressed Private Student Loan Borrowers," and "Income-Based Repayment: Making it Work for Student Loan Borrowers." Her views are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New America Foundation. | <urn:uuid:cf8d11b5-c930-4708-b426-6ecca92135a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://higheredwatch.newamerica.net/blogposts/2010/get_rid_of_the_collection_agencies-25940 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977816 | 1,526 | 1.679688 | 2 |
On December 12, 1925, the worlds first motel opened just north of Santa Barbara. At that time, the Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo sat along the nascent two-lane highway, the "101, and charged $1.25 a night for a bungalow with attached garage. The era of automobiles as status symbols had begun; for it was only those with cruise-worthy cars that would stop at the Motel Inn on their way between LA and San Francisco. Today, Southern California is still a car culture. This exhibition will examine the enduring love affair between Southern Californians and their automobiles. Chosen from SBMAs permanent collection, these photographs explore the psychological place of the car in Southern California life. Whether in celebration, investigation, or incrimination, all of the photographs depict those unique mental states that can only be produced behind the wheel.
Photo Credit: Jane Gottlieb, Dusty Ford, 1999. Courtesy of the Artist. | <urn:uuid:5e8d28d3-fbfc-4051-b137-23447e00f434> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.museumsla.org/meventmore.asp?key=41650 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945174 | 196 | 1.835938 | 2 |
This editorial appeared in The (Tacoma) News Tribune.
In the law, there are sweeping, fundamental rights that shape people's lives, and then there are the small privileges that simply make life more bearable.
Washington's incremental march toward fair treatment for same-sex couples has scored big gains in the latter category over the last two years. They've won legal recognition of domestic partnerships, the right to be at their partners' sick beds, protection under domestic violence laws and acknowledgment of community property, among others.
Now gay-rights supporters are back with an everything-but-marriage bill that would extend to registered domestic partners every benefit and responsibility now offered to heterosexual married spouses. The 100-page bill would add domestic partners to state laws ranging from labor and employment to pensions and other public employee benefits.
A few of the benefits granted by this legislation are biggies – business succession rights and the ability to use sick leave to care for a partner to name two.
But otherwise the bill is remarkable for its breadth, not its particulars. Life is filled with niggling little details that never get a second thought until they become problems. So is Washington state law.
Take, for example, the case of a financially distressed property owner who gets a deferral on the fees he must pay for a local improvement district in his neighborhood. Should he die, that deferral transfers to his wife. Not so if his partner is a man.
There are hundreds of state statutes that employ what once was a catchall word: spouse. Many were written long before nonconventional families were common and certainly before domestic partnership was a legal alternative.
To read the complete editorial, visit The (Tacoma) News Tribune. | <urn:uuid:6a3c39e7-dcb5-46a6-a640-d01633890f7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/04/01/65253/commentary-washington-state-should.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970574 | 352 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Investor’s Business Daily
Global Warming: At the cap-and-trade hearings, it was revealed that not everyone will suffer from this growth-killing energy tax. A congresswoman wanted to know why sea levels aren’t rising but Gore’s bank account is.
When Gore left office in January 2001, he was said to have a net worth in the neighborhood of $2 million. A mere eight years later, estimates are that he is now worth about $100 million. It seems it’s easy being green, at least for some.
Gore has his lectures and speeches, his books, a hit movie and Oscar, and a Nobel Prize. But Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., was curious about how a man dedicated to saving the planet could get so wealthy so quickly. She sought out investment advice we all could use in a shaky economy.
Al Gore joined the venture capital group Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers September of 2007. On May 1, 2008, the firm announced a $500 million investment in maturing green technology firms called the Green Growth Fund.
Gore was the star witness at the hearings on cap-and- trade legislation before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Blackburn asked Gore about Kleiner-Perkins, noting that at last count they “have invested about a billion dollars invested in 40 companies that are going to benefit from cap-and-trade legislation that we are discussing here today.”
Blackburn then asked the $100 million question: “Is that something that you are going to personally benefit from?” Gore gave the stock answer that “the transition to a green economy is good for our economy and good for all of us, and I have invested in it but every penny that I have made I have put right into a nonprofit, the Alliance for Climate Protection, to spread awareness of why we have to take on this challenge.”
Gore, while speaking at a conference in Monterey, Calif., admitted to having “a stake” in green investments that he recommended attendees put money in rather than “subprime carbon assets” such as tar sands and shale oil. | <urn:uuid:e5eefe0a-155b-4452-b588-50e241c3b987> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelibertyvoice.com/tag/war-on-inert-matter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97127 | 452 | 1.75 | 2 |
Sculpture that Flies
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012
Based around the idea of the tetra kites of Alexander Graham Bell, Little Shining Man (by Heather & Ivan Morison and Queen + Crawford) is a sculpture made of colliding cubes that take their form from the mineral Pyrite. Its two wings look like a heavy mass, but because of its lightweight carbon fiber and Cuben fiber construction (borrowed from racing yacht sails), it can take off. It is comprised of 23,000 components, entirely assembled by hand. The kite flown in the video above is one of an arrangement of three that come together to create a final piece that is flown once a year in St. Aubin's Bay, Jersey, England. | <urn:uuid:5804c723-5074-4530-88d3-e5c77f65255c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wearedesignbureau.com/projects/kite-as-sculpture/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968579 | 154 | 1.796875 | 2 |
DoD must be reorganized for today’s wars
In 1914, on the eve of the Great War, the Duke of Cambridge wrote, There is a time for all things. There is even a time for change; and that is when it can no longer be avoided.
Speaking of change, the current debt crisis could force drastic cuts in the Department of Defense budget, perhaps as high as 50 percent.
In the immediate post-Cold War era, DoD futurists envisioned a 25-year period of strategic pause before the nation faced a major peer competitor sometime between 2015 and 2020.
In the 1990s, major candidates for peer-competitor status included China and a resurgent Russia. India and a nuclear-armed Iran were cast as lesser threats. In those heady days, terrorism was seen as a tactic and more the purview of law enforcement.
The major emphasis was on being prepared for big wars against peer competitors wars no world power can afford to lose. Preparing for those wars also satisfied each services need to perpetuate itself in familiar ways wrapped around developing and acquiring high-tech weapon systems. Programs like The Army After Next, From the Sea, and Air Force Next addressed future strategic paradigms focused on parochial core strengths.
To be sure, there were cuts in defense spending during the 1990s. The size of the American military shrank. The Air Force, alone among the services, reorganized its force structure from one based on strategic deterrence to power projection. Cuts were salami slices that, for the most part, reduced but did not reform outmoded force structures.
And then, Sept. 11, 2001, changed everything. In the immediate aftermath, the Bush administration made a major mistake by declaring a War on Terror rather than specifying the enemy as al Qaeda, associated groups, and nations that support them.
With a generic terror as the enemy, the war easily morphed from one into two wars, with Operation Iraqi Freedom launched in March 2003.
Ten years later, the fighting in Iraq continues, and what was originally a campaign to root out and destroy al Qaeda in Afghanistan has become an endless struggle against the Taliban. This war has exhausted the American military, contributed to our national economic nightmare, and derailed critical thinking about the future.
This exhausted force is also outmoded. Cutting such a force by a quarter, much less half, would invite aggression by nations like Iran and North Korea. Keeping the current force at the status quo would be expensive and also leave the nation vulnerable to current threats and unable to cope with a rapidly growing Chinese threat.
The U.S. military needs massive restructuring. Its current structure originated with the reforms instituted in 1903 after the Spanish-American War. A major overhaul on the eve of World War II made it possible to fight the Axis powers. The National Security Act of 1947 institutionalized the Industrial Age force extant today.
Now, the armed forces of the United States would be hard-pressed to counter a North Korean invasion of South Korea without using nuclear weapons. In fact, war on the Korean peninsula is one of our immediate threats.
Iran, soon to be a nuclear-armed state, is bent on establishing hegemony in the worlds energy epicenter. Despite a predictably forthcoming declaration of victory in the ill-conceived War on Terror, al Qaeda and associated groups will continue to attack U.S. interests abroad while putting the nation on the defensive at home.
An anti-American alliance between Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, and possibly Cuba is not beyond the realm of possibility. If Mexico continues to descend into anarchy, that alliance could extend to our immediate and un-defended southern border; imagine the cost of trying to fortify it sufficiently to keep it secure.
Slicing the salami thicker will result in fewer divisions, cutting new weapons acquisition, and trimming at the edges by reducing costs associated with professional military education.
This is like starting a weight reduction with a frontal lobotomy and removing a few fingers. What is needed is drastic restructuring of the armed forces, massive reduction in the associated bureaucracy, and major changes in the way officers are educated.
Meanwhile, China is building a first-class fighting force, one capable of global power projection. While Russias ability to project power remains questionable, its modernization programs focus on high-tech weaponry and on revitalizing nuclear forces.
Critics argue that the United States now spends more on its military than the next 10 nations combined. True.
A lot of that goes to sustaining force structures that are redundant, unnecessary, and ill-suited for Information Age warfare.
Much of it goes to personnel costs (including retirement), maintaining bases and posts that are no longer needed, and unnecessary civilian personnel.
There is much that can be cut, but also much more that needs to be restructured if the United States is to survive the challenges beyond 2015.
[Dr. Earl Tilford is a military historian and fellow for the Middle East & terrorism with The Center for Vision & Values (www.VisionAndValues.org) at Grove City (Penn.) College. A retired Air Force intelligence officer, Dr. Tilford earned his Ph.D. in American and European military history at George Washington University. From 1993 to 2001, he served as Director of Research at the U.S. Armys Strategic Studies Institute. In 2001, he left government service for a professorship at Grove City College, where he taught courses in military history, national security, and international and domestic terrorism and counter-terrorism.] | <urn:uuid:3e4a7fb9-5a80-4b9d-87ce-a3a9b9c671fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecitizennews.com/blogs/dr-earl-tilford/08-30-2011/dod-must-be-reorganized-today%E2%80%99s-wars | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955898 | 1,131 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Data miners find there's gold in them thar files
Matt Carle, Lauren Matthews and Tony Davis from leading data analytics firm Quantium. Photo: Peter Rae
There's another mining boom you may have missed. It too involves paying young people six-figure salaries in their first jobs, and exploring deeper for resources that may have been previously overlooked. But it's not about driving trucks or digging holes. It's about building algorithms and crunching facts and numbers. It's mining for data.
Big data is the new business black. It's a catch-all phrase for the billions of transactions and other bits of information about their customers, suppliers and operations logged by businesses and governments the world over every day. Yesterday's storage problem has become today's strategic asset. Turns out there's gold in them thar files.
''This is the biggest industry that people are only now starting to talk about,'' says Anthony Goldbloom, a 28-year-old former Reserve Bank of Australia statistician who has moved his start-up data analytics business, Kaggle, to Silicon Valley where NASA is among its clients. ''The whole place is big data mad. Industries like banking, insurance, and increasingly pharmaceuticals are competing on the back of predictive models that get built [by mining data].''
Enterprises are using data analysis not just to improve their everyday business processes, but also to build predictive models of consumer behaviour. Retailers, telcos, airlines, hotels, healthcare and credit card companies are among those with information-rich customer data. In Australia ''only really leading companies have realised this as an opportunity'', Goldbloom says. To his knowledge, Telstra, Myer, the University of Melbourne and the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority are among those known to have applied large-scale data analysis to their operations.
A 2011 report by McKinsey and Company said using big data to drive efficiency and quality in the US healthcare industry could create value worth $US300 billion ($A297 billion) a year including cost savings. Using personal location data to sell services to individuals could ''capture $US600 billion in consumer surplus'', the report said.
Global market intelligence company IDC has estimated enterprises will invest more than $US120 billion by 2015 in data capture and analysis across hardware, software and services. IBM is investing heavily, with almost 9000 ''business analytics and optimisation consultants'', 400 researchers and a global network of ''analytics solutions centres'', aiming for $US16 billion in business analytics revenue by 2015.
''There is no end in sight. I think it is an endless opportunity,'' says the company's chief data analytics guru, Jeff Jonas. Among other things, he is working on what might best be described as a digital concierge service. Customers who opt to give the service access to their personal information - such as one or more of their social media accounts and their digital personal organiser - would receive timely and, according to Jonas, helpful prompts to guide their actions and purchases.
''It says, 'I can see from your Facebook that you like Metallica, and I can see you will be in New York next week, and Metallica is there on the same night. Would you like to get a ticket?'
''You could subscribe to a service that would be so precise in its prescriptions that you could feel like it saves you time and money,'' says Jonas, chief scientist at the IBM Entity Analytics group. He acknowledges people's possible discomfort at the idea of unsolicited advertisements, but insists users of the service would come to see it as ''friendly'' and ''genius''.
Another company capitalising on the growing expanse of data, and one of IBM's biggest rivals, is the Silicon Valley data-sorting company Tibco.
The company's chief technology officer, Matt Quinn, says Tibco's products aim to give clients the right information, at the right time, in the right place and in the right context.
One of its more unusual client groups, casino operators, use the company's software to gauge gambler satisfaction. The system collects data each time a gambler uses their casino loyalty card - be it for gambling, purchasing food in the restaurant or paying for snacks from their room minibar - to create a pattern of their behaviour.
The system can see, for example, that the last few times a particular customer visited the casino, the customer stayed for two days and lost between $200 and $300, then promptly left the gaming floor, spent no more money and went home the next day.
''As a casino operator you don't want that, you want to make people happy and spend more money,'' Quinn says.
Enter Tibco's event processing software. When the system detects the customer is falling into a particular pattern, such as a consistent losing streak that caused the customer to leave during the last visit, it sends an automatic note to a gaming floor attendant to offer the person a free meal, or ticket to a show.
The idea is to distract the gambler long enough that they'll come back later and continue to play and lose money, albeit in more palatable amounts. While no Australian casinos use Tibco's products, they are beginning to show interest, Quinn says.
Department stores, whose loyalty programs amass gigabytes of data on their shoppers' every purchase, have also begun using Tibco's event processing software to model their customers' spending patterns and predict their next buy.
Quinn says the software would pick up that every year a certain customer spends a fair bit of money around the beginning of October, which could suggest they have a few birthdays around that time.
This would be a perfect time for the store to offer the customer a discount or voucher, a more effective and targeted marketing strategy than TV advertising and catalogues, he says.
''The systems we're building are helping [companies] better understand who their customers are.''
Tibco products also analyse data to keep customers loyal.
In late 2010, Tibco bought the technology start-up Loyalty Lab, whose software platform specifies the best time for a company to engage customers in their loyalty program based on data it has collected on previous customer interactions. ''It's technology and psychology rolled into one,'' Quinn says.
Specially trained loyalty scientists build systems that trawl through a company's customer behaviour data to predict certain events, such as what might prompt a customer to leave.
Loyalty Lab's director of global solutions strategy, Michael Greenberg, says for telcos, for example, there are several events, such as phone calls dropping out, the end of a contract, or more than two complaints, that suggest a customer may be getting ready to take their business elsewhere.
That is when Tibco advises the company to make contact with the customer and make an offer, Greenberg says.
While big businesses make up the bulk of Tibco's clients, Nasdaq, major league baseball, the Department of Homeland Security and major hospitals also use the company's data-sorting software.
In 2010, scientists at Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research began using Tibco's visualisation software, Spotfire, to help identify new drug therapies for diseases such as cancer and malaria.
To locate potential drug candidates, the researchers run tests on tens of thousands of compounds each day, generating hundreds of thousands of data points for each potential therapy.
The co-ordinator of the medical research institute's high-throughput laboratory, biochemist Kurt Lackovic, says the unit is capable of running 80,000 reactions a day.
Spotfire takes the results of each reaction and presents them in diagrams, making it easier for researchers to spot trends, outliers and errors rather than searching for a needle in a rapidly expanding digital haystack.
Hype notwithstanding, big data will turn out to be a useful value-adding tool rather than a ''panacea to solve everything'', says Robert Hillard, Deloitte Consulting technology lead partner.
The privacy issues raised by its use have yet to be resolved, he says. It is crucial that people are given the choice between opting in and opting out of the use of their identifiable personal data, he says.
Companies approaching customers need to be ''utterly transparent'' about how they know what they know about a customer.
THE NEXT BIG THING: BIG DATA
WHAT IS IT?
Data miner is the hottest new job you've never heard of, and it's making actuaries sexy, at least from an employment point of view.
IN THE MONEY
In Silicon Valley, where the preferred term is data scientist, the starting salary for someone straight from university who can crunch masses of information bits into strategic business intelligence runs into six figures, says Anthony Goldbloom of Kaggle. ''These people are like gold. For love or money you can't get trained people,'' he says.
Australia may not be far behind. Tony Davis, a director of leading Sydney data analytics company Quantium, which counts Wesfarmers, Optus, IKEA, Qantas, David Jones and ING among its clients, says top-drawer graduates could be earning six-figure salaries after ''not too long'' in the job. He was hesitant to put his employees forward for this article for fear of drawing them to the attention of covetous competitors. But the secret was already out, thanks to Goldbloom, who ranks data scientists around the world based on their success in crowd-sourcing competitions run by Kaggle to solve client problems.
Quantium's Matthew Carle, 26, who graduated from the Australian National University with a degree in actuarial studies four years ago, is ranked No. 40. He won $US6000 last year in a Kaggle competition to solve a business problem for an insurance company. It was ''just a bit of fun outside work'', he says. ''I was expecting to work mainly in insurance, which is the traditional actuarial path, but it has been very exciting to see how the use of data has spread across different industries.''
Quantium has a joint venture with National Australia Bank called Market Blueprint, which uses de-identified NAB customer transaction data to show how shoppers buy, according to profile, demographic, retail category, online, offline and so on. The analysis is sold to third parties. A recent project for Qantas involved combining some of its customer loyalty data with Market Blueprint information to better understand what drives customer loyalty. | <urn:uuid:fc3f67a9-57de-4789-b01c-b930f445d112> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/business-it/data-miners-find-theres-gold-in-them-thar-files-20120511-1yi3q.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953773 | 2,149 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Processed by: Archives Staff ; machine-readable finding aid created by:Eric Weig
James Campbell Cantrill papers
University of Kentucky Special CollectionsLexington, Kentucky 40506
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], James Campbell Cantrill papers, 1910-1923, 1F60M-321, Special Collections, University of Kentucky.
9 volumes, 10 folders (on 3 microfilm reels)
Politician. James Cantrill was born in Georgetown, Ky, and received his education there at Georgetown College. He was active in organizing Kentucky tobacco farmers from 1906 to 1923, and was president of the American Society of Equity for Kentucky. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1897 to 1901 and in the Kentucky Senate from 1901 to 1905. He represented the 7th Kentucky District in the United States House of Representatives from 1909 to 1921.
Originals in possession of Dr. James C. Cantrill, Georgetown, Ky. This is a microfilm copy of materials from Cantrill's papers, largely scrapbooks relating to his activities in the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association. It includes nine scrapbooks dating from 1910 to 1919, government documents, and printed matter. | <urn:uuid:3fd35297-2d07-448d-b194-64847a16c0dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7dbr8md85c/guide | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940434 | 245 | 1.65625 | 2 |
CPX has been established as a non-denominational research and media organisation designed to foster public understanding of the Christian faith.
The website was launched over the Easter weekend and features a video library service and articles on a range of topics.
In commenting on the launch Dr Clarke indicated that they are "....developing a video way of commenting on the issues of the day from a Christian perspective."For a new site it has a lot of excellent content on a variety of topics including atheism, US foreign policy, popular culture, the truth of the resurrection and so on. The video content includes a number of clips from the Christ Files program that aired on Good Friday as advertised in a previous post. | <urn:uuid:0fe24caa-1b2b-4a8d-86d2-8b04e99ba5b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://andjustincase.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944543 | 141 | 1.671875 | 2 |
This question, recently posed to me by my wife, caught me off guard. What’s so great about peeing outside? Is she kidding?? The real question is what’s bad about peeing outside? I just looked at her as if she had just asked why oxygen is so important to breathing. But since she’s a girl, I launched into an explanation.
You see, Will peed outside for the first time a couple of weeks ago. And since then he’s been dying to use Nature as a toilet instead of his potty. As a guy, I love this and I totally get it. The two of us never discussed it, it’s just an unspoken understanding and appreciation. Peeing outside is cool. And fun. It’s because of our anatomical make up, so I guess I really can’t blame MJ for not understanding. So I tried to explain it to her as best I could.
Men are often bored and easily amused. We’re also competitive and turn everything into a sport. This includes bathroom breaks. Peeing in the toilet is all fine and good and you can make do with a few tried and true games. You can stand back and go for distance. You can do a ring around the bowl while you’re peeing. If there’s a bug in the toilet you can aim at it and try to drown it. All fine and dandy ways to go #1.
But it’s nothing compared to peeing outdoors.
First of all there’s a certain thrill to being outside where other people might see you. You need to find a tree or some other barrier that will shield you from the general public. Second, there are so many more things at which to aim. Plants, leaves, insects, trees. Mother Nature provides a plethora of urinary targets.
And honestly, we just love the mere fact that we’re built to rock a squirt wherever we are at any given time. There’s no waiting in long bathroom lines at crowded parties for a guy. We just step outside, find an isolated corner and take care of business.
And of course, nothing gives a guy more pleasure than peeing outdoors in the snow. You can write your name, draw a design, or — my personal favorite — pick one spot and keep peeing there in an effort to drill a hole all the way down to the ground. But the possibilities are limited only by the boundaries of one’s imagination.
MJ lamely tried to counter this argument by saying that women can pee outside as well. This is technically true, but have you ever watched a woman try to pee outside. It’s just sad. They need to pull their pants and panties all the way down, squat and then try like hell not to pee on themselves. And the only way they can write their names in the snow is if they do that weird crab-like crawl. But I imagine they would end up with their girl parts inadvertently landing in the snow at least once or twice, which has to be unpleasant. So let’s face it, when it comes to outdoor urination men are kings.
I’m not saying our outside peeing skills are the sole reason men have historically run this country. But I’m pretty sure it’s a contributing factor. | <urn:uuid:01685a37-c6c9-40ec-8ce9-d7f51928c372> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.daddyfiles.com/natures-call/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963687 | 702 | 1.679688 | 2 |
You can create indicators, oscillators, trading systems, alerts and advance searches using a programming language. Insider 3000 provides seven types of price charts, built-in indicators, graphical studies and analysis tools.
See the importance of your emails with personal level indicators! view it
Chart your course and get driving directions with Bing maps view it
In this series, we'll explain what GPS technology is and explain how you can use it to make your life easier. view it
In this episode, we'll show you how to use the GPS feature that comes bundled with your smartphone. view it
GPS units often have more features than just allowing you to quietly look at maps and directions. We'll show you a few other features in this episode. view it
There are many things you can use your GPS for including playing a game called geocaching or for using location-based services. view it | <urn:uuid:98b68159-fa8a-44ed-974a-999627363bcd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tucows.de/preview/401202/Insider-3000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944312 | 181 | 1.773438 | 2 |
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At this time John is viewing, as a spectator, the events unfolding in heaven. Revelation 5:1-5 details what happened next:
"And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof."
Only Jesus was found to be able to open the seven sealed book, for He alone is worthy. What is in the book? The judgments of God. The first set of judgments will be the Seven Sealed Judgments, followed by the Seven Trumpet Judgments, and lastly, the Seven Bowl Judgments. | <urn:uuid:746649ae-6e06-4e31-b28c-f483477c9d16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.calvaryprophecy.com/johndesc.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959614 | 267 | 1.679688 | 2 |
|(Standing left to right) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) representatives Debra Elston and Michael Trentacoste, Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) Steve Phillips, and FHWA’s Ian Saunders witness the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation between FHWA and FEHRL to establish a business protocol aimed at optimizing collaboration. (Sitting left to right) FHWA’s Victor M. Mendez and FEHRL’s President Joris Al.|
On July 13, 2011, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to establish a business protocol aimed at optimizing collaboration. The document, which was signed by FHWA Administrator Victor Mendez and FEHRL President Joris Al, sets forth a strategy for working together that offers the possibility of extending the reach of resources and enhancing the quality of research products. In October 2009, FHWA became an Associate of FEHRL, a registered international association with a permanent Secretariat based in Brussels, Belgium. FEHRL, which is engaged in road engineering research and other topics, provides a coordinated structure for the interests of more than 30 European national research and technical centers, and other associated institutes from around the world.
The business protocol is expected to advance cooperative efforts to improve highway transportation research results in the United States by capitalizing on points of synergy and knowledge sharing between the member and associate research laboratories; allow development and implementation of innovations and highway techniques that are identified by the organizations to be brought to fruition more quickly because of the enhanced efforts placed on those activities; support technologies, such as the prefabricated bridge element systems mobile transporters, which were first identified in Europe, to be brought to the United States more quickly; allow development of methods and materials first identified in the United States to have greater markets; establish the framework for specific collaboration; and leverage investments of common areas of interest identified in FHWA’s program plans and roadmaps with FEHRL’s Strategic European Road Research Programme.
Both organizations have already identified projects that are farther along by the other organization, and collaboration will help provide greater results for reduced research funding. For example, work underway in Europe on pavement friction could be leveraged for nominal FHWA investment, and achieve greater value for FHWA’s research investment. Each project identified for joint collaboration will have a separate agreement to specify the work effort, funding, and coordination activities. Visit FEHRL Web site at www.fehrl.org to see the capabilities of the Member and Associate countries.
The legal authority to establish and carry out an international research coordination and collaboration effort is provided to FHWA in 23 U.S.C. § 506. For more information, contact Debra Elston, (202) 493-3181, [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:c0c88eea-23b6-4f7c-a881-977b3989dc15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/research/resources/fhwa_fehrl.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93213 | 611 | 1.570313 | 2 |
10 Painless Ways to Lose Weight
Easy weight loss tips you can slip into your everyday life.
7. Tune In, Tone Up
The American Heart Association knows what we love: television. And they also know we need to get more exercise. So why not combine the two, they ask?
Try dancing to the music when you tune into your favorite music show, or practice some stress-relieving cardio boxing when your least favorite reality contestant is on camera.
During commercials pedal your stationery bike, walk the treadmill, or slip in a little strength training doing bicep curls with cans of your favorite fizzy beverage as weights. Or get inspired to really focus: Put in a high-energy exercise DVD and get motivated by the pros onscreen.
It doesn't matter exactly what you do, so long as you're up and active. Aim for at least 15 minutes, says the AHA. But who knows? If you get really engrossed, you just might outlast the last survivor.
8. Size Matters
Eating less without feeling denied is as close as your dinnerware.
That's because while a small portion served on a large plate can leave you craving more, a smaller plate gives the visual signal that you already have more.
"People go by physical cues," when they eat, Grotto tells WebMD. We know we've had enough because we see the bottom of our bowl or plate. "A smaller plate full of food just feels more satisfying than a large plate with that same amount of food on it."
And don't forget smaller bowls, cups, and spoons. For example, try savoring a bowl of ice cream with a baby spoon. Not only does the pleasure last longer, but your body has time to register the food you've eaten.
9. Get Involved, or at Least Get to the Table
When your weight loss efforts lead to boredom or too much self-focus, get occupied with something else. "I eat more if I'm bored," says Virginias, "especially if I'm eating in front of the TV."
So take a break from the siren-call of the tube, and get occupied with things that have nothing to do with food.
For some, that might mean becoming involved with local politics, discovering yoga, or enjoying painting. Or maybe you want to help a child with a science project, repaint the bedroom, or take a class. The key: Have a life outside of weight loss.
Already busy enough? Then at least eat your meals at the table. "The TV is distracting, and I'm just not conscious of eating," Virginias tells WebMD. "Once I'm at the table, with a place setting, I'm much more aware of what I'm eating."
10. Lose It Today, Keep It Off Tomorrow
Finally, be patient. While cultivating that virtue isn't exactly painless, it may help to know that keeping weight off generally gets easier over time.
That's the result of a study published in Obesity Research, where researchers found that for people who had lost at least 30 pounds -- and kept it off for at least two years -- maintaining that weight loss required less effort as time went on.
So if you crave the results reported by successful "losers" like these -- improved self-confidence, a boost in mood, and better health -- cultivate patience. You may find your way to sweet (and nearly painless) weight loss success. | <urn:uuid:ffa1ecf7-c62b-48e7-a8ae-acbbda789c0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://women.webmd.com/features/weight-loss-tips?page=3 | 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 | 0.962681 | 715 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
November 30, 2007
November 26, 2007
Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.
November 15, 2007
The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time.
October 31, 2007
To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline – training – is about.
James Clavell, in his novel “Shogun”
October 17, 2007
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
October 16, 2007
Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing. | <urn:uuid:a6fd0ebf-882e-481b-b928-db37ac9f20f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://selahplace.wordpress.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936836 | 234 | 1.601563 | 2 |
A few months ago I helped a developer looking to better embrace test driven development. The session was worthwhile and made me reflect on my journey with TDD.
Writing tests is one thing. Striving for full test coverage, writing tests first and leveraging integration and unit tests is another. Some people find writing tests cumbersome and slow. Others may ignore tests for difficult scenarios or code spikes. When first working with tests I felt the same way. Over time I worked through issues and my feeling towards TDD changed. The pain was gone and I worked more effectively.
TDD is about speed. Speed of development and speed of maintenance. Once you leverage TDD as a way to better produce code you’ve unlocked the promise of TDD: Code more, debug less.
Stay In Your Editor
How many times have you verified something works by firing up your browser in development? Too many times. You build, you wait for the app to start, you launch the browser, you click a link, you fill in forms, you hit submit. Maybe there’s a breakpoint you step through or some trace statements you output. How much time have you wasted going from coding to verifying your code works? Too much time.
Stay in your editor. It has everything you need to get stuff done. Avoid the context switch. Avoid repetitive typing. Have one window for your code and another for your tests. Even on small laptops you can split windows to have both open at once. Gary Bernhardt, in an excellent Peepcode, shows how he runs specs from within vim. Ryan Bates, in his screencast How I Test, only uses the browser for UI design. If you leave your editor you are wasting time and suffering a context switch.
Start with Tests
Test driven doesn’t mean test after. This may be the hardest rule for newcomers to follow. We’ve been so engrained to write code, to design classes, to focus on OOP. We know what we need to do. We just need to do it. Once code works we’ll then write tests to ensure it always works. I’ve done this bad practice myself.
When you test last you’re missing the why. Customer gets welcome email after signing up means nothing without context. If you know why this is needed you are in a better position to define your required tests and start shaping your code. The notification could be a simple acknowledgement or part of some intricate flow. If you know the why you are not driving blind. The what you will build and the how you will build it will follow. If you code the other way around, testing later, you’re molding the problem to your solution. Define the problem first, then solve succinctly.
Start with Failing Tests
One of my favorite newbie mistakes is when a developer writes some code, then writes a test, watches the test pass, then is surprised when the code fails in the browser. But the test passed!
Anyone can write a green test. It is the action of going from red to green which gives the test meaning. Something needs to work, it doesn’t. Red state. You change your code, you make it work. Green state. Without the red state first you have no idea how you got to a green state. Was it a bug in your test? Did you test the right thing? Did you forget to assert something? Who knows.
Combined with the why going from red to green gives the code shape. You don’t need to over-think class design. The code you write has purpose: it implements a need to make something work that doesn’t. As your functionality becomes more complex, your code becomes more nimble. You deal with dependencies, spawning new tests and classes when cohesion breaks down. You stay focused on your goal: make something work. Combined with git commits you have a powerful history to branch and backtrack if necessary. As always, don’t be afraid to refactor.
Testing First Safeguards Agile Development
Testing first also acts as a safeguard. Too often developers will pull work from a backlog prematurely. They’ll make assumptions, code to those assumptions, and have to make too many changes before release. If the first thing you do after pulling a story is ask yourself “how can I verify this works” you’re thinking in terms of your end-user. You’re writing acceptance tests. You understand what you need to deliver. BDD tools like Cucumber put this paradigm in the foreground. You can achieve the same effect with vanilla integration tests.
Always Test Difficult Code
Most of the time not testing comes down to two reasons. The code is too hard to test or the code is not worth testing. There are other reasons, but they are all poor excuses. If you want to test code you can test code.
Code shouldn’t be too hard to test. Testing distributed, asynchronous systems is hard but still testable. When code is too hard to test you have the wrong abstraction. You’re API isn’t working. You aren’t adhering to SOLID principles. Your testing toolkit isn’t sufficient.
Static languages can rely on dependency injection to handle mocking, dynamic languages can intercept methods. Tools like VCR and Cassette can fake http requests for external dependencies. Databases can be tested in isolation or faked. Asynchronous code can be tricky to test but becomes easier when separating pre and post conditions (you can also block in unit tests to handle synchronization).
The code you don’t test, especially difficult code, will always bite you. Taking the time to figure out how to test will clean up the code and will give you incredible insight into how your underlying framework works.
Always Test Your Code
I worked with a developer that didn’t write tests because the requirements, and thus code, were changing too much and dealing with the failing tests was tedious. It actually signified a red flag exposing larger issues in the organization but the point is a common one. Some developers don’t test because code may be thrown out or it’s just a spike and not worth testing.
If you’re not testing first because it’s a faster way to develop, realize that there is no such thing as throw away code (on the other hand, all code is throw away code). Mixing good, tested code with untested code creates technical debt. If you put a drop of sewer in a barrel of wine you will have a barrel of sewer. The code has no why. It may be just a spike but it could also turn out to be the next best thing. Then you’re left retrofitting unit tests, fitting a square peg in a round hole.
Balancing Integration and Unit Tests
Once you start testing first a lot of pieces fall into place. The balance between integration and unit tests is an interesting topic when dealing with code coverage. There will be overlap in code coverage but not in terms of covered functionality.
Unit tests are the distinct pieces of your code. Integration tests are how those pieces fit together. You have a customer class and a customer page. The unit tests are the rules around the customer model or the distinct actions around the customer controller. The integration tests are how the end user interacts with those models top to bottom. Pivotal Labs talks about changing state in cucumber steps showing how integration tests monitor the flow of events in an application. Unit tests are for the discrete methods and properties which drive those individual events.
Developing applications is much more than coding. Focusing on tools and techniques at your disposal will help you write code more effectively. Your IDE, command line skills, testing frameworks, libraries and development paradigms are as important as the code you right. They are your tools and become more powerful when used correctly. | <urn:uuid:52dd2ae9-21d9-4d40-8eb2-7d3a72c24743> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.michaelhamrah.com/2013/02/embracing-test-driven-development-for-speed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93508 | 1,633 | 1.75 | 2 |
Yay! It’s National Scrapbooking Day and to help you celebrate, we have some great ideas on how you can share scrapbooking with others in your family, circle of friends, or even your community!
Start a Scrapbooking Circle: Great for networking and ideal for getting the most out of your scrapbooking experience, a scrapbooking circle can be a great way for you to meet other scrapbookers and swap tips. You can even set up monthly supply sales/trades that can help you keep your scrapbooks fresh and vibrant. Meet weekly, biweekly, monthly, or whenever suits you all best!
Make a Friendship Scrapbook: Have a friend you’ve been wanting to thank? Why not make him or her a scrapbook that celebrates your friendship? Start out by making a few pages on your own, and then, when you give the scrapbook to your friend, ask that you work on it together. You can spend hours upon hours commemorating your history together- and having a whole lot of fun!
Have a Scrapbooking Party: Have family members that love to scrapbook? Get everyone together for food, fun, and of course, photos! Scrapbooking parties can be a great way for you to set aside time to work on your latest scrapbook while encouraging scrapbooking with those you love. Play around with different layouts, embellishments, and techniques as you munch on snacks with those you love. So much fun!
How will you be celebrating National Scrapbook Day? | <urn:uuid:53cabc28-bb85-4dee-9c2d-0838c219fb6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.memoryscrapbooks.com/category/techniques/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944973 | 323 | 1.5 | 2 |
Drive your seminar attendees to action, not distraction — become a better storyteller. Indeed, two of the most powerful presentations in history, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, used storytelling as a structural device.
For speaking to large groups or presenting one-on-one, there’s no more compelling way to package your message than in a story framework. So says Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design, focusing exclusively on presentations. She is passionate about using storytelling to connect with audiences and rouse them to action.
Wrapping a presentation in story casts you as a mentor — the wise storyteller. That goes far to link audiences to your idea and persuade, Duarte says.
In her most recent book, Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences (Wiley 2010), she reveals how to emotionally connect and make presentations memorable experiences by employing story techniques typically used only for screenwriting and novels.
Duarte Design, one of Silicon Valley’s largest design firms, has created some 250,000 presentations for the world’s top brands. Its clients include Adobe, American Express, E*Trade, General Electric, Google, Microsoft and Wells Fargo Wealth Management, to name a few.
A Berkeley, Calif., native, Duarte, 48, started out selling office supplies, then custom high-frequency cable assemblies. Meantime, she married Mark Duarte, who, in 1980, founded Duarte Design while in college.
Two years after they wed, Nancy, then 20, joined Mark in what became a family enterprise. A keen strategist, she now heads the Mountain View, Calif.-based firm; Mark is CFO, builds custom databases and oversees I.T.
One recent afternoon, Research talked with Nancy, a dynamic, in-demand speaker herself, about how to build trust through storytelling, the best kinds of stories for FAs to tell — and more. Here is some of what she had to say about merging facts with story to turn flatliner presentations into sparkling gems.
Financial advisors need to differentiate themselves from their competition. Is storytelling a good way?
Advisors have to play this very carefully: They need to come across as very proficient and adding value, but they also need to make that emotional connection. Aristotle said that facts alone aren’t sufficient to persuade — you need three types of arguments: emotional appeal (pathos); analytic, or logical, appeal (logos); and [ethical] appeal (ethos).
So often, especially in the financial world, we jump right into the analytical. But there has to be at least a thin layer of letting audiences see your human side and why they should follow you. A lot of that comes out in the sincere stories we tell about ourselves.
But how effective is storytelling?
Story can connect the audience to your material and whatever you’re trying to persuade them to do. If you and your competitor’s product and offerings are equal but if you connect emotionally with the client and the other firm doesn’t, they’ll choose your product over the competitor’s. However, if you tell stories that are contrived, your credibility can be diminished.
What story form is best for advisors to use?
All the greatest communicators use story structure. It has a clear beginning, middle and end. It has tension and release of tension. A good story form for the advisor is where the tension and release comes from contrasting what currently is, with what could be: You’re currently here with your finances — and here’s where you could be. Using that as a structural device will get you really far in persuading [clients].
You want to use a story that not only amplifies your material but makes it memorable. The story has to be relevant to the material and tie in naturally. It needs to be a story that’s told with personal conviction. It can be a fable or a personal story, but it doesn’t have to be a personal anecdote or a once-upon-a-time kind of story.
For example, data has narrative in it. With a chart, you can explain the reasons for the rise and fall. That’s a story right there. There’s narrative in numbers.
How does what you call “The Big Idea” apply to advisor presentations?
The two elements of your unique point of view and what is at stake put together in a sentence create The Big Idea. If I say, “The Florida Wetlands,” that’s a topic not a Big Idea. If I say, “The Florida Wetlands are being destroyed by humans,” that’s my point of view. But if I add “…and it’s going to cost taxpayers $700 billion,” that’s what’s at stake.
The Big Idea is your guidepost. Connect everything in your presentation to your Big Idea. If you haven’t established your Big Idea, you don’t have that guiding light to help give your presentation laser focus.
How important is it to create a “S.T.A.R. Moment,” as you put it?
S.T.A.R. stands for Something They’ll Always Remember, and every presentation should have that. It could be a shocking statistic; an evocative visual — a powerful slide, possibly; a demonstration; a repeatable sound bite. It’s something the audience will never forget. [Apple’s] Steve Jobs uses suspense before he demonstrates his product, and that’s his S.T.A.R. Moment. You want people at the water cooler chatting about what they’ve learned from you. Your S.T.A.R. Moment has to be planned and be not only memorable but effective.
If you have too much going on — both a verbal signal and a visual signal — the audience can’t process it all at the same time. Both channels need to support each other. It’s easier to just slap a bunch of stuff on a slide and wing it — throw a bunch of words together — than do something really carefully. If you show a really complex chart and are talking a mile a minute, the audience is either going to be processing what’s on the chart or listening to you — but not both.
So what are some tips for creating slides that will help support what you’re saying?
You’re guiding the audience through complex data. Therefore, you need to make sure the slides are very clear and simple to understand. Use neutral colors except for the parts you want them to focus on; use color in those places for emphasis. That way, you’re drawing their eye to the conclusions you want them to make from the data. It’s both an art and a science!
How does storytelling help create a mentor relationship?
In myths and movies, whoever speaks the most is usually the hero. But I’ve learned that, in presentations, the presenter is not the hero. The audience is the hero because you’re putting your idea out there for them to accept or reject. And when you defer to the audience as the hero, right away that puts you in a completely different position. If the audience is the hero, then the presenter is the mentor.
In myths and movies, the mentor gives the hero a useful gift, a magic tool (something for your S.T.A.R. Moment, maybe) or helps them get unstuck. So it’s not just you trying to make a sale — it’s about adding some piece of value to clients’ lives. In being a mentor, you take a stance of humility.
In a one-on-one, the best thing is to listen and then modify your talk based on what you hear. The only way to resonate deeply with someone is to understand what’s already inside them. So listen very well and then synthesize what you’ve heard and embed it in your talk.
From what you hear or observe, there may be something that reminds you of a story or anecdote, and you can fold it in. If you’re given a limited time slot, make your presentation a part of that and spend the rest of the time conversing and connecting.
How can advisors avoid turning off clients and prospects with jargon?
A mentor wouldn’t use jargon or big words to try to impress because a mentor is someone who genuinely cares about the audience and their understanding of the subject matter. Pulling acronyms and shorthand into your presentation makes the audience feel stupid or not qualified to even understand their own finances. You want to come alongside the investor and make them feel like you’re qualified to mentor them.
You could do the grandmother test: If you explain what you do and why she needs it to your grandmother, and she “gets” it, you’ve stripped out all the jargon. It’s important that we use someone as a sounding board who will be honest with us.
Is telling jokes advisable?
I don’t love telling jokes. What I love is when people laugh. Stories can make them laugh. You’re trying to elicit a physical response. If you can get your audience to relax or lean forward or gasp, all those things mean they’re very involved with your material. You shouldn’t use some random joke just to make them laugh.
But if you have 10 or 15 jokes in your head and know at just the right moment which one to pull out, and if the joke is completely appropriate and timed amazingly, and comes across not rehearsed and is funny, it might work. But just slotting in a joke can seem contrived — and anything contrived can make you lose credibility and trust.
How can storytelling help advisors demonstrate transparency?
Transparency is about sincerity and honesty. That’s the cool thing about stories: They give audiences a peek into you and let them feel like you’re trusted and that you’d be a good friend to them — that you’re going to watch out for them and have their best interest at heart.
Your delivery should be warm, but you don’t want to be hyper-emotional. The tone of a financial presentation needs to be a little more serious in nature but very caring. You have to build a sense of trust. | <urn:uuid:4f447dc3-e7cb-4b22-82e4-fa643d2a9954> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.advisorone.com/2011/07/26/the-presenter-as-mentor?t=the-client&page=2 | 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 | 0.942194 | 2,204 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Developing a good relationship with your manager might be the single most important move you can make at your job. At the most basic level, your boss is the key to your next promotion or raise. A good manager will help you excel on the job, and pave the way for your next career step; a bad boss can cause your 9-to-5 to feel like (or actually become) a 9-to-9 -- draining your motivation, damaging your emotional well-being and torpedoing your performance.
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The trick with a bad boss is to learn how to manage up, wresting back control of your career by creating a more positive work climate. "The key is to understand the motivation behind your boss's behavior -- good, bad or indifferent. Once you understand that, you'll have clues as to how to deal with him," says Vivian Scott, author of "Conflict Resolution at Work for Dummies."
Here are five of the most common boss types you'll encounter -- and a few tricks for managing them.
The Vague One
Ravi Kathuria, president of the Houston consulting firm Cohegic Corp, says that he once worked for a cagey character who never made his desires clear. "He would say that he likes to keep things ambiguous for his management team," say Kathuria. "His belief was, that way, they would develop better solutions." In real life, however, the strategy was a failure: "It created confusion in the management ranks. His team never knew where they stood with him."
To focus a flighty leader, you'll need to pin him down and get details. "If he says, 'I just want us to be successful,' ask, 'What would success look like?'" suggests Scott. Ask for as many specifics as possible: how many units you'd need to sell or what profit target you should hit, for instance, or if the deadline you're working on will meet his goals.
Don't be shy about touching base early and often. If your boss is sending you off on a fishing expedition, at least know what you're supposed to catch.
It can be infuriating to have someone watching your every move. For your own sanity, never forget what motivates micromanagers: "They're concerned about their own reputation and really care about the final product," says Scott.
The best way to manage micromanagers is to get out from under them occasionally: Navigate your way onto cross-functional teams, for instance, so you're dealing with other leaders. Since that's not always possible, Scott also suggests offering your expertise in an area in which your boss is weak, because he won't feel like he knows more than you and, if you're lucky, he'll come to see your expertise as a benefit to him. "Realize you won't get him to stop being a micromanager, but try to redirect his attention," says Scott.
Still getting the feeling there are eyes on you at all times? Ask if he's willing to agree on specific check-in points for a particular project when you will talk about any issues or concerns. This should make him feel more secure that nothing will slip through the cracks -- and allow you to slip out of his vise-like management grip.
A bullying boss won't steal your lunch, but may steal any vestige of joy you get out of your job -- which, in turn, will make it hard for you to perform well enough to get a better offer. One PR specialist from Salt Lake City -- we'll call her Gina -- says a former boss made feedback personal.
"She treated everyone around her like they were stupid or incompetent. She was extremely negative, rolling her eyes and saying things like 'Oh my God, what a boring idea,'" Gina recalls. "The assistant account person was scared to death of her, frequently avoiding asking any questions because she would just insult her. It made for a terrible work environment."
The first step to beating a bully is doing good work that you can stand behind, and then standing your ground. "The bullying boss is very focused on results and wants things done now," says behavioral analyst Gayle Abbott, CEO of Strategic Alignment Partners in Virginia, who has worked with companies ranging from law firms to Lockheed Martin. "Identify what they want, what they value, and take action. These [types of] people also want you to come to them confident and tell them the truth -- even if they don't like it. Don't give made-up answers or platitudes."
One way to handle them: Whenever you're at a turning point, delegate up by giving them a few options; then let them make the choice. "This works because bullies like to make their own decisions. They don't want to be dictated to," says Abbott.
Of course, if you're being personally pummeled, you can always ask if you've done something wrong. A level-headed yet over-stressed boss may not realize how he sounds. And finally, if your manager is just a jerk with a capital J, you may need to start polishing up your resume. Life's too short.
With some managers, it's all about me, me, me. "They design the processes around themselves. They network for themselves. They change the rules because they want to," says Gonzague Dufour, director of executive recruitment and development at Bacardi-Martini and author of "Managing Your Manager: How to Get Ahead with Any Type of Boss." While working for a narcissist can be frustrating, they're actually incredibly easy to figure out and please, says Dufour: "If you're smart, you're presenting everything from his perspective."
Tell her how your new software program will save her time; show how your new sales successes will boost her year-end numbers, or simply ask her how you can help her do her job better. And use your boss's vanity to your advantage: If you make her look good, you'll be more valuable to her -- and she'll be more inclined to help you perform.
Being buddy-buddy with your boss isn't necessarily a bad thing: The more your manager likes being around you, the more likely he is to keep you on his team as he moves up the corporate ladder. But beware when the friendly small talk turns to personal gossip. Your new best friend may be using you to spy on other members of the staff -- and if he's talking trash about your colleagues, you can bet your next paycheck he's also bad-mouthing you behind your back.
The first thing to do is figure out your manager's motivation. "Some people just want to be liked," says Abbott. But if you suspect spying or even back-stabbing, beware.
"If you gossip, [your manager] can use that against you, because [he or she] won't trust you," says Abbott. Whenever the conversation turns to, say, who's flirting with the intern or having problems with their kids, change the topic to something more benign, like last night's episode of "Mad Men," and leave the drama on-screen.
Got a bad boss horror story of your own? Sign in below to comment. Just don't name any names. | <urn:uuid:df2caf00-6876-4778-973c-bdb8232eedd5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pf_article_112803.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976896 | 1,543 | 1.5625 | 2 |
fast little loans
London - Sensors alerting motorists to empty parking spaces are being installed in British streets for the first time.
The small sensors, embedded in the asphalt of each parking bay, can tell whether a car is present, absent or has over-stayed its allotted time.
The data will be collected centrally and sent via smartphone or tablet apps to drivers, who will be able to pay for the space via their mobile.
There are also plans for the alerts to be sent to parking wardens.
The system is in use in San Francisco but the British trial is believed to be the first in Europe. It is being piloted in central London by Westminster Council on 135 bays over four streets.
The council, which charges up to £4.40 (about R50) an hour for on-street parking, said: “It will reduce congestion and minimise the need for motorists to endlessly trawl the streets searching for somewhere to park.” - Daily Mail | <urn:uuid:6aa0500a-0ec7-4475-a223-cdd3c69f6f92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/software/an-app-that-finds-a-parking-space-1.1356934 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942617 | 203 | 1.8125 | 2 |
November 11, 2009 at 12:52 pm , by Julia Kagan
Sometimes you learn the best stuff by accident. A few weeks ago I was racing across town to meet friends for dinner when my high heel got stuck in a crack in the pavement. When I yanked it out, the rubber bottom of the heel came off. I was late so I kept running on the heel stub. And I discovered something wonderful—the foot in the broken shoe felt amazingly better because the heel was ¼ inch shorter.
Yes, I do know that stilettos aren’t what the doctor ordered. Heels over 2 inches can cause foot and back problems; over 3 inches and they put seven times the pressure on the ball of your foot that flats do.
The shoes had always been a bit too high to wear every day so, when I had them fixed, I asked the shoemaker if he could make the heels slightly shorter. He could! They’re now 2 inches instead of nearly 2 ½ and so comfortable I wear them all the time. It worked so well I had him cut down some brown ankle boots that had been getting dusty in my closet for the same reason.
As the Shoe Service Institute of America points out, there’s a limit to how much you can cut off and which kinds of heels can be shortened. But it’s worth a try! And if even lower heels don’t make your feet feel better, here’s more advice on what to try.
Photo by geishaboy500. | <urn:uuid:cebb16bd-bcdd-4691-be3b-22b73f752903> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lhj.com/blogs/ladieslounge/tag/high-heel-relief/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964332 | 320 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Tampa Bay Times investigative report finds Florida 'Kill at Will (aka Stand Your Ground)' Law Yields Some Shocking Outcomes Depending on How Law is Applied. Among the findings - those who invoke law to avoid prosecution have gone free nearly 70 percent of the time. Defendants more likely to prevail if the victim is black.
► Explore the most complete list of Florida 'Kill at Will' cases ever created.
► Travyvon Martin's parents plead with Gov. Scott's task force to change 'Kill At Will' law. Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin delivered 375,000 online petitions collected by Second Chance on Shoot First. "Our son has been sacrificed," Tracy Martin said, "It's a bad law, set up basically for the shooter to take an innoncent life."
► A new study by Texas A & M Professors Cheng Cheng and Mark Hoekstra, Does Strengthening Self-Defense Law Deter Crime or Escalate Violence? Evidence from Castle Doctrine, finds "the results indicate that a primary consequence of strengthening self-defense law is increased homicide."
► The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will launch a special investigation into how race affects the enforcement of kill-at-will laws across the nation.
► Mother Jones, How the NRA and Its Allies Helped Spread a Radical Gun Law Nationwide. Florida enacted the self-defense law in 2005. By 2012, with the help from the NRA and its allies, 24 more states had adopted similar laws.
► ProPublica, Five 'Kill at Will' Cases You Should Know About, points to additional troubling cases in Texas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
► When Raul Rodriguez, of Houston, TX went to tell his neighbors to turn down the music he took a flashlight, a video camera, and a gun. Watch the video taken the night of the fatal shooting. Rodriguez is claiming self-defense but prosecutors say he had ample opportunity to leave the confrontation.
► MLive special report on self-defense homicides in Michigan: Justified to Kill. Report takes a closer look at what happens before and after the killing.
► An Indiana law amends the 2006 Castle Doctrine bill that allows deadly force to stop illegal entry into a home or car to specifically allow force against police. "Someone is going to get away with killing a cop because of this law."
Talking Points Memo, After Giffords Shooting, Violence Rhetoric Trickles Back Into Campaigns, gives examples of guns and violent rhetoric being used in current campaign videos and emails.
► At least eight people were killed and 46 injured in shootings in Chicago last weekend. Murders were up sixty percent over the previous year during the first quarter of 2012 but are actually down eight percent this quarter and gun recovery is up twenty percent.
► California Deputy's Guns Found in Criminal Hands. Prosecutors have charged a Sacramento County sheriff's deputy with acting as a straw buyer to purchase restricted handguns which he then sold to unqualified buyers through a licensed dealer who also faces federal charges.
► The lone survivor of the shooting at a cafe in Seattle, WA that left four people dead says the gunman, Ian Stawicki, was intent on not leaving any survivors. Stawicki's father told reporters that his son had a concealed weapons permit and was becoming noticeably volatile over time.
► Springfield, MA Police Officer Kevin Ambrose was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence call. The shooter was a NYC correction officer who wounded his former girlfriend before taking his own life.
Mark Foresth, Baltimore Post Examiner, Gun Safety for Gang Bangers, reminds gang members that a true gunman knows his target and aims accordingly and avoids sloppy, even amateur shooting that wounds or kills innocent bystanders.
► Art on Issues, Guns vs Cars? Would You Send Your Child There. The data are clear that US children and adolescents are at many times the risk of losing their lives to gunfire than those in peer countries. To defend that loss of life in the name of a constitutional right is both obscene and morally-corrupt.
► Spocko, My FireDogLake,Dear Tim: I'm worried my gun carrying son will hurt others, how do I get his concealed weapon permit revoked? examines the issue of revoking ccw permits in the wake of the Seattle shooting.
► Richard M. Aborn, Washington Post, Why Indifference to Gun Violence is a National Crime. The issue is not just that the NRA has created power but also that supporters of gun control have waned. Many things can be done to take that control back, but three things are critical.
► The Inside Out Project, a global art initiative, has partnered with the NYC Mission Society and the gun violence prevention group Operation SNUG for a photography exhibit in Harlem to show the faces of gun violence victims.
|What the Gun Lobby is Doing
Media Matters, NRA Partners With Conspiracy-Minded Gun Activist at Chicago CPAC, gives some background information on the speakers on the NRA moderated panel "The Liberal's Shadow War on Second Amendment."
► AmmoLand, The George Soros Anti-Gun Agenda, wants you to know that "Michael Bloomberg wants to ban guns in your town" and that Mayors Against Illegal Guns "just want to make your guns illegal. Period."
► Media Matters, NRA Researcher Makes Dubious Comparison to Downplay U.S. Firearm Related Death Rate, looks at the gun lobby's attack on a recent Violence Policy Center report that shows gun deaths now outpace motor vehicle deaths in ten states.
► The Eagle Gun Range in Lewisville, Texas has announced it is now hosting birthday parties for kids. "The age limit is eight years old," said the owner. "You have to be tall enough to get above the shooting table." | <urn:uuid:d28e494f-29f4-4355-8021-42c81d47a283> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hq-org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5610/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1208724 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950051 | 1,185 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Back art art is an exhibition that brings together over forty works of thirty contemporary artists in the historic rooms of the Accademia Gallery in Florence. The exhibition involves not only the rooms of the museum specifically dedicated to temporary exhibitions, but also the salt of the permanent collection, the Tribune’s David , the Gallery of Prisons , the Gipsoteca, the Hall of the Colossus, where the inclusion of contemporary works highlighting clearly the relationship between present and past. The exhibition, curated by Bruno Cora, Franca Falletti and Daria Filardo, includes the installation in the halls of the Gallery of works: Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Alberto Burri, Catelani Antonio, Martin Creed, Gino de Dominicis, Rineke Dijkstra, Marcel Duchamp, Luciano Fabro, Hans Peter Feldmann, Luigi Ghirri, Antony Gormley, Yves Klein, Jannis Kounellis, Ketty La Rocca, Leoncillo, Sol LeWitt, Eliseo Mattiacci, Olaf Nicolai, Louis Alders, Giulio Paolini, Claudio Parmiggiani, Giuseppe Penone, Pablo Picasso, Alfredo Pirri, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Renato Rinaldi, Savinio, Thomas Struth, Fiona Tan, Bill Viola, Andy Warhol . The way back art art is what Luciano Fabro – between the artist most famous of the Italian who died in 2007 – had chosen for a collection of his writings, lectures and conferences held between 1981 and 1997 at universities, academies and museums worldwide. Take that phrase as the title of the exhibition marks the sharing of a thought turned to art as a continuum that renews and regenerates itself, drawing strength from itself and from its own history. Art art returns suggests the exemplary artists who with their works look at the history, the masterpieces of the past, using its iconography, elaborating the thought, taking on a responsibility not exhausted and belonging that has no boundaries, but which is divided according to language rich in interpretive possibilities. The place that hosting the exhibition is doubly symbolic. It is famously home of David and thePrisoners of Michelangelo, as well as funds that offer important masterpieces of various periods, but most of the fourteenth-century Florentine painting: thus emerges as the ideal place to make real dialogue between the works of the past and those artists of our day, offering audiences the experience of a constant counterpoint. The gallery exhibition space is also linked to the history of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, the first institution established in Italy to mark the continuity between past and present, where the collection of plaster casts and works, before and after the birth of the museum, has provided exempla of Renaissance thought and the lifeblood of artists from around the world, and the Accademia in Florence came to study. languages put together in this museum and many are logical and cover all the ‘ arc of visual production techniques including more traditional such as painting, sculpture, drawing as well as photography, video, performance, environmental installations . All images are accepted and included in this process.The works have been carefully chosen for the reflections, the “survival” and the visual similarities with the past, with paintings, sculptures and architecture of the museum, which trigger and unravel a critical argument about the role and function of the gesture creative. Living artists were involved in the choice and some of them will carry out the works specially for the occasion. ‘s Arch of Hysteria by Louise Bourgeois, hung with all its load of “hysteria of living” in front of Venus by Pontormo and not far by David of Michelangelo, offering proof of how the Queen naked form of the human body can express ideas and feelings trigger more unfathomably distant. And the effort to bring out the shape from the raw material, on which it is consumed the life of Michelangelo, still seems to weigh on the shoulders of Joseph Penone difficult to dig in its mighty trunks of wood, as echoed in the shapes obtained in cement by Antony Gormley. The other figure of Giulio Paolini will be located almost opposite the video Surrender of Bill Viola: Two ways to revisit and interpret the contemporary theme of reflection and reproducibility of introducing, in the left arm of the Grandstand, the Fair chalks of the nineteenth century, only objects created to be played. The theme of reflection is also produced in the floor fractured mirror of Alfredo Pirri, in the work Portrait of the Artist as a Weeping Narcissus Olaf Nicolai weeping that makes ripples and different image reflected in mirror painting by Michelangelo Pistoletto holy conversation, which includes us in a conversation today. Metaphorically, the reflection becomes the identification of the gaze of the visitor, who enters conceptually a part of the creative process in a video installation by Rineke Dijkstra, which tells of a slow observation and reproduction of a Picasso painting, pictured in front of Thomas Struth Dürer’s self and in the performance of athletes that travel faster spaces of the Gallery of Martin Creed. The reproducibility, repetition and movement of images in art history has dealt with a critical eye in the works of Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Louis Ghirri, Hans Peter Feldmann, Ketty La Rocca that directly relate to icons known. Jannis Kounellis with Untitled recall the iconography and the tragic sense of the Crucifixion, a theme taken up differently in the works of Alberto Burri and Triumphant Renato Rinaldi, while gold and ultramarine blue monochromes of Yves Klein rapporteranno gold funds of fourteenth-century altarpieces. The casts of the eyes of David in the work of Claudio Parmiggiani will pose the problem of the fragment, while the San Sebastian Leoncillo Alders and Luigi will give different visions of quell’iconografia sacred. Emblematic and mysterious gaze on the past will appear in Neptune Fisherman Alberto Savinio like Urvasi and Gilgamesh by Gino de Dominicis. Interesting reflections on the work of the past will be provided by Child Figure (the Cardinal) Francis Bacon, from ‘ Arlequín espejo with Pablo Picasso, Sol LeWitt’s drawings of the frescoes of Piero della Francesca, as the egg-shaped volumes of The Judgement of Paris Luciano Fabro or large iron sculpture Solar Chariot of Montefeltro Elisha Mattiacci. The memory in recognition of the origins and provenance will be the cornerstone of Provenance , reflection film by Fiona Tan and even classical elements of architecture museums are starting development of the form in Klettersteig Catelani Antonio.
The recognition of the origins, the persistence of patterns and forms, the need to start over, go back and edit previous speculations, are elements of a thinking and a doing that belong to the essence of what we call the discourse of art history, its languages and the way visual and plastic. The report opens with the memory has always been the continuing artistic reflection that evokes connections and complex thoughts, build new stores, constellations and articulated systems that allow to reason about the figures, the compositional process and the fundamental archetypes of art. In the work of artists of every age can be recognized lineages, findings, shown in a return always different. The simultaneity is not exempt from this attitude of continuous analysis and revision of the sources, which leads to nostalgic evocations empty but is capable of generating current and innovative creations deeply. Memory, as understood in this project, not the sequential recording of passing time, it is rather a subterranean memory that emerges precisely in its approach to heterogeneous fragments (past and present) that awaken the depth, grasp the unspoken, make see a dialectical “dizzying”. The unbroken meditation on the sources and processing in the works of great artists is open and vital resource to generate innovative creations deeply because, quoting Cesare de Seta, Italian art historian and writer “… there are those among our contemporaries who continue to engage with History and the past, and for this reason the art of the future. “ A program of events will join the exhibition in order to deepen and broaden the topics proposed. The theme of the reports that this art has with its past is at the heart of the choice of a series of six films presented Odeon Florence from Wednesday 23 to Friday, May 25, 2012.Edited by The Screen of the Film Festival, the program will bring together films by great directors of art films, from the sixties to today. In addition to meetings with artists, was scheduled for the autumn a series of three concerts (Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, Luciano Berio) by Daniele Lombardi. | <urn:uuid:fafd0d20-9fe8-4fb7-85ca-4e44db65a7da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allisonbcooke.com/back-art-art/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93425 | 1,852 | 1.796875 | 2 |
These podcasts are meant to provide people with the opportunity to get further into the issues Dennis Loo discusses in his book, Globalization and the Demolition of Society, as well as to be in dialogue and collaboration with people whose work speaks to the critical issues of our time.
We believe that understanding the world more deeply is essential to changing it and that to make a different world requires that people engage on a deep level and broadly throughout society. So we invite and encourage discussion and debate at the highest possible level, hosting interviews and debates, and commentary by and about, major ideas and theories, by prominent intellectuals and activists, scientists, artists, authors, and people who are not (yet) famous about the connection between people’s ideas and their actions. We recognize that how people understand what is happening in the world—how their ideas and paradigms operate and what facts they are aware of or not aware of—determines what people will or will not do to change the current trajectory.
Stephen Rohde is a super lawyer, writer and lecturer fighting on behalf of the people in various struggles. Stephen is based in LA, where he writes and lectures widely on freedom of expression, censorship, media regulation, hate speech, pornography, and the Internet. He is the author of American Words of Freedom and Freedom of Assembly and co-author of Foundation of Freedom. He has also hosted a segment on Radio's Clear and Present Danger and served as President of the ACLU of Southern California and Chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. He is currently Chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace.
This podcast is our second in an ongoing series. Stephen will be a regular podcast guest.
Watch for our next upcoming guests who will also be regular contributors: Law Professor Barbara Olshansky, co-author of The Case for Impeachment, who has also represented detainees at Gitmo, and award-winning playwright Donald Freed.
This conversation between Stephen Rohde and Linda Rigas runs approximately 46 minutes.
Note: when listening to this you'll want to adjust your volume by using the volume controls on your computer keyboard, usually located on the top row of keys. We're working on improving the volume balance for future podcasts.
Other interviews and podcasts so far can be found by clicking on the navigation bar tab above entitled Interviews & Talks. | <urn:uuid:212635b9-89e0-4b0e-bdf3-19b78bed8be6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dennisloo.com/podcasts-archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962187 | 478 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Letter to the Editor: Book Debate Turns Community Into Battleground
Tony Lollio says Salem parents had right to object to book, but rhetoric has gotten out of hand.
Editor's note: Tony Lollio is the son of Sharon Lollio, read what her son writes was a "questionable" passage from Beloved in front of Plymouth-Canton school board members during a Jan. 24 board meeting.
When Barbara and Matt Dame decided to voice their opinion about the books, Beloved and Waterland in the AP English curriculum on the PCCS campus, they did so as citizens and concerned parents of a student currently enrolled in the class.
It should stand to reason then, that their opinion would be treated with the sort of respect that should be the foundation of a society valuing the freedoms of speech and press.
What happened to the Dames was something entirely different. A campaign of spoken and written hyperbole about "banning" and "book burning" has turned our quiet town into another political battleground. Publications and blog sites as far away as New York have decided not to report both sides of this debate, but have instead launched personal and hurtful attacks against the Dames, and anyone else who may hold a similar view about questionable material in the district's curriculum.
The question begs to be answered; who brought politics into an issue that started between a school district and a group of concerned parents? Should a person's political or religious views be called into question when voicing their concern to a school district in which that person lives, and where their children attend school?
If the answer to this question is no, then it certainly wasn't the Dames who brought politics into this issue. Sharon Lollio came under fire for simply reading one of the questionable paragraphs from Beloved in front of the school board, drawing the gavel from Vice President Adrienne Davis. Davis reprimanded Lollio for using questionable language, compelling Lollio to ask why language and content deemed acceptable for the district's students couldn't be read out loud in front of the board members.
The "stunt", as some have called it, drew raucous applause from some in the meeting who had come to support the Dames. Much has been made about Lollio's political affiliations, as one of the founding members of "Rattle With Us", a Tea Party group based here in Plymouth.
What seems to have been left out is the fact that Sharon Lollio also lives in, and has a grandchild, in the district. So the question again is this: Should a person's religious or political views be called into question when voicing concern to a school district in which that person lives, and where their children attend school?
If the answer to the question is no, then it wasn't Sharon Lollio who brought politics into the issue. My purpose in writing this piece is not to try and convince anyone to take a particular side on this issue, but rather to point out a few inconsistencies in the way the matter has been treated.
There seems to always be a double standard when it comes to how we deal with censorship in our schools. Literature with questionable, often offensive material is included in curriculum because of its cultural relevance or historical value; while the Bible, arguably the most culturally relevant work in Western civilization, is off the table as a teaching tool.
If this issue was about an AP English teacher assigning readings from the New Testament, would everyone file into the same side of the boardroom as they did on Monday night? Would the ACLU and the usual list of bloggers still talk about censorship and book burning?
Teachers are discouraged from displaying devotional material and talking about faith in order to preserve unity in the classroom, so students with different belief systems are not marginalized and made uncomfortable; yet a student who felt uncomfortable with the material in Beloved was marginalized and separated from her peers because of her beliefs, sent to the library, while her classmates continued without her.
Barbara and Matt Dame's daughter is the victim of a double standard. If we are going to insist that our classrooms be religiously neutral and all inclusive, we'd better be consistent about it. We owe it to our kids. A dangerous precedent is set in a free-thinking society when concerned parents, regardless of their political or religious beliefs, are made fodder for local journalists and propagandist bloggers. It was these, not the Dames or Sharon Lollio, who brought politics into this issue.
It was Superintendent Jeremy Hughes, not the Tea Party, who struck these books from the curriculum. Superintendent Hughes made a judgement call before any political groups added pressure to the issue. Hughes came under fire for unilaterally removing the books from the class, and personally apologized for acting in a manner he himself termed "authoritarian."
I find it interesting that many proponents of these two books spoke of trusting the judgement of teachers in introducing material to the curriculum; yet the same trust is not extended to the Superintendent when it comes to removing material.
There is a double standard at work in the school district. It threatens freedom of speech when parents and students feel intimidated by teachers, administrators, and local media outlets. People in our community should feel safe to speak their minds in a public setting, it's part of community investment.
Debate, and differences of opinion are an integral part of life in our country; intimidation and character assasination should not be. | <urn:uuid:3fa9d31e-0e72-493f-b1f0-1797e2aad21d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plymouth-mi.patch.com/articles/letter-to-the-editor-book-debate-turns-community-into-battleground | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973294 | 1,100 | 1.570313 | 2 |
A. By "the same," I mean the same speed and force, the same relaxed wrist and hand! The angle is the only thing that changes, to control distance. That will be instinctive. You don't have to think about what angle. Your clever body will know to aim higher or lower. And always plan to shoot very high, if possible, which requires a strong, deliberate leg drive action.
Master the Release from the Pure Release Distance!!! This is a distance where, with no legs or just a tiny, triggering kind of motion, you fire off your Release aimed high and the ball comes down dead center every time. The ball gets up to 11 1/2' 12' or a little more (not 15-20') and drops softly into the center, swish. Don't adjust your Release to fit the distance. Adjust the distance to fit the Release!!!
From there you should be able to make 5, 10, 20 in a row any time you want, most swishes, and make 90-95% of your shots (and get focused, calm, trusting). If you can't make a bunch in a row like a robot, any time you choose, it means your Release is not "constant," not simple, automatic and repeatable. Moving back with that kind of unstable Release will just make things worse as you add more variables (the leg drive, the distance, maybe extra body movement, etc.).
Remember to keep it simple.
Q. Can you shoot too high?
(A question about coaching a daughter)
A. Yes, it's possible to get too much arch. I rarely see it, so I keep saying "as high as possible," but 10', 12', 15' and more above the rim is too high because it's both hard to judge the distance and the ball starts to accelerate as it approaches the rim, thus making it more "hot." It's fun and useful to "play" with height and shoot that high, but then tame it down when you shoot for real. If she can shoot ultra high and make the shots, then there's no problem, but it's a difficult thing to do consistently.
To coach your daughter, see how she is shooting so high. Is it from the legs? Or is it from a very strong arm action? She may have to tame it down, again, very rare.
Have her work from the "Pure Release Distance” (PRD), the one distance from which she can make shot after after shot after shot with medium-high arch (~50-60 degrees above horizontal, roughly 11 o’clock on a clock) and minimal (or no) leg action, high arching, soft landing, dead center, swish! Fire off the Swish Release (a consistent, relaxed wrist release, the arm doing all the work) and then adjust the distance from the basket accordingly, so the shots come in from high, dead center.
From the PRD, the bottom of the ball can get up to 11 1/2-12 feet -- much higher than that probably isn't necessary. If she (or anyone) is that strong, then raise the Set Point. You want the repeatable release motion. That's the key. As she moves back, then, the leg power will be needed to power and stabilize the shot.
Q. How get perfect spin?
A. Your spin is not perfectly backspin because you must be doing something extra with your shooting hand or wrist (or some action involving the off hand). Observe yourself shoot very carefully and see if you can figure out what's interfering.
To practice a great Release, bring your shooting hand in line with your shooting eye and the target (an open stance is more natural than a square stance). Observe if your hand is directly in line with the target. Is the center of the hand in line? The fingers are pointing up and back. To shoot, simply straighten your arm in a pushing action, aimed up high in the direction of the target, and hold the follow through. You might do it one-handed for awhile to learn it, and then add the off hand.
Observe to see if your hand twists or does it stay straight in line with the target. If it stays straight in line you should get perfect backspin, medium in speed if you do it fairly strong and quickly. If your hand is doing something else, that will interfere with the normal, medium backpin that a relaxed wrist and hand will create naturally when the arm is pushed directly in line with a target.
I advocate NO tension in the wrist and hand. That way the action is simple and repeatable. And you'll find it's the way the greatest shooters shoot (Jeff Hornacek, Chris Mullin, Detlef Schrempf, Steve Kerr, etc.). The Release is just an arm thing, a pushing to the end-of-the-arm at the same speed and force every time.
Go to my website (http://www.swish22.com) and read all my articles, Newsletters, coaching suggestions, Q&A's, etc. You will read of the simple way of shooting that I coach. The July 2002 Newsletter has a section entitled "What Matters in Shooting..." It talks about how the Hand matters, how that hand is pointing and how it's used in the shot.
This spin thing is simple bio-mechanics, not some complicated thing. But you have to be aware of what you do.
Q. How control distance?
I'm trying to vary arch to control distance, as you advise, but I'm always short. What's wrong?
A. Don't make arch a set thing! It's an intangible. It has to be figured instinctively, in the moment, based on how far you are away from the basket, how much power you feel from the lower body (leg drive, UpForce), how fast you have to shoot, how much of the leg energy you are "catching," etc. etc. You will just KNOW whether to raise or lower the arch at the moment of release.
If you are short or long, it just means you are not paying attention to all those variables (at least not enough attention) to make an appropriate adjustment for the power you have.
To learn how to do this, play around with it! Experiment, explore, discover! Be creative!
Stand in one spot, say 12-15 feet away, and take a bunch of shots. Each time vary the amount of leg drive and see how much arch is appropriate. You should, very quickly, learn to vary arch to control the distance and start making a lot of shots, maybe even 5, 10, 20, 30 in a row or more.
(Read the Newsletter from May 2001 where I mention the 150-in-a-row story:
I feel this adjustment in arch can be completely instinctive, nothing to think about. With practice you should become very good at it. The basket is huge (18" inside diameter), so if you are just even close, the ball will drop. With a full sized ball, you can be off 4" in all directions and still "swish" the shot, it's that big. Key is to get at least enough leg drive that you can shoot very high, as the high arch ensures a big landing area.
Q. Ball Over Eye
I have a question for your regarding your thoughts on 'squaring up.
I also have taught the open stance approach so as to relieve tension in the shooting arm. However, I have also taught the "open window" approach, i.e. not putting the ball in front of your face when you shoot. I have always adhered to the school of thought that having the ball in front of your shooting eye affects your depth perception.
Perhaps I misunderstood. I would appreciate your opinion on this, as I am always attempting to improve on my coaching philosophy on shooting.
A. I think it's important to have the hand and ball "pretty much" in alignment with the shooting eye. I like it exactly in line, but when I'm moving left or right, that's not always possible, so this is a guideline, more than a hard-and-fast rule.
I've heard that some people like to have both eyes on the target, and that requires a movement of the ball slightly to the right (for right handers). This is your "open window" idea.
I find that I can cover one eye with my arm and still shoot just fine. My body "knows" where the basket is with a quick glance. You wouldn't want the ball in front of the face, blocking your vision totally, so you have to have a Set Point either above or below the eyes (so you can see the basket by looking under or above the ball).
Depth perception is not a problem for me and the players I've coached. If you can see with even just one eye (for that instant) and you trust yourself, your body will know where the basket is in space and find the appropriate height for each shot. In general, it's effective to be "generally" aligned with the shooting eye. A little bit left or right is okay, just so it's not so much that you can't be consistent with direction. I feel over the ear or the shoulder is much too far off line and requires a calculation of angle each time that can cause errors. | <urn:uuid:51e8a0b1-5841-4df6-8a5d-9090e4fb45fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.swish22.com/faqs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956369 | 1,950 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Egypt seeks free trade pact with US
Egypt is seeking a free trade agreement with the United States that could offer US companies "a doorway" to Africa, the Middle East and Europe, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced in Washington Tuesday, April 3.
The Egyptian leader, in a speech prepared for delivery to the US Chamber of Commerce, said such an accord would consolidate a decade of reforms in Egypt that have expanded the role of the private sector, reduced government regulations and opened the economy to greater foreign investment.
Mubarak is currently in the United States on an official visit, and on Monday became the first Arab leader to confer with President George W. Bush.
"In this visit we are approaching the new administration with an offer to initiate discussions that will lead eventually to a free trade agreement — one that will bind our two countries in progress and one that will preserve the successes of our reforms," Mubarak told a luncheon audience. "We offer a doorway to Africa, Middle East and soon to Europe."
Egypt is already part of free trade areas that cover Arab countries of the Middle East and most of east Africa, according to Mubarak, who added that Cairo had also initialed a partnership arrangement with the European Union.
Two-way trade between the United States and Egypt last year came to $4.2 billion, representing US exports of $3.3 billion and imports worth $0.9 million, according to the Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber earlier Tuesday announced the opening of an Office of US-Egypt Business Partnership Development to promote US investment in the Egyptian economy.
"This agreement will lead to an expansion of trade and investment between the United States and Egypt and is the first step toward a possible trade agreement on a mutually beneficial, reciprocal basis," said Chamber president Thomas Donohue.
The United States and another Arab nation, Jordan, worked out an agreement last year that would eliminate all tariffs on goods and services traded between the two countries over 10 years. The deal must now be approved by Congress.
Mubarak on Tuesday sought to convince US businessmen that Egypt, having embraced the free market, was a sound venue for their operations. "The Egypt of tomorrow is centered on continued deregulation, greater foreign and domestic investment, the building of human capital and the continued opening to the world economy," he said.
The state monopoly in telecommunications is being dismantled and the private sector is becoming a growing partner in electricity generation, Mubarak said.
Citing recent oil and gas discoveries in the Mediterranean basin, he predicted that "Egyptian energy can soon power industry across the Middle East through a regional electric grid and a network of gas pipelines."
Egypt is anxious to promote its exports to the US market and to attract investment as it is weaned off annual US economic assistance that amounted to 735 million dollars last year. But the US ambassador in Cairo, Daniel Kurtzer, had said many investors tell him Egypt still has a ways to go to create the right business environment.
In a speech to the US Chamber of Commerce in Egypt on March 13, he cited such barriers to business as customs and red tape, corporate tax burdens, slow-moving courts and slow efforts at privatization. — (AFP, Washington)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com) | <urn:uuid:2e8d95cf-bff0-4c43-ada1-78ddf1d16f45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albawaba.com/business/egypt-seeks-free-trade-pact-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966015 | 673 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Read a related story here.CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Federal Aviation Administration said it would remove air traffic controllers from five state airports in anticipation of looming budget cuts.
It also would eliminate two overnight controllers at Yeager Airport.
The FAA proposed closing all towers at: North Central West Virginia Airport in Bridgeport; Wheeling Ohio County Airport in Wheeling; Tri-State Airport in Huntington; Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg; and Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport in Parkersburg.
The agency posted a statement on its website Friday announcing that it's considering furloughing about 47,000 employees for one pay period, closing more than 100 air control facilities, eliminating 60 overnight shifts and reducing preventative maintenance support. This would save about $600 million for the remainder of fiscal year 2013, ahead of sequestration cuts scheduled to take effect March 1.
"All of these changes will be finalized as to scope and details through collaborative discussions with our users and our unions," the statement said.
Terry Moore, manager of Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport, said he's not happy about the proposal to eliminate his towers. He briefed air traffic controllers Friday morning about it so they wouldn't be caught off guard, he said.
Without air traffic controllers, airplanes can still land, but he said it won't be as safe.
"As far as the impact on the airport and the ability to do business, it won't have much of an impact," Moore said. "It does make us somewhat uncomfortable." | <urn:uuid:2b66a6ea-512a-43be-850d-43a2a8451bdb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wvgazette.com/Business/201302220175 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958097 | 314 | 1.507813 | 2 |
A new class of antihypertensive looks set to become available later this year according to PharmaTimes. A licence application has been filed for approval for Aliskiren (Rasilez®), which is a direct renin inhibitor, with the European Medicines Agency.
The data currently show effective blood pressure lowering, both alone and with in combination with other antihypertensives. The drug has also been well tolerated in the trials compared to placebo.
At launch the drug will be a black triangle drug, safety will need continued assessment during the early years of use. Aliskiren's place in therapy will also need to be evaluated based on relative efficacy and cost compared to existing treatments.
Action: A new class of antihypertensive is a welcome addition but initial use, once it is available, should be cautious.
The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has announced that it is to update the review of Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). The original review was published in October 2005.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has released a Question and Answer document in conjunction with this announcement.
Action: All NSAID use carries risk, implementing current recommendations ensures this risk is minimised.
The Health Protection Agency has published a Frequently Asked Questions document that aims to address some of the common issues encountered by healthcare professionals since the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) into the childhood vaccination schedule.
The document answers many questions including:
- What to do if Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine (PPV) is given in error in place of PCV
- Which vaccinations can be safely co-administered
- How to transition children onto the new schedule when they have part completed the old schedule
Action: This document may prove to be a useful resource when more complicated questions arise in practice.
The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has updated the labelling of the norelgestromin-ethinylestradiol contraceptive patch (Evra®) to warn patients and clinicians about the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE).
Two epidemiological studies have examined the rates of VTE is users of the patch compared to users of oral contraceptives. One study found that rates of VTE were similar while the other study founds that rates of VTE were doubled. The FDA update carries a specific warning that patients using the patch are exposed to 60% more oestrogen despite maximum blood levels being 25% lower than equivalent oral contraceptives.
The patch available on the UK market appears to contain slightly lower levels of oestrogen however it is already recommended in the Summary of Product Characteristics that the patch is not used in patients with a history of venous thrombosis. Additionally, the Scottish Medicines Consortium has recommended that use of this patch is restricted to patients who have demonstrated, or are likely to demonstrate, poor compliance with combined oral contraceptives.
Action: Patients who may benefit from this patch due to poor compliance should be assessed for VTE risk before treatment is started.
Duloxetine (Cymbalta®) has been granted a licence extension to include diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain in adults.
The Scottish Medicines Consortium have reviewed the use of duloxetine for this condition and recommended that use is restricted. They have recommended that treatment is initiated by prescribers who are experienced in the management of diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain as a second or third line therapy option.
Action: Duloxetine is not a first line treatment and may only be appropriate for initiation in secondary care settings. | <urn:uuid:8f46b2e7-b11b-46e5-86aa-866f7048823f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prescriber.org.uk/2006/09/ | 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 | 0.944602 | 751 | 1.632813 | 2 |
formation friday: hunger
it’s the day after thanksgiving & my guess is a lot of us are still wearing our stretchy pants from yesterday. all that food! it was a great thanksgiving here with family & friends & even a rickety card table. i do love our big open table every holiday! when i was thinking about formation friday earlier this week, this old post came to mind from lent 2009 called hunger. it also made me think of a book i read a long time ago called love hunger.
there are many people in this world who do not have enough to eat 365 days of the year. on thanksgiving and christmas there are a lot of meals being provided in the US because it’s a time that people tend to give (oh, how i’d love to see the same care & concern the rest of the year when the needs are just the same!).
and there are a lot of us with plenty to eat 365 days of the year.
we’re not hungry for food, but my guess is a lot of us are hungry for love, for connection, for meaningful relationship with God, with others, with ourselves.
instead of turning to the Real Thing, we often turn to other replacements–food, work, church, porn, drugs, alcohol, controlling-anything-we-possibly-can–because they are more easily accessible. food is a big one for a lot of us, and geneen roth, in women, food & God says that our relationship with food is a mirror of our relationship with God. that freaks me out! and feels really true. left on my own and without intention, i do not do well with food. i eat way too much or nothing at all. i struggle with control and a feeling like i never get what i think i deserve and want when it comes to food. i can connect a lot of my feelings about food to my feelings about God; i am grateful for continued healing in this area of my life but it continues to be tricky, painful, frustrating work.
isaiah is my favorite old testament book; there’s so much beauty in there. i especially love this part of chapter 55:
“give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. “come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. “(1-3a)
why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy. i have a weird natural tendency to avoid things that are really good for me–including God. i don’t like saying that out loud, but it sometimes feels true. in subtle or sometimes direct ways i avoid seeking God, pursuing God, letting God satisfy me with good things, bring me wine and bread and milk and honey. honestly, i often don’t want to make myself that vulnerable.
i also think there is a gap between what people can provide and the work of the Holy Spirit. i have no doubt that God uses people. real-life-in-the-flesh people to be God’s hands, feet, heart in all kinds of wacky and miraculous ways. through people i am constantly encountering Jesus.
but at the same time, as much as i love people and appreciate being loved by people, a gap exists that human beings can’t completely fill.
that is the quiet and mysterious and sometimes elusive work of the Spirit, the one who can creep into the deepest cracks and satisfy like none other.
so even though i ate a lot yesterday, that’s what i am still hungry for.
i thought for today’s formation friday it would be good to revisit the template to write a psalm of hunger from the original post (i called it psalm 311 for march 11th).
- here is the template to write your own.
here’s what i wrote then & in all kinds of ways it still works for me.
oh God, we need you. i need you.
my soul is hungry for your peace
but i keep filling myself with go and go and go and go and more go.
these things never fully satisfy
they leave me empty
they leave me longing
they leave me hungry.
help me, God.
my stomach feels full, but my heart feels tired. weary. a little concerned that relief’s never coming.
fill me with your spirit. alive, flowing into the places in my heart that are dry. fill in the cracks.
feed me your truth.
fill my heart with your heart.
i see you at work in people i love. people i struggle with. people who are struggling with you.
in small miracles that i sometimes have to strain to see
in obvious ways i sometimes am blinded to
help me notice your spirit moving
help me be aware of your presence in the big & small things
o God, you are our God.
we need you. i need you.
you and only you can satisfy my hungry soul.
if you decide to write one, i always love to hear them. have a great thanksgiving weekend (i’m having an awesome one with all my babies home!) peace, kathy
* * * * *
ppss: starting next friday through the end of the year, instead of the regular formation friday series i’m going to do a series on fridays centered on “when christmas is hard” (inspired by when easter is hard). so many people love this time of year but i have come to know far more that really struggle with the holidays, practically, spiritually, and everything in between. these posts will be formation friday-ish with a little twist. | <urn:uuid:2cb4d8b3-182d-4a53-8cc8-5d9cde928470> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kathyescobar.com/2012/11/23/formation-friday-hunger/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963024 | 1,284 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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